9 Great Facts about People Named Tony

movies or TV shows. And so Ken gave it that name because Tony Danza is, you know, kind of the king of this and I know you could probably think of a couple examples, but he actually start as a fictional Tony in no less than ten movies and five separate TV shows. Yeah, I mean I guess who's the boss? Good cough Like It's true. I didn't even think about that.

Lots of other shows too, But it actually started when he was playing the role of Tony Banta on Taxi and so the character was supposed to be named Phil Banta, but because Danza had actually been working as a professional boxer at the time of his casting, and this was kind of his first big acting gig. The producers changed his character's name because they were worried that he wouldn't remember to respond to any name but his own, so

Tony Danza syndrome. But anyway, it's a pretty fitting way to kick off the episode because today's show is all about Tony's. Let's dive in today their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good friend man guess Hot Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass holding up a boombox as he blasts Tony Tony, Tony, and it's actually on a cassette tape. I don't know if you've noticed this

right outside the window. That's our PALIN producer, Tristan McNeil, and he's always so prepared for these shows, but I have in it. I was a little surprised when I saw him show up with the boom box, but anyway, I go. I kicked this off with a fact about Tony danzim and today's episode is of course filled with Tony's. But where do you want to go with it? Here? Well,

how about a fact about Anthony Hopkins? Who isn't generally my go to Tony, but I I stumbled into some really fun research about Sounds of the Lambs this week, and there's some strange things about how he got into that movie. So apparently Hopkins got the script, but he almost didn't read it because he thought it was a kids movie. He assumed Sounds of the Lambs just had to do something with like puppets or animals or something,

which is kind of funny. But I guess his agent or whoever for some pressure on him to read it, and he fell in love with the Hannibal Electric character. So this is actually what he told Empire Magazine quote. I read the script and boom, I knew intuitively how to play him. I thought of him as a combination of Katherine Hepburn crewman Capodi and How from two thousand one Katherine and How trying to figure that one out,

I don't, I don't quite understand that mash up. But but okay, yeah, I mean it is super weird, but it obviously worked. And the most interesting thing to me that I actually never picked up on is that the whole movie, he's only on screen for about sixteen minutes. I mean, the character is super memorable, but apparently it's only fourteen percent of the movie's run time, and apparently it's it's one of the shortest lead performances to ever

win an Oscar. It's probably something that bugs Sean Connery because he was actually the top pick for the role until he turned it down because he said it was too revolting. Really, he was given he wanted, they offered him that role. That's pretty interesting alright. Well, speaking of actors who've turned down roles, one of Tony Shaloub's most beloved roles is that of Adrian Monk. And if you've watched the show Monk, you know that this character is

this kind of quirky private detective. He's got O c. D. But Schaloub wasn't the first choice for the role. ABC actually wanted to hire Michael Richards, which is it's kind of weird when like when you hear who turns down these roles, it's hard to picture them. But you know, Seinfeld had just ended and they thought pulling Cramer for the role would be huge. But after this long song and dance, Richard passed on the project because he felt

that the character wouldn't allow for enough comedic possibilities. But here's the funny part. So once Michael Richards wasn't attached to it, ABC lost interest. They decided to pass, and thankfully the USA Network swooped in to take a chance on the show with saloub and the starring role. But here's what makes the story extra satisfying. So Tony schlub had actually auditioned to play Kramer on Seinfeld years the

part went to Richards. So in a weird way, the actors have been passing roles back and forth for decades. That's so weird. And there's such different actors. You know, you don't really imagine them replacing one, not imagine either in the other's role. But you know what else's funny is that I feel like Kramer or Michael Richards after Seinfeld his first show was a detective show. I don't know why why Monk in particular wasn't funny enough for him.

But there's this great story I read this week about Tony Braxton, and it's really about how Tony Braxton was discovered. So this is years before she recorded on Break My Heart. She was attending Bowie State University for a teaching degree and then one day on her way to school, she stopped to gas up her car and and she started singing to herself, and the gas station attendant hurt her and he broached her, and apparently he was this aspiring songwriter.

This guy's name was William Petaway Jr. And he asked if he could work with her on some demos, and I guess she agreed, and within a few months, Braxton had actually decided to set aside teaching and became a professional singer instead. And it's just such an unbelievable story, but this is how she explained it to NPR quote. I got five dollars I borrowed from my dad, and I went to the gas station in Annapolis, Maryland, and

I had a plan. I was going to put three dollars in my gas tank and keep two dollars for lunch. And this gas attendant comes up to me and he's staring at me, and I'm thinking, okay, a little weird. But then he says, all of a sudden, are you a singer? And he says, no, really, I've seen you sing around the city. I'm a producer and I would love to do some demos for you. And of course I'm thinking this is a line. He might be crazy.

He works at a gas station, but sometimes in life, you're at the right place at the right time, you have to take risks. And it turned out to be legitimate. He was the guy who co wrote the songs that Millie Vanilli were just starting to get some attention for in Europe. Is that crazy? Like like it goes from this gas station story somehow, like he gets this song picked up by Millie Vanilli And I don't know, it's

just all amazing to be enough said. I mean, at that point in my life, I was a huge Millie Vanilli fan. I have bought the singles, you know all that. That's a that's pretty amazing. All well, here's a story that's equally unbelievable to me. And it's about Tony Collette, who's been in everything from The sixth Sempts to Little

Miss Sunshine Too, you know, several other hits. And you might wonder how good an actress she is, but she's actually such a good actress that when she was a kid, she faked appendicitist to get out of going to school or something like that, and the doctor actually operated on herselves. I mean she might be a good actress, but you do have to question that a little bit. And and of course nowadays she thinks of this as this total embarrassment.

