R.i.p 2010

[cheebacheeba]

Another year.

No entrants as yet...

[bloody_ribcut]

Art Clokey
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb51/lisa_rino/gumby_pokey.jpg

creator of "gumby" dies at 88, r.i.p.

i remember when i was a kid a man asked me if i wanted to see zombie, when he really said was gumby.i still watched the tape,lol

[neverending]

Art Clokey was a visionary and innovator. And the creator of some of the strangest images ever put on film. RIP Art.

[fortunato]

This guy made my mornings something to look forward to as a kid.
RIP.

[_____V_____]

Director Eric Rohmer, one of the giants of modern French cinema, has died at age 89, his production company Campagnie Eric Rohmer said on Monday.

http://www.newwavefilm.com/images/Eric_Rohmer.jpg

With other groundbreaking filmmakers, such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, Rohmer was one of the founders of French New Wave cinema that in the 1950s and 1960s transformed French and world cinema forever.

In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Rohmer directed more than 50 feature films and shorts, for the big screen and television, becoming an international symbol for both what was good and bad about so-called art house films.

In movies such as My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970) and Pauline at the Beach (1983), Rohmer depicted the behaviour and emotions of human beings, often in the grip of an irrational passion, in a style that conceded little to the demands of entertainment.

Talky, slow-moving, with few of the usual artifices of film-making, Rohmer's movies have legions of passionate fans and detractors.

"You have to see one of (Rohmer's movies), and if you kind of like that one, then you should see his other ones, but you need to see one to see if you like it," American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino once said in an interview.

Depending on the source, Rohmer was either born on March 21, 1920, as Maurice Henri Joseph Scherer, in the southern city of Tulle, or on April 4, 1920, as Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy.

Asked why he took his assumed pseudonym, he replied, "It was a name I chose just like that, for no particular reason, only because I liked it."

At the age of 26, after having moved to Paris, he published his first and only novel, under a different pseudonym, Gilbert Cordier.

After working as a teacher of literature and a journalist, he found his life's calling at the legendary Cinematheque Francais, where he met some of his future collaborators in cinematic revolution.

He shot his first film in 1950. One year later, he began working on the Cahiers du Cinema, which became the mouthpiece and bible of the French New Wave. He served as editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1956 to 1963.

Rohmer's first major success, and the film that established him as a major international cinematic figure, was "My Night at Maud's", which was nominated for two Oscars and won several international prizes.

The numerous awards his films, directing and screenwriting have received include a Golden Lion at the 1986 Venice Film Festival, Silver Bears at the 1967 and 1983 Berlin Film Festivals and the 2000 National Society of Film Critics Awards for best foreign film.

[urgeok2]

.

http://www.newwavefilm.com/images/Eric_Rohmer.jpg

.

this is what you'd get if woody allen and donald sutherland had a kid.


pauline at the beach is the only movie i have/have seen by this guy. good film.

[fortunato]

What a loss. I couldn't believe this when I heard it on the radio today.
RIP.

[iSeymore]

this is what you'd get if woody allen and donald sutherland had a kid.


pauline at the beach is the only movie i have/have seen by this guy. good film.

HAH. Briliant.

[newb]

this is what you'd get if woody allen and donald sutherland had a kid.


pauline at the beach is the only movie i have/have seen by this guy. good film.

When I saw the picture I thought it was Robert Crumb.

http://www.daysarenumbers.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/robert_crumb_372x280.jpg

[Elvis_Christ]

R.I.P Mr Reatard :(

Memphis Garage Rocker Jay Reatard Dead at 29

1/13/10, 5:02 pm EST

Memphis garage rocker Jay Reatard, who broke out last year thanks to Watch Me Fall, has died at the age of 29, Reatard’s label Matador Records confirmed. According to Memphis’ Commercial Appeal, Reatard was found dead in his Memphis home at 3:30 am this morning and reportedly died in his sleep. “We are devastated by the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., aka Jay Reatard. Jay was as full of life as anyone we’ve ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist,” Matador Records said in a statement. “We’re honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly.” Watch Reatard perform “Blood Visions” last month in Atlanta in the video above.

“Since 1998’s Teenage Hate, Memphian Jay “Reatard” Lindsey, 29, has spit enough pissed-off, low-fi garage punk to become DIY royalty,” Will Hermes wrote in his three-and-a-half star review of Watch Me Fall. “There’s also choral sugar, dub effects, sweet guitar cascades and mad hooks. On the majestic closer, alongside a sad cello, he insists, ‘There is no sun.’ With sound this blazingly bright, who needs it?”

In 2008, Beck recruited Reatard to record a cover of Modern Guilt’s “Gamma Ray” for the B side of that song’s single. For last year’s Record Store Day, Reatard’s “Hang Them All” was featured on a split 7” with Sonic Youth’s “No Garage.” Reatard also recently opened for the Pixies during their run of Doolittle concerts. On their Facebook page, the Pixies wrote “We want to express our condolences to the friends and family of Jay Reatard, on his sudden passing today.”

[bwind22]

Not that I'm a big fan or anything, but some other people may be so I thought I'd pass the info on.... R&B Singer Teddy Pendergrass died today of colon cancer.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20100114/capt.photo_1263489428002-1-0.jpg?x=213&y=214&xc=1&yc=1&wc=408&hc=410&q=85&sig=yzmn9c5C3p1hzmfcgUKx6Q--

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_en_mu/us_obit_pendergrass_42

[bloody_ribcut]

R.i.p.

.

[_____V_____]

http://content7.flixster.com/photo/65/83/00/6583005_tml.jpg


Jean Simmons has died after losing her battle with lung cancer at the age of 80.

The Emmy Award winning British actress, who was recognised for her role in the 1980s drama The Thorn Birds, passed away at her home in Santa Monica on Friday, her agent told the LA Times.

Simmons moved from the UK to Hollywood in the 1950s and won roles playing Estella in Great Expectations, Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet and sang with Marlon Brando in Guys And Dolls.

Other Hollywood greats that she starred alongside included Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas.

The Hollywood leading lady was Oscar-nominated for both her role in Hamlet and for her part in the 1969 movie The Happy Ending.

[bwind22]

Zelda Rubenstein, best known for her work in Poltergeist, passed away today at the age of 76.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/section/movies/filmography/3/WireImage_3289023.jpg

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-poltergeist-actor-dies.html

[neverending]

RIP Zelda. You were a great presence in many movies. You'll be missed.

[Elvis_Christ]

Sad news indeed. RIP :(

[nightmare_of _death]

Rip Zelda you will be greatly missed.

[newb]

R I P Zelda......go into the light.


almost missed this one......a familiar face to those of us grew up in the 60s/70s

LOS ANGELES : Pernell Roberts, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV's "Bonanza" at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on "Trapper John, M.D.," has died. He was 81.

Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western's cast, died of cancer Sunday at his Malibu home, his wife Eleanor Criswell told the Los Angeles Times.

Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene's patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his "Bonanza" character was given.

"They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. "None of it ever happened."

It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father.

"Doesn't it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father's permission for everything they do?" he once asked a reporter.

Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP: JD Salinger author of 'Cather in the Rye'

[neverending]

RIP: JD Salinger author of 'Cather in the Rye'

And who would have guessed Salinger was old enough to have known Willa Cather.


But seriously- not many authors had the effect he did on generations of readers.

RIP.

[ChronoGrl]

Zelda Rubenstein, best known for her work in Poltergeist, passed away today at the age of 76.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/section/movies/filmography/3/WireImage_3289023.jpg

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-poltergeist-actor-dies.html

I always kinda thought that she'd live forever... RIP.

...

RIP Howard Zinn (http://howardzinn.org/default/).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Chronogrl/Decorated%20images/howardzinn.jpg

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People's History of the United States, died yesterday at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.

Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible. As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123063395

Zinn literally rewrote history, telling the story of the People and giving the Liberals a voice in history.

[newb]

I always kinda thought that she'd live forever... RIP.

true.....I wouldn't doubt if they make a video game about this Legend.

[_____V_____]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H5ZQQN4RL._SL500_AA240_.jpg


Producer and former studio executive David Brown, who produced Oscar-winning films including "The Sting" and "Driving Miss Daisy," died Sunday, after a long illness, at the Manhattan home he shared with his wife, Helen Gurley Brown.

He was 93.

http://www.newyorkcool.com/archives/2006/March/images/inter1_david.jpg

Partnered for many years with onetime studio boss Richard D. Zanuck, Brown produced hits of the 1970s and '80s including "Jaws," "Cocoon" and "The Verdict," his personal favorite.

A courtly man, fastidious about his attire, Brown was a voracious reader and dedicated storyteller. Few commanded his knowledge of studio lore and his talent for summoning up stories about the Hollywood titans of generations ago. He and Zanuck seemed an ideal team, given his zeal for writing and Zanuck's dealmaking prowess.

Born in New York and educated at Stanford and Columbia, Brown started his professional career as a reporter, horoscope writer, drama critic and as editor-in-chief of Liberty magazine and managing editor at Cosmopolitan.

His pairing with Zanuck, son of 20th Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck, was one of the longer-lived production associations in Hollywood. The two had a history that began in the 1950s, shortly after Brown caught the eye of Darryl F. Zanuck and joined Fox in 1951 as a story editor. He then moved up to head the story department. In 1967, Brown became VP of story operations at Fox and then exec VP of creative affairs.

During their joint tenure, Fox turned out "The French Connection," "Patton," "The Sound of Music," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "MASH," as well as costly disappointments "Doctor Dolittle," "Star" and "Hello Dolly."

Then, in 1970, Zanuck was ousted by his father in a power struggle, which saw Brown lose his job, too. In early 1971, Warner Bros. hired Zanuck for its No. 2 position; Brown came in as an exec VP.

Both Zanuck and Brown sued Fox and, in 1973, agreed to a deferred compensation settlement that was a fraction of their demands but a victory nonetheless.

Brown and Zanuck remained at WB for only 18 months before launching the Zanuck/Brown Co. in 1972.

"We realized we could have much more fun when we formed Zanuck-Brown and moved to Universal," Zanuck explained.

Universal won its first best picture Oscar in many years with Zanuck-Brown's "The Sting," which grossed more than $156 million in the U.S. The pair also produced Steven Spielberg's first film, "The Sugarland Express," and Clint Eastwood's "The Eiger Sanction." In 1975, they hit paydirt with "Jaws," which became the highest-grossing film for some time.

According to Brown, Spielberg at first didn't want to do the movie about a giant shark terrorizing beachgoers in a summer resort town.

"He said, 'There are movies and there are films, and I want to make films.' And we said, 'Well if this works, you can make films.'?" The movie set the standard for summer blockbusters and helped launch Spielberg's run of hits. Brown and Zanuck produced "Jaws II" in 1978.

In 1980 Zanuck and Brown returned to Fox, where, over the next three years, they turned out the Oscar-nommed "The Verdict" and had another success with "Cocoon." In 1983, they rejoined Warner Bros. (They eventually produced "Cocoon II.")

Brown split with Zanuck in 1988 and launched the Manhattan Project production shingle. "He wanted to stay in New York and produce for Broadway," said Zanuck. They remained close friends and reteamed for Robert Altman's "The Player" in 1992. One of their last pics as a producing team, the 1989 "Driving Miss Daisy," scored a best picture Oscar.

Zanuck and Brown were awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Award at the 1990 Oscars. Among Brown's other honors were the David O. Selznick lifetime achievement award from the Producers Guild and Showest producer of the year.

During the 1990s, Brown continued to turn out high-profile films such as Rob Reiner's "A Few Good Men," "Angela's Ashes," "Kiss the Girls" and "Road to Perdition." His 2000 production "Chocolat" was again Oscar-nommed for best picture. For television, he was exec producer of miniseries "A Season in Purgatory" and two movies for HBO.

Brown produced several plays, including Broadway musical "Sweet Smell of Success" as well as "Tru," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "A Few Good Men" and "The Cemetery Club."

A prolific short story writer, Brown wrote five books of memoirs and humorous essays.

Helen Gurley Brown is his sole survivor.

[The Flayed One]

I always kinda thought that she'd live forever... RIP.

...

RIP Howard Zinn (http://howardzinn.org/default/).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Chronogrl/Decorated%20images/howardzinn.jpg



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123063395

Zinn literally rewrote history, telling the story of the People and giving the Liberals a voice in history.

Oh wow. Great book. He leaned a little too far to the sides a lot of times even for my taste, but had some great thought provoking essays on the history of America. The chapter on Columbus was particularly thought provoking.

RIP

[Roderick Usher]

Alexander McQueen killed himself yesterday

sad day

[newb]

Alexander McQueen killed himself yesterday

sad day

he was obviously troubled but I just can't seem to work up sympathy for someone who kills themselves.

[novakru]

His death has made me profoundly sad.
I didn't even know who he was till I saw something on facebook and then read more about him...

And I understand the mentality of the strong love life lump it etc but I also identify strongly with wanting out and being in so much pain you cannot see any options and life being complete blackness even when its perfect weather with the sun shining.
None of us know his personal darkness...might have been a way to save his family seeing him suffer through a terminal illness...we will never know.

I for one feel this strangers death with immense sadness because I understand it intimately.
I was at that edge 2 years ago looking at that same abyss and I know he did not make an easy decision.

[nightmare_of _death]

His death has made me profoundly sad.
I didn't even know who he was till I saw something on facebook and then read more about him...

And I understand the mentality of the strong love life lump it etc but I also identify strongly with wanting out and being in so much pain you cannot see any options and life being complete blackness even when its perfect weather with the sun shining.
None of us know his personal darkness...might have been a way to save his family seeing him suffer through a terminal illness...we will never know.

