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Seven Languages
Camper Van Beethoven

I played this song for my love
But she said to me
"It has no meaning at all."
We walked across the park
And I said a word
And we went to the bar
For no reason at all
Well up in the sky
Well I saw a cloud
And I thought that it looked like something
But on second thought not

And I would come to visit you
But I can't find my car keys
And I can't remember where you live
And if I had just a little time
I could speak seven languages
I could walk on water

A friend calls me on the phone
And tells me a joke
Well I think that I laugh
But I don't remember at all
I woke up with a word in my head
And as far as I know
It has no meaning at all
Well up in the sky
Well I saw a cloud
And I thought it looked like a face
But on second thought not

And I would come to visit you
But I can't find my car keys
And I can't think of right words to say
And if I had just a little time
I could speak seven languages
I could walk on water

Time Ain't Nothing
Green On Red

Walking down dusty roads
Looking for horny toads
With the sun on my back
Thinking about people past
Memories that never last
When you're young and naive

Time ain't nothing
When you're young at heart
And your soul still burns
I've seen rainy days
Sunshine that never fades
All through the night

Had a motorcycle at 10
Never got into heroin
I guess I want to live
Maybe get a house someday
Find a wife raise a family
That don't mean you have to die

Time ain't nothing
When you're young at heart
And your soul still burns
I've seen rainy days
Sunshine that never fades
All through the night

Time ain't nothing
When you're young at heart
And your soul still burns
I've seen rainy days
Sunshine that never fades
All through the night

hbg, I had no idea that Romberg wrote that song. So, we have a little smaltz. That's fine with all of us and Deep in the Heart of Texas seems to be where a lot of presidents reside these days, right?

Hey, dj. Yes, "someday" we'll get it right, and we love your Seven Languages, honey.

I, for one, especially like this verse from Time Ain't Nothing

"Time ain't nothing
When you're young at heart
And your soul still burns
I've seen rainy days
Sunshine that never fades
All through the night"

Let's end our evening with something funny, shall we?

Found out that the following was a parody of a Mozart's Don Juan song, and we'll dedicate this to edgar's Jean who is home and recovering, and to the dys who has a simple bruise on his smitten knee and to all who need a little cheering.

This song was also done in German and one of the characters was Uncle Walt.

Monty Python
Lumberjack song


I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.
Chorus: He's a lumberjack and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch,
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea.
Chorus: He's a lumberjack and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing,
And hangs around in bars.
Chorus: He's a lumberjack and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I wear high heels,
Suspendies and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie,
Just like my dear pappa.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels?
Suspendies...and a bra?
...he's a lumberjack and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
...he's a lumberjack and he's OKAAAAAAAAAAYYY.
He sleeps all night and he works all day

Goodnight, my friends
From Letty with love

Gun Sale At The Church
The Beat Farmers

Well let's pack up the kid's
And take a break, getaway
Leave the hustle and bustle
Of livin' from day to day

And i know that the crime in the city
Is getting worse
So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

Well my lady's all set
To have us a real good time
Baby johnny's got <unknown>
But he don't seem to mind

Well the family's all ready to pray
At the holy <unknown>
Let's set up in the middle
Of the gun sale at the church

Well we ask the lord
To forgive us for all our sins
Then we'll look at the latest
In gold plated firing pins

Now my two main men
Are Jesus and old John Birch
So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

<guitar solo>

Well we ask the lord
To forgive us for all our sins
Then we'll look at the latest
In gold plated firing pins

Well let's pack up the kid's
And take a break, getaway
Leave the hustle and bustle
Of livin' from day to day

And I know that the crime in the city
Is getting worse
So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

So we're going on down
To the gun sale at the church

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

First, I would like to say to our dj that you find the most unusual songs to play on our wee radio. I had to go to the archives to find out about The John Birch Society. Thanks for the nudge from the past, buddy.

How about this for a morning song, folks.

Duran Duran (the second British invasion?)

(Reach Up for The) Sunrise
(From the album "ASTRONAUT")

Now the time has come
The music's between us
Though the night seems young
Is at an end
Only change will bring
You out of the darkness
In this moment everything is born again

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Now the fireball burns
We go round together
As the planet turns into the light
Something more than dreams to
Watch out for each other
Coz we know what it means to be alive

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Feel the new day enter your life
Feel the new day

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

Myrna Loy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Myrna Adele Williams
Born August 2, 1905
Radersburg, Montana, USA
Died December 14, 1993 (aged 88)
New York City, USA
Spouse(s) Arthur Hornblow, Jr. (1936-1942)
John Hertz Jr. (1942-1944)
Gene Markey (1946-1950)
Howland H. Sergeant (1951-1960)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards

Academy Honorary Award
1991 Lifetime Achievement

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as Nora Charles, wife of detective Nick Charles (William Powell), in The Thin Man series. In 1938, she was voted the "Queen of Hollywood," in a contest which also voted Clark Gable the "King," and was considered to epitomize glamor and sophistication.




