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ZaSu Pitts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born January 3, 1894(1894-01-03)
Parsons, Kansas, U.S.
Died June 7, 1963, age 69
Hollywood, California, U.S.

ZaSu Pitts (January 3, 1894 - June 7, 1963) (pronounced /ˈzeɪsuː ˈpɪts/) was an American film actress who starred in many silent dramas, although later, her career digressed to comedy sound films.





Name

Her unusual first name was coined from parts of the names "Eliza" and "Susan", female relatives who both wanted Pitts's mother to name the child after them. In many film credits and articles, her name was rendered as Zazu Pitts or Zasu Pitts. Though her name is commonly mispronounced as "Zazz-oo", in her 1930s film shorts with Thelma Todd (see below) it is clearly pronounced on-screen (by Todd) as "ZAY-sue;" her name was also consistently pronounced "ZAY-sue" during her recurrent guest appearances on Fibber McGee and Molly's show in 1939.


Biography

Born in Parsons, Kansas, to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts, ZaSu was the third of four children. Her aged New York-native father, who lost a leg back in the Civil War, had settled the family in Kansas by the time ZaSu was born, but relocated to Santa Cruz, California in 1903, when she was 9, seeking a warmer climate and better job opportunities. Her childhood home still stands at 208 Lincoln Street. She attended Santa Cruz High School and somehow rose above her excessively shy demeanor to join the school's drama department. She went on to cultivate what was once deemed her negative qualities by making a career out of her unglamorous looks and wallflower tendencies in scores and scores of screwball comedy treasures.

Pitts made her stage debut in 1915 and was discovered two years later for films by pioneer screenwriter Frances Marion and made her debut in the silent film The Little Princess (1917), starring Mary Pickford. Pitts became a leading lady in Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece Greed (1924); based on this performance, von Stroheim labelled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". Von Stroheim also featured her in his films The Wedding March (1928) and Walking Down Broadway (1933), which was re-edited by Alfred L. Werker and released as Hello Sister.

Pitts grew in popularity following a series of Universal one-reeler comedies and earned her first feature-length lead in King Vidor's Better Times (1919). She met and married potential matinée idol Tom Gallery in 1920 and paired up with him in several films, including Bright Eyes (1921), Heart of Twenty (1920), Patsy (1921) and A Daughter of Luxury (1922). Their daughter Ann was born in 1922.

In 1924, the actress, now a reputable comedy farceur, was given the greatest tragic role of her career in Erich von Stroheim epic classic Greed (1924), an over nine-hour picture edited to less than two. The surprise casting initially shocked Hollywood but pointed out that she could draw tears and pathos with her patented doleful demeanor as well as laughs. The movie has grown tremendously in respect over time, having failed initially at the box office due to its extensive cutting.

Pitts enjoyed her greatest fame, however, in the 1930s, often starring in B movies and comedy shorts, often teamed with Thelma Todd. She also played secondary parts in many films. Her stock persona (a fretful, flustered, worrisome spinster) made her instantly recognizable and was often imitated in cartoons and other films. She starred in a number of Hal Roach shorts and features that were popular, and co-starred in a series of feature-length comedies with Slim Summerville. Her brief stint in the Hildegarde Withers mystery series was not well received, however; by this time Pitts was so established as a comedienne that audiences didn't accept her as a brainy sleuth.

Trading off between comedy shorts and features, she earned additional kudos in such heavy dramas as Sins of the Fathers (1928), The Wedding March (1928), also helmed by von Stroheim, and War Nurse (1930). Still, by the advent of sound, which was an easy transition for Pitts, she was fully secured in comedy. One bitter and huge disappointment for her was when she was replaced in the war classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Beryl Mercer after her initial appearance in previews drew unintentional laughs. She decided, however, to make the most of a not-so-bad situation. She had them rolling in the aisles in such wonderful and wacky entertainment as The Dummy (1929), Finn and Hattie (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). She also excelled deliciously in her comedy partnerships with stunning blonde comedienne Thelma Todd (in short films) and comedian Slim Summerville (in features).

Breezing through the 1940s in assorted films, she found work in vaudeville and on radio as well, trading quivery banter with Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, and Rudy Vallee among others. She also tackled Broadway, making her debut in the mystery Ramshackle Inn in 1944. The play, which was written especially for her, faired quite well, and, as a result, took the show on the road frequently in later years. Post-war films continued to give Pitts the chance to play comic snoops and flighty relatives in such quality fare as Life with Father (1947), but into the 1950s she started focusing on TV. This culminated in her best known series role playing second banana to cruiseline social director Gale Storm in The Gale Storm Show (1956) [a.k.a. Oh, Susannah] as Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician.

Pitts' last role, shortly before her death, was as a voice actress (switchboard operator) in the Stanley Kramer comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). She now has a street named after her in Las Vegas, Nevada.


Marriage

John E. Woodall (8 October 1933 - 7 June 1963) (her death)
Tom Gallery (23 July 1920 - 2 May 1933) (divorced); two children (one adopted): a daughter, Ann Gallery, and a son, Don Gallery (né Marvin Carville La Marr), whom they adopted and renamed after the 1926 drug-related death of his mother, silent film actress Barbara La Marr.

Death

Ill health dominated Pitts' later years when she was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1950s. She continued to work until the very end, making brief appearances in The Thrill of It All (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner and the all-star comedy epic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). She died at age 69 in Hollywood, California leaving behind a gallery of scene-stealing worryworts for all to enjoy.

She was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.


Trivia


She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
Was an excellent cook and a collector of candy recipes, which culminated into a cookbook entitled Candy Hits by ZaSu Pitts which was published posthumously in 1963.
Mae Questel caricatured Pitts's voice for the character Olive Oyl for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip Popeye.
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Pitts also made numerous television appearances, including her role in Oh! Susanna (1956-1960), with Gale Storm. As Nugie, the shipboard beautician and partner-in-crime, she made the most of her timid, twitchy mannerisms.
She was on radio, appearing several times on the earliest Fibber McGee and Molly show. Her character was a somewhat dipsy dame who was constantly looking for a husband.
Referred to sadistic gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as a "ferret".
Conservative both politically and financially, she left her lucrative job with Thelma Todd over a money dispute with Hal Roach, and often complained about taxes.
In Parsons, Kansas, there is a star tile at the Parsons Theatre to remember her by. It is placed at the entrance for movie-goers to see.

Marion Davies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Marion Cecelia Dourvas
Born January 3, 1897
Brooklyn, New York
Died September 22, 1961
Hollywood, California
Years active 1917 - 1937
Spouse(s) Horace G. Brown (1951-1961)

Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 - September 22, 1961) was an American actress of the silent era.





Early life

Davies was born Marion Cecilia Dourvas in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children born to Bernard J. Dourvas,[1] a lawyer who moved in New York City political circles, and Rose Reilly, formerly of Jersey City, New Jersey. Her elder siblings included Rose, Reine, and Ethel. A brother, Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. His name was subsequently given to Marion's favourite nephew, the screenwriter Charles Lederer, the son of Marion's sister Reine Davies.

The Dourvas family lived near Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The sisters changed their surname to Davies, which one of them spotted on a realtor's sign in the neighborhood. Even at a time when New York was the melting pot for new immigrants, having an Anglo-Saxon surname greatly helped one's prospects.

The sisters all hit the Great White Way, and Marion was signed on as a chorine in Florenz Ziegfeld's annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues.[2]


Hollywood career

Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Even during her career, her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career. In her posthumously published memoirs, Davies claimed she wasn't an actress, knew nothing about politics, and described herself as a "silly, giggly idiot."

After making her screen debut in late 1916 in a fashion newsreel, modeling gowns by Lucile (Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon), she appeared in her first feature film in 1917's Runaway Romany.[3] It was a film written by herself and directed by her brother-in-law, the prominent Broadway producer George W. Lederer. The following year she starred in three films, The Burden of Proof, Beatrice Fairfax, and Cecilia of the Pink Roses. Playing mainly light comedic roles, she quickly became a major movie personality, making a small fortune which enabled her to provide financial assistance for her family and friends.[2]

Cecilia of the Pink Roses in 1918 was her first film backed by Hearst. She was on her way to being the most famously advertised actress in the world. During the next 10 years she appeared in 29 films, an average of almost three films a year.[4]

By the mid-1920s, however, her career was often overshadowed by her relationship with the married Hearst and their fabulous social life at San Simeon and Ocean House in Santa Monica dubbed the biggest house on the beach, "the beach between San Diego and Vancouver".

Hearst had met her soon after she'd started working in movies, and formed Cosmopolitan Pictures solely to produce starring vehicles for her. Hearst's relentless efforts to promote her career instead had a detrimental effect, but he persisted, making Cosmopolitan's distribution deals first with Paramount, then Goldwyn, and then Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Davies, in her published memoirs The Times We Had, concluded that Hearst's over-the-top promotion of her career, in fact, had a negative result.


Hearst loved seeing her in expensive costume pictures, but she also appeared in contemporary comedies like Tillie the Toiler, The Fair Co-Ed (both 1927), and especially two directed by King Vidor, The Patsy and the backstage-in-Hollywood saga Show People (both 1928). The Patsy contains her imitations, that she usually did for friends, of silent stars Lillian Gish, Mae Murray and Pola Negri.

