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Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

edgar, I really like that song with its reference to Boy's Town. Just read where Robbie Williams has entered rehab because of dependency on antidepressant drugs. Let's hear a song from him, folks.

Regrets lyrics
Artist: Robbie Williams
Album: Greatest Hits



Tell me a story where we all change
And we'd live our lives together
And not estranged

I didn't lose my mind, it was mine to give away
Couldn't stay to watch me cry
You didn't have the time
So I softly slip away..

No regrets, they don't work
No regrets now, they only hurt

Sing me a love song (sing me a love song)
Drop me a line (drop me a line)
Suppose it's just a point of view
But they tell me i'm doing fine

I know from the outside
We looked good for each other (some people said)
Felt things were going wrong
When you didn't like my mother (it was all in my head)

I don't want to hate but that's all you've left me with
A bitter aftertaste and a fantasy
Of how we all could live..

No regrets, they don't work
No regrets now, they only hurt
( we've been told you stay up late)
I know they're still talking
( you're far too short to carry weight)
The demons in your head
( return the video's they're late)
If I could just stop hating you
I feel sorry for us instead

Remember the photographs, insane
The one where we all laughed, so lame
We were having the time of our lives
Well thank you, it was a real blast

No regrets, they don't work
No regrets now, they only hurt
Write me a love song
Drop me a line
Suppose it's just a point of view
But they tell me I'm doing fine

Every thing I wanted to be, every time I walked away
Every time you told me to leave, I just wanted to stay
Every time you looked at me, every time you smiled
I felt so vacant and you treat me like a child
I love the way we used to laugh, the way we used to smile
Often I sit down and think of you for a while
And then it passes me by and think of someone else instead
I guess the love that we once had is officially... dead

We're thinking of you, Robbie.

Thelma Ritter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thelma Ritter (February 14, 1902 - February 5, 1969) was an Oscar-nominated American character actress of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.




Early life

Ritter was born in Brooklyn, New York. After appearing in high school plays and stock companies, she trained as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She followed a stage career until taking a hiatus to raise a family, then resumed her career on radio in the early 1940s.


Career

Ritter did stock theater and radio shows early in her career, without much impact. Ritter's first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The 45-year-old made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised to her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), also left a mark, although Ritter was again not listed in the credits.

Mankiewicz kept Ritter in mind, and cast her in his All About Eve the following year. An Oscar nomination led to popularity, a second Oscar nomination for Mitchell Leisen's' classic comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney and Miriam Hopkins, followed. Ritter enjoyed steady film work for the next dozen years. She also appeared in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, and The United States Steel Hour.

Throughout her career, Ritter was nominated for an Academy Award six times but never received one. She co-hosted the Oscar ceremony in 1954, trading wisecracks with Bob Hope.

The diminutive, gravel-voiced Ritter gained great acclaim as a premiere character actress, known for her comic timing and sassy one-liners. She was most typically cast as the sardonic, seen-it-all housekeeper who saw through her boss's vanity and frequently told them so. But she was also fiercely protective, and neither trusted nor tolerated fools or con men. Ritter would trade on this irascible screen persona for the rest of her life.

Her unsentimental, hard-boiled fatalism could be used in other ways. In occasional non-comedic turns, she projected an unglamorous world-weariness, notably in Pickup on South Street (1953).

Some of her best-known roles include Gene Tierney's maid- mother in law in The Mating Season (1951), James Stewart's nurse in Rear Window (1954), as Bette Davis's devoted maid in All About Eve (1950), and as Doris Day's housekeeper in Pillow Talk (1959). Her turn in John Huston's The Misfits (1961), where she played opposite Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, has also garnered favorable reviews.


Death

Shortly after a 1968 performance on The Jerry Lewis Show, Ritter suffered a heart attack which eventually proved fatal. She was 9 days shy of her 67th birthday.

Thelma Ritter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thelma Ritter (February 14, 1902 - February 5, 1969) was an Oscar-nominated American character actress of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.





