Monday, March 19, 2012

Moonlighting and its Piscean Credentials: Al Jarreau, Bruce Willis, Lee Holdridge.

Before Sun leaves zodiac sign Pisces for another year:

Al Jarreau, jazz singer, whose birthday it was last week (12 March) first arrived on my radar with his recording of the theme from a favourite 1980s TV show Moonlighting. The Moonlighting theme was composed by another Sun in Pisces type, composer and orchestrator Lee Holdridge (born March 3, 1944). Leading male actor in Moonlighting, Bruce Willis (Happy Birthday today BW!) makes up a trio of Sun in Pisces types involved in the show's pedigree.
Al Jarreau was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin in 1940. He didn't set out with an ambition to find success in a musical career. With a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, and Masters Degree in Vocational Rehabilitation he became a counselor, in California. He began, as a hobby I guess, performing in small jazz clubs in Los Angeles. His first LP was released in the mid-1960s, and by 1992 he had received a fifth Grammy, and become part of a rare category of artists who have won a Grammy in three categories, jazz, pop and R&B.

Lee Holdridge, composer of the Moonlighting theme has written, arranged, or conducted for numerous artists in the music industry, has penned countless scores for both TV shows and motion pictures. Born on 3 March 1944 in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, raised in Costa Rica, Holdridge began studying music at age ten. By teenage had decided his chosen path would be composition. He relocated to Boston, later to New York City. Holdridge composed chamber works, rock compositions, theater music, and background scores for films and TV. Neil Diamond convinced Holdridge to move to Los Angeles to write for him. They collaborated on the film score for Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Many years of scoring for film and TV followed, leading to work with some of the music industry's biggest names, as well as several albums of his own works.


Third Sun in Pisces type, Bruce Willis - actor with music as something of a sideline - co-starred with Cybill Shepherd in TV's light-hearted show about a private detective agency:Moonlighting, it originally aired from 1985 to 1989.

Bruce was born on March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His American father, in the military, and German-born mother, later re-located to the USA. Bruce grew up in New Jersey. He discovered his flare for acting in college, with a stroke of luck landed a plum role for his TV debut: David Addison, wise-cracking private eye in Moonlighting. Movies followed, first light romantic comedy, later in a transition I've never been able to understand or appreciate, he became the definitive tough guy as disillusioned cop John McClane in Die Hard and its several sequels.

Many more and varied movies followed, including some interesting roles in the sci-fi genre :12 Monkeys, Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element, for example.

He has now starred in more than sixty films, said to have grossed over 6 billion dollars in worldwide box offices, making him sixth highest grossing star of all time.

Bruce's musical credentials: his musical inclinations have been clear, even from several scenes in Moonlighting.He has performed with his own Blues Band for many years, his albums have sold over 4 million copies and have become worldwide collectors' items.

ASTROLOGY




My desktop computer crashed before I had a chance to complete this post and set up all three natal charts, so Lee Holdridge's chart is missing here. An ephemeris tells that along with natal Sun in Pisces, he has Mercury and Venus in Aquarius, Mars, Saturn and Uranus in Gemini, Moon in either Gemini or Cancer. Quite an Airy mix added to an emotional Pisces base note!

Al Jarreau's planets spread mainly into Aries and Taurus, remain in a focused bunch with plenty of emphasis on Venus-ruled, musical Taurus. His early pull into counseling connects to both Pisces Sun/Mercury and Sagittarius rising - Pisces and Sagittarius, both ruled by Jupiter have sensitive, philosophical and spiritual traits, all valuable in that sphere of work.

Bruce Willis's chart has a classic "splash" configuration - but with emphasis on Pisces and Aquarius - Sun/Mercury in Pisces, Moon/Venus in Aquarius - and hmmmm, got to untangle this......
Aquarius's ruler, Uranus is in Moon's rulership sign, Cancer; and Jupiter, traditional ruler of Pisces also in Cancer conjoining Uranus. There's a clear blending of eccentric Aquarius and emotional Pisces traits in Bruce's charcter, with the ultra-sensitivity of Cancer thrown in. He hides extreme sensitivity with that quirky Aquarian wit of his, but it's there, for all to see - in his face!

Finally, a reminder of what links these three Pisces-types - some scenes and memories from Moonlighting, that wonderful, long-gone, series. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

GP: Bruce Willis, in Chinese mode, is a "Goat": Independent, couldn't care less for "Hollywood" and such similar machines. And he is very funny in his own way. Good pick, T. (as so often).

Twilight said...

Anon/Gian Paul ~~ Goat eh? Interesting! He certainly follows his own drummer - that's what I like about him. I've been a fan since Moonlighting - but didn't like the Die Hard movies.
He wasn't made for violence.
:-)

Wisewebwoman said...

I agree he's quite a hottie, T, and I didn't like his TV shows but did like him in Sixth Sense. I think he's been extraordinarily underused in more serious films.
XO
WWW

Twilight said...

Wisewebwoman ~ Yes, he's versatile, and though I didn't like Die Hard and other action movies he's done, there's no denying that he's up to that task. It'd be nice to see him in a really meaty dramatic role, agreed.
:-)