Notizie

Fred Gallo, a former assistant director on a slew of classic 1970s pictures who went on to become the president of production at Paramount, has died. He was 78 years old.

The Hollywood titan, who had worked on Oscar-winning gems like “The Godfather,” “Annie Hall” and “Rocky,” died on Sept. 7 at his Santa Ynez Valley home.

His family confirmed his passing, while Lee Rosenthal called him a “singular force in the industry.” Paramount and Nickolodean’s president of worldwide physical production said, in a statement obtained by TheWrap, that “beneath a formidable exterior was a big-hearted, one-man masterclass in filmmaking and production management.”

“Some of the most iconic movies of our time — ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Rocky’ and ‘Annie Hall,’ to name a few — are imprinted with Fred’s artistry,” Rosenthal stated. “He was a vestige of a time and place in Hollywood history, an early champion of inclusivity and a mentor to many.

Robert Klane, the writer-director best known for penning Weekend at Bernie’s and National Lampoon’s European Vacation, died Aug. 29 of kidney failure in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 81.

Besides the 1989 movie that starred Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman, Klane also wrote for Tracey Takes On …,The Odd Couple: Together Again, The Man With One Red Shoe and Unfaithfully Yours. He also worked in the writers rooms for M*A*S*H* and The Michele Lee Show.

“Klane’s satirical and daring writing pushed the boundaries of good taste, while depicting the unfairness of life through themes of sex, family, madness and death,” Klane’s son, Jon, said in a statement.

Born in Long Island, Klane earned his English degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He penned two novels —The Horse is Dead and Where’s Poppa? — the latter of which was adapted by Klane into a...

Robert Klane, the screenwriter for “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Where’s Poppa?” and the director of “Thank God It’s Friday, has died. He was 81 years old.

Klane’s son Jon Klane confirmed the news to TheWrap. He said of his dad, “His quick, razor wit lit up every room he walked into. He was a fearless, magnetic, presence whose unique brand of black comedy delivered guilty pleasures for those capable of laughing at their own dark impulses.”

In addition to those films, Klane worked as a writer on a number of movies and TV shows, including “The Man With One Red Shoe,” six episodes of “M*A*S*H*” and “Tracey Takes On,” which won an Emmy.

“Weekend at Bernie’s” is Klane’s most well-known work, though in 2014 he filed a lawsuit alongside the film’s director claiming the pair had not been paid residuals owed from the movie since its 1989 release. Klane and...

Robert Klane, who wrote the screenplays for the irreverent comedy classics Weekend at Bernie’s and Where’s Poppa? and directed the disco-era favorite Thank God It’s Friday, has died. He was 81.

Klane died Tuesday in his Woodland Hills home of kidney failure after a long illness, his son Jon Klane announced.

He wrote for the films Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972), Fire Sale (1977), The Man With One Red Shoe (1985), National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), Unfaithfully Yours (1984), Walk Like a Man (1987) and Folks! (1992).

Among his TV writing credits were six episodes of M*A*S*H* and The Odd Couple: Together Again, a 1973 reunion telefilm starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall that he also directed. He also wrote and produced Tracey Takes On…, winning an Emmy for his work in 1997.

“Bob had a brilliant comedy mind that went deeper and deeper to get to the truth,” Rob Reiner, an actor in Where’s Poppa? (1970), said in a statement.

Robert Klane, screenwriter of films including “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Where’s Poppa?,” died from kidney failure on Aug. 29 at his home in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 81.

Klane’s son Jon shared the news with Variety in a statement, which reads, “Klane’s satirical and daring writing pushed the boundaries of good taste, while depicting the unfairness of life through themes of sex, family, madness and death.”

“Bob had a brilliant comedy mind that went deeper and deeper to get to the truth,” said filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, who appeared in “Where’s Poppa?” “Most people have a censor in their minds and know how far they can go. Bob didn’t have a censor. That’s what made him great and set him apart. He was fearless.”

Klane wrote the screenplays for dark comedies such as 1989’s “Weekend at Bernie’s” and its 1993 sequel, as well as 1970’s “Where’s Poppa?,...

Jane Fonda felt the scene as written would be flat, and the camera was about to roll. “I’m going to play it while peeing on the toilet,” she suddenly told her co-star, George Segal. The surprised Segal paused for a moment, gulped, then promptly re-created his dialogue, embellishing the exchange and the scene moved forward and with greater energy.

