Deaths: April 2
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Judy Farrell was born on 11 May 1938 in Quapaw, Oklahoma, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Fame (1982), Quincy M.E. (1976) and M*A*S*H (1972). She was married to Joe Bratcher and Mike Farrell. She died on 2 April 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Alma Delia Fuentes was born on 22 January 1937 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Historia de un corazón (1951), The Young and the Damned (1950) and A.T.M.: ¡¡A toda máquina!! (1951). She was married to Julio Azcárraga Reyes. She died on 2 April 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Mary Furness was born on January 3, 1916 in New York City. She was a teenage model with the Powers agency and appeared in secondary roles in more than 35 movies. She is best remembered as the highly paid television spokesperson for Westinghouse Electric Corporation. She later moved on to consumer affairs and appeared as the consumer affairs expert on NBC's Today (1952) for 16 years. Betty Furness died at age 78 of stomach cancer on April 2, 1994 in New York City.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa was born on 12 April 1952 in Jand Wala Bhime Shah, Distt. Ferozepur, Punjab, India. He is known for Nanak Shah Fakir (2015), Aappan Pher Milange (2012) and Turban Girl (2013). He died on 2 April 2020 in Amritsar, Punjab, India.- Bill Heine was born on 9 January 1945 in Batavia, Illinois, USA. He died on 2 April 2019 in Oxford, England, UK.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Buddy Rich was born on 30 September 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Whiplash (2014), Motherless Brooklyn (2019) and Ship Ahoy (1942). He was married to Marie Allison. He died on 2 April 1987 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Art Department
Cecilio Madanes was born on 2 December 1921. He was a director and actor, known for Alta comedia (1965), A sangre fría (1947) and La corona negra (1951). He died on 1 April 2000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Director
- Writer
Chepina Peralta was born on 20 October 1930 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was a director and writer, known for Cocinando con Chepina (1990) and Chepina en tu Cocina (2010). She was married to Ricardo Peralta Taylor. She died on 2 April 2021 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Actor
- Writer
David Leonard was born on 5 September 1891 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Lust for Life (1956), Song of My Heart (1948) and The Bishop's Wife (1947). He died on 2 April 1967 in San Fernando, California, USA.- Distinguished character villain Douglass (R.) Dumbrille, whose distinctive stern features, beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose and suave, cultivated presence graced scores of talking films, was born on October 13, 1889, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was first employed as a bank clerk in his home town but caught the acting bug and subsequently left his position to pursue work in various stock companies in the States.
After appearing in a production of "Rain" in 1923, Dumbrille made his Broadway debut in 1924 as Banquo in "Macbeth" at the 48th Street Theatre. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s he was a moderate fixture on the Great White Way, appearing in dramas ("The Call of Life" (1925) with Eva Le Gallienne, "Chinese O'Neill" (1929), "As You Desire Me" (1931)), romantic comedies ("Joseph" (1930), "Child of Manhattan" (1932)) and musical operettas ("Princess Flavia" (1925), "Princess Charming" (1930)). He also appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s 1928 musical production of "The Three Musketeers", portraying Athos alongside Dennis King's D'Artagnan, with Rudolf Friml providing the music. A decade later he portrayed Athos once again, this time in a film version (The Three Musketeers (1939)).
On the silent screen he portrayed Thomas Jefferson in the short historical film The Declaration of Independence (1924), but did not return to film until 1931, when he began unleashing a number of sneering, oily villains on the viewing public. His first film job was to harass sea captain Gary Cooper in His Woman (1931). From there he proved a slick nemesis to a number of stars, both male and female: Marion Davies with his leering moneybags in Blondie of the Follies (1932); Pat O'Brien with his cruel-minded chain gang warden in Laughter in Hell (1933); Barbara Stanwyck as her unctuous love patsy in Baby Face (1933); James Cagney as gangster Spade Maddock in Lady Killer (1933); Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy as a mobster involved in horse race fixing in Broadway Bill (1934) and, most notoriously, Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone, both of whom he induces fingernail torture ("We have ways of making men talk!") as the sinister, turban-wearing rebel leader Mohammed Khan in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).
Dumbrille was also a great pompous foil in comedy slapstick - harassing everybody from The Marx Brothers, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to Bob Hope. He returned to the musical operetta fold as well on film and played a nuisance to Jeanette MacDonald in three of her films. Seen everywhere, both billed and unbilled, he played sheriffs who went bad in westerns, red-herring suspects or victims who deserved their fate in murder mysteries and corrupters of the legal system in political dramas.
The man everybody loved to hate on film softened his image a bit with old age, playing a number of non-plussed executive or officious types in films and TV comedy. Finding a stream of TV work in the 1950s and early 1960s (including The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), The Untouchables (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Laramie (1959). Petticoat Junction (1963)), Dumbrille's final role was at age 76 as a doctor in a TV episode of Batman (1966) in 1966.
His long-time first wife, Jessie Lawson, died in 1957, leaving him two sons, John and Douglas Murray. Dumbrille had more than a few Hollywood tongues wagging when, at age 70, he married Patricia Mowbray, the 28-year-old daughter of his good friend, character actor Alan Mowbray. The marriage was a lasting one, however, and she was among his survivors when he passed away several years later from a heart attack on April 2, 1974. Dumbrille was buried at Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California. - Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Eddie Large was born on 25 June 1941 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Impressionable Jon Culshaw (2004), Opportunity Knocks (1956) and The ITV Play (1968). He was married to Patsy Ann Scott and Sandra Baywood. He died on 2 April 2020 in Bristol, England, UK.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Born Charles Hatcher in Nashville, Tennessee, Starr formed his first group, the Future Tones, in 1957, recording one single before his three-year army service. In 1965, he was offered a solo deal following two years of touring with another band.
Starr's early hits included "Agent Double-O Soul" and "Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S)." But his biggest success came with "War," a No. 1 hit in 1970 during a time of growing anti-Vietnam War protests. Other top 10 hits included "Contact" and "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio." Edwin Starr was a veteran of Vietnam War.
He made a brief comeback during the disco craze, and later spent most of his time touring Europe on the oldies circuit. In England, Starr participated in an award-winning British Broadcasting Corporation radio series on the U.S. civil rights movement. In 1995, he was featured on a Walt Disney children's workout album entitled "Mousercise In 2002, Starr performed at the wedding of Liza Minnelli and David Gest in New York.
His last performances was at two shows in Stuttgart, Germany March 29th and 30th, 2003.- Estelle Harris was an American actress and comedienne, known for her exaggerated shrill and grating comedic voice. She often worked as a voice actress in animation, voicing supporting characters and guest stars. Her best known roles are the obnoxious mother Estelle Costanza in the sitcom "Seinfeld" (1989-1998) and the sweet wife Mrs. Potato Head in the "Toy Story" film series.
Harris was born Estelle Nussbaum in 1928 in Manhattan, New York City. Her parents were Isaac "Ira" Nussbaum and his wife Anna (Stern), first-generation Jewish emigrants from Poland. Her parents owned a candy store in New York City. In 1935, the Nussbaum family moved to Tarentum, Pennsylvania, an industrial town primarily known for production of bottles. Ira had accepted a job offer from relatives who had already settled in Tarentum.
Harris was primarily raised in Tarentum, and graduated from the local high school. Relatively little is known for her life in early adulthood. In 1952, Estelle started dating Sy Harris, a window treatment salesman. They were married in early 1953, despite knowing each other for only 6 months at that point. Between 1957 and 1964, Harris gave birth to three children (two sons and a daughter). She was primarily a housewife until her children were old enough to attend school.
Harris aspired to an acting career, but started out in amateur productions. She eventually had roles in dinner theater, and found some success when cast in various television commercials. At one point she filmed 23 different commercials in a single year. In 1984, Harris had a small role in the crime film "Once Upon a Time in America", which primarily depicted the lives of Jewish-American gangsters.
In 1985, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Easy Mary in the sitcom "Night Court" (1984-1992). The sitcom focused on eccentric characters interacting with the night shift staff of a Manhattan municipal court. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Harris was frequently cast in guest-star roles in various then-popular series, such as "Married... with Children" and "Mad About You".
Harris' big break came in 1992 when cast in "Seinfield" as Estelle Costanza, the overbearing mother of neurotic character George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander). The character spend most of her screen-time in berating her son, belittling anything which her son cared about, arguing with her husband, and maintaining hostile relations with nearly everyone who she interacted with. She became one of the series' most prominent supporting characters, allowing Harris to become a household name.
