TCM Remembers 2017
Those film luminaries -- and one very special television host -- who were included in TCM Remembers 2017.
The song in this year's video is "Lead Me Into the Night" by The Cardigans.
The video was revised once to correct an error; a clip of Allen Mitchell had been mistakenly used for Robert Hardy.
Notable omissions:
Luis Bacalov | Composer
Mike Connors | Actor
Karin Dor | Actress
Nelsan Ellis | Actor
Angelo Graham | Art Director / Production Designer
Jerry Greenberg (see TCM Remembers 2018 notable omissions)
Brad Grey | Producer
Hugh Hefner | Producer
Walter Lassally | Cinematographer
Tomas Milian | Actor
John Mollo | Costume Designer
Gil Parrondo | Set Decorator / Art Director / Production Designer (died too late for TCM Remembers 2016, so should have been included here)
Richard Portman | Sound Mixer
Actresses Peggy Cummins, Heather Menzies-Urich and Rose Marie died too late in December 2017 to be included this year and are instead featured in TCM Remembers 2018.
The song in this year's video is "Lead Me Into the Night" by The Cardigans.
The video was revised once to correct an error; a clip of Allen Mitchell had been mistakenly used for Robert Hardy.
Notable omissions:
Luis Bacalov | Composer
Mike Connors | Actor
Karin Dor | Actress
Nelsan Ellis | Actor
Angelo Graham | Art Director / Production Designer
Jerry Greenberg (see TCM Remembers 2018 notable omissions)
Brad Grey | Producer
Hugh Hefner | Producer
Walter Lassally | Cinematographer
Tomas Milian | Actor
John Mollo | Costume Designer
Gil Parrondo | Set Decorator / Art Director / Production Designer (died too late for TCM Remembers 2016, so should have been included here)
Richard Portman | Sound Mixer
Actresses Peggy Cummins, Heather Menzies-Urich and Rose Marie died too late in December 2017 to be included this year and are instead featured in TCM Remembers 2018.
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- For fourteen years, she said that family was the most important thing to her and she set most of her time aside to be a "present" mother to her son. Movies, plays and television were chosen, for the most part, when they occurred in town or on a school break. She took one year to homeschool her son for his seventh grade. But it wasn't always this way. She was raised in New York City and wanted to be an actress from the time she was a child, graduating with acting honors from the High School of Performing Arts. She chose to opt out of studying acting in college and attended a small college in Europe, majoring in art history and literature, knowing that acting would take up a great deal of her life and that her college years would be her only real time to learn about something else. Upon graduation, she returned to New York City but a chance trip to Chicago inspired her to move there and become a part of its budding theatre community. It was in a production of "Curse of The Starving Class", directed by Robert Falls and co-starring John Malkovich, that she was first seen by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and, subsequently, asked to join their troupe. She did and learned what it really was to be an actress on her feet, performing in all kinds of roles in both comedy and drama. During this time, she won four Joseph Jefferson awards for best supporting actress.
With a return move to New York, she received a Theatre World Award for "best newcomer" for her role in "the Philanthropist" at the Manhattan Theatre Club and appeared in "Extremities" with Susan Sarandon. This was followed by her appearance in the very successful Steppenwolf production in New York of "Balm in Gilead". She then starred on Broadway opposite Kevin Kline and Raul Julia in "Arms & the Man", directed by John Malkovich, her husband at the time. She was cast in several smaller films including Nadine (1987), Making Mr. Right (1987) and Paperhouse (1988) as well as Lonesome Dove (1989) for television for which she received her first of two Emmy nominations for best supporting actress. But her breakout film performance was in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), in which she played the cunning "victim", who gets the best of con artists Michael Caine and Steve Martin. This led to her being cast in the blockbuster comic strip parody, Dick Tracy (1990), in which she portrayed the girlfriend, "Tess Trueheart", to Warren Beatty's lead.
She went on to appear in the films Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) opposite Richard Dreyfuss, Mortal Thoughts (1991) opposite Demi Moore, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Around the Bend (2004) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
On television, she had a recurring part on ER (1994) and Monk (2002) and was in the short-lived sit-com Encore! Encore! (1998) with Nathan Lane and Joan Plowright. She was in the live theatrical presentation of "On Golden Pond" as the troubled daughter of Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews and also appeared in the telefilms Women vs. Men (2002), My Own Country (1998) and Pronto (1997), among others. She received her second Emmy nomination for best supporting actress for Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), directed by Anjelica Huston.
