In Memoriam 2022
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- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Julien began his career in New York's Off-Broadway circuit including Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park. Moving westward, he landed co-starring roles with Jack Nicholson in Psych-Out (1968) and Candice Bergen in Columbia's box-office hit, Getting Straight (1970).
In Uptight (1968), New York Times critic Judith Crist considered him a standout in a standout cast. The Santa Monica Evening Outlook's Raoul Gripenwaldt predicted that Julien's portrayal of Johnny Wells in Paramount's Uptight (1968) could well result in an Academy Award nomination. Julien was invited to Europe to discuss film possibilities. He went on to write the screenplay for and subsequently co-produce Warner Brothers' Cleopatra Jones (1973).
In a joint venture with Columbia Pictures, Julien wrote, produced, and starred in Thomasine & Bushrod (1974). Assuming responsibility for the final look of the film, he assisted in the direction, supervised the editing and created the design concept for the costumes. The New York Times declared it a western of considerable freshness. The film garnered him a NAACP Image Award Nomination for Best Writer of the year. He then took a sabbatical from film, landing on several other continents, exploring the political developments of their cultures and writing poetry. He completed a novel, Dark Clowns Kickin' Ass, and finished 13 pieces of sculpture exhibited in galleries throughout the United States including Los Angeles' prestigious Pacific Design Center. Julien was dubbed one of the most popular and important filmmakers in the United States (L.A. Times), and graced the covers of such magazines as Ebony and Jet.
A group of Nigerian businessmen commissioned Julien to do a feasibility study for the development of a West African Film Colony. He selected a crew from Europe, Australia and the United States, and for a two-month period trained local craftsmen in the art of filmmaking. As a tribute to his accomplishments and international profile, a year later he was invited to return to co-write and star in Bisi & The Sun God.
In the early 1990s, Julien wrote, directed and essayed the title role in the docudrama Sketches Of A Man/The Charles Drew Story, about the African-American doctor who invented blood plasma. The mid-1990s returned him to West Africa starring, writing, executive-producing and directing Sangu, The Silent One. Nigeria's Ibaden Tribune said "Max Julien's Sangu is a masterpiece, a must for every Third World human being; more appropriately, every spiritual, peace loving person on the globe. This gifted, connected thread (Julien) will do much to keep the continents from colliding." Nigeria's Daily Times echoed "The Silent One speaks loudly; Julien's wisdom has not tarnished, his eyes and his words address the inner feelings of the common man of color. He's a joy to look upon, he is to be cherished."
In the billion dollar consumer market of hip hop, Julien became a Brand Name in hot demand by Rap, R&B and Pop entertainers to write and deliver his uniquely lyrical expressions including: Do Or Die's CD featuring Kanye West and R. Kelly, and Houston blues singer Rue Davis's Legends Are Forever album in early 2007. Around the same time he was writing dialogue for a Warner Brothers video game based on Clint Eastwood's iconic "Dirty Harry" character that ended when the studio shelved the project. He was also a sought-after guest speaker.
On May 13, 2011, on Yahoo News, Nick Cannon was being interviewed for his upcoming Showtime comedy special Mr. Showbiz, which included poking fun at his then-wife, Mariah Carey. Earlier reviews indicate one of the most hilarious bits involved him accusing Mariah of pimping him like Julien ("Goldie" from The Mack (1973)).
Despite being notoriously reclusive, in 2012 Julien's popularity reached cult-like proportions. His face hangs in the lobby Walls of Fame in Magic Johnson's Theatres from L.A. to Atlanta to Harlem.
Stevie Wonder included Julien in the dedications on his classic album "Songs In The Key of Life". Dick Kleiner wrote a chapter about him in his book ESP & The Stars. In Miramax's book on 1970s films, What It Is & What It Was, Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson complimented the actor/filmmaker, saying "I always went to see whatever Max Julien was doing." In a February 2008 interview on Fadar-TV, mega Hip-hop star Rick Ross removed his t-shirt and revealed Julien's face tattooed on his body.
Ninety percent of the world's rappers have sampled his voice and the music from The Mack (1973) (Outkast, 50-Cents, Three 6 Mafia etc.) familiarizing him among the 75% male and female consumers between 15 and 25 years of age, who happen to be white.
Quentin Tarantino scripted a film, True Romance, that shows Julien in a clip while Christian Slater says "I know that film. It's The Mack (1973) starring Max Julien." Although he declined a writing credit, Julien co-wrote the script along with co-star Richard Pryor and director Michael Campus. He also made major contributions in designing the costumes. It remains one of the leading DVD rentals/sellers in the world, recently cited by Entertainment Weekly as the 20th top cult film of all times, on a list of 50.
Julien had a starring cameo and wrote his own role in Def Jam's comedy hit, "How To Be A Player", then wrote and performed the intro, 19 interludes and the final recording on the film's platinum selling soundtrack album. He wrote and performed on Rap-A-Lot artist Tela's Gold Now or Never CD; was highlighted throughout The Hughes Brothers' documentary "The American Pimp"; starred in Bradley Smith's award-winning film short film "Restore"; and featured in N.Y.'s 2002 Urban World Film Festival as well as on Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Channel.- Barbara Chilcott was born on 10 September 1922 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950), Stop Me Before I Kill! (1960) and Danger Man (1960). She was married to Harry Somers and Max Helpmann. She died on 1 January 2022 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Joan Copeland, the sister of famed playwright Arthur Miller, is a renowned actress in her own right. She made her name on Broadway, debuting there in 1945 to begin a career that lasted more than 60 years. She also had a long career on television, where she appeared in a number of that medium's most popular soap operas. She played scheming villain Andrea Whiting in Search for Tomorrow (1951), and also appeared in Love of Life (1951) and The Edge of Night (1956), among others. She occasionally worked in films, but made fewer than 20 of them in her career, preferring the stage and television, where she made her debut in 1950.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Milan (Accademia dei Filodrammatici) in the early 1950s, and a few experiences directing plays and operas, Mario Lanfranchi was hired at RAI, at the onset of Italian television. He was therefore a pioneer of Italia television and the first one to bring opera to the small screen, in 1956, with "Madama Butterfly", which did rise Anna Moffo to the rank of diva in the brief space of one night. He was meanwhile very active in the theater as a director and producer. In the early Sixties Mario left the Italian Television (coming back occasionally for some inaugurations, like Rai-TV Channel 2, Eurovision, the new Naples studios) and returned to the stage, directing and producing several works by English and American playwrights, premiering a number of plays and musicals. He wrote and produced "Festa Italiana", a colossal show with 120 performers, which broke box-office records at the Madison Square Garden of New York. At that same time, Mario began his career as a film director with the western Death Sentence (1968), followed by several other movies of different genres. In 1980 he moved to London, where he lived for 25 years, staging big musicals like "Lust" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" or plays like David Beaird's "900 Oneonta" at London's Old Vic and Daphne du Maurier's "September Tide" with Susannah York, which ran for years in the West End and Broadway. In 2005 Mario moved back to Italy, where he lived in a 16th century villa near Parma. He still enjoyed staging plays and giving recitals in the little theatre of the villa, periodically opening the doors to anybody.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jay Wolpert was born on 29 January 1942 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). He was married to Roslyn Granowitter. He died on 3 January 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter originally was an actor in the 1950s, studying his craft with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler and appearing on television and in summer stock. In the early 1960s he achieved notoriety for programming movies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. An obsessive cinema-goer, sometimes seeing up to 400 movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich prominently showcased the work of American directors such as John Ford, about whom he subsequently wrote a book based on the notes he had produced for the MOMA retrospective of the director, and the then-underappreciated Howard Hawks. Bogdanovich also brought attention to such forgotten pioneers of American cinema as Allan Dwan.
Bogdanovich was influenced by the French critics of the 1950s who wrote for Cahiers du Cinema, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut. Before becoming a director himself, he built his reputation as a film writer with articles in Esquire Magazine. In 1968, following the example of Cahiers du Cinema critics Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer who had created the Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") by making their own films, Bogdanovich became a director. Working for low-budget schlock-meister Roger Corman, Bogdanovich directed the critically praised Targets (1968) and the not-so-critically praised Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), a film best forgotten.
Turning back to journalism, Bogdanovich struck up a lifelong friendship with the legendary Orson Welles while interviewing him on the set of Mike Nichols' film adaptation of Catch-22 (1970) from the novel by Joseph Heller. Subsequently, Bogdanovich has played a major role in elucidating Welles and his career with his writings on the great actor-director, most notably his book "This is Orson Welles" (1992). He has steadily produced invaluable books about the cinema, especially "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors," an indispensable tome that establishes Bogdanovich, along with Kevin Brownlow, as one of the premier English-language chroniclers of cinema.
The 32-year-old Bogdanovich was hailed by a critics as a Wellesian wunderkind when his most famous film, The Last Picture Show (1971) was released. The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including Bogdanovich as Best Director, and won two of them, for Cloris Leachman and "John Ford Stock Company" veteran Ben Johnson in the supporting acting categories. Bogdanovich, who had cast 19-year-old model Cybill Shepherd in a major role in the film, fell in love with the young beauty, an affair that eventually led to his divorce from the film's set designer Polly Platt, his longtime artistic collaborator and the mother of his two children.
Bogdanovich followed up The Last Picture Show (1971) with a major hit, What's Up, Doc? (1972), a screwball comedy heavily indebted to Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), starring Barbra Streisand and 'Ryan O'Neal'. Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich had solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, with whom he formed The Directors Company. The Directors Company was a generous production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within strict budget limitations. It was through this entity that Bogdanovich's next big hit, the critically praised Paper Moon (1973), was produced.
Paper Moon (1973), a Depression-era comedy starring Ryan O'Neal that won his ten-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, proved to be the highwater mark of Bogdanovich's career. Forced to share the profits with his fellow directors, Bogdanovich became dissatisfied with the arrangement. The Directors Company subsequently produced only two more films, Francis Ford Coppola's critically acclaimed The Conversation (1974) which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1974 and garnered Coppola an Oscar nod for Best Director, and Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller (1974), a film that had a quite different critical reception.
An adaptation of the Henry James novella, Daisy Miller (1974) spelled the beginning of the end of Bogdanovich's career as a popular, critically acclaimed director. The film, which starred Bogdanovich's lover Cybill Shepherd as the title character, was savaged by critics and was a flop at the box office. Bogdanovich's follow-up, At Long Last Love (1975), a filming of the Cole Porter musical starring Cybill Shepherd, was derided by some critics as one of the worst films ever made, noted as such in Harry Medved and Michael Medved's book "The Golden Turkey Awards: Nominees and Winners, the Worst Achievements in Hollywood History" (1980). The film also was a box office bomb despite featuring Burt Reynolds, a hotly burning star who would achieve super-nova status at the end of the 1970s.
Bogdanovich insisted on filming the musical numbers for At Long Last Love (1975) live, a process not used since the early days of the talkies, when sound engineer Douglas Shearer developed lip-synching at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The decision was widely ridiculed, as none of the leading actors were known for their singing abilities (Bogdanovich himself had produced a critically panned album of Cybill Shepherd singing Cole Porter songs in 1974). The public perception of Bogdanovich became that of an arrogant director hamstrung by his own hubris.
Trying to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was his early success, Bogdanovich once again turned to the past, his own and that of cinema, with Nickelodeon (1976). The film, a comedy recounting the earliest days of the motion picture industry, reunited Ryan O'Neal and 'Tatum O'Neal' from his last hit, Paper Moon (1973) with Burt Reynolds. Counseled not to use the unpopular (with both audiences and critics) Cybill Shepherd in the film, Bogdanovich instead used newcomer Jane Hitchcock as the film's ingénue. Unfortunately, the magic of Paper Moon (1973) was not be repeated and the film died at the box office. Jane Hitchcock, Bogdanovich's discovery, would make only one more film before calling it quits.
