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 quietly at the rear. TV shows proceed at a rapid pace and performers often need to be prompted by a floor manager. I wasn’t surprised to see Collins blow her lines. Continue reading
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 ‘The Liquidator’.
English thriller writer John Gardner wrote more than fifty novels including fourteen original James Bond yarns at the request of the Ian Fleming estate.
‘The Liquidator’, his first novel published in 1964, was a smart and funny spoof about a reluctant secret agent named Boysie Oakes. Mistakenly thought to be a ruthless killer but actually a coward who hates guns, he hires a real assassin named Griffen to bump off people in order to keep the rewards coming. Continue reading
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 comedy ‘Into the Night’ in which she played a wild-child who discovers the dark side of Los Angeles. She’d said she knew something about that and told of an encounter that occurred when she was just getting started as an actress. A man offered her some cash and an all-expenses paid 24-hour trip. She turned him down. Continue reading
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 played a large part in keeping him from an early death. Continue reading
STICK, Dar Robinson, Burt Reynolds, Jose Perez, 1985. ©Universal
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’ and ‘Magnum Force’ and combined with a bright smile and killer pickup line, it made him catnip to the ladies. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Almost forty years ago, I created a weekly movie supplement in Canadian TV Guide called Bigscreen. I wanted a big name for the first edition and Hollywood publicist Jerry Pam facilitated a Q&A with his longtime client, Michael Caine. As Caine turns 90 today, here’s what he had to say when he was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Educating Rita’ (above with Julie Walters). Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Maverick banshees all at once, Elvis sadness, women on water, Fabelmans on the western front. Tár but no thanks. There was a time when I really cared about movies and found the competition for Academy Awards entertaining. Take 1973.
Nominees for Best Picture included John Boorman’s ‘Deliverance’, Jan Troell’s ‘The Emigrants’ and Martin Ritt’s ‘Sounder’. For me and my Windsor Star colleague Ron Base, it was all about the battle between a terrific crime picture and a brilliant musical. Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ versus Bob Fosse’s ‘Cabaret’. Continue reading
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
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
Seven Michael Caine guilty favourites …
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Michael Caine, who is still making films in his 90s with ‘The Great Escaper’ due out this year, has made so many movies that some tend to get lost. Here are seven I’ve always found worth a watch even though they are of varying quality. Continue reading →