Vintage Interviews With Notable People
She’s a supermodel, a role model, and a popular actor.
Tyra Banks was already, at 24, an international celebrity when I met her in 1998. She had written her first book, called “Tyra’s Beauty Inside & Out.”
So here now, from 1998, Tyra Banks:
Tyra Banks is 46 now, and still a role model, still a popular TV and movie actor.
Is it possible to get a major supporting role on a major television show, and have it cripple your acting career?
It nearly happened to George Lindsey. You remember him as Goober from The Andy Griffith Show.
Taking that role, he says ,typecast him for years to come.
I met him about 25 years ago, when he wrote a memoir called Goober in a Nutshell.
So here now, from 1995, George Lindsey.
George Lindsey was 83 when he died in 2012. but thanks to Andy Griffith Show reruns, Goober lives on.
Father’s Day is this Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’ve been featuring interviews about fathers.
Today a conversation with a father and son who have been making us laugh for decades.
Actor-comedian Chris Elliott and his dad, Bob Elliott, collaborated on a 1989 book called “Daddy’s Boy: A Son’s Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father.”
Don’t be alarmed — it’s a parody celebrity tell-all memoirs, and was all very, very tongue-in-cheek — as was our interview just before Fathers Day 1989.
I’m not sure if their book ever did become a major bestseller, although it did get a really nice write-up in the New York Times and a lot of other places..
Chris Elliott remains active and popular in moveis and TV.
Bob Elliott died in 2016. He was 92.
Next Sunday is Father’s Day, so all of this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything, we are featuring interviews about fathers.
The late Richard Pryor was a hugely talented comedian and brilliant entertainer — but, by his own admission, a failure as a father.
In 2006 his daughter Rain Pryor wrote a memoir, a sympathetic portrait of the man, failings and all.
So here now from November 2006, Rain Pryor.
Richard Pryor died in December 2005, at the age of 65.
Rain Pryor is 50, and is active as a comedian, actor, and singer.
Hairspray. Cry-Baby. Serial Mom. Pink Flamingos.
Filmmaker John Waters has a long, illustrious, and unique body of work.
He started making movies in the early 1960s, but only rose to prominence in the ’70s, and by the ’80s was a cultural icon.
I first met him in the fall of 1986. He had just published a by collection of his writings, a slender little book called “Crackpot.”
So here now, from 1986, John Waters.
That movie he John Waters was talking about, near the end there — yes,. that was Hairspray.
John Waters celebrated his 74th birthday this spring. While he hasn’t made a movie in several years, he was seen earlier this year in an episode of “Law & Order SVU.”
This was actually one of the most popular interviews I posted last year on Now I’ve Heard Everything — and since tomorrow, May 30th, would have been his 112th birthday, I wanted to re-share my 1988 interview with the unmatched master of voice acting, Mel Blanc.
Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Twety, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble. Heck, he was even the voice of Jack Benny’s car.
Virtually everyone has heard Mel’s voice characterizations.
So here now, from 1988, Mel Blanc:
Less than a year after our interview, Mel Blanc died at the age of 81, taking with him hundreds of the voices many of us grew up with.
Canadian-born comedian Samantha Bee was a fixture on TV’s The Daily Show or twelvve years. Indeed, she was Most Photo: Senor Correspondent.
I met her tewn years ago next week, at the height of her popularity on that show, when she wrote a breezy memoir, a hilariously guided tour of her childhood and adolescence.
So here now, from 2010, Samantha Bee:
Samamtha Bee left The Daily Show in 2015, to launch her own show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,
She became a U.S. citizen in 2014, but also retained her Canadian citizenship.
“Married to the mob” was more than just a snappy catch phrase for Georgia Durante.
Her 1998 autobiography told an incredible story — teenage model, sexual assault victim, mob wife, Hollywood stunt driver.
Here now, from 1998, Georgia Durante:
For years after our interview, Georgia Durante devoted her time to advocating for victims of domestic violence. She’s been a frequent speaker to women in shelters and prisons.
Happy birthday to George Takei, who today is 83.
Many of us remember him best as Helmsman Sulu on the original “Star Trek” TV series, or perhaps as an author or activist or wildly popular and widely quoted and retweeted internet commentator.
George Takei was just four years old when the Japanese empire attacked Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War Two.
The U.S. government ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps, and the Takei family of California was among those taken into custody.
I met George Takei in the fall of 1994, when he published his autobiography.
Here now, from 1994, George Takei:
George Takei today is a strong advocate for LGBT rights and is ver politically active. And he has over 10-million followers on Facebook
Chuck Norris doesn’t drink coffee in the morning, he has a mug of nails.
Chuck Norris can dribble a bowling ball.
Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
But a book is how I first met Chuck Norris 32 years ago, in early 1988. He had just written an autobiography and was on tour to promote it.
And it was one of the many times in my interviewing career that I wished I could have had a couple of hours, instead of just 15 minutes, with a subject.
1978’s “Good Guys Wear Black” put Norris on the map. You’ll hear how that movie came to be, in this interview, and Norris answers the one question everybody asks him.
Here now, from 1988, Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris celebrated his 80th birthday last month. He divorced his first wife, Dianne, the year after this interview. He remarried in 1998.
He was most recently seen as a guest star on “Hawaii Five-O.”