Ask American Profile 3/4/2007

Q What is Steven Seagal doing? We miss his movies.
—J. Margaret Bryan, Carnegie, Pa.

Watch for Seagal, 55, to be back in his rock’em, sock’em groove with the upcoming movies Flight of Fury and Once Upon a Time in the Hood. He also is a musician with a world-class collection of vintage and unique guitars. His second album of original blues, Mojo Priest, was released last summer.

Q Can you tell me if Mickey Rooney is still alive?
—Kent Syverson, Willmar, Minn.

Very much so! The 86-year-old Hollywood veteran is busy juggling several movie roles. He plays a night watchman in Night at the Museum, recently in theaters, and has parts in the upcoming comedies Horroween, The Greatest Show Ever and Bamboo Shark.

Q I loved watching The Rifleman. Whatever became of Chuck Connors and the actor who played his son?
—Jean Johnston, Elk City, Okla.

Kevin Joseph Aloysius “Chuck” Connors, who played sure-shootin’ Lucas McCain on the TV Western from 1958 to 1962, died of lung cancer and pneumonia in 1992. His tombstone in San Fernando, Calif., is etched with the Rifleman logo, plus logos of the three professional baseball or basketball teams (the Dodgers, Mets and Celtics) for which he briefly played before finding Hollywood stardom. Connors’ TV son, Mark, was played by Johnny Crawford, now 60 and fronting his own band, the Johnny Crawford Dance Orchestra, in Los Angeles. Good news for Rifleman fans: The Encore Westerns premium channel airs reruns every weeknight and Saturday mornings.

Q Please tell me about CBS reporter Thalia Assuras. She’s my favorite.
—Dollie Griffith, Cleveland, Tenn.

Canadian native Assuras, 55, graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in microbiology and immunology. Coming to the U.S. in 1993, she worked for ABC, then joined CBS in 1997. As a national correspondent for CBS’ The Early Show since 2002, she’s covered dozens of major stories, from the Kosovo refugee crisis to 9/11, and says some of the heartbreaking scenes forever will be etched in her mind. “It’s hard, but you can’t let it affect you,” she says. “And often, these tragedies display a reaffirmation of the human spirit.”

Q We were watching the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo the other day, and wondered whatever happened to actor Van Johnson.
—Paul and Eileen Ransford, Harbor Springs, Mich.

Now 90, Johnson made dozens of movies during his acting career, which began in the 1930s and frequently found him in musicals or cast as the all-American Yank sent off to do his patriotic chore overseas—even though a metal plate in his head, the result of a car crash in 1942, kept him out of World War II service in real life. He worked steadily into the early 1990s, making his last movie appearance in the 1992 drama Clowning Around and then retiring in New York.

Q One of the best things about the television series Mythbusters is the beautiful Kari Byron. What can you tell me about her?
—John Foster, Kissimmee, Fla.

Byron was a natural for the gonzo science of Mythbusters. By age 5, when not using dolls as crash-test dummies, she was setting up experiments involving her little sister. Luckily, her parents usually intervened before her sis took a ride down a laundry chute or became the subject of a 360-degree swing-set test. After graduation from San Francisco State University, where she studied film and sculpture, Byron worked in model-making and toy prototyping, which is how she got her break with Mythbusters. She recently married and lives in San Francisco.

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