07/30 Steve Tyrell

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell is truly a renaissance man. In his four and a half decades in the music business, he has achieved great success as an artist, producer, songwriter, music supervisor, and performer.

With his breakthrough performances in "Father of the Bride" and "Father of the Bride II," Steve Tyrell reinvented and re-popularized classic pop standards for a modern-day audience.  With the grit and soul of a lifetime of experiences, producing hits for Grammy-winning Artists ranging from Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, to Rod Stewart and Diana Ross, Steve himself has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and gained a passionate following all over the world.  His hits "The Way You Look Tonight," "The Simple Life," "Crush On You" and "The Sunny Side of The Street," have launched thousands of weddings and millions of romances. He's held top positions at Standards, Swing, and Big Band outlets with a devoted following at key Adult Contemporary Radio.

With sold out shows across America and raves from around the world, his following increases day by day. Although Steve tours mainly with his band, he also enjoys playing with some of the most renowned orchestras in the land, and has appeared with The Boston Pops, twice with The New York Pops, The Nashville Symphony, and The Houston Symphony on several occasions.  At the request of the Sinatra family and Quincy Jones, Steve was the featured performer with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at their season opening concert in which Frank Sinatra was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.  Also at the request of the Sinatra family, he reprised that performance this past May at Carnegie Hall.  This is one of the rare times the family has reached into the vault of original Sinatra arrangements to share them with another artist.

 In 2005, after the passing of the legendary Bobby Short, Steve was asked by New York City's Café Carlyle to take over their revered Holiday Season of November and December, which Mr. Short had not missed in 36 years.  Now Steve has become a fixture in New York and has played the Café Carlyle to record crowds for the last 6 years.

His work in the studio as a record producer has included collaborations with such diverse and legendary artists as Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, Mary J Blige, Blood Sweat and Tears, Chris Botti, Dave Koz, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Burt Bacharach, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder and the list goes on and on.

As an artist, all 7 of his American Standards albums have achieved top 5 status on Billboard's Jazz charts, and his first album "A New Standard" was amongst the best selling jazz albums for over 5 years.

His voice has been featured on television and in numerous movies.  In 2009, he was asked by Oscar winning Songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Marvin Hamlisch to sing the end title to Steven Soderbergh's film "The Informant".  His voice was also recently heard in the Hugh Grant/ Sarah Jessica Parker film "Did You Hear About the Morgans?".

As a music supervisor and music producer for film and TV, Tyrell has worked with such distinguished directors as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Nancy Meyers, Steven Soderbergh, Betty Thomas, and Charles Shyer.

His songs have been recorded by such revered artists as Ray Charles, Diana Ross, LL Cool J and Elvis Presley, and his song "How Do You Talk To An Angel," written and produced for Aaron Spelling's Fox television series "The Heights," was a No. 1 pop hit in 1992.  Aside from being a Grammy Award winner, Tyrell has earned two Emmy nominations, 3 Ace Nominations, 2004 American Society of Young Musicians "All That Jazz Award", 2004 The Wellness Community "Human Spirit Award", 2006 Society of Singers "Lifetime Achievement Award", and 2008 Los Angeles Jazz Society's "Jazz Vocalist of the Year".

07/23 RIP Dennis Farina

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL REPLAY BROADCAST OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE LATE DENNIS FARINA. MAY HE REST IN PEACE!

Dennis Farina (born Febrary 29, 1944) is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty. He starred on television as Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order. His latest TV role was in HBO's Luck, which premiered on January 29, 2012.

Early life

Farina was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Sicilian-American parents Iolanda, a homemaker, and Joseph Farina, a Sicilian immigrant doctor. He was raised in a large family and has three brothers and three sisters. Before becoming an actor, Farina served 18 years in the Chicago Police Department's burglary division, from 1967 to 1985.

Career in show business

Farina began his work in show business working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which subsequently led to an interest in acting when Mann cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief. Farina proceeded to moonlight as an actor in the Chicago theater scene before Mann chose him for his Crime Story series. Farina played the mobster Albert Lombard in Michael Mann's other television show, Miami Vice.

