Gary Cooper

Frances Dee, 94, who co-starred in films with Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman and her husband, Joel McCrea, died Saturday in Norwalk, Conn., her son said. Miss Dee achieved stardom in 1930 opposite Mr. Chevalier in one of the first talkie musicals, The Playboy of Paris. She retired after making Gypsy Colt in 1954. Her husband died in 1990.

It's a Wonderful Life, E.T., Rocky and The Passion of the Christ are among the 300 candidates that the American Film Institute is asking more than 1,500 industry workers, critics and historians to choose from in selecting America's most inspiring movies for a TV special. The program, AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers, follows on the heels of other AFI specials that paid tribute to film history's top comedies, stars and quotes, among other topics. It will be broadcast on CBS in June, saluting what AFI director Jean Picker Firstenberg described as "the films that inspire us, encourage us to make a difference and send us from the theater with a greater sense of possibility and hope for the future."

Shirley E. Cooper, a retired cleaning establishment worker and active church member, died of heart failure June 30 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The Catonsville resident was 71. Born Shirley E. Harris in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, she was a 1950 graduate of the old Benjamin Banneker High School. Mrs. Cooper was a presser and seamstress at Edmondson Cleaners in the Route 40 West Shopping Center from 1963 until her retirement in 1993. "One of her special dishes was her potato salad.

Several films starring three legendary actors - Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and James Dean - arrived recently on DVD. Universal's "The Gary Cooper Collection" ($27) features five entertaining films that the lanky star made for Paramount. In 1933's ribald comedy Design for Living, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Cooper shows his sophisticated side as a struggling painter in Paris. In 1935's lush romantic fantasy Peter Ibbettson, he plays an architect who enters into an affair with his married former childhood sweetheart; 1936's thriller The General Died at Dawn finds Cooper as an American in China trying to smuggle funds to help downtrodden Chinese.

It's a Wonderful Life, E.T., Rocky and The Passion of the Christ are among the 300 candidates that the American Film Institute is asking more than 1,500 industry workers, critics and historians to choose from in selecting America's most inspiring movies for a TV special. The program, AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers, follows on the heels of other AFI specials that paid tribute to film history's top comedies, stars and quotes, among other topics. It will be broadcast on CBS in June, saluting what AFI director Jean Picker Firstenberg described as "the films that inspire us, encourage us to make a difference and send us from the theater with a greater sense of possibility and hope for the future."

Several films starring three legendary actors - Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and James Dean - arrived recently on DVD. Universal's "The Gary Cooper Collection" ($27) features five entertaining films that the lanky star made for Paramount. In 1933's ribald comedy Design for Living, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Cooper shows his sophisticated side as a struggling painter in Paris. In 1935's lush romantic fantasy Peter Ibbettson, he plays an architect who enters into an affair with his married former childhood sweetheart; 1936's thriller The General Died at Dawn finds Cooper as an American in China trying to smuggle funds to help downtrodden Chinese.

Dorothy Olsen has never met Cal Ripken and hasn't even attended a game at Camden Yards. But Olsen, a retired nurse, is sharing in a highly unusual way in Ripken's pursuit of Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game streak.Olsen, 75, knew Gehrig as few others did. As a nurse trainee, she helped care for him during his stay at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in 1940 and 1941. Gehrig, who died at 37, was a patient at the New York hospital after becoming ill with a fatal neuromuscular disease.Olsen hasn't many memories of Gehrig, but those she has are vivid.

LUFKIN, Texas -- There's hardly a day goes by that I don't do or say something I wish I could take back. Words have a funny way of coming back to remind us all that we're not nearly so smart as we think. Here are some reasons to keep an open mind about the opinions of others:"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943"But what . . . is it good for?"

Andre de Toth, one of the Maryland Film Festival's most colorful tributees, has led three Hollywood lives. He's notorious as the one-eyed director of the best 3-D movie, 1953's House of Wax. But he's also the auteur behind cult films like None Shall Escape (1944) and Crime Wave (1954), and the uncredited second-unit director on two wildly different epics, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Superman (1978). Combined, his 1994 memoir Fragments and his 1996 interview book, De Toth on De Toth cover all that -- as well as his youth and early film career in Hungary, his stint making Italian spectacles like Morgan the Pirate (1961)

Hollywood, Calif. -- CICADA, AGAIN. Michael Ovitz is shown to Michael Eisner's table.Eisner has pre-ordered his lunch. (Halibut, nothing on it.) Ovitz orders something not on the menu. (Lemon pasta, nothing on it.) Food is a sign of weakness here. You always try to get your companion to order first, so you can order less. And you never order from the menu if you can help it.Eisner canvasses the realm. Over in the corner is a music executive affectionately known as the "Poison Dwarf." At the next table is a movie producer whose rise at a studio was thwarted when it was discovered that he had once taken a role in a porn flick when an actor failed to show up."

