Gone With or Without fanfare

[JackFavell]

I was trying to find a good clip of Ernie from The Catered Affair to post, but could not. He's simply fantastic in the sometimes painful account of good people trying to make ends meet, while ensuring that their daughter doesn't make the same mistakes they did. It's my favorite of his many great performances. Thanks for the tip on Pay or Die, Moira, and Lynn, thanks for the in depth article.

[Robert Regan]

Here's a different tribute to Borgnine with quite a surprise.

http://briandanacamp.wordpress.com/2012 ... /#more-534

[Rita Hayworth]

I always loved Borgnine in Movies (especially Marty) and his two television series McHale's Navy and Airwolf.

[Western Guy]

A few more names of older celebs still among us:

Coleen Gray (1922)

Margia Dean (1922)

Mickey Knox (1921)

[Lzcutter]

He followed in his father's footsteps, tried to keep his father's studio from closing by greenlighting films as diverse as The Sound of Music and Planet of the Apes but he also greenlit Dr. Doolittle, with his partner David Brown brought us The Sting, Jaws and many other films. With his wife, Lilly, he produced Driving Miss Daisy which brought Jessica Tandy her Oscar and Cocoon which brought Don Ameche and Gwen Verdon back to the big screen.

Richard Zanuck has died at 77.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Richard D. Zanuck, whose distinguished producing career included the best picture Oscar winners The Sting and Driving Miss Daisy, the blockbuster Jaws and such well-regarded films as The Verdict and Cocoon, died Friday of a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 77.

More recently, Zanuck produced Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows. He worked on six films with the director.

Regarded as one of the more progressive producers in Hollywood, Zanuck was partnered with his wife, Lili Fini Zanuck, in the Zanuck Co. Their first production was Driving Miss Daisy (1992). Along with four Oscars, the film captured several other top honors: a Golden Globe award, the National Board of Review Award and Producer of the Year honors from the Producers Guild of America.

In 1999, Zanuck and his longtime partner, David Brown, received the Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It marked the first time that an honoree was a second-generation recipient – Zanuck’s father, former 20th Century Fox head of production and chairman Darryl F. Zanuck, was given the award in 1938, 1945 and 1951. They also are the only father and son producers to be nominated for best picture Oscars.

In a statement Friday, Steven Spielberg related a story about working with Zanuck on Jaws, the summer thriller that became the first movie to break the $100 million mark domestically.

"In 1974, Dick Zanuck and I sat in a boat off Martha's Vineyard and watched the mechanical shark sink to the bottom of the sea,” he recalled. “Dick turned to me and smiled. ‘Gee, I sure hope that's not a sign.’ That moment forged a bond between us that lasted nearly 40 years.

“He taught me everything I know about producing. He was one of the most honorable and loyal men of our profession, and he fought tooth and nail for his directors. Dick Zanuck was a cornerstone of our industry, both in name and in deed.”

In 1962, Zanuck became the youngest studio chief in history in1965 when he was appointed by his father as head of Fox at age 28. During his five years at the helm, the studio earned an impressive 159 Oscar nominations. Three of the films -- The Sound of Music (1965), Patton (1970) and The French Connection (1971) -- won best picture. Other studio successes under Zanuck’s tenure included Planet of the Apes (1968), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and MASH (1970).

Zanuck subsequently moved from Fox to become senior executive vp at Warner Bros., where he and soon-to-be partner Brown oversaw production of such box-office hits as The Exorcist (1973) and Blazing Saddles (1974).

Richard Darryl Zanuck was born Dec. 13, 1934, in Los Angeles (his mother was actress Virginia Fox). He graduated from Stanford and served in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Upon his discharge, Zanuck got a job at Fox as a story and production assistant, working on such films as Island in the Sun (1957) and The Sun Also Rises (1957). He went on to produce Sanctuary (1961) and The Chapman Report (1962) and served as vp in charge of all productions and eventually as studio president.

However, several box-office failures like Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) led to a heated proxy battle in 1969-70, and Zanuck was removed from the top post. (His father stayed at the studio until 1971.)

