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Gregory wrote:Also La Notte.

Gaslini and his ensemble are of course featured resolutely playing through the night until dawn at the country house/club party so the music is unusually not extra diegetic....

Robert Drew.

Special effects make-up pioneer Dick Smith (The Exorcist, Scanners, much else) at 92.

Harun Farocki.

Academy Award-winning makeup artist Dick Smith, who was responsible for, among other things, the exploding heads in Scanners

That's a shame- there are some Smith-centric extras on Criterion's Scanners disc, and he's a really winning, charming presence. I suppose their are worse things to be remembered for than an exploding head full of meat, though.

The Exorcist was my introduction to the guy's work in makeup effects and then Scanners. Last movie I saw that he worked on was The Stepford Wives, and he had to recycle a prop from another film he worked on.

I'll miss him.

Studio Ghibli.

MichaelB wrote:Studio Ghibli.

What awful news

I've read that they're just doing some reorganization following Miyazaki's retirement and that the thing about them closing was a rumor started on Tumblr and then reported in the media. (source)

They've been talking about this for a while now, but ultimately, I think the idea is that the studio isn't going to disappear so much as turn into a back catalog company...then again, if it's not going to make any more new films, that's not exactly great news either.

antnield wrote:Harun Farocki.

English-language obituaries now online at NY Times and AV Club. Perhaps a minor sidetrack compared to his hugely influential career as artist, critic and teacher, but he was also a close collaborator of Christian Petzold, working on the scripts of The State I Am In, Ghosts, Barbara and Phoenix. With Liechti and Glawogger gone earlier in the Spring, this is turning out to be a catastrophic year for vital German-language cinema

This seemed to go by unnoticed but cinematographer MORITA Fujio died last June of glioblastoma. Sadly I can't find any formal obituaries at this time. He's probably my favorite cinematographer having shot some of Gosha's best films along with some of the most stylish episodes of Zatoichi and Sleepy Eyes of Death. My personal favorite, up on Hulu right now is Gosha's Death Shadows which he brings a black cartoon sensibility to.

Menahem Golan.

Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe

Early Corman leading man Ed Nelson.

Perkins Cobb wrote:Menahem Golan.

Cannon may have been known mostly for Chuck Norris movies but they were responsible for Love Streams, Barfly and Fool for Love. Runaway Train was pretty cool too.

Spock's betrothed in Theodore Sturgeon's classic Amok Time and Culp's gutsy partner in Harlan Ellison's brilliant Outer Limits episode Demon With a Glass Hand.

Norma McCarty, wife of Edward D. Wood Jr. (and Edith, the stewardess, in Plan 9 from Outer Space).

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Don Pardo

That guy's longevity was amazing and certainly provided a sense of continuity through nearly forty years of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. In recent years, I got a kick out of hearing him announce things like: "...with musical guests Diddy Dirty Money & Swizz Beatz"!

Soprano Licia Albanese, at 105.

Poet Simin Behbahani, at 87.

Brian G. Hutton.