Celebrities who have sadly died in 2015
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- Director
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Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit part in Queen for a Day (1951) and another as a ballplayer in the perennial Rhubarb (1951). After two years in the United States Army, he was still getting small, often uncredited parts, like an Army telex operator in Them! (1954). His part as Narab, a Martian finally friendly to Earth, in the closing scene in the corny Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), somewhat foreshadowed the role which would make him a household name: Mr. Spock, the half-human/half-Vulcan science officer on Star Trek (1966) one of television's all-time most successful series. His performance won him three Emmy nominations and launched his career as a writer and director, notably of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the story of a humpback whale rescue that proved the most successful of the Star Trek movies. Stage credits have included "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver", "Camelot" and "Equus". He has hosted the well-known television series In Search of... (1977) and Ancient Mysteries (1994), authored several volumes of poetry and guest-starred on two episodes of The Simpsons (1989). In the latter years of his career, he played Mustafa Mond in NBC's telling of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1998), voiced Sentinel Prime in the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and played Spock again in two new Star Trek films, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Leonard Nimoy died on February 27, 2015 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Jackie Collins was born on 4 October 1937 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Danger Man (1960), The Saint (1962) and The Stud (1978). She was married to Oscar Lerman and Wallace Austin. She died on 19 September 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Edward Herrmann was born on 21 July 1943 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was an actor, known for Overboard (1987), The Lost Boys (1987) and Nixon (1995). He was married to Star Herrmann and Leigh Curran. He died on 31 December 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.A great tv and film actor.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision.
Wesley Earl Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Caroline (Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He had a midwestern suburban upbringing. His first feature film was The Last House on the Left (1972), which he wrote, directed, and edited. Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), a film he wrote and directed. And though he did not direct any of its five sequels, he deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing the audacious New Nightmare (1994), which was nominated as Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards, and introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world.
In 1996 Craven reached a new level of success with the release of Scream (1996). The film, which sparked the phenomenal trilogy, was the winner of MTV's 1996 Best Movie Award and grossed more than $100 million domestically, as did Scream 2 (1997). Between Scream 2 and Scream 3 (2000), Craven, offered the opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, helmed Music of the Heart (1999), a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year, in the midst of directing, Craven completed his first novel, "The Fountain Society," published by Simon & Shuster. Recent works include the 2005 psychological thriller Red Eye (2005), and a short rom-com segment for the ensemble product, Paris, I Love You (2006).
In later years, Craven also produced remakes of two of his earlier films for his genre fans, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven has always had an eye for discovering fresh talent, something that contributes to the success of his films. While casting A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven discovered the then unknown Johnny Depp. Craven later cast Sharon Stone in her first starring role for his film Deadly Blessing. He even gave Bruce Willis his first featured role in an episode of TV's mid-80's edition of The Twilight Zone. In My Soul to Take (2010), Craven once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming young teens, including Max Thieriot, in whom he saw the spark of stardom. The film marked Craven's first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced with him the highly anticipated production of Scream 4.
Craven's Scream 4 (2011) reunited the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, to re-boot the beloved franchise. Craven again exhibited his knack for spotting important talent, with a cast of young actors bringing us a totally new breed of Woodsboro high schoolers, including Emma Robert and Hayden Pannetierre.- Actress
- Soundtrack
In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made her entrance into this caring haven on August 17, 1920, in Ranelagh (a suburb of Dublin), Ireland. Her mother, Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons, was an accomplished contralto. Her father, Charles FitzSimons, managed a business in Dublin and also owned part of the renowned Irish soccer team "The Shamrock Rovers." Maureen was the second of six FitzSimons children - Peggy, Florrie, Charles B. Fitzsimons, Margot Fitzsimons and James O'Hara completed this beautiful family.
Maureen loved playing rough athletic games as a child and excelled in sports. She combined this interest with an equally natural gift for performing. This was demonstrated by her winning pretty much every Feis award for drama and theatrical performing her country offered. By age 14 she was accepted to the prestigious Abbey Theater and pursued her dream of classical theater and operatic singing. This course was to be altered, however, when Charles Laughton, after seeing a screen test of Maureen, became mesmerized by her hauntingly beautiful eyes. Before casting her to star in Jamaica Inn (1939), Laughton and his partner, Erich Pommer, changed her name from Maureen FitzSimons to "Maureen O'Hara" - a bit shorter last name for the marquee.
Under contract to Laughton, Maureen's next picture was to be filmed in America (The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)) at RKO Pictures. The epic film was an extraordinary success and Maureen's contract was eventually bought from Laughton by RKO. At 19, Maureen had already starred in two major motion pictures with Laughton. Unlike most stars of her era, she started at the top, and remained there - with her skills and talents only getting better and better with the passing years.
Maureen has an enviable string of all-time classics to her credit that include the aforementioned "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Sitting Pretty (1948), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Parent Trap (1961). Add to this the distinction of being voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world and you have a film star who was as gorgeous as she was talented.
Although at times early in her career Hollywood didn't seem to notice, there was much more to Maureen O'Hara than her dynamic beauty. She not only had a wonderful lyric soprano voice, but she could use her inherent athletic ability to perform physical feats that most actresses couldn't begin to attempt, from fencing to fisticuffs. She was a natural athlete.
In her career Maureen starred with some of Hollywood's most dashing leading men, including Tyrone Power, John Payne, Rex Harrison, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Brian Keith, Sir Alec Guinness and, of course, her famed pairings with "The Duke" himself, John Wayne. She starred in five films with Wayne, the most beloved being The Quiet Man (1952).
In addition to famed director John Ford, Maureen was also fortunate to have worked for some other great directors in the business: Alfred Hitchcock, William Dieterle, Henry Hathaway, Henry King, Jean Renoir, John M. Stahl, William A. Wellman, Frank Borzage, Walter Lang, George Seaton, George Sherman, Carol Reed, Delmer Daves, David Swift, Andrew V. McLaglen and Chris Columbus.
In 1968 Maureen found much deserved personal happiness when she married Charles Blair. Gen. Blair was a famous aviator whom she had known as a friend of her family for many years. A new career began for Maureen, that of a full-time wife. Her marriage to Blair, however, was again far from typical. Blair was the real-life version of what John Wayne had been on the screen. He had been a Brigadier General in the Air Force, a Senior Pilot with Pan American, and held many incredible record-breaking aeronautic achievements. Maureen happily retired from films in 1973 after making the TV movie The Red Pony (1973) (which on the prestigious Peabody Award for Excellence) with Henry Fonda. With Blair, Maureen managed Antilles Airboats, a commuter sea plane service in the Caribbean. She not only made trips around the world with her pilot husband, but owned and published a magazine, "The Virgin Islander," writing a monthly column called "Maureen O'Hara Says."
Tragically, Charles Blair died in a plane crash in 1978. Though completely devastated, Maureen pulled herself together and, with memories of ten of the happiest years of her life, continued on. She was elected President and CEO of Antilles Airboats, which brought her the distinction of being the first woman president of a scheduled airline in the United States.
Fortunately, she was coaxed out of retirement several times - once in 1991 to star with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991) and again, in 1995, in a made-for-TV movie, The Christmas Box (1995) on CBS. In the spring of 1998, Maureen accepted the second of what would be three projects for Polson Productions and CBS: Cab to Canada (1998) - and, in October, 2000, The Last Dance (2000).
On St. Patrick's Day in 2004, she published her New York Times bestselling memoir, 'Tis Herself, co-authored with her longtime biographer and manager Johnny Nicoletti.
On November 4, 2014 Maureen was honored by a long overdue Oscar for "Lifetime Achievement" at the annual Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Governors Awards.
Maureen O'Hara was absolutely stunning, with that trademark red hair, dazzling smile and those huge, expressive eyes. She has fans from all over the world of all ages who are utterly devoted to her legacy of films and her persona as a strong, courageous and intelligent woman.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Shalhoub, a lumber merchant, and his wife, Claire (Saada). Of Lebanese and Syrian extraction, the young Michel was raised Catholic. He was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria and took a degree in mathematics and physics from Cairo University with a major. Afterward graduating from university, he entered the family lumber business.
Before making his English-language film debut with "Lawrence of Arabia", for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and international fame, Sharif became a star in Egyptian cinema. His first movie was the Egyptian film The Blazing Sun (1954) ("The Blazing Sun") in 1953, opposite the renowned Egyptian actress Faten Hamamah whom he married in 1955. He converted to Islam to marry Hamama and took the name Omar al-Sharif. The couple had one child (Tarek Sharif, who was born in 1957 and portrayed the young Zhivago in the eponymous picture) and divorced in 1974. Sharif never remarried.
Beginning in the 1960s, Sharif earned a reputation as one of the world's best known contract bridge players. In the 1970s and 1980s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune. Sharif also wrote several books on bridge and has licensed his name to a bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", which has been marketed since 1992. Sharif told the press in 2006 that he no longer played bridge, explaining, "I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions, bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time.".
As an actor, Sharif had made a comeback in 2003 playing the title role of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim (2003). For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actor César, France's equivalent of the Oscar, from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2012, Sharif died of a heart attack on July 10, 2015, in Cairo, Egypt.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He later completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory at UCLA. Horner began scoring student films for the American Film Institute in the late 1970s, which paved the way for scoring assignments on a number of small-scale films. His first large, high-profile project was composing music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which would lead to numerous other film offers and opportunities to work with world-class performers such as the London Symphony Orchestra. With over 75 projects to his name, and work with people such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, and Ron Howard, Horner firmly established himself as a strong voice in the world of film scoring. In addition, Horner composed a classical concert piece in the 1980s, called "Spectral Shimmers", which was world premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Horner passed away in a plane crash on June 22, 2015, two months short of his 62nd birthday.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 - May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato and staccato picking that influenced many later blues electric guitar players. AllMusic recognized King as "the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century".
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King, none of whom are related). King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows.
King was born on a cotton plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and later worked at a cotton gin in Indianola, Mississippi. He was attracted to music and the guitar in church, and he began his career in Juke joints and local radio. He later lived in Memphis and Chicago; then, as his fame grew, toured the world extensively. King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas on May 14, 2015.- Tough, gruff, thick-browed, volatile-looking character actor Alex Rocco was born Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr. on February 29, 1936, to Italian immigrants in Cambridge, Mass. He grew up a member of Boston's Winter Hill gang (his nickname was "Bobo") and was briefly detained regarding a murder at one point after an alleged personal incident triggered the Boston Irish Gang War (1961-1967). Rocco decided to straighten his life and relocated to Hollywood in 1962 following his detainment and release.
Developing an interest in acting, Alex initially trained with such notable teachers as Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Corey in order to curb his thick Boston accent. Working as a bartender during the lean years, his film and TV career finally kick-started in 1965, immediately relying on his sly, lethal menace, toothy toughness, and prior gangland past to realistically portray gritty anti-heroes and villains. He made an effective movie debut, co-starring as a vengeful veterinarian and Vietnam vet who goes after motorcycle "bad boys" following his wife's beating and rape in the exploitation flick Motorpsycho! (1965) directed by Russ Meyer. Despite this bold beginning, it was followed by a disappointing gangster bit in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) and a nothing role as a police Lieutenant in The Boston Strangler (1968). On TV, he found sporadic work playing thugs and other unsavory types on such TV shows as "Run for Your Life," "Batman" and "Get Smart."
Rocco came into his own in the early 1970s. After featured roles in such violent exploitation like Blood Mania (1970) and Brute Corps (1971), he received a huge boost in an Oscar-winning "A" film. He made a brief but potent impact essaying the role of Las Vegas syndicate boss Moe Green who gets a bullet in the eye during the violently explosive "christening sequence" of Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1972). From there he found a comfortable supporting niche playing various swarthy-looking cronies, hoods and cops in such crime films as The Outside Man (1972), Slither (1973), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) (in which he made good use of his Boston criminal past), Freebie and the Bean (1974), Three the Hard Way (1974) and A Woman for All Men (1975). Similar urban roles followed him on TV with yeoman work on such 1970s cop shows as "The Rookies", "Get Christie Love", "Kojak", "Cannon", "The Blue Knight", "Police Story", "The Rockford Files", "Barnaby Jones", "Dog and Cat", "Baretta", "Starsky and Hutch", "Delvecchio", "CHiPs", "Matt Houston", "Hardcastle and McCormick", and "Simon & Simon", along with the TV movies or miniseries A Question of Guilt (1978), The Gangster Chronicles (1981) and Badge of the Assassin (1985).
In the midst of all this, Alex was handed the starring role of his own series Three for the Road (1975) in which he played a new widower photographer with two teenage sons (played by Vincent Van Patten and Leif Garrett) who assuage their grief by leaving town and "discovering America" together. Although well-received, it was short-lived (13 episodes) as a result of poor scheduling. The actor returned to series TV in the late 1980s and was much more successful as a slick Hollywood agent in The Famous Teddy Z (1989) for which he won a "Supporting Actor" Emmy Award. Other regular comedy series work, such as Sibs (1991), The George Carlin Show (1994), The Division (2001) and Magic City (2012), added to his healthy resume over the years, with over 400 TV appearances racked up in all. Recurring roles on such programs as The Simpsons (1989) and The Facts of Life (1979) (as Nancy McKeon's father) also kept his career going at a steady pace. Other memorably flashy film roles include Freebie and the Bean (1974), The Stunt Man (1980), Lady in White (1988), Get Shorty (1995) and Just Write (1997).
Twice married, Rocco's first wife, Sandra Garrett, a nightclub performer and screenwriter, died of cancer in 2002. He married actress Shannon Wilcox in 2005 and together they appeared in the film Scammerhead (2014). Rocco appeared in two films helmed by his adopted son, screenwriter and director Marc Rocco: Scenes from the Goldmine (1987) and Dream a Little Dream (1989), who died in 2009. Two other children by his first wife were Lucian, a poet, and Jennifer, an attorney. Alex Rocco died of pancreatic cancer on July 18, 2015 at age 79. - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She moved to Los Angeles hoping to continue her dancing, but was soon cast in movies. At first, Yvonne had small roles in movies such as Gidget (1959) and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). After that, her film career just bumped along. As Yvonne was dating Elvis Presley at the time, she did have a supporting role in the two Elvis movies, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964).
But her fame would come with the cult television series Batman (1966) in which she played Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Her secret identity was Batgirl and as the Commissioner's daughter, she had access to all the calls of trouble taking place in Gotham City. Her character, Batgirl, was part of the 1967-68 season, which was the end of the run for the series. After Batman (1966), she also appeared on other television series such as Star Trek (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). As her career wound down, Yvonne went into the real estate business. Yvonne Craig died at age 78 of breast cancer at her home in Pacific Palisades, California on August 17, 2015.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.- Actor
- Producer
Jack Edward Larson was born in Los Angeles, California, to Anita (Calicoff) and George E. Larson. He was raised in Pasadena, and attended Pasadena Junior College (by coincidence, exactly as did his Adventures of Superman (1952) co-star George Reeves). He was a contract player at Warner Bros. Typecast as Jimmy Olsen, Larson found it virtually impossible to get other acting roles after the series went off the air and retired from acting a few years later, concentrating on writing. His plays have been highly acclaimed and he has had works performed in theaters and opera houses around the world. He was the longtime companion of late director James Bridges, with whom he co-produced a number of popular films of the 1970s and 1980s. Larson was an erudite and charming man who seems to have been close friends with many of the more prominent figures of the arts in the latter half of the 20th century, including Virgil Thomson, John Houseman, Leslie Caron, Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, Salka Viertel, Christopher Isherwood and James Dean. Larson died of natural causes while relaxing on the deck of his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, at the age of 87.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Like a number of British actors of the same generation (John Hurt and Alan Rickman, to name two), Roger Rees originally trained for the visual arts. He was born on May 5 1944 in Aberystwyth, Wales, and acted in church and Boy Scouts stage productions while growing up in South London, but studied painting and lithography at the Slade School of Art. He had to quit his studies, however, when his father died and he had to help support the family. His first paying jobs in show business were as a scenery painter. He was painting scenery, in fact, when he was asked to sub in for a part and made his acting debut. He put away his brushes for good after this.
He turned to acting on a full-time basis in the mid-1960s and appeared on both the London and Scottish stages. After his fourth audition, the Royal Shakespeare Company finally hired him as a walk-on, sword carrier and bit player in 1968. He then worked his way up through the RSC's ranks, finally achieving stardom in the early 1980s in the 8-1/2 hour stage adaptation of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby", which had a cast of 40 actors, and for which he won both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. Rees was also nominated for an Emmy Award for the television version of the play. By this time, he had several TV movies to his name, but he did not make his big-screen debut until Star 80 (1983).
Living in the United States since 1989, Roger made a name for himself in America when he joined the cast of the TV hit comedy Cheers (1982) as the priggish Britisher Robin Colcord and later the glib British ambassador Lord John Marbury on the series The West Wing (1999). More recently, he appeared as a frequent guest in several British and American television series and in a number of independent films.
However, Roger Rees remained primarily a man of the theatre with secondary careers as a playwright and stage director. Married to theatre collaborator Rick Elice since 2011, Roger was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Performing on Broadway in the musical "The Visit" starring Chita Rivera, he was forced to quit the show in late May of 2015. The 71-year-old actor died on July 10, 2015.- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Producer
British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her partner. Shortly after graduating from Eton (from which he was almost expelled for running a gambling ring), Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion (1938). His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Navy. After military service, Macnee attended the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London on scholarship. He also resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol (1951). Disappointed with his limited roles, Macnee left England for Canada and the United States.
In 1954, he went to Broadway with an Old Vic troupe and later moved on to Hollywood, where he made occasional television and film appearances until returning to England in 1959. Once back home, he took advantage of his producing experience in Canada to become co-producer of the British television series Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960). Shortly thereafter, Macnee landed the role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity in the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers (1961). His close identification with this character limited his career choices after the cancellation of the series in 1969, prompting him to reprise the role in The New Avengers (1976), which, though popular, failed to recapture the magic of the original series. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), Thunder in Paradise (1994) and NightMan (1997). In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.- Dick Van Patten began acting as a child. He made his first of 27 Broadway appearances at age seven in "Tapestry in Grey." After, he appeared in numerous films, including Freaky Friday (1976), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Spaceballs (1987). His television credits include his best-known role on the 1980s comedy-drama Eight Is Enough (1977), on which he played Tom Bradford, the patriarchal head of the pack.
Van Patten authored several bestselling books, including "How To Get Your Child Into Show Business" and his autobiography, "Eighty Is Not Enough." He was also known for lending his name to "Natural Balance," a line of high-end dog food that is intended to be indistinguishable from stews and other dishes, that are normally intended for human consumption. He was married to Pat Poole (née Patricia Poole) for 61 years; the union produced three sons: Nels Van Patten, James Van Patten, and Vincent Van Patten. - Actor
- Production Manager
- Soundtrack
Louis Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France to Yvonne (née Jourdan) and hotel owner Henry Gendre. He was educated in France, Britain, and Turkey. He trained as an actor with René Simon at the École Dramatique. He debuted on screen in 1939, going on to play cultivated, polished, dashing lead roles in a number of French romantic comedies and dramas.
After his father, the manager of the Cannes Grand Hôtel, was arrested by the Gestapo during World War II, Louis and his two brothers (Pierre Jourdan and Robert Gendre, both of whom became film directors) joined the French underground; his film career came to a halt when he refused to act in Nazi propaganda films.
In 1948, David O. Selznick invited him to Hollywood to appear in The Paradine Case (1947); he remained in the USA and went on to star in a number of Hollywood films. After 1953, he appeared in international productions and, in 1958, appeared in Gigi (1958), his best-known film by American audiences. He also made numerous appearances on American television.
Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills, California in 2015, at age 93.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Taylor Negron was born Brad Stephen Negron in Glendale, California, to Lucy (Rosario) and Conrad Negron, who was mayor of Indian Wells, CA. His parents were both of Puerto Rican descent. Negron attended UCLA, studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and studied comedy at a private seminar taught by Lucille Ball. He went on to join the cast of an improvisational comedy group, whose ranks included talents like Robin Williams, Martin Short and Betty Thomas. In 1982 Negron made his motion-picture debut as a love-struck, pill-popping, dancing intern in Young Doctors in Love (1982) and as the obviously peeved Mr. Pizza Guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). He also played Rodney Dangerfield's son-in-law in Easy Money (1983).
Negron was honored with the distinction of being asked to teach one of the first comedy courses offered at UCLA.
