TCM Remembers 2008
Those performers and filmmakers who were included in TCM Remembers 2008.
The song used in this year's video is "God Only Knows" by Joe Henry. TCM previously used a Joe Henry song ("Flesh and Blood") for their 2005 tribute. This is the first and thus far only time they've used two different songs from the same artist.
The 2008 video was revised once to remove Roberta Collins and replace her with Van Johnson, resulting in backlash from fans and Collins' family. Needless to say TCM has not replaced anyone in future videos.
Notable omissions:
Alexander Courage | Composer
Bill Melendez | Director / Producer / Animator
Harold Pinter (see TCM Remembers 2009 notable omissions)
Robert Prosky | Actor
Alain Robbe-Grillet | Writer / Director
David Watkin | Cinematographer
Actor Sam Bottoms, actress and singer Eartha Kitt, and director Robert Mulligan died too late in December 2008 to be included this year and are instead featured in TCM Remembers 2009.
The song used in this year's video is "God Only Knows" by Joe Henry. TCM previously used a Joe Henry song ("Flesh and Blood") for their 2005 tribute. This is the first and thus far only time they've used two different songs from the same artist.
The 2008 video was revised once to remove Roberta Collins and replace her with Van Johnson, resulting in backlash from fans and Collins' family. Needless to say TCM has not replaced anyone in future videos.
Notable omissions:
Alexander Courage | Composer
Bill Melendez | Director / Producer / Animator
Harold Pinter (see TCM Remembers 2009 notable omissions)
Robert Prosky | Actor
Alain Robbe-Grillet | Writer / Director
David Watkin | Cinematographer
Actor Sam Bottoms, actress and singer Eartha Kitt, and director Robert Mulligan died too late in December 2008 to be included this year and are instead featured in TCM Remembers 2009.
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Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new generation of American movie actors who became stars in the post-World War II era. With fellow post-War stars Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum, Widmark brought a new kind of character to the screen in his character leads and supporting parts: a hard-boiled type who does not actively court the sympathy of the audience. Widmark was not afraid to play deeply troubled, deeply conflicted, or just downright deeply corrupt characters.
After his debut, Widmark would work steadily until he retired at the age of 76 in 1990, primarily as a character lead. His stardom would peak around the time he played the U.S. prosecutor in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as the 1950s segued into the 1960s, but he would continue to act for another 30 years.
Richard Weedt Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, to Ethel Mae (Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. He has said that he loved the movies from his boyhood, claiming, "I've been a movie bug since I was 4. My grandmother used to take me". The teenaged Widmark continued to go to the movies and was thrilled by Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). "I thought Boris Karloff was great", Widmark said. Although he loved the movies and excelled at public speaking while attending high school, Widmark attended Lake Forest College with the idea of becoming a lawyer. However, he won the lead role in a college production of, fittingly enough, the play "Counsellor-at-Law", and the acting bug bit deep. After taking his bachelor of arts degree in 1936, he stayed on at Lake Forest as the Assistant Director of Speech and Drama. However, he soon quit the job and moved to New York to become an actor, and by 1938 he was appearing on radio in "Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories". He made his Broadway debut in 1943 in the play "Kiss and Tell" and continued to appear on stage in roles that were light-years away from the tough cookies he would play in his early movies.
After World War II, he was signed by 20th Century-Fox to a seven-year contract. After seeing his screen test for the role of Tommy Udo, 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that the slight, blonde Widmark - no one's idea of a heavy, particularly after his stage work - be cast as the psychopath in Kiss of Death (1947), which had been prepared as a Victor Mature vehicle. Even though the role was small, Widmark stole the picture. The publicity department at 20th Century-Fox recommended that exhibitors market the film by concentrating on thumping the tub for their new antihero. "Sell Richard Widmark" advised the studio's publicity manual that an alert 20th Century-Fox sent to theater owners. The manual told local exhibitors to engage a job printer to have "wanted" posters featuring Widmark's face printed and pasted up. He won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nod for the part, which led to an early bout with typecasting at the studio. Widmark played psychotics in The Street with No Name (1948) and Road House (1948) and held his own against new Fox superstar Gregory Peck in the William A. Wellman western Yellow Sky (1948), playing the villain, of course. When his pressuring the studio to let him play other parts paid off, his appearance as a sailor in Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) made headlines: Life magazine's March 28, 1949, issue featured a three-page spread of the movie headlined "Widmark the Movie Villain Goes Straight". He was popular, having captured the public imagination, and before the decade was out, his hand- and footprints were immortalized in concrete in the court outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The great director Elia Kazan cast Widmark in his thriller Panic in the Streets (1950), not as the heavy (that role went to Jack Palance) but as the physician who tracks down Palance, who has the plague, in tandem with detective Paul Douglas. Widmark was establishing himself as a real presence in the genre that later would be hailed as film noir. Having proved he could handle other roles, Widmark didn't shy away from playing heavies in quality pictures. The soon-to-be-blacklisted director Jules Dassin cast him in one of his greatest roles, as the penny-ante hustler Harry Fabian in Night and the City (1950). Set in London, Widmark's Fabian manages to survive in the jungle of the English demimonde, but is doomed. Widmark was masterful in conveying the desperation of the criminal seeking to control his own fate but who is damned, and this performance also became an icon of film noir. In that same year, he appeared in Oscar-winning writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's No Way Out (1950) as a bigot who instigates a race riot.
As the 1950s progressed, Widmark played in westerns, military vehicles, and his old stand-by genre, the thriller. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe (this time cast as the psycho) in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and made Pickup on South Street (1953) that same year for director Samuel Fuller. His seven-year contract at Fox was expiring, and Zanuck, who would not renew the deal, cast him in the western Broken Lance (1954) in a decidedly supporting role, billed beneath not only Spencer Tracy but even Robert Wagner and Jean Peters. The film was well respected, and it won an Oscar nomination for best screenplay for the front of Hollywood 10 blacklistee Albert Maltz. Widmark left Fox for the life of a freelance, forming his own company, Heath Productions. He appeared in more westerns, adventures and social dramas and pushed himself as an actor by taking the thankless role of the Dauphin in Otto Preminger's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (1957), a notorious flop that didn't bring anyone any honors, neither Preminger, his leading lady Jean Seberg, nor Widmark. In 1960, he was appearing in another notorious production, John Wayne's ode to suicidal patriotism, The Alamo (1960), with the personally liberal Widmark playing Jim Bowie in support of the very conservative Wayne's Davy Crockett. Along with character actor Chill Wills, Widmark arguably was the best thing in the movie.
In 1961, Widmark acquitted himself quite well as the prosecutor in producer-director Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), appearing with the Oscar-nominated Spencer Tracy and the Oscar-winning Maximilian Schell, as well as with superstar Burt Lancaster and acting genius Montgomery Clift and the legendary Judy Garland (the latter two winning Oscar nods for their small roles). Despite being showcased with all this thespian firepower, Widmark's character proved to be the axis on which the drama turned. A little later, Widmark appeared in two westerns directed by the great John Ford, with co-star James Stewart in Two Rode Together (1961) and as the top star in Ford's apologia for Indian genocide, Cheyenne Autumn (1964). On Two Rode Together (1961), Ford feuded with Jimmy Stewart over his hat. Stewart insisted on wearing the same hat he had for a decade of highly successful westerns that had made him one of the top box office stars of the 1950s. Both he and Widmark were hard-of-hearing (as well as balding and in need of help from the makeup department's wigmakers), so Ford would sit far away from them while directing scenes and then give them directions in a barely audible voice. When neither one of the stars could hear their director, Ford theatrically announced to his crew that after over 40 years in the business, he was reduced to directing two deaf toupees. It was testimony to the stature of both Stewart and Widmark as stars that this was as far as Ford's baiting went, as the great director could be extraordinarily cruel.
