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1-11 of 11
- Director
- Editorial Department
- Actor
Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household, in Ogden, Utah, to Eileen Ireta (Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his dropping out of high school, getting married and divorced all before he was 19, he decided to leave Utah for California. A Californian employment office found him a printing press job at Universal Studios. Within a few years, he was an assistant film editor at various other studios. One of his pals while at MGM was a young messenger named Jack Nicholson. He moved up to being a full fledged editor on The Loved One (1965) and started editing the films of director Norman Jewison.
A highlight of his film editing career was winning an Oscar for the landmark In the Heat of the Night (1967). Itching to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called The Landlord (1970). It became Ashby's first film as a director. From there he delivered a series of well-acted, intelligent human scaled dramas that included The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Coming Home (1978) and Being There (1979). Great reviews and Oscar nominations became common on Ashby films.
Ashby was always a maverick and a contrary person and success proved difficult for Ashby to handle. He became unreliable due to his dependence on drugs and a reclusive lifestyle. He actually collapsed while making The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together (1982) in Arizona. Although he recovered, he was never the same after that. He began taking too much time in post production on his films and actually had a couple of his later projects taken away from him to be edited by others. He tried to straighten himself out, but in the 1980s, he was considered by many to be unemployable. Just when he felt he was turning a corner in his life, he developed cancer that spread to his liver and colon. He died on December 27, 1988. Actor Sean Penn dedicated his first film as a director, The Indian Runner (1991) to Ashby and John Cassavetes, even though Penn was never directed by either one. Because he did not have a set visual style, many mistake this for no style at all. His career is not discussed as often as the careers of some of his contemporaries.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Fox Harris was a marvelously quirky and distinctive character actor who specialized in playing colorful and eccentric supporting roles in offbeat low-budget independent pictures made throughout the 1980's. Harris was born on May 3rd, 1936 in Pennsylvania. He frequently appeared in movies directed by both Alex Cox and Fred Olen Ray. Best known as the wacky brain-fried lobotomized scientist J. Frank Parnell who drives around Los Angeles in a 1964 Chevy Malibu with dead aliens in the trunk in the terrific science fiction punk black comedy cult classic Repo Man (1984), Harris was likewise memorable as the sickly Dr. Cal Timbergen in the delightfully trashy "Alien" rip-off Forbidden World (1982), flaky entomologist Prof. Whately in Deep Space (1988), the batty Colonel Cox in Warlords (1988), and nutty asylum director Dr. Avol in the astonishingly odd Dr. Caligari (1989). Outside of his film work, Harris was also an active participant in the Los Angeles Theater Group. Fox Harris died on December 27th, 1988 in Century City, California.- Writer
- Producer
- Music Department
Jess Oppenheimer (November 11, 1913 - December 27, 1988)
Lucille Ball called Jess Oppenheimer "the brains" behind I Love Lucy (1951), and with good reason. As series creator, producer, and head writer, "Jess was the creative force behind the 'Lucy' show," confirms director William Asher. "He was the field general. Jess presided over all the meetings, and ran the whole show. He was very sharp."
Born in San Francisco on November 11, 1913, Oppenheimer attended Stanford University in the 1930s, during radio's "golden age." Drawn to radio comedy, he wangled a visit during his junior year to the studios of radio station KFRC in San Francisco, where he soon found himself spending every spare moment. He penned a comedy routine and quickly made his broadcasting debut, performing his own material coast-to-coast on the station's popular comedy-variety program, "Blue Monday Jamboree."
In 1936, he made the short hop down to Hollywood, where, through a combination of skill and impeccable timing, he managed to land a writing job on the Fred Astaire radio program on his first day in town. When Astaire left the airwaves a year later, Oppenheimer became a gag writer for Jack Benny, then tackled comedy writing chores for such other variety programs as the "Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy," "The Lifebuoy Program starring Al Jolson," "The Gulf Screen Guild Show," and "The Rudy Vallee Program." As a staff writer on those programs, Oppenheimer wrote sketch comedy for many of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Fred Allen, Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Boyer, Fanny Brice, George Burns and Gracie Allen, James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Bob Hope, William Powell, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, and Spencer Tracy.
With the advent of World War II, Oppenheimer joined the United States Coast Guard and was promptly posted to the Public Relations Department. The sailor at the next desk was a young agent named Ray Stark, who happened to be the son-in-law of the renowned comedienne and musical star, Fanny Brice. Stark promptly hired Oppenheimer to write for the popular radio program, "Baby Snooks," which starred Fanny Brice as a wise-beyond-her-years little girl who constantly drove her daddy crazy. It marked Oppenheimer's introduction to the sitcom form. During his six years on the show, he learned the ins and outs of plotting character-driven comedy.
In 1948, shortly after "Baby Snooks" went off the air, Oppenheimer accepted an assignment from CBS to write a script for the network's struggling new radio sitcom, "My Favorite Husband." The show starred Lucille Ball, one of the few stars in Hollywood with whom he had never worked. In the handful of episodes that had already aired, Ball had played "Liz Cugat," a "gay, sophisticated," socialite wife of a bank vice president--quite the opposite of the "Snooks" character Oppenheimer had been writing.
After watching Lucille Ball at rehearsal, Oppenheimer decided to make her character more like Snooks: less sophisticated, more childlike, scheming, and impulsive--taking Lucy and the show in a new direction, with broad, slapstick comedy. His instincts paid off big time: Lucy took to her new role like a fish to water, and the show was a huge success. Recognizing a good thing, CBS quickly signed Oppenheimer as the show's head writer, producer, and director, and in no time the series gained both a sponsor and a much larger audience. "My Favorite Husband" also marked the beginning of Oppenheimer's successful collaboration with "I Love Lucy" writers Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll Jr..
In December, 1950, when CBS agreed to produce a TV pilot starring Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, Lucy insisted on Oppenheimer to head up the project. With the completed pilot due in just a few weeks, there was just one problem--nobody knew what the series should be about. Everyone asked, "What do you do with a comedienne and a Cuban orchestra leader?" Oppenheimer had a million dollar idea: "Why don't we do a show," he suggested, "about a middle-class working stiff who works very hard at his job as a bandleader, and likes nothing better than to come home at night and relax with his wife, who doesn't like staying home and is dying to get into show business herself?" He decided to call the show "I Love Lucy."
He remained as producer and head writer of the series for five of its six seasons, writing the pilot and 153 episodes with Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. (joined in the 1955 by writers Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf). He appeared on the show twice: in Episode #6 ("The Audition"), as one of the three TV executives for whom Ricky performs at the Tropicana, and in Episode #127 ("The Tour"), as an extra who walks in front of the Hollywood Tour Bus just before Lucy and Ethel get on board. His voice can also be heard in Episode #30 ("Lucy Does a TV Commercial") as the sound man who tells Lucy to "go ahead" and begin her commercial for "Vitameatavegamin."
Oppenheimer left "I Love Lucy" in 1956 to take an executive post at NBC, where he produced a series of landmark TV specials, including the General Motors 50th Anniversary Show (1957), Ford Startime (1959), _The Ten Commandments (1959) (TV)_, and the "1959 Emmy Awards." Oppenheimer and Ball were reunited when he produced _The Danny Kaye Show with Lucille Ball (1962) (TV)_, which was nominated as "Program of the Year" by the TV Academy, and again two years later when he executive produced a "Lucille Ball Comedy Hour" entitled Mr. and Mrs. (1964), starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.
During the 1960s Oppenheimer created and produced three sitcoms: Angel (1960)(starring Annie Fargue and Marshall Thompson), Glynis (1963) (starring Glynis Johns), and The Debbie Reynolds Show (1969). His other TV credits include The United States Steel Hour (1953) (writer), Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963) (producer), and Get Smart (1965) (writer, producer, and director). He received two Emmy Awards and seven other Emmy nominations, a Sylvania Award, and the Writers' Guild of America's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement.
An avid inventor, Oppenheimer held 18 patents covering a variety of devices, including the in-the-lens teleprompter used by everyone from news anchors to presidents, and first used by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on a 1953 TV commercial for Philip Morris cigarettes. Upon his passing on December 27, 1988, Lucille Ball called Jess Oppenheimer "a true genius," adding, "I owe so much to his creativity and his friendship." His best-selling memoir, "Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time" (www.lucynet.com) was completed after his death by his son, Gregg Oppenheimer.- Actor
- Producer
- Production Manager
Reha Yurdakul was born on 1 April 1926 in Balikesir, Turkey. He was an actor and producer, known for Supermen Dönüyor (1979), Kanli sevda (1960) and Murada erecegiz (1958). He died on 27 December 1988 in Istanbul, Turkey.- Harriet Russell was born on 25 September 1911 in Ashland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935). She was married to Charles Daniel Livingstone. She died on 27 December 1988 in Florida, USA.
- Charlotte Peters was born on 29 March 1913 in the USA. She was married to William E. Peters. She died on 27 December 1988 in Northwoods, Missouri, USA.
- David Panaieff was born on 8 June 1944 in Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for At Long Last Love (1975). He died on 27 December 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Glenn H. McCarthy was born on 25 December 1907 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was a producer, known for The Green Promise (1949), Five Bold Women (1960) and The Mike Wallace Interview (1957). He died on 27 December 1988 in Houston, Texas, USA.
- Günter Hofé was born on 17 March 1914 in Berlin, Germany. He was a writer, known for Rivalen am Steuer (1957). He died on 27 December 1988 in Königs Wusterhausen, Brandenburg, Germany.
- Alexander Kaempfe was born on 16 May 1930 in Moscow, USSR. He was an actor and writer, known for Abel, wo ist dein bruder? (1970), Geschichten vom Kübelkind (1971) and The Cat Has Nine Lives (1968). He died on 27 December 1988 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.
- Megan Latimer was born on 26 July 1909 in Belfast, Ireland [now Northern Ireland], UK. She was an actress, known for BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950), Juniper Hall (1956) and Top Secret (1961). She died on 27 December 1988 in Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK.