WA2K Radio is now on the air

i'm a bit late as usual, but the Dixie Chicks' tune reminded me of this reggae classic by Jimmy Cliff:

Well they tell me of a pie up in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day you're born and when you die
They never seem to hear even your cry
So as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now of what's mine
And then the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all
Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all

Well the oppressors are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think that they have got the battle won
I say forgive them Lord, they know not what they've done
'Cause as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now of what's mine
And then the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all
Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all

And I keep on fighting for the things I want
Though I know that when you're dead you can't
But I'd rather be a free man in my grave
Than living as a puppet or a slave
So as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now of what's mine
And then the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all
Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall,
One and all...

I Always care For You

v1
What are you longing for
I'll hitch it to a shining star
Alone you only go so far
Hey you're all I'm living for

v2
If you want a helping hand
A someone to share the plan
I could be your right hand man
Be there when you make your stand

bridge
Or if you just want to earn applause
Turn your back to the righteous cause
It's not against any witness clause
You're not breaking any modern laws

chorus
I will be there for you
Any time you want me to
I'll always care for you
I'll always care for you

v3
What are you crying for
I love you like a movie star
But I'm not here to fight a war
If you're not ready to bear the scar

Chorus
I would be there for you
Any time you want me to
I'll always care for you
I'll always care for you

Bret Harte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 - May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.




Life and career

Born in Albany, New York, Harte moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coast town now known as Arcata, then just a mining camp on Humboldt Bay.

His first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared in The Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb. In 1868 he became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, but this one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California. His story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," appeared in the magazine's second edition, propelling Harte to nationwide fame.

When word of Dickens' death reached Bret Harte in July of 1870, he immediately sent a dispatch across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the forthcoming publication of his Overland Monthly for twenty-four hours, so that he could compose the poetic tribute, Dickens in Camp. This work is considered by many of Harte's admirers as his masterpiece of verse, for its evident sincerity, the depth of feeling it displays, and the unusual quality of its poetic expression.



Determined to pursue his literary career, in 1871 he and his family traveled back East, to New York and eventually to Boston, where he contracted with a publisher for an annual salary of $10,000, "an unprecedented sum at the time."[2] His popularity waned, however, and by the end of 1872 he was without a publishing contract and increasingly desperate. He spent the next few years struggling to publish new work (or republish old), delivering lectures about the gold rush, and even selling an advertising jingle to a soap company.

In 1878 Harte was appointed to the position of United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany and then to Glasgow in 1880. In 1885 he settled in London. During the thirty years he spent in Europe, he never abandoned writing, and maintained a prodigious output of stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work. He died in England in 1902 and is buried at Frimley. In 1987 he appeared on a $5 U.S. Postage stamp, as part of the "Great Americans" Series of issues.


Criticism

Writing in his autobiography four years after Harte's death, Mark Twain famously insults Harte, characterizing him and his writing as insincere; he criticizes the miners' dialect, claiming it never existed outside of the story ("The Luck of Roaring Camp"). Twain reserves his most damning statements for Harte's personal life, especially after Harte left the West.


Dramatic and Musical Adaptations of on Harte's work

Several film versions of The Outcasts of Poker Flat have been made, including one in 1937 with Preston Foster and another in 1952 with Dale Robertson. Tennessee's Partner (1955) with John Payne and Ronald Reagan was based on a story of the same name. Paddy Chayefsky's treatment of the film version of Paint Your Wagon seems to borrow from "Tennessee's Partner": two close friends -- one named "Pardner" -- share the same woman. The spaghetti western Four of the Apocalypse is based on The Outcasts of Poker Flat and The Luck of Roaring Camp.
Operas based on The Outcasts of Poker Flat include those by Samuel Adler[1] and by Stanford Beckler.[2]

Other works

Plain Language from Truthful James, known also as The Heathen Chinee, was a satire of racial prejudice in northern California, but was embraced by the American public as a mockery of Chinese immigrants, and shaped anti-Chinese sentiment more than any other work at the time.[3]

Legacy

Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose, California was named after him.
A community called The Shores of Poker Flat, California claims to have been the location of Poker Flat, although it is usually accepted that the story takes place further north.

Ruby Keeler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Ethel Hilda Keeler
Born August 25, 1909
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died February 28, 1993, age 83
Rancho Mirage, California, USA

Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, (August 25, 1909 - February 28, 1993), was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers.

Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1909, of Irish Catholic extraction. She was the sister of minor actresses, Helen and Gertrude Keeler.

Her father was a truck driver, and when she was three years old, her family packed up and moved to New York City where he knew he could get better pay.[1] But it was not enough: there were six children, and although Keeler was interested in taking dance lessons, the family could not afford to send her.

Keeler attended St. Catherine of Siena parochial school on New York's East Side, and one period each week a dance teacher would come and teach all styles of dance. The teacher saw potential in Keeler and spoke to her mother about Ruby taking lessons at her studio. Although her mother declined, apologizing for the lack of money, the teacher wanted to work with her so badly that she asked her mother if she would bring her to a class lesson on Saturdays, and she agreed.

During the classes, a girl she danced with told her about auditions for chorus girls. The law said you had to be 16 years old, and although they were only 13, they decided to lie about their ages at the audition. It was a tap audition, and there were a lot of other talented girls there. The stage was covered, except for a wooden apron at the front. When it was Ruby's turn to dance, she asked the dance director Julian Mitchell, if she could dance on the wooden part so that her taps could be heard. He did not answer, so she went ahead, walked up to the front of the stage, and started her routine. The director said, "who said you could dance up there?" She replied, "I asked you!" and she got a job in George M. Cohan's The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923), in which she made forty-five dollars a week to help her family.[citation needed]

She was only 14 when she started working at Texas Guinan's El Fay nightclub, a speakeasy frequented by gangsters.[2] She was noticed by Broadway producer Charles Dillingham, who gave her a role in Bye Bye Bonnie, which ran for six months. She then appeared in Lucky and The Sidewalks of New York, also produced by Dillingham. In the latter show, she was seen by Flo Ziegfeld, who sent her bunch of roses and a note, "May I make you a star?". She would appear in Ziegfield's Whoopee! in 1928, but before that, she would get married to Al Jolson, the famous singer. They met in Los Angeles (not at Texas Guinan's as he would claim), where she had been sent by Loew's theaters to assist in the publicity campaign for The Jazz Singer. Their meeting was brief, but Jolson was smitten. Back in New York, he immediately proposed, but was rebuked. However, after a brief courtship Keeler relented and agreed to marry Jolson. The couple began were married in Pittsburgh on September 21, 1928 while she toured with Whoopee!;[3] she was 19 and he was 42. The marriage (during which they adopted a son) was a rocky one. They moved to California, which took her away from the limelight. In 1929, at the urging of Ziegfeld, Jolson agreed to let her travel to New York to star in Show Girl.

In 1933, producer Darryl F. Zanuck cast Keeler in the Warner Bros. musical 42nd Street appearing opposite Dick Powell and Bebe Daniels. The film was a huge success due to Busby Berkeley's lavish and innovative choreography. As a result of her performance in 42nd Street, Jack L. Warner gave Keeler a long-term contract and cast her in such hits as Gold Diggers of 1933 and Dames (1934).

After a difficult marriage, Keeler and Jolson were divorced in 1940. Keeler remarried in 1941 to John Homer Lowe. Not anxious to be a movie star, and happy in her second marriage, Keeler left show business in 1941. She went on to raise five children. Lowe died of cancer in 1969. In 1971, she came out of retirement to star in the hugely successful Broadway revival of No, No, Nanette, along with fellow Irish-Americans Helen Gallagher and Patsy Kelly. The production was directed by Keeler's 42nd Street director, Busby Berkeley. The astounding popularity of the play caused a renaissance of sorts of all things 20s and early 30s- art deco, tap dancing and Depression Era songs. Keeler, once again, was sought out for interviews; one pre-condition, however, was that she would not talk about Jolson.

Ruby Keeler was among the first tap dancing stars in motion pictures. Her style was an Irish Step. Both the shoes and the style are different from regular tap dance. In Keeler's time, instead of metal taps, the soles were wooden and hard. Buck dancers stayed in relatively the same place on stage, and their concern was the rhythm coming from their feet, rather than how they looked on stage. They stayed on the balls of their feet most of time, which meant that their torsos moved very little, and the movements were isolated to below the waist. Because of this style of movement, the early Buck dancers often appeared less graceful in comparison with later tap dancers.

Ruby Keeler died of cancer in Rancho Mirage, California, aged either 82 or 83, and was interred in the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange, California. She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6730 Hollywood Blvd.

Michael Rennie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born 25 August 1909
Bradford, Yorkshire, England
Died 10 June 1971
Harrogate, Yorkshire, England

Michael Rennie (25 August 1909?-10 June 1971) was an English film, television and stage actor best known for his starring role as the benevolent space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still.





Early years

Eric Alexander Rennie was born in Idle, a village near the West Yorkshire city of Bradford (subsequently, a Bradford suburb) and educated at The Leys School, Cambridge. He attempted a number of professions, including periods as automobile salesman and manager of his uncle's rope factory, before deciding, at the time of his 26th birthday in 1935, on a career as an actor. Retaining his surname, but adopting the professional name Michael Rennie, the tall (6' 4" [1.93 m]) show-business hopeful with gaunt, chiseled features, first appeared onscreen in an uncredited bit part in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent, which had its London premiere in May 1936. Another future star named "Michael", also had an unbilled bit in the film, Michael Redgrave.

During the late 1930s, Rennie served his apprenticeship as an actor, gaining experience in acting technique, while touring the provinces in British repertory. There is evidence that, at the age of 28, he was noticed by one of the British film studios, which decided to appraise his potential as a film personality by arranging a screen test. The 1937 test, which exists in the British Film Institute archives under the title "Marguerite Allan and Michael Rennie Screen Test", did not lead to a movie career for either performer. In Secret Agent, he was primarily a stand-in for leading man Robert Young, and his own on-camera bit was so small that it cannot be discerned in the preserved final version of the film. He also played other bit parts and later, minor, unbilled roles in ten additional films produced between 1936 and 1940, the last of which, "Pimpernel" Smith, had a belated release in July 1941, while Rennie was already in uniform, serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II.


The war years

Shortly after the outbreak of the War in September 1939, Rennie began to receive offers for larger film roles, starting with his first (small) billed performance in the wartime morale booster The Big Blockade, seen in March 1940. Michael Redgrave, by then a full-fledged star, had one of the leading roles in the film. Six films later, however, Michael Rennie also had his first film lead. The suspense drama Tower of Terror, released in late December 1941, shortly after Pearl Harbor, was styled in the manner of a horror film, and starred Wilfrid Lawson as a mad Dutch lighthouse keeper in Occupied Holland, while second-billed Rennie and third-billed Movita had the romantic leads.

Michael Rennie enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on 27 May 1941 (#1391153). He was discharged for commission on 4 August 1942 and, the following day, was commissioned "for the emergency" as Pilot Officer (#127347) on probation in the General Duties Branch of the RAFVR. On 5 February 1943 he was promoted to Flying Officer on probation. He resigned his commission on 1 May 1944 (not invalided out as studio publicity stated). Rennie carried out his basic training near Torquay in Devon, after which he was posted to the United States, where he served in Macon, Georgia, purportedly as a flying instructor, although no record of his holding such rank could be confirmed in the RAF archives. A story Rennie told to an interviewer, which was subsequently recounted in a number of his film-magazine biographies, concerned his period with the U. S. military. While stationed in Macon, he was asked by some of the American flyers what he did for a living. Upon hearing his response that in civilian life he was an actor and had appeared in a few films, they laughed disbelievingly. That evening, with free time on their hands, the group decided to go into town to see a movie. The film they picked, Ships with Wings (released in the UK in January and in the U.S. in May 1942), featured the tenth-billed Rennie in a few brief, but prominent scenes as an RAF flight lieutenant. The Americans were astonished to discovered that their British flying instructor was really as described.


Brief starring career in British films (1945-50)

With the War's end in May 1945, Michael Rennie began to be seen as a potential star as a result of playing second leads in two vehicles for Britain's most popular leading actress of the era, Margaret Lockwood?-the musical I'll Be Your Sweetheart and, most prominently, the sensual costume adventure, The Wicked Lady. The latter turned out to be the year's biggest box-office hit, subsequently being listed ninth on a list of top ten highest-grossing British films. He also had a single prominent scene as a commander of Roman centurions in the movie described at the time as the most expensive (and financially ruinous) British film enterprise ever made, Gabriel Pascal's production of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains.

Second leads and then leads in seven other British films produced between 1946 and 1949 followed, including what may be considered Michael Rennie's only role as one of two central characters in a full-fledged love story. In the 47-minute episode, "Sanatorium", the longest among the Somerset Maugham tales constituting the film Trio (released in London on 1 August 1950), the mature-looking, lightly-mustached, 40-year-old Rennie and twenty-years-younger Jean Simmons are patients in the title institution, which caters to victims of tuberculosis. They fall in love and decide to marry despite the doctor's grim prognosis that Rennie, a former army major, can only expect a few months of life and Jean's character also faces a premature death within a couple of years. The final scene shows them joyfully leaving their institutional surroundings, secure in the knowledge that their brief remaining time will be spent in the happiness of their love for each other and the ability to face the inevitable on their own terms. Their indomitable spirit even gives inspiration to the other patients who cannot leave the "Sanatorium", but whose sagging spirits are momentarily lifted out of the doldrums of depression.

Fellow Brit Jean Simmons would, in fact, turn out to be Michael Rennie's most frequent co-star. Although they shared no scenes within the context of their minor roles in Caesar and Cleopatra, it was the first of their four films together. The remaining two titles were both 20th Century Fox epics made in 1953-54, which had them primarily involved with other characters. In 1953's The Robe and its 1954 sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators, Rennie was billed fourth and third, respectively, playing the Apostle Peter, who provides affirmation in the new faith, as Jean and Richard Burton become martyrs for Christianity. In the sequel, they were only briefly seen in a flashback, as the focus shifted to Demetrius (Victor Mature), third-billed in The Robe, his temptation by the sexually-brazen (within 1954 standards) future Empress Messalina (Susan Hayward), and the continued religious support and uplift provided by Peter to Demetrius and other faithful.

The final film which cast Michael Rennie with Jean Simmons was 1954's Desiree, He was again billed fourth, after Marlon Brando (as Napoleon), Jean (as the title character, Désirée Clary) and Merle Oberon as (Joséphine). As French general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte who becomes King Charles XIV John of Sweden, Rennie marries Jean's Désirée, but her true love always remains with Brando's Napoleon.


1951-52 Hollywood stardom and subsequent career as top supporting actor

Michael Rennie, along with Jean Simmons and The Wicked Lady leading man James Mason, was one of a number of British actors offered Hollywood contracts in 1949-50 by 20th Century Fox's studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. The first film under his new contract was the British-filmed medieval period adventure The Black Rose, starring Tyrone Power who became one of Rennie's closest friends. Fifth-billed after the remaining first-tier stars Orson Welles, Cecile Aubry and Jack Hawkins, Rennie was specifically cast as 13th century King Edward I of England, whose 6' 2" [1.88 m] frame gave origin to his historical nickname, "Longshanks".

Rennie's second Fox film gave him fourth billing in the top tier. The 13th Letter, directed by his future nemesis and love rival Otto Preminger, was a remake of the 1943 French movie Le Corbeau, with the setting changed to the French Canadian province of Quebec. Rennie's next film dramatically moved his billing up to first and assured him screen immortality. The Day the Earth Stood Still was the first postwar respectably-budgeted "A" science fiction film. A serious, high-minded exploration of humanity's place in the universe and our responsibility to maintain peaceful coexistence, it has remained the gold standard for the genre of the era. A unique aspect of the film is the participation, within its fictional structure, of four top newscasters and commentators of the period?-Elmer Davis, H. V. Kaltenborn, Drew Pearson and Gabriel Heatter. The story was dramatized in 1954 for Lux Radio Theatre, with Rennie and Billy Gray recreating their roles and Jean Peters speaking the dialogue of the Patricia Neal character. Seven years later, in October 1961, when The Day the Earth Stood Still had its television premiere on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, Michael Rennie appeared before the start of the film to give a two-minute introduction.

Buoyed by the strong critical reception and profitability of the film, Fox assigned much of the credit to the central performance by Michael Rennie. Convinced that it had a potential leading man under contract, the studio decided to produce a version of Les Miserables as a vehicle for him. The film, released on August 14, 1952, was well-directed by All Quiet on the Western Front's Lewis Milestone, and Rennie's performance was respectfully, but not enthusiastically, received by the critics. Ultimately, Les Miserables turned in an extremely modest profit and put an end to any further attempts to promote the 43-year-old Rennie as a future star. He was, however, launched on a thriving career as a top supporting actor. Based on the positive reaction to his two turns as the Apostle Peter, Fox assigned him another third-billed, top-tier role as a stalwart man of God, Franciscan friar Junipero Serra who, between 1749 and his death in 1784, founded missions in Alta California. The film was September 1955's Seven Cities of Gold with Richard Egan, ninth-billed as a vicious fighting machine and rapist of ingenue Debra Paget in previous year's Demetrius and the Gladiators, now receiving star build-up and first billing, with Anthony Quinn billed second, both playing Spanish expedition leaders on a quest which resulted in the 1769 founding of San Diego.


Post-Fox period as a freelance actor in films and television

Michael Rennie's next film was the last under his five-year contract with 20th Century Fox. The Rains of Ranchipur, released on December 14, 1955, assigned him fifth billing after the lead romantic teaming of Lana Turner and Richard Burton and the second-tier romance featuring unwilling depressed alcoholic Fred MacMurray pursued by Joan Caulfield. As Lana Turner's cuckolded husband, Lord Esketh, Rennie maintained his typical dignity and stiff upper lip in the face of the character's diminished self-esteem.

Now a freelancer, Rennie appeared in six additional features between 1956 and 1960, three of which were still produced or released by Fox. Moreover, no longer bound by the no-television clause in his studio contract, he began his prolific, fifteen-year association with the medium.


The Third Man series and TV guest starring roles

In 1959 Rennie became a familiar face on television, taking the role of Harry Lime in The Third Man, a British-American syndicated TV series very loosely based on the character created by Orson Welles. During the 1960s he continued his TV career with guest appearances on such series as Route 66 (a moving portrayal of a doomed pilot in the two-part episode, "Fly Away Home"); Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Perry Mason (one of four actors in four consecutive episodes substituting for series star Raymond Burr, who was recovering from surgery); Wagon Train (a 90-minute color episode as an English big game hunter who, in a display of amazing marksmanship, is able to kill an Indian chief from a great distance); The Great Adventure (in an installment of this anthology series about remarkable events in American history, he portrayed Confederate president Jefferson Davis); Lost in Space (another two-part episode?-as an all-powerful alien, "The Keeper", he worked one last time with his Third Man co-star Jonathan Harris); The Time Tunnel (as Captain Smith of The Titanic, in the series' September 9, 1966 premiere episode); Batman (as the villainous Sandman in league with Julie Newmar's Catwoman), three episodes of The Invaders (as a malign variation of the Klaatu persona), and two episodes of The F.B.I..


Michael Rennie on Broadway

At the start of the 1960s, Michael Rennie made his only Broadway appearance, playing Dirk Winsten, a jaded movie star, in Mary, Mary, a sophisticated five-character marital comedy by Jean Kerr, directed by Joseph Anthony. After two previews, the play opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on March 8, 1961 and ran for a very successful 1572 performances, closing at the Morosco Theatre on December 12, 1964. Rennie stayed with the play less than five months, to be replaced by Michael Wilding (July 1961), Edward Mulhare (December 1961), Michael Evans (July 1963), Tom Helmore (October 1963) and Howard Morton (May 1964).

When Warner Brothers Pictures cast the film version in early 1963, Michael Rennie, along with leading man Barry Nelson (who originated his role and played it for the first year) and supporting actor Hiram Sherman (who joined the play two years after the opening, in the part first played by John Cromwell) were the only Broadway cast members to transfer to the big screen. Debbie Reynolds was given the title role (created by Barbara Bel Geddes), and Warners contractee Diane McBain, whom the studio saw as a potential star of the future, took over "the socialite part", essayed by Betsy von Furstenberg. Veteran Mervyn LeRoy who, thirty years earlier, directed Gold Diggers of 1933 for the studio, helmed the production which opened at Radio City Music Hall on October 25, 1963. Ironically, while the film disappeared from movie theaters by the end of 1963, the Broadway version continued for another full year.


Personal life

Both of Michael Rennie's marriages ended in divorce. He was first married to Joan England in 1938. His second marriage was to actress Maggie McGrath. Their son David Rennie is a UK circuit judge in Lewes, Sussex.

It appears that he also had a son, John Marshall, by his long time friend and mistress Renée (née Gilbert) whose married name was Taylor. Interestingly the BFI data base also lists him as having a son, John M Taylor, listed as 'a producer'.

Research indicates that John Marshall Rennie used the pseudonym 'Taylor' during his long career in the industry to avoid accusations of nepotism.

Michael Rennie was also briefly engaged to the ex-wife of the Hollywood director, Otto Preminger. It was rumoured that Preminger, who not surprisingly hated Rennie, was the prime instigator in Rennie's fall from stardom.

John Rennie, the designer and builder of the original Waterloo Bridge, is presumed to have been his great-great grandfather.


Final years

After completing what amounted to guest roles in two 1968 films, The Power and The Devil's Brigade, as well as top guest-starring roles in two episodes of the ABC/Quinn Martin Productions series The F.B.I., Michael Rennie moved from Los Angeles to Switzerland in the latter part of that year. His final seven feature films were lensed in Britain, Italy, Spain and, in the case of The Surabaya Conspiracy, The Philippines. Less than three years after leaving Hollywood, he journeyed to his mother's home in Harrogate, at a time of family grief following the death of his brother. It was there that he suddenly died of an emphysema-induced heart attack, nine weeks before his 62nd birthday. Upon cremation, his ashes laid to rest in Harlow Cemetery, Harrogate.

Two years after Michael Rennie's death, his iconic film character was immortalized in the opening words ("Michael Rennie was ill The Day the Earth Stood Still, but he told us where we stand") of the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from the June 1973 cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and its 1975 one-of-a-kind screen version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Van Johnson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Charles Van Johnson
Born August 25, 1916 (1916-08-25) (age 90)
Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Van Johnson (born Charles Van Johnson on August 25, 1916, in Newport, Rhode Island) is an American film and television actor and dancer.

Johnson was born to Charles E. Johnson (who was born in Sweden) and Loretta, who was of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.




Career

His acting career began in earnest in 1936 in the Broadway revue New Faces of 1936. In 1939, he landed a part in Rodgers and Hart's Too Many Girls in the role of a college boy (after being Gene Kelly's understudy in Pal Joey). RKO then signed him to a short-term contract to star in the film adaptation of the play which became Johnson's film debut. MGM picked up his contract from RKO soon after and cast him in several bit parts.

In 1942, while en route to a preview screening for Keeper of the Flame, he was involved in a car crash that left him with a metal plate in his forehead. This left him exempt from service in World War II. After this incident, MGM built up his image as the "all-American boy" by co-starring him in films with June Allyson and Esther Williams, among others. He also had his fair share of serious roles in films such as A Guy Named Joe, Week-End at the Waldorf, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Battleground.

