Terry Gross

Actress Mercedes McCambridge who chilled audiences in the 1970's as the voice of the Devil in "The Exorcist". She won an Academy Award for her first film role -- in 1949 for "All the King's Men". She also starred with Joan Crawford in Nicholas Ray's western, "Johnny Guitar". (Rebroadcast of

Alan Splet, the sound designer for the David Lynch films, "Blue Velvet," "The Elephant Man" and "Eraserhead." (REBROADCAST from 06/05/87).

Singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo. Escovedo has just released his second solo album. It is called "Thirteen Years" (Watermelon Records). He was a founding member of San Francisco's '70's punk band the Nuns, the cowpunk band Rank & File and rock band True Believers. The title of the new album refers to a point during his marriage when all he had to offer his wife was song. After Escovedo and his former wife separated, she committed suicide.

Teresa "Terry" Phelps. Author, law professor and wife of Digger Phelps, former head basketball coach at Notre Dame. Terry Phelps has written a memoir called "The Coach's Wife" (Norton). In 1991, Digger Phelps left Notre Dame and not one Notre Dame official attended his farewell address. Terry Phelps says her husband was the victim of the clashing demands placed on college coaches--be an educator, but be a money maker and entertainer too. She writes about her role as the "lovely wife," as coach's wives are often called in the world of college sports.

Actor Rip Torn, who now plays the Arty, the producer on the HBO comedy series, "The Larry Sanders Show". Torn has been a stage actor since the mid-1950's, when he left his native Texas (and his first name "Elmore") behind, for New York City and the Actors Studio. Described by one reviewer as "the good-looking no-talent with the ludicrously sinister name", Torn was often typecast as a heavy in television shows like "Dr. Kildare" and "Bonanza." (He also portrayed Henry Miller in an X-rated film version of "Tropic of Cancer.").

Singer/songwriter Sam Phillips is a former Christian singer who became disillusioned with the form, left it, changed her name (from Leslie), and started writing songs which explored her own singular spirituality. Since 1989 she's been making pop music that's been admired by the critics. One critic wrote of her 1991 album; "On the surface, Phillips seems just another wispy-voiced, ethereal singer-songwriter, writing moody songs chronicling the dangers of corruption and obsessive love.

Author Henry Alford. Newsday reviewer Adam Begley mused about what to call Alford. "New York prankster?" Manhattan Monkeyshine Maven?" "Gotham Caparist?" His publisher calls him an investigative humorist. Alford has chronicled his offbeat investigations in his new book "Municipal Bondage: One Man's Anxiety-Producing Adventures in the Big City." (Random House.) Alford writes of his efforts to enter professions for which he was completely untutored--cosmetologist, snack food creator, dog groomer, earlobe model.

Gary Orfield. He is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Director of its Project on School Desegregation. His report, "The Growth of Segregation in American Schools: Changing Patterns of Separation and Poverty since 1968" was recently issued to the National School Board Association. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court found that the races in America's schools were segregated and the education was unequal. For awhile, integration was on the increase. But Orfield has found that today our schools have slipped backward.

Lionel Dahmer is the father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who committed some of the most ghastly crimes imaginable. Lionel has written a new memoir about his life with his son, "A Father's Story." (William Morrow), in which he tries to understand what happened to his son, and how he could turn into such a monster.

Film director Andrew Davis. Davis' string of action-thriller hits include "Under Siege" with Steven Seagal and a Chuck Norris picture "Code of Silence". His last film was a remake of a TV series from the 1960's "The Fugitive" and starred Harrison Ford. It has been nominated for a "Best Picture" Academy Award.