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Winning an Oscar is supposed to be the pinnacle, right? The ultimate stamp of approval, the golden ticket to prestige projects and paychecks. But how could it ever be that simple? There’s a long history of actors who, after basking in the glow of their Academy Award moment, have suddenly found themselves struggling to land roles, battling weird industry backlash, or – if they happen to be a woman – being deemed “too difficult” overnight.

Some just call it the Oscar curse, because Hollywood loves to anoint a star, but it also loves to tear one down. Having said that, there’s a rare breed of actors who not only win an Oscar but do it again. And again. So who are these titans of the Academy, the actors who didn’t just win but kept winning?

Robert De Niro in a still from Taxi Driver | Credits: Columbia Pictures 25. Elizabeth Taylor...

Jack Lemmon was the two-time Oscar-winner who starred in dozens of films, working until his death in 2001 at the age of 76. But how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

Lemmon won his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for “Mister Roberts” (1955). A second Oscar for Best Actor followed for “Save the Tiger” (1973), making him the first person to pull off victories in both categories. He competed six more times for Best Actor throughout his career.

He is perhaps best known for his long collaboration with Walter Matthau, with whom he made 11 films. In films such as “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), “The Odd Couple” (1968), and “Grumpy Old Men” (1993), Lemmon’s fastidiousness played beautifully off of Matthau’s scruffiness.

On the small screen, Lemmon earned Emmys for “‘S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous, ‘S Gershwin” (Best Variety Performer in 1972) and...

Jack De Mave, who portrayed a U.S. forest ranger on Lassie and an unconventional date for Valerie Harper’s Rhoda Morgenstern on the second episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died. He was 91.

De Mave died Jan. 16 in hospice care in Macon, Georgia, his friend Vickie Lovett told The Hollywood Reporter. He had suffered a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day, she said.

The hunky De Mave also appeared in such films as the Rock Hudson-starring Blindfold (1966), 1776 (1972) — as John Penn — and Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face (1993), and in the 1970s, he played The Lone Ranger in a series of Frito-Lay commercials that led to appearances in parades and in front of kids as the wholesome lawman.

The stage-trained actor joined the cast of the enduring CBS drama Lassie at the start of its 15th season as Forest Ranger Bob Erickson in 1968 and worked on 23 episodes over two years.

In the Heart of the Sea includes an incredible cast led by Chris Hemsworth. Based on In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, the movie follows a crew whose ship sinks after encountering a giant whale. In the Heart of the Sea received mixed reviews when it premiered in 2015 and has a 42% Rotten Tomatoes score. Despite the divisive response the movie got, the performance of the actors is one of its saving graces.

Directed by Ron Howard, In the Heart of the Sea is a film adaptation of the story that inspired Moby Dick. In the Heart of the Sea stars Chris Hemsworth, along with other renowned actors such as Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson.

Actor

Character

Chris Hemsworth

Owen Chase

Benjamin Walker

George Pollard Jr.

Cillian Murphy

Matthew Joy

Tom Holland

Young Thomas Nickerson

Brendan Gleeson

Old Thomas Nickerson

Ben Wishaw

Herman Melville

Michelle Fairley

Mrs.

As he entered the elder statesman phase of his career, Spencer Tracy often played men of integrity whose gruff exterior masked a noble heart. Stanley Kramer used Tracy as the moral center of well-intentioned "message movies" like Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, while comedies like Father of the Bride, Pat and Mike, and Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World utilized this persona for laughs. Yet that late-career gravitas was perhaps never put to better use than in John Sturges's Western noir Bad Day at Black Rock. At a brisk 81-minutes, it's a story of racism and injustice that employs the moral weight audiences associate with Tracy to make its message clear without being preachy.

When my late husband, Stanley Kramer, created his own independent film production company in 1947, his goal was to make some level of difference with his work in Hollywood.

The first success of that stated direction was the World War II drama “Home of the Brave” in 1949, adapted from Arthur Laurents’ play about anti-Semitism in the military. Radically, Stanley saw an opportunity with the material to shift his lens to building racial tensions in the United States, and so, in secret, he cast an African American (James Edwards) in the leading role and translated Laurents’ story about the Jewish GI experience to one about the Black GI experience. It would become the most-picketed film in history. It would also mark the start of one of our industry’s most consequential filmmaking careers.

Stanley did make a difference with his work, from stoking disarmament talks with “On the Beach” to crusading for...

