Matthew Laborteaux (Albert)

That would be great, Julie!!  

King of the Gypsies is a 1978 Paramount motion picture drama starring Eric Roberts, Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Annette O'Toole, and Judd Hirsch.

Directed by Frank Pierson, the screenplay was adapted by Pierson from the 1975 book King of the Gypsies by Peter Maas, which tells the story of Steve Tene and his Romani (Gypsy) family.

Several technical advisors, bit players and extras who worked on the movie were real gypsies. David Grisman composed the score, which prominently featured legendary jazz violinst Stephane Grappelli; both men also appeared onscreen as gypsy musicians. Future actress Rachel Ticotin was one of the gypsy dancers.

Eric Roberts was nominated for a 1979 Golden Globe for "Best Motion Picture Acting Debut – Male" for his performance as Dave. He was introduced in this movie.

King of the Gypsies deals with the criminal ways and violent lives of a group of modern-day Gypsies based in New York City. Whilst on his deathbed their "king", Zharko Stepanowicz (Sterling Hayden), passes his position of leadership on to his unwilling grandson, Dave (Eric Roberts). In spite of Dave's reluctance to become the Gypsies' new leader, Dave's father, Groffo (Judd Hirsch), is sufficiently insecure and resentful over not winning the title himself that he attempts to have his own son killed. This leads to a major confrontation, and the film ends with the implication that Dave may finally accept his legacy with his voiceover musings about somehow bringing the rest of the tradition-bound Gypsies forward in time into the world of 20th Century customs and lifestyles.

Eric Roberts as Dave
Sterling Hayden as King Zharko Stepanowicz
Shelley Winters as Queen Rachel
Susan Sarandon as Rose
Brooke Shields as Tita
Annette O'Toole as Sharon
Judd Hirsch as Groffo
Annie Potts as Persa
Michael V. Gazzo as Spiro Giorgio
Antonia Rey as Danitza Giorgio
Matthew Laborteaux as Middle Dave
Danielle Brisebois as Young Tita

I received the DVD yesterday. It's a heavy movie. Matthew stars as a young Dave with an abusive father. He plays a twelve year old, just before the appearance of Eric Roberts as Dave the adult. Judd Hirsch is his abusive father and Susan Sarandon as his Mother. Shelley Winters and Sterling Hayden play his Grandparents. This movie was shot just before Matt joined Little House in 1978, first appearing as Albert in "As Long As We're Together"........ below are some screen shots........
Matt's First Appearance As "Dave".

With His Sister, Played By Danielle Brisebois of Archie Bunker's Place.  Later Played as an adult by Brooke Shields

Being Forced To Drive A Car By His Abusive Father



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In Court With His Mother and Father

Speaking To His Grandfather

On The Streets of New York Just Before Breaking Into A Car

Roaming The Streets of New York, Stealing What He Could

Spending The Night in Alleyway In The City

Last Shot of Matt as Young Dave Running From Police

Adult Dave Played By Eric Roberts

A Circle of Children - 1977
Lots Of Little House Kids....
Matt Labyorteaux, Patrick Labyorteaux, Rachel Longaker, Todd Bridges,Kyle Richards, and Sean Frye.

 

Hey, I just looked that movie up on imdb. It was released exactly 37 years ago today.   

For those of you that haven't read this, give it a read. Fairly interesting about Pat and Matt.......
Interview done 33years ago......................

LABORTEAUX TRIO: MATT, PAT AND MOM
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - Sunday, December 20, 1981
Author: HARRY HARRIS
By Harry Harris
Inquirer TV Writer

Tomorrow night NBC's " Little House on the Prairie" has a new episode, " A
Christmas They Never Forgot," in which members of the Ingalls family, trapped
indoors on Christmas Eve by a fierce snowstorm, recall favorite Yuletide
moments.

Matthew Laborteaux, who plays adopted son Albert, is mostly a listener. His
17-month-older brother, Patrick Laborteaux, who was a " Little House" regular
as Andy Garvey, son of the character portrayed by Merlin Olsen , until Olsen
switched this season to the title role in " Father Murphy," isn't involved in
the on-air proceedings.

However, the real-life story of the brothers, siblings by adoption, is
ideally attuned to the holiday season.

