15 Game Popular Sepanjang Masa

Industri game memang sangat menjanjikan, bahkan sebagian judul telah mencetak rekor sebagai game paling laris pada masanya. Lalu game apa saja yang berhasil meraih penjualan terbanyak?

Berdasarkan data yang dikumpulkan oleh Guinness World Records dalam 2010 Gamer's Edition, setidaknya ada 15 game yang memiliki angka penjualan yang menakjubkan.

Inilah 15 game terlaris sepanjang masa:

1. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire (2002), terjual sebanyak 15 juta keping
2. The Sims (2000), 16 juta keping
3. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl (2006), 17 juta keping
4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), 18 juta
5. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (2005), 19 juta
6. Super Mario World (1990), 21 juta
7. New Super Mario Bros (2006), 22 juta
8. Wii Fit (2007), 23 juta
9. Nintendogs (2005, 24 juta
10. Wii Play (2006), 27 juta
11. Duck Hunt (1984), 28 juta
12. Tetris (1989), 30 juta
13. Pokémon Blue/Red/Green (1996), 31 juta
14. Super Mario Bros (1985), 40 juta
15. Wii Sports (2006), 62 juta

Jika merujuk pada data di atas, maka bisa Nintendo bisa dibilang masih merajai penjualan game di seluruh dunia. Meski tidak melulu mengedepankan kualitas grafis, namun agaknya gamer banyak kepincut dengan sistem permainan yang ditawarkan oleh Nintendo.

Data Menakjubkan dari Riset Internet

Internet, sesuatu yang biasa kita gunakan sehari-hari. Bagaikan perpustakaan yang sangat luas, tanpa batas. Sesuatu yang membuat kita kecanduan, membuat kita insomnia, dan mengisi senjang waktu kosong. Tetapi, sadarkah kalian tentang semua kegiatan manusia di internet ?? Ini adalah data dari riset internet yang mungkin akan membuat kalian akan mulai menyadarinya.

1. 210 milyar email dikirim setiap hari melalui jaringan internet.
2. 3 juta foto setiap hari di kirim ke situs Flickr, cukup untuk membuat 375 ribu allbum foto. 43.339.547 GB trafik dari perangkat mobile saja diseluruh dunia. Itu saja sudah setara untuk mengisi 1.7 juta disk Blu-ray atau 9.2 juta DVD disc, atau setara 63.9 trilyun disket.
3. 45 juta status update di Facebook, atau 5 juta tweets perhari. Setara dengan 900 ribu post blogger. Hasil kegiatan tersebut menghasilkan isi dari sebuah koran selama 19 tahun hanya dalam 1 hari kegiatan dari kegiatan di internet.
   

Wow, menakjubkan. Keep visiting ya !!!

Celebrity Grave: Fanny Brice, Actress, Comedian

Fanny Brice (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951) was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances but is best remembered as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show. Thirteen years after her death, she was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in the musical Funny Girl and its 1968 film adaption.

Early life

Fanny Brice (occasionally spelled Fannie Brice) was the stage name of Fania Borach, born in New York City, the third child of relatively well-off saloon owners of Hungarian Jewish descent.

In 1908, Brice dropped out of school to work in a burlesque revue, and two years later she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies from 1910 into the 1930s. In the 1921 Follies, she was featured singing "My Man" which became both a big hit and her signature song. She made a popular recording of it for Victor Records.

The second song most associated with Brice is "Second Hand Rose," which she introduced in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.

She recorded nearly two dozen record sides for Victor and also cut several for Columbia. She is a posthumous recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for her 1921 recording of "My Man."

Brice's Broadway credits include Fioretta, Sweet and Low, and Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt. Her films include My Man (1928), Be Yourself! (1930) and Everybody Sing (1938) with Judy Garland. Brice, Ray Bolger and Harriet Hoctor were the only original Ziegfeld performers to portray themselves in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at MP 6415 Hollywood Boulevard.

Radio

From the 1930s until her death in 1951, Fanny made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by playwright Moss Hart. With first Alan Reed and then Hanley Stafford as her bedeviled Daddy, Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS.

She moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Coffee Time, the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and comedian Frank Morgan, in September 1944. Her longtime Snooks sketch writers---Philip Rapp, David Freedman---finally brought in partners like Arthur Stander and Everett Freeman to develop an independent, half-hour comedy program, launched on CBS in 1944 and moving to NBC in 1948, with Freeman producing. First called Post Toasties Time (named for the show's first sponsor), the show was renamed The Baby Snooks Show within short order, though in later years it was often known colloquially as Baby Snooks and Daddy.

Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life. In addition to Reed and Stafford, her co-stars included Lalive Brownell, Lois Corbet and Arlene Harris playing her mother, Danny Thomas as Jerry, Charlie Cantor as Uncle Louie and Ken Christy as Mr. Weemish. She was completely devoted to the character, as she told biographer Norman Katkov: "Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist."

Baby Snooks writer/producer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice didn't like to rehearse the role ("I can't do a show until it's on the air, kid") but always snapped into it on the air, losing herself completely in the character: "While she was on the air she was Baby Snooks. And after the show, for an hour after the show, she was still Baby Snooks. The Snooks voice disappeared, of course, but the Snooks temperament, thinking, actions were all there."

Marriages

Brice had a short-lived marriage in her teens to a local barber, Frank White, whom she met in 1911 in Springfield, Massachusetts, when she was touring in "College Girl." The marriage lasted only a few days and she brought suit for divorce.[1] Her second husband was professional gambler Julius W. "Nicky" Arnstein. Prior to their marriage, Arnstein served 14 months in Sing Sing for wiretapping, where Brice visited him every week. In 1918 they were married, after living together for six years. In 1924, Arnstein was charged in a Wall Street bond theft. Brice insisted on his innocence, and funded his legal defense at great expense. Arnstein was convicted and sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth where he served three years. Released in 1927, Arnstein disappeared from Brice's life and that of his two children. Reluctantly, Brice divorced him. She went on to marry songwriter and stage producer Billy Rose and appeared in his revue Crazy Quilt, among others. That marriage also failed.

Television

Brice and Stafford brought Baby Snooks and Daddy to television only once, an appearance in June 1950 on CBS-TV's Popsicle Parade of Stars. This was Fanny Brice's only appearance on television. Viewing the kinescope recording today, Fanny is a strange, but amusing sight: a middle-aged woman in a little girl's outfit (and none of the other cast seem to find this unusual). Brice handled herself well on the live TV broadcast but later admitted that the character of Baby Snooks just didn’t work properly when seen.

She returned with Stafford and the Snooks character to the safety of radio for her next appearance, on Tallulah Bankhead's legendary big-budget, large-scale radio variety show, The Big Show, in November 1950, sharing the bill with Groucho Marx and Jane Powell. In one routine Snooks knocks on Bankhead's dressing room door for advice on becoming an actress when she grew up in spite of Daddy's warning that she already lacked what it took.

Six months after her Big Show appearance, Fanny Brice died in Hollywood at the age of 59 of a cerebral hemorrhage. She is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. (Her original interment was at Home of Peace Memorial Park.) The May 29, 1951 episode of The Baby Snooks Show was broadcast as a memorial to the star who created the brattish toddler, crowned by Hanley Stafford's brief on-air eulogy: "We have lost a very real, a very warm, a very wonderful woman."

Brice portrayals

Although the names of the principal characters were changed, the plot of the 1939 film Rose of Washington Square, in which the principal characters were portrayed by Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, was inspired heavily by Brice's marriage and career, to the extent it borrowed its title from a tune she performed in the Follies and included "My Man." She sued 20th Century Fox for invasion of privacy and won the case. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck was forced to delete several production numbers closely associated with the star.

Barbra Streisand starred as Brice in the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl, which centered on Brice's rise to fame and troubled relationship with Arnstein. In 1968, Streisand won an Academy Award for Best Actress for reprising her role in the film version (sharing the Oscar with Katharine Hepburn, for The Lion in Winter, in the Academy's only-ever tie vote). The 1975 sequel Funny Lady focused on Brice's turbulent relationship with impresario Billy Rose and was as highly fictionalized as the original. Streisand also recorded the Brice songs "My Man," "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Happy with Somebody Else)" and "Second Hand Rose," which became a Top 40 hit.

Funny Girl and Funny Lady are examples of how plays and films take great liberties with the lives of historical figures and/or events. The Streisand film makes no mention of Brice's first husband at all. It also suggests that Arnstein turned to crime because his pride wouldn't allow him to live off Fanny, and that he was wanted by the police for selling phony bonds. In reality, however, Arnstein shamelessly sponged off Brice even before their marriage and was eventually named as a member of a gang that stole $5 million of Wall Street securities. Instead of turning himself in, as in the movie, Arnstein went into hiding. When he finally surrendered, he did not plead guilty as he did in the movie, but fought the charges for four years, taking a toll on his wife's finances. It is thought that Ray Stark, the producer of the play and both movies and Brice's son-in-law, changed Arnstein's story in order to avoid a lawsuit, as Arnstein was still alive at the time. Brice's son William was not mentioned in the play or movies by mutual agreement; other changes (such as the portrayal of Brice's parents as poor rather than well-off or the omission of Brice's first husband) may have been done to increase the dramatic power of the story.