Chicago – There is no better time to take in a stage play that is based in U.S. history, depicting the battle between fact and religion. The old theater chestnut – first mounted in 1955 – is “Inherit the Wind,” now at the Goodman Theatre, completing it’s short run through October 20th. For tickets and more information, click Inherit.

Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

“Inherit the Wind” is a fictionalized account of the infamous Scopes trial of the 1920s, which pitted the theory of teaching evolution against the Bible stories of creation. In the book of the play, the teacher on trial is Bertram Cates (Christopher Lleywyn Ramirez), a put-upon educator in the southern small town of Hillsboro, who is in love with Rachel (Tyler Meredith), the preacher’s daughter. Defending Bertram is Henry Drummond, while the prosecutor is Matthew Harrison Brady. As the showdown looms, Hillsboro becomes a trial-of-the-century circus, and a lighting rod...

In A24's Heretic, two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

The movie also stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East and was written & directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

The final trailer Heretic has been released (via FearHQ.com) and it both ups the ante and drives home the fact Grant is taking on one of his most twisted, terrifying roles to date. Tormenting the two girls who enter his home, he tasks them with making a fateful decision before pursuing them through the underbelly of his house.

There's a lot which isn't shown here and something tells us this one will deliver some big twists and turns. The sneak peek also includes plenty of praise from critics, no great surprise when...

One can vividly remember the ‘golden’ days when Hugh Grant would be on our TV screens, wooing women with his charming blue eyes, electric smile, and impeccable line delivery in many of his romantic films. Those were the times when ‘romance’ was still very much ‘alive’ and ‘real’, thanks to the wicked charms of actors like Grant, his ‘arch-nemesis’ Colin Firth, Matthew McConaughey, and many, many more.

Hugh Grant as William Thacker in Notting Hill | Credit: Universal Pictures

Now, pretty much every actor glorifying that period has moved on, taking on widely different roles and genres. As of Grant, he has moved on to an entirely different territory. After starring as Oompa Loompa in Wonka, the actor has ventured into the ‘horror’ territory, with the upcoming A24 film Heretic.

Starring Hugh Grant as the film’s main antagonist, the reviews from the film’s screening at the Toronto Film Festival...

The Off Broadway world premiere of the new Robert O’Hara play Shit. Meet. Fan. will feature a cast headed by Garret Dillahunt, Billy Magnussen and Debra Messing, McC Theater announced today.

The play, which will also star Tramell Tillman and Constance Wu, begins previews Thursday October 10, at McC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater, with an opening night on Monday October 28. The limited engagement runs through Sunday November 17.

O’Hara will direct his play, which is based on Paolo Genovese’s 2016 Italian comedy-drama Perfect Strangers. The movie holds the Guinness record for most remade film in cinema history, with more than 24 remakes in different languages.

Also in the cast will be Genevieve Hannelius, most recently seen in the Netflix original film Along for the Ride and the Netflix original series American Vandal. She is perhaps best known for starring on the three-time Emmy-nominated Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

September marks Marcello Mastroianni’s centennial, and the Criterion Channel pays respect with a retrospective that puts the expected alongside some lesser-knowns: Monicelli’s The Organizer, Jacques Demy’s A Slightly Pregnant Man, and two by Ettore Scola. There’s also the welcome return of “Adventures In Moviegoing” with Rachel Kushner’s formidable selections, among them Fassbinder’s Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, Pialat’s L’enfance nue, and Jean Eustache’s Le cochon. In the lead-up to His Three Daughters, a four-film Azazel Jacobs program arrives.

Theme-wise, a set of courtroom dramas runs from 12 Angry Men and Anatomy of a Murder to My Cousin Vinny and Philadelphia; a look at ’30s female screenwriters includes Fritz Lang’s You and Me, McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow, and Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? There’s also a giallo series if you want to watch an Argento movie and ask yourself,...

Elizabeth MacRae, who played girlfriends of Gomer Pyle and Festus Haggen on television and a woman who seduces Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert in The Conversation, has died. She was 88.

MacRae died Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was raised, her family announced.

MacRae showed up as Lou-Ann Poovie on 15 episodes of the CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: Usmc during its final three seasons (1966-69). She was signed to work just one episode, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” on the Jim Nabors starrer but impressed producers enough to stick around for more.

Earlier, she portrayed April Clomley, the girlfriend of deputy marshal Festus (Ken Curtis), on CBS’ Gunsmoke on four installments from 1962-64.

