"There were infers real salt lake tickets a lot chivas tickets informs of complex stories about African Americans being seen. "A story in The Times that year noted that at least 30 weekly series out of 72 would regularly feature black actors, singers or dancers. Diahann Carroll became the first black woman to star in her own comedy series, "Julia. " Bill Cosby was wrapping up his breakthrough role on "I Spy" and would soon launch "The Bill Cosby Show. "And Rodrigues, a Canadian of African and Portuguese descent, was preparing to integrate the final season of "Peyton Place" as Dr. Harry Miles, with Ruby Dee portraying his wife. "Why shouldn't I play a neurosurgeon?" Rodrigues asked in a 1968 Times article "Let's start at the top. I'm going to try to be a human being, as is my family, and if that doesn't come across, then it's our fault. "The oldest of four children, he was born June 13, 1918, in Montreal. His father left the family when Rodrigues was young, and he started working as a teenager to help his mother. By 18, he was a professional boxer and had been acting on and off since high school. In Montreal, he joined the Negro Theater Guild, a troupe that was formed to help raise money for a church. Although he won a Canadian Drama Festival acting award in 1939, Rodrigues spent almost another decade working as a machinist and toolmaker before turning to acting full time. On Broadway, he debuted in the Tony Award-winning play "Toys in the Attic" in 1960 with Jason Robards and Maureen Stapleton. When he appeared in another Broadway play, "Blues for Mister Charlie" in 1964, he was billed as Percy Rodriguez, a common misspelling of his last name that followed him throughout his career. From the 1950s through the 1980s, he acted in more than 80 film and television productions.

He was part of the large cast of the 1979 miniseries "Roots: The Next Generation" and was a regular on the short-lived early 1980s series "Sanford. " He also had a recurring role as a judge on TV's "Benson" from 1982 to 1985. Among his film credits are "Come Back, Charleston Blue" (1972) and Wes Craven's "Deadly Blessing" (1981), which Rodrigues narrated. Many people know his voice "even though they don't know who he is," his wife said. He may be best known for his ominous narration of the movie trailers and radio and TV ads for the 1975 film "Jaws," his family said. In 1987, Rodrigues retired from acting to do voice-over work kfc real salt lake tickets . He found it appealing because it gave him time to play golf, and "he didn't have to show up at 5 o'clock in the morning for makeup," said Cook-Rodrigues, whom he married in 2003. In addition to his wife, Rodrigues is survived by his daughter Hollis and son Gerald of Canada, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren tickets . His first wife, Alameda, who was the mother of his children, preceded him in death. --valerie. nelson real salt lake . Re "A secret life of madness," Column One, Sept soccer tickets . 10My deepest respect goes out to Elyn Saks for finding the courage to share her private life. Many who suffer from mental illness are reluctant to face their problems or to seek help because of the social stigma attached to being labeled as such. What a shame that we are so frightened by the idea of mental illness that we ostracize those in need, when the truth is that we are all susceptible. When stress levels combine with predisposed factors, anyone can experience an event (see rates of nervous breakdowns in college students).

If we can summon some of the courage exhibited by Saks and recognize that treating mental illness deserves the same commitment given physical ailments, we will have turned a corner toward accepting what it is to be human. Dirk BlockerSanta Barbara--Saks is a remarkable woman to deal with schizophrenia and hold the demanding and prestigious position of associate dean for research at USC's School of Law tickets for real salt lake . I am elated that the law school supports her in going public with her mental illness real tickets . As a lawyer who suffers from chronic depression and several anxiety disorders, her story is particularly meaningful to me ac tickets . Hopefully by going public she can help diminish the stigma that surrounds mental illness and show that with medication, therapy and self-discipline, people with mental illness are capable of achieving great feats. Allen P jonas tickets . WilkinsonWhittier--The amount of courage required in the battle against total mental darkness in which the mind -- that totally human organ -- places the personality in a pit of terror and becomes its enemy must be overwhelming. In Saks' case, the organ that should organize and direct her thoughts and activities turned on her, destroying any possibility of faith in what it says. The fact that Saks has survived her mental illness is a wonder.

The fact that she has engaged her conflicted mind in a way that it has become productive is such an example of grand courage that it is impossible to quantify real salt lake soccer tickets . We owe her a debt of gratitude for allowing us to experience a small part of her experience. Jim McGrathGlendale--Unless people go public about their experiences with mental illness, the stigma will go on forever sell tickets . Mental illness is an equal-opportunity disease: It can happen to anyone regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic level galaxy tickets. In my case, I had served overseas in the military and Peace Corps, then returned to California to work as a civil engineer when I suddenly started having hallucinations ticket . Fortunately, after several hospitalizations, my doctors found a medication that controls my illness. Those of us struggling with mental illness just want to be treated like anyone else: with kindness and respect. Frank C BaronLos Angeles. The decision last month to hire renowned legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky as founding dean of UC Irvine's new law school was a stroke of genius. Rescinding that action, as the university's chancellor did Tuesday, is an act of intellectual cowardice and self-destruction that brands the school as a haven for political correctness and threatens its academic integrity two years before it even opens its doors. It won't be much of a lesson for students in the fall of 2009 as they sit down to their contracts class, either Chancellor Michael V.

Drake offered Chemerinsky the post, and the professor accepted and began doing exactly what everyone knew he would do: building an unparalleled board of advisors and founding faculty salt lake real tickets . Offer, acceptance, binding contract . Chemerinsky said Drake told him that conservatives were "out to get" him eric clapton tickets . Drake said the hired-and-dumped dean was not dismissed for his politics, but merely because he was not the "right fit" for Irvine Disco Biscuits - discobiscuits . What makes Chemerinsky stand out is not his liberalism but the intellectual rigor of his analysis and the effectiveness of his argument the killers tickets . He works well with scholars of other viewpoints, as attested to by the cries of outrage from conservative scholars at his treatment by UC Irvine concerts tickets . Chemerinsky also sets a fine example for law students by putting his abilities to work not just in the courtroom and the classroom but in service to community He co-wrote the current Los Angeles City Charter. He conducted, for the Police Protective League, a study of the LAPD's handling of the Rampart corruption scandal. It was a great loss to the region when he left USC for a position at Duke University in North Carolina. It will be a shame not to bring him back to Southern California. RSL tickets But it is a greater shame that UC Irvine apparently wants a dean unburdened by academic fame or legal point of view.

Orange County, contrary to its stereotype, is a politically diverse and creative powerhouse and deserves a law school that will embody California's tradition of academic excellence discount real salt lake tickets . The decision to rescind Chemerinsky's deanship puts it on another course altogether. event tickets . When a politician starts beating the drum for a anti-flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, watch out -- he needs it to hide behind. Future felon Randy Cunningham, the "Duke" of California's 50th congressional district, proposed such an amendment not long before he went antique shopping with another future felon, a defense contractor who paid for the $12,000 worth of armoires and nightstands that Duke picked out as part of his fabulous bribe package Real Salt Lake tickets . In 2006, as Iraq was going speedily to pot, the Senate came up one vote short of passing a flag amendment. Just a couple of weeks ago, as Iraq still swirled around the drain of history, President Bush was plumping for a flag amendment as a way to show "respect for the symbol" that American troops are fighting for depeche mode tickets . Not better gear, not better pay, not shorter deployments or a shorter war. The Stars and Stripes is in fine shape -- as long as the product behind it, U Disco Biscuits - discobiscuits . S. A Inc. , is in good standing Protect the nation's reputation, and you protect the flag kings of leon tickets . Damage it, and you could pass 10 flag amendments, weave it out of asbestos and still not save it. If politicians want to protect a national symbol that gets mangled and beaten up nearly every day, how about that song about the flag?The national anthem is almost as abused as one of Michael Vick's dogs. Baseball games from now through the World Series will begin with someone mutilating "The Star-Spangled Banner. " An anthem-protection amendment? It practically needs a restraining order. "Banner's" music is an old English club's drinking tune that was named for an ancient Greek poet who wrote about wine and women. Its octave-and-a-half range is so difficult, and its Francis Scott Key lyrics so uber-poetic, that you practically have to be drunk to sing it.

Even Whitney Houston was savvy enough to lip-sync it at the 1991 Super Bowl. I spent the evening of Bastille Day 2005 on the rooftop of a French friend's Paris apartment, watching 360-degree fireworks light up the City of Light . As the French sang "La Marseillaise," I joined in, thanks to having watched the bar scene in "Casablanca" at least 9,000 times killers tickets . They returned the favor by taking an awkward stab at "The Star-Spangled Banner. " I was touched wicked tickets . I reassured them that nearly 200 million Americans don't know all the words either, among them a lot of the people invited to sing it at sporting events. What kind of national anthem is it if its people don't know the words and can't carry the tune?The very wise Nat King Cole once warned, "If you do nothing else in your life, don't ever sing the national anthem at a ballgame. " But there's always someone who's willing, with results that generally make me want to put my fingers in my ears, not my hand to my heart. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is not some Beatles song to be covered, delivered ballad- or gospel- or funk- or torch-song- or jazz-style, as the mood suits But, oh, the liberties taken in a song about liberty . Roseanne Barr's crotch-grabbing yowl in San Diego; Marvin Gaye's two-minute, 35-second-long R&B version at the Inglewood Forum that was way cool but wasn't recognizably the national anthem; Carl Lewis' version that sounded like cats being strangled He also didn't know the words. The man won nine Olympic gold medals -- you'd think he'd know the song by now. Combine all the miscues and missed words, even from pros like Robert Goulet and Johnny Paycheck, and the lyrics would read:"Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early night/What so loudly we sang, at the daylight's last cleaning/Whose bright stripes and broad stars/Through the per-u-lis fight/For the rampants we watched/Were so gallantly screaming. "If that sounds right to you, there's the problem. All I'm saying is that we have to have some standards. If singers get it wrong, if Simon Cowell would wrinkle his nose, their fee is forfeited to pay for mandatory middle-school music classes.

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