25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Sam Waterston

October 25, 2019

Sam Waterston was honored with the 2,397th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Ted Danson and producers Dick Wolf and Rene Balcer. His star was the first of 2010, marking the beginning of the Walk of Fame's 50th anniversary.

7040 Hollywood Boulevard on January 7, at 2010.

BIOGRAPHY

Sam Waterston's portrayal of charismatic, tough District Attorney Jack McCoy, in Wolf Films/Universal Media Studio's Law & Order, which is now in its 20th season on NBC. The show has earned three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, the 1999 Screen Actors Guild Award, a Screen Actors Guild nomination in 1998 and a Golden Globe nomination in 1995.

Waterston received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Killing Fields, three Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award for I'll Fly Away, and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer for the "Nick Carraway" role in The Great Gatsby. He was awarded an Emmy as host of the ten-part NBC informational series Lost Civilizations, and, in England, has received numerous BAFTA nominations.

Waterston's extensive film credits include Woody Allen's films Interiors, Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors, John Waters' Serial Mom, Hopscotch and Heaven's Gate and two Anthony Harvey films; Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn, Michael Moriarty, and Joanna Miles and Eagles Wing with Martin Sheen and Harvey Keitel. He starred opposite Jeff Bridges in Tom McGuane's Rancho Deluxe and with Reese Witherspoon in Man in the Moon. On television, he played "Oppenheimer" in mini-series of the same name, produced and starred opposite Jennifer Beals and Lisa Gay Hamilton in the cable movie A House Divided, and portrayed Abraham Lincoln opposite Mary Tyler Moore in Gore Vidal's television mini-series, Lincoln. Waterston starred in the NBC movie, The Matthew Shepard Story, opposite Stockard Channing and his recent films include The Commission with Martin Landau and Le Divorce with Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stockard Channing.

Waterston earned a Tony Award nomination as Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, and an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for his "Benedick" in Much Ado About Nothing. His stage work includes the New York Shakespeare Festival, productions As You Like It, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure and Hamlet. In 2000 Waterston played "James Tyrone" in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, with his son James as "Edmund" at Syracuse Stage, with John Slattery and Elizabeth Franz. In 2003 Waterston starred in the world premiere production of David Rabe's The Black Monk at the Yale Repertory Theater. In 2004 Waterston returned to The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park in a reprise production of Much Ado About Nothing, portraying "Leonato" opposite his daughter, Elisabeth (The Prince and Me) starring in the "Hero" role. Most recently, Waterston appeared as "Polonius" in Michael Stuhlbarg's Hamlet.

Waterston is a graduate of Yale University and currently serves on the board of Oceana, the world's preeminent ocean conservation organization.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Sam Warner

October 25, 2019

Samuel Louis “Sam” Warner was an American film producer who was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the studio along with his brothers Harry, Albert, and Jack Warner. Sam Warner is credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros. to produce the film industry’s first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer. He died in 1927, the day before the film’s enormously successful premiere.

Schmuel “Wonsal” or “Wonskolaser”, later Samuel Louis Warner, was born in a part of the Russian Empire that is now Poland, and possibly in the village of Krasnosielc, He was the son of Benjamin “Wonsal” or “Wonskolaser” a shoe maker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. He came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings in October 1889 on the steamship Hermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had preceded them, immigrating to Baltimore in 1888 and following his trade in shoes and shoe repair. He changed the family name to Warner, which was used thereafter. As in many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Schmuel became Samuel.

In Baltimore, Benjamin Warner struggled to make enough money to provide for his growing family. Following the advice of a friend, Benjamin relocated the family to Canada, where he attempted to make a living by bartering tin wares to trappers in exchange for furs. Sons Jacob and David Warner were born in London, Ontario. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and his family returned to Baltimore. Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there. In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town. Benjamin worked with his son Harry in the shoe repair shop until he secured a loan to open a meat counter and grocery store in the city’s downtown area. As a child, Samuel found himself trying to find work through a range of various odd jobs.

Samuel Warner, known as “Sam,” was the first member of his family to move into the entertainment industry. In the early 1900s, he formed a business partnership with another Youngstown resident and “took over” the city’s Old Grand Opera House, which he used as a venue for “cheap vaudeville and photoplays”. The venture failed after one summer. Sam then secured a job as a projectionist at Idora Park, a local amusement park. He persuaded the family of the new medium’s possibilities and negotiated the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope from a projectionist who was “down on his luck”. The purchase price was $1,000. Sam’s interest in film came after seeing Thomas Edison’s The Great Train Robbery while working as an employee at Cedar Point Pleasure Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. During this time, Albert agreed to join Sam and together the two displayed showings of The Great Train Robbery at carnivals throughout the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania; Sam would run the film projector and Albert would sell tickets.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Rugrats

October 25, 2019

Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991 and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004.

The show focuses on four babies and their day-to-day lives, usually involving common life experiences that become adventures in the babies' imaginations. It was one of the first three Nicktoons and also aired on Nick Jr. in 1995.

