Please allow me to back this up a bit to the late, great Alice Ghostley.
Lynn dropped by my "little shop of horrors" earlier for "lunch." Her departing line was one uttered by Alice in "To Kill a Mockingbird." I missed my cue and it's been bugging me so...
"My Lord, Aunt Stephanie, you almost gave me a heart attack!"
And to add that this is my favorite time of year to watch "To Kill A Mockingbird." It's just the perfect "Autumn" movie...
Thanks!
Broadway actor George Grizzard passed away at age 79. You can find him in the movies too. For instances, he was the bullying senator in Advise and Consent and the doctor in Happy Birthday, Wanda June. He was married to Elaine Stritch in Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks.
But he's best known for his Broadway work. His Broadway debut was as Paul Newman’s kid brother and fellow convict in The Desperate Hours, in which they invaded the home of Karl Malden and Nancy Coleman. He created the role of George, accompanying Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill and Melinda Dillon, in the original cast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He won a Tony awards for his performance in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance.
His life partner, William Tynan, said his death at New York's Presbyterian Hospital was caused by complications of lung cancer.
I read that news this morning. Too bad -- a very fine and subtle actor, who on the surface appeared very bland, but never, ever gave a bland performance. He will be missed.
Before the arrival of Farrah Fawcett, adolescent boys of the 1960's had a different poster on their bedroom walls; that of Steve McQueen making his legendary motorcycle jump over the barbed wire border crossing into Switzerland from the movie The Great Escape. Only it wasn't Steve McQueen who made the jump. Walter Mirisch' insurance company wouldn't allow their big star to do such a stunt. So McQueen called his pal Bud Ekins. He was the unsung hero to many kids in the 1960's. And now, Bud Ekins has passed at age 77. You can read his obituary in Variety here.
Screenwriter and director Charles Griffith died of a heart attack September 28, 2007 in San Diego at age 77.
Griffith was born into a show biz family. His grandmother, Myrtle Vail, was a vaudevillian who starred with his mother, Donna Damerel, in the radio soap opera Myrt and Marge. In 1933 they made a movie version of Myrt and Marge that also featured Eddie Foy, Ted Healey and the Three Stooges. Years later, Miss Vail would be featured in movies written by her grandson: The Little Shop of HorrorsA Bucket of Blood.
Griffith made his name in low-budget horror/comedy films and is best known for his screenplay of the 1960 cult classic Little Shop of Horrors. He also helped write the screenplay for the musical version 1986. The original film was shot in black and white in about two days, and was notable for featuring Jack Nicholson as Wilbur Force, the pain-loving dental patient (Steve Martin played the dentist in the muscial version). He played several small roles throughout Little Shop and can be heard bellowing "Feed me!" as the voice of the carnivorous plant, Audrey Jr.
He wrote dozens of films in various genres including science fiction, westerns and horror. Among them are Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood and Attack of the Crab Monsters; Forbidden Island (with Jon Hall and John Farrow); Death Race 2000 featuring David Carradine and a pre-RockySylvester Stallone; and Eat My Dust with Ron Howard.
RIP Charles Griffith _____________________________________________________________
Werner von Trapp, one of the real kids from the von Trapp family made famous by the 1965 movie The Sound of Music died October 11, 2007, at the age of 91.
Born in 1915 in Zell am See, Austria, von Trapp was the fourth child and second son of Captain Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead. The Sound of Music was loosely based on the 1949 book by his stepmother, Maria von Trapp, who died in 1987. In the movie, Werner was depicted by the character named "Kurt", played by Duane Chase.
During the 1930s, von Trapp studied cello and sang tenor with The Trapp Family Singers, after their debut in 1935. In 1938, von Trapp and his family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria. They became popular concert artists in New York City before settling in Vermont. During World War II, von Trapp served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Europe.
After the war, he returned to his family's farm in Vermont and resumed touring with the family choir. When the Trapp Family Singers retired, Werner helped found the Community School of Music in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Several years later he brought his family back to Vermont and eventually settled on a dairy farm in Waitsfield where he farmed with his family until he retired in 1979. He spent the years after his retirement traveling and weaving, spinning, and crocheting.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Erika, and six children. He is also survived by three sisters and one brother.
Oh my. I'm sorry to say that I thought Deborah Kerr had already past; I didn't realize she was still with us. Apparently her condition with Parkinsons has kept her out of the public eye. I'm so sorry TCM never sat her in the Private Screenings chair.
That image of her screen kiss with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity is iconic. The image of her waltzing with the Yul Brynner... Her sparkling repartee with Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember... Sister Clodagh out of her element in Black Narcissus... but when I think of Miss Kerr, my first and favorite memory is of her beautiful monologue of tolerance in Night of the Iguana.
These are very sad news. She was one of my favorites and one of the few first magnitude stars from the Classic Era that was still alive. Rest in peace dear lady.
She appeared in so many excellent films: "The Innocents", "Black Narcissus", "The Hucksters", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "The End of the Affair", "From Here to Eternity", "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison", "Separate Tables", "An Affair to Remember" et al.
A lovely, beautiful, classy lady and a seasoned trouper.
The news about Ms. Kerr is very sad to me. I rarely listed her in my different 'favorites' lists because to me she, along with Greer Garson were the epitome' of what I consider a 'lady', and by listing them, it is often followed by a disparaging remark by someone who didn't like them, and I did not want to incur those remarks.
I first became aware of her in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, and after that watched for her name in movies all the time until I had seen as many as I could. Tea and Sympathy, Separate Tables, From Here to Eternity and best of all An Affair to Remember brought such warmth, understanding, empathy, and any other emotion you could look for. She did them all with a charm and grace that nobody else could. Deborah Kerr outshone all the Crawfords, Davis', Garbos, and Lamarrs like the golden top layer of a pyramid. Reunion at Fairborough was the final example of the beauty she could portray in both words and actions. Rather than turning into a parady of herself, she left us with her serenity and graciousness intact.
Anne
Anne
***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *
]***********************************************************************
And I started out the day in such a good mood - this is such sad news. I was so disheartened when I learned she had Parkinson's - my dad was afflicted with this and it is such a suffering end for anyone. At first, I only saw her in King and I and Affair to Remember, and thought her lovely and elegant, but then saw more of her performances over the years and came to regard her as my absolute favorite actress. From beautiful and sensual to homely and repressed, elegant to down-to earth, I think she could play it all. Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, End of the Affair, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Sundowners, Seperate Tables, Tea & Sympathy - all great favorites of mine.
Oh -- such bad news. I think many women of my age have wonderful memories of Kerr in "The King and I." She was so beautiful and so ladylike -- better than any Barbie doll. She was one of the few actresses of that type that I could stand, and who I never find phony or forced.
She was a wonderful actress, maybe even more than she was given credit for. I just recently saw her in the 1960s version of "Casino Royale." She was so very funny - sort of like an extra-beautiful Elsa Lanchester.
Star of Those Redheads from Seattle, Teresa Brewer has passed away. Better known as a recording artist and her hit "Music Music", she nevertheless gave the silver screen a try in 1953. She'd won a poll by Paramount Pictures and was selected as the country's most popular female singer. The studio cast her in the 3-D musical, accompanying fellow redheads Rhonda Fleming and Agnes Morehead. She received good notices and Paramount offered her a contract, but she chose to stay in New Rochelle.
