Obituaries
Entries from March 2008
Dith Pran, the native Cambodian whose remarkable story of survival and escape became the basis of the Oscar-winning film The Killing Fields, has died from cancer at age 65. Pran was an assistant to New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg, who was covering the fall of Cambodia to Communist Khmer Rouge forces in 1975, following the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. With Pran's help, Schanberg managed to escape the country, but Pran was unable to do so. As with millions of his fellow Cambodians, Pran suffered the wrath of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, one of the most notorious mass murderers of the 20th century. Pol Pot had condemned to death anyone who might appear to be educated and deemed it a crime to wear eyeglasses on the basis that it implied intellectualism. He herded millions of city dwellers to rural "re-education" camps where the majority were beaten or starved to death. Although the world was appalled, no action was taken to stop the genocide, primarily because of America's recent military debacle in Vietnam - a fate no other nation wanted to share. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Pol Pot regime. In the ensuing chaos, Pran managed to escape to Thailand - but only after a perilous journey through the jungles during which he discovered the unimaginable sight mass graves containing countless thousands of the Khmer Rouge's murder victims. He dubbed these locations as "The Killing Fields". He eventually got word to Schanberg in New York and the two had an emotional reunion. Schanberg arranged for Pran to emigrate to America and got him a job at the New York Times. He eventually became a respected photographer who never stopped lobbying for human rights. For more on this remarkable man, click here
Abby Mann, one of the Golden Age of television's most prolific script writers has died at age 80. Mann's most acclaimed work was his adaptation of his television play Judgment at Nuremberg into a major Stanley Kramer feature film production in 1961. He won an Academy Award for the film, which exposed the raw emotions involved in the trials of Nazi war criminals. (Ironically, one of the film's all star leading players, Richard Widmark, also died this week). Mann was also nominated for his screenplay for Kramer's 1965 film Ship of Fools. In 1973, Mann wrote the script for the TV movie The Marcus-Nelson Murders in which the character of Det. Theo Kojack, played by Telly Savalas, was introduced. The resulting spin-off TV series was one of the most popular of the decade. Among Mann's other screen credits were the screenplays for A Child is Waiting, Report to the Commissioner and the 1968 film The Detective, which afforded Frank Sinatra one of the best roles of his career. For more click here.
Another of the rapidly dwindling members of Hollywood's Golden Age of stars has passed on. Richard Widmark, the versatile leading man who began his career on screen in 1947, has died at age 93. Widmark disdained publicity and gave very few interviews over the decades. He preferred keeping a low profile at his Connecticut estate. Widmark was as versatile as leading men get- he could play heroes and villains with equal ease and appeared in a wide variety of genres. He often played unsympathetic characters and his roles as sneering bad guys in Kiss of Death (in which he infamously pushed an elderly woman in a wheelchair down a staircase while laughing maniacally) and in No Way Out as a racist thug opposite Sidney Poitier were praised by critics. Widmark excelled in playing strong men with deep psychological problems. In the Cold War thriller The Bedford Incident he played a by-the-book U.S. Naval captain whose uncompromising hunt for a Soviet nuclear submarine brings the world to the brink of war. In John Wayne's The Alamo, his performance as Jim Bowie won praise, as he portrayed the heroic Texan as a courageous man compromised by an addiction to alcohol. The strong-willed Widmark clashed with star/director Wayne, but rumors that the men came to blows were exagerrated according to Widmark. Widmark also made a strong impression as the star of Don Siegel's 1968 detective thriller, Madigan - which was so successful, it spawned a TV series years later, even though the character was killed in the film! For a full look at Widmark's life and career click here
Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr suffered another blow today when it was announced that their longtime friend and business manager Neil Asipinall died from lung cancer in New York at age 66. Aspinall was a boyhood friend of McCartney who witnessed the ascension of the group firsthand: he would drive them to early gigs in his van. The Beatles repaid his loyalty by putting Aspinall in charge of their corporation, Apple Ltd in the late 1960s. It would prove to be a wise move. Many other recording acts had signed valuable rights over to record companies, but under Aspinall, The Beatles were masters of their own destiny. From the beginning, he made the Apple label a major player in the music business and even after the band split up in 1970, cleverly found ways to remarket their work over the decades to staggering sales results. Aspinall retired from the job last year, but not before having successfully launched yet another major Beatles marketing campaign. Shortly before his death, Aspinall was visited by Paul McCartney. For more, click here
