Beloved stars who were real nasty you know whats

[RicoGregg]

According to him, some of the worst-of-the-worst were Yul Brenner, Andy Williams and The Three Stooges.

I find the latter hard to believe -- did he ever say which Stooge, or did he mean all of them? Moe, in particular, was said by all who knew him to be one of the gentlest, kindest men they ever knew, a complete 180 degrees from his screen persona. Larry, I don't know about personality-wise, but as I am assuming this was the last incarnation of the Stooges, I can believe that Joe DeRita (Curly-Joe) maybe had the potential to be a little gruff and testy. He liked Moe and Larry, and appreciated having a steady gig at that stage of his life, but many said he wasn't happy about being a Stooge, and didn't really appreciate their humor.

One guy who didn't appreciate being a Stooge was Joe Besser, who was the first replacement for Curly, preceding Curly Joe DeRita. He refused to get slapped, punched, poked, take a pie in the face, or do much of anything for the team. Another thing that didn't help him was that he was a crony of Abbott & Costello, Moe & Larry's sworn enemies, whom they had accused for years, and accurately, of stealing their material. Moe & Larry were quite happy when he left the act.

On Joe DeRita's gravestone, the inscription reads "The Last Stooge". He was very proud of both the label and of having been a Stooge.

 

[buster2]

I've read the book; it's great. The only real revelation to me was that he cheated on his first wife - pretty blatantly, too. The book tried to make the case that Shultz had never really gotten over the death of his mother when he was about 18 or 19 and he was always awkward around women. His confidence improved as "Peanuts" took off, and he found a younger woman who gave him more affirmation than his first wife. In other words, he had a midlife crisis and a cute young thang made him feel better about himself. He eventually divorced his first wife, but did not marry the young woman, though he did marry again a few years later. One of his wives, I think it was his second, said she realized Shultz was the kind of man who needed to feel he was the most important person in someone's life and needed a lot of attention. He was an only child whose mom died young and psychologists will tell you this kind of behavior is not unusual for people in that circumstance.

I heard the author on NPR a few weeks ago and he said some of Shultz's family were not happy that the book showed the man with all his faults, but no mention was made of a lawsuit. In fact, the Shultz family gave the author complete access to his papers, allowed many personal interviews with family and friends and even allowed many "Peanuts" strips to be re-printed.

Bottom line: Shultz is not portrayed as a jerk, just a complex man with faults. People wanted to imagine he was just like Charlie Brown, a lovable loser who always did the right thing. But even Shultz did not consider himself to be Charlie Brown's alter-ego. There was a little of Shultz in most of his characters, and a lot of his first wife in Lucy.

 

[Stanislav]

Bottom line: Shultz is not portrayed as a jerk, just a complex man with faults.

As are most great artists, in any field. When you look at the great books, paintings, music, etc. that have endured and touched people long after the artist's death, rarely will you find the creator to be a well-adjusted, "normal" human being -- there's often a lot of emotional turmoil, social dissonance, and even some mental illness here and there. They say that genius is only a hair removed from madness, and I think that's probably true.

 

[firepoint525]

Unfortunately, it was a stereotyle that lingered on into the 1980s -- remember the "Diff'rent Strokes" episode that guested Gordon Jump as a bicycle repairman (a role, in my opinion, that he didn't deserve)?

His character in that show was a child-molester.

 

[Stanislav]

One guy who didn't appreciate being a Stooge was Joe Besser, who was the first replacement for Curly, preceding Curly Joe DeRita.

Actually, Joe Besser replaced Shemp, who replaced Curly, who himself had originally replaced Shemp when the Stooges went into short features and Shemp had signed a separate contract as a solo performer. (Forgive me if I seem a bit pedantic -- I took two years of Stoogeology in college....)

He refused to get slapped, punched, poked, take a pie in the face, or do much of anything for the team.

He did take a pie once (contrary to legend and the very inaccurate TV-movie). But, yeah, he was averse to being slapped, primarily, even though the Stooges never really slapped each other very hard. (The magic of sound effects...) Moe originally wanted Joe DeRita back then (in 1956) after Shemp died, but DeRita wasn't available at the time. Besser just wasn't a good fit for the trio, no matter how you look at it.

Another thing that didn't help him was that he was a crony of Abbott & Costello, Moe & Larry's sworn enemies, whom they had accused for years, and accurately, of stealing their material.

