edgar, that is the most cryptic song by Bob Dylan that I have ever heard, and yet, Texas, it makes total sense. If Dylan painted, he would most definitely be into abstract art. That is interesting to me, listeners. Just how would many singers and writers of music be translated into art?
Although BioBob didn't indicate as much, I believe that yesterday was Smokey Robinson's birthday as well so let's hear one from him this morning:
Artist: Smokey Robinson
Song: I Like It Like That
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
I'm only payin' the price for a trip I took to paradise
'Cause I looked into a pair of eyes
and what I thought was the look of love was only hurt in disguise
Too bad I didn't realize, oh but don't apologize, no, 'cause...
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
I should've did it myself
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
I think it's pretty plain: holdin' you would take a ball & chain
Every bet I made was all in vain
'Cause what I thought was an ocean of love was just a wee drop of rain
Too bad that it couldn't rain, oh but you don't have to explain, no, 'cause...
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
I should've did it myself
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
That's the thing to do
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
(instrumental)
I said, what I thought was sure to last, to last was just a minute instead
Too bad that I got misled, ah but you don't have to hang your head, no, 'cause...
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
I should've did it myself
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
I don't blame you at all 'cause you played it cool
'Cause that's the thing to do
You don't owe me a thing 'cause I played the fool
No no no no no
...& fade
0 Replies
edgarblythe
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 05:39 am
That Dylan song was written to express his fears during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
(Hand-me-down)
When she was just a kid
Her clothes were hand-me-down
(Hand-me-down)
They always laughed at her
When she came into town
Called her rag doll
Little rag doll
Such a pretty face
Should be dressed in lace
(Sad rag doll)
I'd change her sad rags
Into glad rags if I could
(If I could)
My folks won't let me
'Cause they say that she's no good
She's a rag doll, such a rag doll
Though I love her so
I can't let her know
Ooh, oo-oo-oo-ooh
(Ooh-oo-ooh)
Ooh-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh
Ahh, ah-ah-ah-ahh
(Rag doll, ooh)
I love you just the way you are
edgar, in response to your explanation of Dylan's inspiration, here is Ben Shahn's response to the Cuban missle crisis via art, and is a tribute to Dag Hammarskjold:
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edgarblythe
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 06:51 am
I served in the Navy during that missile crisis. All liberty and leaves were cancelled. We didn't know if we would be fighting the Russians or not. Truly disturbing.
0 Replies
Letty
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 07:08 am
My word, edgar. What a scary thing for all the military. I found that a movie was made about that crisis, and it was called "Thirteen Days." It starred Kevin Costner, but I don't recall having seen it.
A song that says it, folks:
Crisis
In The Shadow Of The Sun
(the horizon closed down..) what did you see before the world went dark?
i know i have no home now, (no place to hide) . my home is in your space,
STRANGER.(no place to hide) the edge of the water cracks, and you can see
they all have the same face. BROTHER , is there room for a sister now that
your bed is gone? DESTROY DESTROY DESTROY..Brother, friend is foe, and life
is a struggle to survive. BROTHER. DESTROY. STRANGER...(like dust and we
fall and we fall and we fall... the horizon closed down.) what did you see
before the world went dark? i know i have no home now. give me some place
to hide. no escaping the HORIZON. no escaping the WAR. brother, we are HOME.
(the horizon closed down).
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 08:33 am
Smokey Robinson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name William Robinson, Jr.
Born February 19, 1940
Origin Detroit, Michigan, USA
Genre(s) R&B/soul
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, record producer, record executive
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1955 - present
Label(s) Motown, Universal, SBK, Liquid 8
Associated
acts The Miracles, The Temptations, Mary Wells
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. Robinson is noted for being one of the primary figures associated with the Motown record label, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. As both a member of Motown group The Miracles and a solo artist, Robinson recorded seventy Top 40 hits for Motown between 1959 and 1990, and also served as the company's Vice President from 1961 to 1988.
