THE PASSING SCENE OF 2013

With every passing year there are great talents that sadly have to leave us. Their passing remind of how quick life goes, and even though their deaths are sad to us fans, their memories live on in their wonderful bodies of work. Here are some of the entertainers of classic Hollywood that left us in 2013...

Patty Andrews

PATTY ANDREWS
Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of World War II, died in January. She was 94. Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home. She could also deliver sentimental ballads like "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

PETER O'TOOLE
Peter O'Toole achieved stardom playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He received seven further Oscar nominations – for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982) and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a win. He died on December 14 at the age of 81.

JONATHAN WINTERS
Best known for his improv work and characters like Mearth on Mork & Mindy, Winters died on April 11 of natural causes. He was 87. He is survived by two children and five grandchildren. He never made many films, but he had a memorable role in the 1963 comedy classic, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World. His last role was as the voice of Papa Smurf in the cartoon film
Smurfs 2.

MARTA EGGERTH
Marta Eggerth was a singer/actress from "The Silver Age of  Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Oscar Straus composed works especially for her. She made two movies at MGM, appearing opposite Judy Garland in For Me And My Gal (1942) and Presenting Lily Mars (1943). She died on December 26 at the age of 101.

ROGER EBERT
The famed movie critic died in Chicago on April 4, just two days after announcing on his website that he was taking a "leave of presence" from his career. His death, at age 70, followed years of health problems, including a thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2002 that led to the loss of his voice.

JULIE HARRIS
Julie Harris was a famed icon of the American stage. She won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. She also appeared in such films as East of Eden (1955) with James Dean, whom she became friends with, and Requiem For A Heavyweight (1962) with Paul Newman. She remained active despite failing health. She died on August 24 of heart failure.

JEANNE COOPER
Soap opera fans were devastated on May 8 when Cooper, who played Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless for nearly four decades, died after a brief, unspecified illness. Her son was actor Corbin Bernsen.

Jean Stapleton

JEAN STAPLETON
The Emmy-winning All in the Family actress, who played Archie Bunker's wife on the series, died of natural causes on May 31. She was 90 years old. Survived by her two children, John and Pamela, she was described by Roseanne Barr as "a great actor whose range was unbelievable, deep, and majestic."

ANNETTE FUNICELLO
The beloved former Mouseketeer passed away at age 70 in early April, after more than two decades of living with multiple sclerosis. She is survived by her second husband, Glen Holt, and kids Gina, Jack Jr., and Jason, her children with first husband Jack Gilardi.

GEORGE JONES
The "He Stopped Loving Her Today" singer died on April 26 at age 81 after a brief hospitalization in Nashville. "My friend, the greatest singer of all time, has passed," country star Brad Paisley said of Jones, survived by his wife and four grown children. "To those who knew him, our lives were full. To those of you who don't: discover him now."

DEANNA DURBIN
One of the most famous child stars of her time, Durbin died at age 91 in late April. Known for box office smashes like Three Smart Girls, First Love, and Spring Parade, she is survived by her son, Peter David, and daughter Jessica.

BONNIE FRANKLIN
The One Day at a Time star died on March 1 at age 69 after a months-long battle with pancreatic cancer. A veteran theater actress and two-time Golden Globe nominee, Franklin is survived by her mother, Claire, and stepchildren Jed and Julie Minoff.

JAMES GANDOLFINI
The Sopranos star died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing with his son Michael in Rome on June 19. Though he was rushed to the emergency room, efforts to resuscitate him failed. Gandolfini is also survived by his wife, Deborah, and their daughter, Liliana. "He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person.

Eleanor Parker

ELEANOR PARKER
The stunning Eleanor Parker was an actress of patrician beauty nicknamed “the woman of a thousand faces” for the range of parts she played, from a terrified prisoner in “Caged” to the icy baroness in “The Sound of Music. She died on December 9 at the age of 91. On a personal note, my Grandfather always said my Grandmother looked like Eleanor Parker.

PATSY SWAYZE
Dancing instructor and mother of Patrick Swayze, Patsy Swayze died in September at the age of 87. Patsy taught dance for decades, and her students included Tommy Tune and Debbie Allen.

