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Ah, hbg, the tall ships are so majestic. Speaking of angry seas, Canada, there may be trouble around England with gales and storm surges. It's that wicked full moon and the eclipse that has been perdicted. The line from your song "...live on China tay..." was mystic, somehow.

I love this poem, folks.

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over.

-- John Masefield

Another tale of romancing a sailor:

Jack the Jolly Tar

I am Jack and a Jolly Tar-oh
I've lately come from the sea so far-oh
Oh I am Jack and a Jolly Tar
Lately come from the sea so far
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

As I came out of London city
I found myself all in great pity
For I heard em say as I pass by
This night poor Jack in the streets must lie
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

A squire courted for his fancy
A merchant's daughter whose name was Nancy
And I heard em again as I pass by
This night they together for to lie
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

(now he says)
"You tie a bit of string all around your finger
And let it dangle out of the window
And I'll come by and I'll pull that string
And you'll come down and you'll let me in"
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

"Damn me" says Jack "if I don't venture
To pull that string hanging from her window"
So Jack come by and he pulled that string
And she's come down and she let him in
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

Next morning when this maid awakened
She seemed like one who was much forsaken
For there was Jack in his old shirt
Covered all over in with tar and dirt
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

Says she "Now Jack how came you here oh?
You've robbed me of my squire I fear-oh."
"Oh no, says Jack, I just pulled the string
and you came down and you let me in."
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

Then the squire came by all in a passion
Saying "Curse all women throughout this nation.
For there is not one that will prove true
And if there is well there's very few."
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

(She says)
"Well if this be so then it makes no matter
For Jack is the lad I will follow after
For I do love Jack as I love me life
And I do intend to become Jack's wife."
Fa la-la do, fal la-la der-oh
Right fa la-la do

Great way to romance a sailor, Tai, with tar and feathers. <smile>

Here's one by The Kingston Trio.

Dave Guard
'Tis advertised in Boston, New York, and Buffalo a hundred hearty sailors, a whalin' for to go.
Chorus:
Blow, ye winds, O' mornin', blow, ye winds, hi ho. Haul away your runnin' gear and blow, boys, blow.
They tell you of the clipper ships a-runnin' in and out. They say you'll take five hundred whales before you're six months out.
(Chorus)
The skipper's on the after deck a-squintin' at the sails. When up above the lookout spots a mighty school of whales.
(Chorus)
Then lower down the boats, my boys, and after him we'll travel but if you get too near his tail, he'll kick you to the devil.
(Chorus)
And now that he is ours, my boys, we'll bring him alongside. Then over with our blubber hooks and rob him of his hide.
(Chorus)
When we get home, our ship made fast, and we get through our sailin'. A brimmin' glass around we'll pass and hang this blubber whalin'.
(Chorus)

Letty holds up card that reads:

All that howling has made me hoarse of course, so our studio audience will have to read my goodnight song.



Drovers Dream

I was traveling with my sheep and my mates were fast asleep
No moon or stars were shining in the sky
I was dozing I suppose but my eyes had hardly closed
When a very strange procession passed me by
First came a kangaroo with his swag of blankets blue
He had with him a dingo for a mate
They were traveling pretty fast and they shouted as they passed
We've got to be getting home it's getting late

Then three frogs from out of the swamp where the atmosphere is damp
Came up and gently sat down on the stones
They unrolled their little swags and took from their dilly bags
A fiddle. a banjo and some bones
Then a little bandicoot played a tune upon the flute
Three koala bears came down and formed a ring
And the pelican and the crane they flew in from the plain
And amused the company with a highland fling

Then three parrots in their joy sang the Wild Colonial Boy
A frilly lizard waltzed round with a smile
Then from out the old she oak a laughing jackass spoke
And spare me happy days he ran a mile
Then the emu standing near with his claw up to his ear
Sang Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep
I was underneath the cart, the boss woke me with a start
Saying Clancy where the hell are the flaming sheep

Goodnight all

From Letty with love.

Claude Rains
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name William Claude Rains
Born November 10, 1889(1889-11-10)
London, England
Died May 30, 1967 (aged 77)
Laconia, New Hampshire, U.S. (intestinal hemorrhage)
Years active 1920-1965
Spouse(s) Isabel Jeans (1913-1915)
Marie Hemingway (1920-1920)
Beatriz Thomas (1924-1935)
Frances Propper (1935-1956)
Agi Jambor (1959-1960)
Rosemary Clark Schrode (1960-1964)
[show]Awards
Tony Awards
Best Leading Actor in a Play
1951 Darkness at Noon

Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 - May 30, 1967) was an English theatre and film actor, who later held American citizenship, best known for his many roles in Hollywood films.





Early life

Rains was born William Claude Rains (known as 'Willie') in Camberwell, London on November 10, 1889. He grew up with, according to his daughter, "a very serious cockney accent and a speech impediment".[1]

His acting talents were recognized by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, founder of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tree paid for the elocution lessons that Rains would need to succeed as an actor. Later, Rains taught at the institution, working with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, among others.

Rains served in the First World War with the London Scottish Regiment,[2] alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall; he was involved in a gas attack that left him almost blind in one eye for the rest of his life. However, the war did aid his social advancement, and by its end, he had risen from the rank of Private to Captain.


Career

Having made his name in the theatre, Rains came late to film acting. His first screen test was a failure, but his voice won him the title role in James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room.[3] Rains later credited director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or, "what not to do in front of a camera".[4]


Claude Rains in Notorious (1946)Following The Invisible Man, Universal Studios tried to typecast him in horror films, but he broke free, starting with the role of Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), then with his Academy Award-nominated role as the conflicted corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and followed with probably his most famous role, the suave French police Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942). In 1945, Rains became the first actor to receive a million dollar salary for his role as Julius Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra.

He appeared in his only singing and dancing role, as the Mayor in a television musical version of Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin, opposite Van Johnson as the Piper. This 1957 NBC color special, shown as a film rather than a live or videotaped program, was highly successful with the public. Sold into syndication after its first telecast, it was repeated annually by many local TV stations.

Rains remained a popular character actor in the '50s and '60s, appearing in many films. Two of his well-known later screen roles were Dryden, a cynical British diplomat in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and King Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). The latter was his final film role.



Personal life

In 1939, Rains became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He married six times, the first five of which ended in divorce: Isabel Jeans (1913 - 1915); Marie Hemingway (1920 - 1920); Beatriz Thomas (1924 - April 8, 1935); Frances Propper (April 9, 1935 - 1956); and Agi Jambor (November 4, 1959 - 1960). He married Rosemary Clark Schrode in 1960, and stayed with her until her death on December 31, 1964.

He acquired the 380-acre Stock Grange Farm in West Bradford Township just outside West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1941, and spent much of his time between takes reading up on agricultural techniques. He eventually sold the farm when his marriage to Propper ended in 1956.


Death

Rains died from an internal haemorrhage, in Laconia, New Hampshire at the age of 77. He is interred in the Red Hill Cemetery, Moultonborough, New Hampshire.


Awards and nominations

In 1951, Rains won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Darkness at Noon. He was also nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor: for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, Mr. Skeffington and Notorious. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard.

Mabel Normand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mabel Normand (November 10, 1895? - February 23, 1930)[1] was a US film actress and the most popular screen comedienne of the silent film era. Her later career was marked by several successive scandals.





Early life and career

Born Mabel Ethelreid Normand in Staten Island, New York, she grew up in extreme poverty. Her father was sporadically employed as a carpenter at Sailors' Snug Harbor home for elderly seamen. Before she entered films in 1909, Normand worked as an artist's model, which included posing for postcards illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl image. She met director Mack Sennett and embarked on a tumultuous affair with him. Her first films portrayed her as a bathing beauty, but Normand quickly demonstrated a flair for comedy and became a star of Sennett's short films. She appeared regularly with Charles Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and wrote, directed, and starred in some of Chaplin's early films. She has been credited with being the first person to throw a cream pie on film and is often cited as silent cinema's most prominent comedienne. She directed films and made full-length features before either Arbuckle or Chaplin.

