R.I.P. 2014
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- African American actress Juanita Moore entered films in the early 1950s, a time in which few black people were given an opportunity to act in major studio films. Fortunately Moore's roles began improving as Hollywood developed a social consciousness toward the end of the decade. In 1959 she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Imitation of Life (1959), a glossy updating of a once controversial Fannie Hurst novel about racism. Within the next decade Hollywood underwent several sociological upheavals, and Juanita was one of the beneficiaries. She became a fixture in black-oriented films of the 1960s and 1970s, appearing in such films as Uptight (1968), Thomasine & Bushrod (1974) and Abby (1974). She also appeared in Walt Disney Pictures' The Kid (2000), and was in a total of more than 50 films. Moore retired in 2001 and passed away New Year's Day 2014 . She was 99.
- Producer
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- Additional Crew
Saul Zaentz learned gambling as a youth in Passaic, New Jersey, playing a card game called briscola. Later, in his twenties, he earned a full-time living as a gambler.
Saul settled in San Francisco after WWII, at first working for a local record distributor and eventually joining the jazz record label Fantasy Records. Working as a salesman and manager for years at Fantasy taught him the value of good relationships with vendors and distributors. This approach greatly affected his approach to the movie business.
Saul and a group of partners bought Fantasy Records in 1967. Fantasy was a successful independent record label, but Saul wanted to expand, to make films. He and his partners worked very hard to cultivate deals with film distribution houses all over the world. Many of these distributors invested in or helped secure funding for his films, in light of the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). As a result, Saul was able to remain independent of Hollywood, making the films he wanted to make.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Phil Everly was born on 19 January 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Tequila Sunrise (1988), Flipped (2010) and Bull Durham (1988). He was married to Patrice Yvonne Arnold, Patricia Mickey and Jacqueline Alice Ertel. He died on 3 January 2014 in Burbank, California, USA.- Miss Spear was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2004 and was 4th runner-up in the 2005 Miss Universe Pageant. Prior to competing in beauty pageants, Miss Spear bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Central Florida. Miss Spear went on to become one of the most popular and successful soap opera stars. She married Henry Berry in June 2008 and welcomed daughter Maya in October 2008. They divorced in March 2010. Miss Spear and Mr. Berry were killed during a robbery when their car broke down in Puerto Cabello, near Caracas. The couple were there on vacation. Daughter Maya was injured but survived the attack. Spear's death triggered a wave of anger on social media directed at the populist government's poor record on crime. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lamented her death on a live television broadcast.
- Producer
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- Production Manager
Run Run Shaw was born in Shanghai, China on October 4, 1907. He went into the filming industry with his brother, Runme Shaw, and established the Shaw Organization in 1926 and the Shaw Studios (formerly South Seas Film studio) in 1930. In 1967, Shaw established the famous Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) station in Hong Kong, and it grew into a multi-billion dollar TV empire. TVB set the stage for numerous television sitcoms, drama series, documentaries and singing performances, as well as "Enjoy Yourself Tonight," a variety show similar to "Saturday Night Live."
Shaw owns many businesses throughout the world, including Macy's and Canada's Shaw Tower at Cathedral Place. Throughout the years, Shaw has donated billions of dollars to charities, schools and hospitals. As a result, many Hong Kong buildings were named after him.
Shaw himself has also made regular appearances in TV shows and programs from TVB, including their Chinese New Year celebration programs. During these programs, Shaw would often lead an "awakening" ceremony that precedes the famous Chinese Lion Dance. Shaw has continued to lead this tradition throughout the years.- Stunts
- Actor
Jophery C. Brown was born on 22 January 1945 in Grambling, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Wanted (2008), Cyborg (1989) and Jurassic Park (1993). He died on 11 January 2014 in Newhall, California, USA.- Jerome Willis was born on 23 October 1928 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Lifeforce (1985) and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991). He was married to Dilys Elstone. He died on 11 January 2014 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Arnoldo Foà was born on 24 January 1916 in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Trial (1962), War Gods of Babylon (1962) and Lucrèce Borgia (1953). He was married to Anna Procaccini, Patrizia Uva and Ludovica Volpe. He died on 11 January 2014 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- A superbly versatile character actor of lugubrious countenance and strong physical presence, Roger was the son of Charles Lloyd Pack, a frequent supporting actor in British films of the '50s and '60s. Roger was educated at Bedales, a prestigious co-educational school in Hampshire, noted for a laid-back approach and a pronounced emphasis towards arts, crafts and drama. With inspiration provided by his drama teacher and rather liking the attention and applause that came with being on stage, Lloyd Pack managed to attain A-levels in languages. After leaving school, aged nineteen, he successfully auditioned for RADA, where one of his teachers was the actor Peter Barkworth. Soon after, he made his stage debut in the Elizabethan play "The Shoemaker's Holiday" at Northampton Repertory Theatre. From the beginning, Lloyd Pack always thought of becoming a Shakespearean actor. However, his career took him on quite a different path.
His first television appearances were similar peripheral 'no-name parts' as cleaners, soldiers and constables. After years of toiling in relative obscurity, he finally managed to secure a recurring role as the vacuous, simple-minded road sweeper Colin 'Trigger' Ball in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1981). Appearing in nearly every episode of the long-running series, Lloyd Pack came to be identified with this character in the national consciousness to such an extent, that he could "not go anywhere without anyone going on about it".
His next popular casting was no less fortuitous: that of the flatulent, somewhat seedy farmer Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley (1994), lusting after Dawn French's extrovert cleric (when not entertaining dubious thoughts about farm animals). On the big screen, Lloyd Pack reached a wider audience as Bartemius Crouch Sr, a ruthless Ministry of Magic functionary in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), destined to be killed by his Death Eater son, played by David Tennant. Still more dramatic was his role as evil megalomaniac John Lumic (who creates an army of cybermen in his pursuit of immortality) menacing Tennant and company in the Doctor Who (1963) two-parter Rise of the Cybermen (2006) and The Age of Steel (2006), set on a parallel Earth. Lloyd Pack thoroughly enjoyed participating in the iconic series.
Lloyd Pack's theatrical work encompassed performances at the National, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court. He was much acclaimed for roles in plays by Harold Pinter and latterly portrayed the Duke of Buckingham in "Richard III" at the Globe. On screen, he was glimpsed as Inspector Mendel in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and as a friar, friend of Cardinal Della Rovere, in The Borgias (2011). The actor was self-effacing in private life and was much esteemed by his peers. He was an avid supporter of Tottenham Hotspurs, cricket and left-wing causes. - Tor Milde was born on 14 January 1953 in Oslo, Norway. He was an actor, known for Påpp & Råkk (2010), Sladder (2008) and Get Ready to Be Boyzvoiced (2000). He died on 15 January 2014 in Oslo, Norway.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dave Madden was born on 17 December 1931 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Partridge Family (1970), Charlotte's Web (1973) and Eat My Dust (1976). He was married to Sandra Martin and Alvena Louise (Nena) Arnold. He died on 16 January 2014 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Long before he was known as "The Professor" in the cult comedy classic Gilligan's Island (1964), Russell Johnson was a well-known character actor, starring in several Westerns and Sci-Fi classics as This Island Earth (1955) and It Came from Outer Space (1953). Johnson grew up in Pennsylvania and was sent to a boarding school in Philadelphia with his brothers when his father died.
Johnson said that, unlike his Professor character, he was not a bright student early on and was, in fact, held back a grade. However, he did redeem himself later on by making the National Honor Society in high school. He joined the Army Air Corps in World War II. Both his ankles were broken when his B-24 Liberator was shot down over the Philippines during a bombing raid in March of 1945 and he was awarded the Purple Heart as he recovered in the hospital. After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to enroll in acting school to pursue his new trade.
Johnson lived in the state of Washington and did several guest appearances on television shows. He passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday January 16, 2014 from kidney failure, with his wife, Constance Dane, and his two children by his side. Connie described her husband as a very brave man.- Producer
- Executive
James Jacks was born on 29 December 1947 in the USA. He was a producer and executive, known for The Mummy (1999), The Jackal (1997) and The Hunted (2003). He died on 20 January 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Victor Izay was born on 23 December 1923 in Watertown, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Wild Hogs (2007), Young Guns (1988) and Employee of the Month (2006). He was married to Jo Roybal Izay and Connie Izay. He died on 20 January 2014 in Glendora, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
Luis Avalos was born on 2 September 1946 in Havana, Cuba. He was an actor and director, known for The Ringer (2005), Hollywood Homicide (2003) and Resurrection Blvd. (2000). He died on 22 January 2014 in Burbank, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Carlo Mazzacurati was born on 2 March 1956 in Padua, Veneto, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Right Distance (2007), Another Life (1992) and La sedia della felicità (2013). He was married to Marina Zangirolami. He died on 22 January 2014 in Padua, Veneto, Italy.- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Sixteen-year-old Pete Seeger enrolled at the Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut and then decided to become a hermit. His life since then has been one social cause after another, buoyed by an almost indefatigable career as a self-described "sing-along leader."
