25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Susan Lucci

October 25, 2019

Susan Victoria Lucci is an American actress, best known for portraying Erica Kane on the daytime drama All My Children. Lucci has been called “Daytime’s Leading Lady” by TV Guide, with New York Times and Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television. Midway into her career, her salary had been reported as over $1 million a year.

Susan Lucci was born in Scarsdale, New York, to parents Jeanette and Victor Lucci. Her father is Italian, and her mother is Swedish. She attended Garden City High School in Garden City, New York, graduating in 1964. She then attended Marymount College at Fordham University, and graduated from Marymount in 1968.

Lucci is best known for playing Erica Kane on the ABC television soap opera All My Children, on which she has appeared since the show’s inception on January 5, 1970. She is the only original cast member remaining on the series.

Lucci was nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for her work on All My Children almost every year since 1978. When Lucci did not win the award after several consecutive nominations, her image in the media began to be lampooned, as she became notoriously synonymous with never winning an Emmy. NBC’s Saturday Night Live exploited this by asking her to host an episode, where her monologue parodied the cast, crew, and even stagehands carrying Emmys of their own in her presence. In addition, she appeared in a 1989 television commercial for the sugar substitute “Sweet One,” intended to portray her as the opposite of her villainess character, yet throwing one of Erica Kane’s characteristic tantrums, shouting “11 years without an Emmy! What does a person have to do around here to get an Emmy?”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio, Television Permalink

Steve Allen

October 25, 2019

Stephen Valentine Patrick William “Steve” Allen was an American television personality, musician, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best-known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I’ve Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS’ What’s My Line?

Allen was a “creditable” pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. Allen wrote more than 50 books and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Allen was born in New York City, the son of Isabelle Allen, a vaudeville comedienne who performed under the name Belle Montrose, and Carroll Allen, a vaudeville performer who used the stage name Billy Allen. Allen was raised on the south side of Chicago by his mother’s Irish Catholic family. Milton Berle once called Allen’s mother “the funniest woman in vaudeville.”

Allen’s first radio job was on station KOY in Phoenix, Arizona, after he left Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe, while still a sophomore. He enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II and was trained as an infantryman. He spent his service time at Camp Roberts, near Monterey, California and did not serve overseas. Allen returned to Phoenix before deciding to move back to California.

25 Oct 2019
Live Performance Permalink

Stephen Schwartz

October 25, 2019

Composer Stephen Schwartz was honored with the 2,359th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Broadway stars Ben Vereen, John Rubenstein, and JoAnne Worley. The Wicked Company preformed “One Short Day” at the event.

6233 Hollywood Boulevard on April 8, 2008.

BIOGRPAHY

Stephen Schwartz, composer-lyricist of the hit stage musical WICKED, has been nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of three. Schwartz wrote the lyrics for the Disney animated features, POCAHONTAS and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and the recent Disney hit, ENCHANTED, and the songs for DreamWorks’ first animated feature, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT.

His well-known film songs include the Academy-Award-winning “Colors of the Wind” and “When You Believe”, and date back to the 70’s with “Day by Day”, “Beautiful City”, and “Butterflies Are Free”.

Appropriate to the address of his star, WICKED, is in its second year at the Pantages Theatre, where it has broken box office records. The New York Times said that WICKED is one of the most successful shows in Broadway history.” WICKED, which opened on October 30, 2003 in New York, is truly a worldwide phenomenon with four companies in North America – Broadway, Chicago, on national tour, and Los Angeles, as well as productions in London, Tokyo, and Stuttgart, and a fourth international production opening next summer in Melbourne.

A measure of Schwartz’ success in the theatre is that this year, when WICKED plays its 1900th performance in New York, he will become the only writer of any kind ever to have three shows run more than 1900 performances on Broadway.

Stephen Schwartz was born in New York City on March 6, 1948. He studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. His first major credit was the title song for the play BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well.

In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for the world-wide phenomenon GODSPELL. Schwartz won two Grammys and two Drama Desks for GODSPELL, which, at its height, was playing simultaneously in eight cities in America, including a long running Los Angeles production – plus London, Paris, Australia, and Germany. In South Africa, during the height of apartheid, Schwartz and his collaborator, John-Michael Tebelak, refused permission for the show to be produced unless it was performed by an integrated cast, before an integrated audience, and GODSPELL became the first show in South Africa to do so.

GODSPELL was followed by the English texts for Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, which opened the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and was recently performed to great acclaim at the Hollywood Bowl.

He then wrote the music and lyrics for the enormously successful PIPPIN and two years later, THE MAGIC SHOW. At one point, GODSPELL, PIPPIN, and THE MAGIC SHOW were all running on Broadway simultaneously, making Mr. Schwartz one of the very few songwriters ever to have three shows on Broadway at the same time.

He next wrote the music and lyrics for THE BAKER’S WIFE, and the musical version of Studs Terkel’s WORKING, to which he contributed four songs, and which he also adapted and directed, winning the Drama Desk Award as best director; he later co-directed the PBS American Playhouse television production.

He then began collaborating with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features POCAHONTAS, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, and DreamWorks’ THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, winning his third Academy Award.

For television, Schwartz provided music and lyrics for the original television musical, GEPPETTO, seen on The Wonderful World of Disney.

Schwartz is also one of the most tireless supporters of new composers and lyricists. Under the auspices of the ASCAP Foundation and with the support of Disney, he has been artistic director for a musical theatre workshop in Los Angeles for over ten years, and also runs a yearly workshop in New York. He is a member of the Board of Governors of ASCAP board, and is also a member of the Council of the Dramatists’ Guild.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Stepin Fetchit

October 25, 2019

Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, eventually becoming a millionaire, the first black actor in history to do so. He was also the first black actor to receive a screen credit.

Perry’s typical film persona and stage name have long been controversial, and seen as synonymous with negative stereotypes of African-Americans. However, a newer interpretation of his film persona contends Perry was ultimately subversive of the status quo.

Little is certain about his background other than that he was born in Key West, Florida to West Indian immigrants. He was the second child of Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica and his mother, Dora Monroe, a seamstress from Nassau. Both of his parents came to the United States in the 1890s where they married. By 1910, the family had moved north to Tampa, Florida. Another source says he was adopted when he was eleven years old and taken to live in Montgomery, Alabama. At age twelve, he ran away from home, joined a carnival, and earned his living for a few years as a singer and tap dancer.

Perry began entertaining in his teens as a comic character actor. His stage name was a contraction of “step and fetch it”, or perhaps, “step in fetch it.” According to his entry in Ephraim Katz’s The Film Encyclopedia, he borrowed his screen name from a racehorse that won him some money in his pre-Hollywood days.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Steve McQueen

October 25, 2019

Terrence Steven “Steve” McQueen was a popular American movie actor. He was nicknamed “The King of Cool.” His “anti-hero” persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in ‘The Sand Pebbles‘. His other popular films include The Magnificent Seven, ‘The Great Escape‘, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, ‘Papillon‘, and The Towering Inferno. In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world. Although McQueen was combative with directors and producers, his popularity put him in high demand and enabled him to command large salaries.

He was an avid racer of both motorcycles and cars. While he studied acting, he supported himself partly by competing in weekend motorcycle races and bought his first motorcycle with his winnings. He is recognized for performing many of his own stunts, especially the majority of the stunt driving during the high-speed chase scene in Bullitt. McQueen also designed and patented a bucket seat and transbrake for race cars.

McQueen was born Terrence McQueen in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, in Marion County. His father, Terrence William McQueen, a stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus, abandoned McQueen and his mother when McQueen was six months old. McQueen was raised as a Roman Catholic. His mother, Julian, was a young, rebellious alcoholic. Unable to cope with bringing up a small child, she left him with her parents in Slater, Missouri, in 1933. Shortly thereafter, as the Great Depression set in, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian’s brother Claude on the latter’s farm in Slater.

McQueen had good memories of the time spent on his Great Uncle Claude’s farm. In recalling Claude, McQueen stated “He was a very good man, very strong, very fair. I learned a lot from him.” On McQueen’s fourth birthday, Claude gave him a red tricycle, which McQueen later claimed started his interest in racing. At age 8, he was taken back by his mother and lived with her and her new husband in Indianapolis. McQueen retained a special memory of leaving the farm: “The day I left the farm Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present; a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case.” The inscription read: “To Steve– who has been a son to me.”

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Steve Edwards

October 25, 2019

Steve Edwards is an icon of Los Angeles television with thirty years of hosting such high visibility shows as AM Los Angeles, Two on The Town and for the past 15 years, Good Day LA. From 2001-2005, he hosted GDLA’s nationally-syndicated companion show, Good Day Live, which aired on many Fox-owned and affiliated stations. Edwards is known for hosting many different shows with varied formats in Los Angeles with a sense of humor and encyclopedic knowledge.

Edwards began his broadcasting career after graduating from the University of Miami and attending the University of Houston. His first broadcasting job was in the late 1960s with KMSC radio station in Clear Lake City. He quickly moved up to Houston radio station KTRH, where he hosted a popular night call-in show. While in Houston, he also worked at CBS television affiliate KHOU-TV, where he was a news anchor and hosted talk popular shows on the station. He had a three run in Chicago for a time in the mid 1970 as the host of the highly successful AM Chicago and Friday Night with Steve Edwards. In 1978, Edwards finally came to Los Angeles, where he worked at CBS-owned KNXT, in which he hosted infotainment programs such as Two On The Town with Connie Chung and later Melody Rogers and his own self-titled talk show. While at the station, he served as their entertainment editor, reviewing movies, television, and the arts and as a weatherman. He also worked on The Baxters, an experimental sitcom produced by Norman Lear and was lead host on the variety show ON Stage America.

He did Entertainment Tonight for one season, and moved to KABC-TV in 1984. At KABC, he hosted the top rated A.M. Los Angeles along with Hollywood Closeup and an afternoon show 3:30 which gave way to the Oprah Winfrey show.

Through these years he was a talk radio host for KABC with both the issues driven Steve Edwards Show and Sports Talk.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Steve Cochran

October 25, 2019

Steve Cochran was an American film, television, and stage actor, the son of a California lumberman. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1939. After a stint working as a cowpuncher, Cochran developed his acting skills in local theatre and gradually progressed onto Broadway, film, and television.

From 1949 to 1952, he worked for Warner Brothers and appeared in many films including The Chase, The Best Years of Our Lives, Copacabana, A Song Is Born, Highway 301, The Damned Don’t Cry!, and Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, which inspired Johnny Cash to write his song “Folsom Prison Blues”.

One of his most memorable roles was as psychotic mobster James Cagney?s deceitful, power-hungry henchman, Big Ed Somers, in the gangster classic White Heat. In 1953, Cochran formed his own production company, Robert Alexander Productions, where he won critical acclaim for two of his performances in his company’s films. Cochran was a disgraced, alcoholic itinerant farmer struggling to regain the love of his family in Come Next Spring, and was a troubled drifter in Michelangelo Antonioni?s Il Grido, produced in Italy. Cochran’s company attempted to produce some television series and other films such as The Tom Mix Story, but they were never produced with the exception of a television pilot where he played John C. Fremont in Fremont the Trailblazer.

Cochran starred in a string of B-movies throughout the 1950s, including Carnival Story. He also frequently appeared in episodes of the most popular television series of the era, including guest spots on Bonanza, The Untouchables, Route 66, Bus Stop, and The Twilight Zone.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Steven Spielberg

October 25, 2019

Steven Allan Spielberg, is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and video game designer. In a career spanning over forty years, Spielberg’s films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg’s early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the founders of DreamWorks.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Three of Spielberg’s films; Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park, achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Steve Tisch

October 25, 2019

Steven "Steve" Tisch is an American businessman. He is the Chairman and Executive Vice President of the New York Giants, the NFL team co-owned by his family, as well as a film and television producer. He is the son of former Giants co-owner Bob Tisch.

Tisch was born in Lakewood, New Jersey. He attended Tufts University, during which he began his filmmaking career. During his youth, Tisch created a number of small movies with backing by Columbia Pictures. In 1976, he left Columbia and created his first feature film, Outlaw Blues. He followed this up in 1983 with Risky Business, which saw Tom Cruise's first lead role.

In 1984, Tisch produced a made-for-TV movie entitled The Burning Bed, which caused controversy but also received eleven Emmy nominations for Farrah Fawcett's depiction of a battered wife. Tisch launched his own production company in 1986, which has since specialized in small screen films. However, he also produced several critically acclaimed films including Forrest Gump, American History X, and Snatch. Tisch received a Best Motion Picture Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Forrest Gump", which was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won nine, and remains one of the 20 highest domestic box office grossing films in history.

He is currently a partner in Escape Artists, an independently financed film production company based at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Escape Artists released "The Weather Man", starring Nicolas Cage, in the fall of 2005 and "The Pursuit of Happyness", starring Will Smith, was released by Columbia Pictures December of 2006. Other projects include "Seven Pounds" starring Will Smith, "Knowing", starring Nicolas Cage and "The Taking of Pelham 123" starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Stevie Wonder

October 25, 2019

Stevland Hardaway Judkins, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist. Blind from shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records’ Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.

Some of Wonder’s best known works include singles such as “Superstition”, “Sir Duke”, “I Wish” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart’s fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, being the third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway. Owing to his being born six weeks premature, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and their aborted growth caused the retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this was not the primary cause of his blindness.

When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. She changed her name back to Lula Hardaway and later changed her son’s surname to Morris, partly because of relatives. Morris has remained Stevie Wonder’s legal name ever since. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. During childhood he was active in his church choir.