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Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Emmy for his role in the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots and an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, died Thursday night in Santa Monica. He was 87.

His death was first reported by his nephew to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given.

“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You and soon would successfully audition for the Broadway production Take a Giant Step, then perform in a star-making supporting...

Star Trek: The Original Series is known for its weird and over-the-top episodes, with concepts that pushed the boundaries of sci-fi television. "All Our Yesterdays" stands out as a highly underrated episode with a strong story and character development, despite its odd trappings. The episode showcases fan power with a heartfelt storyline, an innovative script from a fan-turned-writer, and new depths to Spock's character.

Even as a product of its time, Star Trek: The Original Series can be a very weird show. The show's creative forces were focused solely on delivering an hour of entertaining television each week, and without an established canon, things could get pretty over-the-top. Each episode was self-contained and focused on an entirely new planet or situation, which meant that zany concepts could actually reach the screen without any long-term ramifications. If it didn't work, the show simply zipped on to the next planet.

Over time,...

Four-time Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz will perform for Sunday’s emotional “In Memoriam” segment on the Oscars 2023 ceremony. While only 40-50 people are generally remembered for the television ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, over 200 people will be recognized on the Academy’s webpage starting that evening.

SEEWho is Performing at the Oscars 2023?: Full List of Presenters and Performers

Here is a lengthy list of many contributors to film who died since last year’s Academy Awards ceremony:

Mary Alice (actor)

Gil Alkabetz (animator)

Kirstie Alley (actor)

Burt Bacharach (composer)

Angelo Badalamenti (composer)

Simone Bär (casting director)

Joanna Barnes (actor)

Carl A. Bell (animator)

Jeff Berlin (sound)

David Birney (actor)

Bruce Bisenz (sound)

Robert Blake (actor)

Eliot Bliss (sound)

Nick Bosustow (shorts)

Albert Brenner (production designer)

Tom Bronson (costume designer)

James Caan (actor)

Michael Callan (actor)

Donn Cambern (editor)

Irene Cara (songwriter)

Gary W. Carlson (sound)

Marvin Chomsky...

It was another difficult year in 2022, and the sadness extended to many beloved and groundbreaking people in the show business and media worlds who died during the past 12 months.

Scroll through a photo gallery above, which also includes the obituaries.

The acting world lost giants including Sidney Poitier and Angela Lansbury, along with such big names as James Caan, Anne Heche, Bob Saget, Kirstie Alley, Ray Liotta, Nichelle Nichols, William Hurt, Louise Fletcher, Robert Clary, Emilio Delgado, Sally Kellerman, Robbie Coltrane, Monica Vitti, Leslie Jordan, John Aniston, Tony Sirico, Charlbi Dean, Tony Dow, Irene Papas, Howard Hesseman and Seinfeld moms Estelle Harris and Liz Sheridan.

We also pay tribute to directors including Ivan Reitman, Peter Bogdanovich and Marvin J. Chomsky.

Musicians who left us this past year include Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn, Olivia Newton-John, Meat Loaf, Ronnie Spector, Naomi Judd, Ramsey Lewis, Stephen “tWitch” Boss and Coolio. Many key...

Producers of this Monday’s Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony have some difficult decisions to make about who to honor during the emotional In Memoriam segment. John Legend will perform “Pieces,” a new song he has written for the tribute. Kenan Thompson will host the 2022 Emmys for NBC at 8 p.m. Et; 5 p.m. Pt.

Our list below includes almost 100 people who made a strong contribution to television and have died since mid-September of 2021 following the previous Emmys ceremony. Only about 40-45 of these people will probably be in the video segment. Certain to be featured will be TV Academy Hall of Fame members actress Betty White and director Jay Sandrich.Other prominent names almost certainly chosen are: Mary Alice (acting winner), Louie Anderson (acting winner), James Caan (acting nominee), Anne Heche (acting winner), Howard Hesseman (acting nominee), William Hurt (acting nominee), Gregory Itzin (acting nominee), Ray Liotta (acting winner), Burt Metcalfe...

