WA2K Radio is now on the air

Good morning, Bio Bob. First, allow us to thank you for all the great bio's today. Raggedy will have more than a duet of faces for our gallery, but she is always up to the task.

hawkman, the riddles and the puns were fun. I got a little cross-eyed reading about "why fire engines are red", but it was a good read.

While we await our pretty puppy, y'all, let's hear one from Tommy Sands about teenagers and crushes and emotional rushes. (didn't know that he was married to Nancy Sinatra)

Tommy Sands


They call it a teen-age crush
They don't know how I feel
They call it a teen-age crush
They can't believe this is real

They've forgotten when they were young
And the way tried to be free
All they say is "This young generation
Is just not the way it used to be"

I know that I know my own heart
But you say I'm trying to rush
Please, don't try to keep us apart
Don't call it a teen-age crush

They've forgotten when they were young
And the way tried to be free
All they say is "This young generation
Is just not the way it used to be"

I know that I know my own heart
But you say I'm trying to rush
Please, don't try to keep us apart
Don't call it a teen-age crush

Good morning WA2K.

Interesting bios, Bob. What a tragic life Martha Raye led!
I had forgotten that Forester wrote "The Pride and the Passion". I sure hope Forester didn't see the movie version with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren. Frankie, a Spaniard with a Brooklyn accent and a crazy hairdo, and Cary and Frankie in baggy fitting tights - fighting over which one could push a cannon over a hill - And it was a Stanley Kramer film, too. (The critics didn't like it either )



C. S. Forester; Martha Raye; Tommy Sands; Tuesday Weld and Barbara Bach.

Well done Pennsylvania Pup. Definitely the paws that refreshes.

Yesterday I put on one of the That's Entertainment movies. Included in the many vignettes was one of my favorites Leslie Caron as Lili. If you had the least spark of romanticism in your soul this film captivated you. Let me place before your eyes this wonderful song to tweak those marvelous memories.















Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo
Words & Music by Helen Deutsch & Bronislaw Kaper, 1952
Recorded by Leslie Caron & Mel Ferrer, 1953 (#30)
Featured in the movie "Lili"


D A Fdim D
A song of love is a sad song,

F#m Em7 A7
Hi-lili hi-lili hi-lo,

A7 A7sus4 G/B A7
A song of love is a song of woe,

A7+5 D A7
Don't ask me how I know.

D A G D
A song of love is a sad song,

Am B7 Em B+
For I have loved and it's so.

Em7 Em6 D DM7
I sit at the window and watch the rain,

A7 A7+5 D DM7 D7
Hi-lili hi-lili hi-lo;

Em B+ D Bm
Tomorrow I'll probably love again,



First time;

A7 D Cdim A
Hi-lili hi-lili hi-lo.



Last time;

A7 D G D
Hi-lili hi-lili hi-lo.

Well, folks, there's our Raggedy with a great group of faces and a critique on The Pride and the Passion. Glad that I didn't see that one, gal.

Hmmm. I think that I have C.S. mixed up with the Forester in the Sean Connery movie, Finding Forester. All of them guys have several different spellings to their last names.

Just found out that Martha Raye did this one, folks, along with a lot of others.

I'm a glum one
It's explainable
I met someone unattainable
Life's a bore
The world is my oyster no more

All the papers
Where I lead the news
With my capers
Now will spread the news
Superman turned out to be
A flash-in-the-pan

I've flown around the world
In a plane
I've settle revolutions in Spain
The North Pole I have charted
But I can't get started with you

Around the golf course I am under par
And all the movies want me to star
I've built a house and show place
But I can't get no place with you

You're so supreme
Lyrics that I write of you
Scheme, just for a sight of you
And I dream
Both day and night of you
And what good does it do
In 1929, I sold short
In London, I'm presented at court
But you've got me down hearted,
'Cause I can't get started with you

You're so supreme
Lyrics that I write of you
Scheme, just for a sight of you
And I dream
Both day and night of you
And what good does it do
In 1929, I sold short
In London, I'm presented at court
But you've got me down hearted,
'Cause I can't get started with you, with you

Oops, missed your comment and song, Bob. "The paws that refreshes was quite clever".

