John Carradine

Some of us were fortunate enough to see a different John Carradine in the 1950s and early '60s when Ventura Boulevard narrowed down to a narrow road in Tarzana. There, in a local bar called the Hangman's Tree, Carradine would sit at the bar and regale the occupants with bawdy jokes for hours on end. To hear his sonorous voice, with Shakespearean splendor, give new dimensions to old jokes is a pleasure I'll always remember. John was even on stage in this little bar; an inveterate trouper, he always satisfied.

In "The Resurrection of the Undead" (by Hugh Hart, Dec. 21), the great John Carradine, by far the best Dracula of them all, was totally left out in this supposed survey of the character's appearances in movies. This is not only unacceptable but unbelievable. BILLY MANN Santa Monica

John Carradine, the patriarch of an American acting family who appeared in more than 500 films including "The Grapes of Wrath," has died at age 82 on a visit to Italy, a spokeswoman at a Milan hospital said today. The spokeswoman at Fatebenefratelli Hospital, who declined to give her name, said Carradine died Sunday. She said he had been hospitalized since Thursday but she would not disclose the cause of death. She said two of his sons, actors Keith and David, had come to Milan.

Some of us were fortunate enough to see a different John Carradine in the 1950s and early '60s when Ventura Boulevard narrowed down to a narrow road in Tarzana. There, in a local bar called the Hangman's Tree, Carradine would sit at the bar and regale the occupants with bawdy jokes for hours on end. To hear his sonorous voice, with Shakespearean splendor, give new dimensions to old jokes is a pleasure I'll always remember. John was even on stage in this little bar; an inveterate trouper, he always satisfied.

The true actor is an actor is an actor is an actor. The salary may be large enough to keep a whole country afloat for several days or so small you can't afford a second cup of coffee. But all that really matters is that you stride on stage or stand in front of a camera and pretend to be somebody else.

John Carradine, whose more than 500 movie appearances over 58 years made him one of the most prolific actors of all time, died Sunday at a hospital in Milan, Italy. The actor, who was 82, died of natural causes. Carradine was in Milan as a guest of honor for a showing of one of his movies, United Press International reported. Two of his sons, David and Keith, had flown to Italy on Friday when they were told he was in a hospital.

In "The Resurrection of the Undead" (by Hugh Hart, Dec. 21), the great John Carradine, by far the best Dracula of them all, was totally left out in this supposed survey of the character's appearances in movies. This is not only unacceptable but unbelievable. BILLY MANN Santa Monica

As an actor, and possibly as a human being, David Carradine was a walking yin-yang symbol, a bundle of opposites tightly stitched together. As a younger man, his lean, taut frame suggested both graceful self-possession and a capacity for explosive violence. Several of his best roles, both in film and television, cast him as a thinking-person's action hero, poised in perpetual tension between contemplative inner peace and outward aggression and hostility.

Deja Vu: It will look a lot like 1929--the year of the first Academy Awards Ceremony--tonight at the site of the first ceremony, the Hollywood Roosevelt. Guests will come to the Original 1929 Oscar Party hosted by publicist Christopher Harris and actor Dean Delorean in period clothes, and the menu and decor will be the same as it was for the first big event.

Some Noteworthy Film Portraits of George Washington 1. Alan Mowbray in "Alexander Hamilton" 2. Alan Mowbray in "The Phantom President" 3. Alan Mowbray in "Where Do We Go From Here?" 4. Arthur Dewey in "America" 5. George Houston in "The Howards of Virginia" 6. Montagu Love in "The Remarkable Andrew" 7. Richard Gaines in "Unconquered" 8. John Crawford in "John Paul Jones" 9. Howard St. John in 'Lafayette" . . . and Abraham Lincoln 1. Joseph Henabery in "Birth of a Nation" 2.

The true actor is an actor is an actor is an actor. The salary may be large enough to keep a whole country afloat for several days or so small you can't afford a second cup of coffee. But all that really matters is that you stride on stage or stand in front of a camera and pretend to be somebody else.

John Carradine, whose more than 500 movie appearances over 58 years made him one of the most prolific actors of all time, died Sunday at a hospital in Milan, Italy. The actor, who was 82, died of natural causes. Carradine was in Milan as a guest of honor for a showing of one of his movies, United Press International reported. Two of his sons, David and Keith, had flown to Italy on Friday when they were told he was in a hospital.

John Carradine, the patriarch of an American acting family who appeared in more than 500 films including "The Grapes of Wrath," has died at age 82 on a visit to Italy, a spokeswoman at a Milan hospital said today. The spokeswoman at Fatebenefratelli Hospital, who declined to give her name, said Carradine died Sunday. She said he had been hospitalized since Thursday but she would not disclose the cause of death. She said two of his sons, actors Keith and David, had come to Milan.

Juan Manuel Fangio III of Argentina made a daring pass of leader Mark Wolocatiuk in sweeping Turn 9 late in the Corvette Challenge to win the one-hour race for showroom stock Chevrolets Sunday at Riverside International Raceway. Fangio, nephew of five-time World Driver's champion Juan Fangio, led the final five laps after squeezing past Wolocatiuk, an instructor at the Jim Russell Driving School in Riverside. Peter Lockhart of Canada finished second and Wolocatiuk wound up fifth.

David Bond, a gangly character actor who began appearing in films in the 1940s and on episodic television a decade later, died Sunday at Humana Hospital in West Hills of the complications of leukemia. Bond, 74, born Alfred Allegro, appeared on Broadway before moving west for motion pictures, starring in New York as Iago in John Carradine's production of "Othello" and with Billie Burke in "Accidentally Yours." In Los Angeles, he established a Hollywood Shakespeare Festival that toured Southern California, but most of his professional life here involved motion pictures and television programs.