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Joey D. Vieira, who portrayed the farm boy Sylvester “Porky” Brockway on the first four seasons of the long-running CBS series Lassie, has died. He was 80.

Vieira died Monday — the day before his birthday — in hospice care, his Lassie co-star Jon Provost announced on Facebook.

Viera also appeared in some notable films, among them Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Red Heat (1988) and The Patriot (2000).

Billed as Donald Keeler — his aunt was Ruby Keeler, who starred in Warner Bros. musicals — Vieira appeared on 91 episodes of Lassie from 1954-57. At the start, the show revolved around the Miller family — Tommy Rettig as Jeff, Jan Clayton as his mom, Ellen, and George Cleveland as Gramps — living on a farm with their collie.

Quite often, Porky, who also had a dog, a basset hound named Pokey, was seen wearing a beanie and huffing and puffing, trying to keep...

This Civil War thriller has so much truth to say about War, Patriotism and combatant-vs.-civilian terror that we can hardly believe it was released in 1954. It’s based on a true event from 1864, a daring undercover mission that hit the Union far away from the conventional fighting. Van Heflin is the vengeance-seeking advance agent, Anne Bancroft a war widow, Richard Boone a maimed Union veteran and Lee Marvin a loose cannon with a hair trigger. The anti-war message is stronger than anything from the Vietnam years! The 20th-Fox release is not on quality home video, and is in great need of restoration.

The Raid

Not on Home Video

CineSavant Revival Screening Review

1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min.

Starring: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Will Wright, James Best, John Dierkes, Helen Ford, Lee Aaker, Claude Akins, John Beradino, Robert Easton,...

Lee Aaker, best known for starring as Corporal Rusty of “B-Company” on the 1950s western series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” died on April 1. He was 77.

Paul Petersen, another former child actor, confirmed the news to Variety and posted a tribute on his Facebook page, along with a signed photo of a young Aaker with Rin Tin Tin, his onscreen canine pal.

“Saying Goodbye to Lee Aaker,” Peterson said. “You have to be a certain age to remember Rin Tin Tin. Lee Aaker passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone and unclaimed…listed as an ‘indigent decedent.’ As an Air Force veteran Lee is entitled to burial benefits. I am working on that. God knows when a sparrow falls.”

Aaker was born on September 25, 1943. His mother, Myles Wilbour, was the owner of a dancing school in Los Angeles. He was singing and dancing at local clubs by the age of 4. At 8-years old,...

Veteran actor and former child star Lee Aaker has sadly passed away. Famous for starring as the orphan Rusty alongside his German shepherd pal on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin in the 1950s, Aaker reportedly had a stroke and died on April 1 near Mesa, Arizona. The actor was 77 years old.

Paul Petersen, a former Donna Reed Show star who now serves as an advocate for former child stars, told THR that Aaker had been battling drug and alcohol abuse. By the end, the actor was left with one "surviving relative that could not help him," with Aaker's death certificate listing him as an "indigent decedent." Petersen was helping to get him a proper burial.

"You are around just to please everyone," Petersen added of former child actors, "and when there's nothing left, they are done with you."

Aaker is perhaps best known for playing Rusty, a young boy raised by U.

Before Contagion, before Outbreak, there was this scarifying 50s germfest. Shot semi-documentary style on evocative New Orleans locations, Elia Kazan’s sixth feature outing incorporates film noir elements into its story of Us Public Health officials trying to prevent a plague from spreading through the populace via some infected criminals. Film debuts of Jack Palance and popular moppet Tommy Rettig.

The post Panic in the Streets appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

1966: The final episode of Never Too Young aired on ABC.

1983: Guiding Light's Nola & Quint were married.

1987: As the World Turns' Iva blurted out the truth about Lily.

1999: A gorilla plotted to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network. The show had always run in the mornings previously. It would remain in this new timeslot until...

My longtime Disney publicist friends know too well about my childhood fixation about “Mary Poppins.” What “Star Wars” was to a younger generation, this grandiose flight of fantasy about a magical nanny was to me. It made me love films even more than I ever had before. The songs, the effects, those dancing penguin waiters – they expanded my imagination in marvelous new ways.

I thought I knew everything about “Mary Poppins.” I had read all of P.L. Travers’ books. I danced and sang to the soundtrack. I had a Mary Poppins doll with both white fancy dress and her flying outfit, complete with parrot umbrella and carpet bag. I also had consumed a biography about Travers when I was an adult.

But five years ago, when the movie about the making of the film, “Saving Mr. Banks,” came out, I learned about a lecture being given at a community center in Washington,...

1966: Final episode of ABC's Never Too Young. 1983: Guiding

Light's Nola & Quint were married. 1987: As the World Turns'

Iva blurted out the truth about Lily. 1999: A gorilla plotted

to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network.

We spend years viewing the world through the eyes of a child before abandoning it. Not the world, that is—but we grow into players in the game of Life, rub our heavy eyelids, and take to ever-trippy existence from a heightened perspective in which our formative fears and fantasies are filtered through a scope less blurry, unadulterated. And then in doing so we leave a little something behind. For a grown-up to be considered “childish” comes with more negative connotations than posi, but to retain one’s inner child is a paramount strength. So what is the difference?Theodore Geisel, also known under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss, authored the most celebrated children’s literature of his time. He presented generations upon generations whimsical visions which, in proper auteur style, require just a single glance to recognize as work of his. Geisel’s simply-worded fables were praised for encouraging youth...

