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Aka
Member
01-02-2007
| Friday, December 12, 2008 - 1:22 pm
Van Johnson R.I.P. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28197683/
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Friday, December 12, 2008 - 3:36 pm
NEW YORK – Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92. Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend. With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and others during his two decades under contract to MGM. He proved to be a versatile actor, equally at home with comedies ("The Bride Goes Wild," "Too Young to Kiss"), war movies ("Go for Broke," "Command Decision"), musicals ("Thrill of a Romance," "Brigadoon") and dramas ("State of the Union," "Madame Curie"). During the height of his popularity, Johnson was cast most often as the all-American boy. He played a real-life flier who lost a leg in a crash after the bombing of Japan in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." He was a writer in love with a wealthy American girl (Taylor) in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." He appeared as a post-Civil War farmer in "The Romance of Rosy Ridge." More recently, he had a small role in 1985 as a movie actor in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo." <snip> His big break, with Irene Dunne and Spencer Tracy in the wartime fantasy "A Guy Named Joe," was almost wiped out by tragedy. On April 1, 1943, his DeSoto convertible was struck head-on by another car. "They tell me I was almost decapitated, but I never lost consciousness," he remembered. "I spent four months in the hospital after they sewed the top of my head back on. I still have a disc of bone in my forehead five inches long." "A Guy Named Joe" was postponed for his recovery, and the forehead scar went unnoticed in his resulting popularity. MGM cashed in on his stardom with three or four films a year. Among them: "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Two Girls and a Sailor," "Weekend at the Waldorf." "High Barbaree," "Mother Is a Freshman," "No Leave No Love" and "Three Guys Named Mike." Though he hadn't lost his boyish looks, Johnson's vogue faded by the mid-'50s, and the film roles became sparse, though he did have a "comeback" movie with Janet Leigh in 1963, "Wives and Lovers." He was born Charles Van Dell Johnson on Aug. 25, 1916, in Newport, R.I. <snip>"
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Friday, December 12, 2008 - 5:06 pm
VAN JOHNSON
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, December 12, 2008 - 10:23 pm

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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 4:14 pm
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry dies As a die hard Trek fan, I'm very sad to hear this. 
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 4:39 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sam Bottoms, who had small but memorable roles in the 1970s classics "Apocalypse Now" and "The Last Picture Show," has died. He was 53. Bottoms, one of four actor-brothers, died Tuesday of brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles, wife Laura Bickford said. In "Apocalypse Now," Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War epic, Bottoms played pro surfer-turned-soldier Lance B. Johnson, who takes to the waves amid bombs and bullets under the orders of the maniacal, surfing-mad Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore played by Robert Duvall. "He was a handsome, tall young man and very sweet-natured and seemed to be right for that part," Coppola said Wednesday. "Sam was a good actor. Of course, he comes from a family that had a lot of theatrical activity." In his 1971 film debut, a 15-year-old Bottoms starred alongside his best-known brother, Timothy, in "The Last Picture Show," playing a mute and mentally handicapped boy forced by friends to lose his virginity to a prostitute. Sam Bottoms said he was in Texas to visit his brother, who was the film's lead, when director Peter Bogdanovich saw him and cast him in the part. Brothers Joseph and Ben are also actors. Sam Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara in 1955, the third of four sons of sculptor James "Bud" Bottoms. He began acting in local theater at age 10. After his 1970s films, Sam Bottoms went on to appear in the Clint Eastwood westerns "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Bronco Billy," and Coppola's 1987 Vietnam film "Gardens of Stone." He more recently appeared in the films "Seabiscuit" and "Shopgirl." He is survived by his three brothers, his parents and his wife.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 4:41 pm

