By the time I was old enough to pay attention, Sidney Poitier was already an icon, one of the few figures in entertainment genuinely deserving of that term. The major career-capping laurels — the lifetime achievement Oscar, the Kennedy Center … Continue reading Sidney Poitier, 1927 – 2022
The world’s oldest broadcast television station first went on the air in 1928. About ten years later, Betty White was on the air, too. She made her debut by singing a song from the operetta The Merry Widow, essentially repeating … Continue reading Betty White, 1922 – 2021
As part of his starring role in the 1974 caper flick 11 Harrowhouse, Charles Grodin provides the narration. His character is introduced while sitting glumly in a posh waiting area. Grodin’s distinctive voice flatly states: “That’s me there. I don’t … Continue reading Charles Grodin, 1935 – 2021
When I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the television series St. Elsewhere, I didn’t know that the actor who donned Dr. Daniel Auschlander’s white coat brought practically the whole history of Hollywood with him. I just knew the performance was flinty … Continue reading Norman Lloyd, 1914 – 2021
When it comes to the many memorable moments Sean Connery registered on film, I have an odd personal favorite. It is in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, the film that won Connery an Academy Award, for playing Chicago cop Jimmy … Continue reading Sean Connery, 1930 – 2020
For my eleventh birthday, all I wanted was a Carl Reiner movie. A little more than a year after the release of The Jerk, Reiner’s sixth film as a director and his first of four straight starring Steve Martin, the … Continue reading Carl Reiner, 1922-2020
When I started reading superhero comic books with a fierce devotion, nearly every issue I purchased had the same phrase on the opening page: “STAN LEE PRESENTS.” Stan Lee wasn’t writing many comics by the time I was plunking down … Continue reading Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
From now on, I don’t want you listenin’ to Guns N’ Roses an’ The Soup Dragons. I want a strict diet of James Brown for the growls, Otis Redding for the moans, Smokey Robinson for the whines, and Aretha for … Continue reading Aretha Franklin, 1942 – 2018
When he was interviewed on British television in 1976, this is how Harlan Ellison was introduced by journalist Mavis Nicholson, after she said, “I will explain to viewers what your publicists have told me about you”: You were born in … Continue reading Harlan Ellison, 1934 – 2018
I occasionally write remembrances of famed individuals after they die, if the performer or writer of figure of some other note held a certain significance for me. Anthony Bourdain qualifies, mightily, and yet I’ve struggled with the idea of alchemizing … Continue reading From the Archive — My Writers: Anthony Bourdain
Coffee for Two 