One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
- 3/19/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The Screen Actors Guild has been presenting its annual life achievement award for many decades. The most recent recipient for 2024 was double Oscar winner Barbra Streisand.
For the 2023 event, Sally Field was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until...
For the 2023 event, Sally Field was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until...
- 2/14/2024
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Film historians, critics and cineastes have heralded 1939 as the greatest year for Hollywood films. It was the year that saw the release of such classics as “Gone with the Wind,” “Stagecoach,” “Love Affair,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Young Mr. Lincoln” and “Wuthering Heights.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg
But what about Broadway? A case can be made for 1964, which saw the debuts of three musicals that became classics: “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Funny Girl” and “Hello, Dolly!”
Broadway was changing in the 1960s. Oscar Hammerstein II died in 1960; Irving Berlin’s last show was the disappointing 1962 “Mr. President”; and Cole Porter, who died in 1964, hadn’t had a musical on Broadway since the 1950s. Sixty years ago, a group of young talented composers and lyricists were the toast of the Great White Way.
Like Jerry Herman. He was all of 30 when “Milk...
But what about Broadway? A case can be made for 1964, which saw the debuts of three musicals that became classics: “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Funny Girl” and “Hello, Dolly!”
Broadway was changing in the 1960s. Oscar Hammerstein II died in 1960; Irving Berlin’s last show was the disappointing 1962 “Mr. President”; and Cole Porter, who died in 1964, hadn’t had a musical on Broadway since the 1950s. Sixty years ago, a group of young talented composers and lyricists were the toast of the Great White Way.
Like Jerry Herman. He was all of 30 when “Milk...
- 2/1/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Legendary singer Tony Bennett is dead at the age of 96. The entertainer died in New York City on Jul. 21, 2023, said his publicist, Sylvia Weiner. Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. However, he continued to perform and record through 2021, demonstrating a dedication to a remarkable career known for its longevity and consistency.
Tony Bennett performs onstage during an invitation-only concert at the newly opened Encore Boston Harbor Casino in Everett, Massachusetts, on Aug. 8, 2019 | Joseph Prezioso/Afp via Getty Images Tony Bennett had his first hit in 1951
The legendary crooner was born Anthony Benedetto in New York City on Aug. 3, 1926. He demonstrated talent as an artist and a singer at a young age. As a teenager, he performed as a singing waiter while appearing in nightclubs and amateur competitions.
Bennett was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944. He joined the front line in Germany the following year and briefly remained...
Tony Bennett performs onstage during an invitation-only concert at the newly opened Encore Boston Harbor Casino in Everett, Massachusetts, on Aug. 8, 2019 | Joseph Prezioso/Afp via Getty Images Tony Bennett had his first hit in 1951
The legendary crooner was born Anthony Benedetto in New York City on Aug. 3, 1926. He demonstrated talent as an artist and a singer at a young age. As a teenager, he performed as a singing waiter while appearing in nightclubs and amateur competitions.
Bennett was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944. He joined the front line in Germany the following year and briefly remained...
- 7/21/2023
- by Lucille Barilla
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Tony Bennett, the affable pre-rock standards crooner who came to be newly appreciated and beloved by everyone from the grunge generation to Lady Gaga, died on Friday. He was 96. Bennett’s publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone, adding that he died in his hometown of New York City.
A cause of death was not specified. But in 2016, Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and began experiencing memory loss, one of the leading symptoms of the disease (which has no known cure). Bennett’s condition,...
A cause of death was not specified. But in 2016, Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and began experiencing memory loss, one of the leading symptoms of the disease (which has no known cure). Bennett’s condition,...
- 7/21/2023
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
How ‘The Perfect Find’ Director Numa Perrier Honored and Updated Tia Williams’ Book At the Same Time
Netflix’s “The Perfect Find” director Numa Perrier collected generational references in her film adaptation of Tia Williams’ novel.
The story follows Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) and Eric Combs (Keith Powers) who gravitate toward each other despite a substantial age gap and the fact that Eric is the son of Jenna’s boss Darcy (Gina Torres).
The two pair up for a creative project for Darzine, Darcy’s fashion magazine. The project, which eventually becomes “The Perfect Find” highlights fashions inspired by Black starlets of Hollywood’s past. Jenna and Eric also bond over their love for old Hollywood — like Nina Mae McKinney, who pops up throughout the film with clips from “Hallelujah!,” a Greta Garbo clip from “The Flesh and Devil” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze,” featured at a drive-in movie date.
Perrier explained the process behind making references to classic Black Hollywood, first during Jenna’s swap meet browsing,...
The story follows Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) and Eric Combs (Keith Powers) who gravitate toward each other despite a substantial age gap and the fact that Eric is the son of Jenna’s boss Darcy (Gina Torres).
The two pair up for a creative project for Darzine, Darcy’s fashion magazine. The project, which eventually becomes “The Perfect Find” highlights fashions inspired by Black starlets of Hollywood’s past. Jenna and Eric also bond over their love for old Hollywood — like Nina Mae McKinney, who pops up throughout the film with clips from “Hallelujah!,” a Greta Garbo clip from “The Flesh and Devil” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze,” featured at a drive-in movie date.
Perrier explained the process behind making references to classic Black Hollywood, first during Jenna’s swap meet browsing,...
- 7/20/2023
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
Morgan Freeman once quoted the nautical saying “long foretold, long last; short notice, soon past” to describe his acting career. He meant that it took him along time to achieve success in the acting profession but he hoped his long struggle would mean his career would last and not prove to be just a flash in the pan. His career has lasted and Freeman has had a nearly 30-year film career in major movies.
Freeman’s career started on the New York stage in the musical theater when he took over the role of Rudy the Maître d’ of the restaurant where the famous title number is performed. He was part of the groundbreaking moment when Pearl Bailey led an all-black cast into the production which had been running for years with white performers.
In the 1970s Freeman appeared for seven years and 680 episodes of the children’s television series “The Electric Company.
Freeman’s career started on the New York stage in the musical theater when he took over the role of Rudy the Maître d’ of the restaurant where the famous title number is performed. He was part of the groundbreaking moment when Pearl Bailey led an all-black cast into the production which had been running for years with white performers.
