R.I.P. 2021
List activity
814 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
152 people
- Actress
- Producer
The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her mother-in-law had the marriage annulled. She met psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line to see a movie. A few months later, she proposed to him in a subway station, and they were married. She studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen. In her early years in New York, she supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor and by modeling. She appeared in off-Broadway productions of "Picnic" and "Antigone", and in television commercials for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses.
In 1977, Tanya and her husband -- by then a scriptwriter -- moved to Hollywood. She began appearing in made-for-TV films including Pleasure Cove (1979), Zuma Beach (1978), and Waikiki (1980). Her film debut was in The Last Victim (1976). After appearing in several minor films, her first big break came when she was selected as the last Angel on the final season of Charlie's Angels (1976), and was featured on the cover of People magazine (02/09/1981). The attention she garnered helped secure her most significant film roles: The Beastmaster (1982) (and posed for the cover and an inside spread in Playboy magazine to promote the film), the title role in Sheena (1984) and as a Bond girl in A View to a Kill (1985). She continued to appear in films, though mainly direct-to-video and direct-to-cable features. She was featured in the CD computer game The Pandora Directive (1996) and had a recurring lead role in the television series That '70s Show (1998). Widowed in 2006, Tanya Roberts died of sepsis from a urinary tract infection in 2021.- Lanky, balding, intense American character actor of Puerto Rican ancestry, born in New York's Spanish Harlem. Deserted by his parents, Sierra was brought up by an aunt in a rough, predominantly Irish neighbourhood from the age of six. Though briefly tempted by gang life as a teenager, he took up acting classes after accompanying a friend to an audition and ended up playing Shakespearean roles with the National Shakespeare Company and in the New York Shakespeare Festival (playing, among many other parts, Macbeth and Romeo), as well as appearing off-Broadway. He later said "I would have been happy if I continued to do that for the rest of my life". However, in 1969, Sierra decided to move to Hollywood and began acting in episodic television where he was initially typecast as Latino heavies or cops.
Sierra made his breakthrough in the role of Julio Fuentes on NBC's Sanford and Son (1972), his character the perennial butt of bigoted jokes from the show's cantankerous lead, played by Redd Foxx. He then appeared in the original cast of the police sitcom Barney Miller (1975) as the passionate, proudly Puerto Rican Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale. Written out of the show at the end of season two, he had further recurring roles in serial television, frequently alternating between comedy and drama. These included the short-lived hospital sitcom A.E.S. Hudson Street (1977), the controversial but hugely popular parody Soap (1977) (as South American counter-revolutionary "El Puerco"), Hill Street Blues (1981) (as Assistant District Attorney Alvarez), Zorro and Son (1983) (as garrison commander Paco Pico, one of the hero's chief antagonists), Miami Vice (1984) (as Don Johnson's erstwhile boss Lou Rodriguez, killed off by a hitman in episode four -- in fact, Sierra opted to leave the show because he disliked Miami) and the science fiction series Something Is Out There (1988) (as Captain Victor Maldonado). His numerous, varied and often highly entertaining guest appearances have included supporting roles as a Native American renegade on Gunsmoke (1955), a mutated religious leader living underneath irradiated New York in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), a professor of anthropology helping Mulder and Scully track down the Jersey Devil in The X-Files (1993), a Cardassian member of the sinister Obsidian Order on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), an Italian priest in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) and an Iraqi gunboat captain in the Rambo spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).
Sierra made his home in Laguna Beach, California, where he died of cancer on January 4 2021 at the age of 84. - Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Michael Apted was born on 10 February 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Amazing Grace (2006), Rome (2005) and Gorillas in the Mist (1988). He was married to Paige Simpson, Dana Stevens and Jo Apted. He died on 7 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Stacy Title was born on 21 February 1964 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Let the Devil Wear Black (1999), The Last Supper (1995) and The Bye Bye Man (2017). She was married to Jonathan Penner. She died on 11 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
This durable, granite-faced actor with the matching steel-edged voice was one of the most interesting and recognisable leads in 1950s and 1960s television. He was born Marvin Jack Richman in South Philadelphia to paper and roofing contractor Benjamin Richman and his wife Yetta Dora (née Peck), the youngest of five siblings. His childhood was -- by his own account -- 'horrendous'. The family was not well off and money was hard to come by. For two years he played football until sidelined by a knee injury. Richman also studied at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, from which he graduated in 1951 as a fully qualified pharmacist. He briefly worked in that field, though his interest had always been in the performing arts, spurred on by regular childhood visits to the nearby Alhambra Theater and performances in high school dramatics. Between 1952 and 1954, Richman trained at the Actor's Studio in New York under Lee Strasberg, having already made his stage debut in 1947. Until 1996, he acted on and off-Broadway and on the West Coast, as well as touring nationally in seminal plays like Mister Roberts, The Rainmaker and A Hatful of Rain. For most of his early career he was billed as 'Mark Richman' but in 1971 changed his moniker to Peter Mark Richman because of his abiding belief in Subud, an Eastern spiritualist philosophy.
