Q. I'm an avid soap fan and each year, along with many others, I hope that Susan Lucci will win the coveted Best Actress Award on the Daytime Emmy Awards. This year, I was disappointed again. It is cruel and unusual punishment to be nominated 13 years in a row and never win. Is there foul play involved? What criteria does the Academy use in selecting the winner? - G.A.J., Sacramento, Calif.
A. No foul play, just coincidence. The winners are voted on by their peers from nominees selected by a blue-ribbon jury, which sees selected scenes of their work submitted by the actors. But weep not for Lucci. She's had a million dollars worth of publicity - magazine covers, stories, you name it - by being a loser. And she loves it. In addition, the standing ovation she received as hostess of the telecast probably meant more to her that the gold-plated statue.Q. Tell me about Steven Weber of "Wings" and where to write him. - N.E.D., Doylestown, Pa.
A. Weber's a New Yorker, son of show business parents, who started his own career at 8 in commercials. He attended New York's High School of the Performing Arts and New York University but never graduated. He took off to star in "Puddin' Head Wilson" on PBS. But odd jobs followed before he got started in the theater and TV (on "As the World Turns" where he met his wife, actress Finn Carter). He did guest roles on TV, starred as John F. Kennedy in the ABC miniseries "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" and in the NBC movie "In the Line of Duty: The Dallas Murders." Write: Paramount Television, 5555 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038-3197.
Q. I'd like to know the address for "One Life to Live." - D.E.K., West Bloomfield, Mich.
A. Write: ABC-TV, 77 W. 66th St., New York, NY 10023.
Q. What can you tell me about Montel Williams? I admire him. - J.K.L., Detroit, Mich.
A. Williams is 36, a former Naval intelligence officer, and has been in the talk show business just a year. He has two children from a first marriage and recently wed actress Grace Moerhle. His show, now headquartered in Los Angeles, will be moving to New York so it can be telecast live.
Q. Did Pernell Roberts, who played Trapper John in "Trapper John, M.D.," ever play in "M.A.S.H."? If not, where did he go after he quit "Bonanza"? - M.L.S., Youngstown, Ohio.
A. Trapper John was a character in "M.A.S.H." but Wayne Rogers played the role. When Roberts quit "Bonanza" in 1965, claiming it was trash, he sank into 14 years of near oblivion. He did regional theater, guest roles on TV and a few forgettable TV movies. Then came "Trapper John M.D." in 1979 and he decided a TV series wasn't so bad after all. It paid well even if it wasn't the high-class art he craved. Since "Trapper" faded in 1986, he's been seen mostly in commercials.
Q. What years was "Bonanza" on TV? What was Michael Landon's real age when he was in the series and was he in the entire series? When did Pernell Roberts leave "Bonanza"? - A.N., Los Angeles, Calif.
A. "Bonanza" ran from 1959 to 1973. Landon was 21 to 36 while he was playing Little Joe Cartwright. He not only acted in the entire series, but in its last few years he also wrote and directed many episodes. See above for Roberts.
Q. I'd appreciate it if you'd settle a bet. In the segment of "Wide World of Sports" where the man is skiing and falls, I say the man was from the USSR and he lived and skiied again the same day. My friend says he died and wasn't from the USSR. - C.C., Buffalo, N.Y.
A. You're each half right. The skier, best known as "Wide World's" "Agony of Defeat," was a Yugoslav, Vinko Bogates, and he lived to compete again in the 1970 World Ski Flying Championships at Oberstdorf, Germany.
Q. What personal and professional information do you have on Nick Mancuso? What did he do before "Stingray"? Has he worked on stage? - M.L., Chicago.
A. Mancuso, 47, was born in Italy and raised in Toronto, where he started in the theater, films and television. He won a Genie (Canada's Oscar) for his work in the movie "Ticket to Heaven." He did a season of Shakespeare at the Stratford (Ont.) Festival. That's where he was spotted by U.S. TV and hired for an ABC pilot, "Dr. Scorpion." His other U.S. credits include "Scruples," "The House on Garibaldi Street," "Nightwing" and "The King of Love."
Q. Tell me what has happened to Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro, and Donna Douglas, who played Ellie Mae on "The Beverly Hillbillies." - C.H., Walled Lake, Mich.
A. Baer, now 55, got into movie production not long after "Hillbillies" ended in 1971 and made a tidy fortune with "Macon County Line," "Ode to Billy Joe" and several others. The acting bug still infected him and he tried TV again in 1981 but the pilot didn't sell. Douglas, now 52, sold real estate, attended Bible school and still does personal appearances as Ellie Mae.
Q. Some time in the '50s or '60s, we enjoyed a program that involved a submarine named the Nautilus. For the life of me, I can't remember the show's name or the principal actors except that Lorne Greene was the admiral and the captain was a tall, dark, handsome guy. - R.J., Colorado Springs, Colo.
A. Are you thinking of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," seen 1964-68? The tall, dark handsome captain was David Hedison but the admiral was played by Richard Basehart and the sub's name was Seaview. The series was based on the movie of the same name.
Q. Where can I write to Blossom of the sitcom "Blossom"? I want to let her know I enjoy her show. - J.M., Wyandotte, Mich.
