Television

 She would have turned 85 on July 25.  Forever famous as Sophia on television’s The Golden Girls, but it was in Broadway’s Torch Song Trilogy (1982) that I first laid eyes on Estelle Getty.  Thereafter, she was doomed to serve up variations on the cantankerous little old lady, but what’s to complain?  After all, it…

 “There’s Sydney Pollack—and there’s everybody else.” That thought came over me last April when I found myself sitting next to him at the Housing Works Used Books Café; we and a few others had been asked to read some selected work from the winners of the PEN Prison Writing program that night, and I remember…

 Or so I felt growing up.  Ivan Dixon (1931-2008) was ever-present in the 60s and 70s, especially on television where his cool-as-a-cucumber bemusement enlivened a million guest spots.  I believe the only reason my father watched Hogan’s Heroes was to catch a glimpse of Dixon so’s he could smile back at the television with pride. …

 You’ve gone too soon.  For transporting me and making me laugh, for breaking my heart at the movies, thanks… Photo: Rankin

 His portrayal of the pimp Frank Ligourin in Klute was the first time I ever laid eyes on Roy Scheider, and even at a young, impressionable age I got why Jane Fonda’s Bree Daniels found it tough to leave him–and the life–behind.  In the matter of Roy, you couldn’t look away–not in Klute or Jaws,…

 Suzanne Pleshette 1937-2008  Lois Nettleton 1929-2008