Deaths: March 13
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- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (1975) (The Staff), took the Grand Prix at Mannheim Film Festival. His first full-length feature was The Scar (1976) (The Scar). In 1978 he made the famous documentary From a Night Porter's Point of View (1979) (Night Porter's Point of View), and in 1979 - a feature Camera Buff (1979) (Camera Buff), which was acclaimed in Poland and abroad. Everything he did from that point was of highest artistic quality.- Born and brought up in Scotland, Adrienne Corri attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London as a teenager and then appeared on both the English and American stage. While still a teenager, she made her film debut in Naughty Arlette (1949). One of her most memorable film performances was in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) as the victim of the bizarre gang-rape by Alex and his Droogs. In addition to film, she also frequently worked in television and continued in theater, specializing in fiery, flamboyant characters throughout her career.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Producer
Alan Wendell Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania on October 15, 1917. He was the youngest of three children, whose mother encouraged reading books and playing musical instruments. He began his career in the entertainment business leading his own college orchestra as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with a B.S. in Economics, he moved to New York where he worked in advertising for three years. At the start of World War II, he enlisted in the army as a private and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry. After his discharge, he borrowed some money, hitched a ride on an army plane and headed for Los Angeles, California where he obtained his first position with Capitol Records, Inc. in Hollywood as a writer/producer.
His initial assignment was to create a children's record library for the four-year old company, for which he created the legendary "Bozo the Clown" character. He wrote and produced a popular series of storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets beginning with the October 1946 release of "Bozo at the Circus." His record-reader concept, which enabled children to read and follow a story in pictures while listening to it, was the first of its kind. The Bozo image was a composite design of Livingston's, derived from a variety of clown pictures and given to an artist to turn into comic-book-like illustrations. Livingston then hired Pinto Colvig to portray Bozo on the recordings. Colvig, a former circus clown, was also the original voice of Walt Disney's Pluto, Goofy, Grumpy, Sleepy and many other characters. Billy May produced the music. The series turned out to be a smash hit for Capitol, selling over eight million albums in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Successful record sales led to a variety of Bozo-related merchandise and the first television series, "Bozo's Circus", starring Pinto Colvig on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS) in Los Angeles in 1949. The character also became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown."
Livingston wrote and produced many other children's recordings including product for Walt Disney, Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker; Bugs Bunny and all of the Warner Bros. characters. In the case of the latter, he wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie.
Within a few years, Livingston moved on to the adult music arena and became Vice President in charge of all creative operations of the company. He signed Frank Sinatra when Sinatra was at a low point in his career. Livingston wanted Sinatra to work with arranger Nelson Riddle, however Sinatra was reluctant to do so out of his loyalty to Axel Stordahl with whom he had worked for most of his career. The first Sinatra/Stordahl recordings for Capitol failed to produce the magic Livingston and producer Voyle Gilmore were looking for, and Sinatra agreed to try a session with Riddle on April 30, 1953. The impact was immediate, producing the classic "I've Got the World on a String." However, it was "Young-at-Heart" that became the defining moment in Sinatra's comeback, peaking at #2 during its 22-week run on the charts in the spring of 1954.
Livingston has been credited as the creative force responsible for Capitol Records' growth from net sales of $6 million per year to sales in excess of $100 million per year.
After 10 years with Capitol, Livingston and the company sold the "Bozo the Clown" licensing rights (excluding the recordings) to Larry Harmon, one of several people hired to portray the character at promotional appearances, as Livingston left the company to accept a position as President of California National Productions, Inc., the wholly owned film production subsidiary of the National Broadcasting Company. Shortly thereafter, Livingston was also named Vice President of NBC, in charge of Television Network Programming, dealing principally with all films made for the network. In this capacity, he hired David Dortort to write and produce the pilot for the series Bonanza (1959), for which Livingston's older brother, songwriter Jay Livingston, wrote the memorable theme. During this time, Alan also served on the Boards of Bob Hope Enterprises, Inc. and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's motion picture production company, Figaro, Inc.
Five years later, Capitol Records induced him to return as President and, eventually, Chairman of the Board. He was also named to the Board of Electric and Musical Industries (EMI), a British corporation that was the largest stockholder in Capitol. Subsequently, he merged Capitol Records into Audio Devices, Inc., a magnetic tape manufacturer listed on the American Stock Exchange, and changed the name of the surviving company to Capitol Industries, Inc., of which Livingston was named President. It was during this period that he turned Capitol Records into a more rock-oriented company with such artists as The Beach Boys, Steve Miller, The Band, and others. His most noteworthy accomplishment at that time was signing The Beatles for Capitol in 1963 and bringing them to the United States in 1964.
