Noticias

Prolific Hollywood director Mervyn LeRoy continued an impressive output of work during the collapse of the studio system of the 1950s, churning out twelve titles that decade and starting his own production company associated with Warner Bros. Though his career would taper off in the mid-to-late 60s, he was known for a helming a wide variety of genres. However, his later career would see a return to musical inclinations, though not all of them have withstood the tests of time. One such obscure item in his filmography is 1953’s Latin Lovers, an ‘exotic’ romantic pseudo-musical comedy of rich people’s errors starring one of LeRoy’s most famous credited ‘discoveries,’ Lana Turner. Here, she’s swathed in decadent black and white numbers as a woman of impressive and independent financial means, victim to a shared paranoia of the historically sensitive wealthy American in that she believes men only want her for her money.

Gloria O’Connor, an actress and the widow of legendary MGM song-and-dance man Donald O’Connor, died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., their daughter Alicia told The Hollywood Reporter. She was 84. O’Connor was the younger sister of Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, the publisher of THR from 1962 (when her husband Billy Wilkerson died) until the publication’s sale to Affiliated Publications in 1988 for $26.7 million. Wilkerson Kassel died in 2004. As Gloria Noble, O’Connor was a promising starlet at MGM who appeared in such films as Skirts Ahoy!, Small Town Girl, Latin Lovers

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Yesterday was a heavy business day so I'm late on the news.

The most important movie item yesterday was the passing of Ricardo Montalban (pictured left, source). He was 88 years old when he passed away on Wednesday. His greatest fame came in the 80s from television. You may remember him as either "Mr. Roarke" on Fantasy Island, "Zach Powers" on Dynasty spinoff The Colbys or as the title villain in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) --the only Star Trek outing I've ever loved and largely thanks to him. Khan was a character he was reprising from a guest stint on the 60s television show and yes, that was his real chest in the movie. He was eating his spinach as a sexagenarian.

Like many actors who get choice supporting roles in genre movies and/or television stardom in their senior years, Montalban was already famous. He'd been both...

Ricardo Montalban, who became a household name for his performance as the wish-granting Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. The actor was 88.

Montalban's death was announced at a meeting of the city council by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death.

Although he was best known as the charming Roarke on ABC's 1978-84 hit series, Montalban was also a gifted character actor who won an Emmy for his portrayal of a Sioux chief in the miniseries "How the West Was Won."

Montalban's suave manner and patriarchal dignity became his trademarks, and for a period in his late career, he served as the TV pitchman for Chrysler. His dignified intonation -- "rich Corinthian leather" with his regal rolling of the "R's" -- caught viewers' favor and was widely repeated.

Montalban could also play the most dastardly villains,...