tagged w/ Route 66
-
The New York Times...
.
Phil Bruns, Hard-Hat Dad on ‘Mary Hartman,’ Dies at 80
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: February 15, 2012
PHOTO:
Phil Bruns, center front, with the cast of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."
.
Phil Bruns, a familiar-face character actor best known on television as the cigar-chomping hard-hat dad on the 1970s soap-opera parody “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” died on Feb. 8 at a hospital near his home in Los Angeles. He was 80.
He died of natural causes, his friend Joseph Armilla said.
Mr. Bruns, who received critical praise for his roles on the New York stage in the early 1960s, went on to appear in more than 40 movies and 60 television shows.
On “Mary Hartman,” in 1976 and 1977, he played George Shumway, a schlumpy, rubber-faced assembly-line mechanic who never quite gets what’s going on with his daughter Mary (Louise Lasser) or the rest of the world.
“He was this middle-aged working man, the middle class we’re all talking about today, bewildered by the torrent of information thrown at him from all sides, absent context,” Norman Lear, the show’s creator and producer, said in an interview on Tuesday. “He was too ill-informed to be sure of much.”
The show, a convention-breaking spoof of the soap operas of its time, dealt with subjects like infidelity, sexual perversion, racism and religious intolerance. In one episode George is set up in a hotel room with a prostitute by a rival faction of his union. In another he tries to comprehend why stress on the job has made him impotent.
As Reader’s Digest wrote in 1977, George combined “a know-it-all stance with profound ignorance.”
Mr. Bruns could nail that role, Mr. Lear said, because “he was an extremely intelligent man who brought that character out of the 10,000 he could play.”
Among his film credits, Mr. Bruns played a faithful production manager to the filmmaker played by Peter O’Toole in “The Stunt Man” (1980) and a small-town doctor battling zombies in “Return of the Living Dead, Part II” (1988). He also had roles in “Flashdance” (1983), “The Out-of-Towners” (1970) and “The Great Waldo Pepper” (1975) and appeared on television in “Route 66,” “The Defenders,” “Sanford and Son,” “M*A*S*H,” “Kojak,” “Naked City,” “Barney Miller,” “Maude” and “Seinfeld” (in which he was the first actor to play Jerry Seinfeld’s father), among many other series.
Phillip Bruns was born on a farm near Pipestone, Minn., on May 2, 1931, the youngest of three children of Henry and Margie Trigg Bruns. He is survived by his wife, the former Laurie Franks, and a sister, Dorothy Boese.
A 1953 graduate of Augustana College in South Dakota, Mr. Bruns received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama and studied at the Old Vic Theater School in England.
He won an Obie Award in 1964 for the Off Broadway production of “Mr. Simian,” an exploration of the misery of the human condition, in which he played the title role: an ape that morphs into a human.
In 1961, in “Seven Come Eleven,” a cabaret show in Manhattan, Mr. Bruns performed in a spoof of Method acting in which he transformed into a toad because, as his character said, “I projected too much.”
“Mr. Bruns’s impersonation of a toad — stance, facial gesture and voice — is miming on a level of brilliance that might be envied by Marcel Marceau,” Arthur Gelb wrote in The New York Times.
.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/02/16/arts/television/16bruns/16bruns-articleInline.jpg
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/images/misc/maryhartmanmaryhartmanmessageboard.jpg
.The New York Times...
.
Phil Bruns, Hard-Hat Dad on ‘Mary Hartman,’... more
-
-
-
You might call them crazy, but 8 drivers from as far away as Germany had their tiny "micro cars" shipped to Los Angeles so they could make a 2-week trip along historic Route 66.
Lyrics:
They're heading to Chicago for an international micro car rally.
If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
It winds from chicago to la,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdCRBWquhvM&feature=subYou might call them crazy, but 8 drivers from as far away as Germany had their tiny... more
-
-
Chris Hedgecock and Jorge Gonzales are venturing out on an adventure that many may say is a little risky and crazy!. They both have been part of Cars for a Grand for the past few years. Well Today they went out to pick up the Car they have paid $1000 for a '73 Cadillac Eldorado and their plan is to drive from Chicago IL and taking the Historic Route 66 all the way out till they have to junction to continue to California. yes I said California! I got a chance to talk to Chris and Jorge at the start of their journey. I asked them about what made them take on this Extreme Adventure and what they are out to prove.
So check them out at www.carsforagrand.com and be sure to get their facebook and twitter info to keep track of their where abouts on their way back to Cali!Chris Hedgecock and Jorge Gonzales are venturing out on an adventure that many may say... more
-
-
Rainbow colored rock formations, 200 year old fossilized trees, and unbelievable visas... the Petrified Forest feels like Mars. Check it out!
National Park Website: http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htmRainbow colored rock formations, 200 year old fossilized trees, and unbelievable... more
-
-
Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell have stepped their romance up a gear with a road trip across America.
The former Beatle and his heiress girlfriend have been fulfilling a lifelong dream travelling the remains of the legendary Route 66 highway in an old Ford Bronco truck.
After starting their road trip from the rocker's home in The Hamptons, New York last Thursday, the couple joined the Route 66 in Illinois on Saturday.
Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell have stepped their romance up a gear with a road... more
-
