Deaths: March 13
List activity
1.1K views
• 4 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
47 people
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (1975) (The Staff), took the Grand Prix at Mannheim Film Festival. His first full-length feature was The Scar (1976) (The Scar). In 1978 he made the famous documentary From a Night Porter's Point of View (1979) (Night Porter's Point of View), and in 1979 - a feature Camera Buff (1979) (Camera Buff), which was acclaimed in Poland and abroad. Everything he did from that point was of highest artistic quality.- Born and brought up in Scotland, Adrienne Corri attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London as a teenager and then appeared on both the English and American stage. While still a teenager, she made her film debut in Naughty Arlette (1949). One of her most memorable film performances was in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) as the victim of the bizarre gang-rape by Alex and his Droogs. In addition to film, she also frequently worked in television and continued in theater, specializing in fiery, flamboyant characters throughout her career.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Producer
Alan Wendell Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania on October 15, 1917. He was the youngest of three children, whose mother encouraged reading books and playing musical instruments. He began his career in the entertainment business leading his own college orchestra as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with a B.S. in Economics, he moved to New York where he worked in advertising for three years. At the start of World War II, he enlisted in the army as a private and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry. After his discharge, he borrowed some money, hitched a ride on an army plane and headed for Los Angeles, California where he obtained his first position with Capitol Records, Inc. in Hollywood as a writer/producer.
His initial assignment was to create a children's record library for the four-year old company, for which he created the legendary "Bozo the Clown" character. He wrote and produced a popular series of storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets beginning with the October 1946 release of "Bozo at the Circus." His record-reader concept, which enabled children to read and follow a story in pictures while listening to it, was the first of its kind. The Bozo image was a composite design of Livingston's, derived from a variety of clown pictures and given to an artist to turn into comic-book-like illustrations. Livingston then hired Pinto Colvig to portray Bozo on the recordings. Colvig, a former circus clown, was also the original voice of Walt Disney's Pluto, Goofy, Grumpy, Sleepy and many other characters. Billy May produced the music. The series turned out to be a smash hit for Capitol, selling over eight million albums in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Successful record sales led to a variety of Bozo-related merchandise and the first television series, "Bozo's Circus", starring Pinto Colvig on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS) in Los Angeles in 1949. The character also became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown."
Livingston wrote and produced many other children's recordings including product for Walt Disney, Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker; Bugs Bunny and all of the Warner Bros. characters. In the case of the latter, he wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie.
Within a few years, Livingston moved on to the adult music arena and became Vice President in charge of all creative operations of the company. He signed Frank Sinatra when Sinatra was at a low point in his career. Livingston wanted Sinatra to work with arranger Nelson Riddle, however Sinatra was reluctant to do so out of his loyalty to Axel Stordahl with whom he had worked for most of his career. The first Sinatra/Stordahl recordings for Capitol failed to produce the magic Livingston and producer Voyle Gilmore were looking for, and Sinatra agreed to try a session with Riddle on April 30, 1953. The impact was immediate, producing the classic "I've Got the World on a String." However, it was "Young-at-Heart" that became the defining moment in Sinatra's comeback, peaking at #2 during its 22-week run on the charts in the spring of 1954.
Livingston has been credited as the creative force responsible for Capitol Records' growth from net sales of $6 million per year to sales in excess of $100 million per year.
After 10 years with Capitol, Livingston and the company sold the "Bozo the Clown" licensing rights (excluding the recordings) to Larry Harmon, one of several people hired to portray the character at promotional appearances, as Livingston left the company to accept a position as President of California National Productions, Inc., the wholly owned film production subsidiary of the National Broadcasting Company. Shortly thereafter, Livingston was also named Vice President of NBC, in charge of Television Network Programming, dealing principally with all films made for the network. In this capacity, he hired David Dortort to write and produce the pilot for the series Bonanza (1959), for which Livingston's older brother, songwriter Jay Livingston, wrote the memorable theme. During this time, Alan also served on the Boards of Bob Hope Enterprises, Inc. and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's motion picture production company, Figaro, Inc.
Five years later, Capitol Records induced him to return as President and, eventually, Chairman of the Board. He was also named to the Board of Electric and Musical Industries (EMI), a British corporation that was the largest stockholder in Capitol. Subsequently, he merged Capitol Records into Audio Devices, Inc., a magnetic tape manufacturer listed on the American Stock Exchange, and changed the name of the surviving company to Capitol Industries, Inc., of which Livingston was named President. It was during this period that he turned Capitol Records into a more rock-oriented company with such artists as The Beach Boys, Steve Miller, The Band, and others. His most noteworthy accomplishment at that time was signing The Beatles for Capitol in 1963 and bringing them to the United States in 1964.
Livingston later sold out his stock in Capitol Industries to form his own company, Mediarts, Inc., for the production of motion pictures, records and music publishing. He eventually sold his interest in that company to United Artists as a result, particularly, of its success in the record business including Don McLean, who reached the #1 position in the country with his "American Pie" single and album in 1972. Two feature motion pictures were completed during the company's operation: Downhill Racer (1969) starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman, and Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) starring David Hemmings; both released by Paramount Pictures.