After a three-year hiatus, Bogdanovich returned with the critically and financially underwhelming Saint Jack (1979) for Hugh Hefner's Playboy Productions Inc. Bogdanovich's long affair with Cybill Shepherd had ended in 1978, but the production deal making Hugh Hefner the film's producer was part of the settlement of a lawsuit Shepherd had filed against Hefner for publishing nude photos of her pirated from a print of The Last Picture Show (1971) in Playboy Magazine. Bogdanovich then launched the film that would be his career Waterloo, They All Laughed (1981), a low-budget ensemble comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and the 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten. During the filming of the picture, Bogdanovich fell in love with Stratten, who was married to an emotionally unstable hustler, Paul Snider, who relied on her financially. Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich, and when she told Snider she was leaving him, he shot and killed her, then committed suicide.
They All Laughed (1981) could not attract a distributor due to the negative publicity surrounding the Stratten murder, despite it being one of the few films made by the legendary Audrey Hepburn after her provisional retirement in 1967 (the film would prove to be Hepburn's last starring role in a theatrically released motion picture). The heartbroken Bogdanovich bought the rights to the negative so that it would be seen by the public, but the film had a limited release, garnered weak reviews and cost Bogdanovich millions of dollars, driving the emotionally devastated director into bankruptcy.
Bogdanovich turned back to his first avocation, writing, to pen a memoir of his dead love, "The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)" that was published in 1984. The book was a riposte to Teresa Carpenter's "Death of a Playmate" article written for The Village Voice that had won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Carpenter had lambasted Bogdanovich and Hugh Hefner, claiming that Stratten was as much a victim of them as she was of Paul Snider. The article served as the basis of Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (1983), in which Bogdanovich was portrayed as the fictional director "Aram Nicholas".
Bogdanovich's career as a noted director was over, and though he achieved modest success with Mask (1985), his sequel to his greatest success The Last Picture Show (1971), Texasville (1990), was a critical and box office disappointment. He directed two more theatrical films in 1992 and 1993, but their failure kept him off the big screen until 2001's The Cat's Meow (2001). Returning once again to a reworking of the past, this time the alleged murder of director Thomas H. Ince by Welles' bete noir William Randolph Hearst, The Cat's Meow (2001) was a modest critical success but a flop at the box office. In addition to helming some television movies, Bogdanovich has returned to acting, with a recurring guest role on the cable television series The Sopranos (1999) as Dr. Jennifer Melfi's analyst.
Bogdanovich's personal reputation suffered from gossip about his 13-year marriage to Dorothy Stratten's 19-year-old-kid sister Louise Stratten, who was 29 years his junior. Some gossip held that Bogdanovich's behavior was akin to that of the James Stewart character in Alfred Hitchcock's necrophiliac masterpiece Vertigo (1958), with the director trying to remold Stratten into the image of her late sister. The marriage ended in divorce in 2001.
Now in his early eighties, Bogdanovich has arguably imitated his hero Orson Welles, but in an unintended fashion, as filmmaker who never regained the acclaim bestowed on their first major success. However, unlike the widely acclaimed master Welles, the orbit of Bogdanovich's reputation has never recovered from the apogee it reached briefly in the early 1970s.
There has been speculation that Peter Bogdanovich's ruin as a director was guaranteed when he ditched his wife and artistic collaborator Polly Platt for Cybill Shepherd. Platt had worked with Bogdanovich on all his early successes, and some critics believe that the controlling artistic consciousness on The Last Picture Show (1971) was Platt's. Parting company with Platt after Paper Moon (1973), Bogdanovich promptly slipped from the heights of a wunderkind to a has-been pursuing epic folly, as evidenced by Daisy Miller (1974) and At Long Last Love (1975).
In 1998 the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show (1971) to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency. In the U.S., he experienced the racial chasm that divides the country, a great shock to a boy coming from a society with a majority of African descent.
At 18, he went to New York, did menial jobs and slept in a bus terminal toilet. A brief stint in the Army as a worker at a veterans' hospital was followed by more menial jobs in Harlem. An impulsive audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills. On his second try, he was accepted. Spotted in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of "Lysistrata", for which he earned good reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles. Nevertheless, the roles were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors routinely obtained. But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African-American man of that time, that of leading man. One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.
He remained active on stage and screen as well as in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. His roles in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and To Sir, with Love (1967) were landmarks in helping to break down some social barriers between blacks and whites. Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day. He took on directing and producing chores in the 1970s, achieving success in both arenas.- Actor
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Despite being born and raised in Scotland, George's roots were from Italy. He was fluent in Italian. The heavy-set Scot made his acting debut in Comfort and Joy (1984) and continued to work throughout the 1980s, which included featuring in the TV pilot Max Headroom (1985) and in The Singing Detective (1986).
In the 1990s, George worked in television and film. He was memorably featured in Crossing the Line (1990) as a fighter alongside Liam Neeson and he then returned to Italy to film For Roseanna (1997), where he portrayed a police sergeant. This would come in useful to George because he would then join the cast of popular police drama series The Bill (1984) in 1998 as Detective Duncan Lennox. Rossi portrayed a down-to-earth yet effective policeman and soon became a fan favorite. After four years, George left the series in January 2003, but he will be remembered for portraying one of the most popular faces on The Bill in the late '90s. During his career, he was featured alongside Jean Reno, Chris O'Donnell, and Sandra Bullock.- Music Department
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- Composer
Prolific songwriter ("Nice 'n' Easy", "Yellow Bird"), composer and author Marilyn Bergman wrote several theme songs for television and songs for revues, night clubs, and films. Joining ASCAP in 1953, her chief musical collaborators included her husband Alan Bergman, Lew Spence, Norman Luboff, Paul Weston, Sammy Fain, and Alex North. Her other song compositions included "Cheatin' Billy", "Don't Know Where I'm Goin'", "I've Never Left Your Arms", "Never Be Afraid", "Outta My Mind", "The Right Approach" (for film), "Marriage-Go-Round" (for film), "Sentimental Baby", "Sleep Warm", "Sogni D'Oro", "That Face", "Baby, the Ball is Over", "Ol' MacDonald", "If I Were in Love" (for film) and "That's Him Over There."- Actor and bodybuilder Mark Forest was born in Brooklyn as Lorenzo Luis Degni, a third generation Italian-American (his grandparents hailed from Naples). He began as a bodybuilder at the tender age of thirteen, found himself featured on the cover of magazines and soon operated his own gym on Long Island. He entered and won several bodybuilding competitions before finding his way into show business via Mae West's troupe of musclemen (who featured as ladies' eye candy in her touring act along with the singers and dancers). West's entourage variously included other luminaries of the muscular fraternity, such as Ed Fury, Gordon Mitchell and Reg Lewis.
Mark Forest came to international fame after being recruited to star in Italian peplum (sword and sandal) epics, becoming only the second American actor (after Steve Reeves) to find lucrative work and popularity in that medium. His success was greatly helped by the fact that he was already fluent in Italian. Forest's film career spanned a modest five years (1960-1965), in the course of which he starred in a dozen pictures. Most often, he portrayed either Hercules or the equally brawny hero Maciste, created by Gabriele D'Annunzio and Giovanni Pastrone. In fact, Forest played Maciste seven times - more than any other actor.
At the end of his brief fling with the movies, Forest turned to his other passion and reinvented himself as an opera singer (tenor) in Europe. He became adept at the bel canto technique, trained by Giovanni Milillo, a composer and former tenor at the New York Opera and father of operatic soprano Aprile Millo. After his return to the U.S., Forest settled in California, latterly teaching vocal technique in Studio City. - Actor
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- Producer
Bob Saget was an American actor, stand-up comedian, and television host from Philadelphia. His best known role was playing pater familias Danny Tanner on the hit sitcom "Full House" (1987-1995). He played the character again in the sequel series "Fuller House" (2016-2020). Saget served as the original host of the long-running clip show "America's Funniest Home Videos" from 1989 to 1997. Saget voiced the narrator in the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014), depicted as an older version of main character Ted Mosby.
In 1956, Saget was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia. His parents were supermarket executive Benjamin Saget and hospital administrator Rosalyn "Dolly" Saget. The Saget family eventually moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Bob received his early religious education at Temple Israel, a synagogue of Norfolk which adhered to Conservative Judaism. He was reportedly a rebellious student.
Saget spend part of his high school years in Los Angeles, where he befriended veteran comedian Larry Fine (1902-1975). He attended a Philadelphia high school during his senior year. He was originally interested in a medical career but his English teacher Elaine Zimmerman convinced Saget to aspire to an acting or filmmaking career instead.
Saget received his college education at the "Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts", a college associated with the Temple University of Philadelphia. One of his student films won a merit award at the Student Academy Awards. He graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts in 1978. He had already started performing in comedy clubs during his college years.
In 1978, Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California. He dropped out due to health-related problems. He almost died due to a gangrenous appendix, costing him a loss of confidence. He decided afterwards to lose some weight, in the belief that it would improve his health.
Following his graduation, Saget spend about a decade working mostly as a comedian. He appeared in minor acting roles in both films and television. In 1987, Saget was performing comedy bits for the short-lived non-fiction show "The Morning Program". The show offered a mix of "news, entertainment and comedy", but was canceled due to low ratings.
Saget's big break came when he was chosen to portray widowed father Danny Tanner in the sitcom "Full House" (1987-1995). The series depicted Danny's efforts to raise three young daughters, with the assistance of his best friends. The show suffered from poor viewership in its first season, but attracted a family audience due to its portrayal of the struggles associated with parenting. By its third season, it was ranked among Nielsen's Top 30 shows. Saget became a household name, and the series lasted for 8 seasons and 192 episodes. The series was eventually canceled due to its increasing production costs. Its rating had remained high until its final episode.
In 1989, Saget was chosen as the host of the clip show "America's Funniest Home Videos". The show featured humorous homemade videos which were submitted by its viewers, often highlighting physical comedy, pranks, or unusual behavior by children and pets. While the show was popular with viewers, Saget himself was increasingly frustrated with its repetitive format. When his contract for the show expired in 1997, Saget was not interested in negotiating for a renewal.
In 1996, Saget directed the dramatic television film "For Hope". The film depicted the struggles of a woman who is slowly dying due to being afflicted with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease with no known cure. Saget was reportedly inspired by the life and death of his sister Gay Saget, who had died due to scleroderma. The film received high ratings in its debut.
In 1998, Saget directed the comedy film "Dirty Work". It depicted two half-brothers who offer to perform revenge schemes for paying clients, but have a personal grudge against a man who reneged on a deal with them. The film under-performed at the box office, but gained a cult following due to its reputation as a "gag-fest".
From 2001 to 2002, Saget had the starring role of Matt Stewart in the sitcom "Raising Dad". The premise of the series was that widowed father Matt Stewart was trying to raise two daughter, while pursuing a teaching career at his eldest's daughter's high school. Despite the series having a similar concept to "Full House", it failed to find an audience. It lasted for a single season.
In 2005, Saget was cast as the narrator in the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014). The premise of the series was that middle-aged Ted Mosby narrates his life story (and the life stories of his best friends) to his son and daughter. The series repeatedly implied that Ted was an unreliable narrator, who either embellished or censored aspects of his various stories. The series was quite popular, lasting for 9 seasons and 208 episodes.
