Harvey Lembeck
Encyclopedia
Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show
(a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko) in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series
during the 1960s. He also turned in noteworthy performances in both the stage and screen versions of Stalag 17
. He was the father of actor/director Michael Lembeck
and actress Helaine Lembeck.
, Lembeck started his career right out of New Utrecht High School
, as a dancer at the 1939/40 New York World's Fair
. He was one half of an exhibition dance team known as The Dancing Carols. His partner, Caroline Dubs, became his wife.
The son of a Brooklyn button manufacturer, Lembeck yearned for a career as a radio sports announcer. Following his discharge from the service at the end of World War II in 1945, he attended New York University
, obtaining a degree in radio arts in 1947. However, he chose the stage
as a career upon the advice of one of his instructors, Prof. Robert Emerson, who had seen him perform in college plays.
, which he played on Broadway
for nearly three years, winning runner-up honors to James Whitmore
as New York's best new actor of 1948.
Lembeck made three motion pictures for 20th Century Fox
, You're in the Navy Now
, Fourteen Hours
, and The Frogmen, all released in the first half of 1951. He went back to Broadway as Army Air Forces
Sgt. Harry Shapiro in Stalag 17
, which he subsequently played in the Billy Wilder
– directed film version, earning the Theater Owners of America's Laurel Award for outstanding comedy performance and best possibility for stardom. During this period (1952 – 54) he also made nine other movies mostly playing military roles.
In 1954, he returned to Broadway again, appearing in the play Wedding Breakfast. That same year, he appeared with Skip Homeier
in the episode "Eye for an Eye" of the NBC
legal drama
Justice
, based on case studies of the Legal Aid Society of New York. His stint with Phil Silvers
' popular Sergeant Bilko series began in 1955. Lembeck played Bilko's sidekick, Corporal Rocco Barbella. The show ran for four years.
season, Lembeck played a theatrical agent, Jerry Roper, in the ABC
sitcom The Hathaways
, starring Peggy Cass
and Jack Weston as "parents" to the performing Marquis Chimps.
Having spent a great deal of his adult life in uniform, Lembeck once again donned Navy togs in the 1962-1963 season to co-star with Dean Jones
in the NBC
sitcom Ensign O'Toole
.
He co-starred with Steve McQueen
in Love with the Proper Stranger
and then spent part of the early 1960s playing the lovable bad guy Eric Von Zipper in seven American International
Beach Party film
s, with Frankie Avalon
and Annette Funicello
. (He did not appear in the second "beach" film, 1964
's Muscle Beach Party
.) The Von Zipper character, leader of the Rat Pack motorcycle gang, was a parody of Marlon Brando
's role in The Wild One
(In fact, Von Zipper reveals that one of his idols was "Marlo Brandon"). Among other things, Von Zipper displayed a notable penchant for pronouncing his judgments on others by saying "Him, I like", or "Him, I do not like". In 1964 he also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds
in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
In 1964, Jack Kosslyn of the Mercury Theatre
asked Lembeck to take over his actors' workshop. Lembeck took this opportunity to create his comedy workshop. Initially working with comedy scripts, he soon ran out of good comedy material and found that improv was a wonderful tool to teach and exercise comedy. He realized that the improv method, new in the early 1960s, was one of the best ways to develop actors' comedy instincts. Lembeck returned to the theatre to star as Sancho Panza
on Broadway and in the first national company of Man of La Mancha
. President Lyndon Johnson chose this company to give a command performance at the White House.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Lembeck became a mainstay on television, making over 200 guest appearances, including Ben Casey
, The Munsters The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
, Route 66
, The Monkees
, Night Gallery
, It Takes a Thief, The Partridge Family
, Chico and the Man
, Vega$
, All in the Family
, Batman
and Mork and Mindy
.
Lembeck also directed the road companies of Stalag 17
and Mister Roberts
, along with the revue
s A Night at the Mark in San Francisco and Flush
in Las Vegas
.
on January 5, 1982. In an interview taped shortly before his own passing in 1985, Phil Silvers
said he was shocked and saddened by the untimely passing of Lembeck, and missed him terribly.
