Kathryn Morris UK

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – August 2015

It’s time for the latest CCCC-up, our end-of-month look at the on-going careers of the cast of Cold Case.

In July I made some bold statements about Danny Pino‘s (Scotty Valance in CC) future regarding the Imagen Awards. I’m pleased to say that I have been proved correct once again (it doesn’t often happen, note the date!). Yes, a month ago I claimed the awards that recognise the work of those from the Latino community in the media would be happening on the 21st of August. Also, I asserted that Danny was nominated for an award. And, lo, it came to pass that KM UK was shown to be a teller of truth. A truth peddler be I! Enough! The awards happened and Danny won in his category of Best Supporting Actor: Television. The show he was in, Law & Order: SVU, won the gong for Best Primetime Television Series: Drama. Congratulations to Danny and all those involved in SVU.

Thinking it had been lost in the desert I’d pretty much given up on Death Valley, a drama film starring Katrina Law (Arrow), Lochlyn Munro (True Justice), Victoria Pratt (Mutant X), Kelly Hu (Arrow) and Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC). Over the past couple of years I’ve been vaguely tracking the movie. There have a few festival showings and… well… that was about it. In the past week or so things have turned around significantly. The film, about four friends who find themselves in a spot of bother in the aptly named area in eastern California, will now receiving a more general release in US cinemas on October 23rd. It may not be in every multiplex but it should possible to track down a showing in your area of America (assuming you have an area that is).

Each month Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) manages to inject something into the CCCC-up. The lady is just soooo busy. This time out it’s called Injection. A drama short about a family dealing with cancer and the appearance at the door of a possible cure. Not sure of Tracie’s role in the piece yet other than her character’s name: Sarah Wenscombe. Tracie doesn’t seem like a Wenscombe to me, but she’s a good actress so I’m sure she’ll pull it off. We can be a little more certain about Tracie and the webseries Send Me. The drama is about an academic, Gwen (Tracie), with ability to send other African Americans back to the times of slavery in the US, and much of the world. Earlier this month a couple of trailers for the project were released. Follow through from the official website HERE to YouTube and you can find a load of behind the scenes videos. I’ve not seen a specific date mentioned for the series release yet.

Back in the March CCCC-up I reported on John Finn (John Stillman in CC) had a role in a new drama series pilot called Doubt. Since then, to say the least there has been a lot of doubt about Doubt. The pilot clearly didn’t float the boat of those in the position to make the decision so a series was not commissioned from it. However, the project was kept alive and there has been a lot of re-writing and re-casting going on the past few months. KaDee Strickland (Private Practice) was to be the lead but she has been replaced by Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy). Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me) steps in for Masters Of Sex star Teddy Sears, who has moved to The Flash. Others, such as Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black), Dulé Hill (Psych), and Dreama Walker (Gossip Girl) are said to still be involved. Whether John is or not we’ll just have to wait and see.

A few hours after posting last month‘s CCCC-up the news broke that American wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper passed away. We’d only just mentioned the death of author Ann Rule. Roddy, appropriately enough, starred in the season 7 wrestling-themed Cold Case episode One Fall. A week later the actor Terrence Evans, he was the present day/older Lester Hughes in Daniella from season two, also died. Our condolences to their families and friends.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – April 2015

Normally the monthly CCCC-up is purely about the other main actors from Cold Case that aren’t Kathryn. This time I’m making an exception.

Earlier this month saw the passing of the actor James Best (picture above), most famous for playing Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane in the long-running TV series The Dukes Of Hazzard. The show ran for 7 seasons and over 140 episodes, not far of Cold Case‘s figures. James’ last film work was in The Sweeter Side Of Life starring as the father of Kathryn’s leading role of Desiree Harper.

James will forever be seen as Rosco but take even a brief look at his filmography and you’ll see he started working at the age of 24 in 1950. He is credited in more than 180 projects in a career that spanned 64 years. I’m far from knowledgeable about American TV from that era but even I know that shows like The Lone Ranger, Wagon Train, The Andy Griffith Show, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Rawhide, Perry Mason, Bonanza, and Gun Smoke were some of the biggest. James appeared in all of those, many more and a lot of films too.

1979 and onwards James’ work was dominated by the creation he made his own: Rosco P Coltrane. The original Dukes TV series saw a cartoon version, a spin-off about Sheriff Coltrane’s deputy Enos, and several TV movies staring James and many of the original cast made. The family connection of the writing/directing/producing pairing of his daughter Janeen and her husband Michael Damien kept James on the small screen as he starred in several of their TV movie projects. The Sweeter Side Of Life was one of those.

