Dan Seals passed away March 25, 2009 following a valiant struggle with mantle cell lymphoma. He leaves behind thousands of fans, countless friends and a loving family. He enjoyed a musical career which spanned four decades and included hit records both as a member of pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, and as a solo country artist. In 1986 he won Country Music Association Awards for “Bop” and "Meet Me in Montana." He will forever be remembered for his gentle smile, easy going demeanor, his enduring faith and endless generosityhttp://www.sealsandseals.com/
Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea
On April 4, 2009, Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea passed away from a storied and fulfilled life of Hollywood fame, worldly adventures, and ultimately peaceful tranquility found on the plains of New Mexico.
Born in Los Angeles on Sept. 6, 1934, Jody was the oldest of three sons to film actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee. Upon the advice of their father's mentor, Western entertainer Will Rogers, the McCreas purchased a ranch about an hour north of Los Angeles where Jody and his brothers were fortunate to be raised out of the spotlight. Jody's rural upbringing, however, would not keep him out of the spotlight for long.
Because Will Rogers sent his sons to New Mexico Military Institute and spoke very highly of it, the McCreas sent Jody to NMMI for his last two years of high school. He excelled at boxing (winning the New Mexico State Golden Gloves), rodeo (as a roper and bareback rider) and football, before graduating from NMMI in 1952.
Jody began college at Principia College in Elsah, Ill., where he crossed paths with fellow actor Robert Duvall, before transferring to University of California at Los Angeles, where he threw the javelin on the 1956 NCAA championship track and field team alongside 1960 Olympic gold medalist decathlete Rafer Johnson.
After college, Jody joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in New York City as a member of the Special Services. He served for two years as a host on the Armed Services radio channel and then as a host of "Country Style, USA," an Army-produced recruiting television program.
It was during his stint in New York that Jody began to consider following in his parents' footsteps. He reenrolled in classes with acting coach Sanford "Sandy" Meisner of the Actor's Studio where Steve McQueen, Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck and others also received their acting start. He then returned to Los Angeles where he acted with his father in 27 episodes of the television series "Wichita." He also acted in more than 30 movies including "The Broken Land" with Jack Nicholson, "The Glory Stompers" with Dennis Hopper, "Young Guns of Texas" and "The First Texan." Jody finally found a comedic niche as "Bonehead" in the 1960's "Beach Party" films, alongside Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, before retiring from acting in 1970.
Jody later returned to the Roswell area where he ranched and entertained us all with tales from his world travels and friendships. His ability to always find common ground with everyone with whom he came in contact, and make them laugh, will be remembered and missed. He was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and he attended the Christian Science Church in Roswell.
Jody was predeceased by the love of his life, Dusty Iron Wing, whom he noticed dusting a rug on an apartment balcony on his way to pick up another date. He never made it to the date and instead spent the next 19 years of his life happily married to Dusty.
Jody is survived by his younger brothers, David and Peter; his nephews and nieces, Wyatt, Clay, Jeni, Bob, Mitchell, Sebastian, Jack and Will; and his grand-nephews and -nieces, Chelsea, Clay Paul, Brooke Ellen, Lou Lou, Payton and David Joel.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
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Written by Adam Lash
Saturday, March 14 2009
Andrew "Test" Martin, 33, was found dead in his Tampa apartment last night by police responding to a call from a concerned neighbor. He was just days away from celebrating his 34th birthday. Martin had spent the last two years on the independent scene, mostly doing tours in Europe for Nu Wrestling Evolution.
The Tampa Police Department have released this statement:
At approximately 8:00pm on Friday, March 13, 2009, Tampa Police Officers responded to the Post Harbour Apartments, located at 725 Harbour Place Drive to check on the welfare of Mr. Andrew J. Martin. A neighbor reported that she could see into his apartment through a window and that Mr. Martin appeared motionless for several hours.Officers entered the apartment and discovered Mr. Martin to be deceased. At this time there is no indication of foul play. The deceased was transported to the Medical Examiners Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The date of the autopsy is undetermined at this time. The next of kin has been notified of the death.
Andrew "Test" Martin is a former wrestling champion with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).
Lieutenant William FergusonTampa Police Department
STEVE DOLL (DUNN) PASSES AWAY
By: Bob Ryder3/22/2009 7:53:49 PM
Steve Doll, best known as Steven Dunn in WWF as part of the Well Done tag team, passed away earlier today.Dunn teamed with Timothy Well to form the Well Done tag team in the WWF from 1993-1995 and also performed in various southern promotions as Steve Doll.
Doll was 44 years old. 1Wrestling.com sends condolences to the family and friends of Steve Doll.
TV director Harry Harris dies
Helmer won Emmy for 'Fame' in 1982
By PAT SAPERSTEIN-Variety-Prolific TV director Harry Harris, who won an Emmy for directing TV series "Fame," died March 19 in Los Angeles of complications of myelodsplasia. He was 86.
Harris, who started working in Hollywood in the late 1930s, was still directing episodes of "7th Heaven" in 2005 while in his eighties.
His Emmy came in 1982 for directing in a drama series for an episode of "Fame." He was also Emmy nommed for an episode of "The Waltons" and for a daytime Emmy for directing afterschool special "Have You Ever Been Ashamed of Your Parents?"
Harris directed hundreds of TV episodes for shows such as "Rawhide," "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "The Virginian," "Kung Fu," "Lost in Space," "Hawaii Five-O," "Falcon's Crest" and "Eight is Enough."
Born in Kansas City, he moved to Los Angeles in 1937 and landed a mailroom job at Columbia Studios. He became an apprentice sound cutter and then an assistant sound effects editor.
Harris enlisted in the Army at the start of WWII and reported to Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, where his supervisor was Ronald Reagan, who hired him as a sound effects editor for training and combat films.When the war ended, he became an assistant film editor and then an editor at Desilu. His directing debut came when Desi Arnaz gave him a chance to try directing while working editor on the Rory Calhoun series "The Texan." Four Star's Ed Adamson then hired Harris to direct "Wanted, Dead or Alive" starring Steve McQueen, and he went on to direct episodes for numerous Western series before turning mostly to TV dramas.
He is survived by his wife, Patty; daughters, Joanne, a hairstylist and Suzanne; and a stepson, Michael Daruty, an NBC Universal exec.
Saturday, March 14 2009
Andrew "Test" Martin, 33, was found dead in his Tampa apartment last night by police responding to a call from a concerned neighbor. He was just days away from celebrating his 34th birthday. Martin had spent the last two years on the independent scene, mostly doing tours in Europe for Nu Wrestling Evolution.
The Tampa Police Department have released this statement:
At approximately 8:00pm on Friday, March 13, 2009, Tampa Police Officers responded to the Post Harbour Apartments, located at 725 Harbour Place Drive to check on the welfare of Mr. Andrew J. Martin. A neighbor reported that she could see into his apartment through a window and that Mr. Martin appeared motionless for several hours.Officers entered the apartment and discovered Mr. Martin to be deceased. At this time there is no indication of foul play. The deceased was transported to the Medical Examiners Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The date of the autopsy is undetermined at this time. The next of kin has been notified of the death.
Andrew "Test" Martin is a former wrestling champion with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).
Lieutenant William FergusonTampa Police Department
STEVE DOLL (DUNN) PASSES AWAY
By: Bob Ryder3/22/2009 7:53:49 PM
Steve Doll, best known as Steven Dunn in WWF as part of the Well Done tag team, passed away earlier today.Dunn teamed with Timothy Well to form the Well Done tag team in the WWF from 1993-1995 and also performed in various southern promotions as Steve Doll.
Doll was 44 years old. 1Wrestling.com sends condolences to the family and friends of Steve Doll.
TV director Harry Harris dies
Helmer won Emmy for 'Fame' in 1982
By PAT SAPERSTEIN-Variety-Prolific TV director Harry Harris, who won an Emmy for directing TV series "Fame," died March 19 in Los Angeles of complications of myelodsplasia. He was 86.
Harris, who started working in Hollywood in the late 1930s, was still directing episodes of "7th Heaven" in 2005 while in his eighties.
His Emmy came in 1982 for directing in a drama series for an episode of "Fame." He was also Emmy nommed for an episode of "The Waltons" and for a daytime Emmy for directing afterschool special "Have You Ever Been Ashamed of Your Parents?"
Harris directed hundreds of TV episodes for shows such as "Rawhide," "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "The Virginian," "Kung Fu," "Lost in Space," "Hawaii Five-O," "Falcon's Crest" and "Eight is Enough."
Born in Kansas City, he moved to Los Angeles in 1937 and landed a mailroom job at Columbia Studios. He became an apprentice sound cutter and then an assistant sound effects editor.
Harris enlisted in the Army at the start of WWII and reported to Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, where his supervisor was Ronald Reagan, who hired him as a sound effects editor for training and combat films.When the war ended, he became an assistant film editor and then an editor at Desilu. His directing debut came when Desi Arnaz gave him a chance to try directing while working editor on the Rory Calhoun series "The Texan." Four Star's Ed Adamson then hired Harris to direct "Wanted, Dead or Alive" starring Steve McQueen, and he went on to direct episodes for numerous Western series before turning mostly to TV dramas.
He is survived by his wife, Patty; daughters, Joanne, a hairstylist and Suzanne; and a stepson, Michael Daruty, an NBC Universal exec.
Monday, March 16, 2009
RIP
RON SILVER DIES; SUCCUMBS TO CANCER AT AGE 62
Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post. "Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."
Silver might be best known for playing legal scholar Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune," about the successful appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for putting his socialite wife into a permanent coma. Once a self-identified lifelong Democrat, Silver was a founding member of the liberal-leaning Creative Coalition in 1989. But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Silver's last public appearance came on "Larry King Live" in late October just before last year's presidential election. The actor seemed to be swinging slightly back to the left, and took a moderate, down-the-line stance on then-Sen. Barack Obama's race with GOP rival John McCain. Silver acknowledged the GOP's failings under President Bush and seemed resigned to an oncoming landslide.
Silver's art followed his life. In 19 episodes of the monster political drama "The West Wing," between 2001 and 2006, Silver played hard-driving political consultant Bruno Gianelli, who brought his brash advice to mythical Democratic president Josiah "Jed" Bartlet. The Gianelli character resurfaced in the "West Wing's" last two seasons when he - like Silver in real life - switched teams and represented a GOP presidential candidate played by Alan Alda.
From The Times
February 25, 2009
Kelly Groucutt: bass player with the Electric Light Orchestra
As the bass player and occasional singer with the Electric Light Orchestra, Kelly Groucutt played a significant part in creating some of the most elaborate, clever and ambitious pop music of the prog-rock era.
One of the biggest-selling bands of their time, between 1975 and 1981 ELO scored 17 Top 40 hits and Groucutt played on all of them. They included such classic rock staples as Evil Woman, Strange Magic, Mr Blue Sky and Don’t Bring Me Down. Although the biggest hits were mostly sung by the group’s founder Jeff Lynne, Groucutt’s distinctive voice took the lead on such fan favourites as Nightrider, Sweet Is the Night and The Diary of Horace Wimp.
Born Michael William Groucutt in 1945 in Coseley, Staffordshire, he left school at 14 to work in a Midlands sheet-metal factory. When the son of the factory’s owner heard him singing along to the radio over the din of the machinery, he invited Groucutt to become the singer with a group he was forming. The result was Rikki Storm and the Falcons, with Groucutt cast as Rikki.
When they fell by the wayside, he formed Rikki Burns and the Vibras, taking up the guitar as well as singing. A spell in the Midnights followed, but with only local success, and by the mid-1960s he had given up music and returned to his day job.
He couldn’t stay away from music for long and was soon back playing with various groups including Greenwich Village, Marble Arch, Sight and Sound and Barefoot. It was while working with the latter in 1974 that he was approached by Jeff Lynne to join the Electric Light Orchestra, replacing Mike de Albuquerque on bass.
Formed in 1971 out of the ashes of the Move, ELO had already tasted modest success with a symphonic, Beatlesque sound which took up where I Am the Walrus left off. The group had scored such hits as 10538 Overture and an elaborately orchestrated version of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, but with the addition of Groucutt the line-up stabilised and ELO went on to enjoy their most productive and commercially lucrative period.
At the time the group had just recorded their most ambitious work to date, the concept album Eldorado. Billed as “A symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra” and involving orchestra and choir, Groucutt joined in time to tour the grandiose show built around the record, his operatic voice adding significantly to the band’s on-stage impact.
The first ELO album on which he played was Face the Music (1975), which included the hit singles Evil Woman and Strange Magic and featured his lead vocals on the tracks Nightrider and Poker.
The five-million-selling A New World Record followed in 1976 and included the hit singles Livin’ Thing and Telephone Line. Groucutt sang the lead on the album track Above the Clouds and on stage sang the operatic part from one of the record’s dramatic highlights, Rockaria!
Another multiplatinum-selling album, Out of the Blue, reached No 4 in both the British and American charts at the end of 1977, and included the hit singles Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Mr Blue Sky and Wild West Hero. To promote it, ELO embarked on a massive world tour with a lavish stage set involving a spaceship design and lasers.
