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[Editor’s note: For this article, The Hollywood Reporter only looked at the shortest and longest screen times in the lead acting categories. Best supporting actor and actress were not included.]

Longest Screen Times Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind (1939)

Movie Length 3 hrs 58 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 23 mins

Percent of Run Time 60 Percent

Vivien Leigh holds the record for the longest performance to win an Oscar, though the work took a deep physical and mental toll on her. The film itself is also the longest to win best picture. At the 12th Academy Awards, Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind also won best supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American to win an Oscar. Leigh was nominated alongside Bette Davis (Dark Victory), Irene Dunne (Love Affair), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka) and Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips).

Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur (1959)

Movie Length 3 hrs 32 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 1 min

Percent of Run Time 57.1 Percent...

Nate Bargatze is hosting Saturday Night Live on October 5. The comedian rolled out a charming promo for his episode, which is the second of the hallowed 50th season, but it failed to point out the rare feat that he is about to pull off.

Bargatze is hosting SNL for the second time in less than a year. He debuted as an SNL host on October 28, 2023, aka the Halloween episode for season 49. This is not only an indicator of how much fans enjoyed him, but it's a feat that very few hosts have pulled off over the last five decades.

Nate Bargatze is hosting SNL in consecutive seasons

Generally speaking, Saturday Night Live prefers to mix things up. It's a show that's predicated on changing out the host, so that the cast can try different comedic stylings and highlight the unique talents of whoever happens to be performing alongside. It's only...

It’s easy to assume that a screenwriter with the last name Gilroy had an effortless foray into show business, but that was anything but the case for Fly Me to the Moon’s Rose Gilroy.

As the daughter of Dan Gilroy and Rene Russo, as well as niece to Tony and John Gilroy, Rose attempted to steer away from the family business by trying her hand at pre-med and pre-law trajectories during college, but neither option ended up being in the cards for her. Upon graduating Colgate University in 2016, she then modeled for a stretch, but it soon became apparent that writing was in her DNA as well. After all, she’s also the granddaughter of the late Frank D. Gilroy, who won a Pulitzer and a Tony for his 1965 play, The Subject Was Roses.

So she started writing scripts, including a psychological thriller called The Pack, which is...

Edgar Lansbury has sadly passed away.

The Tony Award-winning producer and the younger brother of the late Angela Lansbury died on Thursday (May 3) at 94, according to his family.

Edgar died in New York City at his home in Manhattan, his son, David Lansbury, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Keep reading to find out more…

No cause of death was given.

Edgar Lansbury produced the popular 1974-75 Broadway revival of Gypsy, where his sister Angela won a Tony Award.

He also worked on the Broadway and film versions of Godspell, and won a Tony Award for Best Play in 1964 for his Broadway debut of The Subject Was Roses, via Deadline.

His film and television credits include Blue Sunshine, Squirm and Coronet Blue, and stage credits also include American Buffalo (1977) and Lennon (2005).

In 2007, Edgar Lansbury won the John Houseman Award from The Acting Company to honor his commitment to the development of...

Edgar Lansbury, a Tony Award-winning producer and younger brother of actress Angela Lansbury, died Thursday at age 94 at his home in Manhattan, according to his son. No cause was given.

Peggy Gordon, who played in Lansbury’s Godspell, posted the news on Facebook.

“My huge adorable and adoring Godspell family, we have now lost our surrogate daddy, Edgar Lansbury. How blessed was he to live such a full, rich, wonderful life surrounded by people who adored him. Don Scardino says there will be a memorial probably this fall. Contact any and all of your Godspell family members from all ten original companies, plus London (hi Gay) and anyone else I”ve missed. Man, if Joe Beruh was waiting for Edgar with a cigarette in his mouth, I have no doubt Edgar made Joe stomp on it. Love never dies. It’s an energy that only transmutes into matter. That’s all of us.

Edgar Lansbury, the Tony-winning producer and younger brother of famed actress Angela Lansbury who guided the Broadway and big-screen versions of The Subject Was Roses and Godspell, has died. He was 94.

He died Thursday at his home in Manhattan, his son David Lansbury told The Hollywood Reporter.

Lansbury also produced the popular 1974-75 Broadway revival of Gypsy that starred his sister in a Tony-winning turn and worked on other films including The Wild Party (1975), directed by James Ivory.

