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Lzcutter
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Post by Lzcutter »

Oscar winning writer/director, Abby Mann, has passed away. He was 80.

Abby Mann, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 1961's "Judgment at Nuremberg" and such acclaimed TV movies as 1973's "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" and 1989's "Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story," died Tuesday of heart failure in Beverly Hills. He was 80.

During his more than 50-year career as a writer, producer and director, Mann built a strong reputation for his issue-oriented, thought-provoking projects. A multiple Emmy winner, Mann was especially critical of the inner workings of the American criminal justice system. He was known for creating complex characters and was scrupulous in his investigative research.

"A writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives," Mann said when he accepted his Oscar for "Judgment at Nuremberg," the Stanley Kramer drama about the Nuremberg war trials in Germany in 1948. One of the film's stars, Richard Widmark, died Monday at age 93.

Born Abraham Goodman in Philadelphia on Dec. 1, 1927, Mann was the son of a Russian-Jewish immigrant jeweler and grew up in East Pittsburgh in a predominantly Catholic working-class neighborhood. As one of the few Jews in the area, Mann always felt like an outsider, and his scripts years later focused on the world of outsiders -- the poor and racial minorities who were subjected to prejudice and injustice.

"I think he obviously was a very serious, substantive writer who was able to deal with a very strong social conscience and a very strong sense of what it was like to be an outsider, functioning within a society or system that didn't have your best interests at heart," said David Bushman, television curator at the Paley Center for Media in New York. "He elevated the level of television because of his skills as a writer and his devotion to taking on serious, controversial issues, . . . usually taking on the side of the underdog."

After attending Temple University and New York University, Mann served in the Army during World War II. He began his professional writing career in the early days of live television in the 1950s, penning scripts for such popular anthologies as "Cameo Theater," "Studio One," "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "Playhouse 90." "Judgment at Nuremberg" was originally presented live on "Playhouse 90" in 1959.

In a 2001 interview with the Associated Press, Mann said that when the drama first aired, "there were a lot of people who felt we really should not do it. The Cold War was at its height. Some people felt I was embarrassing the [Eisenhower] administration."

Not only did he write the film but Mann also penned a novel based on the movie.

The movie version of "Judgment" brought him to Hollywood, where he went on to write 1963's "A Child Is Waiting," directed by John Cassavetes, a drama that dealt with mentally challenged children, and the 1965 adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel "Ship of Fools," which was directed by Kramer and brought Mann a second Oscar nomination.

Mann received an Emmy and a Writers Guild of America Award for the TV movie "The Marcus-Nelson Murders," which introduced the character of Kojak, played by Telly Savalas. The character proved to be so popular it was spun off into a long-running series.

The film was based on the 1963 rape and murder of two white professional women living in Manhattan. George Whitmore, a young black man who had been arrested previously for the murder of a black woman, signed a confession stating that he had murdered the two women. Whitmore later said that he was beaten and coerced into signing it. Mann visited Whitmore in jail and was so convinced after talking to him that Whitmore wasn't guilty -- and that officials had ignored Whitmore's alibi that he had been 50 miles away at the time of the murder -- that he wrote the screenplay. After the film aired, Whitmore was set free.

Mann also created and was co-executive producer of the 1975-76 series "Medical Story" and received an Emmy nomination for the pilot of "Skag," a short-lived 1980 series starring Karl Malden as the foreman of a Pittsburgh steel mill.

Mann, though, generally concentrated on movies and miniseries for television. Among his other credits are "The Atlanta Child Murders," "Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story" and "Sinatra," in which he is credited as Ben Goodman, and "King," a miniseries on the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which Mann also directed.

The home he owned with his wife, Myra, burned down on the first day of production of "Indictment: The McMartin Trial," the HBO movie in which Mann examined the machinations of the judicial system in the controversial preschool molestation case. After the film aired in 1995, Mann said that "people seem . . . obsessed by [the trial]. I suppose they realize that they have watched and believed stories that were as incredible as the Salem witch hunt."