Both were " unadoptable" infants with seemingly incurable maladies. Patrick,
declared psychotic at 3 months, was adopted six months later by designer Ron
Laborteaux and his performer wife, Frankie. Matthew, added to the family when
he was 10 months old, was autistic and tantrum- prone. He did not speak until
after his fifth birthday.

Both underwent almost miraculous change after being brought on stage by
their mother.

Patrick showed an early aptitude for performing.

" I was doing shows at the Troupers' Club and at hospital benefits," Mrs.
Laborteaux recalled during a recent luncheon in Burbank, Calif. " A writer
friend wrote a Halloween skit and asked Patrick, who was 3 1/2 , 'Would you
like to do it with Mama?'

" Patrick said yes and memorized five stanzas of a poem."
" I still remember them," said Patrick, 16. He began:
" Little Orphan Annie
Came to our house to stay.
To wash the cups and saucers up
And brush the crumbs away. "
" It's by James Whitcomb Riley," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " Patrick did it with
an accent and gestures and everything. I have a recording. He was a riot!"
" We have other tapes," said Matthew, who was 15 on Dec. 8. " She was doing
an act, and we fixed the tape so that the introduction for 'Frankie Marshall'
had the audience going 'Boo! Hiss! We want the boys!' "
" That was when we were just starting out," Patrick said. " I was 8."
" I taught them old vaudeville routines," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " People
began to ask, 'Are the boys going to work with you?' They had red blazers,
straw hats and canes.
" She worked up an act for us," Patrick said, " and named it 'Pat and Matt.'
"
" I was going to adopt another boy, Nathaniel," Mrs. Laborteaux said, " and
make it 'Pat, Matt and Nat,' but I decided two were enough.
" One of the routines went like this: The boys were billed separately, so
after I finished a routine, I'd do an introduction for them. I'd be looking
one way and they'd come in behind me. I'd do a double take, and then we'd go
into an old burlesque skit."

The former partners volunteered some sample knee-slappers:
Patrick: " Mom, you have the brains of an idiot."
Mom: " You want 'em back?"

Mom (to Matthew): " You're so stupid you don't know your ABCs."
Matthew: " A, B, C."
Mom: " Well . . . ?"
Matthew: " There's more?"
" It was in front of an audience that Matthew spoke for the first time,
" Mrs. Laborteaux told an earlier interviewer. " When he talked, it was in
complete sentences. He loved the applause and on stage did exactly as he was
told. It was only when it was time to get off that he threw tantrums.

" I told him, 'You can throw tantrums at home, but not when you're acting.
If you do, I'll have to assume that you're not having fun and you shouldn't be
acting.' "

Later, when Matthew was being paid for his contributions, he had a temper
tantrum during a film session. Mrs. Laborteaux promptly led him off the set
and into her car. They were halfway home before he stopped his yowling.
" I had to call his bluff," she said. " He made the decision and decided he
would rather act than act up. He learned to control the tantrums and then they
disappeared altogether."

Matthew accompanied Patrick to an audition. Asked by the director, " Can you
cry?" he nodded and, on cue, began to blubber.

The instant tears resulted in his being cast as an alcoholic's son in a
United Way film starring Cliff Robertson. Later, on Robertson's
recommendation, he was hired for A Woman Under the Influence , starring Gena
Rowlands, John Cassavetes and Peter Falk.

At 8, he earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in an NBC Special
Treat daytime drama, " Papa and Me."

" He was beaten out," Patrick said, " by an unknown named Danny Kaye."
" We didn't even know Matthew was on the ballot," Mrs. Laborteaux said.
" The producer put him on without telling us."
" It was the producer's representative in New York," Matthew said.
" He was so young at the time," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " It wasn't the wisest
thing to subject him to. He was still shy."

" Say 'strange,' " Patrick suggested.
" He's learned," Mrs. Laborteaux said, " to control his strangeness."
" I put up with that," Matthew said with a sigh. " I've heard it enough!"
" There's no straight man in this family," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " We're all
comedians."

" Yeah," Matthew said. " Everyone tries to be funny - including Pat."
Matthew received a second Emmy nomination for his performance last season in
a " Little House" episode.

How did Patrick feel when his kid brother, a fellow " Little House" cast
member, was singled out for special honors?

" I was 300 percent behind him," Patrick said. " There was no jealousy. If
he had won, that would have been great. I had a lesser role in 'Little House'
last season, but if hypothetically we had both been nominated, we'd have been
rooting for each other and ourselves."

