The Obituaries Thread

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Sidney Poitier, the beloved Oscar-winning actor, has died. He was 94.

The star's death was confirmed to Fox News on Friday by the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office. Prime Minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis also held a press conference on Friday morning where he remembered the film icon as an "actor and film director, an entrepreneur, civil and human rights activist and, latterly, a diplomat.

"We admire the man not just because of his colossal achievements but also because of who he was: his strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted, and the way he plotted and navigated his life’s journey," Davis said.

 

 

Poitier became the first Black winner of a lead-acting Oscar. (Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)

Davis shared the country is "in mourning." He instructed the Bahamian flag be flown at half-mast "at home and in our embassies around the world.

"We know the world mourns with us. Sidney’s light will continue to shine brightly at generations to come," the prime minister added.

Davis concluded the press conference by fielding questions from the press, during which he admitted more should be done to mark Poitier's legacy in the Bahamas, where he grew up.

"We intend to sit as a government to determine what else we can do to mark his bearing in the Bahamas and the world," the prime minister said.

In 1963, Poitier made a film in Arizona, "Lilies of the Field." The performance led to a huge milestone: He became the first Black winner of a lead-acting Oscar. As one of the most beloved stars of Hollywood's golden era, Poitier made his mark with films like "A Raisin in the Sun," (1961) "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" (1967) and "Uptown Saturday Night," (1974), among others.

In January of this year, Arizona State University has named its new film school after him. The Sidney Poitier New American Film School was unveiled at a virtual ceremony.

 

 

The decision to name the school after Poitier is about much more than his achievements and legacy, but because he "embodies in his very person that which we strive to be — the matching of excellence and drive and passion with social purpose and social outcomes, all things that his career has really stood for," said Michael M. Crow, president of the university.

Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge filming ‘Porgy and Bess', circa 1959. (George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images)

"You’re looking for an icon, a person that embodies everything you stand for," Crow said in an earlier interview. "With Sidney Poitier, it’s his creative energy, his dynamism, his drive, his ambition, the kinds of projects he worked on, the ways in which he advanced his life."

Actor Sidney Poitier and his daughter, actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier, arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA, 02 March 2014. (Hubert Boesl/picture alliance via Getty Images)

"Look at his life: It’s a story of a person who found a way," he said of the actor, who was born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, the son of tomato farmers, before launching a career that went from small, hard-won theater parts to eventual Hollywood stardom. "How do we help other young people find their way?"

The university said it invested millions of dollars in technology to create what’s intended to be one of the largest, most accessible and most diverse film schools. Crow said that much like the broader university, the film school will measure success not by exclusivity but by inclusivity.

The school will move in the fall of 2022 to a new facility in downtown Mesa, Arizona, which is seven miles from the university’s Tempe Campus. It will also occupy the university’s new center in Los Angeles.

Scene from Columbia's Stanley Kramer production 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' circa 1967. Written by William Rose, directed by Stanley Kramer. Scene shows Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton (niece of actress Katharine Hepburn). (Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images)

 

 

While Poitier had been out of the public eye for some time, his daughter Beverly Poitier-Henderson told The Associated Press her father was "doing well and enjoying his family," and considered it an honor to be the namesake of the new film school.

Poitier was born in 1927 in Miami, Florida, PBS shared. The star grew up in the small village of Cat Island, Bahamas. His father, a tomato farmer, moved his family to the capital when Poitier was 11. At a young age, Poitier was captivated by cinema and, at age 16, he moved to New York. He found work as a dishwasher and soon after, became a janitor for the American Negro Theater in exchange for acting lessons.

It was there where Poitier was given the role of understudying Harry Belafonte in "Days of our Youth." Poitier made his public debut while filling in one night. Afterward, he earned a small role in the Greek comedy "Lysistrata." Poitier continued to perform in plays until 1950 when he made his film debut in "No Way Out."

Poitier is celebrated as a groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on the big screen. Before Poitier, no Black actor had a sustained career as a lead performer or could get a film produced based on his own star power.

Before Poitier, few Black actors were permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Before Poitier, Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person’s story.

Poitier’s rise mirrored profound changes in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. As racial attitudes evolved during the civil rights era and segregation laws were challenged and fell, Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious industry turned for stories of progress.

In New York City, Sidney Poitier was looking in the Amsterdam News for a dishwasher job when he noticed an ad seeking actors at the American Negro Theater. He went there and was handed a script and told to go on the stage. Poitier had never seen a play in his life and could barely read. He stumbled through his lines in a thick Caribbean accent and the director marched him to the door. Still, that didn't stop him from pursuing his passion to perform. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)

He was the escaped Black convict who befriends a racist white prisoner (Tony Curtis) in "The Defiant Ones." He was the courtly office worker who falls in love with a blind white girl in "A Patch of Blue." He was the handyman in "Lilies of the Field" who builds a church for a group of nuns. In one of the great roles of the stage and screen, he was the ambitious young father whose dreams clashed with those of other family members in Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun."

 

 

Debates about diversity in Hollywood inevitably turn to the story of Poitier. With his handsome, flawless face; intense stare and disciplined style, he was for years not just the most popular Black movie star, but the only one.