The year was 1979, the movie Fun with Dick and Jane, and the studio later tried to kill the scene — until discovering that test audiences applauded it. The moment was classic Fonda but also classic Segal, an actor who, over a long career, always found ways to enhance the performances of his remarkable co-stars, from Barbra Streisand to Elizabeth Taylor, while also helping filmmakers deliver hits.

Segal, who died this week at age 87, was a gracious, thoughtful man, who, while a star for over 60 years, never resorted to bluster or name-dropping.

George Segal with Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn during the filming of "The Bridge at Remagen" in 1968.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor George Segal has passed away at age 87. Segal became a rising young star in the 1960s and went on to enjoy success in both feature films and television. He made his big screen debut in "The Young Doctors" in 1961 and within a few years had appeared in "Ship of Fools" and his first starring role in "King Rat". The 1965 adaptation of James Clavell's novel found Segal as an American prisoner in a Japanese P.O.W. camp in WWII. He uses his guile and survival skills to not only stay alive but to thrive, much to disgust of British P.O.W.s who think his actions border on collaboration with the enemy. Segal's biggest break came the following year when he was cast in Mike Nichols' screen...

George Segal, whose decades-spanning acting career included earning an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to portraying Albert “Pops” Solomon on The Goldbergs, died on Tuesday, Variety reports. He was 87.

His wife, Sonia, confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement.

Since 2013, Segal had portrayed family patriarch Albert “Pops” Solomon on ABC’s sitcom The Goldbergs. While he is known for his later-career TV roles...

Oscar-nominated actor George Segal died today from complications due to bypass surgery. He was 87.

Segal is best known for his TV sitcom roles as the publisher Jack Gallo on NBC’s Just Shoot Me!, a role that earned him two Golden Globe noms, and as family patriarch Albert “Pops” Solomon on The Goldbergs. He also headlined the late-’80s ABC detective drama Murphy’s Law, the 1987 CBS comedy Take Five and TV Land sitcom Retired at 35.

Segal was also an Oscar nominee for Mike Nichols’ 1966 Edward Albee adaptation Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — co-starring with A-listers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton — and a leading man in movies. He starred in films by such legends as Stanley Kramer, Roger Corman (The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1967), Sidney Lumet, Carl Reiner, Herbert Ross, Paul Mazursky and Robert Altman.

Click on the photo above to launch a retrospective gallery of his career.

Launch Gallery: George Segal: A Career In Photos...

Beloved actor George Segal died today, his wife, Sonia Segal, revealed.

“The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement, according to Deadline.

Segal was a cast member on ABC's The Goldbergs in a role he's held since the series debuted in 2013. He played Albert "Pops" Solomon.

The actor filmed up to episode 16 of the eighth season before his passing, with the network set to air the episode on April 7.

It is also expected to pay tribute to the star on-air.

While Segal has been a firm fixture on the 1980s-set comedy series, he is also well known for playing Jack Gallo on NBC's hit series, Just Shoot Me.

Segal's popularity soared in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some of his most acclaimed roles are in films such as Ship of Fools (1965), King Rat (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...

George Segal, whose long career included playing Albert “Pops” Solomon on “The Goldbergs,” and garnering an Oscar nom for supporting actor for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” died Tuesday. He was 87.

His wife Sonia announced his death, saying, “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery.”

Segal’s longtime manager Abe Hoch said, “I am saddened by the fact that my close friend and client of many years has passed away. I will miss his warmth, humor, camaraderie and friendship. He was a wonderful human.”

Some of the top directors of the 1960s and ’70s, including Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Paul Mazursky and Sidney Lumet cast Segal for his gently humorous everyman quality, and he often played an unlucky-in-love professional or a writer who gets in over his head.

In Nichols’ 1967 Edward Albee adaptation “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,...

George Segal, the Oscar-nominated actor whose credits range from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Where’s Poppa? to Just Shoot Me and The Goldbergs, died today. He was 87.

His wife, Sonia Segal confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement.

For the past eight years, Segal had been a series regular on ABC’s comedy series The Goldbergs. The last episode of the 1980s family comedy that he filmed before his death, Episode 16 of the show’s current eighth season, is set to air April 7. The series is expected to pay tribute to Segal on-air.

Segal, an Oscar nominee for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is probably best known for his TV sitcom roles as magazine publisher Jack Gallo on NBC’s Just Shoot Me!, a role which earned him a Golden Globe nomination,...

