Results tagged “actor”

Earlier today, family members said actor and comedian Dom DeLuise had passed away. The cause was not disclosed, but his agent said the 75-year-old actor "had high blood pressure, he had diabetes, he had lots of things," though he seemed fine a few weeks ago. DeLuise was born in Brooklyn and attended the High School for Performing Arts (he went to Tufts for college) and performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway before appearing in movies. He became beloved to many for his roles in Mel Brooks films ( as hosted an episode of the Muppet Show (see it here, parts one, two, and three).

As luck would have it, a New York Times editor was on the C train platform at Penn Station Monday afternoon when a man fell down onto the tracks and cracked his skull. Lucky not because the editor rescued the man, but lucky for the Times because he gave his card to the guy who did, a 33-year-old actor named Chad Lindsey (pictured), who has come forward to tell his story to the paper. Reached by phone, he tells the Times, "I’m of many minds of being in the spotlight, but what the hey, I’m an actor—shocker." Lindsey was on his way to a "reading" when the man took a nosedive off the platform.

I’m kind of zoned out, and I saw this guy come too quickly to the edge. He stopped and kind of reeled around. I felt bad, because I couldn’t get close enough to grab his coat. He fell, and immediately hit his head on the rail and passed out. I dropped my bag and jumped down there. I tried to wake him up. He probably had a massive concussion at that point. I jumped down there and he just wouldn’t wake up, and he was bleeding all over the place. I yelled, ‘Contact the station agent and call the police!’ which I think is hilarious because I don’t think I ever said ‘station agent’ before in my life. What am I, on ‘24’?

Jeremy Piven is expected to appear live and in person before an Actors' Equity grievance committee tomorrow in order to defend himself against producers of Speed-the-Plow who accuse him of faking mercury poisoning last December to escape his contractual obligation to the Broadway production. It was originally assumed that Piven's lawyers would plead his case, but the Posts's Michael Riedel says the hard-partying actor is expected to surface. Unless, as one producer quipped, he "has too much sushi on the plane from LA." Hey-oh! When he quit, Piven's physician claimed the mercury levels in the star's blood were "very elevated," and last month Piven agreed to a second blood test administered by a doctor hired by the producers. (The results of that test are not known.) If the grievance committee rules against Piven, he'll be forced to settle financially with the producers or risk expulsion from the stage union. And though there are five actors on the committee, the unnamed producer says that doesn't necessarily bode well for Piven: "I don't think many theater actors are in favor of what he's doing. They take jobs on Broadway very seriously, and he's a Hollywood actor, behaving like one."

Mr. Show, Arrested Development, the stand-up stage, The Year One Super Bowl commercial from last night...you know who David Cross is by now. Currently he's filming a new series with Will Arnett for Britain's Channel 4, and come this summer you'll be able to soak up his wisdom in the written word when his book "I Drink For A Reason" hits shelves. Recently he told us about the Arrested Development movie, an upcoming Squeakel, and what he thinks of a law banning fans from talking to him. Tomorrow night he'll return to the stage, joining Zach Galifianakis, Janeane Garofalo, Demetri Martin, John Oliver and Paul F. Tompkins for “Stand-Ups Give BAC,” a benefit for the Brooklyn Autism Center.

According to NYPD statistics, overall subway crime dropped by 3% in 2008, with murders down to two from four in 2007. There were an average 6.3 major felonies a day last year, compared with 7.4 in 2006 (there was an average of 17 in 1997). But robberies are on the rise: 823 occurred last year, up from 796 in '07. And there were three rapes reported last year, as opposed to just one in '07. Still, the NYPD's John Hall tells the Post crime is "so low that it's getting more and more difficult to keep it there," and attributes the stats to a crackdown on people walking between moving cars, which criminals do when trolling for victims.

We've been big fans of Aziz Ansari since he first hit the comedy scene all those years ago, and it seems like since then he's been speedily checking things off his To-Do list. He launched off the stand-up stage to get his own MTV series (Human Giant), is now in an anxiously awaited spin-off of The Office (he clears up the plotline below), and he's been busy filming movies with the likes of Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd. Not too shabby. This weekend he returns to New York, after moving out to Los Angeles—catch his Glow in the Dark Tour (not to be confused with Kanye's) at Comix this Friday or Saturday (buy tickets).

In Gus Van Sant's new film Milk, which opens Wednesday, Alison Pill plays Anne Kronenberg, the brassy lesbian hired by gay rights activist Harvey Milk to take charge of his fourth, ultimately successful, campaign for city supervisor. The 23-year-old's performance was cited by the Times as one of five to watch out for this year: "Women are rare in this movie, but as the campaign gathers momentum, this one holds the screen like a channel swimmer chugging steadily along in a sea of testosterone-fueled flamboyance."

A day after Antitrust star Tim Robbins excoriated the Board of Elections in an open letter that described commissioner Gregory Soumas as a "petty vindictive corrupt scumbag," the bureaucrats have fired back with their own open letter! After some boilerplate about how the NYC BOE "takes special pride in the conduct of the November 4, 2008 election," and how they "recognize the need for all voters to be informed of all electoral procedural requirements," the letter gets down to brass tacks: "We also recognize and applaud that passion of Mr. Robbins exhibited with regard to his Election Day experience. Therefore, to harness the passion of Mr. Robbins, and to further the purpose of the NYC BOE, we hereby extend our invitation Mr. Robbins to join the NYC BOE to produce voter participation service announcements." Your move, Norville Barnes!

Born and raised in New York City, Campbell Scott—son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst—is a quintessential New York actor. Famous but not too famous, courteous but still salty, Scott has distinguished himself as a deeply thoughtful performer and director who balances his time between theater and indie film. His screen roles include standout performances in films like Singles, Roger Doger, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, the under-appreciated black comedy The Secret Lives of Dentists, and Six Degrees on ABC.

If you thought Barack Obama's decisive victory might shut up Arlington Road star Tim Robbins, well, you don't know Tim Robbins. First he was outraged when poll workers wouldn't let him vote at his regular voting place on Election Day, then he was doubly incensed when the Board of Elections publicly blamed the snafu on him (for supposedly registering twice with a different address). Now the Fraternity Vacation star has gone all Huff Post on the BoE with—fasten your seat belts—a witheringly contemptuous open letter. It begins: Dear [Board of Elections Commissioner Gregory] Soumas, I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections." It gets worse from there, and after ruthlessly rocking Soumas's cradle with a mystical river of sarcasm, Robbins's ire reaches its highest fidelity with, "...you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag." You gonna take that, Soumas?!

More on Tim Robbins Voter-gate! City Room has a thorough exposé on what went wrong for the Tapeheads star on Election Day, when he showed up to vote at the YMCA on West 14th Street and was told that his name was not in the Poll List Book. His misadventures got a lot of media attention after he refused to fill out a provisional ballot, accused poll workers of trying to "intimidate" him, and finally got a judge at the Board of Elections office to issue an order permitting him to vote.

Tim Robbins made a big stink at the YMCA on West 14th Street this morning when he was told that his name was not on the voter list. According to City Room, Robbins has been voting at the same polling place since 1997, but for some unknown reason, his name was nowhere to be found when he went in this morning. The Times happened upon him sitting in a folding chair looking dejected and annoyed: "The poll workers here know me...The woman said she remembered seeing me here for the primaries."

There is growing speculation that 83-year-old actor Paul Newman is battling lung cancer. According to LA Times blog The Dish Rag, Newman is receiving outpatient treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. Rumors about Newman’s ill health have escalated since last week, when Martha Stewart published the above photo on her website, depicting a frail Newman attending a benefit for his Hole in the Wall Gang summer camp for children with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Not long after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kelly Overton got a big break when she was cast in the memorable Broadway stage adaptation of The Graduate, with Jason Biggs in the Dustin Hoffman role and Kathleen Turner famously baring all for her portrayal of Mrs. Robinson. Film and TV roles followed, including a part in The Ring Two. Overton has also been busy with a project of her own, a low-budget indie thriller called The Collective that she co-wrote and co-directed with husband Judson Pearce Morgan. In it, she plays a woman who rushes to New York City after getting a cryptic voice mail message from her sister, who has since disappeared. Her search points the way to a creepy, clandestine society that, judging by the film's trailer, loves getting freaky in old cathedrals. The Collective will premiere in New York on May 31st as part of the Brooklyn International Film Festival, with a second screening on June 5th. Details here.

It says a lot about Harvey Fierstein's distinctiveness that it's almost impossible to even say the name 'Harvey' without thinking of that endearingly gravelly voice. Whether you know him as Homer Simpson's assistant Karl, Robin Williams's brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, or Hairspray's Edna Turnblad, the Brooklyn-born actor's uninhibited, self-assured persona is thoroughly his own. Now the four-time Tony winner is back on Broadway with A Catered Affair, the musical adaptation of the 1956 film about a blue collar Bronx couple and their increasingly elaborate plans for their daughter's wedding. Fierstein wrote the book and plays the family's closeted uncle with a poignant mix of humor and regret. The show also stars Tom Wopat and Faith Price, who yesterday received a Tony nomination for her performance.

Elaine Stritch's long and colorful career is packed with so many memorable roles that it's impossible to really say what she's best known for. Her show-stopping rendition of "Ladies Who Lunch" in Sondheim's Company? Or maybe her Tony-nominated performance in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance? Her movie and television appearances in everything from Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks to 30 Rock? Or her critically-acclaimed solo cabaret show, which she's taken from Broadway to the intimate Cafe Carlyle, just downstairs from her home in the Carlyle Hotel? And this season fans of the incomparable Stritch have another winner to add to their collection: her short but poignant portrayal of Nell in Samuel Beckett's Endgame.

Besides winning an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1984 for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, F. Murray Abraham's long and distinguished career includes unforgettable performances in plays like Angels in America, Waiting for Godot, and the original Broadway production of Terrence McNally's The Ritz, to name just a few. You can currently catch the magnetic actor on stage in a trio of one act plays by Ethan Coen called Almost an Evening. The three short works explore existentialism, religion and homicide with Coen's trademark idiosyncratic humor, and Abraham's boffo third act performance of a splenetic God Who Judges is alone worth the cost of admission. Almost an Evening continues at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street through June 1st, following a sold out run at The Atlantic Theater Company. Ticket prices vary.

They’ll deny it, but most college students who write plays harbor some secret fantastic hope that their new opus will be hailed as the arrival of a fresh new voice and open on Broadway to triumphant acclaim. It obviously never happens, except when it does: 28-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally from Washington Heights, conceived the musical In the Heights as a sophomore at Wesleyan. After graduating, the show, a hip hop and salsa-inflected homage to his old ‘hood, caught the eye of the producers behind RENT and Avenue Q. It opened Off Broadway last year to rave reviews, packed houses and far too many awards to schlep home on the A train. Now the Broadway incarnation is bounding through previews, having kept most of the original Off Broadway cast, which includes Miranda himself in one of the starring roles. The official opening night is March 9th; ticket prices vary.