Gone With or Without fanfare

[rudyfan]

David Wolper, award winning producer of Roots has died:

David L. Wolper, the award-winning television documentary producer best known for the blockbuster TV miniseries "Roots" and for the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies he created for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, has died. He was 82.

Wolper died Tuesday at his Beverly Hills home of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson's disease, said Dale Olson, his longtime publicist.

Click here to read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/12 ... r-20100812

Wolper was also a very fine documentary producer. The 1984 Opening/Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics were AWESOME.

[Lzcutter]

Jazz great Abbey Lincoln has died:

She acted opposite Sidney Poitier, spoke out for civil rights, and had a singing voice so full of emotion and passion it reminded some of Billie Holiday. Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln died on Saturday at her Manhattan home at age 80. Lincoln, an idiosyncratic and fiercely independent performer, influenced a generation of younger vocalists, including singer Cassandra Wilson, who told The New York Times, “I learned a lot about taking a different path from Abbey,” she said. “Investing your lyrics with what your life is about in the moment.”

Lincoln was born as Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago in 1930. Her stage name was suggested by fellow musician Bob Russell in the ’50s as a fusion of Westminster Abbey and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln recorded her first album, “Affair…A Story of a Girl in Love” in 1956 and that same year appeared in the classic Jayne Mansfield movie comedy The Girl Can’t Help It, directed by Frank Tashlin. Lincoln also lent her voice to Max Roach’s politically incendiary 1960 album: “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite”. Shortly after the collaboration, she married Roach.

Soon after, she starred in the seminal 1964 African-American movie drama Nothing But a Man, and in 1968, she shared the screen with Poitier in the romantic comedy For Love of Ivy. In the ’80s, Lincoln took up singing full time again and her voice was a strong — if not stronger — than ever, maybe because she’d lived and now had more to say. Her 2007 album “Abbey Sings Abbey” is considered a jazz classic. As is the woman it’s named after.

[Lzcutter]

Cammi King Conlon, better known to many classic film fans as Bonnie Blue Butler, daughter of Rhett and Scarlett, has died.

From CBS News:

Cammie King Conlon, the actress who is best known for playing the child of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler in the classic film "Gone With The Wind," has died. She was 76.

Conlon died of lung cancer on Wednesday morning at her home in Fort Bragg, Calif., her friend, Bruce Lewis, said. Her son, Matthew Ned Conlon was by her side.

At age 4, Conlon was cast to play the small, but pivotal role of Bonnie Blue Butlter in the1939 film. Her character's death in a fall from a pony irrevocably damages Rhett and Scarlet's tumultuous marriage. She earned $1,000 for her few scenes.

Conlon also voiced the young doe Faline in Walt Disney's "Bambi" three years later. It would be her final film role. "I was washed up at 5," she said in an interview last November with The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Lewis says she never stopped gamely reprising her Bonnie Blue days for "Gone With The Wind" enthusiasts. Last year, she self-published a book, "Bonnie Blue Butler: A Gone With The Wind Memoir."

She and Anne Rutherford appeared at the Academy screening of "GWTW" at a celebration for the film in May, 2009.

[moira finnie]

This has been a bad week for directors and producers, guys.

Clive Donner has died at 84 of Alzheimer's related illness on Sept. 9th. Donner was the director of British New Wave films, including The Caretaker and Nothing but the Best and Swinging Sixties flicks such as What’s New Pussycat?, as well as one of the best adaptations of A Christmas Carol (1984) for television with George C. Scott as a superb Scrooge. I've always been fond of one of his films that was always regarded as a failure, Alfred the Great (1969). That film seemed to capture something of the merge between the barbaric and the civilized as they rubbed shoulders on the island nation under a young, literate king (played by David Hemmings, trying to broaden his range, just after his career-molding success in Blow Up). You can read Donner's obit here.

David Dortort, the writer and producer who conceived of the family based Western, beginning with Bonanza in the late '50s died on Sept. 5th at 94. The Brooklyn-born writer was the son of Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe whose interest in the Western migration helped him to develop a career that de-glamourized what he called the ubiquitous but inconsequential figure of the gunslingers in the frontier. Instead, he used Bonanza to examine issues such as racial prejudice, religious tolerance, environmental issues--all of which were more sharply focused in what may have been his best television series work, in The High Chaparral, about a blended family in the American Southwest. When asked what he intended to convey through his work, Dortort replied, “What is the message? Love is the message.” His early work included screenplays for the splendid film about the hardscrabble life on the rodeo circuit, The Lusty Men (1952), a western, directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Susan Hayward and Robert Mitchum, and A Cry in the Night (1956), a police drama about a kidnapping, with Natalie Wood. You can read his complete obit here.

Claude Chabrol, the French filmmaker who was an influential member of the French New Wave has died at 80, it was announced on Sept. 12th. Noted for his pitiless, closely observed examinations of the French middle class, laced with suspense that emulated Hitchcock, the writer, director and producer worked up until his death, producing, among other movies, Les Biches, or "Bad Girls," from 1968 and 1970's The Butcher, as well as the 2000 mystery Merci pour le chocolat, with actress Isabelle Huppert, one of his favorite actresses — who starred early on in her career in Chabrol's Violette Noiziere, (1978) and the fascinating wartime film, Story of Women (1988), which dissected Marie LaTour, a working class woman whose life changed irretrievably when she began to look for her independence, economically and emotionally. Chabrol's characters may not always have been likable, but they were recognizably human. You can read more about Chabrol's career and life here.

[Lzcutter]

Kevin McCarthy, star of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has died. He was 96.

From the LA Times:

Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Saturday. He was 96.

McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., said his daughter Lillah.

During a career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning on stage in New York in the late 1930s, McCarthy played Biff Loman opposite Paul Muni's Willy in the 1949 London production of "Death of a Salesman."

Reprising his role in the 1951 film version opposite Fredric March, he earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe as most promising male newcomer.

For more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 8882.story

[moira finnie]

First Kevin McCarthy, and now this sad news. I thought that this actor was one of the best, capable of playing a lead or a walk-on:

Harold Gould has died at 86. I believe that Gould--who hails from Upstate New York--worked almost right up until his death on stage, screen and television. You may not know his name, but his face, dapper style, comedic and dramatic timing, are likely to ring a bell. Always willing to consider any role that matched his considerable gifts, he played Karl Marx onstage in a play in Paris, did a great turn as one of the more stylish grifters in The Sting, and also appeared as one of the male characters who drifted through The Golden Girls and made a very strong mark as the father of the leading lady in Rhoda, as well as on the earlier The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Gould was philosophical about the ups and downs of the acting life, even when interviewed in his late '70s. "I still go for things and get rejected, but even the challenge of getting ready is still [exciting]," he said. "Acting, it's something I enjoy, and the alternative is doing what, sitting and letting your mind go dead? "You've got to keep your mind occupied and active; otherwise fungus begins to grow and it obscures everything else," he continued. "Why stop?"

You can see a lovely obit for Mr. Gould here at The Los Angeles Times.

[JackFavell]

Thanks, Moira. This really makes me tear up.

I got to see Harold Gould in The Skin of Our Teeth, and he was superb. He could turn from comedy to drama on a dime, and had such beautiful, crinkly, but above all, expressive eyes. They just don't make them like this dapper gentleman anymore. I am quite sure that he will be missed in Hollywood and New York. I was looking for photos of him this morning, and there were so many candids of him laughing or cracking up his fellow actors. What a wonderful man.

[moira finnie]

Oh, Wendy, how fortunate that you got to see him on stage.

Looking over interviews with him this morning, I came across those same sort of photos, and discovered that a DVD of the PBS recording of the play, Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (1983) is available here. I was shocked and delighted. He would have been the most comical and touching Mr. Antrobus in Wilder's surreal panorama of humanity's highs and lows.

Do you think Harold Gould might have been one of those pros known as "an actor's actor?"

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh, thank you! I have almost forgotten what I saw, it was so long ago. Only certain transitions stand out in my mind, and most of them were Gould's. It was as much his show as Blair Brown's, which is kind of astounding, because most folks think of it as a vehicle for the actress playing Sabina. He was very conversational in style, tossing off lines in a casual way, and I just loved him, despite some of his character's flaws. I can't wait to get a copy.

