Bill DuBay, best known for his editing of Warren Publishing comics such
as Vampirella, Eerie, and Creepy, died on 15 April in Portland, OR.
He'd been suffering from colon cancer. After a short fan career, DuBay
turned pro in 1966 with a story for Charlton Comics. He began editing
at Warren in 1972 and remained there until the company folded in 1983.
He then went to work for Marvel Productions, the animation studio where
Stan Lee was senior writer and studio art director. DuBay later went
to Fox and helped develop the Fox Kids animation block.

DuBay is survived by his mother, three sons, two daughters, three
grandchildren, and his second wife, Venessa Hart, whom he married two
months ago.

Screenwriter of Classic Italian Comedies Dies
Italian screenwriter Scarpelli, father of Italian-style comedies, is dead at 90.

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter Furio Scarpelli, who co-wrote "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and other classics of Italian cinema, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 90.

Scarpelli died in his house in Rome shortly after midnight, his son, Matteo Scarpelli, told The Associated Press. He had long suffered heart problems.

During a decades-long, prolific partnership with Age, Scarpelli co-wrote some of Italy's finest postwar movies, including "Big Deal on Madonna Street."

Their sense of humor and an unforgiving display of the vices of Italian people became the pair's trademark, and made for memorable roles and lines for actors such as Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman.

Age, whose real name was Agenore Incrocci, died in 2005.

The pair's "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo" ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") is a spaghetti-western classic directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood.

Age and Scarpelli received two Oscar nominations for best screenwriting in the 1960s. Scarpelli also received another nomination for "Il Postino" ("The Postman") in 1996.


BAINBRIDGE ISLAND —

Dorothy Provine, part Hollywood blond bombshell and part girl next door, has died.

The Bainbridge Island resident and former film and television actress succumbed to emphysema on Sunday morning at Hospice of Kitsap County in Bremerton, according to her husband, veteran director Robert Day.

She was 75, according to her husband.

“Beautiful,” was how a broken-hearted Day responded when asked to describe his wife, best-known for her role in the 1963 blockbuster “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.”

Day said he married Provine in Las Vegas 43 years ago, and soon after she left acting. They had one son.

“I mean, we both loved each other so much,” Day said.

The couple came to Bainbridge Island about 20 years ago, and both, especially Dorothy, kept very much to themselves.

“She was very reserved. We really didn’t socialize very much,” Day said.

But they enjoyed their private world.

The couple used to go for drives on the island, and she loved watching movies, but even more, enjoying a good book.

“That was her main joy,” Day said.

The couple lived on Finch Road, and their son lived on the same property.

Provine was at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton last week.

“She was clearly suffering,” said her attending physician, Dr. Rana Tan.

Tan is also the director of “Cabaret” at Bremerton Community Theatre. On Thursday, nine cast members appeared at the hospital, and with a piano moved from the lobby to Provine’s second-floor room, they sang song after song from the popular musical. Provine, still stunning, slim and blond hair in a ponytail, smiled widely and wiggled her toes in delight as she sat up in bed and listened.

“We probably sang about six, six or seven songs,” Tan tallied. “She was absolutely beside herself.”

But the “Cabaret” cast members, perhaps unknowingly, were singing the final swan song for a famous actress.

“I think it was a greater experience for us,” Tan said.

A little more than two days later, Provine was dead.

Provine was born Jan. 20, 1935, in Deadwood, S.D. and attended the University of Washington. She was at home both on the big screen and on the one in living rooms.

Her flawless face with wide smile and blond bouffant were common on TV during the 1950s and 1960s. But it was her role as Pinky Pinkham, the not-to-be-forgotten flapper in “The Roaring ‘20s” that captured the imagination of many.

Some of her movies included “The Bonnie Parker Story” (1958), a role she got just three days after arriving in Hollywood, according to the Internet Movie Database at imdb.com. Movies that followed included “Riot in Juvenile Prison” (1959); “Live Fast, Die Young” (1958) and “The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock “(1959). Her last movies before her early departure from acting included “Good Neighbor Sam” (1964); and “Never a Dull Moment” (1968).

Michael Raso of RetroSeduction Cinema has contacted me with the sad news that writer-director Joseph W. Sarno passed away this evening at his home in Manhattan after a short illness. He was 89.

Obituary: Morris Pert

29 April 2010
Composer/percussionist who worked with Yamash'ta and explored power of myth
Born: 9 September, 1947, in Arbroath.

