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Joe Caroff, perhaps best known for designing the James Bond gun logo in 1962, passed away Sunday, August 17, at the age of 103. Throughout his career, Caroff designed hundreds of film posters, including several adaptations of Broadway shows. In 1961, Caroff created the poster design for the big-screen adaptation of West Side Story directed by Robert Wise. He would go on to design other Broadway-related poster titles, including Bob Fosse's Cabaret featuring Liza Minnelli, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Death of a Salesman, and more. He also frequently worked on designs for Woody Allen films, including Manhattan, Stardust, and Zelig. Other notable projects include The Last Temptation of Christ, A Hard Day's Night, Rollerball, Last Tango in Paris, An Unmarried Woman, and Gandhi. In...

Joe Caroff, the legendary graphic artist who designed the famous 007 logo and several movie posters and title sequences for the likes of Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci and Woody Allen, has died. He was 103.

Joe Caroff’s name might not have the heft as some other notable poster and title card designers, but that’s because he rarely took credit. With that, he could never receive residuals, something that no doubt would have earned him a lot more money – and fame. For his James Bond design, he earned just $300. As far as how he came up with the James Bond logo, Caroff once said, “I knew [Bond’s] designation was 007, and when I wrote the stem of the seven, I thought, ‘That looks like the handle of a gun to me.’ It was very spontaneous, no effort, it was an instant piece of creativity.”

And while Joe Caroff’s contributions to original James...

Joe Caroff, the unheralded graphic designer whose iconic creations included James Bond’s 007 gun logo, posters for West Side Story and A Hard Day’s Night and typography for Last Tango in Paris, Manhattan and Rollerball, died Sunday. He was 103.

Caroff died one day short of birthday No. 104 in hospice care at his home in Manhattan, his sons, Peter and Michael Caroff, told The New York Times.

Caroff also cooked up the opening title sequences for such films as Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977), Volker Schlöndorff’s Death of a Salesman (1985), Gene Saks’ Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986) and Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which pulled back to reveal a crown of thorns.

His portfolio of posters included those for a dozen or so Woody Allen films plus Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad (1963), A Fistful of Dollars...

“When we cast Michael Fox, I didn’t want him.”

That’s what Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg told the Television Academy in 2013, per Entertainment Weekly. What was Goldberg’s problem with Fox, the actor who earned three Emmy wins and five nominations over the run of his sitcom? Goldberg had his heart set on a different actor: Ferris Bueller star Matthew Broderick.

Casting director Judith Weiner “had found this young guy in New York, never acted before, Matthew Broderick,” Goldberg explained. “So Matthew was the first one to read for Family Ties for the part of Alex, and I said what any normal producer would say: ‘Yes, get him a pen, let's make a deal.’ And then that deal fell through.”

Note to Goldberg: Broderick was an accomplished stage actor in the early 1980s, so “never acted before” was a bit of hyperbole. Broderick’s Tony-winning run in...

Matthew Broderick is a true star of stage, screen and television who first came to moviegoers' attention over four decades ago in the thriller "WarGames." He then triumphed in comedies, dramas and musicals both on stage and in film. Add to that his long-term marriage to Sarah Jessica Parker, and there's a lot for him to celebrate.

For his stage work, Broderick has won two Tony Awards (as Best Featured Actor for 1983's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and as Best Actor for the 1995 revival of the musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"), as well as an additional Best Actor nom for 2001's "The Producers" for a performance that he brought to the screen in the 2005 film. In 1993, he was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his supporting performance in "A Life in the Theatre." And for his film work, Broderick earned a Golden Globe nomination for 1986's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off,...

Maleah Joi Moon has become the 101st performer to win a Tony Award for their first outing on a Broadway stage for her performance in the musical “Hell’s Kitchen.”

She won Best Actress in a Musical at the 77th Tony Awards for portraying Ali, a 17-year-old girl searching for her place in the world while living in the titular New York City neighborhood and also being restrained by her overbearing mother. She is the 10th person to win the category for her Broadway debut. She joins:

Elizabeth Seal, “Irma La Douce” (1961)

Anna Maria Alberghetti, “Carnival” (1962)

Liza Minnelli, “Flora the Red Menace” (1965)

Leslie Uggams, “Hallelujah, Baby” (1968)

Alexis Smith, “Follies” (1972)

Natalia Makarova, “On Your Toes” (1983)

Lea Salonga, “Miss Saigon” (1991)

Catherine Zeta-Jones, “A Little Night Music” (2010)

Cynthia Erivo, “The Color Purple” (2016)

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Other performers who pulled off this accomplishment in recent years include...

