More Stuff from 2007

Hi. I wrote the following obits for my first blog (that's the one I had on the site that's closing down). They are a little old but I thought since I wrote them, why let them go to waste. Here they is:

Legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman died July 30th at age 89 and a few hours later Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni passed away at age 94! Bergman was the world famous director of such classic films as WILD STRAWBERRIES, THE SEVENTH SEAL (my personal favorite), PERSONA and FANNY & ALEXANDER. Antonioni rose to fame with L’AVVENTURA in 1960. Though it was booed at The Cannes Film Festival in 1960 it won the Jury Prize there by making it fashionable for subsequent entries to be booed! The equally obscure but fascinating LA NOTTE (1961) and L’ECLISSE (1962) followed. He made the incomparable BLOW-UP in 1966 to worldwide acclaim but his English language follow up ZABRISKIE POINT (1970) was a flop. After THE PASSENGER (his underrated masterpiece) in 1975 he made mostly documentaries. He surprised most of the film world by directing a portion of the 2004 anthology EROS at age 90!

Prolific cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs died July 22. He was 74. Although famed for his work on such high profiled Hollywood as FIVE EASY PIECES PAPER MOON SHAMPOO GHOSTBUSTERS MASK and MISS CONGENIALITY Kovacs began his career shooting low budget classics like Ray Steckler’s THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES KISS ME QUICK! THE NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL HELL’S ANGELS ON WHEELS PSYCH OUT TARGETS and two Al Adamson “epics”: BLOOD FROM DRACULA’S CASTLE and HELL’S BLOODY DEVILS.

And speaking of pro-wrestling, legendary grappler Karl Gotch died July 28th at the ripe old age of 83. Known as “The God of Pro Wrestling” in Japan he helped revolutionize the sport there. He had a much more notorious reputation in the US and spend little time here after holding the WWWF tag team belts with Rene Goulet in 1971. He trained many successful wrestlers including Tatsumi Fujinami. Considering the way wrestlers have been popping off recently his age practically makes him a Methuselah!

Hollywood make-up man William Tuttle died on July 28th. He was 95! This guy had some resume (over 340 films!) beginning as an un-credited assistant on Tod Browning’s MARK OF THE VAMPIRE in 1935. Some of his later more famous credits include AN AMERICAN IN PARIS SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN PAT & MIKE THE BAD & THE BEAUTIFUL JULIUS CAESER JAIL HOUSE ROCK THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE FORBIDDEN PLANET GREEN MANSIONS NORTH BY NORTHWEST THE TIME MACHINE and many more. He also did make-up for 12 episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

Screenwriter Bernard Gordon died May 11 of cancer. He was 88. Though blacklisted in the ‘50’s (he was part of “The Hollywood Ten”) he wrote several interesting low budget films in the same decade under pseudonym. They include EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS Edward L. Cahn’s THE ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE and HELLCATS OF THE NAVY (starring Ronald Reagan & Nancy Davis). In the ‘60’s he wrote THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS Nicolas Ray’s 55 DAYS AT PEKING BATTLE OF THE BULGE and KRAKATOA, EAST OF JAVA. In 1999 he wrote his first of two books called “Hollywood Exile or How I Learned To Love The Blacklist”.

And then there’s Jack Odell who died July 7th at age 87. In 1952 he constructed a tiny steamroller for his daughter that would fit in a matchbox, the prototype for the “Matchbox” line of model cars and trucks! My favorite was The Unimog, a German vehicle I have never seen on the road!! I still have my collection!!!