Author: festreviews

Happy Birthday: Richard Simmons

festreviews Happy Birthday

Richard SimmonsDate of Birth 12 July 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Birth Name Milton Teagle Simmons
Nickname Dicky
Height 5′ 7″ (1.7 m)

I have rules about eating, exercising and rules about staying positive. And these rules are sacred to me.

I don’t know about you, but every time some joker points me out as I walk through an airport wearing extra-small Dolfin shorts, a tank top and leg warmers, I get a little upset.

Puberty for me was graduating from Thousand Island salad dressing to Caesar salads. It was like going from hot dogs and hamburgers to beef stroganoff, or from ice cream in a cone to creme brulee.

When I lost my weight, I went and bought about 15 different types of underwear to see what would look good on my new body. It’s exciting!

Take a moment every day to find peace. Pull over to the side of the road, turn off the radio, and find peace.

Happy Birthday: Jay Thomas

festreviews Happy Birthday

Jay ThomasDate of Birth 12 July 1948, Kermit, Texas, USA
Birth Name Jon Thomas Terrell
Height 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)

Starred with Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995). He later appeared in two episodes of Dreyfuss’ TV series The Education of Max Bickford (2001).

Was the Morning man at New York City radio station WXRK, just prior to Howard Stern.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6161 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Biological father of musician and songwriter J.T. Harding. After giving J.T. up for adoption as an infant, father and son were reunited after 20 later and have remained close, ever since.

Happy Birthday: Gordon Pinsent

festreviews Happy Birthday

Gordon PinsentDate of Birth 12 July 1930, Grand Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Birth Name Gordon Edward Pinsent
Height 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)

Married to: Charmion King (November 1962 – 6 January 2007) (her death) (1 child)
Irene Reid (1951 – ?) (divorced) (2 children)

In acting, you’re simply at the mercy of other people’s perception of you. It can be a terrifying feeling. The rewards can be great, but there is no steady happiness in this business. There are peaks of joy and valleys of gloom. As you get older, you forget that it was an adventure at one time, that you were able to take the falls. You think ‘I know I’m good. I’ve had it proven. Then why is it not working now?’ You feel you can’t take the falls. You say to yourself, ‘Gee, I need this. This is all I can do in life.’

The truth is I got into this business because I skipped into this darkened theatre in Winnipeg when I was running away from a girlfriend. They were rehearsing, and while I was in there somebody offered me a small part in the play.

[on his infidelities during a long marriage to Charmion King] They were mistakes because I had not stopped growing. We do have a ledge in us, and anything below that is probably a root-cellar where you keep all the bad stuff, all the mistakes you’ve made. But what do you do? You can’t fix it. You just have to leave it and it becomes part of your infrastructure. The only way to make it up to anybody was to become better at what I was doing.

Happy Birthday: Cheryl Ladd

festreviews Happy Birthday

Cheryl LaddDate of Birth 12 July 1951, Huron, South Dakota, USA
Birth Name Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor
Height 5′ 3½” (1.61 m)

Married to:
Brian Russell (3 January 1981 – present)
David Ladd (24 May 1973 – 16 September 1980) (divorced) (1 child)

don’t think people will ever forget I was an “Angel”, anymore than they’ll forget Sally Field was “The Flying Nun”.

I practice my golf swing naked.

[In 2000, recalling her first year on Charlie’s Angels (1976)] I wasn’t overly, warmly received, I wouldn’t say that. There was a really interesting dynamic that had occurred between Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith that to this day I really don’t know all the details of. There was a camaraderie, and they had success. I think when Farrah left, there was some awfully hurt feelings from Kate and Jaclyn.

