Droz obit

Darren Drozdov passes away

 

He was not on the list.

 

WWE is saddened to learn that Darren Drozdov passed away on Friday, June 30, at age 54.

An imposing force in the ring, Darren Drozdov became a notable figure in WWE, known to fans as both Puke and Droz during his time as an in-ring competitor.

Drozdov was a gifted athlete before coming to WWE, playing football at the University of Maryland before stints in the NFL with the New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, and Denver Broncos.

Drozdov captivated audiences in the late 1990s with his time spent in the Legion of Doom teaming with Animal and his Droz’s World vignettes.

WWE extends its condolences to Darren Drozdov’s family, friends and fans.

STATEMENT FROM THE FAMILY OF DARREN DROZDOV

We are sad to share our beloved Darren passed away this morning of natural causes.  There are no words to convey the deep sense of loss and sadness we are feeling right now.

Darren, affectionately known as “Droz,” was involved in a tragic ring accident while wrestling for the WWE in 1999 that rendered him a quadriplegic.  Nevertheless, Droz maintained a championship mindset and lived every day to the fullest even though he was unable to move from the neck down for the past 24 years.  His own words sum up his relentless positivity in the midst of adversity: “There is always another day. Just because I’m paralyzed and stuck in a wheelchair, doesn’t mean my life is over. I’ve learned to live again, and my life is far from over.” 

We lived this journey with him over the past 24 years. We were always there through the good times and the bad, and provided him with our unconditional love. We would like to extend our deepest appreciation to everyone. All of his fans, teammates, colleagues, and friends for all the love and support he received over the years.  You all gave him meaning, purpose and something to live for.  He loved each and every one of you and cherished the conversations, notes and letters he received.  His faith in humanity never faltered, so know that for all the love you've shown him, he loved you back.

We also would also like to thank WWE for treating him like family, and for all of their love, support and stepping up to make sure that Darren always had the proper care and treatment needed to live in his condition over the past 24 years.

He was a devoted son, brother, and friend who had always put others first, especially his family.  He was kind, generous and was always there for his people. He was our guiding light who lit up our lives with infinite love and wonder. His smile was healing. His warmth, love, and laughter were infectious. We could always turn to him for wisdom and solace and his absence feels like a giant hole in our family and our hearts.  Everyone who knew Darren was a better person because of it.  He taught everyone so much about how to look at life: how to put things in perspective, how to overcome adversity, and how to show compassion for others.  He would not want anyone to be sad at this moment and would want to this to be a celebration of his life, to be remembered for all the great things that he accomplished, the fun, the laughter, the great memories he shared with everyone.

Rick Froberg obit

Rick Froberg, Frontman of Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu, Dead at 55

Longtime collaborator John Reis confirmed news of Froberg's passing 

He was not on the list.

Rick Froberg, vocalist and guitarist of Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, and Obits, has died at the age of 55.

John Reis, Froberg’s longtime collaborator in Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu, confirmed his passing in a post to Instagram on Saturday. “Rick passed away suddenly last night [June 30th] from natural causes. His art made life better. The only thing he loved more than art and rock n roll was his friends. He will forever be remembered for his creativity, vision and his ability to bring beauty into this world. I love you, Rick. I will miss you for the rest of my life.”

Froberg and Reis first linked up in the post-hardcore band Pitchfork in the late 1980s. They then formed the emo rock group Drive Like Jehu and released their major label debut, Yank Crime, through Interscope Records in 1994.

In the mid-1990s, Reis temporarily shelved Drive Like Jehu in order to concentrate on his other band, Rocket from the Crypt. By the end of the decade, Reis formed his own record label, Swami Records, and reunited with Froberg to form a new post-hardcore band called Hot Snakes. Between 2000 and 2004, Hot Snakes released three albums, including Suicide Invoice and Audit in Progress. Following a hiatus, the group reunited for a fourth album, Jericho Sirens, in 2018.

In 2006, Froberg formed the band Obits. They released three albums between 2009 and 2013.

In 2014, Froberg and Reis reformed Drive Like Jehu for a series of live performances, including an appearance at Coachella in 2015.

