TCM Remembers 2008
by TrekFan1 | created - 26 Feb 2020 | updated - 01 Mar 2020 | PublicThose performers and filmmakers who were included in TCM Remembers 2008.
The song used in this year's video is "God Only Knows" by Joe Henry. TCM previously used a Joe Henry song ("Flesh and Blood") for their 2005 tribute. This is the first and thus far only time they've used two different songs from the same artist.
The 2008 video was revised once to remove Roberta Collins and replace her with Van Johnson, resulting in backlash from fans and Collins' family. Needless to say TCM has not replaced anyone in future videos.
Notable omissions:
Alexander Courage | Composer
Bill Melendez | Director / Producer / Animator
Harold Pinter (see TCM Remembers 2009 notable omissions)
Robert Prosky | Actor
Alain Robbe-Grillet | Writer / Director
David Watkin | Cinematographer
Actor Sam Bottoms, actress and singer Eartha Kitt, and director Robert Mulligan died too late in December 2008 to be included this year and are instead featured in TCM Remembers 2009.
1. Richard Widmark
Actor | Kiss of Death
Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new ...
Actor
2. Edie Adams
Actress | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The scintillating, sultry-eyed blonde (formerly a redhead) star of screen, TV and award-winning stage went on to become best known, however, for her sensual delivery pitching cigars in taunting '60s ads and commercials with her Mae Westian come-on line "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it ...
Actress
3. Guillaume Depardieu
Actor | Ne touchez pas la hache
Guillaume Depardieu was born on April 7, 1971 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for The Duchess of Langeais (2007), Tous les matins du monde (1991) and Pola X (1999). He was married to Elise Ventre. He died on October 13, 2008 in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
Actor
4. Robert DoQui
Actor | RoboCop
Excellent, prolific and versatile character actor Robert DoQui was born in 1934 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He attended Langston University on a music scholarship and was a member of the popular singing group, "The Langstonaires". Following a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, DoQui went to New ...
Actor
5. Charlton Heston
Actor | Ben-Hur
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...
Actor
6. Cyd Charisse
Actress | Silk Stockings
Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. Born to be a dancer, she spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at age 13. In 1939, she married Nico Charisse, her former dance teacher. In 1943, she appeared in her first film, ...
Actress
7. George Carlin
Actor | Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
George Denis Patrick Carlin was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, to Mary (Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick John Carlin, an advertising manager for The Sun; they had met while working in marketing. His father was from Donegal, Ireland, and his mother was Irish-American. His parents ...
Actor
8. Paul Scofield
Actor | A Man for All Seasons
Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school ...
Actor
9. Dick Martin
Producer | Laugh-In
Dick Martin, the comedian and television director who achieved TV immortality as the co-host of Laugh-In (1967) as the comic foil to straight man Dan Rowan, was born on January 30, 1922 in Battle Creek, Michigan. The young Martin was a writer for the popular radio sit-com "Duffy's Tavern" before ...
Actor
10. Sydney Pollack
Director | Tootsie
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...
Director / Actor
11. Stan Winston
Make_up_department | Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Stan Winston was born on April 7, 1946 in Richmond, Virginia, USA. He is known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Karen Winston. He died on June 15, 2008 in Malibu, California, USA.
Special Effects Artist
12. Eva Dahlbeck
Actress | Sommarnattens leende
Eva Dahlbeck was born on March 8, 1920 in Saltsjö-Duvnäs, Stockholms län, Sweden. She was an actress and writer, known for Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Brink of Life (1958) and A Lesson in Love (1954). She was married to Sven Lampell. She died on February 8, 2008 in Hässelby, Stockholm, ...
Actress
13. Michael Kidd
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Lithe, diminutive and unimposing, Michael Kidd never asked a dancer to perform a step or move he himself could not do. One of Broadway's and Hollywood's most distinguished, inventive and gifted choreographers, it was not uncommon to remember his expert dance sequences above all else. After all, who...
Choreographer / Actor (died Dec. 23, 2007)
14. June Travis
Actress | The Case of the Black Cat
Fetching secondary actress June Travis was signed by Warner Bros. in 1934 and made her film debut the following year, but would last only three years before leaving Hollywood forever and focusing on marriage. Born June Dorothea Grabiner on August 7, 1914, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner who ...