Some of her later appearances were in the films The Amateurs (2005) (aka "The Amateurs"), The Namesake (2006), Comeback Season (2006), Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) and The Joneses (2009).Actress - Actress
- Writer
- Director
Anne Wiazemsky was born on 14 May 1947 in Berlin, West Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for Au hasard Balthazar (1966), The Chinese (1967) and George qui? (1973). She was married to Jean-Luc Godard. She died on 5 October 2017 in Paris, France.Actress- Actor
- Additional Crew
Gastone Moschin was born on 8 June 1929 in San Giovanni Lupatoto, Veneto, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conformist (1970) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Marzia Ubaldi. He died on 4 September 2017 in Terni, Umbria, Italy.Actor- Actress
- Soundtrack
Most baby-boomers remember actress Elena Verdugo from her pleasant, plain but rather dowdy Emmy-nominated role as "Consuelo Lopez", the altruistic assistant and sometime aide-de-camp to Robert Young's general practitioner for several seasons on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) dramatic series. However, decades before donning her drab white nurse's hat, she was an alluring 40s Universal player who displayed her best assets in their "B" adventure yarns and horror opuses. One who was probably wise to keep a set of hoop earrings nearby at all times, Elena reliably hauled out a reliable number of gypsies, harem dancers, peasant girls, Indian maidens and senoritas over the years before TV instigated the second stretch of her career.
Elena was born April 20, 1925, in Paso Robles, California, and began putting on dance shoes as a kindergartener. At age 6, she made her movie debut in the western Cavalier of the West (1931) starring Harry Carey, but didn't come back to films until her teen years. She nominally provided exotic footwork for such movies as Down Argentine Way (1940) with Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, the Tyrone Power starrer Blood and Sand (1941), and the war picture To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), among others. She received her first big break featured as the object of desire of George Sanders's impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in The Moon and Sixpence (1942).
Universal used her consistently in the mid- to late-40s, starting her off as the touching and vulnerable gypsy girl "Ilonka" in the multiple monster bash House of Frankenstein (1944) which featured the holy horror trinity of Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster. A natural blonde who got plenty of wear out of the dark wigs handed to her for these kinds of roles, her best scenes in the movie were with the doomed lycanthropic "Larry Talbot", played by Lon Chaney Jr.. She went on to appear with Chaney again in The Frozen Ghost (1945). While filming the Abbott and Costello comedy Little Giant (1946), she met and married movie writer Charles R. Marion, who also wrote for the comedy duo's radio show. The couple had one son, Richard Marion, who later became an actor/director in his own right. A real trooper despite her stereotype, Elena forged on in nothing-special "easterns" (i.e., Song of Scheherazade (1947); Thief of Damascus (1952)) and westerns (i.e., El Dorado Pass (1948); The Big Sombrero (1949)) playing whatever ethnic the script called for.
Television became a reality in the early 1950s. She found herself in a major sitcom hit playing a Brooklyn-born secretary for four seasons on Meet Millie (1952), initially replacing Audrey Totter in the lead role on radio. Elena retired for a time after this but eventually returned to perform on the occasional musical stage and on the small screen. After her big success as the nurse/receptionist on the "Welby" series, she slowed down considerably, but she and Young did reunite on The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D. (1984), sans the other series' star, James Brolin, a decade later.
Verdugo, who later married psychiatrist Charles Rosey Rosewall after her divorce from writer Marion, has since appeared occasionally at nostalgia-based film/TV conventions. In 1999, she suffered the loss of her only child, actor/director Richard Marion, to a heart attack. He was only 50. She survived her second husband, who died in 2012, by five years, dying at age 92 on May 30, 2017, in Los Angeles.Actress- Actress
- Producer
It would have been pretty difficult for willowy actress/model Dina Merrill to have pulled off playing a commoner on stage, film or TV in her day. She reeked of elegance and class. The epitome of style, poise and glamour, the New York-born socialite and celebrity was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton on December 29, 1923, the daughter of E.F. Hutton, the financier and founder of the Wall Street firm that bore his name, and heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, of the Post cereal fortune. Although Dina made elegant, elaborate use of her upbringing over the decades, she handled it all positively and graciously without tabloid incidents, instilling these same refined credentials into a large portion of her characters.
Dina did not originally intend on an acting career. After studying at George Washington University, she suddenly dropped out after only a year (to the chagrin of her disapproving parents) after demonstrating a late desire to perform. Enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studying with Uta Hagen among others, Dina appeared in the comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner" before taking her first Broadway curtain call in "The Mermaids Singing" in 1945. She took some time off to play wife and mother to three children after marrying Stanley Rumbough, Jr., heir to the Colgate toothpaste fortune.
Dina finally made an official film debut with a smart and stylish support role in the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn vehicle Desk Set (1957). She continued to charm in the same upper crust vein playing some version of the model wife or blue-blooded maven in frequent posh outings. Some of her more noticeable roles came with Operation Petticoat (1959) with the equally classy Cary Grant; BUtterfield 8 (1960) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey; and The Young Savages (1961) opposite Burt Lancaster.