During the 1930s he attended Harvard, from which his musicologist father Charles Seeger (a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a conscientious objector during World War I) had graduated in 1908. As an alternative to his major, Sociology (which he disliked), he played tenor banjo (failing to make the Harvard Jazz Band) and participated in the pacifist/communist Harvard Student Union so much that he lost his scholarship, leaving Harvard in 1938. In 1939 actor/folksinger 'Will Geer' organized the "All-American Left-Wing Folk-Song Revival Movement," a benefit concert for migrant workers in California. It was there that Pete met Woody Guthrie and began touring with him. In 1940 Seeger started the Almanac Singers with Lee Hays, Pete Hawes and Millard Lampell; during his tours with this pro-union, anti-war group the FBI began a file on him. The group broke up at the start of World War II (Seeger enlisted in the army; Guthrie entered the Merchant Marine). After the war he started People's Songs (later Sing Out!), and in 1949 formed a new group, The Weavers, with Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert'. For years he had trouble with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and was, effectively, blacklisted. He recorded dozens of albums (Columbia, Folkways) and wrote thousands of songs, among which are "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Turn, Turn, Turn" (which in the 1960s became a huge hit for The Byrds). He helped start the Greenwich Village music magazine Broadside in the 1960s and reorganized the Newport Folk Festival. In 1996 the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance awarded him its first Lifetime Achievement Award. He helped start Clearwater, an organization which sails a 106-foot boat along the Hudson River to show children the dangers of pollution.- Ann Carter was born on 16 June 1936 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949) and The North Star (1943). She was married to Crosby Newton. She died on 27 January 2014 in Tacoma, Washington, USA.
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- Actor
- Producer
Tom Sherak was born on 22 June 1945 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a production manager and actor, known for The One (2001), Rent (2005) and Columbus Circle (2012). He was married to Madeleine. He died on 28 January 2014 in Calabasas, California, USA.- Born in Bristol (England), Studied in London from the age of 11 at Theatre and television school. At the age of 16 was accepted into The Royal Ballet School.He danced with various company's such as The Royal Ballet, The English National Ballet, New Adventures, and also worked on shows such as West Side Story and My Fair Lady. Philip took private classes at RADA and stared working on his film career. At present Philip is working as an actor on both sides off the Atlantic.
- Actor
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Maximilian Schell was the most successful German-speaking actor in English-language films since Emil Jannings, the winner of the first Best Actor Academy Award. Like Jannings, Schell won the Oscar, but unlike him, he was a dedicated anti-Nazi. Indeed, with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and Marcello Mastroianni, Schell was undoubtedly the most successful non-anglophone foreign actor in the history of American cinema.
Schell was born in Vienna, Austria on December 8, 1930, but raised in in Zurich, Switzerland. (Austria became part of Germany after the anschluss of 1938), then was occupied by the allies from 1945 until 1955, when it again joined the family of nations.) He learned his craft on the stage beginning in 1952, and made his reputation with appearances in German-language films and television. He was a fine Shakespearean actor, and had a huge success with "Richard III" (he has also appeared in as the eponymous prince in a German-language version of "Hamlet").
Schell made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in the World War II film The Young Lions (1958) quite by accident, as the producers had wanted to hire his sister Maria Schell, but lines of communication got crossed, and he was the one hired. He impressed American producers as his turn as the friend of German soldier Marlon Brando, and subsequently assayed the role of the German defense attorney in the television drama Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) on "Playhouse 90" in 1959. He was also cast in the big screen remake, for which he won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out co-star Spencer Tracy for the Oscar. He also won a Golden Globe and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for the role. Schell ultimately won two more Oscar nominations for acting, in 1976 for Best Actor for The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and in 1978 as Best Supporting Actor for Julia (1977) (which also brought him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor). He has twice been nominated for an Emmy for his TV work, and won the 1993 Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or made-for-TV movie for Stalin (1992).
Schell has also has directed films, and his 1974 film The Pedestrian (1973) ("The Pedestrian"), which Schell wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and won the Golden Globe in the same category. His documentary about Marlene Dietrich, Marlene (1984), was widely hailed as a masterpiece of the non-fiction genre and garnered its producers a Best Documentary Oscar nomination in 1985. In 2002, Schell released Meine Schwester Maria (2002) (My Sister Maria), a documentary about the career of and his relationship with Maria Schell. Since the 1990s, Schell has appeared in many German language made-for-TV films, such as the 2003 film Alles Glück dieser Erde (2003) (All the Luck in the World) and in the mini-series The Hard Cops (2004), which was based on Henning Mankell's novel. He has also continued to appear on stage, appearing in dual roles in the 2000 Broadway production of the stage version of "Judgment at Nuremberg", and most recently in Robert Altman's London production of Arthur Miller's play "Resurrection Blues" in 2006. He died on 31st of January 2014, aged 83, in Innsbruck, Austria.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in high school theatrics, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989.
He made his feature film debut in the indie production Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991) as Phil Hoffman, and his first role in a major release came the next year in My New Gun (1992). While he had supporting roles in some other major productions like Scent of a Woman (1992) and Twister (1996), his breakthrough role came in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997).
He quickly became an icon of indie cinema, establishing a reputation as one of the screen's finest actors, in a variety of supporting and second leads in indie and major features, including Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), Flawless (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999), Almost Famous (2000) and State and Main (2000). He also appeared in supporting roles in such mainstream, big-budget features as Red Dragon (2002), Cold Mountain (2003) and Mission: Impossible III (2006).
Hoffman was also quite active on the stage. On Broadway, he has earned two Tony nominations, as Best Actor (Play) in 2000 for a revival of Sam Shepard's "True West" and as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) in 2003 for a revival of Eugene O'Neill (I)'s "Long Day's Journey into Night". His other acting credits in the New York theater include "The Seagull" (directed by Mike Nichols for The New York Shakespeare Festival), "Defying Gravity", "The Merchant of Venice" (directed by Peter Sellars), "Shopping and F*@%ing" and "The Author's Voice" (Drama Desk nomination).
He was the Co-Artistic Director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York, for which he directed "Our Lady of 121st Street" by Stephen Adly Guirgis. He also directed "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Jesus Hopped the A Train" by Guirgis for LAByrinth, and "The Glory of Living" by Rebecca Gilman at the Manhattan Class Company.
Hoffman consolidated his reputation as one of the finest actors under the age of 40 with his turn in the title role of Capote (2005), for which he won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award as Best Actor. In 2006, he was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for the same role.
On February 2, 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in an apartment in Greenwich village, New York. Investigators found Hoffman with a syringe in his arm and two open envelopes of heroin next to him. Mr. Hoffman was long known to struggle with addiction. In 2006, he said in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he had given up drugs and alcohol many years earlier, when he was age 22. In 2013, he checked into a rehabilitation program for about 10 days after a reliance on prescription pills resulted in his briefly turning again to heroin.- Richard Bull was born on 26 June 1924 in Zion, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Little House on the Prairie (1974), Sugar (2008) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). He was married to Barbara Collentine. He died on 3 February 2014 in Calabasas, California, USA.
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Gabriel Axel was born on 18 April 1918 in Århus, Denmark. He was a director and actor, known for Babette's Feast (1987), The Red Mantle (1967) and Christian (1989). He was married to Lucie Axel Moerch. He died on 9 February 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Actress
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Shirley Temple was easily the most popular and famous child star of all time. She got her start in the movies at the age of three and soon progressed to super stardom. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in her films and they ultimately bought millions of dollars' worth of products that had her likeness on them. Dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, whatever it was, if it had her picture on there they bought it. Shirley was box-office champion for the consecutive years 1935-36-37-38, beating out such great grown-up stars as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. By 1939, her popularity declined. Although she starred in some very good movies like Since You Went Away (1944) and the The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), her career was nearing its end. Later, she served as an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. It was once guessed that she had more than 50 golden curls on her head.- Actor
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Comedian, saxophonist, composer, actor and musician, he performed within the orchestras of Charlie Spivak, Shep Fields and Claude Thornhill as saxophonist. Later, as super-hip jazz musician "Cool Cees" in television skits, he played tenor saxophone, and sang with the satirical trio "The Hair Cuts" (with Carl Reiner and Howard Morris). He sang the lead role in "Little Me" on Broadway. Joining ASCAP in 1955, his popular song compositions include "I Wrote This Song for Your Birthday" and "Was That You?".- Actor
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Ralph Waite was born in White Plains, New York on June 22, 1928. Educated at Bucknell University where he graduated with a BA degree, Waite existed rather aimlessly as a young adult while trying to find his way in the world. Occupations came and went, including social worker, religious editor for Harper & Row, and even Presbyterian minister after spending three years at the Yale School of Divinity. At age 30, however, he began to study acting and found his true life's passion.
Waite made his professional NY debut in a 1960 production of "The Balcony" at the Circle in the Square and was seen on Broadway in "Blues for Mister Charlie" before earning fine reviews in 1965 alongside Faye Dunaway in "Hogan's Goat". This was enough to encourage him to move West where he began collecting bit parts in prestigious movies, including Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). One of those films, the coming-of-age Last Summer (1969) starred an up-and-coming talent named Richard Thomas, who, of course, would figure prominently in Waite's success story in years to come. Waite continued to thrive as well on the stage appearing in both contemporary plays ("The Trial of Lee Harvey Osward") as well as Shakespearean classics (Claudius in "Hamlet" and Orsino in "Twelfth Night").
Stardom came for him in the form of the gentle, homespun Depression-era series The Waltons (1972). In the TV-movie pilot, the roles of John and Olivia Walton were played by Andrew Duggan and Patricia Neal. The Earl Hamner Jr. series, however, would welcome Waite along with Michael Learned, and make both, as well as Richard Thomas playing their son John-Boy, household names. Waite also directed several episodes of the series during the nine seasons. Throughout the seventies, he strove to expand outside his Walton patriarchal casting with other TV mini-movie endeavors. Those included Roots (1977), for which he received an Emmy nomination, the title role in The Secret Life of John Chapman (1976), OHMS (1980), Angel City (1980) and The Gentleman Bandit (1981). He also appeared in a few films including On the Nickel (1980) which he wrote and directed.
Throughout the run of the series, Waite continued to revert back to his theater roots from time to time. Notable was his role as Pozzo in Waiting for Godot (1977), which was televised by PBS, and a return to Broadway with "The Father" in 1981. Waite also founded the Los Angeles Actors Theatre in 1975 and served as its artistic director.
