News

Throughout 2025, we will continue to update this In Memoriam photo gallery with notable celebrity deaths from film, television, theater and music. Major entertainment figures honored in the 2025 gallery are double Oscar winner Gene Hackman, Emmy winner Loretta Swit, music legends Roberta Flack, Sam Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Sly Stone, Brian Wilson, and Peter Yarrow, sports announcer and actor Bob Uecker, and Oscar nominated actor Terence Stamp, actress Joan Plowright and director David Lynch.

The entertainment industry has lost several notable figures so far in 2025. The film world was shaken by the death of “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch, with tributes to the visionary filmmaker continuing for weeks. Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman was found dead with his wife in late February in Santa Fe, N.M., while “Harriet the Spy” star Michelle Trachtenberg died in New York on Feb. 26. “The Doors” and “Top Gun” star Val Kilmer died April 1.

In music, Garth Hudson, the last remaining member of The Band, died in January, while Peter, Paul and Mary lost Peter Yarrow. “Killing Me Softly” singer Roberta Flack died in February, while Sly Stone and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson died in June. Singer Connie Francis, Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne and jazz musician Chuck Mangione died in July.

Last year, the entertainment business said goodbye to stars including Shannen Doherty,...

It’s taken a few months, since he lives in the Netherlands, but Eric Andersen finally found time to watch A Complete Unknown. And the troubadour legend, who haunted those same Village clubs during that same time, was…a bit underwhelmed.

“It seemed a little sugarcoated,” he says. ”It was a little two-dimensional. But I found it quite amusing and quite entertaining. I was looking at it more like a cinematic situation than something I knew. I was watching a movie. So, I enjoyed it from that standpoint.”

Then again,...

There’s a priceless moment early in “A Complete Unknown” when folk icon Pete Seeger returns to the cabin where he lives with his family after offering a young singer named Bob Dylan a place to sleep for the night. Seeger shows Dylan around the house, proudly displaying the modern amenities of the rustic abode. But when he talks about how the wondrous new composting toilet doesn’t even stink, his kids chime in from the next room: Yes, Dad, it does!

The moment is quintessential Pete Seeger, a man who wore the same gentle smile whether he was leading sing-alongs or facing adversity that included a lengthy period in the 1950s where he was blacklisted after being at the height of his popularity with the folk group The Weavers. Seeger’s essential goodness always stood out, wrote Elijah Wald in “Dylan Goes Electric!,” the book that served as the inspiration for “A Complete Unknown.

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 7, 2025. BAFTA Rising Star Award nominees announced

Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Jharrel Jerome (Unstoppable), David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus), Mikey Madison (Anora), and Nabhaan Rizwan (In Camera) are the 2025 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominees. Now in its 20th year, the Rising Star Award is the only BAFTA honor voted on by the British public. The award has historically gone to Brits, which bodes well for Abela, Jonsson, and Rizwan (all of whom have also been on Industry). Last year’s winner was How to Have Sex star Mia McKenna-Bruce. Past winners include Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Will Poulter, John Boyega, Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, and Lashana Lynch. The last American champ was Kristen Stewart in 2010.

Abela and Madison could find themselves with two nominations as both were longlisted last week in Best Actress for their respective performances. BAFTA nominations will be announced Wednesday,...

Peter Yarrow — the singer-songwriter who’s best known for his work with the iconic folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary — has passed away.

He was 86 years old.

Yarrow leaves behind a complicated legacy.

Peter Yarrow, founding member of the legendary folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, speaks about the 1967 March on the Pentagon during a vigil marking the 50th anniversary of the protest outside the Pentagon October 20, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Along with his collaborators Paul Stookey and Mary Travers, Yarrow helped to shape the musical tastes of an entire generation.

The group’s 1962 debut album went double platinum and won two Grammys.

Peter, Paul and Mary proceeded to use their platform to boost the careers of lesser-known artists such as Bob Dylan.

The group’s cover of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” is often credited with generating mainstream interest...

Peter Yarrow has sadly died at the age of 86.

The beloved musician was one third of the musical trio Peter, Paul & Mary and was known for songs like “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “The Great Mandala.”

Peter died on Tuesday (January 7) at his home in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City, his publicist confirmed.

Keep reading to find out more…

The rep revealed to The New York Times that the cause of death was “bladder cancer, which Mr. Yarrow had been battling for the past four years.”

Peter‘s daughter Bethany said in a statement, “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest.”

Mary Travers passed away in 2009 a the...

Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known for his work in the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, whose career was later overshadowed by a conviction for molesting a 14-year-old girl, has died at the age of 86.

According to a representative, Yarrow died on Tuesday, January 7th, following a prolonged battle with bladder cancer.

Yarrow began performing while a student at Cornell University in New York. After graduating, he became immersed in the city’s fledging folk scene, eventually crossing paths with music manager Albert Grossman, who pitched him on the idea of forming a new age folk group. Yarrow was soon paired with Mary Travers and Noel Stookey to form Peter, Paul & Mary, and the trio released their eponymous debut album through Warner Brothers in 1962. Featuring songs including “Lemon Tree,” “500 Miles,” and a cover of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer,” the album proved a mammoth hit, spending seven weeks at No.

Peter Yarrow, a five-time Grammy winner who co-founded the hitmaking folk-pop trio Peter, Paul & Mary and co-wrote its memorable “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday of bladder cancer at his New York City home. He was 86.

His daughter Bethany announced the news via reps. “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life,” she wrote. “The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest.” Read a statement from bandmate Paul Stookey below.

Born on May 31, 1938, in Brooklyn, Yarrow teamed with Stookey and Mary Travers as Peter, Paul and Mary and rode the folk-pop tsunami of the early 1960s. The group scored six Top 10 singles that culminated with their sole chart-topper, the young John Denver-penned “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” in 1969.

The trio...

Peter Yarrow, a major figure of the Sixties folk revival with Peter, Paul and Mary who was convicted of molesting a 14-year-old girl and later received a presidential pardon, died today, The New York Times reports. He was 86.

Yarrow died from bladder cancer at his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his publicist, Ken Sunshine.

Yarrow had reportedly been battling bladder cancer for several years. Recently, his children, Bethany and Christopher Yarrow, set up a “living tribute” for their father on his website, asking fans, friends, and others to submit short messages,...

Elijah Wald, author of the book that A Complete Unknown was based on, provides a guide to the factuality of various scenes from the movie.

Wald, who wrote the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties that inspired A Complete Unknown, according to a credit at the beginning of the film, enjoyed the Bob Dylan biopic that took from his book. The film is surprisingly accurate to the true story of Dylan's rise to fame, but that doesn't mean that director James Mangold didn't take liberties. Wald provides a guide to the truth--and fiction--as sourced from Variety. Mangold said that the film was “not a Wikipedia entry” and that he didn't feel the need to always be loyal to the facts--he wasn't making a documentary, after all. However, he did take a lot, not only from Wald's book but from lengthy discussions with Bob Dylan himself.

This Christmas couldn’t get any merrier for fans, as James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown finally hits the theatres. Ever since the movie’s trailer dropped, fans have been waiting for the fateful day.

That was to be expected. After all, it’s Bob Dylan’s biopic. Directed by James Mangold. And the cherry on the top is the fact that Timothee Chalamet will be essaying A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall singer’s role. No wonder fans were waiting in anticipation for this one.

When Bob Dylan left Newport shocked James Mangold does a respectable job with A Complete Unknown || Searchlight Pictures

As James Mangold takes us on a tour of the early 1960s, chronicling the first four years of Bob Dylan‘s rise to fame, he held dearly to the license to make things his own way. When the subject of your inquiry is so enigmatic,...

While James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown spotlights mainly the life of Bob Dylan (portrayed by Timothée Chalamet), the lives of several other musicians intertwined with the iconic troubador’s. His visit to Woody Guthri (Scott McNairy) and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) proved formative in his career and rise as a folk musician.

Later, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) came into the musician’s orbit as did Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison). All Bob Dylan vocals in the film were performed by Chalamet, and the same goes for Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger songs, Monica Barbaro’s portrayal of Joan Baez and Boyd Holbrook’s Johnny Cash.

Below, find a list of all the songs in A Complete Unknown:

“Dusty Old Dust (So Long It’s Been Good To Know Yuh)” Written and Performed by Woody Guthrie “Oasis” Performed by Moondog, Written by Louis T. Hardin “Death,...

Daniel Kramer, a rock photographer who captured some of the most iconic Bob Dylan images of the Sixties, including the covers of Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, died April 29, Rolling Stone confirmed. He was 91.

Kramer first encountered Bob Dylan when he watched him perform “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” on The Steve Allen Show in 1964. “The lyrics were startling to me,” he told Rolling Stone in 2016. “They were so poetic. I knew this wasn’t an ordinary event. I knew this guy was special.”

Not long afterward,...

Lenny Lipton, the New York-native who wrote the lyrics to what became Peter, Paul and Mary’s popular folk song “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” died on Oct. 5 from brain cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife told The New York Times. He was 82.

In 1959, Lipton was a 19-year-old physics major at Cornell University. Feeling inspired after reading Ogden Nash’s poem “The Tale of Custard the Dragon,” he borrowed the typewriter of his schoolmate Peter Yarrow — one-third of the Peter, Paul and Mary trio — to scribe a creation of his own. But when Yarrow saw Lipton’s poem abandoned at the keys, he decided to put it to music, becoming the well-known 1963 song “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

Lipton received a co-writer credit on the track, which was an instant hit among listeners. Through royalties, Lipton generated enough money to move to the Bay Area in California,...

Click here to read the full article.

Lenny Lipton, who wrote the poem that became the Peter, Paul and Mary hit “Puff the Magic Dragon” and developed technology used for today’s digital 3D theatrical projection systems, has died. He was 82.

Lipton died Wednesday of brain cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his son Noah told The Hollywood Reporter.

While studying engineering as a freshman at Cornell University, Lipton, inspired by a 1936 Ogden Nash poem, “The Tale of Custard the Dragon,” wrote a poem in 1959 on a typewriter owned by another physics major at the school, Peter Yarrow.

Yarrow discovered the poem — about a boy named Jackie Paper and his imaginary dragon friend in a land by the sea — in the typewriter and years later used it for the lyrics to “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

Yarrow’s Peter, Paul and Mary recorded the song in 1962. It was released...

Anne Feeney, the influential folk musician and labor activist whose “Have You Been to Jail for Justice” has served as an anthem for activists worldwide, died of Covid-19 on Wednesday. She was 69.

Her daughter, Amy Sue Berlin, confirmed the news on Wednesday night. “It is with a very heavy heart that we must announce the passing of our courageous, brilliant, beautiful mother, Anne Feeney,” Berlin wrote on Facebook. “We were very lucky that she fought hard enough to open up her eyes, and give us a couple days to be...

Anne Feeney, a key part of the folk music movement and a committed political and labor activist, died Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pa. from complications of Covid-19. She was 69 and her daughter, Amy Sue Berlin, announced her passing on Facebook.

Feeney was a major player on the folk circuit, the first woman president of a musicians union in the US, and a regular collaborator with folk icons like Pete Seeger, John Prine, and Peter Paul and Mary. Her anthem Have You Been to Jail for Justice is sung on picket lines and in jail cells around the world.

Her career included more than 4,000 shows across North America and Europe performing for striking workers, in union halls, and large protests. Her performance at the World Trade Organization protests in 1999 was featured in the documentary This is What Democracy Looks Like. She organized dozens of tours supporting various causes, including the Sing Out...

City Winery will livestream its 20th annual Passover variety show, Downtown Seder, Monday, April 6th, with appearances from Perry Farrell, Max Weinberg, Lewis Black and more. The show will start at 6 p.m. Et and will be available to stream via the City Winery website.

The show will loosely fit the contours of a traditional Passover Seder: For instance, Black will discuss the meaning of the bitter herbs, congressman Jerry Nadler will ask the four questions and Farrell and comedian Judy Gold will perform their own personal takes on the Passover staple song,...

“I’m not the first rock & roll octogenarian, am I?” jokes David Freiberg, hours before he and Jefferson Starship are set to take the stage in Carson City, Nevada.

Frieberg, who turns 80 today, is right; he’s not the only pop act still performing regularly in his eightieth year. From Frankie Valli and British blues stalwart John Mayall (both 84) to R&B veteran Sam Moore (82) to folkies like Peter Yarrow and Tom Paxton (both 80), Freiberg is joining a small, prestigious club. But he’s unique in other ways. He’s...

WhyHunger has announced that for the second year in a row, their annual Hungerthon campaign raised $1.1 million for the fight against hunger and poverty in the U.S.

WhyHunger teamed up with its radio partners and celebrity ambassadors for a coordinated month long effort including radio broadcasts, merchandise, social media and an extensive celebrity-driven online auction to raise awareness and critical funds for their work. WhyHunger staff, celebrity ambassadors and community-based partners were also heard participating in over 40 substantive radio interviews and live broadcasts, educating the public on hunger and its intersections.

“We are proud of and thankful for our community of supporters, artists, radio partners – Entercom Radio New York, SiriusXM, Cumulus New York and iHeartMedia – and celebrities who have again come together to raise another $1.1 million for our work to fight hunger and poverty in the U.S.,” said Noreen Springstead, WhyHunger Executive Director. “With impending legislation threatening to...

We thought all the great vintage music documentaries were accounted for, but Murray Lerner’s look at the Newport Folk Festival in the mid-‘sixties is a terrific time machine to a kindler, gentler musical era. The mix of talent is broad and deep, and we get to see excellent vintage coverage of some real legends, before the hype & marketing plague arrived.

Festival: Folk Music at Newport, 1963-1966

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 892

1967 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 12, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers, Odetta, Ronnie Gilbert, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Theodore Bikel, Cousin Emmy, Horton Barker, Fiddler Beers, Mimi Fariña, Richard Farina, Mrs. Ollie Gilbert, Fannie Lou Hamer, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, John Koerner, Jim Kweskin, Tex Logan, Mel Lyman, Spokes Mashiyane, Fred McDowell, Brownie McGhee, Pappy Clayton McMichen,...

While the vast majority of our favorite films of last year have been treated with Blu-ray releases, one title near the top of the list we’ve been waiting the longest for is Kelly Reichardt‘s Certain Women. It looks like it’s been worth the wait as The Criterion Collection have unveiled their September releases and it’s leading the pack (with special features also an interview with the director and Todd Haynes!).

Also getting a release in September, is Michael Haneke‘s Isabelle Huppert-led The Piano Teacher and the recent documentary David Lynch: The Art Life (arriving perfectly-timed to the end of the new Twin Peaks). There’s also Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic psychodrama Rebecca and the concert film Festival, featuring Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and many more.

Check out the high-resolution cover art and full details on the releases below, with more on Criterion’s site.

The immensely popular trio provides an extremely pleasant eighty minutes of musical nostalgia – with plenty of full performances but also the full variety of their music through the years. Interviews with the principals give us the back story, light but not superficial, while film clips show their political activism through the years.

50 Years with Peter Paul and Mary

DVD

Mvd Visual

2014 / B&W + Color / 1:33 flat full frame / 78 min. / Street Date December 9, 2016 / 19.95

Starring Peter Yarrow, Noel (Paul) Stookey, Mary Allin Travers.

Film Editor Pat Murphy

Produced by Jim Brown, Heather A. Smith

Directed by Jim Brown

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When we watch movies about music groups we can be looking for historical and personal insights, or we could just want happy nostalgia, to hear the music and see our favorites as they appeared through the years. Many of us instantly recognize groups from the 1960s when we hear them,...

Fox Animation has picked up the feature film rights to the classic 1963 folk song "Puff the Magic Dragon," and they are looking to develop it into a CGI animated and live-action hybrid film. The studio has hired Trolls director Mike Mitchell to helm the project, and Akiva Goldsman (Transformers) is set to produce.

"Puff the Magic Dragon" tells the tale of an ageless dragon that lives by the seas who befriends a shy child and takes him to the land called Honalee. I can’t help but think the studio was inspired to make this film by Disney’s wonderful recent remake of Pete’s Dragon.

The song was created by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton and spawned an animated TV special for Puff the Magic Dragon that aired in 1978. It was followed by two sequels called, Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of the Living Lies and Puff and the Incredible Mr.

Perhaps based on the success of Disney’s Pete’s Dragon remake, Fox Animation has decided to greenlight Puff the Magic Dragon, an animated/live-action hybrid film based on the popular Peter, Paul and Mary song of the same name. It’ll be directed by Mike Mitchell (Trolls, Shrek Forever After).

Details are limited at the moment, but the folk song, written by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, is based on the 1959 poem, which in turn was inspired by the poem “Custard the Dragon” by Ogden Nash, as /Film notes. The song tells the story of an ageless dragon named Puff, who lives in Honalee, a fictional city by the sea. His friend is Jackie Paper, but he eventually grows older and loses interest in his adventures with his fictional friend. These days, the property is the sore subject of controversy regarding whether or not it’s referencing smoking weed.

Exclusive: Fox Animation will turn the Peter, Paul and Mary song “Puff the Magic Dragon” into a hybrid live action/animated feature that will be directed by Trolls helmer Mike Mitchell. The film will be produced by Safehouse partners Tory Tunnell and Joby Harold and Weed Road’s Akiva Goldsman. They secured the rights to the song, which has lyrics by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton. Vanessa Morrison and Nate Hopper are overseeing for the studio. At a time when Hollywood has…...

While We’Re Young is the latest film from writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Greenberg, Frances Ha). Like his previous work, it is a sharply written mix of comic moments and relatable themes – a Gen Xers vs Hipsters comedy that touches on career crisis, missed opportunities, the challenges of marriage, and the middle-age soul-searching that seems to coincide with the onset of back trouble and arthritis. It’s an excellent, smart comedy and is highly recommended.

Ben Stiller stars in While We’Re Young as Josh Srebnick, a 44-year old filmmaker who’s been toiling away for a decade on his documentary, one structured around Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow), an elderly intellectual. It’s a follow-up to Josh’s first film, a critical success many years earlier. Expected funding has not materialized, he’s unable to pay his patient editor (Matthew Maher), and he is loath to ask his father -in-law,...

Chicago – We’re born, we’re nurtured, we seek purpose and we die. In between there are a million decisions between the words of that opening sentence, and writer/director Noah Baumbach understands that intuitively in his great new film, “While We’re Young.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Utilizing two married couples at different points in their lives, Baumbach shapes a story that is more that a midlife crisis for a fortysomething couple, and maneuvers toward different paths in both ends of that couple spectrum. Like Baumbach did in the film ‘Greenberg,’ he gives a role to Ben Stiller that plays into the actor’s strengths, without devolving into what makes Stiller annoying. The casting is very precise, with hot actor Adam Driver the anchor for many of the situations. You can’t go home again, especially if the “home” is youth, because it’s difficult to repeat being 25 years old if your life experience knows better.

Chicago – Director Noah Baumbach is a master in creating cinematic atmosphere. Whether it’s the adolescent mood of “The Squid and the Whale,” the weird loneliness of “Frances Ha” or his screenplays with director Wes Anderson, Baumbach generates a worthy emotional imprint. His latest film is “While We’re Young.”

“While We’re Young” is a meditation on dichotomy, as Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts portray a childless fortysomething couple that are losing commonality with their baby producing friends. When a younger couple – portrayed by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried – come into their lives, there is a sense that the older couple is taking one more stab at the youth that chronologically has slipped away. Filled with the comedy of awkwardness and keen observations on the human condition, “While We’re Young’ is another expansive achievement from the mind of Noah Baumbach.

Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller in the Noah Baumbach...

Here's the rare lionizing-a-musician doc that strikes a smart balance between vintage footage, talking-head testimonials, and contemporary tribute performances. Despite the appearance of Peter Yarrow, Bob Weir, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Harlem Street Singer keeps its emphasis on its subject's fingers, frets, soul, and story. Blind street singer Reverend Gary Davis's acoustic blues and gospel guitar heroics — especially his inimitable, percussive, self-taught technique — are illuminated by way of smart testimony, but the many clips of him in action are so marvelous that this would be a first-rate doc subject even without all these admiring white people turning up to toast him. Simeon ...

Backstage had some great opportunities this week! Here are some varying auditions and gigs that could be a great fit for all different kinds of Backstage readers. “The Book Of Mormon”Written by “South Park” writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and directed by Broadway director Casey Nicholaw (“Aladdin”), this award-winning musical is on a national tour! This Equity gig is seeking future principal replacements, seven total, for the running shows. Auditions are Aug. 5 in NYC. “Peter Paul And Mary Alive”Calling all singers: This musical group is looking for a baritone singer who’s a great guitarist to sing the part of Paul Stookey. Rehearsals take place in the Thousand Oaks/Los Angeles, Calif. area. “Pineapple Express”Student films are good place to get your feet wet if you’re wanting to jump into the film/indie film scene. This Nyu film is casting two leads for an adaptation...

DVD Release Date: Nov. 12, 2013

Price: DVD $29.95

Studio: Kino Lorber

Judy Collins circa 1963 performs in Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation.

The 2012 music-filled documentary film Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation combines talking heads with rare archival footage and new live performances to tell a story about a community that created a generation-defining music.

Between 1961-1973, many musicians in New York’s Greenwich Village banded together to sing about the radical social upheaval of the time. As these new singers emerged, Greenwich blossomed as a place that promoted a better future. Their music challenged the status quo by singing about taboo subjects – fighting for civil liberties, protesting the Vietnam War, and holding governments accountable for their actions.

Featuring poignant interviews with Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Don McLean, Peter Yarrow, Arlo Guthrie, Lucy and Carly Simon, Tom Chapin and Judy Collins, among dozens of other music luminaries, Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation...

Hartford, Conn. — When 6-year-old Dylan Hockley was memorialized at a service following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, his parents were especially moved by one song.

A writer, Dushyanthi Satchi, had reworked the lyrics to the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah," from Dylan's favorite movie, "Shrek."

"Dylan's Hallelujah" begins, "It's calm, it's clear, it's a peaceful day, walking through the heavenly gates, hand in hand with teachers and my friends."

"That one thing – that song – has been quite healing for us," Nicole Hockley, Dylan's mother, said Thursday.

There have been many musical tributes to the victims of the Dec. 14 tragedy, some put on by world famous performers, others by local musicians and many involving the children of Newtown.

Professional football players were on the verge of tears when a group of 26 children who escaped the Newtown shooting, including Dylan's older brother, Jake, joined Jennifer Hudson at the Super Bowl to sing "America the Beautiful.

Saugerties, N.Y. — Dick Kniss, a bassist who performed for five decades with the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary and co-wrote the John Denver hit "Sunshine on My Shoulders," has died. He was 74.

Kniss died Wednesday of pulmonary disease at a hospital near his home in the Hudson Valley town of Saugerties, his wife, Diane Kniss said.

Kniss was born in Portland, Ore., and was an original member of Denver's 1970s band. He also played with jazz greats including Herbie Hancock and Woody Herman.

Active in the 1960s civil rights movement, Kniss performed at benefits for a range of causes and played during the first celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday.

Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow said in a statement that Kniss was "our intrepid bass player for almost as long as we performed together.

"He was a dear and beloved part...

Bob Dylan, Festival Bob Dylan, along with Joan Baez; Judy Collins; Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow; Donovan; Odetta; Son House; and others, is featured in Murray Lerner's Festival. Nominated for the 1967 Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category, Festival will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Monday Nights with Oscar series on Monday, July 18, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in New York City. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Murray Lerner and Peter Yarrow. Lerner went on to direct Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight and The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. He won an Academy Award for his 1980 documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. The Academy Theater is located at 111 East 59th Street (between Park and Lexington avenues) in New York City.

Judy Collins, Festival Judy Collins; Joan Baez; Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow; Donovan; and Odetta, are some of the performers featured in Murray Lerner's 1967 Academy Award-nominated documentary Festival. The film will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Monday Nights with Oscar series on Monday, July 18, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in New York City. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Murray Lerner and Peter Yarrow. The Academy Theater is located at 111 East 59th Street (between Park and Lexington avenues) in New York City. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.oscars.org or call (212) 821-9251. Photo: Courtesy of AMPAS...

Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow, Festival Murray Lerner's 1967 Academy Award-nominated documentary Festival will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Monday Nights with Oscar series on Monday, July 18, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in New York City. The program will feature a newly struck print from the Academy Film Archive and will include a post-screening chat with Lerner and Peter, Paul and Mary singer Peter Yarrow. From the Academy's press release: Festival captures the annual Newport Folk Festival from 1963–66, including live performances by an all-star lineup of such folk music pioneers as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as interviews with festival attendees and conversations with artists on topics ranging from musical philosophy to the appeal of folk style. Lerner also directed Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight...

First Run Features will release Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune, a documentary film on the noted American protest singer/songwriter (or “topical” singer/songwriter, as he preferred) on DVD on July 19.

The life and career of the legendary protest singer/songwriter is examined in Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune.

Over the course of a meteoric music career that spanned two turbulent decades, folk performer Phil Ochs sought the bright lights of fame and social justice in equal measure, a contradiction that eventually tore him apart.

The 2010 movie features extensive archival performance and interview footage of Ochs, as well as scenes reflecting the turbulent political climate of the 1960s during which he emerged as a spokesperson on causes such as racial injustice, political oppression, the horrors of war and labor issues.

The film includes interviews with family members and many of the artists and activists who knew him from...

Today: Why isn’t Chris Colfer a Teen Hearththrob? Plus, how touching is the Mark Wills’ song “Don’t Laugh at Me”?

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!)

Q: There are lots of teen mags out there – J 14, Teen Bop, etc. – with lots of pinups of *shudders* Justin Bieber, as well as Taylor Lautner, Zac Efron (who isn't even a teen anymore), and even some of Cory Montieth and Mark Salling from Glee (who are both 28, My Age), as well as Chord Overstreet and Kevin McHale. But Not Once have I ever seen a picture, or even a mother-freaking article about, regarding, or even Mentioning Chris Colfer, who is, by far, the Biggest Break Out Star of the show. Plenty of people (even E freaking W) say so. And he's the youngest of the cast,...

With this week's Price of a Movie, time travel to many fabulous places: our country's national parks, museums across the country, the 1930s, Oz, and the mind of the common man. Feel Free: A Celebration of the National Parks Did you know it's National Parks Week? To celebrate, and in conjunction with Ken Burns' latest PBS opus, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, the National Parks Conservation Association and PBS invite you to a very special event. Feel Free: A National Parks Celebration in Central Park will feature highlights the documentary (premiering September 27 on PBS) and musical acts by some fantastic performers. The live show will be shared via satellite to PBS affiliates and other partners assembled in various locations around the country. For more information, visi: www.feelfree.org. Scheduled to perform: Eric Benet, Gavin DeGraw, Jose Feliciano, Carole King, Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas and Peter Yarrow.

On September 16, after battling leukemia for many years, 72-year-old Mary Travers succumbed to cancer in Connecticut's Danbury Hospital. Joining singer-songwriters Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey in the early sixties, Travers completed the legendary folk-pop trio Peter, Paul & Mary, a group that had a profound effect on American culture. Though Pp&M achieved five Grammy® Awards, their influence on Baby Boomers went beyond hit albums and singles. They helped mold the opinions of millions, persistently trying to open the minds of everyone who listened to their recordings or saw them perform live. Over the years, "Puff, The Magic Dragon," "Blowin' In The Wind," and "If I Had A Hammer" were required learning for children while their parents belted out the big chorus of "Leaving On A Jet Plane" whenever it played on the radio. Mary Travers was that warm,...

