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John Cassavettes

John Cassavettes was born in New York City in 1929. He is well regarded as an independent pioneer of American film. His first starring role on film was “Edge of the City” in 1957 with Sidney Poitier. He went on to make “Virgin Island” with Poitier again and Virginia Maskell, “Saddle the Wind” with Robert Taylor and “The Dirty Dozen”. He directed many movies starring his wife Gena Rowlands including “Faces”, “Minnie and Moskowitz”, “A Woman Under the Influence”, “Gloria” and “Love Streams”. Johhn Cassavettes died in 1989 at the age of 59.

TCM Overview:

Primarily known as an actor early in his career, John Cassavetes would later be regarded as one of the most daring and influential filmmakers of the 20th Century, attributed by many as the artist who shaped the current definition of independent film. As a young performer, Cassavetes found his early roles in mainstream productions like “Edge of the City” (1957) creatively unsatisfying. Determined to prove he could do better, he embarked on a three-year odyssey that yielded his debut as a writer-director – the racial identity drama “Shadows” (1959). Though not a commercial hit, “Shadows” earned Cassavetes enough critical acclaim to attract Hollywood, although the resulting films left him chaffing under the control of the studio system. In response, Cassavetes created a system of his own – one in which he would act in major productions like “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) and “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) in order to fund independent endeavors of his own. Over the course of the next 15 years Cassavetes wrote, directed and occasionally performed in such thought-provoking works as “Faces” (1968), “Husbands” (1970), “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” (1976), “Gloria” (1980) and “Love Streams” (1984). Each film featured some combination of his frequent acting collaborators, including wife Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and Seymour Cassel. While professional acting was a mere means to an end, Cassavetes pursued his own artistic truth and provided audiences with new experiences through his deeply personal films.

Born John Nicholas Cassavetes on Dec. 9, 1929, in New York City, he was the son of Greek immigrants Nicholas John and Katherine Cassavetes. As a young boy, John spent most of the first seven years of his childhood in his parents’ homeland after they returned to Greece for an extended period. Although he barely spoke a word of English upon his family’s return, the outgoing boy eventually excelled in both academic and extra-curricular activities while attending schools in Long Island and New Jersey. Following high school graduation, he dabbled with the idea of studying literature at Colgate College; however, Cassavetes – a devoted film enthusiast – eventually enrolled at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1950. Although his parents initially blanched at his decision to pursue acting, Cassavetes’ talent and determination soon earned their support. In addition to work with various theater companies, he picked up his first film credits with minor parts in productions like the noir “Fourteen Hours” (1951) and the romantic drama “Taxi” (1953). That same year, Cassavetes gained valuable experience as a stage manager and standby performer in the Broadway production of the farce “The Fifth Season.” Television soon provided the motivated young actor with an exceptional opportunity to hone his screen craft through dozens of appearances in such anthology series as “Kraft Theatre” (NBC, 1947-1958) and “Armstrong Circle Theatre” (NBC, 1950-57; CBS, 1957-1963).

Cassavetes married Gena Rowlands in 1954, a talented young actress he had met while both attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. If not his muse, Rowlands would most certainly become Cassavetes’ most ardent supporter and constant collaborator as he moved from actor to filmmaker over the years that followed. Soon after, his career picked up traction with back-to-back turns in a pair of B-movies. Cassavetes played an accomplice of Vince Edwards in the home invasion thriller “The Night Holds Terror” (1955), then a juvenile delinquent opposite Sal Mineo in director Don Siegel’s “Crime in the Streets” (1956). Using his newfound name recognition as a draw, he taught acting classes for a time in 1956 at an experimental drama workshop with long-time friend and actor Burt Lane. By all accounts, the mercurial Cassavetes’ contribution and attendance was erratic and unreliable, to say the least. Part of the problem was that he was becoming more and more in demand, with larger roles in relatively prominent films coming his way. A case in point was Cassavetes’ starring role opposite Sidney Poitier in Martin Ritt’s waterfront drama “Edge of the City” (1957), a ground-breaking portrait of interracial bonding in the face of violent intolerance. Another factor pulling Cassavetes away from his duties at the drama workshop was his decision to produce, write and direct a film of his own. It would be an arduous journey, filled with optimistic starts and heartbreaking stops over the three years that followed.

Desperately in need of cash to complete his unfinished film, Cassavetes reluctantly took on his one and only starring role in a television series. As “Johnny Staccato” (NBC, 1959-1960), he played a piano-playing private eye working the jazz-soaked haunts of New York’s Greenwich Village. Although well-received by several critics, the stylized crime drama was canceled within its first season. Cassavetes was glad to get out of the commitment. Still, the experience had not been a complete loss. In addition to securing the money needed to complete his own project, it did provide the actor with some of his first official directorial credits. Begun in 1957, reshot almost entirely two years later, and largely inspired by his experience on “Edge of the City,” Cassavetes at last unveiled his feature directorial debut, “Shadows” (1959). Shot on 16-mm on location in New York in a loose, cinéma vérité style, “Shadows” not only marked a turning point in Cassavetes’ career, but began a new era in American film. The story of racial identity and relationships within a small African-American family, “Shadows” was short on plot or traditional cinematic conventions. Rather, it was an exploration of character and the human condition in a highly collaborative effort between Cassavetes and his ensemble. While the film garnered scant attention at the box office and more than its share of detractors, it did win a number of awards at the Venice International Film Festival. “Shadows” also brought the filmmaker to the attention of several studio executives, always on the look out for new talent.

Given a modest budget by Paramount Pictures, Cassavetes was given the green light to write, direct and produce “Too Late Blues” (1961), a drama about a jazz trumpeter (Bobby Darin) struggling with concerns over career, artistic integrity and a beautiful young singer (Stella Stevens). Though he endeavored to make a personal, low-budget film, the novice director soon learned that his artistic intentions and the studio’s concerns were not compatible. Savaged by most critics, “Too Late Blues” proved a valuable early lesson for Cassavetes in his future dealings with the establishment. He gave it another try after being convinced by director-producer Stanley Kramer to take the helm of a project at United Artists. A social-drama about conflicting ideologies at an institution for the mentally disabled, “A Child Is Waiting” (1962) starred Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. From the beginning, it was clear that Cassavetes and Kramer – much like the conflict between Lancaster’s and Garland’s characters – had differing opinions on the material. As soon as shooting was completed, Kramer dismissed his young director and edited the picture to fit his vision. The frustrating experience and resulting film were bitter disappointments for Cassavetes, who vowed never to direct under studio constraints again.

