Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died

Subject: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 10:49 AM

The actor who is starting out this compilation thread is Maury Chaykin, who was created simply the best characterization of Nero Wolfe of all of the actors I've seen in this role. That's a starting point, where most of you will have an idea who he was. He was only 61 when he died this week.

The first line of the New York Times obit sums his career nicely: "Maury Chaykin, a ubiquitous character actor who specialized in comic roles with disturbing undertones and disturbing roles with comic undertones, died on Tuesday, his 61st birthday, in Toronto."

I first remembered seeing him as a computer geek in the early 1980s movie WarGames. And he popped up in various roles after that. He is one of those actors who really is different with each role, so you may not remember seeing him from one film to the next. I think Nero Wolfe didn't get nearly as much attention as it deserved (though die-hard mystery fans know about it) because it had one of those supporting ensemble casts in which the actors did a lot of heavy-lifting. It was a singular opportunity to work as new characters, guilty one week, innocent the next.

Here's the full NYT obit:

Maury Chaykin, a ubiquitous character actor who specialized in comic roles with disturbing undertones and disturbing roles with comic undertones, died on Tuesday, his 61st birthday, in Toronto.

The cause was complications of a heart valve infection, his brother, Dan, said. Mr. Chaykin had had numerous medical problems in recent years, his brother said.

A hefty man with expressive, doughy features, Mr. Chaykin was the kind of actor whose name was known to few but whose face to many. His screen career lasted 35 years, and he appeared in dozens if not hundreds of movies and television shows, mostly in supporting or cameo roles.

He was perhaps best known for three of them. In Kevin Costner's sprawling, Academy Award-winning epic western, "Dances With Wolves" (1990), Mr. Chaykin played Major Fambrough, the Army officer who, as he is becoming unhinged, interviews Mr. Costner's character for an assignment and sends him off to the far reaches of the frontier; then he shoots himself.

In "My Cousin Vinny" (1992), a comedy with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei about a fledgling lawyer, an Italian-American from New York, defending murder suspects in the Deep South, Mr. Chaykin played a slow-witted witness whom the lawyer (Mr. Pesci) questions about the preparation of grits.

And in the HBO series "Entourage," Mr. Chaykin made several appearances as Harvey Weingard, a bullying, bloviating movie mogul said to be a sendup of Harvey Weinstein.

In Canada, where he lived, Mr. Chaykin had more opportunities to play central roles than he did in Hollywood. He appeared frequently in the films of the Canadian director Atom Egoyan, including "The Adjuster," "Where the Truth Lies" and "The Sweet Hereafter," in which he was especially notable as an enraged cuckold.

In "Whale Music," a film by Richard J. Lewis adapted from the novel by Paul Quarrington about an unsettled, reclusive rock musician (the character was very suggestive of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys), Mr. Chaykin played the lead role and won a Genie Award, the Canadian version of an Oscar.

At his death he was a regular on the Canadian television series "Less Than Kind," a dark situation comedy in which he played the head of a dysfunctional suburban family.

Maury Alan Chaykin grew up in Brooklyn, where he was born on July 27, 1949. His father, Irving, an accountant who taught at Baruch College, was American; his mother, Clarice, a registered nurse, was from Winnipeg, Canada, and grew up in Montreal.

Mr. Chaykin studied acting at the State University of New York at Buffalo (now the University at Buffalo) and worked in small theaters in Buffalo and Off Off Broadway in New York. He went to work at a theater in Toronto in 1974 and eventually became a Canadian citizen. (He held dual citizenship in Canada and the United States.)

His first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his brother, who lives in Hoboken, N.J., Mr. Chaykin is survived by his mother, of Manhasset, N.Y.; a sister, Debra Brandwein, of Roslyn, N.Y.; his wife, the actress Susannah Hoffmann, and a daughter, Rose.

The long list of Mr. Chaykin's credits includes the movies "WarGames," "Harry & Son," "Mrs. Soffel," "Hero," "Unstrung Heroes," "Mousehunt" "Being Julia, and "Mystery, Alaska," and the television shows "Boston Legal," "CSI" and the Canadian series "La Femme Nikita."

He also played Nero Wolfe, the fictional detective created by Rex Stout, in "A Nero Wolfe Mystery," a series that ran for two seasons in 2000 and 2001 on cable television. (Timothy Hutton played his sidekick, Archie Goodwin.) It was a rare leading role for Mr. Chaykin, who, in an interview with The New York Times in 2000, explained the thrill it gave him.

"There's an extraordinary billboard up on Sunset Boulevard right now, with a humongous photograph of my face," he said, referring to an advertisement for "The Golden Spiders," the cable movie that would spawn the "Nero Wolfe" series. "I drive by it constantly, back and forth, back and forth."

Look at this thread as a place for those of us who like to mark the passing of the famous or should-be-famous. Joe has expressed exasperation over the various and sundry obit threads in the past. I'm sure they won't cease, but for me, I'll do with this thread like I do with those "I read in the newspaper" threads and keep a running list. Mudcatters who are interested in this news, or who want to post similar obits are invited to participate.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 08:00 PM

Good thinking, Stilly River.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 08:38 PM

I loved Maury........one of the finest character actors ever. His screen credits are extensive and you might have seen him in many features, but if you never saw "Unstrung Heroes" you missed out on a great performance.

I first remember him in a little known movie which Alex Karras made named "Jimmy B and Andre." It wasn't huge but he caught your eye. Large or small he brought something great to every part I saw him do from his Tony Accardo opposite John Turturro's Sam Giancana in "Sugartime" to his extensive work as Nero Wolfe..........well, I thought he was just one of the very best.

Goodbye Maury and Thank You........


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 11:22 PM

I saw that - it was a hard one to watch - but I'll probably get it again and watch without stopping (I was doing something else and found it was a movie I couldn't just listen to follow what was going on). It was remarkable, and very thoughtful, considering the condition of that apartment. It was very well cast, and you might have the impression that Maury was just a sweet mild guy if you'd only seen that role.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 06:15 AM

Although I admired his acting, I felt he (and William Conrad who also played the role) were both too small for the Nero Wolfe part. My fantasy tv Nero Wolfe would have been Raymond Burr with the young Robert Redford as Archie Goodwin. On film, of course, Orson Welles would have been just right!)

RtS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 12:42 PM

Those who participate in the art of storytelling, as this man did, are our teachers in how to be human, how to tolerate (even love!!) other humans. Part of the backbone of the world has gone...Tw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 01 Aug 10 - 05:25 AM

Oh how we will miss Nero Wolfe out here in Australia. He was on ABC Television on Saturday nights.
All very sad ...In the words of Nero himself.... " Phooey "

AD

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 10:36 AM

Today it is Patricia Neal. What stunner she was!

The actress, who won an Academy Award for her role in the 1963 film 'Hud,' persevered through a life that was marked by a succession of tragedies.

L.A. Times obituary.

Actress Patricia Neal, who rebuilt a troubled career to win an Academy Award only to face a more desperate battle for survival when three strokes left her paralyzed and unable to speak or remember, has died. She was 84.

Neal died Sunday of lung cancer at her home in Edgarton, Mass., her family told the Associated Press.

A succession of tragedies marked the life of the actress whose bright promise on Broadway in the mid-1940s took her to Hollywood and into a succession of lackluster films, as well as a desperate love affair with actor Gary Cooper and marriage to British writer Roald Dahl.

