Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

sopranos or not, i don’t think gandolfini was ever likely to ‘get out from under’ being a large italian-american man

aaanyway she was funny as shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9egH-OEQYM8

If you all find "Cindy Williams could have made more movies" an awkward contention, wait till you hear that I think that Tom Verlaine could have expressed the same sensibility in his music if he was born twenty years earlier, played saxophone and recited Beat poetry.

Laverne & Shirley did way more to inform my worldview (and those of my peers) than American Graffiti.

I think y’all are confounding the fact that clemenza was not really a Laverne & Shirley fan (me neither although I liked most of the component parts, but don’t begrudge others for liking it) with the idea that actors might like the challenge of doing films as well as Neon Boystelevision.

I mean it’s not a great argument for every actor but in her case it seems to make some sense.(xp to self)

Sorry, I think you're being ridiculous. You have your version of Cindy Williams, I have my mine, and mine does not have to comport with yours. For you, she was the star of a TV show you loved when you were younger, and you feel a lot of nostalgia for that.

I think I was reacting to this condescending post in which I was called "ridiculous" and in debt to the lesser emotion of nostalgia when what I was expressing is that Laverne and Shirley was and remains important (and not just to me!) and therefore it's not a fluffy subpar substitute for a Serious Film Career.

Okay, yeah, you are right.

tbh any performer is lucky to find an iconic role whether it's on TV or in a movie, the match of performer and part doesn't come along all that often. The flipside of iconic roles is, sure, the performer may have a hard time eclipsing them — may be absorbed by them — but imagining their career without that role is pointless. Maybe they never would have found another one!

Anyway RIP to her, I never watched L&S regularly but I always had a good impression of it. And to LL's point, even as a kid I remember it being accorded some cultural cachet precisely because it was about two working women.

^otm on all points!

I think I had a bit of trouble with The Big Ragu. Also never really warmed up to David Lander until I watched Oswald. Always really liked the theme song and the title sequence though.

Totally forgot that Betty Garrett was on that show!

I'll apologize for that LL, but also point out that you had an earlier post with "FUIUD" included. There was an "LOL" attached, so I guess I was supposed to ignore that.

And believe, as someone who regularly comes on here and expresses nostalgia for any number of things, I don't consider that a lesser emotion. My nostalgia for American Graffiti is very much a part of my attachment to Cindy Williams. And I don't know why you keep characterizing the films I mention as some kind of art-school snobbishness--is there a more accessible, non-arty film than American Graffiti? (The Conversation, maybe, but I don't know, its artiness quotient seems at the mild end to me.)

Now, I suppose, I'll be accused of prolonging a derail that to my mind I didn't even initiate.

thanks to mookie for making me laugh this morning

Emily Rose Marcus, Greil's daughter. Sad, sweet obit by Christgau: https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/emily-rose-marcus-1969-2023

(Hits me a bit extra because she was three months younger than me.)

Jeez, that's a really sad piece - just a month younger than me

Between this and his own health issues, Marcus has had just a terrible year.

I just got home and haven't had a chance to read it, but Marcus himself has a piece up about his daughter (should be accessible).

https://open.substack.com/pub/greilmarcus/p/emily-rose-marcus-1969-2023?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

From the comments section: FYI to everyone who has mentioned the author: I saw this post on Facebook, and it was written by Emily's sister, Cecily.

You're right. Like (almost) everyone else in the comments section, I assumed he wrote it. He actually does begin by saying "I am posting this because people have asked me to."

Cardiacs percussionist Tim Quy, after about 5 years of bad health.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid028zaezbJ9SeiEx3oG5LTr4s1pQZ6JKVUVTjVqLCS4TipTxwRp2fdgrTfEzHPK9AU5l&id=100032042187218&mibextid=Nif5oz

John Davis, disco producer/arranger who led the Monster Orchestra. “Up Jumped The Devil” and his version of “Bourgie Bourgie” are All Time stunners.

I had no idea this brand was a real person:

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2023/02/03/fashion-designer-paco-rabanne-dies-aged-88_6014298_15.html

Or as Prince called him in "Movie Star": Paco Ra-binny

Melinda Dillon, Who Appeared in ‘A Christmas Story,’ ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ Dies at 83https://t.co/UkQnwZHe0L

— Variety (@Variety) February 3, 2023

Ah that's a shame. Those two performances alone are for all time.

And Magnolia! (I suspect I am the only remaining person who loves that film, but she is fantastic in her small role.)

honestly she was iconic, she had so many great roles and she was always so good

XPS...and also a shocking (if you know her mainly from her 'Mom' roles) appearance in Slap Shot.

She's the true star of Close Encounters

xpost "Oglethorpe?"

She's the true star of Close Encounters

No lies told.

Loved her in Close Encounters; she had a small but harrowing part in Absence of Malice, too, that the rest of the movie hinged on.

She had one of the great 'origin stories' in all of showbiz: she was a waitress at Second City who volunteered her service as an actress one night when Barbara Harris was sick--Dillon had memorized the whole act from the pit and was a sensation on stage, quickly earning a spot in the repertory company.

Man that is awesome.

Wow, I wouldn't have guessed she was nearly 40 in Close Encounters. Good genes!

she pulled off a good 'harried'

And _Magnolia_! (I suspect I am the only remaining person who loves that film, but she is fantastic in her small role.)

Don't watch this if you plan to watch the film someday, but here's the Absence of Malice scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpnobabM8ZY

The way she tilts her head as she gets up at the end is unforgettable.

she also played honey in the original production of ‘who’s afraid of virginia woolf?’

Wow, first role seems to have been in "The Cry of Jazz", also featuring Sun Ra and Arkestra members, whose concept of interstellar music maybe points the way to CE3K

Per my former neighbor who was in the band, Dr. Hook lead guitarist Bob "Willard" Henke a couple of days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Q6acCserQ

She's one of the great kooks of all-time in A Christmas Story -- crazier than her beloved sons! Seconding the admiration for her work in Close Encounters and Absence of Malice.

She deserved a higher profile, and plenty more roles than she got after her early era. She was so unflashy and understated and a born screen performer. From my small sample size of childhood films it seemed like she was everywhere.

She deserved a higher profile, and plenty more roles than she got after her early era.

Sorry, I can't resist: lord thunderin' Jesus, don't say that.

Seconding the admiration for her work in Close Encounters

Did a rewatch last night and was actually amazed in a good way she got a Supporting Actress nom for that -- not that she didn't deserve it, she absolutely did! But it's such a lived in and relentlessly unflashy role handled so well as opposed to a big performance; Spielberg didn't overburden the character with self exposition (is she a divorcee? a widower? neither? doesn't matter, she's just her and she has a young kid) and if Dreyfuss's character gets the lead nod by default, she is his equal in trying to figure out what is driving her, and maybe even more so in that the music (via Barry) is more a part of it for her than it is for Dreyfuss.

Not that I remember Julia all that well 45 years later, but my recollection is that it was slow, stodgy, and not all that interesting; can't believe that Vanessa Redgrave deserved the AA more than Dillon. (Did lead to a memorable speech from Redgrave.)

Charles Kimbrough, Sondheim vet & TV's "Jim Dial" on Murphy Brown

https://www.theatermania.com/los-angeles-theater/news/charles-kimbrough-company-broadway-obituary_94839.html?

^^also perfectly cast as a HUAC panel head in The Front.