RIP Tamara Baroni

 

Tamara Baroni died in Brazil. He was 75 years old. She was a controversial icon of Parmesan beauty

 

Gazzetta di Parma

December 30, 2022

 

Tamara Baroni died: after a short illness she died at 10.22 pm on Tuesday 28 December at her home in Natal, Brazil. He was 75 years old. In a few days she would have celebrated his 76th birthday.

"We did not expect it - says her daughter Viviana - a few hours before she had sent me the goodnight message on her mobile phone. She had only recently been ill, we didn't think everything would fall so fast." To remember her and to pray for her, there will be a ceremony in the church of Santa Maria del Rosario on January 3, her birthday, at 5 pm: "So that we the family, together with all her friends can pray together for her". The funeral in Natal will be celebrated on Sunday, January 1.

Tamara, who had lost her husband Gianni Garbellini in 2014 (he had died following a fall: he had fallen from the roof of their house in Natal, while arranging tiles) leaves her large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The daughters Viviana and Sara, Ciro and Marco, with their sons and their respective families.

Tamara Baroni, born in Parma on January 3, 1947, attended the master's degree at the Maestre Luigine of Parma, obtaining the diploma of a teacher at the age of 16. Married at 18 with Giuseppe Berteli (the marriage concluded a few years later with an annulment of the Sacred Rota), she was already the mother of a daughter, Viviana, at the age of 19. Immediately after she worked as a model and model (she worked for Max Mara, Colgate on TV, Faber, etc.), she won the title of Miss Italy (she was named Miss Elegance because she was married and the regulation of Miss Italy excluded married women at the time) and ranked fourth at Miss World. She had a relationship with Bubi Bormioli (of which there was a lot of talk). At that time she assiduously attended, for a while, the world of the dolce vita of the playboys, of which, however, she soon got tired.

She embraced a theatrical career with Domenico Modugno, but the Bormioli scandal landed her in prison for 47 days.

Found innocent, she began singing with Iller Pattacini (whom she later married) and his orchestra. Back in '74 at the theater with Ric and Gian ("The Women's Doctor") for two years, she was then the prima donna in a magazine in which she sang, danced and acted, for another two years. She starred in a comedy written for her by Leo Chiosso ("What do I care if the world made me fatal?!") and then threw herself on Tennesse Williams with "Zoo di vetro" and later on Sartre in "Le mani sporche", with Arnaldo Ninchi.

Courted by the greatest Italian directors, she took part in only a few films, after her prison release, but she always preferred the theater. She has written a regular column in Playboy, for which she has also posed nude. For family reasons, she left the show at the time when it was most in demand in the theater, at the age of 30. She continued for two more years to sing with Pattacini, then divorced him and the village of Reggiano, Barco di Bibbiano), where she lived with him and her daughter Viviana, who had been entrusted to her after years of struggle with Giuseppe Berteli, her first husband.

At that time she moved to Parma, where she began writing for local newspapers, telling mainly about her many travels around the world. Feminist and radical, especially out of gratitude, because the radical party had fought with her for the custody of her daughter Viviana, who then chose to return to her father. At that time Tamara was attending Corrado Costa, her lawyer and friend, who encouraged her to write a book of poems, Sotto identiche cose to be part of the Intrapresa group and to write for the literary magazine "Alfabeta." Then Tamara presented the book in the form of a show in Milan (at the Teatro di Porta Romana), in June 1982, with great success.

Tamara Baroni then met Gianni Garbellini, financial manager of Milan, who later became her third husband. In 1983 their first son, Ciro, was born and in 1985 their second daughter Sara, was born in Parma. Then Tamara left Italy with her husband and children to go and live in Brazil, a country she knew very well. She settled with her family in 1987 in Natal, where, the following year, her third child, Marco, was born. Tamara, who currently dealt in real estate, had a riding school, wrote another book of poems in Portuguese, "Constelaçâo mulher", and is part of the Academia das letras.

A few years ago she was interviewed by Pippo Baudo for the 900 broadcast and in May 2009 by Alda d'Eusanio in Rome for the program "Ricominciare". Then she published her memoirs online, with the book-blog entitled "Tamara la parmigiana".

BARONI, Tamara

Born: 1/3/1947, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Died: 12/28/2022, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

 

Tamara Baroni’s western – actress:

A Gunman Called Dakota - 1971 (Scott’s daughter)

RIP Stephen Greif

 

'The Crown' actor Stephen Greif dead at 78

Greif was known for his roles in 'The Crown' and 'Blake's 7'

 

Fox News

By: Lauryn Overhultz

 December 23, 2022

Stephen Greif has died at age 78.

"The Crown" actor died Dec. 23 in London, his representative confirmed to Fox News Digital.

"With great sadness we announce the death of our wonderful client Stephen Greif," the agency wrote. "His extensive career included numerous roles on screen and stage, including at the National Theatre, RSC and in the West End."

"We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his family and friends."

His family shared with Fox News Digital that he will be missed by his two sons, Joseph and Daniel.

Greif was also remembered by friends.

"Stephen Greif was a lovely man as well as being a very fine actor," Colin Baker wrote on Twitter. "We are all poorer for his loss. RIP my friend."

"Very saddened to hear that Stephen Greif has left us," Barnaby Edwards shared. "A rock-solid performer with a voice as liquid and deadly as molten lava. When it came to playing villains, he was unsurpassed."

"His acerbic wit and obvious intelligence made him a joy to direct. Thanks for the fun, Stephen."

British actor Stuart Anthony also paid tribute on Twitter.

"Very sad to hear the wonderful Stephen Greif has passed away. A lovely man with a huge CV and some fantastic stories - RIP," he wrote.

Greif was born in London and attended The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He starred in "The Crown" as the Speaker of the House.

The English actor was best known for his roles in "Blake's 7" and "Citizen Smith" along with "Casanova."

GREIF, Stephen (Stephen John Greif)

Born: 8/26/1944, Sasbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England, U.K.

Died: 12/23/2022, London, England, U.K.

 

Stephen Greif’s western – actor:

The New Zorro (TV) – 1990 (Torres)

RIP Ian Tyson

 

Folk legend Ian Tyson, known for 'Four Strong Winds' as part of Ian & Sylvia, dies

 

The Canadian Press

By Frank Gunn

December 29, 2022

 

TORONTO - Ian Tyson, the Canadian folk legend turned cowboy storyteller who penned “Four Strong Winds” as one half of Ian & Sylvia, has died at age 89.

The Victoria native died Thursday at his ranch near Longview, Alta., following a series of ongoing health complications, according to his manager Paul Mascioli.

The Victoria native was a part of the influential folk movement in Toronto with his first wife, Sylvia Tyson. But he divided much of his life and career between two passions largely unrelated to his folkie past: living on his southern Alberta ranch and pursuing songs about the cowboy life.

Sylvia Tyson remembered her ex-husband as a “versatile” and “very serious songwriter.”

“He put a lot of time and energy into his songwriting and felt his material very strongly, especially the whole cowboy lifestyle,” she told The Canadian Press on Thursday.

Ian Tyson always found himself drawn to the frontier. In fact, he began perfecting his guitar skills when he was forced to recover from injuries sustained in the rodeo.

“The injury that I received at the time may have been traumatic, but it gave me a lot of material in the years forward,” Tyson said in a 2019 interview with The Canadian Press.

“A lot of pretty good songs came out of that phase.”

Born Sept. 25, 1933 to parents who emigrated from England, Tyson didn't appear to have a hardscrabble upbringing. He attended private school and learned to play polo before discovering the rodeo.

