Home Theater Forum
2007 International Film and Television Necrology - Part II
2007 International Film and Television Necrology - Part II
Charles Nelson Reilly, 76
May 25
Charles Nelson Reilly was was an actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and most notably as a panelist on the game show Match Game.
His big theatrical break came in 1960 with the enormously successful original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. In 1961, Reilly was in the original cast of another big Broadway hit, the Pulitzer prize-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. For his memorable creation of the role of Bud Frump (Coffee Break), Reilly earned a 1962 Tony Award for featured actor in a musical.
His first notable television role was as uptight Claymore Gregg on the television series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, In 1971, he appeared as the evil magician Hoodoo in Lidsville, a psychedelically flavored live-action children's program produced by Sid and Marty Krofft that aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. During the 1970s, Reilly also appeared as a regular on The Dean Martin Show, and had multiple guest appearances on television series including McMillan and Wife, Here's Lucy, Laugh In, The Love Boat and Love, American Style. He was also a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, appearing more than one hundred times.
During this time, Reilly was perhaps best known as a fixture of game shows, primarily due to his appearances as a regular panelist on the television game show Match Game. Reilly was the longest-running guest, and often engaged in petty, hilarious arguments with fellow regular Brett Somers. Reilly typically offered sardonic commentary and peppered his answers with homosexually themed double entendres that pushed the boundaries of 1970s television standards.
Reilly was a longtime teacher of acting at HB Studio, the acting studio founded by Herbert Berghof. Reilly's acting students included Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler.
In the 1990s, Reilly made guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Family Matters, Second Noah, and as eccentric writer Jose Chung in the television series The X-Files and Millennium.
Reilly was nominated for Emmy Awards in 1998 and 1999 for his performances in The Drew Carey Show and Millennium, respectively. From the late 1990s, Reilly directed theater and opera, touring the country performing a critically acclaimed one-man stage show chronicling his life called Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly and occasionally performing as the voice of The Dirty Bubble on the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. In 2006, his one-man, autobiographical stage show was made into a feature film called The Life of Reilly, offering audiences a glimpse into his background and personal life.
Aubrey Singer, 80
May 26
Aubrey Singer was a British broadcasting executive. He was the controller of BBC Two from 1974 until 1978. Prior to that appointment, he was head of the Features Group which included Science & Features, Arts Features, and General Features. This group made largely documentary program material
Singer took the lead in finding international funding for very ambitious co-productions, leading to the so-called Science Spectaculars written by Nigel Calder, and then the 13-part Mega-series such as Civilisation (1969), The Ascent of Man (1973), and Connections (1978).
He was also largely responsible for the historic Our World, the first live, international, satellite television production, which featured The Beatles who premiered their song, All You Need Is Love, broadcast on June 25, 1967.
Wallace Seawell, 90
May 29
Wallace Seawell was an American photographer best known for his portraits of Hollywood stars such as Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Nat King Cole, Janet Leigh, Jayne Mansfield, Tony Curtis, Paul Newman, Ava Gardner, Joan Collins, Diana Ross and George Burns, among others. He was known for highly stylized portraits for celebrity magazines including Photoplay and Screen Gems. He also took photographs for several studios and celebrity agencies.
Kasma Booty, 75
June 1
Kasma Booty was a Malaysian actress and film star. She was dubbed the Elizabeth Taylor of Malaysia. She began her film career by acting in a number of films produced by The Shaw Studio including: Cempaka (1947), Pisau Berachun (1948), Noor Asmara (1949), Rachun Dunia, Bakti and Dewi Murni in 1950, followed by Sejoli, Juwita and Manusia in 1951.
Kasma then moved to the Cathay Keris Studio in Singapore and acted in films such as Mahsuri (1958) before setting up base at the Merdeka Studio in Hulu Kelang here in the 1960s. She appeared in Keris Sempena Riau (1961), Selendang Merah, Siti Payung and Ratapan Ibu in 1962, Tangkap Basah and Anak Manja (1963), Ragam P. Ramlee (1965) and Damak (1967).
Kasma Booty received the Merak Kayangan award for veteran, long time film stars at the seventh annual Malaysian Film Festival in 1987. She also was awarded the Jury Award at the 35th annual Asia Pacific Film Festival in 1990.
Ivan Darvas, 82
June 3
Ivan Darvas was a Hungarian stage, film and television actor; he rapidly became a star of Hungarian films, starting with Liliomfi (Lilly's Son), in 1954. His film career continued with Gazolas (Accident) (1955) and Budapesti Tavasz (Spring in Budapest) (1955), and Dollarpapa (Dollardaddy) (1956). His career was interrupted in 1957 when he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for his participation in the Hungarian revolution and had to work as a laborer between 1959–1963.
From 1963 he began to appear once again in films - of which Pacsirta (Skylark) (1963) and Hideg napok (Cold Days) (1966) are regarded as his most memorable; international success was reached with Szerelem (Love) (1971), a film directed by Karoly Makk. He won many awards, including the Hungarian Republic merit award in 1995 and the Imre Nagy memorial medal in 2002.
For his role in Film (2000) he won the Best Actor Award from Hungarian Film Week and Best Actor Award from the Hungarian Film Critics Awards in 2001. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award: Actor of the (Hungarian) Nation, at the 2003 Hungarian Film Critics Awards.
Sotiris Moustakas, 67
June 4
Sotiris Moustakas was a renowned veteran Greek/Cypriot comedy actor; he was known for his portrayal of offbeat, neurotic yet likable characters. In many of his movies he portrayed multiple roles. Moustakas appeared in 76 films and numerous stage plays, and was a popular television actor. Moustakas' international film debut came in 1964 in the Oscar-winning movie Zorba the Greek starring Anthony Quinn, in which he played Mimithos, the village idiot.
Ousmane Sembène, 84
June 9
Ousmane Sembène was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. He was considered one of the greatest authors of sub-Saharan Africa and has often been called the Father of African film.
Sembène produced his first feature in 1966, La Noire de... (Black Girl), based on one of his own short stories; it was the first feature film ever released by a sub-Saharan African director. Though only 60 minutes long, the French-language film won the Prix Jean Vigo, bringing immediate international attention to both African film generally and Sembène specifically. Sembène followed this success with the 1968 Mandabi, achieving his dream of producing a film in his native Wolof. Later Wolof-language films include Xala (1975, based on his own novel), Ceddo (1977), Camp de Thiaroye (1987), and Guelwaar (1992).
Recurrent themes of Sembène's films are the history of colonialism, the failings of religion, the critique of the new African bourgeoisie, and the strength of African women.
His final film, the 2004 feature Moolaadé, won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the FESPACO Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Mala Powers, (Mary Ellen Powers), 75
June 11
Mala Powers was an American film actress; her most remembered role was opposite Jose Ferrer as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950).
Her first role was Esther Clark in the Dead End Kids film Tough as They Come (1942). Following her recovery from a blood disease she acquired while appearing in a USO entertainment tour in Korea in 1951, she appeared in a series of B-movie westerns and sci-fi films. Among these were Anne Spensser in The Colossus of New York (1958), Ellen in Flight of the Lost Balloon (1961), and as Maj. Georgianna Bronski in Doomsday Machine (1972).
She appeared on over 100 TV shows, including episodes of Maverick, Bewitched, Wild Wild West and Perry Mason, and she co-starred opposite Anthony Quinn in the TV movie The Man and the City (1971).
She was a master teacher for the past 14 years in the summer program at the University of Southern Maine for the Michael Chekhov Theatre Institute, training actors and teachers of acting. She was Patron of the Michael Chekhov Studio London and had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Don Herbert, (Donald Herbert Kemske), 89
June 12
Don Herbert, better known as Mr. Wizard, was the host of two popular television shows about science aimed at children. The series Watch Mr. Wizard premiered on March 3, 1951. The weekly 30-minute show featured Herbert as Mr. Wizard, with a young assistant who watched while Herbert performed interesting science experiments. The experiments, many of which seemed impossible at first glance, were usually simple enough to be re-created by viewers. The show was very successful; 547 live episodes were created before it was canceled in 1965. Herbert won a Peabody Award for his work on the program in 1953. After his show was canceled, Herbert produced films for junior and senior high schools, wrote several books on science, and in 1969 developed a Mr. Wizard Science Center located outside Boston, Massachusetts. The show Watch Mr. Wizard was briefly revived by NBC in the 1971 – 1972 season.
In 1983, Herbert developed Mr. Wizard's World, a faster-paced version of his show that was shown three times a week on the cable channel Nickelodeon. The show ran until 1990, and reruns were shown until 2000, making it the longest running show on Nickelodeon. In 1994, Herbert developed another new series of 15-minute spots called Teacher to Teacher with Mr. Wizard. The spots highlighted individual elementary science teachers and their projects. The series was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and was shown on Nickelodeon.
In 1991, Herbert received the Robert A. Millikan award from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) for his notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics. He won the 1994 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and Three Thomas Alva Edison National Mass Media Awards.
Alex Thomson, 78
June 15
Alex Thomson was a British Academy Award-nominated cinematographer; his films included Excalibur (1981), Year of the Dragon (1985), Legend (1985), Labyrinth (1986), The Krays (1990), Alien³ (1992), Cliffhanger (1993), Demolition Man (1993), Executive Decision (1996) and two of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations, Hamlet (1996) and Love's Labour's Lost (2000).
He was nominated for the Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers in 1981 for Excalibur and again for Eureka in 1984. He won in 1985 for Legend and in 1997 for Hamlet. He was nominated for at the 1982 Academy Awards for Best Cinematography for Excalibur.
Tony Aguilar, (Pascual Antonio Aguilar Barraza), 88
June 19
Tony Aquilar was a Mexican singer, actor, producer, and writer who, during his career, made over 150 albums, (selling 25 million copies), and made 167 movies. He was known as El Charro de Mexico. Aguilar began his acting career in 1952 during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He is credited with popularizing la charrería, Mexican rodeo, to international audiences. Because Aguilar's charro, (cowboy), movies entail romantic ballads with him getting the gal, he has been compared to American Western actors like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
Amongst his best movies are Bala Perdida (1960), El Caballo Blanco (1961), Caballo prieto azabache (1968), and Emiliano Zapata (1970). Aguilar most famous role in an American western film was as Juarista Gen. Rojas in The Undefeated (1969).
He won a LatinACE Award in 1972 for playing the title role, Zapata, in Emiliano Zapata (1972) and was awarded a Special Golden Ariel in 1997 for his invaluable contribution and spreading of Mexican cinema.
Aguilar received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000.
Anita Guha, (70 ?)
June 20
Anita Guha was an Indian actress who usually played mythological characters in films. She became most famous for playing the title role in Jai Santoshi Maa (1975). Previously, she had played Sita in other mythological films Sampoorna Ramayana (1961), Shree Ram Bharat milap (1965) and, Tulsi vivah (1971).
She came to Mumbai in the 1950s as a beauty pageant contestant, when she was 15 years old. She became an actress there and made her film debut in Tangewali (1955). She moved onto hit films like Sharada (1957), and Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959, for which she earned her only Filmfare nomination of her career as Best Supporting Actress.
But it was her title role in Jai Santoshi Maa (1975) that brought her the most fame. She had never even heard of goddess Santoshi until she was offered the role, as this was a little-known goddesss. It was only a guest appearance, and her scenes were shot 10-12 days. She fasted during the shooting. The low-budget pic was a surprise hit, and broke box office records while becoming a cultural phenomenon. The goddess Santoshi now became a famous goddess, and women all over India worshipped her. People treated the movie theatres showing Jai Santoshi Maa as a temple, bringing offerings of food, leaving slippers at the door. Guha claimed that people came to her asking her to bless them, as they perceived her to be a real goddess. Oddly, she never became a devotee of the goddess herself, claiming that she was a devotee of Kali Maa.
Other mythological films she acted in include Dekh Kabira roya (1957), Kavi Kalidas (1959) Jai Dwarkadesh (1977) and Krishna Krishna (1986). She wasn't happy that she became typecast as a mythological actress, because acting offers eventually stopped coming her way.
Her earlier credits include period films such as Sangeet samrat Tansen (1962), Kan kan mein bhagwan (1963), Veer Bhimsen (1964). She played Rajesh Khanna's adoptive mother in the huge hit Aradhana (1969).
Leo Burmester, 63
June 28
Leo Burmester was an American character actor; made his feature film debut as Dr. Gath in House of God (1979). His first role in a big budget project was as Water Sport in Cruising (1980), and he had a featured role as the mortuary director in Honky Tonk Freeway (1981). Burmester played one of the FBI agents hounding the faux Rosenberg couple in Daniel (1983).
He played Holly Hunter's father in the prologue of Broadcast News (1987), and the bum in front of The Plaza in Big Business (1988), the Apostle Nathaniel in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and as decompression expert Catfish DeVries in The Abyss (1989).
Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including the roles Reeves in Passion Fish (1992) and Cody in Lone Star (1996). He appeared in several television shows including: Arresting Behavior (1992), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Chicago Hope (1995), Trinity (4 episodes, 1998-1999), Baywatch (2 episodes, 2000), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2002), Law & Order (3 episodes, 1994-2002), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006).
His last role was as the Sheriff in Aftermath (2008/I).
Joel Siegel, 63
June 29
Joel Siegel was the film critic for the ABC morning news show Good Morning America for over 25 years.
Siegel was hired as a feature correspondent for WCBS-TV in New York in 1972. He was offered a featured on-air position at WABC-TV's Eyewitness News, and he accepted. Siegel proposed to Eyewitness News management that he become a film and theater critic. He suggested that he would innovate the form by using brief clips from the movie or show being reviewed as drop-ins into his reviews, working them into his scripts as gags to create a new, witty form of review. Siegel also, during his years at WCBS-TV, created features for WCBS-AM Newsradio 88 called Joel Siegel's New York.
