Morton Downey was an Irish American singer very popular in the 1920’s and 30’s who made a few movies in Hollywood. He was born in 1901 in Connecticut. His movies include “Lucky in Love” in 1929 and “Ghost Catchers” in 1935. He died in 1985.
IMDB entry:
Pianist, songwriter (“Wabash Moon”), composer, singer and businessman, educated in public schools and at Lyman Hall. He began his singing career in a Greenwich Village movie theatre, and was later a vocalist for the Paul Whiteman orchestra aboard the SS Leviathan. In 1927, he toured Europe and then opened his own night club, the Delmonico in New York, in 1930, which offered the chance to sing over radio. He was also a member of the board of directors of Coca-Cola and other corporations. Joining ASCAP in 1949, his chief musical collaborators included Dave Dreyer, Paul Cunningham, James Rule, and Dick Sanford. His other popular-song compositions include “California Skies”, “All I Need is Someone Like You”, “In the Valley of the Roses”, “That’s How I Spell Ireland”, “Sweeten Up Your Smile”, “There’s Nothing New” and “Now You’re in My Arms”.
Born in in Tacoma, Washington in 1922. Paige began singing in public at age five in local amateur shows. She moved to Los Angelesland was hired as a singer at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II.
The Hollywood Canteen was a studio-sponsored club for members of the military. A Warner Bros. agent saw her potential and signed her to a contract. She began co-starring in low budget musicals, often paired with Dennis Morgan or Jack Carson. She co-starred in “Romance on the High Seas,” the 1948 film in which Doris Day made her movie debut. Paige later co-starred in adventures and dramas, in which she felt out of place. Following her role in Two Gals and a Guy (1951), she decided to leave Hollywood. Paige appeared on Broadway and was a huge hit in a 1951 comedy-mystery play, Remains to Be Seen, co-starring Jackie Cooper. She also toured successfully as a cabaret singer.
A rare dramatic role was as “Marion,” an institutionalized prostitute, in The Caretakers (1963).
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:
This joyous scene-stealer started out playing rather bland film ingénues, but never seemed to be comfortable in those roles–she had too much snap, crackle and pop to be confined in such a formulaic way.
Born in 1922 in Tacoma, Washington, Janis Paige was singing in public from age 5 in local amateur shows. She moved to Los Angeles after graduating from high school and earned a job as a singer at the Hollywood Canteen during the war years. The Canteen, which was a studio-sponsored gathering spot for servicemen, is where she was spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout, who saw potential in her and signed her up. She began co-starring in secondary musicals that often paired her with either Dennis Morganor Jack Carson. Later she was relegated to rugged adventures and dramas that just seemed out of her element. Following her role in the forgettable Two Gals and a Guy(1951), she decided to leave the Hollywood scene. She took to the Broadway boards and scored a huge hit with the 1951 comedy-mystery play “Remains to Be Seen”, co-starringJackie Cooper. She also toured successfully as a cabaret singer, performing everywhere from New York to Miami to Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Definitive stardom came in 1954 with the feisty role of Babe in Broadway’s “The Pajama Game” opposite John Raitt. Her old Warner Bros. rival Doris Day, however, was a bigger name and went on to play the role on film (The Pajama Game (1957)) with Raitt. After a six-year hiatus, Janis returned to films in tongue-and-cheek support, all but stealing Silk Stockings (1957) from co-starsFred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. She then grabbed her share of laughs in a flashy role with the comedy Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) opposite Ms. Day. Janis ventured on in summer stock, playing such indomitable roles as Annie Oakley in “Annie Get Your Gun”, Margo Channing in “Applause”, Mama Rose in “Gypsy” and Adelaide in “Guys and Dolls”. From the mid-’50s on, Janis also tapped into TV with such series like It’s Always Jan(1955), Lanigan’s Rabbi (1976) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). In the 1990s, among other TV appearances, she had recurring roles on the daytime serials General Hospital(1963) and Santa Barbara (1984). Married three times, she was the widow of Disney composer Ray Gilbert, who wrote the classic children’s song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
TCM overview:
An enthusiastic singer from childhood, Janis Paige was discovered by a talent scout while performing at the Hollywood Canteen, which quickly led to a career in movies. As a contract player for Warner Brothers, she graced such musicals as, appropriately enough, “Hollywood Canteen” (1944), “The Time, the Place and the Girl” (1946) and “Romance on the High Seas” (1948). Paige’s spirited work during this period registered positively with the public, even if most of her pictures were formula exercises that rarely exceeded their expectations. After a brief period as a freelancer at the beginning of the 1950s, Paige found her true fame as a stage actress, impressing Broadway patrons in “Remains to be Seen” (1951-52) and the comic blockbuster “The Pajama Game” (1954-56), where she gave one of her trademark performances as a sexy union leader who falls in love with a factory supervisor. While the stage took on a special importance for her, Paige periodically reappeared on the silver screen, with “Silk Stockings” (1957) showcasing her appeal at its peak. She also briefly toplined her own sitcom and was a regular presence on TV programs of several genres. While not considered a top flight star in most circles, Paige was one of the true iron ladies of show business, boasting a career more than seven decades in duration, and was still delighting audiences on stage in her nineties.
