2025 RIP

Wayne Osmond was born on 28 August 1951 in Ogden, Utah, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Cemetery Junction (2010), Harrigan (2013) and Land of the Lost (1974). He was married to Kathlyn Louise White. He died on 1 January 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

Harvey Laidman was a member of the legendary Kenley Players in Warren, Ohio for three seasons. After graduating from USC Cinema School and three years with KTTV (Metromedia) in Los Angeles, he was accepted into the Directors Guild of America Producer Training program, working at Universal Studios and on series such as The High Chaparral (1967) and Bonanza (1959). He continued at Universal studios as an Assistant Director on features and television and then worked at Lorimar Productions, where he was a production manager and assistant director, getting his first directing assignment on The Waltons (1972) in 1975. He continued to direct, working on all kinds of series, pilots, movies and long forms. In 2006 he decided to continue his education, pursuing advanced degrees, receiving a doctorate degree in education in September, 2018.

Peter Yarrow was born on 31 May 1938 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and composer, known for Meet the Parents (2000), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and Airplane! (1980). He was married to Mary Elizabeth McCarthy. He died on 7 January 2025 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Bill Byrge worked for the Metro Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tennessee, for over 20 years. He has had a successful career with the library, but retired in the summer of 1995 to work full-time on his movie career. He appeared in several movies with Jim Varney (Ernest). He also appeared in a few music videos with Ray Stevens, such as "Sitting up with the Dead", wherein he was the one in the coffin.

Christopher Benjamin was fifteen when he made up his mind to become an actor. He recollected having already performed in school plays playing Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later acting opportunities arose in amateur dramatics in Bath while Benjamin was undergoing a two year stint of national service with the Royal Air Force. His father died during his first term at RADA. After graduating in 1958, Benjamin began his professional career in repertory at the Manchester Library Theatre. He often played old men, because "they couldn't afford real old men". From 1958 to 1965, he became prolific as a leading actor at the Salisbury Arts Theatre, taking on any classical part from Willy Loman and James Tyrone to Falstaff. Benjamin spent several seasons at the Bristol Old Vic (1962-67) and was later (1978-2002) regularly engaged by the RSC, headlining several times in the mid 90's in the title role of Julius Caesar. In addition to frequent portrayals of Shakespearean clowns Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Benjamin also reprised his dual roles of Vincent Crummles and Walter Bray in Trevor Nunn's production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (upon the play's transfer to Broadway's Plymouth Theatre in October 1981). He also played Falstaff again at Shakespeare's Globe, two years before his retirement from the stage in 2012.

While the theatre always remained his favorite medium, Benjamin was equally prolific on screen since 1961, albeit in smaller roles. He usually portrayed amiable, garrulous or avuncular characters with a comedic edge. Early on, Benjamin was featured on three occasions in The Prisoner (1967) and made other guest appearances in popular ITC series The Baron (1966), The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Jason King (1971). He also made a strong run in period drama, his notable roles in this genre having included Annette's Belgian lover Prosper Profond in BBC's acclaimed The Forsyte Saga (1967); the roguish bachelor Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the original series of Poldark (1975); corrupt landowner Sir John Glutton, chief nemesis of Dick Turpin (1979); the amicable, though none-too-bright Bennet family friend Sir William Lucas in BBC's famous adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995); and the inept hack actor Montfleury in the made-for-TV movie Cyrano de Bergerac (1985) (a role Benjamin had previously performed several times on the stage).

Television director David Maloney, who had been a BBC floor manager at the time of Benjamin's work on The Forsyth Saga, remembered the actor and cast him in the part of bluff theatrical impresario and reluctant hero Henry Gordon Jago in the Doctor Who (1963) serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, alongside Trevor Baxter in the role of Professor George Litefoot. The duo proved immensely popular with audiences. In fact so much so, that Benjamin reprised his role as Jago in a fourteen-part series of audio plays ('Jago and Litefoor') for Big Finish Productions, released between 2010 and 2021. Benjamin had previously appeared as project director Sir Keith Gold in the Doctor Who serial Inferno and later played Boer War veteran Colonel Hugh Curbishley in the 'Agatha Christie episode' The Unicorn and the Wasp. In 1996, Benjamin and Amanda Redman co-starred as MI6 agents in the BBC radio drama Colvil and Soames, a six part murder mystery created and written by Christopher Lee.

An avid cricket fan, Benjamin retired in 2021 and lived in Hampstead, London. His was married to the actress Anna Fox. The union produced three children.

Christopher Benjamin passed away in January 2025 at the age of 90.

Sam Moore was born on 12 October 1935 in Miami, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for The Great Outdoors (1988), Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) and Julia (2008). He was married to Joyce McRae. He died on 10 January 2025 in Coral Gables, Florida, USA.

