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A cause of death has been revealed for Leslie Charleson, who played cardiologist Monica Quartermaine on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital for nearly 50 years. Charleson died of sequelae of blunt head trauma, a consequence of a previous head injury she had suffered, according to documents obtained by TMZ.

Charleson died January 12 at a hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 79.

The four-time Daytime Emmy nominee joined Gh in 1977 to replace Patsy Rahn as Monica and played the beloved character for the next 46 years. She exited the show because of health issues and was last seen on the ABC soap in December 2023.

Charleson began her television career appearing in soaps A Flame in the Wind and As the World Turns. She guest-starred in numerous television series including most recently Friends; Dharma and Greg; as well as 1970s series Adam-12; Emergency!; Ironside; Mannix; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Happy Days; Cannon; The Streets of San Francisco...

Attempts to converse with other species, such as dolphins, whales or even extraterrestrials, the use of isolation tanks and a recommendation “to get terror-stricken” — those are just some of the elements teased in a trailer for John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office. The film, written and directed by Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens and narrated by Chloë Sevigny, will world premiere at the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

Showcasing archival material, the essayistic movie explores the life and ideas of utopian neuroscientist John C. Lilly, who developed the isolation tank, or sensory deprivation tank, and whose unorthodox work and experiments on human and animal consciousness were as ambitious as they were controversial.

Putting a new spotlight on an era in U.S. counterculture, it shows how Lilly predicted that humans would be able to find ways to communicate with other species, particularly marine animals, but potentially also extraterrestrial life.

If you think The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live have been on for a long time, wait till you hear about the final boss of soap operas – General Hospital. The show began all the way back in 1963 and is still alive and kicking and how. Holding the Guinness World Record for the longest-running American soap opera in production, General Hospital is one of the few shows that have managed to keep its audience interested throughout its history.

Leslie Charleson on General Hospital | Credits: ABC

Whether you’re an Og fan or new to it all, the drama, twists, and unforgettable characters will pull you in like a siren’s call and never let you go. Speaking of unforgettable characters, late actress Leslie Charleson played the role of Monica Quartermaine on the TV show. Her first episode premiered in 1977 and since then, she stuck with the show throughout her life. However,...

Gh Leslie Charleson Dead At 79

General Hospital spoilers and updates report Leslie Charleson, who played the iconic Monica Quartermaine since 1977 passed away after a long illness at 79. Gh Executive Producer Frank Valentini made the announcement Sunday, January 12.

General Hospital Spoilers: Valentini’s Announcement

Frank Valentini announced: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson”. “Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on ‘General Hospital’ alone”. “And, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew.”

“I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set. On behalf of everyone at ‘General Hospital,’ my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”

Gh Spoilers: Leslie Had Been Ill For Some Time

The cherished actress, who became part of the soap in...

Leslie Charleson, who played Monica Quartermaine on General Hospital for nearly 50 years, has died. She was 79.

Charleson’s death was announced Sunday on the Instagram account of the ABC daytime drama series. The announcement was attributed to General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” Valentini’s statement read. “Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on General Hospital alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew. I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set. On behalf of everyone at General Hospital, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”

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A post shared by General Hospital (@generalhospitalabc)

A cause of death was not given,...

Soap Opera icon Leslie Charleson, who for decades played Monica Quartermaine on “General Hospital,” died Sunday morning after a long illness. She was 79.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” “General Hospital” executive producer Frank Valentini announced. “Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on ‘General Hospital’ alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew. I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set. On behalf of everyone at ‘General Hospital,’ my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”

The beloved actress, who joined the soap in 1977, has had some health ups and downs over the past few years, which has limited her time on the ABC soap, on which she hadn’t appeared since December 2023. In recent years,...

Martha Luttrell, a talent agent who represented a notable array of directors, actors, writers and musicians, died on Dec. 9 in Calabasas, Calif. She was 80.

Luttrell’s death was confirmed to Variety by her friend Holly Goldberg Sloan, with the cause being pancreatic cancer.

As a one-time representative for directors Martin Campbell, Paul Weiland, Mick Jackson, Tony Bill and Jon Amiel, Luttrell also helped guide the careers of Stephen Rea, Julie Taymor, Dereck Joubert, Beverly Joubert, Susan Sarandon, Judy Davis, Sam Shepard, Waylon Jennings and Don Was.

Luttrell got one of her first jobs answering phones at Capitol Records. In the 1970s, she relocated to New York City and assisted Mike Nichols. After working with him on location for the film “The Day of the Dolphin,” she relocated to Los Angeles and got a job assisting Bill Robinson at The Robinson Agency, where she learned how to be an agent.

Robinson...

Martha Luttrell, the onetime ICM talent agent whose clients included Susan Sarandon, Sam Shepard, Waylon Jennings, Don Was and Martin Campbell, has died. She was 80.

Luttrell died Monday of pancreatic cancer in Calabasas, California, a family spokesperson announced.

Luttrell, who spent 25 years at ICM, also repped directors Paul Weiland, Mick Jackson, Julie Taymor, Tony Bill and Jon Amiel; actors Stephen Rea and Judy Davis; and filmmakers/conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

Luttrell was born in Vancouver on Halloween in 1944. Her father, James, was a salesman and her mother, Frances, a realtor. She knew at an early age that she wanted to be in show business and moved with her cousin to Los Angeles right out of high school. One of her first jobs was working at Capitol Records answering the phones.

In the early 1970s, Luttrell relocated to New York and became the assistant to Mike Nichols, whom she called...

Martha Luttrell, a veteran talent agent whose clients ranged from Susan Sarandon and Martin Campbell to Julie Taymor, Sam Shepard and Waylon Jennings and also worked with Mike Nichols and Bill Robinson, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer in Calabasas, CA. She was 80.

Her friend Holly Goldberg Sloan confirmed the news to Deadline.

Born on October 31, 1944, in Vancouver, Luttrell knew at an early age that she wanted to be in show business and moved with her cousin to Los Angeles right out of high school. Among her first jobs was answering phones at Capitol Records.

Luttrell relocated to New York City in the early 1970s and became the assistant to comedian-turned-Oscar-winning The Graduate filmmaker Mike Nichols. After working with him on 1973’s The Day of the Dolphin, she moved back to Los Angeles and got a job assisting Robinson at The Robinson Agency, where she learn the craft of agenting.

Related:...

Anthea Sylbert, an Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on some of the signature films of the late 1960s and 1970s, including “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Chinatown,” “Shampoo,” “Julia” and “King Kong,” and a producer later in her career on a number of films starring Goldie Hawn, has died. She was 84.

Her death was confirmed by Robert Romanus, her stepson.

Sylbert, subject of a forthcoming documentary by Sakis Lalas titled “Anthea Sylbert: My Life in 3 Acts,” also served as an executive at United Artists and Warner Bros., at a time when there were few women in the C-suites of Hollywood. She also worked repeatedly with director Mike Nichols, both onscreen and onstage, and was Oscar-nominated for her costuming on period films “Chinatown” (1974) and “Julia” (1977).

Assessing Sylbert’s work on “Chinatown,” GlamAmor, a website dedicated to the history of fashion in film, said in 2012: “Sylbert crafted clothes for Faye Dunaway that...

Anthea Sylbert, the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo and Julia before becoming a studio executive and producer, has died. She was 84.

Sylbert died Tuesday in Skiathos, Greece, director Sakis Lalas told The Hollywood Reporter. Lalas just finished a documentary about Sylbert titled, My Life in 3 Acts.

Sylbert partnered with two-time Oscar-winning production Richard Sylbert on eight films and with his twin brother, Paul Sylbert — her first husband and another Oscar-winning production designer — on another three.

“Paul is the more bitter, more angry of the two,” she told Peter Biskind in 1993. “Someone once put it this way: Dick is more of a diplomat. He will put the ice pick somewhere in your back, you’re not quite sure, and you sort of feel tickled; Paul, while facing you, sticks it in your gut. I always used to think that if you put them together,...

Rochelle Oliver, who starred on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and taught acting at New York’s respected Hb Studio since the 1970s, has died. She was 86.

Oliver died April 13, the Hb Studio announced. “Those who knew Rochelle will know what a luminous artist, sensitive and passionate teacher she was,” it said in an Instagram post. She died two days shy of her birthday.

For the big screen, Oliver starred in the Horton Foote-written 1918 (1985) and Courtship (1987) and appeared in such other films as The Happy Hooker (1975), Paul Mazursky‘s Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), John Sayles’ Lianna (1983), An Unremarkable Life (1989), Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman (1992) and Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (2002).

She also recurred as Judge Grace Larkin on Law & Order from 1993-03.

A protégé of Uta Hagen — who also taught for decades at Hb and...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here – today – we talk about movie Editors! Not the movies they edited that were legendary but the less legendary ones in between.

Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season.

Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film, O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is.

Highlights include...

If it’s been a patchy few years for Errol Morris––one solid doc in-between a bad Steve Bannon portrait and iffy look at John le Carré––our interest in his thorough, startling oeuvre remains strong, and it’s naturally a thrill to hear word of two new features. On the documentary front he’s been adapting, for Netflix, Tom O’Neill’s Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, which quickly engendered great attention for challenging standard Manson Family narratives; and there’s a feature screenplay about Ed Gein, who Morris interviewed in 1975 for a never-completed documentary. If it doesn’t feature that footage and opts for a biopic / procedural path, it would make Morris’ first narrative since 1991’s The Dark Wind. [Screen Daily]

Meanwhile, Michael Almereyda has found his first feature since Tesla. Per Deadline, he and Courtney Stephens are developing an untitled documentary about John C. Lilly,...

Exclusive: Indie filmmakers Courtney Stephens and Michael Almereyda are teaming to direct a new documentary about controversial scientist John C. Lilly, Deadline has learned.

Funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the project will look at the countercultural figure’s work as the inventor of the isolation tank, as well as his pioneering studies of dolphin intelligence and support of psychedelics as a positive means for expanding consciousness. The storytelling will be supported by interviews with Lilly’s contemporaries and colleagues, as well as extensive archival records.

Stephens was drawn to Lilly, having grown up near Marine World in the Bay Area, where the scientist worked with trained dolphins and computers in the early 1980s, hoping to teach the animals an Esperanto-like language that would allow for interspecies communication. Apple donated equipment to the lab, which was visited by figures ranging from Ram Dass to Olivia Newton John.

The comedian and former The Daily Show correspondent talks about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Castle (1997)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary

Pressure (1976)

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Boss (1975)

Django Unchained (2012) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)

Black Samurai (1977)

Truck Turner (1974)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Friday Foster (1975)

That Man Bolt (1973)

Blacula (1972)

Foxy Brown (1974) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)

Willie Dynamite (1973) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Billy Jack (1971)

John Wick (2014)

The Matrix (1999)

Cleopatra Jones...

There is a stellar moment in Mark Harris’ stunning new biography Mike Nichols: A Life in which the director’s early 70s oddity The Day of the Dolphin is released to dismissive and hostile reviews. Leave it to Pauline Kael to hurl the most incisive and devastating line about the film: “If Mike Nichols and [screenwriter] Buck Henry don’t have anything better to make movies about than English-speaking dolphins in assassination attempts, why don’t they stop making movies?” It was difficult not to think of that comment when watching Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, a pandemic horror film that lands with a thud. A Deadline article published the day of Earth’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival explained that, according to Wheatley, “He simply wanted to make a movie and get [out] of the house.”

Creating a new film is not the worst way to spend some forced Covid-19 downtime.

When the American Film Institute announced that it was giving its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Nichols, the event instantly became the hottest ticket in town. As recounted in Mark Harris’ upcoming biography “Mike Nichols: A Life,” not only did just about all of Nichols’ most celebrated collaborators — Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Jack Nicholson, Nora Ephron, Emma Thompson, Warren Beatty, Natalie Portman, Cher — immediately agree to attend, but other industry luminaries with no direct connection to Nichols called AFI and asked if they could come, too.

“Steven Spielberg said, ‘I want to be there for Mike,'” AFI chief Bob Gazzale says in the book. “Oprah Winfrey said, ‘How do I buy a table?’ It had never happened before, and I don’t know that it will happen again.”

Reading Harris’ meticulous, deeply engrossing account makes abundantly clear: We will never see the likes of Mike Nichols again.

Victoria Racimo, who starred in John Frankenheimer’s 1979 horror sci-fi film Prophecy and Mike Nichols’ 1973 The Day of the Dolphin, died Nov. 29 in Williamsburg, Va. She was 69.

A cause of death was not announced.

