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Matlock has introduced Kathy Bates to a whole new generation of fans

The quasi-reboot and runaway hit legal drama is the pinnacle of her long career, and she absolutely deserves that Emmy nomination.

If you’re new to Bates’ work and are already impatiently waiting for Matlock Season 2, make sure to check out some of her other movie and TV roles. We’ve put together a list of some of her greatest hits to get you started.

(Cinecom/Screenshot) Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

There’s no better place to start than with the beginning of Bates’ career.

She was an unknown actress back in 1982, and she got this role after playing Stella Mae in the stage play of the same name.

The story takes place in a Woolworths and jumps back and forth between past and present as several women memorialize Jimmy Dean on...

Actor Mark Patton has a fan following thanks to his performance in the 1985 horror sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge – and sadly, he’s now facing such serious health and financial issues that he’s having to reach out to his fans for help. His niece Ida has launched a GoFundMe campaign at This Link, aiming to raise $15,000 to aid Patton “in his fight for wellness.” As of this writing, $10,453 has been raised.

Ida wrote, “Many of you know my uncle Mark from his iconic role as Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Over the years, he’s become a powerful figure in the horror community and a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ representation in film. But to me, he’s simply Uncle Mark — kind, generous, funny, and full of heart. Right now, he needs our help. Mark is currently battling serious...

A new film drama, Willie And Jimmy Dean, plans to explore the relationship between screen icon James Dean and screenwriter William Bast.

A new film aiming to explore the man behind the legend has just moved a step closer to production with the announcement that it has found its James Dean. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Parenting actor Brandon Flynn has been cast to play Dean in the planned biopic which will explore the actor’s purported relationship with author and screenwriter William Bast. It’s based on Bast’s 2006 memoir, Surviving James Dean.

The film is set to be directed by Guy Guido, maker of the documentary film Madonna And The Breakfast Club, which explored the artist’s early days as a struggling musician in New York. Likewise, Guido’s next project will explore the early days of Dean’s stardom, apparently beginning with the first meeting between...

13 Reasons Why‘s Brandon Flynn has been tapped to play the late James Dean.

The 31-year-old True Detective actor will star in Willie and Jimmy Dean, the new film based on William Bast’s 2006 memoir, “Surviving James Dean” from writer/director Guy Guido, THR reports.

Keep reading to find out more…

The book alleges that the pair met at the UCLA theater school and eventually became lovers. Bast claimed they kept their relationship a secret as to not hurt James Dean‘s career.

Brandon said in a statement, “James Dean is like the known unknown. His short life left behind just three films, a mountain of photographs and a cultural mythology we keep trying to decode. This script is a beautiful attempt at truthfully understanding who he really was — not just the icon, but the man.”

“This is not a traditional biopic,” Guy said of the project. “It’s a...

Kathy Bates has announced she's retiring after Matlock, so here's a look at the highlights of an incredible career!

CBS had announced Matlock in 2023, a reboot of the 1980s NBC series starring Andy Griffith as a lawyer whose charming manner hides his legal brilliance defending people accused of murder. The new version has Kathy Bates as Madeline "Matty" Matlock, a veteran attorney returning to work for a major firm. She uses her supposed scatterbrained persona and age to make sure she's underestimated before pulling off a win.

The 2023 Hollywood strikes delayed the show, but it is ready to premiere this September. Before that happens, Bates announced that she would be retiring after this series, no matter how long it runs.

This is my last dance. It becomes my life. Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can't hold it back, and I just want my life. Everything I've prayed for,...

Tea Shop Productions, whose psycho-thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage premiered in Cannes Midnight, has unveiled a dynamic development slate featuring Ruth Paxton and Nicolas Winding Refn projects.

Paxton is lining up her next directing feature after Toronto 2021 title A Banquet with Brock Norman Brock attached to write, while producer Refn and Vertigo are collaborating with Tea Shop on a long-gestating remake of horror classic Witchfinder General.

Also in the pipeline are a co-production with Merman and Searchlight and the debut feature from Jimmy Dean based on the Julia Armfield short story Manti.

Tea Shop, co-founded in 2010 by Los Angeles-based...

