In Memorium (Chad McQueen, ‘Karate Kid’ Actor, Dies at 63)

Musician Wilko Johnson, known to TV viewers as Ser Ilyn Payne on HBO’s Game of Thrones, died on Nov. 21. He was 75.

“This is the announcement we never wanted to make, and we do so with a very heavy heart: Wilko Johnson has died,” reads a message published to Johnson’s Twitter account on Wednesday. “He passed away at home on Monday 21st November. Thank you for respecting the family’s privacy at this very sad time. RIP Wilko Johnson.”

A cause of death was not given. Johnson was previously diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013, but recovered after undergoing extensive surgery.

Johnson appeared in four Game of Thrones episodes as Ser Ilyn Payne, a mute knight who had had his tongue removed. Ilyn Payne also executed the beloved Ned Stark in Season 1, earning him a spot on Arya Stark’s vengeful death list.

Aside from his stint on Thrones, Johnson had a robust musical career and was best known as a guitarist for the English pub rock band Dr. Feelgood.

Brad William Henke, a former NFL player who segued to acting and appeared in TV series including Orange Is the New Black, Justified and Lost and such films as Pacific Rim and World Trade Center, has died. He was 56. His family said Henke died in his sleep November 29, but no cause was given.

Born on April 10, 1966, in Columbus, NB, and raised in Littleton, CO, Henke played college football at the University of Arizona, where he was team captain and an All-Academic student journalist. Drafted by the New York Giants in 1989, he went on to play on the defensive line for the Denver Broncos and appeared in Super Bowl XXIV.

After injuries forced him to retire in 1994, Henke moved to Los Angeles to pursue coaching. An open call for “big guys” to do a commercial soon led to a new career. He began to score guest spots on such TV series as ER, Chicago Hope, Silk Stockings, Nash Bridges and Arli$$ and continued to work regularly until this year, racking up nearly 100 credits.

The actor landed his first major recurring role on the 2000-02 WB Network comedy Nikki, starring Nikki Cox, and was cast as a lead opposite Sam Trammell in Showtime’s road-trip dramedy Going to California, which lasted one season.

Along with more guest roles on series including CSI, Crossing Jordan and Judging Amy, Henke had small parts in a number of features during the early 2000s. He appeared in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Must Love Dogs, The Zodiac, North Country, World Trade Center and Hollywoodland before being cast on Showtime’s Dexter as Tony Tucci, a murder suspect-turned-near-victim who recurred in four episodes.

Henke got his second series-regular role on ABC’s short-lived 2007 drama October Road.

After that, he guested on such series as Law & Order, Life on Mars and CSI: Miami before being cast on ABC’s Lost as Bram, recurring on a half-dozen episodes in in 2009-10. Henke went on to play Coover Bennett in seven Season 2 episodes of FX’s Justified and did an arc on Fox’s 2011 Shawn Ryan drama The Chicago Code.

He also appeared in the feature Choke, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and shared a Special Jury Prize for its ensemble cast. Henke also did mid-2010s arcs on FX’s The Bridge and Prime Video’s Sneaky Pete. He then scored perhaps his best-known role.

Henke was cast in Jenji Kohan’s Showtime dramedy Orange Is the New Black as Desi Piscatella, a gay corrections officer at Litchfield Federal Penitentiary. He appeared in more than two dozen episodes from 2016-18 and shared a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2017. The cast was nominated again the following year.

Henke also recurred as Big John in the second season of Discovery’s Manhunt in 2020 and as Tom Cullen in CBS All Access’ The Stand in 2020-21. His other most recent credits include Law & Order: SVU and the 2022 films Block Party and Run & Gun.

Henke is survived by his mother, Tammy; his sister, Annette; his wife, Sonja; stepson Aaden; stepdaughter Leasa; and grandchild Amirah, hundreds of friends, fellow actors, and students. He was proceeded in death by his father, Bill, to whom he paid tribute with his professional name.

Source: Deadline

joey con carne wrote:I just read Kirstie Alley passed away from cancer. 71 years old.

Tyger wrote:To be fair, she was a toxic dump of a person

Parks and Recreation Scene Stealer Helen Slayton-Hughes Dead at 92

Helen Slayton-Hughes, a prolific character actress who played Ethel Beavers on Parks and Recreation, has died at the age of 92.