SLIM WHITMAN
Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeler who sold millions of records through ever-present TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy "Mars Attacks!," died in June at a Florida hospital. He was 90.

FRAN WARREN
Fran Warren, whose 1947 recording of "A Sunday Kind of Love" was one of the classic hits of the big band era died on March 4 of natural causes. She was 87. Warren's career spanned more than 50 years with hits that included the Tony Martin duet "I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Prayers)," the Lisa Kirk duet "Dearie" and "It's Anybody's Heart." Her films roles included "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd."

JOHN KERR
John Kerr, the stage and film actor whose credits include the movie "South Pacific," the thriller "The Pit and the Pendulum" and a Tony Award-winning turn in "Tea and Sympathy," died in February. He was 81. He was perhaps best known for playing a sensitive prep school student who is bullied for being a suspected homosexual in Elia Kazan's 1953 Broadway production of "Tea and Sympathy." He went on to reprise the role in a 1956 film version.

PATTI PAGE
Unforgettable songs like "Tennessee Waltz" and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?" made Patti Page the best-selling female singer of the 1950s and a star who would spend much of the rest of her life traveling the world. That singing rage Miss Patti Page died on New Year's Day in Encinitas, Calif., according to publicist Schatzi Hageman, ending one of pop music's most diverse careers. She was 85 and just five weeks away from being honored at the Grammy Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.

Conrad Bain

CONRAD BAIN
One of the most popular sitcoms of the early 1980s was Different Strokes. Actor Conrad Bain played the wonderful role of Mr. Drummand for the series entire run. He was 89. With the exception of a one-off appearance on the TV series Unforgettable in 2011, Bain has not acted since 1996, when he parodied his Diff'rent Strokes character on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Bain was also a starring player on Norman Lear's 1970s sitcom Maude, playing the uptight Dr. Harmon, a foil to Bea Arthur's title character.

JANE HARVEY
Jane Harvey, who recorded with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the 1940’s and later sang with Desi Arnaz, died at her home in Los Angeles Aug. 15. The cause was cancer. She was 88. She did not stay with the Goodman band long, but one of her most enduring hits with them was "Close As Pages In A Book".

EYDIE GORME
Concert and recording superstar Eydie Gormé, who – performing everything from ballads to bossa nova with singing partner and husband Steve Lawrence – made an indelible impression on American audiences during the swingin' '60s, died August 10. She was 84.

DENNIS FARINA
Dennis Farina, a Chicago native and police officer who turned to acting, died in July at the age of 69 in Arizona. Farina, best known as detective Joe Fontana on the long-running TV series "Law & Order," suffered a blood clot in his lung, publicist Lori De Waal said.

JOAN FONTAINE

Joan Fontaine was a true legend of classic Hollywood.  In 1941, she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) making Fontaine the only actress to ever win an Academy Award in a film directed by Hitchcock. Her sister is equally good actress Olivia DeHavilland, with whom she had a lifelong feud with. Fontaine made her last movie in 1994. She died on December 15 at the age of 96.

PAUL TANNER
Paul Tanner, a trombonist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who later played a space-age instrument on the Beach Boys hit "Good Vibrations," died at the age of 95 in February. Tanner performed with Miller from 1938 to 1942. During his long career he also worked as a movie studio and ABC musician in California, and performed with stars that included Tex Beneke, Henry Mancini and Arturo Toscanini.

Esther Williams

ESTHER WILLIAMS
Her talent was more than just her swimming ability. Her beauty and her screen prescene made her a favorite of a generation of film goers. Esther Williams was one of MGM's greatest stars. She was 91.  Williams's died in June in her sleep, according to her longtime publicist Harlan Boll. Following in the footsteps of Sonja Henie, who went from skating champion to movie star, Williams became one of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers, appearing in spectacular swimsuit numbers that capitalized on her wholesome beauty and perfect figure" in such films as "Easy to Wed," "Neptune's Daughter" and "Dangerous When Wet".

Rest in peace...