Chris Overton and his wife Rachel Shenton won the Best Live Action Short Oscar in 2018 for their moving film “The Silent Child.” Since then, Overton has blossomed into a key creator in the short film world with his company, Slick Films, producing a slew of contenders each year. His own entry, “In Too Deep,” won Best British Short Film at the British Short Film Awards in 2023 over, among others, another contender from Slick Films — Daniel Deville‘s “By Any Other Name.”

Slick Films’ new short, “Suzie,” has just made a splash, being chosen as the newest Vimeo Staff Pick (watch it here). This character study by writer-director Jimmy Dean follows a middle-aged woman on the day she tells her son she is getting a divorce. The film is anchored by a terrific performance from Helen Behan, who was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2020 for “The Virtues.

Bates' talent shines in nuanced performances, showcasing emotional depth and humor in classic films like Misery and Dolores Claiborne. Whether as the intrusive yet well-meaning grandmother in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret or the delusional Stella Mae in 'Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, 'Bates captivates audiences. From intense roles like Annie Wilkes in Misery to lighter characters in Fried Green Tomatoes, Bates' versatility and depth continue to impress.

Kathy Bates is celebrated as one of Hollywood's finest actresses of her generation, known for her standout performances in several acclaimed films, many of which are considered her best work. With a career spanning over 50 years across film and television, Bates has built a robust and versatile body of work marked by emotional depth and complexity. Though she found success on Broadway and on the small screen, Bates broke through to wide...

Mark Goddard, who played Major Don West, the hot-tempered pilot of the Jupiter 2, on the 1960s CBS adventure series Lost in Space, has died. He was 87.

Goddard died Tuesday in Hingham, Massachusetts, his wife Evelyn Pezzulich told The Hollywood Reporter.

Goddard had worked as a regular on the Four Star Television series Johnny Ringo and The Detectives when he was approached by his agent about coming aboard the new Lost on Space, created and produced by Irwin Allen.

The sci-fi show revolved around the adventures of the Robinson family: Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams), his biochemist wife, Maureen (June Lockhart) and their children Judy, Penny and Will (Marta Kristen, Angela Cartwright and Billy Mumy).

Major West also was on board, as was a stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), and a robot (designed by Forbidden Planet‘s Robert Kinoshita, played by Bob May and voiced by Dick Tufeld). Their space colonization mission,...

Somewhere, at any given moment, there’s a film director adapting a stage play to the big screen. Yet it’s rare, and fascinating, to see a filmmaker steeped to the gills in cinema as cinema who also has a grand obsession with the theater. Robert Altman was like that. His great films of the ’70s were so naturalistic they seemed to dissolve the edges of the movie frame, yet in the ’80s, starting with “Come Back to the Five & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” he adapted nine plays in a row, the last of which, in 1988, was a darkly solid made-for-tv version of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”

William Friedkin, the legendary director who passed away last month, just before his 88th birthday, represents another case like Altman’s. In the early ’70s, when Friedkin commandeered Hollywood and the world with the extraordinary one-two punch of “The French Connection” (1971) and...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we discuss a character actress, multiple Oscar nominee (and winner) and living legend who is still somehow underrated: Kathy “Bobo” Bates!

Our B-Sides today are: A Home of Our Own, Dolores Claiborne, Love Liza, and Richard Jewell.

The actress made her bones in the theater, originating roles in iconic stuff such as ‘Night Mother and Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

Our guest is Billy Ray Brewton, host of the superb The Incinerator Podcast, the Movie Mixtapes podcast, and the Center Clueless podcast. Brewton is also the Festival Director/Lead Programmer of Make Believe Seattle.

We talk to Brewton about why it is that Bates is his favorite working actress, her innate Southern charm,...

Exclusive: Filmmaking duo Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton, best known for their Oscar-winning short The Silent Child, have set a new slate of projects at their UK-based production company Slick Films.

The slate includes Isla Solidad, created by Omar Deneb Juárez and Camilo Gutiérrez Galván of Sauce Negro Films, Chris Overton’s In Too Deep, starring Shenton and Stephen Wight, and Gregg Chilingirian’s George. All three films will screen at Hollyshorts this August.

Isla Solidad is the tale of a single mother who loses the custody of her son and struggles to make amends for her past mistakes. She pleads for a chance to bring him back home. To do so, she must overcome her financial strains and the complicated care of her sick grandmother. In Too Deep tells the story of a grieving father who goes to extreme measures, using AI technology to relive their fondest memories. George...