In The Conversation (1974), written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, MacRae played Meredith, who dances with Hackman’s Harry Caul in his apartment, sleeps with him and then swipes one of his audiotapes. The actress was among...

Spencer Tracy was the two-time Oscar winner starred in a variety of classics before his death in 1967, including nine films opposite fellow legend Katharine Hepburn. Let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Tracy pulled off the rare hat-trick of winning back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, first for his performance as a Portuguese sailor in “Captains Courageous” (1937), then for playing a dedicated priest helping wayward youths in “Boys Town” (1938). It’s a feat that would only be repeated once more in this category by Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” in 1993 and “Forrest Gump” in 1994).

Tracy would compete seven more times in the category: “San Francisco” (1936), “Father of the Bride” (1950), “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961), and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” (1967), which was recognized posthumously.

He’s perhaps best remembered for starring in nine films with Hepburn,...

Exclusive: Ari Aster’s new A24 film Eddington has rounded out its cast with four additions: William Belleau (Killers of the Flower Moon), Cameron Mann (Mare of Easttown), Matt Gomez Hidaka (Silo), and Amélie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

The actors join a stacked ensemble led by Joaquin Phoenix, who reteams with Aster and A24 following their collaboration on surreal epic Beau Is Afraid, as previously reported. Additional cast includes Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr.

While the film’s plot is being guarded, it’s been discussed as a Western. Aster is directing from his own script and producing alongside Lars Knudsen under their Square Peg banner. Production on the film kicked off earlier this month.

Most recently seen playing Henry Roan, the first husband of Lily Gladstone’s Mollie, in Martin Scorsese’s...

Beth Peters, an actor and singer who had a recurring role on “General Hospital,” died on March 14 in central Florida after a short illness. She was 92.

In the early 1980s, Peters appeared in eight episodes of the popular ABC soap opera as the character Mrs. Whitaker. In an obituary for Peters provided to Variety by her son, her character description reads, “The motherly Mrs. Whitaker dispensed country wisdom from her farm kitchen in Beecher’s Corners, serving as a surrogate mother to Laura Spencer, played by Genie Francis, as the teenager’s story arc saw her fall in love with Luke Spencer, portrayed by Anthony Geary.”

Peters started her acting and singing career as a teenager in coastal New Jersey. In 1955, she appeared on Broadway for the first time as an extra for the play “Inherit the Wind,” later taking on the role of Mrs. Brady in the last months of the show’s production.

Casey Kramer, the longtime actress and daughter of legendary director Stanley Kramer died on December 24, according to her sister Kat Kramer. She was 67.

Casey Kramer’s film and TV career spanned four decades, consisting of mostly smaller parts on shows like Falcon Crest, McBride, Criminal Minds, Dexter, Southland, The Young and the Restless, Transparent, Behind the Candelabra, Lethal Weapon and Baskets.

Her filmography begins with her father’s final film, The Runner Stumbles in 1979, which starred Dick Van Dyke and Kathleen Quinlan and featured sister Kat, as well. Her more recent films include Mississippi Requiem in 2018 and 2020’s Darkness in Tenement 45.

Her mother, Anne P. Kramer, was her father’s second wife. They were married from 1950 until their 1963, when they divorced.

During that time Stanley Kramer directed The Defiant Ones, On the Beach, Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World. His other films include Ship Of Fools,...

Rachel Hilson is currently starring in the Los Angeles production of the classic play Inherit the Wind and she got support from some of her Love, Victor co-stars on opening night!

The 28-year-old actress, also known for playing young Beth on This Is Us, walked the red carpet in a black and blue dress on Sunday night (November 5) at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, Calif.

Rachel‘s Love, Victor co-stars Mason Gooding and Ana Ortiz were both in attendance at the opening night performance. Ana was joined by her Devious Maids co-star Judy Reyes.

Some of the other celebs in the crowd included Noah Wyle, Guillermo Diaz, Brett Dalton, Elyes Gabel, and Kelly Lamor Wilson with friend Elle Chapman.

Inherit the Wind, starring Alfred Molina, John Douglas Thompson, and Chris Perfetti, is playing at the Pasadena Playhouse through November 26. Tickets are on sale now!

