Contemporary Actors Archives - Page 40 of 49

Colin Firth

Colin Firth was born in Hampshire in 1960. He made his film debut in 1984 with “Another Country” with Rupert Everett, both of them repeating the roles they created on stage. His other films include “A Month in the Country”, “The Secret Garden”, “Apartment Zero” and “The English Patient. His career highlights include Mr Darcy in a television adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” and the movies “A Single Man” and “The King’s Speech”.

“Britain has two very fine actors, both called Firth – Colin & Peter, who are not related. If the country still had a film industry both might take their place at the heirs to Donat, Mason and Guinness. Peter Firth has some impressive credits and was notably good in ‘Tess’ and ‘Letter From Brezhnev’, but he is now in his thirties. Colin Firth has attracted more international attention and may find the parts he can play overseas. At present, he seems to be, with Daniel Day Lewis, the best young actor the British have. – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars – The Independent Years”. (1991).

TCM Overview:

British actor Colin Firth achieved international renown in 1995 with his arguably definitive screen portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” He began his career in West End dramas and on the big screen in period, often literary adaptations, before a number of successful romantic comedies including “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001) and broader historic dramas like “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” (2003) turned him into “the thinking woman’s heartthrob.” While the moniker stuck throughout his career, Firth continued to showcase untapped facets of his talent in independent films, family-friendly hits, and gutsy cable movies. With noted turns in “Love, Actually” (2003), “Nanny McPhee” (2006) and “Mamma Mia!” (2008), Firth displayed both serious acting chops and an easygoing screen presence that continually pleased audiences. But the actor took his career to a new level with “A Single Man” (2009) and “The King’s Speech” (2010). The roles were tour-de-force performances that earned Firth several award nominations and wins and elevated his career to new heights.

Colin Firth was born on Sept. 10, 1960, the son of academic lecturers who raised their young family in Nigeria for four years before settling in England. Firth seemed unlikely to follow in his family’s footsteps and by his early teens, had developed a keen interest in acting, partially inspired by British great Paul Scofield and his performance in “A Man for All Seasons” (1966). Firth began dramatic studies with the National Youth Theatre at 18 and went on to make a significant impression at The Drama Centre London. Fresh out of that program, Firth was surprised to find himself cast as the lead in a West End production of Julian Mitchell’s “Another Country,” replacing Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of upper class spy-in-the-making, Guy Bennett. Over the next decade, Firth enjoyed a steady if low-profile living as an actor, making his screen debut in the 1984 film version of “Another Country” and sticking close to his stage roots in George Bernard Shaw’s “The Doctor’s Dilemma” and “The Lonely Road,” a psychological family drama that earned Firth critical notice. Dipping his t in romantic lead territory, he co-starred opposite Greta Scacchi in a small screen remake of George Cukor’s “Camille” (CBS, 1984), and anchored the 1986 British miniseries “Lost Empires,” playing a touring entertainer in early 20th century England. He solidified his standing as an actor of substance and heady range with a return to the London stage in Eugene O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms.”

Firth showcased his darker side in “A Month in the Country (1987), where he essayed a haunted World War I veteran who romances a vicar’s wife, and “Apartment Zero” (1988), a rare contemporary role where he made an impression as a lonely and sheltered film lover whose life is changed when he takes in a mysterious American boarder. In 1989, he earned his first acting awards, including one from the Royal Television Society, for his portrayal of paralyzed soldier Robert Lawrence in the TV biopic, “Tumbledown.” Later in the year Milos Forman’s “Valmont” (1989) marked Firth’s entry into the American studio film world, and he was both appealing and appalling as the rich and too clever 18th century count in the adaptation of the classic French novel Les Liasons Dangereuses. Unfortunately, the film was overshadowed by the previous year’s lavish take on the same material, “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988).

Following appearances in a number of European-produced films that were little-seen across the pond, as well as London stage runs in a pair of comedies, Firth truly made his international breakthrough in 1995. The Dublin University-set romance “Circle of Friends” (1995) was moderately popular, but the BBC production of “Pride and Prejudice” (1995) was wildly popular in Britain and exported to the U.S. (A&E, 1996). Suddenly, Firth found himself dubbed a “heartthrob” for his take on the aloof, arrogant, but ultimately redeemable 18th century suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy in the adaptation of what was considered literary history’s first romantic comedy. He was recognized by the BAFTA and National Television awards with a Best Actor nomination. The following year, Firth offered a stoic turn as the cuckold husband of Kristin Scott Thomas’ in “The English Patient” (1996), the Oscar winner of Best Picture of the Year among other countless accolades.

