RIP Sherry Robb

 

Sherry Robb, Literary Agent, Talent Manager and Producer, Dies at 81

She was instrumental in the writing careers of Betty White, Mary Wilson, Ronald D. Moore and Robert Graysmith, whose book led to David Fincher’s ‘Zodiac.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

May 31, 2025

 

Sherry Robb, a literary agent, talent manager and producer whose career spanned more than five decades across publishing, television and film, has died. She was 81.

Robb, who battled congestive heart disease for two decades, died Feb. 14. A memorial service has been set for 1:30 p.m. on June 9 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Robb helped bring to publication Robert Graysmith’s Zodiac, the 1986 true-crime book about unsolved serial murders in San Francisco in the late 1960s that inspired David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007), starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo.

She also played a critical role in launching the screenwriting career of Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), selling his first two scripts to Paramount.

Based on an idea that Robb developed while listening to Betty White talk about how her animals helped her recover from the loss of her husband, Password host Allen Ludden, she came up with Pet Love, a 1983 book that launched the beloved actress’ literary career.

She also was a guiding force behind Mary Wilson’s 1986 book, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, one of the best-selling music autobiographies in history.

The singer and White were just two of the 100 or so first-time authors that Robb guided during her long career.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Whittier College and a master’s of social work from Smith College, Sherry Ann Robb became a therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a teacher at Boston State College, Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts.

She worked for five years in New York City for a major publishing company, then teamed with Bart Andrews, who had written a 1976 book about TV’s I Love Lucy, to form a literary firm, the Andrews & Robb Agency, in 1981.

She split with Andrews in 1989 and to launch her own business, AFH Talent Agency, then founded The Robb Co., a boutique management firm dedicated to representing actors and writers, in 2003.

In 2020, she co-founded the Robb Squad Film Co. alongside director Marc Martinez and produced the 2024 feature The Memory in My Heart, which fulfilled her dream of spotlighting her talent roster through original content.

Inducted into the Personal Managers Hall of Fame in 2019, Robb also served as a judge for UCLA’s Script Competition Showcase and consulted for the film masters program at USC.

ROBB, Sherry

Born: 6/4/1943, Long Beach, California, U.S.A

Died:  2/14/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Sherry Robb’s western – producer:

Dead at Dusk - 2025

RIP Jonathan Joss

 

King Of The Hill' Voice Actor Shot to Death In San Antonio ...During Argument With Neighbor

TMZ

June 2, 2025

 

Actor Jonathan Joss -- best known for his work in the animated series "King of the Hill" has died after being shot by a neighbor in Texas, TMZ has learned.

According to San Antonio PD and eyewitnesses ... Joss got into a heated argument with his neighbor at a house on the city's south side Sunday night -- leading to a bloody confrontation.

Police say the unidentified neighbor whipped out a gun and pumped several bullets into the actor before fleeing in a vehicle. Officers responded to a call of a shooting in progress and received a description of the car.

Cops say the officers captured the suspect a block from the residence, taking him into custody.

Meanwhile, paramedics raced to the scene and provided medical assistance, but they were unable to save the victim, who was pronounced dead.

Detectives are now talking to witnesses to figure out what triggered the violence.

Joss was the voice of John Redcorn in "King of the Hill." He also landed a big part in "Parks and Recreation" as Chief Ken Hotate. And he had small roles in TV shows such as "Tulsa King," "Ray Donovan,"  and films like "True Grit" and "The Magnificent Seven."

Joss was 59.

RIP

JOSS, Jonathan (Jonathan Joss Gonzales)

Born: 12/22/1965, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.

Died: 6/1/2025, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.

