Obituaries
Entries from May 2008
Harvey Korman, one of the most acclaimed comic second bananas of the last half-century, has died at age 81. Korman shot to fame in the 1960s on the popular Carol Burnett Show where he he was a weekly regular, often playing in sketches with his friend Tim Conway. One of those sketches, in which Conway was a bumbling dentist operating on Korman, is considered a classic. Conway had the ability to crack Korman up and the audience relished seeing Korman desperately trying to keep a straight face. Korman also excelled in several Mel Brooks films. He was the smarmy frontier bureaucrat Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles who hated being confused with Hedy Lamarr (even though she was born in the following century!). He also offered a hilarious performance in Brooks' High Anxiety playing a corrupt psychiatrist with a penchant for masochistic sex from Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel. Up until last December, Korman and Tim Conway were performing their comedy sketch act on stage across America. Conway said, "It's a 45-year friendship. It was a great ride; we
worked together probably 30 years, plus the Burnett show, which was
about as good as it gets." For more click here
Alexander Courage, whose theme for the original Star Trek, became a legendary part of TV history, died this week at age 88. Courage once said of the theme, “What I based the whole thing on in a way, was an old Hebredean tune
from the outer islands of Scotland.Because I wanted something that had a long, long feel to
it, and I wanted to put it over a fast-moving accompaniment to get the
adventure and the speed and so forth, so there was an old song called
‘Beyond the Blue Horizon,’ and when I was a kid I would hear it on the
radio and they used to play a double time accompaniment to it, while
this thing was singing over the top, so that’s what I really wanted to
do, I wanted to make all of the scales go way out, and I wanted the
intervals to be long, and I wanted to have a kind of exotic feel to it.†Courage also worked on other TV series such as Judd for the Defense, Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. For more click here
One of the film and television industry's most revered composers, Earl Hagen died this week. Hagen worked under contract as a composer as Fox during his early years, creating scores for feature films such as Kiss of Death and Cry of the City. He received an Oscar nomination for co-writing the musical score for Marilyn Monroe's Let's Make Love. However, it was on television that Hagen truly thrived. He created the legendary theme song for The Andy Griffith Show - and whistled it, too! He also composed the classic jazz theme song and score for I Spy. His acclaimed efforts for that series earned him an Emmy. Other TV themes include The Dukes of Hazard and The Mod Squad. Hagen was 88 years old. For more on his career click here For an informative Hagen fan sight complete with filmographies and interviews click here
Tributes are coming in from film industry royalty for director/producer/actor Sydney Pollack, who died yesterday of cancer at age 73. The L.A. Times features an extensive recap of his career and video interviews that also accentuate his often overlooked talents as an actor. To view click here
Minutes ago, Cinema Retro learned that Sydney Pollack, the Oscar-winning director of Out of Africa, The Way We Were, Tootsie and Three Days of the Condor died of cancer at his Hollywood home tonight at age 73. Pollack was one of the most prolific directors in the industry and continued to enjoy a successful career producing films such as last year's Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton and the recently released comedy Leatherheads. He was also acclaimed for his acting skills, making him a triple threat talent. Pollack appeared in such films as his own Tootsie (playing Dustin Hoffman's exasperated agent), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and the currently in release Made of Honor. He was producing the new movie The Reader with Ralph Finnes and Kate Winslet at the time of his death. Pollack's rich resume extends back to the the 1950s when he appeared as an actor in top level TV series. He made his feature film acting debut with the early Robert Redford starrer War Hunt in 1962. He would go on to work with Redford again over the years, directing such hits as Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman,The Way We Were and Out of Africa, for which he won the Best Director Oscar. Pollack's other major films include The Scalphunters, Castle Keep, The Slender Thread, Jeremiah Johnson, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, The Yakuza and The Firm.
Dick Martin, who made comedy history as half of the Rowan and Martin team, has died from respiratory problems at age 86. Martin had teamed with fellow comic Dan Rowan in 1952 but it wasn't until 1966 when their comedy variety show was a summer replacement for Dean Martin's popular weekly program, that they enjoyed widespread success. They reached the zenith of their careers with the January 1968 debut of their TV series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In on NBC. The show's rapid fire, hip one-liners and off color sight gags made the series a hit with the counter culture, even if Rowan and Martin were unlikely role models for the flower power generation. (They inevitably wore tuxedos throughout the series). The show spawned many top comedy talents including Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, Arte Johnson and many others.The show became so popular that it attracted an eclectic number of top talents who appeared in cameos ranging from John Wayne to Leo G. Carroll (who jokingly begged NBC to bring back his series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which Laugh-In had replaced.). The show also made history with a 1968 cameo appearance by Richard M. Nixon, then running for president in the 1968 election. Nixon, who was not known for his rollicking sense of humor, delivered one of the show's signature lines - "Sock it to me???" - and immediately enjoyed positive press. When the series ended in 1973, Rowan and Martin continued their partnership until 1977 when they amicably split up. The pair had also appeared in the big screen spoof The Maltese Bippy. Martin went on to become one of the most in-demand directors in television, working on such series as The Bob Newhart Show, In the Heat of the Night and Archie Bunker's Place. His film roles included co-starring in the 1966 Doris Day spy spoof The Glass Bottom Boat. (Note: contrary to information reported by CNN, Dick Martin was the zany member of Rowan and Martin and Dan Rowan (who died in 1987) was the straight man. CNN information has confused the two). For more click here- Lee Pfeiffer
Actor John Phillip Law passed away Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 70 years old. No cause of death has yet been announced. Law, who studied acting under Elia Kazan, gained instant fame in 1966 when director Norman Jewison cast him as a sexy but shy Soviet sailor in the Oscar-nominated comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Law went onto star in cult favorites such as Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik! and opposite Jane Fonda in Barbarella. Law also starred in the controversial film The Sergeant in which he was the object of Rod Steiger's affections in one of the first films to directly deal with homosexuality in a realistic way. Other major films include The Love Machine, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and The Cassandra Crossing. Law was an avid reader of Cinema Retro and we mourn his passing. Columnist Raymond Benson conducted what is probably the last major interview with the star for Cinema Retro issue #7. For more click here
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