Who's Next To Croak?

Started by cine, September 28, 2003, 11:07:39 AM

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pete

the neighbor seems highly suspicious.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

jigzaw

i dont' know, i dont' want to talk about this

The Perineum Falcon

Quote from: jigzaw on March 06, 2006, 12:10:06 AM
i dont' know, i dont' want to talk about this
hmm, how suspicious....
exactly what a murderer would say.... :ponder:
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Ravi

http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-03-07-voa57.cfm

Superman Widow Dana Reeve Dies of Lung Cancer
By Rosanne Skirble
Washington, D.C.
07 March 2006

Dana Reeve - widow of Superman actor Christopher Reeve and advocate for victims of spinal cord injuries - died late Monday of lung cancer at the age of 44. Dana Reeve is among a growing group of non-smoking women who contract and die from the disease.

Dana Reeve had a nagging cough for about a year. It started in 2004, a few months after her husband's death. In an interview after she got the diagnosis she expressed surprise considering the risk factors for the disease. "I don't live in the city," she said on ABC television. "I don't work in a high-risk environment, and I am not a smoker. So it was never anything that would occur to me that I would get lung cancer, but the more I have learned about lung cancer is that it is becoming much more random, and it is striking women who are under fifty and are non-smokers and not in a risk environment."

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and a major killer throughout the world. Nearly 90 % of the cases are linked to smoking. The other ten-plus percent of the victims are - like Dana Reeve - non-smokers. And for reasons not yet well understood, a greater proportion of women who develop lung cancer are non-smokers compared to men who get the disease.

Derek Raghavan is the director of the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center.  He says second-hand smoke is a major threat. "Many of the people who list themselves correctly as never having smoked a cigarette have actually inhaled a lot of passive smoke." These are people, he says, "in the entertainment business," adding, "If they worked in clubs, particularly in the days when there was smoking allowed, they have been inhaling smoke for years. I think in truth at least half the cases of lung cancer in non-smokers are the sad situation where their parents smoked or their loved ones smoked or they worked in a smoky environment."

Raghavan says researchers are looking at other factors too. "For example, there is a gas called radon that sometimes accumulates in basements and when people go down to the basement in the winter, that is a risk factor," he says. "There is a lot of rubbish in the air that we breathe in. And, then there are unexpected and funny things. In China some of the women who cook their evening meal using a wok use some oils that are cancer-causing, and they have a higher chance of getting lung cancer."

Asbestos - a fibrous industrial material whose use is now limited or banned in many countries, including the United States - is also linked to the disease.

Lung cancer symptoms - shortness of breath, chest pain and coughing up blood - occur in only about one-quarter of the cases. The cancer claims its victims quickly. Only fifteen percent of those diagnosed with the disease survive as long as five years.

Some researchers recommend people at high risk have a special CT scan. However, other experts are awaiting the results of a large-scale clinical trial of such imaging tests which is currently underway.

Until early diagnosis is possible, American Cancer Society official Len Lichtenfeld advises people not to start smoking, and if you do to stop. "If there is some good that comes out of the situation with Ms. Reeve," he says, "it is a reminder that this is a disease that for many people can be prevented and unfortunately as in Ms. Reeve's case it is a situation where that was not the case."

174,000 new cases of lung cancer are predicted in the United States this year. One bit of good news: The death rate among men is declining, a development Dr. Lichtenfeld says is linked to the decreased use of tobacco products.

MacGuffin

Black American Filmmaker Gordon Parks dies

Gordon Parks, the former magazine photographer who became a leading black American filmmaker with movies such as "Shaft," died on Tuesday in New York City, his nephew Charles Parks said.

Parks, 93, had been in failing health, said the nephew, who lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Parks, born in Fort Scott, Kansas, took up photography during the Great Depression in the late 1930s and became Life magazine's first black staff photographer in 1948. He stayed until 1968.

He turned to filmmaking in the late 1960s, and in 1971 directed the hit movie "Shaft," which was one of the first of a wave of movies known as "blaxploitation" films that spoke directly to disenfranchised black Americans.

