* Little Richard - born Richard Wayne Penniman on 5th December 1932, died 9th May 2020, aged 87. Richard was first and foremost one of the founding fathers of Rock 'n' Roll back in the early '50's who went on to influence popular music and culture over the following seven decades. He rose to fame at time when his contemporaries included Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Bill Haley, Eddie Cochrane and Chuck Berry, with in particular his perhaps most renowned songs being 'Tutti Frutti', 'Long Tall Sally', 'Lucille', 'The Girl Can't Help It' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly' amongst a whole raft of others. Whilst the man was defined by his music career he also accumulated a number of both big and small screen roles amounting to twenty seven screen acting credits ranging from 1956 in 'Don't Knock the Rock', 'Mister Rock and Roll' to 'Down and Out in Beverly Hills' in 1986, 'The Purple People Eater' in 1988, 'Sunset Heat' and 'The Naked Truth' both in 1992, 'The Pickle' and 'Last Action Hero' both in 1993 through to 'Chairman of the Board' in 1998. In the meantime there were one-off appearances or multiple spots on TV series starring either as himself or as a fictional character including on 'Miami Vice', 'Bustin' Loose', 'Martin', 'Baywatch', 'The Drew Carey Show' and 'NightMan'. He also notched up 228 soundtrack credits throughout his career on TV series and movies. In 2000 Richard's life was chronicled in the NBC made for TV film 'Little Richard' which was based on the 1984 book 'Quasar of Rock : The Life and Times of Little Richard'. He also received numerous awards for his singing and music talents over the years including his induction into many 'Halls of Fame'.
* Jerry Stiller - born Gerald Isaac Stiller on 8th June 1927, died 11th May 2020, aged 92. Stiller was an American Actor of film, television and theatre, comedian and author. Stiller accumulated 115 screen acting credits throughout his seven decade spanning career which launched in 1957 on a single episode of the long running drama series 'The Big Story'. His first big screen role came with an uncredited role on 1970's 'Love and Other Strangers' followed by more meaty roles in 'The Taking of Pelham 123' and 'Airport 1975' both in 1974, then the likes of 'The Ritz', 'Nasty Habits', 'Seize the Day', 'Hot Pursuit', 'Nadine', 'Hairspray' in 1988 and then again in a different role in 2007's 'Hairspray', 'The Pickle', 'Camp Stories', 'Stag', 'A Fish in the Bathtub', 'The Independent', 'Chump Change', 'Zoolander' and its follow up 'Zoolander 2' and its animated TV movie 'Zoolander : Super Model' both in 2016, 'The Heartbreak Kid', 'Excuse Me for Living' and 'Cousins'. His TV career included turns on 'The Defenders', on fourteen episodes of 'Joe and Sons', 'Rhoda', 'Hart to Hart', 'Private Benjamin', 'Simon & Simon', 'The Love Boat', 'The Equalizer', 'Tales from the Dark Side', 'Murder, She Wrote', on fourteen episodes of 'Tattinger's', 'L.A. Law', 'Law & Order', 'Touched by an Angel' and 'The Good Wife'. He will perhaps be most well known for his comedy double act with his wife of sixty years Anne Meara on 'The Stiller and Meara Show', as George Costanza's father Frank on 26 episodes of 'Seinfeld' and as Arthur Spooner on all 206 episodes of 'The King of Queens'. Over the years he also lent his distinctive voice talent to numerous animated feature films and television series. He collected four award wins and another six nominations throughout his career mostly for 'Seinfeld' and for 2007's 'Hairspray'. Jerry was the father of acclaimed Actor, Director, Producer and Writer Ben Stiller.
