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The Return of the Classic Films Obituary Thread
We've missed a lot of farewells, but it's never too late to pay tribute.
The thread starts with film, television, and stage actress Helen McCrory, 52.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/apr/18/helen-mccrory-obituary
Helen McCrory, who has died of cancer aged 52, was already established among the leading stage actors of her generation when she became known as Cherie Blair in Stephen Frears’s movie The Queen (2006), starring Helen Mirren, and with Michael Sheen as Tony; and as the witch Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco, in the last three Harry Potter films.
Her brisk and slinky Cherie Blair was one in a line of suited authority figures and lawyers played by McCrory, culminating in an acidulous, brutally frank but deluded Tory prime minister in David Hare’s television drama Roadkill (2020), refusing to give a “big job” to Hugh Laurie’s shameless MP. In comparison, Narcissa was a “turn,” a Gothic hoot, for all her verve and suffocating evil.
But it was her imperious matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders (five series, 2013-19), ruling the roost in the inter-war criminal Shelby family in Birmingham, and keeping tabs on the ill-gotten gains, that suggested her roots in complex dramatic performance on the stage.
The retrospective continues at the Guardian website.
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Dame Olivia de Havilland, who has died at 104 in Paris, was one of the last survivors of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Her most famous role was that of the virtuous Melanie opposite Vivien Leigh's wayward Scarlett, in the epic Gone with the Wind.
Her relationship with her sister, the actress Joan Fontaine, was a constant source of speculation in the gossip columns.
At the time of her death she was the oldest living performer to have won an Oscar.
Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on 1 July 1916 to Walter, a British patent lawyer and his actress wife Lilian.
Her most famous role was that of the virtuous Melanie opposite Vivien Leigh's wayward Scarlett, in the epic Gone with the Wind.
Her relationship with her sister, the actress Joan Fontaine, was a constant source of speculation in the gossip columns.
At the time of her death she was the oldest living performer to have won an Oscar.
Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on 1 July 1916 to Walter, a British patent lawyer and his actress wife Lilian.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-12717233
[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/arts/music/rosa-lee-hawkins-dead.html|]
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By Jack Kramer
Jan. 14, 2022
Rosa Lee Hawkins, the youngest member of the musical trio the Dixie Cups, whose hit single “Chapel of Love” reached No. 1 on the Billboard 100 in 1964, died on Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. She was 76.
The cause was internal bleeding resulting from complications during surgery at Tampa General Hospital, said her sister Barbara Ann Hawkins, who was also a member of the group, along with Joan Marie Johnson, who died in 2016 at 72.
The Dixie Cups epitomized the harmonizing sound of the 1960s girl group. “Chapel of Love,” their debut single and most well-known song, quickly replaced the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” as No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1964. It was later heard on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam War film, “Full Metal Jacket.”
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William Friedkin, director of the classic horror film The Exorcist, died on Monday at the age of 87.
His widow Sherry Lansing told the BBC through tears: "He had a wonderful life. He was almost 88 - he has a new movie coming out.
"He was the most wonderful husband in the world. He was the most wonderful father in the world. He had a big wonderful, life. There was no dream unfulfilled."
Friedkin died in Los Angeles on Monday.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66434077
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While indelibly tied to the role that made him famous in 1971, he remained active for more than four decades afterward.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/movies/richard-roundtree-dead.html?searchResultPosition=6
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By Anita Gates
Published Oct. 24, 2023
Updated Oct. 25, 2023, 12:46 p.m. ET
Richard Roundtree, the actor who redefined African American masculinity in the movies when he played the title role in “Shaft,” one of the first Black action heroes, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.
His manager, Patrick McMinn, said the cause was pancreatic cancer, which had been diagnosed two months ago.
“Shaft,” which was released in 1971, was among the first of the so-called blaxploitation movies, and it made Mr. Roundtree a star at 29.
The character John Shaft is his own man, a private detective who jaywalks confidently through moving Times Square traffic in a handsome brown leather coat with the collar turned up; sports a robust, dark mustache somewhere between walrus-style and a downturned handlebar; and keeps a pearl-handled revolver in the fridge in his Greenwich Village duplex apartment.