Her infant son's brain was damaged when his stroller was struck by a New York City taxicab, a daughter died as a result of measles and then — only a year after she finally won critical acclaim and an Oscar for her portrayal of the weary housekeeper in the 1963 film "Hud" — she suffered three strokes that appeared to end her career.

With the determined help of her husband, Neal recovered sufficiently to return to films, but then lost Dahl to another woman whom she had accepted as a friend.

"I am bitter, yes," she told an interviewer in 1984, the year after she divorced Dahl. "But I keep remembering that Roald and I had some good times together … and he did so much for me after my strokes .... It was a terrible blow when I found out."

After 30 years of living in England with Dahl, she moved to a house on Martha's Vineyard and wished for more opportunities to perform. "My problem is convincing people that I'm well again and able to work," she said. "Of course, the right side of my body has been a bit of a mess since my strokes, but otherwise I'm fine."

She never really got over Cooper, the great love of her life. In her 1988 autobiography, "As I Am," she wrote, "He is one of the most beautiful things that ever happened to me in my life. I love him even now."

But Cooper remained a married man until his death, and the affair left Neal crushed.

She was born Patsy Louise Neal on Jan. 20, 1926, in a Packard, Ky., mining camp where her father was transportation manager for a coal company. In Knoxville, Tenn., where the family moved while she was in grammar school, she was precocious and showed talent in reciting monologues at church gatherings.

Her parents encouraged her, and she received dramatic coaching at 12. She performed with the Tennessee Valley Players and then studied drama at Northwestern University.

After two years there, Neal went to New York, arriving in 1945 with $60 and a burning ambition. She got an understudy's job in "The Voice of the Turtle" on Broadway but basically earned her livelihood as a cashier, clerk and model while trying out for parts.

Playwright Eugene O'Neill took an interest in her, and that led to her being hired by the Theatre Guild to appear in the summer tryout of a play in Westport, Conn.

There, she was seen by Lillian Hellman, who wanted her for "Another Part of the Forest," and by Richard Rodgers, who wanted to cast her as the female lead in "John Loves Mary." She chose the Hellman play — and that 1947 engagement brought her five major awards, including a Tony and the New York Drama Critics' Award.

It also brought her several screen offers. She signed with Warner Bros. and landed in Hollywood in December 1948 to star in the film version of the play she had turned down in New York — "John Loves Mary."

Appearing in the movie with her were actors Jack Carson, Wayne Morris and Ronald Reagan. She also made "Hasty Heart" at Warner's with Reagan. Years later, when he was in the White House, she told an interviewer, "He was a pleasant fellow. We had adjoining suites and dined together each evening, but he never made a pass at me, dash it all."

Neal's film career, however, did not deliver on the promise of her early stage success. Hollywood treated her like the typical starlet. She was the 1949 Junior Rose Bowl Queen.

She came a long long way from the Kentucky coal fields. Read the rest at the obit page itself - it's a long one.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Dave Swan
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 01:22 PM

Chaykin had to deliver a line, both awkward and delicious, in Dances With Wolves. As the mad Major Fambrough he said to Costner's John Dunbar "Sir knight? I've just pissed in my pants... and nobody can do anything about it."

Now there's a legacy.

D

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 01:29 PM

Odd that Karen and I were discussing Patricia Neal just last week. I was always struck by her strength and courage follwing the strokes.......one helluva' comeback. I also think "A Face in the Crowd" is one of those "need to see" movies for both her performance and certainly for Andy Griffith's.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Slag
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 05:40 PM

So many of the greats did not have the name recognition but they were never out of work. It is rewarding when someone such as Mr.
Chaykin can rise from bit parts to leading roles. It means that his talent has caught the eye of the movers and shakers (shapers?) of the business. Also in the ranks are/were Bob Steel, Ross Martin, Jack Elam and that other guy, you know, I can't think of his name right now. Actually the list is huge.

Parenthetically, William Conrad was also known by his voice from the golden years of radio. He played the Lone Ranger and filled in for both the Whistler and the Shadow and plenty of others. He was the narrator for the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and finally got the visual recognition when he starred in Cannon, the detective series.

Folks like Mr. Chaykin are the backbone of the entertainment industry. They lend a familiarity to the smorgassboard of televison and movies and they makes us comfortable with having those who are really total strangers in our homes. In the negative, they also help to foster stereotyping and prejudice, if they happen to be good at a particular niche. They become "type-cast". We "Boo" when the black silk hat and cape come out and cheer the white hats.

Mr. Chaykin will be missed although we may have never known him, he will always be with us, there in the background while the stars shine. Or better, so the stars may shine.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 09:18 PM

I saw a DVD of The Mikado in which Conrad plays the namesake role. I don't think he sang at all, he was just there. :)

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 10:15 PM

Not recognizing the name, I looked up Maury Chaykin on Google "Images." Can't recall offhand what all I've seen him in, but he sure looks familiar!

Didn't Sidney Greenstreet (in at least two classic movies with Humpy Gocart: The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca) play Nero Wolfe way back when? I'm about 95% sure he played Wolfe at least on the radio.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 12:44 AM

Don, if you haven't seen Chaykin's Nero Wolfe then you owe yourself a trip to the public library, or order them on NetFlix. They're charming.

Maggie

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 01:12 AM

Patricia Neal also died this week. She is proof of a remarkable recovery from strokes.

Subject: RE: Patricia Neal
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 01:24 PM

She's mentioned above, Don. I was trying to start a thread for various obits. I suppose we could re-label the subject line in the individual posts (like I did here).

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Baseball player Bobby Thomson
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Aug 10 - 11:44 PM

If you were a kid growing up back in the days when baseball was truly the national game and players were really the boys of summer, fathers took us to ballgames and we shared something special. Its been said that baseball measured the years and, as "Field of Dreams" told with such poetry, there was always baseball. The kids heard the tales from the adults and looked forward to having their own tales to tell.

When I talked about home runs and the exploits of Maris or "The Mick" or Rocky Colavito or Harmon Killebrew or the many others, my Ol' Man said they were all fine but not the greatest. I asked if it was that old guy, Babe Ruth or maybe Gehrig but he just laughed. He said sometimes the number was less important then the when.......and he reiterated the story I'd heard many times before and read for myself in baseball anthologies.

Bobby Thomson......and "The Shot Heard Round The World"

In 1951 the New York Giants were over 13 games back as the season was coming to an end but they made it up to wind up in a tie with their cross town rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The playoff game (tiebreaker) was all going the Dodgers' way until they brought in Branca in the 9th. You can read the rest of the story HERE and an OBIT as well but Bobby Thomson hit a homer to win the game and send the Giants to the Series. One of the most famous radio calls in baseball history came from Russ Hodges:

Branca throws... There's a long drive... it's gonna be, I believe...THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they're goin' crazy, they're goin' crazy! HEEEY-OH!!!''

Bobby died Monday and another part of my youth sorta' died too. Thanks for playing the game and thanks for the memory.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: beeliner
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 02:36 AM

The only actor I have ever seen portray Wolfe, and rather badly, was Edward Arnold.

The problem with stage or screen portrayals of Wolfe is that while Wolfe is billed as the star of the stories and Archie the supporting character, it is, of course, really just the opposite.

But I will certainly try to find Mr. Chaykin's Wolfe at the library! I missed the TV series as I was living in Europe at the time, and was not aware of its existence before reading this thread.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:22 AM

Kevin McCarthy, known best for "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," has died. His credits are many and varied and he was an early member of The Actors Studio. No mattter the type of role, from serious stage to a Weird Al Yankovic comedy, you knew he'd be memorable in the part.

Kevin McCarthy obit


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Genie
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 06:28 AM

Kevin McCarthy was one of those very well known faces whose name was less known.   A very fine actor, IMO.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 09:17 AM

Thanks for this thread, SRS. Good approach. If you got a permathread you could edit in the list of names in the first post as you roll them in.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 11:11 AM

I don't want the others to go away, though. Just look at the dates of the entries and read the most recent.

Kevin McCarthy was never obscure in our household when I was growing up. Mom pointed out frequently that he was Mary McCarthy's younger brother. They were from Seattle, which is partly why she was so fond of the family, I think.

He was a character actor who appeared everywhere. You might be better off making a short list of the programs from the 1950s to the 1980s that he DIDN'T appear in than to catalog his performances.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: actor Kevin McCarthy
From: Genie
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:24 PM

IIRC, he was also one of the 'bad guys' (or at least a compromised one) in the 1965 suspense/mystery film "Mirage" with Gregory Peck, Diane Baker and (introducing) Walter Matthau.   Another of his excellent portrayals.

And you're right, Stilly.   He did seem to appear as a character actor in a slew of TV shows, as well as movies.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 09:08 PM

Here is his IMDb page. It's quite extensive, but this only begins the story, because as the obits point out, McCarthy worked on stage a great deal.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 09:20 PM

Yeah Maggie......His early membership in Actors Studio alongside so many legends says a lot about him as well. I always found him absolutely excellent in whatever role he played. I probably cannot repeat every good thing I saw him do but the fact he took so many wide and varied roles and did them all well.......hard to beat.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:13 PM

Today I heard that Harold Gould died, yet I was certain I'd heard about his death a few years ago. Deja vu, I guess.

Everyone will recognize his face and voice, if not his name. But in his mini-bio at IMDb, I am impressed to find this:

Harold Gould earned a Ph.D. in theatre and taught speech and drama at Cornell University. Pursuing some off-Broadway work in the 1950s, he decided to practice what he preached, and became a full-time professional actor in the 1960s. He has appeared in hundreds of TV shows since, usually playing a father, grandfather or other authority figure.

Here he is as the father in the old series Rhoda.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Genie
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:48 PM

Yes, Harold Gould was another of those very familiar faces to TV audiences. I remember when he played a recurring role on The Golden Girls and I kept trying to 'remember' his name - not realizing till later that I'd never actually known it. (I think he played one of Dorothy's love interests on the GG.)

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 06:03 PM

Aw well crap.............Talk about actors I just dearly love...........Kid Twist in "The Sting" and Big Boss in "Silent Movie."   And of course "Rhoda" and a hundred other well done and often very funny roles..........I will miss you Mr. Gould!

Spaw

Subject: TOM BOSLEY 10/20/2010
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:07 PM

A great stage actor who became one of everyone's favorite TV Dads.

Tom Bosley obit

"Happy Days" may not have been your cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.....Tom Bosley was a big part of that enjoyment.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:26 PM

You're right - it has been a hard week for TV parents - the Beav's Mom died a few days earlier.

Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver

Tom Bosley.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 12:24 AM

Johnny Sheffield who played Boy, adopted son of Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, died on October 15.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 03:41 AM

It's sad to hear about the passing of Tom Bosley he will always be Mr 'C' to me. I followed Happy Days from beginning to end up until Tom Bosley said goodbye to everyone including the viewers. It was sad. R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Becca72
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 08:33 AM

Simon McCorkindale (sp?) died the other day, too. Horrible movie aside, I developed quite a crush on him after seeing Jaws 3D...

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 08:35 AM

I didn't know that, wasn't he in that Manimal thing and also had a fling with Susan George? He couldn't have been very old.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 08:55 AM

According to Wikipedia, Simon MacCorkindale was 58 - born 12 February 1952, and married to Susan George since 1984.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 11:16 AM

I had a huge TV crush on Simon McCorkindale. That's so sad he died so young. Odd, I did an intitial Google search on him and the results came back in French and Spanish.

He did a tolerable version of Heart of Darkness, as I recall, and he was in a wonderful little espionage movie of a WWI era Erskine Childers novel called Riddle of the Sands. And he wasn't bad in one of the Agatha Christie ensembles with Peter Ustinov years ago. Jaws, whatever number that was, probably brought him the largest U.S. audience. But once he hit the nighttime soaps (Falcon Crest) and that oddball Manimal, I stopped taking him as seriously as a talented actor.

I see that the last 10 years he has been active with a Brit drama called Casualty, and happily, I see he guested in one of my favorite mysteries, New Tricks this year. Who knows when we'll get to see this season over here in the U.S.; I think we've seen up to season three now.

He apparently died at age 58 of colon cancer, four years after diagnosis. Too bad all around.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 01:02 AM

Another thread started for one who would fit here: James MacArthur, son of Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur. MacArthur played "Danno" on Hawaii Five-O

San Francisco Chronicle blogger's story.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 03:06 AM

I remember James MacArthur from Swiss Family Robinson and as Danno the baby faced cute one on Hawaii Five-O, it was a good chemistry and I would tune in purposely just to take a look at my idol.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Crowhugger
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 09:19 PM

I mostly knew & enjoyed Simon MacCorkindale inCounterstrike, a great action-adventure series from the early 1990s. Counterstrike was a Canada-France co-production also starring Christopher Plummer, Sohpie Michaud, Tom Kneebone and others. I'm pretty sure it aired in the USA at the same time it aired in Canada.

Subject: RE: Obit:--Jill Clayburgh
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 06:35 AM

Yet another great and a real class act, Jill Clayburgh died after a long term battle with lymphocytic leukemia. Though better known for others like "An Unmarried Woman," I loved her opposite Gene Wilder in "Silver Streak."

Obit here


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 11:36 AM

She was a very good actress - and not that old - only 66. So sad!

I liked her in Unmarried Woman (lucky woman acting opposite Alan Bates in his prime!) but in looking at her imdb page she had done a lot of TV programs and made-for-TV movies in the last 20 years, and I don't watch much of that, so I've missed her. She played the bigger roles in the silver screen movies up until 20 years ago. Clearly she selected her work carefully once she knew she was ill.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:08 AM

Alas, several 65-year-olds have been in the obits today. Too too young. Anyway, this post is regarding Steve Landesberg, who I remember best in the cast of Barney Miller as Detective Dietrich, the possessor of tons of arcane knowledge and dry wit. And I'm sure I saw him in lots of guest rolls in the 1970s and 80s. He died December 22, 2010.

His IMDb page.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 01:28 AM

Alas, sweet Anne Francis has died at age 80. Honey West was on when I was a kid, and that seemed about the most exciting thing around for a little kid looking at potential role models. I don't remember a thing about the show except that she was gorgeous and dynamic.

Interesting how in some of her older photos she looks a lot like the UK's Camilla.

BBC obit.

Washington Post.

