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When Gena Rowlands passed away last month at the age of 94, New Yorker critic Richard Brody referred to her as the greatest artist of all the actresses he had ever seen onscreen. It’s an assertion that might come across as hyperbole to someone who had never seen Rowlands’ collaborations with her husband John Cassavetes on “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Opening Night,” “Gloria,” and “Love Streams,” but even a cursory viewing of any of those performances quickly validates Brody’s claim. And while Rowlands’ work with Cassavetes is her most exalted (and properly so), she achieved great depths of emotional expression for other filmmakers like Woody Allen (“Another Woman”), Paul Schrader (“Light of Day”) and Paul Mazursky (“Tempest”) — not to mention her son Nick, who cast her in a beautiful late-career role in his tearjerker “The Notebook.”

This month both the American Cinematheque and the...

Beloved actor Gena Rowlands has died at the age of 94, it has been confirmed. The star – best known for films like A Woman Under The Influence and Gloria, directed by her husband John Cassavetes – was renowned for her raw and uncompromising performances, making an indelible impact on cinema often while working outside of the Hollywood studio system. Rowlands passed away at home, following a previous diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

While Rowlands made her big-screen debut in 1958’s The High Cost Of Loving, her cinematic collaborations with Cassavetes as director began in 1963 with A Child Is Waiting – and continued through the likes of 1968’s Faces, 1971’s Minnie And Moskowitz, 1974’s A Woman Under The Influence, 1977’s Opening Night, 1980’s Gloria, and 1984’s Love Streams. Their work together marked early examples of independent cinema. A Woman Under The Influence – for which Rowlands won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar...

Malachy McCourt, the Irish-American actor, raconteur and author best known to TV audiences for his long-running role as Kevin the bartender on ABC’s soap Ryan’s Hope, died today in Manhattan after battling a heart condition and cancer. He was 92.

His death was announced by his wife Diana McCourt to The New York Times.

The brother of Pulitzer Prize-winning Angela’s Ashes memoirist Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt left an indelible mark on New York City’s Irish American community. As the owner of the quintessential 1950s Irish pub Malachy’s on Third Avenue in Manhattan – McCourt would often call it the city’s first singles bar, since he welcomed unaccompanied women to the establishment – the Brooklyn native became one of the city’s great story-tellers, regaling patrons from longshoremen to the actor Richard Harris with blarney, rugby talk and biographical anecdotes.

His way with words would hold him in good stead...

William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial will premiere on Paramount+.

The upcoming movie, which premieres out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, will be available in all international markets where the streaming service operates which are: the UK, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and South Korea. The French Connection director died on August 7, 2023, at age 87. His last film Killer Joe was released over 10 years ago in 2011. Friedkin also wrote the screenplay for the American legal drama, which is based on a book of the same name. The movie is produced by Annabelle Dunne and Matthew Parker.

Related: The Exorcist Director William Friedkin Dies at 87

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial follows a U.S. Naval captain who exhibits worrisome signs of mental instability, endangering the safety of his ship, the first officer takes the bold step of relieving him of command.

TCM is honoring William Friedkin's career with a two-night event showcasing five of his best films, including The French Connection and The Exorcist. Friedkin had a successful Hollywood career, directing acclaimed films across various genres such as Sorcerer and Killer Joe. Hollywood mourned Friedkin's death and praised his genius and influence, with collaborators and actors from The Exorcist speaking highly of him.

Turner Classic Movies will celebrate the life and career of the late, great William Friedkin with a two-night event. TCM's tribute will showcase five films, the first three airing on Thursday, September 14, and the remaining two airing Sunday, November 26. September's event will feature The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A., and The Boys in the Band; while November's event kicks off with the TCM premiere of Friedkin Uncut, a documentary about Friedkin's life and work, and concludes with The Exorcist.

Early in his career, Friedkin...

Oscar-winning director William Friedkin, legendary filmmaker behind the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection, and 1973’s The Exorcist, among many others, died Monday in Los Angeles at the age of 87.

