“I wonder what the meanest, foulest, rottenest, woodsiest sex crime ever was?”
Fred Lincoln was a giant in the adult film industry, directing and acting in hundreds of porno films from the early 70’s up until about 5 five years ago when his health began to decline. We Are Movie Geeks doesn’t cover porn, but like his costar David Hess (who died in October of 2011), Lincoln would have gone done in history as one of the slimiest degenerates in the movies if he had appeared in nothing except the 1972 rape and revenge classic LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT where he played the repellent villain Weasel Padowski (a name he sometimes used as a pseudonym for his porn directing). Director Wes Craven’s first film was one of the most notorious movies ever made, offending nearly everyone who saw it, and 40 years later, it hasn’t lost any of its edge. Weasel gets the most painful comeuppance in the film, having his manhood bitten off and spit into a pond by the mother of a girl he’d just raped and tortured. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was originally planned as a hardcore feature which may explain Lincoln’s initial involvement though Lincoln would claim it was the worst film he ever appeared in (!). Lincoln worked for cult directors Andy Milligan in FLESHPOT ON 42nd STREET (1973) and Joe Sarno in A TOUCH OF GENIE (1974), but spent almost his entire post-LAST HOUSE career in the hardcore porn biz. He was at one time the owner of the notorious New York City sex club Plato’s Retreat and is interviewed on camera in the 2008 documentary AMERICAN SWING about Plato’s. I met Fred Lincoln, along with David Hess and the other two LAST HOUSE killers, Marc Sheffler and Jeramie Rain, at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland in 2005. The four participated in a lively running audio commentary over a 16mm screening of LAST HOUSE and they all signed my LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT poster. Lincoln was friendly and open about his wild, vulgar lifestyle. He had been in ill health and I do not know the exact cause of his death but I’m sure even he was surprised he made it to age 70.

“I wonder what the meanest, foulest, rottenest, woodsiest sex crime ever was?”

Fred Lincoln was a giant in the adult film industry, directing and acting in hundreds of porno films from the early 70’s up until about 5 five years ago when his health began to decline. We Are Movie Geeks doesn’t cover porn, but like his costar David Hess (who died in October of 2011), Lincoln would have gone done in history as one of the slimiest degenerates in the movies if he had appeared in nothing except the 1972 rape and revenge classic LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT where he played the repellent villain Weasel Padowski (a name he sometimes used as a pseudonym for his porn directing). Director Wes Craven’s first film was one of the most notorious movies ever made, offending nearly everyone who saw it, and 40 years later, it hasn’t lost any of its edge. Weasel gets the most painful comeuppance in the film, having his manhood bitten off and spit into a pond by the mother of a girl he’d just raped and tortured. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was originally planned as a hardcore feature which may explain Lincoln’s initial involvement though Lincoln would claim it was the worst film he ever appeared in (!). Lincoln worked for cult directors Andy Milligan in FLESHPOT ON 42nd STREET (1973) and Joe Sarno in A TOUCH OF GENIE (1974), but spent almost his entire post-LAST HOUSE career in the hardcore porn biz. He was at one time the owner of the notorious New York City sex club Plato’s Retreat and is interviewed on camera in the 2008 documentary AMERICAN SWING about Plato’s. I met Fred Lincoln, along with David Hess and the other two LAST HOUSE killers, Marc Sheffler and Jeramie Rain, at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland in 2005. The four participated in a lively running audio commentary over a 16mm screening of LAST HOUSE and they all signed my LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT poster. Lincoln was friendly and open about his wild, vulgar lifestyle. He had been in ill health and I do not know the exact cause of his death but I’m sure even he was surprised he made it to age 70.

“I wonder what the meanest, foulest, rottenest, woodsiest sex crime ever was?”

