Lou Jacobi, the avuncular and popular character actor, has died at age 95. He was noted for his triple threat work in film, on stage and in TV. Jacobi played a key role in both the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank as well as the 1959 screen version. Other major film credits include Avalon, Arthur, My Favorite Year and - very memorably- Woody Allen's 1972 comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex. In one segment, Jacobi was cast as a straight-as-an-arrow family man whose penchant for cross-dressing leads to a disastrous social situation. For more click here

Character actress Collin Wilcox-Paxton passed away last week in North Carolina. She was best known for playing the white woman who accused an innocent black man (played by Brock Peters) of rape in the film classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Ms. Wilcox-Paxton also appeared in many TV series as a guest star as well as feature films such as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Jaws 2 and Catch-22. When diagnosed with brain cancer, the actress arranged and attended her own memorial service rather than be remembered at a traditional funeral. For more click here

Soupy Sales, the icon of 1950s and 1960s children's American TV programs, has died at age 83. Sales' trademark brand of comedy involved hitting his guests in the face with pies. Many of the most prominent names in show business willingly appeared on his show for the honor of being "creamed". Among them: Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Sales remained a popular figure through the decades and was a regular presence at comedy events in the New York area. He also had several hit comedy novelty records. For more click here

Vic Mizzy, the talented composer who created the legendary theme songs for the TV series The Addams Family, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction and Mr. Ed has died at age 93. Mizzy also composed themes for feature films including most of Don Knotts' hits from the 1960s including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and The Reluctant Astronaut. For more click here

Writer Stuart Kaminsky has died at age 75. He was multi-talented, teaching seminars on film history and authoring both successful mystery novels and non-fiction biographies of Hollywood legends. Kaminsky wrote the first appreciation of director Don Siegel as well as an early paperback biography of Clint Eastwood. Additonally, he was hired by Sergio Leone to provide dialogue for Once Upon a Time in America. For more click here 

Producer and former MGM chief Daniel Melnick died Tuesday at age 77. His credits are as diversified as they are impressive. Among the films and TV series he oversaw, produced or developed: Get Smart, Network, Straw Dogs, All That Jazz, That's Entertainment, Midnight Express, The Goodbye Girl, The Sunshine Boys, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Footloose and Altered States. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

Popular crooner Al Martino has passed away at age 82. No cause of death has yet been released. Although primarily known for singing love songs, Martino gained immortality on the screen as The Godfather's  Johnny Fontaine, the down-in-the-dumps singer whose career is revived when Don Corleone makes a film producer an offer he can't refuse to give Johnny the starring role in a war movie. The character was said to have been based on Frank Sinatra, whose career followed a similar trajectory and was revived with his Oscar winning performance in a war movie - From Here to Eternity. The similarities resulted in Sinatra having to contend with an untrue urban legend - that he got the part in the film by having gangsters cut off the head of a race horse belonging to a Columbia Pictures mogul. In fact, that part was pure fiction invented by the novelist Mario Puzo. Nevertheless, when casting for the part of Fontaine was taking place, Sinatra exerted pressure on several would-be contenders not to take the role.  Martino, who had a hit with the title theme from The Godfather, revived the role of Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather Part III. For more click here