Identified closely with the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s, Friedkin began his career in documentaries prior to embarking on one of his most well-known works, The French Connection, a film which earned five Academy Awards out of eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Gene Hackman, Best Directed Screenplay and Best Director for Friedkin. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The French Connection appeared in the American Film Institute’s list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Related: William Friedkin: Hollywood Remembers A Legend

Friedkin’s 1973 film The Exorcist...

William Friedkin, who won an Oscar for directing The French Connection, scored a nomination for The Exorcist and also helmed The Boys in the Band, Cruising, To Live and Die in L.A., Rules of Engagement and many others, died today in Los Angeles of heart failure and pneumonia. He was 87.

His death was confirmed by CAA via his wife, Fatal Attraction producer and former studio chief Sherry Lansing.

Friedkin beat out some serious heavyweights to win the Best Director Academy Award for The French Connection at the 1972 ceremony. Also up for the statuette that year were Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show) and Norman Jewison (Fiddler on the Roof). He would go up against more heavy hitters with The Exorcist two years later. George Roy Hill won that year for The Sting, also besting Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango in Paris), Ingmar Bergman (Cries & Whispers...

William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director of “The French Connection” and legend behind “The Exorcist,” has died at age 87. His death in Los Angeles was first reported by Variety, and the news was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing.

Friedkin’s sensational 1971 “The French Connection” earned five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. Friedkin’s 1973 “The Exorcist” changed the game for horror, earning Best Picture and Director nominations.

Friedkin is regarded as a maverick of the New Hollywood school of filmmakers alongside the likes of Peter Bogdanovich and Francis Ford Coppola. His other features include his breakout “The Birthday Party,” “The Boys in the Band,” “Sorcerer,” “Cruising,” “To Live and Die in L.A,” “Bug,” and most recently “Killer Joe” — all films that garnered controversy in one way or another.

Friedkin’s latest film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,...

Director William Friedkin, best known for his Oscar-winning “The French Connection” and blockbuster “The Exorcist,” died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 87.

His death was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing.

His final film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” starring Kiefer Sutherland, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Along with Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby, Friedkin rose to A-list status in the 1970s, part of a new generation of vibrant, risk-taking filmmakers. Combining his experience in television, particularly in documentary film, with a cutting-edge style of editing, Friedkin brought a great deal of energy to the horror and police thriller genres in which he specialized.

“The French Connection” was an incredibly fast-paced and morally ambiguous tale, shot in documentary style and containing one of cinema’s most justifiably famous car chase sequences. “Connection” won several Oscars including best picture,...

Sad news again today, as it is now being reported that veteran movie character actor Allen Garfield has passed away due to complications caused by the coronavirus strain Covid-19.

He was 80 years old. The actor died whilst residing at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California. Garfield first appeared on the big screen in the 1968 comedy-drama Orgy Girls '69 having studied his craft at the Actors Studio in New York with Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. Garfield became well-known for playing corrupt and villainous businessmen and politicians.

Allen Garfield's extensive resume includes roles in movies such as Francis Ford Coppola's mysterious thriller The Conversation alongside Gene Hackman, the Eddie Murphy action comedy Beverley Hills Cop II, in which he starred as police chief Harold Lutz, the critically acclaimed action comedy The Stunt Man in 1980 alongside Peter O'Toole, the political comedy-drama The Candidate with Robert Redford, as well as many others.

Allen Garfield, the filmmaker-favorite character actor who played small but significant roles in Seventies classics like The Conversation and Nashville, has died at the age of 80.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger, where Garfield worked as a sportswriter in the Fifties, first reported the Newark-born actor’s death following complications from Covid-19. Garfield’s sister confirmed his death to the Hollywood Reporter.

A one-time Golden Gloves boxer who studied acting at the Actors Studio, Garfield threw his small but imposing physique into the role of tough-talking, surly heavies on both sides of the laws.

Veteran film character actor Allen Garfield has died from Covid-19 complications. He was residing at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, Calif. at the time of his death at age 80.

Garfield’s long resume includes such films as The Conversation, The Candidate, The Stunt Man and Nashville.

More from DeadlineHal Willner Dies Of Covid-19: 'Saturday Night Live' Sketch Music Producer, Tribute Album Compiler Was 64Honor Blackman Dies: 'Goldfinger's Pussy Galore Was 94Forrest Compton Dies Of Covid-19: 'The Edge Of Night', 'Gomer Pyle' Actor Was 94

Actress Ronee Blakely wrote on Twitter: “Rip Allen Garfield, the great actor who played my husband in “Nashville”, has died today of Covid; I hang my head in tears; condolences to family and friends; I will post more later; cast and crew, sending love.”

Garfield’s career started in 1968 with Putney Swope, kicking off a...

On Dec. 8, 1978, Universal unveiled William Friedkin's heist film The Brink's Job in theaters. The 103-minute film went on to earn an Oscar nomination for art direction at the 51st Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.

If anyone still thinks that crime doesn't pay, he's in for a rude awakening with William Friedkin's The Brink's Job, produced by Ralph Serpe for Dino De Laurentiis and released by Universal. So is anyone whose admiration for the FBI is based on that old TV series starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Friedkin, assisted by screenwriter ...

On Dec. 8, 1978, Universal unveiled William Friedkin's heist film The Brink's Job in theaters. The 103-minute film went on to earn an Oscar nomination for art direction at the 51st Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.

If anyone still thinks that crime doesn't pay, he's in for a rude awakening with William Friedkin's The Brink's Job, produced by Ralph Serpe for Dino De Laurentiis and released by Universal. So is anyone whose admiration for the FBI is based on that old TV series starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Friedkin, assisted by screenwriter ...

Friedkin '70s

May 2–7

The decade between 1970s Boys in the Band and 1980s Cruising was an undeniably fertile, thrilling, canonical period in the still-edgy career of William Friedkin, and Bam will celebrate it with a live appearance by the 77-year-old Oscar-winning auteur on May 2. The series, which also includes The Exorcist, The French Connection, Sorcerer, and the underrated caper comedy The Brink's Job, is tied to Friedkin's upcoming memoir, The Friedkin Connection, written in longhand over three years. "Hopefully, it's readable," he half-jests, dismissibly so after you've heard the reminisces of his middle-to-late 1950s start in live television and rookie mistakes on his first documentary: "By the time I ...

The filmography of celebrated director William Friedkin is a colorful one indeed. First-year film buffs will, of course, point to classics like The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), while the more seasoned of the celluloid-obsessed will rattle off titles like Sorcerer (1971), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Blue Chips (1994), Rules of Engagement (2000), and Bug (2006) -- and the hardcore completists will also cite The Boys in the Band (1970), The Brink's Job (1978), Rampage (1987), and The Hunted (2003). Hell, I even saw the guy's 1990 arbor-related horror flick The Guardian! Like, love or hate the individual films, but there's no denying that, as a whole, they represent a rather eclectic storyteller. Most directors find a...

Us actor whose success as the scruffy TV detective Columbo was complemented by a wide range of stage and screen roles

Show-business history records that the American actor Peter Falk, who has died aged 83, made his stage debut the year before he left high school, presciently cast as a detective. Despite the 17-year-old's fleeting success, he had no thoughts of pursuing acting as a career – if only because tough kids from the Bronx considered it an unsuitable job for a man. Just 24 years later, Falk made his first television appearance as the scruffy detective, Columbo, not only becoming the highest paid actor on television – commanding $500,000 an episode during the 1970s – but also the most famous.

Inevitably the lieutenant dedicated to unravelling the villainy of the wealthy and glamorous dominated his career, although – unlike some actors – he escaped the straitjacket, or in his case shabby raincoat, of typecasting. In addition to stage work,...

