Ah, folks, she flew out. I could have sworn that I heard Patti sing Old Cape Cod twice, but it must have been something "out there" that spirited it away.
This will be my goodnight song, and we will dedicate it to all the children that we once were. Played this at the Rockhead music hall, and I love it.
Just listened again to The Blue Man Group do the remix of X Files. It was great and I finally got acquainted with that blue bunch.
Also listened to Hall of the Mountain King again on JPB's classical forum and realized that it featured pizzicato strings. That has always fascinated me.
Here's a jazz version of one of my favorite morning songs, y'all, and I have added the lyrics. Imagine, if you will, a great jazz vocalist singing them.
Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light of love comes stealing
Into a newborn day
Flaming with all the glow of sunrise
A burning kiss is sealing
A vow that all betray
For the passions that thrill love
And take you high to heaven
Are the passions that kill love
And let it fall to hell
So ends the story
Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light that gave you glory
Will take it all away
Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light of love comes stealing
Into a newborn day
Flaming with all the glow of sunrise
A burning kiss is sealing
A vow that all betray
For the passions that thrill love
And take you high to heaven
Are the passions that kill love
And let it fall to hell
So ends the story
Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light that gave you glory
Will take it all away
Softly as it fades away
Softly as it fades away
Softly as it fades away
Softly as it fades away
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bobsmythhawk
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:32 am
Jack Haley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born John Joseph Haley Jr.
August 10, 1898(1898-08-10)
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Died June 6, 1979 (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Occupation Actor, Vaudevillian
Spouse(s) Florence McFadden (1921-1979) (his death) 2 Children
Jack Haley (August 10, 1898 - June 6, 1979) (born John Joseph Haley, Jr.) was an American film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. He also portrayed farmworker Hickory, who appeared in the Kansas sequences, in the film.
Biography
Career
Haley starred in vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedian. One of his closest friends was fellow vaudeville alumnus Fred Allen, who would frequently mention "Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" on the air.
In the early 1930s Haley starred in comedy shorts for Vitaphone in Brooklyn, New York. His wide-eyed, good-natured expression landed him supporting roles in musical features like the Shirley Temple vehicle Poor Little Rich Girl, the Frank Sinatra vehicle Higher and Higher, and the Irving Berlin musical Alexander's Ragtime Band. Both Poor Little Rich Girl and Alexander's Ragtime Band were released by Twentieth Century-Fox.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Haley for The Wizard of Oz after another song-and-dance comic, Buddy Ebsen, who was originally set to play the Tin Man, had a near-fatal reaction from inhaling the aluminum dust makeup. The makeup was switched to a paste, to avoid risking the same reaction by Haley. The new makeup did cause an eye infection which caused Haley to miss four days of filming, but he received treatment in time to prevent permanent damage. Incidentally, Buddy Ebsen, 10 years younger than Haley, outlived him by 24 years.[1]
Haley did not take to the makeup or to the discomfort of the costume very kindly. When being interviewed about the film years later, he remarked that many people had commented that making the film must have been fun. Haley's reply: "Like hell it was; it was work!"
Haley's natural voice (which he used for the "Hickory" character) was moderately gruff. For the Tin Man, he spoke more softly, a la "Mr. Rogers", which he later said was the tone of voice he used when reading stories to his children.
Oz was Haley's only film for MGM.
Haley returned to musical comedies in the 1940s. Most of his '40s work was for RKO Radio Pictures. He surrendered the job in 1947 when he refused to appear in a remake of RKO's old story property Seven Keys to Baldpate; Phillip Terry took the role.
Personal life
He married Florence McFadden on February 25, 1921, and they remained married until his death. Flo Haley opened a successful beauty shop and counted many show people among her customers. (The establishment became known informally as "Flo Haley's House of Correction.")
The couple had one son, Jack Haley Jr. (later a successful film producer) and one daughter, Gloria.[2] Jack Jr. was married to Liza Minnelli, daughter of his father's Oz co-star Judy Garland, for a short time in the 1970s.
In 1972, Haley made his daughter, Gloria, the sole owner of his written memoirs. In 1978, she published them in the form of the hardcover book Heart of the Tin Man.
Death
Haley died of a heart attack on June 6, 1979 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 80. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.[2]
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bobsmythhawk
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:39 am
Norma Shearer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Edith Norma Shearer
August 10, 1902(1902-08-10)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died June 12, 1983 (aged 80)
Woodland Hills, California
Years active 1920 - 1942
Spouse(s) Irving Thalberg (1927-1936)
Martin Arrougé (1942-1983)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1930 The Divorcee
Other Awards
Volpi Cup for Best Actress
1938 Marie Antoinette
Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902[1] - June 12, 1983) was an Academy Award-winning Canadian-American actress.
Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in the world from the mid-1920s until her retirement in 1942. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door but after her 1930 film The Divorcee, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies and dramas, as well as several historical and period films.
Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's reputation went into steep decline after her retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was in danger of being known only for her "noble" roles in the regularly-revived The Women and Romeo and Juliet or, at worst, as a forgotten star.
However, Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990's with the publication of two biographies and the TCM and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards"[2]. Simultaneously, Shearer's ten year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized.[3] [1]
Today, Norma Shearer is widely celebrated as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen"[4].
In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, The Divorcee and A Free Soul, were released on DVD. [2]
Early life (1900-1920)
Norma's childhood was spent in Montreal and was one of privilege due to the success of her father's construction business ?- but the marriage between her parents was not a happy one. Andrew Shearer was prone to manic depression and "moved like a shadow or a ghost around the house"[5], while Edith was attractive, flamboyant and stylish, prompting gossip that she was a heroin addict and unfaithful to her husband. Neither rumor was ever proven, but Edith was clearly bored with her marriage very early on and focused her energy on Norma, whom she decided would one day become a famous concert pianist.
Talented, outgoing Norma did have an ear for music, but after seeing a vaudeville show for her ninth birthday, announced her intention to become an actress. Edith offered support but, as Norma entered adolescence, became secretly fearful that her daughter's physical flaws would jeopardize her chances. Fortunately, Norma herself "had no illusions about the image I saw in the mirror". She knew that she had a dumpy figure, with shoulders too broad, legs too sturdy, hands too blunt ?- and was also acutely aware of her small eyes that appeared crossed due to a cast in her right eye. But by her own admission, Norma was "ferociously ambitious, even as a young girl" and planned to overcome her deficiencies through careful camouflage, sheer determination and by wielding her greatest asset: charm.
