RIP Robin Leach

August 24, 2018, 8:57 am

Robin Leach ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ host dies at 76

The Hollywood Reporter

By Jackie Strause, Mike Barnes

The veteran journalist had been working as a celebrity columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Robin Leach, the veteran entertainment journalist best known for his work on TV's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, died Thursday night. He was 76.

Leach had been hospitalized since Nov. 21 after suffering a stroke in Cabo San Lucas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where Leach worked as a celebrity columnist.

"Sad to report the death of famed celeb reporter, friend and colleague #RobinLeach @ 1:50 a.m. in #LasVegas. He would have been 77 Wednesday. He suffered a second stroke Monday. He in hospice care. He'd been hospitalized since Nov. 21, after suffering a stroke in Cabo San Lucas," announced columnist John Katsilometes on Twitter.

"Despite the past 10 months, what a beautiful life he had. Our Dad, Grandpa, Brother, Uncle and friend Robin Leach passed away peacefully last night at 1:50 a.m.," said the family in a statement. "Everyone’s support and love over the past, almost one year, has been incredible and we are so grateful. Memorial arrangements to follow."

Leach joined the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016 as an entertainment columnist to beef up the newspaper's celebrity and lifestyle coverage across all platforms. "I look at it as a challenge. It's another [opportunity] to make something out of thin air. I'll work as many hours as necessary. I've never shied away from hard work," Leach told The Hollywood Reporterat the time of his hopes about making an impact on new media. "When there is opportunity to do better at what you've been doing with new tools at your disposal, that becomes really exciting."

The London native gave viewers a glimpse of those with "champagne wishes and caviar dreams" with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which aired in syndication from 1984-95.

"The more eye-popping and outrageous, the better," Leach told Askmen.com in 2007. "We wanted to make your mouth drop. That was the main effect. One picture was worth a thousand words, so if you had more pictures, the less you would have to say."

He also was an early investor in the Food Network.

Born on Aug. 29, 1941, Leach wrote for The Harrow Observer while he was attending the HarrowCountySchool for Boys, earning $6 a week at the newspaper after he graduated. He went on to become the youngest editor at London's Daily Mailat 18, then wrote for the New YorkDaily News, Ladies' Home Journal, People and The Star after moving to the

U.S.

in 1963.

"I wanted no other job than to work in newspapers," he told the Las Vegas Sun in 2011. "I was fascinated by the process of collecting information, talking to people and having the story appear in a paper that would be delivered in your letterbox."

After appearing on CNN and helping to launch the syndicated Entertainment Tonight news show, Leach co-created Lifestyles with producer Al Masini. The program helped usher in the era of celebrity-focused reality series and culture.

Leach parlayed his fame into appearances in such films as She-Devil (1989) and Free Money(1998) and on TV programs like Hotel and A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle.

LEACH, Robin (Robin Douglas Leach)

Born: 8/29/1941, London, England,

U.K.

Died: 8/23/2018, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.

Robin Leach’s western – voice actor:

The Ridiculous 6 – 2015 [voice of Herm]

↧

RIP Russ Heath

August 24, 2018, 2:26 pm

≫ Next: RIP Neil Simon

≪ Previous: RIP Robin Leach

Comic Book Artist Russ Heath Dies at 91

HollywoodRoporter

By Graeme McMillan

August 24, 2018

The creator, whose career spanned 1948 through 2011, created the original artwork behind some of Roy Lichtenstein's most famous pop art paintings.

American comic book artist Russ Heath died Thursday night after a battle with cancer, his grandson Lee Kosa announced. He was 91.

"My grandfather and legendary comic artist Russ Heath passed away last night. His mastery of the craft of illustration encouraged me to pursue the arts and it is a joy to see my son now filling his own sketchbooks," he wrote on Twitter. "Thank you for passing along the joys of drawing and storytelling."

The artist had lived in Van Nuys, California for forty years before moving to a retirement community in Long Beach, where he died. A winner of multiple awards — including the National Cartoonist Society’s Milton Caniff Award in 2014, and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame five years earlier — Heath’s career lasted from 1948 through to 2011, and included work for multiple publishers in multiple genres, from Marvel’s westerns Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt through DC’s Our Army at War and The Haunted Tank and the famous Little Annie Fannystrip in Playboy.

Most recently, he came out of retirement for Marvel’s The Immortal Iron Fist No. 20 in 2009, as well as illustrations for the independent series glamourpussin 2010 and 2011.

Perhaps most most famously, Heath’s work on DC’s All-American Men of WarNo. 89 in 1962 was the source material for pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings “Whaam!”, “Brattata” and “Blam,” produced in 1963, 1962 and 1962, respectively. In 2014, Heath wrote and drew a comic strip about Lichtenstein’s appropriation of his work, titled “Bottle of Wine,” in which he wrote, “The Museum of Modern Art invited me to the opening when they displayed it. However, I couldn’t make it due to deadlines… but I figure Lichtenstein owed me a drink at least.”

HEATH, Russ (Russell Heath Jr.)
Born: 2/29/1926, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 8/23/2018, Long Beach, California, U.S.A.

Russ Heath’s western – comic book artist, layout artist:
Kid Colt 1948 [artist]
Two Gun Kid – 1948 [artist]
The Lone Ranger – 1981 [artist]
The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (TV) – 1980-1982 (Layout Artist)
Jonah Hex – 1985 [artist]

↧

RIP Neil Simon

August 26, 2018, 9:36 am

≫ Next: RIP Ada Lynn

≪ Previous: RIP Russ Heath

Neil Simon, Comedic Playwright and Commercial Powerhouse, Dies at 91

Playbill

By Robert Simonson

August 26, 2018

Mr. Simon, who created numerous hits over his long career, has been called the most successful playwright in American theatre history.

Neil Simon, the prolific playwright who produced a string of comic smashes and was the most commercially successful American playwright in the latter half of the 20th century, died August 25 following complications from pneumonia. He was 91 years old.

Most playwrights are lucky if they have one play that becomes a household name and a repertory staple. Mr. Simon had several; Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys, California Suite, and Brighton Beach Memoirs were just a selection of his many hits. He also succeeded with musicals, collaborating on Little Me, Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises, and They’re Playing Our Song.

Most of his plays were converted into films, beginning with Come Blow Your Horn in 1963. Other work adapted for the screen included Barefoot in the Park, which starred a young Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, The Odd Couple with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, Sweet Charity with Shirley MacLaine, Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys, I Oughta Be in Pictures, and two parts of his autobiographical “Bright Beach Trilogy”: Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues. (The third part, Broadway Bound, was made into a television movie.)

Simon also made his mark as a creator of original screenplays, writing the scripts for the 1972 critical hit The Heartbreak Kid, which was directed by Elaine May; The Out-of-Towners, starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as hapless visitors comically victimized by New York City; Murder By Death, a spoof of the detective genre; and the 1977 romantic comedy The Goodbye Girl, which starred his then-wife Marsha Mason and helped to make Richard Dreyfuss a star. He was nominated for an Oscar for the latter, as well as for the films of California Suite, The Sunshine Boys, and The Odd Couple. He won a Golden Globe for The Goodbye Girl, and was nominated for The Sunshine Boys and The Heartbreak Kid.

During his heyday of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, Simon was even more honored in the theatre. Fifteen of his plays and musicals were nominated for Tony Awards. Three won: The Odd Couple in 1965, Biloxi Blues in 1985, and Lost in Yonkers—his last big Broadway hit—in 1991. The latter also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year.

Simon, along with his brother Danny, cut his teeth in the 1950s as a member of the famous crew of comedy aces that wrote for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows. The staff became the stuff of legends. His colleagues included future comedy greats Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, Selma Diamond, and Mel Tolkin. The writer’s room was a pressure cooker, but Simon thrived there. “It was probably the most enjoyable time I ever had in writing with other people,” he later said. He translated his experiences with Caesar to stage in the 1993 comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor, in which Nathan Lane played a Caesar-like figure.

Simon worked for Your Show of Shows from 1950 to 1954 and then Caesar’s Hour from 1954 to 1957. He would later help create a musical vehicle for his former boss with Little Me, a picaresque musical in which Caesar played seven parts. The show, which ran eight months, earned Caesar his only Tony nomination.