In the 1970s Freeman appeared for seven years and 680 episodes of the children’s television series “The Electric Company.
- 5/27/2023
- by Zach Laws, Robert Pius and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Ronald Dennis, the Broadway performer who indelibly played dancer Richie Walters in the original 1975 cast of A Chorus Line and introduced one of the show’s musical highlights in “Gimme the Ball,” died Dec. 17 following a lengthy illness. He was 78.
A longtime advocate for AIDS awareness and charities after being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1984, Dennis served on the Broadway Cares Advisory Council and was the Senior Advisor for the Black Men’s HIV Medication Adherence Board at Apla/Project Rise.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Stephanie Bissonnette Dies: 'Mean Girls' Broadway Cast Member Was 32 Related Story Drew Griffin Dies: CNN Investigative Correspondent Was 60
Dennis already had appeared on Broadway as a dancer in 1964’s Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey and Micki Grant’s 1972 Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope when his signature role came into his life. As Richie in A Chorus Line,...
A longtime advocate for AIDS awareness and charities after being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1984, Dennis served on the Broadway Cares Advisory Council and was the Senior Advisor for the Black Men’s HIV Medication Adherence Board at Apla/Project Rise.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Stephanie Bissonnette Dies: 'Mean Girls' Broadway Cast Member Was 32 Related Story Drew Griffin Dies: CNN Investigative Correspondent Was 60
Dennis already had appeared on Broadway as a dancer in 1964’s Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey and Micki Grant’s 1972 Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope when his signature role came into his life. As Richie in A Chorus Line,...
- 12/20/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Actor Austin Stoker, best known for playing Lt. Ethan Bishop in director John Carpenter‘s 1976 classic Assault on Precinct 13, was born on October 7, 1930 in Trinidad… and sadly, it has been confirmed that he passed away on October 7th of this year. His 92nd birthday. Stoker’s wife Robin told The Hollywood Reporter that he died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She said, “His transition was beautiful.”
Born Alphonso Marshall, Stoker was in a dance troupe with fellow Trinidadian actor Geoffrey Holder (you may remember him as Baron Samedi in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die), and the pair moved to New York together to pursue careers in the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Reporter says, “In 1954, he played the steel drums on Broadway in Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s House of Flowers, starring Pearl Bailey, Alvin Ailey and Diahann Carroll, then toured in...
Born Alphonso Marshall, Stoker was in a dance troupe with fellow Trinidadian actor Geoffrey Holder (you may remember him as Baron Samedi in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die), and the pair moved to New York together to pursue careers in the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Reporter says, “In 1954, he played the steel drums on Broadway in Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s House of Flowers, starring Pearl Bailey, Alvin Ailey and Diahann Carroll, then toured in...
- 10/11/2022
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Click here to read the full article.
Austin Stoker, the actor from Trinidad who starred as the heroic cop battling a band of marauding gang members inside a decommissioned police station in the John Carpenter thriller Assault on Precinct 13, has died. He was 92.
Stoker died Friday of renal failure on his birthday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, Robin, told The Hollywood Reporter. “His transition was beautiful,” she said.
Stoker also portrayed Macdonald, the human assistant of Roddy McDowall’s Caesar, in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), the fifth and final chapter in the original movie series, and he was Brick Williams, the love interest of Pam Grier’s private investigator, in Sheba, Baby (1975).
On the landmark 1977 ABC miniseries Roots, he played Virgil Harvey, father of Olivia Cole‘s Mathilda.
In the cult classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Stoker starred as Lt. Ethan Bishop, who goes...
Austin Stoker, the actor from Trinidad who starred as the heroic cop battling a band of marauding gang members inside a decommissioned police station in the John Carpenter thriller Assault on Precinct 13, has died. He was 92.
Stoker died Friday of renal failure on his birthday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, Robin, told The Hollywood Reporter. “His transition was beautiful,” she said.
Stoker also portrayed Macdonald, the human assistant of Roddy McDowall’s Caesar, in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), the fifth and final chapter in the original movie series, and he was Brick Williams, the love interest of Pam Grier’s private investigator, in Sheba, Baby (1975).
On the landmark 1977 ABC miniseries Roots, he played Virgil Harvey, father of Olivia Cole‘s Mathilda.
In the cult classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Stoker starred as Lt. Ethan Bishop, who goes...
- 10/11/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Academy Museum’s Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 is not to be missed. Not only does the exhibition celebrate Black representation in film, it serves as an important reminder and lesson about the contributions of Black filmmakers and stars to the world of cinema.
Opening Aug. 21, seven galleries make up the exhibit exploring Oscar Micheaux’s low-budget dramas in the silent-film era to the works of Melvin Van Peebles.
The exhibition also introduces audiences to stars largely unknown to mainstream moviegoers — Ralph Cooper, Clarence Brooks and Francine Everett — alongside iconic screen legends Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Lena Horne.
Poiter’s Oscar for “Lillies of the Field” is just one of the many artifacts on display in this historic exhibition. Alongside the award are tap shoes worn by the Nicholas Brothers and one of Louis Armstrong’s trumpets.
Cowboy Boots worn by Herb Jeffries in 1937’s...
Opening Aug. 21, seven galleries make up the exhibit exploring Oscar Micheaux’s low-budget dramas in the silent-film era to the works of Melvin Van Peebles.
The exhibition also introduces audiences to stars largely unknown to mainstream moviegoers — Ralph Cooper, Clarence Brooks and Francine Everett — alongside iconic screen legends Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Lena Horne.
Poiter’s Oscar for “Lillies of the Field” is just one of the many artifacts on display in this historic exhibition. Alongside the award are tap shoes worn by the Nicholas Brothers and one of Louis Armstrong’s trumpets.
Cowboy Boots worn by Herb Jeffries in 1937’s...
- 8/19/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay and Michaela Zee
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Steve Fickinger, who received a Tony Award for producing the blockbuster musical Dear Evan Hansen after helping bring Newsies and The Lion King to Broadway as a Disney executive, has died. He was 62.
Fickinger died suddenly Friday at his home in Laguna Beach, his niece Jessica Roy announced.
As director of creative development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, Fickinger worked on Mulan, Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch, then served as vp creative development for the Disney Theatrical Group, where he supervised the launch of a half-dozen Broadway shows, including The Lion King and Aida.
