Army Archerd
Army Archerd | |
---|---|
![]() Army Archerd at the 1988 Academy Awards | |
Born | Armand Andre Archerd January 13, 1922 Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
Died | September 8, 2009 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 87)
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
Spouse(s) |
Joan Paul
(m. 1944; div. 1969)Selma (Fenning) Archerd
(m. 1969; died 2009) |
Children | 2 |
Armand Andre Archerd (January 13, 1922[1] – September 8, 2009)[2] was an American columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005.[3] In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.
Biography
Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York, and graduated from UCLA in 1941. He was hired by Variety to replace columnist Sheilah Graham (former girlfriend of F. Scott Fitzgerald) in 1953. His "Just for Variety" column appeared on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. In 1984, he was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, where he had emceed dozens of movie premieres.
One of his most significant scoops was in his July 23, 1985, column, when he printed that Rock Hudson, despite denials from the actor's publicists and managers, was undergoing treatment for AIDS.
Archerd was Jewish[2] and a strong proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Holocaust awareness. He was married to Selma Archerd, a former actress, from November 15, 1969 until his death. They had one child and lived in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
Archerd made four appearances on the popular, long-running game show The Hollywood Squares in the 1970s. His bluffs to questions from Peter Marshall became legendary, as he was able to fool contestants into believing his (often ridiculous) answers.[citation needed] Some say[who?] he was even better than the accepted champion in that regard, long-time participant John Davidson. Also in that decade, Archerd and his wife Selma made appearances on the game show, Tattletales.
He made several appearances in TV series, like Burke's Law (1964), Batman (episode 39), Mannix (1967), and Marcus Welby, M.D., and films such as The Young Runaways (1968), The Outfit (1973), Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), Gable and Lombard (1976), California Suite (1978), The French Atlantic Affair (1979) and The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980).
Archerd died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from a rare form of lung cancer (pleural mesothelioma), as a result of his exposure to asbestos in the Navy during World War II.[2]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1958 | Teacher's Pet | Himself | Uncredited |
1963 | A New Kind of Love | Onlooker | Uncredited |
1963 | Under the Yum Yum Tree | Writer | Uncredited |
1964 | What a Way to Go! | TV Announcer | Uncredited |
1964 | Kisses for My President | Reporter | Uncredited |
1966 | The Oscar | Press Conference Reporter | Uncredited |
1967 | Rough Night in Jericho | Waiter | Uncredited |
1968 | Planet of the Apes | Gorilla | UIncredited |
1968 | Wild in the Streets | Himself | Uncredited |
1968 | The Young Runaways | Himself | |
1970 | Beneath the Planet of the Apes | Gorilla | Uncredited |
1971 | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | Referee | |
1973 | The Thief Who Came to Dinner | Newsman | Uncredited |
1973 | The Outfit | Butler | |
1976 | Gable and Lombard | Emcee | |
1976 | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood | Premiere MC | |
1978 | California Suite | Himself | |
1980 | The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood | Himself | |
1981 | The Devil and Max Devlin | Himself | |
1986 | Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star | Television Host | |
1990 | Repossessed | Himself |
References
- ^ Some sources, including Variety, cite 1919 as his year of birth; the Social Security Death Index cites 1922
- ^ a b c Abcarian, Robin (2009-09-08). "Army Archerd dies at 90; Variety columnist watched over Hollywood for half a century". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
- ^ "'Just for Variety' column to end after 52 years". August 3, 2005. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
External links
- 1922 births
- 2009 deaths
- American columnists
- Jewish American writers
- American naval personnel of World War II
- American television personalities
- Deaths from mesothelioma
- People from the Bronx
- People from Greater Los Angeles
- United States Navy officers
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- Variety (magazine) people
- Deaths from cancer in California
- Townsend Harris High School alumni
- Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
- Journalists from New York City