Cheetah, RIP

Primate Actor from 'Tarzan' Films, Dies

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

From The Hollywood Reporter (click here). 

The chimpanzee, who was about 80 at his time of death, appeared in the early 1930s installments of the famous franchise.

One of the most famous animal actors in Hollywood history is gone.

Cheetah, the chimpanzee sidekick from Tarzan films, died of kidney failure over the weekend at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Florida. The Tampa Tribune reports that he was roughly 80 years old.

Hardly the only primate to take on the iconic role, Cheetah probably received the most exposure. He appeared in the 1932-1934 installments of the franchise, at the beginning of its heyday when Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller took over the title role.

In addition to having the distinction of being famous, Cheetah's longevity was one of his greatest accomplishments. Suncoast outreach director Debbie Cobb noted that chimpanzees generally live between 35 to 45 years in captivity, and only 25 to 35 years in the wild.

She also spoke highly of his character.

"He was very compassionate," Cobb told the Tampa Tribune. "He could tell if I was having a good day or a bad day. He was always trying to get me to laugh if he thought I was having a bad day. He was very in tune to human feelings."


Cheetah moved to the sanctuary around 1960, where he remained the most famous of its primate residents until his death. His interests included finger-painting, watching football and nondenominational Christian music.

Among Cheetah's Tarzan features were Tarzan and His Mate and Tarzan the Ape Man, where he starred alongside Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan, who played "Jane."

O’Sullivan’s daughter, actress Mia Farrow, reacted to Cheetah's passing on her Twitter account, painting a less flattering portrait than Cobb.

"My mom, Tarzan's Jane, referred to Cheetah-the-chimp as 'that bastard,'" she wrote, "saying he bit her at every opportunity."

From The Hollywood Reporter (click here).

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'Col. Potter' Has Died: Actor Harry Morgan Was 96

Harry Morgan discusses Col. Sherman Potter on M.A.S.H - EMMYTVLEGENDS

Dragnet to M*A*S*H star Harry Morgan RIP

 

by Mark Memmott, NPR News

Harry Morgan, who came into our living rooms as Col. Potter in M*A*S*-H, as Officer Bill Gannon in Dragnet and in guest star roles on other TV series from Murder, She Wrote to The Love Boat, has died. He was 96.

Harry Morgan, as Col. Potter.

The Associated Press reports that the actor's daughter-in-law, Beth Morgan, said he died at his home in Brentwood, Calif., after a bout with pneumonia.
His hometown newspaper writes that Morgan "came a long way from the young man who acted in Muskegon [Mich.] High School productions."
"He was born Harry Bratsburg and graduated from Muskegon High School in 1933," The Muskegon Chronicle says.



Morgan's movie credits include roles in The Ox-Bow Incident, High Noon, The Glenn Miller Story and How the West Was Won.

But as the AP says, it was his role as the fatherly Col. Sherman Potter for which Morgan will be most remembered. "M*A*S*H was so damned good," he once told the AP. "I didn't think they could keep the level so high."

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  Col. Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) was a father figure to Cpl. Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff).

 

 

One of television's most beloved commanding officers died Wednesday. Harry Morgan, who played Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H, brought an avuncular authority to a show about the absurdities and horrors of war. He was 96.

M*A*S*H, a sitcom about an Army medical unit during the Korean War, was one of the best satires on television. As doctors cracked wise, it was often Morgan's character who provided the moral outrage.
"Every month there's a new procedure we have to learn because somebody's come up with an even better way to mutilate the human body," Potter said in one episode. "Tell me this, captain, how the hell am I supposed to keep up with it? If they can invent better ways to kill each other, why can't they invent a way to end this stupid war?"

Potter was decent, sympathetic and embodied a kind of folksy middle-American sensibility.
"He just seemed and carried himself like the last reasonable man in the middle of craziness," said James Poniwozik, television critic for Time magazine.

In 1983, Morgan spoke at a press conference about ending a series so beloved that the last show drew a record 125 million viewers. He said someone had asked him if he thought M*A*S*H had made him a better actor.

"And I said I didn't know about that, but I know it's made me a better human being and there aren't many shows you can say that about," he said.

Morgan alluded to his long career as a character actor, performing on Broadway, in movies and on the TV show Dragnet before he got cast in M*A*S*H during its fourth season.

"I've done about a hundred movies plus and this is my eighth television series, and believe me in my experience there's never been a congregation of actors put together that would come within a mile of this bunch," he said, trying to hold back tears. "And I'm gonna miss them very much."

