The Jaws Got Her First
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
I know that some of my celebrity encounters are obscure and some are beyond obscure. But oftentimes I am oddly drawn to folks that have only had five minutes of fame. I just feel lucky when I get the chance to meet someone whom I’d never expect to meet…or even look for. It’s likely that you would never recognize Susan Backlinie’s name, nor her face, unless of course it was seen in the context of having a few shark teeth imbedded into it. But you probably will never forget that moment – especially if you saw it in the theater in 1975 – when her character Chrissie Watkins became the first victim of the shark in the blockbuster thriller Jaws. Read the rest of this entry »
It was in the early part of the 2000’s decade that I asked my friend Bob to pick me up a signed photo Dee Wallace when she made an appearance at one of the Hollywood Collector Shows. My knowledge of her at the time was that she had played the Mom (Mary, with last name intentionally never disclosed) in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, which was one of the most touching and popular films during my adolescent childhood. By the time she starred in E.T. in 1982, she had already had a rather lucrative career, having starred in The Stepford Wives, The Hills Have Eyes, 10, and The Howling. 
The title of this posting might sound a little disturbing if the photo at left didn’t make it obvious that we were talking about the TV show Bewitched. Although in the great I Dream of Jeanie vs. Bewitched debate, I come down on the side of Jeanie as being the better of the two shows, Bewitched is quite fun nonetheless. As a fan who caught the series in reurns, I own all of the episodes on DVD and am anxious to dig into them in the near future. Unlike the cast of Jeanie, I never got to meet any of the principles on Bewitched, but during my visit to the Hollywood Show on October 9, 2010 , I was able to get to meet the actors and actress who played Samantha and Darrin’s children Tabitha and Adam. 
…But I guess that’s where our similarities end. While I have never portrayed my own cousin, nor won an Academy Award, Patty Duke has done both. As both a sitcom star (in the eponymous Patty Duke Show) and an Oscar winner (for The Miracle Worker, playing the deaf and blind Helen Keller), she really disappointed me when she cancelled her appearance at the 
I had been rather excited just to see Cloris Leachman in-person when I saw the live performance of