Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 56 of 120

Charlotte Rampling

Charlotte Rampling began her film career in the 1960’s and became a delight of the critics with some key films in the 1970’s and 80’s. Her first film was the Boulting Brothers “Rotten to the Core”. She supported Alan bates, James Mason and Lynn Redgrave in “Georgy Girl”. In 1969 she made”The Damned” in Luchino Visconti” and then later in Hollywood “Farewell My Lovely” opposite Robert Mitchum and “The Verdict” with Paul Newman.

TCM overview:

An alluring presence in features and on television since the 1960s, actress Charlotte Rampling defined sexual freedom and fearlessness over the ensuing decades in such films as “Georgy Girl” (1966), “The Damned” (1969), “Vanishing Point” (1971) and “The Night Porter” (1974). Though her immediate appeal was her physicality, Rampling became a cinematic icon in the 1970s, thanks to a screen presence that was at the same time confident, passionate and reserved. After star turns in “The Verdict” (1982) and “Angel Heart” (1987), her star waned in the late 1980s due to personal turmoil, though she rebounded in the late 1990s as Aunt Maude in “Wings of a Dove” (1997). Rampling went on to impress audiences with performances as Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations” (BBC, 1999), as well as critical darlings “Under the Sand” (2000) and “Swimming Pool” (2003). As she entered her sixties, Rampling’s career was in full bloom, with steely supporting turns in “The Duchess” (2008) and “Never Let Me Go” (2010). The definition of class for many a moviegoer the world over, Rampling’s formidable body of work made her one of the most respected actresses on two continents.

She was born Tessa Charlotte Rampling on Feb. 5, 1946 in the village of Sturmer, in Essex county, England. Her father was Godfrey Rampling, a Royal Army officer and three-time gold medalist in the 400 meter and 4×400 meter relays in the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics, while her mother, Anne Isabelle Gurten, was a painter from France. Her childhood was spent in transit, moving throughout the U.K., France and Gibraltar with her father’s reassignments. She was educated in part at the Jeanne d’Arc Academie Pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, which she later described as a lonely experience due to the language barrier. Happiness was found in a cabaret act she enjoyed with her older sister, Sarah, who died by her own hand in Argentina in 1967 after the premature birth of her daughter. She briefly studied Spanish at a college in Madrid before dropping out in 1963 to travel with a cabaret troupe. Upon her return to England in 1964, she modeled to support herself while learning the craft of acting at the Royal Court Stage School. At 17, she made her television debut in a commercial for Cadbury’s chocolates; her feature debut came with a bit role of a water skier in Richard Lester’s 1965 film “The Knack And How to Get It.” More supporting roles preceded her breakthrough in “Georgy Girl” (1966) as Lynn Redgrave’s glamorous yet shallow flatmate, who gives up her baby to pursue a hedonistic life. The character’s combination of icy beauty, open sexuality, and disregard for responsibility – which the press dubbed “The Look,” per a comment from her frequent co-star, Dirk Bogarde – would serve as a template for many of her future performances.

Rampling’s smoldering intensity was best served in roles that required her to plumb the depths of the human experience. In Luchino Visconti’s “The Damned” (1969), she was the wife of a German company’s vice president, who paid for his opposition to the Nazi regime by being sent to the Dachau concentration camp with her children. Her Anne Boleyn in “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” (1972) also trod a delicate line between seductiveness and sadness as she attempted to bend the will of Henry (Keith Michell) to hers before meeting her fabled end. Her most famous role during this period was in “The Night Porter” (1974), Liliana Cavani’s controversial film about a Holocaust survivor (Rampling) who became immersed in a sado-masochistic relationship with an SS officer (Bogarde) while interned at a camp, only to resume their tortured couplings years after the war. The film was condemned and celebrated with equal fervor during its release, but all parties agreed that Rampling’s performance, which featured her in feverish scenes of morbid fetishism, was the film’s highlight. The picture did much to cement Rampling as the thinking man’s sex symbol, as did a 1973 layout for Playboy shot by Helmut Newton and a widespread rumor that she lived in a ménage-a-trois with her then-husband, publicist Bryan Southcombe, and male model Randall Laurence.

“Night Porter” would prove a difficult film to surpass for any actress, but Rampling wisely sidestepped the problem by focusing on films that satisfied her as an actress, rather than those that simply generated more publicity. She criss-crossed the Atlantic on numerous occasions, playing an alluring femme fatale who ensnared Robert Mitchum’s world-weary Philip Marlowe in “Farewell, My Lovely” (1975), then made her American TV debut as Irene Adler, the ideal woman for Sherlock Holmes (Roger Moore) in the 1976 TV movie “Sherlock Holmes in New York” (NBC). Little needed to be said about films like “Orca” (1977), which pitted Rampling against a killer whale, but these were largely forgotten in the wake of pictures like “Stardust Memories” (1980), writer-director Woody Allen’s bittersweet tribute to his cinematic idols, Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman, with Rampling cast as a psychologically troubled former lover of Allen’s whose memory of her he simply cannot shake. Rampling also shone in a pivotal role in Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” (1982) as lawyer Paul Newman’s lover, whom defense attorney James Mason hired to keep track of him.

In the latter half of the decade and for much of the 1990s, Rampling stepped away from Hollywood product, preferring to – or, perhaps, finding more opportunities in – international films with a decided arthouse bent, including collaborations with Claude Lelouch with “Viva le vie” (1984) and Nagisha Oshima, who cast Rampling as a diplomat’s wife who left her husband for a chimpanzee in “Max mon Amour” (1986). In 1985, she was nominated for a French Cesar as the mistress of a murder victim who seduced inspector Michel Serrault in Jacques Deray’s “On ne meurt que 2 fois.” There were also supporting turns in American features, most notably as a victim of a grisly murder in Alan Parker’s “Angel Heart’ (1987) and the moribund remake of “D.O.A.” (1988).

