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Many beloved and not so well-known members of the entertainment industry left us in 2014, some after long and full lives and others with shocking surprise.
Among the latter, of course, were rapid-fire funnyman (and Oscar-winning dramatic actor) Robin Williams, who took his own life at the age of 63, and the Academy Award-winning actor’s actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died at 46 from acute mixed drug intoxication.
Pioneering comedienne Joan Rivers accomplished a lot in her 81 years – made outrageous humor safe for women, was the first female late night host, turned “Can we talk?” into a catchphrase for the ages. Still, her death following a minor medical procedure was tragically unexpected.
We were also unpleasantly informed of the too early deaths of actresses Elizabeth Pena (55) and Misty Upham (32), actor Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley on TV’s “Addams Family,” 59), reporter and reality TV personality Diem Brown (34) and “Saturday Night Live” funnywoman Jan Hooks (57).
We also lost who we thought would be the eternal voice of SNL, Don Pardo, the show’s announcer from its 1975 debut through its 2014 season. He died at 96 in August 2014.
A number of Hollywood stars from that generation and the one which followed also passed, including the top two child performers of the 1930s. Shirley Temple Black, the Depression Era’s biggest box-office draw who went on to a distinguished diplomatic career, was 85. The movies’ first teen idol, Mickey Rooney, was 93 and worked until the end; you can currently see him in “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.”
Iconic cool customer, Mrs. Humphrey Bogart and so, so much more, Lauren Bacall was 89. As legendary as Bacall and wild as Rivers in her own ways, stage and screen mainstay Elaine Stritch was 89. On Tuesday word came of the death of Luise Rainer, the first actor to win back-to-back Academy Awards (“The Great Ziegfeld,” 1936, and “The Good Earth,” ‘37). The German actress was 104. Herb Jeffries, a singing sensation offscreen, made history on it as the African-American star of the singing cowboys. He died a century old. Poet and autobiographer Maya Angelou, 86, also appeared in films.
Actors Studio founding member Eli Wallach (98) also made indelible impressions onscreen in “Baby Doll,” “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” Among the other stage/screen giants taken from us were Ruby Dee (91), Bob Hoskins (71), Juanita Moore (99), Austria’s Maximilian Schell and Japan’s Ken Takakura (both 83). Like Schell, Richard Attenborough acted in (“Brighton Rock,” “10 Rillington Place,” “Jurassic Park”) and directed films (Oscar-winner “Gandhi,” “Shadowlands”). The British peer was 90.
Mike Nichols was another Oscar-winning director (for “The Graduate”). He also won boatloads of Emmy and Tony Awards, and a Grammy for Best Comedy Album with his old standup partner Elaine May. The refugee from Nazi Germany was 83. A giant of a French auteur, Alain Resnais, 91, directed such art film classics as “Hiroshima mon amour,” “Last Year at Marienbad” and “Providence.” Hungary’s Miklos Jancso, 92, was known for incredibly choreographed historical epics. Then there was writer, director and actor Harold Ramis, 69, whose work spanned comedy classics from “SCTV,” “Animal House” and “Caddyshack” to “Ghostbusters,” “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This.” Another actor who was better known for the films he wrote and directed, Paul Mazursky (“Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” “Harry and Tonto,” “An Unmarried Woman”), passed at 84.
TV titan James Garner (“Maverick,” “The Rockford Files,” movies and a slew of great Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley) was 86. Early TV’s live comedy genius Sid Caesar was 91. Polly Bergen, 84, had her own TV variety show in the ‘50s, successful recording and Broadway careers, appeared on “The Sopranos” and made a killing marketing cosmetics, shoes and jewelry.
Familiar faces we’ll watch forever in reruns include Ann B. Davis (“The Bob Cummings Show,” “The Brady Bunch”), 88; Russell Johnson (“Gilligan’s Island’s” Professor), 89; Richard Kiel (about a zillion episodes, including “The Twilight Zone’s” epic “To Serve Man”; Jaws in James Bond films), 74; James Rebhorn (“Homeland,” “White Collar” and some 125 other films and TV shows), 65; Marcia Strassman (“M*A*S*H,” “Welcome Back, Kotter”), 66; Meshach Taylor (“Designing Women”), 67; Pa Walton himself, Ralph Waite, 85; and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (“77 Sunset Strip,” “The F.B.I.”), 95.
Edward Herrmann, 71, won an Emmy for “The Practice,” was a regular on “Gilmore Girls” and recently appeared in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
The music world lost its éminence grise of folksingers, Pete Seeger, who was 95. No doubt a fan of Seeger’s, singer-songwriter/Vietnam draft evader Jesse Winchester was 69. Distinctive British blues singer and stage presence Joe Cocker was 70. The albino guitar whiz Johnny Winter was 70.
Seminal country rocker Phil Everly, half of that memorable brother act, was 74. Tommy, the last of punk rock’s original Ramones (who weren’t really brothers), drummed his last at 65. Bassist Charlie Haden, 76, was not only a part of some of jazz’s greatest sounds, he created a bunch of them himself (as well as CalArts’ Jazz Studies Program).
Soul singer Jimmy Ruffin, whose “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” will never be topped, was 78. Another soul master, Bobby Womack, 70, also wrote The Rolling Stones’ first hit, “It’s All Over Now.” Other Stones associates, saxophonist Bobby Keys and keyboardist Ian McLagan, were 70 and 69, respectively. The sound of classic British rock wouldn’t have been the same without them or Cream bassist Jack Bruce, 71.
Also gone, in a rather bizarre fashion, is the man who heard it all, “American Top 40” originator Casey Kasem (82). And “The Sound of Music’s” real life Trapp Family Singers’ last surviving sibling, 99-year-old Maria, climbed that mountain.
Notable behind-the-scenes players include Saul Zaentz, 92, produced Best Picture Oscar winners “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Amadeus” and “The English Patient.” Israel’s Menahem Golan, 85, produced few such classy films, but he was notorious for lots of fun ‘80s junk. Animation maestro Arthur Rankin Jr. produced such TV perennials as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and a 1977 musical version of “The Hobbit.” He was 89. The man behind seemingly millions of kung fu movies, Hong Kong studio head Run Run Shaw, lived to the remarkable age of 106.
Cinematographer Gordon Willis, 82, defined the look of ‘70s cinema in “The Godfather Parts I & II” and Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan,” among others. Makeup effects man extraordinaire Dick Smith, 92, similarly contributed to the decade’s filmed imagery (“Godfather,” “Taxi Driver,” “The Exorcist”). British D.P.Beside many album covers, Swiss sci fi artist H.R. Giger (74) designed the Alien for well “Alien.” And the L.A. native behind the Bob Baker Marionette Theater also contributed a very different alien puppet to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Baker was 90.
Lorenzo Semple Jr., 91, wrote the campy 1960s “Batman” TV show, but also the great paranoid thrillers “The Parallax View” and “Three Days of the Condor.” Tireless production manager Abby Singer, 96, had the last shot of every Hollywood production day named after him.
Torrance-raised Olympic athlete, World War II prison camp survivor, inspirational speaker and the subject of the book and movie “Unbroken,” Louis Zamperini was 97.
Sarah Jones, a 27-year-old camera assistant, was killed by a train in Georgia during unauthorized filming of the independent feature “Midnight Rider”; her death became a rallying point for safer work conditions. Tom Sherak, veteran studio executive, former academy president and the best-loved man in the business, succumbed to a long fight with cancer while serving as L.A.’s first film czar. He was 68.
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