Jeannie Epper, the peerless, fearless stunt performer who doubled for Lynda Carter on Wonder Woman and swung on a vine across a 350-foot gorge and propelled down an epic mudslide as Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone, has died. She was 83.
Epper died Sunday night of natural causes at her home in Simi Valley, her family told The Hollywood Reporter.
Just one member of a dynasty of stunt performers that Steven Spielberg dubbed the “Flying Wallendas of Film” — starting with her father, John Epper, there have been four generations of Eppers in show business since the 1930s — she worked on 150-plus films and TV shows during an astounding 70-year career.
In 2007, Epper received the first lifetime achievement honor given to a woman at the World Taurus Awards and ranks among the greatest stuntwomen of all time.
Known for her agility, horse-riding skills and competitiveness, the 5-foot-9 Epper also stepped in...
Epper died Sunday night of natural causes at her home in Simi Valley, her family told The Hollywood Reporter.
Just one member of a dynasty of stunt performers that Steven Spielberg dubbed the “Flying Wallendas of Film” — starting with her father, John Epper, there have been four generations of Eppers in show business since the 1930s — she worked on 150-plus films and TV shows during an astounding 70-year career.
In 2007, Epper received the first lifetime achievement honor given to a woman at the World Taurus Awards and ranks among the greatest stuntwomen of all time.
Known for her agility, horse-riding skills and competitiveness, the 5-foot-9 Epper also stepped in...
- 5/6/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ahead of Scorsese’s Osage Nation epic hitting cinemas this month, we look at the evolution of Indigenous life in film and TV, from The Searchers to Reservation Dogs
Martin Scorsese’s rather magnificent Killers of the Flower Moon is two weeks away from cinemas, and its marketing campaign has been fascinating to observe. What was initially pitched as a Leonardo DiCaprio-starring period crime epic has been repositioned to emphasise its story of atrocities brought against the Osage Nation. The presence of Lily Gladstone, the film’s superb Indigenous star, has been elevated. It was recently announced that she’ll campaign for the best actress Oscar, not supporting, while Scorsese has admitted that the script was rewritten during filming to centre its Native American characters: “After a certain point, I realised I was making a movie about all the white guys,” he told Time magazine. No more.
Consider it...
Martin Scorsese’s rather magnificent Killers of the Flower Moon is two weeks away from cinemas, and its marketing campaign has been fascinating to observe. What was initially pitched as a Leonardo DiCaprio-starring period crime epic has been repositioned to emphasise its story of atrocities brought against the Osage Nation. The presence of Lily Gladstone, the film’s superb Indigenous star, has been elevated. It was recently announced that she’ll campaign for the best actress Oscar, not supporting, while Scorsese has admitted that the script was rewritten during filming to centre its Native American characters: “After a certain point, I realised I was making a movie about all the white guys,” he told Time magazine. No more.
Consider it...
- 10/7/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
Dean Smith, who won a gold medal as a sprinter at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics before becoming a top-notch Hollywood stunt performer who worked on a dozen films starring John Wayne, has died. He was 91.
Smith died Saturday at his home in Breckenridge, Texas, after a battle with cancer, his friend Rob Word told The Hollywood Reporter.
Smith, who got into the business with help from James Garner, appeared in seven Paul Newman films, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974).
The tough Texan, who loved to say he could “ride, run and jump,” doubled for good friend Dale Robertson on the 1957-62 NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo, the 1964 film Blood on the Arrow and the 1966-68 ABC series Iron Horse.
He also did the dirty work for Ben Johnson...
Smith died Saturday at his home in Breckenridge, Texas, after a battle with cancer, his friend Rob Word told The Hollywood Reporter.
Smith, who got into the business with help from James Garner, appeared in seven Paul Newman films, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974).
The tough Texan, who loved to say he could “ride, run and jump,” doubled for good friend Dale Robertson on the 1957-62 NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo, the 1964 film Blood on the Arrow and the 1966-68 ABC series Iron Horse.