During this period, Rampling also suffered from depression, which led to a nervous breakdown in the early 1990s. Therapy helped her emerge from this dark period and, quite possibly, made it possible to deal with the very public fallout from tabloid reports that revealed numerous infidelities committed by her second husband, composer Jean Michel Jarre. The dissolution of their marriage came about in 1997, the same year the Oscar-nominated “The Wings of the Dove” (1997) was released; her most widely-seen film in years, she was cast as Helena Bonham Carter’s cautious aunt who was determined her young charge would not follow in the footsteps of her disgraced mother. The worldwide success of “Dove” launched a revival of interest in Rampling, who soon resumed a steady and impressive schedule of quality projects. She was a ravishingly ruined Miss Havisham in the BBC’s 1999 adaptation of “Great Expectations,” then joined Alan Bates and Gerard Butler in Michael Cacoyannis’ 1999 film version of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

Her most substantive work during this period, however, came in partnership with French director Francois Ozon. Their first collaboration, 2000’s “Under the Sun,” gave her talent a magnificent showcase as a woman crippled by grief and doubt over her husband’s mysterious disappearance. Critics raved over the complexity of her performance, which explored unsettling depths of denial in its attempt to make sense of the tragedy, and for her work, Rampling received her second Cesar nomination. Her sophomore project with Ozon, 2003’s “Swimming Pool,” was a deeply personal project for the actress, as it allowed her to finally come to terms with her sister’s suicide. Rampling and her father had kept the truth about Sarah’s death from her mother for decades, until her own death in 2001; in the aftermath, Rampling began to develop a better understanding of her sister’s life and actions, and used her as motivation for her performance in “Swimming Pool.” She even used her sister’s name for her character, a mystery author plagued by writer’s block whose retreat to a country house in France is interrupted by a seemingly unhinged young woman (Ludivine Sagnier) who claimed Sarah was her mother. Another critical success, the film brought Rampling a third Cesar and a European Film Award for Best Actress.

As Rampling reached her sixth decade, her career showed no signs of slowing down. A fourth Cesar nod came in 2005 with “Lemming,” a psychological thriller with Rampling as the neurotic dinner guest whose arrival signaled an explosion of ill feelings and violence. More prominent turns followed, including that of Keira Knightley’s chilly royal mother in “The Duchess” (2008), a self-loathing woman who endured a one-night stand with paroled child molester Ciaran Hinds in Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” (2009), and an instructor at a mysterious boarding school in Mark Romanek’s well-received “Never Let Me Go” (2010). Rampling also made news during this period for launching a lawsuit in 2009 to prevent the publication of a biography, penned by a close friend, that detailed her emotional travails in the wake of her sister’s suicide and the infidelities inflicted upon her by Jarre.

Meanwhile, Rampling starred “Rio Sex Comedy” (2010) opposite Bill Pullman and Fisher Stevens, and joined an ensemble cast for the biblically-themed drama “The Mill and the Cross” (2011). After playing the mother of Kristen Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” (2011), she narrated the animated box office hit, “Cars 2” (2011), before earning critical kudos as the dying matriarch of a family struggling to maintain control over the affairs of those around her in “The Eye of the Storm” (2011), co-starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis. From there, Rampling was the superior of a Secret Service agent (Sean Bean) determined to stop a suicide bombing in the taut British thriller “Cleanskin” (2012). She went on to earn critical praise and A SAG award nod for her turn as a mother whose daughter investigates her past as a World War II spy in the made-for-cable movie “Restless” (Sundance Channel, 2012), which was adapted from William Boyd’s award-winning novel.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Val Kilmer is one of the most interesting American actor on film. As he is moving into character parts. his weight gain and maturity brings an extra shade and nuance to his roles. His early movies include “Top Gun” in 1984, “Willow” and as ‘Jim Morrison’ in “The Doors”. He starred with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro ion “Heat”, “Batman Forever”, “Deja Vu” and “Felon

TCM overview:

Once described as Hollywood’s most difficult leading man, actor Val Kilmer accumulated his share of proponents over the years to offset the howls of his surprisingly vocal detractors, few of whom would argue that his best work rivaled Hollywood’s top leading men. Kilmer first made himself known as the chief rival of Tom Cruise in the blockbuster “Top Gun (1986) before delivering an uncanny performance of poet-singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” (1991) and a mesmerizing turn as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” (1993). Around that time, the public began hearing rumblings of Kilmer’s difficult on-set persona. While playing the Caped Crusader in “Batman Forever” (1995), Kilmer entered into the low-point of his vampish behavior, which led to on-set shoving matches between himself and director Joel Schumacher. Following a strong supporting turn in Michael Mann’s epic crime drama, “Heat” (1995), he had more on-set shenanigans with “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1996), which actually marked the beginning of a turning point with his questionable behavior. Kilmer starred in such box office duds like “The Ghost and the Darkness” (1996), “The Saint” (1997) and “At First Sight” (1999) before taking more interesting turns with the crime thriller, “The Salton Sea” (2002). Kilmer had his strongest performance in years as a gay private detective opposite Robert Downey, Jr.’s dimwitted thief in the hilarious “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” (2005), which led to a revitalization of his image as one of the most in-demand actors for both major Hollywood movies and independent films.

Born on Dec. 31, 1959 in Los Angeles, Kilmer was raised by his father, Eugene, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer who made – and lost – a fortune developing a ranch once owned by Roy Rogers, and his mother, Gladys. After attending Chatsworth High School, where he was classmates with Mare Winningham and Kevin Spacey, and the Hollywood Professional School, Kilmer became the youngest student at the time to be allowed entrance into the famed Julliard School. While at Juilliard, he and his classmates wrote and performed “How It All Began,” a play that was eventually produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Kilmer in the lead. Meanwhile, he landed parts in “Henry IV, Part I” at the NYSF and “As You Like It” for the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. Kilmer soon made his Broadway debut opposite Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon in “The Slab Boys” (1983). The following year, he made his feature debut with a starring role in “Top Secret!” (1984), a spy parody and all-around Hollywood spoof from the goofy minds of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker which later achieved a cult following.

