Gone With or Without fanfare

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh!i love Paul Sand too, and I remember that show! I immediately fell for both those guys. They always cancel the best shows.

[Lzcutter]

I have two favorite characters and two favorite character actors from that show, Steve Landesberg and Jack Soo. I hope they are having a drink together in heaven.

Barney Miller was one of the best written shows on television and they added immensely to the story telling.

RIP, Steve Landesberg

[ken123]

The Eductional Forum as an interesting thread on a Steve Landesberg http://eductionforum.ipbhost.com/index.php? to acess this index page, this thread has just started with the announcement of Mr Landesberg death

[JackFavell]

It seems to be about the wrong Steve Landesberg.

[ken123]

It seems to be about the wrong Steve Landesberg.

Could be, but IMHO it makes for interesting reading, especially the Village Voice article from December 1963.

Take a peek at the Wikipedia arctice on Mr. Landesberg.

[klondike]

Hey, Geraldine, we'll miss ya, but we can still do it!


Geraldine Doyle, inspiration for 'Rosie the Riveter,' dies at 86
By Elizabeth Chuck

With a red and white bandana in her hair and factory worker uniform sleeves rolled up to reveal her bulging biceps, Rosie the Riveter was painted on a World War II recruitment poster in 1942. But for four decades, the real Rosie the Riveter had no idea she was the woman who inspired it.

Perhaps it was because Geraldine Doyle left her factory job after two weeks – or because she didn’t actually have bulging biceps – that Doyle, who died at 86 years old on Sunday in Lansing, Mich., didn’t know for so long that she was the model for what would became a symbol of women’s empowerment.

Doyle was 17 in 1942 and had been hired as a metal presser at a factor close to her home in Inkster, Mich., to help the war effort, her daughter Stephanie Gregg told the New York Times. One day, a United Press International photographer came to the steelworks factory and took a picture of Doyle leaning over machinery, a red and white polka-dot bandana covering her hair (see the original photo here). Later that year, the government commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce morale-boosting posters that would motivate workers and recruit women to join the war workforce. The UPI photo of Doyle, a slender brunette that her daughter calls “a glamour girl,” caught his eye.


Meanwhile, Doyle – a cellist – learned that a worker had injured her hands at the factory, and decided to get a safer job at a soda fountain and bookshop in Ann Arbor, according to the Washington Post.

In 1984, married to a dentist and a mother to five children, Doyle came across an article in former AARP publication Modern Maturity magazine that connected her photo with the wartime poster, which she hadn’t seen before.

“The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face – that’s her,” daughter Gregg told the Times. But, she said, “she didn’t have those big muscles. She was busy playing cello.”

Nonetheless, when she saw it, she said, “This is me!” Gregg told the Lansing State Journal.

Rosie the Riveter became a lasting emblem. In the early 1940s, Red Evans and John Jacob Loeb wrote a song named after her. In 1943, the Saturday Evening Post put a Norman Rockwell illustration of another female worker with the name “Rosie” painted on her lunch pail. n 1999, the U.S. Postal Service created a “We Can Do It!” stamp.

For years, Doyle signed Rosie the Riveter t-shirts, posters, and more. While many profited from her image, she never charged a penny to fans, her daughter said.

"She would say that she was the 'We Can Do It!' girl," Gregg told the Lansing State Journal. "She never wanted to take anything away from the other Rosies."

[klondike]

Just caught this guy back last Autumn in The Town, as the evil Irish crimelord of the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston - the whole film was surprisingly good, and Postlethwaite made my skin crawl, even as he fascinated the entire audience with what was supposed to be a very small role!

Oscar-nominated star Pete Postlethwaite dies at 64

LONDON (AP) -- Oscar-nominated British actor Pete Postlethwaite, described by director Steven Spielberg as "the best actor in the world," has died at age 64 after a long battle with cancer.

Longtime friend and journalist Andrew Richardson said Monday that Postlethwaite died in a hospital Sunday.

A gritty and powerful actor, Postlethwaite was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the 1993 film "In The Name Of The Father."

He had recently been seen in the critically acclaimed film "Inception" and had worked with Spielberg on "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Amistad."

Postlethwaite initially planned to become a priest but was drawn to acting.

