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tavernier · #151 Post by **tavernier** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:42 am

What a tragedy... a brilliant composer, whose 9 symphonies are the equal of Vaughan Williams.

#152 Post by **kinjitsu** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:21 pm

Japanese actor TetsurÃƒÂ´ Tanba has died following a bout with pneumonia. He was 84.

Rufus T. Firefly · #153 Post by **Rufus T. Firefly** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:18 pm

kinjitsu wrote:Japanese actor TetsurÃƒÂ´ Tanba has died following a bout with pneumonia. He was 84.

I suspect that there are more of his movies available on DVD internationally than any other Japanese actor, including Mifune, Nakadai and Katsu, simply because he made so many cameo appearances. On Sunday night I watched Gosha's Four Days of Snow and Blood, in which he appears in the small role of one of the Japanese generals (as does Nakadai). He also appeared in several Miikes and was still working up to his death. Of course he is best known in the west for his part as Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, looking somewhat embarrassed most of the time.

colinr0380 · #154 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:20 am

tavernier wrote:What a tragedy... a brilliant composer, whose 9 symphonies are the equal of Vaughan Williams.

Sorry, my musical knowledge is severly lacking. Did Vaughan Williams compose the Lark Ascending piece? That is one of my favourite pieces of music.

tavernier · #155 Post by **tavernier** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:30 am

colinr0380 wrote:Sorry, my musical knowledge is severly lacking. Did Vaughan Williams compose the Lark Ascending piece? That is one of my favourite pieces of music.

Yes he did.

Rufus T. Firefly · #156 Post by **Rufus T. Firefly** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:19 pm

Eddie Albert's actor son Edward Alberthas died after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 55.

#157 Post by **kinjitsu** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:19 pm

Midnight Eye's Tom Mes on Tetsuro Tamba

Fletch F. Fletch · #158 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:48 am

Star of Cleopatra Jones films dies
Thu Oct 5, 8:11 AM ET

BALTIMORE - Tamara Dobson, the tall, stunning model-turned-actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two "blaxploitation" films, has died.

Dobson, 59, died Monday of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis at the Keswick Multi-Care Center, where she had lived for the past two years, her publicist said.

At 6 feet, 2 inches tall, Dobson was striking as the kung-fu fighting government agent Cleopatra Jones in 1973. She reprised the role in 1975's "Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold."

"She was not afraid to start a trend," said her brother, Peter Dobson, of Houston. "She designed a lot of the clothing that so many women emulated."

Dobson also appeared in "Come Back, Charleston Blue," "Norman, Is That You?" "Murder at the World Series" and "Chained Heat."

She had TV roles in the early 1980s in "Jason of Star Command" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."

Dobson lived most of her adult life in New York, her family said. She was diagnosed six years ago with multiple sclerosis.

Michael · #159 Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:12 pm

Mary Orr, 95, an Author Who Inspired Ã¢â‚¬ËœAll About Eve', Is Dead

By MARGALIT FOX

Mary Orr, an actress and writer whose first short story, about a scheming ingÃ©nue named Eve Harrington, became the Oscar-winning film Ã¢â‚¬Å“All About Eve,Ã¢â‚¬

Oedipax · #160 Post by **Oedipax** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:10 pm

Word is that Daniele Huillet has passed... Jonathan Rosenbaum posted the following:

I just received a phone call from Kent Jones telling me that DaniÃ¨le Huillet has died, apparently from the same illness that prevented her from going to the Venice film festival last month. Kent heard this news from Jean-Pierre Gorin, but has no other details.

Jonathan

This is a tremendous loss.

backstreetsbackalright · #161 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:39 pm

Oedipax wrote:Word is that Daniele Huillet has passed...
This is a tremendous loss.

What horrible news! This is indeed a serious loss.

Don Lope de Aguirre · #162 Post by **Don Lope de Aguirre** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:27 am

A real loss...

More (but not much) info here.

Grimfarrow · #163 Post by **Grimfarrow** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:19 pm

Very sad

And I miss their new film in Venice....sigh.

savaskarabuz · #164 Post by **savaskarabuz** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:18 am

I'm deeply, deeply saddened by her passing away

Now it's time to worry about Jean-Marie, how could Straub live sans Huillet?

shumpy · #165 Post by **shumpy** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:54 pm

And yet another major loss for world cinema...I found this on Google's alt.obituaries group.

Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo dies

ROME (AFP) - Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, best known for his 1966 epic "The Battle of Algiers", died at the age of 86, ANSA news agency reported.

