Deaths: January 6
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- Cinematographer
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Ace cinematographer Owen Roizman was born September 22, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York. His father Sol was a cinematographer for Fox Movietone News and his uncle Morrie Roizman was a film editor. Owen studied math and physics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He began his career shooting TV commercials, and made his feature debut as a director of photography with the obscure and little seen 1970 movie Stop! (1970). Owen brought a strong and compelling sense of raw, gritty, documentary-style realism to William Friedkin's harsh and hard-hitting police action thriller classic The French Connection (1971). Roizman received a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for his outstanding visual contributions to this picture; he went on to garner four additional Oscar nominations, for The Exorcist (1973), Tootsie (1982), Network (1976) and Wyatt Earp (1994). Owen gave a similar rough and grainy look to the edgy urban thrillers The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and Straight Time (1978). His other films encompass an impressively diverse array of different genres which include horror ("The Exorcist"), science fiction (The Stepford Wives (1975)), comedy (The Heartbreak Kid (1972) "Tootsie"), musicals (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)), drama (True Confessions (1981), Absence of Malice (1981)) and even Westerns (The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976), "Wyatt Earp"). His last feature to date was French Kiss (1995). In the early 1980s Owen took a hiatus from shooting films and formed the commercial production company Roizman and Associates. He has directed and/or photographed hundreds of TV commercials. In 1997 he was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers.- Supporting actor Alex Colon launched his film career in the early 1970s appearing in dramas ranging from religious tract The Cross and the Switchblade (1970), to the gentle comedy Harry and Tonto (1974), to the fact-based made-for-TV action movie Raid on Entebbe (1976). Colon made his final film appearance in The Getaway (1994). Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Colon moved to New York to become a stage actor in 1970. He made his Broadway debut playing a mouthy delivery boy in Neil Simon's drama The Gingerbread Lady in 1970. In addition to acting, Colon directed the occasional theatrical production in New York, Southern California and Puerto Rico.
- Annalise Braakensiek was born on 9 December 1972 in Sydney, Australia. She was an actress, known for Fat Pizza (2003), Pizza (2000) and Mr. Accident (2000). She was married to Danny Goldberg. She died on 6 January 2019 in Potts Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Annette McCarthy was born on 12 April 1958. She was an actress, known for Twin Peaks (1990), Baywatch (1989) and The Fall Guy (1981). She was married to Mark A. Mangini. She died on 6 January 2023 in the USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Rugged Sicilian-born actor who came to international notice after playing Ferrari racing ace Nino Barlini in John Frankenheimer's high octane blockbuster Grand Prix (1966). His charismatic performance saw Sabato nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer. During the 1970s, he starred in a slew of low-budget Italian language productions, predominantly spaghetti westerns and crime thrillers, essaying villains (Crime Boss (1972)), heroes (Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)) and anti-heroes (Thunder Over El Paso (1972)) with equal verve. By the mid-80s, Sabato and his family had relocated to California where he devoted more time to painting and family life while continuing to star in international co-productions, typically action films like the futuristic Escape from the Bronx (1983), The Wild Team (1985) and High Voltage (1998). His last work on screen consisted of several appearances in the soap The Bold and the Beautiful (1987) , which also featured his son Antonio Sabato Jr...- Antonio Valdés was born on 4 January 1930 in Mexico City, Mexico. He was an actor, known for El aviso inoportuno (1969), Maldita ciudad (un drama cómico) (1954) and Bikinis y rock (1972). He died on 6 January 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Apple Brook was born on 20 January 1931 in Leeds, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Andor (2022) and Half a Sixpence (1967). She died on 6 January 2023.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Beach stud movie and TV actor Aron Kincaid started life out as Norman Neale Williams III on June 15, 1940, in Hollywood, California. While still a toddler, his father, serving as a Second Lieutenant with the Army Air Force, died at age 27 after his plane was shot down by the Nazis during the last year of World War II. Aron was sent to Big Bear Lake, high in the San Bernardino Mountains, to live with his paternal grandparents. His early interest in drawing and painting saw the young lad going from cabin to cabin selling his artwork for 10 cents apiece. At age 12, he won his first important art award, taking first place in a national contest sponsored by Eutectic Welding Alloy. Following two years at Ridgewood Military Academy, his mother remarried, and the three resided in Oakland, California. While still in high school, Aron enrolled at the famous California College of Art but quit after two sessions when his professor grabbed Aron's brush and began to make "corrections and additions" to his art work. That was the end of any formal art training.
Aron grew into a tall, riveting-looking hairy-chested teen with blond hair and a deep tan, qualities he perceived could possibly be his fortune. He soon started to lean towards acting. As a senior at Oakland High School, the ambitious highschooler wrote, produced, directed and starred in his first amateur film. The hour-long 8mm color/sound production entitled The Fall of Nineveh (1957), in which he also designed the sets and costumes, included a cast of around 400. Upon graduation, he returned to Southern California and enrolled at UCLA where he made several small student films. While a sophomore, he was introduced to Roger Corman who handed him his very first (unbilled) professional acting job as a beekeeper in the cult horror flick The Wasp Woman (1959). His second unbilled film appearance came as Laurence Olivier's standard bearer in the epic-scale classic Spartacus (1960). While accompanying an actress friend to an Equity stage audition for support, he wound up auditioning himself and won the role of the young suitor in "The Loud, Red Patrick". After a casting agent witnessed his performance, he ended up with a Universal contract. Producer Leonard Freeman caught sight of the handsome UCLA college student and, following a screen test, was signed for a regular role on the last season of the popular TV series Bachelor Father (1957) as John Forsythe's law partner and subsequent fiancé to young Noreen Corcoran, who played Forsythe's niece on the show. This, in turn, led to work on a number of Universal series including Channing (1963), Alcoa Premiere (1961), and Boris Karloff's Thriller (1960).
Following graduation from UCLA in 1962, Aron enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves. He eventually returned to Hollywood and resumed where he left off. By that time, the beach party flicks were all the rage and Aron fell easily in with the anything-for-fun crowd. With the help of actor Bart Patton, he won a starring role in Paramount's The Girls on the Beach (1965), which reunited him with TV girlfriend Noreen Corcoran and featured The Beach Boys and The Crickets (post-Buddy Holly) as musical guests. This, in turn, led to Paramount's Beach Ball (1965), which top-lined Edd Byrnes and Chris Noel and provided The Supremes and The Righteous Brothers with singing showcases; Ski Party (1965) starring Beach Party "king", himself, Frankie Avalon and featured vocalists Lesley Gore and James Brown; and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), the seventh and last installment of the by-now waning "Beach Party" series. Of all his "party" pictures at American International Pictures (AIP), his all-time favorite role was Ski Party (1965) and playing the obnoxious athlete-lover "Freddy Carter". Contractual problems with AIP led to an unfortunate lawsuit (his first and only) in which he sued and won a large settlement. Obligated to star in two more films of the studio's choosing as part of his settlement, he was handed a role in the dreadful sci-fi horror Creature of Destruction (1968), an inferior remake of The She-Creature (1956). The second film was never made.