* Lynn Shelton - born 27th August 1965, died 15th May 2020, aged 54. Shelton was an American Director of film and television, Editor, Producer, Writer and Actor. During her Directing career which began only as recently as 2006 with her debut feature film 'We Go Way Back' which over the subsequent fifteen years she followed up with the likes of 'My Effortless Brilliance', 'Humpday' with Mark Duplass, 'Your Sister's Sister' with Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass and Rosemarie DeWitt, 'Touchy Feely' with Rosemarie DeWitt and Ellen Page, 'Laggies' with Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz and Sam Rockwell, 'Outside In' with Edie Falco and Jay Duplass and 'Sword of Trust' in 2019 being her final big screen offering. In the meantime, she Directed an episode of 'Mad Men', five episodes of 'New Girl', two of 'The Mindy Project', one of 'Shameless', one of the 'Santa Clarita Diet', nine on 'Fresh Off the Boat', five on 'GLOW' and most recently four episodes of 'Little Fires Everywhere' earlier this year. She also acted in films including 'Humpday', 'The Off Hours', 'The Catechism Cataclysm', 'Safety Not Guaranteed', 'Lucky Them', and 'Sword of Trust'. In addition she also notched up seven Producer credits, ten as a Writer and ten as an Editor. Shelton also garnered 12 award wins and a further fourteen nominations from around the awards and festival circuit.
* Fred Willard - born Frederick Charles Willard on 18th September 1933, died 15th May 2020, aged 86. Willard was American Actor of film and television and two time Writer. During a career that spanned six decades Willard accumulated 312 screen acting credits that launched in 1966 in a single episode of the TV series 'Pistols 'n' Petticoats'. His film career went on to include his debut in 1967's 'Teenage Mother' followed up by 'Jenny' in 1970 and then 'Hustle' with Burt Reynolds, 'Silver Streak' with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, 'Fun with Dick and Jane' with George Segal and Jane Fonda, 'How to Beat the High Co$t of Living', 'This Is Spinal Tap', 'Roxanne' with Steve Martin, 'Waiting for Guffman', 'Austin Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me', 'Chump Change', 'Best in Show', 'The Wedding Planner' with Matthew McConaughey, 'Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle', 'Anchorman : The Legend of Ron Burgundy' with Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, 'For Your Consideration', 'Epic Movie', 'WALL-E', 'Max Rose' with Jerry Lewis, 'Anchorman 2 : The Legend Continues' and 'Fifty Shades of Black'. In the intervening years he also appeared in numerous TV series including 'Laverne & Shirley', on forty-four episodes of 'Fernwood 2 Night', and on sixty-five episodes of 'America 2 Night' as the same character, 'The Love Boat', on twenty-two episodes of 'D.C. Follies', 'Murphy Brown', 'Friends', on eight episodes of 'Roseanne', on five episodes of 'Mad About You', 'Ally McBeal', on fourteen of 'Everybody Loves Raymond', on seventeen of 'Back to You', seven on 'The Bold and the Beautiful', fourteen on 'Modern Family', and on ten episodes of 'Space Force' very recently released on Netflix. He also lent his voice talents to many animated series and the occasional feature film. He was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards plus fifteen further nods and four award wins during his career.
* Monique Mercure - born Marie Lisa Monique Emond on 14th November 1930 and died 17th May 2020 aged 89. Mercure was a Canadian Actress who amassed eighty screen acting credits throughout her career which kick started with her appearance on a single episode of TV series 'La Boîte a Surprise' in 1956. Her first big screen role came with 1963's 'Take It All' followed up by the likes of 'Don't Let the Angels Fall', 'J.A. Martin photographe' in 1977 for which she won a Best Actress Award at The Cannes Film Festival and the Canadian Film Awards, 'The Song of Roland' in 1978 with Klaus Kinski, 'The Third Walker' with William Shatner, 'Quintet' with Paul Newman, 'The Blood of Others' in 1984 with Jodi Foster and Sam Neill, David Cronenberg's 'Naked Lunch' in 1991 with Peter Weller and Judy Davis, 'The Red Violin' in 1998, 'When Justice Falls' in 1999 with Jeff Fahey, 'Battle of the Brave' in 2004 with Tim Roth, Gerard Depardieu and Jason Isaacs, 'Master Key' in 2009 with her final screen role coming in 2017 with 'C'est le coeur qui meurt en dernier'. Meanwhile, she also appeared in one off roles in TV series, and multiple episodes of 'Providence' in 2005 and 'Memoires vives' between 2013 and 2015. Mercure was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1977. She was subsequently promoted to Companion seventeen years later in 1994 and in 2006, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Messages of condolence were conveyed by Canadian PrimeMinister Justin Trudeau who said she 'helped promote Quebec cinema beyond our borders and her legacy will live on through her work'.
* Ken Osmond - born 7th June 1943, died 18th May 2020, aged 76. Osmond was an American Actor who amassed thirty-two screen acting credits throughout his seven decade spanning career mostly in television series and a handful of feature films most of which his roles went uncredited until the latter part of his working life. His career launched as a child Actor from a very early age, but his work took off in the '50's with four uncredited roles in the films 'Plymouth Adventure', 'So Big', 'Good Morning, Miss Dove' and 'Everything But The Truth' from 1952 to 1957. He scored his big break as Eddie Haskell in 97 episodes of 'Leave it to Beaver' between 1957 and 1963, and this is the role, that for better or for worse, was to leave an indelible mark on his career. He would reprise the role in the TV movie 'Still the Beaver' in 1983, then again on 101 episodes of 'The New Leave It to Beaver' between 1983 and 1989, again in 1992 on a single episode of 'Parker Lewis Can't Loose', then once more in a single episode of TV series 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' in 1992 and for a final time in the 1997 film 'Leave it to Beaver' playing a senior version of his character. Meanwhile there were appearances mostly on single episodes of TV series including 'Annie Oakley', 'Colt .45', 'Wagon Train', 'The Munsters', 'Lassie', 'Happy Days', 'Rags to Riches' and his final big screen role after a hiatus of almost twenty years in the 2016 film 'CHARACTERz'. Typecast by his role on the 'Beaver' franchise, he found it hard to get other acting work and became a Los Angeles Police officer in 1970. In late September 1980, Osmond was struck by five bullets while in a foot chase with a suspected car thief. He was protected from four of the bullets by his bullet-proof vest, with the fifth bullet ricocheting off his belt buckle. The shooting incident was later portrayed in a November 1992 episode of the CBS series 'Top Cops'. In 1988 a Superior Court Judge ruled for a determination of a disability pension for Osmond and so he retired from the Police force on a lifetime pension. Following his retirement from the Police he returned to his acting career and also handled rental properties in the Los Angeles County area. Published in late 2014, Osmond was the co-author of the book 'Eddie : The Life and Times of America's Preeminent Bad Boy'.
* Ken Nightingall - born sometime in 1928, died 19th May 2020, aged 92. Nightingall was a British sound engineer who became known as the Pink Shorts Boom Guy after an image emerged in 2015 of him working as the boom operator on the 1977 'Star Wars' film while shooting in Tunisia wearing only a pair of pink shorts. He amassed 47 screen credits during his four decades as boom operator which began with 1963's 'Paranoiac' and followed this up with 'Alfie' (although uncredited), 'Funeral in Berlin', 'The Abominable Dr. Phibes', 'The Boys from Brazil', 'Escape to Athena', 'Hopscotch', 'For Your Eyes Only' which he followed up with three more Bond outings 'Octopussy', 'A View to a Kill' and 'The Living Daylights' with 'Top Secret', 'Death Wish 3', 'Lionheart', 'A Chorus of Disapproval', 'Bullseye' and 1998's 'Lost in Space' being his final work. Nightingall died of COVID-19.