 

RECENTLY VIEWED: MODERN TIMES

One of the first movies I bought on DVD was Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. I have had it for years, but it seems like I only see the movie when it was on TCM. It recently was on TCM on a Sunday night, and even though I did not really want to watch a movie, I could not turn this monumental film off. I also was a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, and it goes without saying that I enjoy everything he ever did. However, watching this time (probably the 4th time) I noticed how extremely beautiful Paulette Goddard. It almost took my breath away at times.

Modern Times portrays Chaplin as a factory worker employed on an assembly line. After being subjected to such indignities as being force-fed by a "modern" feeding machine and an accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts at an ever-increasing rate onto pieces of machinery, he suffers a nervous breakdown and runs amok, throwing the factory into chaos. He is sent to a hospital. Following his recovery, the now unemployed factory worker is mistakenly arrested as an instigator in a Communist demonstration. In jail, he accidentally ingests smuggled cocaine, mistaking it for salt. In his subsequent delirium, he stumbles upon a jailbreak and knocks out the convicts. He is hailed a hero and is released.

Outside the jail, he applies for a new job but leaves after causing an accident. He runs into an orphaned gamine girl (Paulette Goddard), who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread. To save the girl, he tells police that he is the thief and ought to be arrested. A witness reveals his deception and he is freed. To get arrested again, he eats an enormous amount of food at a cafeteria without paying. He meets up with the girl in the paddy wagon, which crashes, and the girl convinces the reluctant factory worker to escape with her. Dreaming of a better life, he gets a job as a night watchman at a department store, sneaks the girl into the store, and even lets burglars have some food. Waking up the next morning in a pile of clothes, he is arrested once more.

Ten days later, the girl takes him to a new home – a run-down shack that she admits "isn't Buckingham Palace" but will do. The next morning, the factory worker reads about a new factory and lands a job there. He gets his boss trapped in machinery, but manages to extricate him. The other workers decide to go on strike. Accidentally paddling a brick into a policeman, he is arrested again. Two weeks later, he is released and learns that the girl is a café dancer. She tries to get him a job as a singer and a waiter. At his new job, however, he finds it difficult to tell the difference between the "in" and "out" doors to the kitchen, or to successfully deliver a roast duck to table through a busy dance floor. During his floor show, he loses a cuff that bears the lyrics of his song, but he rescues his act by improvising the story using an amalgam of word play, words in (or made up of word parts from) multiple languages and mock sentence structure while pantomiming. His act proves a hit. When police arrive to arrest the girl for her earlier escape, they escape again. Finally, we see them walking down a road at dawn, towards an uncertain but hopeful future.

Chaplin was very bold to produce a silent film in 1936. He was the last hold out to sound, and the silence amazingly works in Modern Times. Chaplin began preparing the film in 1934 as his first "talkie", and went as far as writing a dialogue script and experimenting with some sound scenes. However, he soon abandoned these attempts and reverted to a silent format with synchronized sound effects. The dialogue experiments confirmed his long-standing conviction that the universal appeal of the Tramp would be lost if the character ever spoke on screen. Most of the film was shot at "silent speed", 18 frames per second, which when projected at "sound speed", 24 frames per second, made the slapstick action appear even more frenetic. Available prints of the film now correct this. The duration of filming was long, beginning on October 11, 1934 and ending on August 30, 1935

Modern Times is often hailed as one of Chaplin's greatest films. I agree it is a masterpiece, but Chaplin produced so many masterpieces, it is hard to say. I probably prefer City Lights (1931) and Limelight (1952), but Modern Times is one of the greatest films of the era. Chaplin could say in 81 minutes of silence more than some of the movie epics could say with hours of sound. The movie was highly profitable, and I would recommend this film to someone who does not even like silent movies. The silence is golden in the film, and it adds to its greatness...

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

CARY GRANT ON HIS STYLE

Here is a great article that appeared in GQ magazine back in 1967. In the article, acting icon Cary Grant explained his take on style...

I'm often asked for advice or an opinion about clothes, and I always try to answer the best I can, but I'm not inclined to regard myself as an authority on the subject. Many times during my years in films, some well-meaning group has selected me as best-dressed man of the year, but I've never understood why. The odd distinction surprises me: first, because I don't consider myself especially well dressed, and, secondly, I've never, as far as I can compare the efforts of others with my own, gone to any special trouble to acquire clothes that could be regarded as noticeably fashionable or up-to-date.

Some of my suits are ten to twenty years old, many of them ready-made and reasonably priced. Those that were custom-tailored were made by many different tailors in many different cities: London, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles. I believe that American ready-made clothes are the best ready-made clothes in the world: that the well-dressed American man makes a better appearance than the well-dressed man of any other country.

No, it isn't only money that determines how well a man dresses—it's personal taste. Because of the demands of my work, I've purchased dozens of suits over the years and they all have one attribute in common: they are in the middle of fashion. By that I mean they're not self-consciously fashionable or far out, nor are they overly conservative or dated. In other words, the lapels are neither too wide nor too narrow, the trousers neither too tight nor too loose, the coats neither too short nor too long. I've worn clothes of extreme style, but only in order to dress appropriately for the type of character I played in particular films. Otherwise, simplicity, to me, has always been the essence of good taste.

I believe men's clothes—like women's—should attract attention to the best lines of a man's figure and distract from the worst. In all cases, the most reliable style is in the middle of the road—a thoughtful sensible position in any human behavior. Except perhaps on the freeway—but, even then, the middle lane, providing of course, it's on your side of the road, usually gets you where you're going more easily, comfortably, and less disturbingly. And so it should be with clothes. They should be undisturbing, easy and comfortable.

How much on should pay depends on how much one has to spend. I'm reminded of a piece of advice my father gave me regarding shoes: it has stood me in good stead whenever my own finances were low. He said it's better to buy one good pair of shoes than four cheap ones. One pair made of fine leather could outlast four inferior pairs, and, if well cared for, would continue to proclaim your good judgment and taste no matter how old they become. The same applies to suits, so permit me to suggest you buy the best you can afford even though it means buying less. Rather like the stock market: it is usually more sensible to buy just one share of blue chip than 150 shares of a one-dollar stock.

A cardigan coat sweater of lightweight wool and conservative color is a useful investment. It can be worn without a coat on many occasions, and has the advantage of being easily slipped on without those arm-raising contortions and the need to re-comb your hair.

Shoes? I've already mentioned that good shoes look better and last longer. If a man must limit himself to only one pair of shoes for city wear, then they should be black. If two, then a brown pair of darkest chocolate color are useful with almost all suits and, if he has no moccasins, even with grey flannels. The moccasin type of shoe is, to me, almost essential and especially convenient when traveling, since they can be easily slipped off in the airplane or car.

Shirts should usually be white for the evening, but, in the city's grime, it's practical and permissible to wear a light blue or conservatively striped shirt during the day. The type of collar should suit the contours of the neck and face. As a younger man, I tried wearing a flared, too-high collar that, although modish amongst those I regarded as the sophisticates of that day, looked ridiculous on my 17 1/2- inch neck. Luckily, after the embarrassment of viewing myself from almost every angle on screen, that mistake was soon rectified. Button-cuffed shirts are simplest to manage, but if you wear cuff links, as I do, don't, I beg you, wear those huge examples of badly designed, cheap modern jewelry. They, too, are not only ostentatious, but heavy and a menace to the enamel on your car and your girl friend's eye.

Do I have any special do's and don't's about clothes? I can't think of and rules about clothes, since there really aren't any, but I suggest you buy trees to conform to the shape of your shoes, and keep your coats on curved hangers.

Take care of your clothes, keep them clean and in good repair. I suggest you avoid using heavily scented cologne or soaps. When I meet a man I like him to smell like a man, or not to smell at all; certainly he shouldn't smell like a woman. Do see that your socks stay up. Nothing can spoil an otherwise well-groomed effect like sagging socks. Don't stuff your pockets with heavy articles and bulging wallets filled with seldom-used cards. They ruin not only the neatness of your appearance but the actual tailoring of your suit.

Come to think of it, who knows how anything becomes bad or good taste? Who decides a standard of esthetics? If it's the majority, then how is it the minority are the ones considered well dressed? Everything is only exactly what it is. If a man wears the kind of clothes that please him, then, providing they're clean and don't shock society, morals, and little children, what is the difference as long as that man is happy?