Heading into the 81st Golden Globe Awards, legendary performer Harrison Ford is eligible for two different small screen prizes – Best TV Drama Actor and Best TV Supporting Actor – thanks to his respective turns on the inaugural seasons of “1923” and “Shrinking.” These possible dual bids would come 22 years after he was named the 48th recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille career achievement award and make him a proper Golden Globe competitor for the first time since 1996. Given the fact that 33 other DeMille awardees will have preceded him in subsequently landing regular nominations, it only makes sense to analyze those instances to determine just how great his chances of victory at the 2024 ceremony really are.

Until “1923” premiered on Paramount Plus last December, the 81-year-old Ford had never appeared in a regular capacity on a TV program of any kind. Within six weeks, however, he was officially a multi-series star showcasing...

This post contains spoilers for the first episode of "The Twilight Zone."

The first episode of Rod Serling's anthology series "The Twilight Zone" aired on October 2, 1959. The episode was called "Where Is Everybody?," and it starred Earl Holliman as a man with no memories, walking down a dirt road. He arrives in a small town. No one is there. He cries out for anyone, but no one answers. He tries the public telephone, but there is no operator. He sees a woman in a car, but she turns out to be a mere mannequin. He helps himself to some diner food, which is still fresh. Machines seem to operate on their own, as when our hero goes to a movie theater and the picture starts automatically. What is happening? Is everyone hiding? Where is everybody? The solitude slowly begins to drive him into a panic.

The twist ending: the...

The composer has been nominated for two Oscars and received seven Emmys.

US composer Laurence Rosenthal will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards this year. The 23rd edition of the awards ceremony will take place at Film Fest Gent on October 21.

Rosenthal has composed scores for over 100 films and television shows throughout his six decades-spanning career.

Known for his creative partnership with actor-director Peter Glenville, Rosenthal wrote original scores for three of his films throughout the 1960s, including Hotel Paradiso, The Comedians and the 1964 film Becket, for which he was nominated for an Acadamy Award.

Exclusive: Broadway casting director Benton Whitley announced today the creation of Whitley Theatrical, a New York City-based casting and producing office for theater, film, and television.

Whitley is the co-founder, with former business partner Duncan Stewart, of the Broadway casting agency Stewart/Whitley. As reported by Deadline yesterday, Stewart is joining Rws Entertainment Group to head up its new casting arm Arc; the Stewart/Whitley agency has been dissolved.

Joining Whitley in his new endeavor is Associate Casting Director Micah Johnson-Levy, with acquisitions and legal counsel from Jordan Manekin, and business management by Karen Morales at Armanino Llp.

In a statement, Whitley said, “Over the last few years, as much disruption and needed change has happened both in the world at large, and specifically, the theater industry, it became apparent that the critical conversations around casting happen at the very first stage of a show’s development, making it the ideal...

Click here to read the full article.

Ask classic-film fans how they feel about the actor Fredric March — star of legendary movies including Inherit the Wind, The Best Years of Our Lives and the 1937 version of A Star Is Born — and chances are that question will be answered with generally effusive praise for the Academy Award-winning actor and his work both onscreen and off.

That’s why dual decisions in recent years to remove March’s name from a pair of performing-arts venues at two campuses of the University of Wisconsin — March’s alma mater — have drawn confusion, frustration and anger from some film fans, the Hollywood community and activists alike.

Among those weighing in on the controversy: Turner Classic Movies primetime host Ben Mankiewicz, who will address the issue during a tribute to the actor on Friday, Sept. 30, marking the 125th anniversary of March’s birth. “To me, two...

Paul Dano has been a professional actor since age 12 when he appeared in a 1996 Broadway revival of "Inherit the Wind" with Charles Durning and George C. Scott. In film, Dano broke out in 2001 playing the lead role in Michael Cuesta's hard-hitting sexual drama "L.I.E." opposite Brian Cox in a career-best performance. Since then, Dano has made a career playing intense outsiders and occasional weirdos in a long string of highly acclaimed dramas. His appearance as a mute, Nietzsche-obsessed teen in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine" was a highlight in a film full of them, and his oddball turn as a not-so-timid preacher in Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" was gloriously off-center. As an actor, he has worked with Ang Lee, Spike Jonze, Kelly Reichardt, Paolo Sorrentino, Denis Villeneuve, Steve McQueen, and Bong Joon-ho.

To date, Dano has directed one feature film: 2018's "Wildlife," based on the 1990 novel...

