March 6 Birthday Wishes

Guy Kibbee [1882 - 1956]

Jay C. Flippen [1899 -1971]

Virginia Gregg [1916 - 1986]

James Edwards [1918 - 1970]

Alison Hayes [1930 - 1977]

John Smith [1931 - 1995]

Hal Needham [1931 - ]

Ben Murphy [1942 - ]

Marty Kove [1946 - ]

Jay C. Flippen (Bend of the River, Far Country & Run of the Arrow) and Guy Kibbee (Fort Apache & Three Godfathers) were two of the great old time character actors from classic Hollywood. Hal Needham one of the good stuntmen (He came close to purchasing one of Ray's scripts to produce but settled on the other choice which was more action orientated). I've always liked James Edwards...Home of the Brave comes to mind with one of his good performances; Allison Hayes I'm most familiar with in some B-sci fi movies of the 50's ike Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Undead, The Crawling Eye, etc; John Smith...still enjoying watching an episode of Laramie season one each week...when that ends I'll fork out some cash for season two. Ben Murphy was a member of the small acting workshop that Jim and I attended during our Hollywood days. Virginia Gregg was in one of my favorite westerns, The Fastest Gun Alive, in which she played the mother of the little boy the outlaws have in the saloon. I must confess I am not familiar with Marty Kove.

Marty Kove was Detective Victor Isbecki on TV's Cagney & Lacey and also had a leading role as John Kreese in the first two Karate Kid films. Marty has been in 13 westerns. His most memorable role was probably in Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" where he plays Ed Ross who challenges Wyatt to a gunfight in the pool room and ends up with a cue ball to the groin. Kove was also in the last Gunsmoke TV episode and "White Buffalo" with Charles Bronson, "Miracle at Sage Creek" and "Hard Ground". He's received a Golden Boot Award.

I like Virginia Gregg in operation Petticoat, when she fixes the engine with a girdle. She was also the voice of Norman's mother in Psycho.

Hal Needham was a stunt man, and later the director of Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, Cannonball Run, and Stroker Ace.

Howdy Pards!!

Ole Jay.C.Flippen goes way back!! He was a song and dance man and stage actor back in Vaudeville. He was a regular on the t.v. sitcom Ensign O'Toole in 1962 and along with all the other great western films mentioned by Tom, he also appeared in a couple of other of my favorites, The Rounders with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda and Firecreek, again with Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. Later in life, after an amputation, he did his acting work from a wheelchair, as in Firecreek.

Virginia Gregg did a lot of work for Jack Webb in his shows, like Dragnet, Adam-12 and Emergency.

James Edwards came way before Sydney Poitier. He appeared in the 1949 film, Home Of The Brave, Pork Chop Hill, Coogan's Bluff, but will probably be best remembered as George.C.Scott's valet in Patton.

Alison Hayes was a sultry eyed beauty, most famous for the cult classics like those mentioned above, but she also appeared in Gunslinger with Beverly Garland and John Ireland , Mohawk and Tickle Me with Elvis Presley. She died at the young age of 47. After becoming seriously ill, she did some detective work on her own and determined that a calcium supplement, she had been taking for years, was loaded with LEAD. She petitioned the F.D.A to stop the import and sale of these toxic chemicals and shortly after her death, a letter arrived from the F.D.A. ,advising her that they had taken steps to prevent this from happening to other people.

John Smith will always be one of my favorite actors, just because he co-starred in 2 of my favorite t.v. western series, Cimarron Strip as Deputy Lane Temple and Laramie as Slim Sherman.

Hal Needham was the stunt double for Richard Boone in the t.v. series Have Gun, Will Travel. He studied under the great Chuck Roberson, who was John Wayne's stunt double.

Ben Murphy will always be Kid Curry to me!! A co-star of the 1970 hit t.v. series, Alias Smith And Jones with Peter Duell.

I also best remember Martin Kove as a supporting actor in Cagney And Lacy and as the bad Karate instructor in The Karate Kid films, 1 & 2.

Ed

Yep, Ben Murphy will forever be Kid Curry.

James Edwards also had a small but memorable part in The Manchurian Candidate.