The childhood and adolescence that Norma once described as "a pleasant dream" ended in 1918, when her older sister, Athole, suffered her first serious mental breakdown and her father's company collapsed. Forced to move into a small, dreary house in an inferior Montreal suburb, the sudden plunge into poverty only strengthened Norma's determined attitude: "At an early age, I formed a philosophy about failure. Perhaps an endeavor, like my father's business, could fail, but that didn't mean Father had failed."
Edith Shearer was not so generous. Within weeks, she had left her husband and moved into a cheap boarding house with her two daughters. A few months later, encouraged by her brother, who believed his niece should try her luck in "the picture business", then operating largely on the East Coast, Edith sold Norma's piano and bought three train tickets for New York. Also in her pocket was a letter of introduction for Norma, acquired from a local theater owner, to Florenz Ziegfeld, currently preparing a new season of his famous Follies.
New York (1920-1923)
In January 1920, the three Shearer girls arrived in New York, each of them dressed up for the occasion. "I had my hair in little curls," Norma remembered, "and I felt very ambitious and proud."[6] Her heart sank, however, when she saw their rented apartment: "There was one double bed, a cot with no mattress and a stove with one gas jet. The communal bathroom was at the end of a long dimly lit hallway. Athole and I took turns sleeping with mother in the bed, but sleep was impossible anyway ?- the elevated trains rattled right past our window every few minutes."
The introduction to Ziegfeld proved equally disastrous ?- he turned Norma down flat, reportedly calling her a "dog", and criticized her crossed eyes and stubby legs. But while most 17 year-olds might have been defeated by his cruel dismissal, Norma continued doing the rounds with her determination undimmed: "I learned that Universal Pictures was looking for eight pretty girls to serve as extras. Athole and I showed up and found fifty girls ahead of us. An assistant casting director walked up and down looking us over. He passed up the first three and picked the fourth. The fifth and sixth were unattractive, but the seventh would do, and so on, down the line until seven had been selected ?- and he was still some ten feet ahead of us. I did some quick thinking. I coughed loudly and, when the man looked in the direction of the cough, I stood on my tiptoes and smiled right at him. Recognizing the awkward ruse to which I'd resorted, he laughed openly and walked over to me and said, ?'You win, Sis. You're Number Eight.'"[7]
Other extra parts followed, including one in Way Down East, helmed by legendary director, D.W. Griffith. Taking advantage of a break in filming and standing shrewdly near a powerful arc light, Norma introduced herself to Griffith and began to confide her hopes for stardom. "The Master looked down at me, studied my upturned face in the glare of the arc, and shook his eagle head. Eyes no good, he said. A cast in one and far too blue; blue eyes always looked blank in close-up. You'll never make it, he declared, and turned solemnly away."
Still undeterred, Norma risked some of her savings on a consultation with Dr. William Bates, a pioneer in the treatment of incorrectly aligned eyes and defective vision. He wrote out a series of muscle-strengthening exercises that, after many years of daily practice, would successfully conceal Norma's cast for long periods of time on the screen.
Norma spent hours in front of the mirror, exercising her eyes and striking poses that concealed or improved her physical flaws. At night, she sat in the galleries of Broadway theaters, studying the entrances of Ina Claire, Lynn Fontanne and Katherine Cornell ?- an education in star behavior that would serve as Norma's only technical training as an actress.
In desperate need of money, Norma resorted to some modeling work, proving surprisingly successful. "I could smile at a cake of laundry soap as if it were dinner at the Ritz," she later boasted. "I posed with a strand of imitation pearls. I posed in dust-cap and house dress with a famous mop, for dental paste and for soft drink, holding my mouth in a whistling pose until it all but froze that way." Most famously, she became the new model for Springfield Tires, was bestowed with the title "Miss Lotta Miles" and depicted seated inside the rim of a tire, smiling down at traffic from a large floodlit billboard. Years later, MGM rival Joan Crawford would disparagingly refer to Shearer as "Miss Lotta Miles".
Finally, a year after her arrival in New York, she received a break in film: fourth billing in a B-movie titled ?'The Stealers' (1921). More silent films followed, all largely forgettable, but enough to bring her to the attention of producer Hal Roach, out from Hollywood searching for new talent. Early in 1923, after a successful meeting, Roach made Norma an offer on behalf of the Mayer Company, presided over by mogul Louis B. Mayer. After three years of hardship, Norma found herself signing a contract for $250 a week for six months, with options for renewal and a test for a leading role in a major film called ?'The Wanters'.
Hollywood
Norma left New York in the spring of 1923. Accompanied by her euphoric mother, with a signed contract in her luggage, Norma felt "dangerously sure of herself"[8] as her train neared Los Angeles. With the aura of a star, she disembarked, smiled and waited. And waited. After an hour, Norma realized that there would be no roses, no limousine ?- not even a welcome from her new studio. Dispirited, she allowed Edith to hail them a taxi.
The next morning, Norma went to the Mayer Company on Mission Road to meet with the Vice-President, Irving Thalberg. Still annoyed by the station debacle, she introduced herself to the receptionist in a haughty manner. A moment later, a young man appeared. "Miss Shearer," he said, "we've been expecting you." Impressed with the high tone and good manners of Mr. Thalberg's office-boy, Norma followed him down a corridor and into a small, modest office. There, to her amazement, he sat behind the desk, put his feet up and calmly and critically looked Norma up and down. "I'm Irving Thalberg," he said, with a smile.
At only 23, Irving Thalberg was already a legend: Vice President of Mayer Productions, the youngest and most creative executive in the picture business. Although dubbed "The Boy Wonder" and famous for his exhaustive supervision of every picture produced by the studio, Irving was also physically frail, having suffered from a heart condition since childhood, and was not expected to live past thirty. Norma was momentarily thrown by their confused introduction, but soon found herself "impressed by his air of dispassionate strength, his calm self-possession and the almost black, impenetrable eyes set in a pale olive face."[9]
The Actress
Shearer was less impressed, however, with her first screen test: "The custom then was to use flat lighting ?- to throw a great deal of light from all directions, in order to kill all shadows that might be caused by wrinkles or blemishes. But the strong lights placed on either side of my face made my blue eyes look almost white, and by nearly eliminating my nose, made me seem cross-eyed. The result was hideous."[10]
The day after the test had been screened ?- disastrously, to Mayer and Thalberg ?- cameraman Ernest Palmer found Norma frantic and trembling in the hallway. Speaking with her, he was struck by her fierce, almost raging disappointment and, after viewing the test himself, agreed that she had been poorly handled. Under Palmer's own supervision, a second test was made and judged a success by the studio brass. Norma was elated. The lead in ?'The Wanters' seemed hers ?- until the film's director objected, finding her "unphotogenic". Again, Norma was to be disappointed, relegated to a minor role.
She accepted her next role in ?'Pleasure Mad', knowing "it was well understood that if I didn't deliver in this picture, I was through." After only a few days of shooting, things were not looking good. Norma was struggling. Finally, the film's director complained to Mayer that he could get nothing out of the young actress, and when summoned to Mayer's office, Norma fully expected the axe to fall: "But to my surprise, Mr. Mayer's manner was paternal. ?'There seems to be a problem,' he said, ?'tell me about it.' I told him that the director had shouted at me and frightened me. Nobody had warned me that Mayer was a better actor than any of us, and I was unprepared for what happened next. He staged an alarming outburst, screaming at me, calling me a fool and a coward, accusing me of throwing away my career because I couldn't get on with a director. It worked. I became tearful, but obstinate. ?'I'll show you!' I said to him. ?'You'll see!' Delighted, Mayer resumed the paternal act. ?'That's what I wanted to hear,' he said, smiling."[11]
Returning to the set, Norma plunged into a particularly emotional scene. "I took that scene lock, stock, and barrel, fur, fins and feathers," she remembered, earning her the respect of her director and her studio. As a reward, Thalberg cast her in six films in eight months.
It was an apprenticeship that would serve Norma well. By the time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 and she was cast in the studio's first official production, He Who Gets Slapped, she was one of the best silent actors in the business, able to visually display subtle and believable thought on screen. Her physical deficiencies were no longer evident ?- in fact, the camera loved her.
So did the public. Norma's improved looks and sharpened skills had turned her into one of MGM's biggest box-office attractions. In 1925, she signed a new contract paying her $1,000 a week, rising to $5,000 over the next five years. Soon after, she bought a house for herself and Edith, right under the Hollywood Sign, at 2004 Vine. Despite endless setbacks and discouragement, Norma's childhood ambition had become reality. She was a star.
Mrs. Thalberg
Having become a star, Norma's new challenge was to remain one. There were many other talented actresses at the studio and she realised she would have to fight hard to stay ahead of the pack. Seeing that sensational newcomer Greta Garbo was one of a kind, she went to Thalberg and "demanded recognition as one of another kind". It was just one of the many visits she paid to his office, always to plead for better material, better parts. Thalberg would listen patiently, then invariably advise Norma to keep toeing the line, that MGM knew best, and that the movies she complained about had made her a popular actress. Occasionally Norma would burst into tears, but this seemed to make "no more impression than rain on a raincoat"[12].
Privately, Thalberg was very impressed. He admired Norma as a person as well as an actress: responding to her ambition and her capacity for hard work, her intelligence and sense of humour. Most of all, he identified with her determination to overcome physical obstacles that most people would have considered insurmountable. In a story conference, when Norma's name was suggested to him for the part of a girl threatened with rape, Thalberg shook his head and, with a wry smile, said: "She looks too well able to take care of herself."[13]
Norma, for her part, found herself increasingly attracted to her boss. "Something was understood between us," she claimed later, "an indefinite feeling that neither of us could analyse." Irving's appeal was not primarily sexual ?- what attracted Norma was his commanding presence and steely grace; the impression he gave that wherever he sat was always the head of the table. In spite of his youth, Thalberg became a father figure to the 23 year-old actress ?- the first real candidate for the role in her life.
At the end of a working day in July 1925, Norma received a phone call from Irving's secretary, asking if she would like to accompany Mr. Thalberg to the premiere of Chaplin's The Gold Rush. Suspecting that Irving was listening silently on the line, Norma told the secretary she would be delighted. That night, she and Thalberg made their first appearance as a couple.
A few weeks later, Norma went to Montreal to visit her father. While there, she had a reunion with an old school friend, who remembered: "At the end of lunch, over coffee, Norma leant in across the table. "I'm madly in love," she whispered. "Who with?" I asked. "With Irving Thalberg," she replied, smiling. I asked how Thalberg felt. "I hope to marry him," Norma said, and then, with the flash of the assurance I remembered so well, "I believe I will."[14]
This was no impulsive whim on Norma's part: she had given the idea years of thought. Love aside, she realized that marriage to the boss was a unique opportunity for her career ?- her wedding to Irving would, essentially, be a double ceremony, also seeing her crowned Queen of the MGM Lot. She also realized she would have to work quickly, for Irving was not only the youngest member of Hollywood's ruling class, but also its only bachelor. With the same formidable will that had made her a movie star, Norma began rehearsing for her next assignment, the most important role of her life: Mrs. Irving Thalberg.
She could not afford to be subtle about it. To Joan Crawford, whose humiliating first job at MGM was to double for Norma in 1925's Lady of the Night, it was obvious that the star was playing up to the boss ?- and that he was responding. "I don't get it." Joan commented. "She's cross-eyed, knock-kneed and she can't act worth a damn. What does he see in her?" Possessed of similar ambition and drive, Crawford would go on to become Norma's chief rival at the studio.
"It is impossible to get anything major accomplished without stepping on some toes. Enemies are inevitable when one is a ?'doer'." ?- Norma Shearer
Over the next two years, both Norma and Irving would see other people, but Hollywood insiders knew it was something of a charade ?- she was just waiting for him to propose. Louise Brooks remembered: "I held a dinner party sometime in 1926. All the place cards at the dinner table were books. In front of Thalberg's place was Dreiser's ?'Genius' and in front of Norma's place I put ?'The Difficulty of Getting Married'. It was so funny because Irving walked right in and saw ?'Genius' and sat right down, but Norma kept walking around. She wouldn't sit down in front of ?'The Difficulty of Getting Married' - no way!"[15]
Perhaps writer Anita Loos made the most astute comment: "Norma was intent on marrying the boss and Irving, preoccupied with his work, was relieved to let her make up his mind..."
