Deaths: October 26

Robert Evans was born in New York City, to Florence (Krasne) and Archie Shapera, a dentist with a thriving practice in Harlem. His family was of Russian Jewish descent. He was raised on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He began his show-business career as a teenage radio actor. After flopping in his first attempt at movie acting, he took a job promoting sales of ladies' slacks for Evan-Picone, the clothing company founded and run by his brother. Some years later, Norma Shearer spotted him hanging around the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel; she successfully touted him for the role of Irving Thalberg in Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). In a New York nightclub, Evans also caught the eye of Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast him as a bullfighter in The Sun Also Rises (1957). By the end of the fifties, Evans writes, "I was sure of one thing: I was a half-assed actor." He determined to recast himself as a producer.Before launching his first picture, though, he was hired by Charlie Bluhdorn, head of the Gulf + Western conglomerate, as part of a shakeup of Paramount Pictures.

Within months Evans was head of production. In the late 1960s and early '70s, he became the quintessential "new Hollywood" executive, with: slickly packaged productions like Rosemary's Baby (1968), Love Story (1970) and The Godfather (1972) revived Paramount. (The latter film and Chinatown (1974) are the artistic highlights of Evans' Paramount career, though the amount of credit he deserves for them has been debated for decades.) Eased out of Paramount, he saw The Cotton Club (1984) turn from a musical "Godfather" into a fiasco of front-page proportions. Evans righted his career with a new Paramount deal in the 1990s, with his last producing credit having been on the blockbuster romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003).

He died on October 26, 2019.

Writer-director Abraham Lincoln Polonsky, one of the most prominent victims of the Hollywood blacklisting of communists and social progressives in the post-World War II period, was born on December 5, 1910, in New York, New York. An unreconstructed Marxist, Polonsky never hid his membership in the Communist Party. (Indeed, it was known by the federal government during World War II, when he was a member of the O.S.S. working in France with the Resistance, given credence to the charge that the House Un-American Activities Committee wasn't interested so much in "ferreting out" communists and fellow-travelers as in making progressives of the F.D.R. coalition publicly repudiate their beliefs in a form of public penance.) After being named by former fellow O.S.S. member Sterling Hayden, Polonsky himself was arraigned before HUAC in 1951. After defying the committee by refusing to name names, he was blacklisted for 17 years by the U.S. film industry.

As director and screenwriter, Polonsky was an "auteur" of three of the great film noirs made in the last century: Body and Soul (1947) (screenplay; directed by fellow CPUSA member Robert Rossen, who kept his career by "naming names"), Force of Evil (1948) (which he wrote and directed), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) (which he wrote using a front).

Polonsky studied English at City College of New York (CCNY) and, after briefly shipping out as a merchant seaman, went to Columbia Law School. Polonsky's father wanted him to have a profession, and he preferred the law over medicine. The young Polonsky had wanted to be a writer, and he taught English at CCNY while matriculating at Columbia Law, but the law was his first career. After graduation from Columbia Law, he became a practicing attorney, which ironically, led to his career in screenwriting.

Gertrude Berg, the creative force behind the popular radio show "The Goldbergs" (which later made the transition to TV), was a client of his firm. Needing background for an episode that would feature the machinations of the law, Polonsky was assigned to Berg as an expert. Berg was so impressed when Polonsky dictated a scene to his secretary, she hired him as one of her writers. Thus, in 1937, by a serendipitous route charted originally by his father, who wanted his son to be a professional, not a writer, Polonsky was on his way to becoming a hot, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and writer-director.

Polonsky eventually left Berg and became a labor organizer. In 1939, after organizing autoworkers at a General Motors plant near his home in Briarcliff, New York, he became the educational director of the Congress of Industrial Organization, the major labor federation for skilled workers, in upstate New York. While working as a labor organizer, Polonsky wrote his first novel, "The Discoverers", a novel dealing with New York City bohemians, radicals, and frustrated intellectuals. The book was optioned by a publisher that unfortunately went out of business; it remains unpublished to this day. However, he began to thrive as a novelist: Simon and Schuster published a novel he co-wrote, "The Goose Is Cooked," in 1942, and Little Brown published his sea-adventure story "The Enemy Sea," which originally had been serialized in "Colliers Magazine".

