WA2K Radio is now on the air

My goodness, listeners, there's our Try breaking away. Great song by Kelly, buddy. Hey, we could tell her that she can......


The Monkees (Lord Ellpus hates them primates)

Take the last train to clarksville,
And Ill meet you at the station.
You can be be there by four thirty,
cause I made your reservation.
Dont be slow, oh, no, no, no!
Oh, no, no, no!

cause Im leavin in the morning
And I must see you again
Well have one more night together
til the morning brings my train.
And I must go, oh, no, no, no!
Oh, no, no, no!
And I dont know if Im ever coming home.

Take the last train to clarksville.
Ill be waiting at the station.
Well have time for coffee flavored kisses
And a bit of conversation.
Oh... oh, no, no, no!
Oh, no, no, no!

Take the last train to clarksville,
Now I must hang up the phone.
I cant hear you in this noisy
Railroad station all alone.
Im feelin low. oh, no, no, no!
Oh, no, no, no!
And I dont know if Im ever coming home.

Take the last train to clarksville,
Take the last train to clarksville,
[repeat and fade]

I missed the train, so I said…

Please Forgive Me
Bryan Adams ›

Still feels like our first night together
Feels like the first kiss
It's getting better baby
No one can better this
Still holding on, you're still the one
First time our eyes met
Same feeling I get
Only feels much stronger
Wanna love you longer
You still turn the fire on

so if you're feelin' lonely don't
you're the only one I ever want
I only wanna make it good
so if I love you a little more than I should

Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me I need you like I do
Please believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you

Still feels like our best times are together
Feels like the first touch
Still getting closer baby
Can't get close enough
Still holding on you're still number one
I remember the smell of your skin
I remember everything
I remember all your moves
I remember you, yeah
I remember the nights, you know i still do

So if you're feeling lonely don't
You're the only one I ever want
I only want to make it good
So if I love you a little more than I should

Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me I need you like I do
Yeah, believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you

The one thing I'm sure of, is the way we made love
The one thing I depend on, is for us to stay strong
With every word and every breath I'm prayin', it's why I'm saying
Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me if I need you like I do
babe, believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me if I can't stop lovin' you
Yeah, believe me I don't know what I do
Please forgive me if I can't stop loving you
Can't stop loving you

Well, Try. Some lady just phoned in and said that she had her own creed, and you are....


Unforgiven

I kept up
With the prophecy you spoke
I kept up with the message inside
Lost sight of the irony
Of twisted faith
Lost sight of my soul and its void
Think I'm unforgiven to this world
Took a chance at deceiving myself
To share in the consequence of lies
Childish with my
Reasoning and pride
Godless to the extent that I died
Think I'm unforgiven to this world
Think I'm unforgiven
Step inside the light and see the fear
Of God burn inside of me
The gold was put to flame
To kill, to burn, to mold its purity.

by Creed

Once I thought I should…

Think Twice
Celine Dion ›

Don't think I can't feel there's something wrong
You've been the sweetest part of my life so long
I look in your eyes, there's a distant light
And you and I know there'll be a storm tonight
This is getting serious
Are you thinking bout you or us

(chorus)
Don't say what you're about to say
Look back before you leave my life
Be sure before you close that door
Before you roll those dice
Baby think twice

Baby think twice for the sake of our love, for the memory
For the fire and the faith that was you and me
Baby I know it aint easy when your soul cries out for a higher ground
coz when you're halfway up, you're always halfway down
But baby this is serious
Are you thinking bout you or us

(repeat first chorus)

(breakdown)
Baby this is serious
Are you thinking bout you or us

Don't say what you're about to say
Look back before you leave my life
Be sure before you close that door
Before you roll those dice

Don't do what you're about to do
My everything depends on you
And whatever it takes, Ill sacrifice
Before you roll those dice
Baby think twice

Ah, Try, honey. That is lovely, but Bob Dylan has an answer for you. <smile>

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter, anyhow
And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the breaks of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm traveling on
Don't think twice, it's all right.

It ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talking anyway
So don't think twice, it's all right.

It ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
Like you never done before
It ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
I can't hear you any more
I'm a - thinking and a - wond'rin' walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
Don't think twice, it's all right.

