I want to take a moment this morning to wish screenwriter and TV producer William Theodore Link the happiest of 77th birthdays. The co-creator (with his longtime writing partner, Richard Levinson) of such winning series as Columbo, Mannix, and Ellery Queen, and the author of this year’s delightful short-story work, The Columbo Collection, Link was born on this date in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, back in 1933.
I had the opportunity to speak with Link earlier this year, and posted the results of our length exchange in The Rap Sheet.
If you would like to wish Link a happy birthday today, just drop a message into the Comments section of this post. I’ll let him know to look there.
Showing posts with label Birthdays 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthdays 2010. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Tony Goes A-Roamin’
Had he not died back in 1998, today would have been singer-actor Frank Sinatra’s 95th birthday. To celebrate, we’ve embedded (above) the trailer for his 1967 detective film, Tony Rome. That picture was adapted for the screen from Marvin H. Albert’s 1960 novel, Miami Mayhem, the first of three novels featuring Miami private eye Rome.
In his original review of the movie, critic Roger Ebert wrote:
Sinatra is no Bogart, which won’t come as news, and Tony Rome is no Maltese Falcon. But it plays the detective game by the rules, and that’s something.It has been a long while since I last watched Tony Rome (with its theme song by Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy), but the “classic film blog” Out of the Past celebrates this movie with some “pretty darn cool” stills.
In well-made detective movies, you have a plot, a real, honest-to-goodness plot. No gimmicks. No neo-Nazi villains in underwater pads. No exploding cigarette lighters. Just a detective, who is a hard-working, hard-drinking guy who has been unlucky with dames and plays the horses and has a lot of cynical dialog.
This guy gets involved in a seemingly innocent job, like tracing somebody’s lost husband or escorting a drunken daughter home to her millionaire daddy. Then it turns out that something valuable is missing. It can be a Maltese falcon or a diamond ring or anything just so it’s something that (quavering violin in echo chamber) Men Will Kill For.
Then you have to have intrigue and physical danger and a few surprising plot twists. You have to have a sympathetic character or two: really straight people who are trying to do the best thing, but their past is against them. Then you have to have the detective playing it tough and cynical and getting knocked around, but occasionally revealing a glimmer of human warmth in his heart.
Tony Rome does this, and to call it a typical detective movie is not an insult.
Sinatra went on to make one more Rome picture, Lady in Cement (1968). It co-starred Raquel Welch and Dan Blocker (of Bonanza fame), but was, unfortunately, a rip-off of Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, with further suggestions of John D. MacDonald’s 1966 Travis McGee novel, Darker Than Amber.
READ MORE: “Tony Rome,” by Marty McKee (Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot); “A P.I. Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: Tony Rome (1967)” (Mystery*File); “A P.I. Movie Review by David Friend: Tony Rome (1967)” (Mystery*File).
Friday, October 01, 2010
Happy Birthday, Mr. Peppard
Had he not perished of pneumonia back in 1994, actor George Peppard would today be celebrating his 82nd birthday. Thanks to his roles in the TV mystery series Banacek (1972–1974) and the underappreciated detective feature P.J. (1968), not to mention the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the teleflick Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case, I’ve long been a Peppard fan. Even though he’s no longer with us, I shall be tipping a toast in his honor this evening.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Morse Sends His Regards
We want to send out our fondest wishes to Colin Dexter, the British schoolteacher turned author who created the now-famous mystery fiction characters Inspector Endeavour Morse and Sergeant (later Inspector) Robbie Lewis. He turns 80 years old today.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Save the Candles, Prize the Memories
Well, it looks as if I’m not the only one who remembered that today would have been the 90th birthday of Kentucky-born actor William Conrad. Earlier this morning, Ivan G. Shreve Jr. had a fine posting on the subject, which included this paragraph (with added Web links):
Conrad died in February 1994, at age 73, of congestive heart failure. He’s buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles. The world was left a less interesting place with the silencing of his baritone voice.
READ MORE: “William Conrad Birthday Fun,” by Christine A. Miller (Escape and Suspense!); “Cannon Novel Covers,” by Randy Johnson (Not the Baseball Pitcher).
