Peter Falk: American Actor, Dead at 83...

Peter Michael Falk
(September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011)



Peter Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films such as The Princess Bride, The Great Race and Next, and television guest roles and was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once.

Falk died at his longtime Roxbury Drive Beverly Hills home. The cause of death was later revealed as cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease as underlying causes. Falk was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Falk is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

RIP

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Dana Wynter: Actress, Dead at 79...

Dana Wynter
(8 June 1931 – 5 May 2011)




Dana Wynter was a German-born British actress, who was brought up in England and Southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than forty years beginning in the 1950s, most notably in the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

In 1956, Wynter married her only husband, celebrity attorney Greg Bautzer. In 1981 she divorced him. She and Bautzer had one child — Mark Ragan Bautzer.

For years, Wynter, divided her time between her homes in California and Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland.

She died of congestive heart failure at Ojai Valley Community Hospital's Continuing Care Center, California, USA.

RIP

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Jackie Cooper: Child Actor, Dead at 88...

Jackie Cooper
(September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011)





Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination. At age 9, he was also the youngest performer to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role—an honor that he received for the film Skippy.

A child star in "Our Gang" Cooper was more widely known as Perry White in the Superman films.

Cooper served in the United States Navy during World War II and remained active in the reserves for the next several decades, reaching the rank of Captain. He was married three times: first to June Horne (1944-1949), with whom he had one son, John "Jack" Cooper III. He was married to Hildy Parks from (1950-1951) and to Barbara Kraus from 1954 until her death in 2009. Cooper and Kraus had three children — Russell, Julie and Cristina.

He died in a Beverly Hills hospital after a short illness. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of his naval service.

RIP

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Jeff Conaway: American Actor, Dead at 60...

Jeffrey Charles William Michael "Jeff" Conaway
(October 5, 1950 - May 27, 2011)





Jeff Conaway was an American actor best known for his roles in the movie Grease and the US television series Taxi and Babylon 5.

Conaway appeared in the original cast of the Broadway musical Grease, as an understudy to several roles including that of the lead male character, Danny Zuko. He and his friend John Travolta reunited in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease, in which Travolta played Zuko and Conaway his buddy Kenickie.

Conaway was married three times. His first short-lived marriage, at 21, to a dancer he had been seeing for two years, was annulled.[4] His second marriage, from 1980 until their divorce in 1985, was to Rona Newton-John, sister of his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John. His third marriage was to Keri Young from 1990 until their divorce.

On May 11, 2011, Conaway was found unconscious from what was initially described as an overdose of substances believed to be pain medication. On May 26, 2011, Conaway's family took him off life support after doctors decided there was nothing they could do to revive him. Conaway died the following morning. An autopsy performed on Conaway revealed that he died of various causes, including pneumonia and encephalopathy attributable to drug overdoses.

RIP

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Sidney Lumet: Film Director, Dead at 86...

Sidney Lumet
(June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011)





Sidney Lumet was an American film director, with over 50 films to his name, including 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982), all of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director. He was also nominated for best screenplay as co-writer of Prince Of The City (1981).

Lumet was one of the leading film directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was prolific, directing more than 40 movies, and versatile, dabbling in many different film genres. Lumet often shot his movies in his native New York.

In 2005, he received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

His films, nominated for more than 50 Oscars, typically were unsentimental and extremely well crafted, exploring intelligent and complicated themes.

His stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel, said Lumet died of lymphoma at his home in Manhattan, the New York Times said.

RIP

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Elizabeth Taylor: Actress, Dead at 79...

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE
(February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)




Elizabeth Taylor, also known as Liz Taylor, was an English-American actress.

Beginning as a child star, as an adult she came to be known for her acting talent and beauty, and had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences. Taylor was considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.

The Hollywood legend's career spanned seven decades and she had five Oscar nominations.

Taylor acted in her first film at the age of 10, three years after her American parents had returned to the United States from London, where she was born in Hampstead in 1932.

After just one film, she was hired by MGM, and became a child star with National Velvet, starring opposite Mickey Rooney. One of the longest-surviving stars of the old studio system, she was widely acclaimed for her roles Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Raintree Country and Cleopatra.

Her two best actress Oscars were awarded for Butterfield 8 in 1960, and for her portrayal of a foul-mouthed alcoholic in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967.

Later in life she became known for charitable work for Aids and other causes, as well as her friendship with Michael Jackson, who asked her to be godmother to two of his three children.

Taylor dealt with various health problems over the years. In February 2011 new symptoms related to congestive heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment.

Taylor died surrounded by her four children at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

RIP

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Jane Russell: Actress, Dead at 89...

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell
(June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011)




Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.

She was discovered by the wealthy industrialist Howard Hughes who in 1940 cast her in the movie The Outlaw. In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. She made several films unde her contract with RKO – thrillers such as His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952), both opposite Robert Mitchum; The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Victor Mature; and Double Dynamite (1951), with Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx. The Western Montana Belle had been made for RKO in 1948, but Howard Hughes bought out the rights and sat on it for four years, releasing it only in 1952, when he felt his protégée was sufficiently established. In that year she also made Son of Paleface for Paramount.

Her best known role came in 1953 when she starred alongside another Hollywood legend, Marilyn Monroe, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in over 20 films throughout her career.

In 1955, she founded the World Adoption International Fund. For her achievements in film, she received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Russell married three times and adopted three children.

She died at her home in Santa Maria, California of a respiratory-related illness. She is survived by her three children: Thomas Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert Waterfield.

RIP

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