Anybody here remember Mickey Spillane ?

by smiddy 8 Replies latest social entertainment

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  smiddy

  I was just thinking back to the time when I was a teenager , I would read a lot of novels,this was before I became a jehovah`s witness and I came across Mickey Spillanes novels ,Mike Hammer detective stories,which later became a tv series with Darren McGavin

  During the sixties I learned Mickey Spillane became a witness,as I understand it from a tract left under his door,and if I remember correctly he became a ministerial servant conducting the weekly book study.He had apparently stopped writing his sex /crime /booze,pulp fiction type of thing.

  Later on I saw, possibly the 80`s or 90`s that he had started writing again,with the same old formular,and apparently a new much younger wife

  Can anybody fill in some details here ?

  smiddy
• 

  designs

  That's the story. He was one of our 'famous' Witnesses. He was cool on TV talk shows like Dick Cavett.
• 

  AnneB

  The story in Hollywood (CA) congregation back in the '70's was that he kept getting DF'd and reinstated, couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to stop writing or not.
• 

  blondie

  http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Mickey_Spillane.html

  1. Mickey Spillane (March 9, 1918 – July 17, 2006), famous American author of crime novels, most featuring Mike Hammer, a tough big city private detective. Nearly 250 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and Spillane was responsible for seven of the top fifteen bestselling fiction books in America. Spillane appeared as Mike Hammer in a movie version of “I, the Jury” – one of the few times in film history when an author portrayed his own character. During the 1980s, he appeared in several Miller Lite beer commercials. Spillane became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1951 and managed to survive the often bitter criticism he received from many fellow Witnesses that his novels were “too trashy and pornographic.” He remained a JW and continued with his writing career until his death. [Status: Deceased]

  http://ex-jw.com/celebrities-jws-1

  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0818765/bio
• 

  smiddy

  Thanks for those links blondie

  smiddy
• 

  ranmac

  David Splane was at our District Assembly a couple years ago and my dad told me that he was Mickey Spillane's brother, but, (in a sudden serious tone) he was dis-fellowshipped now.

  I wasnt really aware of either of them at the time. My dad can be fucking retarded at times.

  sorry for the salty language.

  Good example of how JW rumors and myth can spread to simple minds easily.
• 

  Band on the Run

  Micky Spillane and Dritz of Dritz sewing goods were the big celebrities. Spillane seemed odd. I could not read one of his books at home. There was also the rumor that Jackie Kennedy, answered her door in VA,(hard to believe) to Witnesses. She thanked them for the lit and said her brother in law,RFK, was aware of them. They took it for a compliment. I would have questions in what capacity RFK knew about them.

  I always wondered why we did not draw bigger celebrities. Michael Jackson was the absolute. Topped only by a Beatle if they had a Beatle.
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  blondie

  Mostly, though, Mickey Spillane’s days are free of the kind of controversy that his novels generated. The man who penned sexually provocative scenes is actually a family man, married to the same woman for almost 20 years. This afternoon he has returned from taking his grandchildren to the amusement park rides in nearby Myrtle Beach. He is also deeply religious, committed to the Jehovah’s Witness faith, and attends meetings at Kingdom Hall five times a week.

  Those most familiar with Spillane’s work say that his novels softened after his 1951 conversion, a notion that Spillane dismisses. But in 1952 he told Life: “There are more books on the way, but they won’t contain the things that bolster the excuses for the moral breakdown of this present generation. I’ve changed my work and course of action to be in harmony with Jehovah’s Kingdom.”

  http://commandrine.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/mickey-spillane-interview-the-best-inspiration-is-an-empty-bank-account/

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXPuJgDm3DM

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-zYLYyVHms
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  Band on the Run

  So, we had a mass author. Pretty sad.