Re: Departed Cultural Icons 2022

[Sorontar]

Joe Turkel (July 15, 1927 – June 27, 2022) was an American character actor who played The Bartender in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Dr Eldon Tyrell in Ridley Scott's Bladerunner.

"I want to see a negative before I provide you with a positive."

I like him as Tyrell, though he kept reminding me of Brains from the Thunderbirds.

[von Corax]

Joe Turkel (July 15, 1927 – June 27, 2022) was an American character actor who played The Bartender in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Dr Eldon Tyrell in Ridley Scott's Bladerunner.

"I want to see a negative before I provide you with a positive."

I like him as Tyrell, though he kept reminding me of Brains from the Thunderbirds.

Thank you! That's been bugging me the entire 40 years since I first saw the movie!

[von Corax]

Canadians of a certain age will know that Patrick Watson CC (December 23, 1929 – July 4, 2022) was a Canadian broadcaster, television and radio interviewer and host, author, commentator, television writer, producer, and director for five decades.

[morozow]

Leonid Aronovich Shvartsman (August 30, 1920, Minsk — July 2, 2022, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian director-animator and artist of animated films.

The animation director died on July 2, 2022 in a Moscow hospital at the age of 102 from cardiac arrest. On July 5, a funeral service was held at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Novaya Sloboda and a farewell at the Moscow Cinema House. He was buried in the village of Zarechye (Kirzhachsky district, Vladimir region).

[von Corax]

Leonid Aronovich Shvartsman (August 30, 1920, Minsk — July 2, 2022, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian director-animator and artist of animated films.

The animation director died on July 2, 2022 in a Moscow hospital at the age of 102 from cardiac arrest. On July 5, a funeral service was held at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Novaya Sloboda and a farewell at the Moscow Cinema House. He was buried in the village of Zarechye (Kirzhachsky district, Vladimir region).

102? That was a pretty good run.

[von Corax]

James Edmund Caan (March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor who was nominated for several awards, including four Golden Globes, an Emmy, and an Oscar. Caan was awarded a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978. He came to prominence for playing his signature role of Sonny Corleone in Frencis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), Jonathan E. in Norman Jewison's Rollerball (1975), and Paul Sheldon in Rob Reiner's Misery (1990).

[Sir Henry]

James Edmund Caan (March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor who was nominated for several awards, including four Golden Globes, an Emmy, and an Oscar. Caan was awarded a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978. He came to prominence for playing his signature role of Sonny Corleone in Frencis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), Jonathan E. in Norman Jewison's Rollerball (1975), and Paul Sheldon in Rob Reiner's Misery (1990).

From Wikipedia:

During Caan's peak years of stardom, he rejected a series of starring roles that proved to be successes for other actors, in films including M*A*S*H, The French Connection, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Kramer vs. Kramer ("it was such middle class bourgeois baloney"), Apocalypse Now (because Coppola "mentioned something about 16 weeks in the Philippine jungles"), Blade Runner, Love Story and Superman ("I didn't want to wear the cape")

Possibly not the most astute when it came to choosing roles. But I liked him in everything I saw of his, just a shame there wasn't more.

[RJBowman]

I just got word that Larry Storch passed away today.

The F Troop TV show is what he is most associated with, but he was also in numerous films and did many voices for animation.

https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/larry-storch/

[von Corax]

I just got word that Larry Storch passed away today.

The F Troop TV show is what he is most associated with, but he was also in numerous films and did many voices for animation.

https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/larry-storch/

Grrr… I know the name, but I can't put a face to it, despite having looked at both his Wikipedia page and his IMDB page.

[Mercury Wells]

I think that RollerBall really popularised Toccata & Fugue in D minor by J.S. Bach.

[J. Wilhelm]

James Edmund Caan (March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor who was nominated for several awards, including four Golden Globes, an Emmy, and an Oscar. Caan was awarded a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978. He came to prominence for playing his signature role of Sonny Corleone in Frencis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), Jonathan E. in Norman Jewison's Rollerball (1975), and Paul Sheldon in Rob Reiner's Misery (1990).

From Wikipedia:

During Caan's peak years of stardom, he rejected a series of starring roles that proved to be successes for other actors, in films including M*A*S*H, The French Connection, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Kramer vs. Kramer ("it was such middle class bourgeois baloney"), Apocalypse Now (because Coppola "mentioned something about 16 weeks in the Philippine jungles"), Blade Runner, Love Story and Superman ("I didn't want to wear the cape")

Possibly not the most astute when it came to choosing roles. But I liked him in everything I saw of his, just a shame there wasn't more.

To be fair, I just can't see James Caan in any of those roles. He was better suited to Police drama, IMO. He had that "concrete under my feet" kind of look.

[morozow]

Leonid Aronovich Shvartsman (August 30, 1920, Minsk — July 2, 2022, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian director-animator and artist of animated films.
102? That was a pretty good run.

He was very lucky.

He was born in Minsk. But he left there as a teenager. During the war, a third of the population of Minsk died. In total, more than 400 thousand people were killed in Minsk and its environs. Jews were destroyed first of all.

He was drafted into the army, but did not get to the front line, and worked in workshops and on the construction of fortifications. In November 1941, a state decision was made to evacuate specialists from besieged Leningrad and Shvartsman was taken by plane to Tikhvin.

