Screen Actors Guild Awards Memoriam 2022-2023:
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For such a diminutive (4' 11") frame, character actor Leslie (Allen) Jordan had a tall talent for scene-stealing. Hailing from the South, as his dead-giveaway drawl quickly exposed, he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 29, 1955, and raised in a highly conservative, deeply religious atmosphere in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father, a Lieutenant Colonel with the Army, was killed in a plane crash when he was only 11.
Uncertain about his direction in life, an inescapable propensity for comedy and high camp, not to mention an impish mug and pocket-sized structure, led him straight to Los Angeles in an attempt to break into commercials and on-camera work. Following training with acting coach Carolyne Barry, who ran the Professional Artist's Group during the 80s, Leslie soon found himself highly marketable in commercial spots (Doritos, Fosters Beer, etc.). TV would invariably be the next step, finding him progressively better parts on such programs as "The Fall Guy," "The Wizard," "Night Court," "Newhart" and "Midnight Caller." He then earned a regular role on the short-lived comedy-fantasy series The People Next Door (1989) starring Alan Parker. Inspired by "The Far Side" comic strip, the show starred Jeffrey Jones as a cartoonist who could materialize his wild imagination.
Leslie began in films in the late 1980s with a bit part in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving (1988) and followed it with the role of Iggy, a hunch-backed Igor counterpart, in the whacked horror spoof Frankenstein General Hospital (1988) starring comic actor Mark Blankfield as the mad doctor. In primarily low-budget film projects at the onset, Leslie was part of such off-the-wall material as Ski Patrol (1990), Missing Pieces (1991), Hero (1992), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Barcelona (1994), Eat Your Heart Out (1997) and Black Velvet Pantsuit (1995), to name a few.
Into the 1990s, Leslie involved himself more and more into writing. Avid L.A. theatergoers would recognize him for such prone-to-misfit characters as Brother Boy, an institutionalized drag queen, in "Sordid Lives," and Peanut, a habitual barfly, in "Southern Baptist Sissies." His own one-man testimonials, such as the off-Broadway "Hysterical Blindness" and "Like a Dog on Linoleum," display his adeptness at baring his soul and exposing his childhood agonies on stage amid laughter and tears. These highly introspective shows, however, came at a price. A self-proclaimed substance abuser and sexaholic, Jordan finally faced his inner demons and reached full recovery in 1996.
TV was an exceptionally inviting medium over the years with a number of offbeat roles coming his way. Noted for his catchy guest work on such shows as Murphy Brown (1988), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993), Caroline in the City (1995), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and Weird Science (1994), among many others, he was also a supporting regular on various series including the comedy Top of the Heap (1991) starring Joseph Bologna and pre-Friends (1994), Matt LeBlanc; the legal series Reasonable Doubts (1991) in a season (1992-1993) as an assistant public defender; the crime drama Bodies of Evidence (1992) starring Jennifer Hortin and George Clooney; and the John Ritter/Markie Post romantic comedy Hearts Afire (1992).
Into the millennium, he got to experienced the joy of seeing one of his own writing projects come to full fruition with the semi-autobiographical film Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel (2000). He was also given the chance to recreate his "Big Brother" role in Sordid Lives (2000) to the big screen. The work continued to flow in such film supports as I'll Wave Back (2000), The Gristle (2001), Moving Alan (2003), the short film Farm Sluts (2003), Madhouse (2004), another short film Sissy Frenchfry (2005), Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007), Eating Out: All You Can Eat (2009), Mangus! (2011), the critically-acclaimed [link=tt1454029, his stage role as "Peanut" in the gay-themed Southern Baptist Sissies (2013) written and directed by Del Shores, another co-star role as an HOA "dictator" in Whoa! (2013), Lucky Dog (2015), Fear, Inc. (2016), the "Sordid Lives" sequel A Very Sordid Wedding (2017) and the romantic film Until We Meet Again (2022).
TV was even better to him with both delightful and sadly touching work on such series as Ally McBeal (1997), Boston Public (2000), Judging Amy (1999), Monk (2002), Reba (2001), Boston Legal (2004), Ugly Betty (2006), Desperate Housewives (2004), Raising Hope (2010), and American Horror Story (2011). The topper, however, was Leslie's dryly cynical, part-time role as mincing elitist Beverley Leslie, the tiny thorn in Megan Mullally's backside on the resoundingly popular sitcom Will & Grace (1998). Leslie went on to earn an Emmy trading wicked barbs with Mullally's Karen character, playing the hilarity up for all its worth. He also appeared in the cult TV movie The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018).- Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Episcopal minister Robert Fletcher and his wife Estelle, both of whom were deaf, Louise Fletcher was introduced to performing at a young age by the aunt who taught her to speak. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, she took a trip out west with her roommates, finding herself in Los Angeles without enough money to return home. She took a temporary job as a receptionist and signed up for acting classes at night. Soon she was working regularly in television and film, but after marrying producer Jerry Bick and having two sons, the actress took a long hiatus to raise her children.
Returning to work in 1974 in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974), Fletcher came to the attention of director Milos Forman, who was casting the difficult role of the nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). She won the role -- and then the Academy Award -- portraying deadly, inflexible Nurse Ratched, who has since become a cultural icon. Numerous film roles followed, including co-starring turns with Peter Falk in The Cheap Detective (1978) and with Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). Fletcher has appeared in a number of science fiction and horror classics such as Firestarter (1984), Brainstorm (1983), and Flowers in the Attic (1987).
Though she earned an Emmy Award nomination for her recurring role on Picket Fences (1992), Fletcher is perhaps best known to recent television audiences as Kai Winn from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and as Nora Bloom from the cult classic VR.5 (1995). - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Distinguished character actor David Hattersley Warner was born on July 29, 1941 in Manchester, England, to Ada Doreen (Hattersley) and Herbert Simon Warner. He was born out of wedlock and raised by each of his parents, eventually settling with his itinerant father and stepmother. He only saw his mother again on her deathbed. As an only child from a dysfunctional family, young David excelled neither at academia nor at athletics. He attended eight schools and "failed his exams at all of them." After a series of odd jobs, he was accepted against all odds at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
When he first took up acting, it was not with the notion of a prospective career, but rather to escape (in his own words) 'a messy childhood.' Warner received some early mentoring from one of his teachers, and made his theatrical debut in 1962 at the Royal Court Theatre as Snout in A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson. A year later, he became the youngest-ever actor to play Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Comedy may not have been his forte as much as the likes of Falstaff, Lysander and (on several occasions) Henry VI. Eventually becoming disaffected with the theatre (and plagued for some years by stage fright), Warner found himself better served by the celluloid medium. His first big break came on the strength of his small part in A Midsummer Night's Dream, courtesy of Tony Richardson who cast him in his bawdy period romp Tom Jones (1963) as the mendacious, pimple-faced antagonist Blifil, who vied with Albert Finney for the affections of Susannah York. A proper starring turn on the big screen followed in due course with the title role in Morgan! (1966), Warner playing a deranged artist with Marxist leanings who goes to absurd lengths to reclaim his ex-wife (played by Vanessa Redgrave), including blowing up his mother-in-law. In yet another off-beat satire, Work Is a Four Letter Word (1968), Warner played a corporate drop-out who grows psychedelic mushrooms in an automated world of the future. Combined with his two-year stint as Hamlet with the RSC, Warner became a star at age 24.
By the 1970s, he had become one of Britain's most sought-after character actors and went on to enjoy an illustrious and prolific career on both sides of the Atlantic, throughout which he rarely spurned a role offered him. Tall and somewhat ungainly in appearance, Warner excelled at troubled, introspective loners, outcasts and mavericks or downright sinister individuals. The latter have included SS General Reinhardt Heydrich in Holocaust (1978), Jack the Ripper in Time After Time (1979), Picard's sadistic Cardassian torturer Gul Madred in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the villainous ex-Pinkerton man Spicer Lovejoy in Titanic (1997) and the evil geniuses of Time Bandits (1981) (a role turned down by Jonathan Pryce) and Tron (1982). He also essayed the creature to Robert Powell 's Frankenstein (1984).
Less eccentric roles saw him as the doomed photojournalist who literally loses his head in The Omen (1976) (Warner later described the experience of working alongside Gregory Peck as a career highlight), the sympathetic, but equally ill-fated Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and the sad, likeable fantasist Aldous Gajic, searching for the Grail in Babylon 5 (1993). Warner also appeared in a trio of films for which he was handpicked by the director Sam Peckinpah. Best of these is arguably the comedy western The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), with Warner well cast as the roving-eyed, itinerant Reverend Joshua Duncan Sloane. Warner won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for his performance as the Roman Senator Pomponius Falco in the miniseries Masada (1981). Following a three-decade long absence, Warner returned to the stage in 2001 for the role of Andrew Undershaft in Shaw's Major Barbara. In 2004, he played the title role in King Lear at the Chichester Theatre Festival in England. More recently, he appeared on TV as Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Penny Dreadful (2014), as Rabbi Max Steiner in Ripper Street (2012) and as Kenneth Branagh's ailing father in Wallander (2008).
A riveting screen presence, the ever-versatile and charismatic David Warner passed away aged 80 from cancer at Denville Hall, an entertainment industry care home, in Northwood, London, on 24 July 2022.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Liz Sheridan was born on 10 April 1929 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Who's That Girl (1987), Play the Game (2009) and ALF (1986). She was married to William Dale Wales. She died on 15 April 2022 in New York City, New York, USA.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
Actress, singer, songwriter, and producer Irene Cara was destined for a life of accomplishments that millions strive for but very few actually attain. From being able to play the piano by ear at age five to earning an Oscar, multiple Grammys, a Golden Globe, and a People's Choice Award, Irene's rise to stardom was paved with experiences of a lifetime.
Beginning shortly after realizing their daughter's natural talent, Irene was quickly enrolled in music, acting, and dance classes. Shortly before that, her mother entered her into multiple competitions and at the age of three, Irene was a finalist in the "Little Miss America" pageant.
Her professional career began on Spanish-language television singing and dancing before performing on shows including 'The Original Amateur Hour', 'The Ed Sullivan Show', and 'The Tonight Show' with Johnny Carson. Her talent was also showcased On and Off Broadway in various productions including 'Ain't Misbehavin'', the Obie Award-winning musical 'The Me Nobody Knows', 'Maggie Flynn' starring Shirley Jones and Tony Award-nominated actor Jack Cassidy, and 'Via Galactica' opposite Raul Julia.
Having performed on the stage, the next natural progression seemed to be series television. She would find a home on the daytime drama 'Love of Life' and the educational series 'The Electric Company' where she participated as a member of the group 'The Short Circus', teaching children about grammar through music. 'The Electric Company's' cast was made up of veteran actors Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman.
Continuing the pursuit of excellence, Irene recorded her first Spanish-language album at the age of eight and released an English-speaking holiday album shortly thereafter. Her career already blossoming, she would receive the honor of becoming the youngest member to perform in an all-star concert tribute for the legendary Duke Ellington. Held at Madison Square Garden, Irene performed along with music greats Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Roberta Flack.
With Broadway, television, and recording firmly tucked under her belt, Irene's next stop was the big screen. Before she entered her teenage years, she had won the title role in the film Aaron Loves Angela. Her performance in the movie was so outstanding that she was cast as the lead in the now cult classic musical drama 'Sparkle'. Proving that she was a tremendously versatile actress, Irene received international acclaim for her roles in 'Roots: The Next Generation' starring alongside James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll among others, and 'The Guyanna Tragedy: The Jim Jones Story' where she would again work with James Earl Jones as well as LeVar Burton. As much as she had already accomplished, nothing could have prepared her for the super-stardom that would come with her next role.
In 1980, Irene would portray the character Coco Hernandez in a movie-musical titled 'Fame', a story about a group of students auditioning for acceptance into New York's High School for the Performing Arts. The film follows the students from their first to final days at the school and served to shine a light on the film's inspiration, LaGuardia High, and its counterpart Julliard. Irene's massive solo vocal talent was showcased through the title song 'Fame' as well as 'Out Here on My Own'. They and Irene would make Academy Awards history as it marked the first time two songs from the same film were nominated in the same category, and both performed by Irene. The title track won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The impact of 'Fame' would catapult Irene Cara into a household name and earn her two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Artist, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical. Billboard Magazine named her the Top New Single Artist and Cashbox Magazine awarded her with the Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist honors.
In 1982, Irene was awarded the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress for the NBC movie-of-the-week Maya Angelou's 'Sister, Sister' also starring Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash. She would garner another NAACP Image Award nomination for the title role in the PBS film 'For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story'. When it seemed her professional life couldn't get any better, Irene set the world on fire again.
Composer Giorgio Moroder approached Irene in 1983 to collaborate on the theme to a film he was attached to titled 'Flashdance'. Irene agreed and actually wrote the lyrics to the title song 'Flashdance...What a Feeling' in a car with producer Keith Forsey while on the way to the studio to record it. Those lyrics would reinforce Irene's already solid place in Hollywood history. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards with Irene taking home the coveted Oscar for Best Original Song. She would also add a Golden Globe to her already impressive collection of honors for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture in addition to two Grammys, a People's Choice Award, and an American Music Award. On a personal level, as a woman of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, her Academy Award win is even more special as she was the first bi-racial woman to ever win in any category other than acting and only the second to be nominated outside of an acting category.
In 1984/85, Irene was back on the big screen in the film 'City Heat' opposite Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. She co-wrote the theme as well as performed the classic standards 'Embraceable You' and 'Get Happy'. Irene also starred opposite Tatum O'Neal in the film 'Certain Fury', voiced "Snow White" in the animated film 'Happily Ever After', and toured as "Mary Magdalene" in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.
Not having sat on her laurels, in between winning Oscars, Grammys, and touring, she released the albums 'Anyone Can See' and 'What a Feeling' in 1982 and 1983 respectively which spawned the additional hits 'Breakdance', 'The Dream', 'You Were Made for Me', and 'Why Me', and in 1985 collaborated and sang with Placido Domingo. 'Breakdance' and 'Why Me' would both become Top 10 hits. In 1987, the release of the album 'Carasmatic' was shelved in the United States because of legal issues with the label, but it was issued in limited quantities in the United Kingdom, immediately making the album a collector's piece for anyone lucky enough to have gotten a copy.
Still feeling the love of audiences everywhere, the 90s were spent living out of a suitcase on multiple European concert tours. After finally getting a little breathing space, Irene formed the group Hot Caramel in 1999 and returned to performing to the delight of eager audiences clamoring to hear her unmistakable voice.
In 2004, Irene was awarded the Prestige Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fort Lauderdale Film Institute in 2005, and in 2006, was awarded the Honorary Lifetime Achievement for outstanding contribution in the African-American community by the Columbus Times of Georgia, the country's oldest black newspaper. In 2007, the Reel Sisters of the Disapora Film Festival presented her with the Trailblazer Award, and the Council of the City of New York honored her for her outstanding contributions as a performer. Perhaps one her most pleasurable moments was the 2011 unveiling of her name on a street sign in the Grand Concourse of the Bronx Walk of Fame. That same year, she released a new album titled Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel. Now semi-retired from the industry that filled every corner of her life for decades, Irene is now enjoying entertaining audiences via her YouTube podcast 'The Irene Cara Show' where she shares videos and talks about the acting and music industry's backstory.
While the outpouring of love from fans still makes her happy, Irene continues to be touched by the knowledge that she and her roles have inspired others within the acting/music industry as well.
Mariah Carey: "Around the same time, my mother entered me in a talent competition in the city, and I sang one of my favorite songs, 'Out Here on My Own', by Irene Cara. I felt 'Out Here on My Own' described my entire life, and I loved singing that way - singing to reveal a piece of my soul. And I won doing it. At that age. I lived for the movie 'Fame', and Irene Cara was everything to me."
Celine Dion: "Whether it's 'Titanic' and the unsinkable 'My Heart Will Go On', 'Michael's Song' and 'Listen to the Magic Man' (in English and French) for 'The Peanut Butter Solution', or 'Deadpool 2's' unexpected 'Ashes', she presides over movie theme songs as if taking up the baton from Irene Cara herself."
Whitney Houston: "'Sparkle' was especially important to because she'd been trying to get the film made for 15 years, having fallen in love with the 1976 original (starring Irene Cara, who went on to appear in Fame) as a teenager, seeing it every Saturday for three months straight."
The two most memorable lines from the title song 'Fame' are "I'm gonna live forever," and "Baby, remember my name". From "Little Miss America" to Carson, 'The Electric Company', 'Flashdance' and beyond, Irene Cara's legacy is guaranteed. Everyone will remember her name.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Intense was the word for Ray Liotta. He specialized in psychopathic characters who hide behind a cultivated charm. Even in his nice-guy roles in Field of Dreams (1989) and Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), you get the impression that something is smoldering inside of him. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was adopted by Mary (Edgar), a township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner. He studied acting at the University of Miami, where he became friends with Steven Bauer (Scarface (1983), Thief of Hearts (1984)). He spent his first years acting in TV: Another World (1964), a TV movie and several short-lived series. He broke into movies with the black comedy Something Wild (1986), which garnered him rave reviews. Originally unable to get a reading, he was recommended for the part by Melanie Griffith (then married to Bauer).
Following the success Something Wild (1986), he received more offers in the "psycho" vein, but refused them to avoid being typecast. Instead, he made "little movies" like Dominick and Eugene (1988), which earned him standing as an actor's actor, and Field of Dreams (1989), whose success always surprised him. When he heard Martin Scorsese was casting Goodfellas (1990), he lobbied hard for the part of Henry Hill. The film's huge success brought him wide popularity and garnered him star billing in future films such as Article 99 (1992), Unlawful Entry (1992), and Unforgettable (1996).
Liotta died on May 26, 2022, aged 67, in his sleep while filming on location in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Tall, dark and imposing American actor Paul Sorvino made a solid career of portraying authority figures.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His mother, Angela (Renzi), was a piano teacher, of Italian descent. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a foreman. Paul originally had his heart set on a life as an opera singer. He was exposed to dramatic arts while studying at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He furthered his studies with Sanford Meisner and eventually made his film debut in Where's Poppa? (1970).
Sorvino suffered from severe asthma, and worked hard at mastering various breathing techniques to manage the illness. He wrote a best-selling book entitled "How to Become a Former Asthmatic". He also started the Sorvino Asthma Foundation based in New York City.
Sorvino appeared in a variety of film, TV, and theatrical productions over five decades. He received critical praise for his role in the Broadway play "That Championship Season", and played the role again in the 1981 film alongside Robert Mitchum and Martin Sheen. Other noteworthy performances during the 1980s and 1990s included a stressed-out police chief in Cruising (1980), Mike Hammer's cop buddy in I, the Jury (1982), Lips Manlis in Dick Tracy (1990) with James Caan and in a standout performance as mob patriarch Paul Cicero in the powerhouse Goodfellas (1990).
Always keeping himself busy, Sorvino performed over 100 theatrical movies and over 30 TV movies throughout his career, including a dynamic and under-appreciated portrayal of Henry Kissinger in Nixon (1995), as "Fulgencio Capulet" in the updated Romeo + Juliet (1996) and in the Las Vegas thriller The Cooler (2003). At the time of his death in 2022, there were three more films in which he appeared yet to be released, including The Ride in which he worked alongside his wife Dee Dee Sorvino.
Sorvino was the proud father of Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Cindy Williams was born Cynthia Jane Williams in Van Nuys, California on August 22, 1947. The Leo was 5'4" and, during her first years on Laverne & Shirley (1976), weighed a dainty 105 lbs. The brown haired, blue-eyed female was born the daughter of Francesca Bellini and Beachard Williams. Her father was an electronic technician, and Cindy grew up in reduced circumstances. She had one sister, Carol Ann Williams, and an older half-brother, Jim from her mother's first marriage.
As a child, she dreamed of being an actress. She used to create and perform her own plays and, as she grew, she wished that one day, Debbie Reynolds would see her in one of those amateur shows and whisk her away and put her in a film. Another thing that brought show business into her life was her alcoholic father's imitations of comics like Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle. She worked as a waitress, while she auditioned for commercials, television guest spots, and feature films. Her first step to fame was a movie in which she tap danced with Gene Kelly. She stepped on Kelly's foot, leaving her "really embarrassed". She landed important film roles early in her career.
Famed director George Cukor cast her in Travels with My Aunt (1972). Her next big role was for George Lucas in American Graffiti (1973), as Ron Howard's girlfriend, for which she earned a BAFTA nomination as Best Supporting Actress. That led to Francis Ford Coppola casting her in The Conversation (1974). The three instant-classic films should have propelled her into movie stardom, but her career inexplicably hit a lull. She couldn't go back to working as a waitress, because she was too well-known.
She was set up in a writing team with Penny Marshall and the girls were called by Penny's brother, Garry Marshall, to do a stint as two fast girls on Happy Days (1974). The public received them so warmly that Cindy and Penny soon got their own show and was referred to everywhere as "Shirley Feeney".
She earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in 1978. She left the show in 1982, pregnant with daughter Emily. She was married to Bill Hudson, who had previously been married to actress Goldie Hawn. Williams later gave birth to a son, Zachary, in 1986. She went on to make a few movies and co-produced "The Father Of The Bride" movies with Hudson. They divorced in 2000.
She did Jenny Craig commercials and acted on guest spots on the TV show For Your Love (1998) and reunited with Penny Marshall several times on television. In 2015, her memoir, Shirley, I Jest! (co-written with Dave Smitherman), was published.
Cindy Williams died, aged 75, following a brief, undisclosed illness, in 2023.- Actor
- Producer
William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his supporting role in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence (2005). Hurt received Best Supporting Actor accolades for the role from the Los Angeles Film Critics circle and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Hurt spent the early years of his career on the stage between drama school, summer stock, regional repertory and off-Broadway, appearing in more than fifty productions including "Henry V", "5th of July", "Hamlet", "Uncle Vanya", "Richard II", "Hurlyburly" (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), "My Life" (winning an Obie Award for Best Actor), "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "Good". For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux's "The Grand Railway Bazaar", for the BBC Radio Four and "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. He has recorded "The Polar Express", "The Boy Who Drew Cats", "The Sun Also Rises" and narrated the documentaries, "Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos Passos", "Einstein-How I See the World" and the English narration of Elie Wiesel's "To Speak the Unspeakable", a documentary directed and produced by Pierre Marmiesse. In 1988, Hurt was awarded the first Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Writer
Lisa Loring was an American actress and former child model. She is primarily known for having played Wednesday Addams in the comedy-horror sitcom "The Addams Family" (1964-1966). The sitcom was the first screen adaptation of the comic strip "The Addams Family" (1938-1988) by Charles Addams, which featured a wealthy aristocratic clan who took delight in the macabre. Wednesday was the perpetually gloomy daughter of the family in the comic strip. Loring's version of the character was sweet-natured, but eccentric. This version of Wednesday owned a collection of decapitated dolls, and named her favorite doll after Marie Antoinette, the executed Queen of France. Wednesday raised spiders as a hobby.
In 1958, Loring was born on the Kwajalein Atoll, the southernmost of the Marshall Islands. The island is located about 2,100 nautical miles (3,900 kilometers; 2,400 miles) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. It has hosted an American naval base since World War II. Her parents were both personnel of the United States Navy. Loring's parents separated shortly after her birth, and Judith Loring (Loring's mother) received custody of Loring. Lisa Loring was initially raised in Hawaii, before moving with her mother to Los Angeles.
In 1961, Loring started working as a child model. She eventually took a few acting roles, and reportedly guest starred in a 1964 episode of the medical drama "Dr. Kildare". When cast to play Wednesday in "The Addams Family", Loring was only 6-years-old. It was her first regular role in television. The series lasted for 2 seasons and 64 episodes, ending in 1966.
Loring was cast in the role of Susan "Suzy" Pruitt in the short-lived sitcom "The Pruitts of Southampton" (1966-1967). The sitcom was the brainchild of David Levy, who had previously produced "The Addams Family". The series used much of the former cast of "The Addams Family". The premise of this sitcom was that the Pruitts were a formerly wealthy family who still lived in an aristocratic mansion in the Hamptons. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had found out about their loss of wealth, but instructed them to maintain their pretensions of great wealth in order to avoid a potential loss of confidence in the financial system. Episodes revolved about the family's efforts to raise money while maintaining secrecy.
In 1973, aged 15, Loring married her boyfriend Farrell Foumberg. She gave birth to her daughter Vanessa that year. The couple divorced in 1974. Judith Loring died in 1974 from alcoholism. Lisa Loring had to provide for herself. She appeared infrequently in television films during the late 1970s. Loring was cast as Wednesday Sr. in the television film "Halloween with the New Addams Family" (1977). Wednesday was depicted in the film as having a look-alike younger sister, known as Wednesday junior (played by Jennifer Surprenant). In 1980, Loring joined the cast of the soap opera "As the World Turns". She portrayed Cricket Montgomery, a half-sister of the regular character Margo Montgomery Hughes. Loring continued appearing in the series until 1984.
In 1981, Loring married the soap opera actor Doug Stevenson. They had daughter Marianne early in their marriage, but received a divorce in 1983. Loring's acting career was in hiatus until she agreed to play in the slasher film "Blood Frenzy" (1987). Its premise was that a killer stalked the patients of psychiatrist Dr. Barbara Shelley (played by Wendy MacDonald) during their trip through a desert. The film's plot reportedly combined plot elements from the earlier films "Ten Little Indians" (1974) and "Friday the 13th" (1980). The film was an early attempt by pornographic film producer Hal Freeman to create his own horror films.
Loring was an uncredited co-writer in the pornographic film "Traci's Big Trick" (1987). She was introduced to porn actor Jerry Butler (born Paul David Siederman; 1959-2018), and they started dating. They were married within 1987, but their relationship was tumultuous. They divorced each other in 1992, following failed a number of failed attempts in reconciliation.
In 1988, Loring co-starred in the slasher film "Iced". Its premise was that a group of old friends has received invitations to a new ski resort. They reunite there, but are stalked by a killer who has mysterious ties to their past. Loring's performance and humorous dialogue were reportedly among the highlight of the film. But the film has a relatively poor reputation among horror fans, due to soap opera-like plot elements and an inconclusive ending to its mystery. It was her last notable role for several years.
By the early 1990s, Loring was feeling depressed due to the decline of her career and her poor relationship with her husband. She tried to self-medicate her condition, leading to a drug addiction. In 1991, Loring was the first person to discover the corpse of her friend Kelly Van Dyke, who had committed suicide by hanging. Loring was in a fragile state of mind. She made a suicide attempt not long after. In 1992, she went to rehab and beat her addiction. She gave a few interviews in the mid-1990s, but semi-retired from acting. She resumed her acting career in the mid-2010s, with appearances in two different horror films. In 2023, Lisa Loring died, aged 64.- Actor
- Producer
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A marvelous character actor with intense eyes, a sly grin and somewhat grizzled appearance, Golden Globe-winner Fred Ward had nearly 90 appearances under his belt in many tremendous films and television programs. He first became interested in acting after serving three years in the US Air Force and studied at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio. Ward then went to Europe, where he dubbed many Italian movies, and first appeared on-screen in two films by Roberto Rossellini. He then returned to the United States, and got his first decent role alongside Clint Eastwood in the nail-biting prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979). Ward's looks often saw him cast as law enforcement or military characters, and he put in noteworthy performances in Southern Comfort (1981), Uncommon Valor (1983), as astronaut Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff (1983) and scored the lead in the interesting spy/martial arts movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), which unfortunately was not as successful as had been the mega-selling series of Remo Williams books.
However, during "Remo", Ward demonstrated a great knack for comedic timing and satirical performance, and this ability was used to great effect in several films, including playing Kevin Bacon's fellow giant-worm-fighting handyman in the light-hearted sci-fi hit Tremors (1990), as "Walter Stuckel" in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), as TV anchorman "Chip Daley" in Tim Robbins' razor-sharp political satire Bob Roberts (1992) and as a vicious, but incompetent, gangster menacing Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994).
Ward's abilities as both a supporting player and truly versatile character actor ensured that he would be in steady demand, and he continued to turn up in a wide variety of roles utilizing his skills. Keep an eye out for Fred Ward in the action-filled The Chaos Factor (2000), as David Spade's dad in Joe Dirt (2001), in the tongue-in-cheek Corky Romano (2001) and in the Reese Witherspoon romantic tale Sweet Home Alabama (2002). His last three films were more action-oriented, Armored (2009), [link=tt1622547, and 2 Guns (2013), and he subsequently mostly retired from acting until his death in 2022.- Actress
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American actress Kathryn Hays became best known for her 38-year long stint as the fiery matriarch Kim Sullivan Hughes, one of the most prominent characters on the daytime soap As the World Turns (1956). She was born Kay Piper in Princeton and grew up Joliet, Illinois. After junior college, she attended the prestigious Northwestern University in Evanston. Though her career began as a model, Hays quickly segued into acting on the stage and on screen. From the early 60s, she landed regular guest assignments on prime time TV shows, including Route 66 (1960), Bonanza (1959), The Virginian (1962), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Mannix (1967). She also appeared several times as a supporting player on Broadway. In 1966, Hays co-starred as a pioneer's wife opposite Barry Sullivan in The Road West (1966), an NBC western series which ran for just one season and 29 episodes. She then proved her acting mettle as the tempestuous, aptly named 'Tornado' Frances in an episode of The High Chaparral (1967). Next up was what many consider to be her most iconic guest-starring role: the Minaran empath Gem on Star Trek (1966). Gem was capable of absorbing the pain of others and healing their injuries while also learning about compassion and sacrifice. Though her character was mute, Hays expressed more with her eyes and gestures than could have been conveyed by dialogue.
Her two notable appearances for the big screen were in the psychological cold war thriller Ladybug Ladybug (1963) (as a school secretary) and in the World War II epic Counterpoint (1967) (as cellist Annabel Rice, an ex-lover of the main protagonist, played by Charlton Heston). From 1972 until her retirement, the New York-based actress remained gainfully (and happily) employed in As the World Turns.
Kathryn Hays was married three times. Her second husband (1966-69) was the actor Glenn Ford.- Actor
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Tony Dow was an American actor, film producer, television director, and sculptor from Los Angeles, California. His most famous role was that of athletic adolescent Wallace "Wally" Cleaver in the popular sitcom "Leave It to Beaver" (1957-1963). Dow played the older brother to the series' protagonist Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers). Bow returned to the role of Wally in the sequel series "The New Leave It to Beaver" (1983-1989), which featured the Cleaver brothers as married adults with children of their own.
In 1945, Dow was born in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. He aspired to an acting career since childhood, but he only had a few theatrical roles until the late 1950s. He went to an open casting call for the upcoming sitcom "Leave It to Beaver., and he was cast in the regular role of Wallace "Wally" Cleaver. He replaced child actor Paul Sullivan, who played Wally in the series' pilot. Wally was depicted as a talented track and field athlete, basketball player and baseball player. He was well-liked by his teachers and popular with his peers, but his friendships with dimwitted bully Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford and untrustworthy schemer Edward Clark "Eddie" Haskell repeatedly landed him in trouble.
As the television series progressed, Dow received more screen-time for his character. He was often featured in "heartthrob"-type magazines for teen girls, and he was regarded as more popular than his co-star Jerry Mathers. "Leave It to Beaver" ended in 1963, after 6 seasons and 234 episodes. At 18, Dow was a bit too old to keep playing a high school student, while Mathers was considering an early retirement from acting. Dow then started appearing regularly at guest-star roles in television, until cast in a regular role for the short-lived soap opera "Never Too Young" (1965-1966). It was the first soap opera primarily aimed at an adolescent audience.
During the 1970s, Dow was mostly limited to guest star roles in television. To supplement his income, he found work at the construction industry. He also pursued studies in both filmmaking and journalism, thought they did not lead to an immediate change in his career. Dow played a parody of Wally Cleaver in the comedy film "The Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977), where his character caused trouble in a courtroom trial.
In 1983, Dow played Wally Cleaver in the reunion television film "Still the Beaver". He reunited with several of his former co-starts. The film served as a pilot for the sequel television series "The New Leave It to Beaver", which aired from 1984 to 1989. The series lasted for 4 seasons and 101 episodes. Dow played Wally as a skilled lawyer, who represented Beaver in a custody battle for his children. Meanwhile, Wally had to deal with marriage to his former sweetheart Mary Ellen Rogers (played by Janice Kent) and raising his daughter Kelly Cleaver (played by Kaleena Kiff). In 1987, Dow received a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" for his role as Wally Cleaver.
In 1989, Dow made his debut as a television director. His first work in the field was an episode of the drama series "The New Lassie" (1989-1992), a sequel series to "Lassie" (1954-1973). He subsequently directed episodes of (among others) "Harry and the Hendersons", "Swamp Thing", "Coach", "Babylon 5", "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show", and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". In addition, Dow served as the visual effects supervisor for "Babylon 5". He provided the special effects for the television film "Doctor Who" (1996), a sequel to a long-running British television series.
In 1995, Dow produced the science fiction comedy film "The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space". In the film, aliens from the planet Pangea attempt to recruit the heroic Captain Zoom to help them in a war. The hero does not actually exist, and they have instead recruited the arrogant actor who was playing him on a television. The actor decides to use old science fiction script as inspiration for his strategies. The film was intended as an affectionate parody to both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
In 1996, Dow produced the television film "It Came from Outer Space II". It was a remake (rather than a sequel) to the classic science fiction horror film "It Came from Outer Space" (1953). Both films feature shape-shifting aliens who have crash-landed on Earth, and who attempt to blend in with the human population. However, they manage to copy human appearance, but not human behavior and personalities. The remake was poorly received, and this was Dow's final effort as a producer.
During the 1990s, Dow admitted to the press that he had been diagnosed with clinical depression. He subsequently appeared in self-help videos concerning ways to struggle with the condition, such as "Beating the Blues" (1998). He also placed more efforts in his side career as a sculptor. He specialized in creating abstract bronze sculptures. In 2008, he was one of the artists representing the United States at the "Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts" exhibition in Paris. He displayed his sculpture of a warrior woman.- Actress
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Stardom somehow eluded this vastly gifted actress. Had it not perhaps been for her low-level profile compounded by her McCarthy-era blacklisting in the early 1950s, there is no telling what higher tier Marsha Hunt might have attained. Perhaps her work was not flashy enough, or too subdued, or perhaps her intelligence too often disguised a genuine sex appeal to stand out among the other lovelies. Two studios, Paramount in the late 1930s and MGM in the early 1940s, failed to complete her star. Nevertheless, her talent and versatility cannot be denied. This glamorous, slimly handsome leading lady offered herself to well over 50 pictures during the 1930s and 1940s alone.
Christened Marcia Virginia Hunt, the Chicago-born actress was the younger of two girls born to an attorney and voice teacher/accompanist. The family relocated to New York when she was quite young and she attended such schools as PS #9 and Horace Mann School for Girls. She developed an interest in acting at an early age (3), performing around and about in school plays and at church functions. Following her high school graduation the young beauty found work as a John Powers model and as a singer on radio, a gift obviously inherited from her mother. Marcia (she later changed the spelling of her first name to Marsha) studied drama at the Theodora Irvine Drama School (one of her fellow students was Cornel Wilde).
Encouraged to try Hollywood by various New York people in the business, the young photogenic hopeful moved there in 1934. She was only 17 but was accompanied by her older sister. It didn't take long for the studios to take an interest in her and she was signed up by Paramount not long after. Marsha's very first movie was in a featured role opposite Robert Cummings and Johnny Downs in the old-fashioned The Virginia Judge (1935). Displaying an innate, fresh-faced sensitivity, she moved directly into her second film, playing the title role in Gentle Julia (1936), this time with Tom Brown as her romantic interest.
Marsha continued to show promise but these well-acted roles were, more often than not, overlooked in mild "B"-level offerings. Appearing in co-starring roles in everything from westerns (Desert Gold (1936) and Thunder Trail (1937)) to folksy or flyweight comedy (Easy to Take (1936) and Murder Goes to College (1937)), she could not find decent enough scripts at Paramount. Though she was once deemed one of the studio's promising starlets, one of her last films there was another prairie flower role--[error]--with cowboys John Wayne and Johnny Mack Brown vying for her attention. At about this time (1938) she married Jerry Hopper, a Paramount film editor who turned to directing in the 1950s. This marriage lasted but a few years.
Freelancing for a time for many studios, Marsha's more noticeable war-era work in sentimental comedy and staunch war dramas came from MGM, and she finally signed with the studio in 1939. The roles offered, which included a featured part as one of the sisters in Pride and Prejudice (1940) starring Greer Garson, and again as a sister to Garson in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), which showed much more promise. Some of her better war-era roles came in the films Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941), Kid Glove Killer (1942) and The Affairs of Martha (1942). During this time she also sang on extended USO tours and stayed busy on radio. Her best known film is arguably The Human Comedy (1943) but she wasn't the star. Other film roles had her in support of others, such as Margaret Sullavan in Cry 'Havoc' (1943), little Margaret O'Brien in Lost Angel (1943) and Garson again in The Valley of Decision (1945). Leading roles did not come in "A" pictures.
Her MGM contract was allowed to lapse in 1945 and a second marriage in 1946, to screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., became a higher priority. The marriage was long and happy (exactly 40 years) and lasted until his passing in June of 1986. The few pictures she made were, again, uneventful or in support of the star, although she did have a catchy, unsympathetic role in the Susan Hayward starrer Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) as a scheming secretary. In Raw Deal (1948), starring Dennis O'Keefe, she got the "raw deal" being overshadowed as a "good girl" by the "bad girl" posturings of Claire Trevor. At this point of her career she decided to try the stage and made her Broadway debut in "Joy to the World" (1948). Other plays down the road would include "The Devil's Disciple" with Maurice Evans, "The Lady's Not for Burning" with Vincent Price and "The Little Hut" with Leon Ames. She even had a chance to return to her beloved singing as Anna in a production of "The King and I" and (much later) in productions of "State Fair" and "Meet Me in St. Louis". TV also yielded some new work opportunities, including a presentation of "Twelfth Night" in which she portrayed Viola.
The seams of her film career fell apart in the early 1950s. During the late 1930s and into the 1940s she signed a number of petitions promoting liberal ideals, and was a member of the Committee for the First Amendment. A strong supporter of freedom of speech, these associations led to her name appearing in the pamphlet "Red Channels", a McCarthy-era publication that "exposed" alleged Communists and "subversives". Although she and her husband were never called before the House Un-American Activities Commission, their names were nevertheless smeared all over Hollywood as "Reds". While she still found film work on occasion, it was rare. Although she had worked steadily from 1935 until 1949, appearing in over 50 films, she made only three films in the next eight years. Her screenwriter husband would be credited for only one film from 1948 to 1955.
Semi-retired by the early 1960s, stage and TV became Marsha's focal points. She also devoted herself to civil rights causes and such humanitarian efforts as UNICEF, The March of Dimes and The Red Cross. She became actively involved with the United Nations. On the acting front she appeared only in smaller roles in five films but in numerous TV programs and made-for-TV movies, playing everything from judges to grandmas. She became the Honorary Mayor of Sherman Oaks, California, in 1983, and published a book on fashion entitled "The Way We Wore" in 1993. Widowed in 1986, the ever-vibrant Marsha, in her 90s, continues to serve on the Advisory Board of Directors for the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, a large non-profit that advocates for adults and children affected by homelessness and mental illness. As recently as 2006, she appeared to good advantage in the movie Chloe's Prayer (2006) and, at age 91, was seen in Empire State Building Murders (2008).- Actor
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This tall, sandy-haired, mustachioed actor from Texas, born Justus McQueen, adopted the name of the character he portrayed in his first film, Battle Cry (1955). Jones, with his craggy, gaunt looks, first appeared in minor character roles in plenty of WWII films including The Young Lions (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958), Hell Is for Heroes (1962) and Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). However, 1962 saw him team up with maverick director Sam Peckinpah for the first of Jones' five appearances in his films. Ride the High Country (1962) saw Jones play one of the lowlife Hammond brothers. Next he appeared alongside Charlton Heston in Major Dundee (1965), then Peckinpah cast him, along with his real-life friend Strother Martin, as one of the scummy, murderous bounty hunters in The Wild Bunch (1969). Such was the chemistry between Jones and Martin that Peckinpah teamed them again the following year in The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Jones' final appearance in a Peckinpah film was in another western, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Two years later Jones directed the cult post-apocalyptic film A Boy and His Dog (1975) starring a young Don Johnson. He has continued to work in Hollywood, and as the lines on his craggy face have deepened, he turns up more frequently as crusty old westerners, especially in multiple TV guest spots. He turned in an interesting performance as a seemingly good ol' boy Nevada cowboy who was actually a powerful behind-the-scenes player in state politics who leaned on Robert De Niro's Las Vegas mob gambler in Martin Scorsese's violent and powerful Casino (1995).- This talented actress was born Anne Marie Wersching and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She opted early on for a life in the entertainment industry, performing in community theatre and later as a dancer for some fourteen years with a troupe called the St. Louis Celtic Stepdancers. After moving to Chicago, she acted in several touring plays and at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. In 1999, Wersching graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from the Millikin University School of Theater and Dance in Decatur, Illinois. Moving to Los Angeles, two years later, she appeared in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim-Richard Rodgers-Arthur Laurents musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?" at the Pasadena Playhouse, as well as making her screen debut in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise (2001).
