Celebrity
Walter Mirisch, Oscar-winning producer, dead at 101
LOS ANGELES — Walter Mirisch, a smart and Oscar-winning movie producer who oversaw classics like “Some Like It Hot,” “West Side Story,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” died of natural causes on Saturday, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was 101.
According to a statement from the Academy’s CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang, Mirisch died on Friday in Los Angeles.
“Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and an industry leader,” they said, noting that he had previously served as academy president and governor. “His passion for filmmaking and the Academy never wavered, and he remained a dear friend and advisor. During this difficult time, we send our love and support to his family.”
Mirisch won the Academy Award for best picture for 1967′s “In the Heat of the Night,” and the company he and his brothers ran also produced best-picture Oscar winners “The Apartment” and “West Side Story.”
He was born eight years before the first Academy Awards ceremony and was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1973 to 1977. He received two honorary Oscars for his work and humanitarian efforts in 1978 and 1983.
Mirisch aggressively recruited top filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison as producers, then gave them free rein to craft the films as they saw fit.
“We provided what these filmmakers required,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1983. “Billy could call me up and say, ‘I’d next like to do a picture about so-and-so’ — and that’s all we’d need to know. … We effectively became partners with our directors.”
Mirisch aggressively recruited top filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison
In addition to Wilder and Jewison, his company’s regular board of directors included Blake Edwards and John Sturges. The company also produced films by John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Roy Hill, and Hal Ashby.
Mirisch began his career in the film industry as a teenager, working his way up from usher to management positions with a theatre chain before moving on to production work on low-budget action films and Westerns in the late 1940s.
His company, which he founded with his brother Marvin and half-brother Harold in 1957, was one of the most successful independent production outfits to emerge from the old studio system as television reduced movie attendance.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Mirischs had a string of hits, including “The Magnificent Seven,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Great Escape,” “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “The Pink Panther,” and its sequel, “A Shot in the Dark.”
Their company began with a few Westerns before producing 1959′s “Some Like It Hot,” a Wilder comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as cross-dressing musicians fleeing the mob.
Mirisch was open to trying out new projects. He was a Harvard-trained business executive who efficiently oversaw the business side of things, allowing his filmmakers to focus on their films.
Elmore Leonard, the crime novelist and screenwriter on two Mirisch productions, “Mr. Majestyk” in 1974 and “Desperado” in 1987, dedicated his Hollywood satire “Get Shorty” to Mirisch, calling him “one of the good guys.”
Mirisch was also one of a few filmmakers mentioned by Sidney Poitier in his acceptance speech for an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the 2002 Academy Awards.
Mirisch was open to trying out new projects.
“Those filmmakers persevered, speaking to the best in all of us through their art,” said Poitier, who starred in Mirisch’s “In the Heat of the Night” and the sequel “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”
The Mirisch brothers tailored their management style to the level of oversight they felt a director desired or required. Mirisch stated in a 1972 interview in the journal “Films and Filming” that some directors worked well as their producers, while others had little interest outside the actual filmmaking.
“We’ve worked with brilliant directors and producer-directors, and I must say that our relationships with each of them have been very different,” he explained.
The Mirisch brothers worked in theatre as a team for most of their careers. Walter worked as a producer and later as head of the production before joining the Allied Artists production company in the 1940s, while Harold and Marvin worked in administration.
Walter Mirisch continued to make theatrical films until the 1980s.
While at Allied, Walter produced Westerns and a series of low-budget titles in the “Bomba the Jungle Boy” series starring Johnny Sheffield, who had played Boy in the 1940s “Tarzan” films.
Following the death of his oldest brother, Harold, in 1968, the surviving siblings carried on their business with Marvin as chairman and Walter, the youngest brother, in charge of production. Marvin passed away in 2002.
Walter Mirisch continued to make theatrical films until the 1980s. Although his films’ quality and commercial success declined in general, he did have some hits, including Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for “Same Time Next Year.” Other late-career films included “Midway,” “Gray Lady Down,” and the 1979 remake of “Dracula.” In the 1990s, he was also an executive producer on several television projects.
In New York City, Walter Mortimer Mirisch was born on November 8, 1921. After attending City College of New York, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1942 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a master’s in business in 1943 from Harvard.
Mirisch married Patricia Kahan in 1947, and she died before him. Anne, Andrew, and Lawrence were their three children.
The family has asked for donations to the Motion Picture and Television Fund instead of flowers (MPTF).
A memorial service will take place at a later date.
SOURCE – (AP)
Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.
In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.
As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.
Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.
“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”
“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”
Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.
Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg
— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024
Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.
Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.
“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.
The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.
The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.
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Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.
On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.
“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.
However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.
Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”
He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.
Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.
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Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.
According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.
“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.
The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.
SOURCE | CNN
Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”
Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.
She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.
In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.
Teri Garr, a comedian
Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”
She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.
The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.
A gift for spontaneous humor
Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.
Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.
During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.
Source: AP
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