Google images.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 04:05 AM

That is a shame to read about Anne Francis's death, my dad had the hots for her when I was a little girl because of the Honey West show. I think it was something to do with her beauty spot as I remember.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 06:17 AM

Interestingly, Anne Francis appeared in at least two iconic movies: "Forbidden Planet" and "Bad Day at Black Rock".
Of course, Forbidden Planet also starred the recently deceased Leslie Nielson.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 11:52 PM

Charlie Callas.

I hadn't thought of him in decades, but as soon as I saw his face in the obit, I remembered his comedy routines.

Charlie Callas, a rubber-faced funnyman who often appeared on television in the 1960s and 1970s, has died at 86 -- or 83. (His family says he was 83, but all reference sources say he was born in 1924, which would make him 86.

Callas had an old-fashioned kind of humor that doesn't seem politically correct today. He often played off physical tics such as stuttering, speech problems and shaking, but he was also a brilliant impressionist who could do dead-on sound effects of almost anything. (One of his standard gags was a phone call that began with his impression of a rotary telephone being dialed.)

Callas toured with Frank Sinatra, was often featured on Dean Martin's television programs and appeared frequently on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show -- until Callas gave Carson a shove and was banned from the show for life.

Not many people realize that Callas began his show-business career as a big-band drummer in the 1940s, as he shows in this amazing clip from what appears to be the 1980s.

Callas was particularly good on comedy roasts, which are often vulgar, profane affairs, but he managed this hilarious sendup of Frank Sinatra -- in which he pretended to be Sinatra's bodyguard -- without saying anything that would be bleeped on television. (The sound quality is rather poor.)

See the link for the video.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 08:04 PM

No one has remarked on the passing of Farley Granger, who played the handsome tennis-playing protagonist in the classic Hitchcock flick Stranger on a Train (1951). Starring in that ultimate "what if" story was perhaps why most people know him today. New York Times obit. He also starred with James Stewart in the creepy Hitchcock one-set film (it had been a play) film Rope (1948).

After about 10 years in film he shifted focus and had a very busy career working in television programs of all sorts - from TV movies to soap operas and lots of one-off series guest performances.

He had a long time (1963) partner, Robert Calhoun, who died in 2007. All things considered, having a partner through the 1970s and early 80s probably saved his life in the time of AIDS. So many other gay performers of his age died awful and secretive deaths (I'm thinking of Rock Hudson and Rudolf Nureyev, in particular). A quote from his IMDb page says "I have never felt the need to belong to any exclusive, self-defining or special group. I find it difficult to answer questions about 'gay life' in Hollywood when I was living and working there. There were, of course, gay cliques, but I had no close friends who belonged to any of them, and I had no desire to become involved with any of them ... I was never ashamed, and I never felt the need to explain or apologize for my relationships to anyone."

More power to him.

RIP, Mr. Granger.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 09:27 PM

Damn but if he didn't crack me up. Thanks for all of those noises I learned from you to interject in my speaking **brrzzp** to drive other people crazy. I got thru that period but I still loved the bits!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 05:15 PM

Spaw - Are you talking about Farley Granger or Charlie Callas?

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Mar 11 - 06:49 AM

Charlie Callas

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 11:15 PM

Wayne Robson who played Mike Hamar in the Red Green Show has passed away in his sleep last night.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 11:27 PM

I remember him. Had to look him up to be sure. IMDb says he was on the show from 1994 to 2005.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 11:53 PM

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Tura Satana ("Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!") or Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on "Doctor Who").

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 07:45 AM

Sorry to hear about Wayne Robson. He did a fine turn as an aging miner with black lung in "Harlan County War." Was a fine character actor who popped up in all kinds of work.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Genie
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 04:08 PM

Especially sad to hear of Charlie Callas's passing. He was one of my all-time favorite comics.
One of his most ROFLMAO routines was a not-so-far-fetched impression of a Playboy centerfold going through her provocatively contorted poses while talking about her down-home values, wishes for world peace, better education for all, etc.   The gangly Charlie, fully clothed, was side-splittingly funny while doing this one.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:05 AM

Elisabeth Sladen, who was "Sara Jane" in Dr Who and the Sara Jane Adventures has died of cancer at age 63. clicky.

I always found her a bit screamy in the early episodes, but I enjoyed her tough mom role in the recent series. Sad to see her go, especially before her time.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:07 AM

A memorial page for Elisabeth Sladen on the BBC Doctor Who web site

~ B in T

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:07 AM

I still have to watch the Dr. Who series one of these days, I don't remember her in particular. Regardless of that, 63 is too young to die.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 02:36 AM

I didn't realise that Elisabeth Sladen was 63 - which is still too young to die. She always seemed to be more of a girly girl a far cry from animal skin clad Louise Jameson which makes it all the more harder to believe that she was 63. It is a shame just as her career on tv was coming back.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 06:09 PM

Grete Waitz also died yesterday, though she was a famous long-distance runner, not an actor. Still another death way too young. She was 57.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 08:39 PM

Actor Michael Sarrazin died at age 70 in Canada after a brief battle with cancer.

Aroud 40 years ago, he seemed to be in everything. Definitely the "flavor of the month." Then, after a few years, his career faltered and he seemed to disappear. It had been a long time since I heard his name mentioned. I remember all those years ago, he was involved for a time with Jacqueline Bisset.

Saw this posted on the Internet earlier today.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 10:28 PM

Michael Sarrazin was so handsome, and really got a career boost in The Flim Flam Man with George C. Scott. I posted a link somewhere recently about his performance in the TV movied Frankenstein: The True Story. He played the Creature without makeup, simply the responses to him and his behavior conveyed his hideous looks, much as later performances of The Elephant Man (another actor, hopefully still living).

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 11:18 PM

"The Flim-Flam Man" is still one of my favorite movies......Sad about Michael isn't it? So many actors of my youth are coming into their older years............very sad..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 12:24 AM

I remember Michael Sarrazin in Frankenstein - The True Story (which it really wasn't) started out handsome, and without makeup, but as the story progressed, his face deteriorated more and more. The teleplay was written by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, and there was a strong hint of homosexual overtones in the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. James Mason's "Dr. Polidori" had nothing to do with the original novel, and, IMO, was totally unnecessary. The cast was good, but the adaptation could have been a helluva lot closer to what Mary Shelley wrote.

Still, after all these years, I remember the performances of Leonard Whiting (Victor) and Michael Sarrazin (the Creature).

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 09:03 AM

I liked Michael Sarrazin in Frankenstein - The True Story and the concept of it because beauty and good looks mixed with the media and the decline can become a monster.

'They Shoot Horses Don't They' again was such an unusual film, I wish quirky films were made like this again, to me now looking back it was a little bit like the forerunner of reality tv of it's day but in the form of a broadcasted dance marathon each couple with a story desperate for the money.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Wesley S
Date: 22 Apr 11 - 07:37 AM

Not an actor - but Madelyn Pugh Davis wrote most of the scripts for the I Love Lucy show.


Madelyn Pugh Davis Obit

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 11 - 10:31 AM

Dana Wynter (don't know how durable that link is). Daily News. Most of the news stories that turn up in Google news are a couple of short paragraphs. These links added content.

Dana Wynter may not have been a top flight star, but she always seemed to come across as a lady (the roles in which she typically was cast). The last film I saw with her was Airport, as Burt Lancaster's unhappy wife. She was in lots of television programs, and I think was one of the rare "love interests" in a couple of televisions series (Ironside, etc.). Somehow cast as an unattainable goddess for some.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 19 May 11 - 01:14 PM

Edward Hardwicke, Dr. Watson to Jeremy Brett's TV Sherlock Holmes, has died of cancer at 78.

