By Ray Bennett
LONDON – English writer Frederick Forsyth, who turns 85 today, has not only written clever and exciting thrillers such as ‘Day of the Jackal’ (starring Edward Fox, above) and ‘The Odessa file’, he’s also prescient about world affairs. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – ‘Composing is so much like painting,’ the late James Horner told me. ‘I patch colour into certain things until I hear the sounds and then I know how much of the magenta or how much of the teal-blue to put in. It’s something I have to do when I hear it and I hear it sort of all around me. I start to paint the scene and then that will an element that I’ll write an orchestral part around, adding the orchestral part on top of it later on.’ Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
London’s leafy Green Park means many things to many people, but to lyricist Don Black it will always be the place where he wrote the hit song “Tell Me on a Sunday” to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The kitchen in his Sixties home in Mill Hill in Northwest London always comes to mind when he thinks of the Lulu smash hit “To Sir With Love,” which he wrote with composer Mark London.
Black, who turns 85 today, won an Oscar at 27 for “Born Free” with music by composer John Barry; he has Ivor Novello Awards and a Golden Globe; he’s an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and an inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – American lyricist Sammy Cahn, who was born on this day in 1913, wrote scores of songs that everyone remembers but he told me that what kept him busy was penning lyrics for special occasions. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Joan Van Ark was among the most popular TV stars of the Eighties in the ‘Dallas’ spinoff ‘Knots Landing’ but she told me she made more money doing voice-overs for commercials and cartoons.
‘It’s as good a salary as you get from acting,’ Van Ark said. ‘Of course, I work for Lorimar, so how good can it be? You can print that, I don’t care. Unless you’re Larry Hagman. The reason the rest of us are doing floors and windows is because of what Larry’s making. You know, we clear up the sets after it’s all over. I make more, and I always have, from my voiceover work than from any other form of acting.’ Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – I went to London to see the Queen and met the Happy Hooker, who led me astray.
Fifty years ago this month, Queen Elizabeth II was touring Canada and The Windsor Star newspaper sent me to cover the leg of her trip in the closest city in southwest Ontario.
After she did a walkabout and departed, photographer Cec Southward and I repaired to the London press club, as you would, for a libation or two. That’s where we unexpectedly ran into Xaviera Hollander and I got distracted. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Treat Williams, who died aged 71 on June 12 in a motorcycle accident, became instantly famous in the movie version of ‘Hair’ in 1979. After shining brightly in Sidney Lumet’s fine 1981 cop picture ‘Prince of the City’ (below), he was on track to become a major movie star until fame and cocaine got in the way. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – ‘Television is just awful,’ Robert Lansing told me. ‘I’ve done a lot of it but not from choice. I’ve done an awful lot of garbage; an awful lot of lousy things. I’m not saying I’m ashamed but I think my career is almost one-hundred percent ahead of me. I’ve fouled up until now.’ Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – ‘You don’t say Hill and you don’t say Renko. You say Hill and Renko’. Charles Haid (above right) stated the case for one of the most durable partnerships on television in the 1980s on the hit cop show ‘Hill Street Blues’. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – ‘As crazy as it was,’ said Tina Turner, ‘I laugh about it. ’ The queen of rock’n’roll, who has died aged 83, was talking about her difficult childhood in Tennessee and her abusive marriage to rocker Ika Turner. Continue reading