Early life

She was born Myrna Adele Williams in Radersburg, Montana (near Helena), the daughter of Welsh rancher David Franklin Williams, and his wife, Della Mae. Loy's first name came from a train station whose name her father liked. Her father was also a banker and real estate developer, and the youngest man ever elected to the Montana state legislature. Her mother studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.

Myrna Williams made her stage debut at age 12 in Helena's Marlow Theater, in a dance she choreographed based on "The Blue Bird" from the Rose Dream Operetta. She moved to the Palms district of Los Angeles, California when she was 13, after her father's death. There, she attended the Westlake School for Girls. At 15, she began appearing in local stage productions. She went to Venice High School, in Venice, California.

In 1921, she posed for Harry Winebrenner's statue, titled "Spiritual", which remained in front of Venice High School throughout the 20th century and can be seen in the opening scenes of the film Grease (1978). The statue was vandalized in recent years, but a restoration is planned.


Career

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

Her breakthrough occurred with the advent of talkies. In 1929, she improvised a "foreign" accent, sang and danced in Warner Brothers' first musical, The Desert Song (1929). Loy later commented on the film's success and noted, "it kind of solidified my exotic non-American image". [1] She was quickly cast in a number of early lavish Technicolor musicals including The Show of Shows (1929), The Bride of the Regiment (1930) and Under A Texas Moon (1930). Loy became associated with musicals and when they went out of favor with the public, late in 1930, her career went into a slump.

In 1934, she appeared in Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. When the gangster John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of the film, it received widespread publicity, and some newspapers reported that Loy had been Dillinger's favorite actress. Loy later expressed distaste for the manner in which the film studio had exploited Dillinger's death.


Rise to stardom

Loy rejected the lead female role in It Happened One Night (1934), and later commented - if she had accepted it, she would have unavailable to play the part that established her as a major actress, Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) [2] The director W. S. Van Dyke chose Loy for the part after he realized that she possessed a wit and sense of humour that had not been shown in her films until then. At a Hollywood party he pushed her into a swimming pool to test her reaction, and felt that her aplomb in handling the situation, was exactly what he envisioned for Nora. Louis B. Mayer at first refused to allow Loy to play the part, saying that she was a dramatic actress only, but Van Dyke insisted. Mayer relented, on the condition that filming be completed within three weeks, as Loy was committed to start filming Stamboul Quest (1934). The Thin Man became one of the year's biggest hits, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Loy received excellent reviews and was acclaimed for her comedic skills. She and her costar William Powell proved to be a popular screen couple and appeared in 14 films together, the most prolific pairing in Hollywood history. Loy later referred to The Thin Man as the film "that finally made me... after more than 80 films". [3]


Nora and Nick Charles

Her success in Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man marked a turning point in her career and she was cast in more important pictures, and was given the opportunity to develop her comedic skills in films such as Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow and Petticoat Fever (1936) with Robert Montgomery. She made four films in close succession with William Powell: Libeled Lady (1936), which also starred Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which she played Billie Burke opposite Powell's Florenz Ziegfeld, the second "Thin Man" film, After the Thin Man, and the romantic comedy Double Wedding (1937). She also made three more films with Clark Gable. Parnell was an historical drama and one of the most poorly received films of either Loy's or Gable's career, but their other pairings in Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle (both 1938) were successes.

During this period, Loy was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses, and in 1937 and 1938 she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.[4]

By this time Loy was highly regarded for her performances in romantic comedies and she was anxious to demonstrate her dramatic ability, and was cast in the lead female role in The Rains Came (1939) opposite Tyrone Power. She filmed Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) with Melvyn Douglas and appeared in I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941) and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), all with William Powell.

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


She returned to films with The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946, playing the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March. In later years, Loy considered this film her proudest acting achievement. Throughout her career, she had championed the rights of black actors and characters to be depicted with dignity on film.

Loy was paired with Cary Grant in David O. Selznick's comedy film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). The film co-starred a teenage Shirley Temple. Following its success she appeared again with Grant in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), and with Clifton Webb in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950).

Her film career continued sporadically afterwards. In 1960, she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, but was not in another until 1969 in The April Fools. She also returned to the stage, making her Broadway debut in a short-lived 1973 revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women.


Personal life

Loy was married four times:

1936-1942 Arthur Hornblow, Jr., producer
1942-1944 John Hertz Jr. of the Hertz Rent A Car family
1946-1950 Gene Markey, producer
1951-1960 Howland H. Sergeant, UNESCO delegate

Loy had no children of her own, though it is documented that she was very close to the children of her first husband, Arthur Hornblow. "Some perfect wife I am," she said, referring to her typecasting. "I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg."

