Blind Item #15 - Not So Funny
This child actress was probably B/B- list. She did a lot of one off projects. She had a couple chances at television glory but the shows failed. She has a very memorable place in television history because of one appearance in particular. Anyway, one of the very last projects on which she worked she was a teenager. Probably 14 or so. The lead actor in the movie was a foreign born A list actor who had a long career. During the movie, which was a comedy, the actor would invite her to his trailer and what started out as molesting turned into rape. She said he always smelled of cigarettes. She would try and say no to going to his trailer but his assistant or some other production assistant would always come get her and forcibly bring her. This went on for about ten days. She just couldn't handle it any longer and tried to kill herself by taking poison. It didn't kill her but permanently damaged her. Apparently the actor was known for this type of behavior but people looked the other way. It is why he liked working on movies with teens or having a character who was a teen.
someone should start a web page and actually writing the name of these horrible vermin.
ReplyDeleteSomeone has. It has been around since 1995.
Deletehttp://www.agcwebpages.com/BLINDITEMS/MAINPAGE.html
.
ReplyDeleteOh Ente...give us more clues.
ReplyDeleteYeah, not a lot to go on. :( Foreign born, big smoker, long career. Give us a decade for the movie maybe!
ReplyDeleteIs he deceased or still living says he "was" known for this behavior?
Brittany Murphy?
ReplyDeleteShe worked past the age of 14
DeleteI mean is Brittany Murphy the child actress?
ReplyDeleteForeign born A list actor, who was playing a teen or worked with teens..
ReplyDeleteYeah timing would be helpful.
The actress has more clues. Several one off projects as a child, one appearance that's tv history.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is Kim Richards
ReplyDeleteThe cigarettes thing has to be a clue - the comment is too random - - Celeb known for smoking?
ReplyDeleteMara Wilson? She stopped when she was like 13 and started again 10 years later.
ReplyDeleteI'll go with Mara Wilson. born 1987.
ReplyDeleteShe's been quoted : movie business is not funny.
She have been in Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 2000 ( with Peter Fonda and Alec Baldwin)
Unknown- I thought so too, but she didn't do any comedy movie around the time she was 14.
ReplyDeleteThinking of someone like Quinn Cummings or Danielle Brisibois (I know it's not them but just throwing the names out there to maybe spark someone else's thinking)
ReplyDeleteI hate these blinds that give more clues to the victim than the abuser
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about the moments in TV history that might involve a child actress. Maybe someone who was in the MASH finale? Or something like that?
ReplyDeleteKim Richards. Christopher Lee.
ReplyDeleteShe has definitely been damaged, but she has worked way past age 14.
DeleteLee is famously a non-smoker.
DeleteHe was VERY MUCH A SMOKER!!!
DeleteRe: " She has a very memorable place in television history because of one appearance in particular. "
ReplyDeleteFrom Mara Wilson's Wikipedia page:
"Wilson sang "Make 'Em Laugh" at the 67th Academy Awards telecast on March 27, 1995, with Tim Curry and Kathy Najimy"
Violet Beauregarde?
ReplyDelete"Make 'Em Laugh" = "Not So Funny"
ReplyDeletemara wilson didnt work with a foregin born actor at 14 tho
ReplyDeleteKim Richards worked beyond 14 and she was a huge child star. For that time she was def A list, on par with Jodie or Tatum.
ReplyDeleteMichael J Fox is Canadian, played lots of teens, and smoked most of his life.
ReplyDeleteDid he work with any teens this could fit?
Please don´t be Steve Buscemi
ReplyDeleteVinessa Shaw, Gerard Depardieu, My Father the Hero?
ReplyDeleteShe’s still acting - was a big part of Ray Donovan a couple of series ago.
Delete@maybe. That was Katherine Heigl. Bit o see where you’re going w the Gérard Depardieu.
ReplyDeleteMy first guess as well.
DeleteBy the way Kathy owes her entire career to the thing bikini scene in this movie.
Thong! For fucks sake.
DeleteI got the impression this poor girl was permanently damaged by the poison. Have any teenage actresses ever gone blind or gotten brain/liver/kidney damage when they were about 14?
ReplyDeleteMe too. Not just emotionally scarred.
DeleteKim Richards!
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ReplyDeleteMara Wilson and Richard Attenborough...he used to smoke 60 a day.
ReplyDeleteKim Richards for the actress. I'm guessing Peter Finch for the actor.
ReplyDeleteSo what about someone from one of those shows like 90210 or Saved By the Bell? One of those that always cast adults as teens
ReplyDeleteIf it is Mara Wilson, the film is Billie Bob Joe and actor may be James Marsters, who has worked with tons of teens though his imdb says he was born in California
ReplyDeleteLisa Jakub
ReplyDeleteGuys, how can this be Mara Wilson?
ReplyDelete" She has a very memorable place in television history because of one appearance in particular. "
This sounds like it was someone who had ONE very memorable episode of a TV show. Not a movie. This is probably someone who is a generous "B" list.
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ReplyDeleteMara Wilson, in her recent article for Elle on Millie BB, indicates that she was kept safe during her career. Don't think it's her.
ReplyDeleteCould the actress have played the part of a tv character as a child in some "must see tv" moment back in the '90's or something?
ReplyDeleteDidn't Melissa Sue Anderson go blind? Or was that from the mumps?
ReplyDeleteHer character on LHOTP went blind.
DeleteI feel like this could be Kerri Greene (Andy from Goonies) although she did a few small tv appearances in her late teens.
ReplyDelete"had a long career" - so he's dead? This one is gonna drive me crazy. Note that even Tricia isn't touching it.
ReplyDeleteThis blog has been occupied by The Professionals.
ReplyDeleteMartial law has been imposed.
Civil liberties have been suspended.
Habeus corpus has been overruled.
The brothels are operational.
You cannot win.
You can only admit.
You can only submit.
Mary Badham? She hasn't acted since she was 14 and she's memorable because of To Kill a Mockingbird. Not sure who the foreign actor could be though.
ReplyDeleteGod hope it wasn’t Rod Serling. She did a Twilight Zone episode at about 14
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ReplyDeleteJohn Candy was in a lot of movies with teens.
ReplyDeleteHe was who I was thinking with Kerri Greene. They were in Summer Rental together when she was 14. He apparently had a horrible smoking addiction and was born in Canada.
DeleteWasn't John Candy gay, though?
DeleteKerri Green was in a lot of movies, but not TV shows.
DeleteI feel like Mara Wilson would say something if this was about her. She had recently written an article about how people need to stop sexualizing Millie Bobby Brown (it's on Elle and is called "Matilda Actress Mara Wilson: A 13-Year-Old Girl Is Not “All Grown Up"), and specifically said nothing excessively untoward happened to her.
ReplyDeleteWondered what the hell a "thing bikini" was. Thought maybe something new at Fredericks of Hollywood. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteNot Kerri Greene (discovered by Steven Spielberg). She's got a ton of credits since "Summer Rental."
ReplyDeletehaving a problem posting today...
ReplyDeletejohn candy
is my best guess for foreign a-list, smoker, deceased. others:
dudley moore
peter otoole
these two didn't do movies with teens tho
Linda Blair?
ReplyDeleteperhaps her place in history was/is popular commercial
ReplyDeleteLucy, that's what I was thinking. I looked into the young girl from the famous 'Daisy' commercial that ran one time only before the 1964 U.S. election...but that particular rabbit hole went nowhere.
ReplyDeleteThe blind mentions an 'appearance'. Could that be on something like an award show? A news item? A live event of some sort? (Thinking of JFK Jr. appearing from behind his mother's skirt and saluting his father's casket here.)
peter sellers, tippy walker
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJohn Candy never played a character that was a teen unless it was some obscure role in very early Second City TV episode
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a good answer yet but people are missing the "or having a character who was a teen" part of the clue
ReplyDeleteI'm drawing a blank on both. It sounds like an actress who maybe came to attention for a commercial (at a guess) or a performance of some type at a national level like singing at the Superbowl or Olympics or some such event, and had a few parts in tv and movies, possibly dropped out of the business late teens or twenties. The actor - foreign born, sounds to be deceased, did at least one comedy, and also worked with kids and teens a lot - really not sure, it's so vague. The vast majority of actors have probably done a comedy movie at one point or another. I suspect it's too early for me.
ReplyDeleteNeed to turn on the Himmmm signal. Era is unclear, permanent damage/disability from poison is unclear - physical? Mental?
ReplyDeleteForgot to add. Smoking bit is a strange detail as a lot of actors smoke (especially decades ago). Could the actor maybe have done a cigarette commercial?
ReplyDeleteHopefully this is only part one in a series of blinds bc I am not the only one let down by how hopelessly vague this one is...Enty usually throws in an absurd timeline for us to work with...I will keep contemplating on this one...
ReplyDelete^Meant to type *obscure* timeline, oops
ReplyDeleteJust to be different- "retired" Daniel Day Lewis?
ReplyDeleteMy first guess is Hallie Eisenberg.
ReplyDelete"Very memorable place in television history" being Pepsi ads.
Here is an excerpt from her Wikipedia:
"In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was "The Pepsi Girl" in a series of Pepsi commercials.[6] She made her film debut in the children's film Paulie, playing the young owner of the title parrot. After appearing in a few made-for-television films, she had supporting parts in 1999's The Insider and Bicentennial Man.
In 2000, Eisenberg co starred with Minnie Driver in the feature film Beautiful, which received generally negative reviews. She also starred as Helen Keller in a television remake of The Miracle Worker.