"I made films when the only other Black on the lot was the shoeshine boy," he recalled in a 1988 Newsweek interview. "I was kind of the lone guy in town."

Sidney Poitier with American actors Spencer Tracy (1900 - 1967) and Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003). (Photo by Columbia Tristar/Getty Images)

Poitier peaked in 1967 with three of the year’s most notable movies: "To Sir, With Love," in which he starred as a school teacher who wins over his unruly students at a London secondary school; "In the Heat of the Night," as the determined police detective Virgil Tibbs; and in "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner," as the prominent doctor who wishes to marry a young white woman he only recently met, her parents played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their final film together.

Theater owners named Poitier the No. 1 star of 1967, the first time a Black actor topped the list. In 2009 President Barack Obama, whose own steady bearing was sometimes compared to Poitier’s, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying that the actor "not only entertained but enlightened ... revealing the power of the silver screen to bring us closer together."

 

His appeal brought him burdens not unlike such other historical figures as Jackie Robinson and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was subjected to bigotry from whites and accusations of compromise from the Black community. Poitier was held, and held himself, to standards well above his white peers. He refused to play cowards and took on characters, especially in "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner," of almost divine goodness. He developed a steady, but resolved and occasionally humorous persona crystallized in his most famous line — "They call me Mr. Tibbs!" — from "In the Heat of the Night."

 

Sidney Poitier (center), seen here with Julio Iglesias (left) and Gregory Peck (right), was beloved by his peers. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

"All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value — to you I say, ‘I’m not talking about being as good as you. I hereby declare myself better than you,’" he wrote in his memoir, "The Measure of a Man," published in 2000.

But even in his prime he was criticized for being out of touch. He was called an Uncle Tom and a "million-dollar shoeshine boy." In 1967, The New York Times published Black playwright Clifford Mason’s essay, "Why Does White America Love Sidney Poitier So?" Mason dismissed Poitier’s films as "a schizophrenic flight from historical fact" and the actor as a pawn for the "white man’s sense of what’s wrong with the world."

Stardom didn’t shield Poitier from racism and condescension. He had a hard time finding housing in Los Angeles and was followed by the Ku Klux Klan when he visited Mississippi in 1964, not long after three civil rights workers had been murdered there. In interviews, journalists often ignored his work and asked him instead about race and current events.

 

American actor Sidney Poitier with his Oscar after he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Hollywood, California, circa 1964. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

"I am an artist, man, American, contemporary," he snapped during a 1967 press conference. "I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due."

Poitier was not as engaged politically as Belafonte, leading to occasional conflicts between them. But he participated in the 1963 March on Washington and other civil rights events, and as an actor defended himself and risked his career. He refused to sign loyalty oaths during the 1950s, when Hollywood was barring suspected Communists, and turned down roles he found offensive.

"Almost all the job opportunities were reflective of the stereotypical perception of Blacks that had infected the whole consciousness of the country," he recalled. "I came with an inability to do those things. It just wasn’t in me. I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values."

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

Comedian actor, Bob Saget was dead at 65... Location at Florida hotel room...

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2022/01/10/actor-bob-saget-of-full-house-found-dead/

https://www.bharian.com.my/dunia/amerika/2022/01/909756/pelawak-bob-saget-meninggal-dunia-di-bilik-hotel

RIP... The famous FULL HOUSE and AMERICAN FUNNIES HOME VIDEO.... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

Rock N Roll legends Ronnie Spector (former The Ronettes group) was dies at 78 because of cancer....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59975272

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zendaya-ronnie-spector-tribute-1284388/

https://www.bharian.com.my/hiburan/selebriti/2022/01/911074/penyanyi-rock-n-roll-legenda-meninggal-dunia

Rest in peace...  

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

On 1/13/2022 at 7:02 PM, AsimPika3172 said:

Rock N Roll legends Ronnie Spector (former The Ronettes group) was dies at 78 because of cancer....

 

Rest in peace...  

One of the greats of Rock and Roll, too bad that all the press talked about was her loser ex-husband.

 

 

Meat Loaf, rock superstar, "Bat Out of Hell" singer, has died at 74

 

January 21, 2022 / 7:35 AM

The singer-songwriter-actor, born Marvin Lee Aday, died Thursday, according to a family statement on his Facebook page. In addition, CBS News confirmed his death with his longtime agent, Michael Greene.

"Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight," the statement said.

"His amazing career spanned six decades that saw him sell over 100 million albums worldwide and star in over 65 movies, including 'Fight Club,' 'Focus,' 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' and 'Wayne's World.'"

"'Bat Out of Hell' remains one of the top 10 selling albums of all time."

"We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man," the statement continues. … "From his heart to your souls…don't ever stop rocking!"

No cause or other details were given, but Aday had numerous health scares over the years.

"Bat Out of Hell," his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977 and made him one of the most recognizable performers in rock.

Fans fell hard for the roaring vocals of the long-haired, 250-plus pound singer and for the comic non-romance of the title track as well as "You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth," "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" and "Paradise By the Dashboard Light."

