RIP Kimmarie Johnson

Kimmarie Johnson Dies: ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ & ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ Actor Was 50

DEADLINE

By Greg Evans

November 5, 2026

 

Kimmarie Johnson, a model who made inroads into acting during the late 1990s and early 2000s with a small role in Dude, Where’s My Car? and an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, died Wednesday, November 4, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles following a cardiac emergency the week before. She was 50.

Her death was announced by her niece Rhonda Scott. Johnson was determined to have suffered a heart aneurysm.

Born Kim Marie Johnson on April 8, 1976, in Pittsburgh, Johnson worked as a flight attendant after college, did some modeling and, in 1992, competed in and won the Miss Pennsylvania USA beauty pageant. The following year she finished in the top five at the Miss USA beauty pageant.

After moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, Johnson continued modeling and in 1998 played the character Jane in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. In the 2000 Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?, she was cast in a memorable scene as one of five aliens disguised as sexy “jumpsuit chicks.”

Also in 2000 Johnson appeared in an episode of the Pamela Anderson TV series V.I.P.

Johnson cut back on her acting career after giving birth to son Cameron Nino, now an L.A.-based musician, in 2003, but made the occasional appearance in such projects as Wanda at Large, comedy Spanish Fly and in 2017 the series Tucker’s War, her final credit.

In addition to her show business career, Johnson was an entrepreneur who in 2011 launched a skin care brand called SkinGlow by Kimmarie.

Johnson is survived by her son and niece.

JOHNSON, Kimmarie (Kim Marie Johnson)

Born: 4/8/1967, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Died: 11/4/2026, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Kimmarie Johnson’s western – actress:

Tucker’s War (TV) – 2017 (Rebekah Hamilton)

RIP Tinto Brass

 

Tinto Brass, Director of Erotic Epics ‘Caligula’ and ‘Salon Kitty,’ Dies at 93

Variety

By Nick Vivarelli

November 4, 2026

 

Italian director Tinto Brass, known for the historic erotic epics “Salon Kitty” and “Caligula,” has died. He was 93.

Brass’ family announced the news of his death on Wednesday to Italian press agency Ansa.

Born in Milan in 1933 to a Venetian family of artists, Brass first studied law before veering towards film during the late 1950s. He wound up as an archivist at the Cinémathèque Francais in Paris, where he met Roberto Rossellini and worked as an assistant on Rossellini’s war drama “General della Rovere.”

Brass made his directorial debut in 1963 with the Venice-set tale “In Capo Al Mondo,” later retitled “Chi Lavora è Perduto,” about a young unemployed man with antisocial tendencies that received enthusiastic acclaim at the Venice Film Festival. The film, however, ran into big problems with Italian censors in what became the first of many battles Brass faced with censorship for various reasons.

Brass spent the large part of the late 1960s and early 1970s in London shooting several English-language films, including 1967 erotic pop thriller “Deadly Sweet,” starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Sweden’s Ewa Aulin. Trintignant stars as a young man who discovers that his business contact has been murdered. Instead of calling the police, he decides to protect a young woman, played by Aulin, at the crime scene and pursue the real killers‚ which puts him on a collision course with the London underworld.

“Deadly Sweet” was presented out-of-competition at the 1967 Venice International Film Festival. The restored version played at Venice earlier this year as a tribute to Brass. It was followed by “Attraction” (1969) and “Dropout” (1970).

Brass broke out internationally with erotic war drama “Salon Kitty” (1976), set in a high-class Berlin brothel used by the Nazi intelligence service and starring Helmut Berger. But his best known film outside Italy is “Caligula,” which was made in 1979 and released in 1984 in a different cut from that intended by Brass. The contentious film was self-financed in 1980 by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, who after fighting with Brass and screenwriter Gore Vidal, wrested control of the project and tossed out the script. He added adult content that he shot after the actors — which included Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole — had finished their shoots, prompting Brass and Vidal to sue to have their names removed from the picture.

In 1983, Brass helmed “The Key,” an adaptation of a novel by Japanese author Tanizaki Junichiro starring Stefania Sandrelli, in a move towards more highbrow eroticism that played well globally. It was followed by other works focused on the journey of sexual liberation of their female characters, including “Black Angel” (2002) and “Fallo” (2003).

Brass is survived by his wife, Caterina Varzi, and children Bonifacio and Beatrice Brass.

BRASS, Tinto (Giovanni Brass)

Born: 3/26/1933, Milan, Kingdom of Italy

Died: 11/4/2026, Rome, Lazio, Italy]

 

Tinto Brass’ western – director, writer:

Yankee – 1966

RIP Lucia Modugno

 

Mourning in the world of Italian cinema: farewell to Bari actress Lucia Modugno

She had been permanently in Rome for years and was born in Bari in 1932. During his long career he has worked with important directors such as Rossellini, Avati and Fulci

Bari Today

By Nico Andrisani

November 3, 2026

 

Mourning in the world of Italian cinema: actress Lucia Modugno has died at the age of 94. She had been permanently in Rome for years and was born in Bari in 1932. A long career has seen her act in films directed by well-known directors such as Pupi Avati, Mario Bava, Roberto Rosellini, Gabriele Muccino and Lucio Fulci.

Not just a film actress

Modugno, over the years, has also been a director and writer, as well as a playwright. She has also performed in numerous plays with some of the biggest names on the national stage.

In a note, the Undersecretary for Culture expressed condolences for the artist's death: "Elegance, talent and a lot of study. Lucia Modugno was an artist who made a significant contribution to the culture of our country, able to move naturally from the big screen to the theater, to arrive in the following years also to directing and writing. With her we lose a refined professional, who worked with the greatest Italian directors, from Rossellini to Risi to Scola. My condolences to the family".

MODUGNO, Lucia

Born: 7/9/1932, Bari, Apulia, Italy

Died: 11/3/2026, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Lucia Modugno’s westerns – actress:

 

The Magnificent Three – 1961 (bride)

For a Few Dollars Less – 1966 (Sally)

My Name is Pecos – 1966 (Mary Burton)

Navajo Joe – 1966 (Geraldine)

 

RIP Gérard Croce

 

Le Mague

By Frederic Vignale

1/11/2026

 

Gérard Croce, the death of one of those faces without whom French cinema would not have the same flavour

There are actors whose faces we immediately know without always being able to put a name to them. Actors who can be found in a Claude Berri film, a popular comedy from the 1970s, an old television soap opera or a somewhat forgotten film. They are not necessarily at the top of the bill, do not make the covers of magazines and rarely benefit from the tributes that their careers deserve. However, they are an essential part of our cinematographic memory. Gérard Croce belonged to that family. The announcement of his death, which is circulating today, makes me want to look back on the career of this French actor whose name deserves to be better known.

Born on February 6, 1946, in Marseille, Gérard Croce had lived through several decades of cinema and television with astonishing freedom. Actor, screenwriter, producer, assistant director, he knew the show from almost every angle. His career also tells the story of a time when actors moved unabashedly from popular cinema to more ambitious productions, from light comedies to dramatic works, without considering that one genre was necessarily nobler than another.

In the early 1970s, he appeared alongside the Tramps in Les Fous du stade and Les Charlots font l'Espagne, two popular hits that belong to the collective memory of a generation. He then worked regularly with Max Pécas, notably in Les Branchés in Saint-Tropez. We can always discuss the quality of these summer comedies, their approximate scenarios and their sometimes-rudimentary humor. But they belong to a history of French cinema that it would be absurd to despise. They bear witness to an era, its tastes, its excesses, and above all a formidable gallery of actors of character.

What strikes me about Gérard Croce is precisely this ability not to let himself be locked into a register. In 1971, he was the sole performer in the short film Techniquement si simple by René Vautier, a committed filmmaker whose work is a thousand miles away from the fantasies of Saint-Tropez. And in 1993, Claude Berri gave him the role of Maigrat in Germinal, an adaptation of Émile Zola's novel. He plays an odious grocer, profiteering from the misery of the workers, a profoundly unpleasant character to whom he gives a physical presence and a disturbing credibility. A real role of composition that reminds us that a good actor does not need to occupy the entire screen to impose his presence.

His career is also inseparable from French television. He can be found in The Man Without a Face, in The Investigations of Inspector Maigret, in several television films by Jacques Fansten and in many productions that have accompanied the daily lives of viewers. He also lent his voice to the world of Asterix. All these participations testify to a particularly diversified career, built more on work and continuity than on the effects of celebrity.

But Gérard Croce was not just a face. Behind the camera, he had developed a major production activity, notably on the series Sydney Fox, the adventurer, Léa Parker and Aventure et Associés. He had also participated in the writing of the screenplay for Les Folies d'Élodie. This lesser-known dimension of his career deserves to be highlighted: some film professionals contribute as much to the making of the works as to their interpretation.

I find that our era gives far too much importance to the headliners and far too little to those who really bring the films to life. French cinema has not been built solely around its great stars. He owes a lot to these supporting roles, these immediately recognizable silhouettes, these actors capable of giving life to a character in a few minutes. They are often the first to disappear from the media's memory, even though they remain deeply inscribed in that of the spectators.

Gérard Croce belonged to that precious category of artists who did not seem to need to create a legend for themselves. He worked, changed register, went from one set to another, from one era to another. His career, sometimes uneven in his choice of films, is all the more interesting. He reminds us that cinema is also an artisanal, collective adventure, made up of loyalties, encounters and professions.

And then there's something deeply moving about seeing these actors again decades later. They appear in the course of a rebroadcast, with their voices, their gestures, their expressions. For a few moments, they take us back to our childhood, to a vanished movie theater, to a Sunday afternoon in front of the television. They become, in spite of themselves, the guardians of a time that we will never find again.

Gérard Croce was one of these faces. And that is precisely why it deserves attention.

CROCE, Gérard

Born: 2/6/1946, Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

Died: 10/31/2026, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Eure-et-Loir, Centre-Val de Loire, France

 

Gérard Croce’s westerns – producer:

Queen of Swords (TV) – 2000-2001

RIP John 'Bobby' Wright

 

John ‘Bobby’ Wright, ‘Here I Go Again’ Hitmaker and McHale’s Navy Actor, Dies at 84

Wright, who died on Tuesday, Oct. 27, was the son of country musicians Johnnie Wright and Kitty Wells

People

By Madison E. Goldberg

October 30, 2026

 

John “Bobby” Wright, the country music star known for his 1971 hit “Here I Go Again” and an actor on the hit 1960s sitcom McHale’s Navy, has died at 84.

Wright died at his home in Madison, Tenn., on Tuesday, Oct. 27, according to his obituary. A cause of death was not made public.

Born in Charleston, W. Va. in 1942 to country icons Johnnie Wright and Kitty Wells, he would later follow in his parents’ musical footsteps when they relocated to be closer to Nashville. Wright was also athletic in his youth, and played football, baseball and basketball at Madison High School.

After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, where he would later land the role of radio operator Willy Moss in McHale’s Navy, a hit ABC sitcom that ran from 1962 through 1966 about the U.S. Navy PT-73 boat during World War II in the Pacific. He starred in the show opposite Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and Bob Hastings. Wright was the last living cast member from the show, according to his family.

Wright later made an appearance as Bud Bunnoy in an episode of Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats in 1966.

Following his stint in television acting, Wright returned to Tennessee, where he rejoined his family’s syndicated variety show. He toured with his parents and sisters as the Kitty Wells Johnnie Wright and Bobby Wright family show until 2007.

Wright would go on to find his voice as a solo artist from 1967 to 1979, when he recorded songs for Decca, ABC and United Artists Records, charting 21 singles. His 1971 song “Here I Go Again” was the highest-charting single of his career.

He is survived by his two daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sister, Sue Sturdivant, ex-wife Brenda Wright Moore, and nieces and nephews.

His memorial services will be held at Spring Hill Funeral Home in Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

WRIGHT, John (John Robert Wright Jr.)

Born: 3/30/1942, Charleston, West Virginia, U.S.A.

Died: 10/27/2026, Madison, Tennessee, U.S.A.

 

John Wright’s westerns – actress.

Pistols 'n' Petticoats (TV) -1966 (Bud Bunnoy)

The Road West (TV) - 1966 (Kyle)

Catch the Black Sunshine – 1974

 

RIP Earl Barret

 

Earl Barret, ‘Too Close for Comfort’ Writer and Producer, Dies at 94

He also worked on ‘Bewitched,’ ‘Get Smart,’ ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ ‘The Governor & J.J.’ and ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil’ and came up with the villain King Tut for ‘Batman.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

October 29, 2026

 

Earl Barret, the veteran comedy writer who co-developed the Ted Knight-starring Too Close for Comfort and worked on more than 30 other series, including Bewitched, Get Smart, Batman and The Andy Griffith Show, has died. He was 94.

Barret died Oct. 22 of natural causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, his daughter, J.K. Barret, announced. He was a “lifelong learner with a keen, curious mind and a gift for impeccable comic timing,” she said.

The Ohio native also wrote for My Favorite Martian, My Three Sons, My Mother the Car, I Spy, The Wild Wild West, Julia, The Bob Newhart Show, Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter.

He and longtime writing partner Arne Sultan developed, wrote and produced Too Close for Comfort, which was based on the British sitcom Keep It in the Family, created by Brian Cooke.

The American adaptation, which ran for six seasons (1980-87) on ABC and in syndication, revolved around Knight’s Henry Rush, a cartoonist who works out of the San Francisco home he shares with his wife (Nancy Dussault) and adult daughters (Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Lydia Cornell).

Barret and Sultan first worked together on the 1969-70 CBS comedy The Governor & J.J., starring Dan Dailey and Julie Sommars. They continued with NBC’s The Partners (Don Adams’ first series after Get Smart), CBS’ The Sandy Duncan Show, ABC’s Holmes and Yoyo and The New Odd Couple and the CTV’s Check It Out (Adams starred on that one, too).

The pair also were among the credited writers on the 1989 feature See No Evil, Hear No Evil, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.

An only child, Barret was born on Oct. 17, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. His parents, Aurel and Mary, who owned a confectionery store, got him tap dancing and violin lessons as a youngster before the family came west, and he graduated from Hollywood High School and Los Angeles City College.

He originally pursued a career as an actor but changed direction after taking a free TV-writing class taught by Robert C. Dennis, a scribe on shows including Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

“No matter how busy he was, no matter what show he was working on, he gave a free class every Wednesday night,” Barret noted.

Barret wrote on 1961 episodes of Sea Hunt, Hawaiian Eye and Ripcord, and he and Dennis would later partner on scripts for Get Smart, My Mother the Car, The Andy Griffith Show and The Wild Wild West.

For Batman, he and Dennis came up with the character of King Tut (portrayed by Victor Buono) when producers wanted new villains for the series (the actors playing Joker, Riddler and Penguin apparently were demanding too much money). The duo then wrote the episodes “The Curse of Tut”/“The Pharaoh’s in a Rut” and “The Spell of Tut”/“Tut’s Case Is Shut.”

Barret landed a gig as a story editor on The Governor and J.J., created by Sultan and Get Smart writer Leonard Stern, and before long, he and Sultan were writing for the political comedy. (Barret also directed an episode of the show; later, he would helm 13 installments of Too Close for Comfort.)

Barret and Sultan also wrote the comedy Wife Begins at 40 for the stage, later a 1988 BBC telefilm.

In addition to daughter J.K., survivors include his wife, Barbara; his son, John; and five grandsons. He was preceded in death by another daughter, Lisa.

Barret’s memoir, Eden Was on a Hollywood Hill, was published in 2010. It “tells how a Romanian chauffeur and Hungarian American waitress marry after a one-week courtship and spend the next 50 years pursuing the American Dream through the Great Depression, World War II and finally to the enchanted hills of Hollywood, where they hope their tap-dancing, violin-playing son will break into the movies. And why shouldn’t he? Wasn’t anything possible in America?”

BARRET, Earl

Born: 10/17/1932, Canton, Ohio, U.S.A

Died: 10/22/2026, Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.A.

 

Earl Barret’s western – writer:

The Wild Wild West (TV) - 1966-1969

Dirty Sally (TV) – 1974

 

RIP Roberto Maya

 

Actor, voice actor and host Roberto Maya dies at the age of 91

Artist participated in emblematic pornochanchadas, voiced Disney villain and was host of important journalistic program of the 1990s

Globo

10/29/2026

 

He died on the afternoon of last Tuesday (27), at the age of 91, the actor, voice actor and presenter Roberto Maya, at the age of 91, due to a respiratory failure. According to the broadcaster EPTV, Maya was taken by ambulance to the Hospital Beneficência Portuguesa, in Campinas, where he lived, but could not resist.

Roberto Maya was a veteran of the communication and the arts, having acted on several fronts on radio, television and film. He began his career as an actor in radio soap operas in the 1950s. As a voice actor, one of his most remembered works was the tiger Shere Khan, villain of the 1967 animated "Mogli - The Wolf Boy". He also made some TV brochures, such as 1968's "Simply Maria," and 1982's "Happy Final." And it was quite marked by participation in emblematic films of pornochanchada, such as "The Night of the Immorals" (1979), "The Boys of the Hard Easy Life" (1980) and "Eros, the God of Love" (1981).

Maya was very friends with Hugo Carvana, Miele and Daniel Filho, with whom she shared unpublishable experiences. The quartet shared an apartment on the third floor of the No. 410 building of Bartolomeu Mitre Street in Leblon, which served as inspiration for the 2008 film "The House of Mother Joan" in which he also acted.

Another important chapter of Roberto Maya's career was to present the "Special Document", a journalistic program remembered by the investigative reports that was almost a decade on the air, shown between 1989 and 1998, first by Manchete, and then by SBT and the Band.

“That show was a post-dictatorship documentary seed on television. Today, I don’t know if I would have the chest to face the bars that (Nelson, documentarian and creator of the program) Hoineff and I would top at the time. We made the interpretation of the issue freedom of expression that existed in the 1988 Constitution, said the artist to GLOBO, in an interview published in 2008.

Then he gave a period of few works in the 1990s, he returned to perform frequently from the 2000s. He made novels such as "Tropical paradise" (2007) and "Prohibited desire" (2008), in addition to the series "Lara com Z", 2011. His last work was in the 2016 film "Women in Power." Roberto Maya was a widower of Flora, with whom he was married for five decades, and had no children.

MAYA, Roberto

Born: 1/5/1935, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

Died: 10/27/2026, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

 

Roberto Mayo’s western – actor:

Jerônimo, o Herói do Sertão (TV) – 1972-1973 (Ventura)