RIP Antonio Canal

 

Tony Canal, the actor who gave life to Father Froilán in 'Cuéntame' and voiced Winnie the Pooh, dies

The Catalan actor has died at the age of 90 after six decades dedicated to theatre, film, television and dubbing

HOLA.com

By Julio P. Sanchez

September 25, 2026

 

Both the world of acting and the world of Spanish dubbing are today mourning the death of Tony Canal at the age of 90. Renowned actor, director and dubbing professional, whose career he built with talent and effort over six decades. At the moment, the causes of his death have not been revealed.

The actor, especially loved by all viewers for his role as Father Froilán Cardeñosa in Cuéntame cómo pasó, has passed away this Friday, September 25, 2026, as announced through his X account (formerly Twitter) by the Union of Dubbing Artists of Madrid (ADOMA):

"Today we say goodbye to TONY CANAL, a multidisciplinary actor in theater, film, television and dubbing with more than 60 years of experience. He was for 20 years the voice of the unforgettable 'Winnie the Pooh' in various series and films, as well as the snake Kaa in 'The Jungle Book 2' and, in his last years in office, Mayor Adam West in 'Family Guy'. Farewell, Tony," they have expressed publicly.

This news is the farewell of a performer whose career has accompanied several generations. Although his face has been especially linked to one of the most popular series on Spanish television, Tony Canal had a much longer career than that single role.

Father Froilán who conquered the viewers of Cuéntame

For many viewers, Canal will always be that priest of the parish of San Gerano who was part of the Alcántara universe for years. The actor participated in 164 episodes of Cuéntame cómo pasó, playing this parish priest who came to the neighborhood to take over from Father Eugenio.

A character who had a completely different personality from his predecessor. Someone much more conservative, although also willing to adapt to the new times, Father Froilán tried to get closer to the young people and keep alive that relationship of the parish with the residents of San Gerano.

Canal joined this renowned series from its inception and remained linked to it for 14 years, becoming one of the most recognized secondary faces of TVE production.

A lifetime dedicated to acting

Born in Barcelona in 1936, Tony Canal trained as an actor at the Barcelona Theatre Institute and also at Adrià Gual's School of Dramatic Art. In 1962 he began his professional career and later moved to Madrid, a city where he would develop a good part of his career.

Theatre occupied a fundamental place in his life. Over the years he participated in numerous productions of different genres, even becoming part of the first teams of actors that made up the companies linked to the creation of the National Dramatic Center and the National Classical Theater Company. He was also a finalist in the category of Best Supporting Actor at the Max Awards for the Performing Arts in 2013, one of the main recognitions of theatre and dance in Spain.

On television she worked on projects such as Brigada Central, Teresa de Jesús, Este es mi barrio, Composite y sin novio, Géminis or El comisario. As for his film career, which was also extensive, with more than thirty films, titles such as Who Can Kill a Child?, The Crime of Cuenca, Libertarias and La caja 507 stand out.

Beyond his appearances on the screen, there was a facet of Antonio Canal that accompanied many viewers for years without his face being known: dubbing.

For approximately two decades she was the Spanish voice of Winnie the Pooh in different series and films. He also lent his voice to the snake Kaa in The Jungle Book 2 and even to Mayor Adam West in Family Guy, among other works. His dubbing career even reached the world of video games, where he returned to play his inseparable character Winnie the Pooh.

An actor passionate about his work, both in the theater and in front of the cameras and even behind them, dubbing characters that will remain in the memory of several generations.

CANAL, Antonio

Born: 1936, Barcelona, Spain

Died: 9/25/2026, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

 

Antonio Canal’s western – voice actor:

The Last Comanche – 1953 [Spanish voice of Jack Woody]

 Lone Star – 1996 [Spanish voice of Gordon Tootootsis]

RIP Rodolphe

 

Rodolphe, screenwriter of Kenya and Trent, has died at the age of 7 

Glénat informs us of the death of Rodolphe, a major figure in the comic book script, who died on September 22, 2026 at the age of 78. In a half-century of career and more than 200 albums, he has multiplied universes and collaborations, from Trent to Kenya, via Cliff Burton, Commissaire Raffini or Robert Sax.