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show is a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G...
(a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko) in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...
during the 1960s. He also turned in noteworthy performances in both the stage and screen versions of Stalag 17
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
. He was the father of actor/director Michael Lembeck
Michael Lembeck
Michael Lembeck is an actor, television and film director.Lembeck was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Caroline and Harvey Lembeck, an actor and comedian. He began acting in the late-1960s and directing in the 1970s. His most notable acting role was as Julie Cooper's husband, Max Horvath, on...
and actress Helaine Lembeck.
Early life
Born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, Lembeck started his career right out of New Utrecht High School
New Utrecht High School
New Utrecht High School is a coeducational public high school in Brooklyn, New York City, serving 3,114 pupils. It is part of New York City Region 7....
, as a dancer at the 1939/40 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
. He was one half of an exhibition dance team known as The Dancing Carols. His partner, Caroline Dubs, became his wife.
The son of a Brooklyn button manufacturer, Lembeck yearned for a career as a radio sports announcer. Following his discharge from the service at the end of World War II in 1945, he attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, obtaining a degree in radio arts in 1947. However, he chose the stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
as a career upon the advice of one of his instructors, Prof. Robert Emerson, who had seen him perform in college plays.
1940s and 1950s
Two weeks after graduation, Lembeck won the key role of Sam Insigna in Mister RobertsMister Roberts (play)
Mister Roberts is a 1948 play based on the 1946 Thomas Heggen novel of the same name.The novel began as a collection of short stories about Heggen's experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II...
, which he played on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
for nearly three years, winning runner-up honors to James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
as New York's best new actor of 1948.
Lembeck made three motion pictures for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, You're in the Navy Now
You're in the Navy Now
You're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...
, Fourteen Hours
Fourteen Hours
Fourteen Hours is a 1951 drama film directed by Henry Hathaway, which tells the story of a New York police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the fifteenth floor of a hotel....
, and The Frogmen, all released in the first half of 1951. He went back to Broadway as Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
Sgt. Harry Shapiro in Stalag 17
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
, which he subsequently played in the Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
– directed film version, earning the Theater Owners of America's Laurel Award for outstanding comedy performance and best possibility for stardom. During this period (1952 – 54) he also made nine other movies mostly playing military roles.
In 1954, he returned to Broadway again, appearing in the play Wedding Breakfast. That same year, he appeared with Skip Homeier
Skip Homeier
-Career:Homeier began acting as Skippy Homeier at the age of six, on the radio show Portia Faces Life. From 1943 until 1944 he played the role of Emil in the Broadway play, Tomorrow the World. Cast as a child indoctrinated into Nazism, who is brought to the United States from Germany following the...
in the episode "Eye for an Eye" of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
legal drama
Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
Justice
Justice (1954 TV series)
Justice is an NBC half-hour drama television series about attorneys of the Legal Aid Society of New York, which aired from April 8, 1954 to March 25, 1956. In the 1954-1955 season, Justice starred Dane Clark as Richard Adams and Gary Merrill as Jason Tyler. In the 1955-1956 season, William Prince...
, based on case studies of the Legal Aid Society of New York. His stint with Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
' popular Sergeant Bilko series began in 1955. Lembeck played Bilko's sidekick, Corporal Rocco Barbella. The show ran for four years.
1960s and 1970s
In the 1961-1962 televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
season, Lembeck played a theatrical agent, Jerry Roper, in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom The Hathaways
The Hathaways
The Hathaways is a 26-episode situation comedy which aired on ABC from October 6, 1961, to March 30, 1962, starring Peggy Cass and Jack Weston as suburban Los Angeles "parents" to a trio of performing chimpanzees. Weston portrays Walter Hathaway, a real estate agent. Cass is his wife Elinore, the...