In 1914 she starred with Chaplin and Marie Dressler in Tillie's Punctured Romance. Normand developed into a major film star. As her relationship with Sennett came to an end, she signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn in 1918 and opened her own film studio in Culver City. During this time she reportedly became addicted to both alcohol and narcotics, which damaged her health and career. Nonetheless, her breakup with Sennett seems to have caused Normand to re-evaluate her life and she embarked on a program of self-education, developing keen and lasting interests in reading and books.


Scandals

Director William Desmond Taylor shared her interest in books and the two formed a close friendship. He was murdered in 1922 only minutes after Normand had left his home. She was closely scrutinized by police but never considered a serious suspect.[1] Newspapers speculated wildly about Normand given reports of her drug use along with her many past appearances in films with Roscoe Arbuckle, who had also recently become enmeshed in scandal. In 1924 she was involved in yet another scandal when her chauffeur Joe Kelly (an ex-convict whose real name was Horace Greer) shot and wounded Normand's lover Courtland Dines with her pistol.


Later career and death

She continued making films and was signed by Hal Roach Studios in 1926 after discussions with director/producer F. Richard Jones, who had directed her at Keystone. At Roach she made the film Raggedy Rose plus four others which were released with publicity support from the Hollywood community (including her friend Mary Pickford).

She married actor Lew Cody in 1926 (they lived separately in nearby houses in Beverly Hills before Cody moved in with her) but her health was in decline. After an extended stay in a sanitarium she died from tuberculosis at about the age of 35 in Monrovia, California. She was interred at Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles.

Mabel Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Richard Burton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.
Born 10 November 1925(1925-11-10)
Pontrhydyfen, Wales, UK
Died 5 August 1984 (aged 58)
Céligny, Switzerland
Spouse(s) Sybil Williams (1949-1963)
Elizabeth Taylor (1964-1974, 1975-1976)
Susan Hunt (1976-1982)
Sally Hay (1983-1984)
[show]Awards
BAFTA Awards
Best Actor
1967 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Golden Globe Awards
Most Promising Newcomer - Male
1953 My Cousin Rachel
Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1978 Equus
Grammy Awards
Best Album for Children
1976 The Little Prince
Tony Awards
Best Leading Actor in a Musical
1961 Camelot
Special Tony Award
1976 Lifetime Achievement

Richard Burton, CBE (November 10, 1925 - August 5, 1984) was a Welsh actor. He was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.[1] Known for his distinctive voice, he was nominated seven times for Academy Awards for acting, but never won.





Background and education

He was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Wales, near Port Talbot and grew up in a poor, Welsh-speaking household, the twelfth of thirteen children.[2] His father was a coalminer, and his mother died after the last birth, before he was two years old; thenceforth a sister in Port Talbot took him into her family[2][3] where he was raised a Presbyterian.

He showed a talent for English literature at grammar school, though his consuming interest was sports.[4] With the assistance of his inspirational schoolmaster, Philip H. Burton (who mentored him), he excelled in school productions. Philip could not legally adopt Burton because their ages were too close together.[5] It was at this time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his hallmark, having been encouraged by Philip (who sidelined as a BBC radio producer) to "lose his Welsh accent". To this day, many aspiring actors study Burton's style of elocution which has been hailed by critics worldwide. His official website claims that he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood during his heyday of on-screen and off-screen collaborations with fellow icon Liz Taylor, and he is often ranked among the greatest actors of all time.

There is a widespread myth (perhaps encouraged or even believed by some members of his stoutly working-class family) that Richard Burton "won a scholarship to Oxford at the age of sixteen" but left after six months. The facts, as recorded by Burton himself in his autobiography and in Richard and Philip, which he co-wrote, are as follows: At the age of sixteen, he was forced to leave school and find work as a shop assistant. His former teacher, Philip Burton, recognising his talent, adopted him and enabled him to return to school. In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Richard Burton (who had now taken his teacher's surname), was allowed into Exeter College, Oxford, for a term of six months study. This was made possible only because it was wartime and he was an air force cadet.