Froberg was also a talented visual artist who created artwork for his bands as well as for Rocket from the Crypt and Swami Records.

Eva Maria Daniels obit

Eva Maria Daniels, Producer of ‘What Maisie Knew’ and ‘Joe Bell,’ Dies at 43

The Iceland native also guided 'Hold the Dark,' the recent Sydney Sweeney-starring 'Reality' and two Richard Gere starrers from Oren Moverman.

 She was not on the list.

Eva Maria Daniels, the Icelandic producer and film festival favorite behind such recent indie dramas as What Maisie Knew, Hold the Dark and Joe Bell, has died. She was 43.

Daniels died Friday in London after a battle with cancer, her friend and publicist Jessie Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter. She was diagnosed in March 2020 with a type of Stage 3 cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes, but she declared herself cancer free in an interview with THR‘s Chris Gardner a year later.

“Eva died on the same terms as she lived,” director Börkur Sigthorsson wrote on Facebook. “She played her cards close to her chest. She didn’t seek recognition when she had success. She didn’t seek pity when she suffered. I will miss her friendship greatly, but mostly I will miss seeing what she would have done next.”

Daniels most recently executive produced the Sydney Sweeney-starring Reality. Directed by first-timer Tina Satter in an adaptation of her off-Broadway/Broadway play Is This a Room, it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this year and on HBO Max in May. In his review, THR chief film critic David Rooney called it “a forceful gut punch of cinema vérité.”

Daniels also exec produced two films directed and co-written by Oren Moverman and starring Richard Gere: Time Out of Mind (2014) and The Dinner (2017).

What Maisie Knew (2012), a melodrama about a broken family helmed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, bowed at the Toronto Film Festival and starred Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgard in a modern adaptation of Henry James’ 1897 novel.

Hold the Dark (2018), an Alaska-set thriller directed by Jeremy Saulnier and starring Jeffrey Wright and Skarsgard, premiered at TIFF and on Netflix.

Joe Bell (2020), directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Brokeback Mountain pair Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, starred Mark Wahlberg in the true story of the father of a gay teenager (Reid Miller) who walks across America to draw attention to anti-LGBTQ bullying. It debuted at TIFF and played in theaters via Roadside Attractions.

During her all-too-brief career, Daniels enjoyed fruitful partnerships with producer Riva Marker — they collaborated on five features — and distributor A24 and also consulted with the Icelandic Film Fund.

Born in Reykjavik on July 5, 1979, Daniels studied business and philosophy at the University of Iceland and added a degree in film production from KBH Film & Fotoskole in Copenhagen in 2003. She then worked as a producer for the postproduction outfits The Mill, based in London, and Company 3, based in Los Angeles and New York.

She launched Eva Daniels Productions in New York in 2010. The first two films from her company were The Romantics (2010), written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer and starring Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin and Josh Duhamel, and Goats (2012), directed by Christopher Neil and starring David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga.

She also exec produced the road movie End of Sentence (2019), starring John Hawkes and Logan Lerman as a feuding father and son in Ireland.

Survivors include her husband, Moritz Diller, and 5 ½-year-old son, Henry.

When she spoke with Gardner in 2021, she had just opened an art gallery in Switzerland dedicated to the work of artists from her Iceland home.

“We have this pure DNA of freedom where we can do anything because we know we’ll get away with it,” she said. “It’s a special island with no limits, no boxes to fit into, wild parties, no audience, no rules to follow, and I love all that. It inspires me every day.”

She added: “During my career in film, I collected art, on a slow pace. It had always given me so much joy. When I was living in L.A., I was going to try to combine film and art, and I even hosted a few art shows in California in the past with some actors that I was working with. During treatment, I returned to that question of how to incorporate more joy. Even though film development is the greatest thing ever, it can be slow and painful. I also have a son, and I thought, ‘How do I bring him into my work life and spend more time with him?'”

Alan Arkin - # 307

Alan Arkin, Oscar Winner for ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ Dies at 89

 He was number 307 on the list.