Firth’s starring role in Nick Hornby’s football-themed story “Fever Pitch” (1997) was little seen in the States, but “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) was a certified blockbuster that swept the Oscars and BAFTAs. In the fictionalized fable of the Bard’s off-book romance, Firth cut a dashing figure in doublet and hose in the comic, slightly villainous role of the Earl of Wessex. He excelled as an eccentric inventor in the 1930s-set “My Life So Far” (1999) before taking on a bit of post-modern casting by playing Mark Darcy – a character inspired by his glowering interpretation of the Austen hero – in the film version of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001). His performance in the hugely successful chick flick fueled Firth’s growing cult of female admirers, earned the actor a BAFTA nomination, and also shifted the tide towards more contemporary and romantic comedy roles. An Emmy-nominated performance as a Nazi secretary of state in HBO’s “Conspiracy” (2001) and a remake of “The Importance of Being Earnest” (2002) maintained Firth’s close ties with headier, more literary material, while a 2003 appearance as Amanda Bynes’ unknowing English father in the light-as-feather teen comedy “What a Girl Wants” (2003) and a role in the romantic ensemble “Love Actually” (2003) proved that the popular actor had mainstream crossover appeal. He returned to period dramas but cemented his romantic lead status with his portrayal of 17th Century artist Johannes Vermeer in “Girl With a Pearl Earring” (2003) – a tale that projected an intimate relationship between the famed painter and the young subject (Scarlett Johansson) of his most renowned work of art.

Firth reprised Mark Darcy for the sequel blockbuster “Bridget Jones and the Edge of Reason” (2004), which found his character in a series of ups and downs and misunderstandings with neurotic Jones, despite finally having become her official boyfriend. The solid mid-forties actor entered the family film fray in 2005 as a harried widower with seven unruly kids in the critically-lauded fable “Nanny McPhee.” In a pair of very different family tales, Firth starred as an author coming to terms with the troubled relationship with his dying father in the limited release “When Did You Last See Your Father?” (2007), and played a single father and ill-chosen love interest of Helen Hunt in “Then She Found Me” (2007). Firth carried on in the romantic comedy vein, co-starring alongside Uma Thurman in the critically reviled “The Accidental Husband” (2007) and in the big screen adaptation of the Abba-inspired stage musical “Mamma Mia” (2008), as one of Meryl Streep’s character’s former lovers and the possible father of her daughter.

In a rare appearance in a dark thriller, Firth also starred in “Genova” (2008), playing a widowed father who attempts to make a fresh start with his young daughters in Italy, only to find the past coming back to haunt him. Following a starring turn in the British remake “St. Trinian’s” (2009) and a co-starring role in the romantic comedy “Easy Virtue” (2009), Firth played Fred, the nephew and only living relative to Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), in Disney’s take on the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol” (2009). Firth turned to more challenging dramatic fare when he starred in “A Single Man” (2009), playing a gay British college professor in 1962 who struggles to find meaning in his life after the death of his long-time partner (Matthew Goode). Working for first-time feature director, fashion designer Tom Ford on “The Single Man,” Firth gave a conflicted, layered performance which garnered the actor several award nominations at year’s end, including nods from the Independent Spirit, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and Academy for Best Actor. He next delivered another exemplary dramatic performance in “The King’s Speech” (2010), playing King George VI, who struggles to overcome a debilitating speech impediment during a time of national crisis. The king enlists the help of unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a relationship that begins discordantly, only to grow into an unbreakable bond. “The King’s Speech” received widespread critical acclaim and found its way onto many year-end Top Ten lists. While the film had exceptional supporting performances from Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, it was Firth who earned the most adulation, including Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG wins for Best Actor.

The above TCM overview can be accessed also online here.

Tom Wisdom was born in Swindon in 1973. He was part of the “Coronation Street” casr from 1999 to 2000. His films include “Hey, Mr D.J.” in 2003, “300” and “The Boat That Rocked”.

IMDB entry:

Tom Wisdom was born on February 18, 1973 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. He is an actor, known for 300 (2006), Pirate Radio (2009) and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008).

Attended Tauntons College in Southampton, Hampshire.

Educated at Academy Drama School (Stage Scholarship Winner)

Tom’s father, who came from Blackburn, was in the RAF, which meant Tom was born in Swindon and grew up on air bases in Swindon, Doncaster and Devon.

Admires actors Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Mirren (and has a crush on her), Daniel Craig, and Mickey Rourke.

