Ted Emery obit

Vale: Ted Emery

 

Legendary Australian comedy director Ted Emery, best known for Kath and Kim, Fast Forward and Countdown, has died.

He was not on the list.

Legendary Australian comedy director Ted Emery, best known for Kath & Kim, Fast Forward and Countdown, has died.

He passed away at his Noosa home this morning, following a battle with cancer.

Emery joined ABC as a stage hand in the 1970s, after serving in Vietnam.

He worked his way from an ABC stagehand in Ripponlea studios, Elsternwick, to floor managing and, unexpectedly, to the Director’s chair.

“Because of the way the ABC worked, they didn’t care whether it was Divine Service or Market to Market or Light Entertainment, you spent time everywhere – which wasn’t a bad idea,” he once told TV Tonight.

By 1976 he was tasked with Directing and Producing Countdown led by Go-Set journalist Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum as its Talent Co-ordinator.

“It was my first ever television show. I shit myself! I had diahorrea for a week!”

If it was a baptism of fire he would rise to the occasion remaining in the role for over 2 years. Countdown was a beast of a show to pull together, especially at the public broadcaster. If it was rough around the edges, as Molly Meldrum surely was, that was part of its Aussie charm.

“You had to get Molly to get his act together, for starters, and then you had to get the show to get its act together. But I think I went in the chair until ’79. My first band was Molly’s band called The Ferretts. They had a great song, I really loved it, called Just like the Stars. That was my first production number on Countdown,” he recalled.

“I was one of the first people to see Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. I saw, of all things, Peter Allen’s I Go to Rio. I was the guy just compiling the clips in Videotape. Molly hadn’t even seen it and I thought it was so much fun. No one had heard of Peter Allen in the age group we were going to.

“And the same thing with ABBA. The person who found ABBA was doing the same job as I was. He found it on a pile of film clips that came in, and took to Ian…. a lot of stories happened like that because we had so much product to play with.”

Yet there were other memories that lingered for Emery for all the wrong reasons, including a shoot he had planned for UK vocalist Robert Palmer for his brand new single.

“I got all the Countdown dancers in red lipstick, slicked-back hair and fake guitars and stood them in a group, behind him. I got my choreographer to do this rhythmic caterpillar routine behind him with their very straight faces, all packed up together in a line. He came in for rehearsals and the girls started up, and he said, ‘I’m not performing on your show unless you get rid of them,’ humiliatingly in front of my entire crew,” Emery explained.

“So I had to pull them off, and we did some shitty thing with dry ice and a few lights. Anyhow, lo and behold, the clip that came out next from Robert Palmer had those girls in the background. He went and got his own and copied the idea!”

Palmer’s Addicted to Love and Simply Irresistible would both go on to become ’80s classics.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive that man for that!”

But Emery had always fancied himself as being able to tell a joke and comedy yearned.

Seminal shows Fast Forward, Full Frontal and later Kath & Kim followed, working with Magda Szubanski, Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Glenn Robbins, Michael Veitch, Marg Downey, Peter Moon.

Emery was arguably the go-to comedy director of his generation, with credits including The D Generation Goes Commercial, Tonight Live with Steve Vizard, Acropolis Now, Jimeoin, The Eric Bana Show Live, Micallef, Welcher & Welcher plus drama series Bed of Roses.

His final credit was in 2022 for the revived Kath & Kim: Our Effluent Life, a nod to his valued place with the creative team.

A Melbourne memorial will be held in coming weeks.

Mike Vernon obit

Mike Vernon, Legendary Producer and British Blues Champion Has Died Aged 81

 

He was not on the list.

The music world is in mourning today following the announcement of the passing of legendary record producer, label founder, and blues champion Mike Vernon. The news was shared by his family via Vernon’s official social media channels.

Born Michael William Hugh Vernon on November 20, 1944, Vernon passed away on March 2, 2026, at the age of 81.

In a poignant statement, his family described the man behind some of the most influential records in British music history:

“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Mike Vernon. To the world, he was a passionate champion of the blues and a legendary record producer who helped shape so much incredible music. But to us, he was also our dad, a brother, an uncle, a grandpa and partner — our steady guide, our storyteller, and our biggest supporter. We will miss him beyond words, but his music, his spirit, and his love will stay with us always.”

Architect of the British Blues Boom

To understand the trajectory of rock and blues music in the United Kingdom—and by extension, the world – one must understand the impact of Mike Vernon. Working largely out of Decca Records’ West Hampstead studios in the mid-1960s, Vernon was not just a producer; he was a gatekeeper who recognised the raw potential in young British musicians obsessively studying American blues records.

His most monumental contribution to music history came in 1966 when he produced Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton for John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. The album, affectionately known as the “Beano” album due to Clapton reading a Beano comic on the cover, is widely credited with establishing the sound of British blues-rock. Vernon’s production captured a thunderous, distorted guitar sound that set a new benchmark for rock music.

Blue Horizon: A Legacy of Integrity

Frustrated by the limitations of working within a major label system that often overlooked blues music, Vernon, along with his brother Richard, took a bold step in 1965 by founding the independent record label Blue Horizon.

Blue Horizon became the definitive home for blues in the UK. It was through this label that Vernon signed and produced the early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, led by the late, great Peter Green. Under Vernon’s guidance, the band shifted from a strict blues repertoire to achieving mainstream success, culminating in the million-selling instrumental hit “Albatross,” which reached number one in the UK charts in 1968.

