General "RIP" announcements that might be of interest

Well, Carlo, I suppose you are noted for a great many fantastic things, but I can't thank you enough for creating ET. After I saw that movie by myself, I greatly enjoyed taking many different people to it just to see the reactions on their faces as in the closet scene. Why I am laughing just thinking about it. What a super great movie. Last ones I showed it to was my parents, and my father even loved it. AlMOST got the tears instead of the shaky little laugh. ET was and IS real in my mind today!

African American actor Al Freeman Jr. dies, aged 78

Actor Al Freeman Jr., perhaps best known for his portrayal of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee's 1992 film "Malcolm X," has died, Howard University said on Friday.

"It is with tremendous sadness that the passing of our beloved Professor Al Freeman, Jr. is confirmed," Kim James Bey, chair of the university's theater department said in a statement. Freeman was a faculty member at the university.

She gave no details about the death of Freeman, who was 78 and taught acting at the Washington-based university, but said a statement would be issued later.

Freeman's long career in film, television and theater included an enduring role playing police Captain Ed Hall on the TV soap opera "One Life to Live" from 1972 through 1987.

He was credited with being the first African American to win a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor for his work on the soap opera, a prize he was awarded in 1979.

Freeman's theater credits included a starring role on Broadway in James Baldwin's "Blues for Mister Charlie" in 1964.

http://in.reuters.com/article/…bit-idINDEE87A01U20120811

RIP Al

Editor Helen Gurley Brown died,

http://todayentertainment.toda…-and-author-helen-gurley-

RIP Helen

RON PALILLO DEAD AT 63
'Welcome Back, Kotter' Star Dies from Heart Attack

Ron Palillo -- the actor who played Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter" -- died this morning at his home near Palm Beach, FL from an apparent heart attack ... this according to someone close to the actor.

We're told Palillo was found by his partner of many years Joseph Gramm around 4:00 AM. Gramm called an ambulance and Palillo was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

We're told the heart attack was very unexpected. Palillo was 63.

According to one of Palillo's colleagues at G-Star School of the Arts, Palillo had appeared to be in good health ... but was a heavy smoker. We're told he had been suffering from a bad cough and had even scheduled a doctor's appointment for today.

Palillo was known for calling out, "Ooh ooh ooh, Mr. Kotter" as one of the Sweathogs on the show ... which he appeared on with John Travolta from 1975 to 1979.

After Kotter, Palillo appeared in "Laverne & Shirley" and voiced a character on the Disney cartoon, "Darkwing Duck."

Palillo's "Kotter" co-star Robert Hegyes -- who played Epstein -- passed away earlier this year after suffering a heart attack.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/14/ron-pa...er-dead-at-63/

The sweathogs are dropping like flies. First Epstein, now Horshak. RIP Mr. Patillo

RIP Ron

That guy was really weird, but funny, which is what he wanted to accomplish on the show. Sad to see him pass. RIP, Horshak.

Cheers Hondo

Actress Phyllis Thaxter dies at 92

Played Martha Kent in 1978's 'Superman'

Phyllis Thaxter, an actress who played Martha Kent, Clark Kent's adoptive mother, in the 1978 film "Superman" as part of a long career in film and television, died in Longwood, just north of Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday after a nine-year fight with Alzheimer's disease. She was 92.

The Maine native appeared in 17 movies, beginning in the early 1940s, including classic WWII film "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"; "Bewitched," in which she starred as a mentally ill young woman; comedy "Week-End at the Waldorf"; Westerns "The Sea of Grass" and "Blood on the Moon"; and biopic "Jim Thorpe -- All-American."

Thaxter made the transition to television in the 1950s and appeared in a large number of episodic anthology shows such as "The Ford Television Theatre," "Robert Montgomery Presents," "Kraft Theatre," "Schlitz Playhouse" and "Studio One in Hollywood" as well as on "The Loretta Young Show," "Climax!," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Twilight Zone" and "The Fugitive."

She returned to the bigscreen after many years away to play Martha Kent in Richard Donner's "Superman."

The actress made her last screen appearance in a 1992 episode of "Murder, She Wrote."

Thaxter was born in Portland, Maine, the daughter of a state Supreme Court justice. She made her Broadway debut in "What a Life!" in 1939, when she was 17. She also appeared, with Lunt and Fontanne, in "There Shall Be No Night," in 1948 in the Elia Kazan-directed "Sundown Beach" and starred opposite Art Carney in "Take Her, She's Mine," in 1962.
Thaxter was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, Gilbert Lea. She was also previously married to film executive James Aubrey. She is survived by her daughter, actress Skye Aubrey.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118057889

Courtesy of Everett Collection

The character actor played the famed private eye in 1953’s "I, the Jury" and appeared in films directed by Billy Wilder, Sam Fuller, Nicholas Ray and Jack Lemmon.

