RIP Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner, Comedy Legend and ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’ Creator, Dies at 98.

Variety

By Carmel Dagan

June 30, 2020

Carl Reiner, the writer, producer, director and actor who was part of Sid Caesar’s legendary team and went on to create “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and direct several hit films, has died. He was 98.

He died of natural causes on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills, his assistant Judy Nagy confirmed to Variety.

Reiner, the father of filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, was the winner of nine Emmy awards, including five for “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” His most popular films as a director included “Oh God,” starring George Burns, in 1977; “The Jerk,” with Steve Martin, in 1979; and “All of Me,” with Martin and Lily Tomlin, in 1984.

Rob Reiner tweeted on Tuesday morning, “Last night my dad passed away. As I write this my heart is hurting. He was my guiding light.”

In his later years, Reiner was an elder statesman of comedy, revered and respected for his versatility as a performer and multi-hyphenate. He was also adept at social media. He maintained a lively presence on Twitter up until the last day of his life. He was vocal in his opposition to President Donald Trump.

Reiner remained in the public eye well into his 80s and 90s with roles in the popular “Ocean’s Eleven” trio of films and on TV with recurring roles on sitcoms “Two and a Half Men” and “Hot in Cleveland.” He also did voice work for shows including “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “King of the Hill,” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

In 2017, Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and frequent comedy partner Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Kirk Douglas and other nonagenarian Hollywood legends were featured in the HBO documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” examining the secrets of longevity in a fickle industry.

Reiner first came to prominence as a regular cast member of Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” for which he won two Emmys in 1956 and 1957 in the supporting category. He met Brooks during his time with Caesar. The two went on to have a long-running friendship and comedy partnership through the recurring “2000 Year Old Man” sketches.

Before creating CBS hit “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” on which he sometimes appeared, Reiner and “Show of Shows” writer Mel Brooks worked up an elongated skit in which Reiner played straight man-interviewer to Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man”; a 1961 recording of the skit was an immediate hit and spawned several sequels, the last of which, 1998’s “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000,” won the pair a Grammy.

Producer-director Max Liebman, who cast him in the 1950 Broadway show “Alive and Kicking,” also hired Reiner as the emcee and a performer on NBC’s comedy/variety program “Your Show of Shows.”

Reiner then freelanced as a panel show emcee on “Keep Talking,” as a TV guest star and in featured film roles in “The Gazebo,” “Happy Anniversary” and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” Reiner’s 1958 novel “Enter Laughing,” loosely based on his own experiences, was optioned for the stage by producer David Merrick. Reiner did a legit adaptation in 1963 and then directed the film version in 1967, marking his motion picture directing debut.

For Broadway he wrote and directed the farce “Something Different,” which ran for a few months in 1967-68; helmed “Tough to Get Help” in 1972; penned the book for the musical “So Long, 174th Street,” which had a very brief run in 1976; and directed “The Roast” in 1980.

In 1961 Reiner drew on his experiences with Caesar to create and produce “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” a ratings cornerstone for CBS for the next five years. Reiner made guest appearances as the irascible variety show host Alan Brady. The show won Emmys for writing its first three years and for producing its last two. In 1967, Reiner picked up another Emmy for his writing in a reunion variety show with Caesar, Coca and Morris.

Though the “Enter Laughing” movie was modestly received, Reiner continued to direct steadily over the next few decades. “Where’s Poppa?,” an offbeat comedy he directed in 1970, became a cult favorite. Similarly, two other Martin vehicles, the gumshoe spoof “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” and “The Man With Two Brains,” found bigger audiences after their release in theaters.

There were also several less-than-successful films, such as 1969’s “The Comic,” to which Reiner also contributed some of the script; two similarly titled mid-’80s misfires, “Summer Rental” and “Summer School”; “Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool”; 1990’s “Sibling Rivalry”; and a 1993 spoof of “Basic Instinct” called “Fatal Instinct.” He also appeared in most of these pics.

While the last film he directed was the 1997 romantic comedy “That Old Feeling,” starring Bette Midler and Dennis Farina, Reiner was an active presence in guest roles on television and in supporting roles in films during the 1990s and 2000s, even as he neared and then surpassed his 90th birthday.

He guested on “Frasier” in 1993; reprised the role of Alan Brady on an episode of “Mad About You” in 1995 and won an Emmy for it; and guested on “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Legal” and “House.”

Bigscreen appearances included 1990’s “The Spirit of ’76,” directed by his son Lucas; “Slums of Beverly Hills” (1998); and all three films in the “Ocean’s Eleven” series.

Born in the Bronx, he graduated from high school at 16 and worked as a machinist while studying acting. After brief stints in summer stock and on the Borscht Belt circuit, he entered the Army during WWII. His acting talents brought him to the attention of Maurice Evans’ special services unit, where Reiner first met future “Show of Shows” cohort Howard Morris. For the remainder of the war he toured South Pacific bases in G.I. revues.

He hit the ground running in New York after the war, landing a part in G.I. revue “Call Me Mister” and in 1948 appeared in the Broadway musical revue “Inside U.S.A.,” starring Beatrice Lillie and Jack Haley. Concurrently he was appearing on television as a fashion photographer in ABC’s “Fashion Story.”

In early 1950, Reiner became part of the storied team working in front of and behind the camera on Caesar’s NBC variety show “Your Show of Shows,” a 90-minute comedy-variety show that aired live on Saturday nights. The writers room was packed with future showbiz legends including Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin and Lucille Kallen.

