RON BERKELEY
Ron Berkeley, an Emmy-winning makeup artist who worked with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on such films as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Taming of the Shrew, has died. He was 86.
Ron and I became friends during the shooting of 'Circle of Two" He was Richard Burton's personal Makeup Man.
Ron and I hung out together for most of the movie too and stayed in touch for some years. he had great stories and he wrote me great letters
He told me He first worked for his father who was also a make-up man when he was 15. His father gave him the job of shaving Marlene Detriche's legs
I became Richard Burton's Drinking buddy during the shooting of Circle Of Two. (1979)I also became friends with Richard's make-up man Ron Berkely.
They had a script Ron had been working on for a project they wanted to do. I made a few suggestions during one of the discussions and they asked me to write a scene for them
The scene involved Billy Connelly in Paris. so I wrote it and they liked it and invited me to write the script.
They got Warner Brothers to advance me $25,000 dollars
Ron offered me 3 months at his castle-like mansion in Normandy and the use of his Maserati plus Nights in Paris where he lived, he was married to famed dress designer Viki Teal.
Ron arranged backstage passes to Massey Hall for me to meet Billy Connelly. (This was way back in his banana shoes days)o I was a special guest and after the others left. we talked a bit about the script I was to rewrite and Ron Berkely and Richard Burton that Billy was going to be in. It would have been his first major movie. We quaffed a couple of beers and had a few laughs. He would have been great,
Just as negotiations were finalizing along comes the Writer's strike. Warner Brothers canceled and everything disappeared.
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