In a world where one man used his distinctive voice to lend gravitas and then some to trailer after feature after episode, it really is a shame to see Don LaFontaine pass away at the age of 68. According to ET Online, LaFontaine died due to complications from a collapsed lung.
This video above pretty much summarizes what an impact this man had on modern moviegoing, and it helps to be reminded that there was a genuine personality behind his very particular talent, a notion that his official website only reinforces in...
Last weekend we lost two great stars, actor/comedian Bernie Mac (1957-2008) and Oscar-winning songwriter/actor Isaac Hayes (1942-2008), who both appear in the upcoming Soul Men (pictured above), out this November. For more on their respective deaths, see Erik's and William's posts.
Actor and playwright George Furth (1932-2008) died August 11 in Santa Monica, California. I'll always remember him best as the anti-Cannonballer spoilsport Arthur J. Foyt in The Cannonball Run. He also appears memorably in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Blazing Saddles and Shampoo. (AP)
Where would the montage sequence be without Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"? And...
For me, it started with the deaths of comedic greats like Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason. Death had become real and tangible, making the world and showbusiness finite. Since then, the numbers have gradually increased. We're slowly walking into the period where memorials and tributes aren't relegated to actors before our time, but to the names and faces that shaped our views of entertainment -- the people who we have spent so much time with on the big screen, and within the comfort of our own homes.
But we're not just losing people to age. 2008 has been a heavy year for Hollywood,...
According to the Associated Press, 65-year-old singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes has passed away after being found unresponsive in his Memphis, TN home.
An indelible influence on the world of music, a pop culture icon besides for his work as Chef on "South Park" and in its full-length feature, Hayes will be most fondly remembered in the world of film for his award-winning theme to Shaft and his role as 'The Duke' in Escape from New York.
Hayes showed up in his fair share of other movies, apparently including a cameo as himself in the upcoming comedy Soul Men, starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie...
James 'Scotty' Doohan's Ashes Still Not in Space; Missing Instead
Hopefully, one day, space will actually be the final frontier for James Doohan, the actor who played "Scotty" in the Star Trek series. Three years after his death from Alzheimer's disease, all of his ashes have still not reached their intended destination. Back in December 2006, some of Doohan's remains were to be rocketed into space, but the launch was delayed, and new plans were made for the actor's ashes, along with more than 200 other people's remains. According to Doohan's Wikipedia page, the ashes' first mission went as planned, as they were blasted into space for four minutes in April 2007...
By: Kim Voynar (original publish date: January 22, 2008)
(With the Cine-staff off on a late-July mini-vacation, we thought it'd be fun to bring you some of our favorite pieces from months past. This would probably rank among our LEAST favorite stories of all time, but it certainly was a memorable one.)
Cinematical's staff would like to take a moment to share our thoughts on Heath Ledger, who passed away today after an apparent overdose.
Although Heath Ledger's best known film to date is Brokeback Mountain, my favorite of his...
Following the success of the Sex and the Citymovie, I was really, really hopeful (noted in passing here) for a Golden Girlsmovie featuring the four stars of the ever-popular TV series. Unfortunately, my dream can no longer be fulfilled, because one of the ladies has passed on. Early this morning, at her home in Los Angeles, Estelle Getty (aka "Sophia") died, three days shy of turning 85.
Though the cause of death was not specified, Getty had been suffering from Lewy Body Dementia since at least 2000, when she stopped making public appearances. She was not even able to appear...
In the last twenty-four hours alone, countless news articles have compared the late Heath Ledger to James Dean. Of course it helps that the two actors -- whose careers lie fifty years apart -- bear physical resemblances to each other. The real reason for the frequency of the comparison, however, revolves around the possibility that Ledger, like Dean, might end up with a posthumous Oscar nomination.
Other than Dean, whose death in a 1955 car accident...
Evelyn Keyes(1916-2008) - Actress - Played Scarlett O'Hara's little sister, Suellen, in Gone With the Wind. She also co-starred in The Seven Year Itch, The Jolson Story, in which she also sings, Mrs. Mike, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Union Pacific, Before I Hang, A Thousand and One Nights, The Prowler, Johnny O'Clock, Enchantment and A Return to Salem's Lot and made a cameo appearance in the 1956 version of Around the World in Eighty Days, produced by her then-boyfriend Michael Todd. Her husbands included Artie Shaw, John Huston and Charles Vidor, who directed her in The Desperadoes, The Lady in Question and Ladies in Retirement. She died of uterine...
Cinematical Visits MOMA's "Dali: Painting and Film" Exhibit
Even the weirder artists of the twentieth century have been attracted to the allure of Hollywood filmmaking, and Salvador Dali was no exception. In the fall of 1941, the surrealist painter hosted a masquerade party at Pebble Beach during one of his...
According to 
Hopefully, one day, space will actually be the final frontier for James Doohan, the actor who played "Scotty" in the Star Trek series. Three years after his death from Alzheimer's disease, all of his ashes have still not reached their intended destination. Back in December 2006, some of Doohan's remains 
In the last twenty-four hours alone, countless news articles have compared the late 
