Joanne Linville, who was best known for playing a Romulan commander in “Star Trek,” died Sunday in Los Angeles, her agent confirmed to Variety. She was 93.
Born in Bakersfield, Calif. as Beverly Joanne Linville, she was the first female actor to play a Romulan in the “Star Trek” franchise. Linville was a fixture on television from the 1950s to the ’80s, appearing in over 100 film and TV shows, including anthology series such as “Studio One,” “Kraft Theatre” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
While she never held a regular recurring role on TV, Linville guest-starred on numerous shows, including Westerns, dramas and detective series. Linville starred in six episodes of “Studio One” and three episodes of “Gunsmoke.” Throughout her career, which spanned over six decades, she also appeared in “Hawaii Five-o,” “Barnaby Jones,” “Naked City,” “Adventures in Paradise” and “One Step Beyond.”
In 1961, Linville guest starred in an episode of “The Twilight Zone,...
Born in Bakersfield, Calif. as Beverly Joanne Linville, she was the first female actor to play a Romulan in the “Star Trek” franchise. Linville was a fixture on television from the 1950s to the ’80s, appearing in over 100 film and TV shows, including anthology series such as “Studio One,” “Kraft Theatre” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
While she never held a regular recurring role on TV, Linville guest-starred on numerous shows, including Westerns, dramas and detective series. Linville starred in six episodes of “Studio One” and three episodes of “Gunsmoke.” Throughout her career, which spanned over six decades, she also appeared in “Hawaii Five-o,” “Barnaby Jones,” “Naked City,” “Adventures in Paradise” and “One Step Beyond.”
In 1961, Linville guest starred in an episode of “The Twilight Zone,...
- 6/21/2021
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
Actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd, best known for his title role in Hitchcock’s “Saboteur” and as Dr. Daniel Auschlander on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere” and famously associated with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 106.
His friend, producer Dean Hargrove, confirmed his death and said “His third act was really the best time of his life,” referring to the many historical Hollywood retrospectives and events Lloyd had participated in over the past few decades. Lloyd often said his secret to his long and mostly illness-free life was “avoiding disagreeable people,” Hargrove recounted.
Lloyd was hand-picked by Alfred Hitchcock to play the title character and villain in 1942’s “Saboteur,” and it was his character who tumbled to his death from the top of the Statue of Liberty in the pic’s iconic conclusion.
But the hard-working multihyphenate gained his highest profile only...
His friend, producer Dean Hargrove, confirmed his death and said “His third act was really the best time of his life,” referring to the many historical Hollywood retrospectives and events Lloyd had participated in over the past few decades. Lloyd often said his secret to his long and mostly illness-free life was “avoiding disagreeable people,” Hargrove recounted.
Lloyd was hand-picked by Alfred Hitchcock to play the title character and villain in 1942’s “Saboteur,” and it was his character who tumbled to his death from the top of the Statue of Liberty in the pic’s iconic conclusion.
But the hard-working multihyphenate gained his highest profile only...
- 5/11/2021
- by Laura Haefner
- Variety Film + TV
Norman Lloyd, the Emmy-nominated veteran actor, producer and director whose career ranged from Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur and acting with Charlie Chaplin in Limelight to St. Elsewhere, Dead Poets Society and The Practice, died May 10 in his sleep at his Los Angeles home. He was 106. A family friend confirmed the news to Deadline.
During one of the famous Lloyd birthday celebrations, Karl Malden said, “Norman Lloyd is the history of our business.”
Blessed with a commanding voice, Lloyd’s acting career dates back to Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre troupe, of which he was the last surviving member. He was part of its first production — 1937 a modern-dress adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on Broadway titled Caesar.
He originally was cast in Welles’ epic Citizen Kane and accompanied the director to Hollywood. When the filmmaker ran into his proverbial budget problems, Lloyd quit the project and returned to New York,...
During one of the famous Lloyd birthday celebrations, Karl Malden said, “Norman Lloyd is the history of our business.”
Blessed with a commanding voice, Lloyd’s acting career dates back to Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre troupe, of which he was the last surviving member. He was part of its first production — 1937 a modern-dress adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on Broadway titled Caesar.
He originally was cast in Welles’ epic Citizen Kane and accompanied the director to Hollywood. When the filmmaker ran into his proverbial budget problems, Lloyd quit the project and returned to New York,...
- 5/11/2021
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
A group of young, scrappy and brilliant writers penned some of the most accomplished dramas presented live during the Golden Age of TV in the 1950s. Writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, J.P. Miller (“The Days of Wine and Roses”), Reginald Rose (“Twelve Angry Men”), Tad Mosel (“The Haven”), James Costigan (“Little Moon of Alban”) and Horton Foote.
But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.
Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...
But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.
Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...
- 6/4/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Rip Torn, who played Garry Shandling’s profane, fiercely loyal producer on HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show, co-starred in the original Men in Black films and was a major star of Broadway and Off Broadway during a seven-decade career, died today surrounded by family at his home in Lakeville, Ct. He was 88.
The prolific Torn played the unstoppable and unflappable Artie on Larry Sanders, which aired from 1992-98 and followed the behind-the-scenes and onstage antics of a successful late-night network talk show. Along with scoring a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy in 1996, he was nominated for each of the show’s six seasons.
The year Torn won his Emmy, he also had been up for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn on CBS’ Chicago Hope. In 2008, he earned his ninth and final Emmy nom, for his recurring role as Don Geiss on NBC’s 30 Rock.
The prolific Torn played the unstoppable and unflappable Artie on Larry Sanders, which aired from 1992-98 and followed the behind-the-scenes and onstage antics of a successful late-night network talk show. Along with scoring a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy in 1996, he was nominated for each of the show’s six seasons.
The year Torn won his Emmy, he also had been up for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn on CBS’ Chicago Hope. In 2008, he earned his ninth and final Emmy nom, for his recurring role as Don Geiss on NBC’s 30 Rock.
- 7/10/2019
- by Erik Pedersen and Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
"Anybody will put up with anything if they think a movie is being shot." These are words of wisdom, but also kind of a guerrilla filmmaking mission statement, from filmmaker Larry Cohen. Steve Mitchell's King Cohen offers a breathless sprint through the writer-director-producer's prolific 'lets just shoot the damn movie!' ethos, from writing for NBC's Kraft Theatre in the era of live television in the late 1950s through episodic shows like The Fugitive and Branded -- "The bulk of the series, Dude" -- in the 1960s to directing racy social commentary (Bone, Black Caesar, God Told Me To, The Private Lives of J. Edgar Hoover) in the 1970s and gonzo genre-mashing creature features in the 1980s (Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff), before finally settling with writing mid-tier Hollywood...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/24/2017
- Screen Anarchy
©Todd Rosenberg Photography 2009
The American Film Institute (AFI) Board of Trustees announced today that esteemed composer John Williams will be the recipient of the 44th AFI Life Achievement Award, America’s highest honor for a career in film. For the first time in AFI history, the award will be bestowed upon a composer. Williams will be honored at a gala Tribute on June 9, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA.
The AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute special will return for its fourth year with Turner Broadcasting to air on TNT in late June 2016, followed by an encore presentation on its sister network, Turner Classic Movies (TCM).
Most recently, the 43rd AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute brought together the film community to honor Steve Martin.
“John Williams has written the soundtrack to our lives,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair, AFI Board of Trustees. “Note by note, through chord and chorus, his genius for marrying...
The American Film Institute (AFI) Board of Trustees announced today that esteemed composer John Williams will be the recipient of the 44th AFI Life Achievement Award, America’s highest honor for a career in film. For the first time in AFI history, the award will be bestowed upon a composer. Williams will be honored at a gala Tribute on June 9, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA.
The AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute special will return for its fourth year with Turner Broadcasting to air on TNT in late June 2016, followed by an encore presentation on its sister network, Turner Classic Movies (TCM).
Most recently, the 43rd AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute brought together the film community to honor Steve Martin.
“John Williams has written the soundtrack to our lives,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair, AFI Board of Trustees. “Note by note, through chord and chorus, his genius for marrying...
- 10/8/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Its a nasty blow to not only the horror community but the world. The woman revolutionized the obsessive mother But long before that she thrilled viewers with appearances in such hit shows as Kraft Theatre Studio One in Hollywood and Appointment with Adventure. She also showed her acting chops in flicks like The Last Angry Man It Happened to Jane and The Tin Star.
- 6/5/2015
- Best-Horror-Movies.com
Friday the 13th star Betsy Palmer has died at the age of 88.
The actress was best known for her performance as killer cook Mrs Voorhees in the 1980 horror film and its 1981 sequel.
Her manager Brad Lemack informed The AP on Sunday (May 31) that she died of natural causes at a hospice in Connecticut.
In addition to her most famous role, Palmer appeared in TV dramas like Kraft Theatre, Studio One and Murder, She Wrote. She also appeared in The Long Gray Lane, Queen Bee and The Tin Star on the big screen.
Palmer was also known for her Broadway performances, and appeared in several plays during her long career, including Same Time, Next Year and Cactus Flower.
Looking back on Friday the 13th in the years that followed, Palmer was not afraid to share her true feelings about the film, describing the script as a "piece of junk".
The actress...
The actress was best known for her performance as killer cook Mrs Voorhees in the 1980 horror film and its 1981 sequel.
Her manager Brad Lemack informed The AP on Sunday (May 31) that she died of natural causes at a hospice in Connecticut.
In addition to her most famous role, Palmer appeared in TV dramas like Kraft Theatre, Studio One and Murder, She Wrote. She also appeared in The Long Gray Lane, Queen Bee and The Tin Star on the big screen.
Palmer was also known for her Broadway performances, and appeared in several plays during her long career, including Same Time, Next Year and Cactus Flower.
Looking back on Friday the 13th in the years that followed, Palmer was not afraid to share her true feelings about the film, describing the script as a "piece of junk".
The actress...
- 6/1/2015
- Digital Spy
“You see, Jason was my son, and today is his birthday…”
The woman had a long and distinguished career including hundreds of TV appearances in the 1950s and ’60s, but she will always best known as Jason’s mom in the original Friday The 13th (1980). Betsy Palmer was a regular on the horror convention circuit and a good attitude about her place in horror film history. She said in an interview once: “If it was good enough for Boris Karloff, why should I complain?” Betsy Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospital in Los Angeles.
From The Associated Press:
Betsy Palmer, the veteran character actress who achieved lasting, though not necessarily sought-after, fame as the murderous camp cook in the cheesy horror film “Friday the 13th,” has died at age 88.
Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospice care center in Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack,...
The woman had a long and distinguished career including hundreds of TV appearances in the 1950s and ’60s, but she will always best known as Jason’s mom in the original Friday The 13th (1980). Betsy Palmer was a regular on the horror convention circuit and a good attitude about her place in horror film history. She said in an interview once: “If it was good enough for Boris Karloff, why should I complain?” Betsy Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospital in Los Angeles.
From The Associated Press:
Betsy Palmer, the veteran character actress who achieved lasting, though not necessarily sought-after, fame as the murderous camp cook in the cheesy horror film “Friday the 13th,” has died at age 88.
Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospice care center in Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack,...
- 6/1/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A few weeks ago HBO and then CBS announced that they would launch stand-alone online services in U.S. in 2015. Before that, Netflix had made known that it would start producing features, crushing theatrical release windows once and for all, after it had contributed to the change of the patterns of attention and the way TV series are made by releasing its House of Cards episodes all at once, as a 13-hour movie. ‘Now the real shakeout begins’, wrote Ted Hope in Hollywood Reporter. ‘We are witnessing the march from once lucrative legacy practices built around titles to a new focus on community.’ Michael Wolff, writing also in the Hollywood Reporter, disagrees: ‘Streaming services from the two networks don’t signal television’s capitulation to Netflix and the web; it’s actually the opposite, as the medium expands yet again to gobble up more revenue.’ And in that sense, he says,...
- 11/5/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
Veteran casting director Marion Dougherty will posthumously receive the 2014 Governors Award from the Television Academy at the Aug. 24 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the Academy announced on Thursday. Dougherty's pioneering work in the casting industry made her the subject of the 2012 Emmy-nominated documentary “Casting By,” which premiered on HBO. She began serving as a casting director in 1949 with the NBC series “Kraft Television Theatre” and worked on shows that included “Naked City,” “Route 66” and “All in the Family.” Dougherty, who was among the early champions for such actors as Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty and Jack Lemmon, died...
- 7/31/2014
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
One of the best anecdotes in the documentary Casting By, which premieres tonight on HBO, relates the start of Warren Beatty’s screen career on a 1957 episode of Kraft Television Theatre. We’re told that like many young actors of the time he modeled himself way too much on Marlon Brando. Then we actually see a clip, and sure enough the future movie star looks and sounds like he’s doing a comical impersonation. Fortunately, within the next five years he would find his own comfortable style and manage to break out in Hollywood in order to become one of his generation’s finest. And apparently we have casting director Marion Dougherty to thank for giving him his first shot. There are a lot of first- and second-hand stories in the film about a lot of actors and actresses’ beginnings. And a lot of rare clips to prove just how terrible or terrific they really were. There...
- 8/5/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Actor who won fame as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and crimesolving medical examiner Quincy
Television was the medium that conferred stardom on the actor Jack Klugman, who has died aged 90. In a long, distinguished career that also embraced theatre and film, he was principally identified with two television characters: Oscar Madison, the slovenly, down-to-earth, cigar-smoking flatmate of the neurotically neat Felix Unger (Tony Randall) in the long-running comedy series The Odd Couple (1970-75; in the play and film, Felix's surname was spelt Ungar), and Quincy in Quincy, Me (1976-83), a crime-solving medical examiner.
Born in a poor neighbourhood of Philadelphia, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Klugman had a tough childhood. His father, a house painter, died young, forcing his mother to make hats in her kitchen to buy food and clothing for her six children. Young Jack, who worked as a street peddler, later observed: "Poverty can teach lessons that privilege cannot.
Television was the medium that conferred stardom on the actor Jack Klugman, who has died aged 90. In a long, distinguished career that also embraced theatre and film, he was principally identified with two television characters: Oscar Madison, the slovenly, down-to-earth, cigar-smoking flatmate of the neurotically neat Felix Unger (Tony Randall) in the long-running comedy series The Odd Couple (1970-75; in the play and film, Felix's surname was spelt Ungar), and Quincy in Quincy, Me (1976-83), a crime-solving medical examiner.
Born in a poor neighbourhood of Philadelphia, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Klugman had a tough childhood. His father, a house painter, died young, forcing his mother to make hats in her kitchen to buy food and clothing for her six children. Young Jack, who worked as a street peddler, later observed: "Poverty can teach lessons that privilege cannot.
- 12/26/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Television producer and executive Henry Colman — whose credits include The Love Boat, Hawaii Five-o, and Green Acres — has died at age 89. An announcement Sunday by the Archive of American Television says Colman died Wednesday.
Colman’s career dates to early commercial television, where he started as production coordinator on the musical show Easy Does It. In 1951, Colman became assistant to the director for Kraft Television Theatre and later worked on such series as Robert Montgomery Presents and Colgate Comedy Hour.
As a TV executive, Colman oversaw the pilot of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and worked on Green Acres and Hawaii Five-o.
Colman’s career dates to early commercial television, where he started as production coordinator on the musical show Easy Does It. In 1951, Colman became assistant to the director for Kraft Television Theatre and later worked on such series as Robert Montgomery Presents and Colgate Comedy Hour.
As a TV executive, Colman oversaw the pilot of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and worked on Green Acres and Hawaii Five-o.
- 11/12/2012
- by Associated Press
- EW - Inside TV
Producer Henry Colman, whose resume included the hit TV comedies "The Love Boat" and "Green Acres," has died at the age of 89. Colman passed away from natural causes at his Los Angeles home on Nov. 7. Colman began his career in television just as the medium was coming into its own. After starting as a production coordinator on the local musical show "Easy Does It," he became an assistant to the director on "Kraft Television Theatre" in 1951. He also worked on "Robert Montgomery Presents" and the "Colgate Comedy Hour." Also read:...
- 11/11/2012
- by Todd Cunningham
- The Wrap
Retro-active: The Best Articles From Cinema Retro's Archives
Bradford Dillman: A Compulsively Watchable Actor
By Harvey Chartrand
In a career that has spanned 43 years, Bradford Dillman accumulated more than 500 film and TV credits. The slim, handsome and patrician Dillman may have been the busiest actor in Hollywood during the late sixties and early seventies, working non-stop for years. In 1971 alone, Dillman starred in seven full-length feature films. And this protean output doesn’t include guest appearances on six TV shows that same year.