By Lee Pfeiffer

A controversy over the style of drapes for a mansion's library would not seem to be the fodder for a sizzling screen drama but it is the catalyst for the events that unwind in The Cobweb, a 1955 soap opera that involves the talents of some very impressive actors and filmmakers. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by John Houseman, based on the bestselling novel by William Gibson. The cast features an impressive array of seasoned veterans as well as up-and-comers. Among them: Richard Widmark, Lauren, Bacall, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish, Oscar Levant, Susan Strasberg and John Kerr. The action all takes place in a psychiatric institute called "The Castle". It's actually a mansion house and the patients are seemingly there voluntarily. They are an assortment of mixed nuts ranging from elderly eccentrics to young people with severe problems interacting with others. The...

Let me see your fingers, lad! Are they limber? Are they happy?

The Thing With Two Heads, Danger Diabolik, Gator Bait, and Tarantula are a few of the movies they’ve screened in the past at Webster University’s Strange Brew cult film series. Always the first Wednesday evening of every month, the fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143). This week, on Wednesday February 5th at 8pm, they’re venturing it’s sheer ’50s madness with the amazing The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T.

Admission is only $4!

Dr. Suess once said: “Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.” I wish Dr. Suess had been involved in more movies, but for most of his career, Theodore Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. The one exception (aside from a few...

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Elia Kazan Week! concludes at Trailers from Hell with director John Landis introducing Kazan's public health noir "Panic in the Streets," noting that "before 'Contagion,' before 'Outbreak,' there was this scaryfying 50s germfest." Before Contagion, before Outbreak, there was this scarifying 50s germfest. Shot semi-documentary style on evocative New Orleans locations, Elia Kazan's sixth feature outing incorporates film noir elements into its story of Us Public Health officials trying to prevent a plague from spreading through the populace via some infected criminals. Film debuts of Jack Palance and popular moppet Tommy Rettig.

When I feel a little blue, there are a few movie moments that are guaranteed to lift my spirits with a straight shot to the serotonin. At the top of the list is the "Do-Mi-Do Duds" song from the bizarro kids' flick The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (video after the jump).

I first saw this 1953 film on TV as a small child, and I was utterly freaked out by it. For years I didn't know the name -- I'd ask random people if they remembered a movie with a kid playing the piano while wearing a rubber hand on his head, and I'd get blank, puzzled stares. Eventually, it was released on home video, and I discovered that there's something of a cult following for 5,000 Fingers among folks like me who had their brains bent by it at an early age.

If you've never seen the movie, you've missed out...

W.C. Fields once said, "Never work with children or animals." Well, one of the world's most famous canines is returning to television and it looks like producers will get to avoid working with both real-life kids and dogs.

The character of Lassie the collie first appeared in a 1938 short story, written by Eric Knight. It was later expanded into a novel called Lassie Come-Home. An MGM film based on the book, starring Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, hit theaters in 1943. That spawned additional Lassie stories in print, on radio and in movie theaters.

In 1954, the Lassie TV show debuted on CBS. Aside from the famous canine, the family show features the talents of Tommy Rettig, Jan Clayton, George Cleveland, Jon Provost, June Lockhart, Hugh Reilly, Robert Bray, Jack De Mave, Jed Allan, Ron Hayes, Larry Wilcox, Pamelyn Ferdin, Cloris Leachman, and Jon Shepodd. Lassie had a number of human friends...

Candy Spelling is writing a book. Candy Spelling. Mother of Tori Spelling, mother-in-law of Dean McDermott, grandma of their kids Liam and whatever the other one's named, widow of TV genius Aaron Spelling, who created "Charlie's Angels," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty," and brought Candy - born Carole Marer - insane wealth.

Candy Spelling. Owner of La's largest monster mansion, The Manor. On six Holmby Hills acres, it's 56,000 square feet, 123 rooms including one just for gift-wrapping, 13-foot ceilings, bowling alley, gym, theater, hot and cold...

Candy Spelling is writing a book. Candy Spelling. Mother of Tori Spelling, mother-in-law of Dean McDermott, grandma of their kids Liam and whatever the other one's named, widow of TV genius Aaron Spelling, who created "Charlie's Angels," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty," and brought Candy - born Carole Marer - insane wealth.

Candy Spelling. Owner of La's largest monster mansion, The Manor. On six Holmby Hills acres, it's 56,000 square feet, 123 rooms including one just for gift-wrapping, 13-foot ceilings, bowling alley, gym, theater, hot and cold...

Candy Spelling is writing a book. Candy Spelling. Mother of Tori Spelling, mother-in-law of Dean McDermott, grandma of their kids Liam and whatever the other one's named, widow of TV genius Aaron Spelling, who created "Charlie's Angels," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty," and brought Candy - born Carole Marer - insane wealth.

Candy Spelling. Owner of La's largest monster mansion, The Manor. On six Holmby Hills acres, it's 56,000 square feet, 123 rooms including one just for gift-wrapping, 13-foot ceilings, bowling alley, gym, theater, hot and cold...