So long honey, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
Goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well
I ain't saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right.

and the dark is drifting in on a very warm Florida.

evening , all !
(as we used to say in germany : "plenty hot and not enough beer ! )

so , let's go fishing with the 'arrogant worms' :

the fishing song
------------------
It's early in the morning, way before dawn
I down a cup of coffee, put my lucky hat on
Get down to the water before all the crowds
Gonna have more fun than the law allows

With my hot rod, I go out to cruise
When I'm on the prowl, I never lose
I fire up my merc and put the throttle down
'cause I've got the fastest fishing boat in town
I open up my tackle box, it's so big!
Crank baits, sink baits, beer and jigs
Got my bobbers on, and my 10 pound test
Gonna catch me a lunker gonna be the best

(gonna go fishing) gonna have some fun
(gonna go fishing) 'cause it's number one
(gonna go fishing) gonna sit on my butt
(gonna catch a fish) and scrape out it's guts
Ahhh, fishing!

I fish on the lake, by the sunken tree stump
Between the sewage output, and the chemical dump
Don't swim in the lake, says a sign on a tree
It's a good thing that fish can't read
I got my 10 dollar lure, the one that floats
And I make a big cast from my 20 grand boat
With my thousand dollar rod, or maybe it's more
Gonna catch me a fish that's 5 bucks at the store

(gonna go fishing) gonna have some fun
(gonna go fishing) 'cause it's number one
(gonna go fishing) gonna sit on my butt
(gonna catch a fish) and scrape out it's guts
Ahhh, fishing!

I feel something tugging on the end of my line
(tug, tug, tug, tug, tug that line)
I'm gonna catch a fish, it's gonna be so fine
(fish, fish, fish, fish, fish so fine)
Oh it feels so good to touch fish slime
(slime, slime, slime, slime, fishy slime)
There's nothing else to do with my free time
(time, time, time, time, waste of time)
Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhhhhhh

Let's catch a fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish
Eat a fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish
Swallow a fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish
Digest a fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish
Out comes the fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish
It was a fishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfishfish

(gonna go fishing) gonna have some fun
(gonna go fishing) 'cause it's number one
(gonna go fishing) gonna sit on my butt
(gonna catch a fish) and scrape out it's guts
Ahhh
(gonna go fishing) gonna have some fun
(gonna go fishing) 'cause it's number one
(gonna go fishing) gonna sit on my butt
(gonna catch a fish) and scrape out it's guts
Ahhh, fish-fish-fishing c-a-n-a-d-a!

recently our next door neighbour introduced us to her nephew , who turned out to be several years older than she is - and looked it too , the poor fellow .
i couldn't help thinking of the song "i'm my own grandpa" - mrs h kept me under control by shooting me some 'stars' , but i smiled anyway - just trying to be friendly , of course .

so here goes :

I'm My Own Grandpa
Lyrics: Dwight Latham, Moe Jaffe
Music: Dwight Latham, Moe Jaffe

Played by Jerry Garcia with David Grisman

Oh, many, many years ago
When I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as can be
This widow had a grown-up daughter
Who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life
For my daughter was my mother
'Cause she was my father's wife
To complicate the matter
Though it really brought me joy
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy

This little baby then became
A brother-in-law to Dad
And so became my uncle
Though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle
Then that also made him brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter
WHo of course is my step-mother

Chorus
I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
Oh, I'm my own grandpa

My father's wife then had a son
Who kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild
For he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue
Because although she is my wife
She's my grandmother too

Now if my wife is my grandmother
Then I'm her grandchild
And every time I think of it
It nearly drives me wild
For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandma
I am my own grandpa

Hey, hamburger. Nice to see you back with us. Love that song, but I suspect that arrogant worm is telling a tall tale about the price of a fishing rod and lure. Well, maybe not. A rich fisherperson (hate that word) can do about what he wants to do. <smile>

Ah, your neighbor's nephew must be a poor fisherman. You know, of course, that the wind and the salt can age a face.

Love that funny song, but I most certainly did NOT know that Jerry Garcia played on that one.

A memory and a smile, listeners. hamburger's fish story made me think of Cav's recommendation:

From the movie Big Fish:

Pearl Jam
» Man Of The Hour

Tidal waves don't beg forgiveness
Crashed and on their way
Father he enjoyed collisions; others walked away
A snowflake falls in may.
And the doors are open now as the bells are ringing out
Cause the man of the hour is taking his final bow
Goodbye for now.
Nature has its own religion; gospel from the land
Father ruled by long division, young men they pretend
Old men comprehend.
And the sky breaks at dawn; shedding light upon this town
They'll all come around
Cause the man of the hour is taking his final bow
G'bye for now.
And the road
The old man paved
The broken seams along the way
The rusted signs, left just for me
He was guiding me, love, his own way
Now the man of the hour is taking his final bow
As the curtain comes down
I feel that this is just g'bye for now

I think that I just felt a cooling sensation sweep through my mind.

now here is a surprise - it certainly surprised me !

