Biography of Linda Ronstadt

Quick Facts

Name

Linda Ronstadt

Occupation 

Singer

Birth Date 

July 15, 1946

Place of Birth 

Tuscon, Arizona

 

Linda Ronstadt is a 11-time Grammy Award winner and superstar of both pop and country music. Her 1974 album, Heart Like a Wheel, sold more than 1 million copies.

Synopsis

Born in Arizona in 1946, Linda Ronstadt found success with her 1974 album, Heart Like a Wheel, which included such hits as "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved." The album went platinum—selling more than 1 million copies—as did her next few projects, establishing her as a music superstar during the 1970s. She continued to experiment with different styles, such as in Adieu False Heart (2006), a Cajun-inspired work.In 2013, Ronstadt revealed that she could no longer sing because she had Parkinson's disease. She also published her memoir Simple Dreams that same year.

Early Life and Career

Singer Linda Ronstadt was born on July 15, 1946, in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up surrounded by music. One of Ronstadt's early musical influences was the Mexican songs her father taught her and her siblings. Her mother played the ukulele and her father played the guitar. Following in her father's footsteps, she learned to play guitar. She also performed with her brother and sister as a trio.

After graduating from Catalina High School, Ronstadt enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson where she met Bob Kimmel. The pair left college to move in Los Angeles where they formed the Stone Poneys with Kenny Edwards. This folk trio released their first album in 1967. The group enjoyed a modest success with their second album Evergreen Vol. 2, which was also released in 1967. Their only hit was "Different Drum," which was written by Michael Nesmith of the Monkees.

Hit Singer of the 1970s

By the end of the 1960s, Ronstadt had become a solo act. She put out several albums before finally landing on the charts with Heart Like a Wheel (1974). The album had several hits, including "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved." The recording went platinum—meaning it sold more than one million copies. Ronstadt quickly became one of the music superstar of the 1970s.

In 1975, Ronstadt continued to enjoy success on the album charts with Prisoner in Disguise. The recording featured the Neil Young cover "Love Is a Rose" and her take on the Smokey Robinson classic "The Tracks of My Tears." With 1976's Hasten Down the Wind, Ronstadt took on the Buddy Holly classic "That'll Be the Day" and "Crazy" by Willie Nelson. Simple Dreams (1977) featured the Roy Orbison-penned "Blue Bayou," which became a major hit, along with her popular covers of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," and The Rolling Stones' "Tumbing Dice."

Later Career

In the 1980s, Ronstadt tried her hand at pop standards. She worked with famed arranger Nelson Riddle, with whom she put out three albums: Lush Life (1982), What's New (1983) and For Sentimental Reasons (1986). She also explored her Hispanic heritage by recording a Spanish-language album, Canciones de Mi Padre (1987), which was filled with traditional Mexican songs like the ones her father loved. Two other Spanish-language albums followed: Mas Canciones (1990) and Frenesi (1992). In 1989, Ronstadt won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program, for her work on the television series Great Performances (1970), which has been airing on PBS since the early 1970s.

Ronstadt continued to experiment with different musical styles. In collaboration with Ann Savoy, she took on Cajun music in her latest album Adieu False Heart (2006). Since then, Ronstadt has focused more on her personal life, choosing to spend more time with her family. She adopted two children, Clementine and Carlos, when she was in her early forties. For many years, she lived in her hometown of Tucson with her kids. She now lives in San Francisco. Despite relationships with former California governor Jerry Brown and filmmaker George Lucas, Ronstadt never married. She told The New York Times that "I'm very bad at compromise, and there's a lot of compromise in marriage."

In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed the reason she had been absent from the music scene in recent years. She has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which she says has prevented her from singing. "I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t figure out why," Ronstadt explained to aarp.org. "I think I’ve had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I’ve had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that’s why my hands were trembling."

That fall, Ronstadt delved into other aspects of her life in her autobiography, Simple Dreams. The book follows her journey to becoming a music legend, but it does not touch on her illness. Despite the physical challenges she faces with Parkinson's, Ronstadt went out on a book tour to promote her memoir. The book provides readers with an inside look at her youth in Arizona, her early days in the L.A. music scene and her life as a pop star in the 1970s and 1980s.

Biography of Vera Miles

Quick Facts

Name

Vera Miles

Occupation 

Actress

Birth Date 

August 23, 1929

Place of Birth 

Boise City, Oklahoma

AKA

Vera Ralston

Vera Miles

 

Maiden Name

Vera June Ralston

 

Vera Miles is a prolific American film and TV actress. She's best known for her role as Lila Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Synopsis

Born on August 23, 1929 in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles was a beauty queen who moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. She starred in the John Wayne western The Searchers before working with director Alfred Hitchcock in 1957's The Wrong Man and in the famed 1960 thriller Psycho. Miles worked in film and TV for decades afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

From Beauty Queen to Actress

Vera Miles was born Vera June Ralston on August 23, 1929 in Boise City, Oklahoma, and grew up in Kansas. She became a beauty queen when she was crowned Miss Kansas, subsequently taking third place in the Miss America Pageant in 1948. She and her husband Bob Miles then moved to Hollywood, and by the early ‘50s Vera was working in film. She decided to use Miles as her professional surname as there was already another actress named Vera Ralston.

Some of Miles's early films include The Rose Bowl Story (1952), The Charge at Feather River (1953) and Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1954), in which she met her second husband, Gordon Scott. Miles began to do television spots as well. She worked with director John Ford on an episode of the anthology series Screen Directors Playhouse; he later cast her in the 1956 John Wayne western, The Searchers.

Another famous movie director took special notice of Miles after she appeared in a 1955 episode of his TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Hitchcock and 'Psycho'

Miles was awarded a contract deal with Hitchcock and she starred in his 1957 film The Wrong Man, based on a true story. Opposite Henry Fonda, she played the emotionally devastated wife of a man unjustly charged with robbery. Miles was then originally slated to appear in Hitchcock’s 1958 movie Vertigo, but due to pregnancy and production delays, she was replaced by Kim Novak.

But a major role was in the making. In Psycho (1960), Miles stars as Lila Crane, a woman in search of her missing sister Marion (played by Janet Leigh) who has a horrifying encounter with Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins). The black and white film, with its famous noir motifs and scenes of terror, is regarded as a cinematic classic.

Later Career

Other notable roles for Miles followed, including a turn as an alcoholic in Back Street (1961) and as a politician’s wife in another John Wayne movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Miles was later featured in a string of Disney films from the mid-1960s to the '70s, and guest-starred on many successful TV pilots, including I Spy and Owen Marshall. She continued to do both film and TV work throughout the '80s, including a return to her Lila Crane role in the well-received Psycho II (1983).

Miles retired from acting after the 1995 film Separate Lives. Her work on the original Psycho has been brought to life once again in the 2012 film Hitchcock, which focuses on the making of the famed thriller and features actress Jessica Biel as Miles.
Miles has been married several times and has four children.