Friday, March 21, 2014

Pop Quiz: More Sibling Revelry

Yes, it's another one of those infinitely popular Poseidon's Underworld quizzes! We took a look once before at show business brothers and sisters and now we've returned for one more round. See how many of these you knew or remembered.

1. This craggy character is Grandmama Addams of The Addams Family (1964-1966) as portrayed by Blossom Rock. Ms. Rock's unusual name stemmed from the fact that she'd been going by one of her two middle names (Blossom) and then married a man named Clarence Rock in 1926. To confuse matters, she was also renamed Marie Blake for a time by MGM (Marie being her other middle name.) Edith Marie Blossom's real last name was shared with her younger sister, someone known for her singing voice and her ladylike presence, often garbed in frills, feathers and furs during her showy cinema career.

2.  Here we have amenable stage star-turned-game show host Peter Marshall, most famous for hosting The Hollywood Squares from 1966-1980. In that capacity, he met many, many famous showbiz personalities, from the most zany comedians to the most beautiful starlets. His older sister was a star in her own right, and even appeared as a guest on Squares several times in the late-60's and 1970. Having made a name for herself in some well-regarded late-1940s westerns, she then appeared in an Oscar-winning Best Picture, proceeding to work in films until segueing to TV in the '60s and early-'70s.

3.  This sleek, attractive, but rather severe-looking, actress is named Marisa Pavan. Her time in the cinematic sun was mostly limited to the 1950s, though she continued to work in TV during the '60s and '70s. She had a supporting role in 1955's The Rose Tattoo with Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani, gave Lana Turner a rough go of it in 1956's period drama Diane and that same year worked with Gregory Peck in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Her sister was also a notable actress, arguably more famous, though her career was permanently halted in 1971. They were twins, but not identical.

4.  No, this is not early Karen Black! Ha! The lady in this portrait and inset had the first name Ann and worked in quite a few 1960s and '70s TV and movie projects. The one of her in uniform is from Captain Nice (1967) on which she had a regular role. Though she popped up as a guest on many series, her slightly older sister was altogether more successful and better known in the business. The sister costarred in several movies that retain fan followings to this day and often worked with her husband, a dark-haired, (often) mustache-wearing comic actor.

5.  This pretty Austrian blonde lady was known for her sweetly smiling expression, one that was often present even though tears. In 1958, she made a Hollywood version of The Brothers Karamazov opposite Yul Brynner. Other American films include Cimarron (1960) with Glenn Ford and The Mark (1961) with Stuart Whitman. Later, she popped up in Voyage of the Damned (1976) and Superman (1978) as a Kryptonian elder. Her younger brother was a handsome, dark-haired leading man who took home a Best Actor Oscar and enjoyed his own four-decade-long career.

6.  The moppet shown here with Fred MacMurray is Dawn Lyn, who played his adoptive/step-daughter during the last few seasons of My Three Sons. (She was on from 1969 to 1972, much to the consternation of a healthy number of Sons fans, who didn't warm up to the freckle-faced cutie, whose very presence went against the concept of the show.) Lyn was the younger sister of a boy whose popularity in the 1970s was incredible, though his career came crashing to a near standstill by the dawn of the '80s.

7.  This handsome gentleman is named Neil. He was yanked out of obscurity in 1967 to play the lead in a movie that spoofed a genre that his older brother had found worldwide fame in. After one more movie in 1969, he worked at his own plaster business, occasionally taking small TV parts here and there over the next several years.  His brother is a household name actor whose career stretched into the mid-2000s and includes a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

8.  This young man was a popular presence on 1970s television and, notably, in teen magazines, though he really didn't star on a hit show. There were a few episodes of Little House on the Prairie in 1974 and two series in which he was a regular that just didn't take (The Fitzpatricks, 1977-1978, and California Fever, 1979.) By the mid-1980s, his acting career was all but over.  His little sister, however, was quite a sensation from her childhood until the early '80s and then enjoyed a second wave of work when she became a sitcom regular from 1988-1995. When that show, a spin-off series airing on NBC, flew the coop, so did her acting career.

9.  This slim, angular beauty (love the hair!) was a popular European actress of the 1960s who sometimes worked with her sister, another beauty who has gone on to considerable success as an actress. Her sister, one year younger, has starred in a couple of key films from the '60s (in genres as varied as thrillers and musicals), some popular successes of the '70s and still works today in her homeland. She also scored a Best Actress Oscar nomination in the early-'90s.

10.  This young lady's name is Darlene. She began acting as a teen in 1960s movies and TV shows, later playing Henry Fonda's daughter on his sitcom The Smith Family (1971-1972.) Her own show, Miss Winslow and Son (1979), seen here, went nowhere fast, though she did play Karl Malden's daughter many times on The Streets of San Francisco between 1973 and 1977. Her older sister was also an actress whose face is internationally known thanks to the stupendously successful Oscar-winning Best Picture movie in which she had a featured part, though she only ever had one other acting credit a year afterwards! Darlene has another older sister who acted as well, but primarily with her voice, providing the low, authoritative one for Wonder Woman that was heard all those years on Super Friends (1973-1983.)

BONUS:  This one concerns not siblings, but cousins. Recognize this young man? He had a regular role on the obscure TV show Joe and Sons (1975-1976) before joining the cast of the hit show Soap (1977-1981.) A spotty acting career followed through the 1980s. His male cousin had the same last name as him and had a far more prominent TV career, still remaining on the scene in various capacities today.





:::::ANSWERS TO FOLLOW!:::::





1.  Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald Rock was the elder sister of Jeanette MacDonald, who enjoyed about a dozen years of starring in operetta type musicals such as The Merry Widow (1934), Rose-Marie (1936) and Maytime (1937), frequently costarring Nelson Eddy. MacDonald also costarred in the wonderful early disaster film San Francisco (1936) along with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. It's earthquake effects still impress today nearly eighty years later. Though MacDonald died in 1965 of a heart attack at only age sixty-one, Rock lived until 1978, passing away at age eighty-two.
2.  Peter Marshall was the younger brother of actress Joanne Dru, who starred in John Ford's westerns Red River (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) as well as Best Picture All the King's Men (1949.) Her husbands included singer Dick Haymes (1941-1949) and John Ireland (1949-1957) as well as two gentlemen after those. She died in 1996 at age seventy-four of lymphedema. Mr. Marshall is still with us today and will be eighty-eight on March 30th! I think you can see plenty of resemblance between the siblings in this photo of Marshall (with Barbara Eden in Swingin' Along, 1961.)
3.  Marisa's fraternal twin sister was fellow Italian actress Pier Angeli, a softer-looking, fragile beauty whose personal life was riddled with problems. Her name was actually Anna Maria Pierangeli! Pavan had been born Maria Luisa Pierangeli, but had been married to a man named Pavan. Angeli starred in Teresa in 1951 with John Ericson and The Story of Three Loves in 1953 opposite Kirk Douglas. She also took part in Paul Newman's disastrous movie debut The Silver Chalice (1954), but made up for that with his 1956 film Somebody Up there Likes Me.
She was deeply in love with James Dean, but her mother forbade them to wed, resulting in a swift marriage to singer Vic Damone which petered out after four years. Still disenchanted with life and with her career, Angeli overdosed on pills in 1971 at age thirty-nine while Pavan is still with us today at eighty-one.
4.  Ann Prentiss was the younger sister (by a year) of Paula Prentiss. Paula costarred in Where the Boys Are (1960), Catch-22 (1970) and The Stepford Wives (1975), among others, often working alongside her husband Richard Benjamin. Paula is seventy-six years old at present, but Ann died in 2010 at age seventy. The sad thing is, she died in prison.  For, you see, somewhere along the way the wheels began to come off and in 1997, she was convicted of making terrorist threats, assault with a firearm, battery and conspiring to have not only Richard Benjamin killed, but her own father, too! Her sentence was for nineteen years, though she passed away before completing it.
5.  Maria Schell was the older sister of Maximilian Schell, who won the Academy Award for his earnest, passionate role in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961.) We like him (and his nipples!) best, though, for Krakatoa: East of Java (1969.) Maria passed away of pneumonia in 2005 at the age of seventy-nine while Max just died this past February (2014) at age eighty-three, also of pneumonia.
6.  Dawn Lynn is the younger sister of Leif Garrett, a screamingly popular teen actor and singer of the mid-'70s. In one 1978 episode of Wonder Woman, Lyn played a rabid fan of the character Garrett was portraying. That was Lyn's last on screen acting gig, her 4' 10" frame limiting her options.
Then, in 1979, Garrett was involved in a terrible car accident that cost his best friend the use of his legs, cost him $7 million in a settlement and helped to fuel an already considerable drug problem, one he has battled off and on ever since. He did continue to act, and occasionally does so today at age fifty-two. Lyn is currently fifty-one. (By the way, WHAT are we seeing in this shot to the left under his shorts?)
7.  Neil Connery is the younger brother of James Bond actor Sean Connery. Neil's first movie was called Operation Kid Brother (1967) and featured some of Sean's Bond costars in it. Sean won an Academy Award for 1987's The Untouchables. Though Sean is eight years older, both men were good looking and both have demonstrated the same type of male-pattern baldness and gray hair in later years. Sean is now eighty three while Neil is seventy-five. You may view more of the handsome Sean here!
8.  Jimmy McNichol was the older brother of child star Kristy McNichol, who as a teenager won two Emmys for her work on the series Family (1976-1980), also starring in Little Darlings (1980) and the jaw-dropping The Pirate Movie (1982) opposite Christopher Atkins. Jimmy is fifty-two and went into the construction and remodeling business in the early-'80s.  Kristy is now fifty-one. A sufferer from bipolar disorder, she is retired apart from teaching acting to young people, lives with her female partner of over two decades and is also an advocate against bullying.