The coming of sound made Davies nervous, because she had never completely overcome a childhood stutter.[4] Her career survived, however, and she made several comedies and musicals during the 1930s, including Marianne (1929), Not So Dumb (1930), The Florodora Girl (1930), The Bachelor Father (1931), Five and Ten (1931) with Leslie Howard, Polly of the Circus (1932) with Clark Gable, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Peg o' My Heart (1933), Going Hollywood (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Operator 13 (1934) with Gary Cooper. She was involved with many aspects of her films and was considered an astute businesswoman. Her career, however, was hampered by Hearst's insistence that she play distinguished, dramatic parts, as opposed to the comic roles that were her forte. She also harboured an increasing dependence on alcohol, hiding bottles of liquor in San Simeon's toilet tanks. However, her body of work has often been praised by contemporary critics.[citation needed]

Hearst reportedly had tried to push MGM executives to hire Davies for the role of Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (1938). Louis B. Mayer hired producer Irving Thalberg's wife Norma Shearer for the part instead. Hearst reacted by pulling his newspaper support for MGM, and moved Cosmopolitan Pictures to Warner Bros.'s studios, but stayed only a few years. Davies' films there included Page Miss Glory (1935), Hearts Divided, Cain and Mabel (both 1936), and Ever Since Eve (1937), her last film. Cosmopolitan Pictures folded, so she left the screen and retreated to San Simeon.


Ince Scandal

Hearst and Davies lived as a couple for decades but were never married, as Hearst's wife refused to get a divorce. At one point, he reportedly came close to marrying Davies, but decided his wife's settlement demands were too high.

Davies, although with Hearst for years, also privately dated other actors. In the mid-1920s, Davies became involved in an affair with actor Charlie Chaplin, and in the mid-1930s she was involved with actor Dick Powell. Hearst was incredibly jealous and possessive of her, even though he was married throughout their relationship.

Her relationship with Chaplin became the stuff of legend in 1924 when he, Hearst, Davies (among other actresses and actors) were on Hearst's yacht with film producer Thomas Ince when Ince died.

In spite of no supporting evidence, rumors have circulated since that time that Hearst mistook Ince for Chaplin and shot him in a jealous rage. The rumors were dramatised in the play The Cat's Meow, which was later made into Peter Bogdanovich's 2001 film of the same name starring Edward Herrmann as Hearst, Kirsten Dunst as Davies, Eddie Izzard as Chaplin and Cary Elwes as Ince.


Hearst's death

By the late-1930s, Hearst was suffering financial reversals; Davies bailed him out by selling off $1 million of her jewelry.[5] When Hearst died, his family had every trace of Davies' presence in his home removed, and when discussing his life and legacy, made no reference to her.


Marriage

Ten weeks after Hearst's death, Davies married Horace Brown on October 31, 1951. [6] [2] It was not a happy marriage; he allegedly encouraged her drinking. Davies filed for divorce twice, but neither was finalised. Her friends, and the media, noticed a remarkable physical similarity between Brown and the young Hearst.

In her last years, Davies was involved with charity work: in 1952 she donated $1.9 million to establish a children's clinic at UCLA, which still bears her name. She also fought childhood diseases through the Marion Davies Foundation.[4]

She suffered a minor stroke in 1956, and was later diagnosed with cancer of the jaw. She had an operation which appeared to be successful; Davies fell and broke her leg in 1960. The last time Davies was seen by the American public was on January 10, 1960 on an NBC TV special called Hedda Hopper's Hollywood.


Death

Davies died of cancer in Hollywood, California on September 22, 1961. [7] Her funeral was attended by many Hollywood legends including Mary Pickford and Mrs. Clark Gable (Kay Spreckels), as well as President Herbert Hoover. She is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. She left an estate estimated at more than $30 million.

After the death of Davies' niece, Patricia Lake (née Van Cleeve), Lake's family announced that she was in fact the daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. Prior to the announcement, it had been said that Lake was the daughter of Rosemary Davies (Marion's sister) and her first husband, George Van Cleeve. Although the claim does not appear to have been verified independently, Lake and her husband ?- Arthur Lake, who played Dagwood in numerous films ?- were buried beside Davies in the Douras family mausoleum.


Legacy

Part of the Medical Center at UCLA is named the Marion Davies Clinic.


Portrayals of Davies

Davies was rumoured to be the inspiration for the Susan Alexander character portrayed in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, which was based loosely on Hearst's life.[8] This portrayal has led to various portrayals of Davies as a talentless opportunist, the most recent of which was Melanie Griffith's in HBO's RKO 281.

Welles himself, as stated in his foreword to Davies autobiography The Times We Had, said he deeply regretted that so many assumed Susan Alexander was a carbon copy of Davies, and that the real Davies was a great actress and a wonderful woman. He also claimed that the Susan Alexander character owed as much to the Chicago tycoon Samuel Insull's mistress for whom he built an opera house.

Davies was also portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the telefilm The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) with Robert Mitchum as Hearst, and Heather McNair in Chaplin (1992). Madsen later became a Davies fan and said that she felt she had inadvertently portrayed her as a stereotype, rather than as a real person.

Many film historians and fans resent the negative reputation Kane garnered her[citation needed], and have worked to restore her image in the public eye. Their efforts included a documentary film Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001), which premiered on Turner Classic Movies and which featured appearances by friends and costars who tearfully remembered Davies, even four decades after her death.

Kristen Dunst portrayed Marion Davies in the 2001 movie 'The Cat's Meow'.

Ray Milland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Alfred Reginald Jones
Born January 3, 1907
Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, UK
Died March 10, 1986 (aged 79)
Torrance, California, U.S.
Spouse(s) Muriel Webber (1932-1986)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Actor
1945 The Lost Weekend
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1946 The Lost Weekend
Other Awards
Best Actor Award - Cannes Film Festival
1946 The Lost Weekend

Ray Milland (January 3, 1907-March 10, 1986) was an Academy Award-winning Welsh/American actor and director who worked primarily in the United States. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985.





Biography

Early life

Milland was in all probability born Alfred Roger Jones in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, the son of Elizabeth Annie (née Truscott) and Alfred Jones. It has been suggested that Ray Milland was born Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones , however, there is no such person in the General Registry of Births for England and Wales, so this must have been an early affectation designed to further his career, the possession of a double-barrelled surname often being taken as a sign of class superiority in Britain. He took his Hollywood stage name from an area (the "mill lands") of the town. He had three sisters. Before becoming an actor, he served in the Household Cavalry. An expert shot, he became a member of his company's rifle team, winning many prestigious competitions, including the Risley Match in England. When his four-year duty service was completed, Milland tried his hand at acting. He was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout whilst performing on the stage in London, went to America, and was signed with Paramount Pictures.

When WWII began, Milland tried to enlist in the US Army Air Forces, but was rejected because of an impaired left hand. He worked as a civilian flight instructor for the Army, and toured with a United Service Organisations' (USO) troupe in the South Pacific in 1944. He married Malvinia Warner on September 30, 1932, and they remained together until his death. They had a son, Daniel, and an adopted daughter, Victoria.


Career

When working on I Wanted Wings (1941), with Brian Donlevy and William Holden, he went up with a pilot to test a plane for filming. While up in the air, Ray decided to do a parachute jump (being an avid amateur parachutist) but, just before he could disembark, the plane began to sputter, and the pilot told Milland not to jump as they were running low on gas and needed to land. Once on the ground and in the hangar, Ray began to tell his story of how he had wanted to jump. As he did so, the color ran out of the costume man's face. When asked why, he told Ray that the parachute he had worn up in the plane was "just a prop", and that there had been no parachute. During the filming of Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Milland's character was to have curly hair. Milland's hair was naturally straight, so the studio used hot curling irons on his hair to achieve the effect. Milland felt that it was this procedure that caused him to go prematurely bald, forcing him to go from leading man to supporting player earlier than he would have wished.

The pinnacle of Milland's career and acknowledgement of his serious dramatic abilities came in 1946 when he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Billy Wilder's film The Lost Weekend (1945). In 1951 he gave a heart-breaking performance in Close to my Heart starring opposite Gene Tierney as a couple trying to adopt a child; the film was ahead of its time in dealing with the "nature vs. nurture" debate, it opened a conversation about the adoption process. In 1954 he starred opposite Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. However, Milland failed to match his success in later years. He concentrated on directing for TV and film in the 1960s, in which he achieved some success. He returned as a movie character actor in the late 60s and the 70s, notably in the cult classic Daughter of The Mind (1969), in which he was reunited with Gene Tierney, and in Love Story (1970). He also made many television appearances.

Milland gave the shortest acceptance speech of any Oscar winner: he simply bowed and left the stage.


Personal life

Milland had a tattoo on his upper right arm of a skull with a snake curled up on top of it with the tail of the snake sticking out through one of the eyes. The tattoo can be seen for a brief moment in the movie Her Jungle Love (1938).

Milland had a near-fatal accident on the set of Hotel Imperial (1939). One scene called for him to lead a cavalry charge through a small village. An accomplished horseman, Milland insisted upon doing this scene himself. As he was making a scripted jump on the horse, his saddle came loose, sending him flying straight into a pile of broken masonry. Laid up in the hospital for weeks with multiple fractures and lacerations, he was lucky to be alive.