By 1995, Harris had started voicing characters in animated television series. Among her earliest prominent roles in the medium was voicing Timon's mother in the comedy series "Timon & Pumbaa" (1994-1999), which was a spin-off of "The Lion King". In 1996, Harris had a guest-star role in the science fiction series "Star Trek: Voyager", as an unnamed elder of the Nechani tribe. Her role was to guide protagonist Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) through a tribal ritual which would heal Janeway's friend Kes (played by Jennifer Lien).
In 1998, Harris was cast as Grandmama Delilah Addams in the television film "Addams Family Reunion", the paternal grandmother of Gomez and Fester Addams. The film was based on the comic strip "Addams Family" (1938-1964) by Charles Addams, which had many other adaptations. In the film, Delilah suffers from Walthzheimer's disease, a condition which turns aging people into unnaturally "pleasant" versions of themselves. The rest of the Addams family is horrified by Delilah's fate.
In 1999, Harris was cast as Mrs. Potato Head in the computer-animated film "Toy Story 2". The character was depicted as the sweet and loving wife of Mr. Potato Head (voiced Don Rickles). Her personality was intended to contrast with the hot-headed and pessimistic behavior of her husband. The film was a box office hit. Harris would resume this role in the sequels "Toy Story 3" (2010) and "Toy Story 4" (2019), which were also commercially successful.
In 2004, Harris voiced the nervous hen Audrey in the Western comedy film "Home on the Range". The character was a member of the film's supporting cast and had a tendency to panic when dealing with her fear of abandonment. This animated film under performed at the box office, convincing Disney to cease producing traditionally animated films.
Also in 2004, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Mrs. Lipsky in the comedy adventure television series "Kim Possible". Her character was depicted as the overly-affectionate mother of the super-villain Dr. Drakken/Drew Theodore P. Lipsky, who still treated him as her baby boy and unwittingly interfered with his plans. Harris was also cast in a recurring role in the fantasy television series "Dave the Barbarian", as Lula the sentient enchanted sword.
In 2005, Harris voiced the antagonist Mama Gunda in the animated film "Tarzan II". The character was a female gorilla who used her own sons in a scheme to gain political power, but reforms after falling in love with a new mate. The film was one of the few Disney films were the antagonists find redemption.
Also in 2005, Harris was cast in the recurring role of Muriel in the live-action sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005). Her character was an elderly hotel maid, whose greed, laziness, and irritability were recurring plot points. In her last appearance on the show Muriel was "fired" by her boss, who failed to realize that Muriel had already retired and was no longer in his payroll.
Harris had relatively few new roles during the 2010s. Her most prominent recurring role at that time was the benevolent ghost Peg-Leg Peg in the fantasy series Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011), a spin-off of Peter Pan. She died in 2022, a year after husband Sy. Harris is fondly remembered for the many recurring characters which she has played or voiced, and is regarded as a veteran of the animation industry. - Actor
- Director
- Composer
Spanish-born Josep Lluis Moll studied music in Madrid and at the Paris Conservatoire. Having changed his name to Fortunio Bonanova (which, at the time, would have sounded more becoming of a budding musical star), he went on to make his international opera debut as a baritone in 1922. A protégé of the famous Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin Sr., he was hailed as a major talent and launched on a successful tour of Europe and South America in 1923. For most of the 1920's, he was based in Paris, performing and writing plays and short stories.
His first fling with the movies took place in 1922, when he starred in the title role of Don Juan Tenorio (1922), a Spanish production filmed in Barcelona. During the late 20's and early 30's, he ran his own repertory company in South America. Bonanova subsequently moved to the United States, settling down permanently after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. While in the U.S., he divided his time between appearing on stage (including two performances on Broadway) and acting in small supporting roles in Hollywood. His looks and temperament inevitably got him typecast as excitable, or pompous Latin Americans, Spaniards or Italians. He often played aristocratic dons, opera singers, managers or police chiefs, either humorous and serious.
