Susan Sarandon Born Susan Abigail Tomalin on October 4th, 1946 in New York City. She is divorced but, since 1988, has lived with companion Tim Robbins and their children.

“I would like to put up the name of Susan Sarandon. She deserves recognition as an Oscar

winner for “Dead Man Walking” and she was also nominated for my favorite movie “The

Client”. I think she is great!”

Clovis Majorek from Decatur, Illinois

Susan is a very good choice, Clovis. And remember, she was also nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for three other films. In 1980 she got her first nomination for “Atlantic City”, then again in 1991 for “Thelma and Louise” and in 1992 for “Lorenzo’s Oil”. And, lest we forget, there was her riveting performance as Hattie in Louis Malle’s “Pretty Baby” in 1978. Right now, Susan has two films in post-production…a drama titled “Elizabethtown” with Orlando Bloom due for release in July and “Romance and Cigarettes”, a musical comedy with James Gandolfini and Kate Winslet scheduled for August. That means a great summer for all of us.

News!

It has been announced that Susan Sarandon will join Billy Bob Thornton in a film titled “Mr. Woodcock” to begin filming soon.

Elijah Wood Born Elijah Jordan Wood on January 28th, 1981 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“After seeing Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins in “Lord of the Rings” he became my favourite actor. Please put him on your list.”

Christiane LeBlanc from Banff, Canada

Consider it done, Christiane. Even though Elijah was already an established child star, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy proved he was ready for meatier, more adult roles. I really enjoyed Elijah in “Radio Flyer” and “Forever Young”, the two films he did in 1992 and, while I haven’t seen it yet, the reviews for his role as Patrick in Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” have been very good. And now he has more exciting work waiting for release….”Sin City” will be in theaters April 1 st and the adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-selling novel “Everything is Illuminated” is due to be released in August.

In Memoriam.....

Sandra Dee 1942 - - 2005

Ossie Davis 1917 - - 2005

Sandra Dee April 22nd, 1942 February 20th, 2005

When Sandra left us, she took the bubbly, irrepressible Gidget with her. But, in the heavens, there is a new star that has just a little more twinkle than all the rest.

She was born Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey. Her overly ambitious mother, with an eye on a show business career for her daughter, lied about Sandy’s age and enrolled her in the Professional Children’s School at the age of 3! When she was 5, Sandy’s father abandoned them. By the time she was 10, she was a top New York model with the Harry Conover Agency and at 12, under contract to Universal Studios. Her film debut, as Sandra Dee, came in the 1957 film “Until They Sail” with Paul Newman and Joan Fontaine.

But her big break came in 1959 when she got the title role in “Gidget”, the story of a California teenager on the beach with Cliff Robertson and James Darren (based on the Frederick Kohner novel about his daughter). Sandra never appeared in the sequels that followed but she was always considered the quintessential Gidget. She became the heartthrob of every teenage boy and, when she married pop singer/actor Bobby Darin, the envy of every teenage girl.

Ingenue roles kept Sandra’s career going into the 1960s. On December 1 st, 1960 she married Walden Robert Cassotto and became Mrs. Bobby Darin. Their son Dodd was born a year later. Sandy continued to work in light romantic comedies but good adult dramatic roles always seemed just out of reach. By 1965 she was the last major movie star in Hollywood still under an exclusive studio contract….in a studio system that was sinking fast. Her marriage also failed. By the 1970s her career was all but over except television guest shots and with both marriage and career gone, depression set in. When Bobby died in 1973 the bottom fell out. Sandra became anorexic, began drinking and, if it hadn’t been for son Dodd’s intervention, it would have killed her. He helped her pull things together and go into therapy. Dodd later wrote a book detailing these events called “Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Lee”

Dodd's book

In the 1990s Sandra began to work again in both television and theater projects. That’s when kidney disease reared its ugly head. When Kevin Spacey discussed doing a biopic on Bobby, Sandy was enthused but too sick to participate in the actual planning. The movie “Beyond the Sea” was released in late 2004. Sandra was admitted to the hospital for treatment and dialysis in early February but developed pneumonia and died on Sunday, February 20 th, 2005. She was 62 years old.

the gallery….

Ossie Davis December 18th, 1917 February 11th, 2005

He was born in an era and a place where a black woman would never dare correct a white man. So when his mother went to register his birth and the man behind the counter misunderstood her, she remained silent….and R. C. Davis would always be known as Ossie. But the man Ossie had become never ceased to question or promote change…not in his name but in the attitudes behind that mistaken identity. And, along the way, he also became one of America’s most eloquent actors, notable playwrights and passionate crusader for human rights. His passing leaves a tremendous void.

Ossie was born Raiford Chatman Davis in rural Cogdell, Georgia, the oldest of 5 children for a railroad laborer and his herb doctor wife. He left home at 18, hitchhiking to Howard University in Washington, D.C. to study drama and writing. A year after he graduated, Ossie took off for New York, goals clearly in focus…to write plays and act in them. He found his niche in Harlem where the arts were gaining a new renaissance. He also found the Rose McClendon Players where he could practice his art.

Ossie spent WWII in the army working as a surgical technician in Liberia but he went back to the theater as soon as he got back in 1946. A new play titled “Jeb” was Ossie’s Broadway debut and he also met and married Ruby Ann Wallace, another cast member who was known by her stage name “Ruby Dee’. The play finally ended but his life with Ruby would go on for 56 years, a show business phenomenon.

Ossie’s theater triumphs included “Purlie Victorious”, a hit play he wrote in 1961, with Ruby “A Raisin in the Sun”, “No Time for Sergeants” and “Anna Lucasta”. His film and television work (including “Roots: The Next Generation”) ran in tandem from the mid-1950s until his last role as Judge Buchanan in Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me” last year. His memorable films with Spike Lee introduced him to a whole new generation. In 2004 Ossie and Ruby received the Kennedy Center Honors.

Ossie’s crusade for racial equality and human rights were more legendary than any of his work on stage or screen. Both Ruby and Ossie were under scrutiny by McCarthy’s HUAC for their attempts to end racial injustice in the film industry and Ossie was one of the 600 peaceful marchers who came under attack on an Alabama bridge on what was later called “Bloody Sunday” (March 7th, 1965).

Ossie was working on location for a new film “Retirement” when he died of apparent heart attack in his hotel room. He was 87 years old.