In May, the world bid a fond farewell to a number of stars of the silver screen and the small screen. In brief, shown below, is my passing tribute to those stars who leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, and in particular the world of film and television. May you all Rest In Peace, and thanks for the memories . . . . . Jerry verDorn, Lion Capolicchio, Kenneth Welsh, Dennis Waterman, John R. Cherry III, Fred Ward, Qin Yi, Maggie Peterson, Kay Mellor, John Aylward, Marnie Schulenburg, Colin Cantwell, Jamie Bartlett, Ray Liotta, Bo Hopkins, Patricia Brake and Milton Goncalves.
* Jerry verDorn - born 23rd November 1949 and died 1st May 2022, aged 72. verDorn was an American soap opera Actor who notched up just five screen acting credits during his career which began on the TV series
'Guiding Light' and on which he starred as Ross Marler for 351 episodes from 1979 through until 2005. verDorn also portrayed Ross in a 1983 television movie,
'The Cradle Will Fall', an adaptation of a book to film. In October 2005, verDorn took over the role of Clint Buchanan on
'One Life to Live' and continued in the role until the series cancellation in 2012 having appeared in 545 episodes, and in January 2013, verDorn became the first actor to sign on for the revival of
'One Life to Live' on a rival network starring in a further forty episodes. His final screen role came on a single episode of
'Venice the Series' in 2019. For his role on
'The Guiding Light' he won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated another five times, together with three other award nods.
* Lino Capolicchio - born 21st August 1943 and died 3rd May 2022, aged 78. Capolicchio was an Italian Actor, Director and Writer who amassed sixty-one screen acting credits, two as Director and two as Writer during his career which kicked off with the TV mini-series
'The Count of Monte Cristo' in 1966. His big screen debut came the following year in 1967 in an albeit uncredited role in
'The Taming of The Shrew' with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and over the years that followed he would have roles in other features including
'The Last Days of Mussolini' in 1974 with Rod Steiger, Franco Nero and Henry Fonda,
'Cross Shot' in 1976 with John Saxon and Lee J. Cobb,
'Lion of the Desert' in 1980 with Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reid and Rod Steiger,
'Traveling Companion' in 1996 with Asia Argento with his final screen appearance coming in 2019's
'Il signor Diavolo'. Capolicchio won three awards and was nominated twice. In 1995 he wrote and Directed
'Pugili', an award-winning film about the world of boxing, and for three seasons he provided the voice for Bo Duke in the Italian broadcasts of
'The Dukes of Hazzard'.
* Kenneth Welsh - born 30th March 1942 and died 5th May 2022, aged 80. Welsh was a Canadian film and TV Actor who accumulated 242 screen acting roles throughout his career which began on seven episodes of
'Shoestring Theatre' in 1963/64. From here he went onto appear in numerous TV series and movies taking in the likes of
'Piaf : The Early Years' in 1974 and his feature film debut, then
'Perfect' in 1985 with John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis,
'Crocodile Dundee II' in 1988 with Paul Hogan,
'Death Wish : The Face of Death' in 1994 with Charles Bronson,
'Legends of the Fall' in 1994 with Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins,
'Absolute Power' in 1997 for and with Clint Eastwood,
'Focus' in 2001 with William H. Macy and Laura Dern,
'The Day After Tomorrow' in 2004 with Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid,
'The Aviator' in 2004 with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett,
'Survival of the Dead' in 2009 for George A. Romero,
'The Art of the Steal' in 2013 with Kurt Russell with
'Compton Manor' recently finished filming and
'Midnight at the Paradise', 'Deadly Draw' and
'Afterwards' all in post-production awaiting a future release. In the meantime he also had roles in TV shows including on ten episodes of
'Twin Peaks' in 1990/91,
'The X-Files', 'The Outer Limits', 'Due South', 'The Practice', 'The Best Laid Plans', 'The Divide', 'Star Trek : Discovery' and
'Charmed'. Welsh was the recipient of five wins and another six nominations from around the awards circuit, and he was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) in October 2004, for his services to Performing Arts in Canada.
* Dennis Waterman - born 24th February 1948, died 8th May 2022, aged 74. Waterman was an English Actor and singer who notched up eighty-nine screen acting credits throughout his six decades in front of the camera, beginning at the age of twelve in 1960 in the feature film
'Night Train for Inverness'. He would follow this up with other feature film credits including
'Snowball' also in 1960,
'The Pirates of Blood River' in 1962,
'Go Cart Go' in 1964 and
'Up the Junction' in 1968 all before he had reached the age of twenty. Then he appeared in
'Wedding Night' in 1969,
'My Lover, My Son' and
'Scars of Dracula' both in 1970,
'Man in the Wilderness' in 1971 with Richard Harris, then
'Sweeney!' in 1977 and
'Sweeney 2' in 1978 with John Thaw,
'The First Kangaroos' in 1988,
'Vol-au-Vent' in 1996,
'Back in Business' in 2007 with Martin Kemp,
'Run for Your Wife' in 2012 and
'Never Too Late' in 2020 with James Cromwell and Jacki Weaver being his final screen role. In the intervening years there were also numerous TV series, with perhaps the most memorable and long standing being on fifty-four episodes of
'The Sweeney' as Detective Sergeant George Carter between 1974 and 1978, then on seventy-three of
'Minder' as Terry McCann opposite George Cole, on nineteen of
'On the Up' between 1990 and 1992, on twenty-seven of
'Stay Lucky' between 1989 and 1993, and finally on ninety-nine episodes of
'New Tricks' between 2003 and 2015. Waterman sang the theme tunes to both
'Minder' and
'New Tricks' and had a UK Top 3 hit record with
'I Could Be So Good For You' - the theme tune for
'Minder'.
* John R. Cherry III' - born 11th October 1948 and died 8th May 2022, aged 73. Cherry was an American Director, Producer and Writer who generated twenty-two Directing credits, nine as Producer and thirteen as Writer in a career which began with the video
'Knowhutimean? : Hey Vern, It's My Family Album' in 1983. He is however, perhaps best known for creating the character of Ernest P. Worrell, played by Jim Varney, the American Actor and comedian. Cherry's first Ernest offering was the video
'The Ernest Film Festival' in 1986 which was followed by a string of Ernest films thereafter taking in
'Ernest's Greatest Hits Volume 1', 'Ernest Goes to Camp', 'Hey Vern, Win $10,000', 'Ernest Saves Christmas', 'Ernest Goes to Jail', 'Ernest Scared Stupid', 'Ernest Rides Again', 'Slam Dunk Ernest', 'Ernest Goes to Africa' and
'Ernest in the Army' all between 1986 and 1998. Cherry retired the Ernest character after Varney's declining health made it impossible for him to continue in the role (Varney died in 2000). He directed two other films without Ernest, those being
'For Love or Mummy' and
'Pirates of the Plain' both in 1999.
* Fred Ward - born 30th December 1932 and died 8th May 2022, aged 79. Ward was an American Actor and one time Producer who accumulated eighty-nine screen acting appearances during his five decade spanning career which launched in the TV mini-series
'The Age of the Medici' in 1973. His first big screen role came a year later in 1974 in
'Ginger in the Morning', which would lead to numerous other feature films roles over the ensuing years including
'Escape from Alcatraz' in 1979 with Clint Eastwood,
'The Right Stuff' in 1983 with Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Sam Shepard and Dennis Quaid,
'Silkwood' also in 1983 with Kurt Russell, Meryl Streep and Cher,
'Off Limits' in 1988 with Willem Dafoe,
'Tremors' in 1990 with Kevin Bacon,
'Miami Blues' in 1990 with Alex Baldwin and which he also Executive Produced,
'Henry & June' in 1990 with Uma Thurman,
'The Player' and
'Bob Roberts' both in 1992 and both with Tim Robbins,
'Short Cuts' in 1993 with an all star cast,
'Chain Reaction' in 1996 with Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman,
'Joe Dirt' in 2001 with David Spade,
'Sweet Home Alabama' in 2002 with Reece Witherspoon,
'Farewell' in 2009 with Willem Dafoe and
'2 Guns' in 2013 with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg being his final feature film role. In the years in between there were also sporadic appearances on TV shows taking in
'The Incredible Hulk', 'Invasion Earth', 'Grey's Anatomy', 'ER', 'United States of Tara' and
'True Detective' in 2015. Ward was the recipient of three award wins, two of which were for the ensemble cast for
'Shorts Cuts' plus two other nominations.