Alan Arkin, an Oscar-winning actor for “Little Miss Sunshine” with a body of work that spans seven decades of stage and screen acting, died June 29 at his home in Carlsbad, Calif. He was 89.

Arkin’s sons confirmed his death in a statement to People, writing, “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.”

Arkin, who was known for projecting a characteristically dry wit but could play tragedy with equal efficacy, won his Oscar for his supporting performance in the indie comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2007; he scored an encore nomination for his punchy and profane turn in Ben Affleck’s best picture winner “Argo.” Arkin picked up two earlier nominations in his film career, for “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” in 1967 and for “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” in 1969.

More recently, Arkin received back-to-back Primetime Emmy Award nominations in outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his performance in the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method,” in which he starred alongside Michael Douglas. Arkin received four additional Emmy nominations (across other categories) earlier in his career.

Beyond his screen career, Arkin began in entertainment as a stage performer, serving as an early member of the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago before making his Broadway debut in “From the Second City” in 1961. Two years later, he scored a Tony Award for starring in Joseph Stein’s comedy “Enter Laughing.”

In “Argo” he played Lester Siegel, the Hollywood veteran who was recruited to produce a fictional sci-fi film whose production would provide cover for the rescue of American hostages in Iran. Siegel, wrote Pete Hammond in his review, even “goes to the extreme of announcing the project in a Variety ad and article. ‘If I am going to be making a fake movie, I want to have a fake hit,’ says Lester, played to amusing perfection by Arkin.”

In “Little Miss Sunshine,” Arkin played the foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting grandfather Edwin. The San Francisco Chronicle said: “The cast is so perfect that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles. Arkin’s spontaneity gives the impression that he’s improvising.”

Arkin was an actor whose gifts were recognized early. After his Tony in 1963, he earned his first Emmy nomination, for the “ABC Stage 67” episode “The Love Song of Barney Kempinski,” in 1967, the same year he earned his first Oscar nomination. Arkin never really left television despite the success of his film career. His next Emmy nomination came in 1987 for the Holocaust-themed CBS telepic “Escape From Sobibor”; the third was in 1997 for a guest appearance on “Chicago Hope” and another in 2003 for telepic “The Pentagon Papers.”

Remarkably, Arkin earned his first Oscar nomination for his first credited feature performance. Norman Jewison’s “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” was a Cold War comedy in which a Soviet sub runs aground on a New England island; Arkin played the leader of the Russian party set to scout out the area. Hilarity ensues as Russians and Americans make wild encounters. The New York Times noted that it was Arkin’s debut film and said he gave “a particularly wonderful performance.”

Not all the critics were impressed with his performance in the thriller “Wait Until Dark,” in which he played a psycho terrorizing a blind Audrey Hepburn, but the role increased his profile in Hollywood and has maintained a strong reputation to this day; next he played Inspector Clouseau in a movie of that name, with Peter Sellers nowhere in sight.

Then in 1969 he earned his second Oscar nomination with Carson McCullers adaptation “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” In a review that was otherwise critical of the film, the New York Times said Arkin’s performance as the deaf-mute Singer is “extraordinary, deep and sound. Walking, with his hat jammed flat on his head, among the obese, the mad, the infirm, characters with one leg, broken hip, scarred mouth, failing life, he somehow manages to convey every dimension of his character, especially intelligence.”

He played a Puerto-Rican father in the comedy “Popi,” Yossarian in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of “Catch-22” and the title character in Neil Simon’s adaptation of his own play “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” Seeking a different kind of experience, he appeared as a Puerto-Rican police detective alongside James Caan in Richard Rush’s crime drama “Freebie and the Bean.”

In 1976, Arkin starred as Sigmund Freud in the Herbert Ross-directed Sherlock Holmes riff “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” with a top-flight cast that included Robert Duvall, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave.

Arkin directed his first film in 1971, helming the satire “Little Murders” with Jules Feiffer adapting his own play and Elliot Gould starring. He returned to the director’s chair for the somewhat more accessible 1977 comedy “Fire Sale,” with Arkin and Rob Reiner starring. He also helmed some episodic television and a TV movie.