Once he graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in 1958, Tyson hitchhiked to Toronto. He was swept up in the city's burgeoning folk movement, where Canuck legends including Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell would eventually ply their talents in smoke-filled hippie coffee houses in the bohemian Yorkville neighbourhood.

Tyson soon met a kindred spirit named Sylvia Fricker and they began a relationship - onstage and off - in 1959. They moved to New York together where they met manager Albert Grossman - who steered Peter, Paul and Mary and would soon count Bob Dylan as a client. He signed Ian & Sylvia to Vanguard Records.

Their self-titled debut was released in 1962, a collection of mostly traditional songs. Their second album, 1964's “Four Strong Winds,” was the duo's breakthrough, thanks in large part to its wistful title track, one of the only original compositions on the album.

The pair married in 1964 and continued releasing new records with regularity (their '65 album “Early Morning Rain” included a composition by Lightfoot, who was then far from a household name). But as the popularity of folk waned, the duo moved to Nashville and began integrating strains of country and rock into their sound.

In 1969, the Tysons explored that new fusion by forming the country-rock outfit Great Speckled Bird, whose influential self-titled debut dropped in 1970.

They had a child, Clay, in 1968 but the couple grew apart as their career began to stall in the '70s, and they divorced in 1975.

In his 2010 memoir, “The Long Trail,” Ian Tyson admitted that he was pursuing a relationship with another woman during his marriage, and even cavorted with his mistress openly in front of their son, who was a child at the time.

“I wasn't being very sensitive about the whole thing, that's for sure,” he wrote.

After their marriage dissolved, Ian Tyson decided to move back West and return to ranch life, training horses and cowboying in Pincher Creek, Alta. These experiences increasingly filtered through his songwriting, particularly on 1983's “Old Corrals and Sagebrush.”

Though the album was his third solo release, it was his first devoted entirely to Western material. Tyson had modest expectations for the album, but it was clear he was discovering his voice: he sang clear-eyed but idyllic tunes about life on the ranch.

Tyson's move toward traditional Western music happened at an opportune moment: 1983 also marked the inaugural Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada, evidence of the burgeoning interest in cowboy culture.

Tyson's self-released 1987 album, “Cowboyography,” became a surprising word-of-mouth hit and rejuvenated Tyson's touring career in Canada and the U.S.

Things were going well in Tyson's personal life, too. In 1978, he met a waitress named Twylla Dvorkin. She was only 17 at the time, but Tyson - then in his mid-40s - pursued a relationship with her despite the gossiping of locals scandalized by the couple's age difference.

The couple married in 1986 and had a daughter, Adelita, a year later. Their relationship proved longer lasting than Tyson's first marriage, but still, the couple eventually divorced in 2008. Tyson wrote honestly about the relationship - and the still-fresh wounds created by its dissolution - in his book.

“I wanted to be honest about it and fair,” he said in an interview the year his book was released. “But it was a tough divorce and pretty acrimonious.”

Tyson long held a reputation in the industry for being prickly, which he actually referenced several times in his book (using the adjective “irascible.”) But he could also be unflinchingly honest, and his memoir found him delving into his infidelity, his drug arrest for marijuana possession and his long-ago feuds with other Canadian icons, including Lightfoot and Stompin' Tom Connors.

Tyson admitted he struggled in the aftermath of his second divorce and was slowed by health problems, including arthritis. He also conquered a vocal problem that forced Tyson to change his singing style. In the latter section of his career, his voice had a grittier, more gravelly quality.

“Through the difficult times ... I handled it inside the music,” he said in 2010. “The music really pulled me through, and my horses. But the horse thing, that's a more abstract kind of thing. The music really helped a lot. The music got stronger, you know.

“Hank Williams said a broken heart doesn't hurt your songwriting, and he was sure right about that.”

He also picked up numerous awards for his music, including an induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

In 1987, he won a Juno Award for country male vocalist of the year and five years later he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame alongside Sylvia Tyson. He won a Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2003, and has been named to the Order of Canada and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

Tyson continued to release music late into his career, including the 2015 album “Carnero Vaquero” and the 2017 single “You Should Have Known.”

But doctors' exams related to a heart attack and subsequent open-heart surgery in 2015 left permanent damage to his voice. That didn't necessarily slow him down.

Tyson continued to perform live concerts, including a series of shows with country performer Corb Lund in 2018 that marked a celebration of cowboy songs and stories. His heart problems returned and forced him to cancel an August appearance that year.

Despite the setbacks, he continued to play his guitar at home.

“I think that's the key to my hanging in there because you've gotta use it or lose it,” he said a year after the cancellation.

“When you get to a certain age in life, which I've attained and probably passed, it's hard to stay fairly sharp with the instrument. But I've committed myself to doing that. It's paying off, I'm playing pretty good, in spite of all the broken bones and so on over the years.”

TYSON, Ian

Born: 9/25/1933, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada

Died: 12/29/2022, Longview, Alberta, Canada

 

Ian Tyson’s westerns – narrator, songwriter, singer:

Run, Cougar, Run – 1972 [narrator]

Alias, Will James – 1988 [songwriter, singer]

RIP Ruggero Deodato

 

Ruggero Deodato, Director of the Notorious Horror Film ‘Cannibal Holocaust,’ Dies at 83

The realistic "found footage" movie depicted murder, mutilation, torture, gang rape and animal slaughter and was banned in several countries.

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

December 29, 2022

Ruggero Deodato, the Italian director behind the gruesome and controversial 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, died Thursday in Rome, the Il Messaggero newspaper reported. He was 83.

Made in the style of a documentary and shot in Colombia, Cannibal Holocaust starred Robert Kerman and employed purported “found footage” taken by a sadistic American film crew during an expedition into the Amazon jungle to locate indigenous tribes.

It depicted murder, mutilation, torture, gang rape and animal slaughter and was banned in several countries including Deodato’s own, with Italian authorities seizing his film and destroying prints shortly after it hit theaters.

Deodato was put on trial for murdering actors and faced 30 years in prison, but he produced the supposedly dead men in court, and the charges were dropped (the actors had signed contracts to disappear for a year). He was fined for obscenity, however.

Deodato said he made Cannibal Holocaust in response to sensational news reports about terrorism seen on Italian television at the time. And in a 2011 interview with The Guardian, he defended the scenes of animal cruelty.

“In my youth, growing up, I spent a lot of time in the country close to animals and therefore often seeing the moment of their death,” he said. “The death of the animals, although unbearable — especially in a present-day urban mindset — always happened in order to feed the film’s characters or the crew, both in the story and in reality.”

He told The Telegraph in November that “all the animals were eaten. They didn’t just die for the film.”

Deodato got a cameo as a cannibal in Eli Roth’s Hostel Part II (2007), and the American horrormeister used Cannibal Holocaust as inspiration for his own cannibal film, The Green Inferno (2013).

Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone have also cited him as an influence.

Born on May 7, 1939, in Potenza, Italy, Deodato worked as an assistant director for Roberto Rossellini on Il Generale Della Rovere (1959) and Escape by Night (1960) and for Sergio Corbucci on the spaghetti Westerns Django and Ringo and His Golden Pistol, both released in 1966.

He made his directorial debut on Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964).

His résumé also included Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976), Jungle Holocaust (1977), The House on the Edge of the Park (1980), Body Count (1986), The Barbarians (1987), The Washing Machine (1993) and Deathcember (2019).