Testament to her acting skill have been lengthy stints on popular prime time series like 24 (2001) (as the valiant but ill-fated FBI Special Agent Renee Walker), The Vampire Diaries (2009) (Lily Salvatore), Timeless (2016) (as time traveler Emma Whitmore) and Marvel's Runaways (2017) (as charismatic villain turned ally Leslie Dean). She also gave a thoroughly convincing performance as extrovert rookie police officer Julia Brasher, involved with (Harry) Bosch (2014) at LAPD's Hollywood Division on both a professional and a personal level. Their relationship eventually soured in season two, although Brasher returned briefly for two episodes in season 7. Wersching became the third actress to play the dreaded Borg Queen (following in the footsteps of Alice Krige and Susanna Thompson) and did so to chilling effect in season two of Star Trek: Picard (2020). Her steady volume of television work has included guest appearances on Charmed (1998), Supernatural (2005), NCIS (2003), Hawaii Five-0 (2010) and Castle (2009).
Very much at the peak of her career, Annie Wersching was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2020, but kept her illness private and continued to work afterwards. She passed away at her home in Los Angeles, California on January 29, 2023, at age 45. - Actor
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Tim Considine was born on 31 December 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for My Three Sons (1960), Patton (1970) and Executive Suite (1954). He was married to Willett Helen Hunt and Charlotte Stewart. He died on 3 March 2022 in Mar Vista, California, USA.- Ralph Ahn was born on 28 September 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Eyes of an Angel (1991), New Girl (2011) and Suddenly Susan (1996). He died on 26 February 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Cute, perky, and engaging brunette actress Rebecca Balding was born on September 21, 1948, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The sweet, comely, and spirited Balding first began acting on television in the mid 1970s. She played an eager-beaver cub reporter on three episodes of Lou Grant (1977). She achieved her greatest and most enduring popularity as Carol David, the young lady who becomes a surrogate mother for gay Jodie Dallas' (Billy Crystal child on comedy program Soap (1977). She portrayed David Naughton's receptionist girlfriend in the sitcom Makin' It (1979). Balding tackled two substantial starring roles in a couple of hugely enjoyable early 1980s horror pictures: She was the endearingly spunky college student heroine of the superior slasher winner The Silent Scream (1979) and an equally likable damsel in distress in the immensely entertaining creature feature The Boogens (1981). Alas, her fright film scream queen phase proved to be sadly fleeting.
She racked up an impressively large volume of guest spot credits on numerous TV shows: Among the television programs she's appeared in are ER (1994), Melrose Place (1992), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), Home Improvement (1991), MacGyver (1985), Our House (1986), Family Ties (1982), Trapper John, M.D. (1979), Hotel (1983), Matt Houston (1982), Gimme a Break! (1981), The Insiders (1985), Cagney & Lacey (1981), This Is the Life (1952), I'm a Big Girl Now (1980), Supertrain (1979), Barnaby Jones (1973), The Bionic Woman (1976), and Starsky and Hutch (1975). She gave a touching performance as Edward Asner's estranged dejected daughter in the made-for-TV drama gem The Gathering (1977) and its lesser, more mawkish sequel, The Gathering, Part II (1979).
Late in her career, she popped up in a steady recurring part as Phoebe (Alyssa Milano)'s boss Elise Rothman on Charmed (1998). She was married to producer James L. Conway from 1981 until her death at 73 in 2022. She was also survived by two daughters. - F.J. O'Neil was born in 1931 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hunt for Red October (1990), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and The Greatest American Hero (1981). He died on 5 August 2022 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
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American character actor born in Cincinnati and raised in Louisville, Mitchell Ryan was a well known supporting actor in films and television. Joined the Navy in 1951 at age 17 and was later assigned to the Special Services Entertainment and became hooked on acting. After his term in the Navy, he appeared in dozens of plays until he received notice as playing a regular in TV's Dark Shadows (1966).
Beginning in the 1970s, he received work in motion pictures including Monte Walsh (1970), Magnum Force (1973) and in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973). He had a small part in Universal's Midway (1976) and returned to act in numerous soaps and television series, among them included a recurring guest role in Having Babies (1978), Executive Suite (1976), The Chisholms (1979) and All My Children (1970) and a growing list of television films and TV guest appearances.
He may have been best-known for portraying the villain that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are after in Lethal Weapon (1987), but his career included several supporting roles in the past ten years including Judge Dredd (1995), Michael Myers' nemesis in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Liar Liar (1997) (with Jim Carrey), and as Harrison Ford's chief out to get Brad Pitt in the film The Devil's Own (1997).- Actor
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Sandy-haired American actor Bo Hopkins was born William Mauldin Hopkins in Greenville, South Carolina, and was raised by his mother and grandmother after his father died when Bo was only nine years old. He joined the US Army at the age of 16. After serving his hitch he decided on acting as a career and gained experience in summer stock productions and guest spots in several TV episodes.
Hopkins broke into feature films as the ill-fated "Crazy Lee" in the Sam Peckinpah landmark western The Wild Bunch (1969), and was subsequently hired by Peckinpah for another none-too-bright role as a bank robber in The Getaway (1972) and then as a hired killer pairing up with CIA agent James Caan in The Killer Elite (1975). He was busy on television during the 1980s and 1990s, guest-starring on The Rockford Files (1974), Charlie's Angels (1976), The A-Team (1983), Hotel (1983) and Matt Houston (1982), and was featured on Dynasty (1981). In addition, he starred in dozens of feature films, such as Midnight Express (1978), American Graffiti (1973), The Bounty Hunter (1989), U Turn (1997) and Shade (2003). With his "good old boy" persona and Southern drawl, Hopkins often played lawmen, psychos, or oily villains.
He makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife Sian and son Matthew, and is a keen fisherman, fan of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and enjoys raising koi fish.- While best remembered as Ernest Borgnine's Japanese prisoner-of-war Fuji Kobiashi in the wartime sitcom McHale's Navy (1962), Yoshio Yoda came to acting reluctantly and purely by accident. Born in Tokyo, the only son of Honshu middle-class manufacturers, he initially studied law at the prestigious Keio University. However, he quickly realized that neither law nor industry suited his aspirations. A chance meeting with motion picture executive Edward Ugast (1900-1964), general manager in Asia for 20th Century Fox and Vice-President of Four Star Films, persuaded Yoda to study cinema technique in the United States with the prospect of becoming a producer. In 1958, Yoda arrived in California and enrolled at USC.
Three years into his studies, Yoda's faculty was contacted by producer Joe Pasternak at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who was casting for an Asian actor required to be fluent in both English and Japanese. Yoda naturally fitted the bill. Despite his initial misgivings, a mere ten minute interview led to the youngster being signed for the role of Sgt. Roy Tada in The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), a comedy starring Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss. On the strength of his performance he was subsequently able to secure the gig on McHale's Navy. When that series had run its course, so did Yoda's acting career. After one more brief TV appearance in 1969, he returned to his roots to forge a career in the car manufacture business at Toyota. He lived in Hawaii for fifteen years, became a United States citizen under the name of James Yoda, and, by 1987, had risen to the position of assistant vice president of inventory and senior division manager. He later resided in Fullerton, California. - Actress
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From the mid-1970s on, Sandra Seacat has been one of America's more sought-after and influential acting teachers/coaches. A method-based actor and teacher, closely associated with the Method's originator, her mentor Lee Strasberg, Seacat gradually became recognized as well for her groundbreaking work in the early eighties involving the application of Carl Gustav Jung's theories to acting technique and pedagogy, thus introducing the practice now known as dream work (also known as "The Way," much as Strasberg's Stanislavski-based system eventually came to be known as "The Method").
Born on October 2, 1936, Sandra Diane Seacat (whose first name, despite the spelling, is pronounced somewhere between 'Sondra' and 'Saundra') was the first of three daughters born to Lois Marion Seacat (née Cronic) and Russell Henry Seacat of Greensburg, Kansas.
After attending Northwestern University, Seacat made her way to New York, eventually being admitted to The Actors Studio, where she would become well versed in the method school of acting espoused by the Studio's director, Lee Strasberg. During the 1960s, Seacat began to get acting work in the city, appearing under her married name, Sandra Kaufman. In 1962, she earned plaudits from Village Voice critic Jerry Tallmer, making her New York stage debut in the American premiere of Leonid Andreyev's "Waltz of the Dogs," an Off-Off-Broadway production mounted by noted acting teacher - and Actors Studio member - Michael Howard.
While the next two years would be taken up with the birth and early rearing of her daughter Greta B. Kaufman (eventually also known as Greta Seacat), she returned to action in 1964 on Broadway with a small role in the Actors Studio production of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters," starring Kim Stanley, Geraldine Page, and Shirley Knight (though neither she nor Knight would appear in the version eventually preserved on videotape).
For the remainder of the decade, as she continued to hone her craft at the Studio, doing scene work with future stage co-stars Ben Piazza and Will Hare, as well as Robert Walden and Robert Viharo, each of whom would remain longtime friends, Seacat (aka Kaufman) quickly became one of Strasberg's prize pupils, and one of the Method's most articulate exponents. Thus, at just about the time her first marriage was coming to an end, a new career path beckoned, when, in 1969, the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute was born.
By the early 1970s, Seacat was leading classes, not only at the Institute, but also at the City College of New York's Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts, as well as teaching privately. By 1980, she would also teach at John Strasberg's The Real Stage.
In the meantime, though, both Seacat's acting career - which, from this point forward, along with all other facets of her career, would be conducted under her maiden name - and her matrimonial status (in conjunction with fellow actor Michael Ebert) showed renewed signs of life, as the couple appeared together in a 1969 production of Brendan Behan's 'The Hostage," followed by the New Orleans Repertory Theater's June 1970 revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," directed by June Havoc, featuring Ebert as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell and E. Katherine Kerr as Blanche DuBois, as well as Seacat and Ben Piazza, respectively, as Stella and Stanley Kowalski.
Returning to New York, Seacat began to build her teaching practice. Among her early students were Treat Williams and Steve Railsback (the latter preparing for his film debut in Elia Kazan's The Visitors (1972)), and later, Lance Henriksen, Jessica Lange, and Mickey Rourke. Rourke would study with Seacat for several years in New York before departing for the west coast, and then, only at his mentor's behest.
Rourke has repeatedly cited his time with Seacat as the turning point in his career. "That's when everything started to click," he told Newsday in 1984, making a point - as he had in a New York Magazine profile the previous year - to contrast this with his disappointing Actors Studio stint ("I sat there a year, waiting for the teacup to develop in my hand"), saying of the Studio's director, "All I saw Lee do was tear people down." By contrast, speaking with the Los Angeles Times in 1984, Rourke credited Seacat with "channeling all it was that was messing me up into something creative and challenging."
Moreover, notwithstanding his subsequent disillusionment with the Studio, it was Seacat's counsel (as Rourke himself has mentioned more than once) - i.e. that, in order to bring some semblance of conviction to the scene Rourkee himself had chosen for his Actors Studio audition, he must immediately find his biological father (whom he hadn't seen in 20 years) - that enabled Rourke to realize his dream of membership in the alma mater of Brando, Clift and Dean. During Rourke's 2009 appearance on Inside the Actors Studio (1994), after describing his first affective memory, executed under Seacat's guidance more than thirty years before, the 56-year-old Rourke was asked whether he still used what Seacat had taught him. "Very much," he replied. (13 years earlier, a previous generation of ITAS viewers had witnessed Jessica Lange call Seacat "a powerful influence on my acting," and two years before that, Lance Henriksen had offered Film Comment readers an unsolicited 20-year-old recollection of "a great teacher named Sandra Seacat.")
During the 1970s, Seacat continued to juggle her teaching and acting careers, portraying the female leads in a number of Off and Off-Off-Broadway productions, as well as minor roles in three Broadway and Off Broadway shows, receiving particularly favorable notices in the 1973 revival of William Inge's "Natural Affection," co-starring Nathan George, and the American premiere of John Hopkins's "Economic Necessity" in 1976. Halfway between the two came a much-anticipated but ultimately disappointing Actors Studio revival of Harold Pinter's "Old Times." Presented in the fall of 1974 (and followed by a particularly disastrous January 1975 Actors Studio West reprise) with the nominal participation of 'supervising director' Arthur Penn, the production was, in essence, self-directed by its three actors, Seacat, Hildy Brooks, and Will Hare, a fact much lamented by reviewers.
In February 1975, upon Seacat's less than triumphant return to New York following the "Old Times" debacle, Seacat's CCNY employment afforded her a welcome distraction, in the form of an upcoming four-day, Davis Center event featuring playwrights Peter Shaffer, Edward Albee and Arthur Miller, moderated by director Alan Schneider. Starting on May 12 with a symposium entitled "Theatre in the University," and concluding with one day apiece devoted to the works of each of the three guests, with student performances followed by discussions with the respective playwrights, the final day would be devoted to Arthur Miller's work, with each grade level in the Davis Center's acting program performing a scene from a different Miller opus.
The play assigned to Seacat's freshman class was "A View from the Bridge." After choosing as their showcase the final scene from Act One, she cast four of her regular students, but reserved the central role of Eddie Carbone for one of her private students who had just started auditing the class. And thus did Seacat, in this somewhat obscure setting, come to direct the stage debut of the as-yet unknown Mickey Rourke.
Starting in 1978 (after minor roles in two TV specials, NBC's Bicentennial tribute, First Ladies Diaries: Edith Wilson (1976), and Hallmark Hall of Fame's premiere presentation of Arthur Miller's Fame (1978), Seacat's stage career concluded on a decidedly anticlimactic note: a pair of smaller roles, albeit within the context of two somewhat notable productions - one being the first work to be staged in the new Harold Clurman Theatre, Eugene Ionesco''s "The Lesson;" the other, a rare directorial credit for Ellen Burstyn, in the 1979 Actors Studio production of Norman Krasna's rarely revived "Bunny."
In fact, 1978 provided a number of punctuation points for Seacat. Early that year, two significant eras had come to an end - first, on January 26, the end of her marriage to Michael Ebert, and next, just two days later, the death of her father, Russell. This was also the year Seacat persuaded her prize pupil Rourke that there was nothing further to be gained by staying in New York, that it was time to go west and test his fortunes in Hollywood.
Certainly, given her circumstances at that moment, one could see such advice applying equally to Seacat herself, and, indeed, by the early 1980s, Seacat had expanded her base of operations, teaching in both New York and Los Angeles (as she has continued to do ever since), helping actors like Lange, Rachel Ward, and Marlo Thomas give career-changing performances. On March 29, 1983, just weeks after the announcement of Lange's dual Oscar nominations, Seacat was acknowledged by the Associated Press as the one who "helped turn Jessica Lange from King Kong's consort into the soulful actress in Frances (1982) and Tootsie (1982)." A few years later, Liz Smith would acknowledge Seacat for "helping Jessica Lange to her Oscar and Marlo Thomas to her Emmy." Lange herself later told both James Lipton and Vanity Fair just how pivotal Seacat's contribution had been, both for her career in general and, in particular, her portrayal of Frances Farmer.
Regarding the latter, and the intensive nature of that collaboration, J.T. Jeffries writes in his 1986 biography of Lange: "In the spring of 1981, while still breast-feeding her newborn daughter by Baryshnikov, she worked on each scene with her coach, Sandra Seacat... Seacat had expanded her theatrical repertoire in recent years to include techniques from Eastern meditation. Lange regularly used those deep relaxation techniques on the set to improve her concentration in the grueling role." (For screen novice Baryshnikov, the Seacat connection - and those relaxation techniques in particular - would prove a welcome legacy of his relationship with Lange, long since ended by 1985, when the legendary dancer was coached by Seacat on the set of White Nights (1985).)
Regarding the Emmy-winning performance that would help transform the image of Marlo Thomas (at least within the industry), from the indefatigable, relentlessly upbeat protagonist of That Girl (1966) to an actor who could take on any role and be taken seriously doing it, Thomas writes in her 2010 autobiography: "I only wish Lee [Strasberg] could have lived to see me portray a schizophrenic in Nobody's Child (1986). I never could have gotten near playing that kind of part without Lee's exercises, and the subsequent work I did and continue to do with his primary disciple, the brilliant Sandra Seacat."
Of the three career turning points mentioned above, Rachel Ward's transformation - culminating in her Golden Globe-nominated lead performance in The Thorn Birds (1983) - stands out. In the fall of 1982 and continuing on through the following winter, even as Lange's two Oscar-nominated performances were receiving applause, acclaim, and, eventually, awards, the then inexperienced Ward was undergoing a rigorous makeover program under Seacat's guidance. But simply in order to get to that point, Ward first had to get the part. As the Associated Press reports: "Ward's first reading before producers David L. Wolper and Stan Margulies was disastrous. So she hired drama coach Sondra [sic] Seacat." "I studied exhaustively for two weeks," recalled Ward, "went back and did a screen test with Richard." According to Margulies, Ward's second reading "was so breathtaking that she got the part right there. But our questions were whether she could do it over the five-month shooting period."
Seacat had no problem answering those questions, but her prescription was radical, and required Ward's active participation and unwavering commitment. To her credit, Ward did not disappoint; under Seacat's direction, she gave up cigarettes and meat, started a daily exercise regimen, and - utilizing those same meditation techniques used by Lange to such great effect just months before - learned to calm her mind and focus on the task at hand. "You can almost see her develop as an actress in 'Thorn Birds,'" reported the Chicago Tribune. "By the finish, her Meggie is much stronger, more worldly, compassionate. The changes were in character, but they were taking place in Ward too. Thanks, in large part, to Seacat."
"She's extraordinary," Ward said of her new mentor. "She made me work in a totally different way than I'd ever worked before. For the first time, I really worked on technique... It was definitely not an easy five months. It was a lot of tying things together and understanding and confusion and frustration and anger. I asked a lot of questions about acting and about me and stuff, and Sandra just had these answers, and they were just like, of course, oh my God, of course!"
It was during this same period, as reported by The New York Times more than 25 years later, that Seacat's Jung-inspired experiments ushered in the now widespread practice known as dream work, wherein actors interpret and sometimes influence their own dreams, often casting and staging those dreams in the process, all in the interests of achieving the richest, most genuine characterization possible. A number of the younger dream work practitioners, such as Elizabeth Kemp, Kim Gillingham, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, and actor/directors John Markland and Jamie Wollrab, as well as Sandra's daughter and fellow acting coach, Greta, all claim Seacat as their mentor. Moreover, longtime Seacat clients Melanie Griffith and Gina Gershon, as well as onetime student, Diane Salinger, have long been on record regarding the impact this innovation has had on their own careers.
"In Sandra's class," recalled Salinger in 1987, "we had dream assignments where, before you went to sleep, you'd write out an assignment to yourself, and dream dreams that had connections to the work you were doing. I've done that with this play." "It's a great way to open yourself up," insisted Griffith in a 1986 interview. "It's been very healthy for me, because I think our interior soul knows a lot more about ourselves than our conscious intellect ever allows you to think about." More recently, Hélène Cardona, a Paris-born poet, translator and actor who studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Actors Studio in the early 1990s, recalled: "When I trained with Sandra Seacat at the Actors Studio in New York, she introduced me to a particular form of dream work. You could call it Jungian. I have kept doing this work for many years now. It's very therapeutic, a more holistic approach to [sic] medicine. And it can also be used to develop a character in a play or movie. You dig into yourself to find the answers. In the dream you are connected to your inner self and to the divine."
