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RIP Zafer Önen

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Zafer Önen an Actor Featured in Victory has died

 


A star of Turkish cinema who appeared in cinemas, theaters in a range of characters died as a result of heart failure. Featured in Victory, Önen died at the age of 92 after a six month stay in a rehabilitation center in Pendik


 


Featured in the film Victory, Zafer was born in 1921 in Çorum. Onen, in 1941, entered the Music Department of the Ankara State Opera. In 1943, at the Theatre of Sound "Air Mercury" operetta where he began acting career with Muammer Karaca, at the Istanbul City Theatre. At the Theatre he starred in many plays performed in theaters such as "Lüküs Life", "Şöminedeki Ceset", “Cibali Karakolu". He went on to appear in many movies, TV series and advertising commericals.




ONEN, Zafer
Born: 1921, Çorum, Turkey
Died: 12/13/2013, Istanbul, Turkey
 
Zafer Önen's western - actor:
Kovboy Ali - 1966

RIP Peter O'Toole

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Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, dies aged 81


 


Actor who shot to fame in David Lean's 1962 masterpiece and received eight Oscar nominations has died in hospital in London



Robert Booth

The Guardian


Sunday 15 December 2013 17.58 GMT


 


The actor Peter O'Toole, who found stardom in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81, his agent has said.


 


The acclaimed leading man who overcame stomach cancer in the 1970s passed away on Saturday at the Wellington hospital in London following a long illness, Steve Kenis said.


 


O'Toole announced last year he was stopping acting saying: "I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."


 


He said his career on stage and screen fulfilled him emotionally and financially, bringing him together "with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits."


 


Early in his career O'Toole became emblematic of a new breed of hard-drinking Hollywood hellraiser.


 


"We heralded the '60s," he once said. "Me, [Richard] Burton, Richard Harris; we did in public what everyone else did in private then, and does for show now. We drank in public, we knew about pot."


 


Last month it was reported he had been coaxed out of retirement to act in a film about ancient Rome called Katherine of Alexandria in which he would play Cornelius Gallus, a palace orator.


 


O'Toole is believed to have been born in Connemara in County Galway in Ireland, and lived in London. He shot to stardom in the 1962 film of TE Lawrence's life story and went on to star in Goodbye Mr Chips, The Ruling Class, The Stunt Man and My Favourite Year. He received an honorary Oscar in 2003 after receiving eight nominations and no wins - an unassailed record.


 


He is survived by his two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips, and his son, Lorcan O'Toole, by Karen Brown.


 


 


O’TOOLE, Peter (Peter Seamus O'Toole)


Born: 8/14/2013, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland


Died: 12/14/2013, London, England, U.K.


 


Peter O’Toole’s western – actor:


Highway to Hell – 2012 (narrator)


RIP Tom Laughlin

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Tom Laughlin, the maverick actor and filmmaker best known for the "Billy Jack" films, has died. He was 82.

 


Laughlin died Thursday in Thousand Oaks, his family announced.


 


Laughlin had been married to actress Delores Taylor since 1954 and also had several ill-fated runs for president. But he was best known for the "Billy Jack" films, which also starred Taylor. In 1967, he wrote and directed (under the pseudonym T.C. Frank) and starred in "The Born Losers," a motorcycle exploitation film that became a big box-office hit. It introduced the world to the part-Native American Vietnam veteran title character.


 


The 1971 sequel, the vigilante-themed "Billy Jack," was, after a legal battle with studio Warner Bros., released independently. It also became a box-office smash, though it generated controversy for its suggestion of guns and violence as a justice-seeking tool.


 


Laughlin co-produced and starred in all four "Jack" films, including the little-seen final one, 1977's "Billy Jack Goes to Washington." The third film, "The Trial of Billy Jack," was one of the first movies to get a major television and national advertising push.


 


Laughlin was also known for his activism -- he started a Montessori preschool and ran for president on three occasions. He had spoken in recent years of trying to bring the Jack character back to the big screen.


 


 


LAUGHLIN, Tom (Thomas Robert Laughlin)


Born: 10/10/1931, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.


Died: 12/12/2013, Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.A.


 


Tom Laughlin’s westerns – producer, director, screenwriter, actor.


Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1957 (Jess Wilson)


Wagon Train (TV) – 1957, 1959 (Earl 'Laramie Kid' Halstead, Jocko Naughton)


The Deputy (TV) – 1959 (Jim Stanton)


Riverboat (TV) – 1959 (Tom Fowler)


The Born Losers – 1967 (Billy Jack) [producer, director]


Billy Jack – 1971 (Billy Jack) [producer, director, screenwriter]


The Trial of Billy Jack – 1974 (Billy Jack) [producer, director, screenwriter]


Billy Jack Goes to Washington – 1977 (Billy Jack) [director, screenwriter]


The Master Gunfighter – 1975 (Finley)


The Legend of the Lone Ranger – 1981 (Neeley) [screenwriter]

RIP Joan Fontaine

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Legendary Actress Joan Fontaine Dies at 96

 


The Hollywood Reporter


4:32 PM PST 12/15/2013


By Mike Barnes


 


The star of the Hitchcock classics "Suspicion" and "Rebecca" famously won an Oscar in 1942 over her bitter rival -- her older sister Olivia de Havilland.



 

 

Joan Fontaine, the polished actress who achieved stardom in the early 1940s with memorable performances in the Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion — for which she earned the best actress Oscar over her bitter rival, sister Olivia de Havilland — and Rebecca, has died. She was 96.


 


THR awards analyst Scott Feinberg spoke with the actress' assistant, Susan Pfeiffer, who confirmed the death of natural causes Sunday at Fontaine's home in Carmel, Calif.


