December 12 - Peter Boyle

Image courtesy of Playbill.com

On this day, in 2006, Peter Lawrence Boyle passed away in New York, New York. Born October 18, 1935 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Peter grew up as the son of Francis Boyle, a local television celebrity in Philadelphia. After graduating from high school in 1953, he entered a seminary run by the De La Salle Brothers. While he would earn his bachelor's degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia four years later, Peter did not feel a religious calling and left the order. He then enrolled in Officer Training School, graduated in 1959 and entered the United States Navy as an ensign. His military career didn't last long, however, as he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to leave the service.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

Peter moved to New York, got a job as a clerk with the United States Postal Service and began studying acting. He landed the role of Murray in a traveling production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. When the tour played in Chicago, Peter ended up leaving the company and joined the famed comic troupe The Second City. At the end of the Sixties, he had a few minor roles in films that were shooting in Chicago.

In 1970, Peter had his first starring role in a movie, the title character in Joe. Amid the controversy the film generated over its violence and language, Peter enjoyed being nominated for a Film Critics Award but thereafter tried to stay away from roles that he felt glamorized violence. He had mixed success with that ideal as he would play a mobster twice over the next few years in Crazy Joe and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. After Joe, Peter found success as Robert Redford's campaign manager in The Candidate and, perhaps his most famous film role, as the "monster" in Young Frankenstein.

Image copyright 20th Century Fox

Peter met his wife, Loraine Alterman, on the set of Young Frankenstein. She was a reporter for Rolling Stone and was friends with Yoko Ono. Peter subsequently became good friends with John Lennon, who was best man at Peter and Loraine's wedding. How's that for a kid from Philly?

For most of the rest of his film career, Peter became an accomplished character actor. He played roles as diverse as a cab driver in 1976's Taxi Driver to a retiring crime boss in the 1984 comedy Johnny Dangerously. One of my favorite roles of his is as Jack McDermott, a mental institution patient, in the 1989 comedy The Dream Team (which also features his Johnny co-star Michael Keaton). Peter also continued appearing on stage in New York. In 1980, he was on Broadway in the Carl Reiner play The Roast and off Broadway in Sam Shepard's True West. A couple of years later he lead the ensemble cast of Snow Orchid at the Circle Repertory.

Image copyright CBS

Then in 1990, his career, and his life, nearly ended when Peter suffered a devastating stroke. For six months, he was completely speechless and immobile. The next few years would involve grueling rehab sessions but Peter's recovery would be remarkable. By 1996, he was on television in an episode of The X-Files that would win him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor. That same year, Peter began the role he will be forever known for as Frank Baron, the cranky father of Ray Romano, on Everybody Loves Raymond. Over the next nine years, he would be nominated for the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor seven times. He wouldn't manage to take the statue home even once though, losing many of those times to his co-star Brad Garrett.

Image copyright Disney

Peter became a member of the Disney family in 1994 as part of the cast of the Tim Allen comedy, The Santa Clause. He plays Tim's boss at a toy company who becomes concerned for his employee's well being. Peter would go on to appear in both of the sequels to The Santa Clause, but in a completely different role, Father Time. He also appeared in the Hollywood Pictures film While You Were Sleeping in 1995. That film stars Sandra Bullock and also features Glynis Johns, who played Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins. Finally, Peter was a part of the cast of the 1997 remake of That Darn Cat in the role of Pa.

You can donate at myeloma.org

Less than two years after the end of Everybody Loves Raymond, Peter passed away due to complications from myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. His death was fairly unexpected as he was due to begin filming another comedy movie, The Golden Boys. Following his death, Peter's widow, Loraine, established a memorial fund in his name that supports the International Myeloma Foundation. A yearly comedy benefit, frequently hosted by Ray Romano, has helped raised millions of dollars and awareness of the deadly disease.

September 22 - Bonnie Lynn Hunt

On this day, in 1961, Bonnie Lynn Hunt was born in Chicago, Illinois. As the sixth of seven children in an Irish/Polish Catholic family, Bonnie learned early on that life can be noisy and chaotic and that it helps if you know how to improvise.

Bonnie worked part time as a nurse's aide while attending Chicago's Notre Dame High School for Girls. After graduation she became a nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in oncology. Since the cancer ward of a hospital doesn't lend itself to much in the way of lightheartedness, Bonnie co-founded an improv group in 1984 called An Impulsive Thing. Two years later she joined Second City, keeping her day job to pay the bills. Two years after that, she had a life-changing lunch break: an audition for the movie Rainman.

Bonnie got the part of waitress Sally Dibbs in the Dustin Hoffman/Tom Cruise vehicle. Two years later (there seems to be a pattern forming here) she would appear on the small screen in a show called Grand. I loved that show, at least the first season of it, but the network managed to kill it in the second season, like so many things the networks touch, and it died a horrible death. She was offered a role on Saturday Night Live but turned it down as she prefers more improvisation than Lorne Michaels does. She also declined a replacement role on Designing Women, instead joining season two of the Randy Quaid/Johnathan Winters sitcom, Davis Rules, in 1992. Unfortunately, season two was also that shows last season. In 1993, she had a sitcom that lasted only five episodes, The Building, that was filmed live and generally left any mistakes in. Two years later, a good chunk of the cast of The Building would return for Bonnie, another attempt at an improvisational loose comedy. Alas, it was critically acclaimed (again I found myself in the minority that loved it) but only made it 11 episodes.

Bonnie had returned to the big screen in 1992 in Beethoven with Charles Grodin. A sequel happened the following year, as well as a turn in Dave with Kevin Kline. For the next several years, Bonnie worked steadily in such films as Jumanji, Jerry Maguire and The Green Mile, which earned her a SAG Award nomination. In 2000, she wrote and directed the movie Return to Me starring David Duchovny, Minnie Driver and Carol O'Connor in his final performance. In 2003, she starred with Steve Martin in Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel, you guessed it, two years later.

In 2007, she tried her hand at hosting a talk show. The Bonnie Hunt Show was loosely modeled after Live with Regis and Kelly in that Bonnie made a point of interacting with the audience as much as possible. The show ran for three seasons and earned Bonnie a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2010.

You many have noticed that there are some gaps in Bonnie's history so far. That's because starting in 1998, Bonnie has had an increasing presence in the Disney catalog, mostly in Pixar films. Her first character was Rosie in A Bug's Life. She next appeared as Mrs. Flint in Monsters, Inc. Bonnie then played Sally Carrera in Cars, for which she also received writing credit, Dolly in Toy Story 3, Sally again in Cars 2, Karen Graves in Monsters University, Bonnie Hopps in Zootopia and Sally again in Cars 3. She also has a recurring role on Sophia the First as Aunt Tilly. Bonnie also starred in a sitcom produced by Touchstone Television from 2002-04 called Life with Bonnie, earning Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations along the way.

When not lending her voice to subtly hilarious characters, Bonnie is, as all real Chicagoans are, an avid Cubs fan and, in a nod to her former profession, a board member and ardent supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.