Fickinger also oversaw the Tony-winning production of Newsies, the national tour of High School Musical and the long-running Broadway production of Aladdin.
Following two decades at Disney, he exited in 2013 and created FickStern Productions, and its first endeavor, Dear Evan Hansen, opened on Broadway in 2016 en route to collecting six Tonys,...
Steve Fickinger, who received a Tony Award for producing the blockbuster musical Dear Evan Hansen after helping bring Newsies and The Lion King to Broadway as a Disney executive, has died. He was 62.
Fickinger died suddenly Friday at his home in Laguna Beach, his niece Jessica Roy announced.
As director of creative development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, Fickinger worked on Mulan, Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch, then served as vp creative development for the Disney Theatrical Group, where he supervised the launch of a half-dozen Broadway shows, including The Lion King and Aida.
Fickinger also oversaw the Tony-winning production of Newsies, the national tour of High School Musical and the long-running Broadway production of Aladdin.
Following two decades at Disney, he exited in 2013 and created FickStern Productions, and its first endeavor, Dear Evan Hansen, opened on Broadway in 2016 en route to collecting six Tonys,...
- 6/23/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Steve Fickinger, an ex-Disney creative executive and the independent producer behind “Dear Evan Hansen” and other musicals, died last week at age 62. His niece, Jessica Roy, announced via Facebook that he passed away “suddenly” at his Laguna Beach, California, home on Friday. No cause of death was revealed.
A former stage actor, Fickinger worked his way up from the Disney mail room to become the Director of Creative Development for animated features. During his tenure, he shepherded beloved Disney classics “Mulan,” “Tarzan” and “Lilo & Stitch.”
He would go on to oversee the development of Broadway shows like “Aida” and the six-time Tony-winning musical “The Lion King” in his role as Vice President of Creative Development for Disney Theatrical Group. Fickinger also had a direct hand in the Tony-winning production of “Newsies,” as well as the musical adaptations of “High School Musical” and “Aladdin.”
Also Read:
Tony Siragusa, Former NFL Champion and Fox Sports Analyst,...
A former stage actor, Fickinger worked his way up from the Disney mail room to become the Director of Creative Development for animated features. During his tenure, he shepherded beloved Disney classics “Mulan,” “Tarzan” and “Lilo & Stitch.”
He would go on to oversee the development of Broadway shows like “Aida” and the six-time Tony-winning musical “The Lion King” in his role as Vice President of Creative Development for Disney Theatrical Group. Fickinger also had a direct hand in the Tony-winning production of “Newsies,” as well as the musical adaptations of “High School Musical” and “Aladdin.”
Also Read:
Tony Siragusa, Former NFL Champion and Fox Sports Analyst,...
- 6/22/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Steve Fickinger, the Broadway producer who won a Tony for “Dear Evan Hansen,” died suddenly on Friday in Laguna Beach, Calif., representatives confirmed to Variety. He was 62.
Born in Winnetka, Ill., Fickinger began his career at Disney as a temp mail room worker, and worked his way up to become director of creative development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he oversaw the production of animated films including “Mulan,” “Tarzan” and “Lilo and Stitch.”
He later transitioned to the Disney Theatrical Group, where he served as V.P. of creative development. He supervised six Broadway productions during his tenure as vice president, including the Tony-winning “The Lion King,” “Aida,” “Newsies” as well as “Aladdin” and the national tour of “High School Musical.” He additionally oversaw Disney Theatrical’s musicals in schools initiative, which provided free resources and teaching artists to underfunded arts programs in schools.
Fickinger left Disney in 2013 to...
Born in Winnetka, Ill., Fickinger began his career at Disney as a temp mail room worker, and worked his way up to become director of creative development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he oversaw the production of animated films including “Mulan,” “Tarzan” and “Lilo and Stitch.”
He later transitioned to the Disney Theatrical Group, where he served as V.P. of creative development. He supervised six Broadway productions during his tenure as vice president, including the Tony-winning “The Lion King,” “Aida,” “Newsies” as well as “Aladdin” and the national tour of “High School Musical.” He additionally oversaw Disney Theatrical’s musicals in schools initiative, which provided free resources and teaching artists to underfunded arts programs in schools.
Fickinger left Disney in 2013 to...
- 6/22/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
Steve Fickinger, a Tony Award-winning producer of Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen who, as a longtime creative executive with Disney Theatrical Group helped spearhead the development of such stage shows as Newsies and Aladdin, died suddenly at his home in Laguna Beach, California, on June 17. He was 62.
His death was announced by his niece, Jessica Roy. A cause of death was not specified.
In a two-decade career with Disney, which began as a temp in the mail room, Fickinger worked in the mid-1990s as Director of Creative Development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, overseeing such projects as Mulan, Tarzan, and Lilo and Stitch. From 1992 to 2012, he was Vice President of Creative Development for Disney Theatrical Group, supervising six Broadway shows including six-time Tony Award-winning The Lion King and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida.
Fickinger also oversaw the Broadway production of Newsies, the national tour of High School Musical,...
His death was announced by his niece, Jessica Roy. A cause of death was not specified.
In a two-decade career with Disney, which began as a temp in the mail room, Fickinger worked in the mid-1990s as Director of Creative Development for Walt Disney Feature Animation, overseeing such projects as Mulan, Tarzan, and Lilo and Stitch. From 1992 to 2012, he was Vice President of Creative Development for Disney Theatrical Group, supervising six Broadway shows including six-time Tony Award-winning The Lion King and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida.
Fickinger also oversaw the Broadway production of Newsies, the national tour of High School Musical,...
- 6/22/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
After skipping the virtual ceremony in 2021, the Screen Actors Guild once again presents its annual life achievement award in 2022. Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Dame Helen Mirren receives the honorary SAG trophy.
For the 2020 event, Robert De Niro was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark...
For the 2020 event, Robert De Niro was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark...
- 2/26/2022
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: SAG-AFTRA won’t be handing out a SAG Life Achievement Award this year for the first time in 40 years. It’s not that no one was deserving – this year of all years – but because of the pandemic and a shortened TV timeslot for its awards show, the union decided that it would be better to skip a year and present the award live and in-person next year.
Going into this awards season, SAG-AFTRA had planned for its 27th annual SAG Awards to be a two-hour show, as it had been in years past. The home page for the Screen Actors Guild Awards noted initially that it would be a “fast moving two-hour show.” This year’s pre-taped, one-hour show, featuring 13 awards presentations, will air April 4 on TNT and TBS.
The SAG Life Achievement Award is the union’s most prestigious honor, presented for “outstanding achievement in fostering...
Going into this awards season, SAG-AFTRA had planned for its 27th annual SAG Awards to be a two-hour show, as it had been in years past. The home page for the Screen Actors Guild Awards noted initially that it would be a “fast moving two-hour show.” This year’s pre-taped, one-hour show, featuring 13 awards presentations, will air April 4 on TNT and TBS.
The SAG Life Achievement Award is the union’s most prestigious honor, presented for “outstanding achievement in fostering...
- 3/24/2021
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
Jimmy Cobb, a jazz drummer and the last surviving member of the ensemble sextet of Miles Davis’ iconic album, Kind of Blue, died Sunday lung cancer at his home in Manhattan. He was 91. His wife, Eleana Tee Cobb, made the announcement on Facebook.
The 1959 albumKind of Blue is considered one of the greatest jazz records of all time. At the time of its release, the album was met with rave reviews from critics, widespread radio play and often is regarded as the best-selling jazz album in history, It was certified quintuple-platinum last year. Kind of Blue also was honored as a national treasure by the U.S. House of Representatives.
He worked on several other Davis albums including Sketches of Spain, Someday My Prince Will Come, Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall, and The Complete Blackhawk.
Notable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo Gallery
Born in Washington, D.C. in...
The 1959 albumKind of Blue is considered one of the greatest jazz records of all time. At the time of its release, the album was met with rave reviews from critics, widespread radio play and often is regarded as the best-selling jazz album in history, It was certified quintuple-platinum last year. Kind of Blue also was honored as a national treasure by the U.S. House of Representatives.
He worked on several other Davis albums including Sketches of Spain, Someday My Prince Will Come, Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall, and The Complete Blackhawk.
Notable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo Gallery
Born in Washington, D.C. in...
- 5/25/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Tony Sokol Feb 18, 2020
The 2020 Tribeca Film Festival will open with Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President. Willie Nelson and Nile Rodgers will hit the Beacon.
The 19th Tribeca Film Festival will open with the premiere of the rockumentary-style presidential portrait Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President on April 15. The documentary catalogues how popular music helped replant a Georgia peanut farmer in the White House.
Sure, we remember Barack Obama breaking into an Al Green jam during his presidential press conferences, but there was a time the only kinds of music you associated with the White House were The Marine Marching Band, John Philip Sousa and Guy Lombardo. Abraham Lincoln went to the opera thirty times while he was president. President Nixon's barrelhouse piano intermittently backed up Pearl Bailey. But when Canadian rock band The Guess Who played the White House on July 17, 1970, they had to drop "American Woman," their newest and biggest single from the set list.
The 2020 Tribeca Film Festival will open with Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President. Willie Nelson and Nile Rodgers will hit the Beacon.
The 19th Tribeca Film Festival will open with the premiere of the rockumentary-style presidential portrait Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President on April 15. The documentary catalogues how popular music helped replant a Georgia peanut farmer in the White House.
Sure, we remember Barack Obama breaking into an Al Green jam during his presidential press conferences, but there was a time the only kinds of music you associated with the White House were The Marine Marching Band, John Philip Sousa and Guy Lombardo. Abraham Lincoln went to the opera thirty times while he was president. President Nixon's barrelhouse piano intermittently backed up Pearl Bailey. But when Canadian rock band The Guess Who played the White House on July 17, 1970, they had to drop "American Woman," their newest and biggest single from the set list.
- 2/18/2020
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: MGM has set Dee Rees to write and direct a feature film adaptation of George Gershwin’s acclaimed Porgy and Bess. Irwin Winkler and Charles Winkler will produce. The film rights were granted to MGM by the Gershwin Estate, which worked closely with Winkler and Rees to secure them.
Originally written as an opera and adapted from the 1925 DuBose Heyward novel by composer George Gershwin with libretto by Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess is a tale set in the slums of Charleston, Sc. There in Catfish Row, a disabled beggar named Porgy tries to rescue Bess from her violent lover Crown, and drug dealer Sportin’ Life. It first reached Broadway in 1935, and was turned into a 1959 film that Otto Preminger directed with Sidney Poitier playing Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, Brock Peters as Crown, Sammy Davis Jr as Sportin’ Life, and a cast that included Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll.
Originally written as an opera and adapted from the 1925 DuBose Heyward novel by composer George Gershwin with libretto by Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess is a tale set in the slums of Charleston, Sc. There in Catfish Row, a disabled beggar named Porgy tries to rescue Bess from her violent lover Crown, and drug dealer Sportin’ Life. It first reached Broadway in 1935, and was turned into a 1959 film that Otto Preminger directed with Sidney Poitier playing Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, Brock Peters as Crown, Sammy Davis Jr as Sportin’ Life, and a cast that included Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll.
- 2/11/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro is the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award at this weekend’s 2020 ceremony. While not nominated individually, he is also competing for the top film ensemble prize as part of “The Irishman” cast alongside Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano and more.
SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda Interview: ‘Marriage Story’
SAG began handing...
SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda Interview: ‘Marriage Story’
SAG began handing...
- 1/17/2020
- by Chris Beachum and Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Sam Bobrick, the creator of NBC’s Saved By The Bell whose writing career stretched back to Captain Kangaroo, The Flintstones, classic episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and included the Broadway play Norman, Is That You?, died Friday, Oct. 11, at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles following a stroke. He was 87.
His death was announced by his daughter Stephanie Bobrick in a Facebook post. “Our dearly beloved Sam Bobrick, extraordinary playwright, husband, father, grandfather, pug father, brother, uncle, friend, mentor, and all around outstanding person passed away peacefully today, October 11, 2019, surrounded by family and friends. He was as hilarious as he was kind and will be missed by all who knew him.”
In a remembrance on the Medium website, Bobrick’s friend, producer and actor Adam Carl, wrote that Bobrick recently suffered a massive stroke.
Bobrick’s death comes less than a month after NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming...
