Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 64 of 115

Wayne Rogers

Wayne Rogers is a likable American actor who has graced cinema and television. He is best known for his participation in the “Mash” television series as Trapper John McIntyre. His films include “The Glory Guys” with Tom Tryon and Senta Berger in 1965 and “Cool Hand Luke” with Paul Newman in 1967. He died in 31st December 2015.

“Telegraph” obituary:

Wayne Rogers, who has died aged 82, played the US Army surgeon Captain “Trapper” John McIntyre, the martini-swilling, nurse-chasing sidekick to Alan Alda’s “Hawkeye” Pierce, in the immensely popular television series M.A.S.H., a black comedy set in a mobile hospital during the Korean War.

Rogers took over the role of Trapper John for the television adaptation (first broadcast in 1972) from Elliott Gould who had played him in Robert Altman’s hit film of 1970, which was itself based on a novel by Richard Hooker, a former US Army physician. For the television show, which was generally lighter in tone than the film, Trapper’s sense of humour was made broader, more slapstick and less dry.

He tended to take on a secondary role as partner in practical jokes – usually involving the goading of the more officious members of the unit such as Major Burns – to Alan Alda’s character. But the wisecracking Trapper, so-called because a young woman with whom he was once caught in flagrante in a train’s lavatory protested that “he trapped me!”, was well liked by viewers.

A typical quip came in an episode when Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, the strict head nurse played by Loretta Swit, is heard angrily deriding Trapper and Hawkeye as “those shower-tent peekers”, and Trapper rejoins with: “You peek into one shower and you’re labelled for life!”

By the third series, Alda’s dominance in the scripts was irritating Rogers and this, as well as contractual disagreements (including a morality clause which, Rogers later claimed, “said that, in the eyes of the studio, if you behaved in an immoral fashion, they have the right to suspend you”) led to his departure from the show in 1975. Trapper was hastily written out of the script and replaced as Hawkeye’s tent chum by Captain B J Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), who stayed for the remaining eight seasons.

William Wayne McMillan Rogers was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 7 1933, the son of a lawyer who died when Wayne was still a child. After private school he read History at Princeton and then served in the US Navy as a navigator on a cargo ship before catching the acting bug. “At the time, I was supposed to go to Harvard Law,” he recalled many years later. “My mother was insistent that I conform. I had to break the news that I wanted a life in the theatre instead. It went over like a lead balloon.”

He moved to New York where he studied dance with Martha Graham and acting. He appeared in episodes of Gunsmoke, Law of the Plainsman and Wanted: Dead or Alive and in 1960 was cast in a lead role in a new Western series, Stagecoach West. In 1967 he took a small role in the prison drama Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman.

Of the M.A.S.H. years he said: “It was a wonderful experience, and I’ll tell you why. Alan Alda and I came to it with the same attitude – that the work, and not the trappings of the work, was the most important thing.”

After M.A.S.H. he turned up occasionally in films; on television among other roles he appeared as a guest star in five episodes of Murder, She Wrote and, starting in 1979, played a doctor again in the sitcom House Calls, with Lynn Redgrave and then Sharon Gless.

Meanwhile Rogers’s business career was prospering; he became a respected entrepreneur and appeared on Cashin’ In on Fox News as a pundit.

From his early days in a precarious profession Rogers had salted away his earnings. “One of the first things I did in the early 1960s,” he remembered, “was to buy an apartment house in West Hollywood out of bankruptcy and turn it around.” In the early days he was able to help his flatmate, the actor Peter Falk, to recover money from an insurance company after he had been badly advised.

Wayne Rogers married, first, Mitzi McWhorter, an actress, in 1960. The marriage was dissolved and in 1988 he married Amy Hirsh, a producer. She survives him with a son and a daughter from the previous marriage.

The above “Telegraph” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Tough around the edges and with a handsome durability, Alabama-born Wayne Rogers had graduated from Princeton with a history degree in 1954 and joined the Navy before giving acting a thought. During his military service, however, he became associated with theater by happenstance and decided to give it a try after his discharge. He started things off by studying with renown actor Sanford Meisner and dancer Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He toiled for years in off-Broadway and regional plays (“Bus Stop”, “No Time for Sergeants”) and had a short stint on the daytime soap The Edge of Night (1956) before making a minor dent in films, including small roles in Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), The Glory Guys (1965) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). He also co-starred opposite Robert Bray in the short-lived TV western series Stagecoach West (1960), and co-produced and wrote the script for the cult sci-fi cheapie The Astro-Zombies (1968) in-between. It wasn’t until 1972 when the 39-year-old Rogers nabbed the role of “Trapper John”, a Korean War surgeon, in the classic comedy series M*A*S*H (1972) that he found the stardom that had eluded him for over a decade and a half. Alongside Alan Alda‘s “Hawkeye Pierce”, the TV show was a huge hit and the two enjoyed equal success at the beginning. Slowly, however, Wayne’s character started getting the short end of the stick as the wry, sardonic, highly appealing Alda became a resounding audience favorite. Frustrated at turning second-banana to Alda, he quit the series (his character was discharged) after three seasons amid a contractual dispute. Mike Farrell replaced him in the cohort role of “B.J. Hunnicut”. TV movies came his way throughout the late 70s and a couple more comedy series, including House Calls (1979), in which Wayne received a Golden Globe nomination, but nothing would equal the success he found during theM*A*S*H (1972) years. Sporadic filming in Once in Paris… (1978), The Hot Touch (1981),The Gig (1985) and The Killing Time (1987) also failed to raise his amiable profile. In later years, Wayne found renewed respect as a businessman and investor, having managed the affairs of such stars as Peter Falk and James Caan, among others.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Although Stephanie Beecham has starred in movies, notably opposite Marlon Brando in “The Nightcomers” and Ava Gardner in “Tam Lin”, she is best known for her roles in some iconic television series. She was born in Barnet in 1947. She began her acting career with roles on television in “The Saint” with Roger Moore and “Jason King”. Her major roles on TV were as Rose in the series “Tenko”, in “Connie” in 1985, in Hollywood in “The Colbys” and then back in the UK in “Bad Girls” with Amanda Barrie. She has two daughters from her marriage to John McEnery.

