![]() ![]() “One particular case was a boy named Brandon Hein in California, who was sentenced to life under the felony murder law. “It wasn’t just like he would have someone as a guest on his talk show and then move on it would become a lifelong journey for him where he would hold onto it,” his son said. ![]() He hosted a talk show on CNBC (“The Charles Grodin Show,” 1995-98) that dealt with the social and political issues of the day. He also wrote a number of books, along with a New York Daily News column that ran for nearly 10 years. He did collect an Emmy as part of the writing staff for another Paul Simon TV special in 1978, “The Paul Simon Special.” He scored an Outer Circle Critics actor prize for the stage run of “Same Time, Next Year,” which racked up 1,400 performances. Surprisingly, Grodin never won a major acting award. The actor broke through to mainstream success in 1972 with his leading turn in “The Heartbreak Kid” and starred in films through the ’70s and ’80s, including “Seems Like Old Times,” Albert Brooks’ “Real Life” (one of the first mockumentaries) and the much-maligned “Ishtar.” Nick Grodin said, “I know he was proud of the Simon and Garfunkel special he directed, because it has to do with human rights and social issues that were not very popular at the time.” and All That,” and directed the 1969 Simon and Garfunkel TV special “Songs of America.” He also cowrote and directed an off-Broadway play, “Hooray! It’s a Glorious Day. He appeared on Broadway and in several TV shows in the 1960s and had a small role in “Rosemary’s Baby” in 1968. Despite his droll sophistication, he never graduated from college, dropping out of the University of Miami to pursue acting and study with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen in New York. I think Johnny Carson really appreciated it.”Ĭharles Grodin was born in Pittsburgh on April 21, 1935. A lot of people did not think it was a joke. “He didn’t think it was very interesting to just go on and say, ‘Oh, I’m in this movie coming out,’ so he adopted this comedic persona where he would be angry. “That was a comedy persona he adopted for when he would go on talk shows,” said Nick Grodin, who confirmed his father’s death to The Times. He extended that to his many talk-show appearances, in which he seemed uncomfortable and even reluctant to be there - all an act, according to his son, Nick. Known for leading or coleading classic comedies such as “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Midnight Run” and for ruthlessly stealing scenes in “Heaven Can Wait,” “Dave” and “The Great Muppet Caper,” Grodin cultivated a screen persona that mined his own discomfort for laughs. ![]() The performer, who leaves behind a catalog of memorable performances and a legacy of lasting activism, was 86. But having watched the brilliant deadpan, slow-burn artist Charles Grodin audition with De Niro, Brest was convinced he’d found the perfect duo and took the project to Universal.Charles Grodin, the urbane actor who made his roles as a curmudgeon seem cool, died Tuesday at his home in Connecticut of bone marrow cancer. After her success in Moonstruck, Paramount were determined to cast Cher. Now a bounty hunter, Jack is hired to pursue an idealistic accountant nicknamed “the Duke”, who’s stolen $15m from the same hoodlum, given most of it to the poor, jumped bail in Los Angeles and gone into hiding in New York. He plays Jack Walsh, an honest ex-cop driven off the Chicago police force by a mobster who’s corrupted all his colleagues. Scripted by George Gallo, whose single major success it remains, Midnight Run succeeded in its intention of turning the prestigious Robert De Niro into a bankable comic star. But if he never worked again he’ll be remembered for this minor classic that approaches perfection, a superbly contrived combination of numerous genres and sub-genres – the comedy-thriller, buddy movie, odd-couple picture, prisoner-and-escort drama and road movie – that were in the air at the time. As a result, he hasn’t worked since the expensive, widely derided failure of the Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck comedy Gigli, made in 2003 when he was in his early 50s. But Brest gained a reputation for perfectionism that irritated collaborators and infuriated producers. M artin Brest has directed seven feature-length movies, among them the blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop and Scent of a Woman, which brought Al Pacino a long-overdue Oscar. ![]()
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