As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
May 28,
1998
Comic Phil Hartman killed by wife Brynn, in a murder-suicide.
He was 49. Born on September 24, 1948, in Ontario,
Canada, Hartman was raised in Connecticut and Southern California, and later
became an American citizen. Early on, he found work designing record album
covers (he created the official logo for the rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young) but made the leap to acting in 1975 when he joined the L.A.
improvisational acting group, the Groundlings. With his fellow Groundlings
alum, Paul Reubens, Hartman wrote the screenplay for the successful comedy Pee-Wee’s
Big Adventure (1985). Along with Reubens, Hartman had helped create the
zany man-child character of Pee Wee Herman, though Reubens received most of the
credit. From 1986 to 1990, Hartman portrayed Kap’n Karl on the Saturday morning
children’s TV series Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.
Also in 1986, Hartman earned a spot on the long-running NBC sketch comedy
show Saturday Night Live. In his eight years on the show, Hartman became
known for his spot-on impersonations of a variety of celebrities, notably
President Bill Clinton. He also made frequent guest appearances on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 1989, Hartman shared an Emmy Award for his
writing contributions to Saturday Night Live. He went on to set a record
for the most appearances (153) as one of the show’s regulars.
Hartman joined the cast of the TV sitcom NewsRadio in 1995. He played
the egotistical anchorman of an AM radio news station in New York City through
four seasons of the show’s five-year run.
The ensemble cast also included Dave
Foley, Maura Tierney and Andy Dick. Hartman also notably provided the voices
for a number of characters, including the has-been actor Troy McClure and the
incompetent lawyer Lionel Hurtz, on the acclaimed animated series The
Simpsons. In addition to his TV work as an actor and pitchman (for
MCI, McDonald’s and Cheetos, among others), Hartman appeared on the big screen
in Blind Date (1987), Jingle All the Way (1996) and Small
Soldiers, released after his death.
Off-screen, Hartman was popular among his Hollywood colleagues and known for
being completely different from some of the more unlikable characters he had
portrayed. The murder-suicide, which shocked fans and friends alike, occurred
early on the morning of May 28, 1998, at the couple’s home in the Los Angeles
suburb of Encino. According to news reports, Brynn, Hartman’s third wife (two
previous marriages ended in divorce) had a history of drug and alcohol
problems. The couple had two children.
May 29,
2003
Bob Hope celebrates 100th birthday
Some 35 U.S. states declare it to be Bob Hope Day on this day in 2003, when
the iconic comedic actor and entertainer turns 100 years old.
In a public ceremony held in Hollywood, city officials renamed the
intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue--famous for its historic
buildings and as a central point on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--Bob Hope
Square. Several 1940s-era U.S. planes flew overhead as part of an air show
honoring Hope’s longtime role as an entertainer of U.S. armed forces all over
the world. Hope, who was then suffering from failing eyesight and hearing and
had not been seen in public for three years, was too ill to attend the public
ceremonies. Three of his children attended the naming ceremony, along with some
of his younger show-business colleagues, including Mickey Rooney.
One of the leading talents on the vaudeville scene by the 1930s, the
London-born, American-raised Hope met his future wife (of nearly seven
decades), the nightclub singer Dolores Reade, while he was performing on
Broadway in the musical Roberta. They married in 1934, and four years
later Hope launched his own radio program, The Bob Hope Show, which
would run for the next 18 years. One of the country’s most popular comics, Hope
had a successful film career largely thanks to the series of seven “Road”
movies he made with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, including Road to
Singapore (1940), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946)
and Road to Rio (1947).
In 1941, after America’s entrance into World War II, Hope began performing
for U.S. troops abroad; he would play shows for more than a million American
servicemen by 1953. Some 65 million people watched him perform for troops in
Vietnam on Christmas Eve in 1966, in his largest broadcast.
Hope also became a
legend for his countless TV specials, which he would perform over the course of
some five decades. He hosted the Academy Awards ceremony a total of 18 times,
more than any other Oscars host.
Dubbed “Mr. Entertainment” and the “King of Comedy,” Hope died on July 27,
2003, less than two months after his 100th birthday celebration. He was
survived by Dolores, their four adopted children--Linda, Anthony, Nora and
Kelly--and four grandchildren.
May 30, 1908
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and
countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was born in San Francisco.
His parents, who ran a women's clothing business,
moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began
performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before
he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio
show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many
other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show,
providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car (The Maxwell) and playing several
other characters.
In 1937, Blanc made his
debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short
cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's
voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short
called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough
and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn
accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road
Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for
Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the
voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr.
Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.
In his 1988
autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal
traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real
name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel
replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?"
Blanc
continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy
Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988).
After
Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by
his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped
bring to life.
To
quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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