Actress
15. Charles H. Joffe
Producer | Annie Hall
Charles H. Joffe was born on July 16, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Annie Hall (1977), Match Point (2005) and Sleeper (1973). He was married to Carol Joffe. He died on July 9, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Producer
16. Ken Ogata
Actor | Hokusai manga
Ken Ogata was born on July 20, 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Edo Porn (1981), Vengeance Is Mine (1979) and The Ballad of Narayama (1983). He died on October 5, 2008 in Tsurumi, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
Actor
17. Irving Brecher
Writer | Meet Me in St. Louis
Irving Brecher was born on January 17, 1914 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The People's Choice (1955) and Somebody Loves Me (1952). He was married to Norma Brecher and Eve Bennett. He died on November 17, 2008 in Los ...
Screenwriter
18. Roy Scheider
Actor | Jaws
Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, ...
Actor
19. Brad Renfro
Actor | The Client
Brad Renfro was born on July 25, 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Angela Denise McCrory and Mark Renfro, a factory worker. He was discovered at age 10 by director Joel Schumacher and was cast in the motion picture The Client (1994), which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although this ...
Actor
20. Paul Benedict
Actor | This Is Spinal Tap
Genial, pleasant-voiced character actor Paul Benedict was born in New Mexico on September 17, 1938, and made hosts of stage, film and TV appearances in a career lasting five decades. The son of a doctor, he was diagnosed with acromegaly by an endocrinologist who happened to catch the nascent actor ...
Actor
21. John Michael Hayes
Writer | Rear Window
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, John Michael Hayes began his writing career as a newspaper reporter. Following service with the US Army during WWII, he moved to California where he wrote for such radio dramas as Sam Spade and Inner Sanctum. Moving to film in 1952, he has amassed credits which ...
Screenwriter
22. John Phillip Law
Actor | Barbarella
John Phillip Law was born on September 7, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Barbarella (1968), Space Mutiny (1988) and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). He was married to Shawn Ryan. He died on May 13, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Actor
23. Michael Pate
Producer | Tim
The future movie bad man was born in Drummoyne, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and got his career start as an interviewer on the government's radio station. Pate also worked on the Australian stage and in Down Under movies before relocating to the U.S. in the early 1950s to appear in Universal's "...
Actor
24. Roberta Collins
Actress | Death Race 2000
Brassy'n'beautiful blonde Roberta Collins was a terrific, dynamic and scene-stealing delight who greatly enlivened a bunch of choice down'n'dirty 1970s drive-in exploitation pictures with her earthy good humor, boundless vitality, superior acting ability, strong, forceful personality and smoldering...
Actress (original version; later replaced by Van Johnson)
25. Van Johnson
Actor | The Caine Mutiny
Van Johnson was the fresh-faced, well-mannered nice guy on screen you always wanted your daughter to marry! This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossip...
Actor (revised version; replaced Roberta Collins)
26. Isaac Hayes
Actor | Escape from New York
Isaac Hayes, the second-born child of Eula and Isaac Hayes Sr., was raised by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a poor family, he grew up picking cotton in Covington, Tennessee. He dropped out of high school, but later his former high-school teachers to get his diploma, ...
Musician / Actor
27. Joseph Pevney
Director | Star Trek
Joseph Pevney was born on September 15, 1911 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). He was married to Margo Yvette Collins, Philippa Hilber and Mitzi Green. He died on May 18, 2008 ...
Director
28. Arthur C. Clarke
Writer | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England in December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction. During ...
Screenwriter
29. Fred Crane
Actor | Gone with the Wind
Fred Crane was born on March 22, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), General Hospital (1963) and The Gay Amigo (1949). He was married to Terry Lynn Halfacre, Anita Joan Cohen, Barbara Jeanne Garoutte, Ruth Ceder and Rose Marcelle Dudley Heaslip...
Actor
30. Ollie Johnston
Actor | The Iron Giant
Oliver Martin "Ollie" Johnston was an American animator from Palo Alto, California. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, a group of senior animators which supervised production at the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977. By the time of his death in 2008, Johnston was the last ...
Animator
31. Michael Crichton
Writer | Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he ...
Writer / Director
32. Evelyn Keyes
Actress | The Seven Year Itch
No shrinking violet this one, but despite her talent, vivacity and sheer drive, lovely and alluring blonde Evelyn Keyes would remain for the most part typed as a "B" girl on the silver screen. In spite of her ripe contributions to such superior pictures as Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), The Jolson ...