In later life, she assumed a more influential role as Co-Chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. From 1949 until 1954, she worked for UNESCO; she also was an active member of the Democratic Party.

Her autobiography, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming, was published in 1987.


Death

On December 14, 1993, after battling breast cancer and enduring two mastectomies, she died during surgery, the exact nature of which was never specified in the reports of her death in New York City. She was cremated and the ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana.


Awards

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

Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, after an extensive letter writing campaign and years of lobbying by screenwriter and then-Writers Guild of America, west board member Michael Russnow, who enlisted the support of Loy's former screen colleagues and friends such as Roddy McDowall, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Russell and many others, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1991, "for her career achievement". She accepted via camera from her New York home, making only a short acceptance speech of, "You've made me very happy. Thank you very much." It was her last public appearance in any medium.

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

Helena is home to the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts, which opened in 1991 and sponsors live performances and films for an underserved audience.


Centenary

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

Ann Dvorak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Anna McKim
Born August 2, 1912
New York, New York, USA
Died December 10, 1979, age 67
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Ann Dvorak (August 2, 1912 - December 10, 1979) was an American film actress.

Born Anna McKim in New York, New York, Dvorak was the daughter of silent actress Anna Lehr and the actor/director, Samuel McKim, and as a child appeared in several films.

She began working for MGM in the late 1920s as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film in small musical roles. Howard Hughes groomed her as a dramatic actress and she was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932), as Paul Muni's sister, as the doomed unstable "Vivian" in Three on a Match (1932), with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis, Love Is a Racket (1932), and opposite Spencer Tracy in Sky Devils (1932).

Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading for Warner Brothers during the 1930s, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas. A dispute over her pay (she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the little boy who played her son in Three on a Match) led to her finishing out her contract on permanent suspension, and then working as a freelancer, but although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply. She appeared as secretary Della Street in 1937's vehicle for Donald Woods as Perry Mason, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.

With her British husband, the actor Leslie Fenton, Dvorak travelled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver, and worked in several British films. She retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her 3rd and final husband (Nicholas Wade), to whom she remained married until his death in 1977. She had no children.

She lived her post-retirement years in anonymity until her death (from undisclosed causes) in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of 68. She was cremated and her ashes scattered.

Ann Dvorak has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6321 Hollywood Boulevard.

Asked how to say her name, she told The Literary Digest: "My name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent. I have had quite a time with the name, having been called practically everything from Balzac to Bickelsrock." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

Gary Merrill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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

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

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

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

Aside from an occasional role as narrator, Merrill had essentially retired from the entertainment business after 1980. Shortly before his death, he authored the autobiography Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989). Merrill died of lung cancer at Falmouth, Maine and is buried there in the Pine Grove Cemetery. During his long residence in Falmouth, Merrill received some complaints from the more strait-laced locals due to his habit of appearing in public wearing a caftan instead of a shirt and trousers.

Carroll O'Connor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name John Carroll O'Connor
Born August 2, 1924
the Bronx, New York, New York, United States of America
Died June 21, 2001 (aged 76)
Culver City, California
Spouse(s) Nancy O'Connor
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards

Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series
1972 All in the Family
1977 All in the Family
1978 All in the Family
1979 All in the Family
Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series
1989 In the Heat of the Night
Golden Globe Awards

Best Television Actor - Comedy or Musical
1972 All in the Family

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





Biography

O'Connor, of Irish descent, was born in The Bronx, New York and spent much of his youth in Forest Hills, Queens, the same borough in which his character Archie Bunker would later live. He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II, was educated in Montana and Ireland, and began his acting career shortly afterward. O'Connor's many film roles include Lonely Are The Brave (1962), Cleopatra (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), Hawaii (1966), The Devil's Brigade (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970). O'Connor also appeared on episodes of many popular television series such as Gunsmoke, I Spy, The Fugitive and The Wild Wild West. He was also among the actors considered for the role of Dr. Smith in the TV show Lost In Space, as well as being the visual template in the creation of Batman foe Rupert Thorne, a character who debuted at the height of All in the Family's success in Detective Comics #469 (published May 1976 by DC Comics).

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

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

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

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

In the late 1990s, O'Connor taught screenwriting at the University of Montana, where he attended college in his earlier years. In March 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was given a St. Patrick's Day tribute by MGM.

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

Peter O'Toole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Peter Seamus O'Toole
Born August 2, 1932 (age 74)
Leeds, United Kingdom
Years active 1956-Present
Spouse(s) Siân Phillips (1959-1976)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards

Academy Honorary Award
2002 Lifetime Achievement
BAFTA Awards

Best Actor in a Leading Role
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
Emmy Awards

Outstanding Supporting Actor - Mini-series/Movie
1999 Joan of Arc
Golden Globe Awards

Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1964 Becket
1968 The Lion in Winter
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Peter Seamus O'Toole (Peter James O'Toole) (b. August 2, 1932 (accepted but presumed date) is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated Irish actor.

He has received three Golden Globes and an Emmy Award. He was also awarded an honorary Oscar for his body of work (2003). Despite eight nominations, he has yet to win a Best Actor Oscar.




Early life

Peter O'Toole was born in 1932, with some sources giving his birthplace as Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, and others as Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, where he also grew up. O'Toole himself is not certain of his birthplace or date, noting in his autobiography that while he accepts August 2 as his birthdate, he has conflicting birth certificates in both countries, with the Irish one giving a June, 1932 birthdate.[1] He was the son of an Irish bookmaker father and a Scottish-born nurse mother.[2][3] When O'Toole was one year old, the O'Tooles began a five-year tour of major racetrack towns in northern England. Peter O'Toole went to a Catholic School for seven or eight years, there he was "implored" to become right handed. "I used to be scared stiff of the nuns: their whole denial of womanhood?-the black dresses & the shaving of the hair?-was so horrible, so terrifying," he later commented. "Of course, that's all been stopped. They're sipping gin & tonic in the Dublin pubs now, & a couple of them flashed their pretty ankles at me just the other day."[4] O'Toole later took pride in his Irish ancestry, even to the point of apparently always wearing at least one item of green clothing - usually his socks.[5]

O'Toole was called up for National Service in Britain and served as a radioman in the Royal Navy. As reported in a radio interview in 2006 on NPR, he was asked by an officer whether he had something he'd always wanted to do. His reply was that he'd always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor. Fortunately for him, acting worked out.

O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) (1952-1954) on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's Drama School in Dublin by the then director Ernest Blythe, because he couldn't speak Gaelic. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford. O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered dotty."[6]


Career

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

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

O'Toole is also one of a handful of actors to be Oscar-nominated for playing the same role in two different films; he played King Henry II in both 1964's Becket and 1968's The Lion in Winter.

O'Toole played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theatre in 1963. He has also appeared in Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, fulfilling a lifetime ambition when taking to the stage of the Irish capital's Abbey Theatre in 1970 to play in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, alongside the stage actor Donal McCann. His 1980 performance as Macbeth is often considered one of the greatest disasters in theatre history, but he has redeemed his theatrical reputation with his performances as John Tanner in Man and Superman and Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, and won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (1989).

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

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

In 2004, O'Toole played King Priam in the summer blockbuster Troy. He was once again nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Maurice in the 2006 film Venus, directed by Roger Michell, his eighth such nomination. Most recently, O'Toole co-stars in the Pixar animated film, Ratatouille, an animated film about a rat with dreams of becoming the greatest chef in Paris. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid praised O'Toole's performance in Ratatouille, "Peter O'Toole's performance as the critic Anton Ego is worthy of another Oscar nomination."


Personal life

In 1960, he married Welsh actress, Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters, Kate O'Toole (an award-winning actress and resident of Clifden, Ireland) and Patricia; the couple divorced in 1979. He and his ex-girlfriend, Karen Brown, have a son, Lorcan O'Toole, born when Peter was in his fifties.

Severe illness almost ended his life in the late 1970s. Due to his heavy drinking, he underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin dependent diabetes. O'Toole eventually recovered and returned to work, although he found it harder to get parts in films, resulting in more work for television and occasional stage roles. However, he gave a star turn in 1987's much-garlanded The Last Emperor.

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

He is perhaps the only one of his "London" acting contemporaries not to be knighted. While a glaring omission at first glance, it is one that, according to London's Daily Mail in 2006, is one of his own making.[citation needed] According to the paper's Richard Kay, he was offered an honorary knighthood in 1987, but turned it down for personal and political reasons.

He is a noted fan of rugby and used to attend Five Nations matches with friends and fellow rugby fans Richard Harris and Richard Burton.

O'Toole has written two books. "Loitering With Intent: The Child," which chronicles his childhood in the years leading up to WWII, was a New York Times Notable Book of the year 1992. His second, "Loitering With Intent: The Apprentice" is about his years spent training with a cadre of friends at RADA. His writing is infused with his love of language, poetry and literature, and much usage of rhyme and tempo is woven into the prose. The books have been praised by critics such as Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, who wrote: "A cascade of language, a rumbling tumbling riot of words, a pub soliloquy to an invisible but imaginable audience, and the more captivating for it. O'Toole as raconteur is grand company."

O'Toole is taking the rest of 2007 to finish his third installment. This book will have (as he described it) "the meat," meaning highlights from his stage and filmmaking career.