A native of Tacoma, WA, Janis Paige was born Donna Mae Tjaden on Sept. 16, 1922. Gifted with an aptitude for singing, she was performing for audiences by age five and appeared with the Tacoma Opera Company in her teens. Upon finishing high school, Paige’s mother moved her daughter to Los Angeles in the hope of establishing an entertainment career for the girl. While showcasing her vocal abilities at the fabled Hollywood Canteen, Paige’s talent and beauty impressed a scout and she made her film debut in the Esther Williams vehicle “Bathing Beauty” (1944). A contract with Warner Brothers followed, along with roles in the studio’s all-star extravaganza “Hollywood Canteen” (1944), as well as “Her Kind of Man” (1945) and “Of Human Bondage” (1946). Paige was well-utilized in Warner musicals like “The Time, the Place and the Girl” (1946), “Love and Learn” (1947), and “Romance on the High Seas” (1948), and while no match for their glossy counterparts from MGM, they possessed a laid-back appeal that went down well with audiences of the time. While she was a consistently engaging presence and able performer, Paige remained relegated to the studio’s second tier productions and after the completion of “The House Across the Street” (1949), her relationship with Warners came to an end.
Entering the 1950s as a freelancer, Paige journeyed to Italy to star in the crime drama “Fugitive Lady” (1950), while also gracing the routine likes of “This Side of the Law” (1950) and “Two Gals and a Guy” (1951). By that point, Paige’s movie career was largely going nowhere, but she soon shifted gears and concentrated on live stage work, a move that not only brightened her prospects, but also generated her most lasting fame. Paige made a splashy Broadway debut in the comedy “Remains to be Seen” (1951-52) and really hit her stride as union spitfire Babe Williams in the first year’s run of the hugely successful musical farce “The Pajama Game” (1954-56). In 1954, she also began what turned out to be a regular guesting gig on “The Bob Hope Show” (NBC, 1952-1975), appearing in a number of the comedian’s specials during his long association with NBC. Capitalizing on her newfound notoriety, Paige accepted an offer to headline her own sitcom, “It’s Always Jan” (CBS, 1955-56), but the program was not renewed for a second season. She returned to movies with a memorable part in the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse outing “Silk Stockings” (1957), a splendidly colorful musical variation on “Ninotchka,” where she nearly stole the show with her “Satin and Silk” number. The same year’s film version of “The Pajama Game” gave her role to Doris Day, but no bad blood existed between the two actresses and Paige went on to co-star in Day’s comedy hit “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1960).
Paige’s achievements were also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she became a fixture in Bob Hope’s annual globetrotting USO variety shows. She graced the London stage in a local production of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (1961) and reunited with Hope in the suburban farce “Bachelor in Paradise” (1961). The following year, she wed her third husband, songwriter Ray Gilbert, best known for the Oscar winning favorite “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from “Song of the South” (1946), and enjoyed an offbeat dramatic performance as a troubled prostitute in “The Caretakers” (1963). Frequent guest star outings on various television programs kept Paige’s small screen profile active during this period and she returned to the Great White Way in “Here’s Love” (1963-64), a musical take on “Miracle on 34th Street.” The low-grade Western “Welcome to Hard Times” (1967) offered her little of interest, but the following year presented a new engagement on Broadway when Paige took over from Angela Lansbury as the star of the musical-comedy sensation “Mame” (1966-1970). She also continued her live performing in smaller scale efforts, including “The Gingerbread Lady.”
After a hiatus from film and television work during the late 1960s and early ’70s, Paige was regularly busy, guesting on both sitcoms and dramas, and was a regular on the short-lived crime show “Lanigan’s Rabbi” (NBC, 1976-77). In 1976, Gilbert died, leaving Paige with control of the Ipanema Music Corporation, which she continued to supervise. However, Paige also kept her SAG card active via a pair of quickly cancelled sitcoms, “Gun Shy” (CBS, 1983) and “Baby Makes Five” (ABC, 1983), as well as a recurring part on the last season of “Trapper John, M.D.” (CBS, 1979-1985). She also made her Broadway bow alongside Kevin McCarthy in “Alone Together” (1984-85) and had a run on the soap opera “Santa Barbara” (NBC, 1984-1993). After a 27-year gap, Paige made a one-shot return to movies with a supporting role in the little seen drama “Natural Causes” (1994). After almost six decades, Paige retired from film and television assignments in 2001. Thanks to an unfortunate health scare, Paige was almost not heard again, period. She enlisted professional help to deal with a break in her voice, but the treatment ended up leaving Paige speechless. With the aid of experts at Vanderbilt University and a new instructor, her abilities returned after several years of work and she took to the stage once again. Her one-woman show featured Paige singing various classic songs and discussing memorable times from her life. Paige was praised for the charm and vitality on display throughout the production, which she first performed in 2010 and continued doing right through her eighties and nineties.
Jess Barker was born in 1912 in South Carolina. He made movies in Hollywood in the 1940’s including “Scarlet Street” in 1945. He was married to Susan Hayward. He died in 2000.
Janice Rule was born in 1930 in Norwood, Ohio. She came to fame initially in the early 1950’s on Broadway in “Picnic” with Paul Newman. Her movies include “Bell, Book and Candle” with Kim Novak and James Stewart in 1958, “The Chase” with Marlon Brando in 1966 and “The Swimmer” with Burt Lancaster in 1969. She also starred with Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duval in “3 Women” in 1977. Janice Rule died in 2003.
Tom Vallance’s “Independent” obituary:
Janice Rule, actress and psychoanalyst: born Norwood, Ohio 15 August 1931; married first Robert Thom (one daughter; marriage dissolved), second N. Richard Nash (marriage dissolved), third 1961 Ben Gazzara (one daughter; marriage dissolved 1979); died New York 17 October 2003.
