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willoneill wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:39 am Chuck Yeager

Biggest surprise in his obituary is that he actually married actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo from Witness (35 years his junior) in 2003.

I was just looking at my widescreen VHS of The Right Stuff yesterday evening and telling myself that I really should watch it one of these days. And looking up that trailer I see that it has just received a Disney+ remake.

If original screenwriter William Goldman had had his way, The Right Stuff wouldn't have featured Yeager at all, a decision that Philip Kaufman very sensibly reversed (since Yeager towers over Tom Wolfe's source book like a colossus).

It's fascinating reading Goldman's version of events (in Adventures in the Screen Trade) because... well, to be as polite as possible, he was just wrong: had the film ended up as the kind of jingoistic rah-rah America paean that he envisaged, we almost certainly wouldn't be talking about it right now. It can't have been easy rejecting the original screenwriter's vision so comprehensively, but Kaufman's instincts were supremely sound here.

colinr0380 wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:23 pm And looking up that trailer I see that it has just received a Disney+ remake.

It's my understanding from a buddy watching with his kids that Yeager's story has been excised from the Disney+ series. Which is reason enough for me not to bother.

Harold Budd at 84

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/ ... teau-twins

One of my favorite pianists. The Serpent (In Quicksilver) is beautiful.

hearthesilence wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:14 am

willoneill wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:39 am Chuck Yeager

Biggest surprise in his obituary is that he actually married actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo from Witness (35 years his junior) in 2003.

I unfortunately went down the Twitter rabbit hole after I saw the tweet announcing his death and discovered that she is a rabid trumper, retweeting all sorts of conspiracy nonsense about the election from Fox News and trump himself.

Fiery Angel wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:02 am

hearthesilence wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:14 am

willoneill wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:39 am Chuck Yeager

Biggest surprise in his obituary is that he actually married actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo from Witness (35 years his junior) in 2003.

I unfortunately went down the Twitter rabbit hole after I saw the tweet announcing his death and discovered that she is a rabid trumper, retweeting all sorts of conspiracy nonsense about the election from Fox News and trump himself.

Yeeeeeeesh...I wasn't going to say anything, but I went down a similar rabbit hole and stopped when I found out about the ugly litigation between her and Yeager's family, who believed she was marrying him for his money. People can be kind of awful.

Australian TV and film writer Cliff Green on 4 December, two days before his eighty-sixth birthday. His work for the big screen was in the 1970s, most notably Picnic at Hanging Rock and Summerfield.

Paolo Rossi:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... inner-dies

I missed that their drummer Sean Reinert died earlier this year as well. I was in love with their 2008 comeback album in high school, less now, but if anyone is looking to step into extreme metal I can’t recommend their debut Focus enough.

hearthesilence wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:34 am

Fiery Angel wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:02 am

hearthesilence wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:14 am
Biggest surprise in his obituary is that he actually married actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo from Witness (35 years his junior) in 2003.

I unfortunately went down the Twitter rabbit hole after I saw the tweet announcing his death and discovered that she is a rabid trumper, retweeting all sorts of conspiracy nonsense about the election from Fox News and trump himself.

Yeeeeeeesh...I wasn't going to say anything, but I went down a similar rabbit hole and stopped when I found out about the ugly litigation between her and Yeager's family, who believed she was marrying him for his money. People can be kind of awful.

My god. She's like Michael Keaton in Pacific Heights

Barbara Windsor, who seamlessly segued from BAFTA-nominated serious actress (Sparrows Can't Sing, 1963) to comedy icon (Carry On Camping, 1970, via arguably the most famous single image in the entire 30-film cycle) to much-loved soap queen (EastEnders, 1994-2016). I don't know how far her fame spread internationally, but she was pretty much universally regarded as an official national treasure in Britain for well over half a century.