Fans of Turner Classic Movies know that the channel always provides marvelous little featurettes that showcase famous actors paying tribute to their own screen idols. For example, here is Burt Reynolds' marvelous, heartfelt tribute to Spencer Tracy, who he befriended in 1959 on the studio lot. Reynolds was an up-and-comer starring in the TV series "Riverboat" and he would find time every day to visit the set where Tracy and Fredric March were playing antagonists in Stanley Kramer's classic "Inherit the Wind". Tracy noticed his young admirer and they took daily walks after filming. Reynolds remembers a key piece of advice from his idol: if your acting, don't let the audience catch you at it.

The Producers Guild said Wednesday that Rita Moreno will receive the 2022 Stanley Kramer Award at the 33rd annual PGA Awards, set to run March 19 at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

The honor goes to a production, producer or other individuals “whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.” Moreno, an Egot winner, will join previous recipients including Jane Fonda as well as Get Out, Loving, Fruitvale Station, The Normal Heart, Bombshell, The Hunting Ground, An Inconvenient Truth and Hotel Rwanda.

Kramer’s work included such iconic films as Inherit the Wind, On the Beach, The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

“With grace, intelligence, charisma, and kindness, Rita Moreno made her mark in history as a brilliant entertainer and leveraged that star power to shepherd stories that tap into the human experience and represent people and communities we rarely see celebrated in film and TV,...

Rita Moreno will receive the Stanley Kramer award at this year’s Producers Guild Awards. The Producers Guild of America announced the “West Side Story” star and executive producer as its 2022 honoree on Wednesday morning.

Moreno will be honored in-person at the group’s annual award ceremony on March 19 at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

“With grace, intelligence, charisma and kindness, Rita Moreno made her mark in history as a brilliant entertainer and leveraged that star power to shepherd stories that tap into the human experience and represent people and communities we rarely see celebrated in film and TV,” Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher, presidents of the PGA, stated in the organization’s announcement. “Beyond her on-screen contributions, she has used her unmistakable voice to hold a mirror to the prejudices and inequities that she so often experienced throughout her career. Her activism, strength and artistic contributions set the precedent for...

Rita Moreno will be presented with the Producers Guild’s Stanley Kramer award at the 2022 PGA Awards, the group announced Wednesday.

The Award honors “a production, producer or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.” It’s named for producer and director Stanley Kramer whose film credits include “Inherit the Wind,” On the Beach,” “The Defiant Ones,” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

Previous honorees include: Jane Fonda, “Get Out,” “Loving,” “Fruitvale Station,” “The Normal Heart,” “Bombshell,” “The Hunting Ground,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” and “Hotel Rwanda.”

“With grace, intelligence, charisma, and kindness, Rita Moreno made her mark in history as a brilliant entertainer and leveraged that star power to shepherd stories that tap into the human experience and represent people and communities we rarely see celebrated in film and TV,” PGA Presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher said in a statement.

“Beyond her onscreen contributions,...

The Brass Bottle

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1964/ Color / 1.85:1 / 89 Minutes

Starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden

Directed by Harry Keller

Possessed of a commanding baritone and an even more elegant delivery, Tony Randall was a natural for radio, cutting his teeth as program announcer for Wtag in Worcester before landing the role of a two-fisted detective in the early ’40s with I Love a Mystery. It was a voice—silky but full of import—ideal for Shakespeare in the Park yet the actor’s nervous-nelly demeanor would make him a standard bearer for light comedy. After flaunting his versatility in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind and television’s Mr. Peepers, Randall laid down an actor’s gauntlet with his gender-bending, shape-shifting turn as a mysterious carny barker in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Based on Charles G. Finney’s 1935 satire—a cynical diatribe transformed into a cozy fantasy by George...

The former head of the ACLU discusses some of the movies – and sports legends – that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mighty Ira (2020)

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

42 (2013)

Shane (1953)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Last Year At Marienbad (1962)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

La Strada (1954)

Wild Strawberries (1957) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

The Virgin Spring (1960) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Last House On The Left (1972) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

A Walk In The Sun (1945) – Glenn Erickson’s review

Paths Of Glory (1957) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, John Landis’s trailer commentary

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) – Ed Neumeier’s trailer commentary

Lonely Are The Brave (1962)

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

On The Waterfront (1954) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

12 Angry Men (1957)

Inherit The Wind (1960)

Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

Witness For The Prosecution (1957)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The Verdict (1982)

Twelve Angry Men teleplay (1954)

The Front (1976)

Judgment At Nuremberg teleplay...