An amazingly prolific screen actor, Richman was first brought to Hollywood by famed director William Wyler to appear in Friendly Persuasion (1956). There were a few subsequent big screen outings, but the lean, edgy and coldly handsome actor reserved his best for the small screen. By the early 60s, he starred in his own series at NBC, Cain's Hundred (1961). His character was a former syndicate lawyer, Nick Cain, who, after wanting to 'go straight' is targeted for a hit. When his fiancée gets killed in the crosshairs instead, Cain swears revenge and joins an FBI task force to bring down the top 100 mobsters by various legal means. While the series only ran to 30 episodes, it firmly established Richman in the medium. He was henceforth to alternate between nasty villains, stern authority figures and stoic heroes and become one of the most often killed guys on TV. His numerous roles have included appearances in The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), The Virginian (1962), Mission: Impossible (1966), Longstreet (1971) (as James Franciscus' cynical boss, Duke Paige), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) (as a rather camp THRUSH operative) and -- having lost none of his edge -- in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Standouts have included The Probe (1965) in which Richman plays a scientist determined to explore another dimension at any cost, and the first of two guest spots on The Invaders (1967) as an ally of the chief protagonist David Vincent. Richman was almost clipped by a helicopter blade during this episode and lucky to survive the experience. He continued to perform on screen well until his late eighties.
In addition to his work on front of the camera, Richman was something of a Renaissance man: a noted humanitarian (for which he was awarded a Silver Medallion from The Motion Picture and Television Fund) and an accomplished painter from an early age, trained at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Describing himself as a 'figurative expressionist', Richman has had at least seventeen successful one-man exhibitions on the West Coast and in New York (primarily portraits of oil on canvas). He has also written two novels and several stage plays, of which his solo show 4 Faces and the one act play A Medal for Murray were the most acclaimed. His wife of 67 years was the actress Helen Richman (née Landess).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Hal Holbrook was an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor who was one of the great craftsmen of stage and screen. He was best known for his performance as Mark Twain, for which he won a Tony and the first of his ten Emmy Award nominations. Aside from the stage, Holbrook made his reputation primarily on television, and was memorable as Abraham Lincoln, as Senator Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970) and as Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo (1973). All of these roles brought him Emmy Awards, with Pueblo (1973) bringing him two, as Best Lead Actor in a Drama and Actor of the Year - Special. On January 22, 2008, he became the oldest male performer ever nominated for an Academy Award, for his supporting turn in Into the Wild (2007).
He was born Harold Rowe Holbrook, Jr. on February 17, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Eileen (Davenport), a vaudeville dancer, and Harold Rowe Holbrook, Sr. Raised primarily in South Weymouth, Massachusetts by his paternal grandparents, Holbrook attended the Culver Academies. During World War II, Holbrook served in the Army in Newfoundland. After the war, he attended Denison University, graduating in 1948. While at Denison, Holbrook's senior honors project concerned Mark Twain.
He later developed "Mark Twain Tonight!," the one-man show in which he impersonates the great American writer Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens. Holbrook learned his craft on the boards and by appearing in the TV soap opera The Brighter Day (1954). He first played Mark Twain as a solo act in 1954, at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania. The show was a success that created a buzz. After seeing the performance, Ed Sullivan, the host of TV's premier variety show, featured him on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) on February 12, 1956. This lead to an international tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, which included appearances in Iron Curtain countries. Holbrook brought the show to Off-Broadway in 1959. He even played Mark Twain for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The 1966 "Mark Twain Tonight" Broadway production brought Holbrook even more acclaim, and the Tony Award. The show was taped and Holbrook won an Emmy nomination. He reprised the show on Broadway in 1977 and in 2005. By that time, he had played Samuel Clemens on stage over 2,000 times.