Early life

Ritter was born in Brooklyn, New York. After appearing in high school plays and stock companies, she trained as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She followed a stage career until taking a hiatus to raise a family, then resumed her career on radio in the early 1940s.


Career

Ritter did stock theater and radio shows early in her career, without much impact. Ritter's first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The 45-year-old made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised to her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), also left a mark, although Ritter was again not listed in the credits.

Mankiewicz kept Ritter in mind, and cast her in his All About Eve the following year. An Oscar nomination led to popularity, a second Oscar nomination for Mitchell Leisen's' classic comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney and Miriam Hopkins, followed. Ritter enjoyed steady film work for the next dozen years. She also appeared in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, and The United States Steel Hour.

Throughout her career, Ritter was nominated for an Academy Award six times but never received one. She co-hosted the Oscar ceremony in 1954, trading wisecracks with Bob Hope.

The diminutive, gravel-voiced Ritter gained great acclaim as a premiere character actress, known for her comic timing and sassy one-liners. She was most typically cast as the sardonic, seen-it-all housekeeper who saw through her boss's vanity and frequently told them so. But she was also fiercely protective, and neither trusted nor tolerated fools or con men. Ritter would trade on this irascible screen persona for the rest of her life.

Her unsentimental, hard-boiled fatalism could be used in other ways. In occasional non-comedic turns, she projected an unglamorous world-weariness, notably in Pickup on South Street (1953).

Some of her best-known roles include Gene Tierney's maid- mother in law in The Mating Season (1951), James Stewart's nurse in Rear Window (1954), as Bette Davis's devoted maid in All About Eve (1950), and as Doris Day's housekeeper in Pillow Talk (1959). Her turn in John Huston's The Misfits (1961), where she played opposite Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, has also garnered favorable reviews.

Death

Shortly after a 1968 performance on The Jerry Lewis Show, Ritter suffered a heart attack which eventually proved fatal. She was 9 days shy of her 67th birthday.

Lois Maxwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Lois Hooker
Born February 14, 1927 (age 80)
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Height 5'8" (1.73m)
Other name(s) Lois Maxwell-Marriott
Notable roles Miss Moneypenny

Lois Maxwell (born Lois Hooker on 14 February 1927 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.

Maxwell has also appeared in many other television series and movies both in Britain and Canada, and was the star of Adventures in Rainbow Country in the late 1960s. Lois lived in Espanola, Ontario for 18 years, close by to where the series was filmed. She guest starred in episodes of the The Saint and The Persuaders! which both starred Roger Moore.

She also provided the voice of Atlanta for the science fiction children's series Stingray in 1963. In the 1970s, she wrote a popular newspaper column for the Toronto Sun.

In the late 1940s, Maxwell attempted to make a name for herself as a starlet in Hollywood; she participated in a Life Magazine photo layout in which she posed with another up-and-coming actress named Marilyn Monroe. She appeared in That Hagen Girl and Bedtime for Bonzo with Ronald Reagan, whom she declared (in an interview with Hello! magazine), she had found very handsome and attractive.

She lives in Perth, Western Australia.


James Bond

Starring in fourteen James Bond movies, many fans credit her as the definitive Miss Moneypenny. She was succeeded by Caroline Bliss and later Samantha Bond.

Dr. No (1962)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)

The Baron

Lois Maxwell made a guest appearance in the "Something for a rainy day" episode of the ITC series The Baron, playing insurance investigator Charlie. Her character spends most of the episode wearing an olive green PVC raincoat.

Vic Morrow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Victor Morrow (February 14, 1929 - July 23, 1982; born Bronx, New York, USA) was an American actor.

Morrow dropped out of high school and joined the U.S. Navy at age 17. After leaving the Navy, he studied pre-law at Florida State University, where he became involved in the study of acting. He enrolled in the Actors Workshop school in New York.

