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Anne Whitfield, who appeared in the beloved holiday classic White Christmas and on dozens of TV shows, from Father Knows Best, 77 Sunset Strip and Perry Mason to That Girl, Ironside and Emergency!, has died. She was 85.

Whitfield died Feb. 7 at a hospital in Yakima, Washington, after suffering an “unexpected accident” while on a walk in her neighborhood, family members announced.

“She was a powerhouse in life, and we hope her immense positive energy flows out to those who had the pleasure of knowing her,” they wrote.

Whitfield was 15 and had done lots of acting on the radio when she was cast as Susan Waverly, the granddaughter of Dean Jagger’s Major Gen. Thomas F. Waverly — “The Old Man” — in the Michael Curtiz-directed Paramount musical White Christmas (1954). The film starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

She got to watch White Christmas with her family on the...

Mike Fenton, the legendary casting director who worked on the “Back to the Future” franchise, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and scores of other classic movies and TV shows, has died. He was 85.

Fenton co-founded what is now known as Casting Society of America in 1982. He was a prominent casting director for more than 40 years, with a mile-long resume that stretched from “The Andy Griffith Show” and “That Girl” to “Chinatown,” “American Graffiti,” “The Godfather II,” “Blade Runner,” “A Christmas Story,” “Norma Rae,” “Footloose,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Chaplin.”

“Working with Mike Fenton was like working in a candy store — he made casting a blast,” Steven Spielberg said in a statement. “His fervent support of actors was the stuff of legend, and after landing a part, any actor’s smile was rarely as wide as Mike’s. He didn’t just support actors, he launched crusades.

Mike Fenton, casting director on hundreds of films and TV shows including classics such as Chinatown, American Graffiti, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Bad News Bears, Norma Rae, The Godfather: Part 2, The Goonies, E.T., Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Back to the Future and Chaplin has died. He was 85. Fenton also co-founded what became the Casting Society of America in 1982.

Steven Spielberg worked on many projects with Fenton as both director and producer including The Sugarland Express, the director’s first feature. Spielberg was among the first to weigh in on Fenton’s passing. Among other things, he remembered Fenton as a passionate advocate for the actors he cast.

Spielberg:

Working with Mike Fenton was like working in a candy store — he made casting a blast. His fervent support of actors was the stuff of legend, and after landing a part,...

Warren Berlinger, a busy character actor whose numerous roles made him one of TV’s most familiar faces from the Kraft Theatre golden age through the Grace and Frankie streaming era, died Wednesday at the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, California. He was 83.

His death was confirmed by daughter Elizabeth. A cause has not been announced.

With a cherubic face that could seem simultaneously amiable and, along with the hint of an accent from his native Brooklyn, mischievous, Berlinger was a go-to actor for supporting and sidekick roles for decades, both in film, and television.

After the Bishop show,...

Robert Warner Garland, a Hollywood screenwriter and producer who wrote “No Way Out” and “The Electric Horseman,” died on Saturday in Baltimore, Md., due to complications from dementia, according to his son. He was 83.

Garland was born on May 1, 1937, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md. One of his first jobs in the industry was as a talent coordinator for “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1969, and he soon became a writer and helped prepare Carson’s nightly monologues.

In addition to “The Tonight Show,” Garland also wrote for several sitcoms, such as “That Girl,” “The Bill Cosby Show,” “Love American Style,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Sanford and Son.”

In the film industry, he wrote the 1979 film “The Electric Horseman,” directed by Sidney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The film was a box office success, earning $62 million from a...

Robert Garland, a Hollywood screenwriter who began his career writing episodes of such popular sitcoms as That Girl and Sanford and Son before going on to pen the big-screen hits The Electric Horseman and No Way Out, died Nov. 21 in Baltimore. He was 83.

His son, Michael Garland, said the cause of death was complications from dementia.

Born in Brooklyn, Garland got his first job in television as a talent coordinator for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1969, when the program was based in New York. He quickly rose to writer status and helped prepare Carson’s nightly monologues.

Throughout the early 1970s, Garland wrote scripts for That Girl; The Bill Cosby Show; Love, American Style; The Bob Newhart Show;and Sanford and Son.

