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Harry Johnson, an actor who appeared on dozens of shows throughout his 40-year career, including Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Law & Order, has died. He was 81.

Johnson died Tuesday, his rep Jonathan Erickson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death is unknown at this time.

“It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Atb Talent client Harry Johnson,” Atb Talent Agency shared in a statement. “With a career spanning over 40 years, Harry was a true talent and cherished member of the community. His impact on the entertainment industry will be remembered and celebrated. Our hearts go out to his friends and family, including Christiane, his wife of 15 years and stepchildren, Oliver and Penelope. May his memory be a blessing to all.”

Born on Dec. 27, 1942, in Plainfield, New Jersey, Johnson began his acting career in 1978, when he appeared in the pilot episode of Battlestar Galactica,...

Character and voice actor Harry Johnson, whose acting credits include Battlestar Galactica, Law & Order, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, passed away.

Deadline confirmed that Johnson died on January 2, 2024, in Los Angeles, California, after an undisclosed "long illness." Johnson was 81 years old. His passing was confirmed by his wife of 15 years, Christiane.

Harry Johnson was born on December 27, 1941, in Plainfield, New Jersey, and was credited as "Chip Johnson" in the 1970s and 1980s. Johnson began his career in 1978 with a multi-part pilot episode of the original Battlestar Galactica, where he played the First Warrior. He went on to sign a contract player with Universal Studios, appearing in other productions the same year.

Johnson's career of over four decades includes acting credits on TV shows like M*A*S*H, Dynasty, The A-Time, Cold Case, Melrose Place, Days of Our Lives, Party of Five, Highway to Heaven, Thirtysomething, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Harry Johnson, an actor with scores of credits spanning 40 years that ranged from the original Battlestar Galactica to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, several Dick Wolf series and the famous “Harry & Louise” commercials, died January 2 of in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 81.

His wife, Christiane, confirmed his passing to Deadline.

Born on December 27, 1942, in Plainfield, NJ, he often credited as Chip Johnson in the 1970s and ’80s and was among the last contract players for Universal Studios. Johnson began his screen career with the multi-part pilot episode of Battlestar Galactica in 1978 and went on to guest-star on dozens of TV series including M*A*S*H, Quincy M.E., The Incredible Hulk, Simon & Simon, The Greatest American Hero, Highway to Heaven, The A-Team, L.A. Law, Dynasty, Who’s the Boss?, Thirtysomething, Melrose Place, Party of Five, Roswell, Resurrection Blvd., Judging Amy, Days of Our Lives and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

He was...

With six Oscar nominations (and one win), seven Globe film nominations, eight Emmy nods (and two wins), Burstyn knows how to pick her roles. If she likes a script, she asks about the director. Only when she watched Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi” did she get why she should take the role of the drug-addicted mother in “Requiem for Dream.” “Ok, I get it, the guy’s a poet,” she said. “Twice in my life at the end of a screening there was a 10-minute standing ovation,” she said, “‘Spitfire Grill’ at Sundance and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ at Cannes.” It yielded another Oscar nod.

With Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” she read the script by Hungarian playwright/screenwriter Kata Wéber, who drew upon her own silent reaction to a miscarriage. Burstyn watched Mundruczó’s Oscar submission “White God.” “I liked the script, investigated Kornél’s work,” Burstyn said.

With six Oscar nominations (and one win), seven Globe film nominations, eight Emmy nods (and two wins), Burstyn knows how to pick her roles. If she likes a script, she asks about the director. Only when she watched Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi” did she get why she should take the role of the drug-addicted mother in “Requiem for Dream.” “Ok, I get it, the guy’s a poet,” she said. “Twice in my life at the end of a screening there was a 10-minute standing ovation,” she said, “‘Spitfire Grill’ at Sundance and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ at Cannes.” It yielded another Oscar nod.

With Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” she read the script by Hungarian playwright/screenwriter Kata Wéber, who drew upon her own silent reaction to a miscarriage. Burstyn watched Mundruczó’s Oscar submission “White God.” “I liked the script, investigated Kornél’s work,” Burstyn said.

Whether or not you recognize the name Phyllis Somerville, chances are that you still know who she was. The veteran actress, who had appeared on the small screen in everything from House of Cards and Elementary to Fringe and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, died on July 16 of natural causes, our sister site Deadline reports.

The 76-year-old native of Iowa City, Ia., is probably most famous for her stints on Showtime’s The Big C and Wgn America’s Outsiders. But her list of television credits runs the gamut from soaps (One Life to Live, Guiding Light) to comedies (Sex and the City,...

