Animated Views Celebrity Obituary Thread

[Daniel]

Yeah, she would've made a great Grandmama. They would be smart to get John Astin who's still going strong!

[Daniel]

Melinda Dillon dies at 83. Probably best known as the mother in A Christmas Story. Loved her in that role. "Jealous of WHAT? That is... the ugliest lamp I have ever seen in my entire LIFE!" and her unforgettable (and genuine!) reaction to the duck/Chinese turkey scene. Sad loss.

[Ben]

Whenever I call out my wife's son's name, I can only do it the way she did in CE3K.

RIP.

[Daniel]

Charles Kimbrough has passed at age 86. Best known for his portrayal of anchorman Jim Dial on "Murphy Brown", for us Disneyphiles he was the voice of Victor the gargoyle in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Just hilarious.

[Bill1978]

That is sad news about Charles' passing. Loved watching him on Murphy Brown as the grumpy straight guy. And his vocal performance in Hunchback was top notch. Had no idea he was that old though. I feel most actors stop aging at about 50 and cannot exceed 60 years in age.

[Randall]

I only knew him from those two things (and thought he was great), but apparently he did a lot of stage work, too.

[Daniel]

SAG Awards in memoriam tribute:



Beautiful song choice. Love Olivia's "We'll see each other again" clip, and how they had nearly all animated voices grouped together. Lost so many icons.

[Randall]

Wow, when you put it that way... yes, a lot of icons, for sure! Tough year. Not sure if they needed to accentuate the animated characters so much, really (though with Conroy it was appropriate). People like Pat Carroll and Gilbert Gottfried were known for a lot of other work. But I suppose I get it. Anyhow, it was a very nice tribute.

[Daniel]

Given they don't have any Animated categories, I would say it's a fair compromise.

[Ben]

Double sadness today:

News late last night of the passing — at 100! — of Bert I Gordon (the original Mr B.I.G.!), the semi-schlockmeister whose films were a staple of many imaginative childhoods. While never reaching to massive budgets or truly polished levels of production value, his films — Attack Of The Puppet People, The Magic Sword, The Amazing Colossal Man, etc — were never "bad", being enjoyable adventures, sci-fi and fantastical outings that delivered with a "big low-budget" charm. Slightly better than the similar King Brothers, and often on par with slightly not-quite-the-status of lesser Harryhausen efforts, one always knew what to expect with his name on a film, and would have a fun, good time:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 1235346478


And then this morning the sad news of the somewhat legendary Topol, at age 87, one of the first one-name artistes, who played iconic Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof an amazing 3,500 times across stage productions all over the world and in Norman Jewison's 1971 film (the irony being that Jewison got the directing gig because of his name, even though he wasn’t Jewish!). Taking the role in London's West End, after Broadway's Zero Mostel declined to continue in a transfer to focus on a screen career, Topol became synonymous with the part, reviving it in various productions over four decades — the last being 2009!

I was lucky enough to see him in a 90s West End revival, at the revered London Palladium no less, where he still had the full energy of the part (he always played older so had naturally "grown into" the role) and garnered night after night of standing ovations. Even better is a story from my mother, who was working at the Fiddler theatre for the original 60s production, and says that Topol was "my hero. He gave me £2 when I was down and out, my claim to fame!", back when £2 would have been around a week's wages!

He'll also be known around these parts for playing Prof Zarkoff in Flash Gordon ("I’ve been right all these years!") and Roger Moore's Bond ally in For Your Eyes Only, but he'll forever be the person that anyone thinks of when they hear or do their own take on "If I were a rich man…", even if they’ve never seen him!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 1235346582


RIP to both.

[EricJ]

News late last night of the passing — at 100! — of Bert I Gordon (the original Mr B.I.G.!), the semi-schlockmeister whose films were a staple of many imaginative childhoods. While never reaching to massive budgets or truly polished levels of production value, his films — Attack Of The Puppet People, The Magic Sword, The Amazing Colossal Man, etc — were never "bad", being enjoyable adventures, sci-fi and fantastical outings that delivered with a "big low-budget" charm.

I agree--Even a "off-brand" movie like "Tormented" had some imaginative moments, if you were in the mood to know what to expect, and often didn't deserve much of the guff they got from MST3K. ("Half" is a bit generous, but they didn't deserve a third of it.)

Like Roger Corman, you knew what you were getting, and whether it was good or bad, something like "Village of the Giants" knew exactly what it was doing gong in.

[Daniel]

Oscars in memoriam tribute:



Aside from the John Travolta introduction, (which this sadly cuts) pretty lackluster. Everything SAG did right they did wrong.

[EricJ]

I guess this is what their ads meant by "It's not going to be another nostalgia show!"

[Randall]

Pretty boring presentation, really. Or maybe it was... elegant in its simplicity? Nah.

It didn't' really move me.

[blackcauldron85]

Rolly Crump passed away a couple days ago.

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/rememb ... lly-crump/