Tribute 2014: Those We Lost

The year 2014 saw the passing of far too many talented and beloved film and TV artists.  It was a bad year on that front, and the losses to the science fiction and horrors genre, especially, were numerous.

As always, any omissions in the following gallery are entirely unintentional.  

To those we have lost, let me say this: I am truly grateful (and fortunate) to have shared time on this Earth with you. 

Thank you, always, for the laughs and screams, the memories, and the beautiful art. Rest in peace and Godspeed.

Sir Richard Attenborough

Lauren Bacall

Ann B. Davis

Marilyn Burns

Sid Caesar

Joe Cocker

Booth Colman

Ruby Dee

James Garner

H.R. Giger

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Jan Hooks

Bob Hoskins

Russell Johnson

Casey Kasem

Koichi Kawakita

Richard Kiel

Glen A. Larson

Mary Ann Mobley

Mike Nichols

Kate O'Mara

Don Pardo

Elizabeth Pena

Harold Ramis

Arthur Rankin Jr.

Joan Rivers

Mickey Rooney

Maximilian Schell

Lorenzo Semple, Jr.

James Shigeta

Dick Smith

Marcia Strassman

Elaine Stritch

Carol Ann Susi

Meshach Taylor

Shirley Temple

Ralph Waite

Eli Wallach

Kenneth Weatherwax

Billie Whitlaw

Robin Williams

Tribute: Glen Larson (1937 - 2014)

The press is now reporting that legendary TV writer and producer Glen A. Larson has passed away.

Mr. Larson wrote for such classic sixties programming as The Fugitive (1966) and It Takes a Thief (1968) but in the 1970s created and developed several TV series that remain noteworthy to science fiction fans.

In the late 1970s, Mr. Larson created the original Battlestar Galactica (1978), and wrote the movie that updated Buck Rogers (1979 - 1981) for the post-Star Wars age. 

In the 1980s, Mr. Larson created such well-known sci-fi series as Knight Rider (1982 - 1986), Manimal (1983), and Automan (1983).  

His last genre series was the syndicated superhero program, Nightman (1997 - 1999).

Mr. Larson's career outside sci-fi was remarkable too. In the seventies he developed The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries for television, and also produced Alias Smith and Jones (1971 - 1973). 

He also created and produced Quincy M.E.(1976 - 1983), Magnum P.I. (1980 - 1988) and The Fall Guy (1981 - 1986) to name just three popular programs from his stable.

Larson's series, especially in the sci-fi genre, were extremely popular on original broadcast, and remain so with an enthusiastic generation of fans.  

Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider, in particular, have been remade already, and likely will be re-made yet again, a fact which suggests that the writer/producer tapped into something universal and powerful with these particular stories.

At this time, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to Mr. Larson's family and loved ones, and remind them that television, a technological art form, will permit Glen Larson's imagination and artistry to live on for decades and generations to come.

Tribute: Robin Williams (1951 - 2014)

Such grim, devastating news tonight, regarding actor Robin Williams (1951 – 2014). I can’t quite believe any of it is true.

I still remember the first time I saw him on TV.  

I was eight years old, and he played Mork, the alien on a Happy Days episode called “My Favorite Orkan.” 

The year was 1978, I believe.

It wasn’t long after that appearance that Mr. Williams played Mork on a regular basis on Mork and Mindy (1979 – 1982).

I loved him as that zany, irrepressible, child-like character, and the truth is that I will always associate him with that particular role, which in some way was incredibly innocent.

Of course, Robin Williams had an extraordinary and prestigious career far beyond his turns as Mork as well. 

He played Popeye in Robert Altman’s 1981 film, and earned kudos for work in films such as The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning Vietnam (1987), Dead Poet’s Society (1989), and Good Will Hunting (1997).

In terms of genre roles, Mr. Williams was remarkably versatile. He played terrifying villains in films such as One Hour Photo (2002) and Insomnia (2002), and was also terrific as the lead in What Dreams May Come (1998).

This loss is such a terrible one, because -- from Mork to Popeye to Batty Koda (FernGully) to Fender (Robots) -- Robin Williams made us smile, and he made us laugh so damned much.

My deepest condolences to his family in this time of terrible grief…but also to all of us, who will miss him. 

The world is a lot less happy tonight, without the light Robin Williams brought to it.

Tribute: Marilyn Burns (1950 - 2014)

The horror genre has lost a Scream Queen and icon today. Marilyn Burns, who played Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), has passed away at the age of 65.

An early “final girl” in the 1970s horror cinema, Burns brilliantly portrayed in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre moments of true and utter terror. This is no small accomplishment, and there's nothing in Burns' performance in the film that rings false, or proves unconvincing.

Several scenes in the film focus on an extreme close-up of Burns’ wide eyeballs as Sally slips into madness and derangement, and there’s no evidence of artifice or theatricality in these raw, intimate images.  

The same observation goes for the rest of Burns’ remarkable performance in that film. Burns makes Sally into a real person, one who gets annoyed (at her brother Franklin), impatient, and -- as the terror mounts -- increasingly desperate. We root for her not because she is a superhero, or because she is beautiful, but because we recognize Sally as a regular kid, smart and resourceful, believing that life obeys a certain set of rules.

After playing Sally, Ms. Burns had many other notable roles in the horror genre, in Hooper’s Eaten Alive (1976), Future Kill (1985) -- as “Dorothy Grim” -- and in the TV movie Helter Skelter (1976).  

Recently, Burns appeared in Ti West’s film, The Sacrament (2014), a fictionalized version of the 1970s Jonestown cult murder/suicides.

I wish to express my deepest condolences to Ms. Burns’ family on this day of mourning and grief. 

Marilyn burns will be much missed in the horror community and by fans such as me because she always brought such humanity and realism to her roles, and gave every moment in every performance everything she had.  

Rest in peace, Marilyn Burns.  

Tribute: Dick Smith (1922 - 2014)

A Hollywood and horror movie legend has passed away. 

The press is reporting today the death of Academy Award winning make-up artist and guru Dick Smith.

Mr. Smith began his incredible make-up career in the early 1940s, and worked on television, and films both inside and outside the horror genre.  Mr. Smith served as the make-up supervisor for NBC  for a span, and contributed his creative work to genre series including the Roald Dahl-hosted anthology, Way Out (1961), the afternoon soap-opera Dark Shadows (1967), and later such programming as the syndicated Monsters (1988 – 1991), and Stephen King’s The Golden Years (1991).

In terms of horror movies, Dick Smith is perhaps most well-known and best-remembered for the stunning and grotesque make-up of Regan (Linda Blair) in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), but that film is only one of his amazing credits.

Mr. Smith also created the augmented, automaton version of Katharine Ross for the shocking ending of The Stepford Wives (1975), and contributed to such note-worthy film’s as Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980), The Sentinel (1977), Ghost Story (1981), The Hunger (1983), and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990).  One of his earliest horror credits for make-up was on 1959’s The Alligator People.

Mr. Smith earned his Academy Award not for a horror film, however, but for the creation of the elderly Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) in Amadeus (1985).  He also aged Marlon Brando for The Godfather (1972) and Dustin Hoffman for Little Big Man (1970). 

Dick Smith mentored and inspired a generation of make-up artists, including Guillermo del Toro and Rick Baker, and his remarkable work will be cherished and remembered for generations yet to come.  

I offer my deepest condolences to Mr. Smith’s family today, and at this time of loss suggest that his artistry -- captured on film forever -- is immortal.