Terry-Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens
14 July 1911(1911-07-14)
Finchley, London, England
Died 8 January 1990 (aged 78)
Godalming, Surrey, England
Spouse(s) Ida Patlanski (1938-62)
Belinda Cunningham (1963-90)
Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens (14 July 1911 - 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, dressing gown, and such catch-phrases as "You're an absolute shower!" and "Good show!"
Biography
Early life and career
Born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens in Glenfern House, Nether Street, Finchley, England, and educated at Ardingly College, Thomas worked in cabaret and as a film extra before finding success as an entertainer during World War II. After the war, he worked in TV, radio and variety, but it was during the mid-1950s that he developed his famous persona, first in his television series, How Do You View?, and then in films. His performance as Major Hitchcock in John and Roy Boulting's Private's Progress (1956) gave birth to his catchphrase, "you're an absolute shower", and made him a favourite in British comedy films for the next decade. He reprised the role of Hitchcock in I'm All Right Jack (1959), and appeared in several of the Boultings' other films, including Lucky Jim and Brothers in Law.
Although Terry-Thomas was renowned for his caddish persona, he was a gifted voice actor with a range of accents in his repertoire. It was reported that the voice actor Ivan Owen based his voice for Basil Brush on Terry-Thomas's voice.
Career
He played a variety of exuberant, malevolent and silly characters during the 1960s, and became famous for his portrayal of the archetypal cad, bounder, and absolute rotter. (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Monte Carlo or Bust; Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon). In the 1970s he reprised his character from the first two of the films above along with Eric Sykes to make high quality cinema and TV advertisements for Benson and Hedges cigarettes.
In 1966, he played a notable but very different role as an RAF airman travelling through occupied France -and nicknamed "Big Moustache" by his French helpers- in the French film La Grande Vadrouille, which for over forty years remained the most successful film in the history of cinema in France.[1]
Personal life and death
He was married twice. His first marriage was to Ida Patlanski, from 1938 to 1962, and he was married to Belinda Cunningham from 1963 until his death. He had two sons.
In 1971 Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and by 1977, he had retired. In 1989, writer and broadcaster Richard Hope-Hawkins, and actor Jack Douglas, organised a benefit concert for Thomas, after discovering he was living in virtual obscurity and ill health. The gala, held at London's Theatre Royal, ran for five hours, Phil Collins topping the bill along with 120 artistes. Michael Caine was the gala chairman. The show raised over £75,000 for Thomas and the Parkinson's Disease Society. He was a second cousin of the actor, Richard Briers, who because of Terry-Thomas's Parkinson's disease, became President of the Parkinson's Disease Society.
Terry-Thomas died in 1990 at the age of 78 in Busbridge Hall nursing home, Godalming, Surrey. His funeral service at its St. John the Baptist Church. He was cremated at Guildford Crematorium.
A new biography of Terry-Thomas titled 'Bounder' and written by author Graham McCann will be released in September 2008.
Woody Guthrie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Woodrow Wilson Guthrie
Born July 14, 1912(1912-07-14)
Okemah, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died October 3, 1967 (aged 55)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Genre(s) Folk
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Guitar, Vocal, Harmonica, Mandolin, Fiddle
Years active 1930 - 1956
Notable instrument(s)
Martin 000-18, Gibson Southern Jumbo, Gibson J-45
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 - October 3, 1967) was an American songwriter and folk musician. Guthrie's musical legacy consists of hundreds of songs, ballads and improvised works covering topics from political themes to traditional songs to children's songs. Guthrie performed continually throughout his life with his guitar frequently displaying the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists". Guthrie is perhaps best known for his song "This Land Is Your Land" which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.[1]
Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. His songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression and he is known as the "Dust Bowl Troubadour."[2] Guthrie was associated with, but never a member of, Communist groups in the United States throughout his life.[3]
Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. He is the grandfather of musician Sarah Lee Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of the degenerative neurologic affliction known as Huntington's Disease. In spite of his illness, during his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.[4]
Biography
Early life: 1912-1930
Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma to Nora Belle Sherman and Charles Edward Guthrie.[4] His parents named him after Woodrow Wilson, who was elected president the year Guthrie was born. Charles Guthrie, known as Charley, was an industrious businessman, owning at one time up to 30 plots of land in Okfuskee county. Charley was also actively involved in Oklahoma politics and was a Democratic candidate for office in the county. The young Guthrie would often accompany his father when Charley made stump speeches in the area.[5]
Guthrie's early family life included several tragic fires which caused the loss of their home in Okemah. His sister Clara died in an accidental coal oil fire when Guthrie was seven, and Guthrie's father was severely burned in a later coal oil fire.[6] The circumstances of these fires, especially Charley's accident, remain unclear. It is not known whether they were in fact accidents or the result of actions by Guthrie's mother who, unknown to the Guthries at the time, was suffering from a degenerative neurological disease.[7] Nora Guthrie was eventually committed to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane, where she died in 1930. It is believed she was a victim of Huntington's Disease, which would later be the cause of her son's death. It is also suspected that Guthrie's maternal grandfather, George Sherman, suffered from the disease, due to circumstances surrounding his drowning death.[8]
With Nora Guthrie institutionalized and Charley Guthrie living in Pampa, Texas working to repay his debts from unsuccessful real estate deals, Woody Guthrie and his siblings were on their own in Oklahoma and relied on their eldest brother, Roy Guthrie, for support. The fourteen year old Guthrie worked odd jobs around Okemah, bumming meals, and sometimes sleeping at the homes of family friends. According to one story, Guthrie made friends with an African-American blues harmonica player named "George", whom he would watch play at the man's shoe shine booth. Before long Guthrie bought his own harmonica and began playing along.[9] He seemed to have a natural affinity for music and easily learned to "play by ear". He began to use his musical skills around town, playing a song for a sandwich or coins.[10] Guthrie easily learned old Irish ballads and traditional songs from the parents of friends. Although Guthrie did not excel as a student?-he dropped out of high school in his fourth year and did not graduate?-his teachers described him as bright. He was also an avid reader and read books on a wide range of topics. Friends remember him reading constantly.[11]
Eventually, Guthrie's father sent for his son to come to Texas where little would change for the now-aspiring musician. Guthrie, 18 years old, was reluctant to attend high school classes in Pampa and spent a lot of time learning songs by busking on the streets and reading at the library. He was growing as a musician, gaining practice by regularly playing at dances for his cousin Jeff Guthrie, a fiddle player. In addition, Guthrie spent much time at the library in Pampa's city hall and wrote a manuscript summarizing everything he had read on the basics of psychology. A librarian in Pampa shelved this manuscript under Guthrie's name, but it was later lost in a library reorganization.[11]
1930s: Traveling era
At age 19 Guthrie met and married his first wife, Mary Jennings, with whom he had three children.[12] With the advent of the Dust Bowl era, Guthrie left Texas, leaving Mary behind, and joined the thousands of Okies who were migrating to California looking for work. Many of his songs are concerned with the conditions faced by these working class people.