He received an OBE in 2004 along with many other honors for his long career in movies, theater, and television.

Postlethwaite lived in the hills of rural Shropshire, in western England. He was a political activist known for his opposition to the recent war in Iraq and his call for policies to fight global warming.

He had recently returned to the stage to star as King Lear.

The actor had been treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Shortly before his death he publicly thanked the hospital staff in the Shropshire Star newspaper for their "wonderful" treatment and care during his illness.

He is survived by his wife, Jacqui, his son Will and daughter, Lily.

[JackFavell]

Agh. This is so sad. He was a superb actor. You just don't see his depth and humanity much anymore. He seemed to me to be a throwback to the grand tradition of British acting, a real great. I don't know much about him, aside from some of his roles, but what I did see was a modest man who was more interested in the role than in any grandstanding. What a shame for the world to lose a great actor so young.

[movieman1957]

I never heard of the man until I starting watching the "Sharpe" series of films with Sean Bean. Postelthwaite played some sadistic British officer and played with such conviction I couldn't imagine seeing the man ever smile.

I still haven't seen him in anything else but he was really good in that part.

[JackFavell]

You might want to see In the Name of the Father, Brassed Off and James and the Giant Peach for roles that are more sympathetic.

[Lzcutter]

MrC and I just watched The Town the other evening. He was very menacing as the Florist who has his fingers in everyone's business.

I think my favorite role of his may be in In the Name of the Father where he and Daniel Day Lewis play father and son.

[klondike]

'Baker Street' singer Gerry Rafferty dead at 63

Jan. 4, 2011, 5:47 PM EST
LONDON (AP) —
Gerry Rafferty, the Scottish singer-songwriter behind hit songs "Baker Street" and "Stuck in the Middle With You," has died. He was 63.

Rafferty's agent Paul Charles confirmed Tuesday that his client had passed away following a long illness, but said he had no additional information on how or where he had died.

Rafferty's classic record "Baker Street" — renowned worldwide for its distinctive haunting saxophone solo — climbed to No. 3 in the U.K. and No. 2 in the U.S. music charts in 1978. It still achieves considerable airplay on radio stations.

The singer also recorded "Stuck in the Middle With You" in 1972 while performing as part of the Scottish folk-rock band Stealers Wheel. The ode — or mocking tribute— to Bob Dylan's raspy voice grew new wings in film maker Quentin Tarantino's movie "Reservoir Dogs," and has sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Rafferty made headlines in recent years for his public struggles with alcoholism and had also undergone treatment for liver failure. He reassured fans of his well-being in February 2009 after a former bandmate expressed concerns over his health and whereabouts in the press. Later that year, Rafferty released the album "Life Goes On."

After initially cutting his teeth as a busker, Rafferty appeared with Scottish comedian Billy Connolly in folk group the Humblebums and released a solo record before founding Stealers Wheel.

Despite his brushes with negative press — from a long-running contract dispute with Stealers Wheel to scathing character critiques posted online by his brother, Jim — Rafferty was described by employees at his latest record label as a man who kept to himself and shunned the spotlight.

[Lzcutter]

Peter Yates, the director of Bullit, Breaking Away and other films has passed away.

From the LA Times:

Peter Yates, the British director of "Breaking Away," "The Dresser" and "Bullitt," the 1968 Steve McQueen movie whose landmark car chase sequence over the hilly streets of San Francisco was a career-defining moment for both director and star, has died. He was 81.

Yates died Sunday in London after an illness, his agent, Judy Daish, said in a statement reported by The Associated Press.

In a career that began with the 1963 Cliff Richard pop musical "Summer Holiday," Yates directed more than two dozen movies, including "Murphy's War," "The Hot Rock," "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," "For Pete's Sake," "The Deep," "Mother Jugs & Speed" and "Eyewitness."

As a director, Yates received two Academy Award nominations - for "Breaking Away," a light-hearted coming-of-age tale set in Indiana; and for "The Dresser," a 1983 backstage story set in wartime England with Albert Finney as an actor-manager trying to keep his company afloat and Tom Courtney as his dedicated dresser.

Yates also was the producer of "Breaking Away" and a producer of "The Dresser," both of which received Oscar nominations for best picture.

He had directed only three films before making his American film debut with "Bullitt," whose cast included Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset.

A car chase in "Robbery," Yates' realistic 1967 thriller based on the Great Train Robbery of the Royal Mail in 1963, had come to the attention of McQueen, whose company produced "Bullitt."

During the making of "Bullitt," McQueen was more than willing to get behind the wheel of his police detective character's dark green Mustang fastback for the chase sequence with the bad guys in a Dodge Charger.

In a 1992 Associated Press interview, Yates remembered McQueen as "a lot of macho," which became abundantly clear while directing one part of the chase.

"I was in the back of the Mustang and Steve was going about 120 mph," Yates recalled. "We came to the last downhill section and when we got to the top of the hill Steve was still going pretty fast. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'We can slow down now, we're almost out of film.' Steve very calmly said, 'We can't. There aren't any brakes.'"

The Mustang, according to the AP account, continued to race down the hill past the film crew and onto a main road before McQueen slowed it down by driving up an embankment.

"If it was anyone else, we might not have made it," Yates said. "Steve was a great driver."

In the wake of "Bullitt," Yates directed the 1969 love story "John and Mary," starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow.

"After 'Bullitt,' I was determined not to do another action film," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. "That may have been a mistake, but my theory was, perhaps selfishly, it's much more interesting to be involved with different kinds of genres.

"If you're just one kind of director, people will get tired of you. But if you make different films all the time, hopefully you'll be judged on talent."

Yates, who once said that when he was in Los Angeles he "always felt like a tea-planter in a colonial outpost," has been described as down-to-earth, soft-spoken, unassuming and professorial.

"Peter Yates was a very civilized and cultured man, which certainly added to his cinematic contribution," Bisset, who appeared in both "The Deep" and "Bullitt," said in a statement Monday. "He was courageous, even intrepid, during the shooting of 'The Deep' and 'Bullitt.' I value the long friendship with Peter and his wife, Virginia."

Along with the classic chase sequence in "Bullitt," the appearance of Bisset diving in a body-clinging white T-shirt in "The Deep" provided another iconic moment in Yates' filmography.

Yates chuckled when asked by the Independent of London in 1997 if it bothered him that his career could be "distilled down to such basics."

"My son accused me of exactly that," he said. "He told me recently that I'd contributed two things to American culture - the car chase and the wet T-shirt."

But, he said, "It's better to contribute something than absolutely nothing."

Born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England on July 24, 1929, he was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and began his career as an actor. He also reportedly spent several seasons as a race car driver and as a manager for other drivers.

After working as a dubbing editor on foreign films, Yates became an assistant film director in the late '50s, including being assistant director on J. Lee Thompson's "The Guns of Navarone" and Tony Richardson's "The Entertainer" and "A Taste of Honey."

Yates also directed segments of the TV series "The Saint" and "Secret Agent" in the 1960s.

"Curtain Call" a 1999 romantic fantasy, was his last theatrical feature film as a director; his last two credits - "Don Quixote" (2000) and "A Separate Place" (2004) - were TV movies.

Survivors include his wife, Virginia Pope; a son and a daughter.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/10/25 ... z1Agp0a2G8

[JackFavell]

Gosh, I love the movie Breaking Away.

[moira finnie]

David Nelson, the last living member of the Ozzie and Harriet Nelson family that dominated television for a time, has died at 74.

To me, he always looked quite shy on camera, though I know that lots of people thought he was pretty cute in his straight arrow, nice guy way that he brought to his role as Ted Carter, the loyal boyfriend of Selena in Peyton Place (1957), as a decent member of Burl Ives' band of miscreants in Day of the Outlaw (1959) and as the world's least likely trapeze artist in the entertainingly cheesy The Big Circus (1959). Though Nelson's last appearance in front of the camera came as recently as 1990, I believe that David Nelson spent most of his time in subsequent years managing his family's business interests and their individual needs, particularly after the death of his brother Rick Nelson in a plane crash left several children fatherless.


David Nelson (top left) with his brother Ricky and parents Ozzie and Harriet in a fifties portrait.