Widmark continued to co-star in A-pictures through the 1960s. He capped off the decade with one of his finest performances, as the amoral police detective in Don Siegel's gritty cop melodrama Madigan (1968). With Madigan, one can see Widmark's characters as a progression in the evolution of what would become the late 1960s nihilistic antihero, such as those embodied by Clint Eastwood in Siegel's later Dirty Harry (1971). In the 1970s, he continued to make his mark in movies and, beginning in 1971, in television. In movies, he appeared primarily in supporting roles, albeit in highly billed fashion, in such films as Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), and Stanley Kramer's The Domino Principle (1977). He even came back as a heavy, playing the villainous doctor in Coma (1978).
In 1971, in search of better roles, he turned to television, starring as the President of the U.S. in the TV miniseries Vanished (1971). His performance in the role brought Widmark an Emmy nomination. He resurrected the character of Madigan for NBC in six 90-minute episodes that appeared as part of the rotation of "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" for the fall 1972 season. Widmark was married for 55 years to playwright Jean Hazlewood, from 1942 until her death in 1997 (they had one child, Anne, who was born in 1945). He lived quietly and avoided the press, saying in 1971, "I think a performer should do his work and then shut up". Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas thought that Widmark should have won an Oscar nomination for his turn in When the Legends Die (1972) playing a former rodeo star tutoring Frederic Forrest's character.
It is surprising to think that Kiss of Death (1947) represented his sole Oscar nomination, but with the rise of respect for film noir around the time his career began tapering off in the '70s, he began to be reevaluated as an actor. Unlike Bogart, who did not live to see his reputation flourish after his death, Widmark became a cult figure well before he retired.Actor- Actress
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The scintillating, sultry-eyed blonde (formerly a redhead) star of screen, TV and award-winning stage went on to become best known, however, for her sensual delivery pitching cigars in taunting '60s ads and commercials with her Mae Westian come-on line "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?" This, of course, was at a time when smoking was considered quite sexy and fashionable, and Edie Adams went above and beyond the call of duty in making these ads legendary.
Edie had her hand dipped in all pools of entertainment. She was a singing siren, an award-winning Broadway musical entertainer, a deft impressionist and comedienne, a serious dramatic actress, a commercial saleswoman and a viable TV celebrity. Off-stage, she showed remarkable poise and resourcefulness when her famous first husband, landmark TV comic Ernie Kovacs, was tragically killed in a January 1962 car crash in Los Angeles and she found her family finances in dire straits.
She was born Edith Elizabeth Enke on April 16, 1927, in the relatively small town of Kingston, Pennsylvania, but moved while fairly young to Grove City. Her family relocated again, this time to Tenafly, New Jersey, where she grew up. Following her graduation from high school, Edie aspired to become an opera singer and studied voice and piano at New York's Juilliard School of Music. She then went on to take acting classes at the Columbia School of Drama.
Her theatrical debut occurred with a 1947 production of "Blithe Spirit", and a year later she appeared in the stage show "Goodnight Ladies". Gradually building up her singing reputation via the nightclub circuit, her big break came when Arthur Godfrey booked her on his "Talent Scouts" show. She didn't come out the winner, but a TV director who caught sight of her performance envisioned in her a seductive "straight man" who could mesh well with a certain zany comedian. In 1951, Edie (then known as Edith Adams) was signed up as a featured singer on Ernie Kovacs's comedy show that originated in Philadelphia. The show, live and unrehearsed, became an innovative, groundbreaking effort in the relatively new medium. Outrageous and even incomprehensible at times, his comedy was deemed way ahead of its time and, as a result, had problems reaching mainstream audiences who didn't "get it", and the programs were short-lived. Various Kovacs platforms that included Edie were Ernie in Kovacsland (1951), "Kovacs on the Korner" (1952), and, of course, The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952). She and Kovacs eloped to Mexico City in 1954 and their union produced a daughter, Mia Kovacs. The duo were a popular couple in the Hollywood social circuit (moving there from New York in the late '50s) and the connections she developed out there were quite valuable in furthering her career.
Early '50s TV opened many doors for Edie and she waltzed right through them. Her New York stage debut in the popular musical "Wonderful Town" in 1952 had her walking away with the Theatre World Award for "Best Newcomer". A few years later, she slithered away with a supporting Tony Award for her bodacious take on the "Daisy Mae" character in the musical "Li'l Abner" (1956). Following that were more musical and dramatic ventures on the stage, including "The Merry Widow" (1957) (a show she would return to more than once), "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1960) and "Free as a Bird" (1960). On film, Edie showed the public that she wasn't just a pretty face with her sharply unsympathetic supporting performance in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and a funny, sexier one in the second of Rock Hudson and Doris Day's three battle-of-the-sexes romps, Lover Come Back (1961). Surprisingly, Edie and Ernie never appeared together in a film. Edie remained primarily a TV fixture and, outside of her Emmy-nominated coupling with Kovacs, winningly played the Fairy Godmother in Julie Andrews' popular TV version of Cinderella (1957), appeared regularly with Jack Paar and Dinah Shore on their respective variety shows, acted on various prime-time shows, and graced a number of celebrity game and talk show panels.
One of Edie's last pairings with Kovacs was in 1960 when they appeared as guests on the very last episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957). The pair appeared as themselves, with one of the highlights being Edie crooning the lovely ballad "That's All". Kovacs' sudden 1962 death was a terrible reversal of fortunes for Edie. An inveterate gambler, he left her owing much money to the IRS. Instead of filing bankruptcy, however, she worked her way out of debt. In the process, her career received a second wind. Perhaps it didn't hurt that the public adored Edie and that she was a genuinely sympathetic figure in the wake of her private tragedy.
She returned to the nightclub circuit from whence she came, recorded albums, and also toured the country in various dramatic and musical comedy vehicles, including "Rain" (as Sadie Thompson), "Bells Are Ringing", "Annie Get Your Gun" (as Annie Oakley), "I Do! I Do!", "Anything Goes" and "Bus Stop". She also received outstanding notices in a few of her films, whether dramas (Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), The Best Man (1964)) or frivolous comedies (Call Me Bwana (1963), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), The Honey Pot (1967)). Moreover, she was handed her own musical variety show Here's Edie (1963) (aka "The Edie Adams Show") and received a couple of Emmy nominations for her efforts. She also took advantage of her famous impressions of Zsa Zsa Gabor and others, appearing in various TV comedy formats.
More than anything, however, it was her come-hither temptress pitching Muriel cigars that had TV audiences' tongues wagging. It was a smashingly successful and highly profitable coup for Edie professionally. Her late husband, a notorious cigar smoker, at one time sold Dutch Master cigars on TV. The idea then for Edie to pitch a competing slimmer cigar on TV was only natural. She had much to do with the direction of the commercials, which ran throughout the 1960s, providing them with a perfect blend of class, glamour and sensuality.
