We'll miss your calm, cool, collected Canadian way of doing the news (you made it an art form). Non-sensationalized and erudite.
GG Need I say it? PLEASE, KITTENS, DON'T SMOKE! Out
by Gatito Grande » Sun Aug 07, 2005 10:13 pm
by urnofosiris » Thu Aug 11, 2005 11:10 am
by WebWarlock » Tue Sep 06, 2005 12:52 pm
By Associated Press
Published September 6, 2005, 2:28 PM CDT
LOS ANGELES -- Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show "Gilligan's Island," made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent confirmed Tuesday. He was 70.
Denver died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press. Denver's death was first reported by "Entertainment Tonight."
Denver had also undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.
Denver's wife, Dreama, and his children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with him when he died.
"He was my everything and I will love him forever," Dreama Denver said in a statement.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan. But he was already known to TV audiences for another iconic character, that of Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired from 1959 to 1963.
"Gilligan's Island" lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat was wrecked in a storm.
The cast: Alan Hale Jr., as Skipper Jonas Grumby; Bob Denver, as his klutzy assistant Gilligan; Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, as rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell; Tina Louise, as bosomy movie star Ginger Grant; Russell Johnson, as egghead science professor Roy Hinkley Jr.; and Dawn Wells, as sweet-natured farm girl Mary Ann Summers.
TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Writer-creator Sherwood Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
by oneyedchicklet » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:02 pm
Don Adams of 'Get Smart' Dies at 82
Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s television spoof of James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.
Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.
As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency Control, Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combatting the evil agents of Kaos. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another tack: "Would you believe...?" It became a national catchphrase.
Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of the Chief (actor Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic "Sorry about that, chief" also entered the American lexicon. The spy gadgets, which aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cell-phone telephone in a shoe.
Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by Barbara Felden, was as brainy as he was dense, and a plot romance led to marriage and the birth of twins later in the series.
Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a spy spoof. When he learned that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry had written the pilot script, he accepted immediately. "Get Smart" debuted on NBC in September 1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series and No. 22 in its second season.
"Get Smart" twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor.
by WebWarlock » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:28 pm
by Gatito Grande » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:41 pm
by Leafsdude » Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:20 am
by Rosenberg » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:13 pm
by WebWarlock » Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:27 am
Actor Nipsey Russell dies at 80
NEW YORK (AP) -- As the "poet laureate of television," actor and comedian Nipsey Russell delivered his signature four-line verse during frequent guest appearances on TV game shows and talk shows.
His impromptu lines and witty quips quickly secured his place as one of the first blacks to be a regular panelist on the shows.
Russell died Sunday afternoon at Lenox Hill Hospital at age 80, said his longtime manager Joseph Rapp. He had been suffering from cancer.
Although widely known for his television career -- including appearances on "The Dean Martin Show," "Hollywood Squares," "The $50,000 Pyramid," and "Match Game" -- Russell also received critical acclaim for his role as the Tin Man in the 1978 film version of "The Wiz."
Russell also appeared in the films "Nemo" in 1984, "Wildcats" in 1986 and "Posse" in 1993.
Born in Atlanta, he settled in New York after graduating from the University of Cincinnati and serving as an Army captain in Europe during World War II, Rapp said.
Russell launched his television career in 1961 as Officer Anderson in the television series "Car 54, Where are You?" He also appeared in the 1994 film version.
But his gift for gab and timely poetry made him a national television personality.
Russell told the Los Angeles Times in 1993 that writing poems "is very simple to do.... I start with the joke line and write backward."
One example: "The opposite of pro is con/ That fact is clearly seen/ If progress means move forward/ Then what does Congress mean?"
He also took his poetry on the road for readings and performances.
Russell left no immediate survivors; He never married.
"He always said, 'I have trouble living with myself, how could I live with anyone else,"' Rapp said. "But he was a wonderful guy, very quiet, never bragged."
by Leafsdude » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:46 pm
Jays announcer Tom Cheek passes away
Tom Cheek never used gimmicks or catchphrases and never tried to make himself part of the show.
All he did was tell listeners, plain and simple, how he saw the game, putting his trusted stamp on every milestone moment in Toronto Blue Jays history.
And - day in day out during his astonishing streak of 4,306 consecutive regular-season games called - it was perfect every time.
This season Cheek's voice was missing from airwaves, as brain cancer forced him out of the broadcast booth for good and on Sunday, the disease got the better of him.
Cheek died at his home in Oldsmar, Fla. He was 66.
"It's difficult to put into words the overwhelming sense of grief and loss shared today by the Blue Jays family, the city of Toronto, the extended community of Major League Baseball and its many fans," Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said in a statement. "Tom Cheek has provided the soundtrack for the most important moments in this team's history, with his choice of words and intonation always perfectly suited for the occasion.
"He was far more than just an outstanding announcer though. He was a great goodwill ambassador for baseball in Canada. His love for the game, which radiated through his words on the radio, captivated fans across this country and helped to grow the sport from one coast to the other."
Cheek was first diagnosed with a brain tumour last summer and had surgery to remove it on June 13, 2004, his 65th birthday. The procedure was partially successful and a round of chemotherapy that hampered his short-term memory followed.
He returned to the booth late in the summer, bringing his charm and smile back to the Rogers Centre (AKA SkyDome), and was set to return to work in 2005 when doctors recommended additional brain surgery.
The operation took place in March, but it could only add some brief time to Cheek's life, not save it.
"It sure does hit you hard," said Jerry Howarth, Cheek's longtime broadcast partner. "He will be missed. His voice was the signature voice of this ball club."
The second round with cancer came as a shock, as Cheek had planned to call some road games this season, as well as all home contests. That optimism faded quickly as his health deteriorated much faster this time.
"I don't want to sit and wait for something to come get me," Cheek said during the spring, weeks before the second diagnosis. "That's the way I feel. With everybody, everything is different. There have been guys that have gone on for years."
Cheek made it to the broadcast booth once this season, calling a half-inning of Toronto's opening day 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in St. Petersburg. He had planned just to sit quietly in the booth but asked Howarth if he could call the top of the fourth, with the Blue Jays down 1-0.
"I said of course and then Frank Catalanotto led off the inning with a double, Toronto's first hit of the game," Howarth recalled. "Orlando Hudson was the next batter and he homered and Vernon Wells followed with another home run to make it 3-1. a After the inning Tom signed off and said, `I'm tired now, but I just wanted to say thank you.' I thought that was a nice bit of divine intervention and magic right there."
Cheek later made one visit to Toronto, a sort of last hurrah, taking in a couple of games from a private box. When he was shown on the videoboard, fans stood and cheered him in the type of gesture the humble Cheek never took for granted.
Cheek's popularity with fans was never more evident than during his absence last season, when cards and e-mails poured in by the thousands wishing him well. A crowd of 44,072 feted him Aug. 29 when the Blue Jays added him to their Level of Excellence with the number 4,306 by his name, signifying his streak.
"Until last summer, I don't think he knew how much he meant to people," said broadcaster Mike Wilner, who joined Cheek and Howarth as the third man in the booth in 2002. "It really overwhelmed him."
During that Blue Jays ceremony, Cheek kept shaking his head in disbelief that he was being honoured so elaborately.
"You're going to make me cry," he told the crowd. "This is more than I'm going to be able to handle."
The next day he thanked each reporter who had written about him for, "saying such nice things about me."
Born in Pensacola, Fla., in 1939, the beloved broadcaster became the voice of baseball in Canada during his streak, which began on April 7, 1977 when Bill Singer threw the first pitch in club history and ended on June 3, 2004 in Oakland because of his father's death.
"That streak was phenomenal because of all the sacrifices he had to make," said Howarth. "His family was so supportive, they told him `You go broadcast games, we'll be here.' He did it not for himself, but for the fans."
Cheek attended the Cambridge School of Broadcasting in Boston and began his radio career in Plattsburg, N.Y. He then moved to Burlington, Vt., where for nine years was corporate sales manager and sports director for a group of three radio stations, doing play-by-play for baseball, basketball, football and hockey at the University of Vermont.
He moved up to Canada in 1974, where for three years he served as swing man on Montreal Expos radio broadcasts on television nights before landing the Blue Jays job in 1977.
It was in Toronto he became an institution, never taking a night off until his father's death. Along the way, he called Doug Ault's two homers in the franchise opening 9-5 win over Chicago in 1977, the record 10-homer barrage against Baltimore in 1987, George Bell's three opening day homers in 1988, Dave Steib's no-hitter in 1990, Carlos Delgado's four home run game in 2003, five AL East titles, a pair of pennants and two World Series titles, capped by Joe Carter's walkoff homer in 1993.
His call on that homer - "Touch 'em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life," - was his calling card and the best example of how perfectly he captured each moment, without getting in its way.
"Nothing about Tom is pre-packaged," said Wilner. "He's never setting up to get to a specific call or a specific story.
"He lets the game dictate what he says - and that's the way it should be."
Even in the bedlam that followed Carter's homer, Cheek was able to cover all the bases.
"It's a strange kind of thing," Cheek said recalling the moment. "I was looking for something to say and Joe gave it to me because he was jumping up and down.
"I didn't know if he was hitting all the bases out there and I was just making the point that you have to do that. I was merely mentioning - to him, through the airwaves - that you've got to touch all the bases.
"That's where that came from."
Cheek was nominated for the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award this year, which is given for major contributions to baseball broadcasting.
Longtime San Diego Padres broadcaster Jerry Coleman was chosen instead, something Cheek handled with his usual grace.
"There are some things that the guys on that list have done that just blow me away. Just having my name there is pretty nice," Cheek said of Coleman and the other nominees. "I'm an old guy myself and I watched a lot of those guys do what they did."
This summer Canada's Sports Hall of Fame established the Tom Cheek Media Leadership Award to honour those who play a key role in promoting Canadian sports. Cheek was the first recipient and it was presented to him by a large delegation of Blue Jay dignitaries at his home a few weeks ago.
"Those of us that worked with him and of course the listeners and fans of Blue Jays baseball desperately miss hearing him," said Nelson Millman, vice-president and program director of The Fan 590, the Toronto all-sports radio station that carries Blue Jays games. "He was the voice of the Jays to all of us."
Cheek is survived by his wife Shirley, a native of Hemmingford, Que., their three children and seven grandchildren.
by Warduke » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:54 am
Actor Pat Morita Dies at 73
By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" earned him an Oscar nomination, has died. He was 73.
Morita died Thursday at his home in Las Vegas of natural causes, said his wife of 12 years, Evelyn. She said in a statement that her husband, who first rose to fame with a role on "Happy Days," had "dedicated his entire life to acting and comedy."
In 1984, he appeared in the role that would define his career and spawn countless affectionate imitations. As Kesuke Miyagi, the mentor to
Ralph Macchio's "Daniel-san," he taught karate while trying to catch flies with chopsticks and offering such advice as "wax on, wax off" to guide Daniel through chores to improve his skills.
Morita said in a 1986 interview with The Associated Press he was billed as Noriyuki "Pat" Morita in the film because producer Jerry Weintraub wanted him to sound more ethnic. He said he used the billing because it was "the only name my parents gave me."
He lost the 1984 best supporting actor award to Haing S. Ngor, who appeared in "The Killing Fields."
For years, Morita played small and sometimes demeaning roles in such films as "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and TV series such as "The Odd Couple" and "Green Acres." His first breakthrough came with "Happy Days," and he followed with his own brief series, "Mr. T and Tina."
"The Karate Kid," led to three sequels, the last of which, 1994's "The Next Karate Kid," paired him with a young
Hilary Swank.
Morita was prolific outside of the "Karate Kid" series as well, appearing in "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Spy Hard," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "The Center of the World." He also provided the voice for a character in the Disney movie "Mulan" in 1998.
Born in northern California on June 28, 1932, the son of migrant fruit pickers, Morita spent most of his early years in the hospital with spinal tuberculosis. He later recovered only to be sent to a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona during World War II.
"One day I was an invalid," he recalled in a 1989 AP interview. "The next day I was public enemy No. 1 being escorted to an internment camp by an
FBI agent wearing a piece."
After the war, Morita's family tried to repair their finances by operating a Sacramento restaurant. It was there that Morita first tried his comedy on patrons.
Because prospects for a Japanese-American standup comic seemed poor, Morita found steady work in computers at Aerojet General. But at age 30 he entered show business full time.
"Only in America could you get away with the kind of comedy I did," he commented. "If I tried it in Japan before the war, it would have been considered blasphemy, and I would have ended in leg irons. "
Morita was to be buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife and three daughters from a previous marriage.
by urnofosiris » Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:23 pm
by tarebear » Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:01 am
by Warduke » Sat Dec 10, 2005 3:09 pm
Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.
Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.
"We loved him and will miss you," his ex-wife, Flynn Pryor, said from her Florida home.
Pryor was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into modern life and race relations.
His audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, including Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damon Wayans, as well as Robin Williams, David Letterman and others.
A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.
His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."
Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.
Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."
In 1980, he nearly lost his life when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence.
He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.
In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health was clearly evident. Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement difficulties.
In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.
"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about," he said. "And the doctor said `Don't worry, in three months you'll know.'
"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me."
While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never apologized for it.
In his 1977 NBC television series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel his contract with the network after NBC's censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.
In his later years Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's Millions" and "Hear No Evil, See No Evil."
Pryor was married six times. He and Flynn Pryor had a son, Steven. Previous children included another son, Richard, and daughters Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.
Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right out there for you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how well audiences respond to it. I try to make you laugh at life."
by urnofosiris » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:12 am
by Willowlicious » Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:15 pm
by oneyedchicklet » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:11 pm
by bzengo » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:25 pm
by skittles » Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:28 pm
by LesbianJedi87 » Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:10 pm
by the hero factor » Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:34 pm
by WebWarlock » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:51 am
by Gatito Grande » Sat Jan 07, 2006 10:22 pm
) for making love ALLLLLLLLLL night long! 
by oneyedchicklet » Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:27 pm
by urnofosiris » Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:19 am
by Gatito Grande » Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:45 pm
Wilson Pickett dies of heart attack at 64
Soul legend found stardom in 1960s, trouble in later years
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EST (02:49 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wilson Pickett, the soul pioneer best known for the fiery hits "Mustang Sally" and "In The Midnight Hour," died of a heart attack Thursday in a Reston, Virginia, hospital, according to his management company. He was 64.
Chris Tuthill of the management company Talent Source said Pickett had been suffering from health problems for the past year. Pickett lived in Ashburn, Virginia.
"He did his part. It was a great ride, a great trip. I loved him and I'm sure he was well-loved, and I just hope that he's given his props," Michael Wilson Pickett, the singer's son, told WRC-TV in Washington after his death.
Pickett -- known as the "Wicked Pickett" -- became a star with his soulful hits in the 1960s. "In the Midnight Hour" made the top 25 on the Billboard pop charts in 1965, and "Mustang Sally" did the same the following year.
"A fellow Detroiter, Wilson Pickett was one of the greatest soul singers of all time," Aretha Franklin said in a statement. "He will absolutely be missed. I am thankful that I got the chance to speak to him not too long ago."
Pickett was defined by his raspy voice and passionate delivery. But the Alabama-born Pickett got his start singing gospel music in church.
After moving to Detroit, Michigan, as a teen, he joined the group the Falcons, which scored the hit "I Found a Love" with Pickett on lead vocals in 1962.
He went solo a year later, and would soon find his greatest success.
Sensuous soul
In 1965, he linked with legendary soul producer Jerry Wexler at the equally legendary soul label Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded one of his greatest hits, "In the Midnight Hour," for Atlantic Records.
A string of hits followed, including "634-5789," "Funky Broadway" and "Mustang Sally." His sensuous soul was in sharp contrast to the genteel soul songs of his Detroit counterparts at Motown Records.
Roger Friedman, a journalist and friend who featured Pickett in his 2002 documentary on soul greats, "Only the Strong Survive," said Pickett was "really Atlantic's answer to James Brown."
"He wrote his own songs ... he was very, very musically adept, and look at his contribution -- look how many songs of his songs have been covered," Friedman told The Associated Press on Thursday.
As Pickett entered a new decade, he had less success on the charts, but still had a few more hits, including the song "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You."
"Like all these great legends of R&B, when disco came in, it really impacted their careers," Friedman said. "[But] what Americans don't realize is they have all continued to be incredibly popular in Europe -- every summer, touring Europe to incredible crowds."
Tough times
Still, Pickett suffered through some tough times. In 1991, he was arrested for allegedly yelling death threats while driving a car over the mayor's front lawn in Englewood, New Jersey, and less than a year later was charged with assaulting his girlfriend.
In 1993, he was convicted of drunken driving and sentenced to a year in jail and five years' probation after hitting an 86-year-old man with his car. In 1987, he was given two years' probation and fined $1,000 for carrying a loaded shotgun in his car.
Besides his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1991, he was also given the Pioneer award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation two years later. He also cast a long shadow and served as a role model in "The Commitments" in 1991, without appearing in the film.
"If I wasn't in show business I don't know what I would have been -- a wanderer or something, you know?" he said in a 2001 interview. "But God blessed me with the talent and the chance. I knocked on enough doors, and this is what I can give myself credit for."