Livingston later sold out his stock in Capitol Industries to form his own company, Mediarts, Inc., for the production of motion pictures, records and music publishing. He eventually sold his interest in that company to United Artists as a result, particularly, of its success in the record business including Don McLean, who reached the #1 position in the country with his "American Pie" single and album in 1972. Two feature motion pictures were completed during the company's operation: Downhill Racer (1969) starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman, and Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) starring David Hemmings; both released by Paramount Pictures.
In August 1976, Livingston joined Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation as Senior Vice President and President, Entertainment Group. He left in 1980 to accept the presidency of Atalanta Investment Company, Inc., and resigned in 1987 to produce a one-hour film for television and to form Pacific Rim Productions, Inc.
Livingston also wrote a novel titled "Ronnie Finkelhof, Superstar" about a shy Harvard pre-law student who becomes an overnight success as a rock musician. It was published by Ballantine Books in the spring of 1988.
On August 1, 1998, Livingston received his first honor for his creation of "Bozo the Clown" as the International Clown Hall of Fame in Wisconsin presented him their Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award.
Alan Livingston passed away on March 13, 2009 at the age of 91 in Beverly Hills, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
In the 1940s and 50s, there were few greater classical actors in Britain than Alec Clunes. Born into a show business family, he began his career with Ben Greet's company and, later, he worked at the Old Vic Theatre. He played numerous Shakespearian roles and, in 1942, took over the Arts Theatre in London where he remained until 1950. Among the plays he presented were "The Lady's Not For Burning" by Christopher Fry, and he gave the actor-playwright Peter Ustinov his first break with his production of "The House of Regrets".
A matinée idol for much of his life in the theatre, his film career was brief but varied. He played "Hastings" to Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), but he was equally at home in stiff upper lip wartime classics such as One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942). In 1956, Clunes married Daphne Alcot and their son Martin was born six years later. Clunes's last work in the theatre included taking over from Rex Harrison in the role of "Henry Higgins" in the musical "My Fair Lady" (1959). His last stage appearance was in 1968. Off-stage, Clunes was an intellectual man, widely read with a deep knowledge of theatre tradition. A theatrical great, he was sometimes compared with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.- Amy Krouse Rosenthal was born on 29 April 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was a writer, known for Yes Day (2021), You May Want to Marry My Husband and Family Switch (2023). She was married to Jason Rosenthal. She died on 13 March 2017 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Ana Casares was born on 23 December 1930 in Stanislawów, Stanislawówskie, Poland (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). She was an actress, known for Trampa para un soñador (1980), 1001 Nights (1968) and Two Undercover Angels (1969). She died on 13 March 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ann Way was born on 14 November 1915 in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Brazil (1985), Clockwise (1986) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She died on 13 March 1993 in London, England, UK.- Actress
Betsy Blair was born in Cliffside, New Jersey, a child model before finding work as a chorus dancer at the early age of 15. She received her first mini-break on Broadway in "Panama Hattie" in 1940 delivering a single line, but by the next year she had copped the ingénue lead in William Saroyan's "The Beautiful People." At around the same time, she met dancer extraordinaire Gene Kelly and married him in 1940. Despite her background in dance, Betsy was admittedly not in the same league as a Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse, or Ann Miller, so she was never afforded the opportunity to glide with Gene in films. Moreover, she never even appeared in a musical film.
She made her large screen debut in 1947 and, for the next couple of years, appeared in a number of above-average dramas such as The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947), A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman, The Snake Pit (1948), wherein she played a demented inmate alongside Olivia de Havilland, and a shining role in Another Part of the Forest (1948). After such promise, things came to a halt. Betsy had been involved in SAG politics as early as 1946 proposing the formation of the first Anti-Discrimination committee. Within a year the House Un-American Activities Committe began to investigate Betsy and others in the motion picture industry and what they considered left-wing extremist viewpoints. Her name appeared in the "Red Channels" and that was that. Her career was undone. By the early 1950s, all film offers had dried up. The only reason Betsy won the female lead in the 1955 cinematic classic Marty (1955) was because her husband threatened to stop shooting at MGM if they didn't let her work despite the blacklist. It would be the role of a lifetime for Betsy. As the touching plain-Jane girlfriend of Ernest Borgnine's title butcher, Betsy won the Cannes Film and British Film acting awards, not to mention an Oscar nomination. It did not help her overcome the blacklist, however.