 

Jonathan Joss’ westerns – actor:

Almost Heroes – 1986 (Bent Twig)

Seconds – 1994 (medic Del Rio)

The Substitute Wife (TV) – 1994 (Black Deer)

Texas (TV) – 1994 (Comanche)

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1994 (Eddie)

Dead Man’s Walk (TV) – 1996 (Kicking Wolf)

Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1997 (young Raymond Firewalker)

Winnetou Returns (TV) – 1997 (Wash-Ti)

Into the West (TV) – 2005 (Wovoka)

Comanche Moon (TV) – 2008 (Kicking Wolf)

Red Dead Redemption – 2010 [voice]

True Grit – 2010 (condemned Indian)

The Magnificent 7 – 2016 (Denali)

Days Gone – 2019 [voice of Alkai Turner]

The Quick and the Dead – 2020 (Spotted Horse)

The Forever Purge – 2021 (TV Indian)

Harmony (TV) – 2021 (Brings the Mountain)

RIP Renée Victor

 Renée Victor, voice of Abuelita in Coco and Weeds actress, dies at 86

"We will always remember you," the official Pixar Instagram account wrote Sunday.

Entertainment

By Shania Russell

June 1, 2025

 

Renée Victor, the actress who starred as Lupita on Weeds and provided the voice of Abuelita Elena in Pixar's Coco, has died. She was 86.

Victor died at her home in Sherman Oaks on Friday while surrounded by family, a representative for the actress confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. She had been battling lymphoma, a type of cancer that targets the immune system.

Her daughter Margo paid tribute to the star on Sunday, penning a heartfelt Instagram post.

"She was dignity and beauty till the end. I am shattered, but I celebrate the end of her elegant and defiant battle with illness these last couple of years," Margo wrote. "She would never allow anything to keep her down. All my life she's been a force of nature, a world of fun, sharp wit with boundless talents and energy. Throughout her long life, her ability to reach any goal against odds was formidable."

The actress' daughter continued, "She was and will forever remain my hero and inspiration.... I know she is happy where she is now, while still by my side."

Following news of her death, the official Pixar Instagram account paid tribute to the actress as well.

"We are heartbroken to hear of the passing of Renée Victor, the voice Abuelita in Coco and an incredible part of the Pixar family," read the post, which then referenced the film's signature song, adding, "We will always remember you."

Born in San Antonio on July 25, 1938, Victor began her career on the stage, singing and dancing professionally across Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific. In the 60s, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a musician alongside the likes of Xavier Cugat and Perez Prado. Then, in 1963, she and her husband, Ray Victor, joined forces as musicians and spent a decade traveling globally under the banner Ray and Renée, earning the nickname, 'the Latin Sonny & Cher.'

Victor's pivot to television came in the 1970s, when she served as the host of KTLA's Pacesetters. She went on to fill small roles in episodes of Masquerade, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and Matlock, The Tony Danza Show, and ER.

In 2005, she joined the cast of Weeds as Lupita, the housekeeper to Mary-Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin. She was widely praised for her role in the Showtime series and after starring in the first two seasons, continued making guest appearances throughout the show's eight season run. From there, Victor appeared on several shows, including Gentefied, All Rise, Snowpiercer, Dead to Me, Mayans M.C., and A Million Little Things.

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In 2017, Victor provided the voice of the stern and protective Abuelita Elena in Pixar's Coco, a film that garnered two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. The film notably featured an all-Latin cast. When news of an upcoming sequel, Coco 2, arrived in March, Victor voiced her excitement on Instagram.

"It was my great pleasure and experience working with the incredibly talented Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina! We get to do it again,” she wrote. "This is what we’ve all been waiting for! I’m so excited! Coco shared a Mexican tradition that is now celebrated around the world in unity. An amazing amount of work and talent goes into the creation of this unique film."

Victor is survived by her two daughters, Raquel and Margo.

VICTOR, Renee

Born: 7/25/1938, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A

Died: 5/30/3025, Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.A.

 

Renee Victor’s westerns – actress:

A Night in Old Mexico – 2013, (Josefine Nelly)

Walker (TV) - 2022

RIP Valerie Mahaffey

 

R.I.P. Valerie Mahaffey, character actor favorite

Mahaffey appeared on many of the biggest shows of the last 40 years, including Northern Exposure, ER, and Young Sheldon

AV Club.

