Ask American Profile 2/24/2008

Q What’s Jewel been up to?
—Emilio Garza, Stanton, Texas

Born Jewel Kilcher in Paysun, Utah, and raised on a ranch near Anchorage, Alaska, the 33-year-old singer has been busy at work on a new CD of country songs. She also has been active to make people aware of homeless teens in America, as she once was one herself. “There are over a million kids on the street. It is a huge problem,” she says. “I’d like to encourage people to make it an issue.” You can learn more about Jewel’s involvement at the website www.homelessyouthamongus.org.

Q I would like to know more about the actress who plays the maid in Two and a Half Men. She’s a natural.
—Bonetta Paul, Centerville, Iowa

Conchata Ferrell, 64, began her career in off-Broadway theater, and when the play Hot L Baltimore became a TV series in 1975, she was asked to reprise her role. That show didn’t last long, but Ferrell went on to numerous other television and movie parts. Her film credits include Network, Mystic Pizza, Edward Scissorhands and Erin Brockovich. She has three Emmy nominations, one for her supporting role on L.A. Law and two for Two and a Half Men. Born in Charleston, W.Va., Ferrell is married and has one daughter.

Q Whatever happened to Walter Brennan? I loved him on The Real McCoys. What are his movies?
—Hugh Russell, Winchester, Tenn.

The versatile actor died at the age of 80 in 1974. Although best known for his role as Grandpappy Amos on the popular The Real McCoys TV series of the late 1950s, he appeared in more than 200 movies, including How the West Was Won, Rio Bravo, Sergeant York and My Darling Clementine. Brennan also had four successful singles, including the 1962 hit “Old Shep.” Although many of his earlier movie roles were not credited, he later achieved great recognition, becoming the only person to ever receive three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, in the movies The Westerner, Come and Get It and Kentucky.

Q I’m a big fan of ’70s rock, and I’ve always wondered how the band Pink Floyd got its name.
—Mary Wallace, Corona, Calif.

One of the most successful rock acts of all time, the British group took its moniker from two blues musicians from the American South, Pinkney “Pink” Anderson and Floyd Council, after one of the band members noticed their names on a 1962 blues record. The band’s classic 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon holds a record for spending 741 weeks on the sales-based Billboard Top 200 chart.

Q Whatever became of Jeremy Northam? I think he’s one of the most versatile and underrated actors around.
—Mary Jane Stevens, Livonia, Mich.

British native Northam, 46, has worked continuously since he first came to the attention of American moviegoers in The Net, opposite Sandra Bullock, in 1995. He starred last year as British author and statesman Sir Thomas Moore in the Showtime network series The Tudors, about the life of King Henry VIII, and was Nicole Kidman’s co-star in last summer’s movie The Invasion.

first appeared: 2/24/2008