In 2004, she played opposite Jeff Daniels and Patricia Heaton in the television remake of The Goodbye Girl. In 2006, Eisenberg appeared in How to Eat Fried Worms, the New Line Cinema adaptation of Thomas Rockwell's book of the same name. In 2007, she co starred in the independent feature film P.J.[7] alongside John Heard, Vincent Pastore and Robert Picardo.
Eisenberg made her Broadway debut in Roundabout Theatre's production of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women.[5] In 2010, she halted her pursuit of a film career to attend college.[8]"
Mathematically, she was the age range outlined in the blind when she worked with John Heard/Vincent Pastore/ Robert Picado...
Interesting how the blind talks about the predator in the past tense...
Nevermind on the last part, all of those actors are American-born
DeleteI thought for sure it was Katherine Heigl and Gérard Depardieu, but Heigl is still working. (Cat litter commercials count, right?)
ReplyDelete@Maude, I had the smae thought two with Hallie, but timelines don't match quite up, even when accounting for discrepancies. Also, I'm not sure any of those fellas are foreign born.
ReplyDelete@bunnyzenpiece...has DDL ever even done a comedy?
What's throwing me off is a) the lack of timeline. (Hell, this could be a recent event with an A lister and a teen actress), b) the wording of "he likes to work with teens or having a character who was a teen -- implying someone who was once able to essay teen roles, possibly frequently and c) whether the teen quit the business or continued worknig, but was also obviously troubled.
Kim Richards/David Niven? Film : No Deposit No Return?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking John Hurt. No idea who the girl would be. 2nd answer would be Omar Sharia (in Funny Girl)
ReplyDeleteDisturbed by all the disinfo "guesses" on this one; seems like people are trying to mis-direct. What teen roles did David Niven, John Hurt, Gérard Depardieu, etc. play as adults?
ReplyDeleteIt is obviously someone like Johnny Depp, Jared Leto, Scott Baio or a brat pack type who played teen characters as an adult but is foreign born and smokes. Possibly someone who is now deceased who played a teen character as an adult.
I was looking into Kiefer Sutherland but didn't find any good fits
Not so sure it's disinfo. More likely a different interpretation of the words.
ReplyDelete"It is why he liked working on movies with teens or having a character who was a teen."
Could mean - he liked playing the role of teens himself, or having teen actresses around.
Could mean - he had enough creative clout in the projects he was in to have some hand in making sure there were added parts for teens. i.e. He liked working with teens in teen movies (movie dad or grandad), or he liked his movie to have at least one teen role.
Different interpretations.
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ReplyDeleteHad a long career can also be interpreted different ways. Does it mean he had had a long career at the point he starred in that comedy, or does it mean that was one of his early movies and he has had a long career since? Makes all the difference to the time line and whether we are looking for an actor who was (possibly) deceased young or old.
ReplyDeleteThis feels like Hallie Eisenberg of the Pepsi commercial fame. Doesn't mention celebrity brother though.
ReplyDelete@mcJ2051 in re-reading it I stand corrected. I think you are correct in your interpretation of "having a character who is a teen". Which means this is impossible to solve with the clues provided
ReplyDeleteNo incentive for me to be spreading disinformation, she was just the first guess that entered my brain...
ReplyDeleteAnd it has since been clarified that it is an incorrect guess, as all the possibilities for the predator are not foreign-born (one of the few clues given)...
The more I read this the more I think it was a long time ago like the 60s or 70s.
ReplyDeleteStill thinKing Kim Richards
ReplyDelete@Chenin Blanc not sure if that timeline works out. Movie would have to be Return from Witch Mountain, she was 14 then, and it would be Christopher Lee as the lead actor, which seems weird because there's no way he was playing a teen then. But I remember her turning up in all kinds of stuff from when I was a kid, and she was in her later teens than the blind suggests, so it also wouldn't make it her last project (I originally knew her from her handful of appearances on Diff'rent Strokes and Little House on the Prairie). And Real Housewives of Beverly Hills isn't exactly a failed TV show. Although it could be, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteHate to say who I'm thinking of...
ReplyDeleteWorthless look at me spout
DeleteWaste of my time and energy to read
Think of others next time
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ReplyDeleteJandi Swanson/ Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Ladybugs. It even says he looked like he was hitting on her character in a review of the movie. She quit acting not long after the movie and she had been very busy before this. She as born in 1978 and the movie came out in 1992. Dangerfield was well known for his cigar smoking (not sure about cigarettes).
ReplyDelete*was born, not as born. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe Jandi Swanson/Rodney Dangerfield Guess is my favorite so far.
ReplyDeleteUgh, nevermind. Dangerfield isn't foreign born.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm back to Hallie Eisenberg/Tom Cavanagh being my guess.
ReplyDelete@pkelly491 . . . Hallie Eisenberg acted until age 18. Blind says last project was around age 14. Tom Cavanagh is not listed as a smoker, nor is there any history of alleged abuses attributed to him. Not saying its not possible, but doesn't feel right.
