BETTY HUTTON singing in "Red Hot & Blue" (1949)

Raquel Welch, Reluctant Sex Symbol

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Legendary Singer Lena Horne Dies at 92

Verena Dobnik AP

NEW YORK (May 9) - Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress who reviled the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, slowing her rise to Broadway superstardom, died Sunday. She was 92.Horne died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin. Chin would not release any other details.Horne, whose striking beauty and magnetic sex appeal often overshadowed her sultry voice, was remarkably candid about the underlying reason for her success.

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," she once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."In the 1940s, she was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band, the first to play the Copacabana nightclub and among a handful with a Hollywood contract.In 1943, MGM Studios loaned her to 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the all-black movie musical "Stormy Weather." Her rendition of the title song became a major hit and her signature piece.On screen, on records and in nightclubs and concert halls, Horne was at home vocally with a wide musical range, from blues and jazz to the sophistication of Rodgers and Hart in songs like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered."In her first big Broadway success, as the star of "Jamaica" in 1957, reviewer Richard Watts Jr. called her "one of the incomparable performers of our time." Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her "the best female singer of songs."But Horne was perpetually frustrated with the public humiliation of racism."I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out ... it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world," she said in Brian Lanker's book "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America."While at MGM, she starred in the all-black "Cabin in the Sky," in 1943, but in most of her other movies, she appeared only in musical numbers that could be cut in the racially insensitive South without affecting the story. These included "I Dood It," a Red Skelton comedy, "Thousands Cheer" and "Swing Fever," all in 1943; "Broadway Rhythm" in 1944; and "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1946."Metro's cowardice deprived the musical of one of the great singing actresses," film historian John Kobal wrote.Early in her career Horne cultivated an aloof style out of self-preservation, becoming "a woman the audience can't reach and therefore can't hurt" she once said.Later she embraced activism, breaking loose as a voice for civil rights and as an artist. In the last decades of her life, she rode a new wave of popularity as a revered icon of American popular music.Her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music," won a special Tony Award. In it, the 64-year-old singer used two renditions - one straight and the other gut-wrenching - of "Stormy Weather" to give audiences a glimpse of the spiritual odyssey of her five-decade career.A sometimes savage critic, John Simon, wrote that she was "ageless. ... tempered like steel, baked like clay, annealed like glass; life has chiseled, burnished, refined her."When Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the best actress Oscar in 2002, she sobbed: "This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. ... It's for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened."Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, the great-granddaughter of a freed slave, was born in Brooklyn June 30, 1917, to a leading family in the black bourgeoisie. Her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, wrote in her 1986 book "The Hornes: An American Family" that among their relatives was a college girlfriend of W.E.B. Du Bois and a black adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt.Dropping out of school at 16 to support her ailing mother, Horne joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem night spot where the entertainers were black and the clientele white.She left the club in 1935 to tour with Noble Sissle's orchestra, billed as Helena Horne, the name she continued using when she joined Charlie Barnet's white orchestra in 1940.A movie offer from MGM came when she headlined a show at the Little Troc nightclub with the Katherine Dunham dancers in 1942.Her success led some blacks to accuse Horne of trying to "pass" in a white world with her light complexion. Max Factor even developed an "Egyptian" makeup shade especially for the budding actress while she was at MGM.But in his book "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals," Kobal wrote that she refused to go along with the studio's efforts to portray her as an exotic Latin American."I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become," Horne once said. "I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."Horne was only 2 when her grandmother, a prominent member of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, enrolled her in the NAACP. But she avoided activism until 1945 when she was entertaining at an Army base and saw German prisoners of war sitting up front while black American soldiers were consigned to the rear.That pivotal moment channeled her anger into something useful.She got involved in various social and political organizations and - along with her friendship with Paul Robeson - got her name onto blacklists during the red-hunting McCarthy era.By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.It was also in the mid-'60s that she put out an autobiography, "Lena," with author Richard Schickel.The next decade brought her first to a low point, then to a fresh burst of artistry.She had married MGM music director Lennie Hayton, a white man, in Paris in 1947 after her first overseas engagements in France and England. An earlier marriage to Louis J. Jones had ended in divorce in 1944 after producing daughter Gail and a son, Teddy.In the 2009 biography "Stormy Weather," author James Gavin recounts that when Horne was asked by a lover why she'd married a white man, she replied: "To get even with him."Her father, her son and her husband, Hayton, all died in 1970-71, and the grief-stricken singer secluded herself, refusing to perform or even see anyone but her closest friends. One of them, comedian Alan King, took months persuading her to return to the stage, with results that surprised her."I looked out and saw a family of brothers and sisters," she said. "It was a long time, but when it came I truly began to live."And she discovered that time had mellowed her bitterness."I wouldn't trade my life for anything," she said, "because being black made me understand."
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Remembering Lynn Redgrave

