The Index-Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina • Page 51

1 Mill rvi ir iiirLEiraMiiEEraTLr THE INDEX-JOURNAL November 22, through November 28, 1992 COOP FELLA Pesci's talent eventually won out ASK DICK KLEINER Q. Can you tell me if this is true? It was reported to me that, in March of this year, on Phil Donahue's show, the president of Proctor and Gamble stated that he belonged to the Church of Stan and the profits from the company go for donations to the church. HXArdmore, Okla. A. That company has been the target of such absurd rumors for years.

For a while, people said that the company's logo was Satanic, so they changed it But the rumors persist Absolutely untrue. Q. My whole family could be relieved if you could help us. Tom Vlllard, from the movies "Popcorn" and "Weekend Warriors," played a halfwitted, klutzy type on a TV series (probably in the 80s); What was that series? L.IC, Erie Pa. A.

That was a little gem called "We Got It Made," and it ran on NBC in the 83-'84 season. Q. On a rerun episode of "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," Bruce Boxleitner does some very convincing fencing. Does he really know how to fence? C.T., Evergreen Park, I1L A.

He's a good athlete, although not primarily a fencer. But those scenes fencing or fighting or martial arts are all choreographed, bit by bit, so the participants just follow instructions and it looks great Q. Years ago, I saw a movie about Marjoe Gortner, the child evangelist. No one seems to have seen it but me. Could you tell me about it? LB.

Wellersburg, Pa. 1 ''v By FRANK LOVECE For a guy who won the Academy Award playing a psychotic hit man who scared the tar out of audiences, Joe Pesci gets offered an awful lot of comedies. "You pick what they make available," says the actor philosophically. And be knows that despite his searing performance in "Good Fellas" (1990), plus an Oscar-nominated turn in "Raging Bull" (1980), it was "Home Alone" (1990), "My Cousin Vinny" (1992) and com-edic roles in two "Lethal Weapon" movies that have made him a bankable star. "So they keep comin' at me with comedies, comedies, comedies.

Because they didn't make any money on 'Raging they didn't make any money 'Good Fellas." You make money for them as a comedian, then they want you to do I have to fight for dramatic parts like this, in this kind of a movie." "This kind of movie" is "The Public Eye," Pesci's current mystery-drama about a 1940s New York City crime photographer who is mixed up in a mob war and with a seductive nightclub owner (Barbara Hershey). Playing a character loosely based on the legendary New York sbutterbug Arthur Felig, better known as Weegec, Pesci, 49, plays one of the most poignant tough guys since the days of Jimmy Cagney. His Weegee clone, the fictional Leon "Bernzy" Bernstein, roams the post-midnight city streets like a solitary ghost, a lonely, driven man, living and dying vicariously through his photographs. "I love to play artists," Pesci says. "And Bemzy is truly a suffering artist, very much compelled to do what he does and not knowing why, for little or no money.

Which makes him a true artist, to me." Pesci himself looks more like a hit man than an artist today, in a tasteful charcoal suit, a pitch-black shirt without a tie, and black suede shoes. A cordial and well-liked man who remains friends with old New Jersey buddies, be puts out his ever-present cigar rather than offend a non-smoking gust And on the very rushed day he was to host "Saturday Night he took time to see friends in the Bronx and march in their neighborhood Columbus Day parade. Granted, that was also a photo opportunity for a man publicizing his movie, but Pesci is genuinely unexcited about the epaparazzi part of his profession. For a long time, he says, "I didn't feel important enough to get my picture taken; I always had this stupid feeling like I was being put on. Now" he adds resignedly, "it's gotten to the point where I'm used to it.

The movte changed a lot of my feeling about the paparazzi. It's how they make a living, and I don't wanna stop anybody from making a living as long as they don't stick the camera directly in my face or hurt me in any way. But Tom Villard Marjoe Gortner Pesci as Bernzy i then the thing is, they always wanna now, like, are you still with your ex-wife, what does she od, what is your daughter doing? It's all the wrong things. That's an invasion of privacy." To an extent though, it's also biography: Actors influence language, fashion and other everyday things even more than politicians, and certain greats like Charlie Chaplin influenced society enormously. Pesci's own life is a credible study in talent and persistence.

Born in Newark, NJ. and raised in nearby Belleville, Pesci was acting professionally from age 5. By 10, he was a regular with Connie Francis on a local TV variety show, "Startime Kids." Never finishing high school, he became, first a drummer for Joey Dee and the Starliters (making bis film debut as an extra in the el961 rock film "Hey, Let's and then a guitarist for a popular Jersey nightclub band, Frank Vincent and the Aristocats. He and Vincent still a friend, developed a music-comedy routine that eventually played Broadways part of the short-lived revue "The New Vaudevillians." And using the pseudonym Joe Ritche, Pesci even cut an album, "Little Joe Sure Can Sing," on Brunswick Records. During most of this time, he also worked as a barber, owning his own shop at one point and got married and had a daughter, Tiffany, now -25.

(Pesci recently divorced his third wife, Marti, a model-actress.) But after starring in a low-budget actioner, "Death Collector" a.k.a. "family Enforcer" (1976), Pesci's acting career failed to ignite. "I just quit" Pesci recalls. "I said, that's it. I went to Las Vegas, and worked for a mason, mixing cement digging ditches.

I was just A. What you saw was an Oscar-winning documentary that came out in 72 "Marjoe" is out on cassette now, too. Q. What was Maureen O'Sullivan's real name? Was she baptized Mary Fitzimmons or Maureen Fitz Simmons (note the difference in spelling)? The answer will settle a longstanding discussion. E.F.K., Scranton, Pa.

A. You have your Irish colleens confused. It was Maureen O'Hara, not O'SulIivan, who was bom Maureen Fitz-simmons (note the spelling.) Maureen O'SulIivan was always Maureen O'SulIivan. Q. In a rerun or MASH," I saw mat Hy Averback was producer.

Just a curious old lady's (81 years) whim, but can you find out if he came from the Averback family in Fremont, Ohio? Mrs. Averback Vada Henderson was a friend from my little hometown of Prairie Depot, Ohio. D.H, Saginaw, Mich. A.Afraid not. Hy Averback was born in Minneapolis but came to California with is family when he was 9.

(Send your questions to: Ask Dick Kleiner, do News-paver Enterprise Association, 200 Park New York, N.V. 10166. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.) down on myself and down on everybody and everything in general.".