Biff Elliot, a tough-guy actor who starred as hardboiled Mike Hammer in the enduring private investigator’s first appearance on the big screen, died Aug. 15 at his home in Studio City. He was 89.

An amateur boxer from Lynn, Mass., who served as an infantryman during World War II, Elliot worked in live television in New York before coming out to Hollywood to make his movie debut as Hammer in United Artists’ I, the Jury (1953).


Based on Mickey Spillane’s 1947 novel that originated the character, the picture was directed by Harry Essex (Creature From the Black Lagoon) and filmed in 3D.

Others to have played Hammer throughout the years include Ralph Meeker, Stacy Keach, Darren McGavin, Robert Bray, Armand Assante and, when he wasn’t doing Miller Lite commercials, Spillane himself.

Elliot, the younger brother of late CBS Radio sportscaster Win Elliot, later appeared in several war films through the early 1960s, including Between Heaven and Hell (1956), The Enemy Below (1957), Pork Chop Hill (1959) and PT 109 (1963). He also played the character Schmitter, a mining colony crewman, in the 1967 Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark."
He was pals with Jack Lemmon and appeared in several of his films, including 1971’s Kotch (which Lemmon directed), Billy Wilder’s take on The Front Page (1974) and Blake Edwards’ That’s Life! (1986). Elliot also co-starred with Jeffrey Hunter in Nicholas Ray’s The True Story of Jesse James (1957) and Brainstorm (1965), directed by William Conrad.
Elliot’s résumé also includes the films Good Morning Miss Dove (1955), Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo (1955) and Blood Bath (1966) and the TV series Hawaiian Eye, Route 66, 77 Sunset Strip, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ripcord, The F.B.I., Bonanza, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mission: Impossible, Cannon, CHiPs and Starman.

He was a member of AFTRA, SAG and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Win Elliot served as the announcer for the beer-sponsored Schaefer Circle of Sports broadcasts of New York Rangers and Knicks games and other events related to Madison Square Garden in the 1960s before anchoring Sports Central USA for CBS Radio. He died in 1998. Biff worked as a CBS Radio stringer in Los Angeles starting in the mid-'80s.

Elliot is survived by his wife Connie and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be planned. Donations in his memory can be made to Actors and Others for Animals, the Actors Fund or the Motion Picture & Television Fund.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.c…t-mike-hammer-dies-363732

WOW! may2, you are our R.I.P. reporter. Sad day to see so many go. They had a long and hopefully happy life. May you Phyllis and Biff rest in peace.

Cheers Hondo

r.i.p. biff and phyllis

Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Phyllis Thaxter play the part of Lois Lane in the TV series before Noel Neill(SP?)?

Quote from may2

Actress Phyllis Thaxter dies at 92

Played Martha Kent in 1978's 'Superman'

Phyllis Thaxter, an actress who played Martha Kent, Clark Kent's adoptive mother, in the 1978 film "Superman" as part of a long career in film and television, died in Longwood, just north of Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday after a nine-year fight with Alzheimer's disease. She was 92.

The Maine native appeared in 17 movies, beginning in the early 1940s, including classic WWII film "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"; "Bewitched," in which she starred as a mentally ill young woman; comedy "Week-End at the Waldorf"; Westerns "The Sea of Grass" and "Blood on the Moon"; and biopic "Jim Thorpe -- All-American."

Thaxter made the transition to television in the 1950s and appeared in a large number of episodic anthology shows such as "The Ford Television Theatre," "Robert Montgomery Presents," "Kraft Theatre," "Schlitz Playhouse" and "Studio One in Hollywood" as well as on "The Loretta Young Show," "Climax!," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Twilight Zone" and "The Fugitive."

She returned to the bigscreen after many years away to play Martha Kent in Richard Donner's "Superman."

The actress made her last screen appearance in a 1992 episode of "Murder, She Wrote."

Thaxter was born in Portland, Maine, the daughter of a state Supreme Court justice. She made her Broadway debut in "What a Life!" in 1939, when she was 17. She also appeared, with Lunt and Fontanne, in "There Shall Be No Night," in 1948 in the Elia Kazan-directed "Sundown Beach" and starred opposite Art Carney in "Take Her, She's Mine," in 1962.
Thaxter was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, Gilbert Lea. She was also previously married to film executive James Aubrey. She is survived by her daughter, actress Skye Aubrey.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118057889

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RIP Phyllis and Biff

Quote from Coop2004

Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Phyllis Thaxter play the part of Lois Lane in the TV series before Noel Neill(SP?)?

It appears, she did not!

Always thought Phyllis Thaxter was hot looking in 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. Sad to see her gone.

Harry Harrison, a Prolific Writer of Satiric Science Fiction, Dies at 87

He wrote the novel Soylent Green was based on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08…e-fiction-dies-at-87.html


Gregory Peck's Widow, Veronique Passani, Dies at 80

http://www.hollywoodreporter.c…nique-passani-dead-363942