Category Archives: Recalling …

‘Knots Landing’ star Joan Van Ark preferred voice-overs

Posted on June 16, 2023 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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That time I was way-laid by the Happy Hooker

Posted on June 15, 2023 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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Robert Lansing, intense and unhappy with television

Posted on June 5, 2023 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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That time on the ‘Hill Street Blues’ set with Charles Haid

Posted on June 2, 2023 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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How Tina Turner dealt with her troubled past

Posted on May 24, 2023 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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When Joan Collins kicked me off the set of ‘Dynasty’

Posted on May 23, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Joan Collins was pointing at me. I was on the set of the hit primetime soap opera ’Dynasty’. It’s important to make yourself as invisible as possible on a busy TV soundstage so I stood … Continue reading →

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Why British comic Eric Sykes didn’t become a movie star

Posted on May 4, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Eric Sykes, who was born on May 4 one hundred years ago, was one of Britain’s most treasured comedians on radio and television but he might have become a leading actor in movies too as … Continue reading →

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That time Michelle Pfeiffer thought she’d sworn on live TV

Posted on April 29, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Michelle Pfeiffer was worried that she’d dropped an f-bomb on live television. The actress, who turns 65 today, came to meet me right after she appeared on CNN to talk about the John Landis black … Continue reading →

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Composer Patrick Doyle on his triumph over cancer

Posted on April 6, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Anyone who has spent time with film composer Patrick Doyle (above with wife Lesley and me) knows that he is one of the funniest men alive. Not so many know that his sense of humour … Continue reading →

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When Dar Robinson leapt from Toronto’s CN Tower

Posted on March 26, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – The perfect word to describe legendary movie stuntman Dar Robinson, who was born on this day in 1947: unfuckwithable. It allowed him to create thrilling stunts in films such as ‘Stick’, ‘Sharkey’s Machine” (below)), ‘Papillon’ … Continue reading →

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