Gone With or Without fanfare

[RedRiver]

I liked WELLS FARGO when I was a tiny, little cowboy fan. Later, Mr. Robertson filled Ben Johnson's boots handsomely as MELVIN PURVIS, G-MAN. An entertaining personality.

[Western Guy]

Except RedRiver that neither the burly Ben or Dale even remotely resembled the somewhat slight-physiqued Melvin.

My mom's favorite actor and the fella she always regarded as the best-looking Hollywood actor. As a Western fan, enjoyed his many cowboy portrayals, especially opposite the villainous Stephen McNally in DEVIL'S CANYON.

Quite the real-life hero, too, From IMDB:

Robertson entered the U.S. Army during World War II. After stateside training he served as a tank commander in the 777th Tank Battalion in the North African campaign. He was standing in the hatch when his tank was hit by enemy fire. His tank crew were killed, but he was blown out of the hatch and survived with shrapnel wounds to his lower legs, the scars of which he still bears. Fully recovered, he went on to serve with the 322nd Combat Engineer Battalion during the European campaign. He was wounded a second time, this one in the right knee during a mortar attack. Again he made a complete recovery.

RIP, amigo!

[Maricatrin]

Apparently Will Rogers Jr. told him "don't ever take a dramatic lesson. They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and people like their hominy and grits in everyday clothes."

To me, his acting seemed to increase in ease during his television shows, where he revealed a strong personality, charisma, and good sense of humor. Needless to say, I'm saddened to hear of his passing, judging from what I've read about him, he was a true Western Gentleman.

WesternGuy, thank you for mentioning his war service (I'm sorry, I don't know your first name!) Here is a link with further details: http://www.chuckhawks.com/combat_vet.htm

He had a nice singing voice, as shown by this rendition of "Gentle on my Mind".
[youtube][/youtube]

[Rita Hayworth]

Quite the real-life hero, too, From IMDB:

Robertson entered the U.S. Army during World War II. After stateside training he served as a tank commander in the 777th Tank Battalion in the North African campaign. He was standing in the hatch when his tank was hit by enemy fire. His tank crew were killed, but he was blown out of the hatch and survived with shrapnel wounds to his lower legs, the scars of which he still bears. Fully recovered, he went on to serve with the 322nd Combat Engineer Battalion during the European campaign. He was wounded a second time, this one in the right knee during a mortar attack. Again he made a complete recovery.

RIP, amigo!

I'm going to ask my cousin if my deceased Uncle ever knew him during World War Two. He was a tank commander too.

[Western Guy]

Hi Mary-Kate. Please, just call me Stone (I kid you not) -- as in Rock.

Mucho thanks for the link and the video. Not a bad singing voice at all.

[Maricatrin]

Hi Mary-Kate. Please, just call me Stone (I kid you not) -- as in Rock.

Like Dan Blocker always calling George Montgomery "Mr. Rock" on Cimarron City? Thanks, now I don't have to always call you "WesternGuy" (sounds vaguely rude to me, somehow.)

[Western Guy]

Maybe that's 'cause you combine it all as one word.

Cimarron City? That's one I never heard of before. Gotta check it out, Mary-Kate.

[Maricatrin]

Duh (slaps palm to head), I knew there had to be a reason.

Cimarron City was a very short lived western series starring George Montgomery, John Smith, and Audrey Totter. (Dan Blocker, after playing a villain named Tiny in the second episode, subsequently joined the cast as a good guy named Tiny!) I haven't seen all the episodes, but I've enjoyed most of the ones I've seen. I like George Montgomery, and love John Smith, so that doesn't hurt either.

[RedRiver]

Fully recovered, he went on to serve with the 322nd Combat Engineer Battalion during the European campaign. He was wounded a second time

They don't call them The Greatest Generation for nothing. If such service were expected of me, I only hope I'd live up to it.

[Maricatrin]

I feel bad for going off-topic, so here's an American Cowboy magazine article (Jul-Aug 2002) to get me back on track (the whole piece is on Google, so I think it's okay for me to post it here.)

[Western Guy]

Thanks for posting the article, Mary-Kate. He really seemed like a decent fella.

[Maricatrin]

Thanks for posting the article, Mary-Kate. He really seemed like a decent fella.

You're welcome, and I agree --- he always seemed that way to me too.