Negron died of cancer on January 10, 2015.- Actress
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An honest-to-goodness Southern Belle, similar to her most famous character role, "Elly May Clampett" on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Donna Douglas grew up in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area, loving "critters". She got married soon after high school, had a son, divorced and won a couple of beauty contests, all within the span of a few years. She moved to New York and soon appeared on television series, including a well-remembered guest-star shot on The Twilight Zone (1959) in one of the series' most famous episodes, Eye of the Beholder (1960), in which she plays a woman who tries to undergo a series of experimental treatments to make her beautiful, only for the treatments to fail. The twist was she was beautiful, at least to the viewers, but considered hideous to the pig people of the planet, she was on. She immediately won the character role of "Elly May Clampett" on one of the greatest situation comedies of all time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). This extremely comical series debuted with The Clampetts Strike Oil (1962), on her 30th birthday, Wednesday, September 26th, 1962, which is among the narrowest & sheerest coincidences, that are hardest to believe.- Fred Thompson was born on 19 August 1942 in Sheffield, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hunt for Red October (1990), No Way Out (1987) and Baby's Day Out (1994). He was married to Jeri Kehn Thompson and Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey. He died on 1 November 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.A good film actor, I love him best in Die Hard 2.
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Born in Decatur, Alabama and christened Dean Carroll Jones, the actor's father worked for a railroad company and the family moved often, living in Washington, DC, Nashville, and New Orleans. "It was in New Orleans I really learned how to sing", Jones told the Pittsburgh Press in 1969. Dropping out of school at 15, he worked for a short time singing in a club in that city, but when the club closed, he returned to Decatur and got his degree but Jones had gotten the show business bug.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, Jones got a job acting in a melodrama at Knott's Berry Farm. He was spotted by veteran composer Vernon Duke, who was planning a musical. The musical project fell through, but Duke enabled Jones an audition with Arthur Freed, the famous producer of MGM feature film musicals such as "Singin' In the Rain". It did not go as planned. "He's an actor, not singer!", Freed exclaimed as related by Jones in a 1966 L.A. Times interview.
Still, the studio signed Jones, and in his first credited role, he found himself acting opposite James Cagney in the 1956 drama "These Wilder Years." The veteran actor helped him through their scene. "There I was, just out of the U.S. Navy without an acting lesson to my name," Jones told the Christianity Today. "In walks Cagney and says, 'Walk to your mark and remember your lines.' That's all I've been doing for 50 years."
Jones had mostly small roles of a far grittier nature than his later Disney fare. "I played drug addicts, pimps, hard-cased killers, ex-cons and angry young men," he told The Times in 1995. And he reveled in the movie life. In a 2007 interview with the Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois, he recalled being on the MGM Culver City studio back-lot, with "Liz Taylor yelling, 'Hey Dean-O, let's go down to Stage 22 and watch Bing and Frank sing!'" Jones would appear with Elvis Presley in 1957 in "Jailhouse Rock".
He made his debut on Broadway in 1960 opposite Jane Fonda in "There Was a Little Girl", which flopped. Jones went on to the more successful "Under the Yum-Yum Tree" later that same year. He appeared in the title role of the Disney television series "Ensign O'Toole", a military comedy, which debuted in 1962 on NBC on Sunday evenings. The show was followed by Disney's anthology television show, so Disney caught the end of some episodes of Jones series, and liked what he saw.
Beginning in 1965 with "That Darn Cat!", Jones became closely identified with Disney family fare. In addition to the "Love Bug" and "The Ugly Dachshund", he was the leading man in "Monkeys, Go Home", "The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit", "The Million Dollar Duck", "The Shaggy D.A.", "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo", and other Disney feature films.
But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was leading an off-screen life contrary to his wholesome image. He had numerous affairs and was drinking heavily. "I had thought if I became a star I'd be happy," he said in a 1976 L.A. Times interview. "I had thought if I had a fairly large amount of money I'd be happy. I thought if I had a house on a hill I'd be happy. I thought if I had a Ferrari I'd be happy. One goal after another was accomplished. And with no fulfillment." Jones was able to keep his torment largely separated from his work life. Even the head of the studio was fooled. "I remember having lunch with Walt one day, and he told me, 'Dean, you're a perfect fit for these pictures. You're such a good family man!'" Jones told the Pantagraph. "I wasn't a good family man", Jones acknowledged. "I was showing up at home smelling of perfume that wasn't my wife's".
Jones' first marriage to Mae Inez Entwisle ended in divorce in 1970. They had two daughters. He was married to actress Lory Patrick from 1973 until his death in 2015. Lory had a son, Michael Patrick, whom Jones adopted.- Actor
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George Cole OBE was a veteran British film, television and stage actor whose impressive career spanned over 60 years. For many, he will perhaps be best remembered for playing one of the most endearing characters of recent times on British television, "Arthur Daley", the shifty but very likable "business man" in the hit ITV drama series, Minder (1979).
However, Cole had long been a household name well before "Minder" aired on television. His successful film career began in the 1940s, appearing with Alastair Sim and Sir John Mills in the film Bombsight Stolen (1941). Further success came throughout the 1950s and 1960s, where he played the part of "Flash Harry" in the popular "St Trinians" films, alongside his close friend and mentor, Alastair Sim. By 1963, Hollywood had recognized the talents of Cole and he was cast in the iconic film, Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. During the 1970s, George continued to star in films and television programmes, becoming a regular and sought after actor. It is interesting to note that, in 1971, he appeared with Dennis Waterman (who would later become his Minder (1979) co-star) in the horror film, Fright (1971). In 1979, Cole was cast as the hapless "Arthur Daley", a self-professed entrepreneur in the ITV drama Minder (1979), a role he played until 1994. The role showcased Cole's acting prowess and brought him to the attention of a younger audience.
As well as starring in Minder (1979), George continued with other projects in film and television, including Root Into Europe (1992), An Independent Man (1995), Mary Reilly (1996), Dad (1997), Station Jim (2001), Bodily Harm (2002) and, alongside his good friend Dennis Waterman, in the BBC hit drama, New Tricks (2003). He also starred in several stage productions. It is hoped that Cole will not be be remembered simply for portraying "Arthur Daley", but instead for being one of Britain's most enduring actors, one of only a handful of actors who can claim to have had a 60-year career and for being an extremely likable, charismatic man.- Actor
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Equipped with a crooked, leering smirk and devilish gleam in his eye, actor Ron Moody will be most assuredly remembered for one signature role, despite the fact that the talented comedian had much, much more to offer. Carol Channing may have had her Dolly Levi and Yul Brynner his King of Siam, but Moody would become the most delightfully mischievous, engagingly musical villain of all time.
The son of a plasterer born in London in 1924, Ron never gave much of a look at pursuing the acting field until age 29. Prior to that he had entertained thoughts of becoming an economist or sociologist (trained at the London School of Economics). But, changing his destiny on the way, he became a top stand-up and improv revue artist in England (from 1952), making an inauspicious film bow in 1957 in an unbilled bit. It was the British musical stage that offered him his first taste of stardom with the London company of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" in 1959. Although it was not a great success, however, it did lead to the role of a lifetime the following year as Fagin, the loveable, rapscallious pickpocket in the musical version of "Oliver Twist" simply entitled Oliver!.
Moody later bandied about in other roguish roles too in such TV series as The Avengers (1961) and in the comedies The Mouse on the Moon (1963) and Murder Most Foul (1964), both starring Margaret Rutherford. But in 1968, Ron was given the opportunity to transfer his Dickensian stage thief to film. Oliver! (1968) allowed him to steal a well-deserved Golden Globe trophy and Oscar nomination in the process, not to mention Hollywood interest. Although he never again matched the success of Oliver! (1968), Moody's portrayal of Uriah Heep in a TV version of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1970) became another a great success. Other offbeat cinematic roles, both dramatic and sharply comic, included such films as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Flight of the Doves (1971), Legend of the Werewolf (1975), Dogpound Shuffle (1975), Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) (aka: Unidentified Flying Oddball, as Merlin), Wrong Is Right (1982), Where Is Parsifal? (1984), Emily's Ghost (1992), A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) (as Merlin), The 3 Kings (2000), Revelation (2001), Paradise Grove (2003) and Lost Dogs (2005).
Despite his fine work elsewhere, the role of Fagin would be Moody's long-lasting claim to fame. He reprised the part at a 1985 in a Royal Variety Performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Throughout his TV career, Moody's presence and/or voice graced several children's series including the adaptations of Into the Labyrinth (1981) and The Telebugs (1986), and he was occasionally on TV here in the U.S., including 80s episodes of "Hart to Hart," "Highway to Heaven" and "Murder, She Wrote."
The endearing Ron Moody died at age 91 in London.- Actress
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Mary Ellen Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois. She appeared in many feature-films of the 1980s, notable characters include, Elaine, the kidnapped sister of Kathleen Turner and the catalyst for the entire plot in Romancing the Stone (1984), Dr. Stephanie Woods (LA Police Psychiatrist) in in all four Lethal Weapon (1987) films, Mrs. Walsh Mikey and Brand's (Sean Astinand Josh Brolin) mom in The Goonies (1985), news reporter Gail Wallens in Die Hard (1988) and Ricochet (1991).- Actress
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The multifaceted Ellen Albertini was a student of dance and piano at the age of five, and obtained a B.A. and M.A. in theater from Cornell University. She moved to New York, and studied and worked with the legendary likes of Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Michael Shurtleff, Uta Hagen, Marcel Marceau, and Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She was an acting coach before she made her debut film appearance in American Drive-in (1985), and later became memorable as the rapping grandmother in The Wedding Singer (1998), "Disco Dottie" in 54 (1998) and the homophobic grandmother in Wedding Crashers (2005).- Actor
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Talented and highly capable character actor Geoffrey Lewis, with rustic (sometimes sour-faced) looks, grew up in Rhode Island but was moved out to California at the age of ten. Lewis was very keen on the dramatic arts at high school, but often preferred to put on his own one-man shows rather than participate in larger school productions. His drama teacher took note of his growing talent and referred him to the Plymouth Theater in Massachusetts, where he appeared in summer stock. Afterwards he appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. After spending considerable time traveling, in both the United States and abroad, Lewis turned his attention back to his love of the dramatic arts, and scored his first minor movie role in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972) as a somewhat jovial but deadly cowhand. He then cropped up as gangster Harry Pierpont in Dillinger (1973) before beginning a long association with Clint Eastwood, starting off with High Plains Drifter (1973), then as kind-hearted thief Eddie Goody in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), as Clint's buddy Orville Boggs in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), then as a henpecked husband in Bronco Billy (1980), as Ricky Z in Pink Cadillac (1989), and in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) also as patient Michael Kahn in Disturbed (1990).
Equally busy on the small screen, he has guest-starred in dozens of episodes of high profile TV series. Additionally, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the series Flo (1980). Apart from his extensive film and TV exposure, Lewis is also a member of the rather unique musical/storytelling "Celestial Navigations," along with award-winning composer songwriter Geoff Levin. Their performances have received terrific reviews from some of Hollywood's top actors and noted musicians, including Chick Corea. As Geoffrey Lewis approaches his seventh decade, nothing seems likely to slow down this multi-talented actor, storyteller and engaging entertainer!- Actress
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Alberta Watson, well known to television audiences for her Gemini award-nominated role as Madeline on La Femme Nikita (1997), enjoys a long and diverse career in television and film.
A native of Toronto, Watson began performing with a local theater group as a teenager. She received a Genie nomination for Best Supporting Actress for one of her first movie roles, Mitzi in George Kaczender's In Praise of Older Women (1978). Just a year later, she took home the Best Actress award at the Yorkton Film Festival for the short film "Exposure". Watson then headed to the United States, where she studied with Gene Lasko, made several films (including Michael Mann's stylish horror classic The Keep (1983), with Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen and Gabriel Byrne) and the TV movie Women of Valor (1986), with Susan Sarandon.
After returning to the East Coast, Watson took a chance on a low-budget independent film with then-novice director David O. Russell: the black comedy Spanking the Monkey (1994), which received the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and multiple Independent Spirit Awards. Watson won rave critical acclaim for her memorable performance as a depressed, deeply-disturbed mother who has an incestuous relationship with her son, played by Jeremy Davies.
The next year Watson went on to play the far more stable mother to a teenage computer genius in the box-office smash Hackers (1995), along with Angelina Jolie, and then the wife of mobster John Gotti in the Emmy-nominated Gotti (1996). She returned to Toronto and continued to seek out interesting roles in independent film, which led her to star in Shoemaker (1996), directed by Colleen Murphy. While the film was not widely released in the United States, Watson's performance did not go unnoticed -she received a second Genie nomination, this time in the Lead Actress category.
The following year she won critical praise for another independent film, Atom Egoyan's haunting The Sweet Hereafter (1997), in which she delivered a nuanced performance of an adulterous wife and mourning mother. For this film, she shared the award for Best Acting by an Ensemble (National Board of Review) with Ian Holm, Sarah Polley and the other members of an exceptional cast. The film received the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to earn both Academy Award and Genie nominations.
Meanwhile, Watson had begun filming the TV series La Femme Nikita (1997), which ran for four years, where she played a character that has become iconic, the tough anti-terrorist strategist Madeline. The cult series earned her a 1998 Gemini nomination and marked the start of an ever-growing fan base, with its main online presence at an unofficial site dedicated to her.
Although she has appeared in numerous major commercial releases and hit television shows, during the last ten years Watson has preferred independent (and especially Canadian) productions.
She added another prize-winning movie to her credits with the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, where she played Hedwig's twisted mom. The film won the Audience Award and Best Director Award at Sundance.
Watson starred later in The Wild Dogs (2002) with director Thom Fitzgerald, which took home top honors at the Atlantic Film Festival. She also appeared as Dr. Fischer in Sarah Polley's feature film directorial debut, the prize-winning Away from Her (2006), with Julie Christie. In addition, she starred opposite Colm Meaney in the feature film A Lobster Tale (2006), a quiet, low-key story which also won several awards.
Meanwhile, in television, Watson scored a second Gemini Award nomination for her performance in After the Harvest (2001), co-starring Sam Shepard. The second installment of Chasing Cain II: Face (2002), garnered her another Gemini nomination as Best Actress in a Leading Role (2003). After that, Watson filmed Choice: The Henry Morgentaler Story (2005), the story of controversial Canadian physician Dr. Henry Morgentaler, for which she was nominated for yet another Gemini Award in 2005.
