Stars who didn't like the roles that had made them famous....

[mleach]

My wife came up with this thread so give her the credit.

Stars who didn't like the roles which had made them famous. Not talking about child stars like Jay North and Patty Duke who in later years would slam their own shows due to their emotional problems but those stars who for one reason or another did NOT like the roles that had made them, well stars and still refuses to talk about it to this day.

Two I can think of right off the bat was Nancy McKeon ( she won't discuss her role as JO on the Facts of Life ) and Max Baer Jr. from the Beverly Hillbillies. For the longest time I heard the story that he really did not like the role of Jethro as he felt the part was stupid. Then again that may be a bad example since last I heard Max was planning on building a casino based on...The Beverly Hillbillies. Guess he must not had hated Beverly Hillbillies that much.

Then there is Bea Pons. She played the role of Lucille Toody on Car 54, Where Are You. A few months back I read a very interesting post on IMDB written by someone who had met Bea back in the 80's. Not only did she hated her role as Gunther Toody's wife on Car 54 but to even bring it up to her, Bea would cuss, spit, yell, hit at you "..how DARE you bring up that Car 54 sh*t to me !!". Instead Bea wanted to remembered for her fine movies such as the horror film "Mother's Day". Ok watch this trailer. Would YOU rather be remembered from doing Car 54..or this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QsKYaRQv-c

 

[Tom Wells]

Adam West was annoyed he couldn't get past his portrayal of Batman,
and Leonard Nimoy was said to have issues with the public's inability to see him as other than Mr. Spock.

 

[milwaukee_dave]

Interesting post!

One star who quickly comes to mind is Priscilla Barnes, the actress who assumed the blond roommate role in the later years of one of my favorite sitcoms, "Three's Company." I recall Barnes in a late 1990s interview stating that her three years on the show were among some of the worst of her life because of the unwelcome attention it brought on. Much like co-star Joyce DeWitt, Barnes said she was uncomfortable with the intense publicity. In later years, she stated that the Terri character she assumed on "Three's Company" typecast her.

 

[landtuna]

I doubt any of these actors walked into their 'hated' roles with their eyes shut. They could have viewed the shows already in progress or read a few scripts and easily figured out what their role would be. I doubt any of them had a gun to their head to accept the role.

And I'll bet all of them got a very substantial salary for their few years of "grief". One hell of a lot more than I did for my lifetime of professional work.

That said....Priscilla Barnes sure had a great pair of legs! ;D

 

[dave73]

I don't know how successful Sally Field was before & after the Flying Nun, but she hated being The Flying Nun. She had said that she would have preferred to continue her role as Gidget, but ABC refused to give that show a chance. I believe she was still under contract that obligated her to star in The Flying Nun. I don't know how true that is, but the part that she hated playing Sister Bertrille (Elsie Ethrington) in The Flying Nun was true.

David Cassidy hasn't really enjoyed being remembered as Keith Partridge (especially in his younger years) in The Partridge Family. That show typecasted him.

 

[bk77]

Richard Keith ( Keith Thibodeaux ) the boy who played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy even though he had enjoyed being on the show at first however rather quickly Keith learned to regret doing I Love Lucy, even at times speaking out against the show in public. A lot of it was due to Lucy's threats during the I Love Lucy days such as forcing Keith against the boy's wishes to spend weekends with Lucie & Desi Jr. or otherwise Lucy would fire his dad ( Keith's father was employed at Desilu ). Despite that Keith did become good friends with both kids even though in the mid 60's during the Deno-Desi-Billy days Desi Arnaz Sr. did pay once for a hooker to service both Desi Jr. and Keith which upset Keith and his family, add that to drugs involving Desi Jr. that friendship was over. Then there was the constant promises on behalf of Desi Sr. about putting Keith in a new show only to couldn't deliver.

All of this was in Richard Keith's 1993 bio "Life After Lucy". At the time the book came out both Desi Arnaz Jr. and Lucie Arnaz went public to deny a lot of these strories by saying that Keith had made up a lot of it due to his faith ( he became a born again Christian in the 80's ). The negative feelings ran deep for many years later as neither Lucie or Desi Jr. allowed Keith to be a a part of the 2001 I Love Lucy Anniversary special that aired on CBS.

 

[firepoint525]

Tina Louise didn't like playing Ginger on Gilligan's Island, which is putting it mildly. Interesting to note that of the surviving cast members, only Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) and Russell Johnson (the professor) still have anything to do with the show, which is interesting and ironic (to say the least), considering that they were merely referred to as "and the rest" in the first season's (the black-and-white season) theme song.