DEODATO, Ruggero

Born: 5/7/1939, Potenza, Basilicata, Italy

Died: 12/29/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Ruggero Deodato’s westerns – assistant director, director:

Django - 1966 [assistant director]

Navajo Joe – 1966 [assistant director]

Ringo and His Golden Pistol – 1966 [assistant director]

The Hellbenders – 1967 [assistant director]

Wanted – 1967 [assistant director]

In the Name of the Father – 1969 [director]

RIP Christian Roberts

 

Television Heaven

December 28, 2022

British actor Christian Roberts, who made his television debut in a 1966 episode of the anthology series 'Theatre 625' before winning a role in the movie 'To Sir, with Love' passed away on 26 December 2022, aged 78 years.

Roberts was born on 17 March 1944 in Southmoor, Berkshire and was educated as Cranleigh School, Surrey from 1953 to 1962. He was accepted into RADA in 1964 and fresh out of drama school he was cast as the rebellious Denham in 'To Sir, with Love' alongside Sidney Poitier, Suzy, Kendall, Judy Geeson and Lulu. The story was based on the autobiographical novel by Guyana-born E. R. Braithwaite and was loosely based on his own teaching experiences in a working-class London neighbourhood. “I did a reading for director James Clavell and it turned out to be a wonderful experience acting with Sidney, Lulu and Judy,” Roberts told interviewer Nick Thomas. “I had a boxing scene with Sidney and it was great landing a few punches on this distinguished Hollywood actor,” he laughed. “I had done some boxing at school so felt I knew what I was doing. Sidney was very good with all the young actors and we admired him immensely.”

Although the movie's release in the USA was delayed, mainly because the distributors were concerned that Americans wouldn't understand the actors Cockney accents it eventually grossed over $40m.

Following the release of the movie, Roberts split his time between television, film and the theatre. On TV he appeared in 'The Avengers' (1968), 'UFO' (1971, 'The Persuaders!' (1971), 'Clochmerle' (1972), 'Blake's 7' (1978) and 'Secret Army' (1978). Between 1972 and 1980 he acted in theatre seasons at the Redgrave Theatre, Surrey; The Salisbury Playhouse, Theatre Royal, York; and the Watford Palace Theatre. On the big screen he appeared in the Bette Davis film 'The Anniversary.'

In 1980, Roberts gave up acting to join the board of his family business, Job's Dairy, but stayed in touch with the profession as director of the Theatre Royal, Windsor. In 1988 he returned to acting and produced and starred in "Return to the Forbidden Planet" and "From a Jack to a King", both in London's West End. Following one last screen appearance in a 1992 episode of 'The Bill' his attention returned to business and in 1995 he went to live in Barbados in the Caribbean, where he ran the famous Lone Star Restaurant and Hotel on the island's fashionable West Coast.

Roberts published his autobiography “Thank God I'm not Famous: The Life of Christian Charles Roberts.”

ROBERTS, Christian (Christian Charles Roberts)

Born: 3/17/1944, Southmoor, Oxfordshire, England, U.K.

Died: 12/26/2022, U.K.

 

Christian Roberts’ western – actor:

The Desperados! – 1969 (Adam Galt)

RIP Zach Hudson

 

Facebook

12/22/2022

Stuntman, actor Zach Hudson died in Sherman Oaks, California on December 21, 2022. Zach was born on September 11, 1972 in Topeka, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for “Spider-Man” (2002), “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” (2007) and “Ford v Ferrari” (2019). He was previously married to Monica Braunger and Michelle Hudson.

 

HUDSON, Zach (Zachary William Hudson)

Born: 9/11/1972, Topeka, Kansas, U.S.A.

Died: 12/21/2022, Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.A.

 

Zach Hudson’s westerns – stuntman, actor:

Justified (TV) – 2011 (Devil Guy) [stunts]

Vegas (TV) – 2013 [stunt double Dennis Quaid]

RIP Giurato Blasco

 

The director of photography Blasco Giurato is dead

 

Cinecitta News

12/26/2022

 

Director of photography, Giurato Blasco died in Rome on December 26. Born in 1941, he collaborated with Giuseppe Tornatore in the film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, obtaining a BAFTA nomination, and also in the subsequent Una pura formalità. He also worked with Dino Risi, Lina Wertmuller, Pupi Avati, Renzo Martinelli.

Blasco received his professional training with a series of short-length films, winning the Florence “Festival dei Popoli” with “The Furthest Island”. His camera operator career began at the side of Dario Di Palma, then Rotunno and Kuveiller, collaborating with the greatest directors of the period, such as Fellini (“I Clowns”, “Roma”), Zurlini, Gregoretti, Giraldi, Questi, Wertmuller, Vancini, Pasolini, Maselli, Petri, Monicelli, Lumet, Bolognini, Pontecorvo, etc. In 1975 he started working as a Director of Photography with a TV drama by Daniele d’Anza, “La Baronessa di Carini”, a huge success still nowadays, and Eriprando Visconti’s “La Orca”, which brought him immediately his first “Nastro d’Argento” and “David di Donatello” nomination for best cinematography. Throughout his career he’s been often requested for commercials. In 1985 he had his first collaboration with Giuseppe Tornatore for the film “Il Camorrista”, followed by “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”, “Everybody’s Fine”, “A Pure Formality”

BLASCO, Giurato

Born: 6/7/1941, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Died: 12/??2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Giurato’s western – camera operator:

The Specialist – 1969

RIP Jules Bass

 

Jules Bass, Producer Behind the ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘Frosty the Snowman’ TV Specials, Dies at 87

He and the late Arthur Rankin Jr. also worked on such classics as 'Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town,' 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' and 'Mad Monster Party.'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

October 25, 2022

 

Jules Bass, the animator, producer, director and composer who partnered with Arthur Rankin Jr. on the stop-motion holiday TV specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, has died. He was 87.

Bass died Tuesday at an assisted living facility in Rye, New York, publicist Jennifer Fisherman Ruff told The Hollywood Reporter.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the song popularized by Gene Autry and featuring the voice of Burl Ives, debuted in 1964. Frosty the Snowman, starring Jackie Vernon and Jimmy Durante, bowed in 1969, and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, starring Fred Astaire, premiered in 1970. All three have remained strong television draws through the decades.

Rankin/Bass Productions’ cel-animated, stop-motion features were farmed out to Japanese animators and were painstaking to make, with thousands of still photos of their characters’ incremental movements put together at 24 frames a second in a process called “Animagic.”

Bass also directed and produced Mad Monster Party, a 1967 feature starring Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller.

Born in Philadelphia on Sept. 16, 1935, Bass attended New York University and worked at an advertising agency before he joined Rankin, formerly an art director at ABC, at his film production company, Videocraft International (later known as Rankin/Bass Productions).

Said Rankin in a 2005 interview: “We sort of complemented each other. He had certain talents that I didn’t have, and I had certain talents that he didn’t have. I was basically an artist and a creator; he was a creator and a writer and a lyricist.”

The duo’s first production was syndicated TV series The New Adventures of Pinocchio, which debuted in 1960. They came up with a total of 130 five-minute chapters, which made for a series of five-chapter, 25-minute episodes.

The pair shared an Emmy nomination for outstanding children’s special in 1977 for their work on The Little Drummer Boy Book II and received a Peabody a year later for their animated version of The Hobbit. They also handled an adaptation of another J.R.R. Tolkien property, The Return of the King, in 1980.

Their other TV projects included 1966’s The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, 1967’s The Wacky World of Mother Goose, 1968’s The Little Drummer Boy, the 1971 Easter special Here Comes Peter Cottontail, 1974’s The Year Without a Santa Claus, the 1971-72 series Jackson 5ive, the ’80s series Thundercats and the 1983 animated movie The Coneheads.