Also at the time, Kilmer had a supporting role in “One Too Many” (ABC, 1985), a rather stark “ABC Afterschool Special” that cautioned teens against drunk driving. In the comedy “Real Genius” (1985), he played a brilliant science student at a fictional university who teams up with a freshman (Gabe Jarret) to stop a wayward physics professor (William Atherton) from experimenting on unsuspecting students. Graduating from teen comedies to big studio films, Kilmer kick-started his career by costarring opposite Tom Cruise in one of the biggest movies of any decade, “Top Gun” (1986), playing the cocky F-14 pilot and chief antagonist Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, who butts heads with an equally brash Navy pilot, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise), over the coveted Top Gun award. Despite upstaging Cruise with the critics, Kilmer was left behind in the dust professionally, as the other actor rocketed to superstardom. Meanwhile, he stumbled with his next few projects while murmurings that he was a “difficult” actor began to arise. After publishing My Edens After Burns, a collection of poems that included fond remembrances of former companion Michelle Pfeiffer, Kilmer displayed a flair for fantasy heroics as the dwarf-friendly lead in Ron Howard’s “Willow” (1988), a lavish but uninvolving fantasy from producer George Lucas that proved to be a commercial disappointment. While building his career throughout the decade, he also developed a reputation as something of a ladies man, dating a wide range of actress, including Cher – who was many years his senior – and Ellen Barkin.

Kilmer met his future wife Joanne Whalley on the set of “Willow,” and following their marriage in February 1988, the pair co-starred together in “Kill Me Again” (1989), director Tom Dahl’s post-modern noir about a seedy private detective (Kilmer) hired by a woman (Whalley) to fake her own death in order to escape mobsters from whom she had stolen money. Kilmer next earned considerable attention and plaudits for one of the best performances of the year when he carved out an uncanny portrait of tortured singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s metaphysical, but often muddled biopic, “The Doors” (1991). In order to secure the part, Kilmer videotaped himself singing Door songs. Though Stone was initially unimpressed, former Doors producer Paul Rothchild was struck by Kilmer’s ability to mimic Morrison’s voice. Stone cast the actor in the pivotal role, which proved in retrospect to be a wise decision: without Kilmer’s domineering performance, the film may have performed worse than it did, thanks to an uneven portrayal of the singer and weak supporting performances. Meanwhile, Kilmer’s method acting demands – including that everyone call him Jim on set – later prompted Stone to acknowledge that the actor “is passionate about his work; with the wrong approach, you may see a side of him you don’t like.”

Kilmer enjoyed a critical hit as the star of Michael Apted’s “Thunderheart” (1992), an engrossing crime drama in which he played a part-Sioux FBI agent who confronts his heritage while investigating a murder on an Oglala Sioux reservation. Part-Cherokee himself, Kilmer delivered a finely tuned performance noted for its subtle intensity. He put his film career back on commercial track with an acclaimed performance as the tubercular gunslinger, Doc Holliday, stealing the thunder from Kurt Russell’s strong portrayal of Wyatt Earp in the surprise hit Western, “Tombstone” (1993). Even though it proved to be successful both at the box office and with critics, “Tombstone” was marred with onset difficulties, including the firing of original director, Kevin Jarre. Let go after a month of shooting, Jarre later remarked that “[t]here’s a dark side to Val that I don’t feel comfortable talking about.” To back his claim, he relayed an anecdote to Entertainment Weekly about Kilmer taking a locust from an excited stand-in and eating it in front of him before saying, “As you know, I have a reputation for being difficult. But only with stupid people.” Meanwhile, Kilmer lost his father in April 1993, which precipitated a falling-out with his own brother, leading to their estrangement from each other for many years thereafter.

After giving a quirky portrayal of Elvis, complete with a rendition of “Heartbreak Hotel,” in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted “True Romance” (1993), Kilmer starred in “The Real McCoy” (1993), a crime thriller in which Kim Basinger played a burglar just released from prison and forced to pull one last heist to save her son. His on set troubles continued when news surfaced that he lost control during an argument with director Russell Mulcahy over changing his scenes, leading to him firing a prop gun at a car. Following a one-year absence from the screen, Kilmer had a banner 1995 when he was tapped by director Joel Schumacher to succeed the departing Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader in “Batman Forever” (1995). Pitted against notorious scene stealers Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones as the Joker and Two-Face respectively, Kilmer brought more intensity and humor to arguably the best installment of the franchise, a blockbuster earning over $200 million worldwide. But again, stories about Kilmer’s onset behavior emerged, with Schumacher refusing to mince his words when relaying details about a shoving match between the two: “He was rude and inappropriate. He was childish and impossible. I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second. Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me – but it was bliss.” The normally gentile Schumacher later told Premiere magazine, “Val is the most psychologically troubled human being I’ve ever worked with. The tools I used to work with him – tools of communication, of patience and understanding – were the tools I use on my five-year-old godson.”

Both Warner Bros. and Schumacher were happy to see Kilmer leave the Batman franchise in favor of casting George Clooney for “Batman & Robin” (1997). But director Michael Mann, who cast Kilmer in a supporting role for his crime epic, “Heat” (1995), had nothing but praise for the actor. Mann was a lone voice of support from the directors encountering Kilmer in the mid-1990s; John Frankenheimer also had zero tolerance for the actor after taking over the disastrous sci-fi horror thriller “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1996) from fired helmer Richard Stanley. Whenever Kilmer sought to contribute his ideas, Frankenheimer snapped and said, “I don’t give a f*ck!” Kilmer also ran afoul of a cameraman, whom he burned with a cigarette while seemingly joking around. Of Kilmer, Frankenheimer was unrelenting in his assessment: “I don’t like Val Kilmer. I don’t like his work ethic, and I don’t want to be associated with him ever again.” But of himself, Kilmer said, “Often I have been accused of being difficult, when in fact it’s a difficult character that I’m playing. (Hollywood) confuses the two. I work hard. I don’t know anybody who’s good at their job who doesn’t get into trouble.” Amidst the height of his reputation as a difficult actor, Kilmer was criticized for his performance in Stephen Hopkins’ “The Ghost and the Darkness” (1996), which earned the actor a Razzie award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor.

