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Veteran television actress Jean Allison, best known for roles in shows like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Perry Mason, has died at 94. Her family’s obituary said she died Feb. 28 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, but no cause was given.

Allison, a character actress, built a long resume in popular TV. She appeared in episodes of Charlie’s Angels, The Detectives, Emergency!, Hawaiian Eye, Starsky & Hutch, The Waltons and many others.

Born on Oct. 24, 1929, she grew up in Tarrytown, New York. She eventually attended Adelphi College on Long Island and later studied acting under Sanford Meisner.

She was spotted while appearing in a stage performance of the drama Teach Me How to Cry, which led to her debut in an episode of the CBS anthology General Electric Theater in 1957.

Allison also appeared in such films as Edge of Fury, (1958) The Devil’s Partner (1960), The Steagle (1971), Bad Company (1972) and Hardcore (1979).

Allison married three times,...

Jean Allison, the familiar character actress who appeared on dozens of TV shows, from Have Gun — Will Travel, Bonanza, Hawaiian Eye and The Rifleman to McCloud, Adam-12, The Waltons and Highway to Heaven, has died. She was 94.

Allison, a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes, died Feb. 28, her family announced.

Allison made her big-screen debut as a woman menaced by a psychopath (Michael Higgins) in the United Artists drama Edge of Fury (1958), and her film résumé also included The Devil’s Partner (1960), Paul Sylbert’s The Steagle (1971), Robert Benton’s Bad Company (1972) and Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979).

Born in New York on Oct. 24, 1929, Allison attended Marymount High School in Tarrytown, New York, and Adelphi College, also in New York.

While appearing on stage in the Patricia Joudry drama Teach Me How to Cry, she was spotted and signed by agent Doovid Barskin. Her first TV gig came in 1957 on CBS’ General Electric Theater.

The transition into a new year often leads people to make big resolutions about how they want to improve their lives in the next 12 months, especially regarding personal fitness. Gyms and fitness centers across the globe see an influx of new visitors who will tell themselves this will be the time that they commit to a regular exercise regimen before falling back into their old habits a couple of weeks later.

If you’re looking for extra motivation to get in better shape, plenty of movies and documentaries encourage the pursuit of fitness. Here are seven films that inspire another stint on the treadmill. The order is determined by their release dates.

‘Cool Runnings’

If you come from a certain background or live a specific lifestyle, it can be easy to tell yourself that some activities aren’t for you, including exercise. So, what better way to get over any...

Clint Eastwood's 2004 movie "Million Dollar Baby" arrived in theaters with the strength of a knockout blow. The boxing drama was adapted by Paul Haggis from a short story from the book "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner" by former boxing cutman Jerry Boyd. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Co-stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman both won Oscars for their performances in the film.

Despite technically being a sports movie, it moves at an incredibly slow pace and is as much a psychological examination of character as it is a look at the...

The post Million Dollar Baby Is A Case Study In How Clint Eastwood Builds A Character appeared first on /Film.

'Million Dollar Baby' movie with Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood. 'Million Dollar Baby' movie: Clint Eastwood contrived, overlong drama made (barely) watchable by first-rate central performance Fresh off the enthusiastically received – and insincere – Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in the 2004 melo Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a “she”) puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. That's because about two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as everything else on screen is painfully predictable. In fact, once the dust is settled, even that last third quickly derails into the same sentimental mush Eastwood and...

Million Dollar Baby (2004) Direction: Clint Eastwood Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker Screenplay: Paul Haggis; mostly from "Million $$$ Baby," one of the six short stories found in F. X. Toole's (aka Jerry Boyd) Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner Oscar Movies Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby Fresh off the multiple Academy Award nominee Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a "she") puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. About two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as the rest of...

According to the trades, Billy Bob Thornton has signed on to star in Pound for Pound, a boxing drama based on a novel from F.X. Toole. Ron Shelton (Dark Blue, Tin Cup) is attached to write and direct. The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways. Thornton will play the retired boxer, while producers are out to cast on the younger role. Toole, the pen name for the late boxing cutman Jerry Boyd, gained fame two years after he died when the stories in his collection "Rope Burns," became the basis for the Clint Eastwood-Paul Haggis drama "Million Dollar Baby." The 2004 movie earned $207 million worldwide and was nominated for seven Oscars and won four,...

Memo to radio host Jian Ghomeshi: it's now safe to call Billy Bob Thornton an actor again, he's back to making movies. No more mashed potatoes without gravy. Thornton has signed on to the adaptation of the novel Pound For Pound from F.X. Toole, pen name of late boxer and author Jerry Boyd who also wrote the stories that inspired Million Dollar Baby. Billy Bob will play a widowed former boxer whose loss of his grandson triggers a depression, just as he meets a young up-and-coming Latino...

Million Dollar Billy Bob?

Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel from F.X. Toole, the author of the book that became "Million Dollar Baby."

Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film, which Leslie Greif and Herb Nanas are producing via their Greif Company banner. Elie Samaha will exec produce.

The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways. Thornton will play the retired boxer, while producers are out to cast on the younger role. The project aims to shoot in the first quarter of 2010.

Producers say that despite the dark undertones, there remains an optimistic note to the pic. "Unlike 'Million Dollar Baby,...

Author F.X. Toole and screenwriter Paul Haggis were awarded the 17th annual Scripter Award by Friends of the USC Libraries on Sunday night for the best film adaptation of a book or novella. Toole -- the pen name of the late Jerry Boyd -- wrote the short story collection Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, and Haggis adapted one of the stories, Million Dollar Baby, into the screenplay of the same name. Toole died in 2002, and the award was accepted by his daughter Erin Patricia Boyd. With her eyes welling up with tears, Boyd recounted the lifelong struggles her father faced as a writer -- years of rejection slips, two failed marriages -- before having his first book Rope Burns published at age 70. He died at age 72. "This evening, my father watches from above as we celebrate his work," she said. "He watches from above as his children bathe in his glory. My father won his fight and now rests in peace."...

Encouraged by the positive reaction to Mystic River, Clint Eastwood continues his exploration of the tragic side of human existence in Million Dollar Baby, a film that enters a murky area of the soul where a man can hide out from his God even as he seeks His mercy. On the surface, the film is a simple boxing story about a hellcat from the Ozarks and the grizzled Irish Catholic trainer who takes her on. Under Eastwood's painstakingly stripped-down direction -- his filmmaking has become the cinematic equivalent of Hemingway's spare though precise prose -- the story emerges as that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy.

Million Dollar Baby may appeal to a narrower range of moviegoers than the usual Eastwood film. The film lacks the propulsive energy of Mystic River, which, after all, was a crime tale, and the story rarely leaves the gym or boxing ring. While the film should achieve above-average results in urban markets, critical reaction and possible Oscar nominations may add substantially to the boxoffice.

Paul Haggis' screenplay is drawn from a story in "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner," a collection of short stories based on the experiences of longtime cutman and fight manager Jerry Boyd, writing at age 70 under the pen name of F.X. Toole. What one must get used to is a writing style that favors stereotypes and familiar plots. It is the force of the personality Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman bring to these gym rats that causes them to emerge as convincing archetypes in a story of almost mystical heroism.

Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is an emotionally closed, sour individual. Estranged from his only daughter -- the movie never gets to the bottom of how he earned her scorn -- he holes up in his downtown L.A. gym, surrounded by fighters and Scap (Freeman), an ex-boxer who runs the place. Frankie is not on good terms with God, either. He attends Mass nearly every day but does so mostly to argue with the exasperated priest (Brian O'Byrne).

When Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), an emotionally scared hillbilly, asks him to train her, his answer is curt: At 31, she is too old, and he doesn't train "girlies." Nonetheless, she works out at his gym for a year, getting occasional tips from Scrap, before wearing Frankie down to where he grudgingly takes her on. The rocky road taken by fighter and trainer leads to a championship match. Here the story takes an abrupt turn into tragedy that forces the two to confront the true meaning of love and the strange way fate can deliver redemption.

The film has few characters. Jay Baruchel stands out as a mentally challenged man with delusions of becoming a boxer. Maggie's trailer-trash family threatens to overwhelm the movie with cliches. Otherwise, Million Dollar Baby is a three-character drama.

Clearly, Maggie becomes the daughter Frankie lacks, but theirs is a combative relationship in which they are never on the same page until the end. Similarly, Frankie and Scrap bicker like an old married couple, yet beneath the surface is a compelling symbiosis. Frankie was cutman on Scrap's last fight, where he lost an eye. Frankie can never forgive himself for not finding a way to stop the brutal bout, and Scrap knows how quickly Frankie would fall apart were he to ever leave.

What happened to Scrap has made Frankie overly cautious. He tells all his fighters to protect themselves, but what he really wants to protect is himself. Thus, he never puts his boxers into title fights, which drives them to managers who will. When he finally does agree to a title fight, his worst fears are confirmed.

The film is told in a voice-over narration by Scrap in which the poetry and homilies are a bit self-conscious. Director Eastwood keeps individual scenes simple and quick, like Maggie's fights. Once he gets the emotional impact he's after, he cuts and moves quickly on.

Similarly, Eastwood's music (orchestrated by Lennie Niehaus) is paired down, often to a lonesome guitar that reflects the characters' melancholy. Henry Bumstead's sets look old and worn. You can smell the stale sweat. Tom Stern's cinematography is straightforward in muted colors as the film plays nicely with light and shadows.

MILLION DOLLAR BABY

Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Lakeshore EntertainmentA Malpaso/Ruddy Morgan production

Credits:

Director-music: Clint Eastwood

Screenwriter: Paul Haggis

Based on Rope Burns by: F.X. Toole

Producers: Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenberg, Paul Haggis

Executive producers: Gary Lucchesi, Robert Lorenz

Director of photography: Tom Stern

Production designer: Henry Bumstead

Music orchestration: Lennie Niehaus

Co-producer: Bobby Moresco

Costumes: Deborah Hopper

Editor: Joel Cox

Cast:

Frankie Dunn: Clint Eastwood

Maggie Fitzgerald: Hilary Swank

Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: Morgan Freeman

Danger Barch: Jay Baruchel

Big Willie Little: Mike Colter

Billie The Blue Bear: Lucia Rijker

Father Horvak: Brian O'Byrne

Shawrelle Berry: Anthony Mackie

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 132 minutes...