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Raucher was nominated for an Oscar for the 1971 box office hit.

Herman Raucher, the Oscar-nominated American writer of Summer Of ‘42 as well as other films, plays and novels, has died aged 95.

A statement from his family said Raucher died of natural causes on December 28.

Born in New York, Raucher began his writing career in television and advertising. His early feature work included the screenplays for Sweet November, Melvin Van Peebles’ Watermelon Man and cult musical comedy Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness? The latter brought him the Writers Guild of Great Britain award for...

Veteran screenwriter Herman Raucher, best known for writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1971 coming-of-age drama “Summer of ’42,” has died. Raucher was 95.

Raucher died on Dec. 28 of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford Connecticut, his daughter Jenny Raucher told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Summer of ’42,” directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Gary Grimes and Jennifer O’Neill, tells the bittersweet story of a teenage boy who falls for an older woman while on summer vacation as her husband is away fighting in World War II. A major hit for Warner Bros., “Summer of ’42” earned critical acclaim and several Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for Raucher’s script.

Raucher went on to adapt the story into an international bestselling novel in 1971. Though he wrote several other popular films over his decades-long career, such as “Ode to Billy Joe” and “The Other Side of Midnight.” “Summer of ’42” remained his most notable work.

Herman Raucher, whose Oscar-nominated Summer of ’42 screenplay became one of Hollywood’s best-loved coming-of-age tales, has died of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Ct. He was 95.

His December 28 death was announced by daughter Jenny Raucher, who was by his side when he passed.

Subsequently adapted by Raucher into an international best-selling novel, 1971’s Summer of ’42 was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay. It told the nostalgic and bittersweet story of teenager Hermie — played by Gary Grimes and based on Raucher himself — who, during a summertime vacation on Nantucket Island, becomes infatuated with a beautiful (and soon grieving) older woman (Jennifer O’Neill) whose husband has gone off to fight in World War II.

The film, directed by Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird), was a critical success and a major hit for Warner Bros. Michel Legrand’s score won an Oscar and quickly became...

Herman Raucher, the best-selling author and screenwriter who earned an Oscar nomination for the coming-of-age classic Summer of ’42 and wrote the script for the thought-provoking Watermelon Man, has died. He was 95.

Raucher died Thursday of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, his daughter Jenny Raucher told The Hollywood Reporter.

Raucher, who started out in live television, penned the screenplays for two Anthony Newley-starring films: Sweet November (1968), directed by Robert Ellis Miller and also featuring Sandy Dennis, and Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969), featuring Joan Collins.

He also was given inspiration from Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit song to write the screenplay to Ode to Billy Joe (1976), a love story that starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor and was helmed by Max Baer Jr.

With the Robert Mulligan-directed Summer of ’42 (1971) in postproduction, someone came up with the idea of Raucher writing a...

Margo Price has readied a follow-up to her January album Strays, naturally dubbed Strays II. She’ll roll out the sequel project in three acts culminating in a double album due out October 13th, and also embark on a tour of the UK and US this fall. What’s more, the three songs comprising Act I: Topanga Canyon are out now.

Strays had a pretty mystical origin story involving a psychedelic trip to the South Carolina countryside, and Price wrote some of the music that would become Strays II during the same excursion. Before combining the two projects into a double LP, the nine songs on the second record will initially be shared as three acts known as Topanga Canyon, Mind Travel, and Burn Whatever’s Left.

Out today is Strays II’s Act I: Topanga Canyon, featuring the tracks “Strays,” “Closer I Get (ft. Ny Oh),” and “Malibu (ft.

Margo Price continues to embark on her own evolution with Strays II, an extension of her original 2023 opus with nine new songs that will arrive in the form of three distinct acts.

The Nashville singer-songwriter announced that the double album will arrive on Oct. 13, and shared Act I: Topanga Canyon on Monday at midnight. Each act is billed as “its own unique story of love, grief and acceptance.” On the first offering, a trio of songs, she’s joined by Strays producer Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Dawes), as well...

