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Bob Newhart, the beacon of humor, turned his natural stammer into a trademark of his comedic repertoire, drawing laughter and admiration on the screen. With his dry wit & the unassuming charm of a next-door neighbor, the late actor donned the hat of a bewildered psychologist in his hit series, The Bob Newhart Show, framing a niche for himself. But his stammer, a stroke of serendipity, was the brick and mortar of an illustrious career.

Bob Newhart in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) | Paramount Pictures

It had once provoked the perfect riposte from a clueless TV producer, who failed to see the goldmine in Newhart’s stuttered gold. The latter defended his signature stutter, quipping that his stammer wasn’t merely an act, but rather the hammer with which he forged his palatial “Beverly Hills” house.

Bob Newhart’s Epic Response to Producer’s ‘No Stammer’ Request

Bob Newhart,...

Bob Newhart, the iconic comedian and actor who launched a more than six-decade run in show business in 1960 with his introduction of a deadpan, stammering everyman character whose popularity he rode well into his 80’s with a Grammy-winning comedy album and a pair of beloved Emmy-nominated sitcoms, is dead. He was 94 and passed away at his home on Thursday following a short illness. His longtime publicist Jerry Digney announced his death in a press release.

Newhart burst on the scene in 1960 with his album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” the first comedy album ever to top the Billboard charts. It won three Grammy Awards in ’61, including Album of the Year, Spoken-Word Comedy Album and New Artist. Newhart’s first two albums of comedy monologues (the second called “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!”) in fact held Billboard’s top two spots simultaneously, a rare feat.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2024: In Memoriam...

Famed comedian and actor Bob Newhart has died. The performer, known for The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, among other projects, was 94 years old. Newhart’s death was announced by his publicist Jerry Digney who revealed that the TV icon had died Thursday, July 18th after a series of short illnesses. Along with his 1970s hit series, the actor was best known for his shows like Bob and George & Leo. The comedian got his start in television when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s, performing standup. Newhart in Elf (Credit: New Line/courtesy Everett Collection) From there, he took on roles in films and series like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Captain Nice, Hot Millions, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Catch-22. He later went on to make appearances on such classics as Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and The Don Rickles Show.

Bob Newhart, the deadpan star of “The Bob Newhart” show, has passed away at the age of 94. The news of Newhart’s passing was announced by his longtime publicist Jerry Digney.

George Robert Newhart was born on September 5, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois. The young Newhart was raised Roman Catholic, with his sister Mary Joan becoming a nun later in life. He enrolled at Loyola University of Chicago and graduated with a bachelor’s in business management in 1952. He was drafted into the Army and served in the Korean War until 1954. He attended Loyola University’s law school for a time but later dropped out. Newhart then worked as a clerk in an unemployment office and as an accountant.

In 1958, he took to being an advertising copywriter for a prominent Chicago film and television producer. In his free time he’d record scenarios and skits he’d utilize as audition tapes.

What's the best Jack Nicholson movie? Ask a group of film fans, and you'll likely get a half-dozen different answers. The actor's most historically significant movie may be "Chinatown," the sun-baked California noir from 1974 that earned 11 Oscar nominations and a permanent spot in the American Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Or it might be "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the beloved adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel that swept the Oscars in 1975 and turned the already-popular Nicholson into Hollywood's hottest commodity.

The actor's most popular films according to Letterboxd users are Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece "The Shining" and Martin Scorsese's crime saga "The Departed." His highest-grossing role at the box office came in 1989, when Tim Burton cast him as the rictus-grin supervillain The Joker in "Batman." Other popular moneymakers featuring the veteran performer include James L. Brooks' "As Good As It Gets," Nancy Meyers' "Something's Gotta Give,...

Throughout the 1950s, big-budget musicals were de rigueur for Hollywood, and there was a sudden glut of epics that sported gigantic budgets, recognizable stars, and no small amount of studio hype. Such films were exhibited as touring roadshow productions, which was a great way for films to make fistfuls of cash. Roadshow epics were also, it should be noted, a concerted ploy by studios to distract audiences from the rising threat of television. Studios felt the need to invest a lot of money into musicals and epics, hoping the massive productions could draw people into theaters and keep the industry afloat.