From the NY Times obituary:

"Shadowlands," a film about the unlikely romance of the Oxford academic C. S. Lewis and the American Joy Davidson, gave Mr. Hardwicke his most acclaimed film role as Lewis's brother Warnie. He was also known for playing a character based on Pat Reid, the British Army officer and war hero, in the BBC drama "Colditz."

Among his other films were "The Day of the Jackal" (1973); "Richard III" (1995), with Ian McKellen; "Elizabeth" (1998), with Cate Blanchett; "The Gathering Storm" (2002), with Vanessa Redgrave; and "Love Actually" (2003), with Hugh Grant.

Mr. Hardwicke also did voice work for video games, including "Napoleon Total War" and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary."

---

Sad to hear. I still enjoy his Dr. Watson.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 11 - 01:33 PM

Sad to hear that, too. We've both always enjoyed his Dr. Watson.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 11 - 07:06 PM

I don't remember him in Love, Actually. I'll have to go look at it again.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 May 11 - 07:29 PM

Jeff Conaway, who I hadn't thought of in years, but knew immediately when I saw his name. He was one of the regulars on Taxi.

Jeff Conaway, who starred in "Taxi" and played Danny Zuko's buddy Kenickie in 1978's "Grease," has died after more than two weeks in a coma.

Spokeswoman Kathryn Boole says the 60-year-old actor died Friday morning at the Encino Tarzana Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized in a coma since May 11. His manager, Phil Brock, has said Conaway had tried to treat himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in weakened health.

The actor was found unconscious in his apartment on May 11. Doctors had said there was no hope for his recovery and his family decided to take him off life support on Thursday, according to E! News.

Conaway's ex-girlfriend, Vikki Lizzi, had gone to court to try and prevent the action. E! reports that Lizzi and Conaway had filed dueling restraining orders against each other in March after their breakup. At the time, Conaway had claimed she was injecting him with prescription drugs against his will.

He led a troubled life, apparently. See the full obit at MSNBC.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 May 11 - 11:12 AM

Wow.......Loved him on Taxi and also in Grease of course. I read somewhere once that because he (and several others including Barry Bostwick......Barry Bostwick?......Geeziz....) had played Danny Zuko on Broadway Conaway was hoping to get the movie role and never really liked settling for Kenickie. He also hated stooping over in the movie to make Travolta appear taller.

Pretty troubled life he led ...............Rest Easy



Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,coyote breath as guest
Date: 28 May 11 - 12:18 PM

He and August Schellenberg (Halmark's "Dreamkeeper", among others) played bad guys in a Charles Bronson flick based on a true story from the Depression era in the Northwest Territories called "Death Hunt" (what else?). Lee Marvin played the crusty RCMP sergeant. Every once in a while he shows up in off the wall films. I wonder if there is a complete 'filmography' of his work?

CB

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 May 11 - 12:25 PM

A great site for all movie info is at the Internet Movie Data Base...IMDB.com. Click the link for Jeff Conaway's pages.......scroll down for complete filmography.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 10:36 PM

Anna Massey

An AP story, via the Washington Post:

Anna Massey, who as a young actress was killed off in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" (1972) and later became a stalwart of British period dramas, often cast as a waspish spinster or maiden aunt, died July 2 in London. She was 73 and had cancer.

The actress was born in 1937 into a performing family — her father was Canadian actor Raymond Massey, and her mother was British actress Adrianne Allen. Her brother, Daniel Massey, also became an actor, and her godfather was director John Ford.

Ms. Massey made her West End stage debut at 17 in "The Reluctant Debutante" and her film debut in Ford's 1958 police procedural "Gideon's Day."

She had roles in films including Michael Powell's chiller "Peeping Tom" (1960), Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake is Missing" (1965) and the 2002 adaptation of "The Importance of Being Earnest," in which she played the comic governess Miss Prism.

Ms. Massey worked most frequently in television period dramas. She appeared in TV adaptations of Anthony Trollope's "The Pallisers," Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and many others.

Ms. Massey won Britain's top acting award for her role in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac."

Anna Massey, who as a young actress was killed off in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" (1972) and later became a stalwart of British period dramas, often cast as a waspish spinster or maiden aunt, died July 2 in London. She was 73 and had cancer.

The actress was born in 1937 into a performing family — her father was Canadian actor Raymond Massey, and her mother was British actress Adrianne Allen. Her brother, Daniel Massey, also became an actor, and her godfather was director John Ford.

Ms. Massey made her West End stage debut at 17 in "The Reluctant Debutante" and her film debut in Ford's 1958 police procedural "Gideon's Day."

She had roles in films including Michael Powell's chiller "Peeping Tom" (1960), Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake is Missing" (1965) and the 2002 adaptation of "The Importance of Being Earnest," in which she played the comic governess Miss Prism.

Ms. Massey worked most frequently in television period dramas. She appeared in TV adaptations of Anthony Trollope's "The Pallisers," Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and many others.

Ms. Massey won Britain's top acting award for her role in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac."

In 2006, Ms. Massey played former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the TV drama "Pinochet in Suburbia."

The actress revealed in a memoir that she had struggled with depression and stage fright, and suffered a nervous breakdown in the 1960s.

She once said that as an actor, "I'm not instinctive. It takes enormous discipline and bravery to get me there."

Her first marriage, to actor Jeremy Brett, ended in divorce. Survivors include her second husband, Uri Andres; and a son from her first marriage.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 02:24 AM

Sad to hear that Anna Massey has gone, she was a fine actress and also narrated many wild life Survival programmes. Her voice will be missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 04:48 AM

Here in the States, PBS stations just aired the adaptation of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel The Clocks in which Anna Massey had a prominent role.

Very sorry to hear of her passing.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 04:11 PM

I'm old enough enough that I see people I'd heard of or more quite often; and I look periodically at "Deaths in [July 2011 etc......Wiki"

So most recently, the actress Margaret Tyzack [she played Claudius's Mum in I,Claudius]; and the violinist Josef Suk.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 05:10 PM

I'm sure UK Mudcatters already knew this, but I just found out that actor Trevor Bannister died in April at the age of 76.

Americans would know him for his role as the perpetually on-the-make Mr. Lucas in the British comedy series Are You Being Served? The series is still being shown on many Public Television stations around the US.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 06:59 PM

"I'm old enough enough that I see people I'd heard of or more quite often"

should have ended

"........ I'd heard of or more quite often in the obituary columns......."

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 01:16 PM

Don't know if anyone remembers the film A Canterbury Tale (1944). I saw it only the other week on YouTube.

One of the main characters was an American, John Sweet. He wasn't then an actor but was in the military.He was chosen to play someone from the military for the film.

He died on the 5th July, aged 95.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 01:43 PM

Thanks to BJ for the post regarding Trevor Bannister. I had seen that awhile back and meant to post it here.

I still watch AYBS even though I've seen them all 30 times before. It gets harder to watch as I realize that out of the original cast, only Frank Thornton (Captain Peacock) at 90 and Nicolas Smith (Mr. Rumbold) at 77 are still alive.

HERE is a pretty good obit with an equally kinda' sad picture............

I miss them all..........