I do think Gould was "an actor's actor" - He strikes me as the type who didn't take himself too seriously, all the while taking the work itself very seriously. I would have LOVED to have been one of his students. I imagine every day would have been an adventure.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Howard Gould was a true professional and a master of his craft. He was someone that I always enjoyed, and
his performances were memorable.

[Lzcutter]

A voice actress that many of us of a certain age remember from our childhood has passed away. According to EW:

Billie Mae Richards, 88, the voice actress who played the title character in the 1964 animated TV classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, died Sept. 10 of stroke in Burlington, Canada, according to Variety. The Toronto actress started her career in theater at a young age and switched to radio and voice-over work upon discovering her knack for imitating the voice of a boy. Richards was in her early 40s when she voiced Rudolph in the stop-motion animated special, which has since become the longest-running Christmas TV special and a holiday tradition for many families. “I’m just so glad that my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids, and probably my great-great-grandkids will see Rudolph,” Richards said in a 2005 interview for Filmfax magazine. Richards is survived by four children and 12 grandchildren.

[Lzcutter]

For those of us of a certain age, he was one of the top newsmen of our generation. Not only did he bring us the news but he also tried to make us better linguists to boot. Edwin Newman has died.

Edwin Newman, who brought literacy, wit and energy to NBC newscasts for more than three decades, and battled linguistic pretense and clutter in his best sellers "Strictly Speaking" and "A Civil Tongue," has died. He was 91.

Newman died on Aug. 13 of pneumonia in Oxford, England. He had moved there with his wife in 2007 to live closer to their daughter, said his lawyer Rupert Mead. He said the family delayed announcing Newman's death so they could spend some time privately grieving.

At NBC from 1952 until his retirement in 1984, Newman did political reporting, foreign reporting, anchoring of news specials, "Meet the Press," "Today," "Nightly News," midday news and a variety of radio spots. He announced the death of President Kennedy on radio, and anchored on TV when President Reagan was shot.

He also narrated and helped write documentaries, back when they were an influential staple of network programming. They included "Who Shall Live?" – a 1965 study of the difficulties of deciding which kidney disease should receive lifesaving dialysis – and "Politics: The Outer Fringe," a 1966 look at extremism.

"I think I worked on more documentaries than anybody else in TV history," he once said.

Newman, with his rumpled, squinting delivery, impressed his audience not so much with how he looked as with the likelihood that what he'd say would be worth hearing. And his occasional witty turn of phrase might be accompanied by a mischievous smile. The New York Times wrote in 1966 that Newman "is one of broadcasting's rarities. ... NBC's instant renaissance man speaks with the distinctive growl of a rusted muffler. He makes no concessions to the charm boy school of commentator."

"Ed Newman was an early role model for my generation of NBC News correspondents – worldly, erudite and droll, qualities that were enriched by his pitch perfect use of the English language," said former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. "He was always a gentleman and a reassuring presence in our midst."

In his series "Speaking Freely," he had hourlong, uninterrupted conversations with notables in many fields.

"People had an opportunity to put forward ideas" he said in a 1988 Associated Press interview. "You could get people to come on who wouldn't normally have been on TV.

"NBC, and I mean this to its credit, never tried to sell a minute of commercials and never interfered with the choice of people. The producer and I chose them."

His contributions to the radio show "Emphasis" won him a 1966 Peabody Award; judges cited "his wit and depth of understanding, both conspicuous rarities to be cherished and honored."

"To those of us watching at home, he made us feel like we had a very smart, classy friend in the broadcast news business," said current NBC News anchor Brian Williams.

He turned to writing books in the 1970s, taking on the linguistic excesses of Watergate, sportscasters, academics, bureaucrats and other assorted creators of gobbledygook with wit and indignation. Both "Strictly Speaking" and "A Civil Tongue" were best sellers.

Chapter titles of "A Civil Tongue" give an idea of his targets: "A Fatal Slaying of the Very Worst Kind," "A Real Super Player with Good Compassion," "Paradigm Lost" and "Myself Will Be Back After This Message."

"A civil tongue ... means to me a language that is not bogged down in jargon, not puffed up with false dignity, not studded with trick phrases that have lost their meaning," he wrote.

"It is direct, specific, concrete, vigorous, colorful, subtle and imaginative when it should be, and as lucid and eloquent as we are able to make it. It is something to revel in and enjoy."