Gershon is particularly passionate on the subject, speaking in a 1998 interview: "Sandra totally changed my acting. Instinctively, I was always in love with psychology and my dream life had always been very important to me... What's really exciting to me about Sandra's work is that it changes your life, almost on a psychic level. Now I'll get parts and in working on them, she'll say, 'Well, let's see how you're developing, as a human being.' Because the parts you're doing, it's no accident. Those parts affect your life and they kind of illustrate the map that your life is following." As recently as August 26, 2012, speaking with The Lab Magazine, Gershon reaffirmed the importance of Seacat and dream work to her career.
In a 2001 interview with Back Stage West, another longtime Seacat client of mid-eighties vintage, Laura Dern, went public. While not specifically referencing dream work, Dern echoes both Gershon, Cardona and Rachel Ward in her portrayal of Seacat's holistic, almost therapeutic approach, a characteristic previously noted in 1994 by erstwhile Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter ("better than any therapist," Carter told USA Today, regarding the time spent studying with Seacat: "you strip yourself of ego, and the whole experience unearths all your analytical feelings and self-discovery"), and one which brings to mind another Jungian archetype central to Seacat's career from at least the 1980s onward; as Seacat would tell the New York Times in 2009, "I believe that the artist is a wounded healer, that they are healing wounds of their own, and when they do that truthfully, they heal the audience." Dern recalled:
"Through studying and through being raised on movie sets, I was surrounded by a lot of people who believed that the more tortured the person, the greater the artist. I always had a hard time understanding that, but thought, 'I guess that's the way it is'... Luckily through life and the gift of the acting teacher who's changed my life in so many ways since 1984 (her name is Sandra Seacat), I learned there's another opinion, which is: the better the person, the better the artist. The more true you are to who you are and the more honest you are as an individual, the more honest you can be as an actor, and I'm really liking that." Asked if she still studied, Dern replied, "I still study with Sandra and I love studying."
Speaking again with BSW in 2004, Dern elaborated: "All of a sudden, this new idea that the parts I play help me discover myself and I could maybe be kinder to the ambiguous places and the flaws - I was so lifted by that. Since then, I feel like it's an extraordinary experience of therapy and learning about being in the moment and honoring that. All of a sudden, acting wasn't this torment where you're supposed to be a screwed-up artist, but it's an opportunity for self-growth. And I think I've had fun ever since." Finally, in January 2012, at the [error], Dern reaffirmed the connection, thanking Seacat in her acceptance speech for Best Actress in HBO's Enlightened (2011), the first two episodes of which had each featured Seacat in a small role.
In 1988, with her dream work innovations now well underway, and some well-publicized individual success stories under her belt, a unique opportunity came Seacat's way - that being the chance to direct a feature film. This would eventually become In the Spirit (1990), the first, and as yet, only film Seacat has directed, "a low-budget pic," as Variety would note, featuring "big-name talent."
The over-qualified/underpaid cast included no less than three of Seacat's regular clients, Marlo Thomas, Melanie Griffith and Peter Falk, as well as Olympia Dukakis at the height of her popularity, having just collected her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987). Arguably the film's casting coup, however (and probably the positive element most frequently cited by reviewers), was landing the celebrated writer/performer Elaine May to co-star opposite Thomas (with May's daughter, Jeannie Berlin, who co-authored the screenplay, also appearing).
Very much a homegrown New York product (a passing reference to The Robin Byrd Show (1977) being just one of several inside jokes contained therein), the supporting cast featured an assortment of local luminaries, some of them professional actors, some not. The former group included both indie icons - e.g. Michael Emil, Mark Boone Junior and Rockets Redglare - and 'legit' stage and TV actors such as Hope Cameron and Gary Swanson (both fellow Actor Studio members); the latter, such miscellaneous notables as Fox TV anchor/reporter Steve Powers, musicians Roy Nathanson and Nora York, and playwright Christopher Durang. Of the remaining bit players, at least two were Seacat students, Phil Harper and Emidio La Vella (the latter of whom would be Seacat's first post-ITS coaching client in 1990). Moreover, making his film debut here was Seacat's current husband, Thurn Hoffman.
Notwithstanding numerous press references to Seacat's screen directing debut, both before and after the film's release (almost all citing her storied coaching career), Seacat herself maintained a characteristically low profile throughout, surfacing only long enough to contribute one sentence to an article on the film's producer, Julian Schlossberg: "There are two main things about Julian -- he has a big heart and he goes the distance." Speaking of Schlossberg, co-star Elaine May got into the act as well, providing her own characteristically tongue-in-cheek teaser, a mock-interview with the producer on the making and marketing of ITS, published in the New York Times just days before the film's release.
Regarding May, Liz Smith would report (circa December 1988, shortly after the film had wrapped): "Recent remarks here about the genius that is Elaine May brought forth the encouraging news that we'll soon see this gifted actress in a new suspense movie written by her daughter Jeannie Berlin (with co-writer Laurie Jones). In the Spirit had all its money raised independently by producers Julian Schlossberg and Beverly Irby. They're now editing the film and seeking a distributor for release next spring. The cast is a staggering one -- Elaine and daughter, as well as Peter Falk, Melanie Griffith, Marlo Thomas, Olympia Dukakis and Louise Lasser. The director was an interesting choice: Sandra Seacat, acting coach and guru to many stars..."
In retrospect, given both the fact that Louise Lasser - barely visible in the finished film and nowhere to be seen in its credits - was still being announced as one of the film's featured players even after the film had wrapped, and that the film itself would not make it to theaters until more than a year past its estimated release date, one becomes better prepared for the reality of ITS's narrative disarray - a reality made obvious by the titles themselves in this broad sample of reviews: "Grand and Goofy Comedy," "'In the Spirit' - An Endearing Mess," "Screwball Comedy Holds Up Even When Plot Sags," "Spirit Loses Its Comic Flair Halfway Through," "'Spirit' Amusing, But Unpolished," "'In the Spirit' Needs a Bit More Body," "'In The Spirit' Needs To Be More Perky, Less Poky," and "A Few Screws Are Loose But 'In The Spirit' Offers A Rare Glimpse Of Elaine May In A Feminist Comedy."
As one can see, critical reaction among the nation's dailies was mixed at best. Two reactions were almost universal: appreciation for the film's performances, especially those of the two leads, as well as disdain for its technical shortcomings - seen primarily in the areas of camera placement and pacing, as well as the aforementioned matter of narrative construction. What distinguished the favorable from the unfavorable review in these cases was largely a matter of emphasis. Unfortunately for Seacat, when it came to evaluating her impact on the finished film, the emphasis was placed almost exclusively on the shortcomings. And while reviewers had, almost without exception, made the obligatory mention of Seacat's storied coaching career, in practice, it appears, few felt compelled to credit her with even contributing to her actors' success.
Two of the more sympathetic reviews, by Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune and ex-Village Voice critic Carrie Rickey, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, tended however to bypass both Seacat and the film's screenwriter, Jeannie Berlin, and instead credit Elaine May as the film's true auteur.
Two of the film's most merciless drubbings were administered, respectively, by the Washington Times ("New Age 'Spirit' Gets Old and Boring Quickly") and by the Chicago Sun-Times ("The Mystery of 'Spirit' is Finding Film's Funny Parts"); however, given the film's target audience (even the Los Angeles Daily News called it "a flat-out New York comedy, with all of the pluses and minuses"), the most damaging blow of all was almost certainly delivered by the New York Times' Janet Maslin, with her considerably more polite, yet thoroughly condescending dismissal:
"The beneficial power of crystals has done nothing for In the Spirit, a nervous new-age comedy much more notable for good intentions than good luck. A rare appearance by Elaine May, who co-stars with Marlo Thomas in what proves to be an unexpectedly mundane caper story, and a directing credit for the respected acting coach Sandra Seacat give In the Spirit a lot more curiosity value than it would otherwise have... Ms. Seacat's direction is especially strange, since it is so thoroughly unaccommodating to the actors. The camera is treated as if it were radioactive, never being allowed to linger where a performer might be heard clearly or shown off to good advantage." Even the generally lauded female leads do not escape unscathed: "The actors, especially Ms. May and Ms. Thomas, spend a lot of time yammering simultaneously in time-honored sitcom style."
If America's original paper of record had delivered one of Spirit's most resounding pans, it would fall to the entertainment industry's trade 'paper of record' to supply arguably its most simpatico critique (though it did little to help the movie's less than middling box office returns). Not merely echoing the critical consensus regarding Thomas' and May's "memorable screen odd couple," Variety embraced the film itself, portraying its limitations as strengths: "an unusual case of big-name talent gathering with friends to make a low-budget pic freed of mainstream good taste and gloss." While not oblivious of the film's structural issues ("weakest element being a stupid framing device of a mystical narrator... midway shift in tone may put off some viewers, but others will likely relish the intensity of the May and Thomas segment"), it was Variety, virtually alone among reviewers, that cited Seacat for something beyond merely her ability to handle actors: "First-time director Sandra Seacat emphasizes slapstick but also female bonding as the gals on the lam reach beyond their wacky survivalist tactics to address feminist issues."
After Seacat's extended directorial excursion, the transition back to her customary regimen was eased considerably by the fact that the clients for her next few coaching projects were all ITS cast members. First, as previously mentioned, was Emidio La Vella in Un metro all'alba (1990). Next in line was Thomas herself, on Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story (1991); in addition, Seacat would work with Melanie Griffith on Born Yesterday (1993), and with Thomas again on Reunion (1994). Back on the east coast, Seacat would join the faculty of the recently formed Actors Studio Drama School at the New School for Social Research in the fall of 1996.
Starting in 1999, Seacat embarked on an unprecedented binge of media exposure, becoming the 'talking head' on three TV documentaries in the space of two years, and, even more uncharacteristically, speaking at length about three of her clients in the process. Despite this seeming incongruity, given Seacat's customary regard for client confidentiality (witness the Sandra Seacat entry at TakeHollywood.com), the fact is that, whenever a given actor has had no qualms about revealing their working relationship, or has already done so, Seacat has always been happy to grant interviews on the subject, as she did at length in 1983 for New York Magazine's Mickey Rourke profile. Speaking of whom, Rourke is the subject of the first of these three documentaries (as well as one in 2008, in which Seacat also participated), followed, respectively, by two very vocal Seacat champions, Laura Dern and Jessica Lange.
Another Seacat outburst, addressed not merely to the press, but to one of her longstanding client's potential employers, would occur in 2003, part of an image makeover much like that of Seacat's oft-recounted early success stories, Jessica Lange and Marlo Thomas, especially the latter, another era's perpetually perky, seemingly ubiquitous paragon of 'cute.' This time, however, instead of a sixties sitcom princess, it was the nineties romcom queen, Meg Ryan, who was chomping at the bit for some more challenging roles. While working with Seacat on her upcoming Jackie Kallen biopic, Against the Ropes (2004), Ryan saw the opportunity for an even more radical departure with Nicole Kidman's early exit from Jane Campion's In the Cut (2003).
Interviewed shortly before the film's release, Campion recounted Seacat's surprising phone intervention: "Sandra said, 'Look, I'm working with Meg Ryan. I've never done this before, but she's doing amazing work. You should audition her.' And I said, 'Audition Meg? Do you think she'd audition?' She said, 'Sure, she would.'"
Ryan would indeed audition, and for helping Campion get beyond her preconceptions, the grateful director likened Seacat to "a fairy godmother who takes the mists away." As it happens, Campion's preconceptions were not unlike those of the many reviewers who would find Ryan's performance a revelation, as well as the most interesting and accomplished element within a not so successful film. Speaking for public consumption, Seacat reiterated: "Meg has great courage and discipline and commitment. Her talent is large, and her potential is vast."
The following year, speaking with Newsday on the set of We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), exactly one week after the film's co-star, Laura Dern, had expanded upon her own 2001 tribute to Seacat, her longtime teacher returned the favor: "'Laura is a free spirit,' says Sandra Seacat, the celebrated acting coach and a longtime associate of Dern's. 'She's also a great student and a dedicated artist - and there aren't very many people I call artists. But the entire cast of this film [including also Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Watts, and Peter Krause], they're all true artists, dedicated to their own inner truth, and they have the courage to share that. You don't find that very often.'"
As the decade wore on, perhaps fueled by dream work's increasing popularity, Seacat's name began to be seen in print more frequently, some of the mentions dreamwork-related, others - like those by Dern, Marlo Thomas, or Mickey Rourke - simply satisfied customers reaffirming their indebtedness.
Speaking with Back Stage in 2010, acting teacher Alex Cole Taylor called Seacat "a beautiful woman and a beautiful artist'," as well as the primary model for Taylor's compassionate and nurturing stance towards his own students. Speaking with CNN in 2012, acting coach and dream work practitioner Elizabeth Kemp paired Seacat with Lee Strasberg as two of the teachers to whom she was most deeply indebted. Moreover, two of Seacat's students, actor/directors Jamie Wollrab and John Markland, have each been putting Seacat's teachings into practice, one play at a time - Wollrab, with his Triptych Theatre; Markland, with the Moth Theatre Company, itself composed largely, if not entirely, of fellow Seacat alumni (including Scoot McNairy, Pamela Guest, Dov Tiefenbach, Anna Rose Hopkins, and Kris Lemche), recently incorporating Wollrab as well. The latter's words -- quoted in Steve Julian's 2010 Moth Theatre profile -- echo those of his mentor, just one year before: "'More than anything,' Wollrab says, 'we're wounded healers. Each of us. I think that's why audiences keep taking to our work.' Work he describes as fragile and beautiful."
As it happens, Wollrab had hitherto collaborated with his teacher on just such work, when, in August 2007, more than four decades and a quarter of a century, respectively, after Seacat's previous notable forays into directing, she would oversee Wollrab's direction of Elizabeth Meriwether's play, "The Mistakes Madeline Made," staged at Boulder, Colorado's Dairy Center for the Arts.
As in her previous directorial assignments, Seacat was again supervising a number of current and/or former students, including, along with the director, her daughter Greta Seacat, Justin Chatwin, Shannon Woodward, and the late Johnny Lewis. The younger Ms. Seacat's performance garnered particularly favorable notices, dubbed "steady and grounded" by Mark Collins of the Boulder Daily Camera, and "a marvel" by Lisa Bornstein of the Rocky Mountain News: "Simplistic (she frequently shuts her laptop to avoid news of Iraq) and authoritarian, but awkwardly kind as well, Beth is annoying, but she knows it; in Seacat's hands, she's funny and real."
Regarding Seacat Sr., one happy addendum: roughly coinciding with the millennial media spike in Seacat sightings was a corresponding increase in the size and substance of her film roles. Seacat's screen resumé had long seemed little more than a collection of discreetly camouflaged acting coach credits, typically a small part contained in one or two scenes within a film which itself featured one or more of Seacat's coaching clients - well-acted, in and of itself, but, as conceived, simply too perfunctory and/or peripheral to the film's narrative to register strongly. (For a perfect case in point, witness Seacat's 5½-minute one-and-done appearance in The Golden Seal (1983) with Steve Railsback, starting at the '01:23:14 remaining' mark; IMDb provides free access to the film in its entirety.)
This began to change in 1999 with a series of three consecutive films, each one featuring Seacat as the protagonist's mother. In the first two, Crazy in Alabama (1999) and Daddy and Them (2001) (portraying, respectively, 'Crazy' Melanie Griffith's concerned mom, and 'Daddy' Andy Griffith's oft seen, but rarely heard wife), the upgrades were subtle, to be sure; nonetheless, Seacat was onscreen far more - and at more crucial points in the narrative - than in any of her previous films.
It was 2003, however, that brought the most dramatic change, not just from a subsidiary to a starring role, but from the almost mute matriarch of D&T's constantly bickering clan (blocking out the most intense or awkward moments with her trusty Macarena monkey) to the vigorously - and vocally - proactive 'normalizer' of the equally - if less loudly - dysfunctional family in A Little Crazy (2003).
Co-starring Seacat students Jack Kerrigan, Kim Gillingham, and Kirk Baltz, "A Little Crazy" debuted at the 2003 Method Fest, earning Kerrigan a nomination for the festival's John Garfield Award, and, for the film itself, a rave review from Variety's Robert Koehler, praising, in particular, "the superb Seacat," as the "overreaching but never strident" matriarch of the film's "unhinged American family." Sadly, despite the review and subsequent awards from the Berkeley Video & Film Festival, the Hollywood MiniDV Festival, and the Los Angeles Silver Lake Film Festival, the independently produced film found neither a theatrical nor a DVD release (though it has, as of 2010, become available online via IndieFlix); as a result, what is almost certainly Seacat's most sizable and fleshed-out film performance to date has gone largely unseen.
Her next assignment, another independently made feature that would not see a theatrical release (again co-starring Kim Gillingham), In the Land of Milk and Money (2004), features Seacat in a much smaller role, but again a pivotal one, in a film which, none too skillfully, harkens back to the cautionary sci-fi tales of the fifties, as well as the neo-zombie variations of the seventies and beyond, in its tale of genetically modified cow's milk generating an epidemic of mothers killing their offspring. As one of the affected mothers, Seacat, in a handful of scenes, with a minimum of screen time and dialogue, gives an acting clinic, shifting from unreadable rage to transparent delight, from grief-stricken, guilt-ridden parent to righteous avenger.
Seacat's next few post-millennial assignments included a number of independently made films that remain, for better or worse, even harder to get a hold of than the previous two. More recently, however, have come brief but high-impact performances in a pair of relatively high-profile projects, HBO's You Don't Know Jack (2010), starring Al Pacino as Jack Kevorkian, aka 'Dr. Death' (and featuring Seacat as his first 'patient,' the Alzheimers-afflicted Janet Adkins), as well as actor Mark Ruffalo's feature film directing debut, Sympathy for Delicious (2010), wherein Seacat has an even smaller, but equally pivotal, role.
The former, in particular, caught the eye of Columbia University MFA candidate Jed Cowley in the fall of 2011, then casting his thesis film, a short subject set - and shot - in a shale pit in the filmmaker's home town of Medford, Oregon. As he would later recall, it took no more than one viewing of Seacat's brief but telling appearance in the Kevorkian biopic before Cowley and his producer "knew she should be Sheila," Shale (2012)'s long-suffering but "newly empowered" protagonist, the "once dutiful wife" now confronting her intractable ex-spouse against the shale pit's stark backdrop.
With Seacat in attendance, "Shale" had its premiere on May 5, 2012, at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, as part of the Columbia University Film Festival, where the film would earn the IFC Audience Choice Award. The film is also an official selection at the 2013 Slamdance Festival in Park City, Utah, screening with the South-African-set feature, Fynbos (2012), on Friday, January 18th, at 7 PM, and again on Tuesday the 22nd, at 12 noon.
As already mentioned, Seacat also appeared recently in the first two episodes of Laura Dern's HBO series "Enlightened," as well as the feature film, The Time Being (2012), representing the directing and screenwriting debuts, respectively, of Nenad Cicin-Sain and producer Richard N. Gladstein.
Seacat's next scheduled appearance is in Gia Coppola's feature film directing debut, still in pre-production, entitled Palo Alto (2013), based on short stories by James Franco.
In the meantime, Seacat has not neglected her educational mission; in fact, while remaining active on both coasts, she also recently made inroads into the heartland, when, on March 8, 2012, together with longtime friend and colleague, Robert Walden, and several others, she became a founding faculty member of the newly instituted Winthrop Rockefeller Institute Film Forum, a three-day, multi-disciplinary seminar to be hosted annually by the University of Arkansas.- Actor
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Clu Gulager was born William Martin Gulager in Holdenville, Hughes County, Oklahoma. His nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time Clu was born. He grew up on his uncle's ranch as a cowhand and when he was old enough he joined the United States Marine Corps for a stint from 1946-1948. He got the acting bug being in army plays so when he left he used the GI Bill of Rights to study acting. During this time he met his wife, actress Miriam Byrd-Nethery. They wed in 1952 and had two children: John (born 1957) and Tom (born 1965) The couple was married for more than 50 years until her death in 2003 from cancer.
Gulager's career started off as bit parts on popular western shows usually playing the heavy. Shows like Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, Laramie, Riverboat. He scored big with The Untouchables as "Mad Dog Coll", which led to him being offered the role of "Billy the Kid" on The Tall Man from 1960-1962, which also starred Barry Sullivan as "Pat Garrett". The show was pulled after two seasons reportedly because the powers that were didn't like kids seeing Billy the Kid as a hero.
