As 2017 comes to a close, we reflect on the many losses in the film and entertainment industries that we have had this year. Full obituaries were written to Sir John Hurt, Bill Paxton, Jonathan Demme, and Sir Roger Moore throughout the year. However, there were many deaths we were unable to pay tribute to at the time.
So here we pay tribute to just some of the stars- from both in front of and behind the camera- who passed this year.
Director John G. Avildsen won his first and only Oscar for his work on Rocky (1976). He returned to the franchise to Rocky V, as well as The Karate Kid and its two sequels. He also directed Jack Lemmon to an Oscar-winning performance in Save The Tiger (1973). Other films Avildsen directed include Neighbours, Lean On Me and The Power Of One. He was the subject of a 2017 documentary John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs.
Whilst best known for his TV work as time-travelling magician Catweazle and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge, Geoffrey Bayldon also had a suprisingly full film career including roles in Dracula, 55 Days At Peking, the 1967 version of Casino Royale (as Q), To Sir With Love, Scrooge, The Slipper And The Rose, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Ladies In Lavender.
Starting his film career with a role in The Goodbye Girl, Powers Boothe's filmography spanned five decades and took in everything from Westerns to superhero movies. On film, he appeared in Cruising, Red Dawn, Tombstone, Blue Sky, Nixon, and Frailty. He played Senator Roark in Sin City and its sequel Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and played a member of the World Security Council (later named Gideon Malick) in Marvel's The Avengers, reprising the role in the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Other television roles include 24, Nashville and Deadwood.
Bernie Casey made his film debut in Guns Of The Magnificent Seven, before appearing in several blaxploitation films including Cleopatra Jones and Maurie. He played fraternity president U.N. Jefferson in Revenge Of The Nerds and its sequels. He also appeared in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Spies Like Us, Another 48hrs, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and as Felix Leiter in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again.
Known for his roles as flamboyant cook Lafayette Reynolds in seven seasons of True Blood and as ex-convict and gang member Shinwell Johnson in the fifth season of Elementary, Nelsan Ellis also had a diverse filmography appearing in The Help, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Secretariat, the James Brown biopic Get On Up, The Stanford Prison Experiment, and as Martin Luther King Jr. in Lee Daniels' The Butler.
Sir Bruce Forsyth had a career spanning over eight decades, as the presenter of such TV shows as Strictly Come Dancing, Play Your Cards Right, The Generation Game, The Price Is Right, and Sunday Night At The London Palladium. He also had several film appearances, including the Gertrude Lawrence biopic Star! (as Gertrude's father) and as Swinburne, the Bookman's henchman, in Bedknobs And Broomsticks.
Sir Peter Hall was the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, director of the National Theatre from 1973 to 1988- where he directed the world premieres of Amadeus, No Man's Land and Betrayal- and artistic director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He was also a film director, directing the 1968 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (starring Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg and Judi Dench), the 1969 drama Three Into Two Won't Go and the 1973 version of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (starring Ian Holm and Vivien Merchant).
British stage and screen actor Robert Hardy will probably be best remembered for his role as vet Siegfried Farnon in the TV series All Creatures Great And Small and as an uncanny mimic of Winston Churchill (a role he played on screen many times). Aside from TV work, Hardy also appeared in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, 10 Rillington Place, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sense And Sensibility, Mrs. Dalloway, and as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in four Harry Potter films.
Before becoming a director, Anthony Harvey worked as an editor on such films as Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. He made his directorial debut in 1966 with Dutchman but is best known for his 1968 film The Lion In Winter starring Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins. It was nominated for seven Oscars (including Harvey for Best Director), and won three. Harvey would go on to direct several other films and TV movies, including They Might Be Giants, Players, and The Glass Menagerie.
Glenne Headly was an original member of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company before making her film debut in 1981 with Four Friends. She went on to appear in The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dick Tracy, and Mr. Holland's Opus. She also appeared in Timecode, Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, and Don Jon and made appearances on TV in ER, Monk and The Night Of.
Horror maestro Tobe Hooper directed fifteen features throughout his career, including two seminal films: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. His other films include Lifeforce, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Toolbox Murders. Not content with scaring the bejeezus out of folks at the cinema, he also directed the acclaimed TV movie of Stephen King's Salem's Lot as well as episodes of Freddy's Nightmares, Tales From The Crypt and Masters Of Horror. He also directed the music video for Billy Idol's 'Dancing With Myself'.
Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau played many roles on TV, including Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999, and appeared in North By Northwest, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!, Sliver, and Frankenweenie. He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar three times- for his roles in Tucker: The Man And His Dream, Woody Allen's Crimes And Misdemeanors and Tim Burton's Ed Wood, winning on his third nomination for his breathtaking portrayal of Bela Lugosi.
Originally paired with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis will be best remembered for his slapstick comic roles in films such as The Nutty Professor, Cinderfella, The Patsy, Boeing Boeing and The Bellboy. After a fallow period in the 1970s, his career undertook a renaissance with The King Of Comedy, where he played a talk-show host who is stalked by an aspiring comic. He later went on to appear in Mr. Saturday Night, Funny Bones, and Max Rose. Aside from acting, he also raised a lot of money for muscular dystrophy charities via annual telethons.
Whilst Mary Tyler Moore was probably best known for her television roles in The Dick Van Dyke Show and as the trailblazing Mary Richards in Mary Tyler Moore, she also had a diverse filmography, appearing in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Flirting With Disaster and Cheats. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 1981 for her performance as a mother who loses her son in Ordinary People.
Jeanne Moreau is widely considered to be one of the grande dames of French cinema, the muse of the Nouvelle Vague movement, working with many acclaimed directors such as Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim, Luc Besson, Elia Kazan, Orson Welles, Tony Richardson and Wim Wenders, to name but a few. Her roles in Jules et Jim, Les Amants (The Lovers) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses are iconic, and she continued to work, both in France and internationally, until recently.
Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist played journalist Mikael Blomkvist opposite Noomi Rapace in the Scandinavian version of Stieg Larsson's Millennium books (which starts with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). He also appeared in Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol, Abduction, Downloading Nancy, and as the villain Viggo Tarasov in John Wick.
Whilst probably best known to Western audiences as the patriarch George Khan in East Is East, Om Puri had an illustrious career in Bollywood films since the 1970s. He won two National Awards in India for his roles in Arohan and Ardh Satya and also appeared in Maqbool, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Dhoop. He also appeared in Gandhi, Wolf, Charlie Wilson's War, West Is West, The Hundred-Foot Journey and Viceroy's House.
Don Rickles was primarily known as a stand-up comedian and insult comic, appearing on many of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, where he good-naturedly insulted people like Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. He was a serious actor as well, appearing in Casino, Kelly's Heroes, The Rat Race and Run Silent Run Deep. However, he will be best remembered for his voice work, especially as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story movies.
Emmanuelle Riva made history when, at the age of 85, she became the oldest Best Actress Oscar nominee for her role in Michael Haneke's Amour (also winning the Best Actress BAFTA for the same role). In a career spanning seven decades, she also appeared in Hiroshima Mon Amour, Therese Desqueyroux, and Three Colors: Blue.
George A. Romero will be fondly remembered as the father of the zombie movie, despite the word 'zombie' never actually featuring in his breakout 1968 film Night Of The Living Dead. His 1978 film Dawn Of The Dead combined a sly social commentary on the materialism of American culture with survival horror, and he would go on to make several more '...of the Dead' films throughout his career. Away from zombies, Romero also directed Season Of The Witch, The Crazies, Martin, Knightriders, Creepshow, and The Dark Half.
As well as being an actor, Sam Shepard was an award-winning playwright, writing over 40 plays including The Unseen Hand (1969), Fool For Love (1983), A Lie Of The Mind (1985) and Simpatico (1993). He won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1978 play Buried Child. On screen, he appeared in Crimes Of The Heart, Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief, Swordfish, Black Horse Down, The Notebook, August: Osage County, and Out Of The Furnace. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.