Two children were born of the Brice-Arnstein marriage. Daughter Frances (1919-1992) married Ray Stark, while son William (1921-2008) became an artist of note, using his mother's surname.

The campus of the State University of New York (SUNY at Stony Brook formerly had a Fannie Brice Theatre, a small 75-seat venue which has been used for a variety of performances over the years, including a 1988 production of the musical Hair, staged readings, and a studio classroom space. The building was razed in 2007 to make way for new dormitories.

The 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon Quentin Quail features a character based on Brice's characterization of Baby Snooks.

Further reading

Goldman, Herbert, Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508552-3.
Grossman, Barbara, Funny Woman: The Life and Times of Fanny Brice, Indiana University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-253-20762-2.

References

1.^ "Fanny Brice Dies at the Age of 59" from "On This Day", May 30, 1951 from The New York Times

Celebrity Grave: Paul Malvern, Lone Star Productions

Paul William Malvern (28 June 1902 - 29 May 1993) was a movie producer for Monogram Studios and Universal. He created his own production company "Lone Star Productions" at Monogram Studios. At Universal, he produced HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA.

 

Paul Malvern, a former child acrobat with The Ringling Bros. Circus, worked as a movie stuntman during silent and early talkie films. While working at the Monogram Studios, Malvern took over the responsibility of producing films under his newly created "Lone Star Productions" logo. He produced 16 westerns from 1933 to 1935 and worked very closely with actor John Wayne on his early films. Later in his career, Malvern moved over to Universal Studios where his films generated big business for the studio and created a wave of prosperity for the studio that began with the introduction of Deanna Durbin's musicals and lasted until after WWII. Malvern retired in 1952 to take care of his stepson who was ill with cancer, and his wife who wasn't in the best of health. Paul was married for fifty years to actress Jean Huntley, whom he'd met when he fell from a balcony while filming a scene.

-- IMDB  - vicdru@hotmail.com

Monogram Pictures Corporation was a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to collectively as Poverty Row. The idea behind the studio was that when the Monogram logo appeared on the screen, everyone knew they were in for action and adventure.

Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies, W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Productions (renamed "Raytone" when sound pictures came in) and Trem Carr's Sono Art-World Wide Pictures. Both specialized in low budget features and, as Monogram Pictures, continued that policy until 1935 with Carr in charge of production. Another independent, Paul Malvern, released his Lone Star western productions (starring John Wayne) through Monogram.

 

Paul Malvern is entombed with his wife Jean at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

Deathday in L.A.: James Whale, Father of Frankenstein

 

James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was a British film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all recognized as classics of the genre. Whale directed over a dozen films in other genres, including what is considered the definitive film version of the musical Show Boat (1936). He became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror, but many of his non-horror films have fallen into obscurity.

 

Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art. With the outbreak of World War I, Whale enlisted in the British Army and became an officer. He was captured by the Germans and during his time as a prisoner of war he realized he was interested in drama. Following his release at the end of the war he became an actor, set designer and director. His success directing the 1928 play Journey's End led to his move to the United States, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood to direct motion pictures. Whale lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime companion, producer David Lewis. Including Journey's End (1930), Whale directed a dozen films for Universal Studios between 1930 and 1936 (his uncredited work on the war epic Hell's Angels having been done for United Artists), developing a style characterized by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera.

 

At the height of his popularity as a director, Whale directed The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, in 1937. Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from Whale's vision and The Road Back was a critical and commercial failure. A string of commercial failures followed and, while Whale would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was over. Whale continued to direct for the stage and also rediscovered his love for painting and travel. His investments made him wealthy and he lived a comfortable retirement until suffering strokes in 1956 that robbed him of his vigor and left him in pain. Whale committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his backyard swimming pool.

Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very unusual in the 1920s and 1930s. As knowledge of his sexual orientation has become more common, some of his films, Bride of Frankenstein in particular, have been interpreted as having a gay subtext and it has been claimed that Whale's refusal to remain in the closet led to the end of his career. However, Whale's associates dismiss the notions that Whale's sexuality informed his work or that it cost him his career.