In August 1976, Livingston joined Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation as Senior Vice President and President, Entertainment Group. He left in 1980 to accept the presidency of Atalanta Investment Company, Inc., and resigned in 1987 to produce a one-hour film for television and to form Pacific Rim Productions, Inc.
Livingston also wrote a novel titled "Ronnie Finkelhof, Superstar" about a shy Harvard pre-law student who becomes an overnight success as a rock musician. It was published by Ballantine Books in the spring of 1988.
On August 1, 1998, Livingston received his first honor for his creation of "Bozo the Clown" as the International Clown Hall of Fame in Wisconsin presented him their Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award.
Alan Livingston passed away on March 13, 2009 at the age of 91 in Beverly Hills, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
In the 1940s and 50s, there were few greater classical actors in Britain than Alec Clunes. Born into a show business family, he began his career with Ben Greet's company and, later, he worked at the Old Vic Theatre. He played numerous Shakespearian roles and, in 1942, took over the Arts Theatre in London where he remained until 1950. Among the plays he presented were "The Lady's Not For Burning" by Christopher Fry, and he gave the actor-playwright Peter Ustinov his first break with his production of "The House of Regrets".
A matinée idol for much of his life in the theatre, his film career was brief but varied. He played "Hastings" to Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), but he was equally at home in stiff upper lip wartime classics such as One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942). In 1956, Clunes married Daphne Alcot and their son Martin was born six years later. Clunes's last work in the theatre included taking over from Rex Harrison in the role of "Henry Higgins" in the musical "My Fair Lady" (1959). His last stage appearance was in 1968. Off-stage, Clunes was an intellectual man, widely read with a deep knowledge of theatre tradition. A theatrical great, he was sometimes compared with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.- Amy Krouse Rosenthal was born on 29 April 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was a writer, known for Yes Day (2021), You May Want to Marry My Husband and Family Switch (2023). She was married to Jason Rosenthal. She died on 13 March 2017 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Ana Casares was born on 23 December 1930 in Stanislawów, Stanislawówskie, Poland (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). She was an actress, known for Trampa para un soñador (1980), 1001 Nights (1968) and Two Undercover Angels (1969). She died on 13 March 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ann Way was born on 14 November 1915 in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Brazil (1985), Clockwise (1986) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She died on 13 March 1993 in London, England, UK.- Actress
Betsy Blair was born in Cliffside, New Jersey, a child model before finding work as a chorus dancer at the early age of 15. She received her first mini-break on Broadway in "Panama Hattie" in 1940 delivering a single line, but by the next year she had copped the ingénue lead in William Saroyan's "The Beautiful People." At around the same time, she met dancer extraordinaire Gene Kelly and married him in 1940. Despite her background in dance, Betsy was admittedly not in the same league as a Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse, or Ann Miller, so she was never afforded the opportunity to glide with Gene in films. Moreover, she never even appeared in a musical film.
She made her large screen debut in 1947 and, for the next couple of years, appeared in a number of above-average dramas such as The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947), A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman, The Snake Pit (1948), wherein she played a demented inmate alongside Olivia de Havilland, and a shining role in Another Part of the Forest (1948). After such promise, things came to a halt. Betsy had been involved in SAG politics as early as 1946 proposing the formation of the first Anti-Discrimination committee. Within a year the House Un-American Activities Committe began to investigate Betsy and others in the motion picture industry and what they considered left-wing extremist viewpoints. Her name appeared in the "Red Channels" and that was that. Her career was undone. By the early 1950s, all film offers had dried up. The only reason Betsy won the female lead in the 1955 cinematic classic Marty (1955) was because her husband threatened to stop shooting at MGM if they didn't let her work despite the blacklist. It would be the role of a lifetime for Betsy. As the touching plain-Jane girlfriend of Ernest Borgnine's title butcher, Betsy won the Cannes Film and British Film acting awards, not to mention an Oscar nomination. It did not help her overcome the blacklist, however.
By 1957, she was divorced from Kelly and had moved to Europe to avoid the Hollywood shun. Shortly thereafter, she lived with French actor Roger Pigaut. In 1963, she married producer/director Karel Reisz. They would remain together for almost 40 years until his death in London of a blood disorder in 2002. Betsy later published her memoirs and discussed quite candidly her life on Broadway, life with Gene Kelly, and life amid the blacklisting. She continued to live in England before passing away from cancer on 13th March, 2009. She was 85 years old.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
Brent Renaud was a Peabody and DuPont Award winning filmmaker and spent the past two decades producing films and television programs with his brother Craig. The Renaud Brothers are best known for telling humanistic stories from the World's hot spots and their projects have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt and Libya, the fight for Mosul, extremism in Africa, cartel violence in Mexico, and the youth refugee crisis in Central America.
