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]

RIP Stephanie Cole

 

Stephanie Cole Dies: British Star Of ‘Open All Hours’ & ‘Doc Martin’ Was 84

DEADLINE

By Max Goldbart

September 18, 2026

 

Stephanie Cole, the popular British actress who was one of the stars of Open All Hours, has died aged 84. She had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years.

Cole’s agent John Grant announced the news in a statement shared with press this afternoon.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Stephanie Cole, OBE,” he said. “She passed away this morning at the age of 84. Stephanie had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for some years.”

Grant added: “Stephanie was an extraordinary talent whose long and distinguished career included many iconic performances in theatre and television. She brought joy to millions through her many much-loved roles in sitcom and drama. She will also be remembered for her tireless work supporting mental health charities. During this incredibly difficult time, the family kindly requests privacy.”

Born in Solihull in 1941, Cole trained at the famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and made her stage debut playing the eccentric Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, which she later revived.

Her big break came in 1980 playing Dr Beatrice Mason in Tenko, a BBC drama that chronicled the lives of British women in Singapore after the Japanese invasion. She was then cast in Roy Clarke and Ronnie Barker’s hit sitcom Open All Hours, in which she played Mrs Featherstone for 10 episodes. The show about a grumpy, penny-pinching shopkeeper, played by Barker, is one of the best-known BBC sitcoms of all time and was revived in 2013 as Still Open All Hours, for which Cole returned.

Cole’s other TV credits down the years included Talking Heads, A Bit of a Do, Keeping Mum, Doc Martin and Coronation Street.

On stage she appeared in The Mousetrap, Noises Off and A Passionate Woman.

Cole’s husband, fellow actor Peter Birrel, died in 2004. She is survived by one daughter from her previous marriage.

COLE, Stephanie (Patricia Stephanie Cole)

Born: 10/5/1941, Solihull, Warwickshire, England, U.K.

Died: 9/18/2026, England, U.K.

 

Stephanie Cole’s western – actress:

Grey Owl - 1999 (Ada Belaney)

RIP Elio Zamuto

 

Farewell to Elio Zamuto: the Syracusan voice of Doctor Procton who led the Goldrake generation

With his reassuring voice, he has accompanied generations of Italians in the role of Doctor Procton and numerous protagonists of both the big and small screens.

La Sicillia

ByFabio Russello

September 16, 2026

 

Passed away on September 9, 2026, at the age of 85, Elio Zamuto, stage name of Elio Mazzamuto. Born in Siracusa on May 1, 1941, actor, voice actor, and voice director, he leaves a deep mark in the world of Italian entertainment and in the memory of entire generations of viewers.

The city of Aretusa maintains a special bond with him: it was his warm, deep, and reassuring voice that gave a sound face to Doctor Procton (Genzo Umon), director of the Space Research Center and adoptive father of Actarus in the legendary series UFO Robot Goldrake, which arrived in Italy in the late 1970s.

For the children who discovered the cartoon in 1978, his performance transformed the scientist into a wise and fatherly presence, a constant guide in the fight against the threats from Vega.

The relationship between Zamuto and the character remained strong over time: the artist returned to voice Procton in the subsequent re-releases of the series and in the feature film UFO Robot Goldrake against Great Mazinger.

Zamuto's career naturally spanned both cinema and voice acting. On the big screen, he was a recognizable face of Italian cinema in the 1970s, particularly standing out in crime films.

At the same time, he built an important career in dubbing, also as a director, lending his voice to numerous actors and animated characters; among the most remembered roles is Professor Shiba in Jeeg Robot d’Acciaio.

With his passing, Siracusa and Italy bid farewell to a great master of voice, an interpreter capable of accompanying and protecting the dreams of an entire generation.

ZAMUTO, Elio (Elio Mazzamuto)

Born: 5/1/1941, Syracuse, Sicily, Italy

Died: 9/9/2026, Oriolo Romano, Viterbo, Italy

 

Elio Zamuto’s westerns – voice actor

Rin Tin Tin (TV) – 1957 [Italian voice of James Brown]

In the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Colt – 1971 [Italian voice of Craig Hill]

Gunmen and the Holy Ghost – 1972 [Italian voice of Tom Felleghy]

Trinity ans Sartana are Coming – 1972 [Italian voice of Romano Puppo]

The Son of Zorro – 1973 [Italian voice of Fernando Sancho]

The Outlaw Josey Wales – 1976 [Italian voice of Will Sampson]

RIP Ralf Richter

 

Ralf Richter Dies at 69, ‘Das Boot’ and ‘Bang Boom Bang’ Actor

Cedar News

9/15/2026

 

German actor Ralf Richter, best known for his roles in “Das Boot” and “Bang Boom Bang,” has died at the age of 69.

Richter died peacefully at his home in Cologne overnight, his manager confirmed on behalf of his family.

His son Maxwell Richter also announced his father’s death on social media on Tuesday.

Richter had been struggling with health problems for some time. His son said the actor had suffered from COPD and heart problems.

Born in Essen in 1957, Richter became widely known after appearing in Wolfgang Petersen’s acclaimed 1981 war film “Das Boot.”

He later became a cult figure in German cinema through his portrayal of Kalle Grabowski in the 1999 crime comedy “Bang Boom Bang.”

Richter appeared in numerous films and television productions during a career spanning more than four decades, frequently playing tough or unconventional characters.

His other credits included “Superstau,” “Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht,” “Goldene Zeiten,” “Tatort” and “Alarm für Cobra 11.”

Richter had remained professionally active until recently, appearing at public events and continuing to work on film projects.

His family described his death as unexpected and far too early.

RICHTER, Ralph

Born: 8/17/1957, Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Died: 9/14/2026, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

 

Ralph Richter’s westerns – actor:

ProSieben Funny Movie – Spiel mir das Lied und Du bist tot  (TV)– 2007 (Grandpa St.

     John)

Scalped Alive – 2014 (Confederate general)