James Whale's Brentwood Home

Whale suffered from mood swings and grew increasingly and frustratingly more dependent on others and his mental faculties were diminishing.[85] Whale committed suicide by drowning himself in his swimming pool on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67.[86] He left a suicide note, which Lewis withheld until shortly before his own death decades later. Because the note was suppressed, the death was initially ruled accidental.[87] The note read in part:

"To ALL I LOVE,

"Do not grieve for me. My nerves are all shot and for the last year I have been in agony day and night—except when I sleep with sleeping pills—and any peace I have by day is when I am drugged by pills.

"I have had a wonderful life but it is over and my nerves get worse and I am afraid they will have to take me away. So please forgive me, all those I love and may God forgive me too, but I cannot bear the agony and it [is] best for everyone this way.

"The future is just old age and illness and pain. Goodbye and thank you for all your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.

"Jimmy"[82]

Whale was cremated per his request and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Because of Whale's habit of periodically revising his date of birth, his niche lists the incorrect date of 1893.[88] When his longtime companion David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.[89]

 

Deathday in L.A.: Phil & Brynn Hartman, Murder-Suicide

 

Phil Hartman (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-born American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family immigrated to the United States when he was ten. After graduating from California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands like Poco and America. Feeling the need for a more creative outlet, Hartman joined the comedy group The Groundlings in 1975 and there helped comedian Paul Reubens develop his character Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the screenplay for the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse.

Hartman became well-known in the late 1980s when he joined the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He won fame for his impressions, particularly of President Bill Clinton, and stayed on the show for eight seasons. Called "the Glue" for his ability to hold the show together and help other cast members, Hartman won a Primetime Emmy Award for his SNL work in 1989. In 1995, after scrapping plans for his own variety show, he starred as Bill McNeal in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. He also had frequent roles on The Simpsons, and appeared in the films Houseguest, Sgt. Bilko, Jingle All the Way, and Small Soldiers.

Hartman had twice divorced before he married Brynn (née Omdahl) in 1987; the couple had two children together. However, their marriage was fractured, due in part to Brynn's drug use. On May 28, 1998, Brynn shot and killed her husband while he slept in their Encino, Los Angeles home, then committed suicide several hours later. In the weeks following his death, Hartman was celebrated in a wave of tributes. Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly opined that Hartman was "the last person you'd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper."

 

Personal life

Hartman married Gretchen Lewis in 1970 and they divorced sometime before 1982. He married real estate agent Lisa Strain in 1982 and their marriage lasted three years. Strain told People that Hartman was reclusive off screen and "would disappear emotionally ... he'd be in his own world. That passivity made you crazy." Hartman married former model and aspiring actress Brynn Omdahl (born Vicki Jo Omdahl) in November 1987, having met her on a blind date the previous year. Together they had two children, Sean and Birgen Hartman. The marriage had difficulties—Brynn reportedly felt intimidated by her husband's success and was frustrated that she could not find any on her own, although neither party wanted a divorce. Hartman considered retiring to save the marriage. He tried to get Brynn acting roles but she became progressively more reliant on narcotics and alcohol, entering rehab several times. Because of his close friendship with SNL associate Jan Hooks, Brynn joked on occasion that Hooks and Hartman were married "on some other level."

Death

On the evening of May 27, 1998, Brynn Hartman visited the Italian restaurant Buca di Beppo in Los Angeles County, California, with producer and writer Christine Zander, who said she was "in a good frame of mind." After returning to the couple's Encino home, Brynn started a "heated" argument with Hartman, who threatened to leave her if she started using drugs again, and went to bed. While he slept, Brynn entered his bedroom shortly before 3 a.m. with a .38 caliber handgun and fatally shot him twice in the head and once in his side. She was intoxicated, and had recently taken cocaine.

Brynn drove to the home of her friend Ron Douglas and confessed to the murder but initially he did not believe her. The pair drove back to the house in separate cars after which Brynn called another friend and confessed a second time. Upon seeing Hartman's body, Douglas called 911 at 6:20 a.m. Police subsequently arrived and escorted Douglas and the Hartmans' two children from the premises. Brynn had locked herself in the bedroom, and committed suicide by shooting herself once in the head.

Los Angeles police stated Hartman's death was due to "domestic discord" between the couple. A friend recalled that Brynn allegedly "had trouble controlling her anger ... She got attention by losing her temper." A neighbor of the Hartmans told a CNN reporter that the couple had been experiencing marital problems: "It's been building, but I didn't think it would lead to this." Steve Guttenberg commented that the pair were "a very happy couple, and they always had the appearance of being well-balanced."

Other causes for the incident were later suggested. Before committing the act, Brynn was taking the antidepressant drug Zoloft. A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed in 1999 by Brynn's brother, Gregory Omdahl against the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, and her child's psychiatrist Arthur Sorosky, who provided samples of Zoloft to Brynn. Hartman's friend and ex-SNL colleague Jon Lovitz has said that his former NewsRadio co-star Andy Dick gave cocaine to Brynn, causing her to relapse and suffer a mental breakdown. Dick claims to have known nothing of her condition. In 2006, Lovitz claimed that Dick had approached him at a restaurant and said, "I put the Phil Hartman hex on you; you're the next one to die." The following year at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Los Angeles, he and Dick had a further altercation over the issue. Dick does not believe he is at fault in relation to Hartman's death.

Brynn's sister Katharine Omdahl and brother-in-law Mike Wright are raising the two Hartman children in Edina, Minnesota. Hartman's will stipulated that each child will receive their inheritance over several years after they turn 25. The total value of Hartman's estate was estimated at $1.23 million. As per Hartman's will, his body was cremated by Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Glendale, California, and his ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island's Emerald Bay.

 

Celebrity Grave: Paul Gleason, Actor

Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor.

Early life

Gleason was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Eleanor (née Doyle), a registered nurse, and George L. Gleason, a restaurateur, professional boxer, iron worker, and roofing manufacturer.[1] Gleason was raised in Uleta, however the city is no longer standing today. At the age of 16, he ran away from home and hitchhiked across the east coast, sleeping on beaches and playing baseball.[2] He attended North Miami High School and Florida State University where he played football. He signed a professional baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians, but played just briefly in two minor league seasons. Gleason later moved to New York City and eventually, moved again to Los Angeles.

Career

Gleason starred in many movies, and became well-known initially as Dr. David Thornton on All My Children, playing the role from 1976 to 1978. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Richard Vernon, the gruff disciplinarian in the seminal 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. He guest-starred in 2 of The A-Team episodes, titled "The Trouble with Harry," and "Fire." He reprised versions of that character several times, including in an A*Teens music video, on the television show Boy Meets World (although he was a dean on BMW) and in the films Johnny Be Good and Not Another Teen Movie. Gleason, who kept the suit he wore in "The Breakfast Club" after filming wrapped up, donned it again for the role in "Not Another Teen Movie." As a bookend to his modern fame as strict disciplinarian, Gleason played a tough yet forgiving and nurturing professor - that of Professor McDoogle - to the lead character in Van Wilder.

Gleason was known to Star Wars fans for his role as Jeremitt Towani in the 1985 made-for-TV film The Battle for Endor. He played the villainous Clarence Beeks, the Dukes brothers' inside trader, in the 1983 comedy Trading Places starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. He also played Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T Robinson, the blowhard police official in Die Hard.

He appeared in an episode of Drake and Josh, in which Drake goes to a school council to prove himself innocent after being framed. Gleason plays the goofy judge. He also appeared in an episode of George Lopez as George Lopez's boss's brother, a crazy old drunk. His final appearance before his death was in an independent film called The Book of Caleb.

Personal life

Gleason, in addition to his acting career, participated in many celebrity golf events each year, and was known by autograph hunting experts to mingle with fans and sign autographs during these golf tournaments. He was married to Susan Kehl and is survived by his wife, two daughters, Shannon and Kaitlin, and one granddaughter, Sofia.

Death

Gleason died on May 27, 2006 at a Burbank, California hospital from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer connected with asbestos, which he is thought to have contracted from asbestos exposure on building sites while working for his father as a teenager.[2] He was 67 years old. Gleason is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

References

1.^ Paul Gleason Biography (1939-)
2.^ Paul Gleason - Telegraph

Celebrity Grave: Eddie Albert, Actor

Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005), known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor, gardener, humanitarian, activist and decorated World War II veteran. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. His other well-known roles include playing Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television situation comedy Green Acres, and Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, opposite Jane Wyman.

Early life

Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, the oldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a realtor, and his wife Julia Jones.[1] His year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is incorrect. Albert's parents were unmarried when Albert was born and[2] his mother altered his birth certificate after her marriage.

When he was one year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Albert got his first job as a newspaper boy when he was only six. During World War I, his German name led to taunts as "the enemy" by his classmates. He studied at Central High School in Minneapolis, where he joined the drama club. His schoolmate Harriette Lake (later known as actress Ann Sothern), was a few years his junior. Finishing high school in 1924, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business. When he graduated, he embarked on a business career. However, the stock market crash in 1929 left him substantially unemployed. He then took odd jobs, working as a trapeze performer, an insurance salesman, and a nightclub singer.

Albert stopped using his last name professionally, since it invariably was mangled into "Hamburger". He moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show, The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. Ar the show's end, he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros.

Career

In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937–1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938–1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations.

In 1938, he made his feature film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart. His contract with Warner Bros. was abruptly terminated in 1941, purportedly because of an affair he was having with studio head Jack L. Warner's wife. (Warner had previously pulled him off a picture as it was being shot and kept him under contract for a period afterward, primarily as a way of preventing him from getting other work.)

Prior to World War II, and before his film career, Albert had toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus, but secretly worked for U.S. Army intelligence, photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors.[3] On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Navy and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. A genuine war hero, he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November, 1943, when, as the pilot of a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.[4]

Prolific character actor

Since 1948, Albert enjoyed being both a popular and beloved character actor and guest-starred in nearly ninety TV series.[5] He made his guest-starring debut on an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour. This part led to other roles such as Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Suspense, Lights Out, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Studio One, Danger, Philco Television Playhouse, The Phillip Morris Playhouse, Your Show of Shows, General Electric Theater, Front Row Center, The Eleventh Hour, The Reporter, The Alcoa Hour, among others.

Stage actor

The 1950s also saw a return to Broadway for Albert, including roles in Miss Liberty (1949–1950) and The Seven Year Itch (1952–1955). In 1960, Albert replaced Robert Preston in the lead role of Professor Harold Hill, in the Broadway production of The Music Man. Albert also performed in regional theater. He performed at The Muny Theater in St. Louis, reprising the Harold Hill role in The Music Man in 1966 and playing Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady in 1968.

1950s and 1960s movie career

In the 1950s, Albert appeared in film roles such as that of Lucille Ball's fiancé in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950), as Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises (1957) and as a traveling salesman in Carrie (1952). He was nominated for his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor with Roman Holiday (1953). In Oklahoma! (1955), he played a womanizing peddler, and in Who's Got the Action? (1962), he portrayed a lawyer helping his partner (Dean Martin) cope with a gambling addiction. In Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) he played a psychiatrist with an enthusiasm for farming. He appeared in several military roles, including The Longest Day (1962), about the Normandy Invasion. The film Attack! (1956) provided Albert with a dark role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company. In a similar vein he played a psychotic United States Army Air Force colonel in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), opposite Gregory Peck.

Television series

Green Acres

Albert's first television series was Leave It to Larry, a CBS sitcom that aired in the 1952-1953 season, with Albert as Larry Tucker, a shoe salesman who lives with his young family in the home of his father-in-law and employer, played by Ed Begley.

In 1965, Albert was approached by producer Paul Henning to star in a new sitcom for CBS called Green Acres. His character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was a lawyer who left the city to enjoy a simple life as a farmer. The character had similarities to his 1956 role in the movie Teahouse of the August Moon. Co-starring on the show was Eva Gabor. Also starring on the show were familiar actors such as Frank Cady, who played the role of storekeeper Sam Drucker (also a recurring role on the parent show, Petticoat Junction); Sid Melton, who had a recurring role as the incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe; and Mary Grace Canfield, in the recurring role of Alf's sister, Ralph Monroe. Tom Lester was cast as Oliver's and Lisa's farmhand, Eb Dawson, who referred to them as his parents.

The show was an immediate hit, achieving fifth place in the ratings in its first season. By 1971, Green Acres was still reasonably popular but was canceled when CBS decided to discontinue their lineup of rural-themed programs due to changing tastes and because they were sensitive to the fact that they had been disparagingly referred to in the press as the "Country Broadcasting System."

Also in 1965, Albert served as host / narrator for the CBS telecast of a German-American made-for-TV film version of The Nutcracker. The host sequences and the narration were especially filmed for English-language telecasts of this short film (it was only an hour in length, and cut much from the Tchaikovsky ballet).[6]

Switch

After a four-year-absence from the small screen, and upon reaching age 69 in 1975, Albert signed a new contract with Universal Television, and starred in the popular 1970s adventure/crime drama, Switch for CBS, as a retired police officer, Frank McBride, who goes to work as a private detective with a former criminal he had once jailed. Co-starring on the show was another veteran movie and television star, Robert Wagner, who played the former con man and now McBride's friendly partner, Pete T. Ryan. Sharon Gless played Frank's and Pete's classy and charismatic receptionist, Maggie. Comedian Charlie Callas played the role of restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, an informant for the private eyes and another former crook. In its first season, Switch was a hit. By late 1976, the show had become a more serious and traditional crime drama. At the end of its third season in 1978, ratings began to drop, and the show was canceled after 70 episodes.

Eddie Albert's friendship with Robert Wagner's family began in the early 1960s, when they co-starred in The Longest Day. Wagner said of his idol and friend, "The first impression I ever had of Eddie was when I was a kid and went to see 'Brother Rat,' and he was absolutely fantastic in that picture. His humor and his wit and the things that he did were so profound for that time that they kept growing and growing." Wagner also said of his tenure on Switch how much he respected Albert after years of watching his mentor's classic movies. "In the show was an interesting premise: I was always doing it in an illegitimate way and he was doing it in a legitimate way. He always was striving to do better and more and take another look at it, and approached it in a different way, and I learned a lot from him. He was one of the highlights of my life, because I liked him so much. We became friends, as it [working together] was a very joyful experience." The year following the demise of Switch, Wagner was reunited with Albert in The Concorde: Airport '79. Albert and Wagner remained friends until Albert's death.

Later work

In 1972, Albert resumed his film career and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an overprotective father, in The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and delivered a memorable performance as an evil prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. In a lighter vein, Albert portrayed the gruff though soft-hearted Jason O'Day in the successful Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain in 1975.

Albert appeared in such '80s films as How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980), Yesterday (1981), Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Goliath Awaits (1981 TV movie), Yes, Giorgio (1982), and as the U.S. president in Dreamscape (1984). His final feature film role was a cameo in The Big Picture (1989).

In the mid-1980s, Albert was reunited with longtime friend and co-star of the Brother Rat and An Angel from Texas movies Jane Wyman in a recurring role as the villainous Carlton Travis in the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest. He also guest-starred on an episode of the '80s television series Highway to Heaven, as well as Murder She Wrote and Columbo, and in 1990 he reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return To Green Acres. In 1993, he guest-starred for several episodes on the popular ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital as Jack Boland, and also made a guest appearance on the Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace the same year.

Activism

Albert was active in social and environmental causes especially from 1970s onward. Beginning in the 1940s, his Eddie Albert Productions produced films for various U.S. corporations, as well as documentaries such as Human Beginnings (a for-its-time controversial sex education film) and Human Growth.[7] Albert also narrated and starred in a 1970 film promoting views of the Weyerhaeuser company, a major international logging concern.[8][9][10]

He was special envoy for Meals for Millions and consultant for the World Hunger Conference.[11] He joined Albert Schweitzer in a documentary about African malnutrition [12][13] and fought agricultural and industrial pollution, particularly DDT.[11] Albert promoted organic gardening and founded City Children's Farms for inner-city children,[14] while supporting eco-farming and tree planting[15]. He was national chairman for the Boy Scouts of America's conservation program and founded the "Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation." Albert was a trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association and a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's advisory board. This notable activism led TV Guide magazine to call him "an ecological Paul Revere."[16]

Albert was also a director of the U.S. Council on Refugees[17][18] and participated in the creation of Earth Day and spoke at its inaugural ceremony in 1970.[11] (Despite rumors that Earth Day was designated to occur on Albert's birthday, April 22, sources suggest that the date was coincidental.)

Personal life

In 1945, Albert married Mexican actress María Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado Castilla y O'Donnell (better known by her stage name Margo). They lived in Pacific Palisades, California, in a Spanish-style house on 1-acre (4,000 m2) of land with a cornfield in front. Albert grew organic vegetables in a greenhouse and recalled how his parents had a "liberty garden" at home during World War I. Albert and his wife had a son, Edward. They also adopted a daughter, Maria. Margo Albert died from a brain tumor on July 17, 1985.

Eddie Albert suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his last years. His son put his acting career aside to care for his father. Despite his illness, Albert exercised regularly until shortly before his death. His hobbies included boating, jogging, swimming, wine making, beekeeping, sculpting, organic gardening, and world travel.

Eddie Albert died of pneumonia in 2005 at the age of 99 at his home in Pacific Palisades. He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, next to his wife, Margo and his Green Acres co-star Eva Gabor. Albert's family was joined by many mourners at a private funeral, including Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jane Wyman, Robert Wagner, Charlie Callas, Sharon Gless, and several of Eddie's Green Acres co-stars, including Sid Melton, Mary Grace Canfield, and Frank Cady.

