Tribute

We stopped doing these memorials a couple of years ago. It’s hard to take the time away from our lives and other work here at Upcomingdiscs. But sometimes we’ll lose one of the great ones. This isn’t a tribute to Stan Lee. He’ll get plenty of those. These are just my own private thoughts. I want to say things many of you would like to say. I have a forum, so I’m going to use it. If immortality can be measured by the impact you leave behind or how many people continue to remember you and for how long after your gone. Then there’s only one thing we can say about Stan Lee: “Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot.”
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It seems the Forever 27 Club, a collection of rock stars who didn’t live to see 30, isn’t exclusively for musicians. In something of a sad coincidence, the most recent onscreen role for Anton Yelchin — who died early Sunday morning after a freak car accident at his home — was Green Room, in which the Russian-born actor starred as…the leader of a punk rock band. While Yelchin has tragically left us much too early, the talented and prolific performer leaves behind a filmography with more than 60 credits. (And we’ll still be able to see his final turn as Pavel Andreievich Chekov in next month’s Star Trek Beyond.) In the meantime, join us in celebrating Yelchin’s work by taking a trip through the UpcomingDiscs archives.
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“Can you get me off the hook? For old times’ sake?” 

But it was we who were on Abe Vigoda’s hook. He might have been a character named Fish, but he had us hook, line, and sinker. Godfather fans knew him as the dangerous Sal Tessio. To the Barney Miller faithful he was Detective Fish, who eventually moved to his own spinoff. Certainly, he had many more memorable characters over his nearly 70-year career, but these will likely remain his legacy. He was a reliable character actor on shows like The Rockford Files, Mannix, Hawaii Five-0, Cannon, Dark Shadows, Kojak, MacGyver, Law & Order, and even the voice of a mobster in a Batman animated feature. Last week we lost Abe. He was 94 years old. Fortunately, we’ll never lose Tessio and Fish.
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– “After all your posturing, all your little speeches, you’re nothing but a common thief.”

– “I am an exceptional thief…”

The above exchange occurs in Die Hard, which (in addition to being the gold standard for modern action movies) marked the film debut of Alan Rickman. The beloved, commanding actor — who died of cancer Thursday at age 69 — had already distinguished himself as a superstar of the British theatre world. But it was with his iconic performance as Bill Clay Hans Gruber that Rickman stole his way into the hearts of moviegoers worldwide.

It would’ve been all too easy for Rickman to settle into a career playing haughty villains, thanks to his velvety baritone (the Voice of God!) and clipped diction. (And he did portray his share of baddies in films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Sweeney Todd.) Fortunately for us, his immense charisma and magnetism simply made that impossible. As a result, Rickman also excelled at comedy (Dogma, Galaxy Quest), romance (Truly Madly Deeply, Sense and Sensibility), and everything in between (Love Actually). It’s no accident that the actor’s best-known, big-screen work — playing the enigmatic Professor Severus Snape in eight Harry Potter movies — contains dashes of humor, villainy and pathos. You often hear about characters that audiences “love to hate.” In Rickman’s case, he made it practically impossible to hate him…no matter how “bad” he was.

We’ve actually had the pleasure of reviewing some of Rickman’s work here at UpcomingDiscs. Join us for a quick trip through our archives.
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“One … two… Freddy’s coming for you, three… four… better lock the door, five… six… grab your crucifix, seven… eight better stay up late, nine….ten … Never Sleep Again.”

Our nightmares just got a little less vivid on Sunday. That’s because we’ve lost the man who has so expertly painted them for almost 40 years. Of course I’m talking about Wes Craven. For most of my life he was the Master of Horror.

It didn’t start with Freddy Krueger. I guess you could say it began with 1972’s The Last House On The Left. But it was certainly Freddy Krueger and A Nightmare On Elm Street that made Wes Craven a household name, and one that more than a few folks likely cursed over the years for disturbing their dreams.
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“Truly, for some men nothing is written unless they write it.”

In discussing the ultimate departure of Omar Sharif — the legendary actor, born Michael Shalhoub, died Friday after suffering a heart attack at a hospital in his native Egypt — it’s only fitting we talk about his most famous arrival. After becoming a star in Egypt, Sharif’s first English-language film was the David Lean epic Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif — who earned his sole Oscar nomination for the movie — played Sheriff Ali, who makes one of the most indelible entrances in the history of cinema. The actor seemingly materializes out of thin air; it’s meant to evoke a mirage, which is fitting because moviegoers could hardly believe their eyes.

His striking, exotic looks allowed him to play everyone from Genghis Khan to Che Guevara. Sharif went on to make a pair of other iconic films, taking on the title role in Doctor Zhivago and starring opposite Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. On top of accumulating more than 100 movie and TV credits, Sharif cultivated a sophisticated, well-rounded image off-screen. (The actor once ranked among the top 50 bridge players in the world.) Needless to say, this was a man and a performer who charted his own path and wrote his own story. Join us in celebrating Sharif’s work with a trip through the UpcomingDiscs archives.
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“I don’t want to sound gloomy, but at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again.”

That was how Christopher Lee described his long-time friend and frequent co-star Peter Cushing when he died in 1994.
The two shared the screen dozens of times, most notably in the Hammer Studios cycle of horror films. The words can also describe the man himself. Hammer had picked up on the popular movie monster when the Universal cycle had pretty much run out its string. Following in the footsteps of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney (both Sr. and Jr.), Lee was part of a next generation of horror film icons. Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee would become the horror giants who would pick up where the Universal greats left off. It started with Curse Of Frankenstein, but it was Dracula for whom he will always be remembered. Not surprisingly, Lee never cared for the term “horror film”. He would borrow a French description often used by Boris Karloff and referred to these films as “the theatre of the fantastique” 
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“We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most… human.”

Many of the headlines read: “Spock is dead”. Of course, that’s not really true. Spock is a fictional character that will live on likely longer than any of us. But fans of science fiction in general and Star Trek fans in particularly have lost a friend today who was very human. Leonard Nimoy was 83. 
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“One word: plastics.”

It’s a classic line from The Graduate, yet it seems impossible to sum up the career of Mike Nichols, who died Wednesday, in a single word. Maybe that word is EGOT. Nichols was the rare entertainer to hit an awards show grand slam, winning Emmys (for directing and producing Angels in America and Wit on HBO), a Grammy (for the comedy album “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May”), an Oscar (for directing The Graduate) and Tonys (for directing and producing both plays and musicals). But that only scratches the surface of the impact Nichols made. Click through and join us for a look at his eclectic work in the UpcomingDiscs archives.
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“I’ve gone up, I’ve gone down. I’ve been bankrupt, I’ve been broke. But you do it — and you do it because we love it more than anything else. You want a real job, honey? There are a million things you can do, but what we do is not a job. What we do is a calling; we make people happy.”

Joan Rivers never took herself very seriously, as evidenced by the fact that seemed to have a never-ending reservoir of jokes about her own advanced age and propensity for plastic surgery. But the trailblazing entertainer — who died Thursday after going into cardiac arrest during a throat procedure late last month — was always serious about her comedy. The above quote is from a 2011 episode of Louie, and it helps explain why the tireless comic never stopped working up until her death at age 81. For Rivers, comedy was never a job; it was simply what she was meant to do.

Rivers’ most recent high-profile gig was as the host/star of E’s Fashion Police, which debuted in 2010. (This is the part where I pretend I only watched the show because of my girlfriend, but it was actually an ideal vehicle for Rivers’ brand of humor.) Rather than starring alongside celebrities, Rivers was best known for standing on stage — or on a red carpet — and lobbing caustic barbs at them. That being said, Rivers made several memorable screen appearances — and an absorbing, revelatory documentary — during her monumental career. Click below for a quick survey of her work on the UpcomingDiscs archives.
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“I wanted to show them something that wasn’t an illusion. Something that was real, something that they could see and touch. An aim not devoid of merit.”

Those words were spoken by John Hammond, the man who (in)famously brought dinosaurs back to life in Jurassic Park. However, they also applied to the acclaimed actor/filmmaker who played him. Sir Richard Attenborough died Sunday, leaving behind an indelible mark on movie history thanks to his work in front of and behind the camera.

In addition to directing a dozen films — and winning a pair of Oscars for producing and directing Gandhi — Attenborough earned more than 70 screen credits as an actor. His most widely-seen role came in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster (and a couple of months shy of Attenborough’s 70th birthday), but Attenborough also stood out in films like The Great Escape and the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street. Join us in celebrating Sir Richard’s work with a trip through the UpcomingDiscs archives.
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