Chris Case obit

Irene Kane, Star of Kubrick's 'Killer's Kiss,' Dies

She was not on the list.

As author Chris Chase, she later co-wrote the autobiographies of Rosalind Russell, Betty Ford and Alan King.

Irene Kane, the female lead in director Stanley Kubrick's second feature film, Killer's Kiss, died Oct. 31 of pancreatic cancer at her home in New York City, her family confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Her niece did not want to divulge Kane's age.

Kane was her stage name; she later was known as writer and journalist Chris Chase, who worked for CBS and CNN, wrote regularly for The New York Times and co-authored autobiographies of Rosalind Russell, Betty Ford, Alan King and Josephine Baker. She also wrote a memoir, How to Be a Movie Star or a Terrible Beauty Is Born.

A lithe, blonde model who appeared in Vogue, Kane played "taxi dancer" Gloria Price in Kubrick's family-financed 1955 film noir Killer's Kiss. Her character is roughed up by her enamored boss (Frank Silvera), kidnapped and eventually rescued by a boxer (Jamie Smith).

Fans of Turner Classic Movies will recognize Kane in a clip from Killer's Kiss that is used in an "Open All Night" montage that the network routinely plays to introduce noirish films.

The 26-year-old Kubrick "convinced me to play the girl by explaining that I was going to be a very important movie star, and I thought that might be better than getting a real job at Dunkin' Donuts," Chase wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1999, a week after the director died at age 70.

Kane also appeared on Broadway in Threepenny Opera, The Ponder Heart and Tenderloin, in two episodes of Naked City and as a broadcaster in All That Jazz (1979).

In 1962, she married Michael Chase, the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Mary Chase, who wrote the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for the 1950 film, starring James Stewart.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her brother, neuroscientist Paul Greengard, and his wife, sculptor Ursula Von Rydingsvard; sister Linda; nephew Glen; and niece Ainslie.

Toby Bluth obit

Animator Toby Bluth dead

He was not on the list.

Frederick L. "Toby" Bluth was an American painter, animator, background artist, production designer, theater director, and film director who has worked on many Disney films. Bluth's artwork is prominently displayed at most of the Disney theme parks around the world. He traveled the Disney Cruise Line and showed off his talent for crowds of all ages.

He is also the younger brother of Don Bluth, who he has collaborated on both theater and animation.

Filmography

Film       Year       Credit

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers   2004      Art Director

The Tigger Movie             2000      Additional Background Artist / Stylest

Babes in Toyland              1997      Director / Lyricist / Background Designer / Character Designer

The Story of Santa Claus                1996      Director

Alvin & the Chipmunks 1983      Character Designer / Production Designer

The Smurfs         1981      Background Stylist

A Chipmunk Christmas   1981      Production Designer

Banjo the Woodpile Cat                 1979      Writer (uncredited)

Johnny Kucks obit

Johnny Kucks, World Series hero for the Yankees in 1956, dead at 80

 

He was not on the list.

Johnny Kucks, a born and bred "Jersey Boy" who went from the sandlots of Jersey City to a 1956 Yankee World Series hero, died Thursday after a long bout with cancer. He was 80.

Kucks, a side-arming righthander who had what Yogi Berra said was one of the "heaviest sinkerballs" he ever caught, spent 4½ seasons with the Yankees from 1955-59 and appeared in eight games over four World Series with a 1.89 ERA in them. But his finest hour was when Yankee manager Casey Stengel gave him the ball for Game 7 of the 1956 World Series at Ebbets Field — after the Dodgers had tied the Series 3-3 the day before on a 1-0, 10-inning shutout by Clem Labine — and Kucks responded by pitching a three-hit shutout in a 9-0 Yankee win.

"Actually, I didn't know I was going to start that game until about an hour before, when I found the ball in my glove in my locker," Kucks recalled years later. "It was going to be either me, Whitey Ford or Tom Sturdivant, and I think the reason Casey picked me was because Ebbets Field was such a small ballpark and I had that good sinkerball."

Just the same, Stengel had both Ford and Sturdivant warming up in the first inning. But the Yankees immediately staked Kucks to a 2-0 lead when his batterymate, Berra, hit a two-run homer in the first, and two innings later, Berra hit another two-run homer to help deliver an early KO of Dodgers ace Don Newcombe. Moose Skowron would later add a grand slam in the Yankee rout. "I remember I had trouble in the first inning when I walked Pee Wee Reese with one out and gave up a single to (Duke) Snider," said Kucks, "but I was able to get out of it by getting Jackie Robinson to hit into a double play. Whitey and Sturdivant sat down, and I never had any trouble the rest of the way."

A standout pitcher at Dickinson High in Jersey City, Kucks went on to play for a semi-pro team there called Cloverdale A.C., and was first discovered by the Phillies.

But after the Phillies reneged on an initial bonus offer to him, he signed with the Yankees for $18,000 in 1952 and was sent to their Class B Norfolk team in the Piedmont League, where he was 19-6 in his first pro season. After spending 1953 and '54 in the service, Kucks came to spring training with the Yankees in '55 and pitched his way onto the team.

Kucks was 8-7 his rookie season with a 3.41 ERA. The following season he was a regular part of the Yankee rotation and was second behind Ford on the Yankees in victories with an 18-7 record. Culminating with the World Series-clinching Game 7 shutout, it was, said Kucks, "my career season."

However, Kucks was to gain almost as much notice the following season — for the wrong reason. On May 16, 1957, he was part of the Yankee party (albeit the least known) — along with Berra, Ford, Mickey Mantle and Hank Bauer — that was celebrating Billy Martin's 29th birthday at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan when a fight broke out and a patron at the next table over wound up being punched out. Berra, Bauer, Mantle and Ford were all fined $1,000 by the Yankees while Kucks, because he was earning far less than the established veterans, was docked $500.

 

Kucks, who was born in Hoboken in 1933, was never able to come close to duplicating his 1956 form and by '58 was pitching mostly out of the bullpen. In May of 1959, in one of those many one-sided trades the Yankees made with their "country cousins," the Kansas City Athletics in the '50s and '60s, they sent Kucks, Sturdivant and infielder Jerry Lumpe to the A's for third baseman Hector Lopez and righthander Ralph Terry, both of whom would become staples on five more pennant-winning clubs.

Kucks remained with the A's through 1960 and then drifted to the minor leagues. He made one last bid to return to the majors in 1963 when Stengel, then managing the Mets, invited him to their camp. But a sore arm prevented him from making the team. For his career, Kucks was 54-56 with a 4.10 ERA.

In retirement, Kucks lived in Hillsdale, N.J., and had a long second career as a stockbroker on Wall St. He is survived by two daughters. His wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1955, died in 2006.