In 2007, Saget directed the direct-to-video parody film "Farce of the Penguins". The film was a full-length parody of the documentary film "March of the Penguins" (2005), featuring penguins conversing about their love lives. It featured the voices of several then-popular actors, including several of Saget's former co-stars from "Full House".
In 2009, Saget was cast in the main role of Steve Patterson in the sitcom "Surviving Suburbia". The premise of the series was that the members of a suburban family have problems in interacting both with each other, and with their new neighbors. The series only lasted a single season, and struggled with low ratings.
In 2014, Saget published his memoirs under the title "Dirty Daddy". In 2016, a sequel series to "Full House" was introduced under the title "Fuller House". It featured the lives of two of Danny Tanner's daughters, and Danny's grandchildren. Saget played the recurring role of Danny for 15 episodes. The sequel series lasted for 5 seasons. This was Saget's last major role in a sitcom. He continued, however, to regularly host television events.
In January 2022, Saget was in Florida for a stand-up tour. On January 9, Saget was discovered dead in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, located south of Orlando, Florida. He was 65-years-old. His autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt head trauma from an accidental blow to the back of his head, likely from a fall. He had died in his sleep. He was buried at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, next to the graves of his parents and his sister. Mourners honored Saget by offering donations to the charity "Scleroderma Research Foundation" (SRF), since Saget had long served in its board of directors. Saget is gone, but his popularity endures due to his acting and directing roles in several popular films and television shows.- Actor
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Blond, boyishly handsome Dwayne Hickman, the younger brother of Darryl Hickman, followed in his sibling's tiny footsteps as a moppet film actor himself. Born Dwayne Bernard Hickman in Los Angeles on May 18, 1934, the brothers had a younger sister as well, Deidre (born 1940). He had minor roles in such films as Captain Eddie (1945) (Darryl had a major role in this), The Secret Heart (1946), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Mighty Joe Young (1949), The Happy Years (1950) (again with Darryl in a major role), and topped his youthful film career as "Nip Worden" in the canine movie series "Rusty", which began with The Son of Rusty (1947) and ended with Rusty's Birthday (1949).
Graduating from Cathedral High School in 1952 (Darryl graduated from the same school in 1948), Dwayne enrolled at Loyola Marymount University. He returned to Hollywood following college studies and, unlike his brother, focused strongly on television work, making appearances on such series as Public Defender (1954), The Loretta Young Show (1953), The Lone Ranger (1949), and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952). He also appeared in the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward comedy film Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) playing the secondary teen couple with Tuesday Weld. He grabbed major comedy attention, especially from young female baby-boomers, as Chuck, the girl-crazy nephew, in The Bob Cummings Show (1955). (Cummings became his mentor.)
Hickman then played the titular lovesick title high school teen in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), the role for which he is best known, and in which he was reunited with Tuesday Weld as the prime object of his attention, although Weld did not remain with the series for the entirety of its run. Laying low for a few years, Hickman returned to the screen, making a strong impression in the western film Cat Ballou (1965), and then began hanging out with the young beach crowd in several AIP movies including Ski Party (1965), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), and a few slapstick comedies such as Sergeant Dead Head (1965) and Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967). He guested on a mix of comedic and dramatic TV shows including Combat! (1962), Mod Squad (1968), Ellery Queen (1975), The Flying Nun (1967), and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974).
In the 1970s, Hickman began working behind the scenes as a publicist, a Las Vegas entertainment director and, most successfully, as a programming executive for CBS. He would return only occasionally to acting. He revisited his Dobie Gillis character, albeit a fully grown-up version, in such made-for-television movies as Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? (1977) and Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988). In addition to guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Hi Honey, I'm Home (1991), he appeared in glorified cameos in High School U.S.A. (1983), had a recurring role on Clueless (1996), and was glimpsed in Cops n Roberts (1995), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), and Angels with Angles (2005). He began episodic directing chores in the 1980's, working on such episodes as "Charles in Charge", "Designing Women", "Head of the Class", "Harry and the Hendersons", and "Sister, Sister". In 1994, he published his biography, aptly titled 'Forever Dobie'.
Thrice wed, Hickman has two children -- one by his first wife, actress/model/beauty pageant winner Carol Christensen (1963-1972) who appeared a few times on "Dobie Gillis", and the other by his present wife, actress/voiceover artist Joan Roberts, to whom he has been married since 1983.- Nicholas Donnelly was born in 1938 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Lifeforce (1985), Dixon of Dock Green (1955) and Grange Hill (1978). He was married to Alrun Donnelly. He died on 9 January 2022 in England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
This balding, impeccably well-spoken London-born character actor made his name on the Shakespearean stage well before becoming a known quantity on television. Gary was the son of Austrian-Jewish émigrés Siegfried Waldhorn and his wife Liselotte (née Popper). As a youngster, he became enamoured with acting after seeing Richard Burton on stage as Henry V at the Old Vic. After graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1967, Waldhorn made his theatrical debut as an extra in a National Theatre production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. For several years after, he served his apprenticeship as a small part supporting player. By the early 70s, Waldhorn had established himself as a serious actor, headlining as Milo Tindle in Sleuth (the part played by Michael Caine in the classic film version) at the West End. In 1972, he took the play on the road through Australia and New Zealand, along with Richard Todd, who essayed the role of mystery novelist Andrew Wyke. As a Shakespearean actor, Waldhorn later frequently performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Over the years, his roles have included Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing, a highly acclaimed title role of Henry V (at the Old Vic, 1996-97) and the King of France in All's Well that Ends Well.
On screen from 1969, Waldhorn appeared in a variety of TV shows, his credits including perennial murder suspect William H. Druitt in the miniseries Jack the Ripper (1973), the diplomat and advisor Marquis de Caulaincourt in Napoleon and Love (1974), Conservative politician Henry 'Chips' Channon in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978), as well as recurring roles in the comedies All at Number 20 (1986) and Brush Strokes (1986). He also guested (usually as establishment figures) in diverse genre series, ranging from Space: 1999 (1975) to Robin Hood (1984) and from Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) to Lovejoy (1986) and Heartbeat (1992). In the final analysis, Gary Waldhorn will be most fondly remembered as David Horton, the conservative, wealthy, often starchy chairman of the parish council in the ever-popular sitcom The Vicar of Dibley (1994).
From April 1967 until his passing on January 10 2022, Waldhorn was married to Christie Dickason, playwright, poet, theatre director/choreographer, librettist and author of (to date) nine novels.- Richard Folmer was born on 13 February 1942 in Cortland, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Straw Dogs (2011), Cleaner (2007) and The Root Cellar (2016). He was married to Ginger Folmer. He died on 11 January 2022 in Shreveport Louisiana, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Joyce Eliason was born on 14 May 1934 in Manti, Utah, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for Mulholland Drive (2001), The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992) and The Last Don (1997). She was married to Stuart Margolin and Allan Dotson. She died on 10 January 2022 in the USA.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
- Director
A rabid movie fan when he was young, Jean-Jacques Beineix first studied medicine before entering the movie business. During the seventies, he became an established assistant director, working with Claude Berri, René Clément, Claude Zidi and even Jerry Lewis. But, like many assistants, Beineix's ultimate dream was to direct. He had a pass at it in 1977 with the short Le chien de Monsieur Michel (1977). A promising debut, it won the first price at Trouville Festival and earned a César nomination for best short film (fiction).
In 1981, came his first long feature Diva (1981), a stylish thriller based on a book by Delacorta. When it came out, Diva was not supported by French critics and seemed at first well on its way to crash and burn. But slowly the film gained momentum due to good word of mouth and positive reactions in various festivals like Moscow and Toronto. Ultimately, the film became a great success internationally, winning four Césars along the way.
Next came the expensive The Moon in the Gutter (1983). An adaptation of a David Goodis novel, the film was even more radical than 'Diva' in its deliberate artificiality. Premiering in competition at the 36th Cannes Film Festival in 1983, the film was booed and most critics found it pretentious and boring. Only few voices rose up to defend the movie but it was not enough to save it. It flopped at the box office but manage to win one César for set design.
At that point, Beineix's career was in serious danger of biting the dust, but he came back in force in 1986 with Betty Blue (1986) (aka 'Betty Blue'), based on a 'Philippe Djian' novel. Despite mixed reviews, the film was another international hit, won the top price at Montréal festival, and was nominated for best foreign film at both the Oscars and Golden Globes, each time losing to Fons Rademakers' 'De Aanslag'. It also earned 9 César nominations including best film and best director ... but won only for best poster !
Beineix's next movie Roselyne and the Lions (1988), set in the circus world, came and went unnoticed. In 1992, IP5: The Island of Pachyderms (1992) got attention mostly for being Yves Montand's last role. Beineix then resurfaced where he was least expected with social documentaries. He did a film about children in Romania; Otaku (1994) was shot in Japan; Assigné à résidence (1997) was about locked-in syndrome victim Jean-Dominique Bauby.
In 2001, he came back to fiction with Mortal Transfer (2001), a psycho-thriller based on a Jean-Pierre Gattegno novel. Once again, critics were lukewarm and the film performed poorly at the box-office. In 2002, however, Beineix drew strong ratings with made for TV documentary Loft Paradoxe (2002), an attempt to analyse the success of reality show 'Loft Story'.
With his intense focus on the power of images, Beineix paved the way for directors like Luc Besson, Leos Carax and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. A self-proclaimed misanthropist who never hid his contempt for producers and was often deemed excessive and irascible, he will go down in the history books as a director who raised controversy not for the subjects he tackled but for his stylistic approach. Still, with Diva (1981) and Betty Blue (1986), he directed two of the few French films of the eighties that reached an international audience.- Actor
- Soundtrack
George Little was born on 6 November 1928 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Evita (1996) and Emmerdale Farm (1972). He was married to Jane Little and Gillian Morris. He died on 8 January 2022 in England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carmela Corren was born Carmela Bizman in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her ambition was to become a dancer, but an injury prompted her to opt for a career as a popular singer instead. After completing her mandatory military service in the Israeli Defense Forces, Carmela made her public debut on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) in New York in 1956. In 1961, she accompanied Cliff Richard on a tour of South Africa. Two years later, she was chosen by the broadcast network ORF to represent Austria in the 1963 Eurovision contest where her rendition of "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder" gained her a seventh placed finish. Until the late 70s, Carmela released several albums of ballads and chansons in German, English, French, Spanish and Greek under the Ariola, Vogue and Decca labels.
Carmela appeared in several films during the 1960s, including the spy thriller Voyage to Danger (1962) and the mountaineering drama Sein bester Freund (1962), starring opposite the legendary alpine ski racing champion Toni Sailer. She also acted in a few musicals and crooned popular songs in English clubs, and, with greater success, in Austrian and German TV variety specials. Between 1966 and 1970, she was married to the German music producer Horst Geiger with whom she had two children. In 1973, she resettled in Florida, having abandoned show business to raise her family.- Michel Subor was born Mischa Subotzki in Paris, France in 1935, to anti-Bolshevik parents from the Soviet Union who had immigrated a few years earlier. His father was an engineer in Moscow, and his mother was born in Azerbaijan. Michel's sister moved to the United States as an adult. His career started with small roles in Frou-Frou (Augusto Genina, 1955) with Dany Robin, and the comedy Un drôle de dimanche/A Strange Sunday (Marc Allégret, 1958), followed by playing Jean Richard's son in the comedy Mon pote le gitan/My buddy the Gypsy (François Gir, Guy Lionel, 1959). He had his first leading role as the lover of Brigitte Bardot's character in the sexy comedy La Bride sur le Cou/Please, Not Now! (Roger Vadim, 1961). The year before Subor had completed his most important early role in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Petit Soldat/The Little Soldier (1960). The film was banned from release in France for three years because it refers to the use of torture on both the French and Algerian sides during the Algerian struggle for independence. Subor plays Bruno Forestier, a young, disillusioned man who becomes involved in politics, yet in spite of the fact that he stands up to torture and commits murder because of this involvement, he does not have deep political beliefs. Subor also provided the narrator's voice in another classic of the Nouvelle Vague, Jules and Jim (1962) (François Truffaut, 1962).
- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
- Writer
Jean-Claude Lord was born on 6 June 1943. He was a director and writer, known for Éclair au chocolat (1979), Bingo (1974) and The Vindicator (1986). He was married to Lise Thouin. He died on 15 January 2022 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Michel Ruhl was born on 2 February 1934 in France. He was an actor, known for Wild Reeds (1994), Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967) and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015). He died on 15 January 2022 in Guérande, Pays de la Loire, France.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gaspard Ulliel's dream had always been to direct a movie, and after completing his studies at the lycée (French high school), he majored in cinema at the University of Saint-Denis, and began his acting career.
He was born in Paris, to Christine, a stylist and runway show producer, and Serge Ulliel, a fashion designer. One of his first professional performances came when he was twelve, in the TV film Une femme en blanc (1997). During the following years, Ulliel continued working on television and was cast in short films such as Alias (1999). He played a young shepherd who was injured by The Beast in Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and was then discovered by director Michel Blanc, who offered him a part in Summer Things (2002) which also starred veteran actress Charlotte Rampling. Ulliel then took summer stages at Les Cours Florent and was asked by director André Téchiné to star in Strayed (2003) as Emmanuelle Béart's over. His role as Manech opposite Audrey Tautou in A Very Long Engagement (2004) brought him to stardom. He was nominated thrice for Most Promising Male Newcomer at the César Awards (the equivalent of the Oscars in France) in 2003, 2004 and 2005; he won the last one. Ulliel's lead roles include The Last Day (2004), Jacquou le croquant (2007) and Hannibal Rising (2007), his first major English-language film.
He had a son with his former partner, model and singer Gaëlle Piétri, born in January 2016. They split up in 2020. Gaspard died on 19 January, 2022, in La Tronche, Isère, France, after a skiing accident.- Michael Jackson was born on 16 April 1934 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 (2013), Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988). He was married to Alana Ladd. He died on 15 January 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Hardy Kruger was born Eberhard August Franz Ewald Krüger in Wedding, Berlin, thee son of Auguste (Meier) and Max Krüger. At thirteen years, he became a member of the "Hitler Jugend" (Hitler Youth), as did all 13-year-old boys in Germany then. The purpose of the organization was to prepare the boys for military service. At age 15, Hardy made his film debut in a German picture (Junge Adler (1944)), but his acting career was interrupted when he was drafted into the German army in 1944 at age 16 and posted to an infantry regiment.
Years later, Hardy related how he "hated that [Nazi] uniform." During the filming of A Bridge Too Far (1977) in which he portrayed a Nazi general, he wore a top-coat over his S.S. uniform between takes so as "not to remind myself of my childhood in Germany during W.W.II." It is said, that during his war years, Hardy was captured and taken prisoner by U.S. forces but attempted to escape thrice, the third time successfully.
After the war, Hardy returned to acting, and eight years later was "discovered" by foreign film distributor J. Arthur Rank who promptly cast him in three British pictures, practically filmed back-to-back: The One That Got Away (1957), Bachelor of Hearts (1958) and Chance Meeting (1959), in which he appeared simply as a foreigner and not a German, as was usually the case. Following the release of these films, Hardy's career took off. Despite anti-German sentiment that still prevailed in postwar Europe, Hardy, described as "ruggedly handsome" and a "blond heartthrob," became an international favorite, paving the way to his first American role as co-star with John Wayne in the Tanganyika-shot wildlife adventure Hatari! (1962).
Hardy was so taken aback by the beauty of the land, that he bought the film's location ("Momilla Farm") and built a small home for himself and a small bungalow hotel for tourists to see the animals. Hunting was forbidden on the property, and, later, a cattle farm was started with the meat being sold to local hotels. Hardy described his home there as "a sort of African Walden where I can get away from the world from time to time."
In 1979, due to the dissolution of the alliance of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika), the border with Kenya was closed and remained so for half a decade which caused a serious decline in tourism. The business aspects of his property were shut down for a period of time, but eventually things picked up and the place was transformed into a proper tourist hotel, known (fittingly) as Hatari Lodge.
Fluent in English, French and German, Hardy found himself in much demand by British, French, American and German producers and became more selective in his scripts. "I'd rather sit out a picture than take a role I don't think is right for me" he would later say. He died in January 2022, in Palm Springs, California, 11 years after his last film credit.- Camillo Milli was born on 1 August 1929 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was an actor, known for We Have a Pope (2011), La locandiera (1980) and I banchieri di Dio (2002). He was married to Mariangela. He died on 20 January 2022 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gloria McMillan was born on 13 March 1933 in Portland, Oregon, USA. She was an actress, known for Centennial (1978), Our Miss Brooks (1952) and Our Miss Brooks (1956). She was married to Ron Cocking and Gilbert W. Allen. She died on 19 January 2022 in Huntington Beach, California, USA.- Stephen Aintree was born on 14 January 1957 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mike Bassett: Manager (2005), Heartburn Hotel (1998) and Life on Mars (2006). He was married to Lynn Robertson Hay. He died on 18 January 2022 in England, UK.
- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
Meat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas, to Wilma Artie (Hukel), a teacher and gospel singer, and Orvis Wesley Aday, a police officer. He moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to play in local bands. In 1970, he moved to New York and appeared in the Broadway musicals "Hair", "Rockabye Hamlet" and "The Rocky Horror Show," and Off Broadway in "Rainbow", "More Than You Deserve", "National Lampoon Show" and the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of "As You Like it;" as well as other productions at the famed New York Public Theatre. He made his film debut with a memorable role in the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
In 1977, he and lyricist Jim Steinman released an operatic rock album called "Bat Out Of Hell"; the record was huge and has sold 50,000,000 copies worldwide and is tied with AC/DC for the 2nd best selling record of all time. The tour and promoting the album took a toll on Meat Loaf's voice and left him unable to sing for 2 years, but with months of rehabilitation, he was able to get back in the studio and record the album "Dead Ringer". Meat Loaf stayed in the dark through the 1980s in the US, recording 4 records which got very little airplay or high chart positions in the US but continued to have major chart success in Europe and Australia. The 1981 Single "Dead Ringer for Love", a duet with Cher, was a top 10 single in many countries outside the US, but which American radio refused to play.
Meat Loaf had many film and TV roles, including the lead character Travis Redfish in Roadie (1980); a pilot in Out of Bounds (1986); in The Squeeze (1987) with Michael Keaton; and Fred in Focus (2001) (based on the Arthur Miller book by the same name), with Laura Dern and William H. Macy. When Meat Loaf and Steinman got back together in 1993, they delivered a powerful sequel, "Bat Out Of Hell II", which went to #1 in the US and UK and 26 other countries. Bat II sold over 22,000,000 copies.
He appeared in many films, including Crazy in Alabama (1999), Formula 51 (2001) (with Samuel L. Jackson), and Fight Club (1999) (with Brad Pitt). TV credits included guest starring roles as a soldier being held prisoner in Vietnam in Lightning Force (1991), a newspaper reporter in the hit series Glee (2009), a slick landlord of a restaurant who ends up on the menu in HBO series Tales from the Crypt (1989) a blacksmith on Showtime's Dead Man's Gun (1997), as fur trader Jake in Masters of Horror (2005) episode Pelts (2006), in House (2004) as caring husband Eddie, and, most recently, in the supporting role of Doug in the SYFY series Ghost Wars (2017). Hugh Laurie (star of "House") played piano on the song "If I Can't Have You" on Meat Loaf's album "Hang Cool Teddy Bear", which was produced by award-winning music producer Rob Cavallo. (Jack Black also sang on the album.)
Marvin Lee Aday died on January 20, 2022 in Austin, Texas from COVID-19 complications.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Iconic comedian Louie Anderson, the three-time Emmy®-Award winner, was one of the country's most recognized and adored comics; named by Comedy Central as "One of 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time." His career spanned more than 30 years. He was a best-selling author, star of his own stand up specials and sitcoms, and toured, performing to standing-room only crowds worldwide.
Louis Perry Anderson was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the son of Ora Zella (Prouty) and Louis William Anderson, a trumpet player. He was of Swedish, Norwegian, and English descent. Sharing the ups and downs of his childhood experiences as one of eleven children, Louie crafted comedy routines that rang true for his early club audiences while reducing them to helpless fits of laughter, routines that led him from his career as a counselor to troubled children to the first-place trophy at the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition. Henny Youngman, who hosted the competition, recognized the diamond-in-the-rough genius of the young comic and hired him as a writer, providing invaluable experience that soon put Louie in his own spotlight on comedy stages all over the country.
Johnny Carson, the comedy icon for generations of rising stars, invited Louie to make his national television debut on the "The Tonight Show" in 1984, and the rest is history. Leno, Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, "Comic Relief" and Showtime, HBO and CMT specials followed, including hosting the legendary game show, Family Feud, making Louie a household name and opening doors for him as an actor. He guest-starred in sitcoms like "Grace Under Fire" and dramas like "Touched by an Angel" and "Chicago Hope," and had memorable featured roles in film comedies like "Coming to America," opposite of Eddie Murphy, and the classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." In 2013, he took a dive on the ABC reality series, "Splash" where he conquered his own fears while becoming an inspiration of hope. His stand up Special, "Big Baby Boomer" premiered on CMT, in 2013. Also in that year, he competed and inspired on the ABC reality competition show, Splash.
In 1995 Louie put his creative energies to work on the Saturday morning animated series "Life with Louie." The long-running series based on Louie's own childhood and his life with his father won three Humanitas Prizes for writing on a children's' animated series, making him the only three-time recipient of this award. It also earned a Genesis Award for its depiction of the proper treatment of animals and, most significantly, two Emmy Awards.
His best selling books included Dear Dad - Letters From An Adult Child, a collection of alternately touching and outrageous letters from Louie to his late father, and Good-bye Jumbo...Hello Cruel World, self-help for those who struggle with self-esteem issues, and his latest installment on family, The F Word, How To Survive Your Family.
In 2016, Louie was cast to co-star along with Zach Galifianakis and Martha Kelly in the hit FX series, "Baskets." Anderson's extraordinary new role is Christine Baskets, the matriarch of the Baskets clan. The character is based on both his mother and his five sisters, who were a major presence in his life; "I'm not as nice in the character as my mom was as a person. It really is an extension of my mom, Anderson says, adding that he always aims to make his performance "as real as possible" without "affecting or cartooning it up. It felt like it was divine intervention when I got the call to be on the show, that somehow my mom, from the great beyond, was finally getting herself into show business where she truly belonged in the first place."
When not in production, Louie traveled the States doing what he loved to do, stand-up comedy, and again delivered to his fans his inimitable brand of humor and warmth. He died on January 21, 2022, in Las Vegas, of large B-cell lymphoma.- Ron Goulart was born on 13 January 1933 in Berkeley, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Welcome to Paradox (1998), Monsters (1988) and Thundercats (1985). He was married to Frances Sheridan Goulart. He died on 14 January 2022 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Bill Bryden was born on 12 April 1942 in Greenock, Scotland, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Aria (1987), Ill Fares the Land (1983) and The Mysteries (1985). He was married to Angela Douglas and Deborah Morris. He died on 5 January 2022 in the UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cute, bubbly, and adorable actress Carol Speed achieved a considerable amount of cult cinema popularity with her often lively and delightful contributions to a handful of enjoyably down'n'dirty 1970s blaxploitation features.