Through the 1960s to the 1990s, Racimo appeared in, among others, 1970’s The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, starring Don Johnson; 1976’s High Velocity, with Ben Gazzara; 1980’s Mountain Men, with Charlton Heston; and, in 1987, the Jim Varney comedy Ernest Goes to Camp.

TV credits in the 1970s include Cannon, Mannix, Mod Squad, Kung Fu, Hawaii Five-0, Lou Grant, Doogie Howser, M.D., Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and, in recurring roles, The Chisholms (1980) and Falcon Crest (1983).

Abby Dalton Dies: ‘Falcon Crest’ Actress, Emmy Nominee & Game Show Mainstay Was 88

Following her acting career, Racimo turned to directing, writing and producing. She was executive producer of 2006’s HBO film Casi Casi produced and directed One Day, a 2015 documentary...

Victoria Racimo, who starred in the 1979 environmental horror-thriller Prophecy and worked opposite Charlton Heston in The Mountain Men a year later, died Nov. 29 in Williamsburg, Virginia, it was announced. She was 69.

Racimo also appeared on the big screen with Don Johnson in The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970), with George C. Scott in Mike Nichols’ The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and with Jim Varney in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).

A passionate supporter of equine welfare, Racimo wrote, directed and produced the 2015 documentary One Day, about the Kentucky-based Our Mims Retirement Haven, named for a champion filly who raced in the ...

Victoria Racimo, who starred in the 1979 environmental horror-thriller Prophecy and worked opposite Charlton Heston in The Mountain Men a year later, died Nov. 29 in Williamsburg, Virginia, it was announced. She was 69.

Racimo also appeared on the big screen with Don Johnson in The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970), with George C. Scott in Mike Nichols’ The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and with Jim Varney in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).

A passionate supporter of equine welfare, Racimo wrote, directed and produced the 2015 documentary One Day, about the Kentucky-based Our Mims Retirement Haven, named for a champion filly who raced in the ...

The director of Over The Edge and The Accused takes us on a journey through some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Student Teachers (1973)

Night Call Nurses (1972)

White Line Fever (1975)

Truck Turner (1974)

Heart Like A Wheel (1983)

The Accused (1988)

Over The Edge (1979)

Modern Times (1936)

City Lights (1931)

Manhattan (1979)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Apartment (1960)

North By Northwest (1959)

Moon Pilot (1962)

Mr. Billion (1977)

White Heat (1949)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Three Musketeers (1973)

The Four Musketeers (1974)

Superman (1978)

Superman II (1980)

The Three Musketeers (1948)

Shane (1953)

The 400 Blows (1959)

8 ½ (1963)

Fellini Satyricon (1969)

Richard (1972)

Millhouse (1971)

The Projectionist (1970)

El Dorado (1966)

The Shootist (1976)

Woodstock (1970)

Payback (1999)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

Billy Liar (1963)

Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Bad Girls (1994)

Masters of the Universe (1987)

Giant (1956)

The More The Merrier (1943)

The Graduate (1967)

The Victors (1963)

…And Justice For All (1979)

Citizen Kane (1941)

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...

They swim, they play, and they talk. They love George C. Scott and call him ‘pa.’ Mike Nichols’ paranoid sci-fi classic combines Lassie Go Home and The Manchurian Candidate. It works up a good guys versus bad guys conspiracy storyline — until the message arrives that what the adorable dolphins Fa and Bee really need, along with the rest of the natural planet, is for us greedy, murderous humans to just Go Away. Buck Henry’s screenplay overcomes aquatic clichés and cutesy animal traditions to come up with a crowd-pleasing winner.

The Day of the Dolphin

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, John Dehner, Severn Darden, Elizabeth Wilson.

Cinematography: William A. Fraker

Film Editor: Sam O’Steen

Production Designer: Richard Sylbert

Original Music: Georges Delerue

Written by Buck...

Buck Henry, screenwriter for The Graduate and co-creator of Get Smart, has died at the age of 89. Henry died of a heart attack at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports.

Born Henry Zuckerman in 1930 in New York City, the noted screenwriter was also a regular host in the early days of Saturday Night Live during its first five seasons: He often appeared as the foil to John Belushi’s Samurai Futaba in that series of classic sketches — in one sketch, “Samurai Stockbroker,” Belushi’s...

