RIP Javier Zaragoza

 

"Man on Fire" actor, Javier Zaragoza, dies at 63 

Liston Diario

4/28/2025

 

Mexican actor and filmmaker Javier Zaragoza has died at the age of 63.

The news was revealed by the Pohualizcalli School of Community Film and Photography Casa de las Historias, where the actor was a teacher.

Likewise, the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) mourned Zaragoza's death: "Rest in peace. A big hug to his family, friends and students."

Javier Zaragoza Sandri was born in 1962 in Mexico City and studied at the School of Theater Art of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature. He made his debut in the 80s in short films such as "Diamante" (1984) and in films such as "Chido Guan, el Tacos de Oro" (1986).

Zaragoza participated in contemporary Mexican films, such as Pueblo de Madera (1990), as well as in Hollywood with "Hombre en llamas" (2004).

He was also a cameraman and excelled in the theater and came to direct the short film "Male Legend" during his career of more than 50 years.

ZARAGOZA, Javier

Born: 1962, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

Died: 4/26/2025, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

 

Javier Zaragoza’s westerns – actor:

The Rebellion of the Hanged – 1986

Mi Querido Tom Mix – 1992 (Alonso)

A la hora marcada – 2017 (Lazaro)

RIP Priscilla Pointer

 

Priscilla Pointer, ‘Dallas’ Actress and Mother of Amy Irving, Dies at 100

She co-founded the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, appeared with her daughter in 'Carrie' and 'Micki + Maude' and played Victoria Principal's mom on 'Dallas.'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 29, 2025

 

Priscilla Pointer, the character actress who portrayed Amy Irving’s mother in the Brian De Palma horror classic Carrie, then appeared with her daughter in six other movies, has died. She was 100.

Pointer died Monday at an assisted living facility in Ridgefield, Connecticut, her son, writer-director David Irving, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Pointer also portrayed Diane Keaton‘s mom in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Sean Penn‘s in The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) and Kyle MacLachlan’s in Blue Velvet (1986), and on television, she was Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, the mother of Victoria Principal’s character, on CBS’ Dallas in the early 1980s.

Pointer also appeared with Irving in Honeysuckle Rose (1980), The Competition (1980), Blake Edwards‘ Micki + Maude (1984), Rumpelstiltskin (1987) — which was directed by her son — A Show of Force (1990) and Carried Away (1996).

In the 1960s and ’70s, Pointer worked on Broadway with the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center company under the direction of her first husband, the late Jules Irving, and Herbert Blau. They, along with Blau’s wife, actress Beatrice Manley, had co-founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop in a loft on Divisidero Street in 1952.

“Instead of using babysitters, Mama would put us in the front row where she could watch us from the stage,” Irving recalled in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “My father was an amazing artistic director, and the values of the Actor’s Workshop were special. It was about the work, not money or fame. Things were very disillusioning when I got out into the real world.”

After Jules Irving died in 1979 from a heart attack at age 54, Pointer married Robert Symonds, an actor and Jules’ producing partner, two years later. She and Symonds had begun working together at the Actor’s Workshop in their 20s and often appeared alongside each other on stage and in such films as Micki + Maude and Inferno (1999). (Symonds died in 2007.)

Pointer’s stint on Dallas ended in 1983 in the show’s sixth season when her character perished after the Wentworth jet in which she was riding crashed into another plane in mid-air.

Pointer was born in New York on May 18, 1924. Her parents, Augusta and Kenneth, were artists.

At the Actor’s Workshop, Pointer did everything from answering phones to appearing in such plays as Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. She then made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a revival of Danton’s Death.

POINTER, Priscilla (Priscilla Marie Pointer)

Born: 5/18/1924, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 4/28/2025, Ridgefield, Connecticut, U.S.A.

 

Priscilla Pointer ‘s western – actress:

The High Chaparral (TV) – 1970 (Mrs. Colton)

RIP Cora Sue Collins

 

Cora Sue Collins, Celebrated Child Actress at MGM in the 1930s, Dies at 98

She spent time alone with Greta Garbo, played William Powell and Myrna Loy's daughter and had Lana Turner for a babysitter before leaving acting at age 18.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 28, 2025

 

Cora Sue Collins, the charming child actress of the 1930s and ’40s who worked alongside such legends as Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Irene Dunne and Merle Oberon during her brief but sensational career, has died. She was 98.

Collins died Sunday at her home in Beverly Hills of complications from a stroke, her daughter, Susie Krieser, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Collins played younger versions of Colbert in Torch Singer (1933), Frances Dee in The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932) and Keep ‘Em Rolling (1934), Loretta Young in Caravan (1934), Oberon in The Dark Angel (1935) and Lynn Bari in Blood and Sand (1941).

“I must have the most common face in the world,” she said in a 2019 interview. “I played either the most famous actresses of the ’30s as a child or their child. They made me up to look like everybody.”

The MGM contract player also was William Powell and Myrna Loy’s daughter in Evelyn Prentice (1934); portrayed Amy Lawrence in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938); appeared in the original Magnificent Obsession (1935), starring Dunne and her personal crush, Robert Taylor; and was one of Davis’ students at an American girls school in All This, and Heaven Too (1940).

Garbo personally selected Collins to play her younger self in Queen Christina (1933), and the two appeared together again in Anna Karenina (1935). The reclusive star often invited Collins into her lavish suite on the MGM lot for afternoon tea — Collins drank milk — and they remained friends until Garbo’s death in 1990.

Collins also called Pat O’Brien “Uncle Pat,” went roller skating with Cesar Romero and was babysat by Lana Turner. After making about four dozen movies from 1932 through 1945, she called it a career.

Collins was born on April 19, 1927, in Beckley, West Virginia. Her mom brought her and her older sister to Los Angeles just before Collins turned 4.

“On the third day we were here, I went with my mother to enroll my older sister in school,” she told Danny Miller in a wonderful 2015 interview. “We were walking up to the entrance of the school, my sister and I each holding one of my mother’s hands, when this huge car came screeching up.

“A woman jumped out of the car and said, ‘Excuse me, would you like to put your little girl in pictures?’ Of course my mother said, ‘Yes!’ The woman said, ‘Get in the car with me, there’s a big casting going on right now at Universal.'”

They made it on their own to the studio, where Collins was quickly tapped to play Pudge in the 1932 comedy The Unexpected Father, starring ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville. “Wait till you see Cora Sue,” wrote one reviewer of her performance. “Just four, she walks away with everything.”

(Collins said producers were all set to hire Judy Garland but reworked the part for a younger actress after seeing her).

On the set of The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932), she recalled, “I was supposed to cry in this one scene we were about to shoot. My mother was on set with me, of course, I was still very young, and all of a sudden, these two great big men came up behind her and literally dragged her off the set. She had no idea what was happening.

“I looked at the director and he said, ‘Well, aren’t you going to cry?’ And I said, ‘If you want me to cry, why don’t you just tell me to and give me a minute to think of something sad.’ That’s a true story.”

The next year, Collins portrayed Sylvia Sidney’s daughter in Jennie Gerhardt and was the main attraction at the premiere of Queen Christina at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where she was accompanied by MGM chief Louis B. Mayer after arriving in a miniature coach pulled by Shetland ponies. (Garbo refused to do any publicity for her films.)

Collins signed a contract with MGM in 1934 for $250 a week — about $5,900 in today’s dollars — and appeared in 10 features that year, including Black Moon with Fay Wray, The Scarlet Letter with Colleen Moore, The World Accuses with Dickie Moore and Treasure Island with Jackie Cooper.

Signifying her value to the studio, she appeared as a harp-playing princess in The Spectacle Maker (1934), directed by John Farrow as the first Technicolor short ever made in the U.S.

In 1935, when she made another 11 pictures, Mayer threw her and veteran actress May Robson a birthday party — both were born on April 19 — and just about everyone on the MGM lot came by, from Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow to youngsters Cooper, Mickey Rooney and Freddie Bartholomew.

Collins was initially cast as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but had a growth spurt as MGM spent months searching for an actor to play Tom. She wound up taller than Tommy Kelly so was given the part of Becky’s rival, Amy.

In 1942, Collins got to portray a teenager — and a nasty one at that — in Get Hep to Love, starring Donald O’Connor and Gloria Jean, and she also starred on Broadway in Junior Miss.

She played the juvenile delinquent daughter of a court judge in Youth on Trial (1945) and appeared in Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), then retired from acting at age 18. “I wanted to enjoy the luxury of anonymity,” she said.

After being married to Ivan Stauffer, operator of the Clover Club in Hollywood, from 1943 until their 1947 divorce, Collins had three children with husband James McKay, owner of the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, before he died of pneumonia while on a hunting trip in 1962.

She then was married for more than 33 years to Phoenix movie theater owner Harry Nace until his 2002 death.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include her son, Trey, and her grandchildren, James, Kevin and Keith.

Talking about her heyday in Hollywood, Collins said: “I had a great time and met so many wonderful people but, to be honest, as far as I’m concerned, children should be cogs in a wheel, they should not be at the center.

“When an entire family revolves around a small child, it puts that child in a very odd position and gives her responsibilities that she really should not have at that age. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed being an anonymous housewife later on in my life!”

COLLINS, Cora Sue (Cora Susan Collins)

Born: 4/19/1927, Beckley, West Virgina, U.S.A.

Died: 4/27/2025, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

 

Cora Sue Collins’ westerns – actress:

The Mysterious Rider – 1935 (Jo Jo Foster)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – 1938 (Amy Lawrence)

RIP Damien Thomas

 

Damien Thomas, Actor in ‘Twins of Evil’ at Hammer Films, Dies at 83

He studied at RADA, then appeared in ‘Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger,’ the original ‘Shogun,’ a ‘Jane Eyre’ miniseries and Polanski’s ‘Pirates.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

April 27, 2025

 

Damien Thomas, the British actor perhaps best known for his turn as the vampire Count Karnstein opposite Peter Cushing in the Hammer Films horror classic Twins of Evil, has died. He was 83.

Thomas died April 18 at Salisbury Hospice in Wilshire England, and had been battling progressive supranuclear palsy, daughter Phoebe Court-Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter.

In high-profit miniseries, Thomas played the Portuguese priest Father Alvito alongside Richard Chamberlain in 1980’s Shogun at NBC, and he was the unsettling Richard Mason in a 1983 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton.

T homas also portrayed a ruthless first mate in Roman Polanski’s Pirates (1986), starring Walter Matthau. When the film bombed at the box office, he blamed himself and said the experience shattered his confidence, he recalled in 2013.

However, when he saw the movie again years later, he “realized it wasn’t me at all. Actually, I’m not so awful in it. … the weakness of the film is Walter Matthau! He does [his character, Captain Red] in a Cockney accent, and it’s so labored and so slow. … It drags the film to a pace that you don’t expect in a pirate movie.”

Thomas also portrayed a ruthless first mate in Roman Polanski’s Pirates (1986), starring Walter Matthau. When the film bombed at the box office, he blamed himself and said the experience shattered his confidence, he recalled in 2013.

However, when he saw the movie again years later, he “realized it wasn’t me at all. Actually, I’m not so awful in it. … the weakness of the film is Walter Matthau! He does [his character, Captain Red] in a Cockney accent, and it’s so labored and so slow. … It drags the film to a pace that you don’t expect in a pirate movie.”

Thomas noted that he was “a raw beginner who had never been inside a film studio” when he was cast as the Count in Twins of Evil (1971), directed by John Hough at Pinewood as the last piece of the so-called “Karnstein Trilogy.”

His character and Cushing’s Gustav Weil battle each other in the movie, which also featured identical twins — and former Playboy Playmates — Madeleine and Mary Collinson in the cast.

He said he played lots of ethnicities, including French, Greek and Italian, during his career.

Born on April 11, 1942 in Ismailia, Egypt, Thomas studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he won two scholarships and graduated at 25 after being awarded the principal’s medal. He appeared on a 1968 episode of the Hammer anthology TV series Journey to the Unknown (broadcast on ITV in the U.K. and on ABC in the U.S.) and made his big-screen debut in Julius Caesar (1970), starring John Gielgud, Charlton Heston and Jason Robards.

Thomas’ film résumé included Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), Tiffany Jones (1973), The Message (1976), Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) — he played Kassim, before the prince is turned into an ape — Never Let Me Go (2010), Kill List (2011) and The Limehouse Golem (2016).

THOMAS, Damien

Born: 4/11/1942, Ismailia, Egypt

Died: 4/18/2025, Wilshire, England U.K.

 

Damien Thomas’ western – actor:

The New Zorro (TV) – 1991 (Don Xavier Miguel Francisco Caroga)

RIP Bruce Logan

 

Bruce Logan, Legendary VFX Artist of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Fame, Dies at 78

The Hollywood veteran also served as cinematographer on the original “Tron”

THE WRAP

By Stephanie Kaloi

April 25, 2025

 

Bruce Logan, a special effects and cinematography innovator and pioneer who worked on “Star Wars” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died April 10 at the age of 78.

Logan’s daughter Mary Grace Logan confirmed his death on Instagram, where she wrote that her father changed the movie industry “before CGI ruled the screen.”

He was one of the “visionaries who lit the future by hand,” Mary Grace continued. “From ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ to ‘Tron,’ my dad didn’t just work on movies—he made magic. A rebel with a camera, a pioneer with a story, and my personal hero.”

“I’m so proud to be your daughter and to honor your life and legacy. Daddy—aka Bruce Logan, ASC—was a visionary cinematographer, director, and visual effects pioneer whose artistry illuminated films like ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Tron,’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’”

“But beyond your remarkable career, you were my dad. I remember you playing ‘House of the Rising Sun’ on your beautiful Martin guitar (which I was definitely not allowed to touch). Watching you build a race car with your bare hands blew me away. You weren’t perfect—but you never judged me. I saw into your beautiful soul.”

“You gave me wisdom, and your love enriched the lives of everyone who knew you. Your light continues to shine. I love you forever, Dad. Please keep sending me signs from beyond,” Mary Grace concluded.

Logan, who never attended film school, learned the tricks of the trade from his father Campbell Logan, a BBC drama director. He taught himself animation at 12 and began making his own animated films as a teen, which proved to be a gateway into visual effects. Stanley Kubrick hired him to work under Douglas Trumball when he was 19.

In a 2019 interview with Production Hub about his independent film “Lost Fare,” Logan explained his “huge” interest in Disney spurred his interest in animation. “When I left school, I got a job at an animation company as a rostrum cameraman. This training allowed me to capitalize on an opportunity to work for my favorite director Stanley Kubrick. Doug Trumbull, one of the VFX directors, was looking for animation artists,” he explained.

Taking on freelance work at the time was novel, Logan continued, “but I was footloose and fancy-free and started work as an animator.”

Despite having worked on several impactful pieces of cinema, Logan also said at the time he didn’t realize he was building such an impressive career. “It just seemed that I was looking for work and moved from one picture to another. But the great part about working on a hit movie is that your resume builds itself. In retrospect, it’s only when I started to lecture and attend comicons that I realized how blessed I have been,” he said.

Despite that expertise, Logan also explained his “true passion” was in the art of storytelling. He taught himself screenwriting in the 1970s and doubled as a commercial director for at least two decades, something he told Production Hub “put me in the right place to create my own feature.”

Logan also looked back on the groundbreaking film “Tron” in 2022 in honor of the movie’s 30th anniversary. The movie was the first to use CGI, and Logan told The Lowdown it was shot “with three different methods that had to blend together — regular live-action, live-action that was to be converted to electronic, and then pure CGI.”

After moving to the United States, one of Logan’s first projects was Gram Parsons’ “Saturation70.” He was hired for “Star Wars: A New Hope” in 1976 and his additional credits include “Batman Forever” and “Avalanche Express.”

Logan’s work also included several stints as director for music videos by Rod Stewart, Madonna, and Prince.

Bruce Logan was born on May 15, 1946, in Bushey Heath, England. He is survived by his wife Mariana Campos-Logan and by his children, Mary Grace and Campbell Logan.

Representatives for LucasFilm did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

LOGAN, Bruce

Born: 5/15/1946, Bushey Heath, England, U.K.

