This colorful gangland drama was made by a studio in transition, in the middle of a crippling musician’s strike. Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse were MGM’s last contract stars; her costumes and dance numbers are wildly anachronistic for the period setting and she refused to take direction from Nicholas Ray, whose career was coming apart at the seams. Yet the maverick director must have done something right, as the show has remained a favorite of audiences and critics. Co-starring Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland and Corey Allen. The Wac’S remastered Blu-ray is a beauty.
Party Girl
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, Corey Allen, David Opatoshu, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Betty Utey.
Cinematography: Robert Bronner
Art Director: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written...
Party Girl
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, Corey Allen, David Opatoshu, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Betty Utey.
Cinematography: Robert Bronner
Art Director: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written...
- 11/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Christopher Plummer, the prolific actor who starred in The Sound of Music, Beginners, The Last Station and countless more, died Friday, February 5th. He was 91.
Plummer’s manager, Lou Pitt, confirmed his death, in a statement to Variety, “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words. He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will...
Plummer’s manager, Lou Pitt, confirmed his death, in a statement to Variety, “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words. He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will...
- 2/5/2021
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Josh Braun, producer of some of the best documentaries in the world, joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that have influenced him throughout his life.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
- 7/21/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
In the late 1970s, an associate professor in the Philosophy department at Johns Hopkins (thesis title: "The Nature of the Natural Numbers") began publishing essays on Hollywood movies. George M. Wilson wasn't the first person to undergo this shift in specialism. At the start of the decade, Stanley Cavell had published The World Viewed, a series of "reflections on the ontology of film." But Cavell had always been concerned with how works of art enable us to think through philosophical themes such as knowledge and meaning, and he held a chair, at Harvard, in Aesthetics. Wilson differed in that he brought a range of analytic gifts to an ongoing revolution: the close reading of American cinema, conceived as part of the "auteur" policy of Truffaut and other writers at Cahiers du cinéma in the 1950s, and concertedly developed in the following decades by critics in England such as V. F.
- 12/11/2017
- MUBI
The original Quinn the Eskimo (no kidding) is another life-loving rough portrait from Anthony Quinn, in Nicholas Ray’s rather successful final spin as a writer-director. Despite some technical awkwardness, Ray’s sensitivity to outsider souls finds full expression. Humans don’t get any more ‘outside’ than Inuk, a primitive unequipped to deal with the modern world.
The Savage Innocents
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Super Technirama 70) / 110 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Yoko Tani, Carlo Giustini, Peter O’Toole, Marie Yang, Marco Guglielmi, Anthony Chinn, Francis De Wolff.
Cinematography: Peter Hennessey, Aldo Tonti
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma, Ralph Kemplen
Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Written by Nicholas Ray, adapted by Franco Solinas, Baccio Bandini, Hans Ruesch from his novel
Produced by Maleno Malenotti
Directed by Nicholas Ray
It’s arguable that Nicholas Ray’s career began to fall apart as...
The Savage Innocents
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Super Technirama 70) / 110 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Yoko Tani, Carlo Giustini, Peter O’Toole, Marie Yang, Marco Guglielmi, Anthony Chinn, Francis De Wolff.
Cinematography: Peter Hennessey, Aldo Tonti
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma, Ralph Kemplen
Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Written by Nicholas Ray, adapted by Franco Solinas, Baccio Bandini, Hans Ruesch from his novel
Produced by Maleno Malenotti
Directed by Nicholas Ray
It’s arguable that Nicholas Ray’s career began to fall apart as...
- 6/27/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Warners knocks us out with a beautifully remastered Rko noir. Nicholas Ray's crime tale is like no other, a meditation on human need and loneliness. It's a noir with a cautiously positive, hopeful twist. On Dangerous Ground Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date October 11, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond, Charles Kemper, Anthony Ross, Ed Begley, Ian Wolfe, Sumner Williams. Cinematography George E. Diskant Art Direction Ralph Berger, Albert S. D'Agostino Film Editor Roland Gross Original Music Bernard Herrmann Written by A.I. Bezzerides, Nicholas Ray from the novel Mad with Much Heart by Gerald Butler Produced by John Houseman, Sid Rogell Directed by Nicholas Ray
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Warner Archive is known for pleasant surprises, but this one is a real thrill -- one of the very best Rko films noir, reissued in a much-needed beautiful restoration.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Warner Archive is known for pleasant surprises, but this one is a real thrill -- one of the very best Rko films noir, reissued in a much-needed beautiful restoration.
- 10/8/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It's a different Bogart -- a character performance in a Nicholas Ray noir about distrust anxiety in romance. Gloria Grahame is the independent woman who must withhold her commitment... until a murder can be sorted out. Which will crack first, the murder case or the relationship? In A Lonely Place Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 810 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 10, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith, Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart, Robert Warwick, Morris Ankrum, William Ching, Steven Geray, Hadda Brooks. Cinematography Burnett Guffey Film Editor Viola Lawrence Original Music George Antheil Written by Andrew Solt, Edmund H. North from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes Produced by Robert Lord Directed by Nicholas Ray
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Which Humphrey Bogart do you like best? By 1950 he had his own production company, Santana, with a contract for release through Columbia pictures.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Which Humphrey Bogart do you like best? By 1950 he had his own production company, Santana, with a contract for release through Columbia pictures.
- 4/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Audubon Society battles plumage poachers in the Everglades, circa 1900. Legendary director Nicholas Ray suffered an on-location meltdown filming this early ecologically sensitive epic, but the finished product is still one of his better pictures. Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer and Chana Eden give top 'Ray' performances. The eccentric supporting cast includes Peter Falk, boxer Two-Ton Tony Galento and none other than the real Gypsy Rose Lee. Wind Across the Everglades DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1958 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date October 6 2015, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, Gypsy Rose Lee, George Voskovec, Tony Galento, Howard Smith, Emmett Kelly, Pat Henning, Chana Eden, Curt Conway, Peter Falk, Sammy Renick, Cory Osceola, MacKinlay Kantor, Totch Brown, George Voskovec, Sumner Williams. Cinematography Joseph Brun Film Editor Georges Klotz, Joseph Zigman Art Direction Richard Sylbert Original Music Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter Written by Budd Schulberg Produced by Stuart Schulberg...
- 1/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kon Ichikawa (The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, Tokyo Olympiad) was born 100 years ago today. Also in today's roundup: Melissa Anderson remembers Chantal Akerman, André Bazin and Jean Renoir on television, Girish Shambu on Gina Teleroli's Here's to the Future! and Kurt Walker's Hit 2 Pass, J. Hoberman on Robert Aldrich's Emperor of the North and Nicholas Ray's Wind Across the Everglades, a roundup on Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, Laurie Anderson on Fresh Air, independent Chinese cinema in San Francisco, Soon-Mi Yoo's Songs from the North in Los Angeles, plus news of an animated feature from Edgar Wright and the latest on that sequel to Trainspotting. » - David Hudson...
- 11/20/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Kon Ichikawa (The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, Tokyo Olympiad) was born 100 years ago today. Also in today's roundup: Melissa Anderson remembers Chantal Akerman, André Bazin and Jean Renoir on television, Girish Shambu on Gina Teleroli's Here's to the Future! and Kurt Walker's Hit 2 Pass, J. Hoberman on Robert Aldrich's Emperor of the North and Nicholas Ray's Wind Across the Everglades, a roundup on Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, Laurie Anderson on Fresh Air, independent Chinese cinema in San Francisco, Soon-Mi Yoo's Songs from the North in Los Angeles, plus news of an animated feature from Edgar Wright and the latest on that sequel to Trainspotting. » - David Hudson...
- 11/20/2015
- Keyframe
This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of September 29th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Shirts Iron Giant Blu-ray Thunderbean’s Willie Whopper up for sale on Amazon News Agfa’s Something Weird Kickstarter Arrow Release Date Changes Hannibal Season 3 on December 8th Twilight Time October titles Up for Preorder Panic in the Year Zero (Kl Studio Classics) Dangerous Men (Drafthouse Films) X-Files Blu-ray Warner Archive’s October titles: Atom Ant, Wind Across The Everglades New Releases The Bear Black Coal, Thin Ice Christine The Connection Cinco De Mayo [Blu-ray] The Duke Of Burgundy Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films Five Films by Patricio Guzman Forbidden Zone Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid The Honeymoon Killers...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Shirts Iron Giant Blu-ray Thunderbean’s Willie Whopper up for sale on Amazon News Agfa’s Something Weird Kickstarter Arrow Release Date Changes Hannibal Season 3 on December 8th Twilight Time October titles Up for Preorder Panic in the Year Zero (Kl Studio Classics) Dangerous Men (Drafthouse Films) X-Files Blu-ray Warner Archive’s October titles: Atom Ant, Wind Across The Everglades New Releases The Bear Black Coal, Thin Ice Christine The Connection Cinco De Mayo [Blu-ray] The Duke Of Burgundy Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films Five Films by Patricio Guzman Forbidden Zone Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid The Honeymoon Killers...