Yale-educated Dillman first drew good notices in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage and in live TV shows, such as Climax and Kraft Television Theatre. After making theatrical history playing Edmund Tyrone in the first-ever production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1956, Dillman landed the role of blueblood psychopath Artie Straus in the crime-and-punishment thriller Compulsion (1959), for which he...
Bradford Dillman: A Compulsively Watchable Actor
By Harvey Chartrand
In a career that has spanned 43 years, Bradford Dillman accumulated more than 500 film and TV credits. The slim, handsome and patrician Dillman may have been the busiest actor in Hollywood during the late sixties and early seventies, working non-stop for years. In 1971 alone, Dillman starred in seven full-length feature films. And this protean output doesn’t include guest appearances on six TV shows that same year.
Yale-educated Dillman first drew good notices in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage and in live TV shows, such as Climax and Kraft Television Theatre. After making theatrical history playing Edmund Tyrone in the first-ever production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1956, Dillman landed the role of blueblood psychopath Artie Straus in the crime-and-punishment thriller Compulsion (1959), for which he...
- 3/31/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Ben Gazzara died on February 3 of pancreatic cancer. An alumnus of the famed Actors’ Studio, he had a long career on stage, TV, and film. Not just long, but accomplished.
On Broadway, he was the original Brick in the Tennessee Williams’ classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and then he eclipsed that triumph with another powerful stage performance as a junkie whose habit poisons his relationship with everyone who loves him in A Hat Full of Rain.
His TV career launched in the early 1950s and extended through the next five decades. His small screen credits included roles on the landmark live drama anthologies of the 50s, such as The United States Steel Hour, Kraft Theatre, and Playhouse 90, and such acclaimed productions as cop drama A Question of Honor (1982), one of network TV’s first attempts to address the then detonating AIDS epidemic in An Early Frost (1985), and the epic mini-series,...
On Broadway, he was the original Brick in the Tennessee Williams’ classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and then he eclipsed that triumph with another powerful stage performance as a junkie whose habit poisons his relationship with everyone who loves him in A Hat Full of Rain.
His TV career launched in the early 1950s and extended through the next five decades. His small screen credits included roles on the landmark live drama anthologies of the 50s, such as The United States Steel Hour, Kraft Theatre, and Playhouse 90, and such acclaimed productions as cop drama A Question of Honor (1982), one of network TV’s first attempts to address the then detonating AIDS epidemic in An Early Frost (1985), and the epic mini-series,...
- 2/5/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
The casting director who helped launch the careers of Warren Beatty, James Dean, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman has passed away.
Marion Dougherty died in New York from natural causes on Sunday. She was 88.
The legendary casting director helped Hollywood abandon its system of stock casting by choosing more individual performers for certain parts.
She started out as an uncredited casting agent for Kraft Television Theatre, and helped start the careers of Dean and Hoffman on TV dramas.
Dougherty moved to Hollywood in the 1970s and later took on a role at Warner Bros. She stayed with the company for three decades and discovered the likes of Glenn Close, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Matthew McConaughey and Brooke Shields.
Among the legendary films she cast were Escape From Alcatraz, The Killing Fields, Gorillas in the Mist, Batman and the Lethal Weapon series.
Marion Dougherty died in New York from natural causes on Sunday. She was 88.
The legendary casting director helped Hollywood abandon its system of stock casting by choosing more individual performers for certain parts.
She started out as an uncredited casting agent for Kraft Television Theatre, and helped start the careers of Dean and Hoffman on TV dramas.
Dougherty moved to Hollywood in the 1970s and later took on a role at Warner Bros. She stayed with the company for three decades and discovered the likes of Glenn Close, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Matthew McConaughey and Brooke Shields.
Among the legendary films she cast were Escape From Alcatraz, The Killing Fields, Gorillas in the Mist, Batman and the Lethal Weapon series.
- 12/6/2011
- WENN
A big wave of stars continue to land on CBS’ Hawaii Five-0. The show has just signed Oscar-winning TV legend Patty Duke to guest star in a season 2 episode.
