RIP Steve Forrest

A contract player at MGM in the 1950s, he also starred in such films as “The Longest Day” and “Spies Like Us” and in the BBC hit “The Baron.”

 
Steve Forrest, who starred as Lt. Dan “Hondo” Harrelson on the 1970s ABC action series S.W.A.T., died peacefully surrounded by family on May 18 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 87.
 
In a career spanning more the 60 years, Forrest frequently was cast as a leading man or “heavy.” An aficionado of the American Western, he delighted in roles that glorified the genre, including guest-starring appearances in such television classics as The Virginian, Bonanza and Gunsmoke.
 
But it was his role as the hard-hitting yet warmhearted Harrelson that most endeared Forrest to the American audience. As the leader of the police department’s five-man special weapons and tactics team, he often was seen with his bullhorn in hand, jumping into the large dark gray van shouting the signature line, “Let’s roll!”
 
As a salute to the show, Forrest appeared in a cameo role as the van driver in the film version of S.W.A.T. (2003) that starred Samuel L. Jackson.
 
Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews on Sept. 25, 1925, in Huntsville, Texas, to Annis and Charles Andrews, a Baptist minister. He was the youngest of 13 children.
 
At 18, Forrest enlisted in the military and served with the Army. He attained the rank of sergeant during World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. At the end of the war, he moved to Los Angeles and attended UCLA.
 
Forrest graduated with honors from UCLA in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and went to work as a stagehand at the La Jolla Playhouse outside San Diego. It was there, during the summer stock production of Goodbye Again, that he was discovered by Hollywood legend Gregory Peck. The actor cast him in the production and arranged for his first screen test with MGM, where he was placed under contract.
 
In 1953, Forrest garnered a New Star of the Year award from the Golden Globes for his performance in the Warner Bros. film So Big, playing opposite Jane Wyman and Sterling Hayden. Throughout the ’50s, Forrest landed roles on both the large and small screens, frequently cast on such early TV series as Playhouse 90, Climax! Theater, Lux Video Theater and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
 
His early films included roles as a P.O.W. opposite Ronald Reagan in MGM’s Prisoner of War (1954), as Robert Taylor’s younger brother in Rogue Cop (1954), as Doris Day’s would-be suitor in It Happened to Jane (1959), as Elvis Presley’s half brother in the Western Flaming Star (1960), as Sophia Loren’s gun-slinging love interest in Heller in Pink Tights (1960) and with John Wayne and an all-star cast in The Longest Day (1962).
 
Later film and television appearances included North Dallas Forty (1979), Mommie Dearest (1981) with Faye Dunaway, Spies Like Us (1985) with Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd, the miniseries Hollywood Wives (1985), a season in the 1980s on TV’s Dallas, Storyville (1992) with James Spader and Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995) with James Woods.
 
A trained vocalist, Forrest made his Broadway debut as budding prizefighter Bob Stanton in the 1958 production of The Body Beautiful opposite Mindy Carson, Jack Warden and Brock Peters.
 
In 1965, under contract to the BBC, Forrest relocated to London with his family to star as John Mannering, the international antique dealer-cum-secret agent in the British crime drama The Baron. The program was the first color series on British television.
 
An avid and accomplished golfer, Forrest frequently played in charity tournaments around the world. In 1976, he competed on the American team at the Bing Crosby Great Britain vs. U.S.A. Tournament at the Glen Eagles course in Scotland.
 
Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Christine, sons Michael, Forrest and Stephen and grandchildren Samantha, Emily, Aubrey and Alex.
 
A service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Griffin Memorial Park in Westlake Village, Calif.

 

FORREST, Steve (William Forrest Andrews)
Born: 9/25/1925, Huntsville, Texas, U.S.A.
Died: 5/18/2013, Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.A.
 