 


Fontaine earned a third best actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Constant Nymph (1943), She also was notable as Charlotte Bronte's eponymous heroine in Jane Eyre (1944) opposite Orson Welles; in the romantic thriller September Affair (1950) with Joseph Cotton; in Ivanhoe (1952) with Robert Taylor; and in Island in the Sun (1957), where she plays a high-society woman in love with an up-and-coming politician (Harry Belafonte).


 


It was Hitchcock, with his penchant for “cool blondes,” who brought Fontaine to the forefront when he cast her as the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca (1940), the director’s American debut. Her performance as the new wife of Laurence Olivier in a household haunted by the death of his first wife earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.


 


A year later, Hitchcock placed her opposite Cary Grant in Suspicion, and she won the Oscar for her turn as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth, a shy English woman who begins to suspect her charming new husband of trying to kill her. She thus became the only actor to win an Oscar in a Hitchcock film.


 


Among those Fontaine beat out at the 1942 Academy Awards was her older sister de Havilland, up for Hold Back the Dawn (1941). Biographer Charles Higham wrote that as Fontaine came forward to accept her trophy, she rejected de Havilland’s attempt to congratulate her and that de Havilland was offended. The sisters, who never really got along since childhood, finally stopped speaking to each other in the mid-’70s.


 


De Havilland, a two-time Oscar winner, is 97 and living in Paris.


 


Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland was born in Tokyo on Oct. 22, 1917, to British parents. Her father was a patent attorney who had a thriving practice in Japan. Due to the ill health of her and Olivia, their mother, Lilian, moved them to California and pushed them into acting.


 


While de Havilland pursued acting, Fontaine returned to Tokyo and attended the American School. Ultimately, their parents divorced and Fontaine returned to the U.S. at age 17 to live in San Jose, Calif. As de Havilland was already having some success as an actress, Fontaine joined a local theater group and moved to L.A.


 


She received a screen test at MGM and was given a bit part in No More Ladies (1935), credited as Joan Burfield. After changing her last name to Fontaine (from her stepfather, George Fontaine) to avoid confusion with her sister, she signed with RKO and garnered small parts in several movies, including The Women and Gunga Din, both released in 1939.


 


Capitalizing on her emotional turns in Rebecca and Suspicion, Fontaine appeared in several romantic films in the ’40s, including Constant Nymph (where she falls for composer Charles Boyer), Frenchman’s Creek (1944), The Affairs of Susan (1945), From This Day Forward (1945) and Ivy (1947).


 


Fontaine moved into more mature roles in the movies and starred on Broadway opposite Anthony Perkins in Tea and Sympathy in 1954. Her last movie appearance was in The Witches (1966).


 


Fontaine made regular TV appearances in the late ’50s and early ’60s and served as a panelist on the game show To Tell the Truth from 1962-65. In 1986, she co-starred in the TV movie Dark Mansions and the miniseries Crossings, and her last credited performance came in the 1994 telefilm Good King Wenceslas.


 


Fontaine was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1980 for her guest-starring stint in the soap opera Ryan’s Hope and served as jury president at the 1982 Berlin International Film Festival.


 


In 1978, she published her autobiography, No Bed of Roses, which detailed her feud with de Havilland.


 


Off the screen, Fontaine was a licensed pilot, an accomplished interior decorator and a Cordon Bleu-level chef who was married and divorced four times. In the ‘40s, she and William Dozier, the second of her four husbands, formed Rampart Productions, which oversaw her 1948 film Letter From an Unknown Woman, Billy Wilder’s The Emperor Waltz (1948) starring Bing Crosby and Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948) with Burt Lancaster.


 


In 1939, Fontaine married British actor Brian Aherne, and they divorced in 1945. She was married to Batman TV show producer Dozier from 1946-51, to producer Collier Young from 1952-61 and to journalist Alfred Wright Jr. from 1964-69.


 


 


FONTAINE, Joan (Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland)


Born: 10/22/1917, Tokyo, Japan


Died: 12/15/2013, Carmel, California, U.S.A.


 


Joan Fontaine’s westerns – actress:


Man of Conquest – 1939 (Eliza Allen)


Wagon Train (TV) – 1957 (Naomi Kaylor)


RIP Albert P. Wilson

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Film Editor Albert Wilson Dies at 91


 

The Hollywood Reporter

Staff


12/22/2013


 


He worked for years at MGM on such projects as TV's "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." and the 1972 film "The Wrath of God."


 


Albert Wilson, a veteran film editor who worked for years at MGM, died Dec. 12 in Los Angeles. He was 91.


 


Wilson worked on such TV series as The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Then Came Bronson, Kung Fu, Police Woman, The Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs and on such films as Corky and The Wrath of God, both released in 1972.


 


A native of Monticello, Miss., Wilson served in the U.S. Army Air Force at the end of World War II, then studied at Southern Methodist University and the University of Southern California.


 


Wilson, who lived in Manhattan Beach, was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts & Sciences, the American Cinema Editors and the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

 


Survivors include his brothers Jack and Melvin.


 


 


WILSON, Albert P.


Born: 1922, Monticello, Mississippi, U.S.A.
Died: 12/12/2013, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


 


Albert P. Wilson’s westerns – film editor:


The Wrath of God – 1972


Kung Fu (TV) – 1972, 1974, 1975


RIP Addison Cresswell

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Addison Cresswell, top agent in British comedy, dies aged 53

 


Comedy world pays tribute to agent whose clients included scores of stars, including Jonathan Ross, Jack Dee and Jo Brand


 


Conal Urquhart


The Guardian


Tuesday 24 December 2013 13.30 GMT


 


Addison Cresswell, the comedy agent who represented many well known stars including Lee Evans, Jack Dee and Jonathan Ross, has died at the age of 53.


 


A spokesman said the agent and producer died in his sleep at home on Sunday night. The spokesman said he is survived by his beloved wife, Shelley, his dogs Bonnie and Nessie and many, many pet fish.


 


One of the most influential people in British comedy, Cresswell – unlike many agents – liked to leave the limelight to the scores of stars he represented.