Biography
Early years and formation of the Miracles
Smokey Robinson was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and was nicknamed "Smokey" as a child, because of his love of westerns. The name originally came when an uncle (who would take a young Robinson to see westerns) gave him the name "Smokey Joe", Robinson began being called "Smokey" whilst in his teens. In 1955, Robinson founded a group he called "The Five Chimes" with his best friend Ronnie White, and Northern High School classmates Pete Moore, Clarence Dawson, and James Grice. By 1957, the group was called "The Matadors" and included cousins Bobby Rogers and Claudette Rogers in place of Dawson and Grice. With Robinson as lead singer, the Matadors began touring the local Detroit venues. In 1958, Robinson met songwriter Berry Gordy, Jr., who co-wrote for them the single "Got a Job," an answer song to The Silhouettes' hit single "Get a Job." The group renamed itself The Miracles, and issued singles on both End Records and Chess Records before Robinson suggested to Berry Gordy that he start a label of his own.
In 1959, Gordy founded Tamla Records, which he soon reincorporated as Motown. The Miracles were among the label's first signees. Gordy and Robinson had a synergistic relationship, with Robinson providing a foundation for Motown's hit-making success and Gordy acting as a mentor for the budding singer and songwriter. By 1961, Gordy had appointed Robinson vice-president of Motown Records, a title Robinson held for as long as Gordy remained with the company.
Motown and The Miracles
The 1960 single "Shop Around" was Motown's first #1 hit on the R&B singles chart, and the first big hit for The Miracles. They scored many more hits over the years, including "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (1962), "Mickey's Monkey" (1963), "Ooo Baby Baby (1965), "The Tracks of My Tears" (1965), "Going to a Go-Go" (1965), "More Love" (1967), and "I Second That Emotion" (1967).
Besides penning hits for his own group, Robinson also wrote and produced hits and album tracks for other Motown artists. Mary Wells had a big hit with the Robinson-penned "My Guy" (1964), and Robinson served as The Temptations primary songwriter and producer from 1963 to 1966, penning hits such as "The Way You Do the Things You Do," "My Girl," "Since I Lost My Baby," and "Get Ready." Among Robinson's numerous other Motown compositions are "Still Water (Love)" by The Four Tops, "Don't Mess With Bill" and "My Baby Must Be A Magician" by The Marvelettes, "When I'm Gone" by Brenda Holloway, "Ain't That Peculiar" and "I'll Be Doggone" by Marvin Gaye, and "First I Look at the Purse" by The Contours.
Fellow singer/songwriter Bob Dylan described Robinson as "America's greatest living poet." Robinson's hit ballads also earned him the title "America's poet laureate of love." Over the course of his almost 50-year career in music, Robinson has over 4,000 songs to his credit.
After marrying Claudette Rogers, Robinson started a family, and named both of his children after Motown: his son was named Berry after the company's founder, and his daughter was named Tamla after the Motown imprint for which Robinson and The Miracles recorded.
The Miracles remained a premier Motown act through most of the 1960s. Albums were released as "Smokey Robinson & the Miracles" after 1965. By 1969, the group's fortunes began to falter, and Robinson decided to quit The Miracles so that he could remain at home with his family and concentrate on his duties as vice president. The group stopped recording and Robinson prepared to leave the group. Unexpectedly, however, their 1966 recording of "The Tears of a Clown" was released as a single in 1970, and became a #1 hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Due to the surprise success of "Tears of a Clown," Robinson was convinced to remain with The Miracles for a few more years. In 1972, he followed through on his original plans to leave the group, and The Miracles began a six-month farewell tour. On July 16, 1972, Smokey and Claudette Robinson gave their final performances as Miracles at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Washington, DC, and Robinson introduced the group's new lead singer, Billy Griffin. The Miracles went on for a while, even having another #1 hit, "Love Machine," in 1976.
Successful solo career
Smokey Robinson began a low-key solo career while concentrating on his duties as vice-president of Motown, releasing his first solo LP, Smokey, in 1973. His first hit single, "Sweet Harmony" (1973), was dedicated to The Miracles.
In 1975, Robinson's solo career went into full-drive after the success of the #1 R&B hit "Baby That's Backatcha." Robinson's 1976 single "Quiet Storm" and its accompanying album typified a smooth, slow style of R&B that is today called "quiet storm." Other Robinson solo hits include "Cruisin'" (1979), "Being With You" (a UK #1 hit) (1981), "Tell Me Tomorrow" (1982), and "Ebony Eyes," a duet with labelmate Rick James (1983). He also recorded the soundtrack to the film Big Time (1977).