Phyllis Somerville, an actress whose character work spanned decades as well as television, film and the stage (Broadway’s To Kill A Mockingbird), died of natural causes at her home in New York City on July 16. She was 76.

Her death was announced by her manager Paul Hilepo.

Born in Iowa City, Iowa, and soon developing a longstanding desire to move to New York City to become a Radio City Rockette, Somerville was cast in her first Equity job after college when she scored a role at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The job was the first in a long line of stage credits, including roles in Over Here on Broadway, The Spitfire Grill at Playwrights Horizons Off Broadway, Happiness at Lincoln Center, Night Mother national tour, and various other theater productions.

Most recently, Somerville appeared on...

When a European director makes his or her first movie in the United States, you can pretty much rely on two things: the camera’s awe at the wide-open spaces and big skies, and a downbeat story of how the Land of Opportunity so often lets its most helpless citizens fall between the cracks.

So on the American Miserabilism shelf at your local shuttered video store, you can put Andrew Haigh’s powerful and poignant “Lean on Pete” alongside such other classics of the genre as Werner Herzog’s “Stroszek” and Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey.”

“Lean on Pete” calls to mind other greats as well — one imagines a pitch meeting where it was described as “The 400 Blows” meets “Wendy and Lucy” — but writer-director Haigh, working from the novel by Willy Vlautin, has his own way of telling this kind of story. While the film’s semi-picaresque, road-trip nature might seem antithetical to the maker of such intimate dramas as “Weekend” and “45 Years,” Haigh brings his gifts as a filmmaker with him to the great outdoors, always capturing little moments of character and emotion even in an expanse of seemingly infinite American desert.

Also Read: 'A Quiet Place' Film Review: Make Some Noise for John Krasinski's Nerve-Racking Horror Tale

Teenage Charlie (Charlie Plummer, “Boardwalk Empire”) has just moved to Portland, Oregon, with his ne’er-do-well dad Ray (Travis Fimmel). Mom is long-gone, and Charlie’s only other family is his loving aunt Margy (Alison Elliott, “20th Century Women”), who he hasn’t seen since childhood after she and Ray had a squabble about how he’s been raising Charlie. (When Charlie was 12, Ray left the boy alone for several days to spend time with a woman.)

Their new house is near a racetrack, and Charlie ingratiates himself with small-time horse owner Del (Steve Buscemi), working with him at the stable and traveling with him to seedy races on the state-fair circuit. Along the way, Charlie befriends Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny), a jockey who rides Del’s horses from time to time. Bonnie tries to tell Charlie that the horses aren’t pets, and that he shouldn’t get attached, but it’s too late — he’s already bonded with an aging Quarter Horse named Lean on Pete, even though the racer is coming to the end of his career, likely to be “sent to Mexico” (where horses can be legally slaughtered) once his use to Del has run out.

Also Read: 'Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana' Film Review: Neil Gaiman, George Romero and Others Reflect on Free Speech

When the husband of Ray’s latest conquest beats Ray bad enough to send him to the hospital, Charlie has to elude Family Services while still earning money to keep up the household. But as Ray’s condition worsens, and Lean on Pete seems destined to be destroyed, Charlie steals Del’s truck in an attempt to save the horse and to look for Margy in Wyoming.

As you might imagine, Charlie’s journey gets more and more bleak as he faces starvation, thirst and eventual homelessness. But while “Lean on Pete” certainly has its dark moments, and its 119 minutes seem like it’s never going stop throwing obstacles in Charlie’s way, there’s ultimately a sense of hope here, much of it being communicated by Plummer, in an extraordinary performance. There’s so little calculation or actorliness in his work that I thought Haigh had found a 15-year-old non-actor; I was surprised to learn after the fact that Plummer is an experienced pro with an ascendant career. (He’s about to play kidnap victim John Paul Getty III in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming “All the Money in the World.”)

Also Read: 'Tyler Perry's Acrimony' Film Review: Taraji P. Henson Is Furious, But Is She Right?

The anguish and determination that Plummer can display with just a look or subtle motion is heartbreaking; this is the kind of naturalistic acting that can just kick you in the stomach. He’s part of a strong ensemble: Buscemi’s Del makes an honest mentor, but he doesn’t sugarcoat the character’s darker side. (And it’s fun to see the easy chemistry between Buscemi and Sevigny: she starred in his feature directorial debut “Trees Lounge” two decades ago.) Steve Zahn turns up as a mercurial homeless man who offers Charlie some help along the way, and Elliott (an indie stalwart since her breakout role in “The Spitfire Grill”) radiates a warmth that makes you realize why finding Margy is worth Charlie’s Herculean effort.

Haigh adjusts to a different kind of storytelling here: “Weekend” was fairly dialogue-heavy (as was, to an extent, his little-seen debut “Greek Pete”), and unlike “45 Days,” he can’t substitute dialogue with a meaningful glance from Charlotte Rampling. Still, he manages a lot of quiet here — with the exception of some exposition dumps that Charlie gives the horse in conversation — and his storytelling is no less powerful. Danish cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Joenck (“A War”), also working in the States for the first time, collaborates with Haigh to place the characters into a very specific context, finding both beauty and horror in the American sprawl.

Your gut will be wrenched by “Lean on Pete,” but it’s also quite likely that your heart will be touched. It’s a powerful new entry for a director who is ever more deserving of attention, and it provides a spotlight for a talented young actor who would appear to be going places.

Read original story ‘Lean on Pete’ Review: Andrew Haigh’s Boy-and-His-Horse Tale Hits Hard At TheWrap...

Sean Wilson Oct 11, 2016

From Star Trek and Field Of Dreams to The Rocketeer and Krull: we salute the film scores of the late, great James Horner.

When composer James Horner died in a plane crash in June 2015, cinema lost one of its most profoundly emotional voices, and the final chapter on Horner's astonishing career has now closed with his last work: Antoine Fuqua's Western remake The Magnificent Seven. Horner actually wrote the score based on the script before the film even started production, such was his passion for it, and it's been posthumously completed by his longtime collaborator Simon Franglen.

To mark the occasion, here are the 25 most seminal scores from a lamented, legendary figure of film music.

1. Legends Of The Fall (1994)

Despite his reputation as a composer of melodrama, throughout much of the eighties and early nineties Horner had largely been pegged as a bold composer of action,...

BroadwayWorld continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Misy Singson, Theatre Division Administrator,The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on Political Satires in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Theatre on The Spitfire Grill.

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The sensational, overlooked film scores from the years 1990 to 1999 that really are well worth digging out...

The movies went through tumultuous and exciting changes in the nineties. Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs, Generation X gave rise to slacker marvels like Clerks, and blockbusters like The Matrix put the awe back into special effects.

However, the 90s was also a sensational decade for film music, gifting us classics including the likes of Jurassic Park, Titanic, Total Recall, Braveheart and countless others. But the sheer quality of these soundtrack treasures shouldn’t overshadow those undervalued hidden gems that demonstrate the extraordinary range and versatility of our finest film composers, ones that may have passed you by. So here’s our selection of those incredible works: ranging from the earworming to the unsettling, the melodic to the chaotic, these are the scores that simply demand your attention.

Braveheart, Aliens, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Apollo 13, Wolfen, Legends Of The Fall, Krull, Battle Beyond The Stars, A Beautiful Mind, Titanic. The list goes on and on.

The prolific Oscar winning composer James Horner has died in a plane crash at the age of 61. (June 22, 2015). Variety confirmed the news Monday evening.

Brilliant Composer James Horner, friend & collaborator on 7 movies has tragically died in a plane crash. My heart aches for his loved ones.

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) June 23, 2015

Listen to samples of his genius. James Horner will be profoundly missed.

From James Horner’s bio (Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency):

Having composed the music for more than 130 film and television productions, including dozens of the most memorable and successful films of the past three decades, James Horner was one of the world’s most celebrated film composers.

He earned two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for...

The directors of “Bachelorette” and “Miss Representation” return to Sundance with, respectively, a brilliantly bawdy comedy and a vital look at how our culture raises...

I try not to make sweeping pronouncements about Sundance movies until I’m back at sea level, and my brain is receiving its usual amounts of oxygen; there’s something about the air up here that can occasionally lead to irrational exuberance. (Google “The Spitfire Grill” or “Happy, Texas” if you don’t know what I mean.)

Even though I’m still in Park City, Utah, (and panting when I walk up hills) I’ll...

I can testify that when you go to a film festival, and someone inquires about how the movies were that year, the answer you end up giving — “Really terrific!” “Lousy!” “They were okay!” — is often dictated by exactly one movie. If you saw something that totally knocked you out, the sort of film that you think is going to get major play in the real world, and you’re already dusting off a place on your 10 Best list for it, then that one movie can determine your entire perception of the festival. That’s what happened to me last year...