* Heather Chasen - born 20th July 1927, died 22nd May 2020, aged 92. Chasen was an English Actress of Film, Television, Theatre and Radio who accumulated fifty-seven screen acting credits throughout her career spanning seven decades which launched in 1949 in the film 'Meet the Duke'. Her next screen role came eight years later in 1957 with the made for TV movie 'Uncertain Hours'. From here she appeared in six episodes of 'The World of Tim Frazer' in 1960, then 'Danger Man', 'Dixon of Dock Green', then on multiple epodes of 'Crossroads', on eighty-two episodes of 'Newcomers', on eighty-four episodes of 'Marked Personal', then 'The Bill', 'Casualty', 'Holby City', on eleven episodes of 'Eastenders' and on four episodes of 'Doctors' as recently as 2014. In the meantime there were big screen roles in 'Suburban Wives', 'Sex Through the Ages', 'Commuter Husbands', 'Naughty', 'The Deadly Females', 'The Toybox', 'Cat Run' and 'Les Miserables' in 2012 amongst other made for TV film roles too. Chasen also appeared in numerous stage plays from 1945 right up until 2008.
* Richard Herd - born 26th September 1932, died 26th May 2020, aged 87. Herd was an American Actor who accumulated 155 film and television screen acting credits plus a number of stage productions too throughout his five decade spanning career. He launched his acting life with the 1970 feature film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger's debut 'Hercules in New York' and followed this up over the following fifty years with big screen appearances in 'All The President's Men' with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in 1976, 'F.I.S.T.' in 1978 with Sylvester Stallone, 'The China Syndrome' in 1979 with Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas and 'The Onion Field' that same year with James Woods, 'Private Benjamin' with Goldie Hawn the following year, 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' in 1987 with John Candy and Steve Martin, 'Sgt. Bilko' in 1997 with Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin again and 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' also that year with John Cusack and Kevin Spacey, 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari', 'Checkers', 'Dog Days of Summer', then 'Get Out' for Director Jordan Peele in 2017, 'The Mule' for Director and Star Clint Eastwood in 2018, and 'The Silent Natural' in 2019. In the intervening years there were numerous appearances on single and multiple episodes of TV shows including 'Kojak', 'The Rockford Files', 'The Streets of San Francisco', 'Starsky and Hutch', 'M*A*S*H', 'Dallas', 'Hart to Hart', 'Falcon Crest', on 36 episodes of 'T.J. Hooker', 'The A-Team', 'Knight Rider', 'Dynasty', 'Hill Street Blues', 'Knots Landing', 'Murder, She Wrote', on twelve episodes of 'SeaQuest 2032', on eleven episodes of 'Seinfeld', 'Star Trek : Voyager', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Cold Case', 'Rizzoli & Isles', 'Shameless' and 'Hawaii Five-0'.
* Anthony James - born James Anthony on 22nd July 1942, died 26th May 2020, aged 77. James was an American character Actor who notched up seventy-four film and television roles during his career which launched with a single episode on 'T.H.E Cat' in 1966. Following this he took roles in such films as 'In the Heat of the Night' in 1967 with Sidney Poitier, 'Sam Whiskey' with Burt Reynolds in 1969, 'Vanishing Point' in 1971 with Barry Newman, 'High Plains Drifter' in 1973 starring and Directed by Clint Eastwood, 'Blue Thunder' in 1983 with Roy Scheider, 'World Gone Wild' in 1987 with Bruce Dern, 'The Naked Gun 21/2 : The Smell of Fear' with Leslie Neilsen and 'Unforgiven' in 1993 starring and Directed by Clint Eastwood was to be his final screen role. In the meantime there were roles on such notable TV series including 'The High Chaparral', 'Gunsmoke', 'Bonanza', 'Hawaii Five-0', 'The Streets of San Francisco', 'Police Story', 'Rich Man, Poor Man', 'Charlie's Angels', 'Starsky and Hutch', 'Man from Atlantis', 'Vega$', 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century', 'Knight Rider', 'The A-Team', 'The Fall Guy', 'Star Trek : The Next Generation', and 'Married with Children'. After retiring from acting in the early '90's, James pursued a successful career as an artist. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in such major cities as New York, Boston and Miami. In 1994, he published a book of art and poetry titled 'Language of the Heart', and in 2014 he published his autobiography, 'Acting My Face'.
* Tony Scannell - born 14th August 1945, died 26th May 2020, aged 74. Scannell was an Irish Actor who accumulated just twenty-seven screen acting credits which kicked off in 1976 with a bit part in TV mini-series 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' before scoring his debut big screen role in 'All the Fun of the Fair' in 1979 and then 'Flash Gordon' in 1980, 'Evil Never Dies' in 2014 and 'With Love from . . . Suffolk' in 2016. In the meantime there were mostly single episodes on the likes of more notable TV series 'The Professionals', 'The Gentle Touch', 'Up the Elephant and Round the Castle', 'Family Affairs', 'Waking the Dead' and perhaps his most remembered role as Detective Sergeant Ted Roach in 287 episodes of 'The Bill' from 1984 through to 2000. 
* Michael Angelis - born 18th January 1952, died 30th May 2020 aged 68. Angelis was an English Actor mostly of British TV series, plus the occasional movie and stage appearance. He amassed 100 screen acting and voice roles during his career which ran from 1972 through until the present day. His career launched in 1972 with a small part in a one-off appearance in the TV series 'The Scobie Man' which he followed up with roles on the likes of 'Coronation Street', 'Z Cars', 'Hazell' and 'Rock Follies' before his first big screen role in the British crime caper comedy 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square' with Oliver Tobias, David Niven and Elke Sommer. His other big screen roles came with 'George and Mildred : The Movie' in 1980 based on the long running and popular British sit-com of the same name, 'No Surrender' in 1985, 'The Virgin of Liverpool' in 2003, 'Fated' in 2006 and 'First Time Loser' in 2012. In the meantime there were other television appearances including on 'Boys from the Blackstuff', 'The Professionals', on twelve episodes of 'I Woke Up One Morning', on six episodes of the mini-series 'G.B.H.', seven on 'Wail of the Banshee', on sixteen of 'September Song', on 34 episodes of 'The Liver Birds', 'Heartbeat', 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet', 'The Bill', and 'Casualty'. He also voiced 394 episodes as the Narrator of various series of 'Thomas and Friends' of the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' series plus 32 video films and short films of the same hugely popular young children's animated franchise.
* Dan van Husen - born 30th April 1945, died 31st May 2020, aged 75. Husen was a German born Actor of film, television and occasional stage who appeared in many Hollywood productions throughout his career which launched with an uncredited role in 1967's 'The Bastard'. He amassed 145 screen acting credits from then onwards right up until the present day with his role in the upcoming 'Tesla' announced recently. In between time there were big screen appearances in the likes of Italian Western 'Los desesperados' - his first credited screen role, which he followed up over the next six or seven years with some twenty Spaghetti Westerns including 'Arizona Colt, Hired Gun', 'The Arizona Kid', 'Captain Apache', 'Catlow', 'El hombre de Rio Malo', 'Long Live . . . Your Death!', 'Pancho Villa' and 'Cipolla Colt' amongst others. In the meantime his other more notable big screen roles were 'Salon Kitty', 'The Squeeze', 'Nosferatu the Vampyre', 'The Lady Vanishes', 'Bloodline', 'Avalanche Express', 'The Sea Wolves', 'Wild Geese II', 'Enemy at the Gates', 'Hart's War', 'Cold and Dark', 'Drawn in Blood', 'The Man Who Sold the World', 'The Scarlet Worm', 'Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn', 'Zombie Massacre 2 : Reich of the Dead', 'Brimstone', 'In Search of Fellini', 'The Price of Death' and 'Beyond Fury' being his last performance in 2019. In September 2011 Husen attended the Almeria Western Film Festival in Spain, and received a lifetime achievement award for his portfolio of films in the Western genre. He died from COVID-19.Fifteen deaths reported this month from the film and television community at large, and that community is just a little bit poorer as a result. Two from COVID-19 which possibly could have been avoided, and two too many. As governments the world over ease restrictions, remember the basic principles still being advocated - maintain a safe distance, and hand hygiene especially - together we can all beat this thing. Stay safe and remain healthy.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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