Trivia

The Italian comic book character Alan Ford is graphically inspired by O'Toole.
O'Toole is sometimes confused with the Irish musician of the same name who played mandolin on a few tracks on The Indigo Girls' self-titled album. The other O'Toole is a member of the band Hothouse Flowers
A lifelong player, coach and enthusiast for the game cricket. O'Toole is licensed to teach and coach cricket to children as young as ten.
His performance as T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
In a BBC Radio interview in January 2007, O'Toole said that he had studied women for a very long time, had given it his best try, but knew "nothing."
In an NPR interview in December 2006, O'Toole revealed that he knows all 154 Shakespeare sonnets. A self-described romantic, O'Toole regards the sonnets as among the finest collection of English poems. He reads them daily. In the movie Venus, he recites Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day".
In an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on January 11, 2007, O'Toole said that the actor he most enjoyed working with was his close friend, actress Katharine Hepburn. They made the movie The Lion in Winter. He played King Henry II to her Eleanor of Aquitaine.
O'Toole has been frequently mocked on the NBC show Saturday Night Live by Bill Hader
O'Toole has been interviewed three times by Charlie Rose on The Charlie Rose Show. On the last interview January 17, 2007, O'Toole said that the actor who had influenced him the most was Eric Porter. He also said that the difference between actors of yesterday and today are that actors of his generation were trained for "theatre, theatre, theatre." He also believes that the challenge for the actor is "to use his imagination to link to his emotion" and that "good parts make good actors."
On acting: "Whenever I find something getting a bit ornate, I think no, no, deepen. Don't go out, go in." -Charlie Rose Show, January 2007.
Richard Harris's family wanted O'Toole to replace him as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The last time he was seen in the Old Vic theatre, he was watching The Entertainer by John Osbourne.

Academy Award nominations

Peter O'Toole has been nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the most-nominated actor never to win the award. His nominations were for:

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia
1964 - Becket
1968 - The Lion in Winter
1969 - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
1972 - The Ruling Class
1980 - The Stunt Man
1982 - My Favorite Year
2006 - Venus

In 2003, the Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work and his lifelong contribution to film. O'Toole initially balked about accepting, and wrote the Academy a letter saying he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright."[citation needed] The Academy informed him that they would bestow the award whether he wanted it or not. Further, as he related on The Charlie Rose Show in January 2007, his children admonished him, saying that it was the highest honor one could receive in the filmmaking industry. And so, O'Toole agreed to appear at the ceremony and receive his Honorary Oscar. It was presented to him by Meryl Streep, who has the most Oscar nominations of any actor (14).

"We Miss Rodney Dangerfield, Because ..."

* My wife only has sex with me for a purpose. Last night she used me
to time an egg.

* It is tough to stay married. My wife kisses the dog on the lips,
yet she will not drink from my glass!

* Last night my wife met me at the front door. She was wearing a sexy
negligee. The only trouble was she was coming home.

* A girl phoned me and said, "Come on over. There's nobody home." I
went over. Nobody was home!

* A hooker once told me she had a headache.

* I went to a massage parlor. It was self-service.

* If it were not for pickpockets, I would have no sex life at all.

* I was making love to this girl and she started crying. I said, "Are
you going to hate yourself in the morning?" She said, "No, I hate
myself now."

* I knew a girl so ugly that she was known as a two-bagger. That is
when you put a bag over your head in case the bag over her head comes
off.

* I knew a girl so ugly they use her in prisons to cure sex offenders.

* My wife is such a bad cook, if we leave dental floss in the kitchen
the roaches hang themselves.

* I am so ugly I stuck my head out the window and got arrested for
mooning.

* The other day I came home and a guy was jogging, naked. I asked
him, "Why?" He said, "Because you came home early."

* My wife is such a bad cook, the dog begs for Alka-Seltzer.

* I know I am not sexy. When I put my underwear on I can hear the
Fruit-of-the- Loom guys giggling.

* My wife is such a bad cook, in my house we pray after the meal.

* My wife likes to talk on the phone during sex. She called me from
Chicago last night.

* My family was so poor that if I had not been born a boy, I would
not have had anything to play with.

Good morning, hawkman. Love those Rodney observations, especially the last one. Looks as though he gets respect after all. Thanks for the great bio's, buddy. and let's hope we have a carnival of animals on our radio today, and that our picture perfect pup will be along shortly.

Ah, how long ago we observed the prototype for All in the Family. It was "Til Death do us Part" in England.

How about the theme from Archie and Edith. (the original ding bat)

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played!

Songs that made the Hit Parade.

Guys like us, we had it made.

Those were the days!

And you knew where you were then.

Girls were girls and men were men.

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

Didn't need know welfare state.

Everybody pulled his weight.

Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.

Those were the days!

Good Afternoon.

Here are those matches. Love Peter O'Toole. In a few minutes I'll be watching him in "The Night of the Generals" on TCM. I also love Myrna Loy - especially when she appears with Asta in The Thin Man movies. I once had a wirehaired terrior that looked just like Asta, but he was a little devil. Loved him just the same.