Two of his most well-known movie characters are Jimmy Serrano, the mob boss from Midnight Run, and Ray "Bones" Barboni, a rival criminal of Chili Palmer's in Get Shorty. He also played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in the first Hannibal Lecter crime film, Michael Mann's Manhunter. Other movies in Farina's filmography include Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (as Army Lieutenant Colonel Walter Anderson), Striking Distance, Another Stakeout, Little Big League, Snatch, The Mod Squad and Out of Sight. He co-starred with Bette Midler in the romantic comedy That Old Feeling.

Farina has demonstrated quite a flair for comedy. He won an American Comedy Award for his performance in Get Shorty and starred in a television sitcom, In-Laws, from 2002-03. He had a comic role opposite Ed Harris and Helen Hunt in the HBO production of Empire Falls in 2005 and opposite Alan Rickman in 2008's Bottle Shock. In early 2005, Farina provided the voice of aging boxer-turned-superhero Wildcat on Justice League Unlimited.

The producers of the long-running television series Law & Order hired Farina as Det. Joe Fontana after the retirement of Jerry Orbach's character Lennie Briscoe. Farina stayed with the show for two years, but his character was not as popular with viewers as Orbach's Lennie Briscoe had been. As a result, in May 2006, it was announced that Farina was leaving Law & Order to pursue other projects, including 2007's You Kill Me opposite Ben Kingsley and 2008's What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.

His role of Detective Lt. Mike Torello on Crime Story was as a Chicago police officer, who was later seconded to the U.S. Justice Department. Farina's Law & Order character, Joe Fontana, worked for Chicago Homicide before his transfer to the NYPD. As is common on Law & Order, Fontana shares a number of other characteristics with the actor who plays him: they hail from the same Chicago neighborhood, attended the same parochial school, and have the same tastes in both clothes and music.

In October 2008, Farina became the new host of Unsolved Mysteries when it returned to television with a new five-season, 175-episode run on Spike TV. Farina replaced Robert Stack, who had hosted the series for its entire original 15-year run before his death in 2003. The series would include re-edited segments from previous incarnations on NBC, CBS, and Lifetime (all originally hosted by Stack) as well as several new original stories.
Farina played the title role in a 2011 independent film, The Last Rites of Joe May, written and directed by Joe Maggio, shot on location in Chicago.
He co-stars in the 2012 HBO horse-race gambling series Luck, with Dustin Hoffman, directed by Michael Mann.

Personal life

Farina was married to Patricia Farina from 1970 until their divorce in 1980. They have three sons: Dennis Jr, Michael, and Joseph. His youngest son, Joseph, is also an actor. He has two granddaughters, Brianna and Olivia, and four grandsons: Michael, Tyler, Matthew, and Eric.

Farina is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and played an avid fan in a 1988 revival of the successful 1977 Organic Theater Company stage play The Bleacher Bums which was written by and starred fellow Chicago actors Joe Mantegna and Dennis Franz.

en.wikipedia.org

07/16 Bobby Rydell

Bobby Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli, 26 April 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)[1] is an American professional singer, mainly of rock and roll music. In the early 1960s he was considered a "teen idol". According to Allmusic music journalist Kim Summers, Rydell, whose interest in show business began at the age of four years, "is one of the most sought-after nightclub and concert acts in the US. His performance in Bye Bye Birdie and his recordings "Wild One" and "Volare" made him a famous performer in the 1960s. Rydell used his talents as an impersonator and drummer mostly in pursuing a musical rather than an acting career.
   
Career

In 1950, Rydell competed on the amateur talent television series, Paul Whiteman's TV Teen Club; his first-place win gained him a regular role with the series. He worked with the Whiteman series for three years, changing his name to Bobby Rydell. He later joined several local bands in Philadelphia.[As a teenage drummer, he played alongside Frankie Avalon in a musical ensemble known as Rocco and the Saints. He later had a recording contract with Cameo Records company, and his debut success was "Kissin' Time", recorded during the summer of 1959. Rydell was considered a "teen idol" along with Frankie Avalon, Pat Boone (on whose program Rydell performed, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom), Fabian, Johnny Tillotson, Jimmy Clanton and Bobby Vee. In May 1960, Rydell toured Australia with The Everly Brothers, Billy "Crash" Craddock, Marv Johnson, The Champs and The Crickets, recording an Australian version of "Kissin' Time" for the event.