It was in " Papa and Me" that Michael Landon, the creator-producer- star of
" Little House," first saw Matthew. Landon hired him to portray his own
character, Charles Ingalls, in a flashback episode. The following season
Matthew was brought back for another episode, about a youthful Charles' first
meeting with his wife-to- be, Caroline.

Patrick was hired as a full-time member of the " Little House" troupe a year
before Matthew achieved the same status.

" When Pat was cast," Mrs. Laborteaux said, " Michael wasn't aware that Pat
was Matt's brother. Laborteaux is an unusual name, but Michael never uses
names. He calls everyone 'honey' or 'babe.' He just hired a third Melissa for
the show without realizing it."

This eighth " Little House" season is expected to be the last. Landon, who
is also producing Olsen's " Father Murphy" series, plans to transfer his
variegated talents to large-screen films.

" I've already been sent out to pasture," Patrick said. " I'm taking a video
workshop, so I can become more familiar with the other end of the camera. My
long-range plan is to attend the University of Southern California film
school."

" We're looking for scripts for Patrick," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " We've
found one we kind of like, The Fighter , that we've submitted to NBC. It's
about a young boy training for the Golden Gloves who's in an accident and
suffers a brain tumor."

" We've formed a corporation, Star- Lab," Matthew said, " and we're already
looking for scripts. That way, if 'Little House' ends, we can go directly into
production, instead of into limbo."
" Before Bo Derek's Tarzan, the Ape Man ," Mrs. Laborteaux said, " we were
thinking of a film about Tarzan as a teenager."

" Hey, Mom," Patrick said, " let's go to the banana and malt shop."
" My husband's a designer, and he was working on ways to get around the ape
business. You can't work with actual gorillas. It was for Patrick primarily."
" Can't I play Jane?" Patrick asked. " Actually, I'd love to play Tarzan.
Next to playing Superman, it would be the most tremendous ego boost! During a
'Little House' hiatus I did an 'Aloha Paradise' episode as a bully who
beat up people. I loved it!

" Olivia Barish, the girl who was raped in 'Sylvia,' the 'Little House'
Matthew got his Emmy nomination for, played my girlfriend. We had a scene in a
pool, and the director said, 'Dunk her, but don't tell her you're going to.
We want an unexpected reaction.'

" I did it and she hit me. It hurt, so I hit her back, not hard, but there
were bruises. 'You hit me,' she said. 'The director told me to,' I said. She
wouldn't talk to me. She said I was a method actor!"

" Matthew's an AAU swimmer," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " He has medals and
ribbons. If he plays Tarzan, he'll have to start body work and get his body
more honed ."

Mrs. Laborteaux, whose maiden name was Newman, was for 10 years part of a
comedy act, Marshall & Marshall. She used a nom de show biz, Frankie Marshall.
" I've been called 'a female Jerry Lewis.' I was doing that kind of 'shtick'
before Jerry Lewis.

" My partner and I pretended to be brother and sister. He'd protect me from
guys. If I gave him a signal he'd come and save me.

" I've been an actress since I was 6. I come from a vaudeville family
- dancers, singers, roller skaters, strippers - primarily on my father's side.
My sister, who's two years older, and I had an act when she was 8.
" An aunt, Stella Newman, a singer- dancer whose stage name was Dorothy
Dale, was my mentor. Aunt Stella was like Auntie Mame. She paid for my singing
and dancing lessons."

" She was a 'torch girl,' " Patrick said.
" She was a torch singer at the Club Alabama in Chicago for 10-12 years.
That's how she met her husband."
" She's now Stella Capone," Patrick said.
" She knew Georgie Capone, Al Capone's little brother. He was from the same
neighborhood. He beat up a violinist because he gave Stella the wrong key.
" I had an uncle who was an Indian chief - I don't remember his name, we
called him Chief. He'd bring 'plants' up from the audience and throw hatchets
at them. He used to baby-sit for us and make Indian spaghetti as long as a
table.

" Sometimes I'd be a target for my roller skater uncle.
" My father, Frank Newman, the only one who didn't change his name, was a
musician - trumpet and drums. For years he traveled with Tommy Dorsey. Later
he played with dance bands at small clubs in Cincinnati."
" Did you ever hear of Tommy Dorsey?" Patrick asked.