Simon broke out of television with Come Blow Your Horn, the story of a provincial young man who is swayed by the swinging bachelor life of his older brother. The play took him three years to write, and he redrafted it at least 20 times. (It was a habit he never broke; Simon typically tinkered with his play until opening night, producing countless drafts.) Though reviews were lukewarm, the show proved a surprise hit, running 677 performances, fueled mainly by positive word of mouth and an inventive ad campaign based on New Yorker cartoons.

Robert-Redford, Elizabeth-Ashley.jpg Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley in Barefoot in the Park

With Barefoot in the Park, a comedy about mismatched newlyweds, however, he broke out. The show, which starred an unknown Redford and Elizabeth Ashley under Mike Nichols' direction, ran for nearly four years. Together, Simon and Nichols helped boost each other’s stage careers. They would work together throughout the 1960s and early ‘70s on hit after hit: The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

Among those, nothing quite out-performed The Odd Couple in recognition or endurance. The premise was simple: two divorced men, one a slob (played by Matthau on Broadway), the other a neat freak (played by Art Carney), move in together and drive each other crazy. Simon based the story on his brother Danny’s divorce. Not only did it run for more than two years on Broadway (at one point in 1966-67, Simon had four productions running simultaneously on Broadway), but it inspired a hit film starring Matthau and Lemmon, and a popular television sitcom, starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. It is a regular attraction on the community theatre circuit.

As Nichols became busy as a film director, Simon forged other professional partnerships. Beginning with California Suite in 1976, Gene Saks, a former actor who had directed the film versions of Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, became his director of choice, staging the “Brighton Beach Trilogy” and Lost in Yonkers with great success. A long association with producer Emanuel Azenberg, meanwhile, began in 1972 with the hit The Sunshine Boys.

During his glory years as a playwright powerhouse, Mr. Simon also developed a reputation as a formidable, behind-the-scenes show doctor, a status borne out by his nickname “Doc.” (He actually got the nickname while in high school, but it suited his new sideline as script fixer.) One of his most notable repair jobs: the book to A Chorus Line.

In 1968, he even became a Broadway theatre owner, buying the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, and mounting many of his new plays there. He sold it in 1982.

_Production_Photo_Broadway_Matthew-Broderick & Elizabeth-Franz_Matthew_Broderick_HR.jpg Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth Franz in Brighton Beach Memoirs

The 1970s saw Simon broadening his range with shows such as The Gingerbread Lady (1970), starring Maureen Stapleton as a cabaret singer whose life and career are destroyed by alcohol, and The Good Doctor (1973), a series of short plays drawn from the work on Anton Chekhov. The 1980s saw the arrival of the autobiographical “Brighton Beach Trilogy,” and, with it, a return to critical favor. Critics applauded Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), about Mr. Simon’s childhood in Brooklyn, Biloxi Blues (1985), about his tour in the Army, and Broadway Bound (1986), set at the dawning of his writing career, as heartfelt, warm and unforced in their humor. Simon’s new critical bonafides landed him on the cover of Time magazine in 1986.

All three plays had healthy runs on Broadway, with Brighton being the longest. Starring as the young Neil Simon—named Eugene Jerome—in the first two plays was Matthew Broderick. The roles launched the actor’s career, as past Simon plays had often done for other performers. The first play won Broderick a Tony Award.

Mr. Simon’s winning streak continued with Lost in Yonkers, in which tackled dramatic content with greater aplomb than he had in the past. Set in 1942, it examined the trials of two children whom their father places in the care of their stern, unforgiving grandmother. The old woman additionally has a tortured family dynamic with her two children, the savvy Louie and the challenged Bella. The show featured sterling performances by Irene Worth, Mercedes Ruehl, and Kevin Spacey. All three won Tonys, as did Mr. Simon for the play. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show ran two years. It would be Simon’s final Broadway hit.

His 1990s output included Jake’s Women, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Proposals, The Dinner Party, and 45 Seconds From Broadway; the 21st century saw revivals of some of his best known works, among them The Odd Couple, Bright Beach Memoirs, Sweet Charity, and Promises, Promises.

For a writer of work that, on the surface of it, could seem so lighthearted and buoyant, Mr. Simon wrestled with assorted demons all this life. Born July 4, 1927, in the Bronx, he grew up during the Great Depression in Washington Heights. His parents, Irving Simon, a garment salesman, and Mamie (Levy) Simon, a housewife, were always financially strapped and fought often. Sometimes his father would abandon the family for weeks at a time. During such times, Simon and his brother Danny often stayed with relatives.

“It was like coming from five broken families,” Simon once said. “That pain lingers. We never knew where our next meal was coming from.”

At an early age, recognizing that he had to look out for himself, he began to write. “It made me strong as an independent person,” he said. He also found refuge at the movies, where films by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton inspired him to write comedy—to provoke from strangers the sort of laughter that was wanting in his home life.

Following high school, he enlisted with the Army Air Force Reserve and was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. Beginning in 1946, he attended the University of Denver.

Having grown up poor, Simon was not always wise in money matters. In 1965, a manager persuaded him to sell the stage rights to Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple for $125,000. As a result, Simon never received any income on the hundreds of subsequent stagings of the plays—two of his most popular titles—or from the television series based on The Odd Couple.

"I couldn't watch the show for two years; I was so angry at myself and the business manager who persuaded me to sell the rights," he said.

Though his output slowed during the last decade of his career, his critical standing continued to rise. As critic Walter Kerr wrote, “Because Americans have always tended to underrate writers who make them laugh, Neil Simon's accomplishment have not gained as much serious critical praise as they deserve.

“His best comedies contain not only a host of funny lines, but numerous memorable characters and an incisively dramatized set of beliefs that are not without merit. Simon is, in fact, one of the finest writers of comedy in American literary history.”

SIMON, Neil (Marvin Neil Simon)

Born: 7/4/1927, The Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 8/26/2018, Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.

Neil Simon’s western – writer:

Satins and Spurs - 1954

↧

RIP Ada Lynn

August 26, 2018, 1:29 pm

≫ Next: RIP Fredd Wayne

≪ Previous: RIP Neil Simon

Ada Lynn

1926 – 2018

Dallas Morning News

August, 25, 2018

LYNN, Ada "One of the Brightest Stars of Stage and Screen has been dimmed, but the show must go on!" Ada Lynn, 91, made her final curtain call on August 23, 2018. Ada was born Adalyn Schloss, on September 7, 1926, in Chicago to parents, Henry and Jenny Schloss and older sister, Sylvia. When Ada was just seven years old, she won a talent contest at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, which led to a screen test in Hollywood. While in Hollywood, Ada performed with Shirley Temple in the films, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Heidi, as well as the Our Gang Comedies (Little Rascals). At 17, Ada toured the Lowe's Vaudeville Circuit as the "Curvaceous Clown" with her own act that included singing, dancing and comedy. Ada continued performing in Broadway shows, nightclubs, USO shows and national musicals. In 1950, while performing in Desert Song at the Dallas Summer Musicals, Ada Lynne, was introduced to Sidney Lynn, the "King of Woman's Ready to Wear" and three months later they were married. Ada joked, "All I have to do is drop the E on my name and I don't have to change the initials on the towels". While raising her four children, Vicki, Mitzi, Laura and Scott, Ada maintained an acting career, and furthered her education by getting a degree in Interior Design from SMU, and her real estate license, which ultimately led to the creation of the luxurious, Imperial House Apartments in Dallas, that she and husband Sidney built "behind the Pink Wall" in 1960. She continued to practice her Interior Design forming her own company, Imaginative Interiors. Ada and Sidney traveled the world. They moved the family to NYC from 1966 to 1969, and returned to Dallas; for the next 30 years, Ada remained passionate to her calling in radio, film, television and theater. She appeared as Mrs. Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK film, numerous musicals throughout Dallas, Walker Texas Ranger, and countless other TV shows. Ada was a force of strength, a devoted wife to Sidney and a Super Mom to her kids and all their friends. When husband Sidney passed away, she moved to LA to resume her Hollywood dreams, ending up on America's Got Talent where she sang and did a tribute to her husband of 55 years. Ada's motto later in life was "Keep Dancing, Keep Moving and Keep Social Security" which became the theme of her one woman show that toured local senior living homes. She tap danced through her early 80's with a senior dance tap troupe called "Steps in Time" which was featured at a Dallas Mavericks halftime show. A colorful lady indeed, Ada could be found wearing her favorite color, purple, and entertaining everyone she met. She was devoted to the community volunteering for such organizations as the Jewish Community Center, Women In Film Dallas, Lighthouse for the Blind, Reading for the Blind and the SAG Foundation Book PALS. Ada was the oldest living member of Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in Dallas and in 2006 was honored by Women In Film, Dallas with their Legacy Award, for Lifetime Achievement. Ada is survived by her children, Vicki Lynn of Santa Monica, CA, Mitzi Lynn of Dallas, Laura Lynn Allen and son in law, Mark Andrew Allen of Los Angeles, Scott and Holly Lynn of Dallas and beloved grandchildren, Josh and Sophie Lynn. Services will be held today, August 26th at 3pm Temple Emanu-el, Stern Chapel, live stream of service available at live.tedallas.org. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations can be made to Dallas Children's Theater or Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas.