Following her divorce to Rumbough after 20 years, Dina married ruggedly handsome actor Cliff Robertson in 1966. The pair had one daughter and were a popular Hollywood fixture for nearly 20 years. With her film career on the wane in the mid 1960's, Dina gravitated toward TV guest spots on such popular shows as "Dr. Kildare," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Burke's Law," "Rawhide," "Daktari," "Bonanza," "Daniel Boone," "Batman" (as the villainous "Calamity Jan" alongside Robertson's western bad guy "Shame"), "The Name of the Game," "The Virginian," "Night Gallery," "Marcus Welby," "The Love Boat" and "The Odd Couple." She also graced a number of TV-movie dramas beginning with The Sunshine Patriot (1968) co-starring husband Robertson and Seven in Darkness (1969) (as a blind survivor of a plane crash), and continuing with The Lonely Profession (1969), Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971), Family Flight (1972), The Letters (1973), The Tenth Month (1979), and a featured part in the mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations (1979).
Dina returned to Broadway as the co-star of the drama "Angel Street" (1975) and again with the revival of the musical "On Your Toes" in which she played "Peggy Porterfield" in both the 1983 Broadway revival and 1986 national tour. In the same year that Dina divorced second husband Cliff Robertson (1989), she married actor/investment banker Ted Hartley. Together the couple bought RKO Studios and renamed it RKO Pavilion. He serves as chairman and she vice chairperson/creative director. The studio produced such popular efforts as Milk & Money (1996) and the remake of Mighty Joe Young (1998).
Admired for her tireless philanthropic contributions, Dina was a moderate Republican (vice chair of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition), and an active lobbyist for women's health issues. She also devoted much time working for the disadvantaged, particularly for the New York City Mission Society. She remained active and was an avid tennis and golf player for quite some time. Broaching age 90, the ever-glamorous actress appeared in a summer stock production of "Only a Kingdom" (2004) and continued to appear in occasional movie and television productions until developing dementia. Dina died on May 22, 2017, at age 93, survived by her third husband.Actress- Actor
- Writer
Most impressionable and indelibly remembered as the sensitive, cherubic-faced college student/boyfriend of Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), actor Wendell Burton was born in Texas on July 21, 1947. When he was only five, his father, an Air Force technical sergeant, was killed in a plane crash in Washington state, where the family had relocated. As a result his family returned to Texas in order to be near relatives. While in high school the family moved once again, this time to the San Francisco area. Following graduation, he majored in political science at Somona State College and, after taking some public-speaking classes, joined in a few campus stage productions.
By chance, and at the insistence of a friend, he auditioned for and won the title role in the San Francisco production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." Fully engaged by this early theater success, he continued his education during the run of the show and transferred to San Francisco State where he took classes in acting and directing.
Wendell was "discovered" during the show's run by "Sterile Cuckoo" director Alan J. Pakula and chosen over hundreds of more experienced film actors to play the coveted role of Jerry Payne opposite Minnelli's Pookie Adams in the bittersweet campus romance that became an unqualified hit. Exquisitely paired, he and Minnelli are still identified with the movie's touching Oscar-nominated song "Come Saturday Morning."
In order to avoid a fresh-off-the-bus typecasting, Wendell took on the role of "Smitty" in the controversial screen adaptation of Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971) in which he played a naive young inmate who is raped shortly after entering prison, and, by film's end, has degenerated into a sexual predator himself. He counterbalanced this with a Hallmark TV adaptation of his "Charlie Brown" musical. The small screen proved a viable medium for the young rising actor in the early 70s with above-average roles in the well-received mini-movies Murder Once Removed (1971), Go Ask Alice (1973) and The Red Badge of Courage (1974). He also played Dick Van Dyke and Hope Lange's son for one episode on the comedy star's "new" TV series in the 70s.
A soul-searcher by nature, Wendell questioned the direction of his life and, after much travel and study, fully immersed himself in the Christian religion in 1978. That same year he married and became the father of a daughter, Haven, who is now an actress in New York, and son, Adam, a San Francisco-based musician. Reminiscent of the perennially boyish and now balding Ron Howard in both mild-mannered looks and open, easy-going temperament, his career began to subside after a time due to the lack of quality acting opportunities offered, the importance of turning down roles he deemed morally objectionable, and ever-growing family responsibilities over the uncertainties of gainful TV/movie employment
Wendell eventually taught acting for a time in Hollywood. In 1988, he decided to pursue the business side of television and found work in ad sales, eventually becoming the West Coast Director of Sales for the Family Channel. In 1997 he and his family moved back to his home state of Texas in order to help launch a local independent TV station in Houston. The family eventually settled there.