Growing up, Bill Conrad was the portly detective on my TV screen known as Cannon; it wouldn’t be until much later on in life when I discovered his first-rate work as Marshal Matt Dillon on radio’s Gunsmoke ... and all the other radio shows on which he performed (including the memorable announcer on Escape: “... want to get away from it all?”) I’m sure I don’t need to re-tell the story of how CBS screwed Conrad out of the TV version of Gunsmoke along the rest of the fine radio cast (Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Georgia Ellis, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Vic Perrin ... I could go on and on); they had pretty much settled on James Arness for the boob tube edition of Dodge City’s famous lawman, even though OTR actress-historian Lois Culver once remarked during an online chat that “most real lawmen looked more like Bill than Arness anyway.” Conrad held a grudge against both the series and the network for many years, but finally made peace once Cannon became a hit (he’d even direct a couple of shows for the TV western) and would later go on to star in another series in the late ’80s/early ’90s--the appropriately titled Jake and the Fatman.And let’s not forget that Conrad also starred (with Lee Horsley) in NBC’s 1981 midseason replacement series, Nero Wolfe, based on Rex Stout’s famous novels. Or that he narrated the cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle from 1959 to 1964.
Conrad died in February 1994, at age 73, of congestive heart failure. He’s buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles. The world was left a less interesting place with the silencing of his baritone voice.
READ MORE: “William Conrad Birthday Fun,” by Christine A. Miller (Escape and Suspense!); “Cannon Novel Covers,” by Randy Johnson (Not the Baseball Pitcher).
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Somewhere, Beck Is Actually Smiling
Maj Sjöwall, the Edgar Award-winning Swedish author and translator who, with her partner Per Wahlöö, wrote 10 highly acclaimed novels featuring sullen Stockholm police detective Martin Beck, today turns 75 years old.
(Hat tip to Murder, Mystery & Mayhem.)
(Hat tip to Murder, Mystery & Mayhem.)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Put Out the Call for Candles
This is a red-letter day for celebrating birthdays of folks near and dear to the hearts of crime-fiction fans. As Ivan G. Shreve Jr. reminds us, it was on this date in 1927 that actor Peter Falk, who would later star in television’s Columbo, was born in New York City. Falk is now 83 years old and reportedly suffering from “advanced dementia.”
It was on another September 16, in 1924, that a second native New Yorker, Betty Joan Perske--later to be introduced to film audiences as Lauren Bacall--took her first breaths. After co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), the two performers became lovers and, in May 1945, swapped “I do’s”; he was 45 years old, she was 20. Bacall went on to star with Bogie in The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), and after his death from cancer in January 1957, she appeared with Paul Newman in 1966’s Harper (based on Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target), served as one of the prime suspects in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, and co-starred with John Wayne in his last motion picture, The Shootist (1976). Bacall also featured in a two-part, 1979 episode of The Rockford Files. It was a memorable episode, if only because Bacall--the widow of the man who’d played the big screen’s iconic gumshoe (in The Maltese Falcon)--was now playing the latest love interest of the finest gumshoe ever to grace the small screen, Jim Rockford (James Garner). Below, I’ve embedded a scene from To Have and Have Not that shows why Bogart was so entranced by the woman he called “Baby,” who today turns 86.
Six years after Bacall’s birth, on September 16, 1930, Anne Francis was born in Ossining, New York. She first came to widespread public attention starring in the 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, but is undoubtedly more familiar to Rap Sheet readers as the star of ABC-TV’s Honey West (1965-1966). In the decades since, Francis has guest-starred in everything from The Name of the Game and Banacek, to Ellery Queen, Columbo, Search, Assignment: Vienna, Barnaby Jones, Without a Trace, and ... well, the list could go on and on. But many of us still remember the now 80-year-old Francis best as a lithesome sleuth. Below, I have embedded a 1965 teaser for Honey West.
Finally, let’s not forget that today would have been the 83rd birthday of Jack Kelly, who starred with James Garner in Maverick (1957-1962). He was later a regular on Get Christie Love!, guested on such shows as Ellery Queen and The Fall Guy, reprised his Bart Maverick role in a 1978 teleflick, The New Maverick, and again in Garner’s too-short-lived TV series, Bret Maverick, and like Bacall, showed up on Rockford (figuring into two episodes from 1977). After serving as the mayor of Huntington Beach, California, Kelly died of a stroke in November 1992.