Having relocated with Rowlands to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, Cassavetes took on work in several mainstream film and television projects, primarily for financial reasons, although the efforts did yield several of his more memorable acting roles. He played the intended target of “The Killers” (1964), based on the story by Ernest Hemingway. Later, Cassavetes gained considerable attention for his Academy Award-nominated turn in the man-on-a-mission classic “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), as well as his convincing performance as Mia Farrow’s narcissistic actor-husband in director Roman Polanski’s horror masterpiece, “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968). All of the acting paychecks ultimately led to Cassavetes’ second independently-produced film, “Faces” (1968). Cut from the same cloth as “Shadows,” the film featured many of Cassavetes’ de facto stock company – Rowlands and character actor Seymour Cassel among them – and was filmed in a similarly collaborative manner that allowed the actors to shape both their characters and the ultimate direction of the film. An examination of the disintegration of an unsatisfying marriage and an indictment of the shallowness of modern America, “Faces” earned Oscar nominations for both Cassel and actress Lynn Carlin, in addition to one for Cassavetes for original screenplay. It also cemented Cassavetes’ growing reputation as one of the more unique voices in American cinema.

Cassavetes’ next directorial effort was “Husbands” (1970), a story about three married men (Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara) who embark on a wild jaunt to London while struggling to cope with the sudden death of a close friend. “Husbands” proved deeply divisive among critics, some of whom declared it one of the very best films of the year, while others dismissed it as a tedious failure. Cassavetes, however, was not interested in critical consensus, but in provoking discussion in his pursuit of artistic truth. In that endeavor, he succeeded. Having established momentum with his work as a director, he quickly followed with “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), a romantic duet starring Rowlands as a disillusioned museum curator pursued by Cassel’s smitten parking lot attendant character. Financed with his own money, in addition to funds borrowed from Peter Falk, “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974) was a devastating portrait of a loving wife (Rowlands) whose increasingly erratic behavior forces her concerned husband (Falk) to contemplate having her committed. Unable to find a major distributor for the finished film, Cassavetes formed Faces International, which helped book the movie in any art house or film festival he could. Word of mouth built and soon “A Woman Under the Influence” was garnering near universal acclaim, eventually going on to earn Rowlands and director Cassavetes Oscar nominations. In the years that followed, many would see the film as the creative and critical peak of the filmmaker’s career.

Taking inspiration from friend and supporter Martin Scorsese, Cassavetes wrote and directed the crime drama “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” (1976). Ben Gazzara starred as Cosmo Vittelli, a strip club owner and chronic gambler coerced into performing a mob hit. Gritty and gripping, the film performed poorly upon its initial release, only to be regarded as one of the filmmaker’s best efforts years later. In a rare acting gig that was neither done for money nor as an appearance in one of his own films, Cassavetes co-starred with Falk in first-time director Elaine May’s “Mikey and Nicky” (1976). A buddy movie in which ne’er-do-well Nicky (Cassavetes) enlists the help of his pal Mikey (Falk) in escaping the wrath of the mob, it became infamous for a battle between May and Paramount that ended with the over-budget film being pulled from theaters and shelved for a decade. Cassavetes went behind the camera once more to helm the psychological drama “Opening Night” (1977), in which Rowlands essayed the emotional collapse of a Broadway actress battling loneliness, alcoholism and the fear of growing old. For her emotionally raw performance, Rowlands won the Best Actress Award at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.

One of Cassavetes’ more accessible films was, without a doubt, the crime-drama “Gloria” (1980). The closest Cassavetes would ever come to directing a traditional action movie, the film again starred Rowlands as the eponymous, tough-as-nails heroine, who becomes the unexpected protector of a young boy targeted by the mob. A rare commercial hit for Cassavetes, it earned Rowlands another Oscar nomination, served as the inspiration for several similarly themed films, and spawned a literal remake starring Sharon Stone nearly two decades later. Although most of his acting jobs during this period were strictly as a hired gun, Cassavetes appeared to enjoy himself in writer-director Paul Mazursky’s updating of Shakespeare’s “Tempest” (1982), playing the Prospero role with manic relish. His 11th film as a director was the drama “Love Streams” (1984), an intimate examination of the enduring love between middle-aged siblings (Cassavetes and Rowlands) whose bond endures, even as their lives crumble around them. “Love Streams” would also be considered Cassavetes’ last truly personal film by many admirers in the years that followed. Taken over by Cassavetes from the film’s writer and original director, the lackluster comedy “Big Trouble” (1986) was a film Cassavetes essentially washed his hands of after the studio began making changes he disagreed with.

Just prior to starting production on “Love Streams,” Cassavetes had been diagnosed with severe cirrhosis of the liver and given six months to life. In true Cassavetes form, he defied expectations and lived years past his predicted demise. Nonetheless, the disease was taking its toll on him and by the late-1980s, Cassavetes’ condition had grown extremely fragile. Refusing to give in, he managed to write and produce a play in Los Angeles and was working on a film project with actor Sean Penn, tentatively titled “DeLovely,” just prior to his death on Feb. 3, 1989. John Cassavetes was 59 years old. In addition to his remarkable body of work as a filmmaker and his better known acting roles, Cassavetes’ legacy was furthered by his wife, Rowlands, and the three children he left behind. Nick Cassavetes would become an established filmmaker in his own right, bringing his father’s unfinished final project to light as he had intended in the form of the film “She’s So Lovely” (1997), starring Sean Penn. Daughter Alexandra “Xan” Cassavetes directed the acclaimed documentary “Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession” (2004), while youngest daughter Zoe wrote and directed the romantic drama “Broken English” (2007), which featured a supporting turn by Rowlands.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Wende Wagner was born in 1941 in Connecticut. She made her television debut in 1959 in an episode of “Gunsmoke”. Her film credits include “Rio Conchos” in 1964 and “The Green Hornet” series on TV in 1966. She died in 1997.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Beautiful, vibrant-looking 60s actress Wende Wagner (her real name) was born in Connecticut in 1941. Of French, German and Native American heritage, her exotic looks would later serve her well on TV and in motion pictures. She inherited her athletic genes from her parents; her father was a former Olympic swimming/diving coach turned Naval Commander and her mother was a champion downhill skier.

