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How Elizabeth Montgomery & Her Special Blend Of Colleagues Cast Their TV Spell With ‘Bewitched Elizabeth Montgomery, daughter of famed actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen, was actually Hollywood royalty decades before she was cast as beloved house-witch Samantha Stephens on Bewitched. Everett Collection A year before Bewitched began, Montgomery fell in love with and wed director/producer William Asher. They met on the set of the 1963 feature film Johnny Cool. They wanted to work together on a weekly series. Asher was a prolific director from the Beach Party franchise of the 1960s and produced the famed event at which Marilyn Monroe sang a breathy “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy. He was friends with CBS executive Harry Ackerman, to whom he and Montgomery proposed a series called The Fun Couple, about a garage mechanic who falls in love with a wealthy socialite. Ackerman liked the idea but had...

Henry Silva, who gave memorable turns over the course of a 40+-year career as a distinct presence on the big screen, has died. He was 95.

A genuinely commanding and terrifying presence, Henry Silva’s extensive career put him in numerous roles in action flicks, thrillers and exploitation movies. An early turn in The Tall T marked him as a face to watch–and be frightened of. A series of westerns and adventurers led to him being cast as one of Danny Ocean’s 11. In a fitting close to his career, Henry Silva made a cameo in Steven Soderbergh’s remake.

Other key roles in Henry Silva’s career include those in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Johnny Cool (1963), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Sharky’s Machine (1981), and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000), which is easily one of his finest performances.

There, too, was the barrage of Italian crime movies that...

Henry Silva, who starred in Johnny Cool, fought Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate and was one of Sinatra’s fellow thieves in Ocean’s 11, among dozens of screen roles spanning a half-century, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 95.

An actor whose distinctive face often led to typecasting as the heavy, his 130-plus film and TV credits also include The Bravados, starring Gregory Peck (1958); Cinderfella, with Jerry Lewis (1960); the Rat Pack-led Western Sergeants 3 (1962); Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979); Love and Bullets with Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Rod Steiger (1979); the Burt Reynolds pics Sharky’s Machine (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1982); Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990); Steven Seagal’s first film Above the Law (1988); and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai with Forest Whitaker (1999).

Along with the title role opposite Elizabeth Montgomery in Johnny Cool...

Henry Silva, a character actor known for playing bad guys and gangsters in movies like “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Ocean’s 11,” has died.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, his son Scott Silva confirmed to Variety. He was 95.

The stage and screen actor, whose career spanned 50 years and 140 TV and film credits, was also an honorary member of The Rat Pack. He starred alongside Frank Sinatra in both “Ocean’s 11” (1960) and “The Manchurian Candidate,” (1962) in which he played one of the 11 casino robbers in the classic caper film. Also in 1962, they both appeared in “Sergeants 3” and would go on to collaborate on the TV movie “Contract on Cherry Street” (1977) and “Cannonball Run II” (1984) with Dean Martin.

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Henry Silva, an actor with a striking look who often played villains and had credits in hundreds of films including “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” died of natural causes Wednesday at the Motion Picture Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., his son Scott confirmed. He was 95.

One of Silva’s most memorable roles came in John Frankenheimer’s classic thriller “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), in which he played Chunjin, the Korean houseboy for Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw — and an agent for the Communists — who engages in a thrilling, well-choreographed martial arts battle with Frank Sinatra’s Major Bennett Marco in Shaw’s New York apartment.

Silva appeared in a number of other movies with Sinatra, including the original, Rat Pack-populated “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960) with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., where he was one of the 11 thieves, and 1962 Western “Sergeants 3.”

His death was...

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Henry Silva, the rugged New York actor who portrayed heavies and heroes of various ethnicities in a career highlighted by turns in A Hatful of Rain, The Manchurian Candidate and Johnny Cool, has died. He was 95.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his son Scott Silva told The Hollywood Reporter.

Silva also played the Draconian commander “Killer” Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), just one in a lineup of his bad guys seen in The Tall T (1957), The Bravados (1958), Il Boss (1973), Sharky’s Machine (1981), Above the Law (1988), Dick Tracy (1990) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).

“Henry Silva is one of those guys you most likely will recognize even if you don’t know his name,” onetime Crimespree magazine writer Dave Wahlman wrote in 2016. “His face is something straight...

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Pat Rosson, a son and grandson of cinematographers who appeared on The Andy Griffith Show, The Twilight Zone and the soap opera The Young Marrieds as a child actor in the 1960s, has died. He was 69.

Rosson died April 28 of a heart attack in Los Angeles, his daughter, Maria Delilah Rosson, told The Hollywood Reporter.

On “Runaway Kid,” which premiered in November 1960 as the sixth episode of CBS’ The Andy Griffith Show, Rosson played George “Tex” Foley, whose circumstances teach Opie (Ron Howard) a lesson about trust and keeping promises.

A month later, he appeared on CBS’ The Twilight Zone on the season two episode “The Night of the Meek,” which starred Art Carney as a down-on-his-luck department store Santa Claus.

On ABC’s The Young Marrieds from 1965-66, Rosson portrayed Jerry Karr, a youngster in the middle of a custody battle between his biological mother,...

Mort Sahl, the acerbic comic whose pioneering style paved the way for such boundary-breaking comedians as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin, died Tuesday at his home in Mill Valley, CA. He was 94.

A friend confirmed his death to The New York Times.

