RIP Dabney Coleman

 

Dabney Coleman, ‘9 to 5’ Star Who Made a Career Out of Playing Jerks, Dies at 92

The Texas native got laughs for his boorish behavior in 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,' 'Tootsie,' 'Buffalo Bill' and much more.

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

May 17, 2024

 

Dabney Coleman, the popular comic actor from 9 to 5, Tootsie and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman whose many redeeming qualities including a knack for portraying characters who had none, has died. He was 92.

Coleman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, his daughter, singer Quincy Coleman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” she said. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.

“A teacher, a hero and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy … eternally.”

The Emmy-winning actor also portrayed an irascible talk show host in upstate New York on NBC’s Buffalo Bill, but that critical favorite lasted just 26 episodes.

He had at least three other cracks at headlining his own sitcom, but ABC’s The Slap Maxwell Story, Fox’s Drexell’s Class and NBC’s Madman of the People never made it through their first seasons before being canceled.

More recently, the good-natured Coleman brought along his signature mustache to play Burton Fallin, the owner of a law firm and father of Simon Baker’s character, on the CBS drama The Guardian; was Atlantic City power broker Commodore Louis Kaestner on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire; and played John Dutton Sr. (the father of Kevin Costner’s character) on Yellowstone.

Audiences got an early taste of the Texan’s cantankerous charms in 1976 when Coleman appeared as the feisty Fernwood, Ohio, mayor Merle Jeeter on Norman Lear‘s late-night soap-opera satire, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

In a 2012 interview with The A.V. Club, Coleman called that gig, which was supposed to last just six episodes, “the turning point in my career” and “probably the best thing I ever did.”

Jeeter “was just wonderful, just a once-in-a-lifetime character,” he said. “He was just the worst human being. … That’s kind of where it all started, as far as people’s belief that I could do comedy, particularly that negative, caustic, cynical kind of guy. I was pretty good at doing that.”

Coleman proved it again as the chauvinistic, backstabbing boss Franklin Hart Jr. in the workplace comedy 9 to 5, the 1980 cinematic paragon of women’s lib that starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and, in her movie debut, Dolly Parton. (For being such a rotten guy, Hart winds up getting hogtied by his secretary, Parton’s Doralee Rhodes.)

“All of ’em were well-established,” he said of his co-stars, “and here’s this guy coming off of Mary Hartman, which is not too shabby. (Laughs.) But it was late-night TV. Anyway, what I’m alluding to is that all three of them went out of their way to make me feel equal. There’s no other way to put it.”

In Tootsie (1982), directed by his longtime friend and mentor Sydney Pollack, Coleman played the sexist TV director who’s dating an actress (Jessica Lange) on his soap opera, Southwest General.

Years earlier, Pollack had been his teacher at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and Coleman’s first three movies were Pollack’s first as a director as well.

Coleman also played the aptly named televangelist Marvin Fleece in the satire Pray TV (1980), the systems engineer overseeing the military mainframe WOPR in John Badham’s WarGames (1983) and the miserly banker Milburn Drysdale in the 1993 movie version of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Asked by Vulture in 2010 if he was proud to have helped make television “safe for jerky lead characters,” he replied: “It’s fun playing those roles. You get to do outlandish things, things that you want to do, probably, in real life, but you just don’t because you’re a civilized human being. There are no-holds-barred when you’re playing [jerks] — I couldn’t imagine anyone not loving playing those parts.”

Dabney Wharton Coleman was born on Jan. 3, 1932, in Austin, the youngest of four children. After his father died of pneumonia when he was 4, his mother raised the family in Corpus Christi, and Coleman became a nationally ranked junior tennis player.

He attended the Virginia Military Institute (many in his family did) for two years, served in the U.S. Army’s Special Services Division for two more and then, back in Austin, studied law at the University of Texas.

Mildred Pierce actor Zachary Scott, a family friend of Coleman’s first wife, Ann Harrell, convinced him that he could be an actor, so he left college a semester short of graduation and headed for Manhattan and Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse at age 26.

