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My Favorite Actor
"So tired, tired of all this drama
You go your way and I'll go my way
I need to be free
I'm so tired, tired, tired from all this drama"
-Mary J. Blige, 'No More Drama'
"No more pain, no more pain." This is part of the refrain of Mary J. Blige’s "No More Drama", a song that must have been written for the people in this room. I’m sitting with the sister and mother of former daytime television superstar Terry Lester.
In the 25 years that I knew Terry, he had as much of an impact on my life as anyone. He died November 28th of a pair of heart attacks, leaving the world a better place. A star of television, theater and musical stage, he was the most talented person I’ve ever known, and also one of the smartest and most aware, but he was as complicated as human beings come, and his life in and out of the spotlight was filled with paradox.
My first memory of Terry was seeing him late Saturday mornings, on his first regular show, "Ark II". When all the cartoons were over, "Ark II" would come on, almost like a transition from watching childhood shows to those for adolescents. As much as I liked the cartoons of the late 70’s, like "Godzilla", "The Shmoo", and "Thundarr", there was something about the Hannah-Barbera style that put me off a little bit, and “Ark” was the antidote -- I found myself looking most forward to it.
It was around the end of the show’s run that I met its star. My mother signed me up for Big Brothers of America, an excellent place to shop for a male role model. Being raised by a single mother, I could see how hard it was for a woman to be a mother and father at the same time, so I didn’t protest the idea. After an initial visit, I filled out their forms, and was matched up with a 29-year-old actor who was looking for someone to impart his knowledge onto. Of course, the idea is not so much that you set up two brothers, but rather like a mentor and disciple -- perhaps a step down from father and son.
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This month's Get Personal List
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| Who is your favorite (type of) Exhibitionist? |
Jesse:
I've only seen archival footage, but Satchel Paige was The Man. He pitched originally in the Negro Leagues, and became the first black pitching star in the major leagues.
Paige was so good, he would do things like pitching the bases loaded, just so he could strike out the side. Perhaps a bit too much of a showman, but the idea of anyone dominating like that -- let alone a minority in that era -- is worth some flair.
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