Michael Constantine, whose long career produced an Emmy award and many memorable turns as a character actor, died Aug. 31 at his home in Reading, Pa. He was 94 and died from natural causes, his agent, Julia Buchwald, confirmed.

Constantine was best known as the fruit and Windex-obsessed father Gus Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, an indie film that rose out of nowhere to become a smash hit. It spawned a sequel and a third version was in the planning stages, this time set in Greece.,

The original film from 2002 scored more than $360 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all-time.

But Constantine had a long career before that breakout hit. He was the school principal on the popular TV series Room 222. The role of Seymour Kaufman was a key to the show, which ran on ABC-tv from 1969 to 1974. He won an Emmy for the role in 1970.

Beyond that role,...

Michael Constantine, who played Gus, the father of Nia Vardalos’ Toula Portokalos in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” by far the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, died on Aug. 31. He was 94.

Constantine’s agent confirmed the news of his death to Variety. He died of natural causes.

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” scored a domestic gross of $241 million in 2002; No. 2 on the list is “What Women Want” with $183 million. The film drew a SAG Awards nomination for outstanding performance by the cast of a theatrical motion picture.

As Roger Ebert recounted, Constantine’s Gus “specializes in finding the Greek root for any word (even ‘kimono’), and delivers a toast in which he explains that ‘Miller’ goes back to the Greek word for apple, and ‘Portokalos’ is based on the Greek word for oranges, and so, he concludes triumphantly, ‘In the end, we’re all fruits.’ ”

Variety said: “Constantine fares...

Half a decade has passed since Lin-Manuel Miranda finished his Broadway run as the star of “Hamilton,” but the adulation for his work just keeps coming. The Tony-winning smash, which Miranda also wrote, experienced a surge in popularity after a filmed version featuring the entire original cast premiered on Disney+ last July. Miranda and six of his castmates have been recognized for their acting, which makes most of them part of an exclusive group of performers who have earned Tony and Emmy bids for the same role.

Just as they did at the 2016 Tonys, leading men Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. face each other directly in this year’s Best Movie/Limited Actor Emmy race. Nominated for their supporting turns are Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Anthony Ramos, and Phillipa Soo. Ramos is the only one to have not originally competed at the Tonys, as that slot was instead filled by Christopher Jackson.

Although the late Chadwick Boseman did not attract much awards attention during his brief film career, his final performances in “Da 5 Bloods” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” have now brought him plenty. He is now the second man (after Jamie Foxx in 2005) to receive double SAG nominations for individual film roles. By garnering ensemble bids for both films, he has also set a record for most SAG nominations for film in a single year.

In the supporting actor category, Boseman faces off against Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Jared Leto (“The Little Things”), and Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”). All are new to the category except Leto, who brought home the award for “Dallas Buyers Club” in 2014. Baron Cohen and Odom are also up for the ensemble award this year, while Kaluuya won it two years...

Some movies, performances and moviemakers are so iconic that it’s easy to assume the Academy recognized them at some point, and it can be astounding to find out that some of them failed to take home a statue. Such is the case with the 33rd annual Academy Awards ceremony, helmed by iconic host Bob Hope on April 17, 1961. Whereas a deserving picture did win, a few equally memorable movies and performances were left out, a legendary director would lose his last chance at the statue and it was both the first and last year for some Oscar traditions.

Prolific writer and director Billy Wilder was no stranger to the Academy – in fact, he already had 17 nominations and three wins prior to 1960. However, this would prove to be an historic year for him, as he became the first individual to win Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (Original) all in the same year,...

Lynn Stalmaster, the legendary casting director who worked on nearly 200 movies ranging from “West Side Story” to “Harold and Maude” to “Tootsie,” has died. He was 93.

Stalmaster died Friday morning in Los Angeles, Casting Society of America executive Laura Adler confirmed.

Stalmaster was a pioneer as an independent casting director who worked on a freelance basis. He was renowned for his skill in spotting new talent and matching actors to the perfect roles. He was also a champion for elevating the status of casting directors in the industry. In 2016, he became the first casting professional to be honored with an Oscar when he received a Governors Award tribute from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

“A pioneer of our craft, Lynn was a trailblazer with over half a century of world-class film and television casting credits. He was a friend and mentor to many of us,” Casting Society of...

Lynn Stalmaster, who was the first casting director to receive an Academy Award, died today at home in Los Angeles. He was 93 and his death was confirmed by Laura Adler of the Casting Society of America.