Duke will play an Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother of a murder victim. When the Five-0 team go to deliver the notification, they learn her condition has her believing that her adult son is actually still a child. For a while, the team shields her from the news, but ultimately she must confront her devastating loss.
According to IMDb, Duke’s first TV series appearance was back in 1957 (Kraft Theatre) which later lead...
Duke will play an Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother of a murder victim. When the Five-0 team go to deliver the notification, they learn her condition has her believing that her adult son is actually still a child. For a while, the team shields her from the news, but ultimately she must confront her devastating loss.
According to IMDb, Duke’s first TV series appearance was back in 1957 (Kraft Theatre) which later lead...
- 8/5/2011
- by James Hibberd
- EW - Inside TV
One of the true giants passed away this week: filmmaker Sidney Lumet, dead at 86 of lymphoma.
He was one of an incredibly talented class of directors who graduated from the early days of TV; a group which included such august talents as Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967), George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969), John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, 1962), Arthur Hiller (The Hospital, 1971), Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton, 1970), Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, 1967), Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962), Martin Ritt (Hud, 1963), and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, 1969). Only Jewison is left, now, and as each has passed, mainstream American moviemaking has gotten a little louder, a little emptier, and a little dumber.
TV drama in the early days was almost like good theater: it was usually live, smart, provocative, rich with real-world character and sharp dialogue. Very early on, Lumet was considered one of the...
He was one of an incredibly talented class of directors who graduated from the early days of TV; a group which included such august talents as Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967), George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969), John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, 1962), Arthur Hiller (The Hospital, 1971), Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton, 1970), Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, 1967), Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962), Martin Ritt (Hud, 1963), and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, 1969). Only Jewison is left, now, and as each has passed, mainstream American moviemaking has gotten a little louder, a little emptier, and a little dumber.
TV drama in the early days was almost like good theater: it was usually live, smart, provocative, rich with real-world character and sharp dialogue. Very early on, Lumet was considered one of the...
- 4/11/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
John Forsythe was a leading actor on stage, screen and television from the late 1940s, but was never seen in one of his best known roles. He lent his distinctive voice to the role of Charles Townsend, who sent an array of lovely agents on various cases by speaker phone in the Charlie’s Angels television series from 1976 to 1981. The Angels originally included Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith, and were later joined by Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, and Tanya Roberts. He reprised his role for feature film adaptations twenty years later, Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as a new generation of beautiful detectives. Forsythe became a silver-haired sex symbol in his sixties, when he starred as ruthless oil tycoon Blake Carrington in the ABC prime-time soap opera Dynasty from 1981 to 1989. He frequently found himself at the...
- 4/7/2010
- by Jesse
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Character actor Joseph Wiseman brought to life the first screen villain for British secret agent James Bond when he played Dr. No in the 1962 film of the same name.
Wiseman played the cool and calculating menace in the first of the long-running series of James Bond films, which initially starred Sean Connery as the British secret agent.
Wiseman was born in Montreal, Canada, on May 15, 1918, and moved to the United States with his family as a child. He began his career on stage and made his Broadway debut in the late 1930s.
Wiseman appeared frequently on television throughout his career, with roles in the 1950s anthology series Suspense, Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, and Inner Sanctum. He was featured as Death in a 1954 production of Death Takes a Holiday for Kraft Theatre, and was the Sorceror in a 1958 Shirley Temple Storybook adaptation of The Wild Swans. He starred in the...
Wiseman played the cool and calculating menace in the first of the long-running series of James Bond films, which initially starred Sean Connery as the British secret agent.
Wiseman was born in Montreal, Canada, on May 15, 1918, and moved to the United States with his family as a child. He began his career on stage and made his Broadway debut in the late 1930s.
Wiseman appeared frequently on television throughout his career, with roles in the 1950s anthology series Suspense, Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, and Inner Sanctum. He was featured as Death in a 1954 production of Death Takes a Holiday for Kraft Theatre, and was the Sorceror in a 1958 Shirley Temple Storybook adaptation of The Wild Swans. He starred in the...
- 11/7/2009
- by Harris Lentz
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
The patriarch of Hollywood's Berg family, Dick Berg, has died after a fall at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.
A TV and movie writer and producer, Berg died on Tuesday.
Born in New York in 1922, he arrived in Hollywood in the early 1940s and became a dialogue coach for movie cowboy Roy Rogers.
But writing was his first love and many of his early scripts were turned into dramas for the Kraft Television Theatre and Robert Montgomery Presents series in the U.S.
By the late 1950s, Berg was an in-demand writer in Tinseltown and enjoyed careers at leading studios MGM, 20th Century Fox and Universal, where he created detective drama Johnny Staccato starring John Cassavetes.
He moved into TV production in the 1960s at Universal and was the man behind shows like Checkmate and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, which offered aspiring writers the chance to get their original teleplays aired.
By the end of the 1960s, Berg was producing films like House of Cards and Counterpoint and TV movies and mini-series such as Wallenberg,The Martian Chronicles and Elmore Leonard's Pronto.
A former president of the Hollywood Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Berg was presented with the American Film Institute's Charles Fries Producer of the Year Award in 2000.
Berg also succeeded as a father - his sons are A. Scott Berg, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Jeff, who is chairman of International Creative Management (Icm) talent agency; Tony, a record producer and executive; and Rick, a manager and producer.
A TV and movie writer and producer, Berg died on Tuesday.
Born in New York in 1922, he arrived in Hollywood in the early 1940s and became a dialogue coach for movie cowboy Roy Rogers.
But writing was his first love and many of his early scripts were turned into dramas for the Kraft Television Theatre and Robert Montgomery Presents series in the U.S.
By the late 1950s, Berg was an in-demand writer in Tinseltown and enjoyed careers at leading studios MGM, 20th Century Fox and Universal, where he created detective drama Johnny Staccato starring John Cassavetes.
He moved into TV production in the 1960s at Universal and was the man behind shows like Checkmate and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, which offered aspiring writers the chance to get their original teleplays aired.
By the end of the 1960s, Berg was producing films like House of Cards and Counterpoint and TV movies and mini-series such as Wallenberg,The Martian Chronicles and Elmore Leonard's Pronto.
A former president of the Hollywood Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Berg was presented with the American Film Institute's Charles Fries Producer of the Year Award in 2000.
Berg also succeeded as a father - his sons are A. Scott Berg, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Jeff, who is chairman of International Creative Management (Icm) talent agency; Tony, a record producer and executive; and Rick, a manager and producer.
- 9/3/2009
- WENN
Femputer: 'Have you any idea how it feels to be a fembot living in a manbot's manputer's world?'
Actress and comedienne Bea Arthur passed away yesterday, April 25th, at the age of 86. Though best known for her work in the TV comedies Maude and The Golden Girls, Arthur was the voice of the 'Femputer' (female computer) on the all-women Amazon planet in the 2001 Futurama episode Amazon Women in the Mood. She also had memorable roles in Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I (1981), as 'Ackmena' in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), and on several episodes of the 1950's Kraft Mystery Theatre genre series...
read more...
Actress and comedienne Bea Arthur passed away yesterday, April 25th, at the age of 86. Though best known for her work in the TV comedies Maude and The Golden Girls, Arthur was the voice of the 'Femputer' (female computer) on the all-women Amazon planet in the 2001 Futurama episode Amazon Women in the Mood. She also had memorable roles in Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I (1981), as 'Ackmena' in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), and on several episodes of the 1950's Kraft Mystery Theatre genre series...
read more...
- 4/26/2009
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
James Whitmore, who played such American icons as Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday of lung cancer at his home in Malibu. He was 87.
Whitmore was twice nominated for Academy Awards -- as best actor in 1976 for "Give 'em Hell, Harry!," in which he played Truman, and as best supporting actor in 1950 for the war movie "Battleground."
He also won an Emmy Award in 2000 for a guest-starring role on "The Practice," as well as a Tony Award for "Command Decision."
Whitmore was diagnosed with cancer a week before Thanksgiving. "My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," his son Steve Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, told the Associated Press. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family.
Whitmore was twice nominated for Academy Awards -- as best actor in 1976 for "Give 'em Hell, Harry!," in which he played Truman, and as best supporting actor in 1950 for the war movie "Battleground."
He also won an Emmy Award in 2000 for a guest-starring role on "The Practice," as well as a Tony Award for "Command Decision."
Whitmore was diagnosed with cancer a week before Thanksgiving. "My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," his son Steve Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, told the Associated Press. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family.
- 2/6/2009
- by By Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.