The actress, singer and dancer Janice Rule was a tawny-haired beauty who had an active career on stage, screen and television before putting her actor’s insight to use as a psychoanalyst. On Broadway she created the character of Madge in William Inge’s Picnic and bewitched critics with her song and dance skills in The Happiest Girl in the World, and on screen she graduated from ingénues to such complex roles as the mute artist in Robert Altman’s intriguing Three Women.
Born in Ohio in 1931, she studied ballet, and began her career as a dancer at the age of 15 in the Chicago night-club Chez Paree. She was in the chorus of two Broadway musicals, Miss Liberty (1949) and Great to Be Alive! (1950) and made her screen début with an uncredited bit role in Fourteen Hours (1951).
Signed to a contract by Warners, she was given the choice role of a rebellious college student in Vincent Sherman’s Goodbye, My Fancy(1951). Based on Fay Kanin’s play, the film suffered by having both its political and sexual aspects softened for the screen and is best known for the on-set feud that developed between Rule and the film’s star Joan Crawford. Crawford wrote in her 1962 autobiography,Portrait of Joan,
The cast included a young girl named Janice Rule whose personality definitely clashed with mine. I felt she was non-professional in her attitude, that she regarded film work as something less than slumming and one day I told her so. “Miss Rule,” I said, “you’d better enjoy making films while you can, I doubt that you’ll be with us long!”
Rule later said that the tense atmosphere on the set caused her to muff take after take. Though she was pictured on the cover of Lifemagazine on 8 January 1951 as a rising young actress, Warners quickly dropped their new player after just one more film, Starlift(1951), an all-star morale-booster about Hollywood’s valiant work entertaining Korean War troops. The film seemed too self-serving to gain great approval, though Rule shone as a movie star who falls in love with an airman, displaying her dancing skill in two duets with Gene Nelson.
After starring in two minor MGM movies, Holiday for Sinners(1952) and Rogue’s March (1953), Rule returned to the stage, where she had a great personal success in William Inge’s Picnic, originating the role of Madge, the restless small-town beauty played in the film version by Kim Novak. Ralph Meeker played the drifter with whom she falls in love, and Paul Newman had one of his first notable roles as her executive boyfriend. Meeker became a good friend of Rule, and it was at his suggestion that she was cast opposite him in the film A Woman’s Devotion (with the UK title War Shock, 1956), as the wife of a disturbed war veteran.
In Abner Biberman’s superior western Gun for a Coward (1957), she was the heroine torn between two brothers (Fred MacMurray and Jeffrey Hunter) and in Bell, Book and Candle (1958) she played the snooty fiancée of a publisher (James Stewart) who falls in love with a witch (Kim Novak). Her finest opportunities continued, though, to come from the theatre. In 1959 she was acclaimed for her performance as a neurotic beauty ruining several lives in Michael V. Gazzo’s short-lived drama The Night Circus.
Her co-star in The Night Circus was Ben Gazzara, and in 1961 he became Rule’s third husband. Her first two were the writer-director Robert Thom and the playwright N. Richard Nash, and she was once engaged to Farley Granger, a liaison described as the briefest engagement in show business. Her marriage to Gazzara lasted until 1979.
In 1961 Rule had another personal triumph in the musical The Happiest Girl in the World, based on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, with the music of Offenbach given wittily fanciful lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. She played Diana, goddess of the moon, who inspires Lysistrata with the idea that women must refuse their favours until men agree to keep the peace. Still recalled affectionately by theatregoers is the show-stopping duet she shared with her uncle Pluto (Cyril Richard), “Vive la Virtue!”, a lilting gavotte in which he points out, “This is man’s ambivalent taste, whatever is chaste has got to be chased.”
The New York Herald-Tribune critic Walter Kerr wrote,
I suppose Cyril Ritchard and Janice Rule could have danced all night; they link arms, lift their ears for a beat, and take off – to the lightest of Offenbach – as though they’d quite forgotten which Palace they’re supposed to have come from. Lovely work.
Howard Taubman in The New York Times lauded her “personal magic” and John Chapman in the New York News called her “a beautiful and bewitching dancer and an all-round musical comedy player.”
The previous year Rule had starred as a man-hating beatnik in a screen version of Jack Kerouac’s “beat” novel The Subterraneans, a film that caused Joan Crawford graciously to admit her error. In 1962 she wrote,
On board a ship last summer I sat watching The Subterraneans, absolutely rapt over the performance of an actress who dances brilliantly, who has a flair for drama, for comedy. “Who is this girl? She’s fantastic!” I said. Well, the girl was Janice Rule. I’ve since
seen her on TV and I can only add superlatives. Miss Rule, my apologies, I think you’re going to be with us a long long time.
Rule’s film career continued to be sporadic. She co-starred with Yul Brynner in a Freudian western, Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964), and was one of a fine cast (Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, Miriam Hopkins, Robert Duvall) in Arthur Penn’s muddled melodrama The Chase (1966), which gave her one of her first neurotic roles as Duvall’s slatternly wife who drunkenly swallows a string of pearls. She was a loose woman dallying with both Richard Widmark and William Holden in the western Alvarez Kelly (1966), was splendid as a rugged frontierswoman in the bleak western Welcome to Hard Times (1967) and had a rare chance to display her sense of humour in the spy spoof The Ambushers (1967).