LYNN, Ada (Adalyn Schloss)

Born: 9/7/1928, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Died: 8/23/2018, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

Ada Lynn’s western – actress:

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1995 (woman at airport)

↧

RIP Fredd Wayne

August 27, 2018, 1:58 pm

≫ Next: RIP Barbara Russell

≪ Previous: RIP Ada Lynn

Facebook

By Stu Shostak

8/27/2018

We've lost another of the great character actors. Fredd Wayne (best remembered for playing Benjamin Franklin on "Bewitched') passed this morning. He would have been 94 in October. Maryanne (his wife) just called to give me the sad news. His credits read like a resume of classic TV history - "The Twilight Zone", "Perry Mason", "Gunsmoke", "Bewitched", etc. etc. etc. He was not only a superb actor but was also a super nice guy and good friend. RIP, Fredd. You will be missed.

WAYNE, Fredd (Fredd Wiener)

Born: 10/17/1924, Akron, Ohio, U.S.A.

Died: 8/27/2018, Santa Monic, California, U.S.A.

Fredd Wayne’s westerns – actor:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1956 (Sam Kertcher)

Maverick (TV) – 1957, 1958 (Carl Jimson, Kingsley)

Wagon Train (TV) – 1958 (Jamie MacGregor)

Sugarfoot (TV) – 1959 (‘Bull’ Borgland)

The Alaskans (TV) – 1960 (Burton)

The Man from Blackhawk (TV) – 1960 (Garrison)

Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1961 (Ben)

Rawhide (TV) – 1963 (Calhoun)

The Monroes (TV) – 1967 (Winton)

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1969 (Benjamin Franklin)

Cade’s County (TV) – 1972 (Mark Walters)

↧

RIP Barbara Russell

August 27, 2018, 4:56 pm

≫ Next: RIP Murray Westgate

≪ Previous: RIP Fredd Wayne

Barbara Russell spread laughter on Pittsburgh stages and was with 'Mister Rogers' from the start

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Sharon Eberson

August 26, 2018

In 2007, when she was 74, Barbara Russell was explaining why retirement wasn’t in the cards.

“I keep performing because the excitement of getting the laugh and hearing the applause is still as rewarding as it was when I tap-danced to ‘Little Old Lady Passing By’ at age 6,” Ms. Russell told the late Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Barbara Cloud. “I love theater because age doesn't matter.”

Ms. Russell, 85, a popular presence on Pittsburgh stages for six decades and a stalwart of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” died Saturday. The North Side resident had received a cancer diagnosis mere weeks earlier, said her sister, Joan Mazziotti Kimmel.

The actress was known to Pittsburghers as half of the popular comedy team of Brockett and Barbara, with the late Don Brockett, but children nationwide knew her from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” including the first episode, when she appeared as the eccentric Mrs. Russellite, collector of lampshades. She appeared in later episodes as herself and the voice of Mrs. Hilda Dingleborder, among other characters, and for many years she performed programs for elementary school and pre-K Pittsburghers.

Her comedic talents were her trademark, but Ms. Russell also has the distinction of appearing among the undead in George Romero’s zombie horror movie “Day of the Dead.” And she recently wrapped an independent film, “That’s Amore,” that shot in and around Pittsburgh.

“She was looking forward to whatever was next,” said Ms. Kimmel, who posted the news Saturday on Facebook, writing, “Barbara passed away tonight after a very short illness, very little pain and a life very, very well-lived. She loved you all and thought of each of you as one of her very best friends.”

Ms. Kimmel, 13 years younger than her sister, said they grew up in a house filled with laughter. She also had lived across the street from her sister, and Ms. Russell’s children, Joanna Caruso and Aaron Russell, grew up “like siblings” to her own daughter, Becky.

On Sunday, Ms. Kimmel recalled that Barbara Russell “had more friends than just about anyone else I’ve ever known, and she kept them. From childhood, from school, from theater, from the neighborhood — she didn’t lose friends, ever.”

Ms. Russell was born June 16, 1933, in Black Lick, Indiana County. She attended St. Peter’s High School in McKeesport and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which honored her in 2000 with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Joining forces with Mr. Brockett, she became a favorite of Pittsburgh audiences as they performed musical comedy revues with titles such as “Last Polka in Pittsburgh.” They also took their act on the road from here to New York City, and collaborated on the 1963 album “Out of Folkus.”

Joanne Rogers, Fred Rogers’ widow, heard the news from Leslie Brockett, Don’s widow, “and I am just in a state of disbelief. It’s one of the hardest things to imagine Barbara not here anymore.”

Ms. Rogers described Ms. Russell as “one of the most brilliant ladies in my life. She really loved the comedy life she lived, but also I’m a fan of hers as an educator. She loved her work with kids, and it gave me great pleasure to hear about it.”

Pittsburgh actress Mary Rawson was feeling the loss of her friend of 50 years as she recalled being with her at the June closing of the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Oakland.

“That’s where she had gotten her start,” Ms. Rawson said, “and that’s where Don Brockett saw her doing a show that led to their long collaboration. He said, ‘That’s the funniest lady I’ve ever seen. I want to work with her.’”

Musician Joe Negri, also a series regular on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” was “busted up” over the loss of “a fabulous gal.” He and his wife often socialized with Ms. Russell and her long-time partner, Ed Grentz.

Mr. Negri recalled a summer when he and Robert McCully teamed with Brockett and Barbara on a revue that was, as usual, a satiric look at Pittsburgh.

“I’ll never forget I did a sketch with Barbara about her learning to play the guitar,” Mr. Negri said. “We would ad-lib it every night, and every night we’d have a ball, and every night the audience would love it. I just remember her so fondly from that, and what a jovial, happy person she was.”

He noted that she had recently begun to play the ukulele and loved to play old-time songs on it.

In her long and varied career, Ms. Russell had worked the City Theatre, Theatre at Hartwood, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Musical Theater and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. Although she scaled back on the size of her roles, she continued to be a regular performer at the Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown, Somerset County, where she first appeared in 1960 — her first time working with Mr. Brockett, who was choreographing “Paint Your Wagon.”

Ms Russell returned in to Mountain Playhouse in 1995, to play Dolly Levi in Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker,” the basis for “Hello, Dolly!,” and continued to act there until 2016.

Producer Teresa Stoughton Marafino recalled that Ms. Russell was not only “hilarious” in her final two roles at Mountain — “Nana’s Naughty Knickers” and “Social Security” — but “people flocked just to see her.”

“When you were with her, she always told these great funny stories and then she had you tell funny stories,” Ms. Stoughton Marafino said. “What I’ll remember about Barbara is warmth and laughter.”

Ms. Russell also championed the up-and-coming, and in 2007 was the recipient of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival Lifetime Achievement.

Among the actress’s greatest achievements are the good will and laughter she inspired, evidenced by the outpouring of admiration on social media.

Joanne Rogers summed up those feelings, saying simply, “I cherish having had her in my life.”

In addition to Mr. Grentz, Ms. Russell is survived by a son, Aaron Russell of New York City; a daughter, Joanna Caruso of Edgewood; two sisters, Joan Mazziotti Kimmel of North Side and Mary Mazziotti of West End; three brothers, Joseph Mazziotti Jr. of Pine, Richard Mazziotti of Virginia and Robert Mazziotti of New York City; and two grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were pending.