Leslie Charleson was born on 22 February 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for General Hospital (1963), Kung Fu (1972) and Cannon (1971). She was married to George William Demms. She died on 12 January 2025 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Claude was the son of a railroad accountant. With no intentions of becoming a screen actor at the time, 12-year-old Claude Jarman, Jr. was discovered during an MGM nationwide talent search for their upcoming film, The Yearling (1946), and won the coveted role of Jody Baxter in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' classic story. The critics raved over Claude's tremendously moving debut, and the boy was awarded a miniature Oscar on Academy Awards night.

His family moved to California permanently, and Claude studied at the MGM studio school while being built up as a child star. Sad to say, his film success would not last all that long. He seemed to lack the requisite good looks and natural boyish appeal necessary to forge on ahead. His follow-up films were mediocre, however, including High Barbaree (1947) with Van Johnson, The Sun Comes Up (1949) with Jeanette MacDonald, and Roughshod (1949) starring Robert Sterling. His next best role would be in Intruder in the Dust (1949) with David Brian and Juano Hernandez, but it wasn't enough to sustain his career.

By the early 1950s, MGM was loaning him out to Republic Studios in minor programmers and the now-awkward teen lost ground rapidly. Discouraged, Claude returned to Nashville to complete high school and then attended Vanderbilt University where he took a pre-law course. Following his studies, he served three years in the Navy. By the time he returned to Hollywood in 1959, he found no film work at all but did manage to guest on a few TV shows. He later moved to behind-the-scenes work and made minor strides as a producer and film-festival executive director. He once served as director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco.

Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future director Jennifer Lynch shortly after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired Eraserhead (1977), a film that he began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable weird, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a cult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (in an unlikely alliance with Mel Brooks), though The Elephant Man (1980) was shot through with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical and commercial success led to Dune (1984), a hugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself with the now classic Blue Velvet (1986), his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequently won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violent road movie Wild at Heart (1990), and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), which he adapted for the big screen, though his comedy series On the Air (1992) was less successful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stage events with regular composer Angelo Badalamenti. He had a much-publicized affair with Isabella Rossellini in the late 1980s.

Jeannot Szwarc gained a cult following for his time-travelling romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time (1980). It starred Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, both very much at the peak of their popularity. The director himself regarded this and the spy thriller Enigma (1982) as his two best feature films.

Paris-born Szwarc (pronounced "Schwartz") spent his early years in Argentina before studying in the U.S., where he obtained a Master's Degree in political science from Harvard University. Having settled in Paris, he began working for a production company on documentaries and commercials, eventually advancing to the position of second unit director. Upon his return to America in the early sixties, he toiled for several years as a freelance scriptwriter. By the end of the decade, Szwarc had graduated to directing prime-time television. He seamlessly adapted to every genre but always maintained a certain predilection for fantasy and science fiction. Helming episodes of top-rating TV shows for the next five decades, Szwarc amassed multiple credits for episodes of, among others, Night Gallery (1969), Kojak (1973), JAG (1995), Without a Trace (2002),Heroes (2006), Smallville (2001), Fringe (2008), Supernatural (2005) and Bones (2005). His occasional big screen forays were somewhat less consistent in quality, including tepid material like Jaws 2 (1978), Bug (1975) and Supergirl (1984).

Jeannot Szwarc was married to the production coordinator Cara de Menual. He died on January 15 2025, aged 85.

Jack De Mave was born in New Jersey and spent most of his formative years exposed to the two exciting worlds of theater and boxing. The roar of the crowd was music to his ears. Jack's dad was the original "Golden Boy", a leading contender for the heavyweight championship of the world in the late 1920s. he fought 87 professional bouts, losing only 11. After seeing De Mave, Sr., fight, Clifford Odets got the idea for the play "Golden Boy", although the story line was in no way based on real life. Jack's father retired from the ring years before Jack was born, but, as a boy, Jack loved to frequent Stillman's Gym or Dempsey's restaurant, meeting his dad's friends such as Gene Tunney, Rocky Marciano, Mickey walker and Jack Dempsey. Jack's godfather was Primo Carnera). As a very young man, jack was considering boxing as a career. But that changed after seeing Paul Muni in "Inherit the Wind" on Broadway. Jack's mother had been casting director for Broadway producer John Golden years before and it was under the Golden banner that Muni had his first big stage success. Jack visited Muni back stage after the performance and the actor's words turned Jack to acting. Jack's training was solidly launched when he won a scholarship to work with Mary Welch and he was schooled in the classical and contemporary theater. His first professional stage appearance was playing opposite Inger Stevens in "Picnic". His portrayal of "Hal" won rave notices. He thane appeared as "Mannion" in the New York City Center Production of "Mr. Roberts" starring Charlton Heston. That brought him to the attention of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, with whom he appeared as "Pedro Cabral" in "The Visit", the Lunt's last play. Jack considers working with the famed acting couple one of his most rewarding experiences. During his association with them (both on Broadway and in the national touring company) Jack met such theatrical legends as Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward. Jack feels his greatest mistake was in not taking advantage of a scholarship arranged by the Lunts for him at the Royal Academy in London. Jack did, however, study for two years with Lee Strasberg, which he feels was of great value to him. Marilyn Monroe was studying with Strasberg at that time and Jack fondly remembers working on a scene with her for class just before she left to film "Bus Stop." He acted opposite another news-making lady in the person of Princess Lee Radziwill, co-starring with Lee in "The Philadelphia Story." The public interest attending the Princess' stage debut landed them in the center of Life magazine, plus many other magazine and newspaper layouts around the country. Some of Mr. De Mave's other stage experiences include co-starring with Ann Blyth in "Sound of Music," Nanette Fabray in Applause" and with Maureen Reagan in "Any Wednesday." He also co-starred in "Sweeney Todd," "Guys and Dolls" and "The Hasty Heart." Jack most recently appeared in the Ray Milland role of "Dial M for Murder" opposite Hope Lange and in the off-Broadway productions of "Richard the Second" and "Macbeth" in New York. Jack's first television appearance was in the Kraft Theater production of "Kings Bounty," with Christopher Plummer. Jack then moved to Hollywood where his TV career continued with guest-starring roles on "Daniel Boone," The F.B.I," "The Fugitive," "Adam -12," "Marcus Welby, M.D." "Ellery Queen'" and a "TV Pilot film called "Boot Hill." He then took the starring role of "Ranger Bob Ericson" on the new "Lassie" TV series, which he did for three years. Upon leaving the "Lassie" series, Jack guest-starred in the recurring role of Armond Linton on the "Mary Tyler Moore" show. Jack also kept busy as a romantic interest for leading ladies such as Doris Day, Valerie Harper, Kelly McGillis, Susan Lucci and Sandy Duncan. One of Jack's happiest experiences was costarring with Bette Davis in a TV Movie for NBC entitled "Hello Mother, Goodbye" in which he appeared as her newscaster son. Jack says Ms. Davis was one of his all-time favorites. Jack also appeared in recurring roles on several daytime dramas such as "General Hospital," "Loving" and "The Bold and The Beautiful." Jack's first theatrical film was "Splendor in the Grass," wherein he seduced Natalie Wood, a scene added by Eli Kazan and Willian Inge during production. However, in editing the film they thought the scene was too graphic for that time to include. Other films followed and featured Jack with Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale in "Blindfold." "Seventeen Seventy-Six" as John Penn and "Man Without a Face" with Mel Gibson.

Dame Joan Ann Plowright, the Baroness Olivier, is one of the most distinguished actors of her generation. She may be best remembered as the third wife and widow of Laurence Olivier, generally considered the greatest anglophone actor of the 20th Century, but she had a distinguished career of her own on stage and screen spanning six decades.

Born in Brigg, Lincolnshire on October 28, 1929, she received her training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and made her professional stage debut at Croydon in 1948. Her London debut came in 1954, and two years later, she joined George Devine's English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, which would change her life just as the drama at the Royal Court revolutionized the English theater.

The Royal Court's 1956 production of John Osborne's 'Look Back In Anger' was a watershed in English theatrical history, ushering in the 'Angry Young Man" era in British cultural life. In 1957, Plowright first co-starred with her future husband Olivier in the Royal Court's production of Osborne's The Entertainer (1960) when she took over the role of Archie Rice's daughter Jean Rice when the play transferred to a commercial venue in the West End. She recreated the role in Tony Richardson's 1960 film of the play.

To escape the notoriety from Olivier's divorce from Vivien Leigh, Plowright and Olivier went to New York, where they appeared on Broadway, he in Becket (1964) and she in A Taste of Honey (1961). For her performance as Josephine, which Rita Tushingham played in the movie version, she won a 1961 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play. (She had first appeared on Broadway in a twin bill of Eugène Ionesco's "The Chairs" and "The Lesson" in January 1958, a month before she appeared with Olivier in "The Entertainer".) When his divorce from Leigh came through, they were married in March 1961 in New York with Richard Burton as Larry's best man.

From 1963 onward, she was a member of the National Theatre, which was headed by Olivier. Plowright created a distinguished stage career and was acclaimed when she began appearing more frequently in movies and television starting in the the 1980s. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of a knighthood, in the 2004 Queen's New Year Honours.

Plowright divorced her first husband, the actor Roger Gage, to marry Olivier in 1961 and they had three children, Richard Kerr Olivier, Tamsin Olivier and Julie Kate Olivier.

Bob Uecker's first career was professional baseball. He played six seasons in the majors (1962-1967), playing catcher for three different National League teams: Braves (Milwaukee, WI, and Atlanta, GA), Cardinals (St. Louis, MO), and Phillies (Philadelphia, PA). His batting, never stellar, declined steadily over his career: he finished with a .200 lifetime average. He wrote a humorous autobiography entitled "Catcher in the Wry". He appeared in a popular series of Lite beer commercials before landing his first movie role.

Jan Shepard was born on 19 March 1928 in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Captain Midnight (1954), Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) and Then Came Bronson (1969). She was married to Ray Boyle. She died on 17 January 2025 in Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, California, USA.

Gene Barge was born on 9 August 1926 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Under Siege (1992), The Fugitive (1993) and Chain Reaction (1996). He was married to Sarah and ???. He died on 2 February 2025 in Bronzeville, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Anthony Dileo Jr. was born on 26 April 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Day of the Dead (1985), Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Only You (1994). He died on 7 February 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Bruce French was born on 4 July 1945 in Reinbeck, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Jurassic Park III (2001), Fletch (1985) and Mr. Deeds (2002). He was married to Eileen Barnett. He died on 7 February 2025 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Versatility and ability to portray a variety of characters over four decades on stage, screen, and television have made Tony Roberts one of the busiest actors in America. He is a graduate of the High School of Music and Arts, which merged with the High School of Performing Arts to become LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where he majored in theater and studied acting with Alvina Krause. Tony is the son of Radio and Television announcer Ken Roberts, one of the founding members of AFTRA, and has himself served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Screen Actor's Guild and Actor's Equity Association. He is currently the President of Theatre Authority - an organization established by the entertainment unions to oversee benefit performances. Tony has appeared in dozens and dozens of films including Stardust Memories (1980), Star Spangled Girl (1971), The Million Dollar Duck (1971), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Popcorn (1991), Amityville 3-D (1983), Key Exchange (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987) and Switch (1991). His theater credits included "Sugar", "Don't Drink the Water", "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "South Pacific".

William Bassett was born on 28 December 1935 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Karate Kid (1984), Black Dynamite (2009) and House of 1000 Corpses (2003). He was married to Patricia Anne Dorsey. He died on 9 February 2025 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

John Lawlor was born on 5 June 1941 in Troy, New York, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Wyatt Earp (1994), Highlander (1986) and Excalibur (1981). He was married to Tantoo Cardinal and Barbara Ann Blumberg. He died on 13 February 2025 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Alice Hirson was born on 10 March 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Being There (1979), The Glass House (2001) and Revenge of the Nerds (1984). She was married to Stephen Elliott and Roger O. Hirson. She died on 14 February 2025 in Motion Picture & Television Country House.

Kevyn Major Howard was born on 27 January 1956 in Montreal, Canada. He was an actor and producer, known for Full Metal Jacket (1987), Sudden Impact (1983) and Death Wish II (1982). He was married to Tiffanie. He died on 14 February 2025 in Las Vegas Nevada, USA.

Geneviève Page was born on 13 December 1927 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Belle de Jour (1967), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and Fanfan la Tulipe (1952). She was married to Jean-Claude Bujard. She died on 14 February 2025 in Paris, France.

Rick Buckler is an English musician, and former drummer of The Jam. Buckler was born in the town of Woking in the county of Surrey, England. He received his education at Sheerwater Secondary School, in Woking. Whilst there in the early 1970s, he joined other pupils in a newly formed band named The Jam.

Buckler was the drummer for The Jam from its formation in the early 1970s through to its break up in the early 1980s, during which time it became a critically acclaimed and commercially successful pop band with an original sound as part of the mod revival movement in England's music and fashion scenes of the period.

Although the band's creative output came to be attributed primarily to its singer/guitarist Paul Weller, its rhythm section of Buckler and Bruce Foxton (bass guitar) were integral to its sound, and in retrospect Buckler felt that Weller had been given undue credit for the band's song catalogue to the detriment of its other members' contributions.

In 1983, Buckler set up a new band entitled Time UK, featuring himself on drums, Jimmy Edwards and Ray Simone, Danny Kustow, and the bassist Martin Gordon. Gordon's tenure was brief - he recorded demos and performed only one gig with the band before being replaced by Nick South. Time UK sold nearly 60,000 copies of their first single release "The Cabaret".

In the mid-1990s, Buckler abandoned professional music and went into business as a carpenter making cabinets and restoring antique furniture in Woking, Surrey. In November 2005, Buckler re-entered professional music when he set up a new band called The Gift, named after the final album release by The Jam, with Russell Hasting (lead vocals/guitar) and Dave Moore (Bass), with himself on drums, playing exclusively old material from The Jam's back catalogue.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.

Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."

Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with Night Moves (1975) and Bite the Bullet (1975), or fall to new depths with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Young Frankenstein (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Extreme Measures (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in Crimson Tide (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and The Quick and the Dead (1995).