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin' it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
Written by Guthrie in the late 1930s on a songbook distributed to listeners of his L.A. radio show "Woody and Lefty Lou" who wanted the words to his recordings.[13]
California
In the late 1930s, Guthrie achieved fame in Los Angeles, California, with radio partner Maxine "Lefty Lou" Crissman as a broadcast performer of commercial "hillbilly" music and traditional folk music.[14] Guthrie was making enough money to send for his family still living in Texas. While appearing on radio station KFVD, a commercial radio station owned by a populist-minded New Deal Democrat Frank Burke, Guthrie began to write and perform some of the protest songs that would eventually end up on Dust Bowl Ballads. It was at KFVD that Guthrie met newscaster Ed Robbin. Robbin was impressed with a song Guthrie wrote about Thomas Mooney, a wrongly convicted man who was, at the time, a leftist cause célèbre.[15] Robbin, who became Guthrie's political mentor, introduced Guthrie to Socialists and Communists in Southern California, including Will Geer, who would remain Guthrie's lifelong friend, and helped Guthrie book benefit performances in the Communist circles in Southern California. Despite Guthrie's later claim that, "the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party"[16] he was never a member of the Party. He was, however, noted as a fellow traveler, or an outsider who agrees with the platform of the party without being subject to party discipline.[17] Though not a party member, Guthrie requested to write a column for the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker. The column, titled "Woody Sez", appeared a total of 174 times from May 1939 to January 1940. The columns were not explicitly political, but rather were about current events that Guthrie observed and experienced. The columns were written in an exaggerated hillbilly dialect and usually included a small comic.[18] The columns were later published as a collection after Guthrie's death.[3] Steve Earle said of Woody, "I don't think of Woody Guthrie as a political writer. He was a writer who lived in very political times".[19]
With the outbreak of war and the nonaggression pact the Soviet Union had signed with Germany in 1939 KFVD radio owners did not want its staff "spinning apologia" for the Soviet Union; both Robbin and Guthrie left the station.[20] Without the daily radio show, prospects for employment diminished and Guthrie and his family returned to Pampa, Texas. Although Mary Guthrie was happy to return to Texas, the wanderlusting Guthrie soon after accepted Will Geer's invitation to come to New York City and headed east.
1940s: Building a legacy
New York City
Arriving in New York, Guthrie, known as the Oklahoma cowboy, was embraced by its leftist folk music community and slept on a couch in Will Geer's apartment. Guthrie also made what were his first real recordings?-several hours of conversation and songs that were recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress?-as well as an album, Dust Bowl Ballads, for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey.[21]
Guthrie was tired of the radio overplaying Kate Smith's "God Bless America." He thought the song was unrealistic and complacent.[22] Partly inspired by his experiences during a cross-country trip and his distaste for God Bless America, he penned his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land" in February 1940. It was titled "God Blessed America." The melody is based on the gospel song "Oh My Loving Brother", best known as "Little Darling, Pal of Mine", sung by the country group The Carter Family. Guthrie signed the manuscript with the comment "All you can write is what you see, Woody G., N.Y., N.Y., N.Y.".[23] He protested class inequality in the final verses:
In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?
As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." [In another version, the sign reads "Private Property"]
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me.
These verses were often omitted in subsequent recordings, sometimes by Guthrie. Though the song was written in 1940, it would be four years before it was recorded by Moses Asch in April 1944,[24] and even longer until sheet music was produced and given to schools by Howie Richmond.[25]
In March 1940, Guthrie was invited to play at a benefit hosted by The Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers to raise money for Migrant Workers. John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath was quite popular. It was at this concert Guthrie met Pete Seeger and the two men became good friends.[26] Later Seeger accompanied Guthrie back to Texas to meet other members of the Guthrie family and has recalled an awkward conversation with Mary Guthrie's mother in which she asked Seeger's help in persuading Guthrie to treat her daughter better.[27]
Guthrie had some success in New York at this time as a guest on CBS's radio program Back Where I Come From and used his influence to get a spot on the show for his friend Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter. Ledbetter's Tenth Street apartment was a gathering spot for the left wing musician circle in New York at the time and Guthrie and Ledbetter were good friends after having busked together at bars in Harlem.[28]
In September 1940 Guthrie was invited by the Model Tobacco company to host their radio program "Pipe Smoking Time". Guthrie was paid $180 a week, an impressive salary in 1940.[29] He was finally making enough money to send regular payments back to Mary and eventually brought Mary and the children to New York, where the family lived in an apartment on Central Park West. The reunion represented Woody's desire to be a better father and husband. He said "I have to set [sic] real hard to think of being a dad".[29] Unfortunately for the newly relocated family, Guthrie quit after the seventh broadcast, claiming he had begun to feel the show was too restricting when he was told what to sing.[30] Disgruntled with New York, Guthrie packed up Mary and his children in a new car and headed west to California.[31]
Pacific Northwest
In May 1941, after a brief stay in Los Angeles, Guthrie moved the family to Washington in the Pacific northwest on the promise of a job. A documentary, directed by Gunther von Fritsch, was being created in support of the Bonneville Power Administration's building of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River and needed a narrator. Supported by a recommendation from Alan Lomax, the original idea was to have Guthrie narrate the film and sing songs onscreen. The original project was projected to take one year to complete but when filmmakers became worried about the implications of casting such a political figure, Guthrie's role was minimized. He was hired instead for one month only by the Department of the Interior to write songs about the Columbia River and the building of the federal dams for the documentary's soundtrack. Although the film was never released in anything but a limited form, some good did come of the project. When Guthrie and a driver toured the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest, Guthrie said he "couldn't believe it, it's a paradise",[32] and was creatively inspired. In one month Guthrie wrote 26 songs including three of his most famous: "Roll On Columbia", "Pastures of Plenty", and "Grand Coulee Dam".[33] The surviving songs were eventually released as Columbia River Songs.