The label’s roster was a “who’s who” of blues legends, including Chicken Shack (featuring Christine McVie), Rory Gallagher, Ten Years After, and Savoy Brown. Notably, Vernon also used his label to champion original American blues artists, releasing records by legends such as Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, and Lazy Lester, often backing them with British musicians to create a unique trans-Atlantic sound.

Beyond the Blues: Bowie, Focus, and Beyond

While blues was his heart, Vernon’s talent as a producer was versatile. He was responsible for producing the debut album for a young, relatively unknown artist named David Bowie for Deram Records in 1967. While not a commercial success at the time, it showcased Vernon’s ability to recognize unique artistry outside of his usual genre.

In the 1970s, Vernon produced for the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, achieving international success with the hit “Hocus Pocus.” Throughout his career, he also worked with Level 42, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Bloodstone.

Later Career and “The Mighty Combo”

After moving to Spain at the turn of the millennium, Vernon largely retired from the industry. However, his passion for music never waned. In 2010, he returned to production, working with modern blues artists such as Oli Brown, Dani Wilde, and Sari Schorr.

In a wonderful twist of fate, Vernon stepped out from behind the mixing desk to front his own rhythm and blues outfit, Mike Vernon & The Mighty Combo. Returning to his roots as a singer, he toured and recorded albums, proving that his love for the music of the 1940s and 50s remained as potent as ever.

A Lasting Impact

Mike Vernon was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge Award in 2013 for his unique contribution to music. His legacy is not just in the millions of records sold, but in the artists he nurtured and the genre he helped elevate from a niche interest to a global phenomenon.

He was a storyteller, a champion of authentic artistry, and a vital thread in the tapestry of modern music.

MNPR Magazine extends our deepest condolences to Mike Vernon’s family, friends, and the countless musicians whose lives he touched.

Len Garry obit

The Quarrymen's Len Garry dies aged 84 as tributes paid to legend who played with Lennon and McCartney

The star, who was in the band which evolved into the Beatles, was recently admitted to hospital

 

He was not on the list.

Merseybeat legend Len Garry has died aged 84. The Quarrymen star, who played alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the band which would later evolve into the Beatles, was recently diagnosed with pneumonia after being admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital following a suspected chest infection.

His daughter Jane Garry confirmed the musician's death in a statement this morning. Announcing the news, she said: "My Dad 'Len Garry' passed away at home in the early hours this morning.

"The doctor told us he had hours to live and I said straight away 'he has to come home.' Which the doctor allowed. I travelled with dad in the ambulance and got him home.

"My mum, my sister, my brother in law and myself stayed by Dad’s bed holding his hand, talking to him and telling him how much we love him and how proud we are of him as he was passing away and taking his last breathes.

"I love you Dad and I will miss you Dad for the rest of my life. I’m beyond devastated."

Len attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, and was introduced to Paul McCartney by schoolfriend Ivan Vaughan. He joined the Quarrymen shortly after they were formed, and was part of the first stable line-up of the group alongside Lennon, McCartney, Colin Hanton, Rod Davis, Pete Shotton and Eric Griffiths.

He performed with the band in their first ever performance at the Cavern Club. He was one of only two members of the band who did not attend Quarry Bank High School in Woolton. Len reunited with surviving members of the band in 1997, and this led to a tour and newly-released material.

The Quarrymen, through several line-up and name changes, evolved in 1960 into the Beatles.

Tributes to the guitarist and singer, originally from Wavertree, have been paid. One person said: "So sorry to hear this. what a life he had. Part of one of greatest stories ever told. A beautiful family and so much love. His name will be spoken and his stories told for many lifetimes to come."

Another said: "I'm so sorry to hear this news. We will all feel the loss of Len as he has a huge place in 'the story' but for you and your family it's totally different, I feel for you all and I'm so sorry."

A further fan added: "God bless him and he is now free from pain and discomfort. His smile always lit up a room, and we had some laughs over the years. Thoughts and prayers with you all at this sad time."

Last month, Len who had mixed dementia for the last year and a half, was suspected of having a chest infection. He was later diagnosed with pneumonia after being admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where he remained since.

Last week Jane, 49, thanked his fans from around the world for their continued love and support through the ECHO. She told the ECHO last week: "People have been sending me photographs of themselves with him, photographs of where my dad signed a book for them, of them sitting on a bench with him and talking to them. My dad has always had so much time for the fans."

Len was diagnosed with mixed dementia in 2024. Jane said the affection for Len, 84, had been as evident as ever.

Davíð Oddsson obit

Davíð Oddsson, editor and former Prime Minister, has died

 

He was not on the list.

Davíð Oddsson, editor of Morgunblaðið, passed away at his home yesterday at the age of 78. With his passing, Iceland loses one of its most influential politicians of the past decades.

During his tenure as Mayor of Reykjavík, the city underwent major progress: development was extensive, and its finances were strong. When Oddsson stepped down as mayor, he became Prime Minister and led significant reforms following a long period of economic difficulty. A period of strong growth and increased national prosperity followed.

After leaving government, he took the helm of the Central Bank of Iceland, where he confronted severe challenges during the banking collapse while also laying the groundwork for the nation’s recovery from the crisis.

In the autumn of 2009, Oddsson became editor of Morgunblaðið and held the position ever since. Under his leadership, the newspaper and other media of Árvakur hf. fostered important public debate and coverage of issues of great concern to the nation. At the same time, these media outlets withstood various pressures and remain strong today as they bid Oddsson farewell with gratitude and sorrow.