While growing noticeably heavier in later years, she never lost her trademark humor and sex appeal. Edie could still be seen from time to time on the stage in such shows as "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", the female version of "The Odd Couple", "Hello, Dolly!" and "Nunsense". She remained committed to the end to restoring/preserving her late husband's videotapes and kinescopes of his ground-breaking '50s TV work. She also recalled her offbeat life with Kovacs in the book "Sing a Pretty Song", which was published in 1990.
Edie got married again in 1964, to photographer Marty Mills, with whom she had a son, Josh Mills. That union ended in divorce in 1971. The following year, Edie married jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli. She and Candoli, who died in January of 2008, divorced in 1989. In another eerie, tragic circumstance, daughter Mia Kovacs was killed in a 1982 Los Angeles auto accident at age 22 -- 20 years after her father's similar demise. Suffering from cancer and losing weight in her latter years, the beloved Edie died of complications from pneumonia at age 81 in Los Angeles.Actress- Actor
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Guillaume Depardieu was born on 7 April 1971 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for The Duchess of Langeais (2007), Tous les matins du monde (1991) and Pola X (1999). He was married to Elise Ventre. He died on 13 October 2008 in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Actor- Actor
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Excellent, prolific and versatile character actor Robert DoQui was born in 1934 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He attended Langston University on a music scholarship and was a member of the popular singing group, "The Langstonaires". Following a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, DoQui went to New York to pursue a career in show business. He began appearing in films and TV shows in the mid 60s and soon amassed a long, diverse and impressive list of credits. DoQui frequently portrayed tough, hard-nosed, say-it-like-you-see-it characters with a great deal of fiery brio and steely conviction. Arguably best-known as the huffy, no-nonsense "Sergeant Warren Reed" in all three Robocop films, DoQui's other noteworthy film roles include the flamboyant pimp, "King George", in Jack Hill's terrifically trashy blaxploitation classic Coffy (1973), a former slave in the charming Disney outing Treasure of Matecumbe (1976), a fanatical religious cult member in the outrageously sleazy Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979) and a hot-tempered short order cook in Miracle Mile (1988). Moreover, DoQui appeared in three movies for acclaimed director Robert Altman: Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) and Short Cuts (1993). He supplied the voice of "Pablo Robertson" on the animated Harlem Globe Trotters (1970) TV series.
Among the many television programs DoQui has done guest spots on are NYPD Blue (1993), as a Klingon on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Picket Fences (1992), Starman (1986), Webster (1983), The Fall Guy (1981), Punky Brewster (1984), Hill Street Blues (1981), The Jeffersons (1975), Maude (1972), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Sanford and Son (1972) Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) Mod Squad (1968), The Fugitive (1963), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), I Dream of Jeannie (1965) and The Outer Limits (1963).
In addition to his substantial acting credits, DoQui served ten years on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he encouraged both women and minority groups to participate more in the media.Actor- Actor
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With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty years. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments (1956) , for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles; Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (1959); El Cid (1961); and Planet of the Apes (1968). He also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Secret of the Incas (1954); The Big Country (1958); and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston's most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association, from 1998 to 2003.
Heston was born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923, in No Man's Land, Illinois, to Lila (Charlton) and Russell Whitford Carter, who operated a sawmill. He had English and Scottish ancestry, with recent Canadianforebears.
Heston made his feature film debut as the lead character in a 16mm production of Peer Gynt (1941), based on the Henrik Ibsen play. In 1944, Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke, who was six months his senior. That same year he joined the military.
Heston played 'Marc Antony' in Julius Caesar (1950), and firmly stamped himself as genuine leading man material with his performance as circus manager 'Brad Braden' in the Cecil B. DeMille spectacular The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), also starring James Stewart and Cornel Wilde. The now very popular actor remained perpetually busy during the 1950s, both on TV and on the silver screen with audience pleasing performances in the steamy thriller The Naked Jungle (1954), as a treasure hunter in Secret of the Incas (1954) and another barn storming performance for Cecil B. DeMille as "Moses" in the blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956).
Heston delivered further dynamic performances in the oily film noir thriller Touch of Evil (1958), and then alongside Gregory Peck in the western The Big Country (1958) before scoring the role for which he is arguably best known, that of the wronged Jewish prince who seeks his freedom and revenge in the William Wyler directed Ben-Hur (1959). This mammoth Biblical epic running in excess of three and a half hours became the standard by which other large scale productions would be judged, and its superb cast also including Stephen Boyd as the villainous "Massala", English actor Jack Hawkins as the Roman officer "Quintus Arrius", and Australian actor Frank Thring as "Pontius Pilate", all contributed wonderful performances. Never one to rest on his laurels, steely Heston remained the preferred choice of directors to lead the cast in major historical productions and during the 1960s he starred as Spanish legend "Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar" in El Cid (1961), as a US soldier battling hostile Chinese boxers during 55 Days at Peking (1963),played the ill-fated "John the Baptist" in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the masterful painter "Michelangelo" battling Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), and an English general in Khartoum (1966). In 1968, Heston filmed the unusual western Will Penny (1967) about an aging and lonely cowboy befriending a lost woman and her son, which Heston has often referred to as his favorite piece of work on screen. Interestingly, Heston was on the verge of acquiring an entirely new league of fans due to his appearance in four very topical science fiction films (all based on popular novels) painting bleak futures for mankind.
In 1968, Heston starred as time-traveling astronaut "George Taylor", in the terrific Planet of the Apes (1968) with its now legendary conclusion as Heston realizes the true horror of his destination. He returned to reprise the role, albeit primarily as a cameo, alongside fellow astronaut James Franciscus in the slightly inferior sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Next up, Heston again found himself facing the apocalypse in The Omega Man (1971) as the survivor of a germ plague that has wiped out humanity leaving only bands of psychotic lunatics roaming the cities who seek to kill the uninfected Heston. And fourthly, taking its inspiration from the Harry Harrison novel "Make Room!, Make Room!", Heston starred alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Chuck Connors in Soylent Green (1973). During the remainder of the 1970s, Heston appeared in two very popular "disaster movies" contributing lead roles in the far-fetched Airport 1975 (1974), plus in the star-laden Earthquake (1974), filmed in "Sensoround" (low-bass speakers were installed in selected theaters to simulate the earthquake rumblings on screen to movie audiences). He played an evil Cardinal in the lively The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), a mythical US naval officer in the recreation of Midway (1976), also filmed in "Sensoround", an LA cop trying to stop a sniper in Two-Minute Warning (1976) and another US naval officer in the submarine thriller Gray Lady Down (1978). Heston appeared in numerous episodes of the high-rating TV series Dynasty (1981) and The Colbys (1985), before moving onto a mixed bag of projects including TV adaptations of Treasure Island (1990) and A Man for All Seasons (1988), hosting two episodes of the comedy show, Saturday Night Live (1975), starring as the "Good Actor" bringing love struck Mike Myers to tears in Wayne's World 2 (1993), and as the eye patch-wearing boss of intelligence agent Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994). He also narrated numerous TV specials and lent his vocal talents to the animated movie Hercules (1997), the family comedy Cats & Dogs (2001) and an animated version of Ben Hur (2003). Heston made an uncredited appearance in the inferior remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), and his last film appearance to date was in the Holocaust-themed drama of My Father (2003).