Paul Newman admitted that his career could have been overshadowed by James Dean if the Rebel Without a Cause star hadn’t been killed in a car crash.

The Hollywood actor’s thoughts on his career and personal life are being published posthumously in a memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, which will be released on 27 October.

Newman, who died in 2008, remarked: “I know there are some people who attribute my career breakthroughs to Jimmy’s death. Yes, there were elements of luck— and a lot of my success has indeed involved what I call ‘Newman’s luck’.

“Luck recognised me. If Jimmy hadn’t been killed, half of me says, ‘You could have done it anyway. It would have been a hair slower, but it would have happened.”

Newman took over Dean’s role as the fighter in the TV drama, The Battler, when Dean was killed...

Perry Cross, who served as Johnny Carson’s first producer on The Tonight Show before he exited to run an ABC program hosted by Jerry Lewis that came and went after 13 episodes, has died. He was 95.

Cross died March 9 of kidney cancer at a hospital in Los Angeles, his son, Larry Cross, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Cross started out producing Ernie Kovacs’ CBS weekday morning show in 1952 and also worked on The Red Skelton Hour, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Soupy Sales Show, Life With Linkletter, The Garry Moore Show and several Jonathan Winters live specials during his career.

Cross had been producing The Tonight Show in the immediate aftermath of host Jack Paar’s departure on March 30, 1962, guiding the NBC program in Hollywood and New York that featured guest hosts for six months until Carson took over.

NBC wanted Cross to be Carson’s producer,...

Justin Timberlake is living the “Thanksgiving dad life.”

Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel were getting into the holiday spirit on Thursday, and Biel was sure to post a sweet video of the “Suit & Tie” putting the finishing touches on a pumpkin meringue pie.

“No big deal, just torching Thanksgiving meringue,” Biel, 35, is heard saying in a video clip of 36-year-old Timberlake lightly torching the pie.

Timberlake chimed in as he finished the task: “Thanksgiving dad life … okay, I think that’s good.”

The family seemed to enjoy several pies during the food-filled holiday. Before sharing the video, Biel uploaded a shot of four pies,...

The holidays can be hard after a major loss, as Carson Daly can attest. The Voice host shared a sneak peek at the Thanksgiving meal he was making for his family on Instagram Thursday, saying he was cooking with his late mother Pattie Caruso's family recipes. "Deeply missing the smell of mom's Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am," the Today host told his followers. "Luckily, she left the family recipes for us #Happy Thanksgiving #TomTurkey." Carson's mother's turkey recipe was titled "Good Ole Tom." Pattie suffered a heart attack and died in September in Palm Desert, Calif. Her daughter-in-law, Siri Daly, also paid tribute to her on Thanksgiving, sharing an Instagram...

It’s a bittersweet Thanksgiving for Carson Daly.

The Voice and Today host shared a glimpse of a Thanksgiving meal he was preparing for his family in an Instagram photo Thursday, revealing he was cooking with the help of his late mother’s recipes.

“Deeply missing the smell of mom’s Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am,” Daly, 44, wrote in the caption. “Luckily, she left the family recipes for us. #Happy Thanksgiving #TomTurkey.”

His wife, Siri Daly, also commemorated her mother-in-law, Pattie Daly Caruso, on Instagram with a photo of her recipes and Jimmy Dean sausages.

“Every year,...

Carson Daly is missing his late mother, Pattie Daly Caruso. The Voice host took to Instagram on Thanksgiving Day to express how the holiday isn’t the same without his beloved mom. “Deeply missing the smell of mom’s Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am. Luckily, she left the family recipes for us. #Happy […]...

Carson Daly is missing his late mother, Pattie Daly Caruso.

The Voice host took to Instagram on Thanksgiving Day to express how the holiday isn't the same without his beloved mom.

“Deeply missing the smell of mom’s Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am. Luckily, she left the family recipes for us. #Happy Thanksgiving #TomTurkey,” Daly wrote alongside an image of a pre-cooked turkey and his mother’s recipes.

Daly’s mother died of a heart attack on Sept. 17. The 44-year-old TV personality has been vocal about losing his mother, sharing letters and special notes that Caruso left behind.

