RIP Kevin Burns

 

Kevin Burns Death – Dead

The Arts of Entertainment

September 28, 2020

Kevin Burns Death | Kevin Burns Obituary – Kevin Burns was born on June 18, 1955 in Schenectady, New York died September 27, 2020. He was an American television and film producer, director, and screenwriter. His work can be seen on A&E, National Geographic Channel, E!, Animal Planet, AMC, Bravo, WE tv, Travel Channel, Lifetime, and The History Channel. Burns has created and executive-produced more than 800 hours of television programming.

Born in 1955, Burns grew up in Niskayuna, New York. Raised Roman Catholic, he graduated from St. Helen’s School before attending Niskayuna High School. In 1977 he graduated cum laude from Hamilton College. In 1981 he received both a master’s degree in film from Boston University’s College of Communication and a Student Academy Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his first film, I Remember Barbra, a humorous documentary short that profiled Barbra Streisand’s impact on her former Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. After graduation, Burns taught film production at the university, as well as heading the school’s “Film Unit”, a group that allowed students to gain real-world experience by producing commercials, public service announcements, documentaries and other projects for clients. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began working as an executive at 20th Century Fox Television.

While at Fox, Burns co-founded Foxstar Productions, the production unit responsible for creating a series of Alien Nation movies for television. In 1994, while serving as senior vice-president of Foxstar, he founded Van Ness Films, a non-fiction and documentary production unit. That same year, he met Jon Jashni, a Fox film executive who shared his interest in the works of legendary Hollywood producer Irwin Allen.

In 1999, Burns officially made a transition from his role as a studio executive to that of a full-time producer. While still under a production deal at Fox Television Studios, Burns and Jon Jashni formed Synthesis Entertainment and began developing and producing remakes and sequels of the Allen properties, most notably a Fox Television pilot for an updated version of The Time Tunnel (2002) and the feature film versions of Poseidon (2006) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

In 1999, Burns also created Prometheus Entertainment, a company specializing in documentary, reality and non-fiction programming and specials. Here, Burns continued to produce and direct a wide variety of programming, including the reality show The Girls Next Door on E! (about the adventures of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s three live-in girlfriends, High Maintenance 90210, Hollywood Science for the National Geographic Channel, Food Paradise and Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches (both for the Travel Channel) along with Kendra and Holly’s World, both spin-offs of The Girls Next Door.

In 2002, Burns received his first of two Emmy Awards as executive producer for A&E’s Biography series. That same year, he was selected by George Lucas and Lucasfilm to produce and direct the 150-minute documentary feature Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. Four years later, he was again selected by Lucas to produce and direct, Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed, a feature-length documentary which premiered on The History Channel and went on to earn three Emmy Award nominations. Other specials include Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, which Burns co-produced with Superman Returns director Bryan Singer; Spider-Man Tech; Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest; Batman Unmasked; Batman Tech; The Valkyrie Legacy, his second co-production with Bryan Singer; and Angels & Demons: Decoded in 2009.

Since 2010, Burns and his company Prometheus Entertainment have produced The History Channel TV series Ancient Aliens, America’s Book of Secrets,[and The Curse of Oak Island, as well as the reality TV series Kendra on Top for WEtv, and other non-fiction series and specials.

Along with his business partner Jon Jashni, Burns played an integral part in the development and creation of the Lost in Space reboot for Netflix and will serve as executive producer on the show.

We mourn with the family of Kevin Burns for this great loss. Please received our heartfelt condolences.

For every start of a journey, there must be an end. His journey has sadly come to an end on earth.

BURNS, Kevin

Born: 6/18/1955, Schenectady, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 9/27/2020,

Kevin Burns’ western – executive producer:

The Curse of Civil War Gold – 2018-2019

 

RIP Arthur Wooster

 

Arthur Wooster obituary

 

The Guardian

By Anthony Hayward

September 23, 2020

James Bond film cameraman and director who masterminded action shots for Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore  

Arthur Wooster, who has died aged 91 after suffering from dementia, was hired by the director John Glen to bring scenes of daredevil action to the screen as second unit director on all the James Bond movies of the 1980s. This followed a career mostly spent shooting documentaries, including a groundbreaking 3D film of the Queen’s coronation.

