51-535: Gervase Duan Spradlin (August 31, 1920 – July 24, 2011) was an American actor, attorney, and businessman. Known for his distinctive accent and voice, he often played devious authority figures or high ranking military officers. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions, and performed with actors such as Robby Benson , Marlon Brando , Al Pacino , James Garner , Charlton Heston , George C. Scott , Martin Sheen , and Johnny Depp . One of his best known roles
102-546: A Mayflower descendant , was of German and New England ancestry, as well as a relative of historian George Bancroft , according to family tradition. Schlesinger practiced Unitarianism . Schlesinger attended the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and received his undergraduate degree at the age of 20 from Harvard College , where he graduated summa cum laude in 1938. After spending
153-649: A 1973 commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups alongside Donny Most who would later co-star in Happy Days . In 1975, Benson appeared in Death Be Not Proud and Lucky Lady . That year, he also screen tested for the role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars , a role which eventually went to Mark Hamill . In 1977, Benson starred in One on One (which he co-wrote with his father and needed no double for
204-460: A candidate and as president. His prominent status as a liberal Democrat and outspoken disdain of Nixon led to his placement on the master list of Nixon's political opponents . Ironically, Nixon would become his next-door neighbor in the years following the Watergate scandal . After retiring from teaching, he remained involved in politics through his books and public speaking tours. Schlesinger
255-427: A collection of essays and articles, contains "The Cycles of American Politics," an early work on the topic; it was influenced by his father's work on cycles. He became a leading opponent of multiculturalism in the 1980s and articulated this stance in his book The Disuniting of America (1991). Published posthumously in 2007, Journals 1952–2000 is the 894-page distillation of 6,000 pages of Schlesinger diaries on
306-506: A few timid questions by reporting that one's impulse to blow the whistle on this nonsense was simply undone by the circumstances of the discussion." After the furor died down, Kennedy joked that Schlesinger "wrote me a memorandum that will look pretty good when he gets around to writing his book on my administration. Only he better not publish that memorandum while I'm still alive!" During the Cuban Missile Crisis , Schlesinger
357-626: A heart of Drano " and Apocalypse Now as General Corman, the somber officer who assigns Martin Sheen 's character to the search mission. He played the head football coach B.A. Strother in North Dallas Forty (1979), and "Carolina Military Institute" commandant General Durrell in The Lords of Discipline (1983). In 1984, Spradlin played a villainous Southern sheriff in Tank . In 1985, Spradlin portrayed President Lyndon B. Johnson in
408-845: A memoir/history of the Kennedy administration, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House , which won him his second Pulitzer Prize in 1966 . Schlesinger returned to teaching in 1966 as the Albert Schweitzer Professor of the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center . After his retirement from teaching in 1994, he remained an active member of the Graduate Center community as an emeritus professor until his death. After his service for
459-531: A radically new production technology, involving total enterprises or complexes of industries, managed by closed-loop, feedback control employing self-teaching computers ". The cause was a pre-vision of an algorithmic governance of economy by an internet-like computer network authored by Soviet scientists, particularly Alexander Kharkevich . After President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 , Schlesinger resigned his position in January 1964. He wrote
510-433: A second full term in the 1952 presidential election , Schlesinger became the primary speechwriter for and an ardent supporter of Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois . In the 1956 election , Schlesinger, along with 30-year-old Robert F. Kennedy, again worked on Stevenson's campaign staff. Schlesinger supported the nomination of Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy as Stevenson's vice-presidential running mate, but at
561-466: A second surgery in 2000, during which he underwent the Ross procedure . For six years after his second surgery, Benson had consistent struggles breathing. He subsequently underwent a third open-heart surgery, during which it was discovered that his breathing problems were caused by the previous procedure causing his aortic valve to buckle and close. In 2010, Benson received a delicate fourth surgery known as
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#1732787882219612-661: A small role in the film The War of the Roses as a divorce lawyer, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner . Spradlin played a minister in Ed Wood (1994), a conspirator in the attempted assassination of a state governor in Nick of Time (1995), Bishop Dyer in the TV movie Riders of the Purple Sage (1996), which was adapted from Zane Grey 's 1912 novel of the same name , and
663-518: A speechwriter during his tenure in the White House . In February 1961, Schlesinger was first told of the "Cuba operation," which would eventually become the Bay of Pigs Invasion . He opposed the plan in a memorandum to the president: "at one stroke you would dissipate all the extraordinary good will which has been rising toward the new Administration through the world. It would fix a malevolent image of