Many of his appearances on screen were all too brief. At his most memorable, he was the exasperated opera coach Signor Matiste, desperately trying not to lose patience with his talentless pupil, the wife of Citizen Kane (1941). He was also effective as down-on-his-luck Sam Galopis, clumsily attempting insurance fraud in Double Indemnity (1944); and as Carmen Trivago, a sad wannabe opera star, who sees his priceless collection of Caruso recordings smashed to pieces by a brutish Mike Hammer, in the process of coercing him to divulge information in Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Bonanova played a multitude of similar roles until his retirement in the mid-1960's. He died in Woodland Hills, California, in April 1969 at the age of 74.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Garn Stephens was born on 7 November 1944 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Quantum Leap (1989) and St. Elsewhere (1982). She was married to Tom Atkins. She died on 2 April 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Gato Barbieri was born on 28 November 1932 in Rosario, Argentina. He was a composer and actor, known for Last Tango in Paris (1972), Eat Pray Love (2010) and Firepower (1979). He was married to Laura Ryndak and Michelle Barbieri. He died on 2 April 2016 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
British leading actor whose tough, pockmarked features belied a soft voice and cultivated manner. Sewell was born in East London, the son of a printer. His father was a boxer known as "The Cobblestone Kid". After brief service in the RAF during the closing stages of World War II, he held down a wide variety of short-lived jobs, including as carpenter, photographer, drummer and assistant roadie for a rumba band, steward on Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and, for six years, as motor coach courier for a holiday travel agency.
Not until a chance conversation in 1959 with actor Dudley Sutton in a pub did Sewell seriously contemplate an acting career. A successful audition with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, led to him being cast in several cockney comedies and he ended up playing Field Marshal Haig in "Oh, What a Lovely War" in 1963. Motion pictures saw him in gritty social dramas like This Sporting Life (1963) and tough crime films like Underworld Informers (1963) and Get Carter (1971), often alternating villainy with law enforcement. He also had a small role in the science fiction thriller Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969). This was something of a precursor to the cult series UFO (1970), in which he played the cool-headed second-in-command, Colonel Alec Freeman.
More typically, his television characters tended to be hard-nosed, cynical cops, like his DI Brogan in Z Cars (1962) or DCI Alan Craven in Special Branch (1969). A former Littlewood alumnus, the writer Robin Chapman, picked Sewell for another plum role as a London gangster in Spindoe (1968). He was also on hand as Smiley's reliable, 'sharp-eyed' ex-Special Branch minder Mendel in the original miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
After 2000, Sewell scaled down his television appearances and spent more time at his holiday home in the south of France. He occasionally came out of semi-retirement, most notably for a well-received production of a play by Tudor Gates, "Who Killed Agatha Christie?", in which he starred as a playwright intent on exacting revenge against a waspish critic. Sewell died in April 2007 at the age of 82, survived by a daughter and a stepson.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Glamourous, blonde, Norwegian actress who added a sparkle to British movies.
Greta Gynt usually played a leading part, and remained at the top of the British cinema from the late 1930s through to the 40s. An opportunity for Greta to experience a Hollywood career came in the early 1950s, but it was too late. She had sadly lost most of the sparkle which kept her at the top in Britain. In Hollywood, her name was often found towards the bottom of a cast list in supporting roles. She returned to Britain making films until 1964.
