The Shattered Lens extends its condolences to the friends, family, and fans of football player-turned-actor Dick Butkus. Butkus starred in two shows that we recently featured on retro television reviews, Hang Time and Half Nelson. Whether he was coaching basketball in Indiana or helping Joe Pesci solve a case in Beverly Hills, he definitely had his own unique style and likably gruff screen presence. RIP.
Bob Barker, a pop cultural institution if there ever was one, passed away today. He was 99 years old. And while he will probably be best-remembered for his long run as the host of The Price Is Right, he will also always be remembered for beating up Adam Sandler in my favorite golf film, Happy Gilmore.
Barker himself reportedly turned down the cameo when it was first offered to him but accepted it after he was assured that he would be winning the fight.
Rest in peace to Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams. She passed away as the result of a stroke yesterday. She was 64 years old.
Here she is, as Wednesday, teaching Lurch how not to be a square.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Ruggero Deodato, RIP
4 Shots From 4 Ruggeo Deodato Films
The House on the Edge of the Park (1980, dir by Ruggero Deodato)
Raiders of Atlantis (1983, dir by Ruggero Deodato)
Phantom of Death (1988, dir by Ruggero Deodato)
The Washing Machine (1993, dir by Ruggero Deodato)
I was stunned to just hear that Ray Liotta, that massively underrated actor who appeared in some truly great films and who always brought a dangerous but intriguing intensity to every role, died today. He was 67 years old.
I’m going to share two scenes in honor of Ray, I’m sure that others will have more to say. The first scene is from a favorite of Arleigh’s, Field of Dreams. Ray doesn’t say much as Shoeless Joe Jackson but he’s already got that trademark intensity. The second is the final scene from Goodfellas, which features Ray Liotta’s best work of the entire film. The small moment when he briefly acknowledges the camera while getting his newspaper is brilliant.
RIP, Ray Liotta.
Today, Edie Sedgwick would have been 78 years old. Edie and her tragic life has always fascinated me. I’ve always related to her. As Edie once put it, “It’s not that I’m rebelling. I’m just trying to find a different way.”
Below is the “screen test” that Andy Warhol shot of Edge Sedgwick in 1964. Warhol did screen tests of several famous people, everyone from Dennis Hopper to Salvador Dali to Bob Dylan to the various denizens of the Factory. He would simply turn on the camera and film without sound and it’s always interesting to see how each subject deal with being filmed without direction. Edie was one of the few who controlled the camera from the minute her screen test began to the moment that it ended.
Edie Sedgwick’s life is often described as being a tragedy and, certainly, it was. But it was also filled with hope and optimism and future promise. That the world ultimately proved to be unworthy of Edie does not change who she was or how important she was to the development of pop culture.
Today, on her birthday, we honor the the amazing Edie Sedgwick.
The British actor Ian Holm passed away yesterday.
When the news was announced, almost every story mentioned that he played Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and it is true that he was a great Bilbo. Even though he didn’t go on the quest, he brought a lot of heart to the film and the character. Though his screen time may have been brief, he made you understand why Frodo and all the other Hobbits would feel such loyalty to him. He was the ideal Hobbit. He final scene in Return of the King brought tears to my eyes. How could you not love him?
Holm, however, was in a lot of other films. He was one of those extremely memorable character actors who, sadly, I think was sometimes taken for granted. He was also one of those actors who seemed so distinguished (at least to American audiences, who tend to have a rather stereotypical view of anyone who first found fame as a Shakespearean actor) that it’s easy to overlook that he could also very funny. Watch him in The Fifth Element. Watch him in Brazil and Time Bandits. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Ian Holm in those roles.
The other Holm role that many people mentioned when they heard of his passing was his role as the evil android Ash in Alien. Indeed, he was perfectly menacing in Alien. If you believe Ridley Scott, Alien and Blade Runner take place in the same universe, which means that Ian Holm was the first actor to play a Replicant. He did a great job of it.
I want to end this tribute with a picture of Ian Holm and Sigourney Weaver on the set of Alien. I like this picture because they both look like they’re having a lot of fun. Even in his humorous roles, Holm tended to play characters who were, if not outright neurotic, definitely very serious-minded. And Alien is a remarkably grim movie. So, it’s kind of nice to see both Ripley and Ash smiling between takes.
Rest in Peace, Ian Holm.
Most people these days think of Boston (and the Northeast as a whole) as a modern Athens, the standard bearer for progressive, liberal thinking. But it wasn’t always so. The City of Boston in the 1950’s and 60’s was a hotbed of racial tensions, with frequent rioting over such issues as forced busing and integration. While Jackie Robinson was the first black player to break the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947, the Boston Red Sox (owned by avowed racist Tom Yawkey) didn’t add a player of color until 1959. That player’s name was Elijah “Pumpsie” Green.
Green was born October 27, 1933 in the small town of Boley, Oklahoma. As a youth, he excelled at sports, as did his brother Cornell, who wound up playing 13 seasons as a Defensive Back for the Dallas Cowboys. After playing college ball at Contra Costa, Pumpsie turned pro in 1954, and…
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If comedy is a gift, then Tim Conway was America’s Santa Claus, delivering bags full of laughter directly into our homes for over fifty years. The cherubic Conway, who died May 14 at age 85, was mainly known for his television work, but also starred in films, on stage, and in the home video field, making him a true Renaissance Man of Comedy.
Tim and Ernie “Ghoulardi” Anderson
Young Tim got his start in his hometown of Cleveland, not exactly a hotbed of humor (with apologies to Jim Backus, Kaye Ballard, and British transplant Bob Hope ), writing and appearing in skits with local TV personality Ernie Anderson during breaks in a morning movie show. Anderson himself would later gain fame as a horror host (Cleveland’s Ghoulardi) and a network announcer, ‘The Voice of ABC’ (“Tonight on The Loooo-ve Boat….”).
Comic actress Rose Marie, on a cross-country tour promoting THE…
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You wouldn’t think from reading most of the content I publish – Western actioners, horror flicks, film noir, exploitation trash – that I’d be a big Doris Day fan. But the first film I can remember seeing on the Big Screen is THAT TOUCH OF MINK, with Doris and Cary Grant, and I’ve been in love ever since. Talent is talent, and the iconic singer/actress, who died earlier today at age 97, had it in bucketloads. Doris’s career spanned nearly 50 years, from the Big Band Era to Cable TV, and was “America’s Sweetheart” for most of her adult life (not to mention “The World’s Oldest Living Virgin” due to her squeaky-clean screen image!).
Cincinnati-born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, born in 1922, wanted to be a professional dancer, but a severe car accident in 1937 curtailed that dream. Instead she turned to singing, and became a local sensation, eventually landing…
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Through the Shattered Lens 