Heston narrated for highly classified military and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and "for six years Heston [held] the nation's highest security clearance" or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) clearance of Top Secret.
Heston was married to Lydia Marie Clark Heston since March 1944, and they have two children. His highly entertaining autobiography was released in 1995, titled appropriately enough "Into The Arena". Although often criticized for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, Heston was a strong advocate for civil right many years before it became fashionable, and was a recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, plus the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and did appear in a film or TV production after 2003. He died in April 2008, a memorable figure in the history of US cinema.Actor- Actress
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Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. Born to be a dancer, she spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at age 13. In 1939, she married Nico Charisse, her former dance teacher. In 1943, she appeared in her first film, Something to Shout About (1943), billed as Lily Norwood. The same year, she played a Russian dancer in Mission to Moscow (1943), directed by Michael Curtiz. In 1945, she was hired to dance with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), and that uncredited appearance got her a seven-year contract with MGM. She appeared in a number of musicals over the next few years, but it was Singin' in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly that made her a star. That was quickly followed by her great performance in The Band Wagon (1953). As the 1960s dawned, musicals faded from the screen, as did her career. She made appearances on television and performed in a nightclub revue with her second husband, singer Tony Martin. Cyd Charisse died at age 86 of a heart attack on June 17, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.Actress- Actor
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George Denis Patrick Carlin was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, to Mary (Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick John Carlin, an advertising manager for The Sun; they had met while working in marketing. His father was from Donegal, Ireland, and his mother was Irish-American. His parents divorced when he was two months old, and he was raised by his mother. The long hours the mother worked left the young George by himself for long hours every day, providing him (in his own words), the time he needed to think about various subjects, listen to radio, and practice his impersonations, that where acclaimed by his mother and coworkers since an early age. Carlin started out as a conventional comedian and had achieved a fair degree of success as a Bill Cosby style raconteur in nightclubs and on TV until the late 1960s, when he radically overhauled his persona. His routines became more insightful, introducing more serious subjects. As he aged, he became more cynic and bitter, unintentionally changing his stage persona again in a radical way throughout the '90s. This new George Carlin, usually referred to as the late George Carlin, is one of the most acclaimed and enjoyed by the public and critics. Carlin's forte is Lenny Bruce-style social and political commentary, spiced with nihilistic observations about people and religion peppered with black humor. He is also noted for his masterful knowledge and use of the English language. Carlin's notorious "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine was part of a radio censorship case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978.Actor- Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school age, he began training as an actor at the Croydon Repertory Theatre School (1939) and then at the Mask Theatre School (1940) in London. He took on all the experience he could handle by joining touring companies and also entertained British troops during World War II. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and, from there in 1946, he moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. There, in the birthplace of William Shakespeare, he had his first great successes. He had the title role in "Henry V"; he was "Cloten" in "Cymbeline"; "Don Adriano de Armado" in "Love's Labour's Lost", "Lucio" in "Measure for Measure", and then "Hamlet". And there were many more as he honed himself into one the great Shakespearean actors of the 20th century. With a rich, sonorous voice compared to a Rolls Royce being started up, in one instance, and a great sound rumbling forth from an antique crypt in yet another, he was quickly compared to Laurence Olivier.
Scofield did not move on to commercial theater until 1949, when he took the lead role of "Alexander the Great", in playwright Terence Rattigan's unfortunately ill-received "Adventure Story". And as he continued theater work, he moved toward film very carefully. From his first in 1955, Scofield was always - as with any of his acting assignments - extremely picky about accepting a particular role. It was three years before his second film. Meanwhile, Scofield had the opportunity to play a great lead part in a new play by a schoolmaster-turned-new-playwright, Robert Bolt. The play was "A Man for All Seasons" and Scofield's choice role was that of "Sir Thomas More", the great English humanist and chancellor, who defied the ogre "King Henry VIII" in his wish to put aside his first wife for "Anne Bolyne". It was a once in a lifetime part, and Scofield debuted it in London in 1960. His only appearance on Broadway was the next year in that play, which ran into 1962. It was no surprise that the work began garnering awards for him (see Trivia below for details on theater and film awards).
He returned to Shakespeare in 1962 with Peter Brook, the noted British director and producer, directing him as "Lear" at the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford. This was a pioneering minimalist production, one of the first "bare stage" efforts - though things were pretty bare stage in Shakespeare's day. Scofield then did "Coriolanus" and "Love's Labour's Lost" for the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario in 1963. His third film came six years after his second screen appearance (1958). This was his standout performance in The Train (1964), a production of his co-star, Burt Lancaster, that grew in size and budget with the entrance of Lancaster's second choice for director, John Frankenheimer. Some of the difficulties involved might have turned someone of Scofield's discipline back to the stage thereafter, but the filming of "Seasons" arrived, and he would hardly refuse. With Robert Bolt handling the screenplay and a superlative supporting cast, the film version of A Man for All Seasons (1966) collected some thirty-three international awards, including a three-statue sweep of prime-Oscar categories plus another three for good measure. Scofield was unforgettable as the incisive man of state, able to juggle the volatile politics of the time but always keep his honor and so brimming with faith as to endure the inevitably mounting tide against him.
It suited Scofield for a time to keep his screen-acting to adaptations of plays, books, and ensemble pieces fitted to the big screen. Peter Brook and he teamed again for a film version of the Brook-adapted play Tell Me Lies (1968). The adaptation of Herman Melville's Bartleby (1970), despite Scofield's efforts, did not wash as an attempt to update Melville's story in the late twentieth century. Then Brook was back again to finally attempt what he said had really never been done correctly -adapting Shakespeare to film. Scofield's 1962 "Lear" was held in high esteem, and Brook decided on a film version, King Lear (1970), an even more uncompromising, even uncomfortable, desolation staging and editing of the tragedy. Despite some oddball camera work and not wholly satisfying adapting of the play, Scofield was magnificent and got his chance to show that he is perhaps the best Lear of modern times. While still keeping a concerted interest in filmed play adaptations, Scofield could be lured into more typical screen drama. He joined former co-star, Burt Lancaster, for the spy thriller, Scorpio (1973), as a memorable Russian comrade of Lancaster from the days of World War II, caught in late-Cold War spy craft brutality.
Through the 1980s, Scofield did a mix of TV and film on both sides of the Atlantic. But he was drawn back to Shakespeare and filming efforts, though in humbler parts, first in the Henry V (1989) of ambitious Kenneth Branagh, as the French king, and, the next year, in the Franco Zeffirelli, Hamlet (1990), as "The Ghost" - with the real buzz being for Mel Gibson as the dour "Prince of Denmark". Both films were well-crafted with impressive supporting casts. And Scofield could be content that as with all his roles, he was remaining consistent with himself as his own best judge of how to challenge his acting gifts. Gibson was appropriately awed, saying that working with Scofield was like being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson" (that is, Mike Tyson then, not now). Through the 1990s, he enjoyed his continued sampling of all acting media, even radio narration and animation voice-over.