Would have liked to play sports professionally if he didn’t become an actor.

Plays football (soccer) and follows Liverpool FC devotedly.

Is a huge fan of all sports – loves watching them, playing them, and talking about them.

Personal Quotes

I would love to play a down and dirty rockstar! Along the lines of Midnight Mark but with all the bad stuff thrown in! Something darker than I have done before but still with the leather trousers. I also loved the physical aspect of 300 and would love to do more fighting. I thoroughly enjoyed killing people. (On what role he would like in the future)

Fred Ward was born in 1942 in San Diego. His films include “Tremors” in 1990, “The Right Stuff” and “Shirt Cuts”. Fred Ward died in 2022 aged 79.

TCM Overview:

With his varied work experiences, this rough-hewn character lead excels at playing blue collar types and working class heroes. Ward worked in mime and masque theater and performed in cabarets in Europe and Northern Africa before moving to Rome where he translated spaghetti Westerns and appeared in two TV-movies directed by seminal Italian neorealist filmmaker Roberto Rossellini–“The Power of Cosimo” (1974) and “Cartesia” (1975). After some lean times in LA (where he supported himself selling jewelry on the street), Ward made his feature debut as a jailbreak buddy of the even craggier Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel’s “Escape From Alcatraz” (1979).

Ward’s rugged looks worked well in action adventure films: Walter Hill’s “Southern Comfort” (1981), a creepy tale of macho part-time National Guardsmen facing peril in the Louisiana bayou; “Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swann” (1982), wherein he played a motocross bike racer transported to the Old West; and “Uncommon Valor” (1983), as a member of Gene Hackman’s crew of commandos on a rescue mission in Laos. He received positive notices as astronaut Gus Grissom in Philip Kaufman’s “The Right Stuff” (1983) and went on to work regularly in films and TV throughout the 80s and 90s. Ward starred in “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” (1985). Directed by veteran Bond helmer Guy Hamilton (“Goldfinger” 1964), this was a failed but valiant attempt to start an action franchise. He was also Kevin Bacon’s partner in “Tremors” (1990), a jaunty 50s-style monster flick. Ward starred in and served as co-executive producer on “Miami Blues” (1990), a cop thriller/black-comedy which featured dynamic performances from co-stars Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Ward reteamed with Kaufman to play Henry Miller in the controversial “Henry and June” (1990). He appeared in three ambitious 1992 films: Michael Apted’s “Thunderheart”; Robert Altman’s “The Player” (as the studio security head); and Tim Robbins’ “Bob Roberts” (as a news anchor). Ward also played an underworld kingpin in Alan Rudolph’s quirky mystery, “Equinox” (1993).

The above TCM overview can be accessed online here.

Fred Ward obituary in The Telegraph in 2022.

Fred Ward, who has died aged 79, was a dependable character actor who achieved familiarity, if not quite stardom, during the golden age of home video.

Born of Scots Irish and Cherokee descent, he only found regular employment in his forties after two decades of real-world slog, including spells as a cook, a lumberjack and a tomato picker. “My career has been a bit strange,” he admitted to one journalist. “I don’t think it took the normal route.”

Yet experience gave his work a grounded, lived-in quality to which audiences warmed. His speciality was grizzled, frowning, blue-collar men’s-men who peered at the modern world through sceptical eyes but who invariably had the goods to save the day as the final credits neared.

Ironically, in his breakthrough role – Virgil “Gus” Grissom in Philip Kaufman’s stirring astronaut saga The Right Stuff (1983) – Ward was seen to come up short in the heroism stakes, which drew criticism from Grissom’s real-life Nasa contemporaries (Wally Schirra described the film’s Grissom as “a bungling sort of coward”). Yet the crumpled machismo Ward evoked outside his spacesuit formed its own tribute to those left behind as the space race heated up.

By complete contrast, there was Tremors (1990), a likable, enduring monster movie about a small Nevadan town called Perfection that finds itself undermined by giant killer worms. Kevin Bacon took top billing, but his joshing, affectionate relationship with Ward as fellow handyman Earl Bassett gave the film its heart. Upon learning of Ward’s passing, Bacon paid his co-star the fondest of farewells: “When it came to battling underground worms, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”

He was born Freddie Joe Ward on December 30 1942 in San Diego, California, to Fred Frazier Ward and his wife Juanita (née Flemister). It was an itinerant childhood: after his mother’s death, the teenage Fred was sent to live with an aunt in New Orleans.

