Three From My Childhood.

Three people very popular with my mother and therefore important figures in my childhood died this week.
RIP Theresa Brewer

Theresa Brewer was born on May 7, 1931 in Toledo, Ohio and starting at five years of age was touring with the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," a popular radio show of the era.Changing her name to Teresa Brewer, at 16 years of age she appeared on a talent show called “Stairway to the Stars” and two years later was recording with London Records where her “Music, Music, Music” topped the Hit Parade in February of 1950.Signed by Coral Records Teresa’s “Til I Waltz Again With You” gave her a second #1 hit in 1953, followed by another chart topper, “Ricochet” in November of that year. Recording more than 600 songs during her career, Teresa Brewer visited the Hit Parade numerous times. Among her hits were “Sweet Old Fashioned Girl”, “Bo Weevil”, “Jilted”,“A Tear Fell” and “Mutual Admiration Society”. Her versions of “Pledging My Love”, “Empty Arms”, “Tweddle Dee” and “Let Me Go, Lover” also were hits. During her career, she played most of the major night clubs in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and elsewhere and was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.At her home in New Rochelle, New York, with her four daughters at her bedside,Teresa Brewer died on October 17, 2007, she was 76 years of age. Visit Teresa Brewer’s fan club website here.
Joey Bishop
AKA Joseph Abraham Gottlieb
Born: 3-Feb-1918Birthplace: Bronx, NYDied: 17-Oct-2007Location of death: Newport Beach, CACause of death: Natural Causes
Gender: MaleReligion: JewishRace or Ethnicity: WhiteSexual orientation: StraightOccupation: Comic, Actor
Nationality: United StatesExecutive summary: Rat Pack member
Joey Bishop grew up in South Philadelphia, and started his comedy career doing vaudeville. Still known as Joey Gottlieb, he was briefly in a comedy group that called itself "The Bishop Trio", named for the group's driver. When the act broke up, Bishop kept the name for himself.
His sitcom, The Joey Bishop Show, ran from 1961-65, with Bishop playing a showbiz schmooze-type who (in the second season) became host of a TV talk show. When he hosted a talk show in real life, also called The Joey Bishop Show (1967-69), his sidekick and comic foil was the young Regis Philbin. As a running gag, Bishop routinely needled Philbin on the air, but the gags ended when Regis stalked off the set during a live broadcast, and stayed away for several days.
Bishop seems generally the least-remembered member of the Rat Pack, five cool stars and pals of the 1950s and 60s (the other four were Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford). He appeared in the Rat Pack movies Oceans Eleven (1960) and Sergeants Three (1962). He said or did something that annoyed Sinatra (it's unclear exactly what) and was booted from the pack while their next film, (Robin and the Seven Hoods), was in pre-production. Rat Pack
TELEVISION The Joey Bishop Show Joey Barnes (1961-65)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR Mad Dog Time (8-Nov-1996) Betsy's Wedding (22-Jun-1990) The Delta Force (14-Feb-1986) Valley of the Dolls (15-Dec-1967) Who's Minding the Mint (26-Sep-1967) A Guide for the Married Man (25-May-1967) Texas Across the River (26-Oct-1966) Johnny Cool (2-Oct-1963) Sergeants 3 (10-Feb-1962) Pepe (21-Dec-1960) Himself Ocean's Eleven (10-Aug-1960) Onionhead (1-Oct-1958) The Naked and the Dead (6-Aug-1958)

Deborah KerrA cultured actress renowned for her elegance and dignity, Deborah Kerr was one of the leading ladies of Hollywood's Golden Age. Born Deborah Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh, Scotland, on September 30, 1921, she was first trained as a dancer at her aunt's drama school in Bristol, England. After winning a scholarship to the Sadlers Wells Ballet School, Kerr made her London stage debut at age 17 in Prometheus. Meanwhile, she developed an interest in acting and began getting bit parts and walk-ons in Shakespeare productions. While continuing to appear in various London stage plays, Kerr debuted onscreen in 1940 and went on to roles in a number of British films over the next seven years, often playing cool, reserved, well-bred young ladies. Her portrayal of a nun in Black Narcissus (1947) earned a New York Film Critics Best Actress award and led to an invitation from Hollywood to co-star opposite Clark Gable in The Hucksters. She remained in Hollywood, playing long-suffering, prim, proper, ladylike types until 1953, when she broke her typecast mold by portraying a passionate adulteress in From Here to Eternity, a part for which she had fought. Kerr's range of roles broadened further after that, and she began to appear in British films again. In 1953, Kerr debuted on Broadway to great acclaim in Tea and Sympathy, later reprising her role in the play's 1956 screen version. That same year, she starred as an English governess sent to tutor the children of the King of Siam in one of the most popular films of her career, The King and I. Kerr retired from the screen in 1969, having received six Best Actress Oscar nominations without an award, although she did receive an honorary Oscar in 1994. She had been honored with a special BAFTA award three years earlier in Britain, and, in 1998, she was further honored in her native land with a Companion of the Order of the British Empire. Kerr, who graced the screen one more time in the The Assam Garden in 1985, is married to novelist/screenwriter Peter Viertel. A cultured actress renowned for her elegance and dignity, Deborah Kerr was one of the leading ladies of Hollywood's Golden Age. Born Deborah Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh, Scotland, on September 30, 1921, she was first trained as a dancer at her aunt's drama school in Bristol, England. After winning a scholarship to the Sadlers Wells Ballet School, Kerr made her London stage debut at age 17 in Prometheus. Meanwhile, she developed an interest in acting and began getting bit parts and walk-ons in Shakespeare productions. While continuing to appear in various London stage plays, Kerr debuted onscreen in 1940 and went on to roles in a number of British films over the next seven years, often playing cool, reserved, well-bred young ladies. Her portrayal of a nun in Black Narcissus (1947) earned a New York Film Critics Best Actress award and led to an invitation from Hollywood to co-star opposite Clark Gable in The Hucksters. She remained in Hollywood, playing long-suffering, prim, proper, ladylike types until 1953, when she broke her typecast mold by portraying a passionate adulteress in From Here to Eternity, a part for which she had fought. Kerr's range of roles broadened further after that, and she began to appear in British films again. In 1953, Kerr debuted on Broadway to great acclaim in Tea and Sympathy, later reprising her role in the play's 1956 screen version. That same year, she starred as an English governess sent to tutor the children of the King of Siam in one of the most popular films of her career, The King and I. Kerr retired from the screen in 1969, having received six Best Actress Oscar nominations without an award, although she did receive an honorary Oscar in 1994. She had been honored with a special BAFTA award three years earlier in Britain, and, in 1998, she was further honored in her native land with a Companion of the Order of the British Empire. Kerr, who graced the screen one more time in the The Assam Garden in 1985, is married to novelist/screenwriter Peter Viertel. Kerr, who in recent years had Parkinson's disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk, in eastern England, her agent, Anne Hutton, said Thursday in London. She was 86.