Passages

[Never Cursed]

Lenny Von Dohlen, best known as the agoraphobic Harold in Twin Peaks

[beamish14]

Lenny Von Dohlen, best known as the agoraphobic Harold in Twin Peaks

What a shock. He was absolutely phenomenal in Electric Dreams

[L.A.]

Gregory Itzin.

[Swift]

Brian Jackson best known as "the Man from Del Monte" in the advert but had small roles in films including the first Carry On film Carry On Sergeant, one of Michael Winner's early sex films Some Like It Cool, Revenge of the Pink Panther, all the way up to the recent Saint Maud.

I hadn't thought about them at all until I just watched the ads you linked, but I somehow 100% believed as a kid that he was the actual man from Del Monte going around hand selecting fruits. Literally never questioned otherwise.

[colinr0380]

Gregory Itzin.

His very nervy, sweaty, eventually shifty for good reasons President Logan in 24 was a marvellously slimy character, the only person who (just about) got away without being tortured by Jack Bauer simply because he occupied the highest office of state (like the various bosses of CTU but less interchangeable/short-lived and more nefarious). Once he ascended to power after the disgrace of President Palmer in season 4, he continued to be the big baddie throughout the rest of the show. Although season 5 is his really big arc: I particularly loved his scenes in that one and especially that turning point scene when things look their bleakest for him when he retires to his office, takes a gun out of his desk drawer and contemplates suicide (the first of many!), before a serendipitous twist of fate lets him get back in the game. Really all the scenes between Logan, his hand wringing advisor Mike and blue collar security man were the high points of that series, as whilst Jack is running around doing action-man stuff involving terrorists, bombs and nerve gas, instead all the Presidential stuff is taking place with hushed conversations in very confined board rooms.

I also never realised until taking a quick check of imdb that Itzin is the first "Religious Zealot" in this scene of Airplane!, offering Julie Hagerty a flower!

[Never Cursed]

Tony Sirico

[colinr0380]

Brian Jackson best known as "the Man from Del Monte" in the advert but had small roles in films including the first Carry On film Carry On Sergeant, one of Michael Winner's early sex films Some Like It Cool, Revenge of the Pink Panther, all the way up to the recent Saint Maud.

I hadn't thought about them at all until I just watched the ads you linked, but I somehow 100% believed as a kid that he was the actual man from Del Monte going around hand selecting fruits. Literally never questioned otherwise.

It was interesting to find out from that showreel that not only did he act in a number of plays directed by Peter Brook that he apparently also owned the studios where Vangelis recorded the scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner!

[L.A.]

A Boy and His Dog director L.Q. Jones at 94.

[Beloved Aunt]

"Forgive him his shortcomings, and thank him for all his love and care."

[colinr0380]

And L.Q. Jones was an important part of Sam Peckinpah's ensemble cast of players from Ride The High Country up to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

"Why did they have to kill her? She could have been used two or three more times"

I love A Boy and His Dog (NSFW) for its dark satire on sexual politics and post-apocalyptic society, where the relationship between the boy and his psychic communication with his dog is threatened by but eventually takes precendence over any relationship with a dangerously seductive siren figure of one of the few unviolated women left on the surface of the planet. It also has one of the most darkly, flippantly horrific puns at the end in keeping with the gut punch style of the times of Soylent Green, etc!

I could see how this can all just be seen as horrifically misogynist but Susanne Benton's performance adds a lot of nuance to what could simply just be seen as a manipulative woman getting (and becoming) her just desserts. Really her character is trapped in a Yorgos Lanthimos film decades avant la lettre, as she is trying to rebel against her horrifically oppressive and privileged whiteface society and explore her sexuality amongst the proles but unfortunately does so by running into the arms of our just as callous one tracked mind anti-hero. After her initial acts of duplicity she becomes a more tragic figure and gets fundamentally betrayed by every man she goes to for protection (which was probably her greatest mistake - either trying to ferment collective revolution or trying to find a protector, when the only way to survive is to kill first. She has learnt the part about using others, but not yet internalised the next even more fundamental lesson involving utterly destroying opposition as the only way to consolidate power and reign supreme), who are either brusquely patrician, utterly milquetoast ineffectual or, in having to weigh up her life against that of their pet, leaves her coming up wanting. Its a brutal film under its casual veneer.

Didn't someone say that it had a bit of an influence over the Fallout video game series? I could see it having influenced the relatively softer portrait of the post-apocalypse in Mad Max too.

And it has an amazing Clockwork Orange-styled trailer!

[L.A.]

Bond theme composer Monty Norman at 94.

[Kauno]

Antti Litja (1938-2022).

An actor’s job is like a lazy man’s job. It suited me.

[flyonthewall2983]

Ivana Trump

[dekadetia]

Ivana Trump

Shocked. Hers may no longer be the most iconic onscreen rendering of Donald Trump's wife, but she deserves her due for originating the role.

[beamish14]

Paul Ryder, bassist for Happy Mondays

[hearthesilence]

Bassist Michael Henderson according to social media posts by Ray Parker, Jr. [EDIT: And now confirmed by Henderson's own social media accounts.]

Henderson had a long and eclectic career, but his most celebrated work is probably with Miles Davis. For my money, A Tribute to Jack Johnson is the greatest fusion album ever made, and the group showcased on The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is certainly one of Miles's best (and he had no shortage of great, epochal groups).

[MichaelB]

Writer, programmer, audio commentator and disc producer Travis Crawford.

I'd known him for many years online before we collaborated directly on Eureka's Viy, but he was an absolute joy to work with - a job he made particularly easy because he so obviously knew the material inside out.

[flyonthewall2983]

Bassist Michael Henderson according to social media posts by Ray Parker, Jr. [EDIT: And now confirmed by Henderson's own social media accounts.]

Henderson had a long and eclectic career, but his most celebrated work is probably with Miles Davis. For my money, A Tribute to Jack Johnson is the greatest fusion album ever made, and the group showcased on The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is certainly one of Miles's best (and he had no shortage of great, epochal groups).

He played with Miles right up to the time he took his sabbatical in 1975. It’s one of the few constants in a time where Miles made more drastic changes to his line-ups then any time before, and the music would become more difficult to engage with if you were at all hopeful he was going to become nostalgic for Kind of Blue or the Gil Evans records. He never did so directly in his work but even on those obscure monolithic recordings like Get Up With It or Agharta there were flashes. On the latter at a specific point Henderson played a bit of “So What”, illustrating the journey he made from where he began on the Jack Johnson record, thrown it at the deep end after Dave Holland left and too with him the stand-up bass. Henderson was a session player at Motown and Miles banked on that for the funkier direction his music went in.

[hearthesilence]

Late on this, but William Hart, lead singer and songwriter of the Delfonics. His greatest hit was also immortalized in this great film.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Writer, programmer, audio commentator and disc producer Travis Crawford.

I'd known him for many years online before we collaborated directly on Eureka's Viy, but he was an absolute joy to work with - a job he made particularly easy because he so obviously knew the material inside out.

When I was on Facebook over a decade ago, I befriended a bunch of cinephiles online and he was one I occasionally spoke with. A brilliant man who had a real passion for genre cinema. I was very happy for him when I began to see his name attached to all sorts of Arrow releases. A real loss.

[fiendishthingy]

Dani

[L.A.]

Rebecca Balding.

[L.A.]

Alan Grant.

[Swift]

There's a nice obituary over at 2000 AD where he was hugely influential during the early, golden age of the comic, working with John Wagner on Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Anderson, Psi Division.

[acroyear]

Singer and actress Shonka Dukureh