At age 85. She was known for her waitress role in the movie "5 Easy
Pieces".
Lorna Thayer (Waitress): You want me to hold the
chicken, huh?
Jack Nicholson (Bobby): I want you to hold it between your knees.
Thayer died June 4 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement
home in Woodland Hills, California after a long battle with Alzheimer's
disease.
Thayer is survived by two daughters, five grandchildren, six great-
grandchildren and a sister.
Actress Lorna Thayer dies...
Actress Lorna Thayer dies...
I saw the obituary in the London Independent last week. You may not have seen it, being in the USA - here's the content:
Thayer was born in Boston in 1919, moving to Hollywood with
her mother, the silent-film actress Louise Gibney, after she
split from Lorna's father, a set-builder at Universal
Studios. Her mother looked every inch the movie star,
copying the bee-stung-lips look from Mae Murray and Gloria
Swanson's silk turbans. The problem was that Gibney lacked
the confidence of her contemporaries and sank into
depression and drink. But this all changed on the birth of
Lorna and by the time she was five she had been enrolled
into dance classes.
Lorna Thayer attended Immaculate Heart College, in Los
Angeles, launching her acting career in the Players' Ring
production of Street Scene (1946), followed by Berkeley
Square with Thomas Beck at the Geary Theatre in San
Francisco. On Broadway, she was a stand-in for the much
older Judith Anderson before taking over for the actress in
Comes a Day with George C. Scott and Larry Hagman.
Despite a few bit parts during the 1940s in MGM musicals, it
was not until the early 1950s that she made any headway in
Hollywood. She had parts in the western Texas City (1952),
the action drama The Lusty Men (1952) and the thriller
Jennifer (1953), and took the lead opposite Paul Birch in
The Beast with a Million Eyes (1958), in which an alien
spacecraft lands in the desert and its inhabitants plan a
campaign of terror on local people, ultimately taking over
their minds. Filmed on a zero budget, the film had many of
the cliches found in sci-fi of the era, rubber-faced
monsters and screaming blondes and blurred stock footage of
reptiles at LA's zoo. Despite this it became a cult
favourite.
The majority of Thayer roles in the 1950s and early 1960s
were made for the 'drive-in-movie' crowd. The dialogue was
simple, the plots were straightforward and the leads easy on
the eye " for example, the follow-up to Mutiny on the Bounty
entitled The Women of Pitcairn Island (1956). But she was
also in I Want to Live! (1958), about Barbara Graham going
to the electric chair, and, one of her better films, Dead
Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966).
Thayer, who married in the 1950s and had two daughters,
jumped between movie and theatre parts. She enjoyed the live
audience and no matter how small the part or how bad the pay
sought out as much theatre work as she could muster. One of
her plays was the critically acclaimed Broadway hit Never
Live Over a Pretzel Factory (1964).
After Five Easy Pieces, she had small parts in numerous
films, as well as television shows such as General Hospital
and CHiPs. She made her last film, Frankie and Johnny, in
1991 as a favour to her friend Al Pacino.
Lorna Thayer, actress: born Boston, Massachusetts 10 March
1919; married 1950 Arthur Dowling (deceased; two daughters);
died Woodland Hills, California 4 June 2005.
The other notable US obituary this month was the guy who voiced Tony the Tiger in all those Frosties adverts over the years, Thurl Ravenscroft:
Born: 6 February, 1914, in Nebraska, United States.
Died: 22 May, in California, aged 91.
For more than 50 years, Thurl Ravenscroft was the affable voice behind Tony the Tiger, TV's popular cartoon frontman for Kellogg's Frosties.
"I'm the only man in the world who has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeat!" he said in 1996. "When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something. After messing around for some time I came up with the 'Grrrrreeeat!' roar, and that's how it's been since then."
He also narrated the summertime Pageant of the Masters at Laguna Beach for 20 years and lent his voice to characters on thrill rides at Disneyland, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion.
"Disneyland wouldn't have been, and wouldn't be, the same without him," said the park's former president, Jack Lindquist. "His voice was one of the things that made it all come alive."
Ravenscroft also provided voices for many animated Disney films including Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and Lady and the Tramp.
Born in Norfolk, Nebraska, Ravenscroft moved to California in 1933 to study art. By the mid-1930s he was appearing regularly on radio, and by the late-1930s he was singing back-up for Bing Crosby.
After military service during the Second World War, he returned to Hollywood, where he sang with the Mellomen, a group that performed with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley.
In 1952, Ravenscroft's voice appeared in the first Frosted Flakes commercial in the United States.