He also did the dirty work for Ben Johnson...
- 6/25/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A number of great movies are leaving HBO Max at the end of March, so it’s time to prioritize these titles in your queue. Filmmaker James Gunn’s sequel/soft reboot “The Suicide Squad” will depart the streaming service on March 22 after first hitting HBO Max the same day it was released in theaters back in 2021. Similarly, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” was whisked away on March 1 after also getting a day-and-date release in 2021 (sorry/not sorry if you missed it).
You also only have until March 7 to stream “Just a Boy From Tupelo: Bringing Elvis to the Big Screen,” a short documentary on the making of the Oscar-nominated biopic “Elvis.”
Other noteworthy films leaving HBO Max this month include “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Contagion,” the extended version of “Dances with Wolves,” “Ghostbusters,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Love & Basketball” and “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
You also only have until March 7 to stream “Just a Boy From Tupelo: Bringing Elvis to the Big Screen,” a short documentary on the making of the Oscar-nominated biopic “Elvis.”
Other noteworthy films leaving HBO Max this month include “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Contagion,” the extended version of “Dances with Wolves,” “Ghostbusters,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Love & Basketball” and “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
- 3/3/2023
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is Mubi Go's Film of the Week in the UK and the US for November 26, 2021.Radu Jude on the set of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Photo by Silviu Ghetie ©microFILM_3.Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Radu Jude: Humorless comedy.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?Jude: "It seems to me that to call a movie house a theatre is the same as to call an undertaker a mortician," wrote Nabokov in his essay on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I am not picky, I am used to so many cinemas offering horrible cinema conditions, so that any decent one would do. I can maybe choose according to the programming: for instance,...
- 11/24/2021
- MUBI
Right now, in this galaxy… featuring Lloyd Kaufman, Brad Simpson, Gilbert Hernandez, Grant Moninger and Blaire Bercy.
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Mondo Keazunt (1955)
The Human Tornado (1976)
Gigot (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Last Man On Earth (1963)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
I Am Legend (2007)
Panic In Year Zero! (1962)
Dogtooth (2009)
The Entity (1983)
Shelf Life (1993)
The Killers (1964)
The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
Donovan’s Brain (1953)
Talk About A Stranger (1952)
Julius Caesar (1950)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Jerk (1979)
Kings Row (1942)
Santa Fe Trail (1940
Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)
Point Blank (1967)
House of Wax (1953)
Black Shampoo (1976)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Return To Oz (1985)
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Psycho (1960)
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three...
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Mondo Keazunt (1955)
The Human Tornado (1976)
Gigot (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Last Man On Earth (1963)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
I Am Legend (2007)
Panic In Year Zero! (1962)
Dogtooth (2009)
The Entity (1983)
Shelf Life (1993)
The Killers (1964)
The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
Donovan’s Brain (1953)
Talk About A Stranger (1952)
Julius Caesar (1950)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Jerk (1979)
Kings Row (1942)
Santa Fe Trail (1940
Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)
Point Blank (1967)
House of Wax (1953)
Black Shampoo (1976)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Return To Oz (1985)
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Psycho (1960)
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three...
- 5/15/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
on this day in history as it relates to the movies...
Dolores Del Río auditioning for Catwoman. No wait that's not right. Dolores Del Rio in Journey Into Fear (1943)1885 Carlo Montuori, famed cinematographer of Italian neorealism is born. He went on to lens the essential Bicycle Thief (1948)
1904 Dolores del Río, one of the first three Mexican actors to become movie stars in Hollywood (the others being her cousin Ramon Novarro and Lupe Vélez - they all started in silent films and moved into talkies), after which she used her fame and beauty as part of Mexican cinema's Golden Age with the occasional Hollywood film thrown in. Credits include: Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down To Rio (1933), Journey Into Fear (1943), Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and multiple Best Actress winning films in Mexico: Las Abandonadas (1944), El Niño y la Niebla (1953), and Doña Perfecta (1951).
1906 Alexandre Trauner, Oscar winning production designer. His credits include The Nun's Story...
Dolores Del Río auditioning for Catwoman. No wait that's not right. Dolores Del Rio in Journey Into Fear (1943)1885 Carlo Montuori, famed cinematographer of Italian neorealism is born. He went on to lens the essential Bicycle Thief (1948)
1904 Dolores del Río, one of the first three Mexican actors to become movie stars in Hollywood (the others being her cousin Ramon Novarro and Lupe Vélez - they all started in silent films and moved into talkies), after which she used her fame and beauty as part of Mexican cinema's Golden Age with the occasional Hollywood film thrown in. Credits include: Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down To Rio (1933), Journey Into Fear (1943), Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and multiple Best Actress winning films in Mexico: Las Abandonadas (1944), El Niño y la Niebla (1953), and Doña Perfecta (1951).
1906 Alexandre Trauner, Oscar winning production designer. His credits include The Nun's Story...
- 8/3/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/5/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
As Sound on Sight’s Western month reaches its conclusion, two of the hosts of your favorite Disney movie podcast, Mousterpiece Cinema, Josh Spiegel and Gabe Bucsko met in the show’s vaunted and secretive HQ to discuss and debate what many people would claim is the greatest Western of all time: the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers. One of your hosts considers that claim perfectly accurate, and the other one is Josh. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Can this debate ever be settled? It’s up to Josh and Gabe to answer these hard questions, so read on for the answers!
Josh: I don’t remember much about my freshman year in college–thanks more to an unfailingly poor memory than to partying, I assure you–but one clear memory is that of my fall-semester film professor blowing his gasket when I told him I hated one of his favorite movies.
Josh: I don’t remember much about my freshman year in college–thanks more to an unfailingly poor memory than to partying, I assure you–but one clear memory is that of my fall-semester film professor blowing his gasket when I told him I hated one of his favorite movies.
- 1/28/2013
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
The “adult” Western – as it would come to be called – was a long time coming. A Hollywood staple since the days of The Great Train Robbery (1903), the Western offered spectacle and action set against the uniquely American milieu of the Old West – a historical period which, at the dawn of the motion picture industry, was still fresh in the nation’s memory. What the genre rarely offered was dramatic substance.
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
- 1/4/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Oscars 1972: Peter Bogdanovich on 'The Last Picture Show' and that legendary Charlie Chaplin tribute
In 1968 Esquire film writer and MoMA film curator Peter Bogdanovich decided to follow the example of critics-turned-filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard and try his hand at directing. Four years after moving to Hollywood, Bogdanovich’s second feature film, The Last Picture Show, received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and personal nods for Best Director and for co-writing the Adapted Screenplay. Though the film lost the top prize to The French Connection, the Academy did honor The Last Picture Show with Oscars for Supporting Actor Ben Johnson and Supporting Actress Cloris Leachman at the ceremony on April 10, 1972 hosted by Helen Hayes,...
- 2/23/2012
- by Peter Bogdanovich
- EW - Inside Movies
Ben Johnson on TCM: War Drums, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am 3 Godfathers (1948) Three outlaws on the run risk their freedom and their lives to return a newborn to civilization. Dir: John Ford. Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, Harry Carey Jr. C-106 mins. 8:00 Am Fort Defiance (1951) A Civil War veteran returns to his hometown to avenge his brother's death. Dir: John Rawlins. Cast: Dane Clark, Ben Johnson, Peter Graves. C-82 mins. 9:30 Am Wild Stallion (1952) A horse hunter pursues a white colt that ran off when his parents were killed. Dir: Lewis D. Collins. Cast: Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Martha Hyer. C-70 mins. 11:00 Am War Drums (1957) A white trader and an Apache chief fall for the same woman. Dir: Reginald LeBorg. Cast: Lex Barker, Joan Taylor, Ben Johnson. C-75 mins. 12:30 Pm Cheyenne Autumn (1964) A reluctant calvary Captain must...