Actress
33. Breno Mello
Actor | Orfeu Negro
Breno Mello was born on September 7, 1931 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He was an actor, known for Black Orpheus (1959), Os Vencidos (1963) and O Negrinho do Pastoreio (1973). He was married to Amelina Santos Corrêa. He died on July 14, 2008 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Actor
34. Marpessa Dawn
Actress | Orfeu Negro
Born in Pittsburgh, Marpessa Dawn moved to England as a teenager and started acting in small roles in television; upon moving to France, she danced and sang in nightclubs while at times working as a governess before getting her big break as "Eurydice" in "Black Orpheus". Married twice, she left ...
Actress
35. Mel Ferrer
Actor | Lili
Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became ...
Actor
36. Jerry Reed
Soundtrack | Smokey and the Bandit
Tall, blond haired country & western singer / songwriter from Atlanta Georgia, who usually appears in films portraying good humored Southern type characters. Reed was already writing and singing music in high school, and was signed by Capitol Records to a three-year contract in 1955. However, in ...
Musician / Actor
37. Heath Ledger
Actor | Brokeback Mountain
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised ...
Actor
38. Robert J. Anderson
Actor | It's a Wonderful Life
Robert J. Anderson was born on March 6, 1933 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was a production manager and actor, known for It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Passenger 57 (1992) and Demolition Man (1993). He was married to Dorothy Ann Cochrane, ??? Toll and Victoria Wandrey. He died on June 6, 2008 in...
Actor
39. Suzanne Pleshette
Actress | The Birds
Suzanne Pleshette achieved television immortality in her role as Bob Newhart's wife in the 1970s classic situation comedy, The Bob Newhart Show (1972). For her role as "Emily Hartley," wife of psychologist "Bob Hartley" (played by Bob Newhart), Pleshette was nominated for the Emmy Award twice, in ...
Actress
40. Anthony Minghella
Writer | The Talented Mr. Ripley
Anthony Minghella was the son of immigrants from Italy, who own an ice-cream factory on the Isle of Wight, where Anthony was born on January 6, 1954. He and his two siblings, Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella, grew up there, a popular British holiday spot. After graduating from the University of...
Director / Screenwriter
41. Ben Chapman
Actor | Jungle Moon Men
Ben Chapman was born in Oakland, California, while his Tahitian parents were on a trip to the United States. He was raised in Tahiti, relocated to the U.S. in 1940 and went to school in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Working as a Tahitian dancer in nightclubs led to his first movie job, a bit in ...
Actor
42. Maila Nurmi
Actress | Vampira
The original glamour ghoul herself, "Vampira", of late night 1950s television, was actually born Maila Syrjäniemi (later changed to the easier surname Nurmi) on December 11, 1922 in Gloucester, Massachusetts (not Finland as she often claimed). Her uncle was the multiple Olympic medal runner Paavo ...
Actress (as Vampira)
43. Hazel Court
Actress | The Curse of Frankenstein
Born in Birmingham, England, Hazel Court carried on a love affair with the world of movies and make-believe that made her a leading student at her hometown's School of Drama and later helped her land a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Graduating from bits to supporting roles to leads,...
Actress
44. Perry Lopez
Actor | Chinatown
Perry Lopez was born on July 22, 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Chinatown (1974), The Two Jakes (1990) and Kelly's Heroes (1970). He was married to Claire Kelly. He died on February 14, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Actor
45. Delmar Watson
Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Delmar Watson was born on July 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Heidi (1937) and Clipped Wings (1937). He was married to Antoinette. He died on October 26, 2008 in Glendale, California, USA.
Actor
46. Robert Arthur
Actor | Ace in the Hole
Robert Arthur was born on June 18, 1925 in Aberdeen, Washington, USA. He was an actor, known for Ace in the Hole (1951), Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and Mother Wore Tights (1947). He died on October 1, 2008 in Aberdeen, Washington, USA.
Actor
47. Kon Ichikawa
Director | Inugami-ke no ichizoku
Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of ...
Director
48. Joy Page
Actress | Casablanca
Actress Joy (Ann) Page (born Joy Cerrette Paige in Los Angeles on November 9, 1924) received her exotic good looks from her father, actor Don Alvarado (real name Jose Paige), who played dashing Latin-lover types in silent films. Her mother was actress Ann Boyar (1908-1990). Following her parents' ...