Buck Henry, the legendary screenwriter behind The Graduate and What’s Up, Doc? who also co-created Get Smart and was a regular presence in the early years of Saturday Night Live, died tonight of a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Health Center in Los Angeles. He was 89.

A family member confirmed the news to Deadline.

Henry scored a pair of Oscar nominations — one for his and Calder Willingham’s adapted screenplay for The Graduate and another for directing with Warren Beatty the 1978 movie Heaven Can Wait. He also won a writing Emmy in 1967 for Get Smart, the spy spoof he created with Mel Brooks, among many other accolades.

He became a familiar face to a new generation of TV viewers by hosting Saturday Night Live several times during its first five seasons. He might be best remembered as John Belushi’s foil in the classic “Samurai” skits.

Henry also had more...

Actress Sharon Tate was only 26 years old when her life and career were tragically cut short in one of the most brutal murders in Hollywood history. On Aug. 8, 1969, the stunning Valley of the Dolls star - who was married to film director Roman Polanski and eight and a half months pregnant with their son - was spending time with friends at 10050 Cielo Drive, the secluded home she and Roman shared in La's Benedict Canyon. Roman was off in London filming The Day of the Dolphin, so he asked their close pals Wojciech Frykowski and Folger's Coffee heiress Abigail Folger to stay at the house with his pregnant wife until he flew back to La on Aug. 12. The trio had dinner at Sharon's favorite restaurant, El Coyote, along with celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring. They returned to the house around 10:30 p.m.

Shortly after midnight on Aug. 9, the house was broken...

This post contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is now in theaters.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, the latest epic from Quentin Tarantino, is not, as you may already know, a historically accurate depiction of the Manson Family murders. Given the director’s work, it’s not all that surprising; as evidenced by Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, revisiting historical atrocities and making sure the good guys win (and in as badass, comically violent a fashion as possible) is kind of his thing. In this vein,...

Over the years, I’ve consumed my share of movies — documentaries, dramatizations, deconstructive punk curios — that play off the Manson murders. The quality of this genre (and by now it is a genre) is hit-or-miss, yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Manson film that wasn’t on some level trying for something, for a new shade of insight into that uniquely horrific and resonant chapter of the American dream-turned-nightmare.

But now, I’m afraid, the track record is broken. “The Haunting of Sharon Tate” may be the first “serious” Manson drama that represents a case of pure, unadulterated cheeseball exploitation. The film has nothing of remote fascination to add to the Manson dialogue that some of us have been carrying on for decades. It doesn’t bring you closer to the events; if anything, it seals you outside of them. But the movie’s petty folly...

On the March 5, 2019 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor in Chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, senior writer Ben Pearson, and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to talk about what they’ve been up to at The Watercooler. You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Podcasts, […]

The post Water Cooler: Captain Marvel, Furie, Iron Man 2, The Day of the Dolphin, Pet Sematary, Die, Dune, My Dinner with Andre, Magic is Dead & More appeared first on /Film.

Above: detail from 2018 UK quad for Khrustalyov, My Car!.One of the most beautiful and confounding of modern masterpieces, Aleksei German’s Khrustalyov, My Car! is getting a 20th anniversary restoration release in both the U.K. and the U.S. on December 14 courtesy of Arrow Films. A potent source for Armando Ianucci’s The Death of Stalin, German’s fever dream of a satire has some the most gorgeous high-contrast black and white cinematography I’ve ever seen (watch the trailer here). It is fitting then that the new poster for the film, by the great Andrzej Klimowski, is in such stark black and white.A new film poster by Klimowski is an event. Born in London to Polish parents in 1949, the designer emigrated to Poland in 1973 to study under the legendary Henryk Tomaszewski at the Academy of Fine Arts. By 1976 he was designing posters for the state-run Film...

Mike Nichols would’ve celebrated his 87th birthday on November 6, 2018. One of the few people to complete the Egot, the acclaimed director excelled in film, television and theater until his death in 2014. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all 18 of his movies, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1931 in Berlin, Germany, Nichols got his start as one half of the comedic improvisational act Nichols and May, working alongside Elaine May. In 1960, the two opened the Broadway show “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,” winning a Grammy in 1962 for the LP version. Their partnership ended just a year later, though they would collaborate several times thereafter, including on “The Birdcage” (1996) and “Primary Colors” (1998).