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ReplyDeleteJack Nicholson
ReplyDeleteI’m thinking non obvious foreign actors: Humorous Canadians with no prejudice on my part that they could do something like that but maybe someone will ring a bell for another reader... Jim Carrey, Donald Sutherland, Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera, Nathan Fillion, Ryan Reynolds, Seth Rogan, Jason Priestly, Michael J Fox...
ReplyDeleteThink, people. You're just throwing names out there.
ReplyDeleteLong Career. Smoked heavily. Liked to play teenagers. Foreign born.
Except for the foreign born part, a good guess would be John Travolta. His big part that made him famous was playing a high school kid on Welcome Back Kotter. He played a teenager in Carrie, as an adult. He infamously played as a teen in Grease, as a very adult.
That's the kind of actor you're looking for.
Michael J. Fox
ReplyDeleteWay off with these guesses I’m sure, but throwing these names out there anyway:
ReplyDeleteAmanda Bynes
Soleil Moon Frye
Jodi Sweetin
Michelle Trachtenberg
No guesses on the abuser but I’m agreeing with the above guesses that from the way this blind is worded he is dead.
Ugh, you guys, I almost hate to guess this, but internet rabbit holes being what they are, and CDAN having ruined everything for me, here's what I got:
ReplyDeleteASHLEIGH BLAIR STERLING
RICK MORANIS
HONEY, WE SHRUNK OURSELVES
Clues:
Moranis is mostly retired, so past tense works here.
Canadian born.
Definitely A list at the time, would have had clout on set.
Moranis made a LOT of movies with kids & teens. Glancing through, I see quite a few kids whose last movie was a Rick Moranis movie. A couple of child actors who died young as well. Could be coincidence, but...
Every now and again I see some meme come up about what a great dad he is for retiring when his wife died... could be the skeptic in me but it could be PR. I mean, who would believe it? Maybe his reputation was catching up and he retired.
Ashleigh was 14 during the movie, and only has one minor credit after.
Ashleigh had several one season series and guest spots.
Verrrry little info about her available, so I don't know what the major TV moment was, but she was briefly Sami on Days of Our Lives, so maybe a highly rated Marlena themed episode? Idk... or possibly she had a big commercial.
Can't find anything about him being a smoker, but maybe that's why it's so memorable to her, because you'd never expect it of him.
I hope this is wrong, but it does fit. Her memorable role was as Blair’s little sister Bailey in Facts of Life. She was accidentally lost while dressed as a clown (“not so funny”?) when her babysitter mistook another kid in a clown costume for her.
DeleteI think you got it!
DeleteShe does have 1 acting credit from 2011 but we know how Enty likes to give red herrings. If anyone has seen it does she appear to have any observable damage from the poisoning?
The thing that stands out to me is “a very memorable place in television history because of one appearance in particular” — appearance (as opposed to role) being the key word I think.
ReplyDeleteShe doesn’t fit, but the first thing that came to mind to me was Ashlee Simpson’s infamous SNL gig. That’s in the popular lexicon and I’m thinking this girl had some kind of one-off on a TV show (probably not SNL) that pretty much everyone would remember (even if we wouldn’t necessarily know her name right off the top of our heads). Or as others have mentioned, maybe an iconic TV ad.
And nothing comes to mind for a child or teen actress. Without a timeframe of some sort, this one is going to be difficult if not impossible ... but I think when someone guesses right and mentions that “one appearance” it’s going to make sense and the rest will fall into place.
William Bruce Davis he played the cigarette smoking man in the X-Files. He's Canadian.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Alisan Porter, the actress from Curly Sue. Did some random tv here and there then virtually dropped off the scene until she appeared on The Voice and won season 10. That could be the “appearance” for the memorable place in television history
ReplyDeleteI am against rape and pedophilia but I am in favor of tight tight
ReplyDeleteTUESDAY WELD maybe not her but sad anyway.
ReplyDeleteAt nine years of age, she suffered a nervous breakdown; at ten, she started heavy drinking; one year later, she began having relationships with older men, all of which led to a suicide attempt at age twelve. In 1956 she debuted in the low-budget exploitation movie Rock Rock Rock! (1956) and decided to become an actress. However, Tuesday Weld didn't achieve first-magnitude stardom. Maybe she was just unlucky with her selection of jobs (she turned down Lolita (1962), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), True Grit (1969), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice(1969), among others); maybe her independence-loving mind made her instinctively shrink back from the restraints of super stardom.
WOW. Thanks for the info on Tuesday! That is,a horror story.
DeleteCurly sue was my very first thought!! But the film at 14, would be around 1995, and she had no films at that time.
ReplyDeleteMischa Barton?
ReplyDeleteSteven Seagul
ReplyDeleteThis is 100% guess of course...
ReplyDeleteHorton Hears a Who perhaps the movie
Jim Carrey Canadian known for Mask movie...Smokin' saying
Selena Gomez -didn't she have a recent kidney transplant? Maybe damaged from poisoning. Purely speculation on my part..
Would Heath Ledger's career be considered long?
ReplyDeleteRick Moranis appears not to have ever been a smoker. Ashleigh appears to be married to one Christopher Bellot, and was expecting a child late last winter. According to The Great Google.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Sara, Making it Work may have got it:
ReplyDeletehttp://hollaforums.com/thread/417319/television-and-film/i-know-the-real-reason-rick-moranis-quit-hollywood.html
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ReplyDeleteTim Curry?
ReplyDeleteForeign born. Smokes so much he continued even after his stroke. Past tense for acting since after the stroke he's not going to be in much of anything?
@McJ2051 has a point. Perhaps the blind ought to be rewritten slightly:
ReplyDelete"It is why he liked working on movies with teens or having a character in the story who was a teen."
I think we can rule out movies where adults 20-25 are playing teen roles (e.g., Carrie (1976)). This actor presumably wanted scenes in the story with a teen actress.
Why is everyone ignoring a very important clue? "She had a couple of chances of television glory but the shows failed." A lot of critically acclaimed shows and fan favorites don't make it past the first or second year.
ReplyDeleteWhomever this girl is she would have been a series regular on at least 2 television shows. Based on this none of the guesses thus far have worked. I have a feeling we may need to go further back in time. VIP Blonde, where are you?
Amy Green was on Helltown with Robert Blake. She only has 5 credits, including voice over for An American Tale. I do not think this is her though.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to forgotten 80s shows that were cancelled:
reelrundown.com/tv/Forgotten-TV-Series
List of Former Child Actors From the United States:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_child_actors_from_the_United_States
Melissa Sue Anderson did not go blind, you nitwit. Her character did.
ReplyDeleteJim Carrey as the actor
ReplyDeleteMadeline Carroll as the victim. She was about 14 during the filming of "Mr. Popper's Penguins."
She's done a lot of one offs in TV.
T.W., Sara, Making It Work might be right and it could be Ashleigh Sterling. The two shows would be "Getting By" and "The Family Man", which were most likely bigger roles for her and both didn't last.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this was a memorable episode of the Facts of Life? She's dressed as a clown for a lot of the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjoNAExBrnM
I found her Mr. Belvedere episode and all she did was pour ice cream onto one of the main characters (maybe that's memorable?). I couldn't find the Days of Our Lives episode to see if there was anything memorable there.
Or it might be this TV movie, which would hit close to home on this blind: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100848/
Yes, I think she got it.
DeleteI asked my sister about this blind yesterday. Rick Moranis was the first guy she thought of. What clinched it for her was the clue about the guy preferring to work with teenagers.
Not Kim Richards. She was a-list all the way, did tons of comedies, was on huge tv shows and worked long past her mid-teens. Also not permanently damaged as a teen.
ReplyDeleteLooking further into it, it appears that Ashleigh Sterling's appearance in "Unspeakable Acts" (which is a TV movie that is about "child psychologists Dr. Laurie and Joseph Braga and their involvement in one of the worst child sex abuse scandals in the U.S."), fits the "very memorable place in television history because of one appearance in particular" part of the blind.
ReplyDeleteI really think that Sara, Making It Work is right about Ashleigh and Rick Moranis.
Having trouble posting comments today! Thanks all for adding insights I couldn't, like the Unspeakable Acts movie.
ReplyDeleteI'll add a couple more things that point to Ashleigh Sterling.
For the two series that D mentioned, The Family Man and Getting By, Ashleigh was nominated for a Young Actors award (or something like that). Definitely "shots at glory". Both series were cancelled.
And just more to throw suspicion at Rick Moranis, one of the kids from the first Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie died of a heroin overdose, and that child actor who just committed suicide a couple weeks ago (JP Steuer) was in Little Giants with Moranis.
This is not something I wanted to be right about, but dang.
***Also, to people guessing Tim Curry, the blind says "lead actor", which Curry rarely was. And almost never in comedies. He doesn't fit.
Moranis did make a ton of movies with kids. And a couple of his last few films were "Big Bully" with Tom Arnold and Jeffrey Tambor, and "The Flintstones" with John Goodman and Rosie O'Donnell. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteSucks, because I really liked Moranis and pegged him as a good guy for quitting the biz, taking his money, raising his kids. Now I feel super sorry for the kids, and wonder if his wife was a blood sacrifice. Ugh.
No problem! I normally read these and everyone has them figured out and mostly agreed upon before I have a chance to do any research on who it might be.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the "always smelled like cigarettes" was more of a hint and a reference to his "Smoke if you got 'em" line in Spaceballs and/or maybe "Great White North" (a show on Second City TV), in which he played/plays Bob McKenzie, one of the brothers that just sit around smoking, drinking, and cooking up back bacon for sandwiches while talking about topics in the news (partially quoting the book "Ontario Beer" here).
