by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, the son of Daniel DeVito Sr., a small business owner, and Julia Moccello. He grew up in a family of five, with his parents and two older sisters. He is of Italian descent; his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata, as well as Calabria.
When he was 14, he persuaded his father to send him to boarding school to “keep him out of trouble”, and graduated from Oratory Preparatory School in Summit, New Jersey, in 1962. He trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days, he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Along with his future wife Rhea Perlman, he appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective.
In 1977, DeVito played the role of John “John John the Apple” DeAppoliso in the Starsky & Hutch episode “The Collector”. In 1986, he directed and starred in the black comedy “The Wedding Ring”, a season 2 episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories, where his character acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by DeVito’s real-life wife, actress Rhea Perlman). DeVito gained fame in 1978 playing Louie De Palma, the short but domineering dispatcher for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, on the hit TV show Taxi.
After his time on the Taxi series ended, DeVito devoted more effort to a growing successful film career, appearing as Vernon Dalhart in the 1983 hit Terms of Endearment; as the comic rogue Ralph in the romantic adventure Romancing the Stone (1984), starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile (1985). In 1987 he made his feature-directing debut with the dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred with Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. He reunited with Douglas and Turner two years later in The War of the Roses (1989), which he directed and in which he co-starred.
Other work included the comedies Junior (1994) and Twins (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger; playing the villain The Penguin in director Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992); and the film adaptation Matilda (1996), which he directed and co-produced, along with playing the role of Matilda’s father, the villainous car dealer Harry Wormwood.
Although generally a comic actor, DeVito expanded into dramatic roles with The Rainmaker (1997); Hoffa (1992), which he directed and in which he co-starred with Jack Nicholson; Jack the Bear (1993); neo-noir film L.A. Confidential (1997); The Big Kahuna (1999); and Heist (2001), as a gangster nemesis of Joe Moore (Gene Hackman).
In 2011, DeVito received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.
DeVito has become a major film and television producer. DeVito founded Jersey Films in 1991, producing films like Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture), Gattaca, and Garden State. In 1999, he produced and co-starred in Man on the Moon, a film about the unusual life of his former Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman, played in the film by Jim Carrey. DeVito also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, the film spin-off Reno 911!: Miami, and the upcoming revival on Quibi.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
Guy Williams was born of Sicilian parentage on January 14, 1924, as Armando Joseph Catalano in the Washington Heights area of New York City. His parents, insurance broker Attilio Catalano and Clara Arcara, were from the island of Sicily, and were by then living in poverty. Attilio was the son of a wealthy timber grower in Messina, who purchased land in New Jersey. Williams grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood of The Bronx.
In Public School 189, Williams stood out in mathematics. Later, he attended George Washington High School, while he occasionally worked at a soda fountain. He then left to attend the Peekskill Military Academy, where he was an enthusiastic student. His interests included American football and chess.
Williams wanted to be an actor, spurred by his good looks and 6’3″ height. When he decided not to continue studying, his mother, who later became an executive of a foreign film company, was disappointed because it was expected that he would follow in his father’s footsteps as an insurance broker.
After working as a welder, cost accountant and aircraft-parts inspector during World War II, Williams became a salesman in the luggage department at Wanamaker’s. While there, he decided to send his photos to a modeling agency. He quickly found great success with assignments resulting in photographs in newspapers and magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar as well as on billboards and book covers. He then adopted the name Guy Williams (1940s).
In 1946, he signed a single-year contract offered by MGM and moved to Hollywood. Williams had a featured role as a pilot in the film The Beginning or the End (1947), about the first U.S. deployed atom bomb. He appeared in only a few films and soon moved back to New York.
In 1948, to advertise cigarettes while skiing, Williams did an extensive filming trip accompanied by Janice Cooper, a John Robert Powers model. During the long photographic sessions, they fell in love, marrying on December 8, just after they returned to New York City. They had two children, Guy Steven Catalano (aka Guy Williams Jr.) and Antoinette Catalano (aka Toni Williams), both became actors.
By 1950, Williams was filming some of the pioneering television commercials in the U.S. His father died in 1951, never to witness his son’s rise to fame. In 1952, Williams obtained a new one-year contract with Universal-International and moved to Hollywood. He also appeared in an episode of the Lone Ranger, playing town sheriff.
In 1953, he suffered a serious accident when he fell from a horse and was dragged over 200 yards, resulting in a long scar on his left shoulder. Because of this he returned to New York to continue acting and modeling there and temporarily abandoned his film career. In 1953, he left Universal and became a freelancer for movies produced by Allied Artists and Warner Brothers.
Early in 1957, Williams appeared twice in the role of Steve Clay in the television series Men of Annapolis, a military drama set at the United States Naval Academy. He also appeared in the Rod Cameron drama State Trooper in the episode “No Fancy Cowboys” about the defrauding of guests at a dude ranch.
About this time, the Walt Disney Company was casting for Zorro, a television series based on the character created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley. To play the main character, the chosen actor would have to be handsome and have some experience with fencing. Walt Disney interviewed Guy Williams, telling him to start growing a mustache “neither very long or thick.” The exclusive contract paid Williams the then very high wage of $2,500 per week. Williams resumed his professional training in fencing with the Belgian champion Fred Cavens (who also trained Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power), since the show required sword fights in most episodes. He also took guitar lessons with the famous Vicente Gomez. Guy’s first appearance as Zorro was on the Disney anthology television series “The Fourth Anniversary Show”, wherein he challenged the notion that Zorro was a fictional character.
The series of half-hour episodes debuted on ABC on October 10, 1957. It was an instant hit in the U.S. Seventy-eight episodes were produced over two seasons (1957–1959), and two movies were edited from TV episodes: The Sign of Zorro (1958) and Zorro the Avenger (1959).
In 1962, Williams played Sir Miles Hendon in the Walt Disney’s The Prince and the Pauper, shot in England.
In 1965, Guy Williams returned to weekly television in the popular science-fiction series Lost in Space.
Guy Williams played Professor John Robinson, an expert in astrophysics and geology, who commanded the mission of the Jupiter 2 spaceship, taking his family in a voyage to colonize the Alpha Centauri star system.
After Lost in Space, Guy Williams decided to retire in order to better enjoy his wealth which had been generated by investments in several businesses, buying and selling on the stock market.
When Williams had first visited Argentina in 1973, he was taken by the admiration and fascination the Argentine people expressed for him and his character of El Zorro. In return, Williams fell in love with the culture and people of Argentina. In the late 1970s, he retired, except for personal appearances, to Recoleta, an upscale neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
In subsequent years, Williams also brought to Argentina some of the original cast members of the Zorro series, including Henry Calvin who performed as Sergeant Garcia. Williams even formed a circus (Circo Real Madrid) with the local fencing champion -and later actor- Fernando Lupiz, traveling all over South America (1977).
Later in 1989, while spending solitary months in Argentina, Williams disappeared. The local police searched his apartment in Recoleta on May 6, 1989, finding his body. He had died of a brain aneurysm. Owing to his great popularity in Argentina, his ashes lay for two years at the Argentine Actors’ Society cemetery at La Chacarita Cemetery, Actor Pantheon & Crypt 278. In 1991, in accordance with his wishes, Williams’ ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 11, 2021 | Podcasts
On this episode of The Italian American Entertainment Podcast, Vince Chiarelli, of the Vince Chiarelli Band, interviews the great singer and entertainer Lena Prima. With seven albums to her credit, award-winning singer, artist and author Lena Prima is the youngest daughter of the legendary musician Louis Prima and his singing sidekick, (and wife) Gia Maione.
Website – https://www.lenaprima.com/
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by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
Anthony Caruso was born in Frankfort, Indiana, the son of Italian immigrants Anthony Bagarelli Caruso and Augustina Taormina Caruso. When he was ten years old, Anthony and his family moved to Long Beach, California, where he grew up. While acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he met Alan Ladd, beginning a friendship that continued as they made 11 films together.
He made his film debut in Johnny Apollo (1940). In some of his television roles, Caruso played sympathetic characters, like “Ash”, on an early episode of CBS’s Gunsmoke.
In 1954, Caruso played Tiburcio Vásquez in an episode of the western series Stories of the Century. He appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader. Among Caruso’s other Western credits was 1954’s Cattle Queen of Montana. In 1957, he appeared in the fourth episode of the first season of the TV western, Have Gun – Will Travel titled “The Winchester Quarantine”.
In 1956 Caruso appeared as Disalin with war hero Audie Murphy, Charles Drake and Anne Bancroft in Walk the Proud Land. In 1957, Caruso appeared in episode “The Child” of NBC’s The Restless Gun. In 1959, he was cast as George Bradley in the episode “Annie’s Old Beau” on the NBC children’s western series, Buckskin.
Some of his more memorable roles were that of the alien gangster “Bela Oxmyx” in the classic Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action”, Chief Blackfish on the NBC series Daniel Boone, Mongo in the film Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Sengo in Tarzan and the Slave Girl, and Louis Ciavelli (the “box man” or safecracker) in The Asphalt Jungle. Caruso played the comical character of the Native American “Red Cloud” on the 1965 Get Smart episode “Washington 4, Indians 3”.
Caruso died three days before his 87th birthday in Brentwood in Los Angeles, California.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 4, 2021 | Uncategorized
Connie Stevens was born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of musician Peter Ingolia (known as Teddy Stevens) and singer Eleanor McGinley. She adopted her father’s stage name of Stevens as her own. Her parents divorced and she lived with her grandparents and attended Catholic boarding schools. At the age of 12, she witnessed a murder while waiting at a bus stop in Brooklyn. The event traumatized Stevens, and she was sent to live with family friends in Boonville, Missouri.
Coming from a musical family, Stevens joined the singing group called The Fourmost with Tony Butala, who went on to fame as founder of The Lettermen. Stevens moved to Los Angeles with her father in 1953. When she was 16, she replaced the alto in a singing group, The Three Debs.
Her first notable film role was in Young and Dangerous (1957) with Mark Damon, a low budget teen movie. She also was in Eighteen and Anxious (1957); an episode of The Bob Cummings Show (“Bob Goes Hillbilly”); and the movie Dragstrip Riot (1958).
Stevens’ big break came when Jerry Lewis saw her in the latter and recommended her for Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) as the young girl who loves Lewis. In December 1957 she signed a seven-year contract with Paramount starting at $600 a week going up to $1,500 a week. Stevens made another film with Damon, The Party Crashers (1958), also at Paramount.
In May 1959, she signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. starting at $300 per week. Like many Warners contract players, Stevens was kept busy guest-starring on their regular TV shows such as The Ann Sothern Show, Maverick, Tenderfoot, 77 Sunset Strip and Cheyenne.
Stardom came when she was cast as Cricket Blake in the popular television detective series Hawaiian Eye from 1959 to 1963, a role that made her famous; her principal costar was Robert Conrad. First televised on December 23, 1960, she appeared (uncredited) in “The Dresden Doll”, Episode 15 of Season 3 of 77 Sunset Strip as her character from Hawaiian Eye, Cricket Blake.
Stevens’ first album was titled Concetta (1958). She had minor single hits with the standards “Blame It on My Youth” (music by Oscar Levant and lyrics by Edward Heyman), “Looking for a Boy” (music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin), and “Spring Is Here” (music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart).
She appeared opposite James Garner in a comedy episode of the TV Western series Maverick entitled “Two Tickets to Ten Strike,” and after making several appearances on the Warner Bros. hit TV series 77 Sunset Strip, she recorded the hit novelty song “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)” (1959), a duet with one of the stars of the program, Edd Byrnes, that reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
She had hit singles as a solo artist with “Sixteen Reasons” (1960), her biggest hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, (#9 in the UK) and a minor #71 hit “Too Young to Go Steady” (1960) (music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Harold Adamson). Other single releases were “Apollo”,[13]”Why’d You Wanna Make Me Cry?”, “Something Beautiful,” “Mr. Songwriter,” “Now That You’ve Gone,”[citation needed] and “Keep Growing Strong” (which was remade by the Stylistics under the title “Betcha by Golly, Wow”).
When Hawaiian Eye ended Stevens guest-starred on Temple Houston and The Red Skelton Show. She played the lead in the horror film Two on a Guillotine (1965), for Warners.
Stevens later starred as Wendy Conway in the television sitcom Wendy and Me (1964–1965) with George Burns, who also produced the show with Warners and played an older man who watched Wendy’s exploits upstairs on the TV in his apartment. She had a percentage of the show, and had three and a half years left on her contract with Warners. She said “I’ve done the teenage epics… and want to move up into something like Virginia Woolf or Any Wednesday. I want to be a big star but do I have to throw tantrums and behave badly to get there? Can’t I just be talented and work hard and be happily married?”
Stevens was married twice during her twenties: her first husband was actor James Stacy from 1963 until their 1966 divorce, and her second husband was singer Eddie Fisher from 1967 until their 1969 divorce. She is the mother of actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher.
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