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| The Mystery of the Fallen
Angels |
| Guest Star Info |
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Jamie Lee Curtis |
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The daughter of film stars Tony Curtis
and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis launched her film career as
a "scream queen." After a nondescript supporting role on the
TV series Operation Petticoat, Curtis rose to cult stardom
playing the straight-laced teenage baby sitter imperiled by
an unknown slasher in Halloween. Upon appearing
in the film's sequel and in such spookers as The Fog
and Prom Night, she seemed in danger of being
limited to blood-splattered horror films. But Curtis wasn't
about to be typed this early in the game: with a meaty secondary
role as a prostitute featuring several well-publicized nude
scenes in the big-budget comedy Trading Places,
she made the transition from imperiled teen type to knowing
adult with nary a hitch. Curtis didn't exactly have a string
of box-office smashes after Trading Places, but
she was always worth watching even when the films weren't. And
when the good parts did come along, notably her roles in A
Fish Called Wanda and My Girl, she proved
she was an actress of range and stature and not just another
"movie star's kid." Taking a potentially humiliating role as
the unknowing wife of a secret agent in the megabucks Arnold
Schwarzenegger adventure True Lies, Curtis delivered
a sparkling performance, emerging as the only truly likable
character in a loud and misogynistic melodrama. In 1997, she
was reunited with the cast of A Fish Called Wanda
(Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Michael Palin) for Fierce
Creatures, another comedy/farce in the same vein as
Wanda. Unfortunately, the film was largely disappointing; but,
the following year, Curtis
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rebounded with a return to familiar
territory in Halloween: H2O. The slasher flick,
although less than a critical favorite, proved to be popular
with audiences. In 1999, Curtis again ventured into the big-budget
realm with the action thriller Virus, and had
a supporting role in Daddy and Them. She could
then be seen in Drowning Mona, a black comedy
in which she played a waitress caught up in an affair with the
husband of her town's most infamous dead woman. The 2000's have
brought Curtis several interesting opportunities, including
a live performance at Paul McCartney's benefit for the controversial
animal rights organization PETA in 2000, and a no-holds-barred
photo shoot with More magazine in 2002 -- the then 44-year-old
actress wanted to emphasize that even high-profile celebrities
look "normal" when without the help of a team of make-up artists
and digital alterations. In 2001, Curtis starred alongside Oscar-winner
Geoffrey Rush and James Bond front man Pierce Brosnan in the
espionage thriller The Tailor of Panama, and returned
for a cameo appearance in Halloween: Resurrection,
which will supposedly mark her final role in the Halloween
franchise. Curtis would return to more family-oriented pictures
in 2003's Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan, which
featured the forty-something actress playing a punky teen whose
spirit had magically been transferred to her mother's body.
Married to actor Christopher Guest since 1984, Curtis became
a Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the
Barony in 1996. In an interesting note, Curtis would audition
for the role of Nancy Drew and be the second runner up to Pamela
Sue Martin. |
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Robert Alda |
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Born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto
D'Abruzzo in 1914, Actor Robert Alda studied architecture at
NYU, briefly working in this field until choosing show business.
He started performing in vaudeville, and in burlesque as a tenor
and straight man. By 1934, he was well established on radio.
He made a spectacular film debut in Warner Brothers. 1945 biopic
Rhapsody in Blue, essaying the role of George
Gershwin over the objections of director Irving Rapper, who'd
wanted to hold off production until Tyrone Power was available.
Alda did as good a job as possible, given the banalities of
the scripts, though his piano-playing sequences are obviously
faked and tricked up. Alda's starring career faded out rather
quickly; he was more successful with second leads and villainous
roles, and in the early 1960s became a fixture of Italian sword-and-sandal
and spy films. Returning to Broadway in 1950, Alda created the
role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, winning a Tony
Award in the process. In 1954, he starred in the syndicated
TV series Secret File USA. Robert Alda was the father
of Alan Alda, with whom he appeared in a poignant M*A*S*H
TV episode of the late 1970s. Alda died in 1986. |
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A. Martinez |
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Born on September 27 (my borthday!)
of Mexican heritage, A Martinez (the A stands for Adolphe) played
many a Native American in the earliest stages of his career.
