Ask American Profile 7/22/2007

Q A few years ago, I saw Barbara Mandrell’s daughter in a soap opera. I thought she was a very good actress and should be in the movies. Does she have any plans?
—Josephine Evatt, Tazewell, Va.

Jaime Dudney, who portrayed Georgia Tucker Silva on As the World Turns from 1998 to 2000, returned to her hometown of Nashville, Tenn., a couple of years ago, where she conducts acting classes. “I’m really enjoying teaching people what I learned in New York and L.A.,” says Dudney, 31. “I’ve been concentrating on the teaching, but definitely open to working as an actress again.”

Q I’d love to know more about—and see pictures of—the real-life people who do the voices on The Simpsons.
—Frank Dean, Coos Bay, Ore.

The Simpsons debuted in 1989 and holds the record as America’s longest-running sitcom and longest-running animated TV series. Dan Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Grandpa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Mayor Quimby and Groundskeeper Willie. Julie Kavner is Marge Simpson, and also Marge’s sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier. Nancy Cartwright is Bart Simpson and neighborhood kids Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders and Nelson Muntz. Yeardley Smith is Lisa Simpson. Hank Azaria and Howard Shearer supply the voices for more than two dozen other regular and recurring characters. The TV family makes the leap to the big screen this month in the feature-length The Simpsons Movie.

Q What happens to famous movie and TV memorabilia, like the beautiful gun Alan Ladd used in Shane or the staff Charlton Heston used in The Ten Commandments?
—Mel Hilliard, Burlington, N.C.

Props can go in different directions after a movie is finished. According to Entertainment Tonight movie expert Leonard Maltin, Charlton Heston, who played Moses in The Ten Commandments—now available on a 50th-anniversary DVD—has one of the staffs used in the movie. (As with many props, there were duplicates.) Maltin is fairly certain the gun from Shane was returned to the studio’s massive props department, where it may have been lost in the shuffle. Back in the 1950s, when both movies were filmed, props weren’t necessarily seen as anything special. Some iconic props fall into the hands of collectors and are carefully preserved and treasured. Late last year, the black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s was auctioned for more than $923,000.

Q A little information on Jim Nabors, please. In my opinion, he’s the only person on this planet who ever sang the national anthem correctly!
—Marcy D. Hagel, Sioux City, Iowa

The beloved TV star—and singer—lives in Honolulu and operates a macadamia nut farm on the neighboring island of Maui. Born and raised in Sylacauga, Ala., Nabors, now 77, began singing in his high school glee club and church choir. He moved to Los Angeles as a young man, where actor Bill Dana took notice of his unique performance—a combination of hayseed monologues and operatic arias—at a local cabaret and invited him to audition in 1961 for comedian Steve Allen’s network variety series. Nabors became a regular for a season, and was selected the following year by Andy Griffith for the role of Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show. The rest, as they say, is TV history.

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