I wondered where you were, Raggedy. Thanks once again for those matchless faces, PA

We're looking at Myrna Loy and William Powell, Anne Dvorak (don't recall her) Gary, "Archie" and Lawrence. (reminds me of Roger) I recall The Night of the Generals. I thought it had to do with the attempted assassination of Hitler, but it was a murder mystery, I think.

Can't think of one song by any of those famous folks, but they do put us in a sentimental mood, right?

So, listeners, let's listen to The Duke.


In a sentimental mood

I can see the stars come through my room

While your loving attitude

Is like a flame that lights the gloom

On the wings of every kiss

Drifts a melody so strange and sweet

In this sentimental bliss

You make my paradise complete

Rose petals seem to fall

Its all I could dream to call you mine

My hearts a lighter thing

Since you made this night a thing divine

In a sentimental mood

I'm within a world so heavenly

For I never dreamt that you'd be loving sentimental me

Angel Baby
Rosie & The Originals

It's just like heaven being here with you
You're like an angel too good to be true
But after all, I love you, I do
Angel Baby, my Angel Baby

When you are near me my heart skips a beat
I can hardly stand on my own two feet
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel Baby, my Angel Baby

Oooh, I love you, ooooh I do
No one could love you like I do

Please never leave me blue and alone
If you ever go I'm sure you'll come back home
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel Baby, my Angel Baby

Oooooh, I love you, oooh I do
No one could love you like I do

Let's Think About Living
Bob Luman

In every other song that I've heard lately
Some fellow gets shot
And his baby and his best friend both die with him
As likely as not
In half of the other songs
Some Cat's crying or ready to die
We've lost most of our happy people
And I'm wondering why

Let's think about living
Let's think about loving
Let's think about the whoopin'
and hoppin and boppin'
and the lovie, lovie dovin'
Let's forget about the whinin' and the cryin'
And the shooting and the dying
And the fellow with a switchblade knife
Let's think about living
Let's think about life

We lost old Marty Robbins
Down in old El Paso a little while back
And now Miss Patti Page or one of them
Is a-wearing black
And Cath's Clown has Don and Phil
Where they feel like a-they could die
If we keep on a-losin' our singers like that
I'll be the only one you can buy'

Let's think about living
Let's think about loving
Let's think about the whoopin'
and hoppin and boppin'
and the lovie, lovie dovin'
Let's forget about the whinin' and the cryin'
And the shooting and the dying
And the fellow with a switchblade knife
Let's think about living
Let's think about life

Thanks, edgar. Not familiar with either of your artists, but I agree with Bob Luman.

I took a look at Bob Dylan's Ballad of the Thin Man, but as usual, didn't quite understand the disconnection from reality idea; however, Texas, I did connect with a singer named Robbie Williams and was truly amazed at his background. What is it, folks, about creative people who have problems with self identity and psychological disorders?

I really like this song by him, and we hope you all enjoy it.

From Bridget Jones Diary.


ROBBIE WILLIAMS

"Have You Met Miss Jones?"

Have you met Miss Jones
Someone said as we shook hands
She was just Miss Jones to me

Then I said Miss Jones
You're a girl who understands
I'm a man who must be free.

And all at once I lost my breath
And all at once was scared to death
And all at once I own the earth and sky

Now I met Miss Jones
And well keep on meeting till we die
Miss Jones and I

And all at once I lost my breath
And all at once was scared to death
And all at once I own the earth and sky

Now I met Miss Jones
And well keep on meeting till we die
Miss Jones and I
Miss Jones and I

Miss Jones and I

Time for me to turn in, and happycat reminded of this puppy.



Ain't no bugs on me
Ain't no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of your mugs
But there ain't no bugs on me.

So I will turn in and sleep tight and won't let them famous bugs bite.

From Letty with love

Tony Bennett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Birth name Anthony Dominick Benedetto
Born August 3, 1926 (1926-08-03) (age 81), Astoria, Queens, New York City, United States
Genre(s) Traditional Pop
Jazz
Years active 1949-present
Label(s) Columbia
MGM
Improv
Legacy Recordings
Website Official Tony Bennett music website

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards and jazz who is widely considered to be one of the best interpretative singers in these genres.[Who says this?]

After having achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1950s and early 1960s, his career suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a remarkable comeback, however, in the late 1980s and 1990s, expanding his audience to a younger generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s.

Tony Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter.



Early life

Anthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens in New York City. His father was a grocer and his mother a seamstress.

He grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Joe Venuti. An uncle was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business.

By age 10 the young Benedetto was already singing and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he studied music and painting (an interest he would always return to as an adult), but dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He then set his sights on a professional singing career, performing as a singing waiter in several Queens Italian restaurants.


World War II and after

This was interrupted when Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II. He served as a replacement infantryman in the 63rd Infantry Division in France and Germany, moving across France during the winter, then fighting on the front lines in March and April 1945 as the Germans were pushed back across the Rhine. Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times. He would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one." At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg.

Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force, but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces. Later, some remarks he made against the Army's racial segregation policies led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration duties, leading to a further dislike of the military. [1] Subsequently, he sang with the Army military band under the stage name Joe Bari, and played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, he studied at the American Theater Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables. He developed an unusual style of phrasing that involved imitating other musicians?-such as Stan Getz's saxophone or Art Tatum's piano?-as he sang, thus allowing him to improvise as he interpreted a song.

In 1949, Pearl Bailey spotted his talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope decided to bring Bari on the road with him, but suggested he use his real name simplified to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Bennett cut a demo and was signed to Columbia Records by Mitch Miller.


First successes

Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner singing commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached #1 on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for 10 weeks, selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top later that year by a similarly-styled rendition of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience. The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenage fans at concerts in the famed Paramount Theatre in New York (Bennett did 7 shows a day, starting at 10:30 a.m.) and elsewhere.


Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland. Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral in mock mourning. Bennett and Beech would have two sons, D'Andrea (Danny) and Daegal (Dae).

A third #1 came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches." Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks. Later that year Bennett began singing show tunes to make up for a New York newspaper strike; "Stranger in Paradise" from the Broadway show Kismet reached the top, as well as being a #1 hit in the United Kingdom and starting Bennett's career as an international artist.

Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder for existing pop singers to do as well commercially. Nevertheless Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing 8 songs in the Billboard Top 40 during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" reaching the highest at #9 in 1957.

In 1956, Bennett hosted the television variety show The Tony Bennett Show as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show.


A growing artistry

Cloud 7 - 1955

Basie Swings, Bennett Sings - 1958In 1955, Bennett released his first long-playing album, Cloud 7, which showed Bennett's jazz leanings. (The album is billed as "Tony Bennett, featuring Chuck Wayne", the guitarist who served as Bennett's musical director from 1954-1957[1].)

In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist and musical director. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.

The result was the 1957 album Beat of My Heart. It used well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley, with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Latin star Candido, and Chico Hamilton. The album was both popular and critically praised.

Bennett followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the first male pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band. The albums Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (1958) and In Person! Tony Bennett/Count Basie and his Orchestra (1959) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with "Chicago" being one of the standout songs.

Bennett also built up the quality and reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era. Bennett also appeared on television; he sang on the first night of both the Johnny Carson The Tonight Show and The Merv Griffin Show. In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly-promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar lineup of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come." It was a big success, and further cemented Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad.


Tony Bennett's "heart", left in San Francisco

Also in 1962, Bennett released the song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Although this only reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure. The album of the same title was a top 5 hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance, and over the years would become known as Bennett's signature song. In 2001, it was ranked 23rd on an RIAA/NEA list of the most historically significant Songs of the 20th Century.

Bennett's following album, I Wanna Be Around (1963) was also a top 5 success, with the title track and "The Good Life" each reaching the top 20 of the pop singles chart and the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart.

The next year brought The Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes - his last top 40 single was the #34 "If I Ruled the World" from Pickwick in 1965 - but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the 1966 film The Oscar was not well received.

A firm believer in the American Civil Rights movement, Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. [2] Years later he would continue this commitment by refusing to perform in apartheid South Africa.


Years of struggle

Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965. There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs, and in this vein Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same. Bennett was very reluctant, and when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1969), which featured misguided attempts at Beatles and other current songs and a ludicrous psychedelic cover.[3]

Years later Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he had departed Columbia for MGM Records, but found no more success there, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract.

Bennett and his wife Patricia had been separated since 1965, their marriage a victim of too much time on the road, among other factors. In 1971, their divorce became official. Bennett had been involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant since filming The Oscar, and in 1972 they married. They would have two daughters, Joanna and Antonia Bennett.

Hoping to take matters into his own hand, Bennett started his own record company, Improv. He cut some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976), but by 1977 Improv was out of business. A stint of living in England, like other American jazz expatriates, did not change his fortunes.

As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing any concerts outside of Las Vegas. His second marriage was failing (they would divorce in 1980). He had (like many musicians) developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home. He had hit bottom.


Turnaround

After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here," he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."

Danny Bennett, an aspiring musician himself, also came to a realization. The band Danny and his brother had started, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and Danny's musical abilities were limited. However he had discovered during this time, that he did have a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent but was having trouble sustaining a career from it. Danny signed on as his father's manager.

Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York, and began booking him in colleges and small theatres to get him away from a "Vegas" image. Tony Bennett had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director. By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.


An unexpected audience

By the mid-1980s, the excesses of the disco, punk rock, and new wave eras had given many artists and listeners a greater appreciation for the classic American song. Rock stars such as Linda Ronstadt began recording albums of standards, and such songs began showing up more frequently in movie soundtracks and on television commercials.

Danny Bennett felt strongly that younger audiences, although completely unfamiliar with Tony Bennett, would respond to his music if only given a chance to see and hear it. More crucially, no changes to Tony's appearance (tuxedo), singing style (his own), musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.

Accordingly, Danny began to book his father on shows with younger audiences, such as David Letterman's talk shows, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Simpsons, and various MTV programs. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin - they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."

During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.


Unplugged was the 1995 Grammy Album of the YearAs Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out With My Baby" video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."

The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged. Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had a profound respect for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year. At age 68, Tony Bennett had come all the way back.


No retirement

Hot and Cool - Bennett Sings Ellington 1999 Since then Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily. In concert Bennett often makes a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating to younger audience members the lost art of vocal projection. One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first, of the A&E Network's Live By Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award.

A series of albums, often based on themes (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, duets) have met with good acceptance; Bennett has won seven more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammys in the subsequent years, most recently for the year 2006. According to his official biography, Bennett has now sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career.

In addition to numerous television guest performances, Bennett has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty.


Tony Bennett's career as a painter has also flourished. He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he is on tour. Painting under his real name of Benedetto, he has exhibited his work in numerous galleries and has been commissioned by the Kentucky Derby and the United Nations. His painting "Homage to Hockney" (for his friend David Hockney) is on permanent display at the highly regarded Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio as is his "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York. His paintings have been featured in ARTnews and other magazines. Many of his works were published in the art book Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996.

Bennett also published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett in 1998.

For his contribution to the recording industry, Tony Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997.

He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Bennett received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002.

In 2002, Q magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die."

Bennett frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he is sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit." In April 2002, he joined Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York's Apollo Theater.[2]


In the late 1980s Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow (born c. 1960), a former New York City educator. Together they founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts, which opened in 2001. It was a tribute in return, for in a 1965 Life magazine interview Sinatra had said that:

"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."
Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.

On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful." The following year, Bennett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

In August 2006, Bennett turned 80 years old. The birthday itself was an occasion for publicity, which then extended through the rest of the following year, as his album Duets: An American Classic was released, sold very well, and garnered two Grammy Awards; concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW-FM; a performance made with Christina Aguilera on Saturday Night Live (on a November 2006 episode hosted by frequent host Alec Baldwin where Bennett appeared in the recurring sketch "The Tony Bennett Show" as a copycat act named Phoney Bennett); a Thanksgiving-time, Rob Marshall-directed television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic on NBC; receipt of the Billboard Century Award; and guest-mentoring on American Idol season 6 and performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Humanitarian Award. On June 21, 2007, Bennett married long-time partner Susan Crow in a civil ceremony in New York.[3]

Gordon Scott
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Gordon Merrill Werschkul
Born August 3, 1926(1926-08-03)
Portland, Oregon, USA
Died April 30, 2007 (aged 80)
Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Gordon Scott (August 3, 1926[1] - April 30, 2007) was an American actor known for his portrayal of Tarzan in five films (and one compilation of three made-as-a-pilot television episodes) from 1955 to 1960.





Biography

Early life

Scott was born Gordon Merrill Werschkul in Portland, Oregon, one of nine children of advertising man Stanley Werschkul and his wife Alice.[2] Scott was raised in Oregon and attended the University of Oregon for one semester. Upon leaving school, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 and was honorably discharged in 1947. He then worked at a variety of jobs until 1953, when he was spotted by a talent agent while working as a lifeguard at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel.


Career and Personal Life

Due in part to his muscular frame and 6'3" height, he was quickly signed to replace Lex Barker as Tarzan.[3] Scott's Tarzan films ranged from rather cheap re-edited television pilots to larger scale epics. Two of them, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure and Tarzan the Magnificent are generally considered to be among the very best Tarzan films ever made. Scott's (and his writers') particular gifts to the series included returning Tarzan to his former status as a literate, well-spoken character. Following his departure from the Tarzan films, he moved to Italy and became a popular star of what were known as "sword and sandal" epics, featuring handsome body-builders as various characters from Greek and Roman myth. Scott was a friend of Hercules star Steve Reeves, and collaborated with him as Remus to Reeves' Romulus in Duel of the Titans (1961). Scott also played Hercules in a couple of low-budget productions during the mid-1960s. His final film appearance was in The Tramplers, filmed in 1966, released in the U. S. in 1968. Scott was married apparently three times, including once to his Tarzan co-star, actress Vera Miles, from 1954 to 1959. He had one son, Michael, born 1957, with Miles, and possibly several more children[4]. For the last two decades of his life, he was a popular guest at film conventions and autograph shows. His manner of making a living the last forty years of his life is unclear, for aside from autograph shows and selling occasional souvenir knives, he does not seem to have been employed. He spent much of his final years living with fans who remembered him from his Tarzan days[5].


Death

Scott died on April 30, 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland of lingering complications from multiple heart surgeries earlier in the year.