Wendell served and found spiritual fulfillment as Director of Creative Ministries for a Houston megachurch organization in association with Joel Osteen and the Lakewood Church. He particularly enjoyed overseeing drama, dance and videography services for the various ministries and also pastors adult singles. Diagnosed with brain cancer, he died on May 30, 2017, at age 69.Actor- Writer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Jean Rouverol was born on 8 July 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for It's a Gift (1934), Bar 20 Rides Again (1935) and Guiding Light (1952). She was married to Hugo Butler. She died on 24 March 2017 in Wingdale, New York, USA.Writer / Actress (as Jean Butler)- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
Miguel Ferrer was an American actor known for playing Morton from RoboCop, Shan Yu from Mulan, Martian Manhunter from Justice League: The New Frontier, Slade Wilson from Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Death from Adventure Time, Sesa Refumee from Halo 2 and Vice President Rodriguez from Iron Man 3. He passed away in January 2017 due to throat cancer. He is survived by his wife and three children.Actor- Actor
- Additional Crew
Curt Lowens was born on 17 November 1925 in Allenstein, East Prussia, Germany [now Olsztyn, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Angels & Demons (2009), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and Flightplan (2005). He was married to Katherine Guilford. He died on 8 May 2017 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Actor- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born Virginia Pound, Lorna Gray was "discovered" by an agent while modeling in a fashion show. She was given a screen test, and Columbia was impressed enough to sign her to a contract. (It was at this time that she was given the name "Lorna Gray", which she kept until 1945, when she changed it to "Adrian Booth".) She was put in the studio's B unit, occasionally loaned out to Republic or Monogram, and when not making features was used in Columbia's comedy shorts, supporting such performers as The Three Stooges and Buster Keaton (where she actually acquitted herself quite well). She left Columbia and began her long career with Republic Pictures in 1941, appearing in westerns, thrillers, horror pictures, and especially the serials in which the studio specialized. She married David Brian in 1948, and after making films for a few more years, retired from the screen in 1951.Actress- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Debbie Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Maxine N. (Harmon) and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her film career began at MGM after she won a beauty contest at age 16 impersonating Betty Hutton. Reynolds wasn't a dancer until she was selected to be Gene Kelly's partner in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Not yet twenty, she was a quick study. Twelve years later, it seemed like she had been around forever. Most of her early film work was in MGM musicals, as perky, wholesome young women. She continued to use her dancing skills with stage work.
She was 31 when she gave an Academy Award-nominated performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). She survived losing first husband Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor following the tragic death of Mike Todd. Her second husband, shoe magnate Harry Karl, gambled away his fortune as well as hers. With her children as well as Karl's, she had to keep working and turned to the stage. She had her own casino in Las Vegas with a home for her collection of Hollywood memorabilia until its closure in 1997. She took the time to personally write a long letter that is on display in the Judy Garland museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and to provide that museum with replicas of Garland's costumes. The originals are in her newly-opened museum in Hollywood.
Nearly all the money she makes is spent toward her goal of creating a Hollywood museum. Her collection numbers more than 3000 costumes and 46,000 square-feet worth of props and equipment.
With musician/actor Eddie Fisher, she was the mother of filmmaker Todd Fisher and actress Carrie Fisher. Debbie died of a stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter Carrie. She was survived by her son and granddaughter, up-and-coming actress Billie Lourd.Actress (died December 28, 2016)- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
"Go home and get your shine box....", so said ill-fated Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990). However, Billy Batts is better known to a legion of crime-film fans as the talented actor, musician, and comedian Frank Vincent. He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey. Frank studied music at St. Pauls Grammar School and became a keen drummer at a young age, while his father introduced him to the dramatic arts. Vincent went on to became quite an accomplished musician and played with some of the key 1960s recording artists including Trini López, Del Shannon and Paul Anka. In 1975 Vincent appeared before the camera for the first time in the low-budget The Death Collector (1976) where he was noticed by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, who cast Frank in three iconic American films: the first saw Frank play the insolent Salvi in Raging Bull (1980), secondly as the aforementioned made man Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990) being bumped off by Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, and once again as Frank Marino in Casino (1995). Frank Vincent appeared in over fifty movies, and set the pace as one of the cinema's most versatile and resourceful character actors. With the recognition of his talents, various new opportunities work followed, and Frank lent his skills to contributing and appearing on video games, in television commercials and even rock-music clips with artists including DMX, T-Boz and Hype Williams. He also had the role of Phil Leotardo in the legendary gangster TV series The Sopranos (1999).
Frank Vincent was also the proud recipient of the Italian American Entertainer of the Year Award, and was also acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Back East Picture Show.Actor- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Director
David Shepard was born on 22 October 1940 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Monte Cristo (1922), The Age of Ballyhoo (1973) and The Moving Picture Boys in the Great War (1975). He died on 31 January 2017 in Medford, Oregon, USA.Film Historian / Preservationist- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jonathan Demme was born on 22 February 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on 26 April 2017 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Director- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Danielle Darrieux was born in 1917 in Bordeaux, France, to Marie-Louise (Witkowski) and Germain Jean Darrieux, a physician. She was raised in Paris. She was only fourteen when she auditioned for a secondary role in Le bal (1931): she got the part, and the producer offered her a five-year contract. She had her first romantic lead in La crise est finie (1934) and scored an international hit with the historical drama Mayerling (1936) in which she played Marie Vetsera opposite Charles Boyer. In 1938, she went to Hollywood to appear in the fine comedy The Rage of Paris (1938) but quickly returned to Paris.
