Two On The Same Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            I had thought the two actors died a day apart, but the death date of both Roger Rees, and Omar Sharif was listed as July 10, 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Two very different actors, who made enormous contributions.

                            I knew something was up with Roger Rees, when I heard he had withdrawn from performing the short-lived Chita Rivera musical, "The Visit."  The reason given was a long illness, but no one, to this day, knows what that means.  I also had no idea death was so imminent; Rees was only 71 years old, and when one has just turned 60, as I, you look at 71 as being...well, young!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             How things change, don't they????????????

                             Many referenced Roger in his role on "Cheers," which was something I rarely watched, so I never saw him on it.  My greatest memory of Roger is at the climax of the eight hour production of "The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby," which I sat through, live, in one day!  I was still in my twenties!  The story had concluded, the cast was gathered on stage, and, while Rees delivered a speech drawing attention to the plight of the poor, he walked down stage, picked up the huddled David Threfall, so brilliant as Smike, and embraced him, holding him in his arms, as the curtain came down on that image!  How Dickens!  I have never forgotten it!

                               Nor will I forget Reees' smarmy turn as Hugh Hefner, in Bob Fosse's final film, the 1983 film, "Star 80!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  With Mariel Hemingway as Dorothy Stratten, and Eric Roberts, brilliant as Paul Snider!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                You and your indelible portraits will be missed, Roger!

                                 Now, Omar Sharif was that rare thing--he was one of the last of the REAL movie stars, a Clark Gable of the Sixties!  With "Doctor Zhivago," "Mayerling," and, of course, acting alongside (never WITH, darlings!!!!!!!!!) BARBRA in "Funny Girl," he was every teen girls' (and gay boys') romantic idol of that time!  "Doctor Zhivago" comes first to mind for me: he and Julie Christie....oh, my God!!!!!!!!!!!!   I love this photo of him peeking out the top window of the country house, Varykino, watching Lara vanish in the distance, as, he , like a martyr, sends her on to supposedly a better life!!!!!!!!!!

                                 I was distressed to heard he had Alzheimer's, as well as that he was up there at 83!!!!!!!!!!  Omar Sharif?????????  It just did not seem possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 And let us not forget Omar's other film, for which he was Oscar nominated, regarded by some as David Lean's best--the 1962 "Lawrence Of Arabia!!!!!!!!!!!!"    Whenever it, or the other films mentioned here are screened, Omar will live on!  He left an impressive, romantic legacy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Rest In Peace, Roger and Omar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!