Sunday, September 29, 2013

LC Greenwood obit

Steeler great LC Greenwood was not on the list.

L.C. Greenwood dies at 67

L.C. Greenwood, who helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s and was a member of the famed "Steel Curtain" defensive line, died of natural causes Sunday at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.

He was 67.

Greenwood is second on the Steelers' all-time sacks list (73.5), made four Pro Bowls, and was a two-time first-team All-Pro selection during a career that spanned from 1969-1981. He had four sacks in the Steelers' 21-17 win against the Cowboys in Super Bowl X.

His death leaves Joe Greene as the lone surviving member of the "Steel Curtain," which also included Dwight White and Ernie Holmes.

"L.C. was one of the most beloved Steelers during the most successful period in team history and he will be missed by the entire organization," Steelers president Art Rooney II and chairman emeritus Dan Rooney said in a joint statement released by the team Sunday.

"He will be forever remembered for what he meant to the Steelers both on and off the field."

A 10th-round draft pick out of Arkansas AM&N (now Arkansas Pine-Bluff) in 1969, Greenwood is one of a number of small-school prospects who rose to prominence while helping the Steelers go from perennial also-rans to world champions. Four players from that defense and nine players from those teams, as well as coach Chuck Noll, are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Greenwood has long been prominent on the list of players that had Hall of Fame credentials but never made it to Canton, Ohio.

Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount said recently that Greenwood is among a handful of Steelers from the 1970s teams who should be in the Hall of Fame.

"Why is Larry Brown not in there? Why is L.C Greenwood not in there," Blount said. "I think once they get so many in they start saying, 'Well, we've got enough Steelers.' "

Knee problems forced Greenwood to retire before the 1982 season. His 13 years in Pittsburgh are tied for the third-longest tenure with the team in franchise history.

Greenwood remained in Pittsburgh after his retirement, working as an entrepreneur and a motivational speaker.

Bob Kurland obit

Bob Kurland, 88, Pioneer for Basketball’s Big Men, Dies


HE WAS NOT ON THE LIST


Bob Kurland, a forerunner of basketball’s dominant “big man,” who led Oklahoma A&M to two consecutive N.C.A.A. championships in the mid-1940s, then starred for two gold-medal-winning United States Olympic teams, died on Sunday at his home on Sanibel Island, Fla. He was 88.

His family announced the death.


When Kurland, a lanky redhead, arrived on the college basketball scene in 1942, players taller than 6 feet 5 inches were viewed as oddities who could do little but tower over their opponents. Labeled the first 7-footer (though he said he was actually 6-10 ½), Kurland gained renown for his athleticism in blocking shots, rebounding and scoring — a rejoinder to the Kansas coach Phog Allen, who had ridiculed him as a “glandular goon.”


Playing for the Hall of Fame coach Hank Iba, Kurland took Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) to N.C.A.A. tournament championships in 1945 and 1946. He was voted the tournament’s most valuable player each time. A three-time all-American, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1961.


In his heyday Kurland vied for supremacy with George Mikan, DePaul’s 6-10 center, who outweighed him by 20 pounds. These celebrated giants of their era faced each other in 1945 at the old Madison Square Garden for what was seen as a symbolic national collegiate championship; Oklahoma A&M had just beaten New York University in the N.C.A.A. finals, and DePaul had won the National Invitation Tournament.


Mikan fouled out late in the first half with only 9 points. Kurland, scoring 14 points, led Oklahoma A&M to a 52-44 victory in what was a wartime contest benefiting the Red Cross.


Kurland was credited with giving national exposure to the slam dunk, often called the duffer when he was stuffing the ball. But he was known chiefly for his defensive presence. The goaltending rule, adopted by college basketball in 1944 and still in effect, was designed primarily to keep Kurland — but Mikan as well — from swatting away shots as the ball headed downward to the basket.


Mikan ultimately overshadowed Kurland, leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five N.B.A. championships as the marquee figure in the professional game.


Viewing the business world as promising a secure future, Kurland shunned the pros and joined the Phillips Petroleum Company of Bartlesville, Okla., as an executive. But he kept playing, leading the United States Olympic basketball team to gold medals in 1948 in London and in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland, and taking the Phillips 66ers to three national Amateur Athletic Union basketball championships.


Kurland, who retired from the Phillips company in the mid-1980s, is survived by his wife, Barbara; two sons, Alex and Ross; two daughters, Dana Warner and Barbara Rintala; and seven grandchildren. The family also had a home in Bartlesville.


Hailing from a school known as the Aggies and nicknamed Foothills by an Oklahoma A&M publicity man, Kurland seemed the embodiment of the country boy when he played at the Garden in 1945. But as he told The Daily Oklahoman 50 years later, he had grown up in the St. Louis area.


“I was no more from the foothills than I was from Cambodia,” he said.


Robert Albert Kurland was born on Dec. 23, 1924, in St. Louis and grew up in Jennings, Mo., a suburb of the city. His basketball skills were raw in high school, but he towered over everyone else — he was 6-6 as a freshman — and after the armed forces deemed him too tall for wartime duty, Iba took a chance on him.


As Kurland told The Tulsa World in 2007: “He said: ‘I’ve never seen anyone like you before. I don’t know if you can play basketball or not, but if you come to school here, enroll and stay eligible, I’ll see that you get a college education.’ ”


At Iba’s insistence, Kurland jumped rope for 30 minutes after each practice to improve his agility, and he gained a knack for swatting opponents’ shots off the rim. His teammates would then bring the ball downcourt, run a weave and look to feed him the ball.