We offer a toast to every one of these performers on this special day.
It was on another September 16, in 1924, that a second native New Yorker, Betty Joan Perske--later to be introduced to film audiences as Lauren Bacall--took her first breaths. After co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), the two performers became lovers and, in May 1945, swapped “I do’s”; he was 45 years old, she was 20. Bacall went on to star with Bogie in The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), and after his death from cancer in January 1957, she appeared with Paul Newman in 1966’s Harper (based on Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target), served as one of the prime suspects in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, and co-starred with John Wayne in his last motion picture, The Shootist (1976). Bacall also featured in a two-part, 1979 episode of The Rockford Files. It was a memorable episode, if only because Bacall--the widow of the man who’d played the big screen’s iconic gumshoe (in The Maltese Falcon)--was now playing the latest love interest of the finest gumshoe ever to grace the small screen, Jim Rockford (James Garner). Below, I’ve embedded a scene from To Have and Have Not that shows why Bogart was so entranced by the woman he called “Baby,” who today turns 86.
Six years after Bacall’s birth, on September 16, 1930, Anne Francis was born in Ossining, New York. She first came to widespread public attention starring in the 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, but is undoubtedly more familiar to Rap Sheet readers as the star of ABC-TV’s Honey West (1965-1966). In the decades since, Francis has guest-starred in everything from The Name of the Game and Banacek, to Ellery Queen, Columbo, Search, Assignment: Vienna, Barnaby Jones, Without a Trace, and ... well, the list could go on and on. But many of us still remember the now 80-year-old Francis best as a lithesome sleuth. Below, I have embedded a 1965 teaser for Honey West.
Finally, let’s not forget that today would have been the 83rd birthday of Jack Kelly, who starred with James Garner in Maverick (1957-1962). He was later a regular on Get Christie Love!, guested on such shows as Ellery Queen and The Fall Guy, reprised his Bart Maverick role in a 1978 teleflick, The New Maverick, and again in Garner’s too-short-lived TV series, Bret Maverick, and like Bacall, showed up on Rockford (figuring into two episodes from 1977). After serving as the mayor of Huntington Beach, California, Kelly died of a stroke in November 1992.
We offer a toast to every one of these performers on this special day.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
007 Turns 80
We offer our best birthday wishes today to the man who, for many filmgoers and spy-fiction fans, will always be James Bond. Sir Thomas Sean Connery--better known as Scottish actor Sean Connery--was born on this date back in 1930. I think that calls for a toast, don’t you? One vodka martini, please, shaken, not stirred.
(Hat tip to The HMSS Weblog.)
(Hat tip to The HMSS Weblog.)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
A Good Joe
Happy birthday to actor Mike Connors, who starred for eight years in Mannix (1967-1975) and today turns 85 years old.
READ MORE: “Bookshelf: Mannix” (Television Obscurities).
READ MORE: “Bookshelf: Mannix” (Television Obscurities).
Thursday, May 27, 2010
A Tip of the Fedora to Hammett
One hundred and sixteen years ago today, a birth occurred on a tobacco farm in southern Maryland that would alter the course of crime fiction’s development. Born on that day was Samuel Dashiell Hammett, who would go on to work with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and then use that experience (short though it was) to bring new vitality and a sense of realism to the aborning field of detective-fiction writing. In addition to creating the hard-boiled agency sleuth known only as The Continental Op, Hammett also gave to readers no-nonsense San Francisco private eye Sam Spade, the imbibing and investigating couple of Nick and Nora Charles, and even the radio dick Brad Runyon (aka the Fat Man).
As Raymond Chandler remarked in his famous 1940s essay, “The Simple Art of Murder,” Hammett “gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish.”
If you’d like to use this occasion to learn more about Dashiell Hammett’s history and contributions to the genre we all love, start with January Magazine’s multi-part tribute to the author, published on the 75th anniversary of The Maltese Falcon’s release in book form. Check out The Thrilling Detective Web Site’s Hammett biography, and then proceed to the Internet Archive’s Old Time Radio collection of episodes from The Adventures of Sam Spade, a post-World War II radio drama series starring Howard Duff (at least in most of the episodes).
As Raymond Chandler remarked in his famous 1940s essay, “The Simple Art of Murder,” Hammett “gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish.”
