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Mark Collie, Bonnie Hunt, Dinah Washington

My favorite singer is Mark Collie, but I haven’t heard anything new from him in a long time. Could you tell me if he is still singing?
—Wilma B., Tennessee

The country singer who made his mark in the 1990s with hits like Born To Love You has been busy filming a movie. He plays a bad guy in the upcoming John Travolta film, The Punisher, based on the Marvel comic. He’ll also perform a song that he wrote for the film on the soundtrack. Acting has been a second career for the Waynesboro, Tenn. (pop. 2,228), native since he was cast in the Steven Seagal film Fire Down Below in 1997. He’s appeared in the TV shows Walker, Texas Ranger and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. He also wrote, produced and starred in his own short film, I Still Miss Someone, in which Collie played the young Johnny Cash. Music-wise, he’s still writing regularly—he’s had songs cut by Tim McGraw, George Jones and Garth Brooks. He recorded a live album at Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain State Prison in 2001, which has yet to be released, though an unfinished documentary of the concert has been shown as a work-in-progress at a number of film festivals and won a number of film festival awards. Collie, who married country singer Coley McCabe in October, expects to record again, so keep your ears open.

I think Life With Bonnie is the best new show on TV. What can you tell me about Bonnie Hunt?
—Pat L., North Carolina

The actress/writer/director/producer grew up in Chicago as one of seven children. As a child, Hunt wanted to be a nurse or an entertainer, and as an adult she did both. She worked as a nurse by day and at night performed with the Second City improvisational comedy group. Though her patients were terminally ill, Hunt delighted in the sense of humor she found among them. She’s credited them in numerous interviews with encouraging her to go to California to pursue her dreams. “They said, ‘Go. Don’t fear failure. You’ll fail many times.’ And I have,” she says. Still, her successes have been significant. She’s appeared in the films Jerry Maguire, The Green Mile and Beethoven. She was the first woman to write, produce and star in her own sitcom, The Building, and though that show didn’t make it, Life With Bonnie did. Hunt and her guests (such as Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams and David Duchovny) improvise the talk show interviews. Unlike her character, Hunt has no children, but she is married to John Murphy, an investment banker. Hunt most recently starred opposite Steve Martin in a remake of Cheaper By The Dozen.

Years ago, I had a recording by Dinah Washington. She had a fantastic voice. What can you tell me about her?
—Vicki S., Nebraska

You are in luck if you want to hear her again, because virtually all of Dinah Washington’s recordings are currently available on CD. The versatile vocalist, born Ruth Jones in Tuscaloosa, Ala., recorded jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, and light pop. Her 1959 recording of What a Diff’rence a Day Makes was a big pop hit, as was Baby, You Got What It Takes, a duet with Brook Benton. She moved from Alabama to Chicago’s South Side as a child, where she played piano and directed her church choir. There’s some dispute about where she got the stage name Dinah Washington—from bandleader Lionel Hampton, booking agent Joe Glaser or Garrick Stage Bar boss Joe Sherman. But there’s no dispute that the same work that shot her to stardom also has been a big influence on most black female singers who have followed her. Sadly, Washington was only 39 when she died from an accidental overdose of diet pills and alcohol in 1963.

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