RIP June Wilkinson

 

Obituary: June Wilkinson (27 March 1940 – 21 July 2025)

Sussex World

By Megan Thomas

July 23, 2025

 

Eastbourne’s Glamour Star Who Took on the World

June Wilkinson, one of the most iconic glamour models and actresses of the postwar era, passed away on 21 July 2025 at the age of 85. Born in Eastbourne on 27 March 1940, she rose from humble beginnings to international fame, earning the nickname “The Bosom” and becoming one of the most photographed women in America.

The daughter of a local window cleaner and a mother who sewed to support her dreams, June began performing at age 12 in Cinderella at Devonshire Park Theatre. By 15, she was a featured performer at London’s Windmill Theatre, known for its nude revues and cabaret. Her confidence, comedic timing, and striking figure made her an instant standout.

June's fame soared after moving to the U.S., where she became a Playboy favorite and later starred in films and television throughout the 1960s and 70s. Yet, despite the flash of Hollywood, she always held Eastbourne close to her heart. It was the town that shaped her, where a little girl in handmade dance shoes first dreamed of the stage.

In 1973, she married NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini, and they had one daughter, Brahna. Though she spent much of her life in America, June remained proudly British, often recalling her seaside childhood with warmth and humour.

She leaves behind not only her daughter Brahna but her brother Robin in Eastbourne and John in Berlin.

She will be fondly remembered in Eastbourne as a performer with presence, warmth, and wit and as a local girl who never forgot where she came from.

WILKINSON, June (June Rose Wilkinson)

Born: 3/27/1940, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, U.K.

Died: 7/21/2025, England, U.K.

 

June Wilkinson’s westerns – actress:

Thunder in the Sun – 1959 (buxom blonde)

Three Bad Men – 2005 (Belle)

RIP Jiří Krampol

 

The "Czech Belmondo" has passed away. Krampol was a comedian by nature, but he could also do tough guys

Seznam Zpravy

By Tomas Stejkal

July 26, 2025

 

Actor and comedian Jiří Krampol has died, he was 87 years old. The actor, presenter and entertainer became famous mainly thanks to his charismatic supporting roles, comedy sketches with Miloslav Šimek and dubbing.

"And the boys will learn to box with the former champion of the republic of all weights, Jenda Hejtmánek," exclaims Karel Heřmánek in the role of door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman Leo Popper, who has finally been lucky and sold as many Electrolux devices as no one in the region before him.

The boxer Jenda Hejtmánek from the drama The Death of the Beautiful Deer by director Karel Kachyňa was an ideal role for Jiří Krampol. He swam from an early age, later fencing and boxing, while spending a lot of time in the streets of Žižkov. He grew up in poor circumstances, his father was ill, his mother worked. He himself contributed to the family budget from the age of fourteen by hard work at the lathe. So when he gave training shots and curt advice to the Popper boys, he was clearly in his skin. "The punch has to be short, dry as a stamp," he remarked and immediately gained the respect of his charges and spectators.

The popular actor died at the age of 87 this Saturday in the hospital where he was hospitalized. The information was reported by CNN Prima News and Blesk.cz.

The role in the 1986 film was perhaps the best of Krampol's entire career. He fit into what he played relatively often: character supporting roles, fierce tough guys with a bulldog nature. This is how he made his mark with television viewers, for example, as the criminologist Libor Krejcárek in the popular series Little Pitaval from the Big City. That is, the one about which colleagues tell jokes from the first scene of the first episode and later the boss says about him: "You know what they say about Krejcárek, that he has stamina, but that it doesn't give him much energy. Okay, maybe he's not the fastest, but when he bites into something, he won't let go."

At the same time, Krampol was always more of an entertainer. He trained as a turner while working, for a long time he did not seem to have artistic inclinations, and allegedly only because of his platonic love for Milena Dvorská he applied to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

There, his comedy skits did not impress the admission committee too much. It was only Radovan Lukavský who noted that not everyone is intended for dramatic roles. It is as if he predicted where Krampol's theatrical career would soon go.

After graduating from DAMU in 1962, he worked at the Theatre on the Balustrade – at the time of its greatest fame, when Jan Grossman was the in-house director and Václav Havel was the leading author. After all, Krampol also performed in his Garden Party. However, it was his work in Semafor that brought him popularity, where he wrote short stories with Miloslav Šimek and created theatrical scenes in which he could use his sonorous voice.

Pieces where he imitated various foreigners, such as the Japanese railroad worker or the Honolulu citizen Surio Maria Martinez Juarez Ferdinand, became popular. "I made up and he put it in order," the actor repeatedly commented on his collaboration with the bitter pedant Šimek.

Krampol had always wanted such guileless fun. He didn't like political satire, he was much happier when he could pronounce that he was from "Honolulu" in a peculiar way, while overemphasizing every syllable. It was sincere, heartfelt, but at the same time it was humor on the verge of caricature and somewhat self-serving ridicule of other people's accents.

Even the stories written together had a different tone than those that Šimek wrote in tandem with Jiří Grossmann. The jokes were often a little more forceful, as if even these short literary works were getting the physicality with which Krampol played the rewarding roles of foreigners.

He and Šimek broke up precisely because he wanted to do political humor, and Krampol also said goodbye to his theatre engagement. He continued to devote himself only to film and mainly to television. His first post-revolution role in Nudity for Sale directed by Vít Olmer seemed to determine where his career on the screen would go next.

In retrospect, the 1993 film is a remarkable depiction of the time, but certainly not a work that has aged as well as, for example, The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday by Věra Chytilová. Olmer's attempt at an action film, written by Josef Klíma, represented the peak of the so-called exploitation tendencies in Czech post-revolutionary cinematography. It's a film reminiscent of flipping through the tabloids, almost every scene captures how people lived back then, but also how we resisted anything foreign at the time.

Lukáš Vaculík, in the role of a journalist, embodies the "correct Czech nature", i.e., a man who proudly eats brawn, curses Romani people, and lectures a young Czech-American woman that Western achievements such as feminism are useless. And Krampol, as a private detective and former policeman, fights everyone, but otherwise he is defined mainly by the fact that his best friend is fernet. And the second one is a hedgehog named Pepíček – he also feeds him with bitter spirit.

Nudity for Sale, however, was not an early critical image of this period of transition, but an act that, on the contrary, nodded to prejudice.

Jiří Krampol did not like political humor, but he was all the more willing to appear in problematic films, including Tomáš Magnusek's Bastards series, another attempt to film, among other things, about ethnic tensions, which, in the end, only stir up hatred.

However, similar figurines in not very successful films were not what would fulfill him. Krampol found himself mainly as a presenter. He became the face of the show Nobody Is Perfect, perhaps for the first time as the main actor.

For most of his career, he was more of a man in the background. Perhaps only Vít Olmer has prepared five main roles for him in the anthology film Waterloo in the Czech Republic. The result was one of the biggest flops of domestic cinematography. Otherwise, Krampol has always been considered a charismatic actor of supporting roles and a very decent dubber, who, among others, lent his Czech voice to French stars Louis de Funès and especially Jean-Paul Belmondo. In both cases, he also took over the baton from the great dubbers František Filipovský and Jan Tříska.

It was practically impossible to replace Filipovský, but Krampol found himself in Belmondo. He narrated over thirty of his films, won the František Filipovský Award for Happy Easter, and identified with the popular film rascal on a personal level.

Jiří Krampol was active and hardworking long into his eighties, he was constantly filming, he went to performances. He has been doing sports since he was a child and dumbbells have remained his inseparable companion even in old age. He was the embodiment of the saying "old school man", although especially towards the end of his career it was no longer an epithet with very positive connotations. His values may no longer belong to today, but his voice will be one that will not be forgotten.

KRAMPOL, Jiří

Born: 7/11/1938, Bustehrad, Czechoslovakia

Died: 7/26/2025, Prague, Czech Republic

 

Jiří Krampol’s westerns – actor, voice dubber:

A Canyon Full of Gold – 1972 [Czechoslovakian voice of Tom]

The Dachsbrackes (TV) – 1983 (Tiger Cormack)

RIP Marlene Warfield

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

July 26, 2025

 

Marlene Warfield, the New York actress known for her feisty turns as the prostitute ex-girlfriend of James Earl Jones’ boxer in The Great White Hope on Broadway and the big screen and as a young revolutionary in Network, has died. She was 83.

Warfield died April 6 of lung cancer at a hospital in Los Angeles, her sister, Chequita Warfield, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Warfield also recurred as Maude’s third and last regular housekeeper, the Jamaica-born Victoria Butterfield, on the sixth and final season (1977-78) of the famed Norman Lear-created CBS sitcom that starred Bea Arthur.

After appearing in the East Village at St. Mark’s Playhouse in French dramatist Jean Genet’s The Blacks — where she understudied for Cicely Tyson and also worked alongside the likes of Jones, Godfrey Cambridge and Maya Angelou — Warfield made it to Broadway in October 1968 when she was cast as Clara in The Great White Hope, written by Howard Sackler.

She received Theatre World and Clarence Derwent prizes for her powerful performance, then accompanied Tony winners Jones and Jane Alexander to Hollywood, where all three reprised their roles in the 1970 film directed by Martin Ritt at 20th Century Fox.

In Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976), nominated for best picture, Warfield sparkled in a scene in which her Laureen Hobbs, an Angela Davis type, meets with Faye Dunaway’s Diana Christensen, a UBS executive who wants to do a weekly series revolving around the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

After Diana introduces herself as a “racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles,” Hobbs introduces herself as “a bad-ass Commie nigger.”

The second of the three kids, Marlene Ronetta Warfield was born in Queens on June 19, 1941, and raised in Brooklyn. His father, Sidney, sold tokens for the New York City Transit Authority, and her mother, Ruth, was a homemaker.

Warfield took tap, ballet and acrobatic lessons as a kid, and while attending the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan did summer stock, appearing in a 1957 production of Take a Giant Step in the Catskills.

Later, she studied opera at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and acting at the American Institute of Theater and TV Arts.

She replaced Thelma Oliver in The Blacks in 1962 and worked onstage in A Matter of Life and Death, Elektra, Volpone, Who’s Got His Own and The Taming of the Shrew at Lincoln Center before landing on The Great White Hope.

Around this time, she also was showing up on such TV shows as The Nurses, The Defenders, For the People and Dave Garroway’s Wide Wide World and doing commercials for Fab detergent.

Represented by pioneering Black talent agent Ernestine McClendon, Warfield moved to California in 1977 to join the cast of Maude, on which she made her first appearance late in the fifth season. She succeeded Esther Rolle (as Florida Evans) and Hermione Baddeley (as Nell Naugatuck) as maids in the suburban Findlay household.

Her Victoria Butterfield was “not stupid, she is not uneducated, she’s very ambitious and stands on her own two feet,” Warfield told Jet magazine in August 1977.

Warfield’s résumé also included the films Joe (1970), Across 110th Street (1972) and Richard Pryor’s Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986) and guest spots on such TV series as The Name of the Game, Lou Grant, The Jeffersons, Little House on the Prairie, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, In the House, ER, The West Wing, The Shield, Law & Order and Cold Case.

In 2000, she returned to the stage in Pittsburgh for a starring role in August Wilson’s King Hedley II.

In addition to her sister, survivors include her son, Keith; her grandson, Demetrius; and a cousin, percussionist Vivian Warfield. She was married to William Horsey from 1967 until his 1993 death. Her brother, Earl, died in January 2024.

WARFIELD, Marlene (Marlene Ronetta Warfield)

Born: 6/19/1941, Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 7/6/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A

 

Marlene Warfield’s western – actress:

Little House on the Prairie (TV) – 1981 (Mattie Ledoux)

RIP Hulk Hogan

 

Hulk Hogan dead at 71: Oklahomans remember legendary wrestler's Sooner State appearances

The Oklahoman

By Cheyenne Derksen

July 24, 2025

 

Hulk Hogan, legendary wrestler, has died at age 71.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, rose to prominence as a wrestling superstar in the 1970s, eventually crossing over into superstardom as part of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the 1980s.

"Hulkamania" ran wild all the way into the 1990s, when he found himself in WCW, where he was later reborn as the villainous "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, leader of the infamous nWo faction.

Oklahomans recall seeing Hulk Hogan numerous times over the years.

In 1990, nearly 6,000 Oklahomans attended WWF wrestling matches at the Myriad Convention Center, which featured Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and "the American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, among others.

In recent years, Hogan made stops in Oklahoma to promote Real American Beer, a light beer co-founded by the World Wrestling Entertainment legend.

HOGAN, Hulk (Terry Gene Bollea)

Born: 8/11/1953, Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A.

Died: 7/24/2025, Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Hulk Hogan’s western – actor:

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 2001 (Boomer Knight)

RIP Henri Szeps

 

Australian TV actor Henri Szeps dies aged 81

ABC

July 24, 2025

 

Henri Szeps, award-winning actor and star of ABC’s Mother and Son, has died at the age of 81.

Szeps shot into televised entertainment through his role in the iconic sitcom, playing dentist Robert Beare alongside Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald.

The show’s 10-year run saw it voted as the best Australian television program, before wrapping up in 1994.

“He died as he lived, loving life, his family, and his audience,” his wife Mary Ann said.

A storied career on screen and stage

Born to two Polish Holocaust survivors in a Swiss refugee camp in 1943, Szeps moved to Australia at the age of eight and went on to study electrical engineering at Sydney University.

Moving into acting, Szeps enjoyed a storied career on the stage, featuring in the London production of I, Cladius in his twenties before moving back home in the 1970s.

But it was his first stage production in the 1968 rendition Boys in the Band that earned him critical acclaim at home.

From there, he trained in the Sydney Ensemble Theatre, where a green room is now named after him.

The final years of his performing career saw him star in a series of one man shows.

Szeps officially retired at the age of 70 after performing in his last play, citing that his memory was "no longer up to the task", a statement confirming his passing read.

n 2021, Szeps revealed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and had been living in a care facility since 2023.

"He was awarded countless acting prizes, culminating in an Order of Australia Medal in 2001," Thursday's statement said.

On the stage he played characters such as Gandalf in The Hobbit and Sigmund Freud, before earning a role in war drama Vietnam as Harold Holt alongside a young Nicole Kidman.

The series won a Logie and shot Nicole Kidman onto a path of global super-stardom.

He leaves behind his wife Mary Ann, two sons and four grandchildren.

SZEPS, Henri

Born: 10/2/1943, Lausanne, Switzerland

Died: 7/24/2025, London, England, U.K.

 

Henri Szeps western – actor:

Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (TV) – 1996 (Jacob Berkovich)

RIP Kenneth Washington

 

Kenneth Washington, Last Surviving Main Cast Member of ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 89

Variety

By Giana Levy

July 23, 2025

 

Kenneth Washington, who made several TV appearances and was the last surviving main cast member of the CBS series “Hogan’s Heroes,” died on July 18. He was 89.

A familiar guest star on TV series in the 1960s, Washington’s appearances included roles in “Star Trek,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “My Three Sons,” “The Name of the Game,” “Petticoat Junction,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Adam-12” and “Dragnet 1967.”

He landed his “Hogan’s Heroes” role as Sergeant Kinchloe, replacing Ivan Dixon, in 1970, but the show was canceled the following year by CBS. Washington’s work in the 1970s included an appearance in the 1973 film “Westworld” as well as roles in the TV series “The Paul Lynde Show,” “The F.B.I.,” “The Rockford Files” and “Police Story.” One of his last TV appearances was alongside Jasmine Guy in “A Different World” in 1989.

Born in Ethel, Miss., Washington and his family moved to California, where he was raised in the Bay Area in Redwood City and San Francisco. After earning his first screen test, he relocated to Los Angeles to begin his acting career. Among Washington’s other credits were the TV movies “J. Edgar Hoover,” “Money on the Side” and “Our Family Business.”

Following his acting career, he returned to school and earned his college degree from Loyola Marymount University. He became an instructor at the same university, teaching a course that focused on Black actors in film. From there, he taught classes in oral interpretation and speech at Southwest College.

Washington married Alice Marshall, the former editor-in-chief at Wave Newspapers in South Los Angeles and film reviews editor at Variety, in 2001.

He is survived by his wife, brother Johnnie (Voncille), sister Aaliyah, three children, Kim (Otis), Kenneth, Quianna (Jamail), three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

WASHINGTON, Kenneth

Born: 10/19/1946, Ethel, Mississippi, U.S.A.

Died: 7/18/2025, Marina Del Rey, California, U.S.A.

 

Kenneth Washington’s westerns – actor:

Climb an Angry Mountain (TV) – 1972 (Huggins)

Hec Ramsey (TV) – 1972-1974 (Cato Wilkins)

Westworld – 1973 (technician)

RIP Jimmy Hunt

 

Jimmy Hunt, Young Star of ‘Invaders From Mars,’ Dies at 85 

From 1945-53, he appeared in 35 films, and his onscreen parents included Dick Powell, Teresa Wright, Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Leif Erickson and Claudette Colbert.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

July 21, 2025

 

Jimmy Hunt, the freckle-faced youngster who appeared in Pitfall, Sorry, Wrong Number, Cheaper by the Dozen, Invaders From Mars and 31 other features before he retired from acting at age 14, has died. He was 85.

Hunt suffered a heart attack six weeks ago and died Friday in a hospital in Simi Valley, his daughter-in-law Alisa Hunt told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunt played William Gilbreth, one of the 12 offspring of an efficiency expert (Clifton Webb) and a psychologist (Myrna Loy), in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), then returned to play another son in the family, Fred, in the sequel, Belles on the Toes (1952).

As an orphan, his character fueled the plot in The Mating of Millie (1948), a charming romantic comedy starring Evelyn Keyes and Glenn Ford, who taught him how to shoot marbles on the set. And in The Lone Hand (1953), Hunt portrayed the son of a widowed farmer (Joel McCrea) and served as the film’s narrator in what he said was one of his favorite acting experiences.

Hunt’s onscreen parents included Jane Wyatt and Dick Powell (in 1948’s Pitfall), Claudette Colbert (1949’s Family Honeymoon), Ronald Reagan (1950’s Louisa), Teresa Wright (1950’s The Capture) and Patricia Neal (1951’s Week-End With Father).

He also played Margaret O’Brien’s brother in Her First Romance (1951).

His most memorable role, however, came as David MacLean in the cult sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars (1953), directed by famed production designer William Cameron Menzies.

In the movie — made in about 3 1/2 weeks for less than $300,000 — David spies a flying saucer from his bedroom and notices his dad (Leif Erickson) acting weird. Then he’s sucked underground, where he encounters a Martian and his green humanoid accomplices aboard the saucer. But was it all a dream? Gee whiz!

In Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders, Hunt came out of retirement to play a police chief. As he approaches a hill where the flying saucer may have landed, he says, “I haven’t been here for 40 years.”

It was the only movie of his career for which he received residuals. “Every once and a while, the Screen Actors Guild sends me a check for like nine dollars,” he said with a chuckle in 2022.

James Walter Hunt was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, 1939. An MGM scout visited his second-grade class at his Culver City school, which was located mere blocks from the studio, and that led to the 6-year-old redhead playing a kid version of Van Johnson’s Navy pilot in High Barbaree (1947).

Placed under contract, he would appear in five films released that year, then another eight in 1948 as he attended MGM’s Little Red Schoolhouse, where his classmates included Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor.

“We were strictly lower middle-class people,” Hunt said in 1986. “Actually, that’s the way we stayed. As long as [his parents] were satisfied that I was getting a good education, the acting was all right.”

In Cheaper by the Dozen, his character, William, weeps as he informs his siblings that their dad has died.

During the making of the movie in Seal Beach, California, his real father “was working for a company, and he went back to Kentucky to open a plant for them back there, and he was gone for a couple of months,” he recalled at the 2022 Cinecon Classic Film Festival. “In my mind, I saw him coming home on a plane and the plane crashing. So I could get myself worked up.”

His big-screen résumé also included Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster (Erickson played his dad in that, too); Fuller Brush Man (1948), starring Red Skelton; Rusty’s Birthday (1949), the last in the Columbia Pictures series about a boy and his German shepherd; The Sainted Sisters (1948), starring Veronica Lake; Top O’ the Morning (1949), starring Bing Crosby; Shadow on the Wall (1950), starring Ann Sothern; and She Couldn’t Say No (1954), starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.

“I took my little lunch pail and I went to work each day, and the director told me what he wanted me to do,” he said in a 2017 interview.

While filming Douglas Sirk’s Week-End With Father, Hunt broke his arm rehearsing a potato-sack race with Van Heflin but kept working, he said. “No one made me finish the picture that way. I wanted to,” he recalled. “I considered myself a professional. In other words, I never had any really bad times as a boy actor.”

After Invaders was completed, Hunt — who said he was paid about $4,000 for his work on the movie — was called back to film some new scenes for its U.K. release, as censors there did not approve of the original ending.

It turned out that Invaders was the last straw.

“The older I got, the more serious I became about getting a scene right on the first take,” he said. “Adult actors all made jokes when they blew their lines. Kids just feel dumb when it was their fault. So acting became harder for me all the time.”

At the ripe old age of 14, Hunt “decided that I would rather play sports in high school than make movies, so I retired,” he explained. He went to college and served for three years in the U.S. Army, intercepting and breaking code.

Later, he served as a sales manager for an industrial tool and supply company in the San Fernando Valley that serviced aerospace firms.

He said he was still getting mail from Invaders fans some 70 years after it first hit theaters.

Survivors include his wife, Roswitha, whom he met in Germany while in the Army and married in January 1963; his sons, Randy and Ron; another daughter-in-law, Christina; his sister, Bonnie; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His daughter, also named Roswitha, died more than a decade ago.

HUNT, Jimmy (James Walter Hunt)

Born: 12/4/1939, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Died: 7/18/2025, Simi Valley, California, U.S.A.

 

Jimmy Hunt’s westerns – actor:

The Capture – 1950 (Mike Tevlin)

The Lone Hand – 1950 (Joshua Hallock)

Rock Island Trail – 1950 (Stinky Tanner)

Saddle Tramp – 1950 (Robbie)

The Young Rounders – 1971 (young rounder)

RIP Tom Troupe

 Tom Troupe, TV and Stage Actor Who Appeared in ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Cheers,’ Dies at 97 

Variety

By Jack Dunn

July 20, 2025

 

Tom Troupe, a stage and TV actor who appeared in “Star Trek,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Cheers,” died Sunday morning at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 97.

Troupe’s death was confirmed by his PR reps.

Throughout his career, Troupe appeared in more than 75 popular series, including “The Fugitive,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Wild, Wild West,” “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “CHiPs,” “Knots Landing,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “This Is the Life,” “Fraiser” and “Archie Bunker’s Place.”

On the film side, Troupe’s credits include “The Big Fisherman,” “The Devil’s Brigade,” “Kelly’s Heroes,” “Summer School” and “My Own Private Idaho.”

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Troupe began acting in local theaters before moving to New York City in 1948. After serving in the Korean War, he made his Broadway debut in 1957 playing Peter van Daan in “The Diary of Ann Frank” alongside Joseph Schildkraut. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1958, where he began his career in TV and film.

Also on stage, he co-starred with his wife, Carole Cook, in productions of “The Gin Game,” “The Lion in Winter” and “Fathers Day.” Other stage credits include the national tour of “Same Time Next Year” with Barbara Rush, the Broadway run of “Romantic Comedy” with Mia Farrow and his one-man play “The Diary of a Madman.

Troupe is survived by his son Christopher Troupe, his daughter-in-law Becky Coulter, his granddaughter Ashley Troupe and his nieces and nephews. Cook, his wife, died in 2023 of heart failure at age 98.

TROUPE, Tom (Thomas Vincent Troupe)

Born: 7/15/1928, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

Died: 2/20/2025, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

 

Tom Toupe’s westerns – actor:

Lawman (TV) – 1960 (Jim Barker)

Rawhide (TV) – 1960 (trooper)

Iron Horse (TV) – 1966 (Reed)

The Wild Wild West (TV) – 1968 (Jason Starr)

Barbary Coast (TV) – 1975 (John Carter)

RIP Harry Standjofski

 

Comedian Harry Standjofski has passed away

Actor, author, teacher and director Harry Standjofski died Friday in Montreal of a stroke at the age of 66.

La Presse

By Luc Boulanger

July 19, 2025

 

A rare artist to work so much in the Franco and Anglo-Montreal theatre communities, the actor was also known for his versatility. He could play at the Centaur, the Segal, as well as the Quat'Sous, at Duceppe or at La Licorne, in fringe creations or classics of the repertoire. Last December, he was part of the cast of the play Une fin, by Sébastien David, at the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui.

"The entire Duceppe team is very saddened to learn of the passing of Harry Standjofski," the company posted Friday evening on its social networks. "A great man of the theatre, as exceptional in the language of Molière as in that of Shakespeare, he played in three productions on our stages: Une maison face au nord, alongside Michel Dumont; The Chronicles of Saint-Léonard, by Steve Galluccio; and most recently in Doctor, by Robert Icke, in which he played the very endearing Dr. Copley. »

On Quebec television, the actor has played various roles. He was Mr. Cohen in À nous deux; Bruce in Yamaska; Sam Pollock in Béliveau; and conductor Neil Chotem in the Harmonium series. In the cinema, he has been seen in films by Denys Arcand (Love and Human Remains), but also in major American productions. He played supporting roles in Assassin's Creed; X-Men; Crimes of Passion and The Aviator, where he played producer Louis B. Mayer. His pieces — Anton, Jennydog and No Cycle — have been collected in a book under the title Urban Myths.

"Harry was a talented human being in many spheres and in both official languages. He was kind, endearing and exquisite," wrote author and actress Louise Bombardier on Facebook.

STANDJOFSKI, Harry

Born: 5/22/1959, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Died: 7/18/2025, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 

Harry Standjofski’s westerns – voice actor:

The Legend of White Fang (TV)- 1992

Yakari (TV) 2005-2014

RIP Connie Francis

Connie Francis, ‘Pretty Little Baby’ singer and actress, dead at 87. 

CNN

By Lisa Respers

July 17, 2025

 

Connie Francis, a pop singer and actress whose hits such as “Lipstick on Your Collar” and “Who’s Sorry Now?” became a soundtrack for a generation of teens in the 1960s, has died, according to a post from her publicist and friend, Ron Roberts.

She was 87.

“It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,” Roberts wrote in a post on a verified Facebook page for Francis. “I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news.”

Francis was recently hospitalized for pain issues and had to cancel some appearances earlier this month, according to posts she shared on social media.

The singer’s hit “Pretty Little Baby” had recently gotten attention from a much younger generation, thanks to a TikTok trend.

Francis participated with a post of her on with the song on the platform.

“First time I’ve lip-synched to this 63-year-old recording of mine!” the caption read.

Francis also shared a video to thank other artists, including Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, for “paying tribute” to her and her song.

Born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, a young Francis won first prize on Arthur Godfrey’s popular television series “Startime Talent Scouts,” which led to her singing on his show for several years as a teen.

Godfrey convinced her to adopt the stage name “Connie Francis” as he told her it was easier to pronounce than her birth name.

Success didn’t come easy at first for the singer, who was rejected by multiple labels before signing with MGM in 1955. That company released her first single, “Freddy.”

Disappointed in her career, Francis almost quit to go to college before her father convinced her to record a song that had been around before, “Who’s Sorry Now?”

Other popular tunes followed, including “Lipstick on Your Collar,” “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You.”

Francis also found success on screen, starring in the films “Where the Boys Are” “Follow The Boys” in 1963, “Looking For Love” in 1964 and “When The Boys Meet The Girls” 1965.

It was not something she herself was a fan of, Francis revealed during a 2017 interview.

“I asked the studio why they couldn’t come up with a title without the word ‘boys’ in it!” she said. “People knew [‘When the Boys Meet the Girls’] was another lame Connie Francis movie and they stayed home. I was so pleased it was my last one.”

Francis faced challenge, including what came to be known as her “decade of tragedy.”

In 1974, Francis survived a rape and robbery in her hotel room following a performance at the Westbury Music Fair in Westbury, New York. She subsequently sued the hotel and won, but the attack led the singer into a deep depression.

Three years later, nasal surgery caused Francis to lose her singing voice, which took her subsequent surgeries and lengthy time to recover.

Her beloved brother, George A. Franconero, was murdered in 1981 at the age if 40. According to an article from the New York Times dated March 7, 1981, he was an attorney who “had twice given law enforcement officials information concerning alleged organized-crime activities” and was “shot several times in the side of the head by two men” who “were said to have approached him as he scraped ice from the windshield of his car in his driveway.”

She also was treated for bipolar disorder.

Francis wrote about her hard times in her 1984 autobiography, “Who’s Sorry Now.”

In a conversation about her book with Oprah Winfrey around its release, Francis also reflected on the joy she experienced through her career.

“One of the things I wanted the book to show was that every time there’s a story about me, it reads like a Greek tragedy, and I don’t want people to feel like I’m capitalizing on so many tragedies that did occur in my life,” she said. “My life has really been a Cinderella life with the exception of the last 10 years.”

FRANCIS, Connie (Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero)

Born: 12/12/1937, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A

Died: 7/16/2025, Deerfield Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Connie Francis’ western – voice actor:

The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw 1958 [singing voice of Jayne Mansfield]

RIP Alan Bergman

 

Alan Bergman, Oscar-Winning Lyricist, Dies at 99 

He wrote songs with his late wife, Marilyn Bergman, for more than 50 years, collaborating with the likes of Astaire, Sinatra, Streisand, Hamlisch and Legrand.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes, Buane Byrge

July 18, 2025

 

Alan Bergman, the three-time Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his late wife, Marilyn Bergman, to form one of the most celebrated writing duos in the history of movie music, has died. He was 99.

Bergman, whose work includes such classics as “The Windmills of Your Mind” — wonderfully employed for the second-season finale of Severance — “Nice ’n’ Easy,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “The Way We Were,” died Thursday night of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter, producer Julie Bergman Sender, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Marilyn Bergman died in January 2022 of respiratory failure at age 93.

The husband-and-wife lyricists worked particular magic with songstress Barbra Streisand and composers Marvin Hamlisch and Michel Legrand.

They won Academy Awards for the best original songs “The Way We Were” (shared with Hamlisch) from the 1973 Streisand film of that name and “Windmills of Your Mind” (shared with Legrand) from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). They received another trophy for their score for Streisand’s Yentl (1983).

They met Streisand, a fellow Brooklynite, when she was performing in a New York club as a teenager and before she starred in her breakout 1968 movie Funny Girl. Their songs for her included “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” which they wrote with Neil Diamond. (Streisand and Diamond recorded the song separately and then, by popular demand, did it as a duet.)

Streisand also recorded their songs “On Rainy Afternoons,” “One Day” and “After the Rain.”

The Bergmans and Hamlisch won a Grammy Award for The Way We Were album, and the threesome shared an Oscar nom for “The Last Time I Felt Like This” from Same Time, Next Year (1978).

They also received Oscar noms with Legrand for “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (from 1969’s The Happy Ending) and “Pieces of Dreams” from the 1970 film of that name; with Henry Mancini on “All His Children” (from 1970’s Sometimes a Great Notion); and with Maurice Jarre on “Marmalade, Molasses and Honey” (from 1972’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean).

The Bergmans wrote lyrics for the Ray Charles song that opens In the Heat of the Night (1967), with music by Quincy Jones. And they penned several songs for Sergio Mendes, including the lyrics to “Look Around.”

The Bergmans received an Oscar nom in every year from 1969-74 and collected three in 1983 and then three more the following year. They were nominated 16 times in all and entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.

They also wrote the lyrics for the opening theme songs for such TV series as Bracken’s World, Maude, Good Times, Alice and Brooklyn Bridge and received three career Emmy Awards.

“When you’re creating something, you sometimes have to go through a lot of stupid or silly things to spark your collaboration,” Alan said in a 1980 interview with People magazine. “You learn to say what comes into your head.”

Bergman met Marilyn Katz in 1956 (they wrote a song together that first day, “I Never Knew What Hit Me,” which they said was terrible) and married two years later. They were born in the same Brooklyn hospital (he three years before her; Streisand was born at the Jewish Hospital, too) and grew up near each other, but they did not meet until they had moved west.

After they wrote a song, it was Alan who would usually sing the number to the artist they were pitching, and he recorded an album of their tunes (Lyrically, Alan Bergman) in 2007.

Alan Bergman was born on Sept. 11, 1925. The son of a salesman, he studied at the University of North Carolina, graduating in music and theater arts, and at UCLA, where he earned his masters. He served in World War II, writing and directing Special Services programs.

Following the war, Bergman worked at CBS in Philadelphia as a TV director. While there, he met the famed lyricist, singer and songwriter Johnny Mercer, who encouraged him to write songs. Bergman then wrote for Marge Champion and Gower Champion and staged shows for Jo Stafford.

Mercer encouraged Bergman to move back to L.A., and the lyricist was introduced to Marilyn at a party by composer Lew Spence. All three teamed on Fred Astaire’s “That Face” in 1957, Dean Martin’s “Sleep Warm” in 1958 and Frank Sinatra’s “Nice ’n’ Easy” in 1960. (“That Face” also served as Alan’s engagement present to Marilyn.)

Bergman served four terms as president of the Academy Foundation, the educational and cultural arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In addition to his daughter, a producer on films including Major League, G.I. Jane, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Six Days Seven Nights, Bergman is survived by his granddaughter, Emily.

BERGMAN, Alan

Born: 9/11/1925, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 7/17/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Alan Bergman’s western – songwriter:

From Noon Till Three (1976 [“The Trouble With Hell is Goodbye”]

RIP Frank Barrie

 

EastEnders and theatre actor Frank Barrie dies

BBC

July 10, 2025

 

Theatre star and former EastEnders actor Frank Barrie has died aged 88.

The Scarborough-born performer passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family, his agency Scott Marshall Partners said.

Barrie, who grew up in York, played Dot Cotton's love interest Edward Bishop in EastEnders from 2010 to 2011.

He was also known for his numerous Shakespearean roles on stage and was a member of Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic.

The statement from his agency read: "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our beloved client, Frank Barrie, at the age of 88.

"He died peacefully at home, with his wife Mary and daughter Julia."

BBC EastEnders also paid tribute to the actor, writing on X: "We are deeply saddened to hear that Frank Barrie has passed away.

"Our love and thoughts are with Frank's family and friends."

Barrie attended Archbishop Holgate's School in York, before going to the University of Hull where he met his wife.

He made his acting debut at York Theatre Royal in 1959, in a production of Henry IV Part 2.

The actor went on to star in The Woman In Black and Lunch With Marlene, and his one-man show Macready! played in 65 countries.

Barrie also made more than 150 screen appearances, including in shows such as Emergency Ward 10, No Hiding Place, Softly, Softly, Special Branch, On Giant's Shoulders and Queen Of Swords.

In 1983, he played Eglamour in the BBC TV adaptation of Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen Of Verona.

He also found success as a director on productions of Shylock, JM Barrie and The Life And Loves Of Edith Wharton, all of which toured internationally.

BARRIE, Frank (Frank Smith)

Born: 9/19/1940, Scarborough, North Riding, Yorkshire, England, U.K.

Died: 6/30/2025, England, U.K.

 

Frank Barrie’s western – actor:

Queen of Swords (TV) – 2000 (Gonzalo)

RIP Paulette Jiles

 Remembering My Friend Paulette Jiles

The News of the World author was brilliant and driven and, sometimes, prickly. She leaves behind a beloved body of work.

Texas Monthly

By Naomi Shihab Nye

July 10, 2025

 

In her poem “Driving at Night to Uvalde,” Paulette Jiles wrote of seeing a freight train’s lights through a windshield and being caught up in the moment when “everything is radiant, electrified / The tangled bush and the highway are lit up in black and gold.” In the next line, she transformed this moment of sensory experience into a sense of her own mission: “A poet’s job is to see things like this / We wait for a message of hope and courage.”

Paulette felt shining messages everywhere, roaring through landscapes, tugging us backward in time, deeper into everything that surrounds us. With profound originality and grace, she shaped the messages and voices she heard into whole worlds.

For many years, she lived simply in a cabin in the small Hill Country town of Utopia, with dogs, cats, and horses on a high hill surrounded by more than thirty acres and a giant sky. After the worst weekend Texas can remember for a long time, when the Guadalupe River and other bodies of water overflowed their banks and too many stories and lives were cut short, she left us. In a hospital in San Antonio, my dear friend died of gastric complications at the age of 82.

Her poetry, nonfiction, and fiction had long transported readers into other realms—whether far-north Ontario or nineteenth-century Texas. She was a writer’s writer, embodying gifts of intense curiosity and imagination with the power of intricate research and the solid rhythm of discipline. She was no frills, no fancy—just focused, exquisitely beautiful writing.

Born in 1943 in rural Salem, Missouri, she majored in Spanish literature at the University of Illinois and then moved to Canada in her twenties. Working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she helped organize local FM radio stations in small Indigenous communities and learned to speak Ojibwe. And she wrote constantly, in 1984 winning one of Canada’s Governor General’s Awards for Celestial Navigation, a book of poetry. One of her great admirers was the Canadian writer and icon Margaret Atwood.

Paulette’s 1992 memoir, Cousins, tracked her own Ozarkian family, which by then had spun out into different regions of the country. Oral interviews and the adventure of traveling with her future husband, Jim Johnson, created a rich tapestry of family perspectives. But she told me she was so disoriented by the publisher giving the book an embarrassing subtitle that she didn’t come out of her room for a week.

She and Jim married, lived in Mexico, bought an old stone house in San Antonio’s King William neighborhood, renovated it, and later divorced. Though she often claimed to have quit writing poetry, every one of her novels held poetry stitched throughout every character, every scene. These books—Enemy Women, Simon the Fiddler, The Color of Lightning, Chenneville, Stormy Weather, Lighthouse Island, and, especially, 2016’s News of the World—that brought her a large and devoted international audience relatively late in life. News of the World was a finalist for a National Book Award, won the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, and was turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks, which Paulette liked. (And trust me—she always spoke her mind; if she said she liked it, she liked it.)

“Here is the truth and that is you

Are passing through the world like a freight

You have not been here always and someday

You will not be here at all.”   

We met in 1991 in San Antonio, when Paulette and Jim knocked on our door unannounced and asked if we knew anyplace in our neighborhood where they could house-sit for a while. Somehow, having never met or even heard of either of them before, we trusted them instantly and said, “Sure, come in, we’ll give you the keys—we’re going to Honolulu for six months.” They ended up nursing our beloved cat through a serious illness and, eventually, his death, and they mailed us elaborate letters about the neighborhood happenings in our absence. That bonds you with people.

Paulette was a lifetime horse lover and rodeo trail rider who said she had no desire to teach writing, only “riding.” Bluntly whimsical and honest in speech, occasionally prickly with interviewers, devoted to friends and family, profoundly compassionate in times of tragedy, she traveled regularly to Mexico to see close compadres and loved to play her penny whistle. “Don’t you get lonely up here?” I’d ask about her solo life in Utopia. “No!” she’d say. “I have the greatest community!” I’d stare out at the horizon in all directions and see—nobody. Above her one-room cabin, in a spare studio with a tablecloth under her computer, she typed away daily on her next book—diligent, meticulous. She had all those characters living up there with her.

“In a storm of light

In your solitude, your dog riding patiently in the back

Remember you hold your own life in your hands

Like a wheel.”

JILES, Paulette (Paulette Kay Jiles)

Born: 4/4/1943, Salem, Missouri,U.S.A.

Died: San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.

Paulette Jiles’ westerns – writer:

News of the World – 2020

The Color of Lightning - 2025

RIP Milan Mikuljan

 

Facebook

Winnetou.ru

7/7/2025

 

German stuntman and actor Milam ‘Emil’ Mikuljan died in Switzerland on July 3rd. He was 82. Milan was born in Bremenhaven, Germany on February 20, 1943. He was involved in all Karl May films produced by 'Rialto Film'. 'He was seldom seen in a specific role and yet he was always present, whether as Mario Girotti's double or performing complicated tasks, such as a fire stunt in 'Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi'," writes Christian Hees on his website about the Karl May film adaptations

MIKULJAN, Milan (aka Emil Mikulan) [2/20/1943, Bremenhaven, Germany – 7/3/2025, Switzerland] – stuntman, film actor, married to Dužica,’Duda’ Mikuljan (1965-    ) father of a daughter

The Treasure of Silver Lake – 1962 (Tramp) [stunts]

Apache Gold – 1963 (train conductor) [stunts]

Apache's Last Battle – 1963 [stunts]

Massacre at Grande Canyon - 1963 [stunts]

Frontier Hellcat – 1964 (Shoshone, rider) [stunts]

Last of the Renegades – 1964 (ranch hand, Indian) [stunts]

Desperado Trail – 1965 (Rollins’ henchman) [stunts]

Flaming Frontier – 1965 (O’Neal henchman, Indian) [stunts. Mario Girotti double]

The Halfbreed – 1965 [stunts]

Rampage at Apache Wells – 1965

Thunder at the Border – 1966 (Metz) [as Emil Mikuljan] [stunts]

The Man With the Long Gun – 1968 (shotgun rider) [stunts]

 

 

RIP Denny Dardeen

 

Denny Ray Dardeen Obituary

Watson Funeral Home

June 23, 2025

 

Denny Ray Dardeen, 68, of Harrisburg, Illinois passed away on 06/22/2025 at 7:20 p.m. at Deaconess Gateway Hospital in Newburgh, Indiana after a short illness surrounded by his family and loved ones.

Denny was born to Virgil and Dorothy (Shemwell) Dardeen on October 30, 1956 in Harrisburg, Illinois. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother in-law Joe McGuire, his sister in-law Iris Dardeen, his nephew Chad McGuire, his two children born into heaven Lukas Dardeen and Jordan Dardeen, and his step-son Kent Ashley.

Denny is survived by his loving fiancé Debbie Ashley, his daughter Amanda Stanford (Bryan Mattingly) and his sons Matthew Dardeen (Emily Hopson-Dardeen) and Joshua Dardeen (Robert Rodriguez). He is survived by his siblings Pam McGuire of Marshall, Illinois; Phillip Dardeen of Marshall, Illinois; David Dardeen (Ronda Dardeen) of West Terre Haute, Indiana and Bill Dardeen of Terre Haute, Indiana. He is survived by his grandchildren Blake Stanford, Kinsley Stanford, Preslie Dardeen, Jonathan Dardeen, Madelyn Dardeen and Myles Mattingly. He is also survived by several nieces and nephews and several great nieces and nephews.