Died: 27 April, 2010, in Balchrick, aged 63.

MORRIS Pert was born in Arbroath, Angus, in 1947. He graduated with a BMus from Edinburgh University in 1969, and, with an Andrew Fraser scholarship, went on to study composition and percussion at the Royal Academy in London, where he was a pupil of Alan Bush.

He was also an associate of Trinity College London in piano teaching. While at the academy, he won several composition prizes including the 1970 Royal Philharmonic Award for his first orchestral work Xumbu-Ata. A two-year period working with the famous Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamash'ta followed, with performances, recordings and musical collaborations in several European music festivals and in Yamash'ta's own Red Buddha Theatre.

This led Pert to form his own experimental music group, Suntreader, which performed and recorded much of his own and his colleagues' music.

In the 1970s, Pert was one of the most prominent composers of his generation, receiving regular BBC commissions for large-scale orchestral works, including his first and second symphonies. At the same time, he was one of the foremost percussionists in the world of popular rock music.

His serious works draw their inspiration from an eclectic range of sources, but especially from ancient mythology, astronomy and oriental culture.

He wrote three symphonies. The first, The Rising of the Moon, premiered in Tokyo under Hiroyuko Iwaki in 1981; the second, The Beltane Rites, was commissioned and performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the third, The Ancient Kindred, was premiered by the Munich Opera Orchestra under Eberhard Schoener on German television in 1980.

Ancient Rites for choir and strings was commissioned and performed in Glasgow by the John Currie Singers. Pert's music has been broadcast on several occasions on BBC Radio 3 and abroad.

Works recorded on the Chantry Record Label include Chromosphere for five players and tape, Luminos for basset horn and piano, Eoastrion for E flat clarinet and tape, The Ultimate Decay for tape and a BBC commission, The Book of Love for percussion and tape. He wrote incidental music for Frank Dunlop's Young Vic production of Macbeth and the Oxford Playhouse production of The Tempest.

Pert worked for 18 years as a session musician in the major London recording studios, having recorded with (among many others) Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, John Williams, Kate Bush, Mike Oldfield, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and the jazz-rock band Brand X.

He also did arrangements for the Classic Rock series of records by the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1977, Pert was voted No 4 jazz and rock percussionist in the world by America's Billboard magazine. He received five gold albums, an American award for a hit song and a nomination by the National Academy of Recording Arts in Washington for his performances on record.

Among his works are an electronic ballet score, Continuum, for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre at Sadlers Wells; Voyage in Space, 20 short piano pieces; The Ancient Pattern for chamber ensemble, a McEwen commission from Glasgow University and, more recently, incidental music for Eden Court Theatre's production of Peter Pan in Inverness and Aurora – a work for taped electronics.

Pert spent his last years living and working in his own small studio in Balchrick, Sutherland concentrating on composition and electronic recording techniques.

Much of his music was inspired by the symbolism and the mystery surrounding the Picts and by his interest in the philosophical implications of the sciences of astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics.

He recently completed Chromosphere, his fifth CD for release.

Alan Sillitoe was still working up until his death
The author Alan Sillitoe has died aged 82 at Charing Cross Hospital in London, his family has said.

The Nottingham-born novelist emerged in the 1950s as one of the "Angry Young Men" of British fiction.

His son David said he hoped his father would be remembered for his contribution to literature.

His novels included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both of which were made into films.

The two books are regarded as classic examples of kitchen sink dramas reflecting life in the mid 20th century Britain.

Mr Sillitoe left school at 14 to work in the Raleigh bicycle factory in his hometown before joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) four years later.

He worked as a wireless operator in Malaya but while in the RAF, he contracted tuberculosis and spent 16 months in hospital where he began to write novels.

The award-winning writer was married to the poet Ruth Fainlight, with whom he had two children, David and Susan.

As well as numerous novels he published several volumes of poetry, children's books and was the author of a number of stage and screen plays.

In 1995, his autobiography Life Without Armour was well received.

Last year, he appeared on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, where he said if he was castaway, his ideal companions would be a record of Le Ca Ira sung by Edith Piaf, a copy of the RAF navigation manual, The Air Publication 1234, and a communications receiver - but for receiving only.

Veteran television comedy writer and producer Myles Wilder, who wrote for such classic smallscreen shows as "McHale's Navy," died April 20 of complications from diverticulitis in Temecula, Calif. He was 77.

