Passages

[Drucker]

Marlene Marder of Kleenez/Liliput.

Morley Safer.

[mas114]

Alexandre Astruc

http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/20 ... _3476.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Perkins Cobb]

Alexandre Astruc.

[Feego]

Alan Young, the human star of TV's Mr. Ed and (I just found out) the voice of Scrooge McDuck on DuckTales.

[flyonthewall2983]

Former Megadeth drummer, Nick Menza. Said to have died while performing with his band OHM.

[knives]

And John Berry of the Bestie Boys too.

[antnield]

Burt Kwouk.

[colinr0380]

That reminds me that my one brush with celebrity and a tiny but enduring memory I have of spending a couple of months emptying out an archive at the (now demolished) BBC Oxford Road studio in Manchester as a work experience trainee (along with looking out a record for a producer of one of the "I Love 1971" programmes! And seeing from afar regional news presenter and Krypton Factor-host Gordon Burns waiting for a lift) is that somehow I came across the expenses receipt for the car that was sent to pick up and bring Burt Kwouk to the studio to record his voice over links for the BBC's Kung Fu Night series of programmes! (That included the premiere of A Touch of Zen at the end!)

Along with his roles in the Pink Panther films, I seem to remember Burt Kwouk was also in the Ingrid Bergman missionary drama The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness, perhaps because a number of the shots intended to be the Chinese countryside in that film were apparently actually filmed in Wales!

EDIT: In recent years on UK television he had a regular role in the Last of the Summer Wine series, but of course how could I go without mentioning his other piece of voice over work, as the slightly more subdued presenter of the utterly demented Channel 4 'betting' show Banzai, which kind of mashes up China and Japan together into a 'generic Asian melange' that might be a bit racist(?!?) (but it was kind of trading on that sense of completely out of its original context Japanese gameshow aesthetic!), but I always guiltily loved all of the crazy titles to the various challenges!

[MongooseCmr]

Makiko Futaki, Miyazaki animator

[vidussoni]

Giorgio Albertazzi of Last Year at Marienbad

[oh yeah]

Giorgio Albertazzi of Last Year at Marienbad

He was one of the most important parts of one of the greatest films of all time.

Now he joins Delphine and Sacha in the afterlife -- I just hope it's not actually a ghostly, sinister mansion resort where time stands still and from which there is no escape.

[antnield]

Rodney Giesler.

[flyonthewall2983]

Jan Crouch

[Donald Brown]

Muhammad Ali.

[flyonthewall2983]

This one takes the cake.

[Lemmy Caution]

For a combination of sports and cultural impact, not sure anyone else comes anywhere close to Ali.

There are plenty of films and docs about Ali, including the mid-70's biopic starring Ali as himself.
I've touted on here a few times a doc from a few years back entitled Facing Ali in which 10 ex-Ali opponents reflect back on their lives, careers and their encounters with Ali. Very well done. Poignant stuff.

I went to school on the southside of Chicago, and there was a small terrific Middle Eastern restaurant whose walls were lined with pics of Ali with the owner. The Kenwood section just north of Hyde Park used to be the main center for The Nation of Islam. Just a couple blocks up the road was the home of Elijah Muhammad (later I believe owned by Farrakhan), and Ali used to have a home nearby as well. All fairly close to where Obama's house is. My student co-op also bought a nice brick mansion a couple blocks away.

[Lemmy Caution]

[flyonthewall2983]

The Trials of Muhammad Ali is pretty good too. It's less reverential and more of an even-handed account of his fight against the gov't for his religious freedoms regarding refusing going to Vietnam. In particular there's footage of him at a college where the tension towards him is a little palpable.

It also used footage of him at the America: A Tribute to Heroes TV special that aired a little over a week after 9/11. He spoke as eloquently and as passionately as he could given the effects Parkinsons was having on him, about how Islam was a religion of love and peace.

[JSC]

Peter Shaffer, author of Amadeus and Equus.

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/j ... es-aged-90

[domino harvey]

Who I was just reading about while doing research for our next List Project. Funny how the two film adaptations of his best known works apparently went out of their way to change what the playwright was after on the stage (for better or worse, depending on who you ask)

[beamish13]

Shaffer was such a marvelous writer. I absolve him (and Milos Forman) for pissing on Amadeus with their atrocious 2002 re-edit.

Interesting that, unlike fellow twins Peter & Julius Epstein, he never collaborated with his brother Anthony (Frenzy and Sleuth)

[FrauBlucher]

Prince meets The Greatest.

[mfunk9786]

Kimbo Slice

[Donald Brown]

Viktor Korchnoi, possibly the greatest chess player never to become world champion.

[FrauBlucher]

The Film Forum has added The Trials of Muhammad Ali starting Friday and running through the 14th.