His death was announced by his daughter Stephanie Bobrick in a Facebook post. “Our dearly beloved Sam Bobrick, extraordinary playwright, husband, father, grandfather, pug father, brother, uncle, friend, mentor, and all around outstanding person passed away peacefully today, October 11, 2019, surrounded by family and friends. He was as hilarious as he was kind and will be missed by all who knew him.”
In a remembrance on the Medium website, Bobrick’s friend, producer and actor Adam Carl, wrote that Bobrick recently suffered a massive stroke.
Bobrick’s death comes less than a month after NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming...
- 10/14/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Those who grew up watching The Fox and the Hound should get ready to sob all over again. According to our sources – the same ones who revealed an Aladdin sequel was in development, and that Ewan McGregor is returning as Obi-Wan – Disney is reportedly in the early stages of developing a live-action remake of the 1981 animated classic for a new generation of fans. Though nothing has been confirmed by the studio as of yet, the film is likely to land on the Disney Plus streaming platform, from what we’re told.
For those unfamiliar with the original, the heartfelt movie featured the story of two unlikely pals trying to preserve their friendship despite their budding animal instincts and the nagging pressure from society that urged them to be enemies. The original flick subtly taught children a useful lesson about prejudice and how society often determines behavior.
The voices of Mickey Rooney,...
For those unfamiliar with the original, the heartfelt movie featured the story of two unlikely pals trying to preserve their friendship despite their budding animal instincts and the nagging pressure from society that urged them to be enemies. The original flick subtly taught children a useful lesson about prejudice and how society often determines behavior.
The voices of Mickey Rooney,...
- 8/30/2019
- by Evan Lewis
- We Got This Covered
It’s the brightest debut feature of 1970, and perhaps the warmest movie ever about the American race divide. Hal Ashby and Bill Gunn’s work is inspired: rich boy Beau Bridges buys a slum tenement and launches a wonderful ensemble comedy-drama in confrontation with the fantastic quartet of actresses — Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey and Marki Bey. The humanist picture doesn’t cheat on its subject matter. The cast list contains fresh debuts and and more best-of-career showings: Louis Gossett Jr., Melvin Stewart, Susan Anspach, Robert Klein.
The Landlord
Blu-ray
1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 14, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Walter Brooke, Louis Gossett Jr., Marki Bey, Mel Stewart, Susan Anspach, Robert Klein, Will Mackenzie, Trish Van Devere, Hector Elizondo, Marlene Clark, Gloria Hendry, Bobby V. Garvin.
Cinematography: Gordon Willis
Film Editor: William A. Sawyer, Edward Warschilka
Original Music: Al Kooper
Written by...
The Landlord
Blu-ray
1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 14, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Walter Brooke, Louis Gossett Jr., Marki Bey, Mel Stewart, Susan Anspach, Robert Klein, Will Mackenzie, Trish Van Devere, Hector Elizondo, Marlene Clark, Gloria Hendry, Bobby V. Garvin.
Cinematography: Gordon Willis
Film Editor: William A. Sawyer, Edward Warschilka
Original Music: Al Kooper
Written by...
- 5/11/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Alan Alda is the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild Life Achievement Award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of Alda’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda receiving 2019 Screen Actors Guild life achievement award
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until the inaugural awards ceremony in 1995 (for the film year 1994) that they began televising the event. The 31 people rewarded prior to that (and not featured in our gallery above...
SEEAlan Alda receiving 2019 Screen Actors Guild life achievement award
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until the inaugural awards ceremony in 1995 (for the film year 1994) that they began televising the event. The 31 people rewarded prior to that (and not featured in our gallery above...
- 1/25/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Carol Channing, a Broadway legend who was known for her signature lead role in Hello, Dolly! and continued performing well into her 90s, has died of natural causes at her home in Rancho Mirage, CA. She was 97.
B Harlan Boll, Channing’s publicist, confirmed the news to multiple news outlets. “It is with extreme heartache that I have to announce the passing of an original Industry Pioneer, Legend and Icon – Miss Carol Channing,” Boll said in a statement to Broadway World. “I admired her before I met her, and have loved her since the day she stepped … or fell, rather … into my life.”
A native of Seattle, Channing’s distinctively gravelly enunciation, lanky, energetic frame and carefree laugh marked her many decades in show business. Along with her remarkable 4,500 performances in the title role of Hello, Dolly!, she appeared in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Vamp and Lorelei. On movie screens,...
B Harlan Boll, Channing’s publicist, confirmed the news to multiple news outlets. “It is with extreme heartache that I have to announce the passing of an original Industry Pioneer, Legend and Icon – Miss Carol Channing,” Boll said in a statement to Broadway World. “I admired her before I met her, and have loved her since the day she stepped … or fell, rather … into my life.”
A native of Seattle, Channing’s distinctively gravelly enunciation, lanky, energetic frame and carefree laugh marked her many decades in show business. Along with her remarkable 4,500 performances in the title role of Hello, Dolly!, she appeared in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Vamp and Lorelei. On movie screens,...
- 1/15/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Morgan Freeman once quoted the nautical saying “long foretold, long last; short notice, soon past” to describe his acting career. He meant that it took him along time to achieve success in the acting profession but he hoped his long struggle would mean his career would last and not prove to be just a flash in the pan. His career has lasted and Freeman has had a nearly 30-year film career in major movies.
Freeman’s career started on the New York stage in the musical theater when he took over the role of Rudy the Maître d’ of the restaurant where the famous title number is performed. He was part of the groundbreaking moment when Pearl Bailey led an all-black cast into the production which had been running for years with white performers.
In the 1970s Freeman appeared for seven years and 680 episodes of the children’s television series “The Electric Company.
Freeman’s career started on the New York stage in the musical theater when he took over the role of Rudy the Maître d’ of the restaurant where the famous title number is performed. He was part of the groundbreaking moment when Pearl Bailey led an all-black cast into the production which had been running for years with white performers.
In the 1970s Freeman appeared for seven years and 680 episodes of the children’s television series “The Electric Company.
- 8/31/2018
- by Robert Pius and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Morgan Freeman is quite possibly the most well known actor around and if you haven’t seen him you’ve definitely heard him.
