Tag: passing

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James Garner passes away at 86

James Garner at the 1963 March on Washington with Diahann Carroll

Sadness today as we learn of the passing of film and TV star James Garner.

Thousands of words will be written about his lengthy career as a TV cowboy on the 1950s western “Maverick,” and his 1970s detective series “The Rockford Files.” And rightly so. What he brought to both roles (and many others) was an undeniable star quality grounded in his rugged, athletic good looks. But the tweak that made him unusual and so universally appealing was his unexpected and disarming sense of humor and seeming lack of ego.

The Oscar nominee (for “Murphy’s Romance”) and Emmy Award winner (for “The Rockford Files”) once said, “I got into the business to put a roof over my head. I wasn’t looking for star status. I just wanted to keep working.”

Garner continued to work in his later years, most notably in 2004’s “The Notebook” opposite Gena Rowlands.  He seemed at his best when playing a somewhat flawed but human hero.

What will always stand out for me, though, in addition to the long-running TV shows and hit films, was Garner’s courage to stand up for what he believed in.

At a time when race relations were reaching critical mass, Garner was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington and often donated to liberal causes.

Jump forward almost 20 years to his role in the cross-dressing musical comedy film “Victor/Victoria,”  which featured him as a Chicago gangster and serious “man’s man” who couldn’t tell if he was falling in love with a woman or a man (played by Julie Andrews). In the early 80s, as the AIDS epidemic was coming to the forefront, lesser Hollywood leading men would have steered clear of a role where the romantic lead was possibly confused over his sexuality. Garner played the part right down the center with no reservations or pulled punches, helping to deliver one of the film’s universal truths that love is love, no matter what they look like or what sex they are.

As an “every man” in Hollywood, James Garner excelled.  But in life, he was more than that.  He was someone that every man would want to be.

RIP James Garner.

Watch the trailer to “Victor/Victoria” below.

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Broadway legend Elaine Stritch dies at 89

(Photo: Sara Krulwich/NYT)

New York Times reporting that Broadway legend/actress Elaine Stritch has died at age 89.

One of Ms. Stritch’s most memorable appearances was in the Sondheim musical “Company” (1970), in which, as a cynical society woman, she saluted her peers with the vodka-soaked anthem “The Ladies Who Lunch.” It not only brought her another Tony nomination but became her signature tune — at least until, in her 70s, she became equally known for Sondheim’s paean to showbiz longevity and survival, “I’m Still Here.” It was the centerpiece of her 2001 one-woman show, “Elaine Stritch at Liberty,” and she sang it in 2010 at Mr. Sondheim’s 80th-birthday concert at Lincoln Center (Patti LuPone took on “The Ladies Who Lunch”) and at the White House for President Obama.

The five time Tony Award nominee (winning for her one woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” ) also was honored with an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Law & Order.

Her resume included many high profile feature films – including two with Woody Allen, September (1987) and Small Time Crooks (2000).

Stritch was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for The Best Halloween Ever.

The actress was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.

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Designing Women star Meshach Taylor passes away at 67

Actor Meshach Taylor passed away Saturday night after a battle with cancer. He was 67.

Taylor was best known for playing Anthony Bouvier on the classic sitcom Designing Women and for his role as flamboyant window dresser “Hollywood Montrose” in the 1987 film Mannequin and its 1991 sequel.

(via The Backlot)

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Actress Ruby Dee passes away at 91

I post this with heavy heart.

Ruby Dee, along with husband and frequent co-star Ossie Davis, brought great depth, grace and power to every role they took on.

Just a few of the awards along the way: an Emmy, a Grammy, and a National Medal of Arts, and many, many more.

She was also a civil rights activist who used what platform and voice she had to help the civil rights movement forward. 

Dee was best known for her roles in A Raisin in the Sun, Do the Right Thing, and American Gangster.

A great, great talent with courageous heart has left us.

“The greatest gift is not being afraid to question.” – Ruby Dee

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Ann B. Davis of “The Brady Bunch” fame passes at 88

Via NBC News: Ann B. Davis, who played the lovable housekeeper Alice on “The Brady Bunch,” died Sunday morning. She was 88.

Her agent, Robert Malcolm, said that she fell in the bathroom and became comatose. She died at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday at a hospital in San Antonio, where she had lived with a minister friend and his wife.

Davis hadn’t worked in several years, Malcolm said, and she had been using a walker. He last spoke with her on her birthday, May 3.

“She was a really nice, a really lovely woman,” Malcolm said.

Davis, who won two Emmys for her role as a quick-witted secretary on the 1950s sitcom “The Bob Cummings Show,” achieved her greatest success as the Brady family’s wise-cracking but devoted housekeeper Alice Nelson.

She appeared in several Brady reunion films and spin-off series, including the 1988 television reunion movie “A Very Brady Christmas.” The popular sitcom debuted in 1969 and aired for five seasons.

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Maya Angelou – poet, actress, inspiration – passes away at 86

Maya Angelou – poet, novelist and actress – whose work defied a simple label, has has passed away at the age of 86.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Often referred to as Dr. Angelou, the professor never went to college. She has more than 30 honorary degrees and taught American studies for years at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

Many first came to know her work when she read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at President Clinton’s first inaugural in 1993. I have this poem sitting on my desk.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out to us today, you may stand upon me,
But do not hide your face.

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Comedy legend David Brenner dead at 78

Stand-up comedian and “Tonight Show” favorite David Brenner died Saturday evening at the age of 78.

Brenner’s publicist confirmed to multiple media outlets Saturday that the comedian died peacefully in his New York City home following a battle with cancer. (Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Brenner made his “Tonight Show” debut in 1971, and went on to perform in 158 episodes, more appearances than any other guest. He also filled in as host for Johnny Carson several times.

A pioneer observational comic, Brenner also appeared on a slew of other late-night shows over his career. He also wrote five books, his latest published in 2003.

Many prominent Hollywood comedians fondly remembered Brenner on Twitter. Paul Rieser called Brenner “such a huge part of why so many of us became comics,” while Joan Rivers laments, “I adored him, and laughed more with him than anybody.”

In the later part of his career Brenner switched from observational comedy to jokes based on current events and politics. He told CBS in a 2013 interview that comedy plays an important part in society.

“Laughter is like a salve that you put on a wound until you can get to a doctor and he can fix it permanently. It doesn’t take away what’s bad, but it makes you get through it.”

Even in death, Brenner had one last joke for the world. On his official site, Brenner’s family writes “In David’s final request, he asked that one hundred dollars in small bills be placed in his left sock ‘just in case tipping is recommended where I’m going.’ His final resting spot will read: ‘If this is a joke — then I don’t get it!'”

Brenner is survived by his wife Ruth, his three sons Cole, Wyatt and Slade, and by his grandson Wesley.

(via Newsy)

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Hal Douglas, famed voice over artist, passes away at 89

One of the most familiar voices in entertainment, Hal Douglas, has passed away at the age of 89.

Anyone who has ever sat through “coming attractions” at the movies knows Hal Douglas’ voice.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Douglas was known for a generation in the voice-over industry as one of the top two or three go-to talents, along with Don LaFontaine, the most prolific, who died in 2008, and Don Morrow, the voice of the “Titanic” trailer.

His dramatic range, from Olympian-thunderous to comic-goofy, suited him for trailers for movies as diverse as “Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump,” “Coneheads,” “Meet the Parents” and “Lethal Weapon.” (“Under 17 not admitted without a parent.”)

The flexibility of his voice, and the longevity of his career — he worked steadily until two years ago — made him a “one name” phenomenon in Hollywood, said Marice Tobias, a consultant and voice coach to many A-list actors. “When you go past superstar status, you reach icon status in this business, where people know you by one name only,” she said. “That was Hal.”

Mr. Douglas, who never lived in Hollywood, preferring to work from studios in New York, took a more relaxed view of his work. “I’m not outstanding in any way,” he told The New York Times in 2009. “It’s a craft that you learn, like making a good pair of shoes. And I just consider myself a good shoemaker.”

In one of his few “on-screen” roles, Douglas made this appearance in the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s 2002 documentary, “Comedian.”

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Maria Von Trapp, inspiration for THE SOUND OF MUSIC, dies at 99

From Yahoo News:

The last surviving member of the famous Trapp Family Singers made famous in “The Sound of Music” died this week at her home in Vermont. Maria von Trapp was 99.

Von Trapp’s brother, Johannes von Trapp, says that she died on Tuesday. He called her a “lovely woman who was one of the few truly good people.”

The family won acclaim throughout Europe for their singing and escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. Their story was turned into the film and Broadway musical. Maria von Trapp is the second youngest girl and was portrayed as Louisa in “The Sound of Music.”

They moved to Vermont in 1942 after visiting during a singing tour and vacationing in Stowe. The family opened and still operates a lodge there.