Rhea Perlman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 31, 1948 (1948-03-31) (age 60)
Brooklyn, New York
Years active 1972 - present
Spouse(s) Danny DeVito
[show]Awards won
Emmy Awards
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
1984, 1985, 1986, 1989 Cheers
Rhea Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American four-time Emmy Award-winning actress, known for her role as Carla Tortelli on the classic sitcom Cheers.
Biography
Personal life
Perlman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Adele and Philip Perlman, who was an actor as well as doll and toy part salesman.[1] She is the sister of Heide Perlman, who worked as a writer, story editor and producer on the show. Perlman attended Hunter College in New York and is an active Democrat. She is married to actor Danny DeVito, with whom she has three children - Lucy Chet DeVito (born March 1983), Grace Fan DeVito (born March 1985) and Jacob Daniel DeVito (born October 1987).
Career
Perlman received 10 Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Cheers ran 11 seasons, from 1982-1993; the only year in which Perlman wasn't nominated was 1992). She won the Emmy four times, in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1989. She later starred in the 1996 sitcom Pearl as the title character and was featured on the 2001 TV drama Kate Brasher. She also appeared in a 2000 television film How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale, in which she played Jacqueline Kennedy.
Perlman also played the role of Honey in the film Canadian Bacon and she appeared in the movie Matilda opposite her husband Danny DeVito, Pam Ferris and Mara Wilson.
Perlman is the author of the successful illustrated children's book series Otto Undercover, with six books which are Born to Drive, Canyon Catastrophe, Water Balloon Doom, Toxic Taffy Takeover, Brink of the Ex-stink-tion, and the recently published Brain Freeze.
Perlman is appearing as 'Bertha' in the West End of London in the comedy Boeing Boeing.
Marc McClure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 31, 1957 (1957-03-31) (age 50)
San Mateo, California
Marc A. McClure (born March 31, 1957) is an American actor. McClure was born in San Mateo, California.
Superman film series
His best known role was perhaps in the 1978 classic Superman, playing photographer Jimmy Olsen. McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen in Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and in the 1984 movie Supergirl. He is the only actor to appear in the same role in all four Christopher Reeve-era Superman films and Supergirl. Sam Huntington took over the role in Superman Returns.
As previously reported by UGO, in a flash back to his Superman days, McClure appeared on the CW's Smallville. McClure appeared as Dax-Ur, a Kryptonian scientist who has been living on Earth for over 100 years.
Other roles
Besides Jimmy Olsen, McClure's other well known role is in the 1985 hit film Back to the Future as Dave McFly. He reprised his role in Back to the Future Part III (he did appear in Back to the Future Part II, but the scene he was in was ultimately deleted from the film).
In addition, McClure starred in the 1977 film Freaky Friday and in the 2003 remake. He also starred in the 1978 film I Wanna Hold Your Hand and the 1980 film Used Cars along side Back to the Future co-star Wendie Jo Sperber.
TV guest appearances
He has also made guest appearances in many TV shows such as Happy Days, Hunter, The Shield, and Cold Case.
The English Language
Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?
Let's face it
English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.
If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)
That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.
Welcome back, Bob. Hope you and Nair had a lovely weekend. Thanks for explaining to our audience why English is the third most difficult language to learn, and once again we are grateful for your celeb info.
Until our puppy arrives with faces to match, here is the theme from St. Elsewhere. First time that I ever saw Denzel Washington.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1Hr0MrxMak&feature=related
Thanks, PA, for the great collage. You're the best, Raggedy.
Sorry, Anthony Michael Hall, but Christopher Walken was marvelous in the Dead Zone(the movie). The format on the TV version has changed too many times to be believable.
Also, folks, Christopher was outstanding in The Deer Hunter.
The Deer Hunter is an Academy Award winning 1978 war drama film about a trio of Rusyn American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. It is loosely inspired by the German novel Three Comrades (1937), by World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, which follows the lives of a trio of World War I veterans in 1920s Weimar Germany. Like the novel, The Deer Hunter meditates and explores the moral and mental consequences of war violence and politically-manipulated patriotism upon the meaning of friendship, honor, and family in a tightly-knit community and deals with controversial issues such as drug abuse, suicide, infidelity and mental illness.
The film features Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep. The story occurs in southern Vietnam and in working-class Clairton, Pennsylvania, a Monongahela River town south of Pittsburgh. It was filmed in the Pittsburgh area; Cleveland and Mingo Junction, Ohio; Weirton, West Virginia; the North Cascades National Park, Washington State, the Patpong region of Bangkok, Thailand (as the Saigon red light district), and in Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.
At the end, when De Niro could not bring himself to kill the deer, I wept.
Theme from The Dead Zone (both of them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8hLqN9AYzQ
I'd like to add:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAAiYMgFcbw
"This classical guitar piece was written by Stanley Myers and is most famous for being the theme song to the movie 'The Deer Hunter'(1979). The piece had been recorded by John Williams many years before that movie was made. It had originally been written for piano, but at Williams' request Myers re-wrote it for guitar and expanded it. Before 'Deer Hunter', it had been used on the soundtrack of the movie 'The Walking Stick'(1970). As well as being a hit for John Williams, it has also been a chart success for The Shadows and, with added lyrics by Cleo Laine, for Iris Williams (no relation to John). "
Oh, Raggedy, that is at once beautiful and sad. Nothing is as lovely as an acoustic guitar. Thanks, puppy. I can't believe that I didn't recognize that theme. The entire melody reflects the Vietnam war.
And, folks, another guitar gently weeps, but for a different reason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7qpfGVUd8c&feature=related
Well, it seems that I am making errors all over the place today. I called Tai Chi, chai. Is it too late to apologize?
Of all things, y'all, this is by a man named Timberland.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B__jJ-zQwKU
Hi Letty! No need to apologize; I'd happily be mistaken for Chai (and have been often) as she's one clever poster!
Phonographic memory gave me a smile
Well, Tai, I'm glad that we cleared that up.
Maybe dj will remember this funny spoof by the Statler Brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkytM2Kj_Ao
Time for me to say goodnight, and this my song to all of you who love Lady Day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiRmyUsJ8w&feature=related
Goodnight
From Letty with love.
Good morning, radio folks.
edgar, I love that cute little song, and here's one to match since it's Debbie Reynolds' birthday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgFg2Tm5_wE&feature=related
Good Morning all.
Here's to Debbie's 76th, Jane Powell's 79th and Ali MacGraw's 70th today.
The way they were:
Good morning, Raggedy. Happy April Fool's Day. Thanks for the lovely trio, PA.
Interesting, folks. I am rather surprised that no tricks have been forth coming.
Well, here's a great "fool's" song, so what kind is he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6tkyvmf8NY
Lon Chaney, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Leonidas Frank Chaney
April 1, 1883(1883-04-01)
Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Died August 26, 1930 (aged 47)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse(s) Cleva Creighton (1906-1915), Hazel Hastings (1915-1930)
Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 - August 26, 1930), nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema. He is best remembered for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with film makeup. [1]
Biography
Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Frank H. Chaney and Emma Alice Kennedy; his father had mostly English and some French ancestry, and his mother was of Irish descent.[1] Both of Chaney's parents were deaf, and as a child of deaf adults Chaney became skilled in pantomime. He entered a stage career in 1902, and began traveling with popular Vaudeville and theater acts. In 1905, he met and married singer Cleva Creighton and in 1906, their first child and only son, Creighton Chaney (a.k.a. Lon Chaney, Jr.) was born. The Chaneys continued touring, settling in California in 1910.
Unfortunately, marital troubles developed and in April 1913, Cleva went to the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Lon was managing the Kolb and Dill show, and attempted suicide by swallowing mercury bichloride. The suicide attempt failed and ruined her singing career; the ensuing scandal and divorce forced Chaney out of the theater and into film.
The time spent there is not clearly known, but between the years 1912 and 1917, Chaney worked under contract for Universal Studios doing bit or character parts. His outstanding skill with makeup gained him many parts in the highly competitive casting atmosphere. During this time, Chaney befriended the husband-wife director team of Joe De Grasse and Ida May Parke, who gave him substantial roles in their pictures, and further encouraged him to play macabre characters.
Chaney also married one of his former colleagues in the Kolb and Dill company tour, a chorus girl named Hazel Hastings. Little is known of Hazel, except that her marriage to Chaney was solid. Upon marrying, the new couple gained custody of Chaney's ten year-old son Creighton, who had resided in various homes and boarding schools since Chaney's divorce in 1913. [2]
By 1917 Chaney was a prominent actor in the studio, but his salary did not reflect this status. When Chaney asked for a raise, studio executive William Sistrom replied, "you'll never be worth more than one hundred dollars a week."
