When Topol stood me up to go off to war

Posted on March 9, 2023 by admin

Topol x650

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ star Chaim Topol cancelled my interview with him in June 1967 but he had a very good reason. He left his starring role of Tevye in the hit West End production to return to Israel to be there for what turned out to be the Six-Day War.

The Israeli actor, who died on March 8 aged 87, had made tickets for the show at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket almost impossible to find, but when his country faced peril, he didn’t hesitate. Continue reading →

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Kay Lenz on macho stars, nudity and her marriage

Posted on March 4, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – American actress Kay Lenz, who turns 70 today, was one of my favourite people when I began visiting Hollywood in the late Seventies.  I first met her at midnight in a bowling alley on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. I was with my pals, showbiz photographer Maureen Donaldson and ‘Battlestar Galactica’ star Annie Lockhart. Kay was with her then husband, a chap named David Cassidy. The four of them were good friends and I was asked to tag along. Continue reading →

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That time when Stanley Baker needed a cigarette

Posted on February 28, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Stanley Baker needed a cigarette. The Welsh actor, who was born on this day 95 years ago, was at an after-party following a screening in 1967 of his action picture ‘Robbery’.  Pictured above left with Michael Caine in ‘Zulu’, he was asking those of us in the dwindling crowd if anyone had one.

I was working at Where to Go in London magazine at the time and my editor, Derek Allwright, and I had been waiting patiently enjoying the free drinks and canapes for a chance to speak to Baker as we had been promised. I had one cigarette left. Continue reading →

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Why composer John Corigliano has been so choosy

Posted on February 16, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Prolific American composer John Corigiliano, who turns 85 today, scored just three feature films, earned two Academy Award nominations and won for ‘The Red Shoes’. 

‘For me, writing for film has everything to do with the project,’ he told me in 1998. ‘If I’m commissioned, then the performers have to realise my vision. Film composers write for all sorts of film while I will occasionally do a film if I can contribute to it.’ Continue reading →

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The Academy Awards? Oh, yeah, them … (yawn)

Posted on January 24, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – For the first time since I was a teenager, the Oscars hold little interest for me, well, aside from last year and the two years before that. I’ve forgotten, did they hold the Oscars last year? Continue reading →

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John Williams said he never takes Spielberg for granted

Posted on January 24, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – ‘My hope is that I can work with Steven for many years to come,’ composer John Williams told me. That was in 2000 by which time he had written the scores for sixteen Spielberg-directed movies starting in 1974 with ‘Sugarland Express’. Since then, he has scored thirteen more including this year’s ‘The Fabelmans’ and he was music consultant on last year’s ‘West Side Story’, which of course had music by Leonard Bernstein. Continue reading →

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Recalling … Lloyd Bridges, famous star with famous sons

Posted on January 15, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – ‘Oh, you shouldn’t bother with Lloyd,’ said Dorothy Bridges, the actor’s wife of nearly forty years. ‘You need to talk to my boys, Jeff and Beau.’

It was 1976 and she had every reason to be proud of her sons as both had made a big impression in movies and went on to long careers. Lloyd Bridges, who was born on this day in 1913, was no slouch, however, with more than 210 screen credits over his lifetime. 

Sadly, Beau and Jeff were not on hand with their parents when I met them. With a group of actors including Charlton Heston, Chad Everett, Chris Connelly, Rob Reiner and Desi Arnaz Jr., Bridges was playing in Detroit in a charity tennis tournament sponsored by Hiram Walker. Continue reading →

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Don’t mistake Anthony Hopkins for roles he plays

Posted on December 31, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – No one expects Anthony Hopkins, who turns 85 today, to be anything like Hannibal Lecter but he told me people do often assume he’s like other roles he’s played. 

‘I get a lot of people saying, oh, you shouldn’t be doing that, you play butlers and things,’ he said. ‘They were wonderful parts, “Shadowlands”, ‘Remains of the Day”, I really enjoyed them but I’m not like those characters, you know. I’m not Arnold Schwarzenegger but I’m certainly not the butler in “Remains of the Day”. I’ve been a bad boy in my life. I wouldn’t say I was wild but I’ve lived life. I’ve had a good time.’ Continue reading →

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Bob Dowling gave me the best job in the world

Posted on December 31, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – I shall always be grateful to Robert J.Dowling, the former publisher and editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter who has died aged 83, because it was thanks to him that for several years I had a job that even legendary Hollywood studio chief Sherry Lansing envied.

As THR’s European Arts Critic based in London, I reviewed the finest theatre in the West End, the top music concerts and the best of British television plus movies in England and at international film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Galway and once in Rio de Janeiro. Continue reading →

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Ted Danson’s epiphany in the African desert

Posted on December 29, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Ted Danson, who turns 75 today, has had an astonishingly successful career on television but there was a time when he wanted something else. After his sitcom ’Cheers’ became a massive hit in the early Eighties, his dream was to be a big-time movie star. Continue reading →

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