He and Rankin co-directed The Last Unicorn (1982), featuring the voices of Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, Alan Arkin and Robert Klein and songs composed and arranged by Jimmy Webb and performed by America.

Rankin died in January 2014 at age 89.

Bass wrote the children’s books Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon and Cooking With Herb, published by Barefoot Books, and his 2001 novel, Headhunters, was adapted for the 2011 film Monte Carlo, starring Selena Gomez.

His daughter, Jean Nicole Bass, died in January at age 61

BASS, Jules (Julius Bass)

Born: 9/16/1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Died: 20/25/2022, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

 

Jules Bass’ western – voice actor.

Home on the Range – 2004 [voice of a cowboy]

RIP Ronan Vibert

 

Ronan Vibert Dies: Actor In ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ And ‘The Snowman’ Was 58

 

DEADLINE

By Bruce Haring

December 23, 2022

 

Ronan Vibert, a veteran film and television actor who worked with some of the top directors and talent during his long career, died last night at age of 58 after a short illness, according to his management.

Vibert grew up in South Wales before gaining a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and lived most of his life in London. In recent years, he had relocated to Florida.

His many films include The Snowman with Michael Fassbender, Saving Mr Banks with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, Dracula Untold with Luke Evans, Shadow of the Vampire with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, The Cat’s Meow, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Tomb Raider 2 with Angelina Jolie, Tristan and Isolde with James Franco, and the Oscar-winning The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski.

Notable TV credits include Rome for HBO, ITV’s Poirot, two series of The Borgias for Showtime, the Emmy award winning Hatfields and McCoys with Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. Lord Wellington in the BBC’s Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Penny Dreadful, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, NCIS LA, and Phillip K Dick’s Electric Dreams and Carnival Row on Amazon Prime.

Survivors include wife Jess Grand Vibert. There will be private service for family only in the coming days, and a Celebration of Life is being planned to take place in London in 2023.

VIBERT, Ronan

Born: 2/23/1964, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, U.K.

Died: 12/22/2022, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Ronan Vibert’s western – actor:

Hatfields & McCoys (TV) - 2012 (Perry Cline)

RIP James J. Murakami

 

James J. Murakami - Emmy-winning art director for Deadwood and frequent Clint Eastwood collaborator - passes away at 91

 

Daily Mail

By Bria Gallagher

December 23, 2022

 

The production world is in mourning on Thursday, with the news that Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated art director James J. Murakami has passed away.

Murakami is best known for his Emmy-winning work as the art director on HBO's Deadwood, and his many collaborations with Clint Eastwood.

He passed on December 15 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after complications from a fall, his wife Ginger confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Murakami was born in June 1931 in Sacramento, California, spending most of his childhood in Campbell, California.

He and his family were interred at a war relocation camp throughout World War II, and after the war ended, he moved to Venice, California.  

He attended Venice High School and went on to study at the Chouinard Art Institute, as he honed his skills to achieve his goal of designing for motion pictures

With no connections to his name, he started out working for architects as a delineator and consultant.

He got his start in moves and television with a job at ZIV Studio, where he spent a number of years in various art departments.

His first movie job was as Assistant Art Director for Dean Tavoularis on The Godfather: Part II in 1974, who he also assisted on 1979's Apocalypse Now.

He also served as an art director on episodes of Battlestar Galactica in 1979 and other hit movies such as WarGames, Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, True Romance, Crimson Tide, The Game and Enemy of the State, before winning an Emmy for his art direction on HBO's Deadwood.

Murakami also served as a set designer for production designer/art director Henry Burnstead on Clint Eastwood's 1992 classic Western Unforgiven, which started a long relationship with the director.

He also served as art director on Eastwood's 1997 film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil before starting his career as a production designer on 2006's Letters From Iwo Jima. 

Murakami earned sole Oscar nomination for his work as production designer on 2008's Changeling, becoming Eastwood's regular designer.

They worked together on 2008's Gran Torino, 2009's Invictus, 2010's Hereafter, 2011's J. Edgar, 2012's Trouble With the Curve, 2014's Jersey Boys and American Sniper and 2016's Sully, after which he retired, earning the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Murakami is survived by his wife of 34 years, Ginger, their daughter, Patricia, and stepchildren John and Sandee.

MURAKAMI, James J. (James Junichi Murakami)

Born: 6/4/1931, Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

Died:  12/15/2022, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A

 

James J. Murakami’s westerns – assistant art director, art director, set designer:

Tom Sawyer – 1973 [set designer]

Another Man, Another Chance – 1977 [assistant art director]

Comes a Horseman – 1978 [assistant art director]

Unforgiven – 1992 [set designer]

The Postman – 1997 [set designer]

Deadwood (TV) – 2004-2005 [art director]

RIP Maggie Thrett

 

Memory-Alpha

 

Maggie Thrett was the stage name of Diane Pine (18 November 1946 – 18 December 2022; age 76), the actress who played Ruth Bonaventure in the Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode "Mudd's Women". She filmed her scenes between Monday 6 June 1966 and Friday 10 June 1966 at Desilu Stage 9 and Stage 10.

Outside of Star Trek, she has also appeared on television programs such as The Wild Wild West (one episode with William Campbell and another with Jason Evers), Cimarron Strip (with Bobby Clark, Jason Wingreen and Morgan Woodward), and I Dream of Jeannie. Her feature film credits consist of 1966's Out of Sight (her first film, in which she co-starred with fellow TOS guest actress Carole Shelyne), Dimension 5 (1966, starring Jeffrey Hunter, France Nuyen, Robert Ito, and Jon Lormer), The Devil's Brigade (1968, with Andrew Prine and Hal Needham), Three in the Attic (1968, with Richard Derr), and Cover Me Baby (1970, with Jeff Corey).

Prior to her arrival in Holywood, Maggie Thrett had pursued a career as an R & B singer, having released the single "Lucky Girl" (as Diane Pine) on the Take 3 label (1964), followed by the singles "Soupy" and "Walk On By" (as Maggie Thrett) on the DynoVoice label (both 1965). "Soupy" continues to be a cult hit, having been sampled by various Northern Soul acts.

Thrett left Hollywood and worked as a nurse. She died at a ahospital in Long Island, New York at the age of 76 on 18 December 2022.

THRETT, Maggie (Diane Pine)

Born: 11/18/1946, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 12/18/2022, Long Island, New York, U.S.A.

 

Maggie Thrett’s westerns – actress:

The Wild Wild West (TV) 1966, 1967 (Diedre, Rita Leon)

Dundee and the Culhane (TV) – 1967 (Wimea)

Cimarron Strip (TV) – 1968 (Red Deer)

RIP Summer Chastant

 

University of Utah's Actor Training Program 

By Alyssum Genthon

December 18, 2022

 

For all of our friends from early 2000's ATP please send light and love with thoughts and prayers of healing for the family of Summer Shirey "Summer Chastant".

Summer has passed this weekend.

 

CHASTANT, Summer

Born: 11/22/1979, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Died: 12/17/2022, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Summer Chastant’s western – actress:

The Death of Colm Canter – 2015 (Anna O'Henry)

RIP Joanne Heyes

 

Neptune Society

November 3, 2022

 

JOANNA PATRICIA HEYES

November 2, 1927 – September 20, 2022

 

JOANNA PATRICIA HEYES, age 94, of Marina Del Rey, California passed away on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. JOANNA was born November 2, 1927.

Joanna Heyes was born Joanna P. O’Donnell on November 2, 1927, in North Carolina. A former actress, she is most remembered for her roles in Thriller (1960), The Twilight Zone (1959), and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1998). (1955). She was formerly married to Douglas Heyes, with whom she had two children.