Friedman said he had just spoken to Pickett last week and that he seemed optimistic he would be able to put recent health troubles aside and perform again.
"We had just a great talk," he said. "He really wanted to get back to business."
Wicked Pickett, we'll miss you... Outby WillowRTaraM1 » Fri Jan 20, 2006 1:45 pm
by GayNow » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:07 am
by GayNow » Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:58 am
Playwright Wendy Wasserstein Dies
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Writer
NEW YORK - Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who celebrated women confronting feminism, careers, love and motherhood in such works as "The Heidi Chronicles" and "The Sisters Rosensweig," died Monday. She was 55.
Wasserstein, who had been battling cancer in recent months, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Andre Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater and Wasserstein's close friend and mentor, said the cause of death was lymphoma.
"She was an extraordinary human being whose work and whose life were extremely intertwined," Bishop said. "She was not unlike the heroines of most of her plays _ a strong-minded, independent, serious good person."
Wasserstein's writing was known for its sharp, often wry observations about what women had to do to succeed in a world dominated by men.
In "The Heidi Chronicles," which won the best-play Tony as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1989, its insecure heroine (played by Joan Allen) takes a 20-year journey beginning in the late 1960s and changes her attitudes about herself, men and other women. "The Sisters Rosensweig," which moved from Lincoln Center to Broadway in 1993, concerned three siblings who find strength in themselves and in each other.
Her most recent work, "Third," which ended a New York run Dec. 18, 2005, dealt with a female college professor, played by Dianne Wiest, whose liberal, feminist convictions are put to the test by a student she sees as the epitome of the white male establishment.
In public, Wasserstein was genial, often quite funny, presenting herself as a rumpled observer of the baby-boom generation.
Many of her plays were initially seen at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons and later at Lincoln Center Theater, both run by Bishop.
Wasserstein was first noticed with "Uncommon Women and Others," written as a Yale School of Drama graduate thesis. The one-act play was expanded and done off-Broadway in 1977 with Glenn Close, Jill Eikenberry and Swoosie Kurtz in the cast. A year later, this satire about the anxieties of female college graduates was filmed for public television with Meryl Streep replacing Close.
The playwright continued her off-Broadway success with "Isn't It Romantic?" _ about a free spirit who rejects her fiance and tries to find a life as a single woman.
In 1997, Broadway saw "An American Daughter," Wasserstein's story of the political downfall of a perfect career woman, played by Kate Nelligan. It was followed in 2000 by "Old Money," her look at money, manners and morals at the beginning and end of the 20th century, done at Lincoln Center's small Mitzi Newhouse Theater.
While primarily a playwright, Wasserstein also wrote for TV and the movies, most notably the screenplay for the 1998 film version of Stephen McCauley's novel, "The Object of My Affection," about a gay man and a pregnant woman who meet and move in together.
Wasserstein was the author of the best-selling children's book, "Pamela's First Musical" (1996). She also wrote two collections of personal essays, "Bachelor Girls," published in 1990, and "Swhiksa Goddess: Or, How I Spent My Forties" (2001).
At age 48, Wasserstein had a daughter, Lucy Jane, born in 1999, three months prematurely. Despite persistent speculation, she always declined to reveal the identity of the girl's father.
"The thing about having a baby (at an) older (age) is that she doesn't have to live her life for me," Wasserstein said in an interview with the Forward, a Jewish weekly. "I can see her, I hope, as a person."
Born Oct. 18, 1950, Wasserstein, the youngest of four children, grew up first in Brooklyn in what she has called, "a nice, middle-class Jewish family," and later in Manhattan. Her father, Morris, was a textile executive.
She attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and then went to Yale University, where she became friends with such budding playwrights as Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato and began her theater career.
"I find myself being more interested in my old friends and in deeper alliances," Wasserstein said in an interview with Time last year. "My 50s are also about being a mother and the joy of my daughter Lucy Jane and about loss. Real loss. My sister Sandra died of breast cancer at 60, so I know about things I didn't know about before. My father died two years ago, and then my friend (director) Gerald Gutierrez died. He was 53. I think if you experience loss, you also on some level try to treasure joy. It can be as simple as going to the ballet or being with your child."
Wasserstein is survived by her daughter Lucy Jane; her mother, Lola; a sister, Georgette Levis; and her brother, Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and chief executive of Lazard LLC.
Funeral services will be private.
___
Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky contributed to this report.
by Gatito Grande » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:34 pm
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