RIP Jacques Lussier

 

Actor Jacques Lussier is dead

La Presse

By Luc Boulanger

April 30, 2024

 

 

Jacques Lussier, who became known to Quebec audiences in the 1980s and 1990s by starring in a dozen soap operas and popular series, died last week, La Presse has learned. The comedian was 64.

His most memorable role was that of Inspector Henri Douville in Les filles de Caleb and then in Blanche, in the early 1990s. On the small screen, Jacques Lussier has also starred in Cormoran, Les machos, Sous le signe du lion, as well as Monsieur le ministre, alongside Michel Dumont.

On the big screen, he will be remembered in Pouvoir intime, a film by Yves Simoneau, starring Robert Gravel and Pierre Curzi. The multilingual actor has also starred in English, including in the drama Grey Owl, directed by British director Sir Richard Attenborough, and starring Pierce Brosnan.

On the Boards

A graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal, Jacques Lussier worked in theatre, mainly in the 1980s and 1990s. It was directed by Robert Lepage at the TNM (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and by Denise Filiatrault (Les palmes de Monsieur Schultz). Previously, after graduating from the Conservatoire in 1982, he had been noticed in the creation of Normand Chaurette's play Provincetown Playhouse, July 1919, I Was 19 Years Old, at the Café Nelligan.

The actor sometimes spoke to the media about social issues, such as the housing crisis, or political and cultural issues. "I've had some good years, but it's a job that can be nerve-wracking when you don't make a penny for weeks or months," he told the newspaper La Voix de l'Est in 2008 in an article about the precariousness of artists and the Harper government's cuts to culture.

Unfortunately, after a strong start to his career, the actor had some dry spells at the end of his career, with health and financial problems. His last television appearance was in the series Doute reasonable, last year, in the role of Mathieu Delisle.

His agent, from the Chantal David talent agency, had not represented him for several months. As a result, she was unable to provide us with any further information.

LUSSIER, Jacques

Born: 3/1/1960, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Died: 4/?/2024,

 

Jacques Lussier’s westerns – actor:

Grey Owl – 1999 (hotel manager)

RIP Gabriella Andreini

 

Il Mondo dei Doppiatori

April 28, 2024

 

The Italian voice actor website has reported the passing of Italian actress and voice dubber Gabriella Andreini who died in Salerno, Italy on April 28, 2024 one week after her 86th birthday. She was born Gabriella Baistrocchi on April 16, 1938, in Naples and moved to Rome at a very young age to attend acting courses at the National Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduating, one of her first roles was with the Gassman-Randone company in Shakespeare's “Othello”. She also had the opportunity to work, with some frequency, in television prose: in 1957 in O'Neill's “Fermenti” directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, then in Turgenev's “A Month in the Countryside” and in several episodes of ‘Le inchieste del commissario Maigret’, directed originally by Mario Landi. She then appeared in around 30 films and TV series from 1957 to 1979 but never in a leading role. Gabriela also was a film dubber working mainly on cartoons and on Rai radio.

ANDREINI, Gabriela (Gabriella Baistrocchi)

Born: 4/16/1938, Naples, Campania, Italy

Died: 4/28/2024, Salerno, Naples, Campania, Italy

 

Gabriela Andreini’s westerns – actress:

Zorro the Rebel – 1966 (Nina)

The Crazy Adventures of Len and Coby – 1974 (Miss Peabody)

RIP Kelvin Crumplin

Facebook

By Sue

April 21, 2024

 

First of all I apologise to those friends of Kel’s who have written messages that I haven’t been able to answer but I will do my best when I can……..And now for the sad news  Your friend and my lover boy Kel, lost the good fight in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time. As you can imagine I am grief stricken and yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster so even looking at his phone was too much to bear. I miss him so very much. I only knew him for 8 years but he was ‘Simply The Best’. He was unique with a heart of gold as many of you can testify to……..always ready to help others particularly when he had his film labs both in Sydney and Perth. He was there to support such greats as Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton when they were unknowns and worked with Ryan Gosling at the start of his career. Not only actors but new young film makers too as you might have read about from comments made on my previous post. Kelvin was so passionate about film and about life! We crammed so much fun and laughter into our God given 8 years…….the happiest years of my life Our first date was to see a film…..yes you guessed it - A Western, his favourite genre! It was “The Hateful Eight” by Tarantino and

I’ll never forget that 1st date because it was on the eighth of January 2016. Another passion that had played such an important part in his life was the regiment of the Royal Green Jackets. He joined as a boy soldier at the age of 15 and a half but being a bit of a rebel, he told me he ended up in the gaol house a few times, but they managed to knock some sense into him with the discipline he needed, and he was never as proud as when he was marching with the men. He was an excellent bugle player and a top-notch rifle shooter - any RFG reading this, please pull me up if I’m wrong because it may have been a gun not a rifle. Kelvin directed the film for the RGJ 50th reunion in Winchester in 2016 and the video will stay in the archives for posterity. What a contribution to have made to the RGJ. He was a perfectionist in everything he did whether operating the camera, directing or producing. He was never shy to give it a go with anything. From DIY to photography, he was IT! Both artistic and practical and the man I loved…..Sorry I’m feeling emotional.

Kel was looking forward to the RGJ reunion in Winchester in July this year and catching up with the lads in ‘The Royal Oak’. To his mates…..Raise a glass to your mucker Kel won’t you on the day. We were there last year even though it wasn’t a reunion year because he knew some of his mates would be there and a jolly time was had by all I know this has been a long post but I hope you have found it interesting.

Your friend and my lover boy Kel was an exceptional and unique human being whose been taken from us far too soon and who is sadly missed.

                Ride high cowboy Kel…..See ya later pal……Love Ya from all of us

CRUMPLIN, Kelvin

Born: 1947, Sydney, Australia

Died: 4/20/2024, Bournemouth, England, U.K.

 

Kelvin Crumplin’s western – producer, cameraman:

Four Winds - 2013

RIP Margaret Lee

 

Margaret Lee, Wolverhampton-born actress who became a huge star in Italian Eurospy movies – obituary

With a dancer’s pep, she became a major Italian cover girl thanks to a run of slapdash spy pastiches, appearing in 12 films in a single year

The Telegraph

May 3, 2024

 

Margaret Lee, who has died aged 80, was an actress from the West Midlands who won fame overseas as a knowing, Marilyn Monroe-like blonde in a series of European genre movies cranked out in the late 1960s and early 1970s; in the UK, however, she remained largely uncelebrated – although her story could have played out very differently had a pivotal early-career audition gone in her favour.

Aged barely 20 as a fresh-faced graduate of the Italia Conti theatre school, Margaret Lee found herself in the running to play Tatiana Romanova, the KGB agent who seduces, and subsequently falls for, James Bond in From Russia with Love (1963).

She lost out to the Italian newcomer Daniela Bianchi – and yet it would be Margaret Lee who eclipsed Daniela Bianchi to become one of Italy’s biggest female stars, chiefly by playing the love interest in 007 knock-offs and parodies.

In a string of popular comedies featuring the Italian duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia – including Two Jokers at the Moulin Rouge (1964) and General Custer’s Two Sergeants (1965) – Margaret Lee served as Dorothy Lamour had done in Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s Road movies, cutting through the boys’ bluff badinage with flashes of leg and wit.

“It was not the career in theatre I had dreamed of,” she told one interviewer, “but it was acting.”

Margaret Lee became a major Italian cover girl thanks to a rash of slapdash spy pastiches from the opportunistic producer Harry Alan Towers, positioning himself as a cut-price Cubby Broccoli. Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) paired her with Tony Randall, Herbert Lom and Wilfrid Hyde-White; in Five Golden Dragons (1967), which spliced espionage capers with the newly voguish kung fu, Lee gave a breathy rendition of the John Barry-aping theme song.

