RIP Gina Lollobrigida

 

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Bombshell Movie Star, Dies at 95

 

Variety

By Carmel Dagan, Nick Vivarelli

January 16, 2023

 

Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” has died. She was 95.

According to Italian news agency Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No cause of death has been cited. In September she had had surgery to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held last year in September, though she did not win.

After resisting Howard Hughes’ offer to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and popular favorite.

Her first American movie, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 film noir spoof “Beat the Devil,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The same year she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread, Love and Dreams,” for which she won a BAFTA for best actress in a foreign film.

Lollobrigida starred in director Robert Z. Leonard’s Italian-language “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” (aka Beautiful but Dangerous”), for which she received the best actress award at the inaugural David di Donatello Awards in 1956.

That year, she also starred in Carol Reed’s “Trapeze,” also starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis and lensed in Paris. Also in 1956 she shot an Italian- and French-produced remake of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in which Anthony Quinn played Quasimodo but Lollobrigida, playing Esmerelda, was first billed.

More high-profile projects followed, including King Vidor’s “Solomon and Sheba,” with Yul Brynner, and WWII movie “Never So Few,” with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Steve McQueen, both in 1959; in 1961 she starred with Rock Hudson in the comedy “Come September.” By this point she was regularly shuttling between Italian, American and the occasional French production.

In 1961 she won the Golden Globes’ Henrietta Award for world film favorite — female. The actress won a David di Donatello Award in 1963 for her work in the Italo-French production “Imperial Venus.”

Lollobrigida starred with Sean Connery and Ralph Richardson in Basil Dearden’s 1964 English thriller “Woman of Straw,” but while she continued to make Italian films, her international star began to fade until a resurgence with the 1968 comedy “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” with Shelley Winters and Phil Silvers.

After an 11-year absence from screens big or small, Lollobrigida took on a recurring role on CBS primetime sudser “Falcon Crest” as Francesca Gioberti in 1984 and guested on “The Love Boat” two years later.

Lollobrigida was included in a cast of top European stars including Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon, Anouk Aimee and Fanny Ardant in Agnes Varda’s 1995 film “Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinema.”

Luigina Lollobrigida was born in Subiaco, Italy. Modelling work in her youth let to participation in a series of beauty contests, and she placed third in the Miss Italia pageant in 1947. She made her feature film debut the year before with a small role in the Italian-language “Return of the Black Eagle.”

Lollobrigida married a Slovenian doctor, Mirko Skofic, in 1949; he gave up his practice to serve as her manager, but they were divorced in 1971.

As her movie career faded, Lollobrigida pursued other interests, including photojournalism and sculpting; she also ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the European Parliament.

On the occasion of her visit to New York City in 2010, the New York Times opened its story by gushing, “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World walked into Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue in black boots and a riding-hood-red cloak, and for the only person in the room expecting her, it perhaps was a trick of the imagination, but it seemed as if the whole restaurant lost its train of thought for a second.”

At the David di Donatello Awards, she won the Golden Medal of the City of Rome in 1986, a 40th Anniversary David in 1996 and a 50th Anniversary David in 2006. She won the Berlinale Camera at the Berlin Film Festival in 1986, a special prize for outstanding contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1995 and the career award at the Rome Festival in 2008.

In 2018, Lollobrigida was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

She is survived by a son.

LOLLOBRIGIDA, Gina (Luigina Lollobrigida)

Born: 7/4/1927, Subiaco, Lazio, Italy

Died: 1/16/2023, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Gina Lollobrigida’s western – actress:

Bad Man’s River - 1971 (Alicia/Alice)

RIP Buba Kikabidze

 

Famous Georgian Singer, Actor Vakhtang Kikabidze Dies At 84

 

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

January 15, 2023

Actor and singer Vakhtang Kikabidze, pictured in 2020, was also remembered for his acting roles, particularly in the much-loved Soviet-era comedy Mimino, in which he played a homesick Georgian pilot.

The prominent Georgian actor and singer Vakhtang Kikabidze -- Buba to his fans -- has died at the age of 84 after a long illness, Georgian media reported on January 15. Besides being a veteran singer and songwriter, Kikabidze was remembered for his acting roles, particularly in the much-loved Soviet-era comedy Mimino, in which he played a homesick Georgian pilot. In 2008 during the conflict between Georgia and Russia, Kikabidze wrote his controversial song, You Disappointed Me. He said at the time it was aimed not at the Kremlin or the Russian military but at the Russian intelligentsia, who failed to speak out in Georgia's defense.

KIKABIDZE, Buba (Vakhtang Kikabidze Konstantinovich)

Born: 7/19/1938, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

Died: 1/15/2023,

Buba Kikabidze's western - actor:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – 1973 (Hertsog)

RIP Miiko Taka

 Miiko Taka, Marlon Brando’s Co-Star in ‘Sayonara,’ Dies at 97

After her sensational acting debut, she appeared in films alongside Glenn Ford, Bob Hope, James Garner and Cary Grant and in the miniseries 'Shogun.'