Ravenscroft is survived by two children and four grandchildren. June, his wife of 53 years, died in 1999.Being, it would seem, the Forum Garden Grinch, I'll add to that. Thurl sang the grinchy song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" to Boris Karloff's narration of the 1966 cartoon, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". For no good reason at all, he was left off the credits. Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) attempted to rectify by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer.
Thayer was born in Boston in 1919, moving to Hollywood with
her mother, the silent-film actress Louise Gibney, after she
split from Lorna's father, a set-builder at Universal
Studios. Her mother looked every inch the movie star,
copying the bee-stung-lips look from Mae Murray and Gloria
Swanson's silk turbans. The problem was that Gibney lacked
the confidence of her contemporaries and sank into
depression and drink. But this all changed on the birth of
Lorna and by the time she was five she had been enrolled
into dance classes.
Lorna Thayer attended Immaculate Heart College, in Los
Angeles, launching her acting career in the Players' Ring
production of Street Scene (1946), followed by Berkeley
Square with Thomas Beck at the Geary Theatre in San
Francisco. On Broadway, she was a stand-in for the much
older Judith Anderson before taking over for the actress in
Comes a Day with George C. Scott and Larry Hagman.
Despite a few bit parts during the 1940s in MGM musicals, it
was not until the early 1950s that she made any headway in
Hollywood. She had parts in the western Texas City (1952),
the action drama The Lusty Men (1952) and the thriller
Jennifer (1953), and took the lead opposite Paul Birch in
The Beast with a Million Eyes (1958), in which an alien
spacecraft lands in the desert and its inhabitants plan a
campaign of terror on local people, ultimately taking over
their minds. Filmed on a zero budget, the film had many of
the cliches found in sci-fi of the era, rubber-faced
monsters and screaming blondes and blurred stock footage of
reptiles at LA's zoo. Despite this it became a cult
favourite.
The majority of Thayer roles in the 1950s and early 1960s
were made for the 'drive-in-movie' crowd. The dialogue was
simple, the plots were straightforward and the leads easy on
the eye " for example, the follow-up to Mutiny on the Bounty
entitled The Women of Pitcairn Island (1956). But she was
also in I Want to Live! (1958), about Barbara Graham going
to the electric chair, and, one of her better films, Dead
Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966).
Thayer, who married in the 1950s and had two daughters,
jumped between movie and theatre parts. She enjoyed the live
audience and no matter how small the part or how bad the pay
sought out as much theatre work as she could muster. One of
her plays was the critically acclaimed Broadway hit Never
Live Over a Pretzel Factory (1964).
After Five Easy Pieces, she had small parts in numerous
films, as well as television shows such as General Hospital
and CHiPs. She made her last film, Frankie and Johnny, in
1991 as a favour to her friend Al Pacino.
Lorna Thayer, actress: born Boston, Massachusetts 10 March
1919; married 1950 Arthur Dowling (deceased; two daughters);
died Woodland Hills, California 4 June 2005.
The other notable US obituary this month was the guy who voiced Tony the Tiger in all those Frosties adverts over the years, Thurl Ravenscroft:
Born: 6 February, 1914, in Nebraska, United States.
Died: 22 May, in California, aged 91.
For more than 50 years, Thurl Ravenscroft was the affable voice behind Tony the Tiger, TV's popular cartoon frontman for Kellogg's Frosties.
"I'm the only man in the world who has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeat!" he said in 1996. "When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something. After messing around for some time I came up with the 'Grrrrreeeat!' roar, and that's how it's been since then."
He also narrated the summertime Pageant of the Masters at Laguna Beach for 20 years and lent his voice to characters on thrill rides at Disneyland, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion.
"Disneyland wouldn't have been, and wouldn't be, the same without him," said the park's former president, Jack Lindquist. "His voice was one of the things that made it all come alive."
Ravenscroft also provided voices for many animated Disney films including Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and Lady and the Tramp.
Born in Norfolk, Nebraska, Ravenscroft moved to California in 1933 to study art. By the mid-1930s he was appearing regularly on radio, and by the late-1930s he was singing back-up for Bing Crosby.
After military service during the Second World War, he returned to Hollywood, where he sang with the Mellomen, a group that performed with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley.
In 1952, Ravenscroft's voice appeared in the first Frosted Flakes commercial in the United States.
Ravenscroft is survived by two children and four grandchildren. June, his wife of 53 years, died in 1999.Being, it would seem, the Forum Garden Grinch, I'll add to that. Thurl sang the grinchy song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" to Boris Karloff's narration of the 1966 cartoon, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". For no good reason at all, he was left off the credits. Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) attempted to rectify by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.