Fred Lincoln was a giant in the adult film industry, directing and acting in hundreds of porno films from the early 70’s up until about 5 five years ago when his health began to decline. We Are Movie Geeks doesn’t cover porn, but like his costar David Hess (who died in October of 2011), Lincoln would have gone done in history as one of the slimiest degenerates in the movies if he had appeared in nothing except the 1972 rape and revenge classic LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT where he played the repellent villain Weasel Padowski (a name he sometimes used as a pseudonym for his porn directing). Director Wes Craven’s first film was one of the most notorious movies ever made, offending nearly everyone who saw it, and 40 years later, it hasn’t lost any of its edge. Weasel gets the most painful comeuppance in the film, having his manhood bitten off and spit into a pond by the mother of a girl he’d just raped and tortured. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was originally planned as a hardcore feature which may explain Lincoln’s initial involvement though Lincoln would claim it was the worst film he ever appeared in (!). Lincoln worked for cult directors Andy Milligan in FLESHPOT ON 42nd STREET (1973) and Joe Sarno in A TOUCH OF GENIE (1974), but spent almost his entire post-LAST HOUSE career in the hardcore porn biz. He was at one time the owner of the notorious New York City sex club Plato’s Retreat and is interviewed on camera in the 2008 documentary AMERICAN SWING about Plato’s. I met Fred Lincoln, along with David Hess and the other two LAST HOUSE killers, Marc Sheffler and Jeramie Rain, at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland in 2005. The four participated in a lively running audio commentary over a 16mm screening of LAST HOUSE and they all signed my LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT poster. Lincoln was friendly and open about his wild, vulgar lifestyle. He had been in ill health and I do not know the exact cause of his death but I’m sure even he was surprised he made it to age 70.

“I wonder what the meanest, foulest, rottenest, woodsiest sex crime ever was?”

Fred Lincoln was a giant in the adult film industry, directing and acting in hundreds of porno films from the early 70’s up until about 5 five years ago when his health began to decline. We Are Movie Geeks doesn’t cover porn, but like his costar David Hess (who died in October of 2011), Lincoln would have gone done in history as one of the slimiest degenerates in the movies if he had appeared in nothing except the 1972 rape and revenge classic LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT where he played the repellent villain Weasel Padowski (a name he sometimes used as a pseudonym for his porn directing). Director Wes Craven’s first film was one of the most notorious movies ever made, offending nearly everyone who saw it, and 40 years later, it hasn’t lost any of its edge. Weasel gets the most painful comeuppance in the film, having his manhood bitten off and spit into a pond by the mother of a girl he’d just raped and tortured. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was originally planned as a hardcore feature which may explain Lincoln’s initial involvement though Lincoln would claim it was the worst film he ever appeared in (!). Lincoln worked for cult directors Andy Milligan in FLESHPOT ON 42nd STREET (1973) and Joe Sarno in A TOUCH OF GENIE (1974), but spent almost his entire post-LAST HOUSE career in the hardcore porn biz. He was at one time the owner of the notorious New York City sex club Plato’s Retreat and is interviewed on camera in the 2008 documentary AMERICAN SWING about Plato’s. I met Fred Lincoln, along with David Hess and the other two LAST HOUSE killers, Marc Sheffler and Jeramie Rain, at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland in 2005. The four participated in a lively running audio commentary over a 16mm screening of LAST HOUSE and they all signed my LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT poster. Lincoln was friendly and open about his wild, vulgar lifestyle. He had been in ill health and I do not know the exact cause of his death but I’m sure even he was surprised he made it to age 70.

His two most famous film roles were as the man wrongly accused of being the ‘necktie strangler’ in Alfred Hitchcock’s FRENZY (1972), the director’s last great film, and the title role in Roman Polanski’s MACBETH in 1971. He may be best known for the role he turned down: that of James Bond when Cubby Broccoli was looking for a handsome British actor to replace Sean Connery for 1973′s LIVE AND LET DIE. Earlier in his career, actor Jon Finch had appeared in the Hammer horror films THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN. He also starred in the end-of-the-world sci-fi saga THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH (1973) from cult director Robert Fuest (THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES). He was married for several years to Catrinoa MacColl, who worked regularly with director Lucio Fulci in films including THE BEYOND and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY. Finch’s final role was a small one in Ridley Scott’s KINGDOM OF HEAVEN in 2005. The cause of his death is unknown at this time but it’s reported that he suffered from diabetes. Jon Finch was 70.

I always found it interesting that actress Patty Shepard was from Greenville, South Caroline, my father’s hometown, and wondered how she ended up in Europe co-starring alongside Paul Naschy and others in a string of cult horror films. She moved to Spain at 18 to study philosophy and ended up living there the remainder of her life. She started as a model and worked in Spanish television before moving into film. Like Barabra Steele, Shepard had a face that could embody both innocence and evil at the same time and her first horror film was with Naschy in ASSIGNMENT TERROR (1970). The role cult fans best remember her for was as Wandesa D¡rvula de Nadasdy in WEREWOLF VS. VAMPIRE WOMAN (1971) the second film featuring Naschy’s doomed werewolf character, Waldemar Daninsky (I have the paperback tie-in novel). Other horror credits for Ms Shepard include HANNAH QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES (1973), REST IN PIECES (1987), and EDGE OF THE AXE (1988). Shepard was married to the Spanish actor Manuel de Blas who played Dracula in ASSIGNMENT TERROR. She apparently suffered a fatal heart attack on Tuesday.

This obit from THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS doesn’t even mention her horror career but there’s not a whole lot out there about her right now.

An American model and actress who became a star of the Spanish silver screen has died from a heart attack. Patty Shepard, who was from Greenville, South Carolina, died at the age of 68 in her Madrid home on January 3, Spanish media reports. Born in 1945, she moved to Madrid in 1963, aged just 18, to study philosophy. She never returned home. The young Shepard soon became a model and appeared in several popular television commercials – most notably one for a brandy firm.

Read the rest HERE

Shepard with her husband, actor Manuel de Blas

“King of the Character Actors” indeed. I couldn’t even find a movie poster with his image on it for this article, yet he was a very popular, dependable supporting actor for many years and everyone knew who he was. He scored back-to-back Oscar noms for BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS (1983) and TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1984). He appeared in quality films such as THE STING, TOOTSIE, DOG DAY AFTERNOON and many more. Looking at his credits, it appears he never worked for a quick paycheck (there’s not a single horror film in his filmography), but made careful decisions about what he was associated with. He was a WWII hero, among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners yet, like many of the greatest generation, refused to discuss his military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts later in life. Charles Durning was 89.

From The New York Times:

Charles Durning, who overcame poverty, battlefield trauma and nagging self-doubt to become an acclaimed character actor, whether on stage as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” or in film as the lonely widower smitten with a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,”died Monday in New York. He was 89. He died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported, citing Judith Moss, his agent and friend. Charles Durning may not have been a household name, but with his pugnacious features and imposing bulk he was a familiar presence in American movies, television and theater, even if often overshadowed by the headliners. Alongside Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s con men, Mr. Durning was a crooked cop in the 1973 movie “The Sting”; starring with Nick Nolte; he was a dedicated assistant football coach in “North Dallas Forty” (1979); in the shadow of Robert De Niro, he was a hypocritical power broker in “True Confessions” (1981). If his ordinary-guy looks deprived him of leading-man roles, they did not leave him typecast……..

Read the rest HERE

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/movies/charles-durning-prolific-character-actor-dies-at-89.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Before founding the profitable audio-book company Dove Books-on-Tape in the mid-’80s,Deborah Raffin was a busy actress. The Los Angeles native landed parts in the 1973 film 40 CARATS and in 1975′s ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH adapted from the steamy Jacqueline Susann novel. In the 1980s, she became something of a TV-movie staple appearing in such memorable fare as Mind Over Murder and Noble House.

But it’s her role as the girlfriend of Charles Bronson (an actor 32 years her senior) in DEATH WISH 3 (1985), one of American cinema’s finest hours, that will forever endear her to this movie geek. Raffin played public defender Kathryn Davis, who tracks down suspected vigilante Paul Kersey (Bronson), invites him to dinner, falls in love with him and, because she’s a love interest in a Death Wish movie, is promptly blown to smithereens. Raffin also had roles in Larry Cohen’s ambitious cult item GOD TOLD ME TO (1976) and the terrifying 1979 horror film THE SENTINEL (directed by DEATH WISH helmer Michael Winner). Ms Raffin had suffered from Leukemia and was 59 years old

From The New York Times:

Deborah Raffin, an actress who had roles in movies like “Forty Carats” and “Once Is Not Enough,” died here on Wednesday. She was 59. The cause was leukemia, her brother, William, told The Los Angeles Times. The disease was diagnosed about a year ago. Besides her film roles, Ms. Raffin starred in television movies and mini-series, most notably playing the actress Brooke Hayward in “Haywire” and a business executive in “Noble House,” based on the James Clavell saga set in Hong Kong. She was also the co-founder of a successful audiobook business………..

Read the rest HERE

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/arts/television/deborah-raffin-actress-and-publisher-is-dead-at-59.html

Seems like we always say goodbye to someone big on Thanksgiving weekend. Larry Hagman was more a TV figure, and a major one at that, but he had quite a few big-screen credits to brag about including key roles in FAIL SAFE (1964), MOTHER, JUGS, AND SPEED (1976) , and the David Essex cult  music drama STARDUST (1974). His only directing credit was the 1972 horror film BEWARE! THE BLOB which was released on video with the tag line “The film JR shot!”. Hagman was the son of actress Mary Martin and was married to the same woman, Maj Axellson, for 58 years. Hagman was 81.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Larry Hagman, who played the evil oilman J.R. Ewing for 14 seasons on the hit primetime soap Dallas, has died, sources close to the actor told The Dallas Morning News. He was 81. Hagman, who starred with Barbara Eden on another TV hit, the 1960s comedy I Dream of Jeannie, died Friday afternoon in a Dallas hospital. Dallas co-stars Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy were reportedly with him when he died.In October 2011, the actor said he had a “treatable” form of cancer and that he would work on TNT’s Dallas reboot during treatment. He appeared in 10 episodes of the series, which debuted in June…….

Read the rest HERE

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/larry-hagman-dies-393764

Released in 1974, the soft-core French film EMMANUELLE was one of the first erotic movies to be shown in mainstream U.S. cinemas. The story of a sexually promiscuous housewife was an worldwide smash, making a star of 22-year old Dutch beauty Sylvia Kristel and spawning dozens of sequels and knock-offs (Kristel also starred in the first sequel EMMANUELLE JOYS OF A WOMAN). She had a natural, uninhibited presence and would act in several erotic period pieces in Europe such as LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER and MATA HARI. Her Emmanuelle image followed her to the United States where she starred as a maid who seduces a teenage boy in the controversial 1981 sex comedy PRIVATE LESSONS, another hit. Kristel lived mostly in Belgium the last couple of decades and penned her autobiography Undressing Emmanuelle. In May 2006, Kristel received an award at the Tribeca Film Festival for directing the animated short film “Topor and Me”. Sylvia Kristel dies yesterday of throat cancer at age 60.

From FOX NEWS:

Actress Sylvia Kristel, the Dutch star of the hit 1970s erotic movie “Emmanuelle,” has died of cancer at age 60.

Her agent, Features Creative Management, said in a statement Thursday that Kristel died in her sleep Wednesday night. Kristel, a model who turned to acting in the 1970s, had been fighting cancer for several years.

Her breakthrough came in “Emmanuelle,” a 1974 erotic tale directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin, about the sexual adventures of a man and his beautiful young wife, played by Kristel, in Thailand.

She went on to star in several sequels to “Emmanuelle,” as well as in Hollywood movies including “Private Lessons” in 1981.

In Hollywood, she sank into a world of drink and drugs. “I wish I could have skipped that part of my life, she said in a 2005 interview with Dutch newspaper De Volkkrant.

Her agent described her as one of the Netherlands’ biggest movie stars, with more than 50 international films to her name…………………..

“Mongo like candy!”

We just showed BLAZING SADDLES at this month’s Super-8 Movie Madness and everyone roared when Alex Karras, as Mongo, KO’d that horse. The 6′ 3″ Karras played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions off and on from 1958 to 1970 before finding a second career as an actor. BLAZING SADDLES  had his most famous role but he was also memorable as the sheriff in PORKYS and as ‘Squash’ Bernstein in VICTOR/VICTORIA. He had been suffering recently from liver disease.

From The Washington Post:

DETROIT — Alex Karras was one of the NFL’s most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen.

And yet, to many people he will always be the lovable dad from the 1980s sitcom “Webster” or the big cowboy who famously punched out a horse in “Blazing Saddles.”

The rugged player, who anchored the Detroit Lions’ defense and then made a successful transition to an acting career, with a stint along the way as a commentator on “Monday Night Football,” died Wednesday. He was 77.

Karras had recently suffered kidney failure and been diagnosed with dementia. The Lions also said he had suffered from heart disease and, for the last two years, stomach cancer. He died at home in Los Angeles surrounded by family members, said Craig Mitnick, Karras’ attorney…………..

Read the rest HERE

A-Lad-In His Lamp was a 1948 Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoon that had showed an aerial map depicting two bodies of water named Veronica Lake and Turhan Bay. This probably seemed clever 64 years ago but later generations of kids catching it on TV most likely missed the joke. Born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy in Austria in 1922, Turhan Bey was dubbed “The Turkish Delight” by his fans and the movie mags. He costarred with exotic Dominican-born actress Maria Montez in seven films including ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES and SUDAN. His is an especially sad passing for monster kids as Bey was just about the last living link to The Golden Age of Universal’s Horror films, having starred in THE MAD GHOUL, CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, and opposite Lon Chaney in THE MUMMY’S TOMB. Bey left Hollywood in 1949 to return to his native Vienna, working as a photographer. However, he returned to Hollywood in the 1990s, appearing in such TV shows as “Murder, She Wrote” and “SeaQuest” and even garnered an Emmy nomination for his performance as the venerable Turval in the “Babylon 5″. Bey died in Austria on Sept. 30 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease though news of his death was not announced until yesterday.

From The Los Angeles Times

Turhan Bey, 90, an actor whose exotic good looks earned him the nickname of “Turkish Delight” in films with Errol Flynn and Katharine Hepburn before he left Hollywood for a quieter life in Vienna, died Sept. 30 in the Austrian capital after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. His friend Marita Ruiter, who exhibited Bey’s photos in her Luxembourg gallery, confirmed his death, according to the Austria Press Agency.

Born in Austria as Gilbert Selahettin Schultavey, the son of a Turkish diplomat, Bey assumed his stage name shortly after moving to the United States from Vienna with his Jewish Czech mother to escape the Nazis and being discovered by talent scouts from Warner Bros. studios…..

Read the rest HERE

Though best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, the Herbert Lom PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for Hammer Studios in 1962  is the version I grew up and the actor had a ton of  cult and horror credits including as Captain Nemo in MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961) and as Van Helsing in Jess Franco’s COUNT DRACULA (1970). Born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, he began performing on stage and screen in Czechoslovakia, before leaving for England at the start of World War II. He made his film debut in 1937 and entertained us all throughout eight decades of sterling work, appearing in over 100 films.

From The BBC News:

Actor Herbert Lom, best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95. The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau’s irritable boss. Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid. His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday. Lom also portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte on two occasions. One of them came in the 1956 screen adaptation of Tolstoy’s War And Peace, also starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. He first appeared as police chief Dreyfus in 1964′s A Shot In The Dark, a character who became increasingly mentally unstable as a result of Clouseau’s incompetence as the films went on.

