Artistes The actor Richard “Kinky” Friedman has d ied. He was 79 years old.
The news came through X on Thursday. “Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family & friends,” said it. “Kinkster endured tremendous pain & unthinkable loss in recent years but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit.”
“Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung,” said the post. His name was John and he went to the University of Texas at Austin. The exact day he d ied was not given.However, Kinky also ran for governor of Texas as an independent candidate in 2006. With 12% of the vote, he came in fourth place out of six candidates. PROFILE IN MUSIC King Arthur & the Carrots was Kinky’s first band, which he started at UT. They only made one record in 1966, which was Schwinn 24/Beach Party Boo Boo. Surf music was made fun of by King Arthur & The Carrots. Ginky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys was Richard’s second band. They were formed in 1973. They didn’t stay together for long, and Kinky’s self-titled album came out in 1974.
Following two years, Kinky went on tour with Bob Dylan. He was a musical guest on Season 2 of Saturday Night Live after the tour. In 2011, the artist went on a world tour as the main act. KiNKY has put out 18 albums so far. His most recent one, Circus of Life, came out in 2018. NOTHING ELSE Later, when Richard’s music career stopped going forward in the 1980s, he started writing.
He mostly wrote detective books, which have made-up versions of himself and lyrics from his songs. In New York City, the character fights crime while telling jokes, giving advice, recipes, and charm. In his mind, he is like Sherlock Holmes from a different time. Kinky Friedman did not appear in Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned or The Christmas Pig, two books that Kinky wrote. Additionally, he had a regular column for Texas Monthly from 2001 to 2005.
He stopped writing the column when he ran for governor in 2006. But two years later, the newspaper brought back his column every two months. In 1986, Richard ran as a Republican for Justice of the Peace in Kerrville, Texas, but lost. This was before he ran for Governor.
Stockard Channing: The star from ‘Grease’ is 80 & looks unrecognizable now
After all these years, I don’t think there’s ever been a more charismatic or relatable Rizzo than Stockard Channing.
Channing was a great artist and her singing was just fantastic in Grease – but nowadays, the 80-year-old looks almost unrecognizable.
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The first movie I ever saw Stockard Channing in was called The Big Bus and I thought it was hilarious. But back then, I could never imagine that she would go on and have such a remarkable career.
Today, Stockard Channing is best known for her iconic portrayal of Betty Rizzo in Grease, the 1978 American musical romantic comedy film based on the 1971 musical of the same name. Like many before me have pointed out, Channing was by far the best Rizzo out of all that have played the part.
Many probably also recognize Channing from the series The West Wing, where she starred as First Lady Abbey Bartlet. The experienced actress was praised for her instant chemistry with Martin Sheen, who played President Josiah Barlet.
“It just worked,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2020.
“We had this chemistry from the beginning. I don’t know what it was, but we had it and it didn’t go away. It was a happy accident.”
Starring as Beth Rizzo
But let’s take a deeper look at the highlight of Channing’s career. Because in the name of honesty, she hasn’t appeared in any major motion picture since Grease, even though she has continued to act in films and on Broadway.
The 13-time Emmy Award nominee and seven-time Tony Award nominee appears to be totally fine with being most remembered for her portrayal of bad girl Beth Rizzo, one of the Pink Ladies in Grease.
But is that really the whole truth?
Back in 1973, Channing had little breakthrough starring in the TV-movie The Girl Most Likely to…, a black comedy about revenge.
“A lot of people talk about the G-word [Grease] and all of that, but back in the day, I had as many people stop me in the street about that one movie. Because it’s about revenge, and people would sit in their living rooms and go, ‘Oh, I’m the only person watching this’ or ‘this person understands me.’ I’m not kidding. It was a million years ago, and then it was the highest-rated movie of the week. Revenge always works,” she says.
According to Channing, she has only watched Grease only two times.
“I used to be grumpy about Grease because I thought it was a kids’ movie or something. But now it’s sort of amazing. I’m very proud of it,” she told The Times in 2019.
The Manhattan-born actress was 33 years old when she played Rizzo and playing a high school teenager wasn’t so easy for her.
”I was so much older than she was in life, but I could not think about that so I sort of threw myself back to what I felt when I was her age over, even younger. The complexity of adolescents and hormones and sexuality and all of that other stuff. Seeing that I really was older I think that added to the isolation of Rizzo,” Channing told Broadway World.
Channing, who became interested in acting at an early age, was thrilled when she was offered the role of Rizzo, and her performance made her a top-ranking star in the late 1970s. She earned a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress, but the New York native had difficulty achieving similar success after Grease.
The beloved actress was handed two sitcoms of her own, Stockard Channing in Just Friends (1979) and The Stockard Channing Show (1980), but neither was successful and her career halted.
But with her look of Elizabeth Taylor and air of calm confidence, Channing didn’t give up and she continued to work as an actress, appearing in many highly-praised movies and stage plays. Her latest appearance on the big screen came was in Angry Neighbors, which premiered in 2022.
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