THE OBIT PATROL: 2019-02-24

Friday, March 1, 2019

Katherine Helmond

Actress bet known for her comic work on television ('Soap'). Via the Hollywood Reporter.

When you start your directing career with On the Town (1949), it’s already difficult to outdo yourself. He did. The director and choreographer, whose influence on film cannot be underestimated, died on February 21 at the age of 94. Via Richard Severo at the New York Times.

Stanley Donen possessed three great, intersecting gifts — he was a brilliant choreographer, he had a game-changing and personal vision as a director, and he was capable of exploring emotion and relation on film like few others.

He started off as a chorus boy, a hoofer, 16 years old in 1940, performing in Pal Joey on Broadway. Here he formed his long and tumultuous relationship with Gene Kelly. In 1943 Donen moved to Hollywood to choreograph for MGM. There he hooked up with Kelly again, creating technically ambitious, beautiful, and emotionally resonant set pieces in films such as Cover Girl (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949).

Then came On the Town, which ripped up the old template of the movie musical and put in on the streets, inspiring not only movie musicals French and British New Wave filmmakers as well. After that, Donen worked with Fred Astaire on Royal Wedding, which featured that famous “dancing on the ceiling” sequence.

Then there was this little film called Singin' in the Rain . . . (1952)

He directed the now-guilty-pleasure Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).

He directed It’s Always Fair Weather (1955), my favorite film musical. An informal sequel to On the Town, it follows a reunion between three war buddies that makes all of them question their life choices. It’s surprisingly mature and complex take on identity and friendship make it a great film — and on top of that, it’s a great musical.

More musicals for Donen — Funny Face and The Pajama Game (both 1957), and Damn Yankees (1958). Then Donen moves into other genres, creating more classics such as Charade (1963), Two for the Road, still I think the best movie ever about marriage, and Bedazzled (both 1967), and the wonderful send-up of the double feature, Movie Movie (1978). Few people have made me laugh so hard, or enraptured me with song and dance.

Brody Stevens

Comedian, writer, and actor ('Enjoy It!,' 'The Hangover,' etc.). AKA Steven James Brody. These are always really tough. He was fearless in front of an audience, he pushed them, he was in earnest, he wasn't safe. And he was always funny. Relentlessly funny. Grimly funny.

As a former comic, I have lots of dead friends in the industry, which has an insanely high mortality rate. I heard the phrase once, "What saves you on the battlefield kills you at home." Those instincts that make you sharp onstage, that senseless need to go up and grab a mike and mess with a crowd, the compulsion to prove yourself on a daily basis, fuels a comedy career and also endangers your mental health. Staying sane, especially if you have biochemical problems, is a full-time job. Peace to Brody. Sometimes it goes beyond what you can take. Via Neil Genzlinger in the New York Times.

Charles Craig

Broadcaster who found fame in the role of the newscaster in George Romero's seminal 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. Via John Squires in Bloody Disgusting.

Lori Frankian

Actress and disability activist. Via the Boston Globe.

Lisa Sheridan

Actress known for her TV roles ('Invasion,' 'Halt and Catch Fire,' 'FreakyLinks,' 'Legacy, 'Journeyman'). Via People magazine.

Sheena Marshe

Actress in British film and television. Via westernboothill.blogspot.com.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Andre Previn

Four-Oscar, 10-Grammy-winning composer, arranger, adapter, conductor, pianist, and music director. AKA Andreas Priwin. A child prodigy, he joined MGM to work on film scores when was 16. He was expert first at adapting stage hits for the cinema -- Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, Porgy and Bess, Bells Are Ringing, Gigi, My Fair Lady. He basically wrote a new version of Paint Your Wagon for film with Alan Jay Lerner. He wrote his own scores -- Bad Day at Black Rock, It's Always Fair Weather, Elmer Gantry, the 1962 Long Day's Journey Into Night. He wrote in every category of Western art music -- songs, chamber music, orchestral compositions, solo piano, even opera. He wrote the incidental music for Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favor. And he was a great jazzman. He could do it all, and by God he did. Via the L.A. Times.

Samir Flores Soberanes

Murdered activist. Via the Independent.

Andy Anderson

Drummer. Via Variety.

Perry Wolff

Multiple Emmy-winning writer, producer, and director of documentaries. Via the New York Times.

Lisa Seagram

Actress. Via the Hollywood Reporter.

Sidonie Darrell

Dancer. Via The Stage.

Carrie Ann Lucas

Disability rights activist. Via the New York Times.

Richard S. Wheeler

Prolific writer of genre literature. AKA Alex Brand.

Don Brady

Actor and drama teacher. Via the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Jose D'Artagnan Jr.

Actor. Via Portela Online.

Nikhil Sen

Playwright and director. Via the Daily Star.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Mark Hollis

Musician, singer, songwriter; co-founder, lead singer, and principal songwriter of Talk Talk. Via Pitchfork.

Marcos Antonio Urbay

Musician. Via Radio Cadena Agramonte.

Paul Blackwell

Actor. Via the Adelaide Advertiser.

Dorothy Masuka

Singer, songwriter, and activist. Via the New York Times.

Victor J. Banis

Writer. Via Lambda Literary.

Donald Keene

Scholar, historian, translator, teacher, and writer on Japanese literature and culture. AKA Kin Donarudo. Via the Japan Times.

Margaret Scott

Dancer and teacher; founder of the Australian Ballet School. Via Dance Australia.

Jean-Christophe Benoit

Baritone. Via Opera Wire.

Gina Lalli

Dancer and teacher. Via austin360.com.

Sequeira Costa

Pianist. Via Slipped Disc.

Rose Okabe

Unassuming person with an extraordinary life; internment camp survivor, matriarch, and Pillsbury Bake-Off winner. Via the Chicago Sun-Times. A textbook obituary by Maureen O'Donnell of an "ordinary" person whose life is unfurled masterfully in a few paragraphs. She even got the award-winning recipe in there! Wonderful work.