END OF THE YEAR SPECIAL – DEATHS in HOLLYWOOD

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This is not a saddened post but a celebration of the demise of the wonderful actors, actresses and an agent that have helped bring really good movies to our screen for decades now. This piece would concentrate on a few of these gracious talents, they are:

1.      PAT HINGLE (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009)

Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle was a veteran actor for more than fifty years in film, theatre, and television. He 
is probably most known for this role of Commissioner James Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels. 

Recently he appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, as the original owner of Dennit Racing.
Some of his movie credits include Hang ‘Em High, Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, Muppets from Space and the Shaft remake in 2000.

Pat Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina of leukaemia on January 3, 2009. He had been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006.

2.      RICARDO MONTALBAN (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009)

Ricardo Montalbán was a theatre, film, and television actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles on Fantasy Island and as Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Montalbán has also appeared in a wide assortment of films, which included The Naked Gun, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek II, Spy Kids 2 & 3 and The Ant Bully.

He won an Emmy Award in 1978 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993.

Montalbán died on January 14, 2009, of congestive heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 88.

3.      RON SILVER (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009)

Ronald Arthur "Ron" Silver was an actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist.

 
Silver had a very diverse career, some of his work consisted of Timecop, Mr. Saturday Night, Ali, the recurring role as political adviser Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing and Find Me Guilty which was one of his final performances.

Silver was also nominated by President Bush to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace. On September 8, 2006, it was announced that Silver had joined an advisory committee to the Lewis Libby Legal Defense Trust. 

Silver died on March 15, 2009 of esophageal cancer, which had been diagnosed two years earlier.

4.      NATASHA RICHARDSON (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009)

Natasha Jane Richardson was a stage & cinema actress and wife of Liam Neeson, Daughter of screen legend Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson.

 
Richardson was more of a stage actress than a screen actress, as she was a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret.

Some of her notable films included Patty Hearst (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

On March 16, 2009 Natasha Richardson was severely injured while skiing in Mont-Tremblant, Québec, Canada. She was taken to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal suffering from a “severe head injury”, and was listed in critical condition. The following day she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on 18 March.

5.      SAM COHN (May 11, 1929 – May 6, 2009)

Samuel Charles Cohn was a talent agent at International Creative Management, an agency he helped create. 

 
Described by Time magazine as "the first superagent of the modern age". Some of his A-List clientele were Paul Newman, Woody Allen Meryl Streep, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Gleason, Robert Altman, Dame Maggie Smith and E.L. Doctorow. 

He began his career in the television industry with stints at Goodson-Todman and CBS, and was even the producer of The Price Is Right at one point.

Sam Cohn died from a short illness in Manhattan on May 6, 2009. He was 79.

6.      DAVID CARRADINE (December 8, 1936— June 3, 2009)

David Carradine was an actor, director and martial artist who in his four decades of television is best known for his work in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, the 1990s follow up television show, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and more recently in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, where he played the role of Bill. He appeared in more than 100 feature films and was nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award.

Some of his other notable roles included Charmed, where he portrayed Tempus, a powerful demon with the ability to manipulate time and Crank: High Voltage, where he played a 100-year-old Chinese gangster. 

David Carradine was found dead in a hotel room at the Park Nai Lert Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. The cause of death has not been confirmed, as rumours are stating suicide.

7.      FARRAH FAWCETT (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009)

Farrah Fawcett was an actress, who rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels in 1976.

A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett later appeared off-Broadway to the approval of critics and in highly rated television movies in roles often challenging (The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Margaret Bourke-White). Fawcett was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster sales broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s.

Farrah Fawcett died after a long hard battle with cancer.

8.      PATRICK SWAYZE (August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009)

Patrick Wayne Swayze was an actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost.

In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood cast mate Keanu Reeves in another major action hit, Point Break, as he was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.

In January 2008, Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and began undergoing chemotherapy and various other treatments at the Stanford University Medical Center. It was confirmed by his doctor that Swayze was diagnosed with Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm (IPMN). In May 2008 Swayze underwent Cyberknife radiotherapy cancer treatment to aid his battle against the disease. On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that the cancer had again metastasized to his liver.

Swayze died "with family at his side" on September 14, 2009, at age 57, 20 months after being diagnosed.

Other notable actors and actresses that died this year are:

Jimmy Boyd  - (January 09 1939 - March 07 2009)

Bea Arthur – (May 13 1922 – April 25 2009)

Dom Deluise – (August 01 1933 - May 04 2009)

Mickey Carroll – (July 08 1919 – May 07 2009)

Michael Jackson – (August 29 1958 – June 25 2009)

Gale Storm – (April 05 1922 – June 27 2009)

Karl Malden – (March 22 1912 – July 01 2009)

John Hughes – (February 02 1950 – August 06 2009)

Lou Albano – (July 29 1933 – October 14 2009)

Soupy Sales – (January 08 1926 – October 22 2009)