- 8/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ben Johnson isn't exactly what one would call a movie icon; Johnson isn't even a Western icon, despite his presence in numerous Old (and not-so-Old) West movies during his 50+-year career. Johnson's semi-obscurity today is a great reason to celebrate Turner Classic Movies' devoting one whole day to him as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. [Ben Johnson Movie Schedule.] TCM will be presenting 12 Ben Johnson movies, including one premiere, the 1957 Western War Drums, directed by Viennese filmmaker Reginald Le Borg (Voodoo Island, Sins of Jezebel), and starring former Tarzan Lex Barker. The movie sounds like a hoot: Mexican gal Riva (Joan Taylor, actually from Geneva, Illinois) is wanted and desired by both a white trader (Johnson) and an Apache chief named Mangas Coloradas (Barker). Barker playing an Apache should be, ahem, interesting enough, but one named Mangas Coloradas? Here's wondering if that translates as "Colored Mangoes." Anyhow, War Drums sounds like a must-see.
- 8/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Director John Ford, perhaps one of the greatest directors ever in films was also one of the most complex. He started in career in films during the silent era as an actor and a stuntman, even playing one of the horse riding Klansman in the climax of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of A Nation and directed some 125 movies in his career until his last film Seven Women in 1965. And among those films are many films still today established as genuine classics such as How Green Was My Valley, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Grapes of Wrath (The Searchers, considered by many as his masterpiece, is to me a boring, rambling, vastly overrated movie.)
But as with many directors of the period, his films definitely have their share of outrageous stereotypes, but during the last decade of his filmmaking career Ford began to make films to sort of atone for his past sins.
But as with many directors of the period, his films definitely have their share of outrageous stereotypes, but during the last decade of his filmmaking career Ford began to make films to sort of atone for his past sins.
- 5/18/2010
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Salvaged from the unpublished Starlog #375. Posted here for the record. The science fiction universe sadly salutes these fantastic talents who died earlier this year.
Bob May (January) The beloved man inside Lost In Space’s irrepressible Robot. (interviewed in Starlog #57, #201)
Charles H. Schneer (January) The veteran producer who shepherded all of Ray Harryhausen’s movies from It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955) to Clash Of The Titans (1981). Those classic genre films included Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles To Earth, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, The Three Worlds Of Gulliver, Mysterious Island (1961), Jason And The Argonauts, First Men In The Moon, The Valley Of Gwangi, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad and Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger. Sans Harryhausen, he also produced I Aim At The Stars (a.k.a. Wernher Von Braun), Hellcats Of The Navy and Half A Sixpence. (Starlog #151, #152, #153)
Arthur A. Jacobs (January) In 1958, producer...
Bob May (January) The beloved man inside Lost In Space’s irrepressible Robot. (interviewed in Starlog #57, #201)
Charles H. Schneer (January) The veteran producer who shepherded all of Ray Harryhausen’s movies from It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955) to Clash Of The Titans (1981). Those classic genre films included Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles To Earth, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, The Three Worlds Of Gulliver, Mysterious Island (1961), Jason And The Argonauts, First Men In The Moon, The Valley Of Gwangi, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad and Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger. Sans Harryhausen, he also produced I Aim At The Stars (a.k.a. Wernher Von Braun), Hellcats Of The Navy and Half A Sixpence. (Starlog #151, #152, #153)
Arthur A. Jacobs (January) In 1958, producer...
- 9/30/2009
- by no-reply@starlog.com (David McDonnell)
- Starlog
Ricardo Montalban, who became a household name for his performance as the wish-granting Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. The actor was 88.
Montalban's death was announced at a meeting of the city council by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death.
Although he was best known as the charming Roarke on ABC's 1978-84 hit series, Montalban was also a gifted character actor who won an Emmy for his portrayal of a Sioux chief in the miniseries "How the West Was Won."
