Armand Andre Archerd (January 13, 1922[1] – September 8, 2009)[2] was an American columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005.[3] In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.

Army Archerd
Archerd at the 1988 Academy Awards
Born
Armand Andre Archerd

(1922-01-13)January 13, 1922
DiedSeptember 8, 2009(2009-09-08) (aged 87)
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Spouses
Joan Paul
(m. 1944; div. 1969)
Selma (Fenning) Archerd
(m. 1969)
Children2

Biography

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Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York, and graduated from UCLA in 1941. He was hired by Variety to replace columnist Sheilah Graham (former girlfriend of F. Scott Fitzgerald) in 1953. His "Just for Variety" column appeared on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke many exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. In 1984, he was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, where he had emceed dozens of movie premieres.

One of his most significant scoops was in his July 23, 1985, column, when he printed that Rock Hudson, despite denials from the actor's publicists and managers, was undergoing treatment for AIDS.

Archerd was Jewish[2] and a strong proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Holocaust awareness. He was married to Selma Fenning Archerd, a former actress, from November 15, 1969, until his death. They had one child and lived in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.

Archerd made four appearances on the popular, long-running game show The Hollywood Squares in the 1970s. His bluffs to questions from Peter Marshall became legendary, as he was able to fool contestants into believing his (often ridiculous) answers.[citation needed] Some say[who?] he was even better than the accepted champion in that regard, long-time participant John Davidson. Also in that decade, Archerd and his wife Selma made appearances on the game show Tattletales.

He made several appearances in TV series, including Burke's Law (1964), Hollywood Backstage,[4] Batman (episode 39), Mannix (1967), and Marcus Welby, M.D., and films such as The Young Runaways (1968), The Outfit (1973), Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), Gable and Lombard (1976), California Suite (1978), The French Atlantic Affair (1979) and The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980).

Archerd died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from a rare form of lung cancer (pleural mesothelioma), as a result of his exposure to asbestos in the Navy during World War II.[2]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1958 Teacher's Pet Himself Uncredited
1963 A New Kind of Love Onlooker Uncredited
1963 Under the Yum Yum Tree Writer Uncredited
1964 What a Way to Go! TV Announcer Uncredited
1964 Kisses for My President Reporter Uncredited
1966 The Oscar Press Conference Reporter Uncredited
1967 Rough Night in Jericho Waiter Uncredited
1968 Planet of the Apes Gorilla UIncredited
1968 Wild in the Streets Himself Uncredited
1968 The Young Runaways Himself
1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes Gorilla Uncredited
1971 Escape from the Planet of the Apes Referee
1973 The Thief Who Came to Dinner Newsman Uncredited
1973 The Outfit Butler
1976 Gable and Lombard Emcee
1976 Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood Premiere MC
1978 California Suite Himself
1980 The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood Himself
1981 The Devil and Max Devlin Himself
1986 Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star Television Host
1990 Repossessed Himself

1975 La Femme oubliée Columbo Army Archerd (lui-même) (VF : Jacques Thébault)

References

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  1. ^ Some sources, including Variety, cite 1919 as his year of birth; the Social Security Death Index cites 1922
  2. ^ a b c Abcarian, Robin (2009-09-08). "Army Archerd dies at 90; Variety columnist watched over Hollywood for half a century". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
  3. ^ "'Just for Variety' column to end after 52 years". August 3, 2005. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  4. ^ Hollywood Backstage video highlights, time stamp 11:00 on YouTube
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