The sweet-looking beauty entered the entertainment arena as a model and made her TV debut in 1959 on the Wagon Train (1957) western series. Very much a free spirit, she was more interested in surfing and traveling around the world than a career. She combined both passions when she earned work as an underwater female stunt double forLloyd Bridges on his hit series Sea Hunt (1958) as well as the TV series The Aquanauts(1960), which took her to ideal tropical settings. She also stunted for such movies asSeptember Storm (1960) co-starring Joanne Dru and Mark Stevens.

On that movie set, she met and subsequently married fellow stunt diver Courtney Brown(he was Mr. Stevens’ double in that film), who coached her in underwater shooting. They had a daughter, Tiffany. During this time, they based their lives in the Bahamas where most of their shooting occurred. They divorced, however, after a short time and she returned to Hollywood where she won the role of an Apache girl in the movie Rio Conchos(1964) with Richard Boone, Anthony Franciosa and Stuart Whitman. A few years later, she married actor James Mitchum, Robert Mitchum‘s eldest son, but they too split. Wende’s career continued in the 60s with a couple of movies and a role in the The Green Hornet (1966) TV adventure series but she eventually dropped out of sight. Little was heard from her until reports of her death from cancer in 1997.

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

Linda Evans has had two major television shows in her credits. “The Big Valley” with Barbara Stanwyck was hughely popular in the 1960’s and then in the 80’s, “Dynasty” with John Forsythe and Joan Collins was even more popular. Linda Evans was born in 1942 in Hartford, Connecticut. She began her acting career on television in 1960. Her film appearances include “The Klansman” with Richard Burton in 1974, “Avalanche Express” with Robert Shaw and Lee Marvin and in 1980, “Tom Horn” opposite Steve McQueen.

TCM Overview:

Considered one of the most beautiful women on television for more than 20 years, actress Linda Evans personified elegance, style and grace. Getting her start in commercials, Evans quickly segued into television work, landing an early guest appearance on the sitcom “Bachelor Father” (CBS/NBC/ABC, 1959-1962). She instantly became one of TV’s most desirable actresses when she was cast opposite film legend Barbara Stanwyck on the Western melodrama, “The Big Valley” (ABC, 1965-69). Her marriage to actor-director John Derek – a notorious collector of stunning actresses – confirmed her sex-symbol status, although Derek’s eventual desertion of Evans for the much younger ingénue, Bo Derek, was a bitter lesson in the nebulous value of physical beauty. After a decade of infrequent work on television and in films like the action-thriller “Avalanche Express” (1979), she returned in grand style on the opulent primetime soap “Dynasty” (ABC, 1981-89). As Krystle Carrington, the gorgeous wife of fabulously wealthy oil magnate, she lent an air of class to the garish proceedings, even when embroiled in vicious catfights with the conniving Alexis (Joan Collins). In the post-“Dynasty” years, Evans gradually entered into semi-retirement as an actress, although occasional reunion specials and a memoir kept her in the hearts and minds of her loyal fans. Known for her personal virtues as well as her alluring visage, Evans lent credence to the idea the character and beauty need not be mutually exclusive.

The only child of two professional dancers, Evans was born Linda Evanstad in Hartford, CT on Nov. 18, 1942. The family relocated to North Hollywood when she was six months old. Evans enjoyed a childhood among future stars, including fellow Hollywood High School classmate, Stephanie Powers. However, she suffered from extreme shyness during her teen years – so much so that her principal suggested that she take acting classes to develop self-confidence. Ironically, she actually broke into show business shortly thereafter when, while accompanying a nervous classmate on an audition for a TV commercial, she was noticed by an ad agency director and invited to read for the spot. Evans landed the commercial and several others, which lead to acting roles on television and in film, beginning with a guest appearance on the comedy “Bachelor Father” (CBS/NBC/ABC, 1959-1962), as a teen friend of cast member Noreen Corcoran, who develops a crush on her uncle, played by John Forsythe, who would famously become her onscreen husband 20 years later.

More television jobs followed, including repeat appearances on “The Adventure of Ozzie and Harriet” (ABC, 1952-66) and “The Untouchables” (ABC, 1959-63), before she made her film debut in the 1963 courtroom drama “Twilight of Honor” (1963), starring Richard Chamberlain. That same year, she signed a contract with MGM, but appeared mainly in features for other studios, including Disney’s “Those Calloways” (1965) and American International Pictures’ “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965), in which she crooned two songs as a kidnapped pop singer. That same year, she auditioned for, but failed to land an upcoming Western feature, but the film’s producers offered her a role on a new Western series, “The Big Valley,” which starred Hollywood legend Barbara Stanwyck. The young actress took the role, and at the same time, decided to drop the last syllable of her Scandinavian name in favor of something more Americanized.