Kurland was voted college basketball’s most outstanding player by the Helms Foundation for the 1945-46 season, when he led the nation in scoring with 643 points, for an average of 19.5 a game, when there was no shot clock and the game was played at a relatively slow pace. (Mikan averaged 23.1 points but played in nine fewer games.)


But scoring did not come naturally for Kurland. “He worked hard to become good,” Iba once said. “I can remember one specific afternoon when he must have tried 600 hooks with his left hand. The first 100 didn’t hit either the rim or the backboard. The next 100 didn’t go in. After that he started to connect.”


In February 1946, Kurland scored 58 points against St. Louis University, victimizing the 6-8 freshman Ed Macauley, who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Boston Celtics and the St. Louis Hawks.


Macauley kept a newspaper clipping from that game in a billfold throughout his pro career, he told The Tulsa World in 1996. “Every time I thought I needed to be humble,” he said, “I would look at that box score and remember I was the guy who held Bob Kurland to 58 points.”

Gene Petit obit

GENE 'COUSIN LUKE' PETIT PASSES AWAY

 He was not on the list.


Gene Petit, who was best known nationally in the WWF as Cousin Luke of Hillbilly Jim's clan of wrestling relatives from Mud Lick, Kentucky, passed away this morning, PWInsider.com is sad to report.

Petit was born in Humphreys, Mississippi and became involved in professional wrestling while playing football for the University of Tampa, where future WWE Hall of Famer Paul Orndorff was among his teammates. Petit befriended former Olympic wrestler turned pro Dale Lewis and began accompanying him to his booking for Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida. Petit began training with Lewis and was tossed into the ring when a substitute was needed for a six man tag bout.

Soon christened Gene Lewis, he was billed as Dale's brother and two worked regularly as a tag team. Petit, like the other wrestlers of the era, floated from territory to territory, working the Pacific Northwest, Kansas City, Puerto Rico (where he worked as the masked Assassin) and World Class Championship Wrestling, where he became a member of the Mongols.

Petit eventually returned to Florida to play a bevy of masked wrestlers, including Kharma and Molakai for Kevin Sullivan's Army of Darkness and yes, The Midnight Rider. Of course, Dusty Rhodes was the actual Midnight Rider, but Petit, who had a similar body frame as Dusty, was used as a villainous version of the Rider controlled by Kevin Sullivan, who attacked Rhodes and had a series of matches with him.

It takes quite a while to list all the names and gimmicks that Gene Petit used during his 28-year wrestling career. Ironically, the one he is best remembered for came near the end of his run and lasted little more than a year — Cousin Luke.

Teaming with Hillbilly Jim (Jim Morris) and Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier) in the WWF of 1984-87, the Hillbillies made a lasting impression with their friendly nature, dancin’ and scufflin’.

“There’s kids that remember, not me specifically, but they still remember the Hillbillies. ‘Oh yeah, you guys were on with the overalls, and did the Doh-See-Doh in the middle of the ring,'” Petit told SLAM! Wrestling. “How could a kid who is 15 years old remember that, unless he saw it later on tapes?”

Getting the role was a matter of being in the right place at the right time for Petit — and having the right photo in his portfolio.

“They were going pretty good and Cousin Junior, I guess he missed a few shots. I just happened to stop by and talk with George Scott, who was the booker, and I had worked for him on two different occasions in Charlotte. George knew my work and he knew me,” recalled Petit.

Petit pitched an idea he had, but Scott said that he’d be “nothing but a doormat” with it; there just wasn’t room on the roster for any other major heels.

“I had a whole bunch of pictures that I showed him and one I had taken just as a joke when I was in Florida; a guy had cutoff jeans, overalls, and a floppy hat, and I put it on and had a picture taken. I showed it to George. He said, ‘You know, right now we’re having problems with Cousin Junior. Can you do the gimmick?’ I said, ‘Sure, I can do it.’ I didn’t know that I could, but you never say no, especially with WWF.”

The first appearance of Cousin Luke was at TV in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he worked a singles match and a tag team match. He was immediately thrust into the program that had been building between the Hillbillies and Roddy Piper, Bob Orton Jr., and Jesse Ventura.

“Right away I walked into a position that was already fairly good, because they were taking good care of Jim,” explained Petit. “Elmer, they had brought in just to fill in while Jim was hurt with his knee, and Elmer got over really well. He was a big guy, he could move. He couldn’t really do a lot of wrestling, but back then he really didn’t need to. So they needed me to be the mechanic of the team, a guy that could go out and wrestle up and down for 15, 20 minutes. That was the spot that I had. I was glad to be able to take it.”

Cousin Luke used to use a double hammer as a key move, and a big splash off the ropes. “There was no holding back on the splash,” said Petit. “I hit the ropes and I was up in mid-air. When I came down, I came down. They had to position themselves to try to catch it, sit up a little bit and catch me so I wouldn’t crush their ribs. It took qualified guys to be able to get in the ring and know what they were doing.”

Only a few weeks into the gimmick, Petit was wrestling on the West Coast, and there was a bad board in the ring, and he broke his ankle. “I didn’t know it until the next day when we went to L.A., and my ankle was really swollen up. The doctor there said to go to the hospital and get an X-ray.” It turned out that Petit had a broken bone in two places. His foot was placed in a cast, and he went home to New Jersey, where he saw another doctor, who put a fiberglass cast on it, which was a lot lighter.

