Monday, July 30, 2012

William Staub

Engineer and inventor -- via the New York Times. Creator of the exercise treadmill.


Michael Lipton

Actor -- via the Classic TV History Blog.

Humayun Ahmed

Writer, playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker -- via dawn.com.


Guy McMinds

Tribal leader -- via the Daily World.

Bogdan Stupka

Actor -- via The Voice of Russia.

Tony Martin aka Alvin Morris

Singer and actor -- via the San Francisco Chronicle. He worked in radio (he was Burns and Allen's singer for a while), film ("The Big Store," "Til the Clouds Roll By," "Hit the Deck"), concerts and more.



Chris Marker aka Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve

A great filmmaker, in a category by himself -- via the Guardian. In my opinion, one of the great directors of the 20th century.

He fought in the Resistance during World War II; he became a journalist and photographer. He fell in with the Left Bank Film Movement. He was the assistant director on Resnais' "Night and Fog."

Then he began making his own films. They are classified as documentaries, but defy definition, being meditations on themes, profound essays that open out to resonances that reverberate long after the movie is over. My two favorites are "La Jetee," which inspired Gilliam's "12 Monkeys," and "Sans Soleil."





A radical assembly of techniques -- filmed photographs, eruptions of fantasy, narrated commentary, quotation -- illustrate a seemingly random sequence of thoughts that ends up making constellations of connections out of widely disparate objects and events.

Notably, Marker worked with no budget whatsoever. For instance, for "Sans Soleil" he shot silent footage and laid in a soundtrack via an old audio cassette recorder. Making a virtue of poverty, he worked with what was at hand and turned out a remarkable series of absolutely unique and beautiful creations.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

R.G. Armstrong aka Robert Golden Armstrong

Actor and playwright -- via We Are Movie Geeks. One of the busiest, most recognizable, and consistently professional character actors, particularly in the Western genre. What was he NOT in? He racked up 181 credits, including "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman," "Ride the High Country," "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "Major Dundee," "Gunsmoke," and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." His greatest scene may be the one in the last film, in which he plays a vengeful lawman, Bob Ollinger, from whom Billy escapes. Billy kills him with a shotgun loaded with dimes, declaring drily, "Keep the change, Bob."


Mary Tamm

Actress -- via the Telegraph. Will be best remembered as Time Lady and companion Romana (the first of two to date) to Doctor Who on the long-running British sci-fi series.




Geoffrey Hughes

Character actor -- via the Guardian. Best remembered as Eddie Yeats in British TV's "Coronation Street" and Onslow in "Keeping Up Appearances."



Susanne Lothar

Actress -- via the Hollywood Reporter.






Lupe Ontiveros aka Guadalupe Moreno

Character actress -- via the New York Times.



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Marian Filar

Pianist -- via the Philadelphia Inquirer.


Chris Wedes aka J.P. Patches

Clown and TV-show host -- via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.





Carmela Sbarro

Pizza-making matriarch -- via The Gothamist.

Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro, and assistants at the original Sbarro's Salumeria at  65th Street and 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Bob Blum

Sportscaster -- via the Las Vegas Sun.


Archer King

Theatrical agent, producer, and actor -- via the Wall Street Journal.


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Herbert Vogel

 Art collector -- via the New York Times. He loved art, and very much enjoyed finding and buying art, despite he and his wife's tiny earnings. In the end, he gave it all away to galleries and museums.


Chad Everett aka Raymon Lee Cramton

Actor -- via the L.A. Times. Best remembered as Dr. Joe Gannon on TV's "Medical Center," and for this amazing and disturbing scene in "Mulholland Dr."






Bob Garner

Impresario -- via the Denver Post.

Tsilla Chelton

Actress and comedian -- via the Guardian.

Angharad Rees

Actress -- via the BBC. Best remembered for her role as Demelza in "Poldark." She also featured prominently in the Hammer horror film "Hands of the Ripper."





Sherman Hemsley

Actor -- via Yahoo News. A comedic icon, he will be best remembered for playing obnoxious curmudgeons -- George Jefferson on "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," and the deacon in "Amen." A show that lasted 11 seasons, good and bad, the phrase "'Sup, Weezy?" is an indelible part of my vocabulary.

A talented pro -- and hey, did you know he was really into Gentle Giant? That's pretty cool.

Now he's in that dee-luxe apartment in the sky. Thanks, Sherman.