Charlie Spradling, Part 2: A Scream Queen for a New Generation

The Blob (1988)

Charlie Spradling

 

Mädchen Amick

Mädchen Amick was born December 12, 1970 in Reno, Nevada to a musician and a medical office manager. She's 1/2 German, 1/4 Norwegian and 1/4 Swedish, if you want to start your own breeding program and were interested in the ingredients. Mädchen is German for "girl." It's pronounced "maid-shen" and "was chosen by her parents because they wanted an unusual name." She was raised in Sparks, Reno's twin city, and "encouraged by her parents to follow her own creative instincts where she learned .. the piano, bass, violin and guitar as well as .. tap, ballet, jazz and modern dancing." 

I've mentioned that the song I'd watch anyone do a serious karaoke version of is "Total Eclipse of the Heart." I haven't decided what my choice for interpretive dance would be. The frontrunner is "Somebody to Love" by Queen but after seeing this I'm willing to consider "Strong As I Am" by The Prime Movers. There are no videos of Robert McQueen High School's Modern Dance Team (the Lancers) circa 1988 on YouTube, but if there were Mädchen Amick wouldn't be on them because she dropped out of school a year earlier "to move to Los Angeles to model and act." 

William McNamara

William West McNamara was born March 31, 1965 in Dallas, Texas to a "professional race car driver .. and an interior designer." (Call him "Bill" or "Billy," please. Only his mother calls him "William.") He "attended" Columbia University and "studied" at the Lee Strasberg Institute. I assume those are euphemistic ways of saying he didn't finish at either one. The list of alumni on the Strasberg Institute's official page includes Rebecca Gayheart, Kevin Corrigan and Adam Sandler. It does not include Billy McNamara. (It also lists credits for some actors to help identify them but not others. It assumes you know who Kathy Griffin is but Dennis Hopper? He was in Easy Rider. Who doesn't know Catherine Hicks but Harvey Keitel? You remember, Pulp Fiction. Linda Hamilton? Sure. Angelina Jolie? Oh right, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.) 

Lots of famous actors are college dropouts. When they're asked why they left school on shows like Inside the Actors Studio the answer is often something like this: "I knew I would be an actor since I was seven or eight. My [m]om and I lived out in Los Angeles and one of her close friends was Valerie Perrine. She was like the Julia Roberts of the Seventies and we used to hang out at her house. She had all these interesting people over all the time. I hung out and watched these people and it was like hanging out at the circus or carnival. That's the kind of attraction it is."