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This is the fourth installment of this popular series on Montana celebrities.
I want to start off by thanking everyone that’s given me ideas, both in the comments of these articles and on Montana Facebook groups.
For instance, two of these celebrities – Charley Pride and Dirk Benedict – I’d never heard of. The other two are big actors that most will know.
So why do celebrities come to Montana? After all, a quick glance at this ongoing series will tell you that most aren’t born here.
This 2010 article form the Los Angeles Times mentions some of the tax burdens those coming to Montana can feel. After all, we only have property taxes here, no sales tax…and we like it that way because most of us don’t have money.
I want to start off by thanking everyone that’s given me ideas, both in the comments of these articles and on Montana Facebook groups.
For instance, two of these celebrities – Charley Pride and Dirk Benedict – I’d never heard of. The other two are big actors that most will know.
So why do celebrities come to Montana? After all, a quick glance at this ongoing series will tell you that most aren’t born here.
This 2010 article form the Los Angeles Times mentions some of the tax burdens those coming to Montana can feel. After all, we only have property taxes here, no sales tax…and we like it that way because most of us don’t have money.
The article mentions this as a reason why so many celebrities come and go from Montana, although I think a more accurate take on why they go might be their penchant for divorces. Few things can drain a bank account and force a property sale as fast as that…or slow, depending on your lawyer.
Anyways, you won’t find too many divorces among this bunch. Here are their stories.
Anyways, you won’t find too many divorces among this bunch. Here are their stories.
Charley Pride
Charlie Pride in 1981
Charley Frank Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1938. There were eleven kids in the sharecropping family and times were tough. Music was a good way to get over heartache and bitterness, and Charley began playing guitar while a teen.
Sports were more to his liking, however, and by ’52 he was pitching baseball for the Negro American League team, the Memphis Red Sox. That led him to the Boise Yankees, a sure trip to New York and the big leagues if he played his cards right. He didn’t, and an injury sidelined him, and his chances. After that it was skipping around to a team here and there before serving a two-year stint in the Army.
His military service up, Pride headed back home. A Helena Independent Record article from October 1986 says that Charlie Pride left his wife in 1960, “borrowed $400 and caught a train to East Helena, where he played on the Class C minor-league Pioneer League team.” He joined on April 15 and was done on May 9, having pitched three games.
I'm not quite certain on the timeline, but it appears that from there he went to Missoula, playing for the Missoula Timberjacks, a Pioneer League farm club team that was affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. It was 1960 and it didn’t work out. Charley got a construction job in Helena (did he go back, or was Missoula first? I'm not sure), but kept his baseball dreams alive for two more years, trying out for the California Angels and the New York Mets before calling it a day.
Sports were more to his liking, however, and by ’52 he was pitching baseball for the Negro American League team, the Memphis Red Sox. That led him to the Boise Yankees, a sure trip to New York and the big leagues if he played his cards right. He didn’t, and an injury sidelined him, and his chances. After that it was skipping around to a team here and there before serving a two-year stint in the Army.
His military service up, Pride headed back home. A Helena Independent Record article from October 1986 says that Charlie Pride left his wife in 1960, “borrowed $400 and caught a train to East Helena, where he played on the Class C minor-league Pioneer League team.” He joined on April 15 and was done on May 9, having pitched three games.
I'm not quite certain on the timeline, but it appears that from there he went to Missoula, playing for the Missoula Timberjacks, a Pioneer League farm club team that was affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. It was 1960 and it didn’t work out. Charley got a construction job in Helena (did he go back, or was Missoula first? I'm not sure), but kept his baseball dreams alive for two more years, trying out for the California Angels and the New York Mets before calling it a day.
Charley Pride with the Memphis Red Sox, c 1950s (2nd from left)
That guitar Charley picked up in his teens never left him, and he played all during this time, so much so that major country stars urged him to get serious about it. Pride did, and in 1958 he headed to Memphis and Sun Studios and laid down a few tracks, one of which got released in the UK in a compilation box set.
Nothing much came of that, however, and Pride most likely wiled his time away in Helena, doing construction by day and playing what backroom bars he could nights and weekends. It wasn’t until 1965 that things took off, and Pride was signed to RCA by producer Chet Atkins.
By 1967 he was performing at the Grand Ole Opry, the first black performer to do so, and from 1969 to 1971 he managed to release eight singles that reached to #1 on the Country Hit Parade charts. His ‘Best of’ album went gold and in 1972 the song he sang with Paul Newman for the film Sometimes a Great Notion was nominated for an Academy Award.