Marilyn "My Heart Belongs To Daddy"

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Barbra Streisand ( If You Go Away)

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PAUL NEWMAN January 26, 1925, Shaker Heights, Ohio, ~ 26 September 2008, Westport, Connecticut

Was so ashamed of his debut in the failed costume drama The Silver Chalice (1954), that he took out an ad in Variety apologizing for his performance.

His father was of German heritage and his mother was of Hungarian heritage.

Lee Strasberg, who trained Newman at the Actor's Studio, said that he would have been as great an actor as Marlon Brando if he hadn't been so handsome. According to Strasberg, Newman had the talent, but he too often relied on his good looks to coast through a role.

Sharon Tate January 24, 1943, Dallas, Texas

Her favorite lip makeup was Vaseline. She kept little jars of it in her car.

Had enormous brown eyes and a dazzling smile. At the time of her death, she was known as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

FAYE DUNAWAY ~ January14, 1941, Bascom, Florida, USA

Mini Biography
She was one of the hottest actresses in the 1970s playing neurotic, highly driven women with sex appeal. Life in the 1990s has not been as good. In a much-publicized incident, she was dropped as the lead in the Broadway musical "Sunset Boulevard," (based on the Gloria Swanson classic film Sunset Blvd. (1950)) and her attempt at starring in a television comedy was an unmitigated bomb.IMDb Mini Biography By: Ray Hamel
Spouse
Terry O'Neill
(1983 - 1987) (divorced) 1 child
Peter Wolf
(1 August 1974 - 1979) (divorced)
Trivia
She auditioned for the role of Daisy that went to Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby (1974). Her 1995 autobiography was titled "Looking for Gatsby: My Life."
Attended Boston University. Gave up a Fulbright Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London to join the original training program at the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater in New York. She got her first starring role in "A Man For All Seasons" just days after graduating from college. She was the daughter of a career army man which resulted in her traveling constantly in her early life.
Her son with ex-husband Terry O'Neill, Liam Walker Dunaway O'Neill, was born in the summer of 1980.
Her ex-husband, Peter Wolf, was with the "J. Geils Band".
Ranked #65 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Converted to Catholicism while in Boston. [27 December 1996]
Has a connection with the James Bond - 007 franchise: was considered for the role of Domino Derval in Thunderball (1965), and Octopussy (1983) as the female lead (Maud Adams ended up with the part). Faye had a chance to co-star with Pierce Brosnan (the fifth 007) in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).
Competing for beauty titles was considered de rigueur for Southern girls in the 1950s, and Dunaway remembers in her autobiography that she was somehow convinced that she could NOT leave Florida until she won one. She missed being crowned May Queen at Leon High School in Tallahassee by a mere six votes, and had another near-miss at a title when she was voted runner up for Miss University of Florida in 1959. Dunaway finally scored her beauty crown when she was named Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, and promptly transferred to Boston University.
Other actresses considered for Dunaway's breakthrough role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) included Natalie Wood, Sue Lyon, Carol Lynley, Leslie Caron, and even Warren Beatty's big sister Shirley MacLaine. Tuesday Weld actually turned down the role due to pregnancy.
The role of Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) was originally marked for Ali MacGraw, wife of the film's producer, Robert Evans. By the time production started, MacGraw had left Evans for actor Steve McQueen and other actresses were considered for the part. Dunaway's main competition for the role was Jane Fonda.
By her own admission in a New York Times interview many years back, she and late comedian Lenny Bruce were briefly lovers and lived together for a week, circa 1963. She was also engaged to director Jerry Schatzberg in the late 1960s.
In order to be taken seriously as an actress, she turned down a regular role on "The Guiding Light" (1952) in 1965.
Her real-life portrayal of actress Joan Crawford in the critically panned film Mommie Dearest (1981) was ranked #41 on the villains list of the 100 years of "The Greatest Screen Heroes and Legends."
Her portrayal of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was ranked #32 on the villains list of the 100 years of "The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains." She shared this honor with Warren Beatty, who played Clyde Barrow.
Member of Pi Beta Phi sorority.
One of only three actresses, along with Halle Berry and Liza Minnelli,to win both the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Razzie Award for Worst Actress (Dunaway shared her award with Bo Derek).
Is only 14 years older than Diana Scarwid, who played her daughter in Mommie Dearest (1981).
Is the only actor/actress to have appeared in both the 1968 version (The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and 1999 version (The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) of "The Thomas Crown Affair".
Her performance as Evelyn Cross Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) is ranked #36 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
Her performance as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is ranked #34 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
According to director's commentary on the Mommie Dearest (1981) DVD, Dunaway feels the film's reception ruined her career, to an extent, and she refuses to discuss the film (hence her lack of participation in its release).
Turned down the role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).
Mother of Liam Dunaway O'Neill from her marriage to renowned British photographer Terry O'Neill.