Their work has won many of the top awards in television and journalism, including a Peabody Award, two Columbia DuPont Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an IDA Award, a DGA nomination for Best Directors and multiple Emmy nominations. Their films have also received critical acclaim in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Forbes, USA Today, the New York Times, Filmmaker Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and American Cinematographer. Craig and his brother Brent also founded the Little Rock Film Festival and the Arkansas Motion Picture Institute.- Additional Crew
Breonna Taylor was born on 5 June 1993 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. She is known for The Black Friend (2020) and 2020: The Lost Year (2021). She died on 13 March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cathy Trien was born on 8 July 1970 in Livingston, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Pootie Tang (2001), The Drop (2014) and Gotham (2014). She was married to Peter Scolari. She died on 13 March 2021.- Christiane Schmidtmer was born in Mannheim, Germany. She took acting lessons in Munich and worked in the stage in Germany from 1961-1963, then turned to photographic modeling for German nude magazines and later, Playboy. She also modeled for advertising companies, namely Max Factor cosmetics, before she started her movie career.
She was the beautiful mistress of José Ferrer in Ship of Fools (1965), but most people will remember her as the evil wardress in the exploitation women-in-prison film, The Big Doll House (1971), as well as one of the three airline stewardesses in Boeing, Boeing (1965). - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Claudia Fontaine was born on 28 June 1960 in Bethnal Green, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Alfie (2004), Showgirls (1995) and Honest (2000). She died on 13 March 2018 in the UK.- Dennis Stamp was born on 6 December 1946 in Brainerd, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for Paradise Alley (1978), Beyond the Mat (1999) and Ring Roasts 2 (2009). He died on 13 March 2017 in Amarillo, Texas, USA.
- Eileen McDonough was born on 20 May 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Magical World of Disney (1954), The Waltons (1972) and The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper (1976). She died on 13 March 2012 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Garson Kanin has worked as an actor on stage and as a director on Broadway and in Hollywood, but his best-known work is as a writer. During the Great Depression, he dropped out of high school to help support his family by working as a musician and later as a comedian. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1932 to 1933. He briefly worked as an actor on Broadway following his studies but then worked as an assistant to the Broadway director George Abbot. In 1937, he joined Samuel Goldwyn's staff but left after a year because he had not been given any directing assignments. He was signed by RKO and there directed such films as The Great Man Votes (1939) and Tom, Dick and Harry (1941), but he soon became frustrated by the lack of control he had over his films under the studio system. When he was drafted during World War II, he made documentary films for the War Information and Emergency Manpower offices. One of them, co-directed by Carol Reed, The True Glory (1945), won an Academy Award for Best Documentary. During the war years, Kanin began writing stories and plays as well. After the war, he directed his play "Born Yesterday" on Broadway, which he later adapted for the screen. He and his wife, Ruth Gordon, collaborated on four screenplays, including Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952). They stopped working on scripts together for the sake of their marriage after 1952, but in 1979 they co-wrote one more, the TV film Hardhat and Legs (1980). Kanin and Gordon were never under contract by any studio as writers. They wrote the scripts on their own and sold them to interested Hollywood studios.- Giwi Margwelaschwili was born on 14 December 1927 in Berlin, Germany. He was married to Naira Gelashvili. He died on 13 March 2020 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Harlan Warde was born on 6 November 1917 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Monster That Challenged the World (1957), Money Madness (1948) and State Department: File 649 (1949). He was married to Barbara Grace Whittaker and Caroline Frances Sherwood. He died on 13 March 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A veteran theater performer from 1925, Chicago-born character actor Howard St. John excelled in blustery, unsympathetic roles -- often pompous, often shifty and usually self-important. He made his Broadway debut with "Nocturne" (1925) and continued reliably into the 30s with parts in "Princess Charming" (1930), "Keeper of the Keys" (1932) and "Triumph" (1935). He grew in popularity with such theater hits as "Janie" (1942) and "The Late George Apley" (1946) and "Two Blind Mice" (1949). He took his patented gruffness and moved into films with the "B" movie Shockproof (1949) and continued in the same no-nonsense vein as various business tycoons or high-ranking military brass. Standout roles in his over 30 pictures include Born Yesterday (1950) and One, Two, Three (1961). He played General Bullmoose in the musical "Li'l Abner" in 1956 and recreated his role on film three years later. St. John's numerous TV appearances would include the short-lived cop drama The Investigator (1958) as well as the short-lived sitcom Hank (1965). Towards the end of his career, he was seen as a foil on the "Honeymooners" musical sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show (1966). St. John died of a heart attack in New York City at age 68 in 1974 and was survived by his wife Lois.- Actor
- Stunts
Janos Prohaska was born on 10 October 1919 in Budapest, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Bewitched (1964), Star Trek (1966) and The Outer Limits (1963). He was married to Irene M . Knoke. He died on 13 March 1974 in Bishop, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Blond, good looking Jason Evers played many seemingly ordinary men who often turned out to harbor malign tendencies. Although probably best known for playing Dr. Bill Corter in the 1962 cult film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Evers did much more than meets the eye. He quit school to join the army during WWII, and later decided to act after seeing such Hollywood stars as John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart. His first big break was in 1960 in the TV series Wrangler (1960) and he followed that with roles in Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), House of Women (1962), and another TV series, Channing (1963).