In Frank Perry’s hauntingly enigmatic drama The Swimmer (1968), Rule was powerfully biting as Burt Lancaster’s vitriolic ex-mistress who claims never to have loved him. Her scene with Lancaster was directed, uncredited, by Sydney Pollack. Rule’s screen work, though impressive, had never made her a box-office name, and much of her later work was on television.
In 1972 she appeared in Stephen Frears’s British film Gumshoe, which starred Albert Finney as a bingo-caller with aspirations to be a Bogart-like private detective. Rule was a duplicitous client who is actually a gunrunner and dope smuggler. In 1977 she had one of her most memorable roles as a mute and pregnant artist, painter of weird and vaguely sexual murals which reflect her fear of men, in Robert Altman’s audacious, strange but compelling movie Three Women, co-starring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek.
Among her last film roles was that in John Badham’s American Flyers (1985) as the dysfunctional mother of two brothers, one of whom is dying, who enter a bicycle marathon. For several years she had been working as a psychoanalyst, having gained a doctorate from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles in 1983.
Tom Vallance
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
TCM overview:
An attractive leading lady who worked constantly during the 1950s and 60s in theater, features and TV, Janice Rule began her career as a nightclub dancer in Chicago and NYC. Her first film was “Goodbye My Fancy” (1951) and she went on to appear in mostly forgettable fare. An exception was 1968’s “The Swimmer”, in which she was Burt Lancaster’s mistress. Perhaps her best screen role was as one of the title characters, a mysterious embittered muralist, in Robert Altman’s “3 Women” (1977). By this time, Rule had begun to concentrate on a second career as a psychoanalyst, although she continued to make occasional film and TV appearances through the 80s.From 1961 to 1979, Rule was married to actor Ben Gazzara.
Article on Janice Rule from Tina Aumont’s Eyes website:
A classy and attractive lady with Broadway experience, Janice Rule was a multitalented actress who could easily switch from playing strong or emotional ladies to wayward women, and even showed a knack for comedy. A force to be reckoned with she always had strict control of her career, even if it meant upsetting the studios.
Born in Ohio on August 15th 1931, Janice’s early years were spent as a dancer before she made her screen debut in the 1951 Joan Crawford drama ‘Goodbye, My Fancy’. Supporting parts followed with the minor Doris Day musical ‘Starlift’ (’51) and the watchable war picture ‘Rogue’s March’ (’53), playing Peter Lawford’s British girlfriend.
Never taking the easy route, Rule always preferred to take on interesting projects, even turning down Eve Marie Saint’s role in ‘On the Waterfront’ (’54), preferring stage work, and was enjoying great success in ‘Picnic’ on Broadway at the time. Back on screen Janice was Jeffrey Hunter’s girlfriend in the western ‘Gun for a Coward’ (’57) and then James Stewart’s fiancée in ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ (’58), having a spell cast on her by Kim Novak’s old college rival.
During this time Janice appeared in a handful of westerns of varying quality. First was the box-office flop ‘Invitation to a Gunfighter’ (’64) as the girl who deserts George Segal’s confederate soldier while he’s off fighting in the Civil War. Better was the William Holden starrer ‘Alvarez Kelly’ (’66) as Richard Widmark’s fiancée, and then the wonderful sleeper ‘Welcome to Hard Times’ (’67) as Henry Fonda’s tragic girlfriend. Another movie of note during this time was the Marlon Brando drama ‘The Chase’ (’66) playing Robert Duvall’s flirtatious wife Emily. After a fun part as Dean Martin’s partner in the Matt Helm adventure ‘The Ambushers’ (’67), a good role came in the cult suburban drama ‘The Swimmer’ (’68) as Burt Lancaster’s bitter ex. Replacing first choice Barbara Loden, it was a one-scene part but she was terrific in it, showing real emotion as the ‘other woman’ unable to forgive Lancaster for his mistreatment of her.
In the UK Janice had a nice little role in the under-rated homage ‘Gumshoe’ (’71) as the object of wannabe detective Albert Finney’s missing person case. After playing Dennis Hopper’s old flame in the comedy-western ‘Kid Blue’ (’73), Rule had one of her most memorable roles in Robert Altman’s wonderfully dreamy drama ‘3 Women’ (’77) as a pregnant artist and owner of the motel where Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall take refuge in. It was a nicely understated performance and won Janice many plaudits. After a five year cinematic break Rule came back with a winner, playing sympathetic journalist Kate Newman in Costa-Gavras’ excellent political thriller ‘Missing’ (’82), a festival favourite starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek as relatives searching for John Shea’s missing writer. Rule’s final movie appearances were as aspiring cyclist Kevin Costner’s mother in ‘American Flyers’ and the sentimental drama ‘Rainy Day Friends’ (both ’85) as a psychotherapist, something that she had qualified for in real-life. Retiring from acting, Rule ran a practice in New York and would only return to the screen for a handful of television spots until 1992.
Married three times, most notably to actor Ben Gazzara, Janice Rule died from a cerebral haemorrhage on October 17th 2003. A rebel who crossed many genres, Janice was able to run the gamut of emotions, it’s just a shame she didn’t have more memorable roles on the big screen.
Favourite Movie: The Swimmer Favourite Performance: 3 Women
The above “Tina Aumont’s Eyes” website:
A classy and attractive lady with Broadway experience, Janice Rule was a multitalented actress who could easily switch from playing strong or emotional ladies to wayward women, and even showed a knack for comedy. A force to be reckoned with she always had strict control of her career, even if it meant upsetting the studios.