I for one feel this strangers death with immense sadness because I understand it intimately.
I was at that edge 2 years ago looking at that same abyss and I know he did not make an easy decision.

Same here, I didn't really know who he was till I googled him,after I heard about his death.

[Doc Faustus]

Alexander McQueen killed himself yesterday

sad day

That sucks. That guy was a real original.

[Freak]

His death has made me profoundly sad.
I didn't even know who he was till I saw something on facebook and then read more about him...

And I understand the mentality of the strong love life lump it etc but I also identify strongly with wanting out and being in so much pain you cannot see any options and life being complete blackness even when its perfect weather with the sun shining.
None of us know his personal darkness...might have been a way to save his family seeing him suffer through a terminal illness...we will never know.

I for one feel this strangers death with immense sadness because I understand it intimately.
I was at that edge 2 years ago looking at that same abyss and I know he did not make an easy decision.

I feel for people that commit suicide.I've actually tried it myself and I glad to be alive.But I can totally relate and understand how someone can feel like that is the only option.

[scouse mac]

The well-known actor and film director Lionel Jeffries has died at the age of 83, his family has announced. Best known for directing The Railway Children and appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, his long career spanned theatre, film and television. Known for his bald head, baritone voice and bristling moustache, the London-born actor trained at RADA before making his screen debut in 1950.

According to a family friend, Jeffries died in a nursing home in Poole, Dorset.

Actress Jenny Agutter, star of The Railway Children, remembered him as being "an extraordinary character" and "wonderfully funny". "He was a total dear to work with," she told the BBC. "He very much created a family on set."

Born in the East End in 1926, Jeffries served in Burma during World War II and would later blame its humidity for his hair loss.

His career saw him play an array of larger-than-life characters, notably the odious Marquis of Queensbury in 1960 drama The Trials of Oscar Wilde. Despite the success of The Railway Children, whose script he wrote, he only made four more films as a director. These included The Amazing Mr Blunden in 1972, Wombling Free in 1977 and The Water Babies the following year.

Jeffries's features served him well over the years but would often consign him to authority figures and elderly relatives.

He played Dick Van Dyke's father Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, despite being the US actor's junior by six months.

[Elvis_Christ]

Jamie Gillis passed away after losing his battle with cancer: http://www.cinesploitation.com/?p=4006

[bwind22]

The actor who played Boner Stabone on Growing Pains was found dead in a Canadian park today. He went missing on Feb 14 and apparently commited suicide.

[newb]

The actor who played Boner Stabone on Growing Pains was found dead in a Canadian park today. He went missing on Feb 14 and apparently commited suicide.

That was Chekov's kid.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XNPD380IpBQ/SDr1ECCGh_I/AAAAAAAABAw/7FY8u1C_Bm8/s400/P37_0_Chekov.jpg

[The_Return]

He was also the Joker in Batman: Dead End. It was just a fan-flick essentially, but I thought he did an admirable job.

http://aveiacomunicadora.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/030724joker.jpg

RIP Andrew Koenig.

[Angra]

He was also the Joker in Batman: Dead End. It was just a fan-flick essentially, but I thought he did an admirable job.

http://aveiacomunicadora.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/030724joker.jpg

RIP Andrew Koenig.


Looks damn creepy.

[newb]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B7XwK7vcOT8/SXoFcnH23PI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/e9gSCSYkofc/s400/corey_haim_now_then.jpg

Corey Haim...R.I.P.

[_____V_____]

Such a young age too...only 38.


BURBANK, Calif. - Eighties teen idol Corey Haim died Wednesday morning of an apparent drug overdose, according to Los Angeles police.

The Canadian-born actor, who starred in "The Lost Boys" but was probably best known for his roles with fellow actor Corey Feldman, was 38.

He was found unresponsive at his Oakwood apartment around 3:30 a.m.,according to KTLA-TV. His mother was at the apartment at the time of his death.

The actor, who has struggled with drug addiction, was pronounced dead at Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank.

Police were called to the hospital just before 4 a.m. to investigate his death.

Police sources told CBS Haim's death appeared accidental. Haim has been in and out of rehab and starred in a reality show with Feldman in 2007 called "The Two Coreys."

He talked about his struggle with drugs - specificially prescription drugs.

"I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck. But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day - the doctors could not believe I was taking that much," he told a reporter in 2007.

"And that was just the Valium - I'm not talking about the other pills I went through."

Haim's official website was last updated on Jan. 18 and promotes his upcoming film, a thriller titled "American Sunset."



A real shame. RIP Corey.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP Corey Haim

[Straker]

RIP Corey Haim

Just heard this news myself. I grew up with Haim and Feldman. Sad news.

More info:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/actor-corey-haim-dead-at-38.html

[bwind22]

2009 claimed Michael Jackson and John Hughes....

Now Boner Stabone and Corey Haim.... The 80's are dying off right before our eyes.

[bloody_ribcut]

why does yahoo title the story corey haim found dead, when in the details it says he died at the hospital?

[Elvis_Christ]

RIP Corey!

[scouse mac]

RIP Corey H

[novakru]

why does yahoo title the story corey haim found dead, when in the details it says he died at the hospital?

They found him already dead at his apartment

[Angra]

Sad, sad, sad.... He had such potential back then.

He must've had a really fucked up life since his teens. And a really shitty agent.

[novakru]

Peter Graves:(

[_____V_____]

RIP Peter.


Peter Graves' career was more like three careers. At least. He was Mission: Impossible's pre-Tom Cruise leading agent, Jim Phelps. He was Airplane's Turkish prison-curious pilot, Capt. Oveur. He was the Emmy-winning host of Biography.

The silver-haired star who lent a steadiness and voice of authority to 60 years' worth of TV and film was found dead today of apparently natural causes in his Los Angeles-area home.

Graves died of an apparent heart attack outside his Los Angeles home, publicist Sandy Brokaw told the Associated Press. He had just returned from having brunch with his family when he collapsed, Brokaw said. Although one of his daughters administered CPR, she was not able to revive him.

He was 83.

For all his work—Graves' credits include the Billy Wilder WWII classic, Stalag 17, to bits on House and American Dad—the actor may be best remembered for listening very carefully to the following taped greeting: "Good morning, Mr. Phelps…"

Or, then again, maybe he's best remembered for interrogating young Joey (Rossie Harris) from the cockpit: "Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

And it's possible he's best remembered for helping tell the stories of dozens and dozens, both the famous and the infamous.

Graves intercepted self-destructing tape messages on TV's M:I from 1967-1973, and again from 1988-1990, in the short-lived redo. He was not the franchise's original leading man—Steven Hill, later of Law & Order, was—but until the Cruise movie franchise, he was its signature star. Graves never appeared in one of the Cruise movies; Jon Voight played a treacherous Phelps in the first 1996 big-screen adventure.

Airplane! made Graves a new comedy star at middle age in 1980. He returned to Capt. Oveur's œuvre in 1982's Airplane II: The Sequel. Biography came along in the 1990s; Graves stayed for more than a decade, winning an Emmy for the cable series in 1997.

Born in 1926, Graves was the younger brother of fellow classic-TV icon James Arness, who starred on the marathon-long-running Western, Gunsmoke.

Last December, Graves sounded ready for more careers, telling the Los Angeles Times he had no intention of retiring. "There has got to be some good parts around for guys my age," he said.

[neverending]

I grew up watching Mission Impossible. I was so into it my friends and I played spy games. He lent such an authoritative presence to every role he played. Sad to see him go.

[cheebacheeba]

He Pingping
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/1027769/worlds-shortest-man-dies-aged-21
R.I.P little fella...

[Elvis_Christ]

RIP Alex Chilton :(

http://pitchfork.com/news/38212-alex-chilton-rip/

[The_Return]

RIP Alex Chilton :(

http://pitchfork.com/news/38212-alex-chilton-rip/

Shit, terrible news.

R.I.P. Mr Chilton.

[newb]

R.I.P. Peter Graves



another star from my childhood

http://blog.silive.com/weather/fesshead.jpg

Fess Parker, who starred as Davy Crockett in "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," becoming a lifelong star to young Baby Boomers, has died of natural causes, according to reports. He was 85.

Parker also delighted young viewers with his performances in "Old Yeller" and "Daniel Boone." In more recent years, he attained a second stardom as a winery owner of the sprawling Doubletree resort along beachfront Santa Barbara, Calif., and the Wine Country Inn & Spa in Los Olivos, Calif.

He was hugely popular among kids in the late 1950s, starring in such Disney films as "The Great Locomotive Chase," "Westward Ho the Wagons!" and "The Light in the Forest." He was named a Disney legend in 1991.

His appeal peaked with the nationwide Davy Crockett craze as little tykes bought the coon-skinned caps and belted out the popular refrains of "Davy Crockett." He went on to star in other Disney creations centering on Crockett, including "Alias Jesse James" (1959), in which he appeared as Crockett. His casting by Walt Disney as Crockett was a bit of a fluke: Disney had requested to screen a sci-film film "Them!" which starred James Arness, whom Disney was considering for Crockett. Instead, Parker caught his eye in a bit role as a man frightened by an alien encounter. Arness, of course, went on to star as Matt Dillon in the popular TV series "Gunsmoke."

"Like many kids growing up in the '50s, Davy Crockett was my first hero, and I had the coonskin cap to prove it," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "Fess Parker's unforgettable, exciting and admirable performance as this American icon has remained with me all these years, as it has for his millions of fans around the world. Fess is truly a Disney legend, as is the heroic character he portrayed, and while he will certainly be missed, he will never be forgotten."

Before attaining stardom with "Crockett," Parker appeared in a string of Westerns and family films, beginning with "Springfield Rifle" (1952), in which he appeared with Gary Cooper and Lon Chaney. His athleticism and size -- he was 6-foot-5 -- won him the role of a baseball player in "The Kid From Left Field" (1953), his first notable role. During the early '50s, he worked in TV and films, unusually in Western-related story lines, including such movies as "Untamed Frontier," "Thunder Over the Plains" and "The Bounty Hunter." He also played in such fare on TV, including the "Annie Oakley" series.

Following his late-'50s stardom, Parker roles became less frequent, reaching their high point with his portrayal of Daniel Boone in the TV series, which ran from 1964-69. Following the series, Parker was embroiled in a drawn-out suit against the show's producer, who, Parker claimed, reneged on the profits-percentage agreements.

During the 1960s, he made several guest-star appearances on TV, including stints on such shows as "Dragnet," "Death Valley Days," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Destry," "Burke's Law" and "The Andy Williams Show."

[neverending]

Goodbye Davy....

[fortunato]

Alex Chilton?!
Wow, I hadn't heard that. What an incredible loss.
RIP

[_____V_____]

March is rapidly turning into the cruellest month for icons that straddled the big and small screens: Robert Culp has died after falling while taking a walk.

http://www.nndb.com/people/342/000023273/culp8.jpg

He was 79.

Culp’s career spanned decades and his fans spanned generations, but he may be best known for a couple of stand-out roles: that of Kelly Robinson in globe-trotting 1960s action series I Spy (which saw him star alongside Bill Cosby) and the 1980s series The Greatest American Hero, in which he played Bill Maxwell. Film-wise, he made waves with the sexually adventurous Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969.

A native of Oakland, California, he kick-started his career on the small screen with appearances on Western series Trackdown, for which he also wrote several episodes (a duty he would continue on I Spy).

Among his more notable guest roles on TV was starring in the classic Outer Limits episode Demon With A Glass Hand, written by science fiction enfant terrible Harlan Ellison, as well as playing a murderer in no less than three separate episodes of Columbo.

More recently, he could be found on several episodes of Ray Roman’s sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, where he played Ray’s father-in-law. He also voiced video games and provided erudite narration for Eminem’s Guilty Conscience music video. Culp is also a member of the club of actors who have played the president of the United States on the silver screen, having occupied the Oval Office in The Pelican Brief.

He’s survived by his fifth wife, Candace Faulkner and five children.

[The Mothman]

Falling while taking a walk? what kind of fall are we talking about?

[neverending]

Terrible news.

[newb]

R.I.P. Mr Culp :(

wtf....all the stars I grew up watching are dropping like flies. Whos next.....Robert Conrad


he was also pretty good in Santa's Slay

[_____V_____]

R.I.P. John Forsythe.

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2010/news/100412/john-forsythe-240.jpg

Dynasty star John Forsythe, who played patriarch Blake Carrington on the primetime soap and was the voice of Charlie in both the TV and film versions of Charlie's Angels, lost his nearly four-year-battle with cancer on Thursday.

In a statement Friday, Reuters reported, "The family of John Forsythe sadly announces his passing on April 1, 2010. He was 92 years old and, thankfully, he died as he lived his life ... with dignity and grace, after a years-long struggle with cancer."

Forsythe, who also played Bentley Gregg, the swinging single saddled with an orphaned niece on the 1957-62 sitcom Bachelor Father, received three Emmy nominations for Dynasty, which ran from 1981-89. After making his film debut in 1943, he also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock movies The Trouble with Harry (1955) and Topaz (1969), as well as 1988's Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, among many others.

Born John Lincoln Freund in Penn's Grove, N.J., Forsythe found his first love in the Brooklyn Dodgers. He dropped out of the University of North Carolina to become their stadium announcer.

A two-year marriage at 20 to actress Paula McCormick produced a son, Dall. A second marriage, to Julie Warren, lasted from 1943 until her death in 1994 and produced two daughters: Page and Brooke.

In 2002, he married businesswoman Nicole Carter, who, along with his children, survive him.

In 2006, it was revealed Forsythe had been diagnosed with colon cancer.

He will be remembered for his distinguished voice and courtly presence on screen. Off screen, it was his modesty that separated him from the rest of the crowd.

[_____V_____]

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/vbitters/www/001BatmanDarkKnightReturnsTPB_alt.jpg

Batman and Green Lantern comic book artist Dick Giordano has died after losing his battle with leukaemia.

He was 77.

Giordano passed away at the Memorial Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida Saturday, reports contactmusic.com.

The former executive editor at DC Comics is best known for re-imagining older comic book characters for new audiences, and oversaw projects including ‘The Dark Knight Returns’, about an ageing Batman, ‘Green Arrow’ and ‘Watchmen’ adapted for the big screen in 2009.

He left the company in 1971 and co-founded Continuity Associates with artist Neal Adams, supplying commercial artwork to comic book publishers.

He returned to DC Comics in 1980 and retired from his post in 1993.

Giordano is survived by daughters Lisa Giordano-Thomas and Dawn Arrington, a son, Richard Jr., and two grandchildren.

[neverending]

A real giant in the comics industry. Sad news.

[Doc Faustus]

A great artist and a true talent. He will be missed.

[missmacabre]

Oh no, that's just so sad. :(

[zwoti]

Malcolm McLaren

[Doc Faustus]

Punk is deader in a very meaningful way. He was awesome.

[Roderick Usher]

Viv probably won't be too far behind.

[crabapple]

Yes, RIP Malcolm McLaren, a music innovator.

[fortunato]

How about RIP the majority of the Polish government leaders? In-freaking-sane.

[novakru]

How about RIP the majority of the Polish government leaders? In-freaking-sane.

AP news called it 'ironic'

[fortunato]

AP news called it 'ironic'

Yeah, it kind of was ironic because they were on their way to a memorial for the victims of the Katyn massacre.

[bamahorrorfan87]

dixie carter

(CNN) -- Actress Dixie Carter, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the TV show "Designing Women," has died, her agent said Saturday. She was 70.

[Elvis_Christ]

RIP Pete Steele :(

NJ3aiM8K6D0

[neverending]

I hate hearing about people dying when they're younger than me. Type O Negative was a great band. RIP.

[Elvis_Christ]

I hate hearing about people dying when they're younger than me. Type O Negative was a great band. RIP.

They were great indeed. I thought this might be a joke like in 2005 but it's confirmed :(

I just just thinking it sucks that this thread has barely had a chance to get lost amongst the old ones. The reaper is a busy man this year.

[_____V_____]

http://www.nndb.com/people/454/000024382/lynn-redgrave.jpg


May 4, 2010: Lynn Redgrave, member of popular British Redgrave kin died on Sunday night after a long battle with breast cancer. Rick Miramontez, her publicist told media that her children were with her and she died peacefully at her home in Connecticut.

In a statement, her children said that their mother created endless memories as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend. She will remain with us for the rest of their lives.

Redgrave trained in London, before making her theatrical debut in 1962. She appeared in several films, including Tom Jones and Georgy Girl which won her a New York Film Critics Award and nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She made a return to films in the late 1990s with Shine and Gods and Monsters, for which she received another Academy Award nomination.

Her Broadway debut was made in 1967 and she performed in several stage productions in New York since.

She performed with her sister Vanessa in Three Sisters in London, and in the title role in a television production of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Redgrave married and professionally partnered actor and director John Clark in 1967. Together they had three children, Benjamin, Kelly and Annabel Lucy Clark. The marriage ended in divorce in December 2000.

[_____V_____]

Lena Horne, the legendary actress-singer who broke new ground in Hollywood and was active in the Civil Rights movement, has died.

She was 92.

http://blog.zap2it.com/thedishrag/lena-horne-gi-afp-large.jpg

Horne passed away at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York on Sunday night (May 9), as announced by son-in-law Kevin Buckley, reports the New York Times.

As one of the first black performers to significantly infiltrate the studio system by signing a long-term contract with MGM, Horne was instrumental in integrating Hollywood. She appeared in a few well known musicals such as "Stormy Weather" -- which is also one of her signature songs -- and "Ziegfield Follies."

Horne was born in June 1917 in Brooklyn. By her teens she began singing in nightclubs, including the famed Cotton Club as a chorus girl.

Although her Hollywood career spanned six decades, she never really achieved any huge success in that arena often because of her African American heritage was seen by studios as a deterrent when casting for lead roles or roles that might necessitate an interracial relationship on screen.

She was best known in the entertainment world for her singing and showcased that in more nightclubs, on Broadway and on TV variety shows, including "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Judy Garland Show." Later in her career she appeared on "The Cosby Show" and "The Muppet Show."

She won several Grammy awards over her career and received a best actress Tony nomination for the musical "Jamaica." Later, she received a special Tony for her one-woman show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music."

Her contributions to the Civil Rights movement include working alongside Paul Robeson and Medgar Evers, participating on the March on Washington and collaborating to end desegregation and lynching.

Her father, her son and her husband, Hayton, all died in 1970-71, and the grief-stricken singer secluded herself, refusing to perform or even see anyone but her closest friends. One of them, comedian Alan King, took months persuading her to return to the stage, with results that surprised her.

"I looked out and saw a family of brothers and sisters," she said. "It was a long time, but when it came I truly began to live."

And she discovered that time had mellowed her bitterness.

"I wouldn't trade my life for anything," she said, "because being black made me understand."

Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, and granddaughter Jenny Lumet, screenwriter of "Rachel Getting Married."

[neverending]

A truly great loss- of a great artist and a great human being. Much sadness.

[Doc Faustus]

One of the great voices.

[cheebacheeba]

Frank Frazetta
Kick in the balls to those that truly love epic fantasy comic art...

[Doc Faustus]

Sucks to lose him.

[neverending]

Oh man... one of the greatest artists ever.

[Doc Faustus]

He's in a better place, surrounded by chainmeal bikini'ed valkyries and awesome wyverns.

[fuglystick]

Lena Horne was a jewel--rare, beautiful, unique.

And Frazetta--his artwork defined what sci-fi/fantasy art should look like.

[Elvis_Christ]

Damn. Frazetta was awesome. I'm a big fan of his work. RIP :(

[The_Return]

Doris Eaton Travis - the last living star of Ziegfeld Follies. She was 106.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1555047.php/Last-living-star-of-Ziegfeld-Follies-dies-age-106

[Doc Faustus]

A Ziegfeld girl was still alive? Weird. Now that I've realized that, it's now weird that she's dead.

[friday13thfan]

Doris Eaton Travis Will surely be missed. RIP

[fuglystick]

Ronnie James Dio (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7007917.html)
http://groovyvic.mu.nu/archives/images/Dio-INT.jpg


It won't mean shit to the lame ass hipsters on the site, but for anyone who has any appreciation of rock, a pioneer has passed on.

[fiend_skull]

Ronnie James Dio (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7007917.html)
http://groovyvic.mu.nu/archives/images/Dio-INT.jpg


It won't mean shit to the lame ass hipsters on the site, but for anyone who has any appreciation of rock, a pioneer has passed on.
I keep hearing he is dead, he isn't dead...both confirmed by his wife, what is going on?

[fuglystick]

Official site (http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/) says yes, so I'm going to believe it's true.

[fiend_skull]

Official site (http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/) says yes, so I'm going to believe it's true.

That sucks so hard...DAMN YOU 2010!!!

[Angra]

Rest in peace, Dio.

[bwind22]

Ah Dio! That sucks! One of the first ones of the year I actually give a shit about.

[trx1]

Message from Wendy Dio:
Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his metal will live on forever. \m/

- Wendy Dio

[TheWickerFan]

A tragic loss. Heavy Metal Royalty; he will be deeply missed.

[The Mothman]

Oh my god. this is truly terrible. I saw this thread title and feared the worst. RIP to an absolute LEGEND. Thanks for all the great tunes.

[newb]

Ronnie James Dio (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7007917.html)
http://groovyvic.mu.nu/archives/images/Dio-INT.jpg


It won't mean shit to the lame ass hipsters on the site, but for anyone who has any appreciation of rock, a pioneer has passed on.

ahhhh...fuck me sideways......not sure what the hell that means....Damn,,,,This is the worst R.I.P. on here yet



FUCK

[The Mothman]

ahhhh...fuck me sideways......not sure what the hell that means....Damn,,,,This is the worst R.I.P. on here yet



FUCK

I hear that. real tragedy, one of my favorite vocalists. RIP Ronnie.

[newb]

this fucking sucks SO bad.......FUCK

[Elvis_Christ]

Damn. RIP Dio you ruled.

64coD-rx9sk

I'm gonna listen to heaps of Dio and Rainbow today :(

[The_Return]

RIP - A legend to be sure. He'll be missed.

[_____V_____]

Yes it is indeed confirmed news...:(

No, no, no, no...NO, NO, NO!!!!! :mad:


:(

[cheebacheeba]

Yknow...I can't say I know a hell of a lot of his music by name...but I know I've heard it, his voice was very distinct - I'm familiar with the one Elvis posted for sure.
This, for me...is definitively my kind of rock...so for that, the loss is felt.
R.I.P

[Deimos]

Heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio passed away Sunday morning, of cancer. His wife, Wendy Dio, posted the following message on www.ronniejamesdio.com:

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. May 16. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

Dio performed with Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell and Dio.

We have lost a legend. RIP DIO, you will be missed and thank you for your amazing music.



http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/3035582.bin?size=620x400

[bloody_ribcut]

R.i.p .

[Bastet]

Heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio passed away Sunday morning, of cancer. His wife, Wendy Dio, posted the following message on www.ronniejamesdio.com:

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. May 16. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

Dio performed with Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell and Dio.

We have lost a legend. RIP DIO, you will be missed and thank you for your amazing music.



http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/3035582.bin?size=620x400
Fuck, what a great loss. He just seemed to get better. But there are many who are greatful for his unique contribution to rock. We Salute you x

[~Michelle~]

last month Peter Steele this month Ronnie Dio.... this just sucks this big one :( I'm almost afraid for next month :eek:

RIP Boys!

[_____V_____]

Nearly five months to the day after the shocking death of Brittany Murphy, the actress' screenwriter husband has been found dead in the couple's Hollywood Hills home at 1800 block of Rising Glen Road.

Simon Monjack was 39.

Murphy's mother, Sharon, apparently called the emergency services last night after finding Monjack unconscious in the bedroom. But, according to ETOnline.com, resuscitation efforts failed and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Los Angelels Fire Department confirmed receiving a 911 call seeking medical aid just before 9:30 p.m. Los Angeles police sergeant Louie Lozano confirmed that Monjack had passed away, only five months after his wife died from pneumonia.

Early reports claim that Murphy's mother-in-law found Monjack unconscious in his bedroom at 9.30pm. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest.

"We have detectives at the scene. They are conducting their investigation. Once we have further information, we will provide it," said sergeant Lozano.

The British-born Monjack's IMDb résumé included two films: a story credit on Factory Girl, the 2006 biopic of Andy Warhol sidekick Edie Sedgwick, starring Sienna Miller; and as writer-director-producer of the U.K. indie drama Two Days, Nine Lives. He also dabbled in photography.

Murphy died of cardiac arrest in the same house on Dec. 20. The coroner ruled her death accident, the fatal combination of pneumonia, anemia and prescription drugs, many of which were prescribed in Monjack's name. The Clueless star was just 32. Monjack blamed Hollywood for his partner's passing, claiming that the movie industry had "blood on their hands".

In February, Monjack came under scrutiny after it was learned that he was trying to raise funds for the Brittany Murphy Foundation without applying for nonprofit status with the IRS. He wound up scuttling the foundation and returned all donations.

A month, Monjack told E! News he was planning on selling the couple's home and moving to New York. Monjack had previously told of his cardiac trouble, telling one interviewer after his wife's death: "I suffer from seizures. I had a heart attack coming back from Puerto Rico last year."

[fuglystick]

Slipknot bassist Gray found dead in Iowa hotel

Associated Press

4:12 PM CDT, May 24, 2010

DES MOINES, Iowa

Police say the bassist for the Iowa metal band Slipknot has been found dead in a suburban Des Moines hotel room.

Urbandale police say a hotel employee found 38-year-old Paul Dedrick Gray dead in a room at the Town Plaza Hotel. Foul play wasn't suspected.

The Polk County Medical Examiner's Office plans an autopsy Tuesday.

Most Slipknot members grew up in the Des Moines area. The band, known for its grotesque masks, released its first album in 1999. It sold more than 1 million copies.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-ap-ia-slipknotbassistde,0,6511641.story

I wasn't a fan, but 38 is too damn young.

[Posher778]

Slipknot bassist Gray found dead in Iowa hotel

Associated Press



http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-ap-ia-slipknotbassistde,0,6511641.story

I wasn't a fan, but 38 is too damn young.


RIP.

Not the greatest band, and they get a lot of BS. But in reality, they have some good lyrics and catchy melodies.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP I wasn't much of a fan, listen to a few songs, but not all the time, still to young to go.

[friday13thfan]

RIP Paul Gray.

[newb]

"What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

[_____V_____]

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/images-5/gary-coleman-arnold.jpg

Gary Coleman, 42, the diminutive, wisecracking child star of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," whose adult life collapsed into a tabloid calamity, died Friday at a hospital in Provo, Utah. He suffered a brain hemorrhage after falling at his home in Santaquin, Utah.

Mr. Coleman was 10 when he stepped into the national spotlight in 1978, playing the witty, lovable Arnold Jackson on NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes." The role was created for him and made Mr. Coleman the best-known child star on television for the eight years the hit comedy was on the air.

He played the younger of two orphaned African-American brothers adopted by a white Manhattan millionaire after the death of their mother, the rich man's housekeeper. The show was a comedic showcase for Mr. Coleman, who looked younger than his actual age because his growth had been stunted by a congenital kidney condition.

