Friday, January 31, 2020

RIP Dick Balduzzi


Alliance native, Hollywood actor Balduzzi dead at 91



The Alliance Review

One of Alliance’s famous sons died Monday at 91 after an accident at his home. Richard Kenneth Balduzzi, known in the acting world as Dick Balduzzi, was born on Feb. 9, 1928, in Alliance.

He achieved acting success in Hollywood, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, with roles in “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970), “Zorro: The Gay Blade” (1981), and “Police Story” (1973). His career also included many television appearances including “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “I Dream of Jeannie, “Bewitched,” “The Bionic Woman,” “Simon & Simon,” “The Rockford Files,” “The Partridge Family” and “The Bill Cosby Show.”

During his career, Balduzzi lived in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. At age 80, he retired to West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania.

“I didn’t become a star, but I always worked,” Balduzzi said in a 2014 interview with Daily Local News of Chester County, Pennsylvania.

In that same interview, Balduzzi explained he developed an interest in theater while serving in the Navy, which lead him to Goodman Theatre School of Drama outside of Chicago and then New York. He performed in off-Broadway shows and had acting opportunities in small parts in theater, film and TV from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Longtime friend Gene Reda of Alliance remembers Balduzzi as a nice man who loved the movie business.

“He was a wonderful person. He loved his acting profession that he was in. He had a big heart and was a nice fella,” Reda said.

Reda said he and Balduzzi go back a long way. Both had parents who immigrated from Italy at the same time and came to Alliance, where Balduzzi and Reda’s older brother went through the city’s schools together.

The friends stayed in touch and for a time Reda also lived in California.

Reda recalls Balduzzi’s large collection of old movies and picking one out to watch when they got together.

“He liked his profession and he had a lot of good friends in the acting profession,” Reda said.
Through the years, Reda followed his friend’s career as he appeared on the big and small screen. “I use to tease him because he was in ‘Kelly’s Heroes,’ a war picture, and I watched it probably a hundred times,” he said. “And every time I got it on my TV, I used to call him and I’d say, ‘Hey, get ready for a residual check.’ He used to tell me when he got it, ‘My residual for that was 97 cents.’ It cost them more to mail the check that they’d send him for that.”

Balduzzi leaves behind his wife, Phyllis, whom he married Jan. 26, 1959; a daughter, Judy; and two grandchildren.


BALDUZZI, Jack (Richard Kenneth Balduzzi)
Born: 2/9/1928, Alliance, Ohio, U.S.A.
Died: 1/27/2020, West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania

Jack Balduzzi’s westerns – actor:
Here Come the Brides (TV) -1968, 1969 (Billy, Butch, Jason's man)
Zorro: The Gay Blade - 1981 (old man)

Thursday, January 30, 2020

RIP Robert Harper


New York Times
January 30, 2020


HARPER Robert Francis, died after a brave fight with cancer, on January 23, 2020 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with his wife Sascha Noorthoorn van der Kruyff at his side. Born in New York City on May 19, 1951, the fourth son of Eugene and Muriel (nee Drumgoole) Harper, he had a long career on stage, screen, and television, including, among many credits, in the Broadway premiere of Arthur Miller's "American Clock," in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America," Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry," George Romero's "Creepshow," Mike Newell's "Amazing Grace and Chuck," and Michael Mann's "The Insider," and as a regular or featured star in the TV series "Frank's Place, "Philly," "L.A. Law," "Roseanne," "Murphy Brown," and "Gilmore Girls." He was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In addition to his wife, he is survived by brothers, Eugene, James, Gerard, Daniel and his sister, Mary Harper Hagan, and predeceased by brothers, Lawrence, Thomas, and William. Also surviving are 15 nieces and nephews and five grand-nieces and nephews. He graduated from Mater Dei High School (now Prep) in Middletown, NJ and Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ, at which he delivered the commencement address at University College in 2007. A memorial service will be held in New Jersey at a later date. Contributions in his memory may be made to Mater Dei Prep's performing arts programs, c/o Mater Dei Prep, 538 Church Street, Middletown, NJ 07748 or materdeiprep.org.


HARPER, Robert (Robert Francis Harper)
Born: 5/19/1951, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 1/23/2020, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Robert Harper’s western – actor:
Kung Fu: The Movie – 1986 (prosecutor)

RIP Robert Sampson


Los Angeles Times
January 29, 2020

Robert LeRoy Sampson, born May 10, 1933, passed peacefully on January 18, 2020 in Santa Barbara, CA. A life-long resident of Chatsworth/West Hills, Robert enjoyed a 50-plus-year acting career spanning over 150 movie and television productions, including Re-Animator, The Dark Side of the Moon, Robot Jox, and many theatre and commercial productions. He is survived by partner Richard Witt, daughter Rebecca Lowi (Ralph), brother Orwyn (Diane), and sister Joyce Yamahata (Scott), two grandsons, nine nieces and nephews, as well as many family members and friends.

Services will be Thursday, January 30 at 11 a.m. at Oakwood Memorial Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the West Valley Animal Shelter or LA Animal Rescue.


SAMPSON, Robert (Robert LeRoy Sampson)
Born: 5/10/1933, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Died: 1/18/2020, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.