One might logically predict, however, that Hollywood tried to ride the trend of epics for a little longer than was healthy, and foolish overspending eventually became common. The age of the "roadshow epic" pretty much came to a close with the release of the notorious bomb "Cleopatra" in 1963. 

But then,...

When Barbra Streisand delivered her 992-page memoir to her editor at Viking earlier this year, did anyone urge her to cut? Even gently?

Not that it would have done any good, for Streisand has a lot to say and her opus was termed “exhausting, ecstatic and undeniably moving” by the New Yorker this week.

Streisand hasn’t changed. On her first day of shooting On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), when her director Vincente Minnelli shouted “cut,” she shook her head, saying she intended to keep going.

Minnelli had made great movies like An American In Paris and Gigi and had even survived working with (and being married to) Judy Garland. “One doesn’t say ‘no’ to Minnelli,” Streisand was warned by legendary writer Alan Jay Lerner (My Fair Lady).

Neither had as yet learned their Barbra lesson. Nor had her agent, Sue Mengers, who later tried to...

Paul Reubens, the actor who portrayed beloved character Pee-wee Herman that amused kids and adults of multiple generations, died on Sunday night at the age of 70. The cause of death was an unspecified cancer.

“Last night, we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer, and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy, and belief in the importance of kindness,” a post on the actor’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts read.

“Paul bravely and privately fought cancer...

This year’s Tonys will be held on June 11, so the American Theatre Wing will likely be announcing its lifetime achievement award recipient in the near future. Who do you think should take home this prestigious trophy, which honors an individual’s body of work? It has gone to veteran stage performers, directors, choreographers, playwrights, songwriters, producers, and designers. In some years we get multiple recipients.

Last year legendary five-time competitive Tony winner Angela Lansbury received this honor about four months before her death on October 11 at the age of 96. The following living performers have also already received this award and thus won’t be chosen again: Tommy Tune, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera, and Rosemary Harris.

Here are the 10 possibilities featured in our poll below, all performers over the age of 65. Vote to let us know who you’d like to see honored.

SEEBrian d’Arcy James (‘Into the...

It was announced by a spokesperson from the Icg (International Cinematographers guild-Local 600), that cinematographer and Emmy winner George Spiro Dibie has died at his home in L.A. He was 90.

The cinematographer got his start after attending L.A. City College and then where he focused on lighting and directing before graduating in 1959.

Eventually, he got a job on an electrical crew on the film Cleopatra (1963), and quickly moved up the ranks. On his next film he worked as a best boy and gaffer on films including This Property Is Condemned (1966), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), The Molly Maguires (1970) and Plaza Suite (1971).

Dibie’s big break in television came in 1975, when executive producer Danny Arnold hired him as a lighting consultant on Barney Miller. He rose through the ranks again eventually serving as director of photography on Barney Miller, and Barney Miller spin-off show Fish.

Throughout the years,...

The writer/director returns to talk about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Trick Baby (1972)

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Pelli’s trailer commentary

The Untouchables (1987)

Predator (1987)

Purple Rain (1984) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Loved One (1965) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Live And Let Die (1973)

Enter The Dragon (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Green Hornet (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Last Dragon (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Dead Presidents (1995)

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Shaft (1971) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Coffy (1973) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Julie Corman...

Jack Nicholson has had a long career playing brooding rebels, crazed villains and sneering charmers on screen. Soon he’ll star opposite Kristen Wiig in a remake of “Toni Erdmann.” He’s a fixture of American cinema and the Lakers courtside seating. For his 80th birthday, we aimed to rank all of Jack’s major, already iconic roles, from worst to best.

“Man Trouble” (1992)

“Man Trouble” is a ridiculous screwball crime comedy in which Nicholson and Ellen Barkin get upstaged by horny dogs. It seems impossible the same guy who did “Five Easy Pieces” made this.

“A Safe Place” (1971)

This bizarre, formless ’70s relic based on a play stars Tuesday Weld and Orson Welles opposite Nicholson about a girl living a fantasy in which she never grows up.

