Classics on TCM

Turner Classic Movies to Premiere Three New Installments of Private Screenings Series, Hosted by Robert Osborne, in 2006 Angela Lansbury, Stanley Donen and Child Stars Darryl Hickman, Dick Moore, Margaret O’Brien and Jane Withers to Be Featured

Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne will talk with actress Angela Lansbury, producer and director Stanley Donen and child stars Darryl Hickman, Dick Moore, Margaret O’Brien and Jane Withers in three all-new episodes of TCM’s acclaimed Private Screenings, it was announced today by Tom Karsch, the network’s executive vice president and general manager. The renowned series features an hour-long interview with some of the most notable names of stage and screen. Past guests have included such Hollywood luminaries as Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Shirley MacLaine, Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney, Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis.

Lansbury, scheduled as the focus of the first Private Screenings, will also kick off TCM’s annual Summer Under the Stars Festival in August. Though perhaps best known today as author and sleuth Jessica Fletcher of the long-running television series Murder, She Wrote, she has assembled a career also spanning the silver screen and Broadway and garnering four Oscar® nominations, four Tony Award wins, 14 Emmy nominations, three Golden Globe wins and a 2000 Kennedy Center Honor for her lifetime achievement in the arts.

In the second episode, Osborne will facilitate a roundtable discussion among child stars Darryl Hickman (The Grapes of Wrath – 1940), Dick Moore (Sergeant York – 1941), Jane Withers (Bright Eyes – 1934), seen right above, and Margaret O’Brien (Meet Me in St. Louis – 1944), seen left above.

And for the final new episode, the spotlight will turn to Donen, who brought audiences the classics Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face and Damn Yankees!, among countless others.