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Jan Shepard, the actress who graced both the big screen and TV during Hollywood’s Golden Age, has passed away at 96. Born Josephine Angela Sorbello on March 19, 1928, in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, Shepard wasn’t just a name in the credits—she was a dynamo of talent.

Her career spanned decades, from classic films to the era of cowboy-filled TV shows. Shepard passed away on January 17, 2025, due to pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Jan Shepard

Though she’s no longer with us, her legacy blazes bright through her iconic roles, especially her indelible collaborations with Elvis Presley. Let’s take a look at her most iconic junctures, her remarkable career on TV, and the love story that endured longer than most Hollywood stars could ever dream of.

Jan Shepard’s iconic roles alongside Elvis Presley Elvis Presley and Jan Shepard in a scene from King Creole (Credits: Paramount Pictures)

Jan Shepard had her share of unforgettable roles,...

Jan Shepard, who acted opposite Elvis Presley in 1958’s King Creole and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style, and appeared in more than 30 TV Westerns, died Jan. 17 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure. She was 96.

In King Creole, noted as Presley’s favorite of his films, she portrayed his on-screen sister Mimi. Eight years later, Shepard played Presley’s business partner’s wife in the ’60s buddy musical comedy. In an interview from last year, Shepard said she wasn’t a fan of Presley’s ahead of working with him, but “once I met him, I just adored him.”

Per an official obituary, Presley and Shepard got on well and went to off-set lunches (where Marlon Brando once made a chance appearance). Describing him as a “big teddy bear,” Shepard once recalled that he gave her a pair of 10-cent earrings as a joke before...

Jan Shepard, who guest-starred on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns and played opposite Elvis Presley in movies eight years apart, has died. She was 96.

Shepard died Jan. 17 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure, her son, Hollywood prop master, Brandon Boyle, told The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a good one and will be dearly missed,” he said.

Shepard portrayed Mimi, the sister of Presley’s Danny Fisher, in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (1958) and the wife of Danny Kohana (James Shigeta), who partners with Presley’s Rick Richards in a helicopter business, in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).

“The first time, I found him to be just the cutest kid around, a big teddy bear, a lot of fun,” she said in an interview for Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald’s 1999 book, Westerns Women. But on their next movie,...

Jack Hogan, an actor who starred in ABC’s Combat! for 111 episodes, died Dec. 6 of natural causes at his home in Bainbridge Island, Wash. He was 94 years old.

The news was confirmed to Variety by his son West.

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Hogan played Pfc William G. Kirby on Combat!, starring alongside Rick Jason, Vic Morrow and Pierre Jalbert. The show...

Jack Hogan, a retired actor who starred in the WWII drama series “Combat!” from 1962 until 1967, died of natural causes on Dec. 6 at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, his son West told Variety. He was 94.

Hogan played Pfc William G. Kirby on the ABC series “Combat!,” starring Rick Jason, Vic Morrow and Pierre Jalbert. The show, which ran for five seasons, follows a squad of American soldiers fighting the Germans in France during WWII.

Born Richard Roland Benson, Jr. on Nov. 24, 1929, in Chapel Hill, N.C., Hogan earned his pilot’s license at the age of 16 and joined the Air Force after graduation. He spent four years serving as a staff sergeant in Japan during the Korean War.

After moving to Hollywood, Hogan worked as a lifeguard at the Beverly Hills Hotel and began taking acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Hogan made his onscreen debut as an uncredited role...

By John M. Whalen

Back in the 1950s, before he became a legend, filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch,” “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” and “The Killer Elite”) wrote scripts for TV westerns, including “Gunsmoke,” “The Rifleman,” and “Tombstone Territory.” His reputation grew and in 1957 he wrote his first screenplay entitled “The Glory Guys” which was based on Hoffman Birney’s novel, “The Dice of God.” The book was a fictional account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, with all names changed. The script went unproduced for almost eight years, and in the meantime Sam had moved on, directing features including “The Deadly Companions” (1960), “Ride the High Country” (1962) and “Major Dundee” (1965).

You would think that with that growing resume, Peckinpah would have been able to direct anything he wanted to, but such was far from the case. “Bloody Sam,” as he was called, affectionately by his fans,...

Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then.The lineup for the 2015 festival has been revealed, including new films by Hong Sang-soo, Andrzej Zulawski, Chantal Akerman, Athina Rachel Tsangari, and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes dedicated to Sam Peckinpah, Michael Cimino, Bulle Ogier, and much more.Piazza GRANDERicki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme, USA)La belle saison (Catherine Corsini, France)Le dernier passage (Pascal Magontier, France)Der staat gegen Fritz Bauer (Lars Kraume, Germany)Southpaw (Antoine Fuqua, USA)Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, USA)Jack (Elisabeth Scharang, Austria)Floride (Philippe Le Guay, France)The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, UK/USA)Erlkönig (Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland)Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre (Philippe Falardeau, Canada)Bombay Velvet (Anurag Kashyap, India)Pastorale cilentana (Mario Martone, Italy)La vanite (Lionel Baier, Switzerland/France)The Laundryman (Lee Chung, Taiwan)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, USA) I pugni ni tasca (Marco Bellocchio, Italy)Heliopolis (Sérgio Machado, Brazil)Amnesia (Barbet Schroeder,...