Montalban's suave manner and patriarchal dignity became his trademarks, and for a period in his late career, he served as the TV pitchman for Chrysler. His dignified intonation -- "rich Corinthian leather" with his regal rolling of the "R's" -- caught viewers' favor and was widely repeated.
Montalban could also play the most dastardly villains,...
Montalban's death was announced at a meeting of the city council by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death.
Although he was best known as the charming Roarke on ABC's 1978-84 hit series, Montalban was also a gifted character actor who won an Emmy for his portrayal of a Sioux chief in the miniseries "How the West Was Won."
Montalban's suave manner and patriarchal dignity became his trademarks, and for a period in his late career, he served as the TV pitchman for Chrysler. His dignified intonation -- "rich Corinthian leather" with his regal rolling of the "R's" -- caught viewers' favor and was widely repeated.
Montalban could also play the most dastardly villains,...
- 1/14/2009
- by By Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Despite his commitment to forward-actuated narratives and his characters' ability to move—and fast; they often run—through the world, Jean-Pierre Melville makes meaty films, a cinema of heft." Ryland Walker Knight begins his review of Le Doulos by lining it up against Army of Shadows: "Both films adhere to a delimited set (often trios, sometimes quartets) of masculine characters with little narrative space for women...; both films are 'about' the world's tests for fraternal bonds; both are about failure; both are marked by a curious attention to giveaway interstitials of clocks, of a look up, of walls empty and plentiful, so many things) and inward trajectories where the end game is less fatal than illuminative, however brutal and deliberate the swath carved across desolate earth winds."
Also in the Auteurs' Notebook is Glenn Kenny's "Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report": "The Warner John Ford Collection, a six-picture sampling...
Also in the Auteurs' Notebook is Glenn Kenny's "Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report": "The Warner John Ford Collection, a six-picture sampling...
- 10/7/2008
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Hollywood actor Richard Widmark has died at the age of 93.
He passed away at his home in Connecticut on Monday after a long illness, according to his wife Susan Blanchard.
The Minnesota-born star enjoyed a career spanning more than four decades, during which he made over 70 films.
He made his silver screen debut in 1947, aged 33, as a psychopathic killer in Kiss of Death - a role which earned him an Oscar nomination and scooped him the Golden Globe prize for Best Actor.
Widmark went on to star in 1950s classics like Night and the City, Broken Lance and appeared alongside Marilyn Monroe in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock.
He will also be remembered for his roles in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) and 1964's Cheyenne Autumn. Widmark made his final big-screen outing in 1991 thriller True Colors.
He is survived by his second wife Blanchard and a daughter from his first marriage to writer Jean Hazlewood.
He passed away at his home in Connecticut on Monday after a long illness, according to his wife Susan Blanchard.
The Minnesota-born star enjoyed a career spanning more than four decades, during which he made over 70 films.
He made his silver screen debut in 1947, aged 33, as a psychopathic killer in Kiss of Death - a role which earned him an Oscar nomination and scooped him the Golden Globe prize for Best Actor.
Widmark went on to star in 1950s classics like Night and the City, Broken Lance and appeared alongside Marilyn Monroe in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock.
He will also be remembered for his roles in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) and 1964's Cheyenne Autumn. Widmark made his final big-screen outing in 1991 thriller True Colors.
He is survived by his second wife Blanchard and a daughter from his first marriage to writer Jean Hazlewood.
- 3/26/2008
- WENN
Article Templatehttp://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1119669402http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=769341148Updated 11:43 a.m. Pt March 26
Richard Widmark, who won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his first movie role in the 1947 gangster film "Kiss of Death," has died. He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the actor died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.
Widmark, who often played heavies, received his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a laughing psychopathic murderer who pushed a crippled old woman down a flight of stairs. Usually associated with villainous roles, he played another heavy in the film noir "Road House" the following year. Yet he made his mark as the cynical hero of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" in 1953. His gritty persona also suited him well for Westerns, playing...