Published Oct. 24, 2023
Updated Oct. 25, 2023, 12:46 p.m. ET
Richard Roundtree, the actor who redefined African American masculinity in the movies when he played the title role in “Shaft,” one of the first Black action heroes, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.
His manager, Patrick McMinn, said the cause was pancreatic cancer, which had been diagnosed two months ago.
“Shaft,” which was released in 1971, was among the first of the so-called blaxploitation movies, and it made Mr. Roundtree a star at 29.
The character John Shaft is his own man, a private detective who jaywalks confidently through moving Times Square traffic in a handsome brown leather coat with the collar turned up; sports a robust, dark mustache somewhere between walrus-style and a downturned handlebar; and keeps a pearl-handled revolver in the fridge in his Greenwich Village duplex apartment.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/movies/richard-roundtree-dead.html?searchResultPosition=6
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By Alex Traub and Matt Stevens
Published Oct. 29, 2023
Matthew Perry, who gained sitcom superstardom as Chandler Bing on the show “Friends,” becoming a model of the ability to tease your pals as an expression of love, has died. He was 54.
The death was confirmed by Capt. Scot Williams of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division. He said the cause was not likely to be determined for some time, but there was no indication of foul play.
Several news outlets reported, without a named source, that Mr. Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He had publicly struggled with drinking and drug use for decades, leading to hospitalizations for a range of ailments. By his own account, he had spent more than half his life in treatment and rehab facilities.
“Friends” ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. It chronicled the never-too-dramatic dramas and in-jokes and exploits of a group of six young friends living in New York City. Chandler was the yuppie of the group, with a well-paying white-collar job his friends did not entirely understand. He wore sweater vests but also moodily smoked cigarettes.
Published Oct. 29, 2023
Matthew Perry, who gained sitcom superstardom as Chandler Bing on the show “Friends,” becoming a model of the ability to tease your pals as an expression of love, has died. He was 54.
The death was confirmed by Capt. Scot Williams of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division. He said the cause was not likely to be determined for some time, but there was no indication of foul play.
Several news outlets reported, without a named source, that Mr. Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He had publicly struggled with drinking and drug use for decades, leading to hospitalizations for a range of ailments. By his own account, he had spent more than half his life in treatment and rehab facilities.
“Friends” ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. It chronicled the never-too-dramatic dramas and in-jokes and exploits of a group of six young friends living in New York City. Chandler was the yuppie of the group, with a well-paying white-collar job his friends did not entirely understand. He wore sweater vests but also moodily smoked cigarettes.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/29/arts/television/matthew-perry-dead.html
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By Orlando Mayorquin
Published Oct. 27, 2023
Richard Moll, the 6-foot-8 actor who delighted television audiences with a childlike charm in his role as the hulking bailiff on the NBC sitcom “Night Court,” died on Thursday at his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He was 80.
His death was announced by a family spokesman, Jeff Sanderson. No cause was given.
In a career of more than four decades, Mr. Moll played a variety of roles on television and in films. But he was best known for portraying the baldheaded, wide-eyed Aristotle Nostradamus Shannon, better known as Bull, on all nine seasons of “Night Court,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Bull Shannon’s dimwitted persona lent an air of lighthearted innocence to the hit series, which was set inside a fictional municipal night court in Manhattan and starred Harry Anderson, who died in 2018, as Judge Harry Stone and John Larroquette as the prosecutor Dan Fielding. (A rebooted “Night Court” made its debut on NBC this year, with Mr. Larroquette the only actor returning from the original series.)
Published Oct. 27, 2023
Richard Moll, the 6-foot-8 actor who delighted television audiences with a childlike charm in his role as the hulking bailiff on the NBC sitcom “Night Court,” died on Thursday at his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He was 80.
His death was announced by a family spokesman, Jeff Sanderson. No cause was given.