RUSSELL, Barbara (Barbara E. Russell)

Born: 6/16/1933, Black Lick, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Died: 8/25/2018, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Barbara Russell’s western – actress:

Bordertown (TV) – 1990 (Mrs. McPherison)

↧

RIP Murray Westgate

August 28, 2018, 6:09 am

≫ Next: RIP Silvano ‘Nano’ Campeggi

≪ Previous: RIP Barbara Russell

Murray Westgate, HNIC's iconic Esso pitchman, dies at 100

Toronto Sun

By Lance Hornby

August 27, 2018

Murray Westgate, familiar to an early generation of TV viewers as Esso’s ‘Happy Motoring’ pitchman on Hockey Night In Canada, has died.

Westgate celebrated his 100th birthday in April at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Well into his 90s, he was receiving visits from friends in the broadcast world and NHL alumni.

Regina-born, Westgate was a radio operator in the Canadian Navy during dangerous convoy duty in the Second World War. After the war, he moved to Vancouver to work in local theatre.

For his role in Blue City Slammers, he earned a Genie nomination as Best Supporting Actor in 1988. He earlier won an ACTRA Award in 1979 for the CBC-TV film Tyler and once portrayed the prime minister in Two Solitudes. He was also in the more recent series Seeing Things.

He began appearing in Esso commercials in 1952, when the oil and gas company was the main commercial sponsor of HNIC, and kept his signature service station hat, bow tie and warm smile on air until 1968.

In the 1991 NHL playoffs, he was invited back to appear in Esso spots, in both a black-and-white clip from an original ad and an updated version. Westgate was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2002.

WESTGATE, Murray

Born: 4/16/2018, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Died: 8/27/2018, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Murray Westgate’s westerns – actor:

Adventures in Rainbow Country (TV) – 1969 (Joe Bourke)

Tom Sawyer (TV) – 1973 (coroner)

Silence of the North – 1981 (doctor)

↧

RIP Silvano ‘Nano’ Campeggi

August 29, 2018, 9:53 am

≫ Next: RIP Michael Pickwoad

≪ Previous: RIP Murray Westgate

Iconic Hollywood poster designer Campeggi dies

Did Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Singing In The Rain

Gazzetta del Sud

29/08/2018

Florence, August 29 - Hollywood poster designer and painter Silvano Campeggi, one of the most important graphic artists in the history of American cinema, has died at the age of 95, his family said Wednesday. Campeggi designed the posters for Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Singing In The Rain, An American In Paris, West Side Story, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Breakfast At Tiffany's among others. Nicknamed "Nano", Campeggi's iconic images are associated with the golden era of Hollywood. His first career breakthrough came with a World War II commission from the American Red Cross to paint the portraits of American soldiers before they returned home, according to his Wikipedia entry. This deepened his understanding of American music, film and culture. After the war he moved to Rome, where he was approached by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for whom he produced the poster for Gone with the Wind, with Clark Gable holding Vivien Leigh in passionate embrace while Atlanta burned in the background. In the following decades, Campeggi designed and produced the poster and advertising graphics for over 3000 films, working not only under contract with the MGM studios, but also with Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, RKO, Twentieth-Century Fox and several others. Sixty-four of the films he illustrated won Oscars, including Casablanca, Ben-Hur, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, West Side Story, Exodus, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Gigi. Many of his images of Hollywood actresses are instantly recognizable: Liza Minnelli in derby hat and black stockings, Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall in beret and cape, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren. Equally, he portrayed the male stars: Marlon Brando astride his motorcycle as "The Wild One", a bare-chested James Dean, John Wayne in neckerchief and cowboy hat, Humphrey Bogart in his white dinner jacket. Many of Campeggi's subjects became close personal friends. Ava Gardner asked him to accompany her down the red carpet at one of her movie premieres. His wife recounted a story of Elizabeth Taylor lending her maternity clothes after having just given birth herself. He described Marilyn Monroe, whom he first painted in the early 1950s, as "my icon and surely the most enchanting woman I have ever met." In the 1970s when film poster illustration lost impact in the face of television and newspaper advertising, Campeggi returned to Florence. There he painted a series of 50 images depicting Siena's Palio horse race (2001). Another series of 50 images "I Have Seen the Rush of Jousts" (2003) was commissioned by the city of Arezzo to celebrate the Jousting Tournaments of Saracen, the title taken from Dante's Inferno. Other important commissions have included the painting of five large battle scenes from the Italian Risorgimento on behalf of the Carabinieri police force (early 1970s); a portrait of the Italian Resistance hero Salvo D'Acquisto which appeared as an Italian postage stamp (1975); a series of 35 images for the City of Florence depicting their traditional "Calcio Storico" soccer match (1997); and the creation of one of the Stations of the Cross for the rededication of the city of Assisi (2004). His best known work in Italy may be the Portrait of Garibaldi. In 2008, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Puccini, Campeggi was commissioned to produce a special tribute: "The Girls of Puccini". Also in 2008 he began work on a Napoleon series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Emperor's association with the island of Elba. The "Napoleon at Elba" exhibition opened in September 2008 at Portoferraio. The most recent Campeggi exhibition commemorates one of the largest armed conflicts ever to take place in Italy - The Battle of Campaldino fought between the cities of Florence and Arezzo on June 11, 1289. It is a spectacular assembly of large and dramatic battle scenes combined with more intimate portraits of the knights and noblemen who led the cavalry and infantry - all liberally splashed with "I Colori Della Battaglia".

CAMPEGNI, Silvano

Born: 1/23/1923, Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Died: 8/28/2018, Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Silvano Campegni’s westerns – poster artist:

Viva Villa! - 1934

Ride Vaquero! – 1953

The Left Handed Gun – 1958

↧

RIP Michael Pickwoad

August 30, 2018, 9:03 am

≫ Next: RIP Paixão Côrtes

≪ Previous: RIP Silvano ‘Nano’ Campeggi

Michael Pickwoad 1945 - 2018

Doctor Who Companion

By Andrew Reynolds

August 29, 2018

The DWC are sad to report that Production Designer Michael Pickwoad, the visionary behind the look of Doctor Whofor the last seven years, has passed away aged 73.

BAFTA nominee Pickwoad oversaw the look of the series from Matt Smith’s festive special A Christmas Carol until the end of the Peter Capaldi era in Twice Upon a Time. Perhaps his finest contribution was the recent TARDIS redesign originally debuted in 2012 episode The Snowmenand then later tweaked for Capaldi’s episodes.

Tributes from across the whole of the Doctor Who universe have been pouring in. Former showrunner Steven Moffat released this heartfelt statement:

“The only downside of great men, is that they make terrible losses, and we’ve lost Michael far too soon. He was a genius and a gentleman and we will all miss him.

“Looking back on all those mad, happy years, I think he was right to wear that tweed jacket and bow tie. More than that, he was entitled. If Doctor Who had been a designer, instead of a rebel Time Lord, she’d have been Michael Pickwoad.”

New showrunner Chris Chibnall said:
“Everyone at Doctor Who is incredibly saddened to learn that Michael Pickwoad has died. His contribution to the show during Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s era was immense and varied, conjuring up distant galaxies and historical eras – as well as an iconic TARDIS interior – with equal brilliance. He was a beloved member of the Doctor Who team and we send our sympathy and love to his family.”

Others took to Twitter to share their memories of working with or sharing some time with Pickwoad.
Born in 1945, Pickwoad was the son of actor William Mervyn – who appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who story The War Machines and the theatre designer Anne Margaret Payne Cooke.

He began his career in the 1970’s as an Art Director before going on to be a Production Designer in the ‘80s – one of his earliest film projects was 1987’s cult classic Withnail & I, starring Paul McGann.

Further projects included The Krays, Let Him Have Itstarring Christopher Eccleston, episodes of Kavanagh QC, Poirot and Marple, the 2009 remake of The Prisoner and Russell T Davies’ 2016 screen version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In 2010 Pickwoad became only the second person to become the second person to helm Doctor Who‘s art department since the series returned in 2005, replacing Edward Thomas.
In 2016, he also worked on the Doctor Who spin-off Class.

