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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

.

.

.

"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.

.

.

.

.

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.

.

.

.

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.

.

.

.

.

.

Click here to read our previous posts about the importance of

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

Anne Francis 1930 - 2011

.
.Right on the heels of the news of the death of actor Pete Postlethwaite today comes the news of the passing of actress Anne Francis at age 80 of pancreatic cancer.

.

.

.

..Anne Francis was a stunningly beautiful blonde, most famous for her roles in the 1956 cult sci-fi classic, "Forbidden Planet", and for playing Honey West in the self-titled detective series in 1965-66. "Honey West" is credited as being the first female t.v. detective; the James Bond-influenced character won Francis a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination in 1966.

.

(anne francis with barbra streisand in "funny girl")

.Many others will remember Francis for playing Barbra Streisand's friend, Georgia James, in the 1968 movie, "Funny Girl". Over the years, many myths sprang up concerning Francis's role in the movie. Evidently, the part of Georgia James in the original script was much larger, and more pivotal to the story. Francis stated that she took the role because of its heft and its potential to possibly win her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. But most of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, and the rumors flew that Francis and director William Wyler didn't get along, while other rumors blamed Streisand for demanding that Francis be cut out of the film. Whatever the truth is, when watching the movie today, it does seem pointless that the Georgia James should have been larger; the movie simply wasn't about Georgia James. The movie was about Fanny Brice, and James was there only to support Brice's story. Many years later, Anne Francis wrote Barbra Streisand a letter in which she explained that she never blamed Streisand for her role being whittled down in the movie.

.
Francis's career span as an actress was a staggering 68 years. She started working on Broadway at age 6, made her first movie in 1947 and never stopped working in t.v. and movies until her final appearance on the t.v. show, "Without A Trace", in 2004. It's almost impossible to watch old t.v. shows or movies without seeing her pop up somewhere. Fans of "The Golden Girls" will remember her as Trudy, Dorothy's tennis-playing best friend from a 1989 episode, and just last night, we watched Francis in a famous "Twilight Zone" episode from 1960 in which she played Marsha White, a department store mannequin come to life.

.

.

.

(the original face of Barbie and the very similar face of Anne Francis)

.Another rumor that has followed Anne Francis for most of her life is that she was the model for the original face of the Barbie Doll, which launched in 1959, and which bears a striking resemblance to Francis's face at the time. But to our knowledge, the creators of the Barbie Doll have never stated that their famous toy was modeled after Francis.

.

.

.The deaths of Anne Francis and Pete Postlethwaite have us a little spooked today. We woke up this morning with the intention of writing about Postlethwaite for his role in the movie "The Town", and boom, he's dead. And just last night, we watched Anne Francis on t.v. and boom, she's gone. Which makes us wonder, if we think very hard about someone else today, will they also disappear from our sight forever? Do you think? Sarah Palin... Sarah Palin... Sarah Palin...

Pete Postlethwaite 1946 - 2011

How very strange. We were just about to write this morning about watching the Ben Affleck-directed movie, "The Town", and how good Pete Postlethwaite was in it, and then this morning we turned on the internet to see that the veteran actor has just died of cancer at age 64.
.
A distinguised British stage actor for many years, Postlethwaite eventually branched out into t.v. and films, and in 1993 garnered an Oscar nomination for playing Daniel-Day Lewis's father in "In The Name Of The Father". Postlethwaite was one of the best things about "The Town", a movie which is surely to receive some Oscar nods this year. In "The Town", Postlethwaite is scary, he's menacing, and his performance is so good that even though he's only on screen for a few minutes, he's one of the few characters you remember from the story after it's over.

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.
.
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.

Dear Penthouse, You Won't Believe This, But...

We just got the news that Bob Guccione, the famous publisher of Penthouse Magazine, has died of cancer at 79. Guccione launched his magazine in 1969 in an attempt to reach the "average joe", feeling that the already successful Playboy was too upscale for the common man. What followed was a multi-billion dollar publishing empire which was built on graphic shots of the female genitalia, (and which scared the crap out of us when we were young kids, by the way), tabloid journalism and the very famous Penthouse Letters. We'll never forget sitting around our fraternity house in college and listening as a friend read aloud the letter where some guy claimed to get so turned on by the sight of a juicy turkey roasting in his oven that he pulled the bird from the oven and had his way with the potential Thanksgiving meal. Oh my. But sadly, despite introducing the American culture to hairy pussies and fowl-molesting horndogs, Guccione wasn't able to make the transition as porn moved to video and later the internet, and this, coupled with a series of risky, failed business ventures, caused Guccione to lose his entire fortune. He was forced to sell his priceless art collection, his New York City mansion and his publishing company earlier in this decade. Younger folks might better recognize the name of Guccione in the form of Bob Guccione, Jr., Bob's son, who founded the popular music magazine, Spin.

