Wilson Post Blogs

Dear Ken: What was Clint Eastwood’s first appearance in a western?
Eastwood, 81, who co-starred in the TV western “Rawhide” from 1959 to 1965, made his debut as a cowboy playing Tom, a ranch hand in “Star in the Dust,” which was released in June 1956. For the role he didn’t even receive a screen credit.

Two months later, he co-starred as a U.S. Cavalry lieutenant in “The First Traveling Saleslady” and received his first screen kiss from Carol Channing. Two years later he co-starred in “Ambush at Cimarron Pass.” It was while on break from “Rawhide” in 1964 that he made his fourth film western, “A Fistful of Dollars,” which turned him into an international star. This first in a series of three spaghetti westerns that the actor made with director Sergio Leone was not released in the United States until 1967. While making “Fistful,” Eastwood wore the same boots he wore while playing Rowdy Yates on “Rawhide.”

Dear Ken: How many actresses played the three daughters of Kate Bradley in the 1960s sitcom “Petticoat Junction”? I think there were six and my husband says four.

Bea Benaderet starred as Kate, owner of the Shady Rest Hotel, and had three girls: Bobbie Jo, Billie Jo and Betty Jo. Pat Woodell and Lori Saunders played Bobbie Jo. Jeanine Riley, Gunilla Hutton and Meredith MacRae played Billie Jo. (Riley and Hutton later became “Hee Haw” cast members.) And Linda Henning played Betty Jo. So that makes six. You win. The little dog on the TV series later became movie star canine Benji.

Dear Ken: Besides “Friday Night Lights,“ what other TV series has Kyle Chandler, who stars as Deputy Jackson Lamb in the movie “Super 8,” been a cast member of?
Kyle Martin Fitzgerald Chandler, 45, who was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and grew up in Loganville, Ga., was a star of “Homefront” and “Early Edition” and appeared in several episodes of “Tour of Duty” and “The Lyon’s Den.” Among his movie credits are “King Kong” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” He and his wife, a television writer, have two daughters.

Dear Ken: With the recent invasion of the noisy cicadas, I seem to remember a late 1950s horror film that had giant locust crawling up skyscrapers in a big city. What is the title of that movie and who starred in it?
That was 1957’s “Beginning of the End.” It starred Peter Graves as the entomologist trying to dig up the dirt on grasshoppers that had been radiated during tests by the Illinois State experimental farm and turned into big bugs. Filmed in New Horrorscope, it was reportedly the first full-length science-fiction thriller made with real live creatures, 200 of them. Of course, the hoppers were superimposed on images of Chicago. It was pretty scary, if you were 8 years old.   

Dear Ken: Who played the “Soup Nazi” on “Seinfeld”? What other shows or movies has he been in?
The actor is Larry Thomas, and he was nominated for an Emmy for the role. Born Larry Thomasof, he has appeared on such TV shows as “Caroline in the City,” “Arli$$,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “C.S.I.,” “Drake and Josh” and “Arrested Development.” His movie credits include “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” “Postal,” “Not Another B Move,” and he will be in four films this year. In May he appeared in character as the temperamental soup cook at a New York Mets game where he told the crowd, “No soup for you!” I’m sure they lapped it up.

Dear Ken: How many Oscars has Robert De Niro won? Where did he grow up and what was his first movie appearance?
The native New Yorker, 67, who grew up in the Little Italy section of Manhattan and later Greenwich Village, has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won two. His wins came in the films “Raging Bull” and “The Godfather: Part II.” The other nominations came for “Taxi Driver,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Awakenings” and “Cape Fear.” He first appeared onscreen in 1965’s “Three Rooms in Manhattan” but received no screen credit. His first credit came in “Greetings” in 1968, and his first boffo performance came in 1973’s “Bang the Drum Slowly.”    