Rock singer Meat Loaf performing, circa 1977. Getty Images

After a slow start and mixed reviews, "Bat Out of a Hell" became one of the top-selling albums in history, with worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies.

Meat Loaf wasn't a consistent hit maker, especially after falling out for years with Steinman. But he maintained close ties with his fans through his manic live shows, social media and his many television, radio and film appearances, including "Fight Club" and cameos on "Glee" and "South Park."

Friends and fans reacted to the death on social media.

"I hope paradise is as you remember it from the dashboard light, Meat Loaf," actor Stephen Fry said on Twitter. "Had a fun time performing a sketch with him on Saturday Live way back in the last century. He had the quality of being simultaneously frightening and cuddly."

According to the Reuters news service, British producer Pete Waterman said, "It was his voice – you knew what you got with Meat Loaf. It was 100 per cent of everything."

Meat Loaf's biggest musical success after "Bat Out of Hell" was "Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell," a 1993 reunion with Steinman that sold more than 15 million copies and featured the Grammy-winning single "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)."

Steinman died in April.

A native of Dallas, Aday was the son of a school teacher who raised him on her own after divorcing his alcoholic father, a police officer.

He was still a teenager when his mother died and when he acquired the nickname Meat Loaf, the alleged origins of which range from his weight to a favorite recipe of his mother's.

He is survived by Deborah Gillespie, his wife since 2007, and by daughters Pearl and Amanda Aday.

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Guitarist Don Wilson, last surviving founder of surf-rock pioneers The Ventures, dies at 88

Bad week for classic R&R. RIP

 

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

Bollywood legend singer, Lata Mangeshkar, was dies at 92 because of multi organ failure due to covid-19 positive....

Rest in peace....  the best more than 30,000 songs across 36 languages...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60094193

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/breaking-news-live-updates-feb-6/liveblog/89376395.cms

https://www.bharian.com.my/hiburan/selebriti/2022/02/919452/lata-mangeshkar-meninggal-dunia

I love her songs ever!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Douglas Trumbull, Effects Wizard Behind 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, Has Died

Science fiction cinema would not be what it is today without the work of Douglas Trumbull. Trumbull helped drive effects on films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, each time changing the field in ways that would resonate for decades. After an incredible life and career, Trumbull lost a two year battle with cancer this week and passed away at the age of 79.

Born in Los Angeles, CA in 1942, Trumbull began work on visual effects in his 20s. The work got him noticed by a rising filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick and Kubrick asked him to help on his new movie called 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull moved to London to work with Kubrick on the film and ended up pioneering some of the most impressive and famous visual in the entire film, from the onscreen displays to the entire star field sequence. That sequence would not only inspire a generation of film fans, it also set up Trumbull to continue working in the field.

After impressing with visual effects on The Andromeda Strain, Trumbull made the eco-thriller Silent Running, which was his directorial debut. Among the visual effects people he brought on for that film was Donald Trumbull, Douglas’ father. Turns out, visual effects expertise ran in the family, as the elder Trumbull contributed to a little movie called The Wizard of Oz. The pair worked together on several films after that.

Immediately following Silent Running though, Donald Trumbull (who passed away in 2004 at the age of 95) went on to work for Industrial Light and Magic on a film called Star Wars—while Douglas turned that down and worked with Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He created the visuals of the unforgettable spaceship in the film’s climax. At the same time, he worked on the effects for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Despite the success of those films, Trumbull considered getting out of visual effects. That was, until, director Ridley Scott convinced him to work on the world of Blade Runner. For Trumbull, that it was sci-fi set on Earth and not in space was a key selling point and, of course, the landscapes and visuals he helped create once again redefined what science fiction could be. In the years that followed Blade Runner, Trumbull worked mostly on short films and in forwarding technology, including a stint at IMAX. He didn’t return to features until 2011's The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick, drawn in by the fact the reclusive director didn’t want to use computer effects.

Looking back on Trumbull’s list of projects, it’s not as long as one might assume for a person who worked in the field for almost five decades. But each time he put himself into a project, chances are he was going to change the course of film history with it. His imagination and creativity resulted in work that will inspire and drive cinema from now until forever.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Robert Morse, Two-Time Tony Winner and ‘Mad Men’ Star, Dies at 90

Robert Morse, the Tony Award-winning star of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying who impressed a new legion of fans as the eccentric head of the Sterling Cooper ad agency on Mad Men, has died. He was 90.

“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” writer/producer  and vp on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Larry Karaszewski tweeted. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v OJ & hosting so many screenings (How To Succeed, Loved One, That’s Life).”

Morse became a show business sensation with his turn as the ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch, who goes from New York window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Co. in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, based on Shepherd Mead’s best-selling book.

Morse then reprised the role of Finch for the 1967 film adaptation of How to Succeed from The Mirisch Co. and United Artists.

In 1990, the Massachusetts native received another Tony, this one for best featured actor in a play, for his spell-binding turn as Truman Capote in the one-hander Tru. A live performance taped for PBS’ American Playhouse netted him an Emmy Award three years later.