Jamie Farr, who played the cross-dressing company clerk, Cpl. Max Klinger, said that even in a cast filled with cutups, Morgan was infamous for being funny.

"He was terrible; he was absolutely the worst," Farr said, affectionately. "I wish you could see some of the outtakes; we had some great ones."

Farr said he spent most of Wednesday exchanging emails and phone calls with members of the cast. He said Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Hunnicutt, was a huge presence in Morgan's last days; he kept everyone updated from the hospice with emails. The last one he sent Wednesday said Morgan had died around 3 a.m., peacefully and in his sleep.

Related NPR Stories

'Col. Potter' Has Died: Actor Harry Morgan Was 96 Dec. 7, 2011

Larry Gelbart, Rule-Busting Comedy Giant: Why 'M*A*S*H' Mattered Sept. 11, 2009

Alan Alda: The Meaning of Life Sept. 7, 2007

From NPR News (click here). 

Career Fair and other Events at Henderson Campus

There are many events (and extra credit opportunities) between now and Thanksgiving...
Please click on link below to view:
http://sites.csn.edu/newsweb/SpecialEvNov1411/index.html

The Greatest Speech Ever Made - Charlie Chaplin

Sid Melton, Comic Actor of Film and TV, Dies at 94

Sid Melton, Comic Actor of Film and TV, Dies at 94

By PAUL VITELLO

From the New York Times (click here for the latest entertainment news).

Sid Melton, the jug-eared character actor best known for his regular roles in the television shows “Make Room for Daddy” and “Green Acres,” and for his unflagging reliability as the comic relief in many science-fiction and noir films of the 1950s, died on Wednesday in Burbank, Calif. He was 94.

Sid Melton as a guest on the television show "Green Acres."

His death was confirmed by a spokesman for Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.

Mr. Melton’s acting career spanned more than a half-century, from his stage debut in a road production of the Broadway play “See My Lawyer” in 1939, to a recurring role as the husband (deceased, appearing in flashbacks and dreams only) of Sophia, the mother of Bea Arthur’s character in “The GoldenGirls,” the television sitcom, between 1985 and 1992.

At 5-foot-3, with a thin-lipped grin that seemed to stretch from ear to ear and the speaking voice of a Brooklyn cabbie, circa 1950, Mr. Melton played the funny man in most of the 140 movie and TV roles in which he was cast.

Mr. Melton, who was born Sidney Meltzer, credited his brother, Lewis Meltzer, the screenwriter of the movies “Golden Boy,” “The Lady in Question,” and “The Man with the Golden Arm,” with helping him get his start in Hollywood.

He later landed a regular job in 1949 with Lippert Pictures, a B-movie studio that churned out scores of low-budget movies, most of them made in less than a week. As a member of the studio’s ensemble, he played nebbishy or comic roles in dozens of films, including “The Treasure of Monte Cristo,” “Mask of the Dragon,” and “Lost Continent,” in which he is eaten by a triceratops.

In the early 1950s TV show “Captain Midnight,” which was part of CBS’s Saturday morning children’s lineup, he was the hero’s sidekick, Ichabod Mudd. Well into the 1990s, Mr. Melton said, old fans of the show greeted him with Mudd’s signature self-introduction, “Mudd with two D’s,” as if it were a secret handshake.

Mr. Melton appeared on the sitcom, “Make Room for Daddy,” later known as “The Danny Thomas Show,” from 1953 to 1964, as Uncle Charley Halper, the owner of the nightclub where the character played by Mr. Thomas performed.

He also played Alf Monroe, one of two incompetent carpenter siblings on the improbable, campy and very popular sitcom, “Green Acres,” which ran from 1965 to 1971. A recurring gag was that Alf’s “brother” Ralph was a woman, a fact that only Oliver, played by Eddie Albert, seemed to find odd.
Sidney Meltzer was born May 22, 1917, in Brooklyn, one of five children of Isidor and Fannie Meltzer. His father was a well-known comedian in Yiddish theater. He was married once, in the 1940s, but the marriage was annulled. “After that he kept dogs, mainly wire-haired terriers,” said David Lawrence, his brother-in-law.

He is survived by two nephews, Adam and Dean Lawrence.

Mr. Melton once told a reporter that despite his long-established comic persona, he would have loved “to do drama, not comedy.”

“I am not a comic,” he told The Christian Science Monitor in a 1970 interview. He considered himself an actor playing comic roles, he said.