Parks' first movie, 1969's "The Learning Tree" was adapted from a novel he wrote about growing up poor and black in 1920s Kansas
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

mogwai

Comedian and writer John Junkin has died at the age of 76.

Junkin, who was in the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night and appeared in TV shows such as The Goodies, had been suffering from lung cancer.

He died at 0130 GMT at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, said his friend and former BBC Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis.

Five years ago, Junkin made a TV comeback in EastEnders, playing Ernie, a stranger who came into the Queen Vic.

The Ealing-born comedian had also had emphysema and asthma.

Junkin's film roles included Shake, who was one of the road managers in the Beatles' 1964 comedy adventure, A Hard Day's Night.

He also appeared in classic British comedy The Plank, with Tommy Cooper and Eric Sykes.

Talented

He was also a prolific writer. His credits include the Morcambe and Wise show and ITV's Hark at Barker, which starred Ronnie Barker as Lord Rustless alongside Josephine Tewson as Mildred Bates.

Junkin also wrote and appeared in Marty, which starred Marty Feldman.

More recently, Junkin was on the writing team of The Crazy World of Joe Pasquale and The Impressionable John Culshaw.

He also appeared in sitcoms Terry and June and Till Death Us Do Part.

His radio credits include Hello Cheeky! alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer, which was later turned into a TV series.

Ravi

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_en_mo/obit_stapleton

Actress Maureen Stapleton Dies at 80

LENOX, Mass. - Maureen Stapleton, the Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80.

Stapleton, a longtime smoker who had been living in Lenox, died from chronic pulmonary disease, said her son, Daniel Allentuck.

Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star personality and talent, won an Academy Award in 1981 for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's "Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.

To prepare for the role, Stapleton said she tried reading Goldman's autobiography, but soon chucked it out of boredom.

"There are many roads to good acting," Stapleton, known for her straightforwardness, said in her 1995 autobiography, "Hell of a Life." "I've been asked repeatedly what the 'key' to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."

Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar, including for her first film role in 1958's "Lonelyhearts"; "Airport" in 1970; and
Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978.

Her other film credits include the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie" opposite Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke, "Johnny Dangerously," "Cocoon," "The Money Pit" and "Addicted to Love."

In television, she earned an Emmy for "Among the Paths to Eden" in 1967. She was nominated for "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" in 1975; "The Gathering" in 1977; and "Miss Rose White" in 1992.

Brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family with an alcoholic father, Stapleton left home in Troy, N.Y., right after high school. With $100 to her name, she came to New York and began studying at the Herbert Berghof Acting School and later at the Actor's Studio, which turned out the likes of Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts.

Stapleton soon made her Broadway debut in Burgess Meredith's 1946 production of "The Playboy of the Western World."

At age 24, she became a success as Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit "The Rose Tattoo," and won a Tony Award. She appeared in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" and Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady," for which she won her second Tony in 1971.

She starred opposite Laurence Olivier in Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Stapleton's friendship with Williams was well-known and he wrote three plays for her, but she never appeared in any of them.

Along the way, she led a chaotic personal life, which her autobiography candidly described as including two failed marriages, numerous affairs, years of alcohol abuse and erratic parenting for her two children.

She often said auditioning was hard for her, but that it was just a part of acting, a job "that pays."

"When I was first in New York there was a girl who wanted to play 'St. Joan' to the point where it was scary. ... I thought 'Don't ever want anything that bad," she recalled. "Just take what you get and like it while you do it, and forget it."

Cast throughout her career in supporting roles, Stapleton was content not playing a lead character, Allentuck said.

"I don't think she ever had unrealistic aspirations about her career," he said.

Beside Allentuck, Stapleton is survived by a daughter, Katharine Bambery, of Lenox and a brother, Jack Stapleton, of Troy, N.Y.

sheshothim

Quote from: Xidentity Crixax on March 05, 2006, 10:48:21 PM
that article seemed really weirdly written. did it strike anybody else?

QuoteThe person who placed the emergency call told cops she went downstairs after hearing the commotion and found her neighbor lying in living room. It was then she contacted the police.
(from the Jackson 5 murder)

I think that line most specifically is suspicious. "The person"? I mean c'mon! Are you a reporter or what? If anyone is supposed to put any trust in this reporter, they should have gotten the names of more witnesses, etc. The only name you get is Johnny Jackson. Where are all the sources? Who the hell wrote this shit? They should be FIRED!
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

hedwig

Quote from: sheshothim on March 13, 2006, 03:15:05 PM
Where are all the sources? Who the hell wrote this shit? They should be FIRED!

that's it, I'm writing a LETTER.  :yabbse-angry:

sheshothim

Quote from: Hedwig on March 13, 2006, 03:23:35 PM
Quote from: sheshothim on March 13, 2006, 03:15:05 PM
Where are all the sources? Who the hell wrote this shit? They should be FIRED!

that's it, I'm writing a LETTER.  :yabbse-angry:

And when you do, please give the newspaper my name and number, and tell them I'm a MUCH better reporter than the person they should be firing. My hours are very flexible. I'm not afraid to move away from home. Hehe.  :wink:
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

MacGuffin

'20,000 Leagues' Director Fleischer Dies

Richard Fleischer, who directed several memorable films from sci-fi classics such as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" to war movies as "Tora! Tora! Tora!", has died. He was 89.

Fleischer died Saturday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his son, Mark.

Mark Fleischer said he remembered his father as a gentle man who always put family first.

"My parents made a great effort to insulate their children from the craziness of Hollywood," he said. "They made sure our lives were as normal as possible."

The director's father, Max Fleischer, and his uncles Dave and Louis, pioneered animated shorts in New York, starting in 1920 with the innovative "Out of the Inkwell" series. In the 1930s, they became rivals to Walt Disney with their popular Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor comedy shorts.

A quiet-spoken but firm-minded director, Richard Fleischer never achieved the recognition of his more flamboyant contemporaries, but his name was on a wide variety of well-known films, including "Fantastic Voyage" (1966); "Doctor Dolittle" (1967); "The Boston Strangler" (1968); "Che!" (1969); "The New Centurions" (1972); "Soylent Green" (1973); "Mr. Majestyk" (1974); "Mandingo" (1975); "Conan the Destroyer" (1984) and "Red Sonja" (1985).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred in "Conan the Destroyer," praised Fleischer as "a true Hollywood legend."

"He was a man of great talent and an extraordinary director who leaves behind a legacy of amazing films," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Ravi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4935322.stm

Italian actress Alida Valli dies

Italian actress Alida Valli, who starred in films by Alfred Hitchcock and Luchino Visconti, has died at the age of 84.

She made her cinema debut at the age of 15 and appeared in over 100 films.

They included Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947) with Gregory Peck, The Miracle of the Bells (1948) and Carole Reed's classic The Third Man (1949).

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said her passing was "a great loss for Italian cinema, theatre and culture".

Rome's Mayor Walter Veltroni praised her "incredible talent" and said Italy had "lost one of its most beautiful faces".

Born Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger in 1921 in Pola, now Pula in Croatia. She was discovered by US producer David Selznick, who awarded her a film contract thinking he had found a new Ingrid Bergman.

Her English-speaking career did not last long because of her thick accent, but she continued to act in Italian and French films, as well as theatre.

Valli won Italy's top David film prize in 1982 for a supporting role in Marco Tullio Giordana's La Caduta degli Angeli Ribelli and another for her career in 1991.

She was awarded a Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival in 1997 for her contribution to Italian cinema.

Her funeral will take place in Rome's city hall on Monday.

MacGuffin

Henry Bumstead, 91; Veteran Film Production Designer

Henry Bumstead, the veteran Hollywood production designer who won Academy Awards for his work on "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Sting" and whose longtime association with actor-director Clint Eastwood kept him on the job into his 90s, has died. He was 91.

Bumstead, who reportedly had prostate cancer, died Wednesday in Pasadena, his family said.

In a nearly 70-year career that began when he was a draftsman in the art department at RKO in the late 1930s, Bumstead's first picture as an art director was the 1948 Paramount drama "Saigon," starring Alan Ladd.

Bumstead received his Academy Awards for his depiction of 1930s rural Alabama in director Robert Mulligan's 1962 drama "To Kill a Mockingbird" and for re-creating Depression-era Chicago in George Roy Hill's 1973 comedy-drama "The Sting."

