Robin Williams

Very sad news yesterday…

Robin Williams -- who first made America laugh and eventually touched "every element of the human spirit" in a remarkable range of performances -- died at his Northern California home Monday. Williams apparently took his own life, law enforcement officials said. He was 63.

President Barack Obama's statement sent from the White House summed it up:

"Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien -- but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most -- from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets."

He was a multi-talented man who brought a lot of laughter and smiles to the world. So sad that he couldn't find his way out of his depression…it's really an awful disease.

He will be very missed.

Never too old

Two new movie trailers were released today that feature starring roles for a couple of the funniest people of the past 50 years, Lily Tomlin and Robin Williams (in his final role).

Here's Lily Tomlin in Grandma...



Here's Robin Williams in Boulevard



Both movies look good in very different ways and I'm sure each of their performances will be entertaining (although Robin's looks like it's gonna be a bit darker/sadder).

I'll likely try to see each of them whenever they get released. After all of the summer blockbusters, it's always nice to watch a quietly entertaining movie focusing on people rather than things blowing up every 10 minutes.

Jonathan Winters

 

Very sad news over the weekend...

Jonathan Winters, the wildly inventive actor and comedian who appeared in such films as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Loved One" and played Robin Williams' son on the TV show "Mork & Mindy," has died. He was 87. 

Though he never had a breakout starring role, over the years his appearances on TV shows made him a beloved figure in the entertainment world. He was a favorite guest on "The Tonight Show" -- particularly in the early '60s when Jack Paar hosted it -- and turned up on the game show "The Hollywood Squares," Dean Martin's celebrity roasts and countless variety shows. 



He told the Archive of American Television about the creation of his character Maude Frickert, the sarcastic old lady, who came from a relative he had. "I decided, having seen a lot of older people, that many of them are shelved -- put in retirement homes to rot," he said. "I decided to (be) a hip old lady" -- one who had a wicked sense of humor, the kind of person who was married 12 times and cracked a whip in a ward of cardiac patients. 



He had a regular role on the final season of "Mork & Mindy", putting him together with Williams, who played the space visitor Mork from Ork. Winters played Mearth, Mork's son, who -- having hatched from a giant egg -- was the size of an adult but had the mind of a child. 

I remember him from numerous talk show appearances and, of course, from Mork and Mindy (which I never missed). He was a very funny man...very quick-witted.

He will be missed.

Penny Marshall

Very sad news today...

Penny Marshall, who went from starring on the smash Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley to helming such features including Big and A League of Their Own, died Monday night of diabetes complications at her home in the Hollywood Hills. She was 75. 

Laverne & Shirley was an out-of-the-box smash after its premiere in January 1976 on ABC. The characters appeared briefly on Happy Days — which was created by her brother Garry Marshall — but made enough of an impression to lead their own series. Also starring Cindy Williams, the midcentury-set sitcom about a pair of lower-class workers at Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee would finish as the No. 3 series in all of primetime for the 1975-76 season, far outpacing Happy Days. 

Marshall directed a handful of Laverne & Shirley episodes, setting up a second career behind the camera. Her breakthrough was 1988’s Big, which earned the first Best Actor Oscar nom for rising actor Tom Hanks. The film made more than $115 million domestically, becoming the year’s fourth-biggest grosser. Marshall followed that success with the Robert De Niro-Robin Williams film Awakenings (1990) before scoring another $100 million-plus hit with A League of Their Own, about the World War II-era all-women’s baseball league.

Laverne & Shirley is one of my all-time favorite shows (and I've watched a LOT of TV). I liked it so much I even had this album...



It was a show that brought me a lot of joy and laughter at the time and Penny Marshall was a big part of that. She was also a great director and really had a wonderful career over the years.

She will be missed very much. 

Koko

Very sad news today...

Koko, the gorilla whose apparent aptitude for sign language endeared her to fans around the world, died in her sleep on Tuesday morning in California, according to the Gorilla Foundation, which oversaw her care. She was 46. 

Koko became an instant celebrity in her youth thanks to an early facility with American Sign Language. That fame was bolstered over the years as Koko, a western lowland gorilla, charmed entertainers like Fred Rogers and Robin Williams as well as their audiences. 

By the age of 4, Koko had developed a vocabulary of more than 170 words and showed an ability to use language creatively. Koko’s language skills earned her a spot on the cover of National Geographic in 1978 and 1985, and she was the subject of many documentaries. By the time of her death, Koko’s vocabulary had ballooned to more than 2,000 words.

I think just about everyone on the planet has heard of or seen at least an article or documentary about Koko over the years.

What an amazing life she had.

Before they were stars

Every actor has to start out somewhere (Ryan Gosling in Young Hercules) and, as you'll see by these videos, their roles were not always as glamorous as they are today (Ryan Gosling now).



So, take a little trip back in time to see some of your favorite actors featured in roles that, although likely not their brightest moments, got them to where they are today.

This first compliation features: Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Jeff Goldblum, Clint Eastwood, James Franco, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Jason Bateman and Chevy Chase.



The second features: Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Steve Buscemi, Paul Newman, Robin Williams, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Gosling, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Katie Holmes. 




Lots of interesting hair-dos and retro clothes that almost make Jeggings not seem quite so bad.

via: Gawker

Death by cake

The first full trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was released today...



I have to be honest, as much as I love me some Dwayne Johnson and Nick Jonas, I had no desire to see this movie when I heard it was being made. It just seemed like a cheap reach (with Robin Williams having died) to make a quick buck off of the previous film.

However...this trailer looks fun and actually made me laugh a couple of times.

Well played, marketing folks.

We'll see how I feel about it when it opens on December 20th.

Garry Marshall

Some very sad news last night...

Garry Marshall, a giant of TV comedy whose long list of credits include such landmark series as Happy Days, The Odd Couple and The Dick Van Dyke Show, has died. He was 81. 

He also helmed 18 feature films including Pretty Woman, and had acting credits dating to the 1960s. 

Marshall also co-created and wrote such classic 1970s comedies as Happy Days spinoffs Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. The former co-starring his sister Penny Marshall was the No. 1 primetime series in back-to-back seasons, and the latter made a star of Robin Williams. With those and Happy Days, the Bronx native had a hand in creating, writing and producing three of the four top-rated TV series of 1978-79. 



During the 1970s and ’80s, Marshall also co-created and/or wrote for and directed sitcoms Blansky’s Beauties, Angie, Makin’ It, The Brian Keith Show, The New Odd Couple, Me and the Chimp and yet another Happy Days spinoff in Joanie Loves Chachi. Marshall already was a veteran of the TV comedy game by the 1970s, having written multiple episodes of such series as Make Room for Daddy, The Joey Bishop Show, The Lucy Show and Love, American Style. He also penned 18 episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show‘s final season. 



Marshall directed the 1990 smash comedy Pretty Woman, which made a star of Julia Roberts. He would direct her again in Runaway Bride (1999) and his recent holiday-themed films Mother’s Day — which opened in April — and Valentine’s Day. His other film directing credits include the Michelle Pfeiffer-Al Pacino drama Frankie & Johnny (see photo below), Beaches, Overboard, The Princess Diaries, The Flamingo Kid and Young Doctors in Love.

I think I've watched just about every series and movie that he ever worked on over the years. His projects always seemed to have an element of fun and usually left you smiling at the end.

That is a pretty amazing legacy to leave behind.

He will be missed.

Mike Nichols

Very sad news today…

Legendary film and theater director, writer and producer Mike Nichols has passed away. He was 83.

An Oscar winner for 1967′s seminal The Graduate, he also was nominated for such films as Working Girl, Silkwood and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? For his stage work, he amassed 10 Tony Awards including as director for such plays as Barefoot In The Park, The Odd Couple, The Prisoner Of Second Avenue and Death Of A Salesman; and as producer of Annie and The Real Thing. 

His TV credits include exec producing classic 1970s drama series Family and directing and exec producing HBO drama Angels In America. 

Nichols was married to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. 

The list of actors with whom Nichols worked on stage and screen is a who’s who of Hollywood, past and present. They include (in no particular order) Julie Christie, Lillian Gish, George C Scott, Richard Dreyfuss, Morgan Freeman, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Emma Thompson, John Travolta, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman, Christopher Walken, John Goodman, Kevin Kline, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ron Silver, Anne Bancroft, Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. 

He was a great director and I loved his HBO production of Angels in America.

He will be missed.

The Butler

Oprah's first movie since 1998's Beloved, released it's first trailer...

The movie's story is inspired by Wil Haygood’s Washington Post article about a black man who served as White House butler to eight presidents over three decades. Winfrey plays the wife of Whitaker's character, the title role of butler Cecil Gaines. 



The all-star cast also includes Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, Minka Kelly as Jackie Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower, Melissa Leo as Mamie Eisenhower, Orlando Eric Street as Barack Obama and Nelsan Ellis as Martin Luther King Jr. Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, David Oyelowo, Vanessa Redgrave and Alex Pettyfer also are among the ensemble.

It's got a pretty amazing cast and the director of Precious, so odds are there will be a lot of Oscar buzz about this way before it actually comes out on October 18th.

If Oprah gets nominated, will she have to interview herself during her annual Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special?

If anyone knows how to interview Oprah...it's Oprah.