When the studio system declined in the mid-1950s, Johnson's popularity did also. He left MGM for Columbia Pictures to co-star in The Caine Mutiny (1954) to much acclaim (His scar from the car crash is very visible in this film). Since 1960, his film career has been inconsistent. Johnson guest-starred on television shows such as Batman, Here's Lucy, and The Love Boat and in the 1970s ground breaking mini-series, Rich Man, Poor Man, with stars Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte. In 1985, he enjoyed something of a comeback. He toured with the hit Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles and appeared in a supporting role in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Van Johnson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6600 Hollywood Blvd.


Personal life

Johnson married Eve Lynn Abbott on January 25, 1947, the day her divorce from actor Keenan Wynn was finalized. In 1999, Eve told a reporter that their marriage had been arranged by MGM because the studio "needed their star to be married to quell rumors about his sexual preferences".[1] In his 2005 biography of Louis B. Mayer, Lion of Hollywood, Scott Eyman quotes her as saying, "In retrospect I can see he (Mayer) was arranging my marriage to Van just as Universal did for Rock Hudson. That was a farce. Ours was a real marriage. I was in love with Van, but I wouldn't have married him if I'd known he was a homosexual." According to stepson Ned Wynn, the Johnsons separated in 1961 over an alleged affair by Eve with a young man, and divorced in 1968. Eve Lynn Abbott Wynn Johnson died in 2004 at the age of 90.

He is estranged from their daughter, Shuyler, born in 1948. She stated to the The Globe that he was a cold and detached father for most of her life.

He underwent treatment for skin cancer in 1963. In his later years, Johnson enjoyed a quiet life in retirement in New York.

Mel Ferrer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Melchior Gaston Ferrer
Born August 25, 1917 (1917-08-25) (age 89)
Elberon, New Jersey, US
Years active 1947 - present
Spouse(s) Barbara C. Tripp
Frances Pilchard (married twice)
Audrey Hepburn (1954-1968)
Elizabeth Soukutine

Mel Ferrer (born August 25, 1917 in Elberon, New Jersey) is an American actor, film director and film producer.





Early life

Born Melchior Gaston Ferrer into a prosperous family, his Cuban-born father a medical surgeon and his mother a prominent New York City socialite. He is the brother of noted cardiologist and educator, Dr. M. Irené Ferrer and noted surgeon, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer. Mel Ferrer was educated at private schools before attending Princeton University until his sophomore year, when he dropped out to devote more time to acting. At that time he also worked as an editor of a small Vermont newspaper and wrote a children's book, "Tito's Hats."


Career

Ferrer began acting in summer stock as a teenager and at age twenty-one was appearing on the Broadway stage as a chorus dancer, making his debut there as an actor two years later. After a bout with polio, he entered the radio world as a DJ in Texas and Arkansas, developing into a producer-director of top-rated shows for NBC in New York. He returned to Broadway and then became involved in motion pictures, directing more than ten feature films and acting in more than eighty.

In 1945 he made a modest directing debut with The Girl of the Limberlost, a low-budget black-and-white film for Columbia. He returned to Broadway to star in Strange Fruit, based on the novel by Lillian Smith. He made his screen acting debut in Lost Boundaries (1949), and as an actor is best remembered for his role of the injured puppeteer in the musical Lili (1953) (starring Leslie Caron) and as Prince Andrei in War and Peace (1956) (co-starring with his then wife, Audrey Hepburn).

Ferrer pursued limited television, doing some directing for the series The Farmer's Daughter in (1963), but it best remembered for his role opposite Jane Wyman as Angela Channing's attorney and briefly, her husband, Phillip Erikson, in Falcon Crest from 1981-1984. (Erikson met his demise in the same plane crash that killed Cliff Robertson).


Personal life

He has been married five times, most notably to actress Audrey Hepburn from 1954 to 1968, with whom he had a son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, born in 1960. He and Hepburn had acquired a home in Switzerland and after their divorce he maintained a residence in Lausanne and often worked on films in Europe. He has been married five times to four women (remarrying his first wife, Frances Pilchard, after his divorce from Barbara C. Tripp), and has five children in total by three of the marriages. He dated Tessa Kennedy, an interior designer but a married woman, before his marriage to Lisa Soukhotine in 1971.

He had two children with Frances Pilchard, of whom the eldest child died as an infant.

His sister was the famous cardiologist and educator Dr. M. Irené Ferrer, she helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram (which have become diagnostic essentials in heart treatment).

He is unrelated to actors Jose Ferrer and Miguel Ferrer.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mel Ferrer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6268 Hollywood Blvd.

Leonard Bernstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: ['bɝnstaɪn])[1] (August 25, 1918 - October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. He was the first conductor born in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim, and is known for both his conducting of the New York Philharmonic, including the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series, and his multiple compositions, including West Side Story, Candide and On the Town. He is known to baby boomers primarily as the first classical music conductor to make many television appearances, all between 1954 and 1989.




Biography

Childhood

Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918 to a Jewish family from Rivne, Ukraine. His grandmother insisted his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard, as they liked the name better. He had his name changed to Leonard officially when he was fifteen.[2] His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman, and initially opposed young Leonard's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein frequently took him to orchestra concerts. At a very young age, Bernstein heard a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano. As a child, Bernstein attended the Garrison School and Boston Latin School.[3]


University

After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1934 Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with Walter Piston and was briefly associated with the Harvard Glee Club.[4] After completing his studies at Harvard he enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he received the only "A" grade Fritz Reiner ever awarded in his class on conducting. During his time at Curtis, Bernstein also studied piano with Isabella Vengerova.[5]


Adult life

During his young adult years in New York City, Bernstein enjoyed an exuberant social life, mostly in the company of other gay young men. [6] After a long internal struggle and a turbulent on-and-off engagement, he married Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn on September 9, 1951, reportedly in order to increase his chances of obtaining the chief conducting position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor of the New York Philharmonic and Bernstein's mentor, advised him that marrying would help counter the gossip about him and appease the conservative BSO board. [7]

Leonard and Felicia had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. [8] During his married life, Bernstein tried to be as discreet as possible with his extramarital liaisons. But as he grew older, and as the Gay Liberation movement made great strides, Bernstein became more emboldened, eventually leaving Felicia to live with companion Tom Cothran. Some time after, Bernstein learned that his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. Bernstein moved back in with his wife and cared for her until she died. [9]

It has been suggested that Bernstein was actually bisexual (an assertion supported by comments Bernstein himself made about not preferring any particular cuisine, musical genre, or form of sex), and it has been alleged that he was conflicted between his devotion to his family and his gay desires, but Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in West Side Story), said that Bernstein was simply "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." [10] Shelly Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein's, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally." [11]


Career

Leonard Bernstein - 1944Bernstein was very highly regarded as a conductor, composer, and educator, and probably best known to the public as longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story. He wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces.


Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony (1945)In 1940, he began his study at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer institute, Tanglewood, under the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant.[12] He would later dedicate his Symphony No. 2 to Koussevitzky.[13]

On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his conducting debut on last minute notification, and without any rehearsal, after Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The next day, The New York Times editorial remarked, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves."[14]He was an immediate success and became instantly famous due to the fact that the concert was nationally broadcast. The soloist on that historic day was Joseph Schuster, solo cellist of the New York Philharmonic, who played Richard Strauss's Don Quixote. Since Bernstein had never conducted the work before, Bruno Walter coached him on it prior to the concert. It is possible to hear this remarkable event thanks to a transcription recording made from the CBS radio broadcast that has since been issued on CD.

After World War II Bernstein's career on the international stage began to flourish. In 1949 he conducted the world première of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen, and when Serge Koussevitzky died two years later, Bernstein became head of the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, holding this position for many years.

In 1951, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere of the Symphony No. 2 of Charles Ives. The composer, old and frail, was unable to attend the concert, but listened to the broadcast on the radio with his wife, Harmony. They both marveled at the enthusiastic reception of his music, which had actually been written between 1897 and 1901, but until then had never been performed. Bernstein did much to promote the music of this American composer throughout his career. Ives died in 1954.