Milland died of lung cancer in Torrance, California in 1986, aged 79. He was survived by his wife and children in Torrance.

Victor Borge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victor Borge (January 3, 1909 - December 23, 2000) was a Danish-American humorist, entertainer and pianist, affectionately known as the Clown Prince of Denmark and the Great Dane.





Biography

Born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a Jewish family. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum, were both musicians (his father was a violinist in the Royal Danish Chapel, and his mother played piano), Borge took up piano like his mother at the age of 3, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. He gave his first piano recital when he was 8 years old, and in 1918 was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying under Olivo Krause. Later on, he was taught by Victor Schiøler, Liszt's student Frederic Lamond, and Busoni's pupil Egon Petri.

Borge played his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish concert-hall Odd Fellow Palæet (The Odd Fellow Mansion). After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now famous "stand up" act, with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. He married American Elsie Chilton in 1933, the same year he debuted with his revue acts. Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes. This led to Adolf Hitler placing the outspoken Jew on his list of enemies to the Fatherland.

When the Nazis occupied Denmark during World War II, Borge was playing a concert in Sweden, and managed to escape to Finland. He traveled to America on the USS American Legion, the last passenger ship that made it out of Europe prior to the war, and arrived August 28, 1940 with only 20 dollars, three of which went to the customs fee. Disguised as a sailor, Borge returned to Denmark once during the occupation, to visit his dying mother.

Even though Borge didn't speak a word of English upon arrival, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience, learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor Borge, and, in 1941, he started on Rudy Vallee's radio show, but was hired soon after by Bing Crosby for his Kraft Music Hall.

From then on, it went quickly for Borge, who won Best New Radio Performer of the Year in 1942. Soon after the award, he was offered film roles with stars such as Frank Sinatra (in Higher and Higher). While hosting The Victor Borge Show on NBC from 1946, he developed many of his trademarks, including repeatedly announcing his intent to play a piece but getting "distracted" by something or other, making comments about the audience, or discussing the usefulness of Chopin's Minute Waltz as an eggtimer. Or he would start out with some well-known classical piece like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" op. 27 and suddenly drift into a harmonically suitable pop or jazz tune like "Night and Day" (Cole Porter).

Among Borge's other famous routines is the "Phonetic Punctuation" routine, in which he recites a story, with full punctuation (comma, period, exclamation mark, etc.) as onomatopoetic sounds. Another is his "Inflationary Language", where he incremented numbers embedded in words, whether they are visible or not ("inflate" becomes "inflnine", "forehead" becomes "fivehead", "Tea For Two" becomes "Tea Five Three", etc).

Borge used physical and visual elements in his live and televised performances. He would play a strange-sounding piano tune from sheet music, looking increasingly confused; turning the sheet upside down, he would then play the actual tune, flashing a joyful smile of accomplishment to the audience (he had, at first, been literally playing the actual tune upside down). When his energetic playing of another song would cause him to fall off the piano bench, he would open the seat lid, take out the two ends of an automotive seatbelt, and buckle himself onto the bench, "for safety". His musical sidekick in the 1950s, Leonid Hambro, was a well-known concert pianist.

He also enjoyed interacting with the audience. Seeing an interested person in the front row, he would ask the person, "Do you like piano music?" After an affirmative answer, Borge would take the sheet music from his piano and say "Here," and hand it over. Waiting for the laughter to die down, he would say, "That'll be $1.95" (Or whatever the current price might be), before bumping up the asked price if the audience member could indeed read music.

Borge appeared on Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan several times during 1948, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America the same year. He started the Comedy in Music show on The Golden Theatre in New York City on October 2, 1953. Comedy in Music became the longest running one-man show with 849 performances when it closed on January 21, 1956, which feat placed it in the Guinness Book of World Records.

After divorcing his wife Elsie, he married Sarabel Sanna Scraper in 1953.

Continuing his success with several tours and shows, Borge played with some of the world's most renowned orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Always modest, he felt very honored when he was invited to conduct the Danish Royal Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1992.

Borge helped start several trust funds, including the Thanks to Scandinavia Fund, which was started in dedication to those who helped the Jews escape the German persecution during the war. Borge received Kennedy Center Honors in 1999.

Aside from his musical work, Borge wrote two books, My Favorite Intermissions and My Favorite Comedies in Music (with Robert Sherman), and the autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser. Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year when he was 90 years old.

Borge died in Greenwich, Connecticut, after more than 75 years of entertaining. He died peacefully, in his sleep, the day after returning from a concert in Denmark. "It was just his time to go," Frederikke Borge said. "He's been missing my mother terribly."[citation needed]

Victor Borge Hall, located in Scandinavia House in New York City, was named in Borge's honor in 2000, as was Victor Borges Plads ("Victor Borge Square") in Copenhagen in 2002.

He fathered 5 children (who occasionally performed with him) : Sanna, Victor Jr., and Frederikke with Sarabel; Ronald and Janet with Elsie.


Memorable Quotes

I'd like to thank my parents for making this night possible. And my children for making it necessary.
I normally don't do requests. Unless, of course, I have been asked to do so.
I don't mind growing old. I'm just not used to it.
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Occasionally, a finger comes up to wipe a tear [of laughter] from the eye... and that's my reward... the rest goes to the government.
I only know two pieces, one is 'Clair de Lune', the other one isn't.
The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola burns longer.
When you go home, please drive home extremely carefully. Extremely carefully. Because I walk in my sleep!
It's your language, I'm just trying to use it...
Giuseppe Verdi. Joe Green to you.
I'm going to play it with both hands so it will end faster.
I'm Lou Borg.
You may not be aware of this but Leonard Bernstein won another award, for explaining the music of Igor Stravinsky... to Igor Stravinsky!
There will be no dancing during this number... unless you absolutely have to!
I'm going to play a piece...by a Danish composer. Umm... Mozart. Hans Christian Mozart!
*Holds someone's red tie* Oh I thought you were bleeding
We have a neighbour, well who doesn't...but he's our next window neighbour, because he does not have a door at that end of the house!
My grandfather gave me this watch...a few minutes before he died...for 20 bucks...plus tax!
The soprano... is about four and a half feet tall... Lying down.
And now, Brahms! Joey Brahms! ...Brahms spelled backwards: "Smharb."
One afternoon, when I was four years old, my father came home, and he found me in the living room in front of a roaring fire, which made him very angry. Because we didn't have a fireplace.
Before we start, the Baldwin Piano Company has asked me to say that this is a Steinway Piano [or vice versa].
(Inspecting the piano) Hmmm… Steinway & Sons. Didn't even know he was married.
Ignaz Friedman's dead now?-I sincerely hope, because they buried him about 28 years ago.
It's Fliszt, not F. Liszt. Do you say M. Ozart?
It is important to always, always fasten your seat belt wherever you play.
Excuse me Ma'am, are you laying eggs? (Spoken in "Page-Turner")

[edit] Cultural References
In episode #86 of The Odd Couple, "The Flying Felix," a panicky Felix Unger tries to tune his inflight radio to talk to the captain of a commercial airliner, only to exclaim, "I'm getting Victor Borge. Get off!!"
On Family Guy, Borge is indirectly reference when Jake Tucker from Family Guy auditions to be an organ player. He attempts to play the William Tell Overture, only to find it is upside down, much like the Victor Borge sketch.
Borge is a guest actor in The Man from U.N.C.L.E "The Surburbia Affair" (1967).
In 1976, Borge demonstrated his talents in comedy and in playing the piano when he and Richard Carpenter do a humorous duet on the piano.
Borge made appearances on over a dozen other TV shows.

Bill Travers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Lindon-Travers (January 3, 1922 - March 29, 1994) was an English actor, screenwriter, director and an animal rights activist.

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne,England he and his sister Linden (1913-2001) both became actors.

Bill Travers began his acting career on the stage in 1947 then three years later made his motion picture debut. Travers co-starred with his second wife, Virginia McKenna, in a number of films, most memorably as the conservationist George Adamson in the highly successful 1966 film Born Free. The experience made him and his wife very conscious of the many abuses of wild animals in captivity that had been taken from Africa and other natural environments around the world. Together they made a number of motion pictures around the subject such as 1969's Ring of Bright Water and An Elephant Called Slowly in 1973 for which he wrote the screenplay and acted. In 1976 he wrote, directed, and produced the film, "Christian the Lion" (also known as "The Lion Who Thought He Was People").

The importance of animal rights led to Travers and his wife becoming involved in the "Zoo Check Campaign" in 1984 that evolved to their establishing the "Born Free Foundation", in 1991.

Bill spent his last three years traveling around Europe's slum zoos and a TV documentary that he made exposed the appalling suffering of thousands of animals. Bill Travers died in Dorking, Surrey, aged 72. His wife and best friend Virginia McKenna carries on his work to help the many suffering animals.

Victoria Principal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born January 3, 1950 (1950-01-03) (age 58)
Fukuoka, Japan

Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950[1] in Fukuoka, Japan) is an American actress, best known for her role as Larry Hagman's sister-in-law and Patrick Duffy's wife, Pamela Barnes Ewing, "Pam", on the long-running CBS nighttime drama Dallas from 1978 to 1987. She is also well-known for her line of cosmetic products.





Biography

Born in 1950, she was the elder of two daughters born to Victor Principal and Bertha Ree Veal. On Lifetime Television's Intimate Portrait, she revealed that she is of English, Italian, and Filipino descent. Her father was a sergeant in the Air Force, and like most military brats, Principal moved often, growing up in London, Florida, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places, and attending 17 different schools. She studied at the Royal Academy of Ballet while in England.

She acted in a commercial when five, and began modeling in high school. She enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, intending to study medicine. She continued modelling, winning the Miss Miami title in 1969, but serious injuries in a car crash made her refocus her energy on acting. She moved to New York City, working as a model and actress. After a modelling job in Europe, she studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1971.[2]

Principal confirmed a 1950 year of birth in an interview with the official Dallas website. She stated that she "felt that was the only way to clear this up once and for all. My name is my real name; my age is my real age. Someone on the internet, years ago, printed a different age than I am and I'm in the process legally of clearing that up, because I have never lied about my age."[3]


Acting

Her first film was as a Mexican mistress in Paul Newman's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean for which she earned a Golden Globe Nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. Her next film was The Naked Ape (1973) with Johnny Crawford, in which she went topless. (Years later, on The Tonight Show, she said that this was the worst movie of her career.) That year she appeared in a nude Playboy pictorial. She later claimed that she did not read the fine print for her contract for The Naked Ape when she signed it, as it was the fine print that required her to do the nude pictorial.

In 1974, she landed a huge break when she was cast in a co-starring role in the successful disaster film epic, Earthquake.

Two years later, disappointed with her career, she quit acting and for the next few years worked as an agent. Principal planned on going to law school, and later become a studio executive.

Aaron Spelling offered her one year's tuition to accept a role in the pilot of Fantasy Island. She accepted, and it renewed her love for acting. She then pursued the role of Pamela Ewing in Dallas which she landed. Her part of Pamela Barnes Ewing was the dramatic fulcrum point of the entire series?-a Barnes marrying into the clan-hating Ewing family caused rifts which would erupt for years in and around Southfork. In 1983, her role earned her a Golden Globe Nomination as Best Actress in a Television Series.


Entrepreneur

When Principal signed her "Dallas" contract, she omitted the clause that would have given the network the right to consent and profit from her outside endeavors. She explained, "As a result that's why, you can only notice in hindsight, I was the only person in the cast who did commercials, who was doing movies of the week, who wrote books and these all belong to me. I retained the control and ownership of my image. No one owns me."[4]

She left the show after nine years, and began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions, although she still works as an actress. On marrying Hollywood plastic surgeon Harry Glassman on June 23, 1985 she became more interested in natural beauty, and promoted a self-named line of skin care products, and has written three books about beauty and skin-care.

In late 1999, she appeared on the series Family Guy, in which she played her Pam Ewing role and parodied the infamous "shower scene" in which she dreamed up her Dallas husband's death. In the episode in which the show's family copes with the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust on January 1, 2000, and by the end of the episode, it is revealed to be a dream of Ewing's.

She appeared in the NBC TV series Titans with Yasmine Bleeth in 2000, and in the 1990 TV movie Sparks: The Price of Passion, in which she played the mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The animated television series South Park features a school principal named Principal Victoria, a play on the actress' name.


Personal life

Principal dated numerous actors and personalities at the height of her fame in the late-1970s, including: Anthony Perkins (who claimed his first heterosexual experience was with her[5]), Andy Gibb (with whom she recorded a duet "All I Have To Do Is Dream" in 1981), Steven Spielberg (during her work on Earthquake and his pre-production on Jaws), and Frank Sinatra.

Principal met Christopher Skinner in 1978 when he played a bit role on Dallas. After a very short time, she married him, but they later divorced in 1980. In 1985, she then married Hollywood plastic surgeon Dr. Harry Glassman after a three-year relationship and after he signed a pre-nuptial agreement. She has no children from either marriage.

In January 2003, her husband was arrested on a domestic violence charge. On May 27, 2006 she filed for divorce from her husband of 21 years, after they separated in March 2006 citing irreconcilable differences.[6]

On December 27, 2006 the divorce was finalized after Glassman, labeled "Dr. McGreedy" by the press, received Victoria Principal's Beverly Hills home and an estimated $25 million from Principal. Victoria Principal currently lives in Malibu, with homes in Utah and Switzerland. She is training for her booked flight on Richard Branson's commercial space flight venture, and is scheduled to be one of the first female civilian astronauts in June 2008.[7]

Mel Gibson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson
Born January 3, 1956 (1956-01-03) (age 52)
Peekskill, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actor,
Director,
Producer
Spouse(s) Robyn Moore (1980-)
Children Seven
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Director
1995 Braveheart

Best Picture
1995 Braveheart

Australian Film Institute Awards
Best Actor in a Leading Role
1979 Tim
1981 Gallipoli
Golden Globe Awards
Best Director - Motion Picture
1996 Braveheart

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American-born actor, director and producer. Gibson moved to Australia when he was 12 years old and he later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. After establishing himself as a household name with the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart. Gibson's direction of Braveheart made him the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to receive an Oscar for Best Director.[1] In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a blockbuster movie[2] that portrayed the last hours of the life of Jesus. Gibson is an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia and was ranked the world's most powerful celebrity in the annual list by Forbes magazine in 2004.[3]




Early life

Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of eleven children. He is the second son of Hutton Gibson and Irish-born Anne Reilly Gibson. His paternal grandmother was the Australian opera soprano, Eva Mylott (1875-1920). [4] One of Mel's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. Gibson's first name comes from a 5th century Irish Saint, Mel, founder of the diocese of Ardagh which contains most of his mother's native County, while his second name, Columcille, is also linked to an Irish saint.[5] Columcille is also the name of the parish in County Longford where Anne Reilly was born and raised.

Hutton Gibson relocated his family to Sydney, Australia in 1968, after winning $145,000 in a work related injury lawsuit against New York Central on February 14, 1968.[6][unreliable source?] The family moved when Gibson was twelve. The move to Hutton's mother's native Australia was for economic reasons and because he thought the Australian military would reject his oldest son for the Vietnam War draft. [7]

Gibson was educated by Christian Brothers at St. Leo's Catholic College in Wahroonga, New South Wales during his High School years.


Film career

Gibson graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1977. His acting career began in Australia with appearances in television series, including The Sullivans, Cop Shop and Punishment. He made his film debut in the 1977 Australian film Summer City.

In the next few years he also acted on stage for the Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, starring as Romeo (1979) and working with Warren Mitchell in Death of a salesman (1982).

Gibson's good looks made him a natural for leading male roles in action projects such as the "Mad Max" series of films, Peter Weir's Gallipoli, and the "Lethal Weapon" series of films. Later, Gibson expanded into a variety of acting projects including human dramas such as Hamlet, and comedic roles such as those in Maverick and What Women Want. His greatest artistic and financial success came with films where he expanded beyond acting into directing and producing, such as 1993's The Man Without a Face, 1995's Braveheart, 2004's Passion of the Christ and 2006's Apocalypto. Gibson was considered for roles in Batman, GoldenEye, Amadeus, Gladiator, The Golden Child, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Runaway Bride and Primary Colors.[8] Actor Sean Connery once suggested Gibson should play the next James Bond to Connery's M. Gibson turned down the role, reportedly because he feared being typecast.[9]


Honors

On July 25, 1997, Gibson was named an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), in recognition of his "service to the Australian film industry". The award was honorary because substantive awards are made only to Australian citizens.[10][11] In 1985, Gibson was named "The Sexiest Man Alive" by People, the first person to be named so.[12] Gibson quietly declined the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government in 1995 as a protest against France's resumption of nuclear testing in the Southwest Pacific.[13] Time magazine chose Mel Gibson and Michael Moore as Men of the Year in 2004, but Gibson turned down the photo session and interview, and the cover went instead to George W. Bush.[14]


Landmark films

Mad Max

Gibson got his breakthrough role as the leather-clad post-apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max. The film was independently financed and had a reported budget of $300,000 AUD ?- of which $15,000 was paid to Mel Gibson for his performance. The film achieved incredible success, earning $100 million world wide. It held a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, and only lost the record in 2000 to The Blair Witch Project. The film was awarded four Australian Film Institute Awards in 1979.

Gibson almost did not get the role that made him a star. His agent got him an audition for Mad Max, but the night before, he got into a drunken brawl with three men at a party, resulting in a swollen nose, a broken jawline, and various other bruises. Mel showed up at the audition the next day looking like a "black and blue pumpkin" (his own words). Mel did not expect to get the role and only went to accompany his friend. However, the casting agent told Mel to come back in two weeks, telling him "we need freaks." When Mel did come back, he was not recognized because his wounds had healed almost completely, and received the part. This incident is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not![15]

When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor, American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents.

The original film spawned two sequels: Mad Max 2 (known in North America as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max 3 (known in North America as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). A fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, has been considered but has not been produced.


