Monday, September 30, 2024

Oxford Blues

 


Maggie Smith (1934-2024) in 1952, a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.  



Rhodes Scholar Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024), circa 1958.



Keep this institution in your thoughts and prayers. It's been a rough week.

18 comments:

  1. I didn't realise how old Kris was. It seems like he was a bit 'hard livin' '. Dame Maggie at her most imperious, 'Found in a basket at Victoria Station'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew, around 1970 or so, Kris Kristofferson adopted a counterculture "look" and that made him seem younger.

      Delete
  2. I had a Maggie Marathon here this weekend. With rain, I was a couch potato and watched every Smith movie my local channel put on, all 18 movies!!!! She was so much more than just Potter and Downton Abbey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maddie, it's interesting to me how it's the most recent roles that make the obituary headlines. In 1969 Smith won a Best Actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and for years that was considered her signature role, but she kind of outlived that signature role, so more people know her for Harry Potter.

      Delete
  3. Hi, Kirk!

    Yes, good buddy, there's been a spike in Reaper activity in the weeks I've been away, including Darth Vader, Kathryn Grant Crosby, the Binger's wife, who made an early impression on me as Mary Pilant in one of my favorite films, Anatomy Of A Murder, and now these two. My favorite KK song isn't "Bobby McGee." It's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," a #1 Country hit for Johnny Cash and a minor crossover hit for Ray Stevens. It shocked me to realize that Kris didn't exactly die young, as I at first thought. He would have been 89 in September. It was sad to read about the death of Maggie Smith, who so memorably played Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey. She was my favorite character of the series. I loved the zingers she delivered in every episode. I also enjoyed Maggie's performance opposite Michael Caine in the film adaptation of Neil Simon's California Suite released at Christmas, 1978. Maggie would have turned 90 in September. Michael C is already 91.

    Thanks for remembering these two entertainment greats, good buddy Kirk. I'm returning to blogging tomorrow with a new post and invite you to join the fun at Shady's Place.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maggie Smith won a Best Supporting Actress for California Suite, Shady.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RIP to both Maggie and Kris.

    I was a college with a guy and he was called Kris. His mum was obsessed with KK and named her son after him!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Ananka, that's one way to be gone but not forgotten.

      Delete
  6. Kristofferson was 88? It's always good to see people older than me die. When they're younger, yet still old, it bothers me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike, Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx both died when I was in high school, and both were born in the 19th century! Nowadays, if they were born before World War II (as was Kristofferson), that just enough for me to say "way before my time", but there's less and less of those passings. Susanne Somers was born before I was but not by much! I can only hope that Kristy McNichol still has many years ahead of her.

      Delete
  7. I need to do a marathon of her movies and his music. I’d do his movies, too, but I’m not as interested (except that he was so HOT in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sailors on shore leave. How can one resist, Mitchell?

      Delete
  8. I loved Maggie Smith in so many movies. I loved her in Downton Abbey, and another favorite Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a gem of a movie, and the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It's a movie you feel like you live in after you watch it a few times...which I do. Love KK, Why Me Lord, one of the best gospel songs of all time. Today I heard that Frank Fritz of American Pickers has passed away. That really saddened me too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting this blog, Timelesslady.

      Delete
  9. Maggie Smith was a legend. I was looking at an exhibition of Downton Abbey only yesterday and suddenly remembered she had gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's been a while, Jenny. Thanks for commenting.

      Delete

In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.