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

January 13, 2023

Miiko Taka, who made her film debut with a starring turn opposite Marlon Brando in Sayonara, the 1957 Korean War-set drama about “defiant desire,” has died. She was 97.

News of her death was posted Jan. 4 on social media by a grandson. Details of her death were not available, with her son informing The Hollywood Reporter through a spokesperson that his family did not want to participate in an obituary.

Taka also appeared with Glenn Ford and her Sayonara co-star Miyoshi Umemi in the war comedy Cry for Happy (1961), alongside Bob Hope in A Global Affair (1963), opposite James Garner (another Sayonara actor) in Norman Jewison’s The Art of Love (1965) and with Cary Grant in his last film, Walk Don’t Run (1966), set during the Tokyo Olympics.

Directed by Joshua Logan and adapted by Paul Osborn from a 1954 novel by James Michener, Sayonara featured Brando as U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Lloyd “Ace” Gruver and Taka as an elegant Japanese dancer named Hana-ogi. They fall for each other but face hostility in an era that frowned on interracial romances and marriages.

Logan looked to cast an unknown after his first choice for the role, Audrey Hepburn, turned him down. The Seattle-born Taka was working as a clerk at a travel agency in Los Angeles when she was hired, even though she had no acting experience.

In his review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called her “a flute-like beauty — a really lovely, serene and soothing impulse.”

The Warner Bros. film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture, and won four, with Red Buttons and Umemi taking the supporting acting trophies. (Umemi was the first woman of Asian descent to receive an Academy Award.)

In 1958, Taka visited Britain for the first time and was proclaimed “one of the most exciting film discoveries for many years.”

Miiko Shikata was born in Seattle on July 24, 1925, and raised in L.A. During World War II, she and her family were sent to a Japanese internment camp outside Phoenix.

Taka introduced Sayonara to audiences in the trailer, and on the poster, she is “described as an exquisite new Japanese star in James A. Michener’s story of defiant desire.” Rare for its time, the film dealt head-on with racism and prejudice and had what many consider the first onscreen kiss on the mouth between a leading white star and an Asian.

Taka followed up Sayonara with an appearance on a 1959 episode of Hawaiian Eye and showed up on TV in the 1960s on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., I Spy and The Wild Wild West.

Her big-screen résumé also included the war films Hell to Eternity (1960) and Operation Bottleneck (1961), a remake of Lost Horizon (1973), Paper Tiger (1975), The Big Fix (1978) and The Challenge (1982).

She also appeared on the acclaimed NBC 1980 miniseries Shogun, starring Richard Chamberlain.

TAKA, Miiko (Betty Miiko Shikata)

Born: 1/24/1925, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Died: 1/4/2023,U.S.A.

 

Miiko Taka’s western – actress:

The Wild Wild West (TV) 1967 (Hasuko Ishuda)

RIP Dorothy Tristan

 

Dorothy Tristan, ‘Klute’ Actress and Wife of Director John D. Hancock, Dies at 88

 

Variety

By J. Kim Murphy

January 11, 2023

 

Dorothy Tristan, an actress, known for her roles in “Klute” and “Scarecrow,” and wife to film director John D. Hancock, died Jan. 7 in La Porte, Ind. after a decade-long battle against Alzheimer’s disease. She was 88 years old.

Tristan’s death was confirmed by her representation. She died surrounded by her husband and her caretaker, Marcia Brodhacker.

Tristan made her film acting debut in 1970’s X-rated “End of the Road” before appearing alongside Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland in the Oscar-nominated “Klute” the next year. Her follow-up came in 1973 with a role in the road movie “Scarecrow.” She later became somewhat of a local legend in the town of Michiana, Mich. after shooting the 1989 Christmas film “Prancer” on location.

Tristan shifted to working behind the camera for a stretch, assisting her husband on films like “Prancer,” “A Piece of Eden,” “Suspended Animation” and “Girls of Summer.”

Tristan continued acting for the majority of her life, appearing in a series of independent films later in a career that included “A Piece of Eden,” “Suspended Animation” and “Girls of Summer.” In 2015, she starred in and co-wrote the drama “The Looking Glass,” playing a grandmother struggling with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The film was directed by her husband, her longtime creative partner and collaborator.

Born in Yorkville Heights on May 9, 1934, Tristan’s career began in modeling before transitioning to screen acting.

Tristan is survived by her husband, John; her two children, Alex Avakian and Tristan Avakian; her three grandchildren, Sebastian, Chloe and Aram; and her great-grandson, Elijah.

TRISTAN, Dorothy

Born: 5/9/1934, Yorkville Heights, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 1/7/2023, LaPorte, Indiana, U.S.A.

 

Dorothy Tristan’s western – actress:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1974 (Lyla)

RIP Carole Cook

 Carole Cook, Lucille Ball Protégé and ‘Sixteen Candles’ Actress, Dies at 98

 

She also appeared three times on Broadway, followed Carol Channing in 'Hello, Dolly!' and played Don Knotts' wife in 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet.'

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

January 11, 2023

 

Carole Cook, who used a career boost from Lucille Ball to build a career that included three turns on Broadway and roles in Sixteen Candles and The Incredible Mr. Limpet, has died. She was 98.

Cook died of heart failure on Wednesday, three days shy of her birthday, in Beverly Hills, her husband, actor Tom Troupe, announced.

On television, Cook showed up as the ex-wife of Walter Findlay (Bill Macy) on Maude, as the bar owner of the cop hangout Stella’s on Kojak, as madam Cora Van Husen on Dynasty and as Donna La Mar, the girlfriend of Charlie Cagney (Dick O’Neill), on Cagney & Lacey.

The fun-loving Texan came to Hollywood at Ball’s behest and appeared on a 1959 episode of the comedienne’s Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Ball convinced her to change her first name from Mildred to Carole in honor of the actress she most admired, Carole Lombard.

Cook then worked alongside Ball on 18 episodes of The Lucy Show from 1963-68 — often playing Lucy Carmichael’s pal Thelma Green — and five installments of CBS’ Here’s Lucy from 1969-74. They even played a game of Password together in 1965. She wore her hair red, as did her mentor.

Cook also portrayed the wife of Don Knotts’ character and watched him swim out of her life in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) and was Molly Ringwald’s touchy-feely Grandma Helen in John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles (1984).

In 1965, she followed the legendary Carol Channing as the second actress to portray Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! — this was for a lengthy gig in Australia — and then appeared in the original Broadway productions of Romantic Comedy and 42nd Street, which bowed in 1979 and ’80, respectively.

In September 2018, Cook and her husband were interviewed by TMZ outside Craig’s in West Hollywood, and she got into a spot of trouble when she suggested that President Trump should be assassinated. “Where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him, right?” she asked.

The Secret Service paid her a visit, and she pointed out “they couldn’t have been nicer. I said, ‘I can’t go to prison, the stripes are horizontal, they don’t look good on me.'”

One of four children, Mildred Frances Cook was born in Abilene, Texas, on Jan. 14, 1924.

“Abilene isn’t exactly the hub of Broadway — you’re up to your ass in mesquite trees — but I saw my first show when I was four, knew I wanted to do that, and I never deviated,” she said in a July interview. “I started out in the basement of the First Baptist Church and worked my way up to Broadway, to movies.”

After graduating in 1945 from Baylor University, where she studied Greek drama, the green-eyed Cook worked in regional theater and made it to Broadway in 1954 in a revival of Threepenny Opera, replacing Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Peachum in the cast.

She was appearing in Kismet in Warren, Ohio, when she received a call from Ball, who had read a review of her performance in Annie Get Your Gun and asked her to come to California to audition for her Desilu Workshop company of young actors. (Future Untouchables actor Nicholas Georgiade also got his start there.)

She signed with Desilu and even lived in Ball’s home after her divorce from Desi Arnaz.

On Christmas night in 1959, Cook appeared on CBS’ Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse as one of the young performers getting coached by Desilu co-founder Ball for a musical revue. Three weeks later, she made her onscreen debut on a Robert Altman-directed episode of the Desilu series U.S. Marshal.

In her first film, she flirted with a basketball coach (Jack Weston) in Palm Springs Weekend (1963), starring Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue.

Cook’s résumé also included episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, That Girl, McMillan & Wife, Chico and the Man, Magnum, P.I., Dynasty, Hart to Hart and Grey’s Anatomy — where she sang “Stormy Weather” — and such films as The Gauntlet (1977), American Gigolo (1980), Summer Lovers (1982) and Home on the Range (2004).

She and Troupe married in March 1964, when Ball was their matron of honor and future THR columnist and TCM host Robert Osborne (another Desilu player) their best man. They acted together in such plays as The Lion in Winter and Father’s Day and raised money for those living with HIV/AIDS.

In addition to her husband, survivors include her stepson, Christopher, and his wife, Becky; sister Regina; and nieces and nephews.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund).

In 2018, Cook sang and shared memories in a one-woman show at the intimate Feinstein’s/54 Below club in New York. “At my age, playing [here] is not a career move,” she said. “I have jewelry bigger than this room.”

COOK, Carole (Mildred Frances Cook)

Born: 1/14/1924, Abilene, Texas, U.S.A.

Died: 1/11/2023, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

 

Carole Cook’s westerns – actress, voice actress:

U.S. Marshal (TV) – 1960 (Mrs. Parker)

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1966 (Annie Boyd)

Home on the Range – 2004 [voice of Pearl Gesner]

RIP Ben Masters

 

Ben Masters, the Billionaire Julian Crane on ‘Passions,’ Dies at 75

 

He also appeared alongside Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep and Anne Jackson on Broadway and with Roy Scheider in 'All That Jazz.'

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

January 11, 2023

 

Ben Masters, who appeared three times on Broadway in the 1970s before starring as the philandering billionaire Julian Crane during the entire run of the NBC/DirecTV soap opera Passions, has died. He was 75.

Masters battled dementia for several years and died Wednesday of COVID-19 complications at Eisenhower Health Center in Rancho Mirage, California, a family spokesperson announced.

On the big screen, Masters appeared in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979) with Roy Scheider, in Key Exchange (1985) with Brooke Adams and Danny Aiello, in Dream Lover (1986) with Kristy McNichol and in Making Mr. Right (1987) with John Malkovich.

On Passions, which ran from 1999-2008, Masters’ Julian had an affair and a son with Tracey Ross’ Eve and a long, tumultuous marriage with Kim Johnston Ulrich’s Ivy. He also was presumed murdered in 2002, but it turned out he wasn’t, and he was back on the show months later.

Soap Opera Digest nominated him for its best supporting actor prize in 2001, ’03 and ’05.

Born on May 6, 1947, in Corvallis, Oregon, Masters graduated from Corvallis High School in 1965 and from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in theater in 1969.

He moved to New York City and appeared on Broadway in 1972 with Ingrid Bergman in Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, in 1973 with Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach in The Waltz of the Toreadors and in 1977 with Meryl Streep in The Cherry Orchard.

He starred with Adams in a 1981 off-Broadway production of Key Exchange before the movie adaptation, then portrayed Vic Strang on the NBC soap Another World in ’82.

Later, he worked with Ned Beatty and Tess Harper on the 1984 miniseries Celebrity and with Pierce Brosnan on the 1988 miniseries Noble House, both for NBC.

Masters also showed up on episodes of Kojak, Petrocelli, Touched by an Angel, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Barnaby Jones, Murder, She Wrote, Walker, Texas Ranger, Diagnosis Murder, Sisters and Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Survivors include his sister, Cheryl, and nieces Hannah and Clea. At his request, there will be no memorial service or funeral.

MASTERS, Ben (Benjamin Masters)

Born: 5/6/1947, Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A.

Died: 1/11/2022, Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.A.

 

Ben Masters’ western – actor:

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1994 (Senator Julian Knox)

RIP Dennis Budimir

 

Dennis Budimir Death: Obituary, Cause of Death, Funeral

 

We Publish News

By Amelia Warner

January 11/2023

 

Rock and jazz guitarist Dennis Budimir, a legend in his field, has passed away. He died at 84, and his passing was announced on January 11, 2023, a Wednesday.

His death’s contributing factor is kept private. Everyone, including his friends and family, fans, and others missed and remembered him posted condolences ad homage to him on social media. The authorities may reveal more information on funeral services in the future.

On June 30, 1938, Dennis Matthew Budimir was born. He’s regarded as a part of The Wrecking Crew. Budimir studied the piano and guitar in his teens, and at the age of fourteen, made his professional debut. He performed in a quartet in Los Angeles in the middle of the 1950s alongside La Monte Young, Billy Higgins and Don Cheery.

He played in Ken Hanna, Keith Williams, Harry James, and Chico Hamliton bands in the late 1950s. He assisted Peggy Lee and worked with Bud Shank between 1960 and 1961 before enlisting in the military the following year.

Following his release from the military in 1963, he traveled to Japan with Bobby Troup before returning to the Los Angeles region, where he worked as a studio musician for many years. In this capacity, he collaborated on recordings with a variety of artists, including Dusty Springfield, Joni Mitchell, The Carpenters, Brian Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Ravi Shankar, Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt, Julie London, Dave Gruisin, Quincy Jones, David Axelrod, Lalo Schifrin, Marty Paich, Don Ellis and many more.

He performed in jazz styles along with Jimmy Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Jackson, Stan Getz, Ray Brown and Johnny Mandel in the 1970s. In the 1990s, he made records with the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut. He has contributed as a session musician to more than 900 film soundtracks between the 1960s and the 2000s.

BUDIMIR, Dennis (Dennis Matthew Budimir)

Born: 6/20/1938, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Died: 1/10/2023, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Dennis Budimir’s westerns – musician:

Buck and the Preacher – 1972 [guitar]

Lonesome Dove – 1989 [guitar]

Old Gringo - 1989 [guitar]

Red Dead Redemption 2 - 2018 [guitar]