Yes, I recall Hi-Lili as well, and Leslie had a delightful voice.

Interesting, listeners, I just found out that Ringo Starr dedicated this song to Barbara Bach, so let's hear it.

Ringo Starr - I'm Yours

(Richard Starkey, Mark Hudson and Mark Nevin)

Daylight is falling,
Nightime is calling,
All the lights of london town slowly disappear.

So lay your lovely head on down
And know that i am here.

I'm yours,
I'm yours.

Moonbeams shine on,
Starlight lights on,
All the dreams of ev'ryone will meet up in the sky.

So sleep and dream
Of shooting stars
And take one for a ride.

I'm yours,
I'm yours.

Barbara, i love you,
I want you, i need you.
Your heart's so big,
Your soul's so deep,
Your forgiving love's so strong.

So let me say in my own way
You're ev'rything i am.

I am yours,
I'm yours.

Thank you, Bob. I love:



It was also made into an enjoyable Broadway musical called "Carnival" with Jerry Orbach and Anna Marie Alberghetti (Pier Angeli's twin sister). It didn't have any of the music from the movie in it, but a song called "Love Makes the World Go Round" was a pleasant substitute for "Hi-Lili"

Never heard Ringo's song, Letty. Sounds nice.

Well, Raggedy, I haven't heard it either, but I like to find new things.

One thing that I discovered, is that John Lennon wrote that "Fool on the Hill" about himself and his being in greater contact with nature.

Two things cheered me up today, folks. One was hearing from my son who is almost 100% better, and the other was this funny thing sent to me by my friend, Cheryl

"True" Friendship
None of that Sissy Crap

Are you tired of those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound good,
But never actually come close to reality?


Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship.


You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card-
Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.



1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against
The sorry bastard who made you sad.


2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.


3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.


4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.


5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much Worse it could be until you quit whining.


6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.


7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again.
I don't want whatever you have.


8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy a - - !


9. This is my oath.... I pledge it to the end. "Why?" you may ask;
"because you are my friend".


Send this to 10 of your closest friends,
Then get depressed because you can only think
of 4.

Chuckling at your friend Cheryl's card, but beaming at the wonderful news about your son, Letty.

Thanks, Raggedy. I guess I'll have to get my priorities straight.

Here's one from James Taylor and Carly Simon, and this is for my boy. (well, not quite a boy any more). He and his wife could sing a capella and sound very much like the two of them.

Mock (yeah)
ing (yeah)
bird (yeah)
yeah (yeah)
Mockin'bird, now


Everybody have you heard
He's gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don't sing
He's gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won't shine
He's gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that's why I keep on tellin' everybody
Say yeah, yeah whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, oh

Hear me now and understand
He's gonna find me some piece of mind
And if that piece of mind won't stay
I'm gonna find myself a better way
And if that better way ain't so
I'll ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that's why I keep on shoutin' in your ear
Say yeah, yeah whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, oh



Now, everybody have you heard
She's gonna buy me a mockingbird
Yeah if that mockingbird don't sing
She's gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won't shine
Yes, it'll surely break this heart of mine
And there's a reason why I keep on tellin' everybody
Say yeah, yeah no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

Listen now and understand
She's gonna find me some piece of mind
Yeah if that piece of mind won't stay
I'm gonna get myself a better way
I might rise above, I might go below
Ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that's the reason why I keep on shoutin' in your ear...

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, now, now. baby

here is IDA COX "BELLE OF THE BLUES" !
not particularly uplifting but no doubt true .
hbg


wasn't she a sweetie ?

Ah, hbg. She is a belle all right, and I love the lyrics to her song, although I have never heard her sing them.

How about a little Mobile blues, y'all.

They saw a swallow building his nest
I guess they figured he knew best
So they built a town around him
And the called it Mobile
Where's that?
Alabama

They took a swampland heavy with steam
They added people with a dream
And that dream became a heaven
By the name of Mobile

Pretty soon the town had grown
Till they had a slide trombone
And a man who played piano
And a swallow who sang soprano

No use you're wondring where you should go
It's on the Gulf of Mexico
Where the southern bells are ringing
And the climate's ideal
It's a honeysuckle heaven
By the name of Mobile
Where's that?
Alabama

Pretty soon the town had grown
Till they had a slide trombone
And a man who played piano
And a swallow who sang soprano

No use you're wondring where you should go
It's on the Gulf of Mexico
Where the southern bells are ringing
And the climate's ideal
It's a honeysuckle heaven
By the name of Mobile

That version by Sachmo.

