Buster Crabbe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Buster Crabbe (February 7, 1908 - April 23, 1983) was an American athlete turned actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.
Birth
He was born as Clarence Linden Crabbe II to Lucy Agnes McNamara (1885-1959) and Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe I (1882-?) in Oakland, California, USA. His father, Edward, was born in Nevada and his paternal grandfather, Clarence Linden Crabbe I (1861-1941), was born in Hawaii. Buster had a brother: Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe II (1909-1972) who was known as "Buddy". In 1910 the family was living in a boarding house in Oakland and Edward senior was working as a real estate broker. Like many Hollywood stars there is a conflict between the birthdate given in his official documents, and the one used in his Hollywood publicity biographies. His birth certificate and his Social Security application both use the birthdate of "February 7, 1908" and that will be used here. The Encyclopædia Britannica uses an incorrect birthdate based on his Hollywood publicity biography.
Olympic medal record
Men's swimming
Gold 1932 Los Angeles 400 m freestyle
Bronze 1928 Amsterdam 1500 m freestyle
Hawaii and Olympics
Raised in Hawaii, he graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu. He excelled as a swimmer and participated in two Olympic Games: 1928, where he won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meter freestyle, and 1932, where he won the gold medal for the 400 meter freestyle. Ironically, at that Olympics, he broke the record held by Johnny Weissmuller, whose role as Tarzan he would later assume.
He attended the University of Southern California, where he was the school's first All-American swimmer (1931) and a 1931 NCAA freestyle titlist. He also became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity before graduating from USC in 1931. In 1933 he married his college sweetheart Adah Virginia Held, and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or start law school at USC. Buster and Virginia remained together until Buster's death in 1983. They had a son, Cullen, and a daughter, Sande. Sande died of anorexia.
Time magazine wrote on April 11, 1932: "Clarence (Buster) Crabbe, 22, of Los Angeles, ablest distance swimmer in the United States: the 1,500-metre race in the A.A.U. championships, at New Haven, lowering his own American record by 20.9 seconds to 19:45.6. Later he won two other championships: the 300 yard medley and 500 yard free style. Los Angeles won the team championship with 45 points to New York's 37."
Hollywood
Crabbe's role in a 1933 Tarzan serial, also issued as a full length movie Tarzan the Fearless, launched a successful career in which he starred in over one hundred movies. It would be the only movie in which Crabbe starred as Tarzan. (The serial was later re-edited into a made-for-TV feature in 1964.) In the 1933 movie, King of the Jungle the 1941's Jungle Man, and the 1952 serial, King of the Congo he played generic "jungle man" roles in the Tarzan mode. His next major role was as Flash Gordon in the popular Flash Gordon serial (a role he reprised in two sequels). Other characters he portrayed included Western hero Billy the Kid, Buck Rogers and a brother of his real-life fraternity in the movie musical The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi. In some of his movies he is credited as Larry Crabbe. His sidekick in most of his Westerns was the actor Al St. John.
Television
Crabbe starred in the television series, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955 to 1957) as Captain Michael Gallant; the adventure series aired on NBC. His real life son, Cullen Crabbe, appeared in this show as the character "Cuffy Sanders".
Crabbe made regular television appearances including one on an episode of the 1979 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century where he played a retired fighter pilot named "Brigadier Gordon" in honor of Flash Gordon. When Rogers (Gil Gerard) praises his flying, Gordon replies "I've been doing that sort of thing since before you were born." Rogers (who was born over 500 years earlier) responds "You think so?" to which Gordon replies "Young man, I know so!" Crabbe had, in fact, been playing "hot pilots" since long before Gerard was born.
Later years
Crabbe's Hollywood career waned somewhat in the 1950s and 1960s. The ever-industrious Crabbe became a stockbroker and businessman during this period. According to David Ragan's "Movie Stars of the 30's", Crabbe even owned a Southern California swimming pool building company in later years.
Though he followed other pursuits, he never stopped acting. From the 1950s forward he appeared in numerous lower budget films. In fact, he appear in the 1982 feature film, The Comeback Trail one year before his death.
Despite his numerous film and television appearances, he is best remembered today as one of the original action heroes of 1930s and 1940s cinema.
Death
He died on April 23, 1983, aged 75, from a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona and was buried in the Green Acres Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
Trivia
Crabbe worked with six year old American actor David Holt in Holt's capacity as the uncredited human double for Cheeta's chimpanzee predecessor in Tarzan the Fearless, the 1933 film staring Crabbe.
Crabbe is the only actor who has played Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers - the top three pulp fiction heroes of the 1930s.
Crabbe is the grandfather of Nick Holt, defensive coordinator of the University of Southern California Trojans football team and former head coach of the University of Idaho. [1]
James Spader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name James Todd Spader
Born February 7, 1960 (age 47)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Height 5' 10" (1.78 m)
Spouse(s) Victoria Spader (1987-2004)
Notable roles Graham Dalton in sex, lies, and videotape
Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate
Alan Shore in Boston Legal
James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as sex, lies, and videotape (for which he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival), Stargate, and Secretary.
Spader attended The Pike School, where his mother taught art and Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, where his father, Todd, taught. The family lived on campus, and Spader is one of the school's most famous alumni. Afterwards he attended Phillips Academy, but he dropped out in the eleventh grade to pursue acting in New York City.
He met his wife, Victoria, while working in a yoga studio soon after he moved to New York in the early 1980s. She often traveled with him, either on location or just on the road. They married in 1987 and had two sons, Sebastian and Elijah. They divorced in 2004.
Known for his mastery of the smarmy, sexually deviant yuppie, Spader got his start in Pretty in Pink. He also played Alan Shore, the lead of the mostly-new cast which creator David E. Kelley put in place in 2003 for ABC's The Practice (for which he won an Emmy Award) and was given the lead in that show's spin-off, Boston Legal for which he won an Emmy in 2005 and thus became one of the few actors to win consecutive Emmys for playing the same character in two different series, (another being co-star William Shatner).
