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Beans Morocco, the comic character actor who showed up in everything from Blazing Saddles, Used Cars and Eating Raoul to episodes of Mork & Mindy, The Bob Newhart Show and Growing Pains, has died. He was 90.

Morocco died May 29 in Bakersfield, California, his friend Ryan Wise told The Hollywood Reporter. For his final film, he starred as an ex-con on his own after decades in the Federal Witness Protection Program in Killing Cookie (2024), a comedy that Wise wrote and directed.

“He was always performing — always entertaining — and he made everyone feel good,” Wise said.

Going by birth name Dan Barrows until he adopted his quirky stage name in the late 1980s, the pint-sized actor also appeared in such other noteworthy films as Clint Eastwood’s Any Which Way You Can (1980), Howard Storm’s Once Bitten (1985), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) and Rob Reiner’s The American President (1995).

After he played...

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It's his most recent film, so it's tough to truly say how history will ultimately judge it, but it's safe to say that 2019's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is looked upon very favorably in Quentin Tarantion's filmography. As his second collaboration with Brad Pitt following his 2009 war masterpiece "Inglourious Basterds," it was a major success that ultimately netted the star a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work as stuntman Cliff Booth.

Tarantino has now given author Jay Glennie access to write books about the making of many of his films. It all begins with "The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," which hits shelves on November 11 from Insight Editions. In an excerpt from the book published by Deadline, it's revealed that Tarantino and Pitt had similar ideas when it came to crafting the character of Cliff Booth.

Exclusive: Quentin Tarantino has teamed with journalist-author Jay Glennie to write books for three of his films beginning with The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. The coffee table-sized book will be released November 11 by Insight Editions. That publisher took over an initial deal made with Little Brown, and it grew to encompass all 10 of Tarantino’s films, the last of which he’s yet to make.

The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno made a three-book deal with Insight CEO Raoul Goff and publisher Vanessa Lopez. After Once Upon a Time, the next two will cover Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. Those will release in 2026 and 2027, as Tarantino and Glennie continue to wade through the director’s movies with full access to casts.

Tarantino will write the introductions for each, and the aspirations go much further than a batch of picture books. It will be...

One of the most successful actors and directors that the world has ever witnessed, Clint Eastwood remains a pop-culture icon even at the age of 94. Bursting onto the scene with his ice-cool breakout turn in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, Eastwood would go on to cement his status as cinema's quintessential badass with his bow as anti-hero cop Harry Callahan in the wildly popular Dirty Harry movie series. Complementing his best movie character roles with a string of acclaimed directorial efforts over the years, the American also boasts four Academy Award wins from 11 nominations.

A Western icon, many of Eastwood's best movies take place within the genre he made his name in. However, the actor has also demonstrated a penchant for starring in or directing a number of prominent war movies throughout his career. Typically bringing his accomplished style of film making to the table with great effect, Eastwood's performances,...

Few figures in Hollywood can match Clint Eastwood's towering legacy as an actor and director with nearly 70 years in the industry. From his 1955 debut in Revenge of the Creature to 73 different acting roles and 45 directorial efforts, Eastwood transformed from Sergio Leone's stoic Western hero to the iconic Dirty Harry before emerging as one of cinema's most accomplished filmmakers. His instantly recognizable delivery of lines like "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" helped cement his status as a cultural icon. But his versatility allowed him to inhabit roles across every conceivable genre.

Behind the camera, Eastwood developed a distinctive minimalist style marked by patient film noir-inspired cinematography and understated dramatic tension. This approach, favoring action over dialogue and subtle character development over exposition, has earned him numerous accolades, including Academy Awards for Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Oscars nominations for Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima, and American Sniper.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published September 1, 2023 after the film’s world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. The movie was originally to be released in December 2023 by 20th Century Studios before being derailed by the Hollywood strikes. Focus Features is now distributing and released it in theaters Friday.

Biker movies are almost a subgenre of films unto themselves, beginning with Marlon Brando’s The Wild One in the early ’50s and then through all those Aip exploitation titles of the ’60s including The Wild Angels, Hells Angels on Wheels and many more, notably Tom Laughlin’s predecessor to Billy Jack called Born Losers. It all culminated with Easy Rider with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, which became the Citizen Kane of biker cinema.