Nichols began his directing career on Broadway, gaining fame for his productions of such Neil Simon classics as “Barefoot in the Park” (1964) and “The Odd Couple” (1965). Both would bring him...

This article marks Part 5 of the 21-part Gold Derby series analyzing Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

In her first eight appearances on the big screen, Meryl Streep portrayed a diverse array of characters, all fictional. In 1983, she at last took on a real-life role, that of the plutonium technician-turned-nuclear safety whistleblower Karen Silkwood in “Silkwood” and was rewarded with an Academy Awards nomination for her efforts.

The project marked Streep’s first of four collaborations with filmmaker Mike Nichols and first of three with screenwriter Nora Ephron.

No one had more riding on the success of “Silkwood” than the picture’s director. After a string of acclaimed box office hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including “Who’s Afraid...

Sharon Tate was 26 in 1969 and about to begin a new chapter of her life: The successful actress was married to director Roman Polanski and eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first child.

But that was all cut short when Sharon was killed — along with Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent — in a horrific stabbing at her Los Angeles-area home by followers of cult leader Charles Manson.

Manson, whose name became synonymous with evil after his arrest in connection with the 1969 murders of Tate and eight others, died of natural causes on Sunday night. He was 83 and serving a...

Guy Buckland Oct 4, 2017

We salute the highs, lows and plain hilarious in the world of the movie tagline...

Hanging proudly on the wall of a room in my house where I escape to watch films and play videogames (a room that you can call anything you like, but – for the love of all that is decent – must not be referred to as a ‘man cave’) is a framed poster for a movie I have never seen. A movie that I shall probably never see.

It takes pride of place nestled between The Shining, which is the wife’s joint favourite film ever (tied with Overboard), and Batman ’89. Why? Because it has arguably the single greatest tagline ever plastered over a film advertisement:

"Unwittingly, he trained a dolphin to kill the president of the United States."

It just makes me smile every time I enter the room. As Den of Geek...

Fritz Weaver, the courtly veteran of Broadway and the big screen who won a Tony Award and stood out in such films as Fail-Safe and The Day of the Dolphin, has died. He was 90.

Weaver died Saturday at home in Manhattan, The New York Times reported.

His sister was Mary Weaver Dodson, a four-time Emmy-nominated art director known for her work on Murder, She Wrote. She died in February.

Weaver received his Tony in 1970 for his performance as strict Catholic boarding school teacher Jerome Malley in Robert Marasco's long-running thriller Child's Play.

The 6-foot-3 Pittsburgh native made his Broadway debut in 1955's The Chalk Garden, for which he...

1973’s The Day of the Dolphin was based on a French sci-fi thriller about talking dolphins involved in a plot to assassinate the president. Its Greenpeace Meets James Bond storyline managed to attract directors as disparate as Roman Polanski and Franklin Schaffner but the task eventually fell to Mike Nichols who enlisted his Graduate scribe Buck Henry to tap out the screenplay. Starring George C. Scott as a kind of water-logged Dr. Doolittle, Nichols described the Bahamas-set shoot as his “toughest” ever. Georges Delerue’s achingly lovely score was nominated for an Academy Award.

30. Sense and Sensibility

Directed by: Ang Lee

Ang Lee has gone in about eight different directions in terms of genre. His resume includes “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Hulk,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Life of Pi,” and this delightful Jane Austen adaptation, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, and young Kate Winslet. “Sense and Sensibility” took home the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay for the story of the Dashwood family, a mother widowed and left in difficult circumstances after her husband has left his fortune to his first wife, instead of his current one. So Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her daughters Fanny, Marianne, and Elinor (Harriet Walter, Winslet, Thompson) have to find a way to survive in a world ruled by men and the rules that seem to create obstacle after obstacle for them. Unfortunately, given the era, they are viewed as “unmarryable,” since they have no fortune and no prospects.

