The Celebrity Archaeology Podcast

Robin McLaurin Williams July 21, 1951 – was an American actor and comedian. Chicago-born, Williams started as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. He is credited with leading San Francisco's comedy renaissance.[1] After rising to fame as an alien called Mork in the TV sci-fi sitcom series Mork & Mindy, Williams established a career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his improvisational skills.

Ben Bryant has been in show business since college. Until 1972 he was a successful actor and singer in theatre, film, the Metropolitan Opera, and TV. In '70 he joined the award-winning Group One Productions of Hollywood where he quickly developed production skills on a multitude of projects ranging from two-man second-unit shoots to Carole King's 1974 Central Park concert (12 cameras and a union crew of over 100.)

Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor, filmmaker, and political activist. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).

Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man(1962), Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963), Tennessee Steinmetzin The Love Bug (1968), and Scuttlein The Little Mermaid (1989). Ernest Borgnine born Ermes Effron Borgnino was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but calm voice, Machiavellian eyebrows, and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin.

Sir Reginald Carey Harrison, known as Rex Harrison, was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, reaching the rank of flight lieutenant. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of My Fair Lady in 1957. He reprised the role for the 1964 film version, which earned him both a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Actor.

Two powerhouses of their time. Cary Grant & Dean Martin. Cary Grant (born January 18, 1904 as Archibald Alec Leach) was an English-American actor, known as one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He began a career in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and became known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He became an American citizen in 1942.

Disney darling Annette Funicello on our episode cover from 1978. Annette was one of the original members of the Mousketeers. She joined "The Mickey Mouse Club" at age 13 in October 1955. Fans who viewed her every afternoon on their small black and white TV sets sent her over 6,000 letters a week!

A young Caroline Bouvier Kennedy warmed America's hearts as part of the First Family in the early 1960's. The adorable child had blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles. She was photographed riding her pony Macaroni on the White House lawn, disrupting her father's press conference while wearing her mother's high heels, hiding with her younger brother John under her father's Oval Office desk and greeting the original seven astronauts.

Our cover photo of Margaret Trudeau and artist Andy Warhol was taken in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York. At the time, Margaret was an embarrassment to Canada because of her wild antics being recorded in the press. She was the wife of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and would later become the only woman to had been a Canadian Prime Minister's wife and now mother to a Canadian Prime Minister. Her eldest son Justin became Prime Minister in 2015.

Bella Sophia Loren! The ageless Neopolitan beauty is show in a photograph from 1984. She famously said: "Everything you see, I owe to pasta!" If only the Mediterranean diet was the perfect answer for everyone. But for Sophia-it works!

How much testosterone can fit in one photograph?  Plenty, if the subjects are John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone in this photo taken in 1983 at the premiere of the film "Stayin' Alive." Stallone as director and Travolta as returning character Tony Manero weren't enough to save the film, which was a sequel to the very successful "Saturday Night Fever", but superstars John and Sylvester wouldn't let this dud do them in.

Paul and Linda McCartney,  photographed  in 1982, are on this episode’s cover. We can thank Linda for being the inspiration behind Paul's most beautiful ballads including "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "My Love." Paul told People Magazine in 1993 that "Any love song I wrote was written for Linda." Their marriage lasted 29 years until Linda's death from breast cancer on April 17, 1993.

The way they were! Woody Allen and Mia Farrow photographed in 1983. Although they had a 12 year relationship that began in 1980, the stars never married. They were tied by their work together in films, two adopted and one questionable biological child and a famous uncoupling. Be sure to get comfortable in your chair, as there are a lot of moving parts to this story!

Goodness gracious, Great Balls of Fire! The cover art for this episode: It's the piano man and the piano man photographed in 1977. Billy Joel with Jerry Lee Lewis. There is plenty to say about Jerry Lee Lewis "The Killer" who broke ground during the early days of rock 'n roll. He turned the piano into a rock 'n roll instrument for the first time and entertained while playing with his foot on the keyboard.

Love her or hate her, Jane Fonda (on our episode cover photo from 1979) has managed to look ageless even at 80! The former model, actress, political activist and exercise guru is still very much on the scene after she vowed to retire from films in the early 1990's.