After retiring from the screen she lived in a luxury Kensington property known simply as 'Mrs Moore' and her career was sadly forgotten when she died in 2000. No television news show covered her passing nor was she honoured at the BAFTA Film awards during the annual tribute to film stars passed away, which was a shame for someone so famous during the 1940s and 50s.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
J. Mahendran was born on 25 July 1939 in Ilaiyangudi, Madras Presidency, British India. He was a writer and actor, known for Mullum Malarum (1978), Nenjathai Killathe (1980) and Uthiri Pookkal (1979). He died on 2 April 2019 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Canadian-born Jack Kruschen entered films after years on the stage, and became a dependable character actor both in movies and on television. Often cast as ethnic comedy relief, Kruschen occasionally landed a role as a villain, but was more often the volatile, emotional Italian or Jewish neighbor patriarch. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Apartment (1960).- James Megellas was born on 11 March 1917 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA. He was married to Carole Laehn. He died on 2 April 2020 in Colleyville, Texas, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Jamshid Mashayekhi is a celebrated Iranian actor and an iconic figure of Iranian cinema. Mashayekhi began professional acting on stage in 1957. His first feature film role was Brick and Mirror(1965, Ebrahim Golestan). After a four-year break, he acted in The Cow (1969, Darius Mehrjui) and Kaiser(Qeysar) (1969, Masoud Kimiai). Mashayekhi commonly appears as an elderly grandfather because of his white hair and charismatic face and figure. He received a best performance award for The Grandfather (1985, Majid Gharizadeh) from the First Festival of Non-aligned Countries in North Korea.- Actress
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- Art Department
Jane Henson was born on 16 June 1934 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Run, Run (1965), Great Performances (1971) and Sam and Friends (1955). She was married to Jim Henson. She died on 2 April 2013 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Not much is known about Jennifer Syme, except that she was a girlfriend of actor Keanu Reeves. A lot of what is known about her centered around tragic circumstances: First, the 1999 stillbirth of the baby she expected with Reeves, and second, her untimely death at age 28. Around the time she met Reeves, Jennifer worked as an assistant to director David Lynch, and was even featured briefly in his film Lost Highway (1997). She and Reeves started dating casually in 1998, and were expecting a baby girl in 1999. Sadly, Ava Archer Syme Reeves was stillborn around Christmas 1999. The couple separated permanently not long after the baby's death, but were said to have remained good friends. At the time of her death, Jennifer was working as a record company executive in Los Angeles. She died April 2 at 6:20am, after her Jeep Cherokee crashed into a row of parked cars in Los Angeles. In tribute to his former assistant, David Lynch dedicates Mulholland Drive (2001) to her in the closing credits of the film.- Writer
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He was only six years old when he started composing music under the protection of his brother Enrique. After the Spanish Civil War he was able to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio de Madrid, where he finished piano and harmony. Being a Bachelor of Law and an easy-read novel writer (under the pseudonym David Khume), he signed on to enter the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográicas (IIEC), where he stayed for only two years, while he worked simultaneously as a director and theater actor. Later he went to Paris to study directing techniques at the I.D.H.E.C. (University of Sorbonne), where he used to go into seclusion for hours to watch films at the film archive. Back in Spain he began rted his huge cinematographic work as a composer, with Cómicos (1954) and El hombre que viajaba despacito (1957), and later worked as an assistant director to Juan Antonio Bardem, León Klimovsky, Luis Saslavsky, Julio Bracho, Fernando Soler and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, among others. He also worked at Ágata Films S.A. as production manager and writer. His first works as a director were industrial and cultural short films. However, he soon applied all his knowledge and experience to his feature directorial debut, Tenemos 18 años (1959). From that moment on all his work was supported by co-production. His Succubus (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation. His career got more and more consolidated in the following years, and his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films. His productions have always been low-budget, but he nevertheless managed to work extraordinarily quickly, often releasing several titles at the same time, using the same shots in more than one film. Some of his actors relate how they they were hired for one film and later saw their name in two or more different ones. As the Spanish cinema evolved, Jesús managed to adapt to the new circumstances and always maintained a constant activity, activity that gave a place in his films to a whole filming crew. Apart from his own production company, Manacoa Films, he also worked for companies like Auster Films S.L. (Paul Auster), Cinematográfica Fénix Films (Arturo Marcos), the French Comptoir Français du Film (Robert de Nesle), Eurociné (Daniel Lesoeur and Marius Lesoeur), Elite Films Productions (Erwin C. Dietrich), Spain's Fervi Films (Fernando Vidal Campos) or Golden Films Internacional S.A. He acted in almost all of his films, playing musicians, lawyers, porters and others, all of them sinister, manic and comic characters. Among the aliases he used--apart from Jesús Franco, Jess Franco or Franco Manera--were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, Frarik Hollman, Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough, Cady Coster, Lennie Hayden, Lulú Laverne and Betty Carter. Lina Romay has been almost a constant in his films, and it's very probable that in some of them she has been credited as the director instead of him. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His influence has been notable all over Europe (he even contacted producer Roger Corman in the US). From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. His work is often a do-it-yourself effort. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older ones. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government censors. He broke with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. Jess Franco died in Malaga, Spain, on April 2, 2013, of a stroke.