News

Elizabeth MacRae, who played girlfriends of Gomer Pyle and Festus Haggen on television and a woman who seduces Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert in The Conversation, has died. She was 88.

MacRae died Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was raised, her family announced.

MacRae showed up as Lou-Ann Poovie on 15 episodes of the CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: Usmc during its final three seasons (1966-69). She was signed to work just one episode, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” on the Jim Nabors starrer but impressed producers enough to stick around for more.

Earlier, she portrayed April Clomley, the girlfriend of deputy marshal Festus (Ken Curtis), on CBS’ Gunsmoke on four installments from 1962-64.

In The Conversation (1974), written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, MacRae played Meredith, who dances with Hackman’s Harry Caul in his apartment, sleeps with him and then swipes one of his audiotapes. The actress was among...

Dabney Coleman, the popular comic actor from 9 to 5, Tootsie and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman whose many redeeming qualities including a knack for portraying characters who had none, has died. He was 92.

Coleman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, his daughter, singer Quincy Coleman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” she said. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.

“A teacher, a hero and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy … eternally.”

The Emmy-winning actor also portrayed an irascible talk show host in upstate New York on NBC’s Buffalo Bill,...

Rochelle Oliver, who starred on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and taught acting at New York’s respected Hb Studio since the 1970s, has died. She was 86.

Oliver died April 13, the Hb Studio announced. “Those who knew Rochelle will know what a luminous artist, sensitive and passionate teacher she was,” it said in an Instagram post. She died two days shy of her birthday.

For the big screen, Oliver starred in the Horton Foote-written 1918 (1985) and Courtship (1987) and appeared in such other films as The Happy Hooker (1975), Paul Mazursky‘s Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), John Sayles’ Lianna (1983), An Unremarkable Life (1989), Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman (1992) and Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (2002).

She also recurred as Judge Grace Larkin on Law & Order from 1993-03.

A protégé of Uta Hagen — who also taught for decades at Hb and...

Terry Carter, who portrayed Pvt. Sugie Sugarman on The Phil Silvers Show, the sidekick of Dennis Weaver’s character on McCloud and Colonel Tigh on the original version of Battlestar Galactica, has died. He was 95.

Carter died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan, his son, Miguel Carter DeCoste, told The New York Times.

Carter appeared three times on Broadway early in his career and produced and directed a documentary on jazz legend Duke Ellington for PBS’ American Masters series in 1988.

The Brooklyn native appeared on all four seasons (1955-59) of CBS’ The Phil Silvers Show (also known as Sgt. Bilko) as Pvt. Sugarman. He then played Sgt. Joe Broadhurst alongside Weaver’s Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on NBC’s McCloud from 1970-77 and Tigh in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica movie and 1978-79 ABC series.

An only child, John Everett DeCoste was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 16, 1928. He graduated from Stuyvesant High...

Veteran actor Charles Dierkop, best known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and the 1970s television series Police Woman, has died. He was 87. According to his daughter, Lynn, Dierkop passed away at Sherman Oaks Hospital on Sunday, February 25, after a recent heart attack and a bout with pneumonia, per The Hollywood Reporter. Born on September 11, 1936, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Dierkop dropped out of high school to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served during the Korean War until September 1955. Following his stint in the military, Diekop studied acting in Philadelphia and at The Actors Studio in New York. His first on-screen acting gig came in the 1960s ABC drama Naked City, where he appeared in several episodes in uncredited roles. From there, he featured in many other hit 1960s TV series, including Lost In Space, The Man from U.N.C.L.

Charles Dierkop, the busy character actor who played tough guys in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and the 1970s Angie Dickinson series Police Woman, has died. He was 87.

Dierkop died Sunday at Sherman Oaks Hospital after a recent heart attack and bout with pneumonia, his daughter, Lynn, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Wisconsin native also appeared alongside Rod Steiger in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker (1964), played the mobster Salvanti in Roger Corman’s The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) and was a murderous Santa Claus in the cult horror movie Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

After portraying an uncredited pool-hall hood in the Paul Newman-starring The Hustler (1961), Dierkop got to work with Newman again in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when he was hired to play Hole in the Wall Gang outlaw George “Flat Nose” Curry.

Dierkop had broken his nose in fights several times as a kid,...

Glynis Johns, remembered by movie audiences as Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins and by Broadway devotees as the first person to sing Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” on a national stage, died Thursday of natural causes at an assisted living home in Los Angeles. She was 100.

Her death was announced by her manager and publicist Mitch Clem. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said in a statement. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”

A Tony winner (Best Actress/Musical) for her performance as Desiree Armfeldt in the original 1973 Broadway cast of the Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler A Little Night Music, Johns both debuted and, due to her widespread acclaim, helped popularize what would become perhaps Sondheim’s most beloved and well-known songs with “Send in the Clowns.”

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, the Welsh Johns made her West End debut in 1931 at age...

Marisa Pavan, the Italian actress and twin sister of Pier Angeli who received an Oscar nomination for her performance as the daughter of Anna Magnani’s seamstress in the 1955 drama The Rose Tattoo, has died. She was 91.

Pavan died Wednesday in her sleep at her home in Gassin, France, near Saint-Tropez, Margaux Soumoy, who wrote Pavan’s 2021 biography, Drop the Baby; Put a Veil on the Broad!, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Pavan also portrayed the French queen Catherine de’ Medici in Diane (1956), starring Lana Turner; an Italian girl who had an affair years ago with a corporate exec (Gregory Peck) in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956); and the love interest of a former cop (Tony Curtis) investigating the murder of a priest in the film noir The Midnight Story (1957).

In Paramount’s The Rose Tattoo (1955), an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play that won four Tony Awards, including best play,...

We will probably never see a motion picture phenomenon like George Lucas' "Star Wars" ever again. The United States was still shaking off its Vietnam War hangover in the mid-1970s, and while the top filmmakers of the New Hollywood were mostly attracted to edgy material that explored its characters' damaged psyches, audiences were in the mood to escape. Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" offered emphatic proof of this mindset during the summer of 1975 when it briefly became the highest-grossing movie in U.S. box office history.

Lucas' space opera was an altogether different kind of sensation. The briskly paced yarn about a young farm boy who discovers he might be the galaxy's savior ignited the imaginations of kids the world over, and Lucas deepened the viewer's immersion by employing an array of pioneering special effects and wildly inventive creature/production designs. "Star Wars" was world-building on a scale that matched "The Wizard of Oz,...

Elliot Silverstein, known for directing films such as “Cat Ballou” and “A Man Called Horse,” died on Nov. 24 in Los Angeles, his family confirmed via Legacy. He was 96.

After working on episodes of TV series like “The Twilight Zone,” “Naked City” and “Route 66,” Silverstein made his feature directorial debut in 1965 with “Cat Ballou,” which starred Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin. Silverstein suggested Marvin play Kid Shelleen when Kirk Douglas turned down the role in the Western comedy. When a producer wanted to replace Marvin with José Ferrer, Silverstein threatened to quit. Marvin ended up winning an Oscar for his role in the film.

Silverstein went on to direct the Anthony Quinn-led “The Happening,” “A Man Called Horse,” starring Richard Harris, and the cult classic “The Car” with James Brolin. He was also integral in forming the Bill of Creative Rights for directors.

While working on his “Twilight Zone” episode “The Obsolete Man,...

Update, with DGA statement: Elliot Silverstein, who directed Jane Fonda and, in an Oscar-winning performance, Lee Marvin in the 1965 comedy-Western Cat Ballou, died Nov. 24 in Los Angeles. He was 96.

His death was announced by family members.

Born August 3, 1927, in Boson, Silverstein launched his directing career during television’s 1950s on such programs as Omnibus and the Alfred Hitchcock-produced mystery series Suspicion, Silverstein stayed busy with episodic series throughout the 1960s. Among his credits from the era: Route 66, Have Gun – Will Travel, Naked City, Dr. Kildare, The Defenders and four episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the fan-favorite, Rod Serling-penned 1961 installment titled The Passersby, a mournful ghost story set at the end of the American Civil War.

Lee Marvin in ‘Cat Ballou’

Silverstein’s TV career would continue, sporadically, through the 1990s when he directed four episodes of Tales From The Crypt and an episode of Picket Fences,...

Elliot Silverstein, who helmed episodes of such acclaimed TV shows as Naked City, The Twilight Zone and Route 66 before guiding Lee Marvin to a best actor Oscar in Cat Ballou, his feature directorial debut, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 96.

The Boston native also helmed A Man Called Horse (1970), which starred Richard Harris in the title role as an English aristocrat who eventually becomes the leader of the Native tribe that had captured and tortured him. The action movie spawned a couple of sequels.

Most importantly, Silverman was instrumental in the formation of the milestone Bill of Creative Rights for directors.

“Every director today owes a debt of gratitude to Elliot Silverstein,” DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement. “No one ever worked harder or was more passionate about protecting artists from having their work and vision altered than Elliot.”

It was Silverstein...

Joanna Merlin, who created the role of the daughter Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway and served as a casting director for Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince and Bernardo Bertolucci, has died. She was 92.