As if things were not difficult enough, Kilmer split with long-time wife, Joanna Whalley, shortly after the birth of their son, Jack, in 1995. But he soon found himself in the arms of model Cindy Crawford, though that particular relationship failed to last very long. Meanwhile, his penchant for casually slipping into different voices and guises led him to choose the role of Simon Templar, “The Saint” (1997). Though hopes for establishing a franchise were high, the ridiculously implausible story doomed Leslie Charteris’ debonair detective to inhabit yet another sub-par movie. By the time he voiced Moses in DreamWorks’ debut animated feature “The Prince of Egypt” (1998), Kilmer was determined to bury his bad boy image. He played the doting dad to his two children for journalists and ditched Hollywood for Pecos, NM, where he enjoyed fly-fishing and other outdoor activities on his 6,000 acre ranch. Back on screen, he played a blind man romancing Mira Sorvino, whose life is upended when his vision is restored in the mawkish “At First Sight” (1999).

Following a brief, but memorable turn as artist Willem DeKooning in director-star Ed Harris’ “Pollack” (2000), Kilmer made a career misstep when he starred as an astronaut on Mars in the seemingly commercial, but oxygen-deprived sci-fi vehicle, “Red Planet” (2000). He next starred in the meth-fueled neo-noir thriller “The Salton Sea” (2002), in which he played a crystal meth addict who tries to find his wife’s murderer by working with a pair of undercover narcotics cops (Anthony Lapaglia and Doug Hutchison) while trying to save his abused neighbor (Deborah Kara Unger). After a few little seen turns in low-profile projects, Kilmer returned to the limelight with his convincing portrayal of 1970s porn king John Holmes for the true-life crime drama, “Wonderland” (2003), based on the porn actor’s alleged involvement in the bloody drug-related murders on Los Angeles’ Wonderland Avenue in 1981. He next received positive reviews as a maverick government agent trying to recover a politico’s kidnapped daughter (Kristen Bell) in writer-director David Mamet’s crime drama “Spartan” (2004). Kilmer then starred as Moses in a controversial stage version of “The Ten Commandments” (2004), a glossy musical that appeared to many as being a Hollywood parody. The musical was forced to cut back performances for retooling following scathing reviews.

Kilmer reunited with Oliver Stone to co-star in the director’s epic drama, “Alexander” (2004), an ambitious, but ultimately failed look at the rise to power and eventual fall of conqueror Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell). Amidst the lavish excesses of Stone’s production and the endless narration from Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins), Kilmer delivered a convincing portrayal of Alexander’s controlling father, King Philip II. Following a brief appearance as an FBI instructor in “Mindhunters” (2005), he was nothing short of brilliant as a homosexual private investigator partnered with none-too-bright petty thief (Robert Downey, Jr.) who is dragged into a murder investigation in “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” (2005), written and directed by Shane Black. Undeniably, the comedic chemistry between Kilmer and fellow reformed bad boy Downey, Jr. was infectious both on screen and off. Following a supporting role in the period crime thriller “10th and Wolf” (2006), he took a supporting role as a government agent who has knowledge of why an ATF agent (Denzel Washington) suddenly has strange memories about the future regarding a cataclysmic explosion in “Déjà Vu” (2006).

Over the next few years, Kilmer kept something of a lower profile despite working steadily in small budget films and on television. Following an episode of “Numb3rs” (CBS, 2004-10), he was the voice of KITT in the re-imagining of “Knight Rider” (NBC, 2008), which started as a two-hour television movie and wound up being a short-lived series during the 2008-09 season. Kilmer next had roles in little seen features like the crime thriller “Conspiracy” (2008), the Western “Comanche Moon” (2008) and the prison drama “Felon” (2008). Continuing along with independent film, he co-starred opposite Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” (2009), Werner Herzog’s remake of Abel Ferrera’s crime drama, “Bad Lieutenant” (1992). After a supporting role in “American Cowslip” (2009), an offbeat black comedy about an agoraphobic heroin addict (Ronnie Gene Blevens), he played Dieter von Cunth, sworn enemy to distracted special ops agent, “MacGruber” (2010), played by Will Forte, based on his recurring sketch on “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Sam Elliott, Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer & Bill Paxton

The telegraph obituary in 2024.

Val Kilmer, who has died of pneumonia aged 65, was enthusiastically acclaimed for his portrayal of the cult rock star Jim Morrison in The Doors and for blockbuster films including Top Gun and Batman Forever; although at the height of his career he earned a reputation as something of a Hollywood bad boy, latterly he won warm affection from the public after undergoing gruelling treatment for throat cancer.

A prolific and hard-working actor, Kilmer could point to a thorough classical training, and his pretty-boy looks as a rising young star, defined by his pouting, bee-stung lips, promised a meteoric career as a major A-list contender. But his volatile temperament held him back, and by the late 1990s he seemed to have peaked. During quiet spells in his career he took to unwinding with art projects at his sprawling ranch in New Mexico..

Kilmer’s calling card was Top Gun (1986), Tony Scott’s gung-ho saga of trainee US Navy fighter pilots, which became the highest-grossing film of its year worldwide; he succeeded in bringing a sympathetic quality to the role of the swaggering, rebarbative “Iceman” Kazansky, chief rival of Tom Cruise’s heroic “Maverick” Mitchell

Kilmer was proud to have played the part and defended the film when it was accused of jingoistic pro-militarism: “I met a few of ’em like Iceman [while filming] – God bless ’em. We need a strong defence. I believe that if every hawk died one night, some of the doves would wake up and find their beaks had grown.”

In the history of rock biopics, Kilmer’s portrayal of the Dionysian lead singer of The Doors in Oliver Stone’s film of that name in 1991 was generally reckoned unbeatable. His extensive and meticulous preparation for the role was typical of Kilmer. Before filming started, he spent a year in character, wearing Morrison’s clothes and finessing his singing voice. His vocals were interspersed with recordings by Morrison on the soundtrack, and even Morrison’s old bandmates Robby Krieger and John Densmore confessed that they could not distinguish between the two. “It was like having him back for a while,” Krieger claimed, “spooky.”

On set, Kilmer insisted on members of the crew addressing him as “Jim”, as if the role was consuming him. The critic Roger Ebertdescribed it as “not just a case of casting, but of possession”.

