Posted on 01/30/2018 5:44:36 PM PST by WilliamIII
In "Little by Little: People I've Known and Been," legendary impersonator and comedian Rich Little looks back on the myriad of celebs he's known -- and impersonated. The Canadian-born comic is a classic movie buff fond of doing Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne but he's also includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood among his repertoire. Little, 78, spoke to FOX411 about his new book and some of his favorite stars.
FOX411: You became a U.S. citizen in 2010.
Little: I was born in Canada and I thought this country's been so good to me down through the years that I should become an American citizen and I realized that you can become a dual citizen and I was sworn in here in Las Vegas.
FOX411: What was Hollywood like politically in the 70s?
Little: Back in the 70s everyone was Republican. John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, they were all conservative back then. I don't know when it turned around.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
[Back in the 70\s]
And we had “The Rockford Files” and “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”. Good times.
"Ain't we lucky we got 'em?"
And a few Log Cabin Republicans too.
Two greats no doubt.
Rockford is probably my #1 70s show.
Kojak probably tied for first.
If Rich is still performing, he would need to update his impressions a bit. Even by 1980, I had seen him do Richard Nixon enough times. Today, Rich may even have to do rappers in order to really establish a connection with those under 40. That’s always risky. He would be accused of ‘misappropriating’ a black man’s mannerisms! That’s supposed to be a bad thing today.
“Back in the 70s everyone was Republican. John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, they were all conservative back then.”
So were Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, Dinah Shore, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Walter Pidgeon, Frank Sinatra, etc. I bet a number of them have been reliably voting Democrat in recent years though, eh?
Agreed with your choices. I’d like to see the dumb nostalgia channels bring back ones like Police Woman, Vega$, Barnaby Jones, and a few other titles like that that I was not allowed to stay up late and watch because my parents would have deemed them past my bedtime and too violent and adult oriented for me.
I find it hard to believe that Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, Sally Kellerman, Roman Polanski, Peter Bogdanovich, William Friedkin, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Lemon, Walter Matthau, Alan Alda, Ellen Burstyn, Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, etc., were Republicans.
Makes sense. Only the dead vote democrat.
Senile?
Hollywood was NEVER republican.
And you do of course realize that James Garner was a flaming liberal, correct?
That was before the liberal and Mexican invasion.
Not Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner , Norman Lear, Dick van Dyke as well.
But there was Michael Landon.
bookmark
That’s a very good question. Stage impressions may be less frequent these days because we don’t all look at the same three TV stations or read the same papers anymore.
Another reason is a lot of people have forgotten or never learned to take a joke. So they get offended very easily.
I believe he still performs in Vegas.
He’s more of a lukewarm, FDR liberal.
James Garner who played Jim Rockford was a fine Oklahoma Gentleman who supported Hillary and Bill till his dying day. A fact that my knowing, saddens me to this day.
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