It has been awhile since we have seen a major big-screen return to the world of biker culture, but with Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders,...

Conny Van Dyke, a singer-songwriter signed to Motown Records who starred in such films as “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings” and “Framed,” has died. She was 78.

Van Dyke died on Nov. 11 at her home in Los Angeles due to complications of vascular dementia, her son Bronson Page told Variety.

The Detroit native was a longtime colon cancer and stroke survivor. She got her start in the entertainment industry when she was just 15 and a student in high school, making the film “Among the Thorns” with Tom Laughlin, Bill Wellman Jr. and Stephanie Powers. During that time, Van Dyke also worked as a songwriter for Wheelsville Records in Detroit.

In 1961, Van Dyke signed with Motown Records, making her one of the first white recording artists on the label. Her first two singles, “Oh, Freddy,” written by Smokey Robinson, and “It Hurt Me Too,” previously written and recorded by Marvin Gaye, were...

The second in Tom Laughlin’s increasingly idiosyncratic Billy Jack trilogy, this three hour sequel is a passionate if ungainly political diatribe that touches on everything from Native American rights to the My Lai massacre. Delores Taylor, Laughlin’s wife and writing partner, returns as the director of the “Freedom School”, a counterculture haven for restless young navel-gazers and ground zero for Billy’s spiritual awakening.

The post The Trial of Billy Jack appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

One thing that all the great, iconic, landmark Hollywood films of any era have in common is universality. As Clint Eastwood’s iconic serial killer thriller “Dirty Harry” turns 50 this week, the Don Siegel film’s rocky critical reception back in 1971 only temporarily obscured the pic’s primal pull and lasting (not “Sudden”) impact. Like “Casablanca” and “The Best Years of Our Lives,” both powerfully relevant to World War II survivors, or “Grapes of Wrath,” which spoke to Depression era audiences, or “In the Heat of the Night” with its relevance to the Civil Rights revolution, “Harry” was the man of the Nixon/Law and Order moment, which we now see was much a bigger harbinger of tumultuous social change than just Tricky Dick and the transitory winds blown up by a single political figure.

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a multitude of globally significant events and trends...

Quentin Tarantino always has been the ultimate alpha director – a man who often likes to do things ass backwards. He depicts historic events in his movies, deliberately scrambling the dates. While many cinemas now stand empty, this week he defiantly purchased his second movie theater in Los Angeles.

He also has published a new novel, rewriting his hit movie in a way that might surprise, even distress, its star cast. The novel bears the same title, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but if I were Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio, I would chat with my agents about character assassination.

Some spoiler alerts: In the 2019 movie, they played empathetic “has beens” trapped in the daunting downdraft of past celebrity. In the novel, however, Cliff (Pitt) brutally murders his wife, along with other hapless victims, with Tarantino’s prose wallowing in the gory details. Rick (DiCaprio) doesn’t seem fazed because...

[Editor’s note: Spoilers follow for the plot of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” novel.]

One of the biggest mysteries of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is whether Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth murdered his wife, Billie. Rumors about his wife’s mysterious demise swirl around the stuntman, with Mike Moh’s Bruce Lee showing recognition when a crew member says Booth “killed his wife and got away with it.” But it’s only in Tarantino’s “Hollywood” novel, out now, which the director has described as a “complete rethinking of the movie,” that we get a definitive answer about what happened.

Cliff’s culpability for the crime has been hotly debated since the film was released in July 2019. Brad Pitt himself said he knew the definitive answer — that Tarantino had told him — and certainly characters in the world of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” believe Cliff is guilty. Husband...

Stanley. Now there’s a name to inspire fear amongst the masses, yes? Well, this was the ‘70s, and wheels turned in the horror world whichever way the road to success was paved. Such is the case with the aforementioned Stanley (1972), a film looking to mooch off the big earnings of 1971’s Willard; but instead of rats, we get snakes. And a whole lot of them.