The younger Zanuck moved to Warners and formed the Zanuck/Brown Co. in 1971, and the duo went on to become one of the film industry’s most influential producing teams. They received the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award from the PGA in 1995.

They produced Spielberg’s first feature, The Sugarland Express (1974), as well as his second film, Jaws (1975). Zanuck/Brown also produced the Paul Newman-Robert Redford starrer The Sting, which won seven Oscars, including best picture. They produced another acclaimed Newman vehicle, The Verdict (1982), which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture.

In 1988, Zanuck teamed with his wife to establish the Zanuck Co., and their debut film was Driving Miss Daisy. "The hardest picture I ever had to get made was Driving Miss Daisy because it was such an unlikely project. In today's marketplace, audiences expect summer blockbusters, and films like Planet of the Apes don't have it that tough," he once said in contrasting two of his films.

The Zanuck Co. followed up with the critically acclaimed Rush (1991), directed by Lili and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Patric. Its score by Eric Clapton became one of the most acclaimed of the year.

The Zanuck Co. went on to produce director Ron Howard’s Cocoon (1985), and its sequel, Cocoon: The Return (1988). Subsequent productions included Mulholland Falls (1996); the box-office hit Deep Impact (1998); and, with Clint Eastwood, True Crime (1999).

Zanuck and his wife also produced the 72nd Annual Academy Awards telecast in 2000.

Zanuck’s other producing credits with Lili include Rich in Love (1993), which reunited them with the Miss Daisy creative team of director Bruce Beresford and writer Alfred Uhry, and Wild Bill (1995). More recently, the Zanuck Co. produced Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Yes Man (2008).

In collaboration with HBO, the Zanucks were developing The Decalogue, consisting of 10 one-hour films, each based on one of The Ten Commandments of the Bible, set in contemporary Los Angeles.

In addition to his wife of 34 years, Zanuck is survived by sons Harrison and Dean and nine grandchildren.

[MikeBSG]

I knew Zanuck had brought us "The Sting" and "Jaws." I didn't know that he had a hand in two of my favorite Tim Burton movies: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Sweeney Todd."

So a force for good in the movie industry.

[Western Guy]

More tragic news:


http://m.nypost.com/p/news/national/syl ... eNax2Dm3JL

[mongoII]

Producers David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck during filming of Jaws 2

[Lzcutter]

We saw TCM's own King of Cool, Tom Brown, the head of Original Programming, at the Meet the Staff panel during the last Film Festival. He said one of the of the documentaries he was working on for the channel was a profile of Richard Zanuck.

It should premiere later this year.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thanks for all these updates, Lynn.
Wonderful photo, Mongo!
Like Mike, I didn't realize Zanuck had connections to so many films.
Stone, Sage Stallone's passing is especially difficult because parents surviving children have an unusually painful period of grief dealing with such an unexpected event.

[charliechaplinfan]

I whed him recently in a documentary about the moguls, he didn't look 77. It's been a sad couple of weeks.

[moira finnie]

Lost in the shuffle of so many high profile people passing away recently, the announcement the other day of the death of the elegant Maria Hawkins Cole caught me unawares. The widow of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and the mother of Natalie, Timolin, and Casey Cole had sung with Duke Ellington and Count Basie before she met the rising singer and musician in the 1940s.

The poised Mrs. Cole withstood the painful racism that accompanied her gifted spouse's rise in the entertainment world, going from hit records, sold-out concert tours, movies, and hosting the first network television variety program centered around an African-American. Despite incidents such as a cross burned into the grass of their recently purchased home in an upscale neighborhood in Los Angeles and the usual separations, stresses and temptations that attend surging fame, Maria Cole traveled with her husband when she could and continued to perform while establishing a family base in Los Angeles. She exemplified dignity, pride and stoicism throughout her seventeen year marriage to Nat King Cole prior to his early death at only 45 in 1965. She also helped to create the Cole Cancer Foundation to assist other individuals coping with cancer. After his death, Mrs. Cole raised her daughters, and did what she could to help them cope with the world's expectations and distractions. Maria Cole had appeared in numerous documentaries examining her husband's musical legacy and his affirmation and transcendence of race just as the civil rights movement was building steam in the United States. You can hear Mrs. Cole interviewed on the Tavis Smiley program here.