In Britiain they played a record-breaking eight consecutive sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena and were the subject of a one-hour documentary on The South Bank Show. In America the concerts were billed simply as “The Big Night”. It was judged at the time to be the biggest-grossing tour in musical history.
The follow-up, Discovery, appeared in 1979 and found Lynne incorporating elements of disco into his rock symphonies. Hit singles on the album included Don’t Bring Me Down, Shine a Little Love and The Diary of Horace Wimp, the latter sung to great effect by Groucutt.
Discovery made ELO the biggest-selling act in Britain that year and was followed in 1980 by music for the soundtrack of the film Xanadu. Although the film itself flopped, the title song, teaming ELO with Olivia Newton-John, gave the band its only British No 1 single.
Further commercial success came with the 1981 sci-fi concept album Time, which replaced the strings of previous recordings with synthesisers, topped the British charts and spawned the hit single Hold on Tight.
Yet despite this success, ELO had already passed their peak and the 1982 single The Way Life’s Meant to Be was their first release in six years that failed to make the charts.
That same year, Groucutt released a solo album, Kelly, featuring several fellow ELO members. But as the band began recording its next album, Secret Messages, he abruptly announced his departure, disappointed at what he saw as an unfair distribution of the royalties from the group’s recordings.
When he subsequently sued, Lynne initially dismissed his claim by declaring: “He was an employee and was paid that way. Instead of spending his money on lawyers he should check his contracts properly first.” That the bass player had a case, however, was recognised when he received a payment of £300,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
ELO disbanded in 1986 but Groucutt went on to participate in a number of ELO spin-offs, including ELO Part 2 and The Orchestra. Away from music he was a keen amateur astronomer.
Groucutt is survived by his second wife, Anna-Maria Bialaga, and four children from his first marriage.
Kelly Groucutt, musician, was born on September 8, 1945. He died after a heart attack on February 19, 2009, aged 63
Andrew "Test" Martin, a former WWE wrestler, was found dead in his Tampa, Fla. apartment late Friday night, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.
Neighbors called police after seeing the 33-year-old motionless over a span of several hours.The cause of death wasn't immediately known, but police said foul play isn't suspected. An autopsy will be performed.
Martin joined the WWE in 1998 and won many of the organization's major titles before suffering a severe back injury, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.
He was known for his on and off-screen relationship with Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of WWE head Vince McMahon, FOXSports.com reported.
Martin tried several unsuccessful comebacks after his injury, but failed a drug test and was suspended in February 2007, FOXSports.com reported.In April 2008, Martin was arrested on a DUI charge in Tampa, FOXSports.com reported.He is the fourth ex-professional wrestler to die in the Tampa area in the past two years.
Betsy Blair Married to Gene Kelly and then to Karel Reisz, she counted herself lucky to have been on the Hollywood blacklist.
Few film-makers of the left emerged unscathed from the Hollywood witchhunt led by Senator Joe McCarthy. Some died, some were ruined, some headed for Europe. Others named names. Among its victims, the actor Betsy Blair, who has died aged 85, considered herself fortunate.
Despite being blacklisted, she was made less vulnerable by her marriage to fellow socialist Gene Kelly who, by the early 1950s, was virtually untouchable thanks to such succesful movies as On the Town, An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain. Eventually she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1955 film Marty.
Blair began acting in films in the late 1940s, with small roles in sturdy dramas such as The Guilt of Janet Ames, George Cukor's A Double Life and Another Part of the Forest, from the play by Lillian Hellman. She fell out of favour for activities that included substantial fundraising for leftwing causes. After Kind Lady (1951), where she nearly lost the part, she found herself unemployable. But, cushioned by wealth and a highly intelligent, inquisitive mind, she coped – still in her early 20s – with "committee" work, as wife to a superstar and mother to their five-year-old daughter.
Born Elizabeth Winifred Boger in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, she had started her career very early. After graduating from high school at 15 and being too impatient to wait to take up her scholarship at university, she went – with her teacher mother's connivance (her father was an insurance broker) – for an audition as a dancer in a New York night club. The teenager from a sedate, small-town background found herself in the big city, directed by and in love with the choreographer Gene Kelly.She understudied the role of Laura in the Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie and took the lead in Willliam Saroyan's play The Beautiful People. When Hollywood beckoned, the newly married couple headed west, arriving in Los Angeles on the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941.
Blair's initial disdain for movies allowed her to concentrate on theatre work, motherhood, keeping open house to the elite of Hollywood and fundraising. She was turned down by the Communist party, which feared that her joining might compromise Kelly's outside activities.After a handful of parts and an enforced hiatus between 1951 and 1955, she was tentatively offered the role of Clara in the movie version of Paddy Chayevsky's teleplay, Marty. Thanks to pressure from the writer and Kelly, she was finally given the role, despite the blacklist.
The film, a tender portrait of a lonely butcher (Ernest Borgnine) and a plain girl who fall in love, became a sleeper: a critical and box-office success despite unknown actors and a small budget. It led to Oscar nominations for both leads. Borgnine took the best actor award. For Blair the outcome was different: "I got the nomination. I won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival and was hot for 200 days." She later took the best actress award at Bafta and found herself more famous in Europe than in America where, despite the accolades, she found no work, except in a Joseph H Lewis western, The Halliday Brand (1957). She left the US and Kelly for France, a Frenchman and a new life.
A small role in Tony Richardson's BBC TV production of Othello (1955) was followed by Meeting in Paris, a comedy with Claude Brasseur. More notice was paid to her next movie (in Spain) where she played a variation of her role as Clara. Calle Mayor (Main Street, 1956), directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, cast her as a small-town spinster who is duped into bed by the local lothario with a promise of marriage. Unfortunately for Isabel, he is doing it for a bet. During the shooting Bardem was arrested by the Franco regime but, thanks to international pressure, was released and completed the rather melancholy film to some acclaim.
Blair followed it with Il Grido (The Cry, 1957), directed by the great Michelangelo Antonioni. This neo-realist drama set in the industrialised Po valley of northern Italy came at the end of the cycle of such films, and was only a modest success. Blair continued working in movies, including an early version of Lies My Father Told Me (1960) in Ireland, and two Italian movies, I Delfini (1960) and Senilita (1961). Following a move to Britain, she made Basil Dearden and Michael Relph's All Night Long (1962), a film set in the London jazz scene.