Moonlight Serenade
Glenn Miller

I stand at your gate
And the song that I sing is of moonlight
I stand and I wait for the touch of your hand
In the June night
The roses are sighing a Moonlight Serenade

The stars are aglow
And tonight how their light sets me dreaming
My love, do you know that your eyes
Are like stars brightly beaming
I bring you and sing you a Moonlight Serenade

Let us stray till break of day
in love's valley of dreams
Just you and I, a summer sky
a heavenly breeze kissing the trees

So don't let me wait
Come to me tenderly in the June night
I stand at your gate
And I sing you a song in the moonlight
A love song, my darling
A Moonlight Serenade

ah, edgar. What memories. Thanks for the serenade, Texas.

Well, it has been a wonderful day, and I have been buoyed by the good feelings and music. I hope everyone here has as well.

My good night song is an old one that I love, and this version is by K.D. Lang. (she has a great voice)

Deep in a Dream


I dim all the lights
And I sink in my chair
The smoke from my cigarette
Climbs through the air
The walls in my room
Fade away in a gloom
And I'm deep in a dream of you

Smoke makes a stairway
For you to descend
You come to my arms
May this bliss never end
We'll love and move
Just like we used to do
And I'm deep in a dream of you

And from the ceiling
Sweet music comes stealing
We glide through a lover's refrain
You're so appealing
And I'm soon revealing
My love for you over again

My cigarette burns me I wake with a start
My hand doesn't hurt but there's pain in my heart
Awake or asleep every memory I'll keep
And I'm Deep in a dream of you.

Goodnight, to everyone everywhere, and a small prayer for those in Greece and India.

From Letty with love

Halfway To Paradise
Tony Orlando

[Words and Music by Carole King and Gerry Goffin]

I want to be your lover
But your friend is all I've stayed
I'm only halfway to paradise
So near, yet so far away

I long for your lips to kiss my lips
But just when I think they may
You lead me halfway to paradise
So near, yet so far away, mmm

Bein' close to you is almost heaven (heaven)
But seein' you can do just so much
It hurts me so to know your heart's a treasure (treasure)
And that my heart is forbidden to touch, so

Put your sweet lips close to my lips
And tell me that's where they're gonna stay
Don't lead me halfway to paradise
Mmm, so near, yet so far away

Oh, uh, oh so near, yet so far away
Yeah, yeah, so near, yet so far away

Good morning, WA2K folks.

edgar, I always enjoy music written by Carol King. Thanks, Texas.

How about something Irish as we begin the day.


One morning early I walked forth
By the margin of Lough Leane
The sunshine dressed the trees in green
And summer bloomed again
I left the town and wandered on
Through fields all green and gay
And whom should I meet but a colleen sweet
At the dawning of the day.
No cap or cloak this maiden wore
Her neck and feet were bare
Down to the grass in ringlets fell
Her glossy golden hair
A milking pail was in her hand
She was lovely, young and gay
She wore the palm from Venus bright
By the dawning of the day.

On a mossy bank I sat me down
With the maiden by my side
With gentle words I courted her
And asked her to be my bride
She said, "Young man don't bring me blame"
And swiftly turned away
And the morning light was shining bright
At the dawning of the day.

Charles Boyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born August 28, 1899
Figeac, France
Died August 26, 1978 (age 78)
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Spouse(s) Pat Paterson (1934-1978)
Children Michael Charles Boyer (1944-1965)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Academy Honorary Award
1943 Lifetime Achievement
Tony Awards
Special Tony Award
1952 Don Juan in Hell
Other Awards
NYFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor
1974 Stavisky

Charles Boyer (August 28, 1899 - August 26, 1978) was a French-American actor who starred in several classic Hollywood films, as well as television director and producer. After moving to the U.S., he became an American citizen.