Siegel joined Good Morning America as a film critic and remained with the show until shortly before his death.
Edward Yang, (Yáng Déchāng), 59
June 29
Edward Yang was one of the leading filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. He won the Best Director Award at Cannes for his 2000 film Yi Yi (A One and a Two), and was honored with many other accolades from other prominent international film festivals.
His work includes: In Our Time (1982) - segment Desires/Expectation, The Day on the Beach (1983), Taipei Story (1985), The Terrorizers (1986), A Brighter Summer Day (1991), A Confucian Confusion (1994), Mahjong (1996), Yi Yi (2000) and The Wind (2007).
Yang had also taught Theatre and Film classes at the Taipei National University of the Arts.
Will Schaefer, (Willis H. Schaefer), 78
June 30
Will Schaefer was a composer nominated for both an Emmy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for his work. His first credits as a film and television composer date from 1948. In following decades, he would compose background music for many popular television programs including: Gunsmoke, The Phil Silvers Show, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flintstones, The Flying Nun, Hogan's Heroes, The Jetsons and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Schaefer orchestrated about thirty episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney, (1954), and sections of many Disney films plus music for the live attractions Pirates of the Caribbean, America the Beautiful, Bear Country, It's a Small World, and Innoventions. Schaefer arranged and recorded music for over 700 commercials winning three Clio Awards. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his concert piece The Sound of America commissioned for the United States Bicentennial. In 1978, his work on the Disney TV movie The Skytrap (1979) was nominated for an Emmy for best score.
His last credited work was the track Now That We're Men on the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack of 2004.
Beverly Sills, 78
July 2
Beverly Sills was perhaps the best-known American opera singer in the 1960s and 1970s. She was famous for her performances in coloratura soprano roles in operas around the world and on recordings. She hosted nine episodes of Great Performances: Live from Lincoln Center (1976-2007) and appeared as herself in over 25 other noted films and television shows.
Bob Steele and Eleanor Stewart
Eleanor Stewart, 94
July 4
Eleanor Stewart was a film actress known best for appearing in westerns of the 1930's and 1940's. Her career spanned a total of thirty-six films. Initially on contract with MGM, she eventually worked freelance for various studios, starring often as the heroine opposite Bob Steele, Tex Ritter, Jack Randall, Bob Custer, Ken Maynard and Tom Keene, among others.
She is probably best known for her role in the serial The Fighting Devil Dogs, which was released throughout 1938. During the 1940's she did three Hopalong Cassidy films. Her last 1940's role was in the 1944 Hopalong Cassidy film Mystery Man, after which she retired and had no acting roles until 1979, when she played a small role in the film Friday the 13th: The Orphan (1979).
Charles Lane, (Charles Gerstle Levison), 102
July 9
Charles Lane was a character actor who appeared in more than 250 films and hundreds of television shows, and at the time of his death was the oldest living American actor.
Actor/director Irving Pichel first suggested that Lane go into acting in 1929, and four years later Lane was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He became a favorite of director Frank Capra, who used him in several films; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and It’s a Wondrful Life (1946). In It's a Wonderful Life, Lane played a seemingly hard-nosed rent collector for the miserly Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), who tried to explain to his employer that many of his tenants were moving out, taking advantage of affordable mortgages provided by the film's protagonist, George Bailey.
Lane also appeared in the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, as one of the reporters cajoling Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) for information about the identity of Mr. Joseph Young, the persona given featured billing on the front of the building, on opening night.
Among his many roles as a character actor, Lane is perhaps most widely remembered for his portrayal of J. Homer Bedloe on the television situation comedy, Petticoat Junction. Bedloe was a mean-spirited railroad executive who visited the Shady Rest Hotel periodically, attempting to find justification for ending the train service of the Hooterville Cannonball, but never succeeding.
He is also remembered for his appearances on I Love Lucy, most notably in the episode Lucy Goes To the Hospital, where he is seated in the waiting room with Ricky while Lucy gives birth to their son. He also played the title role in the episode The Business Manager and appeared twice in the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. He later had recurring roles as shopkeeper Mr. Finch on Dennis the Menace and during the first season (1962-63) of Ball's The Lucy Show, playing banker Mr. Barnsdahl.
In 1963, Lane appeared in the mega-comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, playing the airport manager. His final acting role was at the age of 101 in 2006's The Night Before Christmas. His last television appearance was at the age of 90, when he appeared in the 1995 Disney TV remake of its 1970 teen comedy The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, with Kirk Cameron in the role originated by Kurt Russell.
In 2005 the TV Land Awards paid tribute to Lane by celebrating his 100th birthday. Seated in a wheelchair in the audience, which had sung Happy Birthday to him, Lane was presented with his award and then announced "If you're interested, I'm still available [for work]!" The audience gave him a standing ovation.
Bill Flynn, 58
July 11
Bill Flynn was a well known South African film and theater actor, writer and comedian. His highly successful career includes leading roles in over 140 stage plays, musicals, 42 films, dozens of tv shows and thousands of radio and tv ads. Although he was comfortable in both comedy and drama, Flynn was perhaps best known for his portrayal of Tjokkie, a character which Flynn portrayed as a wise cracking, beer drinking rugby union fan.
He won 13 best actor awards, including the Dublin Critics and Golden Entertainer Awards. His film writing also won him a Best Screenplay award for Saturday Night at the Palace (1987). His karate comedy movie Kill and Kill Again (1981) was a top box office hit in America. Flynn's movie of Saturday Night at The Palace won several Vita Film Awards, a Best Actor award at the Italian Taormina Film festival as well as a Merit Award at the Los Angeles Film festival.
Kieron Moore, (Ciarán Ó hAnnracháin), 82
July 15
Kieron Moore was an Irish film and television actor whose career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. He may be best remembered for his role as Count Vronsky in the 1948 film adaptation of Anna Karenina opposite Vivien Leigh.
Living in England for many years, Moore made well over 50 appearances in film and in several British television episodes. He was cast in a leading role in Man About the House in 1947. His next role, in the psychological thriller Mine Own Executioner (1947), confirmed his potential. He was invited to Hollywood, where in 1951 he made two films, playing Uriah the Hittite in the biblical epic David and Bethsheba and a Foreign Legion officer in Ten Tall Men, starring Burt Lancaster. In 1953 he was featured in Mantrap (1953), Recoil (1953), and The Blue Peter (1954).
He appeared in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), Dr Blood's Coffin (1960), The Thin Red Line (1964) and Arabesque (1967). In his final film, Custer of the West (1967), he played Chief Dull Knife. He also made television appearances in Fabian of the Yard, Jason King and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), as well as a taking on the starring role in Ryan International, which he also wrote.
He last worked for television, providing voice-overs for Muiris Mac Conghail's RTÉ documentaries about the Aran Islands and the Blaskets.
Golde Flami, 89
July 20
Golde Flami was an Argentine actress of film, television and stage. Her theater career began when she was fourteen years old and her film debut came at the age of 24 with a part in the movie, En el viejo Buenos Aires (1942). Flami's reached her career peak in the 1940s and 1950s. Her career as an accepted actress was launched by a 1944 drama directed by Luis Bayon Herrera called Los dos rivales. She went on to star or appear in nearly 40 movies and over 100 theater productions and nearly 40 television shows. Her film credits included Se llamaba Carlos Gardel (1949), Deshonra (1952), La Mary (1974) and Los gauchos judios (1975).
She enjoyed a career resurgence in the 1980s when she appeared in several films including Fernando Ayala's Pasajeros de una pesadilla (1984), Anibal Di Salvo's Atrapadas (1984) and Hector Olivera's Two to Tango (1988).
László Kovács, 74
July 21
László Kovács was a Hungarian-born cinematographer, most famous for his award-winning work on Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). His breakthrough came with the Academy Award-nominated 1969 film Easy Rider, starring and directed by Dennis Hopper. He earned 2nd place for the Best Cinematographer Golden Laurel at the 1970 Laurel Awards for his work on Easy Rider and worked with Hopper a second time on The Last Movie (1971) the following year.
In total, Kovács filmed over 70 motion pictures. Among these were six films for director Peter Bogdanovich: Targets (1968), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973), At Long Last Love (1975), Nickelodeon (1976), and Mask (1985). Bogdanovich has stated that he worked with Kovács more times than any other cinematographer.
Other notable films Kovács photographed include Shampoo (1975), New York, New York (1977), Ghostbusters (1984), Say Anything (1989), Radio Flyer (1992), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), and Miss Congeniality (2000). He also did additional photography on acclaimed films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Last Waltz (1978), and Wayne's World 2 (1993). His final work was Torn from the Flag, a 2006 feature documentary about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution which incorporates footage he filmed during the conflict.
Kovács was honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from Camerimage (1998), WorldFest (1999), and the American Society of Cinematographers (2002). The Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASC is the organization's highest honor. In addition, Kovács received an Excellence in Cinematography Award from the 1999 Hawaii International Film Festival and a Hollywood Film Award at the 2001 Hollywood Film Festival.
Ulrich Mühe, 54
July 22
Ulrich Mühe was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006), for which he received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Gold, at Germany's most prestigious film awards, the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.
Mühe appeared in many other films, television series and plays in Germany and abroad. Schtonk! (1991), Benny's Video (1992), Das Schloss (The Castle, 1996) (an adaptation of Kafka's The Castle (1922), Funny Games (1997). In recent years Mühe played a series of Nazis. He portrayed Joseph Goebbels in Goebbels und Geduldig (Goebbels and Geduldig, 2001) and Dr. Josef Mengele in Amen. (2002. His last film was Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler (My Führer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler) (2007), in which he played Prof. Adolf Israel Grünbaum.
Mühe was also well-known in Germany for playing the brilliant but eccentric pathologist Dr. Robert Kolmaar in 73 episodes of the forensic crime serial Der letzte Zeuge (The Last Witness) (1998–2007), for which he was awarded the prize for Bester Schauspieler in in einer Serie (Best Actor or Actress in a TV Series) at the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Awards) in 2005.
John Normington, 70
July 26
John Normington was an English actor who appeared widely on British television from the 1960s until the year of his death. In 1963, he made his first appearance on television and appeared regularly on the small screen until 2007, the year he died. In the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in programs such as The Caesars, Softly, Softly, Nearest and Dearest, The Edwardians, Crown Court, Upstairs, Downstairs (in the episode Such A Lovely Man) and ITV Playhouse. Normington also appeared in the 1978 film The Thirty Nine Steps.
During the 1980s, he appeared in Play for Today, Yes, Prime Minister (in the episode One of Us), Inspector Morse, My Family and Other Animals and Agatha Christie's Poirot. Normington played Morgus in the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Caves of Androzani and Trevor Sigma in the 1988 serial The Happiness Patrol.
The following decade, Normington played roles in programs such as The New Statesman, Peak Practice, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Coronation Street, The Bill and David Copperfield. In 2001 Normington appeared in Love in a Cold Climate. He appeared in the 2004 Midsomer Murders episode Bad Tidings, the Torchwood episode Ghost Machine, Trial & Retribution XIV and Casualty in 2007, his final TV appearance.
Normington was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing in more than 20 RSC productions. He performed widely in the West End and at the National Theatre.
William J. Tuttle, 95
July 27
William Tuttle was an Academy Award winning make-up artist. Tuttle began his craft working under makeup artist Jack Dawn at Twentieth Century Pictures. In 1934, Tuttle moved with Dawn to MGM to continue his apprenticeship, eventually working his way up to head of the studio's makeup department.
Working as Dawn's assistant, Tuttle supervised the makeup work in such movies as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Father of the Bride (1950). Tuttle created makeup for many of Hollywood’s biggest stars, among them Judy Garland in Summer Stock (1950); Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952); Katharine Hepburn in Pat and Mike (1952) and Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid (1952).
In the fifties he would be responsible for the makeup in Singin' in the Rain, Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Time Machine (1960). He reused pieces he first created for The Time Machine in The Eye of the Beholder (1960), one of his many Twilight Zone contributions.
In 1964, Tuttle received a special Academy Award for his work on George Pal's 7 Faces of Dr. Lao; this was 17 years before makeup became an official Oscar category. Later work included Logan's Run and Young Frankenstein.
Mike Reid, 67
July 29
Mike Reid was an English comedian and character actor, who is best remembered for playing Frank Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was well noted for his gravelly voice and strong Cockney accent. Reid’s first work in entertainment was as a stunt man and extra on films and television. In the early 1960s Reid worked as a stand-up comedian in clubs and aboard cruise liners. Then he played minor roles in television series such as Doctor Who, The Saint and Department S. He worked as a stuntman for films such as Casino Royale (1967) and The Dirty Dozen (1967).
Reid then became one of the original stars of The Comedians, a popular TV series of the 1970s for Granada Television, which consisted entirely of short slots by mature stand-up comedians. As a comedian, Reid's well-known catchphrases included Terrific (pronounced with the emphasis on each syllable) and Move Yer Arris.
In 1987 he joined the cast of the popular BBC television soap opera EastEnders as Frank Butcher for which he gained much popularity. His character was involved in many popular storylines and the most famous of these storylines was his character's long turbulent relationship with Pat Evans. His last episode which was a one-hour long special aired in November 2000.
Later that same year he appeared in the popular British gangster film Snatch playing mob boss Doug "The Head" Denovitz. He alsd appeared in several low-budget British films such as Hey Mr DJ (2005), Moussakka and Chips (2005) as well as a Spanish film titled Oh Marbella (2003).
He was also persuaded to return to EastEnders a number of times for brief stints. He returned for a week stint in January 2002, a spin-off special episode titled Perfectly Frank in 2003 and made his final comeback to EastEnders in early December 2005, for another week stint.