Bud and Lou didn't steal any actual material from the Stooges (90% of A&C's stuff was old vaudeville and burlesque routines that had been done by many before them), but Moe maintained all his life that some of Lou Costello's mannerisms were influenced by Curly.

On Joe DeRita's gravestone, the inscription reads "The Last Stooge". He was very proud of both the label and of having been a Stooge.

One thing about Joe is that he was very kind and accommodating to fans. He had a listed phone number in retirement, and when fans would just show up at his doorstep hoping to meet him, he was always very gracious to them. Of course, by then he was quite ill and nearly blind from diabetes, and he was probably grateful for any company he could get.

 

[ixnay]

Garth Brooks was mentioned earlier on this thread. An excellent example IMO of Mr. Brooks' ego at work took place behind the scenes prior to Brooks' performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXVII in January 1993 in Pasadena (the last Super Bowl played in the L.A. area, and the same SB where Michael Jackson sang at halftime).

NBC planned to show Brooks' latest video prior to his SSB performance. Well, the video was so late in arriving at the Rose Bowl, jeopardizing its airing due to logistical problems (Super Bowl pregame extravaganzas are designed with precision ;D), that Brooks threatened to drive off and leave the NFL with nobody to sing the anthem. It took some arm twisting by NFL executive Don Weiss (who reminded Brooks that he had helped the NFL launch some sort of outreach program in South Central L.A. during SB week and had donated concert proceeds of $1 million thereto) to convince Brooks to deliver on his end of the deal. The video aired, in edited form, three minutes late. Brooks sang the anthem, and it was "music to my ears", wrote Mr. Weiss in The Making of the Super Bowl (Contemporary Books, 2003).

ixnay

 

[KeithE4]

According to him, some of the worst-of-the-worst were Yul Brenner, Andy Williams and The Three Stooges.

I find the latter hard to believe -- did he ever say which Stooge, or did he mean all of them? Moe, in particular, was said by all who knew him to be one of the gentlest, kindest men they ever knew, a complete 180 degrees from his screen persona. Larry, I don't know about personality-wise...

From everything I've read, all of the Howard brothers and Larry Fine were good guys off-stage. Curly had a bit of a reputation for drinking and carousing (which led to his 1946 stroke and early death a few years later), but he was never nasty to his fans, AFAIK.

...but as I am assuming this was the last incarnation of the Stooges, I can believe that Joe DeRita (Curly-Joe) maybe had the potential to be a little gruff and testy. He liked Moe and Larry, and appreciated having a steady gig at that stage of his life, but many said he wasn't happy about being a Stooge, and didn't really appreciate their humor.

DeRita himself said that he liked Moe and Larry personally, but he almost never socialized with them (or much of anyone else for that matter) and he really didn't care much for the Three Stooges as an act. Even by his own admission he was pretty much of a loner off-stage. But I've never heard anything about his behaving like a jerk.

 

[pqgeorge]

According to him, some of the worst-of-the-worst were Yul Brenner, Andy Williams and The Three Stooges.

I find the latter hard to believe -- did he ever say which Stooge, or did he mean all of them? Moe, in particular, was said by all who knew him to be one of the gentlest, kindest men they ever knew, a complete 180 degrees from his screen persona. Larry, I don't know about personality-wise, but as I am assuming this was the last incarnation of the Stooges, I can believe that Joe DeRita (Curly-Joe) maybe had the potential to be a little gruff and testy. He liked Moe and Larry, and appreciated having a steady gig at that stage of his life, but many said he wasn't happy about being a Stooge, and didn't really appreciate their humor.

Add yet another Stooge fan (for 44 years and counting) coming to the defense of the "boys". No way could any of the Stooges be anything other than gracious to their millions of fans worldwide. These boys were truly a class act, bar none. And to think otherwise is nothing but a bunch of baloney. They (all of the Stooges) appreciated their fans up until the day they died. Sure, Joe Besser had his quirks, namely NO physical "abuse" on-screen, as listed in his contract of 16 shorts that Columbia released until 1957. Otherwise, the boys were pros..... all the way. And when the Stooges went over to TV, they never forgot the people who got them there...... their fans. So.....NYUK, NYUK NYUK!