After “Your Show of Shows” ended in 1954, Reiner and series regular Howard Morris moved on with Caesar to star in another NBC variety show, “Caesar’s Hour,” which ran on NBC from 1954 to 1957. When Reiner decided to shepherd his own sitcom, he teamed with producers Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard to produce “Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Van Dyke was the fourth partner in the production company Calvada, which has long maintained ownership of the classic comedy. “Dick Van Dyke Show” featured Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore as Rob and Laura Petrie, a version of Reiner and his wife Estelle living in the suburbs of New Rochelle while Reiner commuted to Manhattan to work on Caesar’s shows.

In 1995 Reiner received the Writers Guild’s Laurel Award, a lifetime achievement award for a career in TV writing. In 2000 he won the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, presented by the Kennedy Center. In 2009 he was presented with the WGA’s Valentine Davies Award, recognizing both his writing legacy and valued service to the guild, the entertainment industry and community at large.

He authored several memoirs and novels, including a sequel to “Enter Laughing,” “Continue Laughing,” “My Anecdotal Life” and “I Remember Me.”

In the 2003 “My Anecdotal Life,” he observed, “Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself is a good thing to do. You may be a fool but you’re the fool in charge.”

Reiner’s wife Estelle, to whom he had been married since 1943, died in 2008. In addition to Rob Reiner, survivors include his daughter Sylvia Anne and son Lucas.

REINER, Carl

Born: 3/20/1922, The Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 6/29/2020, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

Carl Reiner’s western – actor:

Saddle Up - 2019

RIP Johnny Mandel

Johnny Mandel, Composer Who Wrote ‘MASH’ Theme Song, Dies at 94

Variety

By John Burlingame

June 29, 2020

Johnny Mandel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter of “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Emily” and the theme from “MASH,” has died. He was 94.

“I was so sad to learn that a hero of mine, Johnny Mandel, passed away,” wrote Michael Buble on Twitter. “He was a genius and one of my favorite writers, arrangers, and personalities. He was a beast.”

“A dear friend and extraordinary composer arranger and all-around brilliant talent, Johnny Mandel, just passed away,” wrote Michael Feinstein on Facebook. “The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition. He was truly beyond compare, and nobody could write or arrange the way he did. Lord will we miss him. Let’s celebrate him with his music! He would like that.”

Mandel was considered one of the finest arrangers of the second half of the 20th century, providing elegant orchestral charts for a wide range of vocalists including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole and Hoagy Carmichael.

Mandel scored more than 30 films during his Hollywood career, including the 1960s films “The Americanization of Emily” (from which the hit song “Emily” emerged), “The Sandpiper” (which contained “The Shadow of Your Smile,” earning an Oscar and a Grammy for Song of the Year along with lyricist Paul Francis Webster), “Harper,” “An American Dream” (which included the Oscar-nominated song “A Time for Love”), “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” and “Point Blank.”

In 1970 he scored “MASH,” which required a song that he cobbled together from a lyric by director Robert Altman’s 15-year-old son Michael. That tune, “Suicide Is Painless,” later became, in instrumental form, the theme for the long-running TV series and one of his most famous works.

His later film scores included “Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams,” “The Last Detail,” “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea,” “Agatha” (including the song “Close Enough for Love,” now a standard), “Being There,” “Caddyshack,” “Deathtrap” and “The Verdict.”

In addition to the theme from “MASH,” he composed the themes for TV’s “Banyon” and “Too Close for Comfort” as well as scores for such series as “Markham” and “Chrysler Theatre.” He earned Emmy nominations for his 1980s TV-movie scores “A Letter to Three Wives,” “LBJ: The Early Years” and “Foxfire.” His other telefilms as composer included “Evita Peron,” “Christmas Eve” and “Kaleidoscope.”

Mandel was born in New York City. He played the trumpet as a young teen and, fascinated by the different sounds of the big bands he admired in the late ’30s and early ’40s, he began studying arranging with top arranger Van Alexander (who had written “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” for Ella Fitzgerald). He always credited Alexander for launching his career as an arranger.

As a trumpeter, he played for Joe Venuti’s band; after switching instruments to trombone, he played in the swing bands of Henry Jerome, Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Alvino Rey and Count Basie during the late 1940s and early ’50s.

He finished his musical education at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard in New York, then began arranging for other bands including those of Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Elliot Lawrence and Chet Baker.

During the early 1950s, Mandel was one of the arrangers for Sid Caesar’s live, New York-based 90-minute variety TV series “Your Show of Shows.” Mandel moved to California in the late 1950s and began composing for films, including a landmark jazz score for “I Want to Live,” starring Susan Hayward, in 1958.

He received the Golden Score Award from the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers in 1996; was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010; and named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011.

His five Grammys included two for “The Sandpiper” (1965, song and score) and arranging honors for albums by Quincy Jones (1981), Natalie Cole (“Unforgettable,” 1991) and Shirley Horn (1992).

Throughout his film-scoring period (1958-1990) and beyond, Mandel continued to arrange for leading artists including Mel Torme, Anita O’Day, Nancy Wilson, Diana Krall, Michael Bolton, Barry Manilow and Manhattan Transfer. He also served on ASCAP’s board of directors for many years.

MANDEL, Johnny (John Alfred Mandel)

Born: 11/23/1925, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 6/29/2020, Ojai, California, U.S.A.

