In Memorium (Joe Flaherty Dies: ‘SCTV’ And ‘Freaks And Geeks’ Actor Was 82)

joey con carne wrote:Norm MacDonald died. Nine-year battle with cancer. Sad news for sure. Dang, I liked his work. His deadpan comedy was fun to watch.

Rusty wrote:God damn. I was watching some of his standup on YouTube over the weekend. Dude was funny as fuck.

WyldeMan wrote:

With all the countless movies and tv show appearances of his over the years, SNL was probably the closest I've ever gotten to seeing Norm's stand-up. Have you been a long time fan of his or did you randomly just land on some Norm stand-up?

Macdonald’s producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra told Deadline that the 61-year-old Macdonald didn’t even tell family and friends because he “never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’”

Sex and the City star Willie Garson has died. He was 57.

The actor died on Tuesday afternoon following a short illness, PEOPLE confirms. Garson had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, and was surrounded by family at the time of his death.

Garson played Stanford Blatch, the best friend of Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, in HBO's Sex and the City and its spinoff movies. He is set to appear in the upcoming reboot, And Just Like That... .

He was photographed on the New York set of the spinoff with Parker, 56, and Mario Cantone, who played Garson's on-screen husband Anthony Marentino.

Cantone shared a tribute to Garson on Instagram, saying he is "devastated" by his costar's death.

"I couldn't have had a more brilliant TV partner. I'm devastated and just overwhelmed with Sadness," Cantone wrote. "Taken away from all of us way soon. You were a gift from the gods sweet Willie. Rest …I love you."

After the original series wrapped in 2004, Garson continued his career performing in TV shows including John from Cincinnati, White Collar, Whole Way Down and Hawaii Five-O, in addition to several movies.

He was last active on social media on September 4, tweeting, "BE KIND TO EACH OTHER......ALWAYS. LOVE TO ALL. APRROACH [sic] KINDNESS."

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Garson's son Nathen shared a heartbreaking tribute to his dad on Instagram Tuesday, calling him "the toughest and funniest and smartest person I've known."

"I love you so much papa. Rest In Peace and I'm so glad you got to share all your adventures with me and were able to accomplish so much," Nathen wrote alongside a carousel of photos of Garson. "I'm so proud of you."

"I will always love you, but I think it's time for you to go on an adventure of your own," Nathen continued. "You'll always be with me. Love you more than you will ever know and I'm glad you can be at peace now. You always were the toughest and funniest and smartest person I've known. I'm glad you shared you're love with me. I'll never forget it or lose it "

Tyger wrote:Aw damn, he was one of those guys that popped up in a lot of random things and was always a highlight.

Emmy-winning actor Peter Scolari, known for his work on Bosom Buddies and Newhart, died Friday at the age of 66 following a battle with cancer, TVLine has confirmed.

After appearing on series like the short-lived ABC sitcom Goodtime Girls, Scolari’s long TV career truly began with ABC’s Bosom Buddies (1980-82), where he co-starred as Henry Desmond (aka Hildegarde) opposite Tom Hanks’ Kip Wilson (aka Buffy). Two years after Bosom Buddies ended, Scolari followed that up with an Emmy-nominated turn as TV producer Michael Harris on Newhart, which earned him three consecutive nods for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Scolari ultimately took home Emmy gold for his guest role on HBO’s Girls, playing Tad Horvath, the father of Lena Dunham’s Hannah. “The shyest extrovert, the most dramatic comedian, the most humble icon,” Dunham wrote to describe her TV dad on Instagram. “You had lived enough life to know that a TV show was just a TV show, but also to appreciate just what it meant to be allowed to play pretend for a living — and you never let us forget that this job was a privilege.”

His considerable résumé also included appearances on Ally McBeal, White Collar, Reba, The West Wing, ER, Blue Bloods and Gotham, among many others. Most recently, he recurred on the CBS-turned-Paramount+ horror drama Evil, portraying Bishop Thomas Marx in multiple Season 1 and Season 2 episodes. (His last appearance, in the installment “I Is for IRS,” just occurred on Sept. 26; read co-creator Robert King’s tribute here.)

The actor was also a veteran of the stage, appearing in Broadway shows such as Wicked, Hairspray and the play Sly Fox. The 2013 Nora Ephron play Lucky Guy reunited Scolari with Hanks, who starred as journalist Mike McAlary.