In 1979, Garland wrote the screenplay for The Electric Horseman, starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. A year later, he was a writer on Steve Martin’s...

Robert Garland, who wrote the features No Way Out, The Electric Horseman and The Big Blue, died Saturday in Baltimore of complications from dementia, his son announced. He was 83.

Early in his career, Garland wrote episodes of such 1970s comedies as That Girl, The Bill Cosby Show, Love American Style, The Bob Newhart Show and Sanford and Son.

Garland collaborated with director Sydney Pollack on The Electric Horseman (1979), starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and on Tootsie (1982), on which he served as an uncredited writer. He worked without credit on Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman (1990) as well.

Garland also produced No Way Out (1987), starring Kevin Costner. The ...

Robert Garland, who wrote the features No Way Out, The Electric Horseman and The Big Blue, died Saturday in Baltimore of complications from dementia, his son announced. He was 83.

Early in his career, Garland wrote episodes of such 1970s comedies as That Girl, The Bill Cosby Show, Love American Style, The Bob Newhart Show and Sanford and Son.

Garland collaborated with director Sydney Pollack on The Electric Horseman (1979), starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and on Tootsie (1982), on which he served as an uncredited writer. He worked without credit on Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman (1990) as well.

Garland also produced No Way Out (1987), starring Kevin Costner. The ...

Veteran TV game show host Tom Kennedy, who emceed the likes of Name That Tune and Split Second, died on Oct. 7 at the age of 93, according to a friend, Steve Beverly. The cause of death is unknown, though Beverly shared on Facebook that Kennedy “had not been well in recent months.”

Born Jim Narz, Kennedy broke into the business with 1958’s The Big Game and Dr. I.Q., which aired throughout the 1958-59 season. His first major success was NBC’s You Don’t Say!, which ran from 1963 to 1969; the series was later revived by ABC six years later. In...

Danny Goldman, known as the memorable med student who questions Gene Wilder in the 1974 comedy classic Young Frankenstein, has died. He was 80.

Goldman, a New York native with a long career in entertainment, died on Sunday, his longtime agent and friend Doug Ely announced on Facebook.

“It’s with great sadness that I must tell you that Danny Goldman has passed away. He passed peacefully at home today amongst family and friends, after having suffered a couple of strokes around New Years,” Ely wrote. “I’ve known Danny since 1980 when I first became an agent and he 1st started casting on his own.

We have lost a voice acting legend, as The Smurfs star Danny Goldman has reportedly passed away. Goldman is perhaps best known for his role on the classic animated series, which had him lending his voice to the memorable Brainy Smurf. According to TMZ, Goldman had previously suffered from two strokes around the first of the year. He then died at his home on Sunday while in hospice, surrounded by family and friends, at the age of 80 years old.

"Danny was truly one of a kind," says the late voice actor's longtime agent, Doug Ely. "He always had strong opinions and didn't mind telling you about them. He was incredibly funny. He loved to root for the little guy and help wherever he could. He had a huge heart. We lost a good one today. He will be missed."

Goldman was born in 1939, growing up in New York City and...

Emmy-nominated comedy writer and producer Saul Turteltaub died on April 9. He was 87

Director John Turteltaub, the youngest son of Saul confirmed that he died of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills.

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Saul Turteltaub served as a writer and producer for such iconic shows in television history as The Carol Burnett Show, Sanford and Son and That Girl. He received an Emmy nomination for The Carol Burnett Show in 1968 and earned back-to-back noms in 1964 and 1965 as part of the writing team for the U.S. version of the political satire TV series That Was the Week That Was.

Turteltaub teamed with Bernie Orenstein and Bud Yorkin to form Toy Productions and worked on What’s Happening!!,...

Saul Turteltaub, the prolific writer and producer who worked on “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Sanford and Son,” “That Girl,” and “What’s Happening!!” died Thursday of natural causes. He was 87.

Director Howard Murray, who worked closely with Turteltaub, confirmed the news on social media. “Just heard that one of my favorite people on the planet has died. Saul Turtletaub along with his partner Bernie Orenstein created some of the funniest sitcoms ever to grace television,” he wrote. “But that’s only a small part of his legacy. Saul was by any measure, a mensch among mensches.”

