Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies that have left us in recent weeks. Below you’ll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way.
Laura Antonelli (1941-2015) – Italian Actress. She starred in Luchino Visconti’s L’innocente, Salvatore Sampieri’s Malicious and Mario Bava’s Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. She died of a heart attack on June 22. (THR)
William Bronder (1930-2015) – Character Actor. He memorably appears in Stand By Me as the junkyard owner (see below), plus Return to Me and Best Seller. He died on May 6. (THR)
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Jack Carter (1923-2015) – Comedian, Actor. He appears in History of the World: Part I, The Great Buck Howard, Play It to the Bone, Alligator and the Elvis movie Viva Las Vegas. He died of respiratory failure on June 28. (THR)
Katherine Chappell (1985-2015) – Visual Effects Editor. She worked on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Divergent, Noah, Godzilla and the TV series Game of Thrones. She died after being attacked by a lion while on vacation at a wildlife preserve on June 1. (Time)
Robert Chartoff (1933-2015) – Producer. He won an Oscar for Rocky (see below) and was nominated for Raging Bull and The Right Stuff. He also produced the rest of the Rocky movies, including the upcoming Creed, as well as Point Blank, Ender’s Game and both versions of The Mechanic and the Gambler. He died on June 10. (THR)
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Ornette Coleman (1930-2015) – Jazz Saxophonist, Composer. He composed music for Naked Lunch and is the subject of the classic Shirley Clarke documentary Ornette: Made in America. He died on June 11. (NYT)
Rick Ducommun (1952-2015) – Actor. He’s best known as Tom Hanks’s neighbor buddy in The ‘Burbs (see below) and the town drunk in Groundhog Day. He also appears in Last Action Hero, Spaceballs, The Hunt for Red October, Scary Movie, Die Hard and Little Monsters. He died from complications from diabetes on June 12. (THR)
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Jean Gruault (1924-2015) – Screenwriter. He received an Oscar nomination for penning Alain Resnais’s Mon Oncle D’Amerique (My American Uncle). He also wrote Resnais’s Love Unto Death and Life Is a Bed of Roses, co-wrote a number of Francois Truffaut’s films, including Jules and Jim, The Wild Child and The Story of Adele H, plus Jean-Luc Godard’s The Soldiers and works by Jacques Rivette, Roberto Rossellini and Chantal Akerman. He died on June 8. (Mubi Notebook)
James Horner (1953-2015) – Composer. He won Oscars for his score for Titanic and the music to the movie’s original song, “My Heart Will Go On.” His eight other nominations were for scoring Aliens, Field of Dreams, Braveheart, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, House of Sand and Fog and Avatar and the song “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail. Other notable scores of his include Legends of the Fall, Glory, Cocoon, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Brainstorm, The New World, The Amazing Spider-Man, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, 48 Hrs. and the upcoming Southpaw. He also wrote the music for original songs in Avatar, A Beautiful Mind, Troy, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and The Pagemaster. He died in a plane crash on June 22. See our original obituary.
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Hiroshi Koizumi (1926-2015) – Japanes Actor. He starred in many Japanese monster movies, including Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. The Thing, Mothra and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. He died of pneumonia on May 31. (THR)
Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015) – Actor. He starred as iconic characters in the Star Wars prequels and The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies (see below), as well as in The Man with the Golden Gun, The Wicker Man, Hugo, 1941, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of Baskervilles, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, The Curse of Frankenstein and many other classic horror movies opposite longtime collaborator Peter Cushing plus many recent movies by Tim Burton, including Sleep Hollow. He died on June 7. See our original obituary.