Born in Ohio on August 15th 1931, Janice’s early years were spent as a dancer before she made her screen debut in the 1951 Joan Crawford drama ‘Goodbye, My Fancy’. Supporting parts followed with the minor Doris Day musical ‘Starlift’ (’51) and the watchable war picture ‘Rogue’s March’ (’53), playing Peter Lawford’s British girlfriend.
Never taking the easy route, Rule always preferred to take on interesting projects, even turning down Eve Marie Saint’s role in ‘On the Waterfront’ (’54), preferring stage work, and was enjoying great success in ‘Picnic’ on Broadway at the time. Back on screen Janice was Jeffrey Hunter’s girlfriend in the western ‘Gun for a Coward’ (’57) and then James Stewart’s fiancée in ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ (’58), having a spell cast on her by Kim Novak’s old college rival.
During this time Janice appeared in a handful of westerns of varying quality. First was the box-office flop ‘Invitation to a Gunfighter’ (’64) as the girl who deserts George Segal’s confederate soldier while he’s off fighting in the Civil War. Better was the William Holden starrer ‘Alvarez Kelly’ (’66) as Richard Widmark’s fiancée, and then the wonderful sleeper ‘Welcome to Hard Times’ (’67) as Henry Fonda’s tragic girlfriend. Another movie of note during this time was the Marlon Brando drama ‘The Chase’ (’66) playing Robert Duvall’s flirtatious wife Emily. After a fun part as Dean Martin’s partner in the Matt Helm adventure ‘The Ambushers’ (’67), a good role came in the cult suburban drama ‘The Swimmer’ (’68) as Burt Lancaster’s bitter ex. Replacing first choice Barbara Loden, it was a one-scene part but she was terrific in it, showing real emotion as the ‘other woman’ unable to forgive Lancaster for his mistreatment of her.
In the UK Janice had a nice little role in the under-rated homage ‘Gumshoe’ (’71) as the object of wannabe detective Albert Finney’s missing person case. After playing Dennis Hopper’s old flame in the comedy-western ‘Kid Blue’ (’73), Rule had one of her most memorable roles in Robert Altman’s wonderfully dreamy drama ‘3 Women’ (’77) as a pregnant artist and owner of the motel where Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall take refuge in. It was a nicely understated performance and won Janice many plaudits. After a five year cinematic break Rule came back with a winner, playing sympathetic journalist Kate Newman in Costa-Gavras’ excellent political thriller ‘Missing’ (’82), a festival favourite starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek as relatives searching for John Shea’s missing writer. Rule’s final movie appearances were as aspiring cyclist Kevin Costner’s mother in ‘American Flyers’ and the sentimental drama ‘Rainy Day Friends’ (both ’85) as a psychotherapist, something that she had qualified for in real-life. Retiring from acting, Rule ran a practice in New York and would only return to the screen for a handful of television spots until 1992.
Married three times, most notably to actor Ben Gazzara, Janice Rule died from a cerebral haemorrhage on October 17th 2003. A rebel who crossed many genres, Janice was able to run the gamut of emotions, it’s just a shame she didn’t have more memorable roles on the big screen.
Favourite Movie: The Swimmer Favourite Performance: 3 Women
The above article can also be accessed online here.
A classically trained actress from an early age, Amy Irving was a soulful ingénue and leading lady in the 1970s and 1980s, moving effortlessly from dramas like “Carrie” (1976) and “Yentl” (1983) to comedies like “Micki + Maude” (1984) and “Crossing Delancey” (1988). Though an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, her marriage to Steven Spielberg and its 1989 dissolution, which resulted in a massive settlement, overshadowed much of her film work. She moved into indies in the 1990s before returning to play more mature and complex roles in “Traffic” (2001) and “Hide and Seek” (2005). Though her talents rarely received the showcase they deserved, Irving remained a well-respected presence in films and on stage and television for over four decades.
Born Sept. 10, 1953 in Palo Alto, CA, Amy Davis Irving was the daughter of television and stage director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer. Her childhood was steeped in the theater; at nine months, she made her acting debut in a production starring her mother and directed by her father, and would continue to appear in his plays throughout her adolescence. After graduating from the Professional Children’s School in New York, she studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York while making her Broadway debut in 1965 with a walk-on in “The Country Wife.” The play was directed by Robert Symonds, who would later become her stepfather after Irving’s death in 1979.
After furthering her studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and London’s Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Irving made her off-Broadway debut in the play “And Chocolate on Her Chin.” Upon her return to Los Angeles, she began landing guest roles on television series and in TV movies, most notably as one of the romantic leads in the Emmy-winning miniseries “Once an Eagle” (NBC, 1976). That same year, she made her feature debut in “Carrie” (1976), Brian De Palma’s terrifying adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a high school student (Sissy Spacek) who uses telekinesis to wreak revenge on her tormentors. Irving played the sole survivor of Carrie’s rampage, while Pointer played her onscreen mother. The film’s runaway success led to other features, including a reunion with De Palma in the similarly themed “The Fury” (1978) and the country music drama “Honeysuckle Rose” (1980), where she served as temptation for an already wayward singer (Willie Nelson). That same year, she starred in “The Competition” as a classical pianist who finds herself both in love with and competing against fellow musical talent Richard Dreyfuss in an international contest.