She had a dancer’s pep, and appeared in 12 films in 1965 alone: “I adored it,” she said. “I felt so at home on the movie set that I often would stay behind to watch filming even when I had finished for the day. We often worked very long hours but it seemed to actually give me energy rather than tire me.”

Even so, she later confessed to a measure of Marilynesque regret as to how those energies had been applied: “I imagined myself in more dramatic roles, but I guess that is not how others saw me.”

She was born Margaret Gwendolyn Box on August 4 1943 to a mother who had been relocated to Wolverhampton during the Blitz. At the end of the war the family returned to London, where the young Margaret studied at Greenwich’s Roan School for Girls (according to one contemporary, the pair spent their teenage years chasing a pre-fame Mick Jagger around the south London rail network).

After graduating from Italia Conti, Lee successfully answered an advert in The Stage seeking dancers for the Moulin Rouge; once installed on the continent, she won a role opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the Cinecitta-shot Cleopatra (1963), but her scenes were cut from the finished film.

Instead, she made her screen debut in lowlier circumstances, appearing alongside 1957’s Mr Universe Reg Lewis in Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962), a routine sword-and-sandals programmer.

Her sensuality was a gift for a newly permissive cinema: in Casanova 70 (1965), she was manhandled by Marcello Mastroianni, whom she described as “sweet”. Yet – like many – she endured a fraught working relationship with Klaus Kinski, the emergent wild man of European cinema, with whom Margaret Lee made a total of 11 increasingly lurid thrillers between 1966 and 1971.

Margaret Lee felt obliged to correct the record of Kinski’s characteristically unreliable, self-glorifying 1975 memoir All I Need Is Love, in which the actor claimed that he enjoyed threesomes with his co-star and her fellow actress Maria Rohm: “This is totally untrue, and I am sorry he abased himself this way. Klaus and I were chums and he was a close friend of my husband Gino, too; there was never any sexual side to our friendship… ever. I was angry for a while, but now I forgive him.”

Returning home upon the birth of her second child in 1973, Margaret Lee booked one episode of the Gerry Anderson-produced ITV caper The Protectors (1972-74), but saw her visibility dwindle as a result of industry indifference, “I guess because I was known in Italy and to some extent France, but not in England. I did not think seriously of trying to work there.”

Her final screen credit, at the age of 40, came with the crime comedy Neapolitan Sting (1983) opposite Treat Williams.

She moved decisively to northern California in the mid-1980s, studying Stanislavski in San Francisco and working in local theatre, but still thinking of herself as an Italian movie actress and never aspiring to be known internationally. In retrospect, she said, “this might have been a limitation and a mistake”.

She was married three times – to the producer Gino Malerba, Patrick Anderson and Walter Creighton – and is survived by two sons, the production manager Damian Anderson and Roberto Malerba, a producer on the Bond film Spectre (2015).

Margaret Lee, born August 4 1943, died April 24 2024.

LEE, Margaret (Margaret Gwendolyn Box)

Born: 8/4/1943, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, U.K.

Died: 4/24/2024, London, England, U.K.

 

Margaret Lee’s westerns – actress:

The Two Sergeants of General Custer - 1965 (Beth/Betty ‘The Lynx’ Smith)

Djurado – 1966 (Mitzy)

 

RIP Marla Adams

 

Marla Adams, Dina on ‘The Young and the Restless,’ Dies at 85

The Emmy winner also appeared on Broadway, played Natalie Wood's BFF in 'Splendor in the Grass' and starred on 'The Secret Storm.'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 26, 2024

 

Marla Adams, the Emmy-winning soap opera veteran who starred as the scheming Dina Abbott Mergeron during parts of five decades on The Young and the Restless, has died. She was 85.

Adams died Thursday in Los Angeles, Matt Kane, director of media and talent for Y&R, announced.

When she was just starting out, Adams appeared in 1958 alongside Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on Broadway in The Visit and portrayed June, the high school best friend of Natalie Wood‘s Deanie, in Elia Kazan‘s Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Herr first prominent role on a daytime drama came on CBS’ The Secret Storm, where she played bad girl Belle Clemens from 1968 until the show’s 1974 demise. “I was the bitch of daytime,” she said in a 2016 interview. “I played a good bitch.”

Adams joined Y&R in 1982 but left when her three-year contract was up. She returned to Genoa City for brief stints in 1991, 1996 and 2008 before being asked by head writer-producer Sally Sussman to go it again in 2017.

“I remember when [Sussman told her], ‘I’m going to bring you back on The Young and the Restless, but you’ve got Alzheimer’s,’ and I said, ‘What!? You’re bringing me back so you can kill me off?'” she recalled in 2020. “And she said, ‘Oh no, it’ll be about a year.’ That dissolved into four years.”

Viewers watched the Abbott matriarch slowly and heartbreakingly unravel before dying in an episode in October 2020. In her final moments, she addressed her kids, Traci (Beth Maitland), Jack (Peter Bergman) and Ashley (Eileen Davidson), before being welcomed into heaven by her first husband, John Abbott (Jerry Douglas).

Eight months later, Adams received the lone Daytime Emmy of her long career.

“From all the characters I’ve played, from The Secret Storm to Broadway, this has been the most astonishing, amazing part I’ve had the privilege to play,” she said.

Marla Adams was born on Aug. 28, 1938, in Ocean City, New Jersey. She was named Miss Diamond Jubilee at the 75th anniversary celebration of her hometown in 1954 and graduated two years later from Ocean City High School.

She spent two years with The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was hired for The Visit, directed by Peter Brook, on the day she graduated. “I played Alfred Lunt’s daughter, and I thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be downhill from here,'” she told Soap Opera Digest in 2018.

Adams made her big-screen debut in the period drama Splendor in the Grass, which was Warren Beatty‘s first movie, too.

After Belle made life miserable for Jada Rowland’s Amy Ames on The Secret Storm, she moved to Los Angeles when the soap was canceled and guest-starred on episodes of The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Harry O, Adam-12, Starsky and Hutch, Marcus Welby, M.D., Barnaby Jones, The Love Boat, Emergency! and Archie Bunker’s Place before landing on Y&R.

The actress also portrayed Mildred Deal on ABC’s General Hospital in 1963; the conniving Myrna Clegg — between turns by Carolyn Jones and Marj Dusay — on CBS’ Capitol in 1983; Helen Mullin on NBC’s Generations in 1989-90; Beth Logan on CBS’ The Bold and the Beautiful in 1990-91; and Dr. Claire McIntyre on NBC’s Days of Our Lives in 1999.

She was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her turn as Dina in 2018 before winning one three years later.

“On behalf of the entire company of The Young and the Restless, we send our deepest sympathies to Marla’s family,” Josh Griffith, executive producer and head writer of Y&R, said in a statement. “We’re so grateful and in awe of Marla’s incredible performance as Dina Mergeron as both Marla and Dina made an unforgettable mark on [the show].”

Survivors include her children, Gunnar and Pam; grandchildren Gefjon and Stone; and great-grandson Remi.

ADAMS, Marla

Born: 8/28/1938, Ocean Park, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Died: 4/25/2024, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Marla Adams’ western – actress:

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 2000-2001 (Betsy Harper)

RIP Bob Ellison

Bob Ellison was an American consultant, screenwriter and television producer. He was born in 1933 and worked on television programs including “Dear John”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Wings”. Ellison won two Primetime Emmy Awards and five nominations for Outstanding Writing Variety or Music from 1971 to 1977. Ken Levine mentioned bob died in April 2024, at the age of 91 on his podcast "Hollywood and Levine".