Read the rest HERE

Sad news out of Hollywood. Actor Michael Clark Duncan has passed away of a heart attack at the too-young age of 54. Looks like he never recovered that the massive heart attack he had several weeks ago. The 6′ 5″ actor was Oscar-nominated in 1999 for his performance in THE GREEN MILE and it remains his most celebrated role. Duncan was raised by a single mother in Chicago, and dug ditches to help his mother financially. He worked as a male stripper called ‘Black Caesar’ and was at one time a bodyguard for Will Smith. He gave $5 to people who recognized him on the street if they knew his full name. He was a big man with a big heart that simply gave out on him.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

The actor’s longtime manager, Dan Spilo at Industry Entertainment, has confirmed his passing to The Hollywood Reporter, calling it “a tragic loss for anyone who knew this wonderful man, for the business as a whole and for the planet.” Spilo, who managed the Green Mile actor for more than a decade, added: ”He was the only actor I ever knew that more often than not when fans came up to him, of any age or race or gender, they wouldn’t ask for an autograph, they’d want a hug. He had a heart as big as the world. Duncan was hospitalized July 13 for a myocardial infarction, which his rep said he never fully recovered from. Duncan’s fiance, Omarosa Manigault, was with him in the hospital shortly before his death……………

Read the rest HERE

Superstar comedienne Phyllis Diller died today in Los Angeles, California. She was 95. Diller was not the first female stand-up comic ( ‘Moms’  Mabely had been performing since the 40′s ), but her outrageous fashions and irreverent sense of humor established her as a media comedy sensation in the 1960′s. Before Rosanne Barr, Diller joked  about the drudgery of housework ( and a clueless husband named ” Fang ” ) and her self-depreciating gags no doubt inspired Totie Fields and Joan Rivers. Ms. Diller ( born Phyllis Ada Driver ) was writing radio copy in the San Francisco area in the 50′s when she decided to enter the world of stand-up comedy. After success at clubs, she soon branched into television with an appearance on Groucho Marx’s quiz show ” You Bet Your Life “. After nightclubs she perhaps had her biggest successes in TV as a fixture of talk shows, variety shows and game shows, although she had little luck with starring vehicles ( with her outrageously hued fashions Diller was a perfect fit for the new color TV sets ). Her sitcom ” The Pruitts of Southhampton” and her variety show ” The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show” were short lived. In addition to her stand-up work Ms. Diller toured as the lead on stage in ” Hello Dolly” and in later years she performed classical piano concerts around the country. Several comedy albums and a 2005 autobiography, ” Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse”, are part of her lengthy resume’.

But we movie geeks are especially interested in her screen career, and it’s quite a film list beginning with the dramatic classic SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS in 1961. Diller was soon bringing her humor to film in THE FAT SPY with Jayne Mansfield. Bob Hope found a perfect comic foil in her for three of his 1960′s feature films : THE PRIVATE NAVY OF SGT. O’FARRELL, EIGHT ON THE LAM, and BOY, DID I GET A WRONG NUMBER ( Diller also joined Hope for several holiday Vietnam USO tours ). She even had the lead role in 1968′s DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE TRAVELING SALESLADY?. Genre fans may recall her most fondly as the voice ( and image courtesy of Mad Magazine staple Jack Davis ) of the monster’s mate in the classic Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated feature film MAD MONSTER PARTY in 1967. Diller shared scenes with Boris Karloff and sang a song to Frankenstein’s creation, ” You’re Different” in this kid classic. She would lend her voice to hand-drawn cell animation a few years later for an episode of ” The New Scooby Doo Movies” on Saturday morning TV. Many years later Diller was animated again this time via computers in Pixar’s second feature film A BUG’S LIFE as the voice of a royal ant. She’s also been interviewed for several documentaries, most notably in THE ARISTOCRATS. Phyllis Diller leaves an eclectic body of film work, Her legacy of laughter will entertain countless future generations.