Early years

Born in Figeac, France, to Maurice and Louise Boyer - was just a shy small-town boy who discovered the movies and theater at the age of eleven. Working as a hospital orderly during World War I, Charles Boyer started to come out of himself performing comic sketches for the soldiers there. Boyer nevertheless acceded to his mother's request that he graduate from the Sorbonne (with a degree in philosophy) before studying acting at the Conservatoire de Paris. In the 1920s he was not only the most popular romantic leading man on the Paris stage but was steadily employed in silent films.[1] His first film was Man of the Sea (1920).

MGM signed him to a contract. The first stay in Hollywood was from 1929-31. Follow-up roles were unsatisfying, so he returned for a while.[2]


Stardom

His first big break in a Hollywood role was a very small part of a chauffeur to Jean Harlow in Red-Headed Woman, 1932.[3] He settled in the U.S. in 1934, after starring in a French adaptation of Liliom directed by Fritz Lang. In 1935, he starred in the psychiatric drama Private Worlds, and although the film was not a huge success, Charles Boyer was.[4] And he went on to play opposite the most alluring actresses of the 30's and 40's.

During this period, Boyer had continued making European films, and with Mayerling in 1936 it made him an international star. The offscreen Boyer was bookish and private, far removed from the Hollywood high life. But onscreen he made women swoon as he romanced Marlene Dietrich in The Garden of Allah (1936), Greta Garbo in Conquest (1937), and Irene Dunne in Love Affair (1939).[5] He became a true star in The Garden of Allah.[6]

In 1938, he landed his famous role, as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run, in Algiers an English-language remake of the hit French film Pepe le Moko with Jean Gabin. Although he never invited costar Hedy Lamarr to "Come with me to the Casbah", the line would stick with him, thanks to generations of impressionists.[7][8] Boyer's role as Pepe Le Moko was already world famous when animator Chuck Jones based the character of Pepe le Pew, the romantic skunk introduced in 1945's Odor-able Kitty, on Boyer and his most well-known performance.[9]

He played in three classics of unrequited love with some of greatest leading ladies : All This and Heaven Too (1940), opposite Bette Davis, Back Street (1941), opposite Margaret Sullavan, and Hold Back the Dawn (1941), opposite Olivia de Havilland.[10] Charles was made a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1942.

In contrast to his glamorous image, Boyer began losing his hair early, had a pronunced paunch, and was noticeably shorter than leading ladies like Ingrid Bergman. When Bette Davis first saw him on the set of All This and Heaven Too, she did not recognize him and tried to have him removed from the set.[11]

In 1943, he was awarded a Honorary Oscar Certificate for "progressive cultural achievement" in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference (certificate). He never won an Oscar for acting, though he was nominated four times - for Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Gaslight (1944) and Fanny (1961).

Charles Boyer is best known for his role in the 1944 film Gaslight in which he tried to convince Ingrid Bergman's character that she was going insane. He became famous for his whispered declarations of love in movies with Dietrich, Garbo or Bergman.[12] And in the 1940s he was the voice of Capt. Daniel Gregg in Lux Radio Theater's presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.


After World War II

After World War II, he continued to appear on Broadway stage, TV, films and the London stage. In 1948, Charles Boyer was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph (1948), failed at the box office, he started looking for character parts. He also moved into television as one of the pioneering producers and stars of Four Star Theatre; Four Star Productions would make him and partners David Niven and Dick Powell rich.[13] In the 1950s he was a guest star on I Love Lucy. Charles was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in the 1952 film The Happy Time, and for the Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series for his work in Four Star Playhouse (1952-1956).

In 1950, he appeared on the Broadway stage in one of his most notable roles, that of Don Juan, in a dramatic reading of the third act of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman. This is the act popularly known as Don Juan in Hell. In 1952, he won Broadway's 1951 a Special Tony Award for Don Juan in Hell. It was directed by actor Charles Laughton. Laughton co-starred as the Devil, with Cedric Hardwicke as the statue of the military commander slain by Don Juan, and Agnes Moorehead as Dona Anna, the commander's daughter, one of Juan's former conquests. The production was a critical success, and was subsequently recorded complete by Columbia Masterworks, one of the first complete recordings of a non-musical stage production ever made. As of 2006, however, it has never been released on CD. He was also nominated for Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for his performance in the 1963 Broadway production of Lord Pengo.