His second success "We Got Love" was his first million-album seller, gaining gold disc status. 1960's "Wild One," backed with "Little Bitty Girl", was his second million-selling single; his successes continued with "Swingin' School" backed with "Ding-a-Ling," and the million-album selling "Volare" later that year. After making his first successful recordings, he continued a solo career, performing at the Copacabana in New York in 1961, where he was the youngest performer to headline at the nightclub. In February 1961 he appeared at the Festival du Rock, at the Palais des Sports de Paris in Paris, France.

Rydell's success and prospects led his father Adrio, foreman at the Electro-Nite Carbon Company in Philadelphia, to resign in 1961 after 22 years to become his son's road manager.
Rydell released the song "Wildwood Days" in 1963. The song is about the shore town of The Wildwoods in New Jersey. His hometown of Philadelphia, also has a four block radius renamed "Bobby Rydell Boulevard" where the entertainer grew up.

In 1963, he played Hugo Peabody in the movie version of Bye Bye Birdie with Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke. The original stage production of Bye Bye Birdie had no real speaking role for the character of Hugo, but the movie script was rewritten specifically to expand the part for Rydell. In 2011, Sony Pictures digitally restored this film. Rydell and Ann-Margret were in attendance at the restoration premiere in Beverly Hills by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
During the 1960s, Rydell had numerous hit records on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart. His recording career earned him 34 Top 40 hits, placing him in the Top 5 artists of his era (Billboard). These included his most popular successes, "Wild One" (his highest scoring single, at number 2), "Volare" (number 4), "Swingin' School" (number 5), "Kissin' Time" (number 11), "Sway" (number 14), "I've Got Bonnie" (number 18) and "The Cha-Cha-Cha" (number 10). His last major chart success was "Forget Him", which reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in January 1964. The song - written by Tony Hatch - was his fifth and final gold disc winner.

During this time, Rydell also performed on many television programs, including the Red Skelton Show where a recurring role was written for him by Red Skelton as Zeke Kadiddlehopper, Clem Kadiddlehopper's younger cousin. He also appeared on the Danny Thomas Show, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, and George Burns where his love of comedy was able to bloom. Rydell was also a regular on The Milton Berle Show.

On October 6, 1964, he was a guest actor for an episode of the television series, Combat!.
This was Rydell's first dramatic acting role.

In January 1968, it was announced in the UK music magazine, NME, that Rydell had signed a long term recording contract with Reprise Records company.

Rydell continued to perform in nightclubs, supper clubs and Las Vegas venues throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his career was hampered by Cameo-Parkway catalogue owner ABKCO Records' refusal to reissue Rydell's music, so the entire catalog was unavailable until 2005 (although he re-recorded his old hits in 1995 for K-Tel Records).

Rydell continued to perform as a solo act, and has toured as part of 'The Golden Boys' successful stage production since 1985 (with Frankie Avalon and Fabian). However, Rydell cancelled his 2012 Australia tour because his health had deteriorated significantly, and he was in need of urgent major surgery.

In July 2012, Rydell underwent a double organ transplant to replace his liver and kidneys at Thomas Jefferson University in his hometown of Philadelphia.

Media

In both the Broadway musical drama, Grease and the film, Grease, the high school was named 'Rydell High' after Bobby Rydell.

In 2000 in the book, The Beatles Anthology (pg. 96), Paul McCartney stated: "John (Lennon) and I wrote "She Loves You" together. There was a Bobby Rydell song out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another. We’d planned an 'answering song' where a couple of us would sing 'she loves you' and the other ones would answer 'yeah yeah.' We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called "She Loves You." So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it— John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”

No Rydell song title is named in The Beatles Anthology pg. 96. But in Bob Spitz's The Beatles: The Biography, the author claims McCartney originally modeled "She Loves You" on an earlier Rydell "answering song" called "Swingin' School," not "Forget Him," as is commonly cited.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Rydell

07/09 Peter Marshall

Peter Marshall (born March 30, 1926) is an American television and radio personality, singer, and actor.

