By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Loretta Swit, who turns 85 today, is regarded fondly for playing ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan in ‘M*A*S*H’ on TV for eleven years but life on that show wasn’t always easy for her. It was a struggle for a woman to be heard in the midst of an otherwise all-male cast dominated by Alan Alda. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – I spoke to Stefanie Powers, who turns 80 today, a few times on the set of her hit TV series ‘Hart to Hart’ with Robert Wagner (above) but my favourite encounter with her was an interview in which we barely spoke of showbusiness at all. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – One of the true queens of the soaps, ‘Days of Our Lives’ star Deidre Hall, who turns 75 today, sent me a very nice note after I interviewed her in 1981 for a cover story in Canadian TV Guide.
‘Dear Ray, I’m very proud of our “product”. It’s not surprising that a story that fine would come out of an interview that fine. Love, Deidre.’
I interviewed many stars of daytime dramas for the magazine but Hall, warm, friendly and candid, was one of the most enjoyable. We spent a lovely afternoon at her pretty home in Studio City where she lived alone between marriages. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – It was lunchtime at the Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit and things were getting a bit silly. Cleo Laine, who turns 95 today, was talking about Kurt Weill and the Berliner Ensemble when someone mentioned Monty Python and soon she was giggling over her Dover Sole. We swapped favourite lines and it took a while before we got back to talking about the reason she was on tour in the United States. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – From ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ to ‘Ghostbusters’ to ‘Field of Dreams’ and now ‘Raymond & Ray’, there’s always a Ray in the movies and television. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Roger Moore, who was born on this day in 1927, told me that really he was a frustrated bank robber. ‘It’s only fear that’s stopped me from robbing banks,’ he said. ‘I’d get caught. That’s why I’m a movie actor. I’ve never been caught acting.’
Moore, who died aged 89 on May 23, 2017, gave me one of my most treasured interviews, candid and very funny, on the Pinewood Studios set of his seventh and final James Bond picture, ‘A View to a Kill’, on Dec. 10, 1984. Here are some excerpts: Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Novelist Jackie Collins, who was born 85 years ago today, wrote about the problems women faced in Hollywood long before the ‘me too’ movement came along.
Younger sister of Joan Collins, she was known for sexy blockbusters such as The Stud’, ‘The Bitch’ snd ‘The World Is Full of Divorced Women’ and her tinseltown series including ‘Hollywood Wives’, ‘Hollywood Husbands’ and ‘Hollywood Divorces’. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Sacheen Littlefeather, who has died of cancer aged 75, was known as a very serious social activist on behalf of Native Americans but she had a great sense of humour, especially regarding her upbringing and a brush with Playboy Magazine. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – American singer Nancy Ames, who turns 85 today, once said she was my biggest fan. It began when I went to interview her for The Windsor Star in Canada and fell in love. Continue reading
Jerry Lee Lewis was no rock’n’roll hero to me
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Now that he has been laid to rest, it’s time to offer some balance to the hysterical reaction to the death of Jerry Lee Lewis. Given that today an artist can be cancelled on the basis of rumours of misbehaviour, it was staggering to see a man’s reckless life not just forgiven but heralded because he had a couple of hit records fifty-five years ago. Continue reading →