On the other hand, he added, he liked the steady work that came his way in comic roles, and he had come to accept the limits of his physical inheritance. “I am not too tall and handsome,” he said.

From the New York Times (click here for the latest entertainment news).

Deloris Hope RIP at 102 years young

Deloris Hope RIP at 102 years young

Deloris Hope, the widow of Bob Hope, passed away this noon hour at her home.

From KCRW and People.com:

Dolores Hope, the radiant wife of comedian Bob Hope, died peacefully Monday at her home in Toluca Lake, Calif., a family friend confirms to PEOPLE. She was 102 and had been in relativity good health until the past few months. 

The former Dolores DeFina, born in the Bronx, was singing in a Manhattan nightclub under the professional name Dolores Reade when newcomer Bob Hope, after a performance in a Broadway show, walked into the club with the dancer George Murphy. Hearing Reade sing "It's Only a Paper Moon," Hope said to Murphy, "I'm going to marry her." He did, Feb. 19, 1934. 

Lucille Ball once said, "The smartest thing Bob Hope ever did was marry Dolores." 

Bob and Dolores honeymooned in Europe and sailed home on the Queen Mary – its final voyage before she was converted into a troop carrier for service during World War II. Hope, by then a famous radio comedian, began entertaining American servicemen overseas for the USO – and his wife often made the trips with him, sleeping on their coats and never complaining about the discomforts. 

Giving up her career to raise their children – they had four: Tony, Linda, Kelly and Nora – Dolores was also active in charities, an inveterate golfer (like her husband), an animal fancier and an avid follower of current events. Then again, she and Bob had met every President and First Lady from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to Bill and Hillary Clinton. She considered herself a political independent. 

While Bob traveled continuously, she kept adding on to their homes in Palm Springs and Toluca Lake (in the San Fernando Valley), which prompted her husband to quip when he got back from one trip, "Hey, I need a map." 

Despite having put her singing career on hold for fifty years, Dolores reactivated it when she was in her late 80s, releasing CDs of old standards and singing at the Rainbow and Stars nightclub in New York's Rockefeller Center with her dear friend Rosemary Clooney. Both the CDs and the singing engagement were critical hits. 

As she admitted, she paid to produce the CDs herself, "but it's better than buying another piece of jewelry," she said with a laugh. 

A devout Catholic who liked to have a martini after Mass – Bob's den in the Toluca Lake house served as her private chapel – Dolores once asked Bob where he wanted to be buried. "Oh, just surprise me," he told her. 

Bob Hope died in 2003, age 100, and is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery. Dolores will have the plot beside him, and private services for family are planned for Friday. 

ET.com first reported her passing.


From KCRW and People.com:

Cliff Robertson, Oscar-Winning Rebel, Dies at 88

Cliff Robertson RIP

Cliff Robertson, Oscar-Winning Rebel, 

Dies at 88

Associated Press

Cliff Robertson starred as Lt. John F. Kennedy in the 1962 film “PT 109.” Less memorable was “Too Late the Hero,” in 1970.

Click here for coverage from the New York Times.  Here for coverage from the Hollywood Reporter.
Academy Award winning actor, long time Screen Actors Guild Board Member and my friend, Cliff Robertson, passed away this weekend. He had just turned 88 on Friday.- Art Lynch

Cliff Robertson, who starred as John F. Kennedy and later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a mentally disabled bakery janitor, died Saturday, one day after his 88th birthday. (Los Angeles Times / September 11, 2011)

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

September 10, 2011, 8:58 p.m.

Cliff Robertson, who starred as John F. Kennedy in a 1963 World War II drama and later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a mentally disabled bakery janitor in the movie "Charly," died Saturday, one day after his 88th birthday.

Robertson, who also played a real-life role as the whistle-blower in the check-forging scandal of then-Columbia Pictures President David Begelman that rocked Hollywood in the late 1970s, died at Stony Brook University Medical Center on New York's Long Island, according to Evelyn Christel, his longtime personal secretary. A family statement said he died of natural causes.

In a more than 50-year career in films, Robertson appeared in some 60 movies, including "PT 109," "My Six Loves," "Sunday in New York," "The Best Man," "The Devil's Brigade," "Three Days of the Condor," "Obsession" and "Star 80."

Oscar-Winning Actor Cliff Robertson 

Dies at 88

The "Charly" and "Spider-Man" actor died Saturday, one day after his birthday.

Click on "read more" below to continue and for links for other coverage of Mr. Robertson's life.

