Holy smokes, this sucks.
RIP Andy.

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.

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..._tatum_300.jpgAP 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, 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.

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

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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.

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.

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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.”

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

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

'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.

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

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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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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."

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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.

Clive Donner

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

R.I.P. Kevin McCarthyhttp://www.florida-backroads-travel....arthyActor.jpg

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

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

One of the greats. He will be missed.

R.I.P. KM

93 and was still acting

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

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

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. :(

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

Damn...

R.I.P.

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.

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.

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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.

A great groundbreaking director. A great loss.

Wow! A great loss indeed.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

the KING is dead - De Laurentiis dies
 

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/...s_delaurentiis

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