68 | JULY 13 • 2023
ARTS&LIFE
FILM
it,” he adds. “I wanted to be
up on the bimah and take
part in the ceremony.”
Retired Rabbi John
Rosove, who is the former
spiritual leader at Temple
Israel of Hollywood —
before recently moving to
New York, the Armstrong
clan resided in Los Feliz,
California — remembers the
family very well. Lily even
went to the temple’s Briskin
Elementary Day School.
“He took his conversion
seriously,” says Rosove of
Armstrong.
And just like that,
Armstrong was part of
the People of the Book.
Although, figuratively speak-
ing, one could make the
claim that Armstrong had
already been one for years.
A VISIT BACK HOME
A serious book collector
and bibliophile who says
some of his “hero authors”
include Charles Dickens,
Arthur Conan Doyle and
P.G. Wodehouse — one of
Armstrong’s closest friends
from Berkley High School
who he still keeps in con-
tact with, Elliott Milstein
of Ferndale, is the former
Biopelle President and CEO
who won the Wodehouse
Society’s Norman Murphy
Award last October —
Armstrong and Milstein
co-authored the 2018
book, A Plum Assignment:
Discourses on P.G.
Wodehouse and His World.
The 69-year-old actor even
bid on and purchased two
of Conan Doyle’s pipes at an
auction once.
“I was doing Moonlighting
at the time, and making
some serious money,” says
Armstrong, who kept the
prized mementoes up until
2022, when he sold most of
his collection.
Three years before that,
in 2019, Armstrong proved
what a mensch he is by
donating 20 boxes of scripts,
photos, contracts and diary
entries to his alma mater,
which he often visits. “I’ll go
back and talk to the cinema
students there,” he says. “I
owe them a lot.”
It is a mutual admiration
society. This past April 29,
at Oakland University’s
commencement ceremonies,
an honorary doctorate was
conferred on Armstrong,
who says he “couldn’t have
imagined anyone making
a gesture like that. It was
a startling and wonderful
gesture on the part of the
university.”
Dr. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz,
president of Oakland
University, referred to the
actor’s long-running rela-
tionship with its Academy of
Dramatic Art and generosity
as reasons he received the
degree. “Curtis is a cultural
ambassador for Oakland, and
we are proud of his distin-
guished career and that he
serves as a mentor to many
young actors,” she said in a
statement to the Detroit Jewish
News. “He embodies Oakland’s
value of ‘giving back’ and is a
champion of the arts.”
Forty-three years after
hiding out in that shtiebel,
Curtis Armstrong is finally
the talk of the town.
continued from page 67
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