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Separated at birth? — 21 Comments

  1. Gustav Mahler and…a more recent incarnation…?
    (Perhaps only Alma knows…)

  2. “a more recent incarnation…?”

    It sure ain’t Franz Werfel. Alma was quite the scalp collector, wasn’t she?

  3. T:

    The Cohen-Hoffman resemblance – especially when they were young – is so strong that I’ve mentioned it several times in posts about Cohen. Here’s one, where unfortunately the YouTube links no longer work because they’re in an older format.

  4. Neo,

    Yes I remember that (at least one of those posts). Is it possible that a common Jewish ancestry is at play here that there should be such a resemblance between all three. Years ago I read an article which claimed that about 40% of all Ashkenazi Jews could be traced to four women through mitocondrial DNA. If I remember correctly, Cohen, Hoffman and Nimoy all claim some Eastern European Jewish heritage

    This link is not the article I remember, but it cites the information:

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060117083446.htm

  5. Nah… Not at all.

    I think Ioan Gruffud, now that he’s almost fifty looks like the Mahler painting more than Henry Fonda does.

  6. One produced great symphonies, the other produced worthless offspring.

  7. As a child I loved Henry Fonda’s movies “Young Mr. Lincoln” and “Drums Along the Mohawk.”

  8. Yes indeed, “Drums Along the Mohawk,” great. Directed by John Ford with his customary mastery of the medium, his trademark flourishes: sly gentle humor, likeable fully realized protagonists, throat-catching emotion, terrific action sequences, the drinking of strong spirits, choral singing, and a cast populated by the so-called John Ford Ensemble Players, all in peak form.

    And, as in all John Ford military-themed movies, a distance shot of columns of marching men.

  9. Off the top of my head, the John Ford movies featuring Henry Fonda were: Drums Along the Mohawk, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts . . .

    Whew, that’s a lineup.

    Any others?

  10. is there an american lead of that caliber, on the stage today,

  11. It sure ain’t Franz Werfel. Alma was quite the scalp collector, wasn’t she? — PA+Cat

    Apologies to Barry Meislin and PA+Cat, but I’m sitting on my hands waiting for someone to link the immortal Tom Lehrer:
    _____________________________________

    Her lovers were many and varied,
    From the day she began her — beguine.
    There were three famous ones whom she married,
    And God knows how many between.

    Alma, tell us!
    All modern women are jealous.
    Which of your magical wands
    Got you Gustav and Walter and Franz?

    The first one she married was Mahler,
    Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav.
    And each time he saw her he’d holler:
    “Ach, that is the fraulein I moost have!”

    –“Tom Lehrer | “Alma” (The Spiciest Obituary)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L35IiVHZBTk

    _____________________________________

    Sorry, but I had no choice.

  12. Actually, I was way too busy working on my genuflecting technique. If Lehrer sang about it then it simply had to be something worth investigating…
    (This was before the “____ for Dummies” series was even a figment in the eye of any publisher’s imagination. The only real model I had was the movies.)

  13. Every so often someone will approach me and say something like “I know you are famous, but I can’t remember your name.” Or like yesterday a cashier “Who’d you play for? Or was it coach? I know I have seen you on tv.”

    Sometimes the circumstances are funny. One time I was at the Bristol Speedway watching Tenn-VaTech set the record for college football attendance. This young woman and her husband approached me as I bought a soft drink. “Sorry to bother you, but I know you are somebody and I can’t remember who.” He seemed embarrassed, but she was determined. I tried to explain that the moments I may have been on tv were not memorable. I wasn’t someone she’d seen. She wouldn’t take no. She was sure I was just trying to remain anonymous. She even insisted I give her an autograph. I think she figured if she insisted I had to be someone long enough, I would give in and tell her. Finally, her husband had to gently pull her away.

    Perhaps a dozen times since the tv show was on people have insisted I look like Ken Howard who played the White Shadow. I don’t see it except being tall. I’m convinced some people focus on very different facial features when they make these comparisons. We both have slightly drooping eye lids.

    Eventually, I learned it is easier just to give them an answer that is true, but not what they think. I was drafted by the Pirates but only played in the minors. If they ask if I played ball, I just answer “Pirates”. They nod knowingly and I can move on. If they ask if I coached, I just say UT football (I was a grad asst in 1989 who they likely never saw). They nod. “I knew it.”

    As for the guy who insisted he knew I’d been a senator or congressman, I just tried not to be offended.

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