Actua Litte

By Hocine Bouhadjera

9/23/2026

 

Born in 1948, Rodolphe had first been a literature teacher, then a bookseller and journalist before turning to screenwriting. His meeting with Jacques Lob in 1975 was decisive: he entered the world of comics and began a career that would span more than fifty years.

Nourished by Anglo-Saxon literature, fantasy, Celtic legends and rock'n'roll, the screenwriter develops a universe where adventure, mystery, science fiction and emotion intersect. Over the decades, he collaborated with many great names in the ninth art, including Leo, Griffo, André Juillard, Jacques Ferrandez, Annie Goetzinger and Michel Faure.

An important part of his work was built at Dargaud. With Leo, he signed Trent, then Kenya, whose universe was extended by Namibia, Amazonia and Scotland. It was also with Dargaud that he published the detective series Cliff Burton, created with Frederik Garcia and then continued with drawings by Michel Durand.

In 1980, with Jacques Ferrandez, he launched Les Enquêtes du commissaire Raffini, the first albums of which were published by Humanoïdes Associés. Several decades later, with Louis Alloing, he created Robert Sax, published by Delcourt, another police series set in Belgium in the 1950s.

At Glénat, his career also spans several decades. He is notably responsible for The Locks of Heaven, with Michel Rouge and François Allot, The Taï-Dor Cycle, Dock 21 - The Abyss of Time, The Mad Baron, alongside Michel Faure, and the adaptation of The Oracle Della Luna, with Frédéric Lenoir and Griffo.

His published work in the Glénat catalogue also includes Mojo, The One Who No Longer Existed, Dickens & Dickens and Memphis, starring Bertrand Marchal. More recently, Rodolphe had signed Chagrin, with Griffo on the drawing, published in March 2026.

Glénat salutes "an erudite, generous and passionate author", whose "infectious enthusiasm has profoundly marked the world of comics". The house sends its "most sincere condolences to his family, loved ones, friends and the entire community of the ninth art".

Rodolphe (Rodolphe Daniel Jacquette)

Born: 5/18/1948, Bois-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Died: 9/22/2026. Colombes, Paris, Île-de-France, France

 

Rodolphe’s westerns – comic book writer:

Trent – 1991-2000

Comanche – 2003

RIP Richard Harrison

 

Richard Harrison, Star of Spaghetti Westerns and Sword-and-Sandal Flicks, Dies at 90

The Salt Lake City native left Hollywood for Italy in the early 1960s and built a thriving B-movie career away from home.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

September 23, 2026

 

Richard Harrison, the chiseled American actor who found fame and fortune overseas as the star of sword-and-sandal films, spaghetti Westerns and Z-grade ninja movies, has died. He was 91.

Harrison died Friday of natural causes in Los Angeles, producer and longtime friend Joan Borsten reported.

After showing up in small roles in such Hollywood films as 1958’s Too Much, Too Soon and South Pacific, Harrison headed to Italy and became an instant leading man in the mold of muscleman Steve Reeves with The Invincible Gladiator (1962).

The next year, he starred in Avenger of the Seven Seas and Gladiator 7, then followed in 1963 with Gunfight in the Red Sands (Duello Nel Texas), an Italian-Spanish spaghetti Western that featured a score by Ennio Morricone.

He turned down Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) but said he recommended Clint Eastwood for the part of the unnamed stranger that jump-started his fellow expat’s career.

After work slowed in Europe in the late 1970s, Harrison starred in lots of low-budget ninja features out of Hong Kong for about a decade. He wound up making more than 100 B-movies (and even directed a handful) in his career.

Born in Salt Lake City on May 26, 1935, Harrison came to Hollywood at age 17, worked at gyms owned by bodybuilders Vic Tanny and Bert Goodrich and modeled for beefcake magazines before taking acting lessons at Fox under Sandy Meisner.

He landed bit parts in films including Kronos (1957); Jeanne Eagels (1957), starring Kim Novak; Too Much, Too Soon, starring Dorothy Malone; South Pacific, starring Mitzi Gaynor; and Tall Story (1960), starring Anthony Perkins.

On Master of the World (1961), starring Vincent Price, he met castmate Loretta Nicholson, the daughter of James H. Nicholson, a producer on the American International Pictures release, and they married in 1961.

Borsten said that Harrison hosted industry dinner parties that always ended with “pasta at midnight” and counted among his closest friends Reeves, George Cukor, Franco Nero, Gore Vidal, Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, Stewart Stern, Al Bano and Romina Power.