TCM overview:

A British stage actress who migrated to the USA to play the bitchy Sable Coolly on “Dynasty II: The Cloys” (ABC, 1985-87), Stephanie Beacham has often been cast in roles that vary between nasty vixens and cool, take-charge women. The London native began her career on stage in Liverpool in 1964 where she was a founding member of the Everyman Theatre. She debuted there in “The Servant of Two Masters” and as the First Witch in “Macbeth”. By 1970, Beacham was working on the London stage in “The Basement” and later appeared opposite Ian McKellen in “Venice Preserved” (1985) and Jeremy Irons in “The Rover” (1988). She belatedly made her Broadway debut in 1996 in a production of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband”.

Beacham debuted in films in 1969’s “The Games” as an Olympic hopeful opposite Michael Crawford. She subsequently appeared as a swinger alongside Ava Gardner in Roddy McDowell’s “The Devil’s Widow” (1971). More recently, she was a nemesis to Shelly Long in the pallid comedy “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989). Beacham has feared better on the small screen, She reprised her role as the bitch-goddess Sable on “Dynasty” for the 1988-89 season. She switched to comedy in the title role of “Sister Kate” (NBC, 1989-90), a nun more familiar with work in the high echelons of power now assigned to run an orphanage. Beacham had the recurring role of Luke Perry’s mother on Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” and later played the very able Dr. Westphalen for two seasons (1993-95) on NBC’s “seaQuest DSV”.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Stephanie Beecham TCM Overview

Setephanie Beacham has starred in movies, notably opposite Marlon Brando in “The Nightcomers” and Ava Gardner in “Tam Lin”, she is best known for her roles in some iconic television series. She was born in Barnet in 1947.

She began her acting career with roles on television in “The Saint” with Roger Moore and “Jason King”. Her major roles on TV were as Rose in the series “Tenko”, in “Connie” in 1985, in Hollywood in “The Colbys” and then back in the UK in “Bad Girls” with Amanda Barrie. She has two daughters from her marriage to John McEnery.

TCM overview:

By 1970, Beacham was working on the London stage in “The Basement” and later appeared opposite Ian McKellen in “Venice Preserved” (1985) and Jeremy Irons in “The Rover” (1988). She belatedly made her Broadway debut in 1996 in a production of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband”.

Beacham has feared better on the small screen, She reprised her role as the bitch-goddess Sable on “Dynasty” for the 1988-89 season. She switched to comedy in the title role of “Sister Kate” (NBC, 1989-90), a nun more familiar with work in the high echelons of power now assigned to run an orphanage.

Beacham had the recurring role of Luke Perry’s mother on Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” and later played the very able Dr. Westphalen for two seasons (1993-95) on NBC’s “seaQuest DSV”. The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Shirley Jones was born in 1934 in Pennsylvania. She achieved fame early in life because of her winning the leads in two of the major cinema musicals of the mid-1950’s, “Oklaholma” in 1955 and “Carousel” in 1956. She won an Oscar for a dramatic role in 1960 in “Elmer Gantry” and then had another major success in a singing role in 1962 in “The Music Man”. In 1970 she won international acclaim again for her role in “The Partridge Family” with her stepson David Cassidy. She is still busy performing on stage, films and television.

TCM Overview:

A sunny personality and a gorgeous singing voice brought actress Shirley Jones to the Broadway stage, which in turn led to her career in Hollywood. She was a natural for big-screen musicals, but defied critics’ expectations for her surprising turn as a prostitute in “Elmer Gantry” (1960), which earned her an Oscar. Her film work cooled in the 1960s, but she gained a following among younger viewers in the early 1970s as one of television’s coolest moms on “The Partridge Family” (ABC, 1970-1974), which also starred her stepson, pop idol David Cassidy. The show’s success ensured her status as a pop culture icon and helped her to maintain steady work in television and on stage for the next three decades.

Born Shirley Mae Jones in Charleroi, PA, she was named after child actress Shirley Temple by her parents, Paul Jones and Marjorie Williams, who owned the Jones Brewery. An only child, her early years were marked by happiness and a burgeoning talent for singing, which earned her a spot in her local church choir at the age of six. Shortly after graduating from high school, she was encouraged by talent agents to enter the Miss Pittsburgh beauty competition, which she won in 1952. She was later named first runner-up in the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant, which earned her a scholarship to the acclaimed Pittsburgh Playhouse. She soon lit out for New York City to make a name for herself on the musical stage, and so impressed the legendary Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II that they cast her in the chorus of their 1953 production of “South Pacific.” A small role in 1954’s “Me and Juliet” led to her assuming the female lead in the touring production. While on the road, Rogers and Hammerstein arranged for Jones to audition for the upcoming film version of their smash hit “Oklahoma!” Upon her return from Hollywood, she discovered that she had landed the lead role of Laurey, and her film career was on its way.

