Robert Loggia obit

Robert Loggia, 'Scarface' and 'Big' actor, dies at 85

He was not on the list.

Robert Loggia, the gravelly voiced character actor who danced with Tom Hanks on a giant floor keyboard in "Big," fought aliens in "Independence Day" and trafficked in drugs in "Scarface," died on Friday at age 85, his widow said.

Loggia, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 1985 thriller "Jagged Edge," died at his home in Los Angeles after battling Alzheimer's disease for five years, Audrey O'Brien Loggia told Reuters.

"He loved being an actor - he was a wonderful actor - and loved his profession and his life," she said, adding that he died with her and their two daughters at his side. "We've been together 41 years. He is going be terribly missed."

Loggia had been a journeyman actor on stage, TV and films until he made an impression playing Richard Gere's abusive and alcoholic father in the 1982 blockbuster "An Officer and a Gentleman." That performance led to meaty roles in other box-office hits.He even voiced the role of Sykes in Disney's Oliver and Company.

In director Brian De Palma's hit 1983 crime drama "Scarface," Loggia played drug lord Frank Lopez alongside Al Pacino in the violent tale of Miami mobsters.

Two years later, Loggia was a seedy private detective in "Jagged Edge," starring Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close. He lost the best supporting actor Oscar to Don Ameche of "Cocoon."

Also in 1985, he starred alongside Jack Nicholson in director John Huston's black comedy "Prizzi's Honor," which was nominated for a best picture Oscar.

His most famous role was in director Penny Marshall's bittersweet comedy "Big" (1988) starring Hanks as a boy whose wish to become an adult magically comes true. Hanks' character -a boy in an adult body - ends up working for a toy company headed by Loggia.

Together they danced to the songs "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks" on the jumbo floor keyboard at New York's fabled FAO Schwarz toy store in what was one of the famous cinematic scenes of the 1980s.

Loggia said Marshall allowed him and Hanks a lot of freedom in deciding how the scene would unfold, giving them a cardboard mock-up of the keyboard a few weeks before the scene was shot.

"She very cleverly said, 'I don't want you to look like trained dancers, but you do the melody and you ... and Tom, you work it out for yourself. There will be no rehearsal and we'll be at FAO Schwarz about a month down the line and we're going to do it, and let's see what happens,'" Loggia told the Miami Herald in 2006.

"And that's why it's a movie-magic scene," Loggia said.

"Big" became one of the year's top-grossing films, earned Hanks his first Oscar nomination, and was the first movie directed by a woman to top $100 million at the box office.

Loggia also had a key supporting role in "Independence Day," the top-grossing film of 1996. He played a general who advises the president of the United States, played by Bill Pullman, as tentacled aliens in huge spaceships devastate cities worldwide.

The Italian-American actor was born as Salvatore Loggia on Jan. 3, 1930, in New York City. He set aside his plans for a journalism career to go into acting.

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1956      Somebody Up There Likes Me     Frankie Peppo   Uncredited

1957      The Garment Jungle        Tulio Renata      

1958      Cop Hater            Detective Steve Carelli  

The Lost Missile                Dr. David Loring               

1963      Cattle King          Johnny Quatro  

1965      The Greatest Story Ever Told       Joseph

1966      The Three Sisters              Solyony               

Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law               Elfego Baca        

1969      Che!       Faustino Morales            

1974      Two Missionaries             Marches Gonzaga           

    Credited as Roberto Loggia.

1977      Speedtrap           Spillano               

First Love             John March        

1978      Revenge of the Pink Panther       Al Marchione    

1980      The Ninth Configuration                Lt. Bennish         

Flatfoot in Egypt               Edward Burns   

1981      S.O.B.    Herb Maskowitz              

1982      An Officer and a Gentleman        Byron Mayo        

Trail of the Pink Panther                Bruno Langois   

1983      Psycho II              Dr. Bill Raymond              

Curse of the Pink Panther             Bruno Langois   

Scarface               Frank Lopez       

1985      Prizzi's Honor     Eduardo Prizzi   

Jagged Edge        Sam Ransom     

1986      Armed and Dangerous   Michael Carlino                

That's Life!          Father Baragone              

1987      Over the Top      Jason Cutler       

Hot Pursuit         Mac MacClaren                

The Believers     Lt. Sean McTaggert         

Gaby: A True Story           Michel Brimmer               

Amazon Women on the Moon    Gen. McCormick               Uncredited

Segment "The Unknown Soldier"