All together now: "Awwwww.... BROTHERS & SISTERS " (Luke Macfarlane as coverboy)

MARY TYLER MOORE ~ December 29, 1936, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Personal Quotes
Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers.
There is a dark side. I tend not to be as optimistic as Mary Richards. I have an anger in me that I carry from my childhood experiences -- I expect a lot of myself and I'm not too kind to myself.
Diabetes is an all-too-personal time bomb which can go off today, tomorrow, next year, or 10 years from now - a time bomb affecting millions like me and the children here today.
I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.
Diets are for those who are thick and tired of it.

Eartha Kitt Dies ~ at 81 "Singer, Actress"

By POLLY ANDERSON,
AP
NEW YORK (Dec. 25) - Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.
Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday of colon cancer.

Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.
Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.
Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even as she neared 80.
When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.
Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.
After becoming a hit singing "Montonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson," but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.
The next year, the record company released follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."
In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."
Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.
On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.
"Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland," she said in a 1996 Associated Press interview. "It depends so much on gadgetry and flash now. You don't have to have talent to be in the business today.
"I think we had to have something to offer, if you wanted to be recognized as worth paying for."

December 21, 1937, New York City, New York, USA

Attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Is the subject of an erroneous urban legend. When Vassar was a women's college, the story goes, Jane Fonda refused to wear the elegant white gloves and pearls that were the attire for the daily Tea in the Rose Parlor. When confronted, Fonda returned to the parlor wearing the gloves and the pearls, and nothing else.

Arrested and charged with drug smuggling (November 1970).
Her birth was the cause of some interruptions during her father's filming of Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis.

She was, and still is, an exercise maven.
Mother of Troy Garity

Fonda was arrested in 1970 after allegedly kicking a cop when she was found carrying a large amount of what appeared to be pills. All charges were dropped after the pills were identified as vitamins.

Born on the same day Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) premiered.

Her father was of Italian and Dutch descent and her mother was of Irish and German descent.

Is fluent in French.
Passed on the title role in Norma Rae (1979), which won a Best Actress Oscar for its eventual star Sally Field.

She and her father Henry Fonda are the only father-daughter couple to receive Oscars for

leading roles.

A 1972 visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam war where Fonda campaigned in favor of the communist regime and the subsequent release of several photographs of her atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun used against American air crews earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane." As a result of her visit to Hanoi and the accompanying photographs, many Americans continue to regard Fonda with general resentment and hostility to this day.

Was offered the role of Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973).

Jane now openly admits that she suffered from bulimia from age 13 to age 37. While modeling, she said she lived on cigarettes, coffee, speed, and strawberry yogurt.

Shortly after her divorce from Ted Turner, she announced she had become a born-again Christian. Speculations are that this may have played a part in their seperation, since Ted Turner has expressed highly critical opinions on religion in general.

The suicide of her socialite mother Frances Seymour Brokaw was kept from her as a teenager, and she was told that she'd died of heart failure. Household newspaper and magazine subscriptions were canceled, and the staff and student body of Fonda's high school were instructed not to discuss the incident. Fonda learned the truth months later while leafing through a movie magazine in art class.

Protested alongside fellow actresses Sally Field & Christine Lahti, and playwright Eve Ensler urging the Mexican government to re-investigate the slayings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexico-Texas border. (February 2004)

Was nominated for Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "There Was a Little Girl."