Dear Ken: What is Charlotte Rae of “Facts of Life” doing these days?
The actress, who portrayed Edna Garrett, the housekeeper/chaperone on “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Facts of Life,” most recently appeared in an episode of “Pretty Little Liars.” Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, Rae, 85, has done it all from cabaret and Broadway to film and TV. Of her best-known TV role she says, “We really worked very hard to give the shows quality and not go into things like sex as a sport, or things that are very misleading to young people. We had a social responsibility and we kept to it, which made me very happy.” Her first TV role came as Sylvia Schnauser on the 1961-63 sitcom “Car 54, Where Are You?” That show’s first season was recently released on DVD, and it is hilarious. 

Dear Ken: Now starring in the new series “Body of Proof,” what other TV shows has Dana Delany starred in?
Delaney, 55, was a regular on “Desperate Housewives,” “Kidnapped,” “Presidio Med,” “Pasadena,” “China Beach” and “Sweet Surrender.” She also has provided the voice of Lois Lane in a couple of animated series. Several weeks back, she placed ninth in “People” magazine’s annual 100 Most Beautiful list. 

Dear Ken: Who did the original voices of Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty on “The Flintstones”?
Yabba-dabba-do! So glad you asked. Alan Reed was Fred Flintstone, and Jean Vander Pyle was Wilma and Pebbles. Mel Blanc did Barney Rubble, and Bea Benaderet was Betty Rubble. As for Dino, that was Blanc again.

If you have a trivia question about actors, singers, movies, TV shows or pop culture, e-mail your query to Ken Beck at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dear Ken: I just saw the movie “Water for Elephants.” Tell me about the handsome but villainous dude who played August, the owner of the circus who beat the elephant?
That would be Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, 54, who was born into a theater family. He had a very workmanlike career for 30 years in German film and television, and then director Quentin Tarantino cast him as Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious B……s,” which made him an international superstar and won him a best supporting actor Oscar. The divorced father of four children speaks German, French and English. He next stars as Cardinal Richelieu in “The Three Musketeers.” Regarding “Water for Elephants,” the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga provided a vintage steam locomotive and a three-mile track for the production, which filmed in Chattanooga last July and August. Lookout Mountain also appears in the movie.

Dear Ken: I used to love watching “The Red Skelton Show” with my grandparents when I was a child. What can you tell me about Skelton?

The comic was born Richard Bernard Skelton in Vincennes, Ind., and he proved entertaining in vaudeville and on radio and Broadway as well as in movies and TV. While he made more than 30 films, it his “Red Skelton Hour” TV show, which ran from 1951 to 1971, for which he was best known and where he portrayed such characters as Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, Junior the Mean Widdle Kid, Sheriff Dead Eye and told his jokes about two cross-eyed seagulls named Gertrude and Heathcliffe. The comedian was also quite a painter and love painting images of clowns which were sold for thousands of dollars. Married three times, he had two children. Skelton died of pneumonia in 1997 at age 84. His closing line at the end of each TV show was, “Good night, and may God bless.”     

Dear Ken: I saw rock singer Rod Stewart doing a TV interview recently and he looked great. How old is he? What were his biggest hits?

Roderick David Stewart, who has sold more than 100 million records, looks fabulous for 66 years of age. He dropped out of school at 15 hoping to become a professional soccer player and eventually got into music, singing in a variety of bands, but his big break came in 1967 when he became lead singer of the Jeff Beck Group. It was 1971 when he struck gold as a solo singer with his huge hit “Maggie May.” His other top tunes include “Reason to Believe,” “You Wear It Well,” “Sailing,” “Tonight’s the Night,” “I Don’t Want To Talk About It, “The First Cut Is the Deepest,”  “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,“ “Baby Jane” and “All for Love.” The singer has eight children, including a 3-month-old.  

Dear Ken: What is going on in the life of Frankie Muniz, who starred as Malcolm in the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle”?