Wilder, nephew to helmer Billy Wilder and whose father was B-movie director-producer W. Lee Wilder, started writing for popular radio series, "The Whistler," during his years at UCLA theater school.

Following a stint in the Army, Wilder and his wife moved to London where he worked on the series "The Adventures of Marco Polo."



Upon returning to the U.S., he became a successful writer-producer of comedy series for more than 40 years. Besides "McHale's Navy" for which he was twice Emmy-nommed, his credits include "The Lucy Show," "The Doris Day Show," "Gomer Pyle," "My Three Sons," "The Brady Bunch," "Get Smart," "The Tim Conway Comedy Hour," "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Wilder was known for his witty and wry sense of humor, culinary prowess and his love for dogs.

During his varied career, he also worked for Walt Disney developing movies and was in charge of daytime TV for the Hanna/Barbera Studios, where he oversaw the writing and production of "Inch High Private Eye" and "Hong Kong Phooey," among many other animated classics.

He also sold a novel, "Freeze," to Warner Bros.

Wilder retired from the biz in 1994 and became an avocado grower in Temecula.

Survivors include his wife, Bobbe; a daughter; and two grandchildren.

A memorial will be held at 10 a.m. April 28 at the England Family Mortuary in Temecula.

---

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dede-allen18-2010apr18,0,3471234.story?page=2

Dede Allen dies at 86; editor revolutionized imagery, sound and pace in U.S. films

Her work on 1967's 'Bonnie and Clyde' ushered in a new aesthetic that's now the standard in American film. She earned Oscar nominations for 'Dog Day Afternoon,' 'Reds' and 'Wonder Boys.'


By Claudia Luther

April 17, 2010

Dede Allen, the film editor whose seminal work on Robert Rossen's "The Hustler" in 1961 and especially on Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967 brought a startling new approach to imagery, sound and pace in American movies, died Saturday. She was 86.

Allen, who was nominated for Academy Awards for "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), "Reds" (1981) and "Wonder Boys" (2000), died at her Los Angeles home days after having a stroke, said her son, Tom Fleischman.

Allen was the first film editor -- male or female -- to receive sole credit on a movie for her work. The honor came with "Bonnie and Clyde," a film in which Allen raised the level of her craft to an art form that was as seriously discussed as cinematography or even directing.

"She was just an extraordinary collaborator, and in the course of editing that film, I came to develop confidence in Dede," Penn told The Times on Saturday. "Indeed, she wasn't an editor, she was a constructionist."

The two were "not just collaborators," Penn said, "but deep family friends. We made six films together."

Greg S. Faller, professor of film studies at Towson University in Maryland, said "The Hustler" and "Bonnie and Clyde" "must be considered as benchmark films in the history of editing."

"It's hard to see the changes she made because most of what she did has been so fully embraced by the industry," Faller said.

Allen departed from the standard Hollywood way of cutting -- making smooth transitions starting with wide shots establishing place and characters and going on to medium shots and finally close-ups -- by beginning with close-ups or jump cuts. While these editing methods had been pioneered by the French new wave and some British directors, Allen is generally credited as being the first to use and shape them in American film.

In Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon," she employed a staccato tempo, sometimes called shock cutting.

"She creates this menacing quality by not cutting where you'd expect it -- she typically would cut sooner than you might expect," Faller said. "You weren't ready for it."

She also would begin the sound from the next scene while the previous scene was still playing -- a technique now standard in film editing.

In all, Allen edited or co-edited 20 major motion pictures over 40 years, but she was most closely identified with Penn and a handful of A-list directors such as Rossen, Lumet and George Roy Hill and actor-directors Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford.

Besides "Bonnie and Clyde," which was produced by Beatty and starred Beatty and Faye Dunaway, Allen's films for Penn included "Alice's Restaurant," "Little Big Man," "Night Moves" and "The Missouri Breaks."

She edited Lumet's "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon" and "The Wiz"; Hill's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Slap Shot"; Newman's "Rachel, Rachel" and "Harry & Son"; Beatty's "Reds" (with Craig McKay, who shared the Oscar nomination) and Redford's "The Milagro Beanfield War."

But it was "Bonnie and Clyde," the violent tale based on the true story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow -- lovers and robbers on the run in the Depression-era Southwest -- that secured her place as a pioneer in film.

Hardly a chase scene or violent sequence filmed since "Bonnie and Clyde" has not been a reference to Allen's distinct style, which she developed under Penn's direction.

"What we essentially were doing," Penn said Saturday, "was developing a rhythm for the film so that it has the complexity of music."

The famed final ambush scene when Bonnie and Clyde's gang of robbers is gunned down on a gravel road in rural Louisiana contains more than 50 cuts, though it lasts less than a minute. At Penn's urging, Allen and her assistant, Gerald Greenberg, employed slow motion at some points and faster speed at others, creating a tense, violent and balletic conclusion.

While the film initially left some movie critics in near-apoplectic disapproval of its mix of comedy and graphic violence, Pauline Kael, writing in the New Yorker magazine, called it "excitingly American." Kael had special praise for the movie's editing, especially the "rag-doll dance of death" at the end of the picture, which she called "brilliant."

"It is a horror that seems to go on for eternity, and yet it doesn't last a second beyond what it should," Kael wrote.

In his review in 1967, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert called it "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance."

Kael's review and other critical praise prompted many to reevaluate the film, which in 1998 was listed at No. 27 on the American Film Institute's list of the "100 Greatest American Movies of All Time."

Dede Corother Allen was born in Cincinnati on Dec. 3, 1923. She attended Scripps College in Claremont but left to take a job as a messenger at Columbia Pictures, hoping she could someday fulfill her dream of being a director.

Within a year, she was an assistant in sound effects, working on three-reelers. After long hours at her job, she would sit beside Carl Lerner, then an editor in television who later edited "Klute" and other films. With Lerner's guidance, she learned the craft of editing -- the assemblage of various scenes to create a coherent film.

In the early days of Hollywood, the "cutters," as they were called, were often women, perhaps because, as Allen once commented to author Ally Acker, "women have always been good at little details, like sewing."

But later those jobs mostly went to men, especially after World War II when military veterans returned to the film industry.

Unable to get a stronger foothold in the movies, Allen went with her husband to Europe and then New York City, where she worked various jobs, including editing commercials, while raising her two children.

Working on commercials helped shape her style of editing, she often said.

In the late 1950s, Lerner recommended her for her first major editing task -- for director Robert Wise's "Odds Against Tomorrow," the taut film noir starring Harry Belafonte. Allen credited Wise, who had been a film editor ("Citizen Kane"), for giving her the confidence to find her footing in the profession. She began experimenting with using sound to move the action forward, the precursor to her method of initiating sound from the next scene while the previous scene was still running.

"The overall effect increased the pace of the film -- something always happened, visually or aurally, in a staccato-like tempo," Faller wrote in "Women Filmmakers and Their Films."

"Odds" led to Rossen's "The Hustler," which gave Allen her first real opportunity to demonstrate what she had learned, including the use of cuts instead of dissolves between scenes.

"I think it surprised Rossen, but he left it," she told the Film Quarterly in 1992 of her way of editing. "He used to say, 'It works. It plays. Leave it. Don't improve it into a disaster.' "

Ebert wrote of Allen's work on "The Hustler" that she found the rhythm in the pool games -- "the players circling, the cue sticks, the balls, the watching faces -- that implies the trance-like rhythm of the players. Her editing 'tells' the games so completely that if we don't understand pool, we forget that we don't."

When "Bonnie and Clyde" came along several years later, Allen employed her well-honed techniques and instincts about performance and story to help Penn deliver a film unlike any made in America before.

In 1994, Allen received the highest honor from her peers, a career achievement award given by American Cinema Editors. In November 2007 she received the Motion Picture Editors Guild's Fellowship and Service Award.

For seven years during the 1990s, Allen was an executive at Warner Bros., overseeing pre- and post-production on many films. She returned to editing with "Wonder Boys" and was co-editor of Omar Naim's "The Final Cut" (2004) and editor of "Fireflies in the Garden" (2008).

In addition to her son, Tom, a sound recording mixer, she is survived by her husband of 63 years, Stephen E. Fleischman, a retired TV news executive, documentary producer and writer; daughter Ramey Ward; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Claudia Luther is a former Times staff writer

Ralph Snodsmith dies at 70. The noted gardening expert has been a part of nationally syndicated radio show Ralfh Snodsmith’s Garden Hotline’ for 35 years.

Ralph Snodsmith died of the complications aroused from his broken hip.

Ralph Snodsmith has been a television and radio personality while he has published many books on gardening.

Before joining Ralph Snodsmith’s Garden Hotline, he had been advising on the ABC morning show Good Morning America. His book Tri-State Garden’s Guide and Fundamentals of Gardening won him national acclaim.

Ralph Snodsmith has had studied the subjects of floriculture and ornamental horticulture for several years before he won the name of a man with green thumb. He was equally appreciated for his communication skills that turned his expertise into a practical guide for many laymen in the field.

Although Ralph Snodsmith was born in Illinois, he spent most of his life time in New York area.

He worked as agricultural extension agent for Rockland County; he also served as executive director of the Queens Botanical Garden.

Ralph Snodsmith has left his wife Mary behind who says that Ralph Snodsmith was planning his own garden at the time of his injury. She said that he was a gentleman and always has cared and liked people.

Ralph Snodsmith and Mary married some 47 years ago.

WOR-AM Director Joe Bartlett, where Ralph Snodsmith hosted his most famous show “Garden Hotline” said that Ralph has the extensive knowledge about gardening.

Our deepest condolences go out to Ralph Snodsmith’s wife, family and friends.
Ralph Snodsmith R.I.P.

Peter Steele, the frontman for the heavy metal band Type O Negative, has died.

After a morning of speculation, the band's spokesperson confirmed Thursday afternoon that Steele had died Wednesday at age 48.

"Peter passed away last night. As of now it appears to have been heart failure," Mike Renault wrote in an email to CBSNews.com. "That's all the details we have right now."

The official type O Negative Web site posted the following message to its fans this morning, "The forums have been re-opened. Please play nice and expect statements from the band and family later today. Thank you for your understanding and support."

Steele had a history of medical problems since 2004. That year the band announced they were cancelling their U.S. tour so that the singer could be tested for "undisclosed anomalies" found during a medical exam.

A year later, reports circulated that Steele had died. The rumor started after Type O Negative posted an image on its Web site of a tomb stone with Steele's name and the dates "1962-2005" written on it.

The post turned out to be a joke to promote the band signing with SPV Records.

Steele also struggled with psychiatric problems. In an interview on the band's 2006 DVD "Symphony for the Devil," Steele said he spent time at Kings County Hospital for substance abuse.

The singer, whose real name is Petrus T. Ratajczyk, hailed from Brooklyn and was known for his heavy bass-baritone. Prior to joining Type O Negative, Steele was a member of the metal group Fallout and the band Carnivore.

Steele also appeared nude in Playgirl in 2005, which he later told Decibel Magazine was a simple publicity stunt.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2010/04/15/2010-04-15_peter_steele_brooklynborn_singer_for_type_o_negative_is_dead_at_48.html#ixzz0lCAW2ake

Dixie Carter-A talented and beloved television actress has recently passed away. She is best known for starring in the hit TV series Designing Women. She is also the wife of actor Hal Holbrook.

http://www.etonline.com/news/2010/04/85796/

If she was sick, apparently she didn't let the media know.

Former Dynasty star Christopher Cazenove dies



British actor Christopher Cazenove was best known for his role in Dynasty
British actor Christopher Cazenove, who was best known for his role in Dynasty, has died after a "valiant battle" with septicaemia, his family have said.

The actor, who played Ben Carrington in the 1980s soap opera Dynasty, was 66.

In a statement released by his agent, his family and girlfriend Isabel Davis said the actor "died peacefully" surrounded by his loved ones.

He died on Wednesday at St Thomas's Hospital, London, after contracting septicaemia at the end of February.

The statement, released by Lesley Duff, his agent for the past 12 years, said: "Christopher died peacefully on April 7 surrounded by his loved ones having contracted septicaemia at the end of February.

"Despite a valiant fight and the untiring efforts of the wonderful team at St Thomas's, he was overwhelmed.

"All who knew and loved him will be devastated by the loss of this incredible man who touched so many lives."

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and impresario, has died. He was 64.

McLaren had had cancer for some time. His condition recently deteriorated rapidly and he died this morning in New York. His body is expected to be brought home to be buried in Highgate cemetery, north London.



Born in North London, McLaren was best known as the manager of the iconic punk band The Sex Pistols. After attending and dropping out of several art colleges in 1971 he opened a clothes shop on the King’s Road , Let It Rock, with Vivienne Westwood.

He achieved the notoriety that never left him when The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment single God Save The Queenstole the number one spot during the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977.

His spokesman Les Molloy said: “He had been suffering from cancer for some time, but recently had been full of health, which then rapidly deteroriated. He died in New York this morning. We are expecting his body to be brought back to London and buried in Highgate Cemetery."