Later career

Onscreen, he continued to shine with older roles in Fanny (1961), Barefoot in the Park (1967) with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and Stavisky (1974), the latter winning him the New York Film Critics Circle Award.[14]

Boyer's career lasted longer than any other romantic male of his era, earning him the title "the last of the cinema's great lovers."[15] He recorded a very dark album called Where Does Love Go? in 1966. The album consisted of famous love songs sung (or rather talked) with Charles Boyer's distinctive deep voice and French accent. The record was reportedly Elvis Presley's favorite album for the last 11 years of his life, the one he most listened to.

His last major film role was that of the High Lama in a musical version of Lost Horizon (1973, a commercial failure), although he also had a notable part as a corrupt city official in the 1969 film version of The Madwoman of Chaillot. His long, distinguished career included the motion pictures Around the World in 80 Days (1956), How to Steal a Million (1966), Is Paris Burning? (1966), and, his final film, A Matter of Time (1976), with Ingrid Bergman and Liza Minnelli.

For his contribution to the motion picture and television industries, Charles Boyer has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.


Personal life

Boyer's marriage to British actress Pat Paterson, his first and only wife, was as romantic as his movies. It was love at first sight when they met at a dinner party in 1934. Two weeks later, they were engaged. Three months later, they were married.[16] Later, they would move from Hollywood to Paradise Valley, Arizona. The marriage would last 44 years.

Two days after his wife died from cancer in 1978, Boyer committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal while at a friend's home at Scottsdale. He was taken to the hospital in Phoenix where he died. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, United States alongside his wife, and son Michael Charles Boyer, who had committed suicide playing Russian roulette after breaking up with his girlfriend in 1965 at the age of 21.

Donald O'Connor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor
Born August 28, 1925
Chicago, Illinois
United States
Died September 27, 2003 aged 78
Calabasas, California

Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 - September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. Perhaps his most famous performance was as Gene Kelly's sidekick in the musical Singin' in the Rain (1952).





Early life

O'Connor was born in Chicago, Illinois, into an Irish immigrant family of vaudeville entertainers. Tragedy struck his family when, as a toddler, he and his sister were involved in a road accident, which resulted in her death. His father died of a heart attack only a few weeks later.


Career

O'Connor broke into films in 1937, usually playing impetuous kids, as in Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste. In 1942 O'Connor joined Universal Pictures' troupe of talented teenagers. He received gradually larger roles in four of the studio's Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom at 17 with Mister Big (1943), co-starring Gloria Jean and comic dancer Peggy Ryan. O'Connor and Ryan's energetic routines invited comparisons with M-G-M's pairing of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

O'Connor joined the armed forces in 1944. Upon his return, Universal (now reorganized as Universal-International) cast him in lightweight musicals and comedies. In 1949, he was given the leading role in Francis, the whimsical story of a sad-sack soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success, and a mixed blessing for O'Connor: the momentum of his musical career was constantly interrupted because the studio insisted on his making one "Francis" picture a year until 1955. It was because of Francis that O'Connor missed out on a plum role: Bing Crosby's sidekick in White Christmas. O'Connor was forced to bow out when he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule. He was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.

Donald O'Connor was a TV favorite in the 1950s, and was one of the regular hosts of NBC's popular Colgate Comedy Hour. He hosted a color television special on NBC in 1957, which was among the first color programs to be videotaped; an excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC's 50th anniversary special in 1976. He also had a short-lived television series during the late 1960s.

After overcoming a drinking problem in the 1970s, he appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film Ragtime, notable for similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. O'Connor also appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s. Donald O'Connor's last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship.

O'Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003. One of the last known on-camera interviews with Donald O'Connor was arranged by friend David Ruprecht and conducted by Steven F. Zambo. A small portion of this interview can be seen in the 2005 PBS special Pioneers of Primetime.


Death

O'Connor died from congestive heart failure on September 27, 2003 at the age of 78. Among his last words, he is reported to have expressed tongue-in-cheek thanks for the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement that he expected to win at some future date. He was cremated at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

He left behind his wife, of over 40 years, Gloria, and four children.