Younger audiences, however, know the 5-foot-5, gap-toothed actor for his turn as Sterling Cooper co-founder Bert Cooper, a man fond of bow ties, Japanese art and feet minus shoes, on seven seasons of AMC’s Mad Men. He received five Emmy noms for his work on the Matthew Weiner period drama.

Morse dusted off his Broadway musical skills when he did a song-and-dance routine to the tune of “The Best Things in Life Are Free” after Bert died peacefully in 1969 while watching TV as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Morse said Weiner always intended for him to sing on the show. The actor, though, had to be persuaded.

“It wasn’t just, ‘Go and sing a song and au revoir, Bobby.’ It was Bert telling Don [Jon Hamm’s character]: What are you doing? All this shit that you’re doing, cut it out. The best things in life are free. We just landed on the moon. Calm down. Enjoy things while you have them.

“I saw how the scene fit into the whole picture and thought: ‘Wow. This gives things a lot of perspective here. Let’s do it.’ We rehearsed for a few days and then just filmed it over the course of a day or so. No one else knew we were doing it.”

The boyish Morse also starred in several light-hearted movie comedies of the 1960s. He played a British man overseeing his uncle’s expensive funeral in The Loved One (1965), directed by Tony Richardson, and advised Walter Matthau on how to cheat on one’s wife without getting caught in A Guide for the Married Man (1967).

Robert Morse was born on May 18, 1931, in Newton, Mass. His father owned a chain of movie theaters, and his mother studied piano at the New England Conservatory of Music.

After serving in the Korean War, Morse trained at the American Theatre Wing in New York in the early ’50s and landed a job as a rehearsal singer on Name That Tune. An agent heard him and signed him up, and Morse would appear as a wounded soldier in The Proud and the Profane (1956).

Morse made his Broadway debut in 1955 appearing alongside Ruth Gordon in the original production of The Matchmaker, written by Thornton Wilder. (He also played apprentice Barnaby Tucker in the 1958 Paramount version.)

Morse received his first Tony nom in 1959 for playing a greenhorn Broadway producer in Say, Darling, about the making of The Pajama Game (with book and direction by Burrows), then landed another nom the following year for his work in Take Me Along, a musical version of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! that also starred Jackie Gleason and Walter Pidgeon.

He was nominated one more time in 1973 for Sugar, portraying Jerry/Daphne (Jack Lemmon’s character) in the musical adaptation of Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot. And he had a delightful cameo in the 2016 Broadway revival of The Front Page

.Morse is one of only four actors to win the top acting Tonys for play and musical, sharing that distinction with Rex Harrison, Christopher Plummer and Zero Mostel.

Yet despite all his success on the stage, Morse never made it big in the movies.

“He had this incredible sense of comedy and this wonderful lightness and fluidity. He was a little bit strange and a little bit outrageous. But he just did better in the theater than in film,” Richardson said of Morse in a 1990 story for New York magazine. “He made contact with a theater audience and could take them along in his pocket. But in a film, the audience has to enter your head. You don’t go out to them — they have to come in to you.”

His big-screen résumé also included Honeymoon Hotel (1964), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968), The Boatnicks (1970) and The Emperor’s New Clothes (1987).

Morse also sang and danced when he starred with E.J. Peaker as a young married couple on the 1968-69 ABC series That’s Life. He had a recurring role on the 2000 Steven Bochco hospital drama City of Angels, played Harry the Bookie on All My Children and was Grandpa in a 1995 Munsters TV movie.

More recently, Morse portrayed journalist Dominick Dunne on American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.

He was married for 20 years to actress and dancer Carole D’Andrea, then married Elizabeth Roberts, more than 30 years his junior, in 1989.

For Morse, working on both Mad Men and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying tied his career together quite nicely.

“It was very odd,” he said in the Rolling Stone piece, “because the first day I went on the set [of Mad Men], I thought I’d walked into the road company production of How to Succeed: There were secretaries and desks everywhere, there were vintage phones all over the place, everyone was done up like it was 1960.

“I remember waltzing up the aisles and singing, ‘A secretary is not a toy, no, my boy/her pad is to write in, and not spend the night in! [lyrics from the How to Succeed song “A Secretary Is Not a Toy”].’ And everybody looked at me like I was crazy, because they’re all so damned young!

“The point is, it was both a reflection of who I was then and a bit of time warp. It reminded me of what a great era that first half of the ’60s were — the Kennedy era. John Kennedy came to see me in How to Succeed and gave me a signed picture; I used to hang out in Bobby Kennedy’s place down in Virginia. They were wonderful days, the sun was out, our sleeves were rolled up. It was all very positive, for the most part. And then what happened?”

 

[Terring 6,473]

Klaus Schulze, ex member of the Tangerine Dream and electronic music pioneer, has passed away on April 26, 2022 at the age of 74 after a long disease but all of a sudden

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Fred Ward, the erstwhile lumberjack known for playing no-nonsense men of action in such films as Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Tremors and The Right Stuff, has died. He was 79.

Ward died Sunday, his publicist Ron Hofmann announced. No cause or place of death was disclosed per the family’s wishes.