Slayton-Hughes’ family confirmed the news in a Facebook post: “To the friends and fans of our beloved Helen, Helen passed away last night. Her pain has ended but her fierce spirit lives on. Thank you for the love and support of her and her work.”

She got a late start in Hollywood, not earning her first film or TV credit until she was 50 years old. But she compiled an impressive resume of comedic roles, with appearances on New Girl, Arrested Development and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, along with dramas like The West Wing and NYPD Blue.

But she was best known as saucy court stenographer Ethel Beavers on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. She debuted in Season 3, going on to appear in 11 episodes, including the 2015 series finale, where Ethel confessed to a decades-long affair with the town’s newly deceased mayor.

Aubrey Plaza, who co-starred with Slayton-Hughes on Parks and Rec, shared a sweet tribute to the late actress on Instagram: “It was always Ethel Beavers. Always. Rest in Peace Helen. You were so loved and admired and I wanna be you when I grow up.”

UltimateMarvel wrote:Did you guys hear Stephen aka twitch killed himself? I was shocked to hear this news. I've seen him on the Ellen show and he always seemed like a happy person who loved dancing. Seeing the family he left behind, beautiful wife and cute kids......I couldn't believe it. His life seems perfect to me and it's just hard to understand how he could have felt this way.

RIP

UltimateMarvel wrote:Definitely not the best timing, the kids especially will always be haunted by it. I don't know how old they are now but if the older kids are in their teens, this is going to change them forever. You can't just tap out if you have a responsibility like that. It's really sad and he should have fought harder for them if nothing else.

WyldeMan wrote:The oldest is 14 and the two youngest are six and three. He abandoned babies and made his wife a widowed mother of three at only 34 years old...

Before the passing of Stephen “tWitch” Boss, HGTV had big plans for the popular dancer/personality and his wife/dancer Allison Holker. Besides developing their own show called Living the Dream that would help first time buyers find a home, the couple was scheduled to go into production on a limited series similar to the channel’s A Very Brady Renovation from 2019 — except in this case, the couple would oversee the construction of full-sized Malibu Barbie Dream House.

There was even talk at one point of finding a house in Malibu to renovate, but HGTV settled on a place in Santa Clarita. Filming was supposed to commence in January.

Boss died on Dec. 13.

“We are taking the time to consider different scenarios,” an HGTV spokesperson tells Deadline. “But for now, our primary focus remains on wishing our best to Allison and the entire Boss family during this difficult time.”

Boss and Holker had demonstrated an affinity for home renovation. In 2021, he served as a guest judge on HGTV’s Design Star: Next Gen, which was hosted by Holker. He and his wife also appeared on the channel’s House Party.

The Buchwald-repped duo had several other projects in the works. Boss and Holker were looking to launch their own variety/talk show, as well as a new dance competition show and a game show. The couple also began a partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2021 on a line of athletic and leisure wear.

Boss died at the age of 40 after a successful career serving as a deejay on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as well as a contestant-turned-judge on So You Think You Can Dance and a host of The Real Dirty Dancing. His previous gigs include small dancing roles in the 2007 films Blades of Glory and Hairspray, and performing on Dancing with the Stars in 2013. He was also cast in Magic Mike XXL.

Ellen DeGeneres Mourns Stephen “tWitch” Boss: “Pure Love And Light. He Was My Family”

Boss and Holker, a former pro on Dancing with the Stars, amassed a huge following on social media for their awe-inspiring dance videos.

joey con carne wrote:Crazy stuff. On the outside looking in you would think this guy has it made. Beautiful wife, beautiful kids, rich. Like Tyger said, you just never know what challenges people are going through.

UltimateMarvel wrote:It's very sad, she probably knew he was going through something but I don't think she knew  he would do this.

Stephan Bonnar, who helped launch the UFC into the mainstream with his fight against Forrest Griffin in the finals of the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show, died at age 45, the promotion announced Saturday.

Bonnar died of presumed heart complications while at work, according to the UFC.

Bonnar and Griffin were both inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2013. Their knockdown, drag-out fight on April 9, 2005, is regarded as one of the most important fights in the history of the promotion. "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series and that fight in particular were critical to landing and keeping the UFC on cable.