Thanks to the popular TV program, the newly christened Linda Evans became a star. Her new fame helped hasten an introduction to an actor-turned-director-producer and photographer named John Derek, who had a major weakness for blondes. He took Evans under his wing and essentially managed her career, directing her in a 1969 feature called “Childish Things” and photographing her for Playboy in 1971. The couple married in 1968, but divorced in 1974 when it was discovered that Derek had fallen for his latest discovery, a teenaged actress named Mary Catherine Collins who Derek had nicknamed Bo. Despite the circumstances, Evans and Derek and his new wife remained friendly for many years. For nearly the next decade, Evans worked steadily in episodic television and TV features; she made a stab at returning to series work with the 1977 series “Hunter” (CBS) as a spy opposite James Franciscus, but the show lasted only three months. Film work proved consistent but equally unrewarding. Her features during that period include the Western “Standing Tall,” co-starring Robert Forster, with whom she had previously co-starred in the pilot for his series “Nakia,” (ABC, 1974); the espionage adventure “Avalanche Express” (1979); and one of Steve McQueen’s final films, “Tom Horn” (1980). Evans had also married again, this time to real estate tycoon Stan Herman in 1976, but the couple was divorced in 1981.

The year before, Evans had received a script for a pilot from legendary producer Aaron Spelling called simply, “Oil.” The series, which was later retitled “Dynasty,” ushered in the second and most successful phase of her acting career. As Krystle Carrington, wife to powerful oil magnate Blake Carrington (John Forsythe), Evans was at the center of the show’s high-camp machinations, which frequently had her battling her devious family – especially Blake’s ex-wife, Alexis (played to the hilt by Joan Collins) and all manner of guest stars. Her strong character, coupled with her famous blonde – almost silvery – hair and fabulous Bob Mackie dresses, proved to many television viewers and critics that a forty-something actress could be sexy – an unheard of idea at that time. For her efforts, Evans won a Golden Globe in 1982 and a People’s Choice Award in 1985, as well as earning a nomination for an Emmy in 1983. Taking advantage of her high-profile status, she also became a popular spokesperson for the sugar-free beverage Crystal Light, beginning in 1984. After the iconic Aaron Spelling series wrapped in 1989, Evans returned to play Krystle once again in a 1991 TV movie “Dynasty: The Reunion,” which wrapped up many loose storylines.

Post-“Dynasty,” Evans made infrequent returns to television, appearing in two “Gambler” TV movie sequels with Kenny Rogers, “The Adventure Continues” (1983) and “The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw” (1991), and was part of the massive cast for the 1986 miniseries “North and South: Book II.” In the last decade, she indulged her “Dynasty” fans by participating in sudsier projects like “Dazzle” (1995), a Judith Krantz adaptation which cast her as the matriarch of a wealthy family. “The Stepsister” (1997) mined the same vein, but added a thriller wrinkle with a psychotic stepsister intruding on Evans’ marriage. In 2005, Evans reunited once again with her “Dynasty” nemesis Joan Collins for the stage production, “Legends,” about two combative former movie stars. Evans kept the nostalgia alive when she joined her former castmates for the “Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar” (CBC, 2006), a retrospective of the long-running primetime soap. Though now retired from acting, she entered as a contestant for the final season of the U.K. version of the cooking competition “Hell’s Kitchen” (ITV, 2004-09). Under the tutelage of moderator-instructor Marco Pierre White and buoyed by the popular vote of the viewing audience, Evans went on to win the competition. Evans later became a published author with the 2011 release of Recipes for Life: My Memories, a combination of candid memoir and inspirational cookbook.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Shirl Conway was born in 1916 in New York. She had a long and prestigous career on the stage. From 1962 until 1965 she was the star of the television series “The Nurses”. She died in 2007 at the age of 90.

Shirl Conway was born on June 13, 1916 in Franklinville, New York, USA as Shirley Elizabeth Crosman. She was an actress, known for The Doctors and the Nurses (1962), Plain and Fancy (1956) and The Strangers Came (1949). She was married to Larson, Gordon, Bernie Wayne and Bill Johnson. She died on May 7, 2007 in Shelton, Washington, USA.

Zina Bethune was born in 1945 in New York City. She was on the Broadway stage in 1960 playing the President’s daughter in “Sunrise Over Campobello”. She was featured in the television series “The Hurses” from 1962 until 1965. She was in Martin Scorsese’s “Who’s That Knocking at My Door” in 1967. She died in 2012.

Her IMDB entry:

Lovely, lithe and light-haired Zina Bethune, noted ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, also had a promising acting career during the late 1950s and 1960s. The native New Yorker was born on February 17, 1945, the daughter of William Charles Bethune (who died in 1950 when Zina was 5) and established actress Ivy Bethune (née Vigner) ofGeneral Hospital (1963) fame. Formally trained in dance from age 6, she was a student at George Balanchine‘s School of American Ballet, and performed with the New York City Ballet as a teen despite the fact she was diagnosed at various times with scoliosis, lymphedema and hip dysplasia.

As an adolescent, she appeared in several daytime TV dramas, including a breakthrough part (1956-1958) as the first “Robin Lang” on the serial Guiding Light (1952). Over time, she joined the cast of other soaps, including a lengthy running part on Love of Life(1951) from 1965-1971 and, many years later, a recurring part on Santa Barbara (1984). Zina co-starred with Shirl Conway on the TV drama The Doctors and the Nurses (1962) [best known as “The Nurses,” the series was later entitled “The Doctors and the Nurses”], and won touching reviews for her naive student nurse role. She also played the sensitive role of “Amy” in one of several TV adaptations of Louisa May Alcott‘s belovedLittle Women (1958). As a young adult, she continued to demonstrate a formidable dramatic flair on such popular shows as Route 66 (1960), Naked City (1958), Gunsmoke(1955), Lancer (1968), The Invaders (1967), Emergency! (1972) and CHiPs (1977).

Making her first movie appearance as one of the Roosevelt children in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson, she did not make as indelible a mark in film as promised, but did earn semi-cult notice for her moving streetwise role opposite Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese‘s autobiographical feature-length debut Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967) [aka Who’s That Knocking at My Door?], a notable predecessor to his acclaimed star-maker Mean Streets (1973).

Zina graced many musicals as a singer/dancer and made her Broadway debut at age 11 playing “Tessie” in “The Most Happy Fella”. A number of touring productions came her way in the form of “Sweet Charity”, “Oklahoma!”, “Damn Yankees!”, “Carnival”, “Carousel” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. Non-musical offerings came in the form of “The Member of the Wedding”, “Barefoot in the Park” and “The Owl and the Pussycat”. In 1992, Zina returned to Broadway as a replacement in “Grand Hotel” in which she portrayed Russian ballerina “Elizaveta Grushinskaya”.

