LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harry Morgan wasn't a star and didn't need to be. In "M-A-S-H," ''Dragnet" and so many other TV shows and movies, the veteran character actor proved as indispensable as any marquee name.
Imagine "M-A-S-H" without the no-nonsense but fair Army Col. Sherman Potter, who knew how to traverse the line between military discipline and wartime humanity.
Here's Potter, on his first day as commander of a Korean War hospital camp, discovering the moonshine-making operation run by his brilliant but wayward surgeons and holding his fire: "Had a still in Guam in World War II. One night it blew up. That's how I got my Purple Heart."
Or go back to the 1960s version of "Dragnet" and Morgan's tour of duty as police Officer Bill Gannon, playing droll foil to laconic Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday. Or consider Morgan's stalwart judge at the center of an intellectual clash in "Inherit the Wind," the dramatization of 1925's so-called Scopes Monkey Trial on evolution.
The 1960 film included tour de force performances by Fredric March, who raged as a version of William Jennings Bryan, and Spencer Tracy, a craftily impassioned take on Clarence Darrow. Morgan held his own as a smart, small-town jurist trying to balance political pressure with justice.
Morgan, who died Wednesday at age 96 at his Brentwood home after having pneumonia, was in the top ranks of actors who could take a small role, or a small scene, and bring it deftly alive. He added richness to any comedy or drama smart enough to call on him.
And that happened over and over, from gritty Westerns including 1943's "The Oxbow Incident" and 1952's "High Noon" to fluffy TV series "December Bride" and "The Love Boat."
Morgan, a Detroit native born in 1915, was studying pre-law at the University of Chicago when public speaking classes drew him to the stage. He worked with a little-theater group in Washington, D.C., followed by a two-year stint on Broadway in the original production of "Golden Boy," with Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb.
Morgan began his television career in 1954 when the medium was young.
He was one of the "foundational pieces of the industry," said "M-A-S-H" star Mike Farrell, who tried to gain Morgan a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild. Such honors routinely go to stars but also belong to Morgan and other character actors who provide "the grit and the substance and the context" for so many films and TV shows, Farrell said Wednesday.
"Harry has been that, par excellence, for many years," he said.
Veteran writer-producer Ken Levine, who worked on "M-A-S-H" early in his career, recalled Morgan as a complete pro who left him awestruck.
"He could read a scene once, have it completely memorized, and perform it perfectly take after take," Levine said on his blog. "And then compliment a callow 26-year-old writer who wrote it and couldn't believe the great Harry Morgan was even in the same room, much less reading his words."
Morgan, a quiet scene-stealer in his work, was also modest in life. Daughter-in-law Beth Morgan said he was "very humble about having such a successful career," which included an Emmy Award for "M-A-S-H."
He'd never boast about the famed actors whom he had worked with and befriended, including Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck, but, if prompted, would happily share memories, Farrell said.
And Morgan knew what counted in life, as he proved at a news conference held when "M-A-S-H" ended in 1983. He was asked if working with the show's cast had made him a better actor, and Farrell recalled Morgan's reply: "I don't know about that, but it's made me a better human being."
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A rare and pristine copy of the first issue of Action Comics, famed for the first appearance of Superman, has set a record Wednesday for the most money paid for a single comic book: $2.16 million.
The issue, graded at 9.0, was auctioned starting Nov. 11 online at www.comicconnect.com. The starting bid was just $1 but there was a reserve price of $900,000. Neither the name of the buyer nor seller was disclosed.
It's the first time a comic book has broken the $2 million barrier. The issue was published in 1938 and cost just 10 cents.
"When we broke the record in 2010 by selling the Action Comics No. 1, graded at 8.5, for $1.5 million, I truly believed that this was a record that would stand for many years to come," said Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles.
The previous record set in March 2010 was followed by the sale of another copy for $1 million. But neither of those issues was in as good a condition as the issue that sold Wednesday, though it's pedigree of setting records was already documented. Twice before it set the record for the most expensive book ever, selling for $86,000 in 1992 and $150,000 in 1997.
But in 2000, it was stolen and thought lost until it was recovered in a storage shed in California in April this year.
About 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to be in existence, and only a handful of those in good condition.
After it was stolen, Fishler said, collectors figured it would never be found or, worse, would be destroyed.
"Clearly, I was wrong. Not in my wildest imagination could I have predicted that this legendary, stolen Action Comics No. 1 would be found, graded at 9.0 and break the record a year and a half later," he said.
DUBLIN, Ga. — Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 classic film, "The Wizard of Oz," has died. He was 93.
The 4-foot-5 Slover died of cardiopulmonary arrest Tuesday afternoon in a suburban Atlanta hospital, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley. According to friends, as recently as last weekend, Slover appeared at events in the suburban Chicago area.
Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins' band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of "100 Years of Oz" and five other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland. Slover was one of the tiniest male Munchkins in the movie.
Long after Slover retired, he continued to appear around the country at festivals and events related to the movie. He was one of seven Munchkins at the 2007 unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to the little people in the movie. Only three remain of the 124 diminutive actors who played the beloved Munchkins.
"He has a genuine immortality," Fricke said. "Of the 124 little people, he's one of the handful who got to enjoy this latter-day fame, to have people know who he was and be able to pick him out of the crowd in the movie."
Slover is the first of the three trumpeters to herald the Munchkin mayor when he makes his entrance. Slover had been cast to play the second trumpeter but switched when another actor got stage fight during filiming, said longtime friend Allen Pease, the co-founder of the former Munchkinland Market Days outside Chesterton, Ind.
"Karl didn't know what stage fright meant," he said.
Slover was born Karl Kosiczky in what is now the Czech Republic and he was the only child in his family to be dwarf sized.
"In those uninformed days, his father tried witch doctor treatments to make him grow," Fricke said. "Knowing Karl and his triumph over his early life, you can't help but celebrate the man at a time like this."
He was buried in the backyard, immersed in heated oil until his skin blistered and then attached to a stretching machine at a hospital, all in the attempt to make him become taller. Eventually he was sold by his father at age 9 to a traveling show in Europe, Fricke said.
Slover continued to perform into his late 20s, when he moved to the United States, changed his name and appeared in circuses as part of a vaudeville group known as the Singer Midgets. The group's 30 performers became the nucleus of the Munchkins.
He was paid $50 a week for the movie and told friends that Garland's dog in the movie, "Toto," made more money.
The surviving Munchkin actors found new generations of fans in the late 1980s when they began making appearances around the country.
"It wasn't until the Munchkins started making their appearances in 1989 that they call came to realize how potent the film had become and remained," Fricke said. "He was wonderfully articulate about his memories, he had anecdotes to share."
The world only learned gradually this morning of the death of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. But now multiple news outlets are piecing together the dramatic account of Gadhafi's final moments.
Jalal al-Galal, a spokesman for the rebels' provisional governing alliance, the National Transitional Council told Reuters, that Gadhafi "was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that." Gadhafi is now officially the first leader killed as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings, as the Associated Press notes in its obituary of the leader.
According to reports from several sources, Gadhafi was fleeing a NATO-led rebel attack on the former leader's hometown of Sirte, which had been a last remaining stronghold for Gadhafi forces. According to the Reuters report, the rebels found the former Libyan strongman hiding in a hole in the ground; the rebel fighter who found Gadhafi said that the Libyan leader repeated "Don't shoot, don't shoot" upon his capture. The BBC reported that the same rebel fighter was "brandishing" a golden pistol which he said belonged to the Libyan strongman.
Al Jazeera English posted footage of Gadhafi's body on the street in Sirte. The Guardian has posted a longer version of the same clip. You can watch the footage below, but readers should be warned that it is very graphic:
Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
The homepage of Apple's website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."
Clicking on the image revealed the additional text: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.
Shortly after learning of Jobs' death, Wozniak told ABC News, "I'm shocked and disturbed." Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.
In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive
A sad day for all of us who are Apple product owners. May he rest in Peace.
La actriz Ofelia Dacosta falleció esta mañana en el Hospicio Jardín de Oro en Guaynabo, según confirmó a Primera Hora su hijo Jorge Acosta.
Acosta explicó que la veterana actriz, de 86 años, había venido sufriendo varias condiciones de salud y la semana pasada sufrió un infarto cerebral que la mantuvo en cama hasta la mañana de hoy, sábado, cuando finalmente falleció.
Dacosta se destacó en el quehacer cultural del país, comenzando en la actuación y la televisión tras su llegada a Puerto Rico desde Cuba en 1962.
“Ella llegó a Puerto Rico en el ‘62 y prácticamente desde la década del '70 comenzó su carrera compartiendo escenarios con Braulio Castillo, Axel Anderson, Mona Marti y Lucy Boscana, entre muchos otros”, comentó el hijo.
En la pantalla chica protagonizó el melodrama “Esclavos del rencor” con Benjamín Morales, Ricardo Palmerola y Orlando Rodríguez en una producción del Canal 2.
Otras telenovelas en las que participó Dacosta fueron: “Cuando la rival es una hija” donde laboró al lado de los actores Axel Anderson y Camille Carrión; “La sombra de Belinda”; “Preciosa” donde actuó como Flor; “Mili” proyecto en el cual interpretó a Sor Teresa y “Coralito” donde le dio vida a Ceferina. En la popular telenovela “Tanairí” encarnó a la soberbia Emperatriz y en “Escándalo”, compartió estelares junto a Charitín Goyco e Iris Chacón.
Acosta informó que los restos de su madre serán expuestos a partir de mañana domingo a la 1:00 p.m. en la Funeraria Buxeda donde el lunes se celebrará una misa a las 3:00 p.m. Luego sus restos serán cremados. “Se estará velando con la caja cerrada como era su deseo”, explicó Acosta.
El lunes en la mañana, el féretro estará expuesto en la Sala Antonio Paoli del Centro de Bellas Artes de San Juan, informó Myrna Casas, gerente general de esa institución.
A la actriz le sobreviven sus hijos Jorge, Ofelita y Néstor y sus nietos, biznietos y tataranietos. Su otro hijo Tinito falleció.
Que en Paz descanse, Doña Ofelia. Aquí esta un vídeo de su intervención en la versión cinematográfica de la novela "El Hijo de Ángela Maria"
A secret elf agent that will unravel the dark conspiracy behind...Oh what's the use! I'm going home to watch TV. You can follow me on Twitter @MaxLesShyerar
Posts