She was born Carolyn Stewart on March 14, 1945, in Bakersfield, California. She holds the distinction of being the first black homecoming queen in Santa Clara County and was one of the first black people to receive a scholarship for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Carol got her start in show business as a back-up singer for Bobbie Gentry at Harrah's club in Reno, Nevada. She made her film debut as a hooker in The New Centurions (1972). Speed's most memorable movie roles include sassy prison inmate Mickie in Jack Hill's hilarious babes-behind-bars parody The Big Bird Cage (1972), pimp Max Julien's loyal prostitute girlfriend Lulu in the terrific The Mack (1973), sarcastic rock groupie Janyce in Bummer (1973), club owner Rockne Tarkington's sweet gal pal Leslie in the fun Black Samson (1974) and deaf-mute Sarah in Al Adamson's Dynamite Brothers (1974).
Carol gave an especially inspired and impressive performance as a minister's innocent wife who becomes possessed by the malevolent spirit of an evil demon in William Girdler's immensely entertaining horror flick Abby (1974). She had a recurring part on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965) in the summer of 1970. Moreover, she made a guest appearance on an episode of Sanford and Son (1972), appeared in several TV commercials, and pops up in the made-for-TV films The Girls of Huntington House (1973), Love Hate Love (1971), Tenafly (1973), Getting Away from It All (1972), and The Psychiatrist (1970).
Outside of acting, Carol was also a successful writer (she's the author of the books "Inside Black Hollywood" and "The Georgette Harvey Story"), singer and songwriter (she sang her own compositions "I Can Make It" in "The Girls of Huntington House" and "My Soul Is A Witness" in "Abby"). After taking a regrettably lengthy hiatus from acting following Disco Godfather (1979) (she was slated to do a small role in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), but backed out at the last minute), Speed made a welcome comeback with a supporting part in the independent thriller Village Vengeance (2006).
Carol Speed died at age 76 on January 14, 2022 in Muskogee, Oklahoma.- Josef Griesser was born on 13 September 1937 in Telfs, Tyrol, Austria. He was an actor, known for Idomeneo (1989), Die Piefke-Saga (1990) and The Dark Valley (2014). He died on 19 January 2022 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria.
- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Mace Neufeld was born on 13 July 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), The Saint (1997) and No Way Out (1987). He was married to Helen Katz and Diane Conn. He died on 21 January 2022 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Hartmut Becker was a German stage and film star. He had worked in the theatre since 1962, during which time he starred in dozens of plays and has been featured in many international and national film and television productions. His film debut he made in 1970 with the main role Clark in Michael Verhoeven's feature film "o.k". The film was the official German contribution at the Film Festival Berlin 1970 and it's hot political expressiveness was the sensation of Berlin and killed the festival. Hartmut's performing in this film earned several prices and a great praise in the German feature articles. After "o.k." Hartmut Becker was one of Germany's busiest actors in film and theatre (at the State Theatres of Munich and Berlin he performed leading characters in plays from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams). More important main parts in films followed like in Verhoeven's "Who lives in the Glass House" (Film Festival Berlin 1971), "Als Mutter streikte", "John Ralling" (tv), "Mitgift", "Audienz" (tv), "Sonntagskinder."
His first leading part in an English language production he performed in the BBC-film "Forgive Our Foolish Ways", where he played the role of an German prisoner of war next to Kate Nelligan. The television film became a very big success all over the world. Hartmut's following international film was the American-English production "Jenny's War" (Columbia Pictures) where he portrayed the main part of Karl Koenig, a character in the crucial test between love and war. His partners in this film were Dyan Cannon, Elke Sommer and Trevor Howard. In 1987 he was a supporting actor in the American production "Escape From Sobibor" (director: Jack Gold). In his next Festival-Film "Il Decimo Clandestino" (Festival International du Film Cannes 1989) Becker worked together with admirable director Lina Wertmueller. His female partner in this feature film was Dominique Sanda.
Several dream parts followed after the success of "Il Decimo Clandestine" (Portraits with Women) for example the characters Niels Jost in "A Silent Conspiracy" (also starring Joss Ackland), Rauscher in the American Film "Triumph of the Spirit" (with Willem Dafoe, Robert Loggia), Lutz in the English-French Television Film "Free Frenchmen" (also starring Derek de Lint, Agnes Soral), Moritz in the English-Austrian feature film "Gave Princip" by Peter Patzak, King Christian in "Young Catherine" (American TV with a.o. Julia Ormond, Venessa Redgrave, Marthe Keller,Maximilian Schell), Rusty in the Italian tv-movie "Requiem Per Voce e Pianoforte" and last not least Dieter Krause in the English TV-thriller "The Waiting Time" (ITV 1999). His last leading role in a German feature was Goran in "The Unforgotten" produced in 2005. In the Germany cinema "Verfehlung" (The Transgression) of 2015 he performed the part Kardinal Schoeller. 2018 brought the role of Lenz Senior in "Liebesfilm". From 2007 to 2012, Becker was a member in the committee of the German Academy of Film (Deutsche Filmakademie). He died in 2022.- Hattie Ladbury was born in 1974 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Mrs. Brown (1997), A Street Cat Named Bob (2016) and The Magic Flute (2006). She was married to Oliver Fenwick. She died on 22 January 2022 in London, England, UK.
- Writer
- Art Department
Jean-Claude Mézières was born on 23 September 1938 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), The Fifth Element (1997) and Hard to Be a God (1989). He was married to Linds. He died on 23 January 2022.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Serge Korber was born on 1 February 1936 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Hearth Fires (1972). He was married to Marie-Claire Korber. He died on 23 January 2022 in Paris, France.- Actor
- Additional Crew
He studied and graduated from the "Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico". He works in theater and is directed, among others, by Mario Missiroli, Giorgio Pressburger, Jim Dale and Francesco Macedonio. Filmmaking has worked in more than 80 films with directors such as Mario Monicelli, Steno, Marco Ferreri, Damiano Damiani and Florestan Vancini. Memorable his performances in "Amici miei - Atto IIº" with Ugo Tognazzi and Gastone Moschin, "Fracchia la belva umana" and "Fantozzi alla riscossa" with Paolo Villaggio, "Parenti serpenti" with Alessandro Haber, Cinzia Leone and Monica Scattini, "Pierino colpisce ancora" with Alvaro Vitali. For television he is Judge Bordonaro in the first two editions of "La piovra". He gives voice to Cleveland Brown from the twelfth season of "I Griffin", replacing Luciano Marchitiello.- Actor
- Writer
Stephen Churchett was born on 10 April 1947 in Bromley, London England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Marple (2004). He died on 11 January 2022 in England, UK.- Ingo Feder was born in 1939. He was an actor, known for Tatort (1970), The Country Doctor (1987) and Flash - Der Fotoreporter (1992). He died on 16 January 2022 in Hamburg, Germany.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Bill Bryden was born on 12 April 1942 in Greenock, Scotland, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Aria (1987), Ill Fares the Land (1983) and The Mysteries (1985). He was married to Angela Douglas and Deborah Morris. He died on 5 January 2022 in the UK.- Etchika Choureau was born on 12 November 1929 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Darby's Rangers (1958), Lafayette Escadrille (1958) and The Vanquished (1953). She was married to Philippe Rheims and Max Choureau. She died on 24 January 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.
- Child actor Peter Robbins was born on August 10, 1956, in Los Angeles, California. His mother was an immigrant from Hungary who died from cancer when Peter was 16 years old. He first began acting in various films and television shows in 1963. Robbins has the distinction of being the first person to provide the cute and endearing voice of hapless, yet lovable blockhead Charlie Brown in a handful of delightful TV specials that include the holiday classics, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). Peter started doing the voice for "Charlie Brown" at age 9 and only stopped giving voice to this beloved and iconic character at age 13. Moreover, Robbins not only had a recurring role as "Alexander Bumstead" on the short-lived comedy program Blondie (1968), but also made guest appearances on episodes of such TV series as Rawhide (1959), The Munsters (1964), The Donna Reed Show (1958), F Troop (1965), Get Smart (1965), and My Three Sons (1960). In addition, he recorded a 45 single called "If I Knew Then (What I Know Now)" in 1968. Robbins quit acting in 1972 and worked, for a while, as a disc jockey in Palm Springs, California. He graduated from the University of California in San Diego in 1979 with degrees in psychology and communications. He later worked in real estate in Van Nuys, California, and lived in a condo in Oceanside, California with his dog, Snoopy. Robbins was a guest at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2008.
- Production Designer
- Art Department
Spencer Chapman was born on 14 January 1938 in London, England, UK. He was a production designer, known for The Roads to Freedom (1970), The Forsyte Saga (1967) and Tales of the Unexpected (1979). He was married to Consuela Chapman. He died on 23 January 2022 in the UK.- Ernst Stankovski was born on 16 June 1928 in Vienna-Hernals, Austria. He was an actor and writer, known for The Good Soldier Schweik (1960), The Country Doctor (1987) and Der Opernball (1971). He was married to Anna Luise Schubert and Ida Krottendorf. He died on 26 January 2022 in Klosterneuburg, Austria.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Morgan Stevens was born on 16 October 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Fame (1982), Murder One (1995) and Bare Essence (1983). He died on 26 January 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Costume Designer
- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Christian Gasc was born on 6 August 1945 in Dunes, Tarn-et-Garonne, France. He was a costume designer and actor, known for Ridicule (1996), On Guard (1997) and Farewell, My Queen (2012). He died on 11 January 2022 in Paris, France.- Producer
- Actor
- Production Manager
Karl Spiehs was born on 20 February 1931 in Ternitz, Lower Austria, Austria. He was a producer and actor, known for Liebe, Lügen, Leidenschaften (2002), Killer's Carnival (1966) and Bloody Friday (1972). He was married to Angelica Ott and Elfriede. He died on 27 January 2022 in Austria.- Kathryn Kates was born on 29 January 1948 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Greetings from Sarajevo (2021), Shades of Blue (2016) and The Many Saints of Newark (2021). She was married to Joseph Pershes. She died on 22 January 2022 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Howard Hesseman was a leading counter-culture figure since the late 1960s. He was a member of the improv group, "The Committee", for a decade in the 1960s/1970s. A character actor for many years on different television shows since the 1960s, he took small parts in The Andy Griffith Show (1960), Dragnet 1967 (1967), Soap (1977), and Sanford and Son (1972). The role that brought him to prominence was Howard Johnson in the cult classic Billy Jack (1971).
He was a frequent guest star on The Bob Newhart Show (1972) but would become best-known for his role on the classic series WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), as anti-disco hipster DJ "Dr. Johnny Fever". Also in the 1970s, he appeared in The Sunshine Boys (1975), Tunnel Vision (1976), Silent Movie (1976) and The Big Bus (1976). After the cancellation of WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), he went on to star as the husband of Ann Romano in One Day at a Time (1975). After that series was cancelled, Hesseman starred in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Doctor Detroit (1983), Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985), Clue (1985), and Flight of the Navigator (1986).
He then starred as history teacher Charlie Moore in Head of the Class (1986). He left that show in 1990 and appeared in a steady stream of television guest roles. In 1987, he appeared in Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). In 1991, he starred in Rubin and Ed (1991). Afterward, he appeared in other films, including Gridlock'd (1997) (with Tupac Shakur). His work in later years concentrated mostly on television, where he took mostly small guest roles, in such shows as That '70s Show (1998), Touched by an Angel (1994), The Practice (1997), and Crossing Jordan (2001).- Production Designer
- Art Director
- Set Decorator
Rolf Zehetbauer was born on 13 February 1929 in Munich, Germany. He was a production designer and art director, known for Cabaret (1972), The NeverEnding Story (1984) and Enemy Mine (1985). He died on 23 January 2022 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.- Stalwart American actor Donald Adam May is best known to television viewers as dapper crime fighting District Attorney Adam Drake in the long-running mystery soap opera The Edge of Night (1956). Donald was born in Chicago, one of four siblings, to Texan oil businessman Harry S. May and his wife Leontine. He attended school in Houston, and, in 1949, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma. His first professional acting gig was in a play with a stock company in Albany, New York. Donald subsequently appeared in a few promotional films for the Signal Corps and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy, eventually serving as a gunnery officer (ensign) on a destroyer during the Korean War. Following his demobilisation in 1955, he returned to New York to resume work on the repertory stage. The following year, he starred as a cadet in the CBS anthology TV series West Point (1956) (a show supposedly based on factual events). With a Warner Brothers contract in hand, Donald and his then wife (Yale graduate and former stage actress Ellen Cameron) relocated to Hollywood at the end of the decade. Henceforth, his rugged good looks were gainfully employed in essaying men of integrity, the 'white hat' wearers in westerns and crime dramas.
After appearing in an episode of Sugarfoot (1957), Donald played the lead in four segments of the western series Colt .45 (1957) (temporarily replacing Wayde Preston) and had further guest spots in 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Cheyenne (1955). The next acting assignment -- his most prominent leading role to date -- was as New York reporter Pat Garrison, chronicling gangland crime in The Roaring 20's (1960). This prohibition era action series ran for two seasons and co-starred Dorothy Provine, Rex Reason and John Dehner. If it failed to do better in the ratings, it should be remembered that it was going up against and being compared to The Untouchables (1959) (which was being presented in a semi-documentary style and appeared to the viewing public as 'more authentic').
From the mid-60s, Donald May was probably one of the busiest actors in showbiz, dividing his time between the New York off-Broadway stage and acting on The Edge of Night, which was a New York-based live broadcast. By the time the series had run its course, Donald had managed to rack up an impressive 2840 episodes as Adam Drake over a period of ten years. Not finished with soaps yet, he later had further recurring roles in Falcon Crest (1981), and, as a romantic lead, in Texas (1980) (which starred his second wife, the actress Carla Borelli).
Donald retired from screen acting in 1993 and died at the age of 94 on January 28 2022. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Ekkehardt Belle was born on 18 May 1954 in Glehn, Grevenbroich, Germany. He was an actor, known for Underworld (2003), Summer Storm (2004) and Kidnapped (1978). He was married to Marlene Deiffel. He died on 31 January 2022 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Cinematographer
Jim Drake was born on 2 December 1944 in the USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987), Speed Zone (1989) and Buffalo Bill (1983). He died on 10 January 2022 in Freeland, Washington, U.S.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Monica Vitti was born on 3 November 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for L'Avventura (1960), Red Desert (1964) and L'Eclisse (1962). She was married to Roberto Russo. She died on 2 February 2022 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Stunts
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joe Dunne was born on 27 October 1935 in Fylde, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Mercury Rising (1998), Doom (2005) and The Usual Suspects (1995). He was married to Ann Kempster. He died on 14 January 2022 in California, USA.- Dieter Mann was born on 20 June 1941 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Downfall (2004), Vergiss dein Ende (2011) and Karl May (1992). He died on 3 February 2022 in Berlin, Germany.
- Margarita Lozano was born on 14 February 1931 in Tetuan, Spain. She was an actress, known for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Viridiana (1961) and Jean de Florette (1986). She died on 7 February 2022 in Lorca, Murcia, Spain.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Patrick Shai was born on 9 December 1956 in Sophiatown, South Africa. He was an actor and director, known for Hearts & Minds (1995), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and 7de Laan (2000). He was married to Mmasechaba Shai. He died on 22 January 2022 in Dobsonville, South Africa.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
John William Galt was born on 4 April 1940 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for JFK (1991), Problem Child (1990) and Forrest Gump (1994). He died on 29 January 2022.- Actor
- Stunts
- Writer
Robert Wall was born on 22 August 1939 in San Jose, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Enter the Dragon (1973), The Way of the Dragon (1972) and Game of Death (1978). He was married to Lillian Prescott. He died on 30 January 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Production Designer
- Costume Designer
- Art Director
Ezio Frigerio was born on 16 July 1930 in Erba, Italy. He was a production designer and costume designer, known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), 1900 (1976) and The Horseman on the Roof (1995). He was married to Franca Squarciapino. He died on 2 February 2022 in Lecco, Lombardy, Italy.- Tatiana Farnese was born on 19 April 1924 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Conqueror of the Orient (1960), Schoolgirl Diary (1941) and A Garibaldian in the Convent (1942). She died on 31 January 2022 in Rome, Italy.
- Producer
- Director
- Visual Effects
Legendary filmmaker and visual effects pioneer, Douglas Trumbull, was one of the Special Photographic Effects Supervisors for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He went on to become the Visual Effects Supervisor for such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and Blade Runner (1982), each of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
Mr. Trumbull directed Silent Running (1972), Brainstorm (1983), Back to the Future... The Ride (1991) and numerous other special format films.
He is the recipient of an Academy Award in the area of Scientific and Technical Achievement, as well as the International Monitor Award and American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of filmmaking. Douglas is currently involved in the evolution of visual effects using virtual digital sets and electronic cinematography.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
George Spiro Dibie was born on 15 November 1931 in Jerusalem, Palestine [now Israel]. He was a cinematographer and producer, known for Growing Pains (1985), Just the Ten of Us (1987) and Dudley (1993). He was married to Daniele Parker. He died on 8 February 2022 in Encino, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Reinhard Schwabenitzky was born on 23 April 1947 in Rauris, Salzburg, Austria. He was a director and writer, known for Ilona und Kurti (1991), Eine fast perfekte Scheidung (1998) and Die Bloggerin. He was married to Elfi Eschke and NN. He died on 9 February 2022 in Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.- Actor
- Soundtrack
André Wilms was born on 29 April 1947 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. He was an actor, known for Le Havre (2011), The Bohemian Life (1992) and Auntie Danielle (1990). He was married to Evelyne Didi. He died on 9 February 2022 in Paris, France.- Composer
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Joseph Horovitz was born on 26 May 1926 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer, known for Lillie (1978), Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963) and Seven Dials Mystery (1981). He was married to Anna Landau. He died on 9 February 2022 in London, England, UK.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Christian Görlitz was born in 1944 in Hamburg, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Freier Fall (1997), Fleisch ist mein Gemüse (2008) and Ein Job (2008). He died on 10 January 2022 in Hamburg, Germany.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which introduced John Belushi to American filmgoers, and the family features Beethoven (1992) and Beethoven's 2nd (1993). His directing credits include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave (1993), which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, Junior (1994) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson. Reitman also produced the HBO telefilm The Late Shift (1996), based on Bill Carter's non-fiction book about the late-night television wars which received seven Emmy nominations. Other producing endeavors include Commandments (1997), starring Aidan Quinn and Courteney Cox, Private Parts (1997), starring Howard Stern, as well as the animation/live action film Space Jam (1996), starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. With Twins (1988), Reitman created an entirely new comedic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and forged a personal and professional relationship that continued with Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994). Acclaimed dramatic actors such as Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver, and Emma Thompson also revealed untapped comic talents under Reitman's direction. In 1984, Reitman was honored as Director of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners and the next year received a Special Achievement Award at the Canadian Genie awards. In 1979 and again in 1989, for the films National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Twins (1988), Reitman was honored with the People's Choice Award. In November of 1994, Reitman became the third director honored by Variety magazine in a special Billion Dollar Director issue.
Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia, to Jewish Holocaust survivors, and left with his family for Canada at the age of four. He attended Canada's McMaster University, where he produced and directed several television shorts. He followed with a live television show, Greed: The Series (1999), with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer. "Spellbound," which Reitman produced for the live stage, evolved into the Broadway hit "The Magic Show," starring Doug Henning. He continued producing for the stage with the Off-Broadway hit "The National Lampoon Show," and returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical "Merlin," earning a Tony nomination for directing. Reitman headed The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock. His television credits included the Emmy-nominated children's show The Real Ghostbusters (1986) and the Saturday morning animated series Beethoven (1994) for CBS. His last directing credited was Draft Day (2014), before his death in February 2022 in Montecito, California.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actress
Beryl Vertue initially worked as secretary to Alan Simpson, although when Alan Simpson and his writing partner Ray Galton joined Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes to form Associated London Scripts, Vertue moved to the new co-operative. She eventually, and almost accidentally, became an agent with ALS, responsible not only for finding work for members of the co-operative and negotiating their fees, but also selling formats of British TV successes abroad. "Sanford and Son", based on "Steptoe and Son" was one of her placements. When Robert Stigwood bought out the majority of the ALS business, Vertue became MD of the new company. She founded Hartswood Films when the Stigwood organisation decided to divest itself of its TV interests.- Production Designer
- Writer
- Director
Alfred Sole was born on July 2, 1943, in Paterson, NJ. He grew up avidly watching the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, who later was an acknowledged influence on Sole's best known and most well-regarded feature, Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), better known as "Alice, Sweet Alice."
Sole graduated from the University of Florence in Italy with a degree in architecture and spent his young adulthood working as an architect. He made his directorial debut with the tongue-in-cheek hardcore parody Deep Sleep (1972), which starred 1970s porno superstars Harry Reems and Georgina Spelvin. It won first prize at the New York Erotic Film Festival and was made in Sole's hometown of Paterson on a paltry $25,000 budget. Alas, the movie was pulled from theaters on charges that it was obscene, and all prints were confiscated.
Sole's superbly atmospheric and vehemently anti-Catholic horror winner "Alice, Sweet Alice" fared much better with critics and audiences alike. It won first prize at the Chicago Film Festival and garnered highly positive reviews from critics, among them Roger Ebert. The film also boasted a then-unknown Brooke Shields in her film debut and was also shot on location in Paterson. Alas, it, too, did poorly at the box office due to spotty distribution.
Sole next made the quirky and kinky soft-core fantasy outing Tanya's Island (1980), which starred future Prince protégé Vanity acting under the pseudonym D.D. Winters and showcased a remarkably convincing ape costume designed by Rob Bottin. Unfortunately, this film likewise suffered from virtually nonexistent theatrical distribution. Sole's final film as director was the silly slasher-movie spoof Pandemonium (1982), which offered an amazing all-star cast that included Tom Smothers, Phil Hartman, Tab Hunter, Eileen Brennan, Carol Kane, Eve Arden, Judge Reinhold, Kaye Ballard, Paul Reubens, and David L. Lander all doing their best with a dopey script. Sole also wrote stories for episodes of the TV shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), Friday the 13th: The Series (1987), and Hotel (1983).