 


He started his management company Off the Kerb 32 years ago, working from his kitchen table after a period as entertainments officer at Brighton Polytechnic, where he studied. Other clients included Jo Brand, Dara O Briain and Alan Carr.


 


Many of the comedians he worked with spoke of their shock and recalled the contribution he made to their careers, as well as his extrovert personality.


 


Jon Plowman, the producer of scores of BBC comedies including 2012 and Little Britain, said Cresswell had revolutionised British comedy and launched and supported countless careers. "He had boundless energy which was devoted to helping the careers of people he was enthusiastic about. Lots of comedians owe their exposure to him. It's impossible to imagine Lee Evans for example without Cresswell in the mix," he said."He was one of the people who decided that comedy was going to be the new rock and roll and he was determined to price it high to the TV channels and get big audiences."


 


Jenny Eclair tweeted: "Stunned and shocked by news of Addison Cresswell's death, he was there at the beginning for so many of us, love to his family and friends."


 


Ash Atalla, who produced The Office, said: "The fact that you once threatened to hit me will only make me miss you more. RIP'"


 


James Corden tweeted: "Such sad news about Addison Cresswell. An incredible man. An incredible talent. May he rest in peace x."


 


Omid Djalili tweeted: "Shocking news about Addison Cresswell. 52. Way too young. I miss the headlocks already RIP".


 


The spokesman said: "Addison will be fondly remembered by all whose lives he touched as a devoted mentor, a dear friend and an unforgettable character. He will be sorely missed.


 


"He leaves behind a proud legacy in his tireless charity work, initiating and organising the annual Channel 4 Comedy Gala in aid of Great Ormond Street hospital. It was his dearest wish to raise enough to fund the opening of a brand new wing of the hospital, a goal that is now in sight."


 


He was listed at number 68 in the Media Guardian 100 in 2010. He was described as: "Agent, producer and deal-maker extraordinaire, Cresswell was responsible for Ross's infamous three-year contract with the BBC worth almost £6m a year. Legend has it Cresswell was spotted celebrating the deal burning money at the bar of Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms."


 


Cresswell preferred his stars to be in the spotlight rather than himself although the BBC hoped he could rival Simon Cowell on a projected talent show.


 


Cresswell also produced shows through his company, Open Mike Productions, including a series starring Michael McIntyre, another of his clients.


 


Cresswell once said: "I don't see us as in any way different from the people who run the channels. They're complete bastards as well, but we all have to work with each other."


 


Cresswell set up his first production company, Wonderdog Productions, with Julian Clary and Paul Merton, and Clary's Channel 4 show Sticky Moments was one of his first big hits.


 


 


Addison Cresswell


Born: 6/28/1960 Brighton, East Sussex, England, U.K.


Died: 12/22/2013, London, England, U.K.


 


Addison Cresswell’s westerns – producer:


How the West Was Lost - 2008


Rich Hall's Inventing the Indian - 2012


RIP Eugenia Avendaño

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One of the great figures of dubbing died yesterday.

 


This is the actress Eugenia Avendaño, who was the voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones.


 


Eugenia Avendaño was born in Mexico on October 4, 1930, he worked in film, theater, and television dubbing. She was married to actor Claudio Brook, with whom he had to Simone Brook, actress and singer who has emerged as a figure of musical theater in Mexico.


 


Among the outstanding works of actress Eugenia Avendaño are Bubú voice in "Yogi Bear", the Aunt Polly "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"; Lucero Sonic from "The Jetsons", Miss Heidi Rotenmeier and grandmother in "Los Locos Adams".


 


 


AVENDANO, Eugenia


Born: 10/4/1930, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico


Died: 12/29/2013, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico


 


Eugenia Avendaño’s western – actress:


Astucia - 1986

RIP Roger Gentry

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RIP Roger Gentry
 
Austin American-Statesman

December 29-30, 2013


 


James Edgar Rodgers (Oct. 25,1934-Dec 16,2013) was born in San Antonio, Texas, of parents, Gladys Duke and James E Rodgers, Sr. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he played football for a short time in the early 1950s.


 


From a stint in the military, Jim learned and spoke Russian fluently before moving to Hollywood in the early 1960s where he owned the Hollywood Free Press. During that time he also became an actor under the stage name, Roger 'Jim' Gentry, a name that he used the rest of his life. He appeared in many movies and TV shows during the 60s including Combat and Star Trek.


 


Co-starring with John Carradine in one of that actor's last movies called, 'The Wizard of Mars,' Jim also appeared in movies with Rosie Greer, Ray Milland and many other actors. In later life he liked to show people the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) card which he received from then SAG president, Ronald Reagan. See more at http://bit.ly/1dL8uQs.


 


He is preceded in death by most of his family including his son, Lance. He is survived by his daughter, Karen Gentry, who continues to live in Los Angeles. His family & friends invite those who knew him to a memorial service at 10 am on January 4th at St. Philips Anglican Church, 1408 West 9th Street.


 


 


GENTRY, Roger (James Edgar Rodgers)


Born: 10/25/1934, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.


Died: 12/16/2013, Austin, Texas, U.S.A.


 


Roger Gentry’s westerns – actor:


Ramrodder – 1969 (Rick Thompson)
Fandango - 1970 (miner)



RIP Joseph Ruskin

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Stage and screen actor Joseph Ruskin died of natural causes at UCLA Santa Monica on December 28. He was 89.

 


Joe was a long serving actors' union member and officer. In 1979 he became the first Western Regional Vice President of Actors Equity Association, and was on the board of the Screen Actors Guild from 1976-1999 with eight of those years serving as 1st National Vice President. He was honored for distinguished service by AEA with the Lucy Jordan Award in 2003 and the Patrick Quinn Award in 2013, and by SAG with the Ralph Morgan Award in 2011.