Ms. Bethune’s ultimate passion and commitment, however, has remained in the art of dance…and on many levels. In her prime, she was a highly-regarded prima ballerina. Among her many credits were “Swan Lake”, “Le Corsair”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Black Swan”, “Giselle”, “Don Quixote” and “Sleeping Beauty”, not to mention Balanchine’s own “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux”. A guest artist with The Royal Danish Ballet, Nevada Dance Theatre and San Francisco Ballet Theatre, she went on to form her own New York-based company in 1969 — Zina Bethune and Company. Her career as a dance director and choreographer has encompassed over 50 plays, films, videos and ballets.

Throughout her life, she has remained steadfast in her contribution to children with physical and mental disabilities. Helping them embrace the art of dance as a means of self-expression and therapy, she was prompted by her own physical ailments diagnosed while growing up. In addition to the Theatredance performance company she founded in 1980, she also organized Dance Outreach (now known as Infinite Dreams) in 1982, which continues to enroll disabled young children in dance-related activities throughout Southern California.

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

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Patrice Munsel was born in 1925 in Spokane, Washington. She had a brilliant career in opera with just the occasional film e.g. “Melba” in 1953. She died in 2016.

Her IMDB entry:

Patrice Munsel was born on May 14, 1925 in Spokane, Washington, USA as Patrice Beverly Munsil. She is an actress, known for The Patrice Munsel Show (1956), Max Liebman Presents: Naughty Marietta (1955) and Melba (1953). She was previously married to Robert Schuler.)

Mother of Rhett Schuler, Heidi Schuler, Scott Schuler and Nicole Schuler.

American coloratura soprano, the youngest singer/soubrette who ever starred at the Metropolitan Opera. Following along the path of Lily Pons, she made her official Met debut on December 4, 1943, singing Philine in “Mignon”. Perhaps best known for the saucy role of Adele in “Die Fledermaus”, she performed at the Metropolitan well over 200 times. Trained by legendary voice coach Giacomo Spadoni.

Made only one film. She played the title role of Dame Nellie Melba in the film Melba(1953). She also had her own television series, The Patrice Munsel Show (1956), which ran a season.

In 1958 she ended her career as an opera singer and began to perform in musical comedies and operettas, including such vehicles as “Rose Marie”, “The Merry Widow”, “Song of Norway” and “Kiss Me, Kate”.

Widow of candy heir Robert Schuler, who turned TV producer and produced her own 1950s TV variety series.

Only child of a dentist and an accomplished pianist, her last name was originally spelled “Munsil”.

Studied whistling for seven years with a Spokane whistling teacher, Mrs. Marjorie Clark Kennedy. Her teacher claimed she could have had a real career in whistling and she stuck with it because she did beautiful bird work.

Her first professional job was in her early teens with a small touring opera company that came to Spokane wherein she was given a part in the chorus for the performances of Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci and Carmen.

During the 1950s and ’60s, she was the TV spokesperson for the Camp Fire Girls (now Campfire USA), a non-sectarian youth organization styled along the lines of the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

“New York Times” obituary:

Patrice Munsel, a coloratura soprano who as a teenager became one of the Metropolitan Opera’s youngest stars and later crossed over into television and musical theater, died on Aug. 4 at her home in Schroon Lake, N.Y. She was 91. Her death was confirmed on Wednesday by her daughter Heidi Schuler Bright. Ms. Munsel was 17 when, in March 1943, she won a Met contract and $1,000 after tying for first place in the eighth annual Metropolitan Auditions of the Air, a precursor to the Met’s National Council Auditions, a program to discover promising young opera singers and nurture their careers. (The other first-place winner was Christine Johnson, who originated the role of Nettie Fowler in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel” when it opened on Broadway in 1945.) By November Ms. Munsel had signed a three-year contract with the impresario Sol Hurok for a guaranteed $120,000. On Dec. 4, at 18, she made her Met debut as the temptress Philine in Ambroise Thomas’s “Mignon,” wearing a good-luck ring and a crown lent to her by the soprano Lily Pons.

The audience gave Ms. Munsel a standing ovation of several minutes. The critics were generally less kind. “For this part her voice is neither sufficiently big, or developed, or brilliant enough,” the critic Olin Downes wrote in The New York Times. “In plain words,” he said, “she was cruelly miscast, in this, one of the most exacting roles in the coloratura soprano’s repertory.” More than 40 years later, in a Los Angeles Times interview, Ms. Munsel said simply, “I didn’t have a clue as to what the part was about.” She performed a total of 225 times at the Met, excelling as the maid Adele in Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus” and earning praise from Downes for her “virtuoso singing” and “very amusing acting.” He declared her born for the role “by personality, wit, temperament.” Rudolf Bing, the company’s general manager during Ms. Munsel’s tenure, is said to have called her “a superb soubrette.”

But Ms. Munsel had given up touring the moment she became engaged to Robert C. Schuler, an adman turned television producer, whom she married in 1952. Not long after returning from their summer-long European honeymoon, she did a star turn on movie screens as Dame Nellie Melba, the 19th-century Australian soprano, in the 1953 biopic “Melba,” produced by the Hollywood legend Sam Spiegel. From there, she strutted her way into the Las Vegas nightclub scene, peeling off a voluminous silk skirt mid-aria at the New Frontier in 1955 to reveal a halter and bejeweled pink capris. Two years later, Ms. Munsel embarked on a television career with “The Patrice Munsel Show,” a variety series on ABC, joining guests like Eddie Albert, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett and John Raitt in a mix of light opera and pop, though she admitted to hating “double-entendre lyrics.” It was canceled after one season.