The music world lost another icon with the passing of Mary Travers of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. Travers was 72 and died from complications from leukemia. She had continued to perform with her partners Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow throughout the years, playing to sold-out audiences. To read Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey's comments on the group's official web site click here...

The 'Puff the Magic Dragon' singer was 72.

By Gil Kaufman

Peter, Paul And Mary's Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers and Paul Stookey in New York City in the mid 1960s

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images

Mary Travers, one-third of the legendary folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary, died on Wednesday (September 16) in a Connecticut hospital at age 72 after a long battle with leukemia.

With her golden hair and high, clear voice, Travers was the lone female voice in a group whose work helped popularize the folk-music scene of the early 1960s, singing on such landmark songs as "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff (the Magic Dragon)."

According to the group's official Web site, Travers had successfully recovered from leukemia following a bone marrow transplant and succumbed to the side effects of one of her chemotherapy treatments.

"In her final months,...

At their peak in the early 1960s, Peter Yarrow, Noel "Paul" Stookey and Mary Travers were affectionately referred to as "Two Beards and a Blonde," but everyone knew Peter, Paul and Mary as the socially active, soft-singing, guitar-strumming trio behind such folk hits as "If I Had a Hammer," "Lemon Tree," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff, the Magic Dragon," among others. Now, the blonde is gone. Mary Travers, 72, died Wednesday in a Connecticut hospital after a long battle with leukemia. With songs that existed on several levels - "If I Had a Hammer" and...

Folk singer Mary Travers has passed away at the age of 72. The musician and member of Peter, Paul and Mary died yesterday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut after suffering from leukaemia for many years. Bandmate Peter Yarrow said: "I have no idea what it will be like to have no Mary in my world, in my life, or on stage to sing with. "But I do know there will always be a hole in my heart, a place where she will always exist that will never be filled by any other person. However painful her passing is, I am forever grateful for Mary and her place in my life." Noel 'Paul' Stookey added: "I am deadened and heartsick beyond (more)...

New York - Mary Travers - a Us folk-singing icon who was part of the famed 1960s trio Peter, Paul and Mary - has died at the age of 72 from leukaemia. She died Wednesday night in a hospital in the eastern Us state of Connecticut, her spokeswoman Heather Lylis told The New York Times. Peter, Paul and Mary was famous for such hits as If I Had a Hammer; Blowin' in the Wind; Puff, The Magic Dragon; I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane; and Lemon Tree. But Travers, Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey also were known for their political activism, which was based on strong opposition to the Vietnam War and support for the...

By Wrap Staff

It’s now just Peter and Paul. Mary Travers, one-third of the popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died of leukemia at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut on Wednesday, her publicist Heather Lylis said. She was 72. With Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, Travers was at the forefront of the folk movement in the ‘60s, as well as at the forefront of that era's civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements. They were the first in the mainstream to discover Bo...

By Wrap Staff

It’s now just Peter and Paul. Mary Travers, one-third of the popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died of leukemia at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut on Wednesday, her publicist Heather Lylis said. She was 72. With Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, Travers was at the forefront of the folk movement in the ‘60s, as well as at the forefront of that era's civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements. They were the first in the mainstream to discover Bo...

What a one-two punch of a day. First Henry Gibson, now Mary Travers. My guess is that the music of Peter, Paul & Mary in some way touched the childhood of just about anyone over the age of 25. I don't know if "Puff the Magic Dragon" is still popular among kids today, but it was a staple of my childhood. It took on a different meaning entirely later in life, but that's another story...

Peter Paul And Mary ;Puff the Magic Dragon

Uploaded by aara2. - See the latest featured music videos.

"Puff" popped up in a couple of noted movies -- "Good Morning Vietnam" (1987) and "Meet the Parents" (2000) -- and spawned a trio of animated made-for-tv movies, between 1978 and 1982. Of course, the best Peter, Paul & Mary movie appearance came in the 1980 Zucker/Abrahams comedy "Airplane!" It gets me every time when Maureen McGovern's nun kicks up her rendition of...