During the Siege of Leningrad, almost a million Soviet military and civilians died. Schwartzman's mother died there.

[Sir Henry]

SNIP
During the Siege of Leningrad, almost a million Soviet military and civilians died. Schwartzman's mother died there.

Yes, that was an interesting question we were asked when I was studying Russian/Soviet history: what if Stalin hadn't allied with Hitler at the start of the war, would Russia have suffered as much? There were two very different answers, as far as I remember, depending on whether Hitler decided to go East or West first.

[morozow]

SNIP
During the Siege of Leningrad, almost a million Soviet military and civilians died. Schwartzman's mother died there.

Yes, that was an interesting question we were asked when I was studying Russian/Soviet history: what if Stalin hadn't allied with Hitler at the start of the war, would Russia have suffered as much? There were two very different answers, as far as I remember, depending on whether Hitler decided to go East or West first.

I'm boring.

Stalin did not enter the war in alliance with Hitler.

Hitler had already decided to go West. And he needed neutrality from the USSR,. Thanks to the position of Britain (well, Poland) who refused the union with the USSR, he got it.

An interesting question is what would have happened if the USSR had not been neutral, but had attacked Germany first in 1939. The pan-European crusade against Bolshevism, which Czechoslovakia was threatened with in 1938, would not have begun.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Sir Henry]

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - less than an alliance, more than a non-agression pact (https://historyofyesterday.com/hitler-and-stalins-alliance-at-the-beginning-of-wwii-cb905f2eda8e if only for the rather delightful cartoon at the top).

And yes, if the Soviet Union had allied with the West and US from the start, who would have been made The Big Bad after the war to maintain the status quo (the thinking at the time was, and possibly still is,that 'us vs. them' is the ideal basis for a growing economy)?

This has made me try to work out which was the first alternative history I read. Though that is probably best used to start another thread when I work it out.

[Sir Henry]

Alan Grant, writer of comics, mostly in 2000AD. Wrote Judges Dredd and Anderson, Strontium Dog, Ace Trucking Co. and Batman, amongst others.
Gave Alan Moore his first writing job. Played a large part in the development of 2000AD's anti-authoritarian, cynical humour.
And lived in Moniaive (sadly a few years after I left), Scotland.

https://2000ad.com/news/alan-grant-1949-2022/

[RJBowman]

We've lost David Warner. I especially remember him for Time After Time and Time Bandits.

https://variety.com/2022/film/obituaries-people-news/david-warner-dead-dies-omen-tron-1235324582/

[Sir Henry]

We've lost David Warner. I especially remember him for Time After Time and Time Bandits.

https://variety.com/2022/film/obituaries-people-news/david-warner-dead-dies-omen-tron-1235324582/

Time Bandits, Tron and Freakazoid for me. His voice will always make me smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzO_SKAX3zA

[von Corax]

We've lost David Warner. I especially remember him for Time After Time and Time Bandits.

https://variety.com/2022/film/obituaries-people-news/david-warner-dead-dies-omen-tron-1235324582/

I think he also voiced Thrakkorzog in The Tick vs. the Uncommon Cold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xItUr7VIGbI

[Rockula]

We've lost David Warner. I especially remember him for Time After Time and Time Bandits.

https://variety.com/2022/film/obituaries-people-news/david-warner-dead-dies-omen-tron-1235324582/

When I was 15 I went to a rural cinema that was 'lax' on it's age policy to see Sam Peckinpah's 'Cross Of Iron'.
I still consider it one of the greatest 'anti-war' movies of all time and is my favourite movie bar none.
David warner was superb in that.

And because of that I became a life long fan of his work and count a number of his other films amongst my favourites;

The Ballad Of Cable Hogue
Straw Dogs
The Omen
Nightwing
Time After Time
The Island
Time Bandits
The Company Of Wolves
Waxwork
In The Mouth Of Madness...

[Sir Henry]

We've lost David Warner. I especially remember him for Time After Time and Time Bandits.

https://variety.com/2022/film/obituaries-people-news/david-warner-dead-dies-omen-tron-1235324582/

I think he also voiced Thrakkorzog in The Tick vs. the Uncommon Cold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xItUr7VIGbI

Sorry to tell you, but much as I'll usually accept any excuse to watch more of The Tick, Thrakkorzog was voiced by Jim Cummings impersonating James Mason, and his tongue is played by Pat Fraley.  - https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/

But he was in Billy & Mandy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5o1Po_2ok

[von Corax]

Sorry to tell you, but much as I'll usually accept any excuse to watch more of The Tick, Thrakkorzog was voiced by Jim Cummings impersonating James Mason, and his tongue is played by Pat Fraley.  - https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/

But he was in Billy & Mandy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5o1Po_2ok

I knew he was in something I used to watch.

[Sir Henry]

James Lovelock (1919 - 2022), Father of the Gaia theory, saviour of the ozone layer and inspiration of much of the Green movement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62322575

[Mercury Wells]

Bernard Cribbins: Doctor Who and Wombles star dies aged 93. 

[walking stick]

Sorry to hear of the death of Bernard Cribbins, he will be missed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13099773