The matter of British actors weighing upon the acceptance of knighthoods for their work began most publicly with Scofield. In 1956, after his tour of "Hamlet" with a triumph in Moscow, he gratefully accepted the appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), but thereafter he refused on three occasions the offer of knighthood. "If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr.? If you have always been that, then why lose your title? "I have a title, which is the same one that I have always had. But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully". He said this with great simplicity and charm. The matter of 'theatrical nobility' has prompted others to follow Scofield's example. One high profile example with a twist is actor Anthony Hopkins, now an American citizen, who quipped that he only accepted the knighthood because his wife wanted him to do so. In taking the oath of citizenship, Hopkins pledged to "renounce the title of nobility to which I have heretofore belonged". But Scofield's demeanor in his logically crafted refusals from the first so fit this man's very private life. Yet quite averse to being interviewed, he has always been considerate to the public for their patronage. Brilliant man and acting legacy, on and off the stage, Paul Scofield truly is a "Man for All Seasons".Actor - Director
- Actor
- Producer
Dick Martin, the comedian and television director who achieved TV immortality as the co-host of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) as the comic foil to straight man Dan Rowan, was born on January 30, 1922 in Battle Creek, Michigan. The young Martin was a writer for the popular radio sit-com "Duffy's Tavern" before teaming up with Rowan in the 1950s. The duo achieved success playing the nightclub circuit and Las Vegas, leading to Martin's being cast in a recurring role on The Lucy Show (1962) as series start Lucille Ball's next door neighbor "Harry Conners" when Lucy's new series debuted in 1962, Martin remained as a regular on "Lucy" through the 1963-64 season.
As the success of their act increased, Rowan & Martin began making appearances on TV during the 1960s. In 1966, the duo were cast as the co-hosts for the The Dean Martin Summer Show (1966) on NBC. The following year, when NBC decided it wanted a new comic variety show that would have cross-generational appeal, producers Ed Friendly and George Schlatter hired Rowan & Martin to co-host a one-time special, "Laugh-In", that would serve as a pilot for the potential series. The special was a success, and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) debuted the following year. It was a smash hit, proving to be one of the top-rated shows of the late 1960s, and had a huge impact on American pop culture during the first years of its five-year run. The series was canceled in 1973.
In 1969, Rowan & Martin made an attempt to recapture the small-screen magic of "Laugh-In" on the big screen, but The Maltese Bippy (1969) was a flop. After the cancellation of their series, Rowan & Martin generally parted ways, professionally, as Dan Rowan was a diabetic and limited his work. Like Rowan, Martin became a frequent panelist on game shows such as Match Game (1973). He also hosted the Mindreaders (1979) game show in 1979, but the show was not a success. Martin eventually launched a new career as a TV director, serving as the chief director of the 1980s sitcom, Newhart (1982).
On the personal front, Martin was most known for his two marriages to Playboy Playmate of the Year Dolly Read (1971-75; 1978-present). Martin's first wife was the former Peggy Connelly, by whom he had two sons, Richard Martin, Jr. and Cary Martin.Actor- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic, died at age 37, when Sydney was 16. He spent his formative years in Indiana, graduating from his HS in 1952, then moved to New York City.
From 1952-1954 young Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. He served two years in the army, and then returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse and taught acting. In 1958, Pollack married his former student Claire Griswold. They had three children. Their son, Steven Pollack, died in a plane crash on November 26, 1993, in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Rebecca Pollack, served as vice president of film production at United Artists during the 1990s. Their youngest daughter, Rachel Pollack, was born in 1969.
Pollack began his acting career on stage, then made his name as television director in the early 1960s. He made his big screen acting debut in War Hunt (1962), where he met fellow actor Robert Redford, and the two co-stars established a life-long friendship. Pollack called on his good friend Redford to play opposite Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966). Pollack and Redford worked together on six more films over the years. His biggest success came with Out of Africa (1985), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie earned eleven Academy Award nominations in all and seven wins, including Pollack's two Oscars: one for Best Direction and one for Best Picture.
Pollack showed his best as a comedy director and actor in Tootsie (1982), where he brought feminist issues to public awareness using his remarkable wit and wisdom, and created a highly entertaining film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Pollack's directing revealed Dustin Hoffman's range and nuanced acting in gender switching from a dominant boyfriend to a nurse in drag, a brilliant collaboration of director and actor that broadened public perception about sex roles. Pollack also made success in producing such films as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Quiet American (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003). Pollack returned to the director's chair in 2004, when he directed The Interpreter (2005), the first film ever shot on location at the United Nations Headquarters and within the General Assembly in New York City.
In 2000, Sydney Pollack was honored with the John Huston Award from the Directors Guild of America as a "defender of artists' rights." He died from cancer on May 26, 2008, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, California.Director / Actor- Make-Up Department
- Special Effects
- Additional Crew
Stan Winston was born on 7 April 1946 in Richmond, Virginia, USA. He is known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Karen Winston. He died on 15 June 2008 in Malibu, California, USA.Special Effects Artist- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Eva Dahlbeck was born on 8 March 1920 in Saltsjö-Duvnäs, Stockholms län, Sweden. She was an actress and writer, known for Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Brink of Life (1958) and A Lesson in Love (1954). She was married to Sven Lampell. She died on 8 February 2008 in Hässelby, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.Actress- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Music Department
Lithe, diminutive and unimposing, Michael Kidd never asked a dancer to perform a step or move he himself could not do. One of Broadway's and Hollywood's most distinguished, inventive and gifted choreographers, it was not uncommon to remember his expert dance sequences above all else. After all, who can forget the rousing barnstorming dance in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), or Fred Astaire's and Cyd Charisse's romantic glide through Central Park to the musical caress of "Dancing in the Dark" in The Band Wagon (1953), or the waiters' high-flying acrobatics during the Harmonia Gardens sequence in Hello, Dolly! (1969)? It is what made these films a cut above the rest. These three highlights should alone keep Kidd's name indelible in the Hollywood film annals for decades and decades to come.
He was born Milton Greenwald in Brooklyn on August 12, 1915 (sources indicating 1919 are incorrect). His father, a barber, was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Although he was influenced by dance while a high school student, his sensibilities led him to major in chemical engineering at New York's City College. Finding his career choice too impersonal and isolating, he switched to dance and was awarded a scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet, making his debut in a performance of "The Eternal Road" in 1937. He subsequently toured with the American Ballet and the Ballet Caravan. Renaming himself Michael Kidd, he became a soloist for the American Ballet Theatre in 1942 and appeared auspiciously as Billy the Kid and Bluebeard, among other important figures. Performing challenging pieces by the legendary Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins, he began also choreographing pieces for himself and the company as well ("On Stage!" (1942).)
Broadway soon beckoned. In the post-WWII years Michael took his trade to the Great White Way and would eventually earn five Tony awards for his choreography: "Finian's Rainbow" (1947), "Guys and Dolls" (1951), "Can-Can" (1953), "Li'l Abner" (1957) and "Destry Rides Again" (1959). On film he choreographed, among others, Where's Charley? (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), Star! (1968), Hello, Dolly! (1969) and his pièce de résistance, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), arguably one of the most robust and dazzling displays of dance Hollywood has ever offered. Sadly, his superb dance skills have been less visible in front of the camera. However, in It's Always Fair Weather (1955) we're allowed to witness his talent teamed with the legendary Gene Kelly and Dan Dailey. In one memorable sequence, the trio danced around New York with garbage can lids attached to their feet.
