* Stephen Moore - born 11th December 1937, died 4th October 2019, aged 81. Moore was an English Actor and one time Director, who worked in film, television and the stage since the early 1960's amassing 109 acting credits to his name. His feature film roles took in the likes of 1977's 'A Bridge Too Far' with an all star cast, 1980's 'Rough Cut' with Burt Reynolds, 1984's 'Laughterhouse' with Ian Holm, 1986's 'Clockwise' with John Cleese, 1991's 'Under Suspicion' with Liam Neeson, 1996's 'Brassed Off' with Ewan McGregor, 2002's 'Claim' with Billy Zane, and 2009's 'The Boat That Rocked' with Philip Seymour Hoffman. His small screen roles over the years, of which there were many, included recurring appearances in TV series 'Woodtsock', 'Rock Follies', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'Solo', 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole' and its follow up season 'The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole', 'The Last Place on Earth', 'Small World', 'Middlemarch', 'Black Hearts in Battersea', 'And the Beat Goes On', 'Harry Enfield and Chums', 'The Peter Principle', 'Fish', 'The Queen's Nose' and 'Merseybeat' amongst others.
* Diahann Carroll - born Carol Diann Johnson on 17th July 1935, died 4th October 2019, aged 84. Carroll was an American Actress, Singer and Model who was active in the entertainment industry for seven decades beginning her career in Otto Preminger's 'Carmen Jones' in 1954 with Harry Belafonte. Two years later she starred in an Otto Preminger production again - this time 1956's 'Porgy and Bess' alongside Sidney Poitier. 1961 saw 'Paris Blues' with Paul Newman, and then in 1967 another Otto Preminger offering with 'Hurry Sundown' with Michael Caine and in 1968 'The Split' with Ernest Borgnine. 1974 saw 'Claudine' with James Earl Jones and then 'The Five Heartbeats' in 1991, 'Eve's Bayou' in 1997 with Samuel L. Jackson, 'Peeples' in 2013 and 'The Masked Saint' in 2016 which was to be her last acting role. Of her total 58 acting credits, there were also appearances on television shows over the years including 86 episodes on 'Julia', 74 episodes on 'Dynasty' and seven episodes on spin-off series 'The Colby's', nine episodes on 'A Different World', seven episodes on 'Lonesome Dove : The Series', multiple episodes on 'Grey's Anatomy', 'Diary of a Single Mom', and 25 episodes on 'White Collar' most recently. Carroll also amassed forty soundtrack credits during her career, was nominated for an Oscar for 'Claudine', won the Golden Globe for 'Julia' and received two other nominations, had four Prime Time Emmy nods and all up garnered eight award wins and a further 13 nominations. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black cast members, and in 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for Best Actress, a first for a black woman, for her role in the Broadway musical 'No Strings'. Carroll was married four times and had long term relationships also with acclaimed Actor Sidney Poitier and the English TV host and journalist David Frost. She made a full recovery form breast cancer in 1997 and co-founded the charity Celebrity Action Council working with women in rehabilitation from problems with alcohol, drugs, or prostitution.
* Rip Taylor - born Charles Elmer Taylor Jnr. on 13th January 1935, and died on 6th October 2019, aged 88. Taylor was an American Actor and Comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache and toupee. The Hollywood Reporter called him 'a television and nightclub mainstay for more than six decades' who made thousands of nightclub and television appearances. With 52 acting credits to his name, his career launched in 1964 with a small part in the film 'I'd Rather Be Rich' and from there he appeared in two episodes of 'The Monkees', on thirteen episodes of 'Sigmund and the Sea Monsters', on eight episodes of 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour', lending his voice talents on thirteen episodes of 'Popeye and Son', on 21 episodes of 'The Addams Family' animated series and on seventeen episodes of 'The Emperor's New School' animated series. In between time there were film appearances on the likes of 'Chatterbox', 'The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington', 'The Gong Show Movie', 'Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York', 'Indecent Proposal', 'Wayne's World 2', 'The Boys Behind the Desk', 'Alex & Emma', 'The Dukes of Hazard' and 'Silent But Deadly' his last screen appearance in 2012. Taylor's first big live show was in 1966, when he went on a tour with Judy Garland and Eleanor Powell in Las Vegas. In 1981, Taylor appeared on Broadway when he replaced Mickey Rooney in the burlesque-themed musical comedy 'Sugar Babies'. He was a frequent co-star with Debbie Reynolds in her live shows in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Taylor was also a close personal friend of entertainer Liberace, spent time with him, and knew him well.