During his return to the Today show, Daly told his co-anchors that he was “doing Ok.”

"I'm healing, still in shock, really rough loss," he said. "Nobody likes that phone to ring in the middle of the night to get that call.”

Last month, Daly suffered another loss when his stepdad, Richard Caruso, also died.

"Pops...

Diamonds are Forever

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Screenplay by Richard Maibaum & Tom Mankiewicz

UK, 1971

Following up On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, widely considered by most fans to be the best Bond incarnation pre-reboot, here the series takes a step back to recast the iconic Sean Connery in the role of mischievous misogynist Jimmy B, and promptly trips over itself in a strangely crass and dull outing. Replacing the wooden George Lazenby with the series’ original super spy proves to be mere consolation rather than icing on the cake bomb.

Diamonds are Forever surprisingly starts with direct continuity, with Bond leading a ruthless and fisticuffs laden hunt across the world for wife killer Ernst Stavros Blofelt (played here by Charles Gray). He eventually tracks down the evil mastermind and gives him a searing exit to proceedings, or so it seems. Getting back to the small matter of his day job...

Fans want Jimmy Dean to come back to the Five and Dime; Shakespeare writes it “As You Like It”; and a dive-in movie is showing at the Georgia Aquarium. It’s this week’s Atlanta events roundup. “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”In 1955, James Dean was filming “Giant” in a small town near McCarthy Texas, but died soon after. Twenty years later, his fan club, The Disciples of James Dean, reunite to commemorate the anniversary of his death. But events from their past begin to emerge that should have stayed hidden. The original play premiered in 1976 and was directed by Robert Altman, as was the 1982 film version. This version, directed by DeWayne Morgan, is playing through June 27 at Onstage Atlanta. “As You Like It”Take another trip into Shakespeare's enchanted woods in “As You Like It,” where Rosalind disguises herself as a man while...

The famously conservative Duggars seemed to be models of wholesome family life, but son Josh was hiding a dark past: He allegedly molested five young girls as a teen. Subscribe now for an inside look at the Duggars' dark family secrets, only in People.

The ripple effect of the shocking molestation scandal embroiling 19 Kids and Counting continues this week as more high-profile advertisers have stated their intention to distance themselves from TLC's once dominant reality show.

Companies including Ace Hardware, David's Bridal and Pure Leaf Iced Tea announced on social media that they would no longer advertise on the show...

More advertisers are sending the message loud and clear to TLC ... they don't want Anything to do with "19 Kids and Counting." Jimmy Dean, Pure Leaf Iced Tea, Ace Hardware, David's Bridal, ConAgra Foods, Party City and Behr have all just announced they've removed their ad campaigns from the show and Cvs, H&R Block, Ricola and Keurig all say they have no plans of advertising with the show if it's reinstated. It's been almost a...

1.

Paul Thomas Anderson learned to make movies by watching movies. Each of his films bears the ghostly fingerprints of his masters and mentors: the obsession and one-point perspective of Kubrick; the tough-guy veneers and fetid societies that sated the first decade of Scorsese’s career; the intense meditative stares of Jonathan Demme, constantly reminding us that we are, of course, watching a film—we’re immersed in it, but we are spectators, non-participants, in the hands of an artist. Anderson has never created voyeuristic or naturalistic films, never approached Cinéma vérité, and he’s never tried to feign an amateur aesthetic. He crafts films indebted to the grand ambience of New Hollywood, rendered unnaturally lucid and diligently composed. To watch one of Anderson’s films is to get a condensed lesson on the artisanship and history of American cinema.

But Anderson’s most obvious early influence—one he has name-checked,...

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson

Written by Alan Rudolph and Robert Altman

Directed by Robert Altman

USA, 1976

The popularity of the Western, at one point America’s reigning genre champion, was starting to wane considerably by the mid-1960s and well into the 1970s. In part to keep the form alive, and in part to examine just want made this type of film what it once was and had now become, many filmmakers, Sam Peckinpah most notably, began to approach Westerns through a self-consciously analytical lens. These were Westerns that were, in one way or another, about Westerns themselves: what made them work, what their key tropes were, how could their conventions be subverted or updated, and how could this old-fashioned genre be made modern?

Director Robert Altman, no stranger to subverting conventions and thwarting expectations, had already tackled this in 1971, with McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

You take the good, you take the bad, you take the rest and there you have last night's installment of Monday Night Raw.

With the Authority finally usurped, fans got some much-needed relief from Hhh and Stephanie's omnipresence (at least after the opening segment) and were rewarded for their patience with the return of one-night Gm Daniel Bryan. And after a rather lengthy series of monologues and mandates, grown men and women tussled and toiled, belts were defended and retained and Kane ended his night covered in a hellacious combination of condiments.

Long unavailable for home viewing, Robert Altman’s 1982 title Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean has languished as a remote, minor title of the auteur’s filmography, trotted out to devotees at retrospectives. Based on the play by Ed Graczyk and featuring a bevy of eclectic actresses, it’s often and unfairly lumped into consideration with Altman’s other adaptations of stage material from the time period, including David Rabe’s Streamers (1983), Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love (1985) and Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy (1987). Often described as typically Altmanesque with its examination of Americana, a dialogue heavy showcase of melodrama squeezed from the banalities of everyday existence, at last it’s available for a wider appreciation, ripe for a recuperation as more than a mere trifle lost in a flood of greater titles from an American auteur.

It’s 1975 and a group of extreme James Dean fans,...

Adaptations in film and television have become some of the most popular franchises and series today. From the Harry Potter films to the HBO series Game of Thrones to the countless Nicholas Sparks movies that find their way to the cinema, books have become the stepping stones to getting some of the most creative storylines on the screen. Adaptations from stage to film are also wildly popular, with films like 2012′s Les Misèrables and 2013′s August: Osage County receiving critical acclaim in the past couple of years. This years BFI London Film Festival is following the adaptation trend with five stand-out book/play/documentary adaptations to watch out for.

The Drop

From the pen of Dennis Lehane (author of the impressive adaptations Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island) comes a crime drama starring Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini. Bob (Hardy) plays a bartender who lives a quiet life attending church,...

Fury (David Ayer)

[via the BFI]

The programme for the 58th BFI London Film Festival launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s rich and diverse selection of films and events. The lineup includes highly anticipated fall titles including David Ayer’s Fury, Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, the Sundance smash Whiplash, Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language 3D, The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Jason Reitman’s Men, Women and Children and Jean-Marc Vallee’s Wild.

As Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals, it introduces the finest new British and international films to an expanding London and UK-wide audience, offering a compelling combination of red carpet glamour, engaged audiences and vibrant exchange. The Festival provides an essential profiling opportunity for films seeking global success at the start of the Awards season, promotes the careers of British and...

Browse all the sections of the 58th London Film Festival (Oct 8-18) including the galas, competition titles and individual sections.

Alphabetical list of titles by section including feature premiere status

Wp = Wp

Ep = European Premiere

IP = International Premiere

UK = UK Premiere

Opening Night

The Imitation Game (UK-us)

dir. Morten Tyldum

Closing Night

Fury (Us)

dir. David Ayer

GalasTitlePremFoxcatcher (Us)

dir. Bennett MillerUKWhiplash (Us)

dir. Damien ChazelleUKMen, Women And Children (Us)

dir. Jason ReitmanEPWild (Us)

dir. Jean-Marc ValleeEPTestament Of Youth (UK)

dir. James KentWPMr. Turner (UK)

dir. Mike LeighUKThe Battles Of Coronel And Falkland Islands (UK)

dir. Walter Summers Rosewater (Us)

dir. Jon StewartEPMommy (Can)

dir. Xavier DolanUKA Little Chaos (UK)

dir. Alan RickmanEPWild Tales (Arg)

dir. Damián SzifrónUKThe Salvation (Den)

dir. Kristian Levring The White Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdom (Chi)

dir. Jacob CheungIPWinter Sleep (Tur)

dir. Nuri Bilge CeylanUKBjork: Biophilia Live (UK)

dir. Nick Fenton, Peter StricklandUKSong Of The Sea (Ire)

dir. Tomm MooreEPOfficial...