- 10/1/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
“I didn’t know who to believe—my parents or the television set.” — We Can’t Go Home Again ('73 cut)
“On the one hand, Ray has a knack for disrupting smooth sequences with odd interpolations… a sense of trying to carve out some space for immediacy and spontaneity inside institutionalized patterns of construction. But against this is a proclivity for heavy symbolic underlining and general schematization, which place the individual movements of the films within thickly determined contours” — B. Kite, Bigger Than Life: Somewhere in Suburbia
“Salvation is a private affair.” — Jacques Rivette, On Imagination
Some thoughts crystallized around We Can’t Go Home Again.
***
In retrospect, Nicholas Ray can seem as much like the last great Hollywood romantic as the first serious parodist of a generation, Godard, Oshima, Ruiz, still to come: anatomizing genre structure and hallmarks not to show the extension of personal philosophy into any...
“On the one hand, Ray has a knack for disrupting smooth sequences with odd interpolations… a sense of trying to carve out some space for immediacy and spontaneity inside institutionalized patterns of construction. But against this is a proclivity for heavy symbolic underlining and general schematization, which place the individual movements of the films within thickly determined contours” — B. Kite, Bigger Than Life: Somewhere in Suburbia
“Salvation is a private affair.” — Jacques Rivette, On Imagination
Some thoughts crystallized around We Can’t Go Home Again.
***
In retrospect, Nicholas Ray can seem as much like the last great Hollywood romantic as the first serious parodist of a generation, Godard, Oshima, Ruiz, still to come: anatomizing genre structure and hallmarks not to show the extension of personal philosophy into any...
- 10/4/2011
- MUBI
By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: The legendary Christopher Plummer, who has been earning raves for his performance in Mike Mills’ “Beginners” as a widower embracing his homosexuality, will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award” at this year’s 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment. The event is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 24, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Plummer, an Academy Award nominee for his recent performance in “The Last Station,” has been enjoying even more awards chatter as of late for his turn as Hal, a closeted gay man who didn’t choose to come out until his wife passed away … much to the surprise of his son (Ewan McGregor).
Plummer, who can be seen in “Barrymore” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” later this year, will be on hand to accept the award.
His bio is below:
Christopher Plummer...
Hollywoodnews.com: The legendary Christopher Plummer, who has been earning raves for his performance in Mike Mills’ “Beginners” as a widower embracing his homosexuality, will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award” at this year’s 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment. The event is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 24, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Plummer, an Academy Award nominee for his recent performance in “The Last Station,” has been enjoying even more awards chatter as of late for his turn as Hal, a closeted gay man who didn’t choose to come out until his wife passed away … much to the surprise of his son (Ewan McGregor).
Plummer, who can be seen in “Barrymore” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” later this year, will be on hand to accept the award.
His bio is below:
Christopher Plummer...
- 9/26/2011
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
A special Lost Sounds and Soundtracks edition in honor of the centennial of Nicholas Ray's birth, extracted from his great maligned 1958 film, Wind Across the Everglades. It comes from the end of the picture, after Burl Ives has been poisoned, and concludes the film on a mourning, soulful note, as Ives' awareness of the vibrant life of the swamp rises as his life drains away.
What you are listening to:
(1) Bird calls and water ripples, the voices of actors Burl Ives and Christopher Plummer; music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.
What you are listening to:
(1) Bird calls and water ripples, the voices of actors Burl Ives and Christopher Plummer; music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.
- 8/7/2011
- MUBI
Us actor whose success as the scruffy TV detective Columbo was complemented by a wide range of stage and screen roles
Show-business history records that the American actor Peter Falk, who has died aged 83, made his stage debut the year before he left high school, presciently cast as a detective. Despite the 17-year-old's fleeting success, he had no thoughts of pursuing acting as a career – if only because tough kids from the Bronx considered it an unsuitable job for a man. Just 24 years later, Falk made his first television appearance as the scruffy detective, Columbo, not only becoming the highest paid actor on television – commanding $500,000 an episode during the 1970s – but also the most famous.
Inevitably the lieutenant dedicated to unravelling the villainy of the wealthy and glamorous dominated his career, although – unlike some actors – he escaped the straitjacket, or in his case shabby raincoat, of typecasting. In addition to stage work,...
Show-business history records that the American actor Peter Falk, who has died aged 83, made his stage debut the year before he left high school, presciently cast as a detective. Despite the 17-year-old's fleeting success, he had no thoughts of pursuing acting as a career – if only because tough kids from the Bronx considered it an unsuitable job for a man. Just 24 years later, Falk made his first television appearance as the scruffy detective, Columbo, not only becoming the highest paid actor on television – commanding $500,000 an episode during the 1970s – but also the most famous.
Inevitably the lieutenant dedicated to unravelling the villainy of the wealthy and glamorous dominated his career, although – unlike some actors – he escaped the straitjacket, or in his case shabby raincoat, of typecasting. In addition to stage work,...
- 6/26/2011
- by Brian Baxter
- The Guardian - Film News
Updated through 6/26.
"Peter Falk, the stage and movie actor who became identified as the squinty, rumpled detective in Columbo, which spanned 30 years in primetime television and established one of the most iconic characters in police work, has died. He was 83." Anthony McCartney for the AP: "Falk made his film debut in 1958 with Wind Across the Everglades and established himself as a talented character actor with his performance as the vicious killer Abe Reles in Murder, Inc. Among his other movies: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Robin and the Seven Hoods, The Great Race, Luv, Castle Keep, The Cheap Detective, The Brinks Job, The In-Laws, The Princess Bride. Falk also appeared in a number of art house favorites, including the semi-improvisational films Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence, directed by his friend John Cassavetes, and Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire, in which he played himself."
Last November,...
"Peter Falk, the stage and movie actor who became identified as the squinty, rumpled detective in Columbo, which spanned 30 years in primetime television and established one of the most iconic characters in police work, has died. He was 83." Anthony McCartney for the AP: "Falk made his film debut in 1958 with Wind Across the Everglades and established himself as a talented character actor with his performance as the vicious killer Abe Reles in Murder, Inc. Among his other movies: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Robin and the Seven Hoods, The Great Race, Luv, Castle Keep, The Cheap Detective, The Brinks Job, The In-Laws, The Princess Bride. Falk also appeared in a number of art house favorites, including the semi-improvisational films Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence, directed by his friend John Cassavetes, and Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire, in which he played himself."
Last November,...
- 6/26/2011
- MUBI
Los Angeles – Peter Falk, the stage and movie actor who became identified as the squinty, rumpled detective in "Columbo," which spanned 30 years in prime-time television and established one of the most iconic characters in movie police work, has died. He was 83.
Falk died Thursday in his Beverly Hills home, according to a statement released Friday by family friend Larry Larson.
In a court document filed in December 2008, Falk's daughter Catherine Falk said her father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
"Columbo" began its history in 1971 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being "McCloud" and "McMillan and Wife."
Falk was reportedly paid $250,000 a movie and could have made much more if he had accepted an offer to convert "Columbo" into a weekly series. He declined, reasoning that carrying a weekly detective...
Falk died Thursday in his Beverly Hills home, according to a statement released Friday by family friend Larry Larson.
In a court document filed in December 2008, Falk's daughter Catherine Falk said her father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
"Columbo" began its history in 1971 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being "McCloud" and "McMillan and Wife."
Falk was reportedly paid $250,000 a movie and could have made much more if he had accepted an offer to convert "Columbo" into a weekly series. He declined, reasoning that carrying a weekly detective...
- 6/24/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Columbo star Peter Falk has died at the age of 83.
The beloved actor passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday.
Falk was born in New York in 1927 and enjoyed a career spanning 50 years.
He broke into the acting industry in 1956 when he landed a role in an off-Broadway production of Moliere's play Don Juan. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel.
He later shifted his focus onto TV and film work, but he was warned early on not to expect too much success due to a glass eye he had implanted at the age of three - after doctors found a malignant tumour in his right eye.
However, he defied Hollywood agents and scored his film debut with a small role in Wind Across the Everglades in 1958. Two years later, Falk appeared as gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc - the same year he married first wife Alyce Mayo, with whom he has adopted daughters Catherine and Jackie. The movie was a hit with critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1961.
Murder, Inc. proved to be Falk's break-out role, and he would go on to reprise the role again in 1960s TV series The Witness.
Meanwhile, his film career continued to rise with a part in Frank Capra's 1961 comedy Pocketful of Miracles - another Oscar-nominated role - and parts in director pal John Cassavetes' movies Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
But it was Falk's turn as Lieutenant Columbo in the hit TV crime series Columbo that he is best known for. The programme aired on U.S. network NBC between 1971 and 1978, and later moved to ABC, where it was shown from 1989 to 2003. The role won Falk four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
Falk suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
His personal life hit the headlines in January 2009 when his daughter Catherine, a real life private detective, battled Falk's second wife, actress Shera Danese, to be named conservator of his estate. Catherine claimed her father also had dementia and could no longer care for himself.