Paramount became interested in Polonsky and offered him a contract. However, as a dedicated anti-Nazi, Polonsky was determined to serve in the war despite being turned down for military service due to poor eyesight. Recruited by the O.S.S. (likely because of his communist background; it was said that during World War II, communists made the best secret agents due to their propensity for secrecy and their dedication to their ideology). He signed a contract with Paramount guaranteeing him a job after the war, and then was shipped off to London before serving in France as a liaison with the French underground.

Back from World War II, Polonsky alienated Paramount's head writer when he complained that his nominal boss had kept him waiting too long for their initial meeting. The peeved head writer gave him the Marlene Dietrich potboiler Golden Earrings (1947) as his first screenwriting assignment, and although he received a screen credit, he claimed that nothing he wrote made it to the screen. He quit Paramount to take a job with John Garfield's Enterprise Productions, which had a collectivist philosophy akin to the old Group Theater on Broadway, of which the former Julius Garfinkle (Garfield) had been a member. Garfield was a leftist, though not a member of the Communist Party, though he did employ director Robert Rossen, who was a member of CPUSA, as was Polonsky, who had joined during the Depression.

Working from Polonsky's script, Rossen shot the classic boxing drama Body and Soul (1947). Polonsky actually was allowed on the set (not a common occurrence for the film industry) and actively gave Rossen advice. Some critics see Polonsky as a "co-director," a claim Polonsky rejected as "no one," he said, "co-directs a Robert Rossen Picture." However, in the collectivist atmosphere of the studio, he was able to prevail over Rossen's conception of a "happy ending," ensuring that his own ending was part of the picture. Polonsky won an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for the film that was hailed as a classic by cineastes not long after its release. Garfield encouraged Polonsky to become a director, a development the screenwriter relished as it would give him more control over his screenplay and enable him to bring his vision to the screen just as he saw it. Adapting a 1940 crime novel "Tucker's People," Polonsky wrote and directed Force of Evil (1948), which has been hailed as the greatest low-budget film noir ever.

By the time production had wrapped, Enterprise had gone bankrupt, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was impressed enough to pick up the picture, though its hard-hitting indictment of big business, capitalism and political corruption was not Louis B. Mayer's cup of tea. MGM essentially dumped the picture as the bottom half of a double bill released for the Christmas season. This classic noir, with its indictment of capitalist society, was not exactly Christmas fare, and as Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne has said, it was quickly forgotten until rediscovered in the early 1960s. It has been considered a classic for at least a generation and had a big influence on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), whose equation of crime with business, and business with criminal behavior had been aired 24 years before in Polonsky's debut. In a huge loss to American cinema, Polonsky's debut was to be his last directorial effort for 20 years.

Both Body and Soul (1947) and Force of Evil (1948) are about the deleterious effects of materialism on the soul, as both protagonists (both played by John Garfield operating at the peak of his talent) face the loss of their soul due to the temptation of big money. Indeed, it is easy to see why conservatives would be offended by Force of Evil (1948) as it arguably is the most radical film to have come out of mainstream Hollywood, and definitely is informed by Marxism.

Blacklisted after his uncooperative appearance before HUAC in April 1951, Polonsky did not get a chance to direct another film until 1968, when he helmed the production of the revisionist Western Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), which he turned into an indictment of genocide. Although he wrote screenplays and marketed them through fronts (most famously, with the indictment of racism Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), directed by Robert Wise, it wasn't until 1968 that he was credited on a film, for the screenplay for Don Siegel's exegesis of police corruption, Madigan (1968). After the release of the well-reviewed "Willie Boy," Polonsky enter4ed into "Fiddler on the Roof" territory and helmed the more light-hearted Romance of a Horsethief (1971). After that, he was told by his physician that his heart could not take the strain of movie directing, so he retired from that part of his work, though he continued to write screenplays until the end of his life.

After the tide of public opinion turned against the HUAC informers after Victor Navasky's 1980 history "Naming Names," Polonsky was rediscovered by scholars of the cinema. However, he proved a frustrating subject to those that wanted to ferret out the films that had been produced from his fronted-work screenplays. Similarly to his stand 40 years earlier, when he had refused to "name names," Polonsky refused to cite the pictures he had ghostwritten or to name the fronts he had used for his fronted screenplays during the days of the blacklist. He said he had given the men his word that he would not betray their confidence, and indeed, he refused to cite his anonymous work as he felt it would have gone back on his pledge to the men who had helped him through a tough period, as it would have resulted in them being denied credit for the work. Polonsky had bargained with them in good faith, and a man of principle, he refused to go back on his pledge to them.

An unrepentant Marxist until his death, Polonsky publicly objected when director Irwin Winkler sanitized his script for Guilty by Suspicion (1991) to make the character played by Robert De Niro a liberal rather than a communist. He also was prominent in objecting to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences awarding an honorary Academy Award to director Elia Kazan, who was the most prominent of the people who "named names" before HUAC.

Abraham Polonsky died of a heart-attack in Beverly Hills, California, on October 26, 1999, convinced that he had been exonerated by history. As the auteur of three classic films that will live on in cinema history, he was right.

Alan Kirschenbaum was born on 19 April 1961 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Yes, Dear (2000), Down the Shore (1992) and Stark Raving Mad (1999). He was married to Vicki Juditz. He died on 26 October 2012 in Burbank, California, USA.

Bernard Kowalski is an important figure in television with a long and impressive list of credits. To mention a select few, he directed the pilots for Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1956), N.Y.P.D. (1967) and The Monroes (1966); executive-produced Baretta (1975); and was co-owner of Mission: Impossible (1966). Kowalski got his first job in the movie business at the age of five as an extra in several Dead End Kids pictures at Warner Brothers, as well as such Errol Flynn vehicles as Dodge City (1939) and Virginia City (1940). His experience behind the camera began at age 17 when he worked as a clerk for his father, who was an assistant director and production manager. TV provided Kowalski with his first opportunity to direct on such Western series as Frontier (1955) and Boots and Saddles (1956); he then made the transition to feature-film directing in 1958 when he was hired by Gene Corman (brother of Roger Corman) to helm the teen exploitation feature Hot Car Girl (1958).

Handsome, athletic actor whose career started in the late silent era as a leading man and continued into sound features and finally television. Born in Illinois, Morton spent his adolescence in Madison, Wisconsin; receiving his education at Madison High School and the University of Wisconsin. He made his first stage appearance at the age of seven and later appeared in vaudeville, stock and the legitimate stage. Both his exceptional appearance, charm and buoyant personality were noted by the studios and at the age of 20 signed his first contract with Fox in 1927. Sadly, after 1933 his career began to lose momentum and by 1936 his roles were significantly reduced until playing small supports and bits which continued until his death from heart disease in 1966.

Charles Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Andy Griffith Show (1960), The Twilight Zone (1959), Peyton Place (1964), Gunsmoke (1955), My Three Sons (1960), and Hot Rods to Hell (1966). He died on October 26, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Probably best known as Asa Breeney / Asa Bascomb on The Andy Griffith Show (1960).

Chuck Meriwether was born on 30 June 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. He was married to Curline Parker and Rita West. He died on 26 October 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Delmar Watson was born on 1 July 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Heidi (1937) and Clipped Wings (1937). He was married to Antoinette. He died on 26 October 2008 in Glendale, California, USA.

Elem Klimov was born on 9 July 1933 in Stalingrad, Nizhne-Volzhskiy kray, RSFSR, USSR [now Volgograd, Volgogradskaya oblast, Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Come and See (1985), Rasputin (1981) and Pokhozhdeniya zubnogo vracha (1965). He was married to Larisa Shepitko. He died on 26 October 2003 in Moscow, Russia.

After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by star Katharine Hepburn, she makes it clear she has little use for her employers' pretentious status seeking. By The Mad Miss Manton (1938) she actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends. This path extends into the greatest role of her career, Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Here she is, in a number of ways, superior to most of the white folk surrounding her. From that point her roles unfortunately descended, with her characters becoming more and more menial. She played on the "Amos and Andy" and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s; the title in her own radio show "Beulah" (1947-51), and the same part on TV (Beulah (1950)). Her part in Gone with the Wind (1939) won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first African American actress to win an Academy Award, it was presented to her by Fay Bainter at a segregated ceremony, she had to sit at the back away from the rest of the cast.

Hoyt Axton was born on 25 March 1938 in Duncan, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Gremlins (1984), Forrest Gump (1994) and Easy Rider (1969). He was married to Deborah Renee Hawkins, Donna "Bambi" Roberts, Kathryn Ruth Hall and Mary Lou Moffatt. He died on 26 October 1999 in Victor, Montana, USA.

James Bell was born on 1 December 1891 in Suffolk, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Spiral Staircase (1946) and Blind Spot (1947). He was married to Joyce Arling. He died on 26 October 1973 in Kents Store, Virginia, USA.

Laurel Cronin was born on 10 October 1939 in Forest Park, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Beethoven (1992), Hook (1991) and A League of Their Own (1992). She died on 26 October 1992 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

1930s and 1940s film actress Louise Beavers was merely one of a dominant gallery of plus-sized and plus-talented African-American character actresses forced to endure blatant, discouraging and demeaning stereotypes during Depression-era and WWII Hollywood.

It wasn't until Louise's triumphant role in Fannie Hurst's classic soaper Imitation of Life (1934) that a film of major significance offered a black role of meaning, substance and humanity. Louise's servile role as housekeeper Delilah, who works for single white mother Claudette Colbert, was a poignant and touching, three-dimensional character that had its own dramatic story. Brilliantly handling the heartbreaking co-plot of an appeasing single parent whose light-skinned daughter (played by Fredi Washington) went to cruel and desperate lengths to pass for white. While Louise certainly championed in the role and managed to steal the lion's share of reviews right from under the film's superstar, the movie triggered major controversy and just as many complaints as compliments from black and white viewers. This certainly did not help what could have been a major, positive shift in black filmmaking. Instead, for the next two or more decades Louise was again forced back to secondary status.

Ms. Beavers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 8, 1902 and moved with her family to the Los Angeles area at age 11. A student at Pasadena High School and a choir member at her local church, her mother, a voice teacher, trained Louise for the concert stage but instead the young girl joined an all-female minstrel company called "Lady Minstrels" and even hooked up for a time on the vaudeville circuit. A nursing career once entertained was quickly aborted in favor of acting. Her first break of sorts was earning a living as a personal maid and assistant to Paramount star Leatrice Joy (and later actress Lilyan Tashman). By 1924 she was performing as an extra or walk-on in between her chores. A talent agent spotted her and gave her a more noticeable role in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927). She went on to gain even more visibility, but was invariably stuck in the background cooking or cleaning after the leads. Despite this her beaming smile and good nature paid off.

Following scene-grabbing maid roles to such stars as Mary Pickford in Coquette (1929) Linda Watkins in Good Sport (1931), Mae West in She Done Him Wrong (1933), Constance Bennett in What Price Hollywood? (1932) and Jean Harlow in Bombshell (1933), Louise received the role of her career. Her poignant story line and final death scene deserved an Oscar nomination and many insiders took her snub as deliberate and prejudicial. Five years later her close friend Hattie McDaniel would become the first black actor to not only earn an Oscar nomination but capture the coveted trophy as well for her subordinate role in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Despite their individual triumphs, both ladies continued in stereotyped roles. Occasionally Louise was rewarded with such Hollywood "A" treats as Made for Each Other (1939) with Carole Lombard, Holiday Inn (1942) starring Bing Crosby, and especially Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. In The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), she offered lovely moments as the baseball star's mother.

Although film offers dried up in the 1950s, Louise managed to transfer her talents to the new TV medium, and was one of a number of character actresses hired to play the wise-cracking, problem-solving maid Beulah (1950) during its run. "Beulah" was one of the first sitcoms to star a black actor. She also had a recurring role in Disney's "The Swamp Fox". In 1957, she made her professional stage debut in San Francisco with the short-lived play "Praise House" as a caregiver who extols the Bible through song. Her last few films, which included The Goddess (1958), All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) and the Bob Hope comedy The Facts of Life (1960) were typical stereotypes and unmemorable.

A long time bachelor lady who finally married in the 1950s, the short, heavyset actress was plagued by health issues in later years, her obesity and diabetes in particular. She lost her fight on October 26, 1962, at age 60 following a heart attack. In 1976 she was posthumously inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

María Luisa Robledo was born on 28 September 1912 in Madrid, Spain. She was an actress, known for Rompecabezas (1985), Juego limpio (1996) and Caer en la tentación (1963). She was married to Pedro Aleandro. She died on 26 October 2005 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Natina Reed was born on 28 October 1980 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Bring It On (2000), Honey (2003) and V.I.P. (1998). She died on 26 October 2012 in Duluth, Georgia, USA.

Nikolay Karachentsov was one of the most popular Russian actors, known for his intense dramatic roles. His mother was a ballet dancer. As a child, Nikolay's favorite activity was reading - he read even by nights, disguised under a blanket with a flashlight. He became popular in 1974 after playing starring in "Til" drama at Lenkom theatre. He was well-known for his incredible will and ability to work 18-20 hours a day; "I can't do my job another way", he said. His son Andrey studied at the Institute of International Relationships in Moscow.

Pascale Roberts was born on 21 October 1930 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France. She was an actress, known for Marius and Jeannette (1997), Au théâtre ce soir (1966) and To Kill a Cop (1981). She was married to Pierre Mondy, Pierre Rey and Michel Le Royer. She died on 26 October 2019 in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Paul Barrere is an American musician most prominent as a member of the band Little Feat, which he joined in 1972 some three years after the band was created by Lowell George.

Barrere's best known contributions to Little Feat as a songwriter include "Skin It Back", and "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" from the album Feats Don't Fail Me Now, "All That You Dream" from The Last Record Album, "Time Loves a Hero" from Time Loves a Hero, and "Down on the Farm" from Down on the Farm.

Barrere was a guitarist who played a wide variety of styles of music including blues, rock, jazz, and was proficient as a slide guitarist.

Ricardo Montez was born on 20 September 1923 in Gibraltar. He was an actor and writer, known for Mind Your Language (1977), Mamma Mia! (2008) and The Avengers (1961). He was married to Orovida Hatchwell. He died on 26 October 2010 in Marbella, Spain.

Sam Sarpong was born on 19 December 1975 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Woman Scorned (2016), No Weapon Formed Against Us (2015) and Scary Movie V (2013). He died on 26 October 2015 in Pasadena, California, USA.

Silvia Montanari was born on 14 January 1943 in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was an actress and producer, known for La cruz de Marisa Cruces (1969), Son de diez (1992) and Gasoleros (1998). She was married to Abel Santa Cruz. She died on 26 October 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Stephen Toulouse died on 26 October 2017 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Sue Randall was an actress who was born in 1935. Her primary roles were television instead of motion pictures with Desk Set (1957) being her only silver screen appearance. Sue's TV appearances were mostly guest roles in programs such as The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Bonanza (1959) and Gunsmoke (1955). Perhaps Sue is best remembered as the grade school teacher "Miss Landers" in Leave It to Beaver (1957). She appeared on the series, occasionally, from 1958-1962. This beautiful actress contracted lung cancer and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 26, 1984. Sue was 49 years old.

Victor Galindez died on 26 October 1980.