Blair decided to stay in London where, in 1963, she met and married Karel Reisz, then established – via the Free Cinema movement and his feature debut Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – as an important director.For years she worked only sporadically, including Das Bombe (1964) and Claude Berri's comedy Marry Me, Marry Me (1968). She also returned to the theatre – an early highlight was an elegant evening of music and poetry, The Spoon River Anthology (1964), at the Royal Court theatre. She was also among a remarkable cast in the film version of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1973), directed by Tony Richardson. But during this period she decided to train as a speech therapist – to the bemusement of her friends.In the mid-1980s she embarked on a spate of television and movie work, beginning with an excellent thriller, Descent Into Hell (1986), made in France. She made Flight of the Spruce Goose (1986) in Poland, was the mother in the poor television revamp of a Hitchcock classic, Suspicion (1987), and featured in the series Thirtysomething (1989).More than 30 years after her last Hollywood movie, she returned there to film Betrayed (1988), a political thriller directed by Costa-Gavras. This gripping story of a white supremacist (Tom Berenger) being tracked by an FBI undercover agent cast her as the racist's mother. Blair matched Berenger's chilling performance with authority and grace. A spot in one of the Marcus Welby television episodes, and a role as Sister of Mercy in the sprawling mini-series Scarlett (a sequel to Gone With the Wind, 1994), were – disappointingly – all that followed.
In 1999 she was one of many distinguished contributors to the documentary The Rodgers & Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty and – not surprisingly – turned up in both the Gene Kelly and Judy Garland episodes of the BBC Hollywood Greats series (2000). In 2002 she was due to feature in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, playing the older Laura Brown; in her younger guise, the depressive 50s housewife was played by Julianne Moore. In the event Blair did not, because Reisz became ill and died later that year; Moore ended up playing those scenes with old-age makeup.
Blair's autobiography, The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood and Paris, was published in 2003. She declared herself content, having, she said, no regrets about the blacklist, which obliged her to mature as a person and – consequently – as an actor. Modestly, she once said, "it certainly wasn't much of a career. For all my ambitions, I think my life was more important to me." Her daughter Kerry Kelly Novick and stepsons Matthew, Toby and Barney Reisz survive her.
Betsy Blair (Elizabeth Winifred Boger), actor, born 11 December 1923; died 13 March 2009
Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post. "Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."
Silver might be best known for playing legal scholar Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune," about the successful appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for putting his socialite wife into a permanent coma. Once a self-identified lifelong Democrat, Silver was a founding member of the liberal-leaning Creative Coalition in 1989. But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Silver's last public appearance came on "Larry King Live" in late October just before last year's presidential election. The actor seemed to be swinging slightly back to the left, and took a moderate, down-the-line stance on then-Sen. Barack Obama's race with GOP rival John McCain. Silver acknowledged the GOP's failings under President Bush and seemed resigned to an oncoming landslide.
Silver's art followed his life. In 19 episodes of the monster political drama "The West Wing," between 2001 and 2006, Silver played hard-driving political consultant Bruno Gianelli, who brought his brash advice to mythical Democratic president Josiah "Jed" Bartlet. The Gianelli character resurfaced in the "West Wing's" last two seasons when he - like Silver in real life - switched teams and represented a GOP presidential candidate played by Alan Alda.
From The Times
February 25, 2009
Kelly Groucutt: bass player with the Electric Light Orchestra
As the bass player and occasional singer with the Electric Light Orchestra, Kelly Groucutt played a significant part in creating some of the most elaborate, clever and ambitious pop music of the prog-rock era.
One of the biggest-selling bands of their time, between 1975 and 1981 ELO scored 17 Top 40 hits and Groucutt played on all of them. They included such classic rock staples as Evil Woman, Strange Magic, Mr Blue Sky and Don’t Bring Me Down. Although the biggest hits were mostly sung by the group’s founder Jeff Lynne, Groucutt’s distinctive voice took the lead on such fan favourites as Nightrider, Sweet Is the Night and The Diary of Horace Wimp.
Born Michael William Groucutt in 1945 in Coseley, Staffordshire, he left school at 14 to work in a Midlands sheet-metal factory. When the son of the factory’s owner heard him singing along to the radio over the din of the machinery, he invited Groucutt to become the singer with a group he was forming. The result was Rikki Storm and the Falcons, with Groucutt cast as Rikki.
When they fell by the wayside, he formed Rikki Burns and the Vibras, taking up the guitar as well as singing. A spell in the Midnights followed, but with only local success, and by the mid-1960s he had given up music and returned to his day job.
He couldn’t stay away from music for long and was soon back playing with various groups including Greenwich Village, Marble Arch, Sight and Sound and Barefoot. It was while working with the latter in 1974 that he was approached by Jeff Lynne to join the Electric Light Orchestra, replacing Mike de Albuquerque on bass.
Formed in 1971 out of the ashes of the Move, ELO had already tasted modest success with a symphonic, Beatlesque sound which took up where I Am the Walrus left off. The group had scored such hits as 10538 Overture and an elaborately orchestrated version of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, but with the addition of Groucutt the line-up stabilised and ELO went on to enjoy their most productive and commercially lucrative period.
At the time the group had just recorded their most ambitious work to date, the concept album Eldorado. Billed as “A symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra” and involving orchestra and choir, Groucutt joined in time to tour the grandiose show built around the record, his operatic voice adding significantly to the band’s on-stage impact.
The first ELO album on which he played was Face the Music (1975), which included the hit singles Evil Woman and Strange Magic and featured his lead vocals on the tracks Nightrider and Poker.
The five-million-selling A New World Record followed in 1976 and included the hit singles Livin’ Thing and Telephone Line. Groucutt sang the lead on the album track Above the Clouds and on stage sang the operatic part from one of the record’s dramatic highlights, Rockaria!
Another multiplatinum-selling album, Out of the Blue, reached No 4 in both the British and American charts at the end of 1977, and included the hit singles Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Mr Blue Sky and Wild West Hero. To promote it, ELO embarked on a massive world tour with a lavish stage set involving a spaceship design and lasers.
In Britiain they played a record-breaking eight consecutive sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena and were the subject of a one-hour documentary on The South Bank Show. In America the concerts were billed simply as “The Big Night”. It was judged at the time to be the biggest-grossing tour in musical history.
The follow-up, Discovery, appeared in 1979 and found Lynne incorporating elements of disco into his rock symphonies. Hit singles on the album included Don’t Bring Me Down, Shine a Little Love and The Diary of Horace Wimp, the latter sung to great effect by Groucutt.
Discovery made ELO the biggest-selling act in Britain that year and was followed in 1980 by music for the soundtrack of the film Xanadu. Although the film itself flopped, the title song, teaming ELO with Olivia Newton-John, gave the band its only British No 1 single.