Merlin died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications from myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder, her daughters, documentary filmmaker Rachel Dretzin (Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey) and actress Julie Dretzin (The Handmaid’s Tale), announced.

Merlin also portrayed the dance teacher Miss Berg in Alan Parker’s Fame (1980) and recurred as Judge Lena Petrovsky for more than a decade on NBC’s Law and Order: Svu.

Her acting résumé included the films Hester Street (1975), All That Jazz (1979), Baby It’s You (1983), The Killing Fields (1984), Mystic Pizza (1988), Class Action (1991) and City of Angels (1998) and such TV shows as Naked City, The Defenders, East Side/West Side, Homeland and The Good Wife.

Merlin cast the original Broadway productions of Sondheim’s Company,...

Rose Gregorio, who received a Tony nomination for her performance as the browbeaten daughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald’s declining old woman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Shadow Box, has died. She was 97.

Gregorio died Aug. 17 of natural causes in her Greenwich Village home, her nephew Robert Grosbard told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gregorio was married to Belgium-born stage and film director Ulu Grosbard from 1965 until his death in 2012, and she appeared for him as the ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971); as a local madam in True Confessions (1981); and as the mother of Treat Williams’ character in The Deep End of the Ocean (1999).

On television, she had a recurring role on NBC’s ER as Nurse Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) mom from 1996-99.

Gregorio also landed a Drama Desk nom and a Clarence Derwent...

Nicolas Coster, the soap opera stalwart who starred on Another World, Santa Barbara and All My Children and appeared in such films as All the President’s Men, Reds and Stir Crazy, has died. He was 89.

Coster died Monday in a hospital in Florida, his daughter Dinneen Coster announced on Facebook.

“Please remember him as a great artist,” she wrote. “He was an actor’s actor! I will always be inspired by him and know how lucky I am to have such a great father!!

A familiar character actor who often portrayed officious types, Coster played chief of detectives J.E. Carson on The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and later recurred as the millionaire father of Lisa Whelchel’s Blair Warner on another 1980’s NBC sitcom, The Facts of Life.

He appeared often on Broadway, and in his 1961 debut, he understudied for Lawrence Olivier as Henry II in Becket. Two decades later,...

Barry Newman, who propelled a supercharged Dodge Challenger across the American West in Vanishing Point and portrayed a defense attorney on the NBC series Petrocelli, has died. He was 92.

Newman died May 11 of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center, his wife, Angela, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After appearing on Broadway and starring in The Lawyer (1970), the Boston-born actor was up for a change of pace when he was offered the role of a man tasked with transporting a car from Denver to San Francisco in the action-packed Fox film Vanishing Point (1971), directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

“This was very unique,” he said. “I had just done this film about a lawyer, a Harvard graduate, and I thought this is a different kind of thing. The guy was the rebel, the antihero. I enjoyed doing that very much.”

Newman’s taciturn character, Kowalski, was a Vietnam veteran, former...

My father, Howard Rodman Sr., worked in one-hour episodic network drama in the 1960s, notably on Route 66 and Naked City. There were no writers rooms then in one-hour drama. Only two people, called “story editors,” and a pool of freelancers. That was it. The two of them — my father and Stirling Silliphant — wrote or rewrote every single episode.

You can only imagine — meaning you can’t imagine — the pressure they were under. In those days, a season of television was 32-39 weeks. For comparison: picture having to write and film four seasons of Succession in a span of ten months. (And then, after the shortest of breaks, doing it all again.)

They wrote pages in Los Angeles that were put on airplanes in hopes that they could be shot the next morning in New York. They used every prescription drug available to keep up the pace.

During the course of...

George Maharis, star of the 1960s CBS drama series “Route 66,” died this past May 24 at the age of 94, his friend Marc Bahan announced in a Facebook post.

No cause of death has been announced.

A graduate of the Actors Studio in New York, Maharis got his start in acting in off-Broadway productions before getting his first television role in 1958. Among the shows he would appear in over the next two years include “Exodus” and “Naked City,” the latter of which led Maharis to get the nod from series creator Stirling Silliphant on his next show, “Route 66.”

Also Read:

Angela Bassett Pens Farewell Tribute to Tina Turner: ‘I Am Humbled to Have Helped Show Her to the World’

“Route 66” starred Maharis alongside Martin Milner (“Adam 12”) as a pair of young, restless men who travel across the United States in search of odd jobs and personal discovery. Maharis played Buz Murdock,...

Veteran actor George Maharis, known for roles in “Route 66” and “Fantasy Island”, has died at 94 years old.

Maharis’ longtime friend and caretaker, Marc Bahan, took to Facebook to announce his death, revealing the actor died on Wednesday, May 25.

