All-Star Celebrity Bash Birthday Thread! ...

Post by **Ben** » March 27th, 2009, 6:56 am

And proud of it!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » March 28th, 2009, 6:54 pm

(Shat's still the best...!)

Post by **Ben** » March 28th, 2009, 7:12 pm

Tell you what...we have a very annoying, very full of himself chatshow host named Jonathan Ross over here, and The Shat came on and totally put him in his place.

For that alone, William Shatner rules.

Post by **Sunday** » March 28th, 2009, 9:53 pm

William Shatner - I Can't Behind That

http://pdxtom.250free.com/shatner.mp3

Post by **eddievalient** » March 29th, 2009, 3:53 am

GeorgeC wrote:It's much easier to take 30-something actors seriously in command roles than 20-somethings who look like they were pulled out of a Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, or J. Crew ad....

That may be true, but Shatner and Nimoy personally approved the new actors playing Kirk and Spock, so that makes it okay in my book.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 10th, 2009, 10:49 am

Max von Sydow turns 80 today.

Everybody's favorite galactic tyrant (Ming, "Flash Gordon" 1980) and doomed priest (Father Merrin, "The Exorcist" 1973) continues to delight audiences.

Meanwhile the Doctor (Zhivago)/Omar Shariff is 77 and at 55 Steven Seagle still can't stop squinting and open his eyes wide for the camera!

Post by **Sunday** » April 10th, 2009, 3:00 pm

I liked him as a gas station attendant in Smultronstället, myself.

(j/k, though even that small role was handled to perfection. Amazing actor, and still continuing so well at this age!)

Post by **droosan** » April 10th, 2009, 11:18 pm

Sydow also menaced Bob & Doug McKenzie as the villainous 'Brewmeister Smith' in Strange Brew.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 11th, 2009, 5:50 am

Yeah,

I saw that on his IMDB credits list.

Von Sydow has been in some really goofy films over the years!

Post by **Ben** » April 11th, 2009, 5:15 pm

Finally sat through The Seventh Seal two nights ago. Great basic concept, but can't see the enduring genius appeal of the film itself, I'm afraid.

Also...check out Intacto...not so much for Von Sydow, though he sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Post by **eddievalient** » April 11th, 2009, 7:47 pm

Ben wrote:Finally sat through The Seventh Seal two nights ago. Great basic concept, but can't see the enduring genius appeal of the film itself, I'm afraid.

Agreed, sort of. I sat through it in a film studies class and while I understand what people thought was so brilliant about it, I'm not inclined to watch it a second time. However, it made Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey much funnier when I realized what that film was a parody of.

Post by **Ben** » April 12th, 2009, 11:49 am

Cool. I always knew what B&T was making fun of (I'd been <I>well</I> aware of Bergman's stuff on the whole and seen much of The Seventh Seal).

But I'd never actually sat down without distraction and run the film properly. An injury this week gave me the chance to sit and watch a few films back to back and this was one I thought I should have been caught up on by now. I can't say I would rush back for a second time, either...I can't say even the structure of the film knocked me out with the way it jumped from moment to moment, and a couple of the characters looked similar as to at one point confuse for a second, but just generally I didn't find it <I>engrossing</I> other than it having the essentially great idea of a guy (Von Sydow) winning his life back with a game of chess. And then it turns out it's not about that at all, really, and the guy isn't really featured that much in the ending, and Death's "trick" isn't really emphasized enough to work. Each one gets away with pulling something over the other, but nothing is really made of it and then it just ends!

I'm glad to have seen it fully, glad to have been able to say I get all subsequent references, but can't say I see it in the same light as other "masterpiece" movies such as Kane, Casablanca or The Wages Of Fear.

Post by **Trusted Vizier** » April 17th, 2009, 11:34 am

Count me among the others who really liked Sydow's performance as Ming in the "Flash Gordon" movie.

As for Bergman, I'm swedish and I've yet to see a single one of the man's movies.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 17th, 2009, 12:18 pm

The way I see it, Max Von Sydow's career is like an unintentional trip into the lower nether regions of hell.

Think about it -- a lot of people's first exposure to him was his portrayal of Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told. (Yep, that's him as a short-haired, bearded Jesus ascending into the clouds after his resurrection!)

Then, Father Merrin in The Exorcist. A level lower in holiness, but still on good side of religiosity.

Later, Ming in Flash Gordon (1980)... Assuredly a dastardly fellow and if you think about it, he's dressed almost like a sci-fi version of certain red-hued, pointy-tailed fellow of Biblical renown who's often pictured with a pitchfork amongst fiery lava pools. Even if you don't see a certain physical resemblance, he sure acts devilish!

But Ming's ring is cooler than any pitchfork...!

Still a bit later, he plays the Mackenzie Brothers' nemesis in Strange Brew. Surely the most devilsh and dastardly dude, ay? What a hoser!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 23rd, 2009, 2:15 pm

Two of my favorite childhood icons celebrate birthdays today.

Lee Majors, the Six-Million Dollar Man aka Steve Austin "the Cyborg," turned 70. I used to have the old Six-Million Dollar Man Steve Austin and Big Foot/Sasquatch action figures back in the day when I was also something of an Evel Knievel fan. I had the wind-up Evel Knievel figure with motorcycle, too!

(Ah, the toys that get thrown away when you get bored of them or they break. I was bad that way as a very young kid! Now, I'm a horrible packrat...)

If Lee were being rebuilt today, he'd be closer to a Seventy-Million Dollar Man if not a Billion-Dollar Man (figuring in all research costs)!

I remember when he got honored at one of the Nick-at-Nite TV Land Award Ceremonies. (I never watched a full show of any of those award ceremonies, but I was flipping channels and happened to catch his honor.) I believed him when he said the real heroes were the troops. There was a sincerity in his tone that I don't hear from many celebrities.

Also celebrating a birthday is Shirley Temple (Black) who turns 81 today. I don't really remember any of her films but those curls remain iconic. How different The Wizard of Oz might have been if 20th Century Fox had agreed to lend to her to MGM for that film... She certainly was closer in age to Dorothy than Judy Garland was!

All-Star Celebrity Bash Birthday Thread! ...

Re: Happy 78th, Spock and Shat!

Hail, Emperor Ming!

The Six-Million Dollar Man is 70! Shirley Temple 81!