Sunday, October 8, 2017

People on the Sgt Pepper Cover:, continued: Terry Southern, Dion, Tony Curtis

______________

Terry Southern:

  • Terry Southern (1924 – 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. 
  • Southern was also at the center of Swinging London in the 1960s and helped to change the style and substance of American films in the 1970s. 
  • In the 1980s he wrote for Saturday Night Live and lectured on screenwriting at several universities in New York.
  • Southern scripted such films as Easy Rider, Dr Strangelove, The Loved One, The Collector, The Cincinnati Kid, Casino Royale, Barbarella, The Magic Christian and End of the Road .
______________

Dion:

  • Dion Francis DiMucci (1939 - ), better known as Dion, is an American singer and songwriter.
  • He was one of the most popular American rock and roll performers of the pre-British Invasion era and had 39 Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a solo performer, with the Belmonts or with the Del Satins. 


  • He is best remembered for the singles "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer", "Ruby Baby" and "Lovers Who Wander", among his other hits.
  • Dion's popularity waned in the mid-1960s. Toward the end of the decade, he shifted his style and produced songs with a more mature, contemplative feeling, such as "Abraham, Martin and John." He became popular again in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s, and he has continued making music ever since. 
  • Dion was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
  • In May 2017, Dion released Kickin' Child: The Lost Album 1965, songs recorded in 1965 when he was with Columbia, who did not release them; the current is album is from Norton Records. 

Performing, 2016


______________

Tony Curtis:

  • Tony Curtis (1925 – 2010) was born Bernard Schwartz and was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades but who was mostly popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.
  • His mother was schizophrenic and beat her children and his brother was institutionalized with the same disorder.
  • His brother Julius was killed when Curtis was 12 from being struck by a truck.
  • Curtis was the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis by his first wife, actress Janet Leigh.
  • Curtis enlisted in the United States Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served aboard the submarine USS Proteus until the end of the war. On September 2, 1945, Curtis witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from his ship's signal bridge about a mile away.
  • On arriving in Hollywood in 1948, aged 23, he changed his name to Tony Curtis, the first name coming from the novel Anthony Adverse and "Curtis" was from Kurtz. a surname in his mother's family.

Tony Curtis (left) and Jack Lemmon (right) in character with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.
  • Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting and, since the early 1980s, painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now. In the last years of his life, he concentrated on painting rather than movies.

Tony Curtis at an exhibition of his works at Harrods, 2008
  • According to Snopes.com, He never uttered the phrase “Yondah lies da castle of my foddah.” 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.