The Bounty

In 1984, starred as Fletcher Christian in The Bounty. According to unauthorised biographer Wensley Clarkson, Gibson and costar Anthony Hopkins, did not get along during the shoot. At the time, Anthony Hopkins was a teetotaler[citation needed], and Mel Gibson was struggling with alcoholism. Gibson frequently spent his evenings in local saloons and took to mixing two shots of Scotch with his beer. He dubbed the concoction "Liquid Violence". In one incident, Gibson's face was severely cut up in a bar room brawl and the film's shooting schedule had to be rearranged while he was flown to a hospital in Papeete.[citation needed]


Lethal Weapon

Gibson moved into more mainstream commercial filmmaking with the popular buddy cop Lethal Weapon series, which began with the 1987 original. In the films he played LAPD Detective Martin Riggs, a recently widowed Vietnam veteran with a death wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. In the films, he is partnered with a reserved family man named Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). This series would come to exemplify the action genre's so-called buddy film.

The two actors were trained in two different schools of acting. Gibson is classically trained and Glover is a method actor. Three sequels were produced in 1989, 1992 and 1998.


Hamlet

Gibson made the unusual transition from the action to classical genres, playing the melancholic Danish prince in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside such experienced Shakespearean actors as Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield. He described working with his fellow cast members as similar to being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson".

The film met with critical and marketing success and remains steady in DVD sales. It also marked the transformation of Mel Gibson from action hero to serious actor and filmmaker.


Braveheart

Gibson stated that when the Braveheart script arrived and was recommended by his agents, he rejected it outright because he thought he was too old to play the part. After careful thought, he decided to not only act in the film, but to direct it as well.

Gibson received five Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for his 1995 direction of Braveheart. In the movie, Gibson starred as Sir William Wallace, a 13th century martyr of Scottish nationalism.

He said in interviews that he was attempting to make a film similar to the big screen epics he had loved as a child, such as Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and The Big Country. The filming began in the Scottish Highlands. After learning that the intended filming locations were among the rainiest spots in Europe, the shooting was moved to the Republic of Ireland, where members of the Irish Army Reserve worked as extras in the film's many battles. The Battle of Stirling sequence in Braveheart is considered one of the best directed battle scenes in all of film history.[16]


The Passion of the Christ

In 2004 Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ which was based on the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ according to the Four Evangelists and Roman Catholic Sacred Tradition. It was rendered multilingually in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin.

Gibson co-wrote the screenplay with writer Benedict Fitzgerald and financed the film himself, spending an estimated $40-$50 million of his own money. The filming took place on location in Matera, Italy and Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Prior to making the film, Gibson constructed a traditionalist Catholic chapel on his California estate.

Reviews were mixed, with critics ranging from praising the film for its realistic depiction of Jesus' final hours from a Catholic point of view and criticism of violence, manipulation and charges of anti-Semitism.[17][18]

Asked if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible."[19] Accusations of anti-Semitism were fueled by news reports that Mel Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, is a vocal Sedevacantist who has alleged that much of the Holocaust is "fiction".[20]

After Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote against the unreleased film and called Gibson's publicist a "Holocaust denier defender," Gibson was overheard by The New Yorker telling his publicist, "I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog."[21]

On his decision to cut the scene in which Caiaphas says "his blood be on us and on our children" soon after Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus, Gibson said in mid-2003:

I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me.[22]
In 2004, he further commented:

It's one little passage, and I believe it, but I don't and never have believed it refers to Jews, and implicates them in any sort of curse. It's directed at all of us, all men who were there, and all that came after. His blood is on us, and that's what Jesus wanted. But I finally had to admit that one of the reasons I felt strongly about keeping it, aside from the fact it's true, is that I didn't want to let someone else dictate what could or couldn't be said.[23]
The movie grossed US$611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in the US alone, a figure, at that time, surpassed any motion picture starring Gibson. It became the eighth highest-grossing film in history and the highest-grossing rated R film of all time. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup at the 77th Academy Awards and won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama.


Apocalypto

Gibson's next historical epic, Apocalypto, was released to theaters on December 8, 2006. The film is set in Mesoamerica, during the fifteenth century. It focuses on the decline of the Maya civilization which reached its zenith around 600 AD, collapsed around 900 AD, and fell into a period of competing city states until the Conquistadors invaded. Dialogue is spoken in the Yucatec Maya language. It features a cast of actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, and some Native Americans from the United States.

While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney released it in specific markets.

The film is set against the turbulent end times of the once great Maya civilization.

The title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning", but the movie is not religiously themed or connected to the biblical Apocalypse.

Gibson pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton.


Future films

In December 2006, Gibson told "The Sun" newspaper that he does not want to act in another film, because he wants to just direct movies. In March 2007, Gibson told a screening audience that he was preparing another script with Farhad Safinia about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).[24] Gibson's company has long owned the rights to The Professor and the Madman, which tells the story of the creation of the OED.[25]

Gibson has dismissed the rumors that he is considering directing a film about Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa.[26][27][28] Asked in September 2007 if he planned to return to acting and specifically to action roles, Gibson said:[29]

"I think I'm too old for that, but you never know. I just like telling stories. Entertainment is valid and I guess I'll probably do it again before it's over. You know, do something that people won't get mad with me for."

Family & personal life

Gibson met his wife Robyn Moore in the late 1970's soon after filming Mad Max when they were both tenants at the same house in Adelaide. At the time, Robyn was a dental nurse and Mel was an unknown actor working for the South Australian Theatre Company. On June 7, 1980, they married in a Catholic Church in Forestville, New South Wales.[30] Gibson has referred to his wife as "my Rock of Gibraltar, only much prettier" and said, "life is about love and commitment and screw anyone who thinks that's a cliché." They have one daughter, six sons, and one grandchild.[31] Their seven children are Hannah (born 1980), twins Edward and Christian (born 1982), William (born 1985), Louis (born 1988), Milo (born 1990), and Thomas (born 1999).

Daughter Hannah Gibson married Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd on September 16, 2006.[32][33] Mel Gibson's spokesman had previously denied the rumor that Hannah was planning to become a nun.[34]

Gibson has an avid interest in real estate investments, with multiple properties in Malibu, CA, several locations in Costa Rica, a private island in Fiji and properties in Australia.[35][36] In December 2004, Gibson sold his 300-acre (1.2 km²) Australian ranch in the Kiewa Valley for $6 million.[37] Also in December 2004, Gibson purchased Mago Island in Fiji from Tokyu Corporation of Japan for $15 million. Descendants of the original native inhabitants of Mago (who were displaced in the 1860s) have protested the purchase. Gibson stated it was his intention to retain the pristine environment of the undeveloped island.[38] In early 2005, he sold his 45,000-acre (180 km²) Montana ranch to a neighbor for an undisclosed multimillion dollar sum.[39] In April 2007 he purchased a 400-acre (1.6 km²) ranch in Costa Rica for $26 million, and in July 2007 he sold his 76 acre Tudor estate in Connecticut (which he purchased in 1994 for $9 million) for $40 million to an unnamed buyer.[40] Also that month, he sold a Malibu property for $30 million that he had purchased for $24 million two years before.[41]

In keeping with his interest in organic foods, Gibson has used his ranch properties to produce all-organic beef.[42]

Mel Gibson has eclectic tastes in music and is particularly fond of Italian opera. He is a lover of Italian Renaissance artwork and is a great admirer of the 17th century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Much of the cinematography in The Passion of the Christ was modeled after style of this painter.[43][44]

Gibson's height is disputed. Varied sources place him from 5'6" (170 cm) to 5'11" (180 cm).[45][46][47] In 2002 Gibson stood next to interviewer Michael Parkinson (5 ft 10 in) and demonstrated that they were about the same height.[48] It should be noted however that at the time of the interview Parkinson was 67 years old and probably not at his peak height.


Religious and political views

Faith

Based on many of his positions, Gibson may be considered a Traditionalist Catholic. Despite the rumors[49] on whether Gibson shares his father's adherence to Sedevacantism, Gibson has not spoken publicly on the matter, and some of his public interviews give the opposite impression. As part of his response to a question on whether Pope John Paul II saw The Passion of the Christ, Gibson said,

I'd like to hear what he has to say. I'd like to hear what anyone has to say. This film isn't made for the elite. Anyone could see this film, even the occupier of the chair of Peter can see this film.[50]

Gibson also referred to him as "Pope John Paul II" in a 2004 Reader's Digest interview,[51] and acquaintance Father William Fulco has said that Gibson denies neither the Pope nor Vatican II.[52] Gibson has expressed the belief that God is pointing out his path, particularly with respect to the making of The Passion of the Christ. In 2003, he told The New Yorker

"There are signals. Signal graces, they are called. It's as clear as a traffic light. Bing! I mean, it just grabs you and you know you have to listen to that and you have to follow it."[21]

At a screening of the film for clergy, he stated that the Holy Spirit was making the film through him; "I was just directing traffic".[21]

When asked about the Catholic doctrine of "Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus", Gibson replied,

"There is no salvation for those outside the Church … I believe it. Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's, like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's just not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."[53]

However, Gibson's assent to this dogma does not mean he thinks that non-Catholics or non-Christians will go to hell. When Gibson was asked at Willow Creek church whether John 14:6[54] is an intolerant position, he said that "through the merits of Jesus' sacrifice… even people who don't know Jesus are able to be saved, but through him."[55][56][57] Gibson also told Diane Sawyer that he believes non-Catholics can go to heaven.[58]

In May 2007, Mel Gibson flew to Hermosillo, Mexico, where he attended a Tridentine Mass during which grandchildren of his friends and two of his children received the sacrament of Confirmation, administered by Archbishop emeritus Carlos Quintero Arce.[59] The same Archbishop Arce consecrated Gibson's own, private, traditional Roman Catholic church of the Holy Family in Malibu in February, 2007.[60]

Gibson's Traditionalist Catholic beliefs have also been the target of attacks, especially during the controversy over his film The Passion of the Christ. When the film premiered in France, the newspaper Libération, considered the voice of French liberalism, dubbed Gibson's religious beliefs "the Shiite version of Christianity." Gibson has recently stated in an interview with Diane Sawyer that he feels that his "human rights were violated", by the often vitriolic attacks on his person, his family, and his religious beliefs which were sparked by The Passion.


