I thought he was closer to 115.
Despite having directed his first film in 1942 De Oliveira’s career really began with O passado e o presente (1972), aged 64, an age where others may retire, and he only started making films continuous when he was already 78 in the mid 80s. And made about 25 films since then, but only 6 features and few documentaries before.
RIP Don Trunick. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I received a phone call from Tim Ferrante today telling me that Don Trunick passed away during the week of March 9th in Escondido, California. He was 90. Don was the premiere Ennio Morricone collector in the US and got many of us involved in collection Morricone LPs, 45s, CDs along with introducing us to many of the Spaghetti western composers. I spent many a day and night at Don’s when he and wife Lois lived in Palos Verdes, California before moving to his magnificent home in Escondido. Don would go out his way to send cassette copies of his music collection to anyone who was interested and got me collecting the music of the Euro-westerns. Don received his dream come true vacation and met Ennio in 1985 and together we met him in Glendale at a dinner in his honor in 1994. RIP amigo and thanks for the friendship and the devotion you gave to Morricone’s music and his fans.
Chinese actor and Euro-western regular George Wang died on March 27th in Taipei, Taiwan, China. He was 88. Wang’s film career began in China in 1938 and after venturing to Italy in 1959 to appear in the film “The Great Wall” later renamed “Last Train to Shanghai”. After filming was completed he chose to stay in Italy where motion picture filming was thriving, and participated in “The Mongols” (1961), "55 Days at Peking” (1963) and eventually appearing in nearly fifty films. Now billed as George Wang he was almost the only active Oriental film actor in Europe, and became very influential in the Italian film industry, even contributing to the cooperation with Shaw Brothers Pictures. During his stay in Italy he became one of the Euro-western genre’s premiere villains and appeared in over a dozen Euro-westerns including “A Taste of Killing” (1966) with Craig Hill, “Blood and Guns” (aka “Tepepa”) (1968) with Tomas Milian, “Have a Nice Funeral” (1970) with Gianni Garko, “Shanghai Joe” (1973) with Chen Lee and “A Colt in the Hands of the Devil” (1973). Returning to China in 1976 he continued acting and opened his own production company, Wang Film Company. He was married to actress Luo Yang His and his son is Tao Wang [1945- ] who is also an actor.
Christ, NO :’( :’(.
RIP George, you had some of the best villain roles, my favorite being the sword wielding madman who lives in a cave in Kill Django… Kill Again.
RIP George :’(
R.I.P Mr Wang !
That’s sad but made it to a fine age.
R.I.P George
RIP Geoffrey Lewis.
Actor Geoffrey Lewis, who appeared in several Clint Eastwood movies and made guest appearances on dozens of TV shows in the ’60s through ’80s, died Tuesday in Woodland Hills, Calif. of natural causes. He was 79. The character actor, who often appeared in Westerns, was the father of actress Juliette Lewis. Lewis appeared in three Euro-westerns: My Name is Nobody (1972) with Terence Hill, Silver Saddle (1977) with Giuliana Gemma and 2002’s Renegade.
R.I.P Geoffrey.
R.I.P. Geoffrey Lewis
A very well-known face on Film and T.V…and he was especially memorable as the bad guy in Clint Eastwood’s ‘High Plains Drifter’.
Very sad news, this.
RIP Geoffrey
Really sad news
Geoffrey Lewis was indeed a familiar face, and a great character actor I always liked, among others he was great in Silver Saddle. Never the main actor, but one you always remember in a film.
RIP
Sad news indeed. A staple actor in Eastwood films, especially the 70’s ones.
Dickie Owen (Actor)
Born 26 March, 1927
Died 7 April 2015 (aged 88)
Dickie Owen was born on March 26, 1927 in the United Kingdom. He was an actor, perhaps best known for Zulu (1964); The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964); and The Mummy’s Shroud (1967).
Practically retired from acting in the 1970s, Dickie Owen worked as a radio dispatcher for a cab company.
After a long absence from the public eye, Mr. Owen was interviewed in 2010 about his experiences whilst making ‘Zulu’; which - in 2014 - celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Much to the relief of many a ‘Zulu’ fan, Mr. Owen agreed to take part in the spectacular ‘Zulu’ Exhibition opening day, which was held to great acclaim in Cardiff, February, 2011. The exhibition then carried on into London.
Only very recently, did I find out that Dickie Owen had died…I always remembered him as memorably portraying ‘Corporal Schiess’ - the leg-bandaged ‘peeler’ - in one of my favourite top ten films, ‘Zulu’. Particularly memorable, in the film, is when ‘Schiess’ limps out of the hospital - bandages trailing behind him - and uses a crutch and rifle bayonet to come to the aid of Stanley Baker…a classic moment in an epic film!
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Dickie Owen.
R.I.P.
Spanish Actor José Canalejas died in his Madrid home on May 1 he was 90. Born on February 14, 1925 in Madrid he was a familiar face to all Spaghetti western fans. From the earliest Spanish western of the 1960s until his final appearance in Scalps in 1986 he appeared in nearly 50 westerns alone. He retired in 1997. José was a familiar face to all of us since first seeing him in the Dollar Trilogy of Sergio Leone. Along with such other Spanish cohorts as Aldo Sambrell, Antonio Molino Rojo, Frank Brana, Luis Barboo, Cris Huerta Daniel Martín and José Manuel Martín these were the henchmen we grew to know and love as much as the stars. Only José Manuel Martín remains.
Sad news! R.I.P. Jose.
RIP
His film credits could make a sort of SW hitstory
Indeed. R.I.P
R.I.P. José. Surprising to me re Martin. I always thought of him as quite a bit older than the other ones named.
