Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   William Windom was an intelligent award-winning actor with the folksy attributes of a Will Rogers. His performances were quite understated in a way that Spencer Tracy and Paul Scofield crafted in their screen roles.

   Windom had a simple movie career with parts in To Kill a Mockingbird, For Love or Money, The Americanization of Emily, Hour of the Gun, The Gypsy Moths, Escape From Planet of the Apes, The Mephisto Waltz, and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. He starred on the small screen, including in The Farmer’s Daughter and My World and Welcome To It. He was outstanding in episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Hawaii  Five-O, Columbo, Mission Impossible, Night Gallery, All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, and especially, in Star Trek. He was a regular on Murder She Wrote for over a decade.

   Like James Whitmore and Hal Holbrook, William Windom cemented his career legacy with one-man shows on stage, usually playing James Thurber. He was one of my favorite character actors who will be sorely missed.

   William Windom was 88.

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   Phyllis Diller was the zany comedian discovered by Groucho Marx on the You Bet Your Life game show. She was also a personal friend of Bob Hope. He invited her to perform with him in Vietnam in 1966 with his USO troupe during the height of the war. She also had a husband named Fang.

   Her film career included roles in Splendor in the Grass, Boy Did I Get the Wrong Number, and The Sunshine Boys. Our delight was  her live appearances on the variety show circuit, including What’s My Line, The Tonight Show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Hollywood Squares, and The Gong Show. Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas also had her on as a frequent guest.

   With her signature laugh silenced, Phyllis Diller was 95.                         PHYLLIS DILLER

PHYLLIS DILLER  /  JOHNNY CARSON

Until next time>                                “never forget”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 11:35 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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