December 7 Birthday Wishes

Jack Pennick [1895 - 1964]
John Tyrrell [1900 - 1949]
Rod Cameron [1910 - 1983]
Eli Wallach [1915 - ]
James Keach [1947 - ]

Howdy Manco!!

Jack Pinnick, like many of the early film stars was an original. He was the son of a gold miner and actually worked for his Dad mining gold in his youth. He joined the Marine Corp. and fought in WW I and Korea. He volunteered for service during WW II at the age of 50 and after being wounded in Tunisa and receiving the Silver Star, he met John Ford and became part of Ford's military photographic unit. After the war, Ford started using him in many of his films, like 3 Godfathers, Fort Apache,The Fighting Kentuckian, They Were Expendable and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Pinnick was a member of the John Ford stock company of actors and Ford used him in almost every one of his sound films. Pinnick can be seen at the beginning of Stars And Stripes Forever and at the end of She Wore A Yellow Ribbon conducting the escort drill. Along the way he also appeared in small parts in other films like How Green Was My Valley, The Grapes Of Wrath, The Westerner, The Alamo, and many of the other classics. During the late 50's, Pinnick appeared in several of the 50's t.v. westerns and with Ford's career waning, Pinnick did his last acting in the 1962 film, How The West Was Won.

John Tyrrell was a performer in Vaudeville, but saw the handwriting on the wall, took a couple of years of acting school and headed to Hollywood. Placed under contract by Columbia studios, this fella appeared in over 280 films between 1935 and 1947. He played uncredited and small parts in the majority of these films. They apparently ran this fella from one movie set to the other all day, every day!! He must have worn out a lot of shoe leather during his short career.He appeared in films with the 3 Stooges, war films and many of The Boston Blackie series of films during the 40's. He specialized in con artists, swindlers and other shady types. He appeared in films like, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The Perils Of Pauline, Blazing Six Shooters, Law Of The Plains etc. Tyrrell did his last acting in 1947 and died at the age of 48 in 1949. After having to memorize his lines in over 280 films and running from set to set in just 12 years, I can understand why!!

Rod Cameron was a 6 foot 4 inch Canadian actor, who never having accomplished his dream of becoming a Royal Canadian Mountie, moved to Hollywood and started doing bit parts and stand in's for actors like Buck Jones in the early 40's. His break out year came in 1943 as the square jawed agent Rex Bennett in G-Men Versus The Black Dragon. After this, Universal put him under contract with Fuzzy Knight as his side kick in a flurry of b-westerns like, The Kansan, Trigger Trail, The Plunderers and Ride The Man Down. During the 50's, Cameron took on a couple of short lived t.v. series, like the 1953 series, Highway Patrol and the 1956, City Detective. With his career winding down, Cameron began to appear on many of the t.v. westerns like, Laramie, Hondo, Iron Horse and the very first episode of Alias Smith And Jones. Cameron appeared in a couple of more western films, like Requiem For A Gunfighter and The Last Movie in 1971. The time of leathery faced, Tall In The Saddle cowboys had run out. Hollywood was looking for more handsome beef-cake actors. Cameron did his last acting in 1978. The only trivia I could find about Cameron was the small scandal, when he divorced his wife and shortly therafter, married her mother!!

If you're a member of this forum and a western fan and you STILL don't know who Eli Wallach is, I can't help you. First appearing in 1951, he made the rounds as a bit part actor and in 1960, he snagged his break out role as "Calvera" in The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen. Then in 1962, in How The West Was Won. Next up was Clark Gable's last film, The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and then onto The Good The Bad And The Ugly as ' Tuco" with Clint Eastwood. He has appeared in McKenna's Gold, The Holiday, The Godfather III, The Executioner's Song and more hit films than I have room to list here. Still acting through 2010, this 97 year old actor has been nothing less that one of the very best actors in Hollywood for the past 40-50 years. The best way to conclude this is to simply quote a couple of his most famous lines. From The Magnificent Seven" If GOD didn't want them shorn, then why did he make them sheep??, and from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, ' when you've got to shoot, shoot, don't talk"!!

James Keach is the younger brother of the more famous Stacy Keach. James' short film career began in 1979 and his biggest role was in the 1980 film, The Long Riders with his brother Stacy and the Carradine brothers. He next appeared as the crazy motorcycle cop in National Lampoon's. Vacation with Chevy Chase. In 1993, he appeared on Jane Seymour's t.v. series, .Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman and promptly married the beautiful actress. Not having achieved the success of his brother, James moved behind the camera as a director in the 80's, starting with The Long Riders, The Young Riders and recently the films, Waiting on Forever, Blind Dating and as producer of the 2010 hit, I Walk The Line.

Ed

Also today:

Ellen Burstyn (1932) was billed as Ellen McRae in the early years (until 1970) of her career, appearing on TV shows like Perry Mason, The Virginian, Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, and Laramie. Then she made the big time on the silver screen in the 1970s, in Oscar nominated roles in The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, Same Time Next Year (she won a Tony Award for Best Actress for the play), Resurrection, and Requiem for a Dream, and won the Oscar for Best Actress in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. More recently, she won an Emmy for an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Howdy Tinhorn!!

First, let me say, that I've always been a fan of Ellen Burstyn. I watched her as a much younger woman in all those t.v. westerns, when she was trying to get her foot in the door in Hollywood. She is one of the few actresses that actually became more beautiful as she aged!! 2 of her films stick in my mind besides The Exorcist and The King Of Marvin Gardens, The Cemetary Club and many other of her more famous films. These are Resurrection, in which she played a woman with the power to heal and the other is a sleeper frontier western titled Follow The River, in which she played an older white captive of the Indians. She is one of only 12 women, to have won an Academy Award, a Tony and an Emmy award during their career. A little bit of trivia about her Oscar for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore!! Liv Ullman was also nominated for her role in the 1974 movie, Scenes From A Marriage. She was disqualified by the Academy Of Arts And Sciences because her scenes had appeared on both t.v. and theaters in the same year. Ellen Burstyn wote a letter to the Academy to protest Liv Ullman's disqualification. As fate would have it, Ellen won the Oscar for her film!! During the filming of The Exorcist, in the scene, where she is thrown by Linda Blair onto a couch, Burstyn sustained a permanent spinal injury because of the force applied to the harness she was wearing for the"stunt". One of the most durable and the best of the best in Hollywood. At 80 years old, she already has 3 films in pre-production for 2013!! What a lady!!

Ed

Stacy Keach is one of the most charasmatic actors I've seen in a play -- the play in question was a revival of the the 1930's work Idiot's Delight, and I had a seat in the second or third row, dead center. Jobeth Williams was in it too but Stacy just dominated with his skill and vitality. Brother James is another matter. As an actor, I guess he's a good producer (I liked Walk the Line). IMHO his lack of presence was one of The Long Riders' biggest drawbacks; he made the worst cinematic Jesse James I can think of -- and I am including John Lupton in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (see my post in the birthday thread).