On the set, he proved to be a thorough professional who could memorize his dialogue in a single reading and deliver it with perfect timing. His signature line, directed toward his brother Willis, played by Todd Bridges, became a nationwide catch phrase: "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

The show was such a cultural touchstone that first lady Nancy Reagan appeared on "Diff'rent Strokes" in 1983 to make an anti-drug pitch.

Mr. Coleman also had his own Saturday morning cartoon show and was a guest on "The Tonight Show," where he upstaged Johnny Carson, who jokingly asked if he wanted to take over the rest of the show.

"With all the laughing and cheering out there," he replied, "quite possibly."

Gary Wayne Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Zion, Ill., and was adopted as an infant by a blue-collar family. Mr. Coleman's kidney disease was diagnosed at 18 months, and he had his first transplant at 5.

He began modeling for a local store at 7 and appeared in TV commercials. A talent scout recommended him to producer Norman Lear, who cast the budding actor in episodes of "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons." Recognizing Mr. Coleman's appeal, Lear and his production team designed "Diff'rent Strokes" around him.

Besides his wife, survivors include his parents, W.G. Coleman and Edmonia Sue Coleman of Zion.

"Family never meant anything to me," Mr. Coleman said in 2003, "but a whole lot of trouble that I don't need."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052803123.html?hpid=entnews


R.I.P.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

http://beat.bodoglife.com/wp-content/uploads/shannon_price.jpg

he fell down? I think his wife killed him and is going to use the insurance money to fix her face.

[wufongtan.]

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/images-5/gary-coleman-arnold.jpg

.

Poor old Arnold. He had a tough life. If anyone in hollywood had a good excuse to go off the rails it was him. I know he had some episodes. But he did a good job at keeping his dignity. Unlike all the little starlet whores, who lose all sense of self respect at a drop of a hat crying poor me over the smallest of issues.
murder doll. you should take note of the saying " those in glass houses."

[Elvis_Christ]

http://josdigital.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/knight_rider.jpg

[bwind22]

The icons of the 80's are dropping like flies.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP Gary Coleman

[roshiq]

Diff'rent Strokes was also a very popular show in here at mid 80's. RIP Gary Coleman.

[missmacabre]

Dennis Hopper now too? Died of cancer at age 74.

[_____V_____]

Yes, it is confirmed.


LOS ANGELES — Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper, best known for directing and starring in the 1969 cult classic "Easy Rider," died on Saturday at his home in Venice, California, from complications of prostate cancer, a friend told Reuters.

Hopper was 74.

The hard-living screen icon died at 8:15 a.m. PT, surrounded by family and friends, said the friend, Alex Hitz.

The two-time Oscar nominee, who appeared in more than 100 films, last March got a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, saying he came to Hollywood from his native Kansas at 18, "so that was my college."

"Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from Hollywood," he said. "This has been my home and my schooling."

In a wildly varied career spanning more than 50 years, Hopper appeared alongside his mentor James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" in the 1950s and played maniacs in such films as "Apocalypse Now," "Blue Velvet" and "Speed."

He received two Oscar nominations — for writing "Easy Rider" (with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern), and for a rare heartwarming turn as an alcoholic high-school basketball coach in the 1986 drama "Hoosiers."

"Easy Rider," regarded is one of the greatest films of American cinema, helped usher in a new era in which the old Hollywood guard was forced to cede power to young filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

The low-budget blockbuster, originally conceived by Fonda, introduced mainstream moviegoers to pot-smoking, cocaine-dealing, long-haired bikers.

"We'd gone through the whole '60s and nobody had made a film about anybody smoking grass without going out and killing a bunch of nurses," Hopper told Entertainment Weekly in 2005. "I wanted 'Easy Rider' to be a time capsule for people about that period."

Hopper and Fonda were joined on screen by a then-unknown Jack Nicholson as an alcoholic lawyer, but it was not a harmonious set. Hopper clashed violently with everyone and Fonda later described him as a "little fascist freak." Their friendship was destroyed.

Hopper fell ill last September. He continued working almost to the very end, both on his cable TV series "Crash" and on a book showcasing his photography. But his final months were also consumed by a bitter divorce battle with his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy.

Indeed, his private life was never dull. His marriages included an eight-day union in 1970 with Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, who later told Vanity Fair that she was subjected to "excruciating" treatment.

Hopper is survived by four children.


R.I.P.

[fuglystick]

Damn. Dennis Hopper was a true icon, in a time when that designation gets applied far too liberally to people who don't deserve it.

And Gary Coleman--he is an easy target of the stupid and lazy, both in life and death, but the man was dealt many a poor hand and played them, sometimes well, sometimes not as well, and he played them better than most of his detractors would have.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

another great actor gone.

fugly: explain to me why I should care that gary coleman is dead? because he had a hard life? because he used to be in a television show a long time ago? if you can give me a good reason to care about his death I totally will, promise.

I'm waiting.

[TheWickerFan]

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper. We'll miss you.http://www.collider.com/wp-content/image-base/People/D/Dennis_Hopper/blue_velvet_movie_image_dennis_hopper_01.jpg

[fuglystick]

another great actor gone.

fugly: explain to me why I should care that gary coleman is dead? because he had a hard life? because he used to be in a television show a long time ago? if you can give me a good reason to care about his death I totally will, promise.

I'm waiting.

I've got you on ignore, but I'll humor you just this once--

You don't have to give a shit. Taking pot shots at a dead man (or his wife), though, who didn't die as a result of pathetic "poor me" substance abuse or suicide, is a sign of immaturity. But whatever it takes to make you look "clever" in front of your peers, princess.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

I've got you on ignore, but I'll humor you just this once--

You don't have to give a shit. Taking pot shots at a dead man (or his wife), though, who didn't die as a result of pathetic "poor me" substance abuse or suicide, is a sign of immaturity. But whatever it takes to make you look "clever" in front of your peers, princess.

so it's ok to make fun of people when they are alive, but you have to stop when they die?

the best thing gary coleman ever gave me was laughs at his expense.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP Dennis Hopper

all these great icons dropping like flies all at once. whats up with that

[TheWickerFan]

I've got you on ignore, but I'll humor you just this once--

You don't have to give a shit. Taking pot shots at a dead man (or his wife), though, who didn't die as a result of pathetic "poor me" substance abuse or suicide, is a sign of immaturity. But whatever it takes to make you look "clever" in front of your peers, princess.

So it's okay to take pot shots at someone who died of a drug overdose or commited suicide? That seems inconsistent.
If you have a problem with someone making light or poking fun of someone who died, that should apply to all people regardless of the circumstances behind their death.

[crabapple]

RIP Dennis Hopper

all these great icons dropping like flies all at once. whats up with that

Oh, man.

I was lucky enough to meet him and do his makeup once, and he was a very friendly person, a gentleman, the opposite of some of the scary characters he played. RIP Dennis

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

Oh, man.

I was lucky enough to meet him and do his makeup once, and he was a very friendly person, a gentleman, the opposite of some of the scary characters he played. RIP Dennis

far from unexpected, he was definitely one of my favorite actors though. :(

[nightmare_of _death]

Oh, man.

I was lucky enough to meet him and do his makeup once, and he was a very friendly person, a gentleman, the opposite of some of the scary characters he played. RIP Dennis

That's awesome, that you had the opportunity to do that.

[massacre man]

So long, Dennis.

http://bocktherobber.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dennis-hopper-apocalypse-now.jpg

[fortunato]

I was lucky enough to meet him and do his makeup once

Holy smokes. What a great thing.

RIP indeed to an actor of incredible versatility.

[The_Return]

Another great talent, lost.

RIP.

[Elvis_Christ]

Totally kingshit actor dude ate all the "actors" we've got these days for breakfast.

RIP :(

[newb]

many a great roles...R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

[cheebacheeba]

Fuckin' hell...this years worst for me...

[newb]

Oh, man.

I was lucky enough to meet him and do his makeup once, and he was a very friendly person, a gentleman, the opposite of some of the scary characters he played. RIP Dennis

Red Rock West ?

[crabapple]

Yes, I did some of the makeup for his character getting impaled on the statue's bayonet. He put up with a lot of uncomfortable stuff and never complained, was very friendly, a very professional and cordial attitude.

[neverending]

A terrible tragedy. The man pushed his limitations time and again and came out stronger every time.

[ferretchucker]

Wow, was NOT expecting that one. Not good news at all.

[roshiq]

A very sad news indeed.

RIP

[ChronoGrl]

Fuckin' hell...this years worst for me...

Agreed - I am usually ambivalent to this sort of thing (sorry world), but the boyfriend told me this last night and it actually made me... sad. Iconic. Great talent. Gone. :(

[bamahorrorfan87]

RIP Rue McClanahan

[_____V_____]

http://todaysmusings.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/jimmy-dean.jpg

R.I.P.


Country legend Jimmy Dean died at 7:54 pm on June 13 at the age of 81, the Associated Press is reporting.

His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said he died at their Henrio County, Virginia, home while he was eating in front of the television. She added that it was a shock, because even though he had health problems, he was still “functioning well.” Donna was Dean’s second wife, they were married in 1991 after meeting on a show called “Nashville Now”.

While Dean is remembered most for his Grammy-winning song ‘Big Bad John,’ he started his career in the 1950s on his nationally televised show ’The Jimmy Dean’ show. He became an entrepreneur in 1969 when he started his sausage business, the Jimmy Dean Meat Co. Dean sold the brand to the Sara Lee Corp. in 1984.

Dean was semi-retired when he died, and lived on a 200-acre estate just outside of Richmond. She went on to say that he was looking forward to being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October.

Funeral arrangements for Dean will be help publicly this Sunday and Monday. There is going to be 8 hours of visitation, after which Dean will be laid to rest in a grand piano shaped tomb that overlooks the James River.

[fuglystick]

Legendary P-Funk guitarist Garry Shider dies at 56
By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI (AP) – 34 minutes ago
TRENTON, N.J. — Garry Shider, the longtime musical director of Parliament-Funkadelic whose funky guitar work, songwriting skills and musical arrangements thrilled fans around the globe and earned him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died. He was 56.
Shider, who died Wednesday at his home in Upper Marlboro, Md., was known to millions of fans as "Starchild" or "Diaperman," the latter because of the loincloth he often wore onstage.
Shider's son, Garrett, said Thursday that his father had been diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in late March. He then briefly went out on tour one last time but had to stop because of his failing health.
"He was a beautiful man who had a beautiful heart, who loved his fans just as much as they loved him," Garrett Shider said. "I'm sure if he had the choice, he would have passed on a tour bus, because he loved playing music, playing for the fans."
A New Jersey native, Shider started his musical career as a young boy, performing mostly gospel music in churches in a group that included his brother and was overseen by their father. The band also played backup for many prominent gospel artists when they performed concerts in the area, but Shider's musical taste soon grew more diverse.
The teenager first met P-Funk mastermind George Clinton in the late 1960s at a Plainfield barbershop Clinton owned, where future P-Funk members would sing doo-wop for customers and counsel local youths. Then, when he was around 16, Shider and a friend went to Canada, where they formed a funk/rock band called United Soul, or "U.S."
Clinton, who was living in Toronto at the time, heard about the band from people in the local music business, and took the band under his wing upon learning that Shider was a member. He helped produce some of their songs and eventually invited Shider to join P-Funk, a combination of two bands, Parliament and Funkadelic.
Shider soon became a mainstay of Clinton's wide-ranging musical family, eventually serving as its musical director and co-writing some of Parliament-Funkadelic's biggest hits.
"Thank you, Garry for all you have done. Forever funkin' on!" Clinton noted in a message posted on his website.
Shider first appeared on Funkadelic's 1971 album "Maggot Brain" and Parliament's second album "Up for the Down Stroke," and joined P-Funk for good in 1972. He became one of Clinton's most trusted lieutenants, co-writing and providing vocals on some of the band's biggest hits — including "Atomic Dog," "Cosmic Slop," "Can You Get to That" and "One Nation Under the Groove."
He also toured with P-Funk for many years and was still considered an active member of the group. He also was among 16 members — including Clinton — who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, winning recognition for their musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums and memorable live performances.
"My dad left home when he was about 16 years old, and wouldn't come back until he had a hit. He obviously accomplished that goal and did so much more," said Garrett Shider, who recently formed an entertainment company and hopes to produce a movie on his father's life. "People know about his talent, but I want them to know about the great man he was."
Barbara Thomas, part of a group that is raising money to help Shider's family cover his medical bills, said she was "truly heartbroken" over his death. She said upcoming benefit concerts in New York and New Jersey would go on as planned.
"Over the past forty years, Garry put his stamp and signature of everything he did musically," stated a message posted on the group's website, http://www.garryshidermedicalfund.com. "His talent was and always will be unmatched."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ictgAUfeA32F2S38rbK7Cl6KtLjAD9GDADJO0

Legendary guitarist/songwriter of what was arguably THE defining funk band.

gjKFCYzqq-A

(now we wait for some dumbass kid to claim "funk is stoopid". wait for it.)

[Elvis_Christ]

That's a shame. Dude did some great tunes.


(now we wait for some dumbass kid to claim "funk is stoopid". wait for it.)

Fuck you've got a chip on your shoulder dude.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

this will be taken the wrong way, but I don't really care.

when I first heard the news I kind of heard half of the report and thought bootsy collins had died and I was really sad. :(

garry shider was a legend of course. R.I.P

[TheWickerFan]

My 15 year old son is a huge fan of Parliament-Funkadelic, and saw them a couple of months ago in Westhampton. We were very sad to hear this news.