Turned down the role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).
Producer Robert Evans wanted Fonda play female lead in Chinatown (1974).
Was born double-jointed.

Turned down the role of Bonnie Parker, then played by Faye Dunaway, in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Living in France at the time, she did not want to relocate to the U.S. for the part.
In 1984, her wealth, generated from acting, producing, and fitness videos was estimated at $50 million.

Announced that she became a Christian (2001).

Her aerobics video "Jane Fonda's Workout" sold 17 million copies, making it the best-selling home video ever and her an icon of this form of exercises (1982).

Considers They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) as a turning point in her career.

Danced ballet until she broke her foot in her 40s.

Personal Quotes
Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.
I was terrified when I turned 30. I was pregnant and had the mumps and Faye Dunaway was just coming out in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). I thought, 'Oh my God, I'll never work again. I'm old!'
"Acting with [Laurence] Harvey is like acting by yourself - only worse." - Jane Fonda on her 1962 film Walk on the Wild Side
"It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanised such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless." [expressing regret at her support for the Viet Cong]
I, a Socialist, think we should strive toward a Socialist society, all the way to Communism.
"If you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that one day we would become Communist." (speaking to students at the University of Michigan in 1970)
People think actresses find public speaking easy, and it's not easy at all; we're used to hiding behind masks.
[accepting her father's Oscar for On Golden Pond]: "I'll bet when he heard it just now he said 'Hey ain't I lucky?' As if luck had anything to do with it."
The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun (in North Vietnam) was a betrayal...The largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine.
I would have given up acting in a minute. I didn't like how it set me apart from other people.
When I start down a path that I know is the right path, I go with all of me.
I'm a very brave person. I can go to North Vietnam, I can challenge my government, but I can't challenge the man I'm with if means I'm going to end up alone.
It's hard to imagine a happy ending to the US-led war in Iraq. What's it going to mean for stability as a nation, for terrorism, for the economy I can't imagine. I think the entire world is going to be united against us.
Ted [Turner] needs someone to be there 100 percent of the time. He thinks that's love. It's not love. It's babysitting.
I wanted to do a tour like I did during the Vietnam War, a tour of the country. But then Cindy Sheehan filled in the gap, and she is better at this than I am. I carry too much baggage.
When I left the West Coast I was a liberal. When I landed in New York I was a revolutionary.

PATTY DUKE ~ Born on December 14, 1946 in Elmhurst, New York

Born on December 14, 1946 in Elmhurst, New York, as Anna Marie Duke. Her acting career began when she was introduced to her brother Ray Duke's managers, John and Ethel Ross. Soon after, Anna Marie became Patty, the actress. Patty started off in commercials, a few movies and some bit parts. Her first big, memorable role came when she was chosen to portray the blind and deaf Helen Keller in the Broadway version of "The Miracle Worker". The play lasted almost two years, from October 19, 1959 - July 1, 1961 (Patty left on May, 1961). In 1962, The Miracle Worker (1962) became a movie and Patty won an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She was 16 years old, making her the youngest person ever to win an Oscar. She then starred in her own sitcom titled "The Patty Duke Show" (1963). It lasted for three seasons and Patty was nominated for an Emmy. In 1965 she starred in the movie Billie (1965). It was a success and was the first movie ever sold to a television network. That same year she married director Harry Falk. Their marriage lasted four years. She then starred in Valley of the Dolls (1967), which was a financial but not a critical success. In 1969 she secured a part in an independent film called Me, Natalie (1969). The film was a box-office flop but she won her second Golden Globe Award for her performance in it. In 1976 she won her second Emmy award for the highly successful mini-series "Captains and the Kings" (1976). Other successful TV films followed. She received two Emmy nominations in 1978 for A Family Upside Down (1978) (TV) and Having Babies III (1978) (TV). She then won her third Emmy in the 1979 TV movie version of The Miracle Worker (1979) (TV), this time portraying Annie Sullivan. In 1982 she was diagnosed with manic-depressive illness. In 1984 she became President of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). In 1986, she married Michael Pierce, a drill sergeant whom she met while preparing for a role in the TV movie A Time to Triumph (1986) (TV). In 1987 she wrote her autobiography "Call Me Anna". In 1989 she and Mike adopted a baby, who they named Kevin. Her autobiography became a TV movie in 1990, with Patty playing herself from her 30s onward. In 1992 she wrote her second book, "A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depression Illness". Anna Marie Duke has had a long and successful career, winning three Emmys. She is a mother, a political advocate for issues such as the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), AIDS and nuclear disarmament, all despite having Manic-Depression. She has proven her strength as an actress and as a person.