Francisco James Muniz IV, 25, has backed off his acting career a bit to pursue music and race car driving. He is the drummer in the Phoenix-based band You Hang Up. He has been open wheel racing since 2006, competing in the Atlantic Championship. And he has been writing screenplays and produced a few movies. Muniz stars later this year as a super hero in the movie “Pizza Man.” Born in New Jersey, he grew up in Knightdale, N.C. (population 6,200), where his mom was a nurse and his father a restaurant manager. A big basketball and soccer fan, he was taught how to play the drums by his pal Zac Hanson of Hanson brothers fame. 

Dear Ken: Where have I seen Aaron Eckhart before? He plays Sgt. Michael Nantz in the movie “Battle: Los Angeles.”

Eckhart, 43, has movie credits going back to 1993. Among his best are “Any Given Sunday,” “Erin Brockovich,” “The Missing,” “Thank You for Smoking,” “The Black Dahlia,” “Rabbit Hole” and “The Dark Knight.”  Born in California, he completed high school in England and Australia before attending college at Brigham Young University. He actually broke his arm while making “Battle: L.A.” “We were doing a stunt, and I slipped, and I fell about seven feet and flew right on my arm and my head, just barely missing some rocks, broke my arm, kept on going and finished the scene,” said the actor.

Dear Ken: Whatever happened to the great Mel Blanc, the man who was the voice behind Bugs Bunny? Born Melvin Jerome Blank in San Francisco, “the man of a thousand voices,” died in 1989 in Los Angeles of emphysema and heart disease at age 81. The gifted voice actor first gained fame on radio’s “Jack Benny Program,” but it was as dozens of famous cartoon characters that America and the world came to know his talents. Among other animated characters, Blanc provided the voice for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzalez, Barney Rubble and Sylvester the Cat. The words at the top of Blanc’s tombstone read: “THAT’S ALL FOLKS.”

Dear Ken: Can you provide a bit of background on Matt Damon?

The actor, 40, was born in Cambridge, Mass., where his mother was an early childhood education professor and his dad was a stockbroker. One of his childhood friends was Ben Affleck. Damon entered Harvard as an English major in 1988 but dropped out before graduating after he co-starred in the movie Geronimo: An American Legend in 1992. He had also worked in Mystic Pizza, Rising Sun and School Ties. It was 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which he wrote with Affleck, that turned him into a star and also won him and his pal Oscars for best screenplay. The Boston Red Sox fan is a serious poker player.

Dear Ken: Can you share some background information on Liam Neeson, star of the movie “Unknown?”

Neeson, 58, was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, where his mother was a cook and his father a caretaker at a Catholic boys’ school. An excellent amateur boxer as a schoolboy (that’s how his nose was broken), he worked as a forklift operator and truck driver before he became a professional actor in Dublin in 1976. His first big movie role came in “Excalibur” in 1981, and he has since starred in such movies as “Darkman,” “Leap of Faith,” “Schindler’s List,” “Nell,” “Rob Roy,” “Michael Collins,” “Les Miserables,” “Gangs of New York,” “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Clash of the Titans.” The 6-foot-4 Neeson provided the voice of the lion, Aslan, in “The Chronicles of Narnia” movies. He also worked on Broadway in “Anna Christie“ and on TV in the series “The Big C.” Neeson’s late wife, actress Natasha Richardson, died from head injuries suffered in a skiing accident in 2009. They have two sons.

Dear Ken: Tell me what you can about actress Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Ree Dolly in the movie “Winter’s Bone.”

Lawrence, 20, was born in Louisville, Ky., and began her acting career at 14. By 17, she was playing the teenage daughter in the TBS sitcom, “The Bill Engvall Show.” Her other TV credits include “Monk,” “Medium” and “Cold Case.” Her movies include “The Poker House” and “The Burning Plain.” Later this year, she co-stars in “The Beaver” and “X-Men: First Class.” For her role as a poor Ozarks teen searching for her missing, meth-making father in “Winter’s Bone,” she had to learn how to fight, chop wood and skin a squirrel. As for the latter, she said. “You could ask me about anything and compare it to cutting up a squirrel, and I would choose the other. . . . I know squirrels are like rats with bushy tails, but it’s cute! It’s an animal and I was, like, Ohhhhhhhhh.”