But still that's impressive. I mean, that is a big commitment to the role, right And apparently after the surgery, the doctor came out sort of you know, sheepish lee and said that they had removed it but that it was only slightly infected. That's ridiculous and actually pretty hard to top. I don't know if I have a fact that's better than that one. But here's a super, super weird one that I only found out about through Gabe, But it's about Tony the Tiger, who was apparently plagued

by lew demands from the furree community. And there's lots of evidence of this on Twitter. So basically, if you look at just about any tweet from the official Tony the Tiger Twitter account in the last three or four years, you'll find like dozens of replies from this fan base. And you know, some of them are pretty benign. They say things like Tony, I want to smooch you. But then there are a whole lot more that are less

family friendly and we can't hear in this episode. But in two thousand sixteen, Tony started blocking the counts from anyone who was hitting on him. But this only enraged the free community and and suddenly they started flooding the account. And then on January sixteen, Tony tweeted, I'm all for showing your stripes, feathers, et cetera, but let's keep things

great and family friendly. Cubs could be watching. So unfortunately, many commentators didn't really honor this request, and eventually the real Tony Tiger Twitter account was taken down. It was relaunched as a more generic Frosted Flakes account and when where the tweet aren't actually written from the mascot's perspective, so it gave actually sent me the story. He had this great line about it. He wrote, Apparently we're just not mature enough as a species to handle a Twitter

page that's hosted by a buff cartoon. Tiger's just not ready for that. Maybe one day we're not there. Yeah, alright, Well here's something I'd never realized. But did you know that the Tony Awards were actually named for a woman. So it's this actress, Antoinette Perry. She was born in Colorado in and actually I learned this from our pala, Aaron over at Mental Flaws. But Tony, who spelled her name with an eye, which is of course not how the award is spelled. She always knew that she wanted

to be an actress, and she wrote about this. So here's what she says. She says, when I was six, I didn't say I'd become an actress. I felt like one. No one could convince me I wasn't. So she joined her uncle's troupe and over the years worked as a director and a producer. You know, roles really only men were getting at the time. She founded the American Theater Wing, so when she passed away, the award was created in

her honor so that she would always be remembered. And while the original Tony Awards were these giant scrolls that they'd hand out to winners, they later got you swapped out for the medals that were used to Now I'd love to see those scrolls. That's crazy. Well, we've got two more Tony facts to go, but before that, let's take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius.

We we're talking facts about Tony's So we only realized that during our break, but I guess you and I both chose to do our final fact on Anthony Bourdaine. Did you actually read that oral history that g Q

put together did? That was pretty incredible. It was amazing, you know, the whole thing, like like how shy he was, that he was clumsy, Like I love the fact that like they got this detail that he shows up to meetings twenty to twenty five minutes early, you know, and and uh, his friends always would try to show up earlier to beat him, but he'd just be there in the lounge with like a cup of coffee in the newspaper.

It's pretty great. But you know, I was curious how he got into food, and apparently it came from this encounter with a French oyster fisherman when he was a kid. And I guess his family had gone to France and they wound up staying at a house right next door to the fisherman. So one day during their stay, the gentleman takes the Bourdain's out on his boat and after sailing for a while, he offers them some fresh caught oysters for lunch, and something I guess just clicked with Bourdaine.

So this is how he describes in his book Kitching Confidential. I, in the proudest moment of my young life, stood up smartly, grinning with defiance, and volunteered to be the first. I took it in my hand, tilted the shell back into my mouth, as instructed by the now beaming Miss Saint Your and with one bite and a slurp, wolfed it down. It tasted of sea water, of Brian and flesh and

somehow of the future. I just love that. I was also reading about the other meal he loved besides oysters, and that was the breakfast he ate whenever he was home in New York City. Apparently he loved going to Barney Green Grass and and he ordered what he called the best breakfast in the universe, which was eggs grambled with nova Scotia locks and a bagel with cream cheese.

And on the day he passed away, at the staff of the deli set out his usual breakfast at the table, and it was as a tribute, and the deli's owner, toul ci n then it's a sad day. He touched a lot of lives. TV makes you famous, but he never acted that way. Wow, that's heartbreaking. That's really sweet that they did that. But al right, well, after talking about two things Tony Bourdaine loved, maybe we should end

on a food that he really hated. So, I mean, this guy had tried all kinds of things, and you know, some things that he acknowledged not loving, including the lightly grilled wart hog rectum in the media, but he claimed that one of the most stomach churning foods he had ever eaten was the chicken McNugget. What I feel like, that's outrageous. Maybe you didn't have it with changes everything. Well, here's what he told the A V Club about his experience.

He said, given the choice between reliving the ward hog experience and eating a McNugget, I'm surely eating the McNugget. But at least I knew what the word hog was, whereas with the McNugget, I think it's still an open question. Scientists are still one. Well, I guess you can't fault him for that, but you know, I'm still blown away by your story of Tony Collette taking her appendicitis, you know, and feeling the doctors. I I do think you get

the trophy for that today really was impressive. Well, thank you and from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks so much for listening the two Lake