His career began to decline in the 1970s. He appeared with Roddy McDowall in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), one of the sequels to the smash Planet of the Apes (1968), and in the made-for-TV thriller Fer-de-Lance (1974). He was a vengeful hunter out to kill a murderous grizzly bear in Claws (1977) and a biologist out to stop man-eating fish (with Wayne Crawford) in Barracuda (1978).
He made more than 65 appearances in TV series and made-for-TV films during the 1980s, and returned to the big screen in 1990 for Basket Case 2 (1990). He died of heart failure in New York City in 2005.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jim Gordon backed many significant rock recordings of the 1960s and '70s, including Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" and, most famously, "Layla," as a member of Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos. Gordon played with an understated yet distinctive groove on dozens of songs that became radio hits, and was known to his peers as the "only living metronome."
He got his professional break in 1963 at age 17, when he joined the Everly Brothers on tour in England. Gordon played professionally for the next 20 years, backing some of the biggest names in rock music on the road and in the studio, including Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, and George Harrison. In 1970, Gordon's work on Harrison's All Things Must Pass led to the formation of Derek and the Dominos with Clapton, bassist Carl Radle, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock.
That group was short-lived but produced a giant hit with "Layla," which Gordon co-wrote. It was his greatest musical achievement yet had nothing to do with the drums; he played the song's signature melancholy piano refrain.
"Layla" charted twice in two different years, peaking at no. 16 on the Billboard 200 in December 1970 and reaching no. 10 on the Hot 100 in August 1972 -- long after the band had broken up. (In 1993, while in prison, Gordon won a Grammy for Best Rock Song for "Layla," following the success of Clapton's Unplugged, named Album of the Year.) The song has been streamed more than 30 million times.
Gordon's popularity and work ethic earned him sessions that became monumental albums, among them John Lennon's Imagine, Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown, and Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic.
But at the height of his career, Gordon was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Combined with substance abuse, his mental illness threatened his professional reputation. Beginning in 1978, Gordon sought medical treatment at least 15 times, court records show. But he could not escape his mother's voice, which he claimed had tormented him for years. The hallucinations grew relentless, demanding that Gordon eat less, even stop touring.
To confront the voices, Gordon drove to his mother's house, where he struck her head with a hammer and also stabbed her. In 1984 he was sentenced to 16 years to life, and "remains an unreasonable risk of threat to public safety," according to the parole board's decision in March at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where Gordon is jailed.- Jimmy Wisner was born on 8 December 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 13 March 2018 in the USA.
- Cinematographer
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
John A. Alonzo was born on 12 June 1934 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Chinatown (1974), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was married to Suzanne L. Heltzel and Jan Murray. He died on 13 March 2001 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.- John Andariese was born on 19 August 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Judith M. Andariese and Maureen Hayden. He died on 13 March 2017 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in rural Pickaway County, Ohio, the youngest of four children, porn legend John Holmes was raised by a religious fanatic mother named Mary and an abusive alcoholic stepfather named Harold Bowman. He was a bible student, but at the age of 16 dropped out of school, left home and enlisted for a hitch in the US Army, where he was stationed in West Germany for three years. After his discharge he moved to Los Angeles in 1964 where he married a young nurse, and worked odd jobs such as taxi driver, door-to-door salesman, postal clerk, temp worker, coffee vat attendant, ambulance driver and forklift driver.
In the late 1960s he gravitated to the underground porno industry. One story was that a female neighbor was making porno loops and advised Holmes he could make good money. Unfortunately, his first check bounced and, after that, he always insisted on payment in cash. Another story is that in 1967 Holmes was frequenting a men's card playing club in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena when a photographer for an underground magazine noticed his large "member" while standing next to him at a restroom urinal and gave Holmes his business card, telling him he could get plenty of work in still photo magazines. By 1969, with the advent of X-rated porn films, Holmes moved into the movie business. His tall, slim build, curly light brown hair, a light mustache and bright blue eyes made him an instantly recognizable star. John was not lacking for work, bringing not only a professional attitude but also his legendary endowment (12-5/8" long, according to a Screw Magazine interview, while other stories put it at 13-1/2" long). His enormously long penis got him starring roles in over 2,000 loops, stag films and adult features in a career that spanned nearly 20 years (with a peak of a $3,000-a-day salary). His lucrative off-screen penis-for-hire business took him around the world.