By William Hughes

May 31, 2025

 

Valerie Mahaffey has died. Although her name may not be instantly recognizable to American TV fans of the last 40 years, her face and voice almost certainly will be: As a prolific character actor with a highly distinctive tone—often appearing as ostensibly sweet characters whose chipper exteriors could hide layers of darkness underneath—Mahaffey appeared in dozens of many of the biggest shows of the last half-century of television. Multi-episode arcs on shows like Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives, and Young Sheldon helped cement her place in pop culture, but honestly, if you watched TV at at any point in recent memory, there’s a good chance you encountered her, often smiling brightly while saying terrifying things. Per Variety, Mahaffey’s death on May 30 was confirmed by her husband, actor Joseph Kell. Mahaffey was 71.

Born in Indonesia to Canadian and American parents, Mahaffey moved around the planet frequently as a child, before ultimately settling in Texas—and then, after college, New York, where she made her Broadway debut in 1975. She transitioned into film and TV in the late ’70s, first on long-running soap The Doctors, and then in increasingly prominent spots on the TV dial, landing guest star roles in Newhart, Quantum Leap, Cheers, Seinfeld, and more. Her profile rose considerably in 1991 when she was cast in a recurring role in Northern Exposure, playing Eve, the eccentric, hypochondriac partner of Adam Arkin’s Adam. The role scored Mahaffey her one Emmy win across her long career, securing the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1992.

The ’90s saw Mahaffey land one of the only TV regular gigs of her entire career, starring opposite David Hyde Pierce in NBC political satire The Powers That Be. (The show, which saw Mahaffey play a pampered upper-class daughter of a corrupt senator, was canceled after two seasons; its creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, would go on to slightly greater success with another TV project a few years down the road. Mahaffey, who threw her whole body into the part, later said she could have played that “marvelous twit” forever.) Mostly, though, Mahaffey simply continued to work, bringing bright energy and just a hint of madness (her mother apparently asked her once “Why do they always make you play crazy people?”) to shows like Wings, ER, The West Wing, and more.

MAHAFFEY, Valerie

Born: 6/16/1955, Sumatra, Indonesia

Died: 5/30/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Valerie Mahaffey’s western – actress:

The Young Riders (TV) – 1989-1992

RIP Loretta Swit

 

Loretta Swit, Emmy-Winning M*A*S*H Actress Known for Playing 'Hot Lips', Dies at 87

The actress was best known for playing Major Margaret J "Hot Lips" Houlihan on 'M*A*S*H' from 1972 to 1983

PEOPLE

By Kelly Martinez and Julia Moore

May 30, 2025

 

Loretta Swit has died. She was 87.

The actress' publicist Harlan Boll confirmed the news to PEOPLE on Friday, May 30. Swit died in the early morning hours on Friday of natural causes at her New York City home.

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to report the news.

The actress was best known for playing Major Margaret J "Hot Lips" Houlihan, a head nurse in the Korean War, on the CBS series M*A*S*H from 1972 to 1983. The role earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, four Golden Globe nominations and a TV Land Impact Award.

Besides M*A*S*H, Swit guest starred on various TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, The Love Boat, Mannix, Bonanza and Batman: The Animated Series.

Additionally, she appeared in several films and TV movies, including The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, S.O.B., Race With the Devil, Beer, Whoops Apocalypse and Forest Warrior.

Her final acting credit came in 2019 in a movie titled Play the Flute. Swit was also expected to appear in an upcoming project titled Second Chances, according to her IMDb page. The film is currently in pre-production, per the site.

In a 1979 PEOPLE cover story, Swit said she "always wanted to be an actress" as she reflected on her early love of film.

"Luckily, my mother loved movies and we would go to double features and sit through both films twice," she recalled.

Describing her younger self as a "fat little kid with braces who was very, very shy," Swit was candid about her vision for her life.

"I’m not interested in being married,” she said at the time. "I have a career and friends and things I care about doing. I don’t want a lot of other demands. And, thanks to Alan [Alda], who has deep insight about women, I don’t feel guilty anymore about not wanting a family. My parents and friends are my family."