Glen, a film editor on some early productions that Wooster worked on as a camera operator, knew the qualities that he could bring to supply thrills and spills. “He was prepared to fly in fast fighter aircraft, ski, mountain climb, and he was a terrific underwater cameraman,” said Glen.

As well as masterminding shots below water in his first 007 film, For Your Eyes Only (1981), Wooster mounted two car chases. One, filmed over 12 days, was shot in Corfu, with top stunt drivers standing in for Roger Moore, as Bond, and Carole Bouquet, his co-star, in a Citroën 2CV and a Cuban assassin and his cronies in two powerful Peugeots. After following the action along winding roads through olive groves, with tyres screeching and guns firing, the 2CV dramatically jumps over one of the villains’ vehicles.

Wooster’s other standout Bond moments were shooting Moore in a train fight, from a helicopter high above, for Octopussy (1983), and in a fire engine chase through the night-time streets of San Francisco for A View to a Kill (1985); and Timothy Dalton clinging to the top of a Land Rover as it speeds down the Rock of Gibraltar in The Living Daylights (1987) and dicing with death during a tanker chase in Licence to Kill (1989).

Wooster returned to Bond films later to provide additional “third unit” material. He captured stunt performers, doubling for Pierce Brosnan as 007, jumping from a Swiss mountain on a motorcycle and skydiving in pursuit of a single-engine plane for GoldenEye (1995). He also filmed derelict oil platforms for The World Is Not Enough (1999) and took to a fishing boat to shoot the opening surfing sequence for Die Another Day (2002).

Arthur Wooster, right, and Bob Angell attend the preview screening of The Queen In 3D at Channel 4 studios in 2009. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Earlier, in his documentary-making career, Wooster shot in colour the only 3D footage of the Queen’s coronation. However, Royal Review 1953, which was commissioned by the newsreel company Pathé Films, was never publicly screened at the time because the 3D format proved short-lived. It was dropped because of the expense of installing the system in cinemas and supplying audiences with special glasses just as the public were turning to the newly popular television.

Wooster and the director, Robert Angell, placed two cameras side by side and edited the pictures together to give the illusion of 3D for their coverage of the Queen’s return journey from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and events over the following three weeks, including a trip to the Epsom Derby and the first close-up shots of the new monarch as she embarked from the royal barge on the Thames.

After being deposited with the British Film Institute, the documentary was finally screened more than 50 years later during a Channel 4 week of 3D programmes in 2009.

Arthur was born in Hendon, Middlesex, to May (nee Elstone) and Sidney Wooster, and grew up in Wembley, north-west London. On leaving East Lane county secondary school at 14, he worked in his father’s butcher’s shop, which supplied meat to Wembley film studios, opposite. Its production manager secured him an interview for a clapper loader’s job with the Crown Film Unit, then part of the government’s Ministry of Information.

He first worked on The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944), a wartime film directed by the groundbreaking documentary-maker Humphrey Jennings. Wooster worked on documentaries for much of the following 40 years, as well as public information films for the Central Office of Information and other sponsors, broken only by national service in the RAF (1947-49), when he repaired aircraft instruments.

The Crown Film Unit closed in 1952, when Wooster was about to work as focus puller on a new production in Africa, which was then taken up by Group 3 and produced by John Grierson, the father of documentary-making. The result, Man of Africa (1953), directed by Cyril Frankel, was a dramatised documentary shot in Uganda and featuring an all-black cast.

With Angell and other former Crown Film Unit colleagues, Wooster set up the production company Film Partnership and established himself as a camera operator.