The drama of Griffin vs. Bonnar, with both men digging deep in a bloody brawl, has long been an example of what the sport of MMA can be, allowing it to form its own identity separate from other combat sports such as boxing. Griffin won the fight via unanimous decision to earn a six-figure UFC contract. But the fight was so good that UFC president Dana White awarded Bonnar a contract, as well.

"Stephan Bonnar was one of the most important fighters to ever compete in the Octagon," White told UFC.com on Saturday. "His fight with Forrest Griffin changed the sport forever, and he will never be forgotten. The fans loved him, related to him and he always gave them his best. He will be missed."

Bonnar, a native of Hammond, Indiana, but a longtime resident of Las Vegas, had not fought in MMA since a bout with Tito Ortiz under the Bellator banner in 2014, which headlined what at the time was the most watched Bellator event in its history. Bonnar last competed in the UFC in 2012, a loss to all-time great Anderson Silva. Before that bout, Bonnar was on a three-fight winning streak.

After his loss to Griffin in "The Ultimate Fighter" finals, Bonnar also went on a three-fight winning streak before falling to Rashad Evans, who would go on to become UFC light heavyweight champion. Griffin and Bonnar competed in a rematch of their classic fight in 2006, with Griffin winning again via unanimous decision. Griffin would also go on to win the UFC light heavyweight belt.

In his career, Bonnar faced seven future or former UFC champions: Griffin, Ortiz, Silva, Evans, Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida and Mark Coleman. Bonnar named his first son Griffin after his most significant rival, who went on to become a good friend.

Bonnar, who finished his career with a 15-9 record, also did color commentary over the years for the WEC promotion and worked several times as an MMA analyst for ESPN and Fox Sports.

Following his MMA career, Bonnar took up professional wrestling and made multiple appearances with Impact Wrestling in 2019.

Source: ESPN

Earl Boen, Actor in the ‘Terminator’ Films, Dies at 81

Earl Boen, the busy character actor best known for his stint as the criminal psychologist Peter Silberman in the Terminator film franchise, died Thursday in Hawaii, his daughter told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 81. 

Ruby Harbin said her dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in November and died quietly in his sleep.

Born on Aug. 8, 1941, Boen amassed dozens of credits during his career. In 1984, he landed his most notable role as Dr. Silberman in James Cameron’s The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. He reprised the role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).  

One memorable scene in the first Terminator saw the character interrogate Biehn’s Kyle Reese, a freedom fighter from the future that the psychologist believed suffered from paranoid delusions. Nearly 40 years later, Biehn recalled fondly his time working with Boen on the scene.

“He was a wonderful actor, and he was always fun to be around,” Biehn told THR, adding that Cameron “picked Earl because he was special.”

Boen’s other film credits include Battle Beyond the Stars, The Man With Two Brains, Alien Nation, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Sioux City, The Companion, To Be or Not to Be, Walk Like a Man and The Prince.

As for television, he made appearances in such shows as The Golden Girls, Who’s the Boss?, Mama’s Family, The Law and Harry McGraw, Webster, Matlock, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Boy Meets World.

After he retired from screen acting in 2003, he continued to work as a voice actor in radio, animated series and video games. Some of his credits in that arena include Mr. Bleakman in Clifford the Big Red Dog, Señor Senior Sr. in Kim Possible, LeChuck in the Tales of Monkey Island video games and the narrator in some World of Warcraft video games.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his second wife, Cathy, and grandchildren Kimmy and Kimo. His first wife, Carole, died in 2001. 

Source: THR

Lisa Marie Presley, the singer-songwriter and only child of Elvis Presley, died on Thursday after a medical emergency and a brief hospitalization. She was 54.

“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” Sam Mast, a representative for Priscilla Presley, said in a statement. “They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

Earlier in the day, Priscilla Presley said in a statement that her daughter had been receiving medical attention but did not share more information.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement on Thursday that it had responded to a call about a woman in Calabasas, Calif., who was “not breathing” but did not further specify the person’s condition. Her representative, Roger Widynowski, could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday night.

“Upon the deputies’ arrival, paramedics were performing CPR and assessing the patient’s status,” the authorities said. “They determined the patient had signs of life and immediately transported her to a local hospital for further medical care.”
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The daughter of one of the most celebrated artists in history, Ms. Presley followed the career path of her father, Elvis Presley. She released three albums in which she set out to distinguish her rock sound while also paying homage to the man who forever changed the American soundscape by blending blues, gospel, pop and country.

