The departed: the filmmakers we lost in 2017

Our roll call of film figures who passed away in 2017, compiled by Bob Mastrangelo, with a graphic evocation of cinema’s departed by Ehsan Khoshbakht and Naiel Ibarrola.

Updated:
The departed: the filmmakers we lost in 2017

  • Emmanuelle Riva obituary: an actor formidable in love and loss
  • Anne Wiazemsky obituary: the woman who mused back
  • Roger Moore obituary: the star who gave James Bond a martini-dry wit

  • Jeanne Moreau obituary: a cultured, sensual actress for whom cinema was ‘life itself’

  • Father of the dead: George A Romero, the man who remade horror cinema

  • Richard Schickel obituary: the critic who knew enough

  • Danielle Darrieux: from pre-war modernity to the epitome of Parisian chic

  • Jerry Lewis obituary: goofball auteur who set the 50s and 60s comic mood

  • Harry Dean Stanton obituary: the lonely soul of US cinema
  • Martin Landau obituary: a piercing, performing enigma

  • John Hurt obituary: a pure and unswerving trouper

  • Jonathan Demme obituary: a cinema of heart and soul, funk and fight

  • How John Berger gave us new ways of seeing Hollywood cinema

 

Obituaries

Late 2016

Nezu Jinpachi, 69: Japanese actor who was the middle son in Kurosawa’s Ran and won acclaim for starring in Farewell to the Land.

Franco Rosso, 75: Italian-born British director who often explored issues of race and class (Babylon; The Nature of the Beast).

 

Actors

Lola Albright, 92: gave a much-praised lead performance in A Cold Wind in August and had memorable supporting parts in Champion and Lord Love a Duck.

Hans ‘Hasse’ Alfredson, 86: Swedish actor-writer who made comedies with Tage Danielsson (The Apple War) and directed the drama The Simple-Minded Murderer.

Richard Anderson, 91: reliable supporting player who was frequently typecast as military officers and other men of authority (Paths of Glory; Seven Days in May).

Alexei Batalov, 88: star of Soviet cinema (The Cranes Are Flying; The Lady with the Dog) who also distinguished himself as a director (1959’s The Overcoat).

Geoffrey Bayldon, 93: distinctive character actor (King Rat; To Sir, with Love) best known for starring on TV’s Catweazle.

Hywel Bennett, 73: had lead roles in films in the late 1960s (Twisted Nerve; The Virgin Soldiers) and found greater prominence on TV (Shelley).

  • Hywel Bennett obituary: fashionable young man who grew up fast

Peter Berling, 83: played bit parts for Fassbinder and was a regular for Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Cobra Verde).

Joseph Bologna, 82: played King Kaiser in My Favorite Year and acted in and wrote comedies with his wife Renee Taylor (Made for Each Other).

Adrian Booth (aka Lorna Gray), 99: star of innumerable low-budgeters, famously as a serial queen for Republic in the 1940s (Captain America; Daughter of Don Q).

Anthony Booth, 85: had some standout film parts (The Hi-Jackers; Confessions of a Window Cleaner) and was the son-in-law on TV’s Till Death Us Do Part.

Powers Boothe, 68: excelled at playing complex, often charming villains and occasionally was cast in more heroic roles (The Emerald Forest; Tombstone; Sin City).

Brunella Bovo, 86: played ingénue roles for De Sica (Miracle in Milan) and Fellini (The White Sheik).

Glen Campbell, 81: popular singer & musician who created the role of La Boeuf in Hathaway’s True Grit.

Bernie Casey, 78: athlete who transitioned to acting, primarily in support but occasionally in the lead (Cleopatra Jones; I’m Gonna Git You Sucka).

Miriam Colón, 80: played Tony Montana’s mother in De Palma’s Scarface and the title role in Bless Me, Ultima.

Mike Connors, 91: graduated from small parts to second leads (Sudden Fear; 1966’s Stagecoach) before finding stardom as TV’s Mannix.

Peggy Cummins, 92: gave an indelible performance as the deadly Annie Laurie Starr in Gun Crazy and also starred in the cult chiller Night of the Demon.

  • Peggy Cummins obituary: petite but powerful star

Elsa Daniel, 78: Argentine actor who was the heroine of some of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s best-known films (The House of the Angel; The Hand in the Trap).

Jennifer Daniel, 81: leading lady who uncovered dark village secrets in the Hammer films The Kiss of the Vampire and The Reptile.

Mireille Darc, 79: starred in Godard’s Weekend and a long run of French comedies and crime stories (Galia; The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe).

  • [[embed type­link nid=44302 title=”Mireille Darc obituary: blonde icon of 60s and 70s French cinema”]]

Danielle Darrieux, 100: enduring and versatile star (Mayerling; Le Rouge et le noir) who reached a career peak in her films with Max Ophüls.

  • Danielle Darrieux: from pre-war modernity to the epitome of Parisian chic

Paula Dell, 90: acrobat who became a pioneering Hollywood stuntwoman (Thoroughly Modern Millie; The Poseidon Adventure).

Karin Dor, 79: played a Spectre assassin in You Only Live Twice and the Cuban underground leader in Topaz and starred in Karl May and Edgar Wallace adaptations in her native Germany.

Gösta Ekman, 77: heir to an illustrious Swedish acting dynasty who was a popular comedic star in his own right (The Man Who Quit Smoking; Beware of the Jonsson Gang).

Suzan Farmer, 75: actor who starred in Hammer films of the 1960s (Dracula Prince of Darkness; Rasputin the Mad Monk).

Miguel Ferrer, 61: son of José Ferrer who played tough-talking villains and police officials on film (RoboCop; Iron Man Three) and TV (Twin Peaks).

  • Miguel Ferrer obituary: an authority figure with a comic-book edge

June Foray, 99: virtuosic performer who voiced Granny for the Looney Tunes cartoons, Lucifer the cat for Disney’s Cinderella and countless other roles.

Vera Glagoleva, 61: leading Russian actor (Bednaya Sasha) and director (Two Women).

Don Gordon, 90: supporting player whose best-known roles were opposite his long-time pal Steve McQueen (Bullitt; Papillon).

Barbara Hale, 94: leading lady (The Window; A Lion Is in the Streets) who was most identified as Della Street on the Perry Mason TV series and movies.

Johnny Hallyday, 74: French rocker and cultural icon with a significant side career as an actor (Godard’s Detective; Leconte’s Man on the Train).

Robert Hardy, 91: had prominent supporting parts in films (Sense and Sensibility; the Harry Potter series) but found his most distinguished roles on TV, notably as Churchill.

Tony Haygarth, 72: supporting actor who was a distinctive presence in films spanning four decades (Unman, Wittering and Zigo; Badham’s Dracula).

Glenne Headly, 62: outwitted Michael Caine and Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and was Tess Trueheart to Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.

John Heard, 71: played a troubled Vietnam vet in Cutter’s Way, Tom Hanks’s rival in Big and Macaulay Culkin’s father in the Home Alone films.

John Hillerman, 84: Texas-born, scene-stealing character actor (Paper Moon; Chinatown) who found popularity as the Englishman Higgins on TV’s Magnum, P.I.

Skip Homeier, 86: made his debut as a young Nazi in Tomorrow, the World!, then found steady work in Westerns (The Gunfighter; The Tall T).

John Hurt, 77: actor of extraordinary range (The Naked Civil Servant; The Elephant Man; Nineteen Eighty-Four) who had one of the cinema’s most notorious death scenes in Alien.

  • John Hurt obituary: a pure and unswerving trouper

Clifton James, 96: cornered the market in redneck sheriffs (Live and Let Die), but received some of his best roles from John Sayles (Eight Men Out; Lone Star).

Loren Janes, 85: Olympic athlete who had a long career as a stuntman and stunt coordinator, frequently doubling for Steve McQueen (How the West Was Won; Bullitt).

Anne Jeffreys, 94: leading lady of the 1940s (Dillinger; Return of the Bad Men) who had a longer career on TV.

Shashi Kapoor, 79: Bollywood star (Deewaar; Junoon) who also made several films with Merchant-Ivory (Shakespeare Wallah).

  • Shashi Kapoor obituary: Indian star and producer who found global fame

Christine Kaufmann, 72: German actor (Bagdad Cafe) who had leading roles in Hollywood and international productions (Town without Pity).

Vinod Khanna, 70: rose from villainous parts to become one of Bollywood’s top action heroes (Mera Gaon Mera Desh; Amar Akbar Anthony).

Kim Joo-hyuk, 45: one of South Korea’s most popular actors of the past 15 years (The Servant; Confidential Assignment).

Alexandra Kluge, 80: had a brief but celebrated acting career starring in films for her brother, Alexander (Yesterday Girl; Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave).

Martin Landau, 89: gained attention with North by Northwest, then had a career resurgence beginning in the late 1980s (Crimes and Misdemeanors; Ed Wood).

  • Martin Landau obituary: a piercing, performing enigma

Victor Lanoux, 80: French actor at the height of his popularity in the 1970s (Cousin Cousine; Pardon mon affaire).

Daliah Lavi, 74: Israeli actor in international productions (The Whip and the Body; The Silencers).

Rosemary Leach, 81: veteran TV actor who gave some notable supporting performances in films (That’ll Be the Day; A Room with a View).

Suzanna Leigh, 72: leading lady of the 1960s and early 70s (Paradise, Hawaiian Style; The Lost Continent).

Jerry Lewis, 91: actor and filmmaker who was one of the most innovative comedic talents of his generation (Artists and Models; The Bellboy; The Nutty Professor; The King of Comedy).

  • Jerry Lewis obituary: goofball auteur who set the 50s and 60s comic mood

Li Li-hua, 92: glamourous star of Hong Kong cinema (The Magnificent Concubine; The Fate of Lee Khan) who was also the leading lady of Borzage’s China Doll.

Federico Luppi, 83: Argentine actor (A Place in the World) who also starred in Sayles’s Men with Guns and was a favourite of Guillermo del Toro (Cronos).

Elsa Martinelli, 82: Italian actor and model who frequently worked abroad (Donatella; Manuela; Hatari!).

Matsukata Hiroki, 74: actor known for his appearances in the films of Fukasaku Kinji (Blackmail Is My Life; Battles without Honor and Humanity).

Alec McCowen, 91: had a wide variety of film roles over a 50-year span (Time without Pity; Frenzy), although his primary focus remained the theatre.

Dina Merrill, 93: actor whose roles often reflected her background as a real-life heiress (Operation Petticoat; The Young Savages).

Tomas Milian, 84: popular star of Italian genre pictures (The Big Gundown; Free Hand for a Tough Cop) who had supporting roles in Hollywood (Soderbergh’s Traffic).

Yvonne Monlaur, 77: French leading lady who starred in British horror in the early 1960s (Circus of Horrors; The Brides of Dracula).

Mary Tyler Moore, 80: star of trend-setting TV sitcoms whose most significant film role came with her dramatic turn in Ordinary People.

  • Mary Tyler Moore obituary: iconic TV star and producer

Roger Moore, 89: had his breakthrough as Simon Templar on TV’s The Saint and brought a refreshingly light-hearted approach to the role of James Bond for seven films.

  • Roger Moore obituary: the star who gave James Bond a martini-dry wit

Jeanne Moreau, 89: one of the great stars to emerge from the nouvelle vague (Lift to the Scaffold; La Notte; Jules et Jim; The Bride Wore Black).

  • Jeanne Moreau obituary: a cultured, sensual actress for whom cinema was ‘life itself’

Gastone Moschin, 88: frequently played comedic roles but was also the fascist Manganiello in The Conformist and the mobster who controls New York’s Little Italy in The Godfather Part II.

Wood Moy, 99: spent much of his career on the stage, but played the lead in the groundbreaking indie comedy Chan Is Missing.

Nakajima Haruo, 88: actor who played kaiju roles for Toho, most famously as Godzilla in a dozen films over 18 years starting with the 1954 original.

Michael Nyqvist, 56: leading Swedish actor (Moodysson’s Together; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy) seen in supporting roles in the U.S.

Anita Pallenberg, 75: model and actor known for her close association with the Rolling Stones and her roles in Barbarella and Performance.

Michael Parks, 77: actor whose profile was raised with his roles for Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith (From Dusk till Dawn; Red State).

Terele Pávez, 78: Spanish actor, mostly in prominent supporting parts (The Holy Innocents; The Day of the Beast).

Bill Paxton, 61: Hollywood character actor who occasionally played the lead (One False Move; Apollo 13; A Simple Plan) and was a good luck charm for James Cameron.

  • Bill Paxton obituary: ‘the one who wasn’t Tom Hanks or Kevin Bacon’

Tim Pigott-Smith, 70: achieved his greatest recognition as Merrick on TV’s The Jewel in the Crown, but generally was underused in films (Bloody Sunday; V for Vendetta).

Om Puri, 66: commanding actor of Hindi cinema who was also in demand in Britain and Hollywood (Aakrosh; Ardh Satya; East Is East).

  • [[embed type­link nid=46828 title=”Om Puri obituary: India’s face of the world”]]

Claude Rich, 88: one of France’s premier character actors (Je t’aime, Je t’aime; D’Artagnan’s Daughter).

Don Rickles, 90: rapid-fire insult comic who took occasional roles in films (Kelly’s Heroes; Casino) and was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story movies.

Paquita Rico, 87: star of Spanish melodramas and musicals in the 1950s and early 60s (La Virgen gitana; ¿Dónde vas, Alfonso XII?).

Emmanuelle Riva, 89: actor of the nouvelle vague generation (Hiroshima mon amour; Thérèse Desqueyroux) who made a celebrated comeback with Haneke’s Amour.

  • Emmanuelle Riva obituary: an actor formidable in love and loss

Joe Robinson, 90: wrestler-turned-actor who made his screen debut opposite Diana Dors in A Kid for Two Farthings and fought Sean Connery in a lift in Diamonds Are Forever.

Jean Rochefort, 87: leading French actor, notably in comedies and period pieces (Pardon mon affaire; Ridicule), who was Terry Gilliam’s would-be Don Quixote in Lost in La Mancha.

Peter Sallis, 96: was the beloved voice of Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit films and starred on TV’s Last of the Summer Wine for almost 40 years.

Teresa Ann Savoy, 61: British actor who worked primarily in Italy, starring in some notorious erotic films (Salon Kitty; Caligula).

Shadia, 86: actor and singer who was prominent during the golden age of Egyptian cinema (The Unknown Woman; The Thief and the Dogs).

Sam Shepard, 73: playwright who made notable contributions to film as a screenwriter (Paris, Texas) and actor (Days of Heaven; The Right Stuff).

  • Sam Shepard obituary: cinema’s existential cowboy

Harry Dean Stanton, 91: actor who became an unlikely cult figure thanks to his understated style and world-weary authenticity (Alien; Repo Man; Paris, Texas; Lucky).

  • Harry Dean Stanton obituary: the lonely soul of US cinema

Jan Tříska, 80: prominent Czech actor (The Elementary School; Lunacy) who also worked in Hollywood (Ronin).

Tsuchiya Yoshio, 89: supporting player whose career ranged from Kurosawa to sci-fi and kaiju films (Seven Samurai; Monster Zero).

Tsukioka Yumeji, 94: co-starred as Hara Setsuko’s friend Aya in Late Spring and played the lead in Tanaka Kinuyo’s The Eternal Breasts.

Elena Verdugo, 92: was often typecast in stereotypical exotic parts (House of Frankenstein; Panama Sal) until she had the role of her career on TV’s Marcus Welby, M.D.

Oleg Vidov, 73: popular star of Soviet cinema (The Headless Horseman) who defected to the U.S. (Red Heat).

Paolo Villaggio, 84: popular Italian comedic actor, occasionally seen in dramatic parts (Fantozzi; The Secret of the Old Woods).

Frank Vincent, 80: character actor memorably cast as gangsters by Scorsese (Raging Bull; Goodfellas; Casino).

Red West, 81: member of Elvis’s ‘Memphis Mafia’, stuntman and character actor (1989’s Road House) who had a rare leading role with Goodbye Solo.

Anne Wiazemsky, 70: gave a striking debut performance in Au Hasard Balthazar and acted in several films for then-husband Godard (La Chinoise).

  • Anne Wiazemsky obituary: the woman who mused back

Heathcote Williams, 75: iconoclastic playwright, poet and activist whose occasional acting roles included playing Prospero in Jarman’s The Tempest.

 

Animation

Bob Givens, 99: designer and layout artist with various animation studios who played a central role in the development of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

Grant Munro, 94: pioneer of Canadian animation as animator, director and actor (Neighbours; Canon; Toys).

 

Cinematographers

Michael Ballhaus, 81: dynamic German cinematographer who had long collaborations with Fassbinder and Scorsese and also shot The Fabulous Baker Boys and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Norman T. Hatch, 96: U.S. Marine Corps cameraman whose combat footage is among the most celebrated of World War II (With the Marines at Tarawa; To the Shores of Iwo Jima).

Gerald Hirschfeld, 95: cinematographer noted for his black-and-white work on Fail-Safe and Young Frankenstein.

Fred J. Koenekamp, 94: cinematographer whose highest-profile credits came in the 1970s (Patton; The Towering Inferno).

Walter Lassally, 90: shot documentaries for the Free Cinema movement and went on to photograph multiple features for Tony Richardson, Michael Cacoyannis and James Ivory.

  • Walter Lassally obituary: from British Free Cinema to ‘Walter the Greek’
  • Walter Lassally, cameraman: a tribute in pictures
  • ‘Like a bakery that forswears dough: Walter Lassally on the fetters of British filmmaking

Harry Stradling Jr., 92: followed in his father’s footsteps to become a Hollywood cinematographer (Little Big Man; 1776; The Way We Were).

Frank Tidy, 84: started his career with Ridley Scott (The Duellists) and later shot The Grey Fox in Canada and Under Siege in Hollywood.

 

Composers & Musicians

Alessandro Alessandroni, 92: musician, whistler, arranger, composer and choral director renowned for his contributions to Ennio Morricone’s scores (Dollars trilogy; Once Upon a Time in the West).

Luis Bacalov, 84: Argentine-born composer who primarily worked in Italy (The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Django; Il Postino).

 

Directors

John G. Avildsen, 81: struck upon a winning box office formula with Rocky and The Karate Kid.

Fernando Birri, 92: Argentine filmmaker and educator whose work laid the foundation for the New Latin American Cinema (Tire dié; Los Inundados).

Bruce Brown, 80: filmmaker whose documentary The Endless Summer is considered the defining work of the surf movie genre.

Debra Chasnoff, 60: documentary filmmaker who focused on social issues (Choosing Children; Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment).

Robert Day, 94: director whose career encompassed the Peter Sellers comedy Two Way Stretch, the Hammer hit She and two Boris Karloff vehicles.

Emile Degelin, 90: director who played an important role in the development of postwar Belgian cinema (Si le vent te fait peur; Palaver).

Jonathan Demme, 73: Roger Corman protégé who moved easily between fictional films (Something Wild; The Silence of the Lambs) and documentaries (Stop Making Sense).

  • Jonathan Demme obituary: a cinema of heart and soul, funk and fight

Peter Duffell, 95: director whose sparse output includes the horror anthology The House That Dripped Blood and the Graham Greene adaptation England Made Me.

Kjell Grede, 81: was part of the generation of Swedish filmmakers that emerged in the late 1960s (Hugo and Josephine; Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg).

Egon Günther, 90: was one of the first East German filmmakers to compete in international festivals but later left for the West (Her Third; Lotte in Weimar).

Peter Hall, 86: revolutionary figure of British theatre who dabbled in the cinema (Perfect Friday; The Homecoming).

Anthony Harvey, 87: film editor (Dr. Strangelove) who transitioned to the director’s chair, scoring his biggest success with The Lion in Winter.

Tobe Hooper, 74: broke ground – and shocked audiences – with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and directed other popular horror titles (Salem’s Lot; Poltergeist).

  • Tobe Hooper obituary: Texan horror genius who ushered in a grisly new era

Alain Jessua, 85: French writer-director who apprenticed under Jacques Becker and Max Ophüls (La Vie à l’envers; Traitement de choc).

Kim Ki-duk, 82: leading South Korean director of the 1960s (Barefooted Youth; Yongary: Monster from the Deep).

Nikos Koundouros, 90: one of the most important directors to emerge in Greek cinema’s postwar years (The Ogre of Athens; Young Aphrodites).

András Kovács, 91: prominent filmmaker of Hungary’s New Wave (Difficult People; Cold Days).

Grzegorz Królikiewicz, 78: Polish filmmaker of documentaries and experimental features (Through and Through; Case Pekosinski).

Umberto Lenzi, 86: Italian director who tackled various genres and gained notoriety for his grindhouse fare (Deep River Savages; Cannibal Ferox).

Murray Lerner, 90: documentarian who recorded history-making music performances (Festival; Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival).

Maud Linder, 93: daughter of Max Linder who helped revive her father’s reputation with her films Laugh with Max Linder and The Man in the Silk Hat.

Ulli Lommel, 72: German actor (Love Is Colder Than Death) and filmmaker (The Boogeyman) who started with Fassbinder and later made numerous low-budget horror films.

Károly Makk, 91: frequently competed at Cannes over four decades (Liliomfi; Another Way) and whose film Love is often cited as a masterwork of Hungarian cinema.

  • Károly Makk obituary: Hungarian director of subtle, incisive films

Basilio Martín Patino, 86: chronicled life in Spain during the Franco era (Nine Letters to Bertha; Songs for after a War).

Matsumoto Toshio, 85: Japanese experimental filmmaker (Funeral Parade of Roses; Pandemonium).

Radley Metzger, 88: filmmaker whose stylish erotica was briefly in vogue before the emergence of the hard-core porn industry (Thérèse and Isabelle; The Lickerish Quartet).

Robert Ellis Miller, 89: directed the Southern drama The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and the hit comedy Reuben, Reuben.

Christopher Morahan, 87: director-producer of acclaimed TV programmes (The Jewel in the Crown) and some films (Clockwise; Paper Mask).

Werner Nekes, 72: German experimental filmmaker (Beuys; Johnny Flash).

Park Nam-ok, 94: pioneering filmmaker of The Widow, reportedly the first South Korean feature by a female director.

Gil Portes, 71: leading Filipino independent filmmaker (The Kite; Small Voices).

George A. Romero, 77: director who changed horror and invented the modern zombie picture with Night of the Living Dead and its various sequels.

  • Father of the dead: George A Romero, the man who remade horror cinema

Alan Root, 80: won acclaim for his groundbreaking documentaries on African wildlife, often made with then-wife Joan (The Year of the Wildebeest; Mysterious Castles of Clay).

Lazar Stojanović, 73: Serbian director who was jailed after his student film Plastic Jesus was banned and who subsequently became a dissident, journalist and documentarian.

Suzuki Seijun, 93: renegade director of Japanese genre films who was known for his bold visual style (Tokyo Drifter; Branded to Kill; Zigeunerweisen).

  • Suzuki Seijun obituary: Japanese cinema’s dazzler of the deep Bs

Svend Wam, 71: Norwegian writer-director, usually in partnership with Petter Vennerød (Lasse & Geir; The Dream Castle).

 

Editors

Bill Butler, 83: film editor (A Clockwork Orange; A Touch of Class) who started his career as a sound editor.

Clare Douglas, 73: edited films for Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday; United 93) and had a distinguished career in TV (1979’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

Gerald B. “Jerry” Greenberg, 81: edited the famed car chase in The French Connection and also worked on Apocalypse Now and several films for De Palma (Scarface).

José Salcedo, 68: worked with some of Spain’s foremost directors and edited all of Almodóvar’s films from Pepi, Luci, Bom to Julieta.

Lawrence Silk, 86: editor who specialised in documentaries (Pumping Iron; Kopple’s American Dream).

Thomas Stanford, 93: editor of Suddenly, Last Summer and Jeremiah Johnson who won an Oscar for his dynamic work on West Side Story.

Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte, 87: edited some of the classics of French cinema from the 1950s to the 2000s (The 400 Blows; The Testament of Orpheus; Diva).

Eric Zumbrunnen, 52: editor who was a key collaborator of Spike Jonze for 20 years (Being John Malkovich; Adaptation.; Her).

 

Producers & Executives

George Englund, 91: producer (The Shoes of the Fisherman) and occasional director (The Ugly American).

C.O. “Doc” Erickson, 93: production manager and producer whose career spanned six decades and included Chinatown, Blade Runner and five films for Hitchcock.

Mona Fong, 83: singer and wife of Run Run Shaw who was a force in Hong Kong cinema as a producer and executive with Shaw Brothers (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin; Lifeline).

Howard Gottfried, 94: producer noted for his partnership with Patty Chayefsky (The Hospital; Network).

Brad Grey, 59: major Hollywood power broker, as talent manager, producer (The Departed) and long-serving chief of Paramount.

Jack H. Harris, 98: independent producer who struck box office gold with 1958’s The Blob and released early directorial efforts by John Carpenter, John Landis and Dennis Muren.

John Heyman, 84: industry figure who was considered an innovator in film financing and foreign sales and was a talent agent and producer (The Go-Between; A Passage to India).

William “Bill” Marshall, 77: Scottish-born Canadian producer (Outrageous!) who was also the co-founder and first director of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Robin O’Hara, 62: producer at the forefront of New York independent filmmaking in the 1990s and early 2000s (What Happened Was…; Raising Victor Vargas).

Martin Ransohoff, 90: independent producer (The Americanization of Emily; Jagged Edge) who also co-founded Filmways.

David Rose, 92: TV producer and Channel 4 executive who, as the leader of Film on Four, helped revive British cinema in the 1980s.

  • David Rose obituary: influential producer and founding father of Film4

J.C. Spink, 45: producer and manager who worked in partnership with Chris Bender (The Ring; A History of Violence; The Hangover).

 

Screenwriters

John Berger, 90: iconoclastic art critic (Ways of Seeing) whose screenwriting efforts included collaborations with Alain Tanner (La Salamandre; Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000).

  • How John Berger gave us new ways of seeing Hollywood cinema

Emmanuèle Bernheim, 61: novelist and screenwriter who collaborated with Claire Denis and François Ozon (Vendredi soir; Swimming Pool).

William Peter Blatty, 89: novelist and screenwriter of the blockbuster The Exorcist who wrote comedies early in his career (A Shot in the Dark) and later directed (The Ninth Configuration).

  • William Peter Blatty obituary: The Exorcist writer was on the side of the angels

John Gay, 92: started his screenwriting career working with Burt Lancaster (Run Silent Run Deep; Separate Tables) and later wrote a series of acclaimed literary adaptations for TV.

Robert Getchell, 81: screenwriter on Hollywood films for 20 years (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Bound for Glory; The Client).

Enrico Medioli, 92: screenwriter who was a trusted collaborator of Visconti from Rocco and His Brothers to The Innocent and also co-wrote Once Upon a Time in America.

Jean Rouverol, 100: started as an actor (It’s a Gift) then turned to screenwriting, though her career was disrupted by the blacklist (So Young So Bad; Autumn Leaves).

Alan Simpson, 87: writing collaborator of Ray Galton on classic TV comedies (Hancock’s Half Hour; Steptoe and Son) as well as a handful of films (The Wrong Arm of the Law).

David Storey, 83: novelist and playwright who adapted his own work to the screen (This Sporting Life; In Celebration).

 

Set & Costume Designers

Thérèse DePrez, 52: production designer who showed great versatility over the past quarter-century (I Shot Andy Warhol; Black Swan).

Alan MacDonald, 61: production designer, frequently for Stephen Frears (The Queen) and on such hits as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

John Mollo, 86: designed the distinctive costumes for the first two Star Wars movies and also worked for Richard Attenborough (Gandhi; Chaplin).

Rita Riggs, 86: costumer and wardrobe supervisor (The Birds; Marnie) who later graduated to full costume designer (Model Shop).

Thomas Sanders, 63: production designer who created the distinctive looks of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Braveheart and Crimson Peak.

Joel Schiller, 86: art director (Rosemary’s Baby) and production designer (The Muppet Movie).

Roy Forge Smith, 87: British art director and production designer who spent much of his later career in the U.S. (Far from the Madding Crowd; Monty Python and the Holy Grail).

Herbert Strabel, 90: German art director and set decorator who also worked on international productions (Cabaret; Lili Marleen; The NeverEnding Story).

 

Sound & Special Effects

Ron Berkeley, 86: make-up artist who was a favourite of Richard Burton and whose career extended into the 2000s (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Good Night, and Good Luck.).

Les Lazarowitz, 75: veteran sound mixer (Saturday Night Fever; Raging Bull; Desperately Seeking Susan).

Otani Iwao, 97: sound recordist on Rashomon and several films for Mizoguchi (Ugetsu monogatari; Sansho dayu).

Richard Portman, 82: prolific sound re-recording mixer who won an Oscar for The Deer Hunter and contributed to The Godfather, Nashville and Star Wars.

Manlio Rocchetti, 73: Italian make-up artist who frequently worked on the films of Scorsese (Gangs of New York) and won an Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy.

David Yewdall, 66: sound editor celebrated for his work with John Carpenter (Escape from New York; The Thing) and for such later credits as The Fifth Element.

 

Miscellaneous

Peter Bondanella, 73: scholar and author who was an authority on Italian cinema, literature and culture.

Pamela Engel, 82: co-founder of Artificial Eye and New Wave Films and one of England’s preeminent independent film distributors and exhibitors.

  • Pam Engel obituary: a fount of British cinephilia

Samir Farid, 73: Egyptian film critic, historian, author and festival organiser who was a leading authority on Arab cinema.

Mary Goldberg, 72: distinguished casting director (Alien; Amadeus) who became a talent agent and manager.

Joe Hyams, 90: one of Hollywood’s most renowned publicists who spent almost half a century at Warner Bros. and was closely associated with Clint Eastwood.

Kim Ji-seok, 57: co-founder and lead programmer for the Busan International Film Festival.

Barry Norman, 83: journalist and long-time film critic and presenter of the BBC’s Film… programme.

  • Barry Norman obituary: British television’s ambassador to the movies

Robert Osborne, 84: journalist, author of several volumes on the history of Academy Awards and the long-time host for Turner Classic Movies.

Lillian Ross, 99: staff writer with The New Yorker whose book Picture, on the making of Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage, is considered a classic of film journalism.

Richard Schickel, 84: veteran critic for Time, prolific author (D.W. Griffith: An American Life) and documentary filmmaker (The Men Who Made the Movies).

  • Richard Schickel obituary: the critic who knew enough

David Shepard, 76: preservationist who played a critical role in saving, restoring and making available countless films from the silent era.

  • David Shepard obituary: silent film’s great hunter-sharer
Originally published