He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981. He has almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits. His stage name, Peter Marshall, reportedly derived from the college in his home town (Marshall College, which became Marshall University in 1961).

Peter Marshall was born Ralph Pierre LaCock in 1926^[1] in Huntington, West Virginia, to a show business family. Following his father's death, he moved to New York City to be with his mother, a costume designer. His elder sister, Joanne Dru, was an actress who is best remembered for her roles in the films Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and All the King's Men.

Although Marshall occasionally worked in film and television, he could not find regular work in the industry until his friend Morey Amsterdam recommended him to fill in for Bert Parks (who emceed the pilot) as the host of the game show The Hollywood Squares in 1966.^[2]

The show had a long run on daytime network TV and in syndication, making Marshall as familiar to viewers as the celebrities who appeared on the show. The easy-going and unflappable Marshall was a perfect foil for the wicked wit of such panelists as Amsterdam and his Dick Van Dyke Show castmate Rose Marie; Paul Lynde, Jan Murray, and Wally Cox. The Hollywood Squares was canceled by the NBC network in 1980, but production continued in syndication into 1981.

Marshall grew tired of hosting the show after several years and wanted to leave. Toward that end, he would make outrageous salary demands whenever his contract was up for renewal, hoping that he would be fired for doing so, but his demands were always met.

In 2002, he published a book about his show business experience, Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square.^[14]

In 2002, he returned to the new version of The Hollywood Squares^[15] as a panelist during a Game Show Week hosted by Tom Bergeron. Marshall occupied the prestigious center square. For one day that week, Marshall took his old position at the podium to host while Bergeron was the center square.
In addition to having played a radio host in Annie, Marshall has been a radio personality in real life, hosting a popular mid-day show on the Music of Your Life adult standards national radio network, which is also live-streamed via the internet here.

On October 13, 2007, Marshall was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

In 2009, Marshall appeared on television promoting compact disc hits from the Big Band era, and also hosted a two hour PBS special, The Big Band Years.^[16]

In 2010, Marshall, along with Monty Hall and Wink Martindale, appeared with their wives on a special Game Show Legend version of The Newlywed Game. The special was hosted by Bob Eubanks; the Martindales won the game.

Wikipedia

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07/02 Frankie Avalon

Frankie Avalon (born September 18, 1940) is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.

Life and career

Avalon was born Francis Thomas Avallone in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Mary Loretta and Nicholas J. Avallone. By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints. In 1959, "Venus" (5 weeks #1) and "Why" went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Why" was the last #1 of the 1950s. Avalon had 31 charted U.S. Billboard singles from 1958 to late 1962, including "Just Ask Your Heart" (U.S. #7), "I'll Wait For You" (U.S. #15), "Bobby Sox to Stockings" (U.S. #8), and "A Boy Without a Girl" (U.S. #10). Most of his hits were written and/or produced by Bob Marcucci, head of Chancellor Records. He was less popular in the U.K., but did still manage four chart hits with "Why", "Gingerbread", "Venus" and "Don't Throw Away All Those Teardrops".

Teamed frequently with Annette Funicello, Avalon starred in a number of popular "beach party" comedy films during the mid-1960s. The wholesome and romantic coupling of "Frankie and Annette" in summer movies such as Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo became iconic figures in American films during that era.

Avalon also had straight dramatic parts in the John Wayne historical western film The Alamo, as well as the science-fiction story Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) with Barbara Eden.
Materializing as a character called Teen Angel, his performance of "Beauty School Dropout" in the hit 1978 film of the musical Grease introduced Avalon to a new generation of viewers.

Avalon appeared in nearly two dozen TV episodes, including ABC's The Bing Crosby Show and The Patty Duke Show, appearing often as himself. Later, he became a national television spokesperson for Sonic Drive-In. In 1965 he appeared in the Combat! episode "Brother, Brother" as a childhood friend of Pfc.Kirby, played by Jack Hogan.

