Oscar Winners / Nominees You've Met in Real Life
May 16, 2020 15:53:01 GMT
mattgarth, spiderwort, and 2 more like this
Post by Doghouse6 on May 16, 2020 15:53:01 GMT
Some that I can recall:
Chatted for about a half-hour about cinematography with Freddie Francis in a West Hollywood cocktail lounge; lovely man.
Gave a ride across the MGM lot on an electric cart to Cliff Robertson; easy guy to talk to.
Charleton Heston at an AFI open house, and again backstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion about three years later; I may not have agreed with his politics, but he was quite a gentleman. Approaching each other from opposite directions in a hallway on that second encounter, he said, "Hello, we've met, haven't we?" Remarkable. A friend who knew him had told me he had an amazing memory for faces, and he was right.
Burt Lancaster at that same AFI open house. Quite cordial and informative. And yes, that big, toothy smile emerged even from behind the beard he was sporting.
Also backstage at the Chandler, Shirley MacLaine and Liza Minnelli; MacLaine was there to see Minnelli's Broadway-bound show, and was quite enthusiastic.
Cary Grant at an after-theater party at Frascati on the Sunset Strip (met Rita Hayworth that same night, although she was never a nominee...but c'mon: how often are you gonna meet Grant and Hayworth on the same night?).
Barbara Bel Geddes in an office on the MGM lot; nice sense of humor.
Donna Reed in the lot's commissary (when she came to replace Bel Geddes on Dallas); first time I'd ever become tongue-tied and made a fool of myself meeting a luminary, but it was a big deal to me. She'd been semi-retired for nearly 20 years, and her show had been regular weekly viewing at my house.
Jane Wyman at the Warners (then TBS) studio; crusty and all business, but nice.
Eileen Brennan, who, along with her sister and nephew, joined some coworkers and me for a round of drinks - and another and another - after a long Christmastime lunch at The Smoke House in Burbank. We eventually got so rowdy that the management threw us all out, and my coworkers and I damn near lost our jobs. The rest of it's a long story.
Chatted for about a half-hour about cinematography with Freddie Francis in a West Hollywood cocktail lounge; lovely man.
Gave a ride across the MGM lot on an electric cart to Cliff Robertson; easy guy to talk to.
Charleton Heston at an AFI open house, and again backstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion about three years later; I may not have agreed with his politics, but he was quite a gentleman. Approaching each other from opposite directions in a hallway on that second encounter, he said, "Hello, we've met, haven't we?" Remarkable. A friend who knew him had told me he had an amazing memory for faces, and he was right.
Burt Lancaster at that same AFI open house. Quite cordial and informative. And yes, that big, toothy smile emerged even from behind the beard he was sporting.
Also backstage at the Chandler, Shirley MacLaine and Liza Minnelli; MacLaine was there to see Minnelli's Broadway-bound show, and was quite enthusiastic.
Cary Grant at an after-theater party at Frascati on the Sunset Strip (met Rita Hayworth that same night, although she was never a nominee...but c'mon: how often are you gonna meet Grant and Hayworth on the same night?).
Barbara Bel Geddes in an office on the MGM lot; nice sense of humor.
Donna Reed in the lot's commissary (when she came to replace Bel Geddes on Dallas); first time I'd ever become tongue-tied and made a fool of myself meeting a luminary, but it was a big deal to me. She'd been semi-retired for nearly 20 years, and her show had been regular weekly viewing at my house.
Jane Wyman at the Warners (then TBS) studio; crusty and all business, but nice.
Eileen Brennan, who, along with her sister and nephew, joined some coworkers and me for a round of drinks - and another and another - after a long Christmastime lunch at The Smoke House in Burbank. We eventually got so rowdy that the management threw us all out, and my coworkers and I damn near lost our jobs. The rest of it's a long story.