Morrow's first movie role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955). After this movie, he went into television and was cast in the TV series COMBAT! (1962-1967), in which he also worked as a television director. After COMBAT! ended, he worked in made-for-TV movies and several films. Morrow appeared in two episodes of Australian-produced anthology series The Evil Touch (1973), one of which he also directed. He memorably played the homicidal sheriff alongside Martin Sheen in the 1974 TV film The California Kid, and had a key role in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears.

Morrow died on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie while holding two small children (Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen). A helicopter being used on the set spun out of control and crashed, decapitating him and one of the children with its rotor blades. The remaining child was crushed to death as the helicopter crashed. The six occupants inside the helicopter sustained minor injuries. The accident led to massive reforms in U.S. child labor laws and safety regulations on movie sets in California.

Vic Morrow is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Morrow is the father of actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh and Carrie Morrow.

While we await our hawkman's completion of his bio's, here's a bit of news that caused another cognitive insight moment for me.

God and Darwin went toe to toe in Kansas, and God lost. <smile>

I had often wondered why the expression, "..oh still small voice of calm..." kept emerging in my mind, and now I know why. It comes from this wonderful poet, folks.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow thee,
Rise up and follow thee.


O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!
Interpreted by love!


With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of thy call,
As noiseless let thy blessing fall
As fell thy manna down,
As fell thy manna down.


Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace,
The beauty of thy peace.


Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm,
O still, small voice of calm.

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

And in the meantime, that delightful actress:

You know, Raggedy, I don't quite recall Thelma's movies, but I do know her name and the face; That is odd to me, PA, and thanks again for the photo.

It appears that Thelma Ritter was in the movie, The Misfits, and that is considered by Hollywood to be a jinxed movie. Why? because all of the main actors died or, as Arthur Miller, fell into disgrace. He is, however, considered to be one of the greatest playwrights of all times.

Well, let's salute Lois by doing a theme song from "The Spy who Loved Me" by Carly Simon.

Artist: Carly Simon Lyrics
Song: Nobody Does It Better

Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best

I wasn't looking but somehow you found me
It tried to hide from your love light
But like Heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight

And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?

The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from running
But just keep it coming
How'd you learn to do the things you do?

And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best

Baby, you're the best
Darlin', you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best

Wonderful memories.

Sail On
The Commodores

Sail on down the line
'Bout a half a mile or so
And-a don't really wanna know a
Where you're goin'
Maybe once or twice you see
Time after time I tried-a to
To hold on to what we got
But-a now you're goin'

And I don't mind
About the things you're gonna say, Lord
I gave all my money, and my time
I know it's a shame
But I'm givin' you back your name
Yeah, yeah

Yes, I'll be on my way
I won't be back to stay
I guess I'll move along
I'm lookin' for a good time

Sail on down the line
Ain't it funny how time can go on-a
Friends say they told me so
But it doesn't matter
It was plain to see that a small town boy like me
Just-a wasn't your cup of tea
I was wishful thinkin'

I gave you my heart and I tried to make you happy
And you gave it nothin' in return
You know, it ain't so hard to say
Would you please just go away
Yeah, yeah

I've thrown away the blues
I'm tired of being used
I want everyone to know
I'm lookin' for a good time
Good time

Whoa oh-oh, sail on, honey
Good times never felt so good
Sail on, honey
Good times never felt so good
Sail on, sugar
Good times never felt so good

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

Hey, edgar. We like your sailing song, Texas, and here is one from The Beautiful South to greet the day:

If, if you choose that we will always lose
Well then I'll sail this ship alone
And if, if you decide to give him another try
Well then I'll sail this ship alone

Well they said if I wrote the perfect love song
You would take me back
Well I wrote it but I lost it
And now will you take me back anyway

Now if, if you insist that this is for the best
Well then Ill sail this ship alone
And if, if you swear that you no longer care
Well then Ill sail this ship alone

I'll sail this ship alone
Between the pain and the pleasure
I'll sail this ship alone
Amongst the sharks and the treasure
If you would rather go your way then go your way
I'll sail this ship alone