Later years
During the mid-1980s, Robinson fell victim to cocaine addiction. His recording slowed, and his marriage to Claudette faltered; the two were divorced in 1986. Robinson eventually overcame the addiction and revitalized his career, scoring hits in 1987 with "Just To See Her" and "One Heartbeat." Also in 1987, British band ABC scored a US and UK hit with their tribute to Robinson, entitled "When Smokey Sings". In 1988, Robinson published his autobiography, Smokey, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Upon Motown's sale to MCA in 1988, Robinson resigned from his position as vice-president. After one last album for Motown, Love, Smokey (1990), Robinson departed the company. He released one record for SBK Records, Double Good Everything (1991), the same year he won a Soul Train Music Award for Career Achievement. Eight years later, he returned to Motown, which by then was a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and released Intimate (1999). The same year, Robinson received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Since then, Robinson has continued to periodically perform and tour. In 2003, Robinson served as a guest judge for American Idol during "Billy Joel Week." He issued a gospel LP, Food for the Spirit in 2004. A new album of pop standards from the early 20th century, Timeless Love, was released in June 2006. It was originally recorded with a jazz combo, but strings were added after the fact, giving the album more of a lush sound but removing much of the jazz feeling of the disc.
In 2004, Robinson's company, SFGL Foods, launched a special brand of gumbo called "Smokey Robinson's 'The Soul is in the Bowl' Gumbo." [1].
In May 2006, at its 138th Commencement Convocation, Howard University conferred on Robinson the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa.
In recent months, Robinson has appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives, and on The Rachael Ray Show. He is scheduled to appear on Duets on Fox along with Randy Travis, Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, Aaron Neville, Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Kenny Loggins, Brian McKnight, Macy Gray, Richard Marx, and Cyndi Lauper. David Foster will be a judge.
Smokey Robinson is the spokesman of the Great American Smokeout, which takes place annually one week before Thanksgiving. It is a day when smokers quit smoking for at least a day.
In December 2006 Robinson was one of five Kennedy Center honorees, along with Dolly Parton (with whom Robinson had recorded a 1987 duet, "I Know You By Heart"), Zubin Mehta, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Spielberg. The ceremony was held on December 3rd, and broadcast on CBS on December 26th. On 11 February 2007 Smokey sang Tracks Of My Tears, at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, as part of an R&B Trio consisting of him, Lionel Richie performing Hello and Chris Brown performing a Hip-Hop version of his single Run It.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 08:39 am
Cedric Hardwicke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born 19 February 1893
Lye, Worcestershire, England
Died 6 August 1964
New York, New York, USA
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was an English actor. He was born in the village of Lye, then in Worcestershire.
He trained at RADA, and, after service in World War I, he joined a repertory company in Birmingham, and played many classical roles on stage before beginning a film career which included both British and Hollywood films.
Despite having played in such classics as Les Misérables (1935), King Solomon's Mines (1937), The Winslow Boy (1948) and Olivier's Richard III (1955), Hardwicke is now remembered chiefly for his role as King Arthur in the comedy/musical, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), singing We're Busy Doing Nothing in a trio with Bing Crosby and William Bendix and for his portrayal of the Pharaoh Seti I in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 film The Ten Commandments. He also played Dr. David Livingstone opposite Spencer Tracy's Henry M. Stanley in the 1939 film classic, Stanley and Livingstone. And he was memorable as the evil Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film), with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo.
Hardwicke's son is the actor Edward Hardwicke, who became well-known for playing Dr. Watson on British television in the 1980s and 1990s.
Hardwicke was knighted in 1934. He died at the age of 71 in New York City.
Memorial
Hardwicke is remembered by a sculpture by Tim Tolkien at Lye, commissioned by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. The memorial takes the form of a giant filmstrip, the illuminated cut metal panels illustrating scenes from some of Sir Cedric's best-known roles, which include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Things to Come, and The Ghost of Frankenstein. It was unveiled in November 2005.
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bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 08:43 am
Louis Calhern
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born 19 February 1895
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died 12 May 1956
Tokyo, Japan
Louis Calhern (February 19, 1895 - May 12, 1956) was an American stage and screen actor.
Early life
Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up. While playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company spotted him, and hired him as an extra. Just prior to World War I, Calhern decided to move back to New York to pursue an acting career. He began as a prop boy and bit player with touring companies and burlesque companies. His burgeoning career was interrupted by the war and he served overseas in the military during World War I.
