The Real McCoys Reunion Show

[mikefromgeorgia]

I just could not believe how old and frail Pepino (Tony Martinez) looked on The Real McCoys Reunion Show. It was so wonderful seeing he, Kathy Nolan and Richard Crenna all together again. I did find it very strange that although there were tributes to all three, the late Walter Brennan and the supporting cast of Andy Clyde and Madge Blake, that absolutely no mention was made of Lydia Reed (Hassie) and Michael Winkleman, Jr. (Little Luke). Winkleman sadly died the year before the reunion show was aired and Reed apparently quit show business to devote time to being a wife and mother. Also there was no discussion of Kathy Nolan's departure from the show after the Fifth Season. It was a bit surprising that she attended the reunion, although just great that she did, especially if she left the show due to a contract dispute. Apparently she asked for more money and better scripts. They definitely should have given her what she had asked for as the series suffered terribly after she left. The reunion show was first aired in 2000. Very sadly, Tony Martinez died in 2002 and Richard Crenna in 2003.

[tv star collector]

Does anyone have any details about Michael Winkleman's death? All I could
find on the web was that he had "health issues" and died at 53.

It seems ironic that "Luke" (Richard Crenna) outlived "Little Luke."

[honeybea]

I've searched many times for info about Hassie and Little Luke but can't find anything. I do remember seeing a picture on Paul Petersen's "A Minor Consideration" site years ago that had a few child actors and Michael Winkleman was in it, but the picture is no longer there.

[Zoneboy]

Here's more info about Kathy Nolan from her bio at the SAG website. Kathy as most people know was the first woman president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Link

A lifelong professional performer, "born in a trunk," as they say in the theatrical world, Kathleen Nolan's debut commenced on a Mississippi showboat called "The Goldenrod" when she was a tot of 13 months. Her gutsy, confident personality was demonstrated on that showboat by her first salary negotiation - at age six! She recalled in 1976: "When I was six years old, I negotiated a raise for myself with the captain of the showboat because I was making 50 cents and everybody else was earning $2.50 a night and I didn't think that was right. So I went to him on my own and I not only ended up with my raise but everybody went up to $3.00. I guess that was my first negotiation." The whole family performed -- her father, Stephen Ellsworth, mother Clara Kennedy, and sister Nancy - and had their own Circle Stock Company. At 16, she went to New York and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner: to get the money to go, she worked a day job at an electrical company, followed by a night shift as a waitress. As "Kathy" Nolan, two of her most notable roles were on Broadway as young "Wendy" in the 1954/55 production of Peter Pan opposite Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, and "Kate McCoy" in the popular TV series The Real McCoys (1957-1963).

In 1964, she joined the Screen Actors Guild board of directors, first as an alternate, in the following way: “I got involved in a dispute with a large agency about who was the packager and who they were representing…that came to the attention of [2nd Vice-President] Charlton Heston, who was a friend from New York. He felt very strongly that I was the kind of person SAG needed on the Board because I wasn’t afraid to fight back.” Kathleen chaired our Women's Committee from its inception in 1972, and in 1973 became the first woman to be elected 1st Vice-President. In 1975, she ran as an independent candidate for Guild President and defeated not only the nominating committee's official choice, Robert Hogan, but three other independents. This victory made her the Guild's first female National President. In 1977 she repeated her success by being elected to a second two-year term in which she again defeated the Nominating Committee’s choice, Bert Freed this time, and three independents.

Confident and fearlessly outspoken, she supported revision of the United States Copyright Law; non-gender specific casting of roles in film and television, which would broaden opportunities for actresses; reduction in the number of TV re-runs; elimination of "TVQ" (a list of around 600 actors and actresses that a survey showed had the most "viewer appeal"); support for public broadcasting; federal government support of an "arts plank" to recognize the arts as not a luxury for the rich, but an "essential human right" for all. She presided over the Guild's 4th strike Dec. 1978 - Feb. 1979, over Commercials.

In her parting words, printed in Screen Actor magazine as she concluded her presidency in 1979, she reminded the membership: “In my years as your president, I have continually spoken out not just for better contracts, for more jobs, for all the important economic issues which confront us, I have also consistently said that we must fight for more quality in our work and thus in our lives. I am convinced that the issues are inseparable – we will not get more jobs until we get better programming. It is our responsibility to integrate the economic and the social issues that affect us, if we hope to be integrated creative artists able to bring inspiration and joy to others through our work.”

[mikefromgeorgia]

Kathleen Nolan is without a doubt a very intelligent woman. This I think really helped her to give Kate McCoy real depth. Kate was pretty quiet in the early episodes, but she was without question the most interesting (and attractive) and complex character on the show. I have seen only a handful of episodes of the mediocre 1960's series Broadside, which she went on to star in after leaving The Real McCoys. However, I can say without any reservations that her character in that shortlived series was certainly a far cry in every sense of the word from Kate and was thus far beneath Kathleen Nolan's wealth of talent and ability. The last show I saw her in before the 2000 The Real McCoys Reunion was a 1974 episode of the series The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin. She played a real estate agent named Faye Kruger in that episode called The Vampire. Ironically, Walter Brennan also died that same year (1974) at the age of 80. I know that Kathleen Nolan has certainly been quite active since then and still acts occasionally today. Although I don't think she has portrayed a character since The Real McCoys that she has so fully made her own as she did so completely and wonderfully with Kate McCoy.

[Coffeecup]

I remember seeing a reunion show of sorts. Thought it might have been on TNN for I know the series, when I saw it after many years, was shown there. Richard and Kathy spoke. Can't recall if Tony was there. The rest weren't. One piece of dialog I remember was Richard saying many people wondered if Walter really did limp. Richard said, No it was just the part of the character of Grampa McCoy. I tune into The Guns of Will Sonnet and see Walter again.