Ms. Munsel last performed at the Met in 1958 as Mimi in “La Bohème,” a role she had long coveted. She then focused on motherhood, traveling and musical comedies, performing splits in the 1965 Lincoln Center Theater presentation of “The Merry Widow” and occasionally turning productions of “The Sound of Music” and “The King and I” into family affairs with her four children. Besides her daughter Heidi, two other children survive: another daughter, Nicole Schuler, and a son, Scott Schuler, as well as two grandsons and two great-granddaughters. Her husband, who in 2005 chronicled his 50-year marriage to Ms. Munsel in the book “The Diva & I: My Life with Metropolitan Opera Star Patrice Munsel,” died in 2007. Their son Rhett Carroll Schuler died in 2005.

Patrice Beverly Munsil was born on May 14, 1925, in Spokane, Wash. (She later changed the spelling of her surname to Munsel at the Metropolitan Opera’s request.) Her father, Dr. Audley J. Munsil, was a dental surgeon; her mother, Eunice Munsil, was a homemaker and an accomplished piano player.

Ms. Munsel had a lifelong comedic streak. “I’m sure when I emerged from my mother’s womb, the doctor slapped me, I hit a high C and slapped him back,” she wrote in a biographical sketch on her website.

She began studying ballet and tap at 6 and soon, inspired by Walt Disney, decided that she wanted to be a professional whistler. “There were always birds whistling in the background” of films like “Cinderella” and “Snow White,” she explained, “so I decided to whistle my way to Hollywood.”

Her parents, eager to encourage any and all of her artistic aspirations, managed to find her a whistling teacher.

Jane Bryan seemed on the cusp of a great career in movies when in 1940 she retired after marrying a wealthy businessman. She was born in 1918 in Hollywood. In 1937 she had a prominent role in “Marked Woman” with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. She went on to star in “Kid Galahad” with Edward G. Robinson and “Each Dawn I Die” with James Cagney. Jane Bryan died in 2009 at the age of 90.

Her “Guardian” obituary:

Mrs Jane O’Brien Dart, who has died aged 90, was a wealthy and influential society hostess, philanthropist, staunch Republican (an intimate of the Reagans) and an art patron and collector. However, for aficionados of 1930s Warner Bros pictures, she was Jane Bryan, the winsome, fresh-faced ingenue who was the innocent foil to the studio’s top gangster stars, James Cagney, George Raft, Edward G Robinson and Humphrey Bogart. She also co-starred in four films with Bette Davis, playing her daughter once (although she was only 10 years younger) and her sister twice.

The first with Davis, who became a close friend, was Marked Woman (1937), Lloyd Bacon’s superb gangster drama. Davis plays a nightclub “hostess”, keeping her profession secret from Bryan as her unworldly college student sister. Bryan brought a touching fragility to the role, especially when she finds herself caught in a web she cannot comprehend, before dying tragically.

In Kid Galahad (1937), the Michael Curtiz film that elevated the boxing movie to more than just a programme filler, Bryan was the virginal sister of fight manager Robinson who falls for one of her brother’s fighters (Wayne Morris). This goads Robinson into almost incestuous jealousy. “We love each other. You can’t keep us apart, you have no reason to,” she pleads. “It’s your own filthy temper and dirty mind. We haven’t done anything wrong.” Davis plays Fluff, Robinson’s girlfriend, who defends Bryan, even though she is in love with the boxer herself.

Bryan was inevitably the blandest of the siblings in Anatole Litvak’s period piece, The Sisters (1938) – the others being Bette Davis and Anita Louise – though she had some good scenes when she discovers her husband (Dick Foran) is fooling around with the local tart. In Edmund Goulding’s The Old Maid (1939), Bryan is good as the spoilt girl brought up by rich widow Miriam Hopkins, not knowing that her real mother is her spinster aunt (Davis). In the final tearjerking scene, Bryan, leaving for her honeymoon, makes a special point of kissing her “Aunt Charlotte” goodbye.

Born in Los Angeles, the daughter of a lawyer, Bryan made her screen debut aged 18 as the disinherited granddaughter of a murdered millionaire in The Case of the Black Cat (1936), a B feature starring Ricardo Cortez as Perry Mason. As a Warner Bros contract player, she went on to make a further 16 features, all but one (These Glamour Girls, MGM, 1939) for Warners, in the next four years. Among them were Confession (1937), in which she played a naive girl once again, fighting for her honour against scoundrel Basil Rathbone; A Slight Case of Murder (1938), as bootlegger Robinson’s pure, finishing-school-educated daughter; and Each Dawn I Die (1939), as Cagney’s girlfriend trying to get him out of prison.

She was the female lead in We Are Not Alone (1939), an allegorical drama based on a James Hilton novel, starring Paul Muni as a married doctor in love with Bryan as a German girl in England at the beginning of the first world war (arguably her finest performance); in Invisible Stripes (1939), in which she tries to keep her fiance William Holden from following his older brother, George Raft, into crime; and in Girls on Probation (1938), in which she played another innocent, unwittingly getting mixed up with criminals until rescued by district attorney Ronald Reagan. It was the first of three films with him, the others being the military school comedies Brother Rat (1938) and Brother Rat and a Baby (1940). The latter was her last film.

On New Year’s Eve 1939, just as her career was going smoothly, with no real highs or lows, she married a businessman, Justin Dart, who would take over the floundering Rexall drug chain in 1945 and build it into Dart-Kraft Inc, a food and consumer products conglomerate. It is doubtful whether she would have become a big star (though there were glimmerings in We Are Not Alone) and the marriage probably came at the right time.

A few weeks after the Darts’ marriage, Reagan married Jane Wyman, his co-star in the Brother Rat movies, and the two couples met for dinner regularly. “At the time, Reagan was a rabid Democrat,” Dart recalled in 1980. “My wife warned me not to talk politics.” By the time Reagan married Nancy Davis, in 1952, he was shifting to the right and the Darts remained part of their inner circle. They were partly responsible for persuading and aiding Reagan to run for governor of California in 1966 and then, in Gore Vidal’s phrase, to become the “acting president”.

After Dart died in 1984, his wife donated their art collection, containing around 70 paintings, to the Monterey Museum of Art, where she served as a trustee. A devout Catholic, she is survived by two sons and a daughter.

• Jane Bryan (Jane O’Brien Dart), actor, born 11 June 1918; died 8 April 2009

Her obituary by Ronald Bergan in “The Guardian” can be accessed here.

Phil Carey was born in 1925 in New Jersey. He served with the U.S. military in World War Two and again during the Korean War. His film appearances include “This Woman Is Dangerous” with Joan Crawford in 1952, “Calamity Jane” with Doris Day and “Pushover” with Kim Novak. On television he featured in the series “Laredo”. Phil Carey died in 2009 at the age of 83.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Tall, blond and of rugged proportions, handsome actor Philip Carey started out as a standard 1950s film actor in westerns, war stories and crime yarns but didn’t achieve full-fledged stardom until well past age 50 when he joined the daytime line-up as ornery Texas tycoon Asa Buchanan on the popular soap One Life to Live (1968) in 1979. He lived pretty much out of the saddle after that, enjoying the patriarchal role for nearly three decades.

He was born with the rather unrugged name of Eugene Carey on July 15, 1925, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Growing up on Long Island, he served with the Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War. He attended (briefly) New York’s Mohawk University and studied drama at the University of Miami where he met his college sweetheart, Maureen Peppler. They married in 1949 and went on to have three children: Linda, Jeffrey and Lisa Ann.

The 6’4″ actor impressed a talent scout with his brawny good looks while appearing in the summer stock play “Over 21” in New England, and he was offered a contract with Warner Bros as a result. Billed as Philip Carey, he didn’t waste any time toiling in bit parts, making his film debut billed fifth in the John Wayne submarine war dramaOperation Pacific (1951). Phil could cut a good figure in military regalia and also showed strong stuff in film noir. A most capable co-star, he tended to be upstaged, however, by either a stronger name female or male star or by the action at hand. He was paired up with Frank Lovejoy in the McCarthy-era I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), and Steve Cochran in the prison tale Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951). Warner Bros. starJoan Crawford was practically the whole movie in the film noir This Woman Is Dangerous(1952) co-starring the equally overlooked David Brian and Dennis Morgan; Calamity Jane(1953) was a vehicle for Doris Day; and he donned his familiar cavalry duds in the background of Gary Cooper in the Civil War western Springfield Rifle (1952).

In 1953, Carey left Warner Bros. and signed up with Columbia Pictures where he was, more than not, billed as “Phil Carey.” Here again he fell into the rather non-descript rugged mold as the stoic soldier or stolid police captain. He did find plenty of work, however, and was frequently top-billed. He battled the Sioux in The Nebraskan (1953); played a former subordinate member of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid gang who has to clear his name in Wyoming Renegades (1954); was a brute force to be reckoned with in They Rode West (1954); and had one of his standard movie roles (as an officer) in a better quality movie, Columbia’s Pushover (1954), which spent more time promoting the debut of its starlet Kim Novak as the new Marilyn Monroe. Overshadowed by James Cagney and Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts (1955) and by Van Heflin, youngJoanne Woodward (in her movie debut) and villain Raymond Burr in the western Count Three and Pray (1955), Phil turned his durable talents more and more to TV in the late 1950s.

The man of action took on the role of Canadian-born Lt. Michael Rhodes on the seriesTales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1956) alongside Warren Stevens. He eventually left Columbia studios to do a stint (albeit relatively short) playing Raymond Chandler‘s unflappable detective Philip Marlowe (1959). Most of the 60s and 70s, other than a few now-forgotten film adventures such as Black Gold (1962), The Great Sioux Massacre(1965) and Three Guns for Texas (1968), were spent either saddling up as a guest star on The Rifleman (1958), Bronco (1958), The Virginian (1962) and Gunsmoke (1955) or hard-nosing it on such crime series as 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Ironside (1967), McCloud(1970), Banacek (1972) and Felony Squad (1966). He also played the regular role of a stern captain in the Texas Rangers western series Laredo (1965).

Phil was a spokesperson for Granny Goose potato chips commercials, and his deep voice served him well for many seasons as narrator of the nature documentary series Untamed Frontier (1967). One of his best-remembered TV guest appearances, however, was a change-of-pace role on the comedy All in the Family (1971) in which he played a vital, strapping blue-collar pal of Archie Bunker’s whose manly man just happened to be a proud, astereotypical homosexual. His hilarious confrontational scene with a dumbfounded Archie in Kelsey’s bar remains a classic.

Phil’s brief regular role in the daytime soap Bright Promise (1969) in 1972 was just a practice drill for the regular role he would play in 1979 as Texas oilman Asa Buchanan inOne Life to Live (1968). His popularity soared as the moneybags manipulator you loved to hate. Residing in Manhattan for quite some time as a result of the New York-based show, he played the role for close to three decades until diagnosed with lung cancer in January of 2006. Forced to undergo chemotherapy, he officially left the serial altogether in May of 2007, and his character “died” peacefully off-screen a few months later.

Divorced from his first wife, Phil married a much younger lady, Colleen Welch, in 1976 and had two children by her — daughter Shannon (born 1980) and son Sean (born 1983). Phil lost his battle with cancer on February 6, 2009, at the age of 83.

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

ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN, US poster, from left: Eddie Albert, Ike Eisenmann, Kim Richards, Ray Milland (top), 1975

Eddie Albert was born in Rock Island, Illinois in 1906. He is known primarily to-day for the very popular television series “Green Acres” with Eva Gabor. His films include “Brother Rat” and “Roman Holiday” with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. He died in 2005 aged 99. He was married to Mexican actress Margo ans their son was actor Edward Albert.

Ronald Bergan’s obituary in “The Independent”

Was there a more likable guy in the movies than Eddie Albert, who has died aged 97? Not conventionally handsome he had a broad, dimpled smile and was generally cast as a friendly innocent or the hero’s good-natured sidekick. If that were all, then Albert would fall into the minor supporting actor category.

But Eddie Albert had a wide-ranging career that included the stage, television, documentaries and personal crusades. Although seldom called upon to act with any depth in the movies, he gave an extraordinary performance as the cowardly army officer in Robert Aldrich’s Attack! (1956).

