Actress Jessica Walter has died peacefully in her sleep at her home in New York City. She was 80 years old. Walter enjoyed a distinguished career that included an Emmy win and three other nominations. She made her big screen debut in "Lilith" in 1964 and two years later joined other female stars-in-making for director Sidney Lumet's "The Group". She went on to appear in "Grand Prix", Lumet's comedy "Bye, Bye Braverman" and opposite Charlton Heston in "Number One". However, her star-making role was as the female lead opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1971 thriller "Play Misty for Me", which marked Eastwood's debut as a director. In the film, Eastwood has what he believes is a one-night stand with Walter, who makes it clear she expects them to be in a traditional, monogamous relationship. When Eastwood spurns her, she unveils psychotic and murderous tendencies. Walter's performance was so powerful, it arguably merited an Oscar nomination.
Walter's big screen career never took off, although she did land a plum role in the hit 1984 comedy "The Flamingo Kid". However, she found great success in live theater and on television. She won an Emmy for the 1970s TV series "Amy Prentiss" and would be nominated three other times. In recent years, she played a key role in the popular sitcom "Arrested Development". She also served as 2nd National Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild and also served on the Board of Directors. Click here for more.
George Segal with Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn during the filming of "The Bridge at Remagen" in 1968.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Actor George Segal has passed away at age 87. Segal became a rising young star in the 1960s and went on to enjoy success in both feature films and television. He made his big screen debut in "The Young Doctors" in 1961 and within a few years had appeared in "Ship of Fools" and his first starring role in "King Rat". The 1965 adaptation of James Clavell's novel found Segal as an American prisoner in a Japanese P.O.W. camp in WWII. He uses his guile and survival skills to not only stay alive but to thrive, much to disgust of British P.O.W.s who think his actions border on collaboration with the enemy. Segal's biggest break came the following year when he was cast in Mike Nichols' screen adaptation of Edward Albee's Broadway smash "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". The film has only four main characters in it. Segal played the key role of Nick, a handsome young college professor who, along with his immature wife (Sandy Dennis), spend a fateful evening in the company of his colleague George (Richard Burton) and his vulgar wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). In the course of a seemingly endless evening, witty banter turns to heavy drinking, personal insults, illicit sex and the revelation of secrets about each person that leaves the two couples emotionally shattered. The film is regarded as a classic. Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar and Dennis won for Best Supporting Actress. Burton was nominated for Best Actor and Segal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Now a bankable leading man, Segal went on to star in an eclectic selection of films including the spy thriller "The Quiller Memorandum", "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre", "Bye, Bye Braverman", "No Way to Treat a Lady" and the cult comedy "Where's Poppa?". In 1969, Segal was filming the WWII movie "The Bridge at Remagen" in Czechoslovakia with Robert Vaughn and Ben Gazzara when the Soviet invasion occurred, leaving the stars and production company to fend for themselves to escape the country.
Segal's other prominent films include "The Owl and the Pussycat" (opposite Barbra Streisand), "Loving", "Blume in Love", "The Hot Rock", "A Touch of Class" , "Rollercoaster" , "Fun with Dick and Jane", "Look Who's Talking" and "The Cable Guy". In the 1997, he was cast in the hit sitcom "Just Shoot Me!". More recently, he he played the role of Albert "Pops" Solomon in the long-running TV series "The Goldbergs". Segal's final episode of the series is to broadcast in April.
For more about his life and career, click here. For tributes from his colleagues, click here.
We have been made aware that Norman J. Warren, best known for his series of gory
low-budget horror films in the 1970s, passed away on 11 March following a
lengthy illness. He was a regular on the film convention and festival
circuit and loved to meet fans to talk cinema. He was very approachable
and friendly, and this easy-going personality meant that everyone who
worked with him, no matter how low the budgets or tight the schedule,
always had nothing but praise.
His films Satan'sSlave, Prey, Terror and Inseminoid
were challenging, taboo-breaking films that always entertained and were
hugely successful around the world. He also made comedies and dramas
that were less well-known but equally idiosyncratic and memorable. He
was very supportive of this writer's attempts to compile a
career-spanning oral history book, which is now nearing completion and
should be published by the end of 2021.
Yaphet Kotto, the distinctive and distinguished actor, has passed away at age 81. Kotto was born in Harlem and began to study acting at age 16. He made his big screen debut in 1964 in the acclaimed race-themed drama "Nothing But a Man" opposite Ivan Dixon, a fellow African-American whose star would rise on the basis of the film. Kotto also appeared in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) and was a regular presence in guest star roles on top TV series such as "Gunsmoke", "Daniel Boone", "Night Gallery", "The Big Valley", "Hawaii Five-0", "Mannix" and "The High Chapparal". He was nominated for an Emmy award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1976 TV production of "Raid on Entebbe". Kotto simultaneously kept landing good parts in major movies such as "5 Card Stud", "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and "Across 110th Street". In 1973, he appeared in what is perhaps his most memorable role, opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die". In it, he played the villain Dr. Kananga, who uses his Caribbean base of operations and the symbolism of voodoo to terrify the local population and gain control of an international drug smuggling operation. In 1979, Kotto played another prominent role in the classic science fiction film "Alien", appearing as a member of a doomed space flight crew that is being systematically killed by a monstrous being from another planet. Kotto's other films include "Report to the Commissioner", "Friday Foster", "Drum", "Midnight Run", "Brubaker", "The Star Chamber" and "The Running Man". In the 1990s, he was one of the stars of the long-running hit TV series "Homocide: Life on the Streets". For more about his life and career, click here.