Charles Nelson Reilly on Inside the Actor's Studio

He is a genius

It’s scrumtrulescent!

Holy shit, that was hysterical. This was on SNL?!

R3 Yes! Way back when. It was hysterical

CHARLES NELSON REILLY!!!!!…….CHARLES NELSON REILLY!!!!!……

If you have never seen the video of his one-man show "Life of Reilly", you are missing out on some great theater. He began his one-man show in 2005, and it was filmed in 2006. Reilly was planning on taking it on tour and then hoping it would end up on-Broadway (as Bea Arthur and Elaine Stritch did a few years earlier). However, CNR died before it ever got going.

It should be available on streaming, if not it may be available from your library on DVD - or they can borrow it from another out-of-state library which has it. Sad to say, the DVD is long OOP and they never released it on CD, either.

Damn Alec Baldwin is a pretty good actor!

All his appearances on the Tonight Show are hysterical. They’re all on YouTube.

I'm currently on the Actor Track.

Here’s a great clip from the ‘74 Tony Awards where the real CNR does a send-up of his Broadway career.

Bonus points because we get to see Robert Preston introduce him.

He names drops too much

Nipsey Russell

Brett Sommers

Gene Rayburn

Betty White

Matt Baume did a wonderful video about him.

We love Matt's videos.

What quiz show was he on?? He was always a soothing presence.

It's funny when he talk to the students in the balcony in the R10 clip. He can't really sing though.

R14 Match Game

OMG, the next bit is incredibly racist!

Non-Americans don't know who Charles Nelson Reilly is.

r6 I love that DVD. I didn't know anything about him on a personal level until watching that. It's a wonderful show.

He is an amazing actor

Thank you, R16. Classy gent.

Thanks to you OP, I went down a rabbit hole of watching CNR's appearances on The Tonight Show. He was really good, loved the chemistry between him and Johnny.

Charles Nelson Reilly was a good friend of Joan Van Ark. She said that Gloria on Young and the Restless was her Blanche Dubois.

Doesn't he get really mad about something in that Broadway Legends documentary?

Funny

He does do a lot of yelling, I know that, r24.

He also produced opera

I meant to say that Charles said that Joan Van ark's Gloria on The Young and the Restless was HER Blanche Du Bois. How do I know all this obscure trivia? Soap Opera Digest of course!

What's My Line?

Not funny. James Lipton's questions were extremely well-researched and insightful.

Charles Nelson Reilly was a delight. I kept hoping he would appear in OPs link.

He was well known as an extremely kind man. A friend of mine met him and said he was indeed.

Here's The Life Of Reilly that R6 mentioned.

That is Will Farrell not Alec Baldwin

R34 It's Will Farrell AND Alec Baldwin.

Thanks for this thread.

My husband had been seated in the front row for a performance of Life of Reilly. He hung around the stage door afterwards and was lucky enough to be invited backstage to meet CNR. Penny Singleton was also in attendance. It was one of my husbands favorite memories.

[quote]Not funny. James Lipton's questions were extremely well-researched and insightful.

And people say lesbians don't have a sense of humor.

Hilarious sketch!

He survived the big Connecticut circus tent fire and after that had a phobia of being in the audience. So he went on the stage instead. That lull into the false sense of security.

With Dody in PARADE...

You can't top his work on Lidsville.

I know he's insufferable and more, but man, Alec Baldwin's appearances on SNL were terrific.

He's genuinely funny and seemed to enjoy himself when performing in a wide variety of skits and roles.

^ I was thinking the same thing. Alex Baldwin seems simply intolerable as a human being, but he is ALL IN as an actor.

Moreover, his impression of CNR isn’t demeaning or humiliating. In a way, it seems done with love.

[quote]R18 Non-Americans don't know who Charles Nelson Reilly is.

Well really, it should be on the U.S. Citizenship Test, for all!

Good performances! Baldwin used to turn gay tricks, right?

OP you posting this made me remember how good the late 90s, early aughts crew was. On top of being really funny, they were actually good actors. Now the cunts can’t even remain in character for the entire skit. That was the late great cast where everyone was funny and gifted.

Bumping this thread. Rewatched to interview again. Phenomenal.