Peter Falk, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actor best known for his portrayal of the raincoat-wearing, cigar smoking TV detective Columbo, died Thursday evening at his home in Beverly Hills, CA; he was 83. Though an exact cause of death was not released by his family, it had been known that Falk was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Though he received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in 1960 and 1961 for Murder, Inc. and Pocketful of Miracles, and was an acclaimed stage actor, winning a Tony Award for 1972's The Prisoner of Second Avenue, he was known to millions as the irascible Lieutenant Columbo, one of television most beloved detectives, whose apparent absent-mindedness belied his cunning deductive skills and ease at outwitting even the most clever and devious of criminals. In all, he received four Emmy Awards and 10 nominations for the role, which he played from 1968 (in the TV film Prescription: Murder) to a special 2003 episode of the series.

Born in New York City in 1927, Falk underwent surgery at only the age of three to have his right eye removed because of a malignant tumor; for the rest of his life he would wear a glass eye, which became one of his most notable traits. Rejected by the armed forces because of his eyesight, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines during World War II, returning home to finish his college education, obtaining a master's degree in public administration and taking a job as an efficiency expert in Hartford, Connecticut in the early 1950s. It was there that he began his acting career, studying with the acclaimed actress and teacher Eva Le Gallienne. After moving to New York to pursue acting full time, he co-starred in the 1956 revival of The Iceman Cometh alongside Jason Robards, and was on Broadway within the same year, and started appearing on television as well. In the late '50s he took a number of small film roles, and was hailed by critics for his turn as a murderer in the 1960 gangster film Murder Inc., which proved to be his breakthrough role. An Oscar nomination followed, as did a role in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles the next year, which was the acclaimed director's last film and for which Falk received a second Oscar nod.

With back-to-back Academy Award nominations and his first Emmy Award (for a 1961 episode of The Dick Powell Theater), Falk worked steadily throughout the 1960s in both television and film, with small roles in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Robin and the 7 Hoods, and a starring role in the short-lived legal TV series The Trials of O'Brien. He first played the role of Lieutenant Columbo in the 1968 TV movie Prescription: Murder, which was originally written as a Broadway play and then reworked for television. The film set up a number of tropes for the upcoming TV series: the seeming ineptitude of detective Columbo and the intricate cat-and-mouse mysteries in which the killer, known to viewers, seemed to dance around the detective's bumbling investigations. Columbo became a TV series in 1971, with a young 25-year-old Steven Spielberg helming the very first episode. The series was an unqualified hit for NBC, and ran through 1977 in 90 or 120 minute movie-length segments that appeared every third week as part of the network's "Sunday Mystery Movie" series, with a wide variety of acclaimed guest stars. Even after it went off the air, it spawned the short-lived Mrs. Columbo (based on the detective's unseen wife), starring a young Kate Mulgrew.

While becoming one of the signature television stars of the 1970s, Falk also appeared on the big screen in two of close friend John Cassavetes' films, Husbands (1970) and the Oscar-nominated A Woman Under the Influence (1971). Falk also played a Sam Spade-style detective in the comedy Murder By Death, and also starred in The Brink's Job (1978), The Cheap Detective (also 1978), and The In-Laws (1979). After the Columbo series came to a close in 1977, Falk continued acting in film, appearing in two highly notable roles in 1987: the storybook-reading Grandfather in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, and an acclaimed turn as a slightly modified version of himself as a man who converses with angels in Wim Wender's Wings of Desire. He returned to the role of Columbo in 1989 when ABC began commission TV movies centered on the character that would appear twice a year. After his last Columbo turn in 2003, Falk appeared sporadically in film and TV, his last role in the 2009 indie comedy American Cowslip.

In December 2008, his daughter Catherine Falk had filed court documents stating her father suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and petitioned to be his guardian; he is survived by his two daughters and wife, Shera.

If there is one person who could represent to me all the things that are wonderful about acting for a living, that man would probably be Peter Falk. His was the perfect embodiment of a career built as a graceful bridge between art and entertainment. On one side there are Wings of Desire and his films with John Cassavetes, and on the other are pop-culture icons Columbo and The Princess Bride. Mr. Falk had suffered from several age-related ailments, including Alzheimer's disease, and his family confirmed today that he passed away last night in Beverly Hills at the age of 83. Peter Falk had the greatest, handsomest lopsided face in movies. He could have a gently rambling demeanor, or, bending his neck and slumping his shoulders, he could conceal and then deploy a sly, even wicked intelligence. He had a voice that made me wish there was a hidden community somewhere -- a Brigadoon-like burg,...

For the past year Warner Bros. has been moving forward with development [1] of Tales From the Gangster Squad, a movie based on La Times reports about attempts to curtail the movement of organized crime into La in the '40s. A litany of possible directors [2] was considered last year, including Ben Affleck, Paul Greengrass, Darren Aronofsky and more. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) finally got the job [3], and WB has now greenlit the film and casting is in progress. No one is cast yet, but Deadline [4] reports that Ryan Gosling has been offered one of two key cop roles, and Sean Penn has been offered the role of La crime kingpin Mickey Cohen. I don't know enough about the cop roles to do more than accept that Ryan Gosling will quite possibly be a solid lead lawman. But Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen could be beautiful. So many of the actor's roles...

When I was a kid, I devoured the kitschy fun of producer Dino De Laurentiis' films such as the 1976 "King Kong" remake. His name got branded in my feeble mind. When you see his "Dino De Laurentiis Presents" before a trailer, you know that film would be fun!

So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.

Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:

One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...

Famed producer Dino de Laurentiis has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91. Producer of over one hundred films, the list of talent de Lauretiis worked with over his career is staggering. He helped bring the work of an array of legendary filmmakers to the big screen including Federico Fellini ("La Strada," "Nights Of Cabiria"), Milos Forman ("Ragtime"), Ingmar Bergman ("The Serpent's Egg"), Sidney Lumet ("Serpico"), Sydney Pollack ("Three Days Of The Condor"), William Friedkin ("The Brink's Job"), Ridley Scott ("Hannibal"), David Cronenberg ("The Dead Zone"), Michael Mann ("Manhunter") and even Sam Raimi ("Army Of Darkness") among many…...

Ask Rhod Gilbert, Alan Davies in Whites, Harry & Paul return, the end of This Is England '86 and a lot more besides in our UK TV round-up!

Comedy veterans return, the new guard challenges, and a freshly peeled sitcom is brewing on the burners. Plus, a brilliant little bit of geek film lovers' animation wraps up the next seven days of telly goodies.

Ask Rhod Gilbert is new to BBC1 and airs Monday at 10:35pm. The first of an eight episode run sees the stand-up comedian answer questions, from the considered to the ridiculous, with the help of guest comedians and other personalities joining regulars Greg Davies and Lloyd Langford.

Another new series, this time on BBC2, is Whites, starring Alan Davies as a country house hotel chef. A similar role was this TV fan's favourite performance by Lenny Henry in Chef! (apart from the wonderful Christmas fantasy flick,...

Robert Kocourek, a feature film production accountant, died of liver failure Sept. 4 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, his home for the past decade. He was 59.

Kocourek's career found him working in places like Mexico, Morocco, Ireland, Argentina, England, Greece and South Korea on films including "Inchon" (1981), "Air America" (1990), "Evita" (1996), "Angela's Ashes" (1999) and "Apocalytpo" (2006).

His first major feature assignments were the original "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974) and "The Brink's Job" (1978).

Kocourek began working in film promotion for Floyd L. Peterson Prods. In 1970, he was the production accountant for Robert Downey Sr.'s "Pound," produced by Peterson for UA.

Kocourek later worked at Dino De Laurentiis' Deg in New York and, in the 1980s, at Carolco Pictures.