Cemetery with crosses - legends lost but remembered
This page is our personal hall of fame. A reminder to us all that even though considered a B-genre, Spaghetti Westerns were full of great characters, played by great people. Many have passed away, and while we are young growing up re-watching all these classics, many more will probably leave us. May they be remembered. What follows, is a work-in-progress, a growing list of legends who have passed away...
| sorted by their last names:
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British director Roy Ward Baker died on Tuesday, October 5th. Born in London on December 19, 1916. His best known film is “A Night to Remember” which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959. His later career was varied, and included many horror films and television shows. Roy Ward Baker directed one Euro-western “The Singer Not the Song (1961).
Funeral services were pending today for writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell, the man behind iconic television series such as "The Rockford Files' and "The A-Team.' Cannell died Thursday night September 30th, 2010 at his home in Pasadena from complications of melanoma, according to his family. He was 69. "Aside from being a legendary television producer and prolific writer, Stephen was also a devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, and a loyal friend,' according to a family statement." Mr. Cannell is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of 46 years, Marcia, their three children, Tawnia, Chelsea and Cody, and three grandchildren.Stephen was the pillar of strength within his family and he touched everyone he met. He will be most deeply missed.' Cannell, who suffered from dyslexia most of his life, wrote hundreds of episodes of dozens of television shows, beginning with "Ironside,' "Columbo' and "Adam-12' in the early 1970s. But he became a force in Hollywood after creating the character of Jim Rockford while writing for a series called "Toma.' "The Rockford Files,' starring James Garner, ran for 122 episodes. He also created and wrote memorable series including "Baretta,' "The Greatest American Hero,' "Hardcastle and McCormick,' "21 Jump Street,' "The A-Team' and "Wiseguy.' Stephen J. Cannell appeare in one Euro-western as Jimmy Love in 1993's "Posse" with Mario Van Peebles.
Vincenzo Crocitti, a comedic actor in many Italian films died September 29, 2010 in Rome after being ill for some time. He was 61. Born in Rome on July 16, 1949, Vincenzo played likable characters and with his pronounced nose and a smile on his face is well remembered for his many roles such as the young son of Alberto Sordi in “Un borghese piccolo piccolo”. Crocitti debut as a film comedian but in the '90s turned to television where he became well know in his role as Dr. Mariano on the TV series “Un medico in famiglia” and made several appearances on the Terence Hill series “Don Mateo”. Vincenzo made one Euro-western appearing as the deafman in the 1970 Mario Bava directed film “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack” starring Brett Halsey and Charles Southwood.
Screenwriter Irving Ravetch died September 19 in Los Angeles. He was 89 and had been ailing for some time. Ravetch and his wife, Harriet Frank Jr., were Oscar-nominated for adapted screenplay on both "Hud" and Norma Rae". Together they penned 18 other films between the 1960s and 1980s. Beginning in 1957, the couple collaborated on critically acclaimed screenplays for pics including Paul Newman starrers "Hombre," and "The Long, Hot Summer" besides adapting 1963's "Hud." Other films the two co-wrote include "Conrack," "The Reivers," "The Sound and the Fury," "Home From the Hill," "The Cowboys," "Murphy's Romance" and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs." They were jointly given the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award for their screenplays. After graduating from UCLA, Ravetch joined MGM's young writers training program, where he met Frank, whom he married the following year in 1946. For nearly a decade he mostly penned oaters such as "Vengeance Valley" until he and Frank pitched "The Long, Hot Summer," an adaptation of William Faulkner's "The Hamlet," to producer Jerry Wald. When Wald asked Ravetch to suggest a director he proposed Martin Ritt, beginning a relationship that led to eight films, kicking off with 1958's "Summer" and including "Hud," "Norma Rae," "The Sound and the Fury," "Murphy's Romance" and "Stanley and Iris." Irving Ravetch was the Associate Producer and screenwriter for the 1974 Euro-western "The Spikes Gang" starring Lee Marvin. Ravetch is survived by his wife, Frank; a sister and a brother.
Italian voice actor Sergio Di Stefano died of a heart attack on Friday September 17, 2010 in Rome, Italy. Sergio was born on July 5, 1939 in Rome, Italy and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts "Silvio D'Amico" before becoming mainly a stage and television actor. He began his voice dubbing in the early 1970s and became one of Italy's most famous voice actors. He became the Italian voice of such American actors as Kevin Costner, Jeff Bridges, John Malkovich, Christopher Lambert and TV's Hugh Laurie in Dr. House – Medical Division. Di Stefano became a dubbing director for many TV series such as “Star Trek – The Next Generation”. Di Stefano was the Italian voice of Eddie Izzard in the 2002 film “Blueberry” (aka “Renegade”).
Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Saturday September 11th 2010. He was 96. McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., said his daughter Lillah. During a career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning on stage in New York in the late 1930s, McCarthy played Biff Loman opposite Paul Muni's Willy in the 1949 London production of "Death of a Salesman." McCarthy's long career included numerous guest appearances on TV series such as "The Twilight Zone," "Burke's Law," "Flamingo Road" and "Murder, She Wrote." He also appeared in about 50 films, including "An Annapolis Story," "40 Pounds of Trouble," "The Prize," "The Best Man," "Kansas City Bomber," Buffalo Bill and the Indians," "Piranha" and "The Howling." In addition to his many Broadway and other stage credits, McCarthy toured for many years as President Harry Truman in the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry." The son of a lawyer and his homemaker wife, McCarthy was born Feb. 15, 1914, in Seattle, Washington. He and his two brothers and sister — Mary McCarthy [1912-1989], who later became an author and wrote the bestselling novel "The Group" — were orphaned when both parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic and were sent to live with relatives. McCarthy began acting in the 1930s at the University of Minnesota, where, on a dare from a friend, he played a bit part in "Henry IV, Part 1." "That day, I realized that I could do something," he told the Bangor Daily News in 1997. "I didn't study acting. I didn't even think about it. But evidently I have some innate ability, some talent. It was maybe a gift. In any case, I was in one play after another after that." After moving to New York, he made his Broadway debut in a small role in " Abe Lincoln in Illinois," starring Raymond Massey, in 1938. As Sgt. Kevin McCarthy during World War II, he appeared in Moss Hart's "Winged Victory," the Broadway play produced by the Army Air Forces. McCarthy appeared in several Broadway plays in the years immediately after the war, including Maxwell Anderson's short-lived "Truckline Cafe" with Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. He also was a founding member of the Actors Studio. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 31 years, Kate Crane McCarthy; children James Kevin McCarthy, Mary Dabney McCarthy, Tess McCarthy and Patrick McCarthy; stepdaughter Kara Lichtman; and three grandchildren. He was divorced from actress Augusta Dabney [1918-2008], who died in 2008. Kevin McCarthy appeared with Terence Hill, Bud Spencer and Eli Wallach in 1969's “Ace High”. |