Michael Pickwoad passed away on Monday 27th August. The DWC sends it’s deepest condolences to his family and friends.

PICKWOAD, Michael

Born: 7/11/1945

Died: 8/27/2018, London, England, U.K.

Michael Pickwoad’s western – production designer:

Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy (TV) – 2012

↧

RIP Paixão Côrtes

August 30, 2018, 9:31 am

≫ Next: RIP Carl J. Walker

≪ Previous: RIP Michael Pickwoad

Passion Paixão discovered the Gaucho Model

Paixão Côrtes died today. Known as the man who discovered the true gaucho. Full name João Carlos D'Ávila Paixão Côrtes , born on July 12, 1927, Santana do Livramento, completing 91 years is defined as a folklorist, composer, broadcaster and researcher of the traditions and culture of Rio Grande do Sul, but his background is in Agriculture, August 27, 2018.

CORTES, Paixão (João Carlos D'Ávila Paixão Côrtes)

Born: 7/12/1927, Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Died: 8/27/2018, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Paixão Côrtes’ western – actor:

Paixão de Gaucho – 1957

↧

RIP Carl J. Walker

August 30, 2018, 1:56 pm

≫ Next: RIP Gary Friedrich

≪ Previous: RIP Paixão Côrtes

The Times-Picayune

September 5, 2018

Carl James Walker, a widely respected and award-winning New Orleans director, producer, actor, writer and teacher who played a leading role in New Orleans theater for more than 35 years, died unexpectedly July 8 at the home of his friend Jon Newlin, for whom he had provided care for many years. Carl was 61. A native of Lafayette and a longtime resident of New Orleans, he was predeceased by his parents, M.H. and Geneva Anderson Walker of Lafayette, and his sister, Lucretia Walker Behman of Saratoga, Calif.

He is survived by the extraordinary plays and musicals he created and by the legacy of a remarkable run that included the direction of some 60 plays, many of them award-winning works seen here for the first time. Because his shows were staged at theaters all over town, "If you went out to theater in the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s in New Orleans, you probably knew Carl Walker personally; if not, you definitely knew his work," said Gambit editor Kevin Allman, who called Carl's best work "as good as anything you might see on or Off-Broadway." Known for his sharp wit, high energy, formidable knowledge of the theater and exhaustive attention to the slightest detail of a production, Carl began to make his mark here in the late '70s, after attending the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana-Lafayette) and founding with Michael Baham, Bart Bernard and Suzanne Stouse the New Orleans production group BLT, whose early shows included "Bad Habits,""Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and "Loot."

After graduating in theater from Boston University and studying directing at Harvard, Carl returned to New Orleans, staging BLT's hit "Talking with..." in 1983 at the Contemporary Arts Center, where he later served for several years as theater coordinator. Other CAC shows included his long-running hit musical "Where the Girls Were" and the regional premieres of "Cloud 9,""A . . . My Name Is Alice,""Translations" and "Greater Tuna."

In 1988, he founded what would become his most fruitful theatrical alliance, the producing group All Kinds of Theatre, dedicated to "producing important contemporary plays and musicals and the development of new works by New Orleans writers." As artistic director, he helmed more than 25 AKT productions, and true to his company's name, the works covered a broad swath, fabulous parodies to offbeat little musicals to drama most high (think the long-running "Psycho Beach Party" to "Ruthless! The Musical" to "Doubt: A Parable"). Carl also directed the original show "Native Tongues," a series of New Orleans-centric monologues by writers well-known here and nationally and performed by some of the city's best actors. A box-office and critical hit (as were virtually all of Carl's plays), the show began at the old True Brew Theatre and spawned four new editions that played other local stages for years. But that was just a fraction of Carl's output. There were AKT's regional premieres of the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning plays "I Am My Own Wife," and "Doubt, A Parable" (a production former Times-Picayune theater writer David Cuthbert told WWL was "superior in almost every respect to the Broadway staging"), and the Pulitzer-winning "Three Tall Women." All of them and Carl's staging of the Tony-winning musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" won Big Easy Entertainment Awards, as did the majority of his other plays; an armful of Big Easys went to Carl as a writer and director, and he also received Storer Boone, Ambie and Jay Stanley awards. There were other AKT hits: "Forever Plaid,""Pageant,""Dirty Blonde,""The Mystery of Irma Vep,""Prelude to a Kiss,""Driving Miss Daisy," Carl's original musical "The Class of '70something" and "The Last Madam," a play about Quarter madam Norma Wallace based on the biography by Christine Wiltz and co-written with playwright Jim Fitzmorris.

Carl also created the musicals "A Cocktail Party in the Ladies Lounge" and "My O My," the latter a salute to the late, great drag showbar at the lakefront, for the erstwhile Le Chat Noir, which staged AKT shows including "Fully Committed" as well as "Native Tongues" and "Love Letters"; the latter play debuted at True Brew in 1995 and has played various venues ever since. For the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, Carl directed the rollicking "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)." For the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, his plays ran a gamut from the hoot "The Glass Mendacity" to "Suddenly Last Summer," the latter performed at the Bultman House, where Tennessee Williams wrote the play. For Le Petit Theatre, Carl directed shows including a hit run of "Steel Magnolias,""The Women,""Master Class" and "Golda's Balcony."

As an actor, he appeared on local stages including Le Petit and Tulane Center Stage and had a memorable, hilarious recurring role on the late HBO series "Treme." Carl was known throughout the theater community as an "actor's director" and indeed "I have never run into an actor who didn't want to work with Carl Walker," Le Chat Noir owner and friend Barbara Motley told The Times-Picayune. To actor and friend Sean Patterson, whom Carl directed in the 39-role, one-man "Fully Committed," it was simple: "You could always trust him to guide you where you needed to go, but he wouldn't feed it to you. He wanted you to find it."

Veteran actress Carol Sutton, another longtime friend, said that although he hadn't directed her in several years, "I still talked to him about productions that I was involved in. He's a brilliant director who I totally respected and depended on." To his "Doubt" actress and friend Andrea Frankel, "Carl was hyper-empathetic -- a highly sensitive soul. As an actor, this can be tortuous at times, but as a director, what a gift." Especially well-known for his work with actresses, Carl directed a plethora of all-female shows. "Before I really knew Carl well," said Newlin, a "Native Tongues" writer, "we joked that he was the George Cukor of New Orleans because of his penchant for plays about, and often entirely cast with, women, as well as an almost supernatural skill in directing actresses." Although he was "never happier than when preparing a play," said Newlin, Carl also loved being a teacher, and he concentrated in recent years on his popular acting classes at Tulane University, where he had served as an adjunct instructor and director for many years. Because of his great ability to connect with students, according to Tulane theater and dance department chairman and friend Martin Sachs, many continued to stay in touch with him long after they had left the university. Sachs pointed to years of rave reviews from students in department surveys, several respondents calling Carl the best teacher they'd had at Tulane.

At Carl's invitation, New Orleans' Tony-winning actress and playwright Mary Louise Wilson came to the university to teach a series of master classes, and during that time he staged an evening of her "Short Takes" (now "Theatrical Haiku"). Her review: "He knew from the first day of rehearsals what he wanted from his cast, and I saw the proof of his direction in the excellence of the performances . . . He was smart, sophisticated and funny and he could have held his own directing on and Off-Broadway."

In addition to his work at Tulane, Carl also taught and directed at the University of New Orleans, Loyola University and the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. Valued by collaborators as highly as actors, his work prompted novelist Sheila Bosworth Lemann, a close friend who contributed pieces to "Native Tongues," to tell Gambit that "more thrilling than seeing a book bound with your name on it" was seeing her words brought to life in the first "Tongues." As an AKT producer, Jacquee Carvin said, "I realized I was fortunate enough to have been invited in 1995 by Carl, along with co-producer Carol Stone, to be a part of something special, to work with someone special."

Speaking as a fellow director, longtime friend Vernel Bagneris, best known for creating the award-winning musical "One Mo' Time," said that like other "actor's directors," Carl "always guided actors gently towards their personal interpretations rather than forcing them into his preconceived notion of the character." Among many posts on Facebook came this from fellow producers: "The NOLA Project dims its lights today in honor of the loss of Carl Walker, one of the true giants of New Orleans theatre. So many great memories at the theatre were created by this incredibly talented and dedicated director.