Falk is survived by Danese, whom he married in 1977, and his two children.
The beloved actor passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday.
Falk was born in New York in 1927 and enjoyed a career spanning 50 years.
He broke into the acting industry in 1956 when he landed a role in an off-Broadway production of Moliere's play Don Juan. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel.
He later shifted his focus onto TV and film work, but he was warned early on not to expect too much success due to a glass eye he had implanted at the age of three - after doctors found a malignant tumour in his right eye.
However, he defied Hollywood agents and scored his film debut with a small role in Wind Across the Everglades in 1958. Two years later, Falk appeared as gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc - the same year he married first wife Alyce Mayo, with whom he has adopted daughters Catherine and Jackie. The movie was a hit with critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1961.
Murder, Inc. proved to be Falk's break-out role, and he would go on to reprise the role again in 1960s TV series The Witness.
Meanwhile, his film career continued to rise with a part in Frank Capra's 1961 comedy Pocketful of Miracles - another Oscar-nominated role - and parts in director pal John Cassavetes' movies Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
But it was Falk's turn as Lieutenant Columbo in the hit TV crime series Columbo that he is best known for. The programme aired on U.S. network NBC between 1971 and 1978, and later moved to ABC, where it was shown from 1989 to 2003. The role won Falk four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
Falk suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
His personal life hit the headlines in January 2009 when his daughter Catherine, a real life private detective, battled Falk's second wife, actress Shera Danese, to be named conservator of his estate. Catherine claimed her father also had dementia and could no longer care for himself.
Falk is survived by Danese, whom he married in 1977, and his two children.
- 6/24/2011
- WENN
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival held a rare screening of a Christopher Plummer film, "Wind Across the Everglades" on Saturday, January 24 at Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Plummer also attended the event and received a Lifetime Achievement award.
The showing was a rare occurrence for the film, which had very few showings in Los Angeles and New York in August and September of 1958. It has never been moved to DVD and has not been shown on television in recent decades. It was a onetime collaboration between director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and screenwriter Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront).
The night began with a showing of the 1958 movie, Plummer's second film in his movie career. He starred as Walt Murdock, a 19th-century Florida game warden who declares war on local bird poachers in the Everglades in the turn of the century in early Miami, Florida. Co-stars in the film include Burl Ives,...
The showing was a rare occurrence for the film, which had very few showings in Los Angeles and New York in August and September of 1958. It has never been moved to DVD and has not been shown on television in recent decades. It was a onetime collaboration between director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and screenwriter Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront).
The night began with a showing of the 1958 movie, Plummer's second film in his movie career. He starred as Walt Murdock, a 19th-century Florida game warden who declares war on local bird poachers in the Everglades in the turn of the century in early Miami, Florida. Co-stars in the film include Burl Ives,...
- 1/26/2009
- icelebz.com
Film, stage, and television star Christopher Plummer will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at an event sponsored by the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and Florida Atlantic University.
Plummer, whose works include the classic film "The Sound of Music" to Pixar's upcoming feature "Up", will be on-hand for a screening of his rarely seen film, 1958's "Wind Across The Everglades." After the film screening, an "Inside the Actors Studio"-style Q&A will take place with Plummer. He will also be on hand to sign copies of his recently released book, "In Spite of Myself: A Memoir." The event will take place at the Cinema Paradiso in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl on January 24th. Tickets are currently on sale.
Filmed in Everglades National Park, "Wind Across The Everglades" featured Plummer co-starring with Burl Ives in a story of Florida at the turn of the twentieth century. The film, which...
Plummer, whose works include the classic film "The Sound of Music" to Pixar's upcoming feature "Up", will be on-hand for a screening of his rarely seen film, 1958's "Wind Across The Everglades." After the film screening, an "Inside the Actors Studio"-style Q&A will take place with Plummer. He will also be on hand to sign copies of his recently released book, "In Spite of Myself: A Memoir." The event will take place at the Cinema Paradiso in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl on January 24th. Tickets are currently on sale.
Filmed in Everglades National Park, "Wind Across The Everglades" featured Plummer co-starring with Burl Ives in a story of Florida at the turn of the twentieth century. The film, which...
- 1/13/2009
- icelebz.com
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