He subsequently served in the RAF (1944-1947) as a navigator. His eyesight was too poor for him to be considered pilot material.[4]


Early acting career

In the 1940s and early 1950s Burton worked on stage and in cinema in the United Kingdom. Before his war service with the RAF, he had made his professional debut in Liverpool, appearing in a play called Druid's Rest, but his career was interrupted by conscription in 1944. While making his first film, The Last Days of Dolwyn in 1947, he met his future wife, the young actress Sybil Williams, and they married in February 1949. They had two daughters, but divorced in 1963, after Burton hit the big time. In the year of his marriage to Sybil, Burton appeared in the West End in a highly successful production of The Lady's Not For Burning, alongside Sir John Gielgud. He had small parts in various British films: Now Barabbas Was A Robber; Waterfront (1950) with Robert Newton; The Woman With No Name (1951); and a bigger part as a smuggler in Green Grow The Rushes, a B-movie. In the 1951 season at Stratford , he gave a critically acclaimed performance as Prince Hal. This prompted Alexander Korda to try to get Burton to sign a contract with him, and in 1952 Burton signed a five year contract with Korda at £100 a week.


Hollywood and later career

In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star; on the recommendation of Daphne du Maurier, he was given the leading role in My Cousin Rachel opposite Olivia de Havilland. 20th century Fox negotiated with Korda to borrow him for this film and a further two at $50,000 a film. The film was a critical success, established Burton as a Hollywood leading man, and won him his first Academy Award nomination. The following year he created a sensation by starring in The Robe, the first film to be shot in the wide-screen process Cinemascope, winning another Oscar nomination. In 1954, he took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, a role he would reprise in the film version twenty years later.


Stage career

Burton was still juggling theatre with film, playing Hamlet and Coriolanus at the Old Vic Theatre in 1953 and alternating the roles of Iago and Othello with the Old Vic's other rising matinee idol John Neville. He also appeared on Broadway, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Time Remembered (1958) and winning the award for playing King Arthur in the musical Camelot (1960). He then put his stage career on the back burner to concentrate on film, although he received a third Tony Award nomination when he reprised his Hamlet under John Gielgud's direction in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history. After that his stage appearances were rare, although he made a memorable return to Broadway in 1976 in Equus, his performance as psychiatrist Martin Dysart winning both a special Tony Award for his appearance as well as the role in the 1977 film version. Burton made only two more stage appearances after that, in a high-paying touring production of Camelot in 1980 that he was forced to leave early in the run due to a back injury (to be replaced by his friend Richard Harris), and in a critically reviled production of Noël Coward's Private Lives opposite his ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor in 1983. Most reviewers dismissed the production as a transparent attempt to capitalize on the couple's celebrity, although they grudgingly praised Burton as having the closest connection to Coward's play of anyone in the cast.


Hollywood career in the 1950s and 1960s

In terms of critical success, his Hollywood roles throughout the 1950s did not live up to the early promise of his debut. Then in 1958, he was offered the part of Jimmy Porter in the film version of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger, a gritty drama about middle-class life in the British Midlands. After playing King Arthur in Camelot on Broadway, he replaced Stephen Boyd as Mark Antony in the troubled production Cleopatra (1963). This film proved to be the start of his most successful period in Hollywood; he would remain among the top 10 box-office earners for the next four years. During the filming, Burton met and fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor, although the two would not be free to marry until 1965, when their respective divorces were complete. Their private lives turned out to be an endless source of curiosity for the media, and their marriage was also the start of a series of on-screen collaborations.


He played Taylor's tycoon husband in The V.I.P.s, an all-star film set in the VIP lounge of London Airport which proved to be a box-office hit. In 1964, Burton played defrocked Episcopal priest Dr. Lawrence T. Shannon in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana directed by John Huston, a film which became another critical and box office success. Richard Burton's performance in The Night of the Iguana may be his finest hour on the screen, and in the process helped put the town of Puerto Vallarta on the map. After playing the archbishop martyred by Henry II in the title role of Becket and British spy Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, he and Taylor had a great success in Mike Nichols's film of the Edward Albee play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests, played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Although all four actors received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film, only Taylor and Dennis went on to win.

Burton and Taylor continued making films together: The Sandpiper (1965) was poorly received, but their lively version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1967) being a notable success, while later collaborations The Comedians (1967), Boom (1968), and the Burton-directed Dr. Faustus (1967) (which had its genesis from a theatre production he staged and starred in at the Oxford University Dramatic Society) being critical and commercial failures. He did enjoy a final commercial blockbuster with Where Eagles Dare in 1968 but his last film of the decade, Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), was a commercial and critical disappointment. In spite of those failures, it performed remarkably well at that year's Academy awards (receiving ten nominations, including one for Burton's performance as Henry VIII), which many thought to be largely the result of an expensive advertising campaign by Universal Studios[6].


