Rich Little
Birthday: 1938-11-26
Place of Birth: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Synopsis
Born in Canada, Rich Little got his start just like almost every other comic of his time - night clubs. he was a very popular comic in these clubs, but if there was one thing Rich was best known for, it was impersonations. He studied the voices of many stars his whole life, stars like James Stewart, Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, Dean Martin, Truman Capote and George Burns. In the late 1960s, Rich was dubbed "the best impressionist in the world." During the 1970s, however, a rivalry began between him and fellow impressionist Frank Gorshin, who is five years older. Ultimately, Rich overpowered Gorshin and remained the best impressionist in the world. In 1973 Rich became more associated with Dean Martin and made countless appearances on the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts," honoring most of the people he impersonated. Besides impressions, Rich also had a successful career as a narrator in many stories, made many appearances in TV series, and hosted many TV shows. He also made his first movie, as Otterlake in The Other Side of the Wind (1972) in 1972. His acting career wasn't as successful as his impressions, but he did have a great talent. After the 1980s, Rich calmed down and moved away from the limelight. In 1998, Rich took a look back at his most remembered moments of his career: his appearances on the "Dean Martin Roasts," in an infomercial to promote the Roast videos. Rich says he will ALWAYS remember those moments.
Acting
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
as Self
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
The Julie Andrews Hour
as Self
The Julie Andrews Hour is a television variety series starring Julie Andrews that was produced by ATV and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It aired on the ABC network in the United States.
In order to secure Andrews for the series, Sir Lew Grade and ABC offered her an extremely lucrative contract. In 1963, when another major star, Judy Garland was signed to a weekly television variety series, it failed to catch on with the public. One of the main reasons for its demise was its constant change of format and the fact that critics and audiences felt that Garland was not shown off to her best advantage. In order to avoid that error, Andrews asked producer Nick Vanoff what the premise of the show would be about. Vanoff immediately answered her by saying "Julie Andrews...without Julie Andrews there is no 'Julie Andrews Hour'".
The show premiered on ABC Wednesday, September 13, 1972 at 10:00 P.M. ET to rave reviews. Unfortunately, its time slot proved to be daunting because it was up against the popular CBS detective series, Cannon. Another reason for the low ratings was that the lateness of the hour was not conducive to family viewing since children were in bed by that time. On Thanksgiving Eve, November 22, 1972, "The Julie Andrews Hour" devoted an entire episode saluting Walt Disney. To make it more of a "family special", ABC switched the time slot of "The Julie Andrews Hour" that night to 8:30 P.M. and The ABC Wednesday Movie Of The Week to 9:30 P.M. The ratings improved a little so ABC then made a decision to alternate Andrews' time period each week This continued until January, 1973 when the series was moved to Saturday nights at 9:00 P.M. The ratings went from bad to worse as Andrews' chief competition was The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show on CBS. "The Julie Andrews Hour" was finally canceled by ABC after its 24th episode in April, 1973.
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Sink Pink
as The Pink Panther (voice)
An eccentric man has built an ark and has filled it with specimens of all animals except one - a pink panther. To complete his zoological collection, the man sets out, rifle in hand, to hunt the Pink Panther, who leads the man on a futile chase through a jungle.
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Pink Ice
as The Pink Panther / Devereaux / Hoskins (voice)
In South Africa, a talking Pink Panther is the owner of a diamond mine and has unearthed a large gem. He puts it in his safe, which has a combination lock that functions like a telephone dial, and a man tunnels into the safe and filches the jewel. The Pink Panther suspects gophers of perpetrating the theft, but a dastardly pair of rival miners, operating the neighboring DeBoors mine, have taken the diamond and claim it and the diamond-yielding territory as their own. The pair of men ineptly try to eliminate the panther, and the debonaire Pink Panther defeats them, obtaining an even larger diamond and removing it from the DeBoors camp.