Mr. C and Boy

Sad news today from Hollywood with the news of the death of two famous stars. Tom Bosley died at 83 in Palm Springs; he is, of course, most famous for playing Howard Cunningham, "Mr. C.", Richie's dad, in the long-running ABC sitcom, "Happy Days". In addition to a five decade span of work in t.v. and film, Bosley also won the 1960 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for his role as New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia in "Fiorello".
.
.Going even further back is Johnny Sheffield, who died today at age 79. Johnny was most famous for the role of "Boy", Tarzan and Jane's son, which he played in eight Tarzan movies from 1939 to 1947.
.
After the role of "Boy" came to an end, Sheffield created the role of "Bomba", another jungle boy, which he played in twelve movies from 1949 to 1955.
.
..
.
.
Oddly enough, the Legion of Decency, the Catholic organization which worked to censor objectionable material in movies, insisted that Tarzan and Jane couldn't have a baby since they weren't married, so the jungle simply found a baby boy in the jungle. How convenient.

Barbara Billingsley 1915 - 2010

You've probably already heard by now that Barbara Billingsley, the actress who played June Cleaver on the iconic 1950's sitcom, "Leave it to Beaver", has died at 94.

.

"Leave it to Beaver" ran from 1957 to 1963 and helped to create the template for American family sitcoms and has been around so long that it's run the gamut of pop culture status, from current popular show, to being the butt of ironic jokes about American society, to coming full circle and once again being looked at as something people admire. We grew up in the time that the show was an object of mockery, but for all the jokes about the show's, and the era's, naivete, it was actually a little subversive and acutely aware. Ward and June were very much on to the passive-aggressive neurotic that was Eddie Haskell, and there were constant hints that although they were always immaculately dressed in coat and tie and pearls, Ward and June had been around the block, and just because they didn't talk about their walks on the wilder side of life, you nevertheless knew they had taken them.

.

.

(jerry mathers, barbara billingsley and tony dow in 2007)

.

Barbara Billingsley was most famous for playing June Cleaver, but she had a long and varied career. She made her film debut in 1945, although many of her early roles were "uncredited". Her first official credit came in the movie, "The Argyle Secrets" in 1948. Billingsley found recurring roles on other t.v. series of the 1950's, including "City Detective", 1953-54; "Professional Father", 1955; and "The Brothers", 1956-57, before landing the role of June Cleaver. After "Beaver", she worked only twice on a t.v. series in 1971, but then came the famous scene in which the famous, buttoned-up, white lady talked "jive" to some Black men in the 1980 movie "Airplane", and once again, Billingsley was noticed by the entertainment industry. From that point on, Billingsley worked fairly regularly in movies and t.v. until her final role in 2003 in the t.v. movie, "Secret Santa". Our favorite Billingsley post-Beaver moment came in 1995 when she appeared in a scene with other famous t.v. moms and Rosanne Barr on "Rosanne" in which they discussed the particulars of being a t.v. mom. It's a very funny scene. Farewell, June Cleaver, we'll miss you, but luckily, we'll have you and those pearls forever in reruns.

Simon MacCorkindale 1952 - 2010

.

Very sad news today, actor Simon MacCorkindale has died after a four year battle with cancer. And the news is a little shocking because we'd never even heard that he was ill.
.
MacCorkindale first gained fame in the U.S. when he appeared in the all-star movie, "Death On The Nile" in 1978, and then went on to roles on "Falcon Crest", "Dynasty", as well as starring in his own series, "Manimal". But MacCorkindale was best known for his looks. He had this incredibly gorgeous face, topped with a thick mop of blonde hair; he was like an Abercrombie model come to life. He was so good looking that even when sharing the screen with much more famous actors, you couldn't take your eyes from his face. Or maybe that was just us. Whatever. We'll miss the guy.

.

.
.
.
.
.

..

Solomon Burke 1940 - 2010

.
A soul legend and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has died. Solomon Burke died today in The Netherlands of an apparant heart attack. Burke was a member of Atlantic Records' group of famous soul singers of the 1960's, which included Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, although Burke never gained the widespread fame of the others. Proclaimed "The King of Rock and Soul" in 1964, Atlantic's legendary producer Jerry Wexler said that Burke was "the greatest soul singer of all time". Burke is best known for the song "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" which he wrote in 1964 and was quickly recorded by The Rolling Stones and Wilson Pickett, and was later sung by The Blues Brothers in their movie of the same name. His other best known song is "Cry To Me" which was an R&B hit in the 1960's, and then later hit again when it was used in the movie "Dirty Dancing". Burke won a Grammy in 2003 for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Hollwood Has Lost a Great One

.
.
.
.
One of Hollywood's greatest, and one of our all-time favorites, Tony Curtis, has died at 85. We'll write a lot more about him later this week.