Coleman’s first onscreen speaking appearance came on a 1961 episode of Naked City — he earned $90 for that — and he and his second wife, actress Jean Hale (the Mad Hatter’s fetching moll on Batman), moved to Los Angeles in 1962

Coleman appeared on such shows as Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Outer Limits, Hazel, I Dream of Jeannie and The Fugitive before recurring as Marlo Thomas’ neighbor, the obstetrician Leon Bessemer, on the first season (1966-67) of That Girl.

He auditioned for Gilligan’s Island but lost the role of the Professor to Russell Johnson.

In 1963, Coleman had appeared on an episode of the ABC hospital drama Breaking Point that Pollack helmed, and the two would reunite for the movies The Slender Thread (1965), This Property Is Condemned (1966) — though his scenes were cut — and The Scalphunters (1968).

“The idea at that time, when I got out of school, was that I said, ‘I want to be in every movie you make,’ ” Coleman recalled. “He said, ‘OK,’ and we got off to a pretty good start.”

In Cinderella Liberty (1973), he worked with another former Neighborhood Playhouse cohort, James Caan, playing his commanding officer.

Around that time, the blue-eyed Coleman decided to grow a mustache, which he said turned around his career. “Without the mustache, I looked too much like Richard Nixon,” he told Vulture. “There’s no question that when I grew that, all of a sudden, everything changed.”

Producers told him that they would give him the part of Jeeter if he shaved the ‘stache, but he refused — and they hired him anyway. He played the mayor on 148 episodes of Mary Hartman as well as on the spinoffs Fernwood Tonight and Forever Fernwood.

On the Disney animated series Recess and its spinoffs, Coleman provided the grating voice of Principal Peter Prickly.

Working alongside Fonda on 9 to 5 led him to one of his rare non-boorish roles — as her dentist boyfriend in On Golden Pond (1981).

As a leading man, Coleman was hilarious in Short Time (1990), in which he played a police officer diagnosed with a terminal disease who learns his daughter can only collect his pension if he’s killed in the line of duty. His madcap determination to get himself offed, combined with his dismay at invariably winning commendations for “valor,” was memorable. 

Coleman also portrayed an over-the-top oddball in How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980), a lisping pornographer in Dragnet (1987) and a slimy drag queen in Meet the Applegates (1990).

His voluminous credits include the films The Trouble With Girls (1969), Downhill Racer (1969), The Towering Inferno (1974), North Dallas Forty (1979), Melvin & Howard (1980), Modern Problems (1981), Young Doctors in Love (1982), Cloak & Dagger (1984), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), The Man With One Red Shoe (1985), There Goes the Neighborhood (1992), Amos & Andrew (1993), Clifford (1994), Devil’s Food (1996), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Inspector Gadget (1999), Stuart Little (1999), Moonlight Mile (2002), Domino (2005) and Rules Don’t Apply (2016).

Coleman won a supporting actor Emmy in 1987 for his work on the ABC telefilm Sworn to Silence and was nominated twice for playing Buffalo Bill Bittinger and once for his turn as old-school sportswriter Slap Maxwell.

When he wasn’t working, Coleman invariably could be found at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, where a hefty New York steak is named for him. “I presume it’s to do with the fact that I ordered the damned thing five times a week for about 15 years,” he said in his A.V. Club chat.

In addition to Quincy, survivors include his other children, Randy, Kelly and Meghan, and his grandchildren, Hale, Gabe, Luie, Kai and Coleman.

COLEMAN, Dabney (Dabney Wharton Coleman)

Born: 1/3/1932, Austin, Texas, U.S.A.

Died: 5/16/2024, Santa Monica, California U.S.A.

 

Dabney Coleman’s westerns – actor:

Dundee and the Culhane (TV) – 1967 (Sheriff Wrenn)

The Iron Horse (TV) – 1967 (Lee Archer)

The Scalphunters – 1968 (Jed)

Bonanza (TV) 1968, 1969 (Clyde, Ivar Peterson)

Death Valley Days (TV) – 1968 (Calvin H. Higby)

Bite the Bullet – 1975 (Jack Parker)

Yellowstone (TV) – 2019 (John Dutton Sr.)

 

RIP Don Perlin

 

Moon Knight Co-Creator Don Perlin Dies at 94

The Marvel and Valiant comic creator passed away on Tuesday, May 14^th

Comicbook

By Jenna Anderson

May 15, 2024

 

Don Perlin, a prolific comic book creator whose work includes co-creating Marvel's Moon Knight, has passed away at the age of 94. The news was broken via a Facebook post from Perlin's daughter, Elaine, who revealed that he passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 14th. Perlin had a decades-long career in the industry as an artist, writer, and editor, including multiple decades of working with Marvel.

"I am devastated to report the death of an amazing man," Elaine's post reads. "My father Don Perlin passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 94. He ws an amazing father husband grandfather and great grandfather. We will all miss him terribly. He was an amazing artist and considered a legend in the comic world. To me he was my best friend. I will miss him so much."

Born on August 27, 1929 in New York City, Perlin started in the comic industry with a Fox Features story in the late 1940s. Going into the 1950s, he found a groove penciling horror comics for publishers like Atlas (which would become Marvel Comics), and Harvey Comics, as well as war comics for Charlton. He later worked almost exclusively on art for Charlton for eleven years, a tenure that began in 1962. Perlin's time at Marvel began in the early 1970s, eventually leading to him getting a full-time position drawing for the company.

"I was going for a job interview with another company to do paste-ups and mechanicals," Perlin explained in an interview with NerdTeam30. "This was before computers. I was going in on Monday morning and Sunday morning I got a call from Roy Thomas. I'd been doing some comic book work in the evenings when I got home from working at the different day jobs that I had. Roy had seen some of the horror stories that I had done for DC. He told me about two books that they were looking for artists for and asked if would I be interested? One of them was Werewolf by Night and the other was Morbius, the Living Vampire. When I went to Marvel and spoke to them I was told that Werewolf was a monthly and Morbius was a bi-monthly so I took the monthly book deciding that would be a great job....So, from then on, I worked for Marvel and didn't miss a day. I went from the Werewolf to Ghost Rider and Defenders and Transformers. I worked on most of the characters that Marvel had while I was there. Then I went to Valiant."

This role included illustrating Werewolf by Night from 1974 through 1974, including Werewolf by Night #32, which serves as the first appearance of Moon Knight. His work with Marvel subsequently spanned Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, The Defenders, Transformers, and the Beauty and the Beast miniseries.

By 1991, Perlin left Marvel to join Valiant Comics, where he co-created the character Bloodshot. Other titles he worked on at the company, both as an artist and an editor, included Solar, Man of the Atom, Shadowman, and Magnus Robot Fighter.

PERLIN, Don (Donald David Perlin)

Born: 8/27/1929, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 5/14/2024, Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.

 

Don Perlin’s westerns – comic book artist:

Dead Eye – 1951

Arizona Ranger - 2016

RIP Elda Peralta

 

Actress and writer Elda Peralta dies at 91

The screenwriter and editor was part of the Golden Cinema and stopped acting due to harassment

infobae

By Mariana L. Martinez

May 15, 2024

 

Elda Peralta died at the age of 91, according to what the National Association of Actors (ANDA) reported today May 15.

The native of Hermosillo, Sonora, studied English, French, Greek and Spanish Literature at the University of London and the University of Paris.

Although she had a leading career as an actress, Elda Peralta abandoned the occupation because a cinematographer tried to abuse her, according to what she revealed to El Universal.

I wanted to go through the caudyal gallows. I refused because I had enough rebellion not to let me crawl, at the time Elda Peralta never wanted to reveal the name of the filmmaker, it is only known that the experience left her trauma and retired from acting to become a professor at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature between 1971 and 1972.

This was the message that could be read on the official social networks of the ANDA:

The National Association of Actors deeply regrets the death of our partner Elda Peralta Ayala, film actress, screenwriter, writer and editor. She was chair of the STPC Monitoring Committee. Our condolences to your family, friends and colleagues. Get some in Peace.

Peralta has been a relevant figure in the Mexican publishing world, collaborating in the Revista Dinets de México, on the cultural supplement of Cerraldo de Me, in Revista Vera, and in Revista Phoral, where he led the Theater Section between 1980 and 1986. In addition, he directed Luis Spota's television shows, such as "Every night the unexpected," Series run, the 25th hour, Open Dialogue, Travel, everything and nothing.

In the literary sphere, Elda Peralta is the author of several outstanding works: The Golden Age without Nostalgia, Luis Spota in Mexican cinema. (Grijalbo, 1989), The substances of the earth. The intimate Biography of Luis Spota (Grijalbo, 1990), Night Sea without foam (Morgana Editoras, 1998) and Remedies to Forget (Morgana Editoras, 2000). Since 1997, she has served as editor of Morgana Editoras.

Her career career also includes a stage as a film actress. Between 1949 and 1965, Peralta participated in nearly 33 Mexican film films, including titles such as Hipócrita (Dir. Miguel Morayta, 1949), The Black Anguish (Dir. Matilde Landeta, 1949), I need money (Dir. Miguel Zacarías, 1951), Women's Prison (Dir. Miguel M. Delgado, 1951), Remember living (1952), Chucho el roto (Dir. Miguel M. Delgado, 1954), The Black Eagle vs. the devil of the meadow (Dir. Ramón Pawn, 1956), Marathon dance (Dir. René Cardona, 1957), When Villa lives it is death (Dir. Ismael Rodriguez, 1958) and Cuernavaca in spring (Dir. Julio Bracho, 1965).

PERALTA, Elda (Elda María Peralta Ayala)

Born: 7/28/1932, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

Died: 5/15/2024, Mexico

 

Elda Peralta’s westerns – actress:

El charro del Cristo – 1949 (Julia)

El gavilán vengador – 1955 (Carmela)

Música, espuelas y amor – 1955 (Alicia)

El rayo justiciero – 1955 (Coralina del Mar)

La Pantera Negra – 1957 (Rosita Morales ‘La Pantera Negra’)

El águila negra vs. los diablos de la pradera – 1958 (Sofia)

La rebelión de la sierra – 1958 (Ana Maria)

RIP Alice Munro

 

Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

NPR

By Andrew Limbong

May 14, 2024

 

The writer Alice Munro has died, at the age of 92. The news was confirmed by her publisher, Penguin Random House Canada.

Munro was a craftsman, known for her intricately paced short stories that could devastate a reader. Her characters often lived in rural Ontario, like Munro herself. In an interview after winning the Nobel Prize, she said that living in a small town gave her the freedom to write. "I don't think I could have been so brave if I had been living in a town, competing with people on what can be called a generally higher cultural level," she said. "I was the only person I knew who wrote stories, though I didn't tell them to anybody, and as far as I knew, at least for a while, I was the only person who could do this in the world."

Munro was born in 1931, outside of Wingham Ontario. After college, she moved to Victoria, British Columbia, and opened a bookstore, known as Munro's Books, with her then-husband James, known as Munro's Books. Her first story collection, Dance of the Happy Shades won Canada's prestigious Governor's General's Award. That kicked off a career that would span more than a dozen story collections, as well as the novel Lives of Girls and Women.

Throughout her long career, she was extremely consistent. She hardly ever failed to wow readers and critics with her quietly powerful language. In reviewing her last collection, 2012's Dear Life, NPR critic Alan Cheuse wrote "Munro focuses on every aspect of our ordinary existence and makes it seem as extraordinary as it actually is."

