The Sopranos Cast Members Who Have Passed Away
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- Actor
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James Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, to Santa (Penna), a high school lunchlady, and James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a bricklayer and head school janitor. His parents were both of Italian origin. Gandolfini began acting in the New York theater. His Broadway debut was in the 1992 revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. James' breakthrough role was his portrayal of Virgil the hitman in Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), but the role that brought him worldwide fame and accolades was as complex Mafia boss Tony Soprano in HBO's smash hit series The Sopranos (1999). He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2013 while vacationing in Italy.Heart Attack- Actor
- Stunts
Rick Aiello was born on 21 September 1955 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Do the Right Thing (1989), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and Sex and the City (2008). He was married to Arlene Ann Urichich. He died on 26 July 2021 in Warwick, New York, USA.Pancreatic Cancer- Frank Albanese was born on 16 May 1931 in West Brighton, Staten Island, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Goodfellas (1990), The Sopranos (1999) and Dead Presidents (1995). He died on 5 October 2015 in Staten Island, New York, USA.Undisclosed
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Tom Aldredge was born on February 28, 1928, in Dayton, Ohio. First appearing off-Broadway in 1957 in "Electra" and on Broadway in 1959 in "The Nervous Set," Aldredge has appeared in over 30 Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Others include "On Golden Pond," "The Litte Foxes" (opposite Elizabeth Taylor), "1776," "Into the Woods" (as the memorable narrator) and "Passion." Since 1972 Aldredge has been nominated for five Tony Awards. Also an accomplished actor on film and television, he received an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Shakespeare in CBS' production "Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare." Entering into his later years, Aldredge continues to make guest appearances in several television productions and has recently starred in "Twentieth Century Limited" and "Twelve Angry Men" on Broadway.Lymphoma- Actress
- Soundtrack
The actress, singer and stage director Rae Allen was born Raffaella Julia Theresa Abruzzo in Brooklyn, New York, to Joseph and Julia Abruzzo (née Riccio). She attended New York University and later studied drama at the Herbert Berghof Studio in Greenwich Village and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts from which she graduated in 1947. Rae made her theatrical debut on Broadway the following year as a singer and understudy in Where's Charley?, then co-starred alongside Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam and with Gwen Verdon in the original Broadway production of Damn Yankees (a Tony Award-nominated role she later reprised for the film adaptation). In 1971, she won the Tony as Best Featured Actress for her role as Fleur Stein in the darkly comedic play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little.
On screen from 1958, Rae made sporadic guest appearances in serial television, including in The Untouchables (1959), Car 54, Where Are You? (1961), Soap (1977), Lou Grant (1977) and Hill Street Blues (1981). Perhaps her most memorable recurring role was that of Quintina Blundetto, mother of one Tony (Steve Buscemi) and aunt to another (James Gandolfini) in The Sopranos (1999). Her infrequent forays to the big screen included Stargate (1994) (as research scientist Barbara Shore) and A League of Their Own (1992) (as the mother of aspiring baseball players, portrayed by Geena Davis and Lori Petty). Dividing her time equally between stage and screen, the energetic performer was also busy as a theatrical director from 1972 to 1979, notably at Stage West in Springfield, Massachusetts. Rae Allen was twice married and divorced. She passed away at the venerable age of 95 on April 6 2022.Natural Causes- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Gregory Gerald Antonacci (February 2, 1947 - September 20, 2017) was an American television actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best known for portraying Johnny Torrio in Boardwalk Empire in every season, from 2010 to 2014, and as Phil Leotardo's right-hand man Butch DeConcini in The Sopranos from 2006 to the season finale in 2007.Undisclosed- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She was the daughter of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, and William Perske, who was born in New Jersey, to Polish Jewish parents. Her family was middle-class, with her father working as a salesman and her mother as a secretary. They divorced when she was five and she rarely saw her father after that.
As a school girl, she originally wanted to be a dancer, but later switched gears to head into acting. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, after attending She was educated at Highland Manor, a private boarding school in Tarrytown, New York (through the generosity of wealthy uncles), and then at Julia Richman High School, which enabled her to get her feet wet in some off-Broadway productions.
Out of school, she entered modeling and, because of her beauty, appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, one of the most popular magazines in the US. The wife of famed director Howard Hawks spotted the picture in the publication and arranged with her husband to have Lauren take a screen test. As a result, which was entirely positive, she was given the part of Marie Browning in To Have and Have Not (1944), a thriller opposite Humphrey Bogart, when she was just 19 years old. This not only set the tone for a fabulous career but also one of Hollywood's greatest love stories (she married Bogart in 1945). It was also the first of several Bogie-Bacall films.
After 1945's Confidential Agent (1945), Lauren received second billing in The Big Sleep (1946) with Bogart. The mystery, in the role of Vivian Sternwood Rutledge, was a resounding success. Although she was making one film a year, each production would be eagerly awaited by the public. In 1947, again with her husband, Lauren starred in the thriller Dark Passage (1947). The film kept movie patrons on the edge of their seats. The following year, she starred with Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore in Key Largo (1948). The crime drama was even more of a nail biter than her previous film.
In 1950, Lauren starred in Bright Leaf (1950), a drama set in 1894. It was a film of note because she appeared without her husband - her co-star was Gary Cooper. In 1953, Lauren appeared in her first comedy as Schatze Page in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). The film, with co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, was a smash hit all across the theaters of America.