Shirley E. Cooper, a retired cleaning establishment worker and active church member, died of heart failure June 30 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The Catonsville resident was 71. Born Shirley E. Harris in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, she was a 1950 graduate of the old Benjamin Banneker High School. Mrs. Cooper was a presser and seamstress at Edmondson Cleaners in the Route 40 West Shopping Center from 1963 until her retirement in 1993. "One of her special dishes was her potato salad.

Frances Dee, 94, who co-starred in films with Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman and her husband, Joel McCrea, died Saturday in Norwalk, Conn., her son said. Miss Dee achieved stardom in 1930 opposite Mr. Chevalier in one of the first talkie musicals, The Playboy of Paris. She retired after making Gypsy Colt in 1954. Her husband died in 1990.

Andre de Toth, one of the Maryland Film Festival's most colorful tributees, has led three Hollywood lives. He's notorious as the one-eyed director of the best 3-D movie, 1953's House of Wax. But he's also the auteur behind cult films like None Shall Escape (1944) and Crime Wave (1954), and the uncredited second-unit director on two wildly different epics, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Superman (1978). Combined, his 1994 memoir Fragments and his 1996 interview book, De Toth on De Toth cover all that -- as well as his youth and early film career in Hungary, his stint making Italian spectacles like Morgan the Pirate (1961)

Last week, public television revisited Ernest Hemingway in "Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure." Tonight, another model of American masculinity from the post-war pages of Esquire magazine goes under the PBS microscope as the "American Experience" series brings us "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life." Unlike Paul Simon, who wanted to know where Joltin' Joe had gone, the first business of this biography is in explaining from whence Joe came. The emphasis on DiMaggio's San Francisco roots -- both his family's poverty and his aversion to school and work -- is the first of many wise choices made by writer-producer Mark Zwonitzer and writer-narrator Richard Ben Cramer.

LUFKIN, Texas -- There's hardly a day goes by that I don't do or say something I wish I could take back. Words have a funny way of coming back to remind us all that we're not nearly so smart as we think. Here are some reasons to keep an open mind about the opinions of others:"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943"But what . . . is it good for?"

Hollywood, Calif. -- CICADA, AGAIN. Michael Ovitz is shown to Michael Eisner's table.Eisner has pre-ordered his lunch. (Halibut, nothing on it.) Ovitz orders something not on the menu. (Lemon pasta, nothing on it.) Food is a sign of weakness here. You always try to get your companion to order first, so you can order less. And you never order from the menu if you can help it.Eisner canvasses the realm. Over in the corner is a music executive affectionately known as the "Poison Dwarf." At the next table is a movie producer whose rise at a studio was thwarted when it was discovered that he had once taken a role in a porn flick when an actor failed to show up."

Twenty miles north of Sun Valley, Idaho, the sun is slowly setting on the headwaters of the Big Wood River. On a littlebeaver pond here, about a quarter mile east of nowhere on Highway 75, a trout rises to the shimmering surface. I gently flick my rod, whipping the fly out oh so lightly, 10 yards in front of it. Perfect, I think, as the ripples fan out across the dusky clouds, thick as oil paint, reflecting on the water. A Hemingway moment.Then guide Ritchie Thurston breaks in: "C'mon, you turkey."

HOLLYWOOD -- Call it star power, box-office persona, or simply heat.This Christmas season, Kevin Costner again proved he is an actor who has it. So do Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Macaulay Culkin -- when his parents aren't around.On the other hand, the luster seems to be coming off Eddie Murphy, and Steve Martin should stick to comedy. Robin Williams should survive the failure of "Toys." And, Jack Nicholson's is such a dominating presence on the screen that he remains hot despite an occasional "The Two Jakes" and "Man Trouble."

Dorothy Olsen has never met Cal Ripken and hasn't even attended a game at Camden Yards. But Olsen, a retired nurse, is sharing in a highly unusual way in Ripken's pursuit of Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game streak.Olsen, 75, knew Gehrig as few others did. As a nurse trainee, she helped care for him during his stay at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in 1940 and 1941. Gehrig, who died at 37, was a patient at the New York hospital after becoming ill with a fatal neuromuscular disease.Olsen hasn't many memories of Gehrig, but those she has are vivid.

After four stormy years with County Executive Robert R. Neall, the union leaders representing the county's work force say they think John G. Gary is a man with whom they can do business.The unions fought some bitter battles with Mr. Neall over pay, health care benefits, and most recently over a bill that would have allowed the county's firefighters to retire, after 20 years, at half their salary. The County Council passed the bill at its last meeting, but Mr. Neall vetoed it.What frustrated them most about Mr. Neall, union leaders said, was his unwillingness to compromise.