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July 9, 2004
Harvey Lembeck
The Toronto Star profiles Harvey Lembeck (who starred as Eric Von Zipper in six Beach Party movies from 1963-66) and the Harvey Lembeck Comedy Workshop he founded in 1964:
The school's Web site lists the names of many of its celebrity grads, including Robin Williams, John Ritter, Sharon Stone, Penny Marshall, Jenna Elfman, Kim Cattrall, Donna Dixon, John Larroquette, Penny Marshall, Mary Kay Place, Marilu Henner and Scott Baio.
Lembeck taught them the virtue of improv comedy, which was fairly new when he started teaching it in the 1960s.
"You can't teach an actor to be funny," Lembeck says in an old quote posted on the site.
"If the humour is innately there, we will give him the tools and nourish his own abilities to grow."
Von Zipper stole Beach Party movies [Toronto Star]
Harvey Lembeck [IMDB]
Beach Party [IMDB]
Beach Party [Amazon]
Posted by Fuzzy at July 9, 2004 4:58 PM