Gone With or Without fanfare

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RedRiver
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by RedRiver »

Sad news. Fans of THE SET-UP, as gritty a boxing fim as ever there was, will never forget this battered, but never defeated, lady of the night.
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CineMaven
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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“I’m going to wait standing up. It’s a hot day and that’s a leather seat.
And I’ve got on a thin skirt.”


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She was one of those in the tough mold like Marie Windsor or Ann Savage. I liked her. More and more I'm loving those character actress leading ladies. My favorite role of hers though, was one where she was a little light and breezy - "The Unsuspected." She didn't smile a lot in movies, so when she did, it felt very special. Let me pay my respects to AUDREY TOTTER. I hope TCM can add her contribution to their year-end memorial. She surely deserves it.
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clore
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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The actor Peter O'Toole, who found stardom in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81, his agent has said.

The acclaimed leading man who overcame stomach cancer in the 1970s passed away on Saturday at the Wellington hospital in London following a long illness, Steve Kenis said.

O'Toole announced last year he was stopping acting saying: "I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."

He said his career on stage and screen fulfilled him emotionally and financially, bringing him together "with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits."

Early in his career O'Toole became emblematic of a new breed of hard-drinking Hollywood hellraiser.

"We heralded the '60s," he once said. "Me, [Richard] Burton, Richard Harris; we did in public what everyone else did in private then, and does for show now. We drank in public, we knew about pot."

Last month it was reported he had been coaxed out of retirement to act in a film about ancient Rome called Katherine of Alexandria in which he would play Cornelius Gallus, a palace orator.

O'Toole is believed to have been born in Connemara in County Galway in Ireland, and lived in London. He shot to stardom in the 1962 film of TE Lawrence's life story and went on to star in Goodbye Mr Chips, The Ruling Class, The Stunt Man and My Favourite Year. He received an honorary Oscar in 2003 after receiving eight nominations and no wins - an unassailed record.

He is survived by his two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips, and his son, Lorcan O'Toole, by Karen Brown.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/de ... es-lawrenc e-arabia
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moira finnie
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by moira finnie »

Thanks for letting us know about this Chuck, though the month has been a sad one for those who cherish the work of many of these individuals. Even though the last few times I saw him, O'Toole was clearly in pain from arthritis and other issues, he burned so brightly in my memory as a young man with so many gifts, I am still surprised to read this news.
Rest in Peace.

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JackFavell
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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RedRiver
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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AUDREY TOTTER. I hope TCM can add her contribution to their year-end memorial. She surely deserves it.

If they don't, I'll be very disappointed.
clore
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by clore »

Tom Laughlin of "Billy Jack" fame passed away on December 12:

http://www.billyjack.com/
RedRiver
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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Having read of the great Peter O'Toole's passing, I had to take a moment before coming to this thread. Is it possible to name the very best actor I've ever seen? Perhaps that's excessive. But I've seen none better than this brash, energetic, remarkably sensitive Irishman. He was the kind of player you can't take your eyes off of. Even if his co-stars are equally talented, likely as not, O'Toole is the one who holds your attention. He was one of the all too few who climbed into a character and brought it to full, flesh, breathing life.

Yes, he was known to step over the line of believability. Bellowing and growling with a little more verve than you or I would muster. But he did this with such admirable commitment it's hard to criticize. He's so comfortable over the top, you almost wish he'd stay there! But he doesn't. The man is at his very best, his most astonishing to be honest, when he tones it down. In GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS, his finest portrayal, the soft-spoken schoolmaster never raises his voice; is not prone to excitement. But look at those eyes when he learns of the death of the only woman he's ever loved. You see it again in MY FAVORITE YEAR. When Alan Swan watches his daughter from afar, no words are needed to convey the regret he feels at losing her.

His Henry II is all but incomparable. At once funny, tragic, commanding and vulnerable, it's one of the screen's most theatrical performances. I refer to LION IN WINTER, of course. But he does justice to the same character in BECKET. Lawrence? We could talk all day! Such a big story. So visual and majestic. Yet so much of it is occupied by the energy and honesty of one man.

O'Toole made some movies I didn't like. Some I haven't even seen. But talent such as this doesn't go unnoticed. The first time I saw him, I became a fan. The last time, I was just as loyal.
Last edited by RedRiver on December 15th, 2013, 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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RedRiver wrote:
O'Toole made some movies I didn't like. Some I haven't even seen. But talent such as this doesn't go unnoticed. The first time I saw him, I became a fan. The last time, I was just as loyal.

MY THOUGHTS


When, I read this paragraph Red River ... I have the exact same feelings as you ... O'Toole is a master of his game and I loved him in every movie that he made including SUPERGIRL (1984) when he played Zaltar and did a remarkable job doing so.

I also loved him in MASADA (TV Mini-Series) of which he played General Cornelius Flavius Silva. He was superb in that mini-series too. He made that role very believable and commanded a presence when he appeared on screen. I wished this TV Mini-Series come back on television one more time. I just loved it.

He was a delight as Professor Henry Higgins in another made for TV movie - Pygmalion.

And, he is a gifted as he can be.
RedRiver
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by RedRiver »

I'd love to see that PYGMALION. For that matter, he might have been good in MY FAIR LADY. I wonder if he ever did it.
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by Western Guy »

Wow! These days before Christmas are really turning out to be a bummer:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... z2na6GDF7B
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Tom Laughlin ... Man, he was another favorite of mine ... I loved Billy Jack!
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Lzcutter
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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"Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend,
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away."