 


Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Joe attended High School in Cleveland and enlisted in the Navy in 1942. He returned to study drama at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University) and began his professional career at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Rochester Arena Stage. His list of 124 television credits include multiple appearance on such shows as "Twilight Zone,""Star Trek,""Mission Impossible" and "Alias." His 25 film appearances include "The Magnificent Seven,""Prizzi's Honor,""Indecent Proposal" and "Smokin' Aces." Over the years Joe always returned to theatre, performing at the Mark Taper Forum, UCLA's Freud Playhouse, Theater 40 and his final appearance this year as a member of the Antaeus Theatre Company.


 


Joe is survived by his wife Barbara Greene Ruskin; daughter Alicia Ruskin and son-in-law Larry Bucklan; step-daughters Rachel Greene and her husband Jim, Martha Greene and her son Jake, and Liza Page, her husband Joe Page and their children Zoe and Eli; and brother and sister-in-law David and Helene Schlafman and their children Daniel and Lani.


 


Plans for a memorial service are forthcoming, and in lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to The Actor's Fund, the SAG Foundation or the Motion Picture & Television Fund.


 


 


RUSKIN, Joseph (Joseph Schlafman)


Born: 4/14/1924, Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S.A.


Died: 12/28/2013, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.


 


Joseph Ruskin’s westerns – actor:


Bronco (TV) – 1959 (Jackson)


Wanted: Dead or Alive (TV) – 1959 (Gus Vogel)


Zane Grey Theater (TV) – 1959 (Chief)


Black Saddle (TV) – 1960 (Obie Wilkins)


Colt .45 (TV) – 1960 (Jace Kirby)


Hell Bent for Leather – 1960 (Shad)


Law of the Plainsman (TV) – 1960 (Crow)


Lawman (TV) – 1960, 1961 (Ed James, Reed Benton)


The Magnificent Seven – 1960 (Flynn)


Stagecoach West (TV) – 1960 (Clyde Hardisty)


Outlaws (TV) – 1961 (Kopek)


Two Faces West (TV) – 1961 (Coley)


Whispering Smith (TV) – 1961 (Jess)


Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1961 (Shelby)


Gunsmoke (TV) – 1962, 1966 (Curt Hansen, Judge)


The Dakotas (TV) – 1963 (Rider)


Death Valley Days (TV) – 1963 (Jeb Daley)


The Wild Wild West (TV) – 1965, 1967 (Viper Black, Felice Munez)


The High Chaparral (TV) – 1969 (Ainsworth Pardee)


RIP Charlie Hill

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Comedian Charlie Hill Walks On


 
By Kendra Meinert

Press-Gazette Media


 


Comedian Charlie Hill, who grew up in Oneida and became a groundbreaking influence for Native American comedians and other Native Americans in the entertainment industry, died Monday. He was 62.


 


Hill attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to California to pursue show business. He made his debut on “The Richard Pryor Show” in 1977 and went on to become the first Native American comedian to be on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”


 


He was a regular at the famed Comedy Store in Los Angeles and forged friendships that led to appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and “Late Show with David Letterman” throughout his career. He also wrote for the TV sitcom “Roseanne.”


 


Hill had been battling lymphoma, according to Indian Country Today. News of his death sparked condolences and tributes on Twitter:


 


Funeral arrangements for Hill are pending with Ryan Funeral Home & Crematory in De Pere.


HILL, Charlie
Born: 7/6/1951, Oneida, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Died: 13/30/2013, Oneida, Wisconsin, U.S.A.



Charlie Hill's western - himself:


Rich Hall's Inventing the Indian (TV) - 2012 [himself]


RIP James Avery

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James Avery, star of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' dies at 68

 


 


By Lisa Respers France,


CNN


Wed January 1, 2014


 


Actor James Avery, who played the beloved Uncle Phil on the hit 1990s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," died Tuesday, his publicist confirmed. He was 68.


 


The cause of death was complications from open-heart surgery, said his manager, Toni Benson.


 


His "Fresh Prince" co-star Alfonso Ribeiro tweeted news of Avery's passing. "I'm deeply saddened to say that James Avery has passed away," Riberio tweeted. "He was a second father to me. I will miss him greatly.


 


A classically trained actor and poet, Avery grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was raised by a single mother. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and first appeared onscreen as a dancer in an uncredited role in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers."


 


According to IMDb, after he served in the military, Avery moved to San Diego, California, where he began writing TV scripts and poetry for PBS. Before joining the military, he once said, he had dreams of being like Richard Wright and living in Paris. But life took a different turn.


 


"I knew I loved the arts," Avery said in an interview for the show "Unscripted.""I knew I wanted to be a writer, but the theater was something I had been involved in before."


 


Avery appeared in multiple TV shows and movies, including "CSI,""That '70s Show,""The Closer" and several appearances as a judge on "L.A. Law."



 

Indeed, with his deep, mellifluous voice, he frequently played judges, professors and doctors -- Uncle Phil began as a lawyer and eventually became a judge -- and was much in demand as a voice actor. His voice roles included Shredder in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series and James "Rhodey" Rhodes in the 1990s animated series version of "Iron Man."


 


He most recently appeared in Zach Braff's new film, "Wish I Was Here," which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.


 


But his most famous role was as Phillip Banks, the stern but loving uncle to Will Smith's character on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." The show, co-executive produced by Quincy Jones and created by Andy Borowitz and Susan Borowitz, cast Smith -- then best known as a rapper -- as a Philadelphia teenager who is sent to live with his wealthy Los Angeles relatives. As Banks, a former civil-rights activist and Harvard Law-trained attorney, Avery provided a role model for Smith's sometimes wild character.


 


Avery, too, leveled with youthful audiences, noting in "Unscripted" that he left home at 18 because "I had too good a time."


 


In a 2007 interview with the New York Film Academy, he was forthright about his abilities.


 


"You can either be a movie star or an actor. I'm an actor," he said. "(But) I've done pretty good."