Lenka Peterson, the Tony-nominated actress and charter member of The Actors Studio who also worked in films including Panic in the Streets, The Phenix City Story and Dragnet, has died. She was 95.

Peterson died Sept. 24 in her sleep at her home in Roxbury, Connecticut, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor (Ode to Billy Joe, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble).

Peterson appeared in 10 Broadway productions over a span of nearly 40 years and received her Tony nom for best featured actress in a musical in 1985 for Quilters.

She also acted in Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp in ...

Lenka Peterson, the Tony-nominated actress and charter member of The Actors Studio who also worked in films including Panic in the Streets, The Phenix City Story and Dragnet, has died. She was 95.

Peterson died Sept. 24 in her sleep at her home in Roxbury, Connecticut, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor (Ode to Billy Joe, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble).

Peterson appeared in 10 Broadway productions over a span of nearly 40 years and received her Tony nom for best featured actress in a musical in 1985 for Quilters.

She also acted in Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp in ...

Editor’s Note: The sad unraveling of THR continues with tonight’s exit of Todd McCarthy, who was let go along with several other reporters an editor. After growing up at Daily Variety with him, I would say that McCarthy is a critic in the mold of Roger Ebert. I invoke Ebert because like him, McCarthy’s reviews exuded an intellect that far surpassed mine, but I never felt he talked down to me, or that was an elitist poseur or took gratuitous clickbait shots. Rather, he informed and entertained and considered what a filmmaker was trying to accomplish in his assessment. He could make a hard call, but it was honest. I am not in charge of their finances, but I think THR made a shortsighted move here. McCarthy passed us a column to commemorate his exit. Here goes. – Mike Fleming Jr

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More from DeadlineHollywood Reporter Hit With Heavy-Hitter...

Tony Sokol Feb 15, 2020

Prog will rock the future in a film adaptation of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Karn Evil 9" from the producers of Jumanji.

"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside," Greg Lake opened side 2 of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery. The song it comes from, "Karn Evil 9," is being adapted into a science-fiction movie, according to Deadline.

Developed with the full cooperation of Elp and its management, Karn Evil 9 will be executive produced by Radar Pictures, who made the Jumanji film series.

“The visionary world that Elp created with their recording 'Karn Evil 9' is much closer to reality today,” Radar's Ted Field said in a statement. “Our team at Radar looks forward to bringing this vision of where things may be headed to the big screen and beyond.”

The screenplay will be...

James Best, who played the memorable Sherrif Roscoe P. Coltrane on the hit TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, passed away yesterday at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia. The actor played Roscoe P. Coltrane, the longtime rival to the Duke brothers, on all seven seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 to 1985.

The actor was raised in Indiana and ended up moving to New York after serving in World War II. He found work as a fashion model which lead to him being discoverd by a casting agent. He became a contract player for Universal Pictures. He appeared in a number of films throughout the 1950s such as Winchester '73 alongside James Stewart and The Cimarron Kid with Audie Murphy. He ended up working in both TV and film throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, appearing in notable episodes of The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train and Have Gun - Will Travel,...

Actor James Best, who played hapless Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane for six seasons on the hit CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard, died Monday, April 6th, in hospice care in Hickory, North Carolina. According to the Charlotte Observer, Best died from complications of pneumonia. He was 88.

Best was born Jules Guy in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, the youngest of nine children. His mother, who died when he was three, was the sister of Ike Everly, the father of music duo the Everly Brothers. After her death, the child was adopted and raised in Indiana.

Wearing your copy of Brokeback Mountain down to the bare nubbins from so many viewings? Finding yourself mouthing the words to the non-musical Glee scenes? Then chances are you could use some new gay movies and shows to check out. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of obscure, forgotten, or underappreciated gay and gay-interest entertainments that you might want to track down. We’ve also given handy comparisons to more popular works so you know what to expect. Happy viewing!

If you liked Oz, then you should check out…

Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

Based on the groundbreaking play of the same name, this film about power and passion in prison unfortunately translated to screen as more than a bit homophobic (unlike a notorious Hollywood stage run featuring graphic sex scenes between Sal Mineo and a young Don Johnson – do yourself a favor and Google that one). Yes,...

Gasping for breath after running up a steep San Francisco hill, Robby Benson began to faint. He grabbed for a parking meter to break his fall. Then he became violently sick to his stomach. It all happened on location during the filming of Die Laughing, in which he starred, co-wrote and was a producer. He was in his early 20s, a onetime teen idol now transitioning into bigger challenges with the promise of a long, successful career in Hollywood. He didn't want to tell the truth: doctors had found a heart murmur when he was a teenager and for years he'd suffered similar symptoms.

Robbie Benson Talks Beauty and the Beast 3D, in theaters now

Walt Disney's 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast is back in theaters for a limited 3D release to celebrate its 20th Anniversary. Already a box office hit its first week back on screens, we now celebrate this timeless tale's second weekend out with a chat from its leading Beast, Robby Benson.

We are longtime fans of Robby, so it was a great honor to speak with the man behind the voice of Beauty and the Beast's title character, an arrogant Prince turned into a frightful monster, who must earn the love and respect of another before breaking the spell.

A voice actor since childhood, and star of such live-action classics as Ice Castles and Ode to Billy Joe, we chatted with Robby Benson about the legacy of Beauty and the Beast, his work looping Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Marlene Dietrich said of Orson Welles's Hank Quinlan in Touch of Evil that he was "a great detective but a lousy cop", a judgment that could equally be applied to Brendan Gleeson's corrupt but deeply lovable Connemara policeman, Sergeant Gerry Boyle, in John Michael McDonagh's The Guard. This lively comedy-thriller is the latest example of that very knowing genre, the Irish crime movie, whose greatest peaks to date also star Gleeson: John Boorman's The General, and In Bruges, written and directed by McDonagh's brother, Martin.

It's an amalgam of In the Heat of the Night, The Quiet Man and Pulp Fiction telling the not wholly plausible tale of a combined anti-narcotics operation between the FBI and the Garda on the west coast of Ireland that brings together sly, slobbish, boozy, faux-racist Gerry Boyle and efficient, uptight federal agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), an African American Ivy League graduate and Rhodes scholar.

Lionel is all over the previouslies this week. This is not good.

Marshall and Max catch an early flight home from New York courtesy of Kate's free SkyKans ticket perk. As Moosh heads off to school, Tara notices the strain between them. Caretaker Max brushes it off and says they'll talk about it later, but Tara needs to talk to him now, about Bryce. We'll pick up that plotline later; all that's important at the moment is that Tara is now snorting her meds so Bryce can't regurgitate them.

In Mr. Kern's film class, Marshall is dissing his film festival competition and doling out souvenirs to Noah and Rory (who is played by Henry Monfries who when not in headgear is cute as a button) when the principal comes in and gestures for Kern. She whispers to him that a student was "lost" the night before and he asks which one.

American Idol is introducing a new and intriguing theme on Wednesday: “Now & Then” Night will find the Season 10 Top 5 tackling two numbers apiece, “one current song and one from the 1960s,” according to a press release from Fox. I’m stoked that the producers are planning to pack 10 individual performances into the 90-minute telecast, and I’m not at all minding a mix of classic and modern, either. Check out my dream set list below, then brainstorm some ideas of your own in the comments. And for all my Idol news and commentary, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!

Slezak’s...

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

HollywoodNews.com: Actor, writer, director Robby Benson, who underwent open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in late May, is on the mend and then some.

Pensacola, Fla., talk show personality Taris Savell tells us that the family considers his surgery totally successful, and in fact, that he was up and walking around two days afterward, although still in pain. Born with a heart defect, the performer who rose to fame in such films as “Ode to Billy Joe,” and continues to be heard as the voice of the beast in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” has been through heart surgery multiple times.

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