R.I.P. Bea Arthur

Somehow I never thought I'd see that phrase in print. "R.I.P. Bea Arthur". It didn't make sense to me when I saw it. I've only cried over a handful of celebrities' deaths and those were the ones that were gone before their time. The ones where we didn't see it coming.

Heath Ledger dead from an overdose at 28. John Candy dead in his trailer after suffering a heart attack at 43. Madeline Kahn dead at the age of 57 after a very secretive battle with ovarian cancer.

I was just as shocked and just as saddened by the news of Bea, who died of an undisclosed type of cancer. I think that, even though she was 86, Bea had such a vibrancy, wit, and strength about her that she seemed like she had another 86 years to dish out.

Well, she may be gone, but I was never wrong when comfortably thinking of her as immortal. She will obviously live forever through her amazing work, her successful television shows, and a legacy of independence, education, and originality.

____________________________________________________________________

Name: Bea Arthur
Occupation: Entertainer
Genre: Stage/Film/Television
Born: May 13, 1922
Died: April 25, 2009

This Emmy and Tony Award winning actress and comedienne had a successful and well respected career spanning seven decades and all three major entertainment mediums.

Starting her stage career in New York in the late 1940s, Bea was part of the original cast in many great stage musicals including The Three Penny Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, and her Tony Award winning portrayal of Vera Charles to Angela Lansbury's Mame. She was nominated for another Tony nearly 40 years later for her amazing and widely loved show Bea Arthur: Just Between Friends. In 1981 she appeared in the Woody Allen play The Floating Light Bulb.

She is without argument best remembered for her pioneering roles in the iconic television shows "Maude" (as the title character which she landed after a guest appearance on "All In the Family") and "The Golden Girls" as the beloved and razor tongued Dorothy Zbornak. Bea won Emmy awards for both. She more recently appeared on highly popular episodes of "Futurama", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and "Malcolm in the Middle".

Her handful of film credits include the film version of Mame (in which Lansbury was replaced by Lucille Ball), Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I, and For Better or Worse directed by Jason Alexander.

She was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2008.

Below is a little televised gem she performed alongside Rock Hudson. The song is called "Everybody Today is Turning On" and is from the musical I Love My Wife.

Bea never missed the chance to sing.

Who Is That: Richard Griffiths

Name: Richard Griffiths
Occupation: Actor
Genre: Stage/Film
Born: July 31, 1947

Best known by current audiences as the film incarnation of the mean spirited Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter film series.

The celebrated British actor has appeared in a wide array of both box office hits and critically acclaimed films including Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Withnail and I, King Ralph, The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, Guarding Tess, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Venus. Most recently, Griffiths worked in the Disney film Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler and will be making an appearance in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

My personal favorite screen appearance of Griffiths' was in Tim Burton's successful and popular realization of the classic tale Sleepy Hollow.

His stage credits are numerous, but most notable is his recent win of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Laurence Olivier Awards all for his work in The History Boys (a role he revived for the film version). He most recently appeared on the West End and Broadway stages alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Kate Mulgrew in a revival of the Peter Shaffer play Equus.

Below is a brief interview with Griffiths at the premier of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. No hiding Richard's rather off-beat but very educated sense of humor. He continually delights me.

A Gay Moment: Val Kilmer, Tom Cruise, and Anthony Edwards

This Gay Moment is brought to you from the iconic film Top Gun.

Tom: I took a fisting class! Care to learn a few things?

Val: I've got the Elbow Grease if you've got the time.

Anthony: I am so hard right now.

Fantasmagorical!

I am a sentimental old gay nerd.

There are a lot of times in my day to day life where nothing succeeds at making me feel happy and energetic like a song or piece of music from my childhood. Typically these songs would be Disney or a Broadway musical.

But today brought a completely unanticipated longing for some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A lot of people are under the impression that this is a Disney film but in fact it was released by United Artists in 1968 with the tagline "The most fantasmagorical musical entertainment in the history of everything!"

I intend to incorporate fantasmagorical into my lexicon as often as possible henceforth.

I loved this movie as a kid, although ironically enough my favorite characters were the Child Catcher (played with pinpointed creepiness by Robert Helpmann) and Baron Bomburst (German actor Gert Fröbe) who is on a continual mission to kill his Baroness.

The music and songs are fantastic (as written by Disney legends Richard and Robert Sherman), and on a day as beautiful as today happens to be, the following piece of music has been my anthem all day:

	Paul Mauriat - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Who Is That: Charlotte Greenwood

"Who is that???"

I've gotten this response from people more times than I can even fathom counting when I talk about an actor, singer, performer, director, writer, or other individual of whom I am a fan.

As pretty much everyone who knows me is aware, I'm a fan of entertainment history, classic film actors, and of current yet relatively unknown (but still talented and hardworking) actors and actresses of both screen and stage. I have an inborn love and fascination with history and the entertainment industry in general, with a special love of the underdog. The supporting players.

I recall at the age of about eight telling my mother, "Someday I'm gonna win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor!" She looked at me with a mixture of amusement and mild confusion and asked, "Wouldn't you rather win Best Actor?" To which I promptly responded, "No. Supporting actors get all the best roles."

To this day I uphold that opinion.

But the real point of this entry as well as the ones I plan to post continually in the future is more about addressing that unending question "Who is that?" I've grown weary of people making a wide array of excuses as to why they know nothing and don't care to know anything.

So here is the first of many planned posts dedicated to an individual whom I especially admire, whose work I thoroughly enjoy, and about whom I have been specifically asked: "Who is that???"
__________________________________________________________________

Name: Charlotte Greenwood

Occupation: Actress
Genre: Stage / Film
Born: June 25, 1890
Died: December 28, 1977


Starting her career in a series of comedic solo performances and musicals in New York (creating a well-loved character known as Long Legged Letty), Greenwood's comedic skills went on to make a big splash in Hollywood musicals and comedies between 1929-1956. She appeared in relatively few films for the era (thirty-four) but was still awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She is best remembered for her roles in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, appearing alongside Shirley Temple in Young People, as well as a slew of films she starred in with Betty Grable including Springtime in the Rockies, Moon Over Miami, and Down Argentine Way.

Below is not only a display of Greenwood's famous high-kicks (from the 1943 film The Gang's All Here), but also of her unique charm and comedic style.

A Gay Moment: Channing Tatum & Ryan Phillippe

This Gay Moment is brought to you from the film Stop-Loss.


Ryan: You wanna fuck me?

Channing: No... Kinda.

A Merry Old Soul

The cake you're seeing is an exact replica of what lays beneath my glorious alabaster skin. A frosted mirror of my soul if you will.

My gay, gay soul!

According to my dear friend and fellow member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, Lucy, if I were a cake this is what I would look like.

Well I am not a cake.

But if I were a cake, this is the one I would want to be!

This thing looks outrageously delicious and, upon careful investigation and salivation, I learned that it is also low-fat and low-sugar... For a cake. Except I personally would up the sugar level by adding Fruity Pebbles to the top.

Mmmm... Fruity Pebbles...

My birthday is less than 24 days away (April 30th). I will be 28 years old. And I am not kidding when I say I hope I get a rainbow cake.

And possibly a My Little Pony.