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Subject:  US TV legend Aaron Spelling dies |
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Author: David Harrison Levi Copyright © 2006 David Levi Celebrity Entertainment NEWS Network | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 20:44:13 06/26/06 Mon Author Host/IP: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com/207.200.116.198 Entertainment » Television TV innovator Aaron Spelling dies at 83 ‘Charlie's Angels,’ ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ producer recently suffered stroke Television producer Aaron Spelling, whose hit shows include "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty," "Charlie's Angels," "Love Boat" and "Melrose Place," suffered a stroke last weekend and was briefly hospitalized. He died Friday at 83. LOS ANGELES - Aaron Spelling, a onetime movie bit player who created a massive number of hit series, from the vintage “Charlie’s Angels” and “Dynasty” to “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place,” died Friday, his publicist said. He was 83. Spelling died at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke on June 18, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki. Spelling’s other hit series included “Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” “Burke’s Law,” “The Mod Squad,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “T.J. Hooker,” “Matt Houston,” “Hart to Hart” and “Hotel.” He kept his hand in 21st-century TV with series including “7th Heaven” and “Summerland.” He also produced more than 140 television movies. Among the most notable: “Death Sentence” (1974), Nick Nolte’s first starring role; “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” (1976), John Travolta’s first dramatic role; and “The Best Little Girl in the World” (1981), which starred Jennifer Jason Leigh. Drove renaissance at ABC During the 1970s and 1980s, Spelling provided series and movies exclusively for ABC and is credited for the network’s rise to major status. Jokesters referred to it as “The Aaron Broadcasting Company.” Success was not without its thorns. TV critics denounced Spelling for fostering fluff and nighttime soap operas. He called his shows “mind candy”; critics referred to them as “mindless candy.” “The knocks by the critics bother you,” he admitted in a 1986 interview with The Associated Press. “But you have a choice of proving yourself to 300 critics or 30 million fans. You have to make a choice. I think you’re also categorized by the critics. If you do something good they almost don’t want to like it.” He liked to cite some of his more creditable achievements, like “Family” (1976-80), a drama about a middle-class family, and “The Best Little Girl in the World.” Among his prestige films for TV: “Day One” (1988), about an atomic blast in middle America; “And the Band Played On” (1992), based on Randy Shilts’ book about the AIDS crisis. Rags to riches Spelling had arrived in Hollywood virtually penniless in the early 1950s. By the 1980s, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $300 million. He enjoyed his status, working in a Hollywood office larger than those of golden-era moguls (“I’m slightly claustrophpobic,” he explained.) He gifted his second wife, Candy, with a 40-carat diamond ring. The Spellings’ most publicized extravagance was their 56,500-square-foot French chateau in Holmby Hills. The couple bought the former Bing Crosby estate for $10 million. It was leveled to the ground, along with two other houses. Construction cost was estimated at $12 million. The two-story house reached a height of 51 feet. Among the features: an entire floor for closets, a one-lane bowling alley, plus the usual elements for the Hollywood rich — pool, tennis court, gym, screening room. Built on rollers, it easily survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The mansion dwarfed nearby estates, and the neighbors were furious. One woman won an injunction during construction, calling the place “Look-at-me-I’m-rich architecture.” Spelling grew up in a small frame house on Browder Street in Dallas “on the wrong side of the tracks,” he wrote in his 1996 autobiography. He was the fourth son of immigrant Jews, his father from Poland, mother from Russia. The father’s name, Spurling, was simplified to Spelling by an Ellis Island official. Spelling enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1942. “I grew up thinking ‘Jew boy’ was one word,” the producer wrote in his memoir, “Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life.” He was considered strange by his Dallas schoolmates because his parents spoke Yiddish. He was subjected to anti-Semitic taunts and beatings on his way home from school. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |