Dennis Hopper Has Prostate Cancer

Dennis Hopper recites Beatnik Poetry in a 1964 episode of Petticoat Junction.

Actor/ Director Dennis Hopper best known for his Role as Billy in the classic 1969 film Easy Rider (which he also directed), Rebel Without a Cause (1956), and his role as King Koppa in the Super Mario Brothers Movie, has been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. He is currently receiving treatment for the disease.

According to reports the 73 year old actor and 1960s counterculture figure was also hospitalized last month, exhibiting symptoms resembling those of the Flu. It is not known if that incident was cancer related.
Lets hope this storied character actor recovers.

Oh and Happy Birthday Ghandi

Today is the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi.This is a scene from the 1982 Academy Award winning movie Gandhi.

This Date in History

James Dean died in a car crash at the age of 25. Ironically in this tv spot done while promoting his then upcoming movie "Rebel With Out a Cause" (1956), he warns about the hazards of the road and that "the life you save could be mine".

Screen Actor Patrick Swayze Dies of Cancer

Actor Patrick Swayze, who reached the peaks of popularity throughout the 1980s and early 90s in such movies as "The Outsiders"(1983),"Red Dawn" (1984), " Dirty Dancing" (1987), and Ghost (1990); just to name a few, died Monday night following a lengthy battle with Pancreatic Cancer. Swayze was 57 years of age.

Here is a clip from the 1989 Swayze movie 'Road House':

'Rebel' and 'Wailers'

Just found out that things will really be happenin on the night of Thursday October 8th in the Valley. First off just eight days after the 54th anniversary of actor and icon of cool James Dean's tragic death the second and perhaps best known of his three films (the last two released posthumously a year following his death) there will be a special screening of "Rebel Without a Cause" at the Amherst Cinema at 7PM.

The 1956 film follows the stories of a trio of confused adolescence. Jim (James Dean) is a troubled adolescent who has just moved to a new town with his parents seeking refuge from past demons and troubles. Judy (Natalie Wood) is the attractive girlfriend of the knife wielding drag racing boyfriend of a bully taunting Jim. Finally Plato (Sal Mineo) is the awkward loner largely orphaned by his parents seeking only friendship and family. The three converge on a night that turns into a tempestuous epic that will no doubt alter all forever.

Additionally that night at about 9PM at the Pearl Street nightclub in Northampton, members of the original Wailers (as in Bob Marley and the Wailers) will be performing. Tickets are $23.00.

BoxoJams: Arlo Guthrie

Here he is performing coming in from LA, from the 1970 documentary movie. This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock music and Arts Festival.

RIPJohn Hughes

The publicity shy mind who directed, penned, and produced a myriad of Hollywood hits in the 1980s and early 1990s died yesterday of heart attack while walking in his neighborhood. He was just 59 years old.

Hughes is best known for such classic comedy hits as "Sixteen Candles" (1984), "The Breakfast Club" (1985), and "Ferris Buller's Day Off" (1986) just to name three.

This Date in History

The classic film Easy Rider Premieres in 1969.

This Date in History- July 12

Today is the birthday of Cheech Marin, one half of the classic pot smoking screwball duo Cheech and Chong.

Mexican Americans from CheechAndChong

This Date in History

Actor Richard Roundtree (best known as "Shaft") born this date in 1942.

Actor Karl Malden (1912-2009) RIP

Academy Award winning Actor Karl Malden, who is best known for his staring role on the 1970s tv series "The Streets of San Fransisco" as well as movies such as "A Street Car Named Desire", "On the Waterfront", and the role of General Omar Bradley in "Patton" has died.

Karl Malden, a versatile Oscar-winning actor who built a six-decade Hollywood career playing heroes and heavies -- and, often, relatable ordinary men -- yet who was certain he was best known as a commercial pitchman for American Express, has died.

He was 97.

Malden died Wednesday of natural causes at his Brentwood home, said Mila Doerner, a daughter.

He received his Academy Award for playing Mitch in the 1951 film “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a role he originated on Broadway. Two decades later, he starred in the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco" with Michael Douglas, then in his late 20s.

In a statement to The Times, Douglas called Malden a "mentor" whom he "admired and loved" deeply.

Fourth celebrity to die in less than two weeks.

Farrah Fawchett (1947-2009)

Farrah Fawcett, the actress who became the sexual fantasy of legions of young men and is best known for her staring role on the classic ABC TV series Charlie's Angels, died Thursday following a three year bout with a rare form of cancer. She was 62 years old.

The former art and sculpting college major, began her career guest starring and acting in a number of shampoo commercials, before eventually getting the role that would define her as a tough yet sultry female detective on Charlies Angels. Despite only leaving following only one season on the show, Fawcett became the symbol of the show and the show itself became a symbol of her.

In the late 1970s she would hang in the imaginations and bedroom walls of countless young men, who flocked to buy a poster of Fawcett laughing and clad only
a one piece orange bikini. The poster was a colossal hit and became an iconic image.

The poster and her signature role on Charlie's Angel's hampered her desire to be a star taken more seriously by the public. But in the 1980s she shocked audiences in the tv movie "The Burning Bed" in which she played an abused housewife who kills her husband. Late in a similar role she would play in the 1986 drama Extremities (1986).

Fawcett acted in a series of other films such as Logan's Run (1976), Sun Burn (1979), Saturn 3(1980), The Cannon Ball Run (1981), Man of the House (1995), The Apostle (1997), and Dr T and the Women (2000)among others.

In 2007 she starred in her own reality television show Chasing Farrah which aired on TV land and last month was the subject of an NBC documentary that chronicled her battle with Cancer.

LA Times:

Farrah Fawcett, who soared to fame as a national sex symbol in the late 1970s on television's campy "Charlie's Angels" and in a swimsuit poster that showcased her feathery mane and made her a generation's favorite pinup, died Thursday. She was 62.

Fawcett, whose celebrity overshadowed her ability as a serious actress, was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2006. She died at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said Paul Bloch, her publicist.

FBI Sought to Prevent the Release of "Deep Throat", No Not the Watergate Source, the Porn Film.

J Edgar Hoover the infamous FBI director is known for his obsession with communism, sex, taking down political enemies, and amassing power over the powerful and influential figures in American society in the name of order and the auspices of the cold war.

Here is one of the more bizarre endeavors of the Hoover era FBI that has recently come to lite. An unsuccessful effort to stop the release of the well-known 1972 porn movie classic "Deep Throat". Lets just say the whole concept of the film left a bad taste in the mouth of the powers that be.

The FBI documents newly released to The Associated Press reveal the bureau's sprawling and ultimately vain attempt to stop the spread of a movie some saw as the victory of a cultural and sexual revolution and others saw as simply decadent.

Agents seized copies of the movie, had negatives analyzed in labs and interviewed everyone from actors and producers to messengers who delivered reels to theaters.

And the FBI certainly kept detailed documentation of their operations against the films Director Gerard Damiano.

Aside from investigative records tracking subpoenas, interviews, screenings and shipments of the film, the Damiano file includes various FBI agents' play-by-play accounts of the movie's plot, and the specific role of Damiano in the agency's investigation.

The FBI notes Damiano had been "somewhat cooperative," On Aug. 7, 1973, an assistant U.S. attorney general writes to Kelley, saying Damiano is being considered for immunity. The memo doesn't specify the crime, though mentioned throughout the file is the charge of interstate transportation of obscene material.

On this Date: Watergate

Forgot to mention that yesterday in 1972 a group of men who would become known as the Watergate Burglars were caught breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC. What was at first dismissed as a third rate burglary, would cause a cover-up at the highest levels of government and spark a constitutional crisis. Before it was over Americans would become even more disillusioned with thier government and a presidency would be brought to its knees.

This is a clip from the 1976 film "All the President's Men".


(H/T: Crooks and liars)

Actor David Carradine Found Dead at Age 72

The Actor best known for his role in the 1970s television series Kung-FU was discovered dead in a Bangkok hotel Thursday morning, apparently having hung himself.

BANGKOK (AP) -- Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.

The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.

I have heard that in the past he had an intense drinking habit and some drug use. But according to this,he abandoned that years ago and found some peace of mind. Its strange to have someone plucked from obscurity by way of a death notice.

This Day in History

It was yesterday in 1917 that U.S President John F Kennedy was born. He would have been 92 years old. To celebrate here is Marylin Monroe who on one of his earlier birthdays in the 1960s, gave a rather sensual rendition of Happy Birthday to the then President at a public event.

Kubrick and Kringle

Hilarious mash-up of the classic holiday special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" with "Full Metal Jacket".

Tomorrow in History - Dennis Hopper

Tomorrow is the Birthday of character actor, director, and counterculture icon Dennis Hopper. He began his career with bit parts in classic pictures such as Rebel without a cause (1956) alongside the late James Dean. Later he would star and direct Easy Rider (1969), amongst a series of other pictures.

Here is one scene from what I think is one of his more interesting and darkly humorous roles as Fek, an eccentric one legged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986).

Comic, Actor Dom Deluise Dies at Age 75

Character Actor Dom Deluise, best known for his portrayals of quirky comedic figures passed away Monday at a hospital in Santa Monica after a long battle with an illness that has of now, not been made public. He was 75 years old.

Deluise, the chubby comic who was best known for his part as Burt Reynolds side kick in the Cannonball Run movies and was a staple in such Mel Brooks classics as Blazing Saddles (1973), Silent Movie (1976), and History of the World Part I (1981).

Deluise also made a name for himself in the world of stage and television, later parlaying his success into becoming a gourmet cook, as well as an author of cook books and children's books.

"Straw Dogs" Re-make?

Remakes of good classic treasures of film often annoy me. There is an argument to be made that these remakes can expose a new generation to a great movie with a little more relevance, but a few tweaks in the script often doom a remake to be drained of much of what made it so entertaining and poignant in the first place. Besides the performances of actors in remakes are rarely as memorable as the originals.

Now according to the Hollywood Reporter, a re-make of the violent, yet powerful and striking 1971 Sam Peckinpah classic Straw Dogs is being considered.

The film itself revolves around David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) a bookish American mathematician and his voluptuous British wife (Susan George) who reside in the English countryside. They think they have escaped all the violence and chaos of society, but when a band of hooligans hector and torment the couple, the mathematician learns that shying away from conflict is not always an option.

James Marsden will star in Screen Gems' reimagining of the 1971 thriller "Straw Dogs" being written and directed by Rod Lurie.

The new "Straw Dogs" follows Los Angeles screenwriter David Sumner (Marsden), who moves with his wife to her hometown in the deep South. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, leading to a violent confrontation.

The original, co-written and directed by Sam Peckinpah, saw Dustin Hoffman in the role of Sumner, with the story set in rural England.

Both films are based on the book "The Siege at Trencher's Farm" by Gordon Williams.

Me, I will stay with the Sam Pekinpah original any day over any glossy star studded effort to update it.