Darrieux remained in France during the Occupation and was one of the leading actresses during this period, starring in major hits such as Premier Rendez-Vous (1941). In 1945, she appeared both on stage (in "Tristan et Isolde") and on screen (in Au petit bonheur (1946)). In the next three decades, she found several important roles, in films like La Ronde (1950), The Earrings of Madame De... (1953) -- in which she gave her best performance, as a society lady torn between her husband and her lover -- and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).
In 1970, she replaced Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in "Coco." Afterwards, she made occasional screen and stage appearances. But she made a triumphant comeback in 2002, playing Catherine Deneuve's mother in the international hit 8 Women (2002).
She died on October 17, 2017 in Bois-le-Roi, Eure, France. She was 100.Actress- Actor
- Soundtrack
One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend Arnould Herbert Hurt, an Anglican clergyman and mathematician, his quiet shyness betrayed an early passion for acting. First enrolled at the Grimsby Art School and St. Martin's School of Art, his focus invariably turned from painting to acting.
Accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960, John made his stage debut in "Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger" followed by "The Dwarfs." Elsewhere, he continued to build upon his 60's theatrical career with theatre roles in "Chips with Everything" at the Vaudeville, the title role in "Hamp" at the Edinburgh Festival, "Inadmissible Evidence" at Wyndham's and "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" at the Garrick. His movie debut occurred that same year with a supporting role in the "angry young man" British drama Young and Willing (1962), followed by small roles in Appuntamento in Riviera (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967).
A somber, freckled, ravaged-looking gent, Hurt found his more compelling early work in offbeat theatrical characterizations with notable roles such as Malcolm in "Macbeth" (1967), Octavius in "Man and Superman" (1969), Peter in "Ride a Cock Horse" (1972), Mike in '"The Caretaker" (1972) and Ben in "The Dumb Waiter" (1973). At the same time he gained more prominence in a spray of film and support roles such as a junior officer in Before Winter Comes (1968), the title highwayman in Sinful Davey (1969), a morose little brother in In Search of Gregory (1969), a dim, murderous truck driver in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a skirt-chasing, penguin-studying biologist in Cry of the Penguins (1971), the unappetizing son of a baron in The Pied Piper (1972) and a repeat of his title stage role as Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974).
Hurt shot to international stardom, however, on TV where he was allowed to display his true, fearless range. He reaped widespread acclaim for his embodiment of the tormented gay writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp in the landmark television play The Naked Civil Servant (1975), adapted from Crisp's autobiography. Hurt's bold, unabashed approach on the flamboyant and controversial gent who dared to be different was rewarded with the BAFTA (British TV Award). This triumph led to the equally fascinating success as the cruel and crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the epic television masterpiece I, Claudius (1976), followed by another compelling interpretation as murderous student Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1979).
A resurgence occurred on film as a result. Among other unsurpassed portraits on his unique pallet, the chameleon in him displayed a polar side as the gentle, pathetically disfigured title role in The Elephant Man (1980), and as a tortured Turkish prison inmate who befriends Brad Davis in the intense drama Midnight Express (1978) earning Oscar nominations for both. Mainstream box-office films were offered as well as art films. He made the most of his role as a crew member whose body becomes host to an unearthly predator in Alien (1979). With this new rush of fame came a few misguided ventures as well that were generally unworthy of his talent. Such brilliant work as his steeple chase jockey in Champions (1984) or kidnapper in The Hit (1984) was occasionally offset by such drivel as the comedy misfire Partners (1982) with Ryan O'Neal in which Hurt looked enervated and embarrassed. For the most part, the craggy-faced actor continued to draw extraordinary notices. Tops on the list includes his prurient governmental gadfly who triggers the Christine Keeler political sex scandal in the aptly-titled Scandal (1989); the cultivated gay writer aroused and obsessed with struggling "pretty-boy" actor Jason Priestley in Love and Death on Long Island (1997); and the Catholic priest embroiled in the Rwanda atrocities in Shooting Dogs (2005).