After filming Designing Woman (1957), which was released in 1957, Humphrey Bogart died on January 14 from throat cancer. Devastated at being a widow, Lauren returned to the silver screen with The Gift of Love (1958) in 1958 opposite Robert Stack. The production turned out to be a big disappointment. Undaunted, Lauren moved back to New York City and appeared in several Broadway plays to huge critical acclaim. She was enjoying acting before live audiences and the audiences in turn enjoyed her fine performances.
Lauren was away from the big screen for five years, but she returned in 1964 to appear in Shock Treatment (1964) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). The latter film was a comedy starring Henry Fonda and Tony Curtis. In 1966, Lauren starred in Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Julie Harris, which was one of former's signature films.
Alternating her time between films and the stage, Lauren returned in 1974's Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film, based on Agatha Christie's best-selling book was a huge hit. It also garnered Ingrid Bergman her third Oscar. Actually, the huge star-studded cast helped to ensure its success. Two years later, in 1976, Lauren co-starred with John Wayne in The Shootist (1976). The film was Wayne's last - he died from cancer in 1979. In late 1979, Lauren appeared with her good friend, James Garner, in a double episode, Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs (1979), of his Rockford Files series.
For Lauren's next film role, she appeared in a large ensemble film, HealtH (1980), which again paired her with James Garner, and in 1981, she played an actress being stalked by a crazed admirer in The Fan (1981). The thriller was absolutely fascinating with Lauren in the lead role, again playing opposite her good friend James Garner, making three straight screen roles with Lauren opposite James Garner. After that production, Lauren was away from films again, this time for seven years. In the interim, she again appeared on the stages of Broadway. When she returned, it was for the filming of 1988's Appointment with Death (1988) and Mr. North (1988). After 1990's Misery (1990) and several made for television films, Lauren appeared in 1996's My Fellow Americans (1996), a comedy romp with Jack Lemmon and James Garner as two ex-presidents and their escapades. In 1997, Lauren appeared in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), in one of the best roles of her later career, opposite Barbra Streisand, where Lauren was nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role by both the Academy and the Golden Globes, winning the Golden Globe for the role.
Despite her age and failing health, she made a small-scale comeback in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004) ("Howl's Moving Castle," based on the young-adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones) as the Witch of the Waste, and several other roles through 2008, but thereafter acting endeavors for the beloved actress became increasingly rare. Lauren Bacall died on 12 August 2014, five weeks short of her 90th birthday.Stroke- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
In a six-decade-plus career (she started out as a radio performer at age 14), there are very few facets of entertainment that lovely singer/actress Polly Bergen has not conquered or, at the very least, touched upon. A nightclub and Columbia recording artist of the 50s and 60s, she is just as well known for her film and Emmy-winning dramatic performances as she is for her wry comedic gifts. In the leaner times, she has maintained quite well with her various businesses. Truly one for the ages, Polly has, at age 70+, nabbed a Tony nomination for her gutsy "I'm Still Here" entertainer Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies", and was still dishing out the barbs as she recently demonstrated as Felicity Huffman's earthy mom on Desperate Housewives (2004).
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee as Nellie Burgin on July 14, 1930, her family, which included father William, mother Lucy and sister Barbra, eventually moved to Los Angeles. By the time she was 14, Polly was singing professionally on radio and managed to scrape up singing gigs with smaller bands around and about the Southern California area. She attended Compton Junior College before Paramount mogul Hal B. Wallis caught sight of her and signed her up with his studio. Having made an isolated film debut (as Polly Burgin) a year earlier in the Monogram western Across the Rio Grande (1949), Wallis showcased her as a decorative love interest in the slapstick vehicles of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the (then) hottest comedy team in Hollywood. But At War with the Army (1950), That's My Boy (1951) and The Stooge (1951) did little for Polly although she presented herself well. MGM and Universal had the idea to cast her in a more serious vein with co-starring roles in their dramas Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), Arena (1953) and Cry of the Hunted (1953), but again she was overlooked. Disasppointed, she decided to abandon her lucrative film contract and seek work elsewhere.
That "elsewhere" came in the form of 1950s TV. Focusing on her singing, she promoted her many albums for Columbia by guest-starring on all the top variety shows of the times. This culminated in her own variety program, The Polly Bergen Show (1957). The song "The Party's Over" became her traditional show-closer and signature tune. Polly also showed some marquee mettle on the cabaret and nightclub circuits, performing at many of the top hotels and showrooms throughout the country. She made her Broadway debut along with Harry Belafonte in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" in 1953, and went on to appear in such stage shows as "Top Man" and "Champagne Complex". A delightfully engaging game show panelist to boot, she took a regular seat on the To Tell the Truth (1956) panel for five seasons.
Polly tended to display a looser, down-to-earth personality to induce laughs but she was also was formidable dramatic player and fashion plate quite capable of radiating great charm, poise and elegance. For her role as alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan in the special TV showcase The Helen Morgan Story (1957) , she took home the Emmy award. Unfortunately for Polly, Ann Blyth took on the role of the tragic singer in the film version (with Gogi Grant providing the vocals), in what could have been a significant return to films for her.