Now freelancing on his own, he made a quick return to film. He played an amusingly arrogant Freddy-like character in Disney's The Happiest Millionaire (1967); received second billing to 'Chuck Connors (I) in the adventure The Proud and Damned (1972) (made in 1968); and co-starred in the underwater saga Black Water Gold (1970), which was filmed almost entirely in Nassau, Grand Bahamas, with a company that included Keir Dullea, Bradford Dillman, Ricardo Montalban, France Nuyen and Lana Wood. On Catalina Island, he went on to shoot Joseph Conrad's famous short story The Secret Sharer (1967) with David Soul of Starsky and Hutch (1975). Aron gained added exposure in a number of the popular TV shows of the day, including The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Get Smart (1965), The F.B.I. (1965), Family Affair (1966), Lassie (1954) and Love, American Style (1969). On stage, he worked in a couple of local Equity productions and appeared with Virginia Mayo in a production of "Cactus Flower". In the meantime, his face became familiar in scores of TV commercials. Disappointed in the long run by a decade of work that seemed to amount to very little and the steady decline of quality filming altogether, Aron decided to remove himself from the Hollywood rat race, lease his home and move to San Francisco in 1972 to refocus on painting. After a brief bartending job, he was spotted by a top West Coast female modeling agency, Sabina Models, and became their only male client, appearing in hosts of billboards, newspaper ads and magazines. Within two years time, he was working with the famed Nina Blanchard Agency, the best modeling firm in Southern California, and found significant representation in several large cities. His modeling peak, however, came with his signing with Wilhelmina and her New York agency, landing his first interview with them on the New Year's cover of New York magazine. For the next 20 years, Aron worked as one of the top photography and runway models. An on-camera spokesman, he pitched everything from after-shave lotion to Cadillac automobiles. Movie and TV acting assignments began to come his way again with parts in Gable and Lombard (1976), Cannonball! (1976), Planet Earth (1974) and Brave New World (1980). In the early 1980, he extended his talents into animation and lent his voice to such projects as The Smurfs (1981), The New Adventures of Jonny Quest (1986), Batman Returns (1992) The Animated Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) and Walt Disney's DuckTales (1987).
In 1995, on his 55th birthday, Aron completely dropped out of the limelight, opting for early retirement and recommitting himself to art. He resides, as he has for quite some time, at his 1917 Benedict Canyon hunting lodge where he specializes in old Hollywood portraits and caricatures and in landscapes and seascapes of California and Italy.- Ashli Babbitt was born on 10 October 1985 in San Diego, California, USA. She was married to Aaron Raymond Babbitt and Timothy Vaughn McEntee. She died on 6 January 2021 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Bobby Few was born on 21 October 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Mood Indigo (2013), Le dernier des immobiles (2003) and Life and Nothing But (1989). He died on 6 January 2021 in Paris, France.- Burt Wilson was born on 24 January 1933 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was married to Ilse. He died on 6 January 2021 in Binghampton, New York, USA.
- Calvin Simon was born on 22 May 1942 in Beckley, West Virginia, USA. He died on 6 January 2022 in the USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Catherine Scorsese was an American actress of Italian descent, often typecast as the typical Italian mother in films. Her best-known role was that of Mrs. DeVito in "Goodfellas" (1990).
Scorsese was born under the name "Catherine Cappa" in 1912. She was a native of Little Italy, Manhattan, New York City, with both of her parents being Sicilian Americans. Her father Martin Cappa worked as a stage coordinator in theatre, while her mother Domenica owned her own shop.
The Cappas were a large family. Catherine had three brothers and five sisters. The family lived in a three-room apartment in Little Italy, sharing spaces with other relatives and boarders.
By the 1930s, Catherine was working as a machinist in the Garment District. In 1933, she married the actor Luciano Charles "Charlie" Scorsese (1913-1993), who was also working in the garment industry at the time. The bride was 21 years old, while the groom was 20 years old. The couple had three children, including film director Martin Scorsese.
Scorsese made her film debut in her son's short film "It's Not Just You, Murray!" (1964). She also played maternal roles in "Who's That Knocking at My Door" (1967), "The King of Comedy" (1983), "Easy Money" (1983), "Goodfellas" (1990), and "Casino" (1995). She had bit parts in several other films. She appeared as herself in the documentary "Italianamerican" (1974), about the experiences of Italian-American immigrants.
Scorsese made her last film appearance in "Casino", at the age of 83. She was working at the time on her cookbook "Italianamerican: The Scorsese Family Cookbook". It was completed and published in 1996, months before her death. It was her only published work.
Late in life, Scorsese suffered from Alzheimer's disease, a chronic neurodegenerative disease. The disease eventually caused her death in January 1997. She was 84 at the time of death.- Chany Mallo was born in 1923 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was an actress, known for María de nadie (1985), Naranja y media (1997) and Máximo Corazón (2002). She died on 6 January 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cheryl Holdridge was born on 20 June 1944 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Leave It to Beaver (1957), The Donna Reed Show (1958) and Life with Archie (1962). She was married to Manning J. Post, Albert James Skarda and Lance Reventlow. She died on 6 January 2009 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Cinamon Hadley was born on 6 November 1969 in Barstow, California, USA. She is known for We Love You, Sally Carmichael! (2017). She died on 6 January 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.- Additional Crew
David Toschi was born on 11 July 1931 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is known for Zodiac (2007), Zodiac Deciphered (2008) and This Is Zodiac (2007). He was married to Carol Jean Bacigalupi. He died on 6 January 2018 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, along with Charlie Parker, ushered in the era of Be-Bop in the American jazz tradition. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the youngest of nine children. He began playing piano at the age of four and received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. Most noted for his trademark "swollen cheeks", Gillespie admitted to copying the style of trumpeter Roy Eldridge early in his career. He replaced Eldridge in the 'Teddy Hill' Band after Eldridge's departure. He eventually began experimenting and creating his own style which would eventually come to the attention of Mario Bauza , the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz who was then a member of the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Though Calloway disliked Gillespie's style, calling it "Chinese music", he hired him to his band in 1939. Gillespie was later fired after two years when he cut a portion of Calloway's buttocks with a knife after Calloway accused him of throwing spitballs (the two men later became lifelong friends and often retold this story with great relish until both of their deaths). Although noted for his on- and off-stage clowning, Gillespie endured as one of the founding fathers of the Afro-Cuban &/or Latin Jazz tradition. Influenced by Mario Bauza, known as Gillespie's musical father, he was able to fuse Afro-American jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms to form a burgeoning CuBop sound. Always a musical ambassador, he toured Africa, the Middle East and Latin America under the sponsorship of the US State Department. Quite often he returned, not only with fresh musical ideas, but with musicians who would eventually go on to achieve world renown. Among his proteges and collaborators are 'Chano Pozo', the great Afro-Cuban percussionist; Danilo Pérez, a master pianist and composer originally from Panama; Arturo Sandoval, trumpeter, composer and music educator originally from Cuba; Mongo Santamaria, an Afro-Cuban conguero, bonguero and composer; David Sanchez, saxophonist and composer; Chucho Valdés, an Afro-Cuban virtuoso pianist and composer; and Bobby Sanabria, a Bronx, NY-born Nuyorican percussionist, composer, educator, bandleader and expert in the Afro-Cuban musical tradition. Indeed, many Latin jazz classics such as "Manteca", "A Night in Tunisia" and "Guachi Guaro [Soul Sauce]" were composed by Gillespie and his musical collaborators. With a strong sense of pride in his Afro-American heritage, he left a legacy of musical excellence that embraced and fused all musical forms, but particularly those forms with roots deep in Africa such as the music of Cuba, other Latin American countries and the Caribbean. Additionally, he left a legacy of goodwill and good humor that infused jazz musicians and fans throughout the world with a genuine sense of jazz's ability to transcend national and ethnic boundaries--for this reason, Gillespie was and is an international treasure.- The Bulgarian actor Filip Trifonov was born on May 4, 1947. From 1969 to 1973 he studied acting at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Art, Sofia, Bulgaria in the class of Apostol Karamitev. Even before he finished his education in 1971 Filip Trifonov made his cinema debut in the film "The Test" (directed by Georgi Djulgerov). He played the main role - character Lio. Then he played the title role in "The Boy goes" (directed by Lyudmil Kirkov). Philip Trifonov has participated in over then 30 films, including "The Hare Census" (directed by Eduard Sachariev), "As a Song" (directed by Irina Aktasheva and Hristo Piskov), "Wardrobe" (based on the novel of Stanislav Stratiev; directed by Georgi Djulgerov), "Tool Is Bagpipe?" (directed by Asen Shopov), "Orchestra without a Name" (directed by Lyudmil Kirkov), "Avalanche"(directed by Irina Aktasheva and Hristo Piskov),"Forget this Case" (directed by Krasimir Spasov), "Echelons" (directed by Borislav Punchev), "Life on Demand" (directed by Kosta Bikov), "Protect Small Animals" (directed by Haim Koen),"AkaDaMuS" (directed by Georgi Djulgerov),"Rio Adio" (directed by Ivan Andonov), "Ivan and Alexandra" (directed by Ivan Nichev), "Walking with the Angel" (directed by Ivan Pavlov), "Madame Bovary from Sliven" (directed by Emil Tzanev), "Rhapsody in White" (directed by Tedi Moskov), "Bay Ganyo goes through Europe" (directed by Ivan Nichev). On stage, Philip Trifonov's debut was in the role of Andzor in "The process will take place" by A. Chheidze In Blagoevgrad Theatre in 1973. He worked in Blagoevgrad Theatre, Theatre "Sofia", "Boyana studios 2;. In 1992 he created together with director Nikolai Gunderov Natural Theatre "Trifonof & Gunderov." His performances are "Opening" and "Audience" by V. Havel and "Second Hand", "West Germany - my fatherland", "She", written by him.
