Ilene Kristen

[fairplay28]

I just ran across this article and don't remember if it's ever been posted. My apologies if it has (or if I should have put this on the general board.)

www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2008/07/21/a1d_ilene_kristen_0721.html

I excerpted this one bit, but read the rest. It's an interesting piece .


Q: What struck you about Delia?

A: She's this child-woman, who wants very badly to be a woman. She had a very sad childhood, and she looked toward the Ryans as the family she never had. And she was going to get into that family no matter what. That was the thing about her - there's a part of all of us that wants to (go for what we want) but we don't. She was so unlike anyone I knew, did things I would never do. There's this scene where she's pulling apart a doll and pretending it's (squeaky clean heroine and nemesis) Mary Ryan. I was like "Is she psychologically out of town?"
That was a great time. Me and Nancy Addison and Bernie Barrow were all these Jewish people playing Irish people.

[bob17279]

It's a shame we never had an opportunity to see the three of them together as Jewish characters on a soap.

[fairplay28]

Papa Bernie and his two girls. It would have been great. They could have lived down the block from the Ryans.

Now, I'd like to see a reality show about Ilene and Myrna.

[bob17279]

Bernie could have been Bernie Greenberg, running a famous Jewish deli with his two always-warring daughters.

[fairplay28]

The idea has a lot of potential.

[raggedycheryl512]

Jul 10, 2011 17:25:37 GMT -8 fairplay28 said:

I just ran across this article and don't remember if it's ever been posted. My apologies if it has (or if I should have put this on the general board.)

www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2008/07/21/a1d_ilene_kristen_0721.html

I excerpted this one bit, but read the rest. It's an interesting piece .


Q: What struck you about Delia?

A: She's this child-woman, who wants very badly to be a woman. She had a very sad childhood, and she looked toward the Ryans as the family she never had. And she was going to get into that family no matter what. That was the thing about her - there's a part of all of us that wants to (go for what we want) but we don't. She was so unlike anyone I knew, did things I would never do. There's this scene where she's pulling apart a doll and pretending it's (squeaky clean heroine and nemesis) Mary Ryan. I was like "Is she psychologically out of town?"
That was a great time. Me and Nancy Addison and Bernie Barrow were all these Jewish people playing Irish people.

I thought it was changed to Jill, the Pumpkin head? Maybe a different scene.

Add John Gabriel and Michael Levin to the list of Jewish actors playing non-Jewish characters. Only Stan Birnbaum as Dr. Adam Cohen stood alone in the Jewish/Jewish clubhouse.

[bob17279]

I always liked Stan Birnbaum aka Sam Behrens a lot as an actor, especially when he played Jake Meyer on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the mid 1980s. According to the imdb, he's just about to turn 61, but has worked very little since he had a role on SUNSET BEACH in the late 1990s. His last imdb credit was in 2007.

[destclev]

Jul 11, 2011 7:12:43 GMT -8 bob17279 said:

I always liked Stan Birnbaum aka Sam Behrens a lot as an actor, especially when he played Jake Meyer on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the mid 1980s. According to the imdb, he's just about to turn 61, but has worked very little since he had a role on SUNSET BEACH in the late 1990s. His last imdb credit was in 2007.

I loved him as Adam on RH. To me, his departure was one of the big wastes of potential ever. He was handsome, kind of cool (didn't he help Delia with her fake cast?), and could've been used in a hundred different ways. Jeez, I always just liked it when he walked in the door of Ryan's. The scene where he came and talked to Maeve following

spoiler

Mary's death was lovely. I just hated it that they sent him away.

[raggedycheryl512]

Jul 11, 2011 7:12:43 GMT -8 bob17279 said:

I always liked Stan Birnbaum aka Sam Behrens a lot as an actor, especially when he played Jake Meyer on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the mid 1980s. According to the imdb, he's just about to turn 61, but has worked very little since he had a role on SUNSET BEACH in the late 1990s. His last imdb credit was in 2007.

Bob, some people are already happily retired by 61! Maybe he's doing theatre or just enjoying life.

I actually felt worse for Ron Hale, who was so underused on GH as Sonny's father. He nearly was a "bit player" -- I wonder if he liked working less, or was frustrated by the situation there.

[ginibake]

Great article thanks for posting

[bob17279]

Cheryl--

I hope Sam Behrens is retired and healthy and enjoying life. But I know a lot of older actors who've acted throughout their adult lives and almost none of them ever retire. My friend Ivy Bethune, who's 93, still goes to auditions and works when she's cast! (Ivy's daughter Zina Bethune, a close friend of mine, was a child star on GUIDING LIGHT in the 1950s and much later was on LOVE OF LIFE.)

I also know someone who was a HUGE soap star in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He's now probably in his late 60s, perhaps 70 years old, and for a good while has been mainly a theater actor in New York with occasional appearances on TV and in film. This guy is on a subcommittee of Actors Equity's EEOC Committee that focuses on trying to create more employment opportunities for older actors. (I'm not using his name because we're acquaintances more than friends and I'm not certain of when and how he'd want his name used.)

[carol]

You mentioned Ron Hale. Nobody has eyes that 'act' like Ron Hale's eyes. Their sparkle, when he wants them to sparkle, is unlike any I've ever seen.

[qtee]

Jul 10, 2011 18:42:54 GMT -8 bob17279 said:

It's a shame we never had an opportunity to see the three of them together as Jewish characters on a soap.

They could have called it' Rabinovich's Tikva'. Instead of a bar it could have been a deli. lol

[raggedycheryl512]

Jul 11, 2011 14:06:54 GMT -8 bob17279 said:

Cheryl--

I hope Sam Behrens is retired and healthy and enjoying life. But I know a lot of older actors who've acted throughout their adult lives and almost none of them ever retire. My friend Ivy Bethune, who's 93, still goes to auditions and works when she's cast! (Ivy's daughter Zina Bethune, a close friend of mine, was a child star on GUIDING LIGHT in the 1950s and much later was on LOVE OF LIFE.)

I also know someone who was a HUGE soap star in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He's now probably in his late 60s, perhaps 70 years old, and for a good while has been mainly a theater actor in New York with occasional appearances on TV and in film. This guy is on a subcommittee of Actors Equity's EEOC Committee that focuses on trying to create more employment opportunities for older actors. (I'm not using his name because we're acquaintances more than friends and I'm not certain of when and how he'd want his name used.)

I remember Zena Bethune. She was on "The Nurses" with Mary Fickett (was it prime time, or did that show go to daytime, too?) She had blonde hair she pulled back into a tight French twist. Very pretty young woman.

Interesting about older actors. You can't force someone to write a part for an older actor if a role doesn't exist. And unfortunately as we talked about awhile ago, some actresses (on GH, in particular) who aren't much past 60 have had so much plastic surgery that they don't look old or young, just somewhat "off." Would a Jackie Zeman (Bobbie, GH) get more work if she had had less work done, and looked her age? (Which is around my age. I haven't had any work done, but I do pass for about 20 years younger than I am.)

Fortunately, my looks work for my lifestyle, because they just scream "Retired young-looking older woman!" But I'm not in showbiz.

[bob17279]

Cheryl--

It's true that you can't FORCE someone to write a part for an older actor, but (as with other diversity issues) you can encourage people in the entertainment industry to do more to show the lives of older people in film, television, and theater. As you know, this used to be routine on daytime soaps, but they have increasingly focused on characters under 35 years old.

Zina Bethune starred on the CBS nighttime series, THE NURSES, which ran from 1962 to 1965. Your memory of how she looked is right on the mark. She played student nurse Gail Lucas. But the star wasn't Mary Fickett (who starred on a later, shortlived daytime series with the same name), it was Shirl Conway as head nurse and mentor Liz Thorpe. THE NURSES was a pioneering show both because it was the first drama series to have two women in the lead roles and because (along with THE DEFENDERS, EAST SIDE WEST SIDE, and ROUTE 66) it was one of the first nighttime shows to focus on important social issues such as racism, abortion, euthanasia, drug addiction among health care professionals, Nazi medical experiments, parental rejection of children with disabilities, sexist and homophobic attitudes toward male nurses, and many more.

Zina has had a remarkable career. She was a child star both in ballet (did the lead in THE NUTCRACKER for Balanchine three times!) and as an actor (original Broadway cast of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA and many other great credits). In her 20s, she was the female lead in Martin Scorsese's first feature film, WHO'S THAT KNOCKING ON MY DOOR, opposite Harvey Keitel. She moved to L.A. and started her own multimedia dance company, Bethune Theatredanse. And has become internationally known as THE pioneer in teaching dance to kids with disabilities, including kids who use wheelchairs, use leg braces, are blind, and are developmentally disabled.

I did a profile of her in 1990 when she was on Broadway in one of the lead roles in GRAND HOTEL and we've been dear friends ever since.

[fairplay28]

Count me as another fan of Zina Bethune. (I always loved her name). I saw her first on one of my favorite shows, Naked City. I was enthralled by her interesting look.. and she was a fine actress. I am so happy to hear that she is doing well.