Mann is survived by his wife and a son. A memorial service will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
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"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

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Jules Dassin passes away at 96

Post by Lzcutter »

Ex-Pat filmmaker Jules Dassin has passed away at the age of 96:


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jun ... m0k_b3z3xw
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

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Re: Jules Dassin passes away at 96

Post by klondike »

Lzcutter wrote:Ex-Pat filmmaker Jules Dassin has passed away at the age of 96:
Surely, this must be the visionary who brought us Flesh and Fantasy.
There is a film I wouldn't mind seeing aired on TCM!
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Charlton Heston has died

Post by Lzcutter »

After a long battle with Alzhiemer's, Screen legend Charlton Heston has passed away at the age of 84.

His obit from Daily Variety:

Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.

The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.

Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."

With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.

The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.

In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."

Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."

Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.

He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.

Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the midcentury. "Ben-Hur" won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent "Titanic" (1997) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). Heston's other hits include: "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," "55 Days at Peking," "Planet of the Apes" and "Earthquake."

He liked the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:

Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").

Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston was paid $50 a week.

Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."

Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City," a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952.
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

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Post by jdb1 »

Hey, Gang,

Just read on the BBC News website that British horror flick beauty Hazel Court has passed away at age 82.
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Post by ken123 »

I am very sorry to hear the news of her death. I loved the Red Haired Ms Court !
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Post by moira finnie »

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Joy Page, the dark-eyed actress who, as a young Bulgarian refugee seeking advice in the classic Casablanca, touched Rick's not-so-stony heart, has died at 83. Ms. Page can be seen on TCM as well in Budd Boetticher's The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) coming up on the 5th of July at 2pm EDT. Her New York Times obituary can be accessed here. The LA Times notice may also interest many, found here.

A question for you highly informed individuals: As one of the youngest members of the original cast of Casablanca, is it possible that Ms. Page was the last member of the film's participants to pass away?
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Post by moira finnie »

Kay Linaker, who was an actress in the '30s and '40s, became one of the screenwriters on the The Blob, and later taught screenwriting, has died at 94.
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Appearing in Drums Along the Mohawk, Kitty Foyle (as Dennis Morgan's patrician wife), Blood and Sand, and numerous Charlie Chan flicks, her elegant good looks, (and ability to scream effectively in a ladylike fashion), earned her a kind of immortality. See here for a page devoted to Ms. Linaker's entertainingly checkered career.

The lady wrote under her real name of Kate Phillips, and when assisting with the dubious creation of a screenplay called "The Molten Meteor" in 1956, the producers heard her calling the "monster" in the film, "the blob"--movie history was made. For the record, Ms. Phillips said that she received the same as Steve McQueen for her efforts: $150 & 10% of the gross, (though neither she nor McQueen ever saw that percentage, thanks to the usual creative accounting of the movie production company). At least McQueen got a crack at stardom in part because of the movie's success.
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Post by moira finnie »

Not that I want to be an official crepe hanger or anything, but a few more links in the chain of movie history have been broken in the last week...

Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the daughter of impresario Flo Ziegfeld & Billie Burke has died at 91 at her home in LA. Predeceased by 6 months by her husband of 67 years, architect William Stephenson, the couple had three daughters, Cecilia Duncan, Florenz Crossley and Susan Plemons; a son, W. Robert Stephenson Jr.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Despite growing up on a plush, (if under-financed) estate in Westchester with a baby elephant for a pet, the Ziegfelds' only child seems to have been a grounded girl, with few impulses to step into the spotlight. In 1963, Mrs. Stephenson wrote a delightful memoir, "The Ziegfelds' Girl: Confessions of an Abnormally Happy Childhood" and contributed to what may be the best book on her father's world, "The Ziegfeld Touch: The Life and Times of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.," written by distant cousins Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld. (If you want some great reads on theater & movie history, both these books are fun and informative, as is Billie Burke's gently honest memoir, "With a Feather on My Nose".)
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The family together in the '30s: Flo Ziegfeld, Billie Burke and Patricia.

