Famous and Gravy

New York Times Obituary for Fred Willard

12 Unforgettable Fred Willard Film and TV Appearances

Fred Willard scene from ‘Best in Show’

“Wha’ Happened?” clip from ‘A Mighty Wind’

Fred Willard ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ appearance

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Famous & Gravy Trailer

Famous and Gravy

12/18/21 • 3 min

Famous & Gravy Trailer: Biographies from a different point of view..

Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

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Dead or Alive Quiz Game

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Stiletto Comic (Joan Rivers)

Famous and Gravy

03/02/22 • 57 min

This person died in 2014 at age 81. In her twenties, she worked in the publicity department at Lord and Taylor, and was a fashion coordinator for the Bond Clothing Store. She joined the Chicago-based Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s. She was one of America’s first successful female stand-up comics in a tradition that had been almost exclusively male. In 2010 she became a star of the E! show “Fashion Police.” She was described as vivacious, even as a nipped and tucked octogenarian. Today’s dead celebrity is Joan Rivers.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Joan Rivers

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Pure Imagination (Gene Wilder)

Famous and Gravy

07/26/23 • 64 min

This person died in 2016 at age 83. He was an accomplished stage actor as well as a screenwriter, a novelist, and the director of four movies in which he starred. He made his movie debut in 1967 in the celebrated crime drama, “Bonnie and Clyde.” He had haunted blue eyes and an empathy born of his own history of psychic distress. His rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it funny; try to make it real. “I’m an actor, not a clown,” he said more than once. In 1971, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as the wizardly title character in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. This episode’s dead celebrity is Gene Wilder.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss and includes a guest appearance from Stephanie Okupniak. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 44 “Inner Soprano” (James Gandolfini) and Episode 35 “Likable Villain” (Alan Rickman)

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Gene Wilder

Pure Imagination scene in ‘Willy Wonka’ sung by Gene Wilder

‘Will and Grace’ blooper scene with Gene Wilder

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Secret Chord (Leonard Cohen)

Famous and Gravy

07/12/23 • 67 min

This person died in 2016 at age 82. He was an unlikely and reluctant pop star, if in fact he ever was one. In the 1960s, he lived in a house on the Greek island of Hydra, where he wrote a pair of novels. He was 33 when his first record was released in 1967. In the early 1970s, his record company concocted an advertising campaign where they called him “the master of erotic despair.” Around 1994, he abandoned his music career and moved to Mt Baldy monastery, where he was ordained a Buddhist monk. His best-known song, a majestic and meditative ballad which has been endlessly covered, is called “Hallelujah”. Today’s dead celebrity is Leonard Cohen.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss and includes a guest appearance from Christian Swain. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 45 “Rebel Rebel” (David Bowie) and Episode 29 “Zen Comedian” (Garry Shandling).

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen’s 75th birthday concert in Barcelona

Kate McKinnon sings “Hallelujah” on SNL after Leonard Cohen’s death

Susan Cain article on Leonard Cohen’s music

Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast on Hallelujah

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America's Mustache (Burt Reynolds)

Famous and Gravy

11/01/23 • 64 min

This person died in 2018 at age 82. His early passion was for football, and he played halfback at Florida State University. He was part Cherokee. He had an often turbulent career that spanned some 100 films and countless television appearances. He had a volatile temperament, but he himself projected an air of nonchalance and professed not to take his career too seriously. He was a self-mocking charmer with laugh-crinkled dark eyes, a distinctive mustache, and a hairy chest. He had box-office success with films like “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run”. Today’s dead celebrity is Burt Reynolds.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 55 “Pure Imagination” (Gene Wilder) and Episode 51 “Goofball Stud” (Bill Paxton)

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Burt Reynolds

“46 years of Burt Reynolds’ Glorious Mustache” in The Washington Post

Burt’s ‘Cosmopolitan’ centerfold in 1972

Clip of Burt Reynolds vs Mark Summers on ‘The Tonight Show’

“Burt Reynolds on Toupees, Trump,...” in GQ

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Sleepless Sally (Nora Ephron)

Famous and Gravy

08/09/23 • 62 min

This person died in 2012 at age 71. In the summer of 1961 she was a summer intern in the Kennedy White House; she once said she was probably the only intern that President Kennedy had never hit on. Her second husband was the Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. She was a journalist, essayist, novelist, playwright, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and a movie director — a rarity in a film industry whose directorial ranks were and continue to be dominated by men. Her box-office successes included “You’ve Got Mail” , “Julie & Julia” , “Sleepless in Seattle”, and “When Harry Met Sally”. Today’s dead celebrity is Nora Ephron.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss and includes a guest appearance from Erin Carlson. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 47 “Proud Mary” (Mary Tyler Moore) and and Episode 18 “Darling’s Critic” (Roger Ebert)

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron’s commencement speech at Wellesley College

Nora Ephron documentary “Everything is Copy” by Jacob Bernstein

‘The Nora Ephron We Forget’ article in The New Yorker

Erin Carlson website, author of ‘I’ll Have What She’s Having’

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Higher Power (Bill Russell)

Famous and Gravy

11/15/23 • 63 min

This person died in 2022 at age 88. He was once described by his coach as “the single most devastating force in the history of the game.” He took part in the 1963 March on Washington and was seated in the front row for Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is remembered for his ability to enhance the talents of his Boston Celtics teammates even as he dominated the action, and to do it without bravado. He holds the record for most NBA championships won with 11 titles. The trophy for the MVP of the Finals is in fact named after him. Today’s dead celebrity is Bill Russell.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 49 “Hammer Time” (Hank Aaron), Episode 33 “October Error” (Bill Buckner), and Episode 31 “The Greatest ” (Muhammad Ali)

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Bill Russell

Wall Street Journal Obituary for Bill Russell

Politico Obituary for Bill Russell

“The Unparalleled Legacy of Bill Russell” from the Ringer

“Boston’s Checkered History with its Greatest Sports Icon” from CNN Opinion

ESPN’s list of Top Athletes in 20th Century

5 celebrities the late Bill Russell gave the middle finger to

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Notorious Dissenter (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

Famous and Gravy

05/18/22 • 60 min

This person died in 2020 at age 87. She once said her writing style was partly inspired by Vladimir Nabokov, who she studied literature under at Cornell. In the mid 2010s, she became an internet sensation. She was barely five feet tall and weighed around 100 pounds. She was the second woman to serve on the Supreme court and a pioneering advocate for women's rights. Today’s dead celebrity is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

LINKS:

New York Times Obituary for Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)

Famous and Gravy

07/24/24 • 82 min

This person died 2016 at age 69. He suffered a blow in a teenage brawl that caused his left pupil to be permanently dilated. He experimented with startling transformations, often playing up an androgynous image. In the 1980s he had a Broadway run in the demanding title role of “The Elephant Man”. Nirvana chose to sing one of his songs in their legendary brief set on “MTV Unplugged” in 1993. He was the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom, and Ziggy Stardust. Today’s dead celebrity is David Bowie.

This episode originally published March 8, 2023.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 66 “Let’s Get Metaphysical” (Olivia Newton-John) and Episode 32 “Hot Stuff” (Donna Summer)

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