Character actor Edward Herrmann has died at the age of 71. The news was first reported by TMZ and confirmed by Buzzfeed. Herrmann's career spanned over four decades and it's no wonder that he's being memorialized today in different ways by different generations of film, TV and theater audiences.  Most recently, Herrmann was beloved for his performance as Richard Gilmore on The WB's "Gilmore Girls." The performance capped years as one of Hollywood's go-to actors for roles as patrician parents, lofty corporate board members and other ostensibly rigid WASPs. The catch with Richard Gilmore was that while he was introduced as seemingly out-of-touch and disapproving when it came to daughter Lorelai, his warmth for both his estranged progeny and for granddaughter Rory was a key source of "Gilmore Girls" heart. Herrmann and Kelly Bishop's parts could have been marginalized, what with The WB's focus on young female viewers, but the...

If I had to make a list of the ten film directors who I think most influenced my own standards of what filmmaking can be and should be, Mike Nichols would be on that list, if only for the first two films he made. And it may seem strange to say that I admire how he survived making those masterworks, but early success can destroy even the greatest talent because of the expectations it creates, and Nichols somehow managed it in a way that many other talented people have not. That is not to say that the rest of his work is not worth that kind of consideration and discussion. It's just that Nichols came out of the gate with two genuine, no-debate masterpieces, two films that crackle with life, two films that are so visually adept that they are humbling, two films packed with performances that go beyond good...

When people pass away, we often praise them with, "What couldn’t they do?" Exaggeration. With Mike Nichols, there’s really no answer to the theoretical. A seasoned comedian, a pillar of New York City theater, a successful film director — earning a Best Picture nomination, four Best Director nominations, and one win in the latter category — and one of only 12 people to successfully collect the coveted Egot, when it came to the entertainment industry, there really wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. He went out on a high. Thursday morning, we learned that Nichols passed away at the age of 83. Fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany in 1938, Nichols wound up in New York City and called the city home for nearly his entire life. Attending college in Chicago, he became part of the theater and comedy scenes, joining Second City and forming the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with actress Elaine May.

As you’ve probably already heard, director Mike Nichols passed away last night. Our obituary is here, with a wealth of supplemental material to help you remember the man and just what a remarkable legacy he leaves. We also wanted to add our own thoughts on some of his greatest films. Nichols was something of a polyglot, though perhaps not working across different genres so much as different moods, and polylgot doesn’t quite capture just how effortless he made the business of directing seem. Working mostly within a category that could be loosely defined as the mid-budget adult drama (exactly the kind of films that are getting squeezed out these days, between big blockbusters on the one side and tiny, low-budget indies on the other), Nichols found space to range from the broad comedy of “The Birdcage” (featuring a lovely turn from the late Robin Williams) to the solemnity of “Silkwood,...

Sometimes, 'Treehouse Of Horror' segments are more than just funny, but truly nightmarish.

The Simpsons' annual "Treehouse Of Horror" Halloween special has been a holiday tradition for 25 years.

Mostly taking their inspiration from sci-fi and horror classics, "Treehouse Of Horror" has created some of the funniest and most well-crafted parodies of all time. Occasionally, however, the show manages to write a segment that is really, legitimately creepy.

News: How to Dress Like the 6 Most Badass TV Characters for Halloween!

To really get into the spooky spirit, here are 12 truly scary "Treehouse Of Horror" stories to give you nightmares this Halloween.

1. "Bad Dream House"- "Treehouse Of Horror I" – Segment 1

The Simpson family moves into a haunted house that bleeds from the walls and possesses everyone - except Marge - and manipulates them into trying to kill each other with knives and axes.

Video: The Simpsons Kicks off 278-Hour Marathon

Based on the horror classics Poltergeist and [link...

Macbeth was the first film Roman Polanski made following the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and friends at the hands of the Manson family. At the time he'd been working on the sci-fi thriller The Day of the Dolphin, which would later be made by Mike Nichols. It was during a skiing trip arranged by Victor Lownes, a subsequent producer of the film, Polanski made the decision Macbeth would be his next film. It was a decision he made feeling his next film "should be something serious, not a comedy... something with some depth." Polanski would team with Kenneth Tynan to write the screenplay and, thanks to urging from Lownes, Hugh Hefner and Playboy would eventually serve as the film's producer after no one else would touch it. As Polanski notes in an included 60-minute documentary on this new Criterion Blu-ray release, to that point there had only been...

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of '73 arrives on July 31st, just over two weeks from now. You need to get your votes in too if you want to participate (instructions at the bottom of this post). If you've wandered in from elsewhere and are like, "What's a Smackdown?," here's how it started.