" As soon as I was old enough I became part of Marshall & Marshall," Mrs.
Laborteaux said. " We were with Dorsey on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' "
She met her husband when she was performing at the Fort Benning officers'
club.

" He was at Officers Candidate School. He wears a size-14 shoe, and those
big feet were propped up on the stage. I kicked them off and got a big laugh.
" He was from California, so I went there. I kept working in the act for two
or three years after we were married, but Ron didn't want to travel, because
it was wrecking his education. It took him 12 years to get his degree.
" I tried to do an act here, worked in little theater, got occasional bits
in films.

" Ron and I found we couldn't have children, but we had so much love between
us that we decided to give some to children who weren't getting any. We
decided to adopt older boys who needed homes. Then they called them
'nonadoptable.' Now it's 'hard- to-place.' "
The boys and their careers, she said, help keep her young. How young was
she? " You're really trying to hurt me," she said. " I'm so old that
. . . " She groped for a gag line.

" That's one of her best-kept secrets," Matthew said.
" She's 28," Patrick said.

" Thank you, Patrick," Mrs. Laborteaux said. " I don't look as old as I am
because I have a perfect marriage, I have perfect children and I'm a perfect
person."

Grinning, Patrick and Matthew nodded agreement

Harry Harris wrote:

Patrick, declared psychotic at 3 months

I don't believe I've ever heard of anything like that before.  

Francis Laborteaux must have been a saint! When you think about what she did for those two boys, it boggles one's mind. Love is a powerful thing!

I have just spent the evening watching the movie posted above, A Circle of Children. It was so good!!! At the end it gave the list of children and I had forgotten that Pat L. was in it. I had to go and find him in the movie. He didn't have any lines but he dumped chocolate pudding on his teacher's white sweater. I've met Pat, maybe one day I'll meet Matt.
Thanks for posting this movie. It was so sweet to see Matt small again and right after seeing him this week all grown up on the Today Show.

I read that interview last year. I really enjoyed it. "You've got the brains of an idiot!" "Do you want them back?"   

I found this on you tube...I especially love the second theme that was used...

Interesting interview, Dave.  Thanks for posting.  I agree, how is an infant declared psychotic at 3 months?????????????  How about colic?  That's strange.  They're not even rolling over yet.  Basically just crying to get their needs met and if crying a lot, many times it's colic.

Maybe a diagnosis of schizophrenia?  Usually that doesn't happen until a child is a little older.  Maybe that's where the "psychotic" term came from.  3-4 months is too early for a diagnosis like that.  Autism can be diagnosed in a young infant, however.

Teresa wrote:

Interesting interview, Dave.  Thanks for posting.  I agree, how is an infant declared psychotic at 3 months?????????????  How about colic?  That's strange.  They're not even rolling over yet.  Basically just crying to get their needs met and if crying a lot, many times it's colic.

Maybe a diagnosis of schizophrenia?  Usually that doesn't happen until a child is a little older.  Maybe that's where the "psychotic" term came from.  3-4 months is too early for a diagnosis like that.  Autism can be diagnosed in a young infant, however.

They weren't great in the late sixties and early seventies at diagnosing that stuff. No where near what they can do now......

Very true. It just made me chuckle to hear the words psychotic and 3 month old in the same sentence.

cute.

He is not Matthew  !

I love Matthew Laborteaux, because he have et very interessant personnality in the LHONP, and he seems a kind person in real. His role in the série have good developpment. And the actor have a gift for this job. He is marvellous.

And in Ingalls family relation ship Charles and Albert are very nearby. So nearby that erase Laura and Charles's relation.

Albert is a popular role all over the world.

He looks a little like him

It is certainly amazing what simple love can do for a child. I know she had some hard days with both of these boys, but she obviously stuck to a plan and made it work. It takes a special parent to have that kind of patience and determination to not give up on that child.
She found that "carrot" (in acting) that kept them both on the right track toward success.

All I know is when those babies were born they were pure and full of God's touch. Its our world that changes children into having issues.
SO glad Francis chose them both and helped them know how to become the wonder that they turned into.
I'm sure Patrick and Matt really miss their mom now, but so glad they have one another.

I totally agree, Gin!

There are special people in this world. Francis Labyorteaux was one of them............

God bless her soul!