“They called me for WrestleMania  and I still had my cast on. At the time, I guess I should have said yes, but I said no. They used Elmer against Adrian Adonis, and I think he beat Elmer in 45 seconds, because Elmer had missed a couple of main event shots,” recalled Petit.

Age and illness had caught up with Elmer, and he split with the WWF. Petit wouldn’t be far behind. “Vince [McMahon] told me that they would keep me until the end of the year, leave me off for a few months, and then figure out another gimmick, because they were just going to keep Hillbilly.”

In the end, all the confusion with the Hillbillies hurt the gimmick, Petit things. “There was too much back and forth with Hillbilly and he got hurt; they brought Elmer in, and he got fired; Junior left; then I came in, and Hillbilly had a little disagreement with the office, so he took off for a few weeks. We had lost the steam that we had. I finished the year with them, and then started working the independents.”

He was surprised at the reception he got on the indy circuit — and still does on occasion today. “I really never got that much TV coverage, but the hillbilly gimmick was over, and they didn’t know exactly who I was, but they knew the gimmick. I was getting decent money working independents, and at the time, I didn’t think about going back to WWF because I was making more money — realizing more money — than I was with WWF because you worked a full week with them, and you were spending a lot of money on hotels and expenses. The independents, a lot of them I was able to drive to.”

Besides the small shows, Petit also had a couple of trips to Japan, and a tour of Australia. In the U.S., he worked the AWA tapings at the Showboat Casino in Las Vegas, and with Rob Russen’s Sports Channel America promotion.

In a way, his career had come full circle. It was a life going territory to territory again, promotion to promotion.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Petit wasn’t a wrestling fan until he moved to Florida to go to the University of Tampa in the early 1970s. He played on the university football team with Paul Orndorff and Dick Slater, and met his mentor Dale Lewis one summer at the pool of the apartment complex they both lived in. They became friends and one night Dale asked Gene to drive him, Bob Roop and El Lobo (Crazy Luke Graham) to a match in Jacksonville. After that Dale started paying Gene to drive him to matches.

One night in North Crossett, Arkansas they were short a couple of wrestlers so Dale told Gene, “You’re wrestling tonight” and gave him an extra pair of tights and boots. Gene didn’t get any instructions on what to do beyond “Don’t worry about it,” which was fairly typical advice for neophytes. He wrestled with Dale and Gypsy Joe Rosario against Silento Rodriguez, Ivan Putski and Alex Perez and got paid $190 for the night’s work. The following Monday Petit was at the YMCA training with Dale Lewis and Tom Jones.

That first match was the only one he ever wrestled as Gene Petit. He took the surname “Lewis” because he and Dale looked so much alike — both had long hair and beards and similar builds – everyone assumed they were brothers and thus he became an “instant” heel. One of Dale Lewis’ specialties was the sleeper hold, and Gene used it one night to put out Grizzly Smith after both Dale and the referee were down. The fans were furious. “That walk back to the dressing room was my first experience of real heat from a crowd,” Petit told Scott Teal of Whatever Happened To …? “Some lady kicked me in the leg with her shoe and I thought my shin was going to explode. Another lady hit me in the back of the head with her purse. It must have been loaded, because the thing was really heavy and solid.”

Petit finished his business degree and went into wrestling full-time. Initially he worked for promoters Bill Watts and Eddie Graham. When Dale Lewis left for a tour of Australia, Gene went up to Mid-Atlantic in Charlotte, where George Scott was booking, for about a year. After taking a few months off in to recover from a broken ankle, Petit did a couple of international tours, for Antonio Inoki in Japan and then to Australia for Frankie Cain. When Petit returned from Australia in 1975 he went back to work for Watts and also in Mobile, Alabama for the Gulf Coast territory, where he won his first belts: Gulf Coast Heavyweight Champion, and Gulf Coast Tag Team champ with Bob Sweetan.

In 1979 Petit went to Oregon for the summer, then to Calgary for a few months with Dale Lewis (the last time they would wrestle together), returning to the Carolinas in 1980 for a couple of years. When George Scott left to work for the WWE in New York, Harley Race invited Petit to the Kansas City territory, which he was co-promoting with Pat O’Connor and Bob Geigel. Petit stayed in Kansas City for a year, then went to Puerto Rico with Roger Smith as one of the Assassins. “[Puerto Ricans] were the craziest fans in the world … they used to throw stuff in the ring. Two-by-fours, nails, pieces of angle iron, nuts and bolts. I actually had a corner of my room where I used to save all that stuff,” he once said.

While in Puerto Rico, Petit met Geto Mongol (Newt Tattrie), who invited him to tour Nigeria with him as one of the Mongols. On returning to the United States, they did a few shows in Atlanta, then Petit went on alone to Fritz von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling in Dallas, where The Mongol became part of the Devastation Inc. stable of heels. This was in early 1983, when the territory was experiencing an explosive growth in popularity, which Petit credits to World Class booker Ken Mantell. Lewis got to know Mantell quite well when they drove together to the house shows in Dallas and Fort Worth two days a week. “When Kenny took over World Class they were on Channel 39 in Dallas, which was syndicated TV. They were on in, maybe, 35 markets and within a year, it had gone up to 159 markets. When the [World Class] tapes started hitting areas like Boston and Philadelphia, the people went nuts, because they were used to seeing New York wrestling and that was just punch-kick. The Von Erichs had never been seen by a lot of people outside of Texas – now Boston and Philadelphia and New York and California and Kansas City, all these other markets were starving for them.”

