Andrew Gold 1951-2011

Andrew Gold, 59, one of the founders and shapers of the Southern California pop/rock sound which dominated pop music in the 1970's, died on Friday at his home in Encino, California of cancer and/or a heart attack.
Guitarist and pianist Andrew Gold was barely out of high school when he joined Linda Ronstadt's band, The Stone Poneys, later playing on and arranging many of her albums, including her breakout 1974 album, "Heart Like a Wheel". Gold became a much-sought after musician who worked with singers such as James Taylor, Carly Simon, Maria Muldaur, Art Garfunkel, Paul McCartney, Cher and Jackson Browne. Along with Waddy Wachtel and Kenny Edwards, Gold helped to define the Southern California sound made popular by Ronstadt, The Eagles, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff, The Doobie Brothers and Boz Scaggs, among many others. Gold is typical of the type of musician who never became a household name, yet within the music industry was a certifiable superstar. For a great example of Gold's "anonymous" work, listen to Linda Ronstadt's first #1 hit, "You're No Good", on which Gold is doing all the guitar work.
In addition to his instrumental, arranging and back-up vocal work for other artists, Gold also had hits of his own. In 1977, he scored a #7 hit with "Lonely Boy", and the following year made it to #25 with "Thank You For Being a Friend", which later became the theme song for the t.v. show, "The Golden Girls".

It was probably inevitable that Gold would find a career in music. His father was Ernest Gold, who wrote the Oscar-winning score for the movie "Exodus", as well as scores for "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "Ship of Fools". Gold's mother is Marni Nixon, a classically trained soprano who performed on Broadway and with the New York Philharmonic, but is best known for dubbing the movie singing voices of Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” Oddly enough, Andrew Gold never learned to formally read music; Gold's mother, Ms. Nixon, said that Andrew played music "by ear".

Jeff Conaway 1950-2011

Veteran t.v., movie and Broadway actor, Jeff Conaway, died yesterday morning in California after being in a coma since May 11. Conaway struggled for years with drug abuse; he once told Howard Stern in an interview that he had attempted suicide twenty-one times.

Conaway made his film debut in 1971, and never stopped working over the years, despite his problems with substance abuse. He is, of course, most famous for his role as "Kenickie" in the movie,
"Grease", and as "Bobby Wheeler" on the hit sitcom "Taxi", 1978-82. Although Conaway played Kenickie in the movie version of Grease, he actually played the leading role of Danny Zuko in the one of the early Broadway casts of the show. While filming "Grease", Conaway met his co-star Olivia Newton-John's sister, Rona, at a party, and married her in 1980, their marriage lasting for five years. Some obituaries today are stating that Conaway and Newton-John had a son named Emerson, while other obits are stating that Conaway had no biological children, and that Emerson was Conaway's step-son. Emerson, oddly enough, is not a singer nor an actor, but a successful race-car driver.

Evidently, Conaway's substance abuse problems go way back. "Taxi" writer Sam Simon said in a 2008 interview that once, during the filming of the popular sitcom, Conaway was found in his dressing room, too high to perform. His dialogue in that particular episode had to be divided among the other cast members. And in addition to alcohol and other substances, Conaway was also addicted to painkillers, which he claimed to have started taking because of an injury he suffered to his back while filming the "Greased Lightening" musical number in the movie "Grease".

Conaway also appeared on "Celebrity Rehab" with Dr. Drew, and if that wasn't bad enough, even former "Grease" cast-mate, John Travolta, took Conaway to his Church of Scientology in an attempt to help Conaway overcome his drug problems. Wow. Now you know that Conaway's drug problem was serious; Dr. Drew's help would be enough to help most of us get clean, but you know that Conaway had one very serious, scary problem if going to the Scientology building with John Travolta wasn't enough to scare him straight. Jesus!

Joseph Brooks 1938-2011

Joseph Brooks, 73, the Oscar winning composer of the mega-hit song, "You Light Up My Life", was found dead yesterday in his New York apartment of an apparent suicide. Brooks became famous when he wrote "You Light Up My Life", which stayed at #1 on the pop charts for 10 consecutive weeks in 1977, at that time the record for a song's stay at #1. The hit song, sung by Debby Boone, ultimately became the biggest song of the 1970's.

Brooks had awaiting trial on charges of 82 sex crimes, he apparently lured women to his apartment under the guise of auditioning them for movie roles. Wow. Had this guy never heard of Match.com?

"You Light Up My Life" won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1978, and after it appeared in the movie of the same name, directed by Brooks, it won the Oscar for Best Song.

Phoebe Snow 1952 - 2011

Yesterday we made a post about pop music history, but little did we know that today we would hear even bigger and sadder music news. Phoebe Snow, one of the world's most gifted singers of pop music, has died at age 60. Snow, best known for her 1975 hit, "Poetry Man", died today from complications from a brain hemorrhage she suffered in 2010.

Sometimes singers who have only have one hit song are dismissed as "one hit wonders", but sometimes that one hit is not only strong enough to cement an entire career, but even becomes a touchstone for an entire generation. Such was the song "Poetry Man", which not only made Snow an overnight star and put her forever in the minds of baby boomers and post-boomers, but was a big enough hit to help define an entire decade.

Soon after releasing "Poetry Man", for which Snow was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy, (she lost to Marvin Hamlisch!), Snow gave birth to a daughter, Valerie, who was severely brain-damaged. Instead of putting Valerie into an institution, Snow decided to stay home and care for her daughter, who died at the age of 31 in 2007. Unfortunately for her fans and the music world, making the decision to stay home limited Snow's ability to record and perform over the years.

To make ends meet, Snow lent her distinctive voice to commercial jingles and occasionally performed, and she was never out of the minds of her fans. At the end of the final episode of Rosanne in 1997, Snow sang the theme song a capella, she performed for Pres. Bill Clinton and guests at Camp David in 1999, and she even sang at Howard Stern's 2008 wedding. She also sang the t.v. theme song for NBC's "Cosby" spin-off, "A Different World". The 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide summed up Snow's career so far by saying: "One of the most gifted voices of her generation, Phoebe Snow can do just about anything stylistically as well as technically."

Many assumed that Snow was African American, but she was born Phoebe Ann Laube to white Jewish parents. She grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and took her stage name from a character on advertisement posters which appeared on the boxcars of trains which passed her home as a girl. In addition to "Poetry Man", Snow's other biggest hit was a 1975 duet with Paul Simon, "Gone At Last", which made it to #23 on the pop charts.

Our favorite Phoebe Snow moments are when she sang on early episodes of "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970's. On her first appearance in 1975, she sang "Gone At Last" with Paul Simon, and in 1976, she appeared for a second time on the show, singing "Two Fisted Love". The 1976 show was also the very famous one where Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show, which was obviously a joke, although the world found out later in interviews with John Lennon that he and Paul McCartney were at Lennon's apartment in New York that night, watching the show, and actually considered taking a taxi over to the NBC studio and making a surprise appearance. If only. If only. But probably the best Phoebe Snow "SNL" appearance was in 1979 when she sang duets with Linda Ronstadt on "Married Men" and the classic "It's In His Kiss". Snow was possibly the only other pop singer in the 1970's who had a voice big enough to go toe-to-toe with the powerful Ronstadt voice. Watch the video below of Snow and Ronstadt, enjoy, and remember the awesome talent that was Phoebe Snow.

Leading Man Round-Up

Because we didn't mention his birthday a couple of days ago, some of you might have thought that we've abandoned James Franco, our own East Village Afternoon's Sexiest Man of 2010, just because he acted a little weird at the Oscars. Hey, what are we, fickle? Well, sometimes, but no, we were busy thinking about other important news items, like Zsa Zsa's nine husbands. Anyway, Happy 33rd James, and don't worry, just because you flopped big-time at hosting the Oscars doesn't mean you won't one day be up there holding one in your hands as Best Actor.

(franco on the set of "the broken tower")

Maybe Franco's Oscar win will come with his next movie, "The Broken Tower", in which he plays gay American poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide at age 32. Part of the movie's story will focus on Crane's love affair with Danish merchant marine Emil Opffer. Works for us.

In other Hollywood leading man news, we were saddened to hear of the death of Michael Sarrazin at age 70 of cancer. Back in the late 1960's and early 70's, there was a handful of lanky, dreamy-looking leading men who bridged the gap between the traditional Hollywood "macho man" and the new hippie-era, "sensitive man". Sarrazin, with his long hair, full lips and doe eyes, yet "strong silent" persona, was the perfect epitome of that particular era. Along with Sarrazin, Edward Albert and Michael York were other actors who represented this "new man" of Hollwood.