During this period, Irving became involved with director Steven Spielberg, who was beginning to emerge as a major talent on the strength of “Jaws” (1976) and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978). However, the relationship crumbled when Irving reportedly had an affair with Willie Nelson during the shooting of “Honeysuckle Rose.” The break-up cost her many things, not the least of which was the female lead in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), which Spielberg had offered to her before the part eventually went to Karen Allen. It was Irving’s second major loss in terms of starring roles in blockbusters, as she had also auditioned for and failed to land the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars” (1977). Despite these setbacks, Irving settled into a steady string of film and stage appearances, the most successful of which was Barbra Streisand’s “Yentl” (1983), in which she played the fiancée of Mandy Patinkin, who falls in love with his best friend, Yentl (Streisand), unaware that he is dressed in male drag in order to study the Talmud. Irving received an Oscar nomination for her performance, as well as a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress, which rather ignominiously made her the first woman to earn nods from both ends of the acting spectrum for the same role.
The 1980s proved to be a fruitful period for Irving, both personally and professional. She worked steadily in features and on television and stage in a wide variety of roles that displayed her exceptional versatility. She was the Indian princess who broke from tradition to fall in love with a British soldier (Ben Cross) in the HBO miniseries “The Far Pavilions” (1984), then played a concert cellist who becomes entangled in a bigamous relationship with Dudley Moore and Ann Reinking in Blake Edwards’ comedy “Micki + Maude” (1984). The charming romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey” (1988) brought Irving a Golden Globe nomination as a single Jewish woman contending with a meddling grandmother (Reizl Bozyk) and matchmaker (Sylvia Miles) while navigating the dating scene, while “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna” (NBC, 1986) earned her a second Golden Globe nod as Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the lost daughter of Russia’s Czar Nicholas II. Irving also wowed audiences by providing the singing voice for Jessica Rabbit in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988). During this time, she was also a fixture on Broadway, most notably in “Amadeus” as Mozart’s wife and “Heartbreak House” opposite her “Anastasia” co-star, Rex Harrison.
Irving had also reconciled with Spielberg during the 1980s, and the couple was married in 1985, with a son, Max, arriving that same year. However, the personal and societal pressures of being married to one of the world’s most popular filmmakers soon undermined the relationship; in interviews, Irving said that she felt like a “politician’s wife” and unable to speak her mind during their marriage. Their union finally collapsed in 1989 when Irving began a relationship with Bruno Barreto, the Brazilian filmmaker who cast her as the lead in his political thriller, “A Show of Force” (1990). Irving earned headlines when a judge awarded her a $100 million settlement based on a controversial prenuptial agreement written on a napkin.
New love Baretto would provide Irving with her most substantive film roles in the 1990s, as well as a second son, Gabriel, born in 1990. She played the wife of a schoolteacher (Dennis Hopper) who becomes embroiled in an affair with a student in Barreto’s “Carried Away” (1996), and later shifted gears to play an FBI agent in “One Tough Cop” (1998) and woman who rediscovered her sensuality in “Bossa Nova” (2000). Her screen work in the 1990s moved along these independent-minded lines, though there were occasional forays back to Hollywood. She had a minor role in Woody Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry” (1997) and reprised her role as Sue Snell in “The Rage: Carrie 2” (1999), which failed to match the intensity of the original.
By the end of the decade, Irving’s film career was making something of a rebound, thanks to major roles in Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning “Traffic” (2000) as drug czar Michael Douglas’ wife, which earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble. She later reunited with Sissy Spacek for “Tuck Everlasting” (2002) as Alexis Bledel’s strict mother, and played Robert De Niro’s wife, whose death by suicide hid a complicated psychological tangle in the hit thriller “Hide and Seek” (2005). For four years she played Emily Sloane, the wife of international terrorist Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), on the hit spy series “Alias” (ABC, 2001-05). Irving also remained a staple of the New York theater scene, with appearances in acclaimed productions of “The Coast of Utopia” at Lincoln Center in 2007, and a debut with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in “A Little Night Music,” directed by designer Isaac Mizrahi.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Buster Crabbe graduated from the University of Southern California. In 1931, while working on That’s My Boy (1932) for Columbia Pictures, he was tested by MGM for Tarzan and rejected. Paramount Pictures put him in King of the Jungle (1933) as Kaspa, the Lion Man (after a book of that title but clearly a copy of the Tarzan stories). Publicity for this film emphasized his having won the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle swimming championship and suggested a rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller.
Producer Sol Lesserwanted Crabbe for an independent Tarzan the Fearless (1933), though he first had to getJames Pierce to waive rights to the part already promised to him by his father-in-law,Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film was released as both a feature and a serial; most houses showed only the first serial episode, which critics panned as a badly organized feature. Just prior to the film’s release, Crabbe married his college sweetheart and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or start law school at USC.
Paramount put him in a number of Zane Grey westerns, then Universal Pictures gave him the lead him in very successful sci-fi serials (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers) from 1936-40. In 1940, he began a string of Billy the Kid westerns for low-budget (very low-budget) studio PRC.
Buster Crabbe
After World War II, he had devoted much of his time to his swimming pool corporation and operation of a boys’ camp in New York. In 1950, he made the serials Pirates of the High Seas(1950) and King of the Congo (1952). In addition, he was very active on television in the 1950s. In 1953, he hosted a local show in New York City that featured his serials.
