dick tracy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Bruce Bennett (1906-2007) - Olympic medalist-turned-actor (pictured) who played Tarzan in an Edgar Rice Burroughs-produced serial in the '30s, during which time he went by his real name Herman Brix. After changing his name he co-starred in Sahara, Mildred Pierce, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Sudden Fear and Love Me Tender. He died of complications from a broken hip February 24, in Santa Monica, California. (Independent)
• Walker Edmiston (1926-2007) - Actor and voice artist who appears in The Green Berets, The Beach Girls and the Monster and the 1966 remake of Stagecoach. He provided his voice for Bullitt, Start the Revolution Without Me, Wholly Moses!, Dick Tracy and The Andromeda Strain, as well as for the animated films The Down and Dirty Duck and The Great Mouse Detective. He died of cancer February 15, in Woodland Hills, California. (Variety)
• Dennis Marks (c.1935-2007) - Gaffer for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He died of a brain tumor February 24, in Techachapi, California. (Variety)
• John O'Banion (1947-2007) - Singer and actor who appears in Borderline and The Judas Project. He died after a long battle with frontotemporal dementia February 14, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Meryl O'Loughlin (c.1935-2007) - Casting director for He's My Girl, Frozen Assets and Tremors II: Aftershocks. She died of complications from ovarian cancer February 27, in Santa Monica, California. (Variety)
• Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917-2007) - Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who appears as himself in Garbo Talks, The Venice Project and the documentary Huey Long. He was a member of the jury at Cannes in 1964. He died of a heart attack February 27, in New York City. (NY Times)
• Mark Spoelstra (c.1940-2007) - Folk musician who appears in Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. He died of pancreatic cancer February 25. (Recordnet.com)
• Henry Troyat (1911-2007) - French author who wrote the source novel for Dmytryk's The Mountain and who co-wrote the scripts to The Sheep Has Five Legs, for which he received an Oscar nomination, and Gangster Boss. He died March 2, in Paris. (AP)
• Al Viola (1919-2007) - Musician who played mandolin on the score for The Godfather and who can also be heard on the soundtracks to Blazing Saddles and West Side Story. He died of cancer February 21, in Studio City, California. (NY Times)
• Sam Williams (?-2007) - Actor who appears in Shaka Zulu, Victor/Victoria and King Solomon's Mines. He died February 28. (Mail & Guardian)
• Darlene Wilson (c.1962-2007) - Actress and dancer who appears in The Guru and who choreographed Exit. She died March 2. (Playbill)

• Rod Colbin (1923-2007) - Actor who appears in Frances, John Hus and Yes, Giorgio. He was also a fencing master who taught Marlon Brando and James Dean. He died February 4. (Daily India)
• Peter Ellenshaw (1913-2007) - Oscar-winning matte artist (pictured) for Mary Poppins. He also received nominations for Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Island at the Top of the World and The Black Hole. He mostly worked on Disney pictures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Darby O'Gill and the Little People, but his career spanned from René Clair's The Ghost Goes West to Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. His son, Harrison, is also a matte artist and visual effects supervisor and was also nominated for The Black Hole. Peter Ellenshaw died February 12, in Malibu, California. (Cartoon Brew)
• Ray Evans (1915-2007) - Oscar-winning songwriter of "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much, "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface and "Mona Lisa" from Captain Carey, U.S.A. He was nominated another four times; all nominations and wins were shared by his partner Jay Livingston. The duo also wrote the hit Christmas tune "Silver Bells," which was introduced in The Lemon Drop Kid and they appeared together in Sunset Blvd. He died of a heart attack February 15, in Los Angeles. (LA Times)
• Pál Erdöss (1947-2007) - Hungarian director who won the 1983 Golden Camera at Cannes for The Princess. He also directed Countdown and Homo Novus. He died after a long illness February 14. (MTI)
• Ryan Larkin (1943-2007) - Oscar-nominated animator of the 1969 short En Marchant. He also supplied material for Agency. He died of brain cancer February 14, in Canada. (AWN)

• Joseph Barbera (1911-2006) - Writer, director and producer who was half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team. Read my full tribute here.
• Desmond Briscoe (1925-2006) - Sound engineer who did sound effects for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Children of the Damned, The Haunting (1963) and The Ipcress File and composed music for Phase IV. He died December 7.
  
• James Brown (1933-2006) - Read my full tribute to the "Godfather of Soul" here.
• Robin Buss (1939-2006) - English writer, critic and translator who was a well-known Francophile. He worked as a film critic for The Independent and wrote the books The French Through Their Films, Italian Films and French Film Noir. He also served as a translator in the documentary Drug-Taking and the Arts. He died of cancer December 16, in London.
• Hallie D'Amore (c.1940-2006) - Oscar-nominated makeup artist for Forrest Gump. She also worked on Dick Tracy, xXx, Bugsy, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Apollo 13. She also won an Emmy for the HBO movie Normal and she appeared in Forrest Gump as an extra. She was found dead in her home, along with her husband, December 15. A police investigation has ruled that she shot her husband, photographer Richard D'Amore, and then shot herself because of "domestic discord."

Warren Beatty took one step forward and two steps back in his bid to obtain full rights to the Dick Tracy comic book character. A few months back, he scored a victory in US district court when a judge granted him the right to sue Tribune Media Services after they supposedly snatched the Tracy rights from him. Now, a hearing in federal court has ended without a ruling and the judge gave no indication as to when that might happen.

But why does he want the rights so badly? Well, because he wants to legally change his name to Dick Tracy and fight crime -- duh, why did you think he wanted them? Actually, Beatty would like to make a sequel to the popular 1990 film and, as part of his lawsuit, claims Tribune has made it "commercially impossible" for that to happen. A lawyer for Tribune argued that, as part of a deal Beatty made with Disney, the actor/director has to acquire permission from Tribune in order to move forward with a sequel. However, Beatty's representation feels Dick Tracy don't gotta ask permission from no one.

Heck, I'm with Tribune -- who wants a Dick Tracy sequel anyway? Sure, the original film was colorful and pretty to look at, but the ending will always go down as one of my least favorite of all time. In fact, I will often refer to films that kill off a bunch of critical bad guys in one scene as pulling a "Dick Tracy." Here's hoping the judge sides with me and kills off Beatty's dreams of Dick Tracy 2 real soon.