Who's Next To Croak?

[cowboykurtis]

I try my best - to be sarcastic, and have sex with curvy women.

[matt35mm]

Perhaps it's time to move this discussion to another thread?

[Pubrick]

this thread has croaked.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Perhaps it's time to move this discussion to another thread?

I was wondering that, myself... is Lindsay Lohan being ugly really making her close enough to death?

[cine]

Batman's Riddler, Frank Gorshin, dead
Talented impressionist played George Burns on B'way

BURBANK, California (AP) -- Actor Frank Gorshin, the impressionist with 100 faces best known for his Emmy-nominated role as the Riddler on the old "Batman" television series, has died. He was 72.

Gorshin's wife of 48 years, Christina, was at his side when he died Tuesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, his agent and longtime friend, Fred Wostbrock, said Wednesday.

"He put up a valiant fight with lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia," Mrs. Gorshin said in a statement.

Despite dozens of television and movie credits, Gorshin will be forever remembered for his role as the Riddler, Adam West's villainous foil in the question mark-pocked green suit and bowler hat on "Batman" from 1966-69.

"It really was a catalyst for me," Gorshin recalled in a 2002 Associated Press interview. "I was nobody. I had done some guest shots here and there. But after I did that, I became a headliner in Vegas, so I can't put it down."

West said the death of his longtime friend was a big loss.

"Frank will be missed," West said in a statement. "He was a friend and fascinating character."

Gorshin earned another Emmy nomination for a guest shot on "Star Trek."

In 2002, Gorshin portrayed George Burns on Broadway in the one-man show "Say Goodnight Gracie." He used only a little makeup and no prosthetics.

"I don't know how to explain it. It just comes," he said. "I wish I could say, 'This is step A, B and C.' But I can't do that. I do it, you know. The ironic thing is I've done impressions all my life -- I never did George Burns."

Gorshin's final performance will be broadcast on Thursday's CBS-TV series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

[matt35mm]

That's pretty sad news.  I always liked him.

[modage]

yes thats really sad.  he was a great riddler.  although he was looking pretty bad on that batman cbs thing that ran a year or two ago.

[MacGuffin]

Filmmaker Ismail Merchant dies at 68

LONDON (AP) -- Filmmaker Ismail Merchant, who with partner James Ivory became synonymous with classy costume drama in films such as "A Room With A View" and "Howards End," died Wednesday. He was 68.

Merchant died surrounded by family and friends at a hospital in London, Merchant Ivory Productions said.
 
Merchant, who was born in Bombay but spent most of his life in the West, had been unwell for some time and recently underwent surgery for abdominal ulcers, according to Indian television reports.

Merchant and Ivory, an American, made some 40 films together and won six Oscars since forming their famous partnership in 1961 with German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Their hits -- especially E.M. Forster adaptations like "A Room With a View" and "Howards End" -- helped revive the public's taste for well-made, emotionally literate period drama.

In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Merchant said Merchant-Ivory films worked because they captured great stories.

"It should be a good story -- speak about a time and place that is permanent," he said. "It should capture something wonderful with some great characters whether it's set in the past or in the future."

Merchant generally served as producer, the business mind behind the collaboration, while Ivory directed.

Merchant first traveled to the United States in 1958 to study for a business degree at New York University.

He met Ivory in a New York City coffee shop in 1961. Their first film together, "The Householder," was based on a novel by Prawer Jhabvala, and its 1963 premiere was held at the residence of then-U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith.

"When we first began, Ruth told us she had never written a screenplay," Merchant told AP. "That was not a problem since I had never produced a feature film and Jim had never directed one."

Merchant and Ivory departed in recent years from the flawlessly appointed period films for which they were famous.

They offered their take on French farce in 2003 with "Le Divorce," starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.

They also were at work on "The Goddess," a musical about the Hindu goddess Shakti, starring a singing, dancing Tina Turner. Also to be released is "The White Countess," a period drama set in China and starring Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson.

[MacGuffin]

Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at Age 73

NEW YORK - Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as Mrs. Robinson, the seducer of her daughter's boyfriend in the 1967 movie "The Graduate," has died, a spokesman for her husband, producer Mel Brooks, said Tuesday. She was 73.

She died of cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, spokesman John Barlow said.

Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Keller, who was born deaf and blind. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. Despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, "The Graduate" overshadowed her other achievements.

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him in a hotel room: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. ... Aren't you?"

Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer: "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.' We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world.... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

Her beginnings in Hollywood were unimpressive. She was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952 and given the glamour treatment. She had been acting in television as Anne Marno (her real name: Anna Maria Louise Italiano), but it sounded too ethnic for movies. The studio gave her a choice of names; she picked Bancroft "because it sounded dignified."

After a series of B pictures, she escaped to Broadway in 1958 and won her first Tony opposite     Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seesaw." The stage and movie versions of "The Miracle Worker" followed. Her other Academy nominations: "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964); "The Graduate" (1967); "The Turning Point" (1977); "Agnes of God" (1985).


 
Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

[matt35mm]

Aw no.

My condolences to Mel Brooks and the rest of the family.

She's right, "The Miracle Worker" was fantastic.  She was especially fantastic in it, along with Patty Duke.  It was a really fascinating on-screen relationship that they developed.  That's why she won the Oscar.

[Thrindle]

Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at Age 73

No no no no no no.  

[modage]

besides the graduate i thought she was great in Great Expectations.  

[03]

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him in a hotel room: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. ... Aren't you?"

?

[Pubrick]

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him in a hotel room: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. ... Aren't you?"

?

We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world.... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

it would appear ppl finally are.. enuff to not even remember wtf the scene was. sheesh!

i'll remember her from her appearance with mel in curb on Opening Night.

[modage]

Graduate soundtrack fun facts:

- The song "Mrs. Robinson" was originally "Mrs. Roosevelt."

- In his 1967 review of the film, Roger Ebert called the soundtrack "instantly forgettable."

- The film's producers were completely opposed to a Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack. They allowed Mike Nichols to use the duo only if he agreed to cast Anne Bancroft instead of French (!) actress Jeanne Moreau.