Stalmaster had a legendary vision for casting. He is credited with moving Dustin Hoffman into The Graduate, Christopher Reeve as Superman, and tabbing the young John Travolta for TV comedy classic Welcome Back, Kotter, among many others.

The November 2016 Governors Awards saw Stalmaster become the first casting director to receive an Academy Award. The honorary Oscar recognized his long and meritorious career.

Stalmaster also had another notable achievement: on Norman Jewison’s 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair Stalmaster became the first casting director to receive a single-card credit in the titles.

Stalmaster has more than 400 casting credits among them such classics as Inherit the Wind (1960), The Great Escape (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), They Shoot Horses,...

Oscar winner Christopher Plummer died today at his home in Connecticut today at the age of 91.

Plummer’s illustrious career spanned over six decades. Along the way he won an Oscar, a pair of Emmys and two Tonys. Plummer, who was 82 when won his Academy Award for Beginners, became the oldest person ever to win an Oscar. The record was broken by James Ivory, who was 89 when he won for his adapted screenplay for Call Me By Your Name in 2018.

His TV appearances number close to 100. They include the Emmy-winning BBC Hamlet at Elsinore playing the title role; the Emmy-winning productions The Thorn Birds, Nuremberg, Little Moon of Alban and HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. He earned seven career Emmy nominations, taking home awards for lead actor in Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers in 1977 and his voice role in The New Adventures of Madeline in 1994. He most recently...

Christopher Plummer, whose long acting career included Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award wins, has died at the age of 91.

“Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old-fashioned manners, self-deprecating humor and the music of words,” Lou Pitt, Plummer’s longtime manager, said in a statement obtained by our sister site Deadline. “He was a national treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.”

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The Golden Globes have made a habit of overlooking Ethan Hawke, recognizing the four-time Oscar nominee just once for his supporting role in “Boyhood” (2014). But Hawke seems to be a shoo-in this year for playing John Brown, a wild-eyed abolitionist leading a misfit brigade of soldiers in Showtime’s limited series “The Good Lord Bird.” According to our odds, Hawke is on track to earn his second Golden Globe nomination and potentially win.

Emmy champ Mark Ruffalo is the odds-on favorite to take home the Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor Globe for his performance in “I Know This Much Is True,” but Hawke is within striking distance in second place. The two actors have battled it out once before at the Globes when Hawke was up for “Boyhood” and Ruffalo received a bid for “Foxcatcher,” but they were taken down by eventual Oscar winner J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash.” Rounding...

It's a very sad day today as legendary actor Brian Dennehy, known for his memorable roles in movies like First Blood, Tommy Boy, and dozens of others, has reportedly passed away. According to TMZ, law enforcement sources claim Dennehy died of "natural causes" in Connecticut on Wednesday night, and there won't be an official autopsy to determine an exact cause. He was 81 years old.

Brian Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. As a young man, he attended Columbia University in New York City by way of a football scholarship, playing football and studying history at the school. He'd later study dramatic arts at Yale before spending five years serving with the U.S. Marine Corps. By the late '70s, Dennehy began to pursue acting professionally, launching a career in Hollywood that would span over five decades.

Beginning with guest spots on television shows like Kojak and M*A*S*H and...

Patricia Bosworth, an actress-turned-writer whose biographies of fellow Actors Studio alumni Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda were best-sellers and, certainly with the Clift book, definitive for their times, died Thursday of complications related to Covid-19. She was 86.

Bosworth’s stepdaughter Fia Hatsav told The New York Times that the author died of pneumonia brought on by the coronavirus.

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Bosworth began her show business career as a model in the 1950s before enrolling in New York’s Actors Studio to study with Lee Strasberg. Classmates included Brando and Marilyn Monroe. She appeared on Broadway in,...

Kirk Douglas, one of the last living survivors of the film industry’s golden age, has died, People reports. The actor, best known for his iconic role in Spartacus, was 103 years old.

Douglas is survived by his wife Anne and his three sons: Joel, Peter and Michael Douglas. Michael released a statement on Wednesday, which in part reads, “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.

Kirk Douglas, the prolific actor and producer whose “Spartacus” is credited with helping to end the Hollywood blacklist, patriarch of a successful entertainment dynasty and one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s golden age, died Wednesday. He was 103.

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” his son Michael Douglas said in a statement posted on Instagram. “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.

“But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad, to Catherine, a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne, a wonderful husband.

