Category Archives: Recalling …

How quiet scenes help make ‘The Great Escape’ so thrilling

Posted on December 28, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett John Sturges’s terrific prisoner-of-war adventure ‘The Great Escape’ is an annual treat around this time of year and remained great entertainment when I watched it on BBC-TV for the enth time. Elmer Bernstein’s splendid score was the … Continue reading →

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Meeting Rob Reiner a second time showed me a different man

Posted on December 16, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett Fame and popularity can so easily go to the head of entertainers and so it seemed the first time I met Rob Reiner when he was still in his 20s and starring in the smash hit TV … Continue reading →

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Woody Allen on ‘Annie Hall’ and why he disliked his other films

Posted on November 30, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett As Woody Allen turns 90 today, I’m reminded of his remarkably candid comments at a New York junket for ‘Annie Hall’ in the Spring of 1977. He hated having to publicise his films, he said, ‘I don’t … Continue reading →

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That time on set with Mickey Rooney and Jackie Cooper

Posted on September 23, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett In March 1981 I was at the CBS Studio Center on Radford Avenue in Studio City watching two legendary former child stars working together again. Mickey Rooney and Jackie Cooper had co-starred with Freddie Bartholomew in the … Continue reading →

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How I helped keep Bill Murray subversive

Posted on September 21, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett I had a bone to pick with Bill Murray, who turns 75 today. It was 1990 and all the rebellious early comedians on “Saturday Night Live” appeared to have lost their way. From radical satire they’d moved … Continue reading →

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When Topol stood me up to go off to war

Posted on September 9, 2025 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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Why Emma Samms took nude scenes on TV in stride

Posted on August 28, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett Emma Samms, who turns 65 today, was one of the hottest young actresses on American television in 1985 when she segued from playing Holly Sutton on the daytime soap opera ‘General Hospital’ to replacing Pamela Sue Martin … Continue reading →

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TV broadcaster Bill Moyers regarded the elite as the enemy

Posted on June 26, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett Veteran TV newsman Bill Moyers,  former New York Newsday publisher and press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson, has died aged 91. As a broadcaster, he often spun off bestselling books from his TV productions and in 1989 … Continue reading →

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The look on Anne Murray’s face was one of sheer terror

Posted on June 20, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – One of Canada’s most successful singers, Anne Murray, who turns 80 today, became a huge international entertainer but she told me two things had made her nervous – performing in Las Vegas and at the … Continue reading →

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Frederick Forsyth did more than write great thrillers

Posted on June 9, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – English writer Frederick Forsyth, who died today aged 86, not only wri0te  clever and exciting thrillers such as ‘Day of the Jackal’ (starring Edward Fox, above)  and ‘The Odessa file’, he also was prescient about … Continue reading →

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