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Why Watch That

This week’s 66th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the amazing work of some of today’s most recognizable actors. But, what about the actors who are no longer as recognizable? In this episode, the Critic and the Referee ask: “Whatever happened to…?” In their own unique way, they pay homage to the actors who used to be hot on the scene. Take a trip down memory lane with them, and enjoy the ride.

Richard Dreyfuss
Born: October 29, 1947
Brooklyn, New York

He is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Goodbye Girl.
Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for The Goodbye Girl (1977), and was nominated in 1995 for Mr. Holland’s Opus. He has also won a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and was nominated in 2002 for a Screen Actors Guild Award in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries categories.

Hawthorne James
Chicago, Illinois

He is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Big Red Davis in the 1991 film The Five Heartbeats. He is also known for his role as Sam, the injured bus driver, in Speed (1994), as a Jo0k Joint patron in The Color Purple (1985), and as Bill in Frasier’s (1993) season 1 episode “Miracle on Third or Fourth Street”.

Clarence Williams III
Born: August 21, 1939
New York, New York

He is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his role as “Linc Hayes” on the iconic “hippie” cop show The Mod Squad (1968-1973). He first appeared on Broadway in The Long Dream (1960), and received a Theatre World Award and Tony nomination for the three-person play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground (1964). Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John. He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966.

He has worked in a variety of genres on stage and screen, from comedy (I’m Gonna Git You Sucka; Half-Baked) to sci-fi (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and drama (Purple Rain). Spanning over forty years, his career includes a recurring role in the surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), a good cop in Deep Cover (1992), a rioter in the mini-series Against the Wall (1994), and Wesley Snipes’ chemically dependent Dad in Sugar Hill (1993).

Della Reese
Born: July 6, 1931
Detroit, Michigan

She is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess, and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single “Don’t You Know?”. In the late 1960s, she hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 197 episodes. Through four decades of acting, she is best known for playing Tess, the lead role on the 1994–2003 television show Touched by an Angel. In more recent times, she became an ordained New Thought minister in the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, California.

In 1970, Reese became the first black woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She appeared in several TV movies and miniseries, was a regular on Chico and the Man, and played the mother of B. A. Baracus in The A-Team episode “Lease with an Option to Die.” She also did voice-over work for the late-1980s animated series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. In 1989, she starred alongside Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and Arsenio Hall in the film Harlem Nights, in which she performed a famous fight scene with Eddie Murphy.

Kim Basinger
Born: December 8, 1953
Athens, Georgia

She is an American actress and former fashion model. She came to prominence in the 1980s with roles as Bond girl Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again (1983), her Golden Globe-nominated role as Memo Paris in The Natural (1984), Elizabeth in 9½ Weeks (1986), and Vicki Vale in Batman (1989). In 1997, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in L.A. Confidential. Other movies in which Basinger has starred include I Dreamed of Africa (2000) as Kuki Gallmann, 8 Mile (2002), and Cellular (2004).

Joe Pesci
Born: February 9, 1943
Newark, New Jersey

He is an American actor, comedian, and musician, known for playing tough, volatile characters, in a variety of genres. He is best known for a trio of films he co-starred in with Robert De Niro, directed by Martin Scorsese: Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), and Casino (1995). Pesci was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Raging Bull, and then won the same award for his role as the psychopathic mobster Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas. Pesci has starred in a number of other high-profile films, including Once Upon a Time in America, My Cousin Vinny, JFK, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, A Bronx Tale, and the Lethal Weapon series.

He announced his retirement from acting in 1999, and since then he has appeared only sporadically in films.

Carl Weathers
Born: January 14, 1948
New Orleans, Louisiana

He is an American actor and former professional NFL player. He is best known for portraying Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films, Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore, and Little Nicky, and an exaggeratedly frugal semi-fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development.

Ja’net DuBois
Born: August 5, 1945
Brooklyn, New York

She is an American actress and singer, best known for her portrayal of the wise-cracking, gossip maven Willona Woods on the 1970s sitcom Good Times. She also co-wrote and sang the theme song of the sitcom The Jeffersons. She co-starred in the movie I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and the sitcoms Moesha and The Steve Harvey Show. She played the grandmother on the hit show The Wayans Bros., and appeared in the 2003 movie Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Among her other credits, she appeared in the 1969 made-for-TV holiday film J.T.. She also appeared in former Good Times co-star Janet Jackson’s “Control” music video as her mother.

Sharon Stone
Born: March 10, 1958
Meadville, Pennsylvania

She is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. Stone first achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct by Paul Verhoeven. For her performance in Casino, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. She received further acclaim and Golden Globe Award nominations for her roles in The Mighty and The Muse. In 2004, Stone won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in The Practice. She has also appeared in other film such as Alpha Dog, Bobby, and Lovelace.

Stone was cast in Agent X, a television action-drama series currently in re-development for the TNT channel.

Bill Duke
Born: February 26, 1943
Poughkeepsie, NY

He is an American actor and film director who first became a familiar face to moviegoers in Car Wash (1976) as the fierce young Black Muslim revolutionary Abdullah Mohammed Akbar (formerly known as Duane), and expanded his repertoire with American Gigolo (1980) as a gay pimp. In the early 1980s, he produced and starred in a short-lived CBS TV series Palmerstown, USA about the life, times, and relationships between a black family and a white family in a small rural town in the 1930s.

He starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando and Predator, portrayed a DEA chief (an uncredited role) in The Limey (1999), and was the police chief in the Carl Weathers movie Action Jackson. Duke also played a Police Chief opposite Steven Segal, in Exit Wounds. He played a detective investigating a murder in Menace II Society and played a corrupt law enforcement agent in two films opposite Mel Gibson – Bird on a Wire (as an FBI agent) and Payback (as a police detective). Duke appears in X-Men: The Last Stand as Trask and in the 2005 film Get Rich or Die Tryin’ as Levar.

Jonathan Lipnicki
Born: October 22, 1990
Westlake Village, California

He is an American actor who made his film debut in 1996’s Jerry Maguire as the son of Renée Zellweger’s character. He subsequently appeared on The Single Guy, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and episodes of Dawson’s Creek and the 1997 sitcom Meego. In 1999, he starred in the film Stuart Little, playing a boy whose family adopts a talking mouse; a role he reprised in the film’s 2002 sequel. Lipnicki also played the lead role in the 2000 film The Little Vampire and starred opposite Bow Wow in the 2002 theatrical film Like Mike.

He has been a speaker for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and is actively involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Starlight Children Foundation, and the NBA’s Read to Achieve program.

Haley Joel Osment
Born: April 10, 1988
Los Angeles, California

He is an American actor best known for his performance as Cole Sear in M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller film The Sixth Sense, which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He played a small role in Forrest Gump, and subsequently appeared in leading roles in several high-profile Hollywood films, including Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Mimi Leder’s Pay It Forward. He made his Broadway debut in 2008 in a short-lived revival of David Mamet’s play, American Buffalo, starring John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer.

He’s made numerous guest appearances on television shows, including The Larry Sanders Show; Walker, Texas Ranger; Touched by an Angel; Chicago Hope; The Pretender; and Ally McBeal.

Jackeé Harry
Born: August 14, 1956
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

She is an American actress and television personality best known for her roles as Sandra Clark, the sexy neighbor on the TV series 227, and Lisa Landry on the sitcom Sister, Sister. She is noted for being the first African American to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She is currently starring as Pauletta Birdsong in Byron Allen’s syndicated sitcom The First Family and Evelyn Rand in the sitcom Girl Meets World.

In 1989, she starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in the adaptation of Gloria Naylor’s novel, The Women of Brewster Place. She also had a recurring role as Vanessa on The CW series Everybody Hates Chris.

Marla Gibbs
Born: June 14, 1931
Chicago, Illinois

She is an American television and film actress and singer. She is best known for playing Louise and George Jefferson’s feisty maid, Florence Johnston, on The Jeffersons. She also starred in the show’s spin-off Checking In. Later, she starred as Mary Jenkins on the hit television series 227 and appeared in the film Madea’s Witness Protection (2012). She has appeared as guest star in several African-American sitcoms, including The Hughleys, Martin, Chappelle’s Show, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She has done voice-over work for the animated TV series 101 Dalmatians.

Gibbs owned a jazz club in South Central L.A. called “Marla’s Memory Lane Jazz and Supper Club” from 1981 to 1999 and released a music CD, It’s Never Too Late, in May 2006.