“The Terror” (1963)

Nicholson gives a stiff performance in this Roger Corman picture opposite Boris Karloff, but he gets to kiss a woman who transforms into a corpse.

It’s 1927, and we are inside a Chicago recording studio. A blues singer and her band banter about the music business and its inherent lack of equality.

It’s 1964, and we are in Miami, where Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Cassius Clay (as he was known for one more day) discuss their roles in society.

It’s semi-present day and we’re in a small town in Indiana, where a high school prom is upended by a non-straight pair. Stage performers show up to save the day.

Three films are arriving this month — “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, “One Night in Miami,” directed by Regina King, and “The Prom,” directed by Ryan Murphy, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and James Corden — that are all are adaptations of plays. This used to happen all the time but not so much anymore.

Until now.

This weekend marks the 49th anniversary of the release of “Shaft.” Released in 1971, it grossed about $90 million in adjusted prices — a huge success, more than 25 times its cost. More importantly, it forced studios to acknowledge the Black audience segment that was long taken for granted.

Hollywood studio filmmaking is 105 years old. But it took more than half of those years for major studios to release a film from a Black director. There were Black directors, but they were too few and far between. And The first Black director was silent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, whose parents were former slaves. In the sound era, the first Black director was Spencer Williams, an actor best known as Andy of Amos n’ Andy. And while films in the 1960s began to tell Black stories such as “Lilies of the Field” and “A Raisin In the Sun,” they inevitably reflected white perspectives and denied Black...

Woody Allen’s “Rifkin’s Festival” will world premiere this September as it opens the 68th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it will play out of competition.

San Sebastian’s Kursaal building hosted the film’s initial announcement 11 months ago where, apart from a boycott by leftist Basque party Eh Bildu of a party thrown for Allen by the San Sebastian mayor, Spain’s reception of Allen has largely been warm.

This will be the second time that Allen will have opened the festival. He first curtain raiser came in 2004, when he received the Donostia Award for career achievement, with “Melinda and Melinda.” Allen’s films “Manhattan,” “Zelig,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Match Point,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “Whatever Works” and “Irrational Man” have all participated in some capacity at San Sebastian over the past four decades.

“Rifkin’s Festival” was shot last...

Jessie Mueller was a little-known performer from Chicago when she made her Broadway debut in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 2011. Since then, she has taken Broadway by storm, appearing in three Broadway revivals Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Carousel and creating two original characters Beautiful and Waitress- the former of which earned her a Tony Award in 2014.

Actress Barbara Harris died on August 21 at age 83. The name may not be familiar to younger readers since Harris was the rare performer who climbed to the top of the show business heap but then walked away from it all. She also had one of the most unusual awards histories of anybody.

I remember Harris vividly from my childhood when I saw her in the Disney film “Freaky Friday” opposite a young Jodie Foster. The film centered on a mother and her young daughter who both simultaneously wish they could switch places with each other for a day. By way of Disney magic, the two actually do switch bodies thus having the mother forced to deal with life in school and the daughter tending to the problems of being a housewife. I can still remember the theater echoing with the joyous laughter of children as Harris jumps on a skateboard...

Actress Barbara Harris, known for roles in films like the original “Freaky Friday” and multiple stints on Broadway, died on Tuesday at age 83, the Chicago Sun Times reported. The actress was in Scottsdale, Ariz. when she died of lung cancer.

Harris launched her career when she co-founded the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, Ill., later participating in the now world-renowned group’s first ever show. But her Second City performances were just the beginning of Harris’ flourishing career on the stage.

In 1967, Harris scored a best actress Tony award for her chameleon performances as Eve, Passionella, and Princess Barbara in “The Apple Tree.” She was also nominated for two other Tony awards, including a best featured actress nod for her Broadway debut in “From the Second City” and another best actress nod for her work as Daisy Gamble in 1965’s “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”

Onscreen,...

This summer, Irish Rep is bringing the beauty and wonder of one of Broadway's most captivating musicals, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever back to New York City. With music by Burton Lane, theatergoers can soak up the magical score comprised of classics such as 'What Did I Have That I Don't Have' as well as the title song 'On a Clear Day You Can See Forever' - among countless others. BroadwayWorld recently caught up with ensemble and chorus member, William Bellamy, who covers multiple roles in the production, about the unforgettable score how he finds balance in playing numerous parts on stage and uncovering his past self.