He served in the US Air Force, during which he boxed at amateur level – breaking his nose four times – and eventually had a revelation about the life he wanted to lead.

“I was going [out] with a stripper in San Antonio, hanging out with some bizarre fringe people who considered themselves ‘show people’, including this 250lb transvestite who designed costumes for strip joints, and a few gangsters… They weren’t role models in a strict sense, more like the old freaks in the freak show. When I was younger, I always felt like an outsider, and they said it was all right to be ‘the other’. They had a nice little society, a little culture, and they dealt with life.”

As Walter Stuckel, studio head of security, in Robert Altman's Hollywood satire The Player (1992) — As Walter Stuckel, studio head of security, in Robert Altman’s Hollywood satire The Player (1992) CREDIT: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

He headed for New York, studying acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio while supporting himself with janitorial and construction jobs. Six months later, Ward departed for Europe, drawn by the new opportunities available to American performers. In Rome, he dubbed spaghetti Westerns into English before landing minor roles in Roberto Rossellini’s miniseries The Age of the Medici (1973) and Cartesius (1974).

Returning to the US, Ward dabbled in experimental theatre before landing more typical work as a trucker in the 1974 hitchhiking drama Ginger in the Morning. One-off episodes of Quincy in 1978 and The Incredible Hulk in 1979 followed before his first significant role as John Anglin, one of Clint Eastwood’s fellow escapees in Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

He met a sticky end in Walter Hill’s taut Southern Comfort (1981) and was often cast in tough, meaty, dramatic roles: The Right Stuff, Silkwood, Uncommon Valour (both 1983), a suavely brutish club owner in Swing Shift (1984). But several of his choices revealed a wry comic streak. Few fortysomethings would have committed as hard as Ward did to Timerider (1982), a genuine curio (co-written by the ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith) about a time-travelling biker.

With Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Miami Blues (1990) CREDIT: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

He beat out the then-unknown Bruce Willis to land the title role in Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous (1985), the first of a planned trilogy of action films. But despite multiple magazine covers positioning Ward as a new, blue-collar James Bond and a memorable Statue of Liberty climax, the film nosedived commercially, recouping only $14 million of its $40 million budget.

Tremors steadied him, however, and two other 1990 parts demonstrated Ward’s range: the careworn shamus Hoke Moseley in the blackly comic thriller Miami Blues and Henry Miller in Kaufman’s elegant period love triangle Henry & June, a role for which Ward shaved his head, adopted blue contact lenses and gamely watched Uma Thurman and Maria de Medeiros compete for his attentions.

One more notable lead role followed, as P I Harry Philip Lovecraft in the made-for-cable horror-noir Cast a Deadly Spell (1991). Thereafter, Ward resumed supporting gigs, boosting the Robert Altman comeback (The Player, 1992, and Short Cuts, 1994), threatening to blow up the Oscars (in Naked Gun 33⅓, 1994), and even slotting between Brian Conley and Christopher Biggins in the dire Britpic Circus (2000).

He paused acting in the early Noughties, returning only for guest spots, in ER (2006-07) and True Detective (2015), and as Ronald Reagan in the retro potboiler Farewell (2009). Mostly, he devoted himself to painting, perhaps feeling the entertainment landscape shifting beneath his feet. His final credit remains unseen: a cameo in a Tremors spin-off, cancelled by the Syfy network before its 2017 pilot aired.

In 1990, Ward was asked what he found most compelling about Henry Miller. “People are burdened by their futures, their jobs, their accumulating,” he replied. “Everyone says, ‘I wish I could do that, just take off, experiment with life’… [Miller] was 40 when he took that big leap. Most people are digging themselves deeper into their structures. He was a man who knew he had to follow that inner urge, the creativity, and the passion. Or he would die bitter.”

Fred Ward’s first marriage, to Carla, lasted a year. He married, secondly, Silvia, with whom he had a son, who survives him. He is also survived by his third wife, Marie-France.

Fred Ward, born December 30 1942, died May 8 2022

Michael Murphy was born in 1938 in Los Angeles. He has given excellent performances in such films as “Nashville” in 1975, “Manhattan”, “An Unmarried Woman” with Jill Clayburgh and “Away from Her” with Julie Christie .

TCM Overview:

A high school teacher turned character actor, Michael Murphy began his collaboration with famed director Robert Altman on an episode of the 1960s TV series “Combat”. He made the first of several appearances in Altman films in “Countdown” (1968). Among his other Altman credits are “M*A*S*H” and “Brewster McCloud” (both 1970), “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971), “Nashville” (1975) and “Kansas City” (1996). In addition, Murphy portrayed a presidential candidate in Altman’s satire of politics “Tanner ’88” (HBO, 1988) and was the chief judge in Altman’s “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” (CBS, 1988).Murphy specializes in playing angst-ridden urban types, typified by his roles as cheating husbands in Paul Mazursky’s “An Unmarried Woman” (1978) and Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” (1979). His other film roles include a journalist in Peter Weir’s “The Year of Living Dangerously” (1982), an ambassador in Oliver Stone’s “Salvador” (1986), a cop tracking a serial killer in Wes Craven’s “Shocker” (1989) and the mayor of Gotham City in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” (1992).

One Sheet; Movie Poster; Film Poster; Cinema Poster;

Jessica Walter. TCM Overview.

Jessica Walter was born in 1941 in Broklyn, New York. She was one of “The Group” in 1966 and went on to star in “Grand Priz” with James Garner and Yves Montand and “Number One” with Charlton Heston. She gave a powerful performance with Clint Eastwood in “Play Misty for Me” in 1971. Most recently she has starred in the cult TV series “Arrested Development”. She was married to Ron Liebman. Sadly Jessica Walter died in 2021 aged 80.

‘Daily Telegraph’ obituary by Ed Power in 2021.

On May 23 2018 the New York Times released an audio recording of a 77-year-old woman sobbing. The tears were those of Jessica Walter, the Hollywood character actress who passed away this week. She was participating in a group interview promoting a new Netflix season of cult comedy Arrested Development. And even before breaking down, the encounter was not going well.

On screen Walter had always cut a self-assured, imperious, almost haughty figure. That was the image she presented in her first major feature, Sidney Lumet’s 1966 adaptation of the proto-Sex in the City Manhattan debutante novel, The Group. And, decades later, it was the persona she riffed on as Lucille Bluth, the crouching tiger, hissing matriarch of Arrested Development’s ghastly Bluth clan.

Yet in real life Walter could not have been further removed from Lucille, the mother from hell with vinegar in her blood. She was friendly, thoughtful – and sensitive. But then who wouldn’t be sensitive if the men seated either side had suddenly turned on you, as happened to Walter in full view of the New York Times.

The blame for this lay with Jeffrey Tambor. In many ways he was the opposite of Walter in that he came across as a hoot playing Lucille’s roguish husband George Bluth Sr. But off camera he could be combative and even obnoxious. Shooting the final season of Arrested Development, he had reduced Walter to tears after she stumbled over a line of dialogue added at the last minute.

And then she was humiliated all over again as the screaming incident – to which Tambor had confessed in a previous interview with the Hollywood Reporter – was brought up by the journalist. The issue wasn’t so much how the situation was handled by Tambor but by his co-stars, most unforgivably Jason Bateman, who played smug Bluth scion Michael.

“Difficult” people are part of the business, said Bateman. Behaving in an “atypical” manner was part of the actorly “process”. “Not to belittle it,” he said, and then proceeded to belittle Tambor’s behaviour towards Walter. In the background, as the tape rolled, Walter cried. “In like almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set,” she said between tears.

Bateman apologised on social media the next day after a promotional trip to Europe was hastily scrapped. His career survived. Arrested Development was, however, permanently tarred and the new season went up in flames like a frozen banana stand set alight.

“You try to sweep things under the rug, and it doesn’t really work. I got very emotional about it because it had really hurt me,” Walter told Elle magazine shortly afterwards.

She didn’t regret how things had played out, she added. Walter was glad the world saw how she, a veteran woman in Hollywood, had been treated – and what it said about how woman had always been treated.

“My daughter called and she said, ‘Oh Mom, you’re trending!’ I said, ‘What does that mean?’ I thought it was a fashion thing! Then she explained what it meant, and I was quite overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, that people understood. Especially women in the business, and the women in all kinds of areas of work, that just suck it up even though it hurts, you know?”

It was the perfect mic drop from Walter, whose entire career was characterised by a determination to steer her own course. That was made equally clear by her other big late-career role of toxic mother Malory Archer in animated spy spoof Archer.

Malory, mother of bungling 007 clone Sterling Archer, was written with a “Jessica Walter type” in mind – but the producers never imagined the real Walter would agree to do it. However, the script got to her and she said “yes” right away.

There were differences between Lucille and Malory – Lucille would never shoot someone – but they were ultimately cut from the same cloth, she said. “They both love their children. Malory loves Sterling. Lucille loved most of her children.”

