Clinton “Clint” Eastwood, Jr. (May 31, 1930 – )
Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, producer, composer, pianist, businessman, investor, and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide.
Posted in The Big Screen
May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster Star Wars movies hits American theaters.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Big Screen
Roger Moore in 1983’s ‘Octopussy,’ his penultimate film as James Bond.
Sir Roger George Moore KBE (October 14, 1927 – May 23, 2017), the handsome Londoner who portrayed James Bond in seven films (1973 – 1985) with a cartoonish, cheeky charm and probably for a bit too long, has died. He was 89. He is also known for playing Simon Templar in the television series The Saint (1962 – 1969).
Moore took on the guise of the superspy in Live and Let Die (1973) and stayed for The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985), which hit theaters when he was nearly 58. He said it was his choice to leave the franchise.
A message from his children read, “It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father, Sir Roger Moore, has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer.”
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (May 14, 1944 – )
George Lucas is an Academy Award-nominated American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones.
Posted in The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Miracle on 34th Street (also titled The Big Heart in the UK) is a 1947 film which tells the story of a gentle old man, working as a Santa Claus at Macy’s department store in New York City, who contends that he is the real deal.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Big Screen
Don Rickles
(May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017)
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Jerry Lewis (March 16, 1926 – )
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, producer, writer, director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor on stage, screen and television, his singing ability in a string of music album recordings and his charity fund-raising telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
Posted in Humor, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
On this day in 1965, The Sound of Music was released in the United States.
March 2, 1965
Posted in The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
William “Bill“ Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and director. He appeared in a number of films, including The Terminator (1984), Weird Science (1985), Aliens (1986), Predator 2 (1990), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), and Titanic (1997). He also starred in the HBO series Big Love (2006–2011) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. Paxton died on February 25, 2017, due to complications of surgery.
Paxton is also one of only two actors to have been killed onscreen by an Alien, a Predator, and a Terminator, an honor he shares with Lance Henriksen.
Posted in The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Richard Lawrence Hatch (May 21, 1945 – February 7, 2017) was an American actor, writer, and producer best known for his role as Captain Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, and also as Tom Zarek in the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica. He starred as Jan Berry in Deadman’s Curve as well.
Posted in News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Mike Connors (August 15, 1925 – January 26, 2017)
Mike Connors (born Krekor Ohanian) was an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series, Mannix. Connors’ acting career spanned six decades; in addition to his work on television, he appeared in numerous films.
Connors died just a week after being diagnosed with leukemia, at the age of 91.
Posted in News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Mary Tyler Moore (December 29, 1936 – January 25, 2017)
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, known for her roles in the television sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), in which she starred as Mary Richards, a thirty-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis; and The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966), in which she played Laura Petrie, a former dancer turned homemaker, wife and mother. She died from cardiopulmonary arrest because of pneumonia at the age of 80 on January 25, 2017.
Posted in News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as “the King of Rock and Roll”, or simply, “the King”.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, The Big Screen
It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 Frank Capra film, produced by his own Liberty Films and released originally by RKO Radio Pictures. Dubbed by the American Film Institute one of the best films ever made, it placed #1 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Cheers, a list of the most inspirational American movies of all time. It ranks 11th on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies, a list of the greatest American films. The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The movie is the story of the life of everyman George Bailey, as told to his guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, who has been recruited to save him in his moment of need.
The film premiered on December 20, 1946 in the New Globe Theater on Governors Island.
Dear George: — Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence.
Posted in Because I Can, The Big Screen
JRR Tolkien is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973)
Posted in Because I Can, Literary, The Big Screen
Debbie Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016)
Mary Frances “Debbie” Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, entertainer, businesswoman, film historian, humanitarian and a noted former collector of film memorabilia. Her breakout role was the portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. However, it was her first leading role in 1952 at age 19, as Kathy Selden in Singin’ in the Rain, that set her on the path to fame.
On December 28, 2016, a day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher, Reynolds died after suffering a massive stroke.
Posted in News, The Big Screen