One of Harry Dean Stanton's first film roles was an uncredited Department of Corrections employee in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock film The Wrong Man. From there, he appeared in over 100 films including Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Private Benjamin, Escape From New York, Paris, Texas, The Last Temptation Of Christ, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Inland Empire, and The Avengers.
Say the name Adam West and one role will appear in most people's mind: Batman. West played the Caped Crusader in the very popular 1960s TV series and reprised his role for the 1966 big-screen version. He appeared as heightened versions of himself in shows like Murphy Brown and The Big Bang Theory. West found a new calling in voice acting appearing in The Fairly OddParents, Chicken Little and as Mayor Adam West in over 100 episodes of Family Guy.
Others who passed away this year include:
- German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (Goodfellas, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Gangs Of New York)
- British actor Keith Barron (Voyage Of The Damned, The Land That Time Forgot, Duty Free)
- British actor Trevor Baxter (Doctor Who, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, A Man For All Seasons)
- American musician and actor Chester Bennington
- Welsh actor Hywel Bennett (The Family Way, Twisted Nerve, Neverwhere)
- British actor Rodney Bewes (Billy Liar, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, Jabberwocky)
- American author William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)
- American actress Darlene Cates (What's Eating Gilbert Grape)
- American musician Chris Cornell
- French actress Danielle Darrieux (8 Women, Persepolis, 5 Fingers)
- British author Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse)
- German actress Karin Dor (You Only Live Twice, Topaz, The Invisible Dr. Mabuse)
- British actor Roy Dotrice (Nicholas And Alexandra, Amadeus, Hellboy II: The Golden Army)
- American actor Miguel Ferrer (RoboCop, Mulan, Iron Man 3, Twin Peaks)
- British actor Neil Fingleton (X-Men: First Class, Jupiter Ascending)
- American voice actress June Foray (Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cinderella)
- American actor Warren Frost (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Sister Act 2)
- American actor Stephen Furst (Animal House)
- American actor Robert Guillaume (The Lion King, Big Fish)
- British actor Tony Haygarth (Chicken Run, Dracula, A Private Function)
- American actor John Heard (Home Alone, Home Alone II: Lost In New York, Big)
- American cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld (Young Frankenstein, Diary Of A Mad Housewife)
- American actor Rance Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Nebraska)
- American actor Clifton James (Live And Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun)
- British actor Gorden Kaye ('Allo, 'Allo!)
- American actor Sonny Landham (48hrs, Predator, Poltergeist)
- German cinematographer Walter Lassally (Zorba The Greek, Tom Jones, A Taste Of Honey)
- British actress Rosemary Leach (A Room With A View, That'll Be The Day, Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?)
- American actress and singer Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Psycho)
- British actor Alec McCowen (Never Say Never Again, Gangs Of New York)
- Canadian actress Heather Menzies-Urich (The Sound Of Music, Logan's Run, Hawaii)
- British costume designer John Mollo (Star Wars, Alien, Gandhi)
- Japanese actor Haruo Nakajima (Seven Samurai, Godzilla)
- British film critic Barry Norman
- American actor Michael Parks (Argo, Kill Bill, Django Unchained)
- British actor Tim Piggot-Smith (V For Vendetta, Quantum of Solace)
- British actor Peter Sallis (Last of The Summer Wine, Wallace & Gromit)
- American wrestler turned actor George 'The Animal' Steele (Ed Wood)
- Japanese film director Seijun Suzuki (Tokyo Drifter, Branded To Kill)
- Czech actor Jan Triska (Ronin, Reds, The People Vs Larry Flynt)
- American actor Jack Vincent (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Casino)
- British actress Deborah Watling (Doctor Who)
- British actor Heathcote Williams (The Tempest, Orlando, Little Dorrit)
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