For a time, he was also a theater reviewer for NBC's New York station, drawing upon all his skills to sum up productions in one minute flat. Of one show, he wrote, "As with so many recent musicals, none of the principals can really sing."

In another, he wrote that "`Illya Darling' rests on the premise that Melina Mercouri is irresistible. ... This highly unlikely premise . ..." He raised a ruckus when a producer quoted him in an ad as saying "Melina is irresistible."

Some of his less-than-kind comments about David Merrick's shows prompted the headline-loving producer to try to ban Newman from his productions.

After retiring in January 1984, Newman enjoyed being on "Saturday Night Live" skits and in several situation comedies, where, he said, "I've always had the demanding job of playing myself." (In one SNL sketch, he mans a suicide hot line and keeps correcting the desperate caller's grammar.)

He narrated some public television programs, including the 1988 PBS series "Television."

"So much on TV over the years has been good," he said at the time. "The question is raised, why can't there be more such good, worthwhile, deserving programs? But I have never met a payroll or had to sell time on the air. It is easy to be critical."

Newman was born in New York City in 1919, and got his first taste of reporting on his high school paper. A brother, M.W. Newman, became an award-winning reporter for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times. He died in 2001.

After studying at the University of Wisconsin and Louisiana State, Newman began his journalism career in the Washington bureau of the International News Service. He took dictation from reporters for 12 hours when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, he held various journalism jobs, including a stint in the CBS Washington bureau, before joining NBC in 1952 in London.

He rose to NBC bureau chief in London, then Rome, then Paris before returning to the United States permanently in 1961, covering a variety of assignments for NBC.

He and his wife, Rigel, had one daughter, Nancy.

"News is a great business," Newman once wrote. "I count myself lucky to be in it."

"I remember when the bulletin came on the AP wire that Spiro Agnew had resigned as vice president. I ran to the announcer's booth. There was an American League playoff game on. Whoever was in charge of operations control wanted me to wait until the end of the inning. I said, `The next time the pitcher delivers the pitch and you see the ball in the catcher's mitt, switch to me and I'll be off before the pitcher throws another ball.'"

[Lzcutter]

It's a bad week for Hollywood journalists.

James Bacon has passed away:

James Bacon, the longtime syndicated Hollywood columnist and reporter whose career covering the film capital began in the late 1940s with the Associated Press, has died. He was 96.

Bacon, whose long career included small roles in such movies as "Planet of the Apes," died in his sleep of congestive heart failure Saturday at his Northridge home, said family friend Stan Rosenfield.

Bacon was an AP reporter from Chicago when he arrived in Hollywood in 1948, a time when Los Angeles had six daily newspapers and rival Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons reigned supreme.

For more of the obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 4315.story

And Roderick Mann has also passed away:

Roderick Mann, a British-born show business writer who interviewed many of the world's biggest stars during a more than 40-year career that included serving as an entertainment columnist for the Los Angeles Times, died early Friday morning. He was 87.

Mann, who had been battling dementia and the early stages of Alzheimer's disease the last 14 months, died of cardiopulmonary arrest at an assisted-living facility in Studio City, said his wife, Anastasia Kostoff Mann.

In a journalism career that began in the late 1940s after he served as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot in World War II, Mann was the syndicated entertainment feature writer for London's Daily and Sunday Express from the 1950s through the '80s.

For more of the obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 4469.story

[JackFavell]

I missed the Edwin Newman story. He was a great writer who did us all a service by writing about our language in his extremely entertaining and funny books. He made me feel smart when I picked up A Civil Tongue or Strictly Speaking. He was a brilliant writer who never talked down to his audience. I'm sad to see another great old-school journalist go.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Eddie Fisher: -

Very sad to hear that a wonderful talent has died...
But, doubly sad that he only was able to display this talent for a short time in the 50's. I remember very well his TV show and record fame from that time.
He was 'the Michael Jackson' of his day (and a lot more talented)....

Unfortunately, he will only be remembered for being "a jerk" (as one announcer on TV said today) for dumping Debbie Reynolds and running off with Elizabeth Taylor.
After Elizabeth dumped him, he married Connie Stevens - they later divorced also - and Eddie went into oblivion...

R.I.P. Mr. Fisher

Larry