The San Diego native brought an authentic strength and gruff manner to his work. Part Cherokee, he tapped into his heritage as a union activist and Meryl Streep’s workmate in Mike Nichols’ Silkwood (1983) and for his turns in Errol Morris’ The Dark Wind (1991) and Michael Apted’s Thunderheart (1992).

Ward also portrayed a motorcycle racer in Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swann (1982), a former Vietnam War tunnel rat in Ted Kotcheff’s Uncommon Valor (1983) and a rumpled cop who battles a psychotic criminal (Alec Baldwin) and loses his dentures in George Armitage’s Miami Blues (1990).

Ward also starred as hard-drinking expatriate author Henry Miller, who has a ménage a trois in Paris in 1931 with his wife (Uma Thurman) and another writer (Maria de Medeiros), in Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June (1990), the first NC-17 film to play in theaters.

“My rear end seemed to have something to do with [that rating],” he said in an interview with The Washington Post.

For Robert Altman, Ward was the head of studio security in The Player (1992) and shared Golden Globe and Venice Film Festival ensemble prizes for his performance in Short Cuts (1993).

His best chance at superstardom came when he was cast as the title character in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985).

The Orion Pictures release, based on the popular The Destroyer novels, was designed to kick off a franchise centering on an American version of James Bond. (It was directed by Guy Hamilton and written by Christopher Wood, veterans of 007 movies, and Ward signed on for three Remo Williams installments.)

Ward’s Remo was a New York cop who is taught martial arts skills by a Korean master (Joel Grey) as he becomes an assassin for a secret government agency. However, despite a neat action sequence atop scaffolding covering the Statue of Liberty, the film did poorly at the box office, and the adventure, alas, ended just as it was getting started.

Ward, however, did get two chances to play Earl Bass, the resilient Nevada handyman who fights off creepy crawlers, first in Tremors (1990) and then in a 1996 direct-to-video sequel.

And as astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom in Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (1983), Ward was “earthy and unpretentious in what is perhaps the film’s most demanding role,” THR wrote in its review.

Frederick Joseph Ward was born in San Diego on Dec. 30, 1942. He moved around a lot as a youngster, with his dad often at odds with the law.

“My father did a lot of time,” he told the Tribune. “He was in jail when I was born, got out briefly to celebrate the birth and then went right back. He was just the kind of man who got into trouble. Alcohol was the real trouble, underneath all the rest.

“When I was 3, my mother left my father. She left me with her mother in Texas while she went to New Orleans to set up a life for us. After a while, she sent for me. She supported us by working in bars. In five years, we lived in five different places. Then she married my stepfather, who was with the carnie. Maybe that’s where my restlessness comes from. I inherited it.”

Ward spent three years in the U.S. Air Force, serving as an airborne radar technician in Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada. After the service, he ventured to New York and studied acting at Herbert Berghof’s studio for six months in 1964.

The 5-foot-9 Ward then did some amateur boxing, was a logger and lumberjack in Alaska and landed parts in early plays written by his future Right Stuff co-star, Sam Shepard, in San Francisco. A job in construction on San Francisco’s transit system funded a trip to Europe, and in Rome, he dubbed films, performed as a mime and acted in Roberto Rossellini telefilms.

Back in the U.S., Ward appeared uncredited as a cowboy in Tony Bill’s Hearts of the West (1975), then got his first major role as a con who attempts a breakout with Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel’s Escape From Alcatraz (1979).

During the making of The Right Stuff, Kaufman said Ward “almost died in the water” in Half Moon Bay during a scene in which Grissom bails from his capsule.

“I had a wet suit on under my flight suit, in pretty cold water,” Ward recalled. “And then they picked me up, dangling by a rescue noose. It’s a tragic scene. You see Gus Grissom hanging there: almost totally defeated, like a dead fish on the end of a line.”

Ward also played a terrorist planning to blow up the Academy Awards in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) and appeared in other films including Southern Comfort (1981), Swing Shift (1984), UFOria (1985), Secret Admirer (1985), The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988), Bob Roberts (1992), Road Trip (2000), Joe Dirt (2001), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), The Wild Stallion (2009) and 2 Guns (2013).

In his lone foray as a producer, Ward paid $4,000 to option Charles Willeford’s 1985 book Miami Blues and got Jonathan Demme to produce the movie and Armitage to write and direct.

Ward was married three times. Survivors include his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward, and his son, Django, named for Belgian jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

[Terring 6,473]

Vangelis Papathanasiou, Oscar-winning composer and my all-time favorite musician, passes away at the age of 79 by COVID-19

RIP, Vangelis

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

For you Vangelis fans, a very rare soundtrack from one of the darkest films ever made- Bitter Moon (1992)

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Ray Liotta, the actor best known for portraying mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and bringing magnetically edgy energy to a gallery of crime dramas and thrillers, has died.

He was 67.

Liotta died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was filming the movie "Dangerous Waters," according to his publicist, Jennifer Allen. No foul play is suspected, according to Allen, who said Liotta's fiancée Jacy Nittolo was with him on the island.