Career
He became a matinee idol by virtue of a play titled The Cobra, and soon began to act in films. In the early 30s he was primarily cast as a character actor in Hollywood, while he continued to play leading roles on stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as an MGM contract player. Among his most memorable roles were three that he played in 1950 - a singing one as Buffalo Bill in the film version of Annie Get Your Gun (musical), the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated role as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his stage role), as well as his portrayal of the title role in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film of Julius Caesar in 1953.
Marriages
Calhern was married four times, to Ilka Chase from 1926 to 1927, to Julia Hoyt from 1927 to 1932, to Natalie Schafer from 1933 to 1942, and Marianne Stewart from 1946 to 1955. All four marriages ended in divorce.
Death
Calhern died of a sudden heart attack in Tokyo, while filming The Teahouse of the August Moon. He was replaced in the film by Paul Ford, who had played Calhern's role in the original stage version. By an odd coincidence, when playing Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun, Calhern had replaced Frank Morgan, who had died of a sudden heart attack during the making of that film. Calhern is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 08:49 am
Merle Oberon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born February 19, 1911
India
Died November 23, 1979
Malibu, California
Merle Oberon (February 19, 1911 - November 23, 1979), born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson, was a film actress.
Early life
Oberon was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Her mother, Charlotte, was an Anglo-Sinhalese nurse; her father, Arthur, was a British railway engineer. Merle was her mother's second child. Charlotte had abandoned her first daughter, Constance, and refused to take care of another child born out of wedlock. She insisted that Arthur marry her, although there is no evidence that he actually did.
In 1914, when she was 3, Merle's father died of pneumonia on the Western Front in the early months of World War I. Mother and daughter led an impoverished existence in shabby Bombay apartments for a few years. Then, in 1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Merle received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere College for Girls, a well known Calcutta private school. There, she was constantly taunted for her unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and had her lessons at home.
Merle first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also completely enamored of the movies and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. As she entered her teen years, she dated increasingly older, urbane men.
In 1929, she met a former actor who claimed he could introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios. Merle jumped at the offer and decided to follow the man to the studios in France. However, when he saw Merle's dark mother one night at her apartment and realized Merle was mixed-race, he secretly decided to end the relationship. After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Merle and her mother found that their supposed benefactor had dodged them. However, he had left a good word for Merle with Rex Ingram at the studios in Nice. Ingram liked Merle's exotic appearance. She was quickly hired to be an extra in a party scene.
Film career
Merle arrived in England for the first time in 1928. Initially she worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled roles in various films. Her film career received a major boost when Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then given leading roles, such as the The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard who became her lover for a while.
Oberon's career went on to greater heights partly as a result of her relationship with and later marriage to director Alexander Korda, who had persuaded her to take the name under which she became famous. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn who gave her good vehicles. She received her only Oscar nomination for The Dark Angel (1935) produced by Goldwyn. Around this time she had a serious romance with David Niven. She was selected to star in Korda's film of I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident resulted in filming being abandoned. Merle Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.
She went on to appear as Cathy in her most famous film Wuthering Heights (1939), as George Sand in the hit film A Song to Remember (1945), and as Empress Josephine in Désirée (1954). During her time as a film star, Oberon went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background and when her dark-skinned mother moved in with her in Hollywood, she masqueraded as Oberon's maid.
According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Merle suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures. The results, however, were only partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and indentation of her skin.
Her mother died in 1937, and in 1949 Oberon commissioned paintings of her mother from an old photograph, instructing the artist to lighten her mother's complexion. The paintings would hang in all her homes until her death in 1979. Also, Oberon supposedly had a minor obsession with facial injuries after her own accident, and had an affair with Richard Hillary who had been burned after his Supermarine Spitfire was shot down in 1940.
Merle Oberon divorced Sir Alexander Korda in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film. The light became known as the "Obie".
She married twice more, to Italian-born industrialist, Bruno Pagliai (with whom she adopted 2 children) and Dutch actor Robert Wolders -- who would later become Audrey Hepburn's companion -- before her retirement in Malibu, California, where she died after suffering a stroke at the age of 68.
She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard.
Throughout her professional life, Oberon denied her mixed-race Indian background but maintained the fiction that she had been born and raised in Tasmania, Australia. That there were no birth or school records that could prove this, was explained by another fabrication, that they had all been burnt in a fire. She is only known to have been to Australia once, when she agreed to visit Tasmania towards the end of her life. However, she was not seen in public, and she became ill shortly before attending a reception in her honour in Hobart; those who might have been in a position to confirm or disprove her Tasmanian connection were denied the opportunity to meet her and question her. The story of her alleged Tasmanian connections was comprehensively debunked after her death, yet there are still many people in Tasmania who claim to have known her as a child, and will apparently not be convinced otherwise. Unconvinced, however, was Warner Brothers megastar Errol Flynn, a real Tasmanian, who publicly chided Oberon.
After her death, Michael Korda, nephew of Alexander Korda wrote a roman à clef about Oberon entitled Queenie. This was also turned into a television miniseries starring Mia Sara.
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bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 08:56 am
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 09:04 am
Lee Marvin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Leo Marvin Steinman
Born February 19, 1924
New York, New York, USA
Died August 29, 1987 aged 63
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Years active 1950 - 1986
Spouse(s) Pamela Feeley (October 18, 1970 - August 29, 1987) (his death)
Betty Ebeling (February 1951 - January 5, 1967) (divorced)
Notable roles Liberty Valance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Academy Awards
Best Actor:
1965 Cat Ballou
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
1961 Alcoa Premiere, "People Need People"
Lee Marvin (born Leo Marvin Steinman on February 19, 1924 - August 29, 1987) was an Academy Award winning American film actor. Known for his gravel voice, Marvin was originally limited to playing mostly villains and war veterans, but later appeared in more varied and sympathetic roles.
Early Life and World War II
Born in New York City, the son of an advertising executive and a fashion writer, Marvin attended St. Leo Preparatory College in Saint Leo, Florida (now known as Saint Leo University) after being thrown out of several schools for bad behavior. He left school to join the U.S. 5th Marine Division, serving as a sniper. Marvin was wounded in action during the WWII battle of Saipan, two months prior to the battle of Iwo Jima. Most of his platoon were killed during the battle. This had a significant effect on Marvin for the rest of his life.[1] He was sent home with a medical discharge and a rank of PFC.
While working as a plumber's assistant, repairing a toilet at a local community theater in upstate New York, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He then established an amateur off-Broadway acting career in New York City and was an understudy in Broadway productions before moving to Hollywood in 1950.
Popular actor
Marvin quickly became a popular figure in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various Western films and WWII or Korean combat films. A decorated WWII combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and even adjusting war surplus military prop firearms. His debut was in You're in the Navy Now (1951), and in 1952 he appeared in several films, including Don Siegel's Duel at Silver Creek, Hangman's Knot, and the war drama Eight Iron Men. He was featured as the vicious boyfriend of Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat (1953). Marvin had a small but memorable role in The Wild One (1953) opposite Marlon Brando, followed by Seminole (1953), Gun Fury (1953). He was again praised for his role as the small-town hood Hector in the film Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy (1954).
During the mid-1950s, Marvin gradually began playing more substantial roles. He starred in Attack! (1956), and The Missouri Traveler (1958) but it took over a hundred episodes as Chicago police lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the successful 1957-60 television series M Squad to give him name recognition. He had prominent roles with John Wayne in The Comancheros (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Donovan's Reef (1963). Marvin also guest-starred in Combat! "The Bridge at Chalons" (Episode 34, Season 2, Mission 1), and The Twilight Zone episodes #72 The Grave (1961), in which he played a fearless gunman investigating the haunted grave of a man who swore to get revenge on him, and #122 Steel (1963), in which he played a former boxer who gets into the ring with a boxing robot.
Aided by director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in the groundbreaking The Killers (1964) playing an organised, no-nonsense, efficient, businesslike professional assassin whose character was copied to a great degree by Samuel L. Jackson in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction. This film was also the first time Marvin received top billing in a film.
Lee Marvin won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Actor for his comedic performance in the offbeat western Cat Ballou. Following roles in The Professionals (1966) and the hugely successful The Dirty Dozen (1967), Marvin was given complete control over his next film. In Point Blank, an influential film with director John Boorman, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. In that film Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plot line, and staging. In 1968, Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Hell in the Pacific, co-starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. He had a hit song with "Wand'rin' Star" from the western musical Paint Your Wagon (1969).
Preceded by
Rex Harrison
for My Fair Lady Academy Award for Best Actor
1965
for Cat Ballou Succeeded by
Paul Scofield
for A Man for All Seasons
Later life
Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s and 1980s, with fewer 'bad-guy' roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included Monte Walsh (1970), Prime Cut (1972), Pocket Money (1972), Emperor of the North Pole (1973), The Iceman Cometh (1973) as Hickey, The Spikes Gang (1974), The Klansman (1974), Shout at the Devil (1976), The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976), and Avalanche Express (1978).
Marvin's last big role was given to him by Samuel Fuller for The Big Red One (1980). His remaining films were Death Hunt (1981), Gorky Park (1983), Dog Day (1984), The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission (1985), with his final appearance being in The Delta Force (1986). Provided monologue for "The Dead Flag Blues" by Godspeed You Black Emperor! which was released in 1996, which was originally recorded as part of a film about jail by Efrim Menuck. [1]
A father of four, Marvin was married twice:
Betty Ebeling (February 1951 - January 5, 1967) (divorced).
Pamela Feeley (October 18, 1970 - August 29, 1987) (his death).
Marvin v. Marvin
In 1971, Marvin was sued by long-time girlfriend Michelle Triola (who called herself Michelle Marvin at the time). Though the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's alimony and community property laws. The result was the landmark "palimony" case, Marvin v. Marvin 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976)[2]
On the cover of Esquire MagazineThe Supreme Court of California held that Ms. Triola could proceed with her suit, as it did state a cause of action and the trial court erred in granting judgment to Mr. Marvin on the pleadings.
The case was thus remanded for trial in the Superior Court in and for the County of Los Angeles. On April 18, 1979, Judge Arthur K. Marshall ordered Marvin to pay $104,000 to Ms. Triola for "rehabilitation purposes" but denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation. In August 1981, however, the California Court of Appeal reversed this decision, declaring that Ms. Triola was entitled to no money whatsoever. As such, that the co-habitant in an unmarried cohabitative relationship had no community property claim, but merely a contract claim. Without evidence of any contract between Mr. Marvin and Ms. Triola for Mr. Marvin to provide her support after the end of their relationship, Ms. Triola could not recover any money.[3][4]
Marvin died in 1987 of a heart attack in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 63, and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
Trivia
In the film Eight Iron Men, Marvin, a WWII combat veteran, was frequently called upon to service the German MG34 machine gun that plays a central part in the picture. According to the director, only Marvin could get the gun to fire dependably.
Lee Marvin's character in The Dirty Dozen (Major John Reisman) was based on U.S. Marine John Miara, of Malden, Massachusetts. The two became friends while serving in the Marine Corps.
The myth about Lee Marvin fighting alongside Bob Keeshan (alias Captain Kangaroo) at the Battle of Iwo Jima is not true. (See above under "Early Life and World War II".) [Technically perhaps it was not the Battle of Iwo Jima but this what Marvin said about this experience :
Dialog from "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson"
Johnny said, "Lee, I'll bet a lot of people are unaware that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima...and that during the course of that action you earned the Navy Cross and were severely wounded." "Yeah, yeah...I got shot square in the bottom and they gave me the Cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi. Bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys getting shot hauling you down. But, Johnny, at Iwo I served under the bravest man I ever knew...We both got the cross the same day, but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison. That dumb guy actually stood up on Red beach and directed his troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach. Bullets flying by, with mortar rounds landing everywhere and he stood there as the main target of gunfire so that he could get his men to safety. He did this on more than one occasion because his men's safety was more important than his own life.
That Sergeant and I have been lifelong friends. When they brought me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and passed it to me, lying on my belly on the litter and said, 'Where'd they get you, Lee?' I replied, 'Well, Bob... if you make it home before me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse!'
Johnny, I'm not lying, Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man I ever knew.
The Sergeant's full name was Bob Keeshan, also known as Captain Kangaroo.]
A book regarding the films of Lee Marvin, Lee Marvin: His Films and Career was written by Robert J. Lentz in 1999. This book details Marvin's many film and television appearances, but omits details of his personal life.
Jim Jarmusch is the founder of a secret society The Sons of Lee Marvin whose members reportedly include Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and John Lurie. Lee Marvin's real son objected to the organization when he encountered Waits.[5]
Allegedly descended from Thomas Jefferson and related to Robert E. Lee[6]
When visiting co-star Vivien Leigh at her home in London, England with his girlfriend at the time, Michelle Triola, he tore up a deck of antique playing cards that they were playing with. Much to Triola's surprise, Leigh was not at all disturbed by Marvin's boorish behavior but seemed enchanted by him.[6]
The trial court victory of Michelle Triola supposedly led to a Hollywood slang term, "Marvinized." As noted above, however, Triola lost on appeal and never received any money from Marvin.
