Archive for the ‘Obituaries’ Category

  • 03 Feb

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    Talk Amongst Yourselves

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    Rest in Peace, Jackie Treehorn. Ben Gazzara died today of pancreatic cancer.

  • 28 Nov

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    Ken Russell passes on at 84

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    Just as a quality edition of The Devil’s was announced on DVD in the UK, controversial and unique filmmaker Ken Russell has passed on. The man still recently doing the festival circuit (stops in 2010 in Toronto and Montreal), before a gentle passing in his sleep at 84. The above image is from one of his most famous films, The Lair of the White Worm; a VHS box that haunted my dreams when I saw it in the store at a very tender age.

    The BBC has more.

  • 24 Jun

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    Peter Falk: 1927 – 2011

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    He was in many many films and won lots of awards for his work in film and television. He was best known for playing the title character on NBC’s “Columbo.” I remember the show quite fondly but for some reason he sticks in my head most fondly as mob boss Max in 2001′s Made. “Because you lost my carpet cleaning van… and I don’t like you you cocksucker!”

    So yes, the guy was pretty much always quirkily awesome (before quirk was a bad thing). We’ll miss that cross-eyed smirk and that hidden sense of cunning his characters always seemed to embody. Thanks for the happy years, sir. You will be missed!

    What’s your favorite Peter Falk memory? Murder by Death?

  • 09 Apr

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    Sidney Lumet: 1924 – 2011 [RIP]

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    I remember one of the first Cinecasts Kurt and I did together we reviewed 12 Angry Men. To this day it’s still my favorite Lumet film; and it was his first. A pretty impressive way to start off a career I’d say.

    Lumet passed away today in Manhattan due to the bastard that is lymphoma. He was 86.

    After 12 Angry Men, Lumet went on to do a ton of TV episodes and not really until the mid-60s did he come back to feature films and he came back in a big way. With Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and what many consider his best film, Network (which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards) in 1976.

    Lumet continued to write and direct movies throughout his life almost until the end. Focusing a lot on crime dramas and courtroom thrillers. I believe that somewhere after recording the 12 Angry Men episode of the Cinecast, we went into a very positive discussion about Lumet’s latest (and as it happens, last) film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Maybe an appropriate title for his last picture.

    While this is a sad day as Lumet passes on to the next life, I’m happy to say he has left quite the legacy for movie goers to enjoy throughout eternity. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go finally pop that copy of Night Falls on Manhattan into the old DVD player. Another title apropos for today.

  • 01 Apr

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    Talk Amongst Yourselves

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  • 23 Mar

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    RIP Elizabeth Taylor, 1932-2011

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    One of the true icons of Hollywood royalty has passed on today, as Elizabeth Taylor died of congestive heart failure this morning in Los Angeles after several weeks of hospitalization. Taylor has been a staple in the Hollywood community since she began her career as a child actress at the age of eleven, in 1943. Born in 1932 to American parents living in England, she and her family returned to Los Angeles in the late 1930s, and her natural beauty was soon marked by the film industry. After a brief role in There’s One Born Every Minute for Universal, she contracted with MGM, where she would become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars over the next two decades.

    Though she appearing strikingly in small roles in Lassie Come Home and Jane Eyre, her big breakthrough was the lead in National Velvet, a beloved novel about a girl who dreams of racing her horse in England’s most prestigious steeplechase which became an even more beloved film. National Velvet was a smash hit, and MGM kept Taylor very busy over the next several years, taking advantage of the fact that she seemed to morph from child to young woman with no awkward teenage phase at all. By 1951 she was ready to take on fully adult roles, which she did with vigor in A Place in the Sun, a George Stevens-directed version of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. Here she played a homewrecker seducing Montgomery Clift to murder his pregnant wife Shelley Winters. Taylor’s ability to combine innocence with seduction was one of her greatest strengths, and one that her roles would call on again and again.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Feb

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    RIP Jane Russell, 1921-2011