James Best 1926-2015.

Heading back towards Cold Case we take a brief pitstop to mention the actor who played Lilly Rush’s half-brother Finn, Brett Davern. Several times over the life of this site I’ve posted (most notably here) about Kathryn’s foray in to motorsport when she took part in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity charity race (which is one of the support categories to the Longbeach GP IndyCar race) back in 2007. Brett recently competed for the third time at the event. After winning overall last year he was upgraded to Pro status for 2015, meaning that he no longer benefited from the 30-second head-start the celebs get. He finished 6th, some way behind Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air), who is already is a two-time winner, and therefore also a celeb classed as a pro.

Getting back on track (see what I did there?) I get the pleasure of mentioning one of our less regular regulars Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera on CC). Just last week Jeremy made a guest-starring appearance in the latest episode of the still-going TV series Bones. Jeremy played a high-stakes poker player, one of several suspected of killing a fellow gambler to steal his winnings. ‘ATM’, nicknamed because he’s always paying out money, has a few arguments with Special Agent Seeley ‘Booth’ Booth (David Boreanaz, of Buffy and Angel fame). Did he do it?

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – January 2015

It’s the first CCCC-up of 2015 and we’re getting off to a slow start looking at the on-going careers of the cast of Cold Case.

If a month went by and there was news about only one of the key CC cast members then you’d put your money on it being Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC). If in doubt, Tracie. I’m sure she’s been very busy since the last CCCC-up, as always, but this month we get to report on just Jeremy.

Almost without me noticing Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) managed to sneak in a guest appearance in the CBS TV drama The Mentalist a couple of weeks ago. The highly successful show is in the middle of its 7th and final season. It sees Simon Baker star as Patrick Jane, a con-artist psychic who initially joins forces with the police to catch the killer of his family. Jeremy’s role in the episode entitled ‘Little Yellow House’ was as a guy called George Holiday.

Short but sweet, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – December 2014

Instead of a round-up of the news on the non-Kathryn cast of Cold Case, this month we’re doing more of a round-up of the round-ups. A fairly traditional thing to do this time of year across all sections of the media.

Let’s go alphabetical (by first name as we’re all friends) for a change.

Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) started the year part way through his 3rd season on the police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He ends the year in the same position in his fourth. I don’t watch the show so I can’t really comment on the character or the show but I understand Detective Amaro has featured in a significant story line that ran across the two seasons. These 20+ episode season, major network shows take-up most of the year to make so there isn’t a lot of time for other projects. We haven’t seen Danny take any that I know of. In June Danny was one of the nominees for a Imogen Award, which recognise those promoting Latino culture in the media. He didn’t win this time. Check out our friends over at Danny Pino Online for all the latest info on Danny.

Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) is another that hasn’t stuck his head above the parapet too often in 2014. A movie called Death Valley that JR filmed in 2013 constantly looked like it might finally surface but, beyond a screening in July, never did. Jeremy’s role appears to be that of a police officer. Jersey Boys, a film adaptation of the stage play about the ’60s group The Four Seasons, was released mid-year to some acclaim. Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven) directed and Christopher Walken (Catch Me If You Can) starred. Jeremy had a small role in that as… wait for it… a police officer. More recently we’ve had news on a couple of other roles for JR. A significant role in a short film called Keep It Together in which a now sober, soon to be father strives to save his uncle (Jeremy) from drinking himself to death. The other is a small role in a larger film called Give Til It Hurts. Two brothers seek to recover their inheritance. Jeremy is cast as ‘Elvis’. Both are due for release in 2015.

John Finn (Lt. John Stillman in CC) fans were disappointed in January when the Irish drama series An Bronntanas failed to materialise as expected. Like a small boat full of drugs and a dead body caught in a storm, the show was tossed about a lot. Would it be a series, edited down to a feature film length, or lost at sea? Eventually the show found its mooring as originally intended on the TGS TV network as a 5 part series starting in late October. John played a… wait for it… police officer investigating the life boat crew that found the stash of drugs and the dead woman. A TV show pilot headed by John Cusack (2012) about Wall Street in which John was due to star in some capacity never made it further. It could have been in the current 2014/2015 season. In better news John had guest starring roles in the short lived show Believe early in the year and, more recently, in the new CBS drama Madam Secretary. At this time there is no signs of future projects for John, but no doubt there is something in the pipeline.