Ben Gazzara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Biagio Anthony Gazzara
Born August 28, 1930 (1930-08-28) (age 77)
New York City, New York, USA
Spouse(s) Louise Erickson (1951-1957)
Janice Rule (1961-1979)
Elke Krivat (1982-)
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actor - Miniseries/Movie
2003 Hysterical Blindness

Ben Gazzara (born Biagio Anthony Gazzara on August 28, 1930, in New York City) is an American actor in television and motion pictures.

Born to Italian immigrants, Antonio Gazzara and Angela Consumano, Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He attended New York City's famed Stuyvesant High School. He found relief from his bleak surroundings by joining a theater company at a very young age. Years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teenage years. Despite his obvious talent, he went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering. After two years, he gave it up, and after a short intermission joined the Actor's Studio.

In the 1950s, he starred in various Broadway productions, most notably Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, directed by Elia Kazan. However, he lost out on the film role to Paul Newman. As a young actor, Gazzara joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film, The Strange One.

He has had a long and varied acting career, with spells as an accomplished director too (TV mostly). His most popular acting roles include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Young Doctors (1961), A Rage to Live (1965), The Bridge at Remagen (1969), Capone (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), and High Velocity (1977). He also starred in a couple of television series, beginning with Arrest and Trial, which ran from 1963 until 1964 on ABC, and the more successful series Run for Your Life from 1965 to 1968 on NBC.

His most formidable appearances, however, were characters he created for his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s. They collaborated for the first time on Cassavetes' film Husbands (1970) where he appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. The collaboration of the two men achieved its peak in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in which Gazzara took the leading role of the hapless strip joint owner, Cosmo Vitelli. In order to pay off a gambling debt to the mob, Vitelli agrees to kill a Chinese unknown to him. Against all odds, he succeeds in killing the man, but he gets severely wounded during his flight. But the gangsters turn against him, as they had not expected him to survive the assassination and Vitelli is forced to kill these men too. The plot itself hardly describes the true meaning of the movie, as John Cassavetes did everything to keep it from turning into an ordinary genre flick. Gazzara delivered a life-like portrayal of a simple man who found his happiness in running a third-rate strip bar, and who gets caught in something that is much too big for him. Sometimes he does not even seem to understand the whole meaning of it. The little emotional involvement that Gazzara's character shows during the events is played with stunning accuracy, with Gazzara's performance and Cassavetes' direction complementing each other. A year later Gazzara starred in yet another Cassavetes-directed movie, Opening Night, playing the role of stage director Manny Victor who struggles with the mentally unstable star of his show, played by Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands.

In the 1980s, he could be seen in a variety of different movies, such as Saint Jack and They All Laughed (directed by Peter Bogdanovich), and the cult classic Road House. He also appeared in the critically acclaimed AIDS-themed TV movie An Early Frost (1985), which also starred Gena Rowlands.

In the 1990's, he appeared in 38 films, among these many TV productions. In Hollywood movies he mostly appeared as a supporting actor, but worked with several renowned directors, such as the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski), Spike Lee (Summer of Sam), and John McTiernan (The Thomas Crown Affair).

Now in his seventies, Gazzara is still acting. In 2003, he appeared in the film Dogville, directed by Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier, alongside Nicole Kidman.

David Soul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Soul (born August 28, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor and British citizen and singer best known for his role as the "seat-of-the-pants" California police detective Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson (opposite co-star and long-time friend Paul Michael Glaser) in the cult television program Starsky and Hutch (1975-79).

Originally David Richard Solberg, he was born the son of a Lutheran minister. His father, Dr. Richard Solberg, was a senior representative for Lutheran World Relief during the reconstruction of Germany after World War II, and the family moved frequently while Soul was growing up. Soul's brother is a Lutheran minister and social activist.

Soul first gained attention as the mysterious "Covered Man" on several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show in 1967 in which he sang while wearing a ski mask and explained, "My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music". [1]

Soul then appeared as level-headed Joshua Bolt on the television program Here Come the Brides, and later Arthur Hill's law partner on, "Owen Marshal: Counselor At Law". Superstar status came when he portrayed Detective Hutchinson on Starsky and Hutch. He has also made guest appearances on shows such as I Dream of Jeannie, McMillan and Wife, Cannon, Gunsmoke, World War III (miniseries), Star Trek, and The Streets of San Francisco. His best known film appearance was opposite Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973). Soul also appeared in the mini-series based on Stephen King's horror classic "Salem's Lot" (1978).