* Qin Yi - born 4th February 1922 and died 9th May 2022, aged 100. Yi was a Chinese Actress who rose to prominence for her stage performances in the war-time capital Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945. After the war, she became one of China's most popular film actresses throughout the 1950's and '60's and was recognised as one of the country's top four actresses. Her big screen debut came in 1946 in
'The Loyal Family', and in 1947 she had her first leading role in
'Far Away Love' which made her a famous movie star. After 1949, Qin Yi became an actress of the recently established Shanghai Film Studio, and was appointed deputy head of the Actors' Theatre Troupe. She played the leading roles in many films including
'Railway Guerrillas', 'Woman Basketball Player No. 5', 'Song of the Youth', and
'Loyal Overseas Chinese', as well as supporting roles in many others. After making just one film between 1984 and 2012 her career took a resurgence in 2012 with
'Promise', then
'The Beautiful Kokonor Lake' and
'Legend of the Demon Cat' both in 2017 and
'Goddesses in the Flames of War' in 2018 being her final screen outing. All up Yi won ten awards including six Lifetime Achievement Awards.
* Maggie Peterson (aka
Maggie Mancuso) - born 10th January 1941 and died 15th May 2022, aged 81. Peterson was an American Actress, Location Manager and singer who notched up just seventeen screen acting credits during her career and seven as a Location Manager. Her screen credits for television series beginning with six episodes on
'The Andy Griffith Show' in 1963 and then eight episodes on
'The Bill Dana Show' in 1964, with two feature films only, those being
'Angel in my Pocket' with Andy Griffith in 1969 and
'The Love God?' that same year with Don Knotts. Her other TV roles were mostly for one off appearances including
'Love, American Style', 'Green Acres', 'The Odd Couple', 'Odd Man Out' and her final screen role coming in a single episode of
'The Magical World of Disney' in 1987. Her location work included the likes of
'Casino', 'Mars Attacks!', 'Perdita Durango', 'Go' and
'Pay It Forward'.
* Kay Mellor - born 11th May 1951 and died 15th May 2022, aged 71. Mellor was an English Screenwriter, Producer, Actress, and Director who notched up thirty writing credits, eleven as Producer, eight as an Actress and five as Director. As an Actress her career kicked off on two episodes of
'The Practice' in 1985, followed by the likes of eight episodes on
'Just Us' between 1992 and 1994, then the made for TV movies
'Jane Eyre', 'A Good Thief' and
'Gifted' in 2003 being her final screen role. Her Directing credits included her big screen debut in 1999 with
'Fanny and Elvis' with Kerry Fox and Ray Winstone, then the TV series
'In the Club', 'Girlfriends' and ten episodes of
'The Syndicate' between 2012 and 2021. Her writing credits took in numerous TV shows and feature films taking in
'Some Kind of Life' in 1996,
'Girls' Night' in 1998 and the aforementioned
'Fanny and Elvis'. Mellor was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award in 1997 for Outstanding Writing for Television and the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2009 HRH the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to Drama.
* John Aylward - born 7th November 1946, died 16th May 2022, aged 75. Aylward was an American Actor with ninety-eight screen acting credits to his name. His career began in 1976 in the made for TV movie
'The Secret Life of John Chapman' and it would then be another nine years before his next screen role, coming in the feature film in 1985 with
'Strings' and he would follow this up with other cinematic offerings taking in the likes of
'Seven Hours to Judgment' in 1988 with Beau Bridges,
'Buddy' in 1997 with Susan Sarandon,
'Armageddon' in 1998 with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck,
'Finding Graceland' also in 1998 with Harvey Keitel,
'Thirteen Days' in 2000 with Kevin Costner,
'Bad Company' in 2002 with Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock,
'North Country' in 2005 with Charlize Theron,
'Water for Elephants' in 2011 with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon,
'Gangster Squad' in 2013 with Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling,
'A Million Ways to Die in the West' in 2014 for and with Seth MacFarlane and
'The Way Back' in 2020 with Ben Affleck being his final film appearance. In the meantime, there were also notable small screen roles including
'Northern Exposure', 'The Others', 'Family Law', 'Ally McBeal', 'The X-Files', 'The Practice', 'Boston Legal', 'Alias', 'The West Wing', on seventy-four episodes of
'ER', 'Mad Men', 'Nobodies', 'Yellowstone' and
'Briarpatch' being his final screen role in 2020.
* Marnie Schulenburg - born 21st May 1984 and died 17th May 2022, aged 37. Schulenburg was an American Actress who generated twenty-four screen acting credits throughout her all too short career which kicked off in 2007 on a single episode of
'The Young and the Restless'. Her most well known role however, came with 307 episodes on
'As the World Turns' up to 2010 as Alison Stewart. Her other TV appearances included on
'Blue Bloods', 'Royal Pains', 'Elementary', 'Tainted Dreams', 'The Good Fight' and
'City on a Hill', with the feature films
'Made for Each Other' in 2009 and
'The Golden Scallop' in 2013.