His next big break was playing Deputy Emmett Ryker on The Virginian from 1964-1968. During this time he also fared very well as Lee Marvin's sidekick in the 1964 TV film The Killers, which was considered too violent for TV so it went to theaters. Having being burned out being a TV star he tried to break into films, mostly as a character actor. His stand out films were The Last Picture Show (1971, playing Ellen Burstyn's lover), McQ (1974) with John Wayne, and A Force of One (1979) with Chuck Norris, with whom he would later work in the 1990s on Walker, Texas Ranger.
Gulager was also cast in San Francisco International Airport, with Lloyd Bridges, which failed big time. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he was in almost every show around, playing bit parts. Then the unthinkable happened: he found a second career as a horror film actor; he followed the footsteps of other TV actors who were stuck in TV hell, like Doug McClure (his costar from The Virginian) and Christopher George. Both men found new careers in B-movies and late night horror films. Gulager finally got a lead part in Dan O'Bannon's cult classic The Return of the Living Dead (1985). He also was in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985).
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he appeared in TV and in the occasional horror flick. In 2005 he started acting in his son's horror films -- the Feasts movies and Piranha DD in his 80s. Not letting age get in his way, he was a horror fan favorite and still showed up at conventions at almost 90.- Actor
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Andrew Prine, a well-known stage actor also known for military and western dramas, was first seen in Kiss Her Goodbye (1959), then in The Miracle Worker (1962). Prine, who has a Texan-sounding voice, was also well remembered in westerns like Texas Across the River (1966), Generation (1969) and Chisum (1970), which featured his close and well-known friends Christopher George, John Wayne and Richard Jaeckel. Prine next starred in Simon, King of the Witches (1971), One Little Indian (1973), The Centerfold Girls (1974) and Grizzly (1976), which also featured Christopher George and Richard Jaeckel. Prine also wrote his own little dialogue story for Grizzly (1976). During this time, through the '60s and '70s, Prine was married four times but kept his acting career up. Prine later was in The Evil (1978), Amityville II: The Possession (1982), Eliminators (1986), Chill Factor (1989) and Gettysburg (1993), which got Prine a big and great role. Prine is a great veteran actor in Hollywood who will always be remembered. He has also been in over 30 great films and made 79 guest appearances.- Lance Kerwin was born on 6 November 1960 in Newport Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Outbreak (1995), Enemy Mine (1985) and Salem's Lot (1979). He was married to Yvonne Kerwin and Kristen Lansdale. He died on 24 January 2023 in San Clemente, California, USA.
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The early film career of Stella Stevens could be said to mirror that of Marilyn Monroe. She began by playing a succession of sensuous, blond glamour girls, from naïve virgins and funny coquettes to precocious or briny-tongued floozies. Her early maturity on screen may have reflected her own turbulent private life: she was married at 15, had a child (Andrew Stevens) at 16 and was divorced a year later. At 21, having a child to support and no money, she posed for a celebrated Playboy centerfold. She was Playmate of the Month for January 1960 which did her subsequent movie career no harm whatever. She was voted by Playboy as one of the 100 Sexiest Women of the 20th century and became one of the most photographed stars of the 1960s.
The voluptuous, blue-eyed Stella was born Estelle Caro Eggleston to one of the oldest families in Yazoo City, Mississippi. A myth which had her hailing from the quaintly named area of Hot Coffee was purely an invention by Hollywood publicists. Her father, Thomas Ellet Eggleston, was an insurance salesman, her mother, Estelle (nee Caro), a nurse. The family moved to Memphis when she was four.
During her early childhood, Stella was nicknamed "Bootsie". Precocious and impatient to grow up, she took to watching movies at every opportunity. It became her main passion. Graduating from high school in 1955, she spent two years attending Memphis State University where she was 'discovered' during a production of Bus Stop in the role of aspiring nightclub singer Chérie (famously played by Marilyn in the film version). Borrowing some money, Stella made her way to the bright lights of Los Angeles and was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1959. She made only three films for the studio during a six months spell before her contract was dropped, her debut being a bit part in Frank Tashlin's saccharine comedy-drama Say One for Me (1959).
Her role won her a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer. That same year, she was picked up by Paramount and made her first breakthrough on the screen as the vampish Apassionata von Climax in the film version of the hit Broadway musical Li'l Abner (1959), based on Al Capp's comic strip.
She alternated motion pictures with television appearances, displaying a perhaps unexpectedly wide range as an actress in both dramatic and comedic roles. She stood out in films like Too Late Blues (1961) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both under greatly contrasting directorial styles.
Above all, she saw herself not as a sex icon but as a comedienne. She once said "I want to be remembered for whatever made people laugh the most." Unafraid to do physical comedy in the manner of Lucille Ball she was also often lauded for her comic timing in films like The Silencers (1966) (a James Bond-style spoof, co-starring a sleepy-eyed Dean Martin) and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968). In the 1970s, her best role was as a warmhearted prostitute in Sam Peckinpah's seminal western The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). Writer and critic Roger Ebert wrote of her performance "There are few enough actresses who can be funny and feminine at the same time, but she is certainly one of them." Conversely, in the classic disaster epic The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she played a former hooker with a heart closer to tin.
Like many film careers, hers too experienced a fair share of hiccups along the way, often due to typecasting: duds like Slaughter (1972), Stand Up and Be Counted (1972), Las Vegas Lady (1975), The Manitou (1978), and others. However, Stella proved resourceful enough to diversify and go behind the camera, both as producer and director of a feature-length documentary, The American Heroine (1979). She co-authored a novel entitled 'Razzle, Dazzle' (published in 1999), about the rise and fall of a glamorous rock star. She unveiled her own range of women's and men's fragrances, called 'Sexy'.
During the 1980s and 1990s, she concentrated primarily on television and enjoyed lengthy tenures on the glossy soaps Flamingo Road (1980) and Santa Barbara (1984), in addition to many guest appearances in shows as diverse as Police Story (1973), Hotel (1983), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). In 1976, she briefly forsook the glamour of Beverly Hills and set up home on a 27-acre ranch on the edge of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State and then proceeded to operate an art gallery and bakery in a nearby town.
By 1983, she had returned to her Beverly Hills home where she lived with her partner (rock guitarist Bob Kulick), until the home was sold in 2016. Afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, Stella Stevens spent her remaining years in an assisted living home in California and passed away in Los Angeles on February 17 2023 at the age of 84.- Actor
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Charles Kimbrough was born on 23 May 1936 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Murphy Brown (1988) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002). He was married to Beth Howland and Mary Jane Wilson. He died on 11 January 2023 in Culver City, California, USA.- With that impish, gap-toothed grin, nervous bundle of energy, Robert Morse could never be contained long enough to become a film star. The live stage would be his calling.
He was born Robert Allen Morse on May 18, 1931, in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of May (Silver) and Charles Morse, who worked at a record store. His father was of German Jewish descent and his mother was of Russian Jewish ancestry. He developed an interest in performing in high school. Moving to New York, he joined elder brother Richard who was already studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Robert made his debut with the musical "On the Town", in 1949, and trained with Lee Strasberg, before making his inauspicious film debut in The Proud and Profane (1956), but movie offers were few. Instead, he brightened up the lights of Broadway as "Barnaby Tucker" in "The Matchmaker" (and in the film version of The Matchmaker (1958)), as well as in "Say, Darling" (Tony nomination in 1958), "Take Me Along" (Tony nomination in 1959) and his best-known role as the ever-ambitious "J. Pierpont Finch" in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", in which he finally won the Tony, in 1961, while singing his signature song, "I Believe in You", to himself in the mirror. He took that role to film, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), six years later.
Morse's best movie roles also came in the 60s, as a Britisher arranging his uncle's funeral in the cult favorite, The Loved One (1965), and as Walter Matthau's philandering buddy/advisor in A Guide for the Married Man (1967). His offbeat musical talents were used for the intriguing experimental James Thurber-like TV series, That's Life (1968), with E.J. Peaker, which combined sketches, monologues and musical interludes, but the show lasted only one season.
Overall, Bobby's work has never been less than interesting with no gray areas in his performances -- ranging from bizarre to irritating, from frenzied to fascinating. After earning acclaim and another Tony-nomination as the cross-dressing musician on the lam in "Sugar", a Broadway musical version of Some Like It Hot (1959), Morse appeared less and less -- his eccentricities proving both difficult to cast and to deal with.
Following an unfulfilling stint on the daytime soap, All My Children (1970), he came back in grand style in the one-man tour de farce, Tru (1992), based on the life of the equally-eccentric Truman Capote - a perfect fit, if ever there was one, between actor and role. With this role, Bobby became one of the choice few to ever win Tony awards for both a musical and dramatic part. At the age of 85, Morse returned to the lights of Broadway in the 2016 revival of "The Front Page" starring Nathan Lane.
Robert continued to be seen in odd roles from time to time, such as "Grandpa" in the revamped TV movie, Here Come the Munsters (1995). Into the millennium, he focused on TV work. He made a huge dramatic impression as an advertising agency founder Bertram Cooper on the popular series Mad Men (2007) and earned five Emmy nominations. He also impressed as Dominick Dunne on the series American Crime Story (2016) and provided the TV voice of Santa Claus in the animated short series Teen Titans Go! (2013).
Married twice, his five children include actresses Andrea Doven, Hilary Morse and Robin Morse. Robert Morse died on April 20, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 90. - Actress
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Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy. Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Gina possibly had St. Brigid as part of her surname. She was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. The young Gina did some modeling and, from there, went on to participate successfully in several beauty contests. In 1947, she entered a beauty competition for Miss Italy, but came in third. The winner was Lucia Bosè (born 1931), who would go on to appear in over 50 movies, and the first runner-up was Gianna Maria Canale (born 1927), who would appear in almost 50 films. After appearing in a half-dozen films in Italy, it was rumored that, in 1947, film tycoon Howard Hughes had her flown to Hollywood; however, this did not result in her staying in America, and she returned to Italy (her Hollywood breakout movie would not come until six years later in the John Huston film Beat the Devil (1953)).
Back in Italy, in 1949, Gina married Milko Skofic, a Slovenian (at the time, "Yugoslavian") doctor, by whom she had a son, Milko Skofic Jr. They would be married for 22 years, until their divorce in 1971. As her film roles and national popularity increased, Gina was tagged "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", after her signature movie Beautiful But Dangerous (1955). Gina was nicknamed "La Lollo", as she embodied the prototype of Italian beauty. Her earthy looks and short "tossed salad" hairdo were especially influential and, in fact, there's a type of curly lettuce named "Lollo" in honor of her cute hairdo. Her film Come September (1961), co-starring Rock Hudson, won the Golden Globe Award as the World's Film Favorite. In the 1970s, Gina was seen in only a few films, as she took a break from acting and concentrated on another career: photography. Among her subjects were Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí and the German national soccer team.
A skilled photographer, Gina had a collection of her work "Italia Mia", published in 1973. Immersed in her other passions (sculpting and photography), it would be 1984 before Gina would grace American television on Falcon Crest (1981). Although Gina was always active, she only appeared in a few films in the 1990s. She retired from acting in 1997 after 50 years in the motion picture industry. In June 1999, she turned to politics and ran, unsuccessfully, for one of Italy's 87 European Parliament seats, from her hometown of Subiaco. Gina was also a corporate executive for fashion and cosmetics companies. As she told Parade magazine in April 2000: "I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake". (We're glad she made that mistake). Gina went on to say: "I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers."- Actor
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Roger E. Mosley was born on 18 December 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Magnum, P.I. (1980), A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) and Terminal Island (1973). He was married to Antoinette 'Toni' Laudermilk and Saundra J Locke. He died on 7 August 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Ned Eisenberg was a character actor who is remembered for the role of Italian gangster Fredo Strozzi in action film/western Last Man Standing (1996) with Bruce Willis, directed by Walter Hill; and films such as The Burning (1981) and Limitless (2011). Born in New York, he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, where he studied acting. Eisenberg appeared in episodes of the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order, beginning in 1997. He also had roles in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning drama Million Dollar Baby (2004) and war film Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and also in A Civil Action (1998) and action/thriller film Asher (2018), opposite Ron Perlman.
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Born in 1919 in Jerusalem, Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to America in 1929.
Following schooling at the Hebrew Technical Institute of New York, he found a job as a subway electrician doing signal maintenance until an interest in the theater altered the direction of his life.
He joined amateur groups and subsequently won a scholarship to the Dramatic Workshop in New York. This led to what would have been his Broadway debut in a production of "Eve of St. Mark", but he was fired before the show opened. He made his official New York debut in a production of "The Emperor's New Clothes" in 1940.
WWII interrupted his young career in 1942, when he was inducted into the United Sates Army, returning to the stage after his hitch was over in 1945, three years later. He sought work in stock plays and became an intern of Stella Adler and, as a result, a strong exponent of the Actor's Studio. Discovered by Charles Laughton and cast in his production of "Galileo" in 1947, Persoff made his film debut a year later with an uncredited bit in The Naked City (1948).
Short, dark, chunky-framed and with a distinct talent for dialects, Persoff became known primarily for his ethnic villainy, usually playing authoritative Eastern Europeans.
In a formidable career which had him portraying everything from cab drivers to Joseph Stalin, standout film roles would include Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart, Gene Conforti in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Albert in This Angry Age (1958) and gangster Johnny Torrio in Al Capone (1959). That same year he played another gangster, the small role of Little Bonaparte, in Some Like It Hot (1959).
He was a durable performer during TV's "Golden Age" (Gunsmoke (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959)) and well beyond (Chicago Hope (1994), Law & Order (1990)), playing hundreds of intense, volatile and dominating characters.
In later years, his characters grew a bit softer as Barbra Streisand's Jewish father in Yentl (1983) and the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the An American Tail (1986) will attest. Later stage work included well-received productions of "I'm Not Rappaport" and his biographical one-man show "Sholem Aleichem".
After declining health and high blood pressure forced him to slow down, Persoff took up painting in 1985, studying sketching in Los Angeles. Specializing in watercolor, he created more than 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited up and down the coast of California. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2019.- Actor
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Philip Baker Hall was born in Toledo, Ohio, to Berdene (McDonald) and William Alexander Hall, a factory worker who was originally from Montgomery, Alabama. He did not start acting until he was 30 years old. Known to film fans for his turn as Richard Nixon in Robert Altman's one-man show film Secret Honor (1984), he shot to cult fame when he turned in another electrifying performance, as Sydney, the veteran gambler, in Paul Thomas Anderson's debut feature, Hard Eight (1996). However, it was his work in the same director's star-studded Magnolia (1999) that really caught the mass film public's attention; his performance as the legendary quiz show presenter "Jimmy Gator" was highly acclaimed. These acclaimed smaller films led to Hall's casting in multiple blockbuster hits of the 1990s and 2000s, including The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Dogville (2003), directed by Lars von Trier.- Actress
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Melinda Dillon came to prominence with the role of Jillian Guiler, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Dillon's performance in the film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. A few years later, Dillon received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as a devout Catholic woman in Absence of Malice (1981). The performance won the actress a KCFCC Award.- Actor
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David began his career with the repertory companies at the Barter Theatre in Virginia America and the Hartford Stage Company followed by his New York debut as one of the twins in A Comedy of Errors in Joseph Papps Shakespeare Festival. In 1968 he played the lead in Summertree at New York's: Lincoln Centre winning the Clarence Derwent Award and the Theatre World Award. Later he played the lead role of Mark Elliott in the television series Love is a Many Splendored Thing followed by the part of Bernie in the comedy series Bridget Loves Bernie. Both were top ranking shows making him a well known name across America and earning numerous awards. He made his film debut in Caravan to Vaccares- Actor
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As a kid in the 1930s growing up in a tough New York neighborhood, kinetic wiseguy Larry Storch took in the multi-ethnic flavor of his surroundings and started blurting out various accents as a juvenile to provoke laughs and earn attention. Little did he know that this early talent would take him on a six-decade journey as a prime actor and comedian.
The 5'8" actor was born on January 8, 1923, in New York City, the son of a realtor and telephone operator. Although he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he never graduated, earning money as a stand-up comic. Larry's gift as an impressionist paid off early during those teen years in vaudeville houses. Following military duty during WWII as a seaman (1942-1946), a happenstance meeting with comedian Phil Harris in Palm Springs led to an opening act gig at Ciro's for Lucille Ball's and Desi Arnaz' show.
Larry received his biggest break on radio with "The Kraft Music Hall" when he was asked to sub for an ailing Frank Morgan. He not only delivered his patented star impersonations, he did a devastating one of Morgan himself that went over famously.
Moving to the small screen, a summer hosting replacement on the TV variety show Cavalcade of Stars (1949) was followed by Larry's own variety series, The Larry Storch Show (1953). In musical revues from the early 1950s with such showcases as "Red, Hot and Blue" and "Curtain Going Up," he also became a fixture on the nightclub circuit. He made a leap into legit acting with the musical "You Never Know" (1955) and comedies "The Tender Trap" (1956) and "Who Was that Lady I Saw You With?" (1958), in which he played a hyper Russian spy.
A long-lasting friendship with Tony Curtis that formulated during his Navy days paid off in spades. Curtis started finding work for his buddy in his films, beginning with an unbilled bit in the Universal costumer The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951). When Larry's career was going through a noticeable lull in the early 1960s, Curtis again came to the rescue by giving him top supporting roles in some of his prime cinematic fluff--Who Was That Lady? (1960) (in which he recreated his stage role), 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and Wild and Wonderful (1964).
TV audiences soon started seeing his manic-looking mug regularly on episodic TV, including The Phil Silvers Show (1955) and Car 54, Where Are You? (1961). Larry's biggest claim to fame would come via his Emmy-nominated role as Forrest Tucker's loyal but not particularly bright sidekick Cpl. Randolph Agarn in the western comedy F Troop (1965).
While continuing to make an "impression" in nightclubs, Larry found a lucrative outlet in animation, too, giving vocal life to four decades' worth of cartoons, including the series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963), Underdog (1964), The Pink Panther Show (1969) and Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969). He also provided the voice of Koko the Clown in the syndicated cartoon show Out of the Inkwell (1961).
Beginning in the 1980s Storch made a comic resurgence of sorts under the theater lights with a healthy run opposite Jean Stapleton and Marion Ross in "Arsenic and Old Lace" from 1986-1988, and in the musicals "Oklahoma!" (1990) and "Annie Get Your Gun" (2000), the latter as Chief Sitting Bull. He also appeared with his friend Curtis again, this time in a musical stage version of Curtis' classic film Some Like It Hot (1959).
Larry went on to appear in typical oddball form in such films as Airport 1975 (1974), The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), Record City (1977), Without Warning (1980) (as a scoutmaster), S.O.B. (1981) (as a guru), Fake-Out (1982), Sweet Sixteen (1983), A Fine Mess (1986), The Perils of P.K. (1986), The Silence of the Hams (1994), Funny Valentine (2005) and Bittersweet Place (2005). TV guest appearances included "The Fall Guy," "Knight Rider," "Out of This World," "Married ... with Children," "Days of Our Lives," and his last, a 2010 appearance on "Medium Rare."
He was married to actress Norma Storch from 1961 until her death from cancer in 2003.- Henry Silva was born on September 23, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He quit public school to attend drama classes at age 13, supporting himself as a dishwasher in a Manhattan hotel. By 1955, Silva had moved up from dishwasher to waiter, and felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was one of five students chosen out of more than 2500 applicants. When the Actors Studio staged Michael V. Gazzo's play "A Hatful of Rain" as a classroom project, it proved so successful it came to Broadway--with students Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Harry Guardino, Anthony Franciosa and, of course, Silva in key roles. Called to Hollywood, he played a succession of heavies in films, including The Bravados (1958), Green Mansions (1959), Ocean's Eleven (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Johnny Cool (1963).