Johnny Mandel’s westerns – composer, conductor, songwriter:

Heaven With a Gun – 1969 [composer, songwriter]

The Trackers (TV) – 1971 [composer]

Molly and Lawless John – 1972 [composer, conductor]

RIP Peter J. Elliott

Roe Hampton Club

Looking back at the history of the Club’s swimming facilities, a film has been uncovered from 1958 featuring a British National Springboard Diving champion who took part in the London Olympics in 1948 when he was just 17 year’s old. He appeared at the Club ten years later demonstrating his diving skills and athleticism with his coach Sid Dalton who had taught Peter to dive from the age of 12.

Filmed in colour, the segment of the footage featuring the Club offers a rare glimpse of the outdoor swimming pool at this time confirming its popularity. The film was made by Pathe News with its typical jaunty voice-over reflecting post war social attitudes and sprinkled with humour. The commentator in the film refers to Peter’s achievement as British Springboard Champion at the age of 16 going on to win the National Springboard titles in 1949, 1950 and 1952.

So, what was so special about our guest visitor? The answer lies at the beginning of the film when you see Peter Elliott in a music studio recording his latest pop song and goes on to talk about his amazing career in showbusiness. His arrival at the Club in 1958 caused something of a sensation when he arrived with a chorus of showgirls from a nightclub in London where he was one of the star attractions. The film goes on to describe Peter’s colourful career which includes singing, acting, dancing, TV presenter, film director and the occasional role as a stuntman.

After qualifying for the Olympics, Peter was hot property and his prowess as a springboard diver was much sought after at Exhibitions and Aqua Shows. His early successes as a singer also took him into the world of showbusiness where he appeared in the following popular TV shows in the 1960’s and 70’s including The Avengers, Steptoe and Son, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, Department S and The Champions.

In one episode of the cult TV series, The Avengers, Peter was asked to play the part of stunt double for actress Diana Rigg in a dramatic fight scene at the top of a seven-metre diving board resulting in a spectacular fall into water. He was also the resident ballad singer in the ATV music show Oh Boy and was known in the business as the Swimming Singer. He also appeared on the West End Stage in the American musicals Wish you Were Here and Guys and Dolls. In the early 1970’s, Peter emigrated to South Africa where he continued his career in showbusiness with further recognition of his work in film and theatre. During the London Olympics in 2012, Peter appeared in the newspapers alongside Tom Daly who had just achieved a bronze medal in the diving event. The headline in the papers announced that it was Peter who was the first teenage sensation in the world of Springboard Diving and not Tom Daley.

In the same year as the newspaper article, Peter was the subject of an excellent blog written by Heather Geluk  The article provides a very personal tribute to someone Heather had met through her flat mate who happened to be Peter’s daughter Laura who in turn had followed in her father’s footsteps making a name for herself in the music industry as DJ Lora. Heather talks warmly about her first meeting with Peter and goes on to describe his emotional experience as the youngest British competitor in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics as he walked around Wembley Stadium in 1948.

While writing this article, Laura Elliott has been in touch to confirm that her father passed away in December 2016 but wanted us to know that he had fond memories of his time at Roehampton Club.

ELLIOTT, Peter J. (Peter John Henry Elliott)

Born: 6/14/1930, England, U.K.

Died: 12/?/2016

Peter J. Elliott’s western – actor:

Barrett – 1990 (Mont)

RIP Linda Cristal

Linda Cristal, Who Starred in ‘High Chaparral,’ Dies at 89

To win the role of the fiery Victoria Cannon, she said, she threw away the script and “made up stories showing love, hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc.”

New York Times

By William Grimes

June 28, 2020

Linda Cristal, an Argentine-born actress who played Victoria, the regal, fiery wife of the rancher Big John Cannon on the 1960s television series “The High Chaparral,” died on Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 89.

Her death was confirmed by her son Jordan Wexler, who said she died in her sleep.

Ms. Cristal had made nearly a dozen films in Mexico before arriving in Hollywood to take her first English-speaking role, in the Dana Andrews film “Comanche” (1956), playing the kidnapped daughter of a Spanish aristocrat in Mexico. She went on to make several westerns before appearing in Blake Edwards’s knockabout comedy “The Perfect Furlough” (1958).

For her performance in that movie as Sandra Roca, “the Argentine Bombshell ” — the dream date chosen by the serviceman Tony Curtis in an Army publicity stunt — Ms. Cristal won the “New Star of the Year” award at the Golden Globes, an honor she shared with Tina Louise and Susan Kohner.

After a modest film career, followed by guest roles on television, Ms. Cristal auditioned for “The High Chaparral,” a western developed by David Dortort, the creator and producer of “Bonanza.” In her telling, it was a memorable occasion.

“The scene they handed me to read was all tenderness and sweetness, and I knew they were looking for a heroine with fire and spunk,” Ms. Cristal told The Boston Globe in 1968. “So I asked them if I could throw away the script and just improvise.”

She went full-throttle. “I made up stories showing love, hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc.,” she said. “I tried a scene as a street walker. I was a mother who had lost a son in the war. Before I was through, I had taken off my hat, my shoes and even my jacket. In my intensity I was all over these people, roughing them up. But I walked out with the contract.”

The series ran from 1967 to 1971, with Ms. Cristal playing the daughter of Don Sebastián Montoya, a powerful rancher on the Mexican side of the Arizona border.

In a fusion of dynasties, she marries Big John Cannon, played by Leif Erickson, whose wife was killed by an Apache arrow in the show’s first episode. With Big John’s son and brother, the couple turn the High Chaparral ranch into the headquarters of a cattle empire, surviving conflicts with Apaches, rustlers and Mexicans.

Ms. Cristal won a Golden Globe in 1970 as best actress in a drama series for her work on the show.

She was born Marta Victoria Moya on Feb. 23, 1931, in Buenos Aires. Her father, Antonio Moya Bourges, was a French immigrant who published magazines. Her mother, the former Rosario Pego, was Italian. In several interviews, Ms. Cristal said that her father came into conflict with a criminal gang and fled with his family to Montevideo, Uruguay. When she was 13, both of her parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning while in their car.

Victoria studied voice and piano at the conservatory and at 16 married the Argentine actor Tito Gómez. The marriage was annulled after only a few weeks. She thought of following the example of her five aunts and entering a convent, but fate intervened.

During a trip to Mexico with her older brother, she was spotted by the producer Miguelito Alemán, son of Miguel Alemán, Mexico’s president, who gave her a small role in one of his films. She later made eight films with the actor and producer Raúl de Anda, using the name Linda Cristal.

“I never became a big star, but then I wouldn’t have been a big nun either,” she told Look magazine in 1960.

Her American film career never gained traction. After appearing in “The Last of the Fast Guns” (1958), “The Fiend Who Walked the West” (1958) and “Cry Tough” (1959), a drama about Puerto Ricans in New York, Ms. Cristal tried to break out of Latino parts by taking the title role in “Cleopatra’s Legions.”

“I was sure that picture would do it for me,” she told Parade magazine in 1960. “We shot it in Spain and Italy. It took three months of hard work, and it made absolutely no sense — I mean the script — but the picture is full of spectacular scenes with a lot of emphasis on Cleopatra’s love life.” She added, “I figured the picture, awful as it is, would do very well in America.”

Unfortunately, just as the film was ready for release, 20th-Century Fox announced that it had signed Elizabeth Taylor to film “Cleopatra.” The studio bought Ms. Cristal’s film, renamed it “Legions of the Nile” and gave it a very limited release in late 1960. It sank without a trace.

Ms. Cristal returned to Hollywood and appeared in the John Wayne film “The Alamo,” playing the Mexican beauty Flaca, and in John Ford’s “Two Rode Together” (1961),” as a kidnapped Mexican noblewoman, with James Stewart.

On television she appeared on “Rawhide,” “The Tab Hunter Show” (as a matador), “Barnaby Jones” and “The Love Boat.” In her final film, she played Charles Bronson’s love interest in “Mr. Majestyk” (1974), based on the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name about an embattled melon farmer in California.

In 1988 she came out of retirement to join the cast of “General Hospital,” playing Dimitra, the mistress of the crime boss Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod).

Her two marriages in the United States ended in divorce. Besides her son Jordan, she is survived by another son, Gregory Wexler, and two grandchildren.

CRISTAL, Linda (Marta Victoria Moya Burges)

Born: 2/23/1931, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Died: 6/27/2020, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

Linda Cristal’s westerns – actress:

El 7 leguas – 1955 (Blanca)

La venganza del Diablo – 1955

Comanche – 1956 (Margarita)

Enemigos – 1956 (Chabela)

El Diablo desparece – 1957

The Fiend Who Walked the West – 1958 (Ellen Hardy)

The Last of the Fast Guns – 1958 (Maria O’Reilly)

Rawhide (TV) – 1959 (Louise)

The Alamo – 1960 (Flaca)

Spirit of the Alamo – 1960 [herself]

Two Rode Together – 1961 (Elena de la Madriaga)

Iron Horse (TV) – 1967 (Angela Teran)

The High Chaparral (TV) – 1967-1971 (Victoria Cannon)

Bonanza (TV) – 1971 (Teresa)

Cade’s County (TV) – 1971 (Celsa Dobbs)

When the West Was Fun (TV) (1979)

RIP Midge Ware

Midge Ware Colton

Ventura County Star

June 26, 2020

Westlake Village - Midge Ware Colton, age 92, passed away peacefully on June 3, 2020 at her home in Westlake Village, CA. She was born Muriel Florence Bendelson on October 20, 1927 to Samuel and Mitzi (Kestenbaum) Bendelson in the Bronx, N.Y.

Midge had a long and successful career in show business, spanning over 30 years as a model and actress on stage, screen and television. In 1953 she was chosen as the first

"Miss No-Cal", appearing on billboards and in print ads throughout the country to represent the No-Cal Beverage Company, having been selected out of 5000 other girls. Additionally, she appeared on the cover of Esquire magazine in both 1953 and 1954. Also in 1953, Midge began a long run in the comedy "The Fifth Season", which ran for almost two years on Broadway.

From the early 1950's to 1980, Midge went on to guess star in numerous popular television shows in a variety of genres, including "The Phil Silvers Show", "Ben Casey", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Police Woman", and "Quincy, M.E", to name just a few. In 1961, she was cast as the female lead in the CBS series, "The Gunslinger". Midge also did a number of movies, among which were, the Johnny Cash movie "Five Minutes to Live" in 1961 and "The Cincinnati Kid" starring Steve McQueen in 1965.