At the conclusion of the month in Washington, Guthrie wanted to return to New York. Tired of the continual uprooting, Mary Guthrie told him to go without her and the children.[34] Although Guthrie would see Mary again, once on a tour through Los Angeles with the Almanac Singers, it was essentially the end of their marriage. Divorce was difficult with Mary being a member of the Catholic Church, but she reluctantly agreed in December 1943.[35]
Almanac Singers
Following the conclusion of his work in Washington State, Guthrie corresponded with Pete Seeger about Seeger's newly formed folk-protest group, the Almanac Singers. Guthrie returned to New York with plans to tour the country as a member of the group.[36] The singers originally worked out of a loft in New York City hosting regular concerts called hootenannys, a word Pete and Woody had picked up in their cross-country travels. The singers eventually outgrew the space and moved into the cooperative Almanac House in Greenwich Village.
Initially Guthrie helped write and sing what the Almanacs Singers termed "peace" songs. After America's entry into World War II the topics of their songs became more specifically anti-fascist. The members of the Almanac Singers and residents of the Almanac House were a loosely defined group of musicians, though the 'core' members included Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Millard Lampell and Lee Hays. In keeping with common socialist ideals, meals, chores and rent at the Almanac House were shared. The Sunday hootenannys were good opportunities to collect donation money for rent. Songs written in the Almanac House had shared songwriting credits between all the members, although in the case of "Union Maid", members would later state that Guthrie wrote the song, ensuring that his children would receive residuals.[37]
In the Almanac House Guthrie added an air of authenticity to their work since Guthrie was a "real" working class Oklahoman. "There was the heart of America personified in Woody....And for a New York Left that was primarily Jewish, first or second generation American, and was desperately trying to get Americanized, I think a figure like Woody was of great, great importance", a friend of the group, Irwin Silber, would say.[38] Woody would routinely emphasize his working class image, reject songs he felt were not in the country blues vein he was familiar with, and would rarely contribute to household chores. House member Agnes "Sis" Cunningham, another Okie, would later recall that Woody, "loved people to think of him as a real working class person and not an intellectual".[39] Guthrie contributed songwriting and authenticity in much the same capacity for Pete Seeger's post-Almanac Singers project People's Songs, a newsletter and booking organization for labor singers, founded in 1945.[40]
Bound for Glory
Guthrie was a prolific writer, penning thousands of pages of unpublished poems and prose, including many written while living in New York City. After a recording session with Alan Lomax, Lomax suggested Guthrie write an autobiography; in Lomax's opinion, Guthrie's descriptions of growing up were some of the best accounts of American childhood that he had read.[41] It was during this time that Guthrie met a dancer in New York who would become his second wife, Marjorie Mazia. Mazia was an instructor at the prestigious Martha Graham Dance School where she was assisting Sophie Maslow with her piece Folksay. Based on the folklore and poetry collected by Carl Sandburg, it included the adaptation of some of Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads for the dance studio.[42] He continued writing songs and, as Lomax had suggested, began work on his autobiography. The end product, Bound For Glory was completed in no small part due to the patient editing assistance of Mazia and was first published by E.P. Dutton in 1943.[43] It is a vivid tale told in the artist's own down-home dialect, with the flair and imagery of a true storyteller. Library Journal complained about the "Too careful reproduction of illiterate speech."[44] But Clifton Fadiman, reviewing the book in the New York Times, paid the author a fine tribute: "Some day people are going to wake up to the fact that Woody Guthrie and the ten thousand songs that leap and tumble off the strings of his music box are a national possession like Yellowstone and Yosemite, and part of the best stuff this country has to show the world."[44] A film adaptation of Bound for Glory was released in 1976.[45]
The Asch recordings
In 1944, Guthrie met Moses "Moe" Asch of Folkways Records, for whom he first recorded "This Land Is Your Land", and over the next few years recorded "Worried Man Blues", along with hundreds of other songs. These recordings would later be released by Folkways and Stinson Records who had joint distribution rights to the recordings.[46] The Folkways recordings are still available today with the most complete series of these sessions, culled from dates with Asch, simply titled The Asch Recordings.
World War II years
Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems at home were the best use of his talents; Guthrie lobbied the United States Army to accept him as a USO performer instead of in the draft. When Guthrie's attempts failed, his friend Cisco Houston, pressured Guthrie along with Jim Longhi to join the U.S. Merchant Marine.[47] Guthrie served as a mess man and dish washer, and he frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy the spirits on transatlantic voyages. Guthrie made attempts to write about his experience in the Merchant Marine but was never satisfied with the results. Longhi later wrote about these experiences in his book Woody, Cisco and Me.[48] The book offers a rare first-hand account of Guthrie during his military service. In 1945, Guthrie's association with Communism made him ineligible for further service in the Merchant Marine and he was drafted into the U.S. Army.[49]
While he was on furlough from the Army Guthrie and Marjorie were married.[50] After his discharge, they moved into a house on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island and over time had four children. One of their children, Cathy, died as a result of a fire at age four, sending Guthrie into a serious depression.[51] Their other children were named Joady, Nora and Arlo. Arlo followed in his father's footsteps as a singer-songwriter. During this period, Guthrie wrote and recorded, Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child, a collection of children's music, which includes the song "Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin')", written when Arlo was about nine years old.
The 1948 crash of a plane carrying 28 Mexican farm workers from Oakland, California, on their way to be deported back to Mexico inspired Woody to write "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)".[52]
Mermaid Avenue
The years living on Mermaid Avenue were among Guthrie's most productive periods as a writer. His extensive writings from this time were archived and maintained by Marjorie and later his estate, mostly handled by Guthrie's daughter Nora. Several of the manuscripts contain scribblings by a young Arlo and the other Guthrie offspring.[53]
During this time Ramblin' Jack Elliott studied extensively under Guthrie, visiting his home and observing how he wrote and performed. Elliott, like Bob Dylan later, idolized Guthrie and was inspired by his idiomatic performance style and repertoire. Due to Guthrie's illness, Dylan and Guthrie's son Arlo would later claim that they learned much of Guthrie's performance style from Elliott. When asked about Arlo's claim, Elliott said, "I was flattered. Dylan learned from me the same way I learned from Woody. Woody didn't teach me. He just said, If you want to learn something, just steal it ?- that's the way I learned from Lead Belly."[54]
1950s and 1960s
Deteriorating health
By the late 1940s, Guthrie's health was worsening and his behavior becoming extremely erratic. He received various diagnoses (including alcoholism and schizophrenia), but in 1952 was finally diagnosed to be suffering from Huntington's Disease, the genetic disorder believed to have caused the death of his mother. Believing him to be a danger to their children, Marjorie suggested he return to California without her and they eventually divorced.[55]
Upon his return to California, Guthrie lived in a compound owned by Will Geer with blacklisted singers and actors waiting out the political climate. As his health worsened he met and married his third wife, Anneke Van Kirk, and they had a child, Lorina Lynn. The couple moved to Florida briefly, living in a bus on land owned by a friend. Guthrie's arm was hurt in a campfire accident when gasoline used to start the campfire exploded. Although in time he regained movement in the arm he was not able to play the guitar again. In 1954 the couple returned to New York.[56] Shortly after that, Anneke filed for divorce, a result of the strain of caring for Guthrie. Anneke left New York, allowing friends to adopt Lorina Lynn. After the divorce, Guthrie's second wife Marjorie reentered his life. Marjorie cared for him and assisted him until his death.
