Passages

[colinr0380]

Actress Olivia Hussey, at age 73.

Somehow that Deadline article misses Hussey's most key role as the lead in classic slasher film, 1974's Black Christmas, which tackles some quite adult issues surrounding abortion between the Hussey and Keir Dullea characters during its course. Speaking of adult issues, she is amazing as the underage component of the adultery film All The Right Noises in which all three members of the love triangle have their issues explored in a surprisingly mature fashion. I wrote it up in more detail here, but Hussey has perhaps the most interesting role of having to move from a (literally) childish infatuation towards becoming aware that it was just a fling for the guy and it might be selfish to destroy a family because of what happened, no matter how significant their encounters were for her.

She is also in 1982's Australian version of The Most Dangerous Game (and proto-Running Man/Battle Royale/Hunger Games) film Turkey Shoot, aka the UK government baiting with its alternate VHS title Blood Camp Thatcher! And she's amongst the ensemble cast of Kinji Fukasaku's 1980 take on the disaster film Virus!

[thirtyframesasecond]

Was Hussey in the TV series of It, as Richard Thomas's girlfriend/wife? A small role but pivotal to the second episode.

[colinr0380]

Yes, and really good as the most 'innocent' and uninvolved of all being dragged into the situation, as a character not part of the initial 1950s encounter but just targeted because of her involvement with the Richard Thomas character. That may be an early example of the Stephen King twist, where the protagonists get saved from the situation but in the process have to contend with having sacrificed an innocent to get to that happy ending.

[GaryC]

Having said all that, the first thing I ever saw her in (because I didn't see Romeo and Juliet until much later) was as Mary, the Mother of God in Jesus of Nazareth.

[colinr0380]

She's also in a film that got riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000, with 1993's Quest of the Delta Knights.

[GaryC]

I don't see any online obituaries as yet, but pioneering Australian filmmaker (director and cinematographer) Nigel Buesst died on 27 December at the age of 86. He was active in the Carlton (Melbourne) scene in the 1960s, a period he documented in Carlton + Godard = Cinema (2003). His own films as director included Bonjour Balwyn (1970) and Come Out Fighting (1973).

[beamish14]

Charles Dolan, founder of HBO and Cablevision, which morphed into AMC.

[JSC]

Jimmy Carter
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -president

[TechnicolorAcid]

One last big one right before the New Year huh?

[beamish14]

My partner’s mother worked in the office of his VP Walter Mondale for a time. Decades later, she happened to see him at a book signing, and Carter incredibly knew who she was and her function, despite being extremely low on the totem pole

[MichaelB]

My partner’s mother worked in the office of his VP Walter Mondale for a time. Decades later, she happened to see him at a book signing, and Carter incredibly knew who she was and her function, despite being extremely low on the totem pole

Compare and contrast with one of his successors not even recognising a picture of one of his wives a few months ago.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Charles Shyer

[pianocrash]

One last big one right before the New Year huh?

RIP Jimmy, I hope this song-poem endures longer than any youtube clickbait following a visit to this forum.

Also news to me: there was an entire album of song-poems about the man!

[hearthesilence]

Rodessa Barrett Porter, the last living member of the Barrett Sisters, a Chicago gospel trio renowned for their exuberant operatic sound and thrilling harmonies, died on Dec. 16 in Harvey, Ill. She was 94.

She appears in the great documentary Say Amen, Somebody which had long been unavailable but was given a 4K restoration five years ago and is still distributed by Milestone.

[hearthesilence]

Tony-winning Broadway actor Linda Lavin. The veteran stage and TV actress was known for her Emmy-nominated role in the 1976 sitcom Alice and for her Tony-winning performance in the 1986 play Broadway Bound. She had been working as recently as this month, promoting her new Netflix series No Good Deed and filming the upcoming Hulu comedy series Mid-Century Modern, in which she is one of the leads. She died unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer.

[domino harvey]

I grew up watching morning Alice reruns on E! before school started and every so often I will quote it, knowing full well that possibly no one else on earth these days will get it

[JamesF]

Also the subject of a Simpsons joke I still laugh at even though I don’t understand it to this day (“No, someone who didn’t deserve it!”)

[hearthesilence]

They make that exact concept a joke when Homer and Marge attend their high school reunion - the class clown is still stuck in the 1970s, doing the same impressions and jokes as he did when he was a teenager, including painfully dated lines like "kiss my grits." (I've never, EVER heard anyone say that outside of that one joke on The Simpsons.)

[domino harvey]

There is, believe it or not, an entire skit from the State about a kid endlessly quoting Flo’s famous line— so obviously it still had some form of cultural cachet in the mid 90s

[JamesF]

Angus Macinnes, best known for Star Wars, Witness and other small roles in big films usually shot in the UK.

[hearthesilence]

Angus Macinnes, best known for Star Wars, Witness and other small roles in big films usually shot in the UK.

Can absolutely place him in Atlantic City (thanks to the distinctive haircut in that film).

[hearthesilence]

The great pioneering jazz bassist Barre Phillips

[beamish14]

George Folsey, Jr., best known for editing and/or producing much of John Landis’ output.

[JamesF]

Italian composer Nora Orlandi, best known for scoring several spaghetti Westerns and gialli. One of those weird coincidences as I'd just spent much of the last couple of days with her excellent theme for Johnny Yuma stuck in my head...

[Aunt Peg]

Wayne Osmond, 73, from The Osmond Brothers: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/ ... es-aged-73