SOURCE

HISTORY OF A SONG: HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

I have a lot of favorite Christmas carols - two of them being "White Christmas" and "A Marshmellow World". However, one Christmas song that never fails to make me cry is "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". When I hear the song I think of all of my family members that are gone that made the holidays what they were when I was a little child. Just writing this article about the famous 1940s song is bringing a tear to my eye. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis.

Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. The song was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. In 2007, ASCAP ranked "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" the third most performed Christmas song during the preceding five years that had been written by ASCAP members. The song was written while Martin was vacationing in a house in the neighborhood of Southside in Birmingham, Alabama, that his father Hugh Martin designed for his mother as a honeymoon cottage. Located at 1919 South 15th Avenue, (just down the street from his birthplace at 1900 South 14th Avenue) the house became the home of Martin and his family in 1923.

The song first appeared in a scene in Meet Me in St. Louis, in which a family is distraught by the father's plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their beloved home in St. Louis, Missouri, just before the long-anticipated 1904 World's Fair begins. In a scene set on Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, sings the song to cheer up her despondent five-year-old sister, Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.

In 1957, Frank Sinatra asked Martin to revise the line "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow." He told Martin, "The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?" Martin's new line was "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough." Martin made several other alterations, changing the song's focus to a celebration of present happiness, rather than anticipation of a better future. On The Judy Garland Show Christmas Special, Judy sings the song to her children Joey and Lorna Luft with Sinatra's alternate lyrics. The lyrics Judy Garland sang in Meet Me in St. Louis have been recorded with only slight variations by a number of artists, including Sinatra himself (in 1950 and 1963 single recordings), Doris Day (in The Doris Day Christmas Album), Ella Fitzgerald (in Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas), James Taylor (in October Road) and Luther Vandross (in This Is Christmas). [In 2001 the 86-year-old composer Hugh Martin, occasionally active as a pianist with religious ministries since the 1980s, wrote an entirely new set of lyrics to the song with John Fricke, "Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas"...

THE APPEAL OF THE RITZ BROTHERS

It seems like I always post stories on this blog about things that I like - and I guess I should. It is not a blog about what I hate. However, I wanted to take this time to write about The Ritz Brothers, a comedy act I do not like. I never understood their appeal through the years, and I still don't but I learned a lot about them while researching this article. The only film I saw them in was On The Avenue (1937) with Alice Faye and Dick Powell, and I thought they slowed down the whole movie, but obviously the Ritz Brothers had a lot of appeal in the 1930s and 1940s and still do today.

Although there were four brothers, the sons of Austrian-born haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline, only three of them performed together. There was also a sister, Gertrude.The fourth brother, George, acted as their manager. The performers were: Al Ritz, (August 27, 1901 – December 22, 1965), Jimmy Ritz, (October 4, 1904 – November 17, 1985) and Harry Ritz, (May 22, 1907 – March 29, 1986).

The Ritz Brothers were hired for a New York-filmed short subject, Hotel Anchovy (1934), produced by Educational Pictures. This did well enough for the film's distributor, Twentieth Century-Fox, to sign the Ritzes as a specialty act for feature-length musicals. During this period they appeared in On the Avenue, a 1937 Irving Berlin musical. That same year Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.

The brothers had a large following, and some fans compare them to the Marx Brothers, but the Ritzes did not play contrasting characters like the Marxes did; the boisterous Ritzes frequently behaved identically, making it harder for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations (among them Ted Lewis, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, even Alice Faye and Katharine Hepburn).

Their talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies, where they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was Fox's 1939 musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Don Ameche. Later in 1939 the Ritzes staged a highly publicized walkout (complaining about the low quality of their latest script, The Gorilla). Fox responded by completing The Gorilla anyway, terminating the Ritzes' starring series, and casting them in a B picture starring Jane Withers. The Ritz Brothers left Fox for good in 1939. In 1940 they moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse, but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music. Their final film as a trio was Never a Dull Moment (1943).

The Ritz Brothers continued to appear on stage and in nightclubs, and made guest appearances on network television in the 1950s. They soon became a top Las Vegas attraction. In 1958 Harry participated in a sketch-comedy LP, "Hilarity in Hollywood" (also known as "Hilarity in Hi-Fi").