The 1980 film The Idolmaker, written by Ed Di Lorenzo and directed by Taylor Hackford, was a thinly-disguised biography of Avalon ("Tommy Dee" in the film) as well as 1950s teenage star Fabian (called "Caesare" in the film), along with songwriter/producer Bob Marcucci (called "Vinnie Vacarri"). In the movie, Dee clashes with the record producer and younger singer Caesare, who he feels threatens his career. Eventually, Dee and Caesare quit the label, but their record careers collapse just as the British Invasion begins. The real Fabian threatened a lawsuit, despite the filmmakers' insistence that the film presented only fictional characters (though Marcucci was a paid consultant). Avalon denied most of the movie's events.

Avalon married Kathryn "Kay" Diebel on January 19, 1963. She was a former beauty pageant winner, and Avalon met her while playing cards at a friend's house. He told his friend that Kay was the girl he was going to marry. His agent warned Avalon that marriage would spoil his teen idol mystique. Still together, they have eight children - Frankie Jr., Tony, Dina, Laura, Joseph, Nicolas, Kathryn and Carla. They have 10 grandchildren. Frankie Avalon Jr. is a former actor who appeared in the original The Karate Kid and is now a musician, and Tony, the second oldest son, plays guitar and taught at the Rock Nation School. Both sons play on tour with their father.
In 1987, Avalon and Annette Funicello returned to movies with Back to the Beach. In 1989 they also appeared as themselves in cameo roles out jogging the streets in Troop Beverly Hills. Not long afterwards, Funicello was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and retired.

Afterwards, Avalon turned to marketing and created Frankie Avalon Products, a line of health and cosmetic aids. Avalon promotes his products on the Home Shopping Network with host Bob Circosta. He made a cameo appearance as himself with Robert De Niro in the 1995 film, Casino.

In recent years, Avalon has starred in stage productions of Grease in the role of Teen Angel and Tony n' Tina's Wedding as a caricature of himself. Additionally, in 2007, he performed "Beauty School Dropout" with the four remaining female contenders (Kathleen Monteleone, Allie Schulz, Ashley Spencer, and winner Laura Osnes) for the role of Sandy on the NBC television reality show Grease: You're the One that I Want! On April 8, 2009, he performed on American Idol.

Legacy

He was mentioned in the System of a Down song "Old School Hollywood". The song supposedly is about Daron Malakian's experience in a celebrity baseball game, where he and Avalon were both ignored.

Avalon is also mentioned in "It Takes Two", a song from the hit musical Hairspray, sung by the character Link Larkin, and in a song by the Wu Tang Clan called "The City" which refers to his experiences of being a big part of the beach party film genre ("Ride the wave like Frankie Avalon").

One of numerous obscure cultural references present in Midway's video game Mortal Kombat 3 was a lo-res image of Frankie Avalon's face that would dart up in the lower right-hand corner of the screen when Goro killed his opponent by knocking him into the spike pit on the Bridge level.
His song "Venus" was featured in Cranium Command (1989–2005), an attraction at Epcot's Wonders of Life Pavilion (now closed) at Walt Disney World. In the attraction, a 12-year-old boy named Bobby (Scott Curtis), tries to survive the pressures of life and falls in love with a beautiful girl named Annie (Natalie Gregory) at school.

He and his song "Venus" are mentioned in Wendy Wasserstein's 2005 play Third. The main character, English professor Laurie Jameson, watches a PBS reunion show featuring Avalon singing the song, and sings a line of it to her daughter. In stage productions of the show, part of the song is played and a portion of the supposed PBS special is screened as part of the scenery.

He is also mentioned in Adam Sandler's 2008 comedy, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, for his haircut, which the Zohan (Sandler's character) thinks is the latest hairdo. He is also numerously referenced in the 1994 film, The Stöned Age, in which he makes an ending scene cameo appearance.
His song "Venus" additionally appeared in season 4 of the TV series Dexter in which John Lithgow's character, Arthur Mitchell, plays it to remember his deceased sister.

Avalon is also mentioned in The Vaccines song 'Teenage Icon'. Where they claim they are no teenage icon, "no Frankie Avalon".

www.frankieavalon.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Avalon