"I love my work and I love my friends. I can’t imagine having a happier life,” Swit said.

She went on to marry actor Dennis Holahan —who she met when he guest starred on M*A*S*H as Per Johannsen, a Swedish diplomat whom Swit's character became romantically involved with — in 1983. They divorced in 1995, and Swit never had children.

Swit also had an active theater career. She made her Broadway debut in 1975's Same Time, Next Year and went on to replace Cleo Laine in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Other credits include her starring roles in Shirley Valentine and Mame. She received the Sarah Siddons Award in 1991.

The Emmy Award-winning actress was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989.

Outside of acting, Swit was a painter and a vocal animal rights activist. In 2017, she released a book, Switheart: The Watercolour Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit, proceeds of which are donated to charities and organizations against animal cruelty.

SWIT, Loretta (Loretta Jan Swed)

Born: 11/4/1937, Passaic, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Died: 5/30/2025, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

 

Loretta Swit’s westerns – actress:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1970 (Dianne, Belle Clark)

Cade’s County (TV) – 1971 (Ginny Lamar)

Bonanza (TV) – 1972 (Ellen Sue Greeley)

Sam Cade (TV) – 1972 (Ginny Lamar)

The Last Day (TV) – 1975 (Daisy)

Forest Warrior – 1996 (Shirley)

RIP Alf Clausen

 

Alf Clausen, Acclaimed Simpsons Composer, Dies at 84

Pitchfork

By Quinn Moreland and Walden Green

June 1, 2025

 

Clausen scored over 560 episodes of the beloved animated series and was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards for his work

Alf Clausen, who spent nearly three decades as composer for The Simpsons—scoring seasons 2 through 28—died Thursday (May 29) at his Los Angeles home. Clausen’s daughter, Kaarin Clausen, told The Hollywood Reporter that her father had been diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy eight years ago. He was 84.

Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. While studying at North Dakota State University, Clausen took a correspondence course in big-band songwriting courtesy of Boston's Berklee College of Music. He eventually transferred to the school, becoming its first French horn player.

Clausen began his songwriting career in Los Angeles, where he freelanced as a composer, ghostwriter, and arranger. He eventually found work on television shows like the Donny & Marie show and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. In the 1980s, Clausen served as the composer for the detective series Moonlighting, for which he received six Emmy nominations. He later composed music, appropriately, for the television show ALF. Clausen also composed the music for films such as Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Naked Gun.

Clausen joined The Simpsons in 1990, when the show was in its second season. As composer, his role involved creating songs, cues, and reinterpreting Danny Elfman’s theme alongside a 35-piece live orchestra. Clausen scored over 560 episodes of the show and was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards (out of a career total of 30) for his work. He won twice, for 1997’s “We Put the Spring in Springfield” and 1998’s “You’re Checkin’ In (A Musical Tribute To The Betty Ford Center).” Clausen’s trademarks on the show often involved big band, jazz, or broadway numbers and while his compositions could be silly, they were often extremely moving. His songs for the show were collected on soundtrack albums like 1997’s Songs in the Key of Springfield and 1999’s Go Simpsonic With The Simpsons.

Speaking to the Television Academy in 2015 as part of their The Interviews series, Clausen described his initial reticence at taking the job that would come to define his career: “I said, ‘I just got off of four years of Moonlighting, and I really want to be a drama composer. I’m more interested in doing longform feature films.’” It was Simpsons creator Matt Groening who eventually got the composer on board by telling him “we look on our show as being not a cartoon—we look upon it as a drama where the characters are drawn.” In a 1996 profile published in Berklee Today, Groening called Clausen “one of the unacknowledged treasures of the show.”

