Obituaries

Damn, they're dropping like flies. RIP to all I've missed.

Chris Marker has died at age 91:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jul/30/chris-marker

A sad loss in the filmmaking world. Rest in peace.

Gore Vidal passed away a few days ago.

I'm frankly amazed by the lack of coverage on this. And then again, I'm not.

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.”

Wow, flicking back, I had no idea that Simon Ward had passed away.

Very curious performance as Churchill for Attenborough, but his Duke of Buckingham is pretty much perfect.

Carlo Rambaldi, who did exceptional effects work for E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, ALIEN, and KING KONG ('76), among other films, has passed away:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italian-special-effects-master-carlo-rambaldi-father-of-et-dead-at-86/2012/08/10/eade6e52-e30e-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html

May this legend REST IN PEACE.

Damn, now Phyllis Diller.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/17060326/comedienne-phyllis-diller-dead-at-95

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Damn, now Phyllis Diller.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/17060326/comedienne-phyllis-diller-dead-at-95

Quite sad indeed. Fine innings for a fine woman.

Michael Clarke Duncan, probably best known for his role in "The Green Mile," has died at age 54.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/242736485818851330

Damn shame, he was too young. He worked hard to get the success he did.

Jeez, that is too young. The industry's losing too many people this year.

Seems like the normal rate to me.

Scorpion King (2002)

The Greenmile
Daredevil
The Island

Rip

Quote :

Celebrating the Life of Lance LeGault
Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2012-8:54 am


LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Funeral arrangements were pending today for Lance LeGault, a veteran character actor whose 50-year Hollywood career included work as a stunt double for Elvis Presley and appearances in television programs such as “Magnum P.I.” and “The A-Team” and movies such as “Stripes” and “Coma.”

LeGault died Monday at his home in Los Angeles, according to his daughter, Mary. He was 75, according to his official website, www.lancelegault.com.

One of LeGault’s best-known roles was that of Col. Roderick Decker on the hit 1980s series “The A-Team,” his daughter said. The actor, a Chicago native who grew up in Chillicothe, Ill., also played a military officer, Col. Glass, in the 1981 comedy “Stripes,” which starred Bill Murray and John Candy she said.

LeGault had a recurring role in 1980 and 1981 on the series “Dynasty,” according to IMDB.

His early credits include stunt double for Presley in “Viva Las Vegas,” “Kissin’ Cousins” and “Roustabout,” his daughter said.

LeGault also did voice work in cartoons and in commercials, pitching products for such brands as Burger King, Dodge and 7-Up, Mary LeGault said.

His voice was also used for time as the narrator of the tour audiotape at Presely’s Graceland mansion.

Glen Larson, creator of the television series “Knight Rider,” said LeGault’s voice was “four octaves lower than God’s,” his daughter said.

LeGault is survived by his wife of 35 years, Teresa; daughters Mary and Teresa; and two sons, Marcus and Lance.

not forgetting the Klingonesque Borellian Nomen Leader in Battlestar Galactica's "The Man With Nine Lives" and "Baltar's Escape"

We've lost another classic and classy singer of the 1960s:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/09/26/andy-williams-dies-bladder-cancer-at-age-84/

RIP, Mr. Williams. :(

So little time indeed..

Another sad loss, the distinctive presence of Herbert Lom will be greatly missed.

Huffington Post link

Indeed, Lom was first rate in anything he did be it the Panther films or the Ladykillers or even Hell Drivers. RIP

RIP, Mr. Lom. One of his greatest scenes ever:

I didn't know about his girlfriend and the war camps of WWII. Must have made his little bit about Hitler in DEAD ZONE that much more meaningful when he says he would shoot the sonofabitch if he could have headed off the war.

Both Lom and Borgnine died this year at age 95. An amazing feat for men of their generation or any generation.

Composer Richard Robbins has died.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062143.html?cmpid=RSS|News|LatestNews

As you all know I'm no Merchant Ivory fan, but I love Robbins's powerful score for THE REMAINS OF THE DAY.





RIP.

I guess a name unfamiliar to some but from that golden age of British films, Dinah Sheridan has passed aged 92

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20486180

Genevieve, Railway Children, Sound Barrier -her daughter Jenny Hanley appeared in OHMSS as one of the Angels of Death.

Not exactly film related but very sad to note the passing of broadcaster and author Sir Patrick Moore. An inspiration to many (including myself) across several generations, his boundless and genuine enthusiasm and authority on his cherished subject, Astronomy, is a rare find in TV presenters and it is unlikely we will ever see his like again.

RIP

Link to BBC article here

Quote :

Actor Jack Klugman dies at age 90


LOS ANGELES, CA -- Jack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's "The Odd Couple" and the crime-fighting coroner in "Quincy, M.E.," died Monday, a son said. He was 90.

Klugman, who lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s and trained himself to speak again, died with his wife at his side.



"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said.

Adam Klugman said he was spending Christmas with his brother, David, and their families. Their father had been convalescing for some time but had apparently died suddenly and they were not sure of the exact cause.