[fuglystick]

Manute Bol

Manute Bol, one of the tallest players in NBA history, died Saturday at the age of 47, a spokeswoman with the University of Virginia Medical Center confirmed to CNN. The hospital did not disclose the cause of death. Bol, who was listed at 7-feet-7 inches tall and 225 pounds, played for the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat in his 12-year career. The native of Sudan was known during and after his career for his charity work for his home country.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/06/19/obit.manute.bol/?hpt=T2

I remember when Bol was playing in the NBA. He was an oddity at first--ridiculously tall and thin. He didn't have much of a game--except on defense. And then he swatted away balls like a machine in the paint. He always seemed to be smiling, and seemed like a real classy guy.

[newb]

The New York Yankees have confirmed that owner George Steinbrenner is dead, at the age of 80.

[FreddyMyers]

Sad day for baseball fans. By far the most iconic owner of any team ever. Bought the Yankees for about 8 Million in '73 and turned them into a 1.5 Billion dollar global enterprise.

[bwind22]

He ushered in the era of the primadonna sports celebrity while ruining baseball trying to buy championships.

[fuglystick]

I hate the Yankees with a passion, but there's no doubt baseball was a more--interesting--game with a personality like Steinbrenner.

[neverending]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/07/cleveland_comic-book_legend_ha.html

Harvey Pekar, Cleveland comic-book legend, dies at age 70

One of the true innovators in the history of comics. Far from being a relic, he was still actively working. A genuine loss to comics fans everywhere.

http://blog.artandstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/pe20_american_splendor.jpg

[Straker]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/07/cleveland_comic-book_legend_ha.html

Harvey Pekar, Cleveland comic-book legend, dies at age 70

One of the true innovators in the history of comics. Far from being a relic, he was still actively working. A genuine loss to comics fans everywhere.

http://blog.artandstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/pe20_american_splendor.jpg

I only became a fan a few years back, had never even heard of him until I watched the film adaptation of American Splendor. Tragic loss, impressive legacy.

[Elvis_Christ]

Fuck :(

Dude ruled... this really sucks.

[_____V_____]

It's another sad day for Big Star fans everywhere: the band's founding bassist Andy Hummel has died, a mere four months since the passing of founding member Alex Chilton.

Hummel succumbed to a two-year battle with cancer yesterday (July 19) at age 59.

Big Star's current bassist Ken Stringfellow first Tweeted the news yesterday: "Another sad loss for Big Star fans as Andy Hummel passes away after long illness."

Hummel performed on the first two Big Star records, the legendary "#1" and "Radio City," before departing in the mid-'70s. He last performed with his former bandmates, though, in March this year, as part of a Big Star reunion-turned-tribute after singer/songwriter Alex Chilton died right before the festival.

Chris Bell, the band's founding guitarist and Hummel's best friend from high school, died in 1978. Drummer Jody Stephens is now the only surviving founding member of Big Star.

[fortunato]

It's another sad day for Big Star fans everywhere: the band's founding bassist Andy Hummel has died, a mere four months since the passing of founding member Alex Chilton.

Hummel succumbed to a two-year battle with cancer yesterday (July 19) at age 59.

Big Star's current bassist Ken Stringfellow first Tweeted the news yesterday: "Another sad loss for Big Star fans as Andy Hummel passes away after long illness."

Hummel performed on the first two Big Star records, the legendary "#1" and "Radio City," before departing in the mid-'70s. He last performed with his former bandmates, though, in March this year, as part of a Big Star reunion-turned-tribute after singer/songwriter Alex Chilton died right before the festival.

Chris Bell, the band's founding guitarist and Hummel's best friend from high school, died in 1978. Drummer Jody Stephens is now the only surviving founding member of Big Star.

Holy smokes, this sucks.
RIP Andy.

[_____V_____]

James Gammon, a squint-eyed, froggy-voiced character actor who was best known as the manager in the baseball film comedy “Major League,” one of the rough-hewn American types — cowboys, rednecks and the alcoholic family patriarchs in the plays of Sam Shepard — that were his specialty, died Friday at his home in Costa Mesa, Calif.

He was 70. The cause was cancer of the adrenal glands and the liver, said his wife, Nancy.

He began his career in the 1960s, appearing on “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Virginian” and other television westerns; he made his movie debut in 1967, as a member of the chain gang in “Cool Hand Luke.” He appeared in projects in other genres — in a recurring role on the cop show “Nash Bridges,” he played Don Johnson’s father — but westerns and outlaw pictures were his bread and butter. He played a redneck murder victim in “Natural Born Killers” and the revered cattle rancher Charles Goodnight in the television mini-series based on Larry McMurtry’s novel “Streets of Laredo,” a follow-up to “Lonesome Dove.” He also appeared in “Cold Mountain” “Urban Cowboy” and “Appaloosa.”

“Major League” (1989) was the biggest hit of his career. In it he played Lou Brown, the flinty but paternalistic manager of the Cleveland Indians, who roar back from last place with a roster of misfits and improbably win the pennant. Though not the familiar rural milieu, it wasn’t exactly a stretch for him; Brown was essentially a good-guy sheriff in a baseball cap. (He reprised the role in “Major League II” in 1994.)

Mr. Gammon’s first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, the former Nancy Kapusta, whom he married in 1972, he is survived by a brother, Phillip, of Northridge, Calif.; a sister, Sandra Glaudell, of Ocala, Fla.; two daughters, Allison Mann of Costa Mesa and Amy Gammon of West Hollywood; and two grandchildren.

[The Flayed One]

Jack Tatum, aka "The Assassin"


From ESPN.com
Jack Tatum’s playing style was true to his nickname. He was “The Assassin.’’

I was lucky enough to cut my teeth covering the NFL during the 1970s in Pittsburgh. Back then, no matchup was more anticipated than Pittsburgh Steelers-Oakland Raiders. Part of the reason was Tatum, who made sure receivers venturing into the middle of the field did so at their own risk.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0727/nfl_a_tatum_300.jpg (http://espn.go.com/blog/afcwest#)AP Photo/Richard DrewJack Tatum (32), who came from an era of hard running and harder hits, died Tuesday.


What is forgotten is how physical the game was in the 1970s. That was the age of great defense, hard running and harder hits. Situation substitution wasn’t part of 1970s football. Cornerbacks were allowed to mug receivers at the line of scrimmage or downfield.

And safeties? Well, the words safety and receiver simply didn’t match up in those days. Tatum, who died Tuesday at 61 (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5413917), played the position like a linebacker. He hit like no other safety in football.

It was probably fitting that one of his notable hits came against the Steelers. I remember sitting in the auxiliary press box at Three Rivers Stadium during the 1972 playoffs. The Raiders were about to squeak out a come-from-behind victory over an upstart Steelers team. In the final seconds, Terry Bradshaw fired a prayer of a pass toward Frenchy Fuqua.

Tatum saw the ball and Fuqua, so naturally you knew a collision was coming. Tatum’s hit caused the ball to fly backward into the hands of running back Franco Harris. The "Ultimate Hit" led to the "Immaculate Reception" as Harris caught the ball just before it hit the ground and scored the winning touchdown.

After Tatum’s career was over, I saw him at a celebrity flag football game during a Super Bowl. He led a chorus of former Raiders players who blasted eventual Hall of Fame receiver Lynn Swann of the Steelers for not being tough enough. Tatum and the Raiders made Swann a target back in those days.

What’s a shame is the Darryl Stingley incident during a preseason game in 1978. Tatum delivered his usual "Assassin-style" hit, but Stingley never walked again. Tatum didn’t show compassion for Stingley, opening the door for plenty of criticism.

Tatum’s style might have been outlawed in this new age of football. Research continues into the long-term damage the game inflicts on players. Had he played in the 21st century, Tatum might have had to donate his salary to charity because the league office would be fining him every week.

[_____V_____]

Maury Chaykin, a Canadian character actor who appeared in numerous films and television shows including "Entourage," has died, his manager told the Associated Press.

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsC/3070-20175.gif

Chaykin died in Toronto on Tuesday – his birthday. He was 61, and had been battling kidney problems, according to the AP.

Among the films on Chaykin’s resume: “Dances With Wolves,” “The Postman,” “Owning Mahoney,” “Mystery, Alaska,” and “A Life Less Ordinary.” He had also appeared in television roles on “C.S.I.,” “Boston Legal,” and “Entourage.”

Most recently, Chaykin was a regular on the HBO Canada sitcom “Less Than Kind.”

Chaykin is survived by his wife, the actress Susannah Hoffman, and a daughter, Rose.

[_____V_____]

Oscar-Winner Patricia Neal Dies at 84 After a Tragic Life
Thompson on Hollywood


Patricia Neal, winner of both Academy and Tony awards, died at her home in the northeastern US state of Massachusetts Sunday at the age of 84, The New York Times reported. The cause of her death was not immediately known, but the newspaper noted that Neal had suffered three strokes early in her career and was semi-paralyzed and unable to speak for a long time after that.

http://www.nndb.com/people/226/000042100/patricia-neal.jpg

Neal started out strong as a Hollywood leading lady, a beautiful and powerful character actress in such films as The Fountainhead, co-starring her lover Gary Cooper, The Day the Earth Stood Still, A Face in the Crowd and Hud, for which she won the best actress Oscar in 1964.

The actress made her movie debut in the 1949 comedy "John Loves Mary", where she played opposite the late former president Ronald Reagan.

She later starred in the screen version of John Patrick's play "The Hasty Heart" (1950), in which she played a nurse who tries to comfort a dying soldier, and "The Breaking Point" (1950), which was based on Ernest Hemingway's novel "To Have and Have Not", The Times said.

In 1964, Neal received an Oscar for best actress for her performance in the movie "Hud", where she appeared with Paul Newman.

But a year later she had three strokes that left her in a coma for three weeks, The Times said.

Following these crises, she was able to learn to walk and talk again.

Despite a severely impaired memory that made it difficult to remember lines, she returned to the screen in 1968 in the movie "The Subject Was Roses".

Married to author Roald Dahl, she gave birth to five children. One was brain-damaged in a 1960 taxi accident when he was a baby, another succumbed to measles in 1962. Tessa Dahl and her daughter Sophie both became screenwriters. Neal went on to suffer three strokes in 1964 and had to relearn, badgered by her husband, how to walk and talk.

She resumed her award-winning career in films and television with The Subject was Roses and The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.

Dahl and Neal broke up in 1983.

A.P. quotes her as follows from her 1988 autobiography, As I Am: “Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison.”

[neverending]

A great actress. Sad to see her go...

[crabapple]

Vonetta McGee, who starred as Luva in "Blacula" and who was featured in "Repo Man," passed away recently. She was 65. RIP Vonetta McGee.

[_____V_____]

'The Muppet Show' bandleader Jack Parnell dies at 87


LONDON (AP) — British jazz drummer Jack Parnell, who served as bandleader on "The Muppet Show," has died aged 87, his family said Monday.

The family said Parnell died at his home in Southwold, eastern England, on Sunday following a yearlong battle with cancer.

Parnell was born in 1923, the son of a showbiz family — his father was a music hall performer and his uncle ran a string of theaters — and began drumming professionally as a teenager. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force and performed in a band at the headquarters of Bomber Command.

Later, Parnell joined the renowned Ted Heath jazz band before leading his own ensembles.

As musical director at British broadcaster ATV from the late 1950s, he oversaw the music for long-running variety show "Sunday Night at the London Palladium," produced specials featuring Tom Jones and Barbra Streisand, composed theme tunes and served as musical director of "The Benny Hill Show."

In 1976, ATV began producing "The Muppet Show," a musical variety show with a cast of Jim Henson puppets and celebrity human guest stars.

Parnell conducted the orchestra for the whole of the series' five-year run, although the ostensible bandleader was the pop-eyed Muppet conductor, Nigel.

Parnell retired from ATV in 1982 but continued to perform with bands near his home well into his 80s.

He is survived by his wife, Veronica, two daughters and three sons — two of them drummers.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

was he the drummer behind animal? if so he was amazing. :(

[_____V_____]

David L. Wolper, an award-winning movie and television producer best known for the groundbreaking mini-series “Roots,” died on Tuesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

He was 82.

http://www.matadorjaimebravo.com/Pictures/DavidWolper/Export/DavidWolper.gif

The cause was congestive heart failure and complications of Parkinson’s disease, said Dale Olson, Mr. Wolper’s publicist.

Mr. Wolper produced hundreds of films and television shows, including the hit 1983 mini-series “The Thorn Birds,” a romantic drama set in Australia, with Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward. But the work with which he was most closely associated was “Roots,” shown in eight parts on ABC in 1977.

The saga of an African-American family’s journey from Africa to slavery and emancipation, based on the best-selling book by Alex Haley, “Roots,” with a cast including LeVar Burton, Ben Vereen and many others, was not the first mini-series, but it was the first to have a major influence not just in the ratings but in American culture. One of the highest-rated entertainment programs in television history, it went on to win nine Emmy Awards and ignited a lively national discussion about race.

Another of Mr. Wolper’s productions, “The Hellstrom Chronicle” (1971), a film concerned with mankind’s real and imagined difficulties with insects, won an Academy Award.

Mr. Wolper initially made his mark as a producer of documentaries and later focused on fictionalized accounts of historical events. He drew his share of criticism: it was sometimes suggested that his documentaries were not sufficiently probing, that his so-called docudramas took too many liberties with the facts, that he was more showman than historian.

Critics were also cool to many of his big-screen productions, which included “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” (1969), “I Love My Wife” (1970) and “One Is a Lonely Number” (1972), although he received good reviews for some, notably “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) and “L.A. Confidential” (1997), which won two Oscars.