Politics

Gibson has been called everything from "ultraconservative"[61] to "politically very liberal" by acquaintance William Fulco.[62] Although he has denied that he is a Republican,[63] Gibson is often referred to as one in the press, and WorldNetDaily once reported that there was grassroots support among Republicans for "a presidential run".[64]

Gibson complimented exposé director Michael Moore and his documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 when he and Moore were recognized at the 2005 People's Choice Awards.[65] Gibson's Icon Productions originally agreed to finance Moore's film, but later sold the rights to Miramax Films. Moore said that his agent Ari Emanuel claimed that "top Republicans" called Mel Gibson to tell him, "don't expect to get more invitations to the White House".[66]

In early 1992, according to the book Quest for the Presidency 1992,[citation needed] Gibson offered to raise money for the presidential campaign of Republican candidate Pat Buchanan. However, allegedly due to poor handling by Buchanan's campaign manager and sister Bay Buchanan, the fundraiser never took place.

In a July 1995 interview with Playboy magazine, Gibson said President Bill Clinton was a "low-level opportunist" and someone was "telling him what to do". He said that the Rhodes Scholarship was established for young men and women who want to strive for a "new world order" and this was a campaign for Marxism.[67]

In 2004, he publicly spoke out against taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research that involves the cloning and destruction of human embryos.[68]

In March 2005, he issued a statement condemning the ending of Terri Schiavo's life, referring to her death as "state-sanctioned murder" on Sean Hannity's radio show.[69]

Gibson first publicly questioned the Iraq war in March 2004 on Sean Hannity's radio show.[70] In 2006, Gibson told the Time Magazine that the "fearmongering" depicted in his film Apocalypto "reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys."[71]


Controversy

It has been suggested that some of the information in this article's "Criticism" or "Controversy" section(s) be merged into other sections to achieve a more neutral presentation. (Discuss)


Allegations of homophobia

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) accused Gibson of homophobia, after a December 1991 interview in the Spanish newspaper El País. Asked what he thought of gay people, he said, "They take it up the ass." Gibson gestured descriptively, continuing, "This is only for taking a ****." When the interviewer recalled that Gibson previously had expressed fear that people would think he is gay because he's an actor, Gibson replied, "Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? I think not." However, when reminded that he had worked closely with gay students at university, he said they were "kind people." Additionally, he later defended his comments on Good Morning America, saying, "[Those remarks were a response] to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?" In his 1995 Playboy interview, he responded to GLAAD's protests over his comment with "I'll apologize when hell freezes over. They can **** off".[67] Eventually, however, to make amends with the gay community and show he was not homophobic, Gibson joined GLAAD in hosting 10 lesbian and gay filmmakers for an on-location seminar on the set of the movie Conspiracy Theory in January 1997.[72]

Although Randall Wallace wrote the screenplay for Braveheart, the depiction of a homosexual character in the film drew accusations of homophobia against Gibson.[73][74][75] Although historians[attribution needed] agree that Prince (later King) Edward II of England was a mere puppet of Piers Gaveston, Hugh Despenser and Isabella of France, they dispute the portrayal of Edward as effeminate[citation needed]. Also, Edward I of England never threw his son's male lover out of a window, as portrayed in the movie.

Gibson was also accused of homophobia based on his portrayal of Herod Antipas in The Passion of the Christ.[76] In the film, the Hellenized Antipas is depicted as a luxurious, wig-wearing buffoon who surrounds himself with young male and female drunken revelers. The character of the Jewish high priest Caiphas is shown to be disgusted by the mascara-wearing Herod and his debauchery. The effeminate portrayal of Antipas in The Passion is common to other representations, including Jesus Christ Superstar. The origin of this tradition may have been Christ's description of Herod as a "fox" in Luke 13:32, using a feminine word meaning "vixen" in the original Greek.[77]


Allegations of Anglophobia

Due to some of his film choices as well as his Irish and Australian background, accusations of anglophobia, both sincere and joking, have been made against Gibson.

The First World War film Gallipoli, which starred Gibson, included an inaccurate portrayal of the British Army troops "brewing tea" on the beach while ANZAC troops were slaughtered trying to support them at the 1915 Battle of the Nek. Gibson, however, neither wrote the screenplay nor directed the film.

Criticisms have been leveled at the historical accuracy of the Gibson-directed Braveheart, including its portrayal of English lords asserting Droit de seigneur. Gibson has acknowledged the reliance on anachronistic elements and the legends about William Wallace to make Braveheart more cinematically compelling. Furthermore, Gibson has dissociated himself from Scottish nationalists using the film to campaign for separation from England.[78]

Gibson was called anti-English following the release of The Patriot in 2000, despite neither directing or writing the script for the film. The American Revolutionary character played by Gibson (loosely inspired by four people) waged a private war against a villainous British officer based on Colonel Banastre Tarleton. [79]

According to unauthorised biographer and vocal Gibson critic Wensley Clarkson, Mel Gibson was raised in an openly anti-British atmosphere by his Irish-American parents. Clarkson cites alleged family stories saying that several of Gibson's maternal relations (possibly including his grandmother) were raped by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence.[80][unreliable source?] Clarkson further accuses Gibson of deliberately standing up the British Royal Family at the London premiere of Hamlet. However, Gibson had also missed the New York premiere of Hamlet to attend the funeral of his mother in Australia.[81]

Gibson has, however, played British characters several times in his career, playing Fletcher Christian in The Bounty, and voicing John Smith, in Disney's Pocahontas, and narrating the novel My Cousin Rachel. He has enjoyed cordial working relations with British people during the making of several films, including The Bounty, Lethal Weapon 2, Conspiracy Theory and Chicken Run.

While promoting The Patriot, Gibson told reporters, "I'm actually an Anglophile. I like the Brits, you know?" The fact that he keeps battling the British onscreen is "an unhappy accident, really. I'll have to remedy the situation someday."[82]

Gibson has also publicly supported keeping QueenElizabeth II of England as the Australian head of state.[83]


Allegations of anti-Semitism

Gibson has been accused of anti-Semitism on two occasions:


The Passion of the Christ

His 2004 film The Passion of the Christ was criticized for alleged anti-Semitic imagery and overtones. Gibson denied that the film was anti-Semitic, but critics remained divided. Some argued that the film was consistent with a strict interpretation of the Gospels and traditional Catholic teachings, while others claimed that it reflected a selective reading of the Gospels[84] and failed to comply with recommendations for dramatization of the Passion issued by the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the USCCB in 1988.[85]


DUI Arrest

On July 28, 2006, Gibson was arrested in California for speeding and on suspicion of drunk driving (DUI) on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway. According to a leaked arrest report, he was abusive to the arresting officer and remarked, "******* Jews... Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world", asking, "Are you a Jew?"[86] He later issued, through his publicist, two apologies for the incident. In his second statement, he denied being an anti-Semite and apologized specifically to the Jewish community.[87] Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman issued a statement accepting Gibson's apology and expressing a willingness to help in Gibson's rehabilitation.[88] The officer turned out not to be Jewish.


Apocalypto

Gibson engaged in an angry confrontation with Alicia Estrada, an Assistant Professor of Central American Studies, during a Q & A session that followed a screening of his film Apocalypto to film students at Cal State University at Northridge, California on March 22, 2007.

Estrada began by calling Gibson "racist," "ignorant,"[89][90] and saying, "It's a racist film, and I demand an apology."[91] Gibson replied that he was insulted by this accusation. Estrada handed the microphone to her friend KPFK radio host Felipe Perez who began reading a lengthy statement in Spanish. The organizers eventually said, "ask a question or leave" and cut off the microphone, but Gibson said he should be allowed to continue. Estrada took back the mic and began to translate the prepared statement. After officials realized that she was not going to ask a question, they called security to escort her out. Estrada then asked Gibson if he was aware of certain scholars, and Gibson replied that he knew them well, and he detailed his research for the film. Although Estrada said that Gibson used profanity in his response, CSUN spokesman John Chandler disagreed: ``He didn't respond with a profanity. He responded by answering the question." After Estrada's microphone was turned off, Gibson said, "No, let her talk. Please." Estrada became angry that she was being "silenced," and Gibson responded, "I'm listening to you! I can still hear you!" As Estrada and Perez were being escorted out, the audience applauded, and Gibson shouted a parting shot: "Lady, **** off! Make your own movie!" Later in the Q&A session, Gibson expressed regret at the incident"[92] and the evening ended with a standing ovation for the filmmaker.