In 1975 Kidd surprised critics by starring in the Michael Ritchie cult film Smile (1975), a devilishly wicked and clever satire on beauty pageants. The versatile Michael also directed occasionally for both film (Danny Kaye's Merry Andrew (1958)) and TV (All in the Family (1971), Laverne & Shirley (1976)).
It is hardly shocking that Kidd was never nominated for an Oscar award for his choreography, as there is no specialized category for such. The Academy rectified this awkward situation by awarding him an honorary trophy in 1997 for his outstanding services to the art of dance, joining an extremely small and illustrious group that includes Jerome Robbins ("West Side Story") and Onna White ("Oliver"). Kidd died of cancer in 2007 at age 92, and was survived by his second wife, Sheila, and four children (Kristine, Susan, Amy and Mathew).Choreographer / Actor (died Dec. 23, 2007)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fetching secondary actress June Travis was signed by Warner Bros. in 1934 and made her film debut the following year, but would last only three years before leaving Hollywood forever and focusing on marriage. Born June Dorothea Grabiner on August 7, 1914, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner who was team secretary and/or vice-president of both the Cleveland Indians and (later) Chicago White Sox. Harry would go on to be remembered for his famous diaries of his experiences.
The Chicago-born, green-eyed brunette beauty attended Parkside Grammar School and the Starrett School for Girls while growing up. Spotted by a talent agent while watching a White Sox spring training session, she moved to Los Angeles upon graduation where she studied drama at the University of California. It was not long before her sunny looks and eye-catching figure were noticed by talent scouts.
At age 20 she signed a Warner Bros. contract and paid her dues throughout 1935 apprenticing in decorative extra parts (hat check girl, cigarette girl, party guest, gun moll). She earned her first co-starring role the following year opposite Barton MacLane in the crime programmer Jailbreak (1936). Other actresses of her ilk would appear from time to time in smaller roles in "A" pictures for added exposure, but such would not be the case for June. Such Hollywood escorts around town included Howard Hughes and Ronald Reagan.
Gridlocked in the "B" category for the duration of her career, some of her modest highlights would include the Perry Mason whodunnit The Case of the Black Cat (1936) in which she essayed the role of secretary Della Street alongside Ricardo Cortez's noted crimesolver; Ceiling Zero (1936), a lesser Howard Hawks film about war pilots starring Pat O'Brien and James Cagney; two slapstick movies as the love interest to comedian Joe E. Brown -- Earthworm Tractors (1936) and The Gladiator (1938); the mystery Love Is on the Air (1937) opposite Ronald Reagan, who was making his feature film bow here; two comic features capitalizing on radio personality Joe Penner -- Go Chase Yourself (1938) and Mr. Doodle Kicks Off (1938); and a comic strip film version of Little Orphan Annie (1938) Although June was top-billed in Circus Girl (1937) and Over the Goal (1937), the films came and went with little impression made. All in all, she was usually called upon to divert the proceedings and blandly back up the rugged "B" tough guys at Warners -- a roster which then included Paul Kelly, Dick Purcell, Dick Foran and Wayne Morris. After co-starring in Federal Man-Hunt (1938), she handed Hollywood her walking papers at age 24.
By 1939 she had returned to Chicago and never looked back. In January of 1940 June married Chicago businessman Fred Friedlob and the couple eventually had two daughters, Cathy and June Jr., and settled in the Lincoln Park area. June Sr. filmed only twice more, playing a featured role in the Bette Davis vehicle The Star (1952), and, for reasons completely unknown, agreed to play a role in the bogus horror opus Monster a Go-Go (1965). The middle-aged June became a vibrant member of the social and theater community there. In 1968, she helped inaugurate the Joseph Jefferson Awards to honor Chicago's best in theater. She also appeared in summer stock on the East Coast, and played everything from Goneril opposite Morris Carnovsky in "King Lear" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre to an expectant middle-aged mother alongside Forrest Tucker in "Never Too Late." Other plays included "A View from the Bridge", "Life With Father" (also with Tucker); "The Pleasure of His Company" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.; "The Philadelphia Story" with Jackie O's sister Lee Radziwill and "I Found April" starring Jeanne Crain.
Long retired, June's husband died in May 1979 after nearly 40 years of marriage. She, who has two children, Kathy and June (Jr.), never remarried but was the companion of Erwin Gruen, a master metalworker in later years. He died in 2006. June herself passed away on April 14, 2008, in a Chicago hospital of complications from a stroke she suffered weeks earlier. She was 93.Actress- Charles H. Joffe was born on 16 July 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Annie Hall (1977), Match Point (2005) and Sleeper (1973). He was married to Carol Joffe. He died on 9 July 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Transportation Department
Ken Ogata was born on 20 July 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Vengeance Is Mine (1979), Edo Porn (1981) and The Ballad of Narayama (1983). He died on 5 October 2008 in Tsurumi, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.Actor- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Irving Brecher was born on 17 January 1914 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The People's Choice (1955) and Somebody Loves Me (1952). He was married to Norma Brecher and Eve Bennett. He died on 17 November 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Screenwriter- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, fighting and blowing up a 25-foot-long Great White shark (nicknamed "Bruce") in the mega-hit Jaws (1975) and then electrocuting an even bigger Great White in the vastly inferior Jaws 2 (1978).
Athletic Scheider was born in November 1932 in Orange, New Jersey, to Anna (Crosson) and Roy Bernhard Scheider, a mechanic. He was of German and Irish descent. A keen sportsman from a young age, he competed in baseball and boxing (his awkwardly mended broken nose is a result of his foray into Golden Gloves competitions). While at college, his pursuits turned from sports to theater and he studied drama at Rutgers and Franklin and Marshall. After a stint in the military, Scheider appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival and won an "Obie Award" for his appearance in the play "Stephen D."
His film career commenced with the campy Z-grade horror cheesefest The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964), and he then showed up in Star! (1968), Paper Lion (1968), Stiletto (1969) and Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970). In 1971 he really came to the attention of film audiences with his role in the Jane Fonda thriller Klute (1971) and then as Det. Buddy Russo (scoring his first Oscar nomination) alongside fiery Gene Hackman in the crime drama The French Connection (1971). His performance as a tough street cop in that film led him into another tough cop role as NYC Det. Buddy Manucci in the underappreciated The Seven-Ups (1973), which features one of the best car chase sequences ever put on film.
In the early 1970s the Peter Benchley novel "Jaws" was a phenomenal best-seller, and young director Steven Spielberg was chosen by Universal Pictures to direct the film adaptation, Jaws (1975), in which Scheider played police chief Brody and shared lead billing with Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss in the tale of a New England seaside community terrorized by a hungry Great White shark. "Jaws" was a blockbuster, and for many years held the record as the highest-grossing film of all time. Scheider then turned up as the shady CIA agent brother of Dustin Hoffman in the unnerving Marathon Man (1976) and in the misfired William Friedkin-directed remake of The Wages of Fear (1953) titled Sorcerer (1977), before again returning to Amity to battle another giant shark in Jaws 2 (1978). Seeking a change from tough cops and hungry sharks, he took the role of womanizing, drug-popping choreographer Joe Gideon, the lead character of the semi-autobiographical portrayal of director Bob Fosse in the sparkling All That Jazz (1979). It was another big hit for Scheider (and another Oscar nomination), with the film featuring a stunning opening sequence to the tune of the funky George Benson number "On Broadway", and breathtaking dance routines including the "Airotica" performance by the glamorous Sandahl Bergman.