With Willard leading the charge, the ‘70s had a veritable menagerie of When Animals Attack films, with the films switching gears from smaller critters to big ‘uns following the blowout phenomena of Jaws (’75). But for now, we’ll focus on one of the many creature flicks that slithered through drive-ins the end of May; no good notices to be found, but for those who hung around for the second feature, they were treated to a revenge story with bizarre behavior, colorful characters, and some decent kills.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is such a rabbit hole of references, themes and moods that 40 minutes is hardly sufficient to scramble down it. But a small audience in a Hollywood theater was happy to have that much time Saturday with the rare reassembling of Quentin Tarantino, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie for a post-screening discussion about the year’s most rewardingly episodic epic. (The chat was also live-streamed to 18 other screens around North America.)

The Q&a had Tarantino holding the home-field advantage as a conversationalist, taking place at his own beloved repertory house, the New Beverly. Invited guild members were on hand along with 50 members of Tarantino’s public, who were recognizable as the ones asleep under coats and blankets before the screening started, some having waited outside much of the night for the early a.m. dispersal of free tickets. They were rewarded with...

One of the most intriguing and mysterious characters in director Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has to be fictional stuntman Cliff Booth, who is played by Brad Pitt.

While said to be stylistically inspired by actor Tom Laughlin in the “Billy Jack” movie franchise, Booth is an invention of Tarantino and Pitt, and is depicted as the loyal and deadly friend of fading television series star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Accused by multiple people of being a murderer, Booth is somewhat of an outcast in the universe of stuntmen, and is believed to have gotten away with killing his wife, Billie Booth (Rebecca Gayheart). However, the film is ambiguous on that front and leaves Booth’s alleged dark past to speculation.

What Tarantino does allow the audience to see is a flashback scene that takes place on a boat, during which Billie scolds Cliff, as he...

Jimmy Kimmel and his audience got a big surprise Monday when the stars of Quentin Tarantino’s new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood unexpectedly interrupted the host’s monologue as they cut through the studio on their way to the film’s red carpet premiere, which was happening at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, across the street from Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Hollywood Boulevard.

One by one, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio breezed through the studio, interrupting Kimmel’s monologue and eliciting cheers and applause from the audience.

Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt first worked together on the director’s 2009 WWII movie “Inglourious Basterds,” but that film was not what sealed the deal on the duo reuniting for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Tarantino was courting Pitt to play the role of stuntman Cliff Booth and invited the actor over to his home for an initial meeting to discuss the character. It was there that a pretty amazing coincidence occurred that proved Pitt deeply understood the character without any guidance from the legendary filmmaker.

As Tarantino recently explained to Pure Cinema Podcast hosts Elric Kane and Brian Saur, Pitt showed up at his house to discuss Cliff Booth, followed by the two sitting down in his personal screening room to watch Tom Laughlin’s 1971 indie action drama “Billy Jack.” Pitt brought over his personal DVD copy of the movie, which also stars Laughlin in the title role...

Delores Taylor, who co-starred with husband Tom Laughlin in the 1971 indie hit Billy Jack and its sequels, has died. She was 85. Her daughter Teresa Laughlin told Deadline that Taylor died March 23 and had been battling dementia while living at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Home in Calabasas, CA. Taylor played Jean Roberts in Billy Jack, in which Laughlin starred as the half-Navajo martial arts expert who served as a Green Beret in Vietnam and came home to help…...

Delores Taylor, the actress, screenwriter and producer who collaborated with her husband, the late Tom Laughlin, for five films featuring the countercultural hero Billy Jack, has died. She was 85.

Taylor died Friday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills after a battle with dementia, her youngest daughter, Christina, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Taylor appeared in a small role and as the narrator in the first Billy Jack film, The Born Losers (1967), then played the schoolteacher Jean Roberts opposite her husband as the title character in Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy...

Delores Taylor, a Golden Globe-nominated actress who starred with her husband Tom Laughlin in five indie movies featuring counterculture hero Billy Jack, died Friday. She was 85.

News of Taylor’s death was posted by her daughter on a “Billy Jack” Facebook fan page.

