Final filmed and final public appearance for Lee Strasberg, who died just four days later, on February 17, 1982.
In his 1989 autobiography "It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here...", Charles Grodin recalls that all he and Ellen Burstyn were initially asked to do was to step through a giant poster of their hit Broadway play, "Same Time, Next Year as part of a segment featuring various Broadway stars. But during the two day rehearsal he learned to his dismay that a choreographed dance had been added, which was no problem for Burstyn, but had Grodin stumbling along with her during the final broadcast.
The only time that James Mason and Arlene Dahl ever worked on the same project other than their sometimes tumultuous co-starring in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) over two decades earlier.
The roster of stars appearing included a strong representation of cast members from the films of director Alfred Hitchcock, those films and stars including: Psycho (1960) (Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam and Ted Knight); Strangers on a Train (1951) (Farley Granger); North by Northwest (1959) (James Mason); and Rear Window (1954) (James Stewart and Grace Kelly who by this time was of course appearing as Princess Grace of Monaco); with Stewart also representing Vertigo (1958), Rope (1948) (along with Granger) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), the princess also representing Dial M for Murder (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955); and among other stars appearing, Gregory Peck representing Spellbound (1945) and The Paradine Case (1947); John Forsythe representing The Trouble with Harry (1955) and Topaz (1969); Tony Randall whose earliest film appearance was a bit part in Saboteur (1942); Sylvia Sidney who was the star of the earliest Hitchcock film represented that evening Sabotage (1936); Joel McCrea representing Foreign Correspondent (1940); Paul Newman representing Torn Curtain (1966); and Peter Ustinov representing Under Capricorn (1949), not as an actor but as one of the film's uncredited screenwriters.
Two comedic stars in attendance were Milton Berle and Dudley Moore, who would both die on March 27, 2002--a major loss to the world of laughter since Billy Wilder, the director of the comedy classics Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) who would not participate in any of the three "Night of 100 Stars" events, also died on that date.