Jones was soon top-billed in some of the most popular and successful musicals of the 1950s, including “Carousel” (1956), “April Love” (1957) and “Never Steal Anything Small” (1959). The blonde beauty exceeded at playing musical characters with a degree of depth and grit, like the lovelorn Julie in “Carousel” or the married woman who catches James Cagney’s eye in “Never Steal Anything Small.” Television also offered her more dramatic opportunities. After her performance in “The Big Slide,” a 1956 crime drama produced as part of “Playhouse 90” (CBS, 1956-1961), Burt Lancaster convinced director Richard Brooks to cast her as a former preacher’s daughter-turned-prostitute in the hard-hitting drama “Elmer Gantry.” The power of Jones’ performance took audiences and critics alike by surprise, and she was showered with praise and awards, including the 1961 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Despite her overwhelming success, Jones struggled to find parts of equal substance in her subsequent features. John Ford’s “Two Rode Together” (1961), with Jones as the sister of a man kidnapped by Comanches, gave her a fine showcase for her dramatic skills, but more often than not, she was cast as the object of romance in light comedies like “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1963) or “Bedtime Story” (1964) with Marlon Brando and David Niven. Her biggest success on film during this period was another musical, albeit one of the best – the 1962 film version of “The Music Man,” with Jones as a prim librarian who disapproves of Robert Preston’s flim-flam man. One of Columbia Pictures’ most well-loved and popular hits, it cemented audiences’ perception of Jones as a beloved musical star, as did numerous national stage performances and nightclub performances. Her frequent co-star during this period was troubled actor and singer Jack Cassidy, whom she married in 1956. Their marriage produced three sons – future teen idol and television producer Shaun Cassidy, actor Patrick Cassidy, and baby brother Ryan.

Jones found more compelling work in film and television during the late 1960s; she was nominated for an Emmy as a lonely married woman who finds love with a stranger (Lloyd Bridges) in her TV movie debut, “Silent Night, Lonely Night” (1969), and gave a comic spin on her “Elmer Gantry” role as the salty proprietress of “The Cheyenne Social Club” (1970), a bordello inherited by aging cowpokes Henry Fonda and James Stewart. Both were overshadowed by her first television series, “The Partridge Family,” which debuted in 1970. Based on the real-life family pop group the Cowsills, the series cast Jones as a widowed mother who finds herself on the top of the music charts, thanks to her children’s band. Jones’ real-life stepson David Cassidy also starred as the group’s lead singer and central eye candy, with future headline grabber Danny Bonaduce as the comic relief bassist. A substantial ratings hit, the fictitious group also found themselves on the real Billboard charts with their debut single, “I Think I Love You,” which featured Jones on backing vocals. She soon found herself at the center of a teen music and television phenomenon, which generated nearly a dozen album releases, countless promotional appearances and even a spin-off cartoon.

The success of “The Partridge Family” came to an end in 1974 when Cassidy grew weary of the show and the fan adulation; seeking instead to establish himself as a serious musician outside of its confines. The series aired its final episode in 1974 – the same year that Jones painfully divorced her alcoholic husband, Jack Cassidy. Though more popular during its network run than its chief competitor for young audiences, “The Brady Bunch” (ABC, 1969-1974), it did not score as highly in syndication, and remained a cult favorite until the Nick At Night network revived it in the mid-1990s. Jones and the original cast were reunited for several high profile promotional appearances, and two TV movies based on the series were aired in 1999 – “Come On Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story” and “The David Cassidy Story,” which attempted to explore the series’ popularity and its effect on the major players.

After “The Partridge Family,” Jones remained very active on stage and television during the 1970s and 1980s; among her better TV features during this period was “Winner Take All” (1975), which cast her as a gambling addict; the terrorism drama “Evening in Byzantium” (1979); and “The Children of An Lac” (1980), which cast her as real life Red Cross nurse Betty Tisdale, who helped rescue Vietnamese orphans before the fall of Saigon in 1975. There were also attempts to return to a series – “Shirley” (NBC, 1979-1980) – which starred Jones as a recent widower raising her children in a small California town, while “The Adventures of Pollyanna” (1982) was an unsold pilot based on the classic children’s story that originally aired as party of “Disneyland” (ABC/CBS/NBC, 1954-1990). In 1977, Jones married manic TV comedian Marty Ingells, who chronicled their unusual courtship in the 1989 book Shirley and Marty – An Unlikely Love Story. Ingells’ eccentricities put him at odds with her grown children, and Jones herself twice filed for divorce before retracting the petitions. It seemed after the heartache of being married to the womanizing drinker that was her first husband, Jones was determined to take a different path – that of being with someone who made her laugh, no matter how odd the rest of the world saw the comic.

Jones’ acting career thrived well into the 1980s, 1990s and into the new millennium, with frequent guest appearances on television series and roles in TV features and stage productions. She never strayed very far from musicals – a 2004 Broadway production of “42nd Street” saw her appearing opposite her son Patrick – but she also began to show an aptitude for broad comedy, most notably in a recurring stint on “The Drew Carey Show” (ABC, 1995-2004) as an older woman who becomes Drew’s romantic interest, as well as in the comedy “Grandma’s Boy” (2006) as a sexually aggressive senior citizen.