James Michael Tyler, best known for his recurring role as Central Perk manager Gunther on Friends, died Sunday morning following a years-long battle with Stage 4 prostate cancer, the actor’s rep confirmed to TVLine. He was 59 years old.

“The world knew him as Gunther (the seventh “Friend”), but Michael’s loved ones knew him as an actor, musician, cancer-awareness advocate and loving husband,” his family and long-time manager wrote in a statement. “Michael loved live music, cheering on his Clemson Tigers, and would often find himself in fun and unplanned adventures. If you met him once you made a friend for life.”

Warner Bros. Television took to Twitter to mourn the loss of Tyler, calling him “a beloved actor and integral part of our Friends family. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues and fans.”

Tyler revealed his cancer diagnosis on June 21 during an interview with Today‘s Craig Melvin (see below). “In September of 2018, I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, which had spread to my bones,” he said at the time. The cancer had been discovered during a routine physical when he was 56 years old.

He had been treated with hormone therapy, but took a turn for the worse at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. According to Today, his cancer had mutated, causing fractures in his bones and tumors up and down his spine. He was paralyzed from the waist down, and as a result chose to appear virtually during May’s Friends reunion on HBO Max.

“I didn’t want it to be like, ‘Oh, Gunther has cancer,’ you know what I mean?” he told Melvin. Asked if any of his former co-stars knew about his prognosis, Tyler answered, “Yes… David Schwimmer has corresponded with me via Instagram, the producers are all aware [and have been] aware for a long time.”

All told, Tyler appeared in 148 episodes of Friends. Gunther famously pined for onetime Central Perk waitress Rachel Greene, and finally admitted his feelings for her in the NBC sitcom’s 2004 finale.

Following Friends‘ run, Gunther reunited with Matt LeBlanc on Showtime’s Hollywood satire Episodes. Additional TV credits included episodes of Just Shoot Me!, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Scrubs.

Veteran actor Dean Stockwell, best known for playing Admiral ‘Al’ Calavicci opposite Scott Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett in NBC’s sci-fi dramedy Quantum Leap, died Sunday of natural causes. He was 85.

Airing from March 1989 to May 1993, Quantum Leap starred Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who in testing out a time travel theory “leapt” into the body of an Air Force pilot 50 years in the past. In trying to return home, Sam realized he could only randomly leap into other people, in other times. Stockwell played Sam’s womanizing, cigar-smoking hologram of a BFF/companion.

The role of Admiral ‘Al’ Calavicci earned Stockwell four Emmy Award nominations for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as one Golden Globe award.

He later recurred as Brother Cavil in Syfy’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009). Additional TV credits included JAG and 1998’s short-lived Tony Danza Show.

Born in North Hollywood in 1936, Stockwell was on Broadway by the time he was age 7, and his career as a child star began. As a child actor of the 1940s, his credits included the films Song of the Thin Man, The Boy with Green Hair, Kim and Gentleman’s Agreement (for which he won a Golden Globe).

His later big-screen credits included David Lynch’s Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986), as well as To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), The Player (1992) and Air Force One (1997). Stockwell scored an Oscar nomination for his supporting performance in the 1998 comedy Married to the Mob.

Stockwell is survived by his wife, Joy, and their two children, Austin and Sophie.

Tyger wrote:He did have a stroke years ago though

joey con carne wrote:Bob Saget died. 65 years old.

Tyger wrote:Man, I grew up on Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos, I loved learning about the real Bob Saget after his cameo in Half Baked and full circle I loved him on Fuller House.

Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters and Twins, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday at the age of 75. His family confirmed the news to the AP.

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” children Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman, and Caroline Reitman said in a joint statement to the outlet.

The statement continues, “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia on October 27, 1946, but Toronto would become his home at the age of 4. His family moved to Canada where a relative was already established.

His big break came in 1978 when he produced National Lampoon’s Animal House which he followed up with a directing gig in Meatballs a year later. That opened the doors for him in comedy, landing producing and directing gigs in Stripes, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Dave, Space Jam, and No Strings Attached.

But his biggest hit would be the supernatural hit comedy, Ghostbusters in 1984, starring Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who penned the screenplay, and Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Annie Potts. It was the second highest-grossing film of the year following Beverly Hills Cop.

The film earned two Academy Award nominations: Best Original Song for “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker, and Best Visual Effects.

He followed that up with a sequel, Ghostbusters II, five years later also as director and producer.

It would take more than three decades for the franchise’s third installment Ghostbuster: Afterlife, released in 2021. Reitman produced and Jason directed.