By 1927, Shearer had made a total of thirteen silent films for MGM. Each had been produced for under $200,000 and had, without fail, been a substantial box office hit, often making a $200,000+ profit for the studio.[3] She was rewarded for this consistent success by being cast in Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg ?- her first prestige production, with a budget of over $1,000,000. Although it was her first film to lose money, it was well received by critics and the public. Today, it is the best remembered of Shearer's silent films (sadly, most of her silent work is considered lost).[4]
While she was finishing ?'The Student Prince', Norma received a call summoning her to Thalberg's office. She entered to find Irving sitting at his desk before a tray of diamond engagement rings. Looking up with a smile, he asked her to choose the one she liked best. Norma picked out the biggest.
On 29 September 1927, Norma and Irving were married in the Hollywood wedding of the year.
Early Talkies
One week after the Thalberg marriage, The Jazz Singer was released. The first feature-length motion picture with sound, it effectively changed the cinematic landscape overnight and signaled the end of the silent motion picture era.
It also spelled the end of many silent careers ?- and Norma was determined hers would not be one of them. Fortuitously, her brother Douglas Shearer was instrumental in the development of sound at MGM, and every care was taken to prepare Norma for the microphone.
Her first talkie, The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929), turned out to be a tremendous success. Shearer's "medium pitched, fluent, flexible Canadian accent ?- not quite American but not at all foreign"[16] was critically applauded, and thereafter widely imitated by other actresses, nervous about succeeding in talkies.
Despite the popularity of her subsequent early talking films, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and Their Own Desire (both 1929), Shearer knew the public would soon tire of her "good girl" image, and took the advice of friend and costar Ramon Novarro to visit an unknown photographer named George Hurrell.[17] There she took a series of sexy portraits which convinced her husband that she could play the lead in MGM's racy new film, The Divorcee (1930).
Pre-Code Glory (1930-1931)
Shearer won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Divorcee, and a series of highly successful pre-Code films followed, including Let Us Be Gay (1930), Strangers May Kiss (1931), A Free Soul (1931), Private Lives (1931) and Riptide (1934). All of these were box office hits, placing Shearer in competition with Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo as MGM's top actress through the remainder of the decade[5].
Shearer's marriage to Thalberg gave her a degree of power in Hollywood that was resented by rivals such as Crawford, who complained that Shearer would always be offered the best roles and best conditions: "...after all, she's sleeping with the boss."[18].
In the years following Norma's retirement, with many of her best performances rarely seen, Crawford's quote became the accepted truth, and Shearer was regarded as the ambitious but not overly talented actress who cunningly managed to marry the boss and become a big star. In reality, she was already MGM's biggest female box-office attraction when she wed Thalberg, and would probably have become a star even if she'd never met him. Her reign as "Queen of MGM" did not end with Thalberg's death from pneumonia in 1936 but continued until her retirement. In fact, she remained a major asset for MGM, who lavished more attention and money on her post-1936 films than ever before.
Shearer showed her versatility by mixing her pre-code films with period dramas and theatrical adaptations. The sentimental Smilin' Through (1932), which co-starred Fredric March, was one of the most successful films of its year. An adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's four hour experimental Strange Interlude (1932), which also starred Clark Gable, was critically panned but still managed to turn a profit at the box office.[19]
The Queen of MGM
The enforcement of the Production Code in 1934 forced Shearer to drop her celebrated "free soul" image and move exclusively into period dramas and "prestige" pictures. Of these, The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) would prove her most successful at the box office, making a profit of $668,000. The production costs of Romeo and Juliet (1936) (her first film of the 30's to lose money) and Marie Antoinette (1938) (a budget of almost $2,500,000) were too great for the studio to expect a profit, though their elaborate sets and costumes helped make the films immensely popular with audiences.
Shearer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress on six occasions, winning for her role in The Divorcee in 1930. She was nominated the same year for Their Own Desire, for A Free Soul in 1931, The Barretts of Wimpole Street in 1934, Romeo and Juliet in 1936, and Marie Antoinette in 1938 ?- reportedly her favorite role. Marion Davies later recalled that Shearer came to a party at San Simeon in her Marie Antoinette costume, which required removing the door so she could enter, and four chairs so she could sit at the table.
In 1939, she attempted an unusual role in the musical comedy Idiot's Delight, adapted from the 1936 Robert E. Sherwood play. It was the last of Shearer's three films with Clark Gable.
The Women (1939) followed, with an entirely female cast of more than 130 speaking roles. Although Shearer played the lead and received top-billing, her character was deemed too noble by critics and, to her chagrin, her long time rival Joan Crawford and a resurrected Rosalind Russell received the best reviews.
Critics praised the suspenseful atmosphere in her next film, Escape (1940), where she played the lover of a Nazi general who helps an American free his mother from a concentration camp. With increasing interest in the war in Europe, the film performed well at the box office, but Shearer was losing ground at MGM. A new breed of younger actresses was rising through the ranks, most notably Greer Garson, who began to be first choice for roles which (in Thalberg's time) would assuredly have been earmarked for Shearer.
Shearer also made some serious errors in judgement, passing up roles in Gone With the Wind, Now, Voyager and Mrs. Miniver. Instead, she made the forgettable We Were Dancing and Her Cardboard Lover (1942), which both failed at the box office.
In 1942, Shearer unofficially retired from acting.
A year later, she was personally approached by Bette Davis to return to the screen as her co-star in Old Acquaintance, but Shearer refused to play the unsympathetic role of the catty best friend and hack romance novelist. The film was eventually made with Miriam Hopkins.