Davíð Oddsson was born in Reykjavík on January 17, 1948. His parents were Oddur Ólafsson, a physician, and Ingibjörg Kristín Lúðvíksdóttir, a bank clerk. His surviving wife is Ástríður Thorarensen; they married on September 5, 1970. Her parents were Þorsteinn S. Thorarensen and his wife Una Thorarensen. Their son is Þorsteinn Davíðsson, whose wife is Heiðrún Geirsdóttir. They have two daughters.

Oddsson graduated from Reykjavík Junior College (MR). He briefly studied acting before completing a law degree from the University of Iceland.

He served as office manager of the Reykjavík Theatre Company from 1970 to 1972, parliamentary reporter for Morgunblaðið from 1973 to 1974, an employee of the book publishing company Almenna bókafélagið in 1975, office manager of the Reykjavík Health Insurance Service from 1976 to 1978, and its executive director from 1978 to 1982.

Oddsson was elected to Reykjavík City Council in 1974 and served until 1994, including as Mayor from 1982 to 1991. He was elected chairman of the Independence Party at its national congress in 1991 and held that role until he left politics in 2005. He was elected Member of Parliament for Reykjavík in the 1991 parliamentary elections and became Prime Minister that same year.

He served as Prime Minister until 2004, when he became Minister for Foreign Affairs for just over a year. He then left politics and became Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland and chairman of its board. He served alongside Eiríkur Guðnason and Ingimundur Friðriksson until 2009. On September 24 of that year, he became editor of Morgunblaðið together with Haraldur Johannessen.

Davíð Oddsson was a versatile figure who also wrote in various genres. He authored popular song lyrics and other poetry, wrote three television plays — Róbert Elíasson Comes Home from Abroad (1977), Stains on the White Collar (1981), and All is good (1991) — and co-wrote two stage works for the Reykjavík Theatre Company and the National Theatre: I want to enrich my country (1974) and Tales of Icelanders (1975).

He also produced a variety of radio programs between 1968 and 1975, including Radio Matthildur in collaboration with Hrafn Gunnlaugsson and Þórarinn Eldjárn, which enjoyed great popularity. He wrote an essay on Prime Minister Geir Hallgrímsson in the magazine Andvari in 1994 and published the short-story collections A few good days without Guðný (1997) and Stolen from the author of the Alphabet (2002).

In closing, the staff of Morgunblaðið and mbl.is express their gratitude for a productive and rewarding collaboration and extends their deepest condolences to Davíð Oddsson’s family.

Bob Power obit

Bob Power, Legendary Music Engineer And Producer, Passes Away At 74

 

He was not on the list.

Bob Power, a renowned music engineer and record producer, has passed away. He was 74.                                                                                                                                                                  DJ Premier confirmed the news of Power’s passing in a post on social media, lauding him for his work on numerous classic albums.

​“R.I.P. to one of the iLLest Engineers of all time…Mr. BOB POWER,” his post read. “Thank you for your various pointers in recording from D’Angelo to ATCQ’S Low End Theory, Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, and so on!”

Questlove also paid tribute to Power on Instagram.​

“You could NOT encounter a more engaging, enthusiastic, laser-focused craftsman of sound and Sonic’s (engineer/mixing/production). I mean, he’d let me bug him ad nauseam about “what does this button do? that button? Bob was our training wheels for how to present music,” Quest wrote. I’m so devastated by his passing. Thank you for changing all of our lives, Bob.”

In his remarkable career, Power contributed to landmark albums such as A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, and Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, all of which were engineered at New York studios.

​After earning degrees in music theory and jazz from Webster College and Lone Mountain College, Power began scoring music for television and advertisements. Eventually, he began engineering at New York’s Calliope Studios in the mid-1980s, working on Stetsasonic’s On Fire album. He became the go-to sonic architect for the Native Tongues collective, most notably for his work on A Tribe Called Quest’s landmark album, The Low End Theory.

​Power pioneered techniques for mixing complex sample-based arrangements with heavy, clear bass. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he contributed to projects made by Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Me’Shell Ndegéocello, The Roots, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Common, and De La Soul. Before his passing, Power Associate Arts Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music,

A Grammy nominee and NYU teacher, Power’s techniques for crisp snares and deep kicks bridged hip-hop’s golden age to neo-soul. He leaves an enduring legacy that music fans will always remember.

Kenith Trodd obit

Kenith Trodd obituary

Television producer whose long-running partnership with Dennis Potter resulted in landmark drama serials including Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective 

He was not on the list.

Kenith Trodd, who has died aged 90, was one of Britain’s most successful television drama producers, commissioning contemporary, cutting-edge plays from writers such as Colin Welland, Jim Allen, GF Newman, Stephen Poliakoff and Simon Gray. However, he will be best remembered for his long-running partnership with the writer Dennis Potter in productions that extended the landscape and creative possibilities of drama on the small screen and often challenged moral values.

Their shared interest in popular music of the 1930s and 40s bore fruit most productively – and controversially – in the serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986) after Trodd gave Potter the chance to switch from writing single plays to “television novels”. In the former, a seller of song sheets (Bob Hoskins) travels the country cheating on his wife as he steps out of the drama to dance and mime to sentimental numbers of the 1930s whose optimism provides relief from the Depression.