I've tried to find anything about him smoking cigarettes in general, but can't find anything pointing to him being a smoker (but he quit acting before the internet really took off and kind of disappeared for awhile, so it's hard to say for sure).
Dammit, I think I have to agree on it being Moranis...
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ReplyDeleteShit something just dawned on me...
ReplyDeleteRick Moranis's wife died of lung cancer, right?
That's why he smelled like cigarettes. Because his wife smoked.
Rick's wife died of breast cancer, not lung cancer.
ReplyDeleteMy bad
ReplyDeleteStill, there is a strong correlation between breast cancer and smoking
I still assert that it could be the significant other of the predator who was the smoker
I don’t know... I get that some of the clues fit. But it specifically said a B list actress- wouldn’t that mean it’s someone that was at least a little famous? Plus “a very memorable place in television history” I’m just not buying that for any of the roles for Ashleigh Sterling. It also says shots at television glory. These descriptions just don’t fit with this actresses work. This one is very perplexing...
ReplyDeleteWhen my grandmother got breast cancer, she was told it was likely due to her 30+ years of heavy smoking
ReplyDeleteBlandAmbitions, I would say that the Unspeakable Acts movie was memorable, simply for its subject matter and that she took the stand in the movie as one of the abused kids.
ReplyDeleteAlso just noticed that she played Sami_Brady on Days of Our Lives (she was one of the child actresses that played her character). That might also be a memorable place in television history.
Madeline Carroll hasn't taken a break from working is not Blist and has no big tv moment. Not her and Jim Carrey who is not known for smoking.
ReplyDeleteMaude Labowski, Rick's wife died in 1991 and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves came out in 1997. Unless she was haunting him as a ghost made of cigarette smoke, she couldn't have made him smell like cigarettes.
ReplyDelete^Touché
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFrom @CuriousTex's link:
ReplyDelete"The true reason is Moranis was a pedophile, right in the hollywood jewish cabal of child rapists. The truth is that Moranis escaped the business because he got accusations of molesting one of the kids from Honey I Shrunk the Kids, which was on the verge of going public. Moranis paid them off and there was a condition that he could not work in hollywood. He was quietly blacklisted soon after anyway."
http://hollaforums.com/thread/417319/television-and-film/i-know-the-real-reason-rick-moranis-quit-hollywood.html
This is tricky but could it be David Niven, British who was known for smoking, and Jodie Foster who stopped working as a child actress after Candleshoe? Don't know if Jodie was A list as a kid actor or just B? Became A+ list as an adult actress. If the movie was released in 1977 it probably shot in 1975 or 76 making her about 13 or 14. It was filmed in England where the crew would consider Niven royalty and Foster a silly little American actress.
ReplyDelete@D,
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Moranis' wife died in 1991, but he was still making movies in 1997 blows holes in the idea that he quit Hollywood to raise his kids. If that were the case, he would've quit sooner.
I'm calling BS on that story.lo
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ReplyDeleteI agree, Sara. I think he was definitely forced out (as stated in CuriousTex's link).
ReplyDeleteIf we take liberties with "foreign-born," Mel Gibson becomes curious.
ReplyDeleteBorn in US, raised in Australia after age 12.
Note that the blind is unnecessarily specific that the film was a comedy. "What Women Want" saw Gibson taking an unusual-for-him comedic role.
Rachel Duncan: she had several one-off credits and was in 2 network shows that failed. The Torkelsons lasted 2 seasons, and a spinoff Almost Home lasted 13 episodes.
In 1998, she has a memorable appearance in a commercial for Oreo O's, the cookie breakfast cereal that appalled America -- with Shia LeBouf.
In 2000, she has a small part in What Women Want at age 14.
After that? Rachel Duncan not only never acts again, she disappears from the internet.
Help me dig -- I cannot find any reference to Rachel Duncan being alive or dead, in prison, anything.
A quick Google search shows Mel Gibson smoked for 45 years...
ReplyDeleteThanks @Sniper. I deleted my comment about Duncan/Gibson/WWW. I felt it didn't meet all of the details of the blind. Gibson is a known abuser of women, but there isn't any reference for abuse of teen/tweens. The blind reads as if the A list actor is deceased.
ReplyDeleteRachel is definitely a strong match. I extensively researched over a hundred child actresses from the 1960s to 2010 (with 2010 being a fair "last" project time) who had strong TV efforts in a very concentrated window of time. If the actress stopped performing around age 14, unless she began as a baby, she would have had about 6-8 years of TV/film work.
This is a good resource for a preliminary search of child actresses before looking deeper in IMDb: http://www.childstarlets.com/captures/indexa.html
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ReplyDelete@Sniper, this is also a strong contender. With the movie title being an appropriate title to this blind.
ReplyDeleteNatasha Ryan • John Candy • Going Berserk
__________________
John Candy is a dead smoker who really did a lot of films with kids.