Fed up with studio politics and the Hollywood rat race, Sole called it a day as a director in 1982 and went on to become a successful production designer. Among the movies he has worked on in this capacity are Halloweentown High (2004), These Old Broads (2001), Clubland (1999), Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999), Glory Daze (1995), Bodily Harm (1995), and Night of the Running Man (1995). More recently, Sole handled production-designer chores on the TV series Veronica Mars (2004).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jack Smethurst was born on 9 April 1932 in Collyhurst, Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Chariots of Fire (1981), For the Love of Ada (1972) and A Kind of Loving (1962). He was married to Julie Nicholls. He died on 16 February 2022 in the UK.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Ernst Erich Buder was born on 2 September 1896 in Cottbus, Germany. He was a composer, known for And the Puszta Gleams (1933), Liebe kann lügen (1937) and Meine Frau Teresa (1942). He died on 21 January 1962 in Berlin, Germany.- Editor
- Editorial Department
David Brenner was born on 3 November 1962 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was an editor, known for Independence Day (1996), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). He was married to Amber Brenner. He died on 17 February 2022 in West Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Fong was born in the Xinhui district of the city of Jiangmen, located in the province of Canton, China in 1928. At the age of five, he arrived in Seattle, Washington with his parents and siblings, where they were detained for a time, as was common with immigrants from Asia. Upon being released in Seattle, the family traveled overland to Chicago, where Leo's maternal uncle owned a restaurant, and where his father had been guaranteed work. After enough time working at the restaurant, Leo's father Richard had saved enough money to purchase a small grocery store in the tiny agricultural community of Widener, Arkansas. After suffering racial taunts at school, going home telling his father and finding out what they actually meant and then later suffering further racial taunts, he got into a fight at school and he was unfairly punished by a teacher. At age 12 he bought a book called The Fundamentals of Boxing by Barney Ross. He studied the book from cover to cover and learned how to defend himself from bullies. He took up boxing at age 15. Having a knock out punch, his amateur record was 18-7. As well as having a great amount of experience from the American amateur boxing program, Fong had very good experience in weight training. He was friend and student of professional bodybuilder Bill Pearl, and had trained under him for a few years.
His entry into eastern martial arts began in the 1950s with judo and Jiu Jitsu. Through the years he studied and practiced various martial arts styles to the point where he developed his own style called Wei Kune Do.
He was a friend of famed martial artist Bruce Lee and managed to have a sparring session with him. Fong appeared on the cover of the 10th anniversary edition of Black Belt magazine. Bruce Lee arranged it. At first Fong was reluctant to appear on the cover, but Lee insisted. Fong asked him why and Lee said that it would be cool to have a minister and martial arts expert on the cover.- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Director
Xavier Marc was born on 16 January 1948 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was an actor and cinematographer, known for Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Legend of Zorro (2005) and Juro que te amo (2008). He was married to Cristian and Claudia Obregon. He died on 19 February 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Production Manager
Luis Marín was born on 16 January 1932 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor and production manager, known for La leyenda del alcalde de Zalamea (1973), I tre del Colorado (1965) and The Great Treasure Hunt (1972). He died on 14 February 2022.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Actor
Barry Cryer was born on 23 March 1935 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Stanley Baxter Show (1963), Tommy Cooper (1969) and The Russ Abbot Show (1986). He was married to Theresa Margaret 'Terry' Donovan. He died on 25 January 2022 in Northwick Park, Harrow, London, England, UK.- Stewart Bevan was born 10th March 1948 and died aged 73 after a short illness 20th February 2022.
He featured in the long-running series Doctor Who, in 1973's The Green Death, remembered fondly by viewers as "the one with the giant maggots". The departure of popular companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) called for someone special to lure her away from third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and to this end the charismatic Welsh eco-warrior Professor Clifford Jones was conceived.
Michael Briant, the director, was having trouble casting this part but was reluctant to interview Bevan because he was Manning's fiance at the time. He finally relented and discovered that Bevan was exactly what he was looking for: handsome and with the requisite crusading zeal and lightness of touch.
Bevan's obvious rapport with Manning also helped to make her departure one of the series' most memorably tear-jerking. Bevan himself was an empathic anti-capitalist vegetarian, guitar player and writer of poetry - all of which contributed to making Jones a believable character.
Although he and Manning had split up in 1976 he reunited with her to play Cliff in a couple of short films used as trailers for the 2019 and 2020 Blu-ray releases of Pertwee's Doctor Who episodes and for a retrospective documentary, Keeping Up With the Joneses (2019).
Stewart was born in St Pancras, central London, to a canteen manager, Gwen (nee Snow), and truck driver, Ray Bevan, who became the personal driver to the celebrity hairdresser Raymond Bessone (aka Mr Teasy Weasy), while Gwen became his housekeeper.
Raised in Southall, Middlesex, Stewart walked out of his school aged 15 after he was caned for standing up for a Sikh classmate. Working at Pierre Cardin's London fashion store he attended amateur dramatics classes and was emboldened when he won an award for playing Alec in Noël Coward's Still Life at a drama festival held at the Questors theatre in 1964, and so enrolled at the Corona theatre school.
On only his second day there he auditioned to play a schoolboy in the landmark Sidney Poitier film To Sir, With Love (1966) and in 1967 worked as a dancer with Jayne Mansfield when she toured the UK in cabaret. He was soon getting big-screen credits - including Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969), the horror films Burke & Hare and The Flesh and Blood Show (both 1972), Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973), The Ghoul (1975), and the John Wayne vehicle Brannigan (1975).
After Doctor Who he appeared in many popular drama series - from Public Eye (1975) to Silent Witness (1997) via Shoestring (three episodes, all 1979), Blake's 7 (1980) and The House of Elliot (1994).
He had a stint in the soap opera Emmerdale (1977, then called Emmerdale Farm) as Ray Oswell, caught in a storm and seeking help with his pregnant wife, played by Virginia Moore. He and Virginia fell in love off-screen and they remained together for the rest of his life, settling in Suffolk.
He also featured in Douglas Camfield's all-star TV version of Ivanhoe (1982) and Noel's House Party (1993-94) - which required sharp improvisational skills in order to pull off elaborate pranks on unsuspecting victims. He was also a familiar face on TV adverts - in the 80s for Fairy Liquid and the 90s for Kellogg's Bran Flakes.
His theatre highlights were his West End debut in the first production of Conduct Unbecoming (Queen's theatre, 1969-70), taking the lead role when the play toured the UK in 1971, and touring with David Soul in Ira Levin's Deathtrap in 2002. His last film role came in the Jack Thorne-scripted The Scouting Book for Boys (2009).
He is survived by Virginia and their daughters, Coral Bevan and Wendy Bevan. His three sisters predeceased him. - Director
- Writer
- Actor
His father was a famed Cantonese film actor. After studying in the Department of Chemistry in Zhongsha University for 3 years, Chor joined the movie industry as a writer in 1956. His film debut was "The Soul Stealer" directed by Ng Wui. Soon he began working as an assistant director and finally debuted as a director with Chin Chien in the film "Bloodshed in the Valley of Love" in 1957. "Grass by the Lake" (1959) was his first film in solitaire. In 1970, after more than 70 Cantonese films, Chor directed and wrote his first Mandarin "wuxia" film, "Cold Blade", which attracted the attention of the major Chinese film studio at that time, Shaw Bros., so in 1971 Chor finally joined that studio. In 1976 he began his long series of adaptations of Ku Lung's novels with "Killer Clans", which gave him an international reputation.- Anna Karen was born on 19 September 1936 in Durban, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Holiday on the Buses (1973), The Rag Trade (1975) and On the Buses (1971). She was married to Terry Duggan and Dick Smart. She died on 22 February 2022 in Ilford, Greater London, England, UK.
- Composer
- Producer
- Production Manager
Toni Stricker was born on 4 April 1930 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer and producer, known for So weit das Auge reicht (1980), Ringstraßenpalais (1980) and Keine Angst Liebling, ich pass schon auf (1970). He was married to Sybill. He died on 16 February 2022 in Bad Sauerbrunn, Burgenland, Austria.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Henry Lincoln was born on 12 February 1930 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors (1997) and The Crimson Cult (1968). He died on 24 February 2022.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Sally Kellerman arrived quite young on the late 1950s film and television scene with a fresh and distinctively weird, misfit presence. It is this same uniqueness that continued to make her such an attractively offbeat performer. The willowy, swan-necked, flaxen-haired actress shot to film comedy fame after toiling nearly a decade and a half in the business, and is still most brazenly remembered for her career-maker in the irreverent hit Korean War dramedy M*A*S*H (1970), for which she received supporting Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. From there, she went on to enjoy several other hallmark moments as both an actress and a vocalist.
California native Sally Clare Kellerman was born in Long Beach on June 2, 1937, to Edith (née Vaughn), a piano teacher, and John Helm Kellerman, a Shell Oil Company executive. Raised along with her sister in the San Fernando Valley area, Sally was attracted to the performing arts after seeing Marlon Brando star in the film Viva Zapata! (1952). Attending the renowned Hollywood High School as a teenager, she sang in musical productions while there, including a version of "Meet Me in St. Louis." Following graduation, she enrolled at Los Angeles City College but left after a year when enticed by acting guru Jeff Corey's classes.
Initially inhibited by her height (5'10"), noticeably gawky and slinky frame and wide slash of a mouth, Kellerman proved difficult to cast at first but finally found herself up for the lead role in Otto Preminger's "A"-level film Saint Joan (1957). She lost out in the end, however, when Preminger finally decided to give the role of Joan of Arc to fellow newcomer Jean Seberg. Hardly compensation, 20-year-old Sally made her film debut that same year as a girls' reformatory inmate who threatens the titular leading lady in the cult "C" juvenile delinquent drama Reform School Girl (1957) starring "good girl" Gloria Castillo and "bad guy" Edd Byrnes of "777 Sunset Strip" teen idol fame, an actor she met and was dating after attending Corey's workshops. Directed by infamous low-budget horror film Samuel Z. Arkoff, her secondary part in the film did little in the way of advancing her career.
During the same period of time, Sally pursued a singing career and earned a recording contract with Verve Records. The 1960s was an uneventful but growing period for Kellerman, finding spurts of quirky TV roles in both comedies ("Bachelor Father," "My Three Sons," "Dobie Gillis" and "Ozzie and Harriet") and dramas ("Lock Up," "Surfside 6," "Cheyenne," "The Outer Limits," "The Rogues," "Slattery's People" and the second pilot of "Star Trek"). Sally's sophomore film was just as campy as the first, but her part was even smaller. As an ill-fated victim of the Hands of a Stranger (1962), the oft-told horror story of a concert pianist whose transplanted hands become deadly, the film came and went without much fanfare.
Studying later at Los Angeles' Actors' Studio (West), Sally's roles increased toward the end of the 1960s with featured parts in more quality filming, including The Third Day (1965), The Boston Strangler (1968) (as a target for serial killer Tony Curtis) and The April Fools (1969). Sally's monumental break came, of course, via director Robert Altman when he hired her for, and she created a dusky-voiced sensation out of, the aggressively irritating character Major Margaret "'Hot Lips" Houlihan. Her highlighting naked-shower scene in the groundbreaking cinematic comedy M*A*S*H (1970) had audiences ultimately laughing and gasping at the same time. Both she and the film were a spectacular success with Sally the sole actor to earn an Oscar nomination for her marvelous work here. She lost that year to the overly spunky veteran Helen Hayes in Airport (1970).
Becoming extremely good friends with Altman during the movie shoot, Sally went on to film a couple more of the famed director's more winning and prestigious films of the 1970s, beginning with her wildly crazed "angelic" role in Brewster McCloud (1970), and finishing up brilliantly as a man-hungry real estate agent in his Welcome to L.A. (1976), directed by Alan Rudolph. Sally later regretted not taking the Karen Black singing showcase role in one of Altman's best-embraced films, Nashville (1975), when originally offered. Still pursuing her singing interests, she put out her first album, "Roll with the Feelin'" for Decca Records in 1972.
Films continued to be a priority and Sally was deemed a quirky comedy treasure in both co-star and top supporting roles of the 1970s. She was well cast neurotically opposite Alan Arkin in the Neil Simon comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) and again alongside ex-con James Caan as a sexy but loony delight in Slither (1973), a precursor to the Coen Bros.' darkly comic films. She also co-starred and contributed a song ("Reflections") to the Burt Bacharach/Hal David soundtrack of the Utopian film Lost Horizon (1973), a musical picture that proved lifeless at the box office. More impressive work came with the movies A Little Romance (1979) as young Diane Lane's quirky mom; Foxes (1980) as Jodie Foster's confronting mother; Serial (1980), a California comedy satire starring Martin Mull; That's Life! (1986), a social comedy with Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews; and Back to School (1986), comic Rodney Dangerfield's raucous vehicle hit.
Sally's films from the 1980s on were a mixed bag. While some, such as the low-grade Moving Violations (1985), Meatballs III: Summer Job (1986), Doppelganger (1993), American Virgin (1999) and Women of the Night (2001) were beneath her considerable talents, her presence in others were, at the very least, catchy such as her Natasha Fatale opposite Dave Thomas' Boris Badenov in Boris and Natasha (1992); director Percy Adlon's inventive Younger and Younger (1993), which reunited her with MASH co-star Donald Sutherland, and in Robert Altman's rather disjointed, ill-received all-star effort Ready to Wear (1994) in which she played a fashion magazine editor.
When her film output waned in later years, Sally lent a fine focus back to her singing career and made a musical dent as a deep-voiced blues and jazz artist. She started hitting the Los Angeles and New York club circuits with solo acts. In 2009, Kellerman released her first album since "Roll with The Feelin'" simply titled "Sally," a jazz and blues-fused album. Along those same lines, Sally played a nightclub singer in the comedy Limit Up (1989) Kellerman's seductively throaty voice has also put her in good standing as a voice-over artist of commercials, feature films, and television.
Among her offbeat output in millennium films were prime/featured roles in the soft-core thriller Women of the Night (2001), written and director by Zalman King, in which she played a lady deejay (she also gets to sing); the real estate musical Open House (2004) in which she played an agent (who gets to sing again); the Florida senior citizens' romantic comedy Boynton Beach Club (2005); the comedy Night Club (2011) where friends and residents start a club in a retirement home; the social dramas A Place for Heroes (2014) and A Timeless Love (2016); and the family dramedy The Remake (2016).
Divorced from Rick Edelstein, Kellerman married Jonathan D. Krane in 1980 and the couple adopted twins, Jack and Hanna. Sally was also the adoptive mother of her niece, Claire Graham. Her husband died unexpectedly in August 2016; less than three months later, daughter Hanna died from heroin and methamphetamine use. Sally died on February 24, 2022 in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Michel Le Royer was born on 31 August 1932 in Carrouges, Orne, France. He was an actor, known for Le voyageur des siècles (1971), Le chevalier de Maison Rouge (1963) and Lafayette (1962). He was married to Pascale Roberts. He died on 25 February 2022 in France.- Striking, pale-complexioned, blonde English actress Veronica Carlson was known as the female lead of several late 1960s Hammer horror films, including the hapless Maria being terrorized by fanged Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), brutalized by the evil Peter Cushing in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) and chased by monster David Prowse in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).
After her career in horror, Carlson's star faded as quickly as it had risen, however she had assured herself a place in horror film history as one of the stunning women that graced the screen during the Hammer renaissance of the horror genre. - Ned Eisenberg was a character actor who is remembered for the role of Italian gangster Fredo Strozzi in action film/western Last Man Standing (1996) with Bruce Willis, directed by Walter Hill; and films such as The Burning (1981) and Limitless (2011). Born in New York, he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, where he studied acting. Eisenberg appeared in episodes of the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order, beginning in 1997. He also had roles in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning drama Million Dollar Baby (2004) and war film Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and also in A Civil Action (1998) and action/thriller film Asher (2018), opposite Ron Perlman.
- Ralph Ahn was born on 28 September 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Eyes of an Angel (1991), New Girl (2011) and Suddenly Susan (1996). He died on 26 February 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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- Additional Crew
Dominique Paturel was born on 3 April 1931 in Havre, France. He was an actor, known for La Vie En Rose (2007), Lagardère (1967) and Coplan prend des risques (1964). He was married to Nelly Benedetti and Marie-Claire Le Glatin. He died on 28 February 2022 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, France.- Actress
- Producer
Farrah Forke was born on 12 January 1968 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Heat (1995), Wings (1990) and Disclosure (1994). She died on 25 February 2022 in Texas, USA.- Production Designer
- Art Department
- Costume Designer
Tony Walton was born on 24 October 1934 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK. He was a production designer and costume designer, known for All That Jazz (1979), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Mary Poppins (1964). He was married to Gen LeRoy and Julie Andrews. He died on 2 March 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Tim Considine was born on 31 December 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for My Three Sons (1960), Patton (1970) and Executive Suite (1954). He was married to Willett Helen Hunt and Charlotte Stewart. He died on 3 March 2022 in Mar Vista, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
American character actor born in Cincinnati and raised in Louisville, Mitchell Ryan was a well known supporting actor in films and television. Joined the Navy in 1951 at age 17 and was later assigned to the Special Services Entertainment and became hooked on acting. After his term in the Navy, he appeared in dozens of plays until he received notice as playing a regular in TV's Dark Shadows (1966).
Beginning in the 1970s, he received work in motion pictures including Monte Walsh (1970), Magnum Force (1973) and in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973). He had a small part in Universal's Midway (1976) and returned to act in numerous soaps and television series, among them included a recurring guest role in Having Babies (1978), Executive Suite (1976), The Chisholms (1979) and All My Children (1970) and a growing list of television films and TV guest appearances.
He may have been best-known for portraying the villain that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are after in Lethal Weapon (1987), but his career included several supporting roles in the past ten years including Judge Dredd (1995), Michael Myers' nemesis in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Liar Liar (1997) (with Jim Carrey), and as Harrison Ford's chief out to get Brad Pitt in the film The Devil's Own (1997).- Frequently bearded Scottish character actor John Stahl became best known for playing Lord Richard Karstark, an erstwhile ally but subsequent betrayer of Robb Stark, in seasons two and three of HBO's Game of Thrones (2011). A classically trained thespian, Stahl also acted in many theatrical productions and had stints at the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre. Trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he first worked as an assistant director for a stage company. He appeared on screen from 1976, initially coming to prominence as Tom Inverdarroch Kerr, a recurring character in the British soap Take the High Road (1980) set in the fictional Scottish village of Glendarroch. In 2016, Stahl was cast as Scottish regent Murdac (or Murdoch) Stewart (1362-1425) in Rona Munro's play James I, which opened in Edinburgh and subsequently toured New Zealand, Australia and Canada. A fervent supporter of Scottish independence, Stahl died on the Isle of Lewis on March 2 2022.
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After decades in show business, character actor Conrad Janis came to prominence as Mindy's father on TV's Mork & Mindy (1978). Manhattan-born Janis was the son of renowned art dealer and clothing manufacturer Sidney Janis (1986-1989), and his wife Harriet (Grossman), who wrote books about jazz. He began acting as a 13 year old with a travelling stock company. Subsequently working as a radio actor, he went on to provide assorted voices, ranging from teens to middle aged men. He also had a small role in the 1945 Broadway play Dark of the Moon which was noticed by a Hollywood talent scout and paved the way to some freelance work in motion pictures, where he was featured as juvenile leads. In the early 50s, Janis segued into television while pursuing a separate career as a jazz trombonist, inspired by the music of Kid Ory. Having perfected his skills by studying under Cab Calloway alumni Tyree Glenn and Herbie Nichols, Janis fronted his own Dixieland/trad combo (Conrad Janis and His Tailgate Five) in the early 50s. By the late '70s, he had formed the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band which performed in many festivals and was often showcased on David Letterman's and Johnny Carson's late shows.
Janis acted in anthology TV dramas from as early as 1950, according to his account ultimately racking up some 700 appearances (many of them not recorded or otherwise lost to posterity). He toiled away in fairly minor parts until his breakout role as music store owner Fred McConnell in Mork & Mindy. In addition to numerous guest appearances, the balding Janis was also seen as a regular in the short-lived sitcom Quark (1977) (as philistine bureaucrat Otto Bob Palindrome) and in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Frasier (1993). True to his roots, he remained involved with the art world and with music education throughout his life.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Lilian Ridgway, known professionally as Lynda Baron, was an English actress, best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC comedy series Open All Hours (1976-1985) and its sequel, Still Open All Hours (2013-2016).
From 1993 to 1997, she played Auntie Mabel in BBC children's programme Come Outside and in 2006, she starred as Linda Clarke in EastEnders, before returning from 2008 to 2009 and again in 2016.
Baron was born in Urmston, Lancashire. She was originally trained as a dancer at the Royal Academy of Dance. Early in her career, she appeared in repertory theatre and several West End venues.
Baron's early television roles included small parts in Crossroads (1964), Up Pompeii (1970), Z-Cars (1971) and the British horror film Hands of the Ripper (1971). Baron appeared on television in BBC-3 (1965), a series in the vein of That Was The Week That Was, involving some of the same performers. She also alternated with Annie Ross as the resident singer on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1965). Baron has taken part in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who three times. She was heard as a singer in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters. She appeared in front of the cameras as Captain Wrack in the 1983 serial Enlightenment, and again in 2011 in Closing Time as Val.
Baron is best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the popular BBC comedy series Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker and David Jason which ran for four series in 1976, 1981 to 1982 and in 1985, and was subsequently voted eighth in Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Baron co-starred in the ITV sitcom Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! and the forgotten BBC sitcom A Roof Over My Head. She had small parts in Minder and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1986, she acted in a party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance.
Baron also appeared in the 1987 Christmas special of The Two Ronnies. Baron then went on to appear in the BBC Two comedy series KYTV.
In the 1990s, Baron played Auntie Pat in five episodes of the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand (1992-93). Baron then went on to star in the children's television series Come Outside (1993-97) playing Auntie Mabel, an everyday woman living in a bungalow, set in Denham flying round on various adventures in her spotted aeroplane with her dog Pippin.
In 1997, Baron played Renee Turnbull in Coronation Street and took guest roles in Dinnerladies (1998), The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (1998), Sunburn (1999), Nancherrow (1999) and Goodnight Sweetheart (1999).
Baron continued to work regularly on television and the stage in the 2000s, with credits including Fat Friends (2000-2005), The Bill (2000), Doctors (2000, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2014), Peak Practice (2001), Holby City (2002 and 2006), Down to Earth (2005), Rome (2005) and Casualty (2009).
Baron briefly appeared in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2006 as Linda Clarke, the mother of Jane Beale. In September 2008, it was announced that Baron would be returning to EastEnders.
She appeared regularly in the series from November 2008 to February 2009. On 8 April 2016, it was announced that Baron would return to the soap once again alongside John Partridge. She appeared on screen in May and June 2016.
In August 2010, Baron appeared in an episode of Agatha Christie's Marple on ITV. In September 2010, Baron appeared in a one-off television drama The Road to Coronation Street on BBC Four, a programme looking back at the early days of the British television soap opera Coronation Street. Baron portrayed actress Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples in the soap.
Baron was nominated for the 2011 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
On 26 December 2013, Baron reprised her role in a special one-off episode of Open All Hours on BBC One, entitled Still Open All Hours.
In December 2016 Baron made a guest appearance in a Christmas special of Citizen Khan and in January 2017 she appeared in an episode of Father Brown.
In 1966, Baron married her husband, John M. Lee. They had two children, Sarah and Morgan.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Paolo Turco was born on 12 April 1948 in Roma, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Fourth Wall (1969), What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) and Trevico-Turin: Voyage in Fiatnam (1973). He died on 1 March 2022 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.