After a successful singing career, including hits such as "Don't Give Up on Us" and "Silver Lady", Soul fell into relative obscurity during the 1980s, fought a long battle with alcoholism, although frequently made guest appearances in various US television series, with the occasional small film role.

In the 1990s, Soul moved to London, and forged a new career on the West End stage. He also notably participated in the successful 1997 election campaign of Martin Bell. In September 2004, he became a British citizen, but has kept his US citizenship and ties with the US. He is a big fan of English football (soccer) and is an Arsenal supporter. He has been married four times, and had a long-term relationship with Alexa Hamilton. Three of those marriages have been to actresses: Karen Carlson, Patty Sherman, and Julia Nickson-Soul. He has six children: five sons and one daughter. His brother, Daniel Solberg, is pastor of St. Paulus Lutheran Church in San Francisco, California.

On July 12, 2004, he took over playing the role of Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer - The Opera at the Cambridge Theatre in London. He is currently back in the West End, playing Mack in a new production of Jerry Herman's musical Mack and Mabel at the Criterion Theatre alongside Janie Dee. The production is directed by John Doyle. Also in 2004, he appeared in Agatha Christie's Poirot - Death on the Nile in the role of Andrew Pennington.





Quotes

" People thought me a bit strange at first; a blond haired, blue-eyed Norwegian who sang Mexican folk songs, but I used it to my advantage and got a job. And so the music became my ticket to education.

Daniel Stern
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born August 28, 1957 (1957-08-28) (age 50)
Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
Daniel Stern (born August 28, 1957) is an American television and film actor. He is known for his roles in the 1990s Hollywood films City Slickers and Home Alone.





Biography

Early life

Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Stern applied for a job as a lighting engineer for a Shakespeare Festival in Washington, D.C., but was hired as a walk-on. After taking acting lessons, Stern began his acting career in Off Broadway and Broadway productions, including a performance at Second Stage Theatre with actor Bob Gunton. When Stern was a child, he reportedly stole a bottle of Barton's Vodka from his father, and then successfully stole a Ford Falcon, which was the start of what Stern wrote in his autobiography as "My hazardous road to crime".[citation needed]


Career

In 1979, Stern made his movie debut as Cyril in Breaking Away. The following year he played a student who raised objections during Jill Clayburgh's proof of the snake lemma in the film It's My Turn. His breakthrough role as an actor came in Barry Levinson's Diner, another film role he is remembered for is the 1983 action film Blue Thunder as J.A.F.O., also known as Officer Richard Lymangood. He was the original choice to play Biff Tannen in the 1985 film, Back to the Future, but he turned the role down.

Stern is often remembered for playing bumbling but lovable idiots, such as Phil from the City Slickers movies, Marv from the first two Home Alone movies, and Max from Bushwacked. Many consider his role as Marv to be a breakthrough for his career. He is also noted for providing the voice of the narrator on the TV series The Wonder Years, which starred Fred Savage. Stern and Savage were also featured together in Little Monsters. Stern provided the voice for the main character of the Dilbert animated series, based on the comic strip by Scott Adams. He also tried his hand at directing through several episodes of The Wonder Years and the movie Rookie of the Year.

Stern was featured breaking the fourth wall in an issue of MAD Magazine which spoofed Home Alone. In this lampoon, as he is breaking into the house, he tells Joe Pesci he is humiliated.
Stern: "We ought to be ashamed of ourselves!"
Pesci: "Why, because we are criminals breaking into somebody's house?"
Stern: "No, because we are fine actors taking such embarrassing roles!"
Pesci: "I see your point of view! People expected we knew better after seeing my performance in Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino, and yours in Diner, Breaking Away, and the voice of the adult Kevin on The Wonder Years!"

His best friends include Billy Crystal and Joe Pesci, his co-stars from City Slickers and Home Alone, respectively. His brother is television writer David M. Stern.