Guthrie, increasingly unable to control his muscle movements, was hospitalized at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital from 1956 to 1961, at Brooklyn State Hospital until 1966,[57] and finally at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center until his death.[58] Marjorie and the children visited Guthrie at Greystone every Sunday. They answered fan mail and played on the hospital grounds. Eventually a longtime fan of Guthrie invited the family to his nearby home for these Sunday visits lasting until Guthrie was moved to the Brooklyn State Hospital, which was closer to where Marjorie lived. Guthrie's illness was essentially untreated due to a lack of information about the disease at the time. However, his death helped raise awareness of the disease and led Marjorie to help found the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, which became the Huntington's Disease Society of America.[59] None of Guthrie's three remaining children with Marjorie have developed symptoms of Huntington's, but two of Mary Guthrie's children (Gwendolyn and Sue) were diagnosed with the disease. Both died at 41 years of age.[60]
Folk revival and Guthrie's death
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new generation of young people were inspired by folk singers including Guthrie. These "folk revivalists" became more politically aware in their music. The American Folk Revival was beginning to take place, focused on the issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and free speech movement. Pockets of folk singers were forming around the country in places like Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Many of these musicians had heard of Guthrie, but one of the first to visit him in the Brooklyn State Hospital was Bob Dylan. Dylan idolized Guthrie, calling him his hero. Soon after learning of Guthrie's whereabouts, these new, young folk singers regularly visited him during the final years of his life, playing his own songs for him as well as their originals.[61] Guthrie died of complications of Huntington's disease in 1967. By the time of his death, his work had been discovered by a new audience, introduced to them in part through Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, his ex-wife Marjorie and other new members of the folk revival, and his son Arlo. Since his death, artists have paid tribute to Guthrie by covering his songs or by dedicating songs to him. One of the first artists to do so was Scottish folk artist Donovan, who covered Guthrie's "Car, Car (Riding in My Car)" on his 1965 debut album What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid.[62]
Musical legacy
"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing.
Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.
I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built.
I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."[63]
Guthrie on songwriting
Foundation and Archives
Main article: Woody Guthrie Foundation
The Woody Guthrie Foundation is a non-profit organization that serves as administrator and caretaker of the Woody Guthrie Archives. The archive houses the largest collection of Guthrie material in the world.[64] Guthrie's unrecorded written lyrics housed at the Archives have been the starting point of several albums including the Wilco and Billy Bragg albums Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II.[65]
Folk Festival
Main article: Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate Guthrie's life and music. The festival is held on the weekend closest to Guthrie's birth date (July 14) in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Planned and implemented annually by the Woody Guthrie Coalition, a non-profit corporation, the goal is simply to ensure Guthrie's musical legacy.[66][67]The Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned a local Creek Indian sculptor to cast a full-body bronze statue of Guthrie and his guitar, complete with the guitar's well-known inscription: "This machine kills fascists".[68] The statue, sculpted by artist Dan Brooks, stands along Okemah's main street in the heart of downtown and was unveiled the inaugural year of the festival.[69]
Jewish Songs
Marjorie Mazia was born Marjorie Greenblatt and her mother, Aliza Greenblatt was a well known Yiddish poet. With her, Guthrie wrote numerous Jewish lyrics. Guthrie's Jewish lyrics can be traced to the unusual collaborative relationship he had with his mother-in-law, who lived across from Guthrie and his family in Brooklyn in the 1940s. Guthrie - the Oklahoma troubadour - and Greenblatt - the Jewish wordsmith - often discussed their artistic projects and critiqued each other's works, finding common ground in their shared love of culture and social justice, despite very different backgrounds. Their collaboration flourished in 1940s Brooklyn, where Jewish culture was interwoven with music, modern dance, poetry and anti-fascist, pro-labor activism. Guthrie was inspired to write songs that came directly out of this unlikely relationship, both personal and political; he clearly identified the Jewish struggle with that of his fellow Okies and other oppressed and disenfranchised peoples.