He retired from show business at this time and lived in a villa in Spain. He returned to England in early 2007 and appeared in two episodes of the long-running ITV police drama series The Bill where he played the part of corrupt businessman Brian Stevens. This was his last broadcast television appearance.
Michel Serrault, 79
July 29
Michel Serrault was a celebrated French actor who appeared in over 150 films. Serrault became well-known internationally in the 1970s for his starring role as Albin/Zaza in La Cage aux Folles, a 1978 film adaptation of the 1973 Poiret play. It was made into a successful Broadway musical with the same name and an English-language film (The Birdcage).
He had met and worked with Jean Poiret in the early 1950s, which led to a song and comedy cabaret act and their playing together in 18 films from 1956 to 1984. The films they worked together in included Cette Sacrée Gamine (1956), with Brigitte Bardot, and Sacha Guitry's last film, Assassins et Voleurs (1957).
Over his long and distinguished career he won the César Award for Best Actor in 1979 for the dual role of Albin Mougeotte / 'Zaza Napoli' in La Cage aux Folles, in 1982 for the multiple roles of Jerome, Charles, Emile Martinaud in Garde à vue (1981), and in 1996 for his role as M. Pierre Arnaud in Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995).
Tom Snyder, 71
July 29
Tom Snyder was an Emmy winning television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for pioneering the late-late network TV talk show with his show The Tomorrow Show on the NBC television network in the late 1970s and '80s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS television network in the 1990s.
Snyder gained national fame as the host of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show on NBC from 1973 – 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a conversation. Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, actor and writer Sterling Hayden, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand.
Peak moments with Snyder on Tomorrow included John Lennon's final televised interview, in April 1975 and Irish rock band U2's first American television appearance in June 1981. Also memorable was the 1980 cigarette smoke-filled appearance of Public Image Ltd.'s John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) and Keith Levene, whose thoroughly uncooperative twelve-minute appearance on the show acquired a long-term notoriety. Weird Al Yankovic's first television appearance was on the show in April 1981.
Another memorable moment came on a 1978 show when he had on one of NBC's West Coast staff announcers, Donald Rickles, one day after interviewing the same-named comedian Don Rickles. During the course of their segment, Snyder and Rickles (the announcer) spent ten minutes playing the then-new electronic board game, Simon.
Another notorious segment was a 1981 prison interview with mass murderer Charles Manson. Manson was by turns quietly mesmerizing and disturbingly manic, suddenly getting a wild look in his eyes and spouting wild notions at Snyder before temporarily returning to a calm demeanor.
Bizarre moments included a 1979 appearance by Chicago shock-jock Steve Dahl, and a March 1981 appearance by the rock band, The Plasmatics, during which lead singer Wendy O. Williams sledgehammered a TV in the studio. The explosion disrupted a live broadcast of NBC Nightly News being produced in a studio two floors above. Snyder himself referred to this occurrence on a May 1981 followup appearance in which the Plasmatics blew up a car.
Perhaps the most outrageous interview seen on Snyder's show occurred on Halloween 1979, when the rock band Kiss appeared to promote their album, Dynasty. During that 25-minute interview, the conversation degenerated into a somewhat chaotic exchange between Snyder and a very drunk Ace Frehley, who picked up Snyder's teddy bear, put the wristlets from his costume on the bear, and laughed, the only Spacebear in captivity! I've got him — he's captured!. When Snyder asked Ace if his costume was that of some sort of spaceman, Frehley quipped, No, actually I'm a plumber. Snyder shot back, Well, I've got a piece of pipe backstage I'd like to have you work on. The inebriated Frehley replied Tell me about it! and clapped his hands and cackled hysterically at the exchange.
Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show — renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented) — the show was canceled in 1982.
In 1995 Snyder became host of The Late Late Show. One of the many memorable Late Late Show interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt about her son's suicide, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake very soon before Blake was charged for murder. In memory of Tom Snyder, all fans should, "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."
Michelangelo Antonioni, 94
July 30
Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. Antonioni's first full-length feature film was Cronaca di un amore (1950). He continued to do so in a series of other films: I vinti (The Vanquished 1952), La signora senza camelie (The Lady Without Camellias 1953) and Le amiche (The Girlfriends 1955). In Le Amiche, Antonioni had experimented with a radical new style: instead of a conventional narrative, he presented a series of apparently disconnected events, and he utilized the long take frequently.
Antonioni returned to the style in L'avventura (1960), which was his first international success. Antonioni followed it with La notte (1961) and L'eclisse (1962). These three films are commonly referred to as a trilogy because they are stylistically similar and all concerned with the alienation of man within the modern world. His first color film, Il deserto rosso (Red Desert, 1964), deals with similar themes, and is sometimes considered the fourth film of the trilogy.
Antonioni first film in English, Blowup (1966), was a major success. Made for MGM, it was a successful and popular hit with audiences, no doubt helped by its sex scenes, which were explicit for the time.
His second film for MGM, Zabriskie Point (1970), was Antonioni's first set in America. It was much less successful, even though its soundtrack incorporated popular artists such as Pink Floyd (who wrote new music specifically for the film), the Grateful Dead, and The Rolling Stones. It depicted the counterculture movement, but was heavily criticized for the blank performances of its stars, neither of whom had acted before. The third, The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson, received critical praise, but also did poorly at the box office.
In 1980, Antonioni made Il mistero di Oberwald (The Mystery of Oberwald), an experiment in the electronic treatment of color, recorded in video and then translated to film. It is based on Jean Cocteau's story L'aigle à deux têtes (The Eagle With Two Heads).
In 1996, Antonioni was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. It was presented to him by Jack Nicholson. Previously, he had been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Blowup.
Antonioni's final film, made when he was in his 90s, was a segment of the anthology film Eros (2004), entitled Il filo pericoloso delle cose (The Dangerous Thread of Things).
Ingmar Bergman, 89
July 30
Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish film, stage, and opera director who is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of modern cinema. He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays.
Many filmmakers worldwide, including Americans Woody Allen, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and Robert Altman, the Danish director Lars Von Trier, the Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and the South Korean director Chan-wook Park, have cited the work of Bergman as a major influence on their own work. Woody Allen said Bergman was probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.
Bergman first began working in film in 1941 rewriting scripts, but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment/Frenzy (Hets), a film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Along with writing the screenplay he was also given a position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiography Images : My Life in Film, Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut. The international success of this film led to Bergman's first opportunity to direct a year later. During the next ten years he wrote and directed more than a dozen films including The Devil's Wanton/Prison (Fängelse) in 1949 and The Naked Night/Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton) in 1953.
Bergman first achieved international success with Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955), which won for Best poetic humor and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes the following year. This was followed in 1957 with two of Bergman's most well known films, The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) and Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället). The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström.
Bergman continued to be productive for the next 20 years. In the early 60's he directed a trilogy that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en Spegel) (1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgasterna) (1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden) (1963). In 1966 he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important films. While the film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece and one of the best films ever produced. Bergman himself considers this film along with Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1972) to be his two most important films. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968), Shame (Skammen) (1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion) (1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish TV at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap) (1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) (1975).
After his arrest in 1976 for tax evasion, Bergman swore he would never again make films in his native country. He shut down his film studio on the island of Faro and went into exile. He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, The Serpent's Egg (1977) was a German-American production and his first and only English language film. This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) (1978). The film starred Ingrid Bergman and was the one notable film of this period. The one other film he directed was From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten) (1980) a British-German co-production.
In 1982, he temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander), a film that, unlike his previous productions, was aimed at a broader audience, but was also criticized within the profession for being shallow and commercial. Bergman stated that the film would be his last, and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre. Since then, he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials. As with previous work for TV some of these productions were later released in theatres. The last such work was Saraband (2003), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was 84 years old.
Bergman developed a personal repertory company of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, and Gunnar Björnstrand, each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who appeared in nine of Bergman's films and one TV movie (Saraband), was the last to join this group (in the 1966 film Persona), and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. They had a daughter together, Linn Ullmann.
Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed. On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work without interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.
As a director, Bergman favored intuition over intellect, and chose to be unaggressive in dealing with actors. Bergman saw himself as having a great responsibility toward them, viewing them as collaborators often in a psychologically vulnerable position. He stated that a director must be both honest and supportive in order to allow others their best work. He encouraged young directors not to direct any film that does not have a message, but rather to wait until one comes along that does, yet admitted that he himself was not always sure of the message of some of his films.
Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully structured, and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intentions, he would let them, noting that the results were often disastrous when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue. When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotional, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be re-shot.
Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde.
While his themes could be cerebral, sexual desire found its way to the foreground of most of his movies, whether the setting was a medieval plague (The Seventh Seal), upper-class family life in early 20th century Uppsala (Fanny and Alexander) or contemporary alienation (The Silence). His female characters were usually more in touch with their sexuality than their men were, and were not afraid to proclaim it, with the sometimes breathtaking overtness (e.g., Cries and Whispers) that defined the work of "the conjurer," as Bergman called himself in a 1960 Time magazine cover story. In an interview with Playboy magazine in 1964, he said: ...the manifestation of sex is very important, and particularly to me, for above all, I don't want to make merely intellectual films. I want audiences to feel, to sense my films. This to me is much more important than their understanding them. Film, Bergman said, was his demanding mistress. Some of his major actresses became his actual mistresses as his real life doubled up on his movie-making one.
When asked about his movies, Bergman said he held Winter Light (1962), Persona (1966), and Cries and Whispers (1973) in the highest regard, though in an interview in 2004, Bergman said that he was depressed by his own films and could not watch them anymore. In these films, he said, he managed to push the medium to its limit.
In 1971, Bergman received The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Virgin Spring in 1961; Through a Glass Darkly in 1962; and Fanny and Alexander in 1984.
Photo by Jack Manning
The New York Times, 1980
Frank E. Rosenfelt, 85
August 2
Frank Rosenfelt was an American executive who served as CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio from 1972 until 1982. Additionally, Rosenfelt spearheaded the acquisition of United Artists by MGM in 1981.
Rosenfelt joined RKO Studios in the studio's legal department for five years following his graduation from Cornell Law School. Rosenfelt left RKO in 1955 and joined MGM as an attorney the same year. He received a promotion to general counsel of MGM in 1969. Rosenfelt oversaw a number of important MGM movies during the 1960s including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Sunshine Boys (1975).
One of his most important MGM accomplishments was the acquisition of the movie rights for Doctor Zhivago (1965). The rights to Dr. Zhivago were owned at the time by producer Carlo Ponti. Rosenfelt was reportedly unsure whether writers in the Communist Soviet Union had the right to sell their own intellectual properties and writings. He hired an expert in Soviet law which discovered that Russian writers did indeed retain their property rights. Following this discovery, Rosenfelt hired top Russian speaking literature scholars to translate Dr. Zhivago in a way that would not violate the terms of the contract.
Financier Kirk Kerkorian purchased MGM in 1972 and offered Rosenfelt the position of president, chair and CEO of the studio. Rosenfelt accepted the Kerkorian's offer. Rosenfelt headed the MGM negotiations for Kerkorian's and MGM's $380 million dollar purchase of United Artists studios from the Transamerica Corporation in 1981. United Artists had recently suffered financial losses following the commercial and critical failure of its movie, Heaven's Gate (1980).
Rosenfelt stepped down as CEO of MGM in 1982 for personal reasons. He was soon named the chief executive of United Artists. He later became vice-chairman of the board of the combined MGM/UA. He served on board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1977 to 1985.
Rosenfelt was known for his close friendships with a large number of important movie stars, directors, and studio executives during his Hollywood career. He counted comedian George Burns, actor Cary Grant, studio chief Sherry Lansing and film directors David Lean and Stanley Kubrick among his close friends.
James T. Callahan, 76
August 3
James Callahan was a film and television character actor who appeared in more than 120 films and television shows between 1959 and 2007. But perhaps he will be best remembered and always famed for portraying Walter Powell on Charles in Charge from 1987 to 1990.
His television guest appearances include Perry Mason, Route 66, Have Gun - Will Travel, Combat!, The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, The Fugitive, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., M*A*S*H, Love, American Style, The Rockford Files, Quincy, M.E., Little House on the Prairie, Fame, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Newhart, Amazing Stories, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Golden Girls, Picket Fences, Caroline in the City, The Practice, ER and Medium.
Ernesto Alonso, 90
August 7
Ernesto Alonso was a Mexican producer, director, cinematographer and actor. Nicknamed Señor Telenovela (Mr. Soap Opera), many of his soap operas are shown around the world and have been dubbed into more than 50 languages, including Russian, Korean, and Romanian.
Alonso began his career as an uncredited extra in La Zandunga (1937), he then appeared in 1939's Papacito Lindo. His popularity grew as he starred in many films of the 1940s, including La Gallina Clueca (1941), Historia de una gran Amor (1942), El Padre Morelas (1943), El Jorobado (1943), La Corte del Faraon (1944), Marina (1945), El Gallero (1948), and El Precio de la Gloria (1949).
He made another series of films throughout the 1950s, but it wasn't until the 1960s that Ernesto began appearing in telenovelas. His first was Cartas de Amor (1960). From then on, Alonso only worked in telenovelas including Leyendas de Mexico. Alonso's most memorable performance was as Enrique de Martino in the 1983 telenovela El Maleficio in which he played a devil like character. His last acting appearance was in the telenovela Entre el amor y el Odio (2002) in which he played Father Abad.
Alonso directed, produced and even starred in his own telenovelas. 1960's Espejo de Sombras was his first job as a director, but his first producing job was Cuidado con el Angel that very same year. Ernesto then made many memorable telenovelas including La Leona, La Cobarde, both of which he directed, produced and starred in.
His last job as a director was the series Cumbres Borrascosas (1979). Ernesto then went to continue his career has a producer, producing twenty-five telenovelas throughout the 1980s, nine throughout the 1990s, and four in the 2000s. His last producing work being the telenovela Barrera de Amor which starred Yadhira Carrillo and Raquel Olmedo. Ernesto was awarded the Special Golden Ariel at the Ariel Awards in 2006 for his amazing career and contributions.
Melville Shavelson, 90
August 8
Mel Shavelson was a film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers and is responsible for the screenplays of such Hope films as The Princess and the Pirate (1944), Where There's Life (1947), The Great Lover (1949), and Sorrowful Jones (1949), which also starred Lucille Ball.
Shavelson was nominated twice for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay -- first for 1955's The Seven Little Foys, and then for 1958's Houseboat. He shared both nominations with Jack Rose. He also directed both films. Other films he wrote and directed include Beau James (1957), The Five Pennies (1959) for which he won a Screen Writers Guild Award, It Started in Naples (1960), On the Double (1961), The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
The Shavelson Film Awards, given annually at Cornell University for promising filmmakers, were established and named in his honor. Shavelson, when asked of his varied career said, I'm a writer by choice, producer through necessity and director in self-defense.
Tony Wilson, (Anthony Howard Wilson), 57
August 10
Tony Wilson was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC.
Wilson, was the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands. He was the founder and manager of The Haçienda nightclub, and was one of the five co-founders of Factory Records. Wilson was also known as Mr. Manchester, dubbed as such for his work in promoting the greater cultural status of Manchester throughout his career.
Wilson began as a trainee news reporter for ITN, before securing a post at Granada Television. He went on to present Granada's culture, music and events program So It Goes. Through the 1970s and 1980s he was one of the main anchors on Granada Reports, the regional evening news program, where he worked with Richard and Judy among other figures. He continued in this line of work even at the height of Factory's success.
In the 1980s Wilson hosted The Other Side of Midnight, another Granada weekly regional culture slot, covering music, literature, and the arts in general. Its Sunday night slot made it one of the UK's first experiments in late night weekend TV. He reported for ITV's celebrated current affairs series World In Action in the early 1980s and also hosted Channel 4's After Dark, the UK's first open-ended late night chat show, in which he chaired a loose discussion in a darkened studio between intellectuals and celebrities of various descriptions in various stages of inebriation. He hosted the short-lived TV Quiz shows Topranko! and MTV Europe's Remote Control in the 1990s and Manchester United themed quiz, Masterfan for MUTV. In 2006 he became regional political presenter for the BBC's Politics Show.
Wilson's involvement in popular music stemmed from hosting Granada's culture and music programme So It Goes. He was the manager of many bands, including A Certain Ratio and The Durutti Column, and was part owner and manager of Factory Records, home of The Happy Mondays and Joy Division - the band managed by friend and business partner Rob Gretton. He also founded and managed The Haçienda nightclub and Dry bar, together forming a central part of the music and cultural scene of Manchester. The scene was termed Madchester.
Franz Antel, 94
August 11
Franz Antel was a veteran Austrian filmmaker. Antel worked mainly as a film producer in the interwar years. After World War II, he began writing and directing films on a large scale. In the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s these were mainly comedies (romantic, slapstick, and/or musical) and K.u.k. films all of which, for Austrian and German TV stations alike, have been a staple of weekend afternoon programming ever since.
From the late 1960s, Antel gradually switched his main interest to ribaldry. It was in particular his series of Wirtin (Hostess) films, directed under the pseudonym François Legrand, with which he tried to win international recognition. Titles included The Sweet Sins of Sexy Susan (1967), Sexy Susan Sins Again (1969), Wild, Willing & Sexy (1969) and Don't Tell Daddy (aka Naughty Nymphs in the U.S.A.) (1972).
Among the actors Antel worked with were Hans Moser, Paul Hörbiger, Oskar Werner, Curd Jürgens, Tony Curtis, Herbert Fux, Arthur Kennedy, Carroll Baker, Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Marisa Berenson, Britt Ekland, Andréa Ferréol.
1981 was a turning point in Antel's career when he adapted for the big screen a stage play by Ulrich Becher and Peter Preses, Der Bockerer. The film's strong anti-fascist message, the moving dialogue, and performances by the crème de la crème of Austrian actors and actresses (Ida Krottendorf, Alfred Böhm, Heinz Marecek, Hans Holt, Dolores Schmidinger and many more) made Der Bockerer an unusually successful film and gave new impetus to Antel's career.
He made three sequels, which follow the lives of the Bockerers well into the 1960s, each depicting a crucial historical event in Austria or one of its neighbouring countries: Der Bockerer II (1996) is about the ten-year occupation (1945-1955) of Austria by the allied powers; Der Bockerer III — Die Brücke von Andau (2000) is set at the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; and, finally, Der Bockerer IV — Der Prager Frühling (2003) deals with Dubček's Prague Spring of 1968.
Antel’s film Der Bockerer was nominated for a Golden Prize at the 1981 Moscow International Film Festival and he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Austrian Film Archives.
Merv Griffin, (Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr.), 82
August 12
Merv Griffin was a talk show host, game show host, entertainer, pianist, television personality and raconteur. He began his career as a singer and also appeared in movies and on Broadway; he later became host of his own TV show, The Merv Griffin Show, and created the long-running award-winning game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, becoming an entertainment business magnate.
Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. Within a year, Griffin earned enough to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first American album ever recorded on magnetic tape. His fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts. The song reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.
During one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day. Day arranged for a screen test at Warner Brothers Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon. Griffin didn't get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as So This is Love in 1953. The film caused a minor controversy when Griffin shared an open-mouthed kiss with Kathryn Grayson. The kiss was a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934.
Griffin would go on to film more pictures, namely, The Boy From Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue, but soon became disillusioned with movie making. Griffin bought his contract back from Warner Brothers and decided to focus on a new medium: television.
From 1958 to 1962, Griffin hosted a game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called Play Your Hunch. The show appeared on all three networks, but primarily on NBC. He also hosted a prime time game show for ABC called Keep Talking. In 1963, NBC offered him the opportunity to host a new game show, Word for Word, which Griffin produced. He also produced Let's Play Post Office for NBC in 1965, Reach For the Stars for NBC in 1967 and One In a Million for ABC in 1967.
In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W, The Merv Griffin Show. The show aired in a variety of time slots throughout North America; many stations ran it in the daytime, some broadcast it opposite Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and it was carried for many years in prime time on WNEW in New York. The Merv Griffin Show was on the air for 21 years and won eleven Emmy Awards during its run.
Griffin was not shy about tackling controversial subjects, especially the Vietnam War. The guests on the Westinghouse show were an eclectic mix of entertainers, authors, politicians, and personality performers like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Griffin also booked controversial guests like George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Norman Mailer, and Bertrand Russell. Arnold Schwarzenegger made his talk show debut in the United States on Griffin's talk show in 1974 after moving from Austria and becoming a bodybuilder.
CBS gave Griffin a late-night show opposite Johnny Carson in 1969, a move which proved disastrous. The network was uncomfortable with the guests Griffin wanted, who often spoke out against the Vietnam war and on other taboo topics. When political activist Abbie Hoffman was Griffin's guest in April 1970, CBS blurred Hoffman out so viewers at home couldn't see his trademark American flag pattern shirt. Griffin disliked the censorship imposed by CBS and complained.
Sensing that his time at CBS was ending, and tired of the restrictions imposed by the network, Griffin secretly signed a contract with rival company, Metromedia. The contract with Metromedia would give him a syndicated daytime talk show deal as soon as CBS canceled Griffin's show. Within a few months, Griffin was fired by CBS. His new show began the following Monday and ran until the mid 1980s. By 1986, Griffin was ready to retire and ended his talk show run. Due to profits from his highly successful game shows, Griffin had become one of the wealthiest entertainers on the planet.
Griffin created and produced the successful television game show Jeopardy! in 1964, the show premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming and lasted for 11 years. Merv wrote the 30-second piece of music heard during the Final Jeopardy portion of the show, later the theme song for the Trebek era.
In 1975, NBC canceled Jeopardy! after moving it twice on their daytime schedule and despite having an additional year on its network contract left to fulfill. Griffin produced the show's successor, Wheel of Fortune. Premiering on January 3, 1975, Wheel became a modest hit on daytime television with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford as host and hostess, which later became a phenomenon when on September 13, 1983, Wheel hit the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White in the same respective roles. Two different revivals of Jeopardy! would be produced: one on NBC that ran for five months in late 1978/early 1979 with Art Fleming returning as host, and the other airing in first-run syndication beginning on September 10, 1984 starring Alex Trebek. Both Wheel and Jeopardy! remain on the air today.
Upon his retirement, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Columbia Pictures Television unit for $250 million, the largest acquisition of an entertainment company owned by a single individual at that time. Following the sale, Forbes named him the richest Hollywood performer in history. He retained the title of creator (and still does posthumously) of both shows.
Chester F. Collier, 80
August 15
Chester Collier was an Emmy Award-winning television producer who helped build Fox News into a world media power, best known for making the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show into a television event. 'No individual in modern times has had a more positive influence on our sport than Chet Collier, said Westminster Show Chairman Thomas H. Bradley.
Collier was an executive with Group W Productions, Westinghouse Broadcasting, CNBC and Fox News. While President of Group W and Westinghouse Broadcasting, he superviesed the production of The Mike Douglas Show, The Regis Philbin Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Merv Griffin Show and The David Frost Talk Show. Later, he helped Rupert Murdoch in starting the Fox News Channel.
Collier won the George Foster Peabody Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He was a past president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences/New England. He was honored as the first recipient of the Westminster Kennel Club’s Sensation Award, in recognition of his contribution to the club, to purebred dogs, and the sport of showing dogs.
Clive Exton, 77
August 16
Clive Exton was a British television and film scriptwriter, playwright and actor. Best known for his scripts of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster, and Rosemary & Thyme. His first television play was No Fixed Abode (1959), He then contributed to Sydney Newman’s Armchair Theatre series which included the episodes: Where I Live, Hold My Hand, Soldier, I’ll Have You to Remember, and The Trial of Doctor Fancy, among others.
He later wrote The Close Prisoner for ATV's Studio 64 and Land of My Dreams, The Bone Yard, The Big Eat, Are You Ready For the Music? and The Rainbirds for the BBC. He also wrote The Boundary, with Tom Stoppard, for the BBC’s experimental series The Eleventh Hour. Exton initiated series such as Killers, Conceptions of Murder and The Crezz. He also contributed, under the nom de plume M. K. Jeeves, two episodes to the first season of Terry Nation's Survivors for the BBC.
Exton said that the only feature film he ever wrote that pleased him was 10 Rillington Place (1971). Other films include Night Must Fall, Entertaining Mr Sloane and Isadora. While in Hollywood he co-wrote The Awakening (1980), Red Sonja (1985), and, uncredited, contributed to The Bounty (1984).
Returning to England in 1986, Exton found that the television business had radically changed through the rise of the independent producer, such as Brian Eastman, for whom he wrote most of the episodes (20) of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, with David Suchet (1989-2000), all of the episodes (23) of Jeeves and Wooster, with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (1990-1993), and ten episodes of Rosemary & Thyme (2003-2006).
He also dramatized for television works by Jean Cocteau, Daphne du Maurier, Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, Ruth Rendell, Georges Simenon and H. G. Wells.
Exton was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for his work on Jeeves and Wooster (1990) and was also nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Shake Hands Forever (1988).
Jos Brink, 65
August 17
Jos Brink was a Dutch actor, radio and musical performer, producer, author, (he wrote 40 books), columnist, and television and radio personality. He was a pastor in church De Duif. He hosted several shows on Dutch television that often drew millions of viewers, sometimes more than half the entire population of the country.
One of Brink's most famous television moments was when he gave (then) Queen Juliana a kiss during a television show that he hosted on the occassion of her 70th birthday in 1979. This was completely outside official protocol, and caused quite a debate in the country.
He was also well-known as a publicly gay person. Gay websites applaud him as someone who did a lot for the acceptance of gays and lesbians in Holland. He was married to Frank Sanders, with whom he worked together for various shows.
Aaron Russo, 64
August 24
Aaron Russo was an entertainment businessman, film maker, and libertarian political activist. After a successful career as a nightclub owner and manager, Russo turned to producing feature films, his production of The Rose (1979), introduced Bette Midler to motion picture audiences. Midler received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The Rose is considered by many to be the classic rock 'n' roll film. Russo also produced Trading Places (1983), starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, which has become a Christmas classic, and Teachers (1984), starring Nick Nolte, Morgan Freeman, and Ralph Macchio.
Russo received numerous awards for his achievements. They include a Grammy, a Tony, an Emmy (for producing the best television special of 1977, Ol' Red Hair is Back, starring Bette Midler, Dustin Hoffman, and Emmett Kelly), plus many gold and platinum records. His films were nominated for six Academy Awards, as well as seven Golden Globes. His films have won three Golden Globes, as well as the Image Award.
In 2006, Russo wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a documentary feature film entitled America: From Freedom To Fascism. The film questioned the legality of the income tax and attacked the growing authoritarianism in American life and can be seen on youtube.com.
Miyoshi Umeki, (Umeki Miyoshi), 78
August 28
Miyoshi Umeki was an Academy Award-winning Japanese-born American actress best known for her roles as Katsumi, the wife of Joe Kelly (Red Buttons), in the 1957 film Sayonara, and as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper in the TV series The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
Born in Otaru on the large northern island of Hokkaido she began her career as a nightclub singer in Japan under the name Nancy Umeki, making several records for RCA Victor Japan and appearing in the film Seishun Jazu Musume (1953). After moving to the United States and appearing on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts (she was a series regular for one season), she signed with the Mercury Records label and released several singles and two albums.
In 1958, Umeki won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her first U.S. film role, Sayonara. She was the first Asian performer ever nominated. Umeki then conquered Broadway with the 1958 musical Flower Drum Song in which she proved a highlight as a starry-eyed Chinese immigrant and mail-order bride with her captivating rendition of A Hundred Million Miracles, earning a Tony nomination in the process. She scored additional points after recreating her role for the film version of Flower Drum Song (1961).
Although a popular guest on countless television variety shows, she appeared in only four more motion pictures through 1962, including the film version of Flower Drum Song. From 1969-1972 she appeared in The Courtship of Eddie's Father as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper. She retired from acting following that series' end.
Marcia Mae Jones, 83
September 2
Marcia Mae Jones was an actress whose prolific career spanned 47 years. Jones made her film debut at the age of two in the 1926 film Mannequin. She appeared in films such as King of Jazz (1930), Street Scene (1931), and Night Nurse (1931) before rising to child stardom in the 1930s with roles in The Champ (1931) and, alongside Shirley Temple in Heidi (1937) and The Little Princess (1939). She also starred in films such as The Garden of Allah (1936), These Three (1936), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938).
Jones blossomed into a wide-eyed, blonde, wholesome-looking teenager, and worked steadily in motion pictures through her late teens. She appeared in First Love (1939), in support of Deanna Durbin. In 1940 Monogram Pictures signed her to co-star with Jackie Moran in a few rustic romances; when this series lapsed, both Jones and Moran joined Monogram's popular action-comedy series starring Frankie Darro.
As a young adult she continued to work in motion pictures, notably in Nine Girls (1944) and Arson, Inc. (1948). Like many familiar faces of the 1940s, she appeared on numerous television programs. In 1951 she appeared as comic foil to Buster Keaton in Keaton's filmed TV series. She went on to work in such top-rated shows as The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Burns and Allen, Peyton Place, and General Hospital. Her last major role was in the Barbra Streisand film The Way We Were in 1973.
Percy Rodriguez, 89
September 6
Percy Rodriguez was a Canadian character actor who appeared in over 80 television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Rodriguez started his acting career in the 1930s appearing in stage plays and television series in his native country. He eventually moved to New York City where he made his Broadway theatre debut in Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic in 1960. He first gained widespread notoriety in 1968 for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Harry Miles in the prime time soap opera Peyton Place; the role broke ground because he was cast as an authority figure when relatively few black actors were given such parts at that time.
Rodriguez managed to avoid the stereotypical roles typically given to Black actors of his day. His deep, authoritative voice and articulate speaking manner helped Rodriguez to be cast usually as intelligent authority figures. He also narrated numerous movie trailers and documentaries throughout his career. He retired from acting in 1987 but continued to do voiceovers.
Jane Wyman, (Sarah Jane Mayfield), 90
September 10
Jane Wyman was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated actress. Her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best known film roles in Johnny Belinda (1948), for which she won an Oscar, and Magnificent Obsession (1954) opposite Rock Hudson. The actress became known to new generations in the 1980s, for her leading role as matriarch Angela Gioberti Channing on the hit prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest, and because of her prior marriage to President Ronald Reagan.
In 1932 began working in Hollywood, taking on odd jobs as a manicurist and a switchboard operator, before obtaining small parts in films The Kid from Spain (as a Goldwyn Girl) (1932), My Man Godfrey (1936) and Cain and Mabel (1936). She began her career as a contract player with Warner Bros. in 1936. Her big break came the following year, when she received her first starring role in Public Wedding (1939). In 1939, Wyman was cast in another starring role, in Torchy Plays With Dynamite. In 1941, she appeared in You're in the Army Now, in which she and Regis Toomey had the longest screen kiss in cinema history: 3 minutes and 5 seconds.
Wyman finally gained critical notice in the film noir The Lost Weekend (1945). She was nominated for the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Yearling (1946), and won two years later for her role as a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She was the first person in the sound era to win an acting Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue. In an amusing acceptance speech, perhaps poking fun at some of her long-winded counterparts, Wyman took her statue and said, I won this by keeping my mouth shut, and that's what I'm going to do now.
The Oscar win gave her the ability to choose higher profile roles, although she still showed a liking for musical comedy. She worked with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock on Stage Fright (1950), Frank Capra on Here Comes the Groom (1951) and Michael Curtiz on The Story of Will Rogers (1952). She starred in The Glass Menagerie (1950), Just for You (1952), Let's Do It Again (1953), The Blue Veil (1951) (another Oscar nomination), the remake of Edna Ferber's So Big (1953), Magnificent Obsession (1954) (Oscar nomination), Lucy Gallant (1955), All That Heaven Allows (1955), and Miracle in the Rain (1956).
She replaced the ailing Gene Tierney in Holiday for Lovers (1959), and next appeared in Pollyanna (1960), Bon Voyage! (1962), and her final big screen movie, How to Commit Marriage (1969). Wyman was also a well-regarded character actress.
Her first guest-starring television role was on a 1955 episode of General Electric Theatre. This appearance led to roles on Summer Playhouse, Lux Playhouse, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Checkmate, The Investigators, and Wagon Train. She also served as hostess of The Bell Telephone Hour and Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre. She had telling roles in both The Sixth Sense and Insight, among other programs.
Wyman also hosted an anthology television series, Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1957. Wyman went into semi-retirement and remained there for most of the 1970s, though she made guest appearances on series such as Charlie's Angels and The Love Boat.
Wyman's career enjoyed a resurgence when she was cast as Angela Channing in the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest, which ran from 1981 to 1990. In its first season, Falcon Crest was a ratings hit, the show also starred familiar actors Robert Foxworth and Susan Sullivan, plus unfamiliar actor Lorenzo Lamas.
In 1938, Wyman co-starred with Ronald Reagan in Brother Rat (1938), and its sequel Brother Rat and a Baby (1940). Reportedly engaged to Reagan only after Wyman attempted suicide over the actor's indecision regarding marriage, the two were married on January 26, 1940, at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles; they divorced on June 28, 1948. She and Reagan had three children; Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (1941–2001), Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945 and adopted shortly after), and Christine Reagan (born prematurely June 26, 1947 and died later that same day). The end of the marriage was hastened by Wyman's affair with her Johnny Belinda co-star, Lew Ayres. Since Reagan is the only U.S. president to have been divorced, Jane Wyman has the unique distinction of having been the only ex-wife of an American President.
Jane Wyman lived in seclusion for a number of years because of declining health. She was rarely seen in public, with the exception of attending the funerals of her daughter, Maureen Reagan, and her close friend Loretta Young.
Emilio Ruiz del Rio, 84
September 14
Emilio Ruiz del Rio was a Spanish film set decorator and special effects and visual effects artist. His filmography includes work on over 450 films from studios in Europe and the United States. His career lasted more than sixty years. Among Ruiz del Río's achievements was to consistently work with a number of higher profile directors, including with Stanley Kubrick on Spartacus (1960), George Cukor on Travels with My Aunt (1970), Orson Welles on Mr. Arkadin (1955), and Guillermo del Toro on Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (2006).
Emilio Ruiz del Río continued to work up until his death in 2007. He was currently working on Luz de Domingo (Sunday Light) by Spanish director José Luis Garci when he died. Garci's film was chosen to compete for Spain's nomination for an Academy Award for best foreign film in September 2007.
Brett Somers, (Audrey Johnston), 83
September 15
Brett Somers was a Canadian-born American actress, singer, and comedienne. She was best known as a panelist on the 1970s game show, Match Game. Somers began her career in theater and made her Broadway debut in the play Maybe Tuesday; she also appeared in Happy Ending, The Seven Year Itch and The Country Girl with her husband, Jack Klugman.
In the Golden Age of live television, she made numerous appearances on Philco Playhouse, Kraft Theater Playhouse 90, Robert Montgomery Presents, and Mister Peepers with Wally Cox. She made many appearances on episodic primetime television, including Love, American Style, The Defenders, Have Gun Will Travel, Ben Casey, CHiPs, The Love Boat, Barney Miller, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Fugitive.
Somers also amassed a number of film credits, including Getting There (TV) (1980), Bone (1972), Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Great American Beauty Contest (TV) (1973).
Somers had recurring roles as the ex-wife of Oscar Madison (played by real-life spouse Klugman) on the ABC sitcom television series The Odd Couple in the early 1970s, as well as the role of Siress Belloby on the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica in 1978. She played Perry Mason's receptionist Gertie on a short-lived revival of the series in 1973 which featured Monte Markham as Perry Mason.
Somers was best-known for her appearances as a panelist on the 1970s CBS game show Match Game. She and the show became known for somewhat outlandish and risque dialogue; the show has been described as having the feel of being at a game at someone's cocktail party. Somers was an iconic on-screen presence, wearing enormous eyeglasses, various wigs, and playing foil to Charles Nelson Reilly, Betty White, Richard Dawson, and Fannie Flagg, among others. Somers was often the subject of questions on Match Game, such as You may or may not believe in reincarnation, but listen to this. In a previous life, Brett used to be a ________.
In 2002, she appeared with Charles Nelson Reilly and Betty White (via videolink) as part of a Match Game reunion on CBS's The Early Show. She also appeared with Reilly on Hollywood Squares during that show's Game Show Week in 2003.
In 2006, she was a prominent interviewee in The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank on GSN, and hosted the Match Game DVD as well. Somers also appeared in a cabaret show, An Evening with Brett Somers, from 2003 to 2004.
In 2003 Somers, at the age of seventy-nine, won Backstage's prestigious Bistro Award for her live show, An Evening with Brett Somers.
Alice Margaret Ghostley, 81
September 21
Alice Ghostley was a Tony Award-winning actress. She was best known for her roles as Esmeralda on Bewitched, as Cousin Alice on Mayberry R.F.D. and as Bernice Clifton on Designing Women.
A veteran of early television, Ghostley appeared as one of the ugly stepsisters in the landmark 1957 television production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's musical, Cinderella, which starred Julie Andrews in the title role.
Ghostley portrayed several well-known recurring characters on situation comedies, beginning with Esmeralda, a shy witch who served as a maid and babysitter to the Stephens' household beginning in season six of Bewitched. Ghostley's Esmerelda appeared in 15 episodes between 1969 and 1972.
She also appeared in other television series on the era, including: Please Don’t Eat the Dasies, Get Smart and Love, American Style. During this period she also joined the cast of Mayberry R.F.D., playing Cousin Alice after Frances Bavier's character, Aunt Bee, was written off the series. She appeared in 17 episodes (1970-1971).
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ghostley continued to lend her recognizable voice and her nervously concerned style as a character actress to memorable episodes of popular situation comedies such as Good Times, Maude, One Day at a Time, The Odd Couple and What's Happening!!.
Between 1986 and 1993, Ghostley portrayed Bernice Clifton on Designing Women. She later played Irna Wallingsford in six episodes of Evening Shade. Among many other guest roles, she appeared in a flashback episode as the crazed mother-in-law of Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) on The Golden Girls. Ghostley also made a few guest appearances on the daytime drama Passions in 2000, playing the ghost of Matilda Matthews, a former friend (and later enemy) of the witch Tabitha Lenox.
Among her roles into motion pictures, Ghostley appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), playing Stephanie Crawford, the fussy aunt of Dill Harris. She also appeared in the film version of Grease (1978) as shop teacher Mrs. Murdock.
Ghostley won the 1965 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Mavis Parodus Bryson in Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.
Charles B. Griffith, 77
September 28
Charles Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, best known for writing Roger Corman productions such as A Bucket of Blood (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Death Race 2000 (1975) and Ron Howard’s first starring movie, Eat My Dust (1976).
With a career spanning decades, he is often cited as the father of American Black comedy. Griffith’s motorcycle pics The Wild Angels (1966), starring Peter Fonda, and Devil's Angels (1967), with John Cassavetes, served as forerunners to Easy Rider (1969). He was credited with 29 movies, but is known to have written many more. He directed six films: Forbidden Island (1959), Eat My Dust, Up from the Depths (1979), Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980), Smokey Bites the Dust (1981) and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (1989).
Martin Manulis, 92
September 28
Martin Manulis was a film, television and theater producer. He joined CBS In 1951 as a staff producer. His credits included a dramatic anthology series called Suspense, Studio One Summer Theater and Climax! He was most famous for creating the Emmy winning television program, Playhouse 90, the show that exemplified television’s golden age of live drama. In a poll of television editors by Variety in 1970, Playhouse 90 was voted the greatest television series of all time.
Among the episodes he produced for the show are: Requiem for a Heavyweight, featuring Jack Palance as a down-on-his-luck boxer and written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame; The Miracle Worker, directed by Arthur Penn and written by William Gibson, and The Eighty Yard Run, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, in the early years of the series.
Manulis became the head of production at Twentieth Century Fox Television in 1958, overseeing lighter fare like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In the 1960s he moved into film, bringing to the big screen The Days of Wine and Roses (1962), starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. In later years Manulis was West Coast director of the American Film Institute.
Lois Maxwell, (Lois Hooker), 80
September 29
Lois Maxwell was a Golden Globe-winning Canadian actress, known for originating the role of Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise, which she played for fourteen films.
At the age of twenty, she quickly found work and soon won the Golden Globe Award as Best Newcomer—Female for her role in the Shirley Temple comedy That Hagen Girl (1947). During the 1960s, she appeared in many other television series and movies both in Britain and Canada, and was the star of Adventures in Rainbow Country CBC Television (1970-1971). She guest starred in episodes of The Saint and The Persuaders! which both starred Roger Moore. Maxwell also had a secondary role in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962).