The Waltons (1972), which earned him an Emmy nomination, ended in 1981 and Waite ventured on to other TV character roles during the 80s and 90s but less visibly. In his second TV series The Mississippi (1982), which was produced by his company Ralph Waite Productions, he played a criminal lawyer who abandoned his practice (almost) for a leisurely life captaining a riverboat. It lasted only a year. There have been other more recent theater excursions including "Death of a Salesman" (1998), "The Gin Game" (1999), "Ancestral Voices (2000) and "This Thing of Darkness" (2002). He also had a recurring role on the offbeat HBO series Carnivàle (2003) and in 2009 began putting time in on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives (1965) as Father Matt. Waite was able to carry with him a certain grizzled, rumpled, craggy-faced, settled-in benevolence, although he was quite capable of villainy. He always seemed more comfortable in front of the camera wearing a dusty pair of work clothes than a suit. He continued to act well into his 80s, most notably playing the father of Mark Harmon on NCIS (2003).
For many years, Waite had held passionate political ambitions. He twice ran unsuccessfully for a Congressional seat -- in 1990 and 1998. A Palm Desert resident during his second attempt, the 70-year-old Californian was a Democratic hopeful for a seat left vacant by the late Sonny Bono after his fatal skiing accident in 1998. He was ultimately defeated by Bono's widow, Mary Bono.
Waite died in Palm Desert, California on February 13, 2014, at age 85. He is survived by his third wife, Linda East, whom he married in 1982 and two daughters from his first marriage.- Actor
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John Henson was born on 25 April 1965 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Muppets from Space (1999) and Muppet*vision 3-D (1991). He was married to Gyongyi Henson. He died on 14 February 2014 in Saugerties, New York, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Christopher Malcolm was born on 19 August 1946 in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Highlander (1986), Labyrinth (1986) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He was married to Judith Lloyd. He died on 15 February 2014 in London, England, UK.- Malcolm Tierney was born on 25 February 1938 in Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Braveheart (1995), The Saint (1997) and In the Name of the Father (1993). He was married to Andrea Schinko. He died on 18 February 2014 in the UK.
- Charlotte Dawson was born in New Zealand. She left New Zealand at age 16 to model in Europe and New York. After about ten years of modeling she moved to Australia, where she worked in television and in the fashion industry. In 2002 she returned to Auckland, where she worked on shows How's Life, Getaway and Charlotte's Lists. Since 2007 she has been a judge on Australia's Next Top Model.
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Born on November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, Harold Allen Ramis got his start in comedy as Playboy magazine's joke editor and reviewer. In 1969, he joined Chicago's Second City's Improvisational Theatre Troupe before moving to New York to help write and perform in "The National Lampoon Show" with other Second City graduates including John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Bill Murray. By 1976, he was head writer and a regular performer on the top Canadian comedy series SCTV (1976). His Hollywood debut came when he collaborated on the script for National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) which was produced by Ivan Reitman. After that, he worked as writer with Ivan as producer on Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989) and acted in the latter three. Harold Ramis died on February 24, 2014 at age 69 from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ed Vassallo was born on 1 March 1968 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for War of the Worlds (2005), The Sopranos (1999) and Sweets (2015). He died on 25 February 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.- Jim Lange was born on 15 August 1932 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Captain 11 (1954) and Amazing Stories (1985). He was married to Nancy Fleming and Fay Marie Madigan. He died on 25 February 2014 in Mill Valley, California, USA.
- Gene Pyrz was born on 30 May 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was an actor, known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Cinderella Man (2005) and Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004). He died on 25 February 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Producer
Tex Hill was born on 20 February 1944 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Return of the Lone Ranger (1961), Code of the Rangers (1972) and American Playhouse (1980). He was married to Claudia J. Edwards, Janet Hubert and Dianna Monk. He died on 28 February 2014 in Wickenburg, Arizona, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Alain Resnais was born on 3 June 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on 1 March 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Stanley Rubin was born on 8 October 1917 in Bronx, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for River of No Return (1954), Burma Convoy (1941) and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968). He was married to Kathleen Hughes. He died on 2 March 2014 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Shôji Yasui was born on 16 August 1928. He was an actor, known for Shôkon no okite (1959), The Burmese Harp (1956) and The Moon Has Risen (1955). He died on 3 March 2014 in Chiba, Japan.
- Ellen Ross was born on 13 April 1923 in Muncie, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for The Pirate (1948). She died on 4 March 2014 in La Jolla, California, USA.
- Director
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Scott Kalvert was born on 15 August 1964 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Basketball Diaries (1995), DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: Parents Just Don't Understand (1988) and Deuces Wild (2002). He was married to Sonia Kalvert. He died on 5 March 2014 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sheila MacRae was born on 24 September 1921 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for Backfire (1950), Caged (1950) and Bikini Beach (1964). She was married to Ronald Wayne and Gordon MacRae. She died on 6 March 2014 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
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Wendy Hughes was an accomplished actress who had won over 13 major awards. She had been called "one of the world's great actresses" with "the beauty and talent to become an international star". Hughes was born in Melbourne and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She has two children, Charlotte (17) and Jay (13).- Cynthia Lynn was born on 2 April 1937 in Riga, Latvia. She was an actress, known for Hogan's Heroes (1965), Mission: Impossible (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). She died on 10 March 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
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David Brenner was born on 4 February 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Worth Winning (1989), Modern Family (2009) and Theory of a Deadman: Not Meant to Be (2009). He was married to Ruth Davey, Elizabeth Slater and Geraldine (Geri) Judith Leno. He died on 15 March 2014 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Mareike Carrière was born on 26 July 1954 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany. She was an actress, known for A Dangerous Method (2011), Praxis Bülowbogen (1987) and The Confessions of Felix Krull (1982). She was married to Gerd Klement and Joachim von Vietinghoff. She died on 17 March 2014 in Hamburg, Germany.
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- Costume Designer
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L'Wren Scott was born on 28 April 1964 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. She was a costume designer, known for Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Diabolique (1996) and Mercy (2000). She was married to Andrew Brand and Andrew Ladsky. She died on 17 March 2014 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- James Robert Rebhorn (September 1, 1948 - March 21, 2014) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films, television series, and plays. At the time of his death, he had recurring roles in the current series White Collar and Homeland.
An early performance was in Butterflies are Free at the Peterborough Players in New Hampshire in 1974. Rebhorn played Peter Latham in Forty Carats at the GasLight Dinner Theatre in Salt Lake City in the 1970s. He was known both for portraying WASP stereotypes, lawyers, politicians, doctors, and military men, as well as portraying individuals with criminal behavior. He has delivered equally notable performances in a variety of other roles, including that of a brutal serial killer on NBC's Law & Order (he would later return to the show in the recurring role of defense attorney Charles Garnett), Ellard Muscatine in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Fred Waters in Blank Check (1994), Clyde Frost, the father of famed bull rider Lane Frost, in 8 Seconds (1994), Lt. Tyler in White Squall (1996), and a shipping magnate in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). One of his best known performances came in the popular 1996 film Independence Day, where he played Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki. He acted in Scent of a Woman (1992), and also played an expert witness in My Cousin Vinny (1992). He appeared in Carlito's Way the following year. Rebhorn also played an FBI Agent in the 1994 film Guarding Tess.
Rebhorn played several roles on television, including an abusive stepfather, Bradley Raines, on the soap opera Guiding Light from 1983 to 1985, and an abusive father, Henry Lange, on sister soap As The World Turns from 1988 to 1991. An earlier daytime role was as John Brady in Texas from 1981 to 1982. In 1994 he played the role of super villain John McFlemp in the episode "Farewell, My Little Viking" of the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. In 1998, he played the District Attorney in the two-part series finale of Seinfeld. He also appeared in a supporting roles in The Game, Meet the Parents, and Regarding Henry. In 2004, he appeared in the TV miniseries Reversible Errors. His role in the short-lived and controversial NBC drama The Book of Daniel cast him as the father of the title character. More recently, he appeared in the Showtime series Homeland as Carrie's bipolar father.
Rebhorn also appeared as a judge in Baby Mama. In the 2009 movie The Box, Rebhorn portrayed a NASA scientist. He had recurring roles on the USA series White Collar as Special Agent Reese Hughes, and also as Frank Mathison, the father of the protagonist Carrie Mathison, on Homeland. Rebhorn recently co-starred in the Comedy Central sitcom Big Lake. He played Max Kenton's uncle in the 2011 movie Real Steel. He starred as Oren in the miniseries Coma. Rebhorn starred as Gary Pandamiglio in the 2012 Mike Birbiglia comedy Sleepwalk with Me. He co-starred in the 2013 romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. His stage career included seven Broadway productions, as well as numerous appearances with New York City's Roundabout Theatre Company. - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kate O'Mara was born Frances Meredith Carroll on August 10, 1939 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. A hard-looking brunette with high cheekbones, Kate was the daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge and John Carroll and prodded into performing as a child. Educated at the Aida Foster School, she began an early career as a speech therapist at a Sussex Girls' School, but her attraction to acting got the best of her and she switched gears, making her debut in a stage production of "The Merchant of Venice" in 1963 at age 24. She continued to appear in classical works throughout the next two seasons until television series spots started coming her way. Kate attracted gothic notice in Hammer Studio horror films as tawdry, darkly alluring femmes in both The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and The Vampire Lovers (1970), but her film load over the years would remain sporadic.
