R.I.P. to TV's greatest chat show host and celebrity interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson, who has passed away following a brief illness at the age of 88.

I've mostly seen clips, on Youtube; but, my favorite is his infamous 1975 interview with Helen Mirren, where he asks decidedly sexist questions and she gives it right back to him.....







They commented on it, years later.....

The clip I shared prompted me to watch the full interview with Kerry Packer. What a great interview. Parkinson wasn't prepared to like Packer, but Kerry was so charismatic and funny that you can see him win Parkinson over with every joke. 

Posted in the wrestling thread, but former NWA World Champion and second generation performer and actor Terry Funk has passed away, at 79.

Funk was the son of wrestler and World Junior Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Sr, who promoted the Amarillo territory, covering western Texas, New Mexico and into Nevada. Brother Dory Jr became a noted wrestler and won the NWA World title from Gene Kiniski, in 1969, due to both his popularity with the NWA members and the political pull of his father. He then faced Jack Brisco, former NCAA Heavyweight champion and Florida pro wrestling star, in a series of matches for the title that set box office records. Dory was booked to drop the title to Brisco, but claimed an auto accident and the match was scrubbed (there has been conjecture about him avoiding losing to Brisco) and he eventually dropped it to Harley Race, who then dropped it to Brisco. Terry became a star in his own right and defeated Brisco, in 1975, to become the champion, becoming the only brother of a champion to also hold it.

Terry wrestled in multiple territories but also saw that cable tv was changing the business and the promotions with the better tv product and cable exposure where outclassing the other territories. he and Dory sold the Amarillo promotion and concentrated solely on wrestling and outside businesses. They later worked for the WWF, during the national expansion phase, as a tag-team, where Terry notoriously decided he had enough of their road schedule and went home to "nurse a sick horse."

Funk also acted in Hollywood, starting in the Sylvester Stallone movie, Paradise Alley, about a 1940s wrestling club and a trio of brothers, who get into the wrestling business. Funk played champion Frankie the Thumper....



He would go on to appear in Stallone's Over The Top and the Patrick Swayze vehicle Roadhouse, as a bouncer fired by Swayze, who works for the villain. he was also one of the featured wrestlers in Barry Blaustein's documentary, Beyond the Mat.....



Funk also appeared in the short-lived tv series Wildside and choreographed the street fight in Rocky 5.

RIP to a real character and legend.