Audiences were reminded of Jones’ dramatic talents with the 2006 TV movie “Hidden Places,” which cast her as the Bible-quoting aunt of a young Depression-era widow left to care for her family’s farm. Jones received considerable praise for her performance, netting an Emmy nomination as well as a nod from the Screen Actors Guild. That same year, she returned to series work with the short-lived daytime serial “Monarch Cove” (Lifetime, 2006), a soapy drama based on a German telenovela. Two years later, she joined the cast of the long-running soap “Days of Our Lives” (NBC, 1965- ) for a six-episode stint as Colleen Brady, a mysterious member of the perennially troubled Brady clan. Meanwhile, she received critical kudos for her turn as the alcoholic mother of an angry and stressed talent manager (Noah Bean) being counseled by a recovering drug addict (Benjamin Bratt) on the short-lived drama, “The Cleaner” (A&E, 2008-09). Jones’ turn put her in contention for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Irene Tedrow was born in 1907 in Denver, Colorado. She had a profilic career on stage, screen and television. Among her films are “Slander” in 1956, “Loving You” with Elvis Presley and Dolores Hart,, “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” with Doris Day in 1960 and “”The Cincinnati Kid” with Steve McQueen in 1965. She died in 1995.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Denver-born supporting actress Irene Tedrow is another in a long line of “I know the face…but not the name” character actors whose six-decade career was known more for its durability than for the greatness of roles she played. Born in 1907, she was a lady primarily of the stage, beginning her acting career as a teen. She trained in drama at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, PA, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. A slim, handsome woman in her early days, her features grew more severe with age, which ultimately typed her as puritanical meddlers and no-nonsense matrons practically from her entrance into film in 1937. She seldom, if ever, found a meaty part, appearing way, way down the list of credits, if at all. A founding member of the Old Globe Theatre, she was featured in such classical productions as “Richard III,” “Hamlet” and “Henry IV, Part I.” She became a primary player on radio during the war years, notably for the maternal role of Mrs. Janet Archer in the popular serial Meet Corliss Archer (1951), which she transferred to TV for one season. Her radio role lasted for nine years (43-52). Irene appeared in hundreds of episodic guest appearances for nearly 35 years in everythingDragnet (1951), The Andy Griffith Show (1960), and Twilight Zone (1959) to the more recent The Facts of Life (1979), St. Elsewhere (1982) and L.A. Law (1986). Never a regular series player, she is probably best remembered as the kindly Mrs. Elkins who appeared occasionally on the Dennis the Menace (1959) sitcom. Over the years, Irene never abandoned the stage, gracing a number of shows in her senior years including “Our Town” on Broadway, plus “Foxfire,” “The Hot L. Baltimore” and “Pygmalion.” Continuing to work as an octogenarian, she died of a stroke at age 87 in the Los Angeles area.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Elizabeth Wilson is a profilic American character actress. She was born in 1921 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She made her Broadway debut in “Picnic” in 1953 and repeated the role in her movie debut in “Picnic” in 1955. Other films include “The Godess” in 1957, “The Birds” in 1963, “The Graduate” in 1967 and “Nine to Five” with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. She died in 2015 at the age of 95.

TCM overview:

A lady of stage and screen, award-winning actress Elizabeth Wilson had a long career in which she frequently played mothers and wives on television and the big screen. Many filmgoers will remember her best for her performance as Dustin Hoffman’s mother in Mike Nichols’ classic comedy/drama “The Graduate” (1967) and from her role as Ralph Fiennes’ mother in Robert Redford’s true-life drama “Quiz Show” (1994). She also had a prominent and memorable comedic role in the 1980 blockbuster comedy “Nine to Five,” playing bad boss Dabney Coleman’s assistant opposite stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. She also co-starred in the big-screen adaptation of “The Addams Family” (1991), playing Abigail Craven, and had a late-career turn starring alongside Bill Murray in the drama “Hyde Park on Hudson” (2012), playing Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, mother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Like many stage-trained actors, Wilson balanced her career between her first love-theater-and feature films and television. Hollywood typically typecast her in matronly roles, but like any gifted actress, the dependable Wilson always found a way to heighten the role to her best advantage.

Wilson was born on April 4, 1921 in Grand Rapids, MI. She journeyed to New York City to study drama in 1942, hoping to eventually become an actress on Broadway. But in 1945, she put that dream on hold for a while, instead travelling to the Pacific theater to entertain the troops as part of the USO. The job was dangerous-she toured New Guinea, the Philippines and eventually Japan for months-since the war was still raging on, but the experience was also exhilarating for the burgeoning thespian. In the 1950s, Wilson began to make her significant mark on the theater scene, landing her first appearance in a Broadway play performing as schoolteacher Christine Schoenwalder in the original run of “Picnic” (1951). The play also starred Ralph Meeker, Kim Stanley and a young Paul Newman. She would later perform the same role in the 1955 movie version.

When Wilson made the leap to television and feature films, she did not abandon theater. Her most important roles would remain those she performed on stage, although she also racked up an impressive list of credits over the years for her arguably more visible work on television and in films. She had a small role in Alfred Hitchcock’s nature-gone-amok classic thriller “The Birds” (1963) and co-starred opposite legendary actor George C. Scott on the short-lived landmark television show “East Side/West Side” (CBS, 1963-64). After her memorable performance as Dustin Hoffman’s mother in “The Graduate,” she worked with director Mike Nichols six more times, including appearing in “Catch-22” (1970), “The Day of the Dolphin” (1973) and “Regarding Henry” (1991). The two also worked together on Broadway. Wilson also appeared in several episodes of the cult gothic television soap opera “Dark Shadows” (ABC, 1966-1971) and she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her supporting performance in the television mini-series “Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder” (NBC, 1987). Although never a household name, Wilson was regularly cast in several high-profile feature film productions late in life, including “Quiz Show,” “The Addams Family” and “Hyde Park on Hudson.”