Midge was a warm, loving person with a great sense of humor, as beautiful inside as she was out. She was committed to her spiritual path as an Infinite Way student, practicing meditation and attending meditation groups and retreats for close to 50 years.

Besides her acting career, Midge enjoyed playing cards, mahjong, jewelry making and doing community service. In 2016, she received "The President's Lifetime Achievement Award" signed by President Barack Obama, for a lifelong commitment to volunteer service, representing her decades of volunteer work at the Motion Picture and Television Retirement Home in Woodland Hills, CA.

Midge is survived by her husband of many years, Ernie and by her children from previous marriages: Jason Batanides and his wife, Nancy; Amy Moessinger Lee and her husband, Peter Lee; a step-son, Craig Colton; and four grandchildren, Nicholas Batanides, Elizabeth Batanides, Forrest Lee and Scarlet Rose Lee. Midge is also survived by her twin brothers, Stephen and Lawrence Bendelson, by her brother-in-law, Donald Nelson and by her cousins, Marilyn Hirshleifer, Doris Canter, Dan Emmerich and Tom Emmerich. She was predeceased by her first born child, Leslie Ann Batanides.

A Celebration of Life for Midge is being planned and will be held as soon as the on-going Covid-19 crisis has subsided.

WARE, Midge (Muriel Ware Berdelson)

Born: 10/20/1927, Bronx, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 6/3/2020, West Lake Village, California, U.S.A.

Midge Ware’s westerns – actress:

The Rifleman (TV) – 1960 (Hannah Shaw)

Gunslinger (TV) – 1961 (Amby Hollister)

The Iron Horse (TV) – 1967 (Maybelle Plunkett)

The Virbinian (TV) – 1967 (Regina Lacey)

RIP Kelly asbury

Kelly Asbury Dead: Oscar Nominated ‘Shrek 2’ Director Dies at 60

heavy

June 26, 2020

Kelly Asbury, the animator and Oscar-nominated director, has died at the age of 60 after a battle with cancer. Asbury worked for Disney and DreamWorks during his career.

According to Asbury’s IMDb page, he directed five animated feature films during his career. His first, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, was released in 2002. That was followed by Shrek 2 in 2004, Asbury co-directed the film with Conrad Vernon. Asbury’s next release was 2011’s Gnomeo & Juliet. In 2017, Asbury directed Smurfs: The Lost Village. His final directorial effort was 2019’s Ugly Dolls. In addition to directing, Asbury also contributed voices to Shrek 2 and Gnomeo and Juliet.

Asbury worked on some of the most famous animated films of all time. In 1991, Asbury was credited as the writer of Beauty & the Beast. In 2013, Asbury worked as the story artist on Frozen. A year earlier, Asbury worked on Wreck-it Ralph in the same role. Asbury was also the story artist on Toy Story in 1995, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, both in 2008.

Asbury was a native of Beaumont, Texas, but was living in Encino, California at the time of his death.

Co-directed the underrated Spirit, and directed one of the funniest animated movies ever made, Shrek 2. His work will be discovered and adored by audiences for generations to come.”

Fellow animator Tom Sito wrote in a Facebook post that Asbury “was dealing with cancer for a number of years.” Sito added, “He fought it bravely, and wanted no one to feel pity for him. He met every challenge, including this final one, with a smile.”

Asbury said in an interview with Cinema Blend in 2011 that his producer Baker Bloodworth got him involved with directing Gnomeo & Juliet in 2006. Asbury said that he was a huge Elton John growing up and loved the idea of the singer writing the music for animated musical about garden gnomes.

Asbury said, “I met with Elton John, Elton John really wanted me to direct the project, asked me to direct it.” Asbury compared the use of the music of John and Bernie Taupin as being similar to the use of Simon & Garfunkel’s music in The Graduate. Asbury said, “The emotion that’s on screen is supported by the music that’s playing and sort of an emotional queue.” He went on to describe the movie as being “sort of this dream project.”

Following the lack of box office success for his final two directorial efforts, Asbury wrote an essay on Cartoon Brew’s website about dealing with the emotions involved with creating a box-office bomb. In the essay, Asbury said that he had been “spoiled” by the financial successes of his first three films, especially Shrek 2. Asbury referred to The Smurfs as being a “tired franchise.” Asbury said that needing a job was the reason he signed on to direct. Asbury said that production on the film took four years but there were positives along the way, including making “life-long friends.

In writing about the financial failure of Asbury’s final feature Ugly Dolls, he said, “This time around, I didn’t waste time playing the blame game. Hard fact: We built it and they did not come.” Asbury said that he felt the film would have a “fighting chance” of “engaging families.” Asbury finished the essay writing:

Maybe next time, if I get another shot at directing, I will have artistically evolved to a place of not caring at all – or at least less – whether the movie makes money. After all, the real joy of working in my beloved animation industry is more about the funny anecdotes I can share from all the truly wacky experiences of past productions – and every movie has them.

Whomever first said, “The joy is in the journey” (I first heard it from the late, great story artist, Joe Ranft), was right. Next time around, come opening weekend, I will hold tighter to that wisdom.

ASBURY, Kelly (Kelly Adam Asbury)

Born: 1/15/1960, Beaumont, Texas, U.S.A.

Died: 6/26/2020, Encino, California, U.S.A.

Kelly Asbury’s western – director:

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - 2002

RIP Ramon Revilla

Former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr. dies at 93

CNN Philippines

June 26, 2020

"Wala na po 'yung tatay ko (My father is gone). Please pray for him," Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Jr. said in a video posted on Facebook.

The younger Revilla said his father passed away at around 5:20 p.m. "He is now free from physical pain and is in the loving arms of our Creator," he said in a statement.

Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. “After 93 full years, our father former Senator Ramon Revilla, Sr. succumbed to heart failure at 5:20 this afternoon. He is now free from physical pain and is in the loving arms of our Creator.”

Thank you very much for the love and prayers, as we ask for continuous prayers for the eternal repose of his soul.

The 93-year-old movie icon turned politician was rushed to the hospital late March, but was reported to be in stable condition in June.

On Thursday, the younger Revilla called for prayers for his father, whom he said was "going through a rough time."

Revilla, Sr. was a multi-awarded actor who won a Senate seat in 1992 and served as lawmaker until 2004.

He was known for authoring the Public Works and Highways Infrastructure Program Act of 1995, which pushed for infrastructure development to sustain the country's economy.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque expressed Malacañang's condolences, calling the Revilla patriarch a "respected movie icon and public servant."

REVILLA, Ramon (Jose Acuña Bautista)

Born: 3/8/1927, Imus, Cavitr, Luzon, Philippines

Died: 6/26/2020, Manila, Luzon, Philippines

Ramon Revilla’s westerns – actor:

Dakilang 9 – 1961

Dakilang 9 - 1973

RIP Étienne Périer

Director of many successful films, Etienne Perier died on Sunday in the Var

Var-Matin

6/25/2020

The director Etienne Perier, died on June 21, 2020 at the age of 88 in his home in Plan-de-la-Tour.

Born in Brussels in 1931, Etienne Perier crossed the camera in hand last century, a script under his arm, from one end of the world to the other.

A graduate in philosophy and literature, he left Belgium at 20 to live what he was totally passionate about: cinema.

Assistant to Henri Georges Clouzot in "Les Diaboliques", in 1957, he films his friend Bernard Buffet, a short film which won him an award at the Venice Festival in 1958.

This success will propel him. He works with Jean Cocteau to identify and prepare the "Testament of Orpheus". From then on, his career will never stop.

Director, scriptwriter, from I953 until 1958, he collaborated with Charles SPAAK on several scenarios including "Charmants boys" and with Dominique Fabre who, subsequently, wrote most of his French films.

Witness the story of 7 ^th art, he led the largest. In 1960, he signed with MGM and filmed "Bridge to the sun" with Carroll Baker and Jimmy Shigeta (Golden globe award).

In 1964, it will be "Tell me who to kill" with Michèle Morgan, Jean Yanne and Dario Moreno.

AT the head of his production company Planfilm, he directed in 69 "When 8 bells toll" with Anthony Hopkins. In 1977, he brought together in "La part du feu" Michel PIccoli, Claudia Cardinale and Jacques Perrin.

In 80, he made his first film for television, "La Confusion des sentiments" with Michel Piccoli and Pierre Malet.

In the end, thirty films under his direction, he who liked to call himself " director".

Born between the two world wars, he could have embodied the New Wave but preferred to remain faithful and have his own style.

Without compromise, he always cultivated his aesthetics, without falling into fashion. Etienne Perier was not worldly, only work interested him. He lived discreetly, surrounded by his friends.

PERIER, Étienne (Étienne Périer Paul Gaston Perier)

Born: 12/11/1931 Brussels, Belgium

Died: 6/21/2020, Le Plan-de-la-Tou, Var, France

Étienne Périer ’s western – director, writer:

Louisiana (TV) -1984

RIP Michael O'Hear

Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival

We are sad to report the passing of Michael O'Hear, a member of the Buffalo film community who was part of Buffalo Dreams from its inception, and part of Buffalo Screams before that. Michael pre-screened films for selection, sometimes served as a judge, photographed attending filmmakers, and supported every filmmaker whose work we screened, even when he had to miss a screening. Our hearts go out to his family, and to every single person who will miss him. We awarded him our Local Hero award one year, and will find a way to memorialize him. He was a great guy, and the world will be poorer without him.

O’HEAR, Micheal (Michael D. O’Hear)

Born: 1966, U.S.A.

Died: 6/24/2020, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.

Michael O’Hear’s western – actor:

Jericho – 2017 (Holmes)

RIP Charles Carlson

Charles Rodney Carson

Commercial Appeal

June 25, 2020

Charles Rodney Carson, (aka Charles Beard), April 15, 1940 - June 4, 2020. He was preceded by his parents, Margaret Marie Beard Chaney and Robert Carson. He leaves behind his siblings, Barbara and Stan, children, Tim, Alison, Rebecca, and April, and about 15 grandchildren.

Charlie attended Holy Names and played football at Catholic High. He worked in Memphis and in California as a photographer, dance instructor, actor, and even worked for Elvis. He loved being around people.