“George Maharis passed away on Wednesday, May 25. George is well known for his stardom in route 66, stage productions, singing, artist, and above all a great guy would do anything for anyone. My dear friend, you’ll be terribly missed,” Bahan wrote.

In the 1960s drama series, “Route 66”, Mararis played the role of Buz Murdock. He starred in the production for its first three seasons and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Series.

“Route 66” – Martin Milner, George Maharis/Everett Collection

The actor, born and raised in Astoria, Queens, served 18 months with the U.S. Marines before pursuing a career in entertainment.

George Maharis, the star of “Route 66” who went on to appear on “Fantasy Island” and other shows, died Wednesday in Beverly Hills.

His friend and caretaker Marc Bahan announced his death on Facebook, writing that he was “above all a great guy who would do anything for anyone. My dear friend, you will be terribly missed.”

Maharis co-starred with Martin Milner in the early 1960s series “Route 66,” and received an Emmy nomination for his role as Buz, a handsome beatnik-adjacent working class man. Shot on location across the U.S., the adventure series portrayed two young men who travel around in a Corvette, looking for work and adventure as they struggle to find themselves. Part way through the third season, Maharis left the show after being hospitalized for hepatitis. He asserted later in an interview that his departure wasn’t because he wanted a higher salary or wanted to get into movies,...

George Maharis, the Route 66 actor that left the series during the height of its popularity, died on Wednesday, May 24. He was 94.

“George is well known for his stardom in Route 66, stage productions, singing, artist, and above all a great guy would do anything for anyone. My dear friend, you’ll be terribly missed,” Maharis’ friend Marc Bahan shared in a Facebook post.

Maharis was born on September 1, 1928, in Astoria, New York. He studied at the Actors Studio and got his start working in off-Broadway productions.

His first television role came in 1958 with The Mugger. Maharis would go on to land other TV credits in shows like Naked City, Exodus and Search for Tomorrow. It would be until 1960 that he would land the role of Buz Murdock on Route 66, an indirect spinoff of Naked City that shared its same creator Stirling Silliphant. Maharis would be forced to leave the...

George Maharis, who starred as the brooding Buz Murdock on Route 66 before he quit the acclaimed 1960s CBS drama after contracting hepatitis, has died. He was 94.

Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Route 66, created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, featured the Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette, encountering adventure along the way.

The show “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them,” Maharis told The Seattle Times in 2008.

All 116 installments of...

It was announced today that controversial actor Robert Blake has died at the age of 89. His niece, Noreen Austin, confirmed that he died at his Los Angeles home after a longtime battle with heart disease. Blake was best known for his roles in Richard Brooks’ adaptation of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, David Lynch’s Lost Highway, and for starring in the 1970s detective series Baretta.

Robert Blake got his start as a child actor, appearing as Mickey in forty installments of MGM’s Our Gang short films. He also played Little Beaver in twenty-three installments of the Red Ryder film series. He also appeared in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as a young Mexican boy who sells a lottery ticket to Humphrey Bogart. Although many child actors can’t transition to adult roles, Blake managed to pull it off. His biggest break came with In Cold Blood,...

It’s such fun flashing back to Emmy ceremonies of yesteryear, and it’s interesting to see how they have evolved over time, and reflect on how much TV has grown and changed. In the early years, the categories were much different, with no distinction between dramatic and comedic performances; instead, there was a category for “Outstanding Continued Performance” (which came from ongoing series) and a separate one for “Outstanding Single Performance”. Going back six decades, there were only three networks competing, but some of the biggest names in the history of the medium were on the ballot, and some legendary performers presented, when Johnny Carson, Bob Newhart and David Brinkley hosted the 14th Emmy Awards on NBC on May 22, 1962. Read on for our Emmys flashback 60 years ago to 1962.

Newhart was already making a name for himself in these early days of television. His variety series “The Bob Newhart Show...

Josh Duhamel took to social media on Thursday to share an emotional remembrance of his former Las Vegas co-star James Caan, who died Wednesday at the age of 82.

In an Instagram story, Duhamel — fighting back tears — shared, “I just want to take a minute to remember Jimmy Caan: one of the kindest, coolest, funniest people I’ve ever met, one of my mentors. And you’ll be missed, Jimmy Caan. I love you.” (Watch the video here.)

More from TVLineLittle House on the Prairie's Hersha Parady Dead at 78Wwe Hall of Famer Terry Funk Dead at 79 - Ric Flair...

Veteran Hollywood actor James Caan, who had memorable roles in The Godfather and Misery, has passed away at the age of 82.