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Obituary from May 2015 ‘s “Detroit Press”:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Elizabeth Wilson, who built a career as a character actress in films such as “The Graduate” and “9 to 5,” has died. She was 94.

Wilson, who lived in Branford, Conn., with her sister, died Saturday at Yale-New Haven Hospital, actress Elizabeth Morton, a spokeswoman for the family, said Monday.

Wilson played Dustin Hoffman’s mother in “The Graduate” and the character Roz in “9 to 5.” She had roles in almost 30 films, including “Catch-22” and “Regarding Henry,” and appeared in numerous stage and television shows, playing Archie Bunker’s cousin on “All in the Family.”

Wilson won a Tony Award for her performance in 1972’s “Sticks and Bones.” She made her Broadway debut in 1953 in “Picnic,” and appeared in the Broadway revival of “Uncle Vanya” in 1973.

“I had no desire to be a star,” she told the Hartford Courant last July. “I wanted to be a character actress and be able to do all kinds of parts and work on a lot of things. That was my unconscious choice. I wanted to be an undercover actress.”

Wilson was born on April 4, 1921, in Grand Rapids, Mich., and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

She bought a home in Branford in 1988 while working at the Long Wharf Theatre.

Wilson is survived by her younger sister, Mary Muir Wilson, with whom she lived, and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is planned for later this summer, Morton said.

The above obituary can also be accessed online here.

“Guardian” obituary by Ronald Bergan:

It is a show business axiom that a small role in a hit Hollywood film is worth much more in the currency of fame than dozens of longer, meatier parts in the theatre. Thus Elizabeth Wilson, who has died aged 94, is primarily acknowledged as having played Dustin Hoffman’s shallow and materialistic mother in The Graduate (1967) rather than for her critically acclaimed stage performances in plays by Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya), Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), Eugene O’Neill (Ah Wilderness!), Bertolt Brecht (The Good Woman of Szechuan, The Threepenny Opera) and Edward Albee (A Delicate Balance).

Nevertheless, Wilson was admirable in Mike Nichols’s The Graduate, initially displaying maternal pride at her son’s achievements at college, reading from the yearbook to a houseful of guests and embarrassing her son at the same time, then later displaying touching bewilderment at his anti-social behaviour. There is a significant Oedipal sequence in a bathroom when Wilson, in a black negligee, has an argument with Hoffman about where he goes at night, before the film cuts rapidly to him in bed with Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft), who is around his mother’s age.

Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her mother, Marie (nee Welter), and her father, Henry, an insurance agent, encouraged her to follow her ambition to go on stage after graduating from high school. She immediately moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and with Sanford Meisner at the left-leaning Neighborhood Playhouse. At the latter she learnedMeisner’s approach to method acting, which he characterised as “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”.

It took some years before she got her first Broadway role as the gossipy schoolteacher Christine Schoenwalder in William Inge’s Picnic (1953), a part she reprised in the 1955 film version. It was her big screen debut if one discounts her fleeting appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946), years before her memorable role in the same director’s The Birds (1963) as a waitress who, beholding a drunk who declares that the arrival of the birds is the end of the world, says: “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink.”

For much of the 1960s Wilson made appearances in television series such as East Side, West Side and in off-Broadway plays such as Henry Livings’s Eh? (1967), in which both she and Hoffman were spotted by Nichols, who cast them in The Graduate. Nichols went on to give Wilson character roles in Catch 22 (1970), Day of the Dolphin (1973) and Regarding Henry (1991), as well as a substantial part in his starry 1973 Broadway production of Uncle Vanya, in which Wilson was poignant as the joyless, unloved Sofya Alexandrovna in a company that included Julie Christie, Lillian Gish, Nicol Williamson and George C Scott.

Wilson, who was something of an expert at playing mothers, won a Tony award for her role in the theatre as the mother of a blind Vietnam vet in David Rabe’s 1971 black comedy Sticks and Bones. She continued to shine as Mrs Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (1976), in which she belted out The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, and as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1977). On screen, in Nine to Five (1980), directed by Colin Higgins, Wilson made an impact as the obnoxious, nosy personal assistant of the sexist boss of office workers Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, who manage to turn the tables in the end. In contrast, she played Ralph Fiennes’s cynical upper-class novelist mother in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994).

Her last stage appearance came in Noël Coward’s Waiting in the Wings (1999) set in a charity home for retired actors. Of a cast headed by Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris a New York critic wrote: “Elizabeth Wilson fares best, benefiting from the warmth and sceptical compassion Coward has given her character.” Her final film role was as the mother of Franklin D Roosevelt (Bill Murray) in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012).

She remained single throughout her life, explaining in her later years that she never wanted to “stay home and raise a family”.

She is survived by her sister, Mary.

•Elizabeth Wilson, actor, born 4 April 1921; died 9 May 2015

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Roy Thinnes was born in 1938 in Chicago. He became known to audiences for his part as Ben Quick in the television series “The Long Hot Summer” in 1965. However he is best known for his starring role in the cult TV series “The Invaders”which began in 1967. His films include “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001.

