RIP Ted Hartley

 Ted Hartley, Actor, Producer and Former Chairman of RKO Pictures, Dies at 100

Married to the late Dina Merrill, he appeared in 'High Plains Drifter' and on 'Peyton Place.'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

November 14, 2025

 

Ted Hartley, an actor, two-time Tony-nominated producer and chairman and CEO of RKO Pictures, has died. He was 100.

A longtime resident of the Hamptons, Hartley died Oct. 10 in New York City, The East Hampton Star reported.

In 1991, he and his late wife, actress Dina Merrill, took control of what was left of the famed RKO when their company, Pavilion Communications, purchased 51 percent of the studio that released King Kong and Citizen Kane and once was owned by Howard Hughes.

He then produced several films, including a 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young for Disney that starred Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron and a 2002 version of The Magnificent Ambersons for A&E.

Hartley was nominated for Tony Awards in 2007 and ’08 for producing the musical comedy Curtains, which played for 511 performances on Broadway, and a revival of Gypsy that featured Patti LuPone. His other stage credits include Never Gonna Dance and Doctor Zhivago.

In perhaps his most notable acting role, he portrayed hotelier Lewis Belding, married to Verna Bloom‘s character, in Clint Eastwood‘s High Plains Drifter (1973).

“I was self-conscious as an actor, but fortunately I was given parts where self-consciousness was part of the role, and I got away with it,” he once told The Star. “I wanted to be a member at The Actors Studio, and I just didn’t quite get there. Even though Lee Strasberg said wonderful things about me occasionally, I always had that feeling that he wanted me to be a little more authentic.” 

Hartley was born on Nov. 6, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised on a farm in Iowa. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served as a White House aide under President Eisenhower and piloted jet fighters.

After his military career ended when he was injured in a carrier-landing accident in 1964, he attended Harvard Business School and worked for First Western Financial Corp. before getting fired.

He turned to acting and played Rev. Bedford on ABC’s Peyton Place during the primetime soap’s second season (1965-66), then had small roles on the big screen in Walk Don’t Run (1966), the Matt Helm flick Murderers’ Row (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Ice Station Zebra (1968).

In 1974, Hartley starred as Capt. McKeegan on ABC’s Chopper One, a drama about helicopter cops, but it was canceled after 13 episodes.

He also showed up on episodes of The F.B.I., Mannix, Ironside and Barnaby Jones and in such films as Matilda (1978), Caddyshack II (1998) and Laura Smiles (2005), which he produced as well.

He married Merrill soon after she and her second husband, actor Cliff Robertson, divorced in 1989.

The Star noted he was the longest-tenured member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington and a member of the New York Yacht Club, River Club, Chevy Chase Club and Bel-Air Country Club.

Survivors include his son, Philippe.

HARTLEY, Ted (Theodore Ringwalt Hartley)

Born: 11/6/2024, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.

Died: 10/10/2025, East Hampton, New York, U.S.A.

 

Ted Hartley’s westerns – actor:

High Plains Drifter – 1973 (Lewis Belding)

The Wild Wild West Revisited (TV) – 1979 (Tsar Nicholas of Russia)

RIP Eduardo Manzano

 

Farewell to “El Polivoz”: Eduardo Manzano, Legendary Mexican Comedian, Dies at 87

Merca 2.0

By Juan Antonio Miranda

12/5/2025

 

This Friday, December 5, Eduardo Manzano, better known as “El Polivoz,” passed away. He was one of the most iconic figures in Mexican comedy. His death marks the end of an era for the many generations who grew up with his humor, his characters, and his unmistakable comedic style.

Manzano, alongside Enrique Cuenca, became a defining figure of television comedy thanks to Los Polivoces, a program that transformed the way humor was created in Mexico and left a permanent mark on popular culture.

His talent for creating beloved characters, memorable situations, and a unique comedic identity established him as an icon whose influence remained strong for decades.

In addition to his success on television, Eduardo Manzano built a solid career in film, theater, and voice acting, staying active and close to his audience until his final years.

What did his son Lalo Manzano say after his passing?

Through social media, his son Lalo Manzano shared a deeply emotional message to say goodbye, expressing gratitude for the outpouring of affection during these difficult hours.

“With profound sorrow we say goodbye to my beloved dad, and we thank everyone who has respectfully expressed their messages of love,” he wrote, accompanying the farewell with words filled with admiration, love, and gratitude toward his father.

The death of Eduardo Manzano brings to a close the life of an indisputable pillar of national comedy, remembered for his talent, discipline, and warm personality.

His work in television, film, and theater remains a testament to an exceptional career that will continue living in the country’s collective memory.

MANZANO, Eduardo (Eduardo Manzano II)

Born: 7/18/1938, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

Died: 12/4/2025, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

 

Eduardo Manzano’s western – actor:

Somo del otro Laredo – 1977 (Dynamite Manzano)

 

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Dies: ‘Mortal Kombat, ‘Last Emperor’ & ‘Man In The High Castle’ Actor Was 75

DEADLINE

By Tom Tapp

December 4, 2025

 

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the prolific and instantly recognizable actor best known for his roles in the Mortal Kombat films, The Last Emperor, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Man in the High Castle, died Thursday in Santa Barbara. He was 75.

Tagawa died due to complications from a stroke early this morning surrounded by his children. His family confirmed the news to Deadline.

Tagawa is best known to a broad audience as the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung in the film, TV and video game iterations of the Mortal Kombat franchise. He began playing the character in New Line’s 1995 film adaptation and was also featured in the 1997 follow-up Mortal Kombat Annihilation. He reprised the role with guest appearances in the 2013 TV series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and one episode of Mortal Kombat X: Generations in 2015. In 2019, he voiced the character in the video game Mortal Kombat 11 and lent his physical likeness to the 2023 role-playing video game Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.

The first film grossed more than $100 million on a budget of around $20M.

“It was the perfect timing in that Mortal Kombat as a video game, at the time we did the film, was on number four or five and that the impact of the film certainly had to do with the build of the video games,” Tagawa said later.

He also credited director Paul W.S. Anderson.

“He was the first one in martial arts history to apply such music — really upbeat, driving metal music. You couldn’t sit still when you heard the music. And it matched the action so well.”

Tagawa had a key role in another film adaptation of a hit video game franchise, playing Heihachi Mishima, the evil corporate titan, in Tekken. That 1991 film did not fare was well as Mortal Combat at the box office.

Additionally, he lent his voice to the video games Soldier Boyz, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu and World of Warcraft: Legion.

Tagawa’s breakout film was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar Best Picture-winning The Last Emperor in 1987. He was cast as Chang, the emperor’s driver, who plays a small but pivotal part in the story.

A string of notable roles followed in big-budget studio pictures, many of which involve the intersection of Asian and Western cultures. They include License to Kill, Rising Sun, Snow Falling on Cedars, Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes, Elektra, Memoirs of a Geisha and 47 Ronin. Many of these parts utilized the actor’s facility with martial arts.

“I was born in Tokyo and began training in Kendo when I was in junior high school,” recalled Tagawa in a 2010 interview. “Then when I was five we moved to Fort Bragg, NC; and that’s when I got my first real lesson in how to use the martial arts. Being Japanese and living in the south during the ’50s was pretty tough.”

At age 21, Tagawa focused on traditional Japanese karate at the University of Southern California. He soon moved back to Japan to study under Master Nakayama with the Japan Karate Association. He later created and taught his own system of Chun-Shin, which he called “a study of energy … completely without a physical fighting concept.”

Among the big-name directors he worked with were Philip Kaufman, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Rob Marshall, Ivan Reitman and John Carpenter.

While many will recognize Tagawa from those A-list credits, others will doubtless have seen him in the more than 150 film, TV and video game projects in which he appeared. He got his start with an uncredited role in an 1986 box office flop that has become a cult classic: Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. The next year his career really got going with, of course, The Last Emperor, but also guest spots on network shows MacGyver, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Miami Vice.

In 2015, Tagawa had his last major role as one of the lead characters in Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle. He played Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America in a nation divided between Japanese and Nazi occupation after World War II. His character’s motivations and goals do not always seem to align with those of the leadership back in Tokyo.

The actor observed that there were parallels between his own life story and that of Tagomi.

“I identified so much with this character and so much of my life experience — having been born in Tokyo and then coming to America just after the war, 10 years after the war. I understood and grew up with the legacy of the war. So to be good, bad and ugly — being different — [is the same] as with my character Tagomi, who seems to be the only one running around talking about peace.”

Other notable TV appearances over his four-decade career include playing Lt. A.J. Shimamura on Nash Bridges, a major role as Captain Terry Harada on NBC’s Hawaii, six episodes as Satoshi Takeda on ABC’s Revenge, a six-episode arc on Netflix’s Lost in Space and, most recently, voicing The Swordmaker in Season 1 of Netflix’s animated Blue Eye Samurai.

Tagawa lived on the island of Kauai where he and his wife Sally raised their two children.

He is survived by three children, Calen, Brynne and Cana; and his two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.

TAGAWA, Cary-Hiroyuki

Born: 9/27/1950, Tokyo, Japan

Died: 12/4/2025, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A

 

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s western – actor:

Walker, Texas Ranger – 2000 (Master Ko)

RIP Ted Egan

 

Vale Ted Egan: Australian Folk Legend & 'The Outback Song Man' Dies Aged 93

A true giant of the Australian music scene, Egan’s career was as vast as the outback he loved.

Countrytown

By Stephen Green

December 4, 2025

 

Australian folk music icon, author, and former Northern Territory Administrator Ted Egan has passed away at the age of 93. The legendary singer-songwriter died peacefully at his home in Alice Springs on the morning of December 4, surrounded by family.

In a statement confirming the news, his partner Nerys Evans and the Egan family expressed their deep loss.

“It is with sadness, but also great pride that Nerys Evans and the Egan family marks the passing of our beloved partner, Dad, grandfather, great grandfather and best mate Ted Egan,” the statement read.

“Ted passed peacefully at home this morning as was his wish. We shared Ted with Territorians, Australians and the wider world. He lived a big and very generous life, spanning 93 years.”

A true giant of the Australian music scene, Egan’s career was as vast as the outback he loved. He released 30 folk albums, starting with his debut in 1969, and penned 17 books. Beyond music, he was a familiar face on Australian television as a co-host of The Great Outdoors and creator of his own six-part series on Australia.

He cracked the ARIA Chart in 1973 with Willie The Whinging Pom, but was well known for many of his songs including Sayonara Nakamura, The Man from Humpty-Doo and The Drover's Boy.

Egan was also fiercely dedicated to social justice. He was a vocal advocate for Aboriginal land rights during the 1960s and 70s, a passion immortalised in his collaboration with former Australian of the Year Galarrwuy Yunupingu on the track Gurindji Blues.

His contributions to the industry were formally recognised in 1995 when he was inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown. He also held Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Golden Guitar Awards and the National Folk Festival.

Tributes have already begun flowing in from the country and folk community, with the Chief Minister of the NT confirming that Egan will be offered a state funeral.

Egan is survived by his partner Nerys, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

EGAN. Ted (Edward Joseph Egan)

Born: 7/6/1932 Poburg, Melbourne, Australia

Died: 12/4/2025, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

 

Ted Egan’s western – musician:

Australia - 2008

RIP Péter Kálloy Molnár

 

Péter Kálloy Molnár has died

After a short-term illness, Péter Kálloy Molnár, actor, director, writer and musician, died on Monday at the age of 55. 

Blikk

12/1/2025

 

The Alma Ensemble announced on its Facebook page that Péter Kálloy Molnár has passed away at the age of 55; The news was confirmed to our newspaper by several sources.

For a performance on 30 December, Péter Kálloy Molnár was originally supposed to be part of the cast of "This Pure Madness – Improvisational Activity", but the change was announced on Monday afternoon. The improvisation show presented at 6SZÍN will be staged with the participation of Tamás Szabó Kimmel, alongside Erika Náray, Nóra Parti, András Faragó Topy and Levente Harsányi.

The actor has been unable to perform for two weeks due to illness. The organizers of the improvisational game "As it rains, so it pops" reported on it in their Facebook post on November 13: "Unfortunately, Péter Kálloy Molnár has cancelled his performance tonight due to illness. He will be replaced by Viktor Szabó, an artist of the Jókai Theatre of Komárom, in As it rains, so in the thud."

He was an outstanding talent

Péter Kálloy Molnár was an outstandingly talented and versatile creator who was a key figure in Hungarian theatre and film life for decades. His artistic work, special voice, humour and sensitivity have made many roles and works lasting for generations, MTI wrote about the artist.

Péter Kálloy Molnár was born in 1970 in Mezőcsát, graduated from the drama department of the Ady Grammar School in Debrecen, and from 1991 he became a member of the company of the National Theatre. He graduated from the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in 1993 in the class of István Iglódi. Between 1993 and 1997 he was a member of the company of the Vígszínház, and since 1997 he has been a freelance artist.

The wide audience could get to know him, among other things, from his film roles and as a regular character in the television show Beugró, but he also regularly dubbed. He directed Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and his greatest theatrical success came with Shakespeare's All Abbreviations, which was performed more than 600 times in more than two decades.

He has released three solo albums. He has also appeared in international productions, such as Budapest, American Rhapsody or Shoemaker, Tailor, Spy.

Information on the details of the funeral will be provided later.

MOLAN, Péter Kálloy (Péter Kálloy Molnár)

Born: 6/6/1970, Mezõcsát, Hungary

Died: 12/1/2025, Budapest, Hungary

 

Péter Kálloy Molnár’s western – actor:

Day of the Outlaw – 1959 [Hungarian voice of unknown actor]

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – 1971 [Hungarian voice of Bob Dylan]

Shootout – 1971 [Hungarian voice of Robert F. Lyons]

Call of the Wild – 1992 [Hungarian voice of Viton Metcalfe]

Smoke Signals – 1998 [Hungarian voice of Adam Beach]

Jack Bull – 1999 [Hungarian voice of unknown actor]

Buffalo Soldiers – 2001 [Hungarian voice of Michael Peña

800 Bullets – 2002 [Hungarian voice of Enrique Martínez]

Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure – 2008 [Hungarian voice of Ran Tan Plan]

Cold Mountain – 2003 [Hungarian voice of Philip Seymour Hoffman

Rango – 2011 [Hungarian voice of Señor Flan

American Primeval – 2025 [Hungarian voice of Joe Tippett]

No Hero Here – 2015

Killers of the Flower Moon – 2023 Hungarian voice of Pat Healy

RIP John McCarty

 

Facebook

By Bruce Hallenbeck

November 25, 2025

 

I've just been informed that my old and dear friend John McCarty has passed away. It seems very unreal to me, as I went to meet him for lunch last week and he called me at the restaurant to tell me he couldn't make it because he had fallen in his driveway. He had a neurological disorder which made him dizzy and caused him to fall a great deal, and a few days after that, his wife found him in their house at the bottom of the stairs. He had fallen and hit his head. He was taken to the hospital but passed away shortly after.

I don't know where to begin writing about John. He was, in many ways, a mentor to me. I first came across his name in an issue of the late, lamented CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine, for which he had written an article about Val Lewton. The article mentioned that he lived not far from me, so I got in touch with him and, both being film buffs, we became fast friends. He was nine years older than me and he took me under his wing, as it were. My first experience of being on radio was thanks to him, when he and I went on WGY in Schenectady, New York to do film trivia shows.

Next, he directed me in two radio plays for WGY Mystery Theater - a local offshoot of CBS Mystery Theater - and in one of which I played Sherlock Holmes. At the age of 22, I must have been one of the youngest to play that role ever!

My first stage appearances were also with John; he and I appeared in Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. Around that time, I also had my first ride in a passenger jet - to London. We were both huge Hammer fans, and we knew we had to go there. We flew first class, on the same plane with David Frost and his girlfriend. When we got there, we had tickets to two plays, OTHERWISE ENGAGED with Alan Bates and Jacqueline Pearce, and PHAEDRA

BRITTANICA at the Old Vic, with Diana Rigg and Michael Gough. We went to Stonehenge as well. We also spent an afternoon with my pen pal, Hammer's great music composer James Bernard.  It was an amazing trip.

Later that same year, we went to the Famous Monsters Convention in New York, where we met an actor we both adored, Peter Cushing. Another unforgettable experience.

In later years, John became well known for his film-related books, beginning with SPLATTER MOVIES, a term he coined. He kept writing right on up to the end; his latest novel, MASQUERADE, was just published. I'm happy to say that my last words to him were about how much I enjoyed it. I think you will too.

McCARTY, John

Born: 1944, Albany, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 11/25/2025, East Greenbush, New York, U.S.A.

 

John McCarty’s westerns – director, writer, film editor:

Thrist: A Civil War Story – 2013

Dead Horse Trail – 2016

RIP Tony Benedict

 

News From Me

By Mark Evanier

11/29/2025

 

Tony Benedict, R.I.P.

Sad to hear of the passing of Tony Benedict, a great animation writer especially in the early days of Hanna-Barbera. Tony never talked much about his early life but we know that after he got out of the Marine Corps, he drove his 1948 Studebaker out to Hollywood to get into the animation business. He started at Disney in 1956 and worked as an in-betweener (assistant animator) on Sleeping Beauty and on some of the animation done for the Disneyland TV show. In 1959, he moved over to the U.P.A. cartoon studio and worked on several Mr. Magoo cartoons.

Then in 1959, he sold a script to Hanna-Barbera for a new show they had going on the air — The Flintstones. They brought him in on staff and he worked as a storyman and sketch artist on that show and pretty much everything they produced after that for several years including The Jetsons, Top Cat, Yakky Doodle, Magilla Gorilla, Secret Squirrel and many more. Later, he worked for other studios (including DePatie-Freleng) and produced and wrote several animated features.

He was just one of those guys who worked everywhere in town and was liked by everyone. Those of us who got to know him found him to be a talented and very clever gentleman. He'd been ill for some time and we think he was 88 years old. The animation community has lost a beloved figure indeed.

BENEDICT, Tony (Anthony Benedict)

Born: 1936, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Died: 11/29/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Tony Benedict’s westerns –

Ricochet Rabbit & Droop Along (TV) – 1964-1966 (writer)

Posse Impossible (TV) – 1977 (writer)

RIP Leticia Roman

 

VOGA

Maria Neve Esposito & Giuseppe Pasquale

August 16, 2025

 

We at VOGA Milano are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend, the legendary actress Letícia Román/Letizia Novarese.

She passed away on June 26, 2025, at the age of 83. Just a few days before, we had exchanged messages, and it still doesn't feel real that she's gone...

We had the privilege of knowing her well, and she is already deeply missed. Our hearts go out to her loved ones, and we will cherish the memories of her remarkable life and spirit 🤍

Dear Letizia, we will never forget the first day you left us that voicemail. Your words and your immense love for life will be cherished with great care. Thank you for everything, and rest well up there.

With love, your special friends,

ROMAN, Leticia (Letizia Novarese)

Born: 8/12/1941, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Died: 6/26/2025, Ft. Myers, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Leticia Roman’s westerns – actress:

Gold of the Seven Saints – 1961 (Tita)

Flaming Frontier – 1965 (Judith)

F Troop (TV) - 1966 (Gina Barberini)

The Big Valley (TV) - 1967 (Michelle de Lacaise)

RIP Ingrid van Bergen

 Actress Ingrid van Bergen is dead

Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland

11/28/2025

 

In the 1950s, Ingrid van Bergen was one of the most famous movie stars. Her role in "Roses for the Prosecutor" from 1959 was probably her most famous role. For many, however, she was simply the “jungle queen”.

The actress Ingrid van Bergen is dead. She died at the age of 94 in Eyendorf. This was confirmed by a confidant of the German Press Agency. “We are infinitely sad,” said the friend. Van Bergen fell asleep in the early hours of the morning. Previously, the “Bild” had reported.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the actress with the distinctive smoky voice was one of the most famous German film stars. In the post-war satire “Roses for the Public Prosecutor” in 1959, she achieved her greatest success in the role of the pension owner Lissy Flemming.

In 2009 she becomes “Jungle Queen”

Van Bergen did cabaret with the Berlin "Stachelschweinen" and shot for cinema and television. She was also in front of the camera for Edgar Wallace film adaptations such as "The Avenger" (1960) and "The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils" (1961). In "City Without Pity" she filmed with Kirk Douglas (1960).

Younger viewers knew Ingrid van Bergen above all as a popular reality star and winner of the RTL show "Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus!", where she became "Jungle Queen" in 2009.

Several years in prison for manslaughter

In 1977 there was a big scandal about van Bergen. After shooting her lover, the actress spent several years in prison for manslaughter. After her release in the early 1980s, she only gradually managed to re-enter the entertainment industry.

This was followed by many guest appearances, especially in crime dramas and TV series. Again and again she was also seen on talk shows. At the Kammertheater Karlsruhe in 2011, she could be admired as a fun-loving senior citizen in the tragicomedy "Harold and Maude".

The actress lived in the Lower Saxony community of Eyendorf south of Hamburg for the last few years.

van BERGEN, Ingrid

Born: 6/15/1931, Free City of Danzig

Died: 11/28/2025, Eyendorf, Lower Saxony, Germany

 

Ingrid van Bergen’s westerns – actress:

Legend of a Gunfighter – 1964 (Linda)

Prairie-Saloon (TV) – 1964 (Lily)

Alive or Preferably Dead – 1969 [German voice of Sydne Rome]

Support Your Local Gunfighter – 1971 [German voice of Joan Blondell]

The Cowboys – 1972 [German voice of Colleen Dewhurst]

Stadt ohne Sheriff (TV) – 1972-1973 (Mrs. Wallace)

Kung Fu (TV) – 1973 [German voice of Barbara Stuart]

RIP John Eimen

John Eimen, Child Actor on ‘Leave It to Beaver’ and ‘McKeever and the Colonel,’ Dies at 76

He also was set to star as Jane Wyman’s son on another TV show before the Oscar-winning actress backed out.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

November 24, 2025

 

John Eimen, a child actor in the 1950s and ’60s who appeared on such TV shows as Leave It to Beaver, McKeever and the Colonel and The Twilight Zone, has died. He was 76.

Eimen died Friday of prostate cancer at his home in Mukilteo, Washington, his family announced. He only learned of his cancer diagnosis in September.

After showing up on episodes of Leave It to Beaver, Bachelor Father, The Rebel, Have Gun — Will Travel, Wagon Train, The Untouchables and Lawman, the red-haired, freckle-faced Eimen was hired for a proposed 1961 TV drama from Desilu Productions called Dr. Kate, starring Jane Wyman.

“It seemed that a big break had come my way when I was chosen to play her son Tommy in the series’ pilot,” he recalled. “With a sponsor in place, this show had the possibility to run for many years, considering Ms. Wyman’s status as an Academy Award-winning actress. However, she backed out of the deal, claiming dissatisfaction with the proposed ‘after-primetime’ schedule slot in the channel lineup.”

While the series with Wyman never materialized, the pilot did air as a 1960 episode of CBS’ Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. “I still get small residual checks from that show, from time to time,” he noted a few years ago.

With Dr. Kate through, Eimen was available to portray Cadet Monk Roberts, a student at a military school, on the 1962-63 NBC sitcom McKeever and the Colonel, starring Scott Lane and Allyn Joslyn as the title characters. (The series, however, lasted just 26 episodes.)

Born in Chicago on Oct. 2, 1949, Eimen was discovered in his Los Angeles-area classroom by an agent who was a friend of his first-grade teacher.

He started acting at age 6, and his TV debut came in October 1957 as a classmate of Theodore Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) on the first episode of CBS’ Leave It to Beaver. He returned for other installments of that series, which ran six seasons through 1963.

In 1962, he played one of the neighborhood kids on the Twilight Zone episode “The Fugitive,” starting J. Pat O’Malley and Susan Gordon. Meanwhile, he also was known for his appearances, complete with a milk mustache, in national print ads for Carnation.

Eimen’s résumé included the 1965 Connie Stevens film Never Too Late and episodes of The Lloyd Bridges Show, Wendy & Me and, for his final onscreen credit, a 1967 installment of Petticoat Junction.

Eimen said he suffered no emotional scars when acting parts became scarce as he grew older. He became a singer, guitarist and songwriter and moved to Japan, where he got married. He spent more than 10 years teaching English and performing in clubs and on Japanese TV before he and his family returned to the U.S. in the mid-1990s, settling in West Seattle and then in Mukilteo.

Aided by his fluent Japanese, he served for 25 years as a flight attendant on international routes for a U.S. airline before retiring at age 71 in 2020.

Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Midori; his sons, Daniel and Chris; and his grandsons, Lucas and Oliver. A memorial service is being planned.

EIMEN, John (John Alan Eimen)

Born: 10/2/1949, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Died: 11/21/2025, Mukilteo, Washington, U.S.A.

 

John Eimen’s westerns – actor:

 

Wagon Train (TV) – 1960 (Billy Taylor)

Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1959, 1961 (boy, Larry Decker)

Lawman (TV) - 1960 (young boy)

The Rebel (TV) - 1959 (Ike Simmons)

Law of the Plainsman (TV) - 1960 (little boy)

RIP Udo Kier

 

Udo Kier, German Actor Who Appeared in ‘My Own Private Idaho,’ ‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,’ Dies at 81

Variety

By Jack Dunn

November 23, 2025

 

Udo Kier, a German actor and cult icon who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning, according to his partner, artist Delbert McBride. He was 81.

Among the more than 200 films in his expansive body of work, Kier’s breakout collaborations with Warhol are among his most celebrated. Kier starred in the titular roles in both 1973’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” and 1974’s “Blood for Dracula.” Both directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Warhol, the films are subversive, sultry reimaginings of the classic Hollywood monsters, with Kier bringing a haunting yet comically inept spin on the title characters.

That pair of films made Kier famous, and he spent the next two decades working through Europe and collaborating with legendary writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder on films like “The Stationmaster’s Wife,” “The Third Generation” and “Lili Marleen.” Then, at the Berlin Film Festival, Kier met future two-time Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant, who Kier credits with securing him an American work permit and a SAG card.

In 1991, Van Sant widely introduced Kier to American audiences with his coming-of-age drama “My Own Private Idaho,” loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” Kier appeared in a supporting role alongside stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.

Around the same time, Kier began his lifelong collaboration with von Trier. Starting in the late ’80s with “Epidemic,” Kier appeared in the 1991 film “Europa” before appearing in several episodes of von Trier’s long-running horror-thriller series “The Kingdom” through the ’90s and aughts. Their other film collaborations include “Breaking the Waves,” “Dancer in the Dark,” “Dogville,” “Melancholia” and “Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.”

The ’90s also saw Kier in several supporting roles in major Hollywood productions, such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Armageddon” and “Blade.” Most recently, Kier appeared in Kleber Mendonça Filho awards darling “The Secret Agent.” The film earned star Wanger Moura the honor for best actor at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

KIER, Udo (Udo Kierspe)

Born: 10/14/1944, Cologne, Germany, U.S.A.

Died: 11/23/2025, Lindenthal, Sachsen, Germany

 

Udo Kier’s western – actor:

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – 1993 (commercial director)

RIP Cleo Hearn

 

Cleo Hearn, founder of Cowboys of Color Rodeo, dies at 86

KERA News

By Zara Amaechi

November 11, 2025

 

Cleo Hearn, founder of Cowboys of Color Rodeo, has died.

Executive Director of Cowboys of Color Rodeo Liz Lawless told Arts Access the 86-year-old died on Sunday morning.