In October 2006, Spader narrated China Revealed, the first episode of Discovery Channel's documentary series Discovery Atlas.
Garth Brooks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Troyal Garth Brooks
Also known as Chris Gaines
Born February 7, 1961
Origin Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Genre(s) Country
Instrument(s) Vocals
Guitar (Primary Insturment)
Piano
Saxophone
Years active 1989 - 2001
Label(s) Pearl Records
Associated
acts Trisha Yearwood (his wife)
Troyal Garth Brooks born February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is an American country music singer-songwriter and charity director.
Brooks was a major musical force in the 1990s. He had his chart breakthrough in 1989, having come apparently from nowhere, and was an immediate commercial success. Lacking the tall and lanky physical appearance typical of some male country stars, he successfully integrated pop and rock elements into his recordings and live performances. He soon began to dominate the country singles and country album charts and quickly crossed over into the mainstream pop arena, selling records like no one else in country music ever had and exposing country music to a larger audience than previously thought possible.
Brooks enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, with over 70 hit singles and 15 charted albums to his credit and over 115 million albums sold in the US alone, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. In the late 90's Brooks took on the Chris Gaines project. While many thought of this as an alter ego or publicity stunt, Chris Gaines was actually the main character of a major motion picture, 'The Lamb', by Garth Brooks' Red Strokes Productions, and Paramount Pictures.The production was eventually cut for unkown reasons. The Chris Gaines album was meant to be a pre soundtrack to the movie and had already been released before the film was stopped. This left many people in confusion
Troubled by the conflicts between career and family, the year after the decade ended, Garth Brooks announced his retirement from recording and performing, thereby disappearing from the music world as suddenly as he had come.
Early life and career
Garth Brooks grew up in Yukon, Oklahoma. His father Ray Brooks worked as a draughtsman for an oil company, while his mother Colleen Carroll was a country music singer on the Capitol Records label in the 1950s and also a regular on the Red Foley Show.
Garth grew up with an interest in music and sang in casual family settings, but his biggest interest was in athletics. He played football, baseball, and ran track in high school.
Brooks attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater on a track scholarship as a javelin thrower. However he dropped track while at the school and graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising.
Brooks began his professional singing career in that same year. He became very successful as a local artist, playing to packed clubs and bars in Oklahoma, particularly the Tumbleweed in Stillwater. However, a 1985 trip to Nashville to gain a record contract was a miserable failure. Brooks returned to Oklahoma and in 1986 married Sandy Mahl of Owasso, Oklahoma, whom he had met while working as a bouncer at the Tumbleweed.
In 1987, the couple moved to Nashville, and Brooks was gradually able to wend his way into the music industry. By 1988, he was signed to Capitol Records.
During the early years, Brooks frequently recorded demo records for songwriter Kent Blazy. It was Blazy who introduced Brooks to Trisha Yearwood, another unknown aspiring singer, in October 1987. The pair became immediate friends and pledged to help the other out once one of them made it big. Garth landed a record deal and tour first and took Trisha on the road as his opening act in 1991. The rest is country music history.
The success begins
Garth Brooks' eponymous first album was released in 1989 and was both a critical and chart success. It peaked at #2 in the US country album chart and reached #13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart. Most of the album was traditionalist country, influenced in part by George Strait. The first single ahead of it was "Much Too Young To Feel This Damn Old", a country top 10 success. It was followed by his first well-known song, "If Tomorrow Never Comes", which was his first country #1 and is still considered one of his best-crafted efforts. "Not Counting You" reached #2, and then "The Dance" put him at #1 again; this song's theme of people dying in the course of doing something they believe in resonated strongly and together with a popular music video gave Brooks his first push towards a broader audience. Brooks has also claimed that of all the songs he has recorded, "The Dance" is his favorite.
The album No Fences followed in 1990. It reached #1 on the Billboard country music chart (staying there for 23 weeks) and #3 on the pop chart, and would go on to become Brooks' biggest-selling album, with global sales of over 20 million copies. It contained what would become Brooks' signature song, the blue collar anthem "Friends in Low Places", which was a favorite of American troops serving in the 1991 Gulf War. The album contained two other Brooks classics, the dramatic and controversial "The Thunder Rolls" and the philosophically ironic "Unanswered Prayers". Also a hit was the affectionate "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House"; all four of these songs hit #1 on the country chart.
While Brooks' music was definitely in the country idiom, he had also absorbed a sensibility from the 1970s singer-songwriter movement, especially James Taylor (whom he idolized and named his first child after) and Dan Fogelberg. Similarly, Brooks was influenced by the operatic rock of the 1970s-era Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. In his highly successful live shows, Brooks used a wireless headset microphone to free himself to run about the stage, adding energy and arena rock theatrics to spice up the normally staid country music approach to concerts. Brooks' music has also been influenced by the famous progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival.
Dominance
When Garth Brooks' third album, Ropin' the Wind, was released in September 1991, it had advance orders of 4 million copies and entered the pop album charts at #1, a first for a country act. It also further propelled the sales of his first two albums, such that he sometimes occupied the top two spots in the pop album chart. Nashville had never imagined that a country artist could become the biggest artist in popular music, but when both record sales and concert attendance were looked at, Garth Brooks was doing just that. Ropin' the Wind's music was a melange of pop country and honky-tonk; hits included Billy Joel's "Shameless", "What She's Doing Now", and "The River". In the end it became his second-best selling album after No Fences.