By 1983 Charley Pride would earn his 29th and final #1 hit with “Night Games.” In 1986 he left RCA in favor of 16th Avenue Records, mainly because he felt he was being shunned by the label in favor of younger artists. The move earned him a #5 hit and an introduction to a younger country audience. In 2000 Charley Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Nothing much came of that, however, and Pride most likely wiled his time away in Helena, doing construction by day and playing what backroom bars he could nights and weekends. It wasn’t until 1965 that things took off, and Pride was signed to RCA by producer Chet Atkins.
By 1967 he was performing at the Grand Ole Opry, the first black performer to do so, and from 1969 to 1971 he managed to release eight singles that reached to #1 on the Country Hit Parade charts. His ‘Best of’ album went gold and in 1972 the song he sang with Paul Newman for the film Sometimes a Great Notion was nominated for an Academy Award.
By 1983 Charley Pride would earn his 29th and final #1 hit with “Night Games.” In 1986 he left RCA in favor of 16th Avenue Records, mainly because he felt he was being shunned by the label in favor of younger artists. The move earned him a #5 hit and an introduction to a younger country audience. In 2000 Charley Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
And baseball? Pride began joining the Texas Rangers for their annual spring training, and he performed the National Anthem for the 1980 World Series’ Game 6 and the 2010 World Series’ Game 5, but that’s about as close as he’s come to the majors. Country fans around the world couldn’t be happier.
Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedict, c 1980s
Dirk Benedict was actually born Dirk Niewoehner, in Helena, Montana, on March 1, 1945. The war was ending and Dirk’s parents, a lawyer and his wife, an accountant, moved on to White Sulphur Springs.
Dirk headed to Washington for university and graduated from Walla Walla’s Whitman College. By 1972 Dirk had gotten his first film role, in 1972’s Georgia, Georgia. The film was directed by Swede Stig Björkman and was from a Maya Angelou script. The first screenplay written by an African American woman was a big deal, and with Stig’s European connections, the film was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival. In other words, the film didn’t make any money, and Dirk continued to look for work.
He did some Broadway with a run of Butterflies are Free and then did the same gig in Hawaii, which led to a guest spot on Hawaii Five-O. That in turn led to Sssssss, a film in which a character named Dr. Stoner creates a…well, you’ll have to check it out.
Many did, and the film grossed $1 million. Unfortunately that was $30,000 less than the damn thing cost to produce. Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown learned from that before they produced Jaws two year later, in 1975.
Dirk headed to Washington for university and graduated from Walla Walla’s Whitman College. By 1972 Dirk had gotten his first film role, in 1972’s Georgia, Georgia. The film was directed by Swede Stig Björkman and was from a Maya Angelou script. The first screenplay written by an African American woman was a big deal, and with Stig’s European connections, the film was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival. In other words, the film didn’t make any money, and Dirk continued to look for work.
He did some Broadway with a run of Butterflies are Free and then did the same gig in Hawaii, which led to a guest spot on Hawaii Five-O. That in turn led to Sssssss, a film in which a character named Dr. Stoner creates a…well, you’ll have to check it out.
Many did, and the film grossed $1 million. Unfortunately that was $30,000 less than the damn thing cost to produce. Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown learned from that before they produced Jaws two year later, in 1975.
Dirk Benedict and family
For Benedict’s part, the horror lead led to W, the first film appearance of Twiggy. That led to Chopper One, a TV series that lasted a year in ’74, a time that also saw him do some bit parts on Charlie’s Angels. It wasn’t until 1978, however, that Benedict’s career-defining moment came. That was the year Battlestar Galactica was released.
During this time, Dirk got prostate cancer. He fought it off, and says that it was his macrobiotic diet more than anything that allowed him to do so.
During the 80s, Dirk did a lot. A major role was as “Faceman” on The A-Team, which lasted four years, until 1986. A string of forgettable film roles followed, most more low budget than the last. A 1987 run at Hamlet at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre was panned by critics something fierce.
In 1986, Dirk Benedict married Toni Hudson, an actress that had a lot of different TV show appearances during the 80s, and also played Denise in the 1985 movie Just One of the Guys. They most likely met on a 1984 episode of The A-Team called “Blood, Sweat and Cheers.” The two had two sons before calling it quits in 1995.
The 2000s and 2010s have been slow for Dirk Benedict, but he has gotten some TV work here and there. It’s his work on TV in the 1980s, however, that most will remember him for.
Andi MacDowell
Andie MacDowell and daughters, c 2010s
Andi MacDowell was born in Gaffney, South Carolina, on April 21, 1958. She got her start with modeling for the Elite Model Management agency beginning in 1978 and often appeared on Vogue magazine, primarily in perfume ads. Following that she got onto some Calvin Klein billboards in New York, something that led to her firs film role, Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
MacDowell was lucky her acting career didn’t end right then and there. Besides the crappy movie, her accent was terrible (to producers, at least), and Glenn Close was brought in to dub over her lines, giving them an English accent to replace the southern drawl MacDowell had yet to shed. Four years in the Actors Studio helped with that, and probably also had a lot to do with her getting her big film break, in Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 film Sex, Lies and Videotape.