Instead, Polly had to wait another five years for that to happen. As the wife of Gregory Peck and designated victim of revengeful psychopath Robert Mitchum in the taut movie thriller Cape Fear (1962), her film career reignited. Other opportunities came in the form of her distraught mental patient in The Caretakers (1963), which found her at odds with nurse Joan Crawford and doctor Robert Stack; the sparkling comedy Move Over, Darling (1963), which placed her in a comedy triangle with "other wife" Doris Day and husband James Garner; and as the first woman Chief Executive of the White House in the frothy comedy tidbit Kisses for My President (1964) opposite bemused "First Gentleman" Fred MacMurray. In what was to be a tinge of deja vu, Polly again saw her movie career dissipate after only a couple of vehicles. True to form, the indomitable Polly rebounded on TV.
A mild string of TV-movies came her way as she matured into the 1970s and 1980s, most notably the acclaimed miniseries The Winds of War (1983), which reunited her with Robert Mitchum, this time as his unhappy, alcoholic wife. This, along with her participation in the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), earned Polly supporting Emmy nominations. In the years to come, she would find herself still in demand displaying her trademark comic grit in such shows as The Sopranos (1999), Commander in Chief (2005) and Desperate Housewives (2004).
Polly returned to singing in 1999 after nearly a three-decade absence (due to health and vocal issues). Quite huskier in tone, she went on to delight the New York musical stage with stand-out performances in "Follies" (2001), "Cabaret" (2002) and "Camille Claudel" (2007). Polly still made nightly appearances and had even put together singing concert tours on occasion.
Polly has authored three best-selling beauty books outside the acting arena and has demonstrated a marked level of acumen in the business world. Founding a mail-order cosmetics business in 1965, she sold it to Faberge eight years later. She also developed her own shoe and jewelry lines.
Married (1950-1955) to MGM actor Jerome Courtland during her first movie career peak, she later wed topflight agent/producer Freddie Fields in 1957, a union that lasted 18 years and produced two adopted children, Pamela and Peter. A third marriage in the 1980s also ended in divorce. An assertive voice when it comes to women's rights and issues, her memoir "Polly's Principles" came out in 1974.
Polly played a grandmother in her last film, the dramedy Struck by Lightning (2012), and died two years later on September 20, 2013, at the age of 84.Natural Causes- This husky, instantly identifiable American character actor was born Italo Valentino Bisoglio on May 7, 1926, in New York City. His parents were emigrants who hailed from an area near Casale Monferrato, a region noted for its viticulture, in Piedmont, Italy. Val studied acting under the renowned drama coach Jeff Corey. He made his first entry onto the New York stage in 1964 and debuted on Broadway two years later as Sergeant Carlino in Frederick Knott's thriller Wait until Dark, opposite Lee Remick and Robert Duvall (his role was played by Jack Weston in the 1967 film version). By the late '60s, Val had become an established actor on TV, often cast as tough, Bronx-accented cops or minor gangland figures. He is perhaps best remembered as the sympathetic restaurateur Danny Tovo, close friend and sometime confidante of Jack Klugman's Quincy M.E. (1976), and as the blissfully insouciant cook Sgt. Sal Pernelli on M*A*S*H (1972). Among infrequent movie appearances were an iconic turn as John Travolta's brash father in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and as the wry Indian chief Gray Cloud in The Frisco Kid (1979). Val retired from screen acting after his final role as the elderly capo Murf Lupo in three episodes of The Sopranos (1999).
Early on in his career, Val was involved in the Kennedy Administration's Mobilization for Youth Program. Launched on the Lower East Side in New York in 1961, it was designed to help fight poverty and juvenile delinquency, as well as aiding disadvantaged youths by the provision of counseling, education and job training.Undisclosed - Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Mark Blum was born on 14 May 1950 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Crocodile Dundee (1986) and The Sopranos (1999). He was married to Janet Zarish. He died on 26 March 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Covid-19- 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.Parkinson's Disease- Sully Boyar was born on 14 December 1923 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Dog Day Afternoon (1975), In the Soup (1992) and Car Wash (1976). He was married to Josephine Pizzo. He died on 23 March 2001 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.Heart Attack
- Fair complexioned, cold-eyed actor Richard Bright notched up an impressive array of character performances of often shifty, or deadly characters on the wrong side of the law. He first came to attention as a burglar in the engrossing The Panic in Needle Park (1971), and then followed it the following year playing a slick con artist hustling naive Ali MacGraw for the bank robbery loot in The Getaway (1972), before Steve McQueen pummels Bright to get the money back.
In 1972, he made his first appearance as bodyguard/enforcer "Al Neri", protecting Al Pacino in The Godfather (1972), and returned in the same role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and, 16 years later, he was back once again still protecting mob boss Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III (1990). The actor's features endeared him to casting agents looking for both criminals and cops. He also appeared in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Sam Raimi's crazy Crimewave (1985), the union tale Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992) and Witness to the Mob (1998). In addition, he appeared regularly on TV in police/drama shows such as Hill Street Blues (1981), Houston Knights (1987), Third Watch (1999) and The Sopranos (1999).Struck By a Bus - Actor
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John 'Cha Cha' Ciarcia was born on 24 May 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Goodfellas (1990), Mamamia (1995) and Death to Smoochy (2002). He was married to Karen King. He died on 21 November 2015.Undisclosed- John Costelloe was born on 8 November 1961 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Die Hard 2 (1990), Black Rain (1989) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). He died on 18 December 2008 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA.Suicide
- Michael DeNigris was born on 29 September 1946 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Sopranos (1999), Rock Bottom (2002) and Vulgar (2000). He was married to June Bay. He died on 26 July 2022 in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, USA.Undisclosed
- Jerry Grayson was born on 9 December 1935 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Pushing Tin (1999), Striptease (1996) and Find Me Guilty (2006). He died on 5 March 2013 in New York City, New York, USA.Undisclosed
- Actor
- Producer
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John Heard was a very talented actor who established himself as a respected thespian in the late 1970s and early '80s, though he is perhaps better known for his turn as Peter McCallister, Kevin McCallister's (Macaulay Culkin) father in the Home Alone (1990) movies.