An Italian producer made Henry an offer he could not refuse--to star as a hero for a change--and he moved his family overseas. Silva's turning-point picture was a spaghetti Western, The Hills Run Red (1966), which made him a hot box office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. His popularity was enhanced by a gift for languages. He speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and has a flair for the kind of gritty, realistic roles that also catapulted Charles Bronson to European stardom. Returning to the United States, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the film Contract on Cherry Street (1977), then signed on as Buck Rogers' evil adversary Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) and the television series of the same name. Silva now calls the San Fernando Valley home, but makes continual film forays back to Europe's production centers. A dedicated jogger, he puts in five miles a day "to keep in shape and relieve tension". - Actor
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Bruce MacVittie was born in Providence, RI in 1956. He began acting in high school, attended Boston University, studied with Jerzy Grotowski in 1976 and moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting in 1979. He began his career at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1980 in Edward Allen Baker's "Prairie Avenue", where he worked for many years as a member. He was a founding member of Naked Angels Theater Company. Bruce spent over ten years at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference under Lloyd Richards, 10 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival under Michael Ritchie and Jenny Gersten, and was a member of the Blue Light Theatre Company where he began a collaboration with Joanne Woodward for several years on the plays of Clifford Odets. In 1982, he began as understudy to James Hayden in David Mamet's American Buffalo with Al Pacino and J.J. Johnston at Circle In the Square, eventually replacing Hayden in the subsequent Broadway production, national tour, and West End Productions with Pacino and Johnston. MacVittie, a character actor, had a long tenure playing guest-starring roles in television and film beginning with Barney Miller (1975) in 1981 working on both coasts, but predominantly in New York. In New York, he worked in most off-Broadway theaters including the Public, Playwright's Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, and the Cherry Lane. He appeared in over 75 film and television productions over 32 years.- Actor
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John Aylward was born on 7 November 1946 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Armageddon (1998), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) and Instinct (1999). He was married to Mary L Fields. He died on 16 May 2022 in Seattle, Washington, USA.- Actor
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Bob McGrath was born on 13 June 1932 in Ottawa, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Follow That Bird (1985), Sesame Street (1969) and Sesame Street: Put Down the Duckie (1988). He was married to Ann Logan Sperry. He died on 4 December 2022 in New Jersey, USA.- Actor
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Emilio Delgado was an actor and singer, best known for his 44 years in the role of "Luis" on Sesame Street from 1971-2015 and had the unofficial distinction of having played the same role on U.S. television longer than any other Mexican American actor. He was born in Calexico, California and spent his early childhood living across the border in Mexicali, Mexico in a large extended family.
He started working at an early age in Mexicali shining shoes and working in his uncle's bicycle repair shop. As a U.S. citizen, he crossed the border daily into the United States to attend elementary school in Calexico, California, where he first began performing in school plays and musicals. He graduated from Glendale High School in Los Angeles, where his interest and passion for theater and music increased. After graduation he received a scholarship to study acting in Hollywood with Russian actress Eugenie Leontovich. He continued his theater studies at Glendale College and CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) while also performing as a folk singer, guitarist and singing traditional Spanish boleros with Mexican trios.
In 1968 Emilio began working as a professional actor in the Emmy Award winning PBS series Cancion De La Raza (Song of The People) KCET-LA. In 1971, the producers of Sesame Street expanded their cast to include Latinos and cast Emilio as Luis. Landing the role of "Luis" was very meaningful to Emilio because it offered a positive portrayal of a Mexican American on television. He can claim the longest running part for a Mexican American actor in a continuing television series for his 44 years on Sesame Street.
In addition to Sesame Street, Emilio was cast by Joe Papp in 1972 to understudy Raul Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Emilio starred in the lead role of Quixote Nuevo in four cities: CalShakes Berkeley, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Boston & The Alley Theatre in Houston from June 13, 2018 to February 9, 2020; written by award winning playwright, Octavio Solis. Quixote Nuevo is a contemporary adaptation of the Cervantes classic, first premiering in 2018 at California Shakespeare Theater in Berkeley. Other theater credits include Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, INTAR Theatre, Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD, Manhattan Theatre Source and King Claudius in the Asolo Repertory Theatre production of Hamlet: Prince of Cuba.
He appeared in several television classics and was a recurring cast member on the Lou Grant Show and appeared in Hawaii 5-0, Quincy, Police Story and co-starred in I Will Fight No More Forever. More recent television and film appearances include The Get Down, House of Cards, A Case of You, Law & Order, Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, The Michael J. Fox Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and many other television and film appearances. In voice over work, you can hear his voice in The Bravest Knight, Red Dead Redemption II and Audible.
Emilio enjoyed the pleasure of being an occasional guest singer with the world popular band Pink Martini at venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and made other guest appearances with the band in Portland, Seattle, and Montreal. He recorded 'Sing', a duet with China Forbes on the Pink Martini album Splendor in the Grass.
Awards he has received include, The Impact Award 2000 from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, The HOLA Ilka Award in 2005 and in 2009 he and the cast of Sesame Street were present to receive the Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award for Sesame Street's 40 years on the air. October 15, 2019 he was honored by New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaiming October 15, 2019 as Emilio Delgado Day in New York City, taking place at Gracie Mansion in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
He has contributed his time to organizations such as the United Farm Workers, Head Start, The 52nd Street Project and Project Sunshine.
On December 10, 2020, Delgado was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He passed away from the disease on March 10, 2022 at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife Carole and his two children.- Actress
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Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She came to recognition portraying Vicky Hudson and Marley Love in the soap opera Another World (1964), which won her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She came to mainstream prominence in the late 1990s with roles in the crime drama film Donnie Brasco (1997), the disaster film Volcano (1997), the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), the action comedy film Six Days Seven Nights (1998), and the drama-thriller film Return to Paradise (1998).- Tony Sirico was born in New York City on July 29, 1942 to a family of Italian descent. He grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush and Bensonhurst. His brother, Father Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Institute has been described as an "American research and educational institution, or think tank," in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles."
Sirico was convicted of several crimes and was arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting. On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion, and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing.
Tony Sirico died on July 8, 2022, from undisclosed causes, aged 79. - John Aniston was born on 24 July 1933 in Crete, Greece. He was an actor, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), Search for Tomorrow (1951) and Journeyman (2007). He was married to Sherry Rooney and Nancy Dow. He died on 11 November 2022 in the USA.
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Nichelle Nichols was one of 10 children born to parents Lishia and Samuel Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. She was a singer and dancer before turning to acting and finding fame in her groundbreaking role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek (1966) series.
As long as she could remember, she wanted to do nothing but sing, dance, act and write despite no one else in her family following any of those tracks; although her father could tap dance. He not only became mayor of their town, Robbins, IL, but also a magistrate. On stage, Nichelle was twice nominated for the Sarah Siddons Award as Best Actress of the Year; while on film she danced with Sammy Davis, Jr. in Porgy and Bess, and opposite James Garner in Mister Budwing (1965). In a complete changearound soon after the Star Trek television series came to an end, she played a blousey madam, then co-starred with Lynn Redgrave n Antony and Cleopatra. She was been married twice and had a son, Kyle Johnson, from her first marriage to a tap dancer.- Lenny von Dohlen was born in Augusta, Georgia. As a child, he wished to become a jockey, but grew too tall for his dream. He graduated from the University of Texas/Austin and majored in drama at Loretto Heights College.
His film debut was in the Academy Award-winning Tender Mercies (1983), starring Robert Duvall, written by Horton Foote and directed by Bruce Beresford. From that performance, he was given the leading role in MGM/UA's Electric Dreams (1984). Other starring roles quickly followed: Under the Biltmore Clock (1984), Blind Vision (1992), Jennifer 8 (1992), Edward Zwick's Leaving Normal (1992), David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and the title role in Billy Galvin (1986), opposite Karl Malden.
In a career known for depth, diversity and mostly dramatic roles, Lenny Von Dohlen shook things up hilariously when he played one of the bumbling bad guys in Twentieth Century Fox's Home Alone 3 (1997). This came on the heels of a string of amazingly complex roles in highly regarded independent films such as Tollbooth (1994), Bird of Prey (1995), One Good Turn (1996), Entertaining Angels (1998), Cadillac (1997) and Breaking News (1994).
Von Dohlen made an auspicious television debut in the Emmy Award-winning Kent State: The Day the War Came Home (2000), and has appeared in some of television's most highly regarded shows, such as Thirtysomething (1987), Picket Fences (1992), Chicago Hope (1994), The Lazarus Man (1996), The Pretender (1996), CSI: Miami (2002) and "ABC Afternoon Specials" (1972) {Don't Touch}_ , directed by Beau Bridges. However, he is probably best known for having created the agoraphobic orchid-growing "Harold Smith" in David Lynch's cutting-edge series Twin Peaks (1990). Most recently, he appeared in Masterpiece Theatre's presentation of Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart" on PBS. Above all, the theater is his first love. In New York, he created roles in "Asian Shade", "The Team", "Twister" and "Vanishing Act" and "The Maderati", both by Richard Greenberg. For nine months, he starred in Carol Churchill's hit play "Cloud 9", directed by Tommy Tune, followed by The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of "Desire Under The Elms", opposite Kathy Baker. He has starred in "Hamlet", "Romeo and Juliet", Joe Orton's "Loot", Wedekind's and Lanford Wilson's one-man play "A Poster of the Cosmos". On the West Coast, Mr. Von Dohlen has been see in Wedekind's "Lulu" at the La Jolla Playhouse, "The Blue Room" at the Pasadena Playhouse, in "Theater Distric" at the Black Dahlia Theater, and at the Theater & Boston Court played "Voltaire" in the much acclaimed World Premier of Jean Claude van Italie's "Light" garnering the Los Angeles Critics Circle and Ovation Best Actor Award nominations. Von Dohlen resided in New York and Los Angeles.
On 2022, von Dohlen died after struggling against an undisclosed long illness. He was 63. - Actor
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Ron Masak (MAY-SACK) was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a salesman/musician (Floyd Lewis Masak, of Bohemian Czech descent), and a mother (Mildred Alice Rudy, of Irish descent), who was a merchandise buyer. Ron attended Chicago City College, and studied theater at both the CCC and the Drama Guild. He made his acting debut with the Drama Guild in Chicago in Stalag 17 in 1954.
During the course of his career, he starred in 25 feature films and guest starred in some 350 television shows. Perhaps the most beloved character was that of Sheriff Mort Metzger on Murder, She Wrote (1984). He was seen and heard in hundred of television and radio commercials. He was nicknamed the "King of Commercials" by columnist James Bacon.
Trained in the classics, he proved to be equally at home on stage or screen with Shakespeare or slapstick. He played everything from Stanley Kowalski in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and Sakini in 'Teahouse of the August Moon' to Will Stockdale in 'No Time For Sergeants', and Antony in 'Julius Caesar'. As further proof of his versatility, in one production of 'Mr. Roberts', he played Ensign Pulver, and, in another production, he portrayed the title character himself.
In his hometown of Chicago, he was resident leading man at The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse from 1962 to 1966, never missing a single performance. The U.S. Army provided Masak with a platform from which to display his all-around talents for performing, writing and directing. In 1960-61, he toured the world doing vocal impressions in the all-Army show entitled 'Rolling Along' and never missed a show.
Masak continued to demonstrate his range of talent in such films as Ice Station Zebra, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, Tora! Tora! Tora!, A Time For Dying, Harper Valley PTA, Cops & Roberts and The Man From Clover Grove. It was during Clover Grove that Ron added credits as a lyric writer, as he wrote and sang the title song. He played his first big screen villain starring in No Code of Conduct. Among his many television roles, he starred as Charley Wilson on Love Thy Neighbor, as Count Dracula on The Monkees, and was submitted for an Emmy nomination for one of his ten appearances on Police Story. He was seen on Magnum P.I., Webster, The Law and Harry McGraw, and Columbo. His movies of the week include The Neighborhood, In the Glitter Palace, Pleasure Cove, Once An Eagle, and Nightmare in Chicago.
His variety work included emceeing hundreds of shows for, among others, Kenny Rogers, Diahann Carroll, Alabama, Billy Crystal, The Steve Garvey Classics, Tony Orlando, The Lennon Sisters, Trini Lopez, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Connie Stevens, as well as the Michael Landon Classics and the Beau Bridges Classics.
Masak starred in Second Effort (with Vince Lombardi), Time Management (with James Whitmore), How to Control Your Time (with Burgess Meredith), and Ya Gotta Believe (with Tommy Lasorda, which Masak wrote and directed). He was a sought-after motivational speaker. He traveled across the USA as spokesman for a major brewing company and for 15 years was the voice of the Vlasic Pickle stork. Masak played Lou Costello in commercials for Bran News, McDonald's, and Tropicana Orange Juice. Frequently seen on the talk and game show circuit, he was a celebrity panelist on such game shows as Password, Tattletales, Crosswits, Liar's Club, Showoffs and Match Game. He was a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth.
He devoted his time and energy working with many charities. For eight years, he was the LA host for the Jerry Lewis Telethon and recipient of MDA's first Humanitarian of the Year Award. He served as field announcer for the Special Olympics in support of Special needs children, and was named Man of the Year by Volunteers Assisting Cancer Stricken Families. In addition, he contributed time to work with Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, and Breast Cancer awareness groups and hosted charity golf tournaments for among others, Childhelp USA, for whom he was a worldwide ambassador.
He and his wife Kay had six children and ten grandchildren.- Actor
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After decades in show business, character actor Conrad Janis came to prominence as Mindy's father on TV's Mork & Mindy (1978). Manhattan-born Janis was the son of renowned art dealer and clothing manufacturer Sidney Janis (1986-1989), and his wife Harriet (Grossman), who wrote books about jazz. He began acting as a 13 year old with a travelling stock company. Subsequently working as a radio actor, he went on to provide assorted voices, ranging from teens to middle aged men. He also had a small role in the 1945 Broadway play Dark of the Moon which was noticed by a Hollywood talent scout and paved the way to some freelance work in motion pictures, where he was featured as juvenile leads. In the early 50s, Janis segued into television while pursuing a separate career as a jazz trombonist, inspired by the music of Kid Ory. Having perfected his skills by studying under Cab Calloway alumni Tyree Glenn and Herbie Nichols, Janis fronted his own Dixieland/trad combo (Conrad Janis and His Tailgate Five) in the early 50s. By the late '70s, he had formed the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band which performed in many festivals and was often showcased on David Letterman's and Johnny Carson's late shows.
Janis acted in anthology TV dramas from as early as 1950, according to his account ultimately racking up some 700 appearances (many of them not recorded or otherwise lost to posterity). He toiled away in fairly minor parts until his breakout role as music store owner Fred McConnell in Mork & Mindy. In addition to numerous guest appearances, the balding Janis was also seen as a regular in the short-lived sitcom Quark (1977) (as philistine bureaucrat Otto Bob Palindrome) and in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Frasier (1993). True to his roots, he remained involved with the art world and with music education throughout his life.- Actor
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Ted White was born on 25 January 1926 in Krebs, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Starman (1984), Romancing the Stone (1984) and Escape from New York (1981). He was married to Jerilyn White. He died on 14 October 2022 in California, USA.- Actor
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Houston-born Mark Miller came to Hollywood after studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After his graduation in 1952, he began appearing in plays and made his professional debut in a Rhode Island production of The Philadelphia Story. His friendship with playwright William Inge resulted in Miller getting the lead role in Bus Stop (played by Don Murray in the film version) and as Joan Blondell's son-in-law, touring the U.S. and Canada in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. The tour concluded its run at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. While there, Miller was approached by Desi Arnaz and offered double his current salary to star (without auditioning!) in Guestward Ho! (1960), a Desilu-produced sitcom. The show was axed after a single season but it effectively launched Miller's career as a sought-after TV leading man and supporting actor. Arguably, he is best remembered as English college professor Jim Nash in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965), a sitcom which revolved around the often shambolic life of a high maintenance suburban family (including a huge sheepdog) who dwell in a quaint turreted mansion. It co-starred the charming Pat Crowley as Nash's housework-hating, accident-prone newspaper columnist wife. Miller appeared as a guest star in many other prime time series, including Gunsmoke (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Invaders (1967), I Dream of Jeannie (1965), The Name of the Game (1968) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972).
Miller segued into writing TV scripts from 1966 and also co-wrote the screenplay for the Keanu Reeves rom-com A Walk in the Clouds (1995). In 2010, he authored the romantic comedy play Amorous Crossings. Starring Loretta Swit (of M*A*S*H (1972) fame), it had a four-week run at the Alhambra Theater in Jacksonville, Florida, performing to packed audiences. A reviewer described Amorous Crossings as a nostalgic 'throwback' -- akin to a 1930s screwball comedy-- and lauded it as "cleverly written, skillfully acted".
Miller's first wife, Beatrice Miller, was a former costume designer, LA Times journalist, M-G-M publicist and editor for Harper's Bazaar. In 1986, she became a certified Yoga instructor. Their union produced three daughters, all actresses and/or models: Penelope Ann Miller, Marisa Miller and Savannah Miller. His second wife (also divorced) was the television actress Barbara Stanger.- Actor
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Clarence Gilyard Jr. was born on 24 December 1955 in Moses Lake, Washington, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Die Hard (1988), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) and Top Gun (1986). He was married to Elena Castillo and Catherine Dutko. He died on 28 November 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Actress
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Barbara Bosson, who earned an Emmy Award nomination for her performance on Murder One (1995), was raised in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, a small coal-mining town about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. When she was a teenager, she and her family moved to Florida, where she attended Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport. After graduation, she was accepted into the Drama Department of Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon). When Bosson learned the tuition would be too great a burden on her parents, she instead moved to New York. She supported herself in a variety of jobs -- secretary, television production assistant, Playboy Bunny, etc. -- while studying acting with Milton Katselas and Herbert Berghof, and musical comedy with Word Baker. Six years later, Bosson reevaluated her prospects while working as a secretary for ACT (the American Conservatory Theater). She spoke frequently with various drama department heads, including Earl Gister, head of Carnegie Tech's Drama Department. Deciding it wasn't too late to pursue her dream, she asked Gister for an audition. He agreed. Bosson can't remember her audition, but it convinced Gister to place her in the school and to assist her in finding scholarship money. So, at 26, she became Carnegie Tech's oldest freshman. While attending Carnegie Tech, Bosson met her future husband, Steven Bochco (whom she would not marry until years later), and fellow Hill Street Blues (1981) stars Bruce Weitz and Charles Haid. On a summer break from Carnegie Tech, she landed a job in San Francisco with the improvisational group, "The Committee". With Gister's blessing, she stayed with the group and performed with them for three years. Bosson is a five-time Emmy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series for her portrayal of "Fay Furillo" in the Emmy Award-winning series, Hill Street Blues (1981). An innovative cook, Bosson raises her own herbs and vegetables. She enjoys skiing, doing crossword puzzles and dancing. Bosson also hates dieting, which she has done unsuccessfully for 25 years. Bosson and Steven Bochco have two children and reside in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Adam Rich was born on 12 October 1968 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Code Red (1981), Eight Is Enough (1977) and Dungeons & Dragons (1983). He died on 8 January 2023 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Gregory Itzin, accomplished stage, film and television actor, was perhaps best known for his Emmy Award-nominated performance for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series as Pres. Charles Logan on 24. Born in Washington, D.C. to parents Evelyn Loretta Itzin and Martin Joseph Itzin, he and his family moved to Burlington, Wisconsin at a young age, where is father became mayor. He studied and trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, intending to become a stage actor.
Itzin's film credits most notably include the roles of John Archibald Campbell opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln" for director Steven Spielberg; Jack Stern in "The Ides of March" opposite Ryan Gosling and George Clooney, also directed by Clooney; Warden Iger opposite Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler in "Law Abiding Citizen" for director F. Gary Gray; his comedic portrayal of Flemming Steel opposite Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds in "The Change-Up" for director David Dobkin, and his memorable scene opposite Johnny Depp in "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" for director Terry Gilliam.
In addition to his stand-out performance in 24, his television credits range from recurring roles on "Friends", "Murder One", "The Mentalist", "Desperate Housewives", "Covert Affairs" and "Mob City" to "Big Love", "The Practice" and "Boston Legal". Known as a frequent "Star Trek" actor, Itzin appeared as five different characters in "Star Trek: Enterprise", "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" and "Star Trek: Voyager". He was hired repeatedly by such highly esteemed producer-directors as David E. Kelley, John Wells, Steven Bochco, David Milch, Rick Berman and Michael Piller -- a testament to his praiseworthy performances.
With the ongoing roles on television and appearances in dozens of films, Itzin's love for the stage never waned. He was nominated for both Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Kentucky Cycle" (which he performed in the world premiere at the Intiman Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center and on Broadway). He was a proud member of the Antaeus Theater Company. In 2010, he won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for his portrayal of Earl of Kent in their production of "King Lear". Also a member of The Matrix Theatre Company, he won several L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards: for his portrayal of Vladimir in "Waiting For Godot", McCann in "The Birthday Party" and Lenny in "The Homecoming" (the last two by Harold Pinter). Itzin also lent his voice to many radio plays for LA Theatre Works, including "Arcadia", "Enron", "Oedipus The King", "Incident At Vichy", "Boats on a River", "Saint Joan" and most recently Comte de Guiche in "Cyrano De Bergerac".
