More Classic and Modern TV Happy Birthdays --- December 14th - 12/14

Celebrating birthdays of some famous people who have appeared on our television screens over the years. Today, we focus on the birthdates for people born on December 14th.

Frances Bavier - An iconic figure from one of the greatest shows of all-time. Bavier played Andy's aunt and Opie's great-aunt on the The Andy Griffith Show. She was born in 1902 and passed away in 1989.  A wonderful actor who represented the very best of a loving family member. The Andy Griffith Show still works. It is one of the few series from another time that resonates with viewers. It's timeless and so is Aunt Bee. 

Natascha McElhone - British actress, Natascha McElhone was born this day in 1971. McElhone has worked consistently for the last 30 years. McElhone was recently in The Crown.

 Matthew McNulty - The British actor was born in 1982. He's got a killer smile and a downright perfectly featured face.  His meticulously superb performance in The Musketeers Season Three is epic. 

Vanessa Hudgens was born in 1988. Talk about time going by quickly. It seems like yesterday she was in Disney's High School Musical. 

Tori Kelly was born this day in 1992. Did she really annoy Simon Cowell? We may never know. What we do know is she is a terrific singer. Oh, and she has that sensational head of hair!

 

Morey Amsterdam - Morey Amsterdam was a comic actor who gained fame on the The Dick Van Dyke Show. He was born in 1908 and passed away in 1996. Trivia: He was a talented cellist! 

June Taylor - One of the most significant choreographers of the 20th century who had her own dance clan on television. Her dancers were featured on various shows, including the 1960's variety series starring Jackie Gleason.  She was born in 1917 and passed in 2004.

                    Taylor (second from left) directing from the control room.  

Don Hewitt - A legendary name in news. Hewitt gained fame as the long-standing executive producer of the longest running series on television, 60 Minutes. Hewitt was born in 1922 and passed away in 2009. 

Charlie Rich- "Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?" What a line! What romance! Rich was a massive country star who crossed over on to the pop charts with several songs in the 1970's. Cool as ice! Rich was born in 1932 and died in 1995. 

Lee Remick - Remick was a lovely woman and a highly underrated actress. She starred in multiple films and television roles throughout the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. She was born in 1935 and passed away in 1991.

Patty Duke - Patty Duke was a young Academy Award winner with her superb performance as Helen Keller in 1962's The Miracle Worker. She went on to star in her own series during the 1960's and then placed her talents in many telefilms until her death. 

Happy birthday to everyone born on the 14th of December!

Copyright The Flaming Nose 2022

Summer Nose-talgia #12: William Schallert -- Happy Birthday! 92 and still going strong!

An extra-special Happy Birthday greeting goes out to today to veteran movie, TV and stage actor William Schallert, a familiar face to audiences since the late 1940s.  Mr. Schallert turns 92 today!

In addition to his array of movie roles, including characters in films such as The High and the Mighty, Gog, Riot in Cell Block 11, In The Heat of the Night and as a compassionate doctor treating Grant Williams as The Incredible Shrinking Man, Schallert has worked non-stop in all television genres.  His credits are endless, including a recent cameo on the CBS hit comedy 2 Broke Girls this year.  You just have to take a look at the list of his roles -- it's mind-boggling and unbelievably impressive. Truly...just click here and have a look!

We'll present a few clips here to remind you of William Schallert's awesome body of work, but as you can imagine, there are just too many to do him full justice!

Here are a couple of movie trailers from interesting mid-1950s melodrama in which he appeared:






And now into his TV work.  One of his famous early gigs was his role as understanding schoolteacher Mr. Pomfritt in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, co-starring Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver.





William Schallert's most beloved role was no doubt his character of Martin Lane on The Patty Duke Show for three seasons beginning in 1963.  He played the father of Patty and -- in an occasional dual role of his own -- her identical cousin Cathy, too.  Schallert's Martin Lane was wise, understanding, urbane and intelligent -- he was a newspaper editor -- and one of the very best TV fathers ever, thanks in large part to the generous portion of personal charm and warmth brought by Schallert to the role.




