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Aw, man. "Oh gee, Mr. Gittes... I know you been real good about it. But my cousin Auggie's sick." His mouth made that throwaway stick so hard, I quote it all the time.

Harvey Keitel was almost Paulie, I can’t imagine him doing what Mr. Young did, let alone stick around for the sequels. I think my favorite moment with his character is in the beginning of the third movie when he winds up going to jail brimming with jealousy of Rocky.

He was fantastic in The Pope of Greenwich Village

dwk wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2023 1:34 am Burt Young

A great, instantly recognisable character-actor. Get the AGFA/SWV disc of Carnival of Blood to see his inauspicious debut as Gimpy, the dim hunchback working in Coney Island fairground and then, thirty years later, see him play Bobby's emphysema-riddled father in The Sopranos for a striking contrast!

Actress Haydn Gwynne, aged 66.

GaryC wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:19 pm Actress Haydn Gwynne, aged 66.

That's very sad news. I am not familiar with her stage work (though I note that she played Margaret Thatcher in "The Audience", which was Helen Mirren expanding her role from The Queen into discussions with some of the other Prime Ministers that the Queen had the misfortune to encounter during her reign), but she did appear in the live action 2017 Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. And she was also in the 2021 TV mini-series version of The Canterville Ghost (keep an eye out for if Channel 5 repeats that on UK television, as they have shown it a couple of times already).

But her most familiar role is probably as Alex in the great 90s comedy series set in a television newsroom Drop The Dead Donkey (notable at the time for ripping current stories from the headlines to put into the episodes as jokes the week of filming. That's why on repeats of the episodes that little context-setting voiceover was added detailing some of the pertinent headlines before the opening credits start). Her character only appears in the first two series before Ingrid Lacey's Helen Cooper takes over for the last four series, but she set the tone really well as the more down to earth figure for all of the wilder characters to circle around.

Haydn Gwynne also starred in low budget sex comedy The Pleasure Principle, directed by David Cohen, who I think might be the same man who made The Anatomy of a Pin-Up, as featured on the Flipside release of Her Private Hell.


In other news Sir Bobby Charlton has passed away. He may have made an appearance in the CFF film Cup Fever as part of the mid-60s Manchester Utd squad. Munich survivor, European Cup winner, World Cup winner, national team record goalscorer until 2015, I think.

I don't see any online notices as yet, but Australian actor Les (Leslie) Dayman has passed away. Apparently the Wikipedia birth year of 1938 should be 1933 and he was ninety. He was best known on Australian television, with regular roles in Homicide, Prisoner [Cell Block H], Sons and Daughters, A Country Practice and others, and he did have small cinema roles in Weekend of Shadows, Gallipoli, Oscar and Lucinda and others.

Producer Bill Kenwright - far more renowned for overseeing some of the longest-running hits in British theatrical history, but he also produced a handful of films (Stepping Out, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Broken, The Fanatic). He was also closely and controversially associated with Everton Football Club, hence the first obits appearing in the sports sections.

Angelo Bruschini, guitarist for Massive Attack.

I know must people will think of Shaft (for obvious reasons) but for me, I'll always remember his performance in Q, the Winged Serpent, especially considering that was my introduction to him. A surprising performance with good enough chemistry between him and David Carradine in a surprisingly good film.

I love his supporting turn as the school principal in Rian Johnson’s Brick

Crack House is a minor classic that needs a bigger audience

For someone so opposed to the police in the Shaft films, he does turn up a lot as (albeit ineffectual) police commissioners in later films, such as a small cameo having to respond to the press at the beginning of the Greed murder in Se7en or Maniac Cop!

And a couple of oddities: he voiced the title character in videogame Akuji the Heartless and also appears in the only film Arnold Schwarzenegger has directed, the 1992 TV movie remake of the 40s Barbara Stanwyck film Christmas in Connecticut!

Plus, um, guilty pleasure 90s erotic thriller Body of Influence, with Shannon Whirry!

Natalie Zemon Davis.

dwk wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2023 11:47 pm Richard Moll

Mr. Plinkett must be especially sadden by his loss and he can’t even get to watch Night Court on his VCR as a tribute.

Neo Magazine reports some sad news that Buichi Terasawa died on 8th September from a heart attack at age 68. He is perhaps best remembered for creating the manga Cobra, and writing the 1982 film Space Adventure Cobra (which for its later 1995 theatrical release in the UK by Manga Video got an alternate soundtrack by Yello!) as well as the TV series based on it.

It is rather sad timing as Discotek Media are just releasing on Blu-ray this month the 1989 2 part OVA series based on his characters and written by him Goku: Midnight Eye (which is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri during his cyberpunk 'blue' period just before Cyber City OEDO 808). Hopefully following this they might be able to release the only material that Terasawa directed as well as wrote, the 1990 series and 1992 OVA Kabuto too.

The shot used of the exterior building on Friends that is suppose to be their building is a block from my apartment. There are always crowds of tourists on that corner taking pictures. Now it will become a memorial scene on that street and the crowds will be tenfold

FrauBlucher wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2023 12:55 am The shot used of the exterior building on Friends that is suppose to be their building is a block from my apartment. There are always crowds of tourists on that corner taking pictures. Now it will become a memorial scene on that street and the crowds will be tenfold

My uncle and aunt live in Abbey Road, and one of the road signs is just outside their house - and they're more than familiar with the sound of it being not very surreptitiously removed by souvenir hunters, often at night when they think no-one's looking.

But it's not their property, so they're not bothered.

(What is their property is a house that they bought a few years before a certain Beatles album made their address globally famous - and they don't regret that investment for a single millisecond!)

MichaelB wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:09 pm Producer Bill Kenwright - far more renowned for overseeing some of the longest-running hits in British theatrical history, but he also produced a handful of films (Stepping Out, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Broken, The Fanatic). He was also closely and controversially associated with Everton Football Club, hence the first obits appearing in the sports sections.

Was EFC chairman for almost 2 decades. No controversy.

domino harvey wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2023 12:42 am Matthew Perry

Of course Friends is what he will be most remembered for, but in terms of video games he did voice Benny, the main antagonist who motivates the drive for revenge for the first half of the best Fallout game, Fallout: New Vegas, delivering one of the iconic lines of the series with: "The truth is, the game was rigged from the start."

ynwa wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:33 pm

MichaelB wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:09 pm Producer Bill Kenwright - far more renowned for overseeing some of the longest-running hits in British theatrical history, but he also produced a handful of films (Stepping Out, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Broken, The Fanatic). He was also closely and controversially associated with Everton Football Club, hence the first obits appearing in the sports sections.

Was EFC chairman for almost 2 decades. No controversy.

I was going from paragraphs like this:

But to others, Kenwright was also a divisive figure in later years, one whose Everton stewardship developed an air of Shakespearean sadness with failed gambles, bitter misfortune and increasing anger from some fans who felt he was partly to blame for their club's woes.

(source)

And stories like this don't exactly suggest that his tenure was entirely trouble-free.

MichaelB wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:21 pm

And stories like this don't exactly suggest that his tenure was entirely trouble-free.

and they sure as hell don't suggest he was also closely and controversially associated with Everton Football Club as per your original post. He was a good man