the great escape Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last weekend we lost two great stars, actor/comedian Bernie Mac (1957-2008) and Oscar-winning songwriter/actor Isaac Hayes (1942-2008), who both appear in the upcoming Soul Men (pictured above), out this November. For more on their respective deaths, see Erik's and William's posts.

Actor and playwright George Furth (1932-2008) died August 11 in Santa Monica, California. I'll always remember him best as the anti-Cannonballer spoilsport Arthur J. Foyt in The Cannonball Run. He also appears memorably in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Blazing Saddles and Shampoo. (AP)

Where would the montage sequence be without Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"? And what about the movie that borrowed the title, Girls Just Want to Have Fun? Robert Hazard (1948-2008), who wrote the tune, died August 5 in Boston. (Variety)

"Love means never having to say you're sorry." This famous line came to us partly by way of Howard G. Minsky (1914-2008) who received an Oscar nomination for producing Love Story. He died August 10 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Variety)

Bernie Brillstein (1931-2008), formerly half of production team Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, executive produced Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, The Blues Brothers, Spies Like Us, The Cable Guy, Bulletproof, Happy Gilmore, Summer Rental, Dragnet, Up the Academy, Neighbors, Doctor Detroit, Continental Divide, The Celluloid Closet, What Planet Are You From? and Run Ronnie Run and produced The Replacement Killers and Jiminy Glick in Lalawood. He died of chronic pulmonary disease August 7, in New York City. (NY Times)

Oscar-nominated record producer Jerry Wexler (1917-2008), who was portrayed by Richard Schiff in the movie Ray, died of congenital heart disease August 15, in Sarasota, Florida. He also worked on soundtracks for The Wiz, The Cotton Club and Pretty Baby (for which he received the Academy Award nom) and co-wrote the Aretha Franklin tune "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". (AP)

• Jimmy James (1916-2008) - British flier and POW during World War II who helped to inspire The Great Escape. He died January 18 in Shrewsbury, England. (Edmunds Inside Line)

• Louisa Horton (1924-2008) - Actress who co-starred in All My Sons with Burt Lancaster and Edward G. Robinson. She also appears in Communion with Christopher Walken and Swashbuckler with Robert Shaw, and she was the former wife of director George Roy Hill. She died January 25 in Englewood, New Jersey. (AP)
• Roc Kirby (c.1918-2008) - Founder of Village Roadshow, which began as a single drive-in theater and eventually expanded to include a film production company, Village Roadshow Pictures (The Matrix; I Am Legend), a film studio, a home video distributor and a theme park operation. He died after an illness January 25, in Victoria, Australia. (Variety)
• Barry Morse (1918-2008) - British actor best known for playing "Lt. Philip Gerard" on the TV series The Fugitive. He also appears in the films The Changeling, Kings of the Sun, Asylum and George Cukor's Justine. He died February 2. (Toronto Star)
• Ronnie Fox Rogers (? -2008) - Camera operator who worked on Superman, McVicar and The Bride. He was also the cinematographer for The Adding Machine. He died of complications from a lung infection January 30, in West Sussex, England. (IMDb)