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Pilar Del Rey, the character actress perhaps best remembered for her turn in Giant as the Mexican woman who has a seriously ill newborn who grows up to be the doomed World War II soldier played by Sal Mineo, has died. She was 95.

Del Rey died Sunday in Los Angeles of natural causes, her family announced.

Over four decades, Del Rey appeared in such other films as The Ring (1952), starring Rita Moreno; And Now Miguel (1953), starring Michael Ansara and Pat Cardi; The Siege at Red River (1954), starring Van Johnson and Joanne Dru; and Black Horse Canyon (1954), starring Mari Blanchard and Race Gentry.

In George Stevens’ epic Giant (1956), Del Rey portrays Mrs. Obregón, whose baby, Angel, is cared for thanks to Elizabeth Taylor’s compassionate Leslie Benedict. Leslie’s husband, Bick (Rock Hudson), doesn’t think the family doctor should tend to “those people.” (Mrs. Obregón’s husband, played by Victor Millan,...

Pilar Del Rey, a veteran character actor who appeared with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor in Giant and guested on dozens of classic TV series, died February 23 of natural causes in Los Angeles. She was 95. A family spokesperson confirmed the news to Deadline.

In George Stevens’ 1956 epic Giant, Del Rey played the sickly Mrs. Obregon, who is cared for along with her baby by Taylor’s Leslie Benedict as an impatient Jett Rink (Dean) tries to rush her. Leslie’s learning of the local Mexican ranch workers’ living conditions and the racist attitudes toward them is a key early plot point in the film, which drew nine Oscar noms including Best Picture. Stevens won for Best Director.

Born on May 26, 1929, in Fort Worth, Texas, Del Rey made her film debut in the late 1940s. A Spanish-American, she portrayed characters from various ethnic backgrounds with depth and authenticity.

She joined the...

Dig if you will, a picture: It’s the late ‘80s, and not everyone is fortunate to obtain cherished IPs, with the masks and the knifed gloves still keeping warm by the dying slasher embers. But not everyone needed it either; for instance, look at filmmaker Greydon Clark - the man was never averse to dipping into the zeitgeist and extracting whatever the hell he liked. In this case, he gave us Uninvited (1987), a fun and goopy *checks notes* killer cat on a yacht flick. I’m still unsure what glob of cultural goo Clark was grabbing for, but I’ve always appreciated his mud-pie approach, and this one ends up being a messy, grainy, blob of glorious nonsense.

Sort of like most of his oeuvre, come to think of it: A little seedy, but nothing too transgressive; perfect viewing for the whole demented family. Except like most of his films,...

I’m not American, but that doesn’t matter.

Living in Melbourne, Australia, means I have spent a large amount of the year in a strict lockdown. But I am extremely thankful that we have a leader who did something about that and now we’re back out in the world and I have been able watch Mank and Ammonite in cinemas this last week. Here’s some other things I am personally thankful for in the world of movies and entertainment that kept me sane in 2020:

The Film Experience, “It’s fashion”; The Invisible Man; having a new Scream movie to obsess over; Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets; Kristen Johnson as director; Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny; “Oh, the fracking?”; that tracking shot in The Vast of Night; the rest of The Vast of Night; randomly remembering that The Forbidden Dance and Lambada were made by rival producer...

In almost every set of “dueling” movies, whether they’re competing biopics or similar-premise disaster flicks out within months of each other, there’s a right one and a wrong one as far as which you’re supposed to prefer. It’s okay to enjoy Michael Bay’s Armageddon, but you should recognize Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact as the better movie. Capote over Infamous. Observe and Report over Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Top Gun over Iron Eagle. Dantes Peak over Volcano. Tombstone over Wyatt Earp. 1492: Conquest of Paradise over Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. The Prestige over The Illusionist. Mission to Mars over Red Planet. Chasing Liberty over First Daughter. Leviathan over DeepStar Six, and The Abyss over both of them. Some pairs are nearly a draw as far as neither actually being worth a preference, such as Lambada and The Forbidden Dance. Here’s a more recent one: Cheap Thrills over 13 Sins. The...

With Halloween in the air, we thought it would be fun to reach out to the horror genre's biggest and brightest stars - both legends in the industry and up-and-coming superstars - to ask them two quick questions: What's your biggest fear, and what's your favorite scary movie? Read on for the results!

Some of the results will make you laugh. Some will make you shiver... and some, well some are just too funny for words. Sit back and get ready to hear from the likes of Anne Rice, John Carpenter, Robert Englund, the "Ghost Adventures" crew, cast members from "The Walking Dead," George A. Romero, and many - Many - more. Who knows? You may even find some new movies you should check out or at least revisit.

Let the scares begin!

A

Jace Anderson

Writer - The Toolbox Murders (2004), Schism, Night of the Demons (2009), Mother of Tears

1) I...

In honor of the impending Halloween holiday, Dr. Jimmy Terror from Dr. Terror’s Blog of Horrors stops by The Liberal Dead to assist in merrymaking and overall mischief.

More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead was recently released on October 18th. I’m sure you’ve been reading all about it, but for those of you who have not been sending out for more paramedics here’s the story thus far:

More Brains! A Return To The Living Dead is now available on DVD. It’s the ultimate account of the tongue-in-cheek, stylish and apocalyptic zombie movie. It features contributions from all the main cast as well as clips, photographs, storyboards, conceptual art, publicity materials, archival documents and behind-the-scenes footage.

Basically the best damn documentary you’re going to see all year. It’s this year’s Never Sleep Again (or at least that’s what I’ve...

I go on vacation and all this happens:

Eric Stoltz might be coming back to weekly TV. He has been cast as the lead in a new Lifetime pilot, Modern Love. Report from Deadline.com:

[Modern Love] follows newspaper science editor Simon McElvane (Stoltz) as he faces a deteriorating marriage, the ramifications of potentially starting over and balancing his relationship with his adopted 15-year-old daughter. Unexpectedly handed the job of editor of the newspaper’s Modern Love column, Simon discovers he has a lot to learn about life and love.Nwcn has a video report from the set of Grimm in Portland. Sasha Roiz mentioned they’ve started working on episode four today.

Sasha will be back on Warehouse 13 next Monday. Alessandra Torresani will join him the week after that.

Esai Morales did a few more interviews while promoting Gun Hill Road in San Francisco. There is one at SFBayTimes.com...

Which of these stars would capture the soul of the Princess of Hearts? We put them to the test

Now that the Daily Express has downgraded its coverage of her to such an extent that she's only on the front page two or three days a week, there's a real danger that Princess Diana could soon end up slipping from the public consciousness. It's a danger that the film industry is taking incredibly seriously.

That's why two Diana biopics are apparently on the boil. One, based on the book Closely Guarded Secret by her bodyguard Ken Wharfe – currently available on Amazon for a penny – is apparently close to signing Charlize Theron to play the lead. The other, Pathe's broader look at Diana's entire life, is keen to sign Keira Knightley for the same role.

It's never pretty when rival studios go head to head with films about the same subject like this.

It was any era but ours on Dancing With the Stars tonight. The 11 remaining celebs were asked to bring it to four new styles of dance—country two-step, lambada, bolero and Charleston—all of which brought us to another place or time, be it the Jazz Age or 1990, when The Forbidden Dance battled Lambada at the box office. Well, maybe "battled" is the wrong word... Anyway, the actors had a leg up when it came to playing a character (i.e., '20s flapper) and the long-legged hotties held the advantage when it came to hip-swiveling Brazilian sensuality. But we love any night on Dwts when lifts are allowed and even the pros have to experiment outside their comfort...