Martinez' first role in major studio release was Cimarron in
The Cowboys, a character he carried over into
the 1973 TV spin-off. From 1984 to 1993, he was starred as Cruz
Castillo, erstwhile fiancé of long-suffering Eden Capwell, in
the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara; in 1990 he won an Emmy
for his work on this series. In the British/American co-production
Powwow Highway he gave an impassioned performance as
Indian-activist Buddy Red Bow, who, with pal Philbert Bono,
embarks on a cross-country journey to battle government injustice.
Martinez' prime-time TV credits include Benny Silva in Cassie
and Company and Lt. Neal Quinn in Whiz Kids. He was
"executed" on a 1990 episode of LA Law, then "resuscitated"
to play Daniel Morales on the same series in 1992. He would
also have recurring roles on both General Hospital and
it's spin-off Port Charles. His guest starring roles
would also include appearances on such show as Night Gallery,
Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, Fantasy
Island, Hart to Hart, Falcon Crest, and Remington
Steele. |
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Beverly Garland |
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Had the Fates smiled upon her, the
versatile Beverly Garland would have been one of the biggest
female stars in films. She started out well, with a plum part
in the noir classic DOA, in which she was billed
as Beverly Campbell. Alas, Garland was never one to keep her
opinions to herself, and her pointed comments about some of
her DOA colleagues turned her into a Hollywood
pariah before her career had even begun. She eventually worked
her way back up the ladder with supporting roles in theatrical
features and guest-star assignments on television. Garland rapidly
earned a reputation as a "good luck charm" for TV-pilot producers,
who could usually count on a sale if Garland was featured in
their product. She guested on the first episode of Medic
as an expectant leukemia victim, and was co-starred in the pilots
of no fewer than three Rod Cameron TV vehicles: City Detective,
State Trooper and Coronado 9, all of which sold.
In the mid-1950s, Garland was briefly the inamorata of quickie
producer/director Roger Corman, who prominently cast her in
such cheapies as It Conquered the World and Not
of This Earth. She starred in the 1957 syndicated TV
series Policewoman Decoy, which permitted her to adopt
a variety of convincing guises in the line of duty. From the
1960s on, Garland was everyone's favorite TV wife or mother:
she played Bing Crosby's wife in The Bing Crosby Show,
Fred MacMurray's wife on the last three seasons of My Three
Sons, Stephanie Zimbalist's mother in Remington Steele
and Kate Jackson's mother on Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Active into the 1990s, Beverly Garland has supplemented her
acting income with her job as spokesperson for a major Midwestern
travel agency. |
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Robert Englund |
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Robert
Englund began his acting training at age 12, taking drama courses
at the University of Oakland, U.C.L.A., California State-Northridge,
the Michigan Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the Rochester, NY,
branch of R.A.D.A. Englund made his first professional appearance
in a Cleveland production of Godspell. His first film role was
the bumptious backwoodsman Whitey in Buster and Billie
(which also stared Pamela Sue Marting), after which he paid
his dues in a series of villainous bit parts: shooting down
Burt Reynolds at the end of Hustle; beating up
Kris Kristofferson in
Barbra Streisand's remake of A
Star is Born in 1976. In 1984, he was cast as Willie,
one of the few sympathetic Earth-invading extraterrestrials
in the sci-fi TV miniseries V. Impressed by this performance,
director Wes Craven buried Englund under several layers of latex
and collodion and cast him as malevolent,
mass-murdering wraith Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on
Elm Street. The actor became an instant star, appearing
in five Nightmare sequels, hosting a 1988 television spin-off,
and basking in the glow of a plenitude of fan clubs. Although
Freddy's only redeeming quality was his morbid sense of humor,
Englund became an idol to the young, who emulated the actor
each Halloween donning Freddy masks and plastic claws. Far from
concerned that this idolatry might lead to delinquency, Englund
allowed that he enjoyed playing Freddy, and felt pride at having
created so memorable a screen persona. Unlike such horror icons
of the past as Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, however,
Englund was not able to shed his famous character's image when
he wanted to move on to other roles. Outside of his Nightmare
appearances, Englund's most significant credits were his one-shot
directorial stint on the theatrical feature 976-EVIL;
his characterization of the title role in a medium-budget film
adaptation of Phantom of the Opera; and his hosting
chores on the Craven-produced TV anthology Nightmare Café.
He would also appear in such television producions as Charlie's
Angels, CHiPS, Hart to Hart, Alice,
MacGyver, Married...with Children, and Charmed
throughout his career. |
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