“The Bridge at Remagen” (1969), about a World War II battle in Germany, was probably the Wolper movie that attracted the most attention — not for what was on the screen, but because his production company was run out of Czechoslovakia when the Soviet Army invaded.

Mr. Wolper scored an early success in 1963 with the television documentary “The Making of the President 1960,” based on Theodore H. White’s best-selling book about John F. Kennedy’s quest for the White House. It won four Emmys, including program of the year.

Other noteworthy television projects in the 1960s included the series “Biography,” “Hollywood and the Stars” and “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” In the 1970s he branched out into sitcoms, producing “Chico and the Man” and “Welcome Back, Kotter” with James Komack.

Married three times, Mr. Wolper is survived by his wife of 36 years, the former Gloria Hill; two sons, Mark and Michael, and a daughter, Leslie, by his second wife, the former Margaret Dawn Richard; and 10 grandchildren.

Mr. Wolper remained active as a producer of mini-series and documentaries well into the 1990s. Besides “The Thorn Birds,” his noteworthy later productions included “North and South” (1985). In 2002 he revisited his most famous production with the television special “Roots: Celebrating 25 Years.”

Mr. Wolper was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 1989.

[_____V_____]

Little Feat co-founder Richie Hayward dies at the age of 64


NEW YORK (AP) — Richie Hayward, co-founder of the Little Feat, an eclectic jamband that maintained a strong cult following throughout the decades, has died.

He was 64.

The drummer had been suffering from liver cancer and died Thursday at a hospital near Vancouver, Canada, after complications of pneumonia, his publicist, Bridget Nolan, confirmed Friday.

"He was waiting for a liver transplant," Nolan said. Over the past year, benefits had been staged on Hayward's behalf; he had no health insurance.

In a letter to fans last August, Hayward wrote about his predicament, but sounded hopeful: "My intent is to come back to the band, as soon as I am physically able. Your love and support will mean a lot to me, more than I can say. I love and will miss you all, and I will see you again on the proud highway."

He last performed with the band on July 11.

Hayward helped form Little Feat in 1969, along with frontman Lowell George, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada. The jamband mixed a variety of genres including rock, country, jazz and blues, and were known for songs like "Willin." The group fell apart in 1979 after George died, but reformed in 1987, and had been a fixture on the touring circuit.

Besides his work with Little Feat, Hayward also performed with acts including Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Buddy Guy and Barbra Streisand.

He is survived by his wife, Shauna Drayson-Heyward, and eight children.

[newb]

Little Feat co-founder Richie Hayward dies at the age of 64


NEW YORK (AP) — Richie Hayward, co-founder of the Little Feat, an eclectic jamband that maintained a strong cult following throughout the decades, has died.

He was 64.

The drummer had been suffering from liver cancer and died Thursday at a hospital near Vancouver, Canada, after complications of pneumonia, his publicist, Bridget Nolan, confirmed Friday.

"He was waiting for a liver transplant," Nolan said. Over the past year, benefits had been staged on Hayward's behalf; he had no health insurance.

In a letter to fans last August, Hayward wrote about his predicament, but sounded hopeful: "My intent is to come back to the band, as soon as I am physically able. Your love and support will mean a lot to me, more than I can say. I love and will miss you all, and I will see you again on the proud highway."

He last performed with the band on July 11.

Hayward helped form Little Feat in 1969, along with frontman Lowell George, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada. The jamband mixed a variety of genres including rock, country, jazz and blues, and were known for songs like "Willin." The group fell apart in 1979 after George died, but reformed in 1987, and had been a fixture on the touring circuit.

Besides his work with Little Feat, Hayward also performed with acts including Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Buddy Guy and Barbra Streisand.

He is survived by his wife, Shauna Drayson-Heyward, and eight children.

bummer....one of my favs

[_____V_____]

George Alan Hume, cinematographer, born 16 October 1924; died 13 July 2010


Despite, or because of, the ancient, dirty jokes, schoolboy humour, double entendres, and a string of hammy actors tele- graphing each jest with pursed lips, rolling eyes or a snigger, the Carry On films have an army of devotees.

Among the most regular actors were Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Sid James, Joan Sims and Kenneth Connor, and behind the camera, on almost all of the 30 Carry On movies, was the cinematographer Alan Hume, who has died aged 85.

Hume started as camera operator on the very first, Carry On Sergeant (1958), soon becoming director of photography (DP) on Carry On Regardless (1961), and continuing as DP until Carry On Columbus (1992) ended the franchise. Though few would make any artistic claims for the films, they were competently shot, rapidly, on a shoestring. Because of the rapport Hume built up over a long period with the producer Peter Rogers and the director Gerald Thomas – he worked with them for years without a contract – he knew exactly what was required.

In the foreword to Hume's autobiography, A Life Through the Lens: Memoirs of a Film Cameraman (2004), Rogers explained: "I have known Alan Hume almost as long as I know myself. I've known him as a giggling camera operator and as one of the film industry's foremost lighting cameramen. I say giggling operator because when we were working on the early Carry On films, he giggled so much … that he had to leave the stage to recover. I've also known him as a non-giggling operator as, for instance, when he was shooting a scene … hanging out of a doorless helicopter and holding a handheld camera."

The latter referred to Hume's second-unit filming of the spectacular pre-credit sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), in which James Bond (the stuntman Rick Sylvester standing in for Roger Moore), chased by baddies on skis, leaps off a cliff and opens up a Union Jack parachute. It was shot high on a mountain on Baffin Island, north Canada, after weeks of waiting for the weather to clear, so it had to be done in one take. "After so many weeks of preparing and anticipating this jump, I suddenly felt the blood rush from my face," Hume wrote. "This was it, and it was a far cry from my working diet of comedy and modest-budget dramas back in London."

Hume went on to be the daring cinematographer on three more Bonds, all starring Moore and directed by John Glen: For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985), each offering the well-tried formula of gals, guns, villains and glossy locations.

Hume, who was born in London, started in films as a clapper boy at Denham Studios, his first job being on Leslie Howard's The First of the Few (1942). A few films later, he was promoted to first assistant camera operator before being called up to serve in the Royal Navy during the second world war. "I was in the photographic unit. I learned more about photography in the navy than anywhere else."

Hume returned to Denham, then Pinewood, where he was assistant to the cinematographer Guy Green on David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). From 1953 to 1960, he was chief camera operator on dozens of British films, then DP mostly on the Carry Ons, with a couple of grisly horror films – Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and From Beyond the Grave (1973) – thrown in.

In 1983, Hume was given the job of DP on the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi, although he fell out with the producers when he protested about what he felt was their mistreatment of the director Richard Marquand and was replaced by his assistant Alec Mills. It was one of his very few Hollywood movies.

Among Hume's best work was Andrei Konchalovsky's Runaway Train (1985), shot in freezing conditions in Canada and Iceland, on a real train. Also to be commended was his camerawork for two veteran directors of British cinema, Lewis Gilbert (Shirley Valentine, 1989; Stepping Out, 1991), and Charles Crichton (A Fish Called Wanda, 1988).

Hume was elected to the British Society of Cinematographers in 1964, serving as president for three years.

He is survived by his wife, Sheila, and three children. His eldest son, Lindsey, a film editor, died in 1967. His other sons, Martin and Simon, and a grandson, Lewis, are camera operators, while his daughter Pauline is a titles designer.

[crabapple]

Here's to Alan Hume, one of the great, great cinematographers. His work always impressed me. RIP Alan Hume.

[_____V_____]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5140N5MTJPL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516B6z07ADL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Satoshi Kon, the Japanese director of animated films such as Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress and the Inception-influencing Paprika, has died at the young age of 47.

The director reportedly lost a battle with cancer.

This marks the untimely death of the filmmaker second only to Hayao Miyazaki in making inroads for anime films both internationally and as weighty works of cinema worthy of serious critical consideration.

News of the director’s passing originally came via a tweet from Takeda Yasuhiro, then confirmed by other sources, such as the UK Anime Network.

From the 1998 Hitchcockian tale of a menaced pop idol "Perfect Blue" to 2001's look into the life of a aging performer "Millennium Actress" to 2006's saga of shared dreams (out-"Inception"ing "Inception") "Paprika," Kon was fond of exploring and blurring the lines between reality, memory and dreams. These are themes animation is particularly suited to, and ones that can be seen early in his career, in the "Magnetic Rose" segment of omnibus film "Memories," for which he wrote the screenplay, and later in "Paranoia Agent," the series he created.

2003's "Tokyo Godfathers" was his lone linear narrative, though it too was a complicated story of three homeless people with loaded pasts who discover a baby in the trash on Christmas Eve. These are grown-up features all, ones that use the visual freedom of their medium to inventive, sometimes astonishing (particularly in "Paprika") effect.

Kon was working on his fifth feature, "The Dream Machine," which he described to an interviewer as a "like a 'road movie' for robots."

[_____V_____]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OQmEa5OKyOI/Sr16zALUyRI/AAAAAAAARf0/B5P7I1WDUXI/s400/AhnaCapri05.jpg

Sad to report that Ahna Capri was killed in a car accident over the weekend in LA. The Hungarian actress, born Anna Marie Nanasi, lost consciousness following a traffic accident in Los Angeles on 9 August in which a five-ton truck collided with her car.

The 64 year old spent 11 days in a coma in hospital before doctors turned off her life support machine on 20 August.

She began as a child actress in the 50s and morphed into a sexy 60s starlet who resembled a cross between Sandra Dee and Joey Heatherton. Using the name Anna Capri, she appeared in such films as Kisses for My President and The Girls on the Beach (co-star Gail Gerber remembers Anna as "such a lovely girl. I remember when first meeting her I couldn't believe how beautiful she was.")

She popped up all over TV in such series as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, The Invaders, Run for Your Life, and It Takes a Thief. In the 70s, a la Mariana Hill, she changed her name also to Ahna Capri (she remarked, "Too many people pronounce 'Anna' with a flat 'a' and it comes out as ugly 'Aaana.'") and began to show the world she had more talent than previously being given credit especially in the underrated Payday (1972) opposite Rip Torn as one bastard of a country-western singer.

She reached cult status with her appearance in Enter the Dragon (1973) with Bruce Lee and as The Specialist (1975) a sexy assassin for hire.

Ahna Capri retired from acting in 1979.

[zwoti]

Clive Donner

[cheebacheeba]

R.I.P to the founder of the Donner Kebab.

[TheWickerFan]

R.I.P. Kevin McCarthyhttp://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/images/KevinMcCarthyActor.jpg

[crabapple]

Yes. Hats off, to the great, Kevin McCarthy.

[neverending]

Oh man... a giant loss for horror/sci fi fans.

[Doc Faustus]

One of the greats. He will be missed.

[newb]

R.I.P. KM

93 and was still acting

[The_Return]

http://www.drenobor.com/celebrities/thumbs/tony.curtis.001.jpg

http://www.hollywoodpinup.com/hunks2/image/tc.jpg

R.I.P. to a true Hollywood legend.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni4631395/

[wufongtan.]

This is a shock. I thought he died years ago. Pity though. I liked his movies.

[bloody_ribcut]

Greg Giraldo

Cant wait till they do a joke about him on the next roast.

[bwind22]

Greg Giraldo

Cant wait till they do a joke about him on the next roast.

I know Tony Curtis was more well known, but wow! Greg Giraldo? That sucks! I always thought he was pretty funny.... MTV.com says he died in the hospital from complications of a prescription drug overdose. :(

[Zero]

tony curtis was a true star - sad that he has passed (but oh what a life he must have led)

[_____V_____]

R.I.P. to a true Hollywood legend.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni4631395/

Damn...

R.I.P.

[_____V_____]

As if last week wasn’t enough in terms of beloved cinematic icons passing away, the sad news broke last night that Norman Wisdom has died at the age of 95.

Wisdom, at least, had a truly good innings, though he suffered several strokes over the last few months before passing in the Abbotswood Nursing Home on the Isle of Man.

The actor’s early life was one of poverty and problems, with his abusive, drunken father abandoning him and his brother when Wisdom was nine and his parents divorced.

Military service proved to be his salvation, with a career in the Merchant Navy and then the army where a natural flair for entertaining others was honed to perfection. Rex Harrison spurred the next stage of his life, encouraging him to pursue performing professionally after watching him work at a Forces show.

Stage time with magician David Nixon would follow, where he developed his best-known comic persona as The Gump, and then a contract with film giants Rank, which put him in 19 movies in the 1950s and ‘60s, where he became a comedy icon for his slapstick work. When Charlie Chaplin labels you his favourite clown, you know you don’t need to listen to the critics.

He proved his naysayers wrong again in 1978 with a BAFTA-scooping dramatic performance as a terminally ill patient in TV play Going Gently. And in 2000 he became Sir Norman Wisdom for his services to the arts.

Trivia lovers will forever remember him as being a huge hit in Albania, where his films were among the only Western entertainment deemed politically acceptable. We have the feeling there will be flags at half-mast all over the country this morning.

The Gump is gone, and the world is less funny today.

[_____V_____]

Art Gilmore, whose disembodied voice, introducing television shows and narrating hundreds (if not thousands) of movie trailers, was a trademark of Hollywood’s self-salesmanship from the 1940s through the 1960s, died Sept. 25 in Irvine, Calif.

He was 98. He died of age-related causes, said his wife, Grace.

Mr. Gilmore actually did some acting on television, playing full-bodied parts in shows like “Dragnet,” “Emergency!” and “Adam 12.” But for most moviegoers and television watchers of a certain age, Mr. Gilmore was a star without a name or a face; he was even cast as a never-seen radio announcer in several episodes of “The Waltons.”

His voice — crisp and articulate, just a tad piercing, cagily pitched to the subject matter and inflected with a precisely calibrated measure of enthusiasm — was as recognizable as a theme song.

As the narrator of countless movie trailers (his wife estimated he did 3,000), Mr. Gilmore was an especially effective pitchman, delivering the language of hype with masterful conviction. Comedies, thrillers, romances, musicals, animation, documentaries — it didn’t matter.

Among the films Mr. Gilmore promoted as coming attractions were “Dumbo,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Roman Holiday,” “Shane,” “Born Yesterday,” “Rear Window,” “South Pacific,” “War and Peace,” “Ocean’s 11,” “White Christmas” and “Bye Bye Birdie.”

“The screen jumps for joy with Glendon Swarthout’s inside story of those uproarious Easter vacations,” Mr. Gilmore pronounced in the trailer for “Where the Boys Are,” a 1960 comedy about college girls on the make.

“Never before has any film contained such a full measure of the joy of living,” he asserted in the trailer for Frank Capra’s life-affirming small-town tale from 1946, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

For the 1953 science-fiction thriller “The War of the Worlds” he declared: “This could be the beginning of the end for the human race!”

And in a virtuosic bit of melodramatic recitation, he described Alfred Hitchcock’s loopy and masterful psychodrama “Vertigo” (1958) as “the story of a love so powerful it broke through all the barriers between past and present, between life and death, between the golden girl in the dark tower and the tawdry redhead that he tried to remake in her image.”

Among many other television appearances, Mr. Gilmore was the announcer on “The Red Skelton Show” — “Live! From Television City in Hollywood!” — from 1954 to 1971. He was an announcer of the mid-1950s dramatic anthology series “Climax”; he narrated all 39 episodes of the late 1950s western series “Mackenzie’s Raiders.” And from 1955 to 1959, he narrated the crime series “Highway Patrol,” which starred Broderick Crawford.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Marilyn Gilmore, of Irvine, and Barbara McCoy, of Rockford, Ill., two grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

[_____V_____]

http://www.monsters-movies.com/pictures/baker_roy_ward.jpg

The director who made A Night to Remember, the 1958 film recounting the final night aboard the Titanic, has died, his son confirmed today.

Roy Ward Baker died peacefully in his sleep at a London hospital on Tuesday. He was 93.

His son Nicholas said that preparations were being made for a funeral in London, adding that his father's work "speaks for itself".

Ward Baker, who was born in London in 1916, started out as an assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in London in 1938. After serving in the army during the second world war, he went to Hollywood, where he directed Marilyn Monroe in the 1962 movie Don't Bother to Knock.

He later returned to England where he directed a number of television dramas including The Avengers, The Persuaders and Minder.

During the latter half of his career, Ward Baker directed a number of British horror films including, among others, Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Scars of Dracula (1970), Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) for Hammer, and Asylum (1972), And Now The Screaming Starts! (1973), The Vault of Horror (1973) and The Monster Club (1980) for Amicus. He also directed Bette Davis in the black comedy The Anniversary (1968).

He returned to television during the late 1970s and 1980s before retiring in 1992.

[neverending]

A great groundbreaking director. A great loss.

[roshiq]

Ward Baker, who was born in London in 1916, started out as an assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in London in 1938. After serving in the army during the second world war, he went to Hollywood, where he directed Marilyn Monroe in the 1962 movie Don't Bother to Knock.

During the latter half of his career, Ward Baker directed a number of British horror films including, among others, Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Scars of Dracula (1970), Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) for Hammer, and Asylum (1972), And Now The Screaming Starts! (1973), The Vault of Horror (1973) and The Monster Club (1980) for Amicus. He also directed Bette Davis in the black comedy The Anniversary (1968).


Wow! A great loss indeed.

[_____V_____]

Bob Guccione, who brought full frontal nudity to men's magazines and built a publishing empire on the success of his flagship magazine, Penthouse, died of cancer yesterday at 79, his family said.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/92924871.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921CC759DF4EBAC47D07A676CE56ED8FC8E 2476801F84FCCFAB3707C434FD53F46CE30A760B0D811297

His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, and two of his children were at his side at a hospital in Plano, Texas.

The success of Penthouse's mix of racy photos, investigative reporting, sci-fi and sexual-advice columns allowed Guccione to launch other magazines, most notably the glossy science publication Omni.

He once owned one of the largest mansions in Manhattan -- on East 67th Street -- but eventually lost his empire due to a series of business failures and the Web onslaught of free porn.

He garnered world headlines and sent Penthouse sales rocketing with publication of nude photos of Vanessa Williams -- taken before she was named Miss America -- in 1984 and of pop queen Madonna in 1985.

[newb]

Bob Guccione, who brought full frontal nudity to men's magazines and built a publishing empire on the success of his flagship magazine, Penthouse, died of cancer yesterday at 79, his family said.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/92924871.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921CC759DF4EBAC47D07A676CE56ED8FC8E 2476801F84FCCFAB3707C434FD53F46CE30A760B0D811297

His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, and two of his children were at his side at a hospital in Plano, Texas.

The success of Penthouse's mix of racy photos, investigative reporting, sci-fi and sexual-advice columns allowed Guccione to launch other magazines, most notably the glossy science publication Omni.

He once owned one of the largest mansions in Manhattan -- on East 67th Street -- but eventually lost his empire due to a series of business failures and the Web onslaught of free porn.

He garnered world headlines and sent Penthouse sales rocketing with publication of nude photos of Vanessa Williams -- taken before she was named Miss America -- in 1984 and of pop queen Madonna in 1985.

Tits a sad day indeed...I don't wanna beat around the bush so I'll just say R.I.P. to a great pioneer. You brought much happiness to a young newb, back in the day.

A great loss for the world.......Kleenix sales shall plummet.

[_____V_____]

James MacArthur, best known to American television audiences as "Danno" in the classic TV series "Hawaii Five-O," died of natural causes today in Florida.

He was 72 years old.

As youthful Detective Danny "Danno" Williams, MacArthur became as recognizable as Jack Lord, who played the team's leader Steve McGarrett. However, it was Lord who uttered what would become the series' signature catchphrase: "Book 'em, Danno."

The original "Hawaii Five-O" aired from 1968 until 1980; CBS recently premiered a modern reboot of the crime drama with Scott Caan playing Danny Williams. MacArthur, the last living member from the original series main cast, had agreed to appear in an upcoming episode, according to a statement on his personal website.

Born James Gordon MacArthur on December 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, MacArthur is the adopted son of playwright Charles MacArthur and his wife Helen Hayes, who was considered to be the First Lady of the American stage. He grew up in Nyack, New York, with his parents' biological daughter Mary, and was educated at Allen Stevenson School in New York, and later at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania. MacArthur would later attend Harvard but, after working in several Walt Disney films over his summer breaks, left to pursue an acting career full-time.

MacArthur also won acclaim onstage, making his Broadway debut in 1960 playing opposite Jane Fonda in "Invitation to a March." But his clean-cut looks and athletic build won him roles in the late 1950s and 60s in several Disney films, including The Light in the Forest, Third Man on the Mountain, and the classics Kidnapped and Swiss Family Robinson. He also played a pivotal role in the 1965 film classic Battle of the Bulge. During that period MacArthur also guest starred on a number of television series including "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "Wagon Train," "The Untouchables" and "12 O'Clock High." He even co-starred with Hayes in a 1968 episode of "Tarzan."

Reportedly it was his appearance in the legendary Clint Eastwood Western Hang 'Em High that would eventually lead to MacArthur winning the role on "Hawaii Five-O."

After "Hawaii Five-O" came to an end, MacArthur returned to the stage, making guest appearances on series such as "Fantasy Island," "The Love Boat," "Vega$,"and "Murder, She Wrote." He also reprised the role of Dan Williams in a 1997 attempt to resurrect "Hawaii Five-O" but the pilot, in which Williams had been made Hawaii's Governor, was never picked up. His final small-screen appearance was in the 1998 TV movie "Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister."

According to a family statement reported by People.com, MacArthur spent his time off-camera enjoying sports and played flamenco guitar. He was formerly married to actress Joyce Bulifant from 1958 to 1967, and to actress Melody Patterson from 1970 to 1975. Both unions ended in divorce.

MacArthur is survived by his wife, Helen Beth Duntz, four children and seven grandchildren.

[newb]

Actress
Jill Clayburgh died on Friday, after a 21 year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She was 66 and passed away at her home in Connecticut.

Clayburgh has been a very creative artist who tried her hand at Hollywood, TV and was also a Broadway actress. She was twice nominated for the Oscar awards – once in the year 1978 for her role as Erica in the movie ‘An Unmarried Woman’ and for which she also won best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her other Oscar nomination was in 1979, for another movie that she starred in opposite Burt Reynolds.

Clayburgh was also nominated for Emmy’s for the movies ‘Hustling’, in which she portrayed the character of a prostitute. It was a TV movie released in 1975 as well as Nip/Tuck, a 2005 film
.

As far as her TV projects are concerned, she was seen in “Dirty Sexy Money” and the “Ally McBeal” series. Her last film “Bridesmaids” is yet to be released.

She is survived by her husband David Rabe and children Michael Rabe and Lily Rabe.

[Zero]

Sad day for cheezy film fans - Serpico, King Kong (1976), Army of Darkness, The Dead Zone, Orca, . .. more than 160 films in a career spanning 70 years.

Amazing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101111/en_nm/us_delaurentiis

[cheebacheeba]

Christopher Walken died one time too
R.I.P Dino

[crabapple]

A great producer. RIP Dino De Laurentiis

[newb]

R.I.P. Dino

[_____V_____]

Terrible, terrible news. A big loss.

Army of Darkness, Dune, the Conan films, the Hannibal films, Serpico, Dead Zone, Flash Gordon, Barbarella, Death Wish, King Kong, Silver Bullet, Battle of the Bulge, Amityville II...

A really sad day for fans worldwide.

RIP Dino De Laurentiis.

[The_Return]

A legend indeed...RIP.

[roshiq]

RIP Dino De Laurentiis. A great loss for world cinema indeed.

[Scarebaby]

Vila i frid. :(

[novakru]

very sad:(

[AMICUS HORROR]

Last of the greats, I often looked forward to his name fading up on the screen, just pure class.:cool:

[zwoti]

http://www.bramstokerfilmfestival.com/pics/guests/ingrid-pitt.jpg

[_____V_____]

Ugh! Just saw the confirmation and I am struck speechless...


'Queen of horror' Pitt dies aged 73

(UKPA) – 32 minutes ago

Actress Ingrid Pitt, dubbed Hammer Films' Queen of Horror, has died aged 73, her daughter said.

The Polish-born star collapsed in London last week while on her way to an event hosted by members of her fan club.The Polish-born star passed away at a hospital in south London after collapsing a few days ago.

She was regarded by many fans as the queen of Hammer Horror films.

The star's death comes weeks after film-maker Roy Ward Baker, who directed Pitt in The Vampire Lovers, died at the age of 93.

Pitt's daughter Stephanie Blake told the BBC News website that her mother's death had come as a "huge surprise".

After the actress collapsed recently, doctors had told her was she suffering from heart failure.

"She could be incredibly generous, loving, and she'll be sorely missed," Mrs Blake said.

She added that she wanted her mother to be remembered as the Countess Dracula with the "wonderful teeth and the wonderful bosom".

Official Hammer historian Marcus Hearn paid tribute to the star, calling her a "talented actress and fine writer".

He added: "She was partly responsible for ushering in a bold and brazen era of sexually explicitly horror films in the 1970s, but that should not denigrate her abilities as an actress."

A good friend of the actress, Mr Hearn said she was "gloriously uninhibited" and "great fun to be with".

Although she was not the first female star of a Hammer film, Mr Hearn said she had always been "very proud" of becoming the first prominent female protagonist in a Hammer after her role in The Vampire Lovers.

"All fans of Hammer and of British horror are going to miss her terribly," he said.

She began her career with fairly minor roles in several Spanish films in the mid-1960s.

But in 1968 she landed a supporting role in war movie Where Eagles Dare, appearing alongside Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton.

The actress got her breakthrough role two years later in the horror thriller The Vampire Lovers, which was a box office success.

Several Hammer movies followed, firmly establishing her as one of the key women of British horror of the 1970s.

Her other film credits included The Wicker Man (1973), Who Dares Wins (1982), Smiley's People (1982) and Wild Geese II (1985).

Pitt made regular appearances at horror conventions and penned several books about her career in the genre.



A really, really sad day for the genre. The flag of HDC will fly at half-mast till the end of the month, in honor.

R.I.P. Ingrid. You take with you several broken hearts, and plenty of memories...

http://img.listal.com/image/876834/600full-ingrid-pitt.jpg

[newb]

http://www.bramstokerfilmfestival.com/pics/guests/ingrid-pitt.jpg

OH FUCK


Condolences to Drac

R.I.P.

[Macchiarulo]

The legendary Queen of Horror, Ingrid Pitt, passed away today at the age of 73

[ManchestrMorgue]

One of the greats.

[Elvis_Christ]

Terrible news. RIP.

[phantomstranger]

R.I.P. Ingrid Pitt
Source: Press Association
November 23, 2010


Hammer and British horror films staple Ingrid Pitt has passed away at the age of 73 due to heart problems. Here's the lowdown from the Press Association. She will be missed...

The Polish-born star collapsed in London last week while on her way to an event hosted by members of her fan club.

Her daughter Steffanie Pitt said she was "a fantastic woman".

Pitt was best known as a seductive screen siren in a string of British horror films including The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula.

She also had a minor part in the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man.

Steffanie Pitt said: "She passed away this morning. It was heart trouble.

"She had a couple of bad years, health-wise, but she had fought through.