On January 20, 1968, three months following Guthrie's death, Harold Leventhal produced "A Tribute to Woody Guthrie" at New York City's Carnegie Hall.[71] Performers included Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan and The Band, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Odetta and others. Leventhal repeated the tribute on September 12, 1970 at the Hollywood Bowl. Recordings of the two concerts were eventually released as 2 LPs then later as one CD.[72]
In September 1996 Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University cohosted Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie, a 10-day conference of panel sessions, lectures, and concerts. The conference became the first in what would become the museum's annual American Music Masters Series conference.[73] Highlights included Arlo Guthrie's keynote address, a Saturday night musical jamboree at Cleveland's Odeon Theater, and a Sunday night concert at Severance Hall, the home of the Cleveland Orchestra.[74] Musicians performing over the course of the conference included Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Indigo Girls, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Ani DiFranco, and others.[75] In 1999, Wesleyan University Press published a collection of essays from the conference[76] and DiFranco's record label, Righteous Babe, released a compilation of the Severance Hall concert, 'Til We Outnumber 'Em, in 2000.[77]
From 1999 to 2002 the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service presented the traveling exhibit, "This Land Is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie". In collaboration with Nora Guthrie, the Smithsonian exhibition draws from rarely seen objects, illustrations, film footage, and recorded performances to reveal a complex man who was at once poet, musician, protester, idealist, itinerant hobo, and folk legend.[78]
In 2003 Jimmy LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by a narrator. In addition to LaFave, members of the rotating cast included Ellis Paul, Slaid Cleaves, Eliza Gilkyson, Joel Rafael, husband-wife duo Sarah Lee Guthrie (Woody Guthrie's granddaughter) and Johnny Irion, Michael Fracasso, and The Burns Sisters. Oklahoma songwriter Bob Childers, sometimes called "the Dylan of the Dust", served as narrator.[79][80] When word spread about the tour, performers began contacting LaFave, whose only prerequisite was to have an inspirational connection to Guthrie. Each artist chose the Guthrie songs that he or she would perform as part of the tribute. LaFave said, "It works because all the performers are Guthrie enthusiasts in some form".[81] The inaugural performance of the Ribbon of Highway tour took place on February 5, 2003 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The abbreviated show was a featured segment of "Nashville Sings Woody", yet another tribute concert to commemorate the music of Woody Guthrie held during the Folk Alliance Conference. The cast of "Nashville Sings Woody", a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, also included Arlo Guthrie, Marty Stuart, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Janis Ian, and others.[82]
Woody and Marjorie Guthrie were honored at a musical celebration featuring Billy Bragg and the band Brad on October 17, 2007 at Webster Hall in New York City. Steve Earle also performed. The event was hosted by actor/activist Tim Robbins to benefit the Huntington¹s Disease Society of America to commemorate the organization's 40th Anniversary.[83]
Posthumous honors
Although Guthrie's catalogue never brought him many awards while he was alive, in 1988 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the same year his protégé Bob Dylan was inducted),[84] and in 2000 he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[85]
In 1987 "Roll On Columbia" was chosen as the official Washington State Folk Song,[86] and in 2001 Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills" was chosen to be the official state folk song of Oklahoma.[13]
On September 26, 1992, The Peace Abbey, a multi-faith retreat center located in Sherborn, Massachusetts, awarded Guthrie their Courage of Conscience Award for his social activism and artistry in song which conveyed the plight of the common person. [87]
On June 26, 1998, as part of its Legends of American Music series, the United States Postal Service issued 45 million 32-cent stamps honoring folk musicians Huddie Ledbetter, Guthrie, Sonny Terry and Josh White. The four musicians were represented on sheets of 20 stamps.[88]
In 2006, the Klezmatics set Jewish lyrics written by Guthrie to music. The resulting album, Wonder Wheel, won the Grammy award for best contemporary world music album.[89]
On April 27, 2007, Guthrie was one of four Okemah natives inducted into Okemah's Hall of Fame during the town's Pioneer Day weekend of festivities.[90]
On February 10, 2008, The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949, a rare live recording released in cooperation with the Woody Guthrie Foundation, was the recipient of a Grammy Award in the category Best Historical Album.[91][92]
Ingmar Bergman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Ernst Ingmar Bergman
July 14, 1918(1918-07-14)
Uppsala, Sweden
Died July 30, 2007 (aged 89)
Fårö, Sweden
Years active 1944 - 2005
Spouse(s) Else Fisher (1943-1945)
Ellen Lundström (1945-1950)
Gun Grut (1951-1959)
Käbi Laretei (1959-1969)
Ingrid von Rosen (1971-1995)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Foreign Language Film
1960 The Virgin Spring
1961 Through a Glass Darkly
1982 Fanny and Alexander
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
1971 Lifetime Achievement
BAFTA Awards
Best Foreign Programme
1976 The Magic Flute
César Awards
Best Foreign Film
1984 Fanny and Alexander
Golden Globe Awards
Best Foreign Film
1960 Wild Strawberries
1961 The Virgin Spring
1975 Scenes from a Marriage
1977 Face to Face
1979 Autumn Sonata
1982 Fanny and Alexander
Other Awards
Golden Berlin Bear
1957 Wild Strawberries
Jury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)
1957 The Seventh Seal
Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
1958 Brink of Life
Special Jury Prize (Venice Film Festival)
1959 The Magician
Career Golden Lion
1971 Lifetime Achievement
NBR Award for Best Director
1972 Cries and Whispers
1978 Autumn Sonata
NYFCC Award for Best Screenplay
1973 Cries and Whispers
NYFCC Award for Best Director
1973 Cries and Whispers
1974 Scenes from a Marriage
1983 Fanny and Alexander
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (pronounced [ˈɪŋmar ˈbærjman] (help·info)) (July 14, 1918 - July 30, 2007) was a nine-time Academy Award-nominated Swedish film, stage, and opera director. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of modern cinema.[1]
He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the stark landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.
Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.
Biography
Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to Karin (maiden name Åkerblom) Bergman and Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden. He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a conservative parish minister with extreme-right political sympathies and a strict family father. Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as wetting the bed. "While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed, sang, or listened," Ingmar wrote in his autobiography Laterna Magica,
"I devoted my interest to the church's mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity, the colored sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls. There was everything that one's imagination could desire ?- angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans."
Though he grew up in a devout Lutheran household, Bergman later stated that he lost his faith at age eight and only came to terms with this fact while making Winter Light.[2]
Bergman's interest in theatre and film began early:
"At the age of 9, he traded a set of tin soldiers for a battered magic lantern, a possession that altered the course of his life. Within a year, he had created, by playing with this toy, a private world in which he felt completely at home, he recalled. He fashioned his own scenery, marionettes, and lighting effects and gave puppet productions of Strindberg plays in which he spoke all the parts."[3]
In 1934, at the age of 16, Bergman was sent to spend the summer vacation with family friends in Germany. He attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler.[4] He later wrote in his autobiography Laterna Magica about the visit to Germany, how the German family had put a portrait of Adolf Hitler on the wall by his bed, and that "for many years, I was on Hitler's side, delighted by his success and saddened by his defeats".[5]
Bergman did two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.
In 1937 he entered Stockholm University College (later renamed to Stockholm University), to study art and literature. He spent most of his time involved in student theater and became a "genuine movie addict".[6] At the same time a romantic involvement led to a break with his father that lasted for years. Although he did not graduate, he wrote a number of plays, as well as an opera, and became an assistant director at a theater. In 1942, he was given the chance to direct one of his own scripts, Caspar's Death. The play was seen by members of Svensk Filmindustri who then offered Bergman a position working on scripts.
In 1943 he married Else Fisher.
From the early 1960s Bergman lived much of his life on the island of Fårö, Gotland, Sweden, where he made several of his films.
Tax evasion charges and exile
1976 was one of the most traumatic years in the life of Ingmar Bergman. On January 30, 1976, while rehearsing August Strindberg's Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, he was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income-tax evasion. The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating. He suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the humiliation and was hospitalized in a state of deep depression.