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 10:05 PM

Here are three more well-known American actors that died recently:

Sada Thompson - award-winning stage and television actress died from lung disease on May 4 at the age of 83. Among her many memorable roles, she was the matriarch in the 1976 TV series "Family," and played Mary Todd Lincoln in the early '70s miniseries "Sandburg's Lincoln" opposite Hal Holbrook.

Marian Mercer - Tony award-winning stage and TV actress known for her comedic roles on "The Dean Martin Show," "Making A Living," and many other guest-starring roles, died April 27 at the age of 75 from Alzheimer's Disease. She won her Tony award for her role in the 1969 musical "Promises, Promises."

Don Diamond - character actor known for cartoon voice overs, and who also appeared in the TV series "The Adventures of Kit Carson," and was probably most remembered as the Indian "Crazy Cat" in the 1960's TV series "F Troop." He died from heart failure at the age of 90 on June 19.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 12:47 PM

Just announced on the Beeb that Googie Withers has died.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 01:04 PM

Googie Withers story in BBC.

Google images search.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Wesley S
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 07:43 AM

Have you heard of L Jay Findley? Probably not. He was a movie stuntman among other things. His best known stunt was in "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid"


L Jay Findlay Obit

Here's the jump

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 09:38 PM

Both athlete (and a great one) and actor, Bubba Smith has died at 67. Here's an obit ... Bubba

All those Police comedies.........thanks for making it fun and for the great ability you brought to football.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 10:34 PM

I recognize him, but I never knew his name. Thanks, Spaw! I never saw those police movies, so he must have done a few other things.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 06:53 AM

Bubba Smith has died.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blog/article/228934/police-academy-star-bubba-smith-dies-aged-66.html

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 07:17 AM

Tom Aldredge of The Sopranos

Tom Aldredge



Linda Christian, the first bond girl, technically.

Linda Christian



Christopher Mayer [Dukes of hazzard]

Christopher Mayer




Richard Pearson

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 11 - 11:37 AM

Alas, we have lost John Howard Davies, the producer of so many of the classic British comedies that were imported for us to enjoy in the U.S. I suspect that if his name was on it, that was good enough for some of the US PBS program purchasers.

From my local PBS station.

There are only a handful of individuals that any one of us crosses paths with, either directly or indirectly, who have an impact on so many lives. John Howard Davies was one such individual. You may not know the face, unless you happen to have a DVD of the 1948 classic David Lean film, Oliver Twist, where a 9 year old John played Oliver, but you definitely should know the name.

Even if you don't recognize the name, I would venture to say, there are very few on the planet that don't know John's work. John was producer/director of such classic British comedy series as The Goodies, Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers, Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Good Life, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Blackadder (pilot) and Mr. Bean to name but a few. As Head of Comedy for the BBC from 1977-1982, John was responsible for launching the likes of Yes Minister, Not the Nine O'Clock News, To the Manor Born, Only Fools and Horses and 'Allo, 'Allo. If that wasn't enough, it was on to Thames Television in 1985 where he was instrumental in the early days of Men Behaving Badly, starring Martin Clunes, Neil Morrissey and Caroline Quentin.

Over the past several years, those of us involved in the production of a number of British comedy retrospective specials for PBS have had the incredible good fortune to spend quality time with John, who was one of the kindest, most giving of his time, individuals who wanted nothing more than to share insights from his life's work and, hopefully, pass along thoughts to the next generation of producer/directors, actors/actresses…and viewers, as to how he spent almost 50 years making people laugh.

Read the rest and see a couple of clips at the link above.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 05:53 AM

Was it John Howard Davies as a child also in another film (black and white) where he and another small boy come across an abandoned baby (babby)? The film stands out in my mind mostly because of the endearing acting of the other small boy.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 09:21 AM

Here is his oeuvre and there are five films in there.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 03:38 AM

Iya Savvina. She was the heroine of the Russian version (1960) of Chekhov's Lady withe the [Little] Dog, the most beautiful love story I ever saw. How sad.

Date of Birth
2 March 1936, Voronezh, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]

Date of Death
27 August 2011, Russia

Birth Name
Iya Sergeyevna Savvina

Mini Biography [just to the mid-70s]
Iya Savvina is a Russian actress of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).

She was born Iya Sergeevna Savvina on March 2, 1936, in Voronezh, Russia, Soviet Union (now Russia). From 1954 - 1958 she studied Journalism at Moscow University, graduating in 1958 as a journalist. While a student, Savvina was active in student drama club of Moscow University. There she was spotted by casting directors from Lenfilm studios and made her film debut in Leningrad: Savvina shot to fame with the leading role opposite Aleksey Batalov in Dama s sobachkoj [The Lady with the Dog] (1960) by director Iosif Kheifits [Heifits]. From 1960 - 1977 Iya Savvina was member of the Mossoveta theatre in Moscow. There her stage partners were such actors as Rostislav Plyatt, Georgi Zhzhyonov, and Aleksandr Lazarev among others.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: autolycus
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 03:49 AM

Savvina in 1960 film

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Little Robyn
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 06:38 AM

Guest Patsy, the boy you're thinking of was Jon Whiteley in The Little Kidnappers.
John Howard Davies was Oliver, about the same time.
We saw both movies when we were kids and they made quite an impression.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 08:13 AM

Andy Whitfield, the British star of 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand', has died at the age of 39.

The actor died yesterday in Sydney, Australia, following a battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 11 - 07:44 PM

Cliff Robertson was a well-known and well-respected actor for many decades. I can think of many favorite performances of his. Charly, My Father's House that I at an early age recognized as a tour-de-force as the roles switched between Robert Preston and Cliff Robertson but was perhaps under-rated because it was a TV movie, The Honey Pot, and many of his television roles (Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, etc.)

Obituary from Washington Post.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 11 - 09:59 AM

IMDb page for Cliff Robertson. Running it back up to the top - surely someone who was in a classic role (the Ventriloquist) on Twilight Zone would merit attention here!

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:17 AM

Actor Colin Tarrant, who was best known for his role as Inspector Andrew Monroe in The Bill, has died.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/bill-actor-colin-tarrant-dies-59-103218601.html

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 01:33 PM

There have been some additional notable deaths recently:

Nicol Williamson, 73, memorable as Merlin in Excalibur and Sherlock Holmes in The Seven Per Cent Solution.

James Farentino, 73, popular dramatic actor in American series television in the 1970's and 1980's.

Dick Tufeld, 85, voice actor best known for voicing the Robot in the 1960's TV series Lost In Space.

Dimitra Arliss, 79, who had a small but memorable role in the 1973 film The Sting.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 04:42 PM

Dimitra Arliss was excellent in the Sting. Didn't know she had passed. Very sad.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 05:17 PM

James Farentino? He was a real heart-throb in the 1960s and 70s. I don't have a grown-up assessment of his acting, since he seemed to drop out of sight (as far as I know) or changed so much in appearance that I didn't realize I was watching him.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:04 PM

Didn't know him from The Bill, but his performance as Brian Clough in The Spirit of The Man was absolutely phenomenal.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 12 - 10:33 PM

Ben Gazzara. One damned good actor.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 08 Feb 12 - 04:47 AM

Horror movie icon Bill Hinzman has died after losing his cancer battle. He was 75.