George Segal, the engaging actor who during his 1970s prime generated great chemistry with his co-stars in such lighthearted classics as Where’s Poppa?, The Owl and the Pussycat, A Touch of Class, California Split and Fun With Dick and Jane, died Tuesday. He was 87.

Segal died of complications from bypass surgery, his wife, Sonia, announced. He died in Santa Rosa, California.

Although he was most associated with comedy and playing brainy, neurotic characters, Segal’s acting range was considerable.

His performance as a pusillanimous young professor in Mike Nichols’ best picture nominee Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton landed him a ...

George Segal, the engaging actor who during his 1970s prime generated great chemistry with his co-stars in such lighthearted classics as Where’s Poppa?, The Owl and the Pussycat, A Touch of Class, California Split and Fun With Dick and Jane, died Tuesday. He was 87.

Segal died of complications from bypass surgery, his wife, Sonia, announced. He died in Santa Rosa, California.

Although he was most associated with comedy and playing brainy, neurotic characters, Segal’s acting range was considerable.

His performance as a pusillanimous young professor in Mike Nichols’ best picture nominee Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton landed him a ...

To celebrate Variety’s 115th anniversary, we went to the archives to see how some of Hollywood’s biggest stars first landed in the pages of our magazine. Read more from the archives here.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, but so does showbiz. Carl Reiner and Bob Fosse became showbiz powerhouses starting in the 1950s and ’60s in their very different worlds, so the combination seems incongruous. However, in the early days of their careers, both appeared in the revue “Call Me Mister,” which opened at the Los Angeles Biltmore in 1947, with actor-activist Melvyn Douglas among the producers.

Variety’s review said there were “some funny sketches, ear-catching tunes and neat terp routines.” The comedy headliner was Alan Dreeben, “who does a sock job in several skits and teams with Carl Reiner and Peter Turgeon for more laughs.” In the dance department, there was “a fine eccentric routine by Bob Fosse.

I hit adolescence right around the turn o’ the ‘80s, and it was a very strange time for kids’ movies, or at least movies that creatives thought kids would like – and after the success of the Clint Eastwood megahit Every Which Way but Loose (1978), that usually meant a film with some sort of simian featured in it. After that (plus a sequel), we were treated to Going Ape (’81), a Tony Danza starrer that featured orangutans just like Clint’s, and of course TV had Bj and the Bear (’78-’81). There are others, but let’s be clear: most films that stop cold to feature an animal aren’t worth the droppings they leave behind. This brings us to Carnival Magic (1983), one of B-movie legend Al Adamson’s final features and his first of two stabs at a family film. Leave it to Severin Kids’ line to spring it on an unsuspecting Blu-ray audience.

In today’s TV News Roundup, HBO announced the premiere date for “Lovecraft Country,” and Tubi announced it will add 30 seasons of Bob Ross’ “The Joy of Painting” to its streaming library.

Dates

HBO has announced its upcoming drama series “Lovecraft Country” will debut on Aug. 16 at 9 p.m. and be available to watch on HBO Max after airing. Based on the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, the series follows two childhood friends journey across a monster-packed 1950s Jim Crow America in search of a missing father. The series comes from afemme, Inc., Bad Robot Productions and Monkeypaw Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Misha Green, J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, Bill Carraro, Yann Demange, Daniel Sackheim and David Knoller serve as executive producers.

CBS All Access has announced its new animated comedy series “Star Trek: Lower Decks” will premiere on the streamer on Aug. 6. New episodes...

Carl Reiner had a particular genius for comedy. While some of his seminal works, The Dick Van Dyke Show and his directorial debut Enter Laughing, were autobiographical, Reiner was amazingly versatile. Two of his most contrasting pieces, Where’s Poppa? (1970) and Oh, God! (1977) will be included on the bill as Turner Classic Movies celebrates the life and career of the writer, director, actor, and author with TCM Remembers Carl Reiner. The Carl Reiner programming tribute will happen on Tuesday, July 28.

Where’s Poppa? is one of the darkest of comedies with the most devious sensitivity. It is intentionally in bad taste. George Segal wants to drive his own mother to suicide. And he’s a lawyer and knows how to get away with it. It is brilliant. Oh, God! is its polar opposite. George Burns is God, and it might not have been too much of a stretch for him. The ex-vaudevillian...

CBS will honor comedy legend Carl Reiner with a colorized hourlong special. The Dick Van Dyke Show – Now In Living Color! A Special Tribute To Carl Reiner, will feature two colorized back-to-back classic episodes of the beloved 1960s series, Friday, July 3 at 8 pm on CBS.

The special features the episode “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” in which Laura Petrie blurts out a top secret on a national television quiz show, revealing that comedian Alan Brady wears a toupee. The episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1966. In the other episode, “October Eve”, a painting of Laura returns to haunt her when, despite her having posed fully clothed, the artist (played by Reiner) takes the liberty of “undraping” her.

Both episodes, written by Bill Persky and San Denoff, aired on CBS in two separate The Dick Van Dyke Show – Now In Living Color! specials executive produced by Reiner on Dec.

Mel Brooks, whose enduring friendship with the late Carl Reiner began in 1950, has paid tribute to his “best friend” and Your Show of Shows costar. Reiner died on Monday at age 98.

“Carl was a giant, unmatched in his contributions to entertainment,” Brooks shared in a post on Twitter. “He created comedy gems like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jerk, and Where’s Poppa?“

Brooks said they met in 1950 on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows. “We’ve been best friends ever since,” he added. “I loved him.” It was...

Mel Brooks has paid an emotional tribute to his comedy partner and best friend Carl Reiner, who died Monday night at the age of 98.

“Carl was a giant, unmatched in his contributions to entertainment,” Brooks said in a tweet. “He created comedy gems like ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show,’ ‘The Jerk’ and ‘Where’s Poppa?’ I met him in 1950 when he joined Sid Caesar on ‘Your Show of Shows’ and we’ve been best friends ever since. I loved him.”

Brooks and Reiner created “The 2000 Year Old Man” sketch during the 1960s in which Brooks portrayed a 2,000-year-old man being interviewed by Reiner as the straight man on a variety of topics such as being married more than 200 times and children, which evoked the punchline “I have over 1500 children and not one of them ever comes to visit!” They released five profoundly influential comedy albums starting in 1960.

“When we were doing...

Comedy legend and TV pioneer Carl Reiner died at 98, according to Variety. His assistant, Judy Nagy, said he was with his family when he died of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills on Monday night.

Reiner was one of the true greats. He helped shape comedy on television from the early golden era. Filmed comedy would not be the same without him. Even standup comedy owes him a great debt. There are sandwiches named after him in kosher delis around the world. Reiner was always beloved, and forever acting. He was instantly popular from the moment he appeared on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows in 1950. He and Mel Brooks brought a party gag to national prominence they created the “2,000 Year Old Man” routine. He was veteran conman Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven movie franchise, played Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer’s stepfather on Two and a Half Men.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Carl Reiner has passed away at age 98. The New York native who served in WWII and then went on to become a comedy icon, had a varied career and many achievements that were often behind the cameras. He gained fame as a member of Sid Caesar's ensemble on his legendary 1950s TV series "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour". Reiner was usually happy to play the straight man in skits that help revolutionize the world of comedy. With his good friend Mel Brooks, who wrote for Caesar's shows, he created the concept of the 2,000 Year-Old Man, which found Reiner interviewing the elderly Jewish guy, played by Brooks. The concept started informally when the duo would improvise acts at social gatherings, but when they finally released the 2,000 Year-Old Man as a comedy album, it sold over a million copies and institutionalized Jewish humor for a generation of American comedians.

Hollywood is waking up to the sad news of Carl Reiner’s passing. The comedy legend, who created “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and directed Steve Martin in “The Jerk,” was 98.

Reiner died on Monday. The Twitter tributes began to roll in on Tuesday.

“Last night my dad passed away,” Reiner’s son Rob Reiner wrote on Tuesday. “As I write this my heart is hurting. He was my guiding light.”

Also Read: Carl Reiner, 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' Creator and Hollywood Legend, Dies at 98

“Carl was a giant, unmatched in his contributions to entertainment,” Mel Brooks posted. “He created comedy gems like ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show,’ ‘The Jerk’ and ‘Where’s Poppa?’ I met him in 1950 when he joined Sid Caesar on ‘Your Show of Shows,’ and we’ve been best friends ever since. I loved him. When we were doing ‘The 200 Year Old Man’ together...

Carl Reiner, the writer, producer, director and actor who was part of Sid Caesar’s legendary team and went on to create “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and direct several hit films, has died. He was 98.

He died of natural causes on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills, his assistant Judy Nagy confirmed to Variety.

Reiner, the father of filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, was the winner of nine Emmy awards, including five for “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” His most popular films as a director included “Oh God,” starring George Burns, in 1977; “The Jerk,” with Steve Martin, in 1979; and “All of Me,” with Martin and Lily Tomlin, in 1984.

In his later years, Reiner was an elder statesman of comedy, revered and respected for his versatility as a performer and multi-hyphenate. He was also adept at social media. He maintained a lively presence on Twitter up until the last day of his life.

Ron Leibman, an Emmy-winning actor who garnered a Tony for his work in Broadway’s “Angels in America” and played the father of Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green on “Friends,” died on Friday. He was 82.

Robert Attermann, CEO of Abrams Artists Agency, confirmed the news to Variety. No further details were immediately available.

Leibman, a native of New York, played Dr. Leonard Green on “Friends” as a no-nonsense father who gave grief to David Schwimmer’s Ross, the romantic interest of Aniston’s Rachel. He received an Emmy Award in 1979 for portraying a reformed convict who became a criminal attorney on the CBS series “Kaz.”

Leibman won a Tony Award in 1993 for playing a fictional version of Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.”

Leibman broke into the entertainment business in 1956 on the soap opera “The Edge of Night” and made his movie debut in the 1970 comedy “Where’s Poppa?,...

Ron Leibman, the dependable actor known for his Tony Award-winning performance in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and for his turns in such films as Where's Poppa?, Slaughterhouse-Five and Norma Rae, died Friday of pneumonia in New York City, two family reps told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 82.

Survivors include his wife, Emmy-winning actress Jessica Walter, whom he married in 1983. (They met at a party hosted by actress Brenda Vaccaro, and he joined her in the cast of Archer in 2013.) From 1969 to 1981, he was married to actress Linda Lavin.

Leibman, a native New Yorker who ...

Ron Leibman, the dependable actor known for his Tony Award-winning performance in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and for his turns in such films as Where's Poppa?, Slaughterhouse-Five and Norma Rae, died Friday of pneumonia in New York City, two family reps told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 82.

Survivors include his wife, Emmy-winning actress Jessica Walter, whom he married in 1983. (They met at a party hosted by actress Brenda Vaccaro, and he joined her in the cast of Archer in 2013.) From 1969 to 1981, he was married to actress Linda Lavin.

Leibman, a native New Yorker who ...

This headline is not fake news. We repeat, there’s no monkey business here: Bubbles the Chimp, former pet of Michael Jackson the King of Pop, really is the star of a new art exhibition opening in Miami on July 21.

People spoke to Adam Brand, the owner of Frames USA art gallery and human mastermind behind the “Apes that Paint” show and fundraiser. One of his customers at the gallery is a volunteer at the Center for Great Apes, a permanent sanctuary for rescued and retired chimps and orangutans that come from the entertainment industry, research labs and the exotic pet trade,...

"The third commercial, it's still on, please, take off the third channel, the third channel, it's still running, stop it, please, for God's sake, please stop it..." This October, The Palace Theatre in Syracuse, New York will host a 35mm marathon of the first five Halloween movies, including a special Q&A with Halloween III: Season of the Witch actors Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin.

In addition to the Halloween 35mm Film Festival on October 15th, horror fans also have the annual Halloween Bash to look forward to at the Palace Theatre on October 28th. To learn more about both events, we have official details below:

VIP Party with Tom Atkins & Stacey Nelkin of Halloween III: Season of the Witch: "Saturday October 15th

Only 30 guests will have the opportunity to attend a very special VIP Party and meet and greet with Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin from Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Any horror movie that starts off with a Serlingesque voiceover has my attention. And when you make your antagonist a hulking alien who looks like an eight foot tall Gene Simmons sans Botox with a proclivity for ripping off people’s heads And shooting laser beams out of his eyes, you are granted permission to take all my money. Welcome to The Dark (1979), a fun throwback to a time when audiences weren’t beholden of such things as logic and coherence to have a ripping drive-in experience.

But what audiences do always appreciate is a good cast, strong direction, and some solid jumps. The Dark answers the call though in such an unassuming way that before you could blink, it was gone from theatres (but hung around drive-ins for a bit, as horror films were wont to do). It’s so low key that viewers at the time probably felt...