- Francine York was born in the small mining town of Aurora, Minnesota to her parents, Frank and Sophie Yerich. When Francine was five, her family (including her younger sister, Deanne) moved to Cleveland, where she began to write short stories and take an interest in acting. At age nine, Francine made her theatrical debut in the Hodge Grammar School production of Cinderella, playing Griselda. Initially quite upset that she did not get the starring role, Francine ended up stealing the show with her performance as the evil stepsister. Right after the show, Francine ran into the audience and told her mother that she wanted to be an actress.
When Francine was age 12, the family moved back to Aurora, where she continued to perform in class plays, as well as writing, producing, directing and starring in a three-act play called "Keen Teens or Campus Quarantine". Francine, displaying an entrepreneurial spirit at a young age, charged five cents admission to the show, and the whole town turned out for the production.
While studying journalism and drama at Aurora High School, Francine worked as the feature editor of the school newspaper, Aurora Borealis, and she won all of the school's declamation contests with her dramatic readings. Additionally, she was the baton-twirling majorette for the school band, and active in the 4-H club, where she won several blue ribbons for cooking in both county and state fairs. This proved to be valuable experience for Francine later on, when she would not only host, but do all of the gourmet cooking for dinner parties for some of Hollywood's biggest names.
At age 17, Francine won the Miss Eveleth contest (Eveleth being a nearby town), and became a runner-up in the Miss Minnesota contest, which was hosted by former Miss America BeBe Shopp. For the talent portion of the Miss Minnesota pageant, Francine, who was not afraid to be less than glamorous during a performance, donned some old clothes, removed her makeup, grayed her hair, and performed a reading of a monologue called "The Day That Was That Day" by Amy Lowell, in which she played a dual role of two elderly Southern women. BeBe Shopp encouraged Francine in her theatrical ambitions, and predicted that she would end up in Hollywood very soon. At this point, however, Hollywood was still a dream for Francine, who wanted desperately to leave Minnesota and make her mark in show business.
Moving to Minneapolis, she got a job modeling sweaters for New York-based Jane Richards Sportswear and began traveling throughout the United States, ending up in San Francisco. After leaving Jane Richards, Francine began a modeling course at the House of Charm agency, which started her off on a very successful modeling career for all of the major department stores, including Macy's. Her modeling work got the attention of the producers of the Miss San Francisco beauty pageant, which she subsequently entered and was voted runner-up, but ended up taking over the title after the winner became too sick to participate. Soon after, Francine got a job as a showgirl at Bimbo's, a well-known San Francisco nightclub, which was highly disapproved of by Francine's modeling agency, but this turned out to be the right choice for Francine when she met Bimbo's headliner, singer Mary Meade French, who brought Francine to Hollywood and, later, got her signed with her first agent.
Arriving in Los Angeles, Francine once again found herself working as a showgirl at Frank Sennes' Moulin Rouge, a popular nightclub on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, where she performed in three shows a night, seven nights a week for six months. Tired of sharing a stage with elephants, pigeons and horses, she moved on to pursue her acting career and began study with famed actor/teacher Jeff Corey. While performing in Corey's class, Francine was spotted by a theatrical producer, who cast her in a play called "Whisper in God's Ear" at the Circle Theatre. During this time, the same producer gave Francine her very first movie role, starring in Secret File: Hollywood (1962), a film about the day-to-day operations of a sleazy Hollywood tabloid. The movie premiered in Francine's hometown of Aurora, which gave her the biggest thrill of her life as the whole town, the press, her family, friends, and even the high school band turned out at the airport to greet her with banners proclaiming, "Welcome Home, Francine!"
Francine's first big break came when Jerry Lewis cast her in his film It's Only Money (1962), in which she played a tantalizing sexpot, a role which brought her a tremendous amount of publicity. This led to Lewis hiring her for five more of his films, including The Nutty Professor (1963), The Patsy (1964), The Disorderly Orderly (1964), The Family Jewels (1965) and Cracking Up (1983), in which she played a fifteenth century marquise. Other notable film appearances include Bedtime Story (1964) (with Marlon Brando and David Niven), Tickle Me (1965) (with Elvis Presley), Cannon for Cordoba (1970) (with George Peppard), and science fiction cult films Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Mutiny in Outer Space (1965) and Space Probe Taurus (1965). Francine's most popular film was the cult classic The Doll Squad (1973), where she played Sabrina Kincaid, leader of an elite team of gorgeous female assassins who attempt to stop a diabolical madman from destroying the world with a deadly plague virus. Francine also delivered a stunning performance as Marilyn Monroe in an otherwise lackluster film, Marilyn Alive and Behind Bars (1992). (Film critic Tom Weaver has been quoted as saying that Francine's performances often rise above the low-budget films she has been cast in.) More recently, Francine played Nicolas Cage's mother-in-law in The Family Man (2000).
Francine has also had tremendous success in television, with appearances on Route 66 (1960), Hawaiian Eye (1959), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), My Favorite Martian (1963), Burke's Law (1963), Perry Mason (1957), Batman (1966), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), Lost in Space (1965), It Takes a Thief (1968), Green Acres (1965), The Wild Wild West (1965), Ironside (1967), I Dream of Jeannie (1965), Love, American Style (1969), Mannix (1967), Bewitched (1964), Adam-12 (1968), Mission: Impossible (1966), Kojak (1973), Columbo (1971), Matlock (1986), The King of Queens (1998) and Las Vegas (2003), among many others. Francine's personal favorites among her television roles include her portrayal of nineteenth century British actress Lily Langtry in the Death Valley Days (1952) episode "Picture of a Lady", and her role as the princess opposite Shirley Temple (one of Francine's childhood idols) in NBC's presentation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid". One of Francine's other favorite roles was that of high-class prostitute and blackmailer Lorraine Temple on Days of Our Lives (1965).