Robert Sampson’s westerns – actor:
The Peacemaker – 1956 (station agent)
Man Without a Gun (TV) – 1958 (Dilly)
The Deputy (TV) – 1959 (Micah)
Young Jesse James – 1960 (Yankee soldier)
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (TV) – 1960 (Cully Dray)
Frontier Circus (TV) – 1961 (Mark Hedges)
Outlaws (TV) – 1961 (Charlie Harper)
Rawhide (TV) – 1961 (Lieutenant Meadows)
Shotgun Slade (TV) – 1961 (Ned Roberts)
The Broken Land – 1962 (Dave Dunson)
Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1961, 1962 (Arthur King, young Hal)
Bonanza (TV) – 1962 (Bill Winters, Artie Clay)
The Virginian (TV) – 1962 (Jesse)
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV) – 1964 (Lieutenant Mason)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1967 (McKenny)
The Big Valley (TV) – 1969 (Page, Zack Morton)

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

RIP Marj Dusay


Soap Opera Vet Marj Dusay Dead at 83

TV Line
By Michael Ausiello 
January 29 2020

Veteran soap opera actress Marj Dusay, whose long list of daytime-TV credits included stints on Guiding Light, Santa Barbara, All My Children and Days of Our Lives, has died. She was 83.

During Dusay’s decades-long daytime career, she established herself as one of the industry’s most reliable recasts. Dusay made her suds debut in 1983 when she replaced Carolyn Jones as Washington, D.C. matriarch Myrna Clegg on CBS’ Capitol. Following that show’s cancellation in 1987, Dusay jumped to NBC’s Santa Barbara, where she took over the role of Mason Capwell’s mentally unstable mother Pamela from actress Shirley Ann Field.  In 1993, she temporarily filled in for Louise Sorel as villainess Vivian Alamain on NBC’s Days of Our Lives, after which she succeeded Beverlee McKinsey as Alexandra Spaulding CBS’ Guiding Light, a role she played on and off from 1993 to 2009 and one that earned her a 1995 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.

It was in 1999 that Dusay finally originated her first soap role when she was cast as the evil Vanessa Bennett (mother to (Josh Duhamel’s Leo and Vincent Irizarry’s David) on ABC’s All My Children. She exited the soap in 2002.

Prior to making a name for herself in the soap world, Dusay made frequent guest appearances in primetime, most memorably on the original Star Trek (as alien Kara) and The Facts of Life (as Blair’s mother Monica).


DUSAY, Marj (Marjorie Ellen Pivonka Mahoney)
Born: 2/20/1936, Russell, Kansas, U.S.A.
Died: 1/28/2020, U.S.A.

Marj Dusay’s westerns – actress:
Cimarron Strip (TV) – 1967 (Zena)
The Wild Wild West (TV) – 1967, 1968 (Crystal Fair, Dolores Hammond)
Bonanza (TV) – 1968, 1969 (Stephanie Regan, April Horn)
Daniel Boone (TV) – 1969 (Eugenie Journet)
Alias Smith and Jones (TV) – 1971 (Christine McNiece)
Bret Maverick (TV) – 1981-1982 (Kate Hanrahan)

RIP Harriet Frank Jr.


Harriet Frank Jr., Oscar-Nominated ‘Hud’ and ‘Norma Rae’ Screenwriter, Dies at 96
Frank Jr. frequently collaborated with her husband Irving Ravetch

The Wrap
By Brian Welk

Harriet Frank Jr. a two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter of films including “Hud” with Paul Newman and “Norma Rae” with Sally Field, has died. She was 96.

Michael Frank, Frank’s nephew, told The New York Times that she died in her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Frank collaborated with her husband, Irving Ravetch, on “Hud,” as well as “The Cowboys” and “Conrack,” beginning in 1957 after she worked independently for the first 10 years of her career. They wrote 16 screenplays up until 1990.

Together they adapted the work of William Faulkner, William Inge, Larry McCurty, Elmore Leonard and many more auteur authors. The two also collaborated on eight occasions with director Martin Ritt. Ravetch died in 2010.

Frank was originally contracted by MGM under the studio’s writers training program and was known for her provocative work that grappled with post-war life in America as it related to moral dilemmas, social inequality and more.

Frank was also one of the subjects of her nephew and essayist Michael Frank’s 2017 memoir called “The Mighty Franks,” which showcased the family’s eccentric and theatrical upbringing.

In 1963, Frank won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay for “Hud,” as shared with Ravetch, as well as the Writers Guild Award that same year. Frank was then honored by the WGA with the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 1988.


FRANK Jr. Harriet
Born: 3/2/1917, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Died: 1/28/2020, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Harriett Frank Jr.’s westerns – writer:
Silver River - 1948
Run for Cover - 1955
Ten Wanted Men – 1955
Hud – 1963
Hombre - 1967
The Cowboys – 1972
The Spike’s Gang - 1974

RIP David Whorf


Ever Loved

David Whorf died January 4th, 2020, at the age of 85. David was the second son of famous actor/director Richard Whorf and Margaret Smith Whorf. He was born July 24, 1934 in Syracuse, New York.

Hollywood called and the family moved to California in May of 1941.