Little could Walter have imagined she would spend her later years starring in cult comedies. Born in New York, the daughter of a symphony orchestra musician, she got her start in Broadway musicals, including Neil Simon’s Rumours.

Television followed with small parts in shows such as The Fugitive and Flipper. On her first day on the Flipper set, she had watched as the crew discovered one of the dolphins who starred in the series frozen to death in a container. It could almost have been a gag from Arrested Development taken to gristly extremes.

Hollywood beckoned with Lumet’s The Group in 1966. Her character, Libby MacAusland, was classic Walter – outwardly sophisticated with an air of drop-dead cool yet vulnerable on the inside. And then came her break-out opposite Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me in 1971.

Eastwood had already cast another actress when Walter arrived for an audition. “He called me in,” said Walter. “No audition. We had a talk, and he offered me a carrot juice.” And with that, the role was hers.

Play Misty for Me was a forerunner of the “bunny boiler” genre later made famous by Fatal Attraction. Walter played a stalker who turns violent against a radio DJ (Eastwood) after he declines to continue their relationship. Introduced to Walter’s TV executive daughter years later, Eastwood would joke that he had thrown her mother “off a cliff” at the end of the film.

She was not a creature of Hollywood. Her discomfort with Tinseltown may, of course, have had something to do with the fact that she had arrived shortly before the murder of Sharon Tate. “Just in time for the Manson killings,” she said. “I was living in Coldwater Canyon. I was a nervous wreck. We got a German Shepherd, we were so scared.”

Walter did not go on to have a glamorous A-lister career. She seemed fine with that. Coming from a theatre background, she was glad simply to be working.

And she was up for anything. At one point in the mid-Seventies, she found herself co-hosting Good Morning America, where she booked her old director Lumet as a guest (he was promoting Dog Day Afternoon).

She continued to work through the decades that followed. There were guest parts on Columbo, Trapper John MD and Mannex. And she had her own TV vehicle in Amy Prentiss, a quickly canned Ironside spin-off in which she played a detective appeared opposite William Shatner. It aired for just three episodes – enough for Walter to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series.

But it was Arrested Development that made her an icon. Or at least it would over time. The show was almost too quirky for its own good when it debuted on Fox in 2003. With ratings disastrous, it was canceled after three seasons. Years later, it would receive a second life on Netflix, and its reputation would grow and grow. It is today considered among the most influential comedies of the decade.

The stroke of genius of creator Michael Hurwitz was to make every one of the Bluth family completely unsympathetic in their own unique way. As Lucille, Walter was cruel, funny and narcissistic – and not even in the top three of the least-likeable Bluths. Arrested Development made her famous and, despite the 2018 Tambor controversy, the show’s influence lives on. As will Walter’s reputation as a character actor of rare poise and steeliness, and with a gift for comedy as sharp as a freshly cut diamond.

Kevin Sorbo was born in Minnesota in 1958. He came to fame in 1994 in “Hercules and the Amazon Woman”” on television. Other films include “Walking Tall” and “The Paycheck”.

IMDB entry:

Kevin spent 3 years traveling around the world, modeling for print ads and appearing in over 150 commercials, before landing in his breakout series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). Kevin David Sorbo was born in Mound, Minnesota, on September 24, 1958. In high school, the “Sorbs” excelled at football, baseball and basketball; in college, he played these 3 sports, plus hockey. Kevin was also in a number of plays. After leaving college, Kevin joined an actors theater group, and traveled to Europe, then to Sydney, Australia appearing in commercials. At the end of 1986, he settled in Los Angeles. Kevin began to make guest appearances on such popular shows as Murder, She Wrote (1984). At 6′ 3″ and very muscular, Kevin was a natural for the title role in what would become his signature series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). Kevin became internationally famous, and he learned the craft of film-making well enough to direct and co-write some of the episodes. Kevin even studied martial arts in order to do many of his own stunts. In real life, Kevin’s heart is as big as Hercules’– he leads “A World Fit for Kids!” as the chair and spokesperson. Kevin devotes much of his time to “A World Fit For Kids!” which is a successful mentoring model that trains inner-city teens to use school, fitness, sports and positive role models for themselves, and then become the coaches and mentors for younger children. In 1998, Kevin married lovely actress Sam Jenkins, best known for her dual role on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995) as Serena/the Golden Hind (“Hind” is a female red deer).

– IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Ronald Bergan’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

In the late 1970s and early 80s, Taxi was one of the best American sitcoms. It won 18 Emmy awards and its stars, among them Jeff Conaway, who has died in hospital aged 60, became household names. Conaway played the narcissistic, “resting” actor Bobby Wheeler, one of the characters working for the Sunshine cab company, all hoping for better jobs to turn up. In a way, the role mirrored Conaway’s own struggle for greater recognition as an actor, which was not helped by his having been addicted to alcohol, cocaine and analgesics since he was a teenager.

In Taxi, the handsome Conaway , sporting the feathered hairstyle popular in the 1970s, had to compete with more fascinating characters in the avuncular Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch), obnoxious Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito), sexy divorcee Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner), unvictorious boxer Tony Banta (Tony Danza), and English-impaired immigrant Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman). Most of the cast of the popular show went on to bigger things, while Conaway’s one moment of glory in the cinema was already in his past.

He first made an impact as Kenickie in Grease (1978), released a few months before his debut in Taxi. As John Travolta’s sidekick in the high-school gang called the T-birds, Conaway is a finger-snapping, leather-jacketed greaser, a comb and a witticism always at the ready. He says things like “You’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ ” and “A hickie from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card, when you only care enough to send the very best!” He also does some nifty acrobatic dancing, especially in Greased Lightning, on top of a car – this resulted in a back injury that dogged him for most of his life. The cast were too old to play high-school students, but Conaway, at 28, was more convincing than most.

Conaway had already played the Travolta part in the Broadwayproduction of Grease the year before, after starting as an understudy. In fact, Conaway had been on Broadway at the age of 10 in All the Way Home (1960) – based on James Agee’s novel A Death in the Family – set in Tennessee in the early 1900s. The young Conaway, as a boy trying to come to terms with the death of his father in a car accident, was at the heart of the play. Although he was born in New York, the childhood summers spent with his South Carolina grandparents proved handy when auditioning for the part, because the director, Arthur Penn, wanted a boy with a southern accent.

He later enrolled in North Carolina School of the Arts, then studied drama at New York University. “I left three months before graduation,” Conaway recalled. “There were hard feelings because I had the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera. But I was offered Grease on Broadway. Broadway! I couldn’t turn it down.”

After Taxi, Conaway was seldom out of work, though he found himself trapped in a vicious circle of trashy erotic thrillers in which he usually played a stud, and gradually, with age, detectives, fathers of teens (as in Jawbreaker, 1999) and strip-club owners as in Sunset Strip and It’s Showtime (both 1993). His one directorial effort was Bikini Summer II (1992), a sex farce ending with a rock concert on the beach.

Conaway was much better served by TV, appearing in series such as Murder, She Wrote, Burke’s Law and Matlock, and in 74 episodes of the science-fiction series Babylon 5 (1994-98) as Zack Allan, the tough security chief.

While he continued to act, Conaway was suffering from substance abuse problems, which came to a head in 1985 following his divorce from Rona Newton-John, the sister of Grease star Olivia, after five years of marriage. In 1990, he married Kerri Young, and had a subsequent fiery six-year relationship with Victoria Spinoza, a singer known as Vikki Lizzi. Earlier this year they filed restraining orders against each other, trading accusations of theft and violence, but were eventually reconciled.

Though Conaway sought treatment, he relapsed from time to time. In 2008 he appeared in the reality TV series Celebrity Rehab, in which he revealed his long-term addictions.

Conaway was found unconscious on 11 May due to a combination of legally prescribed painkillers to treat back problems and other medications. The adverse reaction caused him to contract pneumonia. He was put into a medically induced coma intended to aid his recovery, but was eventually taken off life support. He is survived by Vikki and his sisters Carla and Michele.

• Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway, actor, born 5 October 1950; died 27 May 2011

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

Kristoffer Tabori was born in Malibu, California in 1952. He is the son of the director Don Siegal and Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors. He had a small part in “John & Mary” with Dustin Hoffman & Mia Farrow in 1969. He gave a terrific performance in “The Glass House” with Alan Alada and Vic Morrow. Other movies include “Girlfriends” and “Last Summer in the Hamptons”

