James Farentino has died

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/24/12 at 11:47pm

Best known for playing Mary Tyler Moore's boss on her sitcom, Mr. Farentino is also known for having stalked Tina Sinatra. On Broadway, he played Stanley Kowalski, Biff Loman, and Pedro. He will be greatly missed by lovers of hairy chests.






Mary

Updated On: 1/24/12 at 11:47 PM

[supportivemom]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:16am

He was such a staple on episodic television. Great actor- RIP!

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 7:08am

He was also married to both Michele Lee and Elizabeth Ashley.

He appeared as a regular on "Dynasty" for a while, too.

73 is too young. RIP

Updated On: 1/25/12 at 07:08 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 11:49am

Farentino was such a stud that it's easy to forget he was an excellent "Method" actor and one of the early members of Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio.

My senior year in high school, I saw the Streetcar that Farentino did at Lincoln Center with Rosemary Harris--who was a wonderful Blanche! It was directed beautifully by Ellis Rabb on the Beaumont stage, which is, of course, a thrust stage and not a proscenium.

I couldn't find a picture of him as Stanley but this is a picture of him 10 years earlier, from a movie called Violent Midnight.



He was hot. (Very.)

Anyway, during the famous scene in the kitchen between Stanley and Blanche, Farentino started out leaning against the kitchen table, which was upstage center. He was wearing, as Stanleys usually do, very tight jeans. (Very.) When he got up from the table and walked downstage, a few people in the front rows on either side started to giggle. He turned stage left to face Blanche and the entire left side of the house erupted in laughter.

Farentino and Rosemary Harris were mystified. There was nothing funny about the scene--and it was about to get even more dramatic. The audience had never laughed in the scene before. What was going on?

Farentino turned stage right--with his back toward the side of the house where my cousin Arlene and I were sitting--and our side of the house burst out laughing too.

By this point, Rosemary Harris could see what everyone was laughing at: A prop fork, which had been lying on the kitchen table, had gotten lodged in the rear seam of Farentino's very tight jeans. (Very.) It was sticking straight out, perpendicular to his very shapely butt (very), and wiggling each time he moved.

Rosemary Harris put her hand to her lips, but everyone could see that she was about to start laughing as well.

Farentino turned around to see what Harris was reacting to, sweeping the entire center section as he turned, finally giving the entire audience a view of the wiggling fork sticking out of the back of his pants.

Harris calmly walked over to him, removed the fork from his butt, placed it back on the table and looked at him. The two of them remained, staring at each other, willing each other not to laugh, until the laughter subsided and they played the hell out of that scene.

He wasn't the greatest of Stanleys, but he will always be my favorite.

There's an audio recording of the production:



http://www.amazon.com/Streetcar-Named-Desire-CD/dp/0061714658

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:07pm

I would have spent a LOT of money on that fork at the Flea Market.