She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the year after Dear Life was published, but she was "too frail" to attend the ceremonies. So instead of the usual lecture, she opted for an interview where she was asked "Do you want young women to be inspired by your books and feel inspired to write?" To which she replied, "I don't care what they feel as long as they enjoy reading the book."

"I want people to find not so much inspiration as great enjoyment. That's what I want; I want people to enjoy my books, to think of them as related to their own lives in ways."

MUNRO, Alice (Alice Ann Laidlaw)

Born: 7/10/1931, Wingham, Ontario, Canada

Died: 5/13/2024, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada

 

Alice Munro’s westerns – author:

A Wilderness Station - 1992

Open Secrets - 1994

RIP Luis María Serra

 

Luis María Serra, composer of the curtain of Almorzando con Mirtha Legrand and the soundtrack of emblematic Argentine films, has died

The news was confirmed to LA NACIÓN by his son; He was chosen by directors such as Daniel Tinayre, Leonardo Favio, Enrique Carreras, María Luisa Bemberg and Alejandro Doria, among others, and won numerous awards throughout his career

La Nacion

May 13, 2024

 

Luis María Serra, known for composing the original music for films such as La Mary, Camila, Yo, la peor de todas and Juan Moreira, among others, has died at the age of 82. The sad news was confirmed to LA NACIÓN by Santiago Serra, son of the man who was also the author of "Empress," the popular curtain of the television series Almorzando con Mirtha Legrand.

"After making the music for the film La Mary, Daniel Tinayre, its director, who had been very happy with that work, asked me to compose the new musical curtain for Mirtha Legrand's program," the composer had told journalist Pablo Mascareño a few years ago. "As I had fallen in love with the music of the trumpeter Jean-Claude Borelly, I composed something that had a great prominence of that instrument and to record I called the best trumpeter of the Teatro Colón," he recalled in that interview, in addition to underlining the specific request he had received from the director: "Make me something imperial, like for a queen."

The song became a true hallmark of the long-running program, and the diva was very grateful to Serra for the work done. In fact, sometime later he summoned him to compose another song for his program, and thus "Brillando Mirtha" was born, the one that begins by stating that "Mirtha has already arrived, she is again, shining brightly she arrived, the Legrand".

However, Serra's work goes far beyond what he did with the curtains of "La Chiqui": in addition to setting La Mary to music, he is the author of the soundtracks of Juan Moreira, Leonardo Favio; Camila, Miss Mary and I, the Worst of All, by María Luisa Bemberg; and The Ship of Fools, by Ricardo Wullicher, to name just a few titles. In theater, meanwhile, he collaborated with Pepito Cibrián in the musical Aquí no podemos hacer. As confirmed by Sadaic, the author had joined the entity in 1973 and, in total, had 260 works registered.

"My grandmother played the piano very well and was a friend of Montbrun Ocampo, a great folklorist, hence the influence of music that led me to study, when I was almost a child, with different teachers and, more formally, in a conservatory in Pueyrredón and Córdoba," he explained. Serra also detailed what his work with the directors was like: "The first step is to read the book, but the talks with the directors are fundamental, since they have the plot in images. (...) If [inspiration] doesn't show up, I provoke it. You have to work hard."

These compositions led him to obtain prizes from ACE, Sadaic, Florencio Sánchez, Argentores, Municipal, Trinidad Guevara and Estrella de Mar, among many others, which Serra treasured in his apartment in Barrio Norte, along with hundreds of scores. His work also earned him the respect of many of his peers, who remembered him with special admiration and affection on social media.

"It is far from me to make a cybernetic obituary, but many people close to me, known and loved are starting from this earthly plane and beyond believing that recognitions should be made in life, remembering the people you have known, respected and admired, when they leave, is a form of gratitude that we have today through the internet. Luis María Serra, a great composer, musician and person I met when he composed, together with Pocho Leyes, the soundtrack of Leonardo Favio's film, Juan Moreira, has passed away," singer Orlando Netti wrote on his Twitter account. "He had an enormous talent and has shown it throughout his extensive career as the creator of different cinematographic works, different television programs and various orchestras that he has conducted. His bonhomie and serenity also identified him as notorious characteristics of his way of being. My sincere admiration and heartfelt evocation of his figure."

"It is with great sorrow that we say goodbye to Luis María Serra, a great musician and wonderful person. Farewell, Luis!", the Secretary of Culture of the Nation Leonardo Cifelli posted on the same social network.

Serra had been battling cancer and complications from Alzheimer's for some time. His remains will be laid to rest this Tuesday, from 2:30 p.m., in the Garden of Peace in Pilar.

SERRA, Luis María

Born: 3/2/1942, Lanús, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Died: 5/13/2024, Barrio Norte, Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

Luis María Serra’s westerns – composer:

Juan Moreira – 1973

Los irrampibles - 1975

RIP Arianne Borbach

 

German voice actress, actress and narrator of radio plays and audio books has died at 61.

Wikipedia

 

Born on May 30, 1962, in Bernau near Berlin. After training as an electrical mechanic, Arianne Borbach studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Already during her studies, she appeared as an actress on various stages, but especially in East Berlin. There she was engaged as a permanent ensemble member at the Theater der Freundschaft until 1992.

Apart from her work in the theatre, Borbach worked as an actress in film and television productions of the DEFA and GDR television from 1983 onwards. In 1987 she starred in Liane, where she played the title character and was honored as best actress at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR. In an interview, Borbach described this as a highlight in her career. [1] After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she was often seen in supporting roles in television series such as Wolffs Revier, SOKO 5113, Hallo, Onkel Doc! and Unser Charly. She was also supposed to be introduced as Tatort inspector Carla Wall in Die Brüt der schönen Seele (1992), but the film was later broadcast outside the series. She has appeared as an actress in front of the camera in more than 50 film and television productions.

As a voice actress, she lent her voice to Uma Thurman, Cate Blanchett and Catherine Zeta-Jones, among others, in their films. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, she dubbed Cate Blanchett lying in a bed; Blanchett's character is mostly bedridden in the film. [2] In the film Flight Girls, she dubbed Nadia Dajani.

Arianne Borbach died in German on April 29, 2024, at the age of 61.

BORBACH, Arianne

Born: 5/30/1962, Bernau, Berlin, Germany

Died: 4/29/2024, Germany

 

Arianne Borbach’s westerns – voice actress:

Daniel Boone (TV) – 1964-1970 [German voice of Joanna Cameron (1989-1991)]

Forsaken – 2015 [German voice of Demi Moore]

Westworld (TV) – 2016-2022 [German voice of Wendie Malick]

Wynona Earp (TV) – 2016-2022 [German voice of Natascha Girgis]

RIP Alex Hassilev

 

Alex Hassilev, the Last of the Original Limeliters, Dies at 91

DNYUZ

May 12, 2024

 

Alex Hassilev, a multilingual, multitalented troubadour and the last original member of the Limeliters, one of the biggest acts of the folk revival of the early 1960s, died on April 21 in Burbank, Calif. He was 91.

His wife, Gladys Hassilev, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was cancer.

Before Beatlemania gripped America’s youth in 1964, the country fell in love with the tight harmonies and traditional arrangements of folk music — and few acts drew more adoration than the Limeliters, a trio made up of Mr. Hassilev, Glenn Yarbrough and Lou Gottlieb.

Mr. Hassilev played banjo and guitar and sang baritone, not only in English but in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, all of which he spoke fluently. His bandmates were equally brainy: Mr. Gottlieb had a doctorate in musicology and Mr. Yarbrough once worked as a bouncer to pay for Greek lessons.

Urbane and witty, they packed coffeehouses and college auditoriums with a repertoire that mixed straight-faced folk standards like “The Hammer Song” and cheeky tunes like “Have Some Madeira, M’Dear,” “The Ballad of Sigmund Freud” and “Charlie the Midnight Marauder.”

