September 18 Birthday Wishes

Harry Townes [1914 - 2001]
Jack Warden [1920 - 2006]
Robert Blake [1933 - ]
Luis Contreras [1950 - 2004]

Howdy Manco!!

Harry Townes was a Huntsville, Alabama boy, who began his 1st career on stage and moved into film in 1949. He appeared during the 50's and 60's on shows like The Ponds Theater, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour and the Philco-Goodyear Show, along with making the rounds of the t.v. westerns like, Have Gun Will Travel, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, The Virginian and many of the other popular shows of the time. He was cast in Heaven With A Gun, with Glenn Ford, but most of his work was in t.v. Townes had a long and proliic career in t.v., but around 1970, he left Hollywood and put himself through an Episcopalian seminary in order to become a priest. His Church was in Palm Springs Calif. After becoming a priest, Harry would frequently return to Hollywood to appear in t.v. through the 80's. He was a very clean cut actor with a quite voice and I remember him as being a very talented character actor. After he passed on, he was returned to his home town of Huntsville, where he is interred.

When you speak of Jack Warden, you are talking about one of the best character actors to ever set foot in Tinseltown. He was a professional boxer, Merchant Marine and joined the Army paratroopers during WW II. He missed the D-DAY invasion because of a broken leg he suffered making a practice jump, but saw action during the Battle Of The Bulge. After being discharged from the Army, he began acting on stage and in 1951, along with former Marine, Lee Marvin, he made his film debut in, You're In The Navy Now. He was then cast in the Oscar winning film, From Here To Eternity with Frank Sinatra and he was just getting started. Next up was the Henry Fonda classic, 12 Angry Men, Run Silent, Run Deep, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, All The President's Men, And Justice For All, The Bad News Bears and too many more great films to list here. He could also do westerns, like Billy Two Hats with Gregory Peck and White Buffalo with Charles Bronson. One of my personal favorites, was as the manager of the auto sales in the Kurt Russell film, Used Cars, in which he proved he could also do hilarious comedy. I passed .Mr Warden in the corridor at the airport where I slaved my life away for so many years, when he came to the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C., to do the film, Being There, with Peter Sellers. He had just deplaned from flt #60 from Atlanta. I've often wished that I had taken a few moments to speak with him and tell him how much I admired his work in films. To put it simply, Jack Warden was the Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman of his generation of actors. He was simply" as good as it gets"

Robert Blake got his start as a child actor in 1939 and was immediately cast in the 'Little Rascal" series as the cute kid, Mickey. He next took on the role of "Lil Beaver" in the Red Ryder series with Wild Bill Elliott. During the 50's and 60's, he continued to appera on many of the t.v. westerns, like The Californians, Bat Masterson etc, while he struggled to make the transition from child actor to adult. He hit it big in the 70's with the popular t.v. series, Baretta, which ran for several years. During this time he also appeared in several good films, like Truman Capote's, In Cold Blood and with Robert Redford, in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and Electra Glide In Blue. I'm sure we all know of his legal troubles a few years back, but I won't go into those here, other than to say those troubles seem to have destroyed his film career. He was a prolific and talented actor for nearly 60 years. Not bad for a guy, who was 5 feet, 4 inches tall and I believe, even shorter that Alan Ladd.

Luis Contreras was a fairly recent arrival to the film world, making his film debut in Roman Polanski's , Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, in 1978. He generally played gang members, thugs and other low lifes in such films as 48 Hours, Red Heat, Last Man Standing and a couple of westerns like El Diablo and The Long Riders. His career was cut short by cancer in 2004 at the young age of 53.

Ed

Ed, I think you got confused. Close Encounters was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Also today:

Frankie Avalon (1939-) was a teen idol in the late '50s/early '60s, a singer with hits like Venus, and an actor in movies, mostly teen beach movies with Annette Funicello. He also appeared in the movies Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Alamo, Grease, and Casino. He appeared in episodes of Rawhide, Combat, Police Story, and Love American Style.

Howdy Tinhorn!!

Sorry bout that, Chief!! Don't know what I was thinking. Polanski directed Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist. I guess I was thinking about a wisecrack that Johnny Carson made on the Tonight show, back in 1978, when Polanski was charged with the statutory rape of a 13 year old girl. Since Close Encounters Of The Third Kind had just hit the theaters, Carson quipped, that the next film Polanski would direct, would be titled, Close encounters with the third grade!!
Just goes to show what happens, when you let your mind wander, while you're typeing!!

Ed