Nobody ever says just the name “Lassie”, do they? Doesn’t everybody who’s old enough to know the TV show say “Timmy and Lassie”?
Jon Provost says he has no problem with the idea that he played second fiddle to a dog, but once he was on board the series he was the star. Tommy Rettig was great playing Jeff, Lassie’s previous owner, but the character Timmy has achieved the status of a pop culture icon.
I’ve featured Provost several times here, and I highly recommend his tell-all book, Timmy’s In The Well. The Daily Breeze, out in L.A., CA way, has a good, concise article about Jon that I’ll link to right here.
The article mentions that Provost is in The Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Of the movie, Jon says, “At ease with grown-ups, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Crosby while we waited for technicians to light the set. Whatever I said made him laugh. “Say, this kid ad libs better than Bob Hope!”” And here Jon is, in “The Country Girl.”
[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/CountryGirl.flv 440 330]
Great death scene, Jon. Hey, I’ve met somebody who met Grace Kelly. And she was no dog!
You’re very welcome, Helmut. Crosby is known as Der Bingle in Germany, isn’t he?
Thanks for this nice video clip from the movie “The Country Girl”.
I love it.I`m a fan of Jon and grow up with him as “Timmy” from “Lassie”.”Lassie” was a very successfull TV-series in the 60`s and 70`s in Germany.But the movies with Jon like “The Country Girl” are not well known in Germany.Thanks again for this nice clip.
Helmut Heisig,Stuttgart,Germany
Actually, I agree with you. Grace was a movie star. Watching “The Country Girl” I could see her slipping out of the character sometimes and being Grace Kelly. If I could see it, professionals of the day certainly could. But such was the adoration of Grace at that time, she nevertheless won the Oscar that year, to Judy Garland’s understandable outrage.
I hate to be the downer in all this, but could Grace Kelly really act? How much of her career was really built on her incredible poise and beauty? I still think Garland should have won for “A Star is Born.”
How’d they’d cast this movie, anyway? Only Provost is right for his part. Bing was too old, and Grace was too young.
Bing sings! Grace smiles! “Timmy” squirms! Oh, and then he takes one for the plot, with no Lassie to save him. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of this, so I guess I will have to watch the whole movie.