Claire Julien b. 1995 (The Dark Knight Rises)
Devin Ratray b. 1977 (Agent Carter, R.I.P.D., Supernatural, Surrogates, Little Monsters)
James Huang b. 1977 (Skyline, Lost)
Rockmond Dunbar b. 1973 (Alien Raiders, Good vs Evil, Earth 2)
Marc Blucas b. 1972 (They, Buffy, Pleasantville)
Amanda Peet b. 1972 (Gulliver’s Travels, 2012, The X Files: I Want to Believe)
Konstantin Khabenskiy b. 1972 (World War Z, Wanted, Night Watch, Day Watch)
Ryctor b. 1971 (BeastMaster [2001 TV])
Kyle Richards b. 1969 (The Watcher in the Woods, Time Express, Halloween, The Car, Escape to With Mountain)
Derek Riddell b. 1967 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Doctor Who, Making Astronauts)
Shelly Sweeney b. 1966 (Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla)
Olivia Barash b. 1965 (Repo Chick, Dr. Alien, Repo Man, Through the Magic Pyramid, The Incredible Hulk)
Jason Connery b. 1963 (Alien Strain, The Thirst: Blood War, Lightspeed, Smallville, Merlin [1998 TV], Doctor Who)
Melanie Hill b. 1962 (Merlin [2011], Stardust, From Hell)
Alyson Reed b. 1958 (Journeyman, The X-Files)
Phyllis Logan b. 1956 (Invasion: Earth, Nineteen Eighty-Four [1984])
John Sessions b. 1953 (Outlander, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Whoops Apocalypse)
Bille Brown b. 1952 died 13 January 2013 (The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Sondra Currie b. 1947 (Ganymede Pan, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon, RoboCop [TV], They Came from Outer Space, Misfits of Science, Voyager from the Unknown, The Incredible Hulk, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, )
Felix Silla b, 1937 (Batman Returns, Spaceballs, Star Trek, Return of the Jedi, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Brood, Battlestar Galactica, The Manitou, Demon Seed, Bewitched, Lidsville, H.R. Pufnstuf, Planet of the Apes, The Addams Family)
Melvyn Hayes b. 1935 (The Flesh and the Fiends, The Curse of Frankenstein, Quatermass II)
Angela Paton b. 1930 (The X Files, Sliders, Star Trek: Voyager, Groundhog Day, Quantum Leap, Flatliners)
Rod Taylor b. 1930 died 7 January 2015 (Kaw, The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy, The Birds, The Time Machine, Colossus and the Amazon Queen, Twilight Zone, World Without End)
Mitchell Ryan b. 1928 (Dark Skies, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Judge Dredd, Mann & Machine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Dark Shadows [1967], ‘Way Out)
Jerome Bixby b. 1923 died 28 April 1998 (writer, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Fantastic Voyage, It! The Terror from Beyond Space)
Robert C. O’Brien b. 1918 died 5 March 1973 (author, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH)
Nick Cravat b. 1912 died 29 January 1994 (The Island of Dr. Moreau [1977], Twilight Zone)
Don ‘Red’ Barry b. 1912 died 17 July 1980 (Project U.F.O., The Swarm, Doctor Dracula, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Land of the Giants, Batman, The Munsters, Frankenstein 1970)
Lionel Stander b. 1908 died 30 November 1994 (Wicked Stepmother, Adventures of Pinocchio [1972 TV])
Notes from the birthday list.
Today we are Canadian free, so the notes on the birthday list will concern The Picture Slot. Last year it was Felix Silla, the little person actor inside the costumes of Cousin Itt on The Addams Family and Twiki on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I considered Marc Blucas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mitchell Ryan as Riker's dad on ST:TNG, but instead decided to go with another yet another guy in a costume, Nick Cravat as the gremlin on the well known Twilight Zone episode. Cravat was short at 5'3", but not technically a little person. He started his career as an acrobat in a circus act with Burt Lancaster. Lancaster was loyal to Cravat, who often showed up in his films. Lancaster also put Cravat's kids through college. They worked together at the Federal Theater Project in the 1930s and ran afoul of some right-wing politicians, but neither of them were asked to name names.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction:(In 1970) Los Angeles traffic was too fast and too slashingly murderous for me to be really happy under automatic control.
Reality: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I want to give a shout out to reader Lockwood DeWitt to tipped me off to this Heinlein novel. The first part of the novel takes place in 1970 when our hero decides to go into suspended animation until the year 2000. Heinlein predicts plenty of changes in what to him are the near future and the far future and I'll be sharing tidbits from this book every Sunday for many months to come.
Heinlein in 1956 predicted self-driving cars were about 15 years away. They were actually more like 60 years away. I give him partial credit here, since it's pretty close to a done deal now. A lot of his other stuff is completely off base.
Taylor Negron, the actor and stand-up comic, died yesterday from cancer at the age of 57. The role all the online obituaries mention is that he was the pizza delivery guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He also played pretty much the same role in the genre comedy Vamps, as well as appearing on the TV shows Wizards of Waverly Place, Good vs Evil and Faerie Tale Theatre. My fondest memory of him is early in his stand-up career discussing his Puerto Rican ethnicity and going into this strange riff about all dusky people being the same to some white folks. "I'm every actor who ever played Lionel Jefferson." was the last line. I can still laugh thinking about that.
Best wishes to the family and friends of Taylor Negron, from a fan. He died much too young and he is never to be forgotten.
Anita Ekberg, the Swedish beauty queen best known for her role in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, died this morning at the age of 83 after a long illness. She is mentioned here for two roles, her first screen credit as a voluptuous guard in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, famously misnamed since they actually go to Venus, which is assumed to be all female. Her other fantasy role was in Fellini's The Temptation of Doctor Antonio, where she plays a billboard-sized version of herself come to life to torment a prude who wants the advertisement taken down.
Ekberg got her start in show business by winning the Miss Sweden pageant in 1950. While it's never been a liability to be blonde and voluptuous in show business, Anita came to fame in the era of Marilyn Monroe's greatest success and lots of movie makers were looking for "the next Marilyn". It's interesting to note how much Fellini used her. He had an obsession with big, busty women that shows up in several films including his semi-autobiographical Amarcord, but in real life Fellini married the elfin Giulietta Masina in 1943 and stayed married to her until his death in 1993.
Longtime readers will know I am a connoisseur of giant woman movies and TV. The Temptation of Doctor Antonio had the best production values of any of the movies and Anita's character had the most fun playing with and tormenting her little man.
Best wishes to the family and friends of Anita Ekberg, from an admiring fan. She is never to be forgotten.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Tomorrow, the regular weekly schedule is interrupted for an exact date I believe bears repeating.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
A wing walker who's a Furry? No wonder Shatner freaked out....
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