Retirement
After Thalberg's death, Shearer embarked on romances with the then married actor George Raft[20], Mickey Rooney, and James Stewart.[21]
Following her retirement in 1942, she married Martin Arrougé (March 23, 1914 - August 8, 1999), a former ski instructor twelve or fourteen years her junior.[22] Confounding the skeptics, they were still happily married at the time of her death (from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease) at 80 years old, although in her declining years she reportedly called Martin "Irving".[23]
Two years after Norma's death, Martin married Michele Daphne Shinall on August 5, 1985, in Reno, Nevada.[citation needed]
Shearer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard. She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in a crypt marked Norma Shearer Arrouge, along with her first husband Irving Thalberg. Her friend Jean Harlow is in the crypt next door. Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer.[24]
On June 30, 2008, Canada Post Corporation will issue a stamp to honour Norma Shearer, along with one for Raymond Burr, Marie Dressler, and Chief Dan George. [25]
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bobsmythhawk
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:41 am
Noah Beery, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Noah Lindsey Beery
August 10, 1913(1913-08-10)
Kansas City, Missouri
Died November 1, 1994 (aged 81)
Tehachapi, California
Occupation Film, television actor
Noah Lindsey Beery (August 10, 1913 - November 1, 1994), known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his legendary uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. His father, Noah Nicholas Beery (known professionally as Noah Beery or Noah Beery, Sr.), enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as a supporting actor.
Beery was best known as James Garner's uptight and concerned father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford on the 1970s television series The Rockford Files.
Life and career
Beery was born in New York City, New York where his father was working as a stage actor. The family moved to California in 1915 when his father began acting in motion pictures. After attending school in Los Angeles, they moved to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, a style of living he would maintain for the rest of his life.
At the age of seven, he appeared with his father in The Mark of Zorro and like his father, who immediately began billing himself as "Noah Beery, Sr.," he went on to become a respected character actor. His uncle, Oscar-winning screen phenomenon Wallace Beery, became the world's highest-paid actor by 1932, and while neither Noah nor his father ever approached that level, both had extremely long and memorable film careers. All three acting Beerys physically resembled each other rather closely, but Noah, Jr. lacked a thrillingly powerful voice like his father's and uncle's (which is ironic, since both older Beerys made major careers as supporting actors in silent movies).
Noah Beery, Jr. appeared in dozens of films, including a large early role as John Wayne's action partner in 1934's The Trail Beyond (Wayne was 27 years old and Beery was 21), 20 Mule Team with his uncle, and Red River with Wayne, but is best known for his role as Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, the father of Jim Rockford, James Garner's character on the popular television series The Rockford Files (1974-1980). Beery's television work also included a weekly stint as a clown in Circus Boy with Mickey Dolenz in the mid-1950s.
Noah Beery, Jr. died in 1994 in Tehachapi, California of a cerebral thrombosis and was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery with his father and mother, Margarite Lindsey. His uncle, Wallace Beery is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His first wife was Maxine Jones, only child of Western star Buck Jones, until 1966. His second wife was Lisa, until his death. His television star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:45 am
Rhonda Fleming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Marilyn Louis
August 10, 1923 (1923-08-10) (age 85)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Spouse(s) Thomas Lane (? - 1948)
Dr. Lew Morrell (1952-1956)
Lang Jeffries (1960-1962)
Hall Bartlett (1966-1972)
Ted Mann (1978-2001)
Darol Wayne Carlson (2003 - present)
Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis in Hollywood, California, August 10, 1923), is an American motion picture and television actress.
She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.
Fleming began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1945. After appearing uncredited in a several films, she received her first substantial role in the thriller Spellbound (1945), produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She followed this with supporting roles in another thriller, The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak, the Randolph Scott western Abilene Town (1946), and the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum. Her first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947), a low-budget action film made in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring Rory Calhoun.
The actress then co-starred with Bing Crosby in her first Technicolor film, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical loosely based on the novel by Mark Twain. In this film Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on "Once and For Always" and soloing with "When Is Sometime." She and Crosby recorded these songs for a 78 rpm Decca soundtrack album.
In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in Serpent of the Nile. That same year she appeared in two films shot in 3-D, Inferno, with Robert Ryan and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle, with Gene Barry. The following year she starred with Fernando Lamas in Jivaro, her third 3-D release.
Among Fleming's subsequent cinematic credits are Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956), co-starring Dana Andrews; Allan Dwan's Slightly Scarlet, co-starring John Payne and Arlene Dahl; John Sturges's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), co-starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and the Irwin Allen / Joseph M. Newman production The Big Circus (1959), co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. Her most recent film was Waiting for the Wind (1990).
During the 1950s and into the 1960s Fleming frequently appeared on television with guest- starring roles on The Red Skelton Show, The Best of Broadway, Shower of Stars, The Dick Powell Show, Death Valley Days , Wagon Train, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McMillan and Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, and The Love Boat. On March 4, 1962, Fleming appeared in one of the last segments of ABC's Follow the Sun in a role opposite Gary Lockwood, who is nearly fourteen years her junior. She played a Marine in the episode entitled "Marine of the Month".
In 1958, Fleming again displayed her singing talent when she recorded her only LP, entitled simply Rhonda. In this album she blended then current songs like "Around The World" with standards such as "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "I've Got You Under My Skin".
In retirement, Fleming has worked for several charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and served on the committees of many related organizations. In 1991 she and her late husband, Ted Mann, set up the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic For Women's Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center.
Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:50 am
Jimmy Dean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Jimmy Ray Dean
Born August 10, 1928 (1928-08-10) (age 80)
Origin Plainview, Texas
Genre(s) Country, Pop
Occupation(s) Singer, Actor, Businessman
Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar
Years active 1953- Present
Label(s) Columbia Records
Associated acts Roy Clark, Patsy Cline, Charlie Rich
Jimmy Dean (b. Jimmy Ray Dean August 10, 1928, in Plainview, Texas) is an American country music singer, television host, actor, and businessman. Although he may be best known today as the founder of the Jimmy Dean Food Company, he first rose to fame for his country crossover hits like "Big Bad John," and for his television appearances.
Early career
Dean may have been born and lived in the small unincorporated community of Seth Ward just northeast of Plainview.[1] Dean was to attribute his music interest to the Seth Ward Baptist Church.[2] The Seth Ward name has prompted some biographies to erroneously say that his birth name was Seth Ward.
Jimmy Dean became a professional entertainer after a stint in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1940s. He became the host of the popular Washington D.C. TV program Town and Country Time and, with his Texas Wildcats, became favorites in the region. Both Patsy Cline and Roy Clark got their starts with Dean, who eventually fired Clark, his lead guitarist, for his chronic tardiness. Dean replaced Clark with Billy Grammer. Patsy Cline and Dean were good friends during the run of the Town Country Time TV show in the mid-50s. He had his first hit, "Bummin' Around," in 1953, but had no other hits for the rest of the decade. He also had a passion for the Mexican burrito, which he called "delectable enough for my auntie Geraldine."
Dean went on to New York in the 1950s where he hosted another TV variety show for CBS and signed with Columbia Records. For several years in the late 50's and early 60's, he was a host of the CBS News Morning Show which aired prior to Captain Kangaroo.
The 1960s
He became best known for his 1961 recitation song about a heroic miner, "Big Bad John." Recorded in Nashville, the record went to No.1 on the Billboard pop charts and inspired many imitations and parodies. The song won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. He had several more Top 40 songs including a Top 10 in 1962 with "PT-109", a song in honor of John F. Kennedy's heroism in World War II.
In the early 1960s, he hosted the Tonight Show on occasion and one night introduced Roy Clark, with whom he'd remained friendly, to a national audience. His mid-1960s ABC television variety show, The Jimmy Dean Show, was one of the first to regularly present country music entertainers to a mainstream audience, including Roger Miller, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Buck Owens and a few like Joe Maphis, who seldom got any network TV exposure. He's also remembered for his sketches with one of Jim Henson's muppets, Rowlf the Dog. Many guests who were not related to country music appeared on the show.
When the show ended in the late 1960s, he began to dabble in acting. His best-known role was that of millionaire Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. Dean also continued to perform music concerts around the U.S.
Because of the similarities in their names, Jimmy Dean is sometimes confused with actor James Dean (who was also nicknamed "Jimmy") in song lyric references such as Madonna's "Vogue" or David Essex's "Rock On."
Later singing career
Dean's singing career remained strong into the mid 1960's and in 1965, he achieved a second number 1 country hit with the ballad "The First Thing Every Morning (And The Last Thing Every Night)" and had a Top 40 hit that year with "Harvest of Sunshine". In 1966, Dean signed with RCA Records and immediately had a Top 10 hit with "Stand Beside Me". His other major hits during this time included "Sweet Misery" (1967) and "A Thing Called Love" (1968). He continued having hits well into the early 1970s with his major hits during this time included a duet with Dottie West called "Slowly" (1971) and a solo hit with "The One You Say Good Morning To" (1972).
In 1976, he achieved a million seller with a recitation song as a tribute to his mother and mothers everywhere called "I.O.U.". The song was released a few weeks before Mother's Day and quickly became a Top 10 country hit, his first one in a decade, and a Top 40 pop hit, his first one in 14 years. The song was re-released 3 more times in 1977, 1983 and 1984 but with minor success each time.
Business man
In 1969, he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company with his brother Don and James M Dean grandson of Sam E Dean (Deans Milk Co.). Despite ups and downs (some revolving around his problems with his partner-brother Don Dean), the company did well, in part due to Dean's own extemporized, humor-themed commercials.
Its success led to its acquisition in 1984 by Consolidated Foods, later renamed the Sara Lee Corporation. Dean remained involved in running the company but the new corporate parent eventually began phasing him out of any management duties, a period that took a toll on his health. In January 2004, Dean said that the Sara Lee company had dropped him as the spokesman for the sausage brand.
Movies
Most notable character he played as an actor was Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (film).
Life in Virginia, autobiography, retirement
As a Virginia resident since 1990, he was inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore appointed Dean to the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries, which oversees the state's wildlife efforts and regulates the boating laws.
In the fall of 2004, he released his blunt, straight-talking autobiography, 30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham. Today, Dean lives in semiretirement with second wife Donna Meade Dean, a singer, songwriter, and recording artist he married in 1991 who helped him write his book. The couple lives on private property at historic Chaffin's Bluff overlooking the James River on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.
Jimmy has three children, Garry, Connie, Robert and two granddaughters, Caroline Taylor (Connie's Daughter) and Brianna Dean (Robert's Daughter). Caroline and Brianna are very close and both honors students in the state of New Jersey.
Dean, who dropped out of high school in 1946 to work to help his mother, announced on May 20, 2008, that he is donating $1 million to Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, the largest gift ever from one individual to the institution. "I've been so blessed, and it makes me proud to give back, especially to my hometown."[3]
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:53 am
Eddie Fisher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Edwin John Fisher
Born August 10, 1928 (1928-08-10) (age 80), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre(s) Traditional Pop
Years active 1948-1984
Label(s) RCA Victor, Ramrod, Dot
Edwin John "Eddie" Fisher (born August 10, 1928) is an American singer and entertainer.
Biography
Early life
Fisher, fourth of seven children, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Russian-born Jewish immigrants Kate (née Winokur) and Joseph Fisher.[1][2] His father's surname was originally Fisch, but was anglicised to Fisher upon entry into the United States.[citation needed]
To his family, Fisher was always called "Sonny Boy" or "Sonny". It was known at an early age that he had talent as a vocalist and he started singing in numerous amateur contests, which he usually won. He sang on the radio in high school (he attended Simon Gratz High School in north Philadelphia) and was later on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a popular radio show which moved to television.
Career
By 1946, Fisher was crooning with the bands of Buddy Morrow and Charlie Ventura. He was heard in 1949 by Eddie Cantor at Grossinger's Resort in the Borscht Belt. After performing on Cantor's radio show he was an instant hit and gained nationwide exposure. He then signed with RCA Victor.
Fisher was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951, sent to Texas for basic training, and served a year in Korea. From 1952 to 1953, he was the official vocal soloist for The United States Army Band (Pershing's Own) and a tenor section member in the United States Army Band Chorus (an element of Pershing's Own) assigned at Fort Myer in the Washington, D.C. Military District. The photos of him in uniform during his time in the service did not hurt his civilian career. After his discharge, he became even more popular singing in top nightclubs. He also had a variety television series, Coke Time with Eddie Fisher (NBC) (1953 - 1957), appeared on Perry Como's show, The Chesterfield Supper Club and the George Gobel Show, and starred in another series, The Eddie Fisher Show (NBC) (1957 - 1959).
A pre-Rock and Roll vocalist, Fisher's strong and melodious tenor made him a teen idol and one of the most popular singers of the 1950s. He had seventeen songs in the Top 10 on the music charts between 1950 and 1956 and thirty-five in the Top 40.