Itzin was married to his wife Judith from 1979 until his death in 2022; they had two children, son Wilke (also an actor) and daughter Julia. Gregory and Judith were the proud grandparents of Wylder Itzin, son of Wilke and Talia Itzin. - Actress
Eileen Ryan was born on 16 October 1927 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Feast (2005), Parenthood (1989) and Eight Legged Freaks (2002). She was married to Leo Penn. She died on 9 October 2022 in Malibu, California, USA.- Actor
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- Editor
Austin Majors was a scholar as well as an actor, skipping a grade, and getting high marks in all subjects. Majors graduated second in his high school class in 2013. He later studied at the University of Southern California in the School of Cinematic Arts, majoring in Film and Television Production, minoring in Music Industry. Majors was a brother of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. An avid outdoorsman, hes was a junior assistant Scoutmaster in Boy Scouts. He has earned scouting's highest rank, obtaining the honor of Eagle Scout at the age of fourteen. Majors liked helping others and lent his support to a variety of charitable causes including Kids with a Cause, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Jonathan Jaques Childrens Cancer Center. When not in front of the camera, he enjoyed making films of his own, backpacking, riding horses, attending concerts, traveling and playing sports. Majors received the Young Artists Award for Best Performance in a Television Series for his compelling work on NYPD Blue. His work on Treasure Planet earned him another nomination for Best Performance in a Voice Over Role.- Actor
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Cody Longo was an American actor and musician. The early stages of his career began onstage before eventually moving to Los Angeles to pursue film and television. He studied psychology and film at UCLA.
Cody had various film and television roles since he started his professional career in 2009. He was a singer/songwriter who broke into the Billboard Top 100 charts in 2014 with his song "She Said", which charted #3 along with his debut album. He was a music supervisor and executive producer on various film and television projects. He had his hand in charities and pushed to keep both art programs in schools domestically, and continue to help build housings that provides schooling for children around the world. He headed his own non-profit LiveAlive, and was heavily involved with Make a Wish foundation and Pencils of Promise.
Cody relocated to Nashville, Tennessee to write and produce music. He co-founded and served as chief music executive officer of Circle 11 Entertainment, a company that would help create and mold up-and-coming talent. He was poised to return to acting in 2023 before his untimely death.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
Olivia Newton-John was an English singer and actress who was born on September 26, 1948, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. In 1954, her family relocated to Australia when her father was offered a job as the dean of a Presbyterian college in Melbourne. After winning a singing talent contest, she returned to England with her mother, where she resided until 1975. Her many hit singles include, "You're The One That I Want" from the movie Grease (1978), which she starred in with John Travolta. She appeared on the TV series, It's Cliff Richard (1970), as well as in the film Toomorrow (1970). For several years, she was engaged to Bruce Welch, a founding member of The Shadows, which included Cliff Richard. Welch was one of the producers of her first international hit, "If Not For You".- Actor
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Kevin Conroy was born on November 30, 1955 in Westbury, New York. At age 17, Kevin earned a full scholarship to attend Juilliard's drama division, where he studied under actor John Houseman. In 1978, after graduating from Juilliard, he toured with "The Acting Company", Houseman's acting group, and in 1979, he went on the national tour of "Deathtrap". In 1980, he was cast in the daytime soap opera Another World (1964). However, he soon missed the theatre, and so he became associated with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, where he performed in "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". From 1980 to 1985, he acted in a variety of contemporary and classic theatre pieces, including the Broadway production of "Eastern Standard" and "Lolita". He is very respected in theatre circles for his interpretation of Shakespearean characters, and in 1984, he played the title role in "Hamlet" in the New York Shakespeare Festival. Kevin returned to television in the television movie Covenant (1985). He was a series regular on Ohara (1987) in 1987, and on Tour of Duty (1987) from 1987 to 1988, before starring in a series of television movies. He is best known for providing the title role in the animated Batman: The Animated Series (1992) series.- Actress
- Editorial Department
- Soundtrack
Actress and entertainer Pat Carroll played everything from chatterbox wives to wicked stepsisters on TV, and from Gertrude Stein to Shakespeare's Falstaff on stage. Even at 80 plus, the plucky comedienne showed no sign of stopping any time The riotous Pat Carroll was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1927, the daughter of Angela (Meagher) and Maurice Clifton Carroll. Her family moved to Los Angeles when Pat was five, and there began performing in local stage productions. She graduated from Hollywood's Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls Catholic school, then attended Immaculate College, also in Los Angeles, and Catholic University of America.
Following her college graduation, she began performing comedy in nightclubs and gained early experience with appearances in resort areas. Her stage debut in 1947 with a role in "The Goose and the Gander" starring Gloria Swanson led to hundreds of stock roles. She made her off-Broadway debut in the play "Come What May" in 1950. Also a talented singer, she earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway work in the singing revue "Catch a Star" in 1955, and then enjoyed a number of brash showcases in such musicals as "On the Town," "Once Upon a Mattress" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".
It was, however, the "golden age" of TV that truly took advantage of Pat's adroit talents. An initial "second banana" regular on the variety programs The Red Buttons Show (1952) and The Saturday Night Revue (1953), she copped an Emmy award for her work on Caesar's Hour (1954) as Howard Morris' wife and earned fine reviews from her recurring role on the sitcom The Danny Thomas Show (1953) playing Bunny Halper, the pert and plucky wife of Danny Thomas' nightclub manager Charlie Halper (Sid Melton).
Pat's down-to-earth demeanor, chummy disposition and hearty, infectious laugh made her a popular guest on all the major talkfests and a welcomed panelist on such game shows as "You Don't Say," "To Tell the Truth," "I've Got a Secret" and "Password". In 1965, she co-starred on TV as one of the wicked stepsisters in the endearing Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Cinderella (1965), which starred Lesley Ann Warren as the princess-to-be. In later years she won recurring/regular roles on the last season of Too Close for Comfort (1980) [retitled in 1986 as "The Ted Knight Show"] and the Suzanne Somers' sitcom She's the Sheriff (1987).
As a character actress, the cropped-blond comedienne never made much of a dent in film, which included supporting roles in With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) with Doris Day and The Brothers O'Toole (1973) with John Astin. In the late 1970s her career received a huge shot in the arm with the award-winning, one-woman show "Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein", which she also produced and won multiple theater awards, including the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk trophies. A complete departure from her usual comedy antics, audiences saw a burgeoning dramatic actress in the making. Taking the show on the road for four years, she also won a Grammy for her recorded version of the performance in 1981. She then returned to Broadway after thirty years to appear in the play "Dancing in the End Zone" (1985).
Pat surprised her fans by continuing vigorously in this vein. She began taking on Shakespearean roles and earning critical acclaim. For her interpretations of Sir John Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" she won bookend Helen Hayes awards. A life member of The Actors Studio, other challenging stage roles over the years have included Volpone, Mother Courage (another Helen Hayes award), the Stage Manager in "Our Town" and the Chorus in a Broadway revival of "Electra".
Still interested in tickling the funny bone on occasion, she performed in a number of adaptations of the wacky musical comedy "Nunsense" playing the Reverend Mother. If this weren't enough, she extended herself into directing, helming a musical version of "Alice in Wonderland" for The Kennedy Center, as well as productions of "Private Lives and "The Supporting Cast".
With the late 1980s, Pat became a voice-over favorite on numerous animated programs -- notably for Disney as the sea witch Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989) and other voices in A Goofy Movie (1995). Into the millennium, the feisty character lady still gave voice life to many Disney related characters and in video games and special projects. Some elderly film work includes Outside Sales (2006), Freedom Writers (2007), Nancy Drew (2007), Bridesmaids (2011) and BFFs (2014). She also guested on the drama series ER (1994) and provided the voice of Old Lady Crowley in the Disney TV animated series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (2017).
She had three children (oldest son Sean and daughters Kerry and Tara) by late husband Lee Karsian, a one-time manager and talent agent. Tara Karsian is a character actress from stage, film and TV. Kerry Karsian is a casting director.- Producer
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At the tender age of 15, Gilbert Gottfried began doing stand-up at open mike nights in New York City and, after a few short years, became known around town as "the comedian's comedian". After spending several years mastering the art of stand-up comedy, producers of the legendary NBC late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live (1975) became aware of Gottfried and, in 1980, hired him as a cast member. It was not until a few years later that his notoriety began after MTV hired him for a series of improvised and hilarious promos for the newly formed channel. This led to several television appearances on The Cosby Show (1984).
Gottfried's work in television soon led to roles in film. Most notable was his improvised scene as business manager "Sidney Bernstein" in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). The New York Daily News critic wrote that "Gilbert Gottfried steals the picture with a single scene". Aside from his glowing reputation in comedy clubs, Gottfried gained a reputation as the king of quirky roles in both movies and television. He appeared in such movies as Problem Child (1990), Problem Child 2 (1991), Look Who's Talking Too (1990), and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990). He was also the host of the very popular late night movie series Up All Night (1989).
After his performance as the wise cracking parrot "Iago" in the Disney classic Aladdin (1992), Gottfried became one of the most recognizable voice-over talents. His signature voice was heard in several commercials, cartoons and movies, including the frustrated duck in the AFLAC Insurance commercials. Gottfried was the voice of Digit in the long-running PBS series Cyberchase (2002).
Gottfried was a regular on the new Hollywood Squares (1998) and was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) and Howard Stern on Demand (2005). He appeared in the hit comedy documentary The Aristocrats (2005), with Entertainment Weekly opining that, "out of the 101 comedians who appear on screen, no one is funnier - or more disgusting - than Gilbert Gottfried".
"Gilbert Gottfried Dirty Jokes" was recently released on both DVD and CD, featuring 50 non-stop minutes of Gottfried telling the funniest and filthiest jokes, ever. The show was filmed live at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City. Also featured on the DVD are some of the funniest bonus features ever, including wild stories, indignant ranting and celebrity impressions. For this live performance, Gottfried put aside political correctness and fires an onslaught of jokes that know no boundaries. At the end of the show, Gottfried told what is known among comedians as the "Dirtiest Joke of All Time", the basis for The Aristocrats (2005). He was one of the most sought-after comedians, and regularly performed live to sold-out audiences across North America.
Gottfried died of ventricular tachycardia at the age of 67, leaving behind his wife, his two children, and his sister, Karen.- Estelle Harris was an American actress and comedienne, known for her exaggerated shrill and grating comedic voice. She often worked as a voice actress in animation, voicing supporting characters and guest stars. Her best known roles are the obnoxious mother Estelle Costanza in the sitcom "Seinfeld" (1989-1998) and the sweet wife Mrs. Potato Head in the "Toy Story" film series.
Harris was born Estelle Nussbaum in 1928 in Manhattan, New York City. Her parents were Isaac "Ira" Nussbaum and his wife Anna (Stern), first-generation Jewish emigrants from Poland. Her parents owned a candy store in New York City. In 1935, the Nussbaum family moved to Tarentum, Pennsylvania, an industrial town primarily known for production of bottles. Ira had accepted a job offer from relatives who had already settled in Tarentum.
Harris was primarily raised in Tarentum, and graduated from the local high school. Relatively little is known for her life in early adulthood. In 1952, Estelle started dating Sy Harris, a window treatment salesman. They were married in early 1953, despite knowing each other for only 6 months at that point. Between 1957 and 1964, Harris gave birth to three children (two sons and a daughter). She was primarily a housewife until her children were old enough to attend school.
Harris aspired to an acting career, but started out in amateur productions. She eventually had roles in dinner theater, and found some success when cast in various television commercials. At one point she filmed 23 different commercials in a single year. In 1984, Harris had a small role in the crime film "Once Upon a Time in America", which primarily depicted the lives of Jewish-American gangsters.
In 1985, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Easy Mary in the sitcom "Night Court" (1984-1992). The sitcom focused on eccentric characters interacting with the night shift staff of a Manhattan municipal court. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Harris was frequently cast in guest-star roles in various then-popular series, such as "Married... with Children" and "Mad About You".
Harris' big break came in 1992 when cast in "Seinfield" as Estelle Costanza, the overbearing mother of neurotic character George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander). The character spend most of her screen-time in berating her son, belittling anything which her son cared about, arguing with her husband, and maintaining hostile relations with nearly everyone who she interacted with. She became one of the series' most prominent supporting characters, allowing Harris to become a household name.
By 1995, Harris had started voicing characters in animated television series. Among her earliest prominent roles in the medium was voicing Timon's mother in the comedy series "Timon & Pumbaa" (1994-1999), which was a spin-off of "The Lion King". In 1996, Harris had a guest-star role in the science fiction series "Star Trek: Voyager", as an unnamed elder of the Nechani tribe. Her role was to guide protagonist Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) through a tribal ritual which would heal Janeway's friend Kes (played by Jennifer Lien).
In 1998, Harris was cast as Grandmama Delilah Addams in the television film "Addams Family Reunion", the paternal grandmother of Gomez and Fester Addams. The film was based on the comic strip "Addams Family" (1938-1964) by Charles Addams, which had many other adaptations. In the film, Delilah suffers from Walthzheimer's disease, a condition which turns aging people into unnaturally "pleasant" versions of themselves. The rest of the Addams family is horrified by Delilah's fate.
In 1999, Harris was cast as Mrs. Potato Head in the computer-animated film "Toy Story 2". The character was depicted as the sweet and loving wife of Mr. Potato Head (voiced Don Rickles). Her personality was intended to contrast with the hot-headed and pessimistic behavior of her husband. The film was a box office hit. Harris would resume this role in the sequels "Toy Story 3" (2010) and "Toy Story 4" (2019), which were also commercially successful.
In 2004, Harris voiced the nervous hen Audrey in the Western comedy film "Home on the Range". The character was a member of the film's supporting cast and had a tendency to panic when dealing with her fear of abandonment. This animated film under performed at the box office, convincing Disney to cease producing traditionally animated films.
Also in 2004, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Mrs. Lipsky in the comedy adventure television series "Kim Possible". Her character was depicted as the overly-affectionate mother of the super-villain Dr. Drakken/Drew Theodore P. Lipsky, who still treated him as her baby boy and unwittingly interfered with his plans. Harris was also cast in a recurring role in the fantasy television series "Dave the Barbarian", as Lula the sentient enchanted sword.
In 2005, Harris voiced the antagonist Mama Gunda in the animated film "Tarzan II". The character was a female gorilla who used her own sons in a scheme to gain political power, but reforms after falling in love with a new mate. The film was one of the few Disney films were the antagonists find redemption.
Also in 2005, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Muriel in the live-action sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005). Her character was an elderly hotel maid, whose greed, laziness, and irritability were recurring plot points. In her last appearance on the show Muriel was "fired" by her boss, who failed to realize that Muriel had already retired and was no longer in his payroll.
Harris had relatively few new roles during the 2010s. Her most prominent recurring role at that time was the benevolent ghost Peg-Leg Peg in the fantasy series Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011), a spin-off of Peter Pan. She died in 2022, a year after husband Sy. Harris is fondly remembered for the many recurring characters which she has played or voiced, and is regarded as a veteran of the animation industry. - Actor
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Stuart Margolin, the Emmy Award-winning actor and director, was born in Davenport, Iowa. He won two Best Supporting Actor Emmies playing James Garner's former cell-mate "Angel" Martin in The Rockford Files (1974).
Margolin made his debut in The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) before becoming a series regular on Ensign O'Toole (1962) the following year. His acting career has now spanned more than 50 years.
Most of Margolin's work has been on television, where he also has worked as a director since he helmed an episode of Love, American Style (1969) in 1973. He has been directing episodic TV and made-for-TV movies for 37 years. He has been nominated twice for directing Emmies: in 1987 for a Prime Time Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program for The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) and in 1999 and a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special for The Sweetest Gift (1998).- Actress
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A new reigning 1960s international sex symbol took to the cinematic throne as soon as Raquel Welch emerged from the sea in her purposely depleted, furry prehistoric bikini. Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, captured the hearts and libidos of modern men (not to mention their teenage sons) while producing THE most definitive and best-selling pin-up poster of that time.
She was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, the first of three children of Bolivian-born Armando Carlos Tejada, an aerospace engineer, and his wife, Josephine Sarah (Hall). The family moved to San Diego, California (her father was transferred) when Raquel was only two. Taking dance lessons as a youngster, she grew up to be quite a knockout and nailed a number of teen beauty titles ("Miss Photogenic," "Miss La Jolla," "Miss Contour," "Miss Fairest of the Fair" and "Miss San Diego").
With her sights set on theater arts, she studied at San Diego State College on a scholarship starting in 1958 and married her first husband, high school sweetheart James Welch, the following year. They had two children: Damon Welch (born 1959), who later became an actor/production assistant, and actress Tahnee Welch (born 1961). Tahnee went on to take advantage of her own stunning looks as an actress, most notably with her prime role in Cocoon (1985).
Off campus, she became a local TV weather girl in San Diego and eventually quit college. Following the end of her marriage in 1962 (although Raquel and James Welch didn't divorce until 1964), she packed up her two children and moved to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman-Marcus and worked as a barmaid for a time.
Regrouping, she returned to California and made the rounds of film/TV auditions. She found work providing minor but sexy set decoration on the small screen (Bewitched (1964), McHale's Navy (1962) and The Virginian (1962)) as well as the large screen (Elvis Presley's Roustabout (1964) and Doris Day's Do Not Disturb (1965)). Caught in the midst of the "beach party" craze, it's not surprising to find out that her first major film role was A Swingin' Summer (1965), which concentrated more on musical guests The Righteous Brothers and Gary Lewis & The Playboys than on Welch's outstanding assets. But 20th Century-Fox certainly took notice and signed her up.
With her very first film under contract (actually, she was on loan out to Britain's Hammer Studios at the time), she took on One Million Years B.C. (1966) (the remake of One Million B.C. (1940), in the role originated by Carole Landis), and the rest is history. Welch remained an international celebrity in her first few years of stardom. In England, she was quite revealing as the deadly sin representing "lust" for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their vehicle Bedazzled (1967), and as the title secret agent in the spy spoof Fathom (1967). In Italy, she gained some exposure in primarily mediocre vehicles opposite such heartthrobs as Marcello Mastroianni.
Back in the U.S., however, she caused quite a stir in her groundbreaking sex scenes with black athlete Jim Brown in the "spaghetti western" 100 Rifles (1969), and as the transgender title role in the unfathomable Myra Breckinridge (1970). Adapted from Gore Vidal's novel, she created some unwelcome notoriety by locking horns with septuagenarian diva Mae West on the set. The instant cult movie certainly didn't help Welch's attempt at being taking seriously as an actress.
Box office bombs abounded. Try as she might in such films as Kansas City Bomber (1972) and The Wild Party (1975), which drew some good reviews for her, her sexy typecast gave her little room to breathe. With determination, however, she partly offset this with modest supporting roles in larger ensemble pieces. She showed definite spark and won a Golden Globe for the swashbuckler The Three Musketeers (1973), and appeared in the mystery thriller The Last of Sheila (1973). She planned on making a comeback in Cannery Row (1982), even agreeing to appear topless (which she had never done before), but was suddenly fired during production without notice. She sued MGM for breach of contract and ultimately won a $15 million settlement, but it didn't help her film career and only helped to label her as trouble on a set.
TV movies became a positive milieu for Welch as she developed sound vehicles for herself such as The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1980) and Right to Die (1987), earning a Golden Globe nomination for the latter project. She also found a lucrative avenue pitching beauty products in infomercials and developing exercise videos (such as Jane Fonda).
Welch took advantage of her modest singing and dancing abilities by performing in splashy Las Vegas showroom acts and starring in such plausible stage vehicles as "Woman of the Year" and "Victor/Victoria". She spoofed her own image on occasion, most memorably on Seinfeld (1989). Into the millennium, she co-starred in the Hispanic-oriented TV series American Family (2002) and the short-lived comedies Welcome to the Captain (2008) and Date My Dad (2017), along with the movies Tortilla Soup (2001), Legally Blonde (2001), Forget About It (2006) and How to Be a Latin Lover (2017).
