Polly Platt
Filed under: Director — Tags: Polly Platt — admin @ 2:45 pm
Born on January 29, 1939 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, United States.
Polly Platt was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter. Her screenwriting credits included Pretty Baby (1978), on which she was also an associate producer, as well as Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff, and A Map of the World. Platt worked extensively with James L. Brooks throughout her career. She was the executive vice president of his production company Gracie Films from 1985 to 1995. Platt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Brooks’ film Terms of Endearment (1983). She also co-produced many of the films he worked on, which Gracie made, including Broadcast News (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Bottle Rocket (1996), as well as producing Say Anything… (1989). Platt gave Brooks the nine-panel Life in Hell cartoon “The Los Angeles Way of Death” by cartoonist Matt Groening. She suggested that the two meet and that Brooks produce an animated TV version of Groening’s characters; the meeting spawned a series of short cartoons about the Simpson family, which aired as part of The Tracy Ullman Show and later became The Simpsons.
Platt died aged 72 on July 27, 2011 in New York, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Comments OffDan Peek
Filed under: Musicians — Tags: Dan Peek — admin @ 1:23 pm
Born on November 1, 1950 in Panama City, Florida.
Dan Peek was a musician best known as a member of the rock band America from 1970 to 1977, together with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell. He was also a “pioneer in contemporary Christian music.
Peek died in his sleep on July 24, 2011 at age 60 at his home in Farmington, Missouri.
Comments OffG. D. Spradlin
Filed under: Actors — Tags: G. D. Spradlin — admin @ 11:54 am
Born on August 31, 1920 in Daylight, Garvin County, Oklahoma.
G. D. Spradlin was an American actor. He often played devious authority figures. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions, and has performed alongside such notable actors as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and George C. Scott, among others.
Spradlin died in San Luis Obispo, California on July 24, 2011 at the age of 90.
Comments OffChristopher Mayer
Filed under: Actors — Tags: Christopher Mayer — admin @ 11:11 am
Born on February 21, 1954 in New York, New York.
Christopher Mayer was an American film and TV actor. Mayer played the role of Vance Duke in the 1982-1983 season of The Dukes of Hazzard. Mayer continued his work in television and movies into the early 1990s, including a stint on the daytime serial Santa Barbara. He also played Kenneth Falk in the film Liar Liar (1997) alongside Jim Carrey.
Mayer died on July 23, 2011 (aged 57).
Comments OffAmy Winehouse
Filed under: Musicians — Tags: Amy Winehouse — admin @ 12:28 pm
Born on September 14, 1983 in Southgate, London, England.
Amy Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse’s 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me”, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab”, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game”, among other distinctions. The album was the third biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom. Winehouse was credited as an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music, and also for revitalising British music. Winehouse’s distinctive style made her a muse for fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld. Winehouse’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse, and her self-destructive behaviours were regular tabloid news from 2007 until her death. She and her former husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were plagued by legal troubles that left him serving prison time. In 2008, Winehouse faced a series of health complications that threatened both her career and her life.
Winehouse died at the age of 27 on July 23, 2011, at her home in London; police have said that the cause of her death was “as yet unexplained”.
Tom Aldredge
Filed under: Actors — Tags: Tom Aldredge — admin @ 12:07 pm
Born on February 28, 1928 in Dayton, Ohio.
Tom Aldredge was an American actor. He achieved notice on television, in films and in theatre. Aldredge carved out a respected career on the Broadway stage over the last 40 years. He was the original Norman Thayer Jr. in On Golden Pond in 1978, earning the first of 3 Tony Award nominations. His best known role however was that of the Narrator/Mysterious Man in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods, a role he later repeated in the PBS Great Performances production. He also created the role of the doctor in another Sondhiem/Lapine collaboration, Passion. Aldredge was part of the 1997 all-star revival of Inherit the Wind produced by Tony Randall, playing Rev. Brown in an ensemble that also included George C. Scott, Charles Durning, and Anthony Heald.
Aldredge died on July 22, 2011 in a hospice in Tampa, Florida, from lymphoma.
Comments OffLinda Christian
Filed under: Actors — Tags: Linda Christian — admin @ 11:58 am
Born on November 13, 1923 in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Linda Christian was a Mexican movie actress, who filmed films in Mexican cinema and in Hollywood, her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids (1948). She is also noted for being the first Bond girl, appearing in a 1954 TV adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale. In 1963 she starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “An Out for Oscar”.
Linda Christian died on July 22, 2011 (aged 87) in Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Elwy Yost
Filed under: Television — Tags: Elwy Yost — admin @ 11:45 am
Born on July 10, 1925 in Weston, Ontario, Canada.
Elwy Yost was a television host, best-known for hosting CBC’s weekday Passport to Adventure series from 1965–67, and TVOntario’s weekday Magic Shadows, from 1974 until the mid-1980s, and Saturday Night at the Movies from 1974–99. Elwy wrote a mystery novel, White Shadows, which was published in 2003.
Yost died in Vancouver, British Columbia on July 21, 2011, aged 86.
Comments OffElliot Handler
Filed under: Business — Tags: Elliot Handler — admin @ 11:30 am
Born on April 9, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois.
Elliot Handler was the co-founder of Mattel and with his wife a developer of the biggest-selling toys in American history, including Barbie dolls, Chatty Cathy, Creepy Crawlers and Hot Wheels.
Handler died of heart failure at home in Century City, a district of Los Angeles, California, at age 95 on July 21, 2011.
Sherwood Schwartz
Filed under: Producer — Tags: Sherwood Schwartz — admin @ 11:15 am
Born on November 14, 1916 in Passaic, New Jersey.
Sherwood Schwartz was an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan’s Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC. On March 7, 2008, Schwartz, at the time still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sherwood Schwartz died on July 12, 2011 of natural causes.
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