Mary Typer Moore

MARY TYLER MOORE HONORED WITH 2011 SCREEN ACTORS GUILD LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

48th Annual Accolade to be Presented During the
18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®
 Simulcast Live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 29, 2012

LOS ANGELES (September 8, 2011) – Renowned actress, producer and humanitarian Mary Tyler Moore will receive Screen Actors Guild (SAG)’s most prestigious accolade – the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Moore created a new paradigm for female leads in television, won top honors for her courageous performances in film, television and on stage, produced some of the most lauded television programs of all time, and for thirty years, has served as a tireless advocate giving hope to all those afflicted with Type 1 diabetes.

Moore will be presented the Award, given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT and 5 p.m. PT.

Click on "read more" to continue with the story and a bio of MTM.

Art Lynch for SAG National Board Director

See what others have to say about Art Lynch

http://www.artlynch4sag.com/

http://www.artlynch4sag.com/quotes.html

• RE-ELECT ART LYNCH SAG NTL BOARD

  • Abby Dylan, SAG Indie
  • Amy Aquino, National Secretary Treasurer
  • Anne Sward, Utah
  • artlynch4sag
  • artlynch4sag.com
  • Betsy Beard, Arizona
  • Bill Mootes - Boston / Rik Deskin - Seattle
  • CeceDubois, Nashville
  • Charlie DiPinto, SAG Nevada Council
  • Dave Corey, Florida
  • Debra Nelson, Georgia
  • Heart Shapre', Nevada SAG Council
  • Helen McNutt, Philadelphia
  • Hrair Messerlian, Union Executive
  • Jack Shaw, Chicago
  • John Carter Brown, Chicago
  • Liz Zazzi, NYC and Ntl Com Chair
  • Lollo Sievert, Nevada
  • Mary McDonald Lewis, Portland
  • Michael Toole, actor
  • Mike Hodge, Ntl 2nd VP, NYC President
  • Mike Pniewski, Georgia
  • Ned Vaughn, 1st National Vice President
  • Rick Deskin, Seattle
  • Roy Costly, New Mexico
  • Scott Rogers, Hawaii
  • Steve Dressler, Nevada
  • Suzanne Burkhead, Texas
  • Todd Hissong,"RBD Chicago"
  • Wendy Short Hayes, Guthrie Theatre, MN
  • Will Lyman, Boston / NYC / LA
  • And Many Others, 
  • Within in the Nevada Branch
  • and around the nation.
  • They know why you should
  • vote to keep Art Lynch
  • on the Screen Actors Guild
  • National Board of Directors
  • 
    

Crowe.mpg

Reelect Art Lynch to the SAG National Board of Directors

• Abby Dylan, SAG Indie
• Amy Aquino, National Secretary Treasurer
• Anne Sward, Utah
• Betsy Beard, Arizona
• Bill Mootes - Boston / Rik Deskin - Seattle
• CeceDubois, Nashville
• Dave Corey, Florida
• Debra Nelson, Georgia
• Heart Shapre', Nevada SAG Council
• Helen McNutt, Philadelphia
• Hrair Messerlian, Union Executive
• John Carter Brown, Chicago
• Lollo Sievert, Nevada
• Mary McDonald Lewis, Portland
• Mike Pniewski, Georgia
• Ned Vaughn, 1st National Vice President
• Roy Costly, New Mexico
• Steve Dressler, Nevada
• Suzanne Burkhead, Texas
• Todd Hissong,"RBD Chicago"
• Will Lyman, Boston / NYC / LA
• Your Vote is Needed and Appreciated

A Scholar Departs, remembering Dr. Tony Ferri by Michael Toole

A Scholar Departs, remembering Dr. Tony Ferri by Michael Toole

My friend Anthony Ferri, who for 26 years served our city’s students and community as a communications professor at UNLV, died of heart failure in his Henderson home on June 15. He was 60.

Tony was a noted author on film and media studies—the kind of figure the university could point to in its frequent seasons of budgetary discontent and say, In spite of everything, the life of the mind lives on here. His 2007 book, Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Poetic Faith in Film (Lexington Books), enhanced not only his but the university’s status. Meanwhile, he sat on countless dissertation and thesis graduate committees, nurturing thousands of students along the way.

When Tony died, he and I were working on a biography of the MGM movie mogul Harry Rapf. UNLV’s budget had been tight recently and there was little help forthcoming, but it was a tribute to Tony’s spirit and vision that we pressed on, heading off to Hollywood for research.

The last road trip was memorable. We had the Pretenders’ “Tattooed Love Boys” on the stereo, and Tony, who was a proficient drummer, loved Martin Chambers’ fast-tempo performance on the skins. This song has a really odd time signature, 7/16, but Tony was pantomiming the drumming quite accurately, his hands fussing furiously like he was fighting off a swarm of invading insects in a bad horror movie. He was so caught up in the track that he started to believe that the accelerator in his car was a bass pedal. He slowed down in time, but not without a California Highway Patrol officer giving Tony a deep stare as he passed us.

We pulled into the Del Taco in Baker, and wouldn’t you know it? That same CHP officer was in the parking lot. He approached Tony for a chat. They talked for a while. I couldn’t figure out what could be taking so long, but I could tell Tony was working an angle. When the conversation was over, I asked if everything was OK.

“It turned out he used to play in a band,” Tony said. “He gave me a coupon for a free taco salad.” His face was beaming with pride.

Photo: Anthony Ferri. From "Seven" Magazine by Michael Toole. 

A Scholar Departs

weeklyseven.com

My friend Anthony Ferri, who for 26 years served our city’s students and community as a communications professor at UNLV, died of heart failure in his Henderson home on June 15. He was 60.

Told he could never make it as an actor, Peter Falk became a star....who will still shine long after his death today

Told he could never make it as an actor, Peter Falk became a star....who will still shine long after his death today

Peter Falk, Rumpled and Crafty Actor on ‘Columbo,’ Dies at 83Sleuth

Peter Falk as Lt. Frank Columbo.

Peter Falk worked many times in Las Vegas, on 'Columbo', other TV roles and on films, so many Nevada SAG members have worked with him. 

At a time when it would be considered a major disability, Falk survived cancer and built a career ad a character using his lack of sight in one eye.

A family spokesman confirmed to CBS News that actor Peter Falk died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday night. He was 83. (from CBS TV, click here for entire story and links).

Pictures: Peter Falk 1927-2011

The "Columbo" star won four Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the cigar-chomping detective who always looked as if he'd just rolled out of bed. Falk played Columbo on television regularly from 1971 to 1978 and then sporadically from 1989 until 2003. He won his first Emmy in 1962 for outstanding single performance by an actor in a leading role for an episode of "The Dick Powell Theatre" (1961).

Falk also had starring roles in his friend John Cassavetes' films "Husbands" and "A Woman Under the Influence" and starred with Cassavetes in Elaine May's 1976 film "Mikey and Nicky." He was nominated twice for the best supporting actor Oscar, for "Murder, Inc." and "Pocketful of Miracles."

In a court document filed in December 2008, Falk's daughter Catherine Falk said her father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

"Columbo" began its history in 1971 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being "McCloud" and "McMillan and Wife."

Falk was reportedly paid $250,000 a movie and could have made much more if he had accepted an offer to convert "Columbo" into a weekly series. He declined, reasoning that carrying a weekly detective series would be too great a burden.

Columbo -- he never had a first name -- presented a contrast to other TV detectives. "He looks like a flood victim," Falk once said. "You feel sorry for him. He appears to be seeing nothing, but he's seeing everything. Underneath his dishevelment, a good mind is at work."

NBC canceled the three series in 1977. In 1989 ABC offered "Columbo" in a two-hour format usually appearing once or twice a season. The movies continued into the 21st century. "Columbo" appeared in 26 foreign countries and was a particular favorite in France and Iran.

Columbo's trademark was an ancient raincoat Falk had once bought for himself. After 25 years on television, the coat became so tattered it had to be replaced.

Peter Michael Falk was born Sept. 16, 1927, in New York City and grew up in Ossining, N.Y., where his parents ran a clothing store. At 3 he had one eye removed because of cancer. "When something like that happens early," he said in a 1963 Associated Press interview, "you learn to live with it. It became the joke of the neighborhood. If the umpire ruled me out on a bad call, I'd take the fake eye out and hand it to him."

When Falk was starting as an actor in New York, an agent told him, "Of course, you won't be able to work in movies or TV because of your eye." 

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20074112-10391698.html#ixzz1QDriME4w

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20074112-10391698.html#ixzz1QDqnDNm0

By BRUCE WEBER

Published: June 24, 2011

New York Times

Peter Falk, who marshaled actorly tics, prop room appurtenances and his own physical idiosyncrasies to personify Columbo, one of the most famous and beloved fictional detectives in television history, died on Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 83.

His family announced his death in a statement, The Associated Press reported. He had been treated for Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.

Click here for the complete New York Times obituary...