Thom Barry (Will Jeffries in CC) was announced as a recurring guest star in the TNT crime drama Perception, lead by Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) and Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That). The news broke just after the show’s third season started airing in June of this year. 10 episodes later the show went on hiatus until February 2015 with no sign of Thom. There are due to be 5 episodes to conclude what will be the final season for the show. Thom is to play an senior FBI agent. There were reports, no oddly difficult to find, that Thom was to play the father of R&B star Aaliyah in a Lifetime network TV movie about her life. The show aired a few weeks ago but Thom was not in it. I’m still not sure what happened there. Just last month I reported on Thom starring in a short film called Desire. It was looking for crowdfunding at the time. Despite not reaching its target it went into production. The latest is that Desire is in the process of being edited. Back in May of 2013 I described a film called Richard Peter Johnson as the having a “triple-whammy name” that “says everything, yet tells us nothing”. Things have been largely quiet since but is still actively seeking buyers to distribute it. I still don’t think I can go into details on the film here on KM UK though.

Which brings us to our last, and anything but least, subject…

Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC). It’s almost impossible to briefly sum up Tracie’s year as she has featured strongly in nearly all our CCCC-ups in 2014. Is there a word above ‘prolific’? Tracie came out of her corner punching with the release of women-fighting-for-their-lives movie Raze on some VOD services. The UK saw the DVD mid-year. Drama McCanick, in which Tracie had a small role, was similarly available on VOD and DVD in various parts of the world in 2014. She was in a short film that was broadcast on HBO called A Different Tree. Not content with being in films Tracie allowed her house to be used as a set for another called 2 Black Dudes. Then it was off to film another small role in the film The Concessionaires Must Die, which is still pending release. The new movie version of the classic Annie on the other hand was released a little earlier than intended. The massive hacking of Sony Pictures lead to the film being leaked online a few weeks before the official launch. Much of the world has already had the opportunity to sit in a cinema to watch it, with everywhere else seeing releases in the coming month or so. TV viewers got to see Tracie in guest starring roles in the comedy show Veep and the… what ever it is… MTV show Catfish: The TV Show. This year saw Tracie back treading the boards in the For The Record: Tarantino show, which show cased various musical numbers from Quentin Tarantino movies, as well as being the co-star in the new play Lost Lake, which came to the end of its run just last week. As if that wasn’t enough Tracie is to star in a new web series due to go into production next year called Send Me. And she hosted the Second Annual Hero Awards Gala in September and was in another 24 hour play (that’s 24 hours from initial idea to first performance, not a play that lasts 24 hours). Got all that?

Phew!

See you next year.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – September 2014

Blimey! September is one of those sneaky short months! It nearly caught me out!

There’s just a few hours left to squeeze in the latest catch-up with the careers of the other Cold Case cast in the KM UK CCCC-up for September 2014.

Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) is a good place to start. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (aka SVU) started it’s latest season last week in America, it continues tomorrow (Wednesday). I can’t comment with any authority (because I don’t watch the show) but I gather that Danny’s Detective Amaro is currently working in the traffic division as part of a punishment for infractions at the end of last season. No doubt he’ll be back in a both the fold of the SVU squad and a suit before too long.

Whilst Danny only deals with one job, albeit one that takes the best part of 9 months of filming per year and many long hours, Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) is, as usual, seemingly dealing with multiple projects at once. A couple of weeks ago Tracie announced she’d been filming a webseries called Sidetracked. Details are sketchy but it appears to star Tracie, Adrienne Wilkinson (know to many for a recurring role in the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess), actress/model Kara Gibson, Wes Ramsey, and probably others. Various combinations of those people have worked together before. For example Tracie’s first TV role was with Adrienne in As If. The comedy drama is about a group of friends that realise life has not ended up as they intended. They’ve been… wait for it… Sidetracked. Back in June’s CCCC-up I briefly mentioned that Tracie had been cast in a new play called Lost Lake. The play is due to open at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, in early October and previews start a week or so later. A video of interviews with Tracie, co-star John Hawkes (Deadwood), and the playwright David Auburn popped up on YouTube a few weeks ago. They explain the play better than I could so I’ll leave that to them. To bring us right up to date, last night (29 Sept) Tracie hosted the Second Annual Hero Awards Gala in New York for the National Law Enforcement and Firefighters Children’s Foundation. The NLEAFCF is a charity that supports the families of police officers and firefighters killed or disabled in the line of duty. You can read more about their work on their website here.

To end this CCCC-up edition we come to Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC). Jeremy has made a short film called Keep It Together. Main character Bobby is “recently sober and expecting his first child.” Jeremy plays not-so sober Uncle Paul who Bobby tries to save from his self-destructive path. Comedy? Probably not.