By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
By coincidence, JOHN MAGARO, 41, has big role in a new series and in a feature film that premieres this week. As I have noted before, Magaro’s mother is Jewish and he was raised Jewish. He grew up in Munroe Falls, a suburb of Akron, Ohio. Since 2015, he’s become a fairly familiar face in small-to-large supporting roles in TV shows and in films.
I was disappointed when “The Many Saints of Newark” (2021), a prequel film to “The Sopranos” TV series, didn’t make Magaro a star. He played the young Silvio Dante, a top ally of the young Tony Soprano. Sadly, the Dante role was too small to make anyone a star.
“The Agency” is a 10-episode espionage thriller. It premieres on Nov. 28 on Paramount+ and on Dec. 1 on Showtime. Here’s the official premise: ‘The Agency’ is set within the department responsible for training and handling deep-cover agents on long-term missions who live under false identities for years, aiming to identify and recruit intelligence sources.
Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere are the stars of the series. Magaro has a big supporting role as Owen. For whatever reasons, the series’ publicity unit provides no bios on leading or supporting characters.
“September 5” opens in limited number of theaters on Nov.29 and opens wide on Dec. 13. September 5, 1972 was the day that Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli Olympic athletes (in Munich, Germany). Two athletes were killed at the attack start, and the rest were kidnapped and killed about 15 hours later. ABC sports had the contract to broadcast the Munich Games for American audiences, and everyone turned to ABC to get minute-by-minute coverage of the terrorist attack.
The film focuses on the ABC newsroom in New York and some of their journalists in Munich. The Hollywood Reporter had a very good article about ABC’s TV coverage and “September 5.” The Reporter says: “It [the film] documents the day when global terrorism, a host country’s angst and media ethics crashed into one.”
Geoffrey Mason, now 82, is the star character of the film. He worked in ABC’s control room and he orchestrated the feed of news to the public. The Reporter says: “Workaday actor John Magaro plays Mason in a career-making turn, [Mason was] a callow producer who rose to the spotlighted moment, albeit with no shortage of moral torment and ulcerative stress.”
ABC News gave some tapes of the actual ABC Munich broadcasts to the “September 5” filmmakers. You’ll see in the film, the actual tapes of ABC anchor Peter Jennings reporting on the events in Munich. It’s worked into the narrative.
Geoffrey Mason is a long-time friend of BOB IGER, 73, the head of Disney and ABC. He asked Iger to loan the tapes and Iger said okay.
I couldn’t fit in a few words about the death, last week, of Quincy Jones, the famous music producer, musician, and composer. His Jewish daughter, actress RASHIDA JONES, 48, appeared at the Governors’ Awards on Nov. 17. Honorary Oscars are presented at the Governors Awards.
Rashida Jones accepted her father’s lifetime achievement honorary Oscar. Before his death, Quincy Jones wrote an acceptance speech, which Rashida read out at the ceremony.
She said about her father, “He imbued love into every single second of music he made. That was his real legacy.”
When Quincy Jones died, I looked for his Jewish connections. I already knew about his six-year marriage to the late actress PEGGY LIPTON, Rashida’s Jewish mother.
Here’s just some connections I found: Quincy was the first African-American to be a record company vice president. He was hired by IRVING GREEN (1916-2008), the head of Mercury records; SIDNEY LUMET (1924-2011) was the first filmmaker to hire Jones to score a film. It was “The Pawnbroker” (1964), a film about a Holocaust survivor. Jones scored five more Lumet films; STEVEN SPIELBERG has only hired four composers to score his films. Jones is one (“The Color Purple”); and Jones produced four hit songs sung by 60s fave LESLEY GORE (1946-2015). All the songs (which were written by Jews) sold a million records (“It’s My Party,” “Judy’s Time to Cry,” “She’s a Fool,” and “You Don’t Own Me”).
Now filming is “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” a biopic about Bruce Springsteen that focuses on “Nebraska” (1982), a Springsteen album. Jeremy Allen White, the star of “The Bear,” plays Springsteen.
JEREMY STRONG, 48, a star of “Succession,” plays JON LANDAU, now 77, the producer of most of the Springsteen albums. Strong’s father is Jewish; DAVID KRUMHOLTZ, 46, plays AL TELLER, a top record executive; and MARC MARON, 61, plays CHUCK PLOTKIN, now 82, a top record producer/engineer.