Among Holbrook's more famous roles was "The Major" in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy", as Martin Sheen's significant other in the controversial and acclaimed TV movie That Certain Summer (1972), the first TV movie to sympathetically portray homosexuality, and as Abraham Lincoln in Carl Sandburg's acclaimed TV biography of the 16th President Lincoln (1974), a role he also portrayed in excellent performances too in North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985) and North & South: Book 2, Love & War (1986). He also is known for his portrayal of the enigmatic "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men (1976), one of the major cinema events of the mid-'70s. In the 1990s, he had a regular supporting role in the TV series Evening Shade (1990), playing Burt Reynolds' character's father-in-law.
Hal Holbrook died on January 23, 2021, at 95 years, in Beverly Hills. He was buried in McLemoresville Cemetery in Tennessee with his wife Dixie Carter.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Larry King was born on 19 November 1933 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Ghostbusters (1984), Shrek 2 (2004) and Enemy of the State (1998). He was married to Shawn Ora Engemann, Julie Alexander, Sharon Lepore, Alene Akins, Mickey Sutphin, Annette Kaye and Freda Miller. He died on 23 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Cicely Tyson was born in Harlem, New York City, where she was raised by her devoutly religious parents, who had come from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Her mother Theodosia was a domestic worker and her her father William was a carpenter and painter. Tyson was discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony Magazine, and with her stunning looks she quickly rose to the top of the modeling industry. In 1957 she began acting in Off-Broadway productions. She had small roles in feature films before she was cast as Portia in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968). Four years later, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her sensational performance in the critically-acclaimed film Sounder (1972). In 1974, she went on to portray a 110-year-old former slave in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), which earned her two Emmy Awards. She also appeared in the television miniseries Roots (1977), King (1978), and A Woman Called Moses (1978). While Cicely has not appeared steadily onscreen because of her loyalty to solely portraying strong, positive images of Black women, she is definitely one of the most talented, beautiful actresses who ever graced stage or screen.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She was of Czech (from her maternal grandmother) and English descent. After graduating from high school, Leachman attended Illinois State University and Northwestern University, where she majored in drama. After winning the title of Miss Chicago 1946 (as part of the Miss America pageant), she acted with the Des Moines Playhouse before moving to New York.
Leachman made her credited debut in 1948 in an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour (1948) and appeared in many television anthologies and series before becoming a regular on The Bob & Ray Show (1951) in 1952. Her movie debut was memorable, playing the doomed blonde femme fatale Christina Bailey in Robert Aldrich's classic noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Other than a role in Rod Serling's movie The Rack (1956) in support of Paul Newman, Leachman remained a television actress throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, appearing in only two movies during the latter decade, The Chapman Report (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Though she would win an Oscar for Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show (1971) and appear in three Mel Brooks movies, it was in television that her career remained and her fame was assured in the 1970s and into the second decade of the new millennium.
Leachman was nominated five times for an Emmy Award playing Phyllis Lindstrom, Mary Tyler Moore's landlady and self-described best friend on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and on the spin-off series Phyllis (1975). She won twice as Best Supporting Actress in a comedy for her "Mary Tyler Moore" gig and won a Golden Globe Award as a leading performer in comedy for "Phyllis", but her first Emmy Award came in the category Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 1973 for the television movie A Brand New Life (1973). She also won two Emmy Awards as a supporting player for Malcolm in the Middle (2000).
She was married to director-producer George Englund from 1953 to 1979. They had five children together. Cloris Leachman died of natural causes on January 27, 2021 in Encinitas, California.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind (2001), the kindly and clever mystery writer in Knives Out (2019), and as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). It was this last role that finally brought him recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, when he was nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, one of three Academy Award nominations he received in the 2010s, along with All the Money in the World (2017) (as J. Paul Getty) and Beginners (2010); he won for the latter role. He will also likely always be remembered as Captain Von Trapp in the atomic bomb-strength blockbuster The Sound of Music (1965), a film he publicly despised until softening his stance in his autobiography "In Spite of Me" (2008).
Christopher Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of Isabella Mary (Abbott), a secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University, and John Orme Plummer, who sold securities and stocks. Christopher was a great-grandson of John Abbott, who was Canada's third Prime Minister (from 1891 to 1892), and a great-great-great-grandson of Presbyterian clergyman John Bethune. He had Scottish, English, Anglo-Irish, and Cornish ancestry. Plummer was raised in Senneville, Quebec, near Montreal, at his maternal grandparents' home.
Aside from the youngest member of the Barrymore siblings (which counted Oscar-winners Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore in their number), Plummer was the premier Shakespearean actor to come out of North America in the 20th century. He was particularly memorable as Hamlet, Iago and Lear, though his Macbeth opposite Glenda Jackson was -- and this was no surprise to him due to the famous curse attached to the "Scottish Play" -- a failure.
Like another great stage actor, Richard Burton, early in his career Plummer failed to connect with the screen in a way that would make him a star. Dynamic on stage, he didn't succeed as a younger leading man in films. Perhaps if he had been born earlier, and acted in the studio system of Hollywood's golden age, he could have been carefully groomed for stardom. As it was, he shared the English stage actors' disdain -- and he was equally at home in London as he was on the boards of Broadway or on-stage in his native Canada -- for the movies, which did not help him in that medium, as he has confessed. As he aged, Plummer excelled at character roles. He was always a good villain, this man who garnered kudos playing Lucifer on Broadway in Archibald Macleish's Pulitzer Prize-winning "J.B.".
Plummer won two Emmy Awards out of seven nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2011, and one Genie Award in six nominations from 1980 to 2009. For his stage work, Plummer has racked up two Tony Awards on six nominations, the first in 1974 as Best Actor (Musical) for the title role in "Cyrano" and the second in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), in "Barrymore". Surprisingly, he did not win (though he was nominated) for his masterful 2004 performance of "King Lear", which he originated at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and brought down to Broadway for a sold-out run. His other Tony nominations show the wide range of his talent, from a 1959 nod for the Elia Kazan-directed production of Macleish's "J.B." to recognition in 1994 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land", with a 1982 Best Actor (Play) nomination for his "Iago" in William Shakespeare's "Othello".
Until the 2009 Academy Awards were announced, it could be said about Plummer that he was the finest actor of the post-World War II period to fail to get an Academy Award. In that, he was following in the footsteps of the late great John Barrymore, whom Plummer so memorably portrayed on Broadway in a one-man show that brought him his second Tony Award. In 2010, Plummer finally got an Oscar nod for his portrayal of another legend, Lev Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Two years later, the first paragraph of his obituary was written when the 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest person in Academy history to win an Oscar. He won for playing a senior citizen who comes out as gay after the death of his wife in the movie Beginners (2010). As he clutched his statuette, the debonaire thespian addressed it thus: "You're only two years older than me darling, where have you been all of my life?"
Plummer then told the audience that at birth, "I was already rehearsing my Academy acceptance speech, but it was so long ago mercifully for you I've forgotten it." The Academy Award was a long time in coming and richly deserved.
Plummer gave many other fine portrayals on film, particularly as he grew older and settled down into a comfortable marriage with his third wife Elaine. He continued to be an in-demand character actor in prestigious motion pictures. If he were English rather than Canadian, he would have been knighted. (In 1968, he was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor and one which required the approval of the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.) If he lived in the company town of Los Angeles rather than in Connecticut, he likely would have several more Oscar nominations before winning his first for "The Last Station".
As it is, as attested to in his witty and well-written autobiography, Plummer was amply rewarded in life. In 1970, Plummer - then a self-confessed 43-year-old "bottle baby" - married his third wife Elaine Taylor, a dancer, who helped wean him off his dependency on alcohol. They lived happily with their dogs on a 30-acre estate in Weston, Connecticut. He thanked her from the stage during the 2012 Oscar telecast, quipping that she "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life." Although he spent the majority of his time in the United States, he remained a Canadian citizen. He died in his Weston, Connecticut home on February 5, 2021 at age 91.
His daughter, with actress Tammy Grimes, is actress Amanda Plummer.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ronald Alfred Pickup was a highly respected, incisive, classically trained character actor who specialized in the portrayal of prominent historical authority figures or crusty academics. He was born in Chester, England, to English and French language lecturer Eric Pickup and his wife Daisy (née Williams). Ronald received his education at Leeds University and then studied at RADA on a scholarship before making his theatrical debut in 1964 at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester. He spent two years at the Royal Court Theatre before joining the ensemble of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London for seven years, from 1966 to 1973. His extensive list of theatrical credits included title roles in Oedipus and Macbeth, as well as highly acclaimed performances in Long Day's Journey into Night (1971) and Waiting for Godot (2009).
Ronald's first screen appearance was in a 1964 episode of Doctor Who (1963), for which he was paid £30. It took another decade before he eventually made his first TV breakthrough as Lord Randolph Churchill in the miniseries Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974), co-starring alongside the excellent American actress Lee Remick. His subsequent roles encompassed a truly impressive gallery of historical personae: William Pitt, the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, Giuseppe Verdi, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell (his own personal favorite role from the telemovie Crystal Spirit: Orwell on Jura (1983)) and Albert Einstein.
For the big screen he essayed Igor Stravinsky in Nijinsky (1980) and Neville Chamberlain in the Churchill biopic Darkest Hour (2017). In between were frequent guest appearances in popular dramatic fare like Silent Witness (1996), Dalziel and Pascoe (1996), Foyle's War (2002), Hustle (2004) and Midsomer Murders (1997), for which his stock-in-trade characters usually tended to be stately, eloquent and possessed of a mordant wit. Ronald reached perhaps the apex of his career on screen by way of his likeable performance in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) (and its sequel) as the ageing womanizer Norman Cousins (for which the entire leading cast shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination) and he was also latterly praised for his role as the Archbishop of Canterbury in The Crown (2016). He lent his distinctive voice to BBC radio recordings and to the talking lion Aslan of Narnia in Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) and The Silver Chair (1990).
The urbane, invariably gentlemanly Ronald Pickup received an honorary Doctor of Letters award from the University of Chester in 2011. He passed away at the age of 80 on February 24 2021 after a long illness.- Gil Rogers was born on 4 February 1934 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor, known for The Eden Myth (1999), Eddie Macon's Run (1983) and Cherry (1999). He was married to Margaret Hall and Juliet Ribet. He died on 2 March 2021 in Encinitas, California, USA.
- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Soundtrack
Marion Ramsey was an American actress and singer from Philadelphia. She is primarily known for her role as the soft-spoken policewoman Laverne Hooks in the "Police Academy" film series (1984-1994). Hooks was depicted as a "diminutive, soft-spoken and unassertive woman" with a high-pitched voice. But switched to a more aggressive and authoritative tone when sufficiently frustrated.
Ramsey was born in 1947, but little is known about her early life. She started her career as a theatrical actress, and became a prominent performer for Broadway shows. She appeared in the Broadway version of the hit musical "Hello, Dolly!" (1964) by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart, and subsequently was part of the musical's touring productions. The musical was an adaptation of the farce "The Merchant of Yonkers" (1938) by Thornton Wilder (1897 -1975), but was much better received than the original work.
Ramsey made her television debut as part of the regular cast in the variety series "Keep On Truckin'" (1975). This was a summer replacement series, broadcast by ABC on Saturday nights. It only lasted four episodes. In 1976, Ramsey made a guest-star appearance in an episode of the then-popular sitcom "The Jeffersons" (1975-1985).
Also in 1976, Ramsey became part of the regular cast of the short-lived sketch comedy show "Cos". The show was named after its host, the popular comedian Bill Cosby (1937-). The series only lasted for 9 episodes, and was canceled due to low ratings. It was replaced on ABC's schedule by a new show called "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" (1977-1979), which was adapting mystery novels for children,. The novels were originally published by the long-running Stratemeyer Syndicate (1899-1987).
In 1977, Ramsey had a guest-star role in the short-lived sitcom "Sanford Arms" (1977). The series was intended as a sequel to the hit show "Sanford and Son" (1972-1977), but focused on a new protagonist. It failed to find an audience, and was canceled after only 4 episodes. Another 4 completed episodes, including the one featuring Ramsey, were never aired, although they became available on later reruns.
In 1978, Ramsey was one of the main performers of the revue "Eubie!" in Broadway. The revue showcased 23 songs by the popular jazz composer Eubie Blake (1887 - 1983). The show ran for 439 performances. Ramsey and the rest of the original cast participated in a recording of the show, which was released on vinyl in 1979.
Ramsey gained her first substantial film role in the police comedy "Police Academy" (1984), when she was 37-years-old. As cadet Laverne Hooks , she received enough screen time to be one of the film's memorable characters. The film was a box office hit, earning 150 million dollars at the worldwide box office. A film series featuring featuring the same cast followed. Ramsey appeared in 5 of the original film's sequels, and her character was soon depicted as a police sergeant. She made her last appearance in the film series in "Police Academy 6: City Under Siege" (1989). She did not appear in the series finale "Police Academy: Mission to Moscow" (1994), which also failed to include several other regular cast members.
In the early 1990s, Ramsey made a few appearances in then-popular television series, such as "MacGyver", "Beverly Hills, 90210", and "The Nanny". Most of her roles were minor unnamed characters. Ramsey worked as a voice actor in the animated series "The Addams Family" (1992 -1993). Her most memorable character in the series was summer camp owner D.I. Holler, who had the mentality of a drill sergeant. The character aimed to teach fitness and self-reliance to rich kids, but was unreasonably strict.
Ramsey had her next film role in the horror comedy "Maniacts" (2001) , where she played an unnamed prostitute. The film featured two serial killers who fall in love with each other, and try to settle down for a while. Ramsey next played a policewoman again in the comedy television film "Recipe for Disaster" (2003). The premise of the film is that the owners of a family restaurant have disappeared, and their underage kids try to operate the restaurant in their absence. The film is remembered for an early starring role for teenage actress Margo Harshman (1986-).
In 2006, Ramsey voiced Laverne Hooks in a comedy sketch of the animated series "Robot Chicken" (2005-). The sketch featured several characters from the "Police Academy" series being recruited as new members of the X-Men. The sketch reunited Ramsey with her former co-star Michael Winslow, an accomplished voice actor.
In 2007, Ramsey had a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Lord Help Us". The film's main plot is that the elderly preacher Henry Thomas (played by Bill Toliver) needs help to repair his reputation, after a rumor suggests that he is having an affair with a much younger woman. Also in 2007, Ramsey had a small role in the thriller film "The Stolen Moments of September". The film depicts the life of a young runaway, who befriends a suspected serial killer.
After a hiatus of a few years, Ramsey returned to film roles with the mystery comedy "Who Killed Soul Glow?" (2012). As the title suggests, it featured a murder mystery. In 2013, Ramsey appeared in the historical film "Return to Babylon", which depicted the lives of famous Hollywood actors in the 1920s. Ramsey played the maid of the famous vamp Barbara La Marr (1896 - 1926). The real life La Marr was highly popular in the 1920s, but died at the age of 29 due to tuberculosis.
In 2014, Ramsey played a supporting role in the sports film "Wal-Bob's". The film depicted the operation of an underground football league in Cincinnati. In 2015, Ramsey had a role in the science fiction horror television film "Lavalantula". The film depicted giant tarantulas unleashed in modern-day Los Angeles. The film notably reunited several veteran actors from the "Police Academy" film series, with the protagonist role reserved for Steve Guttenberg (1958-). Ramsey also appeared in the film's sequel "2 Lava 2 Lantula" (2016).
In 2016, Ramsey appeared in the comedy-drama film "DaZe: Vol. Too (sic) - NonSeNse". The film reunited several veterans of the "Police Academy" film series, and featured the last film role for Ramsey's longtime friend Bubba Smith (1945-2011). In 2018, Ramsey appeared in the biographical film "When I Sing", which was based on the life of singer-songwriter Linda Chorney (1960-). This was Ramsey's last film role.
Ramsey spend her last years in retirement.
In January she died at her residence in Los Angeles, following a short illness. Her cause of death was not announced to the public. She was 73-years-old at the time of her death. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at sea. News of her death was covered by the press, as the actress was still well-known and fondly remembered. Ramsey is considered an icon of the 1980s.- John Reilly was born on 11 November 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for General Hospital (1963), Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982) and Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998). He was married to Lily Beth (Liz) Janred and Donna Reilly . He died on 9 January 2021 in the USA.
- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Siegfried Fischbacher was born on 13 June 1939 in Rosenheim, Germany. He was a producer and actor, known for Vegas Vacation (1997), Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Father of the Pride (2004). He died on 13 January 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Phil Spector was born on 26 December 1939 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Blue Beetle (2023), Top Gun (1986) and Dirty Dancing (1987). He was married to Rachelle Marie Short , Janis Lynn Zavala, Ronnie Spector and Annette Merar. He died on 16 January 2021 in French Camp, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Randy Parton was born on 15 December 1953 in Sevierville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Rhinestone (1984), Dolly Parton & Friends (2007) and The Queens of Country (2009). He was married to Deb Parton. He died on 21 January 2021 in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, USA.- A leading actress of theatre, film and TV in the former Yugoslavia, Mira Furlan emigrated to the U.S. with her husband, Goran Gajic, in November 1991, due to the intolerable political circumstances in her homeland. Ms. Furlan starred in the Warner Brothers TV series Babylon 5 (1993) as "Ambassador Delenn" (Sci-Fi Universe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Genre TV-series 1996 and 1997).