Her three subsequent marriages were to producer/agent Patrick Curtis (who produced her TV special, Raquel (1970)), director André Weinfeld (who directed her in several fitness videos), and pizza parlor owner Richie Palmer, who was 14 years her junior. All these unions ended in divorce.
She died at 2:25 a.m. on February 15, 2023, aged 82, at her Los Angeles home after suffering a cardiac arrest. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.- Actor
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Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's most popular comedians who was head of debating society at school and won prizes for his art, is now a film star who played in two James Bond films and in the "Harry Potter" franchise.
Coltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. His mother, Jean Ross (Howie), was a teacher and pianist. His father, Ian Baxter McMillan, was a general surgeon who also worked for police pathology. Young Robbie was fond of art, music, films and cars. He was a voracious reader of his dad's books on medicine and crime. At age 12 he made his acting debut on stage at Glenalmond College, delivering rants from "Henry V". At that time he was fascinated with Marlon Brando and Orson Welles.
He attended Glasgow Art School, majoring in drawing, painting and film, then studied art at Edinburgh's Moray House College of Education for a year. In 1973 he made a documentary titled "Young Mental Health", which was voted Film Of The Year by the Scottish Education Council. At that time Robbie took the name Coltrane, due to his love of jazz, and began a career of a stand-up comedian at night clubs, at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as an actor with Edinburgh's renowned Traverse Theatre.
In 1980 Coltrane made his debut on television as "Border Guard" in BBC's mini-series The Lost Tribe (1980), then made his big screen debut as a limousine driver in Death Watch (1980). In 1981 he appeared in his first leading role as Detective Fritz Langley in Subway Riders (1981), by famed underground director Amos Poe.
He became a well-known face through appearances in The Comic Strip series, then in Alfresco (1983) and Comic Strip movies The Supergrass (1985) and The Pope Must Diet (1991), among other films. At that time Coltrane had a drinking problem, downing as much as a bottle of whiskey a day. In 1986 he flew to a clinic in Mexico and was treated for obesity. In 1987 his partner for 15 years, Robin Paine, left him for good, leaving her portrait in Coltrane's barn.
In 1988 Coltrane met then 18-year-old Rhona Gemmell in a pub. They married and had a son, Spencer, and a daughter, Alice. His career took off during the early 1990s with the leading role as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist, in the popular TV series Cracker (1993).
He made such a good performance as Valentin Zukovsky, a KGB man turned St. Petersburg mafia lord, in GoldenEye (1995) the producers called him back for the same character in The World Is Not Enough (1999). Then Coltrane hit another lucrative franchise; he was personally selected by J.K. Rowling as her choice to play half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' films.
In early 1990s Coltrane wrote an autobiography, "Coltrane in a Cadillac", and also starred in the eponymous TV series, Coltrane in a Cadillac (1993), in which he indulges his passion for vintage cars and tells with great humor about his 4000-mile journey across America from Los Angeles to New York. In 2003 he separated from his wife. His interests outside of his acting profession had been reading books, and rebuilding and collecting vintage cars. Robbie Coltrane resided in a converted farmhouse in Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK.- Actor
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A social misfit, Belzer was kicked out of every school he ever attended, due to his uncontrollable wit. His mother (Frances) died of breast cancer when Richard was 18. Four years later, his father (Charles) committed suicide. A dedication is written to Charles Belzer in Richard Belzer's "UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Believe" (Ballantine Books, 1999).- Actress
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Kirstie Louise Alley was an American actress. Her breakout role was as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987-1993), receiving an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991 for the role. From 1997 to 2000, she starred in the sitcom Veronica's Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.- Mary Alice was born on 3 December 1936 in Indianola, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Awakenings (1990) and Malcolm X (1992). She died on 27 July 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
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A masculine and enigmatic actor whose life and movie career have had more ups and downs than the average rollercoaster and whose selection of roles has arguably derailed him from achieving true superstar status, James Caan is New York-born and bred.
He was born in the Bronx, to Sophie (Falkenstein) and Arthur Caan, Jewish immigrants from Germany. His father was a meat dealer and butcher. The athletically gifted Caan played football at Michigan State University while studying economics, holds a black belt in karate and for several years was even a regular on the rodeo circuit, where he was nicknamed "The Jewish Cowboy". However, while studying at Hofstra University, he became intrigued by acting and was interviewed and accepted at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse. He then won a scholarship to study under acting coach Wynn Handman and began to appear in several off-Broadway productions, including "I Roam" and "Mandingo".
He made his screen debut as a sailor in Irma la Douce (1963) and began to impress audiences with his work in Red Line 7000 (1965) and the western El Dorado (1966) alongside John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Further work followed in Journey to Shiloh (1968) and in the sensitive The Rain People (1969). However, audiences were moved to tears as he put in a heart-rending performance as cancer-stricken Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in the highly rated made-for-TV film Brian's Song (1971).
With these strong performances under his belt, Francis Ford Coppola then cast him as hot-tempered gangster Santino "Sonny" Corleone in the Mafia epic The Godfather (1972). The film was an enormous success, Caan scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination and, in the years since, the role has proven to be the one most fondly remembered by his legion of fans. He reprised the role for several flashback scenes in the sequel The Godfather Part II (1974) and then moved on to several very diverse projects. These included a cop-buddy crime partnership with Alan Arkin in the uneven Freebie and the Bean (1974), a superb performance as a man playing for his life in The Gambler (1974) alongside Lauren Hutton, and pairing with Barbra Streisand in Funny Lady (1975). Two further strong lead roles came up for him in 1975, first as futuristic sports star "Jonathon E" questioning the moral fiber of a sterile society in Rollerball (1975) and teaming up with Robert Duvall in the Sam Peckinpah spy thriller The Killer Elite (1975).
Unfortunately, Caan's rising star sputtered badly at this stage of his career, and several film projects failed to find fire with either critics or audiences. These included such failures as the hokey Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), the quasi-western Comes a Horseman (1978) and the saccharine Chapter Two (1979). However, he did score again with the stylish Michael Mann-directed heist movie Thief (1981). He followed this with a supernatural romantic comedy titled Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) and then, due to personal conflicts, dropped out of the spotlight for several years before returning with a stellar performance under old friend Francis Ford Coppola in the moving Gardens of Stone (1987).
Caan appeared back in favor with fans and critics alike and raised his visibility with the sci-fi hit Alien Nation (1988) and Dick Tracy (1990), then surprised everyone by playing a meek romance novelist held captive after a car accident by a deranged fan in the dynamic Misery (1990). The 1990s were kind to him and he notched up roles as a band leader in For the Boys (1991), another gangster in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), appeared in the indie hit Bottle Rocket (1996) and pursued Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser (1996).
The demand on Caan's talents seems to have increased steadily over the past few years as he is making himself known to a new generation of fans. Recent hot onscreen roles have included The Yards (2000), City of Ghosts (2002) and Dogville (2003). In addition, he finds himself at the helm of the hit TV series Las Vegas (2003) as casino security chief "Big Ed" Deline. An actor of undeniably manly appeal, James Caan continued to surprise and delight audiences with his invigorating performances up until his death in July 2022 at the age of 82.- Actress
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Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar served as Honorary Treasurer of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (term 1915), and Mayor of Poplar (term 1924-1925). He was the second Communist mayor in British history, the first being Joe Vaughan (1878-1938). Lansbury's mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast. During the first five years of Angela's life, the Lansbury family lived in a flat located in Poplar. In 1930, they moved to a house located in the Mill Hill neighborhood of north London. They spend their weekends vacationing in a farm located in Berrick Salome, a village in South Oxfordshire.
In 1935, Edgar Lansbury died from stomach cancer. Angela reportedly retreated into "playing characters", as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss. The widowed Moyna Macgill soon became engaged to Leckie Forbes, a Scottish colonel. Moyna moved into his house in Hampstead.
From 1934 to 1939, Angela was a student at South Hampstead High School. During these years, she became interested in films.. She regularly visited the local cinema, and imagined herself in various roles. Angela learned how to play the piano, and received a musical education at the Ritman School of Dancing.
In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. She made her theatrical debut in the school's production of the play "Mary of Scotland" (1933) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). The play depicted the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587, reigned 1542-1567), and Lansbury played one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting.
Also in 1940, Lansbury's paternal grandfather, George Lansbury, died from stomach cancer. When the Blitz started, Moyna Macgill had reasons to fear for the safety of her family and few remaining ties to England. Macgill moved to the United States to escape the Blitz, taking her three youngest children with her. Isolde was already a married adult, and was left behind in England.
Macgill secured financial sponsorship from American businessman Charles T. Smith. She and her children (including Angela) moved into Smith's house in Mahopac, New York, a hamlet in Putnam County. Lansbury was interested in continuing her studies, and secured a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing. From 1940 to 1942, Lansbury studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, located in New York City. She appeared in performances organized by the school.
In 1942, Lansbury moved with her family to a flat located in Morton Street, Greenwich Village. She soon followed her mother in her theatrical tour of Canada. Lansbury secured her first paying job in Montreal, singing at the nightclub Samovar Club for a payment of 60 dollars per week. Lansbury was 16 years old at the time, but lied about her age and claimed to be 19 in order to be hired.
Lansbury returned to New York City in August, 1942, but Moyna Macgill soon moved herself and her family again. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Moyna was interested in resurrecting her film career. Their first home there was a bungalow in Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills.
Lansbury helped financially support her family by working for the Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles. Her weekly wages were only 28 dollars, but she had a secure income while her mother was unemployed. Through her mother, Lansbury was introduced to screenwriter John Van Druten (1901-1957), who had recently completed his script of "Gaslight" (1944). He suggested that young Lansbury would be perfect for the role of Nancy Oliver, the film's conniving cockney maid. This helped secure Lansbury's first film role at the age of 17, and a seven-year contract with the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She earned 500 dollars per week, and chose to continue using her own name instead of a stage name.
In 1945, Lansbury married actor Richard Cromwell (1910-1960), who was 15 years older than she. The troubled marriage ended in a divorce in 1946. The former spouses remained friends until Cromwell's death.
In 1946, Lansbury started a romantic relationship with aspiring actor Peter Shaw (1918-2003), who was 7 years older than her. Shaw had recently ended his relationship with actress Joan Crawford (c. 1908-1977). The new couple started living together, while planning marriage. They wanted to be married in the United Kingdom, but the Church of England refused to marry two divorcees. They were married in 1949, in a Church of Scotland ceremony at St. Columba's Church, located in Knightsbridge, London. After their return to the United States, they settled into Lansbury's home in Rustic Canyon, Malibu. In 1951, both Lansbury and Shaw became naturalized citizens of the United States, while retaining their British citizenship.
Meanwhile, Lansbury continued appearing in MGM films. She appeared in 11 MGM films between 1945 and 1952. MGM at times loaned Lansbury to other film studios. She appeared in United Artists' "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" (1947), and Paramount Pictures' "Samson and Delilah" (1949). In 1948, Lansbury made her debut in radio roles, followed by her television debut in 1950.
In 1952, Lansbury requested the termination of her contract with MGM, instead of its renewal. She felt unsatisfied with her film career as an MGM contract player. She then joined the East Coast touring productions of two former Broadway plays. By 1953, Lansbury had two children of her own and was also raising a stepson. She and her family moved into a larger house, located on San Vincente Boulevard in Santa Monica. In 1959, she and her family moved into a house in Malibu. The married couple were able to send their children to a local public school.
Meanwhile she continued her film career as a freelance actress, but continued to be cast in middle-aged roles. She regained her A-picture actress through well-received roles in the drama film "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958) and the comedy film "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958). She also appeared regularly in television roles, and became a regular on game show "Pantomime Quiz" (1947-1959).
In 1957, Lansbury made her Broadway debut in a performance of "Hotel Paradiso". The play was an adaptation of the 1894 "L'Hôtel du libre échange" ("Free Exchange Hotel"), written by Maurice Desvallières (1857-1926) and Georges Feydeau (1862-1921). Lansbury's role as "Marcel Cat" was critically well received. She continued appearing in Broadway over the next several years, most notably cast as the verbally abusive mother in "A Taste of Honey". She was cast as the mother of co-star Joan Plowright (1929-), who was only four years younger.
In the early 1960s, Lansbury was cast as an overbearing mother in "Blue Hawaii" (1961). The role of her son was played by Elvis Presley (1935-1977), who was only 10 years than her. The film was a box office hit, it finished as the 10th-top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 on the "Variety" national box office survey. It gained Lansbury renewed fame, at a difficult point of her career.
Lansbury gained critical praise for a sympathetic role in the drama film "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960), and the role of a manipulative mother in the drama film "All Fall Down" (1962). Based on her success in "All Fall Down", she was cast in a similar role in the Cold War-themed thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). She was cast as Eleanor Iselin, the mother of her co-star Laurence Harvey (1928-1973), who was only 3 years younger than she. This turned out to be one of the most memorable roles in her career. She received critical acclaim and was nominated for a third time for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The award was instead won by Patty Duke (1946-2016).
Lansbury made a comeback in the starring role of Mame Dennis in the musical "Mame" (1966), by Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert Edwin Lee (1918-1994). The play was an adaptation of the novel "Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade" (1955) by Patrick Dennis (1921-1976), and focused on the life and ideas of eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis. The musical received critical and popular praise, and Lansbury won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Lansbury gained significant fame from her success, becoming a "superstar".
Her newfound fame led to other high-profile appearances by Lansbury. She starred in a musical performance at the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony, and co-hosted the 1968 Tony Awards. The Hasty Pudding Club, a social club for Harvard students. elected her "Woman of the Year" in 1968.
Lansbury's next theatrical success was in 1969 "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (1945) by Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944). The play concerns an eccentric Parisian woman's struggles with authority figures. Lansbury was cast in the starring role of 75-year-old Countess Aurelia, despite her actual age of 44. The show was well received and lasted for 132 performances. Lansbury won her second Tony Award for this role.
In 1970, Lansbury's Malibu home was destroyed in a brush fire. Lansbury and her husband decided to buy Knockmourne Glebe, an 1820s Irish farmhouse, located near the village of Conna in rural County Cork.
Her film career reached a new height. She was cast in the starring role of benevolent witch Eglantine Price in Disney's fantasy film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971). The film was a box-office hit; it was critically well received, and introduced Lansbury to a wider audience of children and families.
In 1972, Lansbury returned to the British stage, performing in London's West End with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1973, Lansbury appeared in the role of Rose in London performances of the musical "Gypsy" (1959) by Arthur Laurents. It was quite successful. In 1974, "Gypsy" went on tour in the United States. with the same cast. For her role, Lanbury won the Sarah Siddons Award and her third Tony Award. The musical had its second tour in 1975.
Tired from musicals. Lansbury next sought Shakespearean roles in the United Kingdom. From 1975 to 1976, she appeared as Queen Gertrude in the National Theatre Company's production of Hamlet. In November 1975, Lansbury's mother Moyna Macgill died at the age of 79. Lansbury arranged for her mother's remains to be cremated, and the ashes scattered near her own County Cork home.
In 1976, Lansbury returned to the American stage. In 1978, Lansbury temporarily replaced Constance Towers (1933-) in the starring role of Anna Leonowens (1831-1915) in The King and I. While Towers was on a break from the role, Lansbury appeared in 24 performances.
In 1978, Lansbury appeared in her first film role in seven years, as the novelist and murder victim Salome Otterbourne in the mystery film "Death on the Nile" (1978). The film was an adaptation of the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie (1890-1976); Otterbourne was loosely based on real-life novelist Elinor Glyn (1864-1943). The film was a modest box-office hit, and Lansbury befriended her co-star Bette Davis (1908-1989).
In 1979, Lansbury was cast in the role of meat pie seller Mrs. Lovett in the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979), by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler (1912-1987). The musical was loosely based on the penny dreadful serial novel "The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance" (1846-1847), which first depicted fictional serial killer Sweeney Todd. Lansbury remained in the role for 14 months, and was then replaced by Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003). Lansbury won her fourth Tony Award for this role. She returned to the role for 10 months in 1980.
Lansbury's next prominent film role was that of Miss Froy in "The Lady Vanishes" (1979), a remake of the 1938 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). She was next cast in the role of amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple in the mystery film "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980), an adaptation of the novel "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962) by Agatha Christie. The novel was loosely inspired by the life of Gene Tierney (1920-1991). The film was a modest commercial success. There were plans for at least two sequels, but they ended in development hell.
In 1982, Lansbury was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, She appeared at the time in the new play "A Little Family Business" and a revival of "Mame", but both shows were commercial failures. In film, Lansbury voiced the witch Mommy Fortuna in the animated fantasy film "The Last Unicorn" (1982). The film was critically well received, but was not a box-office hit.
Lansbury played Ruth in the musical comedy "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983), a film adaptation of the 1879 comic opera by William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). The film was a box office bomb, earning about 695,000 dollars.
Lansbury's next film role was that of Granny in the gothic fantasy film "The Company of Wolves" (1984), based on a 1979 short story by Angela Carter (1940-1992). Lansbury was cast as the grandmother of protagonist Rosaleen (played by Sarah Patterson), in a tale featuring werewolves and shape-shifting. The film was critically well received, but barely broke even at the box office.
At about that time, Lansbury appeared regularly in television films and mini-series. Her most prominent television role was that of Jessica Fletcher in the detective series "Murder, She Wrote" (1984-1996). Jessica was depicted as a successful mystery novelist from Maine who encounters and solves many murders. The character was considered an American counterpart to Miss Marple. The series followed the "whodunit" format and mostly avoided depictions of violence or gore.
The series was considered a television landmark for having an older female character as the protagonist. It was aimed primarily at middle-aged audiences, but also attracted both younger viewers and senior citizen viewers. Ratings remained high for most of its run. Lansbury rejected pressure from network executives to put her character in a relationship, as she believed that Fletcher should remain a strong single female.
In 1989, Lansbury co-founded the production company Corymore Productions, which started co-producing the television series with Universal Television. This allowed Lansbury to have more creative input on the series. She was appointed an executive producer. By the time the series ended in 1996, it tied with the original "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980) as the longest-running detective drama series in television history.
Her popularity from "Murder, She Wrote" made Lansbury a much-sought figure for advertisers. She appeared in advertisements and infomercials for Bufferin, MasterCard and the Beatrix Potter Company.
Lansbury's highest-profile film role in decades was voicing the character of singing teapot Mrs. Potts in Disney's animated fantasy film "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Lansbury performed the film's title song, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Lansbury lived most of the year in California. In 1991, she had Corymore House, a farmhouse at Ballywilliam, County Cork, built as her new family home. She spend Christmases and summers there.
Following the end of "Murder, She Wrote", Lansbury returned to a career as a theatrical actress. She temporarily retired from the stage in 2001, to take care of her husband Peter Shaw, whose health was failing. Shaw died in 2003, from congestive heart failure at the couple's Brentwood, California home. Their marriage had lasted for 54 years (1949-2003).
Lansbury felt at the time that she could not take on any more major acting roles, but that she could still make cameos. She moved back to New York City in 2006, buying a condominium in Manhattan. Her first prominent film role in years was that of Aunt Adelaide in the fantasy film "Nanny McPhee" (2005). She credits her performance in the film with pulling her out of depression, a state of mind which had lasted since her husband's death.
Lansbury returned to performing on the Broadway stage in 2007, after an absence of 23 years. In 2009, she won her fifth Tony Award. She shared the record for most Tony Award victories with Julie Harris (1925-2013). In the 2010s, she continued regularly appearing in theatrical performances. In 2014, she returned to the London stage, after an absence of nearly 40 years.
In 2015, Lansbury received her first Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress. At age 89, she was among the oldest first-time winners. Also in 2015, November 2015 was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
In 2017, she was cast as Aunt March in the mini-series "Little Women". The mini-series was an adaptation of the 1868-1869 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). The series lasted for 3 episodes, and was critically well received.
In 2018, Lansbury gained her next film role in Disney's fantasy film "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018), a sequel to "Mary Poppins". Lansbury was cast in the role of the Balloon Lady, a kindly old woman who sells balloons at the park. The films was a commercial hit, earning about 350 million dollars at the worldwide box office.
In 2019, Lansbury performed at a one-night benefit staging of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895). a farce satirizing Victorian morals. She was cast in the role of society lady Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen Fairfax.
By 2020, Lansbury was 95 years old, one of the oldest-living actresses. She has never retired from acting, and remains a popular icon.