* Colin Cantwell - born sometime in 1932 and died 21st May 2022, aged 89 or 90. Cantwell was an American visual effects and concept artist whose debut in special photographic effects came with Stanley Kubrick's
'2001 : A Space Odyssey' in 1968. From here he worked in the miniature and optical effects unit on additional spacecraft design for
'Star Wars : A New Hope' in 1977 including concept models for the X-wing fighter, the Y-wing, the TIE fighter, the Star Destroyer, the Death Star, the landspeeder and the sandcrawler. He followed this up with the computer graphics design for
'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' in 1979 and as the computer graphics design consultant in the 1983 feature
'WarGames'. During Walter Cronkite's historic moon landing broadcast in 1969 Cantwell was on the communications line between NASA and the astronauts getting updates that he fed to Cronkite, who in turn broadcasted that information to the world on live TV. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects on
'WarGames'.
* Jamie Bartlett - born 9th July 1966 and died on 23rd May 2022, aged 55. Bartlett was a British born South African Actor of theatre, cinema and television who accumulated twenty-four screen acting credits to his name in a career beginning with the 1987 feature film
'American Ninja 2 : The Confrontation' with Michael Dudikoff. He would follow this up with more feature films including
'Blind Justice' with Christopher Cazenove in 1988,
'The Revenger' in 1990 with Oliver Reed,
'American Ninja 4 : The Annihilation' in 1990 with Michael Dudikoff again,
'Bravo Two Zero' in 1999 with Sean Bean,
'Beyond Borders' in 2003 with Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen,
'Red Dust' in 2004 with Hilary Swank,
'Prey' in 2007 with Bridget Moynahan and Peter Weller,
'Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom' in 2013 with Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, with
'Nothing for Mahala' also in 2013 being his final film role. His most noted TV series credit came with over three thousand appearances as David Genaro on
'Rhythm City' between 2007 and 2019 for which he won three awards and was nominated three other times in the South African Film and Television Awards.
* Ray Liotta - born 18th December 1954 and died 26th May 2022, aged 67. Liotta was an American Actor and Producer who accumulated 126 screen acting credits and eight as Producer throughout his career which launched across thirty-six episodes of
'Another World' between 1978 and 1981. During this time he also had roles in two made for TV movies -
'Hardhat and Legs' in 1980 and
'Crazy Times' in 1981. His big screen debut came in 1983 in
'The Lonely Lady' with Pia Zadora and then
'Something Wild' in 1986 Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith (which gained Liotta his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor). His other notable feature film appearances include
'Field of Dreams' in 1989 with Kevin Costner, then perhaps his most acclaimed role in Martin Scorsese's
'Goodfellas' in 1990 as mobster Henry Hill opposite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. This was followed by the likes of
'Unlawful Entry' with Kurt Russell in 1992,
'Corrina, Corrina' in 1994 with Whoopi Goldberg,
'Cop Land' in 1997 with Sylvester Stallone and Harvey Keitel,
'Hannibal' in 2001 with Anthony Hopkins,
'Blow' that same year with Johnny Depp,
'Narc' in 2002 with Jason Patrick,
'Identity' in 2003 with John Cusack,
'Revolver' in 2005 with Jason Statham,
'Smokin' Aces' in 2006 with Ryan Reynolds,
'Crossing Over' in 2009 with Harrison Ford,
'Killing Them Softly' in 2012 with Brad Pitt,
'The Place Beyond the Pines' also in 2012 with Ryan Gosling,
'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' in 2014 with Mickey Rourke,
'Kill the Messenger' in 2014 with Jeremy Renner,
'Marriage Story' in 2019 with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson,
'No Sudden Move' with Benecio Del Toro and Don Cheadle in 2021 and
'The Many Saints of Newark' in 2021 too with Alessandro Nivola. Liotta also had five feature films either completed, in post-production or currently filming at the time of his passing. He also had roles in TV series including
'Our Family Honour', 'Just Shoot Me!', 'ER', 'Texas Rising', 'The Making of the Mob', 'Modern Family', 'Young Sheldon', on thirty-six episodes of
'Shades of Blue', on six of
'Hanna' and on six of
'Black Bird' which has recently completed filming. All up Liotta won nine awards and was nominated a further fourteen times around the awards and festival circuit.
* Bo Hopkins - born
William Mauldin Hopkins on 2nd February 1938 and died 28th May 2022, aged 84. Hopkins was an American Actor who accumulated 131 screen acting roles throughout his career which kicked off in 1966 on a single episode of
'The Phyllis Diller Show'. His first big screen role came two years later in 1968 in
'Dayton's Devils' with Leslie Nielsen, and then the likes of Sam Peckinpah's
'The Wild Bunch' in 1969 with William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan,
'The Bridge at Remagen' also in 1969 with George Segal and Robert Vaughn,
'The Getaway' in 1972 for Sam Peckinpah again and with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw,
'American Graffiti' in 1973 for George Lucas,
'The Day of the Locust' in 1975 with Donald Sutherland,
'The Killer Elite' for Sam Peckinpah once more and with James Caan and Robert Duvall,
'Midnight Express' in 1978 for Alan Parker and with Brad Davis,
'U Turn' in 1997 for Oliver Stone and with Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez,
'The Newton Boys' in 1998 for Richard Linklater with Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke,
'South of Heaven, West of Hell' in 2000 with Billy Bob Thornton with
'Hillbilly Elegy' in 2020 for Ron Howard with Glenn Close and Amy Adams being his final screen appearance. In the meantime, there were also roles on TV shows including
'The Virginian', 'Gunsmoke', 'The Wild Wild West', 'Bonanza', 'Ironside', 'Hawaii Five-O', ' The Rockford Files', 'Charlie's Angels', 'Fantasy Island', 'The A-Team', 'Hotel', 'The Fall Guy', on eighteen episodes of
'Dynasty', and
'Murder, She Wrote'.
* Patricia Brake - born 25th June 1942 and died 28th May 2022, aged 79. Brake was an English Actress who generated sixty-seven screen acting roles during her career with launched on thirty-seven episodes of
'Home Tonight' in 1961. Her first acting roles were with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she performed alongside such colleagues as Judi Dench, Diana Rigg, Ian Richardson and Ian Holm. Alongside her extensive body of work in West End theatres, and at the Bath Theatre Royal (her home town), she appeared mostly in TV series taking in the likes of
'Lorna Doone', 'Emergency-Ward 10', 'Z Cars', on thirteen episodes of
'Second Time Around', 'Emmerdale Farm', 'Porridge', 'Going Straight', 'The Glums', on thirteen of
'Troubles and Strife', 'The Bill', on 128 episodes of
'Eldorado', 'EastEnders', 'Coronation Street', 'Holby City', on fourteen of
'Doctors', 'Casualty', 'Truth Seekers' and
'Manhunt' as recently as 2021 being her final screen role. There were a small handful of feature films that were
'My Lover, My Son' in 1970 with Romy Schneider and Dennis Waterman,
'The Optimists' in 1973 with Peter Sellers,
'Love/Loss' in 2010 with Keith Michell and Virginia McKenna and
'Headlock Security' in 2015 being her final film role.
* Milton Goncalves - born 9th December 1933 and died 30th May 2022, aged 88. Goncalves was a Brazilian Actor and Television Director who accumulated 171 screen acting credits and ten Directorial credits to his name in a career which began with a small role in the 1958 feature film
'The Grand Moment'. While most of his output was within his own local Brazilian cinema and TV series, he did enjoy a certain amount of mainstream Hollywood roles which took in the likes of
'Kiss of the Spider Woman' in 1985 with William Hurt and Raul Julia,
'Moon Over Parador' in 1988 with Richard Dreyfus and Raul Julia,
'Wild Orchid' in 1989 with Mickey Rourke and Angela Bisset,
'Four Days in September' in 1997 with Alan Arkin,
'Cobrador : In God We Trust' in 2006 with Peter Fonda and
'Pele : Birth of a Legend' with Vincent D'Onofrio and Diego Boneta in 2016. In the meantime, there were numerous appearances on single and multiple episodes of local TV series. Goncalves was the recipient of five award wins and another nomination during his career.
With seventeen deaths reported this month from the film and television community at large, that community is just a little bit poorer as a result. As many of us the world over are now learning to live with COVID and life is regaining a degree of normalcy, however, we should all continue to be cautious by remembering the basic principles that continue to be advocated - maintain a reasonable safe distance, hand hygiene and wear a mask if you are unable to maintain a safe distance and get vaccinated and then get a booster jab - together we can all overcome this thing and keep on top of it. Stay safe and remain healthy wherever you are in the world. R.I.P. you screen legends.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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