The actor’s official Twitter account announced the news on Thursday: “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

More from TVLineLittle House on the Prairie's Hersha Parady Dead at 78Wwe Hall of Famer Terry Funk Dead at 79 - Ric Flair and Mick Foley Pay...

Gritty inner city crime pix don’t get any rougher than this — I witnessed the walk-outs personally. Barry Shear and a crack crew filmed in Harlem for this downbeat crime pic that could be called ‘Every Thief For Himself.’ Paul Benjamin just wants to score some mob money and leave the mean streets behind — but a single slipup brings the worst of the Mafia and the black mob down on his neck. It’s neither a ‘stick it to whitey’ saga nor a plea for justice: it’s story 8 million and 1 in The Naked City. Stars Anthony Quinn, Anthony Franciosa and Yaphet Kotto provide more acting fireworks, with solid assistance from Gloria Henry, Antonio Fargas and Marlene Warfield.

Across 110th Street

Region-Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 120

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date April 27, 2022 / Available from / Aud 34.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard, Antonio Fargas, Richard Ward,...

Television drama matured in the early 1960s with gritty often controversial series shot on location including “The Naked City” and most notably “The Defenders,” which aired on CBS from 1961-65, winning 13 Emmys during its run including three consecutive Best Drama Series awards.

The legal drama starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son attorneys picked up its first four prizes at the 14th Primetime Emmy Awards on May 22, 1962. It also won for Marshall; helmer Franklin J. Schaffner (who went to pick up an Oscar for directing 1970 Best Picture Oscar champ “Patton); and Reginald Rose for writing.

Rose of “12 Angry Men” fame based the series on his two-part 1957 “Studio One” drama “The Defender” with Ralph Bellamy and William Shatner as the father-son attorneys and Steve McQueen as the defendant. For Rose, “The law is the subject of our programs, not crime, not mystery, not the courtroom for its own sake.

Kathryn Hays, who in 1972 started playing the trouble-making homewrecker Kim Sullivan in As the World Turns and by the soap’s cancelation in 2010 had aged with her character to become the beloved matriarch Kim Hughes, died March 25 in Fairfield, Ct. She was 87.

Her death was announced today in the Connecticut Post.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

In addition to her long-running role on As the World Turns — with her 38-year-stint, she was the fourth-longest-serving cast member when the series went off the air — Hays is remembered by fans of the original Star Trek for her memorable guest portrayal of Gem in the 1968 episode “The Empath.” As the beautiful alien who gives the episode its title, Hays rescued an injured Capt. Kirk by briefly absorbing his injuries.

Born in Princeton, Il, Hays began her professional acting career in the early 1960s with appearances on such series as Hawaiian Eye,...

As reported today by Variety, Nehemiah Persoff, a prolific Hollywood character actor whose career spanned six decades, has passed away at the age of 102 in San Luis Obispo, CA. 

Persoff began acting in films in 1948 with an uncredited walk-on role in "The Naked City," and would also play various roles in the 1959 TV adaptation. Fans of classic Hollywood cinema might remember him as the man sitting in the front seat when Marlon Brando made his famous "I coulda been a contender" speech in 1954's "On the Waterfront." Persoff appeared in over 200 films and TV shows besides,...

The post Nehemiah Persoff, Character Actor Known for Yentl, The Twilight Zone, Some Like It Hot, Dies at 102 appeared first on /Film.

Nehemiah Persoff, an actor who went from the uncredited role of a cab driver in On The Waterfront‘s iconic “coulda been a contender” scene to become one of the busiest character actors in television and film for five decades, died Tuesday at a rehabilitation facility in San Luis Obispo, California. He was 102.

Persoff had retired from acting in recent decades after suffering a stroke and other health issues. His death was reported to Deadline by a family friend.

Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Persoff and his family moved to the United States in 1929, and after serving in the U.S. Army in World War II he relocated to New York to pursue a career in theater. He became a member of the famed Actors Studio in the late 1940s, studying with Elia Kazan, who would pay him a reported 75 to play the silent cab driver in Waterfront.

Persoff was also performing...

Lady in a Cage

Blu ray

ViaVision [Imprint]

1964/ B&w / 1.78:1 / 95 Minutes

Starring Olivia de Havilland, James Caan, Ann Sothern

Directed by Walter Grauman

Though the title suggests anything from a feminist manifesto to a women-in-prison melodrama, Lady in a Cage is in fact a home invasion thriller with a mile-wide mean streak. Critics in 1964 saw the film itself as the intruder, a smash and grab aberration wallowing in bloodshed and perversion. In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther labeled it as “reprehensible.” Gossipmonger Hedda Hopper wailed, “The picture should be burned.” Chances are good the reaction to Walter Grauman’s claustrophobic shocker would have been far less shrill without the presence of its leading lady, Olivia de Havilland—according to Hollywood taste-makers, Maid Marian should not be consorting with such riffraff.

