Some Stories for Tuesday

 A couple of obituaries of very old actors and actresses are noted here.

Director/actor  Mark Rydell, 97, has died at a Los Angeles nursing facility.  He was nominated for his work as director of 1981's On Golden Pond.  

He died on August 14.

Snip:

Born in New York, he was raised in that corner of the city by his parents, Sidney, a stockbroker, and Evelyn, whose passion and talent for the piano rubbed off on him: Mortimer – a name that he traded for Mark early in his career – trained at the Juilliard School of Music under the great jazz pianist Teddy Wilson, then worked on the New York and Chicago club circuits for five years before abandoning that career to avoid the temptations of heroin. “Knowing that I have an addict’s personality … I knew I was in danger,” he said. He served in the army and later won a scholarship for Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied alongside McQueen and was instructed in dance by Martha Graham. From there, he joined the Actors Studio and appeared with his classmate Dean in 1953 in a TV version of William Inge’s play Glory in the Flower.

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In the article, he said directors should try their hand at acting.  A lot of them did, of course.

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Radio actress Peggy Webber, 100, died on August 15.

She was known for her work with Orson Welles.

Snip:

Webber died Saturday of natural causes at an independent living facility in Napa, California, her son, Rob Sinskey, told The Hollywood Reporter. She had moved north from Los Angeles after she had to be evacuated from her home amid the fires in January 2025.

Webber worked on thousands of episodes of radio shows, among them The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce; The Story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lionel Barrymore and Lew Ayres; The Man Called X, starring Herbert Marshall; and Escape, starring William Conrad.

A Few Reads for Monday

 It's like two dogs fighting over a dirty diaper.

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Obituary:  Actress Hayden Panettierre, only 36, has died after a 9-1-1 call.

What is really sad is both parents have outlived both of their children.  Hayden's brother died in 2023.

I remember many years ago when she was a young girl playing Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light.  It didn't surprise me she would go on to bigger things.

However, she battled substance abuse and depression over the years.

Snip:

Panettiere was born August 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York. Her career started when she was 11 months old, appearing in commercials.

She voiced Princess Dot in the 1998 movie “A Bug’s Life,” and became one of the youngest people ever nominated for a Grammy Award for “A Bug’s Life: Read-Along.”

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A Few Reads for Saturday

 What does it mean when prostate cancer spreads?

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Lotsa luck trying to get Trump to find a way to get out of the Iran war. He started that war to divert attention from the Epstein files.

It really is the Epstein War.

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Nick Reiner is shit out of luck getting any of the trust money his parents set up for him.

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Some Friday Reads

 Thanks to Trump, maybe God is punishing America.

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Tuesday Reads

 A jockey did double duty by not just riding his mount, but also acting as an outrider and catching a horse who lost its rider.

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Trump has a plan for the midterms, and it is best to be warned about it in advance.

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Obituary:  This is interesting:  Actor Jon Cypher actually spent his final years near where I live, in Central Point, Oregon.  This is where he died last Monday, August 3.  He was 94 years old and had been a successful actor in movies and especially television for many years.  I remember from years ago when he had a regular role in the soap As the World Turns.  He played Dr. Alexander Keith on the show, but he was on there more than three times.  AI is wrong here.  He played the role in 1978-1979. As I recall, he was the love interest of Valerie Conway, played by Judith McConnell.  

The Hollywood Reporter:

Cypher was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the prince alongside rising British star Andrews in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s original musical adaptation of Cinderella. The lavish production, which aired live and in color on CBS in March 1957, attracted more than 107 million viewers, with more than 60 percent of U.S. households tuning in.

Cypher, however, is probably best known for his run as the calculating, bureaucratic Daniels on Hill Street Blues. On 71 episodes of the acclaimed NBC hit from 1981-87, Daniels frequently clashed with Daniel J. Travanti’s Capt. Frank Furillo, prioritizing politics and budgets over doing the right thing.

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Jon is going to be buried today in the Ashland wilderness through one of those "compost" type burials.   He will be buried at the Willow Witt Ranch, which is located near Grizzly Peak. It is a very pretty area. You can find the link to the Forest Conservation Burial Ground site here.

It appears he lived in a retirement center at the Twin Creeks subdivision in Central Point.  At least that is what is showing in an online search.  He was married to scientist Carol Rosin since 1986.

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Lake of the Woods Pictures

 The other day, I went with a small group and escaped the smoke in the valley and went to Lake of the Woods, located between Medford and Klamath Falls, Oregon.  A few pictures:

Some Reads for Sunday

Obit:  Singer and actress Abbe Lane, 93, died this past April but her death wasn't announced until this weekend.  She died from natural causes.  Her real name was Abigail Francine Lassman.

Snip:

In 1952, she married Cuban bandleader Xavier Cugat at the age of 16 (he was 49 years old at the time). Lane, who spoke four languages, fronted his Latin music orchestra until their divorce in 1964. She went on to remarry theatrical agent Perry Leff shortly after, and the couple had two sons, Steven and Andrew. Perry died in 2020.

Along with her work on-screen, Lane also made headlines for her suggestive comments about fellow Hollywood actresses, including her now iconic, “Jayne Mansfield may turn boys into men, but I take them from there.”

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