In honor of his 80th birthday, here are eight facts about the Academy Award winning actor that you may not have known.
Military Service
Morgan Freeman joined the Air Force in 1955, right after graduating from high school. He worked as a radar technician until 1959.
He Was a Dancer
Freeman’s first paid show business job was a dancer in the 1964 World’s Fair.
He Owns a Club
The Academy Award winning actor co-owns a blues club and restaurant with his friend Bill Luckett. The bar is called Ground Zero and it’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
He performed on Broadway
Morgan Freeman made his Broadway debut in an all-black cast of “Hello, Dolly” in 1967 alongside Pearl Bailey.
He Worked as a Clerk Typist
When Freeman was still trying...
In honor of his 80th birthday, here are eight facts about the Academy Award winning actor that you may not have known.
Military Service
Morgan Freeman joined the Air Force in 1955, right after graduating from high school. He worked as a radar technician until 1959.
He Was a Dancer
Freeman’s first paid show business job was a dancer in the 1964 World’s Fair.
He Owns a Club
The Academy Award winning actor co-owns a blues club and restaurant with his friend Bill Luckett. The bar is called Ground Zero and it’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
He performed on Broadway
Morgan Freeman made his Broadway debut in an all-black cast of “Hello, Dolly” in 1967 alongside Pearl Bailey.
He Worked as a Clerk Typist
When Freeman was still trying...
- 5/24/2018
- by Rasha Ali
- The Wrap
Hal Ashby’s The Landlord, made in 1970, is probably the best movie of the 1970s not to be widely known by younger audiences, and even by some older audiences whose appreciation of the last great era of American moviemaking needs to be expanded beyond go-to classics like The Godfather and Chinatown and Taxi Driver. It’s Ashby’s first directorial effort, after work as assistant editor and chief film editor on The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cincinnati Kid and In the Heat of the Night, and it finds Ashby delighting in the freedom of fashioning experimental rules of editorial and visual expression in the process of translating a script from Bill Gunn (Ganja and Hess), based on Kristin Hunter’s novel, into what stands today as one of the funniest, most honest, cogent and probing explorations of race and American race relations in movie history. We had it on...
- 12/4/2017
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Bette Midler proved why she’s called the Divine Miss M, delivering an epic speech to accept the Tony Award Sunday for her star turn in the Broadway revival of “Hello, Dolly!” — and stubbornly refusing to leave the stage until she was good and ready. In her four-minute-plus oration, she thanked the actors and creative team in the hit musical production as well as former teachers and actresses who previously played her role, from Carol Channing to Pearl Bailey. But as the orchestra struck up “There’s No Business Like Show Business” hoping to usher her from the stage, Midler was having.
- 6/12/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
In May, June amp July the NPR Program Broadway to Main Street hosted by Laurence Maslon which airs Sundays at 3Pm on NYLong Island NPR-member station WPPB88.3Fm will feature interviews with Tony Award-nominee amp Sweeney Todd star Carolee Carmello May 28 a retrospective of The 1967 Tony Awards June 4 a 2017 Tony Awards Special on Tonys Sunday 611 with recordings of all the top nominees for Best Musical and the best musical performer nominees including Bette Midler, Josh Groban, Ben Platt and more a centennial tribute to Ella Fitzgerald 618 a Hello, Dolly themed show 625 with musical selections from Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, as well as selections from the new Bette Midler recording and for a special July 4 holiday weekend show with original 1776 star William Daniels July 3.
- 5/18/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Bette Midler is the lady in red!
The legendary actress is starring in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! as she steps into the titular role of Dolly Gallagher Levi. The musical starts preview performances on March 15, with opening night set for April 20 at the Shubert Theatre.
The musical follows Dolly as a widow in her middle years who has decided to begin her life again.
Midler last hit Broadway for the hit one-woman play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers in 2013. She made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in 1966 and went on...
The legendary actress is starring in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! as she steps into the titular role of Dolly Gallagher Levi. The musical starts preview performances on March 15, with opening night set for April 20 at the Shubert Theatre.
The musical follows Dolly as a widow in her middle years who has decided to begin her life again.
Midler last hit Broadway for the hit one-woman play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers in 2013. She made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in 1966 and went on...
- 3/14/2017
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
It’s hard to think of Maya Angelou as anything other than the symbol of strength she portrayed in her award-winning autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But before it’s publication in 1969, the late poet was a single mother struggling to find work to support her son.
In an exclusive clip from American Masters – Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, the first documentary feature about her life, Angelou’s son Guy Johnson gets emotional remembering one particular hardship she experienced at the arms of Emmy-winning actress Pearl Bailey.
The year was 1967, and Hello Dolly! — one of...
In an exclusive clip from American Masters – Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, the first documentary feature about her life, Angelou’s son Guy Johnson gets emotional remembering one particular hardship she experienced at the arms of Emmy-winning actress Pearl Bailey.
The year was 1967, and Hello Dolly! — one of...
- 2/16/2017
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
Bette on the Tonight Show in 2014Bette Midler basically gave the game away in a tweet last night but today it's official: The Divine Miss M will be taking over Carol Channing's signature role Dolly Levi in a Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!" due in the Spring of 2017. Carol Channing made a huge enduring career out of the role, of course, playing it three different times across four decades on Broadway and touring with it, too. Barbra Streisand tried to wrestle the role away from her in the movie musical adaptation in 1969 -- there are multiple catty anecdotes about this in the trivia-filled gossipy book "Roadshow! The Fall of the Film Musicals in the 1960s" that do not paint a pretty picture of Babs -- but despite the plentiful Oscar nominations thrown that movies way, it didn't really stick and no one thinks of Dolly as anyone's but Channing's.
- 1/19/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
When Hamilton opened Off Broadway at the Public Theater last February, and then transferred to Broadway in August, many of the reviews, including mine, used words like historic, groundbreaking, and unprecedented to describe Lin-Manuel Miranda’s achievement. There’s plenty to debate in those descriptions; what, after all, was so new? Hip-hop had been appropriated by musicals before, not least in Miranda’s own previous Broadway outing, In the Heights. American history was not virgin territory for musicals either: 1776 covers some of the same period and, in Thomas Jefferson, even shares a character. Nor, thankfully, was Hamilton’s almost entirely nonwhite casting a novelty, though it is certainly employed to greater textual effect than in, say, the all-black Hello, Dolly! of 1967. That production taught us that Pearl Bailey could play an Irishwoman for the purposes of sentimental comedy; Hamilton demonstrates that any all-white history of our country is missing half its heart.