Happy Birthday: Mikaela Hoover

festreviews Happy Birthday, Uncategorized

Mikaela HooverDate of Birth 12 July 1984, Spokane, Washington, USA
Height 5′ 1½” (1.56 m)

After getting her BA in theatre she booked the first movie she auditioned for called “Frank”. She later went on to play the role of Madison in the WB’s “Sorority Forever” and landed a recurring role on the ABC show “Happy Endings”. She has guest starred on many extremely popular sitcoms including “How I Met Your Mother”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Saint George”, “The League”, and “Anger Management”. She has done many projects with writer/director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) including “The Sparky and Mikaela Show”, “PG Porn”, “Humanzee”, and the movie “Super”.

Happy Birthday: Natalie Martinez

festreviews Happy Birthday, Uncategorized

Natalie Martinez
Date of Birth 12 July 1984, Miami, Florida, USA
Height 5′ 6½” (1.69 m)

Natalie Martinez began modeling at the age of 15, years before she considered giving acting a try. The Miami-born beauty’s career blossomed with a simple suggestion from her mother. During her senior year at St. Brendan High School in 2002, her mother saw an ad for J.Lo’s new clothing line. After beating over 5,000 other girls for the gig, Natalie packed up and moved to Los Angeles.

Happy Birthday: Milton Berle (1908–2002)

festreviews Happy Birthday

Milton Berle (1908–2002)Date of Birth 12 July 1908, New York City, New York, USA
Date of Death 27 March 2002, Los Angeles, California, USA (colon cancer)
Birth Name Milton Berlinger
Nicknames Uncle Miltie
Mr. Television
The Boy Wonder
The Thief of Bad Gags
Height 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Don’t burn, just singe.

You show the emotion so you get the audience going the other way.

[on his beginning as a comic] I had copied my style from a great comic, Ted Healy. I patterned myself after Healy, with the hat turned up in front and the collegiate look. I was the brash, flippant wise guy, smart-ass type.
I have a file of four million jokes . . . I have them cross-indexed. Whatever subject you want, I have a joke on it.

[on his early television show] The first year I was on, ’48 or ’49, I didn’t even have a writer. I just remembered what I did for the last 20 years ’cause we couldn’t afford a writer–there wasn’t any money. So it was a pretty difficult thing and the facilities were difficult.

[his definition of a comic]. . . a comic is a guy who depends solely on the joke, and we have thousands of them. The comedian can get a laugh opening a door in the funny way that he does it and his attitude–that’s a comic versus a comedian. Now a “funnyman” can get a laugh before opening his mouth–looking funny. Lou Costello was one of your great funnymen. Harry Langdon, Larry Semon; they were all funnymen–they LOOKED funny. W.C. Fields was never a comedian. Slim Summerville was a comedian, yet looked funny. Now if you have both attributes, you are in good shape. There is a great line between the comic, the comedian, the funnyman, the buffoon and the clown. I don’t maybe do everything well–but I know the difference.

Happy Birthday: Walter Murch

festreviews Happy Birthday

Walter MurchDate of Birth 12 July 1943, New York City, New York, USA
Birth Name Walter Scott Murch

Married to:
Aggie Murch (6 August 1965 – present) (2 children)

He believes in editing while standing up.

Murch is a beekeeper and he makes his own honey.

Introduced Hollywood to the idea of editing films on the non-linear Mac based program Final Cut Pro rather than the Avid. Since then, has gone back to Avid Media Composer.

To date, only artist ever to win Oscars for both film editing and sound engineering on a single film (The English Patient (1996)).

[about the opening scene of Apocalypse Now (1979):] “You’re looking at a character whose head is enveloped in flames, and then at slow-motion helicopter blades slicing through his body, superimposed upon a whirling ceiling fan, and strange sounds and music intermingling from different sources; you’re probably aware you’re watching a film, not an imitation of real life. Even dreams, despite their odd surreality, don’t look quite like that. Inevitably, the superimposed images in “Apocalypse Now” betray a self-consciousness because they come at the very beginning and are intended to expose and explore Willard’s inner state of mind. If there had been no resonance between that scene and the film as a whole, the opening would have been a meaningless exercise, empty virtuosity.”