Pontecorvo is widely considered one of Italy's greatest post-World War II directors.

"The Battle of Algiers", a film on the Algerian fight for independence from French colonial rule which was banned in France for years, won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 1966.

Pontecorvo also directed the acclaimed "Queimada" with Marlon Brando about a slave revolt on a Caribbean island.

Two of his films were nominated for an Academy Award.

Pontecorvo was a chemistry student before turning to journalism. He became a member of the underground communist party in the early 1940s during the Mussolini dictatorship and joined the antifascist govement in 1943.

He headed the Venice film festival from 1992 to 1996.

Kirkinson · #166 Post by **Kirkinson** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:59 am

I only found out about this just now, but apparently 53-year-old Georgian director Levan Zakareishvili died of a heart attack in August. His film Tbilisi-Tbilisi played at Cannes last year and was also Georgia's submission to the Academy for best foreign film. I don't know if anyone else here saw it, but I found it pretty harrowing. Definitely one of the bleakest pictures I've ever seen. It's a shame he wasn't able to make any more films -- that was only his second feature and it took seven years to complete.

Here's a bit of info from the Tbilisi Film Festival (click on "Glory That Goes On...").

#167 Post by **kinjitsu** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:20 pm

Addio Gillo!

Fletch F. Fletch · #168 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:54 am

Emmy-Winning Actress Jane Wyatt Dies at 96

Jane Wyatt, who won three Emmys portraying quintessential TV mom Margaret Anderson on the comedy series Father Knows Best, died Friday of natural causes at her home in Bel-Air, California; she was 96. Born in New Jersey, Wyatt embarked on an acting career after a rather formal, upscale education, and worked both on Broadway and at the Berkshire Playhouse in Massachusetts. A contract offer from Universal Pictures in 1934 took her to Hollywood, and her most notable film role was as the eternally youthful Shangri-La beauty opposite Ronald Colman in Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937). Wyatt also appeared alongside Cary Grant in None But the Lonely Heart and Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement; though never a major star, she found work continually playing warm, understanding, compassionate women. When the nascent medium of television launched in the early 50s, Wyatt found an even more successful career there, and in 1954 landed the part of Margaret Anderson in the domestic sitcom Father Knows Best, opposite Robert Young (who ranked #6 on TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time"). Helping set the mold of the perfect television mother of the 50s, she was the most capable and serene of TV moms, dispensing wisdom and dinner with equal aplomb to her three children and all-knowing husband. The role won her three consecutive Emmys, and the show only grew in popularity once it went into reruns after ending in 1960. Wyatt worked almost exclusively in television for the rest of her career, and enjoyed a certain cult status for playing the mother of Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series (she reprised the role in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). Wyatt is survived by her two sons with businessman Edgar Ward, whom she married in 1935 and who passed away in 2000.

Fletch F. Fletch · #169 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:55 am

Horror Legend Kirk Dies at 79

Phyllis Kirk, the star of horror classic House Of Wax, has died at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in California. She was 79. The actress died on Thursday from a post-cerebral aneurysm, according to her former publicist. Kirk shot to fame as a model in the 1940s before embarking on a Broadway stage career. She made her Hollywood debut after signing to Samuel Goldwyn Productions in Our Very Own. As well as her scream queen role alongside Vincent Price in 1953's 3-D masterpiece House Of Wax, Kirk is also remembered as the screen wife of Peter Lawford in hit TV series The Thin Man. She ended her career as a publicist for TV network CBS and retired in 1992 to concentrate on her activism - she was an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.

Fletch F. Fletch · #170 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:33 pm

Arthur Hill, Actor Who Won Tony for Ã¢â‚¬ËœVirginia Woolf,' Dies at 84

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: October 27, 2006

Arthur Hill, who brought engrossing complexity and understated intelligence to hundreds of roles on stage, screen and television and won a Tony Award for his performance in Ã¢â‚¬Å“Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,Ã¢â‚¬

colinr0380 · #171 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:22 pm

Very sad news for Halloween - Nigel Kneale has died.

EDIT: The BBC report about Nigel Kneale

Rufus T. Firefly · #172 Post by **Rufus T. Firefly** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:10 am

Also reported dead today: William Franklyn, who was in the movie version of Kneale's Quatermass 2; and Tina Aumont, who apparently died of a pulmonary embolism last weekend. She was only 60.

Oedipax · #173 Post by **Oedipax** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:06 am

Wow, this is pretty shocking, from the DVD Beaver list:

Adrienne Shelley, the diminutive actress who was the first "muse" for Hal Hartley (she starred in THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH and TRUST), was just found murdered in her Greenwich Village office. (According to the TV news reports, her husband got worried when she didn't show up for dinner and went to her office - she started a production company a few years ago, and has written and directed short films, and was preparing a feature - to find her dead.)

At a time when Hollywood is reliving "sensational" crimes of the past (HOLLYWOODLAND, THE BLACK DAHLIA), unfortunately here is a real one.

What is there to say really? Horrible.

More.

Galen Young · #174 Post by **Galen Young** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:35 am

Oh man that is fucked up. I finally got a copy of that Australian DVD of Trust just a week ago (one of my all-time favorite films that I can watch over and over again and has pulled me through many a bad spell) -- and really enjoyed watching her and Hal talk about making the film in supplements. I was hoping she'd work with him again someday... Damn.

Fletch F. Fletch · #175 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:04 pm

Agreed. Wow, that is a shocker. I loved her in Hartley's films and always enjoyed her presence in them. What a loss. That article alluded to a film she just finished, Waitress, which sounded interesting. Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion as the two leads sounds intriguing. Can't wait to see it when it comes out.

From The New York Post:

"The body of a beautiful, talented actress was found hanging from a shower rod in the bathtub of a Greenwich Village apartment by her horrified husband, who cried out, "Why? Why?" cops and witnesses said.

Adrienne Shelly, 40, who was also a director and screenwriter, apparently killed herself, cops said, but added they're examining some mysterious aspects of the case.

In a shockingly prophetic interview, Shelly told a magazine in 1996 how her father rebuffed talent agents hoping to sign her up as a child actress by telling them, "I will not have my daughter jumping out of a window when she's 30."

And in 2002, she told an interviewer she had "gone through life with this feeling that life could end at any given moment," adding she would not accept delays in producing her film projects "because in my way of thinking, I might not live another seven years."

Shelly, who appeared earlier this year in the film "Factotum," starring Matt Dillon, was on the verge of releasing her latest directorial effort, a film called "Waitress," when she died Wednesday.

The petite blonde, who was born Adrienne Levine, was best known for her deadpan comic delivery and early lead roles in two Hal Hartley-directed films set on her native Long Island - "The Unbelievable Truth" and "Trust," both cult classics.

Law-enforcement sources said they are inclined to believe Shelly's death - which for now remains unclassified by the medical examiner - was a suicide, noting there was no sign of struggle or forced entry in the fourth-floor apartment.

But she left no note and cops were investigating sneaker prints in the bathtub that did not match Shelly's shoes.

A TriBeCa resident who used the Village apartment as an office, Shelley had a 3-year-old daughter named Sophie. In recent months, she spoke of her hopes to have another child with her marketing-executive husband, Andrew Ostroy.

Shelly's death stunned family and friends who said there was no indication she was troubled.

"The family is devastated. She was the star of the family. Everyone loved her very much," said a cousin, Randi Alexander.

A family source said Shelly "wasn't on any medication. She doesn't drink and she was a pretty happy person. Everyone is having trouble accepting this as a suicide."

A doorman at the Abingdon Square building - where Shelly sublet the apartment to a friend - told The Post that Ostrow arrived there just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, and "said he was really worried about her. He said he dropped her off that morning at 10 or 10:30.

"He hadn't heard from her and he said it was odd not to hear from her, so he was nervous. And he asked me to go up to the apartment with him, so we went to the front door, and it was unlocked," the doorman said.

"He ran into the apartment . . . Once he got to the back of the apartment, he just started screaming . . . and crying, 'Why? Why?' - asking himself, or just asking her," the doorman said. "I immediately called 911."

Ostroy - the chairman and CEO of Belardi/Ostroy ALC - declined to comment.

Although Shelly's performances in films subsequent to her last movie with Hartley in 1990 received much less attention, she later expanded into writing and directing movies, including 1999's "I'll Take You There," which starred Ally Sheedy. Her new film, "Waitress," which stars "Felicity" actress Keri Russell and Andy Griffith, also features Ostroy in a small role.

"Factotum" producer Jim Stark said that when he told mutual friends that Shelly was dead, "they couldn't believe it. They thought it was a joke."

"It's a great loss to all of us who are fans of independent film," Stark said. "She was extremely intelligent. A beautiful young woman."