CLAUSEN, Alf

Born: 3/28/1941, Minneapolis, Minesota, U.S.A

Died: 5/29/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Alf Clausen’s western – music department:

 The Undefeated - 1969

RIP Ena Hartman

 

Ena Hartman, ‘Dan August’ and ‘Terminal Island’ Actress, Dies at 93

After modeling and making history with a contract at NBC, she appeared on the big screen in ‘Our Man Flint,’ ‘Games’ and ‘Airport.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

May 28, 2025

 

Ena Hartman, a pioneering Black actress who had a regular role opposite Burt Reynolds on the 1970-71 ABC cop show Dan August, has died. She was 93.

Hartman died April 16 of natural causes at her home in Van Nuys, her goddaughter Lorraine Foxworth told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hartman also is known for her starring turn as the tough girl Carmen Simms alongside Tom Selleck, Don Marshall, Roger E. Mosley, Phyllis Davis and Marta Kristen in the cult prison-set film Terminal Island (1973), written and directed by Stephanie Rothman.

She assisted Lee J. Cobb’s character in the spy spoof Our Man Flint (1966), starring James Coburn; played a party guest in Games (1967), starring James Caan, Simone Signoret and Katharine Ross; and was a flight attendant in Airport (1970).

And in firsts for NBC in 1968, she appeared on the inaugural episode of Adam-12 and in the telefilm Prescription Murder, which starred Peter Falk in his initial outing as Columbo.

In one of the rare regular TV roles given to Black actresses back then, Hartman stood out as the smart, no-nonsense police dispatcher Katy Grant on Dan August, which starred Reynolds as the titular cop investigating homicides in his hometown of Santa Luisa, California.

However, the series, which also featured Richard Anderson and Norman Fell, lasted just one season and 26 episodes.

Earlier, Hartman had a chance to hit it big when famed actress-singer Dorothy Dandridge picked her to play her in a planned biopic that was to star Sidney Poitier as well. Poitier, though, decided in the final stages to pass on the film, and it was never made.

(Hartman did get to be Poitier’s guest at the 1964 Academy Awards when he became the first Black man to win the Oscar for best actor.)

Later, she was said to be in the running to play Lieutenant Uhura on NBC’s Star Trek and one of the nuns in Elvis Presley’s Change of Habit (1969), but she lost out to Nichelle Nichols and Barbara McNair, respectively. (She would appear on the first-season Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.”)

The daughter of sharecroppers, Gerthaline Henry was born on April 1, 1932, in Moscow, Arkansas. Raised by her grandparents, she moved to Buffalo, New York, when she was 13 to live with her mother.

She dropped out of high school to open a restaurant and would earn enough money to go to New York City, where she would adopt a stage name, become a top model in town and study drama with Josh Shelley and A Raisin in the Sun director Lloyd Richards.

Hartman participated in an NBC-sponsored talent competition for young actors and actresses, and that got her a talent contract from the network — said to be the first such deal for any Black actor. (Ebony magazine in 1962 reported that the “grooming” contract was for five years at $12,000 a year. “It’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said.)

In 1964, she made her onscreen debuts on an episode of Bonanza and in the sequel feature The New Interns. And after NBC, she signed a contract with Universal and was named honorary mayor of Universal City in 1968.

Hartman also showed up on such series as Profiles in Courage, The Farmer’s Daughter, Tarzan, Ironside, It Takes a Thief, Dragnet 1967, The Name of the Game, The Outsider, Ironside and, for her final onscreen credit, a 1975 episode of Police Story.

In addition to her goddaughter, survivors include her son, Douglas; daughter-in-law Kimberly; grandchildren Kenneth, Eliane, Maximillian and Alexander; great-grandchildren Angel, Akisha and Kenneth Jr.; great-great-grandchildren Kash, Shyonte, KayLianna and Wallace; sisters Andrewnette, Carolyn, Lena and June; and sister-in-law Gizelle.

HARTMAN, Ena (Gerthaline Henry)

Born: 4/1/1932, Moscow, Arkansas, U.S.A

Died: 4/16/2025, Van Nuys, California, U.S.A.

 

Ena Hartman’s westerns – actress:

Bonanza (TV) – 1964 (Caroline)