MichaelB wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:29 am Barbara Windsor, who seamlessly segued from BAFTA-nominated serious actress (Sparrows Can't Sing, 1963) to comedy icon (Carry On Camping, 1970, via arguably the most famous single image in the entire 30-film cycle) to much-loved soap queen (EastEnders, 1994-2016). I don't know how far her fame spread internationally, but she was pretty much universally regarded as an official national treasure in Britain for well over half a century.

Barbara Windsor and the Carry On films were huge in Australia. I also loved her performance in Ken Russell's The Boy Friend and have always had a soft spot for the Carry On films and actors.

Great in small roles as the muscle for various bad guys in various 80s action movies, even better in bit parts for Tarantino and Nolan.

I've been slowly going through the Carry On series this year (someone has uploaded the Rank produced ones on YouTube) I have hazy ITV Sunday afternoon memories of them from my childhood. They're not great but each member of the ensemble occasionally shines with Babs being an outstanding presence, and not just because of the obvious. She brings a bubbly energy to the whole enterprise.

It was great to see her reinvent herself later in her career with a defining role in EastEnders and probably where most people my age and younger know her from now.

Another MLB star, Dick Allen, age 78.
Wasn't willing to put up with much bullshit and got a bad rep, which he at times encouraged.
I know the WaPo is paywalled, but their obit was the best I've seen.

Late in his career he was a good mentor to the 70's Phillies.

"Dick was a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen," Mike Schmidt said in a speech. "He played in front of home fans that were products of that racist era [with] racist teammates and different rules for whites and Blacks. Fans threw stuff at him, and thus Dick wore a batting helmet throughout the whole game. They yelled degrading racial slurs. They dumped trash in his front yard at his home. In general, he was tormented, and it came from all directions. And Dick rebelled."

One year Allen wore a batting helmet in the outfield against fans throwing batteries and coins.
When Philly's tough crowd image is mentioned it's usually booing Santa Claus, but how about throwing hard objects at your baseball star?
“I can play anywhere — first, third, left field — anywhere but Philadelphia,” Mr. Allen said.

Allen won Rook of the Year and an MVP.
A prickly iconoclast. With reason.

“People said there was one set of rules for me and another for the rest of the team,” Mr. Allen told Sports Illustrated in 1993. “When I was coming up, black players couldn’t stay in the same hotel or eat in the same places as whites. Two sets of rules? Baseball set the tone.”

Aunt Peg wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:15 amBarbara Windsor and the Carry On films were huge in Australia. I also loved her performance in Ken Russell's The Boy Friend and have always had a soft spot for the Carry On films and actors.

Two friends of mine interviewed her (in one case live on stage) and both confirmed that she was exactly the same offscreen as she was onscreen (wardrobe mishap aside, presumably). And the one who interviewed her on stage recalled the way that she made a point of personally and individually thanking everyone involved with the event before she left. I get the strong impression that she was pretty much impossible to dislike, especially face to face.

Although I suspect the sheer amount of public affection displayed towards her throughout the vast majority of her career obscured the fact that she was a very fine actress indeed - her great EastEnders period happily coincided with the time when I watched it regularly (I struggled when they switched to three episodes a week, and gave up when it turned to four in the early 2000s - pre-iPlayer it was just too much hassle to keep up), and it's not remotely an eccentric minority opinion to claim that Peggy Mitchell was by far one of the strongest and most memorable characters, and that despite Windsor's pre-existing stardom (something that British soaps traditionally steer clear of, presumably in part because of the fees involved), she fitted right in from the start.

Lemmy Caution wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:43 am Another MLB star, Dick Allen, age 78.

“I can play anywhere — first, third, left field — anywhere but Philadelphia,” Mr. Allen said.

Quite! Thanks

Pavel wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:34 am Kim Ki-duk

I am absolutely gutted. The man just seemed incapable of making a subpar film. 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
are epochal works that will be part of the 21st century cinema canon.

Pavel wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:34 am Kim Ki-duk

This is heartbreaking. Spring Summer Fall Winter...and Spring was a formative film for me, and I only just watched 3-Iron over the lockdown, which became an instant favorite. So strange and so sad, he was a wonderful artist.