Bernstein was named Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957 and began his tenure in that position in 1958, a post he held until 1969, although he continued to conduct and make recordings with that orchestra for the rest of his life. He became a well-known figure in the US through his series of fifty-three televised Young People's Concerts for CBS, which grew out of his Omnibus programs that CBS aired in the early 1950s. His first Young People's Concert was televised only a few weeks after his tenure as principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic began. He became as famous for his educational work in those concerts as for his conducting. Some of his music lectures were released on records, with several of these albums winning Grammy awards. To this day, the Young People's Concerts series remains the longest running group of classical music programs ever shown on commercial television. They ran from 1958 to 1972. More than thirty years later, twenty-five of them were rebroadcast on the now-defunct cable channel Trio, and released on DVD.

In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a life-long association with Israel. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv; he subsequently made many recordings there. In 1967 he conducted a concert on Mt. Scopus to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded most of his own symphonic music with the Israel Philharmonic.


In 1959 he took the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by CBS. A major highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Shostakovich's fifth symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians. In October, when Bernstein and the orchestra returned to New York, they recorded the symphony for Columbia. He made two recordings of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, one with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, and another one in 1988 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the only recording he ever made with them (along with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, also recorded live in concerts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago at that time).

In 1960 Bernstein began the first complete cycle of recordings in stereo of all nine completed symphonies by Gustav Mahler, with the blessings of the composer's widow, Alma. The success of these recordings, along with Bernstein's concert performances, greatly revived interest in Mahler, who had briefly been music director of the New York Philharmonic late in his life. That same year, Bernstein conducted an LP of his own score for the 1944 musical On The Town, in stereo, the first such recording of the score ever made, for Columbia Masterworks Records. Unlike his later recordings of his own musicals, this was originally issued as a single LP rather than a 2-record set. It was later issued on CD. The recording featured several members of the original Broadway cast, including Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

During his New York Philharmonic directorship, Bernstein was also responsible for introducing the symphonies of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen to American audiences, leading to a revival of interest in this composer whose reputation had previously been mostly regional. Bernstein recorded three of Nielsen's symphonies (Nos. 2, 4 and 5) with the Philharmonic, and recorded the composer's 3rd Symphony with a Danish orchestra after a critically-acclaimed public performance there.

In 1966 he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting Luchino Visconti's production of Verdi's Falstaff, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Falstaff. In 1970 he returned to the State Opera for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's Fidelio. Sixteen years later, at the State Opera, Bernstein conducted his sequel to Trouble in Tahiti, A Quiet Place. Bernstein's final farewell to the State Opera happened accidentally in 1989: Following a performance of Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanchina he unexpectedly entered the stage and embraced conductor Claudio Abbado in front of a stunned, but cheering audience.

Beginning in 1970, Bernstein conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he re-recorded many of the pieces that he had previously taped with the New York Philharmonic, including sets of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. Some of the Mahler symphony recordings from Bernstein's second cycle for Deutsche Grammophon were also made with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Later that year, Bernstein wrote and narrated a ninety-minute program filmed on location in and around Vienna, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic with such artists as Placido Domingo, who in his first television appearance performed as the tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth. The program, first telecast in 1970 on Austrian and British television, and then on CBS on Christmas Eve 1971, was intended as a celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven's 200th birthday. The show made extensive use of the rehearsals and finished performance of the Otto Schenk production of Fidelio. Originally entitled Beethoven's Birthday: A Celebration in Vienna, the show, which won an Emmy, was telecast only once on U.S. commercial television, and remained in CBS's vaults, until it resurfaced on A&E shortly after Bernstein's death - under the new title Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna. It was immediately issued on VHS under that title, and in 2005 was issued on DVD.

Bernstein was invited in 1973 to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at his alma mater, Harvard University, to deliver a series of 6 lectures on music. Borrowing the title from a Charles Ives' work, he called the series "The Unanswered Question"; it is a set of interdisciplinary lectures in which he borrows terminology from contemporary linguistics to analyze and compare musical construction to language. Three years later, in 1976, the entire series of videotaped lectures was telecast on PBS. The lectures survive both in book and DVD form today.

In 1978, the Otto Schenk Fidelio, with Bernstein still conducting, but featuring a different cast, was filmed by Unitel. Like the program, Bernstein on Beethoven, it also was shown on A&E after his death and subsequently issued on VHS. Although the video has since long been out-of-print, it was released for the first time on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in late 2006.

In 1979 Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first and only time, in two charity concerts. The performance, of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, was broadcast on radio, and posthumously released on CD.

He received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980.

On PBS in the 1980s, he was the conductor and commentator for a special series on Beethoven's music, which featured the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies, several of his overtures, and the Missa Solemnis. Actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the program, reading from Beethoven's letters.

In 1985, he conducted a complete recording of his score for West Side Story for the first and only time. The recording, much criticized for featuring what critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri te Kanawa, Jose Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless a national bestseller.

In 1989, Bernstein again conducted and recorded another complete album of one of his musicals, again featuring opera singers rather than Broadway stars. This time it was Candide, and due to the fact that the show was always intended to be an operetta, the recording was much more warmly received. It starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig in the leading roles. The Candide recording, unlike the West Side Story one, also included previously discarded numbers from the show.

A TV documentary of the West Side Story recording sessions was made, and the Candide recording was made live, in concert. This concert was eventually telecast posthumously.

On Christmas Day, 25 December 1989, Bernstein conducted the Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus (Playhouse) as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the Ode to Joy, substituting the word Freiheit (freedom) for Freude (joy).[15] Bernstein, in the introduction to the program, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein's comment was, 'I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."

Bernstein was highly-regarded as a conductor among many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, evidenced by his honorary membership, the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was President, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms, Dmitri Shostakovich, George Gershwin (especially the Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris), and of course with the performances of his own works. Unfortunately, Bernstein never conducted a performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, nor did he ever conduct Porgy and Bess. However, he did discuss Porgy in his article, Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?, originally published in the New York Times and later reprinted in his 1959 book The Joy of Music.

He had a gift for rehearsing an entire Mahler symphony by acting out every phrase for the orchestra to convey the precise meaning, and of emitting a vocal manifestation of the effect required, with a subtly professional ear that missed nothing.

Bernstein influenced many conductors who are performing now, such as Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Carl St. Clair. Ozawa made his first network television debut as guest conductor on one of the Young People's Concerts.

Bernstein conducted his final performance at Tanglewood on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.[16] He suffered a coughing fit in the middle of the Beethoven performance which almost caused the concert to break down. The concert was later issued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon.

He died of pneumonia and a pleural tumor just five days after retiring. A longtime heavy smoker, he had battled emphysema from his mid-20s. Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.


Recordings

Bernstein recorded extensively from the 1950s through the 1980s. Aside from a few early recordings for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. Many of these performances have been digitally remastered and reissued by Sony as part of the "Royal Edition" and "Bernstein Century" series. His later recordings (1976 onwards) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia Masterworks label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique (1976) for EMI and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1981) for Philips Records, a label joint with Deutsche Grammophon as PolyGram at that time.


In popular culture

The Seinfeld character Maestro often refers to ideas that he learned from Leonard Bernstein.
The film The Assassination of Richard Nixon depicts the character Sam Bicke, who idolizes the person and music of Leonard Bernstein, and mails Bernstein tapes explaining his disappointment in America and his justification for his planned destruction of the White House: "Mr Bernstein: I have the utmost respect for you. Your music is both pure and honest and that is why I have chosen you to present the truth about me to the world."
In the song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M., "Leonard Bernstein" is shouted when everyone stops during the last verse.
Tom Wolfe's essay "Radical Chic", published in the book "Radical Chic" and "Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers", deals with a meeting Bernstein held in his apartment to raise money for the Black Panther Party, and the subsequent public response.

Quotations

To composer Ned Rorem:
" The trouble with you and me, Ned, is that we want everyone in the world to personally love us, and of course that's impossible: you just don't meet everyone in the world

Richard Greene
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 in Plymouth - 1 June 1985 in Norfolk) - some sources list his birthdate as 1914 - was a noted English movie and television actor. His aunt was the musical theatre actress Evie Greene. His father, Richard Abraham Greene and his mother, Kathleen Gerrard, were both actors with the Plymouth Repertory Theatre.[1] A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.

