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I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser. Truly one of my favorite personalities on television. Non-SoCal folks who still watch The Simpsons might rememeber that he graciously played himself literally falling off the turnip truck.

For anyone curious some greatest hits of Huell.

lacritfan wrote:I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser. Truly one of my favorite personalities on television. Non-SoCal folks who still watch The Simpsons might rememeber that he graciously played himself literally falling off the turnip truck.

This makes me really sad. His show was so damn charming. My favorite episode was when he visited the Gruyere's Milk Factory and they showed clips at the end of the episode where he returned to visit each year since the episodes original air date. In every single one, he was standing with the same guy at the same table, wearing the exact same clothes, and he would just say he was back again and then drank a bottle of milk.

lacritfan wrote:I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser. Truly one of my favorite personalities on television. Non-SoCal folks who still watch The Simpsons might rememeber that he graciously played himself literally falling off the turnip truck.

For anyone curious some greatest hits of Huell.

He was also one of the best characters Comedy Death Ray/Bang Bang ever had, though it's not immediately clear listening to the show that it's based on an actual person.

That's unfortunate. I actually liked his work as director quite a bit even as the obit says he wasn't really aiming for the stars.

Elevating B material is more of an accomplishment than doing run-of-the-mill service to A material in a lot of ways. He was definitely quite talented.

Sol Yurick, author of "The Warriors".

lacritfan wrote:I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser. Truly one of my favorite personalities on television. Non-SoCal folks who still watch The Simpsons might rememeber that he graciously played himself literally falling off the turnip truck.[/url]

I had a friend suggest that the California flag be at half mast for the next week. Far transcending just SoCal, Huell may have been the greatest ambassador that the Golden State ever had...

Tise Vahimagi, indefatigable TV researcher, and author of numerous well-thumbed reference books, including the BFI's Illustrated Guide to British Television (1994) and much else.

I had to edit his stuff quite a bit over the last decade, and it was an absolute joy - not least because it almost invariably involved very little work on my part. In fact, I vividly remember the time I spotted a very minor mistake (something so trivial that I might well have missed it on a different day), and he replied with one of the most abjectly apologetic emails that I've ever read - which is how you tell that someone really cares about the quality of his work. RIP.

UPDATE: Starburst magazine, his old stamping-ground, has run an obituary.

lacritfan wrote:I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser.

Chapman University has a Huell Howser archive where, among many California Gold greats, you'll also find Matt Groening talking about Howser upon his retirement from television (here).

Applesauce wrote:

lacritfan wrote:I realize this is a totally regional celeb - Huell Howser.

Chapman University has a Huell Howser archive where, among many California Gold greats, you'll also find Matt Groening talking about Howser upon his retirement from television (here).

Oh wow cool, I knew about the archives but thought only Chapman students had access. I see some of my favorite episodes haven't been uploaded yet but most seem to be. Thanks!

Tony Lip of Sopranos and TS Cook

manicsounds wrote:actress Noriko Sengoku, 90 years old

I guess you would know, but that link doesn't really help.

bearcuborg wrote:

manicsounds wrote:actress Noriko Sengoku, 90 years old

I guess you would know, but that link doesn't really help.

This might help, if you can read Japanese. She played the trainee nurse in The Quiet Duel and the gun seller in Stray Dog among her seven Kurosawa-directed films.

While looking this up I found that Makoto Sato has also died. A very familiar face in 1960s and 70s films.

Funky Claude.

Mariangela Melato - probably best known in the English-speaking world for Flash Gordon (1980), but with a much more substantial body of stage and screen work in her native Italy, including a long collaboration with Lina Wertmüller.

sad news....an MM/Lina Wertmuller marathon is in order this weekend: Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy, Swept Away and Summer Night.

Jon Finch.

I never knew she worked with Wertmuller, but I thought she was great in Flash Gordon when I saw it last year.

Robert Kee, veteran British television journalist, best known for his monumental Ireland: A Television History (1980-81).

Evelyn Ward, Broadway veteran and supporting actress in many a 50's and 60's TV show.

Writer Evan S. Connell Jr.