Her other American credits included the TV movie My Antonia (1995) directed by Joseph Sargent, the title roles in "Sophocles Antigone" at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Los Angeles (Dramalogue Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance in 1995) and Lorca's "Yerma" at The Indiana Repertory Theatre. She also appeared in Brecht's "Baal" at The Second Stage in Los Angeles and Shaw's "Don Juan In Hell" in which she co-starred with Edward Asner and Rene Auberjonois. Ms. Furlan was a member of The Actor's Studio.
Ms. Furlan's film credits include leading roles in over 25 films. She co-starred in Emir Kusturica's Cannes award-winning and Oscar-nominated film When Father Was Away On Business (2000). Films include: Three For Happiness, (Grand Prix, Valencia Film Festival), Beauty Of Vice, In The Jaws Of Life, The Loves Of Blanka Kolak, and Dear Video. In addition, Ms Furlan has appeared regularly on Yugoslav television, playing leading roles in numerous series and TV films. She received all the highest awards in her former country, both for her stage and film work, including two Golden Arenas (Yugoslav Oscars) for Best Actress.
In the former Yugoslavia, Furlan was a member of the Croatian National Theatre and a frequent guest star at major theatres in the whole country. Her favorite roles include: 'Natalya' in "A Month In The Country", 'Mrs. Elliot' in "Alpha-Beta", 'Celimene' in "The Misanthrope", 'Judith' in "The Devil's Disciple", 'Annabella' in "Tis Pity She's A Whore", the title role in Euripides' "Helen", 'Lea' in "Dybbuk", 'Isabelle' in Corneille's "L'Illusion Comique", 'Yvette' in "Mother Courage", 'Natasha' in "Three Sisters" and 'Ophelia' in Jiri Menzel's production of "Hamlet". - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Attended Zion Lutheran School in Anaheim, California. While in fifth grade, he portrayed 8th-grader Samuel "Screech" Powers in the television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), which evolved into Saved by the Bell (1989) and its various television movies and spin-offs. Also appeared in the television series The Wonder Years (1988).- Actor
- Producer
Leon Spinks was born on 11 July 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Untitled Leon Spinks Project, Risen (2010) and Facing Ali (2009). He was married to Brenda Glur, Betty Wilson and Nova Bush. He died on 5 February 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Mary Wilson, co-founder of The Supremes, helped garner an unequaled record of number 1 hits by a female group. Recording for Motown, Mary guided The Supremes into rock 'n roll history, turning her group into one of the three icons of the 1960's, alongside Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Mary never stopped developing new projects and toured the world entertaining her fans. She excelled in theatrical endeavors, such as the year-long Canadian tour of "Beehive", a play centered on a female musical group. Other theatrical experiences included her off-Broadway debut in "Grandma Sylvia's Funeral" in New York City, and "Mother Hubbard". Mary did a great deal of charity work, raising millions for AIDS through the People with AIDS Coalition of Tucson (PACT). She also raised funds for homeless people, cancer research and victims of child abuse, and was a Cultural Ambassador for the United States. Mary performed continually with orchestras, symphonies, and her own touring band. She wrote three books: "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme" (1986), "Supreme Faith: Someday We'll be Together" (1990) and "Supreme Glamour" (2019). "Dreamgirl" remains the best-selling rock and roll autobiography ever published. She released several albums and in 2021 Motown released a compilation of her work as a solo performer.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Rush Limbaugh was born on 12 January 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Forget Paris (1995), Hearts Afire (1992) and The Drew Carey Show (1995). He was married to Kathryn Limbaugh, Marta Maranda Fitzgerald, Michelle Sixta Wennerholm and Roxy Maxine McNeely. He died on 17 February 2021 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Mark Morales was born on 19 February 1968 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Money Train (1995), The Bling Ring (2013) and Disorderlies (1987). He died on 18 February 2021 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Music Department
Tony Hendra was born on 10 July 1941 in Willesden, Middlesex, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Lemmings (1973) and Music Scene (1969). He was married to Carla Christine Meisner and Judith Hilary Christmas. He died on 4 March 2021 in Yonkers, New York, USA.