(sarrazin with barbra streisand in "for pete's sake")

Sarrazin had a handful of key roles, yet never managed to achieve "A-List" status as an actor, and although he continued to work as an actor for the rest of his life, as the 1970's came to a close, so did Sarrazin's career as a leading man. Sarrazin's greatest role was in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", (1969), with Jane Fonda, which won one Oscar and was nominated for eight others, but he's probably best remembered for playing Barbra Streisand's husband in the comedy, "For Pete's Sake", (1974). We liked his 1975 movie, "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", a weird horror movie which was attempting to ride the coattails of the blockbuster, "The Exorcist."

(michael sarrazin with jane fonda in "they shoot horses, don't they?")

Sidney Lumet 1925-2011

Hollywood has lost one of its giants. Just days after the world mourned the passing of the legendary Elizabeth Taylor, now comes the news of the death of one of the greatest directors of all time, Sidney Lumet. Lumet, 86, died on Saturday at his home in New York.

Many directors would be happy to have a couple of successful, well-known or well-loved movies, but Lumet transcended mere "success" to create a handful of movies that are considered "iconic".

Some of Lumet's best known movies include "Long Day's Journey Into Night", "The Pawnbroker",
"Murder on the Orient Express", "The Wiz", "The Fugitive Kind" and "The Verdict"; a list which would make most directors very proud. But Lumet also directed three films which set new standards of filmmaking and are now considered "classics": "Network", (1976), "12 Angry Men", (1957) and "Dog Day Afternoon", (1975). Personally, we also consider 1973's "Serpico" a "minor classic".

(peter finch as 'howard beale' in "network")

"Network", which won 4 Oscars and earned nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, correctly predicted the melding of the news and entertainment industries, and Howard Beale's "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" wild-eyed lament has become one of the most famous lines in Hollywood history.



(lumet, far right, with gloria vanderbilt and photographer richard avedon)

Lumet's movies earned dozens of Oscar nominations over the years and even managed to win a few, mostly for writing and acting. (We still can't believe "Rocky" beat "Network" for the 1976 Best Picture Oscar.) Lumet himself was nominated for Best Director four times, as well as a Screenplay nomination for 1981's "Prince of the City", but shockingly, he never won a competitive Oscar. Finally, in 2005, he won an Honorary Oscar for his life's work.



We miss the kind of movies that Lumet made, real adult dramas for real adults. His stories were often gritty and sometimes controversial, but always real. He even scored a big one for the gay community with "Dog Day Afternoon" which featured the then shocking story of a gay man, (Al Pacino), who was robbing a bank to get the money for his lover's sex change operation. For 1975, that was strong stuff. "Attica! Attica! Attica!"

Farley Granger 1925-2011

Just as the world was reeling from the loss of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor, came the news of the death of another movie star from the 1940's and 50's, Farley Granger. Granger worked for 58 years in movies and t.v., even achieving "teen idol" status with his good looks, but he was most famous for starring in two Alfred Hitchcock films, "Rope", 1948, and "Strangers on a Train", 1951.

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What most people didn't know about the handsome star was that he was in a 43 year relationship with Emmy-winning soap director, Robert Calhoun, until Calhoun's death in 2008. In Granger's autobiography, "Include Me Out", he described himself as bisexual, relating his affairs with screen legends Ava Gardner and Shelley Winters.


Also in "Include Me Out", Granger tells the story of being a 21 year-old navy recruit in Honolulu, and going ashore to lose his virginity to a prostitute. As he was leaving the woman's abode, he ran into a handsome Navy officer, and Granger was soon in bed again. Granger also writes about his two night fling with Leonard Bernstein and his live-in romance with Arthur Laurents, writer of the stage and movie versions of "West Side Story" and "Gypsy".
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(alfred hitchcock and granger)

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Ironically, Granger's two most famous movies, "Rope" and "Strangers on a Train", dealt heavily with a gay subtext. In "Strangers", the gay vibe between Granger and Robert Walker is palpable, and this movie was made in 1951. Hitchcock must have realized something in his young star that no one else noticed, and America definitely wasn't ready for.

In the 1950's, Granger transitioned into television, appearing in many of the early t.v. "playhouse" series. Later, Granger worked on daytime soaps, even receiving a daytime Emmy nomination in 1977 for his role on "One Life to Live".