Richard Widmark, who won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his first movie role in the 1947 gangster film "Kiss of Death," has died. He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the actor died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.
Widmark, who often played heavies, received his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a laughing psychopathic murderer who pushed a crippled old woman down a flight of stairs. Usually associated with villainous roles, he played another heavy in the film noir "Road House" the following year. Yet he made his mark as the cynical hero of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" in 1953. His gritty persona also suited him well for Westerns, playing...
- 3/26/2008
- by By Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Richard Widmark, the actor whose menacing portrayals in numerous film noir thrillers made him synonymous with the genre, died Monday at age 93. According to news reports, the actor passed away at his home in Roxbury, CT after a long illness. Widmark appeared on both radio and the stage before making one of the most auspicious -- and audacious -- debuts in film history as the giggling killer Tommy Udo, a man who pushes an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs, in the 1947 thriller Kiss of Death; the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe for New Star Of The Year, and a contract with 20th Century Fox. His portrayals of hard-boiled men, sometimes criminals, sometimes just plain amoral, made him an instant star, and he played villains in The Street with No Name, Road House, and Yellow Sky. He notoriously menaced Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock, played a racist criminal in No Way Out, and was a pickpocket caught up in a Communist spy ring in Pickup on South Street. Widmark proved he could also play against type as a doctor tracking down a killer infected with the bubonic plague in Panic in the Streets, and a doomed con man in Jules Dassin's Night and the City. The actor worked consistently throughout his career, adding Westerns to his repertoire with roles in Broken Lance, The Alamo, Cheyenne Autumn (directed by John Ford), and How the West Was Won, and appeared in the Oscar-winning Judgment at Nuremberg as well. He segued into television in the 1970s as Madigan (based on his 1968 film of the same name, directed by Don Siegel), and received an Emmy nomination for 1972's Vanished, where he played the President of the United States with a secret to hide. Other notable films during the 1970s and 1980s included Murder on the Orient Express, The Domino Principle, Coma, and the film noir update Against All Odds; his last role was in the 1991 political drama True Colors, after which he retired from filmmaking. Widmark is survived by his second wife, Susan Blanchard, and his daughter, Anne, from his first marriage to screenwriter Jean Hazlewood, who died in 1997. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 3/26/2008
- IMDb News
Richard Widmark, who won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his first movie role in the 1947 gangster film Kiss of Death, has died. He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the actor died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.
Widmark, who often played heavies, received his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a laughing psychopathic murderer who pushed a crippled old woman down a flight of stairs. Usually associated with villainous roles, he played another heavy in the film noir Road House the following year. Yet he made his mark as the cynical hero of Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street in 1953. His gritty persona also suited him well for Westerns, playing in such John Ford Westerns as Two Rode Together and Cheyenne Autumn. He played the title role in the New York cop story, Madigan (1968) for director Don Siegel. Throughout his career, Widmark was especially gifted in showing the psychological cracks and ticks of otherwise solid authority figures.
Widmark was born on Dec. 26, 1914, in Sunrise, Minn., and grew up in Princeton, Ill.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the actor died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.
Widmark, who often played heavies, received his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a laughing psychopathic murderer who pushed a crippled old woman down a flight of stairs. Usually associated with villainous roles, he played another heavy in the film noir Road House the following year. Yet he made his mark as the cynical hero of Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street in 1953. His gritty persona also suited him well for Westerns, playing in such John Ford Westerns as Two Rode Together and Cheyenne Autumn. He played the title role in the New York cop story, Madigan (1968) for director Don Siegel. Throughout his career, Widmark was especially gifted in showing the psychological cracks and ticks of otherwise solid authority figures.
Widmark was born on Dec. 26, 1914, in Sunrise, Minn., and grew up in Princeton, Ill.
- 3/26/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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