HEYES, Joanna (Joanna Patricia O’Donnell)

Born: 11/2/1927, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Died: 9/20/22. Marina Del Rey, California, U.S.A.

 

Joanna Heyes’ westerns – actress:

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (TV) – 1958 (Susan Dodd)

Outlaws (TV) – 1960 (Zelda Corbett)

 

RIP Tony Barry

 

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman's Australia co-star Tony Barry dies aged 81 after health battle

Daily Mail

By Jimmy Briggs

December 21, 2022

 

Veteran Australian actor Tony Barry died on Wednesday aged 81.

The esteemed performer has appeared in over 100 Australian films and TV shows including Australia with Hugh Jackman and Halifax f.p. with Rebecca Gibney.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance shared a moving tribute to the iconic actor on Facebook.

They wrote: 'Vale Australian veteran actor Tony Barry who passed away. Despite the difficulties caused by his illness, Tony worked up until shortly before his death.'

'In addition to his acting career, Tony was also known for his many years of volunteer work including Indigenous rights.'

Several of Tony's celebrity friends commented to pay their respects to the legendary performer.

'Nooooo...a most kind man and wonderful actor,' wrote Dr. Quinn star Jane Seymour.

Meanwhile, Fat Pizza actor Will Ward said Tony was 'the most supportive person I've ever met in 18 years in the industry'.

The Queensland-born actor began his 54-year career in acting in 1968 with a guest role on Skippy, the famous TV series about a bush kangaroo.

He achieved worldwide fame in 2008 when he was cast as Sgt. Callahan alongside Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's grand epic Australia.

Other notable roles include The Night We Called It A Day with Rose Byrne and Mystery Road with Hugo Weaving.

Barry had battled health problems for years and his left leg was amputated in 2013 after becoming infected with melanoma.

BARRY, Tony

Born: 8/28/1941, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia

Died: 12/21/2022, Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia

 

Tony Barry’s westerns – actor:

Luke’s Kingdom (TV) – 1976 (man at inn)

Wild Man – 1977 (Bombey Morgan)

Five Mile Creek (TV) – 1984 (Mr. Drummond)

Archer (TV) – 1985 (squatter)

Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (TV) – 1985 (Bernard Hardwick)

Return to Snowy River – 1988 (Jacko)

Ned – 2003 (bartender(

Australia – 2008 (Sergeant Callahan)

Wild Boys (TV) – 2011 (George Jenkins)

RIP Diane McBain

 

Diane McBain, Actress in ‘Surfside 6’ and ‘Spinout,’ Dies at 81

She also played stamp-company queen Pinky Pinkston on 'Batman' and starred in such films as 'Parrish,' 'Claudelle Inglish' and 'The Mini-Skirt Mob.'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

December 21, 2022

Diane McBain, whose career playing spoiled rich girls included turns as the yacht owner Daphne Dutton on the ABC crime show Surfside 6 and an author stalking Elvis Presley in Spinout, has died. She was 81.

McBain died Wednesday morning at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills after a battle with liver cancer, her friend and writing partner, Michael Gregg Michaud, told The Hollywood Reporter.

McBain also guest-starred on four episodes of ABC’s Batman, first as a hat shop assistant who’s in cahoots with David Wayne’s Mad Hatter in 1966 and then as stamp company proprietor Pinky Pinkston — she wore only pink and had a pink dog — on the memorable 1967 installment that featured The Green Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee).

In her first film, McBain appeared with Richard Burton in Vincent Sherman’s Ice Storm (1960), then starred alongside Troy Donahue and Claudette Colbert in Delmer Daves’ campy Parrish (1961) and as the title character, a farm girl who meets a tragic end, in Claudelle Inglish (1961).

A contract player at Warner Bros. straight out of high school, McBain broke out as the loopy Daphne on the 1960-62 Miami Beach-set crime show Surfside 6. Her character owned a yacht, the Daffy II, that was berthed next door to the houseboat that served as home base for the private detectives portrayed by Williams, Donahue and Lee Patterson.

She portrayed Diana St. Clair, an author of books that help women get their men, in Spinout (1966), finding Elvis’ Mike McCoy the perfect subject to track for her next project, The Perfect American Male.

In Tom Lisanti’s 2001 book, Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, McBain said she regretted being typecast as bad girls. “I wanted to play the ingenue,” she said. “I could never understand why everyone wanted to play the bitch. Because when you go into society, people view you as they see you onscreen. It’s terrible to be thought of as this messy, horrible person when you’re not!”

Born in Cleveland on May 18, 1941, McBain moved with her family to Glendale in 1944. She modeled for TV commercials and magazine ads as a teenager, and while appearing in a play at Glendale High School, she was spotted by a talent scout and signed by Warners to a seven-year contract on her 18th birthday.

“When I was about to graduate from high school, they offered me the role of Richard Burton’s granddaughter in Ice Palace,” she told Lisanti. “And believe it or not, I didn’t even know who Richard Burton was! … He was an English actor, and I was a teenybopper.” 

She had made her onscreen debut in 1959 on an episode of ABC’s Maverick, and in addition to Surfside 6, she showed up on many other Warner Bros. TV shows, including The Alaskans, Sugarfoot, Lawman, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Bourbon Street Beat.

McBain beat out Shirley Knight for the lead in Claudelle Inglish, then starred as a farm owner in Black Gold (1962), a nurse opposite Joan Crawford in The Caretakers (1963) and a health nut in Mary Mary (1963), starring Debbie Reynolds. She then reunited with Donahue for A Distant Trumpet (1964), the last film directed by Raoul Walsh. 

She left Warner Bros. after refusing a small part in Sex and the Single Girl (1964). “I was doing leads and thought this wasn’t a good idea,” she said.

McBain battled with characters played by Shelley Fabares and Deborah Walley for Elvis’ affection in Spinout, but her Diana wound up marrying an older guy portrayed by Carl Betz.

McBain then appeared in the low-budget AIP films Thunder Alley (1967), directed by Richard Rush; Maryjane (1968); and, as the savage leader of a motorcycle gang, The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968).

Her résumé included the films Five the Hard Way (1969), I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Girl Crew (1969), The Broken Hearts Club (2000) and Besotted (2001) and episodes of Burke’s Law, The Wild Wild West, Police Story, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-O, Charlie’s Angels, Eight Is Enough, Dallas, Days of Our Lives and Knight Rider.

McBAIN, Diane (Diane Jean McBain)

Born: 5/18/1941, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

Died: 12/21/2022, Woodland Hills, California, U.S.A.

 

Diane McBain’s westerns – actress:

Maverick (TV) – 1959 (Charlotte Stanton, Holly Vaughn)

The Alaskans (TV) – 1960 (Harriet Pemberton)

Lawman (TV) – 1960 (Lilac Allen)

Sugarfoot (TV) – 1960 (Joan Guild)

A Distant Trumpet – 1964 (Laura Frelief)

The Wild Wild West (TV) – 1965, 1967 (Elaine Dodd, Jennifer Wingate)

The Wild Season – 1971 (Celia ‘Doc’ Drew)

Barbary Coast (TV) - 1975 (Myra Landis)

Donner Pass: The Road to Survival (TV) – 1978 (Margaret Reed)

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (TV) – 1978 (Jenny)

Legend of the Wild – 1981 (Jenny)

Red Fury – 1984 (Miss French)

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV) – 1998 (old woman)

RIP Gabrielle Beaumont

 

Television director who made her mark with US series such as Dynasty, M*A*S*H and The Waltons, and adapted Jilly Cooper’s Riders for British TV

 

The Guardian

By Anthony Hayward

December 19, 2022

Gabrielle Beaumont, who has died of cancer aged 80, was a British television director who blazed a trail for women in Hollywood. She worked on worldwide hits such as M*A*S*H and The Waltons, and was the first woman to direct an episode of a Star Trek series. In the UK her work included the drama Riders (1993), based on the raunchy Jilly Cooper novel.

