Front Row Dress Circle

Come on…which stars from the past do you think are still alive and kicking? just to keep you hanging on I’m going to make this a two part thing. Here is a list of those celeb’s that you could be forgiven for assuming were pushing up the daisies by now (and I don’t blame you!) but still walk this lovely planet earth…

* Tony Curtis – actor;  father of Jamie Leigh, ex of Janet (Psycho) Leigh and serial womaniser. Needs to lay off the botox.

* Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia); yeah I know…how does he do it? he must be pickled in aspic by now.

* Mickey Rooney; huge child star in the 1930′s of those ‘Hey guys, let’s put on a show!’ films. Actually a very talented person. Married many times; currently to a very annoying woman – Jan – who sits in on all his interviews and cuts in repeatedly when he is answering questions. Jan…shut up!!!  Mickey is the star, not you!

* Jimmy Page of the band ‘ Led Zeppelin’. Once again, how does he do it? he must have imbibed enough substances to declare himself a walking pharmacy.

* Jerry Lee Lewis. One wonders…oh, he married his under-age cousin some decades back. Cue the banjo please…

* Believe it or not but Chuck Berry is still kickin’ it…

* Chubby Checker too…he should have stuck with being a plumber though

* Karl Malden (The Streets of San Francisco; A Streetcar named Desire) – he’s 96!

but the award for celebrity longevity (in Hollywood terms) goes to…

Luise Rainer!

Even I am astounded by this. Luise was born in Dusseldorf Germany in 1910 and began her acting career there. She moved to Hollywood and is best known for her starring role opposite Paul Muni in the moving film, about the Chinese famine victims, The Good Earth (1937). She was also known as ‘The Viennese Teardrop’ due to her soulful, teary ‘look’. She was married to playwright Clifford Odets. She made an appearance in a 1983 episode of The Love Boat and appeared at the 2003 Academy Awards in a special retrospective tribute to past Oscar winners.

Luise Rainer pictured in 2003 at the age of 93. You go girl!

Popularity: 29% [?]

My son was watching the film Mr and Mrs Smith with Angie and Brad just yesterday; and while they were not exactly a couple when they made the film (we all know they ended up as though) making the movie together obviously made them hunger for something more real afterwards. Here’s a list of stars who were both married in real life and co-stars together as well…

* Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz – we all loved these two. Apart from starring in I love Lucy together for some years they also starred as a newly married couple in the great film The Long Long Trailer.

* Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - God were these two hot for each other back then! they appeared together in Cleopatra of course as well as The Sandpiper, The Taming of the Shrew and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

* Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton - appeared together in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1939), Tales of Manhattan(1942) , The Big Clock(1948) and Witness for the Prosecution(1957).

* Fredric March and Florence Eldridge – appeared in The Skin of our Teeth(1942), Les Miserables(1935) and Inherit the Wind(1960).

* Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - who could forget Bogie and Bacall? they met on the set of their first film together To Have and Have Not when she was just nineteen and he was (unhappily) married to alcoholic actress Mayo Methot. They also appeared together in The Big Sleep and Key Largo.

Trivia: Did you know that Humphrey Bogart was a not-too-distant cousin of Diana, Princess of Wales. They were related through Diana’s American Great Grandmother.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to everyone! don’t you just love this day of the year? even if you don’t have a drop of Irish blood you still feel the spirit and want to go out and celebrate. It’s the one day of the year when everybody can be Irish.

Hollywood has always loved all things Irish and many actors were Irish themselves, or were the children of Irish immigrants. There have been a fair number of films set, or even filmed in , Ireland itself so let’s celebrate the Irish side of Hollywood today!

* Pat O’Brien was born in the US in 1899 to Irish parents and never lost his Irish brogue. He starred in movies from the 30′s onwards with Angels with Dirty Faces being one of his most memorable. He starred in 8 films with James Cagney and was a self proclaimed fascist and supporter of Franco.

* James Cagney was born 1899 in New York to Irish parents; his Dad was a bartender. He never actually uttered those famous words…you dirty rat!

* You would never know it from the eloquent way he speaks but Peter O’Toole was born in Connemara, Ireland in 1932. He lost his Irish brogue during his drama training, something Richard Burton never did with his Welsh accent.

* Tyrone Power was two generations removed from his Irish ancestry but portrayed legendary West Point Academy instructor Marty Maher in the wonderful film The Long Gray Line with Maureen O’Hara. His Irish accent though was not very convincing…in my opinion anyway.

* John Wayne created the wonderful film, The Quiet Man, in tribute to his Irish ancestry. It was filmed on location in Connemara and fans from all over the world visit the location every year. The small village of Cong, where the action was filmed,  had electricity especially installed so that director John Ford could move in with his production team. The landmarks and cottages are still there and if you have seen the movie and go there you will be able to pick them out. The little bridge from the film, in the middle of nowhere, has a sign on it to commemorate the scene filmed there with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

* Ryan’s Daughter was shot in the isolated beauty of the Dingle Peninsula, the village used in the film was constructed entirely from stone by the production team so that it would withstand the elements during filming. Director David Lean had to wait a year before a suitably dramatic storm appeared to shoot some scenes. The people from the village of Dunquin were hired as extras for the filming. The region was almost economically destitute at the time and the movie gave the region a huge boost with regards to tourism.

Popularity: 20% [?]