Richard Kimble

While Stan was visited by comedians like Van Dyke, Sellers, Jerry Lewis etc, supposedly tourists on vacation would sometimes drop by unannounced with their kids. I don't believe he ever turned anyone away, but he was occasionally tempted.

Just to seque from that, in his first book Cavett tells hows Carson went on the air at the end of the Tonight Show and said, "A great comedian died today. His name was Stan Laurel and I'll miss him." Cavett writes that Carson was criticized for the brusqueness of his farewell, then adds, "But as someone who would also rather be accused of coldness rather than exploiting sentimentality, I understood."

Peter Sellers drops by the Santa Monica apartment of Stan Laurel, 1964:

Dick Cavett did that as well

He also appears to good effect in Support Your Local Gunfighter and an amusing Odd Couple episode where Felix somehow ends up leading a country music band (the other guest star is -- believe it or not -- Pernell Roberts). How did he know Laurel?

Take pride in quoting the classic "needy bald people" line

That was Jack Carter

And walked away with the film, getting an Oscar nomination in the process. Nice capstone to a long career that looked like it was really going places when he, er, had an unfortunate incident in Mexico.

Jan Murray was never on the DVDS, at least the one that matters Are you thinking of Carl Reiner (another dramatic actor -- Shakespearean trained no less -- who went into comedy to get work)

Quite a few comedians, such as Berman, Rickles, Buddy Hackett and Dick Martin started out as straight actors and only went into comedy b/c they couldn't get straight acting roles

I was going to post this but got sidetracked. Actually both Strangelove and Fail Safe (both Columbia films) were ready for release when Columbia realized that releasing two films with essentially the same story would not be good business. And this is the curious part: somehow, Kubrick was able to talk the studio into releasing Strangelove first. Commercially, that seems totally bass-ackerds to me, and pretty much killed the box office chances for Fail Safe. Seems to me a shrewder strategy would been: release the deadly serious movie first, then people will still be interested in seeing it spoofed. Who would want to watch Henry Fonda grimacing on the hot line after hearing Peter Sellers ask for Omsk information?

How about the one that did the worst? Marlon Brando ran up huge phone long-distance bills -- something like $50K -- while filming The Nightcomers in England. While shooting his next film he asked the studio for the money to pay his phone bill. The studio chief, Robert Evans, agreed to give it to him, but only if Brando gave up his points in the film he was shooting -- The Godfather.

IIRC some other actors had gotten small percentages of the gross before. I believe what was different about the Stewart deal was that he took a large piece of the gross in lieu of salary, making him essentially a partner in the production. Also by this time I think there were tax laws in place that made such a deal even more desirable for the actor.

I guess it would be Chaplin, Pickford, and Fairbanks, since they ended up with an entire studio

Arsenic and Old Lace -- Shot in Dec 1941; contractually could not be released until the Broadway play closed Of Human Bondage -- I guess they finally realized no one was buying Paul Henried as a romantic lead. This version actually has a very evocative period atmosphere as well as a Korngold score. Saratoga Trunk Three Strangers The Big Sleep -- tinkered with by various parties for various reasons

Cross Creek (1983) is a film based on a memoir by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling. Mary Steenburgen plays Rawlings, and her then-husband Malcolm McDowell has a cameo as legendary literary critic Max Perkins. I know of one other film in which Perkins is mentioned: Jeff Chandler discusses him with Carol Lynley in Return To Peyton Place. In the TV movie of Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again (1979) Hurd Hatfield plays a fictionalized version of Perkins. I just learned two fascinating things about this film from its IMDb page. It was cut down from a 6 hour miniseries (that cut has never been seen publically AFAIK) and even more amazing, it was a pilot for a TV series. Can you imagine -- a TV series about Thomas Wolfe?!!

There have been many reissue changes in marketing and ads: the 1948 reissue of Reap The Wild Wind gave Wayne top billing in the ads; after the success of Baretta in 1975 Universal reissued Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here stressing Robert Blake in ads (and calling the film Willie Boy); and I've read God's Little Acre was reissued in 1967 emphasizing Michael Landon (then on TV in Bonanza) in ads. The rarer action is the film itself being changed for reissue. Sam Goldwyn's The North Star was recut in 1957 to de-emphasize the heroic Soviets. A number of precode films were recut for reissue after the 1934 enforcement of the Production Code, and in some cases only survive in these cut versions.

I can't think of a film that successfully (that is, cinematically) depicts the very solitary writing process. Sunset Blvd has the scenes in the producer's office as well as Gillis going over the script with Norma. But those scenes are collaborative, as is Act One as well as The Dick Van Dyke Show (like My Favorite Year and Laughter on the 23rd Floor, based on the real-life writing staff of Your Show Of Shows/Caesar's Hour). I haven't seen Youngblood Hawke (based on the life of Thomas Wolfe) since the '80s at least. IIRC Delmer Daves turned it into a Warners Summer Place soaper -- the one scene I remember fondly has Edward Andrews as a waspish literary critic at a publisher's party to honor Hawke winning the Pulitzer Prize, and to drag Hawke down a notch he lists a bunch of great novels that did not win the Pulitzer.

Warning -- spoiler: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394085/reference

Actually he's married And talk about indignity -- he isn't even the main Robert Fuller on Wikipedia:

GIFs -- moving pictures -- are ironically not permitted on this film forum. From your tone I'm gonna presume you're being jocular and know about "The Cage" and "The Menagerie" and all that stuff. I'm kinda confused by all your Robert Fuller references, so I'll just say I recently rewatched a wagonload of Wagon Trains as well as some Laramies. Fuller certainly dominates the rather bland (and thus aptly named) John Smith. There's an in-depth Fuller video interview done for the 50th anniversary of Wagon Train that's actually pretty interesting.

I could swear I once read that Alma Gluck was somehow related to Jill Clayburgh (which of course would connect Jill to EZJr) but I can find nothing about it online. I guess I hallucinated the whole thing. Alma Gluck was the mother of novelist Marcia Davenport (The Valley of Decision, East Side West Side), EZJr's half-sister.

Yes but aside from The Fugitive and The Untouchables, his shows were quite routine. Unfortunately, yes.

When I was a mere babe in swaddling clothes I found The FBI and him very boring, but I was fascinated by his name* -- both by its strangeness for a TV star, as well as its very rhythm: "efremzimbalist". It sounded like a magic incantation. It was even better than another of my favorite names: "Ilya Kuryakin". *Thank you Quinn Martin, for always saying your stars' names aloud