Brooks was in Los Angeles when the 1992 riots broke out there. To then express his desire for tolerance of all kinds, he co-wrote the gospel-country-rock hybrid "We Shall Be Free", which was the first single off his fourth album The Chase.[1] However the song met with resistance from country radio stations and from the culturally conservative country audience, and only made it to #12 on the country chart, his worst showing to date. Nevertheless, the song often received standing ovations when performed in concert and went to #22 in the Christian charts through a marketing deal with Rick Hendrix Company.
The Chase, which Brooks would later describe as his album that gave the closest look into his mind, would go on to become a huge success, with its next two singles both making it back to #1. But it would not quite match the sales of his previous albums, and the tension between what Brooks wanted to do and what at least parts of his core audience were willing to accept would seem to stay with him for the balance of his career. In any case, Brooks's most loyal fans greatly admired his pushing of boundaries and personal vision.
Brooks won his first Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1992 for the album Ropin' the Wind. He was awarded the Academy of Country Music award for Entertainer of the Year for 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, and the award for Top Male Vocalist for 1990 and 1991. As a performer and artist he has been compared to fellow country and pop/rock legends, such as the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Kenny Rogers, Clint Eastwood, George Strait, George Jones, and the Eagles.
During this period Garth and Sandy Brooks had three children: Taylor Mayne Pearl, born July 8, 1992; August Anna, born May 3, 1994; and Allie Colleen, born July 28, 1996.
Brooks' August 1993 album In Pieces was another instant number 1 success, going on to sell in the region of 10 million copies world-wide. However, it was not issued across the world all at once, which caused upset among his fans. In the United Kingdom, one of Brooks' most committed fan bases outside the United States, country music disc jockeys, such as Martin Campbell and John Wellington, noted that many fans were buying the album on import; indeed it was the first album to debut in the top 10 of the UK Country album charts when it was not actually released there. Once officially released, in 1994, it reached the top spot on the UK Country chart and number two on the UK pop albums chart. That same year "The Red Strokes" became Brooks' first single to make the pop top 40 there, reaching a high of number 13; it was followed by "Standing Outside The Fire", which made number 23. Previous albums No Fences, Ropin' The Wind and The Chase also remained in the top 30.
Brooks then embarked on a 1994 UK tour, selling out venues such as Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre and London's Wembley Arena. He opened the London radio station, Country 1035. He also made a number of other television and radio appearances, experiencing considerable rude treatment from the British media (see Controversies below). Nevertheless, Brooks success in bringing his brand of country music to Britain was evident; indeed, Brooks has been nicknamed Garth Vader (a play on Darth Vader) in reference to his "invasion" of the charts and his success as an icon of the country genre, and the nickname probably originated from Britain when a top disc jockey, Nick Barraclough, used the phrase to describe Brooks' success on his BBC radio show. Brooks returned to the UK in 1996 for more sold-out concerts, although this time his media appearances were mostly restricted to country radio and interviews with magazines.
Brooks' success as a star elsewhere in the world is also evident, enjoying hit records and sell-out tours in Ireland, Spain, throughout Europe, Brazil, The Far East, New Zealand, Australia, etc.
In 1994 Brooks showed the variety of influences his music comes from when he appeared on the hard rock compilation KISS My Ass, a collection of KISS cover songs by popular artists from all genres. Garth requested to be on the project, and the band wholeheartedly agreed. Garth would cover the song "Hard Luck Woman", one of the band's biggest hits, and one of drummer Peter Criss' signature songs. When Brooks was asked if he had intended to make the song a country version (he was the only country performer on the entire album), he said that he couldn't dream of performing the song any other way than Peter Criss did. Nevertheless, Brooks' version made its way into the country charts.
One of the later peaks in Brooks' fame came on August 7, 1997, when he gave a free concert in New York City's Central Park, drawing hundreds of thousands of people in a city that many would say is far removed from the country music world. Estimates of the actual crowd size varied considerably, from 250,000 to 750,000 or even higher (this is because many were outside the actual venue, which was filled, enjoying the show. Brooks himself once said that he "played to over 800,000 people" at the show);[2] an additional 14.6 million viewers saw it live on HBO. Billy Joel and Don McLean made guest appearances. Brooks once again won the award for the ACM Entertainer of the year in 1998.
"Chris Gaines"
Chris Gaines is a fictional rock singer created as an alter ego by Garth Brooks. Gaines was conceived by Brooks as the principal character in his thriller film The Lamb. The film, being produced by Brooks' production company Red Strokes Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, was to revolve around the emotionally conflicted life of Gaines as a musician in the public eye. In an effort to create a larger than life character, Brooks took on the identity of Gaines in the album Garth Brooks In ... The Life of Chris Gaines. The album was released in October 1999 and was intended as a 'pre-soundtrack' to the film. Brooks also subsequently appeared as Gaines in a television mockumentary for the VH1 series Behind The Music and as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live which he hosted as himself. Brooks' endless promotion of the album and the film did not seem to stir much excitement and the success of the Chris Gaines experiment became fairly evident mere weeks after the album was released. Critics admired Brooks for demonstrating his range as a musician and actor, but the majority of the American public was either totally bewildered, or completely unreceptive to the idea of Garth Brooks as anything but a pop-country singer. Many of his fans also felt that by supporting the Gaines project they would lose the real Garth Brooks. Sales of the album were unspectacular and although it made it to #2 on the pop album chart, expectations had been higher and retail stores began heavily discounting their oversupply. Dismal sales of the album and lack of interest in the film brought the film production to an indefinite hiatus in February of 2001 and Gaines quickly and quietly faded into obscurity. Production on The Lamb was never completed and Brooks has since been wildly criticized for this seemingly odd career move. In 2005, Late Night with Conan O'Brien would display and mention Chris Gaines in its "Late Night Wall of National Jokes".
Charitable activities
In 1991, Brooks took part in Voices That Care, a multi-artist project that featured other top names in music for a one-off single to raise money for the allied troops in the Gulf War. The project included fellow country singers Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers and Kathy Mattea.