In a career of more than four decades, Mr. Moll played a variety of roles on television and in films. But he was best known for portraying the baldheaded, wide-eyed Aristotle Nostradamus Shannon, better known as Bull, on all nine seasons of “Night Court,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Bull Shannon’s dimwitted persona lent an air of lighthearted innocence to the hit series, which was set inside a fictional municipal night court in Manhattan and starred Harry Anderson, who died in 2018, as Judge Harry Stone and John Larroquette as the prosecutor Dan Fielding. (A rebooted “Night Court” made its debut on NBC this year, with Mr. Larroquette the only actor returning from the original series.)
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/arts/television/richard-moll-dead.html
Stage, screen, and television: Gayle Hunnicutt made her career across media and more than one continent.
She was also part of an ensemble cast in The Legend of Hell House, which might deserve a place on your Halloween film roster. 
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/03/gayle-hunnicutt-obituary
The acting career of Gayle Hunnicutt, who has died aged 80, could be defined in two acts. As an up-and-coming starlet in Hollywood she was often cast for her stunning beauty. Then, after marrying the British actor David Hemmings, she moved to the UK, where she played big parts in two major television series, The Golden Bowl (1972) and Fall of Eagles (1974).
After a divorce she married the journalist and editor Simon Jenkins, and alongside her acting career became a fixture of the British social scene. She may, though, be best remembered for the final three seasons of Dallas, from 1989 to 1991, in which she played Vanessa Beaumont, an English aristocrat whose long-ago affair with JR Ewing produced a son he had never known existed.
Hunnicutt was born in Texas, not far from Dallas in Fort Worth. Her father, Sam, was a colonel in the army; her mother, Mary (nee Dickerson), gave birth to Gayle while her husband was serving in New Caledonia during the second world war. Her parents did not support her desire to go to college, but she won a scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles, and paid for her time there with part-time work while studying English and theatre.
IMDB credits:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402281/
By Mike Barnes/The Hollywood Reporter
Peter White, who portrayed Linc Tyler on the ABC soap opera All My Children over four decades and starred in the original stage production and film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, has died. He was 86.
White died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles of melanoma, his All My Children castmate Kathleen Noone (Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the show) told The Hollywood Reporter.
White also played Arthur Cates, the attorney for Sable Colby (Stephanie Beacham), on the first two seasons of the ABC primetime soap The Colbys in 1985-86, and he recurred as the deceased doctor dad of the characters played by Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips on the 1991-96 NBC drama Sisters.
White first portrayed Lincoln Tyler, son of stern Pine Valley matriarch Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick), from 1974-80 — he was the third actor in the role, starting with James Karen — then returned for stints in ’81, ’84, ’86, ‘95 and 2005.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/peter-white-famed-children-boys-173705401.html
Peter White, who portrayed Linc Tyler on the ABC soap opera All My Children over four decades and starred in the original stage production and film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, has died. He was 86.
White died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles of melanoma, his All My Children castmate Kathleen Noone (Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the show) told The Hollywood Reporter.
White also played Arthur Cates, the attorney for Sable Colby (Stephanie Beacham), on the first two seasons of the ABC primetime soap The Colbys in 1985-86, and he recurred as the deceased doctor dad of the characters played by Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips on the 1991-96 NBC drama Sisters.
White first portrayed Lincoln Tyler, son of stern Pine Valley matriarch Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick), from 1974-80 — he was the third actor in the role, starting with James Karen — then returned for stints in ’81, ’84, ’86, ‘95 and 2005.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/peter-white-famed-children-boys-173705401.html
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After winning the annual Miss Rheingold beauty contest, in which millions voted, she covered fashion and beauty for the popular morning show.
By Richard Sandomir/New York Times
Robbin Mele Gaudieri, who, as Robbin Bain, embodied traditional women’s roles as the winner of a beauty contest designed to promote beer in 1959 and later as the “Today Girl,” handling fashion and beauty segments on the popular NBC-TV morning show, died on Oct. 21 in Southampton, N.Y. She was 87.
Her daughter Lara McLanahan said the cause was breast cancer.
Robbin Bain was elected Miss Rheingold in 1959, representing what was then the most popular beer in the New York region. (It was also sold in Pennsylvania and throughout New England.) She defeated five other finalists in an election that the brewer said attracted 24 million votes.