The Ritzes were appearing at New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel in December 1965 when Al died of a sudden heart attack. Harry and Jimmy were devastated, as the trio had always been very close. The two surviving brothers continued the act, and appeared together in a couple of films. The last appearances of the Ritz Brothers as a team (minus Al) were in the mid-1970s films Blazing Stewardesses and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, a spoof of the old Rin Tin Tin and Lassie movies. In Blazing Stewardesses the Ritzes were cast as replacements for The Three Stooges, who dropped out of the film when Moe Howard's declining health forced the trio to cancel. (Contrary to many accounts, Moe was still alive when Blazing Stewardesses filmed in March 1975; he was simply too ill to work. Moe died in early May of that year; Blazing Stewardesses opened a month later in June 1975.) Harry and Jimmy also made a lively encore appearance on television, as guests on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show.

Harry's final months were plagued by Alzheimer's Disease; Jimmy Ritz died in 1985 shortly before Harry, but Harry's health was so delicate that he was never told of his brother's death. Harry died the following year. I guess you can say that The Ritz Brothers have a cult following. They never did receive the attention that maybe the Three Stooges did, but I guess you can say the Ritz Brothers had their niche in classic Hollywood and entertainment in general. Maybe one day I will warm up to them and realize their talents as countless fans already do...
 

TIPPI HEDREN AWARDED 1.5 MILLION

 

In her most famous role, in 1963's The Birds, Tippi Hedren was subject to attacks from violent birds (not to mention Alfred Hitchcock's ravenous appetite for blondes). Her later work was no less challenging. In 2006, she took a role in a TV show titled Fashion House, and one day in rehearsal, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. It's speculated that the water had accumulated under the soundstage's plywood roof because a bird's nest was blocking a condensation tube in the air conditioning system. Hedren has long suffered from severe and persistent headaches.

In 2006, shortly before taking the role in Fashion House, she underwent spinal fusion surgery. The operation came as a tremendous relief. She testified it was a miracle, and once free of headaches, she was cleared to play the non-action role of a woman dying of cancer in the show.But after she was struck on the head by water while rehearsing a scene at Stu Segall Studios in San Diego, the headaches returned. She tried various remedies including chiropractic, acupuncture, physical therapy, medications, Botox injections and nerve block injections, but the headaches persisted.

In October 2006 she retained attorney Joseph Allen to file a personal injury lawsuit against the owner and lessee of the soundstage. The attorney appears to have made an error.

In March 2007, Allen filed a complaint, but shortly before the trial readiness conference, he dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice. But he did so without first obtaining an agreement by the defendants to toll the statute of limitations. As a result, when the lawsuit was refiled, the defendants successfully defeated it by arguing that it came too late.

In 2009, Hedren sued her former lawyer for malpractice for all the money she reasonably could have expected to have recovered in the prior lawsuit had things gone right. A jury returned a verdict totaling $1,483,708, which included $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings. After a judge refused Allen's motion for a new trial, an appeal was made on the basis that the judge should have instructed the jury on superseding causation. His theory was that the jury should have had opportunity to put primary blame on Hedren's employer, Kirkwood, for allegedly failing to do anything about the water dripping onto the soundstage and for directing Hedren to work as usual.

"We disagree," writes California Appellate Judge Terry O'Rourke. "Water dripping onto a floor from a ceiling or roof would not ordinarily cause a reasonable person who does not own or control the premises to expect that a large deluge of water falling from the ceiling is imminent or even likely to occur. …

Accordingly, Kirkwood's continuing to rehearse and film scenes on the soundstage despite the dripping water did not constitute conduct that was so highly extraordinary as to be unforeseeable." The appellate judge also rejects Allen's arguments that the trial judge erred by refusing to issue a comparative fault instruction to the jury about how Hedren's own negligence contributed to her harm. The attorney said that the actress had performed two "stage falls" even though her doctor had instructed her not to do action sequences, that she didn't see the doctor until 55 days after the accident and that she continued to campaign for her wildlife preservation charity at "a hectic pace" even after her doctor told her to slow down. But there's "insufficient evidence," agrees the appeals court. The appellate ruling also goes into the sufficiency of the evidence to support a jury verdict, and while we won't address everything, of interest might be the testimony about Hedren's lost future earnings.