She also portrayed Moneypenny in a 1967 made-for-television special (produced by EON Productions) entitled, Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond.
Maxwell lobbied for the role of Moneypenny in James Bond, as her husband had had a heart attack and they needed the money. Director Terence Young, who once had turned her down on the grounds that she looked like she smelled of soap, offered her either Moneypenny or the recurring Bond girlfriend, Sylvia Trench, but she was uncomfortable with a revealing scene the latter had in the screenplay. The role as M's secretary guaranteed just two days' work at ₤100 per day; Maxwell supplied her own clothes.
Maxwell was nearly replaced for Diamonds Are Forever after demanding a pay raise; her policewoman's cap disguises hair she had already dyed for another role. For the filming of A View to a Kill, her final appearance, Bond producer Cubby Broccoli told her that the two of them were the only ones from Dr No still working on the series. Maxwell asked that her character be killed off, but Broccoli recast the role instead.
Ned Sherrin, (Edward George Sherrin), 76
October 1
Ned Sherrin was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He joined the BBC in 1957 as a temporary Production Assistant, then began working for them as a producer in Television Talks in 1963. Specialising in satirical shows, he worked extensively in film production and television. In 1962 he was responsible for the first satirical television series That Was The Week That Was starring David Frost and Millicent Martin and its successors Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life and BBC-3.
His other shows and films included Up Pompeii!, Up the Front, The Cobblers of Umbridge and The Virgin Soldiers. In 1978, he also hosted We Interrupt This Week, a lively and humorous news events quiz featuring two teams of well-known journalists and columnists sparring against one another. The show was a production of WNET/Channel 13 New York.
Sherrin produced and directed numerous theatre productions in London's West End, including Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell and the landmark musical Side By Side By Sondheim. He received an Olivier Award for directing the Ratepayer Theatre's production of Iolanthe.
On BBC Radio 4, from 1986 until his death, he presented a light entertainment show on Saturday evenings called Loose Ends, and Counterpoint, a quiz show about all types of music, until forced off the air when his voice succumbed to throat cancer.
Sherrin wrote two volumes of autobiography, several books of quotations and anecdotes, as well as some fiction; and several works in collaboration with Caryl Brahms. Sherrin was awarded a CBE in the 1997 New Year’s honours list.
Elfi von Dassanowsky, 83
October 2
Elfi von Dassanowsky was an Austrian-American singer, pianist, film producer and humanitarian. She remains one of the few women in film history, and at age 22 one of the youngest, to co-found a film studio -- Belvedere Film -- the first new studio facility in postwar Vienna.
With senior partners August Diglas and Emmerich Hanus, the studio created such German-language classics as Die Glücksmühle (The Mill of Happiness, 1946), Dr. Rosin (1949), and Märchen vom Glück (Kiss Me, Casanova, 1949), and gave Gunther Philipp and Nadja Tiller their first screen roles.
von Dassanowsky starred in operas, operettas, theatrical dramas and comedies, helped initiate several theater groups, was announcer for Allied Forces Broadcasting and the BBC, toured West Germany in a one-woman-show and gave master classes in voice and piano. An expert in the Ignace Paderewski piano technique, her musical pedagogy continued in Canada and New York in the late 1950s.
In Hollywood in the 1960s, she resisted becoming a trendy Euro-starlet and preferred to remain behind the camera as a vocal coach for director/producer Otto Preminger. In 1962, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. A successful Los Angeles businesswoman, in 1999, she re-established Belvedere Film as a Los Angeles/Vienna-based production company with her son, Robert. She was executive producer of the award-winning dramatic short film, Semmelweis (2001), the spy-comedy, Wilson Chance (2005), and several works in progress at the time of her passing, including the documentary The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel (due to be released in 2008).
Recognized internationally for her unique work as a pioneering woman in film production and as a multi-talent in postwar Austrian arts and culture, von Dassanowsky is the only Austrian woman to receive the Women’s International Center’s prestigious Living Legacy Award, and has been honored with the UNESCO Mozart Medal, the Austrian Decoration of Merit, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Lonny Chapman, (Lon Leonard Chapman), 87
October 12
Lonny Chapman was a stage, film and television actor who appeared in over 30 films and well over 300 Television programs. He is best known for his numerous guest star appearances on detective dramas, including Quincy, M.E., The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and NYPD Blue. He also appeared as a guest star on several episodes of McCloud, which starred his long-time friend Dennis Weaver. Chapman had a starring role in the short-lived 1965 television series For the People in 1972.
His first film was a featured role in Young at Heart (1954). He played Roy, the auto mechanic, in the classic East of Eden in 1955. In Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), he portrayed the concerned diner operator who tends to Tippi Hedren's head wound after her first gull attack. He subsequently played a secondary but pivotal role in The Reivers (1969) with Steve McQueen and played the supporting role of Jake in the Woody Allen classic Take the Money and Run (1969). He played, Gardner, one of Sally Field's chauvinistic bosses in Norma Rae (1979). At the end of his career he played the elderly watchman in Nightwatch (1997), and his last film appearances were as the “Old Timer” in Reindeer Games (2000), and as Zander in The Hunted (2003).
Although Chapman was a working actor in film and television, his first and foremost love was the theater. He appeared in numerous Broadway plays throughtout the fifties. Chapman was artistic director from 1973 until his death of the Group Repertory Theatre (GRT), a North Hollywood non-profit acting organization for which he also served as producer, writer, director and actor. GRT was renamed the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre (LCGRT) in 1999.
Judy Crichton, (Judith Feiner Crichton), 77
October 14
Judy Crichton was an award-winning documentary producer and a pioneering woman in American television broadcasting. Crichton began her producing career as a writer and producer for the Goodson-Todman game show, I've Got A Secret, from 1952 through 1968. Crichton produced (with Chester Feldman) a documentary of the making of the cast album of the Broadway musical Company; the result, Company: The Making of a Cast Album, was one of the first cinéma vérité documentaries broadcast on network television and an early example of the behind-the-scenes genre that would become a television staple.
In 1974, she became the first woman producer for the prestigious documentary unit, CBS Reports. She produced and wrote such award-winning documentaries as The CIA's Secret Army, The Battle for South Africa, The American Way of Cancer, and The Nuclear Battlefield. As a producer, co-director and co-writer of The Nuclear Battlefield (1980), Crichton won three Emmy Awards.
Crichton moved to ABC News in 1981 where she was a producer, writer and senior producer for ABC Close-up, the network news' documentary unit. She produced Fortress Israel, Oh Tell the World What Happened and The Fire Unleashed. For Oh Tell the World What Happened, Crichton won a DuPont-Columbia Award. In 1982, she was the senior producer of Close-up’s three-hour biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, for which she won a Christopher Award. In 1986 she led the first Western television journalism team to report from the People's Republic of Angola; these reports aired on Nightline and ABC World News Tonight.
Crichton was the founding executive producer of the prize-winning PBS historical series, American Experience, from its inception in 1987 until the end of 1996. American Experience was the first network history series. During Crichton's tenure, the series won the George Foster Peabody Award (six awards); the Alfred I. du Pont - Columbia Journalism Award (two awards); the Writers Guild Awards (five awards); the Organization of American Historians (five awards); and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Emmy Awards (seven awards). Under her leadership, American Experience produced documentaries such as The Donner Party, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, FDR, LBJ, Malcolm X: Make It Plain, and Coney Island.
Judy Crichton was one of the women in news profiled in the 2001 PBS documentary, She Says: Women in News. She recounted that [T]he first wave of women in journalism were trying to push back those barnacles that had stuck to our brains since childhood that said we were the second sex, that we were inferior creatures, that men knew everything.
President Bill Clinton awarded Judy Crichton the National Humanities Medal in December 2000. On awarding the medal, President Clinton said, In creating and producing the PBS series The American Experience, she set a new standard for what television documentaries can be. With talent, passion and purpose, Judy Crichton has elevated a medium she loves and lifted all those who watch it. In 1998, Crichton received the Evelyn F. Burkey Memorial Award from the Writers' Guild of America (East).
Deborah Kerr, (Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer), 86
October 16
Deborah Kerr was a Scottish actress best known for her roles as Karen, opposite Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity (1953), Anna, opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I (1956), and as Terry McKay, opposite Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember (1957).
Her first film appearance was in Major Barbara (1941), She followed that with a series of other films, including Hatter's Castle (1942) and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). It was her role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus in 1947 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US as well as the UK, and Kerr won the New York Film Critics' Award as Actress of the Year. In the 1950 adventure film, King Solomon's Mines, she impressed audiences with a sexuality and an emotional vulnerability that brought new dimensions to a male-oriented action film. This was immediately followed by her appearance in the 1951 religious epic Quo Vadis?, in which she played the indomitable Lydia, a first century Christian.
Kerr also departed from typecasting with a performance that brought out her sensuality, as Karen in From Here to Eternity (1953) for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from that film in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on a Hawaii beach amidst the crashing waves. The organization named it one of AFI's top 100 Most Romantic Films of all time.
From then on, Kerr's career choices would make her known in Hollywood for her versatility as an actress; she portrayed a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), a mama's girl in Separate Tables (1958), a lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses in Beloved Infidel (1959) and she portrayed an earthy Australian sheep-herder's wife, opposite Robert Mitchum in The Sundowners (1960).
In 1967, at the age of 46, she starred in Casino Royale, achieving the distinction of being the oldest Bond Girl in any James Bond film. In 1969, pressure of competition from younger, upcoming actresses made her agree to appear nude in John Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths, the only nude scene in Kerr's career. Concern about the parts being offered to her, as well as the increasing amount of nudity in films in general, led her to abandon film work at the end of the 1960s in favour of television and theatre work.
Kerr experienced a career resurgence in the early 1980s on television, when she played the role of the nurse in Witness for the Prosecution (TV)(1982). Later, Kerr re-teamed with screen partner Robert Mitchum in Reunion at Fairborough (TV)(1985). This period also saw Kerr take on the role as the older version of the female tycoon, Emma Harte, in A Woman of Substance (TV)(1983). For this performance, Kerr was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for Best Actress: Edward, My Son (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953), The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958) and The Sundowners (1960). She was also nominated four times for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress: The End of the Affair (1955), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Sundowners (1961) and The Chalk Garden (1964).
She received one Emmy Awards nomination in 1985 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for A Woman of Substance. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The King and I in 1957, and a Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite - Female. She was also nominated for the Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama for Edward, My Son, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and Separate Tables.
In 1984, she was awarded a Cannes Film Festival Tribute. In 1991, she received a BAFTA Special Award and in 1994, she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance. She also won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance in Tea and Sympathy, which she originated on Broadway.
Deborah Kerr was appointed a Commander of the Order the British Empire in 1998. She was also honored in Hollywood where, for her contributions to the motion picture industry, she was granted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1709 Vine Street.
Joey Bishop, (Joseph Abraham Gottlieb), 89
October 17
Joey Bishop was an entertainer who was perhaps best known for being a member of the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin. Bishop appeared on television as early as 1948 and was a frequent guest on television talk shows, game shows, and comedy shows. He is listed as #96 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time.
Bishop began his career as part of a vaudeville act with his elder brother, Maury. He guest-hosted on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more times than anyone else (177), and frequently appeared on Steve Allen and Jack Paar's previous versions of the show. Bishop played a talk show host on his sitcom, The Joey Bishop Show, which ran from 1961 until 1965 on both NBC and CBS. He had his own television talk show, The Joey Bishop Show (1967-1969), a 90-minute late-night talk show on ABC. His co-host for this show was then-newcomer Regis Philbin.
Films include; The Deep Six (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958) and Onionhead (1958), The Delta Force (1986), Betsy's Wedding (1990) and Mad Dog Time (1996), but is probably best known for his work in the "Rat Pack" movies Ocean's Eleven (1960) and Sergeants 3 (1962).
Chef Tell, (Friedman Paul Erhardt), 63
October 26
Friedman Paul Erhardt was a German American pioneering early television chef, best known as Chef Tell to his fans. He is widely regarded as one of the first chefs to enjoy widespread popularity on American television.
Earhardt, who was made his first television debut on a local Philadelphia television show called Dialing for Dollars in 1974. He was employed at a chef at the Marriott Hotel on City Line Avenue at the time. Now more commonly known as Chef Tell, his work on the show later earned him a regular 90-second cooking spot on a nationally syndicated show, Evening Magazine. His career led to guest appearances on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and earned Chef Tell time on QVC. He also hosted a show on PBS called In the Kitchen With Chef Tell. He was the first of the great showman chefs, commented Elaine Tait, the former restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Up until his era, chefs stayed in the kitchen.
Chef Tell's popularity and German-accented personality earned him a place in American popular culture. He was often parodied in comedy skits on Saturday Night Live and became a regular guest on Regis and Kathie Lee. Erhardt's thick German accent reportedly made him the inspiration for The Swedish Chef, a well known Muppet character on The Muppet Show.
Tell spent the last 2 and half years of his life teaching culinary skills at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
Evelyn Hamann, 65
October 28
Evelyn Hamann was a German television actress. Her father Bernhard Hamann was the concertmaster of the NDR television company's symphony orchestra and founded the Hamann Quartet.
In 1976, Evelyn Hamann first became known to a wide television audience by acting with Loriot in a large number of comedy sketches. With her straight face and dry Hanseatic humour, she wrote television history as Fräulein Renate battling for love with her stuffy boss, Fräulein Hildegard in the legendary sketch where her devotee prances, having a noodle in his face, or as "Frau Hoppenstedt" proud of her yodelling degree which would give her something to build a career on when the children left home.
In one famous scene, Die Englische Ansage (The English Announcement), Hamann plays a television presenter describing the plot of an English television series with a plethora of English th-sound names she becomes less and less able to pronounce as the sketch progresses - North Cothelstone Hall, Lord und Lady Hesketh-Fortescue, etc.
