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Filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, 79

"The filmmaker, cineaste and critic who emerged in the wake of the French New Wave with such classics as The Clockmaker of St. Paul, A Sunday in the Country and 'Round Midnight, … five-time César Award winner (two prizes for directing, three for screenwriting) … was accomplished in a wide variety of genres and epochs, from gritty crime...

Actor Jessica Walter Dead At 80

"Walter's six-decade acting career spanned across film and television, from Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, to the voice of Malory Archer on the animated series Archer, to Emmy-nominated roles on Trapper John, M.D. and Streets of San Francisco. won an Emmy for portraying the title character on the police drama series Amy Prentiss. For younger...

Modernist Architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen Dead At 91

"His residences had signature touches like 45-degree pitched roofs, clean lines, minimal ornamentation, masterful use of lighting and windows, and décor that included his own furniture and fabric designs — a body of work that earned him many honors, including induction into Architectural Digest's AD100 Hall of Fame in 2017. - The New York Times

Actor George Segal, 87

" long career began in serious drama but who became one of America's most reliable and familiar comic actors, first in the movies and later on television. … Sandy-haired, conventionally if imperfectly handsome, with a grin that could be charming or smug and a brow that could knit with sincerity or a lack of it, Mr. Segal walked a...

It Seems We Do Know What Shakespeare Looked Like — ‘A Self-Satisfied Pork Butcher’

That choice phrase from a 20th-century critic was about the effigy installed above Shakespeare's grave in Stratford-upon-Avon. The general presumption had been that the painted limestone statue had been made after the writer's death and was not necessarily modeled on the actual man. Now one scholar's research indicates that the piece was done by a professional tomb-maker who almost...

Harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, 79

Mr. Cooper’s adventurousness went hand in hand with scrupulous musicianship and articulate technique. He was a sensitive partner in chamber works, as in his recording, with Mr. Ma, of Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba (played on the cello) and harpsichord. - The New York Times

Adam Zagajewski, ‘Poet Of 9/11’, Dead At 75

Already known and admired in his native Poland, he came to the English-speaking world's attention when The New Yorker published his "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. - Yahoo! (AP)

Reports Of James Levine’s Death Are Telling

Josh Kosman: "When a composer pleads for a more sympathetic view of Levine because of his advocacy for new music, or when an opera buff clings to Levine’s recordings of the standard repertoire, that’s a tell. It says that wrongs inflicted on others don’t merit a full moral standing, at least not when weighed against the benefits to oneself....

Henry Darrow, Who Fought For Roles For Latinos And Was The First Latino Zorro On TV, 87

Darrow was "best known as Manolito Montoya in the hit Western The High Chaparral," but he was also "an activist who worked to expand the roles offered to Latinos on screen. In 1972, Darrow, Ricardo Montalban, Carmen Zapata and Edith Diaz founded the Screen Actors Guild Ethnic Minority Committee. Darrow was also a vice president of Nostros, the organization...

Cepillin, Clown Beloved Across Latin America, Has Died At 75

Cepillín, whose non-performing name was Ricardo González Gutiérrez, was a Mexican clown with a half-century-long career. He "hosted TV shows broadcast from Mexico, sold millions of copies of his albums of children’s songs, and later drew millions of viewers to his videos on TikTok and YouTube. And he toured Mexico and the United States with circus companies including his...

Marianne Carus, Founder Of Cricket Magazine, 92

Carus believed that children should read - and see - high-quality short stories, poetry, and art. In 1982, she said in an interview, "So many people talk down to children, but you have to respect their intelligence. ... Parents give them the best clothes, the best food, the best toys, when what they should be giving them is food...

James Levine Was An Argument Against Genius-Worship Culture

Until his death, Levine was perhaps the music world’s most staggering living testament to the dangers of genius-worship culture. That culture nourished his ascent and enabled his alleged serial sexual abuse of young men, whom he had the power to make or break. - Boston Globe

Exec Who Saved Capitol Records, Bhaskar Menon, Dead At 86

The record label was reeling in 1970: its cash cow, The Beatles, had disbanded, and it lost $8 million that year. Parent company EMI put Menon in charge the next year and he turned it all around: in 1973 Capitol released Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and the label spent the decade issuing hit after hit...

James Levine’s Complicated Legacy

Justin Davidson: "Levine made innumerable comebacks, and though he ended his career in bitterness and disgrace, he also avoided the punishment he deserved. The Met investigated allegations of sexual harassment and fired him … and then paid him millions to settle a lawsuit. His health would likely have prevented him from conducting much longer anyway." - New York Magazine

What Made Graham Greene So Peripatetic? Misery

Constant bullying at school (he was the headmaster's son, and he paid for it); repeated adolescent suicide attempts; Benzedrine and Nembutal and lots (and lots) of alcohol (and opium if he was in the right country for it). Both under and above it all, bipolar disorder, which Greene "saw … as key to his personality and his work." -...

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