Gone With or Without fanfare

[Lzcutter]

Gregory Peck's widow, Veronique, has died. She was 80. Married to the actor for 48 years, she helped kept his flame alive after his passing. MrCutter and I saw her at the 2011 TCM Film Festival when she co-hosted the introduction to the To Kill a Mockingbird screening. (Mary Badham co-hosted the after screening chat).

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Veronique Passani Peck, the widow of actor Gregory Peck and a longtime arts patron, has died. She was 80. Family publicist Monroe Friedman says Veronique Peck died Friday of heart failure at her Los Angeles home.

Born in Paris, Veronique Peck met the actor when she interviewed him for the newspaper France Soir.

At age 23, she moved to the United States and married the movie star. Their marriage lasted 48 years until his death in 2003.

Veronique Peck helped create the Inner City Cultural Center in South Los Angeles, was a founder of the Los Angeles Music Center and a longtime fundraiser for the Los Angeles Public Library.

She is survived by two children, writer/producer Anthony Peck and documentary filmmaker Cecilia Peck Voll, a brother and three grandchildren.

[JackFavell]

William Windom, a fixture in television, movies and the stage for over half a century, has died at age 88.

Aggggh!

Even though he never had a series of his own that really made it, he guested on so many shows that I feel like I knew him. Despite his mild manner, or maybe because of it, he could play anything I think, serious, comic, dark, light, whatever. He never failed to move me or surprise me in some way. He was the epitome of the jobbing actor, and was always good, no matter what the tone of the show he was acting in. He could endear you to him or make you sick with hatred. He was exceedingly creepy in one episode of Night Gallery that still scares me to this day, and yet, I can also say I loved him when he played sweet natured or deluded types. Despite the disappointed groans I probably let out a few times when watching the opening credits of different shows ("Him again?") he will be sorely missed by at least one person here, namely me. A great favorite.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Adieu, Veronique.

Auf Wiedersehn, William Windom.

[RedRiver]

Anybody in my age group, who had a TV, knows William Windom. I was one of the few who watched the unfortunately overlooked Thurber show. I caught THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER a few times. But this is merely a speck on the man's long and impressive resume. If a week went by and I didn't see him in something, I simply wasn't watching enough TV! He'd turn up in a drama. A sit-com. An anthology show. I'd go to a movie, and damned if he wouldn't be there too!

BEN CASEY, CHEYENNE, GUNSMOKE, THE FUGITIVE. It would be easier to name the shows that were NOT enhanced by the presence of this solid professional.

He could endear you to him or make you sick with hatred

He was an actor.

[mrsl]

.
Such sad news to hear in one day, that Veronique Peck and William Windom have died. I recall the fierce love and admiration in Gregory Peck's demeanor when he spoke of Veronique and the humor he injected in how they met. She was an extension of his good life and hope somehow they are now together again.

Unlike Redriver, I was an avid viewer of the T.V. Farmer's Daughter. In fact when he got older, I could never accept him with the added weight and tended to compare him to the young and sleek Congressman he was on the show. However, disregarding how he looked, he was a T.V. icon for nearly 30 years and he will be sorely missed.
.

[Lzcutter]

This is totally unexpected. Earlier today there were reports of a man falling from the famed Vincent Thomas bridge in San Pedro. Now the police are identifying the body as Tony Scott, brother of Ridley and a director in his own right (Top Gun among others). The Scott brothers were also tv producers (Numbers and The Good Wife). His death is being treated as a suicide. Scott was 68.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Director Tony Scott died Sunday after jumping off a bridge in what authorities are calling an apparent suicide. He was 68.

The L.A. coroner's department confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that Scott's body was found dead after an apparent jump from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro. A note was found inside Scott's Prius parked on the bridge.

We are treating this as a suicide investigation," a rep for the coroner's department tells THR.

The search for Scott's body involved officers with the port police, the LAPD and the California Highway Patrol as well as the Coast Guard and city firefighters, according to the Daily Breeze, which first reported the news. Authorities reportedly had to use sonar equipment because the water is so murky around the port. His both, which was found around 4:30 p.m. by a dive team, has reportedly been turned over to coronor officials.

His death was confirmed by his publicist Simon Halls, who had no further details and requested that the family's privacy be respected at this time.

The Englishman was seven years younger than his brother and partner in Scott Free Productions, Ridley Scott.

