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Matt wrote:Today's staggering death: Anita O'Day. She played her own bad self in The Gene Krupa Story and The Outfit.

Some very sad news. Shirley Walker has passed away after suffering a brain aneurism, from which she did not regain consciousness. It's the loss of a real pioneer for female composers, not to mention the loss of a sweet, funny woman whom I long admired, and whose work I was lucky enough to publicize at various junctures.

I was already a fan of Shirley's collaborative work on the amazing acid rock score for APOCALYPSE NOW, her co-composing of THE BLACK STALLION (along with Carmine Coppola), and her orchestrating / conducting duties on such scores as BACKDRAFT, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, NIGHTBREED and BATMAN before meeting her on my move to LA in 1989.

One could hear Shirley's talent for dark, symphonic music on these scores - a talent that more than proved itself with her exciting, Herrmann-esque score for MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN- the first major Hollywood score soley composed by a woman to my knowledge.

Shirley really had a flair for super-heroic action on scores for THE FLASH, additional music for MYSTERY MEN the BATMAN and SUPERMAN animated series, and her terrific score for BATMAN- MASK OF THE PHANTASM. Her music really captured the intimidating menace of the Dark Knight, not to mention the sad, psychological underpinning of his mission of vengeance- a score that ranks as one of the best written for the comic book icon.

Some of Shirley's other notable scores include ASTEROID, SPACE - ABOVE AND BEYOND and SPAWN. More than any other genre, Shirley could bring out the black humor of horror and suspense like few composers. In scores like TURBULENCE and three FINAL DESTINATIONS, Shirley took a macabre delight in playing the bad guys- even Death himself. One of my fondest memories is seeing Shirley amp up the orchestra with a "gore-o-meter" of her devising for the third DESTINATION, previewing the deaths to their knowing, gross-out groans of the players- and a lot of laughter. But perhaps Shirley's best score in my estimation is for WILLARD, which used accordions to play the mad ratman. Surely the coolest, most fiendish use of the instrument in film scoring history. Topped off with a knowingly fearesome orchestra, WILLARD was pure, brilliant camp heaven.

I'll never forget my first meeting with Shirley while covering her work for INVISIBLE MAN- where the biggest monster was a feral cat that would keep attacking at any opportune moment. Shirley had a water bottle at the ready, playing a game of cat-and-mouse with her pet to see when a spritzing would be due.

Later on, I did liner notes for Shirley's terrific ESCAPE FROM LA score, a wonderful hodge-podge of ideas that remains one of my favorite action scores. When interviewing both her and John Carpenter, I could easily see how Snake Plissken's first composer knew, and appreciated that his hero was in good hands- a composer who never missed the satire in the gunplay.

Like the sadly missed Basil Poledouris, Shirley remains, in my estimation, one of the best symphonic composers that Hollywood has had in the last twenty years- someone who had a real grasp for melody and themes, no matter the blood-curdling, of super-fantastical situation she might be playing. And like Basil, she should have worked a whole lot more. But her fans more than knew of her talent, as could be witnessed by the people who showed for an ESCAPE FROM LA signing that she graciously attended at Creature Features.

I like to think that Shirley remains one of the true fan favorites among soundtrack appreciators. A woman who set the tone for dreams of super powers, and a person who could make you laugh and scream at the same time during a particulary nasty ending. And I know that despite Shirley's too-soon one, her music will continue to thrill us all. Aptly, her last score is for BLACK CHRISTMAS, one that will provide horror fans with more gruesome, musical delight.

posto wrote:Leon Niemczyk died yesterday in Warsaw at the age of 83. His career spanned 53 years - he debuted in Jerzy Kawalerowicz "Celullose" in 1953 and appeared in 195 movies according to IMBd. Probably best known for his roles in "Knife in the Water" and "The Saragossa Manuscript", he also appears in upcoming "Inland Empire" by David Lynch.

According to polish website he served in the American Army during WWII - 444 Battalion of the General Patton's 3rd Army.
From IMBd website:

Has been married six times, each time to a non-Polish woman.

One of his wives, Diana, was Cuban. Another wife, Doroti, was German. He was also married to a Yugoslavian woman. In current interviews (2004), being over 80 years old, he teases he would like to marry an Eskimo lady.

GringoTex wrote:Claude Jade

flyonthewall2983 wrote:James Brown dead at 73

Steven H wrote:oining the likes of Emperor Yoshihito, Joan Blondell, Charles Chaplin, Leon Schlesinger, W.C. Fields, and Ooka Shohei (guy who wrote Fires on the Plain) in Christmas deaths.

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Scooby-Doo Designer Takamoto Dead

A.I. Bezzerides, a novelist and short-story writer who became a Hollywood screenwriter best known for the post-World War II film noir classics "Kiss Me Deadly," "On Dangerous Ground" and "Thieves' Highway," has died. He was 98.

ROME (Reuters) - Carlo Ponti, one of Italy's best known film producers and the husband of actress Sophia Loren, has died at the age of 94, ANSA news agency said on Wednesday.

Ponti produced classics including La Strada in 1954 and Dr. Zhivago in 1965. ANSA said Ponti died in a hospital in Geneva.