Movie and TV Stars

Furrari's Nikki
1989-2000

The adventure of Nikki's life started suddenly on a Thursday evening about nine o'clock. The phone rang and a gentleman named Rick Parker asked Nikki's owner, Marion Loppizo, if she had any obedience trained White German Shepherds. He explained that he was in search of a White Shepherd for a movie role. The movie was to be called Getting Away With Murder, starring Jack Lemmon, Lily Tomlin and Dan Aykroyd. Overnight their adventure began into a fairy tale of rubbing elbows with the kings and queens of moviedom.

Nikki and Marion with Jack Lemmon

with Lily Tomlin

and with Dan Aykroyd

Nikki's other great accomplishment was being the first White Shepherd in Canada to pass the specialized Saint John's Ambulance testing that is required to visit handicapped (both mentally and physically) children. She was also in the Bite Prevention Program with the Saint John's Ambulance Therapy Dogs. Read more about Nikki here.

Longstreet (1971)

James Franciscus played Michael Longstreet, a New Orleans insurance investigator who was blinded in an attempt on his life. With help from his guide dog Pax, Longstreet continues at his job. Bruce Lee had a recurring role in the series teaching Longstreet jeet kune do, a Chinese form of improvisational combat. Pax has a major role in this series. Longstreet is totally dependent on the dog for getting through daily life. The character of the seeing eye dog Pax was played by two white-coated shepherds, one named Blanco and the other possibly named Snowflake (still checking on this information). Pax won the The American Humane Association's Performing Animal Star of the Year (PATSY) Award in 1972. Renowned animal action expert Karl Lewis Miller trained the dogs who played Pax. Pax is pictured with James Franciscus from the series.

Fangs of the Arctic (1953) Story of a Canadian Mountie and his dog, Chinook.

White Dog (1982)

Paul Winfield is a trainer attempting to reprogram a vicious dog who's been trained to attack and kill people with black skin. Very controversial flick. In fact it wasn't released to theater due to this fact, but is now available. This dog's origin is unknown at this time.

Amos and Andrew (1993)

Starring Nicholas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson. Rommel is played by two whites named Rambo and Amigo.

Atomic Dog (1998) This is a silly sci-fi story about a white-coated shepherd who is a mutant due to radiation exposure. He lives at a nuclear power plant. They have thrown paint on the dog to give him a bizarre appearance. The plot of the story is the shepherd is a daddy to two pups he is trying to get back from the family who owned the mother dog, but the mother dog ends up dying. It's a tad on the violent side and snagged a PG13 rating even though it was geared toward kids. We're still trying to dig up information on the dog(s) who starred in this obscure flick.

Isn't this a cool picture of Roy Rogers? We have no idea who this dog was or when this photo was taken, but research is ongoing!

Lots of folks remember Jack La Lanne and his famous fitness and exercise shows on TV. Jack is pictured here with his dog Happy and his wife Elaine. Often Elaine would bring Happy and their other white German Shepherds in front of the camera at the end of Jack's shows!

Below is a photo from a Charles Bronson movie. Although the caption says the dog is a Siberian Husky, we wonder if that's just a typical Hollywood blooper. What do you think?