Died: 4/10/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Bruce Logan’s westerns – cinematographer, film editor:

Dixon – 2011 [film editor]

Homestead – 2015 [film editor]

Bruce Logan, Legendary VFX Artist of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Fame, Dies at 78

 

The Hollywood veteran also served as cinematographer on the original “Tron”

 

THE WRAP

By Stephanie Kaloi

April 25, 2025

 

Bruce Logan, a special effects and cinematography innovator and pioneer who worked on “Star Wars” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died April 10 at the age of 78.

 

Logan’s daughter Mary Grace Logan confirmed his death on Instagram, where she wrote that her father changed the movie industry “before CGI ruled the screen.”

 

He was one of the “visionaries who lit the future by hand,” Mary Grace continued. “From ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ to ‘Tron,’ my dad didn’t just work on movies—he made magic. A rebel with a camera, a pioneer with a story, and my personal hero.”

 

“I’m so proud to be your daughter and to honor your life and legacy. Daddy—aka Bruce Logan, ASC—was a visionary cinematographer, director, and visual effects pioneer whose artistry illuminated films like ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Tron,’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’”

 

“But beyond your remarkable career, you were my dad. I remember you playing ‘House of the Rising Sun’ on your beautiful Martin guitar (which I was definitely not allowed to touch). Watching you build a race car with your bare hands blew me away. You weren’t perfect—but you never judged me. I saw into your beautiful soul.”

 

“You gave me wisdom, and your love enriched the lives of everyone who knew you. Your light continues to shine. I love you forever, Dad. Please keep sending me signs from beyond,” Mary Grace concluded.

 

Logan, who never attended film school, learned the tricks of the trade from his father Campbell Logan, a BBC drama director. He taught himself animation at 12 and began making his own animated films as a teen, which proved to be a gateway into visual effects. Stanley Kubrick hired him to work under Douglas Trumball when he was 19.

 

In a 2019 interview with Production Hub about his independent film “Lost Fare,” Logan explained his “huge” interest in Disney spurred his interest in animation. “When I left school, I got a job at an animation company as a rostrum cameraman. This training allowed me to capitalize on an opportunity to work for my favorite director Stanley Kubrick. Doug Trumbull, one of the VFX directors, was looking for animation artists,” he explained.

 

Taking on freelance work at the time was novel, Logan continued, “but I was footloose and fancy-free and started work as an animator.”

 

Despite having worked on several impactful pieces of cinema, Logan also said at the time he didn’t realize he was building such an impressive career. “It just seemed that I was looking for work and moved from one picture to another. But the great part about working on a hit movie is that your resume builds itself. In retrospect, it’s only when I started to lecture and attend comicons that I realized how blessed I have been,” he said.

 

Despite that expertise, Logan also explained his “true passion” was in the art of storytelling. He taught himself screenwriting in the 1970s and doubled as a commercial director for at least two decades, something he told Production Hub “put me in the right place to create my own feature.”

 

Logan also looked back on the groundbreaking film “Tron” in 2022 in honor of the movie’s 30th anniversary. The movie was the first to use CGI, and Logan told The Lowdown it was shot “with three different methods that had to blend together — regular live-action, live-action that was to be converted to electronic, and then pure CGI.”

 

After moving to the United States, one of Logan’s first projects was Gram Parsons’ “Saturation70.” He was hired for “Star Wars: A New Hope” in 1976 and his additional credits include “Batman Forever” and “Avalanche Express.”

 

Logan’s work also included several stints as director for music videos by Rod Stewart, Madonna, and Prince.

 

Bruce Logan was born on May 15, 1946, in Bushey Heath, England. He is survived by his wife Mariana Campos-Logan and by his children, Mary Grace and Campbell Logan.

 

Representatives for LucasFilm did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

 

LOGAN, Bruce

Born: 5/15/1946, Bushey Heath, England, U.K.

Died: 4/10/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Bruce Logan’s westerns – cinematographer, film editor:

Dixon – 2011 [film editor]

Homestead – 2015 [film editor]

 Two Sinners and a Mule – 2023 [cinematographer]