David followed his father in show business starting in 1946 as a child actor in the film,”On Our Merry Way”. He attended grammar school at Hawthorne School in Beverly Hills and high school at Beverly Hills High School for one year. He then followed his older brother, Peter, to attend and graduate from Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. David graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Speech and Drama in 1957. After college, David enlisted in the California National Guard and served for 6 years. He worked for sixty-five years in theater, movies and television, finally retiring in 2001. Feature film credits include “PT 109”, “Caddyshack” and “The Right Stuff.” David worked as an actor, director, assistant director, writer and producer during his career. Some of the television shows he worked on include: Batman, The Streets of San Francisco, CSI, Spenser: For Hire, The FBI, Canon, Barnaby Jones, The Brady Bunch, Lassie, Wagon Train, and Bonanza, to name a few.

In 1959 David married Caroline Hughes and they had two daughters, Sarah Bradley in 1961 and Amanda Baker in 1964. In 1974 David divorced and moved to San Francisco to work on “The Streets of San Francisco”. In 1985, David and Rob Alger formed the Alnitak Computing Company and produced the first production software program for the film industry, “AD/80”. In 1989 he met Laurel Weber and they were married in 1991. In the years that followed, they lived in San Francisco, Carmel and Sun City Lincoln Hills in Lincoln, CA.

He is survived by his wife Laurel, daughter Sarah Whorf, her husband, Norman Sherfield, Amanda and Ernie Valenzuela and grandchildren, Anne, Marco and Emilio.


WORF, David (David M. Worf)
Born: 7/24/1934, Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 1/4/2020, Lincoln, California, U.S.A.

David Worf’s westerns – actor:
The Adventures of Jim Bowie (TV) – 1958 (lieutenant)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1958 (Jack)
Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1958 (Jimmy Dawes)
Tombstone Territory (TV) 1958 (Ben Ashdown, Brother Simon Webb)
Rawhide (TV) – 1959 (Norm Morton)
Wichita Town (TV) – 1960 (Joe Tomasino)
Bonanza (TV) – 1962 (Peter)

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

RIP Nicholas Parsons


Obituary: Nicholas Parsons

BBC
1/28/2020

Nicholas Parsons' early acting experience as a comedy straight man made him ideal as the unflappable presenter of one of BBC Radio 4's longest-running programmes, Just A Minute.

For more than 50 years, he asked his guests to speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation on topics as diverse as burglars, Birmingham and biscuits in bed.

Each week, Parsons tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep a bevy of celebrity panellists in check including Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock and the show's undoubted scene-stealer, Kenneth Williams.

Always neatly coiffed and invariably immaculate in blazer and flannels, Parsons' smooth tones on Just a Minute and, more particularly, his sugary image on Sale of the Century, made him a dapper reminder of a bygone age and a ripe target for other comedians.

Christopher Nicholas Parsons was born on 10 October 1923 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, the son of a GP. His father's patients included the Thatcher family, although there is no definitive proof, as has been suggested, that Dr Parsons delivered the future prime minister.

Nicholas Parsons described himself in his autobiography as "the unconventional child of conventional parents".

His early schooling was hampered by dyslexia and the insistence of his teachers that he should write with his right hand, despite being born left-handed. He was also hampered by a stammer which he finally managed to overcome.

He had early ambitions to be an actor but his parents opposed the idea, his mother believing show business was fit only for "drunks and low-lifes".

Instead, a few strings were pulled through family contacts and he joined a shipbuilding company on Clydeside to train as an engineer.

Thrown into a tough working environment, he was forced to resort to jokes and impersonations to win over the Glasgow shipbuilders who regarded him as a posh boy. The experience helped launch his show business career.

Illness prevented him taking up an offer to join the merchant navy during the war but, by this time, he had begun taking small parts in local theatres around Glasgow where he also did impressions.

Breakthrough

Moving to London, he worked in repertory, cabaret, on the West End stage, and at the Windmill Theatre as a comic. He appeared in various radio shows including Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.

His big breakthrough came when he began working as a straight man for Arthur Haynes, whose ITV show had made him the most popular comedian in Britain.

Parsons excelled as the authority figure in sketches during which Haynes, often in his normal role as a tramp, railed against the establishment. Many of the scripts were written by Johnny Speight, the creator of Till Death Us Do Part.

He was so successful that Haynes began to perceive him as a threat and the pair parted company shortly after an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

In 1960, he voiced the character of Tex Tucker in the television puppet series, Four Feather Falls, produced by Gerry Anderson who would later go on to make Thunderbirds.

Just A Minute first aired on 22 January 1967. Parsons had originally wanted to be a panellist but the BBC insisted his experience as a comedy straight man made him ideal for the position of chairman.

"As a good straight man," he once said, "you know how to throw out the lines so the comic will have a good springboard to come back. You also know how to take a joke at your expense."

It remained one of the hallmarks of the show as Parsons, with varying degrees of success, dealt with panellists such as Kenneth Williams, whose treatment of his chairman ranged from toadying sycophancy to outright abuse.

Proud

Later stars like Paul Merton and Stephen Fry kept the regular audience of two million listeners entertained while Parsons, who never missed a recording in the first five decades that he fronted the show, remained the butt of a series of gentle jokes.