, starring Peggy Cass
Peggy Cass
Mary Margaret “Peggy” Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Cass became interested in acting as a member of the drama club at Cambridge Latin School; however, she attended all of high school without a speaking part...
and Jack Weston as "parents" to the performing Marquis Chimps.
Having spent a great deal of his adult life in uniform, Lembeck once again donned Navy togs in the 1962-1963 season to co-star with Dean Jones
Dean Jones (actor)
Dean Carroll Jones is an American actor. Jones is best known for his light-hearted leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977, most notably The Love Bug.-Early years:...
in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom Ensign O'Toole
Ensign O'Toole
Ensign O'Toole is a military comedy that aired on NBC from September 23, 1962, to May 5, 1963, with 31-year-old Dean Jones in the title role of a nonchalant Navy ensign during the early 1960s. Jones, born in 1931 in Alabama and a Navy veteran of the Korean War, played an officer aboard the...
.
He co-starred with Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
in Love with the Proper Stranger
Love with the Proper Stranger
Love with the Proper Stranger is a 1963 romantic comedy drama film made by Pakula-Mulligan Productions and Boardwalk Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and produced by Alan J. Pakula from a screenplay by Arnold Schulman.The film stars Natalie Wood,...
and then spent part of the early 1960s playing the lovable bad guy Eric Von Zipper in seven American International
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
Beach Party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...
s, with Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
and Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...
. (He did not appear in the second "beach" film, 1964
1964 in film
The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
's Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party is the second of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. It was made in 1964 and was directed by William Asher, who also directed four other films in this series...
.) The Von Zipper character, leader of the Rat Pack motorcycle gang, was a parody of Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
's role in The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
(In fact, Von Zipper reveals that one of his idols was "Marlo Brandon"). Among other things, Von Zipper displayed a notable penchant for pronouncing his judgments on others by saying "Him, I like", or "Him, I do not like". In 1964 he also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
In 1964, Jack Kosslyn of the Mercury Theatre
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
asked Lembeck to take over his actors' workshop. Lembeck took this opportunity to create his comedy workshop. Initially working with comedy scripts, he soon ran out of good comedy material and found that improv was a wonderful tool to teach and exercise comedy. He realized that the improv method, new in the early 1960s, was one of the best ways to develop actors' comedy instincts. Lembeck returned to the theatre to star as Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
on Broadway and in the first national company of Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
. President Lyndon Johnson chose this company to give a command performance at the White House.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Lembeck became a mainstay on television, making over 200 guest appearances, including Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, The Munsters The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, The Monkees
The Monkees (TV series)
The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...
, Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
, It Takes a Thief, The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
, Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974 to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown , the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano...
, Vega$
Vega$
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series, was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas...
, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Mork and Mindy
Mork and Mindy
Mork & Mindy is an American science fiction sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate...
.
Lembeck also directed the road companies of Stalag 17
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
and Mister Roberts
Mister Roberts (play)
Mister Roberts is a 1948 play based on the 1946 Thomas Heggen novel of the same name.The novel began as a collection of short stories about Heggen's experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II...
, along with the revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s A Night at the Mark in San Francisco and Flush
Flush
Flush has several meanings:* Flush , to become markedly red in the face and often other areas of the skin, from various physiological conditions* Flush , a hand in card games** Flush , a hand in poker...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
.
Death
Lembeck continued to perform and teach up until his death from a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on January 5, 1982. In an interview taped shortly before his own passing in 1985, Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
said he was shocked and saddened by the untimely passing of Lembeck, and missed him terribly.
Theatre appearances
- Mister RobertsMister Roberts (play)Mister Roberts is a 1948 play based on the 1946 Thomas Heggen novel of the same name.The novel began as a collection of short stories about Heggen's experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II...
(2/18/48; Alvin Theatre) - Insigna. Also appearing: Karl Lukas, Tige AndrewsTige AndrewsTige Andrews was an American character actor. His work includes the role of Captain Adam Greer on the late 1960s-to-early 1970s television series The Mod Squad and Detective Lt...
