Gone With or Without fanfare

[JackFavell]

Aww, man! Mrs. Krabappel... snif

[Western Guy]

Reckon Miss Wallace's animated counterpart will remain her most lasting legacy. But the character was a hoot.

BTW: Anyone else confuse her with perpetual 70s celebrity game show participant Fannie Flagg? Of course the latter shed that "distinction" for literary success.

[RedRiver]

Reckon Miss Wallace's animated counterpart will remain her most lasting legacy. But the character was a hoot.

I don't know about that. It will be a long time before older people forget Dr. Hartley's outspoken receptionist.

[JackFavell]

Yes, I used to get Fannie Flagg and Marcia Wallace mixed up. Both were a hoot and a holler!

When I was a kid, I used to watch Newhart solely for Carol the receptionist and Bill Daily as Howard. The fact that I remember both characters' names tells you something about how strong and comedic they both were. I was a little too young to find Newhart himself funny. That came later.

[Lzcutter]

He told us to take a walk on the wild side and many took him up on it over the years.

But, Lou Reed's wild side voyages will now take place on a more spiritual plane as the iconic rocker died at 71.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Lou Reed, the enlightened singer-songwriter whose walk on rock and roll's wild side included fronting the iconic 1960s group The Velvet Underground and taking on unsavory subjects in a fascinating solo career, died Sunday. He was 71.

In June, shortly after he canceled a gig at Coachella, it was announced that Reed had undergone a liver transplant operation at the Cleveland Clinic. "I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry. I am bigger and stronger than ever," he wrote on his website.

The New York Times said Reed died at his home in Southampton, N.Y. Rolling Stone first reported the news of the rocker's death.

Reed and photographer Mick Rock appeared in New York City on Oct. 3 to promote the launch of their book Transformer, filled with photos of Reed that included his days in the 1970s as a glam-rock paragon in the mold of David Bowie.

Reed married performance artist and electronic music pioneer Laurie Anderson in 2008. She survives him.

For more of the obit, go here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/r ... ies-648076

[Lzcutter]

Actress Mary Carver, who portrayed the mother of detective partners and brothers, Simon and Simon has passed away.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Mary Carver, who played the mother of the two private-detective brothers on the long-running CBS series Simon & Simon, died Oct. 18 following a brief illness. She was 89.

Carver starred as Cecilia Simon on 153 episodes of Simon & Simon, which ran for eight seasons from 1981-89. The series starred Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as mismatched brothers who run a detective agency in San Diego.

In an acting career that spanned more than 60 years, Carver also played the mothers of Goldie Hawn in Protocol (1984) and James Woods in Best Seller (1987). In Arachnophobia (1990), her character was one of many who died from a spider bite.

Carver also was seen on the big screen in such films as From Here to Eternity (1953), Pay or Die (1960), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977) and Safe (1995).

On television, the Los Angeles native had stints on The Donna Reed Show, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mannix, McCloud, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Lou Grant, Quincy, M.E., E.R. and Star Trek: Enterprise.

She appeared on Broadway in Out West of Eighth in 1951, The Shadow Box in 1977 and Fifth of July in the early 1980s and taught in the theater department at the University of Southern California.

Survivors include her daughters Lia and Athena. Donations may be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

[Nick]

British actor Graham Stark has passed away at the age of 91.

BBC News, 30 October 2013:

Graham Stark, Pink Panther actor, dies aged 91

British comic actor Graham Stark, best known for his recurring roles opposite Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 91.

The actor died in London on Tuesday after recently suffering a stroke.

Roles in Alfie and James Bond spoof Casino Royale were among his more than 100 screen credits.

It was his friendship with Sellers that secured his roles in the Pink Panther series, beginning with 1964 film A Shot in the Dark.

He played Inspector Clouseau's stone-faced assistant, Hercule Lajoy, a role he reprised in 1982's Trail of the Pink Panther. The part saw him say little more than "Oui, monsieur" to Clouseau's orders.

He later starred as Dr Auguste Balls in Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) and Son of the Pink Panther (1993).

He memorably also appeared in 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again, playing a German hotel clerk in a scene where Clouseau is bitten by a dog.

"I thought you said your dog did not bite?" says Clouseau, to which Stark replies: "That is not my dog."

Stark, who was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, made his professional debut at the Lyceum theatre in London in a pantomime aged 13.

After studying at Rada he volunteered for the RAF. During the war years he entertained the troops around the world with fellow airmen and future stars Sellers, Tony Hancock and Dick Emery.

He went on to star in numerous comedy TV shows, including The Idiot Weekly, A Show Called Fred and Benny Hill, before landing his own BBC sketch series, The Graham Stark Show, in 1964.

Other films in which he appeared include Victor Victoria, Superman III and Blind Date.

He also directed two films: the 1970 short Simon Simon and the 1971 comedy The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins.

Stark was a keen photographer and had exhibited his work - mainly images of his acting colleagues and friends - around the world. His autobiography, Stark Naked, was published in 2003.

He is survived by his wife, the actress Audrey Nicholson, and three children.

[Rita Hayworth]

Graham Stark is superb in making the Pink Panther Series great ...

[JackFavell]

I think his character in the Pink Panther movies was the only one with any sense, even if he was a bit bumbling. He was a minor bureaucrat who realized all the ridiculousness going on around him but was unable to do anything about it because he didn't have enough pull or was just plain scared (like any one of us in the work force). In many ways, I felt he was standing in for us, the audience. The action swirled around him, the one sane guy in the police department. His deadpan reactions to the most foolish requests, his futile and rushed attempts to help, to create order in chaos, he was quite the most sympathetic member of the cast.

He was so cute in the Pink Panther movies, I was always surprised and pleased when he turned up in other things, sometimes serious, like Becket, where he plays another functionary, this time of the Pope. He probably could have written a treatise or gotten his doctorate on his experiences in 1960's comedy - he was in pretty much every comic movie franchise at the time, including The Mouse That... series, The Benny Hill Show, The Wrong Box, Casino Royale, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and it's sequel, Alfie, The Magic Christian.... etc. If it was comedy, Graham Stark was in it.

[Professional Tourist]

He was terrific as the waiter in Victor, Victoria.

[JackFavell]

That's right! I forgot that one. Makes me want to have a Graham Stark film festival.

[clore]

RIP to Paul Mantee, star of the great 60s sci-fi film ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and a regular on CAGNEY AND LACEY.

http://www.malibutimes.com/malibu_life/ ... 963f4.html

[knitwit45]

[ChiO]

Sir John Tavener (January 28, 1944 - November 12, 2013) has fallen asleep. His compositions have recently been used in CHILDREN OF MEN and THE TREE OF LIFE. He and Arvo Part are the two contemporary composers in the Classical tradition that have most moved me. One of his compositions, The Whale, struck such a chord with the Beatles that they released it on Apple Records.

Rest in the same Peace that you brought to many others, Sir John.

Reflections on Tavener's life (BBC)
[youtube][/youtube]

The Protecting Veil - Extract
[youtube][/youtube]

Funeral Canticle (a portion was used in THE TREE OF LIFE)
[youtube][/youtube]

[Nick]

Shirley Mitchell (1919-2013) has died.

From Hollywood Reporter:

'I Love Lucy' Actress Shirley Mitchell Dies at 94

Shirley Mitchell, the comic actress who played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo's friend with the cackling laugh on the TV classic I Love Lucy, has died. She was 94.

Mitchell, who was believed to be the last surviving adult castmember from the legendary CBS sitcom, died Nov. 11 of heart failure at her condominium in Westwood, her sister-in-law, the Oscar-nominated Sunset Blvd. actress Nancy Olson, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Mitchell was the widow of Jay Livingston, the pop composer and lyricist who collaborated with Ray Evans on the Academy Award-winning songs “Mona Lisa” (performed by Nat King Cole), “Que Sera, Sera” (Doris Day) and “Buttons and Bows” (Bob Hope). The couple was married from 1992 until his death in 2001.

Mitchell joined the cast of Lucille Ball’s I Love Lucy for the 1953-54 season and appeared in three episodes. In one, “Lucy Tells the Truth,” Marion gets frank opinions about her new hat and her laugh during the girls’ weekly bridge game. (Lucy has bet Ricky (Desi Arnaz) and Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance) $100 that she can go 24 hours without telling a lie.)

“Marion, stop cackling. I’ve been waiting 10 years for you to lay that egg!” Lucy says.

The Marion character, which was originated by Margie Liszt in the second season, set Lucy and Ricky up on their first date.

Mitchell was very much an in-demand TV actress in the 1950s and ’60s. She played John Forsythe’s secretary Kitty Deveraux on several episodes of Bachelor Father; neighbor Marge Thornton on Please Don’t Eat the Daisies; Mae Belle Jennings, Kate Bradley’s (Bea Benaderet) cousin, on Petticoat Junction; and Opal Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.

On The Red Skelton Hour, she appeared as the shrill Clara Appleby, the wife of henpecked husband George Appleby (Red Skelton), in several sketches.

Her TV résumé also includes Pete and Gladys, The Jack Benny Program, Make Room for Daddy, Perry Mason, The Loretta Young Show, The Mothers-in-Law, The Doris Day Show, Green Acres, The Odd Couple, Chico and the Man, Three’s Company, Trapper John, M.D., Dallas and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

In 1972, Mitchell was the voice of Laurie Holiday on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Roman Holidays.

Born Nov. 4, 1919, in Toledo, Ohio, Mitchell was a radio star on such shows as The Great Gildersleeve and Fibber, McGee & Molly, and she became good friends with Ball during the redhead’s radio days on My Favorite Husband. She came to Los Angeles in the 1940s and transitioned to television on such shows as I Married Joan.

Mitchell also appeared on the big screen in such films as Jamboree (1944), Desk Set (1957), Big Business (1988) and The War of the Roses (1989).

In addition to Olson -- the widow of late Capitol Records president Alan Livingston -- survivors include her children, Scott and Brooke.