In 1998 the entire cast reunited for a TV movie called The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights:




An even more recent reunion took place on behalf of the Social Security Administration, as Patty Duke and several of the cast got back together in 2010 to make several nostalgic public service announcements on behalf of Medicare:




One very important aspect of William Schallert's long career is his continuing activism on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild and his commitment to ethical conduct and fair play for all citizens.  In 2010 he became an on-air spokesman for a California group advocating for single-payer healthcare in California.





You'll enjoy this clip of Schallert as Gen. Robert E. Lee from the popular 1986 miniseries North and South: Book 2, alongside Lloyd Bridges as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Patrick Swayze as a dashing Rebel agent:




Last but certainly not least, we bring you the appearance that Schallert has claimed gets him the most attention from fans everywhere, and we don't doubt it.  Of course, it's from Star Trek and his episode just happens to be one of the most popular from the series, the unforgettable "The Trouble with Tribbles" from 1967.  His work as the uptight interstellar bureaucrat Nilz Baris is classic spot-on Schallert and assures his place forever in the annals of Popular Culture, not to mention that he also guested on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and appeared in clips from their Tribbles tribute episode!  Solid gold credentials!







Again, check out the nearly endless array of William Schallert's TV and movie credits -- right here.  Is he the most prolific actor in TV's history?  If he isn't, he certainly has got to be in the topmost tier.  Fittingly, the Television Academy sat him down two years ago for a comprehensive interview about his incredible television legacy.  Check out his multi-part conversation at the Archive of American Television; click here.  There is also a wonderful two-part interview with Schallert beginning here -- it's terrific, and thanks to Sam Tweedle of Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict for doing it!

Mr. Schallert also recently started his own personal website which you should definitely visit -- click here! Lots of great information, wonderful photos and a tremendous selection of clips!  Great job!

There are nothing but good things to be said about William Schallert.  Talented, professional, caring, committed, kind, involved, dedicated -- those things are all William Schallert.

Our very best wishes to him for a wonderfully Happy Birthday today, and many more!

P.S.:  The clips here are but a tiny sampling of everything available on Mr. Schallert -- check out YouTube and other online video sources for more evidence of his prolific talent.  Many more are available linked at Mr. Schallert's own website, too!

Patty Duke for Social Security

Have you seen the series of PSAs for the Social Security Administration, starring our baby boomer TV favorite Patty Duke -- star of course of the classic sitcom The Patty Duke Show -- reprising her Patty and Cathy Lane characters? The spots encourage seniors to go online to conduct their Social Security business.

I guess I've been out of the loop, evidently not watching enough U.S. TV in the wee hours to catch public service announcements, but just this morning I caught one of the five spots. Honestly I didn't pick up on the Patty Duke connection (or even that it was Patty Duke) until they reprised the iconic theme song in the last moments of the PSA, but I've since found out all about them, mainly that they've been around since the beginning of last year. They are cute spots, with enough knowing references to the series that fans won't be rolling their eyes bemoaning their lameness.

And here they are:











I did a post here almost two years ago (!) about The Patty Duke Show, so take a look at that if you want to see the original show open that so charmed us all back in the 1960s. Patty Duke did a fair amount of publicity for these PSAs, and one nice interview is here, and I think you will be heartened to know that Ms. Duke volunteered to do these spots, good citizen that she is. (If you'd like to visit the SSA site and watch the vids online, go here.) There is supposed to be an additional spot featuring the remaining castmembers of the show coming up, and we'll be looking forward to that. In October of last year Patty appeared in a spot with flu shot information, also available at the SSA site.

Fans of Patty Duke -- and who isn't, and I mean that -- will want to check out the well-informed website Call Me Anna: The Official Patty Duke Website for the latest on Patty.