Returning to another law enforcement role, Scheider played a rebellious helicopter pilot in the John Badham conspiracy / action film Blue Thunder (1983), a scientist in the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) simply titled 2010 (1984), a cheating husband who turns the tables on his blackmailers in 52 Pick-Up (1986), a cold-blooded hit man in Cohen and Tate (1988) and a CIA operative in the muddled and slow-moving The Russia House (1990). The versatile Scheider was then cast as the captain of a futuristic submarine in the relatively popular TV series SeaQuest 2032 (1993), which ran for three seasons.
Inexplicably, however, Scheider had seemingly, and slowly, dropped out of favor with mainstream film audiences, and while he continued to remain busy, predominantly in supporting roles (generally as US presidents or military officers), most of the vehicles he appeared in were B-grade political thrillers such as The Peacekeeper (1997), Executive Target (1997), Chain of Command (2000) and Red Serpent (2003).Actor- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Brad Renfro was born on July 25, 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Angela Denise McCrory and Mark Renfro, a factory worker. He was discovered at age 10 by director Joel Schumacher and was cast in the motion picture The Client (1994), which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although this would be his zenith, he went on to appear in other films, including The Cure (1995), Tom and Huck (1995), Sleepers (1996), and Apt Pupil (1998). Renfro won The Hollywood Reporter's Young Star Award in 1995 and was nominated as one of People magazine's "Top 30 Under 30," though addiction problems in his teens and early 20s led to several police arrests and hampered his career. He died of a drug overdose in January 2008, aged 25.Actor- Actor
- Director
Genial, pleasant-voiced character actor Paul Benedict was born in New Mexico on September 17, 1938, and made hosts of stage, film and TV appearances in a career lasting five decades. The son of a doctor, he was diagnosed with acromegaly by an endocrinologist who happened to catch the nascent actor in a stage play. He underwent medical treatment that successfully prevented the advancing of the disease. Following military service with the Marine Corps., Paul went on to a highly successful entertainment career using his spade-sized jaw and large nose often to humorous effect.
Following his graduation from Suffolk University, Benedict began acting at the Theatre Company of Boston and performed with such up-and-coming hopefuls as Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino before moving to New York in 1968. Decades laterk, Pacino remembered his old colleague when he revived Eugene O'Neill's one-act, two-person drama "Hughie" on Broadway in 1996. Paul was cast as the hotel night clerk who listens patiently and endlessly to the forlorn ramblings of Pacino's hustler character. Paul made his unofficial Broadway debut in 1968 with "Leda Had a Little Swan," but it closed just before it officially opened. He then went on to appear in "Little Murders" (1969), "The White House Murder Case" (1970) and "Bad Habits" (1974).
Benedict began his on-camera career with the little seen western film spoof The Double-Barrelled Detective Story (1965) and then was seen in another spoof, the political satire The Virgin President (1968). He continued in a quirky, humorous vein in Norman Lear's Cold Turkey (1971), as well as Taking Off (1971), They Might Be Giants (1971), The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), Deadhead Miles (1972), Up the Sandbox (1972) and The Front Page (1974). Lear took a liking to Paul and began using him as a guest on some of his classic TV comedies, including "Maude" and "All in the Family," before casting him as Harry Bentley, the polite but put-upon white Englishman next door neighbor to affluent black couple Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley on the decade-long comedy series The Jeffersons (1975). It remains his best known oddball comedy role. Another familiar character would be The Mad Painter on the long-running children's PBS show Sesame Street (1969).
He played an fascinating assortment of erudite, toothy and tweedy characters on film, one of his best remembered being that of Reverend Lindquist in Jeremiah Johnson (1972). He also played the emissary of the governor in The Front Page (1974), a slave trader in Mandingo (1975), an untalented Shakespearean stage director in The Goodbye Girl (1977); an eccentric butler in The Man with Two Brains (1983); another butler in Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988); a business college professor in Cocktail (1988); a warden in The Chair (1988); a film school teacher in The Freshman (1990); an irritated judge in The Addams Family (1991); and a professor in Isn't She Great (2000).
Benedict made an impression as a stage director as well, including "Any Given Day," the original production of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," and the Obie-winning "The Kathy and Mo Show." His final Broadway appearance was as Mayor Shinn in the 2000 revival of "The Music Man" and he took his final curtain call with Pinter's "No Man's Land" at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On TV, Paul made appearances on some of TV's most popular shows, including "Sweepstakes," "Mama Malone," "Murder, She Wrote," "The New Twilight Zone," "A Different World," "Tales from the Crypt," "Seinfeld" and "The Drew Carey Show." On film, Paul became a stock player for Christopher Guest and his hilarious "mockumentary" features -- This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Waiting for Guffman (1996) (as the long-awaited guest) and A Mighty Wind (2003).
Unmarried, the 70-year-old actor died of natural causes on December 1, 2008, at his home in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.Actor- Writer
- Producer
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, John Michael Hayes began his writing career as a newspaper reporter. Following service with the US Army during WWII, he moved to California where he wrote for such radio dramas as Sam Spade and Inner Sanctum. Moving to film in 1952, he has amassed credits which span over 40 years and include such enduring titles as Rear Window (1954) and Peyton Place (1957). For the last several years, Mr. Hayes has taught film writing to a new generation of artists at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, but has now (2000) retired.Screenwriter- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
John Phillip Law was born on 7 September 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Barbarella (1968), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Space Mutiny (1988). He was married to Shawn Ryan. He died on 13 May 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Actor- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
The future movie bad man was born in Drummoyne, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and got his career start as an interviewer on the government's radio station. Pate also worked on the Australian stage and in Down Under movies before relocating to the U.S. in the early 1950s to appear in Universal's "Thunder on the Hill, " the film version of a Charlotte Hastings play ("Bonaventure") in which he had appeared. Pate acted in many American films and TV series, then returned to Australia in the late '60s and worked (again) in that country's film industry; he co-starred in his own Aussie TV series, "Matlock Police". Pate also began working behind the camera; one of his best-known writing-producing-directing credits is "Tim", the story of the relationship between an older woman (Piper Laurie) and a mentally challenged young man (Mel Gibson).Actor- Brassy'n'beautiful blonde Roberta Collins was a terrific, dynamic and scene-stealing delight who greatly enlivened a bunch of choice down'n'dirty 1970s drive-in exploitation pictures with her earthy good humor, boundless vitality, superior acting ability, strong, forceful personality and smoldering sex appeal. Born on November 17, 1944, the tall, leggy, shapely and radiant Roberta first began acting in the late 1960s. Collins made a smashing impression as Alcott, a fiery'n'feisty prison inmate in Jack Hill's chicks-in-chains classic The Big Doll House (1971). Roberta was likewise fantastic as Belle, a bawdy, jovial, kittenish prison inmate in Jonathan Demme's marvelous tongue-in-cheek gem Caged Heat (1974) and hilarious as champion race car driver Matilda the Hun in the uproariously tasteless sci-fi black comedy hoot Death Race 2000 (1975). Other noteworthy parts include one of Claudia Jennings' bitter rivals in The Unholy Rollers (1972), Jean Harlow in the odd Train Ride to Hollywood (1975), Jim Brown's secretary in the outrageous blaxploitation riot Three the Hard Way (1974), a forlorn wayward prostitute in Tobe Hooper's excellent Eaten Alive (1976), a klutzy student driver in the hugely enjoyable car chase romp Speedtrap (1977), and a neurotic egocentric actress in Matt Cimber's outstanding The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976). Alas, Roberta Collins' career ran out of gas and came to an unfortunate close in the 1980s, as such latter lesser credits as Hardbodies (1984), School Spirit (1985), and Hardbodies 2 (1986) all sadly confirm. However, Collins did contribute a typically fine and impressive turn as a tough prison security chief in the gritty babes-behind-bars revenge item Vendetta (1986). She also did guest spots on the TV shows The Rockford Files (1974), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), Cade's County (1971), and Adam-12 (1968). Roberta Collins died at age 63 from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol on August 16, 2008.Actress (original version; later replaced by Van Johnson)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Van Johnson was the fresh-faced, well-mannered nice guy on screen you always wanted your daughter to marry! This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossip monger Hedda Hopper dubbed the "Bobby-soxer Blitz" era. Johnson's musical timing proved just as adroit as his legit career timing for he was able to court WWII stardom as a regimented MGM symbol of the war effort with an impressive parade of earnest soldiers. He may have been a second tier musical star behind the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but his easy smile, wholesome, boy-next-door appeal and strawberry-blond good looks made him a solid box-office attraction while MGM's "big boys" were off to war.