Mark Ruffalo is returning to the stage in a one-night performance of the new play Ironweed: An Evening of Art & Humanity.

Ruffalo will star opposite Jessica Hecht in a performance set for May 17 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play is based on William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was first published in 1983, and conceived of by Jodie Markell, who directs, and Brad Gilbert, who is the producer.

In addition to the onstage cast, the performance will include excerpts from the audio recording of the play, which is set to be released in fall 2024 and features Norbert Leo Butz, Kristine Nielsen, John Magaro, Michael Potts, David Rysdahl, Frank Wood and Katie Erbe, as well as songs by Tom Waits and an original score by Tamar-kali.

The play is set on All Hallow’s Eve in Albany in 1938. Francis Phelan, played by Ruffalo, returns to his hometown after being...

Exclusive: WME has signed Fisher Stevens and his production company Highly Flammable, which he launched last spring alongside producers Maura Anderson and Zak Kilberg. They’ll rep the Academy Award-winning multi-hyphenate, going forward, across all scripted and documentary projects.

The move comes less than a week after Stevens’ Beckham docuseries was released on Netflix, debuting as the streamer’s most-watched English-language series of the week. The four-parter, on which he teamed with Oscar and Emmy-winning producer John Battsek (Searching for Sugar Man), tells the inside story of the global football star and cultural icon, offering unprecedented access not only to Beckham, but also to his wife Victoria, his family, his friends and his teammates.

Fisher’s scripted directing credits include the ex-convict drama Palmer, starring Justin Timberlake, which remains one of Apple TV+’s top 10 most popular films; the comedic thriller Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin,...

Jodie Comer has become the 100th performer to win a Tony Award for their Broadway debut for her performance in the play, “Prima Facie.”

She won Best Actress in a Play for portraying Tess, a lawyer who concentrates in providing legal defense for men who are accused of sexual assault but soon has the unthinkable happen to her. She is the 11th person to win the category for her first outing on a Broadway stage. She joins:

SEE2023 Tony Awards: Every winner (and nominee) in all 26 competitive categories

Martita Hunt, “The Madwoman of Chaillot” (1949)

Beryl Reid, “The Killing of Sister George” (1967)

Phyllis Frelich, “Children of a Lesser God” (1980)

Jane Lapotaire, “Piaf” (1981)

Joan Allen, “Burn This” (1988)

Pauline Collins, “Shirley Valentine” (1989)

Janet McTeer, “A Doll’s House” (1997)

Marie Mullen, “The Beauty Queen of Leeane” (1998)

Jennifer Ehle, “The Real Thing” (2000)

Deanna Dunagan, “August: Osage County” (2008)

Below are the Broadway debuts in the seven other...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off star Matthew Broderick says shooting the classic movie was not easy due to his clashing with the film's director, John Hughes.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter for the It Happened in Hollywood podcast, Broderick revealed that things got off to a fine start when he initially discussed the film with Hughes ahead of filming. However, once filming began in 1985, Broderick said, "He was not easygoing in some ways. He was nervous it wouldn't come out right." The actor recalled an incident involving a costume test that created tension on set.

Related: The Breakfast Club Passes the Bechdel Test but Not Without Controversy

"I remember we did a costume test early on," Broderick said. "We walked around the streets of Chicago in our costumes and they filmed us — me, Alan [Ruck], Jennifer Grey, and Mia [Sara]. That was a big drama. When the footage came back, he said...

In a recent interview, Ferris Bueller's Day Off star Matthew Broderick looked back at his relationship with film director John Hughes. The 1986 movie was successful at the box office and with critics, and earned Broderick a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the charming titular character. The film follows Ferris Bueller, a high schooler skipping class and looking for adventure in Chicago. Hughes, who wrote, co-produced, and directed the 1986 film, was one of the most beloved filmmakers of the 1980s, with credits that included films like Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink.

While Ferris Bueller's Day Off went on to become one of the best high school films of all time, what transpired off-screen didn't always indicate the film would be a success. During an appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast Broderick reminisced on the making of the film,...

In a new interview, Matthew Broderick says he would occasionally “butt heads” with John Hughes during the making of the 1986 comedy classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

“He was not easygoing in some ways,” Broderick, 61, says of the late writer-director legend on The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast. “He was nervous it wouldn’t come out right.”

Broderick fondly recalls spending hours in Hughes’ swimming pool in Brentwood around the time of the filming, “smoking cigarettes and eating potato chips” as they discussed the role that would eventually shoot the actor, then 23, to superstardom.

But things got off to a bumpy start when filming began on location in Chicago in September 1985.

“I remember we did a costume test early on,” Broderick recalls. “We walked around the streets of Chicago in our costumes and they filmed us — me, Alan [Ruck], Jennifer Grey and Mia [Sara].

“That was a big drama.

The 76th annual Tony Awards have already made history. For the first time, two of the acting nominees identify as non-binary: Harrison Ghee who is contending for lead actor in musical for “Some Like It Hot” and Alex Newell, vying for featured actor in a musical for “Shucked.” Their nominations have been warmly embraced. But 40 years ago, a history-making acceptance led to death threats.

At the 37th annual Tony Awards on June 5, 1983, producer John Glines thanked his lover when he accepted the best play honor for Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy,” a three-act drama set in New York in the 1970s and early 80s starring Fierstein as a gay, drag queen and torch singer. “He expressed gratitude to an assortment of people , ‘lastly but most importantly, to the one person who believed and followed the dream from the beginning, who never said ‘You’re crazy; it can’t be...

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Lou Barlia, who served as a camera operator on films from Love Story, Death Wish, Jaws and The Big Chill to Brighton Beach Memoirs, Steel Magnolias and Frankie and Johnny, has died. He was 92.

Barlia died June 25 at his home in Las Vegas after a brief battle with mesothelioma, his family announced.

In his four-decade career, Barlia also looked through a viewfinder on Serpico (1973), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Slap Shot (1977), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Superman (1978), Gloria (1980), Mr. Mom (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1988), Hudson Hawk (1991) and Bruno (2000), among many other films.

He received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Operating Cameramen in 2000, the year he retired.

Born and raised in New York, Barlia began his love affair with photography in his early teens when his dad brought home a camera that he had found on train tracks in the city.

The 2021-2022 Broadway season has been quite a busy one for actor Brandon J. Dirden. First he appeared opposite Phylicia Rashad in Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of Dominique Morisseau‘s play “Skeleton Crew” this past winter. Now he can be seen in Second Stage Theater’s revival of Richard Greenberg‘s 2003 Tony-winning play “Take Me Out.” After having previously appeared in award-winning Broadway productions of “Clybourne Park” (2012), “All the Way” (2014), and “Jitney” (2017), will either of Dirden’s two main stem appearances from this past year make him a first-time Tony nominee?

In “Skeleton Crew,” Dirden played Reggie, the manager of one of the last auto stamping plants in Detroit. The company is on shaky ground and the workers have to make choices about how to move forward if their plant goes under. All the while Reggie is torn between doing right by his work family and the red tape in his office.

Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite couldn’t seem better suited to the long-in-coming stage-taking of real-life couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. What better way for two actors who got their early starts in the theater – she as a young star of Annie, he in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues – than a vintage Broadway comedy with multiple roles for its leading man and woman?

Toss in the fact that Simon’s triptych of comic scenarios offers Parker the chance to break free of the melodramatic leanings of And Just Like That and gives Broderick a comfy stretch before his upcoming Netflix drama about the opioid crisis.

A comfortable fit, no? Maybe too comfortable. More than anything else, Plaza Suite, opening tonight at the Hudson Theatre, provides one of Broadway’s most loved couples the chance to share the stage in a slick, amiable setting that asks...

Ned Eisenberg, an actor best known for his work on “Law and Order: Svu” and for starring in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby,” has died. He was 65.

Eisenberg died at his home in New York on Sunday after battling cancer, his agents confirmed to TheWrap.

“As Ned would say, he was attacked by two very rare assassins — cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma,” his wife Patricia said in a statement. “Over the course of two years, he bravely fought the cancers in private while continuing to work in show business to ensure that his medical coverage paid for himself and his family.”

Eisenberg portrayed defense attorney Roger Kressler on “Law & Order: Svu,” a high-powered attorney who went toe-to-toe in the courtroom with the “Svu” regulars on numerous occasions. He separately played a different character on the standard “Law & Order,” another recurring defense attorney who appeared in seven different episodes dating...

Ned Eisenberg, a stage and screen actor who played defense attorney Roger Kressler on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and Detective Hauser in “Mare of Easttown,” has died. He was 65.

His agents at Nicolosi & Co. confirmed his death. Eisenberg’s wife Patricia said in a statement, “As Ned would say, he was attacked by two very rare assassins — cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma. Over the course of two years, he bravely fought the cancers in private while continuing to work in show business to ensure that his medical coverage paid for himself and his family.”

Eisenberg also worked in feature films, playing Sally Mendoza in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” and photographer Joe Rosenthal in “Flags of Our Fathers.”

Among his other feature roles were Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” “Limitless,” “Won’t Back Down,” “Experimenter,” “Asher,” “The Exterminator,” “The Burning,” “Moving Violations,” “Air America,” “Last Man Standing,...

As of now, there is a lot of uncertainty around Covid when it comes to Broadway. Within the past couple of months, several shows had to suspend performances due to positive cases in their casts, some others had to close permanently, and a couple more are taking hiatuses. The American Theatre Wing also hasn’t announced key dates for this year’s Tony Awards yet.

With that being said, we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently 11 productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tonys? Below is an overview of each play as well as the awards histories of their authors, cast, and directors, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Skeleton Crew” (opened January 26; closes February 20)

This new play by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau is set in 2008 at a small automotive factory in Detroit,...

Production designer Stuart Wurtzel will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th annual Art Directors Guild Awards, the guild announced today.

The award comes in recognition of the “exceptional spectrum” of designs Wurtzel has created for film, TV and theater over the course of six decades.

“From…Hannah and Her Sisters to his iconic evocation of New York during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s in Angels in America, Stuart Wurtzel’s contribution to the art of Production Design stands alone,” said Mark Worthington, Art Directors Council Chair.

An Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner, Wurtzel has collaborated throughout his storied career with prominent directors, ranging from Peter Yates to Woody Allen. On the TV side, he recently designed Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, along with HBO’s Divorce.

Additional credits include Enchanted, Stepmom, Hair, Mermaids, Romeo Is Bleeding, Three Men and a Little Lady, Old Gringo,...

Artie Siccardi, a backstage legend of Broadway who worked on dozens of shows, from Annie, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Sweeney Todd to Children of a Lesser God, Cats, Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Color Purple, has died. He was 89.

Siccardi died Wednesday in New York City of complications from pneumonia, his son, Drew Siccardi, announced.

A production/technical supervisor — the person who ensures that the scenery and costumes are built on time, on budget and according to the creative team’s designs — he received an honorary Tony Award in 2012.

Arthur Peter Siccardi was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on Jan. 18, 1931. A ...

Artie Siccardi, a backstage legend of Broadway who worked on dozens of shows, from Annie, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Sweeney Todd to Children of a Lesser God, Cats, Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Color Purple, has died. He was 89.

Siccardi died Wednesday in New York City of complications from pneumonia, his son, Drew Siccardi, announced.

A production/technical supervisor — the person who ensures that the scenery and costumes are built on time, on budget and according to the creative team’s designs — he received an honorary Tony Award in 2012.

Arthur Peter Siccardi was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on Jan. 18, 1931. A ...

Arthur P. Siccardi, a longtime Broadway production supervisor whose five-decade career included work on such notable original and revival stagings as Sweeney Todd, Whose Life is it Anyway?, Sunday in the Park with George, Gypsy, The Heidi Chronicles and Sunset Boulevard, to name a few, died December 23 of complications from pneumonia. He was 89.

His death was announced by his son Drew Siccardi.

Born in Englewood, NJ, and raised in Fort Lee, Siccardi began his professional life as a minor league baseball pitcher for the Johnson City Cardinals from 1951-53. An employment offer to work as a show carpenter on the original national tour of Gypsy led to what would be his life’s work.

Siccardi established Arthur Siccardi Theatrical Services in 1975 at the suggestion of Michael Bennett, and he’d go on to work with such notable directors as Mike Nichols, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Gower Champion, Trevor Nunn and Michael Blakemore.

Bob Kaliban, a veteran voice actor and former president of the New York branch of the Screen Actors Guild, died December 12. He was 87.

Kaliban’s voice-over career spanned over 50 years and thousands of commercials, but he perhaps was best known for his long-running role as the “Ty-d-Bol Man,” the company’s nautically attired spokesman.

Born on November 6, 1933, in Lisbon, Iowa, he moved with his wife Pat to Garden City, NY, 50 years ago to raise their three children while Kaliban pursued a career on Broadway. He would go on to have roles in the 1960s shows How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Ben Franklin in Paris and The Conquering Hero.

He joined SAG in 1961 and AFTRA in 1962, appearing in such films as Brighton Beach Memoirs and Lovers and Other Strangers and on television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tracey Ullman Show and Law & Order.

He served...

Actress Royana Black Hubbell, who starred in the 1988 CBS sitcom “Raising Miranda” and appeared in several other ’80s and ’90s staples, has died. She was 47.

Hubbell died “very suddenly” on July 14 due to acute myeloid leukemia, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Andy Hubbell. “Royana’s incredible energy and spirit will be a part of our lives forever, and her friends and family want to remember her and assist her husband, Jp, at this most difficult time,” the page said.

“Most importantly, let Royana’s light shine through you every day,” it continued.

Hubbell is best-known for playing the lead role in CBS’ “Raising Miranda,” which followed a newly single dad facing the trials and tribulations of raising his 15-year-old daughter (Hubbell). She also made appearances in “The Cosby Show,” “Almost Partners,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Touching Evil,” and more.

According to her obituary, she got her start in...

Actress Royana Black is being remembered by friends and family after dying from complications caused by leukemia. Her husband John "J.P." Hubbell's sister wrote on a GoFundMe that the 47-year-old died "very suddenly" of acute myeloid leukemia on July 14. "Royana's incredible energy and spirit will be a part of our lives forever, and her friends and family want to remember her and assist her husband, Jp, at this most difficult time," the statement read. In her long career, the star worked alongside the likes of Matthew Broderick on the Broadway play Brighton Beach Memoirs, a role she held for 10 years. She went on to land the lead in the 1988 CBS...

Royana Black, an actress who made her Broadway debut at age 10 in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and, five years later, took the title role in the 1988 sitcom Raising Miranda, died July 14 in Los Angeles of acute myeloid leukemia. She was 47.

Her death was announced by her family. Black was the wife of actor J.P. Hubbell, who survives her.

Born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Black was only 10 when she was cast as a replacement in 1983’s Brighton Beach Memoirs as Laurie, cousin of main character Eugene (the role created by Matthew Broderick).

In 1988, she was cast in the title role in CBS’ short-lived, nine-episode comedy Raising Miranda, playing the teenage daughter of a single dad, played by James Naughton. Bryan Cranston played her uncle.

Black subsequently made guest appearances on such TV series as The Cosby Show, Touched By An Angel, Hold, Please, and Medium, among others. In later years,...

Royana Black, who appeared on Broadway in Brighton Beach Memoirs and starred as the title character on the short-lived sitcom Raising Miranda, has died. She was 47.

Black died July 14 in Los Angeles after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia, her family announced.

When she was 10, Black joined the cast of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1983 to portray Laurie, the younger cousin of Eugene (Matthew Broderick) and daughter of Blanche (Joyce Van Patten) who has heart problems. 

In 1988, she starred as the daughter of a single dad (James Naughton) on Raising Miranda, but the CBS sitcom ...

Patrick Dempsey began his acting career on stage, starring in productions like Torch Song Trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and On Golden Pond. In the '80s, Dempsey found success in feature films. His resume boasts lead roles in iconic films such as Can't Buy Me Love and Some Girls.

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Dempsey starred in a number of television pilots in the '90s, but none that were ever ordered to series. Dempsey didn't find much success in television until he booked the role of Dr. Derek Shepherd in the primetime hit medical drama, Grey's Anatomy, on ABC.

As previously announced, Plaza Suite will play a strictly limited 17-week Broadway engagement at Hudson Theatre 141 West 44th Street, with previews beginning March 13, 2020 and an official opening night set for April 13, 2020. Plaza Suite will mark the first time Broderick and Parker will share a Broadway stage since the 1995 revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This event will also mark Broderick's return to the words of Neil Simon, having won his first Tony Award for creating the role of Eugene Jerome in Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by its sequel, Biloxi Blues.

Real-life marrieds Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker will team up for a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite to be directed by John Benjamin Hickey. The staging will get a pre-Broadway run at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre in February before hitting New York in March.

The 17-week Broadway revival was announced today by producers Ambassador Theatre Group, Gavin Kalin Productions and Hal Luftig. Ambassador operates both the Colonial in Boston and Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, where Plaza Suite will begin previews March 13, 2020, for an opening night of April 13.

The Boston engagement will run Feb. 5-22.

Plaza Suite will mark Hickey’s Broadway directing debut. The actor is set to reprise his London performance in Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance on Broadway this fall, with plans to take a brief hiatus from that production in the spring for Plaza Suite‘s rehearsals.

The design team will include...

For only the third time this decade, none of the acting winners at this year’s Tony Awards did so for their Broadway debut. This is the 21st time that this has happened over the 73-year history of these top theater honors. Most of the winners were actually on the opposite end of the spectrum, winning for the first time after years of Broadway experience and several nominations to their name including André De Shields, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Stephanie J. Block. Check out the complete list of winners here.

The previous instances of Broadway debuts being shut out at the Tonys were in: 1948, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1960, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1990, 1991, 1994, 2001-2003, 2012 and 2017.

Below, you can see the names of all 96 people who have won Tonys for their debut on the Great White Way.

SEE2019 Tony Awards: Best Musical ‘Hadestown’ sweeps with 8 wins, ‘The Ferryman’ takes Best Play

Best Actor In A Play: 16 winners

Paul Scofield, “A Man for All Seasons” (1962)

Cliff Gorman,...

Happy 57th birthday to Matthew Broderick on March 21, 2019! A true star of stage, screen and television, Broderick first came to moviegoers’ attention 36 years ago in the thriller “WarGames” and since then has triumphed in comedies, dramas and musicals both on stage and in film. Add to that his 22 year marriage to Sarah Jessica Parker, and there’s a lot for him to celebrate.

SEETony Awards 2019: Prediction center is open so make your early picks today

For his stage work, Broderick has won two Tony Awards (as Best Featured Actor for 1983’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and as Best Actor for the 1995 revival of the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”), as well as an additional Best Actor nom for 2001’s “The Producers” for a performance that he brought to the screen in the 2005 film. In 1993, he was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his supporting performance...

Chicago – Writer Neil Simon was an American treasure, and created humor that anchored his often neurotic characters into our consciousness. From his early days in 1950s TV (“Your Show of Shows”) to winning a 1990s Pulitzer Prize for “Lost in Yonkers,” he refined and produced “the laugh.” Simon died on August 26th, 2018, at age 91, in New York City.

Neil “Doc” Simon, 1927-2018

Photo credit: File Photo

Neil Simon was born in the Bronx on the 4th of July, and got his nickname “Doc” at DeWitt Clinton High School in NYC. After the Army Reserves and a little college, he partnered with his brother Danny in the 1950s to write radio scripts and eventually “Your Show of Shows.” His first play was “Come Blow Your Horn” in 1961, which established him in New York theater. The hits kept coming, and during the 1966 season, Simon had four shows running simultaneously – “The Odd Couple,...

Broadway will dim its lights in honor of Neil Simon.

The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist, lyricist, producer, and theatre owner and operator died Sunday at the age of 91. His credits include “Lost in Yonkers,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “The Sunshine Boys,” and “The Odd Couple.”

“Neil Simon’s plays are a testament to the human experience: He made audiences laugh, cry, and think. No other American playwright has had as many performances or as many shows in production simultaneously on Broadway,” said Thomas Schumacher, chairman of the Broadway League. “The outpouring of accolades and personal memories being shared since his death are a tribute to how deeply he influenced our culture and touched the lives of literally millions of theatergoers.”

The lights on the Great White Way will go dark on Aug. 30 at exactly 6:45 p.m. Et for one minute. Simon’s dozens of works include “Barefoot in the Park,...

Neil Simon has sadly passed away at the age of 91. The prolific writer was nominated for four Oscars and won three Tony Awards. He is perhaps best known for such legendary works as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Promises, Promises, The Goodbye Girl and Lost in Yonkers. He will be long remembered for setting a new tone in theatrical comedy, and was a pioneer of the stage and screen.

Simon has more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer in history. He succumbed to complications from pneumonia over the weekend, passing away at a New York-Presbyterian hospital in Manhattan. He leaves behind a body of work that spans over 5 decades and includes 40 plays, quite a few of which were adapted with great success for the big screen. He is considered the most commercially successful American playwright in history.

Neil Simon has the distinction of being the...

Neil Simon, one of the rare late-20th century playwrights who was a brand name for plays such as “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park,” died Sunday. He was 91.

A statement from his reps said, “Neil Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The cause was complications from pneumonia.”

“His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his bedside along with Mr. Simon’s daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.”

In addition to his four Oscar nominations and 17 Tony nominations, Simon’s works brought an unsurpassed 50 Tony nominations for their actors. His competitive Tony wins came for “The Odd Couple” (best playwright) and for best play for “Lost in Yonkers” and “Biloxi Blues.”

Beginning in the 1960s, Simon could guarantee good Broadway advance sales, a rare feat for a writer. He had more than 30 plays mounted on Broadway, including...

Since breaking onto the A-list scene in 1989’s “Big,” Elizabeth Perkins has starred in numerous comedies and dramas, receiving critical acclaim for her roles in such films as “Avalon,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” the live-action “Flintstones” movie and “The Doctor.”

Perkins has also found success on television, garnering Golden Globe Award nominations for her supporting role in “Weeds.” She continues to make guest appearances on several hit shows, including “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Glow” and “This Is Us.” She’s co-starring in the HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects.”

Early in her career, Perkins worked on many stage productions in New York City, including the show “Life and Limb.” Her first appearance in Variety came on Jan. 2, 1985, in the cast credits of the show.

What were some of your early goals during your days as a stage actor?

At that point you’re just thrilled you’re paying the rent.

Ari’el Stachel became the latest person to take home a Tony Award for their Broadway debut. This victory puts him in a freshman club that now has 96 members. Watch him discuss his victory in the Tonys press room in the video above.

Stachel, who won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for playing Haled in “The Band’s Visit,” is the ninth person to claim that particular honor for his first Broadway outing. He joins:

Harry Belafonte, “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac” (1954)

Sydney Chaplin, “Bells are Ringing” (1957)

Frankie Michaels, “Mame” (1966)

Wilson Jermaine Heredia, “Rent” (1996)

Dan Fogler, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2005)

Levi Kreis, “Million Dollar Quartet” (2010)

John Larroquette, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (2011)

Daveed Diggs, “Hamilton” (2016)

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Below are the Broadway debuts in the seven other acting categories that claimed Tony Awards.

Best Actor In A Play: 16 winners

Paul Scofield,...

Not one to rest on his laurels, Broadway composer/lyricist David Yazbek will follow his acclaimed The Band’s Visit – which is selling out on Broadway and is certain to earn several Tony nominations this spring – with another film-to-musical adaptation. This one, however, has a somewhat more familiar title: Tootsie, Sydney Pollack’s 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman as a struggling, truculent actor who finds fame and fortune in middle-age drag as the nascent feminist star of a soap opera.

Scott Ellis (She Loves Me) is set to direct. The Hoffman role, Michael Dorsey, aka Dorothy Michaels, will be played by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Santino Fontana, who also voiced Hans in Frozen and has appeared in a number of Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Billy Elliot, Sunday in the Park with George and Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Scott Sanders Productions will produce the show, which has set a pre-Broadway...

Kimberly, a black widow type, meets her match in Jamielyn Lippman's Killer Weekend. Filming has begun on the Blanc/Biehn Productions project, and we have some photos from the set to share with Daily Dead readers.

Press Release: (Los Angeles, CA / January 12, 2016) -- Blanc/Biehn Productions (Bbp), the powerhouse indie film studio founded by actors/filmmakers Michael Biehn and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, announces that principal shooting for Killer Weekend has begun in Los Angeles.

Jamielyn Lippman (When the Bough Breaks) will direct the thriller, with an original screenplay by Travis Romero, who wrote the story with Lony Ruhmann; Romero and Ruhmann have also collaborated on behalf of Bbp in the 2013 release Treachery and the upcoming Altered Perception.

Killer Weekend follows Kimberly (Vanessa Zima), a sexy young coed who’s enjoyed a lavish lifestyle thanks to rich Sugar Daddies, but quickly realizes she could access their money far more easily… by killing them.

Details on American Murder Song‘s third Ep, The Reckoning, kicks off today’s Horror Highlights. Also: Jennifer Blanc-Biehn joins the cast of Voyeur and a Daily Dead Q&A with Z Nation composer Jason Gallagher.

American Murder Song’s The Reckoning Details: Press Release: “1816, The Year Without A Summer, was an infamous year. A natural disaster blew its vengeance over the American northeast until every damn thing was froze, and the ground became death. Trapped indoors, Mary Shelly penned her classic novel Frankenstein. Two hundred years later, cult film composers Terrance Zdunich (Repo! The Genetic Opera) and Saar Hendelman (The Devil’S Carnival franchise) are resurrecting that fateful year as the setting for a bitter new batch of murder ballads. Prepare thyself for American Murder Song’s third extended play album, III. The Reckoning.

On American Murder Song’s first Ep, I. Dawn, Terrance and Saar led listeners through...

Actor Steven Hill  has died at age 94. Hill came to prominence in 1966 as the original star of the "Mission: Impossible" TV series. He played Dan Briggs, the head of the Impossible Mission Force, who led a select team of diverse members on highly dangerous espionage missions. Hill, who was an Orthodox Jew, found that the filming schedule conflicted with his religious obligations. He left the series after one season and was replaced by Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, who remained with the franchise henceforth. Hill retired from acting for almost a decade before returning to TV as District Attorney Adam Schiff on the popular NBC show "Law & Order". He stayed with the series for years and earned two Emmy nominations. Among his feature films are "Billy Bathgate", "Yentl", "The Firm", "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Legal Eagles". For more click here. ...

With just seven months until the new Ghostbusters hits the big screen, a star from the beloved original movies has passed away. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that actor David Margulies, who played New York City Mayor Lenny Clotch in both 1984's Ghostbusters and the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters 2, has passed away at the age of 78 in New York City. The actor's agent Mary Harden confirmed the news, revealing that he passed from a lengthy battle with an undisclosed illness.

David Margulies was born February 19, 1937 in Brooklyn, and after graduating from City College, he made his off-Broadway debut in 1958 with a role in the production Golden 6. His first film appearance came in 1971's A New Leaf, and he would go on to star in films like All That Jazz, Dressed to Kill, and Times Square before landing the role of New York Mayor Lenny Clotch in the original Ghostbusters. He delivered the memorable line,...

David Margulies, a veteran stage and screen actor who memorably played the Mayor of New York in the Ghostbusters movies, has died, his longtime agent, Mary Harden, confirmed to Deadline. He was 78. Aside from his role as Lenny Clotch - a take-off on real-life New York Mayor Ed Koch - Margulies starred in many films and theater productions. Other recognizable parts included Tony Soprano's lawyer Neil Mink on The Sopranos and the doctor in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. On Broadway, Margulies - a New York native - appeared in Comedians, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Angels In America, to name a few.

By Todd Garbarini

Lewis John Carlino’s 1979 film The Great Santini, which stars Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, and Michael O’Keefe, will be screened at the The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles. Based upon the novel by Pat Conroy (The Water is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides), the 115-minute film will be screened on Tuesday, October 27th, 2015 at 7:00 pm.

Actresses Blythe Danner and Lisa Jane Persky and director Lewis John Carlino are scheduled to appear at the screening and are due to partake in a post-screening Q & A for a discussion on the making of the film. Please be sure the check back with the website in regards to personal appearances/changing schedules.

From the press release:

Ben Meechum (Michael O’Keefe) struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father (Robert Duvall), an aggressively competitive marine pilot.

The Great Santini...

Matthew Broderick and Chloë Sevigny are set to star in the upcoming dark comedy, Look Away. Starring as the lead of the film, Look Away introduces U.K.’s up-and-coming actress, Shannon Tarbet, in the role of ‘Bess Kraft.’ Broderick will play Bess’s father,Murray Kraft, and Sevigny as Bess’s mother, Carolyn Kraft. The film, directed by Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom of BigTV! and written by Variety’s Top Ten Writers to Watch Jennifer Schuur, is an exploration of love, relationships, family and the human condition. Alexis Alexanian, Peter Friedlander and Lizzie Nastro will executive produce the film with New Regency also on board as an executive producer and co-financier. Production will begin on June 8th in New York’s Hudson Valley. Locomotive Media, in addition to this project, is working on a development deal with New Regency to create a fund to develop and produce smart,...

Gene Saks has passed away, aged 93.

The actor and director, who starred in such films as A Thousands Clowns, died of pneumonia in his Long Island home yesterday (March 29).

A Tony Award-winning director, he famously staged Neil Simon's 'double-b' trilogy, which consisted of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound, and also a revival of The Odd Couple in 1985.

He starred in 1994's Fool alongside Paul Newman, Bruce Willis and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The last Broadway play Saks directed was William Luce's Barrymore in 1997.

Saks is survived by his wife Keren.

Gene Saks, a director who earned three Tony Awards and frequently collaborated with Neil Simon, has died. He was 93. Saks died March 28 following a bout with pneumonia, his wife, Keren, said, according to the New York Times.  Saks had a long-standing professional relationship with Simon and directed many of his plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983) and Biloxi Blues (1985). Both projects earned Saks a Tony for directing, as did the Cy Coleman-Michael Stewart musical I Love My Wife (1977). Read More Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2015 Other Simon plays staged by Saks include Half a Sixpence (1965),

read more...

Classic Stage Company welcomes Emmy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Anthony Edwards 'ER', Annabella Sciorra 'The Sopranos' and Tony Award-winner Elizabeth Franz Death of A Salesman, Brighton Beach Memoirs, alongside Peter Dinklage Tyrion Lannister on HBO's Game of Thrones and Taylor Schilling Piper Chapman on Netflix's Orange Is The New Black in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, opening at Csc 136 East 13th Street tonight, January 29, for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 22.