John was born in Washington, D.C., to Helen (Sperling), who acted in community theatre, and John Heard, who worked for the U.S. government. John established himself with roles in the movies Between the Lines (1977), Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979) (a.k.a. "Head Over Heels"), and Heart Beat (1981) (in which he played Jack Kerouac to Nick Nolte's Neal Cassady and Sissy Spacek's Carolyn Cassady), before giving a tour de force performance as a hideously wounded (both physically and psychologically) Vietnam veteran in Cutter's Way (1981) (a.k.a. "Cutter and Bone") opposite Jeff Bridges. He also shined as Reverend Dimmesdale (one of America's first religious hypocrites) in the 1979 PBS version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1979).
Both "Chilly Scenes of Winter" and "Cutter's Way" (originally released as "Head Over Heels" and "Cutter and Bone", respectively) had been re-released under new titles after failing in their first go-rounds, such was the quality of the films. The two re-releases helped redefine the practice by which major studios handled smaller, art house quality pictures by releasing them carefully to select theaters with bespoke marketing campaigns so they reached the proper audience. (Studios would later develop their own art film-independent film subsidiaries to handle such pictures, so they didn't "fall through the cracks" like the first releases of the two Heard films.)
By the early 1980s, Heard seemed on his way to establishing himself as a major American actor, if not on the path to movie stardom. At the time, there was a joke that involved confusing Heard with John Hurt and William Hurt because of the similarity of their last names. At the time these contemporaries were considered equal in terms of their star power.
In the early '80s, it would not have been unreasonable to predict that Heard would become an Oscar winner or a multiple nominee. He continued to work on A-List projects, playing the not-so-sympathetic son to Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985) (for which Page won her own Oscar) and Tom Hanks's adult rival in Big (1988), but by the latter part of the decade he had failed to establish himself as a leading man and was playing supporting roles. Also appearing on television, he was nominated for an Emmy for his turn as a corrupt police detective on The Sopranos (1999).
John Heard died on July 21, 2017, in Palo Alto, California.Heart Attack- Paul Herman was born on 29 March 1946 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for American Hustle (2013), Heat (1995) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). He died on 29 March 2022 in New York City, New York, USA.Natural Causes
- 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.Undisclosed- Sylvia Kauders was born on 1 December 1921 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Witness (1985), Predator 2 (1990) and Man on a Ledge (2012). She was married to Randle Morgan Kauders. She died on 5 May 2016 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.Heart Attack
- One of those hard-working supporting actors whose face you know but whose name might not ring any bells. Italian-American Bruce Kirby (real name Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu) was steadily employed--primarily on the small screen--to play a gallery of often likeable, mainly unimposing characters in a career that spanned more than 50 years. He began at the Actor's Studio in New York, having studied under Lee Strasberg, debuting on stage in or around 1950. His television work commenced in 1955 with anthology dramas. Kirby had a recurring role as Officer Kissel in Car 54, Where Are You? (1961) and was from then on frequently cast as police officers, notably in Kojak (1973) (Sgt. Al Vine), Columbo (1971) (perhaps best remembered as the ineffectual, perennially-bewildered Sgt. Kramer), Holmes and Yoyo (1976) (Captain Harry Sedford), and in the short-lived crime series Shannon (1981) (Det. George Schmidt). He enjoyed a lengthier run as District Attorney Bruce Rogoff in the multiple Emmy Award-winning legal drama L.A. Law (1986). Kirby showed up in numerous guest spots on top-rating shows across diverse genres, including Hogan's Heroes (1965), Bonanza (1959), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), M*A*S*H (1972), The Rockford Files (1974), The West Wing (1999) and The Sopranos (1999).