As Miss Rheingold, she received $50,000 (about $530,000 in today’s money) and spent a year making appearances in the United States and Europe. She also starred in newspaper ads in which she was seen in a kitchen during a party, outdoors at a barbecue and in front of a Christmas tree, among other places.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/business/media/robbin-bain-dead.html
Full story: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/arts/television/lara-parker-dead.html
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Lara Parker, who found small-screen fame in the 1960s and ’70s as a beguiling and vengeful witch on the popular Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows,” died on Oct. 12 at her home in Topanga, Calif. She was 84.
The cause was cancer, said Kathryn Leigh Scott, a friend and fellow “Dark Shadows” actress.
“Dark Shadows,” seen daily on ABC from 1966 to 1971, was a departure from standard soap opera fare, blending romantic intrigue with horror and science fiction. The show chronicled a wealthy and eccentric Maine family dealing with the usual soap melodramas — but also time travel, ghosts, werewolves and vampires.
With her icy beauty and elegant demeanor, Ms. Parker proved coolly seductive in her primary role among several on the show, Angelique, an 18th-century servant girl and witch who puts a curse on a wealthy shipping scion, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) after he spurns her for Ms. Scott’s character, Josette, turning him into a vampire and dooming the two to carry on a tempestuous cycle of passion and revenge as they time-hop through history.
The cause was cancer, said Kathryn Leigh Scott, a friend and fellow “Dark Shadows” actress.
“Dark Shadows,” seen daily on ABC from 1966 to 1971, was a departure from standard soap opera fare, blending romantic intrigue with horror and science fiction. The show chronicled a wealthy and eccentric Maine family dealing with the usual soap melodramas — but also time travel, ghosts, werewolves and vampires.
With her icy beauty and elegant demeanor, Ms. Parker proved coolly seductive in her primary role among several on the show, Angelique, an 18th-century servant girl and witch who puts a curse on a wealthy shipping scion, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) after he spurns her for Ms. Scott’s character, Josette, turning him into a vampire and dooming the two to carry on a tempestuous cycle of passion and revenge as they time-hop through history.
Read more: https://www.tvinsider.com/1111290/janet-landgard-dead-the-donna-reed-show/
Janet Landgard, who played Karen on The Donna Reed Show, has died. She was 75 years old. Paul Petersen, who costarred with Landgard in the 1960s ABC sitcom, told The Hollywood Reporter that she passed away this week after a brief battle with brain cancer.
“She never told me how gravely ill she was from the cancer that took her life earlier this week,” Petersen wrote on Facebook on Friday. “Typical behavior from the best TV girlfriend my alternate ego, Jeff Stone, ever had on the last three years of The Donna Reed Show. Janet was gorgeous, inside and out… a flawless Scandinavian beauty that literally stunned jaded Hollywood types into silence.”
Landgard was born on December 2, 1947, and raised in Pasadena, California. She was still a high schooler when she started her screen career in 1963, guest-starring as a different character on The Donna Reed Show and popping up in an episode of My Three Sons.
Landgard’s other screen credits include three films, 1968’s The Swimmer — in which she played a young woman whom Burt Lancaster’s character formerly hired as a babysitter — as well as 1969’s Land Raiders and 1972’s Moonchild. She also joined Lloyd Bridges and Janet Leigh in the 1971 TV movie The Deadly Dream.
“She never told me how gravely ill she was from the cancer that took her life earlier this week,” Petersen wrote on Facebook on Friday. “Typical behavior from the best TV girlfriend my alternate ego, Jeff Stone, ever had on the last three years of The Donna Reed Show. Janet was gorgeous, inside and out… a flawless Scandinavian beauty that literally stunned jaded Hollywood types into silence.”
Landgard was born on December 2, 1947, and raised in Pasadena, California. She was still a high schooler when she started her screen career in 1963, guest-starring as a different character on The Donna Reed Show and popping up in an episode of My Three Sons.
Landgard’s other screen credits include three films, 1968’s The Swimmer — in which she played a young woman whom Burt Lancaster’s character formerly hired as a babysitter — as well as 1969’s Land Raiders and 1972’s Moonchild. She also joined Lloyd Bridges and Janet Leigh in the 1971 TV movie The Deadly Dream.