The enormous legacy of her father was a constant presence throughout her life. On Tuesday, she was again celebrating him at the Golden Globes, telling Extra TV that Austin Butler, who won the lead acting award for drama for his performance in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic “Elvis” on Tuesday, had perfectly captured the essence of her father.

“I was mind-blown, truly,” said Ms. Presley, who was 9 years old when her father died in 1977. “I actually had to take, like, five days to process it because it was so spot on and authentic.”

The father and daughter were extremely close, with Elvis once flying her out to Idaho after she said she had never seen snow. Her father named his 1958 Convair 880 private jet “the Lisa Marie.”

Ms. Presley owned Graceland, Elvis’ estate in Memphis, and her father’s artifacts. She also owned 15 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Her music career, however, never exploded as it had for her father. Still, his influence was evident in her songs and some lyrics. In her debut album from 2003, “To Whom It May Concern,” she sings in the bluesy, melancholic song “Lights Out” that “someone turned the lights out there in Memphis. That’s where my family’s buried and gone.”

Still, her last name had always enshrined her as a celebrity. And her star-studded relationships only deepened that perception.

From 1994 to 1996, she was married to Michael Jackson. Together, the pair — one the daughter of the king of rock ’n’ roll, the other regarded as the king of pop — attracted the glare of cameras and bountiful attention. In 2002, she married the actor Nicolas Cage, but the couple separated within a four-month period that same year.

Before Mr. Jackson, she married the musician Danny Keough in 1988. They separated after six years and had two children together, including the actress Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide at age 27 in 2020. In recent years, she was married to Michael Lockwood, with whom she had twin daughters, Finley Lockwood and Harper Lockwood. They divorced in 2021.

In a foreword of a book “The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain,” Ms. Presley wrote about her own struggle with addiction.

In a 2022 People magazine essay, Ms. Presley said that her life had been struck with death, grief and loss since her childhood, writing that the death of Mr. Keough had been a devastating blow to her and her three daughters.

“Grief does not stop or go away in any sense, a year, or years after the loss,” she said. “Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe.”

Al Brown, who played Col. Stan Valchek on the hit TV series The Wire, died Friday at 83. His talent manager announced the death on the official Facebook page for the late actor.

Brown’s daughter Jenny also told TMZ that her father died in Las Vegas from Alheimer’s disease complications.

“I am sad to let you know that angels came for Al yesterday morning, Friday, January 13, 2023,” the Facebook statement said. “May his memory be a blessing to his family, his friends, and each of you. This page will remain as a testimony to Al’s work and love for his fans.”

Brown also guest starred on TV shows such as Rescue Me, Forensic Files, Law & Order: SVU, Commander in Chief, and The Hustler.” He also had roles in the films The Replacements, 12 Monkeys, Lay the Favorite,Re d Dragon and Liberty Heights.

Before acting, he was a veteran who served two tours in Vietnam.

Survivors include his children. No memorial plans have been announced.

Rusty wrote:Holy shit. Anna Wersching has died of cancer at 45. She was in everything, as hot redheads should be. She was even the voice and motion capture of Tess in The Last of Us game.

Lisa Loring, who played the young Wednesday Addams on “The Addams Family” from 1964 to 1966 and also appeared in “As the World Turns,” died Saturday of a stroke, her daughter Vanessa Foumberg confirmed. She was 64.

“She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands,” Foumberg said.

A friend, Laurie Jacobson, reported her death on Facebook, writing that she “was in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams.”

Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster on “The Munsters,” also remembered her on Facebook, writing, “Very sorry to hear of my dear friend Lisa Loring’s passing. We were very close and worked together often. I know she was very weak. I was in her company just a few weeks ago. Godspeed my friend.”

Loring’s shimmying frug dance called “The Drew” frug gained renewed attention with the new Netflix series “Wednesday,” on which Jenna Ortega does her own interpretation of Wednesday’s dance. Her character Wednesday Addams was sweet-natured but gloomy, and had a penchant for collecting creepy pets including a black widow spider named Homer and a lizard named Lucifer, as well as playing with a headless doll.

Loring was born in the Marshall Islands to parents who had served in the Navy, and lived in Hawaii before coming to Los Angeles with her mother. She started modeling at the age of 3 and then was cast in an episode of “Dr. Kildare.”

After “The Addams Family” finished its two-season run, Loring joined Phyllis Diller’s sitcom “The Pruitts of Southampton.”

She made appearances on series including “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Fantasy Island” and “Barnaby Jones,” then secured a recurring role as Cricket Montgomery on “As the World Turns” from 1980 to 1983.

Later in the 1980s, she had parts in genre movies including “Savage Harbor” and “Blood Frenzy” and worked as a makeup artist on adult films under the name “Maxine Factor.”

She is survived by two daughters, Marianne and Vanessa.

Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83.

Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Later, the Arkansas native played two characters opposite David Carradine — Woody Guthrie’s first wife, Mary, and a dark-haired folk singer named Memphis Sue — in the biopic Bound for Glory (1976), directed by Hal Ashby; was a lesbian hockey wife in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977); and portrayed John Lithgow’s wife in the family film Harry and the Hendersons (1987).

Her big-screen résumé also included Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), as the girlfriend/wife of a Teamster played by Sylvester Stallone; Barbra Streisand’s The Prince of Tides (1991), as the suicidal sister of Nick Nolte’s character; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999), as the wife of a philandering quiz show host (Philip Baker Hall).

She was married to late actor Richard Libertini from 1963 until their 1978 divorce, and they had a son.

In Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Dillon portrayed Jillian Guiler, the single mother who heads to Devils Tower with her next-door neighbor (Richard Dreyfuss) in search of her 3-year-old son, who’s been abducted by aliens through the kitchen doggy door.

Ashby had recommended her to Spielberg for the part, and she was hired just days before filming began.

Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice (1981) had her back with Slap Shot co-star Paul Newman, this time playing a Catholic woman who takes her own life after a reporter (Sally Field) writes a story about her abortion.

At the Oscars, Dillon lost out to Vanessa Redgrave of Julia in 1978 and to Maureen Stapleton of Reds in 1982.

Still, unlike those two, Dillon shows up every holiday season on TV rebroadcasts as the sweet mother of Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and Randy (Ian Petrella) and wife of Darren McGavin’s Old Man Parker in A Christmas Story (1983), directed by Bob Clark.

In the film, Sam Kashner noted in a 2016 article for Vanity Fair, “Dillon has a sweetly comedic presence that threatens to dissolve into creative anarchy. She’s a vigilant mom but is still a child at heart, apparent when she encourages her youngest, Randy, a fussy eater, to pretend he’s a pig at a trough. Randy really gets into it, snorting and plunging his face into his meat loaf and mashed potatoes, while he and his mom dissolve into fits of laughter.”

As The New York Times pointed out, the poor woman “hadn’t had a hot meal for herself in 15 years.”

Melinda Ruth Dillon was born on Oct. 13, 1939, in Hope, Arkansas. Her mother divorced and remarried an Army veteran, and she lived on several military bases, including one in Nuremberg, Germany, before graduating from high school in Chicago.

While working as the coat check girl for The Second City, she stepped in for an ill Barbara Harris and performed in a skit, setting her acting career in motion. (Second City also is where she met Libertini, who was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe.) After studying acting at DePaul University, she came to New York and was cast opposite Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill and George Grizzard in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? However, she left the intense play after nine months and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

“I was in Virginia Woolf, and I just went crazy; it was really that simple,” she said in a 1976 interview with The New York Times.

“I think it was the way I was living; the play was so long and the actors’ union wouldn’t let us play the matinee. We had to have a whole different cast for that, but I was called in to do it many, many times because the gal would get sick. I would do it three hours in the afternoon, then study with Lee Strasberg for two hours, and do the play three hours at night. Then, George Grizzard left to do Hamlet, and a strange thing happened. I had learned to lean on George hard, and I just crumbled inside. I don’t know why.

“I had had the American dream — to go to New York and study with Lee Strasberg. I guess I just wasn’t prepared for it all to happen so quickly in New York. I’m not sophisticated; I hadn’t had any kind of cultural education, at all, so when it came to meeting people, and presenting any kind of ideas I might have to offer, I would be terrified.”

Meanwhile, Sandy Dennis went on to play Honey in Mike Nichols’ 1966 film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and won an Oscar.

Dillon returned to Broadway in 1967, spending two seasons in the hit You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running, and in 1970 for a Second City reunion via Paul Sills’ Story Theatre. In between, she made her big-screen debut in The April Fools (1969), starring Jack Lemmon.

Dillon went on to appear in other films including The Muppet Movie (1979), Songwriter (1984), Sioux City (1994), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and Reign Over Me (2007). She also guest-starred on such TV shows as The Jeffersons, Picket Fences and Heartland.

Matthew Creith of the website Giant Freakin Robot was the first to report Dillon’s death.

Mark Margolis, the journeyman actor who turned in a commanding performance as the vindictive drug runner Hector Salamanca, a man of few words and a bell, on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has died. He was 83.

Margolis died Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness, his son, actor and Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Morgan Margolis, announced.

A protégé of Stella Adler who did double duty as the legendary acting teacher’s personal assistant, Margolis also stood out as the Bolivian henchman Alberto the Shadow in Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983); as the gravelly voiced landlord Mr. Shickadance looking for the rent in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994); and, from 1998-2003, as the HIV-infected mob boss Antonio Nappa on HBO’s Oz.

The Philadelphia native played an aging math teacher for Darren Aronofsky in Pi (1998), then showed up in the filmmaker’s next five movies: as the guy who keeps selling Mrs. Goldfarb’s (Ellen Burstyn) TV back to her in Requiem for a Dream (2000); as a priest in The Fountain (2006); as Randy “The Ram” Robinson’s (Mickey Rourke) landlord in The Wrestler (2008); as a ballet patron in Black Swan (2010); and as a “fallen angel” in Noah (2014).

Asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a 2012 interview why Aronofsky kept hiring him, he replied with tongue in cheek: “He thinks he has an obligation! I started with him on his first movie, the $60,000 Pi, when he was unknown. I chased him for three months because he kept lying to me about when I’d get my money. I finally threatened to call his mother, who was craft services on the film. Then he finally paid me.”

Margolis, who didn’t speak Spanish, made his first appearance as “Tio” Salamanca on Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad in March 2009 on the second episode of the AMC drama’s second season. A onetime enforcer to Mexican crime boss Don Eladio (Steven Bauer), his character is paralyzed and only able to communicate using facial expressions and a brass service bell fastened to his wheelchair.

In the spectacular season-four finale, “Face Off,” which aired in October 2011, Salamanca gets his revenge on drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) as part of a suicide mission, and he received an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor in a drama series in 2012. (Hector Salamanca even got his own tribute website.)

Starting in 2016 with the second season of the Breaking Bad prequel Better Called Saul, Margolis got a second chance to play Salamanca as a younger man, before he became incapacitated.

“I was only coming onto Breaking Bad as far as I knew for that one episode, but there’s no accounting for taste, and the fans took a fancy to me,” he said. “Somebody asked me recently, ‘How did you manage to play such a horrible guy?’ and I said, ‘Have you talked to my friends?’ They’ll tell you I’m pretty miserable to begin with.”

Margolis was born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia on Nov. 26, 1939. His mother, Fanya, was a decorator who worked for a wallpaper company and did lots of painting, and his father, Isidore, was a factory worker.

He took his first acting class at 14, and after a year at Temple University, he moved to New York and studied drama with Adler at The Actors Studio (he would become a lifetime member). “My first impression of her was, ‘If God is a woman, this is him,'” he told Eric Broadbent in an Inside the Gilliverse interview in 2020. “She was larger than life. Everything that I know [about acting] came from Stella.”

In exchange for classes, he served as Adler’s personal assistant for nearly three years, getting her cabs, carrying her groceries back to her apartment opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art and checking coats for guests when she hosted a party.

“I had a real fixation with her,” he told The Observer in 2012. “I was 19 years old and she was 60. That’s what a turn-on she was.”

Margolis later studied with Alder’s rival, Lee Strasberg, for about a year but drifted away from acting and had trouble making ends meet. He managed a coffee house on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village — “I used to let Richie Havens sit there all night even though he didn’t have any money because I loved listening to his music,” he said in 2016 — built theatrical artwork installations and took geodesic domes to colleges all around the country.

He finally made his onscreen debut as a surly airplane passenger in the X-rated The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976), then had small roles in Going in Style (1979), De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980) and Arthur (1981) before his nasty Alberto was killed by Al Pacino’s Tony Montana in Scarface.

“I am just a journeyman actor,” he once said. “Truth to tell, six months after Scarface, I had to take a job with a real estate development friend for a few months just to get by.”

Margolis landed a recurring role from 1985-89 as the surveillance expert Jimmy on the CBS crime drama The Equalizer, starring Edward Woodward.

His character in Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura was named after a real landlord that director Tom Shadyac once had. For Mr. Shickadance, “They wanted a voice like something out of The Exorcist,” he said. “I had never seen The Exorcist, but I figured it was that.”

To play the silent Salamanca, Margolis said he took his cues from his late mother-in-law, Shirley.

“She was in a nursing home for many years in Florida, tragically, after suffering a stroke,” he said. “We used to visit her, and she couldn’t speak. But she’d get excited when we came in the room, and the left side of her mouth would always do these contortions where the lips would push out, almost like she was chewing tobacco. So I kind of stole that from her. I always say the role is an homage to Shirley, who was actually a 1930s Earl Carroll Follies dancer.”

Margolis said Gilligan phoned him to say they were going to kill off Hector on Breaking Bad — but he “would have a lot of fun doing it.”

His body of work also included the films The Cotton Club (1984), The Secret of My Success (1987), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Absolute Power (1997), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), End of Days (1999), The Tailor of Panama (2001), Hardball (2001), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Defiance (2008) and Stand Up Guys (2012) and such TV shows as Santa Barbara, Law & Order, Californication, Person of Interest, American Horror Story, The Affair and Your Honor.

“Absolutely devastated to hear that we’ve lost Mark Margolis,” Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul writer-producer Peter Gould wrote Friday on Twitter. “Mark was brilliant, funny, a raconteur with a million stories. I miss him already.”

Added Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston on Instagram: “Mark Margolis was a really good actor and a lovely human being. Fun and engaging off the set, and (in the case of Breaking Bad and Your Honor) intimidating and frightening on set. His quiet energy belied his mischievous nature and curious mind … And he loved sharing a good joke. … Rest now, Mark and thank you for your friendship and your exceptional body of work.” In addition to his son and his wife, Heide, Margolis’ survivors include his wife, Jacqueline, whom he married in June 1962; grandsons Ben, Aidan and Henry; and his brother and his wife, Jerome and Ann. He lived for years in Tribeca.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In his interview with The Observer, Margolis said that the fans he met on the street “think that I’m some sort of rich guy, that everyone in the movies is making the kind of money Angelina Jolie is making,” he explained. “They don’t realize that most of my life has been a struggle.”

Source: THR

Billy Miller, Daytime Emmy-Winning Y&R and GH Vet, Dead at 43

Billy Miller, a three-time Daytime Emmy winning soap vet best known for his roles on The Young and the Restless and General Hospital, has died. He was 43.

According to Michael Fairman TV, Miller died on Friday, Sept. 15. A cause of death is not known.

The Tulsa, Okla. native entered the daytime TV arena in 2007 when he joined the cast of All My Children as Richie Novak. A two-year stint on the ABC soap paved the way for his breakout role as Young and the Restless‘ Billy Abbott. He was the fourth actor to play Billy on CBS’ top-rated drama but he more than made the role his own. To wit, during his six years on the show (2008-14), he won three Daytime Emmys (two for Outstanding Supporting Actor and one for Outstanding Lead Actor).

In 2014, Miller jumped to General Hospital, where he took over the role of Jason Morgan/Drew Cain from Steve Burton. He left the ABC soap in 2019.

“You lit up every room with your smile,” Y&R alum Michael Muhney wrote of Miller on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Your quiet intensity onscreen was second only to your gentle kindness and genuine care in private. You were bigger and braver and bolder than this life. You were legend. There is no landing to this final cliffhanger, the wings you’ve spent your lifetime earning have carried you up to that wonderful place in the sky.”

Miller’s primetime credits included guest stints on CSI: NY, Justified, Ringer, Major Crimes, Suits and Ray Donovan. He also recurred in the first season of the Apple TV+ drama Truth Be Told as the husband of Lizzy Caplan’s Lanie.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I remember him from Suits as Harvey's brother. He died young at 43. RIP

UltimateMarvel wrote:Damn! Can't imagine what his family is going through.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I heard Matthew Perry passed away today. RIP