He was of Irish and Scottish Catholic extraction, being born in Plymouth, England. Son of four generations of actors, Greene was educated at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Kensington, London and left at age 18. He started off his stage career as the proverbial spear carrier in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in 1933. A good looking young man, Greene helped his income by modeling shirts and hats.

Greene joined the Jevan Brandon Repertory Company in 1936 where he won accolades in the same year for his part in Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears which bought him to the attention of Alexander Korda and Darryl F. Zanuck. Aged 20, he joined 20th Century Fox as a rival to MGM's Robert Taylor. His first film for Fox was John Ford's Four Men and a Prayer. Greene was a huge success, especially with female film goers who sent him mountains of fan mail which at its peak rivaled that of Fox star Tyrone Power.

Greene interrupted his acting life to serve in World War II in the Royal Armoured Corps of the Twenty Seventh Lancers where he distinguished himself and after three months went to Sandhurst and was commissioned in the 27th Lancers in May 1944 with the rank of Captain. He was relieved from duty to appear in the British propaganda films "Flying Fortress" and "Unpublished Story," in 1942, and appeared in "The Yellow Canary" while on furlough in 1943. [2] He later toured in Shaw's "Arms and the Man" entertaining the forces. Greene was discharged in December 1944 and appeared in the stage plays "Desert Rats" and "I Capture the Castle".

The war however effectively ruined Greene's rising career and though he did well in the popular Forever Amber (1947), Greene then found himself cast in a series of swashbuckling roles. Having turned away from films in favor of stage and screen and having been through a divorce from Patricia Medina, who he was married to from 1941 to 1951, Greene was cash strapped when Yeoman Films of Great Britain approached him for the lead role in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Greene took the role, and was an immediate success. It also solved all his money problems and made him into a star. Greene married Brazilian heiress Mrs.Beatriz Robledo Summers (1960 - 1980, when they separated) and together they purchased a stud farm in County Wexford, Ireland. Within five years he was listed among the top breeders of thoroughbred horses in England and Ireland. [3] He also pursued his interest in sailing, successfully competing in yacht racing. He rarely accepted roles from then onwards, seeming to lose interest in the whole industry. His unfulfilled ambition had been to ride in the (British) Grand National. Greene underwent surgery in 1982 for a brain tumor and never fully recovered. He died of cardiac arrest three years later in Norfolk.

Sean Connery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Thomas Sean Connery
Born August 25, 1930 (1930-08-25) (age 76)
Edinburgh, Scotland
Years active 1957?-2004
Spouse(s) Diane Cilento (1962-1973)
Micheline Roquebrune (1975-present)
Official site SeanConnery.com
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
1987 The Untouchables
BAFTA Awards
Best Actor
1986 The Name of the Rose
Golden Globe Awards
Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1988 The Untouchables

Cecil B. DeMille Award
1996 Lifetime Achievement

Other Awards
AFI Life Achievement Award
2006 Lifetime Achievement

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is an Academy Award-winning Scottish actor and producer who is perhaps best known as the first actor to portray James Bond in cinema, starring in seven Bond films.[1] Sir Sean Connery was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in July 2000. [2]

Connery is known for retaining his Scottish accent in films, regardless of the nationality of the character played,[3] and rugged good looks. He has repeatedly been named as one of the most attractive men alive by various magazines, though he is older than most sex symbols. He is also a vocal and visible supporter of the Scottish National Party, often campaigning for their cause of Scottish independence.



Biography

Early life

Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to a factory worker and truck driver father and a charwoman mother.[4] His father, Joseph Connery, was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent with roots in County Wexford, while his mother, Euphamia "Effie" Maclean, was a Protestant. He claims he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, explaining that he had an Irish friend named Seamus and those who knew them decided to call him by his middle name when with Seamus.

His first job was as a milkman, with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society.[5] He then joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged on medical grounds, because of a stomach ulcer. Afterwards, he returned to the Co-op, then worked other jobs, including truck driving, labourer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art[6], coffin polisher, and lifeguard.

Under the name Thom Connery, he placed third in the tall man's division of the 1953 Mr. Universe contest.[citation needed] Fellow competitor, Johnny Isaacs, suggested he audition for a stage production of South Pacific, which led to stage, television, and film work. A prominent television role was in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 production of Anna Karenina for BBC Television, in which he co-starred with Claire Bloom.[7] He also acted in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1956) starring Albert Sharpe; his first American television role was as a porter in an episode of The Jack Benny Show.


James Bond (1962-1967, 1971, 1983)

Connery's breakthrough came in the role of secret agent James Bond. He acted in seven Bond films, six produced by EON, followed by an unofficial Warner Brothers Thunderball-remake[8]:

Dr. No (1962)
From Russia With Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Never Say Never Again (1983) (unofficial)

The imposing, yet light-footed, actor was co-discovered by Harry Saltzman, and Albert R. Broccoli after other aspirants to the Bond role were eliminated, including David Niven (later to play Bond in the spoof Casino Royale, in 1967), Cary Grant, and James Mason; the latter two refused to commit to a film series. The low budget forced the producers to hire an unknown actor.

James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming doubted the casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks" and "I'm looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man", adding that Connery (muscular, 6'2", and a Scot) was unrefined. However, Fleming's girlfriend told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma. Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No premiere; he was so impressed, he later created a half-Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for the literary James Bond in the later novels.

Connery's portrayal of Bond owes much to stylistic tutelage from director Terence Young, polishing the actor while using his physical grace and presence for the action. Robert Cotton wrote in one Connery biography that Lois Maxwell (the first Miss Moneypenny) noticed, "Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat".[9] Cotton wrote, "Some cast members remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track."

In June of 1967, after filming You Only Live Twice, Connery quit the role, having tired of repetitive plots, a lack of character development, the public's demands of him, and fear of being typecast. He also disliked the fantastic direction in which the series was headed, away from the source material. Connery reportedly wanted to be a co-producer of the series, his inspiration being Dean Martin's role as a co-producer of the Matt Helm series. Connery noted that The Silencers made nowhere near as much money as Thunderball, but Martin made more money than he did.

In 1970, Connery was re-hired by United Artists president David Picker for £1.25 million (then a record salary for an actor), that he donated to charity.[citation needed] United Artists also agreed to finance Connery's production of The Offence. Connery's final official appearance as 007 was in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever; he reportedly declined £5 million to make Live And Let Die (1973).

In 1978, owing to complex dealings between EON Productions and Kevin McClory (co-producer of Thunderball and co-creator of the story in Ian Fleming's eponymous novel), the latter obtained the right to re-make Thunderball. McClory and Connery were to write an original Bond film, titled either James Bond of the Secret Service or Warhead, but EON and United Artists blocked it in court.

The re-make was revived in the 1980s, and Connery was to play Bond for the seventh, and final, time in the 'unofficial' film Never Say Never Again; its title is said to derive from Connery's comment after filming Diamonds Are Forever that he'd never again play Bond. Yet, in 2005, Connery again reprised the role with his voice and physical likeness in the video game adaptation of From Russia with Love.

His favorite Bond film is From Russia with Love, one of the most acclaimed in the series, which he confirmed in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABCNews.com.; (American Movie Classics mistakenly listed Thunderball as Connery's favorite during a Bond retrospective).

More than forty years after playing the role, Connery's incarnation remains as the definitive cinema James Bond, despite popular interpretations by Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton (often considered akin to the literary Bond), and Pierce Brosnan. Connery's feelings about James Bond range from resentment to fondness, once saying he hated the character so much that he'd have killed him, but also saying he never hated Bond, but merely wanted to portray other characters. Certainly, when the James Bond series was at its peak in the mid-1960s, his association with James Bond 007 was so great that his performances in films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie, A Fine Madness, and Sidney Lumet's The Hill, were ignored. When asked if he'd ever escape the identification, he replied, "Never, it's with me 'til I go to hell".