A native of South Dakota, Taylor met Laughlin in college and married him in 1954. Together, the two developed the character of Billy Jack, a martial arts expert who was half-Navajo, half-white Green Beret Vietnam veteran and defended youthful members of the counterculture from authorities who just didn’t understand.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky” opened to $7.6 million this weekend, well short of its tracking and good for only #3 on the worst summer weekend in two years. This, despite a cast full of draws like Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum, strong reviews, a distribution team of A players, and (overhyped) coverage of its would-be groundbreaking marketing and release plan.

As it turned out, those elements contributed to a complex set of factors that resulted in this meh of a weekend.

Here’s some key ones:

“The Hitman’s Bodyguard” Got in the Way

Studios largely abandoned August, a month that in recent years saw “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Suicide Squad” thrive. Enter Lionsgate, which knows how to find opportunistic dates for its genre films. In this case, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” overlapped some of what “Logan Lucky” had to offer, and offered greater appeal.

Read More:‘Hitman’s Bodyguard...

“Logan Lucky” and “The Knick” are one and the same. Yes, one is a new Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig-led motion picture — a brisk, lively, crowd-pleasing heist flick, opening this weekend. And “The Knick” was a TV show, set in 1901 with gruesome operations, low ratings, and a cancellation handed down by Cinemax after two seasons.

But beyond their shared director, both “Logan Lucky” and “The Knick” operate outside the norm. If the former succeeds, it could lead to more great TV like the latter; it could help build a world where ambitious shows — like “The Knick” Season 3 — could see the light of day.

Steven Soderbergh’s first and last TV show, along with his return from the filmmakers’ retirement home, are auteur efforts with a clear, creative vision, and their success is measured differently from blockbusters of both mediums.

Read More:How Netflix Has Ignited TV’s Talent War — and...

“Here is the screen’s most shocking exposé, of the ‘Baby-Facers’ just taking their first stumbling steps down Sin Street U.S.A.!” Robert Altman’s first feature film is far too good to be described as any but an expert step toward an impressive career. But he had to deal with a young actor who drove him up the wall, Tom Laughlin.

The Delinquents

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1957 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 72 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard, Helen Hawley, Leonard Belove, Lotus Corelli, James Lantz, Christine Altman, George Mason Kuhn, Pat Stedman, Norman Zands, James Leria, Julia Lee, Lou Lombardo.

Cinematography: Charles Paddock

Film Editor: Helene Turner

Second Unit Director: Reza Badiyi

Produced, Written and Directed by Robert Altman

The hoods of tomorrow! The gun molls of the future!

Ah, the glorious Juvenile Delinquency film, or J.D. Epic,...

This Week in Home Video‘They’re Playing With Fire’ Blends Bloody Violence and T&A Thrills to Surprising EffectPlus 13 more new releases to watch at home this week on Blu-ray/DVD.

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekThey’re Playing With Fire [Kl Studio Classics]

What is it? A sexy college professor seduces her student, and then people start dying horrible deaths.

Why see it? I’ve been a Sybil Danning fan for more years than I care to recall, but somehow this one slipped past me before now. I’m not sure what teen me would have thought, but as an adult I’m in awe of just how off the rails it gets from its very clear T&A origin. From the cover to the copy the film sells itself as just another sex flick, but...

Part I.

1971 was an incredibly violent year for movies. That year saw, among others, Tom Laughlin’s Billy Jack, with its half-Indian hero karate-chopping rednecks; William Friedkin’s The French Connection, its dogged cops stymied by well-heeled drug runners; Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, banned for the copycat crimes it reportedly inspired; and Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, featuring the most controversial rape in cinema history. Every bloody shooting, sexual assault and death by penis statue reflected a world gone mad.

It seemed a reaction to America’s skyrocketing crime. Between 1963 and 1975, violent crimes tripled; riots, robberies and assassinations racked major cities. The antiwar and Civil Rights movements generated violent offshoots like the Weathermen and Black Panthers. Citizens blamed politicians like New York Mayor John Lindsay (the original “limousine liberal”), who proclaimed “Peace cannot be imposed on our cities by force of arms,” and Earl Warren’s Supreme Court,...

Now what would the movies be like if everybody on the big screen was a conformist and blandly played by the rules? Every now and then it can be quite therapeutic to have a bad apple shape our rigid outlook with a dosage of cynicism in cinema. Whether intentionally unruly or merely questioning the status quo movie rebels can be compellingly entertaining for various reasons.

So who are your choice big screen rabble-rousers that like to stir the pot and cause dissension in the name of justice or just plain anti-establishment? In Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels let us take a look at some of the on-screen troublemakers with a taste for colorful turmoil, shall we?

The selections for Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels are (in alphabetical order according to the film titles):

1.) Brad Whitewood, Jr. from At Close Range (1986)

In director James Foley...

‘Gone with the Wind’ actress Alicia Rhett dead at 98; was oldest surviving credited Gwtw cast member Gone with the Wind actress Alicia Rhett, the oldest surviving credited cast member of the 1939 Oscar-winning blockbuster, died on January 3, 2014, at the Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Community in Charleston, South Carolina, where Rhett had been living since August 2002. Alicia Rhett, born on February 1, 1915, in Savannah, Georgia, was 98. (Photo: Alicia Rhett as India Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.) In Gone with the Wind, the David O. Selznick production made in conjunction with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM head Louis B. Mayer was Selznick’s father-in-law), the stage-trained Alicia Rhett played India Wilkes, the embittered sister of Ashley Wilkes, whom Scarlett O’Hara loves — though Ashley eventually marries Melanie Hamilton (Rhett had auditioned for the role), while Scarlett ends up with Rhett Butler. Based on Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller, Gone with the Wind was (mostly) directed by Victor Fleming...

Oscar-nominated ‘Imitation of Life’ actress Juanita Moore has died Juanita Moore, Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee for the 1959 blockbuster Imitation of Life, died on New Year’s Day 2014 at her home in Los Angeles. According to various online sources, Juanita Moore (born on October 19, 1922) was 91; her step-grandson, actor Kirk Kahn, said she was 99. (Photo: Juanita Moore in the late ’50s. See also: Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner photos at the 50th anniversary screening of Imitation of Life at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.) Juanita Moore movies The Los Angeles-born Juanita Moore began her show business career as a chorus girl at New York City’s Cotton Club. According to the IMDb, Moore was an extra/bit player in a trio of films of the ’40s, including Vincente Minnelli’s all-black musical Cabin in the Sky (1942) and Elia Kazan’s socially conscious melodrama Pinky (1949), in which Jeanne Crain plays a (very,...

Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ movie franchise comes to an end; U.S. government, Hollywood studios blamed (See previous post: “‘Billy Jack’: Tom Laughlin Revolutionized Film Distribution Sytem.”) In 1975, Tom Laughlin’s self-produced Western The Master Gunfighter — a remake of Hideo Gosha’s samurai actioner Goyokin, co-starring Ron O’Neal and Barbara Carrera — bombed at the box office after opening at more than 1,000 locations. Laughlin reportedly had spent $3.5 million to market the $3.5 million production, having hired John Rubel, assistant secretary of defense under Robert McNamara, to plan the film’s distribution tactics. Financially depleted and embroiled in more lawsuits against Warner Bros., Laughlin embarked on the Billy Jack series’ fourth — and, as it turned out — final film, Billy Jack Goes to Washington. A 1977 Frank Capra Jr.-produced reboot of Frank Capra’s 1939 classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Laughlin’s final directing effort was barely seen even in its drastically edited form.

‘Billy Jack’: Tom Laughlin helped to revolutionize Hollywood’s film distribution system (See previous post: “Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ Actor and Director, Robert Altman Difficult Star Dead at 82.”) Featuring the titular hero as a semi-mystical figure who, with a mixture of steely determination and purposeful violence, helps to rescue wild horses from becoming dog meat and allows an independent school to continue operating at an Indian reservation in Arizona — against the wishes of white reactionary bigots and ruthless capitalists — Billy Jack was a box office disappointment when released by Warner Bros. at, in Tom Laughlin’s words, "porno houses" (and drive-ins) in 1971. (Photo: Tom Laughlin in Billy Jack.) Unhappy with the studio’s handling of his film, Laughlin sued Warners. In May 1973, following a settlement with the studio, he began self-distributing Billy Jack at small-town movie theaters throughout the United States. He hired marketing expert, former United Artists honcho,...

Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ actor-filmmaker who died last week helped to revolutionize film distribution patterns in North America (photo: Tom Laughlin in ‘Billy Jack’) Tom Laughlin, best known for the Billy Jack movies he wrote, directed, and starred in opposite his wife Delores Taylor (since 1954), died of complications from pneumonia last Thursday, December 12, 2013, at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles County. Tom Laughlin (born on August 10, 1931, in Minneapolis) was 82; in the last dozen years or so, he suffered from a number of ailments, including cancer and a series of strokes. Tom Laughlin movies: ‘The Delinquents’ and fighting with Robert Altman In the mid-’50s, after acting in college plays and in his own stock company while attending university in Wisconsin, Tom Laughlin began landing small roles on television, e.g., Climax!, Navy Log, The Millionaire. At that time, he was also cast...

'Billy Jack' Tom Laughlin died last week. Laughlin, who created and played the movie character "Billy Jack" — a half-white, half Native American Vietnam vet who used martial arts skills to defeat bigots and racists — died last week. Late Sunday, The Associated Press reported that Laughlin's daughter said "he died Thursday at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Laughlin was 82 and Teresa Laughlin, who acted in the Billy Jack movies, said the cause of death was complications from pneumonia." The Los Angeles Times writes, Laughlin "drew a huge following for his movies about the ill-tempered, karate-chopping pacifist Billy Jack. ... Laughlin starred in and co-produced the four films of the 1960s and '70s...

Tom Laughlin, who wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a series of films about a troubled Vietnam vet named “Billy Jack” that unexpectedly became hits despite devastating reviews, has died at the age of 82. According to his “Billy Jack” website, Laughlin died “at sunset” on December 12. According to his daughter, Teresa Laughlin, his death was caused by complications of pneumonia.The half-white, half-Native American character, Billy Jack, was introduced in a 1967 movie, “The Born Losers,” in which he battled an outlaw motorcycle gang. But it wasn’t until the second film, “Billy Jack” (1971), that anyone took notice. A violent pacifist fighting against racists on the behalf of Native American children at a Freedom School in Arizona, Billy Jack, who never gave up, had much in common with his creator. The distributor, Warner Bros, barely marketed ”Billy Jack,” and the movie was not a commercial success. So Laughlin fought for two...

Younger movie buffs may have no idea how popular the Billy Jack movies were in the early ’70s but Billy Jack and The Trial Of Billy Jack were the cool films to see when I was in middle school. The first film in the series was Born Losers in 1967, an above average entry in the biker genre notable for its odd hero Billy Jack, a brave Native American ex-Army Green Beret played by Tom Laughlin who used his karate skills to fight a nefarious motorcycle gang. Laughlin wrote and directed three sequels which costarred his wife Delores Taylor. Billy Jack was released in 1971, and this time Billy used those same skills to fight racism and oppression. With its themes of child abuse, the trampling of Indian rights, prejudice, television exposes, campus shootings by the National Guard, the Mi Lai massacre, culture clashes, Jungian philosophy, police brutality, government corruption, karate, guns,...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Maverick actor and filmmaker Tom Laughlin has died at the age of 82 after a long illness. Laughlin was just another hunky actor in small roles in films like South Pacific and Tea and Sympathy. However, in 1967 he successfully rode the wave of popularity attached to biker flicks by writing, directing and starring in The Born Losers. (He used the named T.C Frank for his non-acting credits). The film starred Laughlin as a half-Native American named Billy Jack who takes on seemingly insurmountable odds to help oppressed people. The film was a hit and Laughlin revived the character in 1971 in the film Billy Jack. However, he was angry with Warner Brothers' lukewarm marketing of the film. He engaged in a high profile battle to win back distribution rights and finally prevailed in court. In 1974 Laughlin took the bold step of investing millions of dollars in re-marketing a...

Tom Laughlin, the actor who wrote, directed, starred in and distributed the 1970s’ Billy Jack films, died on Thursday in California. He was 82.