His most famous character is probably Johnny Wadd, a lusty, always-on-the-make private detective he played in several crude porno films like Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976), The Jade Pussycat (1977), China Cat (1978), Liquid Lips (1976) and Blonde Fire (1978), the last of which is considered the best of the so-called "Wadd films". Better still were the big-budgeted pictures that co-starred some of the adult film industry's top leading ladies, including Marilyn Chambers, Seka, Annette Haven and even a young--and underage--Traci Lords.
In the late 1970s Holmes developed a serious drug habit to cocaine (both snorting and freebasing), which prevented him from performing in the on-screen sex he was famous for, resulting in his dropping out of the adult-film business. By late 1980 he was broke, most of the huge amounts of money he made having gone to feed his drug addiction. He was reduced to making money by robbing people's houses and stealing cars, as well as delivering drugs for the local gangsters. The lowest point in his life was when he was implicated in four grisly, drug-related murders on July 1, 1981. He was allegedly present at the drug-related torture and murders at a house in the hills above Hollywood of William Deverell, Ronald Launius, Joy Miller and Barbara Richardson--a group suspected by many in the drug underworld of specializing in ripping off drug dealers--by a gang of killers sent by a powerful local gangster named Eddie Nash. A fifth victim, (Susan Launius, Ronald Launius' estranged wife), barely survived the attack and had no memory of the event. The bloody crime made lurid headlines throughout Southern California and became known as The Wonderland Murders, after the street in the wooded Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles where the killings took place. Holmes was implicated in the crime but refused to tell police what he knew and went on the run for nearly six months with his teenage mistress, Dawn Schiller, before he was arrested while hiding out in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. The L.A. authorities, angered by Holmes' refusal to cooperate with the investigation, charged him with committing all four murders. After a three-week, public trial, Holmes was acquitted on June 26, 1982. Although found not guilty of the murders, he remained in jail on previous burglary and contempt-of-court charges until his release in November 1982. The true nature and details of the Laurel Canyon murders remains unsolved to this day.
After his release from prison, Holmes tried to clean up his act and continue his porno career with a new generation of porno stars. His cocaine addiction continued off-and-on, and although work in the porno business was still plentiful, it was no longer as lucrative as it had been, given the explosion in the use of cheaply made videotapes that saturated the market. In addition, Holmes was no longer the powerhouse star that he had once been. He was diagnosed with AIDS late in 1985 but continued working--without telling producers or his co-stars--until 1986, when his increasingly gaunt and frail physical appearance sent up "red flags" in the industry and he could no longer find work.
During the last five months of his life, John Holmes received treatment and stayed at the local VA (Veterans Administration) Hospital on Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles from November 1987 to his death on March 13, 1988 from AIDS-related complications at age 43, with his second wife at his side, former porn star Misty Dawn. Holmes once estimated he'd had sex with over 14,000 women (on and off screen), and was truly a porn legend. His life was the basis for the film Boogie Nights (1997), and he was portrayed by Val Kilmer in Wonderland (2003), about the infamous murders, but the conflicting truths about his life, as always, was stranger than fiction.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Leonid Kvinikhidze was born on 21 December 1937 in Leningrad, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for Heavenly Swallows (1976), Shlyapa (1982) and A Golden-coloured Straw Hat (1974). He was married to Ekaterina Elfimova, Natalia Makarova and Tatiana Arkadievna Grudzinskaya. He died on 13 March 2018 in St. Petersburg, Russia.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Lucio Fulci, born in Rome in 1927, remains as controversial in death as he was in life. A gifted craftsman with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of dark humor, Fulci achieved some measure of notoriety for his gore epics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but respect was long in coming.
Abandoning his early career as a med student, Fulci entered the film industry as a screenwriter and assistant director, working alongside such directors as Steno and Riccardo Freda. Granted his debut feature in 1959, with a seldom seen comedy called I ladri (1959) (The Thieves), Fulci quickly established himself as a prolific craftsman adept at musicals, comedies and westerns.
In 1968, Fulci made his first mystery thriller, One on Top of the Other (1969), and its success was sufficient to garner the backing for his pet project The Conspiracy of Torture (1969). Based on a true story, the film details the trial of a young woman accused of murdering her sexually abusive father amid fear and superstition in 16th Century Italy. A scathing commentary on church and state, the film was the first to give voice to its director's passionate hatred of the Catholic Church. Predictably, the film was misunderstood, and Fulci's career was thrown into jeopardy. Deciding it would be best to leave his political feelings on the back burner, Fulci pressed on with a series of slickly commercial ventures.
In 1971 and 1972, Fulci re-established himself in the thriller arena, directing two excellent giallos: the haunting A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) and the disturbing Don't Torture a Duckling (1972). The former, with its vivid hallucinations involving murderous hippies and vivisected canines, and the latter, with its psychotic religious zealots and brutal child killings, were -- to say the least -- controversial. In particular, Don't Torture a Duckling (1972), despite a huge box-office success, painted too graphic a portrait of perverted Catholicism, and Fulci's career was derailed... some would say, permanently. Blacklisted (albeit briefly) and despised in his homeland, Fulci at least found work in television and with the adventure genre with two financially successful Jack London 'White Fang' adventure movies in 1973 and 1974 which were Zanna Bianca, and Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca. Also during the mid and late 1970s, Fulci also directed two 'Spaghetti Westerns'; The Four of the Apocalypse... (1975) and Silver Saddle (1978), (Silver Saddle) and another 'giallo'; The Psychic (1977), as well as a few sex-comedies which include the political spoof The Eroticist (1972) (aka: The Eroticist), and the vampire spoof Dracula in the Provinces (1975) (aka: Young Dracula), and the violent Mafia crime-drama Contraband (1980).
