News

By Lee Pfeiffer

In Cinema Retro's never-ending quest to analyze relatively inconsequential movies, the trail takes us to Dirty Dingus Magee, one of Frank Sinatra's last starring feature films. The movie shocked critics when it opened in 1970 due to the trivial of the production. Time has done nothing to enhance its reputation and one can only wonder what possessed Sinatra to star in this tepid Western comedy. In reality, Sinatra's passion for movie-making was also tepid. He always preferred to concentrate on his singing career and regarded acting as a time-consuming sideline. His penchant for rarely approving a second take became legendary. Nevertheless, he was undeniably one of the cinema's great icons. Prior to Dirty Dingus Magee, Sinatra had shown good judgment with the majority of the films he made during the mid-to-late Sixties. There were some misguided efforts but Von Ryan's Express, Tony Rome, Lady in Cement...

Model-turned-actress Michele Carey died November 21 from natural causes in her home in Newport Beach. The news was announced on her Facebook page. She was 75.

Carey was born on February 26, 1943, in Annapolis, Maryland. She was a performer at a very early age as a piano prodigy. At the 13, she won a national contest at the Chicago Music Festival and went on to perform with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating from high school in Fort Collins, Colorado. She was briefly married and had a son during high school. After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles with her son to pursue a career in modeling in 1964. While in Hollywood, she took an interest in acting and it wasn’t long before she was on television.

She appeared on television but then went on to have a small role in the 1965 film How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. The following year, she landed...

Michele Carey, the attractive actress who starred alongside John Wayne in El Dorado and with Elvis Presley in Live a Little, Love a Little, has died. She was 75.

Carey died Nov. 21 of natural causes in Newport Beach, California, according to a spokesperson who ran her Facebook page and a report in the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Known for her wild, brunette mane, the blue-eyed actress portrayed an adult film star who is dating a beatnik (Bob Denver) in The Sweet Ride (1968) and was a Native American woman named Anna Hot Water in Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), starring Frank Sinatra.

In El Dorado ...

Michele Carey, the attractive actress who starred alongside John Wayne in El Dorado and with Elvis Presley in Live a Little, Love a Little, has died. She was 75.

Carey died Nov. 21 of natural causes in Newport Beach, California, according to a spokesperson who ran her Facebook page and a report in the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Known for her wild, brunette mane, the blue-eyed actress portrayed an adult film star who is dating a beatnik (Bob Denver) in The Sweet Ride (1968) and was a Native American woman named Anna Hot Water in Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), starring Frank Sinatra.

In El Dorado ...

Middleton, Idaho – On the day of the 88th Academy Awards, Hollywood lost a venerable character actor and Oscar winner, George Kennedy. Kennedy won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards for his role in “Cool Hand Luke.” He passed away at a care facility in Idaho, age 91.

George Kennedy in 2010

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

George Harris Kennedy was born in New York City in 1925. He parlayed a military career that began during World War II into a technical advisor role for “The Phil Silvers Show” in the late 1950s. Encourage by Silvers to begin acting, he made his debut in the film “Little Shepard of Kingdom Come” (1961). The beefy, solid character actor made numerous TV and film appearances, including “Charade” (1963), “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (1964) and “The Dirty Dozen” (1967).

It was in 1967 that he won the role of “Dragline” opposite Paul Newman in “Cool Hand Luke.

Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...

Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...

Ever since the dawn of cinema (and probably the dawn of man!), there have been toupees, hairpieces and wigs galore. Often concerned with the image of their leading men, the studios made sure their male leads looked perfect in every way, and that included hair. Whether they actually had any was immaterial.

For a young actor, going thin early-on was potentially the kiss of death, so like it or not, the prop department would come up with a suitable rug. Bing Crosby absolutely hated his widow’s peak wig, and it was said that Frank Sinatra, himself a toupee wearer, would arrive at the Pearly Gates and give God a hard time for making him go bald!

Others, like Sean Connery, only wore a hairpiece for a movie and happily walked around in real life au natural without any fear of his thinning pate harming his career.

So for a bit of fun,...

Chicago – The 1960s movie stars, captured forever on celluloid in their era, still thrive and survive. At the recent Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show, Oscar winner George Kennedy (”Cool Hand Luke”) and cult star Carol Lynley (”Bunny Lake is Missing”) spoke about the long time passing 1960s.

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is a biannual event in Chicago where attendees can meet and greet the stars, collect autographs and find cool collectibles at the comprehensive memorabilia market. The next show in the area is scheduled for September 25th and 26th, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com was there at the last show in March, and spoke to George Kennedy and Carol Lynley. Photographer Joe Arce was also there to capture their images at the event.

George Kennedy of “Cool Hand Luke,” “Airport” and “The Dirty Dozen”

George Kennedy is best remembered for his numerous character roles in big and famous films. After starting in television...