The African American Film Critics Association named Jordan Peele’s “Us” the best film of the year on Tuesday.

The group, which is the largest collection of black film critics from across the country and around the world, awarded “Us” with three honors in total, including best director for Jordan Peele and best actress for Lupita Nyong’o.

“Jordan Peele continued to raise the bar in horror specifically and film overall,” Aafca president and co-founder Gil Robertson said in a statement. “With ‘Us,’ he once again upended the horror genre. His centering of a black nuclear family determined to survive in a complex storyline in a genre where black family units have historically been unseen is extraordinary.

Also Read: The Strange Story Behind 'I Got 5 on It,' the Secret Weapon of Jordan Peele's 'Us'

“He continues to push previously set boundaries with bold storylines that bring a refreshing perspective to...

Claude Earl Jones, a character actor who appeared in such films as Bride of Re-Animator and Miracle Mile and on TV shows including Buffalo Bill, Battlestar Galactica and Little House on the Prairie, has died. He was 86.

Jones died Nov. 25 of complications from dementia at a senior living facility in Claremont, California, his wife of 48 years, Nancy Jones, said.

Jones' first love was the theater, and his favorite gig was portraying lawyer Henry Drummond in Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Inherit the Wind. (The role was made famous by Spencer Tracy in Stanley Kramer'...

Claude Earl Jones, a character actor who appeared in such films as Bride of Re-Animator and Miracle Mile and on TV shows including Buffalo Bill, Battlestar Galactica and Little House on the Prairie, has died. He was 86.

Jones died Nov. 25 of complications from dementia at a senior living facility in Claremont, California, his wife of 48 years, Nancy Jones, said.

Jones' first love was the theater, and his favorite gig was portraying lawyer Henry Drummond in Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Inherit the Wind. (The role was made famous by Spencer Tracy in Stanley Kramer'...

George C. Scott would’ve celebrated his 92nd birthday on October 18, 2019. The Oscar-winning actor remained active right up to the very end of his life, making his mark in dozens of movies, television shows and plays before his death in 1999 at 72. But how many of his titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1927, Scott got his start in theater, winning Obie awards for his performances in “Children of Darkness,” “As You Like It” and “Richard III.” He transitioned into movies and television shortly thereafter, snagging his first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for “Anatomy of a Murder” in 1959. He reaped a second bid in the category just two years later for “The Hustler” (1961), although he refused the citation, objecting to the very idea of having actors compete against each other for prizes.

One of the almost forgotten greats of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Fredric March was a distinguished actor of both cinema and stage, with a long list of accolades.

Born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel on August 31, 1897 in Racine, Wi, young March served in the Army as an artillery lieutenant during World War I, and began a career in banking, despite an interest in acting. However, an emergency appendectomy made him reconsider his career choice and he decided to pursue his interest in the theater.

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

While appearing in films and on stage in New York in the 1920s, he shortened his first name and adopted a shorter version of his mother’s maiden name of “Marcher” to become “Fredric March.” Hollywood came calling in 1929, and with his good looks and rich voice, he easily segued from silent films to talkies. After his...

One of the almost forgotten greats of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Fredric March was a distinguished actor of both cinema and stage, with a long list of accolades.

Born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel on August 31, 1897 in Racine, Wi, young March served in the Army as an artillery lieutenant during World War I, and began a career in banking, despite an interest in acting. However, an emergency appendectomy made him reconsider his career choice and he decided to pursue his interest in the theater.

While appearing in films and on stage in New York in the 1920s, he shortened his first name and adopted a shorter version of his mother’s maiden name of “Marcher” to become “Fredric March.” Hollywood came calling in 1929, and with his good looks and rich voice, he easily segued from silent films to talkies. After his five-year contract with Paramount Pictures expired, he became one of...

Spencer Tracy would’ve celebrated his 119th birthday on April 5, 2019. The two-time Oscar winner starred in a variety of classics before his death in 1967, including nine films opposite fellow legend Katharine Hepburn. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Tracy pulled off the rare hat-trick of winning back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, first for his performance as a Portuguese sailor in “Captains Courageous” (1937), then for playing a dedicated priest helping wayward youths in “Boys Town” (1938). It’s a feat that would only be repeated once more in this category by Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” in 1993 and “Forrest Gump” in 1994).

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

Tracy would compete seven more times in the category: “San Francisco” (1936), “Father of the Bride” (1950), “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Judgment at Nuremberg...