While Francine was enjoying great success as a film and television actress, she was also making a name for herself as a fitness/nutrition expert and gourmet cook. She made many appearances on television demonstrating her culinary skills, and many of her recipes, as well as her exercise programs, were published in national health magazines. Francine also became known as one of Hollywood's leading hostesses, cooking for such celebrities as Clint Eastwood, Rex Harrison, Vincent Price, Regis Philbin, Jean Stapleton, Neil Sedaka, James Arness, Glenn Ford and Peter Ustinov.
Francine continued to act in films and on television. Two recent television appearances include Hot in Cleveland (2010) (as British matriarch Lady Natalie), and Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures (2011) (as Aunt Bitsy). She was also quite busy working on her autobiography, something her fans are looking forward to with great interest. In 1996, she met director Vincent Sherman (Mr. Skeffington, The Adventures of Don Juan, The Young Philadelphians), and was his companion until his death in 2006. Francine never married - she once said, "Like Cinderella, I always wanted to marry the handsome prince...but they don't make glass slippers in size ten!" On January 6, 2017, Francine York died of cancer at age 80 in Van Nuys, California. - Gerald Hiken was born on 23 May 1927 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Crossings (1986), The Three Sisters (1966) and Play of the Week (1959). He was married to Barbara Hiken. He died on 6 January 2021 in San Francisco, California, USA.
- Gloria Piedimonte was born on 27 May 1955 in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for Insanlari Seveceksin (1979), Baila guapa (1979) and Violence for Kicks (1976). She was married to Tony. She died on 6 January 2022 in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy.
- Sound Department
Gregg Rudloff was born on 2 November 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Matrix (1999) and Green Lantern (2011). He was married to Sue. He died on 6 January 2019 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
The enticing, voluptuous European beauty Greta Thyssen filled out the pages of movie magazines everywhere during the 1950s. Born on March 30, 1927, she was a freshly-scrubbed brunette when she was crowned Miss Denmark in 1952. The subsequent attention had her packing her bags for Hollywood. At that time, Marilyn Monroe had become an international sex symbol and Hollywood hopefuls were falling all over themselves to be just like her. Enter Greta, in a major, major transformation, as a statuesque, peroxide-blonde bombshell -- competing against the whistle-blowing likes of Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. With mouth-dropping measurements reported at 40-24-36, this pin-up favorite became the best piece of Danish pastry in town. She also had her eyes out for films.
Like Ms. Mansfield and Ms. Van Doren, Greta's movie career was a bust -- literally. She bordered slightly on the seamy side and was offered such roles. However, she proved a trooper and was qualified enough to handle a scattered amount of low-grade crime dramas, adventures and horror stories -- a few having since reached "cult turkey" status. Greta actually started off in the quality movie Bus Stop (1956), unbilled as a "cover girl". She also served as Ms. Monroe's double in the movie. Another small film role in Accused of Murder (1956) led to a regular role as a busty "Pirate Girl" model on the quiz show Treasure Hunt (1956) starring wolfish host Jan Murray. She momentarily took a few male minds off the horrific The Beast of Budapest (1958) and did her scream queen schtick in Terror Is a Man (1959), in which she played vulnerable to a mad scientist-turned-panther-like creature à la "The Island of Dr. Moreau".
Greta added the requisite hard-boiled touch to the noirish detective film Three Blondes in His Life (1961) opposite Jock Mahoney and showed up in Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) as well, which was another John Agar sci-fi cheapie. On television, she played a fetching foil in some of The Three Stooges shorts (Joe Besser was the third Stooge at the time) and appeared on television series, mostly crime stories, including Dragnet (1951) and Perry Mason (1957). Her film career ended dismally with the inane comedy Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967), which pretty much says this all. Toward the end, she appeared in a couple of wink-wink stage comedies such as "Pajama Tops" until the early 1970s. She then retired from acting and moved to New York City where she found success as a painter, combining representational nude figures and surrealistic allegory. Generally, Greta took advantage of the equipment she had, made this work for her, and got her "fifteen minutes".
Greta Thyssen passed away at age 90 of complications from pneumonia on January 6, 2018 at her Manhattan home.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Hans Jaray was a writer, singer, film and stage actor. After finishing school, he went to the Academy for Music and Art, in Vienna. His stage debut was in 1923, in Wiener Volkstheater and from 1930 to 1938, he played at the Theater in der Josefstadt. The first play he wrote was "Boulevard-Komödien". His two first movies were The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927) (The Love of Jeanne Ney) and Schwiegersöhne (1926). In 1933, he played 'Franz Schubert' in Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) ("Unfinished Symphony", aka "Lover Divine", "La Symphonie inachevée").
After that, he was not often in Germany because he went back to Austria in order to emigrate to the USA in 1938. There, he played in New York on Broadway. His two Hollywood films were Lydia (1941) and Carnegie Hall (1947). After WWII, he came back to Vienna and worked there on stage, cinema and as a Professor at the Reinhardt-Seminar. Some of his last films were Frühlingsstimmen (1952) and Fedora (1978) by 'Billy Wilder', with Hildegard Knef, Henry Fonda and Michael York. He also wrote many stage plays and books.- Horace Ashenfelter was born on 23 January 1923 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Lilian Wright. He died on 6 January 2018 in West Orange, New Jersey, USA.
- Being born and raised in Edinburgh, Charleson attended the Royal High School and then went on to attend Edinburgh University. He initially studied architecture but switched to an MA degree after cultivating an interest in acting. He won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after graduating from Edinburgh.
- Actor
- Producer
Jack Mower was born on 5 September 1890 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Radio Detective (1926), The Son of Sontag (1925) and The Shock (1923). He was married to Diana Woods Smith and Anna Stachia Houlihan. He died on 6 January 1965 in Hollywood, California, USA.- James Cross was born on 29 September 1921 in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. He died on 6 January 2021 in Seaford, England, UK.
- Producer
- Director
- Special Effects
Jo Andres was an American filmmaker, choreographer and artist.
Andres first became known on the kinetic downtown New York performance scene of the 1980s for her film/dance/light performances, shown at The Performing Garage, La Mama E.T.C., P.S. 122, St. Marks Danspace, and the Collective for Living Cinema. As a filmmaker, Andres drew acclaim and awards for the 1996 film, Black Kites (1996), which aired on PBS and played several film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, London and Human Rights Watch Film Festivals. She directed music and art videos, as well as her own film performance works. Andres was a dance' consultant to the acclaimed Wooster Group. She was an artist in residence at leading universities, museums and art colonies, including Yaddo and The Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, Italy.
She created a series of cyanotype photographs, which can be seen on JoAndres.com.