Hamann also had the most important female role in the Loriot films Ödipussi (1987) and Pappa ante Portas (1991).
Hamann remained popular into the 1980s, playing the part of housekeeper Karsta Michaelis in the television series Die Schwarzwaldklinik (The Black Forest Clinic) and later playing Thea in the weekly medical drama Der Landarzt (The Country Doctor).
From 1992 she acted in the title role of the successful ARD television series Adelheid und ihre Mörder (Adelheid and her murderers) along with Heinz Baumann.
In 1993 She was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Among her many acting awards, in 1997 Hamann won a Bavarian TV Award for Best actress in a series in Adelheid und ihre Mörder.
Robert Goulet, (Robert Gerard Goulet), 73
October 30
Robert Goulet was a world famous singer and actor. He rose to international stardom in 1960 as Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe's hit Broadway musical Camelot. His long career encompassed theatre, radio, television and film.
In 1960, Goulet starred as Lancelot opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews in the now legendary Broadway classic Camelot. In October 1960, Camelot opened in Toronto, ran for a four-week engagement in Boston, and finally opened on Broadway two months later. Goulet received favorable reviews, most notably for his show-stopping romantic ballad, If Ever I Would Leave You. After Camelot's run, Goulet appeared on The Danny Thomas Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, which made him a household name among American audiences. In 1966, Goulet starred as a double agent in the short-lived ABC World War II television series, Blue Light.
In 1968, Goulet was on Broadway in the Kander and Ebb musical The Happy Time, for which he won a Tony Award. He appeared in a 1982 production of Rose Marie with Inga Swenson, and in 2005 appeared in the Broadway revival of Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles. Goulet began a recording career with Columbia Records in 1962, which resulted in more than 15 albums.
He also toured in several musicals, including Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, where he portrayed Billy Bigelow, a role he also played in 1967 in a made-for-television adaptation of the musical. He also starred in television versions of Brigadoon (1966, a production which won several Emmy Awards), and Kiss Me Kate, opposite his then-wife Carol Lawrence (1968).
Goulet began working in films in 1962, providing the voice of one of the characters in the animated feature Gay Purr-ee, opposite Judy Garland. His first acting role was in His and Hers (1964), but it was not until a cameo appearance as a singer in Louis Malle's film, Atlantic City (1980) that Goulet was given critical acclaim. He recorded the song Atlantic City (My Old Friend) for Applause Records in 1981.
He was absent from the screen for seven years, until he was cast by Tim Burton as a houseguest blown through the roof in Beetlejuice and also played himself in Bill Murray's Scrooged (both 1988). In 1991, Goulet starred, along with John Putch and Hillary Bailey Smith, in the unsold television series pilot Acting Sheriff. That same year, he appeared as Quentin Hapsburg, opposite Leslie Nielsen, in the comedy The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. (He also had a cameo in the 1982 TV series Police Squad, in the episode The Butler Did It. The television series spawned The Naked Gun movie series).
In 1993, he played himself in the The Simpsons episode "$pringfield". In that episode, Bart Simpson booked him into his own casino (actually Bart's treehouse), where he sang Jingle Bells (Batman Smells. In 1996, he appeared in Ellen DeGeneres' first starring vehicle, Mr. Wrong, as an insecure TV host. In 2000, he played himself on two episodes of the Robert Smigel series TV Funhouse; as a sort of mentor to the show's animal puppet troupe, he was the only character who had the respect of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Goulet has also appeared in the Disney cartoon Recess, as the singing voice for Mikey Blumberg, in numerous episodes. In all, Goulet made over 80 television appearances as himself.
Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Blvd.
Peter Viertel, 86
November 4
Peter Viertel was German-born American author and screenwriter. Viertel was most famous for his novel White Hunter Black Heart, which was made into a film starring Clint Eastwood in 1990. By his own admission, the novel is an account of his time working on the script of John Huston’s The African Queen, and the central character is Pete Verrill, a thinly-disguised pseudonym.
Screen-writing credits include: Saboteur (1942), The Hard Way (1943), We Were Strangers (1949), Roughshod (1949), The African Queen (1951), The Sun Also Rises (1957), and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). Viertel died 20 days after the death of his wife, actress Deborah Kerr.
A filmed documentary by director Michael Scheingraber was in production at the time of Viertel's death. Titled Peter Viertel - Between the Lines the film is based upon over 400 minutes of recorded interviews with Viertel.
Hilda Braid, 78
November 6
Hilda Braid was an English actress who had a long career on British television and became well known in her later years for playing Victoria "Nana" Moon in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. The Normandy episode which featured Braid’s character visiting the grave of her husband who had died in WWII won a British Soap Award for "Best Single Episode" in 2006.
Braid trained as an actress and dancer at RADA, having won a scholarship to get there. At RADA, she won the Lord Lurgan Award. After RADA, Braid did rep and went on to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her West End roles included parts in The Waltz of the Toreadors, from 1956 to 1957, and Pickwick from 1963 to 1964.
Braid made her television debut in the police drama No Hiding Place, playing Alice Flinders. In 1963 she appeared in Suspense and in the 1960s and 1970s also appeared in Crossroads, as Winnie Plumtree, Softly, Softly, Z-Cars, Play for Today, The Onedin Line, Emmerdale Farm, as P. Morphett, and Man About the House. Hilda Braid's first major role came in middle-age and was that of Florence Johnson in the late 1970s sitcom Citizen Smith. Around this time she also appeared in In Loving Memory and Robin's Nest. Braid later had recurring roles in other sitcoms, including in L for Lester (1982), The Bright Side (1985), The 10%ers (1994-96) and Gogglewatch (1997-98).
Other television appearances during the 1980s and 1990s included Oliver Twist, Brookside, as Molly Partridge, One Foot in the Grave, Goodnight Sweetheart, Dangerfield, The Bill, Midsomer Murders, My Family and Casualty. Her film roles were few, but in 1980 she appeared in The Wildcats of St Trinians and in 1996 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close.
Alejandra Meyer, 70
November 7
Alejandra Meyer was a Mexican telenovela actress. Additionally, she appeared in over 90 films throughout her career and many telenovelas, including Serafín and Niña amada mía . She first gained fame in Mexican television programs such as Cándido Pérez, where she appeared opposite actor Jorge Ortiz de Pinedo. Her last work was in the telenovela series Yo amo a Juan Querendón and Vecinos.
Francine Parker, 81
November 8
Francine Parker was a television and film director, who was one of the first female members of the Directors Guild of America. Parker was best known for her controversial documentary, FTA, which chronicled the antiwar entertainers tour, Free The Army tour (FTA), during the Vietnam War. The FTA tour and its documentary featured anti-Vietnam War celebrities Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland interacting very frankly with American soldiers.
Parker also produced a series of one hour plays for PBS called Jews and History in 1966. The film series explored the contributions of Jews to the arts throughout history. In a review of Jews and History the Los Angeles Times seemed astounded of the, "odds of a female producer selling anthologized culture on television."
Parker was the eleventh woman to join the Directors Guild of America when she was inducted as a member in 1971. She taught film directing at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for 18 years. Parker helped found and became president of the Women for Equality in Media. As president, she led 1971 a march on the American Film Institute for its lack of women in AFI programs that were partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The AFI responded. The number of women admitted to the AFI's Center for Advance Film Studies rose from zero in 1969 to seven women by 1973.
Laraine Day, (La Raine Johnson), 87
November 10
Laraine Day was a Hollywod actress, in 1937 she debuted onscreen in a bit part in Stella Dallas; shortly afterwards she won lead roles in several George O'Brien westerns at RKO, in which she was billed as Laraine Hays and then Laraine Johnson. In 1939 she signed with MGM, going on to become popular and well-known (billed as Laraine Day) as Nurse Mary Lamont, the title character's fiancee in a string of seven Dr. Kildare movies beginning with Calling Dr. Kildare (1939), with Lew Ayres in the title role.
Her roles for other studios were often far more stimulating than those MGM gave her, including a prominent supporting part in the Irish melodrama My Son, My Son! (1939). She starred in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940) and the psychological mystery The Locket (1946) with Robert Mitchum. She was paired opposite major film stars, including Lana Turner, Cary Grant, and John Wayne, and hosted a TV show alternately called Daydreaming with Laraine or The Laraine Day Show (1951).
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Laraine Day has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6676 Hollywood Blvd.
Delbert Mann, (Delbert Martin Mann Jr.), 87
November 11
Delbert Mann was a television and film director, best known for his film Marty (1955), which won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor, (Ernest Borgnine). Marty was the first American film to win the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mann began his career as a director in the “golden age of television.” He directed many dramas for the Philco Playhouse, the Goodyear Television Playhouse, and the Producers' Showcase, all for NBC. His television dramas included October Story with Julie Harris and Leslie Nielsen, Middle of the Night with Eva Marie Saint and E.G. Marshall, a remake of The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart, and two productions of Shakespeare's Othello. In 1954, Mann won a Best Director Emmy nomination for the Producers' Showcase episode of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, a musical adaptation featuring the young Paul Newman and the singing talents of swinging Frank Sinatra. It was Mann’s direction of a live television drama for the Goodyear Television Playhouse in 1953, starring actor Rod Steiger, as a lonely butcher named Marty, which he would make his career.
Mann shot Marty in 1955, with a paltry budget of $350,000.00. The film made three million at the box office and it is thought that Marty was the first Academy Award-winning film where the advertising costs exceeded the budget. Rod Steiger, declined to reprise the title role, and it was given to Burt Lancaster's co-star from From Here to Eternity, Ernest Borginine.
Mann’s other films include: The Bachelor Party (1957), Desire Under the Elms (1958), Separate Tables (1958), The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), Lover Come Back (1961), The Outsider (1961), That Touch of Mink (1962), A Gathering of Eagles (1963), David Copperfield (1969), Kidnapped (1971), and The Last Days of Patton (TV) (1986).
From 1967 to 1971, he was president of the Directors Guild of America. Mann was honored by the DGA with its Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 1997 and an Honorary Life Membership in 2002.
Monty Westmore, (Montague George Westmore), 84
November 13
Monty Westmore was part of the third generation of the Westmore family of American make-up artists in film and television; he worked on over 75 films and television shows since 1950.
Westmore spent seven seasons as make-up artist on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and was screen legend Bette Davis' personal make-up artist on the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). He later served as Paul Newman's personal make-up artist on seventeen of the actor's films over the course of nearly three decades.
Westmore’s worked on over 75 films including: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Rio Lobo (1970), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Drowning Pool (1975), Fort Apache the Bronx (1981), The Verdict (1982), Uncommon Valor (1983), Stand by Me (1986), The Color of Money (1986), The Dead Pool (1988), Alien Nation (1988), Jurassic Park (1993), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998),
He shared a 1991 Best Makeup Academy Award nomination for his work as assistant makeup supervisor on Steven Spielberg's Hook. He was also the recipient of two Emmy Award nominations, one for the 1983 ABC drama Who Will Love My Children? starring Ann-Margret and another for HBO's 1996 movie The Late Shift.
Peter Zinner & his daughter, Katina Zinner
Peter Zinner, 88
November 13
Peter Zinner was an Academy Award and BAFTA-winning film editor. He is best known for his editing of both The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) and The Deer Hunter (1978). Zinner’s narrative cross-cutting of The Godfather’s climax, in which he intercuts a christening with the wholesale slaughter of the Corleone family's enemies, has become one of the most celebrated and memorable sequences in cinema history.
He was nominated for three Oscars for his work as co-editor (along with Bill Reynolds) for The Godfather, The Deer Hunter and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). He won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for The Deer Hunter, in which his editing contributed hugely to the film's unique mixture of tense action sequences; notably the famous Russian roulette scenes. His work on The Godfather: Part II earned him a second BAFTA nomination. Ziner was nominated four times for Emmy Awards and won twice, once for the miniseries War and Remembrance (TV)(1988) and once for HBO's Citizen Cohn (1992). His peers in the American Cinema Editors Guild honored him with six Eddie nominations of which he won four.
Peter Ziner also worked as a music editor on such films as X-15 (1961), the US version of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), and Lord Jim (1965). His many other film editing credits include Blake Edwards' Gunn (1967), Richard Brooks' In Cold Blood (1967), Darling Lili (1970), Crazy Joe (1974), Mahogany (1975), A Star is Born (1976) and Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture (TV)(1990). In 1990 he played the role of Admiral Yuri Ilyich Padorin in the film The Hunt for Red October. Zinner also directed The Salamander (1981) with Anthony Quinn.
Trond Kirkvaag, 61
November 16
Trond Kirkvaag was a Norwegian comedian, actor, imitator, screenwriter, author and director. In his 39 years at the Norwegian TV network, NRK, he produced numerous comedy television series, and at his untimely death he was widely hailed by his colleagues as the greatest Norwegian TV-comedian in history.
Trond Kirkvaag appeared on TV-screens for the first time in 1968 with an NRK 1 program titled Smil til det skjulte kamera (Smile to the hidden camera). Kirkvaag was best known for his work with Knut Lystad and Lars Mjøen with the comedy trio KLM, which was strongly influenced by the silliness of Monty Python, and also the slapstick of the silent movie era, as well as the wise-cracking of the Marx Brothers. He and his fellows won the Gullrute (Golden Pane) honor award in 2004.
Hollis Alpert, 91
November 18
Hollis Alpert was an American film critic and author. Alpert was best known as the cofounder of the National Society of Film Critics. Alpert took a job as an assistant fiction editor for the New York Times from 1950 to 1956. He simultaneously worked for a number of other publications at the same time as a freelance film and book reviewer. His freelance work led to his position as a film critic for the Saturday Review. He stayed at the Saturday Review as a reviewer until 1975. Alpert then worked for the American Film Magazine for as an editor for the next six years.
The National Society of Film Critics was founded in Hollis Alpert's New York City living room in 1966 by a group of film critics who had been denied membership into the New York Film Critics Circle, a group favored by critics who worked in newspapers.
The New Yorker film critic, Pauline Kael, was also instrumental in the founding of the society, along with Alpert. There are now over 60 members of the society who write for weekly and daily newspapers, as of 2007. According to another founding member, Joe Morgenstern, Alpert was widely seen as a serious, knowledgeable, dedicated film critic. The Saturday Review . . . was a considerable presence on the scene then when movie reviews mattered and were taken seriously as an intellectual matter.
Dick Wilson, (Riccardo DiGuglielmo), 91
November 19
Dick Wilson was a British-born American character actor who played the role of finicky grocery store manager Mr. (George) Whipple in over 500 Charmin toilet paper television commercials (1965–1989, 1999).
Wilson made numerous appearances as several characters on the television sitcom Bewitched (usually as the drunk) and McHale's Navy, sometimes a neighbor or other stock character. He played a similar character in Disney's The World's Greatest Athlete in 1973. Also Wilson appeared on Hogan's Heroes and The Bob Newhart Show. Wilson was quoted as saying, I've done thirty-eight pictures and nobody remembers any of them, but they all remember me selling toilet paper. Wilson made more than 504 commercials as Mr. Whipple.
Fernando Fernán Gómez, 86
November 21
Fernando Fernán Gómez was an Argentinean-born Spanish actor, director and writer. He wrote comedies, novels and films. He was one of Spain's most favorite entertainers, best known to American audiences for the role of the father in the Oscar-winning foreign film Belle epoque (1992)
Gómez was known for his thunderous voice, firm and striking charisma and petulant temper; he appeared in over 200 films. In the 1950s he began to direct movies, and was the director of the film of his novel, El viaje a ninguna parte (1986). He obtained national respect in this area in 1958, with the comedy La vida por delante (1958), which had a sequel, La vida alrededor in 1959.
Verity Lambert, 71
November 22
Verity Lambert was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.
She began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup.
The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media.
Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production in 2002, and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.
Marit Allen, 66
November 26
Marit Allen was a British fashion journalist and costume designer who specialized in costumes for films. She designed the costumes for several successful Hollywood films, including Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Brokeback Mountain (2005) and La Vie en Rose (2007). Her career as a film costume designer last over 33 years.
Allen was persuaded to enter the costume designing business for film by director Nicolas Roeg after her successful career in fashion journalism. Following her entry into costume design, Allen worked on the costumes for a number of Roag's movies including Don't Look Now (1973), Eureka (1984) and The Witches (1990).
Allen also developed a working relationship with Taiwan film director, Ang Lee. The two collaborated to create the costumes for a number of Ang's major films, including Ride with the Devil (1999), The Hulk (2003), and Brokeback Mountain. Allen's other noted films included Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dead Man (1995), and Love in the Time of Cholera (2007).
Allen was honored for her work with a BAFTA nomination, two Emmy nominations, as well as a Costume Designers Guild award.
Mel Tolkin, (Shmuel Tolchinsky), 94
November 26
Mel Tolkin was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the seminal, live TV sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows (NBC, 1950-1954) during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a storied staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, and Larry Gelbart. The writers' room inspired the film My Favorite Year (1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993), written by Neil Simon.
Considered by TV historians as a classic of the medium, the series presented 90 minutes of comedy live each week for 39 weeks a year, for a total of 160 shows airing February 25, 1950, to June 5, 1954. From its sixth-floor office on West 56th Street in Manhattan, writers including Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Tolkin, and Kallen, famously fought, argued, quipped, crafted, paced, muttered, swore, occasionally typed and more than occasionally threw things: crumpled paper cups, cigars (lighted) and much else. The acoustical-tile ceiling was fringed with pencils, which had been flung aloft in a rage and stuck fast; Mr. Tolkin once counted 39 of them suspended there.
The series quickly settled into a starring quartet of Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris. Many of its sketches became classics that found a new audience beginning in 1973, when the show's producer-director, Max Liebman, compiled the theatrical film release 10 From Your Show of Shows. Tolkin continued writing on an acclaimed successor series, Caesar's Hour, which ran September 27, 1954 through 1957. He also wrote the theme song for Your Show of Shows, Stars Over Broadway.
For six years in the 1970s, Tolkin was a story editor on the landmark CBS sitcom All in the Family, writing several of its scripts. He also wrote for sequel series Archie Bunker's Place, and for the Tony Randall sitcom Love, Sidney. Tolkin also wrote comedy for the standup comics and nightclub entertainers Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, and Danny Thomas. Tolkin, who won an Emmy Award, also received four Writers Guild of America Awards, a Humanitas Prize and a Peabody Award. He was the father of screenwriter-novelist Michael Tolkin and TV writer-director Stephen Tolkin.
Julia Smith and Tony Holland
Tony Holland, 67
November 28
Tony Holland was an English television writer best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. His career in television began on the popular police drama, Z-Cars as a writer and script editor. It was here that he met producer and director, Julia Smith and started a long and successful working relationship. Holland and Smith became an established producer/script-editor team during their time on Z-Cars and went on to work for the BBC's hospital drama, Angels.
In 1983 the BBC approached Holland and Smith to produce a new experience for their channel, a bi-weekly soap-opera that would rival the long established ITV favourites, Coronation Street, Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm. The BBC wanted this new serial to reflect London, today! and together, Smith and Holland came up with the idea of a programme set in a Victorian Square within the East End of London, focusing on its close working-class families and eccentric Cockney inhabitants. Thus, EastEnders was born.
Holland and Smith wanted a primary focus of EastEnders to be a large extended family, representative of the type most typically found in the East End of London. Holland was from a large London family himself, and in creating some of the show's characters he was able to use some of his own experiences as inspiration for EastEnders central clan the Beales and the Fowlers. In creating the stories and characters, Holland delved into family stories, past and present. His aunt Lou Beale came to inspire the EastEnders character of the same name, along with her two children Peter (Pete) and Pauline. Holland also used some of his experiences as a barman in London's pubs and clubs to create the dynamic pairing of Den and Angie Watts, the owners of the Queen Victoria.
In 2002, Holland was awarded with a Special Achievement Award from the British Soap Awards, and in 2004 he appeared on the Channel 4 documentary How Soaps Changed The World.
Evel Knievel, (Robert Craig Knievel, Jr.), 69
November 30
Evel Knievel was a world famous motorcycle daredevil who became famous for trying to leap trucks, buses, lions, shark-infested pools and the Snake River Canyon, Knievel's nationally televised motorcycle jumps, including his 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon, represent four of the 20 most-watched episodes of ABC's Wide World of Sports. His achievements and failures got him into the Guinness Book of World Records for having broken more bones in his lifetime than anyone else.
Knievel’s first major televised event was his 141 foot motorcycle jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 31, 1967. He successfully cleared the fountains, but crashed on landing, suffering severe injuries.
His most famous jump was his attempt to span the three-quarter-mile wide Snake River Canyon in Idaho, on a rocket-powered motorbike dubbed the Sky Cycle. On September 28, 1974 he cleared the distance, but the Sky Cycle’s parachute opened early and it drifted the 1,500 feet down into the bottom of the canyon. He made an appearance at Wembley Stadium, London, in May 1975, where he attempted to jump 120 feet over 13 London buses. In October he made a clean 133-feet jump over 14 Greyhound buses in Kings Island, Ohio, the furthest he ever jumped without injury — gaining the highest viewer ratings in the history of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
Ken Southworth, 89
December 6
Ken Southworth was a veteran cartoon animator and instructor who worked for a number of major animation studios throughout his career. Southworth began working as an animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1944. He assisted legendary animator Milt Kahl with Alice in Wonderland (1951) by completing much of the film's rough animation. He also helped animator Frank Thomas with the Wicked Stepmother character in Cinderella (1950). Southworth's other contributions while at Disney included The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad (1949), The Three Caballeros (1944), and Song of the South (1946), as well as a number of shorts featuring iconic Disney characters such as Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck.
Southworth briefly worked at a number of smaller animation studios after working at Disney, including MGM, Rudy Cataldi Productions and Sam Sing Productions. He is reportedly credited for creating the opening title sequence for Woody Woodpecker while working for Walter Lantz.
He later worked for animation powerhouse Hanna-Barbera for twenty one years. His credits at Hanna-Barbera included Scooby Doo, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, Top Cat, The Smurfs and Swat Kats. Southworth's later work included the Looney Toons animation which was featured in the live action film, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and the Filmation movie, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987).
Southworth was also a leading teacher and instructor in the field of animation. Besides Hanna-Barbera, Southworth taught seminars and courses at a number of institutions, including Glendale Animation Studios, the Art Institute of Southern California, the California State University, Fullerton, the Detroit Center for Creative Studies and VanArts.
Freddie Fields, 84
December 11
Freddie Fields was an American theatrical agent and film producer. As one of Hollywood's first superagents he was instrumental in the careers of such stars as Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Woody Allen, Henry Fonda, Robert Redford and Steve McQueen. Fields helped to promote the early career of Mel Gibson.
He was one of the most important figures in Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s and is credited with originating the concept of stars sharing in the gross of a film and would often negotiate with studios to supply numerous stars, a director and script in a single deal — the package. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), American Graffiti (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Star Wars (1977) are just a few of the films he was involved with while at CMA (Creative Management Associates), now known as International Creative Management (ICM).
Fields credits as an independent producer include Looking for Mr Goodbar (1977), Escape to Victory (1981) and Glory (1989).
Floyd Red Crow Westerman, 71
December 13
Floyd Red Crow Westerman was a Dakota musician, activist and actor. Late in his life he became a leading actor depicting Native Americans in American films and television.
Westerman's film and television appearances include the role as Ten Bears in Dances with Wolves (1990) and of the Shaman for Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). Westerman debuted in Renegades (1989) in which he played Red Crow, the Lakota Sioux father of Lou Diamond Phillips. In his last film, Westerman appeared as Standing Elk alongside his long-time friend Max Gail the 2006 family film, Tillamook Treasure. He can be seen as well in the beginning of Hidalgo (2004), as the Chief in Buffalo Bill's circus.
His television roles have included playing Uncle Ray on Walker, Texas Ranger, One Who Waits on Northern Exposure and multiple appearances as Albert Hosteen on The X-Files. In September 2007, Westerman finished work for the film Swing Vote.
Jack Zander, 99
December 17
Jack Zander was an American animator whose career lasted from the golden age of theatrical animation into the 1980s. He was the original animator of Jerry in the Tom and Jerry cartoon series, begun in 1940.
Among the cartoons he helped animate were Puss Gets the Boot (1940), The Night Before Christmas (1941), Fine Feathered Friend (1942), and Sufferin' Cats! (1943).
Zander is best known for his pioneering animation for television commercials. It is estimated he had made more than 5,000 commercials for the likes of Piels Beer, Gulf Oil, Camel cigarettes, the Dime Savings Bank, Alka-Seltzer, Green Giant vegetables, Crest toothpaste and a bevy of breakfast cereals. In 1970, he formed Zander's Animation Parlour in New York City where he made commercials until his retirement.
Michael Kidd, 92
December 23
Michael Kidd was a film and stage choreographer. His best known work, for the 1954 film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, was noted for a series of energetic dances depicting ordinary frontier activities, including a barn raising.
Kidd also choreographed Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Dancing in the Dark in the 1953 musical film The Band Wagon. He was both director and choreographer for the musical comedy film Merry Andrew (1958), starring Danny Kaye and directed episodes of both All in the Family (1971) and Laverne & Shirley (1976)).
Kidd won five Tony Awards for choreography, and an honorary Academy Award in 1996 in recognition of his services to the art of dance in the art of the screen.
Patricia Kirkwood, 86
December 25
Patricia Kirkwood was a stage and film actor who appeared in numerous dramas, cabaret, revues, music hall, variety, pantomimes, films and television shows. Known as the champagne girl of the war years, Kirkwood was dubbed Britain’s answer to Betty Grable; her legs were famously described by the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan as the eighth wonder of the world. She was the first female to have her own television series on the BBC.
Her movie credits included Me and My Pal (1938), Come on, George (1939), No Leave, No Love (1946), Stars in Your Eyes (1956), and most famously in Band Wagon (1940). Starting in 1953, Kirkwood began appearing on television and in 1954 the BBC gave her her own TV series called The Pat Kirkwood Show.
G. P. Sippy, 93
December 25
G. P. Sippy was a Bollywood movie producer and director. He is best known for his magnum opus, Sholay (1975), the biggest blockbuster in the history of Bollywood. Sippy other films include several popular Bollywood blockbusters such as Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Saagar (1985), and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992).
He was the Chairman of the Film and TV Producers Guild of India for several years, and won the Filmfare Award in 1968 and 1982.
Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 85
December 27
Jerzy Kawalerowicz was a Polish film director who was noted for his powerful, detail-oriented imagery and the depth of ideas in his films. After working as an assistant director, he made his directorial debut with the 1951 film The Village Mill (Gromada).
He was a leading figure in the Polish Film School, and his films Shadow (Cień, 1956) and Night Train (Pociąg, 1959) constitute some of that movement's best work. Other noted works by Kawalerowicz include Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od aniolów, 1961) and a 1966 adaptation of Bolesław Prus' historical novel, Pharaoh, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
In 1955 Kawalerowicz was appointed head of the prestigious KADR production unit. He held that position again in 1972. He always resisted pressures from the communist administration to produce propaganda films. His studio produced some of the best Polish movies by Andrzej Wajda, Tadeusz Konwicki and Juliusz Machulski.
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