Ask American Profile 12/10/2006

Ask American Profile 12/10/2006

Q I saw a group called Celtic Woman on PBS and was captivated. Please tell me about them.
—Maria MacKay, Richmond, Ky.

The five young Irish women in the spellbinding group Celtic Woman mix traditional Irish tunes with timeless classics and contemporary numbers. Their new Christmas CD, A Christmas Celebration, features “O Holy Night,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Silent Night” alongside the St. Thomas Aquinas hymn “Panis Angelicus,” the 12th-century Irish song “The Wexford Carol” and the traditional Celtic ballad “Don Oiche Ud I mBeithil.” The group’s self-titled 2005 debut CD spent 68 weeks at No.1 on the sales-based Billboard World Music Chart, setting a new record.

Q I like Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe. Could you tell me a little about him?
—Dee Arthur, West Baden Springs, Ind.

The multi-talented host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs—which takes him every week inside an occupation too icky for most people to undertake—has sung professionally with the Baltmore Opera, appeared in several dozen Tylenol commercials, and hosted Worst Case Scenario for TBS, The Most for the History Channel, No Relation for Fox, New York Expeditions for PBS and Evening Magazine in San Francisco, where he resides. Rowe also has performed in dozens of theatrical productions and narrated more than 1,000 hours of other TV programs.

Q We have always been fans of Don Stroud, but have not seen him in any movies or TV shows lately. The last time we saw him it looked as if he had an eye injury.
—Kathy Wright, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Actually, the prolific TV and movie actor, now 64, lost an eye one night in 1992 when he intervened in a mugging in New York City. “I stepped in to help and was stabbed six times,” he recalls. “The eye I have now is false.” Last year, Stroud retired and returned to Hawaii, where he grew up and started in show business as Troy Donahue’s surf double in the 1960s TV series Hawaiian Eye. “I did over 100 movies and 250 television shows,” says the actor, who often played villains or other unsavory characters. “People ask me what my favorite was, and all I can say is I’m proud that I did that much work.”

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