Upon its release in 1990, Madonna's "Vogue" was an appreciation of a long-gone age of Hollywood glamour. Now that age is truly lost: as xoJane's Marci Robin pointed out on Twitter, the passing of Lauren Bacall means every star name-checked in the song has died. Bacall was the last surviving member of the 16 famous names in the song; nine of these stars were still alive when the song hit airwaves on March 20, 1990. ("Vogue" itself is 24 years old.) Below, find the full list of celebrity names included in "Vogue." "Greta Garbo and Monroe, Dietrich and Dimaggio"As fate would have it, Greta Garbo...

Our first victory in the great 2014 overhaul of "The View": Rosie O'Donnell appears to be rejoining the show alongside veteran panelist Whoopi Goldberg. We basically asked for this. Now let's perfect "The View" once and for all -- we need Kathy Griffin to join the show too. A three-comedienne panel would be a strange new world for "The View," but Kathy Griffin is simply the perfect fit. She's candid, she's able to talk about anything, and she's actually willing to be vulnerable and even solemn when the occasion calls for it. She gets "The View." And now "The View" should get her. Here are six reasons why: 1. She has a great friendship and onscreen rapport with Rosie. Kathy Griffin and Rosie O'Donnell could talk about anything. They don't have to try to be interesting because they're actively interested in everything. It's sort of addicting, particularly in this clip from Rosie's short-lived Own show.

It's been decades since visionary Jim Henson first created the Muppets, yet today his lovable creations are as popular as ever.

But for as much time as the Muppets have spent in the spotlight, there's still a lot you don't know about Henson's clever creations. From the first national Muppet "star" to the materials that created the Kermit prototype, here are 19 things you probably don't know about The Muppets.

1. Jim Henson created The Muppets in 1955, making them nearly 60 years old!

2. Henson coined the term "Muppet," but it is not a combination of the words "marionette" and "puppet" -- a belief that was once supported by Henson himself. Rather, it has been reported that Henson just liked the sound of the word.

3. A key factor for the Muppets success is that Henson's realization that TV would allow him to put the puppets front and center, while still hiding the puppeteers. With...

After seeing the list of Cmt’s 2013 Artists of the Year — Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Hunter Hayes, and Florida Georgia Line — we had to echo the thoughts of host Ron White at the top of Tuesday night’s show: “You couldn’t find one girl? There’s more sausage backstage than Jimmy Dean’s freezer.” But there’s no denying that the six men dominated country radio this year, and they had some seriously famous admirers on hand to prove it.

McGraw was the night’s first honoree, and after accepting his trophy from Dwight Yoakam, Lady Antebellum...

Marta Heflin, who was known for her roles in film, television and on Broadway, died on Sept. 18 after a long illness, according to a paid obituary in The New York Times.  She was 68. She frequently worked with director Robert Altman, including the comedy musical A Perfect Couple, A Wedding and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean.  She starred alongside Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born.  A versatile performer, her roles on Broadway included Fiddler on the Roof, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar.  She performed cabaret frequently at New York City nightclubs. Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean...

Marta Heflin, the niece of the Oscar-winning actor Van Heflin and an accomplished actress in her own right, died Sept. 18 after a lengthy illness, according to a paid obituary in The New York Times. She was 68. A stage and cabaret performer with large eyes and a waifish frame that often belied her commanding presence, Heflin frequently worked with film director Robert Altman, in such movies as Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Altman and Heflin also worked on the Broadway stage version together), A Perfect Couple and A Wedding. In addition, reports The Times, Heflin...

Broadway actress Marta Heflin dead at 68: Featured in several Robert Altman movies (photo: Marta Heflin in ‘A Perfect Couple’) Stage actress Marta Heflin, who was featured in a handful of movies in the ’70s and early ’80s, including three Robert Altman efforts, died on September 18, 2013, after "a long illness." Heflin (born on March 29, 1945, in Washington, D.C.) was 68. On Broadway, Marta Heflin was featured in the musicals Fiddler on the Roof, Hair, Soon, and Jesus Christ Superstar (replacing Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene). Additionally, she was seen in Ed Graczyk’s Robert Altman-directed 1982 play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, about a group of James Dean fans — among them Karen Black, Cher, Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates, Sudie Bond, and Mark Patton — who get together on the twentieth anniversary of Dean’s death. Marta Heflin movies Along with her fellow Come Back to the Five and Dime,...