Below is the obituary of Nelson by Dennis McLellan of The Los Angeles Times

David Nelson, the elder son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and the last surviving member of the family that became an American institution in the 1950s and '60s as the stars of the classic TV sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," died Tuesday. He was 74.

Nelson died at his Century City home of complications from colon cancer, said publicist Dale Olson.

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" began on radio in 1944, focusing on the home life of bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his vocalist wife, Harriet Hilliard.

In 1949, the popular show became a true family affair when 12-year-old David and 8-year-old Ricky replaced the child actors who had been portraying them on radio.

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" moved to television three years later, debuting on ABC in October 1952.

When the series ended in 1966 after 435 episodes, it had become the longest-running family situation comedy in TV history — as well as serving as the launch pad and showcase for teen idol Rick Nelson's singing career.

In the process of playing fictionalized versions of themselves on television each week for 14 years, David and Rick Nelson literally grew up in front of millions of Americans.

Indeed, after David and Rick were married in the early '60s, their wives — first David's wife, actress June Blair, and then Rick's wife, the former Kris Harmon — became their TV wives.

The blurring of what was real and what was not real caused confusion in some viewers' minds.

When David enrolled at USC and joined a fraternity after graduating from Hollywood High School in 1954, his TV character started college and joined a fraternity.

But unlike his TV character, who became a lawyer on the show, David did not go into law.

Instead, he launched his career as a director by taking the reins from his director-father for about a dozen episodes of the show in the early '60s. He spent the next several decades directing commercials and occasional TV series and movies.

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" has been criticized for presenting an idealized version of American family life that few could live up to.

That included the Nelsons, as David pointed out in a 1971 Esquire article headlined "The Happy, Happy, Happy Nelsons."

"We would keep up the front of this totally problemless, happy-go-lucky group," he said. "There might have been a tremendous battle in our home, but if someone from outside came in, it would be as if the director yelled, 'Roll 'em,' We'd fall right into our stage roles.

"It's an awfully big load to carry, to be everyone's fantasy family."

He was born Oct. 24, 1936, in New York City, when Ozzie and Harriet were in their big-band heyday.

Rick was born in 1940, the year before the Nelsons moved permanently to Hollywood.

After Ozzie and Harriet launched their radio show in 1944, David and Rick would accompany their parents to their live broadcasts.

They had no show business aspirations, but when they heard that their young friend Lindsay Crosby was going to make a guest appearance with his father, Bing, in an episode of the show in December 1948, David and Rick lobbied their parents to let them appear as well.

Ozzie and Harriet finally agreed to let them play David and Ricky in the preview show before a studio audience but not the actual broadcast.

As Harriet told The Times in 1981: "You're not anxious to put your career in the hands of kids."

The boys did not disappoint their parents.

"They just opened their mouths and you never heard such laughs," said Harriet. "Ricky sounded like a pipsqueak."

David and Ricky joined the cast of "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in February 1949. Within six months, Radio Life magazine dubbed them "The Crown Princes of Radio."

From the start, Ricky was given most of the funny lines and, as a result, he received most of the attention.

But there wasn't really any rivalry between himself and his younger brother, Nelson said in a 1987 Associated Press interview.

"We were 3 1/2 years apart," David Nelson said. "So when Rick was funny, I laughed with everyone else. And when he became a popular singer, I rooted for him."

David and Rick made their movie debuts in "Here Come the Nelsons," the 1952 comedy released about eight months before the family debuted on television.

During the '50s and early '60s, David Nelson also had roles in the movies "Peyton Place," "The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker," "The Big Circus," "Day of the Outlaw," "30" and "The Big Show."

For "The Big Circus," he learned to be a catcher in a trapeze act and later appeared professionally as a catcher.

Nelson acted only sporadically after "Ozzie and Harriet" ended; his final acting credit was as the father of Wanda ( Traci Lords) in "Cry-Baby," writer-director John Waters' spoof of the '50s.

Ozzie Nelson died of liver cancer in 1975. Rick Nelson died with six others in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1985. And in 1994, Harriet Nelson died of congestive heart failure.

Nelson is survived by his wife, Yvonne; sons John, Eric, James and Danny; daughter Teri; and seven grandchildren. Nelson's marriage to Blair ended in divorce in 1975.

Services and burial will be at noon on Thursday at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary.

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