Dear Ken: What can you tell me about actor Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor in the new movie? I have never heard of him before this.

Hemsworth, 27, hails from the Land Down Under where he starred in the Australian soap opera “Home and Away” for three years. His brothers, Luke and Liam, are actors in Australia (Liam also tested for the role of Thor). He appeared in three movies, “Star Trek,” “A Perfect Getaway” and “Ca$h,” before taking up Thor’s hammer. Sometime this year he stars in a remake of “Red Dawn” and “The Cabin in the Woods.” Next year he reappears as Thor in “The Avengers.” Hemsworth married Spanish actress Elsa Pataky in December. He describes Thor’s character saying, “He’s doing what he’s doing for his family and to protect the kingdom, and he thinks it’s the right way to do it. It just happens to be a very aggressive way of doing it, which probably isn’t the right way.” “Thor” opens at theaters May 20. 

Dear Ken: Tell us something about Elizabeth Mitchell, who played Juliet Burke on “Lost” but is now Erica Evans on “V.”
Mitchell, who turns 41 March 27, was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Dallas with two younger sisters. She began her career acting in theater, and got her big break in the TV movie “Gia.” Among her other TV credits are “ER” and “The Lyons Den” and the TV movies “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story“ and “The Linda McCartney Story.” Mitchell made the movies “Frequency,“ “Nurse Betty,” “Santa Clause 2” and “Santa Clause 3.” Married, she has a 5-year-old son. 

Dear Ken: Tell us a bit about Colin Firth, who was nominated for a best actor Oscar for his role as King George VI in “The King’s Speech.”
Firth, 50, was born in Grayshott, England, but lived from the age of two weeks to 4 years old in Nigeria (three of his grandparents were missionaries). His father taught history at Winchester University College, and his mother taught comparative religions at the Open University. Married, he has three children. The actor is a strong supporter of Survival International, an organization that defends the rights of tribal peoples. Among his other acting credits are “Valmont,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The English Patient,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Dorian Gray.” He has completed the film “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” a thriller which will be released at the end of the year.

Dear Ken: In your opinion, what are the 10 best movies shot in the state of Tennessee?

Well, first of all, everybody has different tastes. Mine favor older movies over contemporary. Here goes: 1: “Wild River” (1960) with Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick; 2: “All the Way Home” (1963) with Robert Preston and Jean Simmons; 3: “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings” (1975) with Burt Reynolds and Art Carney; 4: “I Walk the Line” (1970) with Gregory Peck and Ralph Meeker; 5: “Walking Tall” (1973) with Joe Don Baker; 6: “The River” (1984) with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek; 7: “The Liberation of L.B. Jones” (1970) with Lee J. Cobb and Roscoe Lee Browne; 8: “The Firm” (1993) with Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman; 9: “A Walk in the Spring Rain” (1970) with Anthony Quinn and Ingrid Bergman; 10: “Marie” (1985) with Sissy Spacek and Jeff Daniels. 

Dear Ken: How many children did Michael Landon have? What TV series did he star in beside “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie”? Did he make any movies?
Born Eugene Maurice Orowitz, Landon had nine children. The eight who survive range in age from 51 to 24. The man who was known on TV as Little Joe and Charles Ingalls also starred in the series “Highway to Heaven.” His feature film credits include “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” “High School Confidential,” “God’s Little Acre” and “The Legend of Tom Dooley.” He appeared in several TV movies, most of which he produced or created, such as “Sam’s Son,” “The Loneliest Runner,” “Love Is Forever” and “Where Pigeons Go To Die.” The actor died in 1991 at age 54 of pancreatic cancer.