Beaumont turned up in Los Angeles in 1980 with cans of film from a horror movie she had just directed, The Godsend, and met the producer Aaron Spelling. Not interested in her film, Spelling – with the industry then under pressure to employ more female directors – simply asked her: “Can you goddamn direct?” Her reply came: “Goddamn yes!” Spelling assigned her to an episode in that year’s series of Vega$, set among the desert city’s colourful casinos and starring Robert Urich as a Vietnam veteran-turned-private eye.

The following year, the gloss and glitz continued as Beaumont worked on Dynasty, Spelling’s answer to Dallas, featuring another oil-rich family, headed by Blake Carrington (played by John Forsythe), and set in Denver, Colorado. When she joined towards the end of that first series, Dynasty was only just beginning to catch on with viewers. For the second run (1981-82), she suggested her friend Joan Collins for the role of Alexis, Blake’s ex-wife, and was instrumental in turning the soap around.

In 1989, she directed Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first live-action sequel to the 1960s sci-fi series. Later, she worked on episodes of the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine (in 1997) and Voyager (in 2000).

At the beginning of the 80s, Beaumont was among fewer than 100 professional female directors in the US, whereas by the end of the decade there were about 500.

She was sometimes accused by TV critics of lacking subtlety, but like Spelling she knew how to make dramas for mass audiences. She was back in Britain to direct the miniseries Riders, billed in TV Times magazine as a “sex sizzler”, and took a cameo acting role in it as Lady Roxborough.

She later caused controversy with the drama Diana: A Tribute to the People’s Princess (1998), which she wrote and directed as a TV movie, broadcast eight months after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It focused on the last year of Diana’s life, including her final weeks with Dodi Fayed. Lawyers for the princess’s family failed to block its worldwide screening and reviewers variously described the production as “tacky” and a “mixture of Mills & Boon and Hollywoodese”. Beaumont defended the production, saying: “Obviously, we do not know what was said between Diana and Dodi, so we were trying to get inside their heads to see how they ticked.”

Gabrielle was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, to Diana Beaumont, an actor, and her husband, Gabriel Toyne, an actor-manager and fight arranger. The author Daphne du Maurier was Diana’s cousin. Taking her mother’s maiden name on leaving Our Lady of Sion school, in Notting Hill, London, Gabrielle had a short acting career in productions such as Counterpoint, a triple bill including the stage premiere of Harold Pinter’s play A Night Out (Comedy theatre, 1961). Then, as assistant stage manager, she worked on the Lionel Bart musical Blitz! (Adelphi theatre, 1962).

She joined BBC television in 1964 as a production assistant but soon moved into the film industry. After producing two movies, The Johnstown Monster and The Corpse (both 1971), she went to the ITV company Thames Television to direct daytime programmes – the chat series Good Afternoon! from 1973 to 1976, the serials Marked Personal in 1974, Couples in 1975 and Rooms in 1977, and the preschool show Rainbow between 1978 and 1980. She also directed The Tomorrow People during 1978. Two years later, Beaumont joined London Independent Television, a consortium led by the TV presenter Hughie Green that failed in a bid for both of the capital’s ITV franchises.

Her early work in the US included episodes of of M*A*S*H, The Waltons and the Dallas soap spin-off Knots Landing (all 1981), as well as that year’s TV movie Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story. Continuing as a director-for-hire, she took in episodes of other major series such as The Dukes of Hazzard (1982), Hart to Hart (1982-83), Cagney & Lacey (1984), Remington Steele (1985-86), the Dynasty spin-off The Colbys (1986), Hill Street Blues (1983-86), Miami Vice (1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987), LA Law (1988-92), Law & Order (1993), Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (1996), Beverly Hills 90210 (1994-98) and Baywatch (2000). She then retired to Mallorca.

Beaumont’s first marriage, to the actor Olaf Pooley (1982-93), ended in divorce. In 1994, she married the cinematographer Michael J Davis; he died in 2008. Amanda, the daughter of her first marriage, died in 1989. Beaumont is survived by her brother, Christopher Toyne, a producer.

BEAUMONT, Gabrielle (Gabrielle Amanda Toyne)

Born: 4/7/1942, Gerrards Cross, Buckhinghamshire, England, U.K.

Died: 10/8/2022, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain

 

Gabrielle Beaumont’s western – director:

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV) - 1996

RIP Jane Sherwin

 

Tardis Fandom

December 17, 2022

 

Jane Sherwin (born Eleanor Margaret Jane Parsons, 1934 – December 16, 2022) the British actress, known for her appearances in science fiction television, with roles in the Doctor Who and Blake’s 7, also appearing in Paul Temple, Softly, Softly, Agony, and Cribb, etc.

Jane trained at RADA, graduating in 1954. She started her career using her maiden name, appearing on television and in Provincial Repertory but took a break for a while to look after her three children. Returning to acting in the late 1960s, Jane adopted her marriage name (after her marriage to actor/producer Derrick Sherwin) and resumed her TV career.

After leaving her acting career and the breakup of her marriage, Sherwin took on voluntary work for good causes. These included Amnesty International (being the Central America Co-ordinator for the British Section), Refugees, and the Homeless. She collated poetry for collections and held sessions at the St Michael and All Angels Church, Barnes, where she attended for over 50 years writing and performing into old age.

Jane died on December 16, 2022, at the age of 88.

SHERWIN, Jane (Eleanor Margaret Jane Parsons)

Born: 1934, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, British Antilles

Died: 12/16/2022,

 

Jane Sherwin’s western – actress:

Hawkeye, the Pathfinder (TV) – 1973 (Mrs. Watson)

RIP Daniela Giordano

 

Daniela Giordano has died, the only one from Palermo to have won Miss Italy 

Quotidiano Nazionale

December 18, 2022

 

She combined beauty with cinema. The actress Daniela Giordano has died at the age of 74 in Palermo, after a short illness: in 1966, at the age of 19, she was elected Miss Italy in Salsomaggiore. She was the first girl from Palermo to win the competition and since then no other girl from the capital of Sicily has managed to achieve this result. That was a gateway to the world of cinema.

Since her debut in 1967 with Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia as the beautiful Rosina in I barbieri di Sicilia, she was called to act in over 50 films especially in the seventies. She played various roles in western, historical films and Italian comedies including Vedo nudo with Nino Manfredi and directed by Dino Risi. The site of Miss Italy also recalls that she took part in the film Playboy and the television drama The Adventures of Baron Von Trenck. Firm and decisive character, he has always maintained a great confidentiality about his private life. Over 30 years ago she married Emilio Latini, a photographer mainly of stars and film personalities.

The site of IISS Italy recalls that she was the daughter of a bank official, who studied languages and after the election embarked on an acting career, continuing to cultivate the hobby of astronomy.

She married photographer Emilio Lantini over 30 years ago.

Daniela Giordano will be cremated. She wanted her ashes to be scattered in the sea of Mondello where she lived and where she was chosen for the first time as Miss Palermo in the historic local "Little Mermaid".

GIORDANO, Daniela

Born: 11/7/1946, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Died:  12/18/2022, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

 

Daniela Giordano’s westerns – actress:

Find a Place to Die – 1968 (Juanita)

Long Day of the Massacre – 1968 (Paquita)

Amen – 1969 (Barbara)

The 5-Man Army – 1969 (Maria)

The 4 Gunmen of the Holy Trinity – 1970 (Sarah Bowman/Baldwin)

Have a Nice Funeral My Friend – 1970 (Jasmine/Abigail Benson)

His Name Was Pot... They Called Him Allegria – 1971 (Mexican girl)

Stay Away from Trinity When He Comes to Eldorado – 1972 (Juanita)

Trinity & Sartana Those Sons of Bitches – 1972 (Martha)

RIP Lando Buzzanca

 

Farewell to the “male blackbird” Lando Buzzanca

 

Italy 24

By Richard

December 18, 2022

 

Lando Buzzanca, the actor who more than anyone else played the Italian male ‘sciupafemmine’, died today at the age of 87. For a couple of years he had been suffering from a disabling disease that had compromised his mental and cognitive faculties and for a few weeks, after the fracture of his femur, he had been hospitalized in the Gemelli hospital.

His son Massimo Buzzanca confirmed the news of his disappearance:“Yesterday I came to see him – he told Adnkronos – and I think he recognized me because he wanted to get up. I convinced him to stay in bed. Of course, his conditions weren’t the best, but I hoped that at least this Christmas would pass with us. When they called me to tell me that he had gotten worse, I was leaving the house to visit him, but I arrived late”.

The difficult adolescence of Lando Buzzanca

Gerlando Buzzanca, known as Lando, was born in Palermo on August 24, 1935 into a family of artists. Uncle was an actor, while his father was a projectionist. Since he was a child, Nando has been fascinated by the world of cinema and, at the age of 8, he expresses his desire to pursue an acting career to his father, but in response he receives a resounding slap. Not demoralized at all, Lando, around the age of 16-17, moved to Rome to attend the Sharoff Academy of Dramatic Art and, at the same time, adapted to doing even the humblest jobs. These were difficult years and the aspiring Sicilian actor even decides to prostitute himself and thus satisfy the desires of the Roman forty-year-olds.“Once I was chosen by a cross-eyed lady, but with a body of disarming beauty. After making love, when I was looking for an excuse to pocket the money and leave, while trying to leave the hotel room she took me to, she pulled out a gun. I said to myself: ‘If you want to be an actor, you have to get out of this scam’. After further discussions with her, I pocketed the 300 lire and definitively archived that kind of experience”, Buzzanca will reveal to ilGiornaleOff.it.

The 70s, Lando Buzzanca becomes The male blackbird

In 1956 he married Lucia Peralta with whom he had two sons, Massimiliano and Mario Buzzanca. In 1959 he was taken for an extra role in the blockbuster Ben Hur. Two years later comes the turning point in his professional career when Pietro Germi chooses him before him for the role of Rosario Mulè in the film Italian divorce and, then, in 1964 for the film Seduced and abandoned. Also in 1964 he was a supporting actor in the drama film Without sun or moon, while three years later it was the director Alberto Lattuada who wanted him for the film Don Giovanni in Sicily, taken from the homonymous novel by the writer Vitaliano Brancati. From that moment on Buzzanca was engaged in a whole series of sexy Italian comedies in which he played the part of the great seducer. “Thanks to those films I bought the villa by the sea. And, in any case, even in those parts there were less trivial implications than one might think. The feminists hated me, but a weak man emerged, dominated by women.” Buzzanca will say. The film that determines its international consecration is The blackbird male of 1971, directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile. “The Male Blackbird was a useless man. He only realizes he’s someone when everyone is looking at him because he has a beautiful wife,” the actor will explain who, after having achieved ever greater success at the box office, decides to make a more accurate selection of films in which to act. “Adam and Eve proposed to me, Fenech and I had to stand on stage naked with a fig leaf in front of it: it was really too much, I said no”will say the Sicilian actor who in 1970 also enjoyed great success on television with the program Mr and Mrspaired with Delia Scala.

After starring in films such as The referee, the trade unionist and The Honorable likes women, is slowly being pushed aside due to his political views of right. “When I had to play in the theater in the red provinces I couldn’t get in. In Savona they had to change the company because they didn’t want me. And in Bologna, I performed in a private theatre”Buzzanca will reveal that he sees in the right the guarantor of some values, very dear to him such as“order, family, merit”. With the advent of the Second Republic he will have words of esteem towards Silvio Berlusconi: “With all the quarrels that are heard around him, it was politics that took away a lot of his money. To defend himself he had to spend 480 million on lawyers. Who cares if he fucks, he’s divorced! They hate him because he is a successful man ”. On the occasion of the 2006 Politics, however, he declared his willingness to vote An in the Chamber and DS in the Senate to help his friend Gianni Borgna get elected (but his support was not enough). The following year, then, he casts his vote in favour Walter Veltroni at the head of the Capitol:“I remain a man of the right, but in Rome I vote for Veltroni: an intellectual of European stature”. In more recent times, speaking of the leader of the League Matteo Salvini, he will say: “He’s intelligent, that’s why they want to kill him. But he is one who speaks saying serious things: when he stopped the ships it was because he couldn’t stand it anymore, he was exaggerating. We help people but not everyone: we can’t have seven hundred million people entering a country, they’re eating Italy from us!”.

From returning to TV to depression over the death of his wife

Buzzanca’s professional career, after a few years in the theater, revived in 2005 when the Sicilian actor starred in the Raiuno fiction My son which tells the story of Commissioner Vivaldi, the father of a homosexual boy and for this reason he receives quite a few criticisms from the center-right. In 2007 Buzzanca received the Golden Globe for Best Actor and a nomination for the David di Donatello for his portrayal of Prince Giacomo Uzeda in the film The Viceroys by Roberto Faenza, based on the homonymous novel by Federico De Roberto. In 2010, after more than 50 years of marriage, his wife Lucia died of an incurable disease. “I was a shitty man, because as soon as I found a woman capable of letting me live a moment or a day together, I went there. But then I always came home because I loved my wife, I really loved her”, admits the actor who , after the death of his wife, he experiences a great period depression.

In 2013, despite a renewed appreciation from the television audience that follows him with pleasure in fiction The restorer Buzzanca attempts suicide.“When we met she was not yet 18 and I was 20, we grew up in love. After her death I had everything ready, I had filled the tub with hot water, I was ready to cut my wrists. My sons Mario and Massimiliano stopped me”he will reveal in 2014. Two years later Buzzanca begins a romantic relationship with the journalist Frances Della Valle40 years younger than him and, again in 2016, he resumed working by participating as a competitor in the program Dancing with the Stars paired with Sara Mardegan. Instead, the film is from 2017 Who will save the roses? in which he and Carlo Delle Piane play the role of an elderly gay couple.

In April 2021 Buzzanca, now 85 years old, was hospitalized in the Santo Spirito hospital in Rome after falling at home and suffering a head injury. After about a month, Francesca Della Valle accuses her family (who deny her) of not allowing her to have news of her boyfriend. The sons Massimiliano and Mario, after the ischemia that struck his father in 2014 causing him aphasia, chose to appoint a support administrator who would take care of managing the family assets. A choice that, already in 2019, had been strongly criticized by the person concerned: “They want to make me look stupid, they want to sell my beautiful house and they want to put someone next to me to manage my money and my assets. I don’t deserve to end like this”Buzzanca had told the weekly Moreover. The actor, in November 2022, at the age of 87, falls from his wheelchair into the RSA where he had been a guest for some time and is hospitalized at the Gemelli polyclinic in Rome.

BUZZANCA, Lando (Gerlando Buzzanca)

Born: 8/24/1935, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Died: 12/18/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Lando Buzzanca’s westerns – actor:

For a Few Dollars Less – 1966 (Bill)

Rebels on the Loose – 1966 (Private Chester/Ringo)

The Beast – 1970 (stagecoach driver)

RIP Wolfgang Ziffer

 

Deutsche Synchronkartei

12/13/2022

 

Deutsche Synchronkartei reports that German voice actor Wolfgang Ziffer died on December 12, 2022.

Ziffer was born on October 26, 1941, Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany and was a voice actor. Like a number of people in the voice acting industry, Ziffer was rarely seen live on film or television.

He was known for his work on In der “Arche ist der Wurm drin” (1988), ‘Benjamin Blümchen’ (1988) and “Werwölfe” (1973). His role as Iago in “Aladdin” was replaced with Michael Pan in subsequent sequels and television shows. He dubbed 1980s Robot in ‘The Muppets’. He previously dubbed Tar in the Farscape - Verschollen im All episode "Dream a Little Dream."

With a distinctive high-pitched voice, Ziffer often voiced robots, aliens, squawking birds, cartoon characters, or other off-beat creatures. His mechanical resume began with V.I.N.C.E.N.T. in Disney's “The Black Hole”, followed by Johnny 5 in “Short Circuit” and its sequel. For the Star Wars prequels and tie-ins, he assumed the role of C-3PO from fellow voice actor Joachim Tennstedt (who returned to the part for The Force Awakens).

Ziffer dubbed Jack Pumpkinhead in “Return to Oz”, Warwick Davis as Wicket in “The Ewok Adventure”, and the lead roach in “Joe's Apartment”, as well as Terry Jones as Prince Herbert in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, Joel Grey in “The Seven-Percent Solution”, and Richard Dawson on TV’s ‘Hogan's Heroes’.

Cartoon roles, often as excitable types or squeaking critters, include Roger Rabbit in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, Gurgi in “The Black Cauldron”, Dale on “Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers” and other series, Dino on ‘The Flintstones’, Shaggy on ‘Scooby-Doo’, Willi the worm in the German animated feature ‘Stoawaways on the Ark’, and Digit the roach in “An American Tail”. Bird roles include the raven Gulliver on the German series ‘Benjamin Blümchen’, a different raven Rocco on the children's audio series ‘Xanti, and Petri in the Land Before Time’ franchise.

ZIFFER, Wolfgang

Born: 10/26/1941, Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Died: 12/12/2022, Germany

 

Wolfgang Zifer’s western – voice actor, dubber:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1955-1975 [German voice of Victor French]

Bonanza (TV) 1959-1973 [German voice of David Pritchard, Andre Philippe, Ray Daley,

     Leonard Nimoy, Keith Carradine, Randy Boone, Armand Alzamora

High Chaparral (TV)- 1967-1971 [German voice of Sandy Rosenthal, Ron Hayes]

My Name is Nobody – 1973 [German voice of telegrapher]

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – 1973 [German voice of Bob Dylan]

Westworld – 1973 [German voice of Jared Martin]

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1981 [German voice of Mike Bell]

Lucky Luke – 1984 [German voice of William Dalton]

Cherry 2000 – 1987 [German voice of Howard Swain]

The New Zorro (TV) – 1990-1993 [German voice of Maurice O’Connell]

Lucky Luke (TV) – 2001-2003 [German voice of Bernard Alane]

Fernand Cowboy -1996 [German voice of FernandRaynaud]

For a Few Dollars More – 1996 [German voice of Kurt Zips, Roman Ariznavarreta]

Rango – 2011 [German voice of Lew Temple]

RIP Calpurnio

 

The illustrator Calpurnio Pisón, creator of 'El Bueno de Cuttlas', dies at the age of 63

Calpurnio is considered one of the most acclaimed cartoonists in the country

 

La Vaguardia

By Antonio Lozano

12/15/2022

 

This 2022 has been confirmed as a cursed year for the world of comics and illustration with the death, this Thursday, in Valencia, at the age of 63, due to a long illness, of Eduardo Pelegrín Martínez de Pisón, better known as Calpurnio Pisón . If the name does not sound familiar to you, it is much more likely that the name of his most memorable creation does, the cowboy Cuttlas, an iconic character in Spanish comics in recent decades, whose highly original adventures and philosophical dissertations were born in the fanzine El Japo in 1983 to be later collected by mythical publications such as El Víbora and Makoki , among many others, in addition to reaching markets such as French, Japanese or Brazilian.

Compared to other cowboys with a more archetypal profile and clear lines, such as Lucky Luke or Lieutenant Blueberry, the one dubbed Good Cuttlas was just a silhouette or puppet with lines so simple that they bordered on childishness, he lived simultaneously in several eras ( Where else has a cowboy been seen to be up to date with the most advanced technology or to party in the desert with Cherokees playing electronic music?), he was prodigal in surprising dissertations on the meaning of life and the human condition. Pure existentialist minimalism covered in hilarious irony.

The enormous popularity of the character led him to make the leap to short films, commercials and a puppet play.

As the specialist in comics Álvaro Pons wrote at the time, “Calpurnio is a genius who has spent twenty years making a masterpiece with the most limited resources in the world: the closed space of a page and characters sketched in the most synthetic way possible, with some sticks”. The enormous popularity of the character led him to make the leap to short films, advertisements and a puppet play and, as happened to Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, his creator had to back down (twice!) from his wish to kill him in the face of strong opposition from his legion of fans.

Apart from his most emblematic creation, he signed books such as El Signo de los Tiempos, Mundo Plasma or the highly praised illustrations for the remastered version of the Odyssey published by the Blackie Books label in 2022.

Pisón began his professional career in the infographics department of the newspaper El Heraldo de Aragón , a stage that he declared had nourished him with the necessary muscle to work under pressure, which allowed him to chain journalistic media to which he would nourish with his illustrations - El País (1995- 2001), 20 minutos (2004-2015) and recently Plaza magazine -, work that he combined with scripts and drawings for animated films, as well as numerous promotional and advertising graphic works.

In 1997, the versatile artist opened a new creative window working as a video jockey under the pseudonym ERROR video, thus producing highly abstract video creations that took him to various electronic music festivals and to collaborate with musicians such as Mad Professor or the electronic rock group Neotokyo. Among the cascade of awards he received throughout his career were the Revelation Author Award from the Saló del Còmic de Barcelona in 1993, the Ciutat de Palma Comic Award in 2016, the Aragonese Comic Award 2016 in recognition of an entire career and the 2018 Huelva International Comic Fair Award.

His last job was the creation of the poster for the new edition of the Zaragoza Comic Fair, which is held this December.

His latest work was the creation of the poster for the new edition of the Zaragoza Comic Fair, which will be held between December 16 and 18 and which will be the first opportunity to posthumously pay homage to one of the greats of illustration and art. Spanish comic of the last half century.

The artist from Zaragoza has died at the age of 63 as a result of a long illness. The artist from Zaragoza was a renowned cartoonist, screenwriter, animator and video jockey, whose best-known work is the El Bueno de Cuttlas comics, where he narrated the exploits of a cowboy from a minimalist style with simple lines. 

Calpurnio (Eduardo Pelegrín Martínez de Pisón)

Born: 1959, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain

Died: 12/15/2022, Valencia, Valencia, Spain

 

Calpurnio’s westerns – illustrator, animator, animation director:

The Good Cutlas – 1990 [animator]

Atolladero – 1995 [animation director]

The Man of the West – 1999 [illustrator]

The Molecular Gunslinger – 2000 [illustrator]

The Samurai Cowboy - 2014