Career decline

Burton's career went into decline after that, according to many critics who accused him of accepting roles in inferior projects to collect a quick paycheck. Films he made during this period included Bluebeard (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), The Klansman (1974), and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). He did enjoy one major critical success in the 1970s in the film version of his stage hit Equus, winning the Golden Globe Award as well as an Academy Award nomination. Public sentiment towards his perennial frustration at not winning an Oscar made many pundits consider him the favorite to finally win the award, but on Oscar Night he lost to Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl.

He found success in 1978, when he narrated Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. His distinctive performance became a necessary part of the concept album - so much so that a hologram of Burton is used to narrate the live stage show (touring in 2006 and 2007) of the musical.

He went back to appearing in critically reviled films like The Wild Geese (1978), The Medusa Touch (1978), Circle of Two (1980), and Wagner (1983) after his success in Equus, but his last movie performance as the villain O'Brien in the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was critically acclaimed.


Oscar frustration

He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Actor and once for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - but he never won. From 1982, he and Becket co-star Peter O'Toole shared the record for the male actor with the most nominations (7) for a competitive acting Oscar without ever winning. In 2007, Peter O'Toole was unsuccessfully nominated for an eighth time, for Venus.


Television

Burton rarely appeared on television, although he gave a memorable performance as Caliban in a televised production of The Tempest for The Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1960. Later appearances included the TV movie Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) opposite then-wife Elizabeth Taylor (a prophetic title, since their first marriage would be dissolved less than a year later), a remake of the classic film Brief Encounter (1974) that was considered vastly inferior to the 1946 original, and a critically applauded performance as Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm (1974). A critically panned film he made about the life of Richard Wagner (noted only for having the only onscreen teaming of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the same scene) was shown as a television miniseries in 1983 after failing to achieve a theatrical release, but Burton enjoyed a personal triumph in the American television miniseries Ellis Island in 1984, receiving an Emmy Award nomination for his final television performance.

Television played an important part in the fate of his Broadway appearance in Camelot. When the show's run was threatened by disappointing reviews, Burton and costar Julie Andrews appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform the number What Do The Simple Folk Do?. The television appearance renewed public interest in the production and extended its Broadway run.

Late in his career, he played himself in an episode of the Television Show The Fall Guy, repeating a stunt he made in 1970 when he and then-wife Elizabeth Taylor appeared as themselves on an episode of Here's Lucy as part of his unsuccessful campaign to win the Oscar for his nominated performance in Anne of the Thousand Days.

In 1997, archive footage of Burton was used in the first episode of the television series Conan.[7]


Personal life

Burton was married five times, first to Sybil Williams from 1949 to 1963, and had two children with Williams, actress Kate Burton and Jessica Burton. He was married twice, consecutively, to Elizabeth Taylor (15 March 1964 - 26 June 1974 and 10 October 1975 - 29 July 1976). Their second marriage occurred sixteen months after their divorce, in the Chobe National Park, Kasane, Botswana. The relationship between them portrayed in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was popularly likened to Burton and Taylor's real-life marriage.[8]

He was an insomniac and a notoriously heavy drinker. However, ongoing back pain and a dependence upon pain medications have been suggested as the true cause of his misery.

His father (known as Dich Bach) also a heavy drinker, refused to acknowledge the son's talents, achievements and acclaim.[3] In turn, Richard declined to attend his funeral, in 1957.[4]

Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in 1974 for questioning the sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II - Burton reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese people on the planet. Ironically, Burton had got along well with Churchill when he met the former Prime Minister at a play in London, and kept a bust of the great wartime leader on his mantlepiece. Burton courted further controversy in 1976 when he wrote a controversial article about his late friend and fellow Welsh thespian Sir Stanley Baker, who had recently died from lung cancer at the age of 48.