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Gilbert Lewis (1941-2015) – Actor. For many, he’s best known as the King of Cartoons on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, but he can also be seen in the movies Candyman, Fort Apache the Bronx, Across 110th Street, Don Juan DeMarco and Cotton Comes to Harlem. He died on May 7. (Pee-Wee Herman)
Monica Lewis (1922-2015) – Singer, Actress. Most widely known as the voice of the Chiquita Banana mascot, she was primarily a jazz singer who starred in MGM musicals, including as herself in The Strip, and later appeared in the ’70s disaster flicks Earthquake, Rollercoaster, Airport ’77 and The Concorde… Airport ’79. She died on June 12. (NYT)
Tony Longo (1962-2015) – Character Actor. He appears in Splash, Mulholland Drive, The Last Boy Scout, Sixteen Candles, Eraser and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, mostly in roles notable for his large size. He died on June 21. (THR)
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Patrick Macnee (1922-2015) – Actor. Best known for starring on the British TV series The Avengers, he also appears in the movies A View to a Kill, This Is Spinal Tap and The Howling. He died on June 25. (BBC)
Colette Marchand (1925-2015) – Ballerina, Actress. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the 1952 movie Moulin Rouge (see below). Her other movies include Hungarian Rhapsody and Venom and Eternity, the latter featuring only her voice. She died on June 5. (THR)
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Ron Moody (1924-2015) – Actor. He was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe for his performance as Fagin in Carol Reed’s Oliver! (see below). He also starred in the early Mel Brooks comedy The Twelve Chairs, Richard Lester’s The Mouse on the Moon, Peter Yates’s Summer Holiday and George Pollack’s Murder Most Foul. He also played Merlin in A Kid in King Arthur’s Court and Unidentified Flying Oddball. He died on June 11. (Thompson on Hollywood)
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Vincent Musetto (1941-2015) – Film Critic. Before contributing movie reviews for the New York Post, he was a longtime editor for the paper and is most famous for penning the 1983 headline “Headless Body in a Topless Bar,” which was borrowed for the name of a 1995 movie. He died from pancreatic cancer on June 9. (NY Post)
Jack Rollins (1915-2015) – Manager, Producer. He was the longtime manager of Woody Allen and was the inspiration for Broadway Danny Rose, in which he also plays himself. He also produced many of Allen’s movies, from Take the Money and Run through the upcoming Irrational Man. He also appears in Stardust Memories and is interviewed in Woody Allen: A Documentary. He died on June 18. (THR)
Victoria Siegel (1997-2015) – Documentary Subject. She was the daughter of the title subject of the documentary The Queen of Versailles. She died on June 6. (THR)
Sivuqaq, aka “Jocko” (1994-2015) – Walrus. Mostly a staple of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California, he also appeared prominently doing tricks in 50 First Dates and did voice works for Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. He died on June 28. (NBC)
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Anthony Sydes (1941-2015) – Child Actor. He is best known for playing Thelma Ritter’s son in the original Miracle on 34th Street and one of the sons in Sitting Pretty and also appears in the original Cheaper By the Dozen. He died on June 20. (THR)
Mary Ellen Trainor (1952-2015) – Actress. She’s best known for playing police psychologist Stephanie Woods in the Lethal Weapon movies (see below), Mikey and Brand’s mother in The Goonies and memorable roles in Scrooged, Romancing the Stone, Die Hard and The Monster Squad plus many other parts in the movies of Richard Donner and her ex-husband Robert Zemeckis. She died of complications from pancreatic cancer on May 20. (THR)
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Dick Van Patten (1928-2015) – Actor. Best known for the sitcom Eight Is Enough, he also starred in the movies Spaceballs (see below), Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Soylent Green, Westworld and High Anxiety. He died due to complication from diabetes on June 23. (THR)
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George “Foghorn” Winslow (1946-2015) – Child Actor. He is best known for appearances in the Howard Hawks-directed Marilyn Monroe movies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Monkey Business (see below). He died on June 13. (THR)
Seth Winston (1950-2015) – Screenwriter. He won an Oscar for scripting the live-action short film Session Man (watch it below) and also wrote the Tony Danza feature She’s Out of Control. He died on June 5. (THR)
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