"His sons loved him very much," David Klugman said. "We'll carry on in his spirit."

Never anyone's idea of a matinee idol, Klugman remained a popular star for decades simply by playing the type of man you could imagine running into at a bar or riding on a subway with -- gruff, but down to earth, his tie stained and a little loose, a racing form under his arm, a cigar in hand during the days when smoking was permitted.

His was a city actor ideal for "The Odd Couple," which ran from 1970 to 1975 and was based on Neil Simon's play about mismatched roommates, divorced New Yorkers who end up living together. The show teamed Klugman -- the sloppy sports writer Oscar Madison -- and Tony Randall -- the fussy photographer Felix Unger -- in the roles played by Walter Matthau and Art Carney on Broadway and Matthau and Jack Lemmon in the 1968 film. Klugman had already had a taste of the show when he replaced Matthau on Broadway and he learned to roll with the quick-thinking Randall, with whom he had worked in 1955 on the CBS series "Appointment with Adventure."

"There's nobody better to improvise with than Tony," Klugman said. "A script might say, `Oscar teaches Felix football.' There would be four blank pages. He would provoke me into reacting to what he did. Mine was the easy part."

They were battlers on screen, and the best of friends in real life. When Randall died in 2004 at age 84, Klugman told CNN: "A world without Tony Randall is a world that I cannot recognize."

In "Quincy, M.E.," which ran from 1976 to 1983, Klugman played an idealistic, tough-minded medical examiner who tussled with his boss by uncovering evidence of murder in cases where others saw natural causes.

"We had some wonderful writers," he said in a 1987 Associated Press interview. "Quincy was a muckraker, like Upton Sinclair, who wrote about injustices. He was my ideal as a youngster, my author, my hero.

"Everybody said, `Quincy'll never be a hit.' I said, `You guys are wrong. He's two heroes in one, a cop and a doctor.' A coroner has power. He can tell the police commissioner to investigate a murder. I saw the opportunity to do what I'd gotten into the theater to do -- give a message.

"They were going to do cops and robbers with `Quincy.' I said, `You promised me I could do causes.' They said, `Nobody wants to see that.' I said, `Look at the success of "60 Minutes." They want to see it if you present it as entertainment."'

For his 1987 role as 81-year-old Nat in the Broadway production of "I'm Not Rappaport," Klugman wore leg weights to learn to shuffle like an elderly man. He said he would wear them for an hour before each performance, "to remember to keep that shuffle."

"The guy is so vital emotionally, but physically he can't be," Klugman said.

"We treat old people so badly. There is nothing easy about 80."

The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he was born in Philadelphia and began his acting career in college drama (Carnegie Institute of Technology). After serving in the Army during World War I, he went on to summer stock and off-Broadway, rooming with fellow actor Charles Bronson as both looked for paying jobs. He made his Broadway debut in 1952 in a revival of "Golden Boy." His film credits included Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" and Blake Edwards' "Days of Wine and Roses" and an early television highlight was appearing with Humphrey Bogart and Henry Fonda in a production of "The Petrified Forest." His performance in the classic 1959 musical "Gypsy" brought him a Tony nomination for best featured (supporting) actor in a musical.

He also appeared in several episodes of "The Twilight Zone," including a memorable 1963 one in which he played a negligent father whose son is seriously wounded in Vietnam. His other TV shows included "The Defenders" and the soap opera "The Greatest Gift."

In a 1987 interview in the New York Daily News, he said, "once I did three hourlong shows in 2 1/2 weeks. Think we'd do that now? Huh! But then it was great. I did summer stock, played the classics. Me!"

Throat cancer took away his raspy voice for several years in the 1980s. When he was back on the stage for a 1993 revival of "Three Men on a Horse," The Associated Press review said, "His voice may be a little scratchy but his timing is as impeccable as ever."

"The only really stupid thing I ever did in my life was to start smoking," he said in 1996. Seeing people smoking in television and films, he added, "disgusts me, it makes me so angry -- kids are watching."

In his later years, he guest-starred on TV series including "Third Watch" and "Crossing Jordan" and appeared in a 2010 theatrical film, "Camera Obscura."

Klugman's hobby was horse racing and he eventually took up raising them, too.

"I always loved to gamble," he said. "I never got close to a horse. Fate dealt me a terrible blow when it gave me a good horse the first time out. I thought how easy this is.

"Now I love being around them."

Klugman's wife, actress-comedian Brett Somers, played his ex-wife, Blanche, in the "Odd Couple" series. The couple, who married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, had been estranged for years at the time of her death in 2007.

In February 2008, at age 85, Klugman married longtime girlfriend Peggy Crosby.

In 1997, Klugman was sued by an ex-girlfriend, Barbara Neugass, who claimed he had promised to support her for the rest of her life. But a jury rejected her claim.

genuinely saddened to hear of this. You somehow never expect people to go.

RIP Quince.