A dozen or more of you have told me about Paul Kelly, who killed a man in a fight in 1927. He was convicted of manslaughter, served two years in prison, then returned to acting with some success.
Tom Neal, the actor who starred in the film noir classic Detour, shot and killed his third wife in 1965. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served six years of a ten-year sentence before he was paroled.
There's also Christian Brando, if you want to call him a celebrity. I'm not sure any of these men quite live up to that title. I guess it depends how you to define it. I don't think it's just a matter of having appeared on stage or screen. I think it has something to do with being famous and successful. The fact that these are all we've been able to identify makes the point that "celebrities" (by the successful/famous definition) do not get convicted of murder.
So now I guess the question is: Is it that such people are way less likely than the average joe to commit capital crimes? Or less likely to get caught or convicted if they do?
Don Murphy reminds me that John Wilkes Booth wasn't put on trial for shooting Abe Lincoln. Booth was tracked down and killed by Union soldiers twelve days after his foul deed.
So we're left with Spade Cooley and Phil Spector as the only two known celebrities to be convicted of murder. I suppose one could argue that neither was that much of a celebrity at the moment of their respective killings. Then again, neither was O.J.
Timothy Noah tackles the question of when has a celebrity ever been convicted of murder? He thinks it may have been John Wilkes Booth.
My buddy Buzz Dixon thinks it may have been bandleader Spade Cooley, who in 1962 was found guilty of murdering his wife. Some people thought he should also have been found guilty of being named Spade Cooley.
You'll want to tune in Stu's Show this coming Wednesday. Stu's guest will be Marc McClure, who played Jimmy Olsen in all the Superman movies that featured Christopher Reeve. But that's hardly all he's done. He was in several Back to the Future movies. He was in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars and Freaky Friday and he's been on Smallville and Happy Days and The Shield and Cold Case and...well, you get the concept. He's been in a lot of things...and now he's appearing with my pal Stu Shostak for a live two-hour conversation, and he'll even be taking your phone calls.
A broadcast of Stu's Show is, as I keep telling you, not a podcast. You can't download it and listen to it whenever you want. You have to "tune in" when it's on...which in this case is from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM Eastern. It's live on Wednesday and that's the best time to listen because, among other reasons, you can call in and ask questions. You can hear the show on your own little computer by appearing at the website of Shokus Internet Radio at the proper hour and clicking where you're told to click. The show reruns on other days, usually in the same time slot. Check out the site for a full schedule.
Asked to recall the last celebrity convicted of murder, district attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said, "I know there has not been one in the last 40 years and beyond that, I cannot say."
We have a two-fer for you, today. You've probably seen one or both of these by now but just in case you haven't...
This looks a little like Grand Central Station in New York but it's actually Antwerpen's Centraal Station in Belgium. The whole thing was staged for a reality show over there, which probably means it's not particularly real in any way. (Judging from the number of camera angles, it was done several times and they were edited together.) But it sure is fun...
Then this is from Britain's Got Talent, which is the British version of...well, you know what it's the British version of. I've never really gotten into the American edition because it seems so fake and so manipulative and because it doesn't have a lot to do with real talent.
That said, even I had to smile at this moment from a recent show involving a lady named Susan Boyle. So will you...
April 15, 2009