You may be surprised to learn that the first Hollywood film that dealt with the Holocaust was released during the height of World War II. The 1944 Andre De Toth film, “None Shall Escape” shows a group of Polish-Jews gunned down by the Nazis while they are being forced into boxcars for deportation. Over the subsequent decades, the horrors of the Holocaust have been depicted on the big screen in such classics as 1959’s “The Diary of Anne Frank”; 1982’s “Sophie’s Choice,” for which Meryl Streep won her first Best Actress Oscar; and Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning 1993 masterpiece “Schindler’s List.”

The Holocaust, in which six million Jews died during World War II, has also been the subject of numerous lauded TV movies and miniseries. The latest is Barry Levinson’s acclaimed “The Survivor,” which premiered last September at the Toronto Film Festival and on HBO and HBO Max. The film, Levinson...

Marvin J. Chomsky, the Emmy-winning director and producer who helmed episodes of beloved TV shows like “Roots” and “Star Trek,” died Monday, his son Peter Chomsky confirmed to Variety. He was 92.

A prolific director of the small-screen with a career spanning four decades, Chomsky won four Emmys over the course of his career, all for his work on various miniseries or television films: “Holocaust” in 1978, “Attica” in 1980,” “Inside the Third Reich” in 1982 and “Peter the Great” in 1986. He was additionally nominated for four other Emmys, and won two Director’s Guild of America awards out of four nominations.

Born in 1929 in New York City, Chomsky got his start in television as an art director and set director, before scoring his first directing credits in 1964, helming three episodes of medical drama “The Doctors and the Nurses.” Over the course of the 60s and early 70s, he directed episodes of numerous well-known and popular television series,...

Marvin J. Chomsky, the multi-time Emmy-winning director known for his work on series such as Roots, Star Trek, and Hawaii Five-o, has died. He was 92. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chomsky passed away on Monday evening of natural causes in a hospice facility in Santa Monica, California. He is survived by his three sons, Peter, Eric and David, and his granddaughter, Liliana. Chomsky was born in 1929 in New York City and is the cousin of American linguist Noam Chomsky. He began his career in the film and television industry as an art director, set decorator, and producer on TV series such as Play of the Week and The Doctors and the Nurses. During the 1960s, he would move into directing, leading several episodes of The Wild Wild West, Star Trek, and Gunsmoke. He would go on to direct various feature films through the 1970s and 1980s, including Evel Knievel (1971), Live A Little,...

Marvin J. Chomsky, a man whose work as a director helped shape television for the better across four decades, has died. The Wrap reports that the four-time Emmy-winner who helmed episodes of "Star Trek: The Original Series" and the groundbreaking miniseries "Roots" has passed away at the age of 92.

Chomsky's son, Peter, told the outlet that the artist died in his sleep on Monday night. In a statement, he said that "Marvin Chomsky made a difference in our world using the medium of motion pictures to both entertain and educate viewers." That's certainly true; in addition to pioneering...

The post Marvin J. Chomsky, Director of Roots and the Original Star Trek Series, Dies at 92 appeared first on /Film.

Marvin J. Chomsky, a four-time Emmy-winning director whose credits include the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, Holocaust and dozens of TV series including the original Star Trek and Hawaii Five-o, died Monday. He was 92.

His son, producer Peter Chomsky, told Deadline that his father died in his sleep but gave no other details.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

The elder Chomsky already was a veteran TV director when he scored an Emmy nomination for helming two episodes of the groundbreaking slavery saga Roots. He went on to win Emmys for directing the harrowing 1978 miniseries Holocaust, telefilms Attica (1980) and Inside the Third Reich (1982) and the Maximilian Schell-led miniseries Peter the Great (1986). He earned nominations for helming Evita Peron (1981), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) and Billionaire Boys Club (1987), also scoring an Outstanding Miniseries nom as the latter’s supervising producer.

When he accepted his Emmy for Inside the Third Reich, Chomsky...