Kirby appeared as Alfieri on stage in Los Angeles in A View from the Bridge, using his real name. He made his bow on Broadway in Diamond Orchid (1965) and was understudy to Dustin Hoffman for the role of Willy Loman in a 1984 production of Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman. He retired from acting in 2009. Kirby died on January 24, 2021 in Los Angeles.Leukemia - Mark La Mura was born on 18 October 1948 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for All My Children (1970), City by the Sea (2002) and Baked in Brooklyn (2016). He was married to Elizabeth Maclellan. He died on 11 September 2017 in New York City, New York, USA.Lung Cancer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dick Latessa was born on 15 September 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Alfie (2004), The Black Donnellys (2007) and Stigmata (1999). He was married to Shirley Stollman. He died on 19 December 2016 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Heart Failure- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Ron Leibman was born on 11 October 1937 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Garden State (2004), Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981) and Kaz (1978). He was married to Jessica Walter and Linda Lavin. He died on 6 December 2019 in New York City, New York, USA.Pneumonia- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.Alzheimer's Disease- Chuck Low was born on 21 July 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Goodfellas (1990), The Mission (1986) and Sleepers (1996). He died on 18 September 2017 in Allendale, New Jersey, USA.Undisclosed
- Robert LuPone was born on 29 July 1946 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Funny Games (2007), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and The Doors (1991). He was married to Virginia Rae Robinson and Kathryn M Duke. He died on 27 August 2022 in Albany, New York, USA.Pancreatic Cancer
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Judith Malina was born on 4 June 1926 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. She was an actress and director, known for The Addams Family (1991), The Secret of My Success (1987) and When in Rome (2010). She was married to Hanon Reznikov and Julian Beck. She died on 10 April 2015 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.Lung Disease- Patricia Marand was born on 25 January 1934 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sopranos (1999), The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) and The Mike Douglas Show (1961). She was married to Irving Salem. She died on 27 November 2008 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Brain Cancer
- Nancy Marchand's mother, a pianist, sent her shy daughter to acting classes in hopes of breaking her out of her shell. As a student at Carnegie Tech (Carnegie Mellon University), she studied the works of William Shakespeare and the other great playwrights and, upon graduation, set off for New York City. She received acclaim in the part of the tavern hostess in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" at the City Center in 1951. Her list of theater works include "The Cocktail Hour" and "The Balcony" (an Obie for both), "White Lies and Black Comedy" (Tony nominations for both), "The Octette Bridge Club" and "Morning's at Seven". She worked at many of the great theaters in the United States, including the Brattle Theatre, Long Wharf, Lincoln Center Repertory Company and the Goodman Theatre. During her illustrious theater career, she won the role of Mrs. Pynchon in the TV series Lou Grant (1977) with Ed Asner, for which she won four Emmys. Her last accolade was her role as Livia Soprano in HBO's The Sopranos (1999), for which she won a Golden Globe.Emphysema and Lung Cancer
- David Margulies was born on 19 February 1937 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). He was married to Carol Grant. He died on 11 January 2016 in New York City, New York, USA.Long Illness
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Paul Mazursky was born on 25 April 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He was married to Betsy Mazursky. He died on 30 June 2014 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.Pulmonary Cardiac Arrest- Actor
- Producer
Frank Pellegrino was born on 19 May 1944 in East Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Goodfellas (1990), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). He was married to Josephine Nicita. He died on 31 January 2017 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Lung Cancer- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic, died at age 37, when Sydney was 16. He spent his formative years in Indiana, graduating from his HS in 1952, then moved to New York City.
From 1952-1954 young Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. He served two years in the army, and then returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse and taught acting. In 1958, Pollack married his former student Claire Griswold. They had three children. Their son, Steven Pollack, died in a plane crash on November 26, 1993, in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Rebecca Pollack, served as vice president of film production at United Artists during the 1990s. Their youngest daughter, Rachel Pollack, was born in 1969.
Pollack began his acting career on stage, then made his name as television director in the early 1960s. He made his big screen acting debut in War Hunt (1962), where he met fellow actor Robert Redford, and the two co-stars established a life-long friendship. Pollack called on his good friend Redford to play opposite Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966). Pollack and Redford worked together on six more films over the years. His biggest success came with Out of Africa (1985), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie earned eleven Academy Award nominations in all and seven wins, including Pollack's two Oscars: one for Best Direction and one for Best Picture.
Pollack showed his best as a comedy director and actor in Tootsie (1982), where he brought feminist issues to public awareness using his remarkable wit and wisdom, and created a highly entertaining film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Pollack's directing revealed Dustin Hoffman's range and nuanced acting in gender switching from a dominant boyfriend to a nurse in drag, a brilliant collaboration of director and actor that broadened public perception about sex roles. Pollack also made success in producing such films as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Quiet American (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003). Pollack returned to the director's chair in 2004, when he directed The Interpreter (2005), the first film ever shot on location at the United Nations Headquarters and within the General Assembly in New York City.
In 2000, Sydney Pollack was honored with the John Huston Award from the Directors Guild of America as a "defender of artists' rights." He died from cancer on May 26, 2008, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, California.Stomach Cancer- Anthony Ribustello was an actor and politician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Dante Greco, Tony Soprano's driver on the HBO series, The Sopranos.
In April 2009, Ribustello ran for Bronx Borough President as the Republican candidate in a special election to replace incumbent Democrat Adolfo Carrion, who resigned to take a position in the Obama Administration. Ribustello received about 13 percent of the vote in the overwhelmingly Democratic borough, losing to Democratic Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr.
In addition to acting, Ribustello is also employed at the New York City Board of Elections.Undisclosed - Actor
- Additional Crew
George Riddle was born on 21 May 1937 in Auburn, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), The Innkeepers (2011) and The Kitchen (2019). He died on 2 June 2023 in North Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.Duodenal Cancer- Actor
- Producer
- Director
David C. Roehm Sr. was born on 13 June 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Lovely Bones (2009), Murder Below the Line (2004) and Pawns (2005). He was married to Alice Mildred Blair. He died on 4 May 2012 in Runnemede, New Jersey, USA.Undisclosed- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Distinctive American actor, screenwriter, and producer of Lebanese ancestry, born Richard Joseph Romanos to Dr. Raymond Daniel Romanos and his wife Eileen Dorothy ((née Maloof). His younger brother, Robert, is also an actor. Richard attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating with a degree in philosophy in 1964. He initially set out to pursue a career in law. After studying for a year at the University of Connecticut Law School, he dropped out, moved to New York and enrolled in drama classes with Lee Strasberg at the renowned Actor's Studio. He made his screen debut in 1968 and quickly established himself as a versatile character player in high profile TV shows, commencing with Mission: Impossible (1966). Often cast as Latinos or Italians, he was reputedly considered for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972). In fact, he did play a gangster named Michael (Longo) in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).
In episodic television, Richard came to be equally adept at portraying good guys (Detective Sam Carlucci in Kojak (1973)) and black Hats (Johnny Noah in Hawaii Five-O (1968)). He had recurring roles in the short-lived, underrated detective series Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980) as the aptly named Crazy Tommy Tedesco, and, conversely, as tough police captains in Foul Play (1981). He was also a regular in the cast of Strike Force (1981) as the wry ladies' man Charlie Gunzer. In The Sopranos (1999), Richard played the ex-husband of psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) who strongly disapproved of her treating Mafia don Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini).
Richard's first wife was the actress Tina Romanus (aka Bohlman, aka Bowman). Their marriage produced a son but ended in divorce in 1980. In 1985, he married the Oscar-nominated costume designer Anthea Sylbert. Together, they wrote the TV comedy Giving Up the Ghost (1998) and the Christmas fantasy If You Believe (1999), the latter receiving a nomination for a Best Original Screenplay Award from the Writers Guild of America in 1999. In 2004, the couple sold their home in Los Angeles and resettled on the Greek island of Skiathos. Henceforth, Richard concentrated on writing novels on Greek historical themes, an interest he had developed during his college years. He published 'Chrysalis' in 2011 and 'Matoula's Echo' in 2014, as well as a memoir, 'Act III', in 2012. A 2013 book, 'Sketches of Skiathos', was a homage to his new home and its inhabitants.
A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Writers Guild of America, and a fellow of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Richard Romanus died on December 26 2023 on Skiathos at the age of 80.Undisclosed- A Brooklyn-born "working class" actor of Italian descent, character actor Joe Santos started out in life as Joseph John Minieri, Jr. on June 9, 1931. Sadly, his father died on the same day as Joe's birth. His mother Rose (née Sarno) Minieri, who later became a nightclub owner and singer in New York City and Havana, later became the wife of Puerto Rican-born Daniel Santos and the young boy took his stepfather's surname. Reared in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, Santos attended military schools, served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and became a football jock at Fordham University. He turned semi-pro at one point before acting on his urges toward drama.
Santos toiled in a number of blue-collar jobs (railroad worker, tree trimmer, cabbie, barkeep) while taking acting classes and searching for work. Debuting with a bit on the TV series "Naked City," the young hopeful found some work in with bit parts in the films Cross-Country Romance (1940) and The Detective (1968) and three of his cousin Joseph W. Sarno's film exploitations -- Flesh and Lace (1965), Moonlighting Wives (1966) and My Body Hungers (1967) -- in the late 1960s, but they lead virtually nowhere.
Joe's first real break came with a featured role as a tough urban in the searing film downer The Panic in Needle Park (1971), brought about thanks to the prodding of his friend and star of the film, the up-and-coming Al Pacino, who had played some softball with Santos. This was followed by a couple of featured roles in the "blaxploitation" flicks The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972) and Shaft's Big Score! (1972). A prime role as a sympathetic sergeant in the acclaimed TV mini-series The Blue Knight (1973) led Santos in the direction of primarily "good cop" parts on such urban crime shows, including "Toma," "Barnaby Jones," The Streets of San Francisco," "Baretta," "Joe Forrester" and several episodes of the anthology series "Police Story." The most noteworthy, however, was the long-running role as James Garner's beleaguered, long-suffering friend and contact, Lt. Dennis Becker, on the series The Rockford Files (1974) for which he earned an Emmy nomination in 1979.
Joe also provided strong, atmospheric support in 70's urban crime films for such stars as Burt Reynolds in Shamus (1973); Robert Mitchum in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973); Anthony Quinn in The Don Is Dead (1973); and John Marley in Blade (1973).
Following the "Rockford" success, the beefy, balding Santos moved into a lighter 80's vein, first as a divorced dad at odds with raising an 11-year-old daughter in the short-lived (10 episode) sitcom Me and Maxx (1980) and as comedian Paul Rodriguez's dad in the even briefer (6 episode) comedy series a.k.a. Pablo (1984). In addition, he found guest parts in "Trapper John," "Hill Street Blues," The 'A' Team," "Remington Steele," "T.J. Hooker," "The New Twilight Zone," and a recurring role as Lt. Harper on Hardcastle and McCormick (1983), as well as brief running part on the daytime soap Santa Barbara (1984) and several returning "Rockford" TV movies, again with James Garner between 1994-1999.