Mark Harrison Feb 6, 2019

Christopher Reeve, Back To The Future, About Time, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: join us as we examine time travel in romcoms...

Love is complicated enough without time travel. When time becomes a factor in a relationship, that relationship may be in trouble. In science fiction especially, time travel is a wrinkle that both brings lovers together and keeps them separate in some temporally devastating way.

Marty McFly almost breaks up his parents before they even get together. Kyle Reese falls in love with Sarah Connor when tasked with saving her life. Captain America misses out on a dance with Peggy Carter by getting frozen for 70 years. And, on TV, River Song and the Doctor experience their marriage in almost opposite directions.

read more: 22 Best Romantic Movies on Netflix

But, just as romance factors into timey-wimey movies like Back To The Future, The Terminator, and Groundhog Day,...

With the challenges of putting a brand new musical on its feet, finding a moment where actress Alysha Umphress could steal away from rehearsal for this interview was a challenge of its own. And when we did connect, it was not without technical difficulties on my end, and a coffee spilling fiasco on her end as she prepared for her long day of rehearsal. Through it all, Alysha, who has appeared on Broadway in American Idiot, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Bring It On and On The Town starring opposite Dfw's Jay Armstrong Johnson, was upbeat, down-to-earth, excited to talk about her new big gig, and just as happy to humor me with stories from her early career.

As a musical it’s excellent — fine tunes and lyrics, great singing and dancing by the ever-youthful Fred Astaire, the glorious songbird Petula Clark, and the impishly weird Tommy Steele cast appropriately as a grimacing Leprechaun. The update of what was a politically acute Broadway hit in 1947 is awkward but the show is a melodious pleasure — great color, fine voices and peppy direction by Francis Ford Coppola on his first big studio feature.

Finian’s Rainbow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 145 141 min. / Street Date March 7, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele, Don Francks, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Hancock, Al Freeman Jr., Ronald Colby, Dolph Sweet, Wright King, Louis Silas.

Cinematography: Philip Lathrop

Film Editor: Melvin Shapiro

Original Music: Ray Heindorf

Written by E.Y. Harburg, Fred Saidy

Produced by Joseph Landon

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Finian’s Rainbow is a unique musical with a strange history.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner)

An ecstatically original work of film-history-philosophy with a digital-cinema palette of acutely crafted compositions. Amour Fou seamlessly blends together the paintings of Vermeer, the acting of Bresson, and the psychological undercurrents of a Dostoevsky novel. It is an intensely thrilling and often slyly comic work that manages to combine a passionately dispassionate love story of the highest order with a larger socio-historical examination of a new era of freedom,...

Happy Birthday Kristin Chenoweth On Broadway, Chenoweth has appeared in Steel Pier, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Epic Proportions, Funny Girl, Wicked, The Apple Tree, and Promises, Promises. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Fantasticks, Box Office of the Damned, Scapin, Strike Up the Band, A New Brain, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Candide, The Apple Tree, Stairway to Paradise, Love, Loss and What I Wore and many more. She will soon return to Broadway in On the Twentieth Century.

Happy Birthday Barbra Streisand Streisand has appeared on Broadway in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Funny Girl, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role in the film version of the musical. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly, directed by Gene Kelly 1969, and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli 1970. Additionally, she has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, one special Tony Award, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Happy Birthday, Harry Connick, Jr. A star in music, theater, film and television, Connick recently won his second Emmy for musical direction of his live concert television special, 'Harry Connick Jr. in Concert on Broadway.' In 1990 he appeared in a sold-out concert series at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and in 2006, received a Tony nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of The Pajama Game. He most recently starred on Broadway in the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

Happy Birthday, Alan Jay Lerner Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film. He won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors. Some of his best-know works include My Fair Lady, Briagadoon, Camelot, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

When Arnold Scaasi opened his couture salon in 1964, he soon became a couturier to the stars. He was already a favoured designer for Barbra Streisand when he famously dressed her for the 1969 Oscars. Streisand was up for Best Actress for her movie debut in Funny Girl and was established as something of an ‘individual’; usually described as ‘kooky’, she was completely different from anyone else, an innovator of style, and challenging and changing the ideas of beauty. So it is no surprise that when it came to her clothing choice for the Oscars, Streisand resisted the usual protocol of an evening gown and instead opted for a most extraordinary Scaasi-designed pant suit. Made from black, sheer, sequined net fabric, the over-blouse had a white peter-pan collar with black pussy bow and over-sized white cuffs, while in Scaasi’s own words, the ‘bell-bottomed trousers were exaggerated and had many godets flaring...