Angela Lansbury, winner of five Tony Awards and star of Murder, She Wrote, died on Oct. 11, 2022, at age 96. His twin brother, TV producer Bruce Lansbury, died in February 2017 at age 87.

Lansbury’s first Broadway production, the intense family drama The Subject Was Roses, opened in 1964, ran for two years, and won a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony for best play. Written by Frank Gilroy and directed by Ulu Grosbard, it starred Martin Sheen...

At the fifth annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 1953, Helen Hayes won the Best Actress award, thereby becoming the first performer to ever achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. This past Oscar and Tony recipient had now won all three of the American entertainment industry’s most prestigious acting prizes, demonstrating remarkable talent across film, stage, and television. Over the years, 14 women and nine men have followed in her footsteps. Scroll through our photo gallery to learn which two dozen entertainers belong to this exclusive group.

To be included on this list, an individual must have won each award in a competitive acting category. This excludes, for example, James Earl Jones, who was lauded with an honorary Oscar in addition to competitive Emmys and Tonys. Also left out are artists like Mel Brooks, John Legend, and Elton John, all or some of whose wins from the three organizations were for non-acting achievements.

By delivering performances that add up to almost four and a half hours, the four acting Oscar winners of 2024 came within six minutes of setting a new academy record for highest single-year screen time average. Ultimately, they landed in fifth place with a mean of one hour, four minutes, and 57 seconds, thus becoming only the 12th winning quartet (and sixth in 10 years) to exceed 60 minutes.

Newly crowned Best Actor and Actress champs Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) are credited with a whopping 81% of their foursome’s screen time total, respectively clocking in at 1:53:10 and 1:37:19 and outpacing all of the 2024 nominees by at least four minutes. Supporting honorees Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”) gave the fourth and sixth shortest nominated performances of the year, reaching individual screen times of 23:50 and 25:29.

Considering this group’s screen time percentages,...

For the past six years in a row, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor has gone to men with more than 35 minutes of screen time in their respective films. Although four of last year’s nominees could have bucked that trend, the academy chose to keep things consistent by honoring Ke Huy Quan’s especially lengthy performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” By appearing in a whopping 58 minutes and 33 seconds (or 42.03%) of the Best Picture winner, he more than comfortably surpassed his category’s screen time average and came within nine minutes of outpacing every previous supporting male victor.

Quan’s performance is the second longest in his film, as he and his Best Actress-winning on-screen wife, Michelle Yeoh, are separated by 36 minutes and 43 seconds (or 26.35%). Directly below him is Stephanie Hsu – who earned a supporting bid as his character’s daughter – at 42:18 (30.36%). Considering all 87 featured male turns that have merited Academy Awards,...

Francis Ford Coppola's bleak Vietnam War picture "Apocalypse Now" is not only one of the best films of 1979, but is handily one of the finest, most important films of its decade. Using Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella "Heart of Darkness" as a template, Copolla transposed the book's action from the late 1800s Congo to the jungles of Cambodia, and, in so doing, exposed the madness and horror of the Vietnam War in harrowing, soul-hollowing terms. As Captain Willars (Martin Sheen) treks deeper and deeper into the chaos of the natural world -- drifting ever closer to the insane, cult-founding rogue Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) -- reality begins to dissipate. Eventually, madness and violence are all that remain, and war is reduced to its base function: brazen, meaningless destruction and cruelty. "Apocalypse Now" is a great, great film.

Curiously, a lot of war enthusiasts love "Apocalypse Now," seemingly ignoring the film's...

In 1964 Barbra Streisand became a star when she opened the original Broadway production of “Funny Girl” as real-life actress, singer and comedian Fanny Brice. Despite rave reviews, she ended up losing the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical to Carol Channing for “Hello, Dolly!” But in 1968 Babs made her motion picture debut in a film adaptation of “Funny Girl” directed by William Wyler, reprising her role as Fanny. She went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress (famously in a tie with Katharine Hepburn for “The Lion in Winter”). In 1970 Eileen Heckart was Tony nominated for her featured performance as Mrs. Baker in “Butterflies are Free,” but lost to her co-star Blythe Danner. But in 1972 Heckart reprised her role in a film adaptation, which won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

SEERay Richmond: Oprah discusses taking her ‘The Color Purple’ journey full circle following Thursday night world...