ELLISON, Bob (Robert Ellison)

Born: 1933, U.S.A.

Died: 4/18/2024, U.S.A.

 

Bob Ellison’s western – executive script consultant:

Best of the West (TV) - 1981

RIP Antonio Cantafora

 

Crotone in mourning, painter-actor Antonio Cantafora dies in Rome

Gazzetta del Sud

April 20, 2024

 

The actor Antonio Cantafora, originally from Crotone where he was born on February 2, 1944, died today in Rome at the age of 80.

Cantafora, after studying acting with the renowned Alessandro Fersen, made his debut on the big screen in 1967, but it was in the 1970s that he reached the peak of his fame, thanks to his uncanny resemblance to actor Terence Hill. Paired with Paul L. Smith, he embodied the role of the "handsome" in a series of films inspired by the duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. But his career has not been limited to leading roles. Cantafora was also a character actor, working with some of the most important directors of Italian cinema, including Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Mauro Bolognini. Films such as Lattuada's "The Cicada", Fellini's "Interview" and Carlo Vanzina's "A Spasso nel Tempo" are testament to his versatility and talent for bringing a wide range of characters to life.

Cantafora was also a prolific artist, with a passion for painting that he developed over the years. He has created hundreds of works of art, which have achieved success not only in Italy, but also abroad. Despite his success and prestige, Cantafora has always remained tied to his homeland, finding inspiration in his Calabrian roots for many of his works. For some time, he had been thinking of giving life to a new project inspired by the figure of Pythagoras, which he hoped to bring to life with the help of the Calabria Film Commission

Mayor Vicenzo Voce expressed condolences for the actor's passing: "Our fellow citizen - he wrote - was an appreciated film and television actor. Despite being far from Crotone, he has never broken his bond with the city. I express to the family - concluded Voce - the condolences of my family, of the administration and of the Crotone community".

CANTAFORA, Antonio

Born: 2/2/1944, Crotone, Calabria, Italy

Died: 4/20/2024, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Antonio Cantafora’s westerns – actor:

The Dirty Outlaws – 1967 (Bill Flannigan)

Joe Dakota – 1967 (Tab)

And God Said to Cain – 1969 (Dick Acombar)

Black Killer – 1971 (Ramon O’Hara)

Shoot Joe, and Shoot Again - 1971 (Jack’s henchman)

A Bounty Hunter for Trinity – 1972 (town council member)

Carambola – 1973 (Coby/Toby/Trinity) [as Michael Coby]

The Crazy Adventures of Len and Coby - 1974 (Toby) [as Michael Coby]

We Are No Angels - 1975 (Angel) [as Michael Coby]

Buck and the Magic Bracelet - 1997 (Sergeant O'Connor)

 

RIP Josef Laufer

 

Famous actor and singer Josef Laufer has died, after four years in artificial sleep 

Refle

By Viliam Buchert

April 21, 2024

 

Josef Laufer was born Don José José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes de Laufer in 1939.

Actor, director, singer and screenwriter Josef Laufer has died at the age of 84. The information was confirmed by the director of the Broadway Theatre, Oldřich Lichtenberg. "According to Ester Pep, he died of cardiac arrest," he said, referring to Laufer's daughter. The singer has been in artificial sleep for the past four years.

He was in artificial sleep

Doctors put him into it after a complication from heart valve surgery in March 2020.

Josef Laufer was born Don José José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes de Laufer in 1939. He was born in France to a father of Jewish origin and native Spaniards. His parents met in Spain during the Civil War, where Dr. Maximilián Laufer worked as an interbrigadist in the lazareth.

After the defeat of France by Germany, the family moved to Great Britain, and after 1947 to Czechoslovakia. After his apprenticeship, Josef Laufer worked at a research institute, but during his military service he began acting and directing amateur theater. After returning from the war, he made guest appearances at the ABC Theater and prepared for exams at the theater faculty, where he was recruited.

During his studies at DAMU, he founded the theater company RADAR, performed in films, musicals, and also began to appear on the television screen. He was fluent in English, Spanish and German.

In addition to acting, he also sang, recorded several records, among his most famous compositions are, for example, Goodbye love, I go further or Give me a belt.

Collaborator of the ŠtB

And he also drew attention to himself with the controversial song Letter to Free Europe, in which he celebrated the return of a State Security agent who carried out a bombing on the radio station Free Europe in Munich.

The song was not an initiative of the secret service, as was speculated in the 70s, but an artist's initiative. Laufer was registered by the ŠtB in the category of confidant with the code name Vostrý.

Thanks to his exotic appearance, Josef Laufer was a sought-after film actor, we saw him in films such as Night on Karlštejn, Gentlemen Boys, Old Men on Hops, Day for My Love, Virgin and Monster or the series Kameňák. He also starred in the series Engineering Odyssey and Circus Humberto.

He was married to costume designer Irena Greif, with whom he had a daughter, Esther. Greif died last year at the age of 83.

LAUFER, Josef (Don José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes Laufer)

Born: 8/11/1939, Sables d'Ollone, Vendée, France

Died: 4/20/2024, Prague, Czech Republic

 

Josef Laufer’s western – actor:

Starosta má starosti (TV) – 1989 (sheriff)

RIP Roman Gabriel

 

Rams legend Roman Gabriel dies at age 83

Rams Wire

By Cameron DaSilva

April 20, 2024

 

Los Angeles Rams legend Roman Gabriel died at the age of 83 on Saturday morning, his son announced on social media.

Gabriel spent the first 11 years of his NFL career with the Rams after being drafted second overall in 1962. During his 11 seasons in Los Angeles, he made the Pro Bowl three times and was a first-team All-Pro in 1969 – the same year he was voted league MVP. He went 74-39-6 as the team’s starting quarterback, throwing 154 touchdown passes and 112 interceptions.

Gabriel finished his career with the Eagles, playing five years in Philadelphia from 1973. He was a Pro Bowler once as a member of the Eagles, his first season with the team.

He put together a decorated collegiate career at NC State, too, earning first-team All-American honors in 1960 and 1961, as well as being voted a two-time ACC Player of the Year. He had his No. 18 jersey retired by the Wolfpack, one of just eight players to receive that honor.

NC State shared the following message on social media remembering the great quarterback.

GABRIEL, Roman (Roman Ildonzo Gabriel Jr.)

Born: 8/5/1940, Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Died: 4/20/2024, Calabash, North Carolina, U.S.A.

 

Roman Gabriel’s western – actor:

The Undefeated – 1969 (Blue Boy)

RIP Barbara O. Jones

 

Barbara O. Jones, ‘Daughters of the Dust’ Actress, Dies at 82

Part of the L.A. Rebellion film movement of the 1970s, she also was memorable in ‘Child of Resistance,’ ‘Diary of an African Nun,’ ‘Bush Mama’ and, opposite Muhammad Ali, ‘Freedom Road.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 18, 2024

 

Barbara O. Jones, the admired actress who emerged from the L.A. Rebellion movement of Black filmmakers at UCLA in the 1970s to star in Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, has died. She was 82.

Jones died Tuesday at her home in Dayton, Ohio, her brother, Raymond Minor, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Rest In Peace & Power,” Dash wrote on Instagram.

For Gerima, Jones portrayed an imprisoned woman fighting for social justice in the 36-minute short film Child of Resistance (1973) — the character was inspired by activist Angela Davis — and a welfare recipient in Watts who undergoes an ideological transformation in the filmmaker’s feature debut, Bush Mama (1979). Both films were made at UCLA.

Jones starred as a Ugandan nun questioning her faith in Dash’s 13-minute student film Diary of an African Nun (1977), adapted from an Alice Walker short story. She then reunited with Dash to play Yellow Mary, a granddaughter who returns one final time in 1902 to her Gullah family’s island home off the coast of Georgia in Dash’s acclaimed feature debut, Daughters of the Dust (1991).