He also had a pleasant singing voice that enabled him to star on Broadway in The Boys From Syracuse, in which he introduced the Rodgers and Hart song This Can’t Be Love to the world, and The Music Man. Owing to the long-running sitcom Green Acres, he had one of the most famous faces on television and he became a leading campaigner in America in the fight to combat pollution and world hunger.

Born Edward Albert Heimberger in Illinois, he left the University of Minnesota to join a song-and-patter group called the Threesome. When the act became a duo (with Grace Bradt) called The Honeymooners on the radio, and reached New York in 1935, he dropped his surname because he kept being called Eddie Hamburger. After making his Broadway debut a year later, Albert had three huge stage successes in a row, all under George Abbott’s direction.

First as the baseball pitching Virginia military cadet in the forces comedy Brother Rat, then as the hapless “playwright from Oswego” in the farce Room Service, and as Antipholus in the The Boys From Syracuse. During the break between the stage shows, he repeated his role of Bing Edwards (third billed after Wayne Morris and Ronald Reagan) in Warner Bros screen version of Brother Rat (1938), which led to a contract from the studio. One of his best moments in the film was as an expectant father practising baby talk on a stranger’s offspring.

The film engendered two films with the same cast, a sequel, Brother Rat And A Baby, and An Angel From Texas (both 1940), in the latter of which, Albert played a greenhorn fast-talked by Morris and Reagan into investing in a show. These films also starred Priscilla Lane, whose doctor husband Albert played in Four Wives (1939) and Four Mothers (1941). In On Your Toes (1939), an emasculated film version of the Rodgers and Hart musical, he got to (sort-of) dance with ballet dancer Vera Zorina in The Slaughter On 10th Avenue number, and was the lion tamer in a circus run by Humphrey Bogart in The Wagons Roll At Night (1941) of which the New York Times wrote: “Except for the lions and Mr Albert, the film is honky-tonk”.

In Out Of The Fog (I941), Albert played the first of several dullish characters who lose their girlfriends to more charismatic men; in this case Ida Lupino leaves him for gangster John Garfield. A few years later he lost Loretta Young to David Niven in The Perfect Marriage (1946), and Jennifer Jones to Laurence Olivier in Carrie (1952).

In 1942, Albert joined the navy, serving in the Pacific. He returned to the US as a lieutenant and was assigned to training films branch. On the day of his discharge, he married the Mexican film actress Margo, née Maria Marguerita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Bolado Castilia y O’Donnell.

Now freelance, Albert produced and narrated a series of 16mm educational two-reelers, including sex education films, while appearing in a variety of second-string movie roles, though he got to sing for the first time on screen in Hit Parade (1947). Two years later, he returned to Broadway in the Irving Berlin musical Miss Liberty, which ran almost a year.

Despite being Oscar-nominated for best supporting actor for the first time in William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1953) – he played Gregory Peck’s extrovert, bearded photographer pal – his film parts barely improved. Ironically, as the Persian pedlar Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! (1955),he was the only lead in the film not to have a number. (Even Rod Steiger sang)

Then came Attack!, Robert Aldrich’s powerful film of men in war. “Bob gave me the best role I’ve had in my career,” Albert claimed. “He knew more about the theme of conflict than any director I’ve known.” As the craven army officer, who sends a small platoon behind enemy lines, stranding them without cover, Albert turned his amiable persona inside out, and his portrayal of the man’s mental breakdown was film acting at its naked best. Unfortunately, he had to wait 18 years for almost as challenging a role when Robert Aldrich cast him as the sadistic prison warden (with Nixon characteristics) in The Longest Yard (1974).

In between, an easy-going Albert was seen in The Teahouse Of The August Moon (1956) as the army psychiatrist who is sent to Okinawan village to help Glenn Ford, but ends up going native; as an expatriate American in Pamplona, who is drunk most of the time, and runs the bulls (with an equally inebriated Errol Flynn) in The Sun Also Rises (1957) and as the grinning heavy in The Gun Runners (1958), another Hemingway adaptation (from To Have And Have Not).

In 1960, Albert successfully took over from Robert Preston in the showy role of the conman in The Music Man on Broadway. But his biggest success in the 1960s was the TV sitcom Green Acres, in which he played a big city lawyer who fulfils a lifelong dream of becoming a farmer and drags his glamorous wife (Eva Gabor) to the broken down rural nightmare he has bought.

Among his better parts in films of the period were as the only man among missionaries in China in John Ford’s final film, Seven Women (1966), and the wealthy father of snobbish Cybill Shepherd in The Heartbreak Kid (I972). His nonplussed reaction to nebbish Charles Grodin’s asking for his daughter’s hand, although Grodin is on his honeymoon with another, was worth the Oscar nomination he received. Aldrich again exploited Albert’s dark side in Hustle (1975), in which he was appropriately slimy as a corrupt lawyer involved in a call-girl racket.

In the same year, he starred in another TV series called Switch as a tough ex-cop in the private eye business with ex-con Robert Wagner. But the role Eddie Albert enjoyed most in life, other than as husband to Margo (who died in 1985), and father of the actor Edward Albert and adopted daughter Maria (both of whom survive him), was as a supporter of agronomy around the world to combat hunger. In fact, in 1986, he was given a presidential citation for his work in that field. As long ago as the 1950s, he had visited the Congo to discuss malnutrition with Albert Schweitzer.

Once referred to by an interviewer in 1970 as an ecologist, Albert retorted: “Ecologist, hell! Too mild a word. Check the department of agriculture – 60% of the world is hungry already. With our soil impoverished, our air poisoned, our wildlife crippled by DDT, our rivers and lakes turning into giant cesspools, and mass starvation an apparent inevitability by 1976, I call myself a human survivalist!” About his dire prognostications, Albert commented: “I went around scaring the hell out of a lot of people.” Something he hardly ever did on screen.

· Eddie Albert, actor, born April 22 1908; died May 26 2005

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