By 1957, she was divorced from Kelly and had moved to Europe to avoid the Hollywood shun. Shortly thereafter, she lived with French actor Roger Pigaut. In 1963, she married producer/director Karel Reisz. They would remain together for almost 40 years until his death in London of a blood disorder in 2002. Betsy later published her memoirs and discussed quite candidly her life on Broadway, life with Gene Kelly, and life amid the blacklisting. She continued to live in England before passing away from cancer on 13th March, 2009. She was 85 years old.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
Brent Renaud was a Peabody and DuPont Award winning filmmaker and spent the past two decades producing films and television programs with his brother Craig. The Renaud Brothers are best known for telling humanistic stories from the World's hot spots and their projects have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt and Libya, the fight for Mosul, extremism in Africa, cartel violence in Mexico, and the youth refugee crisis in Central America.
Their work has won many of the top awards in television and journalism, including a Peabody Award, two Columbia DuPont Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an IDA Award, a DGA nomination for Best Directors and multiple Emmy nominations. Their films have also received critical acclaim in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Forbes, USA Today, the New York Times, Filmmaker Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and American Cinematographer. Craig and his brother Brent also founded the Little Rock Film Festival and the Arkansas Motion Picture Institute.- Additional Crew
Breonna Taylor was born on 5 June 1993 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. She is known for The Black Friend (2020) and 2020: The Lost Year (2021). She died on 13 March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cathy Trien was born on 8 July 1970 in Livingston, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Pootie Tang (2001), The Drop (2014) and Gotham (2014). She was married to Peter Scolari. She died on 13 March 2021.- Christiane Schmidtmer was born in Mannheim, Germany. She took acting lessons in Munich and worked in the stage in Germany from 1961-1963, then turned to photographic modeling for German nude magazines and later, Playboy. She also modeled for advertising companies, namely Max Factor cosmetics, before she started her movie career.
She was the beautiful mistress of José Ferrer in Ship of Fools (1965), but most people will remember her as the evil wardress in the exploitation women-in-prison film, The Big Doll House (1971), as well as one of the three airline stewardesses in Boeing, Boeing (1965). - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Claudia Fontaine was born on 28 June 1960 in Bethnal Green, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Alfie (2004), Showgirls (1995) and Honest (2000). She died on 13 March 2018 in the UK.- Dennis Stamp was born on 6 December 1946 in Brainerd, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for Paradise Alley (1978), Beyond the Mat (1999) and Ring Roasts 2 (2009). He died on 13 March 2017 in Amarillo, Texas, USA.
- Eileen McDonough was born on 20 May 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Magical World of Disney (1954), The Waltons (1972) and The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper (1976). She died on 13 March 2012 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Garson Kanin has worked as an actor on stage and as a director on Broadway and in Hollywood, but his best-known work is as a writer. During the Great Depression, he dropped out of high school to help support his family by working as a musician and later as a comedian. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1932 to 1933. He briefly worked as an actor on Broadway following his studies but then worked as an assistant to the Broadway director George Abbot. In 1937, he joined Samuel Goldwyn's staff but left after a year because he had not been given any directing assignments. He was signed by RKO and there directed such films as The Great Man Votes (1939) and Tom, Dick and Harry (1941), but he soon became frustrated by the lack of control he had over his films under the studio system. When he was drafted during World War II, he made documentary films for the War Information and Emergency Manpower offices. One of them, co-directed by Carol Reed, The True Glory (1945), won an Academy Award for Best Documentary. During the war years, Kanin began writing stories and plays as well. After the war, he directed his play "Born Yesterday" on Broadway, which he later adapted for the screen. He and his wife, Ruth Gordon, collaborated on four screenplays, including Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952). They stopped working on scripts together for the sake of their marriage after 1952, but in 1979 they co-wrote one more, the TV film Hardhat and Legs (1980). Kanin and Gordon were never under contract by any studio as writers. They wrote the scripts on their own and sold them to interested Hollywood studios.