A publicity still from the 1950s.

The always classy actress Jean Simmons passed away over the weekend of lung cancer just shy of her 81st birthday this Sunday. One of my all time favorite moments in any film is her drunken seduction/dance opposite Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls (1955).
She first earned acclaimed as Ophelia opposite Laurence Oliver in Hamlet (1948), earning an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Her performance as evangelist Sister Sharon opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960) is one of the finest performances in her career.

Her other memorable screen roles include All the Way Home (1963), a nice display of her comedic skills opposite Cary Grant in The Grass Is Greener (1960), and another Oscar nominated role as an unhappy wife in The Happy Ending, directed by her husband at the time, Richard Brooks. In the category of a “guilty pleasure,” I loved her in the little seen Robert Wise romantic comedy This Could Be The Night (1957) opposite Paul Douglas, Anthony Franciosa and Joan Blondell.

A recent shot of Jean Simmons.

TV fans from the 1980s might remember her as the patriarch of the Cleary family (an Emmy winning performance) in the popular 1983 mini-series, The Thorn Birds, or as a diplomat, Admiral Satie, who has lost her sense of justice as she conducts a trial to uncover sabotage on a memorable episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Drumhead” (1991). More recently she was the voice of the grandmother in the English language of the Japanese animation Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).

By all accounts she was a lovely person as well as a wonderful actress.

Teddy Pendergrass

R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, who died Wednesday at the age of 59, will always hold a special place in Atlantic City history. The Philadelphia native chose the resort (or as he said at the time, “Atlantic City chose me”) to host his first full concerts since the 1982 car accident that left him paralyzed and dimmed his amazing career (his heroic performance at Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985 had been his first appearance on stage after the accident). Pendergrass performed two sold out shows at the Xanadu Theater at the Trump Taj Mahal on Memorial Day weekend in 2001. He would perform again in the city that year and in 2002 and was often seen in the audience of other R&B artists playing the resort through the years. Read more about Pendergrass here.

Brittany Murphy, 1977-2009.

It is always sad when someone dies too young, especially when you think about the work they might have achieved. Brittany Murphy was a talented actress who had yet to find her true breakout role. She passed away at the age of 32 over the weekend, with the initial report suggesting she died of a heart attack. There has been some speculation that her heart might have weakened by substance abuse. An autopsy report will be released at a later date.

Murphy had not yet shown us the true depth of her talent but there were glimmers in such movies as Clueless, Sin City, The Dead Girl, and in particular her acting in 8 Mile. For a complete story on her death go here.

Soupy Sales, one of the nation’s most beloved comedians who performed extensively in Atlantic City and the southern New Jersey area throughout his career, passed away Thursday, Oct. 22, in a New York City hospital. He was 83 years old.
Born Milton Supman in Franklinton, N.C., on Jan. 28, 1926, Sales began his comedy career doing children’s television programs in the 1950s. His surname was so often mispronounced as “Soupman” that his parents jokingly nicknamed his brothers “Hambone” and “Chickenbone,” and him as “Soupbone,” which was eventually shortened to Soupy. He was probably best known for his long-running kids show Lunch With Soupy Sales, where he originated what would become his calling card — the pie-throwing gag. He later hosted the Soupy Sales Show, which ran for 13 years in cities throughout the country and overseas. From 1968-’75 he was a regular panelist on the syndicated game show What’s My Line? and appeared on several other TV game shows. During the 1980s he hosted his own show on WNBC-AM in New York City. (more…)

John Hughes

John Hughes was not a director who earned critical praise or awards. He just made simple movies, many of them about teenage angst, that people enjoyed. His sudden death at age 59 was a shock and a shame.
His glory years were in the 1980s and ’90s when he first made his mark with such fan favorites as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and his biggest smash hit, Home Alone, which he wrote and produced (it was directed by Chris Columbus). He directed his last movie, Curly Sue, in 1991. He went on to write and produce a few other movies, but his years as a superstar populist director were over. His movies are a legacy of good fun. Go here for the obit in the Hollywood Reporter.

Karl Malden lived a rich, full life as a working actor. He was one of the most recognizable character actors in the history of cinema with his distinctive, several-times-broken nose. In December he celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary and how many people will ever achieve that?

Some tributes have noted that his American Express commercials and his role on the TV series The Streets of San Francisco created his greatest fame in the public eye. That might be true, but it is not his legacy as an actor. That comes from his great performances on stage and film.

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Billy Mays, 1958-2009.

Billy Mays, the TV pitchman for Oxi-Clean, Kaboom!, ESPN commercials of late and numerous other products, is another victim of a sudden, unexpected death, at age 50. Mays got his start as a pitchman in Atlantic City.
According to Fox News, he was born in Pittsburgh and in 1983 he moved to Atlantic City with a high school friend who was going to become a salesman there. He also took part in the selling game on the Boardwalk, hawking WashMatik (a bucket with a washer inside), the Ultimate Chopper, knives, mops, and other “As seen on TV” products. This gives him a connection to Ed McMahon, who also got his start as a pitchman on the AC boardwalk.

Shock: dead at 50.

Michael Jackson is dead. I don’t know how I feel about that.

I’m shocked. Twenty years ago, he was defined by his music.

In recent years he has been defined and ridiculed for his bizarre behavior, and more disturbingly, by the controversy surrounding such antics as dangling his son over a balcony.

The truth of his music will endure; the rest will remain a shadow that hangs over his legacy.

Farrah Fawcett also died today, after her long and public battle with cancer. She was an cultural icon in the same era as the young Michael Jackson, an ironic footnote to their deaths on the same day.

The famous poster pose.

Nice piece on Entertainment Weekly’s Web site today about the late Ed McMahon’s Atlantic City Boardwalk days.

This was sent in from AC Weekly reader and musican and writer Bruce Klauber on the passing of the late Sam Butera:

Writer’s Note: “I saw Sam Butera hundreds of times in the 1980s at various
casinos in Atlantic City, notably Resorts International.  At that juncture,
I was writing for Atlantic City Magazine by day and playing drums in the lounges
by night, but I always made it my business to be in the lounge of
Resorts when Sam Butera and The Wildest were in residence.  It
was the hottest show in town.  Eventually, I became close with Sam
and the talented members of his band, including the late Buck Mainieri
and Chuck Stevens Ignolia (Connie’s brother) and keyboardist
and arranger Arnie Teich.  Sam had me helping with sound, with
publicity, etc.  In other words, I was a hanger-on with a purpose.  Sam
and the boys gave me some of the most exciting and most
educational moments of my life.  Though the following tribute
concentrates on Butera’s long association with Louis Prima, be
aware that he participated in many projects on his own, both before
and during the Prima years, including recording sessions as a
soloist, fabulous pairings with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sammy
Davis, and even a film or two, including The Rat Race.  Sam’s music,
with and without Prima, is timeless and will never, ever date or age.
Was it art?  As Sam might have answered, “I don’t know, man…but it
was sure fun.”

Article from Jazzlegends.com:

“Saxophonist Sam Butera, the architect behind the sound of the legendary singer and trumpeter,  Louis Prima, passed away in Las Vegas on June 3rd.   He would have been 82 in August.  Butera, who retired in 2004, died as a result of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease, said his wife of 62 years, Vera.

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