Marvin J. Chomsky, a four-time Emmy award winning director of iconic miniseries including “Roots” and “Attica,” as well as shows like “Star Trek,” has died. He was 92.

“Marvin Chomsky made a difference in our world using the medium of motion pictures to both entertain and educate viewers,” his son Peter Chomsky told TheWrap, adding that Chomsky died in his sleep on Monday.

Chomsky famously said upon accepting his third Emmy that his awards had come for directing projects about events that “never should have happened.” And though he was only nominated for 1977’s “Roots,” despite the series winning a historic nine Emmys, he later won directing awards for “Holocaust” (1978), “Attica,” (1980) “Inside the Third Reich” (1982) and “Peter The Great” (1986).

And while he won acclaim for his long career directing projects and miniseries about historical events, Chomsky also did extensive work on series including “Star Trek,” “Hawaii Five-o,” “The Wild, Wild West,...

This four part, eight hour miniseries turns the fate of a family of German Jews into a sprawling drama that covers all the bases of the holocaust horror. It was strong stuff and a big Emmy winner, boosting the careers of James Woods and Michael Moriarty. His warped charisma as a psychotic Nazi is so good that he’s consistently more interesting than the courageous victims. As for Meryl Streep, she became an instant star — everybody remembered her from this. Although it’s been called ‘The Holocaust for Dummies,’ it’s a quality show. Looking from today’s perspective, after forty years of Political Correctness adjustments, I’m not sure any two viewers will react in quite the same way.

Holocaust

Blu-ray

CBS Television Studio / Paramount

1978 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 7 hours, 36 min. / Street Date September 24, 2019 / 43.19

Starring: James Woods, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty, Joseph Bottoms, Rosemary Harris, Fritz Weaver, Tovah Feldshuh, Deborah Norton,...

Credit : Liam Daniel / Focus Features

Daniel Brühl stars as “Wilfred Brose” and Rosamond Pike stars as “Brigitte Kuhlman” in this first trailer for José Padilha’s 7 Days In Entebbe.

Focus Features will release the film in select theaters on March 16, 2018.

A gripping thriller inspired by the true events of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, the film depicts the most daring rescue mission ever attempted.

There have been two TV movies about the rescue.

Raid On Entebbe (1976) starred Peter Finch, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto and was directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back). It won the Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture Made for Television.” Victory At Entebbe was helmed by Marvin J. Chomsky (Tank) and starred Elizabeth Taylor, Linda Blair, Helen Hayes, Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Lancaster.

The 2017 film is from director José Padilha (“Narcos,” “Elite Squad”) and written...

Maximilian Schell movie director (photo: Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell) (See previous post: “Maximilian Schell Dies: Best Actor Oscar Winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg.’”) Maximilian Schell’s first film as a director was the 1970 (dubbed) German-language release First Love / Erste Liebe, adapted from Igor Turgenev’s novella, and starring Englishman John Moulder-Brown, Frenchwoman Dominique Sanda, and Schell in this tale about a doomed love affair in Czarist Russia. Italian Valentina Cortese and British Marius Goring provided support. Directed by a former Best Actor Oscar winner, First Love, a movie that could just as easily have been dubbed into Swedish or Swahili (or English), ended up nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Three years later, nominated in that same category was Schell’s second feature film as a director, The Pedestrian / Der Fußgänger, in which a car accident forces a German businessman to delve deep into his past.

Writer: Gerald Green Director: Marvin Chomsky Cast: James Woods, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty, Joseph Bottoms, Tovah Feldshuh, Rosemary Harris, Deborah Norton, Sam Wanamaker, Fritz Weaver Rating: Not Rated Studio: Paramount Release Date: May 27, 2008 I don’t remember when I watched my first movie on the Holocaust. I am going to wager a guess that it was one or two movies. [...]Sharethis.addEntry({ title: "DVD Review: Holocaust: The Anniversary Edition", url: "http://www.literaryillusions.com/LIreviews/2008/06/20/dvd-review-holocaust-the-anniversary-edition/" });...