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Laurence Olivier was the greatest Shakespearean actor of the 21st century, an unrivaled master of technique who brought the Bard to the big screen with an invigorating cinematic bravado and refreshing absence of preciousness. Olivier was a sensation on the boards, but he came to believe in the power of movies and, via such masterpieces as "Hamlet," "Richard III," and "Henry V," made a strong case that these works belonged to everyone, regardless of their economic or cultural upbringing.

Olivier's openness to the movies during the advent of the talkies perturbed some of his most valued colleagues. Noël Coward, the boundlessly witty playwright who gave us "Blithe Spirit," "Private Lives," and "Design for Living," once told his friend, "You've no artistic integrity, that's your trouble; this is how you cheapen yourself." Coward might've had a point in that Olivier, at the time of this comment, was mulling an Rko contract offer that would've paid him,...

Look, actors have to eat too, and all the arthouse and award season favorite projects they do aren't always going to pay the bills. To put it simply, just as we all do jobs that we don't necessarily feel personally invested in, actors can also take on work primarily for the associated salary. This distinction doesn't take away from the work itself, and certainly doesn't diminish our own feelings for it, but it serves as an amusing reminder of the value of the dollar. If anything, it helps humanize the actors involved with the knowledge that they too have to make their own ends meet.

Whether it's celebrated, award-winning actors or beloved character actors looking for the next project, regardless of the material, all actors play a role only for the money in their career. Many of these actors have been forthcoming about their primary motivation for joining a project,...

Richard Roundtree, who will forever be linked with the role of trailblazing Black detective John Shaft, has died. The actor, who on screen is best remembered for the iconic role, was also a breast cancer survivor known for raising funds to treat the condition. He was more recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died yesterday afternoon, with his family at his bedside.

Richard Roundtree was born in New Rochelle, New York, played football for Southern Illinois University and did some modeling before the acting bug bit.

He was drawn to theater and joined New York’s acclaimed Negro Ensemble Company, then starred as Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope off-Broadway before the role of John Shaft presented itself — a lucky break secured after Sidney Poitier refused to screen test for the role, leading director Gordon Parks to cast Roundtree instead.

The role of Shaft, the “hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt” private detective,...

Richard Roundtree, famous for his role as John Shaft, passed away at 81 after battling pancreatic cancer. He leaves behind an enduring legacy. Before his iconic role, Roundtree started as a model and participated in theater. He continued to star in various Shaft movies and other notable shows and movies. Roundtree's passing is a big loss to the entertainment industry. Tributes have poured in, highlighting his importance and influence.

Shaft actor Richard Roundtree has passed away at the age of 81. The award-winning actor who starred in numerous television and movie roles across his illustrious career that spanned about five decades, was born on July 9, 1942. His professional acting career kicked off around 1963, but he didn’t rise to prominence until 1971 when he took on the titular role of detective John Shaft in Gordon Park’s blaxploitation crime thriller.

According to Deadline, Roundtree reportedly passed away on the afternoon of Oct. 24, after a...

Richard Roundtree, best known for his popular role in the Shaft franchise, has died.

According to new reports, Roundtree passed away on Oct. 24 following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. The beloved actor's family is said to have been at his bedside at the time of his passing. Roundtree's agency, Artists & Representatives, as well as his longtime manager, Patrick McMinn, confirmed the actor's death to Deadline. He was 81 years old.

“Artists & Representatives Agency mourns the loss of our friend and client Richard Roundtree,” a statement from Roundtree's agency noted. “His trailblazing career changed the face of entertainment around the globe and his enduring legacy will be felt for generations to come. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

As an actor, Roundtree is very well known for playing John Shaft, the titular role, in the celebrated 1971 movie Shaft. His performance earned him a...

Richard Roundtree, star of “Shaft,” “Roots,” and “Generations,” has died at the age of 81.

The actor succumbed after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, TheWrap has learned. Roundtree’s family was at his side when he died. His agency, Artists & Partners, confirmed his death.

“Artists & Representatives Agency mourns the loss of our friend and client Richard Roundtree,” the agency said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. “His trailblazing career changed the face of entertainment around the globe and his enduring legacy will be felt for generations to come. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

The actor starred in a number of landmark films, including 1971’s “Shaft” and its two sequels, 1972’s “Shaft’s Big Score!” and 1973’s “Shaft in Africa.” Roundtree was nominated for a New Star of the Year at the Golden Globes following the first movie.

Roundtree also starred in “Inchon” and...

Richard Roundtree, the ultracool actor who helped open the door to a generation of Black filmmakers and performers with his portrayal of private eye John Shaft, “the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about,” died Tuesday. He was 81.

Roundtree died at his home in Los Angeles of pancreatic cancer, his manager, Patrick McMinn, told The Hollywood Reporter.

He was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and had a double mastectomy. “Breast cancer is not gender specific,” he said four years later. “And men have this cavalier attitude about health issues. I got such positive feedback because I spoke out about it, and it’s been quite a number of years now. I’m a survivor.”

Roundtree also portrayed the title character opposite Peter O’Toole as Robinson Crusoe in Man Friday, was featured as an army sergeant opposite Laurence Olivier as Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Korean...

Richard Roundtree, who broke ground with his signature role in the Shaft movie franchise, died October 24 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer with his family at his bedside. He was 81.

Roundtree’s career spanned five decades and included everything from his most popular blaxploitation role to a very early appearance on As the World Turns in 1956 to being a Season 2 main cast member on Ava DuVernay’s OWN series Cherish the Day last year.

He is best known for playing detective John Shaft in the 1971 action thriller and its sequels, Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973) as well as the short-lived 1973 Shaft TV series.

For his performance in the original film, Roundtree was nominated for a New Star of the Year Golden Globe and hailed as the first Black action hero. More importantly, the films made Shaft a cultural hero, a symbol of Black power onscreen, at the box office and beyond.

Laird Koenig, who wrote “The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane,” died in Santa Barbara on June 30, Jamie Dixon, the son of Koenig’s collaborator Peter L. Dixon, told Variety. He was 95.

Koenig was an American author and screenwriter whose novel was adapted into the 1976 Jodie Foster-led horror movie “The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.”

He was born on Sept. 14, 1927, in Seattle, and would go on to attend the University of Washington. Koenig worked in advertising before being approached by Peter L. Dixon, whom he would collaborate with extensively throughout his career, and went on to write for the adventure television series “Flipper.”

Koenig also wrote the screenplay for “The Cat” which starred Roger Perry, and the 1969 production of “The Dozens” which starred Al Freeman Jr., Morgan Freeman and Paula Kelly.

He notably wrote the screenplay for several Terence Young Films, including “Red Sun,” which starred Charles Bronson,...

Laird Koenig, who adapted his novel for the screenplay to the 1976 cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, a controversial horror thriller starring a teenage Jodie Foster, has died. He was 95.

Koenig died June 30 of natural causes in Santa Barbara, Jamie Dixon, the son of Koenig’s frequent writing partner, Peter L. Dixon, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Koenig also received a writing credit on three films directed by Terence Young: Red Sun (1971), starring Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress; Bloodline (1979), starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara and James Mason; and Inchon (1981), starring Gazzara, Laurence Olivier and Jacqueline Bisset.

His 1970 novel The Children Are Watching, co-written with Dixon, was turned into the French film Attention Les Enfants Regardent (1978), starring Delon.

Taken from his 1974 novel — his first as a solo author — The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane starred Foster as a 13-year-old who lives...

Since 1980, UCLA film grads and industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy have honored the very worst in cinema with the Razzie Awards. Here’s a look back to the worst pictures of the last four decades.

“Can’t Stop the Music” (1980)

The Golden Raspberry Awards got their start by recognizing this musical comedy, a justly mocked quasi-biopic of the Village People.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 8%

“Mommie Dearest” (1981)

Faye Dunaway goes full camp as Joan Crawford in a docudrama whose comedy was often unintentional.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 53%

“Inchon” (1982)

This bloated, over-budget Korean war film starring Laurence Olivier as Gen. Douglas MacArthur was an epic turkey.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%

“The Lonely Lady” (1983)

Pia Zadora followed her mysterious (and widely mocked in retrospect) Golden Globe win for “Butterfly” with this adaptation of a trashy Harold Robbins novel about a schoolgirl/wannabe screenwriter.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%

“Bolero” (1984)

Bo Derek ditches her “10” cornrows to...

Not only is the 25th James Bond film “No Time to Die” the last 007 adventure thriller starring Daniel Craig, it’s also the first one directed by an American: Cary Joji Fukunaga. The 44-year-old filmmaker won the Sundance dramatic directing award in 2009 for “Sin Nombre,” was the first Asian-American director to win an Emmy for directing in 2014 for “True Detective” and earned a Peabody in 2015 for “Beasts of No Nation.”

He joins other cutting-edge filmmakers to direct Craig as Bond including Oscar-winning English director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) who helmed 2012’s “Skyfall” and 2015’s “Spectre” and indie German filmmaker Marc Forster (2008’s “Quantum of Solace”), who had directed Halle Berry to an Oscar for 2001’s “Monster’s Ball” and Johnny Depp to a nomination for 2004’s “Finding Neverland.”

These three are a far cry from the early Bond directors who were British and had worked their way up the ranks...

Nobody’s perfect. The Oscars honor the best achievements in film. But the Razzies were created in 1980 to single out the worst achievements. The two awards are diametrically opposed, of course, but many actors have been nominated at both events, and more than a dozen have actually won both. Scroll down to see which film performers have gone from best to worst (or the other way around) in their careers and which categories they won at both kudos.

A couple of the earliest Razzie Award winners actually rank among the most highly regarded actors of all time. For instance, the legendary Laurence Olivier claimed the Best Actor Oscar for the title role in “Hamlet” (1948). He earned 10 other Oscar nominations over the course of his career and received two Honorary Oscars. But he was also undefeated at the Razzies, winning Worst Supporting Actor for “The Jazz Singer” (1980) in the very first year of the awards,...

It might be a bit surprising to see the beloved Judi Dench in contention for an award calling out the worst achievements in film, but such was the effect of “Cats,” the widely ridiculed movie musical that leads this year’s Razzie noms. The good news, though, is that even if she wins she’ll be in good company. More than a dozen Oscar-winning actors have won Razzies too.

SEERazzies: Every Worst Picture Winner 1981 to Today

Dench, a Best Supporting Actress winner for “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), is now up for Worst Supporting Actress for her role as Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the Jellicle cats who was actually played by male actors on Broadway and the West End. This Razzies category alone has gone to Oscar winners Faye Dunaway and Kim Basinger.

Dunway also won Worst Actress for “Mommie Dearest” (1981). That category has gone to even more Oscar champs: Liza Minnelli...

In the 1960s, economic high times in the West triggered the rise of so-called “Europuddings,” tortured contractual liaisons between international talents whose feature-film products were often the cinematic equivalent of Esperanto — something intended to appeal to everyone, but so culturally disconnected and artistically generic as to typically wind up pleasing no one.

Today’s emerging equivalent may be represented by “China Salesman,” which is apparently what happens when umpteen private investors (those companies and producers listed below are just the tip of an iceberg) plus the Prc government pool their resources to make a popcorn extravaganza both populist and propagandistic. How that resulted in a largely Africa-set action adventure jumble involving industrial-political espionage, not to mention the inimitable starring combo of Mike Tyson and Steven Seagal (actually billed here as “Steve”), is anyone’s guess. Indeed, a tell-all chronicle about how this movie came into existence might be more compelling than the film itself,...

Omar Sharif in 'Doctor Zhivago.' Egyptian star Omar Sharif, 'The Karate Kid' producer Jerry Weintraub: Brief career recaps A little late in the game – and following the longish Theodore Bikel article posted yesterday – below are brief career recaps of a couple of film veterans who died in July 2015: actor Omar Sharif and producer Jerry Weintraub. A follow-up post will offer an overview of the career of peplum (sword-and-sandal movie) actor Jacques Sernas, whose passing earlier this month has been all but ignored by the myopic English-language media. Omar Sharif: Film career beginnings in North Africa The death of Egyptian film actor Omar Sharif at age 83 following a heart attack on July 10 would have been ignored by the English-language media (especially in the U.S.) as well had Sharif remained a star within the Arabic-speaking world. After all, an "international" star is only worth remembering...

Part I. Anger, Suez and Archie Rice

“There they are,” George Devine told John Osborne, surveying The Entertainer‘s opening night audience. “All waiting for you…Same old pack of c***s, fashionable assholes. Just more of them than usual.” The Royal Court had arrived: no longer outcasts, they were London’s main attraction.

Look Back in Anger vindicated Devine’s model of a writer’s-based theater. Osborne’s success attracted a host of dramatists to Sloane Square. There’s Shelagh Delaney, whose A Taste of Honey featured a working-class girl pregnant from an interracial dalliance; Harold Pinter’s The Room, a bizarre “comedy of menace”; and John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, which aimed a Gatling gun at its audience. Devine encouraged them, however bold or experimental. “You always knew he was on the writer’s side,” Osborne said.

Peter O’Toole called the Royal Court actors “an...

Oscar-nominated cinematographer who worked on Lenny, Dirty Harry and The Beguiled

The American cinematographer Bruce Surtees, who has died aged 74, became known as "the prince of darkness" for his muted and often lugubrious style of lighting. However, while Surtees was well-suited to the nocturnal street scenes of Dirty Harry (1971), the Rembrandt-esque arrangements of The Beguiled (1971) and the claustrophobic interiors of Escape from Alcatraz (1979), all directed by Don Siegel, he was also at home with the wide open spaces of the western Joe Kidd (1972) and the surfing movie Big Wednesday (1978).

His deceptively simple black-and-white scheme for Lenny (1974), Bob Fosse's semi-documentary biopic of the comedian Lenny Bruce, earned Surtees an Oscar nomination. The film's compelling stand-up sequences owe almost as much to the expert lighting of the nightclub as they do to Dustin Hoffman's performance. As Hoffman paces the stage, chased by his own shadow, the light captures wisps of...

Ben Gazzara, the character acting stalwart and stage star, has died at the age of 81.He was born in New York in 1930, and caught the acting bug at the age of 11 when he saw a friend perform in a play at the Madison Square Boys Club. He joined up and began working, eventually finding his way to the Dramatic Workshop. He auditioned for Lee Strasberg’s famed Actors Studio, which helped shape his career alongside such notable fellow actors as Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger.His big screen career included a wide variety of movies, including The Big Lebowski, Dogville, Inchon, The Spanish Prisoner and Todd Solondz’ Happiness. His fluent Italian helped him land roles in Italy, and he traded time between working in the Us and overseas. Above all, however, he was best known in cinematic circles for his work with John Cassavetes, for whom he acted in the...

Ben Gazzara at Cinema Retro's dinner for Robert Vaughn at New York's Players club, 2009. (Photo by Tom Stroud)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Ben Gazzara, who was born in poverty in a New York slum and rose to be a major star of stage and screen, has succumbed to cancer at age 81. Gazzara was part of a new generation of method actors that emerged in the 1950s and he studied at the fabled Actors Studio under the direction of Lee Strasberg in the company of other up-and-coming stars as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman. The competitiveness of that talented group often meant that roles created by one actor later proved to be star-making vehicles for another actor. For example, it was Gazzara who originated the role of Brick, the hunk who is confused about his own sexuality in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, earning one of...

New York — Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in such iconic productions over the decades as the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway and the film "The Big Lebowski," has died at age 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died Friday in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife, German-born Elke Krivat, at their hotel.

Gazzara was a proponent of method acting, in which the performer attempts to take on the thoughts and emotions of the character he's playing, and it helped him achieve stardom early in his career with two stirring Broadway performances.

In 1955, he originated the role of Brick Pollitt,...

New York — Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in such iconic productions over the decades as the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway and the film "The Big Lebowski," has died at age 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died Friday in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife, German-born Elke Krivat, at their hotel.

Gazzara was a proponent of method acting, in which the performer attempts to take on the thoughts and emotions of the character he's playing, and it helped him achieve stardom early in his career with two stirring Broadway performances.

In 1955, he originated the role of Brick Pollitt,...

Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, They All Laughed Ben Gazzara Dead Pt.1: Anatomy Of A Murder, Husbands, An Early Frost Long before An Early Frost, Ben Gazzara had already appeared in two (however veiled) gay-themed productions. On Broadway, he was the virile ex-football player pining for his "best friend" while ignoring wife Barbara Bel Geddes in the 1955 original staging of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor played those two roles in the bowdlerized 1958 movie version directed by Richard Brooks.) And in 1957, Gazzara made his film debut as a sexually troubled military man who gets off by viciously abusing (or watching others viciously abuse) his fellow cadets in Jack Garfein's The Strange One. Among Gazzara's other 75 or so feature films — many of which were made in Italy — are Steve Carver's Capone (1975), in the title role; Stuart Rosenberg's Voyage of the Damned...

The DVD format is over a decade old now - so what's holding up the disc release of these 15 films?

Good old DVD - it rose from nowhere a decade ago and offered us unrivalled picture quality, amazing special features, supersharp sound, and films the way they were meant to be seen. (Sound familiar?)

Soon, the VHS tape, bulky, prone to rewinding, fast forwarding, tape lag, and degradation with repeated use, was obsolete. Who can forget the original VHS tapes of Ghostbusters, watched so many times it started to look like a Swedish TV broadcast recorded from a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? And then there was the upgrading, rebuying your library over the course of a few years, with each double-dip special edition. Evil Dead 2 has been released in seven different versions in the UK alone.

But not everything made it to DVD, and plenty of it never will.

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.