714-458: A teenager, Benson was diagnosed with a heart murmur caused by a bicuspid aortic valve defect. He began experiencing symptoms such as dizziness and losing consciousness in his late twenties, and subsequently underwent open-heart surgery in October 1984 to repair the valve defect. He received a bovine valve transplant, which lasted fifteen years. After the bovine valve failed, Benson had
765-603: The 1960 campaign , Schlesinger supported Kennedy, causing consternation to Stevenson loyalists. Kennedy campaigned actively but Stevenson refused to run unless he was drafted at the convention . After Kennedy won the nomination, Schlesinger helped the campaign as a sometime speechwriter, speaker, and member of the ADA. He also wrote the book Kennedy or Nixon: Does It Make Any Difference? in which he lauded Kennedy's abilities and scorned Vice President Richard M. Nixon as having "no ideas, only methods.... He cares about winning." After
816-695: The Democratic National Convention , Kennedy came second in the vice-presidential balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee . Schlesinger had known John F. Kennedy since attending Harvard and increasingly socialized with Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline in the 1950s. In 1954, The Boston Post publisher John Fox Jr. planned a series of newspaper pieces labeling several Harvard figures, including Schlesinger, as " reds "; Kennedy intervened in Schlesinger's behalf, which Schlesinger recounted in A Thousand Days . During
867-424: The "reverse Ross procedure" to correct damage to his heart. Benson is an activist and fundraiser for heart research, which, in 2004, led him to write the book, lyrics and music for an original Off-Broadway play called Open Heart , in which he also starred. Benson also has spoken about his dealing with post-surgical cardiac depression , commenting after his fourth surgery: They still saw your chest right down
918-476: The 1938–1939 academic year at Peterhouse, Cambridge , as a Henry Fellow , he was appointed to a three-year Junior Fellowship in the Harvard Society of Fellows in the fall of 1939. At the time, Fellows were not allowed to pursue advanced degrees, "a requirement intended to keep them off the standard academic treadmill"; as such, Schlesinger would never earn a doctorate. His fellowship was interrupted by
969-482: The 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns, he was a primary speechwriter and adviser to the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II . Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy administration, from the 1960 presidential campaign to the president's state funeral, titled A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in
1020-428: The 1960s. Casting director Fred Roos had cast Spradlin in television shows such as I Spy (as the immediate superior of Pentagon spies Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott in the episode "Tonia"), Mannix (in an uncredited role as Senator Sid Abernathy in the episode "Turn Every Stone"), and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (as visiting Colonel Driscoll in the episode "Gomer Pyle Super Chef"). He worked with Jack Webb on
1071-518: The Beast (1991) and its numerous sequels and spin-offs. He has also worked as a television director, including six episodes of the sitcom Friends . In addition to acting and directing, Benson is an activist in the field of heart research, having undergone four open-heart surgeries since age 28 to correct congenital aortic valve defects and related damage. In 2012, he published a memoir recounting his medical journey and numerous surgeries. Benson
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#17327878822191122-629: The Haitian regime. If only Castro could be induced to commit an offensive act, then the moral issue would be butted, and the anti-US campaign would be hobbled from the start. During the Cabinet deliberations, he "shrank into a chair at the far end of the table and listened in silence" as the Joint Chiefs and CIA representatives lobbied the president for an invasion. Along with his friend, Senator William Fulbright , Schlesinger sent several memos to
1173-417: The Kennedy administration, he continued to be a Kennedy loyalist for the rest of his life, campaigning for Robert Kennedy's tragic presidential campaign in 1968 and for Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1980. At the request of Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy , he wrote the biography Robert Kennedy and His Times , which was published in 1978. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he criticized Richard Nixon as
1224-910: The President of the United States in The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). Spradlin retired from acting after Dick (1999), in which he played Ben Bradlee . Although lending his likeness, he did not reprise his role as Pat Geary (whose in-game was voiced by Chris Edgerly) in Electronic Arts ' video game adaptation of The Godfather Part II in 2009. Spradlin's first wife, Nell, with whom he had two daughters, died in 2000. In 2002, he married Frances Hendrickson. Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo, California , on July 24, 2011. He
1275-581: The United States entering World War II . After failing his military medical examination, Schlesinger joined the Office of War Information . From 1943 to 1945, he served as an intelligence analyst in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA . Schlesinger's service in the OSS allowed him time to complete his first Pulitzer Prize –winning book, The Age of Jackson , in 1945. From 1946 to 1954, he