Soon afterwards, student newspaper photographer Khristian Garay sold his photographs to the paparazzi, resulting in a story at TMZ.[93] Gibson's publicist told journalists, "This was just a reaction to someone being disruptive and rude. He went on and completed the session and said it was successful. It's unfortunate it was tarnished with a momentary confrontation." Estrada defended herself, saying, "In no way was my question aggressive in the way that he responded to it. These are questions that my peers, my colleagues, ask me every time I make a presentation. These are questions I pose to my students in the classroom." Estrada furthermore demanded an apology, "not only to me but to the Central American program at CSUN, to the university and most importantly to the Mayan people and Mayan community." University spokesman John Chandler commented, "The students were very appreciative of Mr. Gibson being there. He spent a lot of time answering questions about moviemaking."


Prankster

Mel Gibson is known for his sense of humor on the set of his movies.[94] He has a reputation for practical jokes, puns, Stooge-inspired physical comedy, and doing outrageous things to shock people. Gibson is fond of drawing caricatures and hiring high school marching bands to pay tribute to his coworkers. As a director he sometimes breaks the tension on set by having his actors perform serious scenes wearing a red clown nose.[95] Helena Bonham Carter, who appeared alongside him in Hamlet, said of him, "He has a very basic sense of humor. It's a bit lavatorial and not very sophisticated."[96] On the set of Maverick Gibson played a joke on costar Jodie Foster's birthday by secretly rewriting the script to give her character all corny dialogue. Foster returned the favor by hiring a bagpiper in full Scottish regalia to follow Mel around at the Vanity Fair Oscar party after he won for Braveheart. On the set of Ransom, Gibson presented Ron Howard and Brian Grazer with a mock Braveheart For Your Consideration ad when both Braveheart and Apollo 13 were nominated for Best Picture. The ad was for "Best Moon Shot," and featured a picture of Braveheart's Scottish army mooning the English.[97] While filming Conspiracy Theory, he and co-star Julia Roberts played a series of pranks on each other, beginning with Gibson welcoming Roberts to the set with a gift-wrapped freeze-dried rat.[98] In addition to inserting several homages to the Three Stooges in his Lethal Weapon movies, Gibson produced a television movie on the comedy group in 2000. As a gag, Gibson inserted a single subliminal frame of himself smoking a cigarette into the 2005 teaser trailer of Apocalypto.


Alcohol abuse

Mel Gibson has said that he started drinking at the age of thirteen.[99] According to Gibson biographer Wensley Clarkson, Gibson's repeated attempts to stop drinking have led to relapses whenever his stress level increased. A feature article on Gibson published on the DailyCatholic website March 17, 2004, described as having been written four years previously and before The Passion of The Christ, states,

"He has made it known that from an early age he suffered from being manic depressive, but through his strong faith and appropriate medicines he has been able to overcome these shortcomings to attain the heights of stardom."[100]

In 1984, Gibson was arrested in Toronto for driving with a blood alcohol level between 0.12%-0.13% after he rear-ended a car. According to Clarkson, when the other driver exited his vehicle and began shouting profanity at him, Mel Gibson laughed and offered him a drink. Gibson plead guilty and was fined $300 and banned from driving in Ontario for 3 months. In court he apologized to the Toronto community and thanked the police.[101][102]

In 1985, Gibson retreated to his Australian farm for over a year to recover, but he continued to struggle with drinking. In a 2004 Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer, Gibson admitted at one point to drinking five pints of beer before work.[58] Gibson said in 2003 that his despair in his mid-thirties led him to contemplate suicide, and he meditated on Christ's Passion to heal his wounds.[53] In 1992, Gibson provided financial support to Hollywood's Recovery Center, saying, "Alcoholism is something that runs in my family. It's something that's close to me. People do come back from it, and it's a miracle."[103]


On July 28, 2006, Gibson was arrested for DUI while speeding in his vehicle with an open container of alcohol. He admitted to making anti-Semitic remarks during his arrest and apologized for his "despicable" behavior, saying the comments were "blurted out in a moment of insanity" and asked to meet with Jewish leaders to help him "discern the appropriate path for healing." When pressed for what his thoughts were at the time in a later interview with Diane Sawyer, he cited the vitriolic attacks on his film The Passion of the Christ and Israel-Lebanon conflict. After Gibson's arrest, his publicist said he had entered a recovery program to battle alcoholism. On August 17, 2006, Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge and was sentenced to three years on probation. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira ordered him to attend self-help meetings five times a week for four and a half months and three times a week for the remainder of the first year of his probation. He was also ordered to attend a First Offenders Program, was fined $1,300, and his license was restricted for 90 days. He also volunteered to record a public service announcement.

In a October 12, 2006 interview with Diane Sawyer, Gibson spoke on his struggle to remain sober.

"The risk of everything -- life, limb, family -- is not enough to keep you from it… You cannot do it of yourself. And people can help, yeah. But it's God. You've got to go there. You've got to do it. Or you won't survive…This whole experience in a way, for me, I'm sort of viewing it now as a kind of a blessing because, firstly, I got stopped before I did any real damage to anyone else. Thank God for that. I didn't hurt myself, you know. I didn't leave my kids fatherless…The other thing is sometimes you need a cold bucket of water in the face to sort of snap to because you're dealing with a sort of a malady of the soul, an obsession of the mind and a physical allergy. And some people need a big tap on the shoulder. In my case, public humiliation on a global scale seems to be what was required."[104]

At a May 2007 progress hearing, Judge Mira praised Gibson for complying with the terms of his probation, saying,

"I know his extensive participation in a self-help program - and I should note he has done extensive work, beyond which was required."[105]


Philanthropy

Although the Gibsons have avoided publicity over their philanthropy, they are believed to spend much money on various charities.[106] One known charity is Healing the Children. According to Cris Embleton, one of the founders, the Gibsons have given millions to provide lifesaving medical treatment to needy children worldwide.[107][108] The Gibsons have also supported the arts, funding the restoration of Renaissance artwork[109] and giving millions of dollars to NIDA.[110]

While filming the movie Apocalypto in the jungles of Mexico's Veracruz state, Mel Gibson donated one million dollars to the Rotary Club ([111]) to build houses for poor people in the region after some severe flooding wiped out many homes, stating:

"[T]hey had a lot of floods down there. It was like Louisiana down there in the southern regions. They had severe flooding and something like a million people were displaced and washed out. I've always been of the opinion that if you go into someone else's country to make a film you don't just go in there and stomp all over the place. You bring a gift. It's like going to somebody's house. You bring them a bottle of wine or a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates and it's the same sort of thing on a big scale when you're going in to somebody's country and they are going to help you make your film. You help them first somehow or you give them a gift or you help in what way you can. So we sort of assisted with the flood relief stuff down there."[112]

Gibson has a reputation for discreetly assisting members of the entertainment community with substance abuse problems. He worked behind the scenes to get Robert Downey, Jr. some help at Corcoran State Prison.[113] Hole rocker Courtney Love praised Mel Gibson for saving her from a drug relapse after the Hollywood actor helped force her into rehab. Gibson sought to help the musician at a hotel in Los Angeles when he heard she was using drugs again. Love later recalled,

"I kept slamming the door in (Gibson's) face. There were two drug people with me who wouldn't leave, so they couldn't get me to rehab. But because of Mel, two drug people ran off to have a cheeseburger with him because he's Mel, and then Warren [Boyd] (her drug minder) could get me into rehab."[114]

Gibson has donated $500,000 to the El Mirador Basin Project to protect the last tract of virgin rain forest in Central America and to fund archeological excavations in the "cradle of Mayan civilization." [115] In July 2007, Gibson again visited Central America to make arrangements for donations to the indigenous population. Gibson met with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to discuss how to "channel the funds."[116] During the same month, Gibson pledged to give financial assistance to a Malaysian company named Green Rubber Global for a tire recycling factory located in Gallup, New Mexico.[117] While on a business trip to Singapore in September 2007, Gibson donated to a local charity for children with suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses.[118]


Quotations


"I've been goofing off all my life. I thought might as well get paid for that." ?- explanation for why he wanted to be an actor at his 1975 NIDA audition.
"[In Hollywood] you have to realize you're working in a factory and you're part of the mechanism. If you break down, you'll be replaced, and there should never be any offense taken at people's attitudes." ?- Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1990
"I am politically incorrect, that's true. Political correctness to me is just intellectual terrorism. I find that really scary, and I won't be intimidated into changing my mind. Everyone isn't going to love you all the time." ?- 1996 interview with Roald Rynning

Satire

Gibson has been parodied by popular culture, even joining in some of the satire himself.

When hosting SNL in 1989, Gibson used his monologue to mock his occupation of "movie star" as "high reward, low effort."[119]

In 1999, Gibson, satirized his persona as an action hero during a guest appearance on The Simpsons episode titled Beyond Blunderdome.[120] During the episode, Gibson complains that his remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is "missing something." When assured that nothing is wrong with it, he frets, "But I don't shoot anybody!"