Happy Birthday Kristin Chenoweth On Broadway, Chenoweth has appeared in Steel Pier, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Epic Proportions, Funny Girl, Wicked, The Apple Tree, and Promises, Promises. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Fantasticks, Box Office of the Damned, Scapin, Strike Up the Band, A New Brain, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Candide, The Apple Tree, Stairway to Paradise, Love, Loss and What I Wore and many more. She most recently starredin On the Twentieth Century.

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. How to decide in the grand scheme of things which film year stands above all others? History gives us no clear methodology to unravel this thorny but extremely important question. Is it the year with the highest average score of movies? So a year that averages out to a B + might be the winner over a field strewn with B’s, despite a few A +’s. Or do a few masterpieces lift up a year so far that whatever else happened beyond those three or four films is of no consequence? Both measures are worthy, and the winner by either of those would certainly be a year not to be sneezed at. But I contend the only true measure of a year’s...

Happy Birthday Barbra Streisand Streisand has appeared on Broadway in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Funny Girl, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role in the film version of the musical. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly, directed by Gene Kelly 1969, and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli 1970. Additionally, she has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, one special Tony Award, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

The Old Globe presents the hilarious Buyer amp Cellar, which is currently in previews and opens tomorrow, April 9, running through Sunday, May 10. Broadway veteran David Turner On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Arcadia, Sunday in the Park with George stars in Jonathan Tolins's The Twilight of the Golds acclaimed Off Broadway hit, directed by Ron Lagomarsino The Last Night of Ballyhoo, My Favorite Year, 'Homefront,' 'Ravenswood'. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Turner onstage below...

The Old Globe today announced that Broadway veteran David Turner On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Arcadia, Sunday in the Park with George will star in Jonathan Tolins's The Twilight of the Golds acclaimed Off Broadway hit Buyer amp Cellar, directed by Ron Lagomarsino The Last Night of Ballyhoo, My Favorite Year, 'Homefront,' 'Ravenswood'.

Award-winning actress-director-producer-writer-singer Barbra Streisand will receive the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) 2015 Board of Governors Award. The Oscar®-winning filmmaker and entertainer will be honored during the 29th Annual Asc Outstanding Achievement Awards gala here on February 15 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. “Barbra Streisand’s accomplishments across the entertainment industry are unparalleled, and we look forward to celebrating her groundbreaking contributions to the art of filmmaking,” said Asc President Richard Crudo. “The three films that Ms. Streisand directed have earned 14 Academy Award® nominations, and her skill in working with cinematographers in achieving her vision is a hallmark of her directorial work.” She is the only artist to achieve Oscar, Tony®, Emmy®, Grammy®, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe®, and Peabody Awards, as well as a National Medal of Honor, France’s Légion d’honneur, the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Streisand won a...

When photojournalist Lawrence Schiller met Barbra Streisand on the set of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 1968, he felt like a new hire greeting the company CEO. "I didn't know if she liked me or not," he says, "but at the end of the week, I wasn't fired."Schiller and his colleague Steve Schapiro were hired by movie studio execs to shoot the star during the first decade of her movie career, capturing moments big and small for use in magazines around the world. Now they have collected their photos, many of which have never been published,...

La Jolla Playhouse presents the U.S. premiere production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame runs through December 14, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre. Check out highlights of the cast in action below...

La Jolla Playhouse presents the U.S. premiere production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame runs through December 14, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre. Check out a first look at the cast in action below...

La Jolla Playhouse presents the U.S. premiere production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame runs through December 14, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre. Below, check out photos from inside the sitzprobe...