Link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/elliot-silverstein-dead-cat-ballou-1235679761/
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By Mike Barnes/The Hollywood Reporter
Elliot Silverstein, who helmed episodes of such acclaimed TV shows as Naked City, The Twilight Zone and Route 66 before guiding Lee Marvin to a best actor Oscar in Cat Ballou, his feature directorial debut, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 96.
The Boston native also helmed A Man Called Horse (1970), which starred Richard Harris in the title role as an English aristocrat who eventually becomes the leader of the Native tribe that had captured and tortured him. The action movie spawned a couple of sequels.
Most importantly, Silverman was instrumental in the formation of the milestone Bill of Creative Rights for directors.
It was Silverstein who suggested that Marvin be cast as Kid Shelleen in Columbia Pictures’ Cat Ballou (1965) after Kirk Douglas had turned down the role in the comic Western. He later threatened to quit when a producer wanted to replace Marvin at the start of production with José Ferrer.
Elliot Silverstein, who helmed episodes of such acclaimed TV shows as Naked City, The Twilight Zone and Route 66 before guiding Lee Marvin to a best actor Oscar in Cat Ballou, his feature directorial debut, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 96.
The Boston native also helmed A Man Called Horse (1970), which starred Richard Harris in the title role as an English aristocrat who eventually becomes the leader of the Native tribe that had captured and tortured him. The action movie spawned a couple of sequels.
Most importantly, Silverman was instrumental in the formation of the milestone Bill of Creative Rights for directors.
It was Silverstein who suggested that Marvin be cast as Kid Shelleen in Columbia Pictures’ Cat Ballou (1965) after Kirk Douglas had turned down the role in the comic Western. He later threatened to quit when a producer wanted to replace Marvin at the start of production with José Ferrer.
Source: AP
By MARK KENNEDY
Updated 2:45 PM CST, November 29, 2023
NEW YORK (AP) — Frances Sternhagen, the veteran character actor who won two Tony Awards and became a familiar maternal face to TV viewers later in life in such shows as “Cheers,” “ER,” “Sex and the City” and “The Closer,” has died. She was 93.
Sternhagen died peacefully of natural causes Monday her son, John Carlin, said in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “Fly on, Frannie,” he wrote. “The curtain goes down on a life so richly, passionately, humbly and generously lived.” Sternhagen’s publicist confirmed the death and said it occurred in New Rochelle, New York.
Sternhagen won a Tony for best featured actress in a play in 1974 for her role in Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor” and a second one in 1995 for a revival of “The Heiress.” Her last turn on Broadway was in “Seascape” in 2005.
She was nominated for Tonys four other times, for starring or featured roles in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” “Equus,” “Angel” and “Morning’s at Seven.” In 2013, she played Edie Falco’s mother in the off-Broadway play “The Madrid.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/frances-sternhagen-dies-e920000a85584256ac62f51196826eb0
BY HILLEL ITALIE
Updated 6:55 PM PST, January 22, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Norman Jewison, the acclaimed and versatile Canadian-born director whose Hollywood films ranged from Doris Day comedies and “Moonstruck” to such social dramas as the Oscar-winning “In the Heat of the Night,” has died at age 97.
Jewison, a three-time Oscar nominee who in 1999 received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died “peacefully” Saturday, according to publicist Jeff Sanderson. Additional details were not immediately available.
Throughout his long career, Jewison combined light entertainment with topical films that appealed to him on a deeply personal level. As Jewison was ending his military service in the Canadian navy during World War II, he hitchhiked through the American South and had a close-up view of Jim Crow segregation. In his autobiography “This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me,” he noted that racism and injustice became his most common themes.
“Every time a film deals with racism, many Americans feel uncomfortable,” he wrote. “Yet it has to be confronted. We have to deal with prejudice and injustice or we will never understand what is good and evil, right and wrong; we need to feel how ‘the other’ feels.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/norman-jewison-dead-abd93f2b671b416aabdd83829822e14a
Filmography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Jewison#Film