In 1956, Fisher costarred with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in the musical comedy Bundle of Joy. He played a serious role in the 1960 drama BUtterfield 8 with then-wife Elizabeth Taylor. His best friend was showman and producer Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash in 1958. Fisher's affair and subsequent marriage to Todd's famous widow caused a show business scandal because he and his first wife, also famous, had a very public divorce.
In 1960, he was dropped by RCA Victor and briefly recorded on his own label, Ramrod Records. He later recorded for Dot Records. During this time, he had the first commercial recording of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. This technically counts as the biggest standard Fisher can claim credit for introducing, although it is rarely associated with him. He also recorded the album Eddie Fisher today which showed that he had more depth than his singles from the early years had shown. The Dot years were not successful in record sales terms but they did show him as a more competent and entertaining singer than the RCA Victor years. He then returned to RCA Victor and had a minor single hit in 1966 with the song Games That Lovers Play, which became the title of his best selling album. During the time Fisher was the most popular singer in America[citation needed], in the mid 1950s, singles, rather than albums, were the primary recording medium. His last album for RCA was an Al Jolson tribute, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet. Eddie Fisher's last album was recorded around 1984 under the Bainbridge record label. Fisher tried to stop the album from being released but it showed up on the record stores shelves entitled After All. The album was produced by William J. O'Malley and arranged by Angelo DiPippo.
Fisher has performed in top concert halls all over the United States and headlined in major Las Vegas showrooms. He has headlined at the Palace Theater in New York City as well as London's Palladium.
Fisher has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for Recording, at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for TV, at 1724 Vine Street.
Personal life
Fisher has had five wives: actress Debbie Reynolds (married 1955-divorced 1959), actress Elizabeth Taylor (married 1959-divorced 1964), actress Connie Stevens (married 1967-divorced 1969), Terry Richard (married 1975- divorced 1976) and Betty Lin (married 1993). Betty Lin died on April 15, 2001. Fisher is the father of two children by Reynolds, actress Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, and the father of two children by Stevens, actress Joely Fisher and actress Tricia Leigh Fisher.
In 1981, Fisher wrote an autobiography, Eddie: My Life, My Loves (ISBN 0-06-014907-8). He wrote another autobiography in 1999 titled Been There, Done That (ISBN 0-312-20972-X). The later book devotes little space to Fisher's singing career, but recycled the material of his first book and added many new sexual details that had been too spicy to publish the first time around.
When interviewed, Debbie Reynolds will characteristically say that she could understand being dumped "for the world's most beautiful woman (Taylor)", previously a close friend. Taylor and Reynolds later resumed their friendship, and mocked Fisher in their TV movie These Old Broads, wherein their characters ridiculed the ex-husband they shared, named "Freddie."
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 05:59 am
Rosanna Arquette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Rosanna Lauren Arquette
August 10, 1959 (1959-08-10) (age 48)
New York City, New York
Spouse(s) John Sidel
(December 1993 - 1999) (divorced) 1 daughter
James Newton Howard
(13 September 1986 - 1987) (divorced)
Anthony Greco
(17 July 1979 - October 1980) (divorced)
Awards won
BAFTA Awards
Best Supporting Actress
1985 Desperately Seeking Susan
Rosanna Lauren Arquette (born August 10, 1959) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actress, film director, and film producer.
Biography
Early life
Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Mardi Olivia (née Nowak), an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director.[1] Arquette's paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette. Arquette's mother was Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust refugee from Poland,[2] and her father was a convert to Islam and a descendant of explorer Meriwether Lewis.[3][4][5][6] Arquette's siblings are actors Patricia, Alexis, Richmond and David Arquette. Arquette is also the sister-in-law of Courteney Cox Arquette, who is married to Arquette's brother David.
In 1963, Arquette's family moved to Chicago, where her father managed The Second City theater for several years. When she was 11 years old, her parents moved to a commune in Front Royal, Virginia. Arquette did not do well at school. In 1974, she hitchhiked across the country with three older teenagers, eventually going to San Francisco, where she worked at Renaissance and Dickens fairs. Her professional theater debut was May 27, 1977, appearing in the Story Theatre Musical Ovid's The Metamorphoses at the Callboard Theatre on Melrose Place in Los Angeles.
Career
In Hollywood, she had her first roles playing teens with troubles. A few years later she started to act in mature roles. Besides films, Arquette appeared from the beginning of her career in television films. In 1982, she earned an Emmy Award nomination for the TV film The Executioner's Song. Thereafter, she played in many cinema movies and TV films and has worked with many of the most acclaimed film directors of the last twenty years. Arquette's first starring role was in John Sayles's Baby It's You, a highly regarded but little seen film. She starred in Desperately Seeking Susan alongside pop singer Madonna. After Hours also played to her comedic talents but failed to find an audience while 8 Million Ways to Die was buried by the studio. For a time, she quit Hollywood to work in Europe.
In 1989, Martin Scorsese offered her a part in New York Stories. Since then, Arquette has appeared, with few exceptions, in one or in several movies each year, some of them of notable interest, like Pulp Fiction and the David Cronenberg film, Crash. An offbeat choice, however, was to fly downunder and make the Australian film Wendy Cracked a Walnut (1990) (also known as " Almost"). An expensive film, and a huge box office flop, only the musical score by Bruce Smeaton was generally noted by critics, for its musical innovation. In 1990, Arquette appeared on the cover and in a nude pictorial in Playboy's September issue, although she claimed it was without her prior knowledge or approval.[7]
In recent years, Arquette has also been expanding into directing. Recent films which she has directed include the documentaries Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and All We Are Saying (2005); she also produced both projects.[8]
Arquette also appeared in the short running What About Brian as Nicole Varsi.
Personal life
Arquette was married when she was 19 to director/composer Tony Greco; they divorced in October 1980. Arquette briefly dated Toto member Steve Porcaro; the band's Grammy Award-winning single "Rosanna", the lead track on the album Toto IV, was named after her, but the song itself was not about her, according to writer David Paich. In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, Arquette said that she used to bring the band "juice and beer" at all hours of the night during their recording sessions. Her 1986 marriage to composer James Newton Howard ended in divorce as well. The reconciliation with an old love of Arquette's, English pop and rock star Peter Gabriel, proved also to be impossible. Arquette married restaurateur Jon Sidel in 1993. One year later their daughter, Zoe Blue Sidel, was born. Arquette went on working intensively, which meant she was often away from home. The couple divorced in 1999. Arquette got engaged to entertainment executive, David Codi, in September of 2001.[9]
More recently, Arquette has focused her energies on spending time with her daughter and promoting awareness of breast cancer, while continuing with her work, now also as a director. Her mother had died of breast cancer in 1997. In 2002 her critically acclaimed documentary Searching for Debra Winger was released. In the film, Arquette interviews prominent and respected actresses (mostly between the ages of 30 and 60) in an attempt to find out whether it was practical for a working actress to successfully maintain a family.
Quotes
"I'm a wreck. I get hurt very easily. I don't have a tough shell. I'm so insecure ?- it's pretty stupid for me to be in this business, isn't it?"[10]
"I have buck teeth. I sucked my thumb until I was 11... and then I went on to suck other things "[11]
"I'm very insecure. I hate working out. I detest it. I have places that could probably be more toned, but in Europe, imperfection is beautiful".[12]
"I love music and wanted to sit down with some of the people I admire and discuss what keeps them going ?- the balance between art and life, the state of the art of music today and what inspires them. Most true artists care about music as a pure, passionate art form, but can get caught in the trap of the business which, sadly, has now become more important than the artist or even the music itself".[13]
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 06:02 am
Antonio Banderas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born José Antonio Domínguez Banderas
August 10, 1960 (1960-08-10) (age 48)
Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
Occupation actor, singer
Years active 1979 ?- present
Spouse(s) Melanie Griffith (1996-)
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born August 10, 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor and singer. He began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then starred in high-profile Hollywood films including Assassins, Evita, Desperado, , Philadelphia, The Mask of Zorro and the Shrek sequels.
Biography
Early life
Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalusia, southern Spain, the son of doña Ana Banderas, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a policeman in the Guardia Civil.[1][2] He also has one brother, Francisco. Banderas was raised as a Roman Catholic, but no longer follows the religion.[3] He took his mother's surname as his stage name.[4] He initially wanted to play football professionally, but his dream ended when he broke his foot at age 14. As a young man, he travelled to Madrid, in order to make a career in the Spanish film industry.
Career in Spain
His acting career began at the age of 19, when he worked in small theaters during the Movida period. He first gained wide attention through a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar, between 1982 and 1990. These included Laberinto de pasiones (1982), Matador (1986), La ley del deseo (1987), Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988), and ¡Átame! (1989). His breakthrough role was as the character "Ricky" in ¡Átame! (English-language title: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), which was a minor success in the United States.
Career in Hollywood
He subsequently moved to the U.S. and began appearing in American films; some of his earlier roles there included the 1992 film, The Mambo Kings, as well as a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1993 film, Philadelphia. He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film, Desperado. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role originally played on Broadway by Mandy Patinkin. He also received critical praise for his role as the fictional Mexican masked swordsman, Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro, for which he was the first Spanish actor to portray the character after over 80 years since Zorro's creation.
He has also frequently collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy and the final installment in the "Mariachi" trilogy (in which he appeared with Johnny Depp), Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Banderas' sole credit as a director was the poorly-received Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his wife Melanie Griffith.
In 2003, he returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raul Julia. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.[5] His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics.
His voice role as Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third made the character popular on the family film circuit. In 2005, he reprised his role as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro, though this was not as critically successful as the original. In 2006, he starred in Take the Lead, a high school-set movie in which he played a real-life ballroom dancing teacher. That year, he also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award, on October 14.[6] He hosted Saturday Night Live's 600th episode (in season 31). The musical guest was Mary J. Blige. He performed a voice-over for a computer-animated bee which can be seen in the United States in television commercials for Nasonex,[7] an allergy medication, and was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer.[8] He is being considered for the part of Hadrian in the in-production (as of February 2008) film Memoirs of Hadrian.[9]
Personal life
Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and in May 1996 he married actress Melanie Griffith,[10] whom he met a year earlier when they shot Two Much.[11] They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, born in 1996, who appeared in the film Crazy in Alabama (1999), in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed.[12]
He has invested his movie earnings in business marketing Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the Czech Republic.[13] He is a long time supporter of the Málaga CF[14] and Real Madrid Football Club.[15] While he speaks in his native Andalusian Spanish with his family and Spanish press, he switches to the Castilian pronunciation when playing non-Andalusian roles or when dubbing his Hollywood performances.[citation needed]
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Sun 10 Aug, 2008 06:04 am
Pronouncing English
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
Thanks, hawkman, for the great info on the notables. Loved your Miss Pronunciation poem. Confession. I did NOT know the correct pronunciation of query, so I learned something today.
Then, of course, there is GAZEbo; PLACEbo; paNAcea,etc.
firefly, what a surprise to hear Bix. Also loved Senor Banderas. Here are the English words to the first.
I'm a very honest man
That likes the best.
I'm not lacking women,
money, or love.
Riding on my horse
Through the mountains I go.
The stars and the moon
tell me where to go.
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Ay, ay, my love.
Ay, my dark-skinned woman
Of my heart.
I like to play guitar,
I like to sing in the sun.
Mariachis accompany me
When I sing my song.
I like to drink
Brandy is the best.
Also white tequila
with salt for flavor
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Ay, ay, my love.
Ay, my dark-skinned woman
Of my heart
I like to play guitar,
I like to sing in the sun.
Mariachis accompany me
When I sing my song.
I like to drink
Brandy is the best.
Also white tequila
with salt for flavor
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Ay, ay, my love.
Ay, my dark-skinned woman
Of my heart
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Ay, ay, my love.
Ay, my dark-skinned woman
Of my heart
Ah, our puppy and her lovely collage. An octet today, and it does jog our RNA to see the faces. Thanks PA.
edgar, I know Bummin' Around, but didn't know that Jimmy did it. Thanks, Texas.
Oops. forgot the best one and that was the delightful musical scale presentation by Eddie, Andy, and Bobby. Great, firefly, and Eddie fischer is really wonderful.
Also have an announcement. smokingun is alive and well and living in Northern Ireland, but he had bypass heart surgery. So good to hear from him and his wife, and he is fully recovered and doing well.