After leaving the studio, Chaney struggled for the first year as a character actor. It was not until 1918 when playing a substantial role in William S. Hart's picture, Riddle Gawne, that Chaney's talents as a character actor were truly recognized by the industry.
In 1919, Chaney had a breakthrough performance as "The Frog" in George Loane Tucker's The Miracle Man. The film not only displayed Chaney's acting ability, but his talent as a master of makeup. Critical praise and a gross of over $2 million put Chaney on the map as America's foremost character actor.
Chaney is chiefly remembered as a pioneer in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and most notably The Phantom of the Opera. His ability to transform himself using self-invented makeup techniques earned him the nickname of "Man of a Thousand Faces". In an autobiographical 1925 article published in Movie magazine that gave a rare glimpse into his life, Chaney referred to his specialty as "extreme characterization".
He also exhibited this adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as The Penalty, where he played an amputee gangster. He appeared in a total of ten films by director Tod Browning, often playing disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927) with Joan Crawford. In 1927, Chaney co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran in the now lost Tod Browning directed horror classic London After Midnight, quite possibly the most famous lost film ever. His last film was a remake with sound of his silent classic The Unholy Three (1930), his only "talkie" and the only film in which he displayed his versatile voice. In fact, Chaney signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, old woman, parrot, dummy and girl) were in fact his own.
Although Chaney created, in Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, and Erik, the "phantom" of the Paris Opera House, two of the most grotesquely deformed characters in film history, the portrayals sought to elicit a degree of sympathy and pathos among viewers not overwhelmingly terrified or repulsed by the monstrous disfigurements of the characters, who were merely victims of fate.
"I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice," Chaney wrote in Movie magazine. "The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since The Hunchback, such as The Phantom of the Opera, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do."
"He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen," the writer Ray Bradbury once explained. "The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."
Chaney's talents extended far beyond the horror genre, and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian. In fact, many people who did not know Chaney were surprised by his rich baritone voice and his sharp comedic skills.
Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and MGM studios, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly avoided the social scene in Hollywood on purpose.
In the final five years of his film career (1925-1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to MGM, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in Tell it To the Marines (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the US Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry. He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous up and coming actors, as Cheney was considered helpful towards new actors, showing them the ropes, and was always willing to talk to the cast and crew about his experiences between takes on films.
During the filming of Thunder in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929 he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and seven weeks after the release of the remake of The Unholy Three, he died of a throat hemorrhage. His death was deeply mourned by his family, the film industry and by his fans. The US Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California, next to the crypt of his father. His wife Hazel was also interred there upon her death in 1933. For unknown reasons, Chaney's crypt has remained unmarked.
Legacy
In 1957, Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled Man of a Thousand Faces, and was portrayed by James Cagney. Though much of the plot was fictional, the film was a moving tribute to Chaney and helped boost his posthumous fame. During his lifetime, Chaney had boasted he would make it difficult for biographers to portray his life, saying that "between pictures, there is no Lon Chaney.".[2] This was in line with the air of mystery he purposefully fostered around his makeup and performances.
Lon Chaney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994, he was honored by having his image designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, placed on a United States postage stamp.
The stage theater at the Colorado Springs Civic Auditorium is named after Lon Chaney.
Chaney built an impressive stone cabin in the remote wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada, near Big Pine, California, as a retreat. The cabin (designed by architect Paul Williams) still stands, and is preserved by the Inyo National Forest Service.
Chaney's son, Lon Chaney, Jr., was also known for his roles in horror movies, especially The Wolf Man. The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as their signature characters, the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy.
He and his son are mentioned in the Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London".
He is referenced in the The Mountain Goats song "Letter From Belgium" from the album "We Shall All Be Healed".
Many of Chaney's colleagues held him in high regard and he would often give advice and help actors who were just beginning their careers. He was also greatly respected by the film crews and studio employees with whom he worked.
Following his death, Chaney's famous makeup case was donated by his wife Hazel to the Los Angeles County Museum, where it is sometimes displayed for the public. Makeup artist and Chaney biographer Michael Blake considers Chaney's case the Holy Grail of film makeup.
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