Ask American Profile 1/13/2008

Q Is Jack Ford of Court TV the son of former President Gerald Ford?
—Marian Peek, Casper, Wyo.

Court TV’s Jack Ford, host of the cable network’s series Banfield & Ford: Courtside, is not related to the late president. The confusion may stem from the fact that President Ford’s son John Gardner Ford, known as Jack, briefly pursued journalism before switching to a career behind the scenes in politics. But the two men are close in age: Court TV’s Ford is 56; the president’s son is 55.

Q As a teenager in the 1950s, I grew up with the singing group The Ventures. Are they still around?
—Al Losado, Vallejo, Calif.

Don Wilson, 74, one of the founding fathers of the instrumental rock band that gave the world the hit song “Walk Don’t Run” and the theme to the TV series Hawaii Five-O, continues performing live. The lineup sometimes includes another original member, Nokie Edwards, and Leon Taylor, son of Mel Taylor, the band’s original drummer, who died in 1996. Wilson’s founding partner, Bob Bogle, recently retired, but he plans to return to the band for its upcoming 50th anniversary. Wilson remembers the moment his life changed: “Bob and I bought two guitars in a pawn shop in 1958.” Two years later, they had the No. 2 hit in the nation with “Walk Don’t Run.”

Q What did actress Emma Watson do before the Harry Potter movies? What can you tell me about her?
—Jennifer Knight, Adamsville, Tenn.

Watson, who most recently starred in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, now on DVD, was a student before landing the recurring Potter role of Hermione Granger. Now 17, she was born in France, then moved to England and starred in several school plays, always hoping to become an actress. A teacher recommended her to casting agents, and at 10 she was on the big screen as Harry Potter’s sorceress schoolmate. She’s a natural blonde (she dyed her hair brown for the Potter movies), plays hockey and once dressed up for Halloween as a witch, little dreaming that she would one day soon become world-famous for portraying one!

Q Can you give me some information on a TV movie starring Patty Duke and made at the lighthouse on Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston, Texas?
—Daniel Coghlan, Porterville, Calif.

That was My Sweet Charlie, which aired in 1970. Duke played a pregnant young white woman, and Al Freeman Jr. was a black New York lawyer who’d killed a white man in self-defense. Both were on the run in Texas, where fate brought them together to hide out in an unused cottage at the base of the Bolivar Peninsula lighthouse, a real-life structure that guided mariners for more than 60 years before it was retired in 1933.

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