Tom Laughlin, who took his war veteran character Billy Jack through four films, from kind-hearted biker to martial arts kicking pacifist to the halls of Congress and learned a couple of valuable lessons about over indulgent filmmaking and copyrights along the way, has died. His break-through film Billy Jack will be remembered as a rallying film for teens of the early to mid-1970s who flocked to theaters and drive-ins to cheer the lead character on.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Tom Laughlin, the actor, writer, director and producer behind the Billy Jack films, has died. He was 82.

His family announced on BillyJack.com that Laughlin died Thursday "at sunset" near his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

The Billy Jack series started with Born Losers (1967), in which Laughlin's character battles a motorcycle gang that terrorizes and rapes women in a California beach town.

In Billy Jack (1971), Laughlin defends a hippie-themed school, stands up for Native American schoolchildren and kills a man for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. After three studios fell off the film, Laughlin sued and arranged distribution on his own. Billy Jack grossed more than $40 million in a rerelease, one of the most successful independent films of its time.

The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) finds our hero in and out of prison and is marked by a bloody finale meant to reflect on the campus-shooting incidents of the day, like the one at Kent State in 1970. And in Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977), which never made it to theaters, Jack is appointed a U.S. senator.
A fifth film, The Return of Billy Jack, was started in the mid-1980s but never finished.

Laughlin also wrote, produced and starred in The Master Gunfighter (1975), with the actor freeing Native Americans during the California mission period. And he had a role in the London-set 1978 version of The Big Sleep, directed by Michael Winner and starring Robert Mitchum.

Earlier, Laughlin had the lead in The Delinquents (1957), the first dramatic feature directed by Robert Altman.

A native of Milwaukee, Laughlin attended several colleges, for whom he played football. He made his onscreen debut in a 1955 episode of Climax!, appeared on The Millionaire and other shows and was in the films South Pacific (1958) and Gidget (1959).

Laughlin and Taylor, who survives him, were married for 60 years. Survivors also include their children Frank, Teresa and Christina (they also were involved in the Billy Jack films) and five grandchildren.

Services were not announced. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks that donations be made to Friends of Pine Ridge or the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

I suspect that the TCM Memoriam will be reedited to include Audrey and Peter O'Toole. The only Tom Laughlin films they have been able to ever secure the rights to is Born Loser, Gidget and South Pacific (he has a small role) so will be interesting to see if they include him in this year's memorial or next years.

"One tin soldier rides away".......
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

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Bad news continue to abound.

Academy Award winning actress Joan Fontaine, known for her beauty and her decades long feud with her sister, Olivia deHavilland, has died.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Joan Fontaine, the polished actress who achieved stardom in the early 1940s with memorable performances in the Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion — for which she earned the best actress Oscar over her bitter rival, sister Olivia de Havilland — and Rebecca, has died. She was 96.

THR awards analyst Scott Feinberg spoke with the actress' assistant, Susan Pfeiffer, who confirmed the death of natural causes Sunday at Fontaine's home in Carmel, Calif.

Fontaine earned a third best actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Constant Nymph (1943), She also was notable as Charlotte Bronte's eponymous heroine in Jane Eyre (1944) opposite Orson Welles; in the romantic thriller September Affair (1950) with Joseph Cotton; in Ivanhoe (1952) with Robert Taylor; and in Island in the Sun (1957), where she plays a high-society woman in love with an up-and-coming politician (Harry Belafonte).
It was Hitchcock, with his penchant for “cool blondes,” who brought Fontaine to the forefront when he cast her as the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca (1940), the director’s American debut. Her performance as the new wife of Laurence Olivier in a household haunted by the death of his first wife earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.

A year later, Hitchcock placed her opposite Cary Grant in Suspicion, and she won the Oscar for her turn as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth, a shy English woman who begins to suspect her charming new husband of trying to kill her. She thus became the only actor to win an Oscar in a Hitchcock film.

Among those Fontaine beat out at the 1942 Academy Awards was her older sister de Havilland, up for Hold Back the Dawn (1941). Biographer Charles Higham wrote that as Fontaine came forward to accept her trophy, she rejected de Havilland’s attempt to congratulate her and that de Havilland was offended. The sisters, who never really got along since childhood, finally stopped speaking to each other in the mid-’70s.

De Havilland, a two-time Oscar winner, is 97 and living in Paris.

For more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/a ... ion-665831

If I was a producer of the TCM Memoriam, I would pull it after all the announcements the last few days and retool it.

Update: There is talk that this is a hoax. But the Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Entertainment Weekly have all posted obits in the last half hour. It's being confirmed not only by the trades but by TCM staffers and others as well over on Facebook. It's not a hoax.
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

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Vecchiolarry
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare

Post by Vecchiolarry »

Hello Everyone,

Very, very sad news today and yesterday of Audrey Totter, Peter O'Toole and now Joan Fontaine...
TCM really needs to redo their Memoriam, as these were magnificent stars - certainly O'Toole and Fontaine...
This is the very reason I wrote previously that their tribute is too premature...

Olivia certainly will now "be livid", as Joan once said in an interview years ago - "Olivia is very put out that I was the first to marry, have children, divorce and win an Oscar; if I die first, Livie will be livid!!"......
I wonder if Miss De Havilland will issue a statement?

Larry
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