Denny spent many years of his life working on the railroad as a bridge inspector and later started Darcon as a railroad contractor. He also worked for GE for 12 years. Denny had a great love for sports, especially baseball and basketball. He had a great love for playing softball, participating in and winning many tournaments. He was voted as the greatest 3rd baseman in Marshall, Illinois softball history. He had a great love for his favorite baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals. He spent many years also building different Wiffle Ball fields and playing as many people as possible over the years. Denny also had a passion for music and movies. His favorite musician was Elvis Presley and his favorite actor was John Wayne. He befriended late actor Clint Walker late in life after writing and recording a song about the character Cheyenne. He loved the tv series Gunsmoke. He wrote many songs and created Little Muddy Records. Denny had a passion project to make a movie. He created D’Ardenne’ Entertainment, LLC. He wrote, directed, composed and produced the film Letters Home. When the film premieres please come out and support it.

Denny made many friends over the years and will be greatly missed by all who loved him. He never met a stranger. His family asks that everyone wear Cardinals attire or red if possible but please dress comfortably. DYNOMITE.

DARDEEN. Denny (Denny Ray Dardeen)

Born: 10/30/1956, Harrisburg, Illinois, U.S.A.

Died: 6/22/2025, Newburgh, Indiana, U.S.A.

 

Denny Dardeen’s western – writer:

Letters Home - 2022

RIP Mark Snow

 

Emmy nominated X-Files composer dies aged 78 as tributes pour in 

Great Britain News

By Eliana Silver

July 4, 2025

 

Mark Snow, the veteran television composer who created the iconic X-Files theme song, has died at his Connecticut home aged 78.

The 15-time Emmy nominee passed away on Friday, according to reports.

Snow scored more than 200 episodes of The X-Files throughout its run, transforming the series' eerie theme into an unlikely chart success that reached the top 10 in Britain, Ireland, France and across Europe in 1996.

His prolific career spanned decades, with the composer providing music for numerous hit television series including Blue Bloods, Smallville, Ghost Whisperer, Hart to Hart and T.J. Hooker.

S ix of his Emmy nominations came from his work on The X-Files, while five others recognised his contributions to acclaimed television films and miniseries including "Something About Amelia," "An American Story," "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," "Children of the Dust" and "Helter Skelter."

Snow composed music for nearly 290 episodes of the long-running CBS police drama Blue Bloods starring Tom Selleck.

He also scored the first six seasons of Smallville and all five seasons of Ghost Whisperer, earning two additional Emmy nominations for the latter.

His other television credits included Dynasty, The Love Boat, Cagney & Lacey, Falcon Crest and Pee-wee's Playhouse.

The Juilliard-trained composer was amongst the first to transition from traditional orchestral scoring to an all-electronic approach in the late 1980s, working alone in his home studio.

All of his X-Files television music was created using synthesisers, samplers and other electronic equipment.

Fans quickly flocked to social media to pay their respects to the artist, with one writing: “My condolences to his family and friends. His work was incredible and memorable. A really gifted composer.”

Another added: “His soundtracks for The X-Files were superb. RIP Mark,” while a third echoed: “I can’t imagine The X-Files without his music. RIP.”

A fourth fan wrote: “And now ladies and gentlemen, please stand up for the X Files National Anthem to pay your respects and tribute to the man who once composed one of the best theme songs in TV history.”

And a fifth added: “Next to Mulder and Scully, Snow’s score is the third most important character in the #Xfiles! Every time I watch, which is usually multiple times a week I’m taken at how his score pervades the episode. He was brilliant.”

Composer Sean Callery, who considered Snow a mentor and close friend for over three decades, told Variety: "His limitless talent and boundless creativity was matched only by the generosity he bestowed upon other composers who sought his guidance."

Callery believes Snow's X-Files scores "brought an entirely new language of musical storytelling to television."

Born Martin Fulterman on August 26,1946 in Brooklyn, Snow began piano studies at age 10 before adding drums and oboe to his repertoire.

He studied at New York's High School of Music and Art, where he befriended future film composer Michael Kamen.

The pair became roommates at the Juilliard School of Music from 1964 to 1968 and co-founded the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1974, his brother-in-law, actor Georg Stanford Brown, helped him secure his first television scoring job.

Snow is survived by his wife Glynnis, three daughters and grandchildren.

SNOW, Mark (Martin Glynn Fulterman)

Born: 8/26/1946, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 7/4/2025, Washington, Connecticut, U.S.A.

 

Mark Snow’s westerns – actor:

Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills (TV) - 1986

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (TV) – 1991

The Substitute Wife (TV) – 1994

Children of the Dust (TV) – 1995

RIP Maureen Hingert

 

Maureen Hingert, first Sri Lankan to reach Miss Universe finals and enter Hollywood, passes away

ADA derana

July 1, 2025

 

Maureen Neliya Ballard (née Hingert), professionally known as Jana Davi, has passed away.

Born on 9 January 1937, she was a Sri Lankan actress, dancer, model, and beauty pageant titleholder.

She gained international recognition after being crowned Miss Ceylon 1955 and becoming the second runner-up at the Miss Universe 1955 pageant — marking the first time a representative from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) received an award at the prestigious international competition.

Her success at Miss Universe was widely celebrated, with many crediting her for “putting Ceylon on the map” and serving as a cultural ambassador during a significant period in the country’s history.

In addition to her pageant accomplishments, Hingert was an accomplished dancer. She gave solo performances at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and at other major venues throughout the city.

Following her success in the pageant, she was signed by Universal International Studios and 20th Century Fox, launching a career in film and television.

She appeared in several notable productions, including The King and I, Fort Bowie, Gun Fever, The Adventures of Hiram Holiday, Moroccan Halk Moth, Pillars of the Sky, Dangerous Search, Gunmen from Laredo, The Rawhide Trail, and the British television series Captain David Grief. She was sometimes credited in her acting roles as Jana Davi.

Maureen Hingert’s legacy continues to inspire generations in Sri Lanka and beyond, as a pioneer who represented her nation with grace on the global stage.

HINGERT, Maureen (Maureen Neliya Hingert)

Born: 1/9/1937, Columba Ceylon

Died: 7/1/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Maureen Hingert’s westerns – actress:

Pillars of the Sky – 1956 (Indian woman)

Fort Bowie – 1958 (Chanzana)

Gun Fever – 1958 (Tanana)

The Rawhide Trail – 1958 (Keetah)

Death Valley Days (TV) – 1958 (Weeka)

Gunmen of Laredo – 1959 (Rosita)