He also received Oscar nominations for his work on Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 romantic thriller "Vertigo" and for Eastwood's 1992 western "Unforgiven."

Bumstead, who was affectionately known as Bummy, had more than 100 films to his credit, including "Come Back, Little Sheba," "Cinderfella," "The Great Waldo Pepper," "Slap Shot," "The Front Page," "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here," Martin Scorsese's 1991 version of "Cape Fear," "Mystic River" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

Bumstead recently completed work on Eastwood's companion movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Red Sun, Black Sand," the last of a 13-film collaboration.

"Bummy was one of a kind," Eastwood said in a statement Friday. "He seamlessly bridged the gap between what I saw on the page and what I saw through the camera lens. He is a legend in his field and a cherished friend. We will all miss him terribly."

Bumstead once described his job as a production designer by saying, "In a nutshell, my job is to break down the script, find the best possible locations, make a budget and design the appropriate sets that correspond to the story."

For Eastwood's 2002 crime thriller "Blood Work," which was shot in and around Los Angeles and Long Beach, he built the elaborate interior of an old freighter with a flooded engine room.

"That was a big set, and I got to do some wonderful aging," Bumstead told The Times in 2002. "I'm a stickler for aging — the rust and the dirt. It was just a beautiful set."

The tall and bearish Bumstead was an unpretentious, down-to-earth survivor of the old Hollywood studio system.

"I love doing films," he said in a 2002 interview with the Dallas Morning News in which he made note of his career longevity and said, "I've never been laid off, I've never been fired and I've never looked for a job."

In the same interview, Bumstead added: "I wouldn't be working now at my age if it weren't for Clint Eastwood."

Their professional relationship began on the 1972 western "Joe Kidd," directed by John Sturges and starring Eastwood. That was followed by the Eastwood-directed 1973 western "High Plains Drifter."

While working on "Million Dollar Baby," Eastwood's Oscar-winning 2004 drama about a female boxer starring Eastwood and Hilary Swank, Bumstead learned that he had prostate cancer.

"Clint furnished me with a car and driver and a wheelchair," he told Daily Variety last year. "I went through radiation and chemotherapy, but I was still able to work for him."

"What really makes him invaluable is that he has a great reservoir of memory and technique of working with everybody from Hitchcock to [Billy] Wilder," Eastwood told Variety. "Of that era, he's the last man standing."

Lloyd Henry Bumstead was born in Ontario on March 17, 1915.

He received a scholarship to USC, where he briefly played football and studied architecture.

:yabbse-cry:
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pozer

Such a talented man.  And such an extraordinary legacy he leaves behind.  So glad to hear that he completed the back to back Eastwood films as his finale.

Ravi

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060528/ap_en_mo/obit_gleason

'Breakfast Club' principal Gleason dies
1 hour, 23 minutes ago



BURBANK, Calif. - Paul Gleason, who played the go-to bad guy in "Trading Places" and the angry high school principal in "The Breakfast Club," has died. He was 67.

Gleason died at a local hospital Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos, said his wife, Susan Gleason.

"Whenever you were with Paul, there was never a dull moment," his wife said. "He was awesome."

A native of Miami, Gleason was an avid athlete. Before becoming an actor, he played Triple-A minor league baseball for a handful of clubs in the late 1950s.

Gleason honed his acting skills with his mentor Lee Strasberg, whom he studied with at the Actors Studio beginning in the mid-1960s, family members said.

Through his career, Gleason appeared in over 60 movies that included "Die Hard," "Johnny Be Good," and "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." Most recently, Gleason made a handful of television appearances in hit shows such as "Friends" and "Seinfeld."

Gleason's passions went beyond acting. He had recently published a book of poetry.

"He was an athlete, an actor and a poet," said his daughter, Shannon Gleason-Grossman. "He gave me and my sister a love that is beyond description that will be with us and keep us strong for the rest of our lives."

Actor Jimmy Hawkins, a friend of Gleason's since the 1960s, said he remembered Gleason for a sharp sense of humor.

"He just always had great stories to tell," Hawkins said.

Gleason was survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. Funeral plans were pending.