At another point, he said he still cared about the future of the character and the franchise, having been its icon for too long not to care, and that all Bond films had their good points. In December of 2005, Connery supported Daniel Craig as the latest James Bond, in Casino Royale.


Post-James Bond career

Although Bond was his most famous role, Connery has also maintained a successful career since. As part of the agreement to appear in Diamonds are Forever, Connery was given carte blanche to produce two films for United Artists, but felt that the only film made under this deal, The Offence, was buried by the studio. Apart from The Man Who Would Be King, most of Connery's successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts in films such as Murder on the Orient Express and A Bridge Too Far (in which he acted in a scene opposite Sir Laurence Olivier). His portrayal of Berber chieftain Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in John Milius's The Wind and the Lion (1975) gained him considerable acclaim from critics and audiences and showed his range as an actor.

In 1981, Sean Connery appeared in the film Time Bandits as Agamemnon. The casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, in which he describes the character as being "Sean Connery (or someone of equal, but cheaper, stature)." However, when shown the script, Connery was happy to play the supporting role. The brevity of his appearance in this film has been hailed by some as refreshing.

After his experience with Never Say Never Again in 1983 and the following court case, Connery became unhappy with the major studios and for two years did not make any films.

Following the successful European production The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA award, Connery's interest in more credible material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which would become a recurring role in many of his later films. The following year, his acclaimed performance as a hard-nosed cop in The Untouchables (1987) earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Subsequent box-office hits such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (in which he played the father of Harrison Ford, actually only 12 years his junior), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Russia House (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999) re-established him as a bankable leading man. Just Cause (1995) drew attention to some of the issues surrounding race and the death penalty in America and controversially, serves as an endorsement for the practice. Both Last Crusade and The Rock alluded to his James Bond days. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted "the father of Indy" to be Connery since Bond directly inspired the Indiana Jones series, while his character in The Rock, John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s. In more recent years, Connery's filmography has included more than its fair share of box office and critical disappointments such as The Avengers (1998), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) and First Knight (1995), but he also received positive reviews for films including Finding Forrester (2000). He also later received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. He has often been criticised for never losing his accent, even when playing Russian and Irish characters, but he has said this is out of respect for his country.

In 1987-88, Connery was to star in the British television series Red Dwarf, which was ultimately a sitcom that blended elements of science fiction with comedy (similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy). Connery was to appear as the captain of the spaceship Red Dwarf. However, the role was written as being slightly overweight and inept, and so, with the part not being a good fit for Connery, it eventually went to an American comedic actor, Mac McDonald. This was revealed in the Red Dwarf Series I DVD commentary.


Retirement

In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire after pulling out of Josiah's Canon, which was set for a 2005 release. However, in a December 2004 interview with The Scotsman newspaper from his home in the Bahamas, Connery explained he had taken a break from acting in order to concentrate on writing his autobiography. However, the book project was later abandoned because the publishers wanted to delve too far into his private life. Connery has long denied accusations from his first wife Diane Cilento that he physically abused her during their marriage.

About a month before his 75th birthday, over the weekend of July 30th/31st 2005, it was widely reported in the broadcast media (and again in The Scotsman)[10] that he had decided to retire from film making following disillusionment with the "idiots now in Hollywood", and the turmoil making and subsequent box office failure of the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He stated in interviews for the film included on the DVD release that he was offered roles in both The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings series, declining both due to "not understanding them." After they went on to become huge hits, he decided to accept the League role, despite not "understanding" it either. At the Tartan Day celebrations in New York in March 2006, Connery again confirmed his retirement from acting, and stated that he is now writing a history book.

He has been accused of being an overbearing bully, as well as a lazy and poor actor. He has also been praised as a highly professional actor, courteous and supportive of those around him. He made big impressions on actors such as Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Pat Adams, and Christopher Lambert, who considered him a great friend during filming. He refused to be directed in a movie by Barbra Streisand, and he did not get along with the director of his last film.

He was planning to star in an $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades that would be filmed in Jordan before the producer Moustapha Akkad was killed in the 2005 Amman bombings. Connery received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 June 2006, where he again confirmed his retirement from acting. On 7 June 2007, he denied rumors that he would appear in the fourth "Indiana Jones" film, stating that "retirement is just too much damned fun".[11]


Personal life

Allegedly, while filming the movie, Another Time, Another Place, Lana Turner was rumoured to have been having an affair with Connery, her co-star. Johnny Stompanato stormed onto the set, and during a verbal altercation with Connery, Stompanato waved a gun in Connery's face. Connery reacted by taking the gun away from him, physically beating Stompanato and sending him off the film set. After Stompanato's death, there were rumours that organized crime mobsters had helped Connery bring on the eventual demise of Stompanato, and Connery is alleged to have laid low for a time. There is no evidence that Connery and Turner were having an affair; this sort of behaviour was apparently normal for Stompanato.[12][13][14][15]

Connery was married to the Australian-born actress Diane Cilento from 1962 until 1973 (he was her second husband). They have one son, Jason Connery (born January 11, 1963), who was educated at Millfield School in Somerset, England, and the rigorous Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland, before going on to become an actor. According to Jason, his parents' divorce was an extremely bitter and painful affair (Diane Cilento has reportedly just written an autobiography that paints an unflattering portrait of her ex-husband). In 1975, Sean Connery married French artist Micheline Roquebrune, who is the grandmother of French television journalist Stéphanie Renouvin. He has one grandchild from his son Jason's marriage to actress Mia Sara, a grandson named Dashiell Quinn Connery (born in June 1997). He holds an honorary shodan in Kyokushin karate.


Accusations of abuse

In her autobiography My Nine Lives[16] and subsequent interviews on radio and in print[17] Diane Cilento claimed that Connery had beaten her on several occasions, accusations that Connery vehemently denied.

He caused an uproar in a December 1987 interview with Barbara Walters in which he said it was okay for a man to slap a woman with limited force, assuming that it was required to calm her down or "keep her in line".[18] The interview with Walters referenced remarks Connery had made in a November 1965 interview with Playboy magazine on the set of Thunderball.

In Vanity Fair in 1993 he said: "There are women who take it to the wire. That's what they are looking for, the ultimate confrontation. They want a smack."


Political causes

Connery has long supported the Scottish National Party, a left-of-centre political party campaigning for Scottish independence, both financially and through personal appearances. His involvement in Scottish politics has attracted considerable criticism, since he has not resided in Scotland for more than fifty years. His support for the SNP is illustrated by a comment from his official website:

" While it is generally accepted that his support of Scotland's independence and the Scottish National Party delayed his knighthood for many years, his commitment to Scotland has never wavered. Politics in the United Kingdom often has more intrigue than a James Bond plot. While Scotland is not yet independent, she does have a new parliament. Sir Sean campaigned hard for the yes vote during the Scottish Referendum that created the new Scottish Parliament. He believes firmly that the Scottish Parliament will grow in power and that Scotland will be independent within his lifetime. "
?-SeanConnery.com on Sean Connery's support of the Scottish National Party, http://www.seanconnery.com/biography/knighthood/


Connery has a "Scotland Forever" tatoo on his arm and used his fee from Diamonds Are Forever (1971) to establish a charity to support deprived children in Edinburgh as well as Scottish film production. He suggested in 1997 that the Labour government had prevented him being knighted for his charitable work because of his support for the SNP. At the time a Labour Party spokesman stated Connery's knighthood had been blocked because of the numerous remarks that the actor had made in past interviews condoning violence and physical abuse towards women.

Connery received the Légion d'honneur in 1991. He received Kennedy Center Honors from the United States in 1999, presented to him by President Bill Clinton. He received a knighthood on July 5, 2000, wearing a hunting tartan kilt of the MacLean of Duart clan. He also received the Orden de Manuel Amador Guerrero from Mireya Moscoso, former president of Panama on 11 March 2003, for his talent and versatility as an actor.