Hedren's talent agent Carlyne Grager was put on the witness stand. According to the judge, she testified that her talent agency "specializes in obtaining work for 'legends' — i.e., senior citizen actors "who are names, who have been stars' — and that the market for such actors in Hollywood had grown substantially in the last few years and would continue for the next 10 years." Grager also spoke about roles Hedren was able to take (Jayne Mansfield's Car produced by Billy Bob Thornton) and roles she was offered and didn't take (a television series produced by and starring Betty White), and the salary range (between $2,500 to $25,000 a day) for actors of Hedren's caliber. Based upon that testimony, an economist calculated the actress's lost income —subtracting, of course, for the agent's take.

Allen complained that Grager has no expertise in medicine or disability, and that there was no basis for using television work in determining damages for a film actress, but an appeals court finds the admissibility of evidence within the trial court's discretion.The appeals court also weighs the totality of the record, including that "Hedren has suffered daily from severe headaches that limit her ability to take acting work," and concludes, "We cannot say the award of noneconomic damages is so disproportionate to the evidence that it shocks the conscience and suggests passion or prejudice on the part of the jury."

SOURCE

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: MEG RYAN

Although not a classic star persay, Meg Ryan was at one time this generation's Jean Arthur. For awhile, Ryan was the highest paid female actress in Hollywood. It was about ten years ago that Meg Ryan was commanding about $15 million per picture. Then she kind of disappeared. Now, she attempted to make a comeback and took a few bit parts in low budget failures like in the 2007 movie Land of Women, or 2008's straight-to-video My Mom's New Boyfriend?

So, what happened? How does one of the biggest box-office stars of the 90's drop off the radar like this? Was it age discrimination? Was it a poor choice of roles? Was it the death of the kind of huge romantic comedies she starred in? Meg Ryan movies grossed over $1 billion from 1993 to 1998.

Ryan did take a three year hiatus after the big time bomb in 2004 of Against the Ropes, but she came back in some bigger failures like being a part of an ensemble cast for the movie, The Women in 2008 where she joined Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Bette Midler, and Candice Bergen in a remake of the 1939 classic.

In 2009, Ryan starred alongside Kristen Bell and Justin Long in the independent comedy film Serious Moonlight. In this film, directed by actress Cheryl Hines and based on a screenplay by late writer Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered a year prior to filming, Ryan portrayed a high-powered female attorney who learns that her husband, played by Timothy Hutton, is about to leave their troubled marriage, and decides to hold him captive by duct-taping him to a toilet. Picked up by Magnolia Pictures, the production received a limited release throughout North America only, and grossed less than $150,000 worldwide. In October 2010, she was cast in the ensemble drama Lives of The Saints alongside Kat Dennings, Kevin Zegers and John Lithgow. The drama, similar in style to Crash, interweaves the lives of a group of Los Angeles residents who are all struggling with past mistakes. In April 2011, it was announced that Meg Ryan would make her feature film directing debut with a film titled Into the Beautiful. In May 2011 she was cast in Long Time Gone, a film adaptation of the April Stevens novel Angel Angel. However, she dropped out of the cast before filming started. She was replaced by Virginia Madsen.

What caused this disappearance of Meg Ryan from the movies? Well it could be many things. She had an affair with Russell Crowe while still married to Dennis Quaid - but audiences usually have short term memories with those indiscretions. She has made a poor choice of movie roles, even appearing naked in the R-rated bomb In The Cut in 2003. Also, Hollywood is notoriuous for being unkind to aging actresses. Meg Ryan is now 52, and unless you are Meryl Streep I think good roles for older women are hard to come by.

Nevertheless, Ryan has not had a hit movie since 1998's You've Got Mail, and I think she would be wise to try to return to her roots in romantic comedies. At this time no new Meg Ryan movies are in production, but for many film lovers, she was America's sweetheart in countless movies of the 1990s. Where has the time gone...