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

A natural progression to entertain the thought of entering show business as the son of Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors and American director Don Siegel. Actor Kristoffer Tabori was born in Malibu in 1952 and appeared in one of his mother’s films Weddings and Babies (1958) as a youngster. His parents divorced when he was barely a year old and his mother subsequently married Hungarian writer/director George Tabori. Kristoffer would use the name “Tabori” for his own. He started making the theater rounds in the late 60s, and took his first official stage bow with “The Merchant of Venice” at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in 1966. He debuted on Broadway with “The Guns of Carrar” two years later. Other plays followed (“Habeas Corpus,” “Hamlet,” “Dreams of a Blacklisted Actor”) and in 1970 he won the Theatre World Award for “How Much How Much.” Kristoffer became a product of his generation playing lean hippie and liberal thinker types. In movie bits as a late teen, one of those was an unbilled appearance in his father’s cop action drama Coogan’s Bluff (1968), one of several that had Siegel directing Clint Eastwood. Tabori’s stage success led to progressive strides in 70s film. He earned strong reviews for his first lead in _Makin’ It (1971)_ as a sex-obsessed 17-year-old who suffers a heavy, traumatic experience with his mother, played by Joyce Van Patten. Such films as _Pigeons (1971)_ and Journey Through Rosebud (1972) did not pave the way to stardom, however, and he started impressing on TV instead with quality mini-movies including “The Glass House (1972), “QBVII” (1974), “The Lady’s Not for Burning” (1974) and “A Memory of Two Mondays (1974). He turned more and more to the stage in the mid-70s and joined the Arena Stage theater company in Washington, D.C. from 1976-1978, and California’s South Coast Repertory and National Shakespeare Festival the following decade. He married British actress Judy Geeson in 1984 and they appeared notably on stage together in “The Common Pursuit” before divorcing a few years later. Tabori focused on directing in the 90s, predominantly on TV, helming episodes for such series as “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope,” “Providence” and “Judging Amy.” Shortly before his mother’s death in 1995, he appeared as her son in the film Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995). He has also lent his crisp voice to a number of video games in the “Battlestar Galactica” and “Star Wars” target area.

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

Jim Dale Overview

Jim Dale was born in 1935 in Northamptonshire. He started his career on the stage of the British music halls. His film debut came in 1961 in “Raising the Wind”. His inital (of many appearances)contribution to the Carry On series was in 1963 in “Carry On Cabby”. He made nine further appearances in the series. Other films include “The National Health” and “Pete’s Dragon”. He has been very popular in stage musicals both in the U.S. and Britain.

TCM Overview:

Best known for his stage work in Britain and on Broadway, Jim Dale starred in New York as “Barnum!”, the musical about the circus impresario, for two years (1979-81), winning a Tony Award for his efforts. He also racked up an Academy Award nomination for writing the title song for the 1966 film “Georgy Girl”. Dale trained in acrobatics and ballet as a youth, and made his professional debut while still a teen in Kettering, England, working as a comedian.

When he was 19, Dale performed in a production of “The Wayward Way,” and when he was 22, made his London debut playing the title role in a production of “The Burglar”. In 1974, he traveled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the Young Vic Company’s production of “The Taming of the Shrew” and remained in Brooklyn to direct, score and star in “Scapino” (1974), which eventually moved across the East River to Broadway. “Barnum!” (which featured Glenn Close as Barnum’s wife) followed and, in 1984, Dale toured the US as “The Music Man”.

He settled in on Broadway again to star with Stockard Channing and Joanna Gleason in the revival of “A Day in the Death of Joe Egg”. In 1995, he was Off-Broadway in an all-male version of “Travels With My Aunt”. In the latter, Dale was Aunt Augusta, the role Dame Maggie Smith had portrayed in the 1972 film version of the Auntie Mame-ish tale.

Dale first appeared in films with “Raising the Wind” (1961). He was an aptly-named sailor called “Lusty” in the unsuccessful 1969 farce “Lock Up Your Daughters!”, the peddler in “Joseph Andrews” (1977), and the villainous Dr. Terminus that same year in Disney’s unsuccessful “Pete’s Dragon”.

Dale did have the title role in “Carry on Columbus” (1992), a take on the explorer’s history. TV roles have also been sporadic, with Dale frequently appearing on variety programs, such as hosting “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” (1973), and “The 116th Edition of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus” (1986). He played The Duke in the “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (PBS, 1985) and also had a supporting role in TNT’s 1993 rendition of “Arthur Miller’s ‘The American Clock'”.

The above TCM overview can be accessed also online here.

Collection of Contemporary Actors

Colin Firth

Tom Wisdom

Personal Quotes

Fred Ward

Fred Ward obituary in The Telegraph in 2022.

Michael Murphy

Jessica Walter

Jessica Walter. TCM Overview.

‘Daily Telegraph’ obituary by Ed Power in 2021.

Kevin Sorbo

Jeff Conaway

Kristoffer Tabori

Jim Dale

Jim Dale Overview

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