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California Suite
''California Suite'' is a 1976 play by Neil Simon. Similar in structure to his earlier ''Plaza Suite'', the comedy is composed of four playlets set in Suite 203-04, which consists of a living room and an adjoining bedroom with an ensuite bath, in The Beverly Hills Hotel. Plot In "Visitor from New York", Hannah Warren is a Manhattan workaholic who flies to Los Angeles to retrieve her teenage daughter Jenny after she leaves home to live with her successful screenwriter father William. The bickering, divorced couple is forced to decide what living arrangements are best for the girl. Conservative, middle-aged businessman Marvin Michaels is the "Visitor from Philadelphia", who awakens to discover a prostitute named Bunny unconscious in his bed after consuming a bottle of vodka. With his wife Millie on her way up to the suite, he must find a way to conceal all traces of his uncharacteristic indiscretion. The "Visitors from London" are British actress Diana Nichols, a first-time nomine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Suite (film)
''California Suite'' is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Herbert Ross. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his 1976 play of the same name. Similar to his earlier ''Plaza Suite'', the film focuses on the dilemmas of guests staying in a suite in a luxury hotel. Maggie Smith won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. Plot In "Visitors from New York", Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) is a Manhattan workaholic who flies to Los Angeles to retrieve her teenage daughter Jenny (Dana Plato) after she leaves home to live with her successful screenwriter father Bill (Alan Alda). The bickering, divorced couple are forced to decide what living arrangements are best for the girl. In "Visitors from London", Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) is a British actress and a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress in an independent British film, an honor that could revive her faltering career, but she knows she has no chance of winning. She is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Academy Award, Oscar and Tony Award nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression. His parents' financial difficulties affected their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters, where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the United States Army Air Forces, Army Air Force Reserve, he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows. Among the latter were Sid Caesar's ''Your Show of Shows'' (where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David McCallum
David Keith McCallum Jr. (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician. He first gained recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E''. In recent years, McCallum has gained renewed international recognition and popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series '' NCIS''. With John Leyton and William Russell, he is one of the last living actors from the 1963 classic '' The Great Escape''. Early life McCallum was born 19 September 1933, in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. and Dorothy (née Dorman), a cellist. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as the leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond. McCallum won a scholarship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war comedy-drama television series ''M*A*S*H'' (1972–1983). He also wrote and directed numerous episodes of the series. Alda is also known for recurring roles on television series, such as ''The West Wing'' and ''Ray Donovan'', and received critical acclaim for his appearances in films such as '' Same Time, Next Year'' (1978) alongside Ellen Burstyn and for his directorial debut film '' The Four Seasons'' (1981). Other film appearances include ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'' (1989), '' Flirting with Disaster'' (1996), the Cold War drama '' Bridge of Spies'' (2015), and ''Marriage Story'' (2019). In 2004, Alda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' The Aviator''. Alda has also received three Tony Award no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Ross
Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing musical and comedies such as ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969 film), Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969), ''The Owl and the Pussycat (film), The Owl and the Pussycat'' (1970), ''Play It Again, Sam (film), Play It Again, Sam'' (1972), '' The Sunshine Boys (1975 film), The Sunshine Boys'', ''Funny Lady'' (both 1975), ''The Goodbye Girl'' (1977), ''California Suite (film), California Suite'' (1978), and ''Pennies from Heaven (1981 film), Pennies From Heaven'' (1981). His later films include ''Footloose (1984 film), Footloose'' (1984), and ''Steel Magnolias'' (1989). For the drama ''The Turning Point (1977 film), The Turning Point'' (1977) he received two Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture and Academy Award for Best D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Barnes (critic)
Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, ''The New York Post.'' Barnes had significant influence in reviewing new Broadway productions and evaluating the international dancers who often perform in New York City. Life and career Born in Lambeth, London, Barnes was educated at Emanuel School in Battersea and St Catherine's College, Oxford. He was the dance and drama critic at the ''New York Post'' from 1978 until 2008, and senior consulting editor at ''Dance Magazine'', where he wrote a monthly column called "Attitudes." He also contributed regularly to the British journal ''Dance Now;'' he edited and wrote for British newspapers such as ''The Times,'' ''The Daily Express'', and the weekly magazine '' Spectator''. Barnes authored and contributed to numerous books related to theater and the performing arts, particul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Drury
James Child Drury Jr. (April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020) was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series '' The Virginian'', which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to 1971. Early years Drury was born in New York City, the son of James Child Drury and Beatrice Crawford Drury. His father was a New York University professor of marketing. He grew up between New York City and Salem, Oregon, where his mother owned a farm. Drury contracted polio at the age of 10. He studied drama at New York University and took additional classes at UCLA to complete his degree after he began acting in films at MGM. Career Drury's professional acting career began when he was 12 years old, when he performed in a road company's production of ''Life with Father''. He signed a film contract with MGM in 1954 and appeared in bit parts in films. After he went to 20th Century Fox, he appeared in '' Love Me Tender'' (1956) and '' B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Sue Jones (April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983) was an American actress of television and film. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''The Bachelor Party'' (1957) and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising new actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for another 20 years. In 1964, she began playing the role of matriarch Morticia Addams in the original 1964 black and white television series ''The Addams Family''. Early life Carolyn Jones was born in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Chloe Jeanette Southern, a housewife, and Julius Alfred Jones, a barber. After their father abandoned the family in 1934, Carolyn and her younger sister, Bette Rhea Jones, moved with their mother into her parents' Amarillo home. Jones suffered from severe asthma that often restricted her childhood activities, and when her condition prevente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Murray (actor)
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (born July 31, 1929) is an American actor best known for his breakout performance in the film '' Bus Stop'' (1956, with Marilyn Monroe), which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other films include ''A Hatful of Rain'' (1957), '' Shake Hands with the Devil'' (1959, with James Cagney), ''One Foot in Hell'' (1960, with Alan Ladd), '' The Hoodlum Priest'' (1961), ''Advise & Consent'' (1962, with Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton), ''Baby the Rain Must Fall'' (1965, with Steve McQueen), ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' (1972), ''Deadly Hero'' (1975), and ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' (1986, with Kathleen Turner). Murray starred in television series such as '' The Outcasts'' (1968–1969), '' Knots Landing'' (1979–1981), and ''Twin Peaks'' (2017). Early life and career Murray was born in 1929, the second of three children, to Dennis Aloisius Murray, a Broadway dance director and stage manager, and Ethel Murr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patti Karr
Patti Karr (July 10, 1932 – July 11, 2020), born Patsy Lou Karkalits, was an American actress, dancer, and singer in Broadway musicals, and in film and television. Early life Patsy Lou Karkalits was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Charles F. Karkalits and Estelle Klebold Karkalits. Her father was a businessman; her mother died when Patsy was a baby. She was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where she graduated from Paschal High School and attended Texas Christian University. She began her dancing career in Texas, appearing in the ''corps de ballet'' of the Fort Worth Civic Opera. She also danced with the Pittsburgh Light Opera, and the Summertime Opera Company in Houston. Career Karr first appeared on Broadway in 1953 as a dancer in a musical, ''Maggie''. She went on to appear in over twenty Broadway productions, mostly musicals, including '' Carnival in Flanders'' (1953), ''Pipe Dream'' (1955-1956), '' Bells Are Ringing'' (1956-1959), ''The Body Beautiful'' (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warren Berlinger
Warren Berlinger (August 31, 1937 – December 2, 2020) was an American character actor, with Broadway runs, movie and television credits, and much work in commercials. Early life Warren Berlinger was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, of Jewish heritage, the son of Frieda (née Shapkin) and Elias Berlinger, a building contractor. His family owned Berlinger's Glass Store on Avenue D. Career Berlinger performed in the original 1946 Broadway production of '' Annie Get Your Gun'', with Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. He guest-starred on the original ''Howdy Doody'' television show, with roles following on ''Kraft Television Theatre'' and other programs. He also guest-starred on John Cassavetes's detective series, NBC's ''Johnny Staccato''. He was known to have co-starred with Elvis. In 1960, he appeared with Jack Lemmon and Rick Nelson in '' The Wackiest Ship in the Army'' as Radioman 2nd class A.J. Sparks. Berlinger appeared in both the Broadway stage and Hollywood movi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Reed
Robert Reed (born John Robert Rietz Jr.; October 19, 1932 – May 12, 1992) was an American actor. He played Kenneth Preston on the legal drama '' The Defenders'' from 1961 to 1965 alongside E. G. Marshall, and is best known for his role as the father Mike Brady, opposite Florence Henderson's role as Carol Brady, on the ABC sitcom ''The Brady Bunch'', which aired from 1969 to 1974. He later reprised his role of Mike Brady on several of the reunion programs. In 1976, he earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his guest-starring role in a two-part episode of '' Medical Center'' and for his work on the miniseries '' Rich Man, Poor Man''. The following year, Reed earned a third Emmy nomination for his role in the miniseries ''Roots''. Early life Reed was born John Robert Rietz Jr. in the northern Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the only child of Helen (née Teaverbaugh) and John Robert Rietz, who were high-school sweethearts and married at 18. Reed attended the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