While she had recurring roles in numerous television shows (The Newsroom (1996), Show Me Yours (2004), At the Hotel (2006), Angela's Eyes (2006)), she reached again more international TV audiences when she starred in the fourth season (2004-2005) of the hit Fox series 24 (2001), opposite Kiefer Sutherland and William Devane, playing the role of Erin Driscoll, the head of a counter-terrorist unit. She had the chance to play a different boss-woman (a Minister, and recovering alcoholic) when she joined the cast of other popular prime-time drama, CBC's The Border (2008), as a recurring guest star.
Most recently Watson was cast as the voice of 350-pound Mary Rutherford in the animated film The Spine (2009) (produced and directed by Academy Award-winning animator Chris Landreth), which took home the Best Film Award at the 2009 Melbourne International Animation Festival. In 2008, Alberta Watson received a Career Achievement Award from the Boston-based Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film.
Watson died on March 21, 2015 due to complications from cancer at Kensington Hospice in Toronto; she was 60 years old.- Actor
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Windell Middlebrooks was born on 8 January 1979 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Scrubs (2001), Body of Proof (2011) and The Suite Life on Deck (2008). He died on 9 March 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.A great actor, I liked him best in tv show Body Of Proof as Curtis.- Actor
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A character actor who seems to pop up everywhere as the stereotypical cop, military officer and/or tough guy, von Bargen could turn in performances of stunning complexity when given the chance.
Daniel von Bargen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 5, 1950 to Juanita (Bustle) and Donald L. von Bargen. Of German and English descent, he grew up in Cincinnati for most of his childhood before moving with his family to Southern California. He attended Purdue University, majoring in drama. He joined the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, after graduation and worked with them for many years. A breakthrough role in Mastergate (1992) by Larry Gelbart launched him onto Broadway. He starred in off-Broadway productions of "Beggars in the House of Plenty", "Macbeth", "The Cherry Orchard", "Hurlyburly", and "Uncle Vanya." On TV, he was best-known for his roles in Malcolm in the Middle (2000) and The West Wing (1999).
His role in The Postman (1997) as the Pineview sheriff who suspects Kevin Costner's character of being a fraud, was a stand-out as von Bargen infused the role with the pathos of a man caught between just trying to survive and wanting to believe in the hope the Postman represents. In an otherwise mediocre film, audiences were moved to tear up as his character shouts, "Ride Postman! Ride!", just before being put to death for assisting in the rebellion. His more evil side was brought out in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995) as he played Nix, an older, wiser, more magical and supernaturally gifted type of Charles Manson character rising from the dead to "murder the world".- Actor
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Suave and handsome Australian actor arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s, and built himself up from a supporting actor into taking the lead in several well-remembered movies. Arguably his most fondly remembered role was that as George (Herbert George Wells), the inventor, in George Pal's spectacular The Time Machine (1960). As the movie finished with George, and his best friend Filby Alan Young seemingly parting forever, both actors were brought back together in 1993 to film a 30-minute epilogue to the original movie! Taylor's virile, matinée idol looks also assisted him in scoring the lead of Mitch Brenner in Alfred Hitchcock's creepy thriller The Birds (1963), the role of Jane Fonda's love interest in Sunday in New York (1963), the title role in John Ford's biopic of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey in Young Cassidy (1965), and a co-starring role in The Train Robbers (1973) with John Wayne. Taylor also appeared as Bette Davis future son-in-law in the well-received film The Catered Affair (1956). He also gave a sterling performance as the German-American Nazi Major trying to fool James Garner in 36 Hours (1964). Later, Taylor made many westerns and action movies during the 1960s and 1970s; however, none of these were much better than "B" pictures and failed to push his star to the next level. Additionally, Taylor was cast as the lead in several TV series including Bearcats! (1971), Masquerade (1983), and Outlaws (1986); however, none of them truly ignited viewer interest, and they were cancelled after only one or two seasons. Most fans would agree that Rod Taylor's last great role was in the wonderful Australian film The Picture Show Man (1977), about a travelling sideshow bringing "moving pictures" to remote towns in the Australian outback.- Actress
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Cilla Black was born on 27 May 1943 in Liverpool, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last Night in Soho (2021), Hellboy (2019) and Cilla (1968). She was married to Bobby Willis. She died on 1 August 2015 in Estepona, Spain.One of the best british singers of my generation, she will always be missed.- Shirley Stelfox was born on 11 April 1941 in Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for 1984 (1984), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Making Out (1989). She was married to Don Henderson and Keith Edmundson. She died on 7 December 2015 in Nottinghamshire, England, UK.
- Nicholas Smith was born on 5 March 1934 in Banstead, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Are You Being Served? (1972) and Are You Being Served? (1977). He was married to Mary Wall. He died on 6 December 2015 in Sutton, Surrey, England, UK.Best known for playing Mr Rumbold in tv series Are You Being Served.
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Warren Mitchell was born on 14 January 1926 in Stamford Hill, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Jabberwocky (1977), The Crawling Eye (1958) and In Sickness and in Health (1985). He was married to Constance Wake. He died on 14 November 2015 in Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London, England, UK.Where shall I start? What am actor!- Actor
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Albert was born on June 24, 1919 to Raffaele Molinaro and Teresa Marrone. His father was born in Calabria, Italy and immigrated to the US when he was 15 years old and worked as a water boy with a railroad crew going west from New York. He ended up in Kenosha Wisconsin where he met and married Albert's mother Teresa on December 22, 1901. His father named Albert after his favorite Italian Prince, Umberto II who was born 15 years earlier. A school teacher later suggested that "Albert" might be more suitable. His mother chose his middle name Fransico after Santo Francisco since he was born on Saint Francis Day. The midwife who's English was only slightly better than Albert's parents spelled his middle name with a feminine "A" at the end which was never corrected. His legal named remained Umberto Francisca Molinaro. He was the ninth child of what would later become a family of ten children, eight boys and 2 girls. At 19 years of age Albert became a union leader at the Vincent-McCall furniture spring factory after working there for only 4 months. He later became the special assistant to the Kenosha City Manager when he was 20. At this time Albert's best friend from Kenosha, Mills Tenuta, who had moved to Southern California to work in an aircraft plant, began harassing him to come out to Hollywood. He was sure that Albert could be a movie star. Albert left a promising career with the city after only a year to head to Hollywood to become an actor. Albert had many jobs while pursuing his acting career. His first job was at Reginald Denny's Hobby shop in Hollywood. He spent 2 years as a live action animator at George Pal's studios. If Technicolor hadn't gone on a sympathy strike with the Studio Carpenters union he might have spent his career as an animator. He managed the M&G Grand Variety Store for a year and then became a bill collector for the "Collection Agency of America" in downtown LA. He quickly learned the art of bill collecting and was able to become a salesman who procured collection accounts for another agency which he later purchased. This gave him flexible hours and a steady income so he could focus again on his dreams of Hollywood. Even after his acting career took off he kept his Bill Collection business until he retired. Albert married Jacqueline Martin in 1948. They moved into a home in Granada Hills, CA and adopted their son Michael Molinaro. Albert and Jacqueline were divorced in 1980. Albert then married Betty Sedillos in 1981 and they lived in Glendale CA until his death in 2015. Albert had two step children, Jim Sedillos & Victoria Sedillos and a total of 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grand children. Albert's movie debut happened when he was 25 years old. After appearing as the lead in a Chekhov play called "The Bear" at the old Sartu Theater that used to be on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea Ave. A movie producer saw the performance and cast him in a picture that had three separate stories, one of the stories was Chekhov's play "The Bear" but changed from a Russian setting to a Spanish locale. The movie was titled "Love Me Madly". Albert was not told that some of the scenes they shot without him were R rated in today's standards but X rated for 1954's standards. He was surprised and upset during the movies premiere and vowed to never again be in a film that his mother couldn't watch. During the early 1950's Albert began producing live television shows for local televisions stations channel 5 KTLA, channel 9 KHJ & channel 11 KTTV. He Co-created "Insomnia" a late night live show and a "Ski Show" in which Warren Miller allowed him to use some of his skiing footage. He created "Star Finder" a pre-teen amateur show, "Square Dance Party" and "The Tiny Late Show" which was his own late night one man show that filled the few minutes of time between the end of the late night movie and the station signing off for the night.