The Lancaster-based Cowboys of Color Rodeo hosts multiple events throughout the country featuring diverse cowboys and cowgirls.

Hearn earned many achievements for his contributions to the sport and cowboy culture.

He received a star on the Texas Trail of Fame in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 2005 for his lifetime commitment to rodeo and the cowboy way of life. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Lane Frost Award. More recently, he was inducted into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in 2021, and inducted into the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame in 2022 for his long legacy of promoting the Western and rodeo cowboy lifestyle.

In Dallas, Hearn was well known for leading the Texas Black Invitational Rodeo at the African American Museum Dallas for 36 years. Museum founder Harry Robinson Jr. partnered with Hearn on the rodeo in an effort to highlight the overlooked history of Black cowboys in American culture.

Hearn was born in Seminole, Okla. He attended Oklahoma State University and made history as the first African American to attend college on a rodeo scholarship. Hearn made history again in 1970 by becoming the first Black man to win a major stock show tie-down calf roping event at the National Western in Denver.

In 1971, he produced his first rodeo in Harlem featuring 100 legendary Black cowboys including Bud Bramwell, Rufus Green Sr. and Myrtis Dightman, who is known as the “Jackie Robinson of Rodeo.”

The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, which Hearn brought the Cowboys of Color Rodeo to, posted on Facebook about Hearn’s death on Tuesday.

“Celebrating the diversity and uniqueness of our Western way of life, the Cowboys of Color Rodeo captivates thousands of loyal fans each year. His legacy, leadership and love for Western heritage will continue inspiring generations,” the post said.

Hearn is survived by his four sons Harlan, Eldon, Robby and Wendell Hearn. They are the current leaders of Cowboys of Color Rodeo.

HEARN, Cleo (Cleo L. Hearn)

Born: 5/3/1939, Seminole Oklahoma, U.S.A.

Died: 11/9/2025, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

 

Cleo Hearn’s western – producer:

Cowboys of Color: A Multi-Cultural Legacy Volume 1 - 2014

Carl Ciarfalio Dies: Stuntman & Actor With Hundred Of Film & TV Credits Was 72

 

DEADLINE

By Erik Pederson

November 21, 2025

 

Carl Ciarfalio, a longtime stuntman, stunt coordinator and actor who worked with such top names as Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and many others, has died. He was 72. His wife, Teri Ryan, announced the news on his Facebook page this week but did not provide details including a cause of death.

“Our Carl has passed on,” she wrote. “And by ‘our’ I mean all of us. He was so special to everyone. We will celebrate his special life and light. No idea how yet but I know the laughter will flow with the tears. He went peacefully and we were all there.”

Born on November 12, 1953, in Alhambra just east of Los Angeles, Ciarfalio was a college wrestler before getting his start doing live stunt shows at Knott’s Berry Farm and later Universal Studios. His prolific screen career got going in the early 1980s with stunt works and/or bit roles in TV series including The Fall Guy, MacGyver, Sledge Hammer! and Magnum, P.I.

His earlier film credits range from the Pierce Brosnan James Bond pic Licence to Kill and RoboCop 2 and 3 to Wayne’s World, Beverly Cop III and Batman & Robin. He continued to work on camera in hundreds of stunt and acting roles all the way to last year, with more recent credits as Justified, Meet the Blacks and Sharknado films.

Ciarfalio’s credits are far too numerous to list, but he also worked on such classic TV series as Simon & Simon, Quantum Leap, Family Matters, ER, Community and Murder, She Wrote. Among his even more prolific film career included such memorable pics as Beetlejuice, Total Recall, Glory, Get Shorty, Mallrats, Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, Daddy Day Care, Bruce Almighty, After the Sunset and Wedding Crashers.

He served as stunt coordinator on about three dozen projects including The Expendables, Meet the Blacks and Rock, Paper, Scissors, along with many short films.

He won Best Fight Sequence at the inaugural Stuntman Awards in 1985 for an episode of Knight Rider and later earned a Actor Awards nom for The Amazing Spider-Man stunt ensemble.

Ciarfalio joined the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures in 1985 and was its president from 1992-96. He also served two terms on the the Board of Governors at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences after helping to organize the Stunt Peer Group in 2000. He also was key to establishing the Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination the following year, an award now presented annually during the Creative Arts Emmys.

CIARFALIO, Carl (Carl Nick Ciarfalio)

Born: 11/12/1953, Alhambra, California, U.S.A.

Died: 11/21/2025, Henderson, Nevada, U.S.A.

 

Carl Ciarfalio’s westerns – stuntman, actor:

Glory – 1989 [stunts]

Far and Away – 1992 (Italian boxer)

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 (Bood Holland, Gergan,

     McKnight, Riley, Sanders, Murphy)

Ground Zero Texas – 1994 (card player)

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV) 1996 (Garrett)

Extreme Prejudice – 1987 [stunts]

Westworld (TV) – 2016 [stunts]

RIP Ornella Vanoni

 

Italian Music Icon Ornella Vanoni, Voice Of L’appuntamento, Dies At 91

News 18

By Grace Cyril

November 22, 2025

 

Italian singer and cultural icon Ornella Vanoni, whose music reached a global audience after “L’appuntamento" featured in Ocean’s Twelve, died at her Milan residence on November 21, 2025. She was 91. Local outlets Corriere della Sera and AGI reported that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.

Born in Milan on September 22, 1934, Vanoni grew up in a well-established family and received her education across Switzerland, Britain and France, becoming fluent in several languages. Although her parents encouraged a conventional professional path, her interests pulled her toward the stage. She trained under director Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro, where she performed works by Brecht and other major playwrights before eventually moving into music.

Her recording career began in the late 1950s with folk songs rooted in the stories of Milan’s darker corners, earning her the moniker “Cantante della mala." Recognition on a national scale arrived in 1961 with “Senza fine," a track that would become one of her enduring classics. More hits followed through the 1970s, including “Domani è un altro giorno."

In 1970, she released “L’appuntamento," adapted from the Brazilian composition “Sentado à beira do caminho" by Erasmo Carlos and Roberto Carlos. Decades later, its inclusion in Steven Soderbergh’s 2004 heist film Ocean’s Twelve introduced Vanoni’s voice to a new global audience, cementing her legacy far beyond Italian borders.

Her career, marked by longevity and reinvention, spanned more than 70 years and left an indelible imprint on Italian music and popular culture.

May her soul rest in peace.

VANONI, Ornella

Born: 9/22/1934, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Died: 11/21/2025, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

 

Ornella Vanoni’s western – actress, singer:

A Fistful of Songs – 1966

RIP Julio Fernández

 

Julio Fernández, Filmax Founder, Fantastic Factory Co-Creator, Dies at 78

Variety

By John Hopewell

November 18, 2025

 

Julio Fernández, the pioneering founder of Barcelona studio Filmax and co-architect of itsFantastic Factory which galvanized Spain’s auteur genre production, died Nov. 17. in Miami. He was 78.

Born in rural Galicia, in A Fonsagrada in the province of Lugo, Fernández was typical of a region which emigrated for larger opportunities in Spain’s fast building cities. Few, however, had Fernández’s ambitions and eye for the main chance. If genre and animation are two of the current international market’s going concerns, Fernández anticipated this getting on for 30 years ago.

In 1987, Fernández bought Filmax, a Paramount library movie distributor in the 1960s, dedicated to video, but which Fernández and younger brother Carlos Fernández wanted to move into theatrical distribution. Buoyed by cinema theater results for “The Fourth Consul,” Filmax made another move, into production, and always with one eye on international markets, seeing vibrant international sales on young director Jaume Balagueró’s “Nameless” at 1999’s Mifed, bringing down the flag on a golden age of Spanish auteur genre.

A year later, Fernández officially launched the Fantastic Factory with Brian Yuzna. A unique attempt to replicate the shlock but also meta arch awareness of 1985’s “Re-Animator” in movies made in English in Spain mixing international and Spanish actors, the Fantastic Factory saw early success, with Lionsgate Entertainment acquiring all North American rights to four of its horror titles: Jack Sholder’s “Arachnid”; “Dagon,” from Stuart Gordon; and two titles from Brian Yuzna: “Faust: Love of the Damned” and “Beyond Re-Animator.”

In 2001, Fernández launched Filmax Animation in his native Galicia, a venture which yielded Goya-winning “El Cid: The Legend.” Filmax also upped its ambition. Bought by Dimension and released in 2004 two years after its Spanish bow, supernatural horror film “Darkness” – starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glen and Giancarlo Giannini and a step-up in scale and step into English for Balagueró – grossed a breakout $34.4 million in U.S. theaters.

Also released in 2004, the Brad Anderson-directed “The Machinist,” starring Christian Bale, has become a cult classic. From Balagueró and Paco Plaza, “[REC],” which premiered in 2007, went on to be ranked by Bloody Disgusting at No. 11 of its Top 20 Horror Films of the 2000s.   

In 2010, Carlos Fernández took over the reins of the company as its president, consolidating TV production, scoring a huge success with series “Polseres Vermelles” (“The Red Band Society”) remade by Fox in the U.S. and one of Spain’s most successful TV fiction formats ever. He and Filmax co-head Laura Fernandez, Julio Fernández’s daughter, have also fully-diversified Filmax into a full-blown studio.

Julio Fernández was a born entrepreneur, working in sectors from real estate to cured sausages, the latter in Galicia.

From 2010, he increasingly turned to other enterprises. His legacy remains, however. The Fantastic Factory underscored the possibilities of genre as a business and an art-form in Spain. It may be no coincidence that when Guillermo del Toro set out to shoot “Pan’s Labyrinth,” still reckoned by many as his best film, he shot and majority financed it in the country. The seeds of Spain’s modern genre film industry had already been sown.

FERNANDEZ, Julio (Julio Fernández Rodríguez)

Born: 7/26/1947, Fonsagrada, Lugo, Spain

Died: 11/17/2025, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Julio Fernández westerns – producer:

One Man’s Hero – 1998

The Daltons – 2004

RIP Dawn Little Sky

 

Dawn Little Sky, Actress and Disney Artist, Dies at 95

The wife of late actor Eddie Little Sky, she appeared in ‘Cimarron,’ ‘Duel at Diablo,’ ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Gunsmoke’ and

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

November 17, 2025

 

Dawn Little Sky, an actress who appeared onscreen in Gypsy, The Apple Dumpling Gang and Rawhide and worked as an artist at Walt Disney Studios, has died. She was 95.

Little Sky died Oct. 24 at the Monument Health Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, her family announced.

Her husband was late actor Eddie Little Sky, who was one of the first Native men to play Native roles on film and television. His credits included the 1970 films A Man Called Horse and Little Big Man and several episodes of Gilligan’s Island, where he spoke the Siouan language Lakota.

Meanwhile, the couple acted together on episodes of The Magical World of Disney, Gunsmoke, Have Gun — Will Travel and Daniel Boone, and in such features as Chief Crazy Horse (1955), Cimarron (1960), Duel at Diablo (1966) and Journey Through Rosebud (1972).

Born on April 17, 1930, in Fort Yates, North Dakota, Dawn lived on the Standing Rock Reservation (which straddles South and North Dakota) as a youngster, then attended Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

While in college, she met Eddie — he called her the “Ava Gardner of Fort Yates” — and they would marry in Roswell, New Mexico, while on the rodeo trail. They ended up in California, where she worked as an actress at Frontierland in Disneyland and as an artist for Walt Disney Studios, where she colored cels for animation projects.

Her acting résumé also included the films Ten Who Dared (1960) and Billy Two Hats (1974), and her career once took her as far away as Israel, she said in a 2022 interview.

In the late 1970s, she and her husband moved to South Dakota, where she served as the director of a cultural center in Eagle Butte and taught art and culture. Eddie died in 1997 at age 71.

She received South Dakota’s Indian Living Treasure Award in 2005.

Survivors include her children, Tojan, Prairie Rose and John, and her grandchildren, Ryanne, Darryan, Britni, Makana, Abigail, Chaske, Edsel, Aleta, Kathryn, Fawn, Trae, Lakota, Duel, Winona, Sparrow, Chanda, Robert, Aspen, January, Nadine, Ardie and Ian.

“Dawn lived an extraordinary life and left a positive impact on all who had the honor to interact with her,” her family said. “Her life was full of so many adventures and unforgettable experiences, and she was the best storyteller with the most amazing sense of humor!”

LITTLE SKY, Dawn (Dawn Gates)

Born: 4/17/1930, Fort Yates, North Dakota, U.S.A.

Died:  10/24/2025, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A

 

Dawn Little Sky’s westerns – actress:

Chief Crazy Horse - 1955 (squaw)

Cimarron – 1960 (Arita Red Feather)

Ten Who Dared – 1960 (squaw)

The Texan (TV) –1960 (squaw)

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1961 (squaw)

Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1963 (wife)

Rawhide (TV) – 1964 (squaw)

Duel at Diablo – 1966 (Chata’s wife)

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1966 (squaw)

The Outcasts (TV) – 1969 (singing squaw)

Billy Two Hats – 1973 (Copeland’s squaw)

The Apple Dumpling Gang – 1975 (Big Foot)

Neither Wolf Nor Dog – 2016 (Annie)

RIP Hark Bohm

 

Filmmaker Hark Bohm has died at the age of 86

Bunte

November 14, 2025

 

Hark Bohm has died at the age of 86. The Hamburg director and actor leaves a big gap. His former student and long-time companion Fatih Akin, with whom he most recently made the partly autobiographical film "Amrum", says goodbye on Instagram with moving words.

The Hamburg director and screenwriter Hark Bohm (1939–2025) has died. The news was confirmed, among others, by his long-time student Fatih Akin (52), with whom Bohm had most recently worked on the current feature film "Amrum", which premiered in Cannes in 2025. According to media reports, the actor, author, director and producer died on Friday at the age of 86 surrounded by his family in Hamburg.

"My friend and master Hark Bohm has passed away. The lighthouse is extinguished. Hark's soul continues to breathe in his unique work," Akin wrote on Instagram to a joint photo. Akin also wrote about a picture of a sunset on the beach: "Goodbye, my dear, faithful friend..."

Fatih Akin and his mentor Hark Bohm worked together several times. Among other things, in 2017 for Akin's internationally successful drama "Out of the Fade", in which Hollywood star Diane Kruger (49) played the leading role. After a long hiatus, Hark Bohm caused a sensation again in 2025: Fatih Akin directed the film "Amrum" at his request, which is based on Bohm's screenplay and his autobiographically inspired novel of the same name. This is about his childhood experiences in the last days of the Second World War in his home village on the German North Sea island of Amrum. Diane Kruger is once again part of the cast of the film.

Hark Bohm: A formative voice of German cinema

Bohm became known above all for productions such as "Nordsee ist Mordsee" (1976), "Moritz, lieber Moritz" (1978) or "Yasemin" (1988). For the latter film, he received the Federal Film Award in Gold. For decades, Bohm was considered one of the defining voices of German auteur and up-and-coming cinema.

In addition to his work for film and television, he was a co-founder of the Hamburg Film Office and for a long time a central figure of the so-called "Hamburg School", which was characterized by realistic material, social issues and the promotion of young filmmakers.

As an actor, Bohm also appeared in numerous films by his close friend and companion Werner Herzog (83), including "Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle" (1974) and "Stroszek" (1977), which also brought him international fame. In her first marriage, Bohm was married to Angela Luther (85), who later became an RAF terrorist and is still a fugitive today. With his second wife Natalia, he adopted four children and looked after two other foster children. He is also survived by nine grandchildren.

BOHM, Hark

Born: 5/18/1939, Othmarschen, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Died: 11/14/2025, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

 

Hark Bohm’s western – producer, director, writer:

Chetan, Indian Boy – 1972

RIP Sally Kirkland

 

Sally Kirkland, stage and screen star who earned an Oscar nomination in 'Anna,' dies at age 84

10 News

November 11, 2025

 

Sally Kirkland, a one-time model who became a regular on stage, film and TV, best known for sharing the screen with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “The Sting” and her Oscar-nominated title role in the 1987 movie “Anna,” has died. She was 84.

Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died Tuesday morning at a Palm Springs hospice.

Friends established a GoFundMe account this fall for her medical care. They said she had fractured four bones in her neck, right wrist and left hip. While recovering, she also developed infections, requiring hospitalization and rehab.

Kirkland acted in such films as “The Way We Were” with Barbra Streisand, “Revenge” with Kevin Costner, “Cold Feet” with Keith Carradine and Tom Waits, Ron Howard's “EDtv,” Oliver Stone's “JFK,” “Heatwave” with Cicely Tyson, “High Stakes” with Kathy Bates, “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey and the 1991 TV movie “The Haunted,” about a family dealing with paranormal activity. She had a cameo in Mel Brooks' “Blazing Saddles.”

Her biggest role was in 1987's “Anna” as a fading Czech movie star remaking her life in the United States and mentoring to a younger actor, Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination along with Cher in “Moonstruck,” Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction, Holly Hunter in ”Broadcast News" and Meryl Streep in “Ironweed.”

“Kirkland is one of those performers whose talent has been an open secret to her fellow actors but something of a mystery to the general public,” The Los Angeles critic wrote in her review. “There should be no confusion about her identity after this blazing comet of a performance.”

Kirkland’s small-screen acting credits include stints on “Criminal Minds,” “Roseanne,” “Head Case” and she was a series regular on the TV shows “Valley of the Dolls” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

Born in New York City, Kirkland’s mother was a fashion editor at Vogue and Life magazine who encouraged her daughter to start modeling at age 5. Kirkland graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with Philip Burton, Richard Burton’s mentor, and Lee Strasberg, the master of the Method school of acting. An early breakout was appearing in Andy Warhol's “13 Most Beautiful Women” in 1964. She appeared naked as a kidnapped rape victim in Terrence McNally’s off-Broadway “Sweet Eros.”

Some of her early roles were Shakespeare, including the lovesick Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for New York Shakespeare Festival producer Joseph Papp and Miranda in an off-Broadway production of “The Tempest.”

“I don’t think any actor can really call him or herself an actor unless he or she puts in time with Shakespeare,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “It shows up, it always shows up in the work, at some point, whether it’s just not being able to have breath control, or not being able to appreciate language as poetry and music, or not having the power that Shakespeare automatically instills you with when you take on one of his characters.”

Kirkland was a member of several New Age groups, taught Insight Transformational Seminars and was a longtime member of the affiliated Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, whose followers believe in soul transcendence.

She reached a career nadir while riding nude on a pig in the 1969 film “Futz,” which a Guardian reviewer dubbed the worst film he had ever seen. “It was about a man who fell in love with a pig, and even by the dismal standards of the era, it was dismal,” he wrote.

Kirkland was also known for disrobing for so many other roles and social causes that Time magazine dubbed her “the latter-day Isadora Duncan of nudothespianism.”

Kirkland volunteered for people who had AIDS, cancer and heart disease, fed homeless people via the American Red Cross, participated in telethons for hospices and was an advocate for prisoners, especially young people.

KIRKLAND, Sally

Born: 10/31/1941, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 11/11/2025, Palm Springs, California, U.S.A.

 

Sally Kirkland’s westerns – actress:

Blue – 1968 (Sarah Lambert)

Fade In – 1973 (Sally Kirkland)

Blazing Saddles – 1974 (cashier)

Bite the Bullet – 1975 (Honey)

Breakheart Pass – 1975 (Jane Marie)

Nobody Wrote It Down: Tales of the Black Pioneers (TV) – 2021-2023 (Ma Barrow)

The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine – 2023 (Doctor Parker)

RIP Tatsuya Nakadai

 

Tatsuya Nakadai, Japanese Film Legend That Starred in ‘Ran,’ ‘Harakiri’ and ‘The Human Condition’ Trilogy, Dies at 92

Variety

By J. Kim Murphy

November 10, 2025

 

Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan’s most celebrated stage and screen actors who was a frequent collaborator of director Masaki Kobayashi and led Akira Kurosawa titles such as “Ran,” “Kagemusha” and “High and Low,” has died. He was 92.

Nakadai’s death was reported Tuesday in Japan by The Japan News.

With more than 100 screen credits through his seven-decade-spanning career, Nakadai’s body of work spanned a veritable who’s-who of Japanese cinema for the second half of the twentieth century, working with filmmakers like Hiroshi Teshigahara, Mikio Naruse and Kon Ichikawa. He considered himself primarily a theater actor, and he did not sign an overall contract with any Japanese studio, leaving him free to work with many different directors.

His on-screen debut was an uncredited role playing a prisoner in Kobayashi’s 1953 drama “The Thick-Walled Room,” beginning a partnership that would continue through the next three decades and include titles like “Samurai Rebellion” and “Kwaidan.”

To Western audiences, Nakadai is perhaps best known for his leading turn in Kurosawa’s 1985 drama “Ran,” a Sengoku-period-set war epic inspired by Shakespeare’s “King Lear” that earned Kurosawa his only Oscar nomination. Then just in his early 50s, Nakadai played much older leading the film as Ichimonji Hidetora, wearing intense, ghost-like makeup to portray a desolate, world-weary warlord.

Nakadai was a fixture of the chanbara genre, leading some of the most enduring samurai films, including Kobayashi’s sublimely existential “Harakiri” and Kihachi Okamoto’s more comedic “Kill!” He played the grinning villain to Toshiro Mifune’s scowling hero twice — as a grinning, gun-toting gangster in 1961’s “Yojimbo” and a balder and more prideful samurai foil in 1962’s “Sanjuro,” the latter of which ended with one of the era’s most memorably bloody death scenes. Nakadai had been coming off of a breakout lead turn in Kobayashi’s “The Human Condition” trilogy, in which the actor played a pacifist enduring Japan’s turn to totalitarian rule amid World War II.

Mifune and Kurosawa would collaborate again on the sprawling 1963 kidnap thriller “High and Low,” in which Nakadai played the chief detective that sets up base camp in the luxurious apartment of Mifune’s callous lead. In the late ’70s, Kurosawa tapped Nakadai again, this time to lead the epic jidaigeki “Kagemusha.”

NAKADAI, Tatsuysa (Motohisa Nakadai)

Born: 12/13/1932, Tokyo, Japan

Died: 11/8/2025, Tokyo, Japan

Tatsuya Nakadai’s western – actor:

Today We Kill… Tomorrow We Die! – 1967 (James Elfego)

East Meets West 1995 (Rentaro Katsu)

RIP Jeanna Fine

 

Jeanna Fine Death, Obituary; American Pornographic Film Actress Has Died

Always in Memory

by Alwaysers Paseirne

November 10, 2025

 

The adult entertainment industry and her many fans mourn the passing of Jeanna Fine, a pioneering and award-winning performer whose talent, charisma, and unforgettable presence left a lasting mark on her field. Born September 29, 1964, Jeanna began her career in 1986 and quickly became known for her bold performances, striking looks, and dedication to her craft. Over her career, she starred in over 150 films, earning numerous accolades including AVN Best Actress awards and XRCO Performer of the Year, cementing her place as one of the most respected figures in adult cinema.

Jeanna’s career was defined not just by her performances, but by her intelligence, creativity, and willingness to challenge the norms of her industry. She was widely recognized for her acting ability and artistry, delivering performances that blended raw emotion with undeniable skill. Among her most memorable works are Skin Hunger, Hothouse Rose, Wild Goose Chase, and Latex, films that demonstrated her range and commitment to storytelling within adult entertainment.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Jeanna was remembered by friends and colleagues for her vibrant personality, wit, and loyalty. Tom Byron, her former roommate, fondly recalled their days in the Hollywood Hills:

“We would throw crazy parties that lasted days. Jason and I would go clubbing, and she knew every owner and bouncer in Hollywood. She was one of a kind. Thanks for letting me be part of your crazy life.”

Jeanna’s life was marked by resilience and a pursuit of happiness both on and off-screen. She navigated personal struggles, including challenging relationships and addiction, while building a family with her husband Jim Bernstein and their son Braxton Zachary, born in 1994. Later in life, she focused on raising her family, finding peace, and living closer to loved ones away from the pressures of Hollywood.

Her legacy extends beyond the screen; Jeanna Fine was a trailblazer who brought artistry, courage, and a fiercely independent spirit to her work. She broke barriers, inspired countless performers, and left an indelible imprint on the industry she loved.

Jeanna Fine will be remembered as a talented actress, devoted mother, and extraordinary individual whose life, though complex, was lived fully and unapologetically. Her impact will continue to be felt by fans, colleagues, and those whose lives she touched with her talent and spiri

Rest in peace, Jeanna Fine. Your light, artistry, and unforgettable presence will never be forgotten.

FINE, Jeanna (Jennifer Payson)

Born: 9/29/1964, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died:  11/10/2025, Maryland, U.S.A.

 

Jeanna Fine’s westerns – actress:

Untamed Cowgirls of the Wild West Part 1 - 1993

Untamed Cowgirls of the Wild West Part 2 - 1993

RIP Walter Maslow

 

Mt. Sinai

Wikipedia

 

Actor Walter C. Maslow died in Murieta, California on November 2, 2025. He was 97. Maslow was born in Manhattan, New York on January 16, 1928, and was known for playing private Marty Green in the 1958 film Suicide Battalion. He was the son of Rubin and Sylvia Maslow. Walter served in the United States Navy during World War II. During his military service, he directed and acted on special services performances, which after his discharge, he moved to New York and appeared on off-Broadway productions at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. He began his screen career in 1956, appearing in the CBS adventure and drama television series Crusader, starring Brian Keith. The next year, he appeared in the film Under Fire, playing an uncredited role of a court officer.

Later in his career, Maslow guest-starred in television programs including Johnny Staccato, 26 Men, Man with a Camera, Colt .45, Tales of Wells Fargo, Sky King, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Fury, Iron Horse and Highway Patrol, and played the recurring roles of Dick Averill and Blackie Saunders in the ABC western television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He also appeared in films such as Suicide Battalion (as private Marty Green),[2] The Cosmic Man (as Dr. Ritchie), Atlas (as Garnis), Winter A-Go-Go, Warning Shot and Here Come the Jets.[9]

Maslow retired from acting in 1978, last appearing in the film Malibu Beach, starring Kim Lankford and James Daughton.

Walter was married to Eileen Wool (1951-1953) and later married Joan Kathryn Young, an actress, in Rome (1961-1962), where he had completed his scenes for the film Francis of Assisi, and where the newlyweds would presently begin work in the film Barabbas, resulting in uncredited roles for each. The marriage failed and Maslow married Lois C Blumenstein in 1967.

MASLOW, Walter (Walter C. Maslow)

Born: 1/16/1928, Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 11/2/2025, Murietta, California, U.S.A.

 

Walter Naslow’s westerns – actor:

The Gray Ghost (TV) – 1957 (Union soldier)

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (TV) – 1958 (Dick Averill, Blackie Saunders)

Man Without a Gun (TV) – 1958 (Mordecai)

Sky King (TV) – 1958 (Miller)

Tales of Wels Fargo (TV) – 1958 (Judd Bostwick)

Colt. 45 (TV) – 1959 (Joey Myers, Burke)

Fury (TV) – 1959 (Slip)

26 Men (TV) – 1959 (Ed Shaw, Ed Dolan)

These Thousand Hills – 1959

Mackenzie's Raiders (TV) – 1959 (Trooper O’Brien)

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1970 (Tory corporal, Higbee)

Alvarez Kelly – 1966 (Confederate officer)

Iron Horse (TV) – 1966 (Dimas Mott)