The show originally revolved around a group of children, including infant Thomas "Tommy" Pickles, toddler Charles "Chuckie" Finster, and the twin-infants Phillip "Phil" and Lillian "Lil" DeVille. The toddlers are able to communicate with each other through baby speak, although viewers can understand them, because it is 'translated'. Often, they mispronounce words or use poor grammar and their speaking is full of malapropisms. An example of this is using the word "poopetrator" instead of "perpetrator." The group is often reluctantly joined by Tommy's cousin, Angelica Pickles. At three years old, Angelica is able to communicate and understand language from both the toddlers and the adults, which she often uses as an advantage when she wants to manipulate either party. She is usually very mean to the babies. Susie Carmichael, who lives across the street from the Pickles, is also able to communicate on the same level as Angelica, though she isn't manipulative. As a result, Angelica and Susie often clash.

In 1998, a new character was introduced. After The Rugrats Movie, in which Tommy's baby brother Dylan "Dil" Pickles is born, he was soon added as a character on the show. As a four month old baby, Dil is not able to communicate with anyone. Later in 2000, after Rugrats in Paris: The Movie was released, Kimi Finster was added as a character. She is Chuckie's stepsister.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Rudy Vallée

October 25, 2019

Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.

Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée. Both of his parents were born and raised in Vermont, but their parents were immigrants; the Vallées being of French Canadian origin from neighboring Quebec, while the Lynches were from Ireland. Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine.

Having played drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. In 1917, he decided to enlist for World War I, but was discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15. He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the false birthdate of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917 with 41 days of active service. From 1924 through 1925, he played with the Savoy Havana Band at the Savoy Hotel in London, where his fellow band-members discouraged his attempts to become a vocalist. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, “Rudy Vallée and the Connecticut Yankees.” With this band, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums, he started taking vocals. He had a rather thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However, his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome boyish looks, attracted great attention, especially from young women. Vallée was given a recording contract and in 1928, he started performing on the radio.

Vallée became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner. Previously, popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before the electric microphone. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of the radio. Vallée’s trombone-like vocal phrasing on “Deep Night” would inspire later crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como to model their voices on jazz instruments.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Russ Morgan

October 25, 2019

Russ Morgan was a big band orchestra leader and musical arranger in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.

Born into a Welsh family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Morgan was encouraged to express himself musically from the age of seven. His father, a coal-mine foreman, was a former musician who played drums in a local band in his spare time. Morgan’s mother had been a pianist in a vaudeville act. Morgan began to study piano and also went to work in the mines to earn money to help support his family and pay for his lessons.

At fourteen, Morgan earned extra money as a pianist in a theater in Scranton. He also purchased a trombone and learned to play it. In 1921, he played trombone with a local band, the Scranton Sirens, which became popular in Pennsylvania during the 1920s. Several of its members later became famous, including Jimmy Dorsey on sax and clarinet, Billy Lustig on violin and Tommy Dorsey on trombone. In 1922, Morgan decided to go to New York. Three years later, at the age of twenty-one, he did arrangements for both John Philip Sousa and Victor Herbert. He then joined Paul Specht’s orchestra and toured throughout Europe with the orchestra. Colleagues of Morgan in Specht’s orchestra included Arthur Schutt, Don Lindley, Chauncey Morehouse, Orville Knapp, Paul Whiteman, Charlie Spivak and Artie Shaw.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Rusty Hamer

October 25, 2019

Rusty Hamer was an American television actor best known for his role as Rusty Williams in the popular sitcom Make Room for Daddy.

Born in Tenafly, New Jersey, Hamer grew up on TV as Rusty Williams, Danny Thomas’s freckle-faced son on Make Room for Daddy. As a young five-year-old actor, his wisecracking behavior made him a popular character during the show’s 351-episode run. Thomas, who could occasionally be spotted trying not to crack up in Hamer’s scenes, would later publicly praise Hamer’s extraordinary comic timing.

Hamer attempted a brief return to show business in 1970 as a married medical student in the show Make Room for Grandaddy, a sequel of Make Room for Daddy, but the show was canceled after one season. He appeared occasionally in bit parts on television shows such as Green Acres, but work became increasingly sporadic. Hamer eventually moved to Louisiana where he worked as a short order cook.

On January 18, 1990, Hamer died at age 42 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in DeRidder, Louisiana. His death raised awareness of the potential mental fragility of child performers, and inspired fellow child actor Paul Petersen to found A Minor Consideration, a support group striving to improve working conditions for young actors, as well as assisting former child stars in making the transition from past fame to adult life.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Russell Crowe

October 25, 2019

Russell Crowe was honored with the 2,404th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Leron Gubler, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Jay Leno, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Scott Grimes, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ron Meyer, Snoop Dogg, and Sam Worthington.

6801 Hollywood Boulevard on April 12, 2010.

BIOGRAPHY

Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe is considered one of the finest actors of his generation. Originally from New Zealand, he started making waves in the Australian film industry with his performance in the controversial film Romper Stomper, for which he became critically acclaimed around the world. He has received three consecutive Academy Award® Best Actor nominations — for his performances in The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), taking home the Oscar® for his performance in Gladiator.

