Everybody Loves Peter

The International Myeloma Foundation (www.myeloma.org) held a fundraiser, “Celebrating Peter Boyle: An Evening of Comedy with Family and Friends,” in November honoring the late Everybody Loves Raymond actor, who suffered from multiple myeloma and heart disease. Boyle died late last year at age 71.

Over $650,000 was raised to benefit IMF’s Peter Boyle Memorial Fund. Boyle received seven Emmy nominations during his 10 years playing Ray Romano’s father on Raymond. Boyle was also well-known for his role in Mel Brook’s film Young Frankenstein.

Following his Oscar award-winning performance in The Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker is turning his focus and support to the award-winning performance of someone else—Keith Black, MD, director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Whitaker, whose grandmother was diagnosed with brain cancer in the late 1990s, credits Dr. Black with extending his grandmother’s survival by a decade. Whitaker has been instrumental in raising funds to support Dr. Black’s brain cancer research. Dr. Black presided over the recent opening of the Johnnie Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center, which was launched with more than $5 million in donations from prominent backers, including Whitaker and his wife, Keisha, and Denzel and Pauletta Washington.