In 1979, Fulci's film making career hit another high point with him breaking into the international market with Zombie (1979), an in-name-only sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), which had been released in Italy as 'Zombi'. With its flamboyant imagery, graphic gore and moody atmospherics, the film established Fulci as a gore director par excellence. It was a role he accepted, but with some reservations.
Over the next three years, Fulci plied his trade with finesse and flair, rivaling even the popularity of his "opponent" Dario Argento, with such sanguine classics as City of the Living Dead (1980) and The Beyond (1981). Frequently derided as sheer sensationalism, these films, as well as the reviled The New York Ripper (1982) are actually intelligently crafted, with sound commentaries on everything from American life to religion. High on vivid imagery and pure cinematic style, Fulci's films from this period of the early 1980s represent some of his most popular work in America and abroad, even if they do pale in comparison to his 1972 masterpiece and personal favorite Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) (an impossible act to follow, as it happens).
In the mid-1980s, at the peak of his most prolific period, Fulci became beset with personal problems and worsening health. Much of his work from the mid-1980s onward is disappointing, to say the least, but flashes of his brilliance can be seen in works like Murder-Rock: Dancing Death (1984) and The Devil's Honey (1986). A Cat in the Brain (1990), one of Fulci's last works, remains one of his most original. Though strapped by budgetary restraints and marred by mediocre photography, the film is wickedly subversive and comical. With Fulci playing the lead role (as more or less himself, no less -- a harried horror director who fears that his obsession with sex and violence is a sign of mental disease), Fulci also proves to be an endearing and competent actor (he also has cameos in many of his films, frequently as a detective or doctor figure).
By the 1990s, Fulci went on a hiatus with film making for further health and personal reasons as the Italian cinema market went into a further decline. While in pre-production for the Dario Argento-produced The Wax Mask (1997), Lucio Fulci passed away at his home on March 13, 1996 at the age of 68. A serious diabetic most of his adult life, he inexplicably forgot to take his insulin before retiring to bed; some consider his death a suicide, others consider it an accident, but his many fans all consider it to be a tragedy. Whether one considers him to be a hack or a genius, there's no denying that he was unique.- Soundtrack
Lyn Collins was born on 12 June 1948 in Lexington, Texas, USA. She died on 13 March 2005 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Malachi Throne, the character actor who became one of the more ubiquitous faces on television from the "Golden Age" of the 1950s through the 21st-century, was born in New York City on December 1, 1928, the son of Samuel and Rebecca (née Chaikin) Throne, who had immigrated to America from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He began performing at an early age.
During World War Two, he quit school to work in theater, though he later returned and got his high school diploma. He then set out upon a life as a "wandering player", as he describes it, playing in summer and winter stock companies while matriculating at Brooklyn College and Long Island University. Though he loved acting, he believed he would eventually wind up as an English teacher, which is why he doggedly kept at his studies between tours.
When he was 21 years old, the Korean conflict broke out, and Throne wound up in the infantry attached to an armored unit. When he returned to the New York theatrical scene, he found out that the revolution Marlon Brando had started in 1947 playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was now the status quo. Possessed of a deep, classically trained voice, Throne was cast in the parts of characters much older than his actual age. His clear enunciation also made him a natural for live television, and he went to work on the now-defunct DuMont TV network. He continued his acting studies in New York, tutored by such luminaries as Uta Hagen and William Hickey.
In addition to TV, he continued to work on the the stage, appearing in the landmark Off-Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", in support of Jason Robards. He also played in the famous Off-Broadway revivals of "The Threepenny Opera" and Clifford Odets' "Rocket To The Moon", as well as appeared on Broadway in such top shows as Jean Anouilh's "Becket" in support of Laurence Olivier.
In 1958-59, he found himself in California, playing a season at San Diego's Old Globe Theater. After his stint with the Globe was over, he went to Hollywood, and established himself as a major character actor in guest spots on series television during the 1960s. He had memorable appearances as "Falseface" onBatman (1966) and the Arab-styled "Thief of Outer Space" on Lost in Space (1965). He also provided the voice of "The Keeper" for The Cage (1966), the pilot episode of Star Trek (1966). He turned down an offer to be a regular cast member on that show, rejecting the part of Dr. McCoy as he did not want to play third fiddle to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
Producer Gene Roddenberry, who had offered him the role of Dr. McCoy ("Bones"), was not offended and cast Throne as "Commodore José Mendez" in the two-part episode "The Menagerie", which included most of the original pilot, although by then The Keeper's voice had been re-dubbed by another actor, Meg Wyllie. Many years later, Throne played "Senator Pardac" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) two-part episode ,"Unification", appearing with Leonard Nimoy, whose role as Spock Throne had coveted a generation earlier. In 1968, two years after "Star Trek" debuted, Throne was cast as Robert Wagner's boss on It Takes a Thief (1968) while continuing to guest star on many other television shows.
