Latest news with #DialMforMurder
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak makes huge career change at 78
It's been a year since Pat Sajak retired from hosting the game show Wheel of Fortune after 41 years. Now, he's set to for a major career change as he goes back to acting. Sajak will star in a play at the Hawaii Theater called Prescription: Murder with his long time friend KHON-TV Hawaii newscaster Joe Moore. According to the theater's website, Sajak, 78, plays a psychiatrist named Dr. Roy Flemming, who has 'carried out an ingenious plan to murder his wife, and established a perfect alibi.' Moore, 78, stars alongside him as Lt. Columbo, a disheveled and seemingly bumbling detective who's investigating the crime. The show runs for a limited time from July 31 through Aug. 10, is directed by Rob Duval and also stars Bryce Moore, Therese Olival, Amy K. Sullivan and Aiko Chinen. Sajak and Moore collectively said the new play will 'likely be our final time on stage together.' The duo have appeared in several plays together over the years after first starring in The Odd Couple together in 2001. Sajack and Moore met while they were both serving in the Vietnam war and in 2018, starred together in Dial M for Murder. Gregory D. Dunn, President and CEO of Hawaii Theatre Center has nothing but praise for Sajak's acting ability. 'It's really exciting as someone [who] has grown up with Wheel of Fortune,' he said via People. 'I used to sit and watch the show with my grandmother when we were children. 'To be able to engage with him and recognize that he is the authentic and kind person you see on the show — that's his true personality, and the way he interacts with people and his fellow actors and with the cast and crew,' Dunn explained. 'He is really a talented actor that brings an immense amount of craft to the stage.' 'Our audiences every year are delighted when they're able to enjoy his performances on stage,' he added' 'We couldn't be happier to welcome Pat back, and it really is something that we look forward to every couple of years.' Prescription: Murder is the original Columbo mystery thriller that was the inspiration for the long-running Colombo TV series starring Peter Falk. Sajak ended his run on Wheel of Fortune in June 2004, at the end of the show's 41st season. In his final message, Sajak shared an emotional message to his longtime fans that aired on June 7, 2024. 'It's been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes night after night, year after year, decade after decade,' he said. 'And I've always felt that the privilege came with a responsibility to keep this daily half-hour a safe place for family fun. No social issues, no politics, nothing embarrassing, I hope. Just a game.' The Chicago native concluded by sharing, 'What an honor to have played even a small part in all that. Thank you for allowing me into your lives.' Wheel of Fortune's beloved letter-turner Vanna White, 68, recently opened up about her relationship with the show's former host. While Sajak and White still host ABC's primetime version of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, she revealed him leaving the flagship show was a 'sad' time for her. 'It was sad for me in a way because [at the time] I didn't know what the future held. It was ending an unbelievable era!' she said at the Hulu Gets Real event (via TV Insider). When asked if they stay in touch, Vanna said, 'I still see him! We're friends. We have dinner! Yeah, he's still in my life.' She added that when they get back together, 'It's like slipping into something very comfortable. I mean that in the best possible way. It's just comfortable.'
Hindustan Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
The rapid-fire Hitchcock quiz
Alfred Hitchcock's cameos were born of necessity – he sometimes simply needed more people in the frame. They became a superstition, then an annoyance. People spent so much time trying to spot him, that he began to make his appearance in the first five minutes, so everyone could concentrate on the movie again. Can you tell which five films the following cameos are from? 1. Seated at a table in a class reunion photograph (above). . . 2. As a shadow on the glass door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths office. . . 3. On a train, playing cards; his hand is all spades, the best hand there is in bridge. . . 4. As the before-and-after photos in a newspaper advertisement for a weight-loss drug named Reduco. He had recently lost a lot of weight himself. . . 5. In silhouette, directly addressing the audience at the start, telling them every word they are about to hear is true. . . . . . THE ANSWERS 1. The class reunion photograph: Dial M for Murder (1954) 2. The shadow on the glass door: Family Plot (1976) 3. Playing cards on a train: Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 4. The before-and-after weight-loss photos: Lifeboat (1944) 5. In silhouette, addressing the audience: The Wrong Man (1956)
Boston Globe
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Boston's theater community loses an influential founder
Ritchell, who died Dec. 30, 2024, leaves a rich legacy of committing to and nurturing some of Boston's best actors, directors, and designers (including Elliot Norton Award winners Advertisement 'Ron was a lovable curmudgeon and a craftsman actor with a particular stage presence,' said Plum, who was cast in one of the company's earliest productions, 'Dial M for Murder,' when she was a Boston University undergraduate. 'He and Polly were incredibly driven theater people and their knowledge of British theater was massive,' she said. 'They were among the pioneers of Boston theater who were committed to building a strong theater community here.' Ritchell worked as both an actor and director, giving memorable performances in such classics as 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' and 'Juno and the Paycock,' as well as in a much-beloved holiday production of Dylan Thomas's 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' that was adapted and directed by Hogan. At the Lyric, Ritchell and Hogan also produced 25 world premieres, but were best known for introducing Boston audiences to the relationship comedies of Alan Ayckbourn, and memorable productions of works by Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw. Advertisement 'Ron, in his time, was a pillar of local theater, hiring local actors,' said actor Jeremiah Kissel, 'the one union contract in Boston for Boston actors when there were only three contract houses in town — the Huntington, ART, and the Lyric. Only Ron Ritchell and Polly Hogan did a full seven-show season using only local performers, and by doing so launched many career actors and actresses who successfully built lives right here in Boston.' Their commitment to local actors was also demonstrated by their leadership in launching the Theater Community Benevolent Fund (along with Mary C. Huntington, founder of the Nora Theatre), which provides confidential, financial relief to theater artists facing hardship. After leaving the Lyric in 1998, Ritchell and Hogan launched Lyric West before retiring first to Canada and then to Florida. Hogan passed away in 2023.
