Monday, September 29, 2014

Seref Tasliova

Poet and storyteller -- via CNN Turk.

Jan Berdyszak

Artist -- via poznan.gazeta.pl.


Tom Tombrello

Physics professor -- via the L.A. Times.

Irit Levi

Actress and screenwriter -- via legacy.com.

Muhammad Shakeel Auj

Islamic scholar -- via the Independent.

Pati Hill

Writer and artist -- via the Tampa By Telegraph.


Guntram Brattia

Actor -- via tirol.orf.at.

Zdenek Horinek

Alastair Reid

Essayist, poet, and translator -- via the Guardian.

John Moat

Poet, novelist, and painter -- via the Telegraph.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Don Keefer

Great character actor -- via the New York Times. Instantly recognizable to my generation, Keefer racked almost 200 film and television credits between 1947 and 1997. First on stage, he played Roderigo in a revival of the Robeson/Hagen/Ferrer "Othello," and was the firstBernard in "Death of a Salesman." On film, he was in everything. He played a dcotor in "Sleeper," and in "Candy Stripe Nurses." His most indelible appearance was on the "It's a Good Life" episode of "The Twilight Zone," in which Billy Mumy turns him into a horrifying jack in the box before killing him.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/440799



Peggy Drake

The psychological implications of this publicity photograph are stunning.
Dancer and actress -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com. AKA Peggy Akers AKA Liselotte Mayer. She debuted in "Too Many Girls," a film old enough to have a Rodgers and Hart score -- introducing Desi Arnaz, who brought us the conga and fell in love with Lucille Ball.



Her big hit came as the leading lady in the wartime "Rocky" Lane serial, "King of the Mounties," in which our hero fights one evil Japanese admiral, a German marshal, and an Italian count, and Douglas Dumbrille. (Take note, character-actor lovers: in this serial you get Duncan Renaldo, Francis Ford, Jay Novello, and the fabulous "King Kong," Kashey, the Syrian wrestling phenom turned thespian.



Somebody had to make these programmers, full of "mirth and melody" or mindless action. Peggy Drake was one of them, and she did it well.



Michael McCarty

Actor on stage and screen -- via the Hollywood Reporter.


Galina Kolonvalova

Actress -- via mk.ru.

Jim Deva

LGBT activist -- via the Advocate.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2527244751/

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Gilles Latulippe

Madis Koiv

Writer -- via Postimees.

Cecilia Cenci

Actress -- via tn.com.ar.

Daniel Reynek

Photographer -- via aktualne.cz.


Rodney Milgate

Painter, playwright, and broadcaster -- via the Sydney Morning Herald.


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Assheton Gorton

Film production designer -- via the Hollywood Reporter. A pretty amazing talent, to judge by his range -- he started off as art director on "The Knack" and "Blow-Up" -- not too shabby. The ensuing list is impressive: Richard Lester's end-of-the-world farce "The Bed Sitting Room," "The Magic Christian," George Englund's bizarre hippie Western "Zachariah," "Get Carter," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Legend," the ill-fated "Revolution," "For the Boys," "Rob Roy," "Shadow of the Vampire." Not all good -- but each was wildly different from the rest, and each had excellent production design. An underappreciated artist.

Debo Mitford

Duchess and estate entrepreneur; writer, farmer -- via the New York Times. AKA Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford, AKA Deborah Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. One of the extraordinary, strange, and sometimes brilliant Mitford clan of England.




Skip E. Lowe

Talk-show host and former child actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter. AKA Sammy Labella. An indefatigable character of Hollywood. Here's an excellent portrait of him by Mark Evanier.




Milton Cardona

Pete Shutler

Accordionist -- via the Guardian.

J. California Cooper

Writer -- via ABC News.

Christopher Hogwood

Conductor; founder of the Academy of Ancient Music; harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist -- via the BBC. Really one of my favorite conductors of the past century. An absolute whiz at Baroque music, he played a huge role in the surge of appreciation of it over the past 40 years. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell, Mozart, and much more. And the Haydn symphonies! Just perfect. Fine musicianship combined with a breadth of context and depth of understanding.





Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Peter von Bagh

Robert M. Ellis

Artist and museum curator -- via the Albuquerque Journal.

James Kupferschmidt

Founder of the Milwaukee Beer Museum and local historian -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Francisco Feliciano

Composer and conductor -- via GMA News Online.

Hilda Oates

Actress -- via the Cuban News Agency. Sweet lord, she was in "Patakin! quiere decir 'fabula,'" the 1985 Cuban film that is indeed the only Spanish-language Socialist musical comedy ever made. That I know of.

Weekly reader: 'Too Young to Die, Too Old to Care'