In 2010, 100-year-old Luise Rainer appeared to offer a unique challenge for Osborne when the back-to-back Oscar winner for 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld” and 1937’s “The Good Earth” turned up on stage in front of thousands of movie fans at the TCM Classic Film Festival seemingly stone deaf and without her hearing aids. In 2007, two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda detailed working grueling 18-hour days on set filming 1965’s “Cat Ballou” with Lee Marvin because “the word ‘no’ was not yet a complete sentence for Jane Fonda.” In 2008, “Marty” Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine told Osborne his marriage to Broadway legend Ethel Merman ended on their honeymoon because she was jealous of his fame as the star of the TV sitcom “McHale’s Navy.” Over the years on Turner Classic Movies, Osborne’s expertise, deep knowledge and deeper Hollywood connections resulted in a series of exclusives for the network. Related Q&A: Turner Classic Movies Host Ben Mankiewicz Discusses His Father Frank's Very Eventful Life, Legacy and New Memoir That’s what a skilled interviewer does and Robert Osborne was simply masterful.” No matter who you were, he put you at ease. He was never intimidated by a star or a specialist. He treated everyone equally, whether you were a world famous actress or an academic. “To Robert Osborne, I could have been a Hollywood movie star. “From the moment we sat down together in the make up chairs, Robert Osborne put me at ease because he was so relaxed,” recalls “Reel Bad Arabs” author Jack Shaheen, who co-hosted the month-long “TCM Race in Hollywood: Arab Images in Film” festival with Osborne in 2011. He was asking the questions we wanted to know.” “TCM Race & Hollywood: Arab Images In Film” co-host Jack Shaheen “He never forgot he was one of us - a movie fan. “Sure, as the Oscars historian, he had all that incredible knowledge but he never used it to flaunt it or show it off, but rather he used it to be an extension of the viewer,” says longtime AJC film critic Eleanor Ringel-Cater, who observed Osborne in action interviewing Maximilian Schell, Louise Fletcher and Marni Nixon at the Robert Osborne Film Festival in Athens, beginning in 2005. The tribute will also include Osborne’s own fascinating 2014 “Private Screenings” conversation with friend Alec Baldwin. Included in the line up are his conversations with Peter O’Toole, Novak, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin and Luise Rainer live at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles and his “Private Screenings” interviews with Debbie Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, Ernest Borgnine and Betty Hutton. It’s only fitting that the Atlanta-based cable network pay tribute to the face of the franchise (who died March 6 at age 84) by airing 48 hours of his best interviews beginning Saturday at 6 a.m. “He knew that’s what she needed in that moment and you could see how much Kim Novak appreciated it.”įor over 50 years, Robert Osborne honed his intuitive, authoritative interviewing skills, first as an author interviewing legends while gathering facts for his 1965 book “Academy Awards Illustrated,” then for his Hollywood Reporter “Rambling Reporter” column and for more than 20 years, via his regular “Reel Memories,” “Private Screenings” and the “Live From The TCM Classic Film Festival” interview series for TCM. Barrios, the author of “Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood From Edison to Stonewall” would grow up to co-host TCM’s month-long “Gay Images in Film” festival with Osborne in 2007. “Here was this very vulnerable person up there on that stage and he was wonderful with her,” recalls author Richard Barrios, whose first exposure to Osborne was when he received a copy of his Oscars tome “Academy Awards Illustrated” as a kid. Reflecting on her career and why she walked away from the glitz of Hollywood, the star of “Vertigo” and “Picnic” confessed to Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, “I would have liked to … feel more appreciated.” Instinctually, Osborne reassured the star, telling her, “Well, we do appreciate you.” The audience immediately burst into applause. ![]() Robert Osborne interviews Kim Novak on stage at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2012. It was a moment that would terrify even the most seasoned interviewer - in front of a packed audience inside The Avalon Theatre at the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival with cameras rolling, Hollywood legend Kim Novak began to cry.
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