Health

In 1993, news that Connery was undergoing radiation treatment for an undisclosed throat ailment sparked media reports that the actor was suffering from throat cancer following years of heavy smoking, and he was falsely declared dead by the Japanese and South African news agencies. Connery immediately appeared on the David Letterman show to deny all of this. In a February 1995 interview with Entertainment Weekly, he claimed the radiation treatment was to remove "nodules" from his vocal cords. His father, a heavy smoker, died from throat cancer in 1972. In 2003, he had surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes. On March 12, 2006, he announced he was recovering from surgery to remove a kidney tumour in January.


Connery in popular culture

Connery's distinctive speaking voice has sometimes made him a target of satire, most notably in the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch "Celebrity Jeopardy!" In the sketches, Connery (as portrayed by Darrell Hammond) taunts and mocks host Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell) and makes numerous lewd references and jokes about women sexually. Hammond would also play Connery for a fake trailer for a live action Smurfs movie, where Connery played Papa Smurf.

Comedian and talk show host Craig Ferguson has imitated Connery as well as Michael Caine, sometimes pairing the two together in a spliced sketch.

Connery's role in Finding Forrester, specifically his line "You're the man now, dog!", became the inspiration for the popular website YTMND.com.

He was voted to have the worst movie accent by Empire, for his performance in The Untouchables. He has been derided, but also applauded, for using the same accent for every character, despite playing roles as diverse as an Irish American Chicago cop (The Untouchables), the English king Richard I (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), and a Lithuanian Soviet submarine captain (The Hunt for Red October).[19]

He has an asteroid named after him, 13070 Seanconnery.

Grandma's letter. She is eighty-eight years old and still drives her own car.

She writes:

Dear Granddaughter:

The other day I went up to our local Christian book store and saw a Honk if you love Jesus bumper sticker.
I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting.
So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.
Boy, am I glad I did, what an uplifting experience that followed. I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good he is, and I didn't notice that the light had changed.
It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he Hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed.
I found that lots of people love Jesus!
While I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, For the love of God!
Go! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, GO! What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus!
Everyone started honking! I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!
There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him
Yelling something about a sunny beach.
I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air.
I asked my young teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant.
He said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something.
Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii , so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back.
My grandson burst out laughing. Why even he was enjoying this religious experience!!
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking Towards me.
I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed.
So, I waved at all my brothers and sisters grinning, and drove on through the intersection.
I noticed that I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared.
So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.


Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!!


Will write again soon,
Love, Grandma

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

First allow me to acknowledge M.D. and edgar for their musical duo. Loved the reggae song, honu, and the lyrics are a mite familiar, but they are a great response to The Dixie Chicks.

edgar, we need a good right hand man around. Thanks, Texas.

Hawkman, we are once again delighted with your bio's and especially with your grandma story. Love it when someone clueless makes lemonade out of lemons. I can truly imagine the delight her grandson must have experienced. Hope our Raggedy did not get queasy on her merry-go-round experience and will be here to identify each celeb by photo.

Regardless of those who are not fans of Sean Connery's accent, he will always be the best James Bond to many of us.

From Diamonds are Forever, here is Shirley Bassey with the theme song.

Diamonds are forever,
They are all I need to please me,
They can stimulate and tease me,
They won't leave in the night,
I've no fear that they might desert me.
Diamonds are forever,
Hold one up and then caress it,
Touch it, stroke it and undress it,
I can see every part,
Nothing hides in the heart to hurt me.

I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll luster on.

Diamonds are forever,
Sparkling round my little finger.
Unlike men, the diamonds linger;
Men are mere mortals who
Are not worth going to your grave for.

I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll luster on.

Diamonds are forever, forever, forever.
Diamonds are forever, forever, forever.
Forever and ever.

Writer in the Sun

The days of wine and roses are distant days for me.
I dream of the last and the next affair and of girls I'll never see.
And here I sit, the retired writer in the sun,
The retired writer in the sun and I'm blue,
The retired writer in the sun.
Tonight I trod in the starlight, I excused myself with a grin.
I ponder the moon in a silver spoon and the little one 'live within.
And here I sit, the retired writer in the sun,
The retired writer in the sun.
The magazine girl poses on my glossy paper aeroplane
Too many years I spent in the City playing with Mr. Loss and Gain.
And here I sit, the retired writer in the sun,
The retired writer in the sun and I'm blue,
The retired writer in the sun.
I bathe in the sun of the morning, lemon circles swim in the tea
Fishing for time with a wishing line and throwing it back in the sea.
And here I sit, the retired writer in the sun,
The retired writer in the sun and I'm blue,
The retired writer in the sun.

Donovan

edgar, your song just gave us the answer about Donovan. Obviously, he is Donovan Leitch, Sr., Texas.

Here's an odd song by him, folks.

The continent of Atlantis was an island which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
I wanna see you some day
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
My antediluvian baby,
My antediluvian baby, I love you, girl,
Girl, I wanna see you some day.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah
I wanna see you some day, oh
My antediluvian baby.
My antediluvian baby, I wanna see you
My antediluvian baby, gotta tell me where she gone
I wanna see you some day
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, oh yeah
Oh glub glub, down down, yeah
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah yeah yeah

To tell the truth Letty, I prefer your hobby horse. I've been humming the "Carousel Waltz" ever since I took that spin.

Very interesting bios today, especially the part about Ruby Keeler's wooden soled shoes and Mark Twain's criticism of Bret Harte.
I have the DVD of Bernstein's recording (the way he wanted it to be heard) of West Side Story and although the critics felt the opera singers were miscast, it is an absolute joy to watch and hear.

Bret Harte; Ruby Keeler, Michael Rennie; Van Johnson; Mel Ferrer; Leonard Bernstein; Richard Greene (saw him invent the steamship in the movie "Little Old New York" on TCM - Fulton would have been flattered. I could never see anyone but Errol Flynn as Robin Hood) and "the one and only" James Bond. - <sigh>

Oops. Forgot to take Richard out of Sherwood.

Great collage today, Raggedy, and we are soooo happy that you are no longer a bull dog. Glad you added Richard because now I don't have to look for him in the forest. <smile>

Guess I'll have to re-read Bob's bio about Bret Harte as I liked his short stories, and who could forget Michael in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I think Ruby did this one originally, folks, but this is an updated version.

Come and meet those dancing feet
On the avenue I'm taking you to
Forty-Second Street
Hear the beat of dancing feet
It's the song I love the melody of
Forty-Second Street

Little nifties from the fifties, innocent and sweet
Sexy ladies from the eighties, who are indiscreet

They're side by side, they're glorified
Where the underworld can meet the elite
Forty-Second Street

Come and meet those dancing feet
On the avenue I'm taking you to
Forty-Second Street
Hear the beat of dancing feet
It's the song I love the melody of
Forty-Second Street
Little nifties from the fifties, innocent and sweet
Sexy ladies from the eighties, who are indiscreet
They're side by side, they're glorified
Where the underworld can meet the elite
Naughty, bawdy, gawdy, sporty,
Forty-Second Street.

Done in a minor key, I think.

Cathy's Clown
The Everly Brothers

[Written by Don and Phil Everly]

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses that's for sure
I die each time I hear the sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

I gotta stand tall
You know a man can't crawl
For when he knows he's telling lies
And he lets them pass on by
He's not a man at all

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses that's for sure
I die each time I hear the sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

When you see me shed a tear
And when you know that it's sincere
Don't you think it's kind of sad
That you're treating me so bad
Or don't you even care

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses that's for sure
I die each time I hear the sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

Hey, edgar. Know that one, buddy, and speaking of clowns how about "fools"?

George Shearing and Sergio Mendes have done this song, but this version is by The Beatles.

Day after day, alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool.
And he never gives an answer .....

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

Well on his way, his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud.
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make.
And he never seems to notice .....

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

And nobody seems to like him,
They can't tell what he wants to do.
And he never shows his feelings,

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

Odd song, that. Wonder if there's a meaning behind it?

just sent the lyrics of this song to farmerman so his "honeybees" will get busy for him !

here it is again , sung by GLORIA GAYNOR - some honeybee ! :wink: