February 28, 1942
Frank Bonner
is born Frank Woodrow Boers, Jr.
The actor and
television director is best known for playing sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom WKRP in
Cincinnati.March 2, 1917
Desi Arnaz was a born.
Born into the upper-class in Cuba, ending up having
to flee to the United States when the Batista regime came into power.While he
gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz
Orchestra, he is best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to whom he was married at the time. He and Ball are
generally credited as the inventors of the rerun in
connection with the show.March 5, 1982
John Belushi was found dead in his room, by Bill Wallace at Bungalow
number 3 of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset
Boulevard in West Hollywood,
California.
The cause of death was a speedball; the combined injection of cocaine and heroin. On the night of his death, he was visited
separately by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in
the company of assorted others, including Catherine Evelyn Smith. His death was investigated by forensic
pathologist Dr. Ryan Norris among
others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related
accident.
Two months later, Smith admitted in an interview with
the National
Enquirer that she had been with
Belushi the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot.
After the appearance of the article "I Killed Belushi" in the
Enquirer edition of June 29, 1982, the case was reopened. Smith was extradited
from Toronto, arrested and charged with first-degree
murder. A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary
manslaughter, and she served 15
months in prison.
Shortly before Belushi's death, he filmed a cameo for
the comedy series Police
Squad! At the suggestion of the
show's producer, Robert
K. Weiss, Belushi was filmed, face
down in a swimming pool, dead. The footage was part of a running gag where the
episode's "special guest star" would not survive past the opening
credits without meeting some gruesome end. The scene was cut after his death
and the footage is believed to have been lost.
Belushi and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 54th
Academy Awards, an event held less
than four weeks after his death.
Belushi was slated to appear on the well-known
Canadian comedy show SCTV, which was
by then being syndicated to the United States, but according to Dave
Thomas, one of whose best-known
characters on SCTV was Doug
Mackenzie in the "Great White North" sketches, they were "planning him into their
set, when suddenly, they received a phone call that Belushi had died in his
hotel room. We stopped our work and just stared at each other, not being able
to believe what had happened. John Candy began to cry, for Belushi as a friend, but also
because it, to him, signaled the end of that era of comedy TV, now that one of
their greats was dead." The segments he was to be in were scrapped, and
the show continued without him. An earlier SCTV sketch had starred Tony Rosato as Belushi.
Belushi's wife arranged for a traditional Orthodox Christian funeral which was conducted by an Albanian Orthodox priest and he is interred in Abel's Hill Cemetery on
Martha's Vineyard Chilmark, Massachusetts. His tombstone, a New England classic
slate design, complete with skull and crossbones, reads, "I may be gone
but Rock and Roll lives on." Rumor has it that his gravestone is not above
his body because it was moved after operators of the cemetery had found many
signs of vandalism and rowdiness where his body lies. He also is remembered on
the Belushi family stone marking his mother's grave.
John Belushi's life is detailed in the 1985 biography Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times
of John Belushi by Bob Woodward. Many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his
wife Judy, Dan Aykroyd and James Belushi, agreed to be interviewed at length for the book, but
later felt the final product was exploitative and not representative of the
John Belushi they knew. The book was later adapted into a feature film in which Belushi was played by Michael Chiklis. Belushi's friends and family boycotted the film, the
publicity from which helped cause the movie to be a box-office flop.
The Grateful Dead performed the song "West L.A. Fadeaway"
beginning in late 1982. The song, penned by long time lyricist Robert
Hunter and sung by Jerry Garcia, contains fairly explicit references to Belushi's
death, especially the line "Looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will
do.
Belushi was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in Gilda
Radner: It's Always Something, Tyler Labine in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), and Michael Chiklis in Wired.
His widow later remarried and is now Judith
Belushi Pisano. Her biography (with
co-biographer Tanner Colby) of John, Belushi:
A Biography is a collection of
first-person interviews and photographs, and was published in 2005.
On April 1, 2004, 22 years after his death, Belushi was honored
with a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame, after a ten-year
lobbying effort by James Belushi and Judith Belushi Pisano. Among those present
at the ceremony were Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Tom
Arnold.
In 2006, Biography Channel aired the "John Belushi" episode of Final 24, a documentary following Belushi in the last 24 hours
leading to his death. In 2010, Biography aired a full biography documentation
of the life of "John Belushi".
The 1987 song "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L)", by
the American thrash metal band Anthrax was dedicated to John Belushi.
Several characters in Neil Gaiman's short story "The Goldfish Pool and Other
Stories" reference Belushi's death with varying (and incorrect) details.
Belushi's alma mater, the College of DuPage, has established an annual performing arts
scholarship in his honor.
February 28, 1942
Frank Bonner is born Frank Woodrow Boers, Jr.
The actor and television director is best known for playing sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.March 2, 1917
Desi Arnaz was a born.
Born into the upper-class in Cuba, ending up having to flee to the United States when the Batista regime came into power.While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to whom he was married at the time. He and Ball are generally credited as the inventors of the rerun in connection with the show.
March 5, 1982
John Belushi was found dead in his room, by Bill Wallace at Bungalow number 3 of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California.
The cause of death was a speedball; the combined injection of cocaine and heroin. On the night of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of assorted others, including Catherine Evelyn Smith. His death was investigated by forensic pathologist Dr. Ryan Norris among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.
Two months later, Smith admitted in an interview with
the National
Enquirer that she had been with
Belushi the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot.
After the appearance of the article "I Killed Belushi" in the
Enquirer edition of June 29, 1982, the case was reopened. Smith was extradited
from Toronto, arrested and charged with first-degree
murder. A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary
manslaughter, and she served 15
months in prison.
Shortly before Belushi's death, he filmed a cameo for
the comedy series Police
Squad! At the suggestion of the
show's producer, Robert
K. Weiss, Belushi was filmed, face
down in a swimming pool, dead. The footage was part of a running gag where the
episode's "special guest star" would not survive past the opening
credits without meeting some gruesome end. The scene was cut after his death
and the footage is believed to have been lost.
Belushi and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 54th
Academy Awards, an event held less
than four weeks after his death.
Belushi was slated to appear on the well-known
Canadian comedy show SCTV, which was
by then being syndicated to the United States, but according to Dave
Thomas, one of whose best-known
characters on SCTV was Doug
Mackenzie in the "Great White North" sketches, they were "planning him into their
set, when suddenly, they received a phone call that Belushi had died in his
hotel room. We stopped our work and just stared at each other, not being able
to believe what had happened. John Candy began to cry, for Belushi as a friend, but also
because it, to him, signaled the end of that era of comedy TV, now that one of
their greats was dead." The segments he was to be in were scrapped, and
the show continued without him. An earlier SCTV sketch had starred Tony Rosato as Belushi.
Belushi's wife arranged for a traditional Orthodox Christian funeral which was conducted by an Albanian Orthodox priest and he is interred in Abel's Hill Cemetery on
Martha's Vineyard Chilmark, Massachusetts. His tombstone, a New England classic
slate design, complete with skull and crossbones, reads, "I may be gone
but Rock and Roll lives on." Rumor has it that his gravestone is not above
his body because it was moved after operators of the cemetery had found many
signs of vandalism and rowdiness where his body lies. He also is remembered on
the Belushi family stone marking his mother's grave.
John Belushi's life is detailed in the 1985 biography Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times
of John Belushi by Bob Woodward. Many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his
wife Judy, Dan Aykroyd and James Belushi, agreed to be interviewed at length for the book, but
later felt the final product was exploitative and not representative of the
John Belushi they knew. The book was later adapted into a feature film in which Belushi was played by Michael Chiklis. Belushi's friends and family boycotted the film, the
publicity from which helped cause the movie to be a box-office flop.
The Grateful Dead performed the song "West L.A. Fadeaway"
beginning in late 1982. The song, penned by long time lyricist Robert
Hunter and sung by Jerry Garcia, contains fairly explicit references to Belushi's
death, especially the line "Looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will
do.
Belushi was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in Gilda
Radner: It's Always Something, Tyler Labine in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), and Michael Chiklis in Wired.
His widow later remarried and is now Judith
Belushi Pisano. Her biography (with
co-biographer Tanner Colby) of John, Belushi:
A Biography is a collection of
first-person interviews and photographs, and was published in 2005.
On April 1, 2004, 22 years after his death, Belushi was honored
with a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame, after a ten-year
lobbying effort by James Belushi and Judith Belushi Pisano. Among those present
at the ceremony were Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Tom
Arnold.
In 2006, Biography Channel aired the "John Belushi" episode of Final 24, a documentary following Belushi in the last 24 hours
leading to his death. In 2010, Biography aired a full biography documentation
of the life of "John Belushi".
The 1987 song "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L)", by
the American thrash metal band Anthrax was dedicated to John Belushi.
Several characters in Neil Gaiman's short story "The Goldfish Pool and Other
Stories" reference Belushi's death with varying (and incorrect) details.
Belushi's alma mater, the College of DuPage, has established an annual performing arts scholarship in his honor.
March 6, 1942
Ben Murphy is born in Jonesboro,
Arkansas
Though born in Arkansas, Murphy grew up in Hinsdale, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. An alumnus of Benet Academy in Lisle, Illinois, he attended eight different colleges before deciding to pursue an acting career.
Murphy appeared in a supporting role in The Name of the Game, a series featuring a rotating leading cast including Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack. From 1971 to 1973, he starred in Alias Smith and Jones with Pete Duel (1971–1972) and Roger Davis (1972–1973). After Alias Smith and Jones, Murphy joined Lorne Greene in the 1973 ABC crime drama Griff. He played detective S. Michael "Mike" Murdock, assistant to Greene's character, Wade "Griff" Griffin, a Los Angeles retired police officer turned private eye. The series had some notable guest stars but folded after thirteen weeks.
In 1985, he co-starred as Department store heir, Paul Berrenger, on the
short-lived drama, Berrenger's.
His character was at odds with his former wife, Gloria (Andrea Marcovicci)
and his own father, Simon (Sam
Wanamaker) due to his romance with executive, Shane Bradley (Yvette Mimieux).
Murphy starred in in his own series Gemini Man,
in which he played a character who could become invisible through the use of a
watch. However, the show did not run beyond a single season. Murphy has since
appeared in guest-starring parts, including having been a murder suspect in CBS's Cold Case.43
March 6, 1947
Hour
Glass, the first regularly scheduled network variety hour,
airs its last episode. The most
ambitious television program to date, Hour Glass helped prove that
television could provide high-quality entertainment as well as novelty
programming.
Although commercial
television had existed since 1941, World War II temporarily halted the growth
of the medium. When Hour Glass premiered in 1946 on NBC, the network
consisted of only three stations, in New York, Philadelphia, and Schenectady,
and only a few thousand people owned television sets.
Hour Glass was the first hour-long entertainment series produced
for network television, and it was hailed as the most ambitious production of
its time. The series, well funded by sponsor Standard Brands, featured
elaborate sets and respected performers like Peggy Lee and ventriloquist Edgar
Bergen--previous television efforts had usually featured second-rate vaudeville
performers. At first, the sponsor's live commercials ran between two and four
minutes but were later shortened. The show was the first to feature a regular
weekly host--Helen Parrish, who was succeeded by Eddie Mayehoff.
Hour
Glass raised interest in regularly
scheduled entertainment programming, and several other network series began to
follow suit in 1946. However, it was more than a year after Hour Glass
went off the air before another company agreed to sponsor a big-budget variety
show. That show was Texaco Star Theater, featuring host Milton Berle.
The show launched the "vaudeo" era in television history, where
variety shows featuring successful vaudeville acts made TV stars out of
performers like Eddie Cantor, Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, and Abbott and Costello.
March 6, 1947
Rob Reiner born in New York City.
Reiner was the son of Carl
Reiner, then a regular on Sid Caesar’s famous television comedy program Your
Show of Shows and its follow-up, Caesar’s Hour, where he had worked
with such talented comedy writers as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
When Rob was 12, his family moved to Los Angeles, and he began his own acting
career as a teenager, appearing in community theater productions and episodes
of the TV program Alfred Hitchcock Presents… before co-founding The
Session, an improvisational comedy troupe. On the big screen, Reiner debuted in
Enter Laughing (1967), directed by his father from a script based on his
autobiographical novel.
The younger Reiner’s big career break came in 1971, when he began appearing
on the hit TV sitcom All in the Family. Reiner won two Emmy Awards (1974
and 1978) for his portrayal of Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal,
hippieish son-in-law of Carroll O’Connor’s stubbornly bigoted Archie Bunker.
Also in 1971, Reiner married the comedic actress Penny Marshall; the couple appeared
together in recurring guest spots on The Odd Couple, produced by Penny’s
brother Garry Marshall, and in a TV movie, More Than Friends (1978),
which they co-wrote. Marshall and Reiner divorced in 1979.
In 1984, Reiner launched his career as a film director with the cult hit This
is Spinal Tap, a satirical “mockumentary” about a fictitious rock band.
Though his follow-up effort, The Sure Thing (1985), made little noise at
the box office, Reiner scored massive hits with his next two pictures: 1986’s Stand
By Me, a coming-of-age tale based on a Stephen King story, and 1987’s The
Princess Bride, a hilarious take on the romantic fairy tale-fantasy genre.
With his reputation in Hollywood now well established, Reiner co-founded his
own production company, Castle Rock Entertainment, in 1987. (It was named for a
town in one of King’s novel.) Castle Rock’s first feature was Reiner’s most
successful film to date, the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally…
(1989).
With Castle Rock, Reiner also directed the acclaimed hits Misery (1990)
and A Few Good Men (1992), which was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Picture. His next few films varied between hits (1995’s The American
President) and misses (1994’s North, 1996’s Ghosts of Mississippi
and 1999’s The Story of Us). After several years without releasing a
film--during which he increasingly immersed himself in political activism in
California, on behalf of such causes as early childhood development and
environmental efforts--Reiner came back with two relative disappointments, Alex
and Emma (2003) and Rumor Has It (2005). In 2007, he directed Jack
Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List.