IMDB entry:

Roy was born on April 6, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois. During his formative years, he had wanted to become a doctor or football player – or, if one wants to believe his early press releases, both. He started in show business at a radio station, where he did everything: engineering, DJ shows, news and dramatizations. That led to an interest in acting in general. After a hitch in the army, he went to New York and then to California, where he started working in episodes of TV shows. Having made his professional acting debut as a teen-aged firebug in a 1957 pilot for the never-sold TV series, “Chicago 212”, Thinnes spent several lean years “between engagements”, working as a hotel clerk, vitamin salesman and copy boy to Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinet. His first regular TV work was as “Phil Brewer” on the daytime soap opera, General Hospital (1963); during this period, the young actor became the television equivalent of a matinée idol, sparking a barrage of protest mail when he briefly left “GH” in pursuit of other acting jobs. Aggressively campaigning for the starring role of “Ben Quick” on The Long, Hot Summer (1965) — the TV version of the film, The Long, Hot Summer (1958) — Thinnes won the part, as well as a whole new crop of adoring female fans. While “Summer” was unsuccessful, Thinnes enjoyed a longer run as “David Vincent” on the The Fugitive (1963)-like sci-fi series, The Invaders (1967). Success with this popular show also led to marriage to first wife, Lynn Loring, who acted with him in the show as well as in the movie, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) (aka “Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun”); she is now a CBS film executive. They parted in 1984. Though he’d occasionally show up in such features asThe Hindenburg (1975), Airport 1975 (1974) and Blue Bayou (1990), Thinnes has remained essentially a TV star. Among his post-“The Invaders” TV-series roles was “Dr. James Whitman” on The Psychiatrist (1970), “Capt. (and later Maj.) Holms” on From Here to Eternity (1980), “Nick Hogan” on Falcon Crest (1981) (who, in 1983, married “Victoria Gioberti” [Jamie Rose] in a highly-rated ceremony) and the dual role of “Roger Collins” and “Rev. Trask” in the 1991 prime-time revival, Dark Shadows (1991). Roy’s more recent appearances on the The X-Files (1993) put him back in the forefront. He revived his role as the enigmatic alien, “Jeremiah Smith”, a turnabout role series creator Chris Carterrenewed for Roy in the February 25, 2001 episode, The X-Files: This Is Not Happening(2001).

– IMDb Mini Biography By: James E. Finch (qv’s & corrections by A. Nonymous)

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Joan Freeman was one of Elvis Presley’s leading ladies, appearing with him and Barbara Stanwyck in “Roustabout” in 1964. She was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1942. Her other movies include “Tower of London” and “The Rounders”.

IMDB entry:

Joan Freeman was born on January 8, 1942 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. She is an actress, known for Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Roustabout (1964) and The Reluctant Astronaut (1967). She is married to Bruce Kessler.

Jack Bannon was a brilliant American actor, best known for his part as Assistant City Editor Art Donovan in the classic TV series “Lou Grant” which ran from 1977 until 1982. He is the son of actress Bea Benaderet (of “Petticoat Junction” fame” and is married to actress Ellen Travolta, sister of John. Jack Bannon has featured in such movies as “To the Limit” and “Navajo Blues”. He was born in 1940 in Los Angeles and died in October 2017.

Obituary by Carolyn Lamberson:

Jack Bannon, who played assistant city editor Art Donovan on the Emmy-winning TV series “Lou Grant,” and who since 1995 has lived in Coeur d’Alene with his wife, Ellen Travolta, died Wednesday.

He was 77.

Bannon was active player on local stages, including two decades in the company of Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre. There, he was Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha,” Henry Higgens in “My Fair Lady,” Horace Vandergelder twice in “Hello, Dolly,” Daddy Warbucks in “Annie,” and the narrator of “Into the Woods.” At Spokane Civic Theatre, he portrayed the stage manager in “Our Town,” and at the former Interplayers he starred in “Art,” “The Fantasticks” and “Bus Stop,” among others. His last play was “On Shaky Ground,” for Ignite Community Theater in 2016, which was written by his stepdaughter, radio host Molly Allen. He and his wife co-starred frequently, doing “Love Letters” at Lake City Playhouse, Interplayers, CST and the University of Idaho, or in recent years in the holiday show at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

His career stretched back to 1964, when he made his debut in the TV sitcom “Karen.” He would go on to make appearances on shows such as “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Petticoat Junction,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Daniel Boone,” “Mannix,” “Barney Miller,” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

But it was “Lou Grant” that most closely defines Bannon’s career. The show was a spin-off of the iconic “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” as Ed Asner’s gruff editor relocated from a Minneapolis TV station to the newsroom of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. It was an unusual move, taking the character from a 30-minute comedy to an hourlong drama that often delved into social commentary, but it seemed to work. The show ran for five seasons on CBS, and won an Emmy for outstanding drama. It also won two Golden Globes and the Peabody.

His film credits include the 1969 horror film “Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice,” starring Ruth Gordon and Geraldine Page, 1970’s “Little Big Man” with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway, and the 1990 Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick “Death Warrant,” as well as the regionally produced films “Navajo Blues” (1996) and “The Basket” (1999).

Bannon was born June 14, 1940, to a show business family. His father, Jim Bannon, was a radio, television and movie actor who played the Red Ryder in four 1940s Westerns. His mother, Bea Benaderet, was a noted radio and television performer. She did several voices for the “Fibber McGee and Molly” radio show, and was a two-time Emmy nominee for best supporting actress for her work on “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.” She was Kate Bradley on “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres” and the voice of Betty Rubble on the “The Flintstones.”

His first marriage to Kathleen Larkin ended in divorce. In 1983, he married Travolta. The two met at birthday party for their agent – a party both Bannon and 10-year-old Molly brought the same gift to.

“Their longtime agent, he was a hypochondriac, and I brought him a pretend doctor’s kit,” Allen said. “And Jack brought him a deluxe pretend doctor’s kit. Then he saw my mom he asked who the lady with the pretty green eyes was. Then they started dating.”

She added, “Jack and I had a similar sense of humor from the beginning.”

Bannon and Travolta started visiting the Coeur d’Alene area in the late 1980s. By 1995, they’d bought their place above the lake and left Los Angeles. Rather than retire, he continued to work, although mostly it was on the stage.

He typically was a standout performer in whatever role he was in, and was seemingly as happy with a major role as he was with smaller parts. In his final season with CST, in 2013, he cropped up as a last-minute substitution in “Big River,” playing Judge Thatcher.

“It was sweet because sometimes he would do small parts in a play at summer theatre because he wanted to be part of it, and he’d do two scenes. Another show, he would be the lead,” Allen said. “He just wanted to be a part of it.”

While he made a living primarily in television, he was an accomplished stage actor. He was part of the ensemble that won an L.A. Drama Critic’s Award for Caryl Churchill’s 1983 “Cloud Nine,” and starred in a 1982 revival of “Mr. Roberts” in Los Angeles, directed the legendary Joshua Logan.

In his review of Civic’s “Our Town” in 2000, former Spokesman-Review arts reporter Jim Kershner admitted to gushing in his appraisal of Bannon’s work as the stage manager. “He is commanding in a way which manages not to be domineering. He is informal, droll and his New England accent is right on the mark. He not only sounds the part, he looks the part. With his vest and pocket watch and his long, lean Yankee frame, he looks like an uncommonly wise train conductor. You might say he is conducting us into a kind of a fourth theatrical dimension, in which we can finally see ourselves as we really are.”

For the actors who worked with him, Bannon was an inspiring presence who was funny and kind and a consummate professional.

Spokane-born actor Cheyenne Jackson, star of “American Horror Story” and “United 93,” fondly recalled working alongside Bannon at the summer theater.

“I have such fond memories of working with Jack on a few different occasions,” Jackson said in a statement. “He had a wonderful ease and confidence about him. He made you feel comfortable in the world and was the epitome of a gentleman.”

Longtime friend and collaborator Patrick Treadway recalled Bannon as a wonderful person.

“He was always available to any local actor,” Treadway said. “When he was invited, he was an excellent teacher. He was a master of dialects and he certainly knew his way around acting. But he was not one to force his opinions or his techniques on anyone. If you asked him, he was a wealth of knowledge.”

Through work together at CST and Interplayers, and the holiday show in 2014, Treadway said he learned a valuable lesson from Bannon.

“Kindness in the workplace, i.e. the stage, is the most valuable gift you can give yourself and everyone else around you,” Treadway said. “You might as well just be kind is what Jack’s message really was. I never saw him turn anyone way. Generous is the word that just keeps coming back in describing him and in describing my friendship with him. He was the same guy at home and in the workplace and in public. He was a very genuine fella.”

Bannon died in Coeur d’Alene surrounded by family, Allen said. He is survived by his wife, Ellen Travolta Bannon; stepchildren Molly Allen and Tom Fridley; sister Maggie Fuller and her husband, Clark Fuller; and two nieces and a nephew. Services are pending.

IMDB entry:

Jack Bannon was born on June 14, 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA as John Bannon. He is known for his work on Lou Grant (1977), Little Big Man (1970) and Death Warrant(1990). He has been married to Ellen Travolta since April 9, 1983. Son of Jim Bannon and Bea Benaderet. Son-in-law of Helen Travolta. Brother-in-law of John Travolta, Joey Travolta, Sam Travolta, Margaret Travolta and Ann Travolta. Stepfather of Tom Fridley. Stepson of Gene Twombly. Lives in Los Angeles; performs with his wife Ellen Travolta in local theater near their vacation home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

David Manners obituary in “The Independent” in 1998.

David Manners was born in 1900 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was a very popular Hollywood leading man of the 1930’s and starred opposite some of the great leading ladies including Katherine Hepburn, Loretta Young and Myrna Loy. His movies include “Journey’s End”, “Roman Scandals”, “Dracula” in 1931 and “A Bill of Divorcement”. He died at the age of 98 in 1998.

David Manner’s “Independent” obituary by Tom Vallance: DAPPER AND handsome, David Manners was a serviceable leading man whose screen career was confined entirely to the Thirties, during which he was in great demand. He made 37 films between 1930 and 1936, and played romantic lead to such stars as Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Kay Francis and Constance Bennett.Though he was excellent as the hero-worshipping young officer in Journey’s End and the blind man who falls in love with a faith-healer in The Miracle Woman, it is for his roles in three classic horror films – Dracula with Bela Lugosi, The Mummy with Boris Karloff, and The Black Cat with both Lugosi and Karloff – that he is best remembered, and a few years ago he commented on the interest being shown in him by movie magazines and historians, “Most of today’s fans are 14-year-old worshippers of the horror films – my only claim to movie fame.”

Claiming descent from William the Conqueror, Manners was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1902 (some sources state 1900 or 1905). The family tree of his mother, Lilian Manners, included Lady Diana Cooper and the Duke of Rutland, while the Ackloms included the writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.H. Homing and Morley Aklom – Manners himself would take up writing later in his career.

