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Handsome leading man Richard Chamberlain, who came to prominence in the 1960s medical series “Dr. Kildare” and then became king of the miniseries with such ratings blockbusters as “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds,” has died. He was 90.

Chamberlain’s death was confirmed to Variety by publicist Harlan Boll. The actor died Saturday, March 29 in Waimanalo, Hawai’i, of complications following a stroke, according to Boll.

“Our beloved Richard is with the angels now,” Martin Rabbett, Chamberlain’s longtime partner, said in a statement. “He is free and soaring to those loved ones before us. How blessed were we to have known such an amazing and loving soul. Love never dies. And our love is under his wings lifting him to his next great adventure.”

Chamberlain’s All-American matinee idol looks stood in the way of his acting career at times until he proved himself onstage in a highly lauded production...

Theater, film and television writer-director Robert Allan Ackerman died Jan. 10. He was 77.

Nominated twice for Golden Globes and five times for Emmys, Ackerman also received numerous theater directing awards.

Ackerman started out directing at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre. In the 1980s his theater productions included Martin Sherman’s Tony nominated “Bent,” starring Richard Gere and David Dukes; John Byrne’s “Slab Boys,” starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Val Kilmer and William Mastrosimone’s “Extremities” starring Susan Sarandon. He went on to direct Peter Allen in “Legs Diamond” and Al Pacino in Oscar Wilde’s “Salome.”

When reached for comment, Al Pacino said, “I love Bob. I loved being around him, his aurora, his steady peace. To work with him was joyous. He understood the language of theater art and communicated it with such ease. His gift was intangible and there’s no way of understanding how he created.

Robert Allan Ackerman, the director whose television work scored five Emmy nominations and who directed acclaimed Broadway productions including Bent and Extremities, died Jan. 10 of kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77.

His death was announced by family through a spokesman.

“I love Bob. I loved being around him, his aurora, his steady peace,” said actor Al Pacino, who starred in Ackerman’s 1992 Broadway staging of Oscar Wilde’s Salome. “To work with him was joyous. He understood the language of theater art and communicated it with such ease. His gift was intangible and there’s no way of understanding how he created. When an artist has that special gift it is unexplainable, it just happens. When he stopped directing, he started writing again and his writing also had that same magic. He will be missed.”

In 2016, Pacino would re-team with Ackerman in a Pasadena Playhouse production of God Looked Away,...

By John M. Whalen

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” is an often-quoted line from John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” And if director Walter Hill had stuck to that idea, his “Wild Bill” (1995) would be a great movie, instead of a near miss. Unfortunately, he mixed legend with pure hogwash and the result is a confusing hodgepodge of scenes connected only by the fact that James Butler Hickok (Jeff Bridges) hated it when somebody messed with his hat.

You know a director intends to make a “serious” western when he starts the film out by showing the central character’s funeral. “Wild Bill” begins not only with a funeral, but a funeral shot in high-contrast, grainy black and white. In fact the film keeps switching from color to black and white for numerous flash back scenes, depicting “events” from Bill’s early life, some of which are complete fiction.