Actress
49. Bernie Mac
Actor | The Bernie Mac Show
Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born in 1957 in Chicago, the son of Mary McCullough and Jeffery Harrison. He grew up in the city, in a rougher neighborhood than most others, with a large family living under one roof. This situation provided him with a great insight into his comedy, as his family, ...
Actor
50. Forrest J. Ackerman
Actor | Braindead
Forrest J. Ackerman was born on November 24, 1916 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Braindead (1992), The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988) and Vampirella (1996). He was married to Mathilde "Wendayne" Wahrman. He died on December 4, 2008 in Los Angeles, California...
Film Historian
51. Nina Foch
Actress | An American in Paris
A leading lady of the 1940s, the tall and blonde Foch usually played cool, aloof and often foreign, women of sophistication. As film roles became harder to find, Foch proved to be versatile in many areas. She was a panelist on several TV quiz shows, worked as George Stevens' assistant director for ...
Actress
52. Dino Risi
Director | Il sorpasso
Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...
Director
53. Dody Goodman
Actress | Grease
Her quivery, high-pitched, Southern-cracked tones were once described as sounding like "a Tweetie Pie cartoon bird strangling on peanut butter." Just the absurdity of that description fits comedienne Dody Goodman to a tee. One did not know what to make of her, but she could certainly induce ...
Actress
54. Jules Dassin
Director | Du rififi chez les hommes
Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).
He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish ...
Director / Screenwriter
55. Abby Mann
Writer | Judgment at Nuremberg
Abby Mann was born on December 1, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Kojak (1973) and Skag (1980). He was married to Myra Mann. He died on March 25, 2008 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Screenwriter
56. Harvey Korman
Actor | Blazing Saddles
Harvey Korman was a lanky, popular TV comedy veteran with a flair for broad comic characterizations, who shone for a decade as leading man and second banana par excellence on The Carol Burnett Show (1967).
Harvey Herschel Korman was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ellen (Blecher) and Cyril Raymond ...
Actor
57. Lois Nettleton
Actress | In the Heat of the Night
A singularly consummate, vibrant and versatile actress, Lois Nettleton established a distinguished reputation on the stage, in films and on TV. The former Miss Chicago of 1948 beauty pageant winner and Miss America semifinalist was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Her family was impoverished and her ...
Actress
58. Estelle Reiner
Actress | When Harry Met Sally...
Estelle Reiner grew up in the Bronx, New York. She sang on radio as a teenager. She revived her career in the 1960's and was a well respected jazz singer having appeared in Los Angleles at Cinegrill, Vine Street Bar and Grill, and at Luna Park in Hollywood, California.
At the time of her death, she ...
Actress
"I'll have what she's having."
59. Julie Ege
Actress | On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Julie Ege was born on November 12, 1943 in Sandnes, Norway. She was an actress, known for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Not Now Darling (1973) and The Mutations (1974). She was married to Alf Kruger-Monsen and Erland Skatten. She died on April 29, 2008 in Oslo, Norway.
Actress
60. Leonard Rosenman
Composer | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Leonard Rosenman was born on September 7, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Barry Lyndon (1975) and La La Land (2016). He was married to Judie Gregg, Kay Scott and Adele Bracker. He died on March 4, 2008 in Woodland ...
Composer
61. Don LaFontaine
Actor | Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Don LaFontaine was born on August 26, 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005), In a World... (2013) and The Hitter (1978). He was married to Joan Studva and Nita Whitaker. He died on September 1, 2008 in Los Angeles, California...
Actor
62. Malvin Wald
Writer | The Naked City
Malvin Wald was born on August 8, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Naked City (1948), Behind Locked Doors (1948) and Outrage (1950). He was married to Sylvia. He died on March 6, 2008 in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Screenwriter
63. Jean Delannoy
Director | Dieu a besoin des hommes
Jean Delannoy began his film career in the 1920s as an actor. By the 1930s he had switched careers and become an editor, then a short-subjects director. By the mid-'30s he was a full-fledged director, and soon garnered a reputation as a sensitive, understated craftsman with a thorough command of ...
Director
64. Anita Page
Actress | The Broadway Melody
Beautiful Anita Page was one of the most famous and popular leading ladies during the last years of the silent screen and the first years of the talkie era. She was best known for starring in The Broadway Melody (1929), the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her leading men...
Actress
65. Paul Newman
Actor | The Hustler
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...
Actor
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