 


He is survived by his wife of 26 years, Barbara Avery, his mother, Florence Avery of Atlantic City, and a stepson, Kevin Waters.


 


 


AVERY, James


Born: 11/27/1948, Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A.


Died: 12/31/2013, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.



James Avery's wester - actr:

 


Timestalkers (TV) – 1987 (blacksmith)


RIP Juanita Moore

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RIP Juanita Moore

 



Pat Saperstein

1/1/2014


Variety


 


 


Juanita Moore, who broke barriers for African-American actors and was Oscar-nommed for 1959′s “Imitation of Life,” died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. Her grandson, actor Kirk Kahn, said she was 99.


 


Moore received a supporting actress nomination for Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life,” playing the housekeeper whose daughter passes for white, in the racially-themed film.


 


Kahn said she was still running lines with him recently, and had planned to participate in a reading at the Saban Theater in a few weeks. “She didn’t candy-coat it for you,” he said, “she said, ‘if you’re no good, the play’s no good.’”


 


“She gave back to the community in so many ways,” he said. “Wherever we went she stopped and told black boys and girls they could do anything with their lives.”


 


Moore, who was a founding member of the Cambridge Players along with thesps such as Esther Rolle, was honored at the Black Theater Festival in North Carolina, her grandson said.


 


Born in Los Angeles, Moore was a chorus girl at the Cotton Club who started out as a film extra, then worked in theater at the Ebony Showcase Theater. She made her film debut in 1949′s “Pinky,” and often played a maid in 1950s films such as “The Girl Can’t Help It.” In the 1960s and ’70s, she played a nun in “The Singing Nun” and appeared in films including “Uptight,” “The Mack” and “Abby.” Though she didn’t work often through the 1980s, she began re-appearing onscreen in later years on TV shows such as “E.R.” and “Judging Amy” and films such as Disney’s “The Kid.”


 


 


MOORE, Juanita


Born: 10/19/1914, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


Died: 1/1/2014, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


 


Juanita’s Moore’s westerns – actress:


The Iron Mistress – 1952 (Juanita)


The Gambler from Natchez – 1954 (Yvette’s maid)


Wagon Train (TV) – 1963 (Essie)


Skin Game – 1971 (Viney)


Thomasina & Bushrod – 1974 (Pecolia)


RIP Kay Mander

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Obituary: Kay Mander, documentary film-maker.

 


 


by BRIAN PENDREIGH


The Scotsman


Published on the 03 January


2014


 


Born: 28 September, 1915, in Hull, Yorkshire. Died: 29 December, 2013, in Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, aged 98


 


In recent times Kay Mander lived in quiet, anonymous retirement in a council house and latterly a nursing home in the Kirkcudbrightshire town of Castle Douglas. And few knew that the frail, grey-haired, old woman with the walking stick had been one of Britain’s pioneering women film directors and the one-time lover of Hollywood superstar Kirk Douglas.


 


Mander started off in the film industry as a translator, publicist and production assistant in the 1930s, but she got the chance to direct documentaries during the Second World War when so many experienced male colleagues were in the armed forces.


 


Her directorial debut was a seven-minute short instructing apprentices on how to file metal, but she was always looking for new ways in which to bring worthy, but potentially dry, subjects to life. And when she made a film about malaria she used “microphotography” to film a mosquito biting her and filling up with her blood in close-up.


 


Commissioned to make a film about a pilot health scheme in the Highlands and Islands, she decided against a straightforward documentary approach, recording doctors and nurses going about their work, and instead wrote her own storyline about a medical emergency and recruited actors to play it out.


 


Highland Doctor helped pioneer the whole idea of drama-documentary. It was shot on location on Lewis, Harris, North Uist and in the West Highlands and it came out in 1943 as momentum was gathering behind the idea of a National Health Service.


 


The prevailing wisdom of the times was that documentary-makers should remain dispassionate and keep their distance from their subjects. But Mander was a deeply committed and outspoken member of the Communist Party and she made no attempt to hide it in her work.


 


In the 1945 film Homes for the People, she had ordinary, working-class women speak bluntly about housing as they went about their daily chores – kitchen-sink drama in the most literal sense. One woman complains that her kitchen must have been designed by a man because it was so badly planned.


 


However, it is only fairly recently that film critics and historians have acknowledged Mander’s imporance, both as a pioneering woman director and simply as an innovative documentary maker.She was the subject of a documentary, One Continuous Take, in 2001 and a boxed set of her films was released in 2010. Russell Cowe, who runs Panamint Cinema, a company that specialises in old documentaries, said at the time: “She developed new techniques in film-making and she led the way on social issues.”


 


Mander found it tough getting commissions after the Second World War when experienced male directors returned to the industry. She took work as a “continuity girl”, the person charged with making sure, for instance, that cigarettes get shorter rather than longer over the course of a scene.


 


She was “continuity girl” on dozens of films from the 1950s to the 1980s and worked into her seventies. Films on which she was continuity girl include From Russia with Love, which continued her association with Scotland, a country she grew to love, and the Second World War adventure The Heroes of Telemark, during which she got to know Kirk Douglas.


 


I interviewed her many years later, at her home in Castle Douglas. She was approaching 90 at the time. Her eyes moistened as she recalled the relationship. “Kirk Douglas was my passion,” she said.


 


“He had this awful reputation,” she told me. “He flew his ladies in first-class, kept them there for a long weekend, and sent them back tourist.” But she thought he was “wonderful” and she took the initiative in their relationship. “I made approaches to Kirk that I wouldn’t have done to another actor,” she said. Both were married and in their late forties at the time.


 


Her only regret about the affair was the hurt it caused her husband, the film-maker Rod Neilson Baxter, whom she married in 1940. “I never wanted to get involved with anybody except my husband,” she said. They remained married until his death in 1978.