She had remained focused on stage endeavours in the ensuing years and had appeared in many British television series as well as various femme fatales or shady ladies. She made little leeway in America but did appear as Joan Collins equally bitchy sister for one season of Dynasty (1981) in 1986. She was also delightfully vindictive in episodes of Doctor Who (1963) and Absolutely Fabulous (1992) in England. She relished a standout role in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads (2001). In the 1980s, she founded and toured in a theatre company (The British Actor's Theatre Company), which had continued running into the millennium. She had since published two books: "When She Was Bad" in 1991 and "Good Time Girl" in 1993. Kate O'Mara died at age 74 on March 30, 2014 after a short illness in a nursing home in Sussex, England.- Producer
- Actor
- Production Manager
The 1988 Human Rights Australia Film Award recipient is one of Australia's most experienced film and television producers with a career that began as an actor at the age of 9 in 1948. He entered the film industry at Artransa Park Studios in 1958 as an extras casting assistant on the Hecht Hill Lancaster production of Ray Lawler's 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'. Since 1967 as producer and executive he has been involved in the development, production and marketing of more than fifty film and television productions. He has worked with thirteen directors on their first feature films and as many first time writers and producers. In 1996 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Producers and Directors Guild of Australia. He was also named Film Pioneer of the year by the Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers 'for outstanding service to the Motion Picture Industry'. At the Screen Producers Association of Australia's Independent Producer Awards in 2002 he was the inaugural recipient of the Maura Fay Award for service to the industry.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Executive
Lewis Tice was born in 1969. He was a producer and executive, known for BearCity (2010), Longhorns (2011) and God Forsaken. He died on 1 April 2014.- Producer
- Production Manager
- Sound Department
Richard Brick was senior producer of a two-hour HD special, Peter Jennings Reporting- UFOs: Seeing is Believing for ABC. In 2003, he was senior producer of another two-hour special for ABC, Peter Jennings Reporting - The JFK Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy. Previously, he was the Co-Producer of Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, Celebrity and Sweet and Lowdown and of Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream. He produced Robert M. Young's Caught and Joe Vasquez' Hangin' with the Homeboys. He was the unit production manager of Mike Nichol's Silkwood and Robert Benton's Places in the Heart and was the Assistant Unit Production Manager/Location Manager of Milos Forman's Ragtime.
On Peter Gimbel's syndicated television feature documentary, Andrea Doria: the Final Chapter, he was associate producer and production manager. He served as production manager on Waris Hussein's Little Gloria...Happy At Last, television mini-series; as production manager of John Lowenthal's theatrical feature The Trials of Alger Hiss, which won the Grand Prix at the 12th Annual Nyon Film Festival; and as production manager of Michael Roemer's Pilgrim...Farewell, a dramatic feature for PBS. Brick was the production manager of Westinghouse Broadcasting's bicentennial television series Six American Families, winner of a Gabriel and DuPont/Columbia Awards. On Paul Ronder's Part of the Family, winner of the Prix George Sadoul, a feature documentary made for PBS and released theatrically in Europe, he was production manager. Brick produced and directed Last Stand Farmer.
Brick had a highly successful tenure as the first Commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, 1992-94. He was Chairman of the M.F.A. degree film program at Columbia University, 1988 and 1989, where he continues as an Adjunct Professor in the producing program. In 1987 he established the Columbia Film Festival for the M.F.A. program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary at Lincoln Center in 2012, at which he endowed the Richard Brick Producing Prize at Columbia.
Brick has in active development with Ira Deutchman, Barbara Ehrenreich's best-seller Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America; James Salter's stunning mountain climbing novel Solo Faces, with Mark Obenhaus; and with Kenneth Murphy, Fire on the Beach, the gripping 1880 true story of former slave Richard Etheridge, who is made "Keeper" of the Pea Island Life Saving Station on the North Carolina coast. He is Executive Producer of Shadow 19, a sci-fi feature in development by Joel Silver at Warner Brothers.
Brick is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America, which he's served since 2002 on the Eastern Assistant Directors/Unit Production Managers Council, as a Delegate to the National Conventions in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2013 (elected but unable to attend), and on the National Negotiating Committee 2010-11 and 2013-14. He served on the board of directors of the IFP, 1985-2001, as Chairman, 1995-97. In 1985 he founded and Chairs the Advisory Board of the Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award, a $10,000 fellowship administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts. He was an official Guest at Emir Kusturica's 2010 Kustendorf Film Festival and Juror at the 2011 Kustendorf Film Festival. President of the Jury, the 2012 Targowa Street Film and Music Festival of The Leon Schiller Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre, Lodz, Poland
Brick received an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Grant in 1977; the Vermont Council on the Arts' Grant-in-Aid in 1974 and the Vermont Council on the Humanities and Public Issues' Regrant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1974. His awards include a 2004 Radio-Television News Directors Edward R. Murrow Award and the British Broadcasting Press Guild Television Awards: Best Single Documentary, 2003, for The Kennedy Assassination; Best Feature nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards for Hangin' with the Homeboys in 1991; the 1993 Motion Picture Bookers Club Award; the Directors Guild of America Best Picture nomination as UPM for Places in the Heart in 1984; the John Grierson Award for Social Documentary and the Blue Ribbon from the 1976 American Film Festival, and the 1975 Gold Ducat of the Mannheim Internationale Filmwoche, all for Last Stand Farmer. He lives in New York City and northern Vermont and is married to Sara Bershtel, Publisher of Metropolitan Books at Henry Holt and Company.- Arthur Eckdahl was born on 28 December 1931 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Sliver (1993), The Heart of Justice (1992) and Matlock (1986). He died on 4 April 2014 in Cathedral City, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
John Pinette was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 23, 1964, the son of Robert Pinette Sr. and Louise Pitre (Petrie). His mother was of Acadian ancestry, with her parents both from the Canadian province of New Brunswick. He graduated from Malden Catholic High School in 1982. He was a practicing Catholic. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1986 with a degree in accounting. He started a six-month career in accounting but, on the advice of friends, left to pursue a career in comedy.
John Pinette was an American actor, Broadway performer, and stand-up comedian. He toured the comedy club circuit beginning in the 1980s and appeared in cinema and on television. Besides stand-up, Pinette did impressions of Michael Jackson, The Chipmunks, Elvis Presley, Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, Hervé Villechaize (Tattoo from Fantasy Island), an Ewok, actor Marlon Brando (notably Brando's role in The Godfather), as well as various ethnic accents. He occasionally sang, for example, "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz, "Will You Be There" from Free Willy, and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," in his stand-up routines.- Mary Anderson was born on 3 April 1918 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Lifeboat (1944), Wilson (1944) and Gone with the Wind (1939). She was married to Leon Shamroy and Leonard Marion Behrens. She died on 6 April 2014 in Burbank, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. It was in this popular film series that he took the stage name Mickey Rooney. Rooney reached new heights in 1937 with A Family Affair, the film that introduced the country to Andy Hardy, the popular all-American teenager. This beloved character appeared in nearly 20 films and helped make Rooney the top star at the box office in 1939, 1940 and 1941. Rooney also proved himself an excellent dramatic actor as a delinquent in Boys Town (1938) starring Spencer Tracy. In 1938, he was awarded a Juvenile Academy Award.
Teaming up with Judy Garland, Rooney also appeared in a string of musicals, including Babes in Arms (1939) the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and Girl Crazy (1943). He and Garland immediately became best of friends. "We weren't just a team, we were magic," Rooney once said. During that time he also appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in the now classic National Velvet (1944). Rooney joined the service that same year, where he helped to entertain the troops and worked on the American Armed Forces Network. He returned to Hollywood after 21 months in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), did a remake of a Robert Taylor film, The Crowd Roars (1932) called Killer McCoy (1947) and portrayed composer Lorenz Hart in Words and Music (1948). He also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Rooney played Hepburn's Japanese neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi. A sign of the times, Rooney played the part for comic relief which he later regretted feeling the role was offensive. He once again showed his incredible range in the dramatic role of a boxing trainer with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). In the late 1960s and 1970s Rooney showed audiences and critics alike why he was one of Hollywood's most enduring stars. He gave an impressive performance in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film The Black Stallion (1979), which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He also turned to the stage in 1979 in Sugar Babies with Ann Miller, and was nominated for a Tony Award. During that time he also portrayed the Wizard in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at New York's Madison Square Garden, which also had a successful run nationally.
Rooney appeared in four television series': The Mickey Rooney Show (1954) (1954-1955), a comedy sit-com in 1964 with Sammee Tong called Mickey, One of the Boys in 1982 with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and The New Adventures of the Black Stallion (1990) from 1990-1993. In 1981, Rooney won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Bill (1981). The critical acclaim continued to flow for the veteran performer, with Rooney receiving an honorary Academy Award "in recognition of his 60 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances". More recently he has appeared in such films as Night at the Museum (2006) with Ben Stiller and The Muppets (2011) with Amy Adams and Jason Segel.
Rooney's personal life, including his frequent trips to the altar, has proved to be just as epic as his on-screen performances. His first wife was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, actress Ava Gardner. Mickey permanently separated from his eighth wife Jan in June of 2012. In 2011 Rooney filed elder abuse and fraud charges against stepson Christopher Aber and Aber's wife. At Rooney's request, the Superior Court issued a restraining order against the Aber's demanding they stay 100 yards from Rooney, as well as Mickey's other son Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene. Just prior, Rooney mustered the strength to break his silence and appeared before the Senate in Washington D.C. telling of his own heartbreaking story of abuse in an effort to live a peaceful, full life and help others who may be similarly suffering in silence.