Kilmer, who had Cherokee heritage, went on to play a part-Sioux detective in Michael Apted’s whodunnit Thunderheart (1992), prompting Ebert to declare that “if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it.”

In the Western Tombstone (1993), he was superb as Doc Holliday to Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp. It was thought that only studio delays in preparing the previews prevented him from being nominated for an Oscar.

The director Joel Schumacher, admiring the “dark edge” he brought to Tombstone, cast him as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever (1995), but most critics compared him unfavourably with his predecessor, Michael Keaton; he did far more distinguished work the same year as a gambling-addicted bank robber in Michael Mann’s Heat, holding his own against Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

Other examples of Kilmer’s immersive approach to a role were reported. During the filming of The Saint – a 1997 remake of the 1960s British television series in which he starred as Simon Templar for a $6 million fee – crew members were asked to avoid eye contact with him. When Marlon Brando co-starred with him on The Island of Dr Moreau (1996), he had to intervene to smooth out ructions between Kilmer and the director, John Frankenheimer.

Frankenheimer complained that Kilmer, determined not to be upstaged, refused to come out of his trailer until Brando was on the set. Having shot the film’s final scene, Frankenheimer shouted: “Cut. Now get that bastard off my set.”

In 1997 one movie magazine described Kilmer as one of the 12 Scariest People in Hollywood: “A star to whom other human beings are merely revolving planets.”

Although Kilmer denied that he was difficult to work with, the clamour never abated. When he lost his temper filming The Real McCoy (1993), he fired a potentially lethal prop-gun at nobody in particular.

His parents divorced when he was nine, and he attended Berkeley Hall School in Los Angeles, where he espoused the principles of Christian Science. From Chatsworth High School and the Hollywood Professional School, he became, at 17, the youngest drama student to enrol at the Juilliard School of Performing Arts.

While at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote How It All Began, a play based on the true story of a West German terrorist, which was produced by Joseph Papp at his Public Theatre, founded in New York in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop. Kilmer also appeared in Papp’s productions of Henry IV Part 1, in which he played the servant to Hotspur, as Orlando in As You Like It, taking the title role in Hamlet, and in ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. His Broadway debut came in 1983 when he appeared in The Slab Boys with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.

Kilmer was top-billed in his first film, the hit espionage spoof Top Secret! (1984), in which he gave a very funny performance as an Elvis-style rocker who is also an undercover spy; he secured the role by dressing as Elvis at the audition. After Top Gun established him as a fully fledged star while still in his 20s, he became known for squiring a string of glamorous women, some many years older than he was, including the singing star Cher.

He also starred in Ron Howard’s fantasy Willow (1988), and had a memorable cameo as the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (1993), written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott.

As a classically trained actor, Kilmer also continued to undertake theatre work, and in 1988 starred in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of Hamlet. But in 2005, making his stage debut in London’s West End, he fumbled in a disappointing adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice (Playhouse).

The Sunday Telegraph critic was particularly underwhelmed, comparing the sexual tension between Frank Chambers, the drifter played by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film version, and the sexually repressed waitress Cora (Charlotte Emmerson) to that of the two ill-matched pandas Ming Ming and Bao Bao who failed to mate at London Zoo in 1990.

Kilmer’s more recent film roles included that of a career military officer in David Mamet’s Spartan (2004), and he featured in the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), co-starring Robert Downey Jr; Déjà Vu (2006), an action-thriller with Denzel Washington; Felon (2008), with Stephen Dorff; Streets of Blood (2009), with Sharon Stone and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson; and Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt (2011).

Kilmer won the 2003 Prism Award for his work on the thriller The Salton Sea, appeared in the 3D epic Wings of Courage (1995) and voiced the character of Moses in the 1998 animation The Prince of Egypt. In 2008 he was also the uncredited voice of the car KITT in the Knight Rider revival pilot and the ensuing television series.

In 2015 he began treatment for throat cancer and stepped back from regular film work. For his final film appearance, in 2022, he reprised the role of Iceman, now promoted to commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in a moving reunion with Cruise for the Top Gun sequel Maverick.

Val Kilmer married Joanne Whalley in 1988 after working with her on Willow. The marriage ended after eight years, and he is survived by their daughter and son.

Val Kilmer, born December 31 1959, died April 1 2025

Margaret Sullavan

“Margaret Sullavan’s Hollywood career was not very lucrative but she made some good films. So few of them are seen, however except on the Late Night Movie on TV that her reputation stands less high than it should and seems confined to the people who loved her ‘back when’. She was an enchantress pitched in temperament and magnetism somewhere curiously enough between the two Hepburns.

She was warm and winning, honest and independent, playing with an underlying humour the patient and suffering heroines she was most often given. She spoke lightly and quickly, with inflections that enhanced the old drivel thought up for her.

Her mastery of both comedy and drama was complete. yet in life she suffered from a great lack of self confidence and was consequently one of the most difficult and temperamental of stars. Nor did she care for filming, which did’ntt help matters.” – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars” (1970).

Margaret Sullavan has a special place among film buffs. She had a glorious cinema presence which was accompanied by a beautifully modulated speaking voice.

She was born in 1909 in Norfolk, Virginia. She came to Hollywood in 1933 and made her debut in “Only Yesterday”. Her film career was not prolific, only sixteen films. However she glowed in such movies as “Little Man What Now” in 1934, “So Red the Rose” and “Three Comrades”. Her final film was “No Sad Songs for Me” in 1950. Thereafter she concentrated on the stage and died aged 50 in New Haven, Connecticut on 1st January 1960.

TCM overview:

A petite brunette with large eyes dominating her small, attractively angular face, Margaret Sullavan made her stage debut with the University Players (which included James Stewart and Henry Fonda) in Falmouth, MA, and entered films in 1933. With her husky voice and unique, magnetic charm Sullavan was an immediate success, proving herself airy and delightful in comedy (“The Good Fairy” 1935, “The Shop Around the Corner” 1939) and wistful and poignant in drama (“Only Yesterday”, her 1933 debut; “Three Comrades” 1938).

Her unstable temperament and her critical disdain for the Hollywood establishment, however, significantly reduced her screen output, facilitating her many returns to Broadway.

