Which is why I always found it weird that his mom, Jackie Stallone, had her mouth droop a bit when she spoke as well. It was like she was imitating her famous son.
Edith Marie Blossom McDonald was the sister of Jeanette McDonald (big star of the 30s). She acted, too, and worked regularly in the 30s under the name of Marie Blake, with a few starring roles and a recurring one in the Dr. Kildare series.
In the 50s, she started using her married name professionally. Under her new stage name of Blossom Rock, she was cast as grandmama Addams on The Adams Family.
Thanks for bringing that up. I’d forgotten that little tidbit of Hollywood trivia.
In Rocky Balboa, Rocky’s son was played by Milo Ventimiglia, who was born with nerve damage in the left side of his face.
I noted in the Trivia thread that comedian/actor Leslie Nielsen was legally deaf from an early age and wore hearing aids most of his life. Despite that, he was successfully trained as an aerial gunner and worked as a DJ early on.
Fred Gwynne A.K.A. Herman Munster was an alumnus of Harvard. I just learned this from an old episode of The Nanny on Max that I was watching.
In 2008 when Robert Downey Jr. was to attend the opening of ‘Iron Man’ in Japan, he was detained for several hours by the authorities because of his long criminal record. He was finally allowed into the country, but only for the premiere, and was asked to not come back to Japan ever again.
He was also a successful painter, illustrator, and children’s book author. His book “It’s Easy to See Why” was a favorite of my kids.
Al Lewis AKA Grandpa Munster was also a basketball talent scout. His advice on high school players was readily accepted by Division I coaches across the country. He was also a restaurateur and had an unsuccessful run for Governor of New York as the Green Party candidate.
I once read that Al Lewis was a sensitive soul. He’s see something out of his car window and see something and cry, and never told anyone why.
Lucy Lawless speaks four languages, English, French, German, and Italian, apparently with very good accents (I’ve seen her interviewed in French and German, without an interpreter, and both interpreters commented on how good her pronunciation was), because her talent for imitating accents that serves her well as an actress imitating different accents of English has translated to being able to imitate foreign language pronunciations as well.
Maybe not as earth-shattering as the others, but my mother was a dialectologist, and I know how rare that talent is.
Further, in his college days, Gwynne was editor of the Harvard Lampoon.
This is more of an “oh”, than a “wow”, but still interesting.
In September of 1941, the U.S. sent a small group of B-17 bombers to the Philippines. Their airfield was attacked on December 8th and only half the planes survived. They conducted bombing raids for the next month.
As newer bombers were sent to the area, spare parts for the older ones became scarce, and some planes were cannibalized for parts to keep others flying. One plane was pieced together from parts of two others in Australia, and nicknamed “The Swoose”. The name came from the song “Alexander the Swoose” about a bird who was half swan, half goose. Despite its poor condition, Capt. Frank Kurtz chose the plane to be the personal transport aircraft for General George Brett, the ranking American commander in Australia at the time. It served various roles, including a flight back to the U.S. and a war bond tour, and was extensively repaired again.
It would have been melted down after the war, but Colonel Kurtz came to its rescue again. It was donated to the National Air & Space Museum, but continued to suffer from outside storage and souvenir hunters. In 2008, the plane was traded to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, where it is undergoing restoration. It’s the oldest B-17 known to exist.
Frank Kurtz named his daughter after the airplane; the actress Swoosie Kurtz.
The Swoose is also interesting because it was a D-model B-17. You don’t see many elliptical-tail B-17s in movies. The only one I can think of is Air Force (1943), which featured B-17Bs.
Here’s The Swoose.
Wikipedia describes it as the only remaining “shark fin” B-17. I saw it at the Smithsonian’s storage and restoration facility about 20 years ago, which is where I originally heard of the plane’s history and namesakes. It was in multiple pieces at the time, with the fuselage in middle of the warehouse, and the wings propped up next to one of the walls. Seems strangely appropriate.
Frank Kurtz, by the way, competed as a diver in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics.
And all I could think of was his role in an MST3K episode: “The Space Children.”
Another forceps-during-delivery injury: Martin Sheen suffers from Erb’s palsy in his left arm, the result of the arm being crushed by a forceps during delivery. His left arm is several inches shorter than his right, and has a limited range of motion.
Due to this, he isn’t able to put on a suit jacket in the typical way; on The West Wing, the “Bartlet Flip” (his unusual method for donning a jacket) became a meme.
The same condition Kaiser Willhelm II had. (Granted, he was not an actor, but better had become one instead of emperor. He had the theatrics)
Three things come to mind, all related to my recent viewing of the classic On the Waterfront (1954). It was the first performance in a feature film by the beautiful Eva Marie Saint, who was 29 during the filming, though she seemed younger. Despite it being her very first appearance in a major picture, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The other amazing factoid is that she’s still with us, now at the age of 99.
The other thing that made me say “wow” was just the effortless competence of Marlon Brando’s acting. Without a doubt, one of the very best in the business. Almost needless to say, he won the Oscar for Best Actor – probably the easiest decision the judges ever had to make – along with numerous other accolades the film received.
Agreed. Most of you probably know that Brando punched paparazzo Ron Galella, knocking out five of his teeth with a single punch. Wow! Don’t get me wrong: I’m against violence in anything but last-resort circumstances. I get the impression from this BBC article that Galella was a total jerk who crossed too many lines (read the bit about harassing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis).