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Postby Macc » Mon Dec 16, 2013 9:21 am


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Veteran actor Peter O'Toole dies aged 81

Irish actor Peter O'Toole, the star of the 1962 Oscar-winning epic Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81, his agent Steve Kenis said.

"He was one of a kind in the very best sense and a giant in his field," Mr Kenis said.

O'Toole was famed for his intense blue eyes, a fondness for drinking and a career on stage and screen that spanned 50 years, ranging from drama and Shakespeare to romantic comedy.

Tributes have been flowing for the film legend, who died at London's Wellington hospital after a long illness.

O'Toole's daughter, actress Kate O'Toole, said the family were "completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection".

"In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished," she said.

The son of an Irish bookmaker, O'Toole was born in Galway, Ireland in 1932 but raised in northern England.

After working briefly as a journalist and a radioman for the Royal Navy, he went to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in a class that included future stars Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.

After making a name in theatre, his big break arrived in the form of the title role of David Lean's 1962 desert epic Lawrence of Arabia.

O'Toole was nominated eight times for an Academy Award but never won - a record for the profession.

However, he was awarded an honorary Oscar at the age of 70, which he initially refused to accept.

His death comes just one year after he formally retired from acting.


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Postby HumphreyBBear » Mon Dec 16, 2013 1:52 pm


R.I.P. Peter O'Toole.

Watching Lawrence of Arabia is one of my most vivid childhood memories.

82 ain't a bad innings for a party animal, though. :thumleft:


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Postby kirkbright » Mon Dec 16, 2013 6:09 pm


Joan Fontaine, Oscar-winning actress, dies at 96

Joan Fontaine, the Oscar-winning actress who was one of the last remaining links to Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930s and ’40s, has died at age 96, her assistant confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

In her most famous films — Rebecca, for which she was Oscar-nominated, and Suspicion, for which she won — Fontaine came across as appealingly passive-aggressive. She could seem radiantly shy, believably insecure, gazing into the middle distance with a hesitancy that drew you immediately to her side. Yet she fashioned a movie career out of willpower and, quite possibly, large reservoirs of spite.

The younger sister of Olivia De Havilland, she maintained a ladylike-yet-intense rivalry with the sibling who beat her to the big screen. Peer between the cracks of Fontaine’s filmography and you’ll find a more intriguingly aggressive persona than the actress was generally given credit for. Maybe she wasn’t Born to be Bad, as the title of her juicy 1950 Nicholas Ray noir claimed, but she was much more than the second Mrs. DeWinter — or the other De Havilland. Both sisters, in fact, were born to entitlement, the daughters of Walter de Havilland, a British patent attorney with distant royal blood, and his actress wife. The children were born in Tokyo, Joan in 1917, and after their mother learned of the father’s affair with his Japanese maid, she whisked them to California. (The studio publicity later ascribed the move to health reasons for the “sickly” children.)

Olivia kept her family name and made a splash in early talkie Hollywood; Joan, by contrast, looked to stepfather George Fontaine for a screen alibi and struggled in smallish roles for RKO and other studios — to see her timid, wooden performance opposite Fred Astaire in A Damsel in Distress (1937) is to realize the appropriateness of the title. She saw her sister take roles she had hoped for; she auditioned for and lost the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, only to see Olivia score the part of Melanie. Despairing of ever making it, Fontaine curled up in bed to read a new best-seller called Rebecca and instantly saw herself in the put-upon heroine struggling against a powerful (if dead) rival. The next night she found herself at a dinner party seated next to producer David O. Selznick, who owned the rights. “Would you like to test for it?” he asked.

Rebecca made Fontaine’s name, and she returned to director Alfred Hitchcock for Suspicion,as a young wife convinced husband Cary Grant wants to do her in. She was nominated for Best Actress — and so was De Havilland, for Hold Back the Dawn. Fontaine won by one ballot, and late in life, Olivia was still kicking herself for voting for Barbara Stanwyck. In the career that followed, Fontaine tried to stretch with lustier roles — a lady on a pirate ship in Frenchman’s Creek (1944), a poisoner in Ivy (1947) — and was nominated once more for The Constant Nymph (1943). But victimized elegance kept calling her back, no more so than in the sublime heart-breaker Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948).

Her later film work petered out into a mixed bag of costume films and potboilers, but she found rewarding work on Broadway in Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter, then in the occasional TV appearance, then in happy retirement in Carmel, Calif., where she passed away.


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Postby Macc » Wed Dec 18, 2013 9:16 pm


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Great train robber Ronnie Biggs dies aged 84

English criminal Ronnie Biggs, famous for his role in the Great Train Robbery in 1963, has died aged 84.

Biggs, who spent 35 years on the run, won notoriety and some popularity for his ingenuity in evading capture and for cheekily thumbing his nose at the law from sun-soaked beaches.

The infamous Great Train Robbery saw a 15-strong gang hold up a Glasgow to London mail train and make off with 2.6 million pounds, a huge sum at the time, at a railway bridge north of London.

He was jailed for 30 years in 1964.

After 15 months, he escaped by scaling a prison wall and leaping on to the roof of a furniture van.

His three decades on the run took him to France, Spain and Australia before he settled in Brazil where he flaunted his freedom by frequently being pictured in British newspapers partying.

Biggs returned to the United Kingdom in 2001 to seek medical treatment and was arrested and jailed.

He was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after suffering pneumonia from which he was not expected to recover.

Biggs had suffered a series of strokes in recent years and was, at the time of his death, being cared for in a home in north London, according to the Press Association and Sky News, who reported his death quoting unnamed sources.

Biggs netted 143,000 pounds for his role in robbery - 40,000 pounds of which he spent on plastic surgery in France, where he bought forged documents that he used to fly to Sydney in 1966.

His wife Charmian and sons Nicholas and Chris joined Biggs in Australia, where his third son Farely was born.

Fearing that police were closing in on him, Biggs fled on a passenger liner to Panama in 1969 before making his way to Brazil.

UK detectives travelled to Brazil in 1974 in the hope of catching him, but they were thwarted because Biggs by then had his son, Michael, with his Brazilian girlfriend Raimunda Rothen, making him legally untouchable.

He released a single with the Sex Pistols in 1978 after lead singer Johnny Rotten had left the band.

In April 1981, Biggs was kidnapped by a gang of British ex-soldiers, who were hoping to collect a reward from the British police.

But the boat they took him aboard suffered mechanical problems off Barbados, and the stranded kidnappers and Biggs were rescued by the Barbados coastguard.

Barbados had no extradition treaty with the UK and Biggs was sent back to Brazil.

Biggs returned to the UK in 2001 with the help of the British tabloid The Sun, which paid for his flight and announced his return.

Biographer Mike Gray said the British government had wanted to punish Biggs for flaunting his escape while he was on the run.

"Robbing the Royal Mail was an indirect attack on the Queen, it was seen in 1963 as treason and they were still hanging for it."

He was arrested upon his arrival and an appeal against the remainder of his jail sentence was dismissed.

He was transferred to a prison specially designed to harbour elderly inmates in 2007.

Biggs is survived by his second wife Raimunda and three sons.


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Postby Macc » Wed Jan 29, 2014 1:01 am


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Veteran US folk singer and activist Pete Seeger dies in New York aged 94

Legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger, known for renditions of songs like If I Had A Hammer and Where Have All The Flowers Gone, has died at the age of 94, US media reported.

Seeger passed away in New York after being hospitalised for a week.

He is also known for popularising the hymn of the civil rights movement, We Shall Overcome.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the New York Times reported.

Seeger played 12-string guitar or five-string banjo.

He sang topical songs often mirroring the concerns of the American left, children's tunes, as well as anthems and often urged his audience to sing along.

Folk-rock band The Byrds had a number-one hit with a version of Seeger's song Turn! Turn! Turn! in 1965.

Seeger sang for the labour movement in the 1940s and 1950s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s.

He also intoned for environmental and anti-war causes in the 1970s and beyond.

He was a mentor to folk and topical singers in the '50s and '60s, among them Bob Dylan and Don McLean.

Bruce Springsteen drew on Seeger's work in his 2006 album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, from Seeger's repertoire of traditional music about turbulent American life.

At a Madison Square Garden concert celebrating Seeger's 90th birthday, Springsteen introduced him as "a living archive of America's music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along", The Times said.


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Postby Macc » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:55 pm


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Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in NYC aged 46

Oscar-winning American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead in his New York City apartment after an apparent drug overdose.

Hoffman, 46, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to a 911 call.

He was declared dead at the scene by Emergency Medical Service workers.

A police spokesman said paramedics found him with a needle still in his arm and investigators found two small plastic bags containing a substance suspected of being heroin.

Hoffman, who is survived by three children with his partner Mimi O'Donnell, had detailed his struggles with substance abuse in the past.

"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," his family said in a statement.

"This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving.

"Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers."

He won the best actor Oscar for the 2005 biographical film Capote, in which he played writer Truman Capote.


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Postby phunkyfeelone » Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:56 pm


The good ship lollypop has sailed...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26135627

Quote:
Hollywood star Shirley Temple has died at the age of 85, her family has said.

The actress found fame as a child star in the 1930s in films like Bright Eyes, Stand Up and Cheer and Curly Top.

She died on Monday at home in Woodside, California, from natural causes. "She was surrounded by her family and caregivers," a statement said.

"We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and... our beloved mother, grandmother [and] great-grandmother."

Temple was one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood history, getting her first film role at the age of three.

She won a special juvenile Oscar in 1935, when she was just six years old. To this day, she is still the youngest person to receive an Academy Award.

Her singing, dancing and acting won over fans worldwide. She starred in a total of 43 feature films - but found it difficult to sustain her career in adulthood and retired from films in 1950 at the age of 22.





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Postby Macc » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:03 pm


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Veteran US comedian Sid Caesar dies aged 91

Sid Caesar, the US comedian and star of the hit musical film Grease, died yesterday at the age of 91. His death was reported to Reuters by his friend and former collaborator Carl Reiner.

Caesar was one of the first stars of US television in the Golden Age of the Fifties, co-starring in Your Show of Shows, a live 90-minute comedy-variety show, which aired on NBC from February 1950 to June 1954, and regularly won millions of viewers in its Saturday night slot. He was also known for the show’s successor, Caesar’s Hour, which satirised historical events and parodied Hollywood films.

For international audiences, perhaps his most memorable performances were as hapless Coach Calhoun in the hit musical films Grease and its sequel Grease 2.

Although Caesar’s career spanned six decades, he faded from the spotlight in latter years, and Reiner reported that the comedian had been ill for at least a year before his death.

Reiner said of his friend: "He was the ultimate, he was the very best sketch artist and comedian that ever existed […] His ability to double talk every language known to man was impeccable."

Other fans of Caesar included director and producer Mel Brooks, who released the following statement: "Sid Caesar was a giant, maybe the best comedian who ever practised the trade. And I was privileged to be one of his writers and one of his friends."


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Postby Macc » Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:18 pm


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Last von Trapp singer dies

The last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers, the group whose story inspired The Sound of Music, has died at the age of 99, her family say.

Maria von Trapp died at her home in Vermont.

Von Trapp and her family fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and ended up performing around the US.

Their story eventually inspired the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music, and subsequent 1965 hit film.

It tells the tale of a young woman who leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the seven children of a naval officer widower, Georg von Trapp.

Maria von Trapp was the second-oldest daughter of Capt von Trapp - with his first wife - and was portrayed as Louisa in the musical.

Her family moved to the US state of Vermont in 1942 after visiting during a singing tour, and later opened a lodge in the town of Stowe, which they still operate.

In a recent interview, von Trapp described how it was her ill health as a child that led her father to employ a governess to teach her and her siblings.

"She came to us as my teacher and after three years became our second mother," she said.

Marianne Dorfer, a family friend who runs the von Trapp Villa Hotel in Salzburg told the Austrian Times that von Trapp had suffered from a weak heart since childhood.

Ms Dorfer said it was because of Maria's ill heath that her father decided to hire a governess. "That of course then led to one of the most remarkable musical partnerships of the last century," she added

The Sound of Music was based loosely on a 1949 book by the governess, who became Capt von Trapp's second wife and died in 1987.


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Postby Macc » Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:44 am


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Actor Harold Ramis dies aged 69

Comedy actor and director Harold Ramis, best known for the films Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, has died aged 69.

He died from a rare vascular disease, which he had suffered with since 2010, at his home in Chicago surrounded by family members, his agent said.

"He passed away from complications related to autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis," said Chris Day, a spokesman for the United Talent Agency in Los Angeles.

A celebrated director, writer, actor and producer, Ramis grew up in Chicago and graduated from Washington University in St Louis.

He worked as an associate editor at Playboy Magazine before getting his start in comedy in 1969 with the city's famous Second City improvisational theatre group.

Actor Billy Crystal, who starred in the Ramis-directed film Analyze This, tweeted: "A brilliant, funny, actor and director.

"A wonderful husband and dad. Big loss to us all."

Ramis made his directorial debut in 1980 with Caddyshack and three years later he worked on National Lampoon's Vacation.

He then went on to star as Dr Egon Spengler in the cult comedy franchise Ghostbusters.

In 1993 he co-wrote, produced and directed Groundhog Day, a film about a weatherman, played by Bill Murray, who relives the same day over and over.

Ramis received The American Comedy Award, the British Comedy Awards and a BAFTA award for screenwriting.

He is survived by his wife Erica, two sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.


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