During Turteltaub’s career, he garnered three Emmy nominations, including one for the first season of “The Carol Burnett Show,” which shot the comic into stardom. He was also responsible for jumpstarting the careers of countless actors including George Clooney, Richard Pryor, Dana Carvey, Nathan Lane, Garry Shandling and Meg Ryan.

Over the course of his 50-year career,...

Saul Turteltaub, the television writer and producer known for “Sanford and Son,” “What’s Happening!!,” “That Girl” and “The Carol Burnett Show,” has died at the age of 87.

His son, “Cool Runnings” and “While You Were Sleeping” director Jon Turteltaub, confirmed his father’s death to The Hollywood Reporter.

“To say this was a talented, funny, loving and beloved man is truly an understatement,” he said in the statement.

Also Read: Tarvaris Jackson, Former NFL Quarterback, Dies at 36 in Car Accident

Turteltaub had a long career in the television industry. His first writing credit was for “Candid Camera” in 1961, after which he went on to both write and produce shows including “That Girl,” “E/R,” “Grady,” the beloved 1970s comedy “Sanford and Son” and its spin-off series “Sanford Arms,” “Kate & Allie,” “One of the Boys,” “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Love, American Style,” “The Mama Cass Television Program” and...

Saul Turteltaub, the writer and producer whose expansive television résumé included The Carol Burnett Show, That Girl, Sanford and Son, What's Happening!! and so much more, has died. He was 87.

Turteltaub died Thursday of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, his youngest son, director Jon Turteltaub, announced. "To say this was a talented, funny, loving and beloved man is truly an understatement," he said.

Turteltaub was one of the original writers on The Carol Burnett Show and received an Emmy nomination in 1968 for his work on the legendary variety program's first ...

Forrest Compton, who is known for his role in the long-running soap opera The Edge of Night died on Sunday after complications with Covid-19. He was 94.

According to the Shelter Island Reporter, close friends of Compton confirmed his death.

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Compton was born on September 15, 1925, in Reading, Pennsylvania. He served with the 103rd Infantry Division in France during World War II and then went on to enroll in Swarthmore College where he studied pre-law and Political Science before shifting gears to English. He then started to act in school theater productions before he graduated and made his way to study acting at the Yale Drama School alongside his classmate, actor Paul Newman.

In...

After months of rumors, Netflix confirmed on Friday that Imelda Staunton will play Queen Elizabeth II in the fifth season of “The Crown,” which will also be its final season.

While there’d been rumblings about Staunton’s casting, the biggest surprise is that the royal drama will end after Season 5, as it had long been expected to go six, with three sets of cast members playing the roles for two seasons each. But creator Peter Morgan said in a statement that he realized five is “the perfect time and place to stop.”

“At the outset I had imagined ‘The Crown’ running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for season five it has become clear to me that this is the “perfect time and place to stop,” he said. “I’m grateful to Netflix and Sony for supporting me in this decision.”

He...

Film and television executive and producer Leonard Goldberg passed away on Wednesday due to injuries sustained during a fall. He was 85. He died surrounded by his family.

Goldberg most recently served as an executive producer on the popular CBS drama series “Blue Bloods,” which is in its tenth season. He was formerly the president of 20th Century Fox, during which time the studio produced hit films like “Broadcast News,” “Die Hard,” “Wall Street,” “Big,” and “Working Girl.” Goldberg also executive produced a number of films under his own production banner, including “WarGames,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and “Sleeping With the Enemy.”

He was also formerly the head of programming at ABC, during which time he helped pioneer the made-for-television movie format. Hit shows like “Mod Squad,” “That Girl,” and “Marcus Welby, M.D.” all came during his time at the network. As the producing partner of Aaron Spelling, Goldberg also worked on hit shows like “Charlie’s Angels,...

Earle Hagen, the Emmy-winning composer who wrote the iconic themes for “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “I Spy” and many others, would have turned 100 years old on July 9.

He was one of the most influential composers in TV history, formally recognized for his landmark work when the Television Academy inducted him, posthumously, into its Hall of Fame in 2011. He was only the second musician to be so honored.

Hagen pioneered the creation of original music for television in the 1950s, when most TV music was cheaply recorded mood music licensed from pre-existing libraries. By the 1960s, he was composing, arranging and conducting for as many as five shows a week — “The Danny Thomas Show,” “That Girl” and “The Mod Squad” among them — and set a high standard that other TV composers would aspire to in years to come.

“Earle was a huge influence on us, and really good with the tunes,...

Richmond Shepard, one of America’s foremost practitioners and proponents of the art of mime, died in Manhattan July 2 at age 90.

Shepard’s family announced his passing with an unusual request: “In lieu of flowers, Richmond has requested a moment of noise.”

Although he was most famous as a mime — and received fresh notoriety three years ago when he was featured in an online New Yorker video, “The World’s Oldest Mime” — Shepard was also a well-known personality in the bicoastal theater communities as a director, critic and theater operator, with small stages that bore his name in both L.A. and New York.

Shepard was the author of “Mime: The Technique of Silence,” a 1970 book considered an essential text for anyone looking to take up the craft. His early television work included appearances on “The Today Show” and talk shows with Merv Griffin, Steve Allen and Dinah Shore. His...

Welcome back, Pennywise. Warner Bros. has debuted the first official trailer for its upcoming horror tentpole “It: Chapter 2” and it’s as terrifying as fans are expecting. The film is the follow-up to 2017’s “It,” which defied box office expectations and grossed $327 million in the U.S. and $700 million worldwide. Those numbers make “It” the highest grossing horror film ever released (unadjusted for inflation) and put major expectations on the sequel to deliver the critical and financial goods.

Fortunately, “It: Chapter 2” is bringing in some major star power in the form of Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, and James McAvoy. The three actors are playing the adult members of the Losers’ Club alongside Jay Ryan, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, and Andy Bean. “It: Chapter 2” picks up 27 years after the events of the first movie. The story centers the grown members of the Losers’ Club returning to their hometown of Derry, Maine...

Actor Navdeep Chhabra who made his Bollywood debut with Kuch Kuch Locha Hai is now gearing up for his next release. Sharing Screen space with Sunny Leone and Ram Kapoor was a learning experience for this Delhi boy and now he is back on screen with a short film, The Meeting.

The Meeting is a slice of life story of friendship, love, and reunions with a twist in the tale. The film captures the subtle nuances of relationships and makes one believe in love. Directed by Aneeta Patel, Navdeep is seen in a lead role with Anushka Ghorpade.

Talking about his journey in Bollywood, Navdeep stated, ?After Kuch Kuch Locha Hain I was disillusioned. I was a rank newcomer with no connections in the film industry and I was na?ve. Trusting people comes naturally to me and why should it be any other way? I?m thankful that I...

Character actor Richard Erdman, known to contemporary audiences as perpetual student Leonard on “Community,” who also had significant roles for more than seven decades in movies and TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Stalag 17,” has died. He was 93.

His friend, film historian Alan K. Rode, reported his death on Twitter.

On “Community,” Erdman was one of a group of elderly students, known as the “Hipsters” for their hip replacements, who was often told to “Shut up, Leonard!”

“Community” star Joel McHale paid tribute to Erdman on Twitter. “Such a good & funny man. We’ll miss you ‘Leonard,'” he said.

Fellow “Community” actor Yvette Nicole Brown also took to Twitter, writing, “I knew the day we’d have to say goodbye to this lovely man would come sooner than any of us were ready. But knowing that doesn’t make it any easier. #RichardErdman was Joy walking.

James Frawley, a prolific filmmaker who won an Emmy for directing the first episode of “The Monkees” and helmed “The Muppet Movie,” died Jan. 22 at his home in Indian Wells, Calif. He was 82.

His wife, Cynthia Frawley, told Variety that her husband died following a heart attack.

Born on Sept. 29, 1936, in Houston, Frawley was the youngest son of actor William Frawley. He broke into the entertainment business as a television actor with credits on “The Seasons of Youth,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Outer Limits” and “Perry Mason.”