She and her husband, actor Steve Buscemi, had one son, Lucian Buscemi.- Kwamie Lassiter was born on 3 December 1969 in Newport News, Virginia, USA. He was married to Ericka Corbin. He died on 6 January 2019 in the USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
After being demobbed from the army having completed his national service he went to Canada where he got a job in advertising writing jingles for television commercials. At the same time he was the leader of a group of young musicians and singers called Lord Lance and his Calypsons doing night spots in Montreal and with him playing the guitar. He collects Sinatra records and likes Ella Fizgerald,- Actor
- Soundtrack
Larry D. Mann was born on 18 December 1922 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Sting (1973), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). He was married to Gloria Kochberg. He died on 6 January 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Sound Department
- Additional Crew
Les Lazarowitz was born on 2 October 1941 in the USA. He is known for Tootsie (1982), Raging Bull (1980) and Saturday Night Fever (1977). He died on 6 January 2017 in Florida, USA.- Lisa Golm was born Luise Schmertzler and married Ernst (Ernest) Golm who would later become a character actor with her in Hollywood, but had his first career as a dentist catering to some of the movie stars in Berlin in the late 1920s and 30s. Lisa studied theater as a hobby with Conrad Veidt. When she and Ernst fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and settled in Southern California, her husband continued his dental career from Beverly Hills while Lisa put her acting training to use with the increasing demand for German accented and other ethnic bits in films as the USA advanced toward World War II. When her first film, Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), opened, members of the Golm family in different parts of the US took the day off work to see her on the big screen. Lisa and Ernest (who made far fewer film appearances and no TV) were together in two movies, The Hitler Gang (1944) and Mission to Moscow (1943). Lisa was the type who enjoyed mingling with the society set, so it was ironic she was often cast as maids. Her family nickname, the red broomstick, because she was tall, thin, and had red hair, can best be understood if one sees one of her few color films such as Rhapsody (1954). After Ernest died Lisa retired and moved to Israel.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Rawls was born on 1st December 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. His father abandoned his family and Lou was raised by his grandmother. His first meeting with music was when he was seven years old, in a Baptist church choir. He was mostly influenced by the Chicago Regal theatre where he had the opportunity to see the best in black entertainment. Billy Eckstine and Arthur Prysock were only two of the best that Lou saw. He and classmate, Sam Cooke, would harmonize in the school lavatory. He graduated from Dunbar Tech. School and joined the touring gospel singing group, the Pilgrim Travelers. He left the group in 1956 and joined the US Army and became a Sergeant with the Screaming Eagle Paratroopers. In 1958, he was involved in a serious auto accident that killed one and Rawls was pronounced dead on on the way to the hospital. Lou remained in a coma for over five days and suffered a memory loss for several months. Sam Cooke was also in the automobile and was left uninjured. Rawls was first noticed by Capitol Records producer Nick Benet after noticing his four octave range while performing at a Pandora's Los Angeles coffee shop. He went on to perform at a number of LA clubs and later made his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959 with Dick Clark. He went solo in 1964 and has won four Grammys. In the mid 70s, he joined the Anheuser Busch Brewery as a corporate spokesman. Since 1980, he has presented a series of world wide concerts for American military bases that were co-sponsored by Anheuser Busch, the USO, and the US Dept. Of Defense. During Christmas of 1983, he toured US bases in the Phillipines, Korea and Japan. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for black colleges and, every year, he sponsors a celebrity golf tournament in LA to raise money for the United Negro College Fund. South Wentworth Street in Chicago was renamed Lou Rawls Drive in his honor. The talented Rawls is also the singing voice of the animated fickle feline "Garfield".- Maha Abou Ouf was born on 28 November 1959 in Cairo, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Al Hafla (2013), Zayy el-Nahardah (2008) and The Blue Elephant 2 (2019). She was married to Omar Khorshed. She died on 6 January 2022 in Cairo, Egypt.
- Maria Klenskaja was born on 29 January 1951 in Tartu, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. She was an actress, known for Varastatud kohtumine (1989), Doktor Stockmann (1989) and Keskea rõõmud (1987). She was married to Aarne Üksküla. She died on 6 January 2022 in Estonia.
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Mariano Laurenti was born on 15 April 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and assistant director, known for Popcorn e patatine (1985), Fotoromanzo (1986) and Girls Will Be Girls (1980). He died on 6 January 2022 in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.- Michael Levin was born on 8 December 1932 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for Ryan's Hope (1975), As the World Turns (1956) and The Equalizer (1985). He was married to Elizabeth Levin and Loretta Chiljian. He died on 6 January 2023 in Mount Kisco, New York, USA.
- Michael Wilmington was born in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, on November 23, 1946. He was the son of Martin Wilmington, an economics professor at Pace College in New York City, and of Edna Tulane Wilmington, a cum laude masters degree graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and a painter, sculptor, portrait artist, illustrator, draughtsman, newspaper columnist and teacher. His parents were divorced and Edna brought him up, in Arlington, Virginia, Chicago and Williams Bay, Wisconsin, as a single mother, without child support or alimony. (She died, at 94, in 2009.) Michael graduated from William Bay (Wisconsin) High School, where he was on the basketball and football teams, was captain of the forensics team and was sports editor of the annual. He graduated in 1964, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he majored in English (Honors), where he was also active in dramatics as both actor and director, was chair of the Memorial Union Film Committee and was the movie critic for two years for the student paper, the Daily Cardinal. In Madison, Wilmington also co-wrote the book, "John Ford" with Joseph McBride and became the movie critic for the alternative weekly, Isthmus of Madison, winning five Milwaukee Press Club Awards at Isthmus for best arts criticism. He eventually left for Los Angeles, to become movie critic and editor for both the L. A. Weekly and L. A. Style. From 1984 to 1993, he was a movie critic and writer for the Los Angeles Times and, in 1993, he was elected Vice President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 1993, Wilmington was named the lead movie critic at the Chicago Tribune, after the departure of Dave Kehr, who had replaced longtime Tribune movie critic and "At the Movies" TV host Gene Siskel in 1986. (Siskel became movie columnist at the Tribune from 1986 until his death in 1999.) While at the Tribune, Wilmington won or shared two Peter Lisagor awards for arts criticism. He was also the the on-air movie critic for cable channel CLTV, where he was nominated for two other Lisagors. Wilmington left the Tribune in 2007. In 2008, he became movie and DVD critic for Movie City News.
- Meenati Das was born in 1929 in Cuttack, Odisha, British India. She was an actress, known for Suryamukhi (1963), Bhai Bhauja (1967) and Jeevan Sathi (1963). She was married to Nityananda Mishra. She died on 6 January 2020 in Switzerland.Minati Mishra
- Miriam Byrd-Nethery was born on 17 May 1929 in Lewisville, Arkansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and From a Whisper to a Scream (1987). She was married to Clu Gulager. She died on 6 January 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Miss Spear was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2004 and was 4th runner-up in the 2005 Miss Universe Pageant. Prior to competing in beauty pageants, Miss Spear bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Central Florida. Miss Spear went on to become one of the most popular and successful soap opera stars. She married Henry Berry in June 2008 and welcomed daughter Maya in October 2008. They divorced in March 2010. Miss Spear and Mr. Berry were killed during a robbery when their car broke down in Puerto Cabello, near Caracas. The couple were there on vacation. Daughter Maya was injured but survived the attack. Spear's death triggered a wave of anger on social media directed at the populist government's poor record on crime. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lamented her death on a live television broadcast.
- Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic medical education which qualified him as a house (resident) surgeon during World War II in the Royal Navy. But after the war he decided to pursue acting. He worked in stage repertoire and stock companies and moved on to do significant stage work at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where John Gielgud was director and Shakespeare has a particular focus. MacGinnis had the burly look of a farm hand with a large head and curly hair falling away from a progressively receding hairline. He could portray a broad enough accent - or little at all, as the case might be - which could entail any part of the British Isles.