In an acting career that spanned four decades, Liotta established himself as one of the most dependable tough-guy performers in Hollywood, skilled at portraying cops and criminals in films like "Something Wild," "Cop Land" and "Killing Them Softly."

Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas." Warner Bros / Courtesy Everett Collection

But he occasionally showed off a warmer side, endearing himself to audiences as the ghost of baseball giant Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams," opposite Kevin Costner.

"Goodfellas" was indisputably the high-water mark of his career, however, providing him with a juicy lead role in a decade-spanning mafia epic co-starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. He portrayed Henry Hill, a real-life mob associate who gets swept up in the thrill and glamour of the criminal underworld.

"I was very saddened to learn of Ray’s passing. He is way too young to have left us," De Niro said in a statement. "May he Rest in Peace."

In an email to NBC News, Pesci said: "God is a Goodfella, and so is Ray."

 

 He enjoyed a small-scale comeback in recent years, showing up as a divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s "Marriage Story," a mob chief in Steven Soderbergh’s "No Sudden Move," and a New Jersey bigwig in "The Many Saints of Newark," a prequel to HBO's "The Sopranos."

"I used to think, when I first started acting, that I had to experience everything to be able to do it. But then I realized that what acting is is using your imagination," Liotta told The New York Times for a profile published in 1992.

Raymond Allen Liotta was born on Dec. 18, 1954, in New Jersey. He was adopted by Alfred and Mary Liotta when he was a baby. He made his acting debut in the NBC daytime soap opera "Another World," then struggled to find major Hollywood work.

He scored his breakout role in Jonathan Demme's off-kilter comedy "Something Wild," playing Melanie Griffith's psychotic ex-convict husband — a turn that hinted at the disarming nerviness he could bring to the screen.

Ray Liotta in "Field of Dreams." Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Field of Dreams" elevated his status and "Goodfellas" catapulted him into American film history. (Pesci was the only "Goodfellas" cast member to receive an Academy Award nomination, winning the best supporting actor Oscar in 1991.)

Liotta will forever be associated with dialogue he utters in voiceover at the start of “Goodfellas,” namely: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” The line summed up Scorsese’s vision of mid-century mob life as the ultimate aspiration for men with shaky morals.

The decades that followed were a mixed bag for Liotta's career. He alternated between gritty crime sagas, thrillers and comedies. The highlights included keyed-up turns in films like "Blow," "Narc," "John Q," "Identity" and "The Place Beyond the Pines."

He occasionally showed up on television, too, playing himself on the sitcom "Just Shoot Me!" and co-starring with Jennifer Lopez on the NBC cop drama "Shades of Blue."

In the recent "Sopranos" prequel film "The Many Saints of Newark," Liotta played a dual role, creating "two distinctly separate characters," according to "Sopranos" creator David Chase.

 

"I have been an admirer of Ray’s work since I saw him in 'Something Wild,' a movie he wrenched by the tail. I was so glad he worked on 'The Many Saints of Newark.' I believed strongly in my heart that he could play that double role," Chase said in a statement.

 

"We all felt we lucked out having him on that movie," he added.

Liotta was married to Michelle Grace and had one daughter.

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP... Ray Liotta... 😭

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Far left, with Jaime Sanchez, Ernest Borgnine, William Holden, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates

 

Bo Hopkins, "Crazy Lee" the last of the 'Wild Bunch' dies: 'Actor to his core'

Hopkins gathered more than 100 film and TV credits to his name over his multi-decade career.

LOS ANGELES — Bo Hopkins, best known for his roles in "American Graffiti", Wild Bunch" and other classics, has died.

The actor's death was confirmed on his official website Saturday.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that Bo has passed away," the announcement read. "Bo loved hearing from his fans from around the world and although he was unable to respond to every email over the last few years, he appreciated hearing from each and every one of you."

Hopkins' wife of more than 30 years told The Hollywood Reporter that he died in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a heart attack earlier in May. He was 80 years old. 

Hopkins' multi-decade career began in the late 60s with roles in shows like "Gunsmoke", "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Phyllis Diller Show," according to IMDB.  

According to his online bio, Hopkins' first major cinematic role was in Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" -- he played Clarence “Crazy” Lee in the 1969 Western classic. He became a favorite of Peckinpah, playing roles in "The Getaway" and "The Killer Elite". 

In "American Graffiti", Hopkins played Pharaohs leader Joe Young, who convinces protagonist Curt to to hook a chain to a police car to rip out its back axle. 

Hopkins gathered more than 100 film and TV credits to his name over his career. He received a Star on the Western Walk of Stars in 2017.

The actor was born William Hopkins in Greenville, South Carolina. According to Variety, he changed his name to “Bo” after his character in his first off-Broadway play, "Bus Stop." He joined the U.S. Army as a teenager before beginning his acting career. 

His latest film role was in Ron Howard's 2020 "Hillbilly Elegy" alongside Glenn Close. Close shared a photo of the two on Instagram Saturday, remembering Hopkins as an "actor to his core" who "put his heart into every take."

"Just heard that the wonderful Bo Hopkins died peacefully, early this morning, with his devoted wife, Sian, holding his hand," Close wrote. "He was a gentleman and a gentle man. He may have once, during his early days, around the time of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, been one of the bad boys, but I got acquainted and enjoyed the company of a man with a twinkle in his eye and the heart of a knight."