Hinzman was working as an assistant cameraman when he was cast as a zombie in 1968 cult film Night of the Living Dead and the role earned him icon status among horror fans.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 07 Mar 12 - 12:59 PM

Sad news of the death of British actress Gemma McCluskie. Her brother was arrested in connection with her death this afternoon.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/canal-torso-may-ex-soap-star-161115641.html

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 07:57 PM

Richard Lynch has passed. The scarred and yet still handsome face played numerous bad guys and a few good guys but also had a tremendous stage career. Here's the bio at IMDB.....Richard Lynch dead at 76


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 10:10 PM

Meant to post this in April. Jonathan Frid, best known for his role as Barnabas Collins the vampire in the TV serial Dark Shadows, passed away.

The series was supposed to be set in Maine, but there was a Rhode Island connection. It was here that the opening title shots were filmed. And years after the series folded, one of its actresses. Alexandra Isles, testified in the trial of Claus Von Bulow, This trial was the subject of the movie Reversal of Fortune.

Here's a link to Frid's obituary. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/arts/television/jonathan-frid-ghoulish-dark-shadows-star-dies-at-87.html

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Terry Allan Hall
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 10:52 PM

Today, sci-fi horror actor Richard Lynch, who employed his scarred face to play villainous characters in such films as "Bad Dreams" and "The Sword and the Sorcerer" has died. Richard Lynch was 76.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 12:27 AM

I'd forgotten about this thread - quite a few names of interesting character actors have turned up in the news. Thanks for reviving it.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: fat B****rd
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 05:48 AM

RIP Victor Spinetti.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 03:08 PM

Henry Hill, whose life the film Goodfellas is based on, died sometime ago.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 03:12 PM

Oh and Caroline John who played the Doctor's companion, Liz Shaw, died on the fifth.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 02:22 PM

Just read that Don Grady died. I had a HUGE crush on him when I was in elementary school (from reruns, of course)

Obit

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 03:08 PM

Oh my! Rob was 68! Since I only remember seeing him back when My Three Sons was on I hadn't thought about him as growing older. It looks like he managed to move successfully beyond the teen heart throb of 40 years ago.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 07:14 AM

And now, Andy Griffith.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 11:47 AM

Yes, and he's getting some well-deserved attention for a few days. It looks like he had a long happy life and I hope he had a peaceful death. The fact that he was living in North Carolina and not Hollywood probably says he was in the place he wanted to be. I read that he "knew his way around" Hollywood, but when it comes to peaceful living, I don't think LA sounds like a great retirement area.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 12 - 06:23 PM

Ernest Borgnine obit - died today at age 95.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 08:01 PM

We ran a separate thread on Ernest Borgnine.

Celeste Holm just died at age 95 also. If you're an old movie buff you know her well. Great stage actress well known as the Ado Annie in "Oklahoma." RIP Fairy Godmother...........

Times Obit



Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 12:15 AM

I liked Celeste Holm. Wasn't she the best friend in All About Eve - that was often a role she played, the friend, but she did it very well. And I remember her in a program I loved as a child, the NBC version of Cinderella with Leslie Warren. Holm was the Fairy Godmother. Great cast in that program - Ginger Rogers and Walter Pigeon as the king and queen.

She was rather like Greer Garson, except she never made it as big as Garson.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 06:25 PM

I remember Holm best in High Society, parts of which were filmed in Ri, and in Oklahoma--none of which was filmed in RI. I wonder if parts were filmed in OK.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 12:12 PM

Celeste Holm was the original Ado Annie ON STAGE but the part was done by Gloria Grahame who is possibly best known as "Violet," the wayward "IT" girl in It's a Wonderful Life. Interestingly enough, GG was nominated for an Oscar for her work in Crossfire but lost out to Celeste Holm for her role in Gentlemens Agreement, a fine and classic movie about anti-semitism you have probably seen.


BTW......Oklahoma was filmed at MGM with the outdoor scenes in Arizona............Is your "mental image" of Arizona anything like the one for Oklahoma? LOL..........Been to both and I know there are those parts but somehow.........................


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 08:47 PM

She only did Ado Annie on stage? Oops!

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 07:58 PM

I have to revise my view, also. I didn't think about all of the stage work Holm was doing, just the type of character she was playing in the films I've seen. Characterizing her as the one who rarely got the guy is probably more accurate than saying she wasn't on the same level as Garson.

That article the obit links to (about the husband who was 45 years younger) is so depressing.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 12 - 04:24 PM

Today on Fresh Air they re-played an interview with Celeste Holm from 1990.

Story and link to broadcast.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Aug 12 - 02:49 PM

Just read that Ron Palillo died of a heart attack....63 years old and best known as "Horshak" on Welcome Back Kotter. The "Sweathogs" are dropping like flies. I wonder if Travolta is worried?

Nice guy and gave back to his community......Obit



Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Aug 12 - 03:00 PM

I watched that program occasionally - I am glad to read that over the years he was able to do what he wanted, and it sounds like a great school he ended up in. RIP, Mr. Palillo.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Don Firth
Date: 14 Aug 12 - 05:59 PM

Not nationally or internationally famous, but certainly well-known in the Pacific Northwest. Stilly may remember her.

Longtime KOMO-TV evening news anchorwoman, Kathi Goertzen, just died after a long, fourteen year battle with recurrent brain tumors.

The comments of her co-workers at KOMO say it all. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 03:51 PM

Jerry Nelson, the voice of Count von Count on Sesame Street (among other muppets) passed away.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 03:57 PM

So sad to read about Nelson - we enjoyed his songs and muppets as my kids were growing up.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 05:31 AM

I loved The Count.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 13 - 12:21 PM

Karen Black

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/09/210377569/five-easy-pieces-star-karen-black-dead-at-74

Karen Black, the prolific actress who appeared in more than 100 movies and was featured in such counterculture favorites as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Nashville, has died in Los Angeles.

Black's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, says the actress died Wednesday from complications from cancer. She was 74.

Known for her full lips and thick, wavy hair that seemed to change color from film to film, Black often portrayed women who were quirky, troubled or threatened. Her breakthrough was as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider, the hippie classic that helped get her the role of Rayette Dipesto, a waitress who dates — and is mistreated by — an upper-class dropout played by Jack Nicholson in 1970's Five Easy Pieces.

Cited by The New York Times as a "pathetically appealing vulgarian," Black's performance won her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Award. She would recall that playing Rayette really was acting: The well-read, cerebral Black, raised in a comfortable Chicago suburb, had little in common with her relatively simple-minded character.

"If you look through the eyes of Rayette, it looks nice, really beautiful, light, not heavy, not serious. A very affectionate woman who would look upon things with love, and longing," Black told Venice Magazine in 2007. "A completely uncritical person, and in that sense, a beautiful person. When (director) Bob Rafelson called me to his office to discuss the part he said, 'Karen, I'm worried you can't play this role because you're too smart.' I said 'Bob, when you call "action," I will stop thinking,' because that's how Rayette is.'"

In 1971, Black starred with Nicholson again in Drive, He Said, which Nicholson also directed. Over the next few years, she worked with such top actors and directors as Richard Benjamin (Portnoy's Complaint), Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (The Great Gatsby) and Charlton Heston (Airport 1975). She was nominated for a Grammy Award after writing and performing songs for Nashville, in which she played a country singer in Robert Altman's 1975 ensemble epic. Black also starred as a jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, Family Plot, released in 1976.