Rooney requested through the Superior Court to permanently reside with his son Mark Rooney, who is a musician and Marks wife Charlene, an artist, in the Hollywood Hills. He legally separated from his eighth wife in June of 2012. Ironically, after eight failed marriages he never looked or felt better and finally found happiness and peace in the single life. Mickey, Mark and Charlene focused on health, happiness and creative endeavors and it showed. Mickey Rooney had once again landed on his feet reminding us that he was a survivor. Rooney died on April 6th 2014. He was taking his afternoon nap and never woke. One week before his death Mark and Charlene surprised him by reunited him with a long lost love, the racetrack. He was ecstatic to be back after decades and ran into his old friends Mel Brooks and Dick Van Patten.- Peaches Geldof was born on 13 March 1989 in Westminster, London, England, UK. She was a writer, known for The King Is Dead (2010), 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005) and Celebrity Juice (2008). She was married to Thomas Cohen and Maxwell Drummey. She died on 7 April 2014 in Wrotham, Kent, England, UK.
- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Athena Baumeister was born on 2 September 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Seventy-Nine (2013), Monster & Me (2013) and Hollywood Halloween (2011). She died on 14 April 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Major Latin-American author of novels and short stories, a central figure in the so-called magical realism movement in Latin American literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. Studied law and journalism in Bogotá and Cartagena. He began his career as a journalist in 1948, was a foreign correspondent in Europe during the late 1950s, Cuba and N.Y. early 1960s, and a screenwriter, journalist and publicist in Mexico City during the 1960s. During the 1980s he moved to Mexico when restrictions where imposed on his continued traveling due to his left-view political views.- Writer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Glawogger was born on 3 December 1959 in Graz, Austria. He was a writer and director, known for Workingman's Death (2005), Untitled (2017) and Whores' Glory (2011). He died on 23 April 2014 in Liberia.- Antonio Pica was born on 21 March 1931 in Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain. He was an actor, known for Travels with My Aunt (1972), Santo vs. Doctor Death (1973) and Santo Faces Death (1969). He died on 26 April 2014 in Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Bob Hoskins was described by the director John Mackenzie as "an actor from the British tradition but with an almost American approach, an instinctive approach to acting and knowing how to work with the camera". He was born on October 26, 1942, in Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, where his mother was living after being evacuated as a result of the heavy bombings. He is the son of Elsie Lillian (Hopkins), a nursery school teacher and cook, and Robert William Hoskins, Sr., who drove a lorry and worked as a bookkeeper. Growing up, Hoskins received only limited education and he left school at 15, but with a passion for language and literature instilled by his former English teacher.
A regular theatre-goer, Hoskins dreamed of starring on stage, but before he could do so he had to work odd jobs for a long time to make ends meet. His acting career started out more by accident than by design, when he accompanied a friend to watch some auditions, only to be confused for one of the people auditioning, getting a script pushed into his hands with the message "You're next". He got the part and acquired an agent. After some stage success, he expanded to television with roles in television series such as Villains (1972) and Thick as Thieves (1974). In the mid-'70s, he started his film career, standing out when he performed alongside Richard Dreyfuss in John Byrum's Inserts (1975) and in a smaller part in Richard Lester's Royal Flash (1975).
Hoskins broke through in 1978 in Dennis Potter's mini TV series, Pennies from Heaven (1978), playing "Arthur Parker", the doomed salesman. After this, a string of high-profile and successful films followed, starting with his true major movie debut in 1980's The Long Good Friday (1980) as the ultimately doomed "Harold Shand". This was followed by such works as The Cotton Club (1984), Mona Lisa (1986), which won him an Oscar nomination as well as a BAFTA award, Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globe), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (Golden Globe nomination), Mermaids (1990), Hook (1991), Nixon (1995), Felicia's Journey (1999) and Enemy at the Gates (2001).
Hoskins always carefully balanced the riches of Hollywood with the labor of independent film, though leaned more towards the latter than the former. He worked at smaller projects such as Shane Meadows' debut TwentyFourSeven (1997), in which he starred as "Allen Darcy". Besides this, he found time to direct, write and star in The Raggedy Rawney (1988), as well as direct and star in Rainbow (1995), and contributing to HBO's Tales from the Crypt (1989) and Tube Tales (1999).
Suffering from Parkinson's disease in later years, Hoskins died of pneumonia at age 71 in a London hospital.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Iveta Bartosová was born on 8 April 1966 in Celadná, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for A Killer in Prague (2012), The Vampire Wedding (1993) and Iveta Bartosová: Já se vrátím (1993). She was married to Josef Rychtár and Jirí Pomeje. She died on 29 April 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Assi Dayan was born on 23 November 1945 in Moshav Nahalal, British Mandate of Palestine [now Israel]. He was an actor and writer, known for Life According to Agfa (1992), Mr. Baum (1997) and Electric Blanket (1994). He was married to Aarona Malkind, Vered Tandler-Dayan, Caroline Langford and Smadar Kilchinsky. He died on 1 May 2014 in Tel Aviv, Israel.- Actor
- Soundtrack
It's hardly surprising that the son of renowned Russian-born concert violinist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. (1889-1985) and Romanian-born opera singer Alma Gluck (1884-1938) would desire a performing career of some kind. Born in New York City on November 30, 1918, surrounded by people of wealth and privilege throughout his childhood, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. received a boarding school education. Acting in school plays, he later trained briefly at the Yale School of Drama but didn't apply himself enough and quit. As an NBC network radio page, he auditioned when he could and found minor TV and stock theatre parts while joining up with the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Following WWII war service with the Army infantry in which he was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded, a director and friend of the family, Garson Kanin, gave the aspiring actor his first professional role in his Broadway production of "The Rugged Path" (1945) which starred Spencer Tracy. With his dark, friendly, clean-scrubbed good looks and a deep, rich voice that could cut butter, Zimbalist found little trouble finding work. He continued with the American Repertory Theatre performing in such classics as "Henry VIII" and "Androcles and the Lion" while appearing opposite the legendary Eva Le Gallienne in "Hedda Gabler".
Zimbalist then tried his hand as a stage producer, successfully bringing opera to Broadway audiences for the first time with memorable presentations of "The Medium" and "The Telephone". As producer of Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Consul", he won the New York Drama Critic's Award and the Pulitzer Prize for best musical in 1950. An auspicious film debut opposite Edward G. Robinson in House of Strangers (1949) brought little career momentum due to the untimely death of his wife Emily (a onetime actress who appeared with him in "Hedda Gabler" and bore him two children, Nancy and Efrem III) to cancer in 1950. Making an abrupt decision to abandon acting, he served as assistant director/researcher at the Curtis School of Music for his father and buried himself with studies and music composition.
In 1954, Efrem returned to acting and copped a daytime television soap lead (Concerning Miss Marlowe (1954)). It was famed director Joshua Logan who proved instrumental in helping Zimbalist secure a Warner Bros. contract. Despite forthright second leads in decent films such as Band of Angels (1957) with Clark Gable and Yvonne De Carlo; Too Much, Too Soon (1958) starring Dorothy Malone and Errol Flynn; Home Before Dark (1958) with Jean Simmons and Rhonda Fleming; The Crowded Sky (1960) with Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Troy Donahue and Anne Francis; A Fever in the Blood (1961) opposite Angie Dickinson and (his best) Wait Until Dark (1967) with Audrey Hepburn, it was television that made the better use of his refined, unshowy acting style. His roles as smooth private investigator Stu Bailey on 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and dogged inspector Lewis Erskine on The F.B.I. (1965) would be his ultimate claims to fame.
A perfect gentleman on and off camera, Zimbalist's severest critics tend to deem his performances bland and undernourished. Managing to override such criticisms, he maintained a sturdy career for nearly six decades. In 1991, he made fun of his all-serious reputation and pulled off a Leslie Nielsen-like role in the comedy parody Hot Shots! (1991). In addition to theater projects over the years, he has made fine use of his mellifluous baritone performing narrations and cartoon voiceovers, including that of Alfred the butler on a "Batman" animated series.
In 2003, he completed his memoirs, entitled "My Dinner of Herbs". The father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of three, he settled in Santa Barbara and later in Solvang, California with longtime second wife Stephanie until her death in 2007 of cancer. Their daughter, also named Stephanie (Stephanie Zimbalist), is the well-known actress who appeared with Pierce Brosnan in the Remington Steele (1982) television series, in which Zimbalist had a recurring role. He and his daughter also appeared on stage together in his later years, their first being "The Night of the Iguana". His eldest daughter Nancy died in 2012.
Zimbalist died peacefully at his Solvang home of natural causes at the age of 95 on May 2, 2014; he had been outside watering his lawn at his Solvang, Calif., ranch when a handyman found him lying dead in the grass. "He was healthy, playing golf three days a week, and always in his garden," Zimbalist's son said.- Jean Gaven was born on 16 January 1922 in Saint-Rome de Cernon, Aveyron, France. He was an actor, known for ...And Hope to Die (1972), Our Men in Bagdad (1966) and Riff Raff Girls (1959). He was married to Dominique Wilms. He died on 5 May 2014 in Paris, France.
- Anthony Genaro Acosta was born on October 15, 1941 in Gallup, New Mexico, he was a Mexican-American actor. The oldest sibling in a family of four boys and one girl, Genaro attended San Diego State University and worked as a licensed psychiatric technician at Patton State Hospital in Patton, California for several years prior to embarking on an acting career in the early 1970's. Tony was a member of both SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity since 1970. Genaro died of natural causes at his home in Hollywood, California on May 7, 2014. He was survived by his sister DeAnna, brothers Michael, Carlos, and Larry, and his children Zhanara, Lauren, Brenden, and Christopher.