Marta Heflin, an actress from a famous Hollywood family who appeared for Robert Altman in the Broadway and film versions of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, has died. She was 68. Heflin, who also starred as a young groupie matched up with a middle-aged businessman (Paul Dooley) in Altman’s romantic comedy A Perfect Couple, died Sept. 18 after a long illness, according to a paid obituary in The New York Times. Heflin’s uncle was Oscar-winning actor Van Heflin (Johnny Eager, Shane, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers), and her aunt was Frances

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Actor with a talent for conveying her characters' rich and troubled inner lives

The New Hollywood movement was primarily a male, auteur-led phenomenon. But the contribution of performers as adventurous and vital as Karen Black, who has died aged 74 from complications from cancer, should not be overlooked. Black was electrified as well as electrifying: her tornado of hair, her fearless physicality and those indelible feline eyes combined to create a woozy and unapologetic sexual energy. She looked offbeat, and she knew how to use that. "I couldn't have been an actress in the 1930s," she said, reflecting on her role as a movie extra in The Day of the Locust (1975). "My face moves around too much."

It was in the late 1960s and 70s that she became one of the great character actors of Us cinema in a series of performances in key New Hollywood works. Partly it was that...

Actress Karen Black.

I grew up hearing about Karen Black as far back as I can remember. She would pop up on television and my mother would point her out as a compatriot from their college days at Northwestern University, a mixture of pride and wistfulness in her voice as the memories came back. When I finally got the opportunity to sit down with Karen during the summer of 2007, the venerable actress had turned playwright, with a well-received L.A. production of "The Missouri Waltz," a musical for which she penned the book. Black was alternately eccentric, passionate, grounded and fascinating during our chat, her obvious intelligence shining through the entire proceedings.

“Black brings to all her roles a freewheeling combination of raunch and winsomeness,” Time magazine wrote about her in 1975. “Sometimes she is kittenish. At other times she has an overripe quality that makes her look like the kind...

New York — Among films that featured actress Karen Black:

"You're a Big Boy Now," 1959.

"Hard Contract," 1966.

"Easy Rider," 1969.

"Five Easy Pieces," 1970.

"Drive, He Said," 1971.

"Little Laura and Big John," 1972.

"Portnoy's Complaint," 1972.

"The Great Gatsby," 1974.

"Airport 1975," 1974.

"The Day of the Locust," 1975.

"Nashville," 1975.

"Burnt Offerings," 1976.

"Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." 1982.

"Caged Fear," 1992.

"Starstruck," 1994.

"Dogtown," 1996.

"Fallen Arches," 1997.

"Sugar: The Fall of the West," 1998.

"House of 1000 Corpses," 2003.

"Firecracker," 2005.

"Contamination," 2007.

"Vacationland," 2012.

"She Loves Me Not," (completed) 2013.

"The Being Experience," (in post-production) 2013.

So sad! Karen died on Aug. 8 at age 74, her husband announced on Facebook, just minutes after her passing.

Oscar-nominated actress Karen Black died after a long battle with cancer, according to Variety. Read on for more details about her life and death.

Karen Black Dies — ‘Five Easy Pieces’ Star Dead From Cancer At 74

Karen’s husband, Stephen Eckelberry, announced her death on Facebook, saying, “It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and best friend Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago. Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me.”

Karen was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Five Easy Pieces. She also starred in popular films such as Nashville and Easy Rider, and she made a comeback in Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean,...

Birthday shoutouts go to Roger Federer (above), who is ageless, Jc Chasez is 37, and Drew Lachey is 37.

Syfy has chosen the title for its NYC-centered Sharknado sequel from over 5,000 Twitter suggestions. They completely ignored my entry, Sharks & The City and instead went with … Sharknado 2: The Second One. Whatever.

As I still try to wrap my head around the fact that Karen Black is gone, here’s an interview with her Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean co-star Mark Patton, who talks about that experience, as well as playing Jesse in A Nightmare On Elm Street 2, and his despair over Hollywood homophobia. He also talks for the first time about being HIV Positive, and his happy life now, as he’s about to turn 50.

Russian Sports Minister Wants Lgbt Activists to ‘Calm Down’

But Greg Louganis is rejecting the Sochi Olympic boycott.

Our thoughts are...