[Lzcutter]

Bonnie Franklin, the woman whose television character- Ann Romano- came to symbolize a generation of single mothers, has died. While she will probably be more remembered for her television series, One Day At a Time, she was also a Broadway singer and dancer with a Tony nomination for her work in Applause- the musical version of All About Eve. I believe she was at the time of her Tony nomination, the youngest to be nominated in that category.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Bonnie Franklin, the actress who created an indelible television character playing a divorced, working mother of two headstrong daughters on the long-running series "One Day at a Time," died Friday at her Los Angeles home. She was 69.

The cause was complications from pancreatic cancer, her family announced.

By the mid-1970s, Franklin was a theater veteran who had earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway musical "Applause" when she was offered a different kind of role, one that was not then the usual fare on network television.

Developed by Norman Lear, the new CBS series would tell the story of Ann Romano, a divorced woman in her 30s who was raising two teenagers and building a new life for herself in her hometown of Indianapolis. Franklin's character wasn't the first divorced woman on network television but the role, like those of other characters in Lear's groundbreaking sitcoms, was infused with a new level of social realism.

In the show, Romano faced the same challenges that many newly divorced women confronted in real life: finding a job for the first time in years and struggling to collect child support payments and pay the bills.

Many episodes also detailed the character's struggles as the all-but-only parent to her daughters: Julie, the older, rebellious one played by Mackenzie Phillips, and Barbara, the younger, less troubled sibling portrayed by Valerie Bertinelli.

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Pat Harrington Jr. played Dwayne Schneider, the nosy superintendent of the family's apartment building, who provided comic relief during the show's tense moments. Harrington was awarded an Emmy in 1984 as best supporting actor in a comedy series.

Franklin was nominated for an Emmy in 1982 and twice nominated for Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of Romano.

Over its run from 1975 to 1984, which made its tenure among the longest of Lear's series, the show tackled such provocative issues as teen sex, birth control and infidelity.

Franklin said she appreciated Lear's willingness to explore sensitive themes — and his steady hand — in making the series a long-lasting hit.

"Norman sticks pins in people and makes them think about things they wouldn't normally think about," she told a reporter for The Times in 1987. "He made it possible to talk about subjects on television that had never been talked about before: mental retardation, teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on a family."

Bonnie Gail Franklin was born in Santa Monica on Jan. 6, 1944. Her parents were immigrants; her father, an investment banker, came to the U.S. from Russia and her mother from Romania. (She once noted that her red hair and freckles made people skeptical about her Jewish heritage.)

The family lived in Hermosa Beach, later moving to Beverly Hills. And early on her parents enrolled Franklin and her siblings in dance and acting lessons.

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"I was a bookworm, and my mom felt I should get out of myself," she told The Times in the 1987 interview. "My four brothers and sisters also had lessons, but I'm the only one who took them seriously."

At age 9 Franklin made her television debut, tap-dancing with Donald O'Connor on "The Colgate Comedy Hour." She later had guest roles on such popular TV series as "Gidget" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

A graduate of Beverly Hills High School, she attended Smith College in Massachusetts before transferring to UCLA, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1966.

After an early marriage ended in divorce, Franklin focused anew on her acting career. She won critical praise and a Tony nomination in 1970 for her Broadway performance in "Applause," a musical interpretation of the 1950 film "All About Eve." Franklin emerged from the chorus to sing the show's title song.

Throughout her career, Franklin remained a multifaceted performer, putting together nightclub acts and working in both comedic and dramatic roles. Among the latter, she played the main character in the 1980 CBS television movie "Portrait of a Rebel" about birth control activist Margaret Sanger, a role Franklin described as one of her most significant.

She also turned to directing, including episodes of "Charles in Charge," "The Munsters Today" and several episodes of "One Day at a Time."

In 1980, she married television and film producer Marvin Minoff, with whom she had worked on the set of "Portrait of a Rebel." They remained married until his death in 2009.

Survivors include her mother, Claire Franklin; stepchildren Jed Minoff and Julie Minoff; two grandchildren; her brothers, Dr. Bernard Franklin and Richard Franklin; and sisters, Victoria Kupetz and Judith Bush.

[JackFavell]

Whoa. I'm stunned. One of my favorite shows as a kid, She was in the same situation as my mom, so I could relate. She was a very vibrant personality, I guess I never really thought she could ever be ill.

[Rita Hayworth]

Bonnie Franklin is one of my favorites ... I love that show ... One Day at a Time. Died at 69 ... I thought she would be older. She was fabulous at Ann Romero.