The Great JOE MAROSS

I am dedicating TO-DAY to my GOOD old friend Joe Maross. Today would have been Joe's 90th birthday, and I am certain that he would be sitting here, laughing with that LOUD, infectious laughter of his, cracking jokes about the booze and broads...and all the incredible people that he knew while in his heyday, the early sixties, HOLLYWOOD, and all that...

Just what was Joe's claim to fame? THRILLER. PERRY MASON. GUNSMOKE. BONANZA. HAWAII 5-0. THE FUGITIVE, THE OUTER LIMITS, just to name a few of the shows that just could NOT get along without him...

Alfred Hitchcock, Boris Karloff, Rod Serling, Raymond Burr, Burt Lancaster, Dick Powell, just to name a few of the directors and producers that found him such an integral actor in their television productions. I cannot think of a single character actor that appeared in so many varied productions, played so many varied parts...

Joe worked with BURT LANCASTER in "Elmer Gantry", just to name one of the HUGE pictures that he was in...

But, for me, the thing that stopped me in my tracks was when he mentioned that he was in an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, with Claude Akins, a little thing called "The Little People"...WHAT?!!?? I just had to stop him and tell him that he SCARED the living shit out of myself and my little brothers...I could not have been more than 5 years old when I saw it, NEVER forgot it...The episode was about two astronauts that crash-land on a planet where the inhabitants were less than 1/2 inch tall...They worshipped Joe as a GOD, and he went around stepping on them to enforce his will....He was a BAD man, in that episode....It freaked me out...Maybe it shaped my mind in some ways, made me accept at an early age that LIFE can exist in any form, at any size, on ANY planet...

Joe used to always take the time out to come and visit me at UCLA when I worked there back in the early 90's. You could HEAR him coming, LAUGHING and cracking jokes as he made his way to my area, pulling up just ANY old chair to come and sit beside me and find out what's what. The women in the office would roll their eyes, GROAN, and cover their ears with their hands, all of which delighted Joe to no end! He just got louder and funnier, until, eventually, they were all laughing harder than WE were...

They would always say "That Joe is a handful!" But, they all grew to love him and anticipate his visits as well...

He remembered everything I told him, always volunteering advice on what to avoid as a young man with a FAMILY in wicked, wicked Los Angeles...Which I just could not seem to see as wicked at all....He told me I had a lot to learn, and of course, as time went by, I found he was correct, in some ways...

Want to know a true SECRET? Joe Maross was a member of the VOTING ACADEMY for the Academy Awards, and he was getting a little overwhelmed with all the videos that were sent to him every year, I think it was around Oct./Nov....

So, he would give them to ME and ask for my opinion, just to see if we agreed on certain points that he took very seriously. I got him to change his opinion on UNFORGIVEN, which he was going to take a pass on, as he was undecided on the irregular pacing and violence of the film. I convinced him the Eastwood was trying something different in a Western, something closer to the truth...Joe just couldn't see making either a hero or anti-hero of a man known for killing women and children, as William Munny was alleged to have done, and admitted to doing...

We didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on Pulp Fiction, as well....

Joe was a SMART guy, a Yale graduate with a degree in Theater Arts, in fact, he formed his own theater group in Hollywood the year I was born, PROJECTS 58......He was a World War 2 veteran....

I MISS my friend Joe Maross. He experienced a personal tragedy in 1994 that threw him for a loop. He just could NOT get over it. I won't mention it here, because it is not anyone's business to know, but the visits and the laughter became more and more infrequent....

We fell completely out of contact when I moved from L.A. in 1996. I, who can find ANYONE, could not seem to get a lead on him...I learned that he may have had a slip and fall accident, and may have been at "The Home" for retired actors, but I could never find him...Then a friend informed me, in 1999, that he'd had a heart attack and passed away....I couldn't take it, so I decided to just ignore the news like it never happened...

But it did. Joe Maross died in Glendale, Ca. on November 7th, 1999, so, it was true...

Joe was born February 7th, 1923 in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. He was married, for a time, to Lucille Sax, but I think his first wife was named Carol Kelly....I know he has a SON, out there, somewhere...

Hey, JOE! Happy Birthday!! I hope this makes you LAUGH!!!!