He moved on to film work in 1935 when British sound cinema was hitting its stride. He met young but well experienced director Michael Powell, who was eager to sell his script for an intriguing film to be shot on the furthest island from the north coast of the UK, Foulda. Alexander Korda was impressed and optioned the production of this script for The Edge of the World (1937), and MacGinnis got the nod as the central protagonist, Andrew Gray. Soon after in 1938, MacGinnis worked with Old Vic mentor and director Gielgud for a role in an early TV production of the play "Spring Meeting" (1938). As the war years ensued and before his own service, MacGinnis did several war effort films, most notably asked by Powell to take the role of a German U-boat cook in 49th Parallel (1941). The film sported a great ensemble cast, including Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey, and was shot in Canada where the drama unfolded, but it lacked the drive to keep the story vital. MacGinnis shone as the good-natured peasant who loved food and had no use for Nazi strictures and warring on the world. Luckily for Powell, the movie with its flag waving spirit was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the late 1940s, MacGinnis was donning historical garb for what would be some of his most familiar roles. Olivier remembered him and gave him small but standout roles in both his Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). At about that time MacGinnis began associations with American film actors and production money coming over to Britain, the first being with Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge in Christopher Columbus (1949). He finally came to American shores with an appearance on Broadway in "Caesar and Cleopatra" in late 1951 through April of 1952. In 1952 back in England, he had a supporting role as the Herald in a screen version of the story of Thomas a' Becket titled Murder in the Cathedral (1951). Interestingly, he was also in the much better known and Hollywood-financed Becket (1964), as one of the four murderous barons. When MGM came back to England to follow up its previous visit and subsequent huge hit, Ivanhoe (1952), with Knights of the Round Table (1953), MacGinnis had a brief but again noticeable role as the Green Knight, bound by loss of combat to Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. The next year brought one of his rare lead roles, an exemplary one in every measure. As Luther in Martin Luther (1953), MacGinnis joined a mostly British cast in a US/West German co-production and American director Irving Pichel with West German and historical scenery topped with a first rate script with American and German co-writers. It received two Oscar nominations.
Into the later 1950s, MacGinnis held to a steady diet of sturdy movie roles, usually supporting but always memorable because of his great acting skill. Historically, he went further back in time with several films of epic Ancient Greece, first as King Menelaus in Helen of Troy (1956), an American/Italian co-production with Robert Wise directing. That same year he stayed on the continent for another epic, this time Alexander the Great (1956) with American director Robert Rossen in an US/Spanish co-production that enlisted another first tier British cast, centered on box office idol Richard Burton, along with former co-star Freddy March. MacGinnis finally made it to Mount Olympus - that is, playing Zeus - in the rousing US/UK co-production of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), certainly best remembered for the stop motion animation magic of Ray Harryhausen.
Yet, MacGinnis' perhaps best remembered role - certainly to discriminating fans of horror/fantasy - was that of two-faced Dr. Julian Karswell, jocular magician - but deadly serious cult leader and demon conjurer (loosely based on the outrageous English social rebel and occultist Aleister Crowley). The film Curse of the Demon (1957) (the American cut was renamed "Curse of the Demon") was a stylishly atmospheric and convincingly spooky outing directed by Jacques Tourneur, the protégé of Hollywood veteran film producer Val Lewton, best known for Cat People (1942). Based on M.R. James' Edwardian ghost story, "Casting the Runes," the film is now considered a classic of the genre with MacGinnis, sporting a devilish goatee, having fun with his split personality but also effectively betraying his inward fear of the powers he has unleashed. He easily stole the show from co-star Dana Andrews, as the stubborn American psychologist almost done in by the demon he does not believe exists.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, MacGinnis kept to up a fairly steady stream of varied historical and contemporary movie roles, always noticeable, and in some of the high profile films of the period, including: Billy Budd (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and the Cinerama adventure Krakatoa: East of Java (1968). There were some TV spots as well to showcase his character-molding talents into the year of his passing to round out a body of over 75 screen appearances. - Actor
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- Music Department
Om Puri was an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian films and art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has received an honorary OBE.
Puri was born in Ambala, Haryana. His father worked on the railways and served in the Indian Army. Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India. He is also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.
Puri had worked in numerous Indian films and in many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States. He made his film debut in the 1976 film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name. He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work. He had collaborated with Amrish Puri as well as Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil in art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992). He had been active in cinema. He was critically acclaimed for his performances in many unconventional roles such as a victimized tribal in Aakrosh (1980) (a film in which he spoke only during flash-back sequences); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector in Ardh Satya (1982), where he revolts against life-long social, cultural and political persecution and for which he got the National Film Award for Best Actor; the leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis (1996); as a tough cop again in the commercial film Gupt in 1997; and as the courageous father of a martyred soldier in Dhoop (2003). In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A.K. 47 as a strict police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld - it became a huge commercial hit. Puri's acting in the movie is very memorable. He has rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernized children. Om Puri had a cameo in the highly acclaimed film Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough). In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics. He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997), East Is East (1999) and The Parole Officer (2001). He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) alongside Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer. In 2007, he appeared as General Zia-ul-Haq in Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. He has worked in Hindi television serials like Kakkaji Kaheen (1988) (roughly meaning "Uncle says") as a paan-chewing 'Kakkaji', which was a parody on politicians, and Mr. Yogi (1989) as a suave 'Sutradhaar' who enjoys pulling the protagonist's leg. These two serials underlined Om Puri's versatility as a comedian. He received critical acclaim for him performance in Govind Nihalani's television film Tamas (1987) based on a Hindi novel of the same name. He essayed comic roles in Hindi films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro which reached a cult status, followed by Chachi 420 (1997), Hera Pheri (2000), Chor Machaye Shor (2002) and Malamaal Weekly (2006). His more recent Hindi film roles include Singh Is Kinng, Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Billu. Puri was seen in the role of Mohammad Ali Kasuri in Road to Sangam (2009). In 2010, he appeared in The Hangman. In 2011 he was in the Indian action movie Don 2. He had also worked in Aahat TV Series in some episodes during second season which was aired between 2004-2005 on Sony channel.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Pat Harrington Jr. was born on 13 August 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for One Day at a Time (1975), The President's Analyst (1967) and Move Over, Darling (1963). He was married to Sally Cleaver and Marjorie Ann Gortner. He died on 6 January 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter originally was an actor in the 1950s, studying his craft with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler and appearing on television and in summer stock. In the early 1960s he achieved notoriety for programming movies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. An obsessive cinema-goer, sometimes seeing up to 400 movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich prominently showcased the work of American directors such as John Ford, about whom he subsequently wrote a book based on the notes he had produced for the MOMA retrospective of the director, and the then-underappreciated Howard Hawks. Bogdanovich also brought attention to such forgotten pioneers of American cinema as Allan Dwan.
Bogdanovich was influenced by the French critics of the 1950s who wrote for Cahiers du Cinema, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut. Before becoming a director himself, he built his reputation as a film writer with articles in Esquire Magazine. In 1968, following the example of Cahiers du Cinema critics Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer who had created the Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") by making their own films, Bogdanovich became a director. Working for low-budget schlock-meister Roger Corman, Bogdanovich directed the critically praised Targets (1968) and the not-so-critically praised Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), a film best forgotten.