Once, when asked to comment on her parents' glamorously chronicled lives, Mrs. Stephenson said,
"I was not quite sixteen when Daddy died – virtually bankrupt. To make ends meet, Mother went back to acting more frequently, this time as a character actress rather than a leading lady. The years that followed were not easy ones. Even in the most difficult days, though, she spoke of Daddy with pride and affection. Towards the end of her life, she often remarked that she missed my father more in her later years than she did right after his death. Florenz Ziegfeld was envied, praised, censured, even hated, but he was also very much loved"
Last edited by moira finnie on April 27th, 2008, 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by klondike »

Kay Linaker, who was an actress in the '30s and '40s, became one of the screenwriters on the The Blob, and later taught screenwriting, has died at 94.
Kate's passing (for hereabouts most knew her by her preferred workaday name of Kate Phillips) has left a very solemn mood this weekend throughout the Monadnock Region, & neighboring Southern Vermont.
During her decades on staff @ Keene State College (just 23 miles downriver from B.F.) she was indeed a kind & tireless inspiration, and an often tough taskmaster, to many aspiring writers & dramatic performers, and hundreds of awe-struck students, as often mentoring by example as by instruction.
Just last night, I and a smattering of her trans-generational devotees raised a Drambuie or 3 to her bright memory at the local pub.
I like to think that somewhere, on the other side of this Vail o' Tears, her name's going up on a big old art deco marquee.
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Post by moira finnie »

How cool is that about Kay Linaker aka Kate Phillips, Klon!? Did you really know the lady? I understand that she was very active in the college community in the Keene, NH area, conducting classes geared toward getting people to write those "stories they never got around to writing." I like that "it's never too late" attitude.
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Post by klondike »

moirafinnie wrote:How cool is that about Kay Linaker aka Kate Phillips, Klon!? Did you really know the lady? I understand that she was very active in the college community in the Keene, NH area, conducting classes geared toward getting people to write those "stories they never got around to writing." I like that "it's never too late" attitude.
It is my honor to say that yes, I did know Kate (who would seldom brook anyone, of any age, calling her anything more august), though never as well, or as frequently, as I would have liked - hell, we were legion in that sense, all of us, for seldom could she be spotted out & about at the movies, or on the KSC quad, or at the library or some fund-raising event, without being thronged by acolytes and old chums and ex-students and well-wishers . . gotta say, she was well-served through all that with a perfectly eidetic memory for faces (even my back-country pan) and the names that went with them, and always greeted the folks buttonholing her with unfailing warmth & accuracy. She also had that halcyon gift of putting all stripes of society at ease when she chatted them up, frequently making even non-collegiates (like myself) feel just as clever as anybody else jogging her elbow.
I recall once actually crashing a country club soiree specifically to visit with her - a full year later, while "catching up" with her in the produce section of a local grocery, she remarked on that occasion, stating that she had found my sense of contra-couture gall "quite refreshing", and that I'd "clearly shown the finest manners of anyone in the room". When I reminded her that I'd been "escorted out" that evening, she laughed & shrugged, saying "Well, that's the problem with snobs: their sense of humor is often as shallow as their points of view."
To paraphrase Howard Hughes, that's my kind of woman!
In closing, I guess I should also point out that as early as the mid-70's, Kate was a very outspoken advocate of proactive film preservation . . and never gave up trying to promote the absolute necessity of instituting archival sciences for studios (large & small), university film departments and film warehouses & treasuries.
It was nearly always an uphill battle for her, but she was the epitome of the dedicated non-quitter.
I don't doubt that if our Classic Cinema College was a Newtonian reality, Kate would have arrived there by train a good ten years ago, and would have been laureled faculty in no time!
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John Philip Law (1937-2008)

Post by moira finnie »

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News comes this morning that John Phillip Law has died at 70. Mr. Law played the young Russian sailor in The Russians Are Coming, etc, the blind angel in Barbarella, The Red Baron in a Roger Corman movie of the same name, and Sinbad the Sailor in one of Ray Harryhausen's adventure movies, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, as well as appearing in spaghetti westerns along with Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse, and numerous other films.

Well, he may not have set the world on fire with his acting, but he brought a sense of adventure to his projects, and, from a few interviews I've come across over the years, a good sense of humor and a sense of perspective about show biz. I've always liked the guy. Could be those good looks, but it seems that he may have been a pretty down to earth guy, whose career luck amazed him too.
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Post by moira finnie »

I just wanted to add an addendum to the words about John Phillip Law above. Richard Harland Smith has written a lovely appreciation of the actor here.
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Post by klondike »

This week, John Phillip Law has departed from our current day-to-day reality, but back in 1974, when he stood between a giant gryphon & a one-eyed centaur, and drew his scimitar to defend the subterranean fountain of wizardry, he became immortal in my mind.
And likely will remain so.
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