Sale of the Century made him one of Britain's most familiar faces. Announcer John Benson's "And now from Norwich, it's the Quiz of the Week" was the introduction to a show that originally ran for 12 years from 1971.

With its glamorous "shop assistants" and the fixed grin of its host, the programme became one of the most successful television shows of its time, with up to 20 million people tuning in.

Parsons robustly rejected suggestions that his appearance on the programme amounted to dumbing down. "I'm proud of the fact I helped create a huge success," he said. "You don't buck success."

However, he later admitted the programme had made his career take something of a dip because people assumed he was now just a quiz master.

Parsons continued his straight man role when he joined the Benny Hill Show in 1969 where he remained for five years.

Budding performers

He later put himself at the mercy of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in The Comic Strip Presents, in which he appeared as himself.

This willingness to share the joke, appearing on television programmes like Have I Got News for You, playing a vampire's victim in a 1989 episode of Doctor Who and narrating the Rocky Horror Show all helped him accrue a definite cult status, and a surprisingly youthful fan base.

He was also successful away from the microphone. He set up his own production company that made short films for cinema, wrote two volumes of autobiography and made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1978 for the longest ever after-dinner speech, more than 11 hours.

He was also a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe where his Nicholas Parsons' Happy Hour featured his own stand-up routine and a series of guests, many of them budding performers encouraged by Parsons.

However, his annual star turn at the Fringe was cancelled in 2019 after Parsons was admitted to hospital. He was due to perform four sold-out shows.

It followed a rare no-show on Just A Minute with what the BBC said was a "bad back". It was only the second time he had missed a taping in the panel show's 52-year history.

Parsons was fanatical about cricket, both as a player and supporter, and was a president of the Lord's Taverners. He also served as rector of the University of St Andrews and was a prominent supporter of the Liberal Democrats.

He married the actress Denise Bryer in 1954. The couple divorced in 1989 and he subsequently married Ann Reynolds.

He was once asked what drove him to continue working at an age when most people would have been happy to potter about in the garden. He said he did it because it was fun.
"You can't take yourself seriously. I learned that being a straight man. That's what I do on Just a Minute - laugh at myself and they make jokes at my expense. But that's what life's about, isn't it? Having fun."


PARSONS, Nicholas (Christopher Nicholas Parsons)
Born: 10/10/1923, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, U.K.
Died: 1/28/2020, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, U.K.

Nicholas Parson’s western – voice actor:
Four Feather Falls (TV) – 1960 [English voice of Sheriff Tex Tucker, telegrapher Dan Morse, Billy Pinto

Monday, January 27, 2020

RIP Michael Koz


Svengoolie
January 25, 2020

On a personal note- my brother Michael Koz has passed away just shy of his 60th birthday. Mike worked as an assistant editor on various TV shows and movies, including “Get Shorty”, “Men in Black”, ”The Gates”, and “Collateral”. As was stated in his memorial service- he was a nice guy. One of the nicest.

KOZ, Michael
Born: 1960, Park Ridge, Illinois, U.S.A.  
Died:  1/?/2020, U.S.A.

Michael Koz’s western – assistant editor:
Wild Wild West - 1999

RIP Bob Shane



Best Classic Bands
January 27, 2020

The last of the original members of the Kingston Trio, Bob Shane, died Sunday (January. 26), less than a week before his 86th birthday. The folk singer’s death was confirmed on Facebook by a niece, Liane Schoen Soer.

The Kingston Trio was the most successful American folk group of the late 1950s and ’60s, placing 23 albums on the Billboard LPs chart. The first five of those—The Kingston Trio (1958), The Kingston Trio at Large (1959), Here We Go Again! (1959), Sold Out (1960) and String Along (1960)—all reached #1, while another nine albums made the top 10.

The trio, along with several other groups and individual performers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, is largely credited with helping to spark a folk music revival during that era.

Robert Castle Schoen was born Feb. 1, 1934, in Hilo, Hawaii. Interested in music since childhood, he taught himself how to play the ukulele and guitar. He met a fellow guitarist, Dave Guard, and the two performed together beginning in the early ’50s. While attending college in California, in 1956, Shane met Nick Reynolds, who joined Shane and Guard in a singing group (which expanded to several members) that went under various names. They were unsuccessful, so Shane returned to Hawaii and performed as a solo act, then returned to California, where he found Reynolds and Guard performing in a group they’d named the Kingston Quartet.

While performing in a San Francisco nightclub, the group was seen by publicist Frank Werber, who suggested that Guard and Reynolds team up with Shane as a trio. The three musicians/singers debuted formally as the Kingston Trio at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in the spring of 1957 and were a quick hit. They soon moved over to the more prominent Hungry i  nightclub where their close harmonies, impressive guitar work and witty banter guaranteed sellout crowds every night.

Signed to Capitol Records and paired with producer Voyle Gilmore, the group’s appeal easily transferred to the recording medium and they became a national phenomenon. In addition to their best-selling albums, they scored a #1 single the first time out with 1958’s “Tom Dooley,” and went on to place a total of 23 singles on that Billboard chart. For several years the Kingston Trio was the most popular group within any genre in America.