A critical darling, Daughters of the Dust played at Sundance and was the first American feature by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release. It is on Sight & Sound‘s latest list of the greatest films of all time.

Also billed as Barbarao, Barbara-O and BarbaraO during her career, Jones appeared alongside Muhammad Ali in the 1979 NBC miniseries Freedom Road. He played a former slave and Union soldier elected to the U.S. Senate, and she was his wife.

And she starred as a grandmother and mother of Nicole Ari Parker’s character in Patrice Mallard’s Mute Love (1999).

“Barbara O was a brilliant actor who illuminated the screen for many Black independent filmmakers,” Dash told THR in an email. “She was wildly talented and a force to be reckoned with both on and off the screen.”

Born Barbara Olivia Minor in Dayton Ohio, Jones went to Roosevelt High School — her mother, Alberta, was a business teacher there — and was a radio personality who went by the name Bobbie Montgomery on local station WDAO in the late 1960s. She also attended Antioch College before making her way to California.

Her résumé also included the Bernie Casey-starring Black Chariot (1971), the science fiction/horror movie Demon Seed (1977) and Maangamizi: The Ancient One (2001) and TV appearances on The Quest, The Powers of Matthew Star, Laverne & Shirley, Wonder Woman and Lou Grant.

In addition to Raymond and another brother, Marlon, survivors include her children, Gina, William and D’hati.

JONES, Brabara O. (Barbara Olivia Minor)

Born: 12/?/1941, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.

Died: 4/16/2024, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.

 

Barbara O. Jones’ western – actress:

The Quest (TV) – 1976 (Hannah Factor)

RIP Dickey Betts

 

Dickey Betts, Allman Brothers Band Singer-Guitarist, Dead at 80

The co-founder of the Southern rock institution was known for “Ramblin’ Man,” a countryfied guitar style all his own, and inspiring a character in Almost Famous

The Rolling Stone

By David Browne

April 18, 2024

 

Dickey Betts, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Allman Brothers Band whose piercing solos, beloved songs and hell-raising spirit defined the band and Southern rock in general, died Thursday morning at the age of 80. The cause was cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Betts’ manager David Spero confirmed to Rolling Stone.

“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that the Betts family announce the peaceful passing of Forrest Richard ‘Dickey’ Betts (December 12, 1943 – April 18, 2024) at the age of 80 years old,” Betts’ family announced in a statement to Rolling Stone. “The legendary performer, songwriter, bandleader, and family patriarch was at his home in Osprey, Florida, surrounded by his family. Dickey was larger-than-life, and his loss will be felt worldwide. At this difficult time, the family asks for prayers and respect for their privacy in the coming days. More information will be forthcoming at the appropriate time.”

Although he was often overshadowed by Gregg and Duane, the brothers who gave the Allmans their name, Betts was equally vital to the band. His sweetly sinuous guitar style introduced elements of Western swing and jazz into the band’s music, especially when he was duetting with Duane. As a singer and writer, Betts was responsible for the band’s biggest hit, 1973’s “Ramblin’ Man,” as well as some of their most recognizable songs: the moody instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” the jubilant “Jessica,” and their late-period comeback hit “Crazy Love.”

From his trademark mustache to his badass demeanor, Betts was so iconic that he inspired the character of Russell (played by Billy Crudup) in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. “Goddamn, that guy looks like me!” Betts told Rolling Stone of his first reaction to the movie. “I didn’t do the jumping off the roof or the ‘golden god,’ but I knew Cameron.”

Born Forrest Richard Betts in West Palm Beach, Florida, on December 12, 1943, Betts began playing ukulele around age five, followed by banjo and mandolin. “When I finally got to about seventh grade,” he told RS, “I learned about girls and rock & roll and Chuck Berry.” As a teenager, he put together his own band while earning a living as a house painter and mail carrier.

I n the mid-Sixties, a member of a Midwestern band named the Jokers heard Betts and recruited him for out-of-state tours. Back home in Florida later that decade, Betts formed the Second Coming, a band that also included bass player Berry Oakley. The two ended up meeting and jamming with Duane Allman, who asked both to join the newly formed Allman Brothers Band in 1969. “It took a lot of talking and getting along,” Betts told Rolling Stone in 2017, “but we all knew this was something we had heard in our heads for a long time. We had to talk Duane into calling Gregg because they were having a brotherly fight, and Duane didn’t want Gregg. Oakley and I said, ‘Come on, Duane, the band is too goddamn powerful. We need Gregg’s voice in there.’”

Although his initial role in the band was co-lead guitarist along with Duane, Betts made his mark as a writer thanks to his exuberant “Revival” on the band’s first album, 1969’s The Allman Brothers Band. During the band’s first few years, he and Duane took rock-guitar improvisation and two-guitar dueling to new heights, as heard on the 13-minute version of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” on the band’s At Fillmore East live album from 1971. Right before Duane Allman’s death, the band recorded Betts’ “Blue Sky,” a country-influenced gallop inspired by his first wife, who is Native American; the song that became one of the band’s signature songs.

After Duane Allman’s death in a motorcycle accident in 1971, Betts became the band’s de facto lead guitarist and frontman, a role he wasn’t always comfortable with. Featuring both “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica” — the latter named after Betts’ daughter — the band’s 1973 album, Brothers and Sisters, album crossed over into pop. Betts’ 1974 solo album, Highway Call — one of the best of the Allmans offshoot projects — incorporated country, jazz, bluegrass, and gospel.

The bond between the Allmans and Jimmy Carter, whose 1976 presidential campaign they supported by way of benefit concerts, also applied to Betts personally. “I remember going to a jazz concert at the White House [1978],” Betts told Rolling Stone last year. “Of course, I got there and I left my damn ID at home. But the Marines said, ‘Oh, go ahead in.’ They knew me very well and knew I wasn’t going to do any harm. Jimmy was walking around the premises and someone said to me, ‘Go over and talk to him,’ but I didn’t want to bother him. Then I went to use the men’s room in the White House, and as I was coming out, I ran into Jimmy with a group of people and he said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dickey Betts, one of the best songwriters around nowadays.’ That just floored me.”

But after Gregg testified in a drug trial involving a band employee, which infuriated Betts, the Allman Brothers Band fell apart for the first time. Betts recorded two albums with his own band, Great Southern, which didn’t replicate his Allmans success. In 1979, the Allman Brothers regrouped, broke up again a few years later, and reunited again in 1989.

In the Nineties, the Allmans experienced a musical and career rebirth, and Betts became its driving force especially after Gregg relapsed in the middle of the decade. But Betts could also be moody and volatile; in 1976, he was arrested for drinking and clashing with police. That side of him resumed; in 1993, he was arrested in Saratoga Springs, New York, after getting into a shoving match with cops, and his drinking led to fights with band members and missed shows. In 2000, he parted ways with the Allmans. Betts always insisted he was fired, while drummer John Lee “Jaimoe” Johnson told Rolling Stone in 2017 that Betts quit. “Dickey was always sort of the guy who was — I don’t want to say troubled, but was more of a loner,” Allmans manager Bert Holman told RS in 2017. “More separate than the rest of the guys.”

Although his falling out with the Allmans left a bitter taste in his mouth for years, Betts told RS that, in the end, he looked back fondly on his decades with them. “I would’ve done something,” he said. “I would have worked for somebody landscaping. I was very pragmatic and industrious. But it wouldn’t have been as nice as what happened when I met up with that bunch of guys.”