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Jean-Louis Trintignant dead at 91: ‘A Man and a Woman’ star was French film icon

French film legend Jean-Louis Trintignant has died at the age of 91.

The veteran international superstar passed away at his home in the Gard region of southern France on Friday, after a years-long battle with prostate cancer. His wife, Marianne, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse.

He is perhaps best known for his work in art house cinema, including “A Man and a Woman,” “My Night at Maud’s,” “The Conformist,” “Three Colors: Red” and “Amour.”

His 60-year career led to more than 130 screen credits and at least 50 stage roles, spanning Shakespeare to French comedy.

In 1969, Trintignant was awarded Cannes’ best actor prize for political thriller “Z,” helmed by famed Greek director Costa-Gavras.

More recently, in 2013, he earned France’s Cesar Award for Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” which went on to win the Oscar that year for best foreign-language film.

During his 60-year career the French actor has earned Cannes’ best actor prize and a Cesar Award, and starred in other Oscar-winning films.

Courtesy Everett Collection

Jean-Louis Trintignant starred opposite French actress Anouk Aimée in “A Man and a Woman,” and again, 53 years later, for the epilogue, “The Best Years of a Life.”

Courtesy Everett Collection

Trintignant shot to international fame in 1966, playing a lovesick race car driver opposite French bombshell Anouk Aimée, in Claude Lelouch’s “A Man and a Woman.” It, too, took the Academy Award for best screenplay and foreign-language film.

In 2017, the actor revealed his cancer diagnosis, and declared he was done with the movie business, but returned from retirement for what he said would be his last role, in “The Best Years of a Life” — rejoining Aimée 53 years later for the epilogue to Lelouch’s classic romantic drama.

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

Al-Fatihah

Malaysian Entertainer Adibah Noor was passed away at 51 because of ovarian cancer stage 4.... 😭😭😭😭😭😭

https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2022/06/18/entertainer-adibah-noor-dies-at-51-from-ovarian-cancer/13008

https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/groove/2022/06/806108/showbiz-adibah-noor-succumbs-cancer-nsttv

https://www.bharian.com.my/hiburan/selebriti/2022/06/967420/adibah-noor-meninggal-dunia

Salam takziah kepada penyanyi TERLALU ISTIMEWA.... Amin.... 🤲

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP.... Former Japan PM... Shinzo Abe... was assassinated (shot dead) by Tetsuya Yamagami using weapon on the pavement...

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-s-former-PM-Shinzo-Abe-assassinated

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/In-pictures-Shinzo-Abe-the-scene-of-his-assassination

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/07/08/national/shinzo-abe-dead-nara-shooting/

https://www.hmetro.com.my/utama/2022/07/859730/shinzo-abe-disahkan-meninggal-dunia

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110435764/former-japanese-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-is-shot-and-killed

RIP to all his family and all peoples of Japan... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP... Olivia Newtown John.... because of cancer...

Goodbye the famous GREASE actress and singer....

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-62472100

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/08/entertainment/olivia-newton-john-obit/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/08/olivia-newton-john-star-of-grease-dies-aged-73

https://www.bharian.com.my/hiburan/selebriti/2022/08/986207/olivia-newton-john-meninggal-dunia

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP.... Queen Elizabeth at 96....

Info are here!

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61585886

Thanks for everything....  

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

RIP Jean Luc Goddard at 91

 

Either you loved his movies or you hated them- there was no in-between. The last of the 50's-60's auteur film-makers amongst the likes of Truffaut, Fellini, Kurasawa, Leone, De Sica, Hitchcock, Altman, Kubrick, Penn and Peckinpah, who changed the landscape of cinema forever. Movies that actually made you think. Goddard was the most polarizing of the group, with his camera tricks and plot-less scripts. He was the first of the French New Wave with classics like Breathless, The 400 Blows, Hail Mary! and Alphaville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Loretta Lynn 90  RIP

The world has lost a little bit of its twinkle today. Loretta Lynn, country music's sequined Queen of the Sexual Revolution, died Tuesday. She was 90.

"Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills," Lynn's family said in a statement provided to EW. They have asked for privacy as they grieve and shared that a memorial for Lynn will be announced at a later date.

The legendary country star was born into the remote Appalachian town of Butcher Hollow, Van Lear, Ky., in 1932. The second of eight children (her siblings include fellow country singer Crystal Gayle), Lynn didn't do much singing or songwriting in her youth, but music was always present. In fact, when Lynn finally left her childhood neighborhood, she was shocked that other communities didn't spend so much time immersed in song.

 

 

"When I left the holler, I went back and told Mommy, 'Did you know that everybody don't sing?'" she recalled, speaking to EW in 2016 before the release of her reflective Full Circle LP. "I said, 'Mommy, there's a lot of people out there that can't sing, and I'm not kidding you!' Mommy found out for herself when she went to Indiana."