De Havilland plays Cornelia Hilyard, a ripely beautiful dowager who lives in a spacious if drably generic house in an unnamed city.

Retro-active: The Best From The Cinema Retro Archives

Review – Naked City: The Complete Series

Rlj Entertainment / 6,063 minutes

By Harvey F. Chartrand

Naked City was like no other TV series before or since – Michel Moriarty, star of Law and Order, once told this reviewer.

Inspired by Jules Dassin's 1948 film of the same name, Naked City centers on the detectives of the NYPD’s 65th Precinct, but the criminals and New York City itself often played as prominent a role in the dramas as the series regulars. Like the film it was based on, Naked City (1958- 1963) was shot almost entirely on location. The first season ran as a half-hour show under the title The Naked City, starring James Franciscus and John McIntire playing, respectively, Detective Jimmy Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon—the same roles essayed by Don Taylor and Barry Fitzgerald in the film.

The Naked City also starred Harry Bellaver as Det.

Most film noirs are notable for their low budgets and scrappy attitude but producer Mark Hellinger’s hard-boiled detective drama is Tiffany-level moviemaking all the way. Jules Dassin, director of art house favorites like Rififi and Phaedra, is at the helm, Barry Fitzgerald stars and the Oscar-winning cinematography is by Hollywood veteran William Daniels.

The post The Naked City appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Michael Constantine, whose long career produced an Emmy award and many memorable turns as a character actor, died Aug. 31 at his home in Reading, Pa. He was 94 and died from natural causes, his agent, Julia Buchwald, confirmed.

Constantine was best known as the fruit and Windex-obsessed father Gus Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, an indie film that rose out of nowhere to become a smash hit. It spawned a sequel and a third version was in the planning stages, this time set in Greece.,

The original film from 2002 scored more than $360 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all-time.

But Constantine had a long career before that breakout hit. He was the school principal on the popular TV series Room 222. The role of Seymour Kaufman was a key to the show, which ran on ABC-tv from 1969 to 1974. He won an Emmy for the role in 1970.

Beyond that role,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

China Lost and Found: Eight Films by Jia Zhangke

One of the greatest directors to emerge in this young century, Jia Zhangke has captured his native country like few others. The Criterion Channel is now spotlighting his stellar body of work, including the new restoration of his debut Xiao Wu (1997), along with Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008), A Touch of Sin (2013), and Mountains May Depart (2015). Also playing is the documentary Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang from 2014.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)

In the quarter-century since its debut, Olivier Assayas’ hilarious, mischievous, altogether unclassifiable Irma Vep stands merrily uninterested in many things contemporary movies are meant to be interested in—not ultra-sophisticated narrative gimmickry...

Alex Cord immortalized by Norman Rockwell for the marketing campaign for the 1966 version of "Stagecoach".

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor Alex Cord has died at age 88 in Texas. Cord overcame a childhood battle with polio to become an active horseman who could perform impressive stunts. Those abilities, along with his rugged good looks and lanky build, helped him land jobs as an actor. He appeared in popular television series beginning in the early 1960s including "Ben Casey", "Laramie", "Naked City" and "Route 66" before transitioning to the big screen. He made his feature film debut in with an uncredited role in "The Chapman Report" in 1962 but it was in the all-star 1966 remake of John Ford's classic 1939 Western "Stagecoach" that Cord was cast in the star-making role of the Ringo Kid, a sympathetic outlaw on a trail of vengeance. The role had launched John Wayne's career to a new level...

Alex Cord, an actor who portrayed the character codenamed Archangel in the military TV drama “Airwolf,” has died. He was 88.

Cord’s passing was confirmed to TheWrap by his publicist Linda McAlister, who said he died surrounded by friends in his home in Valley View, Texas, on Monday around 6:30 p.m. Ct.

Alex Cord, born Alexander Viespi Jr., was best known for his work on “Airwolf” alongside Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine. The show ran between 1984-86 for 55 episodes and was the story of a renegade pilot who goes on missions in an advanced battle helicopter. The show spawned a TV movie in 1984.

After being confined to a hospital and an iron lung in much of his youth, Cord eventually pursued a dream of becoming a professional horseman and joined a rodeo circuit at age 16. But after suffering an injury while performing at Madison Square Garden, he pivoted his...

“Ted Lasso,” “The Mandalorian,” “Hacks,” “The Flight Attendant,” “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are among the top nominees for the 73rd annual Primetime Awards, which are set for Sept.19 on CBS with Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on the network’s sitcom “The Neighborhood,” set to host. But this is now, but what about the Emmys 60 years ago.

Dick Powell hosted the 13th Emmy Awards which took place at the famed Moulin Rouge Nightclub in Los Angeles on May 16, 1961. There were just three broadcast networks as well as local channels and National Education Television, now known as PBS.

History was made when The Flintstones” became the first animated series to be nominated in a main category: program achievement in the field of humor. It would be nearly 50 years before another animated series, “The Family Guy,” contended for a top award.

Veterans such as Jack Benny and Red Skelton were among the winners,...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is no stranger to heist movies. Remember 1998’s “Out of Sight,” 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven” and 2017’s “Logan Lucky”? And he’s returned to the popular genre with this latest film “No Sudden Move,” which landed on HBO Max July 1 after having premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Set in Detroit in 1954, “No Sudden Move” around a group of small-time hoods who are hired to steal a document. Though they consider it to be a straightforward job, it turns out to be anything but when the gig goes wrong. While the crooks try to figure out who hired them and way, they are lead down a rabbit hole of twists and turns involving racial prejudice, corporate greed in the auto industry and even the mob. “No Sudden Move,” which stars Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser, and Ray Liotta, is currently at...

Stuart Damon, who was best known for his role on “General Hospital,” has died. He was 84.

“He’d been struggling with renal failure for the last several years,” ABC7 reporter George Pennacchio confirmed in a Facebook post. “He was a kind, loving and friendly man. It’s something Christopher heard his entire life. It was my honor to know Stuart Damon. May this Prince R.I.P.”

Damon devoted over 30 years of his life to playing Dr. Alan Quartermaine on ABC’s “General Hospital” and spinoff “Port Charles.” With the role, he earned six Daytime Emmy nominations and won in 1999 — 22 years after joining the cast — for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series.

The New York native was born in Brooklyn Feb. 5, 1937 and later went on to graduate from Brandeis University in 1958. He first took his talents to Broadway in 1959 in the ensemble of “First Impressions” and then spent over...

Joanne Linville, who was best known for playing a Romulan commander in “Star Trek,” died Sunday in Los Angeles, her agent confirmed to Variety. She was 93.

Born in Bakersfield, Calif. as Beverly Joanne Linville, she was the first female actor to play a Romulan in the “Star Trek” franchise. Linville was a fixture on television from the 1950s to the ’80s, appearing in over 100 film and TV shows, including anthology series such as “Studio One,” “Kraft Theatre” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

While she never held a regular recurring role on TV, Linville guest-starred on numerous shows, including Westerns, dramas and detective series. Linville starred in six episodes of “Studio One” and three episodes of “Gunsmoke.” Throughout her career, which spanned over six decades, she also appeared in “Hawaii Five-o,” “Barnaby Jones,” “Naked City,” “Adventures in Paradise” and “One Step Beyond.”

In 1961, Linville guest starred in an episode of “The Twilight Zone,...

Joanne Linville, a character actress who had memorable guest-starring turns on episodes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone in the 1960s, died Sunday in Los Angeles, CAA announced. She was 93.

Linville appeared on dozens of TV shows during her career, from Studio One, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The United States Steel Hour and Have Gun — Will Travel to Dr. Kildare, Route 66, Naked City, I Spy, Hawaii Five-o, Gunsmoke, Columbo and L.A. Law.

On the big screen, she worked in such films as The Goddess (1958) with Kim Stanley, Scorpio (1973) with Burt Lancaster and A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

Linville also played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper ...

Joanne Linville, a character actress who had memorable guest-starring turns on episodes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone in the 1960s, died Sunday in Los Angeles, CAA announced. She was 93.

Linville appeared on dozens of TV shows during her career, from Studio One, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The United States Steel Hour and Have Gun — Will Travel to Dr. Kildare, Route 66, Naked City, I Spy, Hawaii Five-o, Gunsmoke, Columbo and L.A. Law.

On the big screen, she worked in such films as The Goddess (1958) with Kim Stanley, Scorpio (1973) with Burt Lancaster and A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

Linville also played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper ...

Charles “Chuck” Fries, whose career as a television and film producer included a long list of classic shows, series and films, died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 92. No cause of death was given.

During a prolific career that spanned more than 60 years, he participated in the production of more than 5,000 series episodes, 140 television movies and miniseries and more than 40 theatrical films. His producing credits range from Tales of the Crypt and The Call of the Wild to TV’s The Amazing Spider-Man and The Martian Chronicles to Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean, Troop Beverly Hills and Screamers.

