Monthly Archives: July 2012

(Still) Remembering The Piano Man

Posted on July 22, 2012 by ronbase — 13 Comments

The day after his death a year ago today, I sat down and wrote about the loss of my dearest and closest friend, Brian Vallée. One year later, the sentiments haven’t changed. I still miss Brian terribly. I still think…

Tagged with: Brian Vallee, CBC, Edwin Alonzo Boyd, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Nancy Rahtz, St. Michael's Hospital, The War On Women
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The Guy Who Fired Robert Redford (and Forever Changed Movies)

Posted on July 17, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

When I did that sort of thing for a living, one of my favorite people to interview was the producer Richard Zanuck, who died of a heart attack last week at the age of seventy-seven. Zanuck was stiff and formal, handsome…

Tagged with: A Few Good Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Compulsion, Dark Shadows, Darryl F. Zanuck, David Brown, Doctor Doolittle, Driving Miss Daisy, Hello Dolly, Jaws, Joel Grey, Johnny Depp, Lili Fini Zanuck, M*A*S*H, Paul Newman, Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Zanuck, Robert Redford, Star!, Steven Spielberg, The French Connection, The Sound of Music, The Sting, The Verdict, Twentieth Century Fox
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I (Prematurely) Killed Peter O’Toole

Posted on July 11, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

I thought I had killed off Peter O’Toole in 1978, so naturally it came as a surprise to read that he was retiring from acting a couple of weeks short of his eightieth birthday. O’Toole was in Toronto making a…

Tagged with: David Hemmings, David Lean, David Thomson, For Great Glory, Joan of Arc, Lawrence of Arabia, Martyn Burke, New York Post, Oliver Reed, Oscar, Peter O'Toole, Power Play, Richard Burton, Richard Harris, The Last Emperor, The Tudors, Troy
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Call Me Grand-Père Ron

Posted on July 4, 2012 by ronbase — 3 Comments

Here is a sentence I never thought I would write: I have four grandchildren. Because we are a happily extended family, these four—three great boys and an adorable, I’m-not-taking-a-back-seat-to-you-pal granddaughter—have more grandparents than they know what to do with. At…

Tagged with: ballet, family, French, grandchildren, grandparents, Montreal, Saturday Evening Post, What's Up Canada's Family Magazine
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