Jonathan Winters was not known for his acting. The brilliant improvisational comic, who died of natural causes at the age of 87 on Thursday, did not do his best work when he was tied to a script. As the New York Times' obituary of Winters noted, “'Jonny works best out of instant panic,' one of his television writers in the 1960s said. He thrived when he could ad-lib, fielding unexpected questions or pursuing spontaneous flights of fancy. In other words, he made a brilliant guest, firing comedy in short bursts, but a problematic host or actor." more »
Actress and original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello has gone to great big surf party in the sky, and I'd like to remember her with the opening sequence to one of her most memorable movies: Beach Blanket Bingo.more »
I've never been much of an obituary-writing guy, but Roger Ebertdeserves to be celebrated. So, rather than add to the hundreds of thousands of words that are about to be spent reexamining his remarkable life and career following his death today, I'm going to make one observation about his contribution to movie culture and then leave you with a clip that, I hope, will make you smile when you think of him.
My introduction to Ebert, and his equally mouthy partner in movie criticism, Gene Siskel, came via their thoroughly enjoyable syndicated television show At The Movies, which began as a PBS series in 1975, Sneak Previews, and eventually became Siskel and Ebert and The Movies from 1986 until 1999. (The year Siskel died.) And though I'm quite aware that a) these guys were operating on television and b) blog culture was a long way off, there's a real argument to be made that Siskel and Ebert are the real forefathers of the movie blog culture that exists today.
Siskel and Ebert: Proto-Movie Bloggers
Each week, they candidly curated a subjective list of movies that were opening that week. They told the television audience which films were worth seeing and why, which ones should be ignored, and which movies were worth actively seeking out at the video store if they weren't shown at the local cinema. And, by the way, their thumbs up or down system of rating movies was the proto-Rotten Tomatoes. As Roadside Attractions tweeted on Thursday afternoon: "Siskel & Ebert almost single-thumbedly made Hoop Dreams a thing. If they'd never done anything else, they'd still be indie film legends."
Siskel and Ebert lavished attention on obscure movies; they taught their audience how to look at crowd pleasers with a critical eye, and they fought and bickered with each other in a way that made great television. Their TV show had all of the elements of a great blog: curation, information, perspective and entertainment. And they did it better than a lot of bloggers are doing it now.
Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You, too, Gene Siskel. This is how I'll remember you: bickering brilliantly like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Director David R. Ellis has died, reportsDeadline, on the cusp of production for his next film, the live-action anime adaptation, Kite. The actor, turned stuntman, turned second unit whiz, turned feature director, who made his directorial debut with 1996's Homeward Bound 2, before finding his niche with crowd-pleasing genre fare from Final Destination 2 to Snakes on a Plane and last year's Shark Night 3D, was 60 years old at the time of his death. more »
The man who nearly single-handedly made puppets cool has gone to see the great manipulator in the sky. Gerry Anderson, creator of the pioneering puppetry technique called 'Supermarionation' and the popular series Thunderbirds, died Wednesday in Oxfordshire, England, at the age of 83 from complications due to Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by four children, and by his third wife, Mary. more »
Mexican-American superstar, Jenni Rivera, died Sunday, when her plane crashed en route to Mexico City, after the twin-engine Learjet she was a passenger on lost contact and went down near Monterrey, Mexico. Rivera, the chart-topping "diva de la banda," was a judge on Mexico's reality TV singing competition, La Voz, and was set to make her feature film debut in the hip-hop drama, Filly Brown, a darling out of Sundance last year, opposite Lou Diamond Phillips and Edward James Olmos. more »
Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for his Academy Award-nominated turn as the prison inmate John Coffey in The Green Mile, died Monday weeks after suffering a heart attack on July 13. Duncan had been hospitalized since the attack, with fiancee Omarosa Manigault confirming his passing in a statement today. more »
Tragic news: British filmmaker Tony Scott, who directed films including Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Man On Fire, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and 2010's Unstoppable, died today after jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge between San Pedro and Terminal Island, multiple sources confirm. "Scott, 68, climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge's apex and leapt off 'without hesitation' around 12:30 p.m., according to the Coroner's Department and port police... A suicide note was found inside Scott's black Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge," reported The Daily Breeze. more »
Decades after making a name for herself as reporter and film critic at the New York Herald Tribune, New York Magazine, and the Today show, trailblazing journalist Judith Crist died Tuesday in Manhattan, confirms the New York Times. Crist additionally wrote for TV Guide, Saturday Review, Gourmet and Ladies’ Home Journal during her career, which included a longtime stint as professor of journalism at Columbia and a cameo in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories. After the jump, watch an interview with Crist filmed in May, on her 90th birthday, in which the spry critic took a look back at her fruitful career. more »
Richard D. "Dick" Zanuck, a scion of old Hollywood who produced blockbusters like Jaws and such Oscar-friendly fare as Driving Miss Daisy, died today after suffering a heart attack. He was 77. Zanuck took the production reins of 20th Century Fox — which his legendary father Darryl had helped bring to prominence before him — by the time he was 28. He would later team with partner David Brown to shepherd the work of Steven Spielberg to prominence before working with a deep roster of filmmakers including Sidney Lumet (The Verdict), Ron Howard (Cocoon) and frequent collaborator Tim Burton. Zanuck is survived by his wife Lili Fini Zanuck (with whom he shared Best Picture Oscar honors for Driving Miss Daisy) and sons Harrison and Dean. [Deadline]
A flurry of online reports today revealed that filmmaker Nora Ephron was battling illness in a New York hospital and not expected to survive the night. The Washington Post now reports that Ephron has died six years after being diagnosed with the blood disorder myelodysplasia. more »
Decades after championing auteur theory and tangling with Pauline Kael, New York-based film critic Andrew Sarris has died at the age of 83, survived by his wife, the film critic Molly Haskell. In honor of one of the most influential careers in American film criticism, revisit one of Sarris's first notable reviews -- his celebration of Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film Psycho, which the then-32-year-old insisted "should be seen at least three times by any discerning film-goer." more »
Acclaimed, Pulitzer-honored science fiction/fantasy author Ray Bradburyhas died at the age of 91 in Los Angeles, following one of the most fruitful creative writing careers of the 20th century. The man behind such genre classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes leaves behind a stunning legacy spanning works adapted for television, film, and the stage. more »
Disco icon Donna Summer passed away today at the age of 63, reportedly succumbing to cancer. But while most folks remember the singer for once-ubiquitous disco classics like "Bad Girls" and "Love to Love You Baby," and while many a film used her hit singles to great effect (recall the "Hot Stuff" scene from The Full Monty, or her own turn as an aspiring disco singer in Thank God It's Friday), let's take a look back at a relatively underrated Donna Summer gem: The love theme from 1977's The Deep. more »
Trailblazing hair and fashion icon Vidal Sassoon has died at the age of 84, according to the L.A. Times, following reports in recent years that he'd been battling leukemia. The hair styling legend had built an empire after making a name for himself with game-changing designs for women in the 1960s, including bold coifs for the likes of movie stars Nancy Kwan and Mia Farrow. more »