Here is the obituary from the Los Angeles Times:

Maria Cole, singer who was widow of Nat King Cole, dies at 89
By DENNIS MCLELLAN | Los Angeles Times

last updated: July 13, 2012 06:49:53 AM

Maria Cole, the widow of music legend Nat King Cole and the mother of singer Natalie Cole whose own singing career included a stint as vocalist for Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1940s, has died. She was 89.

Cole died Tuesday at a hospice in Boca Raton, Fla., after a short battle with cancer, her family said.

"Our mom was in a class all by herself," her three daughters said in a joint statement. "She epitomized class, elegance, and truly defined what it is to be a real lady."

A Boston native, she was singing as the opening act for the Mills Brothers in New York's Club Zanzibar when she met singer-pianist Nat Cole. They were married in Harlem in 1948.

"I was very involved in his life," she told the Boston Globe in 1989. "I dealt with his agent. I kept his books. I was there for all the wonderful moments of his life, the accolades. We shared everything. I merged into his life."

The Coles, whose purchase of a mansion in the exclusive, all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1948 spurred a homeowners protest, traveled throughout Europe together in the 1950s - a time in which Maria resumed her singing career and recorded several songs with her husband for Capitol Records.

Nat Cole, whose hit songs included "Unforgettable" and "Mona Lisa" and whose 1956-57 TV musical-variety series "The Nat 'King' Cole Show" was the first network TV program hosted by an African-American, died of lung cancer in 1965.

After his death, Maria Cole established the Cole Cancer Foundation and again returned to her singing career, beginning with a trial run at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in late 1966 and followed by an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

She also began co-hosting a live afternoon conversation-variety show with Stan Bohrman on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles in 1967. Two years later, she married television writer and producer Gary Devore. They were divorced in 1978.

In 1990, Cole and her daughter Natalie accepted a Grammy lifetime achievement award for her late husband.

"I miss the closeness of my marriage to Nat," Cole said in the 1989 Boston Globe interview. "I loved hearing his key in the door. I loved preparing his meals. I loved being married to him."

The daughter of a postal worker, she was born Maria Hawkins on Aug. 1, 1922. She was 2 when her mother died in childbirth and her father was left to care for his three young daughters.

Cole, who took voice and piano lessons while growing up, was educated at the Palmer Memorial Institute, a prestigious African-American prep school founded by her aunt in Sedalia, N.C.

After graduating in 1938, she attended a clerical college in Boston and began singing with a jazz orchestra at night. She soon moved to New York City and began singing with jazz great Benny Carter's band.

In 1943, she married Spurgeon Ellington, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was killed during a routine training flight shortly after the end of World War II.

She performed briefly with the Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson bands before becoming a vocalist for Ellington, with whom she stayed until 1946.

Cole, who lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., is survived by her three daughters, Natalie Cole, Timolin Cole-Augustus and Casey Cole-Hooker; her sister, Charlotte Hawkins; and six grandchildren.

[Robert Regan]

Thank you, Moira. I had not heard about the loss of this remarkable woman.

[Ann Harding]

'Gentleman's Agreement' actress Celeste Holm dies
By Alan Duke, CNN
July 15, 2012 -- Updated 1610 GMT (0010 HKT)

NEW: Holm "passed peacefully" with her husband and friends and family nearby," her niece says
Holm won the best supporting actress Oscar for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947
Funeral arrangements were not immediately available
(CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Celeste Holm died at her home in New York Sunday at the age of 95, her niece, Amy Phillips, confirmed.
Holm, a star of the Broadway stage and movies, fell was admitted to New York's Roosevelt Hospital a week ago, but her husband took her home to her Manhattan home on Friday, Phillips said.
"She passed peacefully in her home in her own bed with her husband and friends and family nearby," she said.
Holm won the best supporting actress Academy Award for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947. She was nominated for the same honor in 1949 for "Come to the Stable" and 1950 for "All about Eve," according to the Academy database.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.