Throne remained committed to the stage, appearing as a resident actor with a variety of regional theaters, including the San Francisco Actors' Workshop, the Los Angeles Inner City Repertory Co., the Mark Taper Forum and the Louisville Free Theatre.
Throne died of lung cancer on March 13, 2013 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, where he appeared in local theater. He also wrote historical novels. His two sons are also in show business: Zachary Throne is an actor/musician while Joshua Throne is a producer and unit production manager.- Marvelous Marvin Hagler (born Marvin Nathaniel Hagler; May 23, 1954 - March 13, 2021) was an American professional boxer and film actor. He competed in boxing from 1973 to 1987 and reigned as the undisputed champion of the middleweight division from 1980 to 1987, making twelve successful title defenses, all but one by knockout. Hagler also holds the highest knockout percentage of all undisputed middleweight champions at 78 percent. His undisputed middleweight championship reign of six years and seven months is the second-longest active reign of the last century. He holds the record for the sixth longest reign as champion in middleweight history. Nicknamed "Marvelous" and annoyed that network announcers often did not refer to him as such, Hagler legally changed his name to "Marvelous Marvin Hagler" in 1982.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Academy Award-winner Maureen Stapleton was born June 21, 1925 in Troy, New York, to Irene (née Walsh) and John P. Stapleton. Her family was of Irish descent. Maureen moved to New York City at the age of eighteen and did modeling to pay the bills. Already a Tony Award-winner, she made her Academy Award-nominated film debut in Lonelyhearts (1958) supporting four-time Academy Award-nominee Montgomery Clift, and Myrna Loy in Lonelyhearts (1958). Maureen was was nominated for an Oscar again for her performance in Airport (1970). She played the wife of D. O. Guerrero (played by Academy Award-winner Van Heflin). Eight years later she went on to earn a third Oscar nomination for her performance as Diane Keaton, Kristen Griffith, and Mary Beth Hurt's stepmother Pearl, in the Woody Allen drama Interiors (1978). Apparently, four times worked as a charm when Maureen took the Oscar home for her performance in which she portrayed the Lithuanian-born anarchist Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's Reds (1981).- Actor
- Producer
Max Prado was born on 15 April 1992 in Bakersfield, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Benchwarmers (2006), Chuck (2007) and How I Met Your Mother (2005). He died on 13 March 2016 in Bakersfield, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Monica Jeanet Santa María Smith born on December 6th, 1972 in Miraflores. She had other sisters but she was the favorite of her parents. She was very intelligent and lived almost part of her childhood around the lights and cameras. When she was only 9-years-old she shot her first TV commercial, so by the time she was 11-years-old she was now very famous due to a shampoo commercial. The biggest step of her life was when she was 13, when she hadn't finished the 8th Grade, she was hired as an exclusive model for Yanbal Cosmetics. With that job, she met who would be her partner and friend for 8 years, Almendra Gomelsky. Around the year of 1990, Panamericana Televisión was casting a marathonical children show, _"Nubeluz" (1990)-. Mónica opened the casting in which auditioned almost 500 girls, including Almendra. Also, she was the first to be selected for the show.