Into the millennium, Santos received strong, deserved notice in 2004 for his recurring role as "Consigliere Angelo Garepe" in the hit man hit series The Sopranos (1999). Following roles in the films Beyond Suspicion (2000), Hammerlock (2000), Proximity (2001) and The Man from Elysian Fields (2001), he was little seen, but did return for an isolated film appearance in his final movie Chronic (2015) starring Tim Roth as a home care nurse for the terminally ill.
Joe also dabbled in play-writing, having penned "Sunset Normandie", in which he also starred. Married to longtime Cuban wife Maria Montero until her death in 1988, Santos died in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 84 on March 18, 2016, a few days after suffering a heart attack. He was survived by three children: Perry, Joe Jr. and Lili.Heart Attack - Suzanne Shepherd was born on 31 October 1934 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Lolita (1997), Uncle Buck (1989) and Goodfellas (1990). She was married to Carroll Calkins and David Shepherd. She died on 17 November 2023 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Kidney Failure
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Frank Sinatra Jr. was born on 10 January 1944 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Hollywood Homicide (2003), Aru heishi no kake (1970) and Dream for an Insomniac (1996). He was married to Cynthia Sinatra. He died on 16 March 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.Cardiac Arrest- Nicknamed "The Goose", Tony Siragusa graduated from Pittsburgh and then went on to play 12 full seasons in the NFL as a defensive nose tackle. After completing 7 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, he joined the Baltimore Ravens for his remaining 5 seasons, which included winning a Super Bowl during the Ravens' 2000 Championship season.
As well as delivering NFL commentary during pre-game and post-game shows, he has appeared in Spike Lee's 25th Hour (2002).Undisclosed - Tony Sirico was born in New York City on July 29, 1942 to a family of Italian descent. He grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush and Bensonhurst. His brother, Father Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Institute has been described as an "American research and educational institution, or think tank," in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles."
Sirico was convicted of several crimes and was arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting. On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion, and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing.
Tony Sirico died on July 8, 2022, from undisclosed causes, aged 79.Dementia - Donna Smythe was born on 3 February 1957 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sopranos (1999) and Gone with the Wieners (2009). She died on 19 September 2012 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Undisclosed
- Phyllis Somerville was born on 12 December 1943 in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Little Children (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Stoker (2013). She died on 16 July 2020 in New York City, New York, USA.Natural Causes
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Brian Tarantina was born on 27 March 1959 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Summer of Sam (1999), Knight and Day (2010) and Jacob's Ladder (1990). He died on 2 November 2019 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Heart Problems- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ed Vassallo was born on 1 March 1968 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for War of the Worlds (2005), The Sopranos (1999) and Sweets (2015). He died on 25 February 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.Leukemia- Actor
- Additional Crew
Vinny Vella was born on 11 January 1947 in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Casino (1995), In the Cut (2003) and Find Me Guilty (2006). He was married to Margaret Ann Hernandez. He died on 20 February 2019 in New York City, New York, USA.Liver Cancer- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
"Go home and get your shine box....", so said ill-fated Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990). However, Billy Batts is better known to a legion of crime-film fans as the talented actor, musician, and comedian Frank Vincent. He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey. Frank studied music at St. Pauls Grammar School and became a keen drummer at a young age, while his father introduced him to the dramatic arts. Vincent went on to became quite an accomplished musician and played with some of the key 1960s recording artists including Trini López, Del Shannon and Paul Anka. In 1975 Vincent appeared before the camera for the first time in the low-budget The Death Collector (1976) where he was noticed by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, who cast Frank in three iconic American films: the first saw Frank play the insolent Salvi in Raging Bull (1980), secondly as the aforementioned made man Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990) being bumped off by Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, and once again as Frank Marino in Casino (1995). Frank Vincent appeared in over fifty movies, and set the pace as one of the cinema's most versatile and resourceful character actors. With the recognition of his talents, various new opportunities work followed, and Frank lent his skills to contributing and appearing on video games, in television commercials and even rock-music clips with artists including DMX, T-Boz and Hype Williams. He also had the role of Phil Leotardo in the legendary gangster TV series The Sopranos (1999).
Frank Vincent was also the proud recipient of the Italian American Entertainer of the Year Award, and was also acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Back East Picture Show.Complications From Heart Surgery- Christopher Evan Welch was born on 28 September 1965 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Lincoln (2012), The Master (2012) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). He was married to Emma Welch. He died on 2 December 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.Lung Cancer
- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Emmy-nominated actor and producer Michael Kenneth Williams was one of his generation's most respected and acclaimed talents. By bringing complicated and charismatic characters to life--often with surprising tenderness--Williams established himself as a gifted and versatile performer with a unique ability to mesmerize audiences with his stunning character portrayals.
Born in 1966 in Brooklyn, Williams was best known for his remarkable work on The Wire (2002). The wit and humor that Williams brought to Omar, the whistle-happy, profanity-averse, openly gay drug dealer-robbing stickup man, earned him high praise, and made Omar one of television's most memorable characters. Williams also co-starred in HBO's critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire (2010), in which he played Chalky White, a 1920s bootlegger and the impeccably suited, veritable mayor of Atlantic City's African American community. In 2012, "Boardwalk Empire" won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He received his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie for HBO's Bessie (2015) and subsequently received his second nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for his portrayal of Freddy in HBO's The Night Of (2016).
