About Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall has been best-known, since the mid-'60s, as the popular host of The Hollywood Squares game show for 15 years. Audience members are, thus, surprised when they learn that Marshall was a legitimate actor for more than 15 years before he ever set foot on the set of The Hollywood Squares and came from a family that counts several well-known figures among its members.
LOVED THE ORIGINAL HOLLYWOOD SQUARES WITH PETER MARSHALL?
Born Pierre LaCock (or la Cocque) in 1927 in Huntington, WV, he was the son of a pharmacist and the younger brother of Joanne la Cocque, who moved from being a successful model to a movie star in the 1940s and 1950s under the name Joanne Dru. He began singing in big bands as a teenager during the 1940s, then took a job as a page at NBC, and moved through different varieties of employment before finding himself broke and in Los Angeles in 1949. He hooked up with a slightly older contemporary, Tommy Noonan, in a comedy duo called Noonan & Marshall; the duo made several appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and got cast in a handful of films at the outset of the 1950s. Marshall's obvious talent for comedy was augmented by his good looks and he had a sporadically successful, busy career over the next 15 years as an actor, working in a variety of stage and film vehicles, among them a London production of +Bye Bye Birdie and the abortive Warner Bros. sequel to Mister Roberts, Ensign Pulver. Perhaps his best performance was as the young officer trapped underground with a group of allied and enemy troops in Edgar G. Ulmer's World War II drama The Cavern. That film, made in 1965, was the last screen performance that Marshall was able to give as an anonymous working actor.
In 1966, NBC and the sponsors were looking for a host for a new program called The Hollywood Squares, in which well-known actors and comedians were invited to give comical (and often comically wrong answers) to leading, sometimes double-entendre questions. Somebody at the network noticed Marshall's photograph on top of a pile of publicity materials, liked what they saw and the fact that he'd acted and had also done comedy, and called him in. Starting in October 1966, and lasting until 1981, he was the host of the extraordinarily popular program, which became a kind of pop culture fixture for decades. He ceased his career as a working actor, although he did co-write the screenplay for (and appear in) Maury Dexter's notorious 1968 anti-marijuana drama Maryjane, starring an overage Fabian. He also hosted a syndicated variety show during the 1970s and was a frequent guest as a host, singer, or dancer, on programs like The People's Choice Awards. Since The Hollywood Squares, he has appeared onscreen (usually as a game show host) and done comedy in films such as Annie, and poked fun at his own image on the Fox network comedy series In Living Color. He also has a recording career, and starred in +HMS Pinafore with the London Symphony Orchestra. Marshall remains busy in his seventies and his son,
about square regular Paul Lynde
Actor. Born June 13, 1926, in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Lynde attended Northwestern University, where he studied drama with classmates Charlotte Rae, Patricia O’Neal, and Charlton Heston. In 1948, upon his graduation, he moved to New York and honed his comedic skills by performing stand-up routines.
In the early 1950s, Lynde landed a role in a Broadway revue New Faces of 1952. Featuring the now-classic monologue “The Trip of the Month Club,” Lynde was singled out for his manic portrayal of a hapless but determinedly upbeat survivor of a tourist trip to Africa. Despite an auspicious Broadway debut, Lynde did not return to stage work for quite some time. Over the next eight years, he made guest appearances on variety and radio shows.
Over the next few years, Lynde appeared in supporting roles in lighthearted films like Under the Yum-Yum Tree (1963), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). Lynde forged a lucrative career as a character actor with parts on the popular TV series The Munsters, I Dream of Jeanie, and Bewitched. In 1967, he debuted on the fledgling game show Hollywood Squares, where, as the permanent center square, he found an outlet to showcase his comedic talents for the next 15 years.
In 1972, playing an uptight attorney and father at odds with his liberal-minded son, Lynde starred in the short-lived sitcom The Paul Lynde Show. The series’ failure exacerbated Lynde’s pre-existing drinking problem, which led to numerous run-ins with the law and frequent arrests for public intoxication.
On January 10, 1982, at the age of 55, Paul Lynde died of a massive heart attack brought on by years of substance abuse.
courtesy of © 2008 A&E Television All Rights Reserved
About Redd Foxx
Redd Foxx was born John Elroy Sanford on December 9, 1922, in St Louis, Missouri, Redd was known for his raunchy stand-up routines. His style of comedy, often described as “blue” for its foul language and highly adult subject matter, influenced generations of comics. He was also the star of the hit television series Sanford and Son, which ran on NBC from 1972 to 1977.
While a struggling performer in New York City, Sanford adopted the name Redd Foxx. He performed comedy on the “chitlin circuit” of African American nightclubs during the 1940s and '50s. By the 1960s, recordings of his comedy acts had become enormously popular among African Americans, though his albums were considered too racy for white audiences and were rarely available in stores with predominantly white customers.
In 1970 he gave a memorable comic performance in the hit film Cotton Comes to Harlem, and soon afterward he was approached by television producer Norman Lear about starring in the American version of the popular British sitcom Steptoe and Son. In Sanford and Son, Foxx played Fred Sanford (the name was taken from his brother), a junk dealer and widower living with his son in the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The show was a major success, but a dispute between Foxx and the producers over the direction of the show led to his departure in 1977. The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour (1977–78) and The Redd Foxx Show (1986) followed, but both shows were short-lived.
Redd Foxx occasionally made films, including Harlem Nights (1989) with Eddie Murphy, but worked primarily as a Las Vegas headliner. He was shooting a new sitcom named The Royal Family when he died
October 11, 1991 in Los Angeles, California)
Reference:
The Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, © 1994-2011.
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