Entertainment

Most people would call Ullman an actor and comedian. She was the star of "The Tracey Ullman Show," where she played characters including "girls half her age and matrons twice her age; ...

Payn's new memoir is about his life with the the legendary theater songwriter. Coward is the author of "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," and "Blithe Spirit." Payn met him as a child, when he acted in Coward's "Words and Music" in 1932. The two were friends for thirty years until Coward's death in 1973.

Walser has been called "the best pure cowboy singer in the state" ("Houston Chronicle"). At age 60, he retired from his job as a Texas state internal auditor to concentrate on his music. He just released an album called "Rolling Stone From Texas." He joins Fresh Air with his guitar to sing a few songs.

Jeff Moss was one of the original creators and writers of "Sesame Street." He created Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, and wrote such songs as "Rubber Ducky" and "People in Your Neighborhood." He has won 13 Emmy's, four Grammy's, and an Oscar nomination for his work on "Sesame Street" and with the Muppets. Moss is also the author of four books for children, the newest of which is "Hieronymus White: A Bird Who Believed That He Always Was Right."

Palminteri wrote the play, "A Bronx Tale," which was made into a movie directed by Robert DeNiro. He is now in Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway," playing a gangster turned playwright.

Reynolds is the star of "Evening Shade," as well as the films as "Deliverance" and "Smokey and the Bandit." He's written his autobiography, titled "My Life." Terry spoke with Reynolds before he cut short his recent book tour.

Reynolds, who died Thursday, appeared in scores of films, including Deliverance and Boogie Nights. He spoke to Terry Gross in 1994 about growing up the son of a sheriff in a small Florida town.

Biographer Peter Manso has written "Brando: The Biography," the result of seven years of research and over 700 interviews. It tells the story of Brando as a man with a hidden troubled life. Mans is also the author of an oral biography of Norman Mailer.

From the film "The Last Seduction," actress Linda Fiorentino and screenwriter Steve Barancik. Barancik's screenplay tells the story of a woman who robs her husband of the proceeds from a drug deal, and then leaves town. Fioirentino stars as "one of the screen's most formidible femme fatales ever" ("Variety"), as she displays her character's "spellbinding talent for getting exactly what she wants" ("The New York Times").

Benben is co-starring in the new movie, "Radioland Murders," as a radio scriptwriter trying to save his marriage. He also stars in "Dream On," the HBO comedy series. "The New York Times" has called his "Dream On" character "an adult Charlie Brown," with "offbeat charm."

Actor Raul Julia died this morning, after a stroke last week. His films include "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Moon Over Parador," "Tequilla Sunrise." and "Romero." He also starred in "The Addams Family" series, as Gomez, the patriarch. He had a long career in musical theater as well, including "The Three-Penny Opera," "Nine," and "Man of la Mancha." We replay our 1989 interview with him.

The two actors co-wrote and co-starred in the 1981 film, "My Dinner with Andre." They have since worked on many other projects individually in television, theater, and film. They have now collaborated again in "Vanya on 42nd Street," a film adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."

Bacall is a legend, though she doesn't like to think of herself as such. She's been a star of stage and screen for fifty years, was married to Humphrey Bogart, and won the National Book Award for her 1978 autobiography "By Myself." Her new book, "Now," tells the story of her last fifteen years and the experiences that have shaped her life.

Paymer received an Oscar nomination for his role in "Mr. Saturday Night." He's now starring in the new movie "Quiz Show" as Dan Enright, the villain producer who rigs the show "Twenty-One."

Psychiatrist and novelist Roderick Anscombe. He oversees a psychiatric ward at a hospital outside of Boston, and has written a new novel that retells the Dracula myth, called "The Secret Life of Laszlo: Count Dracula." Anscombe says he wanted to "humanize" Dracula by making him more a man than a monster. In writing the book, Anscombe drew on his previous experience working with the criminally insane.

Actor and playwright Vernel Bagneris and pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen perform selections from their show, "Jelly Roll Morton: A Me-morial," with music written by Morton, and a script taken from Library of Congress tapes of Morton from 1938. The New Yorker calls it, "an experimental study, done within a traditional Broadway-musical framework, of the life and death of a black misanthrope. . . a psychomusical." This concert was first broadcast in 1992.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," by Australian director Stephan Elliott.

Shell has just written his first novel, "Iced," about a talented and ambitious man who is also addicted to crack. As an actor, Shell has appeared in many shows in England, including "Miss Saigon," "Starlight Express," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Hair." He is also a songwriter, and has written music for singer Kate Bush.

Langella is the star of the new HBO Showcase film "Doomsday Gun," the true story of Dr. Gerald Bull, a brilliant arms designer who fulfills his lifelong dream of building a supergun. Langella also played Dracula in the Broadway revival of "Dracula" for which he received a Tony nomination, as well as in the 1979 film version of "Dracula." Most recently, he has appeared in the Broadway play "Booth," and in the movie "Dave," as Bob Alexander, the evil White House Chief of Staff.

In 1986, Donna Murphy was a woman in drag in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” In 1991, she was introduced as “a girl who will steal your heart and then forget where she put it,” playing the amnesiac songstress in “Song of Singapore.” Having become one of Broadway’s most sought-after actresses, Murphy is now playing the lead in Stephen Sondheim’s latest musical, “Passion.” Of the role, which has her playing an ugly, hysterical woman obsessively pursuing a handsome army captain, Murphy says, “I love transformation of any kind...I want to look in the mirror and not see Donna looking back at me.”<