A. Write Mayim Balik, who plays Blossom, at Sunset-Gower Studios, 1438 N. Gower St., Hollywood, CA 90028.
Q. How does Ringo Starr really feel taking yet another album on the road?
A. Better than ever. He made his comeback three years ago from what he calls "an alcoholic haze" and put his all into his latest record, "Time Takes Time" (Private Music), his first studio album in more than a decade. "Sometimes you really get tired of being famous," says Starr, 51. " . . . After the (Beatles) broke up, I wasn't working. I wasn't doing what I love, which is playing drums and performing. I ended up as just some . . . celebrity. . . . It got really sad. But things have turned around for me, and now I'm back in the game." Still, he refuses to live in the past under the comfortable Beatles mantle. "You can get lost in the past or the future," Starr says. "You're not going to get anywhere that way, because you've already been there or you're not there yet. Me, I'm here right now."
Q. Is the Frank Oz who directed the movie "Housesitter" the same Oz who was the voice of Miss Piggy and Cookie Monster?
A. Oh, yes, and, sorry to say, he's bored with the subject. "It's the same stock answer I've given to everybody," Oz explains. "Which is that I started puppeteering when I was about 11 years old . . . until I was about 18. . . . It was my parents' hobby. Jim (Henson) saw me when I was 17 and two years later asked me to come and work with him." Although Oz works a few days each year with the Muppets and is executive producer of the forthcoming "A Muppet Christmas Carol," he doesn't see puppetry as a grown-up profession. He has directed such movies as "Little Shop of Horrors," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "What About Bob?"
Q. Wasn't the actress who plays Annie on the ABC sitcom "Nurses" a Broadway star?
A. Arnetia Walker did star in such hit shows as "The Wiz," "Raisin" and "Dreamgirls," but she says "everyone's forgotten that I can sing." Although she dreams about a recording contract, "I'd really have to screw up my courage to try that again." Her last experience was typical musical madness - competing egos of record-company producers and no action. The next time, Walker says, she'd have to "come from a position of power . . . because it took forever to get out of the contract."
Q. Has anyone made sense of heiress Doris Duke's fascination with Imelda Marcos?
A. The explanation is quite simple, writes Stephanie Mansfield in her new unauthorized biography of Duke, "The Richest Girl in the World" (Putnam). Marcos, the "poor little rich girl of the Third World," was the only woman as powerful as Duke and the only one who could shower her with equivalent gifts and attention. Both were frustrated singers and devotees of mediums and clairvoyants. They loved off-color jokes, salty language and X-rated movies. With Duke's affection for intrigue and Marcos' need for financial support, they "were literally feeding off one another," Mansfield writes. Duke put up the $5.3 million bail for the Marcoses' fraud and racketeering charges in the United States, picked up Imelda's $1,800-a-night hotel bill and paid $5 million for her defense attorney.
Q. Tell me about Robert Fontaine, Rafe on "Santa Barbara." - M.U., Tucson, Ariz.
A. Fontaine was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended Five Towns Junior College in Merrick, N.Y. After graduation, he gave acting and music lessons and played in a rock band. He made his movie debut in "China Girl" before he headed west and landed in "General Hospital" as Frankie Greco in 1990. He switched to "SB" in March.
Q. I recently saw Jill St. John in "Diamonds Are Forever." WOW! Is she available? The film was made in 1971. What's she doing in 1991? - R.J., Tucson, Ariz.
A. She's taken. St. John married her fourth husband, actor Robert Wagner, in 1990 after a long courtship. In 1971, after her divorce from her third husband, singer Jack Jones, she retreated to Aspen, Colo., for a few years but did an occasional TV guest role until she moved back to California in the late 1970s. She was a regular on the TV series "Emerald Point NAS," 1983-84. She still does an occasional TV role.
Q. Give me some information on Graham Greene. I enjoyed his work in "Dances with Wolves" and "Last of His Tribe." What other movies has he done? - A.D., Detroit.
A. Greene is 39, a member of the Oneida Tribe. He was born in Canada and started acting in 1976. He's done most of his work on stage and screen in Canada but has been seen in the U.S. movies, "Revolution," "Pow Wow Highway" and "Thunderheart" in addition to "Tribes" and his Oscar-nominated role in "Wolves." He's married, lives near Toronto.
Q. I have been looking for all of Sandra Dee's Tammy movies. I loved every one of them. I want my daughter to see them. Please help me find the Tammy videos. - Mrs. L.P., Bushill, Fla.
A. Dee was Tammy, the winsome backwoods girl, in only two movies, "Tammy Tell Me True" in 1961, and "Tammy and the Doctor" in 1963. Only the latter is available on video cassette. Debbie Reynolds created the role in "Tammy and the Bachelor" in 1957 (available on video). Debbie Watson was Tammy in the 1965-66 TV series and the 1967 feature made up of TV episodes, "Tammy and the Millionaire" (not on video).
Q. I have read that John Wayne made over 200 films. However I can find titles of only 54. Where can I find out all the films he made? Also tell me when he was born and when he died. - K.S.B., Liverpool, N.Y.
A. Wayne's first movie was in 1927 when he was still a student at USC. For years, he did bits and low-budget westerns, often unbilled or billed as Duke Morrison (his real name was Marion Michael Morrison and Duke was his long-time nickname.) It wasn't until 1939 and "Stagecoach" that Wayne became a major star. Check your public library for help in finding the titles of his early movies. Wayne was born in 1907 and died in 1979.
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