In 1961, Guard became the first original member to leave the group, replaced by John Stewart. That lineup remained together for six years, disbanding in 1967. Shane launched a solo career after the breakup, but in 1969 he formed the New Kingston Trio with other members. Shane continued to perform on and off with variations of the group (in 1981, Shane, Reynolds and Guard briefly reunited), until a 2004 heart attack ended his career.

In 2010, Shane received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award alongside Julie Andrews and Dolly Parton.

The current lineup continues to tour.


SHANE, Bob (Robert Castle Schoen)
Born: 2/1/1934, Hilo, Hawaii
Died: 1/26/2020, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.

Bob Shane’s western – singer:
The Legend of Tom Dooley – 1959 [soundtrack singer]

RIP Robert Garvey


Robert William Garvey

The Arizona Republic
December 13, 2019

R.W. (Bob) Garvey,"One of the Great Ones", 91, died December 9, 2019 in Prescott Valley, AZ. PRCA national top 15 saddle bronc rider, movie star/ stuntman, Thoroughbred racehorse trainer (racing at tracks all over the country), forever the gentleman, loving father, husband, and friend.

A cowboy at heart, Bob left New York as a young man making his way west via Montana and Wyoming before settling in Arizona.

He will be missed greatly by his life "pardner" of 28 years, Rebecca Sue (Bond) Garvey and by his loving daughter, Salem Garvey.

He requested that no services be held. Those wishing to honor Bob (a.k.a. Hollywood) and support his family may send his horses hay via Warren's Feed at (928) 636-1303 on Sue Garvey's account, or donate to Good Samaritan Society - Prescott Hospice at good-sam.com/MarleyHouse.


GARVEY, Robert (Robert William Garvey)
Born: 1928, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 12/9/2019, Prescott Valley, Arizona, U.S.A.

Robert Garvey’s westerns – actor, stuntman:
The Black Whip – 1956 (Black Leg)
Pardners – 1956 (townsman) [stunts]

RIP Michael Kane


Los Angeles Times
January 26, 2020

January 29, 1938 - January 22, 2020 Michael Kane Passed away peacefully at his home in Sherman Oaks, California on Wednesday, January 22, one week short of his 83rd birthday. Son of the late Ginger Kane and Bob Kane, Michael grew up in Great Neck, Long Island where he graduated from Great Neck High School then Boston University. Following a career as an advertising copywriter at Y&R and deGarmo, he became creative director of JWT in Buenos Aires... He then moved to Paris to marry the enchanting Dominique Valensi. In 1970 Michael headed out to Los Angeles to start a soft beverage distribution company specializing in Latin sodas. When the writing bug bit him again, encouraged by Tony Bill, he launched a successful career as a screenplay writer with 11 movies to his credit including "All the Right Moves" starring Tom Cruise and "Southern Comfort" starring Keith Caradine. A "killer" on the golf course, Michael was a member of Riviera Country Club for over 40 years where he was known for his unique sense of humor and quirky personality. He leaves his devoted sister, Riki Kane Larimer of NYC and his many friends including Bosco, Manny, Kyle, Freddie, Christy, Darren, Paul, Cory, Joel... cousins Phyllis and Buddy Aerenson, his loyal care givers Jose and Aember, and his two lovable dogs Rusty and Goody. A special thanks to his dedicated doctor, Dr. Chai-Ho. There will be a graveside service at the family plot on Tuesday, January 28th at Beth Moses Cemetery on Long Island and a memorial service in LA for friends at a date to be announced. As Michael would say, "Either you're lucky or you're not." For most of his life, he certainly was lucky.


KANE, Michael
Born: 1/29/1938, Great Neck, Long Island, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 1/22/2020, Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.A.

Michael Kane’s westerns – writer.
The Legend of the Lone Ranger – 1981
The Cisco Kid (TV) - 1994

Thursday, January 23, 2020

RIP Jim Lehrer


Jim Lehrer, Longtime PBS News Anchor, Is Dead at 85

For 36 years, mostly teaming with Robert MacNeil, he offered an alternative to network evening news programs with in-depth reporting, interviews and news analysis.

New York Times
By Robert D. McFadden
January 23, 2020

Jim Lehrer, the retired PBS anchorman who for 36 years gave public television viewers a substantive alternative to network evening news programs with in-depth reporting, interviews and analysis of world and national affairs, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 85.

PBS announced his death.

While best known for his anchor work, which he shared for two decades with his colleague Robert MacNeil, Mr. Lehrer moderated a dozen presidential debates and was the author of more than a score of novels, which often drew on his reporting experiences. He also wrote four plays and three memoirs.

A low-key, courtly Texan who worked on Dallas newspapers in the 1960s and began his PBS career in the 1970s, Mr. Lehrer saw himself as “a print/word person at heart” and his program as a kind of newspaper for television, with high regard for balanced and objective reporting. He was an oasis of civility in a news media that thrived on excited headlines, gotcha questions and noisy confrontations.

“I have an old-fashioned view that news is not a commodity,” Mr. Lehrer told The American Journalism Review in 2001. “News is information that’s required in a democratic society, and Thomas Jefferson said a democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry. That sounds corny, but I don’t care whether it sounds corny or not. It’s the truth.”