The Scott brothers produced this year's Prometheus, which was directed by Ridley and has so far grossed $327 million worldwide.

In 1985, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer signed Scott to direct Top Gun, impressed by a commercial he had done for Swedish automaker Saab in the early 1980s in which a car races a fighter jet. Top Gun went on the gross $176 million domestic and make a star of Tom Cruise.

Scott reteamed with Simpson and Bruckheimer in 1987 to direct Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II and in 1990 with the NASCAR-set Days of Thunder, again starring Cruise.

Scott directed five films starring Denzel Washington: Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Deja Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) and Unstoppable (2010).

His other films include The Hunger (1982), Revenge (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), True Romance (1993), The Fan (1996), Enemy of the State (1998) and Spy Game (2001).

The Scott brothers were co-producers of the CBS series Numbers, which aired from 2005-10, and executive producers of another CBS drama, The Good Wife.

Tony Scott was an exec producer on The Grey earlier this year and an exec producer on Stoker, a movie Fox Seachlight is releasing next year starring Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman and written by Wentworth Miller.

The Scotts also executive produced Coma, a miniseries set to premiere Sept. 3 on A&E.

[CineMaven]

Dear god!!!!

[MikeBSG]

Sad to hear about Tony Scott. I liked "The Hunger," "Crimson Tide" and "Spy Game."

[RedRiver]

I didn't know the two directors were brothers. My heart goes out to all.

[JackFavell]

I saw the headline earlier.... talk about a WTF moment...I can't imagine how far down someone would have to be to do such a thing.

[Lzcutter]

Reports are coming out that Tony Scott had inoperable brain cancer.

My mom had a friend many years ago who had brain cancer. As I remember, it was very debilitating and only a matter of time.

[movieman1957]

My father-in-law died from brain cancer in 1995. It was a hard thing to watch.

[moira finnie]

*Sigh*...too much sadness lately, but now comes word that Phyllis Diller has died at age 95. A pioneering female comedian, she entertained for decades, dressing eccentrically and commenting on her life with a (mostly) fictionalized husband "Fang." Here is the obit from KTLA:

Comedian Phyllis Diller Dies at the Age of 95

Ms. Diller and friend.

KTLA News

12:22 AM PDT, August 20, 2012
LOS ANGELES -- Legendary comedian Phyllis Diller has died.

Diller died at her L.A. home, surrounded by family.

She was 95.

Diller was recovering from a fall and had been sick for the last few months.

She had been living in hospice care at her home.

Diller suffered a heart attack in 1999 and was later fitted with a pacemaker.

Diller began her career doing standup in 1952.

She rose to fame with her TV specials alongside Bob Hope in the 1960s.

Later that decade, Phyllis starred in her own show called "The Phyllis Diller Show" ... as well as a variety show called "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show." She was also a regular on "Laugh In."

Though her main claim to fame is her stand-up comedy act, Diller has also appeared in other films besides the three mentioned above, including a cameo appearance as Texas Guinan, the wisecracking nightclub hostess in the 1961 film Splendor in the Grass.

She appeared in more than a dozen, usually low-budget, movies, including voice work as The Monster's Mate in the Rankin/Bass animated film Mad Monster Party (1967), co-starring Boris Karloff.

More recent television appearances for Diller have included at least three episodes between 1999–2003 on the long-running family drama 7th Heaven, in one of which she got drunk while cooking dinner for the household, and a 2002 episode of The Drew Carey Show, as Mimi Bobek's grandmother. She posed for Playboy, but the photos were never run in the magazine.

Her voice can be heard in several animated TV shows, including The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972) as herself, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002)as Jimmy's grandmother, and on Family Guy in 2006 as Peter Griffin's mother, Thelma Griffin.

Diller had a cameo appearance in an episode of ABC's Boston Legal on April 10, 2007.

She appeared as herself, confronting William Shatner's character Denny Crane, alleging to have had a torrid love affair with him. They seemed to have enjoyed a romantic moment in a foxhole during World War II.

January 4, 2011, she appeared on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" as part of a panel of comedians.

Although known for decades for smoking from long cigarette holders in her comedy act, Diller is a lifelong nonsmoker, and the cigarette holders were stage props that she had specially constructed.

[mrsl]

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GEEZ, I'm about getting ready to start avoiding this particular topic. We used to get one, maybe two in a week or two, but lately they seem to be pounding us on the head daily.
.

[JackFavell]

How many in a row is it now? Golly.