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Actress Deborah Kerr Dies at 86
18 October 2007 (IMDb News Flash)
Deborah Kerr, the elegant, red-headed actress best known for her roles in The King and I and From Here to Eternity, died Tuesday (10/16) of Parkinson's disease in Suffolk, England. She was 86.

Kerr was born in Scotland in 1921. A former ballet dancer, she acted on the stage as well but was quickly put before the cameras. She was 20 when she was cast in a supporting part in Major Barbara, opposite Rex Harrison and multiple roles in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp as Blimp's (and the directors') ideal woman. Her next role for Powell, a lead part as a Catholic nun in Black Narcissus five years later, made her a star and got the attention of Hollywood.

On contract with MGM, she was often cast as a refined paragon of womanly virtue, appearing as the virtuous Lygia in Quo Vadis?, the headstrong Beth in King Solomon's Mines, and Portia, the noble wife of the equally noble Brutus (James Mason) in Julius Caesar.

Kerr went decidedly against that typecasting when she landed the part of the adulterous Karen Holmes, who has an affair with one of her husband's subordinates, played by Burt Lancaster, in 1953's From Here to Eternity. Kerr and Lancaster's lusty beachside romp, one so intense that they seem oblivious to the pounding waves about them, became one of the most notorious and famous kisses in movie history, perhaps all the more so due to Kerr's established image of reserve and civility.

She went on to return to that image in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's musical The King and I. Marni Nixon was dubbed in for Ms. Kerr's singing voice, but it was all Deborah filling the screen as the prim but level-headed Anna Leonowens. The film was a smashing success and earned nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Though her co-star, Yul Brynner won for Best Actor, Kerr was not to win for Best Actress (that went to Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia). Indeed Kerr was never to win an acting Oscar though she was nominated six times in twelve years.

Kerr followed King with more memorable roles, including Terry McKay, the vibrant, witty woman with whom Cary Grant has An Affair to Remember, the matriarch of an Australian family of sheep-drovers in The Sundowners, a nun again, shipwrecked with a hard-living Marine (Robert Mitchum) in Heaven Knows, Mr. Alison, and a governess utterly unable to comprehend her charges in The Innocents.

Kerr acted sporadically thereafter and moved to Switzerland for many years before returning to the UK in the face of her illness. Married twice, she is survived by her second husband, screenwriter Peter Viertel, two children from her first marriage, and three grandchildren.

In 1994 she received an honorary Oscar for being "An artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance." -Keith Simanton, IMDb

Director Richard Fleischer Dies at 89
24 March 2006 (WENN)
Director Richard Fleischer, a prolific filmmaker who helmed such movies as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Fantastic Voyage, and Soylent Green, died Saturday of natural causes in Los Angeles; he was 89. The son of pioneering animator Max Fleischer (one of the men behind famed characters Betty Boop and Popeye), Richard joined RKO's New York branch in the early 40s as a writer and producer for the studio's Flicker Flashbacks series and won an Oscar for the documentary Design for Death. By the end of the decade was ensconced in Hollywood, directing a number of low-budget noir thrillers, one of his most famous being the train-set The Narrow Margin, one of the first films to use a handheld camera and filmed in only 13 days; it was later remade in the 90s. In 1954, Fleischer got his big break courtesy of Walt Disney (his father's rival), who tapped him to direct the big-screen adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. Disney's first entire live-action movie made in the United States, it became one of the studio's most famous and well-known films, inspiring attractions at Disney's theme parks that utilized versions of the Nautilus submarine and the famed battle with a giant squid. Fleischer's career was marked by forays into numerous genres, with some of his more notable movies being The Vikings (1958), Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Boston Strangler (1968), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Soylent Green (1973), and the Neil Diamond version of The Jazz Singer (1980). He also directed some of Hollywood's most well-known flops, including the Oscar-nominated musical Doctor Dolittle, the biopic Che! and the slave drama Mandingo. Throughout the 80s, Fleischer worked on a number of modern-day B movies, including cult faves Conan the Destroyer (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Grace Jones) and Red Sonja. He is survived by his wife, Mary, three children and five grandchildren. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Famed Agent Phil Gersh Dead at 92
11 May 2004 (StudioBriefing)
Legendary agent Phil Gersh, whose clients included such performers as Humphrey Bogart, David Niven, Gloria Grahame, Dorothy McGuire, James Mason, Fredric March and Mary Astor, died Monday in Beverly Hills at the age of 92. The Gersh Agency now has offices in Beverly Hills and New York and is managed by his two sons. In an obituary published in The Hollywood Reporter, Gersh was described as "a leading fixture in the halcyon days of Hollywood, when studio chieftains staked their companies on a movie and where passion, rather than cautious corporate reports, was the impetus to great moviemaking."

Lowe Returns as Vampire Hunter
8 January 2004 (WENN)
Rob Lowe has saved his TV career thanks to Stephen King's horror classic Salem's Lot. The cult 1979 TV series starred David Soul as a vampire hunter and James Mason as a ghoul, and now Lowe is to play the bat stalker and Donald Sutherland his foe. Rutger Hauer and Babe star James Cromwell also appear in the new $12 million TV project. Lowe's latest TV role as a Washington DC lawyer in Lyon's Den has been a flop in America.

'Star' Turns for Will Smith and J.Lo?
1 October 2002 (WENN)
Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez are being lined up to take lead roles in a remake of classic film A Star Is Born. Director Joel Schumacher is currently courting studio backing for the project, and has the two major names lined up awaiting the greenlight. He told music TV channel MTV, "Who knows if the movie will go, but it seems to be a desire of the studio to do it. And now let's see if all of the ducks are in order." Smith has been interested in the project for a number of years and has recently spoken of J.Lo's eagerness to jump aboard. He said, "Jennifer loves the concept. What I like about Jennifer is that you could go Latin. The music and the environment could be the Latin world, which would be different from all of the other versions." And veteran filmmaker Schumacher - the man behind The Lost Boys and Batman And Robin, among many others - is a big fan of Smith. He says, "I know Will better than I know Jennifer. I did a public service announcement for education with Jennifer and she was breathtakingly beautiful and charming. Will I know better and we've talked about working together. And he's just a consummate gentleman and just a lovely human being." A Star Is Born has been made four times, most famously in 1954 with James Mason and Judy Garland.

James Mason's Ashes Finally Laid To Rest
27 November 2000 (WENN)
The ashes of British actor James Mason have been laid to rest - 16 years after his death. A legal battle, after the star's death, led to his children having to trace his ashes through lawyers before they could be released for burial. Mason, who was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was laid to rest in a Swiss cemetery, near to his former home in Corseaux. The ceremony was attended by his daughter Portland, 52, son Morgan, 45, grandson James, other members of his family, and the British ambassador Christopher Hulse. Mason's daughter Portland said being able to lay her father to rest was "like a dream". The movie star's family had originally challenged his will after it left everything to his second wife Clarissa Kaye - and the two sides became caught in a legal battle. The dispute continued after her death six-years-ago and at one point it became so bitter that his children did not know where his ashes were stored. The family is continuing to dispute the will.

Movie Reviews: Gladiator
5 May 2000 (StudioBriefing)
A man's movie, Gladiator (2000), and a woman's movie, I Dreamed of Africa, are battling each other at the box office this weekend, and the man's movie is clearly coming out on top with the critics -- even in the case of the New York Daily News, which elected to assign its female critic to see the man's movie and its male critic to see the woman's. Much of Gladiator (2000) rests on star Russell Crowe's shoulders, and critics generally agree that he shoulders it very well indeed. Jonathan Foreman in the New York Post calls the film itself "a spectacular triumph, " but adds that "the real glory of the movie is Russell Crowe, who is simply magnificent. ... Like James Mason, he is one of those actors who can make the lamest line (and like its sword-and-sandal predecessors, Gladiator (2000) has some clunkers) sound like Shakespeare." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal says that the film "reveals (Crowe) as a star in the classic mold, and I don't mean ancient Roman. His performance is classic Hollywood-heroic. ... He earns [our approval] the old-fashioned way, by daring to be quiet, if not silent, and intensely, implacably strong." Desmond Ryan in the Philadelphia Inquirer praises the film as "a stunning Roman triumph, " noting that it is a film that, in the midst of spectacle, will make audiences think. "Gladiator (2000), " he writes, "does indeed deliver the glory that was Rome, but it also clinically dissects the assumptions on which it was built." Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News joins the cheering crowds for the movie: "If there's a soft spot in your heart for the sword-&-sandal epic, " she writes, "then you'll swoon with giddy delight over Gladiator (2000)." But Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post offers up a bit of Shakespearian prose of his own: "Friends, Washingtonians, countrymen, I come not to praise Gladiator (2000) but to bury it. Thumbs down! Drive that short sword through its palpitating heart, and pay no attention to its squeals for mercy. It is an honorable movie, so are they all honorable movies. But that's not enough. It's not great. It's a disappointment. Caesar hates disappointment, so kill it swiftly and be done." Likewise Roger Ebert, in the Chicago Sun-Times gives the film a Roman thumbs down. "Gladiator (2000), " he writes, "is being hailed by those with short memories as the equal of Spartacus and Ben-Hur. This is more like Spartacus Lite."

Barbra Streisand Voted Seriously Overrated
2 May 2000 (WENN)
Singer Barbra Streisand is the most overrated performer in the world while Bing Crosby is the most underestimated according to a new poll. AMERICAN HERITAGE magazine selected a group of experts to write a series of short essays and pick presidents, film stars, cities and movie classics which they believe are under or overrated by the planet's population. In the film category, movie classic Gone with the Wind (1939) was deemed overrated, whereas the 1956 flick Bigger Than Life (1956) starring James Mason and Walter Matthau was considered underrated.

Stone, Foxx May Team For Star Is Born Remake
9 March 2000 (StudioBriefing)
Oliver Stone may direct a fourth version of A Star Is Born with Jamie Foxx in the role previously played by Fredric March, James Mason and Kris Kristofferson, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Thursday). The trade paper said that Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey are among those being considered for the female lead, played in the earlier films by Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand respectively.