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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 5:35 pm
MAJEL BARRETT-RODDENBERRY
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 11:28 am
OG, thanks for the picture it really annoys me when they have an article and don't post a picture.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 11:57 am
War, did you see she'd just finished filming/taping the voices for the new Star Trek movie? I didn't even know she was ill. Very sad news.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 12:03 pm
Yes I did Kitt. I think that makes every Star Trek film and series that she's been in to date. I loved her as Lwaxana on TNG, she was so dang funny.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 12:35 pm
Yep, right from the pilot to this movie. Quite an amazing legacy.
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 12:40 pm
awww, that's awful. I am a Trekkie, too.
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Friday, December 19, 2008 - 3:41 pm
From the look of the uniform, (not to mention the 'hairdo') I think this is when she played Nurse Chapel on the original Star Trek. She was a beautiful woman who improved with age.

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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 1:23 am
A few years ago I met and interviewed her, and her son Rod as well. I am also a huge Trek fan, and I am very saddened by this news.
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Erniesgirl
Member
06-26-2006
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 6:45 pm
Nina Foch, Beverly Garland, Paul Benedict and Robert Prosky have all died
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Erniesgirl
Member
06-26-2006
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 7:05 pm
Nina Foch, Beverly Garland, Paul Benedict and Robert Prosky have all died. Oops, I see some of these are in the archives already
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 7:42 pm
So many. Sorry to hear about them all. I didn't know she had worked with all of the series and films! That's amazing.
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Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 8:53 pm
Didn't she have siamese cats? Seems like I saw her on an Animal Planet show and her cat had kittens o the show.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 1:09 pm
Robert Mulligan, director of `Mockingbird,' dies Dec 22, 10:31 am ET HARTFORD, Conn. – Robert Mulligan, who directed the classic film "To Kill a Mockingbird," with its sensitive look at a child's world shaken by the racism of a Southern town, has died at 83. Mulligan died early Saturday at his home in Lyme, Conn., after a battle with heart disease, his wife, Sandy, said Monday. Mulligan was nominated for an Oscar for "Mockingbird," the adaptation of Harper Lee's best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The 1962 film starred Gregory Peck, who won the best-actor Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the small town lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of rape. The story unfolds largely from the point of view of Atticus' young daughter, Scout, memorably played by Mary Badham. Phillip Alford played his son, Jem. The New York Times wrote that in the film's opening segment "achieves a bewitching indication of the excitement and thrill of being a child." Mulligan was also known as the director of Reese Witherspoon's first film, "The Man in the Moon," which came out in 1991. It was his last film, and the family drama brought Witherspoon notice as the younger of two teenage daughters grappling with her first love. Among his other credits were "Fear Strikes Out," the 1957 drama starring Anthony Perkins as troubled ballplayer Jim Piersall; "Summer of '42," the 1971 wartime coming-of-age story starring Gary Grimes and Jennifer O'Neill; and the 1972 horror hit "The Other." He also carved out a solid career as a TV director before moving over to film, working on such drama series as "The Philco Television Playhouse" and "The Alcoa Hour.". But "Mockingbird" would remain his most famous work. In 2003, an American Film Institute listing of the top heroes in film history ranked Peck's Atticus Finch as No. 1. "The big danger in making a movie of `To Kill a Mockingbird' is in thinking of this as a chance to jump on the segregation-integration soapbox," Mulligan told The New York Times in 1961, while the planning for the film was in its early stages. "The book does not make speeches. It is not melodramatic."
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 1:18 pm
Our sophomores still watch this version of Mockingbird every year. We all love it! The man was definitely talented.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Thursday, December 25, 2008 - 4:54 pm
Eartha Kitt has died of colon cancer at age 81.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Thursday, December 25, 2008 - 4:56 pm
That is too bad. I hate it when I see "Passings" at the top of the column. I always come to see who it is though. Thank you Colordeagua.
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Thursday, December 25, 2008 - 5:03 pm
NBC news had a good Eartha Kitt bio on tonite's news
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Thursday, December 25, 2008 - 5:05 pm
If you ever get the chance read her autobiography. There may be more that one.
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