1326-645: The University of Oklahoma, where he completed a law degree in 1948. Spradlin's career as an attorney began in Venezuela . He transitioned to become an independent oil producer, forming Rouge Oil Company. Before he turned to acting, he was active in local politics, and he campaigned for John F. Kennedy in 1959. In 1964, Spradlin joined the Oklahoma Repertory Theatre. A notable break for Spradlin resulted from his work in television in
1377-597: The White House , which won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography . In 1968, Schlesinger actively supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy , which ended with Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles . Schlesinger wrote a popular biography, Robert Kennedy and His Times , several years later. He later popularized the term " imperial presidency " during the Nixon administration in his 1973 book, The Imperial Presidency . Schlesinger
1428-599: The age of 89. His New York Times obituary described him as a "historian of power." He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts . He won a Pulitzer Prize for History in 1946 for his book The Age of Jackson , covering the intellectual environment of Jacksonian democracy . His 1949 book The Vital Center made a case for the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and
1479-608: The authentic looking college basketball scenes due to his prowess at the game) and the TV movie The Death of Richie . In 1978, he co-starred in The End and Ice Castles . Benson, who had never ice skated before, learned to skate in order to film the movie, which had numerous skating scenes, including ice hockey. In 1980, Benson starred in Die Laughing and Tribute . In 1981, he costarred in The Chosen , based on
1530-436: The book of the same name by Chaim Potok . The New York Times gave the film a mixed review, but noted that Benson's character was "full of a gentle inquisitiveness that cannot help but win the audience's sympathy." Benson played Olympic 10,000-meter gold medalist Billy Mills in the 1983 film Running Brave . From the filming of this movie Benson implemented his training for the 1983 New York City Marathon , completing
1581-676: The class valedictorian . Benson made his film debut with an uncredited role in Wait Until Dark (1967) as the Boy Tossing Ball and his Broadway debut in The Rothschilds (1970). Benson had an early role on the daytime soap Search for Tomorrow (1971–1972). As a film actor, Benson was well known for teenage roles in coming of age films, such as 1972's Jory , 1973's Jeremy , and as Billy Joe McAllister in 1976's Ode to Billy Joe . He had an appearance in
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1632-475: The election, the president-elect offered Schlesinger an ambassadorship and Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural Relations before Robert Kennedy proposed that Schlesinger serve as a "sort of roving reporter and troubleshooter." Schlesinger quickly accepted, and on January 30, 1961, he resigned from Harvard and was appointed Special Assistant to the President. He worked primarily on Latin American affairs and as
1683-604: The middle, but they've done it [to me] enough that you no longer think about it as life-threatening. It's just a very tough surgery to go through. Doctors have also gotten better at helping you through the healing process. How we heal and how we deal with cardiac depression and how we can jump start our lives and get back on track. Doctors used to never talk about things like that and now they do. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. ( / ˈ ʃ l ɛ s ɪ n dʒ ər / SHLESS -in-jər ; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger ; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007)
1734-454: The mini-series Robert Kennedy and His Times , based on the book of the same name by presidential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. In 1986, he again portrayed an American president when he played Andrew Jackson in the television movie Houston: The Legend of Texas . Also in 1986, he starred in the miniseries Dream West . In 1988, he played Admiral Raymond A. Spruance in the miniseries War and Remembrance . In 1989, Spradlin played
1785-508: The new Administration in the minds of millions." He, however, suggested: Would it not be possible to induce Castro to take offensive action first? He has already launched expeditions against Panama and against the Dominican Republic . One can conceive a black operation in, say, Haiti which might in time lure Castro into sending a few boatloads of men on to a Haitian beach in what could be portrayed as an effort to overthrow
1836-488: The president opposing the strike; however, during the meetings, he held back his opinion, reluctant to undermine the President's desire for a unanimous decision. Following the overt failure of the invasion, Schlesinger later lamented, "In the months after the Bay of Pigs, I bitterly reproached myself for having kept so silent during those crucial discussions in the cabinet room. ... I can only explain my failure to do more than raise
1887-615: The race in 3:05:15. In 1991, he starred as the voice of Beast in the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast , directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise , and starring alongside Paige O'Hara as Belle . Later in the 1990s he voiced lead character J.T. Marsh on the sci-fi cartoon series Exosquad . His 2007 novel Who Stole the Funny?: A Novel of Hollywood landed Benson on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller list. Benson's medical memoir I'm Not Dead ... Yet!
