Archive for the ‘Movies & Stage’ Category

Actor Paul Scofield, 86

Posted: Thursday, March 20th, 2008 11:42 am

Paul Scofield as King Lear
Paul Scofield, one of Britain’s most acclaimed Shakespearean actors and an Academy Award winner, has died at the age of 86, his agent has said.

Scofield won the Oscar for best actor in 1967 for A Man for All Seasons, and was also nominated in 1995 for best supporting actor for Quiz Show. …

The British-born actor started his stage career in 1940. … Read full obituary


Author-artist Hugo Claus, 78

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 10:33 pm

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Writer Hugo Claus — an artist, poet, playwright and novelist whose books painted a scathing picture of repression and hypocrisy in bourgeois Flanders — died Wednesday by euthanasia, his wife said. He was 78. … Read full obituary


Actor Ivan Dixon, 76

Posted: Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 11:19 pm

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ivan Dixon, an actor, director and producer best known for his role as Kinchloe on the 1960s television series “Hogan’s Heroes,” has died. He was 76. … Read full obituary


“English Patient” director Anthony Minghella, 54

Posted: Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 8:50 am

LONDON, England (AP) — Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as “The English Patient,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cold Mountain” into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54. …

According to reports, Mingella died of a hemorrhage after a routine operation on his neck. … Read full obituary


Screenwriter Malvin Wald, 90

Posted: Sunday, March 16th, 2008 6:48 pm

March 8, 2008 — Malvin Wald, a prolific writer for film and television best known for co-writing the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the 1948 film “The Naked City,” died Thursday of age-related causes at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his son, Alan. He was 90. … Read full obituary


“Rhoda’s” ex, David Groh, 68

Posted: Friday, February 15th, 2008 6:23 pm

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — David Groh, the handsome, hardworking character actor who was best known as the easygoing man Rhoda Morgenstern married and divorced during the run of Valerie Harper’s hit 1970s sitcom “Rhoda,” has died. He was 68.

Groh died Tuesday of kidney cancer in Los Angeles, his sister-in-law Catherine Mullally said Thursday. … Read full obituary


Actor Roy Scheider, 75

Posted: Sunday, February 10th, 2008 8:19 pm

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — Roy Scheider, the actor best known for his role as a police chief in the blockbuster movie “Jaws,” has died. He was 75.

Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock… [H]ospital spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital’s Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years. … Read full obituary


Actor Barry Morse, 89

Posted: Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 3:49 pm

LONDON, England (AP) — Actor Barry Morse, who played a detective pursuing the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble in 1960s TV series “The Fugitive,” has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 89. …

The actor’s Web site estimated he played more than 3,000 roles on radio, TV, stage and screen over a seven-decade career. … Read full obituary


Christian Brando, 49

Posted: Saturday, January 26th, 2008 6:38 pm

Christian Brando, the troubled eldest son of the late famed actor Marlon Brando, has died from pneumonia at a Los Angeles hospital, an attorney said Saturday. He was 49. …

Born May 11, 1958, the younger Brando had small roles in a handful of movies, including 1968’s “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!” but he was better known for his brushes with the law. … Read full obituary

Related:
Marlon Brando, 80


Actress Lois Nettleton, 79

Posted: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 6:34 pm

Lois Nettleton, an actress whose dramatic and comic dexterity in theater, film and television earned her wide public recognition and deep professional respect for more than a half century, died on Friday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 80. The cause was complications of lung cancer…

Her extensive work in television included the role of Norma in “The Midnight Sun,” a 1961 episode of “The Twilight Zone” …

Ms. Nettleton was divorced from Jean Shepherd, the radio host and author; they met when she called his show. She left no immediate survivors. … Read full obituary


Actor Heath Ledger found dead

Posted: Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 2:07 pm

Heath LedgerTMZ has learned that 2006 Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has died in NY.

He was found dead in his bed in one of his residences in Soho by his housekeeper at 3:35 PM ET today. … Read full story


Actress Suzanne Pleshette, 70

Posted: Saturday, January 19th, 2008 1:31 am

Suzanne PleshetteSuzanne Pleshette has died.

Her attorney and family friend, Robert Finkelstein, says the husky-voiced actress died of respiratory failure at her home Los Angeles. She was 70.