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    Bursting onto the Hollywood scene with a smoldering earthiness in 1943′s The Outlaw, which was banned or suppressed in several places due to its on-screen sexuality, Jane Russell was not the staid glamourpuss so common at the time, but something more visceral, wearing her curves with pride, and slipping easily into every genre, including musicals and comedies. In fact, she showed quite a talent for those last two, as shown in the clips tucked under the seats from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Son of Paleface, two excellent films in which Russell easily holds her own against Marilyn Monroe and Bob Hope. Thanks for the memories, Jane Russell. RIP.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 03 Feb

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    Maria Schneider (1952 – 2011)

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    Actress Maria Schneider passed away yesterday. Probably best known for ‘passing the butter’ to Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango In Paris (she was 19 at the time) as well as Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (opposite Jack Nicholson), she worked steadily (pretty much only in Europe) up until the year 2000. Apparently she was battling cancer for quite some time before her eventual passing.

    MUBI and Roger Ebert have more on Ms. Schneider’s legacy.

  • 31 Jan

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    RIP John Barry

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    The great composer John Barry, most famous for his iconic scores for the Bond films, died yesterday aged 77 of a heart attack after having suffered from poor health for a long time. With 5 Oscar wins under his belt he’s one of cinema’s most popular and respected composers. Beyond the Bond franchise he crafted many other memorable scores including those for Born Free, Out of Africa, Midnight Cowboy and Dances With Wolves. Personally I’m a big fan of a number of his more cult-ish soundtracks such as his work on Black Hole and The Ipcress File.

    His style was a great influence on pop music too, beyond the realm of the soundtrack with Trip Hop artists such as Portishead owing a great debt to Barry’s work. Later in his career he turned away from soundtracks (his final one being Enigma in 2001) and released a handful of his own albums as well as co-writing a musical based on Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock.

    I for one will miss his work greatly.

    You can read more on his life here.

  • 03 Jan

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    Pete Postlethwaite – 1946-2011 [RIP]

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    Not long into 2011 and iconic character and stage actor Pete Postlethwaite has died (peacefully) of Cancer. Probably best known for his roles in In The Name of The Father and The Usual Suspects, Postlethwaite often played small but pivotal parts in large blockbusters. He worked right up to and during his Cancer treatments (small parts in Inception, The Town and Clash of the Titans).

    More from The Independent.

    He will be missed.

     

  • 29 Nov

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    Irvin Kershner: 1923 – 2010 [RIP]

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    Looks like it’s one of those weeks. Just on the heels of the sad passing of Leslie Nielsen comes word of Empire Strikes Back director, Irvin Kershner leaving this world at the age of 87 after battling illness in his Paris home.

    Some other notable titles Kershner sat in the director’s chair for included James Bond: Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery and Robocop II. He also directed the great George C. Scott in Flim-Flam Man and a whole slew of other great actors over the many years Kershner was working in the Hollywood system. Of course he remains the director most famous for helping to create what the vast majority of Star Wars fans consider the best in the series: The Empire Strikes Back.

    “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.” Rest in peace, sir.

     

  • 29 Nov

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    Leslie Nielsen: 1926-2010 [RIP]

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    I’m not very good at these kind of posts. How do you sum up a man’ life and career in a few short words?

    So instead, I just wanted to say thanks Mr. Nielsen. Thanks for not only making me laugh, but for helping to shape my sense of humour. Thanks for being one of many reasons why, at the age of 14, I laughed harder than I ever had before when I saw Airplane. Thanks for making “Police Squad” one of the funniest things to ever grace the flickering screen of my television (though for only a criminally short 6 episode run). Thanks for Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure and the myriad of TV guest appearances – from “Bonanza” and “The Big Valley” to “Night Gallery” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” to the many staples of the 70s (“Kojak”, “Ironside”, “Hawaii 5-0″ and “Barnaby Jones” to name a few).

    Thanks for being a member of the Order of Canada. I expect you were pretty proud of that. We were too. Thanks for making me smile every time I walk by your star on the Walk of Fame on King St. in Toronto.

    Thanks Mr. Nielsen.

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