He closed out the 70’s with one of that decade’s funniest film comedies: “The In-Laws,” starring opposite Peter Falk. Arkin was also the executive producer. The New York Times’ Janet Maslin wrote: “I was laughing so hard at ‘The In-Laws,’ a wonderful new comedy of errors… that after a while I was crying. Then I was wiping my eyes. Then I forgot to take any more notes.” As for Arkin and Falk, Maslin said, “It is theirs, and not their children’s, match that has been made in heaven.”

The early 1980s were a fallow period for Arkin. But he was the best thing in 1985 Mordecai Richler adaptation “Joshua Then and Now.” The New York Times lauded the “hilarious, scene-stealing performance by Alan Arkin as the hero’s fast-talking father.” He then reunited with Peter Falk for the John Cassavetes-directed comedy “Big Trouble.”

Though he did not play one of the central characters in Tim Burton’s 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands,” Arkin is still remembered for his performance as Winona Ryder’s father that Rolling Stone characterized as “marvelously wry.”

In the early ’90s he appeared in the epic “Havana,” starring Robert Redford, and played the old codger who dreamed up the device that enables the hero to become “The Rocketeer.” Arkin was part of the starry cast populating the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

In the late ’90s the actor did some fine, interesting, varied work. Arkin played the psychiatrist of the professional killer played by John Cusack in “Grosse Pointe Blank” (the New York Times said, “Alan Arkin is an enormous treat as Martin’s psychiatrist, who can’t conceal his problem of being afraid of his homicidal patient”). He was the dignified diplomat at the center of Bruno Barreto’s Brazilian kidnap drama “Four Days in September,” the cop on the trail of the genetically imperfect Ethan Hawke in “Gattaca,” the paterfamilias always moving his family around to avoid paying rent in “Slums of Beverly Hills.”

In Jill Sprecher’s indie film “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing” (2001), Arkin had a particularly excellent scene opposite Matthew McConaughey. In 2007, the same year he appeared in “Little Miss Sunshine,” Arkin played a senator without political courage in the film “Rendition.”

The next year he appeared in “Sunshine Cleaning,” a sort-of black comedy about a pair of sisters who clean up crime scenes. Also in 2008, he played the Chief in the film adaptation of “Get Smart” that starred Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. The next year, still continuing to show his range as an actor, Arkin appeared with Robin Wright Penn in Rebecca Miller’s seriocomic “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” a small but ambitious film in which, the New York Times said, “Together Ms. Penn and Mr. Arkin create a portrait of a marriage in which you sense the intertwining crosscurrents of devotion, boredom, anger and gratitude.”

In 2012, the same year he appeared in “Argo,” Arkin starred along with Al Pacino and Christopher Walken in “Stand Up Guys,” about a trio of old mobsters who get the gang back together for one last hurrah.

As for television, Arkin was among the many actors who did some time on “Sesame Street” in the early 1970s. He tried series television with the brief 1987 ABC sitcom “Harry” (in which he starred with then-wife Barbara Dana, among others) and more successfully in the new century with Sidney Lumet’s well-written, well-acted courthouse drama “100 Centre Street.” Reviewing the latter, the New York Times lauded “Alan Arkin’s superbly real, understated portrayal of Joe Rifkind, a thoughtful judge so prone to giving criminals every chance at redemption that his nickname is Let-’em-Go Joe.”

He appeared in a number of TV movies over the years, including the 1978 telepic “The Defection of Simas Kudirka” and, much later, “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,” in which he played a world-weary mercenary.

Even after his film career had launched, Arkin occasionally guested on series, doing an arc on “St. Elsewhere” in 1983 as the husband of a stroke victim played by Piper Laurie; appearing in 1997 on “Chicago Hope” (on which son Adam was a series regular); and guesting on “Will & Grace” in 2005.

Alan Wolf Arkin was born in Brooklyn on March 26, 1934, but the family moved to Los Angeles when he was 12.

His father, David Arkin, an artist and writer, lost his job as a teacher amid the paranoia of the Red Scare. Alan started taking acting classes before he reached puberty. He attended Los Angeles City College for two years, then Bennington College from 1953-54, dropping out to form the Tarriers, a folk-music group in which he was the lead singer.

In 1955, he recorded an album for Elektra titled “Folksongs — Once Over Lightly.” With other members of the Tarriers, he wrote a version of the Jamaican calypso folk song “The Banana Boat Song” that was a big hit in 1956. He was already a young actor finding work where he could.

Arkin first appeared on the big screen, uncredited, in his role as lead singer of the Tarriers in 1957’s “Calypso Heat Wave.”

He made his Off Broadway debut as a singer in “Heloise” the following year. At the Compass Theatre in St. Louis, which he had joined, he caught the eye of stage director Bob Sills, which led to Arkin becoming an original member of Chicago’s Second City troupe together with Paul Sand.

He wrote the lyrics and sketches for his Broadway debut, the musical “From the Second City.” After winning his Tony in 1963, he returned to Broadway the next year in Murray Schisgal’s “Luv,” directed by Mike Nichols.

Arkin made his directorial stage debut with the Off Broadway hit “Eh?” (1966), which introduced the world to Dustin Hoffman. He further directed Off Broadway’s “Little Murders” (1969) and “The White House Murder Case” (1970). On Broadway, he directed the original production of Neil Simon’s extremely successful comedy “The Sunshine Boys,” which ran for 538 performances beginning in 1972. He directed the unsuccessful Broadway musical “Molly” in 1973 and was absent from the Rialto for 27 years until 2000, when he directed Elaine May’s play “Taller Than a Dwarf”; Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey starred.

Arkin was married three times, the first to Jeremy Yaffe, the second to actress Barbara Dana.

All three of his sons became actors, but Adam Arkin also became a director of episodic television. Speaking to Variety about how he came to direct, Adam Arkin said, “I often joke about the fact that when other kids were being taken to baseball games and sporting events and fishing trips, my father was taking me to see silent Russian films.”

In addition to his three sons — Adam and Matthew, with Yaffe; and Anthony Dana Arkin, with Dana — Alan Arkin is survived by third wife, Suzanne Newlander Arkin, whom he married in 1999.

 

Filmography

Film

Year     Title            Role            Other notes

1957            Calypso Heat Wave            Tarriers lead singer       

1963    That's Me            Un­known        Short film; also writer

1966    The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming            Lt. Rozanov          

The Last Mohican            Mr. Ableman            Short film; also writer

1967    Woman Times Seven            Fred            Segment: The Suicides

Wait Until Dark            Roat

Harry Roat Jr.

Harry Roat Sr. 

1968            Inspector Clouseau            Inspector Jacques Clouseau         

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter            John Singer  

1969    Popi            Abraham Rodriguez    

The Monitors            Garbage man in commercial            Cameo

People Soup            Adam            Short film; also writer and director

1970    Catch-22        Capt. John Yossarian

1971    Little Murders            Lt. Miles Practice            Also director

1972            Deadhead Miles            Cooper           

Last of the Red Hot Lovers            Barney Cashman         

1974    Freebie and the Bean            Det. Sgt. Dan "Bean" Delgado           

1975    Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins            Gunny Rafferty            Aka Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers

Hearts of the West    Burt Kessler

1976    The Seven-Per-Cent Solution            Sigmund Freud           

1977    Fire Sale      Ezra Fikus    Also director

1979    The In-Laws            Sheldon S. Kornpett, D.D.S. Also executive producer

The Magician of Lublin            Yasha Mazur 

1980    Simon            Prof. Simon Mendelssohn   

1981            Improper Channels            Jeffrey Martley           

Chu Chu and the Philly Flash            Flash   

Full Moon High            Dr. Brand  

1982    The Last Unicorn            Schmendrick (voice)    

1983    The Return of Captain Invincible            Captain Invincible         

1985    Joshua Then and Now            Reuben Shapiro           

Bad Medicine            Dr. Ramón Madera           

1986    Big Trouble            Leonard Hoffman       

1987    Escape from Sobibor            Leon Feldhendler     

1990    Coupe de Ville Fred Libner 

Edward Scissorhands            Bill Boggs  

Havana Joe Volpi   

1991    The Rocketeer            A. "Peevy" Peabody          

1992            Glengarry Glen Ross            George Aaronow         

1993    Indian Summer            Unca Lou Handler    

So I Married an Axe Murderer            Police Captain           

Samuel Beckett Is Coming Soon    The Director            Also director

1994    North            Judge Buckle 

1995    Picture Windows            Tully            Segment: Soir Bleu

The Jerky Boys: The Movie  Ernie Lazarro           

Steal Big Steal Little     Lou Perilli   

1996    Heck's Way Home            Dogcatcher     

Mother Night            George Kraft   

1997    Grosse Pointe Blank            Dr. Oatman           

Four Days in September            Charles Burke Elbrick  

Gattaca            Det. Hugo   

1998    Slums of Beverly Hills            Murray Samuel Abromowitz    

1999    Jakob the Liar Max Frankfurter      

2000            Magicians         Milo            Direct-to-video

2001            America's Sweethearts            Wellness Guide

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing    Gene   

2004    Eros            Dr. Pearl

Hal            Segment: Equilibrium

Noel     Artie Venizelos         

2006    Little Miss Sunshine            Edwin Hoover

Firewall            Arlin Forester          

The Novice            Father Benkhe

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause            Bud Newman         

Raising Flagg            Flagg Purdy  

2007            Rendition        Senator Hawkins          

2008            Sunshine Cleaning            Joe Lorkowski       

Get Smart            The Chief   

Marley & Me            Arnie Klein   

2009    The Private Lives of Pippa Lee            Herb Lee     

City Island            Michael Malakov          

2011    Thin Ice       Gorvy Hauer  

The Change-Up       Mitchell Planko Sr.       

The Muppets            Tour Guide   Cameo

2012    Argo            Lester Siegel  

Stand Up Guys            Richard Hirsch 

2013    The Incredible Burt Wonderstone            Rance Holloway         

In Security            Officer Riggs   

Grudge Match            Louis "Lightning" Conlon

2014    Million Dollar Arm            Ray Poitevint          

2015    Love the Coopers            Bucky 

2017    Going in Style Albert Garner 

2019    Dumbo            J. Griffin Remington       

2020            Spenser Confidential            Henry Cimoli 

2022            Minions: The Rise of Gru      Wild Knuckles (voice) 

 

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1964    East Side/West Side            Ted Miller            Episode: "The Beatnik and the Politician"

1966    ABC Stage 67            Barney Kempinski            Episode: "The Love Song of Barney Kempinski"

1970–1971            Sesame Street   Larry            4 episodes, with then-wife Barbara Dana as Larry's wife Phyllis

1978    The Other Side of Hell      Frank Dole     TV movie

The Defection of Simas Kudirka            Simas Kudirka

1979    Carol Burnett & Company            Himself            Episode #1.2

1980    The Muppet Show            Himself            Episode: "Alan Arkin"

1983    St. Elsewhere            Jerry Singleton            Episodes: "Ties That Bind", "Lust En Veritas" & "Newheart"

1985    Faerie Tale Theatre            Bo            Episode: "The Emperor's New Clothes"

The Fourth Wise Man            Orontes           TV movie

1986    A Deadly Business            Harold Kaufman

1987    Harry            Harry Porschak            7 episodes

Escape from Sobibor            Leon Feldhendler            TV movie

1988            Necessary Parties            Archie Corelli  TV movie

1993            Cooperstown   Harry Willette TV movie

Taking the Heat            Tommy Canard TV movie

1994            Doomsday Gun            Col. Yossi

1995    Picture Windows            Tully            Miniseries

1997            Chicago Hope Zoltan Karpathein            Episode: "The Son Also Rises"

1999    Blood Money Willy "The Hammer" Canzaro            TV movie

2001            Varian's War   Bill Freier

2001–2002            100 Centre Street            Joe Rifkind 10 episodes

2003    The Pentagon Papers  Harry Rowen TV movie

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself Sam Drebben            TV movie

2005    Will & Grace   Marty Adler            Episode: "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World"

2015–2016            BoJack Horseman            J. D. Salinger (voice)            4 episodes

2017    Get Shorty  Eugene            Episode: "The Yips"

2018–2019            The Kominsky Method            Norman Newlander            16 episodes

 

Theatre

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1961    From The Second City            Performer      Royale Theatre, Broadway

1963    Enter Laughing            Performer - David Kolowitz            Henry Miller's Theatre,

Broadway

1964    Luv            Performer - Harry Berlin   Booth Theatre, Broadway

1966    Hail Scrawdyke!            Director           Booth Theatre, Broadway

1972    The Sunshine Boys            Director            Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway

1973    Molly            Director           Alvin Theatre, Broadway

2000    Taller Than a Dwarf            Director            Longacre Theatre, Broadway

Laird Koenig obit

Laird Koenig, ‘Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane’ Author and Screenwriter, Dies at 95

The novelist also contributed to episodes of 'Flipper' and films starring Alain Delon, Laurence Olivier, Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune.

 

 He was not on the list.

Laird Koenig, who adapted his novel for the screenplay to the 1976 cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, a controversial horror thriller starring a teenage Jodie Foster, has died. He was 95.

Koenig died June 30 of natural causes in Santa Barbara, Jamie Dixon, the son of Koenig’s frequent writing partner, Peter L. Dixon, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Koenig also received a writing credit on three films directed by Terence Young: Red Sun (1971), starring Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress; Bloodline (1979), starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara and James Mason; and Inchon (1981), starring Gazzara, Laurence Olivier and Jacqueline Bisset.

His 1970 novel The Children Are Watching, co-written with Dixon, was turned into the French film Attention Les Enfants Regardent (1978), starring Delon.

Taken from his 1974 novel — his first as a solo author — The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane starred Foster as a 13-year-old who lives by herself in a home in New England and tries to keep a family secret hidden from a creepy guy (Martin Sheen) poking around. Foster had just been seen in Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone.

Directed by Nicolas Gessner, the film premiered at Cannes in 1976 but because of a rights dispute did not make it to theaters until 1977. Because of Foster’s age, some objected to a nude scene between her character, Rynn Jacobs, and co-star Scott Jacoby, but it turned out the actress’ older sister, Connie Foster, had doubled for her.

Koenig, wrote Imran Khan on PopMatters.com in 2016, had a “real knack for exploring the inner world of children with daring and sensitivity. [He] managed to capture this with an exactitude that is rare nowadays. His children are often sagacious incarnates of adults you may know — level-headed thinkers who can keep cool under pressure. Sometimes they are sociopaths. Many times, they are relegated to the margins of society where they are left to fend for themselves among prying, often dangerous, adults.”

Laird Philip Koenig was born in Seattle on Sept. 24, 1927. He attended the University of Washington and worked in advertising in New York before coming to Los Angeles in the 1960s.

Dixon asked Koenig to help him out with episodes of Flipper, and they teamed on seven episodes of the adventure series during the show’s three seasons (1964-67) and on one 1970 installment of another NBC show, The High Chaparral.

Koenig co-wrote the screenplay for The Cat (1966), starring Roger Perry and Peggy Ann Garner, then landed on Broadway in 1969 with The Dozens. The play, which starred Al Freeman Jr., Morgan Freeman (in one of his first major roles) and Paula Kelly, lasted just four performances, however.

His 1978 novel The Neighbor became Killing ‘Em Softly (1982), a drama featuring George Segal and Irene Cara, and he wrote the adapted screenplay for Tennessee Nights (1989), starring Julian Sands.

Koenig’s other novels included 1980’s Islands, 1981’s Rockabye — adapted for a 1986 telefilm starring Valerie Bertinelli — 1983’s The Disciple and 2012’s Morning Sun: The Story of Madam Butterfly’s Boy.

Survivors include his niece, Lisa, and nephew, Mark.