The star of movies and Broadway found her greatest fame on TV’s long-running “The Bob Newhart Show,” portraying the comic’s witty, sarcastic wife. … Read full obituary

Related:
Comedic actor Tom Poston, 85


Kid star of “The Client” Brad Renfro, 25

Posted: Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 6:27 pm

The 25-year-old actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home this morning. The cause of death has not been determined, however, Renfro had a history of drug abuse. …

Renfro had been filming a movie with Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton. The movie, “The Informers,” just wrapped. … Read full obituary


Maila “Vampira” Nurmi, 85

Posted: Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 11:25 am

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Maila Nurmi, whose “Vampira” TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner’s officials said. She was 85. …

Among Nurmi’s scattered film appearances following her TV career was a cameo in Ed Wood’s 1959 cult classic, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Nurmi was played by Lisa Marie in “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s 1994 tribute to the B-movie director. … Read full obituary


Pinup star Jeanne Carmen, 77

Posted: Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 8:38 pm

From JR: I had the great pleasure of meeting and chatting with Jeanne Carmen several times over the past decade; she was a droll, very relaxed, charming lady who never lost that old-Hollywood glamour for a moment. R.I.P., Jeanne, and thanks for all the laughs.

Jeanne Carmen, a longtime Orange County resident who earned stardom as a bombshell pinup, trick-shot golfer and “Queen of the B Movies,” has died. She was 77. … Read full obituary


Choreographer Michael Kidd, 92

Posted: Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 12:59 pm

Choreographer Michael Kidd, whose joyously athletic dances for ballet, Broadway and Hollywood delighted audiences for half a century and won him five Tonys and an Oscar, has died.

Kidd’s nephew, Robert Greenwald, told The New York Times that … Kidd’s age is often listed as 88, but … his uncle was actually 92. …

To moviegoers, Kidd was best known for the 1954 film “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” … Read full obituary


Actress Pat Kirkwood, 86

Posted: Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 1:03 am

Read full obituary


Oscar-winning film editor Peter Zinner, 88

Posted: Friday, November 16th, 2007 7:28 pm

Peter Zinner, whose decades-long career as a film editor included the first two “Godfather” films and an Oscar for 1978’s “The Deer Hunter,” has died. He was 88. … Read full obituary


“Marty” director Delbert Mann, 87

Posted: Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 1:03 pm

Delbert Mann, who transformed Paddy Chayefsky’s classic teleplays “Marty” and “The Bachelor Party” into big-screen triumphs and helped bring TV techniques to the film world, died Sunday. He was 87. … Read full obituary


“Rosemary’s Baby,” “Stepford Wives” author Ira Levin, 78

Posted: Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 12:56 pm

NEW YORK (AP) — Best-selling writer Ira Levin, whose novels included the horror classic “Rosemary’s Baby,” the Nazi thriller “The Boys From Brazil” and the satirical fantasy “The Stepford Wives,” has died. He was 78. … Read full obituary


Robert Goulet, 73

Posted: Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 5:50 pm

Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in “Camelot” launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73. …

He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. … Read full obituary


Comedian Joey Bishop, 89

Posted: Thursday, October 18th, 2007 12:47 pm

Joey Bishop, the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, has died at 89. He was the group’s last surviving member. Peter Lawford died in 1984, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, Dean Martin in 1995, and Sinatra in 1998. … Read full obituary


Deborah Kerr, 86

Posted: Thursday, October 18th, 2007 11:48 am

Deborah Kerr over Los Angeles, California
Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood’s most famous kisses and made her mark with such roles as the correct widow in “The King and I” and the unhappy officer’s wife in “From Here to Eternity,” has died. She was 86. … Read full obituary


Playwright Stephen J. Spears, 56

Posted: Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 9:12 pm

Australian author and playwright Steve J. Spears [who had an international hit in 1976 with the play The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin, a wickedly funny story about an ageing gay elocution teacher who fell for one of his pupils] died yesterday at an Adelaide nursing home after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 56. … Read full obituary


“WKRP’s” Mama Carlson, 87

Posted: Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 7:11 pm

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Actress Carol Bruce, perhaps best known for her role as Mama Carlson on television’s “WKRP in Cincinnati,” has died. She was 87. … Read full obituary