The investigation was focused on an alleged 1970 transaction of SEK 500,000 between Bergman's Swedish company Cinematograf and its Swiss subsidiary Persona, an entity that was mainly used for the paying of salaries to foreign actors. Bergman dissolved Persona in 1974 after having been notified by the Swedish Central Bank and subsequently reported the income. On March 23,1976, the special prosecutor Anders Nordenadler dropped the charges against Bergman, saying that the alleged "crime" had no legal basis, comparing the case to the bringing of "charges against a person who is stealing his own car".[7] Director General Gösta Ekman, chief of the Swedish Internal Revenue Service, defended the failed investigation, saying that the investigation was dealing with important legal material and that Bergman was treated just like any other suspect. He expressed regret that Bergman had left the country, hoping that Bergman was a "stronger" person now when the investigation had shown that he had not done anything wrong.[8]
Even though the charges were dropped, Bergman was for a while disconsolate, fearing he would never again return to directing. Despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, high public figures, and leaders of the film industry, he vowed never to work again in Sweden. He closed down his studio on the barren Baltic island of Fårö, suspended two announced film projects, and went into self-imposed exile in Munich, Germany. Harry Schein, director of the Swedish Film Institute, estimated the immediate damage caused by Bergman's exile to SEK 10 million and hundreds of jobs lost.[9]
Return from exile
Although he continued to operate from Munich, by mid-1978, Ingmar Bergman seemed to have overcome some of his bitterness toward his motherland. In July of that year he was back in Sweden, celebrating his 60th birthday at Fårö and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theater. To honor his return, the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in film making.[10]
However, he remained in Munich until 1984. In one of the last major interviews with Bergman, done in 2005 at Fårö Island, Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life.[11]
Bergman retired from film making in December 2003. He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was making a difficult recovery. He died peacefully in his sleep,[12] at his home on Fårö, on July 30, 2007, at the age of 89,[13] the same day that another renowned film director, Michelangelo Antonioni, also died. He was buried August 18, 2007 on the island in a private ceremony. A place in the Fårö churchyard was prepared for him under heavy secrecy. Although he was buried on the island of Fårö, his name and date of birth were inscribed under his wife's name on a tomb at Roslagsbro churchyard, Norrtälje Municipality, several years before his death, where it seems that he had at one point intended to be buried.
Film work
Career
Bergman first began working in film in 1941 rewriting scripts, but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment/Frenzy (Hets), a film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Along with writing the screenplay he was also given a position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiography Images : My Life in Film, Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut.[14] The international success of this film led to Bergman's first opportunity to direct a year later. During the next ten years he wrote and directed more than a dozen films including The Devil's Wanton/Prison (Fängelse) in 1949 and The Naked Night/Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton) in 1953.
Bergman first achieved international success with Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955), which won for "Best poetic humor" and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes the following year. This was followed two years later with two of Bergman's best-known films, The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) and Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället). The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström.
Bergman continued to be productive for the next 20 years. In the early 60's he directed a trilogy that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en Spegel - 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgasterna - 1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden - 1963). In 1966 he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important films. While the film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece and one of the best films ever produced. Bergman himself considers this film along with Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop - 1972) to be his two most important films. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan - 1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen - 1968), Shame (Skammen - 1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion - 1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish TV at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap - 1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten - 1975).
After his arrest in 1976 for tax evasion, Bergman swore he would never again make films in his native country. He shut down his film studio on the island of Faro and went into exile. He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, The Serpent's Egg (1977) was a German-American production and his first and only English language film. This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten - 1978). The film starred Ingrid Bergman and was the one notable film of this period. The one other film he directed was From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten - 1980) a British-German co-production.
In 1982, he temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander), a film that, unlike his previous productions, was aimed at a broader audience, but was also criticized within the profession for being shallow and commercial.[15] Bergman stated that the film would be his last, and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre. Since then, he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials. As with previous work for TV some of these productions were later released in theatres. The last such work was Saraband (2003), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was 84 years old.
Repertory company
Bergman developed a personal "repertory company" of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, and Gunnar Björnstrand, each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who appeared in nine of Bergman's films and one TV movie (Saraband), was the last to join this group (in the 1966 film Persona), and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. They had a daughter together, Linn Ullmann (b. 1966).
A great number of Bergman's interior scenes were filmed at the Filmstaden studios north of Stockholm.Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed. On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work without interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.
Financing
By Bergman's own account, he never had a problem with funding. He cited two reasons for this: one, that he did not live in the United States, which he viewed as obsessed with box-office earnings; and two, that his films tended to be low-budget affairs.[citation needed] (Cries and Whispers, for instance, was finished for about $450,000, while Scenes from a Marriage ?- a six-episode television feature ?- cost only $200,000.)[citation needed]
Technique
Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully structured, and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intentions, he would let them, noting that the results were often "disastrous" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue.
When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotional, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be reshot.[citation needed]
Themes
Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith.
While his themes could be cerebral, sexual desire found its way to the foreground of most of his movies, whether the setting was a medieval plague (The Seventh Seal), upper-class family life in early 20th century Uppsala (Fanny and Alexander) or contemporary alienation (The Silence). His female characters were usually more in touch with their sexuality than their men were, and were not afraid to proclaim it, with the sometimes breathtaking overtness (e.g., Cries and Whispers) that defined the work of "the conjurer," as Bergman called himself in a 1960 Time magazine cover story. In an interview with Playboy magazine in 1964, he said: "...the manifestation of sex is very important, and particularly to me, for above all, I don't want to make merely intellectual films. I want audiences to feel, to sense my films. This to me is much more important than their understanding them." Film, Bergman said, was his demanding mistress.[citation needed] Some of his major actresses became his actual mistresses as his real life doubled up on his movie-making one.
Love ?- twisted, thwarted, unexpressed, repulsed ?- was the leitmotif of many of his movies, beginning, perhaps, with Winter Light, where the pastor's barren faith is contrasted with his former mistress' struggle, tinged with spite as it is, to help him find spiritual justification through human love.
Bergman's views on his career
When asked about his movies, Bergman said he held Winter Light,[16] Persona, and Cries and Whispers in the highest regard, though in an interview in 2004, Bergman said that he was "depressed" by his own films and could not watch them anymore.[17] In these films, he said, he managed to push the medium to its limit.
While he denounced the critical classification of three of his films (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence) as a predetermined trilogy, saying he had no intention of connecting them and could not see any common motifs in them[18] , this contradicts the introduction Bergman himself wrote in 1964 when he had the three scripts published in a single volume: "These three films deal with reduction. Through a Glass Darkly - conquered certainty. Winter Light - penetrated certainty. The Silence - God's silence - the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy". The Criterion Collection sees the films as a trilogy and has released all three on DVD individually and as a boxed set.