, Murray HamiltonMurray HamiltonMurray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
(all from The Phil Silvers ShowThe Phil Silvers ShowThe Phil Silvers Show is a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G...
) - Stalag 17Stalag 17Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
(5/8/51, 472 performances). Also appearing: Robert StraussRobert Strauss (actor)Robert Strauss was a gravel-voiced American actor.-Career:Strauss began his career as a classical actor, appearing in The Tempest and Macbeth on Broadway in 1930...
, Allan MelvinAllan MelvinAllan Melvin was an American character actor who appeared in several television shows, including the roles of Corporal Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show; Alice's boyfriend Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch; and Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's...
, Bob Shawley (all from The Phil Silvers Show; Strauss and Lembeck appeared in the filmed version.) - Wedding Breakfast (11/20/54-2/26/55, 113 performances, 48th Street Theatre) - Norman
- Phoenix '55 (with Nancy Walker)
- Oklahoma!Oklahoma!Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
(3/19/58-3/30/58; 16 performances, New York City Center)—Ali Hakim - Man of La ManchaMan of La ManchaMan of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
—Sancho Panza (touring company, also performed at the White House for President Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
)
Selected filmography
- You're in the Navy NowYou're in the Navy NowYou're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...
(1951) - The Frogmen (1951)
- Just Across the Street (1952)
- Back at the Front, a.k.a. Willie and Joe Back at the Front (1952)
- Mission Over Korea (1953)
- Stalag 17Stalag 17Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
(1953) - Between Heaven and Hell (1956 film)
- Vu du pont (A View from the Bridge, 1961/1962)
- The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)
- Love with the Proper StrangerLove with the Proper StrangerLove with the Proper Stranger is a 1963 romantic comedy drama film made by Pakula-Mulligan Productions and Boardwalk Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and produced by Alan J. Pakula from a screenplay by Arnold Schulman.The film stars Natalie Wood,...
(1963) - Beach PartyBeach PartyBeach Party was the first of several beach party films from American International Pictures aimed at a teen audience. It was directed by William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. The main actors included Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, and Annette Funicello...
(1963) - Bikini BeachBikini BeachBikini Beach is a 1964 teen film directed by William Asher and starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The film belongs to the beach party genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in a series of seven films produced by American International Pictures .-Plot:School is out and...
(1964) - Pajama PartyPajama Party (film)Pajama Party is a 1964 beach party film starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. This is the fourth in a series of seven beach films produced by American International Pictures...
(1964) - The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
- Beach Blanket BingoBeach Blanket BingoBeach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the beach party film series...
(1965) - How to Stuff a Wild BikiniHow to Stuff a Wild BikiniHow to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a 1965 beach party film from American International Pictures. The sixth entry in a seven-film series, the movie features Mickey Rooney, Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, and Beverly Adams...
(1965) - Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini MachineDr. Goldfoot and the Bikini MachineDr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine is a 1965 American International Pictures film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart and Deborah Walley...
(1965) - The Ghost in the Invisible BikiniThe Ghost in the Invisible BikiniThe Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...
(1966) - Hello Down ThereHello Down ThereHello Down There is a 1969 musical comedy film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Jack Arnold and Ricou Browning and produced by George Sherman and Ivan Tors from a screenplay by John McGreevey and Frank Telford. It starred Tony Randall and Janet Leigh...
(1969) - There Is No 13There Is No 13There Is No 13 is a 1974 American drama film directed by William Sachs. It was entered into the 24th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Mark Damon - George Thomas* Margaret Markov - Number Eleven* Harvey Lembeck - Older George...
(1974) - Raid on EntebbeRaid on Entebbe (film)Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch who died just...
(1977) - The Gong Show MovieThe Gong Show MovieThe Gong Show Movie is a 1980 film that shows how Chuck Barris lives through a week of being the host and creator of The Gong Show, through a series of outrageous competitors, stressful situations, a nervous breakdown and other comic hijinks in his life and work on the TV show...
(1980)