In 1999, Garth Brooks began the Teammates for Kids Foundation which provides financial aid to charities for children. The organization breaks down into three categories spanning three different sports.
Touch 'Em All Foundation - Baseball Division
Top Shelf - Hockey Division
Touchdown - Football Division
The foundation enlists players to donate a predetermined sum of money depending on their game performance. Brooks has participated in spring training for the San Diego Padres in 1998 and 1999; the New York Mets in 2000, and most recently with the Kansas City Royals in 2004 to promote his foundation.
Brooks is also a fundraiser for various other charities, including a number of children's charities and famine relief. He has also donated at least $1 million to wildlife causes.
Support for gay rights
In 2000, Brooks appeared at the Equality Rocks benefit concert for gay rights. He sang a duet with openly gay singer George Michael.
In the lyrics to his song "We Shall Be Free", Brooks sings "When we're free to love anyone we choose," a possible reference to gay relationships. Brooks won a 1993 GLAAD Media Award for the song and his subsequent comments about it, such as, "But if you're in love, you've got to follow your heart and trust that God will explain to us why we sometimes fall in love with people of the same sex."[3]
Brooks' sister and live bassist somewhat early in his career, Betsy Smittle, is a well-known lesbian entertainer in Tulsa. She has worked with the late country star Gus Hardin and several Tulsa musicians. Because of Brooks' gay-positive comments, and the close and heavily publicized relationship with his sister, Brooks has become one of very few country music gay icons.
Retirement
As his career rose, Garth Brooks seemed frustrated by the conflicts between career and family. He talked of retiring from performing in 1992[4] and 1995, but went back out on tour each time instead. In 1999, he talked again of retirement again on The Nashville Network's Crook & Chase program; this time, falling records sales may have been an additional trigger.[5]
In 1999, Garth and Sandy Brooks separated;[6] they made public their plans to divorce on October 9, 2000[7] which became final in 2001.
On October 26, 2000, Brooks officially announced his retirement from recording and performing.[8] That same night, Capitol Records saluted his achievement of selling 100 million albums in the US with a lavish party at Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center.[9]
November 13, 2001, saw the release of Brooks' last album, Scarecrow. Brooks staged a few performances for promotional purposes, but stated that he would be retired from recording and performing at least until his youngest daughter, Allie, turned 18. Although the album did not sell as well as his heyday, it still sold comfortably well, reaching #1 on both the pop and country charts.
Although Brooks ceased to record new material between 2002 and (most of) 2005, he continued to chart with previously recorded material, including a top 30 placing for "Why Ain't I Running" in 2003.
On May 25, 2005, Brooks proposed to longtime friend and fellow country music superstar Trisha Yearwood in front of a packed house at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace club in Bakersfield, California. In December 2005, Patricia Lynn Yearwood and Troyal Garth Brooks drove to Claremore, Oklahoma and got their marriage license at the Rogers County Courthouse. They wed on December 10, 2005, at their home in Oklahoma. It was Brooks' second marriage and the third for Yearwood. Trisha and Garth are constantly spotted at Utica Square in Tulsa where they shop and dine. They also live on a ranch in Owasso, Oklahoma, just northeast of Tulsa.
Later in 2005 there were rumours of a comeback concert in Las Vegas; however, these proved false and Brooks insisted he was not touring, neither did he have any plans to make any new studio material until 2015. However, there was some good news for his fans in August 2005 when it was announced that Brooks had signed a deal with Wal-Mart, leasing them the rights to his back catalog following his split with Capitol. Three months later, Brooks and Wal-Mart issued The Limited Series, an inexpensively priced six-CD box set containing past material and a Lost Sessions disc with eleven previously unissued recordings.[10] This is the first time in history that a musician has signed a deal that states his music will be sold by only one retailer. Confirmation that Brooks still has a large fan base was shown as the set sold more than 500,000 physical copies on its day of issue and it quickly topped 1 million by the first week in December (which by RIAA accounting rules for multiple albums is equal to 6 million units).
In September 2005, Brooks came out of his retirement long enough to perform John Fogerty's "Who'll Stop the Rain" with Yearwood on the Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast nationwide telethon for Hurricane Katrina relief. A new single was also issued, "Good Ride Cowboy", a tribute to his late friend, rodeo star and fellow country singer, Chris LeDoux. Later in the month Brooks performed at the Grand Ole Opry's 80th birthday celebration. Selections included a duet with Steve Wariner on "Long Neck Bottle", another joint effort with country legends Bill Anderson, Porter Wagoner, and Little Jimmy Dickens, and a solo guitar "The Dance", after telling the audience he hoped it was like riding a bicycle. The audience sang along with Garth, and there was a rousing long standing ovation.
On November 15, 2005, Brooks performed "Good Ride Cowboy" in front of a live audience in Times Square in New York City, as part of the 2005 Country Music Association Awards show. The audience went wild, and Garth looked like his old self. In December, the single reached #1.
In early 2006 Wal-Mart issued The Lost Sessions as a single CD apart from the boxed set, with extra tracks including the top 40 duet with Yearwood, "Love Will Always Win". All of the Garth Brooks studio albums were also re-issued under the umbrella "The Remastered Series".
In December 2006, Garth Brooks was nominated for a "Best Country Collaboration With Vocals" Grammy Award for their duet "Love Will Always Win." The Duet was released as a single in early 2006 and appear on both Garth's The Lost Sessions album and Trisha's re-release of Jasper County.
Garth has sold more records during his "retirement" than most modern country artists sell. Garth Brooks' Wal-Mart box set sold in excess of two million (and rising), his DVD box set sold in the millions, as did his single CD release of "The Lost Sessions".
Garth Brooks proclaims that his job as a father is a lot harder than touring was. He also said in a CMT Garth Brooks concert special "I love what I'm doing, but I miss what I did." Recently, in virtually every interview, Garth has talked about if he's going to go back on tour. Often saying "if the door opens up" then going on to say that if he does have another tour it would be better than anything he's ever done.
