Free Republic

---SNIP--- Andrew Breitbart was Orson’s son-in-law. When I toured Israel with Andrew in the summer of 2007, I asked him to convey our invitation to Orson to write something for Power Line. In response to our standing invitation, Orson provided the following account of “why I wrote this book” for Power Line readers. Orson wrote: For most of my life I didn’t believe in God. Who had time? I was too busy with things of this world: getting ahead, getting laid, becoming famous. For most of my adult life I’ve been at least somewhat famous. Not so famous that I...

LOS ANGELES—Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. The coroner’s office provided the location where Bean was found, which matched reports from local news outlets. A man was walking in the Venice neighborhood when he was clipped by a vehicle and fell, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Brian Wendling initially told local stations. A second driver then struck him in what police say was the...

Actor and comedian Orson Bean is dead after being struck by a car while crossing the street ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Bean was allegedly jaywalking in Venice Friday night when he was clipped by one vehicle and then struck by another. We're told Bean died at the scene and both vehicles stayed after the incident. Cops are currently investigating whether the collision was criminal or an accident.

Andrew Breitbart, the 43-year-old conservative writer who died Thursday morning, was found collapsed on the sidewalk near his Westwood home while taking a nighttime walk, his father-in-law told The Times. Breitbart was found about 12:30 or 1 a.m. "He was walking near the house somewhere.... He was taken by paramedics to UCLA and they couldn't revive him," said his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean, who spoke with his daughter, Susannah Bean Breitbart, about what happened. "We're devastated. I loved him like a son," Bean said. "It looks like a heart attack, but no one knows until" an autopsy is done. *snip*...

The Los Angeles County coroner's office will review the death of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who collapsed and died Thursday while taking a nighttime walk near his Westwood home. Given his young age -- he was 43 -- and the unexpected manner in which he died, authorities will conduct an autopsy to help determine a specific cause of death. Breitbart's father-in-law, actor Orson Bean, said in an interview with The Times that Breitbart was found collapsed near his home about 12:30 a.m. Paramedics took him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, but doctors were unable to revive him. "We're devastated....

World War II was my war. We fought the Germans. They were the enemy. There was a German problem. Of course, if we had stopped to think about it, which we didn’t because we were too busy trying to win the war, we would have realized that not every German wanted to fight us; maybe not even a majority of them did. But they didn’t oppose the Nazi extremists who had taken over their government and attacked us in the name of German racial superiority. I’m sure a lot of Germans agreed with Hitler. But those who were against him,...

In September of 2001, I found myself employed at a theater in Los Angeles playing the part of Ben Franklin in the musical “1776.” The show is about the signing of the Declaration of Independence: an entertaining history lesson that concludes with all the bells in Philadelphia ringing and the actors freezing in a tableau recreating the famous painting of the original signers. It stirs up feelings of patriotism in the hearts of all but the most America-hating of theater goers. As luck would have it, the first week of the show’s run concluded on Sunday September 10th. The next...

Jon Voight intended to turn heads with the “very strong points” in his Washington Times op-ed last week (titled: Voight: My Concerns For America ~ Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people). But he probably didn’t expect so many of them to reside in Hollywood. In a sign of the growing interest in politics this election year, bloggers who normally focus on the entertainment industry are expanding their presence in one of the Internet’s other spheres of influence. Voight’s piece slammed Democratic candidate Barack Obama, praised GOP contender John McCain, and even repudiated his own Vietnam War protests as the...

BREITBART: Blacklist then and now Andrew Breitbart Monday, July 28, 2008 IXTAPA, Mexico — "There is no such thing as a blacklist anymore," George Clooney declared in 2005 while promoting his black-and-white hagiography of Edward R. Murrow, "Good Night, And Good Luck." One eternally optimistic showman who has endured the Red Scare as well as the current Hollywood political disorder (let's not call it the "b-word" and upset Rosemary Clooney's nephew) is actor-raconteur - and my father-in-law - Orson Bean, who last week took our entire family to Mexico for his 80th birthday. Orson was the young, hot comic on...