"Anyone who knew my mother would say she was incredibly feisty and determined to make a good fist of everything she wanted to do."

Robin Hardy, the director of The Wicker Man, said he had "very good memories" of Pitt.

He said: "She was a very attractive person in every sense. She was a perfectly good actress but a very decent person as well, not that those two things don't often go together."

[neverending]

A terrible loss. One of the greatest scream queens ever.

[crabapple]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear this. One of the very best. RIP Ingrid Pitt

[roshiq]

A terrible loss indeed. R.I.P Ingrid Pitt.

[AMICUS HORROR]

I'm a very big fan of this fine lady, I'm going to miss her lots
Roy Ward Baker also died a few weeks ago, he was 93, what sad news for horror fans.
http://www.horror.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=46&pictureid=528

[Elvis_Christ]

Throbbing Gristle and Coil’s Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson dies aged 55

R.I.P. Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, who passed away in his sleep last night.

The multi-talented 55-year-old artist was best known for his roles in Throbbing Gristle and Coil. There has been no official statement about his death as yet; we were first alerted when Christopherson’s TG bandmate Chris Carter tweeted the following just before 8.30am (GMT) today: “received some very very sad news…”.

40 minutes later he added, “Our dearest beautiful Sleazy left this mortal coil as he slept in peace last night.words cannot express our grief.”

Cosey Fanni Tutti repeated the message via her own Twitter feed shortly after.

Christopherson, born February 27, 1955, was an acclaimed graphic designer, photographer, video artist and filmmaker as well as musician, and spent a significant portion of his career working for the influential Hipgnosis design company. He was a founding member of Throbbing Gristle, and was performing as part of the reformed group as recently as October of this year.

After TG first disbanded back in 1981, Christopherson formed Psychic TV with Genesis P.Orridge and others, but it was with Coil – at its core a duo comprising Christopherson and his partner Geoff Rushton AKA Jhon Balance – that Christopherson produced his most wide-ranging, distinctive and arguably most affecting work. After over 22 years together, Balance died following a drink-induced fall at the couple’s Weston-Super-Mare home. Christopherson decided that he would not continue Coil as a solo project, and relocated to Thailand, where he had been living ever since. His principal recording and performance project at the time of his death was the Threshold HouseBoys Choir.

[DraculaInDallas]

OH FUCK


Condolences to Drac

R.I.P.

Thanks newb....terrible news indeed. She was the hottest Hammer Glamour Queen of all time...I was hoping to get to meet her some day....but it wasn't to be. She will live forever on my big screen tv, I have all her movies. A beautiful woman who survived Nazi concentration camps to become the greatest scream queen of all time.....RIP my Angel...heaven is a lot more beautiful with her there.... :(

[cheebacheeba]

No joke this time guys...

Leslie Nielsen
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/8172115/leslie-nielsen-dies-from-pneumonia
R.I.P
Thanks for the laughs.
He got 84 years, that's an alright run.
:( Dammit.

[newb]

double fuck

Leslie Nielsen, the actor best known for starring in such comedies as Airplane! and the Naked Gun film franchise, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

“We are sadden by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television," said a statement from Nielsen's family released through his rep.

After Airplane! became a hit, the film's directors -- Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker -- wanted to take the film's slapstyle style of comedy to TV. They asked Nielsen to play the lead role in their new series "Police Squad!"

Not very "Happy Days"

Tom Bosley, the good-natured patriarch on ABC's Happy Days for more than a decade who served as an American father figure for millions of television viewers, died early Tuesday at a hospital near his Palm Springs home. He was 83.

The family said that Bosley died of heart failure. His agent, Sheryl Abrams, said Bosley also was battling lung cancer.

Bosley played Howard Cunningham -- or "Mr. C.," as the kids on the show called him -- on more than 250 episodes of Garry Marshall's "Happy Days," which ran on Tuesday nights from 1974-84. An idealized vision of American life set in 1950-60s Milwaukee, the comedy was No. 1 in the ratings in 1976-77.

TV Guide ranked Bosley's character No. 9 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in 2004.

Bosley followed Happy Days with a recurring role as Sheriff Amos Tupper in Murder, She Wrote for four seasons, then played the title character on The Father Dowling Mysteries from 1989-91.

Other TV credits include regular roles in the early 1970s on The Debbie Reynolds Show and The Sandy Duncan Show. In Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, a 1972-74 animated series, he provided the voice of a conservative dad.

Bosley also performed in such movie fare as Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968) and Mixed Company (1974).

He had a role in the Jennifer Lopez film The Back-up Plan, released this year.

http://images.ctvdigital.com/images/pub2upload/7/2008_9_19/nakedgun.jpghttp://www.bergproperties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/tom-bosley-i.jpg

[Elvis_Christ]

Damn :(

RIP

[TheWickerFan]

Ingrid Pitt, Leslie Nielsen, and Tom Bosley in the space of a week. Truly awful.

[wufongtan.]

double fuck

Leslie Nielsen, the actor best known for starring in such comedies as Airplane! and the Naked Gun film franchise, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

“We are sadden by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television," said a statement from Nielsen's family released through his rep.

After Airplane! became a hit, the film's directors -- Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker -- wanted to take the film's slapstyle style of comedy to TV. They asked Nielsen to play the lead role in their new series "Police Squad!"

Not very "Happy Days"

Tom Bosley, the good-natured patriarch on ABC's Happy Days for more than a decade who served as an American father figure for millions of television viewers, died early Tuesday at a hospital near his Palm Springs home. He was 83.

The family said that Bosley died of heart failure. His agent, Sheryl Abrams, said Bosley also was battling lung cancer.

Bosley played Howard Cunningham -- or "Mr. C.," as the kids on the show called him -- on more than 250 episodes of Garry Marshall's "Happy Days," which ran on Tuesday nights from 1974-84. An idealized vision of American life set in 1950-60s Milwaukee, the comedy was No. 1 in the ratings in 1976-77.

TV Guide ranked Bosley's character No. 9 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in 2004.

Bosley followed Happy Days with a recurring role as Sheriff Amos Tupper in Murder, She Wrote for four seasons, then played the title character on The Father Dowling Mysteries from 1989-91.

Other TV credits include regular roles in the early 1970s on The Debbie Reynolds Show and The Sandy Duncan Show. In Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, a 1972-74 animated series, he provided the voice of a conservative dad.

Bosley also performed in such movie fare as Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968) and Mixed Company (1974).

He had a role in the Jennifer Lopez film The Back-up Plan, released this year.

http://images.ctvdigital.com/images/pub2upload/7/2008_9_19/nakedgun.jpghttp://www.bergproperties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/tom-bosley-i.jpg

I lost count at how many times i have busted a gut laughing at Nielsen.
And Tom Bosley, reminded me of that cartoon dog droopy. But in a good way.

[nightmare_of _death]

RIP Leslie Neilsen,Tom Bosley,Ingrid Pitt

and now I just heard Irvin Kershner director of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back died :( RIP

http://www.towerofyouth.org/filmgrp/1ff/irvkershner.jpg

[_____V_____]

R.I.P to one of the modern innovators of physical comedy.

Yes it's true. The legends are dropping like flies. :(



Irvin Kershner, the Hollywood journeyman who directed the darkest – and arguably best – Star Wars adventure of them all has died after a long illness.

He was 87.

Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Kershner made his feature debut with the 1958 teen thriller Stakeout on Dope Street. He worked steadily throughout the 1960s and 70s until George Lucas, impressed by his work on the Faye Dunaway thriller Eyes of Laura Mars, hired him to direct 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. While the director was seen by some as an unlikely choice to oversee the second instalment of the Star Wars franchise, Kershner's sombre, character-driven approach paid handsome dividends. "I like to fill up the frame with the characters' faces," he once explained. "There's nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face."

Following the success of The Empire Strikes Back, Kershner went on to direct Sean Connery in 1983's unofficial James Bond outing Never Say Never Again. His other credits include A Fine Madness, Raid on Entebbe, The Return of a Man Called Horse and Robocop 2. An occasional actor, he also played the role of Zebedee, father of James and John, in Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.

R.I.P. to the man who made (arguably) one of the biggest and best sci-fi films ever made in history...

It's been a real sad week so far...

[horrorzack]

r.i.p leslie neilsen a legend now dead why do you do this to us my lord! and naked gun 4 was announced a year ago. Now what.

[Elvis_Christ]

Damn Irvin Kershner too :(

RIP

[The_Return]

Wow...shit couple of days.

RIP

[newb]

30 years ago today

http://www.greatmodernpictures.com/lennonnyclg.jpg

most of you weren't even born yet.

[cheebacheeba]

I was about a month and a half away from being born...a few of his songs
(Imagine and Starting over) were still huge on the charts on the day I was born.

[TheWickerFan]

I was 11 years old at the time, but I remember hearing the news clearly. Such an awful tragedy.

[Elvis_Christ]

Also 30 years ago today...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2RJ-_w3ieJw/Sx6cSN2phGI/AAAAAAAABxc/Gusz2q9jPbg/s640/DarbyCrash.png

[Sistinas666]

R.I.P. Darby.

[_____V_____]

FANGORIA reports the passing of beloved French erotic-horror filmmaker Jean Rollin.

The director died last night, after a long illness. He was 72.

Fans of European genre films, especially those coming out of the free-thinking 1970s, are no doubt aware of the work of Rollin—a talented, gentle poet of sensual horror, a man who made personal, lush and haunting works that were often ghettoized alongside the efforts of some of his more crass contemporaries and yet almost always offered something more, something richer and more melancholy.

With films like THE NUDE VAMPIRE, REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE, LIPS OF BLOOD, FASCINATION, THE LIVING DEAD GIRL and THE GRAPES OF DEATH, Rollin left behind a body of work as infatuated with spurting blood as it was enamored of the curves of the female form, often depicting both within the same frame. Like his colleague Jess Franco (with whom he unofficially “collaborated on VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD and ZOMBIE LAKE), Rollin employed a variety of pseudonyms, depending on the quality of his work and the genres they fell under. Some of those nom de plume pictures included several works of hardcore pornography, a strain of cinema the director was never fully comfortable making.

Loved by legions, misunderstood by many and sadly ignored by the rest, Rollin's work is widely available on DVD and is ready to be rediscovered. Within the confines of his catalogue you will find beauty, surrealism, sex, sadness and very real human truths hiding within a fantastical world. There really was no one quite like him.

Deepest sympathies and respect to his friends and family.

To learn more about Jean Rollin’s legacy, visit the official site -

http://www.shockingimages.com/rollin

[zwoti]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PoPbFdmdeYE/TOyfmWyuigI/AAAAAAAACek/Bkjkqxu9rMQ/s1600/pink_panther.126165919_std.jpg

[_____V_____]

Yet another legend of a genre falls...


Blake Edwards 1922–2010


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Edwards, the veteran writer and director behind the Pink Panther movies, has sadly died at the age of 88.

Edwards died from complications of pneumonia at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said publicist Gene Schwam. Blake's wife, Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side. He had been hospitalized for about two weeks.

In a career that stretched back to the mid-50s, Edwards was oversaw the creation of more than 30 films, including the seafaring comedy Operation Petticoat, starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, and the classic Breakfast At Tiffany’s, which starred Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard.

He then went on to write and direct the enormously successful The Pink Panther in 1963, the comedy starring David Niven as the suave thief attempting to steal the gigantic diamond of the title, and Peter Sellers as the bumbling French inspector Jacques Clouseau.

The success of The Pink Panther saw Edwards return to direct seven sequels, including A Shot In The Dark (1964), The Return Of The Pink Panther (1975) and Son Of The Pink Panther (1993).

Outside the Pink Panther films, Edwards found success with the 1979 comedy, 10, starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek, and Blind Date, a pre-Die Hard hit for Bruce Willis.

Despite his inarguable brilliance behind the camera, Edwards never won an Oscar himself, though he was presented with an Honorary Award in 2004.

Both versatile and prolific, Blake Edwards will be remembered as one of Hollywood’s great comedy directors, and will be greatly missed.

R.I.P.

[newb]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PoPbFdmdeYE/TOyfmWyuigI/AAAAAAAACek/Bkjkqxu9rMQ/s1600/pink_panther.126165919_std.jpg

damn.......didn't realize he was that old.

R.I.P.


Does your dog bite?

[neverending]

Blake Edwards caused me to pay to see the same movie in a theatre six times in seven days. Amazing talent. R.I.P.

[newb]

Blake Edwards caused me to pay to see the same movie in a theatre six times in seven days. Amazing talent. R.I.P.

Which one ?

[neverending]

Murder By Death

[AMICUS HORROR]

Murder By Death

I just love that movie, poking fun at all the famous detectives, what a laugh.:o

[TheWickerFan]

RIP Blake Edwards.

I'll never forget his entrance onstage to accept an honorary Oscar:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29WRP92X7Mg

[roshiq]

RIP Blake Edwards & Jean Rollin.

Strange...few days ago just for curiosity I was just browsing & reading about some Jean Rollin films to check out as I haven't seen any of his film yet. And then downloaded Requiem for a Vampire and planned to give it a watch this weekend.

[newb]

You used me like an ashtray heart
Case of the punks
Right from the start
I feel like a glass shrimp in a pink panty
With a saccharine chaperone
Make invalids out of supermen
Call in a "shrink"
And pick you up in a girdle
You used me like an ashtray heart
Right from the start

R.I.P. Captain Beefheart :(

[neverending]

Oh fuck.... RIP Don Van Vliet... an inspiration to lovers of experimental music.

[crabapple]

"Dirty Blue Jean" was a favorite of mine in high school... Captain Beefheart is most definitely missed. RIP

[neverending]

Here's a link to TCM's annual tribute to those who've passed on in the previous year...

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?cid=360189