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| To Find a Man |
| Other Star Info |
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Phyllis Newman |
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An acclaimed Broadway actress, Phyllis Newman
has been occasionally appearing in feature films and on television
since the mid-'50s. Newman is also a club and concert singer,
and among her many hit musical shows were "Bells Are Ringing,"
"The Apple Tree," "On the Town," "Annie Get
Your Gun" and "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking
It On the Road." She beat out Barbra Streisand for a Tony
Award in 1962, winning the Best Supporting or Featured Actress
(Musical) award for "Subways Are for Sleeping." She was
also Tony-nominated in 1987 at Best Actress (Featured Role -
Play) for "Broadway Bound." In the television, Newman
was the first woman to fill in for Johnny Carson on The
Tonight Show; she was also one of Carson's most frequent
guests. She was also an avid game show panelist in the 60s,
notably "To Tell the Truth" and "What's My Line?"
She made her feature film debut in Picnic (1955)
and make several other films including Mannequin,
The Beautician and the Beast, It Had to
Be You, and The Human Stain. In addition
to acting, Newman has published a book of memoirs: Just in
Time: Notes From My Life. She was married to notable composer
and author Adolph Green until his death in 2002. Together they
had two children, Amanda and Adam. |
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Tom Bosley |
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While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed
of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned
out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting
class at DePaul University. After additional training at the
Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience
in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left
for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater
stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing
Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier
work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then
in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical
Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and
the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he
made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor
Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger.
Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he
sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed
Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as
a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV
series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds
Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired
by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch
Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father
Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts
for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham,
aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983).
The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled
Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former
dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days
duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's
Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the
weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter
was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove
sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly
as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character,
Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors
for his many civic and charitable activities. |
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Tom Ewell |
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His parents wanted him to be lawyer, but
S. Yewell Tompkins decided instead to major in liberal arts
at the University of Wisconsin. A professional actor from 1928,
he toured in stock companies then spent several lean years in
New York, during which time he changed his name to Tom Ewell.
He appeared in the first of a string of Broadway flops in 1934,
occasionally enjoying longer runs in such productions as Brother
Rat and Family Portrait. A trip to Hollywood in 1940 led to
a handful of bit parts but little else. After four years in
the Navy, Ewell finally landed a bona fide Broadway hit starring
in John Loves Mary in 1947. This led to his "official"
screen debut as Judy Holliday's philandering husband in Adam's
Rib (1949). Hardly the romantic lead type, Ewell's crumpled
"everyman" countenance served him well in such screen roles
as Bill Mauldin's archetypal G.I. Willie in Up Front
(1951) and Willie and Joe Back at the Front (1952).
Back on Broadway in 1954, he won a Tony Award for his peerless
performance as a "summer bachelor" in George Axelrod's The
Seven Year Itch, repeating this characterization opposite
Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 screen version. He went on to play
wry variations of this role in Frank Tashlin's The Lieutenant
Wore Skirts (1955) and The Girl Can't Help It
(1956), in which his screen partners included such lovelies
as Sheree North, Rita Moreno, and Jayne Mansfield. In 1960,
he starred in The Tom Ewell Show, a one-season sitcom
in which he played a standard harried suburbanite. Various illnesses
and recurrent alcoholism made it increasingly difficult for
Ewell to find work in the 1970s; his best showing during this
period was as Robert Blake's disheveled pal Billy on the weekly
TVer Baretta. Tom Ewell retired in 1983, after a brief
stint as Doc Killian in TV's Best of the West and a character
role in the Rodney Dangerfield film Easy Money. |
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