Rest In Peace - 2013

[Straker]

RIP Michael Winner... Director of the Death Wish series and The Sentinel

[_____V_____]

Michael Winner @ 77. (Death Wish director)

Winner had been in ill health for a number of years and almost died after contracting a bacterial infection while holidaying on Barbados in January 2007.

Born to a wealthy family in north London, Winner cut his teeth at the BBC before making his debut as a writer-director with the 1960 crime thriller Shoot to Kill. His freewheeling 1964 sex comedy The System established him as a key chronicler of swinging 60s London and gave rise to a fruitful collaboration with the hell-raising actor Oliver Reed. Winner went on to work with Reed again on The Jokers, I'll Never Forget What's'isname and the 1968 wartime saga Hannibal Brooks.

Yet Winner's greatest success came in the US, when he took the reins of the 1974 vigilante drama Death Wish from original director Sidney Lumet. Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson as a mild-mannered architect turned gun-toting angel of vengeance, bloomed into one of the year's biggest box-office hits and went on to spawn two sequels. Winner's other American films include Lawman, The Mechanic, The Big Sleep and Scorpio. He also worked with a wild-eyed Marlon Brando on The Nightcomers, an overheated prequel to the Henry James story The Turn of the Screw.

During his heyday, Winner took pride in making violent, simple, populist pictures that irked the critics and appeared to relish his role as a man who called the shots. "A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say," he once remarked. His career waned in the 90s and he bowed out with the 1999 hitman caper Parting Shots, a British film that reunited him with his old friend Oliver Reed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/20...el-winner-dead

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935382/

[hammerfan]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

Michael Winner @ 77. (Death Wish director)



http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/20...el-winner-dead

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935382/

You owe Straker a beer - he beat you to it. :D

[Fearonsarms]

I found him despicable as a person but The Sentinel was quite good.

[_____V_____]

Originally Posted by hammerfan

You owe Straker a beer - he beat you to it. :D

Indeed. By seconds, in fact! :)

[_____V_____]

Lloyd Phillips @ 63.

Lloyd Phillips, an Academy Award-winning producer, died in Los Angeles on Jan. 25 after suffering a heart attack, his representative said.

He was 63.

In 32 years in the movie business, Phillips produced films including “Inglourious Basterds,” “The Legend of Zorro" and “Twelve Monkeys," as well as Zack Snyder's upcoming "Superman" reboot, "Man of Steel."

Angelina Jolie, who worked with Phillips on 2010's "The Tourist" and 2003's "Beyond Borders," called the deceased producer "a true original, loved by anyone who knew him well.”

“He had a kind heart and a wonderful sense of adventure," Jolie said. "His death is a terrible shock and a tremendous loss. He was so full of life that it is impossible to believe he is gone.”

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articl...ses-away-75041

[_____V_____]

Patty Andrews @ 94.

Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters, died Wednesday at 94.

She was the lead singer for the trio, whose hits -- including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” -- helped cheer American GIs abroad and those on the home front during World War II.

Andrews died of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, family spokesman Alan Eichler told the Associated Press.

The Andrews Sisters -- which she formed with her sisters LaVerne and Maxene -- recorded more than 400 songs and sold more than 80 million records. Their most well-know songs included “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar” and ”Rum and Coca-Cola.”

Patty Andrews was the group's most high-profile member, always centerstage and often jitterbugging to the tunes.

The sisters recorded with popular swing bands of the ‘40s, including those fronted by Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, Guy Lombardo, Desi Arnaz and Russ Morgan. They had a hit -- "Don't Fence Me In" -- with Bing Crosby, and they also recorded with Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Danny Kaye, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante and Red Foley.

The Andrews Sisters’ popularity led to a contract with Universal Pictures, where they made a dozen low-budget musical comedies between 1940 and 1944. But their most well-known movie was at Paramount, 1947's "Road to Rio" with Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

http://www.thewrap.com/music/article...-dies-94-75481

[hammerfan]

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

[fortunato]

Reg Presley, frontman for the great garage group The Troggs, has died of cancer at the age of 71:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/go...troggs-1586540

[hammerfan]

Robin Sachs who played Ethan Rayne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer has died at age 61.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/...or-dead-at-61/