Amph Hollywood Death Watch

S'alright. I was relieved when I saw it, because I thought someone else had died.

 

Courtesy of JWD:

Cinematographer Don Peterman, 1932-2011

 

Dwayne McDuffie died on Tuesday, and while he was more known for being a comic author, since he was a writer on DC DVDs, and Justice League, and created Static Shock the show, this place also seems fitting for him.

 

Don Peterman was a world-class director of photography. His resume is spectacular in terms of big Hollywood movies: Star Trek IV, Men in Black, Addams Family Values to name a few.

Don Peterman IMDB credits

It's especially interesting to note that Peterman worked on two movies for Barry Sonnenfeld who himself had been one of the absolute best directors of photography in Hollywood before moving over to the director's chair. It's not easy to be the DP on a film where the director knows your job as well, or better, than you do.

 

Jane Russell, 1921-2011

Often a very popular actress with her costars; Mitchum was a big fan of hers; and she even got on with Marilyn Monroe (her director on "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Howard Hawks, found Monroe utterly infuriating, but discovered that if he told Russell what he wanted, she would be able to explain it to Monroe...and did. So her protective style in that movie with Monroe was a reflection of real life.)

See: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", "The Tall Men", "Paleface" and "Son of Paleface" (in which she's far more entertaining than Bob Hope.)


Gary Winick, 1961-2011

"As Cinetic's Matt Dentler sadly noted in his tweet announcing the passing of Gary Winick last night, the timing was "too late to make the Oscar [in memorium] tribute, but way too early." In a cruel twist of fate, it wasn't unusual for the writer/director, who was set to turn 50 next month, to be ahead of his time.

Winick was of course a filmmaker first, leaving behind a dozen films that grew from small-scale indie dramas to crowdpleasers such as "Charlotte's Web" and "Letters to Juliet" that charmed audiences by the millions. Yet his most enduring legacy is likely the one he left on a smaller community, the thousands of filmmakers who have and will continue to benefit from his work as a digital pioneer at the turn of the century as the founder of InDigEnt, the collective he created with Cinetic's John Sloss and IFC Films [our corporate sibling] to make films for under $100,000 on digital video."

 

Michael Gough 1916-2011

Yes, he's the original Alfred in "Batman"

 

[image=http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/gough2.jpg]

"Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you sir?"



A great legend of the big and small screen, also famous for appearing in Doctor Who a couple of times.

 

I hate to say it, but I thought he passed away a couple of years ago.

Still, sad news.

 

You're not alone.

 

Gough's first film acting credit was in 1946. His last film credit was voicing the Dodo bird in Tim Burton's billion dollar hit Alice in Wonderland. He only had few lines, but I thought it was cool that Burton invited him to the party to act when he was in his 90s!

I had forgotten that Michael Gough worked for George Lucas. He played Leo Tolstoy in an episode of the Indiana Jones Chronicle's TV series.

Check out his imdb credits page...pretty amazing longevity.

Michael Gough acting credits

 

Almost as awesome as Christopher Lee

 

I thought he was very good as Alfred, even in the Schumacher films

 

The Hammer version of The Phantom of the Opera, with Herbert Lom as a sympathetic, tragic Phantom, also features Gough as a caddish, amoral high society bastard. It's a small performance, but a great one, utterly hissable and slimy. It was interesting to see him playing a character so different from Alfred and being so good at it.

 

Time to update this thread. Elizabeth Taylor died this morning.

Link

 

A true LEGEND of the screen.

The word is bandied about so casually that it needs such emphasizing when it is truly applicable. Although her acting might have been inconsistent, there's a fine crop of significant performances in her career, not to mention some charismatic juvenile turns. I'm not sure that anyone more extraordinarily beautiful than Taylor during the 1950s has ever graced the silver screen. As beautiful, maybe. But not more.

 

I never thought she'd outlive Mickey Rooney. May she rest in peace...

 

Rooney's still alive, age 90.

 

Elizabeth Taylor had the most extraordinary eyes.

If this isn't THE most spectacular entrance a character has ever made in the
history of motion pictures, then it's certainly in the Top 2.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra makes an entrance in Rome

 

I concur with this assessment.

 

#1 would be her actual intro in the film, perhaps.

 

You're absolutely right, Nevermind. I meant to say that I was surprised Mickey Rooney had outlived Taylor, seeing as how he's 10 years older...

 

I figured you had. Just ignore me.

 

This is sad, I was just watching a segment of Cleopatra the otherday...