Latter parts of memorable interpretations included Dr. Iannis in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the recurring role of the benign wand-maker Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), the tyrannical dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta (2005) and the voice of The Dragon in Merlin (2008). Among Hurt's final film appearances were as a terminally ill screenwriter in That Good Night (2017) and a lesser role in the mystery thriller Damascus Cover (2017). Hurt's voice was also tapped into animated features and documentaries, often serving as narrator. He also returned to the theatre performing in such shows as "The Seagull", "A Month in the Country" (1994), "Afterplay" (2002) and "Krapp's Last Tape", the latter for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
A recovered alcoholic who married four times, Hurt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in 2004, and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. That same year (2015) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In July of 2016, he was forced to bow out of the father role of Billy Rice in a then-upcoming London stage production of "The Entertainer" opposite Kenneth Branagh due to ill health that he described as an "intestinal ailment". Hurt died several months later at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, England on January 15, 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.Actor- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was on board an LST during the Battle of Okinawa. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to appear in a production of "Pygmalion", before heading out to California and honing his craft at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Stanton then toured around the United States with a male choir, worked in children's theater, and then headed back to California.
His first role on screen was in the tepid movie Tomahawk Trail (1957), but he was quickly noticed and appeared regularly in minor roles as cowboys and soldiers through the late 1950s and early 1960s. His star continued to rise and he received better roles in which he could showcase his laid-back style, such as in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), and in Alien (1979). It was around this time that Stanton came to the attention of director Wim Wenders, who cast him in his finest role yet as Travis in the moving Paris, Texas (1984). Next indie director Alex Cox gave Stanton a role that brought him to the forefront, in the quirky cult film Repo Man (1984).
Stanton was now heavily in demand, and his unique look got him cast as everything from a suburban father in the mainstream Pretty in Pink (1986) to a soft-hearted, but ill-fated, private investigator in Wild at Heart (1990) and a crazy yet cunning scientist in Escape from New York (1981). Apart from his film performances, he was also an accomplished musician, and "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" and their unique spin on mariachi music played together for well over a decade. They toured internationally. He became a cult figure of cinema and music and when Debbie Harry sang the lyric, "I want to dance with Harry Dean..." in her 1990s hit "I Want That Man", she was talking about him. Stanton remained consistently active on screen, lastly appearing in films including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and The Man Who Cried (2000).Actor- Editor
- Director
- Editorial Department
Anthony Harvey was born on 3 June 1930 in London, England, UK. He was an editor and director, known for The Lion in Winter (1968), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and Dutchman (1966). He died on 23 November 2017 in Southampton, New York, USA.Editor / Director- Actor
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Aleksei Vladimirovich Batalov was born on November 20, 1928, into the family of famous Russian theatrical actor Vladimir Batalov. He was born in the city of Vladimir, near Moscow, where his grandmother was the Doctor General at the Vladimir city hospital. His parents, Vladimir Petrovich Batalov and Nina Antonovna Olshevskaya, were both actors of the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT), under the directorship of Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. His uncle, named Nikolay Batalov, was a distinguished film actor.
The Batalov family lived in the actor's apartments building at the Moscow Art Theatre. There young Aleksei got early exposure to the acting profession. He then moved with his mother to the home of her second husband writer Viktor Ardov, who was the neighbor of Osip Mandelstam. Young Batalov became a good friend of poet Anna Akhmatova who stayed in his room during her many visits to Moscow. Later, in the 1960's, Aleksei Batalov painted an oil portrait of Anna Akhmatova. Writers Mikhail A. Bulgakov, Mikhail Zoschenko, Boris Pasternak were among the closest friends of the Batalov's family, being also the colleagues of his stepfather Viktor Ardov.
In 1945, upon his return from evacuation in Tatarstan, Aleksei Batalov made his film debut as a cameo in 'Zoya'. He studied acting professionally at the Moscow Art Theatre's Acting Studio-School of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko from which he graduated in 1950, as an actor. That same year he was drafted in the Red Army and worked as an actor with the Central Theatre of the Soviet Army from 1950-1953. He then returned to the Moscow Art Theatre and was a permanent member of the troupe through 1957.
Batalov shot to fame with his role in 'Bolshaya Semya' (The Big Family 1954) directed by 'Iosif Kheifets'. For that role he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, which he shared with his partners Sergei Lukyanov, Boris Andreyev, Nikolai Gritsenko, Pavel Kadochnikov, and others; the whole ensemble of actors and actresses were awarded for that film at Cannes, in 1955.
Aleksei Batalov received more international acclaim for his memorable acting opposite Tatyana Samoylova in The Cranes Are Flying (1957) (aka.. The Cranes Are Flying) for which director Mikhail Kalatozov won the Golden Palm at Cannes, in 1958. Batalov won the Jussi Diploma of Merit (1962) for the supporting role in 'Dama s sobachkoi' (aka.. The Lady with the Dog), a story by Anton Chekhov directed by Iosif Kheifits. Batalov also worked with Kheifits in 'V gorode S.' (In the Town of S.), another story by Anton Chekhov. Alrksei Batalov himself directed three films; 'Shinel' (1960) on the story by Nikolay Gogol, 'Tri tolstyaka' (1966) by Yuriy Olesha, and 'Igrok' (1973) (aka.. The Gambler), an adaptation of the eponymous book by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Aleksei Batalov earned the State Prize of the USSR for a strong and difficult leading role in '9 dney odnogo goda' (1961), for which director Mikhail Romm won Crystal Globe. Batalov's performance in the leading role of a Russian intellectual in 'Beg' (1970) based on the play by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, was somewhat overshadowed by the brilliant duo of his film partners Mikhail Ulyanov and Evgeniy Evstigneev. However, after a few years of his hiatus, Batalov made a successful comeback in 'Moskva slezam ne verit' (1979), which won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film (1981).