9.  Françoise Dorléac was the sister of the beauteous Catherine Deneuve. The two of them worked in The Door Slams (1960), Male Hunt (1964) and most notably The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967.) Sadly, a horrific accident in which her sports car flipped over took her from us when she was only twenty-five. Deneuve enjoyed acclaim in, among others, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Repulsion (1965), Belle de Jour (1967), The Hunger (1987) and got that Oscar nom for Indochine (1992.) She is seventy today. 

10. Darlene Carr is the little sister of Charmian Carr, who played Liesl in The Sound of Music (1965.) Their sister Shannon Farnon provided the low, authoritative voice of Wonder Woman on Super Friends. After guest-starring four times on Simon & Simon between 1981 and 1986, Darlene eventually married that show's star Jameson Parker in 1992 and they remain wed today. She is sixty-three, Charmain is seventy-one and Shannon is seventy-two.

Bonus Answer:  Jimmy Baio is the younger cousin (by one year) of Scott Baio. Jimmy is fifty-two today while Scott is fifty-three. Scott's TV credits include Happy Days (1977-1984), Charles in Charge (1984-1990), Diagnosis Murder (1993-1995) and See Dad Run (2012-2014), with much of the 1990s spent directing sitcoms.

10 comments:

normadesmond said...

paula's a mean, nasty republican.
maybe that's why ann flipped?

joel65913 said...

Fun list. I knew all but the Dawn Lyn/Leif Garrett connection.

Speaking of the Addams Family the boy who played Pugsley was the nephew of Ruby Keeler. Small world!

Oddly enough I just watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg today for the first time, it was amazing. While I was reading a bit about Catherine Deneuve I looked at Francoise Dorleac's bio and it happens that it would have been her birthday today and here she is in your article!

Poseidon3 said...

Joel, I want to do a tribute to "Umbrellas" sometime. I just loved it, too, the first time I saw it. Hopefully, I can get to it before too long. Francoise did do an English language movie, too (at least one) called "Genghis Khan" with Stephen Boyd, Omar Sharif and James Mason if you ever get the chance to see it. Total coincidence that today was her birthday!!

joel65913 said...

Poseidon, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one, I adore James Mason and Stephen Boyd is always easy on the eye so it might be fun.

I have seen "The Billion Dollar Brain" which she was making when she was killed in that accident. It was ordinary if action packed and it was obvious that they had to do some rewriting because of her passing, there were scenes where it was apparent her character should have been there but wasn't. She was quite lovely if not as voluptuously beautiful as her sister.

I was leery of "Umbrellas", a French musical isn't something I would randomly sit down to watch, but I was so taken with it I'm anxious to watch their co-starring vehicle "The Young Girls of Rochefort" next.

NotFelixUnger said...

I got Kristy and Jimmy right but that was the only one I knew. Back when I still read Teen Beat I never got the allure of Jimmy [Or Leif]. In retrospect Jimmy was adorable. Sadly I still don't get Leif.

VanceMan said...

I was suprised at how many of these I didn't know. But the Schells I know — and I've had a long-time thing for Maximilian (and his not-too-often-seen nipples).

And if you like those Jacques Démy musicals — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Donkey Skin — be sure to see Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, a tribute to those films starring Jacques Démy's son. It's a lovely, completely sung film that's updates The Umbrellas of Cherbourg to the age of AIDS.

angelman66 said...

Another great roundup of stars from my growing up years. Particularly loved the shots you found of Leif and Jimmy.

McNichol was just seen in an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, visiting with Kim Richards. He still looks hot!

I thought Dawn Lyn was going to be a big star, she was so cute on My Three Sons. Can't believe Liesl Von Trapp is now 71...that is truly scary.

Love your blog, always makes me smile with sweet memories!!

Poseidon3 said...

NotFelix, Leif was/is not a favorite of mine either, but man he was everywhere during the mid-'70s! His name is so confounding at times, too. Some people say it like "Leaf," which isn't right. Lynda Carter made a point of saying it sounded like "Life" yet he is on record as saying it is pronounced with a long "a" like "Lafe." Too much trouble for me! LOL

VanceMan, I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for that movie. Thanks!! One of Maximilian's movies is on my Holy Grail list: "Counterpoint" with Charlton Heston and Leslie Nielsen. Maybe some day...

Angelman, I saw Jimmy on RHOBH (sadly, I watch every episode of every one of those "Housewives" series!) and thought he looked even better than before, though I have most often gone for mature types versus young. Thanks for commenting! :-)

Ken Anderson said...

Very fun list! I never knew, however, about the Dawn Lynn/ Leif Garrett connection! So surprising as Dodie was a favorite of mine growing up because she was the oddest-looking little girl I'd ever seen on TV... Looking nothing like her TV mom, Beverly Garland.
And that whole Ann Prentiss tale is so sad and bizarre.

laura linger said...

Greetings, like-minded freak, from A Touch Of Tuesday Weld! Remind me to "borrow" many of your bits, as yours is easily the best blog I have seen in ages. I would like to blogroll you. Please come over and stay a spell over on mine. I think you might like what you see.

Smooches,
Laura Linger
A Touch Of Tuesday Weld
http://atouchoftuesdayweld.blogspot.com/