If, if youre afraid that I won't make the grade
Well then I'll sail this ship alone
And if, if you agree to him instead of me
Well then I'll sail this ship alone

Well they said if I wrote the perfect letter
That I would have a chance
Well I wrote it, and you burnt it
And now do I have a chance anyway

I'll Sail My Ship Alone
Moon Mullican

Weve been sweethearts for so long
But now you say were thru
The love we shared is now a memory
I have built a ship of dreams
And planned them all for you
But now I guess what is to be, will be

Chorus:
Ill sail my ship alone
With all the dreams I own
Drifting out across the ocean blue
Yes, Ill sail my ship alone
Tho all the sails youve torn
And when it starts to sinkin
Ill blame you

Now, I gave a message to the wind
To take back home to you
Hoping you would hear my s-o-s
I thought that you would come back home
My darlin, if you knew
How much my achin heart was in distress

Good Morning WA2K.

Wishing a Happy 80th Birthday to Harvey Korman and 76th to Claire Bloom.



and a Good Day to all.

My word, edgar, I know the melody to your song, "I'll Sail my Ship Alone."

It's an old country song right, Texas?

Well, there's our Raggedy, and I do hope the hawk will be completely with us today, listeners. Thanks, PA, for Harvey and Claire.

I do know that Harvey Corman was a part of the Carol Burnett Show, and although I searched diligently for her parody, "I Made a Fool of Myself over John Foster Dulles", I had no luck at all.

So, here are the lyrics to the theme of Carol's show.

I'm so glad we had this time together,
Just to have a laugh, or sing a song.
Seems we just got started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say, 'So long.'

There's a time you put aside for dreamin',
And a time for things you have to do.
The time I love the best is in the evening -
I can spend a moment here with you.

When the time comes that I'm feelin lonely,
And I'm feelin' ohooooo - so blue,
I just sit back and think of you, only,
And the Happiness still comes through.

That's why I'm glad we had this time together,
'Cause it makes me feel like I belong.
Seems we just got started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say, 'So long.'

John Barrymore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia





Birth name John Sidney Blyth
Born February 14, 1882
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died May 29, 1942
Los Angeles, California
Height 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Other name(s) The Great Profile
Jack
Spouse(s) Katherine Corri Harris (1910-1916)
Blanche Oelrichs (1920-1928)
Dolores Costello (1928-1935)
Elaine Barrie (1936-1940)
Notable roles Jekyll and Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Don Juan in Don Juan (1926)
Evans Garrick in The Great Profile (1940)

John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (February 14, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - May 29, 1942 in Los Angeles, California), was an American actor.

He gained fame as a Shakespearean, lauded for his Hamlet and for his Richard III, and was frequently regarded as the greatest actor of his generation. He was the grandfather of Drew Barrymore and brother of Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore.




Background

Barrymore was born into an illustrious theatrical family. His parents were Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. His classic nose and distinguished features won him the nickname "The Great Profile." He was expelled from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1898 after being caught attending a bordello. He was a hard-drinking adventurer with a jaunty personality.

A notorious ladies' man, he courted showgirl Evelyn Nesbit in 1901 and 1902. When Nesbit became pregnant -- she aged 17 and he 19 -- Barrymore proposed marriage. But her "sponsor" Stanford White intervened, and arranged for the still-teenaged Evelyn to undergo an operation for "appendicitis". White was later murdered by Nesbit's vengeful husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry K. Thaw.

