But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie. Wait. No it’s not… and no I didn’t. These gals weren’t angels, but they were both pretty darn nice. I’m referring to two of the female co-stars from the movie Police Academy. They were actually present as part of a reunion of actors and actresses from the series at the Hollywood Show on April 2, 2011. Sadly, the reunion didn’t have the impact that it might have if Bubba Smith and George Gaynes had shown up as scheduled. Donovan Scott was also there, but I snubbed him since he didn’t have any photos from Life with Lucy. I’m kind of regretting that.
No one who has seen the movie would be likely to forget the quiet-as-a-mouse and dumb-as-dishwater character Laverne Hooks. Besides a few brief TV appearances on series like The Jeffersons, MacGyver, and The Nanny, the actress Marion Ramsey didn’t do a heck of a lot outside the series. But she did milk the series for nearly all it was worth appearing in six out of seven of the Police Academy franchise films.
She was extremely nice and quite a bit more attractive than she had been in the film more than 25 years ago. Her niceness equally matched, and she was kind enough to pose for a photo with me for free.
Leslie Easterbrook had played the stern and sexy Academy staff member Debbie Callahan. Not at all like her character, she was equally kind in that she was even willing to pose for a photo with me based on the fact that I had bought one of her signed photos (through Bob) at a previous show. Not only did she pose, but was intent on getting a good picture, which for some odd reason took several tries before we ended up with one we were happy with.
Leslie’s career also mostly spanned several television series, most notably in 50 episodes of LaverneĀ & Shirley, in which she played their hot neighbor Rhonda Lee. She also rode the Police Academy train until it had completely run out of steam, appearing in all the films (except for the second one), and even playing the same character in a guest shot on Police Academy: The Series.
All in all it was a pair of nice encounters with a couple of cute former police women. So even if the franchise eventually went down the drain, it was fun to meet two of the veteran officers.
Celebrity encounters form the Spring 2011 Hollywood Show will continue…
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