Edward Albert Junior (1951–2006) was an actor, musician, singer, and linguist/dialectician.[19] He died at age 55, only one year after his father. He had been suffering from lung cancer for 18 months. His sister, now Maria Albert Zucht, was her father's business manager. She has one daughter, Mia Zucht.

Memorials

For contributions to the television industry, Eddie Albert was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.[20]

Filmography

Brother Rat (1938)
On Your Toes (1939)
Four Wives (1939)
Brother Rat and a Baby (1940)
An Angel from Texas (1940)
My Love Came Back (1940)
A Dispatch from Reuter's (1940)
The Great Mr. Nobody (1941)
Four Mothers (1941)
The Wagons Roll at Night (1941)
Thieves Fall Out (1941)
Out of the Fog (1941)
Treat 'Em Rough (1942)
Eagle Squadron (1942)
Lady Bodyguard (1943)
Ladies' Day (1943)
Bombardier (1943)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood in Uniform (1943) (short subject)
Strange Voyage (1946)
Rendezvous with Annie (1946)
The Perfect Marriage (1947)
Hit Parade of 1947 (1947)
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947)
Time Out of Mind (1947)
Unconquered (1947) (scenes deleted)
The Dude Goes West (1948)
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) (cameo)
The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)
You're in the Navy Now (1951)
Meet Me After the Show (1951)
Actors and Sin (1952)
Carrie (1952)
Roman Holiday (1953)
The Girl Rush (1955)
Oklahoma! (1955)
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
Operation Teahouse (1956) (short subject)
Attack! (1956)
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
The Sun Also Rises (1957)
The Joker Is Wild (1957)
Orders to Kill (1958)
The Roots of Heaven (1958)
The Gun Runners (1958)
Beloved Infidel (1959)
The Young Doctors (1961)
Madison Avenue (1962)
The Longest Day (1962)
Who's Got the Action? (1962)
The Two Little Bears (1963)
Miracle of the White Stallions (1963)
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
The Party's Over (1965)
7 Women (1966)
Columbo (TV) (1971)
The Lorax (1972) (TV) – Narrator (voice)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
The Borrowers (1973) (TV)
The Longest Yard (1974)
McQ (1974)
The Take (1974)
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
The Devil's Rain (1975)
Whiffs (1975)
Hustle (1975)
Moving Violation (1976)
Birch Interval (1977)
Border Cop (1979)
The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979)
How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980)
Foolin' Around (1980)
Yesterday (1981)
Take This Job and Shove It (1981)
Goliath Awaits (1981 TV movie)
The Act (1982)
Yes, Giorgio (1982)
Dreamscape (1984)
Stitches (film) (1985)
Head Office (1985)
Turnaround (1987)
Brenda Starr (1989)
The Big Picture (1989) (Cameo)
thirtysomething (1989)
Return to Green Acres (1990)
General Hospital (1993)
Headless! (1994) (short subject)
Death Valley Memories (1994) (documentary) (narrator)

References

1.^ Eddie Albert Biography (1908?-)
2.^ USATODAY.com - 'Green Acres' star Eddie Albert dies at 99
3.^ "Organic Eddie," Grand Times, 1996. http://www.grandtimes.com/eddie.html
4.^ http://thunderaway.com/worldwar/pdfwar/WW2hollywood.pdf
5.^ http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000734/
6.^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221445/
7.^ Fort Walton Beach, Florida Playground Daily News, March 20, 1970
8.^ http://www.wflc.org/inthenews/nso/weyerhaeuser/NSOedit
9.^ http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_090770/22
10.^ Ted Williams "The Insightful Sportsman" (Camden, Me., Down East Books, 1996) Also available at |http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/hardtoget/myth5/pg25-29.html
11.^ Congressional Record, July 18, 2005, Section 22
12.^ http://childoftv.blogspot.com/2005/05/eddie-albert-1906-2005.html
13.^ portions may be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3382029653866127786
14.^ Pacific Palisades Post, June 2, 2005
15.^ Walters, Charles. "The Last Word," Acres USA, July, 2005, Vol. 35, No. 7
16.^ Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2005
17.^ http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=440744&page=106
18.^ http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/eddiealbert.htm
19.^ Edward Albert, Internet Accuracy Project http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Albert,Edward.html "Edward Albert was also a photographer, sculptor, singer/songwriter, musician (guitar), and a linguist/dialectician who was fluent in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese."
20.^ "Hollywood Walk of Fame database". HWOF.com.