John Aprea, the charismatic character actor who portrayed the young Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather Part II and the father of John Stamos’ character on Full House, has died. He was 83.
Aprea died Aug. 5 of natural causes in Los Angeles, his manager, Will Levine, announced.
The New Jersey native appeared for director Jonathan Demme in Caged Heat (1974), Crazy Mama (1975) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004), played the brother of Ray Sharkey’s up-and-coming music promoter in Taylor Hackford’s The Idolmaker (1980) and was a mob guy in Mario Van Peebles’ New Jack City (1991).
Aprea also played another crook, Lucas Castigliano, as well as a multimillionaire shipping magnate, Alexander Nikos, during two stints on the NBC soap opera Another World over a course of a decade (1989-98). Both characters ended up getting shot to death by women.
He starred as the patriarch of a multi-generational Italian American family on NBC’s The Montefuscos,...
Aprea died Aug. 5 of natural causes in Los Angeles, his manager, Will Levine, announced.
The New Jersey native appeared for director Jonathan Demme in Caged Heat (1974), Crazy Mama (1975) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004), played the brother of Ray Sharkey’s up-and-coming music promoter in Taylor Hackford’s The Idolmaker (1980) and was a mob guy in Mario Van Peebles’ New Jack City (1991).
Aprea also played another crook, Lucas Castigliano, as well as a multimillionaire shipping magnate, Alexander Nikos, during two stints on the NBC soap opera Another World over a course of a decade (1989-98). Both characters ended up getting shot to death by women.
He starred as the patriarch of a multi-generational Italian American family on NBC’s The Montefuscos,...
- 8/18/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the most celebrated film makers of the last four decades has died. Here’s how the New York Times reported it….
Curtis Hanson, the film director whose adaptation of the James Ellroy noir novel “L.A. Confidential” won him an Academy Award, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 71.
The death was confirmed by Officer Jenny Houser, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She said that officers had been called to the house shortly before 5 p.m., and that Mr. Hanson had died of natural causes.
Julie Mann, his business manager, said Mr. Hanson had been struggling for some time with a form of dementia.
Let’s take a look at his long career. His first screen credit is for helping to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s short story in the 1970 American International Pictures’ The Dunwich Horror starring Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell.
Curtis Hanson, the film director whose adaptation of the James Ellroy noir novel “L.A. Confidential” won him an Academy Award, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 71.
The death was confirmed by Officer Jenny Houser, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She said that officers had been called to the house shortly before 5 p.m., and that Mr. Hanson had died of natural causes.
Julie Mann, his business manager, said Mr. Hanson had been struggling for some time with a form of dementia.
Let’s take a look at his long career. His first screen credit is for helping to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s short story in the 1970 American International Pictures’ The Dunwich Horror starring Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell.
- 9/23/2016
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Last night, the cinematic world lost one of its own. Filmmaker Curtis Hanson passed away at the age of 71. The cause of death has been placed as natural causes. Hanson worked in the industry for well over 40 years, writing and directing movies that will stand the test of time. Oscar took notice in the late 90’s when Hanson made what most consider to be his masterpiece with L.A. Confidential, but he was a well known artist before then. He worked steadily on the big screen, also putting out the top notch HBO TV movie Too Big to Fail about five years ago. He will be missed in a big way. Hanson was an Academy Award winner and three time nominee, all for L.A. Confidential back in 1997. That highly regarded crime drama was a tale of corruption in the 1950’s, looking at how very different policemen dealt with enforcing the law.
- 9/21/2016
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Curtis Hanson--Confidentially
By
Alex Simon
Curtis Hanson was my first interview with a fellow film buff and film journalist. He was nice enough to sit down with me twice, first at the Rose Cafe in Venice, then at a lunch spot in the Marina, the name of which has been lost to time. He was then kind enough to invite me to the world premiere of "L.A. Confidential" at the Chinese Theater as his guest, my first time on the red carpet at a real-life Hollywood premiere, and called me after this piece ran to thank me personally. A nice man. Hanson, and co-writer Brian Helgeland, would go on to win Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for "L.A. Confidential."
Years later, I ran into Hanson at a book signing party for Pat York that was held in Westwood. I approached him and reminded him of our interview a decade or so earlier.
By
Alex Simon
Curtis Hanson was my first interview with a fellow film buff and film journalist. He was nice enough to sit down with me twice, first at the Rose Cafe in Venice, then at a lunch spot in the Marina, the name of which has been lost to time. He was then kind enough to invite me to the world premiere of "L.A. Confidential" at the Chinese Theater as his guest, my first time on the red carpet at a real-life Hollywood premiere, and called me after this piece ran to thank me personally. A nice man. Hanson, and co-writer Brian Helgeland, would go on to win Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for "L.A. Confidential."
Years later, I ran into Hanson at a book signing party for Pat York that was held in Westwood. I approached him and reminded him of our interview a decade or so earlier.
- 9/21/2016
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Curtis Hanson, the Oscar-winning director of films including L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, and In Her Shoes, has died. He was 71 years old. Hanson was born March 24, 1945 in Reno, Nevada but grew up in Los Angeles. After dropping out of high school, he pursued opportunities as a freelance photographer and editor of the now-defunct Cinema magazine before turning to screenwriting, which bore fruit with 1970's The Dunwich Horror, a Roger Corman-produced fright film that he co-wrote with Henry Rosenbaum and Ronald Silkosky. Hanson subsequently moved to directing with Sweet Kill, a 1973 horror film about a sexually-repressed man who finds gratification in murdering the women he sleeps with. That was followed by a string of other low-budget efforts in multiple genres, including Losin' It, a teen comedy starring a pre-Risky Business Tom Cruise. Though he worked consistently through the '70s and '80s, Hanson wouldn't achieve mainstream recognition until...
- 9/21/2016
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Director Curtis Hanson, the man behind the modern neo-noir “L.A. Confidential” and the hip-hop drama “8 Mile,” died yesterday afternoon at the age of 71. According to Variety, he reportedly died of “natural causes” in his Hollywood Hills home.
Read More: Michael Apted Will Replace Ailing Curtis Hanson For Last Few Weeks Of Surfing Drama ‘Of Men And Mavericks’
Hanson got his start working for the legendary Roger Corman, first writing the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “The Dunwich Horror” and then writing and directing his first feature “Sweet Kill,” about a man who kills women while sleeping with them for sexual gratification.
The director worked steadily through the 70s and 80s, collaborating with actors like Tom Cruise on the 1983 teen comedy “Losin’ It” and with Rob Lowe and James Spader in “Bad Influence.” But his first major success came in 1992 with the psychological thriller “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” about a...
Read More: Michael Apted Will Replace Ailing Curtis Hanson For Last Few Weeks Of Surfing Drama ‘Of Men And Mavericks’
Hanson got his start working for the legendary Roger Corman, first writing the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “The Dunwich Horror” and then writing and directing his first feature “Sweet Kill,” about a man who kills women while sleeping with them for sexual gratification.
The director worked steadily through the 70s and 80s, collaborating with actors like Tom Cruise on the 1983 teen comedy “Losin’ It” and with Rob Lowe and James Spader in “Bad Influence.” But his first major success came in 1992 with the psychological thriller “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” about a...
- 9/21/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
An Oscar winner, and one of the finest purveyors of Hollywood blockbuster fare, director Curtis Hanson passed away yesterday at the age of 71.
Few stories of high school dropouts take on the trajectory that Hanson’s did, with the filmmaker first getting behind the camera as a photographer, moving into writing, and in 1973, directing his debut feature film, “Sweet Kill.” His first string of pictures through the ’70s and ’80s were mostly genre efforts ranging from horror to family fare (“The Little Dragons“) to comedy (“Losin’ It” starring a young Tom Cruise), but in the 1990s, Hanson hit the creative and commercial sweet spot.
Continue reading R.I.P. Curtis Hanson (1945-2016) at The Playlist.
Few stories of high school dropouts take on the trajectory that Hanson’s did, with the filmmaker first getting behind the camera as a photographer, moving into writing, and in 1973, directing his debut feature film, “Sweet Kill.” His first string of pictures through the ’70s and ’80s were mostly genre efforts ranging from horror to family fare (“The Little Dragons“) to comedy (“Losin’ It” starring a young Tom Cruise), but in the 1990s, Hanson hit the creative and commercial sweet spot.
Continue reading R.I.P. Curtis Hanson (1945-2016) at The Playlist.
- 9/21/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Curtis Hanson, the Oscar winner who transformed James Ellroy’s sprawling crime opus L.A. Confidential into one of the most taut noir films of the last 20 years, has died. According to Variety, he was 71.