If you’d like to use this occasion to learn more about Dashiell Hammett’s history and contributions to the genre we all love, start with January Magazine’s multi-part tribute to the author, published on the 75th anniversary of The Maltese Falcon’s release in book form. Check out The Thrilling Detective Web Site’s Hammett biography, and then proceed to the Internet Archive’s Old Time Radio collection of episodes from The Adventures of Sam Spade, a post-World War II radio drama series starring Howard Duff (at least in most of the episodes).
Friday, May 21, 2010
Pity the Fool Who Forgets
Mr. T (aka Laurence Tureaud), who played the mohawk-wearing B.A. Baracus on the 1980s TV series The A-Team, turns 58 years old today.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Mysterious and Spooky, and Now Older
It’s time to break out the cake and candles for John Astin. The Baltimore-born actor and director turns 80 years old today.
Although probably still best remembered for his portrayal of Gomez Addams in the 1960s monster sitcom The Addams Family, Astin also played The Riddler during one season of Batman and enjoyed recurring roles on both Night Court and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. His professional résumé actually runs to Roman scroll length and includes guest appearances on The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, Night Gallery, Police Woman, Get Christie Love!, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Simon & Simon, Burke’s Law, and Murder, She Wrote. Astin directed episodes of CHiPs and McMillan & Wife (on the latter of which he also played Sykes, who, if I recall correctly, was a police forensics specialist). He continues to act; he’s slated to appear in the 2010 science-fiction/comedy film Starship II: Rendezvous with Ramses. And Astin has earned plaudits for his in-character recitals of Edgar Allan Poe works.
Once married to child star Patty Duke, he currently teaches acting and directing at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Astin is a “practicing Buddhist” ... though why he’s been practicing for so long without getting it right is anybody’s guess.
Hey, it’s a joke. Given Astin’s work history, it seemed appropriate.
Although probably still best remembered for his portrayal of Gomez Addams in the 1960s monster sitcom The Addams Family, Astin also played The Riddler during one season of Batman and enjoyed recurring roles on both Night Court and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. His professional résumé actually runs to Roman scroll length and includes guest appearances on The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, Night Gallery, Police Woman, Get Christie Love!, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Simon & Simon, Burke’s Law, and Murder, She Wrote. Astin directed episodes of CHiPs and McMillan & Wife (on the latter of which he also played Sykes, who, if I recall correctly, was a police forensics specialist). He continues to act; he’s slated to appear in the 2010 science-fiction/comedy film Starship II: Rendezvous with Ramses. And Astin has earned plaudits for his in-character recitals of Edgar Allan Poe works.
Once married to child star Patty Duke, he currently teaches acting and directing at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Astin is a “practicing Buddhist” ... though why he’s been practicing for so long without getting it right is anybody’s guess.
Hey, it’s a joke. Given Astin’s work history, it seemed appropriate.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Mourning After
Having become a big fan of Thomas B. Dewey’s detective fiction--both his series about compassionate Chicago private eye Mac, and the other one featuring happily married Pete Schofield--I have to mention that today would have been Dewey’s 85th birthday. Unfortunately, the Indiana-born author died in Arizona in 1981.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Suave at Any Age
Incredible as this seems, today marks the 80th birthday of American actor Robert Wagner. He of course starred as burglar-cum-spy Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief (1968-1970), con man-detective Peterson T. Ryan (opposite Eddie Albert) in Switch (1975-1978), and Jonathan Hart, the super-rich businessman-sleuth (and husband of Stefanie Powers’ Jennifer Hart) in Hart to Hart (1979-1984). In addition, Wagner co-starred with Paul Newman and the fetching Pamela Tiffin in Harper, the 1966 film adapted from Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target (1949).
Wagner’s list of film and TV credits is long enough to lasso an elephant. There’s a video tribute to his career on the YouTube site.
Let me wish you a personal happy birthday, Mr. Wagner. You’ve been part of my large- and small-screen viewing experiences ever since I was a boy. I hope to see more of you for many years to come.
Wagner’s list of film and TV credits is long enough to lasso an elephant. There’s a video tribute to his career on the YouTube site.
Let me wish you a personal happy birthday, Mr. Wagner. You’ve been part of my large- and small-screen viewing experiences ever since I was a boy. I hope to see more of you for many years to come.
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