 


An only child, she was born Kathleen Mander in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1915. She grew up partly in France and Germany. Her father worked for a company that made radiators. She had hoped to go to Oxford University, but her father lost his job and she was forced to look for work.


 


While living in Berlin, which was about to host an international film festival, she offered her services as a translator and receptionist and made important contacts. Back in England she worked as a translator on Conquest of the Air (1936), which had a German cameraman and starred a young Laurence Olivier.


 


In those days women were largely restricted to a few posts such as publicity, continuity, wardrobe and make-up, and Mander ended up with a job as a publicist with Alexander Korda’s London Films.


 


But the upheaval of the Second World War provided her with the opportunity to direct. After the war she and her husband lived and worked in Asia for a while. She subsequently wrote and directed one feature, The Kid from Canada (1957), a film about a young Canadian boy in Scotland that was made for the Children’s Film Foundation.


 


Mander had no great ambition to go on making films for children. Despite her left-wing politics and track record as a serious documentary film-maker, she seemed to enjoy working on big-budget Hollywood movies – even with the relatively menial task of continuity – and the chance to meet such glamorous stars such as Douglas, Sean Connery, Julie Christie and Sophia Loren.


 


In the 1970s she did continuity on the film of the Who rock opera Tommy and the television series The Professionals. She moved to Scotland shortly after her husband’s death in 1978 with the intention of making a film about barnacle geese.


 


She never made the film, but stayed on, living in a chalet on a farm outside Dumfries, and then latterly a bungalow and nursing home in Castle Douglas.


 


One of her last jobs was as script supervisor on Timothy Neat’s 1989 film Play Me Something, which took her back to the Hebrides.


 


She never had children.


 


 


MANDER, Kay


Born: 9/28/1915, Hull, Humberside, Yorkshipe England, U.K.


Died: 12/29/2013, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, U.K.


 


Kay Mander’s western – script supervisor:


Straight to Hell - 1987


RIP Barbara Lawrence

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BARBARA LAWRENCE, 1930-2013: Actress later became novelist, publicist and Realtor

By Christina Villacorte

Los Angeles Daily News


12/31/2013


 


 


Barbara Lawrence, a starlet from Hollywood’s Golden Age who later became a novelist, publicist
and Realtor, has died. She was 83.


 


“I remember my mother-in-law as beautiful and smart, very classy,” said Christy Nelson, the wife of Lawrence’s youngest son, Barry Nelson. “She really was special in everything she set out to do.”


 


Lawrence, who has a star on the Walk of Fame, appeared in 30 movies and 70 television shows from the late 1940s through the early 60s, according to her family.


 


She was usually cast as the leading lady’s best friend or — if there was a man involved — worst enemy.


 


Among her best-known roles was Gertie Cummings in the 1955 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “Oklahoma!,” and Vera Hunter in the 1957 sci-fi cult classic “Kronos.”


 


Lawrence was also in “A Letter To Three Wives,” “Unfaithfully Yours” and “The Street with No Name,” appearing alongside Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson, Rex Harrison and Tyrone Power, and in episodes of “Perry Mason” and “Bonanza” with James Garner, Charles Bronson and James Coburn.


 


She had a cameo in “The Star,” playing herself and causing a commotion among eager fans while arriving at a Hollywood party, to the consternation of Bette Davis, whose own role was that of a fading actress.


 


Lawrence — a direct descent of Francis Eaton, who came to America on the Mayflower — was born in Oklahoma on Feb. 24, 1930.


 


She moved with her mother to California at age 10, and was crowned “Little Miss Hollywood of 1942.”


 


In her teens, she became a model and then an actress under contract to 20th Century Fox Studios, attending high school on the lot and dating Mickey Rooney, Robert Wagner and Howard Hughes, who gave her private flying lessons on his plane.


 


Lawrence retired from acting in the mid-1960s to care for her four young children, and spent several years in South America.


 


She later became an author of adventure and mystery novels, a publicist on the Los Angeles bicentennial celebration, and a real estate agent in Beverly Hills, according to her family.


 


Christy Nelson said she was fearless, becoming among the oldest women to climb Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall.


 


“She had class and sass and everyone who crossed her 83-year path on this earth were better people for it,” Nelson said.


 


Lawrence suffered from dementia in her final years, and succumbed to kidney failure November 13.


 


At the time of her death, her youngest son was in intensive care recovering from a serious mountain bike accident. The family delayed revealing that she had died until his condition was stable.


 


 


LAWRENCE, Barbara


Born: 2/24/1928, Carnegie, Oklahoma, U.S.A.


Died: November 13, 2013, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


 


Barbara Lawrence’s westerns – actress:


Arena – 1953 (Sylvia Lorgan)


Jesse James vs the Daltons – 1954 (Kate Manning)


Oklahoma – 1955 (Gertie Cummings)


Man With a Gun – 1955 (Ann Wakefield)


Cheyenne – 1956 (Lola McQuilan)


Joe Dakota – 1957 (Myrna Weaver)


Man in the Shadow – 1957 (Helen Sadler)


Cimarron City (TV) – 1958 (Cora Budinger)


The Adventures of Jim Bowie – 1958 (Millie Mae)


Trackdown (TV) – 1958 (Grace Marsden)


Riverboat – 1959 (Abby Saunders)


Bat Masterson (TV) – 1960 (Melanie Haywood)


Bonanza (TV) - 1960


The Man from Blackhawk (TV) – 1960 (Evelyn Marquis


Shotgun Slade (TV) - 1960


The Tall Man (TV) – 1962 (Sadie Wren)


RIP Bernard Glasser

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RIP Bernard Glasser

 


Los Angeles Times


January 4, 2014


 


June 3, 1924 - January 2, 2014 Bernard Glasser is survived by four children and eight grandchildren. During WWII, he returned to Indiana State Teachers College and earned a teaching degree. He left Indiana and came to California and obtained a job as a schoolteacher at Beverly Hills High School. He then left Beverly Hills and obtained a job in the motion picture industry. During his career, he produced 13 films and one television series. Most notable of his productions was The Thin Red Line, Day Of The Triffids and Return Of The Fly. Two producers formed a company to produce Battle of the Bulge. Glasser was selected to be in charge of the production. After his motion picture career, he formed a real estate company. In 2012, Glasser was awarded the ISU Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award.