Further commercial success came with the 1981 sci-fi concept album Time, which replaced the strings of previous recordings with synthesisers, topped the British charts and spawned the hit single Hold on Tight.
Yet despite this success, ELO had already passed their peak and the 1982 single The Way Life’s Meant to Be was their first release in six years that failed to make the charts.
That same year, Groucutt released a solo album, Kelly, featuring several fellow ELO members. But as the band began recording its next album, Secret Messages, he abruptly announced his departure, disappointed at what he saw as an unfair distribution of the royalties from the group’s recordings.
When he subsequently sued, Lynne initially dismissed his claim by declaring: “He was an employee and was paid that way. Instead of spending his money on lawyers he should check his contracts properly first.” That the bass player had a case, however, was recognised when he received a payment of £300,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
ELO disbanded in 1986 but Groucutt went on to participate in a number of ELO spin-offs, including ELO Part 2 and The Orchestra. Away from music he was a keen amateur astronomer.
Groucutt is survived by his second wife, Anna-Maria Bialaga, and four children from his first marriage.
Kelly Groucutt, musician, was born on September 8, 1945. He died after a heart attack on February 19, 2009, aged 63
Andrew "Test" Martin, a former WWE wrestler, was found dead in his Tampa, Fla. apartment late Friday night, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.
Neighbors called police after seeing the 33-year-old motionless over a span of several hours.The cause of death wasn't immediately known, but police said foul play isn't suspected. An autopsy will be performed.
Martin joined the WWE in 1998 and won many of the organization's major titles before suffering a severe back injury, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.
He was known for his on and off-screen relationship with Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of WWE head Vince McMahon, FOXSports.com reported.
Martin tried several unsuccessful comebacks after his injury, but failed a drug test and was suspended in February 2007, FOXSports.com reported.In April 2008, Martin was arrested on a DUI charge in Tampa, FOXSports.com reported.He is the fourth ex-professional wrestler to die in the Tampa area in the past two years.
Betsy Blair Married to Gene Kelly and then to Karel Reisz, she counted herself lucky to have been on the Hollywood blacklist.
Few film-makers of the left emerged unscathed from the Hollywood witchhunt led by Senator Joe McCarthy. Some died, some were ruined, some headed for Europe. Others named names. Among its victims, the actor Betsy Blair, who has died aged 85, considered herself fortunate.
Despite being blacklisted, she was made less vulnerable by her marriage to fellow socialist Gene Kelly who, by the early 1950s, was virtually untouchable thanks to such succesful movies as On the Town, An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain. Eventually she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1955 film Marty.
Blair began acting in films in the late 1940s, with small roles in sturdy dramas such as The Guilt of Janet Ames, George Cukor's A Double Life and Another Part of the Forest, from the play by Lillian Hellman. She fell out of favour for activities that included substantial fundraising for leftwing causes. After Kind Lady (1951), where she nearly lost the part, she found herself unemployable. But, cushioned by wealth and a highly intelligent, inquisitive mind, she coped – still in her early 20s – with "committee" work, as wife to a superstar and mother to their five-year-old daughter.
Born Elizabeth Winifred Boger in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, she had started her career very early. After graduating from high school at 15 and being too impatient to wait to take up her scholarship at university, she went – with her teacher mother's connivance (her father was an insurance broker) – for an audition as a dancer in a New York night club. The teenager from a sedate, small-town background found herself in the big city, directed by and in love with the choreographer Gene Kelly.She understudied the role of Laura in the Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie and took the lead in Willliam Saroyan's play The Beautiful People. When Hollywood beckoned, the newly married couple headed west, arriving in Los Angeles on the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941.
Blair's initial disdain for movies allowed her to concentrate on theatre work, motherhood, keeping open house to the elite of Hollywood and fundraising. She was turned down by the Communist party, which feared that her joining might compromise Kelly's outside activities.After a handful of parts and an enforced hiatus between 1951 and 1955, she was tentatively offered the role of Clara in the movie version of Paddy Chayevsky's teleplay, Marty. Thanks to pressure from the writer and Kelly, she was finally given the role, despite the blacklist.
The film, a tender portrait of a lonely butcher (Ernest Borgnine) and a plain girl who fall in love, became a sleeper: a critical and box-office success despite unknown actors and a small budget. It led to Oscar nominations for both leads. Borgnine took the best actor award. For Blair the outcome was different: "I got the nomination. I won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival and was hot for 200 days." She later took the best actress award at Bafta and found herself more famous in Europe than in America where, despite the accolades, she found no work, except in a Joseph H Lewis western, The Halliday Brand (1957). She left the US and Kelly for France, a Frenchman and a new life.
A small role in Tony Richardson's BBC TV production of Othello (1955) was followed by Meeting in Paris, a comedy with Claude Brasseur. More notice was paid to her next movie (in Spain) where she played a variation of her role as Clara. Calle Mayor (Main Street, 1956), directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, cast her as a small-town spinster who is duped into bed by the local lothario with a promise of marriage. Unfortunately for Isabel, he is doing it for a bet. During the shooting Bardem was arrested by the Franco regime but, thanks to international pressure, was released and completed the rather melancholy film to some acclaim.
Blair followed it with Il Grido (The Cry, 1957), directed by the great Michelangelo Antonioni. This neo-realist drama set in the industrialised Po valley of northern Italy came at the end of the cycle of such films, and was only a modest success. Blair continued working in movies, including an early version of Lies My Father Told Me (1960) in Ireland, and two Italian movies, I Delfini (1960) and Senilita (1961). Following a move to Britain, she made Basil Dearden and Michael Relph's All Night Long (1962), a film set in the London jazz scene.
Blair decided to stay in London where, in 1963, she met and married Karel Reisz, then established – via the Free Cinema movement and his feature debut Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – as an important director.For years she worked only sporadically, including Das Bombe (1964) and Claude Berri's comedy Marry Me, Marry Me (1968). She also returned to the theatre – an early highlight was an elegant evening of music and poetry, The Spoon River Anthology (1964), at the Royal Court theatre. She was also among a remarkable cast in the film version of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1973), directed by Tony Richardson. But during this period she decided to train as a speech therapist – to the bemusement of her friends.In the mid-1980s she embarked on a spate of television and movie work, beginning with an excellent thriller, Descent Into Hell (1986), made in France. She made Flight of the Spruce Goose (1986) in Poland, was the mother in the poor television revamp of a Hitchcock classic, Suspicion (1987), and featured in the series Thirtysomething (1989).More than 30 years after her last Hollywood movie, she returned there to film Betrayed (1988), a political thriller directed by Costa-Gavras. This gripping story of a white supremacist (Tom Berenger) being tracked by an FBI undercover agent cast her as the racist's mother. Blair matched Berenger's chilling performance with authority and grace. A spot in one of the Marcus Welby television episodes, and a role as Sister of Mercy in the sprawling mini-series Scarlett (a sequel to Gone With the Wind, 1994), were – disappointingly – all that followed.
In 1999 she was one of many distinguished contributors to the documentary The Rodgers & Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty and – not surprisingly – turned up in both the Gene Kelly and Judy Garland episodes of the BBC Hollywood Greats series (2000). In 2002 she was due to feature in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, playing the older Laura Brown; in her younger guise, the depressive 50s housewife was played by Julianne Moore. In the event Blair did not, because Reisz became ill and died later that year; Moore ended up playing those scenes with old-age makeup.
Blair's autobiography, The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood and Paris, was published in 2003. She declared herself content, having, she said, no regrets about the blacklist, which obliged her to mature as a person and – consequently – as an actor. Modestly, she once said, "it certainly wasn't much of a career. For all my ambitions, I think my life was more important to me." Her daughter Kerry Kelly Novick and stepsons Matthew, Toby and Barney Reisz survive her.
Betsy Blair (Elizabeth Winifred Boger), actor, born 11 December 1923; died 13 March 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
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Radio legend Paul Harvey has passed away. From his web site.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Harvey began his radio career in 1933 at KVOO-AM, Tulsa, while he was still in high school. Later, while attending the University of Tulsa, he continued working at KVOO as an announcer, then as a program director.
Paul Harvey reached audiences way beyond the windy city in 1951, when he began his coast-to-coast “News and Comment” on the ABC Radio Networks. On May 10, 1976, Mr. Harvey began another series of programs on the ABC Radio Networks entitled “The Rest of the Story”, which delve into the forgotten or little known facts behind stories of famous people and events.
Today, Paul Harvey “News and Comment” and “The Rest of the Story” can be heard every Monday through Saturday. Paul Harvey News is the largest one-man network in the world, consisting of over 1200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations that broadcast around the world, and 300 newspapers.Paul Harvey’s reach continues to broaden in the 21st Century, as “News and Comment” is streamed on the world wide web twice a day.Mr. Harvey is married to the former Lynne Cooper of St. Louis. They have one son, Paul Jr.One of the great voices of an age almost forgotten. He shall most certainly be missed. Good day, Sir.
Actress Wendy Richard dies at 68 Former EastEnders actress Wendy Richard has died aged 68, her agent has confirmed. The star, who played Pauline Fowler in the BBC One soap opera, had been suffering from cancer. Her agent Kevin Francis said: "She was incredibly brave and retained her sense of humour right to the end." Last October, Richard revealed she had an aggressive, terminal form of cancer. Soon after that she married her long-term partner John Burns.
Actor Judd dies aged 77
9 March 2009 by Patrick Newley The Stage
Leading British screen and television actor Edward Judd has died at the age of 77. Judd won international fame in the sixties when he starred in a series of classic sci-fi films including The Day the Earth Caught Fire, First Men in the Moon and Island of Terror.
Later, he became a highly-respected character actor and memorably appeared in films such as Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man, The Incredible Sarah and The House on Garibaldi Street. On television, he had guest star roles in Flambards, The New Avengers, Van der Valk and Casualty. During the eighties, he was a prolific voice-over artist in radio and TV commercials. He often appeared on the West End stage notably in Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings in which he co-starred with Elaine Stitch. He died on February 24. A full obituary will appear in The Stage newspaper. http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/23723/actor-judd-dies-ag...
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Harvey began his radio career in 1933 at KVOO-AM, Tulsa, while he was still in high school. Later, while attending the University of Tulsa, he continued working at KVOO as an announcer, then as a program director.
Paul Harvey reached audiences way beyond the windy city in 1951, when he began his coast-to-coast “News and Comment” on the ABC Radio Networks. On May 10, 1976, Mr. Harvey began another series of programs on the ABC Radio Networks entitled “The Rest of the Story”, which delve into the forgotten or little known facts behind stories of famous people and events.
Today, Paul Harvey “News and Comment” and “The Rest of the Story” can be heard every Monday through Saturday. Paul Harvey News is the largest one-man network in the world, consisting of over 1200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations that broadcast around the world, and 300 newspapers.Paul Harvey’s reach continues to broaden in the 21st Century, as “News and Comment” is streamed on the world wide web twice a day.Mr. Harvey is married to the former Lynne Cooper of St. Louis. They have one son, Paul Jr.One of the great voices of an age almost forgotten. He shall most certainly be missed. Good day, Sir.
Actress Wendy Richard dies at 68 Former EastEnders actress Wendy Richard has died aged 68, her agent has confirmed. The star, who played Pauline Fowler in the BBC One soap opera, had been suffering from cancer. Her agent Kevin Francis said: "She was incredibly brave and retained her sense of humour right to the end." Last October, Richard revealed she had an aggressive, terminal form of cancer. Soon after that she married her long-term partner John Burns.
Actor Judd dies aged 77
9 March 2009 by Patrick Newley The Stage
Leading British screen and television actor Edward Judd has died at the age of 77. Judd won international fame in the sixties when he starred in a series of classic sci-fi films including The Day the Earth Caught Fire, First Men in the Moon and Island of Terror.
Later, he became a highly-respected character actor and memorably appeared in films such as Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man, The Incredible Sarah and The House on Garibaldi Street. On television, he had guest star roles in Flambards, The New Avengers, Van der Valk and Casualty. During the eighties, he was a prolific voice-over artist in radio and TV commercials. He often appeared on the West End stage notably in Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings in which he co-starred with Elaine Stitch. He died on February 24. A full obituary will appear in The Stage newspaper. http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/23723/actor-judd-dies-ag...
More Passings
from nitrateville.com Sydney Chaplin--the eldest living child of Charlie--died peacefully at home yesterday at the age of 82.
He appeared in his father's films LIMELIGHT (1952) and A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG (1967). He won a Tony for his work in the original Broadway production of BELLS ARE RINGING. His other well known Broadway credit is the original production of FUNNY GIRL.
Film enthusiasts may recall his appearances at Cinecon in 1998 and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2004 when he talked after screenings of THE CIRCUS to help promote Jeffrey Vance's books.
He wrote the Foreword to WIFE OF THE LIFE OF THE PARTY, his mother's second memoir of her life with Chaplin. He appears in the documentaries UNKNOWN CHAPLIN, CHARLIE CHAPLIN: A TRAMP'S LIFE, and CHARLE: THE LIFE AND ART OF CHARLES CHAPLIN. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and son Stephan (from his first marriage).
Thu Mar 5, 7:07 am ETROME – Italian director Salvatore Samperi, best known for erotic comedies that challenged the morals of Italy's middle class, has died at age 64, his family said Thursday.
Samperi died Wednesday, said his brother Jadran Samperi, declining to give the cause of the death. The director died in his house on Lake Bracciano, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Rome, according to the ANSA news agency.Samperi's movies offered a social critique of the Italian bourgeoisie, often through the lens of sex.
Critics say his best works explored the forbidden passions and relationships within middle-class families as a way to show what he saw as their decadence and hypocrisy.
In what is considered by many critics his best movie, "Grazie, Zia" ("Thank You, Aunt"), Samperi tells the story of a rich young man who engages in a sexually charged relationship with his aunt. The movie, released in 1968, marked Samperi's directorial debut at age 24.
The movie "translated the anxiety and unrest of the time into an accessible movie," film critic Fabio Ferzetti wrote in Il Messaggero newspaper Thursday.Samperi's biggest success came a few years later, with "Malizia" ("Malice"), which turned Italian actress Laura Antonelli into an erotic icon, thanks to her role as a sexy, socially climbing maid. The 1973 movie was seen as scandalous but was also a commercial hit and became a cultural sensation.
Born in the northeastern Italian city of Padua, Samperi briefly studied literature and philosophy before turning to cinema. His career also included flops, including a sequel to "Malizia," made about 20 years after the original.Samperi had failed to score a success for many years, and recently he had worked primarily for TV.
from:http://thechronicleherald.ca/Sports/1109637.html
One of the Maritimes most-beloved wrestling stars has lost his lengthy battle with cancer.
Yvon Cormier, who wrestled under the pseudonym The Beast, died in hospital in Moncton early Wednesday morning.The Memramcook, N.B., native was 70.
Cormier was the eldest of 13 children, four of whom got into the wrestling business. Jean-Louis (as Rudy Kay), Leo (as Leo Burke) and Bobby (as Bobby Kay) also made a name for themselves in the ring. Jean-Louis passed away last May."The Cormiers put wrestling on the map," said longtime promoter Al Zinck of Halifax.
Standing five-foot-10 and weighing 250 pounds, Yvon Cormier got started in the business in 1961. Two years later, famed American promoter Jim Crockett Sr. gave him the nickname ‘The Beast.’ As The Beast, Cormier plied his trade around the world, wrestling throughout Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan, where he wrestled Giant Baba before 45,000 people. He was also famous for his cage and gladiator-style chain matches.
Zinck said one of his fondest memories was in 1974 when a record crowd at the Halifax Forum attended a tag team match featuring The Beast and Lord Athol Layton against the Faboulous Kangaroos."We had over 9,000 at the Forum," Zinck recalled. "It was The Beast, Lord Athol Layton and the Kangaroos from Australia. What a night. "Yvon went all over the world," Zinck added. "And everywhere he went he drew big crowds: Australia, Japan and down in the U.S."
March 4, 2009, 4:41 pm Horton Foote Has Died
By The New York Times Rod Aydelotte/Associated Press
Horton Foote, who chronicled America’s wistful odyssey through the 20th century in plays and films mostly set in a small town in Texas and left a literary legacy as one of the country’s foremost storytellers, died in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday. He was 92, said his daughter, Hallie Foote.
In screenplays for such movies as “Tender Mercies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” and in plays like “The Young Man From Atlanta” and his nine-play cycle “The Orphans’ Home,” Mr. Foote depicted the way ordinary people shoulder the ordinary burdens of life, finding drama in the resilience by which they carry on in the face of change, economic hardship, disappointment, loss and death. His work earned him a Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards.
Here is a portion of his obituary, written by Wilborn Hampton; the complete version will be posted at nytimes.com Wednesday evening. In a body of work for which he won the Pulitzer Prize and two Oscars, Mr. Foote was known as a writer’s writer, an author who never abandoned his vision or altered his simple, homespun style even when Broadway and Hollywood temporarily turned their backs on him.
In screenplays for such movies as “Tender Mercies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” and in plays like “The Young Man From Atlanta” and his nine-play cycle “Orphans’ Home,” Mr. Foote depicted the way ordinary people shoulder the ordinary burdens of life, finding drama in the resilience by which they carry on in the face of change, economic hardship, disappointment, loss and death. His work earned him a Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards.Frank Rich, who as theater critic of The New York Times was one of Mr. Foote’s champions, called him “one of America’s living literary wonders.” Mr. Rich wrote that his plays contained “a subtlety that suggests a collaboration between Faulkner and Chekhov.”
Mr. Foote, in a 1986 interview in The New York Times Magazine, said: “I believe very deeply in the human spirit and I have a sense of awe about it because I don’t know how people carry on. What makes the difference in people? What is it? I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them, to kill them, to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.”
Mr. Foote spent most of his life writing about such people in a simple, homespun style. In more than 50 plays and films, most of which were set in the fictiional town of Harrison, Texas, he charted their struggle through the century by recording the daily, familial conflicts that filled their lives.
He often seemed to resemble a character from one of his own plays. Always courteous and courtly, he spoke with a slow Texas drawl. He enjoyed good food and wine but would usually opt for barbecue and iced tea or fried chicken with a Dr Pepper when he was home in Texas. He was a jovial man with a wry humor, and his white hair and robust frame gave him the appearance of a Southern senator or one’s favorite uncle, the one who always had a story. Albert Horton Foote Jr., one of three sons of Albert Horton Foote and the former Hallie Brooks, was born March 14, 1916, in Wharton, Texas, a small town about 40 miles southwest of Houston that was once surrounded by cotton fields. His father was a local haberdasher and his mother, who was from an old Southern family, taught piano.
Although he boarded a train for Dallas at the age of 16 to pursue a career as an actor, Mr. Foote never really left home. From his first efforts as a playwright, he returned again and again to set his plays and films amid the pecan groves and Victorian houses with large front porches on the tree-lined streets of Wharton. His inspiration came from the people he knew and the stories he heard growing up there. “I’ve spent my life listening,” Mr. Foote once said.
He appeared in his father's films LIMELIGHT (1952) and A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG (1967). He won a Tony for his work in the original Broadway production of BELLS ARE RINGING. His other well known Broadway credit is the original production of FUNNY GIRL.
Film enthusiasts may recall his appearances at Cinecon in 1998 and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2004 when he talked after screenings of THE CIRCUS to help promote Jeffrey Vance's books.
He wrote the Foreword to WIFE OF THE LIFE OF THE PARTY, his mother's second memoir of her life with Chaplin. He appears in the documentaries UNKNOWN CHAPLIN, CHARLIE CHAPLIN: A TRAMP'S LIFE, and CHARLE: THE LIFE AND ART OF CHARLES CHAPLIN. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and son Stephan (from his first marriage).
Thu Mar 5, 7:07 am ETROME – Italian director Salvatore Samperi, best known for erotic comedies that challenged the morals of Italy's middle class, has died at age 64, his family said Thursday.
Samperi died Wednesday, said his brother Jadran Samperi, declining to give the cause of the death. The director died in his house on Lake Bracciano, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Rome, according to the ANSA news agency.Samperi's movies offered a social critique of the Italian bourgeoisie, often through the lens of sex.
Critics say his best works explored the forbidden passions and relationships within middle-class families as a way to show what he saw as their decadence and hypocrisy.
In what is considered by many critics his best movie, "Grazie, Zia" ("Thank You, Aunt"), Samperi tells the story of a rich young man who engages in a sexually charged relationship with his aunt. The movie, released in 1968, marked Samperi's directorial debut at age 24.
The movie "translated the anxiety and unrest of the time into an accessible movie," film critic Fabio Ferzetti wrote in Il Messaggero newspaper Thursday.Samperi's biggest success came a few years later, with "Malizia" ("Malice"), which turned Italian actress Laura Antonelli into an erotic icon, thanks to her role as a sexy, socially climbing maid. The 1973 movie was seen as scandalous but was also a commercial hit and became a cultural sensation.
Born in the northeastern Italian city of Padua, Samperi briefly studied literature and philosophy before turning to cinema. His career also included flops, including a sequel to "Malizia," made about 20 years after the original.Samperi had failed to score a success for many years, and recently he had worked primarily for TV.
from:http://thechronicleherald.ca/Sports/1109637.html
One of the Maritimes most-beloved wrestling stars has lost his lengthy battle with cancer.
Yvon Cormier, who wrestled under the pseudonym The Beast, died in hospital in Moncton early Wednesday morning.The Memramcook, N.B., native was 70.
Cormier was the eldest of 13 children, four of whom got into the wrestling business. Jean-Louis (as Rudy Kay), Leo (as Leo Burke) and Bobby (as Bobby Kay) also made a name for themselves in the ring. Jean-Louis passed away last May."The Cormiers put wrestling on the map," said longtime promoter Al Zinck of Halifax.
Standing five-foot-10 and weighing 250 pounds, Yvon Cormier got started in the business in 1961. Two years later, famed American promoter Jim Crockett Sr. gave him the nickname ‘The Beast.’ As The Beast, Cormier plied his trade around the world, wrestling throughout Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan, where he wrestled Giant Baba before 45,000 people. He was also famous for his cage and gladiator-style chain matches.
Zinck said one of his fondest memories was in 1974 when a record crowd at the Halifax Forum attended a tag team match featuring The Beast and Lord Athol Layton against the Faboulous Kangaroos."We had over 9,000 at the Forum," Zinck recalled. "It was The Beast, Lord Athol Layton and the Kangaroos from Australia. What a night. "Yvon went all over the world," Zinck added. "And everywhere he went he drew big crowds: Australia, Japan and down in the U.S."
March 4, 2009, 4:41 pm Horton Foote Has Died
By The New York Times Rod Aydelotte/Associated Press
Horton Foote, who chronicled America’s wistful odyssey through the 20th century in plays and films mostly set in a small town in Texas and left a literary legacy as one of the country’s foremost storytellers, died in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday. He was 92, said his daughter, Hallie Foote.
In screenplays for such movies as “Tender Mercies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” and in plays like “The Young Man From Atlanta” and his nine-play cycle “The Orphans’ Home,” Mr. Foote depicted the way ordinary people shoulder the ordinary burdens of life, finding drama in the resilience by which they carry on in the face of change, economic hardship, disappointment, loss and death. His work earned him a Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards.
Here is a portion of his obituary, written by Wilborn Hampton; the complete version will be posted at nytimes.com Wednesday evening. In a body of work for which he won the Pulitzer Prize and two Oscars, Mr. Foote was known as a writer’s writer, an author who never abandoned his vision or altered his simple, homespun style even when Broadway and Hollywood temporarily turned their backs on him.
In screenplays for such movies as “Tender Mercies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” and in plays like “The Young Man From Atlanta” and his nine-play cycle “Orphans’ Home,” Mr. Foote depicted the way ordinary people shoulder the ordinary burdens of life, finding drama in the resilience by which they carry on in the face of change, economic hardship, disappointment, loss and death. His work earned him a Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards.Frank Rich, who as theater critic of The New York Times was one of Mr. Foote’s champions, called him “one of America’s living literary wonders.” Mr. Rich wrote that his plays contained “a subtlety that suggests a collaboration between Faulkner and Chekhov.”
Mr. Foote, in a 1986 interview in The New York Times Magazine, said: “I believe very deeply in the human spirit and I have a sense of awe about it because I don’t know how people carry on. What makes the difference in people? What is it? I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them, to kill them, to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.”
Mr. Foote spent most of his life writing about such people in a simple, homespun style. In more than 50 plays and films, most of which were set in the fictiional town of Harrison, Texas, he charted their struggle through the century by recording the daily, familial conflicts that filled their lives.
He often seemed to resemble a character from one of his own plays. Always courteous and courtly, he spoke with a slow Texas drawl. He enjoyed good food and wine but would usually opt for barbecue and iced tea or fried chicken with a Dr Pepper when he was home in Texas. He was a jovial man with a wry humor, and his white hair and robust frame gave him the appearance of a Southern senator or one’s favorite uncle, the one who always had a story. Albert Horton Foote Jr., one of three sons of Albert Horton Foote and the former Hallie Brooks, was born March 14, 1916, in Wharton, Texas, a small town about 40 miles southwest of Houston that was once surrounded by cotton fields. His father was a local haberdasher and his mother, who was from an old Southern family, taught piano.
Although he boarded a train for Dallas at the age of 16 to pursue a career as an actor, Mr. Foote never really left home. From his first efforts as a playwright, he returned again and again to set his plays and films amid the pecan groves and Victorian houses with large front porches on the tree-lined streets of Wharton. His inspiration came from the people he knew and the stories he heard growing up there. “I’ve spent my life listening,” Mr. Foote once said.
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