He was educated at Collegiate Grammar School in Windsor, Ontario, and earned a degree in forestry at the University of Toronto, where he also studied acting under Bertram Forsyth, who ran the Hart House Theatre, where Manners made his stage debut in the title role of Euripides’ Hippolytus. After graduation, his jobs included foreman of a lumber camp in Canada and salesman in a London antique shop. When his parents moved to the United States, Manners decided to try his luck in the New York theatre.

In 1924 he joined Basil Sydney’s touring company; his roles included Bezano the bareback rider in He Who Gets Slapped and Solveig’s father in Peer Gynt. He made his Broadway debut in Dancing Mothers (1924), a comedy starring Helen Hayes. The production’s stage manager was George Cukor, who years later would direct Manners in the film A Bill of Divorcement (1932).

The actor’s first film role was a prestigious one. James Whale had directed both the London and New York productions of R.C. Sherriff’s powerful anti- war play Journey’s End, and was signed to direct the film version in 1930. He was having difficulty casting the pivotal role of the young Second Lieutenant Raleigh who irritates the seasoned Captain with his optimism and loyalty, and was thinking of sending to England for Maurice Evans when he was introduced to Manners, who successfully tested for the role.

With his clean-cut looks and perfect diction, Manners was quickly offered more roles, and starred opposite the former silent star Alice Joyce in He Knew Women (1930), Alice White in Sweet Mama (1930) and Loretta Young in Kismet (1930), in which he effectively played the young Caliph in love with a beggar’s daughter. He was vamped by Myrna Loy in The Truth About Youth (1930) and in The Right to Love (1931) was Ruth Chatterton’s secret lover.

The role of John Harker, the nominal lead in Dracula (1931), was offered to Manners after several actors, including Lew Ayres, had turned it down. During script revisions, the role of Renfield, the estate agent who is vampirised, had been built up leaving Harker little more than a worried bystander, but Manners was given a higher salary than the rest of the cast and the film was an enormous success. Manners was to work with Lugosi twice more, and later commented that he found him “a pain in the ass from start to finish. He would pace around the sound-stage between scenes, velvet cape wrapped around him, posing in front of a full-length mirror while he intoned with sepulchral emphasis, `I am Dracula . . . I am Dracula!’ ” Asked about the film’s director Tod Browning, Manners said, “The only directing I saw was done by Kurt Freund, the cinematographer.”

Manners gave one of his most sensitive performances as a burnt-out flying ace in William Dieterle’s underrated The Last Flight (1931) and was fine as the shy blind man who conveys his love for Barbara Stanwyck through a ventriloquist’s dummy in Frank Capra’s The Miracle Woman (1931), though the film was banned in the UK. George Cukor cast him as Katharine Hepburn’s fiance, rejected by her after she discovers there is insanity in her family, in A Bill of Divorcement (1932), and Manners was to remain part of Cukor’s circle of close friends until the director’s death in 1983.

He was not too effective as the romantic lead in The Mummy (1932), a superior horror film dominated by Karloff, but was praised for his lively performance in The Warrior’s Husband (1933), which he followed with the role of the centurion in the musical Roman Scandals (1933).

In The Black Cat (1934), considered the finest film of the director Edgar Ulmer, Manners and Jacqueline Wells were newly weds caught in a storm and taking shelter in the gloomy castle of Karloff and Lugosi. Though the film owes little to the Poe original, it is made with subtle expressionism and a dream-like atmosphere that is hauntingly effective. Manners played the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), strangled by Claude Rains on Christmas Eve, and appeared with Katharine Hepburn again in A Woman Rebels (1936), after which he retired from acting to concentrate on writing.

He was coaxed back to the theatre 10 years later, starring in Maxwell Anderson’s play Truckline Cafe. Directed by Elia Kazan and featuring an unknown Marlon Brando, the play ran for 13 performances on Broadway. But in December 1946 Manners scored a great personal success when he took over from Henry Daniell as Lord Windermere in Lady Windermere’s Fan. Designed by Cecil Beaton, the play was a hit in New York and toured for a year, after which Manners announced his permanent retirement as an actor.

David Manners had a home in Pacific Palisades, which he shared with a fellow writer, William Mercer, and ran an art gallery. Among his published books were two novels, Convenient Season and Under Running Laughter, and two philosophical works, Look Through and The Soundless Voice, the latter described by one critic as “a penetrating book on meditation”.

In recent years, rich due to land investments, he lived alone in an ocean- view apartment in Santa Barbara. Married briefly early in his career, he was noted for maintaining a private personal life and refusing to dwell on the past, though he declared fond memories of his Hollywood friendships with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, George Arliss, Constance Bennett and others. “Tried and true friendship,” he said, “that’s what this old world needs plenty of.”

Tom Vallance

Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom (David Manners), actor: born Halifax, Nova Scotia 30 April 1902; married; died Santa Barbara, California 23 December 1998.

His “Independent” obituary can also be accessed here.

Collection of Classic Hollywood Actors

Wayne Rogers

Stephanie Beacham

Stephanie Beecham TCM Overview

Shirley Jones

Irene Tedrow

Elizabeth Wilson

Roy Thinnes

Joan Freeman

Jack Bannon

David Manners

David Manners obituary in “The Independent” in 1998.

ABOUT ME

CATEGORIES

RECENT POSTS