A screenwriter as well as a director, Hanson got his start penning an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, The Dunwich Horror, for career-launching mega-producer Roger Corman. Hanson would work with Corman again three years later, for his directorial debut, 1973’s necrophilia-themed B-movie Sweet Kill.
Hanson continued to write and direct steadily throughout the ’70s and ’80s, working with performers ranging from Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer (in 1978’s The Silent Partner) to Tom Cruise, Shelley Long, and Jackie Earle Haley (in 1983’s Losin’ It.) In 1992, he directed Rebecca De Mornay and Annabella Sciorra in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, his first major success. The evil-nanny flick met with middling ...
A screenwriter as well as a director, Hanson got his start penning an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, The Dunwich Horror, for career-launching mega-producer Roger Corman. Hanson would work with Corman again three years later, for his directorial debut, 1973’s necrophilia-themed B-movie Sweet Kill.
Hanson continued to write and direct steadily throughout the ’70s and ’80s, working with performers ranging from Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer (in 1978’s The Silent Partner) to Tom Cruise, Shelley Long, and Jackie Earle Haley (in 1983’s Losin’ It.) In 1992, he directed Rebecca De Mornay and Annabella Sciorra in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, his first major success. The evil-nanny flick met with middling ...
- 9/21/2016
- by William Hughes
- avclub.com
Filmmaker Curtis Hanson, who directed Eminem in his film debut 8 Mile and earned an Oscar for his script for L.A. Confidential, died Tuesday, Variety reports. He was 71.
According to reports, paramedics responded to a call about an unconscious man and Hanson was pronounced dead at the scene. A cause of death has yet to be confirmed, though a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said Hanson died of "natural causes."
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hanson began his career as a film journalist, conducting interviews with filmmakers like John Ford and Vincente Minnelli.
According to reports, paramedics responded to a call about an unconscious man and Hanson was pronounced dead at the scene. A cause of death has yet to be confirmed, though a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said Hanson died of "natural causes."
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hanson began his career as a film journalist, conducting interviews with filmmakers like John Ford and Vincente Minnelli.
- 9/21/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Sandy Kenyon was a familiar face in films and television from the early 1950s, and was featured in several episodes of the original Twilight Zone including “The Odyssey of Flight 33″, “The Shelter”, and “Valley of the Shadow”.
He was born Sanford Klein in the Bronx, New York, on August 5, 1922, and served in the Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II. He returned to New York after the war to pursue a career as an actor. After several years on the New York stage, he moved to Los Angeles to further his career. He starred as Des Smith in the television adventure series Crunch and Des with Forrest Tucker from 1955 to 1956. His numerous television credits also include episodes of Steve Canyon, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Boris Karloff’s Thriller, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Wild Wild West, I Spy, The Invaders, The Most Deadly Game, Kung Fu,...
He was born Sanford Klein in the Bronx, New York, on August 5, 1922, and served in the Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II. He returned to New York after the war to pursue a career as an actor. After several years on the New York stage, he moved to Los Angeles to further his career. He starred as Des Smith in the television adventure series Crunch and Des with Forrest Tucker from 1955 to 1956. His numerous television credits also include episodes of Steve Canyon, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Boris Karloff’s Thriller, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Wild Wild West, I Spy, The Invaders, The Most Deadly Game, Kung Fu,...
- 3/16/2010
- by Jesse
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
The list of Roger Corman protégés is amazingly long and stuffed with goodies of all persuasions. There are the famous men: Scorcese (Box Car Bertha); Demme (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), Nicholson (Little Shop of Horrors), Joe Dante (Cockfighter), Francis Coppola (Battle Beyond the Sun), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto) Sylvester Stallone (Death Race 2000), Bruce Dern, Robert De Niro (Bloody Mama) Peter Fonda ( The Wild Angels), Peter Bogdanovich (Saint Jack) Curtis Hanson (Sweet Kill) and Jonathan Kaplan (Night Call Nurses) and those are just a few of the guys who wrote to the Motion Picture Academy to advocate for the award that Corman is finally getting this weekend. Corman with Jonathan Demme. They said, "it is virtually impossible to separate our various entries into the film industry from Roger Corman and his obsession with working with newcomers." Or how about...
- 11/13/2009
- by Patricia Zohn
- Huffington Post
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