During the Cold War in 1985, he helped Soviet actor Oleg Vidov, known as the “Russian Robert Redford,” defect at the U.S. embassy in Rome. (Vidov and Borsten married in 1989 and were together until his death in 2017.)

Returning to Los Angeles in 1986, Harrison and his second wife, Francesca, bought a run-down property in Malibu with an infinity view of the Pacific and built a home that they would call “Villa Francesca.” That home, however, was lost in the Palisades Fire last year.

In addition to his wife — they married in 1978 — survivors include three of his four children.

“Harrison never let his movie star status, especially in Italy where he couldn’t walk down the street without being recognized, go to his head,” Borsten noted. “Instead, he saw his unexpected career as an opportunity to see the world and meet interesting people.

“When asked how he’d choose his next project, he said he’d ask the producer where it was going to be shot and would accept if he’d never traveled to the location. Once on the plane, he’d finally read the script.”

HARRISON, Richard (Richard Franklin Harrison Jr.)

Born: 5/26/1936, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Died: 9/18/2026, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Richard Harrison’s westerns – actor, director, assistant director, writer:

Gunfight at High Noon – 1963 (Jeff Walker)

Gunfight at Red Sands – 1963 (Ricardo ‘Gringo’ Martinez)

$100,000 for Ringo – 1965 (Ward Cluster/Lee Barton/Burton/Ringo)

El Rojo – 1966 (Donald ‘El Rojo’ Sorenson/Saroyan)

Vengeance – 1967 (Joko/Rocco Barrett/Django)

Between God, the Devil and a Winchester – 1968 (Father Pat Jordan)

One After the Other – 1968 (Stan Ross) 

Django Never Pardons – 1970 [film was never made]

The Long Ride of Revenge – 1970 (James Luke/Jeff Carter/Django)

Reverend Colt – 1970 (Sheriff Donovan)

Stagecoach of the Condemned - 1970 (Robert Walton/Wayne Sonnier)

Dig Your Grave Friend… Sabata’s Coming – 1971 (Steve McGowan)

The Giant’s Nail, the Legend of Phantom City – 1971 (Fred Burton) [film was never

      released]

His Name was King – 1971 (John ‘King’ Marley)

Holy Water Joe – 1971 (Charlie Bennett) [assistant director]

Joe Dakota – 1971 (Joe Dakota)

The Sheriff of Rock Springs – 1971 (Sheriff Hunter)

They Call Me Hallelujah – 1971 (monk)

Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity – 1972 (Jesse Smith) [director, writer]

The Fabulous Trinity – 1972 (Scott)

Scalps – 1987 [writer]

Hey Cowboy! Portrait de l'acteur Richard Harrison Interview (TV) – 2006 [himself]

Por un puñado de westerns – 2007 [himself]

The Outsider – 2013 [himself]

RIP James Sloyan

 

James Sloyan, Actor in ‘The Sting,’ ‘Xanadu’ and ‘Oh Madeline,’ Dies at 85

He also appeared five times on television in the 'Star Trek' universe and was the voice of Lexus in commercials for almost two decades.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

September 21, 2026

 

James Sloyan, the busy character actor who appeared in films including The Sting and Xanadu and played Madeline Kahn’s husband on her short-lived 1980s ABC sitcom, has died. He was 85.

Sloyan died July 22 at his home in Sherman Oaks, his family announced over the weekend.

Star Trek fans know him for his five appearances as a member of four species across The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager in the 1990s, and he served as the voice of Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus in commercials for 18 years starting in 1989.

In George Roy Hill’s The Sting (1973), winner of the Oscar for best picture, Sloyan helped set the plot in motion with his turn as Mottola, the numbers runner who works for racketeer Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) and falls victim to a “pigeon drop scam” perpetrated by Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones).

And in the Olivia Newton-John musical fantasy Xanadu (1980), he played Simpson, the tyrannical boss of Michael Beck’s artist Sonny Malone at AirFlow Records.

Sloyan landed the role of Kahn’s husband, a guy who writes steamy romance novels under the pen name Crystal Love, but the 1983-84 show — the first produced by Carsey-Werner Productions — lasted just 18 episodes.

The youngest of four kids, James Joseph Sloyan was born in Indianapolis on Feb. 24, 1941. His father, James Sr., was a construction engineer. When he was 4, he “discovered the delights of the Indianapolis State Fair, wrangling an appearance with [Western movie actor] Lash LaRue and his traveling Western Show,” his family said.

After spending time living overseas and in Albany, New York, Sloyan graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and served three years in the U.S. Army before returning to New York, where he acted and was a choreographer for fight scenes for Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. (On X, Henry Winkler noted he was one of his sword fight instructors at drama school.)

He made it to Broadway in Arthur Kopit’s Indians in 1969, had the lead in such off-Broadway productions as Irv Bauer’s A Dream Out of Time and made his onscreen debut in the 1970 film The Traveling Executioner, starring Stacy Keach.

Sloyan, who moved to California in 1973, appeared in The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971) and on episodes of The Doctors, The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak and Delvecchio before landing a regular role on the 1977 ABC drama Westside Medical.

He played a Romulan admiral and then the son of the Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn) on Next Generation, the Bajoran scientist Dr. Mora on Deep Space Nine and the Haakonian scientist Ma’bor Jetrel on Voyager.

His TV résumé also included the telefilms The Disappearance of Aimee, starring Faye Dunaway and Bette Davis, and The Billionaires Boys Club and stops on Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Lou Grant, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, Cagney & Lacey, Moonlighting, Murder, She Wrote, Quantum Leap, The X-Files and NYPD Blue.

“Friends and colleagues remember him always present, always curious, courageous, inventive and loyal as well as brash, mouthy and very urban. He was one-of-a-kind,” his family said.

Survivors include his wife, actress Deirdre Lenihan (Needles and Pins, The Waltons), whom he married in 1973, and their children, Daniel, a musician, and Samantha Sloyan, an actress (The Life of Chuck, Dr. Penelope Blake on Grey’s Anatomy.

His brother, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Patrick Sloyan, died in February 2019.

SLOYAN, James (James Joseph Sloyan)

Born: 2/24/1940, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.

Died: 7/22/2026, Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.A.

 

James Sloyan’s westerns – actor:

The Traveling Executioner – 1970 (Piquant)

Centennial (TV) - 1978 (Spade Larkin)

Paradise (TV) - 1990 (Joe Pratt)

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV) - 1995-1996 (Superintendent Hazen)

RIP Anjanette Comer

 

Anjanette Comer, Actress in ‘The Loved One’ and ‘The Appaloosa,’ Dies at 86

She also starred in 'Quick, Before It Melts,' 'Guns for San Sebastian' and 'The Baby' but made a few career missteps along the way.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

September 21, 2026

 

Anjanette Comer, the 1960s ingenue who had leading roles in The Loved One, The Appaloosa and The Baby but passed on two major starring opportunities that could have transformed her career, has died. She was 86.

Comer died May 28 at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, according to a death certificate filed with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. She battled leukemia and had heart issues.

Comer had chances to star opposite Robert Redford in Barefoot in the Park and alongside Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde, but she declined to work in both landmark 1967 releases, and Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway, respectively, were the ones who would ultimately benefit.

In a 1981 interview with UPI’s Vernon Scott, Comer said she rejected both jobs because she “had this very important relationship with a man, an actor, who didn’t want me to work in movies. At that time I was young and naive.” She added that she “hated her career.”

The green-eyed Comer, who came from a small town in Texas, also didn’t do herself any favors when she backpedaled on starring with Michael Caine in Funeral in Berlin (1966), a sequel to the Harry Palmer spy thriller The Ipcress File. Unknown to producer Harry Saltzman, she left Germany during filming to be with her boyfriend on weekends and was replaced by Eva Renzi.

“I had a reputation for being crazy because I’d walked out on Funeral in Berlin,” Comer said. “And I guess I was crazy. You see, I didn’t build my career slowly like most successful actresses do. After a couple of TV appearances, I became an instant movie star. I didn’t know how to handle it all emotionally.”

Comer was born on Aug. 7, 1939, in Dawson, Texas. She attended Dawson High School, was voted queen of the Corsicana Fair and Rodeo at age 16 and studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, where she was spotted by agent Byron Raphael and signed.

She landed on episodes of My Three Sons and The Donna Reed Show in 1962, then guest-starred the next year on Gunsmoke, Ben Casey and the 90-minute ABC drama Arrest and Trial, which landed her a supporting actress Emmy nomination for her performance as a hooker.

