Tag: In Memoriam (51-60 of 546)

Aug 12 2012 01:44 PM ET

'Malcolm X' actor Albert Freeman Jr. dies at 78

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Image Credit: David Lee

Albert Freeman Jr., the veteran actor who played Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s epic film, Malcolm X, has died. He was 78.

Howard University in Washington, D.C., confirmed his death Friday night but details weren’t immediately available. Freeman taught acting there for years and served as chairman and artistic director of its theater arts department.

“He was a brilliant professor, a renowned actor and a master director who made his mark in the classroom as well as on stage, screen and television. … He has mentored and taught scores of outstanding actors. He was a resounding voice of Howard and will be missed,” university spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton said in a statement.

Freeman earned an NAACP Image Award for playing Malcolm X’s mentor in Lee’s 1992 biography.

He also received an Emmy nomination for his role as Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations. He won a best-actor Daytime Emmy that year for his work as Capt. Ed Hall on the soap opera One Life to Live.

Aug 7 2012 09:30 AM ET

Composer Marvin Hamlisch dead at 68

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Image Credit: Reed Saxon/AP

Marvin Hamlisch, who composed the scores for dozens of movies including The Sting and won a Tony for A Chorus Line, has died in Los Angeles at 68. Family spokesman Jason Lee says Hamlisch died Monday after a brief illness. Other details aren’t being released.

Hamlisch’s career included composing, conducting and arranging music from Broadway to Hollywood. The composer won every major award in his career, including three Academy Awards, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globes.

His music colored some of film and Broadway’s most important works. Hamlisch composed more than 40 film scores, including Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People and Take the Money and Run. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 7 2012 08:57 AM ET

Tony-winning 'Hairspray' writer Mark O'Donnell dies

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Image Credit: Mary Altaffer/AP

Mark O’Donnell, the Tony Award-winning writer behind such quirky and clever Broadway shows as Hairspray and Cry-Baby, died Monday, his agent said. He was 58. Jack Tantleff, O’Donnell’s agent at the Paradigm agency, said the writer collapsed in the lobby of his apartment complex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “He was a huge talent, and a warm, witty and wonderful man who marched to his own drummer,” Tantleff said.

O’Donnell won the 2003 Tony for best book of a musical for co-writing Hairspray with Thomas Meehan, and the pair earned Tony nominations in 2008 for doing the same for another John Waters work, Cry-Baby.

O’Donnell was picked to help write the musical version of the 1988 Waters movie Hairspray because producer Margo Lion felt he “could appreciate Waters’ voice but was idiosyncratic enough to inject his own personality into the piece.” READ FULL STORY »

Jul 27 2012 09:30 AM ET

'Expendables 2' hit with wrongful death lawsuit after deadly accident

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The parents of a stuntman killed while working on the film The Expendables 2 filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the makers of the action film. Kun Liu was killed during a stunt in Bulgaria in October 2011 while performing in a rubber boat on Ognyanovo dam, just outside the capital, Sofia. He died after suffering wounds from a nearby explosion.

His parents Zong Yu Liu and Yan Mei Bai are seeking unspecified damages of more than $25,000 against Millennium Films and the movie’s stunt coordinator, Chad Stahelski. Stahelski and Elizabeth Wolfe, a spokeswoman for Millennium Films, declined comment on the case. READ FULL STORY »

Jul 24 2012 09:59 PM ET

'Medical Center' star Chad Everett dies at 75

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Chad Everett, the blue-eyed star of the 1970s TV series Medical Center who went on to appear in such films and TV shows as Mulholland Drive and Melrose Place, has died. He was 75.

Everett’s daughter, Katherine Thorp, said he died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a year-and-a-half-long battle with lung cancer.

Everett played sensitive doctor Joe Gannon for seven years on Medical Center. The role earned him two Golden Globes and an Emmy nomination.

With a career spanning more than 40 years, Everett guest starred on such TV series as The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and Without a Trace. Everett most recently appeared in the TV series Castle. His films credits included The Jigsaw Murders, The Firechasers and director Gus Van Sant’s Psycho.

Everett was born in South Bend, Ind., and graduated from Wayne State University before moving to Los Angeles and becoming a contract player with MGM.

In perhaps his most memorable recent film role, Everett played an aging lothario who engages in a steamy audition with a young ingénue portrayed by Naomi Watts in director David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”.

Everett is survived by his two daughters, Katherine and Shannon, and six grandchildren. He was married to actress Shelby Grant for 45 years until her death last year.

Jul 23 2012 05:58 PM ET

Oscar-winning screenwriter of 'Dog Day Afternoon' Frank Pierson dies

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The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Dog Day Afternoon and Cool Hand Luke has died.

Frank Pierson’s family says he died of natural causes Monday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 87.

He won an Oscar for writing 1975′s Dog Day Afternoon and was nominated for his screenplays for Cool Hand Luke and Cat Ballou. He wrote and directed 1976′s A Star is Born.

He most recently worked as a writer and consulting producer on TV’s Mad Men and The Good Wife.

Pierson served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which released the news of his death Monday, from 2001 to 2005 and served as governor of its writers branch for 17 years. He is survived by his wife, two children and five grandchildren.

Jul 21 2012 05:21 PM ET

Usher's stepson Kyle Glover, 11, passes away

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Kyle Glover — stepson of singer Usher Raymond and the biological child of Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster and Atlanta TV executive Ryan Glover — died this morning after being taken off life support. The 11-year-old had been declared brain-dead following a tragic jet ski accident on July 6.

Jul 21 2012 02:34 PM ET

Sage Stallone laid to rest in private memorial

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Friends and family gathered at the St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Brentwood, Los Angeles for the private funeral of Sage Stallone this morning. Sylvester Stallone’s 36-year-old son, who played Rocky Balboa’s son alongside his father in Rocky V, was found dead in his Los Angeles home July 13. While a drug overdose is suspected, a toxicology report determining cause of death will take several more weeks.

Related:
Arnold Schwarzenegger remembers Sage Stallone
Sylvester Stallone’s son found dead

Jul 19 2012 06:13 PM ET

Al Franken's 'SNL' partner, Tom Davis, dies in N.Y.

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A writer who with Al Franken helped develop some of the most popular skits in the early years of Saturday Night Live has died in New York. Tom Davis was 59.

His wife, Mimi Raleigh, says he died of throat and neck cancer Thursday at his home in the Hudson Valley, north of New York City. He was diagnosed in 2009.

Davis said in an interview with The Associated Press that year that in the offbeat comedic duo of Franken and Davis he was the quiet guy, overshadowed by his flashier partner.

Some of their most memorable work included the “Coneheads” skit with Dan Aykroyd and the “Nick the Lounge Singer” skit starring Bill Murray.

Jul 18 2012 09:01 AM ET

Bollywood icon Rajesh Khanna dead at 69

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Rajesh Khanna, whose success as a romantic lead in scores of Indian movies made him Bollywood’s first superstar, died Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 69. His wife, actress Dimple Kapadia, and two daughters were at his bedside when he died at his home in Mumbai, said his son-in-law, actor Akshay Kumar.

Khanna began his career in the mid-1960s in romantic films that were hugely popular. He played the lead role in some 120 of the 170 movies in which he appeared and won scores of awards. His enormous success was a new phenomenon in India. Screaming fans surrounded him whenever he appeared in public. Women married his photograph and wrote him letters in their blood proposing marriage. READ FULL STORY »

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