From the AP – LOS ANGELES -

Tony Scott, director of such Hollywood blockbusters as “Top Gun,” “Days of Thunder” and “Beverly Hills Cop II,” died Sunday after jumping from a Los Angeles County Bridge, authorities said.

The 68-year-old Scott’s death was being investigated as a suicide, Los Angeles County Coroner’s Lt. Joe Bale said.

Several people called 911 around 12:35 p.m. to report that someone had jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island in Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles police Lt. Tim Nordquist.

A dive team with Los Angeles Port Police pulled the body from the murky water several hours later, Nordquist said. Scott’s body was taken to a dock in Wilmington and turned over to the county coroner’s office.

One lane of the eastbound side of the bridge was closed to traffic during the investigation.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jennifer Osburn told the Daily Breeze that a suicide note was found inside Scott’s black Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge.

The British-born Scott was producer and director Ridley Scott’s brother.

The two brothers ran Scott Free Productions and were working jointly on a film called “Killing Lincoln,” based on the best seller by Bill O’Reilly. Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” was a summer blockbuster.

“Top Gun,” starring Tom Cruise, was one of the highest-grossing films of 1986. The pair worked together again four years later on the hit “Days of Thunder.”

Scott frequently worked with Denzel Washington, most recently on the runaway train drama “Unstoppable.” Scott and Washington collaborated on four other films: “Man on Fire,” Deja Vu,” and “The Taking of Pelham 123.”

In a tweet Sunday, Director Ron Howard said, “No more Tony Scott movies. Tragic day.”

Other Scott films include “True Romance,” “Crimson Tide” and “Man on Fire.

Scott was married to actress Donna Scott. They have twin sons.

He was something of a pop culture figure in the ’70s, appearing on talk shows and such. Marvin Hamlisch won virtually every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony, and three Golden Globes. He made movie history in 1974 when he became the first individual ever to win three Academy Awards in one night in all three music categories (for THE WAY WE WERE and THE STING). He apparently collapsed in his home yesterday after a brief illness and is dead at 68. We’ll update here with details as they come in.

From THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

Celebrated composer Marvin Hamlisch, best known for the Tony Award-winning “A Chorus Line” and the movie classic “The Sting,” has died in Los Angeles. He was 68.

Family spokesman Jason Lee said Hamlisch died Monday after a brief illness, but he did not provide additional details, according to the Associated Press.

Hamlisch was a prolific composer. His work included the Oscar-winning score and song for “The Way We Were,” as well as “Sophie’s Choice,” “Ordinary People,” “Ice Castles” and, most recently, “The Informant.”.

Hamlisch, the winner of three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys and the Tony -– as well as a Pulitzer Prize -– came the Pasadena Pops as principal conductor last year.

Despite his credentials, he started with a two-season, six-concert contract, joking, “because if it doesn’t work, why should they be stuck with me for five years?”

“I like everybody here,” he told The Times in August 2011. “I think they are really trying, and I’ve found this to be refreshing. I felt like they can only afford so much, and [I decided], you know what, I should be part of this, because it could be a great success story. You don’t know, so you give it a shot.”

After his first conducting effort, Paul Jan Zdunek, chief executive of the Pasadena Symphony and Pops organization, gave Hamlisch high marks: “You wind Marvin up, you send him out, and he knocks it out of the park.”……………….

Read the rest HERE

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/marvin-hamlisch-dies.html

A brainy, provocative, clever, often cynical novelist, playwright, essayist and screenwriter, Gore Vidal had quite a few movie credits. His 1968 novel MYRA BRECKENRIDGE was filmed in 1970 to universal condemnation but has aged into something of a cult classic. His play VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET a satire on the post- WWII  fear of Communism, was turned into a Jerry Lewis vehicle in 1960 and his screenplay credits included BEN HUR (uncredited), SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, and CALIGULA. He dabbled in acting with small roles in BOB ROBERTS and GATTACA but more often was happy to play himself. Gore Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia at age 86.