She was the youngest actress at the time (12) to have her name above the marquee title on Broadway ("The Miracle Worker") and the youngest ever (16) to have a TV series bearing her name ("The Patty Duke Show" (1963)).

I subscribe to the theory that says you're a product of all your experiences. And I am finally, most of the time, happy with the product. I now think it is OK to be Patty Duke.

DIONNE WARWICK December 12, 1940, East Orange, New Jersey

Personal Quotes
My self-imposed mandate is to be the voice for the voiceless.
My songs are like my children. I love every single one of them.

FRANK SINATRA December 12, 1915, Hoboken, New Jersey, ~ 14 May 1998, Los Angeles, California

Growing up on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, made Frank Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he eventually got work as a band singer, first with The Hoboken Four then with Harry James, then Tommy Dorsey. With the help of George Evans (Sinatra's genius press agent), his image was shaped into that of a street thug and punk who was saved by his first wife, Nancy. In 1942 he started his solo career, instantly finding fame as the king of the bobbysoxers - the young women and girls who were his fans - becoming the most popular singer of the era among teenage music fans. About that time his film career was also starting in earnest, striking box-office gold early on with a lead role in Anchors Aweigh (1945), a Best Picture nominee at the 1946 Academy Awards. Sinatra was awarded a special Oscar for his part in a short film against intolerance, The House I Live In (1946). His career on a high, Sinatra went from strength-to-strength on record, on stage and on screen, peaking in 1949, once again with Gene Kelly, in the MGM musical On the Town (1949) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). A controversial public affair with screen siren Ava Gardner broke up his marriage to Nancy Barbato. Record sales dwindled in the early 1950s and although Sinatra continued to act, now, appearing in more dramatic fare such as Meet Danny Wilson (1951), a vocal cord haemorrhage all but ended his career. He fought back, winning the coveted role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). He won an Oscar for best supporting actor and followed this with a scintillating performance as a deranged assassin in Suddenly (1954) and arguably a career best performance and Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in the powerful drama The Man With the Golden Arm (1955). Known as "One-Take Charlie" for his approach to acting that strove for spontaneity and energy, rather than perfection, he was an instinctive actor who was best at playing parts that mirrored his own personality. He continued to give strong and memorable performances in such films as Guys and Dolls (1955), The Joker is Wild (1957) and Some Came Running (1958). In the 1960s Sinatra became mildly prolific as a producer bringing such films as A Hole in the Head (1959), Sergeants 3 (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) to the big screen. Lighter roles along side Rat Pack buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr were lucrative, especially the famed Ocean's 11 (1960), however, Sinatra alternated such projects with more stern offerings, namely The Manchurian Candidate, arguably Sinatra's finest picture, and his directorial debut, None But the Brave, which was the first Japanese/American co-production. That same year Von Ryan's Express (1965) was a box office sensation. In 1967 Sinatra returned to familiar territory in Sidney J. Furie's The Naked Runner (1967), one again playing as assassin in his only film to be shot in the U.K. and in Germany. That same year he starred as private investigator Tony Rome (1967), a role he reprised in the sequel, Lady in Cement (1968). He also starred with Lee Remick in The Detective (1968) a film daring for its time and a major box office success. After appearing in the comic western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) Sinatra refrained from acting for a further seven years until producing the made-for-TV movie Contract on Cherry Street (1977). Based on the novel by William J. Rosenberg, this fable of vigilante cops turning vigilante against the mob boasted a stellar cast and was a ratings success. Sinatra returned to the big screen in The First Deadly Sin (1980) once again playing a New York detective with a moving, understated performance that was a fitting coda to his career as a leading man. He made one more appearance on the big screen with a cameo in Cannonball Run II (1984) and a final acting performance in Magnum P.I. in 1987 as a retired detective seeking vengeance on the killers of his granddaughter in an episode entitled Laura.IMDb Mini Biography By: David Montgomery

Rita Moreno ~ December 11, 1931, Humacao, Puerto Rico

American actress Rita Moreno has managed to have a thriving career for the better part of six decades despite the institutional racism that has plagued the entertainment industry, particularly the anti-Hispanic bias that stereotyped Hispanic women as "spitfires" and sexpots. Moreno, one of the very few (and very first) performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy, was born born Rosita Dolores Alverío in in Humacao, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931. She moved to New York City in 1937 along with her mother, where she began a professional career before she was a teenager. The 11-year-old Rosita got her first movie experience dubbing Spanish-language versions of American films. Less than a month before her 14th birthday on November 11, 1945, she made her Broadway debut in the play "Skydrift" at the Belasco Theatre, co-starring with Arthur Keegan and the young Eli Wallach. Although she would not appear again on Broadway for almost 20 years, Rita Moreno, as she was billed in the play, had arrived professionally. It would take her nearly as long to break through the forces of institutional racism and become the first Hispanic to win an Academy Award.

President George W. Bush & Barbra Streisand embrace - and it's like buttah

BY BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, December 8th 2008, 4:00 AM
Sachs/Pool
Singer Barbra Streisand once described Bush as "an alien sent here to destroy the Earth."

President Bush gingerly embraced one of his biggest bashers last night, bestowing a Kennedy Center Honor on Barbra Streisand.
The two-time Academy Award winner, who once described Bush as "an alien sent here to destroy the Earth," seemed genuinely touched by the nation's top artsy accolade.
"Art transcends politics this weekend," said the Brooklyn-born actress and singer.
Streisand, a Democratic stalwart, has publicly raged that Bush stole the 2000 election and mishandled the Iraq war.
But she played nice Sunday when she was greeted by Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a reception before the show at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center.
"Everything went so smooth," said country singer George Jones, another recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.
Streisand couldn't resist revealing her true feelings when asked if she would have preferred Barack Obama as the President hosting last night's event.
"That would have been lovely," said Streisand, quickly adding, "or [Bill] Clinton."
On the day of Obama's election, Streisand wrote on her Web site: "November 5th... what a day... a new day... finally [the Rev. Martin Luther King's] words ring true. I am so proud of our country."
George Stevens Jr., who created the honors for art and culture 31 years ago, said he wasn't worried about a dustup between Streisand and Bush.
Bush had in the past "graciously honored" critics such as Robert Redford and Ruby Dee without incident.
Other honorees were Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, choreographer Twyla Tharp and Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who.
The event, set to air Dec. 30 on CBS, featured performers from New York, Nashville, and Hollywood saluting the honorees, who sat with the President and First Lady Laura Bush.
The young singer-songwriter Ne-Yo sang Streisand's 1965 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me."
"Barbra Streisand is the epitome of emotion in music," he said. "You feel every word."
whutchinson@nydailynews.com

Agnes Robertson Moorehead~(December 6, 1900 – April 30, 1974

Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900 – April 30, 1974) was an American actress.
Although she appeared in more than 70 films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than 30 years, Moorehead is probably most widely known to modern audiences for her role as the witch Endora in the television series Bewitched. While rarely playing leads in films, Moorehead's skill at character development and range earned her one Emmy Award and two Golden Globe awards in addition to four Academy Awards and six Emmy Award nominations. Moorehead's transition to television won acclaim for drama and comedy. She could play many different types, but often portrayed haughty, arrogant characters.

Fonda Names The Date For Broadway Return

4 December 2008 5:32 PM, PST From wenn.com See recent WENN news
Jane Fonda will return to the Broadway stage for a 15-week run in Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations in February.
It will mark her first performance on the New York stage in 46 years - she appeared in Strange Interlude in 1963.
The actress will open on 9 March at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Previews begin in February.

LIZA'S AT THE PALACE...! After Party

Michele Lee, Liza Minnelli and Sandra Bernhard

Eugene Louis Faccuito aka Liza's dance teacher Luigi and Liza Minnelli

Retna Ltd & BroadwayWorld.com, represented by: http://www.retna.com/.

Madonna poses seductively on a chair while holding a leg in the Louis Vuitton advert for which she was reportedly paid £6.5 million

The raunchy pictures were taken by Steven Meisel who shot Madonna's controversial 1992 book Sex

By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 5:05 PM on 04th December 2008

Madonna shows that she’s losing none of her sex appeal with age in a stunning ad for Louis Vuitton.
The 50-year-old singer has been pictured sporting unsightly bulging veins - a result of her rigorous exercise regime - in recent months.
But there are no prominent veins in sight as she poses seductively on a chair while holding a leg up - wearing fishnet tights, a tailored jacket and stilettos in the sexy shoot.
The newly-divorced star is said to have commanded a £6.5million fee for the campaign.

Photographer Steven Meisel, who shot Madonna's controversial 1992 book Sex, worked with her on the promotion.
Yesterday Madonna returned to Argentina twelve years after playing the country’s former first lady Eva Peron.

She arrived in Buenos Aires for the Latin America leg of her world tour with her three children and a huge entourage including 200 dancers, technicians and crew members.
Today she announced that she would be postponing the first of four shows in Buenos Aires.

Civil Rights Music Icon Odetta Dies

AP
posted: 40 MINUTES AGO
WASHINGTON (Dec. 2) - Odetta, the deep-voiced folk singer whose ballads and songs became for many a soundtrack to the American civil rights movement, has died at age 77, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Times cited Odetta's manager, Doug Yeager, as saying she died of a heart attack. It did not give a time or place of death.

Odetta Holmes, born in Birmingham, Alabama, on Dec. 31, 1930, told the Times in a 2007 interview that the music of the Great Depression, particularly the prison songs and work songs from the fields of the deep South, helped shape her musical life.
While she recorded several albums and sang at New York's Carnegie Hall, among other prominent venues, Odetta is perhaps best remembered by most Americans for her brief performance at the August 1963 march on Washington, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement at which she sang the song "O Freedom."
The Times said Rosa Parks, the woman who launched the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, was once asked which songs meant the most to her. "All the songs Odetta sings," was Parks' reply.
Odetta, who moved from Alabama to Los Angeles with her mother in 1937, earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. But she told the Times her training in classical music and musical theater "was a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life."
She said she found her true voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions.
Odetta began singing professionally in a West Coast production of the musical "Finian's Rainbow," but said she found a stronger calling in the coffee shops and nightclubs of San Francisco.
Her first solo album, "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues," influenced another American folk legend -- Bob Dylan. "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta," Dylan said in a 1978 interview with Playboy magazine.
In that album, Dylan said he heard "something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record," which included "Mule Skinner," "Jack of Diamonds" and "Water Boy."
In the early days of the civil rights movement, Odetta said her songs channelled "the fury and frustration that I had growing up" in segregated America. The many benefits she headlined helped underwrite the movement's work.
While Odetta's career cooled and her performances and recordings became fewer after the late 1960s, she retained her vocal and dramatic power even late in life. "Odetta's voice is still a force of nature," critic James Reed of the Boston Globe wrote of a December 2006 performance.
She remained "a majestic figure in American music, a direct gateway to bygone generations that feel so foreign today," Reed wrote.

Tina Turner recycles that famous flesh-revealing Mad Max dress at the age of 69

The best is back: Three decades after starring in Mad max, right, Tina Turner recycled her iconic costume, left, as she appeared onstage in New York

Lady in red: Tina gives a storming performance in concert at Madison Square Gardens, New York

By Lizzie Smith Last updated at 1:07 PM on 02nd December 2008

It's nearly three decades since Tina Turner starred alongside Mel Gibson in Mad Max.
And as she approaches her 70th birthday than what better way to show she's still got what it takes than to pull on her old costume.
Tina appeared onstage at Madison Square Gardens in New York last night in a modern interpretation of her chainmail outfit in the iconic Eighties film.

And although this wasn't the original outfit it certainly showed off the 69-year-old's age-defying body to best effect.
The lurex costume showed slightly less of Tina's chest than the original, which she wore in the 1985 film Beyond Thunderdome.
Singer Tina belted her way through the concert in a series of fabulous outfits.

These included a short red sparkling mini dress with a plunging neckline, and a long red gown which revealed her still-shapely pins.
Four decades and 70 millions records after Tina found fame she is still working hard.
Last night's performance was part of a tour which will see her playing arenas across Europe and North America until April next year.

Happy Birthday ~ " The Divine Miss M " BETTE MIDLER

Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedian, also known (as her informal stage name) as The Divine Miss M. During her career, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards. She is currently performing a new concert show, The Showgirl Must Go On, live five nights a week as one of the current headliners at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas (together with Cher and Elton John).