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts

 

[Stanislav]

According to him, some of the worst-of-the-worst were Yul Brenner, Andy Williams and The Three Stooges.

I find the latter hard to believe -- did he ever say which Stooge, or did he mean all of them? Moe, in particular, was said by all who knew him to be one of the gentlest, kindest men they ever knew, a complete 180 degrees from his screen persona. Larry, I don't know about personality-wise, but as I am assuming this was the last incarnation of the Stooges, I can believe that Joe DeRita (Curly-Joe) maybe had the potential to be a little gruff and testy. He liked Moe and Larry, and appreciated having a steady gig at that stage of his life, but many said he wasn't happy about being a Stooge, and didn't really appreciate their humor.

Add yet another Stooge fan (for 44 years and counting) coming to the defense of the "boys". No way could any of the Stooges be anything other than gracious to their millions of fans worldwide. These boys were truly a class act, bar none. And to think otherwise is nothing but a bunch of baloney. They (all of the Stooges) appreciated their fans up until the day they died. Sure, Joe Besser had his quirks, namely NO physical "abuse" on-screen, as listed in his contract of 16 shorts that Columbia released until 1957. Otherwise, the boys were pros..... all the way. And when the Stooges went over to TV, they never forgot the people who got them there...... their fans. So.....NYUK, NYUK NYUK!


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts

And if any of them at any time seemed to behave in an unseemly manner, they were just "victims of soicumstance!" ;D

 

[bpatrick]

Bert Parks was known to get snippy with fans.
Once, in Atlantic City, a woman approached him
for an autograph while he was studying his script
for the Miss America Pageant. "Can't you see I'm
busy?" he snapped. It's not known if she ever got
his autograph.

My dad says that Parks was a real loudmouth.
He saw Parks in an Atlanta restaurant one night,
and said that Parks could be heard all over the
place.

During his period of greatest fame on "The Millionaire,"
Marvin Miller could get (to use Richard Dawson's word)
testy with fans who took the show too seriously. Once
a woman actually found out where he lived and rang his
doorbell. AFAIK, she got the door slammed in her face
after he told her he didn't have a million dollars.
A couple from the Midwest wrote asking for a million-dollar
check; Miller sent them his customary "for a million dollars'
worth of good luck" counterfeit check. Unhappy about this,
they wrote him again and got back a letter which he once
said was written in some choice Anglo-Saxon words. On
their third attempt, he ignored the letter.

But I don't think that was Miller's true nature; I've never
heard of his being nasty in his everyday life, on or off
camera. Indeed, most people who wrote him accepted the
"million dollars' worth of good luck" check without complaint.

George Reeves is another true professional who resisted
the urge to snap when things went wrong. The first day
of shooting "Superman," he fell about fifteen feet when the
wires broke. He spent the night in the hospital, but sustained
only some bruises. Next day he went to the special-effects
people and politely said, "You think we could come up with
something else?" On a live personal appearance he talked a
kid out of firing a gun at him to see if bullets really bounced off.
"It might bounce off me and hit somebody in the audience," or
words to that effect, was Reeves' way of handling it.

But Reeves could be nasty when he was drinking. One of the
stories that's been told about the night he died was that he
got very snappish with the couple who had come to help him
and his fiancee celebrate the upcoming wedding, and that in
a snit he excused himself and went upstairs to bed, which is
when supposedly he was shot, or shot himself, or whatever
theory you believe.

And a few notes about Lucy. Desi spent about half his time
moderating set-tos between Lucy and crew or other actors.
Lucy wanted to do everybody's job; one director (I think it
might have been William Asher) quit because she kept telling
him how to direct. She's also the only person who could
outrehearse Milton Berle; when he appeared on "The Lucy-
Desi Comedy Hour," she had him whining that he didn't want
to do any more. On a movie set once, she and Jackie Gleason
got into an argument that carried over all across the lot as
one of them chased the other (I'm not sure who chased whom),
hurling a stream of invective. And when Lucy was pregnant,
her dressing room was just offstage while Vivian Vance's was
farther down the hall. Lucy was dressed and ready to make
her entrance, forgetting that it took longer for Vivian to get
to the entrance point. When she did Lucy snapped, "What
took you so long?" Vivian's answer: "I'd tell you to (bleep)
yourself if Desi hadn't already taken care of that!"