He played the title role of the adventure series, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion(1955). During television’s “Golden Age”, he had several “meaty” lead roles on such weekly anthology series as “Kraft Theater” (“Million Dollar Rookie”) and “Philco Television Playhouse” (“Cowboy for Chris”) He later returned to western features to play Wyatt Earp in Badman’s Country (1958) and gave a stellar performance. Buster Crabbe died at age 75 of a heart attack on April 23, 1983.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Skip HomeierSkip HomeierARTHUR TAKES OVER, US poster, top from left: Richard Crane, Lois Collier, Skip Homeier center, bottom from left: Howard Freeman, Barbara Brown, Jerome Cowan, 1948, TM & Copyright 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: x20thCentFox/CourtesyxEverettxCollectionx MBDARTA FE001
Skip Homeier obituary in “The Guardian” in 2017
In 1943, a 12-year-old boy actor stunned Broadway audiences with his portrayal of a German youth indoctrinated into nazism. Brought to the US by an unsuspecting uncle, he soon threatens the family, then the whole community.
The play was Tomorrow, the World!; the actor, Skip (then Skippy) Homeier, whom I admired from a young age, and who has died aged 86. In 1944, he revisited the role for the Hollywood film version. It would define much of his subsequent career, with villains and neurotics filling his early CV.
Born George Vincent Homeier in Chicago, he was still a child when his parents, Ruth Francher and George Homeier, moved to New York. There, aged six, young Skippy began working in radio.
In his 20s he lacked the boy next door appeal of a Tab Hunter, but shone in meaty character roles – the town bully in The Gunfighter (1950), the edgy marine in Halls of Montezuma (1951), the albino hitman of Cry Vengeance (1954).
Westerns, in particular, became his stock in trade. Among them, Ten Wanted Men with Randolph Scott (1955); Stranger at My Door; Thunder Over Arizona; and The Burning Hills (all 1956); two more with Scott – The Tall T (1957) and Comanche Station (1960); and two with America’s war hero Audie Murphy – Showdown (1960) and Bullet for a Badman (1964).
By now a regular face on TV, Skip featured in hit shows including Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Virginian and Rawhide. In 1960, he took the lead in the detective series Dan Raven. Set on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, the show was abandoned after 13 episodes owing to competition from the more famous 77 Sunset Strip and Rawhide, both playing on the same night.
Unexpected cult status came, following roles in the original Star Trek series as the Nazi-like Melakon in Patterns of Force (1968), then the insane Dr Sevrin in The Way to Eden (1969). Another significant role was as Judge Charles Older in Helter Skelter, a 1976 TV movie about the Charles Manson murders.
Later cinema films included The Greatest (1977), with Muhammad Ali, and Quell & Co (1982), after which Skip retired, aged only 50. For years Trekkies urged him to appear at conventions, but Skip declined all offers.
I met him several times in 1956 when he was filming in London, and was impressed by his modest, friendly manner, so unlike the roles for which he was best known to film fans.
His wife Della Sharman, whom he married in 1963, survives him, as do his two sons, Peter and Michael, from his marriage in 1951 to Nancy Van Noorden Field, which ended in divorce.
Donal Logue’s versatility and talent makes him one of the most well respected and beloved actors today. Born in Ottawa, Canada, Logue moved all over the United States, from the Boston area as an infant to various towns on the Mexican border. He returned to Boston to attend Harvard University, where he majored in Intellectual History and discovered his love for the performing arts. While in college, he appeared in over thirty plays, worked for two summers in the American Repertory Theatre’s Harvard/Radcliffe Summer Stock Company, and spent a short time doing theatre in England. After graduating, Logue joined the Cornerstone Theatre Company which developed community theatre in rural parts of the United States. From then on Logue dedicated himself to pursuing his passion for acting. In his 20 plus years in the industry, Logue has starred in films such as, The Tao of Steve, the story of a larger-than-life, philosophizing lothario, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and won him a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance. His other film credits include Sneakers, Gettysburg, Blade, Runaway Bride, Reindeer Games, The Million Dollar Hotel, Comic Book Villains with Michael Rapaport, Confidence, Just Like Heaven, and The Groomsmen with Ed Burns. Recently, Donal co-starred in Max Payne with Mark Wahlberg, as well as Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Ephron. He also appeared in Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, based on the Robert Graysmith books about the notorious Zodiac serial killer. Following the US release of Zodiac, he co-starred in Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. Logue made his directorial debut with the independent film Tennis, Anyone?, which appeared at the US Comedy Arts Festival. He wrote, starred, and directed the film about two Hollywood has-beens who try and find meaning in their lives through a series of celebrity tennis tournaments. In television, Logue joined the cast of the NBC series “LIFE” about a former police officer who returns to the force after having been wrongly imprisoned for years. In 2007, he headlined the critically lauded ABC comedy “The Knights of Prosperity” in which a group of blue collar guys band together to plan a heist of Mick Jagger’s New York City apartment. Prior to “The Knights of Prosperity” Logue starred in the Carsey-Warner produced show, “Grounded for Life” which aired for five seasons. He was also featured in a recurring role on “ER” as Sherry Stringfield’s love interest. In 2010, Logue finished a critically acclaimed season on “Terriers,” a television series created by Ted Griffin and Shawn Ryan for FX. He begins production on the Marc Cherry pilot “Hallelujah” for ABC in March of 2011. Logue lives in Los Angeles and has two children.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Peggy Ryan <rryan@mail.sdsu.edu>
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Though he engaged audiences in a variety of onscreen roles, actor Billy Campbell won his biggest acclaim on the small screen, particularly as the divorced father Rick Sammler on the drama “Once & Again” (ABC, 1999-2002). Prior to that role, Campbell earned a small degree of notoriety for being only one of two characters killed off in the infamous “Moldavian Massacre” cliffhanger during the season five finale of “Dynasty” (ABC, 1981-1989). He went on to play a rookie cop on the gritty, but short-lived “Crime Story” NBC, 1986-88) before making the jump to features with the titular role in “The Rocketeer” (1991). Following supporting parts in Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) and the Civil War epic “Gettysburg” (1993), Campbell went returned to the stage for a variety of acclaimed roles before appearing on “Once & Again.” Once that show left the air, he went back to features to play the heavy in the revenge drama “Enough” (2002) and General George Pickett in “Gods and Generals” (2003). Returning to television in 2004, Campbell appeared on the sci-fi series “The 4400” (USA Network, 2004-07) and the teen-angst drama “The OC” (Fox, 2003-07), before earning more critical adulation for his role on “The Killing” (AMC, 2011- ), once again proving the actor’s versatility in just about any medium.