Actor Tom Laughlin Dies

Billy Jack was the second of four movies featuring the title character, a half-Native American former Green Beret and Vietnam veteran, as he fought on the side of a progressive school that sought desegregation. The people in the Western town wanted to keep the Native American students out of the system, which Billy Jack wouldn’t stand for.

Studios wanted nothing to do with the sequel, believing that the vigilante nature of Billy Jack would be a turn off to audiences. However, after Laughlin secured theaters to show the film, it went on to become a box-office success. His legwork to make the film happen is credited with being an inspiration to modern independent filmmakers and changing Hollywood’s marketing strategies.

Laughlin is...

Tom Laughlin – Billy Jack – was the same on screen and in real life. He was an outsider, a fighter for his convictions, stubborn and uncompromising. He also revolutionized the modern movie industry. I got to know Tom in 2005, when he reached out to tell me about a new movie he was making to protest the war in Iraq. It seemed unlikely that at age 73, decades after bowing out of the movie business, he could resurrect Billy Jack. Also read: Tom Laughlin, Star of ‘Billy Jack,’ Dead at 82 But he was determined to try, and certain he could pull...

Actor-writer-director Tom Laughlin, whose production and marketing of Billy Jack set a standard for breaking the rules on and off screen, has died. He was 82. Laughlin's daughter told the Associated Press that he died Thursday at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Teresa Laughlin, who acted in the Billy Jack movies, said his cause of death was complications from pneumonia. Billy Jack was released in 1971 after a long struggle by Laughlin to gain control of the low-budget, self-financed movie, a model for guerrilla filmmaking. He wrote, directed and produced Billy Jack and starred as the ex-Green...

Billy Jack actor Tom Laughlin has died, aged 82.

Laughlin's family announced his death in a message posted on his personal website this weekend.

A statement on the website indicated that Laughlin passed away on Thursday (December 12), and that details about a memorial service have not yet been determined.

Laughlin is best known for portraying the eponymous vigilante in the Billy Jack films, which were immensely popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

The actor made other memorable appearances in South Pacific, Gidget and The Master Gunfighter.

He also famously entered the political arena later in his life, and ran for the Us presidency unsuccessfully three times between 1992 and 2008.

Laughlin is survived by his wife of 60 years Delores, and his children Frank, Teresa, and Christina.

Watch a trailer for Billy Jack below:...

Tom Laughlin, the actor, writer, director and producer behind the Billy Jack films, has died. He was 82. His family announced on BillyJack.com that Laughlin died Thursday "at sunset" near his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

In the four Billy Jack movies, Laughlin played the main character -- a mystical, half-breed ex-Green Beret hero with martial-arts skills -- opposite his wife, Delores Taylor, who portrayed a schoolteacher. The couple teamed on screenplays, and he directed all four films. Themes explored included child abuse, religious persecution and exploitation of the Native American.

read more...

Filmmaker Tom Laughlin, who shot to fame as the rugged half-breed action hero “Billy Jack,” died Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif., surrounded by his family. He was 82 years old. While involved at 0ne point with just about every facet of the film business, Laughlin may be best known for his series of “Billy Jack” films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954, and she co-produced and acted in all four of the “Billy Jack” movies. In addition to acting, he was a producer, director and screenwriter, and drew attention for a groundbreaking promotion and release campaign on 1974′s “The Trial of Billy.

On a day that's already seen the tragic passing of actor Peter O'Toole at the age of 81, December 15, 2013 got a bit sadder for fans of classic films as it was announced that filmmaker/actor Tom Laughlin and Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine have also both passed away, at the ages of 82 and 96, respectively. Laughlin was best known for his role as the vigilante half-breed "Billy Jack," originated for the 1967 film The Born Losers , a role he reprised for three more films, which he also wrote, directed (under the pseudonym T.C. Frank) and produced. Laughlin passed away on December 12, but his family only announced his passing today. Fontaine was best known for her memorable performances in Alfred Hitchcock's early films Rebecca and Suspicion , being nominated...

Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.

One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.

This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.

There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...

John Singleton was raised on silent movies. The 45-year-old director of Boyz in the Hood and the Shaft remake grew up next to the Century Drive-In in Inglewood, California. As a boy, he’d literally peek out his window and watch his heroes Bruce Lee and Billy Jack‘s Tom Laughlin battle on-screen without sound. “The first breast I saw was Pam Grier’s,” Singleton confessed to a rapt audience at Toronto’s Tiff Bell Lightbox Tuesday night, hosted by director Clement Virgo as part of the city’s Black History Month celebrations. “Every time I see Pam Grier I tell her, ‘You made me want …...

Adding to the already large amount of options he has for the next several years, Mark Wahlberg has signed on to produce two new films, and like much of his producing work, there’s room for him to take on the starring role in either.

First up, Variety says that he’ll be teaming up with Stephen Levinson to produce When Corruption Was King, a crime drama for Paramount, with Temple Hill Entertainment also producing. Written by Frank Baldwin and based on the memoir of the same name by Robert Cooley and Hillel Levin, the movie focuses on a Chicago mob attorney (Cooley himself) who, as a state witness, had to bring on the downfall of the very organization he worked for.

The role of the lawyer sounds like it could fit Wahlberg, and courtroom dramas could be making something of a comeback (such as with The Lincoln Lawyer), which...

Adding to the long list of projects that Mark Walhberg is currently attached to, the Fighter star is set to produce and possibly star in two more films. Variety reports that the actor and his producing partner, Stephen Levinson, have come aboard the adaptation of Robert Cooley's When Corruption Was King as producers with the possibility that Wahlberg might star in the flick as well. Frank Baldwin is writing the script, with no director attached at the moment. Cooley’s memoir tells the story of how he, as a mob attorney, played a major role in bringing down Chicago’s mob organization during Operation Gambat. Additionally, The Tracking Board (via /Film) reports that Wahlberg is also set to produce and possibly star in a remake of the 1971 action film Billy Jack. Starring Tom Laughlin, Billy Jack centers on a gunslinger who defends a hippie-themed school from townspeople opposed to the counterculture students.

Ted [1], Uncharted [2], The Fighter 2 [3], Bait and Switch [4], Broken City [5], Contraband [6], The Raven [7]. The list of films Mark Wahlberg is currently making, potentially producing or has been attached too is more extensive than some actor's whole careers. That's especially the case when you add two more projects to the already lengthy list. Variety reports that Wahlberg is set to produce, and possibly star in, When Corruption Was King about a Chicago mob lawyer who turns on his employers while The Tracking Board says he'll produce, and possibly star in, a remake of the 1971 film Billy Jack which was about an ex-Green Beret who tries to avoid violence but can't as he defends an alternative school from the outside town. Read more about Wahlberg's involvement in each film after the jump. It's important to note about both of these films that while Wahlberg will most likely produce them in some aspect, there's no guarantee that he'll star.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are joined by John Carle and they launch into a whole new batch of topics including “Black Friday” sales success, recently released and upcoming video games like Assassins Creed 2, Left for Dead 2, Dragon Age and the massive success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The guys also discuss the infamous “French Airport” level in Cod: MW2, video game movie tie-ins, the Rocky and Rambo franchises, Christmas action movies, comics related movies like Batman Forever, the greatness of Rob Marshall’s Nine, Deadpool movie possibilities and more.

The guys also made some great picks this week including John’s pick of the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Matt’s pick of Rocky on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of 1971’s martial arts action film with a conscience Billy Jack, co-written, directed by and starring Tom Laughlin.

As always, if you have comments,...

Universal Pictures' "Public Enemies," starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, will screen as the Centerpiece Premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs June 18-28.

Directed by Michael Mann, whose "Collateral" screened as a sneak peek at the festival five years ago, "Enemies" also stars Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. The film opens nationally July 1.

Organized by Film Independent, the fest announced the bulk of its lineup Tuesday,encompassing more than 70 feature films, 70 shorts and 50 music videos drawn from more than 30 countries.

Said Rebecca Yeldham, who recently stepped into her new role as the festival's director: "The Laff is a celebration of culture, cinema and community. We're dedicated to our public, and we're dedicated to our filmmakers. We see ourselves as part of the international community of artists and passionate cinephiles."

Joining Yeldham and programming director Rachel Rosen at the Hotel Palomar in Westwood, actors Gael Garcia Bernal...