Frawley was chosen selected by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider to direct the first episode of “The Monkees,” starring Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 1967 for the episode “Royal Flush” and was nominated the following year for the segment “The Devil and Peter Tork.”

“I picked up a 16mm camera,...

Tony Sokol Dec 19, 2018

Penny Marshall, director of Big and star of Laverne and Shirley, brought the Bronx to Hollywood.

Penny Marshall, Hollywood's top-grossing female director and star of television's Laverne & Shirley died at age 75 from complications from diabetes. She had reportedly been battling health issues since diagnosed in 2009 with lung cancer which spread to her brain.

“Our family is heartbroken over the passing of Penny Marshall,” the family said in a statement. “Penny was a girl from the Bronx who came out West, put a cursive ‘L’ on her sweater and transformed herself into a Hollywood success story. We hope her life continues to inspire others.”

Marshall is best known for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley , which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy three times during the run.

If you're of a certain age, Happy Days was the show that spawned the hits of the era.

One of those hits focused on two women trying to make their way any way they could. Laverne & Shirley is where our love affair with Penny Marshall started.

Penny Marshall passed away in her Hollywood Hills home last night at the age of 75. She began her career playing a woman bucking the system, and she never slowed down.

Laverne & Shirley was hardly Marshall's first acting credit.

Her first part is uncredited as a dancer on the Jackie Gleason show in 1953. From there, she went on to several movie roles and supporting parts in a plethora of hit TV shows of the day such as That Girl, The Bob Newhart Show, Banacek, The Odd Couple and Mary Tyler Moore.

It was in 1974 that she landed the role of Laverne DeFazio on Happy Days,...

We Love Moses screened at festivals across the globe Photo: Teng Teng Films British first-time feature director Dionne Edwards is among the 15 people selected for Sundance's Screenwriters Lab this January.

Dionne Edwards - whose award-winning short film We Love Moses screened at more than 50 festivals - will bring her project Pretty Red Dress to the mentorship scheme in Utah. Her film is set in present-day London, where Travis, a black man newly released from prison, returns to a turbulent home life with his longtime girlfriend Candice and their androgynous daughter Kenisha. The family’s precarious balance is sent spinning when they discover him cross-dressing, calling all of their relationships into question.

Edwards, who founded Teng Teng Films in 2011 with Georgia Goggin, has previously taken part in the BFI Flare mentorship programme, where she was mentored by Desiree Akhavan (The Miseducation Of Cameron Post). She also directed 30-minute Channel 4 drama That Girl and,...

When looking back at TV history, and the evolving role of women in it, there seems to be this jump from June Cleaver on a show like Leave It To Beaver (the woman of the house who vacuums in a dress) to Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And Mary, of course, leads to things like Ally McBeal and Murphy Brown. Yet somehow often left out of the discussion is That Girl, the show starring Marlo Thomas, which is actually an important stepping stone in terms of female characters who broke the mold of traditional television sitcoms in the 1960s. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Marlo plays Ann Marie, an aspiring actress who moves from her hometown of Brewster, New York to Manhattan, where she works in a variety of temp jobs. Playing her boyfriend is Ted Bessell as Newsview Magazine writer Donald Hollinger; with Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp...

Talent manager George Shapiro helped put Jerry Seinfeld and Andy Kaufman on the map. But that’s only a sliver of his showbiz accomplishments, which include packaging such TV fare as “The Steve Allen Show,” “That Girl,” “Gomer Pyle, Usmc” and specials for Carol Channing, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. These days, Shapiro, 86, is busier than ever, serving as the producer of the Seinfeld Netflix series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” and serving as manager to his 96-year-old uncle, Carl Reiner; he was also executive producer on last year’s HBO documentary about people over 90, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.” A decade after launching his career as a William Morris Agency mail clerk in New York in 1955, Shapiro received his first mention in Variety on April 22, 1965, an item in Army Archerd’s column, saying “Melody and George Shapiro (Wm. Morrisman) were expecting a baby.

Some TV movies aim for originality, using the tools on hand to try and rise above constraints, be they financial or artistic; others are more than content to just entertain, with reliable craftsmen who deliver within the confines of the small screen format. In other words, sometimes comfort food tastes just as good as a five course meal, which brings us to Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973), a familiar yet entertaining romp through diseased minds and sharpened knives.

Originally airing on November 24th as an ABC Suspense Movie, Scream, Pretty Peggy had to settle for the rest of the audience that wasn’t engrossed in CBS’ M*A*S*H/The Mary Tyler Moore Show/The Bob Newhart Show. Slimmer pickings to be sure, but not everyone wants to laugh (those monsters), and Peggy certainly is bereft of any. What it does offer, however, is a solid thriller with a slasher bent...

Less than a year before her passing in 2015, actress Yvonne Craig was chatting with me about the enduring nature of the 1960s Batman series that starred Adam West in the title role, Burt Ward as his sidekick, Robin; and Yvonne herself in the dual role of Barbara Gordon and Batgirl. The complete series had been issued on Blu-ray at the time, which explained the excitement of the moment, but not the fact that people still loved that show nearly 50 years after its debut. “Part of it is that it is that it's a sign of our times,” she said. “Everyone would like to go back to the time of ‘Flower Power.’ You know, rather than blowing people up in all these different places like they are in the world, people are looking for an escape. And this is not only an escape, but it’s stilly and fun and filled with pretty colors.

A key element of The Brady Bunch was the little life lessons and morals that the show would offer up in pretty much every episode. Whether you viewed them as corny or enlightening, they made an impact. And it was certainly one of the big appeals to not only the audience, but the young cast who brought the bunch to life. For actor Barry Williams, who played oldest boy Greg, it was the way the show ended for real (rather than reel) that, ironically, served as perhaps the greatest lesson of all. The Brady Bunch, which brought together a lovely lady with three very lovely girls and a man with three boys of his own, made its debut in 1969 and ran for five seasons, concluding in 1974. At the end of that fifth season, there was every expectation the cast and crew would be back for a sixth. But just three...

John Mayer’s interview in the forthcoming issue of Playboy is stoking fires all over Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere today. His comments on his ex (and former V.F. cover girl) Jessica Simpson somehow made us think of this 2004 photo of her by Patrick Demarchelier. That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me.Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm.Have you ever been with a girl who made you want to quit the rest of your life? Did you ever say, “I want to quit my life and just fuckin’ snort you? If you charged me $10,000 to fuck you, I would start selling all my shit just to keep fucking you.” What do you think of Mayer’s comments to Playboy?...

Earle Hagen, Emmy-winning composer of some of the most memorable musical themes in TV history and the man heard whistling the theme song of The Andy Griffith Show, died Monday of natural causes at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 88.

In addition to writing the folksy Andy Griffith tune, Hagen penned the themes for The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Danny Thomas Show, I Spy, That Girl, The Mod Squad and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, many for famed TV director Sheldon Leonard.

Hagen composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes during his TV career, which spanned more than three decades.

The composer also was active in the film business, mostly as an arranger and orchestrator for 20th Century Fox. He received a 1960 Oscar nomination (shared with Lionel Newman) as musical director for the Marilyn Monroe film Let's Make Love.

Hagen, who played trombone with the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, composed the jazz standard Harlem Nocturne. Written in 1939 for big-band leader Ray Noble, the tune went on to be recorded by Les Brown, Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Ray Anthony and many other bands.

Marlo Thomas has signed on to do a five-episode arc on NBC's Law & Order: SVU. Thomas will portray a judge who is known for speaking her mind and serves as a mentor to the show's assistant district attorney, played by Diane Neal. The first of Thomas' five episodes is scheduled to air next week in the drama series' regular Tuesday 10 p.m. slot. "We're huge fans of her work", said Law & Order: SVU executive producer Neal Baer, who called the character "a dynamic and savvy judge." In addition to the NBC drama series, Thomas will be seen in the upcoming Lifetime telefilm Deceit, written and directed by John Sacret Young, about a grieving widow who becomes a suspect in the disappearance of her wealthy husband. Deceit is set to bow March 15. Thomas, known for her 1960s sitcom That Girl, recently hosted the Lifetime special Our Heroes, Ourselves and the telefilm Two Against Time.