The opening-night movie at the Sundance Film Festival is often, almost by design, a mild, light, forgettable affair. A lof of filmmakers don’t want the opening slot, and the basic idea is that the bar can’t be raised too high, because then you’ll risk making all the movies that come afterward look disappointing. But Whiplash, which opened the 30th anniversary edition of Sundance last night, didn’t just raise the bar — it electrified the spirits of everyone who saw it, including me. It stars Miles Teller, who had his breakthrough role in last year’s Sundance favorite...

Playwrights Horizons Tim Sanford, Artistic Director Leslie Marcus, Managing Director announced today complete details for Far From Heaven, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain, the current Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Assembled Parties both now on Broadway, music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel Grey Gardens at Ph and on Broadway, Finding Neverland and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie Grey Gardens at Ph and on Broadway, The Grapes of Wrath, Finding Neverland. The musical is choreographed by Alex Sanchez Giant, Fiorello and directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif Grey Gardens at Ph and on Broadway Rent, Next to Normal, Giant. The musical is based on the Focus FeaturesVulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes. Far From Heaven will now begin previews Wednesday evening,...

The term “crowd-pleaser” should probably be retired from the movie universe. When a serviceable January horror flick like Mama can make $20 million its opening weekend (and that’s demonstrably in the off season), you can bet that virtually every film that opens week in and week out at number one is, in ticket sales and essence, a crowd-pleaser. So it seems unnecessary, or maybe just redundant, to single out any one film for fulfilling that definition. It would sort of be like referring to Twizzlers or popcorn as “popular movie junk food.”

At the Sundance Film Festival, however, the term...

Tony Award nominee Liz Larsen The Most Happy Fella, KT Sullivan Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Chris Hoch La Cage Aux Folles, Shrek The Musical, Michael Mastro Twelve Angry Men, Pilin Anice Junie B. Jones, Cicily Daniels The Little Mermaid, Tim Falter Some Like It Hot, Nadine Isenegger 42nd Street, Matthew Labanca Young Frankenstein, Drama Desk Award nominee Garrett Long South Pacific, The Spitfire Grill, Kristin Maloney The Talk of the Town, Brent McBeth White Christmas, Jim Middleton Goodspeeds 1776, Kevin VortmannA Little Night Music and Tiffany Westlie The Truth About Jane have joined the cast of UnsungMusicalsCo.s benefit concert presentation of the legendary 1935 musical revue At Home Abroad, set for tonight, October 15, 2012. Get a first look at the stars in rehearsal below...

Tony Award nominee Liz Larsen The Most Happy Fella, KT Sullivan Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Chris Hoch La Cage Aux Folles, Shrek The Musical, Michael Mastro Twelve Angry Men, Pilin Anice Junie B. Jones, Cicily Daniels The Little Mermaid, Tim Falter Some Like It Hot, Nadine Isenegger 42nd Street, Matthew Labanca Young Frankenstein, Drama Desk Award nominee Garrett Long South Pacific, The Spitfire Grill, Kristin Maloney The Talk of the Town, Brent McBeth White Christmas, Jim Middleton Goodspeeds 1776, Kevin Vortmann A Little Night Music and Tiffany Westlie The Truth About Jane have joined the cast of UnsungMusicalsCo.s October 15, 2012 benefit concert presentation of the legendary 1935 musical revue At Home Abroad. Get a first look at the stars in rehearsal below...

There has been a lot of talk about how great the summer of 1982 was for movies. And, boy, it really was. (Among the 1982 summer releases were "E.T.," "Blade Runner," "Tron," "The Road Warrior," "Rocky III" and "Poltergeist.") The summer of 1982 was so good, in fact, that for a movie writer covering these current August movies -- doldrums of August, even -- it's kind of depressing. (But, "ParaNorman" is great. I promise.)

The month of August has built itself quite an infamous reputation as one of the worst movie months of the year: The summer blockbusters have wrapped up and awards season has yet to start -- which leaves audiences with movies like "Total Recall." But 2012 is far from the worst movie August ever. So, in the spirit of 1982 being the best summer for movies, I present you with a case for the worst August in the history of movies: 1996.

Even in recent years,...

Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden has split from her husband of 15 years.

The Pollock star has filed for divorce from Thaddaeus Scheel, the father of her 13-year-old daughter Eulala Grace and twins Julitta Dee and Hudson, seven.

Her representative tells People.com, "For the sake of the couple's three children, Harden would like to request that the family's privacy be respected at this time. No further comments will be made on this matter, and we thank you for your understanding."

Scheel is a Hollywood location scout and props master and worked with Harden on the 1996 drama The Spitfire Grill.

Multi-award winning executive producer Mitchell Block doesn’t just develop, produce, and market indie features and documentaries; he also really wants to help you make your projects. Block has joined forces with the Ida once again to put on this exclusive 2-day Documentary Producing Workshop to help you and other aspiring documentary filmmakers do just that. Under the banner of Ida’s longstanding Doc U series, Block and Oscar-winning producer Jeffrey Tuchman are holding two full days of producing advice and information at The Writers Boot Camp and The Spitfire Grill. The big ...

Ellen Lewis on Michael ShannonWhen I was asked to write about an actor I love, Michael Shannon immediately jumped into my mind. It probably stems from the fact that I'm from Chicago, where Michael lived and worked for many years.In 1998 Paula Muzik, an agent in Chicago, called to tell me about Michael, who was coming to New York in the play "Killer Joe." There was an intensity and disturbing quality to Michael's performance in "Killer Joe." Combined with his physical presence and dark humor, he slightly frightened you. He was unlike any actor I had seen before, and it was exciting to think about the roles one could try him for.Years later I was casting "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" for Sidney Lumet. Sid's office at the time was at Sound One. Casting for Sidney, as other casting directors can attest, is an amazing experience—and unusual,...

In the world of independent film, as in the world of politics, the buzzword, more than ever, is "change." If you're not about change, goes the mantra, then you're yesterday's news -- or yesterday's candidate, or yesterday's world-class American independent film festival. Change is adaptation, and adaptation is survival. But after 20 years of hipster cachet, of deals and headlines and celebrity starlets in fur-collared parkas, of fabled career launches (Kevin Smith! Parker Posey! Darren Aronofsky! Gabourey Sidibe!) and game-changing, paradigm-shifting influence in Hollywood, is the Sundance Film Festival ready to change its own game? Or, more to the point, is it capable of doing so?...

With the credit crunch a-biting, it’s believed that many of us will be staying on home soil rather than heading abroad for our holidays this summer. So, how to have fun while keeping a tight rein on the purse strings? Enter Blockbuster. The home entertainment giant is here to help with the ‘Blockbuster Road Trip’, an interactive road map of America packed with notable movie locations that allows you to journey from site to site without leaving the comfort of your own home. The perfect holiday for the cash-strapped film fan!

The road trip encompasses each of the 48 states in the continental Us, taking you to from coast to coast. Start in the east with rural Maine courtesy of 1997 drama The Spitfire Grill, travel south to North Carolina to see the mountainous terrain from Oscar-winner Cold Mountain and then west through Arizona (Christian Bale/ Russell Crowe western 3:10 to...

Centerstagenorth Theatre is proud to present for its first show of 2009, the musical "The Spitfire Grill" by James Valcq and Fred Alley based on the film by Lee David Zlotoff starring Ellen Burstyn. Performing at: The Art Place - Mountain View, 3330 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta, Ga 30066 Directed by Sarah Mitchell Performance dates: First weekend is a benefit for the Mountain View Arts Alliance call 770-509-2700 for tickets...

Each day this week, Christopher Campbell will take a look back at a “classic” film that played the Sundance Film Festival. Today’s installment: Scott Hicks' Shine (1996). 1996 was a monumental year for independent film. It began with a Sundance Film Festival that, according to Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures “would go down as Ten Days That Shook the Indie World,” because of the tremendous buying frenzy that occurred, including the infamous acquisition of The Spitfire Grill by Castle Rock for $10 million. The year then transpired with a slew of popular specialty titles that boosted business at many arthouse multiplexes while al ...

Each day this week, Christopher Campbell will take a look back at a “classic” film that played the Sundance Film Festival. Today’s installment: Scott Hicks' Shine (1996). 1996 was a monumental year for independent film. It began with a Sundance Film Festival that, according to Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures “would go down as Ten Days That Shook the Indie World,” because of the tremendous buying frenzy that occurred, including the infamous acquisition of The Spitfire Grill by Castle Rock for $10 million. The year then transpired with a slew of popular specialty titles that boosted business at many arthouse multiplexes while al ...