Edward Herrmann ’05
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Edward Herrmann has starred in a variety of film and television. TV appearances range from M*A*S*H to Wings to Grey’s Anatomy – and films from The Paper Chase to Factory Girl. But the most memorable roles to me were as Franklin Roosevelt in Annie (a role he was reprising six years after playing FDR in a made-for-TV movie about the President’s life), and mostly as Max the vampire boyfriend in The Lost Boys. In fact, it is that role I remember most – and it scares me a little. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve never quite jumped on The Simpsons bandwagon yet. Sometimes I travel in the sidecar…having purchased the first nine seasons of it on DVD, but not quite being done watching the first one. As a Disneyphile, I find the chintzy animation a little disconcerting – while being fully aware that the second-to-none writing more than makes up for it. I know one day I’ll really dive into them and then there will be no going back. In fact, I got into Matt Groening’s Life in Hell comic strips way back before anyone had ever heard of The Simpsons. 
Thomas Benton Roberts was the only celebrity at the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention who signed my autograph book twice. I reckon that I had him do this because I really had no idea who he was at the time. Later on I realized that he appeared in the classic Laurel and Hardy silent film Two Tars as the hapless victim of Stan’s gushy tomato. Still later, I found out that Thomas Benton Roberts actually meant much more to the production of the L&H films. He was what was referred-to-as a ‘stand-by carpenter’ – a less-than-glamourous term for a special effects artist. 
I supposed I spoiled any suspense or anticipation on whether or not I ever met Donna Mills in my last celebs from 2005 posting about 
Eddie Quillan (seen at right with comedy producer Mack Sennett) had a long and distinguished film and TV career, playing more than 200 roles from the golden age of slapstick to the late 1980’s. My interest in Mr. Quillan – as you might suspect – was due to the role he played in the 1934 all-star feature Hollywood Party. You might even say he was the ‘leading man’ among the sea of comedians, including Laurel and Hardy, Jimmy Durante, and the Three Stooges among others.