Comer appeared on the two-part 1964 episode of the MGM-NBC series Dr. Kildare famous for giving viewers a look at Yvette Mimieux‘s navel, then made her big-screen debut for the studio that year in Delbert Mann’s Quick, Before It Melts, playing a flight attendant in the comedy that starred George Maharis and Robert Morse.

When she was invited to audition for the role of make-up mortician Aimee Thanatogenous in Tony Richardson’s funeral-industry satire The Loved One (1965), she thought, “How ridiculous — me and 49 others. So I didn’t go,” she told TV Guide in 1964.

“Later it was arranged for me to meet Mr. Richardson personally. We talked about the role, and the next day he called to say I had the part.”

She starred with Morse, whose character has come to bury his uncle, in that film, too, and delivered one of the movie’s most famous lines: “What did you have in mind? Inhumement, entombment, inurnment, immurement?  Some people just lately have preferred ensarcophagusment. It’s very individual.”

In his review of The Loved One for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote that “Anjanette Comer does nicely as the honey-voiced, nitwit girl, one of the Whispering Glades’ comforters, with whom the hero inconceivably falls in love.”

She starred as a backstabbing heroine with Marlon Brando and John Saxon in Sidney J. Furie’s The Appaloosa (1966) and played another Mexican woman in Guns for San Sebastian (1968). In between, she appeared with Robert Wagner and Jill St. John in Banning (1967).

Her next films, In Enemy Country (1968), Rabbit, Run (1970) and The Firechasers (1971), co-starring Tony Franciosa, James Caan and Chad Everett, respectively, didn’t create much heat, but her fans were delighted to see her portray an earnest social worker opposite Ruth Roman in the bizarre horror film The Baby (1973).

Marianna Hill, who also starred in The Baby, praised Comer’s work in a 2016 interview with Shaun Chang for his Hill Place blog. “She would tell me, ‘I’m going to create an inner life and this and that for my character,’” she recalled. “I would listen to her and I would create these secret choices for my character [as well].”

Comer’s résumé included the Tony Curtis-starring Lepke (1975), Fire Sale (1977), Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath (1995) and A Bird of the Air (2011) and TV guest-starring stints on Bonanza, Mod Squad, Love, American Style, Mannix, Columbo, Jake and the Fatman, The Blue Knight, Hotel and The Practice.

The romance that led Comer to lose focus on her career in the ’60s never came to anything, but she was married to author, screenwriter and director Robert Klane (Weekend at Bernie’s, Where’s Poppa?, Fire Sale, Thank God It’s Friday) from 1976 until their 1983 divorce.

Survivors include her older sister, Jerra Tillman, who when contacted did not want to comment on Comer’s death.

Comer told UPI’s Scott in that 1981 interview that she was “absolutely certain I will get back to the high point of my career. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I have to believe that so other people will believe it, too.”

COMER, Anjanette

Born: 8/7/1939, Dawson, Texas, U.S.A.

Died: 5/28/2026, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.

 

Anjanette Comer’s westerns – actress:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1963 (Cara Miles)

Bonanza (TV) – 1964 (Joan Wingate)

The Appaloosa – 1966 (Trini Medena)

Guns for San Sebastian – 1967 (Kinita)

Barbary Coast (TV) – 1975 (Mary Louise)

Streets of Laredo (TV) – 1995 (Beulah)

RIP Sharon Gault

Sharon Gault Obituary, Los Angeles, CA — Makeup World Mourns Mama Makeup

Call Spirit Cloud

By Rod Wave

9/18/2026

 

The beauty and fashion communities are mourning the reported death of renowned makeup artist Sharon Gault, affectionately known as “Mama Makeup.” Gault was celebrated for her creativity, warmth, and decades-long career working with some of the biggest names in entertainment and fashion.

News of her passing was confirmed through tributes from friends and colleagues, including photographer David LaChapelle, who shared an emotional remembrance of Gault on social media. Other figures from the entertainment and fashion worlds also expressed their sadness following the news.

Gault built an extraordinary career as a makeup and beauty artist. Her credits included work connected to Madonna’s Blond Ambition and Girlie Show tours, as well as projects involving major artists and actors. She also worked with celebrities including Elton John, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, Cameron Diaz, Britney Spears, Jennifer Garner, and many others.

Her connection to Madonna’s world helped introduce her to a much wider audience. Gault appeared in the 1991 documentary Truth or Dare, filmed during Madonna’s Blond Ambition era. Her work also extended into the world of Lady Gaga. Earlier profiles of her career highlighted her collaborations with Gaga on music videos and editorial projects, including work photographed by LaChapelle.

Beyond her work with celebrities, Gault was remembered as a mentor and encouraging presence within the makeup community. She taught aspiring artists and spoke openly about the importance of finding mentors, developing skills, and pursuing opportunities with determination. Her nickname, “Mama Makeup,” reflected the nurturing role she often played for younger artists and colleagues. Her professional relationship with David LaChapelle became another defining part of her story. The pair collaborated extensively over the years, and LaChapelle’s tribute following her death described Gault as a best friend and a lasting light in his life.

Gault is survived by her daughter, Adelaide, and grandson, Leo. The exact circumstances and cause of Gault’s death have not been publicly disclosed in the sources reviewed. As tributes continue to emerge, Sharon Gault’s legacy remains closely connected to the artists she inspired, the celebrities she worked with, and the many people who knew her as Mama Makeup.

For the beauty industry, her passing marks the loss of a distinctive creative voice whose influence stretched across makeup, music, fashion, photography, and Hollywood. Friends, colleagues, and admirers continue to remember her artistry, generosity, and unmistakable personality.

GAULT, Sharon (Sharon Lynn Gault)

Born: 1/?/1965, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A

Died: 9/16/2026, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.

 

Sharon Gault’s western – makeup artist:

Prairie Girls - 1995

RIP Eugenio Zanetti

 

Eugenio Zanetti, Oscar-Winning Production Designer of “Restoration,” Dies at 79

The Eric Alper

September 19, 2026

 

A trip to Europe in the mid-1960s brought a young Eugenio Zanetti into the orbit of Pier Paolo Pasolini, landing him a role in the director’s film adaptation of Medea and setting in motion a career that would eventually carry him to an Academy Award. Zanetti died on September 18, 2026, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 79.

Born on October 19, 1946, in Córdoba, Argentina, Zanetti returned home after his father’s death to help support his family, and went on to establish himself within Argentine cinema, designing sets for Mario Sábato’s The Power of Darkness in 1979, which earned him a Moscow Film Festival Award for Design, and Alejandro Doria’s Los Pasajeros del jardín in 1982.

Zanetti relocated to Los Angeles during the Falklands War, launching his Hollywood career as production designer on Wayne Wang’s Slam Dance in 1987. He went on to design sets for Some Girls, which won a Toronto Festival of Festivals Design Award, along with Flatliners, Soapdish, and Last Action Hero. His work on 1995’s Restoration earned him the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Zanetti’s Hollywood credits continued through What Dreams May Come in 1998, The Haunting in 1999, Alfonso Arau’s Zapata: El sueño de un héroe in 2004, and Roland Joffé’s There Be Dragons in 2011.

Beyond film, Zanetti built an extensive career in theatre and opera, directing more than 40 productions across Europe and South America, including Verdi’s A Masked Ball and Nabucco and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Tosca. As a musical theatre director in Argentina, he won the Thalia Award, the country’s equivalent of the Tony, for productions including They’re Playing Our Song, Chicago, Dracula, and an adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen, and separately earned a Star of the Sea Award for The Cherry Orchard, Chapter Two, Company, and Peer Gynt.

In 2014, Zanetti wrote and directed his first film, Amapola, a fantasy drama starring Camilla Belle, François Arnaud, Geraldine Chaplin, Leonor Benedetto, Lito Cruz and Elena Roger.

Zanetti spoke openly in a 2017 interview with the Idries Shah Foundation about the profound influence Sufi mysticism and the writings of Idries Shah had on his life and work since he first encountered them at 19, describing the tradition’s impact on him as immense and its depth as incredible.

Eugenio Zanetti’s decades of work across film, theatre and opera brought a singular visual imagination to productions on both sides of the Atlantic, and his Oscar-winning design for Restoration remains a defining achievement of a career built on transforming stories into fully realized worlds.

ZANETTI, Eugenio

Born: 10/19/1949, Córdoba, Argentina

Died: 9/18/2026, Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

Eugenio Zanetti’s western – Production Designer

Tall Tale – 1995 [production designer]