For much of the 2000s, Betts tried kick-starting his own career and music, although he was overshadowed again by the Allman Brothers Band, who continued without him (with guitarist Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks). In 2014, Betts quietly announced his retirement and told Rolling Stone in 2017 that he decided to stop recording music.

Despite the turbulence inside the Allman Brothers Band, Betts said he and Gregg had spoken right before Allman’s death, in 2017. After Allman’s death — and after Betts talked about retirement — he was coaxed into returning to the road in 2018, with his own son (also named Duane) joining his band. In August of that year, though, Betts suffered and then recovered from a mild stroke. Last December, Betts attended an 80th-birthday concert in his honor by the Allman Betts Family Revival band, near Betts’ longtime Florida home.

In 2017, Betts looked back at his life with no regrets, telling Rolling Stone: “I’ve had a great life and I don’t have any complaints,” he says. “If I could do it again, I don’t know what I could do to make it different. There are lawsuits I probably could have dealt with better. But so what? You have to get in there and fight and do the best with your amount of time.”

BETTS, Dickey (Forest Richard Betts)

Born: 12/12/1943, West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Died: 4/18/2024, Osprey, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Dickey Betts’ western – song writer, performer:

The Cowboy Way – 1994 [writer “No One to Run With”] [performer]

RIP Robin Browne

 

Robin Browne obituary

The Guardian

By Michael Mansfield

April 14, 2024

 

My friend Robin Browne, who has died aged 82, was a cinematographer specialising in aerial photography and special effects. His was not a name in lights, but he consistently excelled without the razzmatazz of Hollywood. I doubt there is anyone who has seen one of his films and not marvelled at the skills and dangers involved.

He started out as a clapper boy in the late 1950s, and worked on dozens of distinguished films over the next five decades, as camera assistant, operator and as director of photography leading specialist units. A few titles give a flavour: Battle of Britain (1969); Catch 22 (1970); the television series The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972-74), on which he was camera operator for all 52 episodes; three Bond movies in the 1970s; A Bridge Too Far (1977); Krull (1983); A Passage to India (1984); The Jewel of the Nile (1985); King Kong Lives (1986); Gorillas in the Mist (1988); and Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009).

For me, the one that takes the breath away, and is truly described as an epic, is the award-winning biopic Gandhi (1982), produced and directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley, on which Robin was in charge of aerial photography. Robin’s bywords – “go easy on the lighting and not too much camera movement” – imbued the crowd scenes often shot from above with special impact.

He and I were friends from boyhood. Robin was born, just a month after me, in Aylesbury, and later moved to north London, where we went to Highgate school and grew up together. In those days there were more open fields than houses and we joined with another friend to form the three musketeers. All our holidays were preoccupied with adventures plotting the course of the Dollis brook through its many manifestations until it reached the Thames and setting challenges for each other to conquer known and imagined fears.

Robin’s mother, Diana (nee Mannering), was a well-known fashion model under the name Diana Jones. His father was Bernard Browne, a director of photography who worked with Alexander Korda at Denham studios; Robin was clearly talented and destined for the film world. He joined it as soon as he could, at 16, with an apprenticeship at Merton Park Studios in south London before moving to work at Shepperton. Unusually he had a tiny dark room at his home and I was able to witness the mysteries of photography, development, and editing at close quarters. At school he ran the photography club.

He ended up settling in the US, moving in 1991 to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with his wife Judy (nee Doetze), whom he had married in 1978. This meant that he and I would meet less often, but we never lost touch. He was respected and well known for his unassuming manner, his caring generosity of spirit, his thoughtful and considerate intellectual approach at work and at home.

Latterly he turned his hand to research into historic documents in preparation for a book about to be completed relating to Shakespeare authorship and Francis Bacon. Undoubtedly Robin would have had plans to turn it into a novel film.

He is survived by Judy, and their children, Justin and Debbie.

BROWNE, Robin (Michael Robin Graham Browne)

Born: 11/24/1941, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, U.K.

Died: 3/28/2024, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S.A.

 

Robin Browne’s western – model unit director, cameraman:

Sky Bandits - 1986

RIP Richard Horowitz

 

Richard Horowitz, experimental music and soundtracks dies

Among his works as a composer there is also Tea in the Desert with Sakamoto

ANSA.it

April 13, 2024

 

Farewell to Richard Horowitz, composer also for the cinema active especially between the 80s and the early 2000s.

He was born in 1949 in Buffalo, New York. as a musician he has also had the opportunity to act in his career, in the short film Beautiful Child by Fabrizio Chiesa (2006) for which He also signs the music.

To give the news of his passing on Instagram actress and longtime friend Domiziana Giordano posting a photo of them together in Morocco in 1992: "Richard Horowitz rip. Great musician and great intellectual friend." Among his films as a composer are: Tea in the Desert (1990) by Bernardo Bertolucci where he wrote some songs in the soundtrack with Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom he won the Golden Globes; Bob Swain's Atlantis (1992); Four good guys ragazzi (1993) by Claudio Camarca; Every damn Sunday (1999) by Oliver Stone. Three Seasons of Tony Bui (1999), A Jihad for Love (2007). Among his albums of compositions, often made together with his partner in art and life Sussan Deyhim, Desert Equations: Azax Attra and Eros in Arabia.

HOROWITZ, Richard

Born: 1/6/1947, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 1/13/2024, Marakech, Morocco

 

Richard Horowitz’s westerns – composer:

Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee – 1994

Cowboy Up - 2001

RIP Ron Thompson

 

Ron Thompson Dies: Actor In ‘Baretta’ And Ralph Bakshi’s ‘American Pop’ Was 83

DEADLINE

By Bruce Haring

April 14, 2024

 

Ron Thompson, a veteran character actor best known for his role in Ralph Bakshi’s rotoscope film American Pop and his 1970s TV series portrayal of Detective Nopke in Baretta, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 83. No cause was given by his friend Professor Rel Dowdell of Hampton University, who confirmed the death.

Thompson had a brief career as a rock singer in the 1960s and wrote and recorded a number of singles as Ronnie Thompson.

He also originated the role of Shanty Mulligan in the Pulitzer Prize winning play No Place to Be Somebody by Charles Gordone. He also won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his 1973 lead performance in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?

Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1941, Ron, his older brother, and parents moved to Miami, Florida in ’45. Ron began to show talents as a singer/performer at an early age, which led to him performing in kiddie shows. In his early teens, he saw Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. With only $200, he set out for New York.

Two years later, he was acting opposite Robert Duvall on the live TV drama, Armstrong Circle Theater. At the same time, he had begun a singing career and had a record out. Over the next two years, he had two records released, but neither were hits.

In ’72, he joined the cast of the Henry Fonda revival, The Time of Your Life. By then, he had moved to L.A.

In the next 25 years, he could be seen guesting on numerous television shows.

“Mr. Ron Thompson was a very versatile and talented character actor in all genres,” said Dowdell, director of film studies at Hampton University, “as well as a true and diligent student of the comprehensive craft of acting and all of its nuances. He was a very congenial man with a warm and giving spirit, and was well-respected by many luminaries in the film and television industries.”

Thompson was married to actress Diane Sommerfield, who died in 2001.

THOMPSON, Ron (Ronald Thompson)

Born: 1/31/1941, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.

Died: 4/13/2024, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Ron Thompson’s westerns – actor:

The White Buffalo – 1977 (Frozen Dog Pimp)

Hate Horses – 2017 (Rex Napier)

RIP Lorena Velázquez

 

Lorena Velázquez, Mexican actress who worked with 'El Santo', dies

The news was made known through social networks.

MILENIO

By Diego Almanza

4/11/2024

 

On the night of Thursday, April 11, the news of the sensitive death of the renowned actress Lorena Velázquez at the age of 86 was announced, as reported by María Luisa Valdés Doria through her social networks.

So far, the reasons for his death have not been disclosed. However, on networks such as X, users have already begun to react to the death of the actress.

Among the first personalities to react to Lorena's death was Victoria Ruffo, who sent a heartfelt message.

"RIP my dear Lorena Velázquez!! Immense sadness!" he wrote.

Throughout her career, she participated in productions that served to make her known and in which she worked with figures such as Germán Valdes "Tin Tan", Adalberto Martínez "Resortes", Marco Antonio Campos "Viruta" and Gaspar Henaine "Capulina".

María de la Concepción Lorena Villar Dondé, better known as Lorena Velázquez, was a Mexican actress, born on December 15, 1937, in Mexico City. She studied ballet and was passionate about theatre, which she studied at the School of Fine Arts; Lorena acquired a love for cinema because of her adoptive father, who was a director.

She participated in the so-called wrestlers' cinema alongside one of the great figures of those decades: El Santo, the silver masked man.

Monster Ship (1960)

The Rape of the Sabine Women (1960)

Oh Chabela! (1961)

Saint vs. Zombies (1961)

Saint vs. Vampire Women (1962)...

Children & Husband

Lorena was married twice. The first was with Robert Taylor Morris and later with Eduardo Novoa, with whom she had a son, Eduardo Novoa Villar, a renowned actor, theater director and musician.

VELAZQUEZ, Lorena (María de la Concepción Lorena Villar Dondé)

Born: 12/15/1937, Mexico City. Federal District, Mexico

Died:  4/11/2024, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

 

Lorena Velázquez’s westerns – actress:

La cama de piedra - 1958 (Isabel)

La ley del más rápido – 1959 (Margarita)

El puma – 1959 (Margarita)

Ladrón que roba a ladrón - 1960 (Rosario de la Fuente)

A Tiro Limpio - 1960 (Margarita)

Ay Chabela...! – 1961 (Jenny)

¡En peligro de muerte! - 1962 (María Guadalupe Josefina Johnson 'Lupita')

Martín Santos el llanero - 1962

La pantera de Monte Escondido – 1962 (Mariana)

Las bravuconas – 1963

Entre bala y bala – 1963

Vuelve el Norteño – 1964 (Francisca Sevilla)

El último cartucho – 1965 (Amparo Pizarro)

Tierra de violencia - 1966 (Mary)

 El tragabalas – 1966 (Rosa)

 Los Desalmados – 1971 (sheriff’s daughter)

 5,000 dolares de recompense – 1972 (Virginia)

Los hombres no lloran - 1973 (Carmen Garza)

RIP Eckart Dux

 

Eckart Dux has passed away

Planet Eterna

4/11/2024

 

Eckart Dux, speaker of Man-E-Faces, among others, in the first Masters of the Universe Europe Lecture Series, passed away on 09.04.2024 at the age of 97.

Eckart Dux was born on December 19, 1926, in Berlin and later became known to most people as an actor and, above all, a dubbing actor.

Dux voiced Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire and Ian McKellen as Gandalf in the Hobbit trilogy.

Most Masters of the Universe fans will know him as the Man-E-Faces from the European radio plays. He voiced it in episodes 4 (The Indomitable Dragon), 6 (Skeletors Dungeon), 7 (Doppelganger) and 11 (Anti-Eternia). In episode 20 (The Serpent Lord's Revenge), he voiced the juggler.

He was also heard in "The Three ???", "TKKG", the "Asterix" and "Knight Rider" radio plays.

In 2006, he won the Audience Award for "Voice Acting Series" for his voice as Arthur (Jerry Stiller) in the series "King of Queens".

In 2008 he was awarded the "German Prize for Dubbing" for his outstanding oeuvre in dubbing.

Eckart Dux passed away on April 9, 2024, in Sassenburg. The PlanetEternia team sends its condolences to his family and friends.

DUX, Eckart (Eckart Hermann Dux)

Born: 12/19/1926, Berlin, Germany

Died: 4/9/2024, Sassenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

 

Eckart Dux’s westerns – actor – voice dubber:

Broken Arrow – 1950 [German voice of James Stewart]

Northwest Passage – 1950 [German voice of Robert Young]

Sierra – 1950 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Kansas Raiders – 1951 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Arrow in the Dust – 1954 [German voice of Keith Larsen]

Black Horse Canyon – 1954 [German voice of Race Gentry]

The Boy from Oklahoma – 1954 [German voice of Will Rogers Jr.]

Destry – 1954 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Drums Across the River – 1954 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Duel in Soccorro – 1954 [German voice of Skip Homeier]

Outcast – 1954 [German voice of John Derek]

Ride Clear of Diablo – 1954 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Gunsmoke (TV) 1955-1975 [German voice of Brad Weston, Robert Pine, Bruce Dern, Lou

     Antonio]

Drango – 1956 [German voice of John Lupton]

Thunder Over Arizona – 1956 [German voice of Skip Homeier]

Walk the Proud Land – 1956 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Guns of Fort Petticoat – 1957 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Raiders of Old California – 1957 [German voice of Faron Young]

Buchanan Rides Alone – 1958 [German voice of Manuel Rojas]

The Bravados – 1958 [German voice of Henry Silva]

Ride a Crooked Trail – 1958 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Sheepman – 1958 [German voice of Glenn Ford]

Sierra Baron – 1958 [German voice of Rick Jason]

Bronco (TV) – 1958-1962 [German voice of Clay Randolph

Warlock – 1959 [German voice of David Garcia]

Bonanza (TV) 1959-1973 [German voice of John Rodney, Vic Morrow, John Milford, Sandy

     McPeak, Jason Evers, Dabney Coleman, Barry Coe, Val Bisoglio, Jack Betts

Hell Bent for Leather – 1960 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Seven Ways from Sundown – 1960 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Posse from Hell – 1961 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

A Thunder of Drums – 1961 [German voice of George Hamilton]

Six Black Horses – 1962 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Bullet for a Badman – 1964 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Prairie Saloon (TV) – 1964 (Jimmy)

Cat Ballou – 1965 [German voice of Michael Callin]

Hallelujah Trail – 1965 [German voice of Jim Hutton]

Gunpoint [ 1966 [German voice of Audie Murphy]

Ringo’s Golden Pistol – 1966 [German voice of Mark Damon]

Yankee – 1966 [German voice of Phillippe Leroy]

Rattler Kid – 1967 [German voice of Brad Harris]

The Ruthless Four – 1968 [German voice of George Hilton]

The Leatherstocking Tales (TV) 1969 [German voice of Christian Duroc, J. P. Compain]

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – 1973 [German voice of James Coburn]

Lucky Luke: Ballad of the Daltons – 1978 [German voice of Lucky Luke]

Adios Sabata – 1980 [German voice of Dean Reed]

Heaven’s Gate – 1980 [German voice of John Hurt]

Lucky Luke: The Daltons on the Run – 1983 [German voice of Lucky Luke]

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1993-2001 [German voice of Mako, Tommy G. Kendrick, Richard

     Fulmer, Jon Cypher, Michael Costello, Brady Coleman, R.G. Armstrong, Marc Alamo

The Call of the Wild – 1997 [German voice of Jerry Leggio]

WinneToons - Die Legende vom Schatz im Silbersee – 2009 [German voice of Sam Hawkens]

Yellowstone (TV) – 2018 [German voice of Rudy Ramos]

 

RIP OJ Simpson

 

OJ Simpson, fallen football hero acquitted of murder in 'trial of the century,' dies at 76

The Washington Post

By Ken Ritter

April 11, 2024

 

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76.

Simpson’s attorney confirmed to TMZ he died Wednesday night in Las Vegas. A message posted Thursday on Simpson’s official X account — formerly Twitter — said he died after battling cancer.

“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the statement said.

Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

Live TV coverage of his arrest after a famous slow-speed chase marked a stunning fall from grace for the sports hero.

He had seemed to transcend racial barriers as the star Trojans tailback for college football’s powerful University of Southern California in the late 1960s, as a rental car ad pitchman rushing through airports in the late 1970s, and as the husband of a blonde and blue-eyed high school homecoming queen in the 1980s.

“I’m not Black, I’m O.J.,” he liked to tell friends.

The public was mesmerized by his “trial of the century” on live TV. His case sparked debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, celebrity justice and police misconduct.

A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to family members of Brown and Goldman.

A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room. Two men with Simpson had guns. A jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other felonies.

Imprisoned at age 61, he served nine years in a remote northern Nevada prison, including a stint as a gym janitor. He was not contrite when he was released on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist yet again that he was only trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and family heirlooms stolen from him after his criminal trial in Los Angeles.

“I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life, you know,” Simpson, whose parole ended in late 2021, said.

Public fascination with Simpson never faded. Many debated if he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the subject of both an FX miniseries and five-part ESPN documentary.

“I don’t think most of America believes I did it,” Simpson told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined he did not kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.”

Twelve years later, following an outpouring of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch cancelled a planned book by the News Corp-owned HarperCollins in which Simpson offered his hypothetical account of the killings. It was to be titled, “If I Did It.”

Goldman’s family, still doggedly pursuing the multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript. They retitled the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”

“It’s all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals,” Simpson told The Associated Press at the time. He collected $880,000 in advance money for the book, paid through a third party.

“It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,” he said.

Less than two months after losing the rights to the book, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas.

Simpson played 11 NFL seasons, nine of them with the Buffalo Bills, where he became known as “The Juice” on an offensive line known as “The Electric Company.” He won four NFL rushing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his career, scored 76 touchdowns and played in five Pro Bowls. His best season was 1973, when he ran for 2,003 yards — the first running back to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark.

“I was part of the history of the game,” he said years later, recalling that season. “If I did nothing else in my life, I’d made my mark.”

Of course, Simpson went on to other fame.

One of the artifacts of his murder trial, the carefully tailored tan suit he wore when he was acquitted, was later donated and placed on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Simpson had been told the suit would be in the hotel room in Las Vegas, but it turned out it wasn’t there.

Orenthal James Simpson was born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, where he grew up in government-subsidized housing projects.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco for a year and a half before transferring to the University of Southern California for the spring 1967 semester.

He married his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24, 1967, moving her to Los Angeles the next day so he could begin preparing for his first season with USC — which, in large part because of Simpson, won that year’s national championship.

Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He accepted the statue on the same day that his first child, Arnelle, was born.

He had two sons, Jason and Aaren, with his first wife; one of those boys, Aaren, drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the same year he and Whitley divorced.

Simpson and Brown were married in 1985. They had two children, Justin and Sydney, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was found murdered.

“We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he told the AP 25 years after the double slayings. “The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”

SIMPSON O J (Orenthal James Simpson)

Born: 7/9/1947, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Died: 4/10/2024, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.

 

OJ Simpson’s westerns – actor:

Death of a Gunfighter – 1969 (townsman)

The Dream of Hamish Mose – 1969

Cade’s County (TV) – 1972 (Jeff Hughrd)

RIP Dan Wallin

 

Dan Wallin, Oscar-Nominated and Emmy-Winning Music Mixer, Dies at 97

Variety

By John Burlingame

April 10, 2024

 

Dan Wallin, the music scoring engineer who recorded such classic film scores as “Spartacus,” “Bullitt,” “The Wild Bunch” and “Out of Africa,” died early Wednesday in Hawaii. He was 97.

Twice Oscar-nominated for best sound (1970’s “Woodstock” and 1976’s “A Star Is Born”), he won a 2009 Emmy for sound mixing on the Academy Awards telecast and received two additional Emmy nominations in the sound mixing category (1992’s “Citizen Cohn,” 1996’s “Gotti”).

But it was Wallin’s skill behind the console, recording and mixing musical scores for movies and TV, that won him legions of fans among nearly all of Hollywood’s top composers and ensured steady employment for more than half a century.

He recorded the music an estimated 500 films, including those for “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Finian’s Rainbow” in the 1960s; “The Way We Were,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Nashville,” “King Kong” and “Saturday Night Fever” in the 1970s; “Somewhere in Time,” “The Right Stuff” and “Prizzi’s Honor” in the 1980s; “The Fugitive,” “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Insider” in the 1990s; and “Far From Heaven,” “Seabiscuit” and “Rocky Balboa” in the 2000s.

His television credits were equally stellar, including multiple Emmy winners “Roots,” “Eleanor and Franklin,” “The Day After,” “Lonesome Dove” and “Lost.”

Composer Michael Giacchino, who often hired Wallin to record his music (including “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” and “Up”), told Variety: “Danny came up when being an engineer really meant you were an engineer. He could build anything and also understood why and how it all worked.

“In working with him, you’d think he’d be most valuable in teaching you about recording, but in getting to work with him for so many years, what he taught me most was about the orchestra itself: How to properly orchestrate for any size group, what the old masters that he had been brought up with did to solve certain problems.

“He’d lean over and say ‘have the first violin go up an octave over the rest of the section’—and after doing it, it suddenly sounded like the scores I grew up listening to. Lessons from the past!

“Danny delivered a constant stream of small lessons that continually raised my game and made me better at what I did. He was a genius and an endless fountain of knowledge from a period of Hollywood that is long gone. I’ll be forever miss him and be grateful for the time I spent with him.”

Born March 13, 1927 in Los Angeles, Wallin grew up in a Van Nuys orphanage, learned to play drums, and later served as a Navy aviation radio operator during World War II. After the war, he worked in live radio, handling big-band remotes from popular L.A. venues for CBS, and then moved to television, working at KTLA in the 1950s.

Wallin joined Warner Bros. in 1965 and became the studio’s in-house music engineer, choosing and placing microphones—often dozens of them, capturing the sound of individual musicians and then balancing the sound of 70 or 80 of them at million-dollar mixing boards — for such composers as Alex North, Lalo Schifrin, John Barry, Bill Conti, David Shire, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini and John Williams.

He spent 18 years at Warner Bros., but also worked on scoring stages at Paramount, Sony, Todd-AO and the Record Plant. He even recorded the gunshots for Sam Peckinpah’s Westerns, including “The Wild Bunch” and “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.”

He once explained his recording philosophy to Film Score Monthly: “Most people use microphones for the first chairs [of each section]. I go the opposite way: I mic the sections, and then I fill in with the room [sound]. I think a scoring mixer should be able to produce all the sounds, not just an orchestra scoring sound.”

He and his wife, Gay Goodwin Wallin, who survives, retired to Kauai in 2013.

WALLIN, Dan (Daniel Guy Wallin)

Born: 3/13/1927, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Died:  4/10/2024, Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.A.

Dan Wallin’s Westerns – score mixer, music scoring mixer, music recording mixer, music re-recording mixer, music re-recordist, engineer.

F Troop (TV) 1965-1967 [score mixer]

A Big Hand for the Little Lady – 1966 [music scoring mixer]

Firecreek – 1968 [score mixer] [re-recording mixer]

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys – 1969 [score mixer]

The Great Bank Robbery – 1969 [score mixer]

More Dead Than Alive – 1969 [score mixer]

The Wild Bunch – 1969 [score mixer] [re-recording mixer]

The Ballad of Cable Hogue – 1970 [score mixer] [re-recording mixer]

Barquero – 1970 [score mixer]

Chisum – 1970 [music scoring mixer]

Flap – 1970 [score mixer]

There Was a Crooked Man… - 1970 [score mixer]

Big Jake – 1971 [score mixer]

Skin Game – 1971 [score mixer]

The Cowboys – 1972 [music scoring mixer]

Jeremiah Johnson – 1972 [score mixer] [re-recording mixer]

Cahill U.S. Marshal – 1973 [score mixer]

Oklahoma Crude – 1973 [score mixer]

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid – 1973 [score mixer]

The Train Robbers – 1973 [music scoring mixer] [re-recording mixer]

Blazing Saddles – 1974 [score mixer]

Zandy’s Bride – 1974 [music scoring mixer]

The Master Gunfighter – 1975 [score mixer]

Black Bart (TV) – 1975 [music scoring mixer]

The Outlaw Josey Wales – 1976 [music scoring mixer]

The Shootist -1976 [score mixer]

The White Buffalo – 1977 [score mixer]

The Electric Horseman – 1979 [music recording mixer]

The Frisco Kid – 1979 [score mixer]

Wanda Nevada – 1979 [music re-recordist]

The Mountain Men – 1980 [music recording mixer]

The Legend of the Lone Ranger – 1981 [score mixer]

Zorro: The Gay Blade – 1981 [score mixer]

Three Amigos! – 1986 [score mixer]

Lonesome Dove (TV) – 1989 [music engineer]

Gunfighter’s Moon – 1995 [re-recording mixer]

Wild Wild West – 1999 [score mixer]

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (TV) – 2003 [music scoring mixer]

RIP Edgar Burcksen

 

Edgar Burcksen, Emmy-Winning Editor of ‘Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,’ Dies at 76

Variety

By Selena Kuznikov

April 8, 2024

 

Edgar Burcksen, longtime editor of features, documentaries, and TV series, died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications of a heart attack. He was 76.

Burcksen won an Emmy for editing the pilot of “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” as well as an ACE Robert Wise award. He was also honored with the Golden Calf at the Nederlands Film Festival.

Born in Holland, Burcksen started his career editing features in Amsterdam. After moving to the U.S, he served as editor on the animated “Seabert.” He then joined Industrial Light and Magic, where he was the effects editor on “Die Hard 2” and “The Hunt for Red October.” George Lucas selected him to consult on the EditDroid, a precursor to the Avid.

His credits include Jeroen Krabbe’s feature “Left Luggage,” which competed for the Golden Bear, as well as documentaries “Colors Straight Up,” which was Oscar-nominated, “Darfur Now,” “Hollywood Banker,” and Kevin Costner’s “500 Nations.”

His last editing credit was on Ate de Jong’s upcoming feature “Heart Strings,” co-written by Variety executive VP of content Steve Gaydos.

Burcksen was a past board member of America Cinema Editors and long served as a writer and editor-in-chief of Cinema Editor Magazine. He also taught Advanced Film Editing at the Academy of Art University of San Francisco.

An ultramarathon cyclist, he had completed 25 double centuries.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Jana, and their two children.

BURCKSEN, Edgar

Born: 5/13/1947, Apeldourn, Gelderland, The Netherlands

Died: 4/7/2024, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Edgar Burcksen’s westerns – film deitor:

500 Nations – 1995

100 Years - 2016

RIP Bruce Kessler

 

Bruce Kessler, Race Car Driver, Yacht Captain and Prolific TV Director, Dies at 88 

After participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he called the shots for ‘The Monkees,’ ‘It Takes a Thief,’ ‘Adam-12,’ ‘The Fall Guy,’ ‘The Commish’ and many other shows.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 7, 2024

 

Bruce Kessler, who directed episodes of shows including The Monkees, It Takes a Thief, The Rockford Files, McCloud and The Commish when he wasn’t driving race cars, designing boats or circling the globe in a yacht, has died. He was 88.

Kessler died Thursday at his home in Marina del Rey after a brief illness, his brother, author and columnist Stephen Kessler, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Survivors also include his wife, actress Joan Freeman, perhaps best known as the love interest of Elvis Presley’s character in Roustabout (1964). She and Kessler were together for 54 years and married for 33.

Kessler served as second-unit director on Howard Hawks’ Red Line 7000 (1965), an action film about stock cars that starred James Caan, before embarking on a three-decade career as a director for television.

His credits included The Flying Nun, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., Get Christie Love!, Baretta, Switch, CHiPs, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, Hunter, Hardcastle and McCormick, The Fall Guy, Riptide, MacGyver, The Commish and Renegade, with the last episode of his career airing in 1997.

Bruce Michael Kessler was born in Seattle on March 23, 1936. He and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1946, and his parents, Jack and Nina, launched a ladies swimwear company in partnership with fashion designer Rose Marie Reid.

With the success of the business, they relocated to Beverly Hills, and Kessler would become pals with James Dean and Steve McQueen, future actors who were racing enthusiasts.

Kessler earned the nickname “Little Lead Foot” as a youngster, and when he was 17, he competed in amateur auto races driving a Jaguar XK120 owned by his mom.

Kessler was supposed to ride with Dean in his silver Porsche to a road race in Salinas, California, in September 1955, but “due to a last-minute change of plan drove up with another friend,” Stephen Kessler wrote last month in a column for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Dean would die in a car crash that day.

“My brother was 19 at the time, and that bit of luck was emblematic of his subsequent charmed life, on the track and off,” he added.

In 1958, Kessler suffered serious injuries in a fiery crash in the middle of the night in the rain while driving a Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (his co-driver was fellow American Dan Gurney). A year later, he spent days in a coma after a race accident in Pomona, California, then retired from the sport after yet another serious crash in 1962 in Riverside, California.

Shifting to show business, Kessler directed and produced The Sound of Speed (1962), a 19-minute, dialogue-free documentary about the Scarab race car, which he helped build. The short played at the Cannes Film Festival and got him work as a technical adviser on racing and chase sequences for action movies and as a script supervisor.

After his experience with Hawks, Kessler directed four first-season episodes of The Monkees in 1966 and helmed the 1968 films Angels From Hell, set in the world of motorcycle gangs, and Killers Three (1968), starring Robert Walker Jr.

He would direct two other movies, The Gay Deceivers (1969) and the Andrew Prine-starring Simon, King of the Witches (1971), as well as several telefilms, including 1977’s Murder in Peyton Place.

The adventurous Kessler and naval architect Steve Seaton helped design the first recreational motor yacht for the company Delta Marine, a 70-foot vessel that Kessler christened Zopilote and launched in 1985.

“At the time, no one had any idea what an iconic and groundbreaking trawler yacht she would become,” Milt Baker wrote in Soundings magazine. “In the world of offshore cruising boats, Zopilote proved to be a game-changer, and it wasn’t long before Delta ceased building fishing boats and shifted entirely to yachts — hefty offshore yachts like Zopilote, then larger and fancier superyachts.”

In 1990, Kessler and Freeman left California aboard Zopilote bound for the South Pacific, a 35,000-mile circumnavigation. When they arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Europe after the final leg in 1993, Zopilote had become only the sixth powerboat to complete a trip around the world, Baker noted.

Kessler later helped build the Seaton-designed, 64-foot Spirit of Zopilote, which was delivered in 1997. He and his wife lived and cruised on it for the next 27 years. He wound up logging more than 100,000 nautical miles (and 25,000 hours) as captain of his own vessels.

Survivors include his other brother, Rick.

KESSLER, Bruce (Bruce Michael Kessler)

Born: 3/23/1936, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Died: 4/4/2024, Marina del Rey, California, U.S.A

 

Bruce Kessler’s westerns – director:

Alias Smith and Jones (TV) – 1971

The Young Riders (TV) - 1989