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

Known for his topical social commentary, he boldly skewered politicians and others in a harsh but clean stand-up act. He hosted the first Grammy Awards in 1959, co-hosted the 1959 Academy Awards and a year later became the first comedian featured to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. He also guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson multiple times during the 1960s.

Born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal, Sahl’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child. After a stint in the Air Force, he graduated from USC in 1950. By the mid-’50s he was doing stand-up,...

Mort Sahl, a trailblazing political satirist whose biting wit and uncompromising intellect broadened the world of conventional standup comedy, died Tuesday in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 94.

The New York Times confirmed his death with his friend, Lucy Mercer.

In 1953, when Sahl first appeared at the Hungry i, a San Francisco folk singer’s hangout, he was an unknown with little stage experience. But his rapid-fire monologues about politics, social trends and fads quickly earned him the nickname “Rebel Without a Pause.”

“The three great geniuses of the period were Nichols and May, Jonathan Winters and Mort Sahl,” Woody Allen told New York magazine in 2008. Allen credited Sahl’s intellectual brand of humor for getting him into comedy. “He was the best thing I ever saw,” Allen said in another interview. “He totally restructured comedy. He changed the rhythm of the jokes.”

In 2011, his live 1955 recording “Mort Sahl at Sunset...

Henry Silva’s gaunt face and implacable demeanor made him the perfect villain for a host of films in the 50’s and 60’s but it wasn’t until "Johnny Cool" that he was awarded leading man status. William Asher ("Muscle Beach Party") directed this visceral revenge thriller and cast his then-wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, opposite Silva’s malevolent hitman. Produced by Peter Lawford and co-starring Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis, Jr., the picture occasionally plays like a rat-pack movie without the rat-pack.

Henry Silva’s gaunt face and implacable demeanor made him the perfect villain for a host of films in the 50’s and 60’s but it wasn’t until Johnny Cool that he was awarded leading man status. William Asher (Muscle Beach Party) directed this visceral revenge thriller and cast his then-wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, opposite Silva’s malevolent hitman. Produced by Peter Lawford and co-starring Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis, Jr., the picture occasionally plays like a rat-pack movie without the rat-pack.

Film studios have recently discovered a way to inject new life into their back catalogs without the need to spend money on marketing, retail shelf space, or overstock storage. Mod, or manufacturing on demand, means they don’t press the DVD until you order it. MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and the Warner Archive Collection are the two big names in the Mod game right now, and each month they make dozens of titles available on DVD for the very first time. And The Mod Quad will take a look at as many of them as we can handle on a semi-irregular basis. Which will probably average out to some number divisible by four. Highlights this installment include The File Of the Golden Goose, The Fourth War, Hennessy, and the movie where Thurston Howell III gets a cap in his ass, Johnny Cool. * The discs are manufactured using the best source materials available and they’re strictly...

Westwood - The master of sensual European cinema golden years have a tint of blue. UCLA just hosted retrospective of Radley Metzger’s films. His most important films are being released on Blu-ray. He’s about to take the director’s chair as he approaches 83.

His masterwork Camille 2000 was just released Blu-ray with an extended version from Cult Epics. The 1969 update of Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias takes place in an esoteric Italy. The restored high definition transfer gives a detailed look at that magical time. The Party Favors had a chance to chat with Radley Metzger about the release.

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Radley is a true independent filmmaker. He owns the rights to his films instead of selling them off to distributor. He’s not at the mercy of an indifferent studio executive to keep his cinematic legacy available. The first question had to be...

DVD Playhouse—July 2011

By Allen Gardner

The Music Room (Criterion) Satyajit Ray’s 1958 masterpiece looks at the life of a fallen aristocrat as a metaphor for an India that is not only becoming Westernized, but modernized technologically and culturally beyond recognition. When the beloved music room, where he has hosted lavish concerts in the past, starts falling into disrepair as attendance drops steadily, the man realizes his way of life is vanishing. Stunningly shot in black & white, one of Ray’s finest works. Bonuses: Documentary on Ray from 1984 by Shyam Benegal; Interviews with Ray biographer Andrew Robinson and filmmaker Mira Nair; Excerpt from 1981 roundtable discussion between Ray, critic Michael Ciment, director Claude Sautet. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

Beauty And The Beast (Criterion) Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of the classic fairy tale become a beloved classic upon its 1946 release, and hasn’t faded since.

The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Fred Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…

(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)

By now, fans know what to expect from Warners deep, dense, impressively comprehensive Harry Potter Ultimate Editions, which means the wait for the rest of the series to get the treatment has sometimes been quite a hard one to bear. Thankfully, we’re nearing the end with the release of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix: Ultimate Edition & Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince...

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s manufacturing-on-demand program continues during the month of June with 29 films being released as part of MGM’s Limited Edition Collection. Unfortunately only one qualifies as real horror, but there's another that should appeal to genre fans so we're including some info on both for your perusal.

First up is 1958's Curse of the Faceless Man - A stone figure is unearthed in Pompeii followed by a series of skull crushing murders. Stars Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara; irected by Edward L. Cahn.

Next is the mash-up entitled Haunted Summer from 1988 - Romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, along with Shelly's future wife, Mary, and her beautiful stepsister, Claire, travel blissfully through Switzerland one summer. Both women share Shelley's bed, while the tortured Lord Byron flounders in a secret relationship with his physician. They experiment with opium, "free love", and the nature of good and evil.