Subject: Stella Awards

It's time again for the annual "Stella Awards"! For
those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named
after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot
coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's
in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You
remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it
between her knees while she was driving. Who would
ever think one could get burned doing that, right?

That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish
lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S . You know, the kinds
of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your
head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stella's for the past year:



7TH PLACE :

Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded
$80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her
ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a
furniture store. The store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running
toddler was her own son.


6TH PLACE:

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won
$74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran
over his hand with a Honda Accord. T ruman apparently
didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the
car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's
hubcaps.


Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.


5TH PLACE:

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was
leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the
garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic
garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get
the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter
the house because the door connecting the ga r age to
the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced
to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of
Pepsi and a large bag of dr y dog food, he sued the
homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental
Anguish.


Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must
pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all
have this kind of anguish.
Keep scratching. There are more...


4TH PLACE :

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered
4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500
plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt
by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the
beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard.
Williams did not get as much as he asked for because
the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked
at the time of the butt bite because Williams had
climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly
shot the dog with a pellet gun.



Grrrrr . Scratch, scratch.




3RD PLACE :

Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because a
jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her
$113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and
broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on
the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend
30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever
happened to people being responsible for their own
actions?



Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are
only two more Stellas to go...




2ND PLACE :

Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of
a night club in a nearby city because she fell from
the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two
front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to
sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying
the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club
had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah,

plus dental expenses. Go figure.



1ST PLACE : (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos
please)

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner
was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma ,
who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On
her first trip home, from an OU football game, having
driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control
at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to
the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich.
Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway,
crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the
owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the
driver's seat while the cruise control was set . The
Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down,
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually
changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just
in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also
buy a motor home.

Mornin', BioBob. Once again we are appreciative of your background on the celebs. We enjoyed your Stella Awards as well.

Until our puppy appears, here is something interesting that I found, folks.

Mel Gibson and the Pants?



And a couple of cute songs from Tolkien's creatures

The Road Goes On

This little song was invented by Bilbo. He sang it when he left Bag End at his 111th birthday.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many path and errands meet.
And wither then ? I cannot say

The walking-Song

Bilbo once has wrote this song, and he taught it to Frodo as they walked in the lanes of the Water-Valley and talked about adventure. Frodo sang this song at the evening of the day when they had just seen the Black Rider for the first time. He tried to cheer Pippin and Sam up by singing it.

Upon the hearth the firs is red,
Beneath the roof there is a bed;
But not yet weary are our feet
Still round the corner we may meet
A sudden tree or standing stone
That none have seen but we alone
Tree and flower and leaf and grass,
Let him pass ! Let him pass !
Hill and water under sky
Pass them by ! Pass them by !

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden path that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe,
Let them go ! Let them go !
Sand and stone and pool and dell,
Fare you well ! Fare you well !

Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many path to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back to home and bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade ! Away shall fade !
Fire and lamp and meat and bread,
And then to bed ! And then to bed

Good Morning.

J. R. Tolkien, ZaSu Pitts; Marion Davies; Ray Milland, Victor Borge (love his William Tell Overture); Bill Travers (Just one tiny picture available); Victoria Principal and Mel Gibson (Too many large pictures available)





Wishing a good day to all.

Hey, Raggedy. Great collage today, gal. I love Victor's William Tell Overture as well, but I couldn't find it so we'll have to make do with
A Hungarian Rhapsody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV19rylSZc

Love it, Letty.

Victor Borge was a very accomplished pianist, Raggedy, and that is what makes him such a talent. Who else could do such wonderful stunts and still sound marvelous.

Now, folks, from a symphony of one, here is a beautiful song by the Duke, played on an accoustic guitar.

If you hear a song in blue
like a flower crying for dew
That was my heart serenading you
MY PRELUDE TO A KISS
If you hear a song that grows
from my tender sentimental woes
That was my heart trying to compose
A PRELUDE TO A KISS

Though it's just a simple melody
with nothing fancy, nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony -
a Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch
Oh! How my love song gently cries
for the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
A PRELUDE TO A KISS.

If you hear a song in blue
like a flower crying for dew
That was my heart serenading you
MY PRELUDE TO A KISS

If you hear a song that grows
from my tender sentimental woes
That was my heart trying to compose
A PRELUDE TO A KISS
Though it's just a simple melody
with nothing fancy, nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony -
a Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch
Oh! How my love song gently cries
for the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
A PRELUDE TO A KISS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPlAuSslp9A

this song was certainly appropriate for us this morning !
we woke up to MINUS 22 C this morning - quite a coldsnap !
the sun shone beautifully all day , so it was really nice .
getting milder by the weekend and by early next week the forecast predicts PLUS 10 - 12 C !!! crazy , man !
hbg

Any Ice? Love it, hbg. Thanks, buddy.

This is a strange song that I found, and it must be about hobos again, and makes me a bit sad, folks.

The Ragpicker's Dream

When Jack Frost came for Christmas
With a brass monkey date
The rail-king and the scarecrow
Hopped a Florida freight
And they blew on their paper cups
And stared through the steam
Then they drank half a bottle
Of Ragpicker's Dream where

The whiskey keeps following
Cold pitchers of beer
Me and my associate
Like the clientele here get
The onions and the 'taters
Rib-eyes on the grill
Toothpicks and luckies
And a coffee refill as

The rail-king lay rocking
He was leaving the ground
Then he was flying like Santa Claus
Over the town where
He came to the window
Of a house by a stream
It was a family Christmas
In the Ragpicker's Dream there

Were kids at the table
All aglow in the light
Music in the wintertime
Sure carries at night there
Was turkey and gravy
Pie and ice cream
And gifts for each and everyone
In the Ragpicker's Dream where

The red-eye keeps tumbling
In our glasses of beer
Me and my associate
Like the service in here there's
A ten for your trouble
You have beautiful hair
Make the last one two doubles
It's a cold one out there where

The scarecrow and the rail-king
Have started to dance
But a nightstick and a billyclub
Won't give peace a chance here
I think they went thataways
Your song and dance team
Heading home for the holidays
With the Ragpicker's Dream on

His knees like a fighter
The rail-riding king
Like a sack of potatoes
Like a bull in the ring where
The scarecrow falls over
With a tear in the seam
Home for the rover
In the Ragpicker's Dream where

The red-eye keeps tumbling
Like tears in our beer
Me and my associate
Like the ambience here where
They cornered two castaways
In a white flashlight beam
Merry Christmas and happy days
In the Ragpicker's Dream

here is a rather "schmaltzy" song by IRVING BERLIN .
(it was probably "chickenfat" rather than "schmaltz" ?)
hbg



ps. in my younger years i liked to indulge in ryebread with chickenfat , chickenlivers and smoked meat in a famous jewish montreal restaurant ; the sandwich was called "not for sissies" because of it's enormous size )

i noticed there is a "brass monkey" song by the "beasty boys" , but i didn't dare open it !
i didn't think the lyrics would have been to my liking !
hbg

I know what you mean, hbg, but I think it refers to cannon balls. Didn't Reyn tell us that once?



Now that we have all the monkeys under control, how about this one from Irving Berlin.

[1st verse:]
As a child I went wild when a band played
How I ran to the man when his hand swayed
Clarinets were my pets, and a slide trombone I thought was simply
divine
But today when they play I could hiss them
Ev'ry bar is a jar to my system
But there's one musical instrument that I call mine

[chorus:]
I love a piano, I love a piano
I love to hear somebody play
Upon a piano, a grand piano
It simply carries me away

I know a fine way to tickle a Steinway
I love to run my fingers o'er the keys, the ivories

And with the pedal I love to meddle
When Padarewski comes this way
I'm so delighted if I'm invited
To hear that long haired genius play

So you can keep your fiddle and your bow
Give me a P-I-A-N-O, oh, oh
I love to stop right beside an upright
Or a high toned Baby Grand

[2nd verse:]
When a green Tetrazine starts to warble
I grow cold as an old piece of marble
I allude to the crude little party singer who don't know when to pause
At her best I detest the soprano
But I run to the one at the piano
I always love the accomp'niment and that's because
I love a piano.

I Had The Craziest Dream
Harry James

[Written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon]

In a dream the strangest and the oddest things appear
And what insane and silly things we do
Here is what I see before me, vividly and clear
As I recall it, you were in it, too

I had the craziest dream last night, yes I did
I never dreamt it could be
Yet there you were, in love with me.
I found your lips close to mine so I kissed you
And you didn't mind it at all
When I'm awake such a break never happens
How long can a gal go on dreaming

If there's a chance that you care
Then, please, say you do, Baby
Say it and make my craziest dream come true

[Spoken:]
"...you keep pouring into one glass and you're never changing the straw."
"And now to sing this lovely ballad, here is...Mama Cass."

Stars shining bright above you;
Night breezes seem to whisper 'I love you'.
Birds singing in the sycamore tree.
Dream a little dream of me.

Say nighty-night and kiss me;
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me.
While I'm alone, blue as can be,
Dream a little dream of me.

Stars fading but I linger on, dear -
Still craving your kiss.
I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear,
Just saying this...

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you -
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you.
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me.

Stars fading but I linger on, dear -
Still craving your kiss.
I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear,
Just saying this...

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you -
Sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind you.
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me.