The final scene of Marty (1955) opens with the title character (Ernest Borgnine) leaning against the wall of a seafood restaurant, one arm raised, loosely grasping a pole that juts out from the side of the building. He stands silently as his friends mill about in front of him, debating what they should all do next–a movie?…
History will remember him as a wise country sheriff and a charming country lawyer. But as wonderful as he was filling those roles, Andy Griffith was so much more than that. Before he passed away this morning, Griffith built a six-decade career on the persona of a good ol’ country boy sharing down-home wit and…
News came late this evening that actress Ann Rutherford has passed away at the age of 91. Born in Canada in 1920, Rutherford got her start in Hollywood as a teenager, acting in weekly serials. She made her feature-length screen debut in 1935 in Waterfront Lady. In the early years of her career, the young…
I was very saddened a few weeks ago to hear that Robert Sherman, one half of one of the greatest movie music-writing teams, was gone. The Sherman Brothers are responsible for giving the world the music of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Aristocats (1970), Charlotte’s Web (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), and probably their…
It’s the end of another year, and it’s time to remember the ones we’ve lost over the past twelve months … the icons of film who have sadly passed on. TCM’s annual “Remembers” video is, as always, extremely well done–evocative, heartfelt, and beautiful (and, as always, putting the efforts of the annual Academy Awards “in…
Early Hollywood actress Barbara Kent, one of the last living stars from the silent era, has passed away. Though not as well-known today as many of her contemporaries, Kent starred with some of the stalwarts of the silver screen in her all-too-brief career (she only made about three dozen movies between 1926 and 1935). In…
Actor Peter Falk passed away yesterday at the age of 83 after struggling with Alzheimer’s for several years. He was, of course, best known as the titular detective in Columbo, a series of television films that ran intermittently from 1968 through 2003. The character had appeared in two previous incarnations played by different actors: Bert…
The world of classic comedy lost another legendary contributor this week with the passing of writer Madelyn Pugh Davis. At a time when there were few women writing in Hollywood (and even fewer writing for comedy), Davis took advantage of the dearth of male writers in the midst of World War II and carved a…
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