Terri Irwin

Photo: Eva Rinaldi

In the ’90s and early 2000s, one of the most popular TV personalities in the world was Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

He happily and enthusiastically introduced his viewers to some of the world’s most exotic, and dangerous, wildlife.

Ultimately it was a fatal encounter with a stingray that prematurely ended his life in 2006. Steve was just 44.

Photo: Richard Giles

The following year his widow Terri published a book called Steve And Me. And that’s when I met her.

So here now, from 2007, Terri Irwin,

Terri Irwin and the couple’s two children continue to operate Australia Zoo.

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Bobby Seale

55 years ago African Americans were making historic gains in civil rights. But much work was still to be done.

That year, 1966, Bobby Seale and his longtime friend Huey Newton created a new organization they called the Black Panther Party.

In 1968 Seal made a name for himself during anti-Vietnam War protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It was not his first run-in with the law and it would not be his last.

In the early 1970s Seale wrote a book about the Black Panther Party, called Seize the Time. After going out of print for several years, it was republished in 1991. And that’s what I met him.

So here now, from 1991, Bobby Seale.

Bobby Seale is 84 now. Since 2013, Seale has been seeking to produce a screenplay he wrote based on Seize the Time.

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Terry Bradshaw

Most people consider Terry Bradshaw, formerly of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, to be among the greatest quarterbacks ever.

His list of accomplishments, on and off the is impressive.

He’s had a long and fruitful career as a broadcaster, and he’s done some acting.

And he’s also written a couple of books. That’s how I met him, in 2002.

And no, football is not the center of his life.

So here now, come 2002, Terry Bradshaw.

Terry Bradshaw will be 73 in September.

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Chris Costner Sizemore

Today doctors call it “dissociative identity disorder” but when Chris Costner Sizemore was diagnosed and treated for it over 60 years ago, it was simply called “multiple personality disorder.”

The movie “TheThree Faces of EVe” came out in 1957, changing Sizemore’s name to EveWhite. Her “alters” were Eve Black .. and Jane. Actress Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for her portrayal of Eve.

It later came out that Sizemore had something more like 22 personaliities, not just three.

I mer in 1989, when she wrote a book called A Mind of My Own. IT told the story of how, with years of psychiatric help, she had integrated her several personalities.

So here now, from 1989. Chris Costner Sizemore.

Chris Costner Sizemore died in 2016. She was 89.

Tab Hunter

He was one of the hottest young movie stars in the 1950s…

Tab Hunter — who grew up as Artt Gelien — was a figure skater as a teenager. As a young man, a friend introduced him to a Hollywood agent who specialized in beefcake actors like Rock Hudson and Rober/ Wagner. That agent dubbed Art Gelien “Tab Hunter” and by 1950 he was in the movies.

And by the mid 1950s was major star, the strapping blond hunk of a man every girl wanted. Hunter made over 40 movies, and even recorded a hit song.

Hunger was also a witness to, and a participant in, the end of the Hollywood studio contract era. His movie and TV roles were fewer, until his last film role in 1992.

Then, in 2005, Tab Hunter wrote a memoir called Tab Hunter Confidential. In that book, he acknowledged publicly, for the first time, that he was gay. Turns out those gossip rags back in the day that had him romantically linked with various starlets were all fiction.

So here now, from 2005, Tab Hunter…

Tab Hunter died in 2018, just three days befopre his 87th birthdayl.

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Rock Brynner

In the 1950s, few actors dominated Broadway the way Yul Brynner did.

Playing the lead in the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s play “The King and I,” Brynner eEstablished himself as a top-tier performer.

He won two Tonys for his portrayal of the King of Siam, as well as an Academy Award when the play was adapted to film.

Photo: CBS Television

Later he was cast in such big budget movies as the Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, and Westworld.

His son Rock was born in 1946, and was as captivated as anyone with his father’s strong a persona.

A few years after his father’s untimely death from lung cancer, Rock Brynner wrote a memoir of life with his famous dad. And tha’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1991, Rock Brynner.

At age 75, Rocj Brynn er has now lived 10 years longer than his father did. He is a professor of history..

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Naomi Judd

Photo: State Farm

Naomi Judd was born “Diana Judd” not long after World War II ended. Her dad ran a gas station in Ashland, Kentucky,

By the time she was in her mid 30s, Judd was a divorced single mom with two daughters, struggling to keep a household going.

That’s when she and her older daughter discovered that they liked to sing and harmonize with each other. And they got pretty good at it.

Before long, they came to the attention of the right people, and in 1983, they formed The Judds.

And for the next eight years, they’ve dominated country music, with a string of #1 hits.

But a 1991, a diagnosis of hepatitis-C forced Naomi to break up the act.

In 1993 she wrote a memoir named after one of their hit songs: Love Can Build a Bridge. And that’s when I met her.

So here now, from 1993, Naomi Judd:

The Judds reunited in 1999 for a New Years Eve concert, and toured the next year. Since then Naomi has done many TV appearances. She is 75 now.

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Carl T. Rowan

As a young journalist in the 1950s, Carl T. Rowan covered the emerging civil rights movement, and its leaders, including people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

The reputation he built came to the attention of President John F. Kennedy, who, in 1961, name Rowan to a high level position in the State Department.

And in 1963, Kennedy appointed Rowan ambassador to Finland.

Row and remain in the government for three years after Kennedy’s assassination, before resuming what would be a long and acclaimed journalism career.

I first met him in 1991, what he wrote a memoir called Breaking Barriers.

In this interview, you’ll also hear a reference to “thje gun incident” — in 1988 Rowan confronted an intruder at his home, and shot and wounded him with what turned out to be an unregistered handgun.

So here now, from 1991, Carl T. Rowan.

Carl T, Rowan died in 2000, at age 75.

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Candace Gingrich

It’s not always easy to babysit money of a very famous politician.

Photo: dbking

But, perhaps, especially if you’re a lesbian and your brother is one of the nation’s leading right-wing conservatives.

In 1994 a republican wave took over Congress, and Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House.

And suddenly, his half-sister Candace — who pronounces the family name “Ging-rick” — found themselves, as they later described it, as an “accidental activist.”

I met them in 1996, just as the issue of same-sex marriage was being debated in Congress and the courts. You’ll hear about that in this interview.

You may also hear some terminology which sounds a little dated. The term “LGBTQ” wasnot yet in wide usage, and as a result, is not heard here.

So here now, from 1996, Candace Gingrich:

Candace Gingrich celebrated their 55th birthday last week, and is married to Kelly Cassidy, a member of the Illinois state legislature.

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PD James

For decades, going back to the 1970s, one of the most popular contemporary British mystery writers was PD James.

In a style sometimes reminiscent of Agatha Christie, James wrote about cases solved by her fictional detective she named Adam Dalgliesh.

He was a character she named after a teacher at Cambridge High School.

Book after book, a reputation and popularity grew, until in 1991 James was named a Life Peer in Britain’s House of Lords. She was Baroness James of Holland Park.

I interviewed her several times over the years, about her various Dalgleish nysteries. And then, in 2000, we talked about her autobiographical book “A Time To Be In Earnest.”

So here now, from 2000, P.D. James.

P.D. James wrote four more books in the years after this intervoew, the last of them in 2008.

The Baroness James of Holland Park died in 2014 at the age of 94.

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