All the time Albert was working to pay his bills he was also acting in small plays in theaters all over Hollywood. After 25 years of theater acting he was convinced to play a small part in a play directed by his friend, Leo Matranga, at the Hollywood Horseshoe Theater. After the show, a commercial agent named Don Schwartz offered to represent him. Albert swore off acting and never called Don. One year later, Don called Albert telling him that he already set up an appointment for him and convinced him to audition for a national commercial. Albert got the commercial for the Volvo 140. You can see his commercial debut on youtube "Volvo 140 advertising". It's 3 min. & 30 seconds into the video (they have strung many vintage Volvo ads together). Take a look at his first commercial and you will see the face that went on to land over 100 commercials. 42 of them were nationals. He also landed a 10 year deal with "Encore" frozen dinners becoming their spokesperson. A friend from George Pal's Studios named Glenn Grossman cast Albert whenever he could in the industrial films that he would make from time to time. It was while working on one of Glenn's films that Albert met another working actor named Harvey Lembeck. When Harvey wasn't acting he ran an actor's workshop. Harvey convinced Albert that he could help him with his comedy timing. Gary Marshall's sister Penny was also a member of Harvey's workshop. One night Penny asked her brother to come down and see Albert. Gary was in the process of producing a movie starring Jacquiline Bissett called "The Grasshopper" and wanted Al to play the part of a truck driver. Albert did not play the part because the shooting dates conflicted with a Pepto-Bismol commercial he was scheduled to shoot in Phoenix. A year later, when Albert learned from his writer friend, John Rappaport, that Garry Marshall was casting for The Odd Couple TV show, John convinced him that he would be perfect to play one of the poker players. Albert first refused to call Gary but John badgered him enough to finally make him call. Albert made numerous phone calls but got no response so he decided to dress up like a delivery man and deliver a 2'x3' card with many pictures of himself glued to it stating that "Al Molinaro is a Poker Player. ...Assorted Poker Faces ... More faces available upon demand. Just Call (his Phone #) Dear Gary, If you don't call me for an audition, I'll put a curse on you to make you sterile for life. Sincerely, Al Molinaro. The delivery outfit did not get him past the guard at the Paramount gate but it did get the card delivered and Albert got an audition and landed the part of Murray the Cop. Later, Gary stated that, "Although we thought Albert was wrong for the part, we decided to take a chance on Al because of all the men who we auditioned, he was the funniest. Albert spent 5 years on The Odd Couple and when it finished, due to the fact that Jack Klugman wanted to do drama, he was offered the roll of the Malt Shop Owner on Gary's new show "Happy Days". Albert turned down the role feeling he did not want to work with a "bunch of kids". After the first season of Happy Days, Pat Morita, who was cast in the role of the malt shop owner, was offered his own show so Gary once again asked Albert to work on the show. Albert asked Gary that if he didn't like working on the show, could he quit whenever he wanted. Gary said he couldn't put that in writing but that they would shake on it. Albert enjoyed 10 years on "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984 and 1 more year on "Joanie Loves Chachi. He guest starred on many television shows during and after the filming of the Odd Couple and Happy Days. He also worked on a short lived sitcom called "The Family Man" from 1990-1991 but decided to stop taking roles by the mid 90's. He completed his 10 year contract with Encore Frozen Foods and as his last job he surprisingly accepted an offer to be in a music video with Wheezer.
Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the mid 90's and lived with the illness for 20 years. Early diagnosis and careful medication allowed Albert to enjoy life until he had a small heart attack in May of 2015. He was a wonderfully kind man. He taught himself to play the piano, clarinet and ukulele and even had a few real gigs in Reno playing the clarinet in his youth. His family believes that his improvisational skills allowed him to mask his Alzheimer's disease from most people until just before he died. He continued to personally answer his fan mail until his health did not allow it. In June he celebrated his 96th birthday but he was declining quickly. He developed a gall stones and due to his age and the recent heart attack, surgery was not recommended. Albert died on October 30th 2015.Best known for playing Al in tv series Happy Days.- Peter Baldwin was born on 29 July 1933 in Chidham, Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Freelance (1970), Coronation Street (1960) and Poldark (1975). He was married to Sarah Long. He died on 21 October 2015 in Hampstead, London, England, UK.He played Derek Wilton in the british soap Coronation Street for many years.
- Joy Beverley was born on 5 May 1924 in Bethnal Green, London, England, UK. She was married to Billy Wright and Roger Carocari. She died on 31 August 2015 in London, England, UK.One of the famous Beverley sisters.