La Jolla Playhouse presents the U.S. premiere production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame begins tonight, October 26, and runs through December 14, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Due to popular demand, La Jolla Playhouse announces a week-long extension for its U.S. premiere production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame will now run October 26 - December 14, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Happy Birthday, Harry Connick, Jr. A star in music, theater, film and television, Connick recently won his second Emmy for musical direction of his live concert television special, 'Harry Connick Jr. in Concert on Broadway.' In 1990 he appeared in a sold-out concert series at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and in 2006, received a Tony nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of The Pajama Game. He most recently starred on Broadway in the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast for its upcoming U.S. premiere musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring a score by the multiple Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning team of composer Alan Menken Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors and lyricist Stephen Schwartz Wicked, Pippin, book by Peter Parnell The West Wing, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and direction by Scott Schwartz Playhouse's Jane Eyre, Broadway's Golda's Balcony. Produced in association with Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hunchback of Notre Dame will run October 26 - December 7, 2014 in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Happy Birthday, Alan Jay Lerner Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film. He won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors. Some of his best-know works include My Fair Lady, Briagadoon, Camelot, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

A Happy 79th birthday to Barbara Harris. She hasn't acted in such a long time but she was often just wonderful on the screen with unique rhythm, energy and comic ability.

I'm not sure that anything about Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (Hitch's last feature in 1976) totally works but if you could argue that any of it does it's either the cemetery scene or anything involving Barbara Harris's performance as a con-artist psychic. The movie is frustrating since it feels half formed and its inarguably flabby: every time you need the editing too tighten it up which would have made everything, including the memorable actors (Karen Black and Bruce Dern are also on hand), pop. It just keeps the scene going.

Barbara Harris's largest claim to fame these days is her Golden Globe nominated work in the original Freaky Friday (1976) wherein she switched bodies with her tomboy...

Happy Birthday Kristin Chenoweth On Broadway, Chenoweth has appeared in Steel Pier, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Epic Proportions, Funny Girl, Wicked, The Apple Tree, and Promises, Promises. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Fantasticks, Box Office of the Damned, Scapin, Strike Up the Band, A New Brain, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Candide, The Apple Tree, Stairway to Paradise, Love, Loss and What I Wore and many more. She will soon return to Broadway in On the Twentieth Century.

Ever since 2014 Tony nominee Jessie Mueller burst onto the New York theatre scene in 2011's On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, she has starred in three other Broadway shows- including her current gig, Beautiful. But before taking on Carole King, Mueller established herself as a major part of theatre in Chicago, starring in such shows as Guys amp Dolls, Henry IV, She Loves Me, Animal Crackers and more.Click here to watch a full collection of her Chicago work as compiled by the Chicago Tribune.

Happy Birthday Barbra Streisand Streisand has appeared on Broadway in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Funny Girl, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role in the film version of the musical. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly, directed by Gene Kelly 1969, and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli 1970. Additionally, she has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, one special Tony Award, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Virginia's Signature Theatre presents the world premiere musical Beaches, opening tonight, March 4, 2014, and playing through March 30. Adapted from the beloved 1985 novel by Iris Rainer Dart, Beaches is directed by Signature Theatre's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer Broadway's Follies, Million Dollar Quartet. This heartfelt chronicle of a decades-long friendship between two unforgettable women stars Mara Davi Broadway's A Chorus Line and The Drowsy Chaperone as Bertie and Alysha Umphress Broadway's American Idiot and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever as Cee Cee Bloom.

BEACHESThis spring, Virginia's Signature Theatre presents the world premiere musical Beaches, adapted from the beloved 1985 novel by Iris Rainer Dart. Directed by Signature Theatre's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer Broadway's Follies, Million Dollar Quartet, this heartfelt chronicle of a decades-long friendship between two unforgettable women starsMara Davi Broadway's A Chorus Line and The Drowsy Chaperone as Bertie White and Alysha UmphressBroadway's American Idiot and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever as Cee Cee Bloom. Click below to watch Alysha Umphress and Mara Davi sing 'What I Should Have Told Her' over footage from rehearsal...