RIP Jacques d’Amboise

 Dance Legend Jacque d'Amboise Passes Away at 86

 

Broadway World

May 3, 2021

D'Amboise was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and appeared in such films as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Carousel.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that dance legend Jacque d'Amboise, father of Tony nominee Charlotte d'Amboise, has passed away, according to ABT's Robert La Fosse. He was 86 years old.

D'Amboise was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, where ballets were created especially for him by choreographer George Balanchine. D'Amboise also choreographed for the New York City Ballet.

As well as ballets, d'Amboise danced in films, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, where he played the part of Ephraim, one of the brothers-and Carousel (1956), where he danced the ballet role of the Starlight Carnival barker, in which he partnered Susan Luckey in Louise's Ballet and the Disney movie Off Beat (1986), built around a dance class he taught to New York City police.

D'Amboise founded National Dance Institute in 1976, which has been teaching school children how to dance for the past 40 years. The NDI program often combines music and art with studies of other cultures, histories, and literature, offering a unique and comprehensive performing arts experience, while fostering curiosity and a sense of achievement. The documentary film about Jacques d'Amboise and National Dance Institute, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1983 and an Emmy Award in 1984 for Best Children's Programming.

D'Amboise has received many honors and awards, including a 1990 MacArthur Fellowship, a 1995 Kennedy Center Honors Award, a 1998 National Medal of the Arts, a New York Governor's Award and an honorary doctorate degree from Boston College and several others. The last honorary doctorate he received was Montclair State University in May 2012. He has also received many other awards and honors for his contribution to the arts and dance education, such as the 7th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities.

 

d'AMBOISE, Jaques (Joseph Jacques Ahearn)

Born: 7/28/1934, Dedham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Died: 5/3/2021, U.S.A. Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.

 

Jacques d’Amboise’s western actor:

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – 1954 (Ephraim Pontipee)

RIP Cliff Green

 

Farewell to 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' screenwriter Cliff Green

Independent Australia

By Cherie Moselen

December 12, 2020

The Australian film and television industry has lost one of its greatest talents, Picnic at Hanging Rock screenwriter Cliff Green (6 December 1934 — 4 December 2020). Newspaperman and mentor to Independent Australia's Cherie Moselen and Michelle Pini, he will be sadly missed.

It wasn't surprising, that looking for photos of acclaimed screenwriter Cliff Green yielded few results — the modest frontman was happiest behind the scenes.

Green originally trained as a compositor in the printing industry, then worked as a primary teacher before pursuing his love of writing.

In the late 1960s, he was hired as a staff writer at Crawford Productions and began contributing episodes to police dramas Homicide and Matlock Police.

Green described his three years with Hector Crawford as “the best way to learn the trade” and respectfully referred to the influential radio and TV producer as the “father of Australian television drama”.

During this time, he founded award-winning Melbourne community newspaper Warrandyte Diary, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

Politically minded, Green managed the paper alongside his scriptwriting work. After going freelance at the end of 1971, he wrote for such distinguished TV series as Rush, Power Withour Glory and I Can Jump Puddles.

In 1975, he agreed to help out overcommitted playwright David Williamson who had been signed to write the screenplay of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Green's haunting adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel went on to make cinematic history, anchoring the drama in the harbour of popularity as one of Australia’s most loved movies of all time.

The landmark Australian film earned Green an Australian Writer's Guild Award for Best Screenplay and a Best Writer nomination, U.S. Science Fiction Film Awards, bringing him international recognition.

In the film and television world where only one in ten projects ever get made, Green’s screenwriting star blazed. His credits also include TV drama series Against the Wind, A Country Practive, The Flying Doctors, and Blue Heelers among others.

The prolific writer also created two well-known TV mini-series: Marion and The Petroy Affair. And adapted for television the work of Australian authors such as Henry Lawson, Alan Marshall, Frank Hardy and Norman Lindsay.