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, a cult classic, brought the story to life thanks to its talented cast and received critical acclaim. Gene Wilder's performance as Willy Wonka solidified him as a skilled actor and his song "Pure Imagination" is one of the most recognizable in movie history. Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket, pursued a career as a vet instead of acting but still has positive memories of the film.

The talented cast of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory embarked on different paths after the 1971 movie, enjoying varying levels of success. The first big-screen adaptation of the 1964 children's novel by Roald Dahl, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory has since become a cult classic. The movie tells the story of a poor young boy named Charlie Bucket who experiences the adventure of a lifetime after winning the chance to visit Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory alongside four other children.

Since Mahershala Ali set the current record for longest Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning performance with his one hour, six minutes, and 38 seconds of screen time in “Green Book” (2019), the screen times of subsequent featured male champions have been increasingly smaller. Although the last three trophies have consistently gone to relatively lengthy turns, each has been about 10 minutes shorter than the one before it. This year will constitute a moment of truth, since, considering the last outcome, there is potential for at least a 22-minute jump in either direction.

Last year, Troy Kotsur was honored here for his performance as the patriarch of a primarily deaf family in “Coda,” which amounts to 35 minutes and 34 seconds of screen time, or 31.31% of the film. He fell 10 minutes and 35 seconds short of matching 2021 winner Daniel Kaluuya’s time in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” whereas Kaluuya himself landed nine minutes and three seconds below...

As we approach O-Day and the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, it’s always fun to go back and look at the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories and revel in some of the trivia and shockers that have gone down on the awards season’s biggest stage. This is the rare year when Meryl Streep isn’t in the running, as her 21 overall nominations in the acting categories are nearly double the number of her closest female pursuer, Katherine Hepburn, who has 12. However, Hepburn still holds the all-time Oscar record with four acting wins. Streep has a mere three.

Here are some other actress category factoids to chew on:

Should Cate Blanchett win Best Actress this year for her role in “Tar,” she would tie Streep, Ingrid Bergman and Frances McDormand for second place behind Hepburn among actresses with three triumphs apiece. All four of Hepburn’s wins...

The year of 1969 saw the moon landing of the Apollo 11’s Eagle module, Richard Nixon sworn in as the 37th president of the United States, the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village ushering in the gay rights movement, the Tate-La Bianca murders by the Manson Family, the landmark Woodstock Music and Arts Fair which attracts 400,000, the tragic and violent Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway and even Tiny Tim marrying Miss Vicki on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

But one major event was basically ignored by the mainstream media: the Harlem Cultural Arts Festival which took place June 29-August 24 at the Mount Morris Park. Founded by Tony Lawrence, the festival celebrating Black pride, music and culture features such landmark performers as Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension and Mahalia Jackson. And when the NYPD refused to supply security,...

The average screen time for a Best Actress Oscar nominee is one hour, three minutes, and 28 seconds. Not surprisingly, over 45% of those who have contended for the award (and 47% of those who have won) have not even reached the one hour mark froo screen time. Here is a look at the category’s 10 shortest nominated performances, including four winners:

10. Frances McDormand (“Fargo”)

26 minutes, 29 seconds (27.01% of the film)

McDormand earned her first of two Best Actress Oscars in 1997 for playing the role of Marge Gunderson, a pleasant yet shrewd Minnesota police chief. Since she is absent from the first third of the film, her screen time is remarkably low, and even ranks 38 seconds below that of William H. Macy, her Best Supporting Actor-nominated castmate. To date, none of McDormand’s five Oscar-nominated performances have reached the one hour screen time mark.

9. Julie Christie (“McCabe & Mrs. Miller”)

25 minutes, 2 seconds (20.71% of the...

When the supporting acting Oscar categories were introduced in 1937, two films (“Dodsworth” and “Romeo and Juliet”) each received one lead and one supporting nomination. A third, “My Man Godfrey,” immediately made Oscar history by scoring a nomination in each of the four categories. In all three cases, the supporting nominees had less screen time than the corresponding leads, as was and continues to be expected.

The opposite did not occur until 1950, when John Ireland was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for a longer performance in “All the King’s Men” than the one given by his co-star, Best Actor-winner Broderick Crawford. Since then, 10 more supporting male nominees have boasted higher screen time totals than their lead-nominated co-stars. Here is a look at each instance, in order from lowest screen time difference to highest.

1997: William H. Macy (“Fargo”) – 27 minutes, 7 seconds

0 minutes, 38 seconds over Frances McDormand

“Fargo” begins as a story about...

It is certainly not unusual for a long performance to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The average screen time among winners in the category is 33 minutes and 45 seconds, and several even longer ones have been victorious in the past decade. However, awarding longer supporting male performances is not a recent trend. Here is a look at the 10 longest winners of all time. (And here’s the list of the 10 shortest winning performances for Best Supporting Actor.)

10. Walter Huston (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”)

55 minutes, 3 seconds (43.68% of the film)

On his fourth and final nomination in 1949, Walter Huston won his only Oscar for playing a wise, old prospector simply known as Howard. He broke the record for longest Best Supporting Actor-winning performance and held it for 16 years. His other nominated supporting role in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is notably shorter, as is his Best Actor-nominated performance in “The Devil and Daniel Webster...

Peg Murray, who won a 1967 Tony Award for portrayal of Fräulein Kost in Cabaret and later recurred for 13 years on ABC’s daytime drama All My Children, died Nov. 29. A resident in recent years at an assisted care community in Greenport, Long Island, Murray had been in declining health following a stroke. She was 96.

Her death was first reported by the Long Island newspaper The Suffolk Times. Deadline only recently learned of her passing.

Murray first appeared on Broadway in 1956 in the play The Great Sebastians starring the reigning theatrical duo Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. In 1959 she had a small role in the original Gypsy starring Ethel Merman, followed by appearances in She Loves Me, Anyone Can Whistle and The Subject Was Roses.

In 1966, Murray originated the small but pivotal role of Fräulein Kost in Harold Prince’s staging of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. Fräulein Kost begins as a largely comedic character,...

Sony Classics’ “The Father” is an act of daring; it could have gone wrong in so many ways, but it works like gangbusters.

The film marks the movie debut of writer-director Florian Zeller, whose background is as a novelist and playwright; in many cases, that would send warning signals.

What’s more, it all takes place in one location, the apartment of Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), so it might have turned out to be a photographed stage play. Third, it toys with the audience, keeping them off-balance about what is real and what’s not.

Those are potential danger areas, but the film is so good that it defies all logic.

Movie adaptations of plays, from Eugene O’Neill to Neil Simon, usually look like filmed theater, and that’s Ok; they’re still enjoyable. But it’s magic when a filmmaker can set his movie in one space, yet it seems like pure cinema.

Exclusive: Producer Scott Rudin will bring actor Dustin Hoffman to Broadway in a 2021 staging of Our Town, to be directed by Bartlett Sher (To Kill A Mockingbird).

Hoffman will play the role of the Stage Manager in the classic Thornton Wilder play, sources close to the production say.

The production will be Hoffman’s first Broadway role since his Tony Award-nominated performance of Shylock in 1989’s The Merchant of Venice. He played Willy Loman in an acclaimed 1984 revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and appeared in several productions during the 1960s, including Jimmy Shine, The Subject Was Roses and A Cook for Mr. General.

Hoffman, most recently seen on screen in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix 2017 film The Meyerowitz Stories, won an Emmy Award for Volker Schlöndorff’s 1985 television adaptation of Death of a Salesman, costarring his Broadway revival castmates Kate Reid, John Malkovich and Stephen Lang.

Broadway Shutdown...

Keeley Hawes will star opposite Hugh Bonneville in a film about the Oscar-winner Patricia Neal and her husband, author Roald Dahl. Formerly known as “An Unquiet Life,” and based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s book of the same name, the family drama starts filming this week in Surrey, southern England.

John Hay directs. He co-wrote the script with David Logan. The movie has already scored a raft of presales.

Film and TV star Hawes returns to the big screen after the success of BBC/Netflix breakout hit “Bodyguard” and ITV/PBS drama “The Durrells.” She also set up her own banner this year, Buddy Club Productions, and has teed up several projects.

Neal, who died in 2010, starred in Hollywood classics such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” before winning an Oscar for 1963’s “Hud.” She was nominated again in the best actress category five...

One of the biggest shocks of this year’s Golden Globe nominations was that Sam Elliott didn’t receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in “A Star is Born.” Elliott isn’t out of contention, though, for the Oscar. There is actually quite an impressive list of actors who got left out at the Globes but went on to take the Academy Award anyway. In fact, as recently as 2006, Alan Arkin won the Oscar for “Little Miss Sunshine” while being left out by Globe nominators.

Elliott has been a huge topic of discussion in Gold Derby’s forums (as have most things related to “A Star is Born.”) While some people have complained that the performance is too short for an actual victory, other forum posters have celebrated the fact that a performance with limited screen time is in Oscar contention as opposed to the lead performances...

Could Miguel Ferrer become a posthumous Emmy nominee for “Twin Peaks: The Return”? The veteran character actor died of throat cancer in January 2017 after he shot the Showtime revival, in which he reprised his role as FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield. The TV academy often rewards stars who have died with nominations for their final performances, so could Ferrer compete for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor? Despite a long list of TV credits including “The Stand” (1994), “Crossing Jordan” (2001-2007), “NCIS: Los Angeles” (2012-2017) and many more, he never earned an Emmy nomination during his lifetime.

Ferrer first appeared in the original “Twin Peaks” in a recurring role as an abrasive and sarcastic FBI forensics specialist assisting Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in his murder investigation in the title town. And he also appeared in the 1992 prequel film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.” The 18-episode limited run in 2017 found him...

Of all the ‘depressed relationship’ dramas of the early ’70s, this may be the most rewarding. It also sports one of the longest titles on record. Paul Zindel’s award-winning play gets a marvelous adaptation for the screen, thanks to Alvin Sargent, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. There’s also the stealth input of the star couple’s daughter Nell Potts, whose restrained performance is the happy opposite of mawkish and maudlin.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date February 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Joanne Woodward, Nell Potts, Roberta Wallach, Judith Lowry, David Spielberg, Richard Venture, Jess Osuna, Will Hare.

Cinematography: Adam Holender

Film Editor: Evan A. Lottman, Craig McKay, assistant

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by Alvin Sargent from the play by Paul Zindel

Produced and Directed by Paul Newman

The late-’60s freedom of...

Rebecca Ferguson is in talks to star opposite Hugh Bonneville in John Hay's untitled biopic about Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal.

The actress of the Mission: Impossible franchise and the upcoming all-star musical The Greatest Showman is eyed to play the Oscar-winning actress Neal (Hud, The Subject Was Roses) in the bittersweet and comedic story of her marriage to best-selling children's author Dahl (played by Bonneville).

Set in New York, England and Los Angeles at the start of the 1960s, the film will chronicle Dahl's struggles to write some of his most famous works (like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,...

What does a working girl have to do to get ahead, when all she has in her favor is an incredible face, a lavish wardrobe, and a pair of legs to make any executive wolf howl? Loretta Young juggles two egotistical swains, while Joan Blondell shines as an enticing all-pro homewrecker.

Big Business Girl

DVD-r

The Warner Archive Collection

1931 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 74 min. / Street Date September 14, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Loretta Young, Frank Albertson, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell, Frank Darien, Dorothy Christy, Oscar Apfel, Judith Barrett, Mickey Bennett, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Virginia Sale.

Cinematography: Sol Polito

Film Editor: Pete Fritch

Written by Robert Lord, story by Patricia Reilly & H.N. Swanson

Produced and Directed by William A. Seiter

Let’s hear it for the Warner Archive Collection’s voluminous vault of early ’30s Warners, MGM and Rko entertainments, which has given us a real education about this era of filmmaking.

Viola Davis in ‘Fences’ (Courtesy: Paramount Pictures)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Viola Davis just caused a major shakeup in the best actress and best supporting actress Oscar races by deciding to compete in the latter, rather than the former, for her role as Rose Maxson in Denzel Washington’s directorial debut, Fences. This is mostly surprising because the How to Get Away With Murder star won the lead actress Tony Award in 2010—but has this switcheroo ever happened before?

Over the course of awards show history, there have been a grand total of nine actors and actresses that have won both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role from the same source material—so let’s take a look through these historic wins.

When looking at the actresses who have accomplished this, there have been three. The first was Shirley Booth for the role of Lola in Come Back,...

Director Robert Montgomery's last is a war movie like no other, a study in leadership and command with no combat scenes. James Cagney uses none of his standard personality mannerisms; the result is something very affecting. And that music! You'll think the whole show is the memory of a soul in heaven. The Gallant Hours Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1960 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 5, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring James Cagney, Dennis Weaver, Ward Costello, Vaughn Taylor, Richard Jaeckel, Les Tremayne, Walter Sande, Karl Swenson, Leon Lontoc, Robert Burton, Carleton Young, Raymond Bailey, Harry Landers, Richard Carlyle, James Yagi, James T. Goto, Carl Benton Reid, Selmer Jackson, Frank Latimore, Nelson Leigh, Herbert Lytton, Stuart Randall, William Schallert, Arthur Tovey, John Zaremba. Cinematography Joseph MacDonald Art Director Wiard Ihnen Original Music Roger Wagner Written by Beirne Lay Jr., Frank D. Gilroy Produced and Directed by Robert Montgomery...

Frank D Gilroy, playwright, screenwriter, director and author, has passed away at the age of 89.

The writer died of natural causes at his home on Saturday night, according to a statement released by his publicist Cynthia Swartz (via The Wrap).

Frank achieved his first big success with the play The Subject Was Roses, which won the playwright a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and a Drama Circle honour.

The play was later adapted into a film starring Martin Sheen, Patricia Neal and Jack Albertson in 1968 and received two Oscar nominations, with Albertson winning the Best Supporting Actor award.

Among his other filmmaking credits, Frank wrote 1956's The Fastest Gun Alive starring Glenn Ford, as well as The Only Game in Town which featured Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty in 1969.

Frank's sons followed their father into Hollywood, with Tony being the screenwriter behind the Matt Damon-starring Bourne films, and Dan...

Frank Gilroy, playwright, screenwriter, director and author, has passed away at the age of 89.

The writer died of natural causes at his home on Saturday night, according to a statement released by his publicist Cynthia Swartz (via The Wrap).

Gilroy achieved his first big success with the play The Subject Was Roses, which won the playwright a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and a Drama Circle honour.

The play was later adapted into a film starring Martin Sheen, Patricia Neal and Jack Albertson in 1968 and received two Oscar nominations, with Albertson winning the Best Supporting Actor award.

Among his other filmmaking credits, Gilroy wrote 1956's The Fastest Gun Alive starring Glenn Ford, as well as The Only Game in Town which featured Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty in 1969.

Gilroy's sons followed their father into Hollywood, with Tony being the screenwriter behind the Matt Damon-starring Bourne films, and Dan directing Jake Gyllenhaal in 2014's Nightcrawler.

Frank D. Gilroy, a successful playwright, screenwriter, director and author who won the Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and a Drama Circle honor for his play “The Subject Was Roses,” has died. He was 89. Gilroy died Saturday evening from natural causes, according a statement released by his publicist Cynthia Swartz. Gilroy had a prolific writing career. Among his other plays were “Last Licks” and “Any Given Day”and he previously served as president of the Dramatists Guild. Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2015 (Photos) Gilroy also wrote the movie version of “The Subject Was Roses” starring Martin Sheen, Patricia Neal and Jack.

Frank D. Gilroy, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter and director, died Saturday evening from natural causes. He was 89.  Gilroy wrote the 1964 play The Subject Was Roses, for which he won the Tony Award for best play and the Pultizer Prize for drama. The play centers on a World War II veteran returning home to deal with family tension.  He also worked in Hollywood, writing screenplays including the 1968 film adaptation of The Subject Was Roses. Other Hollywood film work included the screenplay for The Gallant Hours (1960), which starred James Cagney, along with writing and directing Desperate Characters (1971)

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Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, director and author Frank D. Gilroy died last night from natural causes at age 89. Gilroy leaves behind his wife Ruth of 62 years, his three sons Tony, Dan and John, and grandchildren Sam, Carolyn, Taylor, Rose, and Kathryn Gilroy. The family just confirmed his death. A former president of the Dramatists Guild, Gilroy won the Pulitzer for his play The Subject Was Roses, and his legacy extends to his three sons. Tony Gilroy…...

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, director and author Frank D. Gilroy died last night from natural causes at age 89. Gilroy leaves behind his wife Ruth of 62 years, his three sons Tony, Dan and John, and grandchildren Sam, Carolyn, Taylor, Rose, and Kathryn Gilroy. The family just confirmed his death. A former president of the Dramatists Guild, Gilroy won the Pulitzer for his play The Subject Was Roses, and his legacy extends to his three sons. Tony Gilroy…...

Patricia Neal ca. 1950. Patricia Neal movies: 'The Day the Earth Stood Still,' 'A Face in the Crowd' Back in 1949, few would have predicted that Gary Cooper's leading lady in King Vidor's The Fountainhead would go on to win a Best Actress Academy Award 15 years later. Patricia Neal was one of those performers – e.g., Jean Arthur, Anne Bancroft – whose film career didn't start out all that well, but who, by way of Broadway, managed to both revive and magnify their Hollywood stardom. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating Sunday, Aug. 16, '15, to Patricia Neal. This evening, TCM is showing three of her best-known films, in addition to one TCM premiere and an unusual latter-day entry. 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Robert Wise was hardly a genre director. A former editor (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

The Gig, a musical by Douglas J. Cohen No Way to Treat a Lady, The Big Time, based on the 1985 film by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize Winner Frank D. Gilroy The Subject Was Roses, is a selection of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival Nymf, making its New York City debut at the PTC Performance Space, tonight, July 15 - July 21.

It is not too shabby in what the Northeast (New England) part of the United States has produced in terms of past and present actors/actresses making their show business dreams come true. Film careers can be a lot like ice cubes–they start out solid and cool but if you sit around in stagnation your efforts and hard work can melt away before one’s very eyes. Certainly no one can accuse this talented crop of thespians of being one-hit wonders on the big screen. After all, one does not become a recipient of an Academy Award by just sheer luck and charitable fortune.

As a native Bostonian and life long New Englander, I felt compelled to spotlight those Massachusetts-born and bred actors from the same region that had ultimate success on the big screen in winning the Oscar for their acting achievement and contribution to the motion picture industry.

The Gig, a musical by Douglas J. Cohen No Way to Treat a Lady, The Big Time, based on the 1985 film by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize Winner Frank D. Gilroy The Subject Was Roses, is a selection of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival Nymf, making its New York City debut at the PTC Performance Space, July 15 - July 21.

I've already talked about intentional thrills in Tuesday's Best Movie Ever? subject Halloween, so to celebrate All Hallow's Eve, we're inspecting the flipside: nine unintentionally scary movie moments. I couldn't handle these as a kid, and I still can't handle them now. They're scrumdiddylumptiously traumatizing!

1. Willy Wonka's climactic freakout in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Plenty of Willy Wonka moments qualify as frightening -- the perilous ferry ride, Violet Beauregarde's blueberry explosion, the austere presence of Slugworth -- but angry Gene Wilder is a scary thing. His freakout at the chocolate factory's sole survivor Charlie has been turned into an ever-present internet meme, but I still can't shake the chills of his screamy "You Lose! Good Day, sir!" Trivia note: Did you know that Gene Wilder was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1968 for The Producers but lost to The Subject Was Roses' Jack Albertson, who...

-- "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son" (Free Press), by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman: First see their movie, then read their book.

Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.

Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.

One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.

-- "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son" (Free Press), by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman: First see their movie, then read their book.

Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.

Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.

One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.

Stage and film director who helped launch Dustin Hoffman's acting career

It could be argued, with some justification, that the greatest achievement of the film and stage director Ulu Grosbard, who has died aged 83, was to have helped launch the acting careers of Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Jon Voight. It was Grosbard who had the prescience to see a special talent in them that had escaped others, and who gave them the chance to exploit it.

All three future stars were involved in Grosbard's production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in New York in January 1965, for which both Duvall and Grosbard won Obie awards. Duvall played the lead as longshoreman Eddie Carbone, the part which he described as "the catalyst of my career", while Voight was Rodolpho. Hoffman, then a struggling actor, was stage manager.

One day, during rehearsals,...

Director Ulu Grosbard has died at the age of 83.

He passed away at the Langone Medical Center in New York City some time between the hours of Sunday night and Monday morning.

Grosbard directed a slew of Hollywood icons throughout his career, among them Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in 1984 favourite Falling in Love, and Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Pfeiffer in his final movie Deep End of the Ocean.

The filmmaker, born Israel Grosbard, grew up in Belgium but then fled from the Nazis with his family to Havana, Cuba where he worked as a diamond cutter.

Upon moving to America, he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degree in English from the University of Chicago in Illinois and then studied at Yale Drama School before enrolling in the Army in the 1950s.

Ultimately pursuing his love of the theatre, Grosbard earned his first credit in 1962 after directing veteran Robert Duvall in off-Broadway play The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker and two years later he went on to oversee Dustin Hoffman in a revival of A View from the Bridge.

Later setting his sights on the film industry, Grosbard directed Martin Sheen in The Subject Was Roses, Duvall and De Niro in True Confessions and he twice reteamed with Hoffman for Straight Time and Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

Duvall tells the New York Times, "Ulu was the kind of guy who wanted to see what you brought - and then we'd talk. He was very serious; he had keen perceptions about things. He was a pretty intellectual guy... There was a balance there between us. We hit it off right from the start. I wanted to work more with him. Whatever he brought to me, I did."...

Director Ulu Grosbard, a two-time Tony Award nominee whose credits include two Dustin Hoffman films of the 1970s and several collaborations with Robert Duvall, has died, The New York Times reported. He was 83. His nephew, Robert Grosbard, told the newspaper that the director, a native of Belgium, died late Sunday or early Monday at Nyu Langone Medical Center in New York. He had lived in Greenwich Village for years. Photos: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2012 Grosbard was nominated for his first Tony in 1965 for The Subject Was Roses, Frank D. Gilroy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a

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"Ulu Grosbard, a director whose affinity for naturalistic drama shaped critical successes like the original Broadway production of David Mamet's American Buffalo and the film version of John Gregory Dunne's novel True Confessions, has died in Manhattan," reports Bruce Weber in the New York Times. He was 83. "Mr Grosbard's work was divided evenly between the theater and the movies, and though he had a long career, stretching across nearly half a century, he was highly selective in his projects. Known for his skill in cajoling substantive performances from actors and his unhurried, perfectionist's approach to polishing a script and staging a scene, he worked with distinguished playwrights on Broadway, including Arthur Miller (The Price), Beth Henley (The Wake of Jamey Foster) and Woody Allen (The Floating Light Bulb) and cultivated relationships with revered stars, including Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall."

Kristin McMurran profiled Grosbard and his wife,...

They have a right to be pissed.

It's the most important morning of the year. Hollywood is temporarily jolted from its stupor for a ten-minute rollercoaster of natural highs and shattered dreams. Nothing but ... shattered dreams.

It's those shattered dreams that immediately become the focus after the Oscar nominations are announced. With only five slots per category, deserving actors are excluded, and that's when the fun begins, as the discussion about the "snubs" commences.

That was especially true this year, as a flurry of serious contenders were nowhere to be found. Charlize Theron, Tilda Swinton, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Albert Brooks were the names most bandied about, along with Andy Serkis (and they should really either nominate him, or give him a special Oscar for his unique contributions to film.)

Of course, Oscar has a history of overlooking interesting and memorable performances. Let's take a look at a few notable Oscar omissions.

Chicago – Martin Sheen’s sons certainly command the spotlight, whether it was Charlie’s adventures of this year, or the emerging auteur talent of Emilio Estevez. Estevez wrote and directed the upcoming film “The Way,” which stars his father.

The elder Sheen and Estevez have been on a nationwide tour, promoting and opening the personal film along the journey. They were in Chicago on the weekend of August 19th, as part of the Chicago International Film Festival Summer Gala. Martin Sheen was honored by the festival for his career work, receiving the Silver Hugo Award from the Founder and Artistic Director, Michael Kutza.

“The Way” stars Martin Sheen as Tom, an American physician who goes to France to collect the remains of his adult son, who accidently died while walking “The Camino de Santiago” (also called the Way of St. James, a Christian pilgrimage from many points to the Cathedral...

Okay, voting was robust enough on the 1970s -- That Poll Is Still Open -- that we're adding ten more years to take us back a full half century to 1961. If you're joining us late, here are the results from the 80s, and 1991 thru 2010. As before these polls are not asking you to choose the five best performances from fives years but to name which character creation hogs your mental real estate. (Sometimes those are the same things, sometimes they're not.)

Two polls so scroll down to make sure you get both.You choose up to five from each five year grouping. Here we go...

1961-1965

 

poll by twiigs.com

 

and once more for the next five years.

1966-1970

* please note on the following poll "Maggie Ross" The Subject was Roses should read "Nettie Cleary" The Subject Was Roses. I can't correct it lest I lose all your votes. So...