* Ryan Nicholson - born sometime in 1971, died 8th October 2019, aged 47. Nicholson was a Canadian special effects make-up artist, Director, Writer, Producer and Actor who was self-taught and ran a special-effects shop called Flesh & Fantasy for a number of years before he began Directing, Producing, Writing and starring in a number of his own feature films mostly in the horror genre space through his Production Company, Plotdigger Films. These included 'Torched' in 2004 which was followed up by 'Live Feed', 'Gutterballs', 'Hangar', 'Star Vehicle', 'Famine' and 'Collar' most recently in 2014. Nicholson had 138 make up and special FX credits to his name on such film and TV shows as 'Millennium', 'Stargate SG-1', 'The 13th Warrior', 'Double Jeopardy', 'Reindeer Games', 'Final Destination', 'Scary Movie', 'The Pledge', 'Replicant', 'Dreamcatcher', 'Agent Cody Banks', 'The Chronicles of Riddick', 'Blade : Trinity', 'The Keeper', 'Ghost Rider', 'Warcraft', 'Blair Witch', 'Altered Carbon', 'Deadpool 2', 'The Predator' and 'Puppet Killer' this year for which he won an award for Best Special FX, as well as being twice nominated and a one time winner of a Gemini Award for Best Achievement in Make-Up.
* Juliette Kaplan - born Marlene Juliette Kaplan whose married name was Marlene Hoser was born on 2nd October 1939 and died on 10th October 2019, aged 80. Kaplan was an English Actress who was perhaps most famous for playing the role of battle-axe Pearl Sibshaw in the BBC comedy 'Last of the Summer Wine' across 226 episodes from 1985 to 2010. Her acting career took off in 1958 with the feature film 'A Voice Crying in the Wilderness' and then came the aforementioned 'Last of the Summer Wine' series which kept her occupied, until 2010 with interim appearances in feature films taking in 'The Death of Klinghoffer' in 2003, 'Are You Ready for Love?' in 2006, and 'Don't Let Go' in 2013 with eight episodes on 'Coronation Street' in 2015 and the short film 'You Are Whole' also in 2015 and her final screen appearance.
* Robert Forster - born Robert Wallace Forster Jnr. on 13th July 1941, and died on 11th October 2019, aged 78. Forster was an American Actor, three time Producer and one time Director, who amassed 186 acting credits during his career which spanned from 1967 right up until the present day. His big screen debut came in John Huston's 1967 film 'Reflections in a Golden Eye' with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, and from this point on there was no looking back. The '70's brought the likes of 'The Don is Dead' with Anthony Quinn, 'Stunts', 'Avalanche' with Rock Hudson, and Disney's 'The Black Hole' with an all star cast. The '80's kicked off with marauding monster movie 'Alligator', and then 'Vigilante', 'The Delta Force' with Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin, and 'Hollywood Harry' which he also Produced and Directed in 1986. The '90's saw a bunch of direct-to-video movies and largely B-Grade features taking in 'American Yakuza', 'Original Gangstas', 'American Prefekt', 'Psycho' and of course his highly acclaimed role as bail bondsman Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown' which gained him an Academy Award nod for Best Supporting Actor. The new decade kicked off with 'Me, Myself and Irene' with Jim Carey, 'Mulholland Drive', 'Charle's Angels : Full Throttle', 'Firewall' with Harrison Ford, 'Lucky Number Slevin' with Bruce Willis, 'Cleaner' with Samuel L. Jackson, 'Touching Home' with Ed Harris, 'Thick as Thieves' with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas and 'Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past' with Matthew McConaughey. 'The Descendants' with George Clooney followed in 2011 and then 'Olympus Has Fallen' and its follow up 'London Has Fallen' both with Gerard Butler, 'The Confirmation' with Clive Owen, 'Acts of Vengeance' with Antonio Banderas, 'What They Had' with Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon, and finally 'El Camino : A Breaking Bad Story' that was released on Netflix the day of Forsters death. His TV appearances are too numerous to mention, albeit some of the more notable series he appeared included 'Banyon' in the title role over sixteen episodes form 1971 through 1973, five episodes of 'Police Story', then 'Magnum P.I.', 'Murder, She Wrote, 'Walker, Texas Ranger', 'Desperate Housewives', on ten episodes of 'Heroes', then 'Breaking Bad', and on ten episodes of 'Twin Peaks' in 2017. All up Forster had three award wins and a further thirteen nominations, and he was also a member of the 'Triple Nine Society' - an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardised test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population.
* Patrick Ward - was born on 4th January 1950, died 14th October 2019, aged 69. Ward was an Australian Actor of film and television who had 51 credits to his name in a career spanning from 1972 through until 2011. He saw his small screen debut on five episodes of the long running Australian series 'Number 96' in 1972, and from there went on to have appearances on 'Matlock Police', on thirteen episodes of 'Catch Kandy' in 1973, and then in 1974 a role on the big screen adaptation of 'Number 96', followed by a role in the cult Aussie renegade motorcycle gang film 'Stone' that same year. 'Sidecar Racers' followed in 1975 and then sixteen episodes on 'The Unisexers', 26 episodes on 'Cop Shop' and 35 episodes on 'Arcade'. The films 'The Chain Reaction', 'Fantasy Man', 'Warming Up', 'Running from the Guns' and 'The Crossing' saw out the '80's with turns in the meantime on TV shows including 'The Love Boat', 'A Country Practice', 'Runaway Island', 'Anzacs', then mini-series 'Fields of Fire', 'Fields of Fire II' and 'Fields of Fire III', and a single episode on 'Mission : Impossible'. From the '90's onward his career began to slow down with turns on thirteen episodes of 'My Two Wives', five episodes of 'Home and Away', then 'All Saints', 'Farscape' and two features 'Jindalee Lady' and 'Restraint' with the six minute short film 'Facade' in 2011 on which he also acted as Cinematographer, Editor and added the digital effects being his last.
* Bill Macy - born Wolf Martin Garber on 18th May 1922, died 17th October 2019, aged 97. Macy was an American Actor of film, television and stage who amassed 82 screen credits to his name from 1966 up to 2010. He worked as a cab driver for a decade before being cast as Walter Matthau's understudy in 'Once More, With Feeling' on Broadway in 1958, and he went on to portray a cab driver on the soap opera 'The Edge of Night' in 1966 - his screen debut. From there he took an uncredited role on Mel Brooks 'The Producers' in 1967, with his following big screen roles over the years including the likes of 'Oh! Calcutta!', 'The Jerk' with Steve Martin, 'My Favourite Year' with Peter O'Toole, 'Bad Medicine' with Steve Guttenberg, 'Sibling Rivalry' with Kirstie Alley, 'The Doctor' with William Hurt, 'Me Myself and I' with George Segal, 'Analyze This' with Robert De Niro, 'Surviving Christmas' with Ben Affleck, 'The Holiday' with Kate Winslet, and 'Mr. Woodcock' with Billy Bob Thornton. His small screen appearances took in the role of Walter Findlay on 137 episodes of 'Maude' which ran from 1972 through 1978, and then 'St. Elsewhere', 'The Love Boat', 'L.A. Law', seven episodes on 'Nothing in Common', 'Murder, She Wrote', 'NYPD Blue, 'Chicago Hope', 'Seinfeld', 'ER', 'How I Met Your Mother', 'My Name Is Earl' and 'Hawthorn' was to be his last screen appearance in 2010.
* Robert Evans - born Robert J. Shapera on 29th June 1930, died 26th October 2019, aged 89. Evans was an American Film Producer and Studio Executive. Evans began his career in a successful business venture with his brother, selling women's clothing. By accident in 1956 he fell into the screen acting business, but by 1962 he decided to go into Film Producing instead, using his accumulated skills and wealth from the clothing business. And so began a stellar rise in the movie making industry. In 1967 he had risen to be the head of Paramount Pictures where he turned around the company's failing financial position, and by 1974 he chose to step down in order to Produce his own pictures. In 1980, Evans' career, and his personal life, took a downturn after he pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and as a result over the next 12 years, he Produced only two films, but come 1993, he began to produce films on a more regular basis. At Paramount, he Produced amongst others 'Barefoot in the Park', 'The Odd Couple', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Italian Job', 'True Grit', 'Love Story', 'Plaza Suite', 'Harold and Maude', 'The Godfather', 'Serpico', 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Conversation'. As a Producer in his own right, he was responsible for the likes of 'Chinatown', 'Marathon Man', 'Urban Cowboy', 'Popeye', 'The Cotton Club', 'The Two Jakes', 'Sliver', 'The Phantom', 'The Saint' and 'How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days' which was to be his last feature film in 2003. All up Evans had 21 Producer credits, fifteen as Actor and two as Writer and he picked up nine award wins and two nominations throughout his career. Evans was married seven times, five wives were Actresses - Sharon Hugueny, Camilla Sparv, Ali McGraw, Phyllis George and Catherine Oxenberg - the latter marriage having been annulled after just nine days. In 1998 at a dinner party Evans suffered a stroke while proposing a toast. He flatlined in the ambulance but was resuscitated. He then suffered two further strokes in quick succession, was left paralysed to his right side and completely unable to speak. He eventually regained his ability to talk and returned to Producing. From 2013, he was dependant on a cane for shorter walks and had limited mobility.
* Anne Phelan - born 2nd August 1948, died 27th October 2019, aged 71. Phelan was an Australian Actress of the theatre, television and cinema who amassed sixty acting credits during her career which launched in 1973 on a single episode of private detective TV drama series 'Ryan'. From there she starred in six episodes of 'Matlock Police' before scoring her first feature film role in Fred Schepisi's 'The Devil's Playground' in 1976. Between 1974 and 1977 Phelan starred in 523 episodes of the Australian soap opera 'Bellbird' before her next film role 'Hard Knocks' in 1980. There were then occasional roles on the likes of 'A Country Practice', 'Sons and Daughters' and then 128 episodes on 'Prisoner' leading into her next big screen role on 'I Live with Me Dad' in 1985. The successive years brought regular appearances on TV shows including 'The Flying Doctors', seven episodes on 'Col'n Carpenter', then 'Law of the Land', 'Blue Heelers', on 320 episodes of 'Something in the Air', on fourteen episodes of 'Marshall Law', on fourteen episodes of 'Neighbours', and on 42 episodes of 'Winners & Losers' which was to be her final screen appearance. In the meantime there were three further film roles on 'The Craic', 'Charlie & Boots' and 'Inanimate Objects'. During her career she also starred in numerous theatre productions across Australia. In 2007, Phelan was awarded the O.A.M. (Order of Australia Medal) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the arts as an Actress, and to the community, particularly through support for women living with the HIV virus and for asylum seekers and refugees. She was a Member of Actors for Refugees, an Ambassador for Alzheimer's Australia Victoria, a Patron of Positive Women (Victoria), and a Recipient of the Oz Showbiz Cares / Equity Fights AIDS 2002 Activist of the Year Award.
* John Witherspoon - born 27th January 1942, died 29th October 2019, aged 77. Witherspoon was American Actor and Comedian who had 84 acting credits to his name spanning a career that launched on two episodes of 'The Richard Pryor Show' in 1977. From there he worked on other notable TV shows including 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Barnaby Jones', 'WKRP in Cincinnati', 'Hill Street Blues', 'L.A. Law', on ten episodes of 'Townsend Television', 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', on 101 episodes of 'The Wayans Bros.', on eighteen episodes of 'The Tracy Morgan Show', on 55 episodes of the animated adult series 'The Boondocks', on 28 episodes of 'The First Family', and on 31 episodes of 'Black Jesus' most recently. His film acting credits took in the likes of 'The Jazz Singer' in 1980 (his first big screen appearance), then 'Ratboy', 'Bird', 'House Party', 'Boomerang', the first of the 'Friday' stoner comedy franchise which launched with 'Friday' in 1995 that saw two sequels with 'Next Friday' in 2000, 'Friday After Next' in 2002 and 'Last Friday' which was in Pre-Production at the time of Witherspoon's death. In between there was also 'Vampire in Brooklyn', 'Bulworth', 'Little Nicky', 'Little Man', 'After Sex' and 'Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen' which was in Post-Production at the time of his death.This week we have six latest cinematic releases coming too your local Odeon, and we kick off with a sequel to a 1977 novel adapted into a classic horror film in 1980 by both a highly acclaimed and prolific author, and a regarded Director. This sequel picks up the story a few decades later with the young lad of that initial instalment now a grown man still fighting a few demons from his tormented childhood in a remote isolated Hotel during the Winter months, whilst coming to the aid of a young girl with similar powers to his own to combat a deadly foe. We then turn to a Spanish foreign language film about an ageing and ailing film Director who recounts his past life in order to seek some salvation for his future years. Next up is the first Christmas offering to herald in the festive film season with his love story about a hapless girl who seems to be unlucky in love and equally as unfortunate in life, but her life takes on an unexpected upturn when she meets a man, that leads her to question whether it's all too good to be true. And we close the week with a trio of Australian films, the first a film about loss and love set in the far outback of western New South Wales when a young local girl befriends an emu and the unlikely pair become firm friends; before a slasher horror offering about eight women who are hunted down in a deadly game of cat and mouse and all in the name of sport by eight crazed stalker killers, and finally a documentary shining a light on mens health from five very different characters living, working, surviving and doing their thing in very different environments.
Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.
'DOCTOR SLEEP' (Rated MA15+) - is an American horror film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Stephen King, which is a sequel to King's 1977 novel 'The Shining'. The film, set several decades after the events of 'The Shining', combines elements of the 1977 novel and its 1980 film adaptation of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick. Doctor Sleep is Written, Directed, and Edited by Mike Flanagan whose previous credits take in such horror offerings as 2011's 'Absentia', 2013's 'Oculus', 2016's 'Hush', 'Before I Wake' and 'Ouija: Origin of Evil' and 2017's 'Gerald’s Game' again based on a Stephen King novel. Flanagan also created, Directed, Produced, Wrote, and Edited the Netflix supernatural horror series 'The Haunting of Hill House' in 2018, and he is currently developing a stand-alone second season, titled 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'. The film is released this week too in the US and Canada.
'PAIN AND GLORY' (Rated MA15+) - is a 2019 Spanish drama film Directed and Written by the highly acclaimed and much awarded Spaniard Pedro Almodovar. The film was released in its native Spain in late March this year, saw its international debut at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where the film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, while Banderas won the award for Best Actor and Alberto Iglesias won for Best Soundtrack. 'Pain and Glory' has been selected as the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. The film tells of a series of reencounters experienced by Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a film Director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered: his childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in the Madrid of the 1980's, the pain of the breakup of that love, writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable, the early discovery of cinema, and the void, the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he also finds his salvation. Also starring Penelope Cruz, Asier Etxeandia and Leonardo Sbaraglia, the film was released in the UK in late August, in the US in early October, has so far grossed US$31M and has garnered mostly positive Reviews.
'EMU RUNNER' (Rated PG) - this Australian drama film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Imogen Thomas in her feature film debut and tells the story of the impact a mother's death has on an Aboriginal family living in an isolated community in western New South Wales, which is perched on an ancient river and surrounded by sprawling plains. The story is seen through the eyes of Gem (Rhae-Kye Waites), a spirited eight year-old girl, who deals with the grief of her mother's death by forging a bond with a wild emu, a mythical bird of her ancestors. This spiritual dreaming is a bond she will do anything to keep, but one that puts her at odds with the new social worker, and her loving father Jay Jay (Wayne Blair) who is at a loss on how to handle her somewhat wayward young daughter whose new found interest seems to be her only interest.
'THE FURIES' (Rated R18+) - here Australian Director and Writer Tony D'Aquino helms his first full length feature film, in the form of this Aussie outback horror slasher flick that is sure to please lovers of the genre. In it, we find a pair of rebellious high school students Kayla (Airlie Dodds) and her best friend Maddie (Ebony Vagulans) are stalked and abducted by a sinister presence while out bombing their neighbourhood with graffiti. Waking up in the woods, bound, disoriented and confined within a claustrophobic coffin-like box, Kayla's first thought is of Maddie. It's easy enough for her to breakout from her confines, but before she has a chance to ponder what fate has befallen her and her friend, Kayla notices a terrifying masked man fast approaching, armed with a razor-sharp axe. As a chase ensues, it soon becomes clear that Kayla and her pursuer are not alone. There are six more young women, each with a masked stalker assigned to them, hell-bent on murder. As the threat of more rampaging killers closes in, she races to save as many girls as she can in a deadly game of cat and mouse. But when the girls turn on each other, Kayla's killer instinct in unleashed and she does whatever it takes to survive and seek revenge on her abductors. Also starring Linda Ngo, Taylor Ferguson, Danielle Horvat, Jessica Baker, Kaitlyn Boye and Harriet Davies as the six other woman being hunted, with Steve Morris, Ben Toyer, Leon Stripp and Dean Gould as the stalking killers.
With six new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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