Famke Janssen and Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, for which Wooster created some of the action shots.  

Alongside sponsored documentaries, it supplied a film unit to the BBC, most successfully for Passport (1958-60), which Wooster shot in western European holiday destinations. The travel series was presented by Richard Dimbleby, who then became chair of Film Partnership, providing finance to widen its ambitions. However, Dimbleby’s death in 1965 led to his son David buying the company 

 

By then, Wooster was freelancing. Sports documentaries became one of his specialisms and he was one of the camera operators shooting in colour the England football team’s greatest day for Goal! World Cup 1966. He also worked on The Olympics in Mexico (1969), Visions of Eight (1973), at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and White Rock (1977), the official film of the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics. This led him to be hired as a camera operator on feature films such as the ski drama Downhill Racer (1969), starring Robert Redford, and Le Mans (1971), with Steve McQueen as a motor racing driver. 

 

Alongside his skills in aerial photography, Wooster was known for shooting underwater sequences, working on Bear Island (1979), starring Donald Sutherland, and Raise the Titanic (1980).

 

As a second unit director, he also worked on the racing drama Champions (1984), The Avengers (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). He won Bafta’s Michael Balcon award for outstanding British contribution to cinema in 1983. 

 

In 1964, Wooster married Anne Twiddy. She and their sons, David and Tim, survive him.

• Arthur George Wooster, cinematographer and director, born 18 May 1929; died 31 August 2020

 

WOOSTER, Arthur (Arhtur George Wooster)

Born: 5/18/1929, Hendon, Middlesex, England, U.K.

Died: 8/30/2020, Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, U.K.

Arthur Wooster’s westerns – assistant director:

Alaska Kid (TV) – 1993

Ravenous - 1999

RIP Michael Gwisdek

 

Michael Gwisdek is dead 

taggesschau.de

9/23/2020

With films like "Good Bye, Lenin!" or "Oh Boy" he became a crowd favorite. Now the actor and director Michael Gwisdek has died at the age of 78. The Berliner was already a star in GDR times.

The Berlin actor and director Michael Gwisdek died at the age of 78 after a brief serious illness. According to the PR agency Just Publicity, his family announced this.
With films like "Good Bye, Lenin!", "Boxhagener Platz", "Nachtgestalten" and "Oh Boy" he was a crowd favorite. He was also often seen on television: whether in "Tatort", "Bella Block" or "Donna Leon". In his roles he showed himself to be a comedian, melancholic and eccentric, as the Defa Foundation wrote to him. In his directorial work, he convinced "with sophisticated figure drawings".

Renowned character actor

Gwisdek was born in Berlin-Weißensee in 1942. His acting career also began in the East: first he worked at a theater in Chemnitz from the late 1960s, before joining the ensemble of the East Berlin Volksbühne in 1973. Ten years later, Gwisdek moved to the German Theater and became known in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1980s. He made his directorial debut in 1988 with "Treffen in Travers". His other directorial work included "Abschied von Agnes" and "Das Mambospiel"

In 1999 Gwisdek received a Silver Bear for best leading actor in Andreas Dresen's "Nachtgestalten". His work has received awards such as the German Film Prize, the German Television Prize and the Grimme Prize.

In private, Michael Gwisdek and actress Corinna Harfouch were a couple for many years. Son Robert also became an actor, son Johannes a composer. Later Gwisdek lived with his wife, the screenwriter and writer Gabriela Gwisdek, in the countryside near Berlin.

GWISDEK, Michael

Born: 1/14/1942, Weissensee, Berlin, Germany

Died: 9/22/2020, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Michael Gwisdek’s westerns – actor:

The Falcon’s Trail – 1967 (miner)

White Wolves – 1969

The Adventures of Huck Finn – 2012 (King)

RIP Xavier Loyá

 

ACTOR DIES AT 85 YEARS OLD

XAVIER LOYA

 

XHGDL Radio

September 22, 2020 

The ANDA reports the passing of the golden age actor.

Son of acclaimed novillero ′′ El Güero Hernandez ′′ and nephew of ′′ Musician-Poet ′′ Agustín Lara the actor and screenwriter Xavier Loyá (Xavier Hernandez Loyá) born in Mexico City on December 31, 1934.

He studied theatre at the National Institute of Fine Arts in 1948, under the mentoring of great teachers including Enrique Ruelas, Javier Villurrutia, André Moreau and Fernando Wagner. Among his generation companions are Silvia Pinal, Ignacio López Tarso, Barbara Hill, Magda Guzmán, Lilia Prado, Sergio Bustamante and Miguel Corsica among others. He starts out having roles as a supporting actor in the plays Romeo and Juliet and Oedipo Rey directed both by Fernando Wagner and André Moreau.

That same year he debuted in the experimental theatre with the play ′′ THE DREAM OF CRISTAL ′′ in which he performs next to Silvia Pinal, having Rafael Banquells as director.

In 1949 and under the direction of Enrique Ruelas, he plays his first leading role in Jean Paul Sartre's ′′ DEAD WITHOUT SEPULTURE ".

Joins the National Actors Association in 1950. At that time actress and entrepreneur Martha Elba invited him to work next to her, Claudio Brook and Augusto Benedico, to take over the leading male role in the play ′′ LA RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE ′′ by Jean Paul Sartre, directed by Enrique Ruelas. The staging accomplishes the fact, unusual for the time, of staying for over a thousand billboard representations with a rolling success. The same entrepreneur then encourages him to test for the film ′′ SMELLS OF THE PAST ", where he is selected for a stellar role next to Libertad Lamarque having Alfredo B in the direction of Alfredo B. Crevenna. The crowd flips to the lockers turning the movie into a success and critics highlight it as a true reveal.

Film Studios get excited and give him a contract for three films. This is how he works under the direction of Luis Buñuel in ′′ THE DAUGHTER OF CHEAT ′′ in 1951, where he plays alongside Fernando Soler and Ruben Rojo; and in ′′ A WOMAN WITHOUT LOVE ′′ in 1952, in which he is the protagonist with Joaquin Cordero.

Shortly after he is involved in JORGE VILLASEÑOR's work entitled ′′ THE SKY PROMISED ".

Pioneer of Mexican television, he makes his presentation in 1950 in the building of the National Lottery with the play ′′ SUMERGIDOS ′′ and from there he performs in more than a thousand tele-theaters. Among the best known programs of that time in which he participated are TELE-COMEDIA of MANOLO FABREGAS, THEATER FORD OF THE AIR, BONUS OF THE NATIONAL SAVE, etc... His most remarkable interventions within this genre were: ′′ SANTA JUANA ′′ with Maricruz Olivier ; ′′ THE LIGHT WOUND ′′ with Fernando Soler; ′′ CODICE ′′ with Lilia Prado and ′′ THE CRISTAL BORDER ′′ with Lupita Ferrer.

Coming in the year of 1954 and director Xavier Rojas includes him in the cast of ′′ HEART RISKED ′′ whose performance is worth being nominated for the best actor of the year. This staging is followed by ′′ THE PARRA LEAF ′′ with Ortiz de Pinedo, ′′ THE NAKED TRUTH ′′ with Emilio Shine, ′′ A MINUTE STOP ′′ with Joaquín Pardave, ′′ NANCY BROWN ′′ with Marilú Elizaga, ′′ DREAMS LIT ′′ with ′′ DREAMS ′′ with ′′ Andrea Palma, etc... until we arrive at the replenishment of ′′ THE RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE ′′ this time accompanied by Lilia Prado.

In 1956 he moved to Hollywood where he participated in several TV shows such as CLIMAX, PLAYHOUSE 90 etc...

He then heads to New York City where he studies acting at Actor's Studio of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg.

He returns to Mexico in 1960 and begins to work continuously in both television and theatre and cinema where he is called again by Luis Buñuel to direct him in ′′ EL ANGEL EXTERMINATOR ".

Julio Bracho takes it under his orders in the movies ′′ I KNEW TOO MUCH ", ′′ THE SHADOW OF THE CAUDILLO ′′ and ′′ GUADALAJARA IN SUMMER ".

Other of his excellent film works are: ′′ YOUTH DEFENDED ", ′′ GOD WILL KNOW HOW TO JUDGE US ", ′′ DANGERS OF YOUTH ", ′′ THE SPADACHINES OF THE QUEEN ", ′′ THE RAGE INSIDE ", ′′ RAICES IN HELL ", ", THE CABETERS ", ′′ A BULL CALLS ME ′′ and ′′ OFFICE ".

It also successfully ventures into the world of photonovelas producing, directing and acting more than two thousand editions.

He writes the arguments for the tapes: ′′ OWNERS OF THE NIGHT ′′ and ′′ OF THE WORST RALE ′′ (both films directed by Juan José Pérez Padilla in 1991) where he also acts.

He currently combined his activities as an actor with his author and is a partner of AUTHORS of the Film Production Worker s' Union (STPC).

His last film appearance has been in ′′ THE WAILER 2 ′′ in which he plays Father Augustus.

LOYA, Xavier

Born: 12/31/1934, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

Died: 9/22/2020,

Xavier Loyá’s westerns – actor:

Nido de aguilas – 1965 (Carmen’s boyfriend)

Capulina ‘Speedy’Gonzales: ‘El Rapido’ – 1970 (Timothy)

Juan el desalmado – 1970 (El Suavecito)

Hermanos de sangre – 1973

Los matones de mi pueblo – 1996

RIP Michael Chapman

Michael Chapman, ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Raging Bull’ Cinematographer, Dies at 84

 

 

Variety

By Natalie Oganseyan

September 21, 2020

Cinematographer and director Michael Chapman, known for his distinctive camera work on Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “The Last Waltz,” died Sunday of congestive heart failure. He was 84. 

His spouse, screenwriter and film director Amy Holden Jones’ Facebook page confirmed the news of his death, writing: “Michael Chapman ASC, love of my entire adult life, has passed. Until we meet again.”

He was nominated for two Oscars for best cinematography, for “Raging Bull” — with its gritty black and white photography — and “The Fugitive.” After shooting “Taxi Driver,” he was called “the poet of the sidewalks,” but was known to his crew as “Chappy.” 

Chapman was mentored by Gordon Willis, for whom he served as camera operator on Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord” as well as on “The Godfather,” “Up the Sandbox” and “Klute.” Ashby then hired him as cinematographer on “The Last Detail,” starring Jack Nicholson, before he was hired by Scorsese for “Taxi Driver” in 1975.

After moving to Los Angeles, his work included the 1978 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” “Space Jam,” Kindergarten Cop,” “The Lost Boys” and “Ghostbusters II.”

He also ventured into directing in the 1980s with “Clan of the Cave Bear” and “All the Right Moves,” starring a young Tom Cruise. 

The cinematographer was born on Nov. 21, 1935 in Wellesley, Mass. and attended Columbia U. Chapman entered film work through his father-in-law, Oscar-nominated French American cinematographer Joe Brun, who didn’t want him to continue working as a freight brakeman.

He received the lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers, of which he was a member since 1995, in 2004 and from the Camerimage International Film Festival in 2016.  

Visual splendor can be “a terrible mistake,” he told Variety upon the occasion of the Camerimage honor. “It shouldn’t be beautiful — it should be appropriate.”

Chapman retired from production after shooting his last film “The Bridge to Terabithia” and taught film at North Carolina School of the Arts. 

He is survived by Jones, four children and four grandchildren. Donations may be made to www.sheriffsmeadow.org.