Mr. Lehrer co-anchored a single-topic, half-hour PBS news program with Mr. MacNeil from its inception in 1975 to 1983, when it was expanded into the multitopic “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” It ran until Mr. MacNeil retired in 1995. The renamed “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” continued until 2009, when he reduced his appearances to two and then to one a week until his own retirement in 2011.

Critics called Mr. Lehrer’s reporting, and his collaborations with Mr. MacNeil, solid journalism, committed to fair, unbiased and far more detailed reporting than the CBS, NBC or ABC nightly news programs. To put news in perspective, the two anchors interviewed world and national leaders, and experts on politics, law, business, arts and sciences, and other fields.

It was not unusual to see presidents, prime ministers, congressional and corporate leaders and other luminaries interviewed on “MacNeil/Lehrer.” Early subjects included the Shah of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Presidents Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Fidel Castro of Cuba. Mr. Lehrer also interviewed nearly all of America’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates from 1976 on.

With Mr. Lehrer reporting from Washington and Mr. MacNeil from New York, the program sought to represent all sides of a controversy by eliciting comments from rivals for public attention. But the anchors deliberately drew no sweeping conclusions of their own about disputed matters, allowing viewers to decide for themselves what to believe.
The approach had its drawbacks. An extended presentation of authoritative voices offering conflicting viewpoints left some viewers dissatisfied, if not confused. Many found the technique elitist and dull, and even some critics called it boring — or, worse, a willful refusal by Mr. Lehrer and Mr. MacNeil to make hard judgments about adversarial issues affecting the public interest.

In The Columbia Journalism Review in 1979, Andrew Kopkind wrote: “The structure of any MacNeil/Lehrer Report is composed of talking heads rather than explosive images, of conversation covering several points of view rather than a homogeneous statement of the world’s condition, of panels of experts, proposals for policy, and the sense of incompleteness — and therefore of possibility — rather than a feeling of finality.”
Edwin Diamond, writing in The New York Times that year, said the hosts had “gradually created one of the best half-hours of news on television without ‘visuals’ at all; the major elements of the program are the interviewers themselves, always prepared with good questions, and the quality of their guests, always specialists on the night’s single topic and almost always capable of speaking fresh, intelligent thoughts.”

“MacNeil/Lehrer” audiences were small compared to the network news shows, which drew far more viewers with videotaped coverage and news summaries that critics called headlines for people who did not read daily newspapers. But surveys found that PBS viewers were better educated, and that they were newspaper readers who tuned in to amplify what they knew.

Mr. Lehrer and Mr. MacNeil each declined lucrative job offers from television networks. Unlike commercial networks, “MacNeil/Lehrer” relied on donations by corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals; by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit creation of Congress; and by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, created in 1981 to support their franchise, specials and documentaries.

In 1986, Mr. Lehrer hosted the documentary “My Heart, Your Heart,” which was based on his experience of double-bypass surgery and recovery in 1983. The program, on PBS, won an Emmy and an award from the American Heart Association. He also hosted “The Heart of the Dragon,” a 12-part series on modern China, also shown in 1986.

Known mainly to PBS viewers, Mr. Lehrer became one of television’s most familiar faces by moderating presidential debates, starting in 1988 with the first between Vice President George H.W. Bush and Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts, and continuing in every presidential campaign through 2012, sometimes including two or three debates in a year.

Complaints by candidates and pundits about moderators’ performances became a tradition of election seasons, and Mr. Lehrer, often called the “Dean of Moderators” for his many appearances, was singled out repeatedly, accused of being too easygoing or too strict in enforcing the rules, of being too soft or too hard on the debaters.

In 1988, when critics said he was not aggressive enough with the candidates, Mr. Lehrer snapped, “If somebody wants to be entertained, they ought to go to the circus.” In 2008, he was said to be too aggressive in trying to get Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois to engage with each other.

In the 2012 debate, it was Mr. Lehrer’s light touch that came under fire. President Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts at times ignored Mr. Lehrer, who strained to interrupt when they exceeded their allotted speaking times, and rules were violated repeatedly. Both campaigns accused Mr. Lehrer of losing control of the debate.
The Commission on Presidential Debates defended Mr. Lehrer, saying it was his job to get the candidates talking, not to insert himself into their dialogue. For his part, Mr. Lehrer said his task had been “to facilitate direct, extended exchanges between the candidates about issues of substance” and “to stay out of the way of the flow,” adding, “I had no problems with doing so.”

James Charles Lehrer was born in Wichita, Kan., on May 19, 1934, to Harry Lehrer, who ran a small bus line and was a bus station manager, and Lois (Chapman) Lehrer, a teacher. Jim attended schools in Wichita and Beaumont, Tex., and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, where he edited a student newspaper.
He earned an associate degree from Victoria College in Texas in 1954 and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1956. Like his father and his older brother Fred, he joined the Marine Corps. He was an infantry officer on Okinawa, edited a camp newspaper at the Parris Island Marine training center in South Carolina and was discharged as a captain in 1959.

In 1960, he married Kate Staples, a novelist. She survives him, along with three daughters, Jamie, Lucy and Amanda, and six grandchildren.

From 1959 to 1961, Mr. Lehrer was a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, but he quit after the paper declined to publish his articles on right-wing activities in a civil defense organization. He joined the rival Dallas Times Herald, where over nine years he was a reporter, columnist and city editor.