THE ROAST BEEF SONG
---------------------------
Roast Beef of Old England john Gay 1735

When mighty roast beef was the Englishmen's food

It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood

Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

Our fathers of old were robust and stout

And kept open house with good cheer all day long

Which made their plump tenants rejoice in this song

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la lala - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

In those days if fleets did presume on the main

They seldom or never returned back again

As witness the vaunting armada of Spain...

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la lala - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

now here is a surprise - it certainly surprised me !

THE ROAST BEEF SONG
---------------------------
Roast Beef of Old England john Gay 1735

When mighty roast beef was the Englishmen's food

It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood

Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

Our fathers of old were robust and stout

And kept open house with good cheer all day long

Which made their plump tenants rejoice in this song

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la lala - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

In those days if fleets did presume on the main

They seldom or never returned back again

As witness the vaunting armada of Spain...

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

La la - la la la lala - la la la la la - la la la la la

la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la -

la la la la la - la la la la

Oh! The roast beef of old England! For old England's roast beef

I wrote this song for someone I love . It was my first present to him after

his accident.

Note: after that I met many girls but not now. I live lonely like a wolf,

except the daily tasks I have.


Ofcourse everybody knows FIVE,

Now and forever (untill the time is through)
I can't believe it,
don't know where to start (no baby)
So many questions deep inside my heart
Give me a moment before you go,
there's something you want to know

*
baby now and forever untill the time is through
(untill the time is through)
I'll be standing here
waiting and never give up my faith in you
(give up my faith in you)
Trying to make it clear
without your love I'll be half a man
maybe one day you will understand
now and forever untill the time is through

I'll be waiting

How can I tell you so that you can see
(you know that)
Life has a meaning when you're here with me
(when you are here with me baby)
Give me a moment before you go
there's something you want to know

*
baby now and forever untill the time is through
(untill the time is through)
I'll be standing here
waiting and never give up my faith in you
(give up my faith in you)
Trying to make it clear
without your love I'll be half a man
maybe one day you will understand
now and forever untill the time is through

bridge
There is no one to comfort me
here in my cold reality
I'm searching for words
what can I say
to make you see
(to make you see)

baby now
untill time is through
(untill the time is through)
I'll be here
baby now untill time is through
(give up my faith in you)
I'll be here

*
baby now and forever untill the time is through
(untill the time is through)
I'll be standing here
waiting and never give up my faith in you
(give up my faith in you)
Trying to make it clear
without your love I'll be half a man
maybe one day you will understand
now and forever I'll be here for you
untill the time is through


I have another one and I'll put it here in case you like the first.

Good morning, WA2K listeners and fans.

Well, once again I have discovered that I only need seven hours of sleep to function properly. The formula for that determination is to go to bed and have no distractions. Then when awakening, one may discover the number of hours required. It will, of course, vary from individual to individual. Aren't you delighted with that bit of useless knowledge, folks?

hamburger, your roast "beast" song was so surprising that it was worth playing twice. Delightful, Canada.

Dear, dear navigator. That song that you wrote is wonderful, my dear. Where have you been hiding those talents? Thank you so much for playing it for us here. I especially like the line, "until the time is through" as it is unique in its context. By all means, please let us hear another.

Good morning everybody.

A few birthday entertainment celebrities:

There's our Raggedy with three great celebs. Thanks, PA. Let's salute one of the three, folks, and you can guess which one:

by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Songs that made the Hit Parade.

Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.

Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.

Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.

And you know who you were then. Girls were girls and men were men.

Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.

People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.

Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.

Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win.

Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.

Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.

I don't know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.

And the closing theme which very few of us (including me) did not know had lyrics:

Remembering You

by Roger Kellaway and Carroll O'Connor

Got a feelin' it's all over now - All over now, we're through.

And tomorrow I'll be lonesome, Remembering You.

Got a feelin' the sun will be gone - The day will be long and blue.

And tommorrow I'll be cryin', Remembering You.

There'a a far away look in your eye when you try to pretend to me,

That everything is the same as it used to be.

I see it's all over now - All over now, we're through.

And tomorrow I'll be startin' Remembering You.

What a ground breaker that was.

Helen Morgan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helen Morgan (August 2, 1900 - October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. She was born on 2 August 1900 in rural Danville, Illinois. She was born 'Helen Riggins' to a farmer and schoolteacher but became 'Morgan' when her mother remarried. By 20 she had taken voice lessons and was singing in speakeasies in Chicago. Her high, thin, and somewhat wobbly voice was not fashionable during the '20s for the kind of songs that she specialized in, but nevertheless she became a wildly popular torch singer. Her heart bled about hard living and heartbreak onto her accompanist's piano. This draped-over-the-piano look became her signature look while performing at Billy Rose's Backstage Club in 1925. Morgan drank too much and was often drunk during these performances, despite the National Prohibition Enforcement Act passed in 1919. During this period several Chicago gangsters tried to help fund her various attempts to open her own nightclub. However, Prohibition agents kept too strict an eye on her and her attempts failed.

Show Boat is one of Morgan's best-known appearances. As Julie La Verne she sang Bill (lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein) and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man in two stage runs and two film productions over a span of 11 years. (In the first film version of "Show Boat", made in 1929, Morgan appeared only in the song prologue; Alma Rubens played Julie in the film proper, which was mostly silent. However, Morgan did play the role in the 1936 film version of the musical.)

Morgan was noticed by Florenz Ziegfield while dancing in the chorus of his production of Sally in 1923 and she went on to perform with the Ziegfield Follies in 1931, the Follies' last active year. During this period she studied music at the Metropolitan Opera in her free time.

In the late '30s Morgan was signed up for a show at Chicago's Loop Theater. However, her alcoholism began to affect her work and she died at 41 of cirrhosis of the liver on 8 October 1941 in Chicago, Illinois.

Morgan was played by Ann Blyth in a 1957 biographical film, titled The Helen Morgan Story or Why was I born? in the US and Both Ends Of The Candle in the UK.

Myrna Loy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born: August 2, 1905
Radersburg, Montana, United States of America
Died: December 14, 1993
New York City, New York, United States of America
Occupation: Film Actress
Spouse: Arthur Hornblow, Jr, John Hertz, Jr, Gene Markey, Howland H. Sergeant

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as Nora Charles, wife of detective Nick Charles (William Powell), in The Thin Man series of madcap detective films. Loy was often typecast as a pert, perfect wife, and was known for her charm, grace and elegance.


Early life

Born Myrna Adele Williams in Radersburg (near Helena, Montana), the daughter of a rancher, David Franklin Williams, whose roots were in Glamorgan, Wales, and his wife, Adella. Loy's first name came from a train station whose name her father admired.

Myrna Williams made her stage debut at age 12 in Helena's Marlow Theater in a dance she choreographed based on "The Blue Bird" from the Rose Dream Operetta. She moved to Los Angeles, California when she was 12, after her father's death, and attended the Westlake School for Girls. At the age of 15 she began appearing in local stage productions. She went to Venice High School, in Venice, California, and in 1921, when she was 16, she posed for Harry Winebrenner's semi-nude statue, titled Spiritual, which remained in front of Venice High School throughout the 20th Century and can be seen in the opening scenes of the film Grease (1978). The Spiritual statue was vandalized in recent years, and a restoration is planned.

Career rise

Natacha Rambova, the second wife of Rudolph Valentino, arranged a screen test for her which she failed, but she persevered, and in 1925 appeared in the Rambova penned movie What Price Beauty? opposite Rambova and Nita Naldi. Her silent film roles were mainly those of vampish exotic women. For a few years she struggled to overcome this stereotype with many producers and directors believing that while she was perfect as femme fatales, she was capable of little more. During her nine-year struggle to establish herself, she appeared in nearly 80 films.


Myrna Loy in the 1920s

Her breakthrough occurred in 1934 with two very successful films. The first was Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. Her performance in The Thin Man later the same year as William Powell's sophisticated, witty wife Nora Charles made her a star. She and Powell proved to be a popular couple and appeared in 14 films together, the most prolific onscreen pairing in Hollywood history.

In 1936, she was voted "Queen of Hollywood" (in a contest which also voted Clark Gable "King") and was considered to epitomise the height of glamour and sophistication. During this period she was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses.

World War II

With the outbreak of World War II she all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She was fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler and her name appeared on his "blacklist". She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

Later career

She returned to films with The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946 and played the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March. In later years Loy would recall this film as her proudest acting achievement. It also allowed Loy to make a film that demonstrated her social conscience. During her career she had championed the rights of black actors and characters to be depicted with dignity on film.

In later life she assumed a more influential role as Co-Chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. From 1949 until 1954 she also worked for UNESCO; she also was an active member of the Democratic Party. Her film career continued sporadically (in 1960 she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, and was not in another until 1969 in The April Fools) and she also returned to the stage making her Broadway debut in a short-lived 1973 revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women. Her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming was published in 1987.

In 1965 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1988.

Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1991, after an intensive lobbying effort and letter-writing campaign spearheaded by screenwriter Michael Russnow of West Hollywood. Loy won the award "for her career achievement", and she accepted via camera from her New York home, though she sounded somewhat "slurry" by those who recall the broadcast. This was possibly due to medications that Loy was supposedly taking at the time. Upon her acceptance, Loy thanked "everyone" sincerely and graciously with exactly a nine-word speech, saying: "You've made me very happy. Thank you very much." It would be her last public appearance in any medium.

After apparently successfully battling breast cancer and enduring two mastectomies, Loy eventually died during surgery, the exact nature of which was never specified in the reports of her death (although the IMDB lists it as cancer surgery) in New York City at the age of 88.

Her remains were cremated and the ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in the capital city of Helena, which is near her birthplace of Radersburg, in her beloved home state, and far from the pains of Los Angeles and NYC.

On August 2, 2005, the centenary of Loy's birth, Warner Home Video released the six films from The Thin Man series, on DVD as a boxed set.

Personal life

Loy was married four times:

Arthur Hornblow, Jr. (1936-1942), producer
John Hertz Jr. of the rent-a-car family (1942-1944)
Gene Markey (1946-1950), producer
Howland H. Sergeant (1951-1960), UNESCO delegate
Loy had no children of her own, though it is documented that she was very close to the children of her first husband, Arthur Hornblow. "Some perfect wife I am," she said, referring to her typecasting. "I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg."

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6685 Hollywood Blvd.

Gary Merrill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary F. Merrill (August 2, 1915 - March 5, 1990) was a U. S. film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of TV guest appearances.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he began acting in 1944, while still in the United States Army. His film career began promisingly, with roles in films like Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and All About Eve (1950), but he rarely moved beyond supportive roles in his many Westerns, war movies, and medical dramas. His television career was extensive, if not consistent. Two of his recurring roles, which included Then Came Bronson and Young Doctor Kildare, lasted less than a season.

Merrill's first marriage was to Barbara Leeds in 1941 which ended in divorce in 1950. He immediately married Bette Davis, his co-star from All About Eve, adopting her daughter from a previous marriage. He and Davis adopted two more children, but eventually divorced in 1960. Merrill was later romantically linked with actress Rita Hayworth.

Often politically active, he campaigned to elect Edmund Muskie to governor of Maine in 1953. Merrill also took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. In response to President Johnson's Vietnam policy, he unsuccessfully sought nomination to the Maine legislature as an anti-war, pro-environmentalist primary candidate[1].

Aside from an occasional role as narrator, Merrill had essentially retired from the entertainment business after 1980. Shortly before his death, he authored the autobiography Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989). Merrill died of lung cancer at Falmouth, Maine and is buried there in the Pine Grove Cemetery

Carroll O'Connor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 - June 21, 2001) was an American actor, famous for his portrayal of the character Archie Bunker in the television sitcoms All in the Family (1971-1979) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979-1983). O'Connor later starred in the television series In the Heat of the Night as Police Chief Bill Gillespie from 1988 to 1994.



Biography

O'Connor, of Irish descent, was born in The Bronx borough of New York City and spent much of his youth in Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens, the same borough in which his character Archie Bunker would later live. He served in the Merchant Marine during World War II, was educated in Montana and Ireland, and began his acting career shortly afterward. O'Connor's many film roles include Lonely Are The Brave (1962), Cleopatra (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), Hawaii (1966), The Devil's Brigade (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970). O'Connor also appeared on episodes of many popular television series such as Gunsmoke, I Spy, The Fugitive and The Wild Wild West. He was also among the actors considered for the role of Dr. Smith in the TV show, Lost In Space.

O'Connor was living in Italy in 1970 when producer Norman Lear asked him to star as Archie Bunker in a new sitcom called All in the Family. O'Connor did not expect the show to be a success and believed he would be able to move back to Europe. Instead, the show became the highest-rated television program on American television for five years until 1976.

O'Connor's own politics were liberal, but he understood the Bunker character and played him not only with bombast and humor but with touches of vulnerability. The writing on the show was consistently left of center, but O'Connor often deftly skewered the liberal pieties of the day. The result is widely considered to be an absorbing, entertaining television show. All in the Family was based on the BBC show Til Death Us Do Part, with Bunker based on Alf Garnett, but somewhat less abrasive.