Turning back to journalism, Bogdanovich struck up a lifelong friendship with the legendary Orson Welles while interviewing him on the set of Mike Nichols' film adaptation of Catch-22 (1970) from the novel by Joseph Heller. Subsequently, Bogdanovich has played a major role in elucidating Welles and his career with his writings on the great actor-director, most notably his book "This is Orson Welles" (1992). He has steadily produced invaluable books about the cinema, especially "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors," an indispensable tome that establishes Bogdanovich, along with Kevin Brownlow, as one of the premier English-language chroniclers of cinema.
The 32-year-old Bogdanovich was hailed by a critics as a Wellesian wunderkind when his most famous film, The Last Picture Show (1971) was released. The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including Bogdanovich as Best Director, and won two of them, for Cloris Leachman and "John Ford Stock Company" veteran Ben Johnson in the supporting acting categories. Bogdanovich, who had cast 19-year-old model Cybill Shepherd in a major role in the film, fell in love with the young beauty, an affair that eventually led to his divorce from the film's set designer Polly Platt, his longtime artistic collaborator and the mother of his two children.
Bogdanovich followed up The Last Picture Show (1971) with a major hit, What's Up, Doc? (1972), a screwball comedy heavily indebted to Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), starring Barbra Streisand and 'Ryan O'Neal'. Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich had solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, with whom he formed The Directors Company. The Directors Company was a generous production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within strict budget limitations. It was through this entity that Bogdanovich's next big hit, the critically praised Paper Moon (1973), was produced.
Paper Moon (1973), a Depression-era comedy starring Ryan O'Neal that won his ten-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, proved to be the highwater mark of Bogdanovich's career. Forced to share the profits with his fellow directors, Bogdanovich became dissatisfied with the arrangement. The Directors Company subsequently produced only two more films, Francis Ford Coppola's critically acclaimed The Conversation (1974) which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1974 and garnered Coppola an Oscar nod for Best Director, and Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller (1974), a film that had a quite different critical reception.
An adaptation of the Henry James novella, Daisy Miller (1974) spelled the beginning of the end of Bogdanovich's career as a popular, critically acclaimed director. The film, which starred Bogdanovich's lover Cybill Shepherd as the title character, was savaged by critics and was a flop at the box office. Bogdanovich's follow-up, At Long Last Love (1975), a filming of the Cole Porter musical starring Cybill Shepherd, was derided by some critics as one of the worst films ever made, noted as such in Harry Medved and Michael Medved's book "The Golden Turkey Awards: Nominees and Winners, the Worst Achievements in Hollywood History" (1980). The film also was a box office bomb despite featuring Burt Reynolds, a hotly burning star who would achieve super-nova status at the end of the 1970s.
Bogdanovich insisted on filming the musical numbers for At Long Last Love (1975) live, a process not used since the early days of the talkies, when sound engineer Douglas Shearer developed lip-synching at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The decision was widely ridiculed, as none of the leading actors were known for their singing abilities (Bogdanovich himself had produced a critically panned album of Cybill Shepherd singing Cole Porter songs in 1974). The public perception of Bogdanovich became that of an arrogant director hamstrung by his own hubris.
Trying to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was his early success, Bogdanovich once again turned to the past, his own and that of cinema, with Nickelodeon (1976). The film, a comedy recounting the earliest days of the motion picture industry, reunited Ryan O'Neal and 'Tatum O'Neal' from his last hit, Paper Moon (1973) with Burt Reynolds. Counseled not to use the unpopular (with both audiences and critics) Cybill Shepherd in the film, Bogdanovich instead used newcomer Jane Hitchcock as the film's ingénue. Unfortunately, the magic of Paper Moon (1973) was not be repeated and the film died at the box office. Jane Hitchcock, Bogdanovich's discovery, would make only one more film before calling it quits.
After a three-year hiatus, Bogdanovich returned with the critically and financially underwhelming Saint Jack (1979) for Hugh Hefner's Playboy Productions Inc. Bogdanovich's long affair with Cybill Shepherd had ended in 1978, but the production deal making Hugh Hefner the film's producer was part of the settlement of a lawsuit Shepherd had filed against Hefner for publishing nude photos of her pirated from a print of The Last Picture Show (1971) in Playboy Magazine. Bogdanovich then launched the film that would be his career Waterloo, They All Laughed (1981), a low-budget ensemble comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and the 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten. During the filming of the picture, Bogdanovich fell in love with Stratten, who was married to an emotionally unstable hustler, Paul Snider, who relied on her financially. Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich, and when she told Snider she was leaving him, he shot and killed her, then committed suicide.
They All Laughed (1981) could not attract a distributor due to the negative publicity surrounding the Stratten murder, despite it being one of the few films made by the legendary Audrey Hepburn after her provisional retirement in 1967 (the film would prove to be Hepburn's last starring role in a theatrically released motion picture). The heartbroken Bogdanovich bought the rights to the negative so that it would be seen by the public, but the film had a limited release, garnered weak reviews and cost Bogdanovich millions of dollars, driving the emotionally devastated director into bankruptcy.
Bogdanovich turned back to his first avocation, writing, to pen a memoir of his dead love, "The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)" that was published in 1984. The book was a riposte to Teresa Carpenter's "Death of a Playmate" article written for The Village Voice that had won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Carpenter had lambasted Bogdanovich and Hugh Hefner, claiming that Stratten was as much a victim of them as she was of Paul Snider. The article served as the basis of Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (1983), in which Bogdanovich was portrayed as the fictional director "Aram Nicholas".
Bogdanovich's career as a noted director was over, and though he achieved modest success with Mask (1985), his sequel to his greatest success The Last Picture Show (1971), Texasville (1990), was a critical and box office disappointment. He directed two more theatrical films in 1992 and 1993, but their failure kept him off the big screen until 2001's The Cat's Meow (2001). Returning once again to a reworking of the past, this time the alleged murder of director Thomas H. Ince by Welles' bete noir William Randolph Hearst, The Cat's Meow (2001) was a modest critical success but a flop at the box office. In addition to helming some television movies, Bogdanovich has returned to acting, with a recurring guest role on the cable television series The Sopranos (1999) as Dr. Jennifer Melfi's analyst.
Bogdanovich's personal reputation suffered from gossip about his 13-year marriage to Dorothy Stratten's 19-year-old-kid sister Louise Stratten, who was 29 years his junior. Some gossip held that Bogdanovich's behavior was akin to that of the James Stewart character in Alfred Hitchcock's necrophiliac masterpiece Vertigo (1958), with the director trying to remold Stratten into the image of her late sister. The marriage ended in divorce in 2001.
Now in his early eighties, Bogdanovich has arguably imitated his hero Orson Welles, but in an unintended fashion, as filmmaker who never regained the acclaim bestowed on their first major success. However, unlike the widely acclaimed master Welles, the orbit of Bogdanovich's reputation has never recovered from the apogee it reached briefly in the early 1970s.
There has been speculation that Peter Bogdanovich's ruin as a director was guaranteed when he ditched his wife and artistic collaborator Polly Platt for Cybill Shepherd. Platt had worked with Bogdanovich on all his early successes, and some critics believe that the controlling artistic consciousness on The Last Picture Show (1971) was Platt's. Parting company with Platt after Paper Moon (1973), Bogdanovich promptly slipped from the heights of a wunderkind to a has-been pursuing epic folly, as evidenced by Daisy Miller (1974) and At Long Last Love (1975).
In 1998 the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show (1971) to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films.- Actor
- Production Designer
Raymond Cornelius Boyle, frequently credited as Dirk London, was an American small part character actor of the 1950s. Predominantly active on the small screen, he became best known for playing Morgan Earp (1851-1882) in fifteen episodes of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), starring Hugh O'Brian as the eponymous gunfighter. Boyle found steady work in a staple of early western and police shows, including some recurring appearances in Gang Busters (1952), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1955), Highway Patrol (1955) and Gunsmoke (1955). A rare higher profile role saw him cast as a gangster colluding with Martians in Republic's hilarious serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) (Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy -- then very much at the beginning of his career -- can be glimpsed as one of the zombies!).
After his retirement from acting, Boyle worked as production designer/art director on a couple of films in the 1970s. His second wife (from 1954) was the actress Jan Shepard.- Actress
- Director
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Ria Irawan was born on 24 July 1969 in Jakarta, Indonesia. She was an actress and director, known for The Stringless Violin (2003), Mecca I'm Coming (2019) and Bulan di Atas Kuburan (2015). She was married to Mayky Wongkar and Yuma Wiranatakusumah. She died on 6 January 2020 in Jakarta, Indonesia.- Ricardo Piglia was born on 24 November 1941 in Adrogué, Almirante Brown, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a writer, known for El astillero (2000), Foolish Heart (1998) and Cops (1997). He died on 6 January 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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- Actor
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He was an ethnic Tatar. He was educated at the Leningrad Ballet School and starred with Kirov Ballet. His first film was a USSR short Le Corsaire (1958). While performing in Paris in 1961 he defected to the West. He then performed internationally, becoming an Austrian citizen in 1982. The English/French documentary I Am a Dancer (1972), directed by Pierre Jourdan featured him and his long-time partner Margot Fonteyn. He played Rudolph Valentino in the film Valentino (1977) and Daniel Jelline in Exposed (1983), his last film. In 1982, he starred in the US stage revival of "The King and I".- Russell Lees was born on 8 May 1957 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was a writer, known for Assassin's Creed III (2012), Assassin's Creed: Unity (2014) and Far Cry New Dawn (2019). He was married to Lisa. He died on 6 January 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Scott Marlowe was an American film, stage and television actor.
His first feature film role was in the 1954 production of Attila. Two years later, he starred as John Goodwin in an episode "In Summer Promise" on General Electric Theater. In 1957 he appeared as Private Meredith in the war movie Men in War. He appeared as Jimmy Budd, along with Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Davis, in the episode "The Long Shadow" in Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater directed by Budd Boetticher.
Marlowe often took film roles of dysfunctional juveniles in a series of films made during the 1950s and 1960s, including The Scarlet Hour (1956), The Restless Breed (1957), The Cool and the Crazy (1958), Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959), The Subterraneans (1960), and A Cold Wind in August (1961). Marlowe appeared four times between 1963 and 1966 on James Arness's CBS western Gunsmoke. In 1964, Marlowe appeared as Lee Hewitt in the episode "The Roper" on the NBC western, Bonanza. In 1970, he guest starred as Billy Kells in the episode "The Experiment" on CBS's Lancer series.
Marlowe also appeared on stage. His most highly acclaimed such performance was at the Chicago Civic Theatre in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He was a founding member of Theatre West in Los Angeles. - Actor
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Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency. In the U.S., he experienced the racial chasm that divides the country, a great shock to a boy coming from a society with a majority of African descent.
At 18, he went to New York, did menial jobs and slept in a bus terminal toilet. A brief stint in the Army as a worker at a veterans' hospital was followed by more menial jobs in Harlem. An impulsive audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills. On his second try, he was accepted. Spotted in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of "Lysistrata", for which he earned good reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles. Nevertheless, the roles were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors routinely obtained. But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African-American man of that time, that of leading man. One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.
He remained active on stage and screen as well as in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. His roles in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and To Sir, with Love (1967) were landmarks in helping to break down some social barriers between blacks and whites. Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day. He took on directing and producing chores in the 1970s, achieving success in both arenas.- Actor
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Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1892, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with Mack Sennett through his comedian friend Edgar Kennedy changed everything.
Slim broke into silent films at age nineteen as one of Sennett's pie-hurling Keystone Kops and became part of the stock company of players. Making an unbilled appearance in Keystone's first feature film Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Summerville's gangly build and naive innocence, not to mention his potato-like nose, mournful mug, and slim, curling upper lip, helped set him apart -- so much so that Summerville eventually branched out into his own short vehicles.
Much more comfortable in rumpled clothes and overalls than a suit and tie, he later learned the ropes of directing and in the 1920s helmed a string of short films for both Fox and Universal studios. He refocused on acting come the advent of sound and made a rather easy transition, standing out in a number of commercial films, both comedic and dramatic, including the mammoth war epic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the landmark musical film King of Jazz (1930), Hecht-MacArthur's classic The Front Page (1931), the Shirley Temple vehicles Captain January (1936) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), and John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941). In addition, Slim scored in a series of short comedies opposite Zasu Pitts, and a slew of supports in Hoot Gibson westerns.
Usually playing much older than he was, the sleepy-eyed, slow-drawling Summerville played his last role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946), before dying of a stroke on January 5, 1946, at the not-so-old age of 53. He left a strong enough legacy, however, to be remembered as one of the screen's more reliable comedians. He was survived by his wife Eleanor and son Elliot.- Writer
- Producer
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under William McKinley from March to September 1901, and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Having assumed the presidency after McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.- Director
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Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the films of Douglas Fairbanks. He soon began directing, and his first big hit was The Virginian (1929). It was the movie that turned Gary Cooper into a star (a fact Cooper never forgot; he and Fleming remained friends for life). Fleming's star continued to rise during the '30s, and he was responsible for many of the films that would eventually be considered classics, such as Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and the two films that were the high marks of his career: Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ironically Fleming was brought in on both pictures to replace other directors and smooth out the troubled productions, a feat he accomplished masterfully. His career took somewhat of a downturn in the '40s, and most of his films, with the exception of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), weren't particularly successful. He ended his career with the troubled production Joan of Arc (1948), which turned out to be a major critical and financial failure.- Actor
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An American character actor described to some as a 'rugged outdoor western/war type', proved to be Walter Barnes status in motion pictures for nearly thirty years. A pro football player, Barnes made a mark into playing roles in pictures with his performance in the 1959 film "Westbound". Although, Barnes found work in countless foreign films of the 1960s, he usually played roles ranging from crusty law officials to occasional villains, in notable roles in "Captain Sinbad", John Wayne's "Cahill US Marshal", Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter", "Pete's Dragon" and "Day of the Animals". Also as a veteran of television, Barnes has had guest starring roles in such series including "Gunsmoke", "Rawhide" and "Cheyenne". He also played Bo Svenson's father on the early 80s TV series "Walking Tall" and appeared in the 1985-86 mini series "North and South". A diabetic, Barnes retired from acting in the late 1980s and eventually moved into the Motion Picture and Television Retirement Home in Woodland Hills, California, where he passed away in January of 1998.- William Sheppard was born and raised in London, England to an Anglo-Irish family. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He was an Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 12 years. He appeared on Broadway in 1966 with "Marat-Sade" and later in 1975 with "Sherlock Holmes". He won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for "The Homecoming" in 1995, at the Matrix Theatre. He voiced the narrator in the popular computer game Civilization 5.