Born Charles Van Dell Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 25, 1916, Van was the only child of Loretta (Snyder) and Charles E. Johnson. His paternal grandparents were Swedish, and his mother was of German, and a small amount of Irish, ancestry. Johnson endured a lonely and unhappy childhood as the sole offspring of an extremely aloof father (who was both a plumber and real estate agent by trade) and an absentee mother (she abandoned the family when he was three, the victim of alcoholism). A paternal grandmother helped in raising the young lad. Happier times were spent drifting into the fantasy world of movies, and he developed an ardent passion to entertain. Taking singing, dancing and violin lessons during his high school years, he disregarded his father's wish to become a lawyer and instead left home following graduation to try his luck in New York.
Early experiences included chorus lines in revues, at hotels and in various small shows around town. A couple of minor breaks occurred with his 40-week stint in the "New Faces of 1936" revue (making his Broadway debut) and in a vaudeville club act (based around star Mary Martin) called "Eight Young Men of Manhattan" that played the Rainbow Room. He served as understudy to the three male leads of Rodgers and Hart's popular musical "Too Many Girls" in October of 1939 and eventually replaced one of them (actor Richard Kollmar left the show to marry reporter Dorothy Kilgallen.) He also formed a lifelong and career-igniting friendship with one of the other leads, Desi Arnaz.
Johnson made an inauspicious film debut with Arnaz in Too Many Girls (1940) when the musical was eventually lensed in Hollywood, but he was cast in a scant chorus boy part. Following a stint on Broadway in "Pal Joey" in 1940, Warner Bros. signed Van to a six-month contract. He went on to co-star with Faye Emerson in Murder in the Big House (1942), but they dropped him quickly feeling that his acting chops were lacking. It was Arnaz's wife Lucille Ball, who had recently signed with MGM, who introduced Van to Billy Grady, MGM's casting head, and instigated a successful screen test.
With the studio's top male talent off to war, Van (along with Peter Lawford) served as an earnest substitute donning fatigues in such stalwart movies as Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942) and The Human Comedy (1943). In addition, he replaced actor/war pacifist Lew Ayres in the "Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie" film series after Ayres was unceremoniously dumped by the studio for his unpopular beliefs.
Stardom came, and at quite a price, for Van when he was cast yet again as a wholesome serviceman in A Guy Named Joe (1943). During the early part of filming, he was severely injured in a near-fatal car crash (he had a metal plate inserted in his skull, which instantly gave him a 4-F disqualification status for war service). Endangered of being replaced on the film, the two stars of the picture, Spencer Tracy (who became another lifelong friend) and Irene Dunne, insisted that the studio work around his convalescence or they would quit the film. The unusually kind gesture made Van a star following the film's popular release and resulting publicity. Van's career soared during the war years, making him and Lawford the resident heartthrobs not only in musicals (Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Easy to Wed (1946)), but in airy comedies (Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)) and, of course, more war stories (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)).
When the big stars such as Clark Gable, James Stewart and Robert Taylor returned to reclaim post-war stardom, Van willingly relinquished his "golden boy" pedestal, but he remained a high profile musical star opposite the likes of June Allyson, Esther Williams and Judy Garland. He continued to demonstrate his dramatic mettle in such well-regarded films as Command Decision (1948), State of the Union (1948), Battleground (1949), Brigadoon (1954) and The Caine Mutiny (1954) and remained a popular star for three more decades. When MGM's "golden age" phased out by the mid-1950s, Van's movie career took a sharp decline and the studio released him after he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954).
While Van continued working as a freelancer in such as the English-made The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr; Miracle in the Rain (1956) opposite Jane Wyman, The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) with Joseph Cotten, 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) co-starring Vera Miles, Kelly and Me (1956) partnered with a dog, and Web of Evidence (1959), he again capitalized on his musical talents by reinventing himself as a nightclub performer and musical stage star on the regional and dinner theater circuits, including "The Music Man," "Damn Yankees," "Guys and Dolls," "Bells Are Ringing," "On a Clear Day...," "Forty Carats," "Bye Bye Birdie," "There's a Girl in My Soup" and "I Do! I Do!"
Van delved heavily into TV from the late 1960's on and served as a guest on such shows as "Laugh-In," "The Name of the Game," "The Red Skelton Show," "Nanny and the Professor," "The Virginian," "The Doris Day Show," "Love, American Style," "Maude," "Quincy," "McMillan & Wife," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island" and "Murder, She Wrote." He earned an Emmy nomination for his participation in the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), and co-starred or was featured in such TV movies as Call Her Mom (1972), Superdome (1978), Black Beauty (1978), Getting Married (1978) and Three Days to a Kill (1992).
In later years, he grew larger in girth but still continued to work. He earned respectable reviews after replacing Gene Barry as Georges in the smash gay musical "La Cage Aux Folles" in 1985. His last musical role was as Cap' Andy in "Show Boat" in 1991, and his last several movies were primarily filmed overseas in Italy and Australia. Occasional featured roles on film in later years included Concorde Affaire '79 (1979), The Kidnapping of the President (1980), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Killer Crocodile (1989), Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990) and Clowning Around (1992).
Van was married only once but it was the constant source of tabloid news. Typically in the closet as a high-ranking actor of the 1940s, he was extremely close friends with fellow MGM actor Keenan Wynn and his wife. Shockingly, Van wound up marrying Wynn's ex-wife, one-time stage actress Evie Wynn Johnson, immediately after the Wynn's divorced in 1947. Van and Eve went on to have one child, daughter Schuyler, in 1948, and were a popular Hollywood couple before separating after fifteen years of marriage. The marriage ended acrimoniously in 1968 and decades later Eve published a statement (after her death in 2004) confirming suspicions that MGM had engineered their marriage to cover up Johnson's homosexuality. In declining health, Van, who was estranged from his only child, died at age 92 on December 12, 2008, at a senior living facility in Nyack, New York.Actor (revised version; replaced Roberta Collins)