Nastasha Ryan has strong TV credits from age 6-13, then completely disappears.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752757/
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ReplyDelete@Beyond EMF may be on to something with Natasha Ryan. The memorable TV appearance may have been the TV movie “Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night”:
ReplyDeletehttp://amanandamouse.blogspot.com/2015/05/natasha-ryan-cried-last-night.html
Or another memorable role....the young Sybill:
ReplyDeletehttp://amanandamouse.blogspot.com/2015/05/natasha-ryan-cried-last-night.html
WOW, what a story, @Eyre Affair. Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteThat is seriously so sad. She probably suffered early abuse in foster care. With roles in Sybil and The Amityville Horror, she clearly had some trauma already.
"I didn't have a pretty childhood," said Ryan, who was raised by a foster family. Ryan said she worked in movies and television starting at the age of 1; by the time she was 13, she had appeared in 16 movies and television series. TV shows on her resume include Starsky and Hutch and movies include The Entity and The Day Time Ended. From 1975 to 1980 she played the young Hope Alice Williams in the soap opera Days of Our Lives. In 1976, at the age of 6, she played the role of young Sybil in the TV movie about a woman with multiple-personality disorder. When she turned 13, things changed"
Eyre, did you read the interview in that blog you keep linking?
ReplyDeleteShe left acting at 13 because, in her words, "Overnight I became a really fat, pimply, ugly kid, and I wanted to be like other 13-year-olds," she said. "I wanted a mohawk. I wanted to dye my hair and pierce everything. They wouldn't even let you get a tan in the summer. So I quit making movies."
She was kicked out of her foster home at 14 and lived on the streets. She eventually had a daughter and, at the time of the interview, her daughter (15 at the time) wanted to act and she didn't seem against it at all.
Going on that interview, I don't think she fits the blind.
D, good point. She may not be the subject of the blind, but it’s a sad story nonetheless...
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ReplyDeleteJohn Candy was a smoker...Per his Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"Candy was well known for his size, six feet two and weighing around 300 pounds. However, he was very sensitive about the subject and in the nineties tried to lose weight and quit smoking..."
@Eyre Affair . . . I think Ryan fits the blind more than I originally imagined. With the significant trauma the blind describes, it would explain much of what followed after her "last project". Clearly some major stuff happened to create the sequence of events in her young life. "She was kicked out of her foster home at 14 and lived on the streets." "I called home several times, but my foster mother wouldn't let me come back," Ryan said. "So I continued living in an old brick building, The Ellison, with a working gigolo and drug addicts."
ReplyDeleteTo the commenter who said Kim Richards was on par with Jodie and Tatum -- that's not accurate all. She had one hit film and slowly worked her way down the food chain in television guest shots. By the time she was 14 she was playing a supporting role in a failed NBC sitcom.
ReplyDeleteI call this as Dana Hill (a footnote in TV history for playing a child porn victim in controversial tele-film "Fallen Angel"), followed by a scene stealing role in "Shoot the Moon" --- opposite Brit-born actor Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. She was reported to have died of complications from Type 1 diabetes, which stunted her growth and made her look forever young.
Jenny beck from V?
ReplyDelete@ Rob Bailey, I thought it might be Finney and Dana Hill too, although she worked until the end it was mostly voice over stuff after the 80s, perhaps the poisoning caused physical damage. Finney has worked with kids on a few things and is a smoker.
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ReplyDeleteThere are two other names I keep coming back to. One is Bridgette Anderson but she doesn't quite fit. She's worked with plenty of creeps but none which are foreign born. I can't believe she hasn't been the subject of a blind yet though.
ReplyDeleteThe other is J. Madison Wright Morris, TV history in that she was the first child character to die in ER ( in an Emmy award winning episode). She had a heart transplant at 15, this was said to be because of a heart defect but that could be a cover up and be related to the suicide attempt and I hate myself for suggesting and I hope I'm wrong but what about Leslie Nielsen as the foreign born actor.
Sadly, the Rick Moranis guesses work better.
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't Ashleigh/Rick, then we all need to focus more on actresses who quit Hollywood between age 14 and 16.
I went through the whole list of child/teen actresses on Wikipedia and didn't find a good match.
This blind would be a lot easier if we had a decade. :)
@Andrea Your guess about Madison Wright and Leslie Nielsen is the first guess I've seen that fits all of the criteria. Only thing that doesn't fit 100% is that Leslie Nielsen was not known as a smoker (as far as I can tell).
ReplyDeleteA few things to add to your explanation:
1) "Chances at television glory": She starred in 'Earth 2', which won an Emmy but was cancelled after 1 season. She was also in the 'The Warlord', which was intended to be a pilot but didn't get picked up and became a TV movie instead.
2) "B/B- List": She won a Young Artist award for Earth 2 (these were a bigger deal back then than they are today).
3) "Probably 14 or so": This TV movie would've filmed close to her 14 birthday.