Controversies
Used CDs
In 1993, Garth Brooks, who had criticized music stores which sold used CDs since it led to a loss in royalty payments, persuaded Capitol Records not to ship his album In Pieces to stores which engaged in such practices. This led to several anti-trust lawsuits against the record label and ended with Capitol shipping the CDs to the stores after all.[11] Brooks lamented that the record label had "sold out".
Rude treatment from British media
During Brooks' 1994 tour of the UK he made a number of general radio and television appearances. On ITV's regional news show London Tonight, he was introduced with the words "Howdy partners, I've gone on down to Wembley Arena to interview a top-selling, rooting tooting, cotton picking, Country and Western star, yeeha!" On Channel 4's nationwide Big Breakfast show he was mocked by presenters Chris Evans and Paula Yates, with Evans commenting, "He's selling more records than anyone in the world, but none of us have ever heard of him." Yates did an impression of a Country singer and told Brooks that, "Country singers always seem to be weeping over the dead dog and things," and also remarked, "I thought you'd come in here and twiddle your pistol around and be impressed." During this interview, Brooks seemed a little uneasy and was relieved when he was told it was over; although he remained very polite, he did mention to Yates that she clearly didn't know a thing about Country music, at least in the last 20 years. Scores of Brooks fans wrote to complain about the way he was treated by the show. Sometime after this, Dwight Yoakam appeared on the same show and after Yates told him, "You seem different from other Country singers we've had on the show," Yoakam replied, "What? All two of us?"
In a radio interview with British Country disc jockey John Wellington, Brooks was quoted as saying, "Yeah I was shocked at the reaction I got from the crowd in London. From the media attention I got, I thought country music didn't exist here, but Country music is alive and well in London, as well as all of England." Unlike Alan Jackson, who refused to return to the UK after being treated in a similar manner by the press, Brooks returned in 1996 for more sell out concerts, although this time his media appearances were mostly restricted to country radio and interviews with magazines.
Best selling solo artist?
In 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America made an announcement that Garth Brooks was the best-selling solo artist of the 20th century in America.[12] This conclusion drew a fair amount of disbelief and outrage from the press and music fans, who did not feel that Brooks had the stature or musical gravitas for this distinction, and who felt that surely Elvis Presley must have sold more records than Brooks. This latter point led to much discussion and criticism of how RIAA does its certifications and lifetime totals, and how those methods may well have been faulty during the period decades ago in which Presley got many of his sales.[13][14] In any case, Brooks, while proud of his sales accomplishments, deferred to "The King" and stated that he too believed that Presley must have sold more.
As of January 2004, the RIAA announced that Presley had taken over the top solo artist spot and that "Elvis Presley now stands as the best selling solo artist in U.S. history." Garth Brooks now holds the number two spot.[15] The revision brought more criticism of the accuracy of the RIAA's figures, this time from Brooks' followers.
On November 1, 2006, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced that Garth Brooks made history as the company's top selling music artist of all time. With nearly 20 million discs sold at Wal-Mart in the first year of his exclusive relationship with the retailer, Brooks has been able to transcend his retirement and continue his history-making performances.
The milestone comes just days prior to the launch of Garth's most limited production release to date. The latest exclusive offering from singer/songwriter Brooks is a limited five DVD set, appropriately titled Garth Brooks: The Entertainer. This limited edition has already become the number one pre-order item on Walmart.com Music in 2006.
Last year's boxed set release, Garth Brooks: The Limited Series, sold half a million copies in its first day of availability.
Absence on the pop singles charts
While Brooks scored many number ones on the Billboard 200 pop album chart, very few of his singles reached the parallel Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, an odd discrepancy. The Hot 100 chart has been the subject of much criticism over the years due to the way it has been compiled, especially since it stopped using sales as its main source of information. In 2005, long after Brooks' peak success, the Pop 100 was launched by Billboard in answer to these critics. Although this new chart is still criticized by some, it shows stronger placings for country songs, in addition to this, he has also had stronger placings on another Billboard pop music chart, Top 40 Mainstream, since it began in the late 1990s. Still, no solo male country artist has topped the Billboard pop music singles chart since Kenny Rogers in 1980, despite the many who have had #1's on the pop album listings (a chart based purely upon sales).
Supposed Affair with Trisha Yearwood
Tabloids reported throughout the 1990s that Brooks was having an affair with fellow country star and longtime friend Trisha Yearwood.[citation needed] Garth admitted he had been cheating on wife Sandy,[citation needed] and at one concert (in the early 90's when opening for Eddie Rabbitt) someone in the audience shouted "Go back to her, Garth!"[citation needed] His marriage to Sandy ended in late 2000. Probably because of Garth's mother's cancer, Sandy waited to file for divorce.[citation needed] Soon after his mother died, divorce papers were filed. Brooks and Yearwood married in 2005.
Brooks and Yearwood have continually denied having had an affair, saying that although they had feelings for one another (Brooks said the first time he saw Yearwood, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen; Yearwood said she had a crush on Garth for years and never told him), they were never intimate while married to others.[citation needed]
Charts and sales
Garth Brooks is the only artist to have seven albums debut #1 on both The Billboard 200 and Billboard's Top Country Albums charts: Ropin' the Wind, The Chase, In Pieces, Sevens, The Limited Series, Double Live, Scarecrow, in addition Fresh Horses debuted at #1 on the country chart and #2 on the pop 200.
Capitol Records shipped 5 million copies of The Chase which, at the time, was the largest initial shipment in music history.
Fresh Horses made history as the first album to have 8 out of 10 tracks on the country music singles charts at the same time.
Follow-up Sevens broke his own record, with 12 out of 14 tracks on the singles charts.