From The Los Angeles Times:

Gore Vidal, the iconoclastic writer, savvy analyst and imperious gadfly on the national conscience, has died. He was 86.

Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia, said nephew Burr Steers.

Vidal was a literary juggernaut who wrote 25 novels, including historical works such as “Lincoln” and “Burr” and satires such as “Myra Breckinridge” and “Duluth.” He was also a prolific essayist whose pieces on politics, sexuality, religion and literature — once described as “elegantly sustained demolition derbies” — both delighted and inflamed and in 1993 earned him a National Book Award for his massive “United States Essays, 1952-1992.”…………………

Read the rest HERE

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-writer-gore-vidal-86-has-died-20120731,0,3728239.story

]]> http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/08/writer-gore-vidal-dead-at-86/feed/ 1 http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/07/lupe-ontiveras-mexican-actress-dead-at-69/ http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/07/lupe-ontiveras-mexican-actress-dead-at-69/#comments Sun, 29 Jul 2012 03:55:06 +0000 Tom Stockman http://wearemoviegeeks.com/?p=132517

“Well, you wouldn’t be playing it like a little retarded kid, but yes, you would be acting youthful”

She was given the best lines in one of my very favorite films of the past couple of decades. If Mexican-born Lupe Ontiveras had only appeared in CHUCK & BUCK we would still be mourning the passing of a great cult movie actress for it was that film which she’ll be best known, and for which she won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting actress in 2000 as the children’s theater manager who befriends the man-child Buck (Mike White). She was the religious neighbor Nora, who Jack Nicholson tells to “Go sell crazy somewhere else!” in AS GOOD AS IT GETS and she won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002 for REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES. Ms Ontiveras stood just 4’11″ and worked for many years as a social worker while taking acting roles. She played the maid Consuelo who burns down her employer’s home, killing the whole family in Todd Solondz’s STORYTELLING in 2001. In fact she was often cast as latino maids and she estimated she has played a maid in at least 150 films or plays. Lupe Ontiveras died of liver cancer Friday, July 27th at age 69.

From THE GUARDIAN:

Born Guadalupe Moreno, Ontiveros’s Hollywood career spanned four decades and included roles in the 80s classic The Goonies and the 2002 film Real Women Have Curves, for which she won a special jury prize at the Sundance film festival. In Selena, a drama based on the life of the late Tejano musician, she garnered critical acclaim for her performance as Yolanda Saldívar, the woman convicted of murdering the singer in 1995. Another big role came through Gregory Nava’s El Norte (1983), in which she played Nacha, a maid who is tasked with looking after a young immigrant from Guatemala………..

Read the rest HERE

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jul/27/lupe-ontiveros-dies-liver-cancer

I know what you’re thinking: “Woah, that dude was still alive?”

Yeah, I assumed he had died long ago too, but what a career. A Sam Peckinpah regular, R. G. Armstrong had a familiar, grizzled face and appeared in tons of TV shows, westerns, action films, and quite a few horror roles beginning in the mid-1950s. I especially liked his creepy Sheriff (he played a lot of those) in RACE WITH THE DEVIL and his psychotic gym owner who threw barbells at Jeff Bridges in STAY HUNGRY. Peckinpah cast him in MAJOR DUNDEE, RIDE THE HIDE COUNTRY, BATTLE OF CABLE HOGUE, and PAT GARRET AND BILLY THE KID. Some of his other horror credits include DEVIL DOG HOUND FROM HELL, THE CAR, THE BEAST WITHIN, PREDATOR, and CHILDREN OF THE CORN. The last thing I recall seeing him in was as Pruneface in Warren Beatty’s DICK TRACY back in 1990 but he continued to work in television up until 2001. R. G. Armstrong was a dependable actor whose welcome presence livened up many great films throughout a long career. A one-time acting student of Lee Strasberg, and the holder of a master’s degree in English, Armstrong was 95.