4) Poison "didn't kill her but permanently damaged her": She retired right after filming this movie and the other TV pilot. She had several bouts of pneumonia and general bad health, and then had to have a heart transplant. She died 6 years later of a heart attack.
5) "movies with teens or...(teen) character": He had a long career and a childish comic sense, so of course he had a lot of movies with teens.
I really hope this isn't true because I grew up watching Leslie Nielson movies, but it does all fit. None of the other guesses so far have fit. Somebody, please @Andrea and me wrong.
If the girl is Madison Wright then the memorable role would have been on the show ER. Her character was the first child to ever die on the show. Madison had a heart transplant but she ended up dying later on of a heart attack.
ReplyDeleteThe foreign born actor would be Leslie Nielsen. His father was abusive to him so it would not be a stretch for him to turn out to be a pedophile.
Can't see Rick Moranis playing teens. Still think Michael J Fox. Canadian, smoked heavily, played in teen movies and played teens, had a successful career which ended due to his illness.
ReplyDeleteThe only film Madison Wright was in was Shiloh which Leslie Nielson wasn't in.
ReplyDelete@cheesegrater15, Enty did not say what kind of film. Her last 2 acting credits were tv movies. Her last movie was a Disney tv film called Safety Patrol. Leslie Nielsen was in it. Madison would have been 14 at the time as well. Madison fits better than my initial guess and meets all the criteria. Permanent damage could refer to her cardiac issues that led to the heart transplant. Even then that heart gave out. Death is permanent.
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Natasha Ryan • John Candy OR Eugene Levy • Going Berserk
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John Candy / dead smoker / lots of films with teens
CANDY: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001006/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Eugene Levy / smoker / lots of films with teens
LEVY: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506405/?ref_=tt_cl_t3
Nastasha Ryan has strong TV credits from age 6-13, then completely disappears.
RYAN: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752757/
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Ryan fits the blind very well. With the significant trauma the blind describes, it would explain much of what followed after her "last project" GOING BERSERK. She had a strong and notable acting career from age 6-13. Clearly some major stuff happened to create the sequence of events at age 14. She went from acting full time to being homeless living with drug addicts. Helloooo??? "She was kicked out of her foster home at 14 and lived on the streets." "I called home several times, but my foster mother wouldn't let me come back," Ryan said. "So I continued living in an old brick building, The Ellison, with a working gigolo and drug addicts."
"Ryan, who was raised by a foster family, worked in movies and television starting at the age of 1; by the time she was 13, she had appeared in 16 movies and television series. TV shows include Starsky and Hutch, Eight is Enough, Days of Our Lives, Lou Grant. In 1976, at the age of 6, she played the role of young Sybil in the TV movie about a woman with multiple-personality disorder. When she turned 13, things changed"
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OR, as @Sara, Making It Work suggested early on:
Ashleigh Sterling • Rick Moranis • Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0827486/?ref_=nv_sr_2
We know Moranis is a known pedophile, we just can't find the smoking connection.
Ashleigh fits the blind very well, with strong TV credits from age 4-14, and then disappears.
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I don't think Natasha Ryan does no fit the BI. The BI is so vague, that I think any details have to be taken as exact
ReplyDelete1) She was most likely 12 at the time of filming...possibly 13, but not likely. Enty wouldn't have said she's 14.
2) Natasha has no 'permanent damage' of poisoning. Anything about her online says that she is happy and healthy right now.
I feel like these are 2 of the 3 most important facts about the young actress in question. Not saying there's no chance its her, but its a stretch. And Ashleigh Sterling as also 13 at most. Nobody so far fits as well as Madison Wright.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply @SB. Much appreciated. Your points are valid. Enty said 14 or so. The blind reads like the actress is still living and the actor is deceased. Madison did Shilo at age 11/12. Not truly a comedy, and it's with Rod Steiger, an American. So, she doesn't fit that well. We don't know that Natasha doesn't have a health issue as a result. I'm just sayin' something major happened with Natasha's last project.
ReplyDeleteI can’t see this as Michael J Fox - it would be too huge a reveal and would shock so many people that I think there would have to be a preface in the blind to say “much loved actor” or something. I’m wondering if this is Jessica WESSOn. She starred in several tv shows and movies in the 90s, her last couple with Malcolm McDowell and Paul Hogan. Both foreign born, McDowell known as a smoker and Hogan advertised cigarettes, both with long careers and big, well-known roles. She was nominated for two young artist awards and dropped out of the industry very quickly having scored several good roles.
ReplyDeleteThe blind says the actress suffered permanent damage as a result of having taken poison. Doesn't death count as permanent damage?
ReplyDeleteWikipedia says Madison Wright suffered several bouts of pneumonia, which may have caused or contributed to her needing a heart transplant. Madison may have aspirated the poison or aspirated vomit which led to pneumonia. Madison may have inhaled the poison or the fumes it gave off which in turn damaged her lungs.
So far Madison Wright is the best fit.