MacDowell received an Independent Spirit Award for the film, which also won the Sundance Film Festival that year. A few other movies followed, but MacDowell had her next big break with 1993’s Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. Next was Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 with Hugh Grant and then Multiplicity in 1996 with Michael Keaton, another famous Montana celebrity.
Although MacDowell has made more than twenty movies since the late-90s, none of them have been a hit, and I doubt you’d know many of their names.
MacDowell was lucky her acting career didn’t end right then and there. Besides the crappy movie, her accent was terrible (to producers, at least), and Glenn Close was brought in to dub over her lines, giving them an English accent to replace the southern drawl MacDowell had yet to shed. Four years in the Actors Studio helped with that, and probably also had a lot to do with her getting her big film break, in Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 film Sex, Lies and Videotape.
MacDowell received an Independent Spirit Award for the film, which also won the Sundance Film Festival that year. A few other movies followed, but MacDowell had her next big break with 1993’s Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. Next was Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 with Hugh Grant and then Multiplicity in 1996 with Michael Keaton, another famous Montana celebrity.
Although MacDowell has made more than twenty movies since the late-90s, none of them have been a hit, and I doubt you’d know many of their names.
On the home front, Andie MacDowell married Paul Qualley in 1986 while the two were working on some Gap ads. They had a son and two daughters before divorcing in 1999. Following that she married Rhett Hartzog in 2001, a marriage that lasted just shy of three years.
MacDowell arrived in Montana sometime in the 1990s, when she was married to Paul Qualley, as far as I can tell. Following her divorce, however, the area seemed to have soured for her…though I’m not sure she ever sold her ranch.
Beginning around 2012 it seems that MacDowell decided to come back to Montana from South Carolina, and for good. And according to a Washington Post article form August 2013, MacDowell enjoys her ranch in Montana.
“There are a lot of things I want to do there with conservation,” she said in that interview, and goes on to say how important the idea of conservation is to her and her children. What’s more, she’s not just the type that’s going to put out flowery talk, not backing it up with action.
“I’ve already made a substantial commitment to wildlife by putting my land in the easement,” she said “It won’t be developed. It will remain there in perpetuity — will be there for the wild life.”
That’s a pretty good attitude, and it’s the attitude Montanans like to see Montana celebrities taking. Honestly, when you’re neighbors know that you’re doing a good job, they’ll leave you alone and they won’t tell others you’re there. Yes, there’s still a thing called ‘honor’ in America.
MacDowell arrived in Montana sometime in the 1990s, when she was married to Paul Qualley, as far as I can tell. Following her divorce, however, the area seemed to have soured for her…though I’m not sure she ever sold her ranch.
Beginning around 2012 it seems that MacDowell decided to come back to Montana from South Carolina, and for good. And according to a Washington Post article form August 2013, MacDowell enjoys her ranch in Montana.
“There are a lot of things I want to do there with conservation,” she said in that interview, and goes on to say how important the idea of conservation is to her and her children. What’s more, she’s not just the type that’s going to put out flowery talk, not backing it up with action.
“I’ve already made a substantial commitment to wildlife by putting my land in the easement,” she said “It won’t be developed. It will remain there in perpetuity — will be there for the wild life.”
That’s a pretty good attitude, and it’s the attitude Montanans like to see Montana celebrities taking. Honestly, when you’re neighbors know that you’re doing a good job, they’ll leave you alone and they won’t tell others you’re there. Yes, there’s still a thing called ‘honor’ in America.
Speaking to Energy Times in 2012, MacDowell said that she really likes hiking through the woods, and Montana is perfect for that. “I’m a tree farmer…and I grow trees,” she said of what she does. “I’m not chopping trees down. I’m growing trees just like you would in a garden.” But MacDowell actually has a utilitarian sense as well. “It’s for wood, but I mean I take down sick trees or trees that are bug-infested and then I replant trees and they grow.”
Town and Country Magazine reported in December 2013 that the ranch MacDowell is talking about is actually quite the place, 3,000 acres in fact, and working. Her kids were raised on both the ranch and her home in Asheville, North Carolina, although she sold the latter in 2013.
Her children want to be actors as well, and one, Rainey MacDowell, actually performed in a play in Missoula recently. I can’t help think we’ll be hearing more from these transplants as Montana becomes their home.
Town and Country Magazine reported in December 2013 that the ranch MacDowell is talking about is actually quite the place, 3,000 acres in fact, and working. Her kids were raised on both the ranch and her home in Asheville, North Carolina, although she sold the latter in 2013.
