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Rochelle Oliver, who starred on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and taught acting at New York’s respected Hb Studio since the 1970s, has died. She was 86.

Oliver died April 13, the Hb Studio announced. “Those who knew Rochelle will know what a luminous artist, sensitive and passionate teacher she was,” it said in an Instagram post. She died two days shy of her birthday.

For the big screen, Oliver starred in the Horton Foote-written 1918 (1985) and Courtship (1987) and appeared in such other films as The Happy Hooker (1975), Paul Mazursky‘s Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), John Sayles’ Lianna (1983), An Unremarkable Life (1989), Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman (1992) and Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (2002).

She also recurred as Judge Grace Larkin on Law & Order from 1993-03.

A protégé of Uta Hagen — who also taught for decades at Hb and...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” and was the last surviving member of the cast, died Saturday in New York City. She was 99.

Randolph was in hospice care at the time of her death and died of natural causes, her son, Randy, told TMZ.

Randolph’s character was married to Art Carney’s Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners.” They were the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows.

Born Joyce Sirola to a Finnish American family in Detroit, she got her start in show business when she joined a touring production of “Stage Door” while working at a department store, then moved to New York where she acted in theater and on television in shows such as “Buck Rogers.”

Gleason noticed her in a commercial and cast her in “The Honeymooners” in 1951. It first appeared as a sketch...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the television classic The Honeymooners, died Saturday at her home in New York City, according to multiple reports. She was in hospice care at the time of her death, which was from natural causes.

Randolph played the wife of sewer worker Ed Norton, played by Art Carney. The couple were the best friends and neighbors of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), and Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows).

Randolph was tabbed for the role after Gleason saw her on a chewing gum commercial.

Trixie was married to a sewer worker, and I guess she considered herself a little better than the character of Ed Norton,” Randolph said in a 1999 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “But she was just a housewife — she and Alice didn’t have jobs. They stayed home all the time, which was kind of amazing, but the husbands didn’t want them to work.

Joyce Randolph has sadly passed away.

The last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners died Saturday (January 13) at the age of 99 at her home in New York City due to natural causes, her son confirmed to TMZ on Sunday (January 14).

She famously played the role of Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, following Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), and Trixie and Ed.

Keep reading to find out more…

The character originated on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952, which she appeared on until 1957.

The sitcom also got a 2005 film adaptation starring Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Mike Epps and Regina Hall. Just recently in 2022, CBS announced it was developing a female-driven “reimagining” of the comedy series, via TVLine.

She would also appear on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Plainclothesman, The Doctors and the Nurses...

Joyce Randolph, the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.

Randolph passed away Saturday at her New York City of natural causes, Randolph’s son confirmed to TMZ Sunday.

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On The Honeymooners, Randolph played Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom, which ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, followed the day-to-day life...

Ellen Holly, the first Black actor to have a leading role on a daytime soap opera, died peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 92.

Photo by Ashley E. Jones

Holly joined ABC’s One Life to Live in 1968, in the role of Carla Benari, an actress of seemingly Italian heritage who found romance with Jim Craig, a white doctor (played by Robert Milli and then Nat Polen). It eventually came out that Carla Benari was actually Carla Gray, an African-American passing as white –and the daughter of Llanview Hospital housekeeping boss Sadie Gray...

Ellen Holly, the first Black person to star in a soap opera with her lead role on One Life to Live, died Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 92 and died in her sleep.

Her first roles on television included appearances on The Big Story (1957), The Defenders (1963), Sam Benedict (1963), Dr. Kildare (1964) and The Doctors and the Nurses (1963 and 1964).

Holly played the groundbreaking character Carla Gray on the hit ABC show One Life to Live from 1968 to 1980 and 1983 to 1985. She was personally chosen for the role by television producer Agnes Nixon after she saw a New York Times opinion piece that Holly wrote, called “How Black Do You Have To Be?” about the difficulty of finding roles as a light-skinned Black woman.

Holly was born on January 16, 1931, in Manhattan to parents William Garnet Holly, a chemical engineer, and Grayce Holly, a housewife and writer.

A graduate of Hunter College,...

Olympia Dukakis, who died on Saturday at age 89, left an indelible impression with a career in film, TV and theater that spanned nearly six decades. Winning the Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in 1987’s Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, at the age of 56, she also appeared in numerous other iconic films, including Steel Magnolias. (Click on the image above to launch the photo gallery.)

In the former picture, Dukakis starred as Rose Castorini, mother to Cher’s Loretta. In the latter, she played Clairee Belcher, the cheerful widow of a Southern mayor, known for her love of gossip. On the big screen, the actress’s other major credits include Look Who’s Talking, Over the Hill, I Love Trouble and Picture Perfect.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

On the TV side, she is remembered for her turn as matriarch Anna Madrigal in the PBS adaptation of...

"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."

"History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent 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...

1955: On Hawkins Falls, Dr. Floyd Corey (Maurice Copeland) dealt with fallout from the interview he gave to the local newspaper.

1961: On As the World Turns, David Stewart (Henderson Forsythe) and his wife Betty dealt with the aftermath of Ellen Lowell's (Patricia Bruder) revelation that Danny was her son.

1968: Dark Shadows' Bathia went up in flames.

1985: Australian soap opera Neighbours premiered.

1988: General Hospital's Duke was involved in a shootout.

2004: All My Children's Bianca went into labor."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent 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...

1968: On Dark Shadows, Bathia Mapes (Anita Bolster) tried to drive Angeligue out but announced she had failed and feared for her life. She said she felt herself on fire then flames sprung up around her.

1977: On Another World, Liz Matthews (Irene Dailey) was upset when Alice (Susan Harney...

Tony Award-winning actor Philip Bosco died Monday night at his home in Haworth, New Jersey. He was 88.

The actor's daughter, Celia Bosco, said her father had complications with dementia, which is commonly caused by Alzheimer's disease.

Before acting, Bosco worked in a carnival as a trailer truck driver.

He later became a Broadway veteran who won a Tony Award in 1989 for best actor for his role as the head of an opera company in the comedy "Lend Me a Tenor." He received nominations for his performances in "The Rape of the Belt," "Heartbreak House," "You Never Can Tell" and "Moon Over Buffalo." Bosco also starred in a 2004 production of "Twelve Angry Men."

On daytime soap operas, he played roles on As the World Turns (as Eliot Markham), Guiding Light (Clarence Baily), All My Children (Lyle Wedgewood) and Ryan's Hope (Dr. Gillette).

In 1988, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for his...

1965: Four new daytime soap operas premiered: Morning

Star and Paradise Bay on NBC, along with The Nurses and

Never Too Young on ABC."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"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...

1962: Primetime serial The Nurses premiered on CBS. The was titled was changed to The Doctors and The Nurses a year later.

1965: Two new Ted Corday daytime soap operas, Morning Star and Paradise Bay, premiered on NBC. Both shows lasted less than a year, with the final episodes airing on July 1, 1966.

1965: The Nurses premiered on ABC. The show, set at Alden General Hospital, was a daytime continuation...

[caption id="attachment_47663" align="aligncenter" width="384"] Angela George at flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/. Permission (Reusing this file.) Otrs Wikimedia./caption]

Actress Doris Roberts has died at the age of 90. An accomplished performer with a C.V. longer than your arm, Roberts assumed her best-known TV role as Marie Barone, on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond TV series, from 1996 to 2005.

Born Doris May Green, November 4, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, the actress took her step-father's surname. Her earliest TV series roles, in the 1950s, were in properties such as Starlight Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Suspense, Look Up and Live, 'Way Out, Ben Casey, Naked City, The Defenders, and The Doctors and the Nurses.

Read More…...

To Kill a Mockingbird actress Rosemary Murphy died on Saturday in New York City. She was 89.

Rosemary Murphy Dies

Murphy had recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in her Upper East Side apartment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy played neighbor Maudie Atkinson, better known as Miss Maudie. Her character lives across the street from lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and his two young children – Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) in the fictional Maycomb, Alabama.

Prior to appearing in To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy appeared in a number of TV series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Thriller, Naked City, Wide Country and The Doctors and the Nurses. Following her turn in the Oscar-nominated picture, Murphy continued her TV work.

Murphy earned her first Emmy for playing Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin.

A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre releases for April.

Night Gallery: Season 3 DVD Available Now

The third and final season (1972–73) of Rod Serling’s underrated series finally comes to DVD. Season 3 (with episodes downsized to half an hour) is generally considered inferior to the first two years, but it still contains several classic episodes. Best of all, Jim Benson and Scott Skelton, co-authors of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, helped put together a “lost” episode featuring four segments that were heavily altered for syndication. Guest stars this season include Mickey Rooney, Vincent Price, Burgess Meredith and gorgeous Joanna Pettet (The Evil).

Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except (1985) Blu-ray/DVD combo Available Now

One of the last great exploitation films of the ‘80s to receive wide theatrical distribution, this gonzo action/horror hybrid from director Josh Becker features many names from the Evil Dead team, both...

American actress Zina Bethune has died at the age of 66 following a hit-and-run horror in Los Angeles.

The screen and stage star, who appeared in Martin Scorsese's first feature film Who's That Knocking At My Door, died in the early hours of Monday morning after she was struck by two vehicles while trying to help an injured animal.

Bethune had pulled her car over in Forest Lawn Drive and was crossing the road to help the stricken creature when the first vehicle struck her, catapulting her body onto the opposite carriageway.

The actress was then struck by a second car, which dragged her body 600 feet (182 metres). Cops believe the driver of the second vehicle failed to stop after the accident.

Bethune was a talented dancer who performed for the New York City Ballet before moving into acting. She enjoyed roles in various U.S TV dramas including The Guiding Light, The Nurses, Police Story, Planet of the Apes, Route 66, and CHiPs.

Director David Pressman has passed away at the age of 97.

He died of natural causes in New York City on Monday, according to Variety.com.

Pressman took charge of long-running U.S. soap opera One Life to Live for nearly three decades, garnering himself three Daytime Emmy Awards.

He also directed beloved actress Grace Kelly in the original TV version of The Swan and went on to guest-direct a number of popular shows, including The Defenders, The Nurses and N.Y.P.D., with Al Pacino.

Pressman was born in Tiblisi, Georgia, and studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He then became an original member of the Actors Studio and founded the acting department at the prestigious Boston University in Massachusetts.

Before setting his sights on TV, Pressman also worked on a variety of Big Apple plays, including Broadway's Tony Award-winning The Disenchanted.

He retired from the entertainment business at the age of 85.

He is survived by his wife Sasha, and three sons Gregory, Eugene and Michael, an executive producer on the hit TV series Blue Bloods.

American screenwriter Arthur Bernard Lewis has died from pneumonia at the age of 84.

Lewis passed away in Los Angeles on 30 October.

He began his career as a producer on U.S. TV series The Doctors and the Nurses and eventually moved on to write popular programmes including The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Baretta, Hawaii Five-o and In the Heat of the Night.

In 1978, he joined the production team behind hit series Dallas, first serving as executive story editor and then supervising producer, working on the series' famous Who Shot J.R.? episode in 1980 - the highest-rated TV episode in history at the time.

Lewis also wrote 1990s TV films Dallas: J.R. Returns and Dallas: War of the Ewings.

He is survived by his wife, Marjorie Estelle, a son, a brother, a granddaughter, a great-granddaughter and a step-son.

Frankfurt, Germany -- Fifty-year production design veteran Paul Sylbert, who won an Academy Award for his work on 1978's "Heaven Can Wait," will receive the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sylbert received an additional Oscar nomination for "The Prince of Tides" (1991). Other credits include "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), "Kramer Vs. Kramer" (1979) and "Conspiracy Theory" (1997). He wrote and directed the 1971 feature "The Steagle" and TV episodes of "The Defenders" and "The Nurses." In addition, the screenplay for "Nighthawks" (1981) was based on Sylbert's writings.

Sylbert is the identical twin brother of the late Richard Sylbert, an Oscar winner and Adg Lifetime Achievement Award recipient whose credits include "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and "Dick Tracy" (1990).

The award will be presented at the 13th annual Adg Awards on Feb. 14 at the Beverly Hilton.