 

CHAPMAN, Michael

Born: 11/21/1935, Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Died: 9/20/2020, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Michael Chapman’s westerns – camera operator, cinematographer:

Bad Company – 1972 [camera operator]

Shoot the Sun Down – 1978 [cinematographer]

RIP Michael Lonsdale

 

Michael Lonsdale, who played James Bond villain in Moonraker, dies aged 89

BBC News

September 21, 2020

 

Anglo-French actor Michael Lonsdale, who played the villain opposite Roger Moore's James Bond in the 1979 film Moonraker, has died at the age of 89.

In the film, he played Hugo Drax, an industrialist planning to poison all humans on Earth then repopulate the planet from his space station.

It was one of more than 200 roles he played in both English and French over a career that spanned six decades.

His other film credits included The Day of the Jackal, Ronin and Munich.

The official Twitter account for the late Sir Roger Moore described Lonsdale's character as "a smooth-tongued and cultured adversary to 007".

In an interview with Mi6 HQ in 2012, Lonsdale was asked whether he had been concerned that playing a Bond villain might have a negative impact on his career.

"On the contrary!" he replied. "Because, I made so many films that were not really very popular or didn't make much money, and I only made poor films, so I thought I might like to be in a rich film."

'Drax is like Hitler'

In the same interview, he said: "My teacher, when I was at school for the theatre, told me that 'One day you will have to play someone very nasty.'

"But really, he is such a terrible character, a sort of Nazi. I mean, Drax is like Hitler. He wanted to destroy everybody and rain down a new order of very athletic, young people... He was mad completely."

Lonsdale had a varied career on film, TV, radio and stage. Before becoming a Bond villain, he played the Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel in 1973 political thriller The Day of the Jackal.

He later appeared as Jean-Pierre in 1998 US action film Ronin, alongside Robert De Niro, and as Papa in Steven Spielberg's 2005 historical thriller Munich.

Writer and film-maker Jesse Hawken was among those paying tribute, writing on Twitter: "RIP to one of my favs, the great Michael Lonsdale, one of the best Bond villains."

 

LONSDALE, Michael (Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch)

Born: 5/24/1931, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Died: 9/21/2020, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Michael Lonsdale’s western – voice actor:

Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure – 2007 [French voice of Bartleby]

RIP Nancy Saunders

 

The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations
June 14, 2020

Screen actress Nancy Saunders died of leukemia on June 13, 2020 in Mission Viejo, California. She was two weeks shy of turning 95. Saunders was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 29, 1925.

Saunders was a contract actress with RKO Pictures and later with Columbia. She appeared in over 20 films between 1946 and 1957. She was discovered when a talent scout was looking for attractive actresses who could ride a horse. Saunders entered the "Queen" competition at the 1972 All American Quarter Horse Congress so she more than qualified.

Saunders was known for her roles in several Three Stooges films from the Shemp Howard era, specifically I'm a Monkey's Uncle (and its remake Stone Age Romeos) and as Lady Godiva in The Ghost Talks.

Saunders married used-car dealer Ray Russell Davioni in Las Vegas. The marriage was annulled in August 1947

 

SAUNDERS, Nancy (Nancy Lou Sanders)

Born: 6/29/1925, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

Died: 6/13/2020, Mission Viejo, California, U.S.A.

 

Nancy Saunders’ westerns – actress:

Law of the Canyon – 1947 (Mary Coleman)

Prairie Raiders – 1947 (Ann Bradford)

South of the Chisolm Trail – 1947 (Nora Grant)

West of Dodge City – 1948 (Anne Avery)

Six-Gun Law – 1948 (June Wallace)

Whirlwind Raiders – 1948 (Claire Ross)

Outlaw Country – 1949 (Jane Evans)

Arizona Territory – 1950 (Doris Devin)

The Adventures of Jim Bowie (TV) – 1957 (Rachel McCullers)