Herb Ellis (actor) - Wikipedia Herb Ellis (born Herbert Siegel, January 17, 1921 – December 26, 2018) was an American character actor and writer. He was best known for his collaborations with Jack Webb, and he frequently portrayed law enforcement officers in film and television. Born in Cleveland, Ohio,[2] Ellis began his career in Hollywood in the late 1940s. Ellis and Webb together devised the name and concept for Dragnet[3] after collaborating on an unsuccessful project titled Joe Friday, Room Five.[4] He played Officer Frank Smith in eight episodes of the original Dragnet series. He played Frank La Valle in 23 episodes of The D.A.'s Man, and he played Beat bistro owner, painter and sculptor Wilbur in five episodes of Peter Gunn. Ellis and Webb later worked together on Dragnet 1966 and Dragnet 1967. From 1959 to 1962, Ellis was cast as Dr. Dan Wagner in seven episodes of the CBS military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper as a United States Navy physician, with Abby Dalton as nurse Martha Hale. Ellis was married to Sylvia Siegel, and they had two children. He died on December 26, 2018, at his home in San Gabriel, California. He was 97.
David Shepherd (producer) - Wikipedia David Shepherd (October 10, 1924 – December 17, 2018) was an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre. Born in 1924 in New York City to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with left-leaning sensibilities. He was the son of Louise Tracy (Butler) and William Edgar Shepherd, an architect.[1] His paternal grandmother was the sister of socialite Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt.[2] He studied English at Harvard and received an M.A. in the History of Theater at Columbia. Disenchanted with what he perceived as a European dominated theater on the East Coast, Shepherd gravitated to the Midwest. In 1953 Shepherd was one of the co-founders of the Playwrights Theatre Club in Chicago. In 1955 he and Paul Sills founded the Compass Players, the forerunner of The Second City.[5] Compass launched the careers of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Jerry Stiller, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris, and Shelley Berman (to name a few) and started a revolution in entertainment.[6][7] After Compass, David went on to create numerous improv formats – including the Improvisation Olympics (a competitive theatrical sporting event), Responsive Scene Radio Show (listeners create their own stories on air) and MOVIExperience (improvising a movie) which culminated in the publication of his book That Movie In Your Head.
Galt MacDermot - Wikipedia Galt MacDermot (December 18, 1928 – December 17, 2018) was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most successful musicals were Hair (1967; its cast album also won a Grammy) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). MacDermot also composed music for film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music, and his music has been sampled in hit hip-hop songs and albums. He is best known for his work on Hair, and in particular three of the songs from the show; "Aquarius", "Let the Sunshine In", and "Good Morning Starshine", all three of which were number one hits in 1969.
Melvin Dummar - Wikipedia Melvin Dummar (August 28, 1944 – December 9, 2018) was a Utah man who earned attention when he claimed to have saved reclusive business tycoon Howard Hughes in the Nevada desert in 1967, and to have been awarded part of Hughes' vast estate. Dummar's claims resulted in a series of court battles that all ended in rulings against Dummar.[3] A Las Vegas jury determined in 1978 that the will, leaving Dummar $156 million, was a forgery.[4] Dummar's story was later adapted into Jonathan Demme's film Melvin and Howard in 1980.
Don Lusk - Wikipedia Donald Lusk (October 28, 1913 – December 30, 2018)[1] was an American animator and director. Lusk was hired by The Walt Disney Company in 1933.[2] He worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Song of the South, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians.[3][4] Lusk left Disney in 1960, but continued to work as an animator during the 1960s and 1970s. Aside from animation, Lusk also directed multiple cartoon films and series, including the Peanuts TV specials and movies and for the Hanna-Barbera studio. His work at the latter included The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Tom and Jerry.
Peter Masterson - Wikipedia Peter Masterson (June 1, 1934 – December 18, 2018) was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. Masterson often worked with his cousin, writer Horton Foote. Acting from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, including 1975's The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart, since then he concentrated mostly on directing and producing. The actress Mary Stuart Masterson is his daughter and she appeared with her father in The Stepford Wives as one of the Eberharts' daughters. His other acting credits include roles in Ambush Bay (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Counterpoint (1968), Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), Tomorrow (1972), The Exorcist (1973), Man on a Swing (1974), and Gardens of Stone (1987). Masterson co-wrote (with Larry L. King) the books for the hit musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978)[1] and its short-lived sequel The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (1994).[2] In 1985 he directed The Trip to Bountiful, for which Geraldine Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress. His directing credits additionally include Full Moon in Blue Water (1988), Night Game (1989), Blood Red (1989), Convicts (1991), Arctic Blue (1993), The Only Thrill (1997), Lost Junction (2003), and Whiskey School (2005). Masterson died on December 18, 2018, after suffering a fall at his home. He was 84.
Paul Koslo, Actor in 'The Omega Man' and 'The Stone Killer,' Dies at 74 Paul Koslo, a character actor who played the heavy in such films as The Omega Man, Rooster Cogburn and The Stone Killer, has died. He was 74. Koslo died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Lake Hughes, Calif., his wife, actress Allaire Paterson Koslo, told The Hollywood Reporter. Koslo also portrayed a Nevada patrolman in Vanishing Point (1971), a bounty hunter in Joe Kidd (1972) and a gang member in Cleopatra Jones (1973) and the True Grit sequel Rooster Cogburn (1975). He appeared in other notable films like Voyage of the Damned (1976) and Heaven's Gate (1980) as well. Perhaps Koslo's most well-known role was as Dutch in director Boris Sagal's The Omega Man (1971). His character, a motorcycle-riding former medical student who is one of the few to survive biological warfare, helps rescue Charlton Heston's Neville from burning at the stake at Dodger Stadium. "It was my first big movie," he said in a 2001 interview. "I like it because it's different, totally different from any other film I've ever made. And being it was with Charlton Heston. He was a phenomenon…. I loved that movie. I love the fact that it catapulted me into not stardom, but I could go anywhere in the world and people would say, 'I know you, you're [Dutch].'" In The Stone Killer (1973), Koslo portrayed a psychotic trombonist-assassin who is hunted down by Charles Bronson's ex-New York detective cop in a memorable motorcycle-car chase. Bronson got the best of him again in Mr. Majestyk (1974), and the two also shared screen time in Love and Bullets (1979). Born Manfred Koslowski in Germany on June 27, 1944, he and his family moved to Canada — first to Regina, Saskatchewan, and then to Vancouver — when he was six. In one of his first films, The Losers (1970), he played a machine-gun-toting biker who is sent to the jungle to help rescue a U.S diplomat. Koslo's big-screen résumé also included Scandalous John (1971), The Laughing Policeman (1973), Freebie and the Bean (1974), Bootleggers (1974), The Drowning Pool (1975), Assault in Paradise (1977) and Loose Cannons (1990). He also worked a great deal in television, showing up on such shows as Mission: Impossible, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, Matlock, T.J. Hooker, MacGyver and Hunter. Survivors also include his daughter Chloe.
The first thought that came to mind on hearing this was his sergeant-major character saying, "Oh dear, how sad, never mind". I grew up watching Windsor Davies, he was one of those people who made a great impression on my young mind, in everything he did. He really was a unique actor. May he rest in peace.
Russell Baker, Pulitzer-Winning Times Columnist and Humorist, Dies at 93 Russell Baker, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose whimsical, irreverent “Observer” column appeared in The New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers for 36 years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian into one of America’s most celebrated writers, died on Monday at his home in Leesburg, Va. He was 93. starting in 1962, he became a columnist for The Times and its news service, eventually composing nearly 5,000 “Observer” commentaries — 3.7 million insightful words on the news of the day — often laced with invented characters and dialogue, on an array of subjects including dreaded Christmas fruitcake and women’s shoulder pads. The columns, which generated a devoted following, critical acclaim and the 1979 Pulitzer for distinguished commentary, ended with his retirement in 1998. To a generation of television watchers, he was also a familiar face as the host of “Masterpiece Theater” on PBS from 1993 to 2004, having succeeded Alistair Cooke. Mr. Baker wrote 15 books, including many collections of his columns, and “Growing Up,” a 1982 memoir of his Depression-era youth, his inspirational mother and America between the wars. It earned him his second Pulitzer, the 1983 prize for biography. Besides his two Pulitzer Prizes, he won two George Polk Awards, for commentary in 1978 and career achievement in 1998, and many other honors.
Jonas Mekas, ‘Godfather’ of American Avant-Garde Film, Dies at 96 Jonas Mekas, a filmmaker, curator, archivist, critic and all-around evangelist for independently made movies in general, and for those variously known as experimental, underground or avant-garde in particular, died on Wednesday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 96. His son, Sebastian, confirmed the death. It is rare to have consensus on the pre-eminence of any person in the arts. But few would argue that Mr. Mekas, who was often called the godfather or the guru of the New American Cinema — his name for the underground film movement of the 1950s and ′60s — was the leading champion of the kind of film that doesn’t show at the multiplex. A Lithuanian immigrant who, with a younger brother, Adolfas, arrived in New York City in 1949 speaking little English, he became within a handful of years an effective spokesman for avant-garde film. (Adolfas, who died in 2011, became an influential filmmaker, writer and educator in his own right.) In addition to making his own movies and writing prolifically about the movies of others, Mr. Mekas was the founder or a co-founder of institutions that support and promote independent filmmakers, including, in New York, the influential journal Film Culture, published quarterly from 1955 to 1996; Film-Makers Cooperative, a distribution network; and Anthology Film Archives, the leading library and museum for experimental film. (The critic Andrew Sarris published his influential essay on the auteur theory in Film Culture.) Part intellectual, part enthusiast, part provocateur, Mr. Mekas could always be counted on to sound off on behalf of experimental films, work that could be visually rich and narrative poor, startling or even shocking in imagery, patience-testing in pace and coherence, and taboo-testing in subject matter.
Clive Swift. Probably best known as the long suffering husband of Hyacinth Bucket in the British sitcom keeping up appearances. 'Extremely talented and wonderful' - Keeping Up Appearances actor Clive Swift dead, aged 82 - Independent.ie
WOW! my wife adores this band...at one time she dedicated Diamond & Pearls to me on a Oldies Radio Station...
Ron Miller, Former Disney CEO, Dies at 85 Ron Miller, former Disney CEO and son-in-law of Walt Disney, died Saturday in Napa, Calif. at the age of 85. Miller served as president and later CEO of Disney from 1978 to 1984, during a rocky period for the company. He was president of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Family Museum and owner of Napa’s Silverado Vineyards. “Everyone at The Walt Disney Company is deeply saddened by the passing of Ron Miller. His life and legacy are inextricably linked with our Company and the Disney family because he was such a vital part of both, as our CEO and Walt’s son-in-law,” said Disney chairman-ceo Bob Iger in a statement. “Few people had Ron’s understanding of our history, or a deeper appreciation and respect for our company, and he shared it generously with anyone who wanted to know more. I was fortunate to have known him, and even luckier to have called him a friend. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.” Miller met the older of Disney’s two daughters, Diane, while both were attending USC. They married in 1954. Diane Disney Miller died in 2013. Ron Miller briefly played for the Los Angeles Rams after college. He then joined Disney and worked his way up the ranks in a variety of roles. He was employee No. 6 of of the original Disneyland team, and served as second assistant on “Old Yeller.” On Miller’s watch, the studio released such movies as “Tron” and “The Black Hole.” Miller also oversaw the launch of Disney Channel in 1983 and during his time at Disney, the company also launched Walt Disney Home Video and Touchstone Pictures. He is survived by children Christopher Miller, Joanna Miller, Tamara Diane Miller, Jennifer Goff, Walter Elias Disney Miller, Ronald Miller, and Patrick Miller; 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Donations may be made to the memorial fund that The Walt Disney Family Museum has established in honor of Ron and Diane Disney Miller. Donations and cards can also be sent to the family through The Walt Disney Family Museum, attn: Director’s Office; 104 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94129. Services will be private and the museum has not yet planned a public commemoration
Tomi Ungerer, Brash Illustrator for Young and Older, Dies at 87 Tomi Ungerer, an acclaimed illustrator and author who brought a scampish style to children’s books and whose wide-ranging career also took him into advertising, protest art and erotica, died on Friday in Cork, Ireland. He was 87.