Born on September 30, 1928, in native of Cincinnati, Fries began his career at Ziv Television in 1952, where he worked on legendary syndicated shows like The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol, Bat Masterson, and Sea Hunt. He moved to Screen Gems in 1960, where he was involved in the production of such classics as Naked City,...

TV commercial casting director Merrill Jonas died Thursday at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, Calif. after a long illness. She was 96.

Starting out as an actress, Jonas rose to head of the casting department at Ogilvy and Mather in New York, where she led a six-person team that cast more than 100 commercials. The celebrity talent included Patricia Neal, Karl Malden, Anna-Maria Alberghetti, Arthur Ashe, Sonny & Cher and Ravi Shankar.

While working as director of the commercial department at talent agency CMA in New York, she cast talent including Jackie Gleason, Rod Serling, Florence Henderson and Mel Brooks.

Her agency Celebrity Casting Associates made deals for NBC’s Frank Blair, Phyllis Newman, Peter Duchin, Pete Rose and Dan Pastorini.

As an actress and on-camera spokeswoman, Jonas appeared in commercials during the 1950s and 1960s for products including Anacin, M&Ms, Tide, Lipton Tea and many others.

She also appeared...

Paul Raci, 72, has already won several critics organization’s awards including from the National Society of Film Critics for his performance as Joe, a recovering alcoholic who lost his hearing in the Vietnam War. Joe runs a house for recovering deaf addicts that Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a drug addict who lost his hearing playing drums, goes to live. Raci ranks in the top five contenders for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars according to our exclusive odds.

And there’s a good reason wh: the actor gives such a natural, forceful performance as the no-nonsense Joe-his parents were deaf. He’s also fluent in American Sign Language and has appeared in some dozen productions of the Los Angeles-based Deaf West Theater and is lead performer of the Asl Black Sabbath tribute band Hands of Doom. And just as Joe, Raci is also a Vietnam Vet.

Character actors have won Oscars...

Jules Dassin’s most popular pre-exile crime thriller is many things: a cracking good police tale, a drama of human struggle and weakness, and an amazing cinematic time machine of New York’s distinctive hustle and bustle circa 1948. Mark Hellinger’s final production bristles with a ‘these are the facts’ narration, a voiceover personifying a city ‘with eight million stories.’ The filmed-on-location classic always looked okay, but this new restoration sources better elements for picture and sound, improving the show substantially.

The Naked City

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 380

1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 8, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor, Ted de Corsia, House Jameson, Anne Sargent, Adelaide Klein, Tom Pedi, Enid Markey.

Cinematography: William Daniels

Film Editor: Paul Weatherwax

Original Music: Miklos Rozsa, Frank Skinner

Written by Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald

Produced by Mark Hellinger

Directed by Jules Dassin...

John Wayne, Robert Ryan and some thrilling color combat footage grace this Howard Hughes WW2 aviation epic, that’s famous for being the odd-title-out in the filmography of Nicholas Ray. Just how did the politically diverging Ray and Hughes get along so well? The Wac’s sensational Technicolor restoration does the real combat footage a big favor: minus scratches and dirt, it looks better than ever.

Flying Leathernecks

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date September 15, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter, Jay C. Flippen, James Bell, Adam Williams, Barry Kelley, Gordon Gebert, Lynn Stalmaster, Mona Knox.

Cinematography: William E. Snyder

Film Editor: Sherman Todd

Original Music: Roy Webb

Written by James Edward Grant, Beirne Lay Jr. story by Kenneth Gamet

Produced by Edmund Grainger, Howard Hughes

Directed by Nicholas Ray

This by-the-numbers Naval aviation epic — more precisely the Marine Corps.

John Wayne, Robert Ryan and some thrilling color combat footage grace this Howard Hughes WW2 aviation epic, that’s famous for being the odd-title-out in the filmography of Nicholas Ray. Just how did the politically diverging Ray and Hughes get along so well? The Wac’s sensational Technicolor restoration does the real combat footage a big favor: minus scratches and dirt, it looks better than ever.

Flying Leathernecks

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date September 15, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter, Jay C. Flippen, James Bell, Adam Williams, Barry Kelley, Gordon Gebert, Lynn Stalmaster, Mona Knox.

Cinematography: William E. Snyder

Film Editor: Sherman Todd

Original Music: Roy Webb

Written by James Edward Grant, Beirne Lay Jr. story by Kenneth Gamet

Produced by Edmund Grainger, Howard Hughes

Directed by Nicholas Ray

This by-the-numbers Naval aviation epic — more precisely the Marine Corps.