 

[Braves2005]

Vivian Vance despised William Frawley with a purple passion whenever "I Love Lucy" was not filming calling him everything under the sun (one instance calling him "an old fogey", among other unsavory terms she used about him)

I remember for a time during the 1970's before Vivian Vance passed away in 1979 that Vivian did not speak to Lucille Ball at all or the other way around. I think that it was shortly after an episode of Dinah Shore's talk show in which they were together that this happened.

 

[LKellerIII]

"During his period of greatest fame on "The Millionaire," Marvin Miller could get (to use Richard Dawson's word)
testy with fans who took the show too seriously. Once a woman actually found out where he lived and rang his
doorbell. AFAIK, she got the door slammed in her face after he told her he didn't have a million dollars.
A couple from the Midwest wrote asking for a million-dollar check; Miller sent them his customary "for a million dollars'
worth of good luck" counterfeit check. Unhappy about this, they wrote him again and got back a letter which he once
said was written in some choice Anglo-Saxon words. On their third attempt, he ignored the letter."

Miller gets a pass on me for this one - I'd get POed too. I've heard that there are actually people stupid enough to believe actors really ARE the characters they play - like actors who play villains getting cursed at in public, and having things thrown at them. I've heard this is particularly true of soap-opera stars who play these characters for years on end - and have dedicated viewers who are at the...uh...let's say eccentric...end of the human behavior spectrum.

 

[bpatrick]

Did you read the rest of my post on Marvin Miller? I said
that I don't think it was his true personality. I do think
that he would agree that some people can't distinguish
reality from the make-believe they see on the tube.

Back to Lucy: William Frawley once said of Vivian Vance,
"She's one of the finest gals to come out of Kansas, but
sometimes I wish she'd go back there."

 

[RicoGregg]

One guy who didn't appreciate being a Stooge was Joe Besser, who was the first replacement for Curly, preceding Curly Joe DeRita.

Actually, Joe Besser replaced Shemp, who replaced Curly, who himself had originally replaced Shemp when the Stooges went into short features and Shemp had signed a separate contract as a solo performer. (Forgive me if I seem a bit pedantic -- I took two years of Stoogeology in college....)

He refused to get slapped, punched, poked, take a pie in the face, or do much of anything for the team.

He did take a pie once (contrary to legend and the very inaccurate TV-movie). But, yeah, he was averse to being slapped, primarily, even though the Stooges never really slapped each other very hard. (The magic of sound effects...)

Bud and Lou didn't steal any actual material from the Stooges (90% of A&C's stuff was old vaudeville and burlesque routines that had been done by many before them), but Moe maintained all his life that some of Lou Costello's mannerisms were influenced by Curly.

On the first point, you are quite correct. I didn't do my Stooge math very well. Joe Besser indeed replaced Shemp, not Curly.

As for the second point, about the Stooges not "slapping very hard", I offer this:
http://imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio
Larry Fine (I) - Biography

Scroll down to the trivia section about Larry Fine.

As for the very debatable third point, ripoffs have happened in show biz throughout time. People today are accused of stealing material (Wayan Bros., anyone?). A woman I worked with in radio once came up with a great line about a celebrity's do-nothing husband during the morning show she did news on, and by late afternoon, the joke had made it's way clear across the country, and was used on Johnny Carson that night!

In the case of Stooges vs. Abbott & Costello, well, in one of their 40s shorts, they did a bit where Curly was at a restaurant, trying to eat some clam chowder, and every time he put a soup cracker in the chowder, the clam would surface, and steal the cracker. He would also spray chowder at Curly, and use his claws (I didn't know clams had claws) on Curly's fingers.

The very same skit, shot-by-shot, was used by Lou Costello on the short-lived A&C TV show. By the time their show had debuted, Curly had died.

 

[Jimme]

I've heard negative things about Besser's tenure with the Stooges, but consider the following before saying he was nasty.  This is all just my opinion, and nothing more.  As he was used to dressing up in a "little lord Fauntleroy" suit and smashing lollipops over Csotello's head, and getting beat up in return by Lou, I can't believe the rumors Besser thought being in the Stooges or getting slapped et al was beneath him.  The bosses at Columbia ordered Joe, who was under contract, to join Moe and Larry.  None of the three had a say in the matter.  The Stooges were near the end of their Columbia run and weren't treated well (low pay, lack of respect from upper management for short subjects, using scripts originally produced decades earlier with Besser playing the part of the more physically nimble and faster-paced Curly.  While I actually like Joe better than Shemp, most people don't and we all love Curly best.  How would you like your body of work with the Stooges to be consistently referred to as "inferior" or "worst of all the combinations"?  (I replaced a "living God" in an accounting job and, believe me, it isn't fun.)  I have read that Besser did go along with the slapping, running into doors, pie throwing et all initially.  His first few Stooge shorts clearly show him regularly slapped and getting dishes or eggs dumped over him.  The problem for the viewer is, Besser couldn't make it look funny like Curly did.  There is one episode where Joe loses his balance and falls backward into a chest of drawers.  You are more scared he ruptured something than laughing at what would be funny if Curly did it.  Besser allegedly huddled with Moe and Larry that the physical stuff wasn't looking funny on film.  Moe agreed and, going forward, scripts were changed where Larry got most of Moe's wrath.  As for Larry, he was said to be easy going, but liked to gamble and often lost his money as fast as he earned it.  He let Moe do the business negotiation end.

 

[bk77]

Vivian Vance despised William Frawley with a purple passion whenever "I Love Lucy" was not filming calling him everything under the sun (one instance calling him "an old fogey", among other unsavory terms she used about him)

I remember for a time during the 1970's before Vivian Vance passed away in 1979 that Vivian did not speak to Lucille Ball at all or the other way around. I think that it was shortly after an episode of Dinah Shore's talk show in which they were together that this happened.

True Vance & Frawley did not get along but it wasn't always that way. During the very days of I Love Lucy, Vance and Frawley were actually good friends BUT Vance one day started complaining about Frawley such as their age differences and whatnot. One day Frawley overheard Vance's..well bitc*ing and the infamous feud begins.

Lucy & Vance always had a hot/cold friendship.

Vance also had a major falling out with Allan Funt too. Story goes about that, Vance was in a film stunt for Funt's Candid Camera. The stunt had Vance working as a sales clerk in a major department store. A young man comes up to Vnace to buy a nightgown and Vance being the sales clerk tries to start a conversation with the young man. He says the nightgown was for his wife who is in a mental hospital. The young man starts to cry, as does Vance because at the time she was a huge suporter for mental health. Funt and the crew of the show OTOH thought the whole thing was downright funny ( the sight of a grown man crying his eyes out )and wanted to use the bit on Candid Camera. Vance went off at Funt and demanded that Funt destroy the clip. The clip never aired but I don't think Vance was ever invited back on Candid Camera.

 

[Stanislav]

In the case of Stooges vs. Abbott & Costello, well, in one of their 40s shorts, they did a bit where Curly was at a restaurant, trying to eat some clam chowder, and every time he put a soup cracker in the chowder, the clam would surface, and steal the cracker. He would also spray chowder at Curly, and use his claws (I didn't know clams had claws) on Curly's fingers.

The very same skit, shot-by-shot, was used by Lou Costello on the short-lived A&C TV show. By the time their show had debuted, Curly had died.

It was also done by A&C in a different form (the frog in the milk) in their movies, but the point is that the same basic bit had been done previously even before the Stooges appropriated it, dating back to the silents. So, it wasn't even original to the Stooges -- Curly's version is simply the best remembered because he was so good at expressing comedic frustration and doing battle with objects that tormented him. Hell, there are comedy bits that are still being recycled to this day that probably date back from before silent films -- everyone simply puts their own spin on it, like variations on a theme. Some of the Stooges most fondly remembered schtick and catch phrases were things that Ted Healy did with them in their pre-movie days, and Healy had himself probably "stolen" them from others that came before. It's like sitcoms -- there are dozens of basic sitcom plots that have been used again and again -- the same basic premise for an episode filmed today may have been used many times, dating back to "The Honeymooners" and "I Love Lucy." The characterizations and some of the details of the plot change with the show, but the basic premise remains the same. So, that sort of "borrowing" has a long history in comedy.

 

[LKellerIII]

"Vance also had a major falling out with Allan Funt too. Story goes about that, Vance was in a film stunt for Funt's Candid Camera. The stunt had Vance working as a sales clerk in a major department store. A young man comes up to Vnace to buy a nightgown and Vance being the sales clerk tries to start a conversation with the young man. He says the nightgown was for his wife who is in a mental hospital. The young man starts to cry, as does Vance because at the time she was a huge suporter for mental health. Funt and the crew of the show OTOH thought the whole thing was downright funny ( the sight of a grown man crying his eyes out )and wanted to use the bit on Candid Camera. Vance went off at Funt and demanded that Funt destroy the clip. The clip never aired but I don't think Vance was ever invited back on Candid Camera."

Interesting story - I can see both sides, but I certainly see Vance's point of view from her context. As a supporter of mental health, she probably was afraid it would look like her crying was an act, and might be construed as making fun of the mentally ill. Under the circumstances, it seems kind of petty for Funt not to invite her back.

Regarding Frawley, I've heard over the years that he was a difficult and irascible guy. In other words, it didn't take much acting for him to play the equally irascible Fred Mertz, accept that in real life, he wasn't as lovable as Fred. I seem to remember stories of his irritability and temper much later on My Three Sons.

 

[RicoGregg]

In the case of Stooges vs. Abbott & Costello, well, in one of their 40s shorts, they did a bit where Curly was at a restaurant, trying to eat some clam chowder, and every time he put a soup cracker in the chowder, the clam would surface, and steal the cracker. He would also spray chowder at Curly, and use his claws (I didn't know clams had claws) on Curly's fingers.

The very same skit, shot-by-shot, was used by Lou Costello on the short-lived A&C TV show. By the time their show had debuted, Curly had died.

It was also done by A&C in a different form (the frog in the milk) in their movies, but the point is that the same basic bit had been done previously even before the Stooges appropriated it, dating back to the silents. So, it wasn't even original to the Stooges -- Curly's version is simply the best remembered because he was so good at expressing comedic frustration and doing battle with objects that tormented him. Hell, there are comedy bits that are still being recycled to this day that probably date back from before silent films -- everyone simply puts their own spin on it, like variations on a theme. Some of the Stooges most fondly remembered schtick and catch phrases were things that Ted Healy did with them in their pre-movie days, and Healy had himself probably "stolen" them from others that came before. It's like sitcoms -- there are dozens of basic sitcom plots that have been used again and again -- the same basic premise for an episode filmed today may have been used many times, dating back to "The Honeymooners" and "I Love Lucy." The characterizations and some of the details of the plot change with the show, but the basic premise remains the same. So, that sort of "borrowing" has a long history in comedy.

Using that same principal, the Beatles didn't invent rock n' roll, and they were obviously influenced by the styles of artists who preceded them. John and Paul, in their pre-Beatle days, had an Everly Brothers-type act called the Nurk Twins.

But they managed to form a style that they could call their very own. While they may have "resembled" other artists in some songs (Paul a la Little Richard in "I'm Down", George a la Carl Perkins in his solos, etc.), no one ever accused them of copying anyone or ripping someone off. They are considered originals and a one-of-a-kind act. And in the 38 years since their break-up, many have been accused of copying them. In his famous (infamous?) Rolling Stone interview in 1970, John flat out accused the Rolling Stones of constantly copying them.

Virtually every song in the annals of rock has been inspired by something that preceded it. That doesn't necessarily make composers copiers.

While the Three Stooges may not have been "The Beatles of Comedy", the test of time has positioned them right in the upper echelon. Just as music was inspired by something that preceded it, comedy is inspired by something that came before it. Every act tries to put it's own stamp on it.

I don't know what inspired the clam chowder skit in the Stooges' skit, but I do know what inspired Abbott & Costello's copy of the same skit: The Three Stooges.

In one of their last albums, John composed a song called "Come Together" that was an obvious variation of an old Chuck Berry song, but yet is considered a Beatles original.

The clam skit may be a variation of something that came before, but I consider it a Stooges original.

 

[jwgreek8606]

My mother worked in the restaurant business for 20 years and I remember talking to her on the phone one night while getting ready to watch Boston Legal and she told me that William Shattner was a jerk in person. She knew because her friend Marsha and her husband Richard lived in California and she worked at a restaurant out there and waited on him and said he was a complete jerk.

My mom however told me one of the nicest of celebs was Robin Williams I think my mother waited on him and she said he was nice and cordial as can be.