Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Pernell Roberts, last star of TV's `Bonanza,' dies
LOS ANGELES – Pernell Roberts, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV's "Bonanza" at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on "Trapper John, M.D.," has died. He was 81.
Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western's cast, died of cancer Sunday at his Malibu home, his wife Eleanor Criswell told the Los Angeles Times.
Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene's patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his "Bonanza" character was given.
"They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. "None of it ever happened."
It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father.
"Doesn't it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father's permission for everything they do?" he once asked a reporter.
Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away.
"Bonanza," with its three remaining stars, continued until 1973, making it second to "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running Western on TV. Blocker died in 1972, Greene in 1987, and Landon in 1991.
When Roberts left the show the general feeling in Hollywood was that he had foolishly doomed his career and turned his back on a fortune in "Bonanza" earnings.
Indeed, for the next 14 years he mainly made appearances on TV shows and in miniseries, or toured with such theatrical productions as "The King and I, "Camelot" and "The Music Man."
His TV credits during that time included "The Virginian," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission Impossible," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Banacek," "Ironside" and "Mannix."
Then, in 1979, he landed another series, "Trapper John, M.D.," in which he played the title role.
The character, but little else, was spun off from the brilliant Korean War comedy-drama "M-A-S-H," in which Wayne Rogers had played the offbeat Dr. "Trapper" John McIntire opposite Alan Alda's Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce.
Rogers had left that series after just three seasons.
In "Trapper John, M.D.," the Korean War was nearly 30 years past and Roberts' character was now a balding, middle-aged chief of surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. He no longer fought the establishment, having learned how to deal with it with patience and wry humor.
The series, praised for its serious treatment of the surgical world, aired until 1986.
Roberts' other venture into series TV was "FBI: The Untold Stories" (1991-1993), in which he acted as host and narrator.
Pernell Roberts Jr. was born in 1928 in Waycross, Ga. As a young man, he once commented, "I distinguished myself by flunking out of college three times." After pursuing occupations that ranged from tombstone maker to railroad riveter, he decided to become an actor.
Roberts worked extensively in regional theaters, then gained notice in New York, where he won a Drama Desk award in 1956 for his performance in an off-Broadway production of "Macbeth."
He eventually moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in several TV shows and landed character roles in such features as "Desire Under the Elms," "The Sheepman" and "Ride Lonesome" until "Bonanza" made him a star.
Three of Roberts' marriages ended in divorce. His first, to Vera Mowry, produced a son, Jonathan, who died in 1989 at age 37.
Monday, January 25, 2010
All My Children" actor James Mitchell dead at 89
LOS ANGELES – James Mitchell, who for nearly three decades played gruff patriarch Palmer Cortland on the ABC soap opera "All My Children," has died, his longtime partner said Sunday night.
Mitchell died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, partner Albert Wolsky said. Mitchell had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for years, complicated by a recent bout of pneumonia.
Mitchell appeared in more than 300 episodes of the popular soap from 1979 until a 40th anniversary episode this month. He was a regular on the show until 2008.
Mitchell enjoyed playing the icy, wealthy Palmer, who wielded power over his children and the show's fictional town of Pine Valley.
"He loved playing mean," Wolsky said. "A soap gives an actor a chance to develop something because it goes on for so long."
Born in Sacramento in 1920 and trained as a dancer, Mitchell had leading roles in the Broadway musicals "Brigadoon" and "Paint Your Wagon," and danced on stage with the American Ballet Theater.
His film credits include 1953's "The Band Wagon" with Fred Astaire, 1954's "Deep in My Heart" and 1955's "Oklahoma."
Mitchell also taught movement for actors at Yale University and Drake University, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Funeral plans were pending
Mitchell died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, partner Albert Wolsky said. Mitchell had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for years, complicated by a recent bout of pneumonia.
Mitchell appeared in more than 300 episodes of the popular soap from 1979 until a 40th anniversary episode this month. He was a regular on the show until 2008.
Mitchell enjoyed playing the icy, wealthy Palmer, who wielded power over his children and the show's fictional town of Pine Valley.
"He loved playing mean," Wolsky said. "A soap gives an actor a chance to develop something because it goes on for so long."
Born in Sacramento in 1920 and trained as a dancer, Mitchell had leading roles in the Broadway musicals "Brigadoon" and "Paint Your Wagon," and danced on stage with the American Ballet Theater.
His film credits include 1953's "The Band Wagon" with Fred Astaire, 1954's "Deep in My Heart" and 1955's "Oklahoma."
Mitchell also taught movement for actors at Yale University and Drake University, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Funeral plans were pending
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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