CARLSON, Charles (Charles Rodney Carson)

Born: 4/15/1940, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Died: 6/4/2020, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Charles Carson’s westerns – actor:

Death Valley Days (TV) – 1960, 1962 (Peters, Wild Bill Hickok, Slouch)

Outlaws (TV) – 1961 (Grat Dalton)

Stoney burke (TV) – 1962 (Roger Chase)

Wagon Train (TV) – 1964 (Jessup Harmon, Lonnie)

RIP Michael Hall

Apollo

By Jay Levenson

June 16, 2020

For many years Reader’s Digest ran a popular series of biographical sketches under the heading of ‘The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met’. I am certain that Michael Hall – the collector, art dealer and former actor who died last month at his home in Miami Beach at the age of 93, survived by his husband Thomas Malmberg – filled that role for most of his numerous friends and acquaintances. He retained from his early days in Hollywood the ability to command the immediate attention of every person in any room he entered. And he had an endlessly entertaining repertory of anecdotes and jokes that he could recite so well that no one who had heard him could retell them except by repeating Michael’s own words. There was no way to improve upon him, even if one wondered how much of the stories’ content was his own embellishment.

Most of his friends in the art world came to know him after he had given up his youthful career as an actor, most notably playing the son of Fredric March’s Sergeant Al Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives, William Wyler’s masterpiece of 1946. I always wondered why his character dropped out of the story too early, before several scenes in which he logically should have appeared. Michael explained that his contract had ended while the film was still being shot, and the producer, the legendary Samuel Goldwyn, refused to pay anything extra to rehire him. Michael retained a number of glamorous friends from those years, most notably Paulette Goddard (the on-screen foil and one-time wife of Charlie Chaplin) and her husband, the novelist Erich Maria Remarque, and the thespian couple Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. A friendship with Marion Davies granted Hall access to objects in the vast collection of her lover William Randolph Hearst as it was being dissolved. The spoils included several important early Chinese stone sculptures and the purported marriage bed of the 16th-century Florentine noblewoman Maria Salviati, on which Hall subsequently slept for many years. Hearst’s acquisitive obsession was immortalised in the character of Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane – Michael knew Orson Welles and claimed to have coached him in a German accent. He loved the company of personalities as large as his own, and later in life he became a close friend and travel companion of the heiress Doris Duke.

He began collecting art early on, but his real training came subsequently from two great connoisseurs. He could not have selected better mentors: in Los Angeles in the 1950s, Wilhelm Valentiner, then the consulting director of what was to become the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and previously the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts; and in London the following decade, John Pope-Hennessy, then the keeper of sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum (until 1967, when he was appointed director). He also became the lifelong friend of leading authorities in his chosen field, including such luminaries as Rudolf Wittkower, H.W. Janson, and Francis Watson. Not surprisingly, Michael became a particular expert in the connoisseurship of Renaissance and mannerist sculpture, although as a dealer and especially as a collector, his tastes were amazingly catholic, covering virtually all periods, media and parts of the world. Though this included paintings and graphic arts, Michael was drawn above all to the three-dimensional: sculpture (the great and the small, including comprehensive assemblages of Renaissance bronze statuettes, lamps, inkwells, animal life-casts, medals and plaquettes), objets d’art, and furniture, all works that engage the body and touch as well as the eyes.

Michael delighted in being outrageous, but he could also be infinitely charming when he chose. I remember years ago in Venice when – in his beautifully enunciated but elementary Italian – he convinced the sacristan of the church of San Moisè to let him and Bill Mills, his gallery partner and another former actor, clean a dusty 17th-century bronze altar by Nicolò Roccatagliata. I can only imagine the Venetian soprintendente’s shock when he eventually discovered Michael’s handiwork – the work was more recently restored professionally by the Fondazione Venetian Heritage – but for Michael, it really was a labour of love.

He ran his gallery from a series of progressively larger apartments and townhouses that he occupied on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, each of them filled to bursting with his ever-growing collections. His overstuffed closets alone would have driven Marie Kondo to despair. A true child of the Great Depression, he had difficulty parting with anything he owned, a temperament that was often at odds with his profession as dealer. A typical room was the ‘Asian’ library of his former townhouse one block from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where each shelf was chock-full of Buddhist sculpture in wood, stone, ceramic, and jade and every flat surface supported dozens of marble and terracotta busts by Jean-Antoine Houdon and his circle (Voltaire with and without a wig, and a masterful portrait capturing the pox-ravaged complexion of the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck). Over the mantle was a small oil sketch of John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo, which hangs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – a museum whose rooms offer perhaps the closest analogy to Hall’s installations but are restrained by comparison. Yet unlike the Brahmin eclecticism of Gardner, Michael resisted the highbrow; his was a lived-in, and loved-in, collection. The entire floor of his library was generally covered with trays of crystals and beads, purchased by the sack during his weekend excursions to flea markets. From these, he would string necklaces to adorn his ancient Roman and Renaissance busts throughout the house. For Michael, there was no irony in gilding the lily. But somehow it all came together spectacularly.

Although he was a regular at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, he made some of his most remarkable discoveries touring antique shops and flea markets in cities and in the countryside, wherever he found himself. Anyone who had seen him at the immense unshaded outdoor antiques market in Brimfield in central Massachusetts – where he returned faithfully for the three week-long bazaars each summer – patiently examining every work in every booth, would have wondered why he chose to rummage there for eight hours a day, rain or shine. And yet his dedication often paid off. It was in Brimfield that he found a large bronze version of Giambologna’s Mercury, recognising the early patina on what was being offered as a 19th-century cast. Among the numerous other major discoveries of his career were a bronze satyr by Tribolo, a spectacular bronze centaur attributed to Cellini, a stucco relief of the Virgin and Child by Donatello that he donated to the Yale University Art Gallery, and a terracotta bust of Christ by Verrocchio that was featured prominently in the recent exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. and the Bargello.

Michael’s collections furnished a series of museum-quality exhibitions at the former Salander-O’Reilly galleries in New York in the late 1990s (before their legal problems): on Houdon, Giambologna, and ‘Masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture’. Two of these shows subsequently travelled to museum venues. Though Michael was reluctant to part with these works, the last show resulted in the celebrated acquisition of Johann Gregor van der Schardt’s self-portrait – among the earliest independent self-portraits in sculpture – by the Rijksmuseum. An exhibition from his collection of images of Christ and Mary across media and eras originated at the Gallery at the American Bible Society in New York and travelled nationwide. The most recent exhibition of his works, showing French Renaissance graphic art and sculptures, was ‘Le Goût du Prince: Art and Prestige in Sixteenth-Century France’ at the Yale University Art Gallery in 2016. Michael was particularly pleased that undergraduates organised the show as part of a hands-on seminar course.

Indeed, Michael was a generous and gifted teacher in his area of expertise and was often invited by his mentors and curator friends to hold sessions on connoisseurship. Among the graduate student assistants at his gallery in New York were two future directors of the Frick Collection, Anne Poulet and Ian Wardropper.

Remarkably well-read and informed on all subjects that interested him, Michael had the genuine connoisseur’s eye and astonishing visual memory that were the hallmarks of art historians of earlier periods. I remember so well his returning from a flea market in Connecticut with a beautiful though faded embroidered silk coin purse that, as he explained, would have been carried by a French nobleman in the 16th century. Once he pointed out what the unusual object was, it was clear that he was right, and yet who but Michael could have identified such a treasure in the cluttered stall of a country antiques dealer?

HALL, Michael

Born: 9/7/1927, Visalia, California, U.S.A.

Died: 5/24/2020, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Michael Hall’s westerns – actor:

Black Hills Ambush – 1952 (Larry Stewart)

The Last Musketeer – 1952 (Johnny Becker)

of the Century (TV) – 1954 (Eddie Cullen)

Buffalo Bill, Jr. (TV) – 1955 (Running Deer, Johnny Red Hawk)

Zane Grey Theater (TV) – 1958 (Tom Birch)

Shotgun Slade (TV) – 1959 (Tony Jordan)

RIP Charly Bravo

Actor Charly Bravo, the western baddie, dies

In more than 200 movies, actor Charly Bravo was the face of a thousand different men. From western films to Conan the Barbarian (alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger), he became one of the most common faces on the screen in his supporting roles. Charly Bravo, stage name of Ramón Carlos Mirón Bravo, has died in Madrid at the age of 77.

He proudly carried the title of being the Spaniard who has worked the most in westerns (A Town Called Hell, Captain Apache, A Man Called Noon ...), as well as in numerous TV series, from Mediterranean to Central Hospital.

Bravo has passed away at the Estrella de Madrid hostel, where he has resided the last 30 years of his life, in one of it’s rooms in the back of the Gran Vía. This modest hotel is 100 meters from his real house, which he abandoned due to the bad relationships with his wife and daughters. "That's why I took off," he said in an interview with this newspaper in February 2004. "I am a lonely and somewhat selfish man, although loneliness does not scare me."

When work was scarce, Bravo was a regular on the Madrid Metro, where he would go down to play the guitar in order to pay for his room in the hostel. His collaborations with young filmmakers were also many during their early careers. This is the case of Pintadas (Juan Estelrich, Jr, 1996), Casting (Fernando Merinero, 1998) and In the City Without Limits (Antonio Hernández, 2002).

BRAVO, Carlos (Ramón Carlos Mirón-Muñoz Bravo)

Born: 3/6/1943, Casablanca, Morocco

Died: 6/23/2020, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Charly Bravo’s westerns – actor:

The Warriors of Pancho Villa – 1966

Cemetery Without Crosses - 1968 (Stone Valee) [as Charly Bravo]

A Bullet for Sandoval - 1969 [as Charly Bravo]

El Condor - 1969 (bandit)

Land Raiders – 1969 [as Charly Bravo]

100 Rifles – 1969 (Lopez) [as Charly Bravo]

The Price of Power – 1969 (deputy)

Captain Apache - 1970 (Sanchez)

Santana Kills Them All – 1970 (Aaron/Adam Kirby)

The Boldest Job in the West - 1971 (Poldo) [as Charley Bravo]

A Town Called Hell – 1971 (Juan) [as Charly Bravo]

The Call of the Wild – 1972 (buyer of Buck) [as Charly Bravo]

The Hunting Party - 1972 (cowboy)

The Man Called Noon – 1973 (Lang) [as Charlie Bravo]

The Son of Zorro – 1973 (Pedro) [as Charly Bravo]

Spaghetti Western – 1974 (Judd) [as Charly Bravo]

China 9, Liberty 37 - 1978 (Duke) [as Charly Bravo]

The Man Called Noon – 1973 (Lang)

Comin’ at Ya! - 1980 [as Charly Bravo]

Rustlers’ Rhapsody – 1984 [as Charly Bravo]

Tex and the Lord of the Deep – 1985 (Marcos/Pablito) [as Charly Bravo]

White Apache – 1985 (Ryder/Redeath) [as Charly Bravo]

Scalps – 1986 (Sergeant Gordon)

Contra el tiempo – 2011 [himself]