The Smackdown Panel for July

Without further ado let's meet our panel who will be discussing popular classics Paper Moon, The Exorcist, and American Graffiti as well as the more obscure title Summer Wishes Winter Dreams. All of the Supporting Actress nominees this Oscar vintage were first timers and so are our Smackdown panelists.

Special Guest

Dana Delany

Dana Delany is an actress working on stage, screen, television and now internet. She was last seen starring in "Body of Proof" on ABC. In August you can rate and review the pilot "Hand of God" in which she co-stars with Ron Perlman on Amazon.

This article is dedicated to Andrew Copp: filmmaker, film writer, artist and close friend who passed away on January 19, 2013. You are loved and missed, brother.

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Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.

In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).

Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.

Dolphins are often portrayed by Hollywood as the gentle geniuses of the sea. (See: Flipper. Um, don’t see: The Day of the Dolphin.) So we’ve been more than curious to check out Ricky Gervais’ take on the magical marine mammal, which will be unveiled on Sunday’s episode of Family Guy. The comedian—who also stars in the HBO comedy Life’s Too Short, debuting the same night — is voicing Billy Finn, a pun-loving dolphin who seems to enjoy tormenting Peter, who accidentally fished him out of the water. To get a preview of Billy and go behind...

My first addition to this series isn’t exactly a household name, nor will you find critics singing its praises from their lofty positions. Because, sadly, The Day of the Dolphin was a load of old tosh- an overblown attempt at making a hit that just didnt achieve what it set out to do, largely thanks to the utter silliness of the thing. Just look at the IMDb synopsis:

Dr Jake Terrell, who has been training a pair of dolphins for many years, has had a breakthrough. He has taught his dolphins to speak and understand English, although they do have a limited vocabulary. When the dolphins are stolen, he discovers they’re to be used in an assassination attempt. Now he is in a race to discover who is the target, and where the dolphins are, before the attempt is carried out.

How this film flopped so badly I’ll never know.

William A. Fraker was a leading cinematographer in films from the late 1960s, photographing such films as Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and the 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic. He earned six Academy Award nominations during his career for his work on Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), the fantasy classic Heaven Can Wait (1978) starring Warren Beatty, Steven Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), WarGames (1983), and Murphy’s Romance (1985).

Fraker was born in Los Angeles on September 29, 1923 and served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He studied at the USC School of Cinema and worked as a photographer’s assistant. He began working as a camera operator for television in the early 1960s. He served as a cinematographer for the obscure television production The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (a.k.a. The Haunted) (1964) for director Joseph Stefano, and for Leslie Steven’s off-beat, Esperanto-language horror film Incubus (1965) starring William Shatner.

Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby William A. Fraker, the Academy Award-nominated cinematographer of Richard Brooks‘ Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s Heaven Can Wait (1978), and John Badham’s WarGames (1983), died on May 31. Fraker was 86. Among Fraker’s other credits — the best of which were usually dark psychological dramas — are Curtis Harrington’s thriller Games (1967), Roman Polanski’s devil’s child hit Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Peter Yates‘ cop drama Bullitt (1968), Mike Nichols‘ thriller-sci-fier The Day of the Dolphin (1973), Steven Spielberg’s period comedy 1941 (1979), Martin Ritt’s comedy-drama Murphy’s Romance (1985), and William [...]...

0:00 - Intro 6:32 - Headlines: Megan Fox Will Not Return for Transformers 3, James Franco to Star in Rise of the Apes, Napoleon Dynamite Animated Series, Robert Rodriguez to Direct Fire and Ice Remake, Rambo V Without Stallone? 19:45 - Review: MacGruber 42:55 - Trailer Trash: The Last Exorcism 50:10 - Other Stuff We Watched: The Edge, The Magnificent Seven, The Deep, Superman III, The Day of the Dolphin, Django, Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte, In Treatment, Sweeney Todd, The Red Shoes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Kings of Pastry, The Pacific, Conan O’Brien Live 1:31:30 - Junk Mail: American History, Penn & Teller: Bullshit, Lens Flares, Different Reactions with Difference Audiences, Favourite Stingers, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, TV Shows Getting Canceled, Steven Soderbergh 1:57:40 - This Week's DVD Releases 2:00:00 - Outro » Download the MP3 (54 Mb) [1] » View the show notes [2] » Vote for us on Podcast Alley!