In addition to winning the Best Actor Oscar® for his performance as Maximus in Universal Pictures' Gladiator, from acclaimed director Ridley Scott, Crowe earned Best Actor honors from several critics organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and Best Actor nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA.

Over the past few years, he starred in Universal's thriller State of Play, along with Edward Norton, Rachel McAdams, and Ben Affleck; Ridley Scott's drama Body of Lies, for Warner Bros, also starring Leonardo DiCaprio; Lionsgate's 3:10 to Yuma, opposite Christian Bale; and again with director Ridley Scott for Universal's American Gangster, with Denzel Washington. In 2010, he stared in Universal Pictures' Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott.

In Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, Crowe's masterful portrayal of Nobel Prize-winning John Forbes Nash, Jr. earned him his third Academy Award® nomination and garnered him Best Actor awards from the Golden Globes, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and other critics groups.

He received his first Academy Award® nomination for his work in the non-fiction drama The Insider as tobacco company whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. He also earned Best Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, and Best Actor nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Before his award-winning acclaim, Crowe made his mark on Hollywood in Curtis Hanson's crime drama L.A. Confidential as vice cop Bud White. His other film credits include Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, in which he starred as Jim Braddock; A Good Year, directed by Ridley Scott and based on the book by Peter Mayle; Jay Roach's Mystery, Alaska; Taylor Hackford's Proof of Life; and Virtuosity, opposite Denzel Washington. He made his American film debut in the Western The Quick and the Dead, with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone. Additional credits include Heaven's Burning; Breaking Up; Rough Magic; The Sum of Us; For the Moment; Love in Limbo; The Silver Brumby, based on the classic Australian children's novel; The Efficiency Expert; and Prisoners of the Sun.

Born in New Zealand, Crowe was raised in Australia where he has also been honored for his work on the screen. He was recognized for three consecutive years by the Australian Film Institute (AFI) – nominated for Best Actor for The Crossing (1991), won the Best Supporting Actor award for Proof (1992) and received Best Actor awards from the AFI and the Australian Film Critics for his performance in Romper Stomper (1992). In 1993, the Seattle International Film Festival named Crowe Best Actor for his work in both Romper Stomper and Hammers Over the Anvil.

25 Oct 2019
Live Performance Permalink

Ruta Lee

October 25, 2019

Ruta Lee is a Canadian actress and dancer who appeared as one of the brides in the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She is also known for her guest appearance in The Twilight Zone in 1959, and for being a semi-regular on a number of game shows, including the Hollywood Squares, What's My Line?, and as Alex Trebek's co-host on High Rollers.

Ruta Lee was born Ruta Mary Kilmonis in Montreal, Quebec, and she was the only child of two Lithuanian immigrants. Her father was a tailor and her mother was a homemaker. In 1948, her family moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where she attended high school at Hollywood High School, and began studying acting and appearing in high school plays. She attended both Los Angeles City College and the University of California at Los Angeles.

Ruta worked as a cashier, an usherette, and a candy girl at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater, but when she was $40.00 short in her cash account at the end of her shift one night, she was dismissed and lost her job.

Lee then got a break with a spot on TV with George Burns and Gracie Allen. She next found an agent, who found her a job in an episode of the Roy Rogers show, followed by a spot on the series Adventures of Superman in 1953. That same year, while doing a small theater production of On the Town, she landed a role in the Academy Award-nominated musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. After Seven Brides, Lee appeared in several films including Anything Goes, Funny Face, Witness for the Prosecution, and Marjorie Morningstar with Natalie Wood. In 1962, Ruta appeared in the comedy/western film Sergeants 3 along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Ruth Chatterton

October 25, 2019

Ruth Chatterton was an American actress and novelist. She also flew planes and knew Amelia Earhart.

Born in New York City on Christmas Eve 1892, of English and French extraction to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton. She was a descendant of the English poet Thomas Chatterton. She was on Broadway by the age of 14, as a dancer.

After leaving a private school at the age of 14, Ruth started off as a chorus girl in a stage play and was a star on the American stage by age eighteen. Her first film was Sins of the Fathers in 1928, and almost all of her films were pre-Code. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for two films: Madame X and Sarah and Son. She starred in the Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade. Her stage experience enhanced many of her film performances when the “silents” segued to the “talkies.” Although her first “talkies” were merely filmed stage productions, her enunciation and acting were appreciated by the public and critics alike. When she left Paramount, her initial studio, for Warner Brothers, it was noted that the brothers Warner needed an infusion of “class.”

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Ruth Ashton Taylor

October 25, 2019

Ruth Ashton Taylor is a retired American television and radio newscaster, with a career in broadcasting that spanned over 50 years.

She was the first female newscaster on television in Los Angeles and the West Coast.

She has received many awards and honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

A native of Los Angeles, Ruth Ashton graduated in 1939 from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. She relocated to New York City thereafter, receiving a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1944.