Later work included the original screenplay for the prize-winning children’s TV film More Winners: Boy Soldiers and award-winning episodes of the highly successful ABC-TV series Phoenix and Janus. In 1995, Green created the critically acclaimed series Mercury.

Other works include stage play Cop Out!, three children’s books in his Riverboat Bill series, a novel Break Of Day and a collection of short stories.

Green won a total of 17 industry awards including eight Australian Writers Guild AWGIE awards.  

More Winners: Boy Soldiers won the Liv Ullman Peace Prize at the 1990 Chicago International Festival of Children’s Films and was a finalist in the International Emmy Awards in 1991 (the first Australian drama to receive an Emmy nomination). 

Green's Janus episode ‘Fit To Plead’ won a 1995 Australian Human Rights Award. Other credits include a "Best Writer" nomination at the 1978 Hollywood Science Fiction Film Awards and two AFI nominations.

All the while, at Warrandyte Diary, Green nurtured journalists and writers including clinton Grybas, Sam Davies, Michelle Pini and this writer, among others.

Green accepted an OAM in 2009 for 'service to the Australian film and television industry as a screenwriter and educator'. 

A gifted storyteller, Cliff Green taught this writer – and others – the economy of "not using seven words when three will do".

Vale Cliff Green.

 

GREEN, Cliff (Clifford James Green)

Born: 12/6/1934, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Died: 12/4/2020, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Cliff Green’s western – writer:

Rush - 1974

RIP Nathan Jung

 

Nathan Jung, Actor Who Appeared in ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The A-Team,’ Dies at 74

Variety

By Haley Bosselman

May 1, 2021

 Nathan Jung, the actor who appeared in “Star Trek: The Original Series,” “The A-Team” and “Kung Fu,” has died. He was 74.

Jung died on April 24, his close friend and attorney, Timothy Tau, confirmed to Variety. The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Jung kicked off his acting career in 1969 with his role as Ghengis Khan in “The Savage Curtain” episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series.” From there, taking advantage of his tall stature, his television resume exploded with roles on the biggest shows from the 1970s and ’80s. Jung appeared on “M*A*S*H*,” “Starsky & Hutch,” “CHiPs,” “General Hospital,” “Manimal,” “Riptide” and “Hunter.” He also held roles in “Sanford and Son,” in which he played Helen Funai’s cousin, Saburyo, and “Kung Fu,” in which he plaed the Dark Rider. In the ’90s, he had stints on “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “Martial Law” and “Burke’s Law.”

Jung was among the few actors to work alongside both Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon Lee. Opposite Bruce, Jung appeared on a 1969 episode of “Here Comes the Brides.” With Brandon, Jung played a gunman in movie “Rapid Fire” (1992) and the Bonsai Club manager in “Showdown in Little Tokyo” (1991), which featured him speaking a line of Japanese dialogue to Brandon and Dolph Lundgren.

Jung’s filmography also includes “Kentucky Fried Movie,” “Big Trouble in Little China, “Black Rain,” “American Yakuza,” “Beverly Hills Ninja,” “Darkman,” “The Shadow” and “Longshot.” He also played Leslie Nielsen’s right-hand man in the 1993 comedy “Surf Ninjas.” Outside of the blockbuster realm, Jung appeared in independent Asian American films such as Justin Lin’s “Finishing the Game” and Juwan Chung’s “Baby.” In his final role in 2016, Jung reflected on a highlight of his career. He served as the narrator for Tau’s “Nathan Jung v Bruce Lee,” a documentary short that recounts his crazy and hilarious meeting with Bruce Lee on “Here Comes the Brides.”

Jung is survived by his nephew, Keith Jung.

JUNG, Nathan

Born: 11/29/1946, Bakersfield, California, U.S.A.

Died: 4/24/2021, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Nathan Jung’s westerns – actor:

Here Come the Brides (TV) – 1969 (tong enforcer)

Kung Fu (TV) – 1974 (Dark Rider)

The Quest (TV) – 1976 (Chinese man)