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Stephen Lewis, will be chiefly remembered for the comedy catchphrase: "I 'ate you Butler!" He delivered it week after week in the hit sitcom On The Buses, a saucy slice of life that ran on ITV from 1969 to 1973. Lewis was Cyril "Blakey" Blake, a bus inspector with a Hitler moustache and delusions of grandeur. His nemesis was Stan Butler, a driver played by Reg Varney, who used his route as an opportunity to pick up stray "birds". By today's standards of television, On The Buses has all the subtlety and political correctness of cave drawings. But it was wildly popular, and Lewis's comic timing reflected a considerable acting talent. Lewis entered acting in an era of social mobility that is almost inconceivable today. He was born in Poplar, East London, on December 17 1926. His first job was as a merchant seaman; he reconsidered his vocation after he was persuaded to go to a performance of the experimental Theatre Workshop group run by the brilliant Left-wing director Joan Littlewood. After the performance, the audience was invited on to the stage to meet the cast and discuss the play. Lewis enjoyed the experience and, after turning up to others, got to know the Workshop well. Eventually, Littlewood, perhaps exasperated by Lewis's suggested stage directions, said: "You're so blooming clever, why not do it yourself?" He agreed, auditioned and was offered a part. After a successful run, Littlewood asked Lewis if he would like to stick with the company but he said he wanted to return to the sea. The director persuaded him to stay on the stage and he made his West End debut in Brendan Behan's The Hostage in 1958. In 1960, he wrote Sparrers Can't Sing, a play about life in the East End that relied heavily on actors' improvisations. It was a success and was released as a film (Sparrows Can't Sing) in 1963, with a cast that included Barbara Windsor and Roy Kinnear - although even their talents could not sell the social realist dialogue to a global audience. The New York Times sniffed: "This isn't a picture for anyone with a logical mind or an ear for language. The gabble of Cockney spoken here is as incomprehensible as the reasoning of those who speak it." It was the first English-language film to be released in the US with subtitles. Throughout the 1960s, Lewis took a series of small roles culminating in a large part in the 1969 television play, Mrs Wilson's Diary, alongside another Theatre Workshop regular called Bob Grant. That same year, he landed a role in a new series called On the Buses, which also featured Grant as a lascivious bus conductor teamed up with Reg Varney, his equally Dionysian mate. Although the show was undoubtedly rude, crude and occasionally prejudiced, it offered genuinely witty reflections on the nature of 1970s class conflict. In the world of On the Buses, workers were constantly on strike and after more money; managerial characters such as Lewis's Blakey were exploitative snobs who thought they had authority just because they wore a badge. It was plain where the audience's sympathies were supposed to lie: many was the time that a bus "hilariously" ran over poor Blakey's foot or a bucket of water was tipped over his head. The cry: "I 'ate you Butler" was born of impotent rage. Although Varney the actor was Lewis's senior, it was still Varney's character, Reg, that got all the "crumpet". Lewis was only in his early forties when he took the role of Blakey, but playing ageing authority figures became his stock in trade. In the 1970s, he appeared in the television sequel to On The Buses, Don't Drink the Water, three big-screen outings of On The Buses and two cinematic sex comedies (Adventures of a Taxi Driver, Adventures of a Plumber's Mate). He later had parts in the films Personal Services (1987) and The Krays (1990). In 1988, he played a new character in the long-running BBC series Last of the Summer Wine - Clem "Smiler" Hemmingway - which he thoroughly enjoyed. "It's got so much charm," he said of the show. "I don't think any other country in the world has comedy like that." From 1995 to 1997, he appeared in the equally gentle sitcom Oh, Doctor Beeching! In 2007, he stepped down from Last of the Summer Wine because of ill health. Stephen Lewis remained a committed socialist. In a stroke of irony, however, in 1981 he was hired to promote CH coaches, in the character of Blakey; it was the first private bus company to break the public transport monopoly of Cardiff city council. This was exactly the kind of Thatcherite revolution of which Blakey would probably have approved. In his diaries, Tony Benn recalled campaigning with Lewis in 1984, describing him as "very direct" and "extremely amusing". He lived until the age of 88.- Writer
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Val Doonican was born on 3 February 1927 in Waterford, Co. Waterford, Republic of Ireland. He was a writer and actor, known for Ring of Bright Water (1969), The Val Doonican Music Show (1975) and Christmas Eve with Val Doonican (1986). He was married to Lynette Rae. He died on 1 July 2015 in Knotty Green, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- Composer
- Music Department
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James Last was born on 17 April 1929 in Bremen, Germany. He was a composer and actor, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Ocean's Eight (2018) and Shallow Grave (1994). He was married to Christine Grundner and Waltraut. He died on 9 June 2015 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.He was a composer and famous band leader.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
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Errol Brown was born on 12 November 1943 in Kingston, Jamaica. He was an actor and composer, known for Zodiac (2007), The Guest (2014) and Rat Race (2001). He was married to Ginette. He died on 6 May 2015 in the Bahamas.Lead singer in pop group Hot Chocolate.- Ruth Rendell was born on 17 February 1930 in South Woodford, Essex, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Live Flesh (1997), La Cérémonie (1995) and Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987). She was married to Donald John Rendell. She died on 2 May 2015 in London, England, UK.A famous british crime witer.
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Keith started in show business at the early age of 9 in a comedy act with his father. Two years later when his father retired Keith couldn't find a partner to be a straight man so decided to be a ventriloquist. His father bought him his first 'doll' but after the string broke in the middle of his act he decided to make his own characters. he's had Orville since 1977 and Cuddles since 1967.A famous ventriloquist in comedy duo Keith and Orville.- Music Department
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Alabama-born Percy Sledge had a somewhat unusual introduction to the music business. Working as an orderly in a local hospital, he was touring with a local band called the Esquires Combo on weekends and working at the hospital during the week. A former patient at the hospital who knew both Sledge and local record producer Quin Ivy introduced them to each other. Ivy was impressed with Sledge's emotional style of singing and signed him to a recording contract. Sledge hit it big with his first record, the classic "When a Man Loves a Woman", released by Atlantic Records, which went on to become a worldwide hit (and, incidentally, the first Atlantic record to go gold). Although Sledge never had another hit as big as "When a Man Loves a Woman," he did manage to place several follow-up records on the charts. He still tours today, and has an especially large following in Europe.A great singer x- Writer
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Terry Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Good Omens (2019), Untitled Discworld Project and The Wee Free Men. He was married to Lyn Marian Purves. He died on 12 March 2015 in Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK.A wonderful author.- Actress
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Geraldine McEwan was born in Old Windsor, England and made her theatre debut at the age of 14 at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. By the age of 18 she was starring in London's West End in several long-running popular productions. During the 1950s she acted with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961.
She had leading roles as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing with Christopher Plummer, Ophelia in Hamlet, The Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost, Marina in Pericles and played opposite Dorothy Tutin in Twelfth Night which also toured Moscow and Leningrad.
Miss McEwan originated the female lead role in Joe Orton's Loot, captivated Broadway with productions of The School for Scandal, The Private Ear and the Public Eye, and most recently, The Chairs, earning her a Tony nomination for best actress.
As a member of the Royal National Theatre, acting along side Albert Finney, and Laurence Olivier, Geraldine spent the 1960s and 70s with memorable roles including The Dance of Death, Love for Love, A Flea in Her Ear, Chez Nous, Home and Beauty, The Browning Version, Harlequinade and The White Devil. In 1976 she had the distinction of being nominated for an Olivier Award in two separate categories.
In 1983 she won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for The Rivals. In 1991 she won the BAFTA Best Actress Award for her intense and powerful performance as the Mother in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989) and in 1995 she won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for her performance of Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World.
In 1998, McEwan was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best Actress Category for The Chairs. Her numerous television credits include the highly acclaimed The Barchester Chronicles (1982) with Alan Rickman, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978), Mulberry (1992), and the immensely popular Mapp & Lucia (1985). Her film work includes The Dance of Death (1969) with Laurence Olivier, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) with Alan Rickman, Henry V (1989) and Love's Labour's Lost (2000), both with Kenneth Branagh, and most recently The Magdalene Sisters (2002), The Lazarus Child (2004), Vanity Fair (2004) and Carrie's War (2004). In 2003, Geraldine was chosen to play Agatha Christie's Jane Marple. She recently retired from that role after completing 12 hugely popular two-hour mysteries for ITV/PBS.Best known for starring in Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves and playing Miss Marple in the Agatha Christie series.- Anne Kirkbride was born on 21 June 1954 in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Coronation Street (1960), ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969) and Coronation Street: Tram Crash (2010). She was married to David Beckett. She died on 19 January 2015 in Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK.She played Deirdre in the British soap Coronation Street.
- Khan Bonfils was born in 1972 in the UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Skyfall (2012). He died on 7 January 2015 in London, England, UK.