December 14 Birthday Wishes

Joe Brooks [1923 - 2007]

Howdy Manco!!

Joe Brooks was an American character actor, who began his film career in the 1944 John Wayne film, The Fighting Seabees. His career spanned 1944-1986 and along the way, he appeared in films like, The Enemy Below, Tall Man Riding, The Bad News Bears, Flaming Star, Bite The Bullet and Gremlins. He also appeared in many t.v. series like Rawhide, Cheyenne, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Six Million Dollar Man and others. He is best known for his role on the 1965-1967 western comedy t.v. series, F Troop as the near sighted sentry, Trooper Vanderbilt. Joe Brooks passed away in December, 2007 at the age of 83.

Ed

Also today:

This is a guy you would never think to associate with Westerns, but Morey Amsterdam (1908-1996) appeared in episodes of Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, and Have Gun, Will Travel before being cast in the role of comedy writer Buddy Sorrell on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He started in Vaudeville at the age of 14, worked in radio in the '30s and '40s, and then in television with his own short-lied show in 1949. He continued making TV appearances until his death of a heart attack at the age of 87.

Lee Remick (1935-1991) made her film debut in A Face in the Crowd in 1957, then went on to play a rape victim whose husband is accused of murdering the attacker in Anatomy of a Murder, a temperance leader trying to stop a wagon train carrying a load of whiskey in The Hallelujah Trail, the alcoholic wife of Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses (earning an Oscar nomination), the adoptive mother of the Anti-Christ in The Omen, and a Russian spy in Telefon. She also starred in many TV movies. She passed away at 55 from liver and kidney cancer.

Also on Dec. 14, Don Franklin (1960-), who joined the cast of the Young Riders in season 2 as free Black Noah Dixon.