- Giwi Margwelaschwili was born on 14 December 1927 in Berlin, Germany. He was married to Naira Gelashvili. He died on 13 March 2020 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Harlan Warde was born on 6 November 1917 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Monster That Challenged the World (1957), Money Madness (1948) and State Department: File 649 (1949). He was married to Barbara Grace Whittaker and Caroline Frances Sherwood. He died on 13 March 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A veteran theater performer from 1925, Chicago-born character actor Howard St. John excelled in blustery, unsympathetic roles -- often pompous, often shifty and usually self-important. He made his Broadway debut with "Nocturne" (1925) and continued reliably into the 30s with parts in "Princess Charming" (1930), "Keeper of the Keys" (1932) and "Triumph" (1935). He grew in popularity with such theater hits as "Janie" (1942) and "The Late George Apley" (1946) and "Two Blind Mice" (1949). He took his patented gruffness and moved into films with the "B" movie Shockproof (1949) and continued in the same no-nonsense vein as various business tycoons or high-ranking military brass. Standout roles in his over 30 pictures include Born Yesterday (1950) and One, Two, Three (1961). He played General Bullmoose in the musical "Li'l Abner" in 1956 and recreated his role on film three years later. St. John's numerous TV appearances would include the short-lived cop drama The Investigator (1958) as well as the short-lived sitcom Hank (1965). Towards the end of his career, he was seen as a foil on the "Honeymooners" musical sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show (1966). St. John died of a heart attack in New York City at age 68 in 1974 and was survived by his wife Lois.- Actor
- Stunts
Janos Prohaska was born on 10 October 1919 in Budapest, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Bewitched (1964), Star Trek (1966) and The Outer Limits (1963). He was married to Irene M . Knoke. He died on 13 March 1974 in Bishop, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Blond, good looking Jason Evers played many seemingly ordinary, respectable men who often turned out to harbor malign intent, twisted motivations, or complicated personalities. Although probably best known for playing Dr. Bill Corter in the 1962 cult film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Evers did much more than meets the eye. He quit school to join the army during WWII, and later decided to become an actor after seeing such Hollywood stars as John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart. His first big break was in 1960 in the TV series Wrangler (1960) and he followed that with roles in Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), House of Women (1962), and another TV series, Channing (1963).
His career began to decline in the 1970s. He appeared with Roddy McDowall in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), one of the sequels to the smash Planet of the Apes (1968), and in the made-for-TV thriller Fer-de-Lance (1974). He was a vengeful hunter out to kill a murderous grizzly bear in Claws (1977) and a biologist out to stop man-eating fish (with Wayne Crawford) in Barracuda (1978).
He made more than 65 appearances in TV series and made-for-TV films during the 1980s, and returned to the big screen in 1990 for Basket Case 2 (1990). He died of heart failure in New York City in 2005.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jim Gordon backed many significant rock recordings of the 1960s and '70s, including Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" and, most famously, "Layla," as a member of Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos. Gordon played with an understated yet distinctive groove on dozens of songs that became radio hits, and was known to his peers as the "only living metronome."
He got his professional break in 1963 at age 17, when he joined the Everly Brothers on tour in England. Gordon played professionally for the next 20 years, backing some of the biggest names in rock music on the road and in the studio, including Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, and George Harrison. In 1970, Gordon's work on Harrison's All Things Must Pass led to the formation of Derek and the Dominos with Clapton, bassist Carl Radle, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock.
That group was short-lived but produced a giant hit with "Layla," which Gordon co-wrote. It was his greatest musical achievement yet had nothing to do with the drums; he played the song's signature melancholy piano refrain.
"Layla" charted twice in two different years, peaking at no. 16 on the Billboard 200 in December 1970 and reaching no. 10 on the Hot 100 in August 1972 -- long after the band had broken up. (In 1993, while in prison, Gordon won a Grammy for Best Rock Song for "Layla," following the success of Clapton's Unplugged, named Album of the Year.) The song has been streamed more than 30 million times.
Gordon's popularity and work ethic earned him sessions that became monumental albums, among them John Lennon's Imagine, Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown, and Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic.
But at the height of his career, Gordon was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Combined with substance abuse, his mental illness threatened his professional reputation. Beginning in 1978, Gordon sought medical treatment at least 15 times, court records show. But he could not escape his mother's voice, which he claimed had tormented him for years. The hallucinations grew relentless, demanding that Gordon eat less, even stop touring.
To confront the voices, Gordon drove to his mother's house, where he struck her head with a hammer and also stabbed her. In 1984 he was sentenced to 16 years to life, and "remains an unreasonable risk of threat to public safety," according to the parole board's decision in March at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where Gordon is jailed.- Jimmy Wisner was born on 8 December 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 13 March 2018 in the USA.
- Cinematographer
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
John A. Alonzo was born on 12 June 1934 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Chinatown (1974), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was married to Suzanne L. Heltzel and Jan Murray. He died on 13 March 2001 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.