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1-18 of 18
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bill McKinney, the movie and television character actor who was one of the great on-screen villains, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on September 12, 1931. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving 12 times before joining the Navy at the age of 19 during the Korean War. Once, when his family moved from Tennessee to Georgia, he was beaten by a local gang and thrown into a creek for the offense of being from the Volunteer State.
In his four years on active duty in the Navy, McKinney served two years on a mine sweeper in Korean waters. He was also stationed at Port Hueneme in Ventura County, California, and he would journey to nearby Los Angeles while on liberty from his ship. During his years in the Navy, McKinney decided he wanted to be an actor and would make it his life if he survived the Korean War.
Discharged in Long Beach, California, in 1954, McKinney settled in southern California. He attended acting school at the famous Pasadena Playhouse in 1957, and his classmates included Dustin Hoffman and Mako. McKinney supported himself as an arborist, trimming and taking down trees, a job he continued into the 1970s, when he was appearing in major films. McKinney has had a life-long love affair with trees since he was a child.
After his time at the Pasadena Playhouse, McKinney was admitted to Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. He made his movie debut in the exploitation picture, She Freak (1967), and was busy on television, making his debut in 1968 on The Monkees (1965) and attracting attention as "Lobo" on Alias Smith and Jones (1971). But it was as the Mountain Man in John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), a movie nominated for Best Picture of 1972 at the Academy Awards, that brought McKinney widespread attention and solidified his reputation as one of moviedom's all-time most heinous screen villains.
In his autobiography, McKinney's Deliverance (1972) co-star, Burt Reynolds (whose character dispatches The Mountain Man with an arrow in the back) said of McKinney, "I thought he was a little bent. I used to get up at five in the morning and see him running nude through the golf course while the sprinklers watered the grass...."
McKinney denies this, and also disputes Reynolds contention that he was overly enthusiastic playing the infamous scene where his character buggers Ned Beatty.
"He always played sickos", Reynolds said of McKinney, "but he played them well. With my dark sense of humor, I was kind of amused by him.... McKinney turned out to be a pretty good guy who just took the method way too far".
McKinney told Maxim magazine in an interview honoring him and his Mountain Man partner 'Herbert "Cowboy" Coward' as the #1 screen villains of all time that Reynolds' stories were untrue. "If you lose control on a movie set", McKinney told Maxim, "it's not acting, it's indulgence".
McKinney's wild-and-reckless screen persona and penchant for on-screen villainy attracted offers from A-list directors, which is a testament to his professionalism. He began appearing in films directed by top directors: Sam Peckinpah's Junior Bonner (1972), John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Peter Yates's For Pete's Sake (1974) and, most chillingly, as the assassin in Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View (1974). (One director who did not hire him was Stanley Kubrick, who had considered him for the role of the Marine drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket (1987) but demurred as he thought he came across as too scary after screening "Deliverance".)
McKinney also appeared in the classic TV movie, The Execution of Private Slovik (1974), while guest-starring on some of the top TV shows, including He'll Never See Daylight (1975) and Columbo (1971).
It was on the set working for a new director, who would go on to win an Oscar that McKinney made a fateful connection. He played the aptly named "Crazy Driver" in Michael Cimino's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), starring Clint Eastwood. McKinney became part of the Eastwood stock company and enjoyed one of his best roles as the commander of the Red Legs in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), under the direction of Eastwood, himself. McKinney appeared in another six Eastwood films from The Gauntlet (1977) to Pink Cadillac (1989), when the Eastwood stock company disbanded, and had another terrific turn in Eastwood's well-reviewed Bronco Billy (1980), this time playing a member of Bronco Billy's circus, a character that was neither crazy, demented or odd.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), which Orson Welles praised as an extremely well-directed film at a time when respectable critics did not associate Clint Eastwood with art, let alone craftsmanship, and Bronco Billy (1980), which was a hit with the critics but not with Eastwood fans, established the laconic superstar's reputation as a director, and McKinney was in both films. In the mid-'70s, McKinney also was a memorable misanthrope as 'Ron Howard''s employer who is done in by John Wayne's The Shootist (1976) in the eponymous film directed by Don Siegel, Eastwood's mentor. Other memorable movies that McKinney has appeared in during his career include the initial Rambo film, First Blood (1982), Against All Odds (1984), Heart Like a Wheel (1983), Back to the Future Part III (1990) and The Green Mile (1999).
He never retired, continuing to act into his late seventies. He also performed as a singer and recorded a CD, "Love Songs from Antry", featuring Sinatra-like numbers and some country & western tunes.
Bill McKinney died on December 1, 2011 in Van Nuys, California from cancer of the esophagus. He was 80 years old.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Alan Sues was born on 7 March 1926 in Ross, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), The Americanization of Emily (1964) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Phyllis Gehrig. He died on 1 December 2011 in West Hollywood, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Andrei Blaier was born on 16 May 1933 in Bucharest, Romania. He was a director and writer, known for Mingea (1959), Ora H (1957) and Diminetile unui baiat cuminte (1967). He died on 1 December 2011 in Romania.- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Bruno Bianchi was born on 6 September 1955 in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, France. He was a director and writer, known for Inspector Gadget (1999), Inspector Gadget (1983) and Gadget and the Gadgetinis (2001). He died on 1 December 2011 in Paris, France.- Chanin Starbuck was born on 19 April 1969 in Anderson, Indiana, USA. She died on 1 December 2011 in Deer Park, Washington, USA.
- Born on 18 March 1929 in Landsberg an der Warthe, then Germany, Christa Wolf is one of the best known authors from the former East Germany. After studying germanistics and literature in Jena and Leipzig, she became an editor for a publishing company, but soon had her breakthrough as a writer with the publishing of "Der geteilte Himmel" (Divided heaven) in 1963. In the following years, she published successful novels, short stories and essays such as "Nachdenken über Christa T." (The Quest for Christa T.) (1969), "Kein Ort. Nirgends" (1979) and "Kassandra" (1983). For her works, she has received several important national and international awards.
- Maksim Kalinin was born on 31 August 1968 in Moscow, USSR. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of the Electronic (1979) and Kon Belyy (1993). He died on 1 December 2011 in Moscow, Russia.
- Jocelyne Goyette was born in 1948. She was an actress, known for Black Mirror (1981), M.U.G.E.N (1999) and Une nuit en Amérique (1975). She was married to Raymond Couture. She died on 1 December 2011 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Producer
Graduated in Aichi Prefecture. Semi-professional debut as a cartoonist in the "Machi" adult comic magazine in 1955. Joined Mushi Production as animator in 1965. Founded Studio Jaguar in 1966. Debuted as animation director in 1970 with the TV Series "Joe of Tomorrow". Met for the first time also animation director and future collaborator Michi Himeno in 1973. Founded Araki Production in 1975. Debuted in a long-feature film as animation director in 1978's "Goodbye Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love". Celebrated the enormous success for duet Araki-Himeno with the TV series and later three animated films "Saint Seiya" (1986-89), followed by new film of the saga "Saint Seiya Overture" from 2004. Illustrated the novel "Burai". Did tasks of Creative Consultor of Video Games' Brey saga.- Art Department
David Wooten was born on 17 June 1954 in Burbank, California, USA. He is known for The X Files (1998). He was married to Patti. He died on 1 December 2011 in Newhall, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Vincent Cafarelli was born on 29 July 1930 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for A Warm Reception in L.A. (1987), Nothing at All (2000) and We Love It! (1992). He died on 1 December 2011 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.- The man responsible for awarding the coveted Holiday Magazine Restaurant awards has been a wine writer for more than 65 years. He has also been a retailer, an artist, an actor, a restaurateur and even a flight instructor, during World War II. He is also a Buddhist monk.
Robert Lawrence Balzer has always been surrounded by Hollywood celebrities and in 1978 he teamed with producer Duke Goldstone and director - writer Dennis F. Stevens to produce a number of wine programs and commercials featuring the leading wineries of France and California.
As of this writing he has a daily radio program on K-Mozart (105.1 FM in Los Angeles) and is still leading wine programs on cruise ships.
Robert Lawrence Balzer was also the first serious writer-journalist in America. His love affair with wine began with Repeal, about the time he graduated Stanford and joined Balzer's, the family gourmet market on Larchmont Boulevard, just south of Paramount Studios, not far from the heart of Hollywood and mere miles from Beverly Hills. Customers included Cecil DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlon Brando.
In 1936, at the age of 24, Robert Lawrence was put in charge of the market's wine department. At the time, he knew nothing about wine, but soon learned. California wines were beginning to find their way onto retail shelves, after Prohibition's 13-year dry spell.
Balzer put out a customer newsletter praising the wines stocked on the shelves of the Larchmont store; Almaden, Inglenook, and Paul Mason. Will Rogers Jr., a classmate at Stanford, was intrigued by Balzer's writing and in 1937 asked him to write a wine column for his newspaper, the Beverly Hills Citizen.
After writing the first of his 11 books on wine, Robert Lawrence began branching out. He started writing for Travel Holiday magazine, which published his articles for more than two decades and until recently Balzer was the person responsible for granting the coveted Holiday Magazine Restaurant awards. In 1964, he began writing a weekly column for the Los Angles Times Magazine. A few years later, he launched Robert Lawrence Balzer's Private Guide to Food and Wine, quite likely the first wine newsletter in America.
Robert Lawrence also has a spiritual side. Since the early `50s he has studied Buddhism, at one time at a temple in Cambodia where he was ordained a teaching monk. Indeed, teaching may be his greatest passion. Over the years winemakers have made regular pilgrimages to speak to Balzer's classes, which have developed an almost cult like following among students.
At his annual birthday parties, those lucky enough to be invited mingle with owners of the world's greatest wineries, who fly to Southern California, and the City of Tustin, for the event. - François Lesage was born on 31 March 1929 in Chaville, Seine-et-Oise [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He died on 1 December 2011 in Versailles, Yvelines, France.
- Jean-Pierre Belmon was born on 12 October 1937 in Paris, France. He was an actor. He died on 1 December 2011 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France.
- Martina Correia was born in 1967 in the USA. She died on 1 December 2011 in Savannah, Georgia, USA.
- Edward Szuster was born on 25 May 1918 in Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for Dwie brygady (1950). He died on 1 December 2011 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland.
- Mamoru Uchiyama was born on 16 January 1949 in Ibaraki, Japan. He was an actor, known for Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends - The Movie (2009). He died on 1 December 2011 in Japan.
- Ragnhild Hveger was born on 10 December 1920 in Nyborg, Denmark. She died on 1 December 2011 in Denmark.