She was married to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and producer-agent Leland Hayward. Sullavan suffered a number of mental health problems (including severe depression brought on partly by increasing deafness in middle age) and died of a drug overdose. A family memoir, “Haywire” (1977), was written by her daughter, Brooke Hayward.

Trisha Noble began her show business career as a singer Patsy Ann Noble in her native Australia. She was born in 1944 in New South Wales. In the 1970’s she moved to California and guest starred in such TV series as “Colombo” and “Baretta”. In 1986 she returned to Australia and continued her career there.

IMDB entry:

Dick Clark, immediately signed her as a regular on his series “Bandstand”.

Around that time, Patsy Ann signed a deal with the HMV record label and issued her debut single “I Love You So Much It Hurts” in November 1960. She released three more singles on HMV, of which “Good Looking Boy” became her biggest hit when it reached #6 in Melbourne and #16 in Sydney. In 1961, she was the winner of the first Logie Award for the Best Female Singer on Australian Television. She followed that with a successful acting debut at the Independent Theatre, Sydney, playing the lead role of Carmel in “The Grotto”. Shortly thereafter, Patsy Ann and her mother left for London to further her career. She launched her British career in 1963 and shared her first BBC radio show withThe Beatles, with whom she also appeared on British television. During this period, she recorded for EMI (England and France) with some chart success and performed at the London Palladium and at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.

By 1965, she had turned to acting, taking the role of Francesca in the British thriller Love Is a Woman (1966). She toured England with Cliff Richard and began to work on English television in dramatic and variety shows. In 1967, she married law student Allan Sharpe. During that year, she changed her stage name from Patsy Ann to Trisha and continued to work in British television and film. In her early 20s, she appeared on an Engelbert Humperdinck musical special and was seen by an American producer, who signed her to star in revue at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel. After a six-month engagement, she moved to Los Angeles and made her home there, making guest appearances on various television series. Trisha returned to Australia briefly in the early 1970s and starred in the stage musical “Sweet Charity”. After seven years of marriage, she and Allan divorced and she threw herself into her work. Upon her return to the United States, she worked extensively in television series, miniseries and feature films.

In 1976, she wed American fashion model Scott MacKenzie and the following year gave birth to their son, Patrick. However, after four years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1980. Despite personal setbacks, Trisha’s acting career continued to thrive as she co-starred with Don Knotts and Tim Conway in The Private Eyes (1980) and she landed the role of Detective Rosie Johnson in the Aaron Spelling / Robert Stack police drama Strike Force (1981). In 1983, her father, Buster, had a heart attack and was not expected to live long. At that point, Trisha made a difficult and life-changing decision. She decided to leave her successful acting career in Hollywood to return home to Australia to be with her family. She enjoyed seven years with her father before his death in July 1990. In 1985, Trisha married pharmaceutical scientist Peter Field and started a mineral-water business, Noble Beverages. Several years later, though, her third marriage ended in divorce and the business fell on hard times. At that point, Trisha decided to sell the business and get back to her first love — show business.

In 1997, a 25-song CD collection of her early 1960s recordings was released: “The Story of Patsy Ann Noble: Hits & Rarities”. In August, she filmed a small role in the CBS miniseries Blonde (2001) and was cast in a secret role in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002). Shortly thereafter, Trisha was cast to co-star with David Campbell in the musical “Shout!” in the role of Thelma O’Keefe, mother of Australian rock ‘n’ roll star, Johnny O’Keefe. The musical opened on January 4, 2001 in Melbourne, Australia, and a cast recording followed in March. To top it all, she was nominated in May for an Australian Entertainment MO Award in the category: Female Musical Theatre Performer of the Year for her role in “Shout!”.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tina Carwile

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

The Times obituary in 2021.

In 1962, when Patsy Ann Noble arrived in a wintry London, she was little known as a singer outside her native Australia. She expected she would face a hard slog if she wanted to make her name as a performer. Instead she soon found herself on tour with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, then one of the biggest bands in the country.

She released several singles, including Sour Grapes and Accidents Will Happen, and then featured on a radio programme with the Beatles, and a television show, Thank Your Lucky Stars, with the Rolling Stones. Appearances followed on such primetime variety programmes as Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Juke Box Jury, Ready, Steady, Go! and The Morecambe & Wise Show — all within her first 18 months in the UK.

Having something of a flair for self-projection, she then decided it was time the world saw that she could also act. “I was raised in a show business family as an all-round performer, not just a pop singer,” she explained. She was soon appearing in all-star revues such as the popular Five Past Eight Show at the Glasgow Alhambra in 1965 and in the 1966 production Night is for Delight, alongside Prunella Scales, Lance Percival and Elisabeth Welch, with sketches written by the likes of Harold Pinter and John Mortimer, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

In the poster of Death is a Woman (called Love is a Woman in the US), Noble recalled Racquel WelchALAMY

She also landed a role on television, playing a different comic character every week on The Dick Emery Show. After that, her ambition undimmed, she decided she wanted to be in the movies. In 1966 she made her acting debut as a sexy villainess in the lacklustre British spy film Death Is a Woman. Posters for the film showed her posing in her bikini in the manner of Raquel Welch.

After marrying Allan Sharpe, a law student, in 1967, she changed her professional name to Trisha Noble and relaunched herself with blonde hair but she continued to be offered the same mix of roles. Her part in Carry on Camping (1969) was cut back but she made an impression as the high priestess of the Vestal Virgins in the opening episodes of the Frankie Howerd comedy series Up Pompeii (1970).

During a visit back to Australia she complained about the British film industry’s attitude towards women. “A lot of wonderful actresses are out of work because they won’t strip,” she said. “I have turned down so many offers because I won’t degrade myself.”

Her change of direction may have paid off artistically, but there was still something missing. “For one full year,” she later said, “I didn’t see the sun at all. It was driving me crazy, waking up every morning and looking out at all that grey. I need sunshine to feel good inside.”

Noble went blonde and renamed herself Trisha in an effort to win better rolesREX FEATURES

While singing in an Engelbert Humperdinck television special, she was spotted by an American producer and invited to star in a revue at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She went like a shot. “When I first saw LA it was as though I had come home, like I was immediately wrapped in a blanket that was home. It was amazing how I fell in love with it from the first moment I saw it,” she said.

From 1971 she notched up parts in a steady stream of American television shows, notably The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Columbo and The Rockford Files.

Julie Adams obituary in “The Guardian”.

Julie Adams, who has died aged 92, starred opposite some of the screen’s most handsome actors, including Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Glenn Ford and Elvis Presley. Yet her enduring fame rests on the role of the inamorata of the title character of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

The prehistoric amphibious creature, dubbed the Gill Man, with webbed hands, fish head and a scaly skin, first sees Adams, then billed as Julia, while she is swimming under water. The monster stalks and abducts her, taking her to his lair.

As Kay Lawrence, the only woman in a group of geologists in the Amazon, Adams convincingly conveys her terror of the creature. The trailer for Jack Arnold’s classic horror movie, which was first shown in 3D, describes Adams’s “beauty [as] a lure even to the man-beast from the dawn of time”.

Adams worked for Universal Pictures throughout the 1950s, mostly playing steadfast women, though generally seen only in terms of her relationships with men. Among her best films were distinguished westerns by masters of the genre – Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh and Budd Boetticher.

In Mann’s superb Bend of the River (1952), Adams is a seductive settler falling in love with the wagon train guide (an embittered James Stewart). For Walsh’s The Lawless Breed (1953), she is a former saloon gal who finds redemption in her marriage to an ex-con (Hudson, a fellow Universal contractee). When soldier Ford is branded a coward in Boetticher’s The Man from the Alamo (1953), Adams is one of the few people who believes in him.

Born Betty May Adams in Waterloo, Iowa, she was the daughter of Esther (nee Beckett) and Ralph Adams, a travelling cotton buyer. Her family moved a great deal; the longest she lived in one place was eight years in Blytheville, Arkansas. After winning a beauty contest there, Adams left home, where her heavy drinking father was becoming abusive, to stay with an aunt in California.

There, she decided to pursue an acting career. It was not long before she was appearing in half-a-dozen shoestring westerns for Lippert Pictures. In 1951, she gained a Universal contract and a change of name, to Julia, and lost her southern accent. At the same time, the studio had her legs insured for $125,000, with the intention of exposing them as much as possible.

Her first leads for the studio were in Bright Victory, as a rich girl trying to adjust to her fiance (Arthur Kennedy) returning blinded from the war; and in a double role of a daughter and her silent movie star mother in the whodunnit Hollywood Story (both 1951). In The Mississippi Gambler (1953), she loses out to Piper Laurie in wooing Tyrone Power.

She more than ably fulfilled her decorative function in a string of solid dramas including Horizons West (1952) and One Desire (1955), both opposite Hudson, and Six Bridges to Cross with Curtis in 1955, where she was first billed as Julie.

Although Adams was much in demand in feature films, she lacked the je ne sais quoi that makes a great film star.

In fact, it was her male co-stars who were the box-office attractions. So when her Universal contract was up in 1957, she was able to transition into a rewarding television career lasting over five decades.

One noteworthy appearance in television history was as the only client of the defence lawyer Perry Mason ever to be convicted in the 60s series. More recently, Adams had a role in Murder, She Wrote, as an estate agent, Eve Simpson, and sometime-helper of amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela Lansbury (1987-93).

Among the roles in the few feature films she made following the end of her Universal contract was the “older” woman who makes a play for rodeo star Presley in Tickle Me (1965), and she was effective as cop John Wayne’s ex-wife in McQ (1974).

Her autobiography, The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections from the Black Lagoon, which she co-wrote with her son Mitchell, was published in 2011.

Adams was first briefly married to the screenwriter Leonard Stern. They divorced in 1953, and in 1955 she married the director and actor Ray Danton, with whom she appeared in The Looters (1955) and Tarawa Beachhead (1958). He died in 1992.

She is survived by their two sons, Steven and Mitchell.

• Julie (Julia, Betty May) Adams, actor, born 17 October 1926; died 3 February 2019

Richard Dawson wasborn in Hapmshire in 1932. He began his career in Britain as a comedian and played at the London Palladium.In the early 1960’s he moved to Hollywood and won fame on television’s “Hogan’s Heroes”. He also achieved fame as a game show host and as the star of the film “The Running Man” in 1987. He was married for a time to Diana Dors. He died in 2012.

“Los Angeles Times” obituary:

Richard Dawson, the British actor who went from comedy co-star in the popular TV series “Hogan’s Heroes” to his best-known role as the charming host of the TV game show “Family Feud” with his trademark of kissing the female contestants on the lips, has died. He was 79.

Dawson died Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from complications related to esophageal cancer. The actor, who had been living in Beverly Hills, was diagnosed with the disease about three weeks ago, said his son Gary.

“The way he was on the game show was the way he was in real life,” Gary Dawson said Sunday. “He was always rooting for people — he not only wanted people to win, but to have a comfortable, great experience.”

Dawson’s easy-going style topped with a Cockney accent were evident in his early films in the 1960s such as “King Rat,” “Munster Go Home” and “The Devil’s Brigade,” while his quick wit distinguished him both as a game show contestant in the 1970s on “Match Game” and “I’ve Got A Secret,” and as a performer on “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” where he was a regular cast member for two years.

IMDB entry:

Richard Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm on November 20, 1932 in Gosport, Hampshire, England. When he was 14, he joined the Merchant Marines and served for three years. During that time, he made money boxing. He had to lie about his age and remain tough so the older guys would not hassle him. In the late 1950s, Richard met a British actress named Diana Dors. On April 12, 1959, while in New York for an appearance on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956), the two were married. Richard and Diana’s first child, a son named Mark Dawson, was born in 1960, and a second son, Gary Dawson, was born in 1962. Richard and Diana separated in 1964 and eventually divorced in 1967. When Richard moved to the United States, he began acting on the well-known series, Hogan’s Heroes (1965), in 1965. Richard played the lovable British Corporal Peter Newkirk. The show ended in 1971. Not long after that, in 1973, he became a panelist onMatch Game 73 (1973) and remained there until 1978.

While still on “Match Game”, he hosted his own show, which he is most remembered by, called Family Feud (1976). His trademark, kissing all the female contestants, was one of the things that made the show a warm and friendly program, along with his quick wit, subtle jokes, and ability to make people feel at ease with being on camera. In 1987, Richard co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the science fiction action movie The Running Man (1987). Richard portrayed an egotistical game show host, Damon Killian, whom many say was a mirror image of himself at one time or another, during his real-life career.

When Richard was 61, he hosted the third incarnation of “Family Feud” in 1994, but had only a short run. On April 6, 1981, the Johnson family appeared on “Family Feud” and Richard was introduced to 27-year-old Gretchen Johnson. They had a daughter, Shannon Dawson (Shannon Nicole Dawson), in 1990, and were married in 1991. They were still married and reside in Beverly Hills, California. Richard narrated TV’s Funniest Game Show Moments (1984) on Fox in early 2000. On Thanksgiving Day, November 23rd, 2000, he hosted a “Family Feud” marathon, which was filmed in 1995. Some people hear the name “Richard Dawson” and may not know who you’re talking about. But say his name, followed by his famous quote “Survey said…!” or mention “Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes(1965)”, and they’re sure to know who you mean. Richard Dawson died at age 79 of complications from esophageal cancer on June 2, 2012.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Lisa Hansen, RichardDawsonFan@aol.com

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Lee Horsley was born in Texas in 1955. He has starred in three popular TV series, “Nero Wolfe” in 1981, “Matt Houston” from 1982 until 1985 and “Paradise” from 1988 until 1991. His movies include “The Sword and the Sorcerer” in 1982 and “Showdown at Area 51! in 2007.

TCM overview:

Born in the tiny town of Muleshoe, TX, actor Lee Horsley started singing in church as a youngster in the Denver area, his vocal talents eventually leading him to tour in stage productions of “West Side Story”, “Damn Yankees”, “Oklahoma!” and “1776” prior to his arrival in Hollywood. He began his TV career as detective Archie Goodwin (opposite William Conrad) in the 1981 NBC drama series “Nero Wolfe” but is best known for his starring role as the detective “Matt Houston” (ABC, 1982-1985). A true outdoorsman, who enjoys fly fishing and horseback riding and participates in celebrity rodeos and other sporting events, Horsley has lent his six-foot-four-inch rugged good looks to a wide array of TV-movies, including “Agatha Christie’s ’13 at Dinner'” (CBS, 1985), “Danielle Steele’s ‘Palomino'” (NBC, 1991) and “The Corpse Had a Familiar Face” (CBS, 1994), as well as two ABC miniseries, “North and South: Book II” and “Crossings” (both 1986), adapted from the best-selling novel by Danielle Steele.

After short series runs with “Guns of Paradise” (ABC, 1988), “Bodies of Evidence” (ABC, 1992-93) and “Hawkeye” (syndicated, 1994-95), Horsley landed the part of wealthy rancher Gardner Poole (opposite Bo Derek) on NBC’s very short-lived “Wind on Water” (1998). His only feature appearance (to date) was as the star of “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982), a film that has acquired through the years a devoted following among fantasy film buffs. He took time away from Hollywood in 1987 and 1988 to return to his great love, musical theater, playing legendary silent screen director Mack Sennett in the revival of Jerry Herman’s “Mack & Mabel” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Joy Harmon was born in 1940 in Flushing, New York. In the 1960;s she was featured in some interesing Hollywood movies such as 1965’s “The Love One” and “Cool Hand Luke” with Paul Newman.

IMDB entry:

Born in Flushing, New York, the impressively endowed Patty Jo Harmon was discovered as a guest on You Bet Your Life (1950) by Groucho Marx and later was invited to work with him on Tell It to Groucho (1962). The TV exposure parlayed into roles in such obscure films as Village of the Giants (1965) and more famous fare like Cool Hand Luke(1967), but she was used mostly for eye candy. With only a handful of television appearances to her name, she made a bigger career as a pin-up girl during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but she ultimately retired from acting to get married and start a family. Baking has always been a favorite pastime and she since started Aunt Joy’s Cakes. She first started sharing her treats while working at Disney Studios and runs a wholesale bakery based in Burbank, California.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: William Uchtman <aesgaard41@hotmail.com> (qv’s & corrections by A. Nonymous)

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Tisha Sterling was born in Los Angeles in 1944. She is the daughter of Ann Sothern and Robert Sterling. She made her acting debut on her mothers television in 1960. In 1968 she gained favourable reviews for her performance opposite Clint Eastwood in “Coogan’s Bluff”. In 1987 she played the younger version of her mother’s character in the wonderful “The Whales of August” with also starred Lillian Gsh, Bette Davis and Vincent Price.

“Wikipedia” entry:

Born in Los Angeles, California, Sterling started acting in the 1960s with an appearance on her mother’s television series The Ann Sothern Show. She later appeared in episodes ofThe Donna Reed Show, The Long, Hot Summer, Batman episodes 43 and 44 as Legs, the daughter of Ma Parker (played by Shelley Winters), The Name of the Game, Hawaii Five-O, and The New Adventures of Perry Mason. She appeared in the feature films Village of the Giants (1965), Coogan’s Bluff (1968), and Norwood (1970).

In 1987, Sterling played a younger version of her mother’s character (in flashbacks) in The Whales of August. Following that role, she appeared in two other films. Sterling made her last onscreen appearance to date in the 1999 film Breakfast of Champions, opposite Bruce Willis. She has since retired from acting, and currently resides as a florist in Ketchum, Idaho(where her mother lived for many years until her death in 2001) with her daughter, Heidi Bates Hogan.

The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.

Collection of Classic Hollywood Actors

Charlotte Rampling

Val Kilmer

The telegraph obituary in 2024.

Margaret Sullavan

Margaret Sullavan

Trisha Noble

The Times obituary in 2021.

Julie Adams

Julie Adams obituary in “The Guardian”.

Richard Dawson

Lee Horsley

Joy Harmon

Tisha Sterling

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