Category Archives: American Actors

Actor Edward Herrmann, passes away at age 71 this morning

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Edward HerrmannI was a large (literally) fan of Edward Herrmann’s work, including his voice-overs on various documentaries and commercial projects.

From TMZ.com:

“Gilmore Girls” Star Dead At 71

Edward Herrmann — perhaps best known for playing Richard Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls” — died this morning in a hospital in New York. He was 71.

Herrmann’s family tells TMZ he had been battling brain cancer and had been in ICU for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Ultimately, things did not improve and his family decided to take him off the respirator.

Herrmann was married twice and and his second wife Star tells TMZ the actor leaves behind 3 children.

Also from the LATimes.com:

Edward Herrmann, an Emmy- and Tony-winning actor whose television roles included Franklin D. Roosevelt in “Eleanor and Franklin” and Richard Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls,” and who was celebrated for his performance in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” on Broadway, has died. He was 71.

He died Wednesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after months of treatment for brain cancer, his agent Robyn Stecher said.

Herrmann won an Emmy Award in 1999 for his guest role as attorney Anderson Pearson on “The Practice.” He’d been nominated four times previously, for his performances as FDR in the TV movies “Eleanor and Franklin” (1976) and “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years” (1977) and as Father Joseph McCabe on “St. Elsewhere” in 1986 and 1987.

Herrmann also narrated numerous PBS and History channel productions and recorded dozens of audio books, winning an Audie award for his work on a recording of the King James Bible.

Born July 21, 1943, in Washington, Herrmann earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University in 1965 and went on to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Dallas Theater Center.

Edward Herrmann, Arnold, Jay, Pebble BeachMr Herrmann, besides his work in acting, was also a car aficionado, and could be seen hosting at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Mr Herrmann simply exuded class, and was the quintessential gentleman’s gentleman.

Requiescant en pace, sir.

BZ

P.S.

Thanks to CLA for the photographs.

 

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Actress Tweets Gun Safety Instead of Gun Control, Loses Half Her Twitter Followers

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Oddly enough, from Breitbart’s BigHollywood.com:

On June 10 Battlestar Galactica actress Katee Sackhoff tweeted about gun safety and countered a follower’s pro-gun control tweet–as a result she lost half of her Twitter followers–or about 100,000 people.

And, further, her current job on Longmire.

Sackhoff’s original gun safety tweet was in response to a story CNN carried about a 4-year old Arizona boy who fatally shot his father by accident. The boy apparently found a handgun lying in a home he and his father were visiting, picked it up and pulled the trigger. 

Sackhoff tweeted: “Please practice gun safety! This is horrible!”

After this, one of Sackhoff’s followers tweeted for more and more gun control. The actress responded: “Never going to happen in the U.S. Proper gun safety is a necessity though.”

As Reason.com reports, after a couple of hours Sackhoff had lost approximately 100,000 followers, but she did not give in. Instead she tweeted: “Well I guess just learned talking about #GunSafety inspires a massive debate. Pro-gun or Anti-gun SAFETY should be unanimous!”

And there you go.  Common sense over sensationalism, and over rampant and idiotic emotions.

God bless Katee Sackhoff.

BZ

 

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Dennis Farina: dead at 69 (February 29, 1944 – July 22, 2013)

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Dennis FarinaOne of my favorite character actors has been Dennis Farina.

And one of my all-time favorite series was Crime Story which ran on TV from 1986 to 1988, via 44 episodes, where Farina portrayed Lt Vince Torello.

Crime Story TVDennis Farina, unknown to most everyone, was a Chicago Police Department officer for 18 years, from 1967 to 1985.

He first appeared in Michael Mann’s move “Thief” in 1981.

The facts:

Dennis Farina, the actor and former Chicago police officer who played coiled, hot-tempered characters in movies and on television, died Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz., from a blood clot in his lung, his publicist said. He was 69.

Farina also appeared as Det. Joe Fontana in 46 episodes of NBC’s Law & Order, added to the cast following the death of Jerry Orbach. That made him the only performer on the Dick Wolf series with an actual background in law enforcement. He left in 2006 to pursue film projects.

“I was stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis’ unexpected passing this morning,” Wolf said in a statement. “The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family. He was a great guy.”

Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2013

Farina’s other small-screen credits include Michael Mann’s late 1980s NBC crime drama Crime Story; the private detective title character on his own 1998 CBS series, Buddy Faro, which only lasted eight episodes; hosting Unsolved Mysteries starting in 2008 after the death of original host Robert Stack; and, more recently, a stint as Dustin Hoffman’s right-hand man, Gus, in David Milch’s short-lived HBO horse-racing series Luck.

Farina also famously starred as a Chicago mob boss swindled by accountant Charles Grodin in Martin Brest’s Midnight Run (1988); an army colonel in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998); the retired lawman father of Jennifer Lopez’s character in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998); and a Jewish diamond merchant in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. (2000).

If you wanted a character actor who dripped truth and verisimilitude, you chose Dennis Farina.

God bless you sir.  And thank you for your service.

BZ

 

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Actor James Gandolfini: dead at age 51

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From the NYDailyNews.com:

James Gandolfini dead at 51: ‘Sopranos’ star suffers massive heart attack in Italy

‘Everyone is in tears,’ a source close to the Emmy Award-winning actor tells the Daily News.

James Gandolfini, the New Jersey-bred actor who delighted audiences as mob boss Tony Soprano in “The Sopranos” has died following a massive heart attack in Italy, a source told the Daily News.

Deaths tend to come in threes.

Who will be the third?

BZ

 

 

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