- Falcor is the most successful ferret actor in the film industry, with a large and enthusiastic fan base around the world. After a successful career in commercials for companies such as Marshall Pet Products and PSA's "I Shoot UBCP" and "Save BC Film", Falcor landed the leading role of Jasper in the award-winning short film Jake & Jasper: A Ferret Tale in 2011. The film went on to win Best Short Film at the Nevada Film Festival, and Falcor received the honor of being named "Happiest Pet" by the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. After the success of Jake & Jasper, Falcor was chosen for the lead role of Booger in the short film The Magic Ferret. Falcor has been professionally trained by animal wranglers since he was 6 months old, and has already built up an impressive resume. The Magic Ferret has screened in film festivals around the world and won Best Short Film at the Canada International Film Festival. Falcor lives with his human, director Alison Parker, and his brother, Frisco the Ferret (retired actor) in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Ralph Peduto was born on 9 March 1942 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), The Rock (1996) and Patch Adams (1998). He was married to Laura. He died on 12 May 2014 in Santa Cruz, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
- Director
H.R. Giger was born on 5 February 1940 in Chur, Switzerland. He was a director, known for Alien (1979), Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Carmen Maria Scheifele and Mia Bonzanigo. He died on 12 May 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Malik Bendjelloul, born in Sweden, performed in Swedish TV-series "Ebba och Didrik" as a child in the nineties and later in life studied Journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar. He has produced several musical documentaries for Swedish Television (SVT) where he also worked as a reporter on the show "Kobra" until he resigned to travel the world. During these travels Malik Bendjelloul first came in contact with the story which was to develop into "Searching for Sugarman" somewhere in South America.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Gordon Willis was an American cinematographer. He's best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather films, as well asWoody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979).
His work on the first two Godfather films turned out to be groundbreaking in its use of low-light photography and underexposed film, as well as in his control of lighting and exposure to create the sepia tones that denoted period scenes in The Godfather Part II (1974).
In the seven-year period up to 1977, Willis was the director of photography on six films that received among them 39 Academy Award nominations, winning 19 times, including three awards for Best Picture. During this time he did not receive a single nomination for Best Cinematography.
He directed one film of his own, Windows (1980). His last film as a cinematographer was The Devil's Own (1997), directed by Alan J. Pakula.
Willis died of cancer on May 18, 2014, ten days before his 83rd birthday, at the age of 82.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Jerry Vale was born on 8 July 1930 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), Casino (1995) and Goodfellas (1990). He was married to Rita Grapel. He died on 18 May 2014 in Palm Springs, California, USA.- Jane turned down a full scholarship to study violin at Juilliard, opting to spend four years studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. She got her acting start in radio, working on Lux Radio Theatre and the Whistler. Her first brief marriage to a Navy pilot ended when he was killed in action during World War II. Shortly after marrying Tom Turnage, she retired from acting, returning briefly to television roles in the early '50s when her husband was sent to Korea.
- Matthew Cowles was born on 28 September 1944 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Shutter Island (2010), All My Children (1970) and City by the Sea (2002). He was married to Christine Baranski and Kathleen Dezina. He died on 22 May 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Sergio Bustamante was born on 18 October 1934 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was an actor, known for El principio (1973), La antorcha encendida (1996) and Los miserables (1973). He was married to Lourdes Sosa. He died on 22 May 2014 in Puebla, Mexico.
- Actor
- Composer
- Director
This velvet-toned jazz baritone and sometime actor was (and perhaps still is) virtually unknown to white audiences. Yet, back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Herb Jeffries was very big...in black-cast films. Today he is respected and remembered as a pioneer who broke down rusted-shut racial doors in Hollywood and ultimately displayed a positive image as a black actor on celluloid.
The Detroit native was born Umberto Alejandro Ballentino on September 24, 1911 (some sources list 1914). His white Irish mother ran a rooming house, and his father, whom he never knew, was of mixed ancestry and bore Sicilian, Ethiopean, French, Italian and Moorish roots. Young Herb grew up in a mixed neighborhood without experiencing severe racism as a child. He showed definitive interest in singing during his formative teenage years and was often found hanging out with the Howard Buntz Orchestra at various Detroit ballrooms.
After moving to Chicago, he performed in various clubs. One of his first gigs was in a club allegedly owned by Al Capone. Erskine Tate signed the 19-year-old Herb to a contract with his Orchestra at the Savoy Dance Hall in Chicago. While there Herb was spotted by Earl 'Fatha' Hines, who hired him in 1931 for a number of appearances and recordings. It was during the band's excursions to the South that Jeffries first encountered blatant segregation. He left the Hines band in 1934 and eventually planted roots in Los Angeles after touring with Blanche Calloway's band. There he found employment as a vocalist and emcee at the popular Club Alabam. And then came Duke Ellington, staying with his outfit for ten years. Herb started his singing career out as a lyrical tenor, but, on the advice of Duke Ellington's longtime music arranger, Billy Strayhorn, he lowered his range.
The tall, debonair, mustachioed, blue-eyed, light-complexioned man who had a handsome, matinée-styled Latin look, was a suitable specimen for what was called "sepia movies" -- pictures that played only in ghetto and/or segregated theaters and were advertised with an all-black cast. Inspired by the success of Gene Autry, Herb made his debut as a crooning cowboy with Harlem on the Prairie (1937), which was considered the first black western following the inauguration of the talkies. Dark makeup was applied to his light skin and he almost never took off his white stetson which would have revealed naturally brown hair. A popular movie, Herb went on to sing his own songs (to either his prairie flower and/or horse) in both The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). Outside the western venue, he starred in the crimer Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938). As the whip-snapping, pistol-toting, melody-gushing Bronze Buckaroo, Jeffries finally offered a positive alternative to the demeaning stereotypes laid on black actors. Moreover, he refused to appear in "white" films in which he would have been forced to play in servile support.
In the midst of all this, Herb continued to impress as a singer and made hit records of the singles "In My Solitude", "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good", "When I Write My Song", Duke Ellington's "Jump for Joy" and his signature song "Flamingo", which became a huge hit in 1941. Some of the songs he did miss out on which could have furthered his name, were "Love Letters" and "Native Boy". During the 1950s Herb worked constantly in Europe, especially in France, where he owned his own Parisian nightclub for a time. He also starred in the title film role of Calypso Joe (1957) co-starring Angie Dickinson and later appeared on episodes of "I Dream of Jeannie", "The Virginian" and "Hawaii Five-0".
Although he very well could have with his light skin tones, the man dubbed "Mr. Flamingo" never tried to pass himself off as white. He was proud of his heritage and always identified himself as black. In the mid-1990s, westerns returned in vogue and Herb recorded a "comeback album" ("The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again") for Warner Western. During this pleasant career renaissance he has also been asked to lecture at colleges, headline concerts and record CDs. In 1999-2000, at age 88, he recorded the CD "The Duke and I", recreating songs he did with Duke. It also was a tribute honoring the great musician's 100th birthday.
His five marriages, including one to notorious exotic dancer Tempest Storm, produced five children. At age 90-plus, Herb "Flamingo" Jeffries, lived in the Palm Springs area with significant other (and later his fifth wife) Savannah Shippen, who is 45 years his junior, remaining one of the last of the original singing cowboys still alive (along with Monte Hale) until he finally passed away on May 25, 2014, having hit the century mark.
In 2003 he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and was invited to sing for President Bush at the White House. He is also the last surviving member of The Great Duke Ellington Orchestra, and certainly deserves proper credit for his historic efforts in films and music.- Actress
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Maya Angelou was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Maya Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre.- Actress
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Joan Lorring was born Madeline Ellis on April 17, 1926, in Hong Kong. She and her mother, Ania Fred, a Russian Jewish immigrant, left Hong Kong after the outbreak of WWII to pursue an acting career, settling in California in the late 1930s. After finding radio work in Los Angeles, Lorring worked her way into films making a minor debut at age 18 in the romantic war drama Song of Russia (1944) and subsequently played the small part of Pepita in the ensemble suspense The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944).
The following year Joan won the coveted role of the scheming, trampy Bessie opposite Bette Davis in The Corn Is Green (1945), earning a Academy Award nomination for "best supporting actress" in the process. She may have lost the Oscar trophy that year to Anne Revere for National Velvet (1944) but Warner Brothers Studio was more than impressed with the up-and-comer and eagerly signed her up. Joan proved quite able in a number of juicy film noir parts, including Three Strangers (1946) and The Verdict (1946), both opposite the malevolent pairing of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.
Inexplicably her film career went into a rapid decline by the end of the decade. As a result she sought work elsewhere and maintained with stage, radio and small screen endeavors into the next decade. On Broadway she made her debut in the prime role of budding college student Marie who sets off the explosive dramatic action in "Come Back, Little Sheba" (1950) starring Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer. She continued with strong roles in "The Autumn Garden" (1951), "Dead Pigeon" (1953) and "A Clearing in the Woods" (1957).
Among Joan's many 1950s dramatic showcases on TV was her portrayal of suspected ax-murderess Lizzie Borden's sister Emma on an Alfred Hitchcock episode. In the 1970s, Joan made a mini comeback in the Burt Lancaster movie The Midnight Man (1974) as Cameron Mitchell's wife. She also performed on radio soap operas and appeared for a season on the TV soap Ryan's Hope (1975) before phasing out her career once again.
Long married to New York endocrinologist Dr. Martin Sonenberg, who died in 2011, Joan passed away on May 30, 2014, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, survived by two daughters.- Director
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Henning Carlsen was born on 4 June 1927 in Aalborg, Denmark. He was a director and writer, known for Dilemma (1962), Hunger (1966) and People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart (1967). He was married to Else Heidary and Hjørdis Wirth Jensen. He died on 30 May 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Actress
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Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and Battle Hymn (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's Some Came Running (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film The Day of the Wolves (1971). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986.- Actress
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Ann B. Davis made her debut in show business at age 6 earning $2.00 in a puppet show. At the University of Michigan, Ann planned to study medicine but got the acting bug from her brother who was the lead dancer in the national company of "Oklahoma" for over a year. Ann then spent six years in little theaters, stock companies, touring musicals, and such until she got her break as "Schultzie", the secretary on "The Bob Cummings Show." Before Hollywood, Ann spent a summer at the Cain Park Theater and, during a year at the Erie Playhouse in Erie, Pennsylvania, she studied everything about show production and played dozens of roles ranging from teenagers to characters over 60. In 1949, she arrived at Porterville, California and spent three years at the Barn theater.