Death

Burton's fourth marriage was to Suzy Hunt, ex-wife of motor racing driver James Hunt, (maiden name Suzy Millar, whose father was a judge in Kenya) and his fifth was to Sally Hay, a make-up artist who later became a successful novelist. While married to Sally, he died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Switzerland, where he is buried. He was only 58 years old. Burton was buried in a red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots.[9]

Roy Scheider
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Roy Richard Scheider
Born November 10, 1932 (1932-11-10) (age 75)
Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Years active 1968-present
Spouse(s) Cynthia Scheider (1962-1989)
Brenda King (1989-present)
Official site royscheider.net
Roy Richard Scheider (born November 10, 1932) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-nominated American actor.





Biography

Scheider was born in Orange, New Jersey. As a child Scheider was an athlete, participating in organized baseball and boxing competitions. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1985. He traded his boxing gloves for the stage, studying drama at both Rutgers University and Franklin and Marshall College, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After three years in the United States Air Force, he appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival, and won an Obie Award in 1968.

Roy Scheider's first marriage was to Cynthia Bebout on November 8, 1962. The couple had one daughter, Maximillia, before divorcing in 1989. On February 11, 1989, he married his current wife, actress Brenda King, with whom he has a son, Christian, and a daughter, Molly.


Film roles

Scheider's first film role was in the 1963 horror film Curse of the Living Corpse. (He was billed as "Roy R. Sheider"). In 1971 he appeared in two highly popular movies, Klute and The French Connection, the latter garnering him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Four years later he portrayed Chief Martin Brody in the Hollywood blockbuster Jaws. Over thirty years later he narrated The Shark is Still Working, an independent documentary celebrating the film. In 1976 he starred as Doc, a secret agent in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. In 1983 he starred in Blue Thunder, a John Badham film about a technologically advance attack helicopter prowling the skies of Los Angeles. This was followed by appearing in Peter Hyams' 2010: The Year We Make Contact. A 1984 sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction classic A Space Odyssey.

Four years after he appeared in Jaws, he was nominated for his second Academy Award, this time as Best Actor in All That Jazz.


Original cast

He was originally cast as Michael in The Deer Hunter, as the second movie of a three movie deal with Universal Studios. Because he did not believe that the character would travel around the world to find his friend, he quit the picture. Universal executives were furious, but they let him out of his contract when he agreed to do Jaws 2.

In 1993, Scheider signed on to star in the Steven Spielberg-produced television series seaQuest DSV. During the second season, Scheider voiced disdain for the direction in which the series was heading. His comments were highly publicized and the media criticized him for panning his own show. NBC made additional casting and writing changes in the third season, and Scheider decided to exit the show. His contract however, required that he make several guest appearances in season three.


Other appearances

Scheider went on to star in films such as The Myth of Fingerprints (1997) and Silver Wolf (1998). He has also repeatedly guest starred on the NBC television series Third Watch. Among his most recent films is the crusty father of hero Frank Castle in The Punisher (2004).

Scheider also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in the tenth (1984-1985) season (musical guest: Billy Ocean) and appeared on the Family Guy episode Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey voicing himself as the host of a toilet-training video.

In 2007, Scheider received one of two annually-presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. (Academy Award winner Patricia Neal was the recipient of the other.)

Scheider guest-starred in an episode Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a death row inmate on May 14, 2007.


Myeloma

In 2004, Scheider was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. In June 2005, he underwent a bone marrow transplant to successfully treat the cancer which is classified as being in partial remission. However, there is no cure for Myeloma, only treatment.

Ponderings


Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?

It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living.

We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them.

Laughing stock - cattle with a sense of humor.

You can't have everything, where would you put it?

Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world's population.

If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

Good morning, WA2K radio fans and contributors

Once again we owe a debt of gratitude to our hawkman for his marvelous celeb info. Thanks, BioBob, we always learn somethings new from you. Your ponderings also gave us a morning smile. I especially like the one about the cars, buddy.

To add one more interesting man to your memorials, it seems that Norman Mailer died today at the age of 84. He was a rebel, folks.

If I'm not mistaken, Veterans Day will be Monday, and I think it appropriate to acknowledge Jane Froman with a song "in our hearts" for the talented lady.