 


GLASSER, Bernard M.


Born: 6/3/1924, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.


Died: 1/2/2014, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


 


Bernard Glasser’s western – producer:


The Storm Rider - 1957



RIP Carmen Zapata

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RIP Carmen Zapata


 

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Actress Carmen Zapata died Sunday night at her home in Van Nuys. She was 86.


 


According to her organization, Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Zapata had been dealing with an illness and a heart condition for some time.


 


Zapata worked to preserve Latin American culture in our community, but she was also an actress who took on many roles.


 


In her career, Zapata did Broadway, movies and television. She appeared on numerous TV shows, including "Bonanza,""The Bold Ones,""Marcus Welby, M.D." and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." She's also known for her appearance on the soap opera, "Santa Barbara," as well as her role as one of the choir nuns in the "Sister Act" movies.


 


Her resume was as long as her smile was bright. During her career, good roles didn't always come easy for a Latina in show business. But Zapata worked hard to change that.


 


 


ZAPATA, Carmen


Born: 7/15/1927, New York City, New York, U.S.A.


Died: 1/5/2014, Van Nuys, California, U.S.A.


 


Carmen Zapata’s westerns – actress:


Bonanza (TV) – 1970 (Maria)


Boss Nigger – 1975 (Margarita)


Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (TV) – 1998 (Dona Verano)


RIP Run Run Shaw

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Hong Kong movie tycoon Sir Run Run Shaw dies, aged 107

 


By Vivienne Chow


South China Morning Post


January 7, 2014


 


Entertainment tycoon and philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw passed away at home on Tuesday morning. He was 106.


 


Local Chinese media said he was 107.


 


Shaw was instrumental in shaping Hong Kong media culture, co-founding the Shaw Brothers Studio, which produced more than 1,000 films since its establishment in 1958, and Television Broadcasts (TVB), Hong Kong’s first free television, in 1967.


 


Shaw attracted top talents to the station, the city's largest film studio and television broadcaster, ushering in what many call the golden age of TV entertainment in Hong Kong.


 


TVB veteran Liza Wang praised Shaw for building Hong Kong into “Hollywood East” through his movies and TV productions.


 


Shaw was also a well-known philanthropist who had a passion for education. Lawmaker James To recalled he once asked Shaw how many schools he had. “He then sank into deep thoughts for two minutes,” To said in a radio show this morning. “Then he said he had more than 4,000 schools.”


 


To said he had run into Shaw a few times on the MTR many years ago. “He was in his 80s. He said it was rush hour and he had to be on time,” To said.


 


Former TVB general manager Stephen Chan agreed that the tycoon had placed high emphasis on education. “Don’t think education is expenses. Education is investment,” he quoted Shaw as saying to a government official.


 


Shaw was known to be a keen practitioner of qigong, an exercise aligning energy and the body. Former TVB general manager Ho Ting-kwan said Shaw began practicing qigong in his 60s and he did it first thing in the morning. He said he ate very little each meal and went to bed early, which was his secrets to longevity.


 


Shaw was received Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974 and was knighted in 1977. In 1998, he received Grand Bauhinia Medal from the Hong Kong government.


 


He set up Shaw Prize in 2004 awarding scientists who have achievements in the areas of astronomy, mathematics and life and medical science.


 


Shaw, born on November 23, 1907, originally founded the Shaw Organization with his brother in 1926 in Shanghai. Four years later, the firm became Shaw Studios.


 


He invested in many notable films, including Ridley Scott's cult classic Blade Runner, according to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which gave him a Special Award just last month.


 


After a 44-year career, Run Run Shaw stepped down from all his TVB posts in December 2011. In March that year, he sold his entire 26 per cent holding in TVB to a group of investors for HK$6.26 billion.


 


He is survived by his wife, Mona Fong Yat-wah, with whom he had three sons and two daughters.


 


 


SHAW, Run Run (Ren-leng Shao)


Born: 11/23/1907, Ningbo, China


Died: 1/7/2014, Hong Kong, China


 


Run Run Shaw’s western – producer:


The Stranger and the Gunfighter - 1974

RIP Larry D. Mann

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RIP Larry D. Mann


"Rudolph" Voice Actor Larry D. Mann Dies at 91


 

Associated Press


LOS ANGELES January 7, 2014


 


Larry D. Mann, who voiced Yukon Cornelius in the animated Christmas favorite "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," has died. He was 91.


 


His son, Richard Mann, says the actor died of age-related causes on Monday in Los Angeles.


 


Beginning in the 1950s, the Canadian-born Mann had small roles in movies, including "The Sting" and "In the Heat of the Night."


 


On TV, his appearances included "Gunsmoke,"''Bewitched" and Hill Street Blues."


 


He also did voice work for animated shows, including 1964's "Rudolph."


 


His on says Mann's last role before retirement was playing a talent agent in the 1991 TV show
"Homefront."

 


 


MANN, Larry D. (Lawrence D. Mann)


Born: 12/18/1922, Toronto, Ontario, Canada


Died: 1/6/2014, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.