In addition to directing and producing, Reiner maintained an acting career
over the years, appearing in supporting roles in such films as Postcards
from the Edge (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Bullets Over
Broadway (1994), Primary Colors (1998) and The Majestic (2001).
He also appeared in some of his own movies, including The Story of Us and
Alex and Emma.
Reiner and his second wife, Michele, married in 1989; they have three
children.
In 1985, he co-starred as Department store heir, Paul Berrenger, on the
short-lived drama, Berrenger's.
His character was at odds with his former wife, Gloria (Andrea Marcovicci)
and his own father, Simon (Sam
Wanamaker) due to his romance with executive, Shane Bradley (Yvette Mimieux).
Murphy starred in in his own series Gemini Man,
in which he played a character who could become invisible through the use of a
watch. However, the show did not run beyond a single season. Murphy has since
appeared in guest-starring parts, including having been a murder suspect in CBS's Cold Case.43
March 6, 1947
Hour
Glass, the first regularly scheduled network variety hour,
airs its last episode. The most
ambitious television program to date, Hour Glass helped prove that
television could provide high-quality entertainment as well as novelty
programming.
Hour Glass was the first hour-long entertainment series produced
for network television, and it was hailed as the most ambitious production of
its time. The series, well funded by sponsor Standard Brands, featured
elaborate sets and respected performers like Peggy Lee and ventriloquist Edgar
Bergen--previous television efforts had usually featured second-rate vaudeville
performers. At first, the sponsor's live commercials ran between two and four
minutes but were later shortened. The show was the first to feature a regular
weekly host--Helen Parrish, who was succeeded by Eddie Mayehoff.
Hour
Glass raised interest in regularly
scheduled entertainment programming, and several other network series began to
follow suit in 1946. However, it was more than a year after Hour Glass
went off the air before another company agreed to sponsor a big-budget variety
show. That show was Texaco Star Theater, featuring host Milton Berle.
The show launched the "vaudeo" era in television history, where
variety shows featuring successful vaudeville acts made TV stars out of
performers like Eddie Cantor, Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, and Abbott and Costello.
March 6, 1947
Rob Reiner born in New York City.
Reiner was the son of Carl
Reiner, then a regular on Sid Caesar’s famous television comedy program Your
Show of Shows and its follow-up, Caesar’s Hour, where he had worked
with such talented comedy writers as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
When Rob was 12, his family moved to Los Angeles, and he began his own acting
career as a teenager, appearing in community theater productions and episodes
of the TV program Alfred Hitchcock Presents… before co-founding The
Session, an improvisational comedy troupe. On the big screen, Reiner debuted in
Enter Laughing (1967), directed by his father from a script based on his
autobiographical novel.
The younger Reiner’s big career break came in 1971, when he began appearing
on the hit TV sitcom All in the Family. Reiner won two Emmy Awards (1974
and 1978) for his portrayal of Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal,
hippieish son-in-law of Carroll O’Connor’s stubbornly bigoted Archie Bunker.
Also in 1971, Reiner married the comedic actress Penny Marshall; the couple appeared
together in recurring guest spots on The Odd Couple, produced by Penny’s
brother Garry Marshall, and in a TV movie, More Than Friends (1978),
which they co-wrote. Marshall and Reiner divorced in 1979.
In 1984, Reiner launched his career as a film director with the cult hit This
is Spinal Tap, a satirical “mockumentary” about a fictitious rock band.
Though his follow-up effort, The Sure Thing (1985), made little noise at
the box office, Reiner scored massive hits with his next two pictures: 1986’s Stand
By Me, a coming-of-age tale based on a Stephen King story, and 1987’s The
Princess Bride, a hilarious take on the romantic fairy tale-fantasy genre.
With his reputation in Hollywood now well established, Reiner co-founded his
own production company, Castle Rock Entertainment, in 1987. (It was named for a
town in one of King’s novel.) Castle Rock’s first feature was Reiner’s most
successful film to date, the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally…
(1989).
With Castle Rock, Reiner also directed the acclaimed hits Misery (1990)
and A Few Good Men (1992), which was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Picture. His next few films varied between hits (1995’s The American
President) and misses (1994’s North, 1996’s Ghosts of Mississippi
and 1999’s The Story of Us). After several years without releasing a
film--during which he increasingly immersed himself in political activism in
California, on behalf of such causes as early childhood development and
environmental efforts--Reiner came back with two relative disappointments, Alex
and Emma (2003) and Rumor Has It (2005). In 2007, he directed Jack
Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List.
In addition to directing and producing, Reiner maintained an acting career
over the years, appearing in supporting roles in such films as Postcards
from the Edge (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Bullets Over
Broadway (1994), Primary Colors (1998) and The Majestic (2001).
He also appeared in some of his own movies, including The Story of Us and
Alex and Emma.
Reiner and his second wife, Michele, married in 1989; they have three children.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Stay Tuned