"We used to read each other poems and limericks and tried to catch me on my vocabulary," she later said of Hitchcock. "He once said, 'You seem very perspicacious today, Miss Black.' I said, 'Oh, you mean "keenly perceptive?" 'Yes.' So I got him this huge, gold-embossed dictionary that said 'Diction-Harry,' at the end of the shoot."

The actress would claim that her career as an A-list actress was ruined by The Day of the Locust, a troubled 1975 production of the Nathanael West novel that brought her a Golden Globe nomination but left Black struggling to find quality roles. By the end of the '70s, she was appearing in television and in low-budget productions. Black received strong reviews in 1982 as a transsexual in Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. But despite working constantly over the next 30 years, she was more a cult idol than a major Hollywood star. Her credits included guest appearances on such TV series as Law & Order and Party of Five and enough horror movies, notably Trilogy of Terror, that a punk band named itself "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black."

Black was also a screenwriter and a playwright whose credits included the musical Missouri Waltz and A View of the Heart, a one-woman show in which she starred.

Black was born Karen Ziegler and grew up in Park Ridge, Ill. Her father was a sales executive and violinist, her mother the children's novelist Elsie Reif Zeigler. By grade school, she already knew she wanted to be an actress and at age 15, she enrolled in Northwestern University to study drama. By the early 1960s, she had moved to New York; made her film debut, in The Prime Time; and had married Charles Black, whose last name she kept even though they were together only for a short time.

She studied acting under Lee Strasberg and through the '60s worked off-Broadway and in television, including Mannix and Adam-12. Her first Broadway show, The Playroom, lasted less than a month, but brought her to the attention of a young director-screenwriter, Francis Ford Coppola, who cast her in the 1966 release You're a Big Boy Now.

Black was married four times. She is survived by Eckelberry, a son and a daughter.

Rolling Stone from Nashville

Saturday Night Live in 1975

More search results.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 14 - 03:38 PM

Eli Wallach

From the New York Times.

Eli Wallach, who was one of his generation's most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 98.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Katherine.

A self-styled journeyman actor, the versatile Mr. Wallach appeared in scores of roles, often with his wife, Anne Jackson. No matter the part, he always seemed at ease and in control, whether playing a Mexican bandit in the 1960 western "The Magnificent Seven," a bumbling clerk in Ionesco's allegorical play "Rhinoceros," a henpecked French general in Jean Anouilh's "Waltz of the Toreadors," Clark Gable's sidekick in "The Misfits" or a Mafia don in "The Godfather: Part III."

Despite his many years of film work, some of it critically acclaimed, Mr. Wallach was never nominated for an Academy Award. But in November 2010, less than a month before his 95th birthday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him an honorary Oscar, saluting him as "the quintessential chameleon, effortlessly inhabiting a wide range of characters, while putting his inimitable stamp on every role."

Read the rest at the link. He was in some really great movies, and lived a long and full life. RIP.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,#
Date: 25 Jun 14 - 04:15 PM

He was a man of few words at times.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Jun 14 - 10:04 AM

I liked him in 'Lord Jim' but the Leone films are certified classics.
RIP Mr. Wallach

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 14 - 07:05 PM

A big name in musical theater passed away.

Mary Rodgers Guettel

Mary Rodgers Guettel,

an accomplished author, screenwriter and composer, Mary Rodgers' earliest professional credits included serving as Assistant to the Producer of Leonard Bernstein's New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts. Her Broadway career began as composer of the 1959 musical ONCE UPON A MATTRESS starring Carol Burnett, later broadcast to great success on network television and revived repeatedly. More than 400 productions of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS are presented annually in the U.S. and Canada and a 1997 Broadway production starring Sarah Jessica Parker earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical Revival. ABC-TV presented a new version of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS on "The Wonderful World of Disney" in late 2005 (subsequently released on DVD), once again starring Carol Burnett-this time as the wicked Queen Aggravain, with Tracy Ullman as Princess Winnifred.

Ms. Rodgers had been a popular author of fiction for young people ever since her first book was released in 1972: Freaky Friday received the first prize at the Book World Spring Book Festival Awards, The Christopher Award, and was cited on the ALA Notable Book List. In 1977 Disney Studios adapted Freaky Friday into a movie, with screenplay by Rodgers, and starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; a remake was broadcast on the ABC television network in 1995 and a musical version, by Rodgers and John Forster, was presented by Theatreworks/USA in 1991; and a new film remake, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, was released by Walt Disney Pictures in Summer 2003.

Read the rest at the link.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Jun 14 - 12:39 AM

I had thought that Eli Wallach was already dead...so sorry. Glad he lived to be old, though I will always think of him as The Ugly, with that birdwhistle-music... kinda like thoughts of Spaw always came with fart-sounds. Sigh.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 14 - 10:21 PM

Lorin Maazel

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/arts/music/lorin-maazel-brilliant-intense-and-enigmatic-conductor-dies-at-84.html

Lorin Maazel, a former child prodigy who went on to become the music director of the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera and several other ensembles and companies around the world, and who was known for his incisive and sometimes extreme interpretations, died on Sunday at his home in Castleton, Va. He was 84.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said Jenny Lawhorn, a spokeswoman for Mr. Maazel. In recent days, he had been rehearsing for the Castleton Festival, which takes place on his farm.

Mr. Maazel (pronounced mah-ZELL) was a study in contradictions, and he evoked strong feelings, favorable and otherwise, from musicians, administrators, critics and audiences.

He projected an image of an analytical intellectual — he had studied mathematics and philosophy in college, was fluent in six languages (French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, as well as English) and kept up with many subjects outside music — and his performances could seem coolly fastidious and emotionally distant. Yet such performances were regularly offset by others that were fiery and intensely personalized.

See the rest of the obit at the link.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Sep 14 - 04:51 PM

Joan Rivers. I'm sure she acted in some things, playing herself - not a stretch.

She was a very funny lady for a lot of years, but seems of late to have adopted some churlish world views. I didn't pay close attention so am not going to say more. Her prime was during Johnny Carson's prime - she was a fool to jump ship for FOX.

For years Rivers touted the plastic surgery as the way to stay on top for her show business life, and I understand the procedure that brought about her death was for her voice, not her face, but in the last 10 years or so all of the medical attention made her look cartoonish. I wonder if it also made her more fragile for each successive procedure?

ABCNews obit.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:26 AM

when I got home the hubby informed me that Betty white had passed and then went on that Joan Rivers had also gone...

Joan was an aquired taste, but Betty White was always a class act and sharp as a tack... what she could pull off with that innocent deadpan look was priceless...

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:43 AM

Betty White is still alive.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:45 AM

There was a Onion-like humor piece that people didn't read before forwarding this week. It say she "dyed quietly at home." Her hair.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: pdq
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:46 AM

Betty White is alive and doing OK. Death claim is another hoax.

Joan Rivers was one of the greatest female comics ever. Maybe Phylis Diller was the most important because she started a decade before Rivers.

Totie Fields was important but died at 49.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:53 AM

good to hear.. I didn't go on-line last night, so didn't hear it was a hoax... :)

having lost so many recently, it seemed legit

but have never understood the juvenile need to create such sad hoaxs.

Subject: RE: Obit: A Well-(or not so)-Known Actor Died
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 10:54 AM

Regarding Joan Rivers, there's a nice article by Kathy Griffin, in the LA Times

I find it so incredibly ironic that people who have tons of plastic surgery because they worry about the way they look, are usually criticized for the way they look. We are a shallow people...