 


Larry Mann’s westerns – actor:


Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (TV) – 1957 (Happy Jack Sealy, Turner, Simmons)


Flaming Frontier – 1958 (Bradford)


The Big Valley (TV) – 1965 (Jacob Kyles)


The Appaloosa – 1966 (priest)


The Iron Horse (TV) – 1966 (Kellam)


Rango (TV) – 1967


Rough Night in Jericho – 1967 (Weaver)


The Guns of Will Sonnett (TV) – 1968 (Mort Lucas)


Here Come the Brides (TV) – 1968, 1969 (Ashley, Judge Cody)


There Was a Crooked Man – 1970 (Harry)


The High Chaparral (TV) – 1970 (Tobin Boggs)


The Wild Country – 1970 (Marshal)


Bonanza (TV) – 1971 (Alex Steiner)


Fastest Tongue in the West – 1971 (Cactus Kidd, Sheriff)


Scandalous John – 1971 (bartender)


Pay Your Buffalo Bill – 1973 (voice of Crazywolf, Big Red)


Ten Miles to the Gallop – 1971 (voice of Crazywolf)


The Badge and the Beautiful – 1974 (voice of townspeople, bartender, priest)


Big Beef at the O.K. Corral – 1974 (voice of Billy the Kidder)


Saddle Soap Opera – 1974 (voice of Judge Sayabe, Hotel Clerk)


Mesa Trouble – 1974 (voice of townspeople)


Pony Express Rider – 1976 (Blackmore)


How the West Was Won (TV) – 1978 (Mr. Pennington)


RIP Dennis Johnson

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Dennis Johnson, a TV programming exec and producer who was among the first African-Americans to rise through the Big Three network ranks, died December 23 while on vacation in St. Barts. He was 68.

 


A Virginia native and graduate of Temple U., Johnson had a nearly 20-year run at Showtime. He got his start as an NBC page working on The Tonight Show in 1969. He advanced through several posts in the Peacock's comedy development department before moving to ABC as VP of programming in 1975.


 


In 1978, Johnson joined the Osmond familys production shingle, Osmond Television. He held a variety of posts there and at other production companies until he joined Showtime in 1984 as director of current programming for the pay cabler and its Movie Channel sibling.


 


While at Showtime, he established a program for black filmmakers and served as president of the National Assn. of Minorities in Cable. He rose to senior VP of programming during his long run at the cabler, which ended in 2002.


 


Johnson segued into producing movies, telepics and specials including 2002 Keep the Faith, Baby and the 2008 feature Hope and Redemption: The Lena Baker Storystarring Tichina Arnold. He was exec producer on the concert special From the Heart: The Four Tops 50th Anniversary Celebration.

 


After his retirement, Johnson was an active volunteer at Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. He also volunteered through the Sherry Lansing Foundation as a mentor for minority high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.


 


Johnson’s survivors include his partner of 27 years, veteran publicist Russ Patrick, and a sister.


 


A memorial service is being planned for later this month.


 


 


JOHNSON, Dennis


Born: 1/18/1945, Kenbridge, Virginia, U.S.A.


Died: 12/23/2013, Gustavia, Saint Barthelemy, French West Indies.


 


Dennis Johnson’s western – executive producer:


I Married Wyatt Earp (TV) - 1983

Article 1

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Producer Ted Richmond, who produced more than 60 movies from the 1940s through the 1970s including 1973 thriller Papillon, died in Paris on Dec. 23. He was 103.
Richmond is pictured in the center at the 1969 presentation of the "Orden de Isabel la Católica"medal of honor to him for his contributions to the Spanish film industry.

 


The 1973 hit Papillon,starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, was one of Richmonds most successful films.


 


For 40 years, working for Columbia Pictures and then Universal Intl., he produced movies in a variety of genres. There were Westerns such as The Cimarron Kid,starring Audie Murphy, and Return of the Seven,as well as comedies such as Francis Joins the WACS,starring Donald O'Connor. Richmond was also an uncredited producer on the Elvis Presley pic It Happened at the Worlds Fair.


 


In the 1950s he partnered with his close friend Tyrone Power to form Copa Prods. The companys first movie, Count Three and Pray,introduced Joanne Woodward to films. In 1959, during the filming of Solomon and Sheba,Richmond was devastated when Power, who was playing Solomon, suffered a fatal heart attack. Yul Brynner ultimately played the part opposite Gina Lollobrigida.


 


Richmond also worked with such stars as Buster Crabbe, Gale Storm, Joan Davis, Nina Foch, Mel Torme, Penny Singleton, Desi Arnaz, Piper Laurie, Jeff Chandler, Beau Bridges, Cornel Wilde, Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Tony Curtis, Alan Ladd, Janet Leigh, Anne Bancroft, Rock Hudson, Raymond Burr, Aldo Ray, Lana Turner, Charles Bronson and Bob Hope.


 


The producer's last film was 1979's The Fifth Musketeer.


 


Born in New Bedford, Mass., Richmond first worked in the movie business as an usher at a local theater. In 1939 he wrote the screen story for Six Gun Rhythm and Trigger Pals.In 1941, he produced his first movie, South of Panama.(In his early films he was credited as T.H. Richmond.)


 


He spent the past 30 years in Paris with his wife, Asuko. Richmond is also survived by four nieces and one nephew in the U.S.


 


 


RICHMOND, Ted


Born: 6/10/1912, New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.


Died: 12/23/2013, Paris, France


 


Ted Richmond’s westerns – producer, screenwriter:


Phantom Ranger – 1938 [assistant director]


Two Gun Justice – 1938 [assistant director]


Six-Gun Rhythm – 1939 [screenwriter]


Trigger Pals – 1939 [screenwriter]


Singin’ in the Corn – 1946 [producer]


King of the Wild Horses – 1947 [producer]


Adventures in Silverado – 1948 [producer]


Thunderhoof – 1948 [producer]


Kansas Raiders – 1950 [producer]


Bronco Buster – 1952 [producer]


The Cimarron Kid – 1952 [producer]


Column South – 1953 [producer]


Rails into Laramie – 1954 [producer]


Count Three and Prayer – 1955 [producer]


Advance to the Rear – 1964 [producer]


Return of the Seven – 1966 [producer]


Villa Rides – 1968 [producer]


Red Sun – 1971 [associate producer]


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