Momento Mori

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SINCE LIFE MERITS A SOUNDTRACK: While remembering those memorialized below. enhance the experience with the ethereal scoring of Georges Delerue:

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In Memorium:

Dennis Lotis (Mar. 8, 1925 – Feb. 8, 2023) South African actor and singer. Trained as a boy soprano, Lotis appeared in his native country on both the stage and radio. Moving to England in the early 1950’s, he joined the Ted Heath Orchestra as a vocalist. Breaking away into a solo career midway in the decade, he became a popular performer on the variety circuit. He made his first appearance in the Royal Variety Performance in 1957 and in the same year reteamed with the Ted Heath Orchestra for a tour in the United States. He began a brief film career in the 1956 comedy “The Extra Day” and appeared as himself in the 1958 British pop musical “The Golden Disc” and the 1959 comedy “Make Mine a Million”. He finally had the opportunity to prove his dramatic mettle in a lead role in John Llewelyn Moxey’s classic 1960 witchcraft thriller “The City of the Dead”, followed by the role of Alan A’Dale opposite Richard Greene’s Robin Hood in Terence Fisher’s  “Sword of Sherwood Forest”. Lotus appeared in two comedies in 1962, ” She’ll Have Go” and “What Every Woman Wants” before redirecting his career back to singing and recordings. He would mark his final singing performance in 2005.

Owen Roizman (Sept. 22, 1936 – Jan. 6, 2023) American cinematographer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, after Roizman’s early ambitions to pursue a career in baseball due to a bout of polio, he decided to follow a career in film inspired by his father who was Movietone News cameraman and his uncle who was a film editor. He attended Gettysburg College and soon afterwards began work in commercials as an assistant cameraman, eventually working with cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld. He made his feature debut with the low budget Bill Gunn film “Stop”, which though barely released by Warner Bros. was noticed by director William Friedkin who was impressed with Roizman’s work, hiring him as cinematographer for ” The French Connection”, a film distinguished by a visually pseudo-documentary style enhanced by Roizman’s canny use of available light. He would next work of Herb Ross’ “Play It Again, Sam” and Spain May’s “The Heartbreak Kid” before reteaming with Friedkin on the blockbuster hit “The Exorcist”. His filmography includes the 1974 version of “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”, the 1975 adaptation of “The Stepford Wives”, John Huston’s “Independence”, “Network”, “The Rose” and Barry Sonnenfeld’s “The Addams Family”. Roizman was cinematographer on multiple films for directors Ulu Grosbard {“Straight Time” and “True Confessions”) and Harold Becker (“Taps”, “The Black Marble” and “Vision Quest”) and became a favorite of directors Sydney Pollack (“Three Days of the Condor”, “The Electric Horseman”, “Absence of Malice”, “Tootsie” and “Havana”) and Lawrence Kasden (“I Love You to Death”,”Grand Canyon”,”Wyatt Earp” and Roizman’s last film “French Kisses”).

Diane McBain (May 18, 1941 – Dec. 21, 2022) American actress. Born in Cleveland, she moved with her family to California where she found work was child model in print and television ads. While appearing in a play sat Glendale High School she was spotted by a Warner Bros. talent s out and signed on for seven year commitment as a contract player. She made her professional debut on two episodes of television’s “Maverick” and her movie debut in “Ice Palace” opposite Richard Burton. Employed as a supporting actress in such studio series as “Lawman”, ” Sugarfoot” and “The Alaskans”, she next supported Troy Donahue in the feature ” Parrish” and played the title role in Gordon Douglas’ film adaptation of the Erskine Caldwell novel “Claudelle Inglish”. This was followed by the lead role in the adventure film “Black Gold” and a supporting one in “The Caretakers”. During this period McBain was a regular on the Warner-produced detective series “Surfside 6” and would later appear on the studio’s other detective series, “77 Sunset Strip” and “Hawaiian Eye”. She appeared in the films “Mary, Mary” and “A Distant Trumpet” and then was released from her studio contract after refusing a supporting role in “Sex and the Single Girl”. In 1966 she was cast as Elvis Presley’s leading lady in the film “Spinout” and in the next year she settled in at American International Pictures where she appeared in a pair of films, “Thunder Alley” and “Maryjane”, co-starring Fabian, as well as the girl biker gang film “The Mini-Skirt Mob”. Her next features, Richard L. Bare’s “”I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Girl Crew” was distinguished only as Fred Clark’s last film appearance, while the Crown International feature “The Sidehackers” was forgettable drive-in fodder. During this period, she appeared in an increasing amount of television series, including “The Wild Wild West”, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, “Batman”, “Love, American Style”, “Mannix” and “Land of the Giants”. Subsequent weak film efforts such as “The Delta Factor”, the gimmicky DuoVision “Wicked, Wicked”, “The Wild Season” and “The Deathhead Virgin” effectively extinguished her movie career and she spent the next several decades mainly in series television, including “Charlie’s Angels”, “Dallas”, “Airwolf”, “Crazy Like a Fox”, “Jake and the Fatman”, as well as extended roles on the soap operas “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives”.

Andrew Prine (Feb. 14. 1936 – Oct. 31, 2022) American actor. Developing a early interest in theater, Prine attended the University of Miami on a drama scholarship but eventually dropped out to relocate in New York to pursue his acting career. He would make his television debut on “The United States Steel Hour” and would begin a prolific career in television, including appearances on “Playhouse 90″,”Deadline”, “One Step Beyond”, “Peter Gunn”, “Thriller”, “Have Gun – Will Travel”, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “Ben Casey” and “The Defenders”. While making an uncredited appearance in the 1955 Audie Murphy wartime biopic “To Hell and Back”, he would make what is generally recognized as his film debut in the 1959 adaptation of Wade Miller’s novel “Kiss Her Goodbye” co-starring Steven Hill and Elaine Strich and next played the older brother of Helen Keller in Arthur Penn’s 1962 “The Miracle Worker”. Intermittent film work through the 1960’s included roles in “Advance to the Rear”, “Texas Across the River” and major roles in a trio of films directed by Andrew V. McLaglen: the World War II drama “The Devil’s Brigade” and two westerns, “Bandolero!” and “Chisum”. In 1962, Prine co-starred with Earl Holliman in the TV series “Wide Country” which ran for 28 episodes and in 1966 co-starred with Barry Sullivan in the series “The Road West which also ran for one seaon. He would make multiple appearances several series including “Gunsmoke”, “Dr. Kildare” and “The Fugitive”, which in one episode portraying the brother of Dr. Richard Kimble. From the 1970s through the end of his career, Prine would appear in a vast number of television series but also appeared in a number of films of varying quality, including “Simon King of the Witches”, “Crypt of the Living Dead”, “One Little Indian”, “The Centerfold Girls”, “Grizzly”, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown”, “Amityville II: The Possession”, “Gettysburg”, “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Sutures”. He also made uncredited appearances in “Rooster Cogburn”, “Gods and Generals” and “Sweet Home Alabama”, Later TV appearances would include “Barnaby Jones”, “Cannon”, “Baretta”, “Hawaii Five-0”, “One Day at a Time”, the mini-series “V’ and it’s sequel “V: The Final Battle”, “Matt Houston”, “Dallas”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “Weird Science”, “In the Heat of the Night”, “Night Stand”, “Six Feet Under” and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. He also starred in the short-lived series “W.E.B.” which lasted only five episodes. ” Prine would make his final film appearance in the 2015 faith-based drama “Beyond the Farthest Star”.

Josef Somr (Apr. 14, 1934 – Oct. 16, 2022) Czech actor. Graduating from the Janâcek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, he practiced his theatrical craft with extended associations with the Tessin Theatre, the Brno City Theatre, the Prague Drama Club and the Prague National Theatre. In the midst of the Czech New Wave, Somr made significant contributions as an actor, making his film debut in 1964 in “The Defendent”, co-directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos. He would next appear in the highly acclaimed 1966 Jirí Menzel wartime coming-of-age film “Closely Watched Trains” as the womanizing train dispatcher Hubicka. He was featured in the historical drama “The Valley of the Bees”, “Funeral Ceremonies” and starred in Jaromil Jires’ 1969 “The Joke” based on the novel by Milan Kundera, Somr also appeared in the films “One of Them is a Murderer”, “Murder in the Excelsior Hotel”, “Gentlemen, Boys”, “The Liberation of Prague”, “The Ninth Heart”, “The Secret of Steel City”, “Half a House Without a Groom”, “Eugene Among Us”, “The Three Veterans”, “An Angel of the Lord” and “The Blacksmith From Woodham”.

Michael Callan (Nov. 22, 1935 – Oct. 10, 2022) American actor. After a successful theatrical career arc beginning as a member of the original 1954 Broadway cast of “The Boy Friend” and culminating in his casting as Riff in the original 1957 Broadway production of “West Side Story”, Callan was signed by Columbia Pictures to a six year contract, making his film debut in the 1959 Robert Rossen western drama “They Came to Cordura”, co-starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, and enjoying his first starring billing in the same year’s ” The Flying Fontaines”. He appeared in “Because They’re Young”, ” Pepe”, “Mysterious Island” and co-starred with Deborah Walley in both “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and “” Bon Voyage!”. Callan portrayed the delinquent menace to Alan Ladd in “13 West Street” and found great success in the role of a young doctor in “The Interns” and it’s sequel “The New Interns”. He had a major role in the war drama ” The Victors”, the lead in the Michael Winner comedy “You Must Be Joking!” and played the romantic lead opposite Jane Fonda in “Cat Ballou”. His television appearances included “Arrest and Trial”, “Dr. Kildare”, ” Hazel”, “12 O’Clock High”, “That Girl”, “The Felony Squad” and was the lead in the sitcom “Occasional Wife”. Other film credits include ” The Magnificent Seven Ride”, “The Photographer”, ” Lepke”, “Frasier the Sensual Lion”, ” Chained Heat” and Bradley Metzger’s 1978 remake of “The Cat and the Canary”. Other television credits include ” Superboy”, “Fantasy Island”, ” The Fall Guy”, “Murder She Wrote”, ” T.J. Hooker”, “Knight Rider” and the miniseries “Scruples” and “Blind Ambition”.

Austin Stoker (Oct. 7, 1930 – Oct. 7, 2022) Trinidadian-American actor. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Stoker joined the prestigious local theater company, The Whitehall Players, at the age of 16. He would later become a member of the Holder Dance Company, founded by Geoffrey Holder, As a dancer and steel serum percussionist, Stoker was part of a “Trio” who, along with Holder, would travel to America to be signed to perform in the 1954 Broadway musical “House of Flowers”. He would continue performing with the group in clubs for several years until  he was drafted in the U.S. Army. After his service, Stoker became a permanent U.S. resident and studied drama at the HB Studio under Uta Hagen. In 1969 he made his television debut with an appearance on ” The Mod Squad” and in 1973 made his feature film debut in “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”. He appeared in “Horror High”, ” Airport 1975″, and three films directed by William Girdler: ” The Zodiac Killer”, the blaxploitation “Exorcist” retread “Abby” and “Sheba, Baby” co-starring with Pam Grier. His next film role would prove his most memorable, playing Ethan Bishop in John Carpenter’s 1976 production of “Assault on Precinct 13″. A familiar face on television for decades, Stoker would make appearances on ” McCloud”, “Kojak”, ” Police Story”, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “Lou Grant”, ” Cagney & Lacey”, “Falcon Crest”, ” The Bold and the Beautiful”, “Arli$$”, and ” The District”. His last film appearance was in the low budget “Give Till It Hurts”.

Venetia Stevenson (Mar. 10, 1938 – Sept. 26, 2022) British-American actress. As an infant, Stevenson moved from London to Hollywood with her parents, director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee. She appeared with her mother in 1955, making her stage debut in the play “Lilliom”. She made her television debut, directed by her father, in the long-running series “Cavalcade of America” in the episode entitled “The American Thanksgiving: Its History and Meaning”. She also appeared on a ” Playhouse 90″ production of “Where’s Charley?” with Art Carney as well as “Matinee Theatre”, “Cheyenne”, “Colt .45” as well as playing three different characters on “Sugarfoot”. Her film debut in William A. Wellman’s 1958’s ” Daddy’s Rangers” was followed by an uncredited role in “Violent Road”, Howard W. Koch’s anglicized revisiting of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “Le Solaire de la peur”. Other films in her brief movie career include “Island of Lost Women”, André De Toth’s “Day of the Outlaw”, Byron Haskin’s “Jet Over the Atlantic”, John Llewellyn Moxey’s classic witchcraft thriller ” The City of the Dead” (whose marketing materials oddly announced Venetia as being “introduced”), the Audie Murphy  western “Seven Ways From Sundown” and the severely truncated “Studs Lonigan”. Her last film appearance was in the 1961 comedy The Sergeant Was a Lady”. Other television appearances include “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, “Lawman”, “77 Sunset Strip”, “The Millionaire” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”.

Just Jaeckin (Aug. 8, 1940 – Sept. 6, 2022) French film director. Born in Vichy, Jaeckin in studied photography and sculpture in Paris before and after serving in the French Army during the Algerian war. He subsequently found great success in fashion and advertising photography working for.suck publications as Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, the Sunday Times and Harper’s Bizarre. He also served as smart director for Paris Match as well as being known for photographing such icons of the day as Bridgette Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. He was hired to direct his first film, the notorious softcore sex film “Emmanuelle”, which was initially banned in its native France, but once released became one of the biggest hits in French film history, and a financial success globally. The notoriety inhibited publishers from hiring him for photographic assignments, so he continued in the realm of erotic filmmaking, first directing an adaptation of Dominique Aury’s novel ‘Histoire d’O‘. Subsequent features directed Jaeckin include “Madame Claude” and “The Last Romantic Lover”, both featuring Dayle Haddon; ” Girls” starring Anne Parillaud, a segment of the tripartite anthology “Collections privées” and an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s ” Lady Chatterley’s Lover” reuniting him with his “Emmanuelle” star, Sylvia Kristel. None of Jaeckin’s films would achieve a popular success similar to his debut film. His last feature effort was 1984’s “The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak”, based on the fetish comic stories by John Willie.

Haya Harareet (Sept. 20, 1931 – Feb. 3, 2021) Israeli actress and screenwriter. Born in Haifa, Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel, Haya gained public attention through success in one of Israeli’s first beauty contests. Her film debut was in the first film completely produced in Israel and to receive global distribution, 1955’s “Giv’a 24 Eina Ona” helmed by English director Thorold Dickinson. Her next film was a 1957 Italian production,”La donna del giorno”, in which she co-starred with Virna Lisi. Her next role is one for which she is most remembered, portraying Charlton Heston’s love interest, Esther, in William Wyler’s mammoth 1959 box-office hit. “Ben-Hur”. Basil Dearden’s 1961 mystery “The Silent Partner” found Harareet sharing the screen with Stewart Granger. She next co-starred with Jean-Louis Trintignant, portraying Queen Antinea in the Italian production “Antinea, l’amante della città sepolta”, the fourth film adaptation of  Pierre Benoît’s novel “L’Atlantide”, a production begun by an uncredited Frank Borzage but completed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Haya’s next features included David Swift’s “The Interns” and two Italian costume adventures: “La leggenda di Fra Diavolo” and “L’ultima carica”, both co-starring Tony Russel. She returned after a ten year absence to appear in her last film, the 1974 short “My Friend Jonathan”. She co-wrote with Jeremy Brooks the adaptation of Julian Gloag’s novel ‘Our Mother’s House’ for the 1967 screen version directed by her future husband Jack Clayton.

Tanya Roberts (Oct. 15, 1949 – Jan. 4, 2021) American actress. Roberts studied under Lee Strasburg and it’s Hagen at The Actor’s Studio. Early in her career she balanced modelling in television commercials with perform an ing in off-road way productions and assuming the role of dance instructed at the Arthur Murray Studios. Her film debut was in the 1975 production ” Forced Entry”, a remake of the notorious 1973 pornographic roughie. She subsequently had small roles in “The Yum Yum Girls”, Larry Cohen’s “The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover” and James Tobacks “Fingers”. In 1980 she was chosen to replace the departing Shelley Hack on the fifth season of the TV series ” Charlie’s Angels”, which would be cancelled at the end of that season. Roberts was next cast in “The Beastmaster” and next in the Italian-made “Hearts and Armour”. She played Velda in the two-part TV film ” Murder Me, Murder You”, which served as a pilot for the series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”, a role she declined to continue, choosing instead to star in the title role of the film ” Sheena, Queen of the Jungle”. She was next cast as the female lead in Roger Moore’s swan song as James Bond, “A View to a Kill”. The remainder of her career consisted of television appearances or roles in low budget, usually erotic, thrillers including “Night Eyes”, “Inner Sanctum”, “Deep Down” and “Sins of Desire”.

Jack Kehoe (Nov. 21, 1934 – Jan. 14, 2020) American actor. Born in Astoria, New York, Kehoe entered the military after high school and served three years in the Army. He studied acting with Stella Adler and made his Broadway debut in Edward Albee’s “The Ballad of  the Sad Cafe” starring Colleen Dewhurst. His television debut was in a 1967 Actor’s Studio presentation of Michael V. Gazzo’s “A Hatful of Rain” directed by John Llewelyn Moxey. His film debut was in 1971’s “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”, followed by “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”, “Serpico”, “Law and Disorder” and the role for which he is most remembered, ‘The Erie Kid’ in George Roy Hill’s 1973 hit “The Sting”. Kehoe had roles in a succession of interesting films throughout the 70s and 80s, including “Car Wash”, “Melvin and Howard”, “Reds”, “The Ballad of Gergorio Cortez”, “The Pope of Greenwich Village”, “The Untouchables” and “Midnight Run”. He also appeared on several television series, including “The Scarecrow and Mrs. King”, “Miami Vice”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “Fame” and the 1985 revival of “The Twilight Zone”. Kehoe’s last film role was in David Fincher’s 1997 production of “The Game”.

Isabel Sarli (July 9, 1929 – June 25, 2019) Argentine actress. Employed as a secretary in a publicity agency, Sarli began successful career in modeling, resulting in her being chosen Miss Argentina and representing her country in the 1955 Miss Universe pageant. The next year, she met her future mentor and romantic interest, director-writer-actor Armando Bó who would star Sarli in his 1958 production “El Trueno entre las Hojas”, a scandalous but highly successful film in which Sarli created a sensation with a nude bathing scene (featuring the first frontal nudity in Argentine cinema). Catapulted to the status of a national sex symbol, Sarli, with rare exceptions (such as Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s “Sententa veces siete” and Dirk de Villiers’ English-language jungle adventure “The Virgin Goddess”) would continue her cinema collaboration exclusively with Bó in a series of dozens of increasingly sexualized and exploitative features, all of which took prodigious advantage of her voluptuous figure, including “Sabaleros”, “La tentación desnuda”, “La señora del intendente”, “Carne”, “Fuego”, “Fiebre”,”Intimadades des una cualquiera”, “Una mariposa en la noche” and “Insaciable”. On the occasion of Bó’s death in 1981, Sarli withdrew from the film world, but would later reemerge in several movies beginning with 1996’s “La dama regresa”. She was also featured in a season of the Argentine musical comedy television series “Flinderella”. Sarli would make her last film appearance, starring in the 2010 crime drama “Mis dias con Gloria”.

Susan Bernard (Feb. 11, 1948 – June 21, 2019) American actress. Made her film debut as the young hostage Linda in Russ Meyer’s 1965 cult favorite “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”. Bernard would next appear as the December 1966 Playmate in Playboy magazine. She appeared in a series of low budget oddities including “Stranger in Hollywood”, the lesbian drama “That Tender Touch”, “The Witchmaker”, “The Phynx” and “Necromancy” with Orson Welles. Her television work included two seasons on the soap opera “General Hospital” and appearances on “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “The Smith Family” and “Room 222”. Her last film role was in the unreleased 1999 production “The Mao Game”.

Allene Roberts  (Sept. 1, 1928 – May 9, 2019) American actress who, at the age of twelve, beat out 85,000 national contestants to be named “America’s Most Charming Child”, winning a cash prize and a Warner Bros. screen test. Moving to Los Angeles with her mother who took work as a seamstress at 20th Century Fox, Allene failed her screen test, but continued to study  acting until she was discovered by producer Sol Lesser and cast in an important role in the 1947 drama “The Red House”. This was followed by roles in John Sturges’ “The Sign of the Ram”, “Michael O’Halloran”, Nicholas Ray’s “Knock on Any Door” (she was personally chosen for the role by Humphrey Bogart) and “Bomba on Panther Island”. She made her television debut in an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Sire de Maletroit’s Door on the anthology series “Your Show Time” co-starring with Dan O’Herlihy. Roberts appeared as a kidnapped blind heiress in 1950’s thriller “Union Station”, and would also appear in “Santa Fe”, “The Hoodlum”, “Thunderbirds” and “The Blazing Forest” (her final big screen role). Roberts also appeared on the television “series” “The Bigelow Theatre”, “Dragnet”, “Adventures of Superman”, “Omnibus”, “The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse”, “Public Defender” and “Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal”.

Kip Niven (May 27, 1945 – May 6, 2019) American actor. Niven studied theater at the University of Kansas, making his television debut  in 1971 on an episode of the George Kennedy police drama “Sarge”. He would appear of a variety of television programs, including “Hec Ramsey”, “Night Gallery” and multiple appearances on “Emergency!” before making his big screen debut in the 1973 “Dirty Harry” sequel “Magnum Force”, memorably playing one of a pack of rogue vigilante motorcycle cops. He would next appear in the films “Earthquake”, “Newman’s Law”, “Airport 1975”, “The Hindenburg”,”Swashbuckler”, “Damnation Alley” and “Midway”. Additional television credits include “Ironside”, “Falcon Crest”, “Hart to Hart”, “S.W.A.T.”; the television films “Escape to Manzanar”, “Snafu” and “Amelia Earhart”, and the mini-series “Blind Ambition” and “Once an Eagle”. Niven also made extended appearances on both “The Waltons” and the sitcom “Alice”. He also appeared on the Broadway stage in “Chess” and the short-lived musical “The Thin Man”. Niven would return to the Kansas City area to work in regional theater and would appear in several independent regional film productions including “The Picture”, “Raising Jeffrey Dahmer” and “Jayhawkers”, in which he portrayed legendary University of Kansas basketball coach “Phog” Allen.

Anne Neyland (Aug. 23, 1934 – Apr. 24, 2019) American actress. After enjoying success in modelling and the beauty pageant circuit, Neyland would make her first fleeting film appearance as a chorine in “Singin’ in the Rain”. She would enjoy a major role in the 1955 noir “Hidden Fear” opposite John Payne. Neyland would next play opposite Elvis Presley in the well regarded “Jailhouse Rock” and subsequently starred in the low budget “Motorcycle Gang. Her television appearances included roles on “The Thin Man”, “Highway Patrol”, “The Texan”, “Man With a Camera”, Sea Hunt” and “The Bob Cummings Show”. She retired in 1960 after making a brief and uncredited appearance in “Ocean’s 11”.

Nadja Regin (Dec. 2, 1931 – Apr. 6, 2019) Serbian actress. Born Nadezda Poderegin, she made her initial film appearance in Vladimir Pogačić’s 1949 debut film “The Factory Story”. She next appeared in two films by Vojislav Nanovic, “The Magic Sword” and “Frosina”, the first film produced in the Macedonian language. Beginning with the 1954 German-Yugoslavian co-production “Das Haus an der Küste”, she shortened her name to Regin. This was followed by the Word War II drama “Esalon doktora M”, the last film she would make in Yugoslavia, “Du mein stilles Tal” and the war comedy “Der Frontgockel”. Fluent in four languages (French, Russian, German and Serbo-Croatian), Regin moved to England where within months she had sufficiently mastered English to appear in “The Man Without a Body”   Her extensive credits in British television include” The Invisible Man” ,”Danger Man”, “William Tell”, “Rendezvous”, “Maigret”, “Parbottle Speaking”, “Comedy Playhouse”, “The Saint”, “Benny Hill” and “The World of Beachcomber”. She appeared in a series of mystery films including “The Fur Collar”, “Runaway Killer” and “Stranglehold” as well as playing the female lead in three Edgar Wallace adaptations which would later be broadcast on television in the U.S. as part of the “Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre”: “Solo for Sparrow” (also featuring a pre-stardom Michael Caine), “Number Six” and “Downfall”. With roles in both “From Russia With Love”, as Kerim Bey’s girlfriend, and “Goldfinger” as Bonita, the pre-credit femme fatale, Nadja, at the time, became only the fourth to enter the rarefied realm of actresses designated as ‘Bond Girls’ who had made more than one appearance in the series (the others being Lois Maxwell, Eunice Gayson and Nikki Van der Zyl). 

Tania Mallet (May 19, 1941 – Mar. 30, 2019) British actress and fashion model. Mallet starred in Michael Winner’s 1961 short film “Girls! Girls! Girls!” portraying herself as an aspiring London fashion model. That same year, Mallet would be twice featured on the cover of Vogue magazine. She auditioned for the role of Soviet operative Tatiana Romanova for the second James Bond film “From Russia, With Love” but was passed over, in part, due to her English accent. (Ironically, cast Italian actress Daniela Bianchi would have her dialogue dubbed by British actress Barbara Jeffords.) However, Mallet was cast in the following Bond film “Goldfinger” in the important role of Tilly Masterson, the vengeance seeking sister who is dispatched with a razor sharp bowler hat. Disenchanted with the acting profession, she returned to modeling, with her only additional acting work comprising an uncredited role in an episode of the 1976 television series “The New Avengers”.

Verna Bloom (Aug. 7, 1939 – Jan. 9. 2019) American actress. After graduating from Boston U., Bloom moved to Denver where she co-founded the Trident Playhouse. In the mid- 1960s she relocated to work in theater in New York, during which time she made her television debut on the anthology series “NBC Experiment in Television” in the 1967 episode “The Questions” co-starring with Fritz Weaver. After replacing Glenda Jackson in the role of Charlotte Corday in Peter Brooks’ Broadway staging of “Marat/Sade”, she was noticed by columnist Studs Terkel whose recommendation to helped garner Bloom her debut movie role in Haskell Wexler’s acclaimed “Medium Cool”. Bloom would follow this role with appearances in the independent feature “Children’s Games”, Peter Fonda’s directorial debut “The Hired Hand”, the police drama “Badge 373”, a pair of Clint Eastwood-directed vehicles “High Plains Drifter” and “Honkytonk Man”. “The Journey of Natty Gann” and three Martin Scorsese-directed films: the 1970 anti-war documentary “Street Scenes” (in which she appeared as herself), “After Hours” and, in what would be her final big screen appearance, the controversial “The Last Temptation of Christ”. Perhaps Bloom’s most popularly remembered film role was that of the drunken, lascivious wife of Faber College Dean Wormer in John Landis’ 1978 hit “National Lampoon’s Animal House”. Her additional TV credits include “N.Y.P.D”, “Bonanza”, “Kojak”, “The Blue Knight”, “Police Story”, “The Fall Guy”, “The Equalizer”, “The West Wing” and the television films “Where Have All the People Gone”, “Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic”, “Contract on Cherry Street” and “Playing for Time”.

Rosenda Monteros (Aug. 31, 1935 – Dec. 29, 2018) Mexican actress who made her film debut in “Reto a la vida”, followed by “Llévame en tus brazos”, both from 1954 and both directed by Julio Bracho to whom she was briefly married. Monteros would divide her time between Mexican and English language films with appearances in the latter, including “The White Orchid”, Paul Henreid’s “A Woman’s Devotion”, “Villa!!”, “The Mighty Jungle”, the Hammer Films remake of “She” and John Sturges’ “The Magnificent Seven” in which she played Petra, the love interest to Horst Buchholz’ Chico. The Mexican-produced films in which she appeared include Luis Buñuel’s “Nazarin”, René Cardona’s “Las tres pelonas”, “Los cuervos”, “Ninette y un señor de Murcia” and “El coleccionista de cadáveres” with Boris Karloff.

Michele Carey (Feb. 26, 1943 – Nov. 21, 2018) American actress. Michele made her television debut in 1964 with a small role on “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” episode ‘The Double Affair’, which would later be interpolated into the feature film “The Spy With My Face”. After several appearances on the short-lived Connie Stevens comedy “Wendy and Me”, Michelle would make her official big screen debut with an unbilled appearance in 1965’s “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini”. She was cast in the role of the tempestuous “Joey” MacDonald opposite John Wayne and James Caan in Howard Hawks’ “El Dorado”. Following film credits include “The Sweet Ride”, Elvis Presley’s love interest in “Live a Little, Love a Little”, “Changes”, “The Animals”, Burt Kennedy’s western comedy “Dirty Dingus Magee”, “Scandalous John” and “The Choirboys”. Her last film appearance was in the 1988 South African horror film “The Stay Awake”. Her extensive television credits include “The Wild Wild West”, “The Name of the Game”, “Mission: Impossible”, “The F.B.I.”, “Alias Smith and Jones”, “Adam’s Rib”, “A Man Called Sloane” and “The Fall Guy”.

Sondra Locke (May 28, 1944 – Nov. 3, 2018) American actress, who made her film debut, to great acclaim, as the result of a national talent search, playing the role of Mick in the film version of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”. She was featured in Noel Black’s “Cover Me Babe”, the sleeper horror hit “Willard” and “A Reflection of Fear” while finding additional work on television, including appearances on “Night Gallery”, “The F.B.I.”, “Planet of the Apes”, “Kung Fu”, “Joe Forrester”, “Barnaby Jones” and “Cannon”. Her film fortunes changed with her casting in Clint Eastwood’s 1976 western “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, a role which would lead to a romantic and professional association with the actor/director that would eventually lead to a very tempestuous public separation. They would appear together in five additional films: “The Gauntlet”, “Every Which Way But Loose”, “Any Which Way You Can”, “Bronco Billy” and “Sudden Impact”. In 1986, Locke made her directorial debut with “Ratboy”. She would later direct the police thriller “Impulse” and “Trading Favors” as well as the TV film “Death in Small Doses”. She also appeared in the title role of the TV movie bio “Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story” and on the TV series “Amazing Stories” and “Tales of the Unexpected”. Locke’s last screen role was in Alan Rudolph’s 2017 romantic drama “Ray Meets Helen”.

Scott Wilson (Mar. 29, 1942 – Oct. 6, 2018) American character actor, who abandoned a college scholarship to study architecture, to relocate in Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. He was discovered by Norman Jewison and awarded his debut role in film as a murder suspect in 1967’s “In the Heat of the Night”. That same year he was chosen by Richard Brooks to star as real-life murderer Dick Hickock in his film of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”. The role would lead to succession of carefully selected character roles including memorable appearances in Sydney Pollack’s “Castle Keep” and John Frankenheimer’s “The Gypsy Moths” (both co-starring Burt Lancaster), “The Grissom Gang”, “Lolly-Madonna XXX”, Jack Clayton’s “The Great Gatsby”, William Peter Blatty’s “The Ninth Configuration”, as test pilot Scott Crossfield in Philip Kaufman’s aviation epic “The Right Stuff”, “The Exorcist III”, “Flesh and Bone”, “Geronimo: An American Legend”, “Shiloh”, “Clay Pigeons”, “Dead Man Walking”, “The Way of the Gun”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Monster”, “Junebug” and his last film appearance in 2017’s “Hostiles”. He appeared in many TV films and series, including regular featured roles in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, “Damien”, “The OA” and “The Walking Dead”.

Liz Fraser (Aug. 14, 1930 – Sept. 6, 2018) British actress who specialized in good natured dumb blonde roles. She made her film debut in a minor role (billed under her birth name Elizabeth Winch) in the 1955 Ealing Studios release “Touch and Go”. She would appear in a succession of minor uncredited roles in “The Smallest Show on Earth”, “Davy”, “Dunkirk”, “Wonderful Things!” and “Alive and Kicking”. During this period, Fraser accumulated a number of television credits including “Sixpenny Corner”, “Shadow Squad”, “Whack-O!”, “Educating Archie” and “Dixon of Green Dock”. She received critical notice for her role in John Boulting’s “I’m All Right Jack” and  subsequently appeared in “Top Floor Girl”, “Two Way Stretch”, “Doctor in Love”, “The Pure Hell of St. Trinian’s”, “Double Bunk”, “Roommates”, “A Pair of Briefs”, several “Carry On” films including “Carry On Regardless”, “Carry On Cruising” and “Carry On Cabby”, “The Amorous Mr. Prawn”, “The Americanization of Emily”, “The Family Way” and “Up the Junction”. In the 1970’s she appeared in a series of sex comedies, including “”Adventures of a Taxi Driver”, “”Confessions of a Driving Instructor”, “Under the Doctor”, “Adventures of a Private Eye” and “”Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse”. Other television appearances include “No Hiding Place”, “The Avengers”, “The Benny Hill Show”, “Turnbull’s Finest Half-Hour”, “Rumpole of the Bailey”, “The Professionals”, “Foyle’s War” and “Midsomer Murders”. 

Jennifer Welles (Mar. 15, 1937 – June 26, 2018) American adult film actress. Born in New Jersey, Welles left home during high school to pursue a career in theatrical dancing, which later led her to performing as a dancer in Las Vegas until the early 60s when she returned to performing in theater on the east coast. She made her screen debut in an uncredited role in the 1968 sexploitation film “Sex by Advertisement”. In 1969 she enjoyed a starring role under her married name Lisa Duran in “Career Bed” and, in quick succession, would also appear in a number of softcore films including Henri Pachard’s “This Sporting House”, “Submission”, “The Good, The Bad and the Beautiful”, Pachard’s “Scorpio ’70”, Jeanne & Alan Abel’s “Is There Sex After Death?” and “Sugar Cookies”. She appeared with a pre-SNL Chevy Chase in the comic sketch film “The Groove Tube” as well as becoming a regular in films directed by exploitation favorite Joseph W. Sarno , including “Confessions of an American Housewife”, “The Switch or How to Alter Your Ego”, “Abigail Lesley is Back in Town” and “Misty”. Welles crossed into hardcore scenes in 1976’s “Honey Pie”, followed by ” Expose Me, Lovely”, “Temptations” and “Little Orphan Sammy”. She is given directing credit for the faux biographical “Inside Jennifer Welles”, though the film was actually shot by Sarno.

Eunice Gayson (March 12, 1928 – June 8, 2018) English actress who made her big screen debut in 1948’s “My Brother Jonathan”, followed by roles in “It Happened in Soho”, “Melody in the Dark”, “To Have and to Hold”, Charles Crichton’s “Dance Hall”, Basil Dearden’s “Out of the Clouds”, John Guillermin’s “Miss Robin Hood” and Terence Young’s “Zarak”. Throughout the 1950s she appeared in a wide variety of television films and series including, “Nine Till Six”, “Mother of Men”, “Treasures in Heaven”, “Rheingold Theatre”. “The Vise”, “White Hunter”, “BBC Sunday-Night Theatre” and “Theatre Night”. In 1958 she was cast as the female lead opposite Peter Cushing in the Hammer Film production of “The Revenge of Frankenstein”. In 1962, Gayson was cast in what was to become her most recognized role, that of Sylvia Trench, who would become the only character portrayed as a steady girlfriend to James Bond in the long-running series, as well becoming the first official Bond Girl, in both “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love” (though her voice was dubbed in both films by Nikki van der Zyl). They would be her final motion picture appearances. She would spend the remainder of her career divided between television and stage work.

Margot Kidder (Oct. 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018) Canadian actress, who made her screen debut in the 1968 Challenge for Change production “The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar” co-starring with Kate Reid. She would make guest appearances on several CBC television dramas including the acclaimed “Wojeck” starring John Vernon, “McQueen” and “Adventures in Rainbow Country” starring Lois Maxwell. She has a substantial role in her first Hollywood film, Norman Jewison’s 1969 box-office bomb “Gaily, Gaily”, but would enjoy positive critical attention as the female lead, opposite Gene Wilder, in the charming 1970 romantic comedy, “Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx”. Work on several American television programs followed, including a featured role in the short-lived James Garner western series “Nichols”. She portrayed a disturbed survivor of a Siamese twin separation in Brian De Palma’s “Sisters”, as well as prominent supporting roles in “The Great Waldo Pepper”, “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” and “Black Christmas” as well as the leading female roles in the Canadian film “A Quiet Day in Belfast”, Jack Starrett’s “The Gravy Train” and Thomas McGuane’s “92 in the Shade”. Her breakout role came when she was cast for the role of Lois Lane in Richard Donner’s 1978 film “Superman”. In 1979 her career enjoyed another box-office success when she played the lead in the real-life horror film “The Amityville Horror”. Her subsequent film appearances include Paul Mazursky’s “Willie & Phil”, “Superman II”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, Superman III”, “Heartaches” and “Trenchcoat”.

Gianfranco Parolini (Feb. 20, 1925 – Apr. 26, 2018) Italian film director/writer, who made his screenwriting/directing debut with the 1953 drama “François il contrabbandiere “, quickly followed by “Il bacio dell’Aurora”. He would not assume the director’s chair again until working as a writer on the 1961 peplum “Goliath Against the Giants” when he completed the picture for an ailing Guido Malatesta. The film was the first starring vehicle for a young Brad Harris, with whom Parolini would enjoy a long creative association, including his starring in the popular “Samson”, which Parolini would write and direct that same year. A string of peplums would follow, including “The Fury of Hercules”, “The Old Testament”, “The Destruction of Herculaneum” (all three starring Harris), “The Ten Gladiators” and “The Three Avengers”, until the James Bond/spy craze began to take hold of the film industry; a genre which Parolini effortlessly slid into with the film adaptation of Bert F. Island’s Kommissar X German crime novel series, beginning with the 1966 film “Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill” and continuing with later episodes of the seven film series, including “Death is Nimble, Death is Quick” and “Agent Joe Walker: Operation Far East”. During this period, Parolini also created superhero crime fighting film using his “Kommissar X” stars Tony Kendall and Brad Harris, a film whose popularity would prove such that it resulted in several sequels. Parolini was also the creative force behind two additional future spaghetti western film series, the first introducing the freelance gunfighter Sartana in 1968’s “If You Meet Sartana… Pray For Your Death”. 1969’s “Sabata” featured Lee Van Cleef as a gimmick enhanced gunfighter, also featured in 1971’s “Return of Sabata”. The second film of the series, 1970’s “Adios, Sabata” starred Yul Brynner and featured an entirely different protagonist named Indio Black, but the success of “Sabata” in America resulted in the Brynner picture having it’s title and lead character’s name changed to capitalize of the earlier film’s popularity. Parolini would continue to write and direct through the 1980’s, his last directed feature being the adventure film “The Secret of the Incas’ Empire”.

Verne Troyer (Jan. 1, 1969 – Apr. 21, 2018) American actor and stunt man. Troyer began his film career as a stunt double for Baby Bink in 1994’s “Baby’s Day Out”. He would perform similar work in films such as “Jingle All the Way” and “Men in Black”, until approached by director Jay Roach to portray the character Mini-Me in the second Mike Myers Austin Powers film, “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”. The character was originally slated to die in the film, but so impressed was Roach with Troyer’s performance that his character’s fate was rewritten, enabling the actor to appear in the third and final film of the series, “Austin Powers in Goldmember”. Troyer would reunite with Myers on the ill-fated “The Love Guru”. Troyer can also be seen in the films “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and the TV ‘series’ “Scrubs”, “V.I.P.”, “Jack of All Trades”, “Boston Public” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”.

 R. Lee Ermey (Mar. 24, 1944 – Apr. 15, 2018) American character actor. Ermey served in the U.S. Marine Corps. during which time he served as a staff sergeant and drill instructor with a fourteen month tour in country in Vietnam. While attending the University of Manila, Ermey made his first venture into motion pictures as an advisor on Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” in which he also appears, uncredited, as a helicopter pilot. He would serve in a similar technical advisement capacity in Sidney Furie’s “The Boys in Company C”, in which he also appeared in the role of Sgt, Loyce. He fulfilled the role of advisor, again, on “An Officer and a Gentleman” and returned to work with director Furie on his Vietnam romance “Purple Hearts”. While serving as an advisor on Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”, the director was so impressed with Ermey that he cast him in the pivotal role of drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, a performance that would garner universal acclaim. Ermey has mainly appeared in films as a character actor, often in the role of a military officer or a civil authority, his more prominent vehicles including “Mississippi Burning”, “Small Soldiers”, “Sommersby”, “Body Snatchers”, “Murder in the First”, “Dead Man Walking”, “Leaving Las Vegas”, “Prefontaine”. “The Salton Sea”, “Saving Silverman”, “Se7en” and the remakes of “Willard” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. His voice work has contributed to “Starship Troopers”, X-Men: The Last Stand” and the “Toy Story” films. Ermey has appeared on a number of TV series including “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.”, “Miami Vice”, “China Beach”, “Tales From the Crypt”, “The Simpsons”, “Scrubs”, “Action” and portrayed Secretary of State John Hay in John Milius’ miniseries “Rough Riders”.

Isabella Biagini (Dec. 19, 1940 – Apr. 14, 2018) Italian actress, who made her film debut in the 1957 comedy “La zia d’America va a sciare” , She would appear in dozens of films throughout the next three decades, primarily in comedies in supporting character roles, including Bruno Corbucci’s “Boccaccio”, “Love Italian Style”, “Gli altri, gli altri… e noi”, “Mamma’s Boy”, “Slalom” with Vittorio Gassman and two comedies with the team of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, 1964’s “I due mafiosi” and 1971’s “Il clan dei due Borsalini”. Biagini was also featured in Fernando Di Leo’s crime films “Loaded Guns” and “Nick the Sting”, Marco Ferreri’s “The Future is Woman” and Tinto Brass’ “Capriccio”, Her last film role was in “Il segreto del giaguaro” in 2000.

Eugene Francis (Aug. 28, 1917 – Apr. 10, 2018) American actor and writer. Born in Brooklyn, Francis made his Broadway debut at the age of 12 in “L’Aiglon” starring Ethel Barrymore. In 1940, Francis was cast as Algy in the East Side Kids film series, Monogram’s low-budget version of the Dead End Kids, replacing Jack Edwards who had played the role in the film “East Side Kids”. He would play the role of Algy in “Boys of the City”, “That Gang of Mine”, “Pride of the Bowery” and “Flying Wild”. With the onset of World War II, Francis served in the U.S. Army. He would later become the commercial spokesman for both Remington Shavers and Goodyear Tires. In the early years of television, he appeared in the ‘series’ “Pulitzer Prize Playhouse” and “Martin Kane” before turning to writing, producing scripts for “Justice”, “Appointment With Adventure”, “Matinee Theatre”, “The George Sanders Mystery Theater” and “The Loretta Young Show”. Francis was a founding board member of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.

Susan Anspach (Nov. 23, 1942 – Apr. 2, 2018) American actress who appeared in off-Broadway productions of “A View From the Bridge” and Ronald Ribman’s award-winning “The Journey of the Fifth Horse”, in which she also appeared in the subsequent filmed television production. Anspach originated the role of Sheila in the original off-Broadway production of “Hair”. She made her Broadway debut in 1965 in the short-lived production of Terence McNally’s “And Things That Go Bump in the Night”. Her TV debut was in an episode of “The Defenders”. She later appeared on “The Patty Duke Show” and “Judd for the Defense”. In 1970, Anspach made her film debut in Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord”, quickly followed by an important role in “Five Easy Pieces”. She appeared in “Play It Again, Sam”, Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love” and Dusan Makavejev’s “Montenegro”. Other film appearances include “The Devil and Max Devlin”, Running” and “The Big Fix”. Her last film appearance was in 2010’s “Inversion”. Other television credits include roles in two briefly aired series, “The Yellow Rose” and “The Slap Maxwell Story”, as well as a major role in the mini-series “Space”.

Luigi De Filippo (Aug. 10, 1930 – Mar. 31, 2018) Italian film character actor, born in Naples, De Filippo dropped out of college to pursue a writing career, but soon began performing theatrically with his father, the celebrated actor Peppino De Filippo. Luigi’s film debut came in 1951 with the production of “Filumena Marturano”, directed and written (from his own play, which would later be adapted by Vittorio De Sica as “Marriage, Italian Style”) by his uncle Eduardo, and co-starring his aunt Titina. This was followed by appearances in Riccardo Freda’s “La leggenda del piave” and “Da qui all’eredità”, and the comedies “Non è vero… ma ci credo!”, Peppino e la vecchia signora”, “You’re on Your Own”, Sergio Corbucci’s “Chi si ferma è perduto”, “Gli incensurati” and “Il mio amico Benito”, all starring his father. Luigi also appeared in the romantic comedies “Lazzarella: and “Cerasella”, both co-starring Mario Girotti (Terence Hill) and “Fast and Sexy” with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica. His last movie appearance was in the 1990 historical drama “In nome del popolo sovrano”.

Dolores Taylor  (Sept. 27, 1932 – March 23, 2018) Wife of actor/director Tom Laughlin. Taylor helped conceive the screen character Billy Jack, co-writing (under the pseudonym Teresa Christina, the names of their daughters) with husband Laughlin, the films  “Billy Jack”, “The Trial of Billy Jack” and “Billy Jack Goes to Washington”. She was the executive producer of “Born Losers”, the 1967 film which introduced the character Billy Jack, “The Trial of Billy Jack”, the western “The Master Gunfighter” and “Billy Jack Goes to Washington”. She made her screen debut in a bit role and as an uncredited  narrator in “Born Losers”, but she is known for her recurring role as Jean Roberts in “Billy Jack”, “The Trial of Billy Jack”, “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” and the unfinished 1986 production of “The Return of Billy Jack”.

Anna-Lisa (Mar. 30, 1933 – Mar. 21, 2018) Norwegian actress, born Anne Lise Ruud, first traveled to America in 1954, making her TV debut in 1958 on the series “Sugarfoot” and quickly appeared in several additional western series including “Maverick” and “Bronco” as well as non-western series such as the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse”. A series regular on the 1959 western series “Black Saddle”, she made the first of her film appearances that same year as a scientist in the Three Stooges comedy “Have Rocket, Will Travel” and, again, played a scientist in the 1960 SF film “12 to the Moon”. In her only other motion picture appearance, she played Eva Braun in the obscure 1967 thriller “The Search for the Evil One”. Her other television appearances include “77 Sunset Strip”, “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza”, “Death Valley Days”, Ben Casey”, “Perry Mason”, “Sea Hunt”, “The Islanders”, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, “Surfside 6” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”.

Siegfried Rauch (Apr. 2, 1932 – Mar. 11, 2018) German actor, who made his film debut in 1956’s “Die Geierwally”. Rauch studied dramatics at the University of Munich, making this theatrical debut in 1958. After several appearances on German television, he would reappear on the motion picture screen in 1966’s “Kommissar X – Drei gelbe Katzen”, the second in a series of seven Eurospy thrillers starring Tony Kendall. Rauch would then appear in the films “The College Girl Murders”, the Lex Barker Eurospy thriller “Die Slowly, You’ll Enjoy It More”, “Kommissar X- Drei blaue Panther”, the fifth film in the series, the krimi “The Zombie Walks” and the drama “Peter und Sabine” before being cast in Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1970 WWII epic “Patton. The next year, Rauch would appear in perhaps his most notable international role, that of Erich Stahler, Steve McQueen’s racing rival in “Le Mans”. Rauch would appear as an invisibly disguised version of Juan Perón in the Radley Metzger’s 1973 exploitation drama “Little Mother”, John Sturges’ “The Eagle Has Landed”, the WWI drama “The Standard” with Simon Ward and Jon Finch, “Escape to Athena” and as Schroeder, a German Sergeant who acts as a symbolic doppelgänger to Lee Marvin’s American counterpart in Samuel Fuller’s “The Big Red One”. His extensive work on German television, which would consume the bulk of the later half of his career, is highlighted by the ‘series’ “Der Idiot”, “Es Muß nicht immer Kaviar sein”, “Wildbach”, “Das Traumschiff” and “Der Bergdoktor”.

Donna Butterworth (Feb, 23, 1956 – Mar. 1, 2018) American child actress, she made her film debut in Jerry Lewis’ “The Family Jewels” in 1965. She also co-starred with Elvis Presley in the 1966 musical “Paradise, Hawaiian Style”. She performed on the television variety shows “The Hollywood Palace”, “The Dean Martin Show” and “The Danny Kaye Show”, all in 1966. She filmed an unscheduled television sitcom pilot “Little Leatherneck” that was later aired on ABC during a fill-in series entitled “Summer Fun”. Her last appearance was in 1967 on a two-part “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” program.

Bradford Dillman (Apr. 14, 1930 – Jan. 16, 2018) American actor. Following his discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps. with the rank of first lieutenant in 1953, Dillman began studying with the Actor’s Studio, making his Broadway debut in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 1956. Contracted to 20th Century Fox, he made his motion picture debut in 1958’s “A Certain Smile”, followed by “In Love and War”, “A Circle of Deception” (during which he would meet his second wife, actress/model Suzy Parker) and two films directed by Richard Fleischer and co-starring Orson Welles, “Compulsion” and “Crack in the Mirror”. He also played the title role in Michael Curtiz’ 1961 biopic “Francis of Assisi”. He would not be seen in films again until starring in 1965’s “A Rage to Live”, concentrating, instead, on work in television, appearing on such ‘series’ as “Alcoa Premiere”, “Naked City”, “Ben Casey”, Wagon Train”, “The Greatest Show on Earth”, “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and a two-part drama on “Kraft Suspense Theatre” entitled The Case Against Paul Ryker, which would be spun-off into then 1965 series “Court Martial”, with Dillman and Peter Graves both reprising their roles. Dillman continued working in television, making multiple appearances on several popular ‘series’, including “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, “Dr. Kildare”, “The Big Valley” and “Judd for the Defense”, while reestablishing himself on the big screen, usually in supporting, character roles. His film work includes “The Bridge at Remagen”, “Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?”, “Brother John”, “Escape From the Planet of the Apes”, “The Way We Were”, John Frankenheimer’s American Film Theatre production of “The Iceman Cometh” and his subsequent “99 and 44/100% Dead”, “Gold”, the William Castle-produced “Bug”, “The Lincoln Conspiracy” (playing John Wilkes Booth), Joe Dante’s “Piranha”, and a pair of Dirty Harry features, “The Enforcer” and “Sudden Impact”. Through the mid-80’s, Dillman was a familiar face on the dozens of TV programs on which he costarred. He also starred, with Mary Frann, in the short-lived 1982 drama series “King’s Crossing”, as well as making ten appearances on “Falcon Crest as the character Darryl Clayton, and playing eight different characters during the run of “Murder, She Wrote”. Dillman also authored the football book, Inside the New York Giants, and an autobiography entitled Are You Anybody?: An Actor’s Life.

Jean Porter (Dec, 8, 1922 – Jan. 13, 2018) American actress born in Cisco, Texas, Porter moved to Hollywood at the age of 12 and was discovered in a dancing school by director Allan Dwan who featured her in an unbilled appearance in his 1936 musical “Song and Dance Man”. She was featured in uncredited roles in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “One Million B.C.” and “Babes on Broadway” before appearing in more substantial and memorable roles in “The Youngest Profession”, “Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble”, “Bathing Beauty”, “Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood”, “Twice Blessed”, “Till the End of Time”, “Sweet Genevieve”, “G.I. Jane” and “The Left Hand of God”. She appeared on several television programs including “Climax!”, “The Red Skelton Hour”, “The Abbott and Costello Show”, “77 Sunset Strip” and “Sea Hunt”. She was married to director Edward Dmytryk, a prominent member of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten.

Heather Menzies (Dec. 3, 1949 – Dec. 24, 2017) Born in Toronto, Menzies was cast in the role of Louisa Von Trapp for the Robert Wise film of “The Sound of Music” without any professional acting experience. Before the film’s release, she would have her on-screen TV debut in three episodes of “The Farmer’s Daughter” as well as appearing in an episode of “My Three Sons”. She also appeared in the films “Hawaii”, “Outside In”, “Hail, Hero!”, “Ssssss”, “Piranha” and “Endangered Species”. Her television appearances include the TV Movies, “James Dean”, “Tail Gunner Joe”, “Captain America”, “Doctor Dan”, “Man in the Middle” and “The Keegans”, a lead role in the short-live television incarnation of the film “Logan’s Run”, and episodes of “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Dragnet”, “Love, American Style”, “Bonanza”, “S.W.A.T.”, “The Love Boat”, “Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law”, “Room 222”, “The Smith Family”, “Barnaby Jones”, “The Six Million Dollar Man””Vega$” and “Spenser: for Hire”, the last two co-starring with her husband Robert Urich.

Suzanna Leigh (July 26, 1945 – Dec. 11, 2017) British actress, born Sandra Eileen Ann Smith but changed her named to Suzanna Leigh on the encouragement of her mentor, actress Vivien Leigh, who Sandra’s family claimed was her godmother. Leigh made her film debut with an uncredited appearance in the 1956 comedy “The Silken Affair”, followed by uncredited appearances in “Thunder Over Tangiers”, “Tom Thumb” and “Oscar Wilde”. Her first credited role was 1n 1963 on the British TV drama “It Happened Like This”. She appeared in the films “Bomb on High Street” and “The Pleasure Girls” before coming to the attention of producer Hal B. Wallis, who brought her to Hollywood to co-star in the comedy “Boeing, Boeing” with Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis. Wallis next cast Leigh as Elvis Presley’s romantic interest in the musical comedy “Paradise, Hawaiian Style”. Returning to England, she appeared in mostly horror films and thrillers through the early 1970’s, including “The Deadly Bees”, Ralph Thomas’ Bulldog Drummond adventure “Deadlier Than the Male”, “Subterfuge”, “Son of Dracula”, “Docteur Caraïbes”, “The Fiend” and a pair of Hammer productions, “The Lost Continent” and “Lust For a Vampire”. Her TV credits include “The Saint”, “The Persuaders!”, “Journey to the Unknown”, “Doctor Caraïbes” and “Trois étoiles en Touraine”. In 2000, she published her memoirs, entitled Paradise, Suzanna Style.

Bernie Casey (June 8, 1939 – Sept. 19, 2017) American actor and athlete. Casey distinguished himself with record setting results in track and field and a All-America designation while attending Bowling Green State University. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1961 with whom he played six seasons, with an additional two seasons as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. His film debut was in the 1969 western “Guns of the Magnificent Seven”, quickly followed by an appearance in Ralph Nelson’s “…tick… tick… tick…” and his first lead role in the low budget independent feature “Black Chariot”. Early television credits were highlighted by a role in the hit TV movie “Brian’s Song” as well as appearances on “Cade’s County”, “Longstreet” and “The Streets of San Francisco”. His motion picture credits during the early 70’s included blaxploitation fare such as “Cleopatra Jones”, “Hit Man”, “Black Gunn” and “Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde” as well as roles in Martin Scorsese’s period gangster drama “Boxcar Bertha”, the drama “Cornbread, Earl and Me” as well as starring as basketball star Maurice Stokes in the biographical film “Maurie”. Casey would also appear in “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, “Sharky’s Machine”, “Spies Like Us”, “Rent-a-Cop”, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, “Never Say Never Again” (as Felix Leiter), “Another 48 Hrs.”, “Under Siege”, “In the Mouth of Madness” and “On the Edge”. He also appeared on dozens of television series, including “Babylon 5”, “Just Shoot Me!”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Evening Shade”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Hunter”, “Police Story”, and was the star of three short-lived series, “Harris and Company”, “The Sophisticated Gents” and “Bay City Blues”.

Daliah Lavi (Oct. 12, 1942 – May 3, 2017) Israeli actress and singer, who made her film debut, while studying dancing in Stockholm, in 1955’s Swedish release “The People of Hemso”. Returning to Israel that same year due to her father’s death, Lavi starred in 1960″s “Blazing Sands” and played Cunégonde in the French World War II updating of “Candide”, her conversational proficiency in six different languages enabling her to easy adaptation in performing in films produced throughout Europe and America. appearing in quick succession “No Time for Ecstasy”, “Violent Summer”, “The Return of Dr. Mabuse” and Vincente Minnelli’s “Two Weeks in Another Town” in which she co-starred with Kirk Douglas who had originally arranged for her earlier dance studies. She starred in the horror film “The Demon”, Mario Bava’s “The Whip and the Body” with Christopher Lee, the German western “Old Shatterhand” with Lex Barker and Abel Gance’s penultimate theatrical release “Cyrano et D’Artagnan”, before returning to American film to star as the romantic lead in Richard Brooks’ adaptation of “Lord Jim”, co-starring opposite Peter O’Toole. Her subsequent films found Lavi presented as more of a sex symbol eye candy than as an actress of dramatic consequence, especially in a string of spy spoofs and Euro thrillers, including “Shots in 3/4 Time”, the first Matt Helm vehicle “The Silencers”, “Casino Royale”, “The Spy With the Cold Nose” and Ralph Thomas’ “Some Girls Do”. He last theatrical feature was the 1971 western “Catlow” starring Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna. In Germany she enjoyed success as a singer, releasing several extremely popular albums.

Tony Burton (Mar. 23, 1937 – Feb. 25, 2016) American actor. Born in Flint, Michigan, Burton was a two-time all-state football player and a Golden Gloves light heavyweight champion before becoming involved in a robbery for which he served a three and a half year prison sentence. After his release, Burton began working in regional theater, making his film debut in the 1974 Blaxploitation drama “The Black Godfather”. While appearing in numerous television series, he would appear in the films “The River Niger” and “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” before landing the role with which he would be most associated, that of boxing trainer and corner man Tony “Duke” Evers in 1976’s “Rocky” and every subsequent film in the franchise through 2006’s “Rocky Balboa”. His other film roles include Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13”, “Inside Moves” and “Hook”. His extensive television credits include a leading role in the acclaimed but short-lived comedy series “Frank’s Place, plus appearances on the ‘series’ “The Fall Guy”, “Twin Peaks”, “Kojak”, “Bret Maverick”, “In the Heat of the Night” and “Chicago Hope”.

Rex Reason (Nov. 30, 1928 – Nov. 19, 2015) American actor, born in Germany. After working on the theater stage at the Pasadena Playhouse since 1948, Reason would make a screen test at Columbia Pictures in 1951. He was signed to a two year contract, making his motion picture debut in an uncredited role in the 1952 Stewart Granger swashbuckler “Scaramouche”. That same year, Reason would enjoy top billing in the low budget adventure film “Storm Over Tibet”. He also would conclude his time with Columbia with appearances in “Salome”, “Mission Over Korea” and Don Siegel’s “China Venture”, before signing with Universal in mid-1953, at which he first appeared in Douglas Sirk’s lone western 1954’s “Taza, Son of Cochise” and “Yankee Pasha”, both under the stage name Bart Roberts. The next year, Reason would star in the film with which he is most famous, “This Island Earth”, playing scientist Dr. Cal Meacham, opposite Faith Domergue, Jeff Morrow and Russell Johnson. Reason would appear in “Kiss of Fire”, “Lady Godiva of Coventry”, “Raw Edge”, “The Creature Walks Among Us” and in 1957 co-starred with Clark Gable in Raoul Walsh’s “Band of Angels”. His remaining films are undistinguished westerns or war films, with his career taking a more productive turn toward television. He would appear on “Conflict”, “The Millionaire”, “The Web”, “Bronco”, “77 Sunset Strip”, “Sugarfoot”, “The Alaskans”, “Perry Mason” and “Wagon Train”. He starred in two series, the first the drama “Man Without a Gun” in which he played a newspaper editor who brought criminals to justice without the use of violence or a gun, an extremely unusual pacifistic stance for a western series. The second was the gangster crime drama “The Roaring Twenties”, in which he played a newspaper reporter. Reason would leave the series abruptly after the first season over creative differences in which he felt the violence of the program was becoming distastefully gratuitous. He was the elder brother of actor Rhodes Reason.

Jean Darling  (Aug.  23, 1922 – Sept. 4, 2015) American child actress who, at the age of four, was selected to join the cast of Hal Roach’s Rascals. She made her debut in the series in 1927’s “Bring Home the Turkey” in the role of Jean, a character she would play in most of her appearances with the Rascals until she exited the series in 1929 in “Saturday’s Lesson”, the last silent Rascals production. She subsequently made an uncredited appearance in John M. Stahl’s 1933 melodrama “Only Yesterday”. She appeared again uncredited in the 1934 Hal Roach produced Laurel & Hardy musical “Babes in Toyland” in the role of Curly Locks. In the same year she appeared as a young Jane in Christy Cabanne’s film version of “Jane Eyre”. Following this period of activity, Darling occupied many of her teen years in stage performance and radio, eventually making her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1942 musical revue “Count Me In”, also featuring Jean Arthur and Gower Champion. In 1945 she garnered acclaim while originating the role of Carrie Pipperidge in the Rouben Mamoulian-directed original production of Rodger & Hammerstein’s “Carousel”. Darling made an uncredited appearance in Lloyd Bacon’s 1953 “The I Don’t Care Girl” and would not make another film appearance until the 2013 silent comedy short “The Butler’s Tale”. 

Gregory Walcott  (Jan. 13, 1928 – March 20, 2015) American character actor. Walcott was born and raised in North Caroline, though at the end of World War II, joined the U.S. Army in which he served two years before making his way to California where he was discovered in a local theatrical production by a Hollywood agent. In 1952, Walcott made his screen debut in an unbilled role in the film “Red Skies of Montana”. That same year he would appear in three additional films, all uncredited, including “Fearless Fagan” and “Battle Zone”. Walcott would often be cast  Westerns or as detectives or military personnel. In 1955 he appeared in the films “Mister Roberts”, “Battle Cry” and “Texas Lady”. In 1959 he played the lead in the notorious Ed Wood production “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. Throughout his career, Walcott could be seen in dozens of television programs, mostly in police dramas or- especially  -westerns, including “Rawhide” on which he began a friendship with Clint Eastwood which led to later appearances in the Eastwood films “Joe Kidd”, “The Eiger Sanction”, “Every Which Way But Loose” and “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”. Walcott can also be seen in the films “Jet Attack”, “The Last American Hero”, “Norma Rae”, “The Steel Jungle”, “Midway”, “Captain Newman, M.D.”, “Prime Cut”, “The Sugarland Express” and, his last film appearance, in Tim Burton’s biopic “Ed Wood”. He also appeared in the television series “The High Chaparral”, “Wagon Train”, “The Rifleman”, “Maverick”,”Sugarfoot”, “Bonanza”, “87th Precinct”, “Laramie”, Dallas” and Murder, She Wrote”.

Rhodes Reason (Apr. 19, 1930 – Dec. 26, 2014) American actor who began his acting career in a stage production of “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Charles Laughton. His first film appearance was in a 1951 British short film “Jack Sterling: White Hunter”. That same year he made his television debut in an episode entitled “Prison Doctor” of the anthology series “Stars Over Hollywood”. Reason appeared in three Hallmark Hall of Fame television films before making his motion picture debut in an uncredited role in 1955’s “Lady Godiva of Coventry” which starred his older brother Rex. After enjoying his first onscreen credit in a motion picture in the 1956 noir thriller “Crime Against Joe”, he made two additional unbilled appearances in the films “Tension at Table Rock” and “Flight to Hong Kong”. He was featured in the films “The Desperados Are in Town”, “Emergency Hospital”, Voodoo Island”, “Yellowstone Kelly” and Frank Borzage’s “The Big Fisherman”. Reason’s TV work in the 1950;s was prolific, including appearances on “Tales of the Texas Rangers”, “Sky King”, “Frontier”, “Science Fiction Theatre”, “Whirlybirds”, “Wire Service”, “Cavalcade of America”, “Sugarfoot”, “Maverick”, “The Millionaire”, “The Silent Service” and two appearances on “Highway Patrol”. He starred as big game hunter John A. Hunter in the 1957 British TV adventure series “White Hunter”. Rhodes’ remaining film output was scant, concentrating his career mainly in television and theater. He appeared in the 1961 Vincent Sherman trial drama “A Fever in the Blood”, 1970’s “The Delta Factor”, making his last film appearance in the 1976 teen gang exploitation drama “Cat Murkil and the Silks” (aka “Cruisin’ High”), though his most prominent film role may have been in 1967, with Reason starring as Commander Carl Nelson in the Toho/Rankin co-production of “King Kong Escapes”. His additional television credits include a starring role in the 1961 series “Bus Stop”, multiple appearances on “77 Sunset Strip”, “Daniel Boone”, “Death Valley Days”, “The Time Tunnel” and “Here’s Lucy” as well as appearances on “The Rifleman”, “The Big Valley”, “Perry Mason”. “Mission: Impossible”, “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Phyllis”. One of his most remembered TV roles is that of the gladiator Flavius in the 1968 “Bread and Circuses” episode of “Star Trek”.

Marilyn Burns (May 7, 1949 – Aug. 5, 2014) American actress, raised in Houston, Texas, who made her film debut in an uncredited role in Robert Altman’s “Brewster McCloud”. She was cast in the role of Sarah in Sidney Lumet’s 1974 “Lovin’ Molly”, but was ultimately replaced by Susan Sarandon, though Burns was retained as a stand-in for both Sarandon and star Blythe Danner, resulting in another unbilled screen appearance. Her fortunes changed with her casting in the starring role of Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s 1974 surprise hit “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Burns would then play the role of real-life Manson Family member Linda Kasabian in Tom Gries’ 1976 TV miniseries “Helter Skelter”. The next year she would again work with “Chainsaw Massacre” director Hooper in his killer crocodile film “Eaten Alive”. She also appeared in the forgettable films “Kiss Daddy Goodbye” and Future-Kill”, but later would reprise her role of Sally Hardesty in the 1994 film “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”.

Paul Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) Brooklyn-born American film director-writer-actor who was born Irving Mazursky, but changed his name to Paul, while taking a break from his senior studies at Brooklyn College to make his film acting debut in Stanley Kubrick’s 1953 “Fear and Desire”. Mazursky was also featured memorably in Richard Brooks’ 1955 juvenile delinquency drama “The Blackboard Jungle”, though his acting career at the time was based in television with appearances in such programs as “The United States Steel Hour”, “The Kaiser Aluminum Hour”, “Adventures in Paradise”, “Michael Shayne”. “The Detectives”, “The Twilight Zone”, “The Rifleman”,  “The Real McCoys”, “The Dick Powell Theatre”, “Robert Montgomery Presents” and “Love on the Rooftop” and would not appear in another feature film until 1966’s “Deathwatch”. With Larry Tucker, Mazursky wrote the TV pilot episode for  “The Monkees” and collaborated on the script for “I love you Alice B. Toklas”, a film which was to have been Mazursky’s directing debut until he was replaced by Hy Averback after a dispute with star Peter Sellers. He enjoyed critical and commercial success with his 1969 comedy “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, which he followed up with the less enthusiastically received ,”Alex in Wonderland”. Mazursky continued to direct and write a series of astute observational comedies throughout the 70s, including “Blume in Love”, “Harry and Tonto”, the biographical “Next Stop Greenwich Village” and the acclaimed “An Unmarried Woman”, and in the 1980s entered into a prolific period which saw the release of “Willie & Phil”; “Tempest”, a contemporary reworking of the Shakespeare play; “Moscow on the Hudson”; “Down and Out in Beverly Hills, a remake of Renoir’s “Boudu Saved From Drowning”; “Moon Over Parador”, “Enemies: A Love Story”. In the 1990s, Mazursky released his final theatrical features “Scenes From a Mall” and “The Pickle”. He would direct two television films. the biographical “Winchell” and 2003’s “Coast to Coast”. His last film was the documentary “Yippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy”. With the emergence of Mazursky’s directing career, he also revived his acting (he would appear in all of his own films) ambitions, appearing in such diverse films as the 1978 version of “A Star is Born”, Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part I”, “Into the Night”, “Punchline”, Paul Bartel’s “Scenes From a Class Struggle in Beverly Hills”, “Carlito’s Way”, “2 Days in the Valley” and Orson Welles’ much-delayed 2018 release “The Other Side of the Wind”. He also appeared in numerous TV series including “The Sopranos”, “Once and Again”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Femme Fatales”.

Howard Smith (Dec. 10, 1936 – May 1, 2014) Documentary filmmaker and journalist, Smith dropped out of Pace College after one year to pursue writing. He worked as a freelance photographer, publishing material in several national publications including Life Magazine. As well as writing articles for numerous national publications including Playboy and The New York Times, Smith began writing his long running Scenes column for The Village Voice in 1966, providing colorful and invaluable coverage of the burgeoning youth movement and anti-establishment scene. His insider coverage of the 1969 Stonewall Riots was recalled in Kate Davis and David Heilbroner’s 2010 documentary “Stonewall Uprising”. He entered the film world after meeting with former evangelist Marjoe Gortner, with whom he collaborated in producing and co-directing (with Sarah Kernochan) the audacious piece of undercover documentary filmmaking, “Marjoe”, a scathing and witty exposé of the tent evangelist industry. He produced and directed a second documentary in 1977 with “Gizmo!”, a humorous look, using archival footage, at failed inventions.

Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 – Feb. 13, 2014) American actor who is best known as the patriarch John Walton Sr. in the long running TV series “The Waltons” (1972-1981) and a later number of television films based on the same characters. Waite served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948, before going to college, eventually earning a Master’s Degree from Yale University and becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister. He made his feature film debut in the role of Alibi (see photo, above) in the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke” and can be seen in “Five Easy Pieces”, “The Grissom Gang”, “The Magnificent Seven Ride”, “Chato’s Land”, “The Stone Killer”, “Trouble Man”, “Cliffhanger”, Michael Cimino’s remake of “Desperate Hours” and “Sunshine State”. In 1980 he directed, wrote and starred in the feature “On the Nickel”. On television, Waite was a familiar face appearing in dozens of series including “Nichols”, “CSI”, “Cold Case”, “Murder, She Wrote” and had recurring characters on several series including “The Mississippi”, “Carnivale”, “Murder One”, “Days of Our Lives” and played Jackson Gibb, the father of Jethro Gibb on eight episodes of the popular series “NCIS”.

Gloria Leonard (Aug. 28, 1940 – Feb. 3, 2014) American adult film actress and publisher. Born Gale Sandra Klinetsky, Leonard enjoyed careers as a bond trader, a public relations agent and a copywriter for Elektra Records, before starting her career as an actress in adult films in 1975 with an unbilled appearance in “Sex Maniac”, followed quickly by a featured role in Radley Metzger’s 1976 “The Opening of Misty Beethoven”. She also appeared Gerard Damiano’s “Odyssey: The Ultimate Trip” and the Joe Sarno directed films “Inside Jennifer Welles”, “Silky” and “All About Gloria Leonard”. Leonard was featured in “The Ganja Express” and the Radley Metzger film “Maraschino Cherry”, as well as several Chuck Vincent productions, including “Misbehavin'” and “Roommates”. She also appeared on the televisions programs “Simon & Simon” and “Silk Stalkings”. She is credited, during her tenure as the editor of High Society magazine with creating the phone sex industry.

Christopher Jones (August 16, 1941 – Jan. 31, 2014)  American actor (born William Frank Jones) who played the lead in the 1965 television series “The Legend of Jesse James”, and made his feature film debut in the 1967 film “Chubasco” co-starring with his wife Susan Strasberg. In 1968, Jones starred in what became his most celebrated role as the rock star turned President Max Frost in “Wild in the Streets” (co-starring Shelley Winters with whom he co-starred in his Broadway debut, “The Night of the Iguana” in 1961) and also starred in the same year’s “Three in the Attic”. In 1969, he starred in both the John le Carré spy thriller “The Looking Glass War” and “Una breve stagione”. David Lean cast Jones for the film “Ryan’s Daughter” without meeting with the actor, later finding his diminutive stature and high pitched voice (he was eventually dubbed) problematic for the role of Randolph Doryan. The troubled production would prove to be the last for the actor (except for a minor appearance in Larry Bishop’s 1996 “Mad Dog Time”) who retired from the film industry to pursue a career in art.

Rossana Podestà (June 20, 1934 – Dec. 10, 2013) Italian actress, born in Italian Libya, Podestà made her film debut in the 1950 comedy “Strano appuntamento” based on Vittorio Calvino’s play La torre sul polaio. She followed in 1951 with three films, “Domani è un altro giorno”, Mario Monicelli’s “Guardie e ladri” and played the lead role of Snow White in the fantasy “I sette nani alla riscossa” (released in the U.S. in the mid 1960’s under the title “The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue”). She would appear as Ofelia in the Shakespearean comedy “Io, Amleto”, the musical drama “Don Lorenzo” and in G.W. Pabst’s 1953 “Voice of Silence”. Podestà played the important role of Nausicaa in Mario Camerini’s 1954 international production of “Ulysses” co-starring with Kirk Douglas, and enjoyed starring billing in Emilio Fernández’ 1955 “We Two”. Upon seeing her performance in the film Fernández’ “La red” at a screening in Cannes, director Robert Wise chose Podestà to play the title role of his upcoming 1956 epic “Helen of Troy” despite the fact that the actress did not speak English and was given a crash course in the language. For a brief period she began appearing in international productions including “Santiago” with Alan Ladd, “Raw Wind in Eden” with Esther Williams and Jeff Chandler, and “Temptation” with Christian Marquand and Magali Noël, before appearing in a number of peplum films, including “La furia dei barbari”, “La spade e la croce”, “Solo contro Roma” and “La schiava di Roma”. Podestà starred in Robert Aldrich’s epic “Sodom and Gomorrah” and in Antonio Margheriti’s horror film “The Virgin of Nuremberg” with Christopher Lee, then starring in three films directed by her then-husband Marco Vicario, “Le ore nude” with Keir Dullea, and the caper films “7 uomini d’oro” and “Il grande colpo dei 7 uomini d’oro”. She would be absent from the screen for four years, returning in Vicario’s “Intimacy”, which began a new phase of Podestà’s episodic career, that of a star of commedia sexy all’italiana with appearances in “Homo Eroticus”, “Sex Diary”, “Seven Dangerous Girls” and “The Sensuous Sicilian” with Giancarlo Giannini. Later film roles include the Lou Ferrigno vehicle “Hercules”, and her last role in Giuseppe Bertolucci’s 1985 drama “Segreti segreti”.

Louis Waldon (Dec. 16, 1934 – Dec. 6, 2013) American actor best known for his appearances in the films of Andy Warhol. Waldon’s film debut came with Adolfas Mekas’ 1965 adaptation of a Mark Twain story “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story”, followed by starring roles in several  provocative features, the sex comedy “Misconduct” and two Joe Sarno productions, “The Swap and How They Make It” and “The Love Merchant”. In 1967 he appeared in Andy Warhol’s “The Nude Restaurant” which began an association with both Warhol and Warhol Superstar Viva who he shared the screen with in several films including “Keeping Busy”, the Warhol/Paul Morrissey directed “Lonesome Cowboys and “San Diego Surf”, “Cleopatra”, “Necropolis” and “Trapianto, consunzione e morte di Franco Brocani” and the 1969 Andy Warhol directed, two-character “Blue Movie” in which he engages in explicit sexual intercourse with Viva; a film which would be closed down by the New York City Police as obscene after playing only a eleven days at the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theater. Waldon also appeared in several independent cult curiosities including  the Warhol produced- Paul Morrissey directed “Flesh”, Henri Pachard’s “The Bizarre Ones”, “The Spy Who Came”, “Traumstadt”, “Lenz”, “S.P.Q.R.”, the Severn Darden scripted “The Virgin President” and Peter Bogdanovich’s 1985 “Mask”, the most popularly recognized film with which he would have association.

Paul Mantee (Jan. 9, 1931 – Nov. 7, 2013) American actor. With the exception of uncredited appearances in the films “Onionhead” and “Battle of the Coral Sea”, the first years of Mantee’s screen career consisted of guest appearances on a variety of TV series, including “Steve Canyon”, “Dragnet”, “Adventures in Paradise”, “Mike Shayne”, “Hawaiian Eye”, “77 Sunset Strip”, “The Rifleman”, “The Lieutenant”, “Cheyenne” and “Dr. Kildare”; a resume which would prove useful during the casting of what would become his signature part, the starring role in Byron Haskin’s 1964 SF adventure “Robinson Crusoe on Mars”, a role he won, in no small part, as the producers were looking for an unknown, but one with experience. Director Haskin was also taken with Mantee’s resemblance to real-life astronaut Alan Shepard. That same year, Mantee could be seen in the western “Blood on the Arrow. He would work sporadically in motion pictures throughout his career, appearing in “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?”, “That Man Bolt”, “The Manitou”, “The Great Santini”, “A Man Called Dagger”, “The Greatest” and “Day of the Animals”, though the greater emphasis in his work would remain in television. Mantee appeared on the ‘series’ “The Time Tunnel”, “The Fall Guy”, “Quincy M.E.”, “Mannix”, “Vega$”, “Hunter”, “Seinfeld”, “Dallas”, “Kojak” and played Al Corassa in over fifty episodes of “Cagney & Lacey”.

Ed Lauter (Oct. 30, 1938 – Oct. 16, 2013) Prolific American character actor, Lauter began his dramatic career as an understudy in the 1968 Broadway production of Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “The Great White Hope”, eventually making his way into the performing cast in 1970. He made his first television appearance in “Mannix” in 1971 and quickly followed with appearances on “Cannon” and “Longstreet”. His feature film debut assignment was in the 1972 cult western “Dirty Little Billy”, though he actually had four other film appearances released before that film saw distribution: “The Magnificent Seven Ride”, “The New Centurians”, “Hickey and Boggs” and Robert Benton’s directorial debut “Bad Company”. His best remembered role was likely in Robert Aldrich’s 1973 “The Longest Yard” (he also made a brief appearance in the 2005 remake), but he also appeared in “Executive Action”, “Magic”, “The Rocketeer”, Alfred Hitchcock’s final feature “Family Plot”, “Death Hunt”, “John Frankenheimer’s “French Connection II”, “The White Buffalo”, Seabiscuit”. Born on the Fourth of July”, “Lolly-Madonna XXX”, “Fat Man and Little Boy”, “Real Genius”, “Thirteen Days”, “Trouble With the Curve”, George C. Scott’s “Rage”, “Breakheart Pass”, “The Artist”, “King Kong” (1976 edition) and the upcoming “The Town That Dreaded Sundown”. His numerous television credits include “How the West Was Won”, “Golden Years”, “Kojak”, “Police Story”, “The Streets of San Francisco”, “E.R.”, B.J. and the Bear”, “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”, “St. Elsewhere”, “The Waltons”, “The A-Team”, “The Equalizer”, “Cold Case” and “Psych”.

Amidou (Aug 2, 1935 – Sept. 19, 2013) Moroccan actor associated with Claude Lelouch in eleven different films including “Le propre del’homme” (1961), “Les grands moments” (1965), “Une fille et des fusils” (1965), “Vivre pour vivre” (1967), “La vie, l’amour, la mort” (1969), “Le voyou” (1970), “Smic smac smoc” (1971), “Il y a des jours et des lones” (1990) and “And now…Ladies and Gentlemen” (2002). He starred as a desperate fugutive looking for redemption in William Friedkin’s 1977 masterwork “Sorcerer”. Amidou was also featured in the films “La chamade”, “Hideous Kinky”, “Rosebud”, “Rules of Engagement”, “Spy Game”, “Ronin” and “Victory”.

Julie Harris (Dec. 2, 1925 – Aug. 24, 2013) American actress. Harris attended the Yale School of Drama until leaving in 1945 to make her Broadway debut in “It’s a Gift”. She starred in the initial presentation of the Actors Studio in 1949 with the Elia Kazan directed “Sundown Beach”. In 1950, at the age of 24, she was cast as 12-year-old Frankie in “The Member of the Wedding”, a role which she would repeat in Fred Zinnemann’s 1952 film, marking her cinema debut. Her portrayal of Sally Bowles in “I Am a Camera” brought Harris the first of her five Tony Awards. In 1955 she co-starred with James Dean in Elia Kazan’s film “East of Eden”, that same year appearing on Broadway in “The Lark”, a role which would bring her a second Tony Award. She received additional Tony Awards for Best Actress for “Forty Carats” in 1969, “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln” in 1973 and “The Belle of Amherst” in 1977. She also received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. Harris was prolific in her appearances on television, appearing in a lead role on the Hallmark Hall of Fame more than any other actor. Her television appearances include regular roles on the “Thicker Than Water”, “The Family Holvak” and “Knots Landing”, as well as appearances on numerous series, including: “Actors Studio”, “Goodyear Playhouse”, “Kraft Suspense Theatre”, “Rawhide”, “Run For Your Life”, “Tarzan”, “Laredo”, “Bonanza”, “The Big Valley”, “The Name of the Game” and “Columbo”.   Her film credits include “I Am a Camera” (1955), “The Truth About Women” (1957), “The Poacher’s Daughter” (1958), “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962), “The Haunting” (1963), “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Harper” (1966), “Reflections in a Golden Eye” (1967), “The Split” (1968), “The Hiding Place” (1975), “Voyage of the Damned” (1976), “The Bell Jar” (1979), “Gorillas in the Mist” (1988) and “The Dark Half” (1993). Harris was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005.

Vadim Yusov (Apr. 20, 1929 – Aug. 23, 2013) Russian cinematographer whose  professional film debut was with a shared credit with Konstantin Brovin for the cinematography of the 1956 film “Obyknovennyy Chelovek”. His career was distinguished by work with directors Georgi Daneliya (“I Step Through Moscow” (1963), “Hopelessly Lost” (1973), “The Passport” (1990)],  Sergei Bondarchuk [“Boris Gudonov” (1986)] and Ivan Dykhovichny [“The Black Monk” (1988)], though he is most often associated with his long working relationship with Andrei Tarkovsky beginning with 1960’s “The Steamroller and the Violin”, and continuing with “Ivan’s Childhood” (1962), “Andrei Rublev” (1966) and “Solaris” (1972).

Luciano Martino (Dec. 22, 1933 – Aug. 14, 2013) Italian producer, screenwriter and director. The prolific and versatile Martino made his debut as a screenwriter as a contributor to the story of the 1955 film “La donna più bella del mondo” (“Beautiful But Dangerous”), as a producer with the 1963 Brunello Rondi horror film “Il demonio” (“The Demon”) and as a director with the 1965 Italian spy film “Le spie uccidono a Beirut” (“Secret Agent Fireball”). Highlights of his career as a producer crosses into most of the genres popular in the Italian film scene, including peplum with Antonio Margheriti’s 1964 “I giganti di Roma” (“The Giants of Rome”), crime dramas with “1973’s “Tony Arzanta” (“No Way Out”), the spaghetti western with 1977’s “Mannaja” (“A Man Called Blade”), the cannibal film with “La montagna del dio cannibale” (“The Mountain of the Cannibal God”),  giallo with 1972’s “Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa solo in ne ho la chiave” (“Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key”) and “Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?” (“The Case of the Bloody Iris”). However, Martino’s greatest legacy may lie in popularizing the commedia sexy all’italiana film, producing and writing a series of popular erotic comedy hits often starring Edwige Fenech, including 1972’s “Quel gran pezzo della Ubalda totta nuda e totta calda” (“Ubalda, All Naked and Warm”), 1973’s Giovannona Coscialunga disonorata con onore” (“Giovannona Long-Thigh”), 1975’s L’insegnante” (“The School Teacher”) and 1977’s “La vergine, il toro e il capricorno” (“Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer”) which he also directed. His career is most frequently associated with Fenech and his brother, director Sergio Martino, who helmed many of Luciano’s productions.

Haji (Jan. 24, 1946 – Aug. 10, 2013) Canadian born actress discovered by fleshmeister Russ Meyer while she was working as an exotic dancer. Her audition for his 1965 film “Motor Psycho” led to a major role as well as a lead role as Rosie, one of the three go go booted avengers in Meyer’s “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” which was released earlier than “Motor Psycho” so might be considered her actual film debut. On “Pussycat!”, Haji took on several roles for the maverick director including hairdressing, make-up and production assistant. She recommended her friend Tura Satana for casting in another of the lead roles. Haji appeared in several later Meyer films: “Good Morning…and Goodbye”, “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Supervixens” as well as exploitation drive-in fare such as “Bigfoot” and “Up the Alley” as well as the notorious sexploitation shocker “Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks”. Her career prestige high came with a role in “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie”, directed by John Cassavetes- her career favorite.

Karen Black (July 1, 1939 – Aug. 8, 2013) American actress who became one of the most recognized figures of the emerging maverick American cinema of the early 1970’s. A student of Lee Strasberg, she made her film debut in a minor role in 1960’s “The Prime Time”, and her Broadway debut as an understudy in the 1961 production of “Take Her, She’s Mine”. Honing her craft in theater throughout the early half of the 60’s, she reemerged to critical praise on Broadway in the short-lived 1965 production of “The Playroom”. A role in the 1966 film “You’re a Big Boy Now” was followed by a succession of roles on television, her debut coming in 1967 on an episode of “The F.B.I.”. Throughout her career she would appear on a great number of programs and television films (the most memorable of the latter certainly being the 1975 “Trilogy of Terror”) including “Run For Your Life”, “Mannix”, “The Big Valley”, “Judd for the Defense”, E/R”, “Saturday Night Live” and “Miami Vice”. Her small but colorful role in 1969’s “Easy Rider” would lead to her breakout role as the dim but innocent Raylene in Bob Rafelson’s 1970 “Five Easy Pieces”. Black quickly appeared in a series of small but interesting films including Jack Nicholson’s 1971 directorial debut “Drive, He Said”, “A Gunfight”, Born to Win” and “Cisco Pike”. The commercial and critical disappoinment of the anticipated filmization of “Portnoy’s Complaint” was followed by roles in “Airport 1975” and Jack Clayton’s film of “The Great Gatsby” (both 1974), “The Day of the Locust” and Robert Altman’s landmark “Nashville” (both 1975) in which she composed and performed her own songs, and in 1976 she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film “Family Plot” and Dan Curtis’ “Burnt Offerings”. Later notable films include “Capricorn One” (1978), “In Praise of Older Women” (1978), “Chanel Solitaire” (1981), Robert Altman’s “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” (she also appeared in the play on Broadway), “Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?” (1983), the 1986 remake of “Invaders From Mars” in which she co-starred with her son Hunter Carson, “The Player” (1992) and “House of 1000 Corpses” (2003).

Bernadette Lafont (Oct. 28, 1938 – July 25, 2014) French actress and one of the most notable faces of the Nouvelle Vague, making her film debut at the age of 18 in the 1957 François Truffaut short “Les Mistons”, then starring in Claude Chabrol’s initial feature “Le Beau Serge” in 1958. She would collaborate with Chabrol in a number of films throughout her career including, 1960’s “Les Bonnes Femmes”, 1978’s “Violette Nozière”, 1986’s “Inspecteur Lavardin” and 1987’s “Masques”. In her over 100 film and television film appearances, highlights of her cinema appearances include: “Les bon vivants”, Louis Malle’s 1967 “The Thief of Paris”, “To Catch a Spy”, Costa Gavra’s  1965 debut feature “The Sleeping Car Murders”, Raoul Ruiz’ 1997 “Genealogies of a Crime”, Jean Eustache’s 1973 “The Mother and the Whore” and François Truffaut’s 1972 “Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me”.

Jim Kelly (May 5, 1946 – June 29, 2913) American actor and martial arts master. Kelly rose to prominence in the field of karate, winning several world titles in the early 1970’s, subsequently opening a dojo which would be frequented by several notables in the Hollywood community, including Calvin Lackhart who Kelly would train for his role in the 1972 Hugh A. Robertson film “Melinda”, leading Kelly to obtain a role in the film, marking his cinema debut. The next year would find Kelly with a major role in the Robert Clouse directed-Bruce Lee hit “Enter the Dragon”, which would leave a favorable enough impression for Clouse to give Kelly the lead in his next film “Black Belt Jones”, marking the rising action figure as the first black martial arts star in American cinema. Subsequent movies would include the 1974 action films “Three the Hard Way” and Robert Clouse’s “Golden Needles”, the 1975 Antonio Margheriti western “Take a Hard Ride”, 1976’s “Hot Potato”, the sequel to “Black Belt Jones”, Al Adamson’s low budget “Black Samurai”, the Hong Kong produced “The Tattoo Connection” (often mislabeled “Black Belt Jones 2”) and Fred Williamson’s “One Down, Two to Go”.

Elliott Reid (Jan. 16, 1920 – June 21, 2013) American actor (sometimes billed as ‘Ted Reid’) who made his radio debut in 1935 on “The March of Time” and would subsequently would enjoy a fruitful career in the medium throughout the 39’s and 40’s, including an association with Orson Welles’ The Mercury Theater on the Air. Reid would make his Broadway debut in a Mercury Theatre production of “Julius Caesar ” in 1937, with his film debut coming in 1940 in Louis De Rochemont’s “The Ramparts We Watch”. Reid was one of the original members of Actors Studio and would appear in many television programs throughout the decades, including “The Jack Paar Tonight Show”, “To Tell the Truth”, “I Love Lucy”, “The Millionaire”, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “That Was the Week That Was”, Here’s Lucy”, “Love, American Style”, “All in the Family”, “The Odd Couple”, “Miss Winslow and Son”, “The New Dick Van Dyke Show”, “Designing Women” and “Seinfeld”. Reid also wrote scripts for several television programs including “Lou Grant”, “Love, Sidney” and “AfterMASH”. His most notable appearances in film were as Ernie Malone, Jane Russell’s love interest in Howard Hawks’ 1953 “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and as Prof. Shelby Ashton, Fred MacMurray’s rival in 1960’s “The Absent Minded Professor” and it’s 1963 sequel “Son of Flubber”. Reid’s other film credits include “A Double Life”, “Vicki”, “Inherit the Wind”, “The Thrill of It All”, “Move Over Darling” and “Blackbeard’s Ghost; his last film role was in the 1988 comedy “Young Einstein”.

Vivi Bach (Sept. 3, 1939 – April 22, 2013) Danish actress and singer who made her film debut in 1957’s “Krudt og klunker” becoming known as “The First Teenager”  before relocating in Germany in 1960 and eventually becoming known as the “the Danish Bardot”. Her German film career was features relatively undistinguished productions, highlighted by a spate of early musical comedies such as “Kriminaltango” and “Schlagerparade” before she branched out into an equally undistinguished variety of genre films including the 1963 British- German co-production  murder thriller “Death Drums Along the River”, a remake of the 1935 film “Sanders of the River”, the western “Le pistole non discutono”, the Italian comedy “Amore, all’ italiana”, Curt Siodmak’s comedy “Ski Fever”, Val Guest’s “Assignment K”, “Upperseven, l’uomo da uccidere”, “Holiday in St. Tropez” and “Mozambique”. Her German recording career was highlighted by a German version of the U.S. hit “Hey Paula”. Bach later became a popular German television personality in the 1970’s.

Milo O’Shea (June 2, 1926 – April 2, 2013) Irish film, stage and television actor who made his film debut in Michael Powell’s 1940 “Contraband”. He appeared in the coveted role of Leopold Bloom in Joesph Strick’s film “Ulysses” (photo, left) as well as in Zeffirelli’s 1968 production of “Romeo and Juliet”, “Barbarella”, “Sacco e Vanzetti”, “Loot”, “Theatre of Blood”, “The Verdict”, “The Purple Rose of Cairo”, “The Playboys” and “The Butcher Boy”. Onstage he starred in “Staircase”, the first openly homosexual comedy on Broadway, as well as in “Dear World”, “My Fair Lady” and “Mass Appeal”. He appeared in many British television series including “Z-Cars”, “ITV Play of the Week”, “Jackanory” and “Me Manny” and in America in the 1974 miniseries “QB VII”, “Cheers”, “Frasier”, “Early Edition, “Oz” and “The West Wing”.

Harry Reems (Aug. 27, 1947 – March 19, 2013) Most famous stage name of actor Herbert Streicher  who after uncredited appearances in mainstream films such as “Klute” and “The Cross and the Switchblade” and adult stag loops gained notoriety as one of the early male stars of the “Porno Chic” era of adult films, starring in “Deep Throat”, “The Devil in Miss Jones”, “Memories Within Miss Aggie”, the cult roughie “Forced Entry” and over 100 other hardcore titles. Reems was arrested and prosecuted in Tennessee in 1975 for his participation in “Deep Throat” under federal charges of distribution of obscene materials across state lines. He was convicted but the conviction was overturned in 1977. He was to appear in Paramount’s “Grease” but was replaced by Sid Caesar. Reems also appeared in Joe Sarno’s “Butterflies”, Doris Wishman’s “Deadly Weapons”, the 1972 “Ginger” sequel “The Abductors” and the 2005 documentary “Inside Deep Throat”.