1938-521: The series Dragnet , playing multiple roles from a safecracker , a pushy conventioneer caught up in a gambling sting, and a low-level con man. In 1968, he appeared as a false police sergeant, Preston C. Densmore, in S10:E13, “The Phony Police Racket”. Spradlin portrayed Commander Maurice E. "Germany" Curts , Communications Officer, U.S. Pacific Fleet, in an uncredited role in Tora! Tora! Tora! in 1970. He
1989-460: The signature Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. He had five children, four from his first marriage to author and artist Marian Cannon Schlesinger and a son and stepson from his second marriage to Alexandra Emmet, also an artist: On February 28, 2007, Schlesinger had a heart attack while dining with family at a steakhouse in Manhattan . He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital , where he died at
2040-522: Was 90 years old. Robby Benson Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal ; January 21, 1956 ) is an American actor, director, and musician. He rose to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1970s, appearing in the films Ode to Billy Joe (1976), One on One (1977) and Ice Castles (1978). He subsequently garnered more fame for voicing the Beast in the Disney animated film Beauty and
2091-483: Was a critic of the Clinton Administration, resisting President Clinton's cooptation of his "Vital Center" concept in an article for Slate in 1997. Schlesinger was also a critic of the 2003 Iraq War , calling it a misadventure. He blamed the media for not covering a reasoned case against the war. Schlesinger's name at birth was Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; since his mid-teens, he had instead used
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2142-614: Was also in the counter-culture film Zabriskie Point (1970). When Roos co-produced The Godfather Part II , he recommended Spradlin for the role of Pat Geary, a corrupt U.S. senator from Nevada, and Spradlin played a senator in the 1976 TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man Book II . In 1977, he guest-starred along with Ruth Gordon and Mariette Hartley in the Columbo episode, "Try and Catch Me". His film credits included One on One (1977) as an authoritarian basketball coach described by Roger Ebert as "a hard-nosed ace recruiter with
2193-461: Was an American historian , social critic , and public intellectual . The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a specialist in American history , much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism . In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Harry S. Truman , Franklin D. Roosevelt , John F. Kennedy , and Robert F. Kennedy . In
2244-510: Was an associate professor at Harvard, becoming a full professor in 1954. In 1947, Schlesinger, together with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt ; Minneapolis Mayor and future Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey ; economist and longtime friend John Kenneth Galbraith ; and Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr founded Americans for Democratic Action . Schlesinger acted as the ADA's national chairman from 1953 to 1954. After President Harry S. Truman announced he would not run for
2295-599: Was announced he would serve as a professor of Practice in the fall of 2013 at Indiana University . Benson left the university after the Spring 2016 semester when his three-year contract expired. Benson has been married to singer and actress Karla DeVito since July 11, 1982. The pair met while starring together in The Pirates of Penzance . Together they have two children, daughter Lyric (b. 1983) and son Zephyr (b. 1992). He practices Transcendental Meditation . While
2346-460: Was born in Columbus, Ohio , the son of Elizabeth Harriet (née Bancroft) and Arthur M. Schlesinger (1888–1965), who was an influential social historian at Ohio State University and Harvard University , where he directed many PhD dissertations in American history. His paternal grandfather was a Prussian Jew who converted to Protestantism and then married an Austrian Catholic. His mother,
2397-565: Was born in Dallas , Texas , the son of Freda Ann ( née Benson), a singer, actor, and business promotions manager, and Jerry Segal, a writer. His family is Jewish. When Benson was five years old, his family relocated to New York City , where he was raised. He subsequently took his mother's name as his stage name when he was 10. Benson attended the Lincoln Square Academy in Manhattan , where he graduated at age fourteen as
2448-531: Was harshly critical of both unregulated capitalism and of those liberals such as Henry A. Wallace who advocated coexistence with communism . In his book The Politics of Hope (1962), Schlesinger terms conservatives the "party of the past" and liberals "the party of hope" and calls for overcoming the division between both parties. He won a second Pulitzer in the Biography category in 1966 for A Thousand Days . His 1986 book The Cycles of American History,
2499-667: Was not a member of the executive committee of the National Security Council ( EXCOMM ) but helped UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson draft his presentation of the crisis to the UN Security Council . In October 1962, Schlesinger became afraid of "a tremendous advantage", which "all-out Soviet commitment to cybernetics " would provide the Soviets. Schlesinger further warned that "by 1970 the USSR may have
2550-624: Was released in June 2012. Outside of acting, Benson is also a musician and composer. He has composed songs in several films and has also won a RIAA Gold Records award for the song "We Are Not Alone" in the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club . Benson has been a professor at New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts , the University of Utah and the University of South Carolina . It
2601-847: Was that of Senator Pat Geary in The Godfather Part II . Spradlin was born on August 31, 1920, in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma . His parents both worked as schoolteachers. Spradlin obtained his bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Oklahoma . He was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity. He then served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II , where he was stationed in China . After his military service, Spradlin returned to
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