Karen Black‘s husband Stephen Eckelberry confirmed on Facebook today that the 74-year-old actress has died after a long battle with cancer. As Miss Coco Peru could tell you, Karen Black had a number of great roles in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces (for which she received an Oscar nomination), Nashville, and Family Plot. But what’s your favorite Karen Black role?

Don’t all agree with me at once: For me it’s got to be Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, where Karen Black plays Joanne, a shall-we-say transformed woman whose life is as gritty and mysterious as the saloon town where Mona (Sandy Dennis) tends bar. This Altman jam is one of the few all-female ensemble dramas where every character is a distinct and multidimensional vision. Cher is fabulous in her big screen debut, Kathy Bates shines in a supporting role, and...

Riffing on Terek Puckett’s terrific list of director/actor collaborations, I wanted to look at some of those equally impressive leading ladies who served as muses for their directors. I strived to look for collaborations that may not have been as obviously canonical, but whose effects on cinema were no less compelling. Categorizing a film’s lead is potentially tricky, but one of the criteria I always use is Anthony Hopkins’s performance in Silence of the Lambs, a film in which he is considered a lead but appears only briefly; his character is an integral part of the story.

The criteria for this article is as follows: The director & actor team must have worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in a minimum of 2 must-see films.

One of the primary trends for the frequency of collaboration is the...

If there were an Emmy category for rawness, Andrew Lincoln wouldn’t just be under consideration for a nomination, he’d be the frontrunner for the win. The work the actor did on AMC’s The Walking Dead this past season as grieving Sheriff Rick Grimes felt so real that, at times, it was difficult to watch. (He didn’t even watch himself!) Here, the 39-year-old Englishman opens up about how he approached his widowed character’s breakdown and whether he thinks Emmy voters will be able to overcome their genre bias to give him and his hit cable series a chance.

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It’s Cher‘s birthday. Grab your Oscar, flatten all four feet of your hair, and get into it.

The greatest compliment I can give Cher is that no one is, or ever has been, like her. At all. Her incredible vocals, her stunning acting skills, her candor, her charm, her Mackey wackiness, and her staggering gorgeousness make her a mythological presence on Earth and a transcendently cool pop star. Today, on her 67th birthday, let’s pick her ten most underrated moments. Please enlighten me your favorite under-discussed Cher moments. We can all learn something today.

(By the way: Cher announced on her Twitter this morning that her new single is dropping in June, and her next album drops in September. Celebrate!)

1. She called Meryl Streep “Mary Louise” at the Oscars and got away with it.

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You have to be Cher in order to get away with...

The Lonely Island released a video today for their new single "Spring Break Anthem," a video that mixes spring break hijinx with same-sex marriage and wedding planning.

In a sneaky swerve the video starts off as a new edition of actor Zach Galifianakis' Funny Or Die "Between Two Ferns" series. In it the Hangover star interviews James Franco. After some quick questions about Franco's film "127 Hours" ("127 hours, is that how many hours you look in the mirror every day?") and other bizarre inquiries ("Your face resembles James Dean's, is it safe to say your sausage resembles Jimmy Dean's?") and hosting the Academy Awards, Galifianakis stops the interview to introduce The Lonely Island.

The band is then shown introducing the video, directed by the band and Scott Aukerman, which starts showing a typical college crowd partying hard interspersed with shots of three gay couples planning weddings — one featuring...

Director Robert Altman.

Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick

By

Alex Simon

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.

It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...

Diamonds are Forever

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Screenplay by Richard Maibaum & Tom Mankiewicz

UK, 1971

Following up On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, widely considered by most fans to be the best Bond incarnation pre-reboot, here the series takes a step back to recast the iconic Sean Connery in the role of mischievous misogynist Jimmy B, and promptly trips over itself in a strangely crass and dull outing. Replacing the wooden George Lazenby with the series’ original super spy proves to be mere consolation rather than icing on the cake bomb.

Diamonds are Forever surprisingly starts with direct continuity, with Bond leading a ruthless and fisticuffs laden hunt across the world for wife killer Ernst Stavros Blofelt (played here by Charles Gray). He eventually tracks down the evil mastermind and gives him a searing exit to proceedings, or so it seems. Getting back to the small matter of his day job...