Damiano Damiani (July 23, 1922 – March 7, 2013) Italian director and screenwriter who made his filmmaking debut with the 1947 documentary “La banda d’Affari” and directed his first commercial feature film with 1960’s “Il rossetto”. His 1966 spaghetti western “El Chucho, quién sabe?” is one of the seminal landmarks of the politically charged “Zapata” subgenre, and with 1968’s “Il giomo delia civetta”, Damiani seamlessly altered his critical eye from Revolutionary politics to corruptive connections between politicians, police and the Mafia with such dramas as “L’istruttoria è dimentichi”, Perché si uccide un magistrato” and the award winning “Confessioni di un Commissarro di Polizia al Procuretora della Repubblica”. His films also include “L’isola di Arturo”, “La noia”, “Sorriso del grande tentatore” and “Pizza Connection”  His experience with Hollywood was not as distinguished. being brought to America by producer Dino De Laurentiis to helm the badly received  1982 sequel “Amityville II: The Possession”.

John Kerr (Nov. 15, 1931 – Feb. 2, 2013) American actor who made his Broadway debut in 1953’s “Bernardine”, quickly followed by a lead role in “Tea and Sympathy”. Kerr made his film debut in Vincente Minnelli’s 1955 “The Cobweb”  and would reunite with director the next year to reprise his role in the film version of “Tea and Sympathy”. He declined the lead in Billy Wilder’s film “The Spirit of St. Louis” as he opposed Charles Lindburgh’s pre-war support of the Nazis. Kerr portrayed Lr. Joe Cable in the 1958 film “South Pacific”  and was prominently featured in Roger Corman’s classic “Pit and the Pendulum”. He also appeared in the films “The Vintage”. “Gaby”, “The Crowded Sky” and “Seven Women From Hell”. Kerr appeared in dozens of television series, making multiple appearances in several major series including “Arrest and Trial”, “Peyton Place”, “The F.B.I.”, “Police Story” and “The Streets of San Francisco”.

Mariangela Melato (Sept. 19, 1941 – Jan. 11, 2013) Italian film and theater actress who began her stage career in the early 1960’s working with both Dario Fo and Luchino Visconti, before making her film debut in 1969 in “Thomas e gli indemoniati” (Thomas and the Bewitched). In her film career she worked with several notable directors including Claude Chabrol, Vittorio De Sica and Elio Petri, but her greatest fame came in the 1970’s with her trio of films in collaboration with director Lina Wertmüller: “”Mimi metallurgico ferito nell’onore” (The Seduction of Mimi), “Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza…'” (Love and Anarchy) and most famously “Travolti da un insolito destino nell’ azzurro mare d’agosto” (Swept Away by an Unusual Destony in the Blue Sea of August). After a brief period in America in which she appeared in several unsuccessful films (“So Fine”, “Flash Gordon”), she returned to Italy where she continued to appear in theater, television and film, including a 1986 reunion with Wertmüller, “Notte d’estate con profilo greco, occhi a mandorla e odore di basilico” (Summer Night with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil).

Barbara Werle (Oct. 6, 1928 – Jan. 1, 2013) American actress, who began her professional career as a ballroom dancer, winning the Harvest Moon Ball dance competition which landed her an invitation on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. She later toured as part of the dancing team Barbara and Mansell. She made her TV debut in the first of seven appearances on “The Virginian” in 1963, followed quickly by roles on “McHale’s Navy”, “Channing”, “Destry” and “Dr. Kildare”. She made her movie debut in the 1965 Elvis Presley musical comedy “Tickle Me”. That same year she would appear in a second Presley vehicle “Harum Scarum” as well as in the epic World War II film “Battle of the Bulge”. Werle can also be seen in “The Way West”, a third Presley vehicle, 1969’s “Charro!”, “John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds” and, in perhaps her meatiest film role, “Krakatoa, East of Java” opposite Brian Keith and Maximilian Schell. She also filmed the western “Gone With the West”, co-starring with James Caan and Stephanie Powers, in 1969 but it was unreleased until 1975. Werle’s television credits include “Mister Roberts”, “Laredo”, “Ironside”, “The Name of the Game” and the 1970 series “San Francisco International Airport”.

Charles Durning (Feb. 28, 1923 – Dec. 24, 2012) American actor of film, television and theater. Durning, serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, was engaged in both the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach and the Battle of the Bulge. Wounded several times, including once by a German mine, he received, among other commendations, the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Heart medals. His acting career was continually split between theater, film and television, his film debut in 1962’s “The Password is Courage”. His other film appearances include “The Sting”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Sisters”, “Breakheart Pass”, “Twilight’s Last Gleaming”, “Mass Appeal” and “True Confessions”. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for “To Be or Not To Be” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”. On Broadway, he was featured in the original cast of Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “That Championship Season” and received the Tony Award for his performance as Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’. He was nominated for the Emmy Award nine times for his work on television, highlights of his career including his role as the Captain in the 1984 live broadcast of “Mister Roberts” and reoccurring roles on “Evening Shade”, “Rescue Me” and “Everybody Loves Raymond”.

Deborah Raffin (Mar. 13, 1953 – Nov. 21, 2012) American actress who was discovered by an agent while attending Valley College. She made her television debut in the 1973 TV movie “Of Men and Women” and her feature film debut the same year in “40 Carats”. She soon appeared in the films “The Dove”, “Once is Not Enough”, “God Told Me To” and “The Sentinel”, but was far more recognized for her work on television films including “Nightmare in Badham County”, “Ski Lift to Death”, “Mind Over Murder”, “For the Love of It” and “Haywire”, the mini-series “Noble House” and television series including “Foul Play”, “The Secret Life of an American Teenager”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “ER”,  and “7th Heaven”. She produced several television films including “Family Blessings”, “Futuresport” and “Windmills of the Gods” and later created, and ran with her husband, the successful audiobook company Dove Books-On-Tape.

Anita Björk (April 25, 1923 – Oct. 24, 2012) Swedish actress,who after attending the prestigious Dramatens elevskola would become one of the great stars of the Kungliga Dramatiska Teatem. Her extensive film work was highlighted by her starring role in the 1951 Strindberg adaptation “Frokën Julie”. She appeared in dozens of films including “Adalen 31”, “Kvinnors väntan”, Kvinna uton ansikte” and several Ingmar Bergman television dramas including “Markissinan de Sade”, “Enskilda samtal”, “Lamar och gör sig till” and “Bildmakama”.

Sylvia Kristel (Sept. 28, 1952 – Oct. 12, 2012) Dutch actress best known for her depiction of the sexual adventuress Emanuelle. In 1973, Kristel  competed in an won the title of Miss TV Europe, that same year making her film debut in the film “Frank en Eva” .The very next year she became an international star playing the title role in Just Jaeckin’s soft-core sensation “Emmanuelle”, a role she would reprise in four more films and several French television features. Though primarily known for sexually charged roles, including Jaeckin’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Curtis Harrington’s “Mata Hari”, she also appeared in the films “The Fifth Musketeer”, “The Concorde- Airport ’79”, the “Get Smart” film “The Nude Bomb”, “Private School” and the surprise 1981 hit “Private Lessons”. Her autobiography Nue was published in France in 2006.

Turhan Bey (Mar. 20, 1922 – Sept, 30, 2012) Austrian-born actor, born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy, who emigrated with his mother to Los Angeles in 1940 in order to escape Nazi persecution. He enrolled in drama classes, working at the Pasadena Playhouse, and while performing in an English teacher’s play, was discovered by a talent scout who signed him to a Warner Bros. contract under the name Turhan Bey. He made his film debut in the 1941 mystery “Shadows on the Stairs”, followed by “Bombay Clipper”, “The Mad Ghoul”, “Destination Unknown”, “The Mummy’s Tomb”, “Arabian Nights”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “White Savage, “Sudan” (the previous four co-starring with Maria Montez), “The Amazing Mr. X”, “Out of the Blue”, “Dragon Seed”, “The Climax” and “Song of India”. His popularity waning by the end of the 40’s, Bey would relocate to Vienna where he pursued a career in his lifelong passion for photography. He made a brief career resurgence in the 1990’s with appearances on the television ‘series’ “SeaQuest 2032”, “Murder, She Wrote” and “Babylon 5”.

Theodora Thurman (June 23, 1923 – Sept. 17, 2012) New York model who from 1955 to 1961 was the weather girl known as Miss Monitor on the NBC radio weekend program “Monitor”. She was one of the stars of the 1954 Ed Wood film “Jail Bait”, playing gun-toting girlfriend Loretta to Timothy Farrell’s reckless killer. She may also be seen as Miss Monitor, introducing the film “Ten Thousand Bedrooms” in it’s 1957 trailer.

Judith Crist (May, 22 1922 – Aug. 7, 2012) From the 1960’s through the 1980’s, Crist was one of the most popular, influential and acerbic film critics in America. Hired at the New York Herald Tribune as the assistant to the women’s editor, Crist moved through the journalistic ranks as reporter, feature writer and second-string theater critic before becoming the first regular female film critic of a major American newspaper. During a major newspaper strike, she reviewed theater and film for WABC-TV, at which time she was noticed the producer of NBC’s “Today” show and was hired in 1963 as the first regular “Toady” movie critic, a position she held until 1973. Crist was also the first film critic at New York magazine. She was also the film critic at TV Guide magazine for 22 years. Her other writings include the books ‘The Private Eye, The Cowboy and the Very Naked Girl’, “Take 22: Moviemakers on Moviemaking’ and ‘Judith Crist’s TV Guide to the Movies’.

Mary Tamm (March 22, 1930 – July 26, 2012) British actress whose best remembered film role is that of John Voight’s girlfriend Sigi in the 1974 film “The Odessa File”. A familiar face on British television, she later achieved great fame as the original Ramona on the long running TV series “Doctor Who” with Tom Baker,  before leaving that series after one season (1978-1979) over differences in how her character was reduced to a typical woman in distress rather than a fully developed character. Her last BBC series was “WestEnders”.

Isuzu Yamada  (Feb. 5, 1917 – July 9, 2012) Acclaimed Japanese stage and screen actress who made her film debut in 1930’s “Ken o koete” and in the active cinema years of her career, worked with many of Japan’s greatest directors, including Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Masaki Kabayashi and Yasujiro Ozu. She is probably best known to Western audiences from her film work with Akira Kurosawa in “Yojimbo”, as the Lady Macbeth-like landlady Osugi in Kurosawa’s adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s play in the 1957 drama “The Lower Depths” and most especially in her stunning portrayal as Asaji, (photo left) Kurosawa’s surrogate Lady Macbeth, in his adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” in the 1957 film “Throne of Blood”.

Richard Lynch (Feb. 12, 1940 – June 19, 2012) American actor who after serving in the Marine Corps. trained in New York City at both the H.B. Studio and the Actor’s Studio with Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg, commencing a fruitful theatrical career until his 1973 film debut in “Scarecrow” which changed the direction of his acting career to both film and television, with numerous appearances on significant programs of the times, such as “Police Woman”, “Baretta”, “Battlestar Gallactica”, “The Streets of San Francisco”, “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Fall Guy”. His performance as Moon, the cold-blooded mobster kidnapper in 1973’s “The Seven-Ups” established him as a powerful villainous movie presence. His scarred face, the result of an accidental burning in 1967 added to his persona as a screen villain seen to great effect in the films “God Told Me To”, “Bad Dreams”, “The Formula”, “The Ninth Configuration” and “The Sword and the Sorcerer”.

Victor Spinetti (Sept. 2, 1929 – June 18, 2012) Versatile Welsh comedic actor who notably appeared in all three live-action fictional Beatles films: “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Help!” (see photo, left) and “Magical Mystery Tour”. A television and stage veteran with deep associations with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, he memorably appeared in both the London and Broadway productions of “Oh! What a Lovely War” for which he received a Tony Award. He made his film debut in 1958’s “Behind the Mask” and his non-Beatles film credits include “The Taming of the Shrew”, “Under Milk Wood”, “The Little Prince”, “Voyage of the Damned” and “The Krays”.

Joyce Redman (Dec. 9, 1918 – May 10, 2012) English actress, raised in Ireland who spent the majority of her early career in the theatre, appearing with The Old Vic Company and the Comédie-Française as well as originating the role of Anne Boleyn in the New York production of Maxwell Anderson’s “Anne of the Thousand Days”. She appeared in numerous British series and television films, including the memorable 1978 production of “Les Miserables”. Though her cinema work was minimal by comparison- with her debut in a minor role in 1941’s “Spellbound” (AKA: “The Spell of Amy Nugent”) and the next year  featured in the Powell-Pressburger producyion “One of Our Aircraft is Missing” -she commanded critical accclaim for her portrayals of Jenny Jones/Mrs. Waters in Tony Richardson’s 1963 “Tom Jones” and Emilia in Laurence Olivier’s 1965 film of “Othello”.

Levon Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) American musician and actor, Helm joined Ronnie Hawkins and his band The Hawks in the early 1960’s, en route the group adding additional members including Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson, and when Hawkins later exited, the band changed identities several times until returning to the name The Hawks. Helm exited the band, replaced by Mickey Jones, but then returned as the group, during their period of unreleased recordings with mentor Bob Dylan, signed a new record contract under the new name The Band, with whom Helm assumed the role of drummer, his vocals highlighting several major recordings including “The Night They Tore Old Dixie Down”. After the announced split of the group, highlighted in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film “The Last Waltz”- a project highly criticized by Helm- he made his dramatic film debut playing Loretta Lynn’s father in the 1980 “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. In 1973 he would assume a major role in the epic “The Right Stuff” and appear in several other films of lesser quality including “Smooth Talk” and “Feeling Minnesota” until making a brief  but memorable appearance in Tommy Lee Jones’ masterwork “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”.

Paul L. Smith (June 24, 1936 – April 25, 2012) American actor who made his 1960 film debut in Otto Preminger’s “Exodus”. In the 1970’s he moved to Italy, where due to his heavy, bearded appearance he bore a striking resemblance to popular actor Bud Spencer and starred in a series of productions with Antonio Cantafora, a Terence Hill look-alike, which capitalized on the success of the Hill-Spencer “Trinity” films, including “Carambola”, “Carambola, filotto…tutti in buca”, “Noi non siamo angeli” and 1976’s “Simone e Matteo: Un gioco da ragazzi”, imported in the United States under the title “Convoy Buddies”, during which the distributor marketed Smith’s named as “Bob Spencer”, for which Smith successfully sued for damages to his career by infringement on his professional identity. Smith was featured prominently in several Hollywood films including “Midnight Express”, “The In-Laws”, “Popeye”, “Red Sonja” and “Dune” as well as several major television productions, including “Masada”, “21 Hours at Munich” and as King Farouk in the 1983 tv film “Sadat”.

William Finley (Sept. 20 1940 – April 14, 2012) American character actor who enjoyed a lengthy association with director Brian De Palma, his appearances beginning in the 1963 short film “Woton’s Wake” and continuing through “The Wedding Party”, “Murder à la mod”, the filmed stage production of “The Bacchus”- “Dionysus in ’69”, “Sisters”, “Phantom of the Paradise” (in which he portrayed the epoymous masked musician), “The Fury”, “Dressed to Kill” and “The Black Dahlia”. He also appeared in the films “Simon”, “Silent Rage”, “Wise Blood”, “The Funhouse” and “Eaten Alive”.

Martin Poll (Nov. 22, 1922 – April 14, 2012) American film and TV producer, who in the 1950’s restored and reopened the Bronx-based Biograph Studios to make it the largest working American studio outside of the Los Angeles area, assisting in the creation of such notable films as Elia Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd” and Sidney Lumet’s “The Fugitive Kind”. In the 60’s he sold the studio and began independently producing theatrical features with the 1963 romantic comedy “Love is a Ball”. He would produce ten more feature films including “Sylvia”, “The Possession of Joel Delaney”, “Nighthawks”, “Somebody Killed Her Husband” and “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea”, as well as numerous television projects including the Dashiell Hammett-based miniseries “The Dain Curse”, though he is probably best known for producing the 1968 historical drama “The Lion in Winter” as well as the 2003 cable television remake.

Luke Askew (March 26, 1932 – March 29, 2012) American actor who made his film debut in Otto Preminger’s 1967 “Hurry Sundown” remaining active through his role in the HBO series “Big Love”. His film work includes appearances in “Cool Hand Luke”, “Will Penny”, “The Green Berets”, “Easy Rider”, “The Culpepper Cattle Company”, “The Great Northsfield Minnesota Raid”, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, 1975’s “Posse” and “The Newton Boys”.

Hal E. Chester (March 6, 1921 – March 25, 2012) American actor and producer who began his professional career on stage in “Dead End” before making his film debut in 1938’s “Crime School”. Over the next several years he would play in numerous roles, though he is best remembered in the recurring role of Murph in Universal’s “Little Tough Guys” series. Leaving acting after 1941’s “Sea Raiders” to become a producer at Monogram Pictures, Chester changed his professional name from Hally Chester to Hal E. Chester, and took good advantage of his personal friendship with  popular comic strip “Joe Palooka” creator Ham Fisher and brought the strip’s characters to the screen in a series of eleven films. In 1953, Chester enjoyed a major success producing the deceptively low budget hit “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” incorporating the special effects of Ray Harryhausen in his first solo effects outing in a feature. Producing 1955’s “The Weapon” in Great Britain led to Chester relocating there for the rest of his professional life, where he co-wrote and produced the classic horror film “Night of the Demon” (AKA: “Curse of the Demon”) as well as “School for Scoundrels”. Other films produced by Chester include: “Crashout”, “The Bold and the Brave”, “His and Hers”, “The Double Man”, “The Secret War of Harry Frigg” and his last theatrical film, 1970’s “Take a Girl Like You”.

Robert Fuest (Sept. 30, 1927 – March 21, 2012) British director-writer who began work in the television industry as a set designer, working on the original incarnation of “The Avengers” series. Making his theatrical film directorial debut with 1967’s “Just Like a Woman” based on his own script, he then directed several memorable episodes of “The Avengers” and would later return in the reincarnation of the series with “The New Avengers” in the mid-70’s. His feature films were distinguished by their stylish visuals and increasing before filming a series of films distinguished by stylish visuals and an often dry, often offbeat sense of humor. His 1975 supernatural horror film “The Devil’s Rain” was so universally panned it redirected Fuest’s career to strictly television direction (with the exception of the final gasp effort, the soft-core “Aphrodite”). His films include an impressively rendered, though now generally ignored “Wuthering Heights”, the vastly underrated thriller “And Soon the Darkness” and an off-the-wall adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius novel “The Final Programme”, later retitled and (disastrously shortened) under the release title “The Last Days of Man on Earth”. His lasting fame is the result of his black comedy-horror masterpiece “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” and its lesser sequel “Dr. Phibes Rises Again”.

Joan Taylor (Aug. 18, 1928 – March 4, 2012) American actress who made her feature film debut in 1949’s “Fighting Man of the Plains” and appeared in the 1953 Bob Hope comedy “Off Limits”, the 1954 Howard Keel remake of “Rose Marie” as well as two Ray Harryhausen SF films, “Earth Vs. the Flaying Saucers” and “20 Million Miles to Earth”, though she mainly appeared in B-movies such as “War Paint”, “Fort Yuma”, “Girls in Prison” and “Apache Woman”. From the 50’s to her retirement from acting in 1963, she appeared in dozens of telkvision shows, most notably an 18 episode stint as Milly Scott” on “The Rifleman”.

Erland Josephson (June 15, 1923 – Feb. 25, 2012) Swedish actor, writer and director. Joesphson spent the bulk of the first half of his acting career pursuing his stage work, appearing in well over 100 plays, associated with the Municipal theatre, Helsingborg from 1945 to 1949, the Gothenberg Municipal theatre from 1949 to 1956, joining the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 1956, succeeding his friend and colleague Ingmar Bergman as Creative Director from 1966 to 1975, and finally making his English-language theatrical debut in 1988 in Peter Brooks’ production of “The Cherry Orchard”. But it is his association with Bergman by which Josephson enjoys his international acclaim (they even collaborated on two screenplays for 1961’s “The Pleasure Guardian” and 1964’s “And All These Women” under the combined pseudonym Buntel Ericksson). The two met in the late 1930’s when Josephson was in his teens, making his film debut in an uncredited role in Bergman’s 1946 “It Rains On Our Love”. He enjoyed more prominent roles in Bergman’s “Brink of Life” and “The Magician” (both 1958), but would return to the theater until appearing in Bergman’s 1968 “Hour of the Wolf”. For the next decade Josephson would appear in several Bergman films- “The Passion of Anna” (1969), “The Touch” (1971), “Cries and Whispers” (1972), “Scenes From a Marriage” (1973), “Face to Face” (1976), “Autumn Sonata” (1978), “Fanny and Alexander” (1982), “After the Rehearsal” (1984) and Bergman’s final film in 2003 “Saraband”. He became, in essence, the post-Von Sydow replacement for male interaction with favored actress Liv Ullman during this period of Berman’s career. Josephson’s persona in Bergman cinema was defined by a melancholic emotional remoteness, becoming a modern figure of introspective angst. Until his appearance as Nietzsche in Liliana Cavani’s “Beyond Good and Evil”, Josephson’s participation in cinema had been confined to Sweden. After his Caviani experience, he became a welcome addition in several films but notable international filmmakers, including: Dusan Makaveyev’s 1981 “Montenegro”, Philip Kaufman’s 1988 “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, Peter Greenaway’s 1991’s “Prospero’s Books”, Theo Angelopoulos’ 1995 “Ulysses’ Gaze” and most importantly in Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1983 “Nostalghia” and 1986 “The Sacrifice”.

Lina Romay (June 25, 1954 – Feb. 15, 2012) Spanish actressand Euro-cult favorite (not to be confused with the Mexican-American actress-singer, from whom she took her name) who was featured on over one hundred films, most directed by her eventual husband, Jesus Franco, often featuring her in hardcore situations. Highlights of her filmography include: “Female Vampire”, “Doriana Grey”, “Les predateurs de la nuit”, “Women Behind Bars” and “Der Dimenmörder von London”.

Bill Hinzman (Oct. 24, 1936 – Feb. 06, 2012) American actor, cinematographer, director and producer who will be forever remembered as the first zombie to appear in the cemetery in opening sequence of George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”. He also appeared in the Romero films “Hungry Wives” (AKA “Season of the Witch”), “There’s Always Vanilla” and 1972’s “The Crazies” (in which he also served as cinematographer). He also appeared in “Evil Ambitions”. “Santa Claws”, River of Darkness” and two of his own directorial efforts: “The Majorettes” and “FleshEaters”.

Ben Gazzara (Aug. 28, 1930 – Feb. 3, 2012) American actor who trained at the Actors Studio while working steadily during the 1950’s in several series and live broadcast productions. He performed on-stage in several important productions including the portraying Brick in the original production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “A Hatful of Rain” and a Broadway revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”. He starred in television series including “Arrest and Trial” an early 1960’s precursor to the similarly formatted “Law and Order”, “Run for Your Life” and the mini-series based on Leon Uris’ “QB VII”. Gazzara made his film debut in 1957’s “The Strange One” and two years later would receive critical acclaim for his role in Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder”. His association with directorial maverick John Cassavetes would yield three films that would continue to gain acceptance as milestones of independent American cinema: “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie”, “Husbands” and “Opening Night”. Gazzara also appeared in “The Young Doctors”, “The Bridge at Remagen”, “Road House”, “Voyage of the Damned”, “Bloodline”, “Saint Jack”, “Buffalo ’66”, “Dogville”, “Happiness” and “Tales of Ordinary Madness”.

Zalman King (May 23, 1942 – Feb. 3, 2012) Director/producer/writer/actor specializing in erotic film and perhaps best known for his long-running cable film and series “Red Shoe Diaries”.  Before assuming the director’s chair, the acting King made many television appearances in the 1960’s -70s, also appearing in drive-in fare such as “Trip With the Teacher” in which his hyperactively psychotic performance perhaps set a new standard in scene stealing, and the little seen cult treasure “Blue Sunshine”. His erotic signature can be found in his directorial efforts, including “Wild Orchids”, Two Moon Junction”, “Delta of Venus” and the aforementioned “Red Shoe Diaries”. He also produced the erotic hit “9 1/2 Weeks”.

Theo Angelopoulos (April 27, 1935- Jan. 24, 2012) The greatest of Greek film directors, almost completely unknown outside of Europe, his films were difficult, challenging and enriching with a singular cinematic view. Ignoring the general standards of montage and expression through editing which has become the cultural norm, the films of Angelopoulos are sometimes painstakingly methodical. Slow, with shots that are uncommonly extended; the events and characters within the frames meticulously planned in a sometimes otherworldly “living” mise en scene that often defy normal narrative conventions. His films also boldly traced social and political evolution in Greece, surprisingly, even when it was virtually impossible to be internally critical of the governing factions. Highlights of his career include “Landscape in the Mist”, “Ulysses’ Gaze”, “The Bee-Keeper”, “Megalexandros” and “O Thiassos” often regarded as his masterpiece. He was killed while struck by a motorcycle on location for a new film.

Dan Frazer (Nov. 20, 1921 – Dec. 16. 2011) American actor who trained in local theater in his native New York City for years until entering the U.S. Army Special Services, entertaining troops during World War II. Among his stage highlights was a later career definitive Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. He made his television debut in 1950 on “Studio One in Hollywood” and appeared on a vast amount of programs including “The Phil Silvers Show”, “The F.B.I.”, “The Invaders”, “The Untouchables”, “Car 54, Where are You?” and “Route 66”. He made his film debut in Ralph Nelson’s 1963 “Lilies of the Field”. He would also appear in “Lord Love a Duck”, “Fuzz”, “Cleopatra Jones”, “The Super Cops”, as well as appearing in three Woody Allen films: “Take the Money and Run”, “Bananas” and “Deconstructing Harry”. He often played police officers, an occupational role in which he would find his greatest success as Capt. Frank MacNeil in the five year run of television’s “Kojak” as well as a decade long run as a detective in the popular daytime soap opera “As the World Turns”.

Nicol Williamson (Sept. 14, 1936- Dec. 16, 2011) Brilliantly intense but troubled Scottish born actor who made early successes on stage in John Osborne’s “Inadmissable Evidence” and “Hamlet” both of which he would subsequently film for the cinema. He would later star on stage in 1976 in the Richard Rodgers flop “Rex” as a musical Henry VIII. Despite his immense talents,chronic bouts with alcohol and alarmingly unpredictable behavior caused him to be considered unemployable by many producers and directors. His additional film highlights include “The Bofors Gun”, “Laughter in the Dark”, “The Wilby Conspiracy”, “Robin and Marian”, “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution”, “The Wind and the Willows” and “Excalibur”.

Ken Russell (July 3, 1927- Nov. 27, 2011) Flamboyant British director who revolutionized the British documentary industry with his landmark 1960’s work on the BBC for the programs Monitor and Omnibus, being the first to use the then-controversial method of dramatic reenactments to illustrate biographical episodes instead of the usual photo documentary approach. His 1969 film “Women in Love”, with it’s landmark depiction of male nudity in a wrestling scene between actors Oliver Reed and Alan Bates, would cement his reputation as a director in tune with controversy as well as a director capable of serious aesthetic finesse. However, Russell’s refusal to cater to the expectations of either his critics or audiences would lead to vehicles of great and greater extravagant realization that would often lead to heavy censorship if not outright banning. His 1971 film “The Devils” has been rarely viewed intact, seeing distribution in ruinous butchered cuts, and even his most charming effort of the period- the wondrous homage to Berkeleyesque musicals- “The Boy Friend”, featuring the unlikely casting but star making turn by supermodel Twiggy, found it’s way to America heavily edited giving it little chance with critics or audiences. Success would follow with films such as “Savage Messiah”, “Mahler” and “Tommy”, though by now it was expected that the occasion of an Russell release would be precluded by the savage sharpening of critical knives, whether merited or not. Russell’s preoccupation with both religion and sexuality and their often unseemly intermingling would win him few champions with the critical elite. Hollywood itself would find little excuse to essentially shun him professionally after his disagreements during production of the 1980 film “Altered States” which so inflamed novelist/screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, that he used a pseudonymous credit Sidney Aaron on the production- despite it being a highly skilled translation of Chayefsky’s rather pedantic book.

Cynthia Myers  (Sept. 12, 1950 – Nov.  4, 2011))  Myers first became prominent as Playboy Magazine’s December Playmate of the Month in 1968, a photo feature- shot in her home town of Toledo, Ohio  -that was actually completed when she was 17 years of age and withheld by the magazine until her eighteenth birthday. She was also featured regularly on Hugh Hefner’s television show “Playboy After Dark”. Myers briefly appeared in the 1968 film “The Lost Continent” and in Sydney Pollack’s 1969 “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?” before landing a leading role as the bisexual rock star Casey in Russ Meyer’s 1970 “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”. She was also featured in a supporting role in Gary Nelson’s 1972 western “Molly and Lawless John”. 

Cliff Robertson (Sept. 9, 1923- Sept. 10, 2011) American actor possessed of a commanding intelligence, often cast in roles of corporate, governmental or military authority. He was often publicly critical of the film industry and in a courageous act of whistle-blowing accused Columbia Studios head David Begelman of check forgery. Begelman was subsequently removed from his position and found guilty of embezzlement, but in a typical Hollywood ironic/hypocritical twist, was given probation and punished with a new post as head of MGM, while Robertson was blacklisted from the industry for several years.A veteran of stage and 1950’s live television, Robertson received the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1968 film “Charly” a project he guided to fruition. Often cast in films unworthy of his talents, film highlights in his career include “Picnic” (his motion picture debut), “The Naked and the Dead”, “Gidget”, PT 109″, “Man on a Swing”, “Obsession”, “Sunday in New York”, Three Days of the Condor”, “Spider-Man”, Brainstorm” and, arguably, his finest hour as a fading rodeo cowboy in the 1972 film “J.W. Coop”, [see photo, above left] in which he not only starred but directed, produced and co-wrote as well.

Raul Ruiz (July 25, 1941- August 19, 2011) Chilean-born film director whose intelligent use of literary devices within the framework of the Cinema, created labyrinthine, psychologically surrealist films of an almost startling complexity. “Three Lives and Only One Death”, “Time Regained” and “Mysteries of Lisbon” are titles which merely scratch the surface of his cinematic oeuvre. Virtually unknown in the increasingly World Cinema illiterate American film culture, nonetheless he was an undisputed giant of the Cinema Art Form.