He also revisited the Space Jam franchise last year, serving as producer of A New Legacy starring LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Zendaya.

Deadline revealed exclusively in September plans for a sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Twins that was to be called Triplets, starring Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and the newly added Tracy Morgan in the role of their long lost sibling. Reitman was set to direct and produce.

Sally Kellerman, whose long career was best known for her portrayal of U.S. Army Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s classic film MASH, died today of dementia complications at an assisted-living facility in Woodland Hills, CA. She was 84.

Kellerman’s career lasted more than 60 years and spanned several aspects of show business. In addition to the film MASH (the TV series was abbreviated M*A*S*H), she was in a number of Altman films, including Brewster McCloud, Ready to Wear, The Player and the Altman-produced Welcome to L.A.

Her résumé includes such films as Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Slither, The April Fools, A Reflection of Fear and Back to School, as well as television shows Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and The Outer Limits.

In addition to acting, Kellerman recorded two music albums and contributed songs to the soundtracks for Brewster McCloud, Lost Horizon, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, and Boris and Natasha: The Movie.

Her smoky, sensual voice also saw her do voice-over work in commercials for such brands as Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing, Mercedes-Benz and Revlon.

In April 2013, she released her memoir, Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life, describing her life in the entertainment business.

Kellerman was born on June 2, 1937, in Long Beach, CA, and her family moved to Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley when she was in fifth grade. The Kellermans moved to the Park La Brea complex in Los Angeles, and Sally Kellerman attended Hollywood High School. While she was not a great student, she acted in a school production of Meet Me in St. Louis.

She attended Los Angeles City College and enrolled in acting classes, then joined a stage production of Look Back in Anger that featured Jack Nicholson, Dean Stockwell and Robert Blake.

Her first film was 1957’s Reform School Girl. She went on to spend most of the 1960s in various television appearances, with her big break arriving in 1970 via MASH. She earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Helen Hayes won for Airport), as well as nominations for a Golden Globe and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actress.

Kellerman was married to writer-director Rick Edelstein (Starsky & Hutch), divorcing after two years. She married producer Jonathan D. Krane in 1980, who predeceased her.

Survivors include her son, Jack Krane. No memorial plans have been revealed.

William Hurt, who often played a quiet intellectual in his early acting roles, but later took more strident turns in science fiction and Marvel films, has died just a week before his 72nd birthday.

William Hurt’s son, Will, posted today that his father has died. It was announced in May 2018 that the elder Hurt had terminal prostate cancer that had spread to the bone.

“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.”

Hurt had three consecutive Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor in the mid-1980s. These included Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). He won for Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Hurt was also an active stage actor during the 1980s, appeared in Off-Brodway productions and receiving his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly.

His debut film role was in 1980, playing a scientist in the science fiction thriller Altered States, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. From there, he played a memorable role as the lawyer seduced by Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat (1981). Kasdan cast Hurt again in 1983 as part of the ensemble in The Big Chill. He then appeared in the role of Arkady Renko in Gorky Park.

Hurt often worked with top-tier directors. His first five films were helmed by Ken Russell, Peter Yates, Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Apted and Héctor Babenco. He went on to work on two more films with Kasdan — The Accidental Tourist and I Love You to Death — as well as projects with James L. Brooks, Woody Allen, Gregory Nava, Wim Wenders, Anthony Minghella, Wayne Wang, Nora Ephron, Franco Zeffirelli, Carl Franklin, István Szabó, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Ridley Scott, Anthony and Joe Russo and many more.

Hurt earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance in Cronenberg’s crime thriller A History of Violence (2005).
His career continued with such films as A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Village, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, Mr. Brooks, Into the Wild, and Robin Hood.

In 2014, Hurt was on the scene of one of the worst on-set accidents in recent history. He was starring as Gregg Allman in Randall Miller’s biopic, Midnight Rider, when a train smashed into the set on a trestle in rural Georgia, killing camera assistant Sarah Jones and injuring several others. Hurt was on the trestle but unharmed.

The actor later said he repeatedly expressed concern that cast and crew, loaded with gear, were safe on the trestle should a train come and was assured by AD Hillary Schwartz that they were.

“It’s the sorrow of my professional life and one of the great sorrows of my personal life,” Hurt later said. “It was simply impossible to imagine anything like that could happen. The one other thing I could have done was say, ‘This isn’t good enough for me, I’m walking off the set.’ But it was our very, very first day with a crew that had worked together before.”

Shortly after the accident, director/producer Miller attempted to move forward with the production, but Hurt quit rather than return to the film.

Miller, Jay Sedrish, and Schwartz were all convicted of criminal trespassing and involuntary manslaughter in her death. Sedrish and Schwartz only got probation. Miller got two years in jail and eight years probation.

To younger fans, Hurt was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in his role as the blustering Thaddeus Ross, a General who was there on the fateful day Bruce Banner became the Hulk. The Ross character appeared in five Marvel films, including The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow, as well as the Marvel One-Shot The Consultant and the Disney+ animated series What If…?, the latter voiced by Mike McGill.

Hurt was born March 20, 1950 in Washington, DC. His father was part of the US Agency for International Development, a role which saw the family move to Lahore, Mogadishu and Khartoum. His parents divorced, and his mother married Henry Luce III, son of publisher Henry Luce.

He went on to attend Tufts University, where he studied theology. But the acting bug bit him, and he joined the Juilliard School’s drama division, where he spent four years immersed among such future stars as Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve.

Starting in 1977, Hurt was a member of the Circle Repertory Company, winning an Obie Award for his appearance in Corinne Jacker’s My Life. He had a broad resume in theater, winning a 1978 Theatre World Award for his multiple performances in Fifth of Jul, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu.

Hurt is survived by four children. No memorial details have been revealed.

Tyger wrote:I think his family should be taking it well though. They’re used to being Hurt.

Paul Herman, the character actor best known for his role as club owner Peter “Beansie” Gaeta in “The Sopranos,” died Tuesday. His “Sopranos” co-star Michael Imperioli confirmed the news in an Instagram. He was 76. A cause of death has not been announced.

“Paulie was just a great dude,” Imperioli wrote in his Instagram post. “A first class storyteller and raconteur and one hell of an actor. Goodfellas, Once Upon a Time in America , The Irishman and of course The Sopranos are some highlights. Paulie lived around the corner from me the last few years and i am glad we got to spend some time together before he left us. I’ll miss him. Lots of love to his family, friends and our community of actors and filmmakers.”

Herman’s first film credit was in “Dear Mr. Wonderful,” a 1982 comedy film starring Joe Pesci. Over the next two decades, he would consistently appear in several high-profile films, many of which were mob or crime films such as “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “The Cotton Club,” “Big,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Heat” and “Analyze That.” He also had guest roles in several television shows, including “The Equalizer” and “Miami Vice.” Herman was a prolific collaborator of Martin Scorsese, first working with the director in the 1986 sports drama “The Color of Money.” He would appear in many other movies by Scorsese over the years, including “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Goodfellas” and “Casino.” and “The Irishman,” his last film credit.

Herman would appear in five episodes of “The Sopranos” as Beansie, a former drug dealer and associate of the DiMeo crime family. He joined the show for a three-episode arc in Season 2, and made guest appearances in Season 4 and Season 6. In his most famous scene from the show, Beansie was viciously attacked by his former friend Richie Aprile (David Proval), who throws a pot of coffee on him and runs him over with a car.

After “The Sopranos,” Herman had a recurring role on “Entourage” as Marvin, the accountant of main character Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier). He also had notable supporting parts in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” In 2019, he would reunite with Scorsese for his final role in “The Irishman,” in which he played mobster Whispers DiTullio.

Fred Ward, a prolific actor best known for roles in The Right Stuff, Tremors, Miami Blues, True Detective and many others, died May 8. He was 79.

His death was announced by his publicist. No cause or place of death was disclosed.

Ward, a San Diego native, began his professional career with small roles in 1970s episodic television before making a strong impression in his breakthrough film Southern Comfort, directed by Walter Hill and released in 1981. Two years later, he’d star as astronaut Gus Grissom in the hit film The Right Stuff.

Featured roles would quickly follow, including in such films as Silkwood, Swing Shift, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Tremors, Henry & June, the Robert Altman movies The Player and Short Cuts Errol Morris’ The Dark Wind and Michael Apted’s Thunderheart. He starred in and exec-produced the 1990 film Miami Blues, directed by George Armitage and co-starring Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

On television, he starred in the miniseries Invasion Earth and Dice, and guest-starred in Grey’s Anatomy, ER, United States of Tara, Leverage, True Detective and others.

Ward is survived by wife Marie-France Ward and son Django.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I've seen him in a couple of stuff. RIP

James Caan, who scored an Oscar nom as mafioso Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and an Emmy nom for playing NFL running back Brian Piccolo in Brian’s Song among a host of big film and TV roles including Elf and Las Vegas, died Wednesday night. He was 82. His family confirmed the news on Caan’s Twitter page.

“It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6,” the tweet reads. “The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

After a decade in the business, Caan shot to fame in the early 1970s with back-to-back signature roles. He earned an Emmy nom as the real-life cancer-stricken Chicago Bears back Brian Piccolo in ABC’s Brian’s Song, alongside Billy Dee Williams as fellow Bears running back Gale Sayers. It was the most-watched TV movie ever at that point, with a 32.9 rating/48 share and went on to win five Emmys including Outstanding Single Program – Drama or Comedy.

Caan followed that success with his best-known role: the hotheaded, turbulent Sonny Corleone, eldest son of Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The film based on Mario Puzo’s bestseller won the Best Picture Oscar and is considered among the greatest movies of all time. Caan’s onscreen death amid a hail of bullets also is considered among cinema’s best.

Those roles sent Caan into Hollywood’s stratosphere, and he followed up with star turns in such films as Slither, Freebie and the Bean, Funny Lady, Rollerball, A Bridge Too Far, Chapter Two, Hide in Plain Sight, Misery, Honeymoon in Vegas, Mickey BLue Eyes, Elf and many more. He also appeared in Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie and Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.

Caan was in production on several films at the time of his death including hitman thriller Fast Charlie, directed by Philip Noyce; Tom Burruss’ Redemption; and André Gordon’s Acre Beyond the Rye.

Born on March 26, 1940 in The Bronx, Caan got his acting start guesting on such popular 1960s TV series as Route 66, The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Wagon, Death Valley Days and Get Smart! Amid all his big-screen success, he would return to TV often during his 60-year career. He toplined the 2003-08 NBC drama Las Vegas, playing a hard-driving ex-CIA agent who runs security at a glamorous casino resort. Josh Duhamel and Nikki Cox also starred.

More recently, Caan recurring as a Chicago mob boss in Starz’s 2012-13 crime drama Magic City, opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I didn't think he was that old. RIP

Tony Sirico, the actor known for playing mobster Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri on “The Sopranos,” died Friday, Variety confirmed with his manager. He was 79.

Virico’s Paulie Walnuts, a bombastic and ferociously funny foot soldier to James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano with one-liners like no one else, was a “Sopranos” scene-stealer from the start. Sirico balanced Paulie’s menace with his deadpan humor, and his penchant for malapropisms, once calling Sun Tzu “Sun Tuh-Zoo,” later referring to the philosopher as the “Chinese Prince Matchabelli.” Sirico appeared on all six seasons of “The Sopranos,” after he initially auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior. Dominic Chianese ultimately landed that part.

Born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. on July 24, 1942 to an Italian family in New York City, Sirico spent much of his early life getting into trouble with the law, and has been associated with the real-life Colombo crime family. He was arrested 28 times — first as a 7-year-old after he stole nickels from a newsstand — before getting into acting. He went to prison twice, once after being charged for possessing an illegal weapon, and again for armed robbery.

“I was very unstable,” Sirico told the LA Times in 1990 about that time in his life. “I wasn’t thinking right. So I hooked up with these guys and all of a sudden I’m a stick-up artist. I stuck up every nightclub in New York.”

“I gotta admit I feel funny when somebody will spot me and ask for an autograph,” he continued. “I think it’s that old guilt. Maybe I feel like I don’t deserve the attention.”

He made his acting debut as an extra in the 1974 mobster drama “Crazy Joe” alongside Henry Winkler. That film preceded Sirico’s countless later roles as gangsters and criminals, from Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” in 1990 to Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway” in 1994. Sirico appeared in a number of Allen’s films, including “Café Society” in 2016 and “Mighty Aphrodite” in 1995.

In 1989, Sirico appeared in the documentary “The Big Bang,” in which he discussed his criminal past and how it affected his philosophy on life. In 2013, he appeared in a few episodes of “Family Guy” as the voice of Vinny Griffin, the family dog. His most recent acting appearance was on two episodes of “American Dad” as a mobster named Enzo Perotti.

Sirico’s manager, Bob McGowan called him “a very loyal and great client” who “would always help people in need. He was member of the wounded warriors.”

In an Instagram post, Sirico’s “Sopranos” co-star Michael Imperioli wrote, “It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great TONY SIRICO has passed away today. Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good. And we had a lot of laughs.

He continued, “We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony. I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. Heartbroken today.”

On Facebook, Sirico’s family wrote that they are “deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayer and condolences and requests that the public respect its privacy in this time of bereavement.”

​According to his family’s post, Sirico is survived by his two children, Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, as well as grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

L.Q. Jones, a veteran character actor whose resume included more than 60 screen credits in film and many television appearances, died of natural causes Saturday at his home in Hollywood. He was 94 and his death was confirmed by his grandson, Erté deGarces, as cited in multiple news reports.

Born Justice Ellis McQueen on Aug. 19, 1927 in Beaumont, Texas, he took his stage name from his first film role in the 1955 Raoul Walsh film, Battle Cry.

His film roles included parts in Don Siegel’s An Annapolis Story, Mervyn LeRoy’s Toward the Unknown, and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

He also appeared in Martin Campbell’s The Mask of Zorro, Roland Emmerich’s The Patriot, and Martin Scorsese’s Casino.

On television, he specialized in westerns, appearing on Gunsmoke, The Virginian and Bonanza.

Beyond acting, he produced, directed and wrote the 1975 feature A Boy and His Dog, a post-apocalyptic black comedy.

Survivors include sons Randy McQueen and Steve Marshall, and daughter Mindy McQueen.

joey con carne wrote:Paul Sorvino passed away. Just saw this news on my daily rag.

Henry Silva, who starred in Johnny Cool, fought Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate and was one of Sinatra’s fellow thieves in Ocean’s 11, among dozens of screen roles spanning a half-century, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 95.

An actor whose distinctive face often led to typecasting as the heavy, his 130-plus film and TV credits also include The Bravados, starring Gregory Peck (1958); Cinderfella, with Jerry Lewis (1960); the Rat Pack-led Western Sergeants 3 (1962); Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979); Love and Bullets with Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Rod Steiger (1979); the Burt Reynolds pics Sharky’s Machine (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1982); Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990); Steven Seagal’s first film Above the Law (1988); and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai with Forest Whitaker (1999).

Along with the title role opposite Elizabeth Montgomery in Johnny Cool (1963), Silva — who was fluent in Spanish and Italian — also starred in several European pics including The Return of Mr. Moto (1965), spaghetti Western The Hills Run Red (1966), Frame Up (1968) and the World War II thriller Probability Zero (1969), The Italian Connection (1972), The Boss (1973), Kidnap (1974) and Weapons of Death (1977).

He also was a familiar presence on TV, guesting on such classic series as Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, The F.B.I., Dr. Kildare, Wagon Train, The High Chaparral, It Takes a Thief and The Streets of San Francisco.
Sammy Davis Jr. and Silva in ‘Johnny Cool,’ 1963

Among Silva’s biggest roles was as Johnny Cool, a Sicilian outlaw-turned-assassin who is sent on a vengeance mission to America to eliminate his mentor’s enemies. As the body count mounts, he pairs up with a wealthy divorcée (Montgomery) who ultimately betrays him. The film’s big-name ensemble also included Rat Packers Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford, along with Telly Savalas, Jim Backus and Mort Sahl.

The pic’s trailer featured Davis’ character at a craps table talking to the camera: “You wanna know about Johnny Cool?” he asks. “Well, I usually judge a guy by the way he gambles. What I can say is this cat gambles real cool and only for the highest stakes — like your life. Anybody who meets Cool has got to be elusive. He’s a murder machine. No matter what number you owe, it comes up kill.”

But Silva might be best known for his key role in John Frankenheimer’s classic political thriller The Manchurian Candidate. He played a houseboy who doubled as a communist spy. His character, Chunjin, was attacked by Sinatra’s Marco in a brutal, intense, 90-second fight scene.

Silva appeared opposite Sinatra again in the 1977 TV movie Contract on Cherry Street, and his final credit was a bit role in the star-packed 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven.

In the 1990s, Silva voiced Bane in episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

Born on September 15, 1926, in Brooklyn, Silva got his start in Tennessee Williams’ 1953 Broadway show Camino Real, with a brief run. He then joined the Actors Studio, where Silva and classmates including Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters and Anthony Franciosa workshopped a show titled A Hatful of Rain. A grim tale about addiction in which Silva played a dealer named Mother, it became a 1955 Broadway play that ran for nearly a year. Silva and Franciosa reprised their roles for the 1957 film adaptation.

Silva was married three times and his survivors include his sons, Scott and Michael Silva.

Loretta Lynn, who rose from an impoverished childhood in Kentucky’s coal fields to become a pioneering female star of country music, has died. She was 90.

According to a statement from her family shared with Variety, Lynn died Tuesday in her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

Memorably portrayed in an Oscar-winning turn by Sissy Spacek in the 1980 biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (drawn from Lynn’s bestselling 1976 autobiography, co-authored by George Vecsey), Lynn was one of the first women to rise to stardom as a country vocalist.

She dominated the charts in the 1960s (when she was the top-charting femme country singer) and ’70s (when she was second only to Dolly Parton), ringing up 11 No. 1 country hits in her own right and another five chart-toppers with Conway Twitty, her regular duet partner of the ’70s. In all, she charted 51 top-10 country singles.

Unlike most of her contemporaries, she wrote a great deal of her material, beginning with her first chart hit, 1960’s “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” Beyond her pointed songs that addressed traditional honky-tonk themes like infidelity and divorce from the woman’s point of view (a rarity in country), she penned numbers that fearlessly essayed contemporary topics ranging from the Vietnam War to contraception.

Though the hits dried up for Lynn after the early ’80s, she remained a beloved and revered figure.

Lynn was widely believed to be the model for Barbara Jean, the sensitive and tragic fictional country star in Robert Altman’s 1975 ensemble film “Nashville,” set in Music City. Singer-actress Ronee Blakely received Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for her work in the role.

Though, like her movie doppelganger, Lynn was frequently sidetracked by illness throughout her career, she remained active as a concert performer and recording artist into the new millennium, and received a fresh boost as a septuagenarian.

In 2004, she recorded a new album, “Van Lear Rose,” with producer-guitarist Jack White of the White Stripes, that won two Grammys and exposed her to a new audience of young rock listeners.

She was born Loretta Webb in Butcher Holler, Ky., the second of eight children; her younger sister Brenda Gail also rose to fame as country star Crystal Gayle. Her father, a coal miner, later died from black lung disease.

At the age of 15, after enduring a life of grinding poverty, she married Army vet and local moonshiner Oliver Lynn (later known to the singer’s fans by his sobriquets “Doolittle” and “Mooney”). The couple left Kentucky for Washington state, where they raised four children together.

Encouraged by her husband-manager to take up the guitar and sing, Lynn began performing in local clubs, sometimes backed by her brother Jay Lee Webb. In Tacoma, she was discovered by Norm Burley, who operated the Vancouver-based independent label Zero Records.

“I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” Lynn’s first single for Zero, was recorded in Hollywood in February 1960 with a crack band that included steel guitarist Roy Lanham and pedal steel ace Speedy West. The song soared to No. 14 on the U.S. country chart and established Lynn as a hot new voice in country music.

After a stint as a demo artist and inhouse songwriter for the Wilburn Brothers’ publishing company, Lynn and her husband relocated to Nashville, where she was signed to country powerhouse Decca Records and placed under the tutelage of producer Owen Bradley.

Her No. 6 single “Success” in 1962 inaugurated a string of hits that made her, for a time, the only real rival to country’s lone established female star, Kitty Wells. (Lynn’s sole contemporaneous rival, fellow Bradley charge Patsy Cline, was killed in a plane crash in March 1963.)

Lynn’s hard-edged top-10 entries included “Before I’m Over You” (No. 4, 1963), “Wine Women and Song” and “Happy Birthday” (both No. 3, 1964) and the autobiographical “Blue Kentucky Girl” (No. 7, 1965, and a No. 6 cover hit in 1979 for Emmylou Harris). She was also memorably paired with her idol, Texas honky tonker Ernest Tubb, in a series of early singles.

She hit her stride in the late ’60s with several major hits, many of them self-penned, and some of them inspired by her oft-wayward husband. She began 1966 with the topical Vietnam song “Dear Uncle Sam” (No. 4) and the keen-edged “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (No. 2), then scored her first chart-topper that year with her highly personal composition “Don’t Come Home a’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” “Fist City” (1968) and “Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)” (1969) succeeded it at the pinnacle.

“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the autobiographical song that gave her memoir its title, reached No. 1 in 1970; her longest-running hit, “One’s On the Way” (No. 1 for 16 weeks), followed a year later.

That same year, Lynn was paired for the first time with Twitty, one of Decca’s established male hitmakers. Their 14 chart singles together included a run of five No. 1 duets in 1971-75: “After the Fire Is Gone” (a Grammy winner for best country duo/group performance), “Lead Me On,” “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” “As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone” and “Feelin’s.”

Lynn continued to score as a solo artist with memorable singles like the divorce-themed “Rated ‘X’” (No. 1, 1972), the controversial look at birth control “The Pill” (No. 5, 1975) and “She’s Got You” (a cover of the Patsy Cline hit) and “Out of My Head and Back in My Bed,” both of which reached No. 1 in 1977.

The critical and popular success of Michael Apted’s feature “Coal Miner’s Daughter” helped elevate her to legend status. But her sound grew increasingly out of sync with contemporary tastes, and she logged her last top 10 single, “I Lie,” in 1982.

She parted company with MCA Records in 1988 — fittingly, her last album for the label was a duet set with Twitty — and wouldn’t reappear solo on a major label for 16 years. However, she teamed with fellow stars Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette for the Columbia album “Honky Tonk Angels” in 1993.

Lynn busied herself as a live performer; she also operated a studio and museum at her Hurricane Mills, Tenn., home and sponsored an annual championship motocross race. In the early ’90s, she reined in her concert schedule to care for her ailing husband, who died in August 1996; the couple had been married for 48 years.

She began the new millennium with an album, “Still Country,” for the Nashville independent Audium Records. However, it wasn’t until she teamed with longtime admirer Jack White in 2004 at age 72 that she gained new attention and fresh respect. Sporting 13 new songs either written or co-written by Lynn, “Van Lear Rose” collected a Grammy in 2005 as best country album, while its single “Portland Oregon” drew the best country collaboration award for Lynn and White.

Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2003. She received Lifetime Achievement Award recognition from the Recording Academy in 2010.

Lynn’s late-career revival continued with the 2016 album “Full Circle,” co-produced by her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, son of Johnny Cash; it included duets with Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson. Other new albums followed, including “White Christmas Blue” (also in 2016), “Wouldn’t It Be Great” (2018) and the final new album released during her lifetime, “Still Woman Enough,” which featured vocal collaborations with Tanya Tucker, Margo Price, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood on remakes of some of her oldies along with some newer compositions. “Still Woman Enough” shares a title with a second autobiography she released in 2002.

She is survived by three daughters and a son. Another son, Jack, drowned accidentally in 1984, and daughter Betty Sue Lynn died in 2013. Lynn had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren. Several members of the family followed Loretta into singing, at least for a season. In the late 1990s, Lynn’s twin daughters Peggy and Patsy had a recording career as the Lynns, releasing an album on Reprise that spawned some charting singles. In 2021, granddaughter Tayla Lynn released an album, “Tayla Lynn Sings Loretta Lynn.”

Michael Kopsa, a Canadian actor whose roles on hits and cult-favorites like The X-Files, Highlander, Smallville and Stargate SG-1 made him an immediately recognizable TV presence, died Sunday, Oct. 23, of complications from a brain tumor. He was 66.

His death was announced on Twitter by his ex-wife, actor Lucia Frangione.

“The great Michael Kopsa, my dear friend and the father of my child, Nora, passed away Oct. 23, 2022, of a brain tumor,” she wrote yesterday. “He was an incredible stage and screen actor, voice actor, carpenter, musician and painter. Most importantly, he was a loving and richly present father.”

A Toronto native, Kopsa studied acting at New York’s Circle in the Square Theater School for four years in the mid-1980s. He subsequently returned to Canada to attend the University of Toronto. Throughout his career he would perform in series filmed or made in Toronto or Vancouver.

Among his earliest credits were voiceover work for such animated series as Mobile Suit Gundam and small in-person roles on the 1988 Mr. T series T and T.

By the mid-’90s he had booked roles on The Commish, Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, Highlander, and The X-Files. Subsequent credits include roles on Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Outer Limits, Beggars and Choosers, and, in the 2000s, Action Man and Galaxy Angel.

He recurred in two separate roles on Stargate SG-1, portraying a TV news anchor and General Kerrigan.

He voiced a couple roles on Dragon Ball Z, and, in 2001’s X-Men: Evolution, he voiced the character of Dr. Hank McCoy. In 2006 and 2007, he played Ray Ellis on Falcon Beach, and he played Captain Windmark in 2012’s Fringe, among many, many other roles.