She began to suffer from depression and around March of 1993 she quit "Nubeluz" and lived for a while in Washington, DC with her last boyfriend but was feeling more alone than ever. Around May of 1993, she returned to the show but by March 1994, Mónica was living her last days. A row with her boyfriend, Tino, led to her threatening him with his own gun. She agreed to give it back, but instead, on March 14th, she shot herself to death. She was only 21 years old.- Norman Rodway was born on 7 February 1929 in Dalkey, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Chimes at Midnight (1965), The Empty Mirror (1996) and Out (1978). He was married to Jane Rodway, Sarah Fitzgerald, Mary Selway and Pauline Delaney. He died on 13 March 2001 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
- Actress
- Writer
Olive Carey was born Olive Fuller Golden on January 31, 1896. Olive was 18 when she appeared in her first motion picture, a silent entitled, Tess of the Storm Country (1914). After she made A Knight of the Range (1916), she retired from films. In 1916, she married actor Harry Carey who was eighteen years older. They had two children, one of whom was Harry Carey Jr. who was a very good actor in his own right. Olive briefly returned to the screen in 1931 in a film called Trader Horn (1931). After 1935's Naughty Marietta (1935) Olive again stepped away from the cameras. But in 1947, her husband passed away, and she, once more, stepped into films. This time her stay was a bit longer. Her first film following Harry's death was Air Hostess (1949). She continued to act in films off and on until age 70 when she appeared for the last time in 1966's Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966). On March 13, 1988, Olive died in Carpinteria, California, at the age of 92.- Pedro Mansilla was an actor, known for Eva Peron: The True Story (1996), You Will Earn the Bread (1965) and Anteojito and Antifaz: A Thousand Attempts and One Invention (1972). He died on 13 March 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Rex Everhart was born on 13 June 1920 in Watseka, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Friday the 13th (1980), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Superman (1978). He was married to Claire Richard. He died on 13 March 2000 in Branford, Connecticut, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ronald Fraser, the British movie and television character actor, was born on April 11, 1930 in Ashton-under-Lyme, Lancashire, England. He began his professional acting career in 1954 and began appearing in small roles in movies and television in 1957. His first major movie credit was as a soldier, Lance Corporal 'Mac' Macleish in Jungle Fighters (1961). He specialized in playing nasty, brutish types, such as the piggish Private Campbell in Robert Aldrich's World War II drama Too Late the Hero (1970), who robs a corpse, kills a fellow British solder, and deserts his compatriots to surrender to the Japanese before being strung up like a slaughtered hog by the enemy. He also appeared in Aldrich's The Killing of Sister George (1968) and gave a memorable performance as Sergeant Watson in the original The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), also directed by Aldrich. He was versatile enough as an actor to occasionally break type, such as his turn as Colonel Pickering in the 1981 Pygmalion (1981), which starred Twiggy as Eliza Dolittle.
Ronald Fraser died on March 13, 1997, a month shy of his 67th birthday.- Sandra Warner was born on 12 May 1934 in Middletown, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Point Blank (1967), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962). She was married to Dixon Nicomaid McKenna Jr., Theodore F Bobo and Charles W Byrd. She died on 13 March 2022 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Stacy Harris is probably best known for the many roles he played opposite Jack Webb in Dragnet (1954) and on other Webb-produced shows. Harris and Webb were close friends and Jack named one of his daughters Stacy in his friend's honor.
Harris was born on July 26, 1918 in Seattle, Washington, and established himself as a radio actor playing FBI agent Jim Taylor on ABC Radio's "This is Your FBI," appearing on 409 episodes from 1945 to 1953. He made his movie debut in the Alan Ladd movie Appointment with Danger (1950), which also co-starred Jack Webb. He appeared five times in the four years of the original Dragnet (1951) series that ran from 1951 to 1954, plus played the main villain in the "Dragnet" feature film of 1954. He appeared another eight times in the second Dragnet 1967 (1967) series of 1967-70, most notably as the fake forest ranger Clifford Ray Owens alias Barney Regal.
He had a small recurring role in two TV series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) and O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971), the latter of which was created by Webb. In all, he appeared in hundreds of TV and movie roles between 1951 and 1972. His last role was in the low-budget political thriller Noon Sunday (1970), which was released two years after his death.
Stacy Harris died of an apparent heart attack on March 13, 1973 Los Angeles, California. He was 54 years old.- Music Department
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tommy LiPuma was born on 5 July 1936 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a producer, known for True Crime (1999), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). He was married to Gill Kleiner. He died on 13 March 2017 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
This distinctive-looking, bushy-browed, heavy-set Welsh character actor played dozens of rustics, sea captains, sheriffs, priests and police officers during a forty-year long career, starting in 1926. His was the perfect face for period drama. At the peak of his popularity, Owen co-starred as a first mate in Captain David Grief (1957), a South Seas adventure based on stories by Jack London. During the 1940's and 50's, he was prolific on radio, lending his voice to crime dramas like "Pursuit" (CBS, 1949-52) and "Pete Kelly's Blues". His best-known role was that of alcoholic 'wharf-bum' Jocko Madigan, drunk ex-doctor friend and sidekick of star Jack Webb, in "Pat Novak for Hire". He also voiced Towser in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)).- Weston Nathanson was born on 2 May 1938. He was an actor, known for Serenity (2005), Good Behavior (2008) and Criminal Minds (2005). He died on 13 March 2023 in Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his supporting role in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence (2005). Hurt received Best Supporting Actor accolades for the role from the Los Angeles Film Critics circle and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Hurt spent the early years of his career on the stage between drama school, summer stock, regional repertory and off-Broadway, appearing in more than fifty productions including "Henry V", "5th of July", "Hamlet", "Uncle Vanya", "Richard II", "Hurlyburly" (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), "My Life" (winning an Obie Award for Best Actor), "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "Good". For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux's "The Grand Railway Bazaar", for the BBC Radio Four and "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. He has recorded "The Polar Express", "The Boy Who Drew Cats", "The Sun Also Rises" and narrated the documentaries, "Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos Passos", "Einstein-How I See the World" and the English narration of Elie Wiesel's "To Speak the Unspeakable", a documentary directed and produced by Pierre Marmiesse. In 1988, Hurt was awarded the first Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA.