Remembering Lawrence Dobkin, born September 16, 1919 and passed away October 28, 2002.
Lawrence Dobkin was an Emmy-nominated actor, television director, and occasional writer and producer who directed the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Charlie X”. Twenty-five years later (credited as Larry Dobkin), he guest-starred as Kell in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Mind’s Eye”. He is the only person to have both directed an episode of TOS and to later appear on a Star Trek spin-off.
Happy birthday Jayne Brook, born September 16, 1960.
Jayne Brook (born Jane Anderson) is an American actress, best known for her role as Dr. Diane Grad on the medical drama Chicago Hope, as a series regular for five of the show’s six seasons.
Brook plays Starfleet Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell in the series Star Trek: Discovery.
Her first acting role was in the film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987.
During the late 1980’s, she worked for a while in Great Britain, appearing in The Old Boy Network, a single season ITV comedy series about three ex-spies who set up as private investigators after the end of the Cold War.
Brook went on to appear in numerous film and television roles, first as Carolyn in the 1991 film Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, a starring role in the spring 1993 ABC network version of Sirens, a guest star for a three-episode arc of L.A. Law and in the 1995 film Bye Bye Love.
She also had a small part as a child’s mother in Kindergarten Cop (1990).
She had a major role in My Mother, the Spy (2000).
Her starring role in the ensemble cast of Chicago Hope, from 1994 to 1999, was followed by appearances in regular or recurring roles on such series as Sports Night, The District, John Doe, Boston Legal and Private Practice.
Brook has been a guest star in single episodes of other series, including reuniting with her former Chicago Hope co-star Mark Harmon in a 2007 episode, “Cover Story”, of his CBS television series NCIS.
Happy birthday Jennifer Tilly, born September 16, 1958.
Jennifer Tilly (born Jennifer Ellen Chan) is an American actress and poker player. She is most recognized as Tiffany Valentine in the Child’s Play franchise (1998–), a role for which she is recognized as an “icon” in the horror film community. Her first notable acting role was on the sitcom Shaping Up (1984), which she followed with her film debut in No Small Affair the same year. She is known for her distinctive voice and comedic timing. Tilly is a World Series of Poker Ladies’ Event bracelet winner, the first celebrity to win a World Series tournament. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.
Tilly came to prominence when she received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Olive Neal in Woody Allen’s 1994 film Bullets over Broadway. She earned further acclaim, as well as Saturn Award and MTV Award nominations, for her performance in the Wachowskis’ 1996 neo-noir thriller Bound. Her other film appearances include Let It Ride; The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989); Made in America (1993); The Getaway (1994); Edie & Pen; House Arrest (1996); Liar Liar (1997); Music from Another Room (1998); Stuart Little (1999); Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000); The Cat’s Meow; Monsters, Inc. (2001); The Haunted Mansion (2003); Home on the Range (2004); and Terry Gilliam’s Tideland (2005).
She is also known for providing the voice of Bonnie Swanson on the animated television series Family Guy.
Tilly was the recipient of a Theatre World Award in 1993 for her performance in the Off-Broadway play One Shoe Off. Her other stage credits include the Broadway revivals of The Women (2001) and Don’t Dress for Dinner (2012).
Happy birthday Richard Marx, born September 16, 1963.
Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer.
Marx’s self-titled debut album went triple-platinum in 1987, and his first single, “Don’t Mean Nothing”, reached number three in the charts. Between 1987 and 1994, he had 14 Top 20 hits, including three number one singles; his first seven singles all reached the Top Five. His singles during the late 1980’s and 1990’s included “Endless Summer Nights”, “Hold On to the Nights”, “Right Here Waiting”, “Now and Forever”, “Hazard”, and “At the Beginning” with Donna Lewis. Marx has also written or collaborated on songs with other artists such as “This I Promise You” by NSYNC and “Dance with My Father” by Luther Vandross. The latter song won several Grammy Awards. Songs written or co-written by Marx have topped the charts in four different decades.
Happy birthday David Copperfield, born September 16, 1956.
David Seth Kotkin, known professionally as David Copperfield, is an American magician, described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history.
When not performing, he manages his chain of eleven resort islands in the Bahamas, which he calls “Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay”.
Remembering Peter Falk, born September 16, 1927 and passed away June 23, 2011.
Peter Michael Falk was an American actor and comedian, known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the long-running television series Columbo, for which he won four Prime time Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
On The Twilight Zone he played Ramos Clemente in the episode “The Mirror”.
He starred in two of Alfred Hitchcock’s television series, as a gangster terrified of death in a 1961 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and as a homicidal evangelist in 1962’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Falk was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for Murder, Inc. (1960) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961), and won his first Emmy Award in 1962 for The Dick Powell Theater. He was the first actor to be nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award in the same year, achieving the feat twice (1961 and 1962). He went on to appear in such films as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Great Race (1965), Anzio (1968), Murder by Death (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978), The In-Laws (1979), The Princess Bride (1987), Wings of Desire (1987), The Player (1992), and Next (2007), as well as many television guest roles.
Happy birthday Ed Begley Jr., born September 16, 1949.
Edward James “Ed” Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances.
He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six consecutive Emmy Award nominations, and his reality show about green living called Living With Ed on Planet Green with his wife.
Begley’s numerous works in television and film include one of his earliest appearances as a guest actor on Maude.
He had recurring roles on Mary Hartman, 7th Heaven, Arrested Development, and Six Feet Under and starring roles in Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital, St. Elsewhere, and Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central).
He has played significant roles in the mockumentary films Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.
Additionally, Begley played Viper pilot Greenbean on the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, Boba Fett in the radio adaptation of Return of the Jedi, and Seth Gillette, a fictional Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota in the television drama The West Wing.
In 1995, he played The Riddler’s boss in Batman Forever but is uncredited.
Since 2000, he has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 1996, Begley appeared in a TV movie called The Late Shift, where he played real-life CBS executive Rod Perth. Perth himself appears briefly in a cameo role (as a man Howard Stringer mistakes for Perth in the CAA lobby). Begley Jr. and Perth share an extraordinary physical resemblance, something the film makers milk for humor in the scene.
He has guest-starred on shows such as Scrubs, Boston Legal, and Star Trek: Voyager (Future’s End, parts I and II).
He had a recurring guest role in season three of Veronica Mars.
He appeared in the 2008 HBO film Recount, which profiled the 2000 Presidential Election and its aftermath, which was decided by the state of Florida’s electoral votes.
Begley also made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 3, Episode 3, as a spokesman for Cinco.
In 2003, Begley wrote and directed the musical Cesar and Ruben. It was performed at the El Portal Theater in Los Angeles and was revived in 2007.
He was in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried. Begley played Dr. Walter Krandall, the protagonist’s former marriage counselor and fiancé of his ex-wife.
In Young Sheldon he played Dr. Linkletter.
Equally prolific in cinema, Begley’s best known films include Stay Hungry (1976), Blue Collar (1978), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Accidental Tourist (1988), She-Devil (1989), The Pagemaster (1994), Batman Forever (1995), Auto Focus (2002), Pineapple Express (2008), What’s Your Number? (2011), Ghostbusters (2016) and CHiPS (2017). He is a recurring cast member in the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, including Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016).
Remembering Morgan Woodward, born September 16, 1925 and passed away February 22, 2019.
Woodward is notable for having starred in two different episodes of the original series of Star Trek as two different characters. In the first-season episode “Dagger of the Mind”, Woodward plays Dr. Simon Van Gelder, an attending physician at a hospital for the criminally insane. After discovering that the director of the facility is engaged in illegal brain experimentation, Van Gelder himself becomes a victim of these experiments and is confined as one of the patients. Escaping the facility to the orbiting USS Enterprise, the deranged and incoherent (due to his brain damage) Van Gelder eventually recovers enough to be able to divulge the nefarious goings-on at the hospital. (This is with the aid of Mr. Spock’s “mind meld”, which is revealed for the first time in this episode.)
In articles in the magazines Starlog and Entertainment Weekly[volume & issue needed], Woodward called the role of Dr. Simon Van Gelder the most physically and emotionally exhausting acting job of his career. Desperate to get out of Westerns and expand his range, he was cast against type for this episode and was so well regarded that he came on board next season to play the tragic Capt. Ronald Tracey in “The Omega Glory”. Playing Van Gelder did take its toll on his personal life, as he confesses that for three weeks afterwards he was anti-social towards friends and family. He is grateful that this episode opened up whole new opportunities for him.
In the second-season episode, “The Omega Glory”, Woodward portrays Captain Ron Tracey, the commander of the starship USS Exeter, a sister ship to the USS Enterprise. Convinced that he is permanently marooned on an unfamiliar planet, Tracey chooses to abandon his duty as a Starfleet officer, and in essence he “goes native”, allying himself with some of the planet’s natural inhabitants in their war against their competitors. Discovered by Captain Kirk, Tracey is eventually defeated and taken into custody for his violation of fundamental orders: “The Prime Directive”.
Happy birthday Mickey Rourke, born September 16, 1952.
Philip Andre “Mickey” Rourke Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films.
During the 1980s, Rourke starred in the comedy-drama Diner (1982), the drama Rumble Fish (1983), the crime-black-comedy film The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), and the erotic drama 9½ Weeks (1986). He received critical praise for his work in the Charles Bukowski biopic Barfly and the horror mystery Angel Heart (both 1987). In 1991, Rourke teamed up with Don Johnson and Tom Sizemore in the cult classic action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man; also in 1991, Rourke—who trained as a boxer in his early years—left acting and became a professional boxer for a time.
After retiring from boxing in 1994, Rourke returned to acting and had supporting roles in several films, including the drama The Rainmaker (1997), the comedy-drama Buffalo ’66 (1998), the thriller-remake of Get Carter (2000), the mystery film The Pledge (2001), the crime-dark-comedy-drama Spun (2002), the action film Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) and the action thriller Man on Fire (2004), playing the role of a corrupt lawyer.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in the neo-noir action thriller Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards, and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime professional wrestler; for his work in the film, Rourke received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and an Academy Award nomination. Since then, Rourke has appeared in several commercially successful films, including the 2010 films Iron Man 2 and The Expendables, and the 2011 film Immortals.
Remembering Anne Francis, born September 16, 1930 and passed away January 2, 2011.
Anne Francis (also known as Anne Lloyd Francis) was an American actress known for her role in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956) and for having starred in the television series Honey West (1965–1966), which was the first TV series with a female detective character’s name in the title. She won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in the series.
Francis made her film debut in This Time for Keeps (1947). She played supporting roles in the films Susan Slept Here, So Young, So Bad, and Bad Day at Black Rock; her first leading role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955). Her best-known film role is that of “Altaira” in Forbidden Planet (1956), an Oscar-nominated science-fiction classic.
Francis was the star of a provocative 1960 movie about a high-priced call girl, Girl of the Night.
In 1965, she had a leading role in Brainstorm.
In 1968, she played the role of Georgia James in the feature film Funny Girl and in the following year, played Nancy Ingersoll (the wife of Jerry Lewis’s character) in the comedy Hook, Line & Sinker.
She also co-starred in Impasse, an adventure film starring Burt Reynolds.
Francis found success in television and was a frequent guest star in 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s made-for-TV movies and series programs.
She guest-starred on The Untouchables as the title character in “The Doreen Maney Story”, and starred twice in The Twilight Zone (in “The After Hours” and in “Jess-Belle”). She also appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Francis also appeared in two episodes of the Western series The Virginian, two episodes of Columbo (“Short fuse” & “A Stitch in Crime”) and in the episode “Incident of the Shambling Man” on the CBS western, Rawhide.
She was cast in an episode of Gene Kelly’s drama series, Going My Way, based on the 1944 film of the same name. During 1964, she guest-starred in two episodes, “Hideout” and “Rachel’s Mother”, of The Reporter, and made two successive appearances in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
In 1965, Francis was cast as Honey West, a sexy private investigator who drove a Cobra and had a pet ocelot; the character was initially introduced on the ABC series Burke’s Law, and then spun off as a series. She made a guest appearance in a 1967 episode of The Fugitive. She appeared in the 1967 episode, The Saucer, in The Invaders. She guest-starred in a 1973 episode, “Murder In The Doll’s House”, of Barnaby Jones.
At the start of the final season in 1971 of My Three Sons, Francis played bowling-alley waitress Terri Dowling, who marries character Laird Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge, Scotland, and returned to his homeland as royalty. (Fred MacMurray played the dual character roles of Steve Douglas and Fergus McBain Douglas in this four-part story arc). She appeared twice as a guest star on Columbo, once as the manipulated lover of the murderer (“Short Fuse”, 1972), and once as the murder victim (“A Stitch in Crime”, 1973).
In 1974, she appeared as Ida, the madame of a bawdy house on the series Kung Fu in the episode “Night of the Owls, Day of the Doves”. In 1975 she appeared as Abby in an episode of Movin’ On titled “The Price of Loving”. In 1976, she appeared as Lola Flynn in an episode of Wonder Woman, entitled “Beauty on Parade”. In 1977, she appeared as Lieutenant Commander Gladys Hope, the head nurse in two episodes of the World War II series Baa Baa Black Sheep. She portrayed Melissa Osborne in the episode “How Do I Kill Thee?” of The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978.
During the 1980–81 season of Dallas, Francis had a recurring role as Arliss Cooper, the mother of Mitch and Afton Cooper. She later played “Mama Jo” in the first few episodes of the 1984 TV-detective series Riptide.
In that same year, she guest-starred in the premiere episode of Murder, She Wrote, credited as Anne Lloyd Francis; she went on to guest-star in two more episodes during the show’s run. In December of 1984 and again credited as Anne Lloyd Francis, she guest-starred in a Christmas-themed episode of The Love Boat playing the mother of Kim Lankford’s character, ‘Carol’ in the storyline, “Noel’s Christmas Carol.” She appeared on episodes of Matlock and The Golden Girls.
In 1996, she appeared in the Wings episode “The Lady Vanishes”, as Vera, a 1940’s gun moll-type character.
She guest-starred in 1998 on The Drew Carey Show as the mother of Drew’s girlfriend Nicki in the episodes “Nicki’s Parents” and “Nicki’s Wedding”. Francis’ final television acting role was in “Shadows”, a 2004 episode of Without a Trace.
She died on January 2, 2011, aged 80, from complications due to pancreatic cancer.