We will miss you, sir." Jon Newlin said of Carl, ". . . there was only one, and then to use an old but apt cliché, they broke the damn mold." Carl is survived by his niece Marejka Sacks of Campbell, Calif., and her daughter Carly Rogers. A celebration of his life will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, in Tulane's Lupin Theater. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Louisiana SPCA (www.la-spca.org) are suggested.

WALKER, Carl J. (Carl James Walker)

Born: 1957, Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.A.

Died: 7/8/2018, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

Carl J. Walker’s western – actor:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer – 2012 (Vampire bartender)

↧

RIP Gary Friedrich

August 30, 2018, 3:22 pm

≫ Next: RIP Susan Brown

≪ Previous: RIP Carl J. Walker

Gary Friedrich, Ghost Rider Co-Creator, Dies at Age 75

ComicBook.Com

By Christian Hoffer

August 30, 2018

Gary Friedrich, the co-creator of the motorcycle-riding Marvel superhero Ghost Rider, has passed away at the age of 75.

Fellow comics creator Tony Isabella posted an announcement of Friedrich's death on his Facebook page, noting that Friedrich had suffered from Parkinson's Disease for several years. Isabella noted the announcement came from Roy Thomas, who stated that "I won't go into details at this point, but I wanted to mention that one of my oldest and dearest friends Gary Friedrich, passed away last night, from the effects of Parkison's, which he had had for several years. That and his near-total hearing loss had left him feeling isolated in recent years, and his wife Jean seems content that he is finally at peace."

Friedrich's earliest comics work was with Charlton Comics writing romance comics. He eventually transitioned into Westerns and superhero work, including writing dialogue for the early issues of Steve Ditko's Blue Beetle stories (which featured the newly created Ted Kord character).

Friedrich eventually transitioned to working for Marvel on Westerns series with Roy Thomas, and he co-created characters such as the Phantom Rider (originally named Ghost Rider). His breakout work on Marvel was on Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, which explored nuanced themes of war as America experienced the beginning of the Vietnam War. Friedrich also worked on Silver Age Marvel superhero books, where he famously co-created Ghost Rider for the company.

Friedrich eventually left comics in the late 1970s, although he made occasional returns to the medium. In 1993, Friedrich scripted the first issue of the Jack Kirby created Bombast series, teaming up with Thomas and other co-creators on his Sgt. Fury run.

In his later years, Friedrich sued Marvel and Sony over ownership of the Ghost Rider character. Marvel initially won the lawsuit and settled with Friedrich after countersuing him, which prevented Friedrich from selling self-made Ghost Rider merchandise at conventions. However, an appeals court overturned Marvel's win and sent the case back to trial, where the parties eventually reached an amicable settlement.

Friedrich's comic career was honored with an Inkpot Award back in 2007.

FRIEDRICH, Gary

Born: 8/21/1943, Jackson, Missouri, U.S.A.

Died: 8/29/2018, U.S.A.

Gary Friedrich’s comic book westerns:

Ghost Rider – 1967, 1973-1974

Kid Colt – 1967-1975

Rawhide Kid – 1967-1972

Two-Gun Kid – 1967-1968

Western Gunfighters – 1970-1972

Butch Cassidy – 1971

Gunhawks – 1972-1973

Red Wolf – 1972-1973

↧

RIP Susan Brown

August 31, 2018, 5:59 pm

≫ Next: RIP Ian Jones

≪ Previous: RIP Gary Friedrich

Soap Vet Susan Brown Dead at 86

Soaps.com

By Amy Mistretta
August 31, 2018

Soaps.com is saddened to report that soap opera veteran actress Susan Brown has passed away at the age of 86. GeneralHospital’s Kin Shriner (Scotty Baldwin) took to Twitter to express his condolences to Brown, who once played his on-screen Port Charles stepmother Dr. Gail Baldwin. The actor tweeted, “Sad to say one of my best friends and costars Susan Brown passed away today. R.I.P. Susan I will miss all our laughs.”

Brown was best known for her GeneralHospital role, which she played on and off from 1979 to 2004. However, she landed her first daytime part on The Edge of Night in the early 1960s as a temporary replacement in the role of Nancy Pollock Karr. From there, she went on to play Constance MacKenzie Carson on Return to

Peyton Place

from 1972 to 1974, Adelaide Fitzgibbon on As the World Turns in 1988 and

Dorothy Lane

on Santa Barbara that same year. From 1997 to 2000 her GH character crossed over to Port Charles. Outside of daytime Brown made appearances on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents as a secretary (1961), The Young Marrieds as Ann Reynolds (1964 to 1966), Death Valley Days as Wilhelmina Vail (1966 to 1970), Murder She Wrote as Audrey Bannister (1986), Beverly Hills 90210 as Mrs. Cooper (1991) and Frasier as Amber Edwards (1994), to name a small few. Aside from acting, she owned an interior design firm and assisted various soap stars and television friends, among the Hollywood elite, with her decorating services.

Brown, Susan

Born: 5/4/1932, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Died: 8/31/2018, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Susan Brown’s westerns – actress:

Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – Paladin’s love interest)
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970 (Fanny Stevenson, Nancy Sooper,
Susan Hall, Reb Stone, Wilhelmina Vail)
The Outcasts (TV) – 1969 (Ann Willard)

↧

RIP Ian Jones

September 1, 2018, 9:50 am

≫ Next: RIP Dr. Sam Smiley

≪ Previous: RIP Susan Brown

Author Ian Jones, who wrote about the life of bushranger Ned Kelly, has died at the age of 86

The Border Mail

By Anthony Bunn

August 31, 2018

Ian Jones had a long career in Australian television, and is best remembered for his writing and directing work at Crawford Productions on shows such as Homicide, Matlock Police, The Bluestone Boys and The Sullivans, and for Against the Wind, a highly successful mini-series, created in collaboration with Bronwyn Binns, which explored Australia's convict past.

Jones and his wife Bronwyn Binns created a portrayal of Ned Kelly and his associates when they produced the mini-series, The Last Outlaw, which was shown in 1980. He has also written several reference books about the Kelly gang including the bestseller Ned Kelly: A Short Life and The Fatal Friendship: Ned Kelly, Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne. In his work, Jones draws extensively on oral history interviews with descendants of the members of the Kelly Gang, in addition to decades of archival research. Jones also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1970 biopic film Ned Kelly which starred Mick Jagger.

JONES, Ian (Ian Edwards Swainson Jones)

Born:9/22/1931, Newcastle, Australia

Died: 8/31/2018, Melbourne, New South Wales, Australia

Ian Jones westerns – producer, screenwriter:

Ned Kelly – 1970 [screenwriter]

The Last Outlaw (TV) – 1980 [screenwriter, producer]

↧

RIP Dr. Sam Smiley

September 3, 2018, 7:23 am

≫ Next: RIP Gloria Jean

≪ Previous: RIP Ian Jones

Oasis Cremation and Funeral Care

Dr. Sam Smiley, well-known playwriting and screenwriting professor, author, actor, theatre director, painter, and poet, passed away peacefully at age 87 on August 15, 2018 at home in Tucson, AZ. He is survived by Ann, his loving wife of almost 66 years (married September 7, 1952); sons, Mark (Cathy) of Ashburn, VA, Steve (Sally) of St. Louis, MO, and Sean of Tucson, AZ. He has seven grandchildren: Justin (Jackie) Smiley, Sarah (Anthony) Harrison, Austin Smiley, Shavana Smiley, Cody Smiley, Clark Smiley, and Jenny Smiley. Five great-grandchildren are :Laila, Hazel, and Eden Smiley; Aaron and Liam Harrison.

Sam possessed a warm, vivacious personality making friends with everyone. He leaves a great influence on students all over the country; many of those students are now professional actors, playwrights , screen writers, or teachers. A dog lover, life-long athlete, and marathon runner, he set the record for 60 and over in the Tucson Marathon. One year he ran the Boston Marathon.

The only child of Raymond Smiley and Ada Holland Smiley, Sam was born in Columbus, IN, on February 15, 1931. He received his B.F.A. at Illinois Wesleyan University (1952), M.F.A. from University of Iowa (1955) and his Ph.D. from Indiana University (1967).

At the University of Arizona, Dr. Smiley served as Head of the Department of Theatre Arts (1987-88) and Director of Dramatic Writing (1987-93). He was Head of Dramatic Writing at Indiana University (1973-87), a Professor at the University of Missouri (1969-73), Director of Theatre and Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Evansville (1957-69), and he began his teaching career at Georgia College. He was a popular consultant in communications and writing including work on feature films and television shows.

Sam published four books. The most famous is Playwriting: The Structure of Action by Yale University Press. Many of the 32 plays he published were performed professionally. He also published a book of poetry and wrote a series for television. He acted in movies including “The Untouchables”, “Hoosiers”, and “Terminal Velocity.” He appeared in off-Broadway productions in New York. His home is full of his many beautiful paintings, some of which won awards.

He became a member of The College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1983. He worked with theatres in Paris, Dublin, Madrid, and Barcelona. Sam created the theatre program at the University of Evansville, which remains a top theatre program today. He designed the innovative Shanklin Theatre, which opened in 1967, at the University of Evansville. One of his favorite cities is Barcelona, Spain.

A Memorial Service celebrating his remarkable life occurs on September 15, 2018, at 2 PM in St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 1431 W. Magee Rd., Tucson, AZ.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the American Cancer Society or the Humane Society.

Arrangements by Oasis Cremation and Funeral Care.

Burial at East Lawn Palms Mortuary and Cemetery.

SMILEY, Sam

Born: 2/15/1931, Columbus, Indiana, U.S.A.

Died: 8/18/2018, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.

Sam Smiley’s westerns – actor:

Billy the Kid (TV) – 1989 (hotel clerk)

Border Shootout – 1990 (R.D. Tindal)

The Young Riders (TV) – 1991 (rancher)

Four Eyes and Six Guns (TV) – 1992 (man with poster)

Geronimo – 1993 (Sergeant-at-Arms)

↧

RIP Gloria Jean

September 3, 2018, 11:45 am

≫ Next: RIP Jeb Rosebrook

≪ Previous: RIP Dr. Sam Smiley

Travalanche

By Tray S.D.

September 3, 2018

Just got word that Gloria Jean (Schoonover) (b. 1926) passed away a couple of days ago (Thanks, Ted Wioncek of the W.C. Fields. fan club for the notification). Uncanny to think of her passing away at age 92, when the screen has immortalized her as a teenager.

No, she’s not a mash-up of Laura Brannigan and Michael Jackson songs! As any classic comedy fan can tell you, Gloria Jean was a fresh-faced All American Girl under contract with Universal Studios in the late 30s and 40s.

She’d originally sung on radio with Paul Whiteman. Talent scouts found her and she was signed to a contract at age 12. One of her earliest notable films was If I Had My Way (1940) with Bing Crosby. The bulk of her output consisted of throwaway swing era musicals for young people, but comedy fans know these high points best:

* Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) with W.C. Fields. She plays herself, mysteriously somehow the niece of “Uncle Bill” in easily his most surreal script.

* Ghost Catchers (1944), with Olsen and Johnson, Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Walter Catlett, Morton Downey and Lon Chaney, Jr.

* Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda

and her last…

* The Ladies Man (1961) with Jerry Lewis!

JEAN, Gloria (Gloria Jean Schoonover)

Born: 4/14/1926, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 8/31/2018, Mountain View, Hawaii U.S.A.

Gloria Jean’s westerns – actress:

Death Valley Days (TV) – 1954 (Lotta Crabtree)

Annie Oakley (TV) – 1955 (Mary Rogers, Lucy Ann Barker)

↧

RIP Jeb Rosebrook

September 4, 2018, 8:23 am

≫ Next: RIP Peter Jobin

≪ Previous: RIP Gloria Jean

Facebook

By Mike Siegel

September 3, 2018

Sad news from Arizona: Jeb Rosebrook has left the arena for the last time. I first heard his name in 1981, when I saw Peckinpah's JUNIOR BONNER for the very first time and fell in love with it. Since it was the only film Sam had done that came close to Tennessee Williams' way of portraying family life (Sam was a big fan of him), I tried to research who this man Jeb John Rosebrook was, who had written this wonderful screenplay... I was 13, no internet, 'couldn't find much information on him back then. Over the years I finally did and "just" 36 years later I could finally honor him the right way, making my documentary PASSION & POETRY - RODEO TIME. We had no budget and I almost didn't make it, but thanks to Stuart Rosebrook and Keith Woods we pulled it off and made Jeb proud I guess - together with Jeb's book on JUNIOR BONNER and the US Blu-ray/DVD I co-produced I think we sort of rescued the legacy of this beautiful American classic for future generations. I will never forget you Jeb !

Keith Woods - Jeb John Rosebrook was my greatest mentor, and adopted father. He and Dorothy took me in and loved me like a son, ever since my mother died in 1984. Last Friday night he died after a short, valiant fight for his life. God bless Jeb, and the entire Rosebrook family.

ROSEBROOK, Jeb (Jeb John Rosebrook)

Born: 6/11/1935, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.

Died: 8/31/2018, Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.

Jeb Rosebrook’s westerns – producer, writer:

The Virginian – 1969 [writer]

Junior Bonner – 1972 [writer]

I Will Fight No More Forever (TV) – 1975 [writer]

The Yellow Rose (TV) – 1983-1984 [producer, writer]

The Mystic Warrior (TV) – 1984 [writer]

Kenny Rogers as the Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (TV) – 1987 [writer]

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (TV) – 1991 [writer]

Black Fox: The Price of Peace (TV) – 1995 [writer]

Floating Horses: The Life of Casey Tibbs – 2017 [himself]

↧

RIP Peter Jobin

September 4, 2018, 1:46 pm

≫ Next: RIP Lydia Clarke

≪ Previous: RIP Jeb Rosebrook

PETER JOBIN
1944 - 2018

The Globe

September 1, 2018

Peter died in his sleep in Toronto, August 8, 2018. Peter had a wide ranging career as an actor and screenwriter. He acted on stages in London, on Broadway and in Canada. He was a founding artist of Toronto Free Theatre. He appeared in over 25 film and TV projects and co-wrote, wrote, and produced on another 22. Peter was a wit extraordinaire and a very intelligent guy, He had just completed writing a historical account of the early years of Theatre Passe Muraille which will be published by The Porcupine's Quill in November. He leaves his many friends as well as his siblings, Mark Jobin and Cathy Dunfield. There will be a celebration at PAL Toronto in October.

Peter Jobin’s westerns – screenwriter:

The Campbells (TV) – 1990

↧

RIP Lydia Clarke

September 5, 2018, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: RIP Burt Reynolds

≪ Previous: RIP Peter Jobin

Lydia Clarke Heston, Actress and Wife of Charlton Heston, Dies at 95

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

September 5, 2018

Married to the actor for 64 years, she was on Broadway in 'Detective Story' and in the sci-fi thriller 'The Atomic City.'

Lydia Clarke Heston, an actress and the wife of Oscar-winning actor Charlton Heston for 64 years until his death in 2008, died Monday at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, her family announced. She was 95.

A native of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and the daughter of a high school principal, she first met Charlton in drama class at Northwestern University and married him in 1944 in Asheville, North Carolina, just before he went overseas to serve in the Army Air Force during World War II.

After the war, the Hestons moved to New York, where they pursued acting careers. As Lydia Clarke, she performed on Broadway opposite Ralph Bellamy in Sidney Kingsley's Detective Story, which premiered in 1949.

In 1952, she co-starred with Gene Barry in her first feature, the Cold War thriller The Atomic City.

She played a circus girl in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which starred her husband, and during production was asked by Cecil B. DeMille's publicist to help take some on-set photos.

When the movie wrapped, she dedicated herself to photography and raising her family. She traveled to remote locations, and her photos were exhibited in galleries around the world and in such books as Children Around the World, Mi Vida and Light of the World.

She was active in the civil rights movement alongside her husband and in 1963 took part in and photographed the March on Washington. She also contributed to such philanthropic institutions as the National Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation and the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

She revived her acting career from time to time, appearing alongside her husband in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, in A.R. Gurney's Love Letters and in the 1967 Western Will Penny.

Charlton Heston, of course, was known for his work in such films as The Ten Commandments (1956), Touch of Evil (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), El Cid (1961) and Planet of the Apes (1968). He died on April 5, 2008, at age 84.

Survivors include their son Fraser, daughter Holly and grandchildren Jack, Ridley and Charlie. A private service will take place at St. Matthews Parish in the Pacific Palisades.

CLARKE, Lydia (Lydia Marie Clarke)

Born: 4/14/1923, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Died: 9/3/2018, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.

Lydia Clarke’s western – actress:

Will Penny – 1967 (Mrs. Fraker)

↧

RIP Burt Reynolds

September 6, 2018, 12:51 pm

≫ Next: RIP Édouard Aidans

≪ Previous: RIP Lydia Clarke

Burt Reynolds, Movie Star Who Played It for Grins, Dies at 82

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

September 6, 2018

The ex-jock from Florida starred in 'Deliverance' and 'Boogie Nights' but preferred making such populist, fun fare as 'Smokey and the Bandit,''The Cannonball Run' and 'Starting Over.'

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82.

Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol'-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.)

"I didn't open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn't interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time," Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. "As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance."

Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologize for. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equaling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theaters at the same time.

Reynolds' career also is marked by the movies he didn't make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks' Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Reynolds also indicated he was Milos Forman's first choice to play R.P. McMurphy (another Nicholson Oscar-winning turn) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "backed away" from playing Batman on TV in the 1960s and declined the part made famous by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

In John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), based on a book by James Dickey, Reynolds starred as macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, one of four guys from Atlanta who head to the wilderness for the weekend. Filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond along the Chattooga River near the Georgia-South Carolina border, it was an arduous production that Boorman shot in sequence.

"When I asked John why, he said, 'In case one of you drowns,'" Reynolds wrote.

He had good reason. When Reynolds saw test footage of a dummy in a canoe going over the falls in one scene, he told Boorman the scene looked fake. He climbed into the canoe, was sent crashing into the rocks and ended up in the hospital. "I asked [Boorman] how [the new footage] looked, and he said, 'Like a dummy going over the falls,'" Reynolds wrote.

Deliverance, infamous for its uncut 10-minute hillbilly male rape scene ("squeal like a pig"), was nominated for three Academy Awards but came away empty. It lost out to The Godfather in the best picture battle.

"If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance," Reynolds wrote. "I don't know if it's the best acting I've done, but it's the best movie I've ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me."

Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the "standard of hirsute masculinity"— showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)

The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. "It's been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made," he wrote, "and I'm convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved."

A running back in high school and college who talked with legendary coach Bear Bryant about attending Alabama, Reynolds put his gridiron skills to use in Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974), playing Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who leads his rag-tag team of prison inmates in a game against the guards. He later starred in Semi-Tough (1977), another football film.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), written and directed by his pal, the legendary stuntman Hal Needham, grossed $126 million (that's $508 million today, and only Star Wars took in more that year). Reynolds, who stars as Bo "Bandit" Darville, hired to transport 400 cases of Coors from Texas to Atlanta in 28 hours, noted that, unbelievable as it sounds, Smokey was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie.

Reynolds drives a sleek Pontiac Trans-Am in the film, and after the picture opened, sales of the model soared. (His black car is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," and the Tampa Bay Bandits, a U.S. Football League team in which he had an ownership stake, were named for the movie.)

Smokey spawned two sequels, and Reynolds went on to work again with Needham in The Cannonball Run (1981), another fun-filled action film that spawned another franchise. His other high-octane films included Sharky's Machine (1981) and two movies as ex-con Gator McClusky.

In Smokey, Reynolds starred alongside Sally Field, and the two were an item for some time. He also had relationships with the likes of Dinah Shore (20 years his senior), Inger Stevens and Chris Evert, and he talked about dating Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his book.

Reynolds was married to British actress Judy Carne (famous for NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) from 1963-66 and then to Loni Anderson, the voluptuous blonde best known for the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, from 1988-93. Both marriages were tempestuous, and his divorce with Anderson was particularly messy.

After a string of big-screen failures and the cancellation of his ABC private detective series B.L. Stryker, Reynolds rejuvenated his career by starring in the 1990-94 CBS sitcom Evening Shade, created by Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor in a comedy series for playing Woodrow "Wood" Newton, a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who returns to his small-town home in Arkansas to coach a woeful high school team.

Burton Milo Reynolds Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1936, in Waycross, Ga., and raised in Florida's Palm Beach County. His father was an Army veteran who became the police chief in Riviera Beach, Fla., not too far from the Everglades.

"My dad was my hero, but he never acknowledged any of my achievements," he wrote in his memoir. "I always felt that no amount of success would make me a man in his eyes."

Then known as Buddy Reynolds, he played halfback at Palm Beach High School, where his teammate was future New York Yankees manager Dick Howser, then suited up at Florida State, where Lee Corso, later a college coach and ESPN analyst, played on both sides of the ball. But he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore, and that was it for football and Florida State.

Reynolds enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College and appeared in a production of Outward Bound, playing the part handled by John Garfield in the 1944 film adaptation, Between Two Worlds. That led to a scholarship and a summer-stock stint at the Hype Park Playhouse in New York. He roomed with another aspiring actor, Rip Torn, and they studied at the Actors Studio.

After a few appearances on Broadway and on television, Reynolds was off to Hollywood, where he signed with Universal and manned the wheel as Ben Frazer on Riverboat, an NBC Western that starred Darren McGavin.

He met Needham on that show, and the stuntman would double for him on projects through the years. Reynolds is referenced in "The Unknown Stuntman," the theme song from the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy, and he played an aging stuntman in Needham's second film, Hooper (1978).

Reynolds joined Gunsmoke for its eighth season in 1962 as Quint Asper, a half-Comanche who becomes the Dodge City blacksmith. He played the title warrior in the 1966 spaghetti Western Navajo Joe, was an Iroquois who worked as a New York City detective in the short-lived ABC series Hawk and portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in 100 Rifles (1969).

Reynolds got another shot at toplining his own ABC show, playing homicide detective Dan August in a 1970-71 Quinn Martin production, but the series was axed after a season.

Reynolds appeared often on NBC's The Tonight Show, and in 1972 he became the first non-comedian to sit in for Johnny Carson as guest host (Reynolds' first guest that night was his ex-wife, Carne; they hadn't spoken in six years, and she made a crack about his older girlfriend Shore). He and Carson once engaged in a wild and improvised whip-cream fight during a taping, and he got to show a side of him the public never knew.

"Before I met Johnny, I'd played a bunch of angry guys in a series of forgettable action movies, and people didn't know I had a sense of humor," he wrote. "My appearances on The Tonight Show changed that. My public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."

Reynolds showed that lighter side when he played a sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and he lampooned his lavish Hollywood lifestyle in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976). He was not above making fun of himself and his toupee.

In 1979, he opened the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter and in the 1980s, he developed the syndicated game show Win, Lose or Draw with host Bert Convy. The set was modeled after his living room.

With his divorce from Anderson and bad restaurant investments contributing to more than $10 million in debts, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 and came out of it two years later. In recent years, he sold properties in Florida, including his fabled 160-acre ranch — the Allman Brothers recorded an album there in the 1990s — and auctioned off personal belongings.

Survivors include his son, Quinton; he and Anderson adopted him when he was 3 days old.

Despite the ups and downs of a Hollywood life, Reynolds seemed to have no regrets.

"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did."

REYNOLDS, Burt (Burton Leon Reynolds Jr.)

Born: 2/11/1936, Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.

Died: 9/6/2018, Jupiter, Florida, U.S.A.

Burt Reynolds’ westerns – actor:

Pony Express (TV) – 1959 (Adam)

Riverboat (TV) – 1959-1960 (Ben Frazer)

Johnny Ringo (TV) – 1960 (Tad Stuart)

Zane Grey Theater (TV) – 1961 (Branch Taylor)

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1962-1965 (Quint Asper)

Branded (TV) – 1965 (Red Hand)

Navajo Joe – 1966 (Navajo Joe)

Fade In (TV) – 1968 (Rob)