He also began writing fiction. His first novel, “Viva Max!” (1966), about a Mexican general who triggers an international incident by trying to recapture the Alamo, was made into a film comedy starring Peter Ustinov and Jonathan Winters.

In 1970, Mr. Lehrer joined KERA-TV, the Dallas public broadcasting station, where he delivered a nightly newscast. In 1972, he became PBS’s coordinator of public affairs programming in Washington. He quit over funding cuts, but in 1973 he joined WETA-TV in Washington, became a PBS correspondent and met Mr. MacNeil, a Canadian who had reported for NBC-TV and the BBC.

They co-anchored PBS telecasts of the Senate Watergate hearings, investigating the break-in by Republican operatives at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, an episode that set off a political dirty-tricks scandal that led to the downfall of Richard M. Nixon’s presidency. The telecasts began the partnership that would carry the two broadcasters to television fame.

Mr. Lehrer won numerous Emmys, a George Foster Peabody Award and a National Humanities Medal. He and Mr. MacNeil were inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1999.

He lived in Washington and had a farm in West Virginia, where he kept a 1946 Flxible Clipper bus, the centerpiece of his collection of bus memorabilia.

Mr. Lehrer’s memoirs were “We Were Dreamers” (1975), “A Bus of My Own” (1992) and “Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates” (2011). His plays were “Chili Queen” (1986), a farce about a media circus at a hostage situation; “Church Key Charlie Blue” (1988), a dark comedy on a bar flare-up over a televised football game; “The Will and Bart Show” (1992), about two cabinet officials who loathe each other; and “Bell” (2013), a one-man show about Alexander Graham Bell.

Writing nights and weekends, on trains, planes and sometimes in the office, Mr. Lehrer churned out a novel almost every year for more than two decades: spy thrillers, political satires, murder mysteries and series featuring One-Eyed Mack, a lieutenant governor of Oklahoma, and Charlie Henderson, a C.I.A. agent. “Top Down” (2013) revolved around the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which Mr. Lehrer had covered as a young reporter in Dallas. Critics called his fiction workmanlike, relying more on twisty plots than characters and dialogue.

“His apprenticeship came at a time when every reporter, it seemed, had an unfinished novel in his desk — but Lehrer actually finished his,” Texas Monthly said in a 1995 profile.

But it was as a newsman that Mr. Lehrer was best remembered.

“Jim Lehrer is no showboat,” Walter Goodman wrote in The Times in 1996. “That is a considerable distinction for television, where the interrogators are often bigger than their guests or victims. This man of modest mien keeps the spotlight on the person being questioned. His somewhat halting conversational manner invites rather than commands. And his professional principles dispel any fears that he is out to get not just his guests’ point of view but also the guests themselves.”


LEHRER, Jim (James Charles Lehrer)
Born: 5/19/1934, Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.
Died: 1/23/1920, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Jim Lehrer’s western – writer:
Viva Max -1969

RIP Félix Casas



Félix Casas, Captain Tan dies in 'Los Chiripitifláuticos', at 89

The actor has died due to natural causes at his home in Madrid

El Pais
January 24, 2020

The actor Felix Casas, remembered mainly for his role as Captain Tan in the Spanish Television series Los Chiripitiflauticos died Thursday January 23, 2020 due to natural causes at the age of 89 at his home in
Madrid. This has been confirmed by his granddaughter Sonia Arcos, who has indicated that the funeral of her grandfather, who is in the South Tanatorio de Madrid (Carabanchel), will be held in family intimacy.
  
The actor, who was born on June 8, 1930, became very popular in the late sixties and early seventies in the Los Chiripitifláuticos program with Valentina, Uncle Aquiles, Locomotoro and the Malasombra brothers. "In my travels throughout the length and breadth of this world" was his best-known phrase, with which he began his stories played with a jungle hat and a striped shirt.


CASAS, Félix
Born: 6/8/1930, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Died: 1/23/2020, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Félix Casas’ western – actor, production assistant:
Pistolero a sueldo – 1989 [production assistant]
Juan Nadie – 1990
La dinastía de Los Pérez - 1994 (Pichojos)

RIP Sonny Grosso


Retired NYPD Detective Sonny Grosso, of “French Connection” fame, dead at 88

New York Daily News
Cathy Burke
January 22, 2020

Sonny Grosso, the larger-than-life NYPD detective whose fast-and-furious crime-busting with partner Eddie Egan became the basis of the 1971 hit “The French Connection,” died Wednesday, a family member confirmed. He was 88.

Grosso, who turned Hollywood producer after the spectacular screen retelling of the takedown of a notorious heroin trafficking ring starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, died at his Manhattan home, friends told the Daily News.

“He was some narcotics detective. He made that case. He made the French Connection case," said retired Det. Randy Jurgensen, who also worked on the case and on the award-winning movie as the NYPD adviser.

"Sonny Grosso figured out how they were doing it. It was Sonny Grosso.”

“There were a lot of busts that were coming out of narcotics and I’m telling you, Sonny Grosso was at the front, the bottom, whatever it was, with all those cases," Jurgensen added.

The film tells the story of detectives Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, played by Hackman, and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, played by Scheider. Their real-life counterparts were Egan and Grosso. The movie world loved the fast-paced, gritty story and its shrewd fearless detectives, and the film picked up a slew of Oscars in 1972, including for best picture, director and actor.

In the real world, Grosso was loved no less.

“Sonny Grosso was a legendary cop who made the transition to filmmaking with gritty cinema verite stories about cops," Denis Hamill said Wednesday night, praising him for being the inspiration for the Scheider character in “the best cop movie ever made.”

“After retiring from NYPD, Sonny used his East Harlem street smarts to launch a highly successful career as a producer of crime films and TV shows, depicting cops as flawed but dedicated human beings in a battle of good vs. evil. He was a great cop, great filmmaker, and a great guy,” Hamill said.

Retired NYPD Capt. Ernie Naspretto, who also counted Grosso as a close friend, said fame suited Grosso, who although born in Harlem, was a regular at Rao’s and was an avid Yankee fan. “One of the greatest thrills of Sonny’s life was that he got to eat alone with Joe DiMaggio," Naspretto said.

“He was the most unpretentious celebrity you could ever imagine," he told The News. “He was so well known in the showbiz world… and yet he would talk to anybody at any time and had a great sense of humor.”

When “The French Connection” scooped up its Hollywood Oscars, Grosso stayed home, Naspretto recalled.

“He didn’t go. He didn’t feel it was his place to be there. He watched it on TV like everybody else," he said.

But he was anything but — getting producer gigs on movie and TV gigs that included “Baretta,” “Kojak” and “Top Cops.”

According to Naspretto, Grosso even had a bit part in “The Godfather,” though it was his off-duty gun that played an out-sized role: It was the gun Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) retrieved from a restaurant bathroom to kill two rivals.

“That gun belonged to Sonny Grosso, that was his off-duty gun," Naspretto said. "That gun was Sonny’s real gun, they put blanks in it. And he carried that gun until the day he died.”

Tony Lo Bianco, a longtime TV and film actor who’s played cops and crooks, and was in “The French Connection,” said Grosso became one of his best friends.

“There was such a bond. He’s just a trustworthy fellow and a dear, dear friend that anyone can trust," he said.

He lamented the lack of respect for cops today, recalling how hard Grosso worked for it. "I wish people would understand, what our law enforcement goes through.”


GROSSO, Sonny (Salvatore Grosso)
Born: 1933, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Died: 1/22/2020, Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.

Sonny Grosso’s western – executive producer:
The Gunfighters (TV) - 1987

RIP John Karlan


ShadowGram
January 23, 2020

It is with profound personal sadness that ShadowGram reports that beloved friend JOHN KARLEN passed away earlier today at age 86 of congestive heart failure in hospice care in Burbank, California.

Of course, John is best-known among "Dark Shadows" fans as the scheming drifter Willie Loomis, who becomes an unwitting servant to vampire Barnabas Collins, eventually becoming a confidant as well as a character with empathy and a moral compass.

John also was a longtime, generous supporter of DS fan efforts, readily helping the show enjoy a cult-classic afterlife by attending numerous DS Festivals as well as earlier DS-themed events, dating back to 1971 with John's participation in the "Miss American Ghost" contest to promote the release of the film "Night of Dark Shadows."

Indeed, John continued to be a lively, willing, and warm presence across nearly 50 years of the original DS series' afterlife.

When KHJ Television in Los Angeles began airing DS reruns in the mid-1970s, John joined a promotional blood drive. In 1977 he appeared as the first – and only - DS guest for the first-ever DS fan convention gathering, ShadowCon I, as part of the overall science fiction / fantasy / horror fan programming at StarCon in San Diego.

This soon was followed by annual DS-focused ShadowCon fan conventions held in Los Angeles through 1984. Along with other original DS cast members, John was a regular guest.

Subsequently, John participated in the annual Dark Shadows Festivals on the west coast starting in 1987 and he began attending the New York area DS Fests a decade later. At every DS event he attended, John was always a delight to be with, very open, outspoken, often teasing and yet also interested in individual people and shared experiences and ideas.

Despite escalating health issues, John last traveled to New York to reunite with DS cast members in celebration of the show's 50th Anniversary in Tarrytown, NY in 2016. He also entertained fans at the DS Halloween Party in Hollywood, CA that same year. He made his last public appearance at the October 2018 Los Angeles sneak-preview of "Master of Dark Shadows" documentary in which he was interviewed.

John always enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow cast/crew members and interacting with fans of all ages from across the U.S, and beyond, including Canada, England, Australia, Mexico, and elsewhere.

John loved acting and telling stories of his early days growing up in Brooklyn, his Polish ancestry, his early work on the stage, favorite actors and movies, and his love of sports, the race track, and a good meal.

A veteran of the Korean war, John was a passionate man with a long life of adventures and accomplishments. His contributions both in front of and behind the camera will long be remembered by the countless friends and fans he touched along the way.

We thank you, John, for bringing so much into our lives.


KARLAN, John (John Adam Karlewicz)
Born: 5/28/1933, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 1/22/2020, Burbank, California, U.S.A.

John Karlan’s westerns – actor:
Stoney Burke (TV) – 1963 (Mickey)
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (TV) – 1979 (Charlie Powers)