Was originally considered for the part of Quint in the film Jaws
Made "Top 10 stars of the year", 5 times. 1967-1971
Lee Marvin was a regular on again/off again resident of Woodstock, NY throughout the 1970s. He frequented Katz's Deli, a delicatessen located on Tinker Street.
When filming a movie in Las Vegas in 1966, he and others complained that Vegas Vic's "howdy partner" was too loud. The voice box was removed.[7]
He's cited in the movie Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino [2]
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bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Mon 19 Feb, 2007 09:11 am
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 09:15 am
A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Hunting Flies" He responded.
"Oh. Killing any?" She asked.
"Yep, 3 males, 2 Females," he replied..
Intrigued, she asked. "How can you tell?"
He responded, "3 were on a beer can, 2 were on the phone."
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Raggedyaggie
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 09:43 am
Couldn't help , Bobsmythhawk.
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Letty
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 10:10 am
Well, hawkman, you seem to have most flies and women carved in stone, but I, for one, hate talking on the phone.
Thank, Boston, for all the great bio's.
Hey, Raggedy. Things are just clipping along today, no? Once again we are delighted with your montage of the celebs.
Let's see, folks. We are looking at Smokey, Sir Cedrick, Louis, Merle(that one is for you, PA.) Stan, Lee, and Jeff.
Interesting about The Four Freshmen, as my friend in Virginia Beach heard them in Norfolk, Va. several days ago. I will have to go to the archives and check their performance out, folks.
Let's hear one about Liberty, and this version is by James Taylor
When Liberty Valance came to town
the women folk would hide
they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around
the men would step aside
Because the point of a gun
was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting
straight and fast
he was mighty good.
From out of the east a stranger came
a law book in his hand
a man
The kind of man the west would need
to ease a troubled land
Because the point of a gun
was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting
straight and fast
he was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun
and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
he shot Liberty Valance
he was the bravest of them all.
Now the love of a woman can make a man
stay on when he should go
stay on
Just trying to build a peaceful life
where love is free to go
But the point of a gun
was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting
straight and fast
he was mighty good.
Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
return that fateful night
that night
When nothing she said could keep
her man from going out to fight
But the point of a gun
was the only law that Liberty understood
when the final showdown came to pass
a law book was no good.
Out in the sun two shots rang out
the shots made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
he shot Liberty Valance
he was the bravest of them all.
They are still hanging in there. Bud would love it!
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dyslexia
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 11:13 am
Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind
Lovin' Spoonful
Did you ever have to make up your mind
Pick up on one and leave the other behind
It's not often easy and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind
Did you ever have to finally decide
Say yes to one and let the other one ride
There's so many changes and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide
Sometimes there's one with big blue eyes, cute as a bunny
With hair down to here, and plenty of money
And just when you think she's that one in the world
You heart gets stolen by some mousey little girl
And then you know you'd better make up your mind...
Sometimes you really dig a girl the moment you kiss her
And then you get distracted by her older sister
When in walks her father and takes you a line
And says, "You better go home, son, and make up your mind"
And then you bet you'd better finally decide...
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dyslexia
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Mon 19 Feb, 2007 11:57 am
Motherless Child by Richie Havens
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
A long
Way
From my home, yeah
Yeah
Sing
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone, yeah
A long, long, long
Way
Way from my home, yeah
Yeah
Hey, dys. and that's a big YES to your Lovin' Spoonful.
One from the Freshman. They did this one, as did The Beach Boys, and I still can hear it in my mind.
Spring may be a little late this year, but we can think it now.
Totally a capella, folks
There's a story told of a very gentle boy
And the girl who wore his ring
Through the wintery snow
The world they knew was one
For their hearts were full of spring
As the days grew old
And the nights passed into time
And the weeks and years took wind
Gentle boy, tender girl
Their love remained still young
For their hearts were full of spring
Then one day they died
And their graves were side by side
On a hill where robins sing
And they say violets
Grow there the whole year round
For their hearts were full of spring
, Bobsmythhawk.