In 1948, a 15-year-old Lynn married Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn and together the couple moved across the country to Custer, Wash., where Doolittle worked in logging camps. She became a mother for the first time a year later and had welcomed four children all before the age of 21. Her marriage was far from idyllic, but she found solace — and a future — when her husband gave her first guitar.

 

"Whatever I did that day, whatever [was] on my mind, I'd write it in a song," Loretta told EW. The first song she ever penned, which she rerecorded for Circle, was the slow-rolling "Whispering Sea."

"I wrote that sitting in a tree branch hanging over the ocean, fishing," she recalled in the same interview. "When I got home I wrote it down on a piece of paper and that was it." As would become her characteristic styling, she adds, "It was just as simple as anything."

Doolittle realized her natural talent and encouraged Lynn to start singing in bars and contests. In 1960, she released "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," which would become her first country hit. She and Doolittle promoted the record themselves, crisscrossing the country, making as many pit stops at as many radio stations as possible, eventually landing in Nashville. 

Lynn's flinty voice and no-nonsense lyrics made her a staple on the Grand Ole Opry, and her work ethic made her a star. She signed with Decca and over the next 30 years released more than 50 records for the label. She cut 16 chart-topping country songs, many of which — like 1967's "Don't Come Home a' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," 1968's "Fist City," 1969's "Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)," and the autobiographical "Coal Miner's Daughter" from 1970 — have become country standards.

In 1971, she began what would prove to be an enduring and wildly successful partnership with Conway Twitty. They recorded a number of big hits — such as 1971's "After the Fire is Gone" and "Lead Me On" and 1973's "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" — and toured together frequently. In 1972, Lynn became the first woman to win the coveted Entertainer of the Year Award from the Country Music Association.

In 1976, Lynn released her autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter, which was later adapted into Michael Apted's 1980 film of the same name. Lynn handpicked Sissy Spacek to play her in the movie, for which Spacek won an Oscar. Lynn has also tried her talented hand at acting over the years — she made guest appearances on both Fantasy Island and The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as The Muppet Show. 

Lynn's recording career slowed in the late 1980s, but she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and awarded the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music Awards in 1995.

She spent much of the early '90s attending to her husband, who would die in 1996 from diabetes complications, but returned to making solo music in 2000. On the 40th anniversary of her career as a performer, she released Still Country. One of America's great scribes, she penned only two songs for the set, including "I Can't Hear the Music," a stunning tribute to her late husband. 

The icon had been adamant that she wrote lyrics every day and, in 2004, gained a fresh new generation of fans — and her only solo Grammy — with her Jack White collaboration Van Lear Rose. After receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2013, she returned three years later with the striking LP Full Circle, which was produced by John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash.

Lynn, who is survived by four of her six children as well as her grandchildren, suffered a stroke in May 2017 but continued to tour throughout her recovery. In 2021, she released her 50th studio album, Still Woman Enough, which celebrated women in country music.

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury, actress age 96 RIP I Wrote

Easily her best role in films-

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Robbie Coltrane, character actor known for award-winning TV series Cracker and many films, age 72 RIP

 

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP.... Robbie Coltrane at 72

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/14/entertainment/daniel-radcliffe-emma-watson-robbie-coltrane/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63261204

https://cinema.com.my/articles/news_details.aspx?search=2022.n_harrypotterstarrobbie_63041&title=Harry-Potter-star-Robbie-Coltrane-passed-away-at-72

https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/entertainment/2022/10/15/actor-robbie-coltrane-hagrid-in-harry-potter-films-dies-at-72

Goodbye HAGRID in Harry Potter.... 

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP.... JASON DAVID FRANK as TOMMY OLIVER from POWER RANGERS series at 49 years....

https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/20/power-rangers-jason-david-frank-dead-dies-tommy-oliver-green-white/

https://www.astroawani.com/berita-hiburan/bintang-power-rangers-jason-david-frank-meninggal-dunia-392824

https://apnews.com/article/jason-david-frank-dies-power-rangers-star-dc666f5ac379c649ffe10dbbfec04201

https://kotaku.com/power-rangers-green-ranger-jason-david-frank-died-rip-1849806833

Goodbye Green Ranger and White Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Red Ranger from Power Rangers Zeo and Turbo and Black Ranger from Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Also appear on any Power Rangers series as many suits.... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Irene Cara, Oscar-Winning ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ Singer, Dies at 63

Irene Cara, the Oscar-winning singer and actor who rocketed to pop stardom singing the title tracks to “Fame” and “Flashdance,” had died at age 63. Her publicist, Judith A. Moose, announced the news on social media, writing that a cause of death is “currently unknown.”

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Bad month for songbirds!

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter, dies at 79

Just in case you haven't heard this song enough in the past few months-

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Franco Harris age 72, on the receiving end of one of the most famous plays in NFL history, "The Immaculate Reception". RIP

 

 

[AsimPika3172 1,136]

RIP... the best Brazil legendary football ever.... at aged 82... Goodbye Pele....

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/29/brazilian-football-legend-pele-dies-aged-82

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64122630

https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/pele-o-rei-brazil-king-football-world-cup-obituary

Thanks for becomes famous player after legendary Diego Maradona.... 😭