She then moved down the coast to Monterey, where she appeared at the Wharf theater. From there she decided to try Hollywood. Anne has also played many parts on stage including "The Women", "Twelfth Night", "Dark Of The Moon", and others. Her mother, Marguerite Scott Davis, appeared with professional stock companies for over thirty years.- Actor
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Karlheinz Hackl was born on 16 May 1949 in Vienna, Austria. He was an actor and director, known for Sophie's Choice (1982), Tatort (1970) and Radetzkymarsch (1994). He was married to Maria Köstlinger and Brigitta Furgler. He died on 1 June 2014 in Vienna, Austria.- Actor
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- Music Department
Rik Mayall, one of the first and foremost alternative comedians in the UK, was born in Matching Tye, a village just outside Harlow in Essex. His parents, John and Gillian, were both drama teachers. His acting debut was at the age of seven when he appeared in one of his father's stage plays. He met his comedy partner and best friend Adrian "Ade" Edmondson at Manchester University in 1975. Soon, the duo began performing together as a comedy act called "Twentieth Century Coyote" at the now legendary Comedy Store in London. They later moved their act to a venue called "The Comic Strip" and it was there that they were discovered by producer Paul Jackson. Rik and his friends, including Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Alexei Sayle, Peter Richardson, and Nigel Planer were boomed onto television screens with immense success. He wrote The Young Ones (1982) with Ben Elton and Lise Mayer. You loved it or hated it, but you can't deny the impact it had on British sitcoms.
His career was launched, and, aged 24, he became one of the most popular comedians in Britain. He wrote and starred in various other television programmes and films over the years such as The New Statesman (1987); his role in it as Alan B'Stard earned him a BAFTA. He had his brief touch of Hollywood in 1991 when he starred as the title role in Drop Dead Fred (1991), but he soon returned to the British TV screens with Bottom (1991) a show which only ran for 3 seasons from 1991 to 1995 but was so popular that he and "Ade" toured with live shows based on the series around Britain every two years or so up until 2014.
In 1998, he suffered a severe accident and ended up in a coma after he crashed with his quad-bike at his farm in Devon. Luckily, he recovered and starred in films and shows such as Guest House Paradiso (1999) and Day of the Sirens (2002). In 2002, he proved that he was back and ready for action in the comedy series Believe Nothing (2002), which reunited him with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writers of "The New Statesman". In 2003, he toured the UK alongside "Ade" with the fifth Bottom Live show.- Actress
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Ruby Dee was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and civil rights activist. She is best known for originating the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961).
She also starred in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Cat People (1982), Do the Right Thing (1989), and American Gangster (2007).
Her film debut was That Man of Mine (1946).
For her performance as Mahalee Lucas in American Gangster (2007), she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. As of 2019, she stands as the second oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actress, behind Gloria Stuart who was 87 when nominated for her role in Titanic for the 70th Academy Awards, 1998.
Dee died on June 11, 2014, at her home in New Rochelle, New York, from natural causes at the age of 91.- Actress
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- Camera and Electrical Department
Carla Laemmle was born on 20 October 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Adventures of Frank Merriwell (1936), King of Jazz (1930) and The Gate Crasher (1928). She died on 12 June 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Chuck Noll was born on 5 January 1932 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was married to Marianne Noll. He died on 13 June 2014 in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, USA.
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Genial Manchester-born comic actor Sam Kelly had a considerable gift for timing and observation. His special forte was playing decrepit, rheumy characters of more advanced years than his own actual age. Among the many endearing impressions he made on the small screen, he is probably best remembered as the illiterate crook 'Bunny' Warren in Porridge (1974) and as the inept German officer Hans Geering in 'Allo 'Allo! (1982), forever abbreviating the Nazi salute to a shout of "Tler!" (which to many ears sounded like 'klop' or 'club'). His other sitcom credits include Norman Elston in Now and Then (1983), the servant Nathaniel Grunge in the Georgian period romp Haggard (1990) and the chauffeur Sam Jones in On the Up (1990). Kelly's expressive features also splendidly suited a varied gallery of Dickensian characters: the timid Mr. Snagsby (Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House (1985); the undertaker Mr. Mould (Martin Chuzzlewit (1994); the kindly manservant Giles (Oliver Twist (1999); and the grocer Cudlipp (in John Sullivan's ITV adaptation Micawber (2001)).
By his own admission, Kelly might have been content running a village post office. He began his working life as a clerk in the Liverpool civil service before enrolling at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of twenty. He graduated in 1967 and then acted in regional repertory theatre for five years. In the course of his subsequent career, he made frequent appearances at London's West End, at the Old Vic and at the Royal Court in plays ranging from "The Odd Couple" and "HMS Pinafore" to "War and Peace". The stage was to remain his preferred medium, allowing him to occasionally branch out into serious roles (while regular television work necessarily paid the bills). His dramatic performance as a sorrowful bachelor facing retirement in "Grief" (2011) at the National Theatre was said to have been his best.
In 1977, Kelly co-founded the Croydon Warehouse Theatre, which operated until its closure due to financial and structural problems in 2012.- Actor
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Francis Joseph Matthews was born in York to Kathleen, nee Empson and Henry Ernest Matthews and was educated at St Georges School in York and St Michaels Jesuit College in Leeds and did some work at Leeds Repertory Theatre before doing his National Service in the Royal Navy after which he did repertory at various theatres including 2 years at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1962 he went to the Hebrides to film Shark Island, a six part series for the BBC and was picked up from the airport by the actress Angela Browne who he married the following year and had 3 sons,Paul, Dominic and Damien. Gerry Anderson was planning a television puppet television series when he heard Francis on the radio doing a Cary Grant voice and liked the transatlantic sound of his voice and asked him to provide the voice of Captain Scarlett in the television puppet series he was preparing. He has an actor brother, Paul Shelley and a sister, Maura. Another brother, Anthony, predeceased them.- Actor
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Born an entertainer, Casey reigns from Michigan, the same birthplace for fellow Shaggy voice actor Matthew Lillard (whom both Casey and Matthew do a very fine, smashing job voicing the iconic character). Debuted as a radio operator and legendary disc jockey in his early days, he was the greatest and most likely the best one seen in recent years. Having an iconic voice and a set of vocal cords, Casey pleased the audience through radio and voice. Casey hit the big time in the early 60's with voicing both major and minor roles in television series, until Hanna-Barbera released, then later debuted, the same role he characterized his career off of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, in which he had the pleasure of working with legendary voice actors Don Messick and Hal Smith. For over 3 decades, he co-founded and hosted American Top 40, which aired the top songs of the week. In his later years, he spent his time with his friends and family, in the way he could showcase with love, passion, and voicing. He died on June 15th, 2014. He was 82 years old. He will be forever missed in the hearts of fans around the world.- Jacques Bergerac was born on 26 May 1927 in Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. He was an actor, known for Gigi (1958), Missione speciale Lady Chaplin (1966) and Un homme se penche sur son passé (1958). He was married to Dorothy Malone and Ginger Rogers. He died on 15 June 2014 in Anglet, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
- There is probably no one who has won over the public in San Diego as much as Tony Gwynn has. While Tony Gwynn the baseball player is worthy of Hall of Fame status, it is Tony Gwynn the human being that endeared himself to many San Diegans.
Born in Los Angeles in 1960, Gwynn grew up in Long Beach where he attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. Not only was he a skilled baseball player, he was also good at basketball. Interestingly enough, Gwynn actually chose to play basketball and not baseball during his freshman year at San Diego State University. He twice earned All Western Athletic Conference honors and was eventually drafted by the San Diego Clippers of the National Basketball Association.
In his sophomore year, Gwynn joined the baseball team at SDSU while continuing to play basketball there. It turned out to be a wise decision as Gwynn's baseball credentials were better than those he earned in basketball. He received both All Western Athletic Conference and NCAA All-American honors for his performance as a baseball player.
After college, Gwynn was drafted by the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball club, and played in their minor league system for a couple of years. In the middle of the 1983 season Gwynn joined the Padres for good and had a hall of fame career before retiring from the Padres after the 2001 season. Among his many accomplishments were his eight batting titles, five gold gloves, 3,154 career hits and a career batting average of .336.
One of the attributes that distinguished Gwynn from other players was his relentless work ethic and attention to detail. He routinely studied videos of himself batting, looking for anything that could hamper his performance. His ability to analyze pitchers and determine what pitch they were throwing based on subtleties in their pitching motion was well known. This skill was so good that Padres pitchers often consulted Gwynn to determine if there was anything in their pitching motion that hitters could identify. Teammates wishing to improve their hitting also consulted Gwynn.
Gwynn's character as a human being is another attribute that stands out from other players. While he could have easily pursued more lucrative contracts with other teams, he chose to stay in San Diego throughout his major league career, emphasizing the importance of his family and his connection to the community. He supports the Padres Scholars program and his foundation supports many causes helping needy children in the area.
In an era of inflated contracts, steroids scandals and boorish behavior on the part of several major league ballplayers, Tony Gwynn is a great example of how a baseball player should be both on and off the field.
