We tell ourselves stories in order to live…We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
He was “Enrico Rossi” in 113 episodes of “The Untouchables”. Other credits include two episodes of “Get Smart”, the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “Mission: Impossible”, “The Rockford Files”, four episodes of “Quincy M.E.”, the Andy Sidaris film “Picasso Trigger”…
…and “Mannix”. (“Deadfall”, season 1, episodes 17 and 18. We have not seen this yet, as we are saving season 1 until after we’ve watched seasons 2 through 8. But this is kind of a legendary episode: Joe Mannix gets into a bloody fight with his boss at Intertect.)
Robbie Roper. He was a high school quarterback in Georgia and one of the top recruits in this year’s class.
She was most famous as “Truly Scrumptious” in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. She did some TV work, including “Mission: Impossible” and “Run For Your Life”.
High points include “The Defiant Ones”, “We Go to Monte Carlo”, “The Man From the Diners’ Club”, and the wife of Harry Morgan’s character in “Pete and Gladys”.
Everybody’s been on this like flies on a severed cow’s head in a Damien Hirst installation, but I wanted to note it for two reasons:
1. The hysterical record.
2. When I looked early this morning (probably around 7:30 AM) the NYT had what I thought was a very brief and superficial obit up, with no mention that a longer one would be coming. When I checked later in the afternoon, that one has been slightly expanded and the usual “a fuller obituary will be published soon” note was there. The current obit seems to be the end product (modulo any corrections that come in).
I used to have a CD of “I Am Sitting in a Room”, back when I was in my “difficult listening” phase. It was not something I spent a lot of time listening to, though I was happy to have it.
Eddie Mekka. Most famous as Carmine Ragusa on “Laverne & Shirley”. Other credits include guest shots on “The Love Boat”, “Fantasy Island”, and one of the “Rockford Files” TV movies.
He was a Hall of Fame player, first with the Kansas City Chiefs (in both the AFL and NFL) then with the Houston Oilers (1974-1980) and finally with Detroit.
I am not the person who should be writing this. I am hoping that the person who should be writing this will send me something I can use here.
But what little I know about musical theater, I know because Mike the Musicologist introduced me to it…by playing me lots of Sondheim’s work.
NYT interview conducted last Sunday. It sounds like he was in full possession of his facilities until the end, and didn’t have any more complaints than the average 91 year old would.
MtM sent me this last night. I confess, I haven’t watched all of it yet (it is over two hours). But: this is the complete original production of “Pacific Overtures“, recorded on June 9, 1976 for broadcast in Japan.
“Pacific is, I think, the least appreciated of Sondheim’s shows, and is probably his most brilliant one.”
I often say, when people die, that the world is a smaller, colder, lesser place. I mean that: there are people whose contributions are so great or important or enlightening or just so much damn fun that, when they die, they leave a hole in the world. Richard Feynman. Ricky Jay. Stephen Sondheim.