RIP (2007)

[slayrrr666]

I always liked him, he was one of my favorites. RIP

[Pulpmariachi]

RIP from me as well.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Amityville' Director Rosenberg Dead at 79

Stuart Rosenberg, who directed such film classics as Cool Hand Luke, Brubaker and The Amityville Horror, died of a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills on March 15, his wife Margot disclosed Monday. In the early 1960s, he also directed episodes of numerous classic TV series, including Naked City, Ben Casey, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and The Untouchables.

I love COOL HAND LUKE. Still my favorite Paul Newman film.
"What we have here is... a failure to communicate."

R.I.P. to Mr. Rosenberg

[slayrrr666]

I know him from Amityville, but RIP nonetheless.

[frankenjohn]

Oscar-winning cinematographer and popular Hammer director Freddie Francis died today at age 89. R.I.P.

[slayrrr666]

Oh, man. I had a huge amount of respect for Francis, having done most of the good Amicus films out there and my favorite Hammer Dracula tale, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. RIP.

[Heineken Skywalker]

'A Christmas Story' Director Bob Clark Killed in Car Crash

Director Bob Clark, who helmed the modern holiday classic A Christmas Story and was the writer-director-producer of the Porky's films, died in a car crash with his son on the Pacific Coast Highway early Wednesday morning; he was 67. According to police reports, Clark's car was hit head-on around 2:30am by an SUV that swerved into Clark's southbound lane; Clark and his 22 year-old son, Ariel, were pronounced dead at the scene. The SUV driver, who was driving without a license, was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and is to be booked for gross vehicular manslaughter. The director of the 1974 cult horror film Black Christmas as well as the 1980 Jack Lemmon drama Tribute (which nabbed Lemmon a Best Actor Oscar nomination), Clark scored a major box office success in the early '80s with the teen sex comedy Porky's, a surprise hit that he wrote, directed and produced which became the highest-grossing film of 1982 and one of the highest-grossing films ever in Canada. Clark went on to helm the sequel, Porky's II: The Next Day, a year later, but it was another 1983 film that would become his most memorable. Based on humorist Jean Shepherd's short story collection In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, A Christmas Story was the nostalgic and humorous tale of a young boy named Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) growing up in the 1940s who yearned for the ultimate Christmas gift, a Red Ryder BB gun. Also starring Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon, the comedy (which Clark directed, co-wrote and produced) was a modest success in its initial box office run but gained a strong and steady following through the next two decades, becoming a TV staple during the holiday season and a consistent seller on DVD. Clark's other films included the Dolly Parton-Sylvester Stallone comedy Rhinestone, Turk 182!, From the Hip, and the two Baby Geniuses movies. Recently, there had been talk of Howard Stern producing a remake of Porky's, and Clark had begun development on a remake of one of his first films, the horror movie Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.

[frankenjohn]

WHOA! Tragic man. And sudden. R.I.P.

[Pulpmariachi]

Whoa...that was sudden. RIP.

[ZapRowsdower]

Damn... R.I.P.

[slayrrr666]

RIP.

[Quorthon]

What a crappy way to die.

[Pulpmariachi]

B.C.’ cartoonist Johnny Hart dies at storyboard
Creator of long-running caveman comic had stroke at age 76

Hart Family / AP Cartoonist Johnny Hart, whose award-winning "B.C." comic strip appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide, died at his New York state home on Saturday. He was 76.

ALBANY, N.Y. - For millions of comic strip readers, the prehistoric era was a hoot: Cavemen played baseball, ants went to school, birds rode on the back of turtles and snakes made quips.

All of it was thanks to cartoonist Johnny Hart, who died Saturday at age 76 while working at his home in the nearby hamlet of Nineveh. “He had a stroke,” his wife, Bobby, said Sunday. “He died at his storyboard.”

Hart’s “B.C.” strip was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate Inc., which distributes it.

“He was generally regarded as one of the best cartoonists we’ve ever had,” Hart’s friend Mell Lazarus, creator of the “Momma” and “Miss Peach” comic strips, said from his California home. “He was totally original. ’B.C’ broke ground and led the way for a number of imitators, none of which ever came close.”

Hart, who also co-created “The Wizard of Id,” won numerous awards for his work, including the National Cartoonist Society’s prestigious Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year and an award from the International Congress of Comics.

Richard Newcombe, founder and president of Creators Syndicate said “B.C.” and “Wizard of Id” would continue. Family members have been helping produce the strips for years, and they have an extensive computer archive of Hart’s drawings to work with, he said.

After his discharge from the military in 1954, Hart worked in the art department at General Electric while selling cartoons on the side. He began reading Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” and was inspired to start his own strip.

“Caveman gags, for reasons which I still cannot explain, were an obsession in those days,” Hart told Creators. “One day, a friend jokingly suggested I create a strip revolving around prehistoric times.”

Later in his career, some of Hart’s cartoons had religious themes, a reflection of his own Christian faith. That sometimes led to controversy.

A strip published on Easter in 2001 drew protests from Jewish groups and led several newspapers to drop the strip. The cartoon depicted a menorah transforming into a cross, with accompanying text quoting some of Jesus Christ’s dying words. Critics said it implied that Christianity supersedes Judaism.

Hart said he intended the strip as a tribute to both faiths. “He had such an emphasis on kindness, generosity, and patience,” Newcombe said.

“B.C.” was filled with puns and sly digs at modern society. One recent strip showed an ant teacher asking her class, “Who can tell me what secondhand smoke is?” One pupil raised his hand with an answer: “A political speech made by a vice presidential candidate.”

After he graduated from Union-Endicott High School, Hart met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence and eventual co-creator with Hart of “The Wizard of Id” in 1964.

Hart enlisted in the Air Force and began producing cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes. He sold his first freelance cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post after his discharge from the military in 1954.

Many of Hart’s characters were patterned after his friends. “He was a free spirit who loved everybody, and everything,” Jack Caprio, a childhood friend and model for “Clumsy Carp” in the “B.C.” strip, told the Press & Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton. “He was never embarrassed by doing silly things.”

Besides his wife, Hart is survived by two daughters, Patti and Perri. He was a native of Endicott, about 135 miles northwest of New York City, and drew his comic strip at a studio in his home there until the day he died.

A funeral will be held Friday.

[frankenjohn]

R.I.P.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Died at his storyboard.
Fitting.

R.I.P.