Her children want to be actors as well, and one, Rainey MacDowell, actually performed in a play in Missoula recently. I can’t help think we’ll be hearing more from these transplants as Montana becomes their home.
John Lithgow
John Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York, on October 19, 1945. His mother was a retired actress and his father was a theater director.
The younger Lithgow went to Harvard and then headed to Broadway, in 1973. His first role was in The Changing Room and he won a Tony. His first film role was Broadway-related, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz.
Lithgow’s first Academy Award nomination came in 1983 for The World According to Garp and then the next year he received another for Terms of Endearment, losing out to Jack Nicholson. It’s his 1996-2000 run on NBC’s 3rd Rock from the Sun, however, that many Montanans probably know Lithgow best from. The run earned the actor three Emmy awards, giving him four in total (his first was from an episode of 1986’s Amazing Stories).
I’ve heard that his wife graduated from high school in Conrad, Montana. I also heard that even though Lithgow is Hollywood celebrity with name recognition, there’s still people in Montana that don’t know who he is, as seen from this comment on a previous article:
The younger Lithgow went to Harvard and then headed to Broadway, in 1973. His first role was in The Changing Room and he won a Tony. His first film role was Broadway-related, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz.
Lithgow’s first Academy Award nomination came in 1983 for The World According to Garp and then the next year he received another for Terms of Endearment, losing out to Jack Nicholson. It’s his 1996-2000 run on NBC’s 3rd Rock from the Sun, however, that many Montanans probably know Lithgow best from. The run earned the actor three Emmy awards, giving him four in total (his first was from an episode of 1986’s Amazing Stories).
I’ve heard that his wife graduated from high school in Conrad, Montana. I also heard that even though Lithgow is Hollywood celebrity with name recognition, there’s still people in Montana that don’t know who he is, as seen from this comment on a previous article:
John Lithgow tried to pay for his groceries at the Big Fork IGA and they wouldn't take his check because he didn't have ID....store policy!
In June 2009, Bank Rate did an interview with Lithgow, and in it he mentioned his Montana connection, and what he likes about the state:
My wife is from Montana, and we have a little cabin on a lake there, and we disappear there -- at least in the summers and oftentimes during the year. That's an extraordinary retreat. We ride horses, ski in the winter, swim in the summer, play tennis and golf. It's all the stuff I never gave myself -- gifts I never gave myself as a young man.
That probably made him mad, perhaps as mad as the villain he plays in Richochet, one of my favorite John Lithgow movies. And that scene in The Twilight Zone Movie, reprising William Shatner’s role? Simply great, and a role he told Bill Moyers in 2013 was his favorite.
So John Lithgow lives somewhere around Flathead Lake, probably in the Big Fork area. According to an Independent Record article from October 1986, Lithgow has an additional 250 acres nearby his Flathead Lake home.
So what does a great actor do when he’s in Montana? Lots of outdoor stuff, relaxing on the lake, and just taking it easy.
“I also paint,” Lithgow said in an 2009 interview. “Actually, when I started out, late into my teens, I was far more interested in being a painter than an actor, and I maintain that as a hobby. When I'm in LA, I rent a painting studio and disappear there for hours and oil paint.”
John Lithgow is a big supporter of the environment and the land around his home, as seen in this 2014 University of Montana report on the Flathead Lake Biological Research Station.
“At a time of deep concern for the Earth’s fragile environment,” Lithgow said when $1 million was being raised in 2011, “the Flathead Lake Biological Station continues to do a magnificent job monitoring the Flathead’s complex water system.”
“All of us who treasure this beautiful lake owe the station a great and ongoing debt of gratitude,” he finished, and that’s the kind of Montana celebrity we like, and would like to see more often. And why aren’t they so vocal in the legislature? That’s where we need their voices the most.
So what does a great actor do when he’s in Montana? Lots of outdoor stuff, relaxing on the lake, and just taking it easy.
“I also paint,” Lithgow said in an 2009 interview. “Actually, when I started out, late into my teens, I was far more interested in being a painter than an actor, and I maintain that as a hobby. When I'm in LA, I rent a painting studio and disappear there for hours and oil paint.”
John Lithgow is a big supporter of the environment and the land around his home, as seen in this 2014 University of Montana report on the Flathead Lake Biological Research Station.
“At a time of deep concern for the Earth’s fragile environment,” Lithgow said when $1 million was being raised in 2011, “the Flathead Lake Biological Station continues to do a magnificent job monitoring the Flathead’s complex water system.”
“All of us who treasure this beautiful lake owe the station a great and ongoing debt of gratitude,” he finished, and that’s the kind of Montana celebrity we like, and would like to see more often. And why aren’t they so vocal in the legislature? That’s where we need their voices the most.
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