Robert M. Young, the adventurous director who called the shots for Edward James Olmos in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Farrah Fawcett in Extremities and Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta in Dominick and Eugene, died Feb. 6, his son Andrew announced. He was 99.
After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.
Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.
Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners...
After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.
Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.
Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners...
- 2/13/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Robert M. Young, one of the pioneers of American independent cinema whose work began nearly 70 years ago, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. The news was announced via a Facebook post from his son Andy.
In a career that lasted from 1956 to 2011 he directed documentaries, narrative features, both independent and studio releases, and even episodes of “Battlestar: Gallactica.” Two of his films have recently been added to the Library of Congress Film Registry. “¡Alambrista!” (1977), as timely today as when it was made, about the life of undocumented Mexican immigrant won the Camera d’or for best first film at Cannes. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” (1982), one of Young’s eight films with actor Edward James Olmos, produced by American Playhouse but released theatrically, has also been included. Both films are also part of the Criterion Collection.
Though perhaps not as well known as some pre-Sundance independent American directors like John Cassavetes,...
In a career that lasted from 1956 to 2011 he directed documentaries, narrative features, both independent and studio releases, and even episodes of “Battlestar: Gallactica.” Two of his films have recently been added to the Library of Congress Film Registry. “¡Alambrista!” (1977), as timely today as when it was made, about the life of undocumented Mexican immigrant won the Camera d’or for best first film at Cannes. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” (1982), one of Young’s eight films with actor Edward James Olmos, produced by American Playhouse but released theatrically, has also been included. Both films are also part of the Criterion Collection.
Though perhaps not as well known as some pre-Sundance independent American directors like John Cassavetes,...
- 2/10/2024
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Some screen actors sneak up on you over the course of multiple memorable supporting roles, while others jar your consciousness like a crack of lightning. The latter was my experience with Ray Liotta, in a movie I walked into not even knowing his character would be part of the plot.
The film in question was Jonathan Demme’s 1986 “Something Wild,” which starts as a kooky urban comedy about bad girl (or is she?) Audrey, played by Melanie Griffith, who convinces Jeff Daniels’ upright businessman (or is he?) to go further and further out of his comfort zone. The movie switches from screwball to thriller with the appearance of Liotta as Audrey’s ex Ray, a recently-released convict who will go to any lengths to get her back.
It’s one of those performances that benefit from a new face in the role; without the comfort of familiarity, viewers don’t...
The film in question was Jonathan Demme’s 1986 “Something Wild,” which starts as a kooky urban comedy about bad girl (or is she?) Audrey, played by Melanie Griffith, who convinces Jeff Daniels’ upright businessman (or is he?) to go further and further out of his comfort zone. The movie switches from screwball to thriller with the appearance of Liotta as Audrey’s ex Ray, a recently-released convict who will go to any lengths to get her back.
It’s one of those performances that benefit from a new face in the role; without the comfort of familiarity, viewers don’t...
- 5/26/2022
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
He specialized in tough guys — cops, crooks, convicts, killers, and guys who immediately gave you the impression they’d seen and/or started their share of shit. But Ray Liotta was an actor with soul even when he played a legion of broken men who’d lost theirs, and the star — who passed away today at the age of 67 — had a range that went far beyond mobsters, madmen and maniacs. Name someone else who could easily pull off the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, the gangster-movie version of Candide, a...
- 5/26/2022
- by David Fear, Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Andy Greene, Alan Sepinwall and EJ Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
Ray Liotta, the acclaimed actor known for “Goodfellas,” “Field of Dreams” and many more roles, has died at 67, Variety has confirmed with his publicist. He died in his sleep while he was in the Dominican Republic shooting an upcoming film, “Dangerous Waters.”
Playing the real-life mobster Henry Hill, Liotta shot to stardom in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” which revolutionized the gangster genre and received heaps of critical and commercial success. It’s widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and it received six Academy Award nominations and one win after releasing in 1990.
Read more: Ray Liotta’s Career in Photos
Critic Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times, “More than any earlier Scorsese film, ”Goodfellas” is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances. Mr. De Niro, Mr. Liotta, Mr. Pesci and Mr. Sorvino shine together, though Mr. Pesci’s material is the flashiest. The movie...
Playing the real-life mobster Henry Hill, Liotta shot to stardom in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” which revolutionized the gangster genre and received heaps of critical and commercial success. It’s widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and it received six Academy Award nominations and one win after releasing in 1990.
Read more: Ray Liotta’s Career in Photos
Critic Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times, “More than any earlier Scorsese film, ”Goodfellas” is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances. Mr. De Niro, Mr. Liotta, Mr. Pesci and Mr. Sorvino shine together, though Mr. Pesci’s material is the flashiest. The movie...
- 5/26/2022
- by Jordan Moreau
- Variety Film + TV
Ray Liotta, the intense actor from New Jersey best known for his turn as the hustler turned mob rat Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas, has died. He was 67.
Publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died Wednesday night or early Thursday in his sleep in his hotel room while in the Dominican Republic making the movie Dangerous Waters. His fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, was with him. He had begun work on the film about a week ago.
The boyish, blue-eyed Liotta also was memorable as Ray Sinclair, the violent ex-convict husband of Melanie Griffith’s character, in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986); as the disgraced Chicago White Sox baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Kevin Costner starrer Field of Dreams (1989); and as the corrupt cop Matt Wozniak on the 2016-18 NBC cop drama Shades of Blue, opposite Jennifer Lopez.
“Ray was the epitome of a...
Publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died Wednesday night or early Thursday in his sleep in his hotel room while in the Dominican Republic making the movie Dangerous Waters. His fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, was with him. He had begun work on the film about a week ago.
The boyish, blue-eyed Liotta also was memorable as Ray Sinclair, the violent ex-convict husband of Melanie Griffith’s character, in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986); as the disgraced Chicago White Sox baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Kevin Costner starrer Field of Dreams (1989); and as the corrupt cop Matt Wozniak on the 2016-18 NBC cop drama Shades of Blue, opposite Jennifer Lopez.
“Ray was the epitome of a...
- 5/26/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alvin Sargent, who won Oscars for writing Ordinary People and Julia and was nominated for Paper Moon, has died of natural causes in Seattle. He was 92. Sargent also won WGA Awards for all three of those films and received the guild’s career honor, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in 1991.
Sargent penned more than two dozen feature screenplays from the 1960s into the 2010s, most recently The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). His feature credits also include What About Bob? (1991), Other People’s Money (1991) and Unfaithful (2002).
He began his screenwriting career in television, penning episodes of such 1960s drama series Ben Casey, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Run for Your Life. He also wrote episodes of ABC’s short-lived Paper Moon spinoff series in which Jodie Foster played the role that won Tatum O’Neal a Supporting Actress Oscar.
Born on April 12, 1927, in Philadelphia, Sargent had...
Sargent penned more than two dozen feature screenplays from the 1960s into the 2010s, most recently The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). His feature credits also include What About Bob? (1991), Other People’s Money (1991) and Unfaithful (2002).
He began his screenwriting career in television, penning episodes of such 1960s drama series Ben Casey, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Run for Your Life. He also wrote episodes of ABC’s short-lived Paper Moon spinoff series in which Jodie Foster played the role that won Tatum O’Neal a Supporting Actress Oscar.
Born on April 12, 1927, in Philadelphia, Sargent had...
- 5/11/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Academy Award winner Alvin Sargent, who penned an extraordinary number of popular and critically successful films, from “Paper Moon” and “Ordinary People” to the “Spider-Man” sequels of the 2000s, died Thursday, his talent agency Gersh confirmed to Variety. He was 92.
Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for “Julia” in 1978 and “Ordinary People” in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for “Paper Moon.” (He also received Writers Guild awards for all three films.) The writer worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors over the course of his career, including Alan J. Pakula, John Frankenheimer. Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang, though not always when those helmers were doing their best work.
Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966’s “Gambit,” a Ronald Neame-directed comedy thriller starring Michael Caine,...
Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for “Julia” in 1978 and “Ordinary People” in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for “Paper Moon.” (He also received Writers Guild awards for all three films.) The writer worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors over the course of his career, including Alan J. Pakula, John Frankenheimer. Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang, though not always when those helmers were doing their best work.
Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966’s “Gambit,” a Ronald Neame-directed comedy thriller starring Michael Caine,...
- 5/11/2019
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
I never would have guessed that Ray Liotta hasn't seen "Field of Dreams," in which he plays Shoeless Joe Jackson. It's true that some actors don't enjoy watching their own performances, but "Field of Dreams" is an extreme example because that's a really hard movie to avoid. I also never would have guessed that Frank Sinatra's daughter sent a horse's head autographed by Warren Beatty to Liotta before he portrayed the Chairman of the Board in "The Rat Pack." Then again, these are the kinds of things you learn when you spend a healthy amount of time talking about a film -- in this case, Andrew Dominik's quite excellent "Killing Them Softly" -- with a veteran actor whose role isn't all that terribly large. (Even Brad Pitt, the star of the movie, doesn't show up until 30 minutes in.)
In "Killing Them Softly," Liotta plays Markie, a man who...
In "Killing Them Softly," Liotta plays Markie, a man who...
- 11/27/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Holland native Robby Müller, Nsc, Bvk, will be among the 2012 honorees at the 27th annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards. The cinematographer of indie film classics “Dead Man,” “Breaking the Waves” and “Repo Man” will receive the international achievement award at the Asc’s Feb. 10 ceremony in Los Angeles. Also receiving special honors will be Oscar winner Dean Semler Asc, Acs (“Dances With Wolves,” “Apocalypto,” “In the Land of Blood and Honey”), who will receive the lifetime achievement award; Rodney Charters, Asc, Csc (“24,” “TekWar,” “Nash Bridges”), who will receive the career achievement in television award; and former Asc technology committee chairman Curtis Clark, Asc (“Dominick and Eugene,” “Extremities”), who will receive the President’s Award. Read More: Woody Allen's...
- 11/2/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
Marvin Minoff, who produced the famed Richard Nixon interviews with David Frost, numerous telefilms and the 1998 film "Patch Adams," died Nov. 11 at his Los Angeles home with family and friends at his bedside. He was 78.
Minoff, the husband of actress Bonnie Franklin and the longtime business partner of writer-actor Mike Farrell, left the agency business after 15 years to become president of Frost's David Paradine Television in 1974.
There, he executive produced with the talk-show host and John Birt the interviews with Nixon that were broadcast in syndication in 1977, three years after the disgraced U.S. president resigned. The interviews were the basis of "Frost/Nixon," the Broadway play that was adapted into the 2008 film that was a best picture Oscar nominee. Keith MacKechnie played Minoff in the film.
Paradine also did subsequent interview sessions with Nixon's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Shah of Iran.
A Brooklyn native and the...
Minoff, the husband of actress Bonnie Franklin and the longtime business partner of writer-actor Mike Farrell, left the agency business after 15 years to become president of Frost's David Paradine Television in 1974.
There, he executive produced with the talk-show host and John Birt the interviews with Nixon that were broadcast in syndication in 1977, three years after the disgraced U.S. president resigned. The interviews were the basis of "Frost/Nixon," the Broadway play that was adapted into the 2008 film that was a best picture Oscar nominee. Keith MacKechnie played Minoff in the film.
Paradine also did subsequent interview sessions with Nixon's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Shah of Iran.
A Brooklyn native and the...
- 11/13/2009
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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