Every Rosemont Horizon record was broken by Garth when he sold over 140,000 concert tickets there in 1997 alone.
Garth Brooks was the first artist to debut a live album at #1 on two charts (Double Live).
Double Live is the best-selling live album in music history.
Double Live set the all-time record for first week sales 1,085,373 copies. (However, this record was broken by Britney Spears in 2000 (1.3 million with Oops!... I Did It Again), Eminem (1.7 million with The Marshall Mathers LP), and *NSYNC (2.41 million with No Strings Attached.) In total, the double live album went on to sell in excess of 32 million units worldwide.
This means that Double Live is still the fastest selling country music album ever
Garth's Central Park concert audience is generally estimated as being the largest for any concert there.
Garth had three albums at the top of the Billboard pop charts at the same time in 1998 (Sevens, The Limited Series, and Double Live). He was the first to do this since Elton John in 1975.
Garth Brooks has four albums certified diamond (more than 10 million copies), a record for a male solo performer, and the third overall (behind The Beatles with six and Led Zeppelin with five).
To date, the RIAA have certified his albums at 115x Platinum, U.S sales stand at 103.5 million. [1]
Awards
2 Grammy Awards (total of 7 nominations)
16 American Music Awards
11 Country Music Association Awards
18 Academy of Country Music Awards
5 World Music Awards
10 People's Choice Awards
24 Billboard Music Awards
2 ASCAP Awards
2 Blockbuster Awards
American Music Awards, Artist of the Decade (1990s)
Academy of Country Music Awards, Artist of the Decade (1990s)
Recording Industry Association of America, Artist of the Century (1900s)
1 Radio Music Award
7 Primetime Emmy Award nominations (Outstanding in a Variety of Music Program)
1 Golden Globe nomination (Best Original Song)
Songwriters Hall of Fame: 2002
GLAAD Media Award for "We Shall Be Free"-1993
Personal quotations
"No matter where in the world we go, from the countries it was released as a single to the countries that it wasn't, it doesn't seem to matter, people just know that opening, no doubt about it, 'Friends in Low Places' is the most recognised Garth Brooks song."
"I truly believe if country music had the accessibility pop and rock has been granted it would be the biggest musical format on the planet."
"There have been hundreds of people before me in this seat who will never be up here again and that's because the people were through with them, so I hope I can see it coming, so I can either retire gracefuly and go out with some kind of class, I'll be faced with that decision to either do that or either hang in for one more album and see what happens."
(after being asked if he felt he was "born to sing and entertain people" ) "Well I hope I was, 'cause if there's something else I'm meant to be doing I'm missing the boat."
"I don't talk very well, but hopefully in my music we can get something across."
(After being compared to Elvis Presley) "Come on, let's be realistic.... No one will ever touch Elvis."
"Sometimes you just can't be afraid to wear a different hat. If Columbus had complied, this whole world might still be flat."
"If you do it for the money you won't last very long, because money is the opposite of music."
"I want to thank the good Lord, because He's done a heck of a lot for me."
(On the song Unanswered Prayers) "Every time I sing this song, it teaches me the same lesson... happiness isn't getting what you want, it is wanting what you've got."
Charles Ruggles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Sherman Ruggles (more often known as Charlie Ruggles) (February 8, 1886 - December 23, 1970) was a comic American actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films. He was also the brother of director, producer, and silent actor Wesley Ruggles (1889 - 1972).
Charlie Ruggles was born in Los Angeles, California in 1886. Despite training to be a doctor, Ruggles soon found himself on the stage, appearing in a stock production of Nathan Hale in 1905. He moved to Broadway to appear in Help Wanted in 1914. His first screen role came in the silent Peer Gynt the following year. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s Ruggles continued to appear in silent movies, though his passion remained the stage, appearing in long-running productions such as The Passing Show of 1918, The Demi-Virgin and Battling Butler. His most famous stage hit was one of his last before a twenty year hiatus, Queen High, produced in 1930.
From 1929, Ruggles appeared in talking pictures. His first was Gentleman of the Press in which he played a comic, alcoholic, newspaper reporter; a role he was to repeat several times over the years. He struck up a comic partnership with the formidable actress Mary Boland with whom he appeared with in half-a-dozen farces in the 1930s, notably Six of a Kind, Ruggles of Red Gap, and People Will Talk. . In other films he often played the "comic relief" character in otherwise straight films. In all, he appeared in about 100 movies.
In 1949, Ruggles halted in his film career to return to the stage and to move into television. He was the headline character in the TV series The Ruggles, where he played a character also called Charlie Ruggles, and The World of Mr. Sweeney. He was a guest star on The Beverly Hillbillies, and had a recurring role as Lowell Redlings Farquahr, father-in-law of Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey).
He returned to the big screen in 1961, playing Charles McKendrick in The Parent Trap and Mackenzie Savage in The Pleasure of His Company.
Ruggles died of cancer at his Hollywood home in 1970 at the age of 84. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.
Lana Turner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner
Born February 8, 1921
Wallace, Idaho
Died June 29, 1995, age 74
Century City, Los Angeles, California
Lana Turner (February 8, 1921 - June 29, 1995) was an Academy award-nominated American film actress. On-screen, she was well-known for the glamor and sensuality she brought to almost all her movie roles. Off-screen, she led a stormy and colorful private life which included seven husbands, numerous lovers, and a famous murder scandal.
Biography
Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in Wallace, Idaho, the daughter of John Virgil Turner, a miner from Hohenwald, Tennessee, and Mildred Frances Cowan, a 16-year-old Alabama girl.
Until her film career took off, she was known to family and friends as Judy. Hard times eventually forced the family to re-locate to San Francisco, where John and Mildred soon separated.