1988      Big          Mr. MacMillan  

Oliver and Company       Sykes    

    Voice

1989      Relentless           Bill Malloy          

Triumph of the Spirit       Father Arouch  

1990      Opportunity Knocks        Milt Malkin        

1991      The Marrying Man           Lew Horner         

Necessary Roughness    Coach Wally Rig               

1992      Gladiator             Pappy Jack         

Innocent Blood Sallie "The Shark" Macelli            

Spies Inc.             Mac      

1993      Lifepod Director Banks  

1994      Bad Girls              Frank Jarrett      

The Last Tattoo Cmdr. Conrad Dart          

I Love Trouble    Matt Greenfield              

1995      Coldblooded      Gordon                

Man with a Gun                Philip Marquand              

1996      Independence Day          General William Grey    

1997      Lost Highway     Mr. Eddy / Dick Laurent                

Smilla's Sense of Snow   Moritz Jasperson             

The Dog of Flanders        Grandpa Jehan English dub

The Don's Analyst            Don Vito Leoni  

1998      Wide Awake       Grandpa Beal    

The Proposition                Hannibal Thurman          

Holy Man             John McBainbridge         

Hard Time           Connie Martin   

1999      The Suburbans Jules     

Flypaper               Marvin

American Virgin                Ronny  

2000      Return to Me     Angelo Pardipillo             

2001      Dodson's Journey             Opti Dodson      

The Shipment    Frank Colucci     

All Over Again    Zack

2005      The Deal              Jared Tolson      

2006      Funny Money    Feldman              

Rain       Jake Marvin       

Forget About It Carl Campobasso             

Wild Seven         Mackey Willis    

2008      The Boneyard Collection                              

The Least Of These          Father William Jennings               

2009      Shrink   Dr. Robert Carter             

2010      Harvest                 Siv         

Obituary of the Sun         Samuel Levine  

2011      Fake       Seamus White  

The Grand Theft               General McAvoy              

The Great Fight Dr. Salvatore Reno          

The Life Zone     John Lation / Satan         

2012      Apostle Peter and the Last Supper            Apostle Peter    

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie            Tommy Schlaaang           

The Diary of Preston Plummer    John Percy          

Margarine Wars                Grandpa Griswold           

2013      Real Gangsters Gaitanno 'Tanno'             

2014      Snapshot             Paul Grady         

Scavenger Killers              Dr. Montgomery             

An Evergreen Christmas                Pops     

The Big Fat Stone             Father Walter   

2015      Bleeding Hearts                Sheriff Wilson   

No Deposit          Sydney Fischer

Sicilian Vampire                Santino Trafficante Sr.   

2016      Independence Day: Resurgence William Grey             Cameo

Posthumous release

The Red Maple Leaf        Patrick Adams Senior      Posthumous release

2017      Cries of the Unborn         Mr. Lation           Posthumous release

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1959      Wagon Train      Jose Maria Moran            Episode: "The Jose Maria Moran Story"

1959      Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond             Tom Grant           Episode: "The Hand"

1962      The Untouchables           Leo Mencken     Episode: "Takeover"

1963      Alfred Hitchcock Presents             Driver    Episode: "You'll Be the Death of Me"

1965      Combat!               Etienne                 Episode: "The Tree of Moray"

1965      Gunsmoke          Lieutenant Cal Tripp        Episode: "Chief Joseph"

1965      The Wild Wild West        Warren Trevor   Episode: "The Night of Sudden Death"

1966–1967          T.H.E. Cat             Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat          26 episodes

1968      The Big Valley    Vern Hickson      Episode: "The Profit and the Lost"

1968      The High Chaparral          Chio       Episode: "The Deceivers"

1974      Mannix                 Mexican Police Inspector              Episode: “Bird of Prey”

1975      Starsky & Hutch                Ben Forest           Episode: “The Fix”

1976      Columbo              Harry     Episode: "Now You See Me"

1976      The Moneychangers       Tony Bear            2 episodes

1976      The Rockford Files            Manny Arturis   Episode: "Drought at Indianhead River"

1976      Wonder Woman               Hans Eichler       Episode: "Wonder Woman vs Gargantua"

1976      Street Killing       Louis Spillane    

    Television film

1977      The Rockford Files            Manny Arturis   Episode: "Beamer's Last Case"

1977      Raid on Entebbe               Yigal Allon          

    Television film

1978      The Rockford Files            Russell Nevitt     Episode: "Rosendahl and Gilda Stern Are Dead"

1980, 1986          Magnum, P.I.     Philippe Trusseau             3 episodes

1982      A Woman Called Golda Anwar Sadat       TV miniseries

1982      Little House on the Prairie            Thomas Stark     Episode: "Rage"

1983–1984          Emerald Point N.A.S.      Yuri Bukharin     16 episodes

1987      Echoes in the Darkness Jay Smith             2 episodes

1987      Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8     William Kunstler               Television film

