News

Dick Curtis, a veteran comedian and character actor, died September 16 in Los Angeles of heart failure at the Va hospital in Westwood. He was 95 and his death was confirmed by longtime friend and TV writer, Paul Jackson.

Curtis’s varied career spanned song and dance, nightclubs, TV, movies, commercials, producing for Pm magazine, and cutting two record albums.

But he was perhaps best known to TV viewers as the straight man to Jonathan Winters on his eponymous CBS series. Curtis also appeared in many weekly TV shows of the ’60s and ’70s, including The Andy Griffith Show, Batman, That Girl and The Dick Van Dyke Show, among others.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, he was a U.S. Marine in World War II. Returning to civilian life, he appeared on the Jack Benny Show.

In a memorable Dick Van Dyke Show appearance on the episode Coast to Coast Bigmouth, he played Johnny Patrick,...

Ben Cooper, who portrayed the bandit Turkey Ralston in the Joan Crawford drama Johnny Guitar, just one of his many appearances in Westerns on television and the big screen, has died. He was 86.

Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...

Ben Cooper, who portrayed the bandit Turkey Ralston in the Joan Crawford drama Johnny Guitar, just one of his many appearances in Westerns on television and the big screen, has died. He was 86.

Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...

Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood classic with major graces, from the late 1950s. A second sees an American producer based in England filming in Italy with a rising international star, and for the third an established American star goes European  to stay in the game. The best thing for Yankee buyers? The discs are Region-free.

Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...

On Saturday, Hollywood leading man James Garner died of natural causes in Los Angeles. He was 86.

When the news broke, celebrities immediately took to Twitter to remember the man behind Maverick, The Rockford Files, and so much more. Here are just a few of those tributes:

Rip to a legend. James Garner was both a kind man and gifted actor. It was an honor to work with him on #TheNotebook. He will be missed.

— Nicholas Sparks (@NicholasSparks) July 20, 2014

Matt Weiner on casting Don Draper: “James Garner was the model. That’s who I wanted.”

— Brett Martin (@brettmartin) July 20, 2014

I think...

©2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Oscar-nominated actor James Garner has passed away at the age of 86.

From AP:

Garner, whose whimsical style in the 1950s TV Western “Maverick” led to a stellar career in TV and films such as “The Rockford Files” and his Oscar-nominated “Murphy’s Romance,” was found dead of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles Saturday evening, Los Angeles police officer Alonzo Iniquez said early Sunday.

Police responded to a call around 8 p.m. Pdt and confirmed Garner’s identity from family members, Iniquez told The Associated Press.

There was no immediate word on a more specific cause of death. Garner had suffered a stroke in May 2008, just weeks after his 80th birthday.

Although he was adept at drama and action, Garner was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially with his hit TV series, “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files.

James Garner in Marlowe

In the 1960s, James Garner was a cinema legend, one of the top choices to play tough guy gunslingers and rough-edged urban gunslingers. In the 1970s, he reinvented himself and won a whole new set of fans with TV movie series The Rockford Files. Now, at the age of 86, he has died.

Garner was known for films like The Great Escape, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Hour Of The Gun and The Children's Hour, and was much admired as a character actor. He was also a war hero, winning two purple hearts for his service in Korea. He worked in cinema up until 2008, when complications from a minor stroke left him in poor health. After a long period of decline he finally passed away in his Los Angeles home.

He is survived by his wife, Lois, and their daughters, Kim and Gigi....

Patricia Norris with her lifetime achievement from the Costume Guild in 2007Patty Norris is a national treasure but I believe she'd be the last person to say so. When I spoke to the enduring costume designer over the phone about sixth Oscar nomination for 12 Years a Slave, she shocked me again and again with her modesty and her absolute lack of sentiment about what I've always thought of as a very illustrious Hollywood career. But her honestly was, shall we say, refreshing.

The 82 year old's career, as we know it at least, began over just over 40 years ago with westerns like Rio Lobo (1970) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) but she doesn't get misty-eyed or nostalgic about her filmography. "I think it was just luck. I started as a stock girl at MGM and I've always been comfortable with clothes," she explains. But to hear her tell it, her developing career...

Summer TV shows usually don’t get me very excited. Some of them are okay, some of them are great, and some of them just annoy me. If I’ve got nothing better to do, there are a few of those summer shows that I end up watching fairly regularly. That’s changed this year, mostly because of A&E and their addition Longmire.

I like westerns and have for a long time. I can remember watching Terence Hill movies when I was just a tiny little starry-eyed sprocket. I used to laugh at how lazy Trinity was and marvel at how adept he was at talking himself out of the trouble that he would get into. They Call Me Trinity was a perennial favorite around my house.

I’ve seen Clint Eastwood westerns and Charles Bronson westerns and, of course, Robert Redford westerns. All of the greats have graced...