Of the Brady Bunch kids, Eve Plumb (Jan) seems to have distanced herself from her role far more than any of her TV siblings have, although I should point out that at one time or another, each of the Brady girls has refused to appear in at least one of the reunion projects.

 

[Al Timiter]

Frances "Aunt Bee" Bavier on "The Andy Griffith Show."

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Of the Brady Bunch kids, Eve Plumb (Jan) seems to have distanced herself from her role far more than any of her TV siblings have

She's the one who declined the BB variety show, right? And yes, Frances Bavier disparaged "The Andy Griffith Show" a lot, even though she spent her final years in...Mount Airy, North Carolina.

 

[Frank Ferreri]

How can anyone not have gratitude for something that made them "famous" and possibly rich? Never could understand why "celebs" become hostile toward the public and/or the roles that put them in the limelight.

 

[Braves2005]

Robert Reed not absolutely but I believe honestly hated his role as Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch especially during the last two seasons of the show where it has been said he fought with Sherwood Schwartz over several scripts that he didn't like including the last episode of the show that he wasn't in (the episode with the dyed rabbits and Greg's hair turning a different color thanks to Bobby and Oliver's get rich scheme with the mail order shampoo), Reed it has been said that he would rather have done Shakespeare than doing The Brady Bunch but in the long run he tolerated it enough to appear on everything Brady related (Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Brady Girls Get Married, The Bradys, A Very Brady Christmas, etc)

 

[bk77]

How can anyone not have gratitude for something that made them "famous" and possibly rich? Never could understand why "celebs" become hostile toward the public and/or the roles that put them in the limelight.

One can actually write a book on this. People do change over the years. To go along with Landtuna, I doubt most of these celebrities would agree to a part that they hated ( those forced by contract like Sally Field & Doris Day is an exception ) but that doesn't mean that they will regret that part later on. Its pretty much the same with radio. Wasn't there a disc jockey in Chicago who was big on WLS & WCFL in the 70's only to later on "found Jesus Christ" and since then not only slammed his former stations like WLS but he bashed the radio business in general, even the great announcers of Chicago's past like Larry Lujack? I don't recall the man's name. Sure somebody knows out there in radio-info land.

 

[jwk1979]

My wife came up with this thread so give her the credit.


Two I can think of right off the bat was Nancy McKeon ( she won't discuss her role as JO on the Facts of Life ) and Max Baer Jr. from the Beverly Hillbillies. For the longest time I heard the story that he really did not like the role of Jethro as he felt the part was stupid. Then again that may be a bad example since last I heard Max was planning on building a casino based on...The Beverly Hillbillies. Guess he must not had hated Beverly Hillbillies that much.

I think in the case of Max Baer, Jr. and several others, it's not so much that they HATED the roles as it was that they felt they were typecast as those characters, which made it difficult to get other acting jobs. Until he directed and acted in the movie "Macon County Line", the only thing I can recall Max Baer being in was a commercial for some type of food and he was just shown eating. That sounds like typecasting to me. Plus, you have to remember, the stars of TV shows back then only got paid for acting in the shows and making public appearances as the Characters they portrayed. They didn't recieve residuals from synicatation like they did in later years.

 

[Tom Wells]

How can anyone not have gratitude for something that made them "famous" and possibly rich? Never could understand why "celebs" become hostile toward the public and/or the roles that put them in the limelight.

One can actually write a book on this. People do change over the years. To go along with Landtuna, I doubt most of these celebrities would agree to a part that they hated ( those forced by contract like Sally Field & Doris Day is an exception ) but that doesn't mean that they will regret that part later on. Its pretty much the same with radio. Wasn't there a disc jockey in Chicago who was big on WLS & WCFL in the 70's only to later on "found Jesus Christ" and since then not only slammed his former stations like WLS but he bashed the radio business in general, even the great announcers of Chicago's past like Larry Lujack? I don't recall the man's name. Sure somebody knows out there in radio-info land.

Can't remember his real name, but that's Captain Whammo you're referring to....In my memory he was on W DEEE HHHH EFFFFF!!!!!!

 

[KeithE4]

Robert Reed not absolutely but I believe honestly hated his role as Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch especially during the last two seasons of the show where it has been said he fought with Sherwood Schwartz over several scripts that he didn't like including the last episode of the show that he wasn't in (the episode with the dyed rabbits and Greg's hair turning a different color thanks to Bobby and Oliver's get rich scheme with the mail order shampoo), Reed it has been said that he would rather have done Shakespeare than doing The Brady Bunch but in the long run he tolerated it enough to appear on everything Brady related (Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Brady Girls Get Married, The Bradys, A Very Brady Christmas, etc)

He cried all the way to the bank.

 

[KeithE4]

How can anyone not have gratitude for something that made them "famous" and possibly rich? Never could understand why "celebs" become hostile toward the public and/or the roles that put them in the limelight.

One can actually write a book on this. People do change over the years. To go along with Landtuna, I doubt most of these celebrities would agree to a part that they hated ( those forced by contract like Sally Field & Doris Day is an exception ) but that doesn't mean that they will regret that part later on. Its pretty much the same with radio. Wasn't there a disc jockey in Chicago who was big on WLS & WCFL in the 70's only to later on "found Jesus Christ" and since then not only slammed his former stations like WLS but he bashed the radio business in general, even the great announcers of Chicago's past like Larry Lujack? I don't recall the man's name. Sure somebody knows out there in radio-info land.

Can't remember his real name, but that's Captain Whammo you're referring to....In my memory he was on W DEEE HHHH EFFFFF!!!!!!

His real name was Jim Channell, and yes, he was on WDHF/WMET. He later did a christian rock show under his real name on WCFL, in their bible-banging years. I don't remember him ever working at WLS.

 

[bk77]

How can anyone not have gratitude for something that made them "famous" and possibly rich? Never could understand why "celebs" become hostile toward the public and/or the roles that put them in the limelight.

One can actually write a book on this. People do change over the years. To go along with Landtuna, I doubt most of these celebrities would agree to a part that they hated ( those forced by contract like Sally Field & Doris Day is an exception ) but that doesn't mean that they will regret that part later on. Its pretty much the same with radio. Wasn't there a disc jockey in Chicago who was big on WLS & WCFL in the 70's only to later on "found Jesus Christ" and since then not only slammed his former stations like WLS but he bashed the radio business in general, even the great announcers of Chicago's past like Larry Lujack? I don't recall the man's name. Sure somebody knows out there in radio-info land.

Can't remember his real name, but that's Captain Whammo you're referring to....In my memory he was on W DEEE HHHH EFFFFF!!!!!!

His real name was Jim Channell, and yes, he was on WDHF/WMET. He later did a christian rock show under his real name on WCFL, in their bible-banging years. I don't remember him ever working at WLS.

Thats it !!!! Captain Whammo !!

I used to visit reelradio.com but its been at least five years but even if he never did work at WLS he sure did slammed that station according to a post on that site. From what I remember Jim tried to convert Larry Lujack only to get the "..thanks but no thanks" line from Lujack. Jim Channell wasn't happy as I can remember reading about.

 

[Stanislav]

Robert Reed not absolutely but I believe honestly hated his role as Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch especially during the last two seasons of the show where it has been said he fought with Sherwood Schwartz over several scripts that he didn't like including the last episode of the show that he wasn't in (the episode with the dyed rabbits and Greg's hair turning a different color thanks to Bobby and Oliver's get rich scheme with the mail order shampoo), Reed it has been said that he would rather have done Shakespeare than doing The Brady Bunch but in the long run he tolerated it enough to appear on everything Brady related (Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Brady Girls Get Married, The Bradys, A Very Brady Christmas, etc)

Reed didn't actually hate the role, just some (OK, many) of the scripts he was handed. He loved the kids on the show, and I think it was Barry Williams who thought that Reed, as a gay man who knew he would never have the opportunity to be a real "father" like the one he portrayed on TV, kind of looked on the Brady kids as his adopted "family."

But he couldn't get past the fact that he was doing a silly sitcom, not serious theater. He hated when unrealistic situations and slapstick crept into the scripts. Sherwood Schwartz said he was constantly writing multi-page memos complaining about scripts, and suggesting changes that would have certainly turned up the realism, but turned down the funny.

I think it was Schwartz who said of Reed something like, "He's the kind of guy who could be doing Shakespeare on stage, get booed for his performance, and his reaction would be, 'Hey, don't blame me -- I didn't write this sh*t!'"

 

[FreddyE1977]

I don't know if she'd say she actually hated the role, but I have heard Lynda Carter talk about being
turned-off by all of the lewd, aggressive, over-the-top male attention she used to receive as a result of being Wonder Woman (and Ben Roethlisberger wasn't even born yet! ;D )

 

[BobSacamano]

Fred Gwyne had a "love-hate" relationship with Herman Munster...He had a hard time distancing himself from the character, plus he hated the make-up. When he was approached about a Munster reunion movie in the 80's, he reportedly told his agent to ask for a ridiculous sum of money..NBC said yes, and he did the movie....In one of his last interviews though. when asked about his favorite roles, he said he couldn't help but like "Old Herman"