Despite his Hollywood star status and success in television, Granger said he was most happy on stage. His noted stage appearances include his 1960 Broadway debut in "First Impressions, a musical version of "Pride and Prejudice", and in 1980, Granger starred in Ira Levin's "Deathtrap". .

(granger with long-time partner, robert calhoun)

Geraldine Ferraro 1935-2011

Way back in 1984, when Sarah Palin was running for Miss Alaska, and fresh out of high school where she had burned books and spent time as a hall monitor, sniffing around the other girls trying to detect which ones might be pregnant so she could report them to the Moral Majority, another woman was making national history.

In 1984, Walter Mondale selected New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate on the Democratic national ticket, making Ferraro the first Italian-American to run for the office of United States Vice President on a major party ticket, but more importantly, she became the first woman to do so. Unfortunately, the Republican ticket of Reagan/Bush beat the Mondale/Ferraro ticket in every state except for Mondale's home state of Minnesota, but a major glass ceiling had been shattered. Up until Ferraro proved herself more than capable on the campaign trail, no one believed that a woman could withstand the rigors of a national presidential campaign.

Ferraro ran for the U.S. Senate in 1992 and 1998, but lost both times, still feeling the effects of her husband's previous legal and tax troubles. But Ferraro's place in American history is secure; we would never have had a Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin if Ferraro had not first paved the way. Only in Palin's case, she should take note, Ferraro earned respectability because she read history books, not burned them.

Ferraro died yesterday at 75 of cancer.

A Legend Has Passed

The last time we used that headline, "A Legend Has Passed" was a couple of years ago when Paul Newman died. That's because movie stars come and go, but only a handful of movie stars become legendary and even fewer reach iconic status in our American culture.

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And now, we've lost another of those cultural icons; Elizabeth Taylor has died at 79. If you only cared about Taylor's two-time Oscar winning acting career, you'd be missing a big part of the picture. She was also famous for her beauty; with her violet eyes she was for many years considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. When she wore that white gown in "A Place in the Sun", millions of teenage girls copied the dress that year for their weddings and proms.

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But Taylor will also be remembered for being a humanitarian of great courage. She fought tirelessly in the early days of the AIDS crisis to fight for better medical treatment for those patients, and to raise money for research. You have to remember that she did this at a time when most other Americans, including our own Pres. Reagan, was so afraid of confronting the disease that many, including Reagan, wouldn't even say the word "AIDS" in public, much less take a stand to fight the scourge. She was also one of the greatest friends the gay community will ever hope to have. She openly supported her many gay friends, again at a time when to do so was to risk a major backlash in Hollywood and from society in general.

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Star, beauty, icon, humanitarian; remember her as you will, but we can safely say that she was a truly great human being, and we won't see the likes of her again for a long, long time.

A Sad Day for Music

Wow, what a sad day for music lovers. Right on the heels of the news of the passing of Pinetop Perkins, comes the news of the death of Ralph Mooney. Mooney, 82, who died on Sunday from cancer, was a famous steel guitarist considered to be one of the great stylists of the instrument and is considered by many to be the inventor of the "Bakersfield Sound", a louder, more rhythmically propulsive version of country music made most famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
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Mooney's work as a top country session player for Capitol Records in Hollywood in the 1950s and '60s helped revitalize the steel guitar's role in country music at a time when Nashville producers were veering away from the instrument to create a more broad-based, orchestra-laden style that became known as the Nashville sound.

(ralph mooney with wynn stewart)
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Mooney, in addition to being a mainstay in Waylon Jennings' band for twenty years, was an in-demand session player and during his long career contributed to hits songs for Wynn Stewart and Wanda Jackson, as well as Merle Haggard's Swinging Doors" and "The Bottle Let Me Down." He also worked on numerous Buck Owens hits, including "Under Your Spell Again", "Above and Beyond", "Foolin' Around", and "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)".

Mooney's distinctive solos can be heard on the Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson hit, "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and Jennings' classic "Rainy Day Woman". But Mooney's greatest claim to fame may be the fact that he co-wrote, with Chuck Seals, one of the most famous standards in all of country music, Ray Price's monster 1956 hit, "Crazy Arms".

An Era is Passing

Pinetop Perkins, one of the last of the original legendary Mississippi Delta bluesmen, and considered one of the founders of Southern blues, has died at 97. Perkins was a highly infuential blues pianist who played with Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, and at one point in his career, went on tour with Ike Turner.
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Perkins won a Grammy last month for Best Traditional Blues Album for his "Joined At The Hip", which gave him the record for being the oldest person to ever win a Grammy Award. Perkins also won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2005, followed by another Grammy in 2008 for Traditional Blues Album.
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According to one music writer,"It was Pinetop, along with the likes of Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Little Brother Montgomery, who provided the basic format and ideas from which countless swing bands derived their sound. Although Pinetop never played swing, it was his brand of boogie-woogie that was shaped to form swing and, eventually, rock and roll."

Hugh Martin 1914 - 2011

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Hugh Martin, musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, playwright, actor and composer of some the most popular songs in pop music history, has died at 96.
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4-time Tony nominee and 2-time Oscar nominee, Martin is most famous for writing, with his partner Ralph Blane, the score for the classic MGM Judy Garland musical, "Meet Me in St. Louis", as well as the songs from that film, "The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Martin became great friends with Judy Garland, and later worked as her accompanist for some of her 1950's concerts, including her legendary show at The Palace Theater in New York.
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"The Trolley Song" was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song in 1944, and in 1947, Martin received his second Oscar nomination for the song, "Pass The Peace Pipe" from the film, "Good News". "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is, today, regarded as one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time.
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In addition to his many other accolades, Martin was, in 1983, inducted into the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Kenneth Mars 1936-2011

One of the funniest character actors of the past fifty years, Kenneth Mars, died yesterday in California at age 74.

 

(kenneth mars with ryan o'neal in "what's up, doc?")

 

Mars' first job was providing voices in 1962 for "The Jetsons" animated t.v. series, and made his first actual appearance on t.v. the following year in "Car 54, Where Are You?". More television work followed until 1968 when he broke into movies in a big way, famously playing the Nazi, Franz Leibkind, in "The Producers". Mars followed up with two more classic comedic performances in "What's Up, Doc?" in 1972, opposite Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal, and in 1974 came his most famous and iconic role, that of the heavily-accented Inspector Kemp in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein". Mars never stopped working, mostly in t.v., notably in the cult 70's t.v. series, "Fernwood Tonight", and by providing voice-over work for dozens of animated series. But he capped his long and fruitful career with another notable comedic role, that of Otto Mankusser in "Malcolm in the Middle" from 2002-04.

 

(harvey korman with madeline kahn in "blazing saddles")

 

Coincidentally, today is the birthday of another legendary comedic actor, Harvey Korman, who died in 2008. Korman became a household name on "The Carol Burnett Show", but he, like Mars, also shone in several classic Mel Brooks' comedies, namely, "Blazing Saddles" and "High Anxiety". As far as we know, Korman and Mars only once worked together when Mars was a guest on "The Carol Burnett Show" in 1974.

Jack LaLanne 1914 - 2011

By now you've probably heard of the passing of fitness and t.v. legend, Jack LaLanne, at age 96. He died yesterday at his home in California.

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LaLanne's biography is familiar to most of us. He grew up eating lots of sugar and junk food and felt tired and angry all the time. Then at 15 he heard a lecture by health food pioneer Jack Bragg, and from that moment on, there was no looking back. LaLanne cleaned up his diet, started lifting weights and began a pioneering career as a fitness guru.

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In 1937 he opened his first gym which later became a string of gyms, eventually selling them to the Bally's Company, which still operates a chain of health clubs today. In the course of running his gyms, LaLanne also invented several fitness machines which are still in use today, including leg extension machines, pulley machines which used cables, weight selectors and the original model of what is now the Smith Machine.

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"The Jack LaLanne Show" started on local San Francisco television in 1951, and ABC took it national in 1959. LaLanne's t.v. show ran in various forms for 34 years, becoming the longest running exercise program in television history. LaLanne was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.

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We've been trying to find out if LaLanne ever competed in the "Mr. America" or "Mr. Universe" bodybuilding competitions, but so far, we have't find any evidence that he did. LaLanne did, however, complete several stunts of physical stamina over the years, including swimming across San Fransisco Bay in handcuffs at age 41, completing 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes at age 42, and at age 70, he swam handcuffed while pulling 70 people in 70 rowboats.

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What you won't hear today on "The Today Show" about Jack LaLanne's life, or anywhere else for that matter, is the fact that he once posed nude for some of the "fitness magazines" of the 1940's and 1950's. We're not disputing that these magazines were sometimes read by men who were seriously interested in fitness, but many of them were just barely disguised gay porn for closeted gay men who had no other way to view naked male models. After LaLanne became famous, he tried to intervene legally to have the photographs destroyed, but was unsuccessful. One commenter today remarked that it was interesting that LaLanne feared that the photographs would ruin his career, whereas today nude photographs would only enhance a celebrity's career. How far we've come.

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Click here to read our previous posts about the importance of

gay "muscle magazines" on the 1940's-1960's.

The Ivory Queen of Soul 1956-2010

Just before we went to bed last night, we got the shocking news of the death of Teena Marie. The R&B music star was only 54, and apparently died of a brain seizure, but the cause of her death has not been confirmed.
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Famous for being one of the most successful white singers to perform R&B music, Mary Christine Brockert grew up in the African-American enclave of Oakdale, California, and signed with Motown Records in 1976. She was eventually mentored in the business by funk legend, Rick James, releasing her first album in 1979. Notably, there was no photograph of Teena Marie on her first album, her record executives believing that the Black public wouldn't buy an R&B record by a White performer. Her music began to be played on Black radio, and many believed that Marie was African-American. Months after the album's release, Marie performed on the t.v. show, "Soul Train" with Rick James, and the public learned the truth.
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Marie's career continued on an upward spiral; she next worked with Richard Rudolph, whose wife, singer Minnie Ripperton, had just died. Marie eventually became godmother to Ripperton's daughter, "Saturday Night Live" alum Maya Rudolph.
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Marie scored many hits on the R&B charts, but her most successful mainstream hit was
"Lovergirl", which reached #4 on the pop charts in 1985. Marie is also credited with helping hip-hop into the mainstream by being one of the first performers to rap on one of her singles, the 1981 hit, "Square Biz". At the time of her death, Teena Marie was performing in a series of successful concerts in Las Vegas.

Jill Clayburgh 1944 - 2010

We were incredibly saddened to hear of the news of Jill Clayburgh's death yesterday. It's one thing to lose Hollywood icons that came before our time, and who we've only seen on TCM or on DVD's, but it's another thing entirely when an actor who helped to define our generation passes.
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Jill Clayburgh was the least likely of movie stars, she wasn't particularly beautiful, nor did she possess a great deal of charisma. Think Charles Grodin in a bra. But she came along just when the women's movement was hitting its apex in the late 1970's, and when she was cast in the movie that defined that movement, "An Unmarried Woman", 1978, she became an overnight movie star. Clayburgh had co-starred in hits previous to 1978, namely "Silver Streak", 1976; and "Semi-Tough", 1977, but it was "An Unmarried Woman" which propelled her from co-star to star. Clayburgh was twice nominated for an Oscar; first for "An Unmarried Woman" and the following year for "Starting Over", our favorite Clayburgh film. Clayburgh was one of that class of actresses, i.e. Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, etc. who was the antipathy of the bimbo; instead her characters were not only equals of men, but proved that they could make successful lives without men. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, and Clayburgh was the perfect representation of that ideal.

One of our favorite Jill Clayburgh memories is when she hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1976, back when SNL was a funny, well-written, incredibly inventive t.v. show. In a completely unexpected moment in the show, the normally, serious actress who personified studious intelligence, sang a full-on, almost giddy verson of "Sea Cruise", showing a heretofore unseen side of herself, as someone who had a very playful sense of humor, and suddenly, her sex appeal exploded before our eyes. It was like that moment in a movie when a prudish woman takes off her thick, black eyeglasses and undoes her tight bun to let her hair fall to her shoulders, and transforms from a bookish schoolmarm to sex kitten.



Clayburgh's star faded as the women's movement lost its steam in the 1980's, but she never stopped working. Several years back she had a recurring role on "Alley McBeal, and more recently co-starred for a couple of years on "Dirty Sexy Money". Clayburgh's final two films will be out soon, one being the about-to-be-released Jake Gyllanhaal/Anne Hathaway flick, "Love and Other Drugs", which will be followed in 2011 by "Bridesmaids", with Rose Byrne, Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig.