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Frank James Reynolds (November 29, 1923 – July 20, 1983) was an American television journalist for ABC and CBS News.

He was a New York-based anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1970 and later was the Washington D.C.-based co-anchor of World News Tonight from 1978 until his death in 1983. During the Iran hostage crisis, he began the 30-minute late-night program America Held Hostage, which later was renamed Nightline.

Background[link]

Reynolds was born on November 29, 1923, in East Chicago, Indiana. Reynolds attended Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond, Indiana, and then attended Wabash College, from which he graduated in 1946. He was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Reynolds served in the United States Army during the Second World War; he was a Staff Sergeant and was awarded the Purple Heart.

Early career[link]

After the war, Reynolds began his broadcast career with WWCA-AM in Gary, Indiana. Reynolds was a television anchor in Chicago, first on the original WBKB-TV in 1949, which would become WBBM-TV, the CBS owned-and-operated station (where he also served as Chicago correspondent for CBS News), and later on the second WBKB-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated station (now known as WLS-TV). He joined ABC in 1965 as a field correspondent, after serving as lead anchor at WBKB from 1963 to 1965. [1].

Anchor, ABC News[link]

By 1968, he became co-anchor of the ABC evening newscast with Howard K. Smith, who remained as co-anchor after Harry Reasoner was hired from CBS to replace Reynolds in December 1970. After the demotion, Reynolds returned to the field as a correspondent for the network. After Reasoner and Barbara Walters ceased their anchor duties in 1978, Reynolds returned to the anchor chair as the Washington, D.C., anchor for the now-revamped World News Tonight newscast, with co-anchors Max Robinson and Peter Jennings, who became the show's sole anchor after Reynolds' death. All three original anchors of World News Tonight are now deceased.

Reynolds was also the original anchor of "America Held Hostage", a series of special reports seen weeknights at 11:30 p.m./10:30 Central on the Iran hostage crisis in November 1979 that evolved into the newsmagazine Nightline in 1980. Shortly after the special reports began, Reynolds was replaced by Ted Koppel.

Reagan Assassination Attempt Coverage Episode, 1981[link]

One famous moment in Reynolds' career occurred on March 30, 1981, during live news coverage of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Early reports received by his newsroom had indicated that James Brady and others had been shot, but that Reagan himself was uninjured. He became upset when a report arrived indicating that Reagan had been struck and at one point can be heard shouting at an individual off-screen to "speak up" as more information arrived.^[1]

Later, White House Press Secretary James Brady, a close friend of Reynolds, was erroneously reported by all three networks as having died from the head wound he suffered in the incident, and, further, a report arrived that Reagan had died. Upon learning that the information regarding Brady was incorrect, Reynolds suddenly appeared noticeably upset and, looking around at staffers in the background, angrily burst out:

"Let's get it nailed down...somebody...let's find out! Let's get it straight so we can report this thing accurately!"

Legacy[link]

Reynolds is the father of CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds. Coincidentally, it was a report from the younger Reynolds while he was a correspondent for UPI which first revealed that James Brady was still alive, leading to the aforementioned outburst from the elder Reynolds. [2]

Reynolds died from hepatitis-induced liver failure on July 20, 1983, at the age of 59. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma while he was being treated for acute hepatitis in the spring of 1978, just as he was beginning as chief anchorman for World News Tonight. Three months before his death, he presented his last newscast.

Reynolds, who served in the United States Army, is interred in Arlington National Cemetery. On May 23, 1985, he was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan. Reagan and wife Nancy attended the funeral.

A few years after Reynolds' death, musician Paul Hardcastle recorded a section of an ABC documentary about the Vietnam War, that included narration by Reynolds, and later used it as part of his 1985 U.S. Top 40 and U.K. #1 (5 weeks) hit, 19. Hardcastle had a video made of the song that included footage from that documentary that ABC later demanded be removed. The ABC footage was later replaced with stock footage, but Reynolds' voice remained on the recording.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Memories from Bob Sirkin
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Sidebar "ABC Evening News Anchor"
• ABC News' "Time Tunnel" page containing clips of numerous newscasts on which Reynolds appeared
• Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom - May 23, 1985
• Frank Reynolds at Find a Grave

Danny DeVito
DeVito at a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2011
Born	Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. (1944-11-17) November 17, 1944 (age 67) Neptune Township, New Jersey, United States
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, producer
Years active	1970–present
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Rhea Perlman (m. 1982–present; 3 children)

Daniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of short statured dispatcher Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman, founded Jersey Films, a production company known for films such as Pulp Fiction, Garden State, and Freedom Writers. DeVito also owns Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!. DeVito and Perlman also starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. He currently stars as Frank Reynolds on the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Early life[link]

DeVito was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Daniel Michael DeVito, Sr., who owned several small businesses, including a dry cleaning store, a dairy outlet, a luncheonette, and a pool hall.^[1][2] DeVito is of Italian descent (his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata)^[3] and was raised a Roman Catholic,^[4] growing up in Asbury Park.^[5] He boarded at Oratory Preparatory School, in Summit, New Jersey, graduating in 1962, and subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days, he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and, along with his wife Rhea Perlman, appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective.

Film acting career[link]

DeVito played Martini in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, reprising his role from the 1971 off-Broadway play of the same name. He gained fame in 1978 playing Louie De Palma, the short but domineering dispatcher for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, on the hit TV show Taxi. After Taxi ended, DeVito began a successful film career, starting with roles in 1983's Terms of Endearment, and as the comic rogue in the romantic adventure Romancing the Stone, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, and its 1985 sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. In 1986, DeVito starred in Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold, and in 1987, he made his feature-directing debut with the dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred with Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. Two years later, DeVito reunited with Douglas and Turner in The War of the Roses, which he directed and in which he co-starred.

DeVito's work during this time includes Other People's Money with Gregory Peck, director Barry Levinson's Tin Men as a competitive rival salesman to Richard Dreyfuss' character, two co-starring vehicles with Arnold Schwarzenegger (the comedies Twins and Junior), and playing The Penguin as a deformed sociopath in director Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992).

DeVito at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010

Although generally a comic actor, DeVito expanded into dramatic roles with The Rainmaker, Hoffa (1992), which he directed and in which he co-starred with Jack Nicholson, Jack the Bear (1993), L.A. Confidential, The Big Kahuna, and Heist (2001), as a gangster nemesis to Gene Hackman's character.

DeVito has an interest in documentaries: In 2006, he began a partnership with Morgan Freeman's company ClickStar, on which he hosts a documentary channel called Jersey Docs.

Theatre[link]

In April 2012, DeVito made his West End acting debut in a revival of the Neil Simon play The Sunshine Boys - alongside Olivier award-winning actor Richard Griffiths. The play will preview at the Savoy Theatre from 27 April 2012, opening on 17 May and playing a limited 12-week season until 28 July.^[6]

Producing[link]

DeVito has become a major film and television producer. Through Jersey Films, he has produced many films, including Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture), Gattaca, and Garden State.

In 1999, DeVito produced and co-starred in Man on the Moon, a film about the unusual life of his former Taxi co-star, Andy Kaufman, who was played in the film by Jim Carrey. DeVito also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, as well as the film spin off Reno 911!: Miami.

Directing[link]

DeVito has directed the following motion pictures:

• Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
• The War of the Roses (1989)
• Hoffa (1992)
• Matilda (1996)
• Death to Smoochy (2002)
• Duplex (2003)

DeVito is due to start filming his latest feature Charlotte Doyle early this year. The feature will be shot on location around Ireland and will feature actors Pierce Brosnan and Morgan Freeman^[7]

His films often have a bizarre, neo-surrealistic sensibility and gallows humor, though these elements were absent in the straightforward Hoffa biopic. The approach served him well at times, especially in The War of the Roses, a commercial and critical success, as well as Matilda, where it matched the style of Roald Dahl's story of a young girl and a strict teacher; however, his last two films, Death to Smoochy and Duplex, have not been as financially successful.^[8]

Television and voice over work[link]

DeVito at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, 2008

In 1977, DeVito played the role of John "the apple" in the Starsky and Hutch episode titled "The Collector." In 1986, DeVito directed and starred in an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In the black comedy episode from season two, titled "The Wedding Ring", DeVito acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by his real-life wife, actress Rhea Perlman). When the ring is slipped on his wife's finger, she becomes possessed by the ring's former owner, a murderous black widow.

In addition to his Taxi work, DeVito voiced Herb Powell, Homer Simpson's half-brother, on two episodes of The Simpsons. In 1997, he was the voice of the satyr Philoctetes in the film Hercules.

In 1999, DeVito hosted the last Saturday Night Live episode before the year 2000. He earned a 2004 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for an episode of Friends,^[9] following four Emmy nominations (including a 1981 win) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, for Taxi. In 2006, DeVito joined the cast of the FX Networks television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank Reynolds.

Voice actor in guest appearances in The Simpsons: Episode 7F16 "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and Episode 8F22 "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?".

In 2011, DeVito received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.^[10]

Personal life[link]

DeVito married actress Rhea Perlman on January 28, 1982.^[11] They have three children: Lucy Chet DeVito (born March 1983), Grace Fan DeVito (born March 1985) and Jacob Daniel DeVito (born October 1987). The family lives in Beverly Hills, California, and has a vacation home in Interlaken, New Jersey.^[12] Lucy starred as Anne Frank in a production of Anne Frank at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle, Washington, in 2008.

DeVito is a staunch Democrat, and a supporter of the OneVoice Movement, a non-profit organization that strives to help moderate Israelis and Palestinians to take a more assertive role in resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He is also a member of the steering committee of the Friends of the Apollo Theater in Oberlin, Ohio along with his wife, and filmmaker Jonathan Demme.^[13]

DeVito co-owned a restaurant called DeVito South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida, which closed in 2011.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danny DeVito

• Danny DeVito at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny DeVito at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Danny DeVito on Charlie Rose
• Danny DeVito's Guest DJ Set on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ Set
• Danny Devito at Emmys.com
• Danny DeVito on Twitter

Joe Frank
Born	(1938-08-19) August 19, 1938 (age 73) Strasbourg, France
Show	Work In Progress, In The Dark, Somewhere Out There, The Other Side
Station(s)	KPFA, WNYC, WBEZ, KCRW, NPR
Country	U.S.
Website	Official Website

Joe Frank (born August 19, 1938) is an American radio artist known best for his often philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas.^[1]

Early life[link]

Joe Frank was born Joseph Langermann in August 1938 in Strasbourg, France near the border of Germany to Meier Langermann (then 51) and his wife Friederike (then 27), while in transit from Germany (where they were living, although they were Polish citizens). Being Jewish, his family was fleeing Nazi Germany and moving to New York City, where they arrived on April 12, 1939. Bills to allow the family into the country were passed in the U.S. Congress twice, the first having been vetoed by President Roosevelt.^[2][3][4] Joe's father died when he was 5 years old.^[5] The next year his mother married Freddy Frank and changed Joe's last name.^[6]

In his twenties, Frank studied at Hofstra University in New York and later at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Frank taught English literature at the Dalton School in Manhattan when he became interested in the power of radio.^[7]

Early radio career[link]

In 1977 Frank started volunteering at Pacifica Network station WBAI in New York, doing experimental radio involving monologues, improvisational actors, and live music during late night free-form hours. In 1978 he moved to Washington DC to serve as a co-anchor for the weekend edition of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, his first paying radio job.

During this period he wrote, performed in, and produced 18 dramas for NPR Playhouse, which won several awards. His 1982 monologue "Lies" was used as the inspiration for the Martin Scorsese movie After Hours, without permission.^[8] (He later settled out of court for a "handsome" settlement.^[9])

KCRW, 1986–2002[link]

In 1986, on the invitation of Ruth Hirschman [Seymour] the general manager of NPR's Santa Monica affiliate KCRW, Frank moved to Santa Monica, California where he wrote, produced and performed in his own weekly hour-long radio program, "Joe Frank: Work In Progress."

While at KCRW, Frank received several awards, including a Peabody Award and two Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards, one for his acclaimed three-part series "Rent-a-Family." Frank was also a Guggenheim Fellow.

Joe Frank continued to work at KCRW until 2002, and his work evolved, as evidenced by the diverse series he produced: first Work in Progress, then In The Dark, followed by Somewhere Out There, and finally The Other Side.

Radio programs[link]

Frank's radio programs are often dark and ironic, and employ a dry sense of humor and the sincere delivery of ideas or stories that are patently absurd. Subject matter often includes religion, life's meaning, death, and Frank's relationships with women.

Frank's voice is distinctive, resonant, authoritative, and—because of his occasional voice-over work—often oddly familiar. At the 2003 Third Coast Festival he explained that he was "recording in Dolby and playing back without it—which created Joe's now familiar intimate and gritty sound."^[10] A 1987 Los Angeles Times article described it as a voice "like dirty honey" and "rich as chocolate."^[11]

Adding to the atmosphere of Frank's monologues are edited loops of instrumental music from sources as diverse as Miles Davis, Steve Reich, Tangerine Dream, Can, Air and Antonio Carlos Jobim.^[12]

The repetitive music and Frank's dry, announcer-like delivery are sometimes mixed with recorded phone calls with actor/friends such as Larry Block, Debi Mae West and Arthur Miller, broken into "acts" over the course of each hourlong program.

Frank's series The Other Side included excerpts from Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's Dharma talks at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In an interview on KPFA's the Morning Show, Kornfield was asked about working with Joe Frank. Kornfield explained that although he had never met or talked to Joe Frank or heard his show, he didn't mind Frank using the lectures and that many of his meditation students had found Kornfield through the show.

Other work[link]

• He can be heard on the song 'Montok Point' on William Orbit's album Strange Cargo Hinterland.
• "The Decline Of Spengler" Stage Play (New Directions 48, New York)
• "A Tour Of The City" Stage Play (Tanam Press, New York) was produced by Theatre Anima at Hangar #9 in the Old Port of Montreal in 1990, and was directed by Jordan Deitcher.
• The Queen of Puerto Rico and Other Stories,, William Morrow and Co, New York, 1993. ISBN 0-688-08765-5 a collection of short stories: Tell me what to do—Fat man—Night—Date—Walter—The queen of Puerto Rico—The decline of Spengler

2002–present[link]

Since 2002, Frank has performed on stage in Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago and Steppenwolf Theatre, in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall and in Los Angeles at the Hammer Museum and Largo at the Coronet, as well as other venues.

In 2003, Joe Frank was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

His body of work (over 230 hours) continues to be aired on the Pacifica Radio affiliate station KPFA in Berkeley, California and many NPR stations including WNYC New York, KCRW Santa Monica and WBEZ Chicago. The entire archives, Joe Frank film shorts and other extras, are available by subscription to his web site. Show CDs, downloads, and iPods are also available through his web site.

Frank's new web site launch in August 2010 now includes free daily downloads of stories excerpted from his radio shows.

Frank continues to write new work for the stage and his web site, and posts frequently on Facebook.

Inspiration to other artists[link]

Frank's body of work has inspired a variety of other artists including:

• Ira Glass of This American Life: "Ira Glass worked under Frank as one of his first jobs in public radio, and credits him as his greatest inspiration."^[13]
• David Sedaris, writer ^[14]
• Troy Schulze, a theater artist in Houston who created the show Jerry's World (2003) for the Houston, Tx.-based theater group Infernal Bridegroom Productions. Utilizing material from several Frank shows, the piece was deemed "Best Original Show" in Houston that year, by the Houston Press.
• Jeff Crouse, artist and technologist, created Interactive Frank, which uses content from the web to dynamically create a Joe Frank Show. "The user types in a sentence, and Interactive Frank takes over, scouring the web for another sentence that follows a sentence with the last three words. Frank can also find streaming audio to accompany the generated narrative based on a word analysis, and it can read the narrative using an online text-to-speech generator."^[15]
• Filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Mann, David Fincher and Ivan Reitman have optioned or bought stories from Joe Frank's radio shows.

Voiceover and acting work[link]

Joe Frank has done voice over work for commercials including Zima, and Saturn Corporation. He was the voice of the computer in Galaxy Quest and provides voiceover for:

• "Wild Rescues" on Animal Planet
• "Conspiracies" on A&E
• "Ends of the Earth" on the Learning Channel
• "Hurricane X" on the Discovery channel
• "Sexy Beast" film: narrator on trailer. This trailer was nominated for best film trailer in 2004.

He also had a small acting role in The Game.^[16]

Awards[link]

• 2003
  • Third Coast International Audio Festival Lifetime Achievement Award^[17]

[edit] During NPR Playhouse^[18]

• 1982
  • Broadcast Media Award
• 1983
  • Radio Program Award from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting
  • Gold Award from the International Radio Festival of New York
• 1984
  • Gold Award from the International Radio Festival of New York (second)
  • American Nomination to the Prix Italia
• 1985
  • Special Commendation from the Berlin Prix Futura

During Work In Progress[link]

• 1988
  • Major Armstrong Award
  • Corporation For Public Broadcasting Program Award

• 1991
  • Peabody Award
• 1993
  • Guggenheim Fellowship for Radio Art^[19]

External links[link]

• The Official Joe Frank Web Site
• Joe Frank on Facebook
• Joe Frank Fan Page on Facebook
• WFMU Joe Frank FAQs
• A Joe Frank Wiki
• Joe Frank Music Page
• Public Radio's Bad Dream Salon.com feature on Frank.
• UK Guardian UK Guardian comment on Joe Frank
• Joe Frank at the Internet Movie Database

References[link]