- 1/11/2016
- by Jesse Green
- Vulture
"Laugh-In" director George Schlatter based this 1976 farce on a failed stage play about two stereotypically Jewish parents and their frazzled reactions to the fact that their son has a boyfriend. For the film Schlatter cast Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey as the parents, thereby ensuring a comedy even more rife with politically-incorrect possibilities. Look for Mad cartoonist Sergio Aragones in a small part.
- 4/6/2015
- by Trailers From Hell
- Thompson on Hollywood
Geoffrey Holder, the only theater man who at 6 feet, 6 inches could look Tommy Tune right in the eye and say “Abosolutely maaaaah-velous,” died Sunday in New York City. He was 84. Charles M. Mirotznik, a spokesman for the family, told the New York Times the cause was complications of pneumonia.
As well known for the honey-smooth bass-baritone that resonated through countless voice-overs as for the white linen suit and Panama hat that set off his gleaming Caribbean features — saucer eyes, broad-as-the-George-Washington-Bridge smile and shaved head — Holder became an advertising icon in the 1970s and ’80s as the pitchman for 7Up, declaring it “the Un-Cola — you know, Sev’mup – wet, wild, all that…” :
But Holder, born in Trinidad, was much more than a seductive accoutrement to Madison Avenue. He left an enduring stamp on virtually every field in the performing arts, as musician, choreographer, actor, director and designer, winning two Tony...
As well known for the honey-smooth bass-baritone that resonated through countless voice-overs as for the white linen suit and Panama hat that set off his gleaming Caribbean features — saucer eyes, broad-as-the-George-Washington-Bridge smile and shaved head — Holder became an advertising icon in the 1970s and ’80s as the pitchman for 7Up, declaring it “the Un-Cola — you know, Sev’mup – wet, wild, all that…” :
But Holder, born in Trinidad, was much more than a seductive accoutrement to Madison Avenue. He left an enduring stamp on virtually every field in the performing arts, as musician, choreographer, actor, director and designer, winning two Tony...
- 10/6/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
Oscar-nominated actor who brought sensitivity and warmth to her most famous role in Imitation of Life
From its earliest days, Hollywood, which has always lagged behind wider social advances, limited the roles of black actors to stock, wide-eyed cowards, simpletons or servants, often referred to as "uncles" and "mammies". Juanita Moore, who has died aged 99, suffered from this limitation by having to play maids throughout most of her long career. However, Moore could have echoed what Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award, once said: "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
Where McDaniel as Mammy, Scarlett O'Hara's lovable, sassy servant in Gone With the Wind (1939) was the apotheosis of the black maid, Moore's Oscar-nominated portrayal of Annie Johnson, housekeeper to the glamorous Broadway star Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in Douglas Sirk...
From its earliest days, Hollywood, which has always lagged behind wider social advances, limited the roles of black actors to stock, wide-eyed cowards, simpletons or servants, often referred to as "uncles" and "mammies". Juanita Moore, who has died aged 99, suffered from this limitation by having to play maids throughout most of her long career. However, Moore could have echoed what Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award, once said: "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
Where McDaniel as Mammy, Scarlett O'Hara's lovable, sassy servant in Gone With the Wind (1939) was the apotheosis of the black maid, Moore's Oscar-nominated portrayal of Annie Johnson, housekeeper to the glamorous Broadway star Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in Douglas Sirk...
- 1/3/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
So a few months ago I reported that Carmen Jones, 20th Century Fox's 1954 film with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (with Pearl Bailey and a very, very young Diahann Carroll as well), directed by the great Otto Preminger, was finally coming out on blu-ray DVD.Fox Home Video ran, a few months ago, an online contest in which they asked film lovers to vote for their favorite Fox film, two from each decade, from the 1930's to the 1960's, that they would most like to see released on blu-ray, and Carmen Jones (as well as the Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn comedy Desk Set) won hands down, as the 1950's picks.So Fox has announced that they will be releasing the films on...
- 6/12/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
As usual... These aren't necessarily recommendations. Consider the list more of an Fyi - films we've talked about on this site, at one time or another, that are now streaming on Netflix, that you might want to check out for yourselves. Without further ado, here's this week's list of 5: 1 - Otto Preminger’s adaptation of Oscar Hammerstein’s 1943 stage production, Carmen Jones, itself inspired by the 19th-century French novella Carmen. Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, and Pearl Bailey star in this beloved classic. 2 - Douglas Sirk's 1959 adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel Imitation of Life. It is the second film adaptation of the novel. The...
- 6/5/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
There are people who love (and I mean Love) Carmen Jones, 20th Century Fox's 1954 film with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Bellafonte (with Pearl Bailey and a very very young Diahann Carroll as well) and directed by the great Otto Preminger So I'm sure it's going to be wonderful news to a lot of people's ears that word came out today that a restored and remastered version of the film will be released on blu-ray from Fox Home Video. But don't get too excited yet. I'll to that in a minute Based on the hit Broadway play from the early 1940's, Carmen Jones has a clever concept. Take George Bizet's classic 1874 French opera Carmen make the characters black and set in mainly in the South among...
- 3/7/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Valentine’s Day means movies in heavy rotation with juicy romantic plots, but none come close to “Carmen Jones.” The 1954 musical film has a long lineage. Otto Preminger’s adaptation of Oscar Hammerstein’s 1943 stage production was inspired by a French adaptation of the 19th-century novella “Carmen.” However, it’s Preminger’s cast -- Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, and Pearl Bailey -- that makes this version so memorable. Dandridge and Belafonte have remarkable chemistry; nearly 60 years later, it’s hard to think of another film that can hold a match to this portrayal of Black love (albeit the...
- 2/14/2013
- by Abdul Ali
- ShadowAndAct
This is the Pure Movies review of The Landlord, directed by Hal Ashby and starring Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Walter Brooke and Louis Gossett Jr. Reviewed by Suki Ferguson for @puremovies The Landlord is a real race-relations curio; a social comedy that atomizes racial tension in a post-Sixties Brooklyn neighbourhood. When the decade of youthful cultural and political awakening ends, tensions and readjustments soon follow, and here they are deftly exhibited through the prism of big city gentrification.
- 10/16/2012
- by Suki Ferguson
- Pure Movies
Ashby was born fully formed as a film-maker with this debut, a wise and exact meditation on race relations in New York at the end of the 1960s
Sometimes I imagine a scene of a time capsule opening years after its burial, and a noxious stink arises from the urn because its socio-temporal contents have lost all their context, and thus all their meaning. "Ew," says the crowd assembled, "why ever did we bury that?" Not so Hal Ashby's The Landlord, long unavailable despite being, to my mind at least, one of the most assured directorial debuts in Hollywood history, and also perhaps my favourite of all his work. I saw it as a teenager in the 70s, before it vanished out of circulation for decades. This particular time capsule is all madeleines and bitter almonds, its contents apparently not having aged a day in 42 years.
Ashby, one of...
Sometimes I imagine a scene of a time capsule opening years after its burial, and a noxious stink arises from the urn because its socio-temporal contents have lost all their context, and thus all their meaning. "Ew," says the crowd assembled, "why ever did we bury that?" Not so Hal Ashby's The Landlord, long unavailable despite being, to my mind at least, one of the most assured directorial debuts in Hollywood history, and also perhaps my favourite of all his work. I saw it as a teenager in the 70s, before it vanished out of circulation for decades. This particular time capsule is all madeleines and bitter almonds, its contents apparently not having aged a day in 42 years.
Ashby, one of...
- 10/4/2012
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
A little known fact that even hardcore Spike Lee fans may not know: the “Do The Right Thing” filmmaker has been trying to make a film adaptation of George Gershwin's legendary 1935 American folk opera "Porgy And Bess” for over a decade now. Lee came close in the early aughts, but talks with the notoriously fussy Gershwin estate reportedly fell apart at the very last minute after what was allegedly was a lot of back and forth. A famous 1959 version of the film was shot in 70Mm and starred Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey, and in 2011 it was chosen for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. But somehow, it’s impossible to find, and isn't available anywhere on DVD. Why? Well, the Samuel Goldwyn project was beset with problems. Rouben Mamoulian was originally hired to direct the film, and was...
- 8/8/2012
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
Not even unsubstantiated death threats could keep Mike Tyson's adoring fans -- including Puff Daddy P. Diddy Sean Combs Diddy -- away from Broadway's Longacre Theater last night, where the former Heavyweight Champion of the World performed his one-man show, Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth. The influence of director Spike Lee could be felt here and there: the ultra-loud pre-show mix of rap classics, spun by D.J. Clark Kent, called to mind the opening montage of Lee's film "Do the Right Thing," as did the banners featuring names of Brooklyn neighborhoods from "Bed Stuy Do or Die" to, oddly enough, Park Slope. Once the show began, the overwhelmingly male, mostly white audience cheered every time Tyson referenced his legendary boxing career -- and guffawed in a way that probably would have made Dave Chappelle squirm every time he said the word "motherfucker." (He said it a lot.
- 8/8/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
The Oscar-winning success of last year's "The Help" was a throwback in many ways, principally to the socially-conscious melodramas of Stanley Kramer, like "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner." Another comparison point that came up frequently in reviews of Tate Taylor's film was "Imitation Of Life," the 1959 film by director Douglas Sirk, but it's scarcely fair: over fifty years on, Sirk's picture stands head and shoulders above virtually every other melodrama.
The story follows widow and aspiring actress Lora (Lana Turner), whose daughter Susie goes missing at the beach, and is found by an African-American divorcee, Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), there with her own light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane. The two become friends, Lora taking Annie in as a housekeeper, and Annie's care helping Lora achieve her dream of becoming a Broadway star. Eleven years later, however, their children have grown up, and Susie (Sandra Dee) develops a crush on her mother's boyfriend Steve,...
The story follows widow and aspiring actress Lora (Lana Turner), whose daughter Susie goes missing at the beach, and is found by an African-American divorcee, Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), there with her own light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane. The two become friends, Lora taking Annie in as a housekeeper, and Annie's care helping Lora achieve her dream of becoming a Broadway star. Eleven years later, however, their children have grown up, and Susie (Sandra Dee) develops a crush on her mother's boyfriend Steve,...
- 4/17/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore speaks onstage during the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. Dick Van Dyke, with whom Moore had co-starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show in the early '60s, presented her with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.) The 75-year-old Moore, who has suffered from a series of health ailments including diabetes and brain surgery to remove a benign tumor last year, looked quite frail while accepting her trophy. She was greeted by the longest standing ovation of the evening. Her acceptance speech was about how there were too many Mary Moores already registered with SAG back in the 1950s. As a result, she decided to use her father's middle name, Tyler, as part of her own show business moniker. Moore — whose television heyday was in...
- 2/8/2012
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Festival for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.
This offerings for this Thursday, February 9th are Carmen Jones at 5pm and Car Wash at 7pm.
Carmen Jones (1954) was produced and directed by Otto Preminger from Oscar Hammerstein’s update of the Bizet opera. It stars Dorothy Dandridge as the title character, a free-spirited, free-loving parachute factory worker whose romantic entanglement with conflicted Joe(Harry Belafonte), who’s engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War,...
This offerings for this Thursday, February 9th are Carmen Jones at 5pm and Car Wash at 7pm.
Carmen Jones (1954) was produced and directed by Otto Preminger from Oscar Hammerstein’s update of the Bizet opera. It stars Dorothy Dandridge as the title character, a free-spirited, free-loving parachute factory worker whose romantic entanglement with conflicted Joe(Harry Belafonte), who’s engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War,...
- 2/7/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore onstage at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony, which was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. Moore herself chose Van Dyke, her co-star in The Dick Van Dyke Show back in the early '60s, to present her with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.) Moore, who has suffered from a series of health ailments including diabetes and brain surgery to remove a benign tumor last year, looked quite frail while accepting her trophy. She received the longest standing ovation of the evening — twice, in fact, as people stood up to applaud her even though all they got to see the first time around were a series of samples of her long film and television career, in addition to clips showing her...
- 2/2/2012
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
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