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Eli Wallach was known as one of our most versatile performers. Though Jewish, he played Mexican, Italian, and assorted other ethnic characters with the same fluency and assurance.

I vividly recall seeing Robert Redford on the streets of New York City at the height of his stardom in the early seventies, moving quickly but unfettered by security. I called to him once from across the street (what did I have to lose?). He looked over, waved at me and said: “Hello!” My week was made.

She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1908, and was, by her own admission, a Yankee.

In theatre they call it “breaking the fourth wall” - that “wall” being the one we sit behind as popcorn-chewing observers. When used sparingly, this technique can be hilarious (or really creepy).

You can’t help but be moved by the tragic life of actress Gene Tierney. Though endowed with astonishing beauty and talent that won her early fame, a series of misfortunes would eventually bring her to the brink of suicide.

Theda Bara, Hollywood’s first female sex symbol, was born on July 29th, 1885. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of her film debut. My, how time flies!    New York was still the center of the movie business when Bara — going by her given name of Theodosia Goodman — impressed her bosses at Fox Studios in “The Stain” (1914). Taking note of her curvy figure and big dark eyes, Fox’s publicity department supplied this 29-year-old Jewish woman from Cincinnati with a new name and an entirely fictional bio. She would promptly be introduced to movie fans as the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor. Fox even provided her with a nickname, “The Serpent of the Nile.” Her admirers gave her a more enduring alias after her first blockbuster, “A Fool There Was” (1915), where she played a character called “The Vampire.” From then on, Bara was simply “The Vamp.” The term has long sinced entered the American vernacular.