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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 5, 2021 17:12:17 GMT -5
Just saw the news that director/producer Richard Donner has passed away at the age of 91. He had a long and storied career, but is perhaps best known to many of us as the director of Superman the Movie and The Omen, as well as the Goonies and Lethal Weapon. Also a top director on tv, in the 60s, with The Man From UNCLE and Maverick. There would be no MCU or other modern superhero movies, had he not done Superman. That filmed proved that you could do a serious superhero movie, for a mainstream audience (not just a kiddie matinee) and both be true to the character and be entertaining. Leave it to the Salkinds to F-it up. I've always enjoyed his fantasy film, Ladyhawke, except for the out-of-place modern synth soundtrack. It needed a nice classic, romantic score. Still, it was the one fantasy movie of the era that really had a strong female fan base.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 6, 2021 5:18:07 GMT -5
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 6, 2021 6:20:55 GMT -5
I also just learned that evolutionary biologist and geneticist Richard Lewontin died a few days ago. He was 92 years old. He did a great deal of important work in the field of population genetics and was a long-time professor at several institutions, including Harvard for the last two decades of his career - where he was an associate of another, far better known evolutionary biologist, Stephen Jay Gould. Along with Gould, he was known for his critiques of a lot of mainstream evolutionary theory. I read his book Triple Helix many years ago and found it quite informative and fascinating.
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Post by foxley on Jul 6, 2021 7:58:31 GMT -5
Just saw the news that director/producer Richard Donner has passed away at the age of 91. He had a long and storied career, but is perhaps best known to many of us as the director of Superman the Movie and The Omen, as well as the Goonies and Lethal Weapon. Went to IMDB to refresh myself on Donner's oeuvre, and discovered that he directed the "Danger Island" segment on The Banana Splits Show! I never knew that. I loved the Banana Splits as a kid, and especially "Danger Island". Another piece of my childhood is gone.
"Uh-oh, Chongo!" and R.I.P. Mr. Donner.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2021 11:16:26 GMT -5
Prolific character actor and tough guy William Smith has passed away. p He began as a child actor, in 1942, appearing in movies like The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Song of Bernadette and Meet Me in St Louis. He served in the US Air Force, during the Korean War and gained a contract with MGM, later. He starred in the tv series Laredo, in the mid-60s and was a prolific guest actor in television across the 60s, 70s and into the 80s, in things like Columbo, The Rockford Files, Buck Rogers, and a regular role on Hawaii 5-0. He appeared in the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man, as Anthony Falconetti. On screen, he fought Rod Taylor, in Darker Than Amber, played a biker whose gang takes on the Viet Cong, in The Losers (aka Nam's Angels), Fought Clint Eastwood in Any Which Way You Can, hunted high school student guerillas in Red Dawn, and taught Conan about the Riddle of Steel. He appeared in dozens of B-movie/exploitation films, including classics like Black Samson, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Hammer, and Chrome and Hot Leather. Smith was a lifelong bodybuilder and weightlifter and did many of his own stunts in films and was often cast for his impressive size and physique, as well as his hard features. He played a professional wrestler in a Canadian movie, Blood and Guts, loosely based on a real "outlaw" Canadian promoter/wrestler. He was 88.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2021 11:23:49 GMT -5
A compilation of some of his work....
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Post by brutalis on Jul 10, 2021 13:41:35 GMT -5
Good ol' William Smith will be missed. You couldn't turn on your TV during the 70's or 80's without seeing him guest star in shows or movies. The man had the look and power to pull off villains and heroes both. Rest in Peace knowing your fans will miss you big guy!
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2021 14:48:41 GMT -5
He was also a pretty darn good actor. he's one of a pair of brothers who holds up Gene Wilder, in the Frisco Kid and his brother ends up shot and killed by Wilder, a rabbi, in self-defense. At the end of the film, he has a show down with Wilder, who doesn't want to fight, and really carries off the anger at the rabbi and the grief over his dead brother.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2021 20:22:59 GMT -5
RIP to Brazilian comic book artist Robson Rocha, who passed after being hospitalized last week due to COVID-19. Rocha had been working for DC Comics over the last ten years, including on Lobo, Sinestro, Birds of Prey, Superboy, Batman/Superman, Earth 2, Supergirl, Green Lanterns and the most recent revamp of Aquaman with Kelly Sue DeConnick. Obit on CBR-M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 12, 2021 15:44:53 GMT -5
R. I. P. Byron Berline. Not, by any means a household name, Berline fiddled (and played mandolin and backing vocals) throughout the music of the last 60 years. A Blue Grass Boy with Bill Monroe, Berline is arguably best known as the fiddler on the Country Honk version of the Stones' Honky Tonk Woman. He also played with Dylan on the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack, as well as playing with The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons and, seemingly, everyone else.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2021 20:53:48 GMT -5
RIP to actor Charles Robinson, probably best known as Mac, on Night Court... Also appeared in the series Buffalo Bill, Roots: The Next Generation and multiple guest roles in tv.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 17, 2021 9:33:05 GMT -5
Passed away age 72 phenomenal fantasy artist Stephen Hickman. Such incredible paintings and sculptures he has given us to remember him by. Rest in Peace
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 19, 2021 17:06:41 GMT -5
Just saw it announced on Facebook and elsewhere that science fiction writer William F. Nolan has died a few days ago at the age of 93. He's perhaps best known for writing the novel Logan's Run together with George Clayton Johnson, and then also the two sequels to it (Logan's World and Logan's Search).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2021 17:56:53 GMT -5
Just saw it announced on Facebook and elsewhere that science fiction writer William F. Nolan has died a few days ago at the age of 93. He's perhaps best known for writing the novel Logan's Run together with George Clayton Johnson, and then also the two sequels to it (Logan's World and Logan's Search). I had not seen that, but I've been in Court all day long. I haven't read Logan's Run in eons. His biography of Dashiell Hammett, Hammett: A Life at the Edge was excellent.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 19, 2021 21:06:14 GMT -5
Just saw it announced on Facebook and elsewhere that science fiction writer William F. Nolan has died a few days ago at the age of 93. He's perhaps best known for writing the novel Logan's Run together with George Clayton Johnson, and then also the two sequels to it (Logan's World and Logan's Search). Lastday; Pices, Year of the City 2021. Prolific author, as you had to be, in the 50s and 60s, writing for magazines, television, novels, short stories, non-fiction. He adapted two of Richard Matheson's stories (Julie and Millicent & Therese), for the classic tv movie Trilogy of Terror and then wrote a segment for the sequel, 20 years later ("He Who Kills", in Trilogy of Terror II). He also wrote the screenplay for Burnt Offerings, which featured Karen Black, Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith, Oliver Reed, Eileen Heckert and Anthony James.
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