David Hedison Dies At 92

Above, yours truly with David Hedison at Monsterpalooza in 2010. 

Actor David Hedison, who gained fame as Captain Lee Crane in the television series Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea and played CIA agent Felix Leiter twice, has died at age 92.

Hedison passed away on July 18 and his daughters held off on making the announcement until today.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

David Hedison, who starred as Captain Lee Crane on the 1960s ABC submarine series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, died Thursday in Los Angeles, a family spokeswoman announced. He was 92. 

The handsome actor also portrayed scientist André Delambre, who got turned into an insect in The Fly (1958) long before Jeff Goldblum ever did, and he played CIA operative Felix Leiter in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989).

Above, David Hedison's autograph.

I interviewed Hedison for G-FAN magazine on all facets of his career and met him at the 2010 Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank. At the convention, he autographed a copy of The Fly At Fifty, a biography on the 50th anniversary of The Fly, for me.

My condolences goes out to his family and friends.

To read more, go here.

"Shōgun" Author James Clavell In 1978 Party

Above, James Clavell at right in the background at Assemblyman Mike Antonovich's birthday party in Sacramento. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While thumbing through some photo albums (I now have plenty of space where I have easy access to my older albums), I came across some photos I took in 1978 at the California State Capitol office of then-Assemblyman Michael D. Antonovich in Sacramento.

The occasion was a birthday party for Antonovich. One of the guests of the party was Shōgun author James Clavell.

From Wikipedia:

James Clavell (10 October 1921 – 6 September 1994), born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, was an Australian-born British (and later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as a writer for his The Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations. Clavell also authored screenplays, such as The Great Escape (1963) and To Sir, with Love (1967). Clavell wrote science fiction as well, including an episode of the early sci-fi TV series Men Into Space in 1959, titled "First Woman on the Moon", as well as the film script for the original (1958) version of the sci-fi/horror classic The Fly, starring Vincent Price.

I had met Clavell a few days before at a banquet for Assemblyman Paul Bannai.

The Shōgun television mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain was one of the top-rated television programs of all time. The show got a lot of people interested in Japanese culture and history.

At Least Things Aren't Dull

This has been an interesting weekend and week (so far).

It all started Saturday afternoon. I was contemplating going to Monsterpalooza on that day, but I had other things to do. It turned out better than I expected as I was reunited with a gal I met last July. We lost contact over the past few months and she no longer has the phone number I had stored in my cell phone.

We had a great reunion and we ended up having lunch together yesterday and hung out most of the afternoon. We caught up on what's been going on in our lives during the past few months (we found we had much in common, painfully so).

Things got interesting at work towards my end of shift Saturday night. At ten o'clock at night, I have to lock up a mobile home community's clubhouse and pool areas. At midnight, I made my last patrol stop there and heard voices coming from the pool area, which includes a jacuzzi. I went over to the gate and found two college-age girls in the jacuzzi. I told them from the gate that the pool area is closed and they have to leave. They got out of the jacuzzi and one of them was minus her bikini top. Ah, Malibu!

I headed off for Monsterpalooza on Sunday and had a great time there. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, my main objective was to meet actor David Hedison. That mission was accomplished.

Sunday night was also interesting as a storm came in and dumped a lot of rain. I had to drive in torrential rain from work down the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu Canyon Road to get back into the San Fernando Valley.

Today has been a day of relaxation (and getting my laundry done). Amber stopped by for her mail and to sign her tax returns. I showed her the David Hedison-autographed book, The Fly At Fifty, and showed her the inveiling scene and the spider web (Help me!) scene from The Fly.

So far, I am enjoying the book. If you are a fan of the original 1958 The Fly movie, make sure you pick up the book by Diane Kachmar and David Goudsward. There's lots of great stuff in it, including the original short story by George Langelaan that was first published in Playboy.

It's back to work tomorrow. At least I'll be in Malibu.

UPDATE (4/14/10): Late this morning I received two claim assignments that took me down to downtown L.A. and the city of Vernon. At least they were close (by about 3-4 miles).

UPDATE (4/16/10): Received a new claim assignment and an expansion of one of the other two I received two days ago. Great to be kept busy!

Meeting David Hedison

Above, Armand with David Hedison.

A year ago, I did an email interview with actor David Hedison for G-FAN magazine. I worked out the arrangement with author Diane Kachmar.

In the interview, I covered different movie genres that Hedison appeared in. Most notably, The Lost World, James Bond epics Live and Let Die and License To Kill, the television series Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea and, most importantly, The Fly.

Above, David Hedison as Capt. Lee Crane in "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea."

Yesterday, I attended the second annual Monsterpalooza show. Besides seeing the show, I had one goal I wanted to accomplish: meeting David Hedison.

When I got to Hedison's table, he was gone. I found out later that he had gone to a neighboring hotel for what he thought would be a "five-minute interview" that turned out to be over an hour long. He was a little annoyed at the time it took and some of the questions that were asked of him. But he laughed it off.

I caught up with him in the foyer of the Marriott's Convention Center and introduced myself. We headed off to his table and chatted about the G-FAN interview. He asked if everyone liked it and I told him that I received a lot of compliments on it.

It is amazing that this white-haired and white-bearded gentleman was Andre Delambre, Lee Crane and Felix Leiter, each of which had jet-black hair. But the voice was unmistakable. That was definitely the voice of David Hedison! Although in his early 80s, his voice did not sound like a voice of an old man's. He had a steady stride and still had a lot of hustle in him!

At his table, I did pick up a copy of Kachmar's book The Fly At Fifty.

Above, "The Fly At Fifty."

Luckily for me, David Hedison had three copies of the book left. After he autographed the book, I asked him for the price. He said $40.00. After he said that, I hesitated a second because, minutes before, I donated a dollar for photographing a display in the room and it just dawned on me. That left me exactly $39.00 in cash in my pocket.

Above, the autograph.

He laughed and asked, "Were you surprised at $40.00?" I told him, "Oh no, I've been to a lot of conventions before. Would you take a check?" He said yes. (It would've been no problem anyway, as the convention center has an ATM machine.) I figured it would be around $40 anyway as the price on the book is $21.95 (that's an odd amount) and celebrities charge $10-20 for autographs. This reminds me, I should ask the bank for the original check (they just give print-outs of cleared checks these days) after it clears, so I can have two Hedison autographs.

After I handed him my check, he laughed, "Who do I contact if this bounces?" I reassured him that there's no chance of that (my mom left me with some money after she died in January plus The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan is doing well). After this, we posed for a photo in front of a life-size figure of him as The Fly.

Mission accomplished! I got to meet David Hedison.

To reach David Hedison's website, go here.

"The Fly" In The Spiderweb

In G-FAN #88, David Hedison was interviewed by yours truly and he mentioned that he didn't like the "falsetto" sound of his voice in the spiderweb scene in 1958's The Fly.

I first saw this at age 5 (during the movie's first run) and the scene is as scary now as it was then. I have to disagree with David, the voice didn't ruin the scene at all.

Here it is: