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Born in 1920, Walter Matthau was a celebrated performer on both the stage and screen, known for his gruff, rumpled persona. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Matthau turned to acting after serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He became a frequent presence on the small screen with appearances in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Goodyear Playhouse,” and “The Du Pont Show of the Week” (which brought him an Emmy bid in 1963), to name a few. During this period he also appeared in several films, few of them comedies, including “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “Fail Safe” (1964).

At the same time, he gained increasing respect as a stage actor with Tony Award-winning performances in “A Shot in the Dark” (Featured Actor in a Play in 1962) and “The Odd Couple” (Actor in a Play in 1965). It was in the latter role of Oscar Madison,...

Over the 96 years of Academy Awards history, over 900 men and women have been honored with acting nominations. On July 4, 2024, the oldest surviving acting winner (or nominee) has turned 100 years old. Our research shows that Eva Marie Saint joins a very short list of centenarians who received Oscar acting nominations, with four winning the award.

A star of stage, radio, TV and film, Saint won the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1955 for her debut movie performance in “On the Waterfront;” she is also the earliest surviving acting winner, and one of the last stars of the Golden Era. She later starred alongside Cary Grant in one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most acclaimed films, “North by Northwest” (1959), and became known to a younger generation as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in “Superman Returns” (2006). Although she’s never received another Oscar nomination, she’s earned five Emmy nominations, winning Best Miniseries Supporting Actress...

Jennifer Esposito is recalling how “a Harvey Weinstein-esque type person” tried to end her early acting career.

The Blue Bloods actress detailed on a recent episode of the She Pivots podcast the impact this “notorious, brutal” producer, whom she did not name, had on her.

“He fired me for no reason,” she said of a past project. “He wanted someone else and he got her.” However, it didn’t stop there. Esposito claimed the producer attempted to keep her from getting any additional work in Hollywood.

“But then, like, anybody that called [and] was like, ‘Hey, I want to hire her,’ he was like, ‘Don’t hire her,'” The Boys star explained. “He said I was a drug addict, locked myself in the trailer. Never happened. I don’t do drugs. Never did. If you do, great. It’s just not me.

“He literally had the power, and he...

Pat Sajak hosted his final episode of Wheel of Fortune last week. However, he doesn’t plan to just go home and retire from the world. Pat has some big plans, and he appears perfectly suited for his next gig. As a matter of fact, it is something he has done before to rave reviews.

Here is what Pat is doing next now that his Wheel of Fortune time has come to a close.

Pat Sajak Plans To Start Acting More

Now that Pat Sajak has retired from his hosting gig on Wheel of Fortune, he has big plans for the next step in his career. Pat plans to start acting more. This isn’t for movies or TV shows, but in stage plays. It is also something he has experience with and has done before.

Pat Sajak

Pat Sajak announced that his next gig after retiring from Wheel of Fortune...

While the Wheel Of Fortune will never be the same without long-time host and legend, Pat Sajak, he has other fish to fry. Although he is preparing and ready for the final spin to air, Pat had one leg out the door with his new gig already lined up before the season finale.

End Of An Era

Now that the final spin is about to air, it has been a week of memory lane for the Wheel Of Fortune cast. Admittedly, Pat Sajak knows it will be “okay” for him to move on from the life he’s known for more than four decades. Confessing to his daughter, Maggie Sajak, he says, “I’d rather leave a couple of years too early, than a couple of years too late.” Although he knows he could still give the show more time, he says there are some other things he would like to do in his life.

Pat Sajak — whose final episode after 41 seasons as host of “Wheel of Fortune” airs this Friday — has already lined up his first post-game show gig. Sajak is set to reunite with longtime buddy Joe Moore, the Khon-tv Hawai’i newscaster and actor, back on stage in a new take on the play “Prescription: Murder.”

Sajak and Moore will star opposite each other in the play at downtown Honolulu’s Hawaii Theatre next summer, from July 31 to Aug. 10, 2025. The Hawaii Theatre is set to reveal the news on Friday, via a commercial that will run on Khon-tv during Sajak’s final “Wheel” episode.

The 1962 mystery-thriller “Prescription: Murder” was written by William Link and Richard Levinson, who turned the play into the TV series “Columbo.” The plot to “Prescription: Murder” was adapted for the “Columbo” first episode.

In the Hawaii Theatre version, Sajak will play “brilliant psychiatrist Roy Flemming, who hatches a...

This year’s races for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were over before they started. Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers” took leads in the Gold Derby odds in their respective categories early in the season. They both went on to pick up Golden Globe, Critics Choice, BAFTA and SAG Awards. By the time the Oscars rolled around, there was a “near zero” chance of either of them losing.

In contrast, the lead acting contests provided considerably more suspense. Bradley Cooper in “Maestro,” Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers” and Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” were all looking strong at different point in the derby, before Murphy really exploded and ultimately won the Best Actor Oscar. And Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Emma Stone in “Poor Things” kept trading the top spot in the Best Actress odds. Gladstone finally reclaimed...

Long before he won the 2024 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Oppenheimer,” Robert Downey Jr. made his screen debut at age five in the experimental 1970 film “Pound,” which was directed by his father and co-starred his mother and sister. Upon clinching said prize, he emulated only three other men who were first honored by the academy at least half a century into their acting careers. Considering both male categories (and only counting credited roles in feature films), his waiting period of 54 years far exceeds the all-time average, which now stands at 19.5 years.

Although nearly two full decades separate their time-of-win ages (58 and 77), Downey came within five years of breaking John Gielgud’s general record for longest acting career preceding an Oscar victory. The English performer has held that distinction since 1982, when he was lauded for his supporting turn in “Arthur” 58 years after debuting in “Who Is the Man?” (1924). While no male...

As with leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. Of the 87 winners to date, only four Best Supporting Actor champs were in their 20s and just 15 were thirtysomething, including 2021 champ Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Messiah”). The 2023 winner, Ke Huy Quan, was 51 when he prevailed for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” He joined 15 previous winners who were in their 50s when they took home the trophy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actor.)

Eleven more men were in their 60s when they won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For eight fellows, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north of 80 when they took home their only Oscars.

At the 2019 Academy Awards, Mahershala Ali claimed the prize for “Green Book.

The first time I saw Alan Arkin onscreen, he scared the hell out of me.

The veteran Academy Award-winning actor, who died Thursday at the age of 89, is best known these days for his wittily avuncular presence in films like Little Miss Sunshine and such television shows as The Kominsky Method, his last great acting role. But my first exposure to him came in middle school, where for some inexplicable reason the powers that be decided that treating the entire student body to a screening of the film Wait Until Dark was a good idea.

In that classic 1967 thriller, Arkin played Harry Roat, the most sadistic member of a trio of villains terrorizing a blind Audrey Hepburn because they think she possesses a doll filled with heroin. In a climactic scene set in almost near-darkness, a seemingly dead Roat suddenly jumps into the frame and grabs Hepburn by the leg.

Alan Arkin, the longtime celebrated actor, who won an Oscar for his performance in “Little Miss Sunshine” and earned two Emmy nominations for “The Kominsky Method”, has died. He was 89.

Arkin’s death was confirmed to People by his sons, Adam, Matthew and Anthony, in a statement, saying, “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.”

A man who wore many hats, Arkin was an actor, director and screenwriter whose career spanned over six decades.

While primarily known for his screen work, he first broke out on Broadway in New York City. He received a Tony Award for his second performance in 1963’s Enter Laughing. A decade later, he was nominated for another Tony Award, this time for directing the 1973 play The Sunshine Boys.

During that time,...

Alan Arkin, who won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine, was nominated for Argo and two other films, scored six Emmy noms and won a Tony Award, died Thursday at his home in San Marcos, CA. He was 89.

The news was announced Friday morning by his sons, actors Adam, Matthew and Anthony, in a joint statement. Matthew Arkin told The New York Times that his father had suffered from heart ailments.

The statement read: “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.”

Related: Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries

In addition to his Oscar-winning film work, Arkin won a Tony Award for acting in Enter Laughing) and was Tony-nominated for directing The Sunshine Boys. He also was nominated for a half-dozen Emmy Awards spanning 53 years,...

Alan Arkin, the Academy Award-winning actor known for his roles in films including Little Miss Sunshine, Argo, Catch-22, and Glengarry Glen Ross, has died at the age of 89.

Arkin passed away on Thursday, June 29th at his home in California. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed,” his sons said in a statement.

Born March 26th, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, Arkin began taking acting lessons at the age of 10 and studied at multiple drama academies before making his 1957 feature film acting debut in the musical Calypso Heat Wave. After a few TV cameos, he made his Broadway debut in 1961 with From the Second City.

A star turn in 1963’s Enter Laughing earned Arkin the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, which he...

Oscar- and Tony Award-winning actor Alan Arkin has died. He was 89 years old.

His son Matthew told The New York Times that his father, who suffered from “heart ailments,” died Thursday in his San Marcos, Calif. home.

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Matthew, along with his brothers Adam and Anthony, released the following statement to People: “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.

Acting legend Alan Arkin is dead at age 89.

The Oscar, Tony, Emmy, BAFTA, SAG, and Golden Globe winner passed away at his home.

Perhaps best known for his roles in “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, Arkin began his acting career in 1957 — and ended up with a body of work of startling range. Arkin was an early member of the Second City comedy troupe and starred on Broadway with his Tony-winning turn in 1963’s “Enter Laughing.”

His film breakout was via comedy as well: in his first major onscreen role in Norman Jewison’s 1967 Cold War caper “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” he plays the “political officer” on a Soviet submarine that runs aground on a small New England island of only 200 residents. The sub’s captain, too embarrassed to radio the motherland for help, sends...

While Garn Stephens racked up over twenty screen credits over the course of her acting career, only one of those credits was on a horror movie… but what a horror movie it was. Stephens, who happened to be married to genre icon Tom Atkins at the time, played the ill-fated Marge Guttman in director Tommy Lee Wallace‘s oddball 1982 Halloween sequel Halloween III: Season of the Witch (watch it Here). Marge was the woman who was relaxing in her motel room when she made the mistake of messing with the trademark badge that fell off a Silver Shamrock mask. Sadly, Atkins has shared the news that Stephens passed away over the weekend. She was 87.

Stephens started out acting on stage, then made her screen debut playing a waitress in a 1975 episode of the TV anthology series The Wide World of Mystery. Over the decades, she landed roles in The Sunshine Boys,...

Comedy has been a popular genre for generations of film audiences seeking an escape from everyday troubles. Although these films often do well at the box office, the Academy is not always quick to reward lighter fare. However, there have been a few competitive acting wins over the past nine decades, and here we rank the 30 funniest of all time in the photo gallery above to wish you a Happy April Fools’ Day.

Out of these 30, there are five for Best Actor, including Jack Nicholson, who holds the record for male acting nominations, and 10 for Best Actress, including Barbra Streisand‘s win for her film debut in “Funny Girl,” which also resulted in a rare tie. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are included for their wins for “It Happened One Night,” which also holds the distinction of being the first of only three films to win the “Big Five”.

SEEOscar...

Having already won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in “Elvis,” Austin Butler is on a solid path to triumphing on his first Oscar nomination. His film, which covers the entirety of the titular rock star’s two-decade career, boasts a talented cast that includes past Oscar winner Tom Hanks, who collected back-to-back Best Actor trophies for “Philadelphia” (1994) and “Forrest Gump” (1995). He missed out on a supporting bid for “Elvis,” but if Butler clinches the lead award, Hanks will become the 15th man to have acted in a film that won the same Oscar he previously received.

Hanks has a total of five Best Actor nominations to his name, with the three unsuccessful ones having come for his work in “Big” (1989), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), and “Cast Away” (2001). Until Butler was recognized for “Elvis,” Hanks had never appeared in a film for which someone...

As with leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. Of the 86 winners to date, only four Best Supporting Actor champs were in their 20s and just 15 were thirtysomething, including 2021 champ Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Messiah”). The 2022 winner, Troy Kostur, was 53 when he prevailed for “Coda.” He joined 14 previous winners who were in their 50s when they took home the trophy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2023 Oscars Best Supporting Actor predictions.)

Eleven more men were in their 60s when they won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For eight fellows, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north of 80 when they took home their only Oscars.

At the 2019 Academy Awards, Mahershala Ali claimed the prize for “Green Book.” He...

Judd Hirsch has portrayed several memorable characters over the past 50 years including Alex Rieger in the classic ABC/NBC 1978-83 sitcom “Taxi” for which he won two Emmys, the caring psychiatrist Dr. Berger in 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which earned him a supporting actor Oscar nomination, and Eddie Ross, the angry, verbally abusive bartender in Herb Gardner’s 1992 play “Conversations with My Father,” for which he won a Tony. His latest indelible character is the colorful Uncle Boris, a former lion tamer and film worker, in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” earning a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Hirsch.

Hirsch, who just won the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Award for supporting actor, has made Academy Award history with his nomination. He eclipsed by one year the 41-year gap between bids set by Henry Fonda. At age 87, Hirsch would be the oldest acting winner; Christopher Plummer was 82 when he won for 2011’ “Beginners.

You might feel like you’ve already seen Mr. Saturday Night the musical even if you’ve never seen Mr. Saturday Night the movie, and whether you find that comforting – Billy Crystal certainly is one of the most likable presences in all of show business – or disappointing might depend entirely on your taste for well-delivered Borsht Belt comedy.

That’s not damning with faint praise: Mr. Saturday Night, the Broadway musical opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre based on the 1992 comedy, is, at its best, a charming showcase for the undeniable talents of both Crystal and the showbiz icons he adores. There are shout-outs galore here to the likes of Milton Berle, Harry Ritz, Jack Carter, Phil Silvers, Myron Cohen, Moms Mabley, Shecky Green and more, and a lovely visual tribute (Scott Pask designed the attractive sets) to comedy and TV pioneers from Betty White and Phyllis Diller to Richard Pryor and George Carlin.

Justin Bartha’s getting back into the treasure hunting game. The actor will return to the “National Treasure” series for the upcoming series of the same name, Disney Plus announced Monday.

Bartha starred in the two “National Treasure” films, released in 2004 and 2007 as Riley Poole, the best friend and computer expert sidekick of treasure hunting lead Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage). Bartha will appear in a guest capacity for the upcoming Disney Plus series, which stars a new cast of treasure hunters searching for a lost Pan-American treasure.

In addition to starring in “National Treasure,” Bartha is best known for starring in the three “Hangover” films. On television, he starred in “The Good Fight” on Paramount Plus for two seasons, and the second season of Showtime’s “Godfather of Harlem.” Other credits include “Sweet Girl,” “Driven,” “White Girl,” “Holy Rollers,” “Dark Horse,” “The Rebound” and “The New Normal.” On stage,...

As with leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. Of the 85 winners to date, only four Best Supporting Actor champs were in their 20s and just 15 were thirtysomething. The most recent winner, Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Messiah”), had just turned 32 when he prevailed. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Supporting Actor.)

By comparison, Brad Pitt was 56 when he won in 2020 for his featured performance in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” He joined a lucky 13 previous winners who were in their 50s when they took home the trophy.

Eleven more men were in their 60s when they won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For eight fellows, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north...

Comedy has been a popular genre for generations of film audiences seeking an escape from everyday troubles. Although these films often do well at the box office, the Academy is not always quick to reward lighter fare. However, there have been a few competitive acting wins over the past nine decades, and here we rank the 30 funniest of all time.

Out of these 30, there are five for Best Actor, including Jack Nicholson, who holds the record for male acting nominations, and 10 for Best Actress, including Barbra Streisand‘s win for her film debut in “Funny Girl,” which also resulted in a rare tie. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are included for their wins for “It Happened One Night,” which also holds the distinction of being the first of only three films to win the “Big Five”.

Nine men are included from the Best Supporting Actor category, including Kevin Kline, Jack Palance and Cuba Gooding,...

As the director and producer of both “House of Gucci” and “The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott is poised to score big when the 2022 Oscar nominations are announced three months from now. Reaping double Best Picture or Best Director bids would make the 83-year-old the first to pull off either feat since Steven Soderbergh did so in 2001. Even if he ends up being left out of both lineups, he could still make history if academy voters decide to recognize the work of his two leading ladies. If Jodie Comer (“The Last Duel”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) are both chosen to compete for Best Actress, Scott will become the fifth person to direct female leads from different films to nominations in a single year.

The first of these rare occurrences dates back to the third Oscars ceremony in 1930 when Nancy Carroll (“The Devil’s Holiday”) and Gloria Swanson (“The Trespasser...

Over the last four decades, Paul Raci has built a reputation as a dependable character actor. His embodiment of a tailor-made role in “Sound of Metal” has brought him a slew of prizes from critics groups, and he now has a shot at Oscar glory. He faces off against Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) in the race for Best Supporting Actor.

For the first time in over a decade, all five nominees are new to this category. Kaluuya is the only veteran acting nominee, having contended in lead for “Get Out” three years ago.

Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal” centers on Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed), a young heavy metal drummer and recovering drug addict who suddenly loses his hearing. Raci plays the role of Joe,...

Jodie Foster is the new Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The two-time Oscar winner pulled off a Golden Globe upset in Best Supporting Actress for “The Mauritanian” last month, but she was Mia from Monday’s Oscar lineup, becoming the fifth Globe winner not to earn a corresponding supporting actress Oscar nomination and first in 44 years.

The last Globe champ and Oscar snubbee was Katharine Ross for 1976’s “Voyage of the Damned.” Before that, Katy Jurado of “High Noon” (1952), Hermione Gingold of “Gigi” (1958) and Karen Black of “The Great Gatsby” (1974) all failed to convert their Globe gold into an Oscar bid.

In terms of the men, eight supporting actor Globe champs have been overlooked by the academy, mostly in the ’50s and ’60s. Taylor-Johnson was the most recent one to be blanked. Like Foster, he won the Globe in a shocker, for 2016’s “Nocturnal Animals,” but the academy opted to nominate his co-star Michael Shannon instead.

The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association mostly used a rubber stamp to fill out the TV portion of their Golden Globe ballots this year, saving most of the organization’s traditional chaotic energy for the film categories instead. In one of the most surprising but also welcome moments of the evening, Jodie Foster took home the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “The Mauritanian.”

Foster was in fourth place in Gold Derby’s odds heading into the Globes, behind Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”), Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Olivia Colman (“The Father”), and leading Helena Zengel (“News of the World”). So what does this win mean for Foster’s chances at the Oscars? Well, let’s put it this way: The last actress who won the Golden Globe for supporting actress and was then snubbed by the academy was Katharine Ross, for “Voyage of the Damned...

As with leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. Last year, Brad Pitt was 56 when he won for his featured performance in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” He joined a lucky 13 previous winners who were in their 50s when they took home the trophy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2021 Oscars predictions for Best Supporting Actor.)

Eleven more men were in their 60s when they won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For eight fellows, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north of 80 when they took home their only Oscars.

At the 2019 Academy Awards, Mahershala Ali prevailed for “Green Book.” He had won this same category just two years earlier for “Moonlight.” He was the 31st (and 29th...

When the supporting acting Oscar categories were introduced in 1937, two films (“Dodsworth” and “Romeo and Juliet”) each received one lead and one supporting nomination. A third, “My Man Godfrey,” immediately made Oscar history by scoring a nomination in each of the four categories. In all three cases, the supporting nominees had less screen time than the corresponding leads, as was and continues to be expected.

The opposite did not occur until 1950, when John Ireland was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for a longer performance in “All the King’s Men” than the one given by his co-star, Best Actor-winner Broderick Crawford. Since then, 10 more supporting male nominees have boasted higher screen time totals than their lead-nominated co-stars. Here is a look at each instance, in order from lowest screen time difference to highest.

1997: William H. Macy (“Fargo”) – 27 minutes, 7 seconds

0 minutes, 38 seconds over Frances McDormand

“Fargo” begins as a story about...

Hey, Oscar pundits: Don’t count out Bill Murray just yet to win Best Supporting Actor for his role in the A24/Apple TV+ release “On the Rocks.” Over the years this specific category has been the equivalent of the veterans achievement award, with 10 men claiming victory after the age of 70 (see below). Murray just turned 70 in September, which makes him one of only two septuagenarians in Gold Derby’s Top 8, the other being 73-year-old Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”). Could Murray’s decades of experience in the industry give him a secret advantage in this race?

Murray plays Felix in “On the Rocks,” a caring father who gets involved in the marital troubles of his daughter Laura (Rashida Jones) and her possibly cheating husband Dean (Marlon Wayans). Sofia Coppola wrote and directed the dramedy film, which serves as a reunion of sorts between she and Murray. The first time...

Martin Markinson, a producer and theater owner who took Torch Song Trilogy to Broadway and returned the venue now known as the Hayes Theatre to theatrical use, died Thursday, January 7 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 89.

Arlena Markinson, his wife of 58 years, said the cause of death was cancer. The producer had been battling the disease for two years.

In addition to the Tony-winning Torch Song Trilogy (1982), Markinson, over a five-decade career, produced such notable Broadway productions as The Gathering starring Hal Linden (2001), Honeymoon in Vegas, Gigi and the Gloria Estefan musical On Your Feet (2015), as well as George Gershwin Alone (2001), Getting and Spending (1998), Corpse! (1986), Peter Nichol’s Passion (1983), Ned and Jack (1981). He served as associate producer on Chicago (1975), Poor Murderer (1976), Some of My Best Friends (1977), Cheaters (1978) and Whoopee! (1979).

Another of Markinson’s contributions to Broadway: The 1979 purchase, with nephew Donald Tick, of what was then called the Little Theatre,...

Jeremy Stevens, a three-time Emmy Award winner – including two as a writer and executive producer on Everybody Loves Raymond – died of renal failure on October 27 at his home in Northridge, California, surrounded by his family. He was 83,

A Brooklyn native, Stevens earned a degree in theater at Brooklyn College before studying at New York’s Hb Studio under Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. Roles Off Brodway led to his hiring in the replacement cast of the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys.

While working at the Fourth Wall Improvisational Theatre Group, Stevens was offered his first opportunity to write for television, penning sketches for Valerie Harper and Richard Schaal on The Skitch Henderson Show. This led to more jobs, including a stint as headwriter for the talk and variety show, Playboy After Dark.

His next job led to his first Emmy Award in 1972, when he was...

10 random things that happened on this day, October 1st, in showbiz history

1920 Walter Matthau born in New York. He goes on to become a Tony and Oscar winning film star with muliple hits spanning four decades in the 60s, 70s, and 90s including Charade, The Odd Couple, Cactus Flower, The Sunshine Boys, California Suite, Bad News Bears, and Grumpy Old Men  Happy Walter Matthau Centennial -- do you have a favourite of his?

1937 Madame X, starring Gladys George, is released in movie theaters. It's the fourth film adaptation of the play and there would be six more including the arguably most famous version in 1966 starring Lana Turner. 

1962 Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the first time. The legend Joan Crawford is his guest...

As with the award for leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. At the 2019 Academy Awards, Mahershala Ali won for “Green Book.” He had previously prevailed in 2017 for “Moonlight.” He was the 29th winner of this award to be in his 40s. Sam Rockwell, who won in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was the 30th, having picked up this prize eight months before he turned 50. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2020 Oscars predictions for Best Supporting Actor.)

A lucky 13 winners were in their 50s and 11 more were in their 60s. For eight men, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north of 80 when they took home their only Oscars. Conversely, only four Best Supporting Actor champs were in their 20s and just 14 have been thirtysomething.

Stephen Myles Berger, known for his work on films such as Sunshine Boys, Basic Instinct and Robin Hood: Men in Tights and for his designs of theme parks around the world, has been selected to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Directors Guild. The honor will be presented February 1 during the guild’s 24th annual Adg Awards ceremony at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. This is the third of four Lifetime Achievement Awards to be announced by Art Directors Guild.

Berger’s television credits include Scandal, Malcolm in the Middle, Desperate Housewives, Wonder Woman, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-o, Spiderman and Serpico. His numerous film credits include The Way We Were, The Adventures of Pipi Longstocking, Silent Movie, The Sunshine Boys and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Berger also is known for his award-winning designs of theme parks around the globe including Universal Studios Theme Parks in Los Angeles, Orlando...

It makes sense that screenwriter and playwright Neil Simon, who pretty much defined American humor on stage, screen and TV for several decades until his death 2018 at the age of 91, knew how to turn humiliation, heartache, opposites-attract relationships, adultery, marital tensions, likable losers, glib nostalgia and modern insecurities into red, white and blue hilarity. What else would you expect from a Jewish boy from the Bronx who was born on the Fourth of July in 1927, right before the Great Depression?

SEEMel Brooks movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best

With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos,...

It makes sense that screenwriter and playwright Neil Simon, who pretty much defined American humor on stage, screen and TV for several decades until his death 2018 at the age of 91, knew how to turn humiliation, heartache, opposites-attract relationships, adultery, marital tensions, likable losers, glib nostalgia and modern insecurities into red, white and blue hilarity. What else would you expect from a Jewish boy from the Bronx who was born on the Fourth of July in 1927, right before the Great Depression?

With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos, intertwining chuckles with tears. In the ‘50s, he...

Harvey Sabinson, one of Broadway’s legendary press agents and a former long-time executive director of The Broadway League, died on April 18 of natural causes at his residence in Sarasota, Florida. He was 94 years old. Sabinson capped a 50-year career in the theater when he was honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1995. That year he stepped down as executive director of the League of American Theatres and Producers, (now known as the Broadway League) a national trade association of theatrical producers, presenters and theatre operators. Sabinson joined the organization early in 1976, when it was known as the League of New York Theatres and Producers, as director of special projects. Prior to this appointment, he spent 30 years as a theatrical publicist, beginning shortly after his discharge from Army service during World War II, during which time he received a Purple Heart. He became executive director in 1982. In...

On March 26, 2019, Oscar winner Alan Arkin will celebrate his 85th birthday. The actor shows no scenes of slowing down though since he has just had rave reviews and nominations for the Netflix comedy series “The Kominsky Method.” An Emmy win would place Arkin in the rare group known as the Triple Crown of Acting winners.

SEEOscar Best Supporting Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

Arkin started his career with the acclaimed Second City Comedy troupe in Chicago. He would make his Broadway debut with that group in the fall of 1961. Two years later he would rise to theatrical fame in the play “Enter Laughing” as a young man who aspires to be an actor despite his families objections. He would win the Tony Award in 1963 as Best Featured Actor in a Play for that role. He would score another Broadway triumph the following year with the highly praised and popular play “Luv.

On March 26, 2019, Oscar winner Alan Arkin will celebrate his 85th birthday. The actor shows no scenes of slowing down though since he has just had rave reviews and nominations for the Netflix comedy series “The Kominsky Method.” An Emmy win would place Arkin in the rare group known as the Triple Crown of Acting winners.

Arkin started his career with the acclaimed Second City Comedy troupe in Chicago. He would make his Broadway debut with that group in the fall of 1961. Two years later he would rise to theatrical fame in the play “Enter Laughing” as a young man who aspires to be an actor despite his families objections. He would win the Tony Award in 1963 as Best Featured Actor in a Play for that role. He would score another Broadway triumph the following year with the highly praised and popular play “Luv.”

He would then go onto become one...

Arriving more than a half-century after Arthur Penn’s violent folk-ballad “Bonnie and Clyde” tapped into the zeitgeist and caught lightning in a bottle by portraying the Depression-era gangster couple in a manner that recast them as anti-establishment rebels, “The Highwaymen” aims to set the record straight with a respectfully celebratory depiction of the two lawmen most responsible for ending their bloody crime wave. Bosley Crowther, among others, likely would have approved of such revisionism. Still, this workman-like Netflix production — set to kick off a limited theatrical run March 15 before streaming March 29 — commands attention less as historical counterpoint than as a sturdy showcase for the neatly balanced lead performances of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.

While Bonnie Parker and Clyde Parker are represented here more or less as fleetingly glimpsed abstractions, embodied by Emily Brobst and Edward Bossert in the manner of anonymous re-enactors in a cable-tv historical documentary, legendary...

The Best Supporting Actor Oscar category notoriously skews old — the top 10 oldest are at least 70 with an average of 75.1. That average could tick up this year if the statuette goes to Sam Elliott (“A Star Is Born”), who would be the sixth oldest supporting actor champ ever.

Elliott will be 74 years and 199 days old on Oscar night, and he would knock back Jack Palance (“City Slickers,” 1991) who was 73 years and 41 days old when he showed off his one-handed push-up prowess. The category’s oldest winner, of course, is Christopher Plummer, who was 82 years and 75 days old when he triumphed for “Beginners” (2011) and is also the oldest acting winner in any category. Plummer dethroned George Burns, who was the only other octogenarian supporting actor champ at 80 years and 69 days.

See ‘A Star Is Born’ at the Oscars: How did each version fare with the academy?

Often nicknamed the Career Achievement Award...

With 2018 now ending, Gold Derby celebrates over 30 celebrities who died in the past 12 months. Tour our photo gallery above as we feature tributes to these entertainer losses from this past year.

Just a few of the people honored in our special photo gallery:

Actress and director Penny Marshall died December 17 at age 75. She became one of the biggest stars on TV in the 1970s and early 1980s with “Laverne and Shirley.” She then directed such blockbuster films as “Big,” “A League of Their Own” and “Awakenings.”

SEERaise a beer to Penny Marshall, who talked like a Bronx truck driver and directed mass-appeal films like a pro

Bernardo Bertolucci died on November 26 at age 77. His 1987 film “The Last Emperor” swept the Oscars, including for Best Picture and Best Director. Other movies in his career included “Last Tango in Paris,” “The Conformist,” “The Sheltering Sky” and “Little Buddha.”

Screenwriter William Goldman died...

Faye Dunaway is coming back to Broadway. And she’ll be playing Katharine Hepburn.

In a brief and surprise announcement, producer Ben Feldman dropped the news that Dunaway, after an absence of more than 35 years from the Broadway stage, will play Hepburn in the Broadway premiere next summer of playwright Matthew Lombardo’s one-woman-play Tea at Five. The play, in a new version by Lombardo written for this production, will be directed by the Tony-nominated John Tillinger.

Tea at Five will play a strictly limited engagement in the summer of 2019. Additional information, including the complete creative team, dates, and theater will be announced early next year.

The announcement comes on the very day that director Ivo van Hove’s Broadway production of Network is set to open. The 1976 film version won Dunaway an Oscar.

Dunaway’s last appearance on Broadway was in 1982’s The Curse of an Aching Heart, a...

The Best Supporting Actor Oscar race could be one for the ages. Timothee Chalamet (“Beautiful Boy”) could become the second youngest winner in the category, but on the other end of the spectrum, Sam Elliott (“A Star Is Born”) could become one of the oldest.

Elliott, who will be 74 years and 199 days old on the Feb. 24 ceremony, would become the sixth oldest Best Supporting Actor champ, dethroning Jack Palance who was 73 years and 41 days old when he did those one-handed push-ups. He’d be a few years off of the fifth spot, held by “Cocoon” (1981) Don Ameche, who was 77 years and 297 days old, and eight years shy of the record set by Christopher Plummer, who became the oldest acting winner in any category at 82 years and 75 days old when he prevailed for “Beginners” (2011).

See Sam Elliott (‘A Star Is Born’) on how he reacted when Bradley Cooper stole his voice...

With just six weeks left for 2018, Gold Derby celebrates over 40 celebrities and entertainers who died in the past 12 months. Tour our photo gallery above as we feature tributes to 25 losses from this year so far.

Stan Lee, co-creator of many iconic superheroes, died on November 12 at age 95. For Marvel Comics and later many films and TV programs, his characters included Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and the Avengers.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died on October 15 at age 65. He and Bill Gates helped start the microcomputer revolution in the mid-1970s by creating the world’s largest PC software company.

Burt Reynolds died on September 6 at age 82 in Florida. He was an Oscar nominee for “Boogie Nights” and an Emmy winner for “Evening Shade.” He was one of the top box office stars of the 1970s with movies such as “Deliverance,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “The Longest Yard,...

Walter Matthau would’ve celebrated his 98th birthday on October 1, 2018. Born in 1920, the actor was a celebrated performer on both the stage and screen, known for his gruff, rumpled persona. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Matthau turned to acting after serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He became a frequent presence on the small screen with appearances in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Goodyear Playhouse,” and “The Du Pont Show of the Week” (which brought him an Emmy bid in 1963), to name a few. During this period he also appeared in several films, few of them comedies, including “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “Fail Safe” (1964).

At the same time, he gained increasing respect as a stage actor with Tony Award-winning performances in “A Shot in the Dark” (Featured Actor in a Play...

Growing up among his native Brooklyn’s brick-and-fire-escape facades in the 1930’s, production designer-to-be Albert Brenner often dreamed of the wide open spaces depicted in his favorite Saturday-matinee Westerns. At 16, he landed his first “art job”: dressing windows for a New York City department store.

Two years later, Brenner swapped mannequins for military service and flew in B-24 bombers until World War II ended in 1945. On the G.I. Bill, he attended Yale University, graduating with skills in drafting, and went into summer stock theater under designer Samuel Leve, toiling away on plays like “The Fifth Season” and gaining a union card in the process.

He developed his designer chops in New York on TV shows like “The Phil Silvers Show,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” “Captain Kangaroo” and “Playhouse 90.” His first day on the Silvers show, where he eventually earned $250 a week, was nearly his last, when he...

San Sebastian — At a ceremony held on Saturday evening inside San Sebastian’s iconic Kursaal theater, American actor, director, producer and you-name-it Danny DeVito received the Donostia Award, given in recognition of his decades-long contributions to film, TV and the stage.

Other recipients of the award this year are British actress Judy Dench and Japanese writer, director and producer Hirokazu Kore-eda.

For DeVito, it was his first trip to the Spanish coastal city, one he said he was thrilled to make.

“This is such an honor. You guys are really famous all over the world and it’s a real honor to receive (the Donostia award),” he said to kick off his press conference ahead of the award ceremony, scoring points with the scores of local journalists who packed the press hall.

His first anecdote on the day recalled a time in the early ‘90s when he read the script...