At their height, between 1960 and 1962, the Limeliters were playing 300 dates a year and recording an album every few months, two of which — “Tonight in Person” (1960) and “The Slightly Fabulous Limeliters” (1961) — reached the Billboard Top 10.

“The Limeliters have a certain musical and verbal finesse which places them above and beyond their many contemporaries,” The Los Angeles Times wrote in 1961.

Alexander Hassilev was born on June 11, 1932, in Paris, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Leonide and Tamara (Rudd) Hassilev. With the threat of war with Germany mounting, the family emigrated to New York in 1939, where Mr. Hassilev worked as a civil engineer.

Alex proved a diligent, brilliant student, breezing through high school and entering Harvard after serving in the Army. But he reacted against what he saw as the university’s Yankee elitism and, after a year, transferred to the University of Chicago. Even there he felt constrained by academic life; eager to try his hand at acting, he returned to New York.

He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse, learned the guitar and fell in with the emerging folk scene around Greenwich Village. He had a small but memorable role as a guitarist in Roger Corman’s 1959 horror-comedy “A Bucket of Blood.”

Around the same time he met Mr. Yarborough, who was visiting from Aspen, Colo., at a party. Mr. Yarborough had a regular gig playing at a cafe there called the Limelite. Mr. Hassilev, an avid skier, soon joined him.

With the Limelite as their home base, the pair was soon appearing at venues along the West Coast. While playing at a coffeehouse in Los Angeles, they caught the eye of Mr. Gottlieb, who had recently finished his dissertation on 15th-century liturgical music and was arranging pieces for the Kingston Trio, another popular folk group.

The three men began jamming together, and in 1959 they took their act on the road. They booked several nights at the hungry i, a popular venue in San Francisco; when the owner balked at putting all three of their names on the marquee, they decided to call themselves the Limeliters.

The trio’s success was swift. They signed with Elektra Records and released their first album in 1960. In between touring and appearing on television, they recorded a string of commercial jingles, including “Things Go Better With Coke.”

But their tight harmonies were not matched offstage, where their constant squabbling earned them the nickname the Bicker Brothers. After a plane crash in Utah in 1962 left them shaken (but mostly unharmed), Mr. Yarbrough left. The trio formally broke up in 1965.

Mr. Hassilev recorded a solo album and rekindled his interest in acting. He had a few successes, including a guest spot on the TV comedy “Get Smart” and a role in the 1966 comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!” playing one of the titular Russians alongside two other folk musicians who were transitioning to acting: Theodore Bikel and Alan Arkin.

But he had a hard time breaking away from his fame as a folk singer. He set up a studio in the basement of his West Hollywood home, and for several years worked as a record producer.

His first marriage, to Ginger Stanjer, ended in divorce. He married Gladys Rios in 1976. Along with her, he is survived by his son, David, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Mr. Hassilev reconvened the Limeliters several times in the late 1960s and ’70s and then permanently in 1981, with Mr. Yarbrough dropping in and out of the lineup. After Mr. Gottlieb died in 1996, Mr. Hassilev brought in new performers, many of them veterans of the 1960s folk scene. Mr. Yarbrough died in 2016.

Mr. Hassilev retired from the Limeliters in 2006, though he continued to play with them occasionally, and the band remains active today. Though they never returned to their 1960s popularity, they continue to play to large and enthusiastic audiences.

“In order to remain popular, you have to outlive your competition,” Mr. Hassilev told The Charleston Daily Mail of West Virginia in 2005. “It makes me feel good to be in this field. It makes me feel clean.”

The post Alex Hassilev, the Last of the Original Limeliters, Dies at 91 appeared first on New York Times.

HASSILEV, Alex (Alexandre Hassilev)

Born: 7/11/1932, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Died: 4/24/2024, Burbank, California, U.S.A.

 

Alex Hassilev’s western – singer:

McLintock! 1963 [sings “Love in the Country” as a member of ‘The Limelighters’]