RIP: Reel Important People -- July 16, 2007
Filed under: Obits
Barry R. Cooper (?-2007) - Executive producer of The Return of the Soldier. He died June 30 of complications from liver disease, in Los Angeles. (Variety) - Moe Di Sesso (1924-2007) - Animal trainer who worked with the rats in Willard and Ben and with Sandy the dog in Annie. He also trained animals for Swiss Family Robinson, My Stepmother is an Alien and the original The Hills Have Eyes and he himself acted in The Ten Commandments and The Conqueror. He died July 2 in Newhall, California. (Variety)
- Bill Flynn (1948-2007) - South African actor who appears in Kill and Kill Again and Human Timebomb. He also wrote Saturday Night at the Palace, Heel Against the Head and Running Riot, all of which he starred in. He died of a heart attack July 11, in Cape Town. (Mail & Guardian)
- Richard Franklin (1948-2007) - Australian filmmaker who directed Psycho II, F/X 2, Cloak & Dagger (pictured), Link and Roadgames, which he also co-wrote and produced. He also co-produced The Blue Lagoon and appears as an engineer in Into the Night. He died of prostate cancer July 11, in Melbourne. (The Australian)
- Jerry Ito (1927-2007) - Japanese-American actor who plays the villain in Mothra and Message from Space and also appears in Golgo 13: The Kowloon Assignment and The Manster. He died of pneumonia July 9, in California. (IMDb)
- Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) - Former first lady who appears as herself in archive footage in the docs Four Days in November, In the Year of the Pig and Executive Action and in the drams JFK, The House of Yes and Love Field. She was portrayed by Felicity Huffman in the HBO film Path to War. She died July 11 in Austin. (NY Times)
- Charles Lane (1905-2007) - Character actor who appeared in over 328 films and television shows. For my full post, go here. For Cinematical's tribute to him on his 102 birthday earlier this year, read Jette's Vintage Image of the Day post here.
- Richard Lederer (c.1927-2007) - Ad exec for Columbia Pictures and then Warner Bros., where he managed marketing campaigns for Camelot, My Fair Lady, Bonnie and Clyde, The Exorcist and The Wild Bunch. He also produced The Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Hollywood Knights, which he also co-wrote. Later he worked for the ad departments at Zoetrope and Orion. He has a new book about his career, which will be published soon. He died June 8 in Pacific Palisades, California. (Variety)
- Jim Mitchell (c.1944-2007) - Adult filmmaker who produced and directed Behind the Green Door, which was Marilyn Chambers' porn debut. He was portrayed by Emilio Estevez in Estevez' Showtime movie Rated X. He died July 12 near Petaluma, California. (LA Times)
- Jack B. Sowards (1929-2007) - Writer of the screenplay for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (with Nicholas Meyer). He began as an actor in low budget Burt Topper war films. He died July 8 of complications of ALS and COPD, in Valley Village, California. (Variety)
- Alex Thomson (1929-2007) - Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Excalibur. He also shot Legend, Labyrinth, Alien³, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, The Year of the Dragon and Kenneth Branagh's versions of Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost. He was also a camera operator for Nicolas Roeg (when he was a cinematographer) on Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia and Fahrenheit 451. He was an additional photographer on Superman and The Saint and a clapper loader for Olivier's Richard III and Huston's Moulin Rouge. He died June 14. (Independent)
- Charles Wang (c.1933-2007) - Managing director of Salon Films, which helps produce international films in Hong Kong, Thailand and China. He was credited as an executive producer for Ultraviolet and a supervising producer for the Hong Kong shoot of Rush Hour 2. He also worked as an associate producer for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Double Impact and Bloodsport, in which he also plays a doctor. He died July 6 in New York. (Variety)
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