In addition to his numerous international awards Batalov was honored with the title of the People's Artist of the USSR (1976). He was decorated and received many Soviet and Russian awards from the state. Batalov was the Dean of the Actors Studio at the Moscow State Film Institute (VGIK) from 1975 to 2005. He taught over 20 acting seminars in the USA and Canada. He also made notable works for the Moscow Radio.
Aleksei Batalov resided and worked in Moscow, Russia, where he died on June 14, 2017.Actor- Actor
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French character star Jean Rochefort expressed an interest in acting early in life. Born in 1930, he trained at the Paris Conservatoire but had to halt his studies due to military service. Relocating to Paris, he developed a minor name for himself in cabaret and stage plays. He also worked with the Grenier-Hussenot company at this time and acted in TV drama. Throughout his career Rochefort would return sporadically to the theatre as both actor and director. Films took his immediate focus in the late 50s and he became an audience favorite in roguish costumers and adventure films, particularly those of director Philippe de Broca, including Cartouche (1962), Up to His Ears (1965) and The Devil by the Tail (1969). By the 70s, Rochefort's reputation as a comedy star of sex farces and black comedies was firmly established, culminating with his classic roles in The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972), Conspiratia (1973), The Phantom of Liberty (1974), Ugly, Dirty and Bad (1976) and Pardon Mon Affaire (1976). He won the Cesar Award (French equivalent of the Oscar) for best supporting actor in The Clockmaker (1974) and the best actor trophy for Le Crabe-Tambour (1977). Though he branched out internationally in later years, he earned more kudos for his work in French-made films, especially those directed by Patrice Leconte: Tandem (1987), The Hairdresser's Husband (1990) and the Oscar-nominated Ridicule (1996). Most recently he won praise co-starring as a retired teacher of poetry opposite actor Johnny Hallyday in Man on the Train (2002). Despite his obvious comedic electricity, he has touched audiences as well playing dying naval captains, paraplegics, and timorous, elderly dreamers, often drawing both humor and pathos simultaneously from his characters. Not as well known by America's standards, his sunken, weary features, ever-searching eyes, ever-present moustache and prominent nose are unmistakable in the over 80 films he's graced. A lifetime dream was to play Don Quixote on film and his wish was nearly fulfilled until he took seriously ill and the project had to be indefinitely shelved after only a few days of filming. Rochefort received a special life's achievement Cesar award in 1999. He died on October 9, 2017 in Paris, France.Actor- Actress
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Stylish, slender-framed, raven-haired Daliah Lavi was made for alluring, exotic types and princess roles with her mesmerizing beauty, chiseled cheek bones and long, flowing mane. The Israeli actress first became a star in Europe before making a dent in Hollywood as part of a wave of knockout foreign star imports that flooded Hollywood during the mid 1960s -- Claudia Cardinale, Julie Christie, Jeanne Moreau, Liv Ullmann, Melina Mercouri, Ursula Andress, Jacqueline Bisset, Romy Schneider, Elke Sommer, Senta Berger, Rosanna Schiaffino, Geneviève Bujold, Capucine, Shirley Eaton, Sylva Koscina, Barbara Bouchet, Susannah York, Rita Tushingham, Monica Vitti, Vanessa Redgrave and her sister Lynn Redgrave, and Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françoise Dorléac. Like most of the others, Daliah was to be viewed as a viable sex symbol contender. In her case, she found decorative, second-tier notice via tongue-in-cheek spy spoofs, crime mysteries, erotic thrillers and rugged adventures. In retrospect, she may have fallen short of the illustrious Hollywood pedestal, but she did create a fine, if brief, stir.
She was born Daliah Levenbuch in the Moshav Shavey Zion, in the British Mandate of Palestine on October 12, 1942. The daughter of Reuben and Ruth Lewinbuk (or Levenbuch), who were of German-Jewish and Polish-Jewish descent, she was sent as a child to Stockholm, Sweden in the early 1950s to train in dance. She made her first film there at age 13 in the drama Hemsöborna (1955) playing the daughter of a professor. Her start in films was interrupted when she returned to Israeli following her father's death and joined the Israeli Army.
Following this period, she returned to acting and, being fluent in many European languages, began to figure in prominently with a host of French, Italian, German and English productions, often as a co-star. Such early films include a starring role in the German/Israeli co-production Brennender Sand (1960); the classic Voltaire comedy Candide or The Optimism in the 20th Century (1960) co-starring as Cunegonde alongside Jean-Pierre Cassel in the title role; and the Martine Carol drama Un soir sur la plage (1961). She continued to build up a strong European film reputation with the war drama No Time for Ecstasy (1961) co-starring Peter van Eyck; the mystery crime The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961) starring Gert Fröbe and post-Tarzan Lex Barker; and made her American movie debut (earning a Golden Globe "Newcomer" Award in the process) as the second femme lead in the Kirk Douglas starer Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), directed by Vincente Minnelli.
Daliah gained considerable ground enhancing and beautifying such foreign movie product as the ensemble French crime mystery Le jeu de la vérité (1961) (aka The Game of Truth); the German comedy satire Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett (1962); the title role of a sultry peasant girl accused of being a witch in the Italian/French co-production Il demonio (1963) (aka The Demon); the European western action film Old Shatterhand (1964) starring U.S. imports Lex Barker and Guy Madison; the continental costumed adventure Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1964) starring José Ferrer and Jean-Pierre Cassel as Cyrano and D'Artagnan; the German comedy thriller They're Too Much (1965) starring Curd Jürgens, and the one of the ensemble suspects in the internationally cast whodunit Ten Little Indians (1965).
The actress hit her height of international popularity with four popular English/US-based films: as "The Girl" in the epic adventure Lord Jim (1965) starring Peter O'Toole and James Mason; as Princess Natasha in the spy comedy The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966) opposite Laurence Harvey; an alluring double agent in the first Matt Helm entry The Silencers (1966) starring Dean Martin; and as a sexy enemy weapon in the phantasmagorical Bondian spoof Casino Royale (1967), starring Peter Sellers and an all-star international cast. The last-mentioned film, in particular, had American male audiences taking major notice.
Decked out in tight mini-skirts, thigh-high go-go boots and a helmet of black hair, Daliah fit in perfectly with the times, a swinging, gorgeous chick of the psychedelic 60s. She quickly lost momentum, however, cast in such overlooked films as Those Fantastic Flying Fools (1967), The High Commissioner (1968) and Some Girls Do (1969). Her final film would be in the western comedy Catlow (1971) starring Yul Brynner.
In the 1970s Daliah pursued a singing career in Germany after being discovered by record producer Jimmy Bowien. A popular draw, she had a few hit songs and covered many international songwriters and artists. She was also glimpsed again on German television in the 90s for a brief spell. Daliah died on May 3, 2017, in North Carolina. Her fourth husband of 40 years, Charles Gans, survived her, along with four children, including her son Alex Gans who follow in her footsteps in film as a film editor, producer and director.Actress- Actor
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Richard Anderson appeared in high school plays, served a hitch in the Army and, upon his discharge, began doing summer stock, radio work, a movie bit part (a wounded soldier in Twelve O'Clock High (1949)) and all the other minor jobs required of your basic struggling actor. He did comedy scenes on a "screen test"-like TV series called Lights, Camera, Action! (1950) and impressed the right people at MGM, who offered him a contract. After leaving MGM he continued to dabble in movies while at the same time becoming a huge presence on TV. He was a regular (Police Lt. Drum) during the last season of TV's Perry Mason (1957); in the series' last episode, he interrogates witnesses to a murder in a TV studio--the witnesses being played by the "Perry Mason" crew. In the high-rated last episode of The Fugitive (1963) he plays Richard Kimble's (David Janssen) brother-in-law, and is briefly suspected of being the real killer of Kimble's wife. A regular on The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Anderson has more recently produced the TV-movie reprises of that series.Actor- Actor
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Don Gordon was born on 13 November 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Towering Inferno (1974), Papillon (1973) and Bullitt (1968). He was married to Denise Farr, Bek Nelson, Nita Talbot and Helen Westcott. He died on 24 April 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Actor- Actor
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Rance Howard was born on 17 November 1928 in Duncan, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Nebraska (2013), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) and Universal Soldier (1992). He was married to Judy Howard and Jean Speegle Howard. He died on 25 November 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Actor- Producer
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A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jack H. Harris first entered show business by way of vaudeville, singing and dancing with Cliff Edwards' (aka "Ukeleke Ike") Kiddie Revue at age six. Working his way up from an early job as a theater usher, Harris went into publicity and learned distribution, eventually opening his own offices. Dissatisfied with the minor black-and-white films foisted upon him, he quickly developed an itch to produce his own pictures. Linking up with the moviemaking ministers of Pennsylvania's Valley Forge Film Studios, Harris collaborated on The Blob (1958), a film that eventually grossed more than a hundred times its $240,000 cost. In the decades since, Harris has followed up on this early success with 4D Man (1959), Dinosaurus! (1960), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and a "Blob" sequel (Beware! The Blob (1972)) and a remake (The Blob (1988)).Producer