In 1906, he stayed at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, when the big earthquake struck. He had starred a production of The Dictator and was booked to sail to Australia to tour with it. Since he loathed this prospect, he decided to disappear, spending the next few days drinking at the home of a friend on Van Ness avenue. During his drinking jag, he had worked out a plan to exploit the earthquake for his own ends. He decided to present himself as an on-the-scene "reporter" of what had really happened in San Francisco. The one discrepancy between John Barrymore's "report" and those written by others involved in the disaster was that the actor made up virtually all he claimed to have seen. Twenty years later Barrymore finally confessed to his deception. But by then he was so famous that the world merely smiled indulgently at his admission.[1] His account was written as a Letter to my sister Ethel. He was sure the letter would be "worth at least a hundred dollars." In terms of publicity it earned Barrymore a thousand times that amount.[2]

Barrymore delivered some of the most critically acclaimed performances in theatre and cinema history and was regarded by many as the screen's greatest performer during a movie career spanning 25 years as a leading man in more than 60 films. His movie roles included A.J. Raffles in Raffles the Amateur Cracksman (1917), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922), Beau Brummel (1924), Captain Ahab in both The Sea Beast (1926) and Moby Dick (1930), Don Juan (1926), Svengali (1931), and the leading man in Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933) and Twentieth Century (1934). He worked opposite many of the foremost leading ladies, including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and Carole Lombard. In the late 1930s alcoholism and possibly Alzheimer's Disease encroached on his ability to remember his lines. His last movie characters were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, in movies such as Playmates (1941) with Kay Kyser.


Marriages

Katherine Corri Harris (1891-1927), an actress who starred in the 1918 film The House of Mirth, on September 1, 1910 and divorced in 1916.
Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (1890-1950), aka "Michael Strange," on August 5, 1920 and divorced her in 1925. They had one child:
Diana Blanche Barrymore (1921-1960), whose tragic life ended at age 38. A semi-autobiographical story of her life was depicted in Too Much, Too Soon, starring Errol Flynn as her father
Dolores Costello (1903-1979), actress and model best known for Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936); they married on November 24, 1928 and divorced in 1935. They had two children:
Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore (living)
John Drew Barrymore (father of Drew Barrymore)
Elaine Barrie (née Elaine Jacobs), (1916-2003), an actress; married November 9, 1936 and divorced 1940

Dying words

His dying words were "Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." According to Errol Flynn's memoirs, film director Raoul Walsh "borrowed" Barrymore's body after the funeral, and left his corpse propped in a chair for a drunken Flynn to discover when he returned home from The Cock and Bull Bar. This was re-created in the movie W.C. Fields and Me with Jack Cassidy as Barrymore. Other accounts of this classic Hollywood tale substitute actor Peter Lorre in the place of Walsh.

Gene Fowler attributes different dying words to Barrymore in his biography Good Night, Sweet Prince. According to Fowler, John Barrymore roused as if to say something to his brother Lionel; Lionel asked John to repeat himself, and John simply replied, "You heard me, Mike".

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Barrymore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard.


Trivia

Known for calling people by nicknames of his own creation, Dolores Costello was known in his writing alternately by "Small Cat", "Catkiwee", "Winkie", and "Egg".
Was fond of sailing, and owned his own yacht, "The Mariner", on which he could escape unhappy wives, mistresses, lawyers, and creditors.
Owned a pet monkey named Clementine, which he adored.
Named his favourite accommodation in a boarding house "The Alchemist's Corner".

Quotations

"Why is there so much month left at the end of the money?"
"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
On the subject of theatre reviews: "Actors should never read them. If you don't believe the bad ones, why should you pay attention to the good ones?" said to John Carradine, who was performing in If I Were King at the Philharmonic Theatre in Los Angeles.[3]

Arthur Shields
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Shields (February 15, 1896 -April 27, 1970) was an Irish-born stage and film actor.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, the younger brother of Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields joined Fitzgerald at Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre as a Player in 1914, where he directed as well as acted. Though in films fitfully since 1910, Shields's formal movie career did not begin until he joined several other Abbey veterans in the cast of John Ford's The Plough and the Stars (1936). He went on to appear in several other John Ford films, generally cast in more introverted roles than those offered his brother. Unlike his sibling, Shields was not confined to Irish parts; he often as not played Americans, and in 1943's Dr. Renault's Secret he was seen as a French police inspector.

Never as prominent a film personality as his brother, Arthur Shields nonetheless remained a dependable second-echelon character player into the 1960s. Some of his memorable roles were as the Reverend Playfair in Ford's The Quiet Man opposite John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and his brother, Barry Fitzgerald and again with his brother and John Wayne in John Ford's Long Voyage Home. He appeared as Fogarty in Little Nellie Kelly opposite Judy Garland and George Murphy. Other films in which he had a supporting role include The Fabulous Dorseys, The Fighting Father Dunne, Drums Along the Mohawk with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, Lady Godiva with Maureen O'Hara and National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney. He also played a memorable supporting role, as a widower living in India, in Jean Renoir's The River. He died in Santa Barbara, California.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Shields"

Cesar Romero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Cesar Julio Romero, Jr.
Born February 15, 1907
New York City, New York, USA
Died January 1, 1994, (age 86)
Santa Monica, California, USA
Other name(s) Butch, Latin from Manhattan
Years active ca. 1930-1990
Notable roles The Joker in Batman

Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. (February 15, 1907 - January 1, 1994) was a Cuban-American actor. He was born in New York to wealthy Cuban parents and played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930s until the 1950s, usually in supporting roles. He starred as Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero's Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his large family after his parents lost their sugar import business and suffered losses in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Romero lived on and off with various family members, especially his sister, for the rest of his life.

Romero's skill at both dancing and comedy can be seen in the classic 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as A Night in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s.

Romero served admirably in various capacities in the United States Coast Guard in the Pacific for several years during WWII.


Cesar Romero in his most famous role as the Joker from Batman.In 1966, Romero achieved icon status when he played The Joker in ABC-TV's Batman television series. He refused to shave his trademark mustache and so it was covered with white makeup when playing the supervillain throughout the series' run. Romero also portrayed The Joker in the spin-off movie version of the show.

Among Romero's guest star work in the 1970s was a recurring role on the western comedy Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy. Romero played Señor Armendariz, a Mexican rancher feuding with Patrick McCreedy (Burl Ives), the owner of a ranch on the opposite side of the border. He appeared in three episodes.

Romero portrayed Chico Rodriguez's (Freddie Prinze) absent father in Chico And The Man and later appeared as Peter Stavros in the television series Falcon Crest (1985-1987).

Romero always claimed his grandfather on his mother's side was Cuban poet and patriot José Martí although his mother's parents were legally Carmen and Manuel Mantilla with Jose Martí as his godfather. There was some speculation that Maria was fathered by Martí who was a boarder in the Mantilla household but he never claimed Maria as his daughter in his lifetime. Romero was a believer in liberation theology. Romero, who never married despite proposing to at least one woman, was rumored to be openly gay, according to the more discreet standards of his generation. He was a mainstay of the Hollywood social circuit until his death in 1994.

. His own network show was abruptly canceled in the mid-1950s when sponsors refused to advertise on a program hosted by a black entertainer. His daughter, Natalie, became a pop music star with many hits in the 1990s -- including an album of standards made popular by her father: Mona Lisa, For Sentimental Reasons, Nature Boy, Too Young, Unforgettable, etc. With modern recording technology, she was able to record a duet with her father's voice. Nat Cole was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1990.

Harvey Korman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Harvey Herschel Korman, professionally known as Harvey Korman (b. February 15, 1927) is an American actor born in Chicago, Illinois. He has performed in television and movie productions in the U.S. since 1960. His first big break was being a featured performer on The Danny Kaye Show (1963-1967), but he is probably best remembered for his performances on The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978) and in the comedy films of Mel Brooks, most notably Blazing Saddles (1974).

His early television work included voice-over work on Tom and Jerry (1965) and as the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones (1965-1966). Recently he has done voice work for the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994) as well as the animated The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (1998).

Korman has been nominated for six Emmy Awards, and won four (in 1969, 1971 (for Outstanding Achievement By a Performer in Music or Variety), 1972, and 1974). He was also nominated for four Golden Globes, winning in 1975. He was previously married to Donna Ehlert (1960-1977) and they had two children together; Chris and Maria Korman. He is currently married to Deborah Korman (1982-present) and they have 2 daughters together; Katherine and Laura Korman.

Claire Bloom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born 15 February 1931
London, England, UK

Claire Bloom (born Patricia Claire Blume on February 15, 1931) is an English film and stage actress.




Biography

Early life

Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, to Edward Blume (the son of Jewish immigrants, originally named Blumenthal, from Russia and Latvia) and Elizabeth Grew (a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland originally named Griewski).


Career

After training at the Guildhall School and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Bloom made her debut on BBC radio programmes. She made her stage debut in 1946, when she was 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1947 in the Christopher Fry play The Lady's Not For Burning; the following year, she received great acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet, the first of many works by William Shakespeare that Bloom would appear in.

Bloom has appeared in a number of plays and theatrical works in both London and New York. Those works include Look Back In Anger, Rashomon, and Bloom's favorite role, that of Blanche in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. Bloom has also performed in a one woman show that included monologues from several of her stage performances.

Bloom's first film role was in 1948, for the film The Blind Goddess. She was chosen by Charlie Chaplin in 1952 to appear in his film Limelight, which catapulted Bloom to stardom, and remains one of her most memorable roles. She was subsequently featured in a number of "costume" roles in films sych as Alexander The Great, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. Bloom also appeared in Laurence Olivier's Richard III, Ibsen's A Doll's House, as well as the films The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Look Back In Anger, both with Richard Burton.

In the 1960s she began to play more contemporary roles, including an unhinged housewife in The Chapman Report, a psychiatrist in the Oscar winning film Charly, and a lesbian in The Haunting. She also appeared in the 1989 Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Her most recent appearance in a Hollywood film was in the 1996 Sylvester Stallone film Daylight.

Bloom has appeared in several films, series and miniseries for television, perhaps the most memorable of which was her portraial of Lady Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited (1981). Other roles include Cathy in Wuthering Heights with Keith Michell as Heathcliffe (1962); First Lady Edith Wilson in Backstairs at the White House (1979); as Joy Gresham, the lover of C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands (1985), and as the older Sophy in the 1992 miniseries The Camomile Lawn on Britain's Channel 4. Her most recent appearance in a miniseries was in the 2006 version of The Ten Commandments.

On continuing television series, she has appeared on the New York-based Law & Order: Criminal Intent. From 1991 to 1993, she portrayed villainess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime drama As The World Turns. She also had major roles in several of the BBC-Shakespeare Play television presentations and has led workshops on Shakespearean performance practices.

In January 2006, she appeared on the London stage in Arthur Allan Seidelman's production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri, a two-hander in which she co-starred with Billy Zane.

Personal life

Bloom was married three times. Her first marriage was in 1959 to actor Rod Steiger, whom she had met when they both performed in the play Rashomon. Their daughter, opera singer Anna Steiger, was born in 1960. Steiger and Bloom divorced in 1969. In that same year, Bloom married producer Hillard Elkins. The marriage lasted three years and the couple divorced in 1972.

Bloom's third marriage was to writer Philip Roth in 1990; the couple divorced in 1995. Bloom wrote two memoirs about her life and career. The first, Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress, was released in 1982 and was an in-depth look at her career and the film and stage roles she had portrayed.

Her second book, Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir, was published in 1996, and went into greater details about her personal life; she discussed not only her marriages but her romantic relationships with Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. The book created a stir when Bloom detailed the highly complicated relationship between her and Philip Roth during their marriage. The details Bloom shared were unflattering to Roth, and created a controversy regarding the true nature of their relationship. The character of Eve Frame in Roth's 1998 novel I Married a Communist is clearly intended as a retort. In the book, Frame is constantly bullied by her daughter, a professional harpist, and their relationship slowly ruins Frame's marriage to her third husband. She then destroys the reputation of her former husband by publishing her memoirs accusing him of being a communist spy.