Although Bunker was famous for his malapropisms of the English language, O'Connor was highly educated and cultured. In fact, he was an English teacher before turning to acting.

O'Connor married his wife Nancy in Dublin, Ireland (and she later converted to Roman Catholicism for him) in 1951, and their only child, adopted son Hugh O'Connor, committed suicide in 1995 after a long battle with drug addiction. Hugh left a widow and small child behind. O'Connor appeared in public service announcements for Partnership for a Drug Free America and spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction. He was instrumental in the passage of California's Drug Dealers Civil Liability Act.

In the late 1990s, O'Connor taught screenwriting at The University of Montana, where he attended college in his earlier years. He died on June 21, 2001, at the age of 76 from a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. In honor of his death, TV Land moved an entire weekend of programming to the next week and showed a continuous marathon of All in the Family. During the commercial breaks they also showed some interview footage of O'Connor and various "All in the Family" actors, producers with whom he had worked, and other associates.

Peter O'Toole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Seamus O'Toole (born August 2, 1932) is an Irish-born film and stage actor who was raised in England in the Yorkshire city of Leeds. He was born in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland and spent most of his life in Great Britain until returning to Ireland at the height of his fame in 1963.



Early life

Although O'Toole gives his birthplace as Connemara, County Galway, he himself suggests that this may not be accurate in the first volume of his memoirs, Loitering with Intent, saying that this is the "family version", and that he may have been born in either Kerry or Dublin, Ireland or, perhaps, Leeds, England. To avoid such complications for his children, he has ensured that both his daughter Kate and son Lorcan were born in Dublin. Elder daughter Patricia was born in England, a mistake which O'Toole regretted, famously saying: "Pat was born in Britain, the poor thing."

In her own memoir, Public Places, his former wife Siân Phillips says, "...he may or may not have been born there, but he is a true son of Connemara." His mother, Constance, was Scottish.

After National Service in Britain as a radioman in the Royal Navy, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1952-1954) on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's Drama School in Dublin by the then director Ernest Blythe because he couldn't speak Irish.

Career

He began getting work in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company, before making his television debut in 1954 and a very minor film debut in 1959.

O'Toole's major break came when he was chosen to play T.E. Lawrence in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Albert Finney turned down the role. His performance introduced him to U.S. audiences and earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

After Lawrence of Arabia, O'Toole received six more nominations for the Best Actor Oscar but never won the award in competition. In 2003, the Academy honoured his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award for his lifelong contribution to film. O'Toole initially balked about accepting and wrote the academy a letter saying he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright". The Academy informed him that they would bestow the award whether he wanted it or not and so in the end, O'Toole relented and reluctantly agreed to appear at the ceremony and pick up his Oscar.

His seven Oscars nomination without winning ties him with Richard Burton in this category of futility. He is also one of a handful of actors to be nominated for playing the same role in two different films; he played King Henry II in both 1964's Becket and 1968's The Lion in Winter.

He has also appeared in Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre and fulfilled a lifetime ambition when taking to the legendary stage of the Irish capital's Abbey Theatre in 1970 to play in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett alongside the celebrated stage actor Donal McCann.

In 2005 he took a rare television role as the older version of legendary 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova. O'Toole's role was mainly to frame the drama, telling the story of his life to serving maid Edith (Rose Byrne). The younger Casanova seen for most of the action was played by David Tennant, who had to wear contact lenses to match his brown eyes to O'Toole's blue.

O'Toole won an Emmy Award for his role in the 1999 mini-series Joan of Arc.

Personal life

In 1960 he married Welsh actress, Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters, Kate O'Toole (an award-winning actress, resident in his home town of Clifden) and Patricia; the couple divorced in 1979. He has never remarried.

Severe illness related to his heavy drinking almost ended his life in the late 1970s. In 1976 he underwent surgery to have his pancreas removed, which automatically made him a diabetic. He also had a large portion of his stomach removed. Gradually, O'Toole recovered and returned to work, although he found it harder to get parts in films, resulting in more work for television and occasional stage roles. However, he gave a star turn in 1987's much-garlanded The Last Emperor.

He is currently working on the third installment of Loitering With Intent. He and his ex-girlfriend, Karen Brown, have a son, Lorcan O'Toole.

He has resided in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland since 1963 and at the height of his career maintained homes in Dublin, London and Paris (at the Ritz) but now keeps only the London one.

Trivia

The Italian comic book character Alan Ford is graphically inspired by O'Toole.