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Michael Ruppert (Collapse) of an apparent "suicide."

Oh wow, I'm sure Surfing the Apocalypse et al are having a field day with conspiracy explanations

Gabriel García Márquez.

Cien años de soledad is pure bliss.

I read The Sixteenth Round in 1981, so I've lived with the story of this man and his ordeal for a long time. I'm happy he was able to spend the last few decades of his life in freedom.

Austrian documentary-maker Michael Glawogger.

MichaelB wrote:Austrian documentary-maker Michael Glawogger.

Link

Horrible news. Losing a lot of talented people too soon these days.

Lee Marshall, voice of Tony The Tiger and maybe better known on-screen as a ring announcer for several pro wrestling organizations.

Bob Hoskins.

Damn, he was always a welcome presence in films

Ouch. That one stings a bit. Not only was he the star of one of my absolute favorite films growing up (Roger Rabbit), he was the heart and soul of one of the greatest works ever made in the medium (Pennies from Heaven). I'll genuinely miss seeing the guy...

So two tributes, one mournful, one joyful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHlUkyCUiM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPPLQhiS0u8

He was also a magnificent Iago in the BBC production of Othello, easily able to transfer over the charismatic gangster attitude of Long Good Friday across to a pre-eminent schemer.

On the later years, he found a number of great directors (and material) there too especially Shane Meadows with his role as the boxing promoter in Twentyfourseven, and his part as the ultimately irrelevant psychopath in Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey. And I really like his sympathetic police inspector role, who has a great subplot trying (and failing) to protect the Prime Minister's bunker in a besieged London, in Neil Marshall's Doomsday!

And while he is only in the film at the very beginning, he does a great Nikita Khrushchev in Enemy At The Gates! And was surprisingly convincing as the dictator ranting about all the incessantly loud music in that TV movie Noriega: God's Favorite!

I'll miss him, dude was talented.

Weeks ago, the last film I watched to feature the guy was Made in Dagenham, he had good chemistry with Sally Hawkins.

I watched "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with my mother when I visited my family at Christmastime. I hadn't seen it in years and revisiting an old favorite gave me the chance to marvel at Hoskins performance with fresh eyes. I commented to my mother that I remembered even loving his work as a kid. "He was your favorite actor when you were 5 years old," she said. "You wouldn't stop talking about him. Him and Warren Beatty."

I'm sad to lose a childhood hero, but I'm happy to know he left behind so many great films. I think today calls for a "Mona Lisa"/"The Long Good Friday" double feature.

MichaelB wrote:

MichaelB wrote:

domino harvey wrote:Jesus, crazy. Her mother died of an OD too

"Too?" As far as I'm aware, the cause of death hasn't been announced yet.

The post-mortem has still to be carried out, but the police have pretty much ruled out anything to do with drugs because of the lack of any evidence in her flat (leftover drugs or anything that might once have contained them). The most convincing current hypothesis is that the cardiac arrest that she was warned she was risking after she confessed to following a controversial rapid weight-loss diet (essentially, nothing but liquidised vegetables for weeks on end) might have finally happened.

It certainly looks like a desperately tragic accident.

Nope. Heroin.

Perkins Cobb wrote:Nope. Heroin.

Indeed - I stand corrected. Although Dom's original comment was still pure speculation, unless he knows something that the police didn't find out until the toxicology tests.

The theory now is that the absence of drug paraphernalia was because someone searched the flat and removed the evidence before calling them.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. died today at the age of 95.

Probably like a lot of young folk around my age, I was introduced to him via his performance as Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series. Farewell.

Movie-Brat wrote:Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. died today at the age of 95.

My older brother was obsessed with the TV show Remington Steele, and we both loved Efrem's character (not to mention his daughter, Stephanie!). Sad to see him go. Seems like he was a genuinely nice person, or at least that's what I imagined after seeing him act.

When I first got to China, I met a young, ambitious, aspiring businessman whose English name was Rockefeller Steele ...

Tatyana Samoylova passed away a day after her 80th birthday. (news in Russian)

Samoilova is unforgettable in The Cranes Are Flying. English obit. Sounds like she had a heart attack at her birthday party!

Perkins Cobb wrote:Samoilova is unforgettable in The Cranes Are Flying.

Agreed. I watched "The Cranes Are Flying" about five years ago when Criterion was running it as a free movie through The Auteurs website. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about the film and I felt totally unprepared for what a gut-wrenching performance Samoilova would give in a film I'd now rank among my very favorites. She had some disarming Audrey Hepburn eyes and a face so expressive that I wish she had a career in silent films. For those who've never seen her in "The Cranes Are Flying" or "Letter Never Sent", please take this opportunity to partake in two gems in the Criterion line that deserve more recognition.

sir_luke wrote:

Movie-Brat wrote:Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. died today at the age of 95.

Sad to see him go. Seems like he was a genuinely nice person, or at least that's what I imagined after seeing him act.

I had the fortune coming into contact with him quite regularly while working down in Santa Barbara not too long ago. I can assure you that he was a genuinely nice person and definitely one of the most gracious and humble people I have come into contact with. He will be greatly missed.