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Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Sheila Allen (1932-2013) - Actress and widow of producer Irwin Allen who appears in his films The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Viva Knievel! and When Time Ran Out... and later produced the 2006 remake Poseidon. She died from pulmonary fibrosis on November 15. (THR) Marc Breaux (1924-2013) - Choreographer for Mary Poppins (see below), The Sound of Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He died on November 19. (THR) Anwar Brett...

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Marc Breaux, the choreographer who with his wife Dee Dee Wood created Dick Van Dyke's famous chimney sweep number in Mary Poppins and other spectacular dances for film and television, has died. He was 89. Breaux died Tuesday in Mesa, Ariz., in an assisted-living facility, his son, Michael, told the Los Angeles Times. After director Robert Wise saw Van Dyke's lithe performance in 1964's Mary Poppins, he immediately hired Breaux and Wood for another Julie Andrews classic, The Sound of Music, released a year later. Van Dyke also took the pair to work with him on Chitty Chitty Bang

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If film buffs know the name Marc Breaux, it’s likely because he and his partner Dee Dee Wood choreographed the ageless Mary Poppins; they were married at the time. Their other high-profile screen credits include The Sound of Music, The Happiest Millionaire, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Slipper and the Rose. I was sorry to read of his passing today and reminded of a tidbit I learned when I hosted a Poppins reunion some years ago at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During the “Step in Time” number, a choreographic tour-de-force, I found myself thinking of the boisterous dancing in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Following the screening, I asked Dee Dee Wood if that...

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