I'll walk alone because, to tell you the truth, I'll be lonely
I don't mind being lonely
When my heart tells me you are lonely, too

I'll walk alone, they'll ask me why and I'll tell them I'd rather
There are dreams I must gather
Dreams we fashioned the night you held me tight

I'll always be near you wherever you are each night
In every prayer
If you call I'll hear you, no matter how far
Just close your eyes and I'll be there

Please walk alone and send your love and your kisses to guide me
Till you're walking beside me, I'll walk alone



I'll always be near you wherever you are each night
In every prayer
If you call I'll hear you, no matter how far
Just close your eyes and I'll be there

Please walk alone and send your love and your kisses to guide me
Till you're walking beside me, I'll walk alone
I'll walk alone

edgar, we always appreciate your updates on the golden days. Hmmm, folks. I know that we know Gale, but a photo helps us to tell and show.



Strange, folks, just saw that George Clooney and fabulous Fabian got into a tussle, and Mickey Rourke got arrested in Miami for riding a moped while intoxicated. I think, perhaps, we have more important things with which to be concerned.

Good Morning.

And today's bio gallery:

Claude Rains (could understand every word that man spoke); Mabel Normand; Jane Froman (what a voice!); Richard Burton (what a voice and face) and Roy Scheider




Have a good day!

Oops, Raggedy, it's good afternoon for me. Thanks once again for the delightful quartet of notables. Ah, yes, PA, Burton had a face and an acting ability that hasn't often been surpassed. Odd that he never won an academy award. I didn't realize that he had read Dylan Thomas, however. Roy, of course, we remember because of an infamous white shark. Always referred to Jaws as a poor man's Moby Dick.

For Richard, one of my favorites theme songs from a movie.

One day we walked along the sand
One day in early spring
You held a piper in your hand
To mend its broken wing
Now I'll remember many a day
And many a lonely mile
The echo of a piper's song
The shadow of a smile

The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn
Look into my eyes
My love and see
All the lovely things
You are to me

Our wistful little star
Was far too high
A teardrop kissed your lips
And so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joy that love can bring
I will be remembering
The shadow of your smile

Roy Scheider, superb actor and VERY good in Jaws...his birthday eh?
I love the scene where he sits with his youngest son at the dinner table before going off in the boat.

Gimme a kiss
Why?
Because I need it.

I saw Jaws on it´s first release when I was six years old. Saw it with my Dad and it scared the absolute hell out of both of us. I`ve seen it about sixteen times now and only just recently did I notice the atrocious continuity... incredible: sunny blue sky, very cloudy, very blue and sunny again... wet boat sinking, dry boat afloat.
I could discuss Jaws all night long.

My word, hebba. What a bright young lad you must have been. It frightened me as well and I was a wee bit older than six.

Remember this, Denmark?

Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;
For we've received orders for to sail for ole England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues.

We hove our ship to with the wind from sou'west, boys
We hove our ship to, deep soundings to take;
'Twas forty-five fathoms, with a white sandy bottom,
So we squared our main yard and up channel did make.
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues.

The first land we sighted was called the Dodman,
Next Rame Head off Plymouth, off Portsmouth the Wight;
We sailed by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dover,
And then we bore up for the South Foreland light.
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues.

Then the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor,
And all in the Downs that night for to lie;
Let go your shank painter, let go your cat stopper!
Haul up your clewgarnets, let tacks and sheets fly!
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues.

Now let ev'ry man drink off his full bumper,
And let ev'ry man drink off his full glass;
We'll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy,
And here's to the health of each true-hearted lass.
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues.

That was done by Robert Shaw. He wasn't bad himself

I don´t know how bright I was, Letty, I was just glued to the screen with my mouth wide open.
Shaw was good too, yes.

As were all who saw it, hebba. I read the book first, and it came as no surprise to me that a terrible backlash occurred after the initial showing. People were afraid to go into the ocean, and sharks were mercilessly slaughtered for a long time.

I think Peter Benchley wrote The Girl of the Sea of Cortez. That was a novel that was a prose poem.

I just checked, folks. He did indeed write that book.

Ha!!
I may not read this book.
"The Girl in a Swing" was too spooky for words so I´ll skip this "Cortez Sea" dame.