Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Star sightings! Drop the dime here. Who've you seen on the street? Did you show them some love or did you politely respect their privacy? How did they behave?

Any and all anecdotes welcome, even if 2nd- or 3rd-hand...

Just to get the ball rolling, here's the (classic) stars I've met or seen in person. Its not a long list at all.

Farley Granger
Christopher Plummer
Paul Schrader (screenwriter)
Faye Dunaway

Granger and Plummer, I was inches from. I shook Granger's hand and spoke with him at a book signing. Very congenial, warm personality. What I was astounded by was how amazingly tall, both these men were. They were literally larger than life; long-limbed, barrel-chested, crowned by thick heads of hair.

And also something else. The size of their heads and their facial features, you wouldn't believe just how large their faces were. Very mobile with expression, too.

All this makes them loom above everyone else in the room like those characters who walk around in Disneyland, or sports mascots on the sides of a gridiron.

Heard a story from a construction contractor once, about how his firm sent him up to Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward's Manhattan penthouse one time. Apparently they kept a penthouse strictly for whenever they came into town from Connecticut to do any downtown errands, or see shows. Anyway so these three guys ride up the elevator to install some custom something-or-other and Paul Newman is up there, just hanging out. They start the work and when they're about 3/4 finished Newman realizes he only has a few beers in the fridge. So he picks up the phone and orders out. Soon a case of good beer arrives and they all hang out just gabbing about life. All the while Newman is paying for their break! It wasn't a put-on, this is the kind of thing Newman frequently did. Then they finished up and went home with handshakes all around.

There's a lot of classic actors like Newman whom I wouldn't mind having a beer with.

Today's stars? Well....actually no. Hell no. I can't think of one whom I would invite to my table or accept an invite to theirs. Yuck.

I can only name one contemporary actress (and even she is ageing) but I always liked her an awful lot: Roseanna Arquette. Oh and maybe say, Kurt Russell or Goldie Hawn. But even these name are from a slightly preceding generation of actors than ones who's names are currently on marquees.

Not me personally, my brother has met a bunch, when he lived in NYC he worked in Edward Albee's office for a few years. He met Michael Shannon and Gary Sinise when they were working for some theatrical company in Chicago back in the 80's or so.

I'd like to have had a beer with Lee Marvin, Neville Brand, Buddy Epson.

When I lived in NYC, I worked for a woman who went to the theatre frequently. One day she told me she had seen a celebrity the night before, but she wasn't sure who it was. She thought it was Cary Grant, but I told her he was dead. Turns out, it was Gregory Peck.

Have also seen Robert Redford, Edward Herrmann, Joseph Wiseman, Dick Van Dyke and Harrison Ford.

That's a pretty strong list. Y'oughta be proud.

I'd be fascinated to (ever) see (or have seen) any one of those people pass me in the street. I wonder what I would say to them; (though if I really think about it I guess my policy would probably always be to say nothing and just let them be themselves. Not invade their privacy; and not just repeat to them the same old stuff everyone probably always babbles in their ears). After all, one never knows what they might find irksome/annoying.

Your boss must have encountered a lot of others too, I reckon.

I talked to someone once who (when he was a teen) used to race go-karts and mini-bikes around California. He said Steve McQueen used to come down and tinker with engines and do laps with them on the beach n stuff.

And someone else in a bar I frequent --a construction guy --told me about building a deck in Paul and Joanne's Manhattan penthouse and how, after they'd been working for a while Paul came out to sit with them with a case of beer.

This is what I mean about some of these mega-famous people --a lot of times they just prefer to be re-accepted back in our world as regular people. The burden is on us to facilitate that. Boy, it sure isn't easy to remember either --that at the end-of-the-day, they're still just actors. Theater people. Not Albert Einstein or Neil Armstrong.

Actually Robert Redford was filming a scene from 'Legal Eagles' with Debra Winger, not too far from where I lived.

Kiefer randomly ended up at my music trivia night one time, but I didn't talk to him. Also, I was an extra on Andersonville, but I never talked directly with Frankenheimer.

But hanging with indie rock stars is everyday life in Athens GA.

It wasn't too long ago that Redford co-starred with Tom Cruise in a thriller. He still looked okay then. Anyway like I say, what does it matter? He is still the person he is. Dedicated to the environment and to indie cinema and to 'doing good'. No scandals attached to his name and he's not even a heavy drinker like Bill Holden was.

I just remembered an actor that I saw not long after I moved to NYC. I saw lots of plays then and I was at the theatre to see 'Equus' with Anthony Hopkins. When I turned around after picking up my ticket, who should I see but Anthony Hopkins going in a side door to ready himself for his demanding performance. You can imagine my surprise. This was well before 'Silence of the Lambs'.

Ah! This jars a memory of mine. One time while I was in college, a play was running downtown which featured Faye Dunaway (aka. 'fading away'. or so the joke goes). Anyway I went down to the rear of the theater on opening night--it verged on an empty parking lot --to see if I could spot her. But, I stayed well away from the actual entryway, (I didn't want her to think I was there to pester her for an autograph). I was just curious to see if I could catch a glimpse. See, it was rumored in the papers how intensely quirky and neurotic she is about attention and so she always wears elaborate disguises to foil contact with fans. Anyway I waited a long while and sure enough a black man, (building custodian) finally shuffled forward, opened the door, and disappeared inside. Uncanny! Chameleon-like! Nothing like how she seems on screen!