Bruce Kessler, who directed episodes of shows including The Monkees, It Takes a Thief, The Rockford Files, McCloud and The Commish when he wasn’t driving race cars, designing boats or circling the globe in a yacht, has died. He was 88.
Kessler died Thursday at his home in Marina del Rey after a brief illness, his brother, author and columnist Stephen Kessler, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Survivors also include his wife, actress Joan Freeman, perhaps best known as the love interest of Elvis Presley’s character in Roustabout (1964). She and Kessler were together for 54 years and married for 33.
Kessler served as second-unit director on Howard Hawks’ Red Line 7000 (1965), an action film about stock cars that starred James Caan, before embarking on a three-decade career as a director for television.
His credits included The Flying Nun, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., Get Christie Love!, Baretta, Switch, CHiPs, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero,...
Kessler died Thursday at his home in Marina del Rey after a brief illness, his brother, author and columnist Stephen Kessler, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Survivors also include his wife, actress Joan Freeman, perhaps best known as the love interest of Elvis Presley’s character in Roustabout (1964). She and Kessler were together for 54 years and married for 33.
Kessler served as second-unit director on Howard Hawks’ Red Line 7000 (1965), an action film about stock cars that starred James Caan, before embarking on a three-decade career as a director for television.
His credits included The Flying Nun, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., Get Christie Love!, Baretta, Switch, CHiPs, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero,...
- 4/7/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Barbara Baldavin, who appeared on three episodes of the original Star Trek and recurred on Medical Center before working in the casting department on shows including Dynasty and Trapper John, M.D., has died. She was 85.
Baldavin died Sunday of congestive heart failure at her home in Manhattan Beach, her son Marc D’Agosta told The Hollywood Reporter.
Baldavin portrayed phaser control officer Angela Martine on two first-season episodes of NBC’s Star Trek in 1966. On the first one, her wedding to Starfleet officer Robert Tomlinson (Stephen Mines) — with William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk presiding — was interrupted by a Romulan attack.
She then returned as Lt. Lisa, a communications officer and court reporter, on the series finale, “Turnabout Intruder,” which aired in June 1969.
Baldavin played Nurse Holmby on 51 episodes during the last six seasons (1970-76) of CBS’ Medical Center, starring Chad Everett and James Daly. She had appeared as another character on the first season.
Baldavin died Sunday of congestive heart failure at her home in Manhattan Beach, her son Marc D’Agosta told The Hollywood Reporter.
Baldavin portrayed phaser control officer Angela Martine on two first-season episodes of NBC’s Star Trek in 1966. On the first one, her wedding to Starfleet officer Robert Tomlinson (Stephen Mines) — with William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk presiding — was interrupted by a Romulan attack.
She then returned as Lt. Lisa, a communications officer and court reporter, on the series finale, “Turnabout Intruder,” which aired in June 1969.
Baldavin played Nurse Holmby on 51 episodes during the last six seasons (1970-76) of CBS’ Medical Center, starring Chad Everett and James Daly. She had appeared as another character on the first season.
- 4/1/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Peter S. Fischer, co-creator of Murder, She Wrote and writer on dozens of crime series such as Columbo, Ellery Queen and Murder spinoff The Law and Harry McGraw, has died. Grandson Jake McElrath confirmed his passing to The Hollywood Reporter. Fischer was 88.
Peter S. Fischer is best known for co-creating the juggernaut Murder, She Wrote franchise with Richard Levinson and William Link. He wrote 264 episodes of the CBS series, including the pilot, which ran from 1984-1996. The lighthearted mystery drama landed in the Top 10 for eight of those seasons and the Top 15 for the first 11.
Fischer also created and wrote 15 episodes of spinoff The Law and Harry McGraw, starring Jerry Orbach. It spotlighted McGraw, a private investigator who appeared in three episodes of Murder, She Wrote. It ran for one season from 1987 to 1988.
The year after the Angela Lansbury-starring show ended, Fischer wrote a TV movie featuring the Jessica Fletcher...
Peter S. Fischer is best known for co-creating the juggernaut Murder, She Wrote franchise with Richard Levinson and William Link. He wrote 264 episodes of the CBS series, including the pilot, which ran from 1984-1996. The lighthearted mystery drama landed in the Top 10 for eight of those seasons and the Top 15 for the first 11.
Fischer also created and wrote 15 episodes of spinoff The Law and Harry McGraw, starring Jerry Orbach. It spotlighted McGraw, a private investigator who appeared in three episodes of Murder, She Wrote. It ran for one season from 1987 to 1988.
The year after the Angela Lansbury-starring show ended, Fischer wrote a TV movie featuring the Jessica Fletcher...
- 11/2/2023
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Peter S. Fischer, the late-blooming TV writer and producer who co-created Murder, She Wrote after serving on such other crime-solving series as Columbo, Baretta and Ellery Queen, has died. He was 88.
Fischer died Monday at a care facility in Pacific Grove, California, his grandson Jake McElrath announced.
He became a prolific novelist after he exited Hollywood, writing murder mysteries, of course.
Fischer, who had worked with Columbo co-creators Richard Levinson and William Link on the iconic Peter Falk series as well as on the Jim Hutton-starring Ellery Queen, accompanied the pair to a meeting with CBS executives in 1984, he recalled in a 2011 interview.
“CBS wanted to do a murder mystery and they called Dick, who was our ringleader. He said, ‘Ok, I’ll bring the boys,'” Fischer said. “We went over there and pitched a premise called Blacke’s Magic, about a retired magician who solves mysteries. It became...
Fischer died Monday at a care facility in Pacific Grove, California, his grandson Jake McElrath announced.
He became a prolific novelist after he exited Hollywood, writing murder mysteries, of course.
Fischer, who had worked with Columbo co-creators Richard Levinson and William Link on the iconic Peter Falk series as well as on the Jim Hutton-starring Ellery Queen, accompanied the pair to a meeting with CBS executives in 1984, he recalled in a 2011 interview.
“CBS wanted to do a murder mystery and they called Dick, who was our ringleader. He said, ‘Ok, I’ll bring the boys,'” Fischer said. “We went over there and pitched a premise called Blacke’s Magic, about a retired magician who solves mysteries. It became...
- 11/2/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Welcome to this week’s review of Aew: Dynamite, which was broadcast live from the Viejas Arena in San Diego, California. We’ve got Excalibur, Tony Schiavone and Taz on commentary so let’s get into the review!
Match #1: The Blackpool Combat Club def. The Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) and Bandido The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
The Bcc immediately began their beatdown on their opponents. Moxley used his Death Jitsu on Penta El Zero Miedo. Yuta stomped Bandido in the ring, and the match was officially underway. Yuta sat out with a senton on Bandido for a near fall. Bandido rallied back with a delayed vertical suplex on Wheeler Yuta while the Lucha Bros held off Claudio and Moxley. Penta blasted Claudio with a backstabber. Yuta dodged a diving crossbody press from Bandido. Claudio and Moxley spiked Bandido on the arena floor with a piledriver.
Match #1: The Blackpool Combat Club def. The Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) and Bandido The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
The Bcc immediately began their beatdown on their opponents. Moxley used his Death Jitsu on Penta El Zero Miedo. Yuta stomped Bandido in the ring, and the match was officially underway. Yuta sat out with a senton on Bandido for a near fall. Bandido rallied back with a delayed vertical suplex on Wheeler Yuta while the Lucha Bros held off Claudio and Moxley. Penta blasted Claudio with a backstabber. Yuta dodged a diving crossbody press from Bandido. Claudio and Moxley spiked Bandido on the arena floor with a piledriver.
- 6/2/2023
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
A day after Robert Blake celebrated his acquittal on charges of murdering his wife, a lawyer for the victim's family announced plans to "wipe that smile off his face" in a civil case. The former Baretta star, 71, was elated after being found not guilty on Wednesday in the May 2001 shooting death of his wife of six months, Bonny Lee Bakley. Blake was also acquitted of soliciting a former stuntman to murder Bakley, and the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of finding him not guilty of asking a second stuntman to kill her. But now Blake's legal woes have entered a fresh chapter, after a wrongful death civil lawsuit was brought by Bakley's family, which was held over until the conclusion of the three-month criminal trial. Eric Dubin, the lawyer for Bakley's family, says, "I'm going to wipe that smile off his face." Dubin adds the family felt Bakley, portrayed in court as a star-struck grifter who ran a mail-order sex business, had been murdered twice - "once in the car and once on the stand". Blake was charged with fatally shooting Bakley, 44, in his car outside a Los Angeles-area restaurant. The evidence was largely circumstantial, based on the testimony of the two stuntmen whom jurors said they found unreliable. Dubin plans to take testimony for the civil case from Blake within two weeks and have him back in court in July. In civil cases, a verdict is based on the "preponderance of evidence" and the jury's verdict does not have to be unanimous - a lower standard of proof than a criminal trial where a case has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
- 3/18/2005
- WENN
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