Petit believes that World Class could have been as big as New York or Atlanta later if Mantell had been allowed to take the promotion national. “Kenny had an opportunity to take the World Class show on the road outside the area for three to four shows a week, which would have saved the Von Erichs from overexposure in Texas and would have given the other people in those towns what they wanted to see. Kenny worked very hard at doing this, probably 18-20 hours a day, and had gotten this thing to a point that it was the hottest thing going and could have stayed that way — then Fritz decided not to expand. And that kind of burnt Kenny out.”

At the end of 1983 Petit went back to Florida and ended up rotating several masked characters there: Kharma, Molokai, and the Midnight Rider.

Like with Cousin Luke, he was in the right place at the right time, and was dropped into an already hot program. Given his similar built to Dusty Rhodes — who had been working as the Midnight Rider while he was “banned” from the territory — Petit was put in the outfit and came out during a Kevin Sullivan versus Dusty Rhodes match, where Rhodes had gotten “special permission” for the bout.

Petit loves telling the story. “[Rhodes] had the figure-four on Kevin, Kevin was passed out, and I’m walking out as the Midnight Rider. I was weighing about 280, 290, and I looked, in the outfit, pretty close to what Dusty would look like. The people were a little confused, but they weren’t worried, because the Midnight Rider had been worn by some other guys, like Blackjack Mulligan and a couple of other babyfaces — the people knew that right away. But with me, they were a little confused because I looked so much like Dusty. I got in the ring. I had this long duster jacket on, I had Dusty’s hat, the Midnight Rider mask, and I reached down into my pocket and put this black glove on and held it high so everybody could see it. I go over and I start chopping Dusty on the top of the head. He gets the juice, and then he’s out. The referee had taken a bump, and he was just recovering. In the meantime, I had pulled Kevin Sullivan on top of Dusty, 1-2-3, Kevin Sullivan gets the win. I had to roll him out of the ring. I put him over my shoulder and carried him out of the ring. Well, you could have dropped a pin, because the heat was so red-hot, it was just unbelievable. Then we followed that match all over.”

Petit hurt his back, and the doctor wanted to do surgery the next day; Petit said no so he wouldn’t miss any bookings. “Back then, it was a good spot that I had, and I wasn’t going to lose it. The office said, ‘Don’t worry about it, as long as you can walk to the ring and stay on your feet, we’ll do something about it.’ You do what you do, you take some pain pills and you go out and do your match, and that’s what I did until my back got better.”

In the end, Petit ended up having to leave Florida, and went home to Jackson, Mississippi for seven months to recuperate. One day while visiting his parents in New Jersey he had that fateful visit to George Scott, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The last eight years for Petit, however, have not been pleasant.

He had been busy on the independent scene, and ran some shows himself. But then in 2000, his back gave out on him. He went to the hospital after a show in New York, and was sent back home; two weeks later he couldn’t move and hadn’t gone to the bathroom all day. His mother was a retired registered nurse who convinced him to avoid a burst bladder and go to the hospital again in an ambulance; they did surgery the next morning, and Petit spent three weeks in a rehab facility, and then as an out-patient.

“Then I was okay for about a year, then I got rear-ended in a car accident. About two weeks later, I was right back where I was when I had the first surgery,” recounted Petit.

Petit had surgery scheduled with a new doctor at the Cabrini Medical Center in New York City on September 12, 2001. Needless to say, the hospital on the day after the bombing of the World Trade Center was not doing non-emergency surgery. With the surgery eventually scheduled, the hospital started asking for cash, since the insurance wasn’t going to cover the entire procedure.

“I put the surgery off, and a week later, same thing; I couldn’t urinate. I went to a hospital in Morristown, which was close to where my parents were living, where I stayed. Again, I went in one day and they operated the next. It was pretty much an emergency-type surgery. It was a lower back problem,” Petit said.

Then it got worse. Petit got a staph infection from that surgery, “which is a pretty serious staph infection that had gone right to the spinal area in the lower back.” Doctors had to split his back open, going through the same openings to clean out the infection. He spent seven weeks in isolation on a real strong antibiotic. “The doctor said, ‘If this doesn’t work, you’re out of luck, because we don’t know what else to do.'”

Rehab proved to be extremely tough, and one doctor was certain that Petit had MS on top of all his other problems. A spinal tap and an MRI of the brain didn’t reveal the disease, but to this day, Petit has not regained full movement and is limited to a wheelchair or sometimes to a walker.

He has spent the last five years in an assisted living facility in Morristown, NJ. “I’ve been here five years trying to get my back straightened out. I’ve had my neck operated on, I’ve had two more procedures done on my back,” he explained. Just about the only option left is a complete back reconstruction.

It is no surprise that Petit laments the lack of a health plan in wrestling. “You could ask me right now if I was healthy would I go back to wrestling, and I would say yes. But I would definitely find somebody that would take money from us before we saw our cheques and put it away, either in a 401(k), or some sort of profit-sharing plan so that when we retired we had something. I spent 28 years in this business.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Phyllis Davis obit

Actress Phyllis Davis dies

She was not on the list.


Film and television actress Phyllis Davis died of cancer on September 27, 2013 in Henderson, Nevada. She was 73 years old. She was born Phyllis Ann Davis on July 17, 1940 in Port Arthur, Texas. (She was purportedly billed as "Phyllis Elizabeth Davis" in some of her acting appearances as a tribute to her idol Elizabeth Taylor.) The oldest of three siblings, Davis's parents ran a mortuary business in Nederland, Texas where she grew up. While her two younger brothers reportedly followed in their parents' footsteps and also became morticians, Davis aspired to become an actress from an early age and studied acting at Lamar College in Beaumont, Texas for one semester before moving to Los Angeles to study at the Pasadena Playhouse. After a brief stint as a flight attendant for Continental Airlines, Davis's show business career began after her roommate, choreographer Toni Basil, helped her land appearances in theatrical variety shows as well as some small roles in feature films. By the time her career was underway, Davis was already in her mid-20s. Her deep voice and comparatively earthy maturity allowed Davis to standout from her conventionally youthful peers. Davis's big-screen appearances throughout the 1960s included parts in "Lord Love a Duck" (1966), "The Oscar" (1966), "The Last of the Secret Agents" (1966), "Spinout" (1966), "The Swinger" (1966), "Live a Little, Love a Little" (1968), and "The Big Bounce" (1968). She also appeared in numerous guest roles on popular television shows like "Petticoat Junction," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Wild, Wild West," "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." and "Adam-12.


Davis's career prospects took a turn for the better when she landed a major role in Russ Meyer's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (1970), playing fashion editor Susan Lake, a role that was originally meant to be a continuation of the Anne Welles role played by Barbara Parkins in the original "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) back when the film was planned as a direct sequel to the earlier film. Despite Davis's disappointment that the role had been modified, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" allowed Davis an opportunity to play a mature, intelligent character that she was not always given an opportunity to essay in her earlier decorative parts in the 1960s. During this time, Davis also landed a recurring role as one of the repertory of actors used in the "blackout" sections of the popular "Love American Style" anthology sitcom. Davis appeared regularly on the show for about four seasons, and even landed featured roles in several of the actual scripted vignettes during her time on the series. Phyllis Davis's participation in "Love American Style" allowed her to demonstrate her talents in light comedy, which helped further distinguish her from her peers and contemporaries.



Phyllis Davis reportedly was originally cast as Bond Girl Plenty O'Toole in "Diamonds are Forever" (1971). However, sometime after she had signed the contracts, but before she was to report for work in Las Vegas, she was replaced by Lana Wood. Davis mentioned in a 1992 interview for "Femme Fatales" magazine that she was deeply disappointed in missing out on the Bond movie, but maintained that she still received residual checks whenever the film airs on television or cable due to having signed the contracts before being replaced. Instead of appearing in the Bond movie, Davis made a memorable lead in the Costa Rica-shot women's prison film "Sweet Sugar" (1972), playing a sassy, quick witted prostitute named Sugar who has been railroaded into working on a corrupt banana republic sugar cane plantation prison run by a psychotic doctor. Despite the abundance of nudity required, Davis maintains her dignity throughout by projecting qualities of wit, intelligence and decency in the title role. Sugar continually stands up to the amoral, corrupt men running the prison plantation both for herself and for her fellow inmates. In one of Davis's most impressive scenes, she comes to the defense of a fellow inmate too sick to cut cane and volunteers to cover her workload while maintaining her own quota. The scene allows the audience to recognize that Sugar isn't out for herself. Davis's unusually deep voice, which always distinguished her from her contemporaries, allows her to project confidence and authority throughout the film, particularly in the finale where the machine gun-brandishing Sugar leads a revolt and breakout among her fellow inmates. As the trailer narrator memorably and accurately intones, Davis and her accomplices were ".38 caliber kittens spitting death as they claw their way to freedom!" In fact, Davis's performance in "Sweet Sugar" is so good, it makes one sense that she should have been considered for the Tiffany Case, and not Plenty O'Toole, role in "Diamonds are Forever," which was ultimately played by the unimpressive Jill St. John.



Davis continued in the women-in-prison genre the next year with the futuristic drama "Terminal Island" (1973), directed by Stephanie Rothman. In "Terminal Island," Davis plays one of four female prisoners condemned to live out her existence on an island, after the death penalty has been abolished, along with other death row prisoners, both male and female, where there are no guards and no law and the prisoners are free to do as they wish except leave. As with "Sweet Sugar," Davis's character actively participates in a civil war revolt against the tyrannical prisoners who intimidate and enslave the more docile prisoners on the island. However, Davis was purportedly later forced to bring legal action against the producers of a compilation video, called "Famous T & A" (1982), comprised of well-known actresses' nude scenes. To her dismay, Davis learned that those producers had used, without obtaining her consent, unedited footage of Davis in her skinny dipping scene that was much more graphic than what ended up in the final cut of "Terminal Island." On a happier note, the other lasting legacy of "Terminal Island" was that it established a lifelong friendship with co-star Tom Selleck, who later cast her in a recurring role in "Magnum P.I." in the late 1980s.



Throughout the 1970s, Davis appeared in other feature films including "The Day of the Dolphin" (1973), the quirky period musical comedy "Train Ride to Hollywood (1975) where she humorously spoofed Vivien Leigh's role as Scarlett O'Hara, and Robert Aldrich's "The Choirboys" (1977), based on Joseph Wambaugh's novel. In the latter part of the decade, Davis landed her most notable role as Bea Travis, the assistant to Robert Urich's Dan Tanna, on the Aaron Spelling detective series "Vega$" (1978-81). A former showgirl and single mother, the character of Bea, Tanna's Girl Friday, allowed Davis an opportunity to demonstrate a maternal, sympathetic warmth, as well as qualities of loyalty and courage in the episodes that allowed Bea to get in on the action, that made her an appealing presence on the series. What was notable about Davis's work on "Vega$" was the seemingly effortless chemistry that underscored the platonic, caring friendship between Dan Tanna and Bea. Urich and Davis both did good work to sell that friendship with TV audiences and it became one of the human elements that made "Vega$" an entertaining series.



After "Vega$" was unexpectedly cancelled after three seasons, Davis continued working in prime time television throughout the 1980s. In addition to her aforementioned recurring role on "Magnum P.I.," she became a favorite of "Vega$" producer Aaron Spelling, for whom she appeared eight times on "Fantasy Island," four times on "The Love Boat," as well as the Spelling produced "Finders of Lost Loves," "Matt Houston," and "Hotel." "Fantasy Island" in particular allowed Davis an opportunity to essay a variety of different kinds of characters. In one episode, she played a plain-looking woman whose fantasy of becoming glamorous and attractive has unintended consequences. In another episode, her character has her fantasy fulfilled of becoming Mata Hari. In yet another episode, her character has an opportunity of becoming the singer/stage actress Lillian Russell. Davis also made a memorable guest appearance in the 2-hour pilot movie for "Knight Rider" (1982), playing the villainous Tanya Walker, an industrial spy whose wounding and disfigurement of police officer Michael Long leads to his new identity as crime fighter Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff). She appeared on the December 1980 "Battle of the Network Stars" special and became a staple on game shows throughout the decade including "The Hollywood Squares," "Match Game PM" and "Family Feud." She wrapped up her career in the early 1990s with appearances in the Andy Sidaris action film "Guns" (1990), as well as small roles in "Exit to Eden" (1994), "Beverly Hills Cop III" (1994), and "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" (1995) before calling it a day and retiring from acting for good.


Phyllis Davis, who never married, was in a long term relationship with legendary actor/entertainer Dean Martin in the late 1970s. Martin's daughter Deana wrote warmly about Davis in her 2010 memoir "Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes." In the book, Ms. Martin recalled how the Martin family liked Davis very much and that she became good friends with the actress, who she described as "funny, beautiful, and down to earth." Years later, in the late 1980s, Davis was in another long term relationship with flat racing jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. While doing a rare radio interview on actor Larry Manetti's CRN network radio show on May 15, 2012, Davis shared that her retirement years in her post-acting life were filled with extensive travel where she lived in countries like Thailand for periods of time, as well as fostering and finding forever homes for animals. As she explained on air, "I enjoyed my life being away from acting, I think, better than acting...Afterwards, I don't know, I think I grew as a person because I went to Asia by myself and went up into the jungle by myself and learned about other people, instead of just thinking about yourself." Survivors include Davis's brother Weldon Davis of Austin, Texas.

Jay Robinson obit

PASSINGS: Jay Robinson dies at 83; gained brief fame as Caligula in ‘The Robe’

 He was not on the list.


Jay Robinson, 83, a character actor who had a burst of fame after his film debut as Caligula in the 1953 biblical epic “The Robe” but saw his career take a downturn following his arrest for drug possession, died Friday at his home in Sherman Oaks, said longtime friend Lee Brandon. Robinson had congestive heart failure and had been in poor health since suffering a fall last year.

Robinson, a New York native, was routinely labeled the “boy genius” of Broadway after a string of noteworthy performances in the early 1950s, highlighted by his role as the fop Le Beau in a 1950 production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” that starred Katharine Hepburn.

He was 23 when “The Robe,” starring Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature, was released, and his performance as the tyrannical Roman Caesar earned praise from critics. He reprised the part of Caligula the next year in a follow-up film, “Demetrius and the Gladiators.”

But Robinson’s life took a turn in the late ‘50s. He was arrested in December 1959 at his home in Bel-Air and charged with possessing and selling heroin. He was found guilty the next spring, sentenced to a year in jail, released on bond expecting probation and began the appeals process.

He said years later that frustration at being typecast led to his drug use. But after his arrest, there was no work at all.

“I lost everything in Hollywood,” Robinson told The Times.

He took menial jobs, working as a short-order cook and a veterinarian’s assistant. In 1966 he was arrested on a bench warrant for failing to appear for a retrial of his original case and was sent to the state prison in Tracy, where he was put to work as a firefighter. Paroled after 15 months in the spring of 1968, he began to rebuild his life and career.

He won guest spots on “Bewitched,” “Mannix,” “The Waltons” and other TV series, landed a regular role on the daytime soap “Days of Our Lives” and was cast in small parts in “Shampoo,” “Big Top Pee-wee” and a handful of other movies.

“I feel like the ultimate survivor,” he told United Press International in 1988.

 

Filmography

 

The Robe (1953) – Caligula

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) – Caligula

The Virgin Queen (1955) – Chadwick

The Wild Party (1956) – Gage Freeposter

My Man Godfrey (1957) – Vincent

Tell Me in the Sunlight (1965) – Barber

Bunny O'Hare (1971) – John C. Rupert

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) – The Priest

This Is a Hijack (1973) – Simon Scott

Three the Hard Way (1974) – Monroe Feather

Nightmare Honeymoon (1974) – Ruskin

Shampoo (1975) – Norman

Train Ride to Hollywood (1975) – Dracula

I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975) – Insane Actor

Born Again (1978) – David Shapiro

The Man with Bogart's Face (1980) – Wolf / Zinderneuf

Partners (1982) – Halderstam

The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) – King Charles

The Malibu Bikini Shop (1986) – Ben

Big Top Pee-wee (1988) – Cook

Transylvania Twist (1989) – Uncle Ephram

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) – Mr. Hawkins

Ghost Ship (1992) – Crusoe – pirate

Skeeter (1993) – Drake


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Mario Montez obit

Mario Montez, a Warhol Glamour Avatar, Dies at 78

 

He was not on the list.


Mario Montez--one of Jack Smith's "Flaming Creatures," Warhol's first "drag superstar," and Charles Ludlam's "ridiculous" muses--has died at the ripe age of 78 in Key West, Fla. The cause was complications of a stroke, said Claire K. Henry, senior curatorial assistant of the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whitney Museum of American Art, according to the New York Times. Montez is survived by his partner, David Kratzner.

Born Rene Rivera in Puerto Rico, Montez, who had a deep obsession with 1940s film star Maria Montez and old Hollywood glamour, rose to fame in the 1960s due to his involvement in films by avant-garde auteur Jack Smith, appearing as Dolores Flores in the controversial film Flaming Creatures. He's also in the unfinished Smith film, Normal Love. Then Montez was featured in 13 films by Andy Warhol, becoming one of his Superstars, along with Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, and Taylor Mead (who also passed away earlier this year).

Filmmaker John Waters once said that Montez "forever holds the highest position of royalty in the world of underground cinema." Montez was presented with a lifetime achievement award in "queer film" in 2012 by the Berlin International Film Festival, which called him "the great drag superstar."

Filmography

Directed by Jack Smith

Flaming Creatures, 1962-63 (as Dolores Flores)

Normal Love, 1963–65

The Borrowed Tambourine, 1967

Reefers of Technicolor Island/Jungle Island, 1967

No President, 1967-1970s

Directed by Ron Rice

Chumlum, 1963

Directed by Andy Warhol

Mario Banana No. 1, 1964

Mario Banana No. 2, 1964

Batman Dracula, 1964 (unfinished)

Mario Montez Dances, 1964

Harlot, 1964

Screen Test No. 2, 1965

Mario Montez [Screen Tests Portrait], 1965

Camp, 1965

More Milk, Yvette, 1965

Mario Montez and Boy, 1965

Hedy, 1966

Ari and Mario, 1966

Bufferin Commercial, 1966

The Chelsea Girls, 1966

Directed by Piero Heliczer

Dirt, 1965

Satisfaction

Directed by Bill Vehr

Avocada, 1965

Brothel, 1966

Waiting for Sugar

The Mystery of the Spanish Lady

M. M. for M. M., 1967 (unfinished, lost)

Directed by José Rodriguez-Soltero

Life, Death and Assumption of Lupe Vélez, 1966

Directed by Frank Simon

The Queen, 1968 (cameo)

Directed by Avery Willard

Flaming Twenties, 1968

The Gypsy's Ball, 1969

Directed by Takahiko Iimura

Face, 1969

Directed by Roberts Blossom

Movie, 196?

Directed by Alfredo Leonardi

Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo, 1970

Directed by Helio Oiticica

Agripina é Roma-Manhattan, 1972 (unfinished)

Directed by Leandro Katz

Reel Six, Charles Ludlam's Grand Tarot, 1987

Directed by Mary Jordan

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, 2006

Directed by Conrad Ventur

Mario Banana, 2010

Mario Montez [Screen Test Portrait], 2010

Atlantis, 2011

Boca Chica, 2013

Directed by John Edward Heys

A Lazy Summer Afternoon with Mario Montez, 2011

Plays

Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide, 1967

Bluebeard, 1970

Vain Victory, 1971

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Jane Connell obit

Jane Connell, Agnes Gooch of ‘Mame,’ Is Dead at 87

 The veteran comic actress played Agnes Gooch in the original stage musical "Mame," then returned for the film version opposite Lucille Ball.

She was not on the list.


Jane Connell, who played secretary Agnes Gooch in Jerry Herman’s original Broadway musical production of Mame, then reprised the famous role for the 1974 film starring Lucille Ball, has died. She was 87.

Connell, who was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical for 1986’s Me and My Girl, died Monday, the website BroadwayWorld.com reported.

The 4-foot-11-inch Connell worked on Broadway with Angela Lansbury in Mame, in Herman’s Dear World (1969) and again in a revival of Mame that opened in 1983.

Her other stage credits include New Faces of 1956 with Maggie Smith; Drat! The Cat! (1965); Lysistrata (1972); Crazy for You (1982); Lend Me a Tenor (1989); Moon Over Buffalo (1995) opposite Carol Burnett; and the musical version of The Full Monty (2000), in which she replaced the late Kathleen Freeman midway through its run.

For a London production of Once Upon a Mattress in 1960, Connell starred as the wacky Princess Winifred, the role that brought Burnett stardom on Broadway.

Her big break came with Mame in 1966. “We knew the show would be a smash. Jerry’s songs, Gene Saks’ direction. It had strokes of genius,” she told the Houston Chronicle in 2004. She opened the musical with a hymn as she led the orphan Patrick to his Auntie Mame. (Also in the cast: Bea Arthur, then the wife of Saks.)

For the film version, also directed by Saks and featuring Arthur, Connell replaced Madeline Kahn, who was fired.

A native of Berkeley, Calif., Connell appeared on many TV series, including All in the Family (in the first part of the memorable “Edith’s 50th Birthday” two-part episode), The Patty Duke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, That Girl, Green Acres, Bewitched, CPO Sharkey, M*A*S*H* and Law & Order. She was a regular on the short-lived NBC sitcom The Dumplings, starring James Coco and Geraldine Brooks.

She starred in director Frank Perry’s Cold War drama Ladybug Ladybug (1963) and also appeared in such films as Kotch (1971), Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, House Calls (1978), the Joan Rivers-scripted and directed Rabbit Test (1978) and Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995).

Connell was married to actor and musician Gordon Connell.

Actress (40 credits)

 1999 Great Performances (TV Series)

Mother

- Crazy for You (1999) ... Mother

 1998 Law & Order (TV Series)

Mrs. Hodge

- Burden (1998) ... Mrs. Hodge

 1995 Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

Aunt Agatha

 1993 Robot in the Family

Mrs. Miller

 1990 Big Brother Jake (TV Series)

Miss Roberta Domedian (1991-1994)

 1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Woman

 1985 Another World (TV Series)

Peg

- Episode #1.5359 (1985) ... Peg

 1985 Tales from the Darkside (TV Series)

Grandma

- Grandma's Last Wish (1985) ... Grandma

 1980 Getting There (TV Movie)

Grandma

 1980 M*A*S*H (TV Series)

Red Cross Worker Betty Halpern

- Old Soldiers (1980) ... Red Cross Worker Betty Halpern

 1980 Paris (TV Series)

- Fitz's Boys (1980)

 1979 Visions (TV Series)

Vinny

- Ladies in Waiting (1979) ... Vinny

 1978 Rabbit Test

Anthropologist

 1978 CPO Sharkey (TV Series)

Mrs. Holland

- Captain's Right Hand Man (1978) ... Mrs. Holland

 1978 Good Times (TV Series)

Mrs. Flicker

- Write On, Thelma (1978) ... Mrs. Flicker

 1978 House Calls

Mrs. Conway

 1977 All in the Family (TV Series)

Sybil Gooley

- Edith's 50th Birthday (1977) ... Sybil Gooley

 1977 The Magnificent Magical Magnet of Santa Mesa (TV Movie)

Ida Griffith

 1976 All's Fair (TV Series)

Mother

- Happy Anniversary: Part 1 (1976) ... Mother

 1976 Maude (TV Series)

Sally

- The Game Show (1976) ... Sally

 1976 Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV Series)

Nurse / Nurse #1

- Episode #2.5 (1976) ... Nurse #1 (credit only)

- Episode #2.1 (1976) ... Nurse (uncredited)

- Episode #1.100 (1976) ... Nurse (credit only)

- Episode #1.99 (1976) ... Nurse (uncredited)

 1976 Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Waitress

 1976 The Dumplings (TV Series)

Bridget McKenna

- Joe Takes a Fall (1976) ... Bridget McKenna

- The Foundling (1976) ... Bridget McKenna

- The Other Woman (1976) ... Bridget McKenna

- Cully's Sister (1976) ... Bridget McKenna

- Sweetzer's Image (1976) ... Bridget McKenna

1974-1976 ABC Afterschool Specials (TV Series)

Aunt Peggy / Duenna

- The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon (1976) ... Aunt Peggy

- Cyrano (1974) ... Duenna (voice)

 1974 Mame

Agnes Gooch

 1972-1973 Love, American Style (TV Series)

Rita Baker (segment "Love and the Suspicious Husband") / Sadie (segment "Love and the Disappearing Box")

- Love and the Comedienne/Love and the Lie/Love and the Lifter/Love and the Suspicious Husband (1973) ... Rita Baker (segment "Love and the Suspicious Husband")

- Love and the Confession/Love and the Disappearing Box/Love and the Hip Arrangement/Love and the Old Flames (1972) ... Sadie (segment "Love and the Disappearing Box")

 1967-1972 Bewitched (TV Series)

Martha Washington / Hepzibah / Mother Goose / ...

- George Washington Zapped Here: Part 2 (1972) ... Martha Washington

- George Washington Zapped Here: Part 1 (1972) ... Martha Washington

- Salem, Here We Come (1970) ... Hepzibah

- To Go or Not to Go, That Is the Question (1970) ... Hepzibah

- Sam's Double Mother Trouble (1969) ... Mother Goose

Show all 6 episodes

 1971 Kotch

Miss Roberts

 1970-1971 Green Acres (TV Series)

Woman On The Plane / Woman / Clara Burton

- Hawaiian Honeymoon (1971) ... Woman On The Plane

- The Wedding Deal (1971) ... Woman

- The Picnic (1970) ... Clara Burton

 1971 That Girl (TV Series)

Laura

- Chef's Night Out (1971) ... Laura

 1970 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV Series)

Karen Norris

- Divorce Isn't Everything (1970) ... Karen Norris

 1970 Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (TV Series)

Guest Performer

- Guest Starring Milton Berle (1970) ... Guest Performer (uncredited)

- Guest Starring Carl Reiner (1970) ... Guest Performer (uncredited)

 1969 Trilogy

Mrs. Connolly (segment "Miriam")

 1966 Sedgewick Hawk-Styles: Prince of Danger (TV Movie)

Queen Victoria

 1964 Mister Mayor (TV Series)

- Episode #1.1 (1964)

 1964 The Nut House!! (TV Movie)

 1963 Ladybug Ladybug

Mrs. Maxton - the Dietician

 1963 The Patty Duke Show (TV Series)

Mrs. Coglan

- The Conquering Hero (1963) ... Mrs. Coglan

 1960-1961 Play of the Week (TV Series)

Baby Doll Dalls

- New York Scrapbook (1961)

- The Grass Harp (1960) ... Baby Doll Dalls

 1956-1957 Stanley (TV Series)

Jane / Ruth / Mary

- Work Follies (1957) ... Jane

- The Fight (1957) ... Jane

- Married Friends (1957) ... Jane

- The Celebrity (1957) ... Ruth

- The New Year's Party (1956) ... Mary