Steve Forrest’s westerns – actor:
Last of the Comanches – 1953 (Lt. Floyd)
Heller in Pink Tights – 1960 (Clint Mabry)
Zane Grey Theater (TV) – 1960 (Mike Bagley)
Outlaws (TV) – 1960 (Rance Hollister)
Flaming Star – 1960 (Clint Burton)
The Wide Country (TV) – 1962 (Royce Bennett)
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1963, 1964 (Senator William E. Borah,
The Virginian (TV) – 1963, 1964 (Roger 'Buster' Layton / Dr. William 'Will' C. Martin, James Templeton)
Rawhide (TV) – 1965 (Cable)
Cimarron Strip (TV) 1967, 1968 (Wiley Harpe, Sergeant Clayton Tyce)
Bonanza (TV) – 1967, 1969 (Josh Tanner, Dan Logan)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973 (Will Mannon, Cole Morgan, Cord Wrecken, Scott Coltrane)
The High Chaparral (TV) – 1970 (Johnny Rondo)
The Wild Country – 1970 (Jim Tanner)
Nichols (TV) – 1971 (Sam Yeager)
Alias Smith and Jones (TV) – 1972 (Jake Halloran)
Hec Ramsey (TV) – 1972 (Wes Durham)
The Hanged Man (TV) – 1974 (James Devlin)
Wanted: The Sundance Woman (TV) – 1976 (Detective Charlie Siringo)
Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (TV) – 1987 (Will Mannon)

RIP Laurence Haddon

Actor Laurence Haddon Dies at 90

by Mike Barnes
 
Laurence Haddon, a busy character actor who appeared on dozens of TV
series like Dallas, Lou Grant and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman during his
four-decade career, has died. He was 90.
 
Haddon died May 10 in Santa Monica from complications associated with
Lewy body disease, a form of dementia, his daughter-in-law Eilene Vila
Schmidt said Tuesday. He was 90.

 

On Norman Lear's syndicated soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary
Hartman, Haddon portrayed one of the first non-stereotypical gay men to
appear on national television. In a 1976 episode, he's caught kissing
another man (neighbors were led to believe that they were brothers),
and later the couple consider getting married.
 
Haddon also was seen on three CBS series in the 1970s and '80s: as
J.R.'s banker Franklin Horner on primetime soap Dallas, as the foreign
editor on the newsroom drama Lou Grant and as the crooked Dr. Mitch
Ackerman, who memorably stole Joan Van Ark's babies, on Knots Landing,
another soapy drama.
 
Haddon's lengthy résumé also includes stints on television's Dr.
Kildare, Dennis the Menace, Death Valley Days, My Three Sons, Sanford
and Son, Mannix, Good Times, The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Vega$,
Hill Street Blues, T.J. Hooker and Designing Women. He appeared in the
1974 telefilm The Execution of Private Slovik and had roles in the
features Hands of a Stranger (1962), Fantastic Voyage (1966) and The
Graduate (1967).
 
Haddon was born in Philadelphia in 1922 and attended Friends' Central
School and Syracuse University. After Pearl Harbor, he left college and
served in the Merchant Marine during World War II as an officer on
Liberty ships ferrying munitions, other cargo and German prisoners in
the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific.
 
After the war, he did a brief stint in the aluminum business before
deciding to become an actor. He moved to New York, where he landed
parts on stage and in the early era of live TV.
 
Haddon went on the road in the national touring companies of Tea and
Sympathy with Maria Riva and The Warm Peninsula, which starred Julie
Harris and Larry Hagman and opened on Broadway in 1959.
 
In 1958, Haddon married actress-model Jacqueline Prevost, and they
moved to Los Angeles two years later. He was a consistent performer at
The Melrose, one of the first and most enduring waiver theaters in Los
Angeles.
 
In addition his daughter-in-law and wife, survivors include his
children Michael and Phoebe, stepson Guy and grandchildren Zoe and
Stephen.
 
HADDON, Laurence
Born: 1922, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Died: 5/10/2013, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.
 
Laurence Haddon’s westerns – actor:
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1965, 1966 (Honest John, Phillips)
Daniel Boone (TV) – 1966 (Eli)
Here Come the Brides (TV) – 1969
Guns of Paradise (TV) – 1991 (Mr. Bass)

RIP Carlo Monni

Farewell to Carlo Monni, the actor-poet

By Mauro Bonciani

FLORENCE - Monni has died. For all CARLO Monni was the living embodiment of the fierce will to live and the sarcasm of fiorentinaccio, the poet of the vernacular, equal to himself on stage, in movies and in the squares of Florence, his city, even though he came from Campi Bisenzio, he was always willing to entertain and declaim. But on Sunday evening, after a long illness, Carlo Monni who was hospitalized for twenty days of an incurable disease, surrendered.

 
Born on October, 23 1943, a companion of Roberto Benigni in the early days of the legendary television series "Berlinguer I love you", the 1978 film by Giuseppe Bertolucci where with Bozzone entered the collective imagination along with almost all the characters in that film over time became the object of worship. From then on, Carlo Monni was a charismatic presence, though perhaps fleeting, in many movies and television but especially in the theater, found himself where the physical size and taste of the beginning of the poem to be recited as the old story teller.
 
In 2011, under the direction of Alessandro Benvenuti, he starred in a choral version of "Welcome home Gori," at the theater of Dante Fields and last year also held a re-reading of Garga, another character of the old Florence that there and that is where he loved the food, the wine, women and poetry. And who knows what he wanted for his funeral, perhaps a funeralone as in "My friends," perhaps a poetry reading by Cecco Angiolieri, perhaps a toast of his many old and new friends. The Monni, Bozzone, we miss you already.
 
 
MONNI, Carlo
Born: 10/23/1943, Campi Bisenzio, Florence, Italy
Died:  5/19/2013, Florence, Tuscany, Italy
 
Carlo Monni’s western – actor:
For a Book of Dollars - 1973 (dentist)

RIP Artus de Penguern

The actor and director Artus de Penguern has died

 
The actor and director Artus de Penguern died suddenly Tuesday at age 56 at his home in Paris of a heart attack, officials said Thursday, May 16.
 
An actor in more than 30 feature films and dozens of TV movies, Artus de Penguern was also a director of such films as “Clinique de l'amour”, released in 2012, in which he played an unscrupulous surgeon.
 
He also wrote a weekly column in the form of a rant, titled "Ça suffit” (“Enough”) in the program "Comme on nous parle" by Pascale Clark on France Inter. His squeaky and provocative texts often masked sincere indignation of this aristocrat of Breton origin, with a genuine smile and caustic humor.
 
A former student of cours Simon, he started his film career in the 1980s, performing all sorts of roles in films as diverse as “Maupassant de Michel Drach” (1980), “Danton de Wajda” (1983),
“Le Sang des autres de Chabrol” (1983) and “Police de Maurice Pialat (1985). More recently, “Amelie”, in which he played Hipolito the sad jaded writer.
 
He directed five short films before moving along, such as “Grégoire Moulin contre l'humanité” (2000), in which he plays the title role of a hapless orphan, born on Friday the 13th leads a dreary provincial existence before attempting to change his luck, without any success.
 
Artus was married to actress Pascale Arbillot [1970- ].

de PENGUERN, Artus

Born: 3/13/1957, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France

Died:  5/15/2013, Paris, Île-de-France, France

 

Artus de Penguern's western - actor:

Big City - 2006

 

RIP John R. McKee

John R. McKee

AGE: 98 • Formerly of Audubon
 
FROM:  The South Jersey Courier-Post

On May 12, 2013, John R. McKee passed away in Vineland, NJ.

 
A graduate of Audubon High School, John was a three sport athlete
there and continued pursuing an athletic career in college at
Villanova and then professionally for the Canadian Football League.
 
Mr. McKee was also a decorated World War II Veteran serving in the
Army Air Corps and receiving the Purple Heart as the plane he piloted
was shot down over France.
 
In addition to playing professional football, Mr. McKee was a bullpen
coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. As a result of his involvement with
the Pirates, John was connected with members of the movie industry and
went on to appear in over 100 movie and television roles from
1945-1983. John also helped in training race horses during his time in
the film industry.
 
Mr. McKee was predeceased by his parents, James and Anna McKee (nee
Rodgers) and his sister, Veronica Coyle.
 
He is lovingly survived by his two nieces, Eileen (the late, Raymond)
Lederer of Philadelphia and Pat Coyle of Audubon; his 6 great nieces
and nephews: Miles (Denise) Lederer, Mary Beth (John) Baranosky,
Joseph Lederer, Patty (Patrick) Green, Diane (Dave) Benson, Claire
(David) Hampton; 15 great great grandnieces and nephews: Jenna, Katie,
John, Jeffrey, Brynn, Meghan, Erin, Colleen, Patrick, David, Daria,
Dylan, Delaney, Morgan and David.
 
Relatives and friends are invited to his Viewing after 9:30 AM on
Thursday morning at St. Vincent Pallotti Church (St. Joseph the Worker
Parish), 901 Hopkins Road, Haddon Township, NJ where his Funeral Mass
will be celebrated at 11:00 AM.

Interment private.

 

McKEE, John R.

Born: 12/30/1916, San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A.
Died: 5/12/2003, Vineland, New Jersey, U.S.A.

John R. McKee’s westerns – actor, stuntman:
Loaded Pistols – 1948 (Deputy Party Guest)
Challenge of the Range – 1949 (Cliff)
Rim of the Canyon – 1949 (Tex Rawlins)
Mule Train – 1950 (Wilson)
Indian Territory – 1950 (cowboy)
Gene Autry and the Mouties – 1951
Vengeance Valley – 1951 (poker player) [stunts]
Texans Never Cry – 1951 (Ed Durham)
Silver Canyon – 1951 (townsman)
Across the Wide Missouri - 1951 (Killbuck)
The Range Rider (TV) – 1953
The Silver Whip – 1953
The Man from the Alamo – 1953 (Kay)
Thunder Over the Plains – 1953 (Texan)
Gypsy Colt – 1954 (wrangler)
Siege at Red River – 1954 (raider)
The Spoilers – 1955 (Joe)
The Adventures of Champion – (TV) – 1955 (Al)
Backlash – 1956 (Deputy Harry)
A Day of Fury – 1956 (deputy)
The Fastest Gun Alive – 1956 (deputy)
The Roy Rogers Show (TV) – 1956 (Brad Putnam)
Three Violent People – 1956 (carpetbagger)
The Big Land – 1957 (Smoky)
Cheyenne (TV) – 1958 (Ike Patrick)
Fort Dobbs – 1958 (Largo Refugee at Fort)
The Big Country – 1958 (Terrill Cowboy ) [stunts]
Maverick (TV) – 1958 (Third Miner)
The Texan (TV) – 1959 (ranch hand,)
The Deputy (TV) – 1959 (Hollister)
Wagon Train (TV) – 1959, 1962, 1963 (First Lieutenant, Frank Folsom, Quincy)
Riverboat (TV) – 1960 (Stoneman)
Shotgun Slade (TV) – 1961 (Sheriff Haskins, Hatch)
Posse from Hell – 1961 (1st Rider, Stendel Ranchhand)
Whispering Smith (TV) – 1961 (Jim)
Laramie (TV) – 1961 (Hank)
The Tall Man (TV) – 1962 (Marshal Thomas)
The Virginian (TV) – 1962, 1967 (townsman, 2^nd homesteader)
Showdown – 1963 (Marshal Beaudine)
Cheyenne Autumn – 1964 (trooper) [stunts]
The Hallelujah Trail – 1965 (Rafe Pike) [stunts]
The Rare Breed – 1966 (cattle buyer)
Bonanza (TV) – 1966 (Fairley)
Alvarez Kelly – 1966 (Finley)
The Professionals – 1966 (sheriff) [stunts]
Cimarron Strip – 1967, 1968 (second cavalryman)
Iron Horse (TV) – 1968 (Pops)
The Shakiest Gun in the West – 1968 (cowpoke in saloon)
Lancer (TV) – 1968 (man)
The High Chaparral (TV) – 1969 (Wilson)
Macho Callahan – 1970 (farmer)
Monte Walsh – 1970 (Petey Williams)
Rio Lobo – 1970 (Rio Lobo Deputy) [stunts]
Support Your Local Gunfighter – 1971 (saloon shooting witness)
Ulzana’s Raid – 1972 (trooper) [stunts]
The Cowboys (TV) – 1974 (Foley)
Nevada Smith (TV) – 1975 (McLane)
Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free (TV) - 1976) (official)

RIP Paula Lynn Katz

Costumer Paula Lynn Kaatz Dies at 67

Hollywood Reporter

11:36 AM PDT 5/9/2013

by Mike Barnes

Paula Lynn Kaatz, a two-time Emmy-winning costumer and costume designer who worked on TV’s China Beach and on such films as The Green Mile during a 40-year career, died May 3 following a brief illness. She was 67.
 
Kaatz worked on 60 episodes of China Beach, the 1988-91 ABC drama that starred Dana Delany and was set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. She shared an Emmy for costuming the pilot episode.
 
Kaatz’s other Emmy came from costuming the CBS telefilm Pancho Barnes (1988), which starred Valerie Bertinelli as a female aviator in the 1920s.
 
Kaatz, who collected six Emmy nominations in all, also worked on such TV series as Space Academy, Jason of Star Command, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Angel Street and on several other telefilms.
 
Her film résumé includes Mr. Majestyk (1974), Breakheart Pass (1975), Hooper (1978), My Bodyguard (1980), Wonderland (2003) and Man About Town (2006).
 
Kaatz also was a union organizer for Local Union 705 and a field representative/organizer for Motion Picture Costumers Local 75.
 
Born in Chicago on Jan. 19, 1946, Kaatz graduated from Beverly Hills High in 1964 and received a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where her classmates included Michael Douglas.
 
Survivors include her brother Benjamin, stepsister Julia, nieces Joely, Gabrielle and Adrienne and nephew Kevin.
 

KAATZ, Paula Lynn

Born:  1/19/1946, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Died: 5/3/2013, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
 
Paula Lynn Kaatz’s westerns – costumer, costume designer:
Breakheart Pass – 1975 [costumer]
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV) - 1993 [costume designer]

RIP Christine White

Christine Lamson White, 86, of Washington, D.C., died Sunday, April 14, 2013, at Brinton Woods Nursing Home in Washington, D.C.

 
Born May 4, 1926, in Washington, D.C., she was the daughter of the late Lucia W. and James Andrew White.
 
She graduated from Wilson High School in Washington. She entered the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1947 with a major in English. At UNC, she acted in school plays, a precursor to her growing interest in the world of theatre. She enrolled in Catholic University, in Washington, D.C., in 1948 and pursued a Masters degree in speech and drama.
 
She left for New York and in the early 1950s appeared in roles made for TV including "Playhouse 90," "General Electric," and "Philco Playhouse."
 
After these successes, she left New York for Los Angeles, Calif., and appeared in more than 50 Hollywood movies and television shows during her 25 year acting career including "Magnum Force," "Vice Squad," "Man Crazy," "Ichabod and Me," "Father Knows Best," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Perry Mason," "The Untouchables," "The Twilight Zone," "The Fugitive," "The Rifleman," "Have Gun–Will Travel" and "Bonanza".
 
While living in Los Angeles, she became acquainted with several celebrities including James Dean, Loretta Young and June Havoc.
 
She returned to the D.C. area and helped care for her mother in her mother's later years.
 
She kept up many of her contacts in the acting profession while in Washington and pursued her interest in writing. She wrote, produced and distributed her own quarterly bulletin titled the "Rampart Papers."
 
Surviving are nephews and nieces James and Carol, Kenneth, Craig, Jeffrey and Minnie White; and great-nephew and great-niece Jeffrey Alexander White and Lillianna M. White.
 
She was predeceased by brother and sister-in-law Kenneth W. and Betty A. White.
 
Interment will be private.

Thanks to Randolph Scott for alerting me to Christine's passing

WHITE, Christine (Christine Lamson White)

Born: 5/4/1926, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Died: 4/14/2013, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
 
Christine White’s westerns – actress:
Man Without a Gun (TV) – 1958
Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1958 (Myra Ritchie, Susan Evans)
The Rifleman (TV) – 1960 (Ann Dodd)
Overland Trail (TV) – 1960 (Miss Traynor)
Bonanza (TV) – 1960 (Mariette Blaine)
Outlaws (TV) – 1961 (Persis)
The Wide Country (TV) – 1963 (Angel Donovan)