In 2018, Vice (2013) returned for its sixth season with an extended special season premiere produced by and featuring Williams as he embarked on a personal journey to expose the root of the American mass incarceration crisis: the juvenile justice system. The episode "Raised in the System" offered a frank and unflinching look at those caught up the system, exploring why the country's mass incarceration problem cannot be fixed without first addressing the juvenile justice problem. Williams investigated the solutions that local communities were employing that resulted in drastic drops in both crime and incarceration. Michael garnered his first Emmy nomination as a producer for this incredible documentary and continues to host screenings across the country as a way to educate and raise awareness.
Giving back to the community played an important role in Williams' off-camera life. He launched Making Kids Win, a charitable organization, the primary objective of which is to build community centers in urban neighborhoods that are in need of safe spaces for children to learn and play. Williams served as the ACLU's Ambassador of Smart Justice.
Williams began his career as a performer by dancing professionally at age 22. After numerous appearances in music videos and as a background dancer on concert tours for Madonna and George Michael, Williams decided to pursue acting seriously. He participated in several productions of the La MaMA Experimental Theater, the prestigious National Black Theater Company. and the Theater for a New Generation, directed by Mel Williams.
Michael K. Williams was born, raised, and resided in Brooklyn, New York, until his death on September 6, 2021.Drug Overdose- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Burly, talented character actor who remained consistently busy playing "rough edged" or scary characters, often on the wrong side of the law. Young was born on April 30, 1940, in New York City, the son of a high school shop teacher. He is of Italian descent. Young received his dramatic arts training under acting coach Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
Young first gathered notice playing tough thugs in such films as The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Chinatown (1974) and The Gambler (1974). Director Sam Peckinpah cast Young as the getaway driver/assassin, "Mac", in The Killer Elite (1975), and Young came to the attention of newcomer Sylvester Stallone, who cast him as future brother-in-law "Paulie" in the 1976 sleeper hit Rocky (1976).
Young was nominated for an Oscar, and has gone on to reprise the role in all five "Rocky" sequels to date! Peckinpah re-hired him to play renegade trucker "Pigpen" in the moderately successful Convoy (1978) (watch for "Pigpen's" Mack truck where the writing on the door states "Paulie Hauling"!).
Young also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002).Cardiac Arrest- Denise Borino-Quinn was born on 6 January 1964 in Roseland, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sopranos (1999). She was married to Luke Quinn Jr.. She died on 27 October 2010 in Morristown, New Jersey, USA.Liver Cancer
- Frances Ensemplare was born on 3 September 1934 in New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sopranos (1999), Sue (1997) and The Immaculate Misconception (2006). She was married to Gaetano Ensemplare. She died on 9 December 2017 in Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA.Undisclosed
- Tony Lip (born Frank Anthony Vallelonga) was raised in the Bronx, New York. He worked for twelve years at the world-famous Copacabana Nightclub in New York City. At the Copa, he played host to the most famous personalities of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin. Lip then went on to a career in acting. He got his first big break when he was cast in the hit film, The Godfather. He then appeared in several major motion pictures including Crazy Joe, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Year of the Dragon, Honor Thy Fathers, Goodfellas, and Donnie Brasco. He was most recently featured as the New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi on the hit HBO series, The Sopranos. He also added "author" to his credits. In his book "Shut Up and Eat!" Lip shares personal stories as well as his family's favorite Italian recipes. He gathered his favorite Italian-America actors and friends, including Danny Aiello, James Gandolfini, Chazz Palmintieri and Joe Mantegna to do the same. For the first time ever, these actors-stars of such hits as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Moonstruck, The Sopranos, and A Bronx Tale-shared their families' secret recipes. Plus told tell their own stories of growing up as Italian-Americans. This delightful cookbook, full of photos, personal stories, and favorite recipes, shows why preparing and sharing an Italian meal is a truly rich experience.
In 2018, a film depicting Tony's road trip and friendship with Don Shirley, Green Book (2018), was released, with Viggo Mortensen as Tony, in an Academy Award for Best Actor-nominated performance.Cancer - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Bruce MacVittie was born in Providence, RI in 1956. He began acting in high school, attended Boston University, studied with Jerzy Grotowski in 1976 and moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting in 1979. He began his career at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1980 in Edward Allen Baker's "Prairie Avenue", where he worked for many years as a member. He was a founding member of Naked Angels Theater Company. Bruce spent over ten years at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference under Lloyd Richards, 10 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival under Michael Ritchie and Jenny Gersten, and was a member of the Blue Light Theatre Company where he began a collaboration with Joanne Woodward for several years on the plays of Clifford Odets. In 1982, he began as understudy to James Hayden in David Mamet's American Buffalo with Al Pacino and J.J. Johnston at Circle In the Square, eventually replacing Hayden in the subsequent Broadway production, national tour, and West End Productions with Pacino and Johnston. MacVittie, a character actor, had a long tenure playing guest-starring roles in television and film beginning with Barney Miller (1975) in 1981 working on both coasts, but predominantly in New York. In New York, he worked in most off-Broadway theaters including the Public, Playwright's Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, and the Cherry Lane. He appeared in over 75 film and television productions over 32 years.Undisclosed- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Joseph Siravo was born on 11 March 1955 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Carlito's Way (1993), Maid in Manhattan (2002) and WiseGirls (2002). He died on 11 April 2021 in the USA.Colon Cancer