UNA SERIES HOSTS NORMAN LLOYD AND OTHER FILM, LITERARY LEGENDS
October 13, 2008
By Eric Hanback
UNA Student Writer
FLORENCE, Ala. — The University of North Alabama and Pillar of Fire will host two free nights with actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd Oct. 27 and 28 as part of the university’s Distinguished Events Series.
Lloyd will discuss his career – including his professional association with Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Jean Renoir, Martin Scorsese and other Hollywood greats – at the UNA Performance Center at 7 p.m. Oct. 27.
“Norman has worked closely with just about everyone, and in a remarkable variety of different capacities,” said UNA English professor and local film historian Terry Pace. “His close friend Karl Malden called him the history of the movie and television industry over the past century – and that’s by no means an exaggeration.”
Lloyd’s second appearance at the Performance Center, set for 7 p.m. Oct. 28, will also feature actors James Best and George Lindsey as well as author Ray Bradbury via teleconference and a pre-recorded interview with actress Collin Wilcox Paxton.
Lloyd, 93, starred in and directed a number of episodes of “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and has appeared in several films (“Saboteur,” “Dead Poets Society”) and other television series (“St. Elsewhere,” “The Practice”).
Best, Lindsey, Bradbury and Paxton will join Lloyd for a reunion screening of a 1964 “Alfred Hitchcock Hour” episode entitled “The Jar.” Based on a short story by Bradbury, “The Jar” was directed by Lloyd and featured Best, Lindsey and Paxton.
Best and Lindsey are most famous for their recurring characters in “The Dukes of Hazzard” (Best as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane) and “The Andy Griffith Show” (Lindsey as Goober Pyle). Paxton played Mayella Ewell in the film “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Both evenings will be moderated by Pace, who co-founded Pillar of Fire in 2003 with Bradbury, author of “Fahrenheit 451” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” Pace has also been hosting a film series, “Norman Lloyd and Friends,” at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library in preparation for the events.
For more information on UNA’s Distinguished Events Series, call 256-765-4208.
