An Evening in L.A. with a Distinguished Gentleman!

Derek Partridge. Photo by Brett Homenick.

After attending the Hollywood Show, I had an appointment to meet with actor and television presenter Derek Partridge, whom I mostly know from his role as Aubrey Range in the Rankin/Bass production of The Ivory Ape (1980), directed by Tsugunobu "Tom" Kotani. Mr. Partridge also appears in the James Bond thriller Thunderball (1965) in an uncredited role as the Vulcan navigator, the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren" (1968) as Dionyd (this is the famous episode in which William Shatner kisses Nichelle Nichols), and Star Wars Rebels (2014-18) as the voice of Commander Brom Titus. 

With Derek Partridge.

We met in downtown Pasadena, which I had no idea was an area where parking was so scarce. It didn't help that there was some kind of major event going on, which made finding parking that much more difficult. Luckily, I eventually found a parking garage, so our long national nightmare finally came to an end, but I certainly wasn't expecting that level of difficulty.

Our first idea was to eat at a nearby Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was simply too long, so we took our business elsewhere. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant across the street and enjoyed the fare on offer. We talked about my life in Japan, while I asked Mr. Partridge about his life in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia in the 1970s, which he loved.

I asked Mr. Partridge about working with Tom Kotani on The Ivory Ape, but he didn't remember anything that he hadn't already shared in the interview linked above. Still, it was a great evening with Mr. Partridge, and I'm grateful we were finally able to meet years after the interview. I hope we can meet again soon in the future.

Meeting Luciana Paluzzi

Brett meets Luciana Paluzzi in her backyard.

One of the benefits of living in Rancho Mirage is its close proximity to the Los Angeles area. I'm only about two and a half hours away from most locations in the city. It affords me the chance to travel there fairly routinely and do fun things that I wouldn't be able to do in my old stomping grounds, Grand Forks.

One of these fun things was the chance to meet Luciana Paluzzi, the star of the James Bond film Thunderball, the Japanese cult movie The Green Slime, and numerous other titles. When I knew I was going to L.A. to meet a friend (more on that in another blog post), I asked Luciana if I could stop by and have a quick chat. She agreed, and the date was set.

When we met, we sat in her (extremely impressive) backyard. She talked about her career, told some very funny and interesting stories, and was all-around very pleasant to talk to. I really would like to thank Luciana for giving me the opportunity to stop by her home and meet her. It certainly made the trip back to Rancho Mirage much more enjoyable!