On December 14, 1930, John Turner won a bit of money at a traveling craps game, stuffed his winnings in his left sock, and headed for home. He was later found dead on a street corner, his left sock missing. The robbery and murder was never solved. Soon after, Mildred Turner developed health problems and was advised by her doctor to move to a drier climate. She and her 10-year-old daughter moved to Los Angeles in 1931.
Turner's discovery at Schwab's Drug Store has become one of Hollywood's most enduring show-business legends. The true story differs only slightly from that legend. As a 16-year-old student at Hollywood High, Turner decided to skip a typing class and buy a Coke at the Top Hat Cafe. There, she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson was struck by her beauty and physique, and referred her to the actor/comedian/talent agent Zeppo Marx. Marx's agency immediately signed her on and introduced her to film director Mervyn LeRoy, who cast her in her first film They Won't Forget (1937).
Turner earned the nickname "The Sweater Girl" from her form-fitting attire in a scene in They Won't Forget. She reached the height of her fame in the 1940s and 1950s. During World War II, Turner became a popular pin-up girl due to her popularity in such films such as Ziegfeld Girl, Johnny Eager, and four films with MGM's king of the lot: Clark Gable (the films' success was only heightened by gossip column rumors about a relationship between the two).
After the war, Turner's career hit a new high with the classic 1946 film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice, co-starring John Garfield.
During the 1950s, Turner starred in a series of films that failed to succeed at the box office, a situation which MGM attempted to remedy by casting her in musicals. The first, 1951's Mr. Imperium, was a flop, while 1952's The Merry Widow was more successful. She gave a widely-praised performance in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful, and later starred with John Wayne in the adventure film The Sea Chase. She was then cast in the epic The Prodigal, but the film and her performance in general were not well received. After 1956's Diane, MGM opted not to renew her contract.
Turner's career recovered briefly after appearing in the hugely-successful big screen adaptation of Grace Metalious's best-selling novel, Peyton Place, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Another few box office failures followed (Another Time, Another Place, for example) when the 1958 scandal surrounding the death of Johnny Stompanato threatened to derail her career completely. Fearing she would never work again,[citation needed] Turner accepted the lead role in Ross Hunter's re-make of Imitation of Life under the direction of Douglas Sirk. Universal Studios capitalized on her new-found notoriety. The result was one of the biggest hits of 1959, not to mention the biggest hit of Turner's career. Since Turner had accepted a percentage of the box-office receipts in lieu of salary, she was paid handsomely for the role. Critics and audiences couldn't help noticing that both Peyton and Imitation borrowed from Turner's private life -- a single mother coping with a troubled teenage daughter.
In 1961, she made her last film appearance under her old contract with MGM, starring with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise. Other highlights of this era include two Ross Hunter productions: 1960s Portrait in Black and 1966's Madame X which would prove to be her last major starring role.
Personal life
Of her many love affairs, Turner reportedly once said "I liked the boys, and the boys liked me." Turner was married eight times to seven different husbands, and had many lovers, including Tyrone Power (whom she calls the love of her life in her autobiography), Victor Mature, Howard Hughes, Fernando Lamas, and a small-time hood named Johnny Stompanato.
Rumors have circulated about supposed affairs with Frank Sinatra and almost every one of her male co-stars. A tryst with Robert Taylor is said to have contributed to the dissolution of his marriage to actress Barbara Stanwyck. Mickey Rooney claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Turner that resulted in a pregnancy and a subsequent abortion (Turner denied any such affair).
Her husbands were:
Bandleader Artie Shaw (1940) Married only four months, Turner was 19 when she and Shaw eloped on their first date. She later referred to their stormy and verbally abusive relationship as "my college education."
Actor-restaurateur Josef Stephen Crane (1942-43, 1943-44) Turner and Crane's first marriage was annulled after she discovered that Crane's previous divorce had not yet been finalized. After a brief separation (during which Crane attempted suicide), they re-married to provide for their newborn daughter, Cheryl.
Millionaire socialite Henry J. Topping, Jr. (1948-52) Topping proposed to Turner at the 21 Club in Los Angeles by dropping a diamond ring into her martini. Although worth millions when they married, Topping suffered heavy financial losses due to poor investments and excessive gambling. Turner finally divorced Topping when she realized she could no longer afford to keep them in the lavish lifestyle to which they had grown accustomed.
Actor Lex Barker (1953-57), whom she divorced after her daughter Cheryl claimed that he molested her;
Rancher Fred May (1960-62);
Businessman Robert Eaton (1965-69); who later went on to write "The Body Brokers," a behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood movie world, featuring a character named Marla Jordan, based on Turner
Nightclub hypnotist Ronald Peller (a.k.a. Ronald Dante) (1969-72).
The Stompanato murder case
Turner met Johnny Stompanato during the spring of 1957, shortly after ending her marriage to Lex Barker. At first, Turner was susceptible to Stompanato's good looks and prowess as a lover, but after she discovered his ties to the LA underworld (in particular, his association with gangster Mickey Cohen), she tried to break off the affair out of fear of bad publicity. Stompanato was not easily deterred however and over the course of the following year, he and Turner carried on a relationship filled with violent arguments, physical abuse, and repeated reconciliations. In the fall of 1957, Stompanato followed Turner to England where she was filming Another Time, Another Place, costarring Sean Connery, later of James Bond fame. Fearful that Turner was having an affair with Connery, Stompanato stormed onto the set brandishing a gun. Connery managed to land a single punch to Stompanato's jaw and took away his gun. Stompanato was soon after escorted away by security guards (see [1], [2], [3]).
On the evening of April 4, 1958, Turner and Stompanato began a violent argument in Turner's house at 730 N. Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. Fearing her mother's life was in danger, Turner's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane grabbed a kitchen knife and ran to Turner's defense. Many theories abound as to what happened afterward, but in the end, Crane ended up stabbing Stompanato and killing him. The case quickly became a media sensation, but was later deemed a justifiable homicide at a coroner's inquest, at which Turner provided dramatic testimony. Some observers have said her testimony that day was the acting performance of her life.
Later life
In the 1970s and 1980s, Turner appeared in several television roles, most notably one season (1982-83) on the series Falcon Crest, but the majority of her final decade was spent out of the public eye.
She died rather suddenly at the age of 74 in 1995 of complications from the throat cancer which was diagnosed in 1992, and which she had been battling ever since, at her home in Century City, Los Angeles, California. She was, until her death, a very heavy smoker.
She was survived by her only child, her daughter, Cheryl Crane, and Cheryl's female life partner Joyce "Josh" LeRoy, whom she said she accepted "as a second daughter". They inherited some of Lana's sizeable estate, built through shrewd real estate holdings and investments. However, the majority of her estate was left to her maid, Carmen Lopez Cruz.
Influence
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lana Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6241 Hollywood Blvd.
The eminent American poet Frank O'Hara wrote a poem titled "Lana Turner Has Collapsed" inspired by Turner after seeing a headline about her soon after her lover Stompanato's murder. The Stompanato incident is also alluded to in a short scene in the film L.A. Confidential (1997).
The American singer Tom Russell mentions Turner in his song "Tijuana Bible," which chronicles the death and (fictionalized?) secrets of Johnny Stompanato. Specifically, the song opens with the lyric "Lana Turner's daughter killed Johnny Stompanato, because Johnny beat up Lana down on Fifth and Alvarado."
In season 3, episode 7 of the series "Queer as Folk," Emmitt states "I swore to myself this wasn't going to wind up an old Lana Turner movie, but it looks like that's the direction this is headed, so I'm going to make Lana proud."
Trivia
Her boyfriend when she attended Hollywood High was Joseph Wapner, who would achieve fame on The People's Court (see [4]).
After shaving her eyebrows to play a Mongol serving maid in 1938's The Adventures of Marco Polo, Turner's eyebrows never grew back. For the rest of her life, her eyebrows had to be glued or drawn on.
Turner is one of a dozen stars to be name-checked during the spoken portion of Madonna's 1990 megahit "Vogue".
Jack Lemmon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name John Uhler Lemmon III
Born February 8, 1925
Newton, Massachusetts, United States
Died June 27, 2001
Los Angeles, California, United States
Spouse(s) Cynthia Stone (May 7, 1950 - 1956) 1 child
Felicia Farr (August 17, 1962 - June 27, 2001) (until his death) 1 child
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 - June 27, 2001), better known as Jack Lemmon, was one of the most award-winning American actors of his generation.
Life and career
Lemmon was born in an elevator in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where his father was the president of a doughnut company. After attending Phillips Academy and Harvard University (becoming president of the Hasty Pudding Club), Lemmon joined the Navy, received V-12 training and served as an ensign. On being discharged, he took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway.
Lemmon's film debut was a bit part in the 1949 film The Lady Takes a Sailor, but he was not noticed until his official debut opposite Judy Holliday in the 1954 It Should Happen to You.
He became a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, starring in his films Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma La Douce and Avanti. Wilder felt Lemmon tended to slightly overact; the Wilder biography "Nobody's Perfect" quotes the director as saying: "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat."[citation needed]
The same Billy Wilder biography quotes Jack Lemmon as saying: "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown I started to have one."[citation needed]
Lemmon was awarded Best Supporting Actor for Mister Roberts (1955), and Best Actor for Save the Tiger (1973). He was also nominated for Best Actor award for his role in the controversial film Missing in 1982. In 1988, the American Film Institute gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was one of his favorite roles. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, "My name is Joe Clay ... I'm an alcoholic." Three and a half decades later, he admitted on the television program, Inside the Actors Studio, that he was not acting when he delivered that line.
Throughout his career, Lemmon often appeared in films alongside actor Walter Matthau. They would go on to be one of the most beloved duos in cinema history. Among their pairings was as Felix Unger (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau) in the 1968 film, The Odd Couple. They also starred together in The Fortune Cookie, The Front Page, and Buddy Buddy. Additionally, both had small parts in Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK (the only film in which they both appear, but share no screentime). In 1993, the duo teamed up again to star in Grumpy Old Men. The film was a surprise hit, earning the two actors a new generation of young fans. During the rest of the decade, they would go on to star together in Out to Sea, Grumpier Old Men and the widely-panned The Odd Couple II.
At the 1998 Golden Globe Awards, he was nominated for "Best Actor in a Made for TV Movie" for his role in Twelve Angry Men. He lost the award to Ving Rhames. After accepting the award, Rhames asked Lemmon to come onstage and in a move that stunned the audience, gave his award to him. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Golden Globes, decided to have a second award made and sent to Rhames.)
Lemmon was one of the best-liked actors in Hollywood. He is remembered as taking time for people, as the actor Kevin Spacey recalled in a tribute. When already regarded as a legend, he met the teenage Spacey backstage after a theater performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career. Spacey would later work with Lemmon in the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), where one of its most powerful scenes involves Lemmon's character begging Spacey's character for another shot at making a sale.
Lemmon was married twice. His son, Chris Lemmon (born in 1954 by first wife, Cynthia Stone), is an actor. His second wife was the actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney, born in 1966.
Jack Lemmon died of "carcinomatosis and metastatic cancer of bladder to colon" (according to his death certificate at [1]) on June 27, 2001, at the age of 76. He had been fighting the disease, very privately, for two years before losing the battle.
He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, where Walter Matthau is also buried. In typical Jack Lemmon wit, his gravestone simply reads 'Jack Lemmon - in'. After Matthau's death in 2000, Lemmon had joined other friends and relatives on a "Larry King Live" show in tribute to Matthau; a year later, many of the same people appeared on the show again, this time in tribute to Lemmon.
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