Born on July 7, 1959 in Charlottesville, VA, Campbell grew up in the Southern city, attending Western Albemarle High School as a teenager. The youngster also happened to be an heir to the Champion spark plug fortune, which sounded better than the reality, since the small inheritance he received at age 18 was gone almost immediately. Meanwhile, he graduated from high school in 1979, where he had played football and performed in a student production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Relocating to Chicago, IL to be near his father, Campbell attended the American Academy of Art with the intention of becoming a comic book artist. But his passion switched to acting after taking classes at the suggestion of a friend. Deciding to pursue the craft seriously, he studied at the Ted Liss Studio for the Performing Arts, as well as at the Players Workshop of Second City in Chicago. After appearing in local regional theater, Campbell left the Windy City and headed to Los Angeles to pursue acting as a professional, while continuing his training at Howard Fine.
Campbell soon made his television debut with guest starring roles in episodes of “Family Ties” (NBC, 1982-89) and “Hotel” (ABC, 1983-88), before landing his first series regular role that same year, playing the gay lover of Steven Carrington (Jack Coleman) on the popular primetime soap “Dynasty” (ABC, 1981-89) during the 1984-85 season. While his character failed to survive the infamous “Moldavian massacre” cliffhanger, Campbell went on to distinguish himself as a stalwart player capable of projecting heroic qualities. For two seasons, he played rookie Chicago detective Joey Indelli on the stylish cop drama “Crime Story” (NBC, 1986-88) and soon made the leap to the big screen in the role of a mysterious man who seemingly survived from prehistoric times in “Call from Space” (1989). Campbell next landed a starring role as reluctant superhero Cliff Secord in Disney’s “The Rocketeer” (1991). Cast opposite a young Jennifer Connelly, Campbell began to date the actress offscreen for five years until the pair ended their relationship in 1995. Campbell went on to work with Francis Ford Coppola in the film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (1992) and appeared as Lieutenant Pitzer in the lavish Civil War epic “Gettysburg” (1993).
Returning to stage work, Campbell appeared as Laertes in Stephen Lang’s 1993 production of “Hamlet.” That same year, he landed a starring role on the short-lived romantic detective series “Moon over Miami” (ABC, 1993) and received critical acclaim for his role as a gay gynecologist in Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” (PBS, 1993). Alternating between stage work and the small screen, Campbell went on to star in the Los Angeles production of “Fortinbras,” for which he won a 1997 Ovation Award for Best Lead Actor, and reprised his “City” role in “More Tales of the City” (PBS, 1998) and “Further Tales of the City” (PBS, 2001). He next nabbed the lead role of Rick Sammler on the drama “Once & Again” (ABC, 1999-2002), for which he received considerable critical acclaim. Campbell’s earnest and touching performance as a divorced father trying to find love earned him a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a Television Series, as well as a Golden Globe nomination in 2000. Though the show struggled with ratings, it did manage to find a loyal audience, with Campbell appearing for three seasons, providing him with some much deserved exposure and dependable paycheck.
A diverse actor, Campbell went on to appear as an abusive husband opposite Jennifer Lopez in the thriller “Enough” (2002) and landed a supporting role in another Civil War-era epic, “Gods & Generals” (2003). Returning to series television the following year, Campbell joined the cast of the sci-fi series “The 4400” (USA Network, 2004-07), a drama that centered on the stories of 4,400 people who mysteriously disappeared over a period of 50 years. The following year, Campbell added to his varied résumé by appearing in a multi-episode arc on the popular drama “The OC” (Fox, 2003-07), portraying magazine editor Carter Buckley. Because Campbell decided to spend 13 months circumnavigating the globe on a sailboat in 2005, his character on “The 4400,” Jordan Collier, was killed off, though he did manage to return for the show’s fourth and final season. Meanwhile, Campbell had a recurring stint on the short-lived “Shark” (CBS, 2006-08) before playing a detective desperately looking for his partner (Michael Rooker) before a meteor crashes into Earth in the aptly-named miniseries “Meteor” (NBC, 2009). Returning to series television, Campbell starred as a politician running for mayor in the acclaimed crime drama, “The Killing” (AMC, 2011- ), which explored the murder investigation of a young girl from the perspectives of various people connected to the event.
The above TCM overview can be accessed online here.