1988      Favorite Son       Nick Mancuso    Episode: "Part One"

1989–1990          Mancuso, F.B.I. Nick Mancuso    20 episodes

1991      Sunday Dinner   Ben Benedict      6 episodes

1993      Wild Palms          Senator Anton Kreutzer                 5 episodes

1993      Mercy Mission: the Rescue of Flight 771                 Gordon Vette    Television film

1994      Picture Windows              Merce   Episode: "Armed Response"

1996      The Right to Remain Silent           Lt. Mike Brosloe                Television film

1996      Mistrial                 Capt. Lou Unger                Television film

1999      Joan of Arc          Father Monet    2 episodes

2000      Malcolm in the Middle   Victor    Episode: "The Grandparents"

2000      Frasier Stefano                Episode: "The Three Faces of Frasier"

2000      The Outer Limits               Justice Earl Clayton          Episode: "Final Appeal"

2000      Touched by an Angel      Chandler Crowne             Episode: "Restoration"

2003      Queens Supreme             Judge Thomas O'Neill     13 episodes

2004      The Sopranos     Feech La Manna               4 episodes

2006      Tom Goes to the Mayor                 Lew Petersen (voice)      Episode: "Saxman"

2008      Monk    Louie Flynn         Episode: "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch"

2010      Hawaii Five-0     Boatswain's Mate, Ed McKay, 1st Class   Episode: "Ho'apano"

2010–2011          Men of a Certain Age      Artie      3 episodes

2011, 2013          Family Guy          Himself (voice) 2 episodes

Gladstone Anderson obit

Gladstone Anderson, musician - obituary

Reggae pianist who played with Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff

 

He was not on the list.

Gladstone Anderson (18 June 1934 – 3 December 2015), also known by his nickname "Gladdy", was a Jamaican pianist, keyboard player, and singer, who played a major part in the island's musical history, playing a key role in defining the ska sound and the rocksteady beat, and playing on hundreds of recordings as a session musician, a solo artist, and as leader of Gladdy's All Stars, featuring bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan, guitarist Hux Brown, and keyboardist Winston Wright. As Harry J All Stars the band had a massive hit in Jamaica and United Kingdom with the instrumental song "The Liquidator" 1969 (and 1980). Anderson's work was consistently popular in the late 70s too, as roots reggae, dub and sound system culture increasingly prioritised more conscious and deeply spiritual concerns.

Gladstone Anderson was born in 1934 in Jones Town, and was taught piano at home by his uncle, the keyboardist and bandleader Aubrey Adams. He became a prominent studio pianist in the late 1950s, when he began working for Duke Reid. He worked at Reid's Treasure Isle studio, generally replacing Jackie Mittoo when The Skatalites recorded there, also working for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and Leslie Kong, and was a member of Lynn Taitt's group The Jets, playing on many of the key ska and rocksteady recordings, and helping to define the ska sound and the rocksteady beat. He was even credited with coming up with the name "rock steady", when he used the term to describe Hopeton Lewis's "Take it Easy", when the recording (that he had played on) was played back. He also played on key early rocksteady recordings including Roy Shirley's "Hold Them", and major hits of the genre including Alton Ellis's "Girl I've Got a Date". He went on to work with producer Harry Mudie, leading Gladdy's All Stars, who were also known by different names when working with other producers, including The Aggrovators (Bunny Lee), Rupie's All Stars (Rupie Edwards), The Crystallites (Derrick Harriott), and The Dynamites (Clancy Eccles), and would later become the Upsetters when they worked with Lee "Scratch" Perry. He had success as a singer in the late 1960s working with Stranger Cole as Stranger and Gladdy, including the singles "Just Like a River" and "Seeing is Knowing". His debut album, It May Sound Silly, was released in 1972, and became a best-seller in Jamaica. Anderson continued to work with Mudie, working on the late 1970s dub album series Harry Mudie Meet King Tubby's in Dub Conference. A second solo album was released in 1977, Glady Unlimited, again produced by Mudie. Anderson released a vocal album in 1982, Sings Songs For Today and Tomorrow. Anderson was also one of several keyboard players to play in the Roots Radics.

Anderson also worked as a producer, his roots reggae recordings appearing on the Rite Sound label.

Anderson's song "Mad Mad Ivy" was sampled for Jay-Z's song "Already Home" for The Blueprint 3.

Scott Weiland obit

Scott Weiland, Singer Who Helped Found Stone Temple Pilots, Dies at 48

He was not on the list.

Scott Weiland, whose mercurial vocal style was a signature of the rock band he helped start, the Stone Temple Pilots, and later of the band Velvet Revolver, died on Thursday in Bloomington, Minn. He was 48.

His manager, Tom Vitorino, confirmed the death. A statement posted to Mr. Weiland’s Facebook and Instagram pages said he died in his sleep while on a tour stop with his current band, Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts.

The cause of death had not been determined as of late Friday. The police said they found “a small quantity” of cocaine during a search of the band’s tour bus. The Wildabouts had been scheduled to perform on Thursday night in Medina, Minn., at the Medina Entertainment Center.

Mr. Weiland released one album with the Wildabouts, “Blaster,” this year, and the band was near the end of a fall tour of clubs and