On June 16, 2014, Gwynn lost his battle with salivary gland cancer. He was 54 years old. - Casting Department
- Casting Director
- Actor
Barry Moss was born April 25, 1940 in Los Angeles. He was a child actor who graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles and studied theatre arts at UCLA. He worked for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences before moving to New York to begin a career as a director- a field he studied as a student at UCLA. He later replaced agent Mary
Moss is survived by his longtime partner and business associate Bob Kale, nephew Mark Ellman of Lahaina, HI, nieces Laurie Levinsky of Seattle, WA and Gerry Ellman, grand nieces and nephews of Lahaina, HI, cousin Fran Thiessen of Cliffside Park, NJ as well as soul mate David Giella. Plans for a memorial service will be announced soon.- Caleb Bankston was born on 27 September 1987 in Collinsville, Alabama, USA. He died on 24 June 2014 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
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One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole, and Al Pacino, to name but a few.
Wallach was born on 7 December 1915 in Brooklyn, NY, to Jewish parents who emigrated from Poland, and was one of the few Jewish kids in his mostly Italian neighborhood. His parents, Bertha (Schorr) and Abraham Wallach, owned a candy store, Bertha's Candy Store. He went on to graduate with a B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin, but gained his dramatic training with the Actors Studio and the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his debut on Broadway in 1945, and won a Tony Award in 1951 for portraying Alvaro Mangiacavallo in the Tennessee Williams play "The Rose Tattoo".
Wallach made a strong screen debut in 1956 in the film version of the Tennessee Williams play Baby Doll (1956), shined as "Dancer", the nattily dressed hitman, in director Don Siegel's film-noir classic The Lineup (1958), and co-starred in the heist film Seven Thieves (1960). Director John Sturges then cast Wallach as vicious Mexican bandit Calvera in The Magnificent Seven (1960), the western adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai (1954). The Misfits (1961), in the star-spangled western opus How the West Was Won (1962), the underrated WW2 film The Victors (1963), as a kidnapper in The Moon-Spinners (1964), in the sea epic Lord Jim (1965) and in the romantic comedy How to Steal a Million (1966).
Looking for a third lead actor in the final episode of the "Dollars Trilogy", Italian director Sergio Leone cast the versatile Wallach as the lying, two-faced, money-hungry (but somehow lovable) bandit "Tuco" in the spectacular The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) (aka "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"), arguably his most memorable performance. Wallach kept busy throughout the remainder of the '60s and into the '70s with good roles in Mackenna's Gold (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), Crazy Joe (1974), The Deep (1977) and as Steve McQueen's bail buddy in The Hunter (1980).
The 1980s was an interesting period for Wallach, as he was regularly cast as an aging doctor, a Mafia figure or an over-the-hill hitman, such as in The Executioner's Song (1982), Our Family Honor (1985), Tough Guys (1986), Nuts (1987), The Two Jakes (1990) and as the candy-addicted "Don Altabello" in The Godfather Part III (1990). At 75+ years of age, Wallach's quality of work was still first class and into the 1990s and beyond, he has remained in demand. He lent fine support to Vendetta: Secrets of a Mafia Bride (1990), Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992), Naked City: Justice with a Bullet (1998) and Keeping the Faith (2000). Most recently Wallach showed up as a fast-talking liquor store owner in Mystic River (2003) and in the comedic drama King of the Corner (2004).
In early 2005, Eli Wallach released his much anticipated autobiography, "The Good, The Bad And Me: In My Anecdotage", an enjoyable reading from one of the screen's most inventive and enduring actors.
Eli Wallach was very much a family man who remained married to his wife Anne Jackson for 66 years. When Wallach died at 98, in 2014, in Manhattan, NY, he was survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.- Writer
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Michael Henry Wilson was born on 2 October 1946 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France. He was a writer and director, known for In Search of Kundun with Martin Scorsese (1998), Reconciliation: Mandela's Miracle (2010) and MGM: When the Lion Roars (1992). He was married to Carole J. Wilson. He died on 26 June 2014 in Westlake, California, USA.- Actor
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A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bobby Womack was born into a musical family. Managed by their father, he and his brothers formed "The Womack Brothers", a gospel singing group that toured with several national gospel stars. "The Womack Brothers" caught the attention of the legendary Sam Cooke when Cooke was singing on the gospel circuit. When Cooke formed his own record label, Sar Records, he immediately signed Bobby and his brothers. In 1962, they were renamed "The Valentinos" and had their first R&B hit single "Lookin' For A Love". Although he continued to record with his brothers throughout the 1960s, Womack began playing guitar in Sam Cooke's band until Cooke's untimely death in 1964. Without the stewardship of Cooke, however, "The Valentinos" floundered and split up, subsequently beginning Bobby Womack's solo career. Although he had mediocre commercial success as a recording artist throughout the 1960s, he had considerable success as a composer and arranger for R&B/Pop artists such as Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex and Dusty Springfield. He would eventually recorded a string of hits of his own from 1971 through 1976. Among them were "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It" and a newly arranged version of "Lookin' For A Love". His career slumped during the Disco era as his earthy and soulful vocals were suddenly out of vogue. Nevertheless, he returned triumphant in the early 1980s with the recording of the album entitled "The Poet" on which he delivered what has become his signature composition and recording "If You Think You're Lonely Now". His 1972 composition and recording of the song "Across 110th Street"--which was originally recorded for the movie of the same name--resurfaced as the theme for the feature film Jackie Brown (1997). Ironically, the film's star, Pam Grier, had been a back-up singer for Womack when she was a coed at UCLA. Considered by critics and fans alike to be one of the last great "Soul" men, Womack continues to record and perform, and has maintained a devoted following throughout the world.- Actor
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Surrounded by four dazzling Southern-styled ladies on the hit sitcom Designing Women (1986), genial African-American actor Meshach Taylor made a name for himself as the beleaguered male foil consistently at the mercy of the title gals' antics during its popular 7-season run.
The Boston-born actor who entered life on April 11, 1947, was raised in New Orleans and Indianapolis (Crispus Attucks High School) and took an early interest in acting back in high school. He first studied drama at Ohio's Wilmington College before transferring to Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Florida.
Gaining experience back at an Indianapolis radio station as a State House political correspondent and in repertory theater. His first professional break came in with a national tour of the musical "Hair." He eventually became a member of both Chicago's Goodman Theatre and the Organic Theatre group. One of his stage performances, "Sizwe Banzi Is Dead," earned him Chicago theater's Joseph Jefferson Award. Taylor transported himself to Los Angeles in the 78 and found minor work in a few of the popular horror films of the day: Damien: Omen II (1978), The Howling (1981) and The Beast Within (1982), and also started to make the typical rounds on popular TV shows including "Barney Miller," "Lou Grant" and "M*A*S*H."
After a regular part on the promising, but short-lived Buffalo Bill (1983), he nabbed the Emmy-nominated role of Anthony Bouvier, the jailbird-turned-assistant to Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart and Dixie Carter. Originally a guest part at the beginning, he proved popular with audiences and the show progressed his character and was eventually made a full partner of the ladies' designer firm.
Following this success, Taylor moved straight into four seasons with the sitcom Dave's World (1993) as a poker-playing buddy/neighbor to Harry Anderson. His film and TV load has been fairly lightweight overall with routine turns in such comedy fare as Mannequin (1987) and Class Act (1992), an Olsen twins mini-movie, and as a regular panelist on a revamped version of To Tell the Truth (2000). One of his brighter moments (literally) was playing the role of Lumiere in Broadway's "Beauty and the Beast."
His later career was comprised of lowbudget comedy films such as Jacks or Better (2000), Friends and Family (2001), Club Fiji (2008), as well as horror/drama including Tranced (2010), Wigger (2010) and Hyenas (2011). He was occasionally seen as a guest on the small screen in such shows as "The Drew Carey Show," "Hannah Montana," "Jessie" and, his last, "Criminal Minds," as well as a regular role in the series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (2004), which lasted three seasons.
After his 11-year marriage to Sandra Taylor ended in 1980, Meshach married actress Bianca Taylor ("General Hospital") in 1983 and had three children. He had one child from his first marriage. In addition to daughters Tamar, Yasmine and Esme and son Tariq, he has a sister, Judith, and brother, Hussain, a private investigator in the Los Angeles area, as well as four grandchildren. His father, Joseph, was a Dean at Indiana University and his mother, Hertha, a school teacher in Indianapolis, Indiana. Taylor died at age 67 of colorectal cancer on June 28 2014, in the Los Angeles area (Altadena). Terminally ill and extremely weak, he nevertheless flew with his children to Indiana just one week before his death to celebrate the centennial birthday of his mother. He was interred at Forest Lawn in Glendale, CA.- Actor
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Paul Mazursky was born on 25 April 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He was married to Betsy Mazursky. He died on 30 June 2014 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Bob Hastings got his show business start in radio after WWII as the voice of "Archie Andrews" in the show of the same name (a spin-off of the Archie Comics series) on the Mutual Broadcasting System. The good-looking Hastings made the transition to television smoothly in 1949 in early galactic-action series like Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949) and Atom Squad (1953). His first semi-recurring role was as either a sergeant or a lieutenant on The Phil Silvers Show (1955) (aka "Sgt. Bilko"). Overall, he appeared in eight episodes but interestingly always with a different character name though basically the same demeanor.
Most of his career has been spent in television, and he's notable for roles such as Captain Binghamton's yes-man "Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter" on McHale's Navy (1962), one of the two Tommy Kelsey's on All in the Family (1971), and "Captain Ramsey" on General Hospital (1963). Hastings has also done much voice work, including that of "The Raven" on The Munsters (1964), "Superboy" on the The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967) cartoons in the 1960s and, in recent years, the voice of "Commissioner Gordon" on the animated Batman: The Animated Series (1992) cartoons.