Bergman had stated on numerous occasions (for example in the interview book Bergman on Bergman) that The Silence meant the end of an era when religious questions were a major concern in his films.
Influence
Many filmmakers worldwide have cited the work of Bergman as a major influence on their own work:
Woody Allen - "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera"[19] Allen has parodied Bergman's films in his own, most notably in Love and Death.
Robert Altman[20]
Olivier Assayas[21]
Wes Craven[22]
Atom Egoyan
Todd Field [23] "He was our tunnel man building the aqueducts of our cinematic collective unconscious."
Krzysztof Kieślowski[24] "This man is one of the few film directors?-perhaps the only one in the world?-to have said as much about human nature as Dostoevsky or Camus."
Stanley Kubrick[25]
David Lynch[26]
François Ozon[27]
Chan-wook Park[28]
Eric Rohmer - "The Seventh Seal is 'the most beautiful film ever'"[29]
Marjane Satrapi[30]
Paul Schrader - "I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman, [...] [W]hat he has left is a legacy greater than any other director.... I think the extraordinary thing that Bergman will be remembered for, other than his body of work, was that he probably did more than anyone to make cinema a medium of personal and introspective value."[31]
Andrei Tarkovsky[32]
André Téchiné[33]
Lars Von Trier[34]
Zhuang Yuxin[35]
Theatrical work
Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he was an active and productive stage director all his life. During his studies at Stockholm University he became active in its student theatre, where he early on made a name for himself. His first work after graduation was as a trainee-director at a Stockholm theatre. At age 26 he became the youngest theater manager in Europe at the Helsingborg city theatre. He stayed at Helsingborg for 3 years and then became the director at Gothenburg city theater from 1946 to 1949.
He was the director of the Malmö city theater in 1953 and remained for seven years. Many of his star actors were people with whom he began working on stage, and a number of people in the "Bergman troupe" of his 1960s films came from Malmö's city theatre (Max von Sydow, for example). He was the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm ?- from 1960 to 1966 and manager from 1963 to 1966.
After he left Sweden because of the tax evasion incident he was the director of the Residenz Theatre of Munich, Germany (1977-84). He remained active in theatre throughout the whole 90's and made his final production on stage with Ibsen's The Wild Duck at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2002.
A complete list of Bergman's work in theater can be found under "Stage Productions and Radio Theatre Credits" in the Ingmar Bergman filmography-article.
Family life
Bergman was married five times:
25 March 1943 - 1945, to Else Fischer, choreographer and dancer (divorced). Children:
Lena Bergman, actress, born 1943.
22 July 1945 - 1950, to Ellen Lundström, choreographer and film director (divorced). Children:
Eva Bergman, film director, born 1945,
Jan Bergman, film director (1946-2000), and
twins Mats and Anna Bergman, both actors and film directors and born in 1948.
1951 - 1959, to Gun Grut, journalist (divorced). Children:
Ingmar Bergman Jr, airline captain, born 1951.
1959 - 1969, to Käbi Laretei, concert pianist (divorced). Children:
Daniel Bergman, film director, born 1962.
11 November 1971 - 20 May 1995, to Ingrid von Rosen (maiden name Karlebo) (widowed). Children:
Maria von Rosen, author, born 1959.
The first four marriages ended in divorce, while the last ended when his wife died of stomach cancer.
He was also the father of writer Linn Ullmann, with actress Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children that he has acknowledged to be his own. He was married to all but one of the mothers of his children. His last wife was Ingrid von Rosen; their daughter Maria was born twelve years before the marriage.
In addition to his marriages, Bergman also had major relationships with Harriet Andersson 1952-55, Bibi Andersson 1955-59 and Liv Ullmann 1965-70.
Arthur Laurents
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director.
Biography
Laurents was born in New York City to a Jewish family. After studying at Cornell University and a stint in the Army, he began writing scripts for radio and, in 1945, wrote his first play, Home of the Brave, a drama set during World War II.
During McCarthyism, Laurents was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses and, for several years, none of his work was used in film. Other plays by Laurents include Time of the Cuckoo, Invitation to a March, The Enclave, and Jolson Sings Again. He also has written the books for several musicals, including West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, and Do I Hear a Waltz?, which was based on his play Time of the Cuckoo. Laurents has directed several Broadway productions as well, including the musicals I Can Get It for You Wholesale and La Cage Aux Folles.
Laurents has also written two novels, The Way We Were and The Turning Point, both of which became successful films for which Laurents wrote the screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for The Snake Pit, Anastasia, and the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope. The play 'Time of the Cuckoo' later became the David Lean/Katherine Hepburn film Summertime.
In 2000, Laurents published a memoir, Original Story By.[1] In it, the author reveals that he is gay and had relationships with Farley Granger and Tom Hatcher.[2] Laurents and Hatcher were together for more than fifty years until Hatcher's death on October 26, 2006.[3]
Work
The Snake Pit (1948)
Libretti
Nick & Nora - 1991
The Madwoman of Central Park West - 1979
Hallelujah, Baby! - 1967 - Tony Award for Best Musical
Do I Hear a Waltz? - 1965
Anyone Can Whistle - 1964
Gypsy - 1959 - Tony Nomination for Best Musical
West Side Story - 1957 - Tony Nomination for Best Musical
Direction
Gypsy - 2008 -- Tony Award nomination as Best Director of a Musical
Nick & Nora - 1991
Anyone Can Whistle - 1964
La Cage aux Folles - 1983 - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical
The Madwoman of Central Park West - 1979
Gypsy - 1974 - Tony Nomination for Best Direction of a Musical
I Can Get It for You Wholesale - 1962
Invitation to a March - 1960
Plays
Invitation to a March - 1960
A Clearing in the Woods - 1957
The Time of the Cuckoo - 1952
The Bird Cage - 1950
Home of the Brave - 1945
Dale Robertson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Dayle Lamoine Robertson
July 14, 1923 (1923-07-14) (age 85)
Harrah, Oklahoma, U.S.
Dale Robertson (born Dayle Lamoine Robertson on July 14, 1923) is an American actor best known for his starring roles on television.
Biography
Robertson was born in Harrah, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City. He began his acting career in the late 1940s while he was in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, Robertson went to Amos Carr Studio to have a picture taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the shop window attracted movie agents. When Robertson left for Hollywood, actor Will Rogers, Jr., the son of the Oklahoma legend, gave him this advice: "Don't ever take a dramatic lesson. They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and people like their hominy and grits in everyday clothes." Robertson thereafter avoided formal acting lessons.
For most of his career, he played in Western movies and TV shows. His two best-remembered series were the Tales of Wells Fargo, in which he played a roving company 'trouble-shooter' named "Jim Hardie", and The Iron Horse, in which he won an incomplete railroad line in a poker game and took up the challenge of running it.
In its March 30, 1959, cover story on TV westerns, Time magazine reported that Robertson stood 6 feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, and had measurements of 42-34-34. Robertson sometimes made use of his physique in "beefcake" scenes such as the one in 1952's Return of the Texan when he's seen bare-chested and sweaty, repairing a fence.
In 1981 he was part of the original starring cast of ABC's popular Dynasty, playing Walter Lankershim, a character who disappeared after the first season. In 1985 it was revealed in the storyline that the character had died offscreen.
Robertson was also one of the hosts of the syndicated Death Valley Days during the 1960s. He is a well known rodeo speaker, having appeared at such events as the Pike's Peak or Bust Rodeo in Colorado Springs. He received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is also in the Hall of Great Western Performers. He is an inductee in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City.
Harry Dean Stanton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born July 14, 1926 (1926-07-14) (age 82)
West Irvine, Kentucky
Harry Dean Stanton (born July 14, 1926) is an American actor.
Biography
Early life
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel (née Moberly), a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber.[1][2] His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married. He has two younger brothers, Archie and Ralph, and a younger half-brother Stan. Stanton attended the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied journalism and radio arts. He also studied at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. Stanton is a veteran of World War II. Harry is also known to be a big fan of rock n roll music, his favourites including Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Lance Lazer.
Career
Stanton has appeared in both indie and cult films (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Escape from New York, Repo Man), as well as many mainstream Hollywood productions, including Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Red Dawn, Pretty in Pink, and The Green Mile. He has been a favorite actor of Sam Peckinpah, John Milius, David Lynch, and Monte Hellman, and is also close friends with Francis Ford Coppola. His principal lead role was in Wim Wenders's film Paris, Texas.
Stanton is a favorite of film critic Roger Ebert who has said that "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." However Ebert later admitted that Dream a Little Dream (1989), in which Stanton appeared, was a "clear violation" of this rule.[3] In the DVD extra interview of Repo Man, Stanton deeply reviews his outlook on life in a way that is considered "Tao".
Stanton has also occasionally toured nightclubs as a singer/guitarist, playing mostly country-inflected cover tunes. He appeared in the Dwight Yoakam video, "Sorry You Asked". The role that Stanton is often associated with, the role of Travis in Paris, Texas, was originally to go to Sam Shepard at the urging of Wim Wenders.
He also plays Roman Grant, the manipulative leader/prophet of a polygamous sect of Mormonism in the HBO television series Big Love.
In an episode of season two of the series Two and a Half Men Harry Dean Stanton played a senile version of himself amongst other stars playing themselves, Sean Penn and Elvis Costello who attended Charlie Harper's (portrayed by Charlie Sheen), the series' main character, self-help group.
Nancy Olson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Nancy Ann Olson
July 14, 1928 (1928-07-14) (age 79)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Years active 1948 - 1997
Spouse(s) Alan Jay Lerner (1950-1957)
Alan W. Livingston (1962-)
Nancy Ann Olson[1] (born July 14, 1928) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.
Career
Olson was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures in 1948 and, after a few supporting roles, producers began to consider her for more prominent parts. She was up for the role of Delilah in Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah, for which Olson later said she was not suited, and when she was passed over in favor of Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder signed her for his upcoming project. In Sunset Boulevard she played Betty Schaefer, a down-to-earth character who contrasted with the other eccentric and cynical ones, and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her pairing with William Holden was considered a success and she appeared opposite him in other 1950s films, but none repeated their earlier success.
Olson's attempts to further her career were unsuccessful, though she did make several memorable appearances in films at The Walt Disney Company. The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber paired her with Fred MacMurray and were popular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna and Dean Jones in Snowball Express. Olson then moved to New York City where she appeared on Broadway.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles on television, and has been retired since the mid 1980s, although she made a brief, uncredited appearance in the 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor titled Flubber.
Personal life
Olson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Evelyn (née Bergstrom) and Henry J. Olson, who was a physician.[1] Olson married the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1950 and did not seriously follow her acting career. They divorced in 1957. In 1962 she married longtime Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, best known for creating "Bozo the Clown" and for signing Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, among other legends, with Capitol.
Polly Bergen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Nellie Paulina Burgin
July 14, 1930 (1930-07-14) (age 78)
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Spouse(s) Jerome Courtland
(1954-1955)
Freddie Fields (1956-1975)
Jeffrey Endervelt
(1982-1990)
Awards won
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie
1957 The Helen Morgan Story
Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin, July 14, 1930, Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and entrepreneur.
Biography
Career
Bergen appeared in many film roles, notably in the original Cape Fear (1962) opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.
She captured an Emmy award for her portrayal of singer Helen Morgan on an episode of the 1950s television series Playhouse 90. Bergen had her own recording career for Columbia Records during that era.
She was a regular panelist on the CBS game show To Tell the Truth during its debut run. She earned an Emmy nomination for her role as Rhoda Henry in two ABC miniseries, The Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance. She starred in a 2001 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Belasco Theater and received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
She also appeared on HBO's The Sopranos as the former mistress of Tony Soprano's father, Fran Felstein, a former acquaintance of John F. Kennedy.
In 2007, Bergen had a role in Desperate Housewives as Lynette Scavo's mother, Stella Wingfield.
Bergen became a semi-regular cast member of 2006's Commander-in-Chief as the mother of a President of the United States played by Geena Davis. Bergen had herself once played the first female President of the United States in the 1964 film Kisses for My President.
Another of recent appearances came in CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Candles on Bay Street (2006), in which she played the assistant to a husband-and-wife team of veterinarians. In the 1950's , she was also known as " The Pepsi Cola Girl " ,having done a series of commercials for that product .
http://www.pepsinut.com/pepsi_stars.htm
Personal life
In 1965, she created the Polly Bergen Co. cosmetics line. She also is the founder of personal jewelry and shoe brands and the author of three books on beauty.
Bergen converted to Judaism[citation needed] after having married Hollywood talent agent Freddie Fields, by whom she had one biological child and two adopted children. She had previously been a Southern Baptist; a grandfather was a Baptist minister.[citation needed]
She had two other marriages that also ended in divorce. When not working, Bergen lives in Connecticut.
Bergen is also the aunt of acclaimed television producer Wendy Riche.
