Ask American Profile 1/27/2008

Q Who was the star of the television series Sky King? I say Scott Brady, but my husband says no. —Billie Mayfield, Dos Palo, Calif.

Kirby Grant played the heroic, airplane-flying, crime-fighting rancher Schuyler “Sky” King in some 130 episodes of the popular television series of the 1950s. After the show ended, Grant made personal appearances with a traveling circus, then settled into a job as the public relations director of SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. He died in 1985 in an automobile accident on his way to watch the launch of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger in Cape Canaveral.

Q What can you tell me about David Boreanaz, who stars on the FOX series Bones as agent Seeley Booth? Has he been in any other TV shows or movies?
—Patsy Stoneking, El Dorado, Calif.

Boreanaz, 38, came to fame playing a vampire, first on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then in his own series, Angel. He’s also done a few films, including I’m With Lucy, Mr. Fix It and Suffering Man’s Charity. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he was exposed to show biz at an early age by his father, a TV weatherman and host of a local kids’ show. He is married to actress Jaime Bergman, who starred several years ago on the TV series Son of the Beach.

Q My kids were watching SpongeBob SquarePants, and I thought one of the voices sounded a lot like the actor who plays Dauber on Coach. Is it the same person?
—Joy Nelson, Ogden, Utah

You have a good ear! Actor Bill Fagerbakke, who played Dauber Dybinski on the TV series Coach, provides the voice for the cartoon character Patrick Star (left) on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s also the voice of Bulkhead, one of the Transformers on the Cartoon Network series Transformers: Animated.

Q Is one of my favorite singers, Anne Murray, still active in the business?
—Ryan Provost, Berea, Ky.

Very much so! Murray, 62, recently released a new 17-song CD, Duets: Friends & Legends, on which she’s joined on new versions of some of her classic pop and country tunes by a host of female guests, including Amy Grant, Celine Dion, Shelby Lynne, Shania Twain and Carole King. The gifted singer of hits such as “Snowbird,” “You Needed Me” and “Danny’s Song” was honored last year with her image on a Canadian postage stamp, is the subject of a career-retrospective museum in her hometown of Springhill, Nova Scotia, and recently was cited by Golf For Women magazine as the entertainment world’s best female golfer.

Q What was Nicolas Cage’s first movie?
—Ann Lambert, Shoreline, Wash.

Cage, currently starring in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, made his movie debut with a bit part in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).

first appeared: 1/27/2008