British actor Paul Scofield, who won the Best Actor Oscar for the 1966 film version of A Man for All Seasons, has died from leukemia at age 86. Scofield went against the grain for Oscar winners by staying out of the public spotlight and making only a relative handful of films in the ensuing years. He preferred to concentrate on his first love, the theater. Richard Burton once noted that of the ten greatest moments in the history of modern British theater, eight of them belonged to Scofield. The actor disdained publicity to the point that he reportedly declined being honored with a knighthood. A devoted family man, Scofield preferred a quiet home life to networking with industry peers on the party circuit. He chose his film roles carefully, generally taking supporting roles. He received an Oscar nomination for his role in Robert Redford's 1995 film Quiz Show about the notorious American game show scandals of the 1950s. Another notable film role was the erudite German general trying to flee occupied France with a trainload of art treasures during the closing days of WWII in John Frankenheimer's 1965 movie The Train. For more on Scofield's life, click here
 Actor/director Ivan Dixon has died from kidney problems at age 76. Dixon was one of the first black directors to gain prominence in Hollywood. He was also a contemporary of Sidney Poitier and was among the first African American actors to gain acclaimed roles in high profile film and TV productions. He co-starred with Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun and A Patch of Blue. However, it was his role as Kinchloe in the TV series Hogan's Heroes that brought him the greatest fame. He played the radio operator and "go to" guy to resolve the POW's communication problems with the outside world. Like Bill Cosby in I Spy, Dixon advanced the image of blacks in the mainstream media by not accentuating his race. He was just "one of the guys". Dixon eventually turned to directing full time, helming and producing the 1973 feature film The Spook Who Sat by the Door. He was nominated for a Best Actor Emmy in 1967 for the ground-breaking Vietnam War TV drama The Final War of Ollie Winter. He went on to direct some top TV shows such as Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap and The A Team.
For more click here
Arthur C. Clarke, one of the science fiction genre's most revered writers, has died at his home in Sri Lanka at age 90. Clarke was one of the most prolific forces in science fiction writing and helped elevate its status in the literary world. He went on to write more than 100 books and became a commentator on the Apollo space program along with Walter Cronkite. British by birth, Clarke had lived in Sri Lanka since 1956. Clarke reached new heights of fame when he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey. The much-debated, esoteric MGM production was released in 1968 to weak box-office, but within a year had become a highly successful film with the flower power generation when its ad campaign was changed to promote it to the hippie culture. The two men shared an Oscar nomination for the script and Clarke published a novelization of the screenplay, which had been based in part on his 1948 short story The Sentinel. Clarke went on to write several sequels to the film. On a personal level, some years ago I interviewed Roger Caras for a documentary I was writing for Sony's DVD release of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Caras had befriended Kubrick when he was in charge of Columbia's marketing department. Kubrick persuaded Caras to leave his cushy job to act as a consultant on a forthcoming movie about exploration of space. Kubrick only had fuzzy ideas about the script and took Caras to his favorite restaurant, Trader Vic's in The Plaza Hotel in New York City. There, he scribbled some cartoons on cocktail napkins that depicted man's first meeting with aliens, an element he wanted to base 2001 on, but would later drop. It was Caras who suggested to Kubrick that he contact his friend Arthur C. Clarke to get advice about the project and possibly collaborate with him. Caras gave Kubrick a copy of The Sentinel and Kubrick was duly impressed. He contacted Clarke in Sri Lanka and the two agreed to meet. They ultimately would join for a historic film collaboration. Upon telling me this story, Caras (who passed away shortly thereafter) went to a filing cabinet and took out a folder. He said that Kubrick and Clarke were the only two men he ever met who could literally be called geniuses. He knew that their prospective collaboration would insure that anything they created should be preserved. Out of the file, he produced the cocktail napkins from Trader Vic's that still bore Kubrick's cartoons showing his concepts for 2001 - four years before the film would actually be released.- Lee Pfeiffer
The international film community has been shocked by the news that Anthony Minghella, who won an Oscar for his direction of The English Patient, has died. He was only 54 years old. No cause of death has been released at this time. Minghella was a true Renaissance man who served as writer and producer as well on high profile films and even acclaimed opera productions. He was one of the producers of Oscar-nominated film Michael Clayton that was released last year. Minghella also directed Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley. For more details click here
Producer Sidney Beckerman died on February 25 at age 87. The prolific producer's credits include Cabaret, Marathon Man and the Clint Eastwood WWII hit Kelly's Heroes. For details click here
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