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Professor Wagstaff wrote:TCM Remembers 2014

This year's video is much too frenetic for my taste, sometimes flashing clips of the dearly departed for barely a second, but I do give TCM credit for remembering individuals outside of the Hollywood mainstream who won't be shown in any other tributes.

A couple of others from the video we apparently overlooked on these boards:
Birgitta Valberg, who appeared in a number of Ingmar Bergman movies, including The Virgin Spring as the mother
Shôji Yasui, star of The Burmese Harp

Professor Wagstaff wrote:TCM Remembers 2014

Complete with their annual fuck-up: the clip used to commemorate Renée Asherson is actually of Margaret Johnston, who died in 2002. How hard can this stuff be to get right?!

Virna Lisi.

MichaelB wrote:Virna Lisi.

One of the great international film beauties, who became a very fine actress.

She was wonderful in La Reine Margot. A real scene-stealer.

Mary Arden, best known for playing Peggy Peyton in Blood and Black Lace.

Producer Arthur Gardner, aged 104.

dadaistnun wrote:Billie Whitelaw

Sad to hear, although luckily Edgar Wright's film Hot Fuzz gave her, along with Edward Woodward, a memorable late role! Here's her introduction in the film!

She had many interesting and edgy roles in her career, from an uncredited role in John Ford's Gideon's Day (aka Gideon of Scotland Yard), through to Hitchcock's Frenzy, both films that interestingly starred Anna Massey!

Lots of great horror roles in there too. Along with the evil nanny in the original version of The Omen she is also in a retelling of the Burke and Hare story in The Flesh and the Fiends and Twisted Nerve. She also memorably provided the voice of Augrha in The Dark Crystal too!

There are a couple of fascinating British films that she is in that I hope get released on home video sooner or later, perhaps in the BFI's Flipside series: Charlie Bubbles, starring and directed by Albert Finney and written by Shelagh Delaney; Chris Petit's adaptation of P.D. James' An Unsuitable Job For A Woman; and John Boorman's Leo The Last, in which Whitelaw co-stars with Marcello Mastroianni.

But in terms of released films she was also great in Stephen Frears' Gumshoe and in a non-horror Hammer film, the excellent crime thriller Hell Is A City (the title of which was apparently controversial in describing Manchester!) Plus she had a memorable supporting part in Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting The Past mini-series. Her character also got one of the short ten minute episodes dedicated to some of the characters relating a story through still photographs, which I think I'm going to rewatch tonight as perhaps the best tribute to her.

For those who haven't listened to it, the Wright-Tarantino commentary on Hot Fuzz has a great story about Whitelaw's response to Wright's fandom for Twisted Nerve.

Her autobiography is essential for Beckett fans. Theater critic Toby Zinnman taught a class I attended on Beckett . I struggled with it tremendously, for me his words didn't him justice. I'm embarrassed to admit that, but I just couldn't get a feel for his plays on paper, but her performances (and his plays) could be quite touching - something one doesn't think of when it comes to Beckett.

Former ABC Ent. Pres. Brandon Stoddard who oversaw Roots, The Day After, Something About Amelia, Thirtysomething, The Wonder Years, China Beach, Roseanne, etc.; helped develop Twin Peaks and My So-Called Life; also started ABC Motion Pictures, Inc. which produced Prizzi’s Honor and Silkwood.

rockysds wrote:Peter von Bagh, film historian, film director and festival director.

Don't know what happened to dvds/blus but his massive collection of 8000 filmbooks and 10000 videotapes went to Finnish National Library.They are setting up a room(s?) to display all the stuff.

There's an amusing story how Von Bagh,in the early 80's,forced Jonathan Rosenbaum to buy a multi region VCR so they could swap tapes together.Can't remember how much one cost back then but I know they weren't exactly cheap.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Joe Cocker

Oh damn.
At least I had a chance to see him perform once on the Pier in NYC in the mid-80's.
While the tile track is a complete tour de force, the whole With a Little Help From My Friends album is great. I've always loved his version of Bye Bye Blackbird, where his singing really reflects the Ray Charles influence. When I listen to classic rock these days -- such as the Stones or Joe Cocker -- I'm often impressed how well crafted and produced the songs are - everything from arrangements to backup singers, musicianship, etc.

Krzysztof Krauze, one of the tiny handful of Polish filmmakers to earn himself an international reputation during the 1990s/early 2000s when Polish cinema came perilously close to collapsing altogether. I still think The Debt (1999) is his best film, but he also made the very impressive My Nikifor (2004), Saviour's Square (2006) and Papusza (2013), each displaying a welcome refusal to repeat himself (or rather "themselves", since his wife Joanna Kos-Krauze was very much his co-author).

Actor David Ryall who had a lot of supporting roles from "Man With Whores" in The Elephant Man to "Footman" in Mr Turner, and a role in Dustin Hoffman's Quartet, 90s period dramas Carrington and Restoration along with a lot of TV work including bigger roles in Dennis Potter's Singing Detective series, the late 80s adaptation of The Woman In Black and more recently in the adaptation of the M.R. James story The Tractate Middoth and the recent series The Village.

He also had an interesting sci-fi role in City of Ember and in what sounds to be an interesting Asimov-style film, which doesn't have a UK release date as yet (or that wide of a US release for that matter), Automata.

Luise Rainer at 104, the first winner of consecutive Oscars. She won best actress for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 and The Good Earth in 1937.

Luise Rainer was interviewed at the TCM Classic Film Festival a few years ago, and the interview is sometimes aired on TV. She was still quite feisty for her advanced age, despite her frail appearance and the fact that she couldn't hear Robert Osborne's questions because she forgot her hearing aid! I'm sure TCM will air that interview again along with several of her films sometime in the near future in tribute.

I think the only film I've seen her in is The Great Ziegfeld, and that was about 12 or 13 years ago when I was in high school. All these years later, she's about all I remember about the movie, particularly her musical number in which she repeatedly pronounces the word "jolly" as "zholly," much to Ziegfeld's (William Powell) chegrin.

Still been meaning to check out Big City, which I think is now part of a Warner Archive box set for Rainer. Another one directed by Frank Borzage and starring Spencer Tracy, and for a long time also impossible to find on DVD.

hearthesilence wrote:Christine Cavanaugh

My gosh! I was very familiar with Christine Cavanaugh's work, having grown up with both Rugrats and Dexter's Lab. I also remember her guest spot on Salute Your Shorts. I'm ashamed to say that I have still never seen Babe.