Arthur Penn 1922 - 2010

We were just about to write a post on Monday about Arthur Penn's 88th Birthday, and then yesterday, one day after his birthday, he up and died on us.
.
Penn was an immensely gifted movie director, most famous for directing the Oscar-winning 1962 film, "The Miracle Worker", with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, and the ground-breaking "Bonnie and Clyde", (1967), which helped to usher in the new era of "realistic" film-making which immediately followed the collapse of the old Hollywood studio system. Penn was Oscar-nominated as Best Director for both those films, his third nom coming in 1970 for "Alice's Restaurant".
.
.
"Bonnie and Clyde", which starred Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons was shocking in its time. Up until its release, the old Hollywood studios had dominated the movie-making industry and almost completely dictated what the American public would see on the silver screen. And as wonderful as those studio era movies from the 1930's to the 1960's were, they were often extremely sanitized with barely a whiff of violence, sex or nudity. But the late 1960's, behind the youth movement of hippies and flower power, saw many of the old social barriers start to topple. And then along came "Bonnie and Clyde", which seemed to glorify violence and made heroes out of criminals. The movie was like a cold slap in the face to the "establishment"; not only the film establishment but also to the overall social establishment of America. And the film was wildly popular. It made stars of Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman, reignited Warren Beatty's career, and won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Estelle Parsons. Many think that Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" were the first films to hold up a middle finger to older America, but it was "Bonnie and Clyde" which came first.
.
.
Our favorite Arthur Penn film, though, is "Little Big Man", (1970), a quirky tale of the old West which starred Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway. It's a strange, little movie, but incredibly entertaining and very indicative of the more realistic style of movie-making. We'll never forget the image of the gay Native American who confused his tribe by acting "like a woman". So good. Thank you, Arthur Penn!

Older Than God, Part II

100 year old actress, Gloria Stuart, Oscar-nominated for "Titanic", died on Sunday night. The Santa Monica High Class of 1927's "Most Likely to Succeed" appeared in her first movie in 1932, and made her final appearance on the silver screen in 2004. Stuart was so old, she was the only cast member of "Titanic" who was actually alive when the famous ship sank into the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. Now that's old.

Vonetta McGee 1940-2010

.
One of our favorite film eras is the period from the late 1960's to the mid-70's, when the old studio system first broke apart, and for the first time, independent filmmakers began to have the ability to make grittier, more realistic movies. It was also during this period when the Blaxploitation genre of movies emerged, cheaply made but highly entertaining films like "Shaft", "Cleopatra Jones", "Coffy", "Super Fly", "Foxy Brown" and others which were made, primarily, for a Black urban audience.



We were just thinking about these films a few days ago when we noticed the birthday of Denise Nicholas. Nicholas was a popular star who appeared in a few of these movies, most notably in "Blacula", a Black dracula movie, and then found prime-time success on the hit t.v. show, "Room 222". And then today, oddly enough, came the news of the death of Nicholas' "Blacula" co-star, Vonetta McGee, at 65. In addition to co-starring in "Blacula", the very pretty and talented McGee also appeared in blaxploitation pics "Shaft in Africa" and "Hammer". She resented the term "blaxploitation" and fought often for more mainstream roles, her most notable A-List starring role was in Clint Eastwood's 1975 film, "The Eiger Sanction".

Gary Coleman 1968 - 2010

Gary Coleman, one of the most popular t.v. stars of the 1980's, has died at 42 of a brain hemorrhage. As the star of NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes", Coleman, by the age of 10, became one of the most famous and highest paid t.v. stars of his day, at one point making $100,000 per episode, a staggering figure for that time.
.
Unfortunately for Coleman, he and his castmates, Dano Plato and Todd Bridges, became the "poster children", literally and figuratively, for all the bad things that can happen to Hollywood child actors. Most of Coleman's financial fortune was siphoned off by his parents and managers, and Bridges and Plato turned to drugs. Bridges spent some years in prison, and Plato died of a drug overdose a decade ago.
.

(Coleman with fellow '80's t.v. star, David Hasselhoff)
.
But despite the woes suffered by Coleman in his "post-stardom" years, one can take some comfort in his legacy. In other words, when all the tabloid stories have faded away, all that's left is Coleman's legacy on video, and when watching his show, "Diff'rent Strokes", in reruns, it's almost impossible not to be amazed by his talent. Despite his young age at the time, Coleman's comic timing was nearly perfect, and his charisma and sheer "stage presence" was powerful. His famous line from the show, "What'cha talkin' 'bout, Willis?", became a national catch-phrase and one that endures in the popular culture to this day, almost twenty-five years later.
.

("Diff'-rent Strokes" stars Todd Bridges,

Conrad Bain and Gary Coleman)