The Singing Detective found a crime fiction writer (Michael Gambon) in a hospital bed suffering from a skin condition that afflicted Potter himself, and recalling his wartime childhood and songs of the 1940s. The play provoked outrage with a scene of Gambon’s character, aged nine, watching from a tree as his mother commits adultery.

The pair were mired in their biggest controversy with Brimstone and Treacle (1976), in which a brain-damaged young woman is cured after being raped by a charismatic “demon” visitor. The BBC refused to screen the play, so Trodd and Potter remade it as a 1982 cinema film. Five years later, the TV production was eventually broadcast.

Groundbreaking drama and innovation were at the centre of their work. Blue Remembered Hills, a 1979 Play for Today production, featured Welland, Helen Mirren and other adult actors as seven-year-old wartime children displaying both innocence and acts of cruelty, revealing little distinction between childhood and adulthood.

Trodd, who flirted with the Socialist Labour League (later called the Workers’ Revolutionary party), and Potter, a failed Labour parliamentary candidate, had similar political convictions. However, Piers Haggard, director of Pennies from Heaven, saw them as “the odd couple”, adding: “They’d fight and bicker and be rude and bitchy, and Dennis, who was more lethal and wicked and had the ultimate power, would tease Ken inexhaustibly, calling him a Trotskyite and so on.”

In 1978, the pair set up the independent production company Pennies from Heaven to make Potter’s future work, but a rift followed a decade later when Potter hired Rick McCallum as joint producer on Blackeyes (1989), and Trodd resigned. Nevertheless, the pair were reunited in time for Trodd to produce Potter’s final two serials, the companion pieces Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (both 1996), written as he was dying of cancer.

Shortly before Potter’s death in 1994, he was visited by the producer, who recalled him “slugging Courvoisier, fortified by liquid heroin and morphine” and said: “After an hour, he seemed to crumple and he said, ‘I do have one very real fear of death. It is that you might get asked to speak at my memorial service.’”

Trodd, who had known the writer since they both did national service in the Intelligence Corps (1953-55), then at Oxford University, later upset Potter’s family with an interview he gave to Humphrey Carpenter, Potter’s biographer. He said that Potter told him in 1962 that he slept with sex workers. Later, in an Arena documentary, Trodd explained the context: “He wanted it to end, for me to hear it and to respond, and for him to then tell his wife.”

Kenith was born in Southampton, to Winifred (nee Pitfield) and Benjamin Trodd, and educated at the city’s King Edward VI grammar school. His father was a crane driver-turned-maintenance electrician at Fawley oil refinery, and both parents were members of the strict Christian movement the Plymouth Brethren.

After national service, Kenith won a scholarship to University College, Oxford (1955-58), graduated in English and taught at universities in west Africa. Then, in 1965, he was invited by Roger Smith, story editor on the Wednesday Play, to become his second assistant, alongside Tony Garnett.

He was instrumental in launching Potter’s career in 1965 with the political dramas Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote, for Nigel Barton. As a fully fledged story editor, he worked on Potter’s Where the Buffalo Roam (1966) and Message for Posterity (1967), as well as David Mercer’s Let’s Murder Vivaldi (1968).

He and Garnett were then wooed by the new ITV company LWT to make plays for its Sunday Night Theatre slot, forming their own collective, Kestrel Productions, along with Clive Goodwin – Trodd and Potter’s agent – Mercer and the director James MacTaggart. Given his first chance to produce, Trodd made, among other dramas, Potter’s Moonlight on the Highway (1969), about an aficionado of the 1930s dance-band crooner Al Bowlly, a forerunner to their greatest works.

Trodd also commissioned the French director Jean-Luc Godard to make British Sounds (1970, later retitled See You at Mao), a documentary about a British car assembly line and class conflict filmed in the wake of student protests and worker strikes across western Europe, which LWT banned from broadcasting. Shortly afterwards, he and his Kestrel colleagues ended their association with the company over the sacking of its managing director, Michael Peacock.

A short stint at another ITV company, Granada, saw Trodd produce Welland’s Roll on Four O’Clock (1970) and Julia Jones’s six-part serial Home and Away (1972), about a woman asserting her independence. He then returned to the BBC as the producer of 30 Play for Today dramas between 1973 and 1982. Among them was Welland’s Leeds – United! (1974), about a textile factory workers’ strike, directed by another Trodd regular and political comrade, Roy Battersby, as was Roland Joffé, who directed Jim Allen’s United Kingdom (1981) for the producer.

In 1976, BBC management refused to renew Trodd’s freelance contract – at a time when MI5 secretly vetted its employees and branded the producer a “security risk” because of his leftwing politics – but James Cellan Jones, the head of plays, changed their minds.

After Pennies from Heaven, there was another brief sojourn at LWT when Trodd made three Potter plays, most notably Cream in My Coffee (1980), where his casting of Peggy Ashcroft and Lionel Jeffries was just one example of his astute contributions to the playwright’s works over the years.

He then returned to the BBC to mastermind its Screen One and Screen Two drama strands, where his own plays as a producer included After Pilkington (1987), one of his 10 collaborations with Gray.

He also made Jimmy McGovern’s Needle (1980), Poliakoff’s Caught on a Train (1980), Mike Leigh’s Northern Ireland play Four Days in July (1984), Newman’s prison-reform trilogy For the Greater Good (1991) and feature films – Potter’s Dreamchild (1985), William Trevor’s The Ballroom of Romance (1983), Gray’s adaptation of JL Carr’s novel A Month in the Country (1987), Andrew Davies’s screenplay of Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends (1995) and Paul Greengrass’s The Fix (1997).

Trodd won the Royal Television Society’s silver medal (1987) and Bafta’s Alan Clarke award (1993).

He is survived by his wife, Andrea (nee Cassidy), whom he married in 2002.

 Kenith Trodd (Kenneth George Trodd), television producer, born 28 May 1935; died 1 March 2026

Producer

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1980

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Pennies from Heaven (1978)

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Where Adam Stood (1976)

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See You at Mao (1970)

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The Wednesday Play (1964)

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Pennies from Heaven (1981)

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Thanks

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2002

2 episodes

 

Close Up (1998)

Close Up

TV Series

Self

1998

1 episode

 

Director: Alan Clarke (1991)

Director: Alan Clarke

7.7

Self

1991

 

The Media Show (1987)

The Media Show

4.8

TV Series

Self

1988–1991

2 episodes

 

Did You See..? (1980)

Did You See..?

5.2

TV Series

Self - Contributor

1987

1 episode

 

Television (1985)

Television

8.1

TV Series

Self

1985

1 episode

 

Look Here

TV Series

Self

1980

2 episodes

 

Man Alive (1965)

Man Alive

7.5

TV Series

Self - Producer, PFH Ltd.

1980

1 episode

 

In Vision (1974)

In Vision

TV Series

Self - Producer Leeds United

1974

1 episode

Andrew Gunn obit

Andrew Gunn, Producer Behind Disney Hits ‘Freaky Friday,’ ‘Sky High,’ Dies at 58

As a young producer, Gunn worked on an enviable list of big budget studio comedies and family movies. 

He was not on the list.

Andrew Gunn, who produced a string of Disney comedies in the early 2000s, among them the Lindsay Lohan-starring Freaky Friday and superhero movie Sky High, has died. He was 58.

Gunn, who had been diagnosed in 2024 with ALS, the neurological degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, passed away in his home in Toronto, his family announced Monday.

As a producer with an exclusive first look-deal with Disney in the era when it was run by chairman Dick Cook and motion pictures president Nina Jacobson, Gunn prolifically produced an enviable list of big budget studio comedies, ranging from remakes, originals and movies based on Disneyland rides, the latter a popular source of inspiration at the time.

head Jacobson, who was initially worried about taking on a theatrical remake after a previous remake aired on ABC several years earlier. Once the go-head was given, Annette Bening, Michelle Trachtenberg and Tom Selleck were cast but that configuration fell apart when Trachtenberg wasn’t let out of her work schedule for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The studio and Gunn scrambled to find leads, casting Jamie Lee Curtis and then landing on Lindsay Lohan, whose initial audition didn’t wow but who rose to the top over actresses such as Kristen Stewart, Kristen Bell, Brie Larson, and Shiri Appleby, thanks to a chemistry read. 

“We made movies with genuine creative exuberance at that time and Andrew never had any shortage of that,” recalled Jacobson. “On Freaky Friday, we were able to make a decision on a creative instinct and not by asking an algorithm on who to cast.”

The movie became a commercial hit and earned Curtis a Golden Globe nomination in the best actress (musical or comedy) category. Gunn reteamed with Curtis and Lohan for the well-regarded sequel Freakier Friday that was released last year.

The movie was a point of pride for the producer as he also worked with Kristin Burr, formerly a Disney executive who oversaw many of Gunn’s movies during his early 2000s time at the studio, and Ann Marie Sanderlin, who was his partner at Gunn Films at that time. It was a return to his professional family of sorts.

On a more personal level, however, he was proud to work on the sequel with his actual family, his two adult children, Isabelle and Connor Gunn.

“The best part was my daughter worked in the camera department and got into the (cinematographers) union and my son worked in props. So I got to see them every day,” he wrote The Hollywood Reporter via text in 2025. “I can’t express what that meant to me.”

Gunn was born in Toronto in 1967. After first graduating of University of Western in Canada, he then moved to Los Angeles to earn a Masters in Communication Management from The Annenberg School at USC. From there, he jumped into the entertainment industry. One of his first jobs was for producer David Permut, who was working on movies such as Face/Off at the time.

In the late ’90s, he ran development at Great Oaks Entertainment, the production company run by John Hughes. The banner made several Disney hits, among them 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians as well as a remake of Flubber that starred Robin Williams. Gunn also worked on Home Alone 3 and for producer Ricardo Mestres before launching his shingle Gunn Films in 2001.

“John Hughes told me that if you have earned it with comedy and real believable characters, it takes very little, Planes Trains & Automobiles being an example, to surprise the audience with tears they did not expect,” Gunn wrote of his time with the writer-producer who was famous for his teen movies and sentimental family movies.

Jacobson recalled taking a bet on Gunn by going with her gut. “He was incredibly driven, incredibly committed and incredibly dogged. He brought a hope and an optimism and attentiveness. I trusted him,” she said. In Gunn, she found an independent producer who, in her eyes, could also be one of the executive class. It led to a prodigious period for the producer and studio president.

In that first decade of the 2000s, Gunn produced The Country Bears and the 2003 Eddie Murphy-starring The Haunted Mansion, both of which were based on popular park attractions; original movies College Road Trip with Martin Lawrence and Raven Symone, the Adam Sandler fantasy Bedtime Stories, and superhero tale Sky High; and Race to Witch Mountain, a Dwayne Johnson-starring update of the 1975 adventure movie Escape to Witch Mountain.

One project Gunn developed for years was Order of the Seven, which was originally conceived as a retelling of Snow White in a martial arts setting but morphed into an Asia-set adventure story. Saoirse Ronan was set to star and commercials director and visual effect animator Michael Gracey was to have made his feature directing debut on the project. However, just mere months before going into production, it was shut down in spring of 2012 by then studio president Sean Bailey.

Although the project never reconstituted, Gunn and Gracey, who years later would go on to make his debut with The Greatest Showman, developed a tight bond that lasted years.

“You believed in me before any other producer,” Gracey wrote to Gunn in early 2025 after the filmmaker heard he was diagnosed with ALS. “You saw something in me, supported it and fought by my side to get our film as far as we did. For me, you are the one and only example of a producer that truly backs their director, and it’s an experience I haven’t had since,” he wrote in a letter shared with THR.

Gracey called their shelved project the benchmark for the kinds of experiences he hoped to foster both personally and professionally.

“For those reasons, that film will never be a failure. We may not have succeeded in realising it, but you influenced my expectations in a way I cannot overstate,” he wrote in the letter.

Gunn had sights beyond just straight up producing movies but additionally had an eye on developing and pushing next generation talent and even executive ranks. Not only did he consistently fill his movies with rising actors but in 2001, he established the Disney Writers Program where he selected and worked with five unproduced screenwriters annually. Among the writers who saw their careers launched were David Berenbaum (Elf, Haunted Mansion), Matt Lopez (2022’s Father of the Bride), and David DiGilio, who co-created The Terminal List.  

He also hired and mentored as his assistants and executives a class of hungry go-getters that would later grow to become industry leaders, among them former Disney and Netflix executive Tendo Nagenda and Lionsgate’s current president of motion picture group Erin Westerman.

Calling him a born storyteller, Westerman told THR Gunn made movies where kids and families are taken seriously. And despite his rugged, bulldog looks, predilection to wearing leather and affinity for tattoos, she recalled him being the “softest, gooiest man on the inside,” a sentiment shared by many.

“No one sent better flowers,” Westerman added. “He prided himself on that. Even when I was his assistant, he would order them himself to ensure they were perfect.”

Gunn is survived by his children, his wife Jane Bellamy Gunn, mother Anne Gunn, and siblings Hilary Knight, Graeme Gunn and Cameron Gunn. He was predeceased by his father, Charles Gunn.

Producer

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in Freakier Friday (2025)

Freakier Friday

6.3

producer (p.g.a.)

2025

 

Emma Stone in Cruella (2021)

Cruella

7.3

produced by

2021

 

Russell Crowe in Unhinged (2020)

Unhinged

6.0

produced by

2020

 

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (2018)

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

5.9

Video Game

producer

2018

 

Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa 2 (2016)

Bad Santa 2

5.6

produced by

2016

 

Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, and Alexander Ludwig in Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

Race to Witch Mountain

5.7

producer

2009

 

Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Jonathan Morgan Heit, and Laura Ann Kesling in Bedtime Stories (2008)

Bedtime Stories

6.0

producer

2008

 

College Road Trip (2008)

College Road Trip

4.4

produced by

2008

 

Luke Benward, Nicholas Braun, and Jason Dolley in Minutemen (2008)

Minutemen

5.8

TV Movie

executive producer

2008

 

Kelly Preston, Kurt Russell, Michael Angarano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Danielle Panabaker, Steven Strait, and Kelly Vitz in Sky High (2005)

Sky High

6.3

producer

2005

 

Juan Manuel Bernal, Ana Layevska, Ana Serradilla, José María de Tavira, and Miguel Rodarte in Cansada de besar sapos (2005)

Cansada de besar sapos

6.0

executive producer

2005

 

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

The Haunted Mansion

5.2

producer

2003

 

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday (2003)

Freaky Friday

6.4

producer

2003

 

Brad Garrett, Diedrich Bader, Kaefan Shaw, Toby Huss, Brian La Rosa, Stephen Root, Jody St. Michael, and Tony Sabin Prince in The Country Bears (2002)

The Country Bears

4.3

produced by

2002

 

Whoopi Goldberg in Eddie (1996)

Eddie

5.2

co-producer

1996

 

Actor

Steven Culp, Jamison Jones, Tembi Locke, Tom Everett Scott, Brynn Thayer, and Kelli Joan Bennett in Collusions (2018)

Collusions

6.7

Police Officer #1

2018

 

Alex Cord in War of the Worlds (1988)

War of the Worlds

6.5

TV Series

College Boy #2

1988

1 episode

 

The Gate (1987)

The Gate

6.1

Brad

1987

 

My Father, My Rival (1985)

My Father, My Rival

4.8

TV Movie

Kelly

1985

 

Juliet Bravo (1980)

Juliet Bravo

6.7

TV Series

Walter Cadwell

1983

1 episode

 

Writer

Daniel Costello in Freaky (2003)

Freaky

6.9

TV Series

writer: Future story

2003

1 episode

 

Thanks

Kelly Preston, Kurt Russell, Michael Angarano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Danielle Panabaker, Steven Strait, and Kelly Vitz in Sky High (2005)

Sky High

6.3

thanks

2005

 

Self

David Tennant in Doctor Who Confidential (2005)

Doctor Who Confidential

8.0

TV Series

Self

2010

1 episode

 

Don't You Forget About Me (2009)

Don't You Forget About Me

6.0

Video

Self

2009

Gary Walker obit

 

RIP : Gary Walker Has Died (The Walker Brothers)

He was not on the list.

Gary Walker (born Gary Leeds; March 9, 1942 – March 1, 2026) was an American musician, who was the drummer and vocalist with both The Standells and The Walker Brothers.

Born Gary Leeds, his professional career started in 1962 when he was recruited to join The Standells. He toured with the group from 1962 to 1964. For a period of time in 1964, he toured with P. J. Proby.

In 1964, Gary met John Walker (real name John Maus) and Scott Walker (real name Scott Engel). The two persuaded Gary to join their band The Walker Brothers, and take the stagename “Gary Walker” (something all three members did as they were not related). He has been credited as the catalyst in bringing the unrelated Walker Brothers to the UK in 1965 where, for a couple of years, they enjoyed commercial success. The Walker Brothers are best remembered for their 1966 hit single, a cover of Frankie Valli’s "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)". He had two minor UK hit singles while still a member of the group in 1966.

After a UK tour in April 1967, which also featured Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, and Engelbert Humperdinck, followed by a tour of Japan in 1968, the group officially disbanded.

Late in 1974, Walker, Engel and Leeds agreed to reform The Walker Brothers. In 1975, they released the album No Regrets. The title track went to no. 7 on the British charts. The second incarnation of the band split in 1978. In the following years, two reunion performances occurred, in 1982 and 1991.

In 1967 he founded Gary Walker and the Rain, which consisted of Joey Molland (later of the band Badfinger, guitar and vocals); Charles "Paul" Crane (lead vocals, guitar); and John Lawson (bass guitar). They released four singles between 1968 and 1969.

Their debut album, Album No.1, was published in 1968.

As a solo artist, Leeds released his debut single, "You Don't Love Me"/"Get It Right", in February 1966. He released two singles in May 1966 and 1968.

His fourth and last single was a cover of The Easybeats’ 1968 song "Hello, How Are You", (B-side: “Fran”) which was released in March 1975 and was produced by Allan Clarke, former frontman for The Hollies.

Gary Walker and his brother, John, published their own joint autobiography, The Walker Brothers: No Regrets — Our Story, in 2009.

Terry Watkinson obit

Terry Watkinson Has Died 

He was not on the list.

Terry Watkinson, a Canadian musician and songwriter best known for his work with popular rock band Max Webster, has died at age 86.

On Facebook on Feb. 28, his daughter Chloe Watkinson, an acclaimed Toronto singer/songwriter, posted that "my incredible father left us last night, peacefully, in his sleep. My father lived a truly luminescent life, always paving his own path, fusing genres in his three solo albums. To say I'm proud of him is a grievous understatement."

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Watkinson first made a musical mark as the keyboard player for REO Records recording act Dee & The Yeomen in the 1960s. He enrolled at the University of Toronto, studying Architecture for two years, until he left to join Max Webster as their keyboardist in 1974. Fronted by singer/guitarist Kim Mitchell the band toured extensively in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and released five Gold-selling albums during the 1970s and early 1980s. Watkinson wrote and sang the band's biggest hit, "Let Go The Line."

The Max Webster Live website reports that "Max Webster's first gig with Terry Watkinson as keyboardist was at a high school in Ottawa, on Feb. 16, 1974. The first song of the set was Frank Zappa's 'Peaches en Regalia.' But they only managed one more song, as Kim fell ill. He was so sick that his parents drove from Sarnia to pick him up after two days in hospital. The band took a month off as he convalesced.

"In 2015, Terry recalled being invited to see Max Webster as a trio (probably in 1973), and being impressed with Kim and instantly joining the band. The lineup of Mitchell, Watkinson, bassist Mike Ilka and drummer Pau Kersey would be its longest lasting one, and, besides Kim Mitchell, Watkinson would be the longest serving member, playing every remaining gig, minus a few months of 1980."

Mitchell and lyricist Pye Dubois wrote the majority of their material, with Watkinson writing one to three songs per album. Prior to the recording of the band's fifth and final studio album, Universal Juveniles (1980), Watkinson exited, leaving Max Webster a trio of Mitchell, McCracken and Myles. Universal Juveniles was recorded with the assistance of session musicians David Stone (who also briefly toured with the band) and Doug Riley. The song "Battle Scar" was recorded live with all three members of Rush playing alongside Max Webster (Watkinson returned just for this session).

Watkinson eventually rejoined in December 1980 as a salaried touring member, but Mitchell decided to dissolve the band after a gig supporting Rush in Memphis in April 1981, reportedly citing exhaustion and a lack of label support.

Watkinson joined prog rockers Klaatu on tour in early January 1982, replacing Gerald O'Brien, and he remained with Klaatu until they split up in August of that year. Watkinson was a member of Toronto bar band Antlers and pursued a solo musical career. He was later commissioned to paint a picture for Klaatu's Peaks collection.

Watkinson returned to University of Toronto and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Illustration. After graduating, he taught the subject at U of T and his work can be found in many medical textbooks.

He went on to become a painter of renown and he had work on display at the True North Art Gallery in Waterdown, Ontario. That gallery specialized in work created by well-known Canadian and international musical artists. A 2016 bio on the gallery website noted that "Terry moved away from medical illustration work and now concentrates on his fine art, with one or two feature gallery exhibitions a year for the last 20 years.

"His paintings are largely stylized landscapes of northern Ontario, where he spends his summers. Rather than paint actual places, he prefers to assemble imaginary scenes using elements of the northern Canada landscape, which he cherishes, and visits as often as possible. He works exclusively in oil paints on canvas."

True North Art Gallery co-owner Geoff Kulawick tells Billboard Canada that "Terry was such a gentle and humble artist. My wife Brooke and I were honoured to have several of his paintings exhibited at our art gallery, all of which were sold to his many collectors. He will be missed, but his music and art will be enjoyed for generations to come."

Sharing gallery space at True North with Watkinson was another musician and artist, Kurt Swinghammer. In a Facebook post, he noted that "Max Webster was my absolute fave Canadian band in the '70s with their combination of inspiring musicianship, showmanship and wicked sense of humour. It wasn’t until this century that I discovered Terry Watkinson was also an accomplished and prolific painter of northern landscapes impeccably rendered with a rich, saturated palette.

"The clean graphic style of Group of Seven member AJ Casson looms large, along with the colour sensibility of influential American painter Maxfield Parrish and techniques associated with the Impressionists. We were both on exhibit at the True North Gallery in Waterdown, which exclusively displayed paintings by musicians, and whenever visiting I’d take a moment to soak in one of Terry’s gorgeous pieces. He always deserved the Best In Show Award."

As a solo recording artist, Watkinson released the albums Teratology, in 1986 and Ask in 2015 (it featured his daughter Chloe on vocals).

Amongst those paying homage to Watkinson on social media was singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith. On Instagram, he posted "Rest In Peace Terry Watkinson, from my favourite Canadian band of all time, Max Webster. Though Kim Mitchell wrote and sang the vast majority of Max Webster tunes (with Pye Dubois), every album contained a few of Terry's gems. Like 'Blowin' The Blues Away,' 'Ruby Red Child,' 'Astonish Me' and of course 'Let Go The Line.'"

"He had the most angelic voice and interesting keyboard parts too which often rocked as hard as Kim's guitar work. He was also an accomplished artist who made beautiful paintings. I got to sing 'Let Go The Line' with him at one his art shows in Toronto which was huge for me. Pure genius. Huge loss."

Kurt Swinghammer was in attendance at that art show opening. "It was at a space above the Mod Club and Terry banged out a few tunes on piano followed by Ron Sexsmith serenading him with a version of the classic Watkinson-penned Max tune 'Let Go the Line,' which has long been a Sexsmith guitar pull party trick.

"A couple years ago, at the launch of Bob Wegner’s impressive book Max Webster: High Class — The Definitive History, I spotted Terry slowly working his way toward the exit. He looked quite frail, so I was succinct in expressing my admiration. R.I.P."

Toronto musician Lawrie Ingles (on Facebook): "He was my favourite keyboard player and one of my favourite songwriters. His Teratology solo album is outstanding. And after a long hiatus he recorded and released an excellent EP with collaborations from my pal Sam Boutzouvis and his daughter Chloe. I was fortunate to play his songs with him on a few occasions and more recently at a birthday celebration and tribute to him I performed his songs in front of him. A very talented and funny gentleman."

John Hammond obit

John Hammond, Blues Singer-Guitarist, Dies at 83

 He was not on the list.

John Hammond, the blues singer and guitarist also known as John P. Hammond and John Hammond Jr., died yesterday, Feb. 28, 2026. His passing was confirmed by musician Paul James, a collaborator and close friend of Hammond’s, who posted on Facebook that he received news of Hammond’s death from the latter’s wife Marla. The cause and place of his death have not yet been revealed. Hammond was 83.

The son of the famed Columbia Records producer and talent scout also named John, the younger Hammond took to the guitar in high school and began performing traditional-style acoustic blues. He turned professional after dropping out of Antioch College in Ohio and signed with Vanguard Records in 1963; his debut album consisted largely of interpretations of material written by such blues artists as Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Robert Johnson, as well as Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene.” During his lengthy career, Hammond, who also played harmonica, released more than 30 albums, most remaining true to his favored blues styles. One album, however, 2001’s Wicked Grin, consisted almost entirely of covers of Tom Waits songs.

Born in New York City on November 13, 1942, John Paul Hammond was the son of Jemison McBride and John Henry Hammond Jr. The latter—with whom the younger John did not live and saw infrequently after his parents divorced—is credited with discovering and promoting an astounding array of artists including Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

John Jr. continued to record for Vanguard for several years, then for many other labels, and although he continued to favor the acoustic guitar throughout most of his career—his instrument of choice was often the National Reso-Phonic Guitar—he also performed on electric guitar as early as the mid-’60s; his 1965 album So Many Roads featured accompaniment by guitarist Mike Bloomfield as well as three members of Ronnie Hawkins’ group who would soon emerge as members of The Band: Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm. During this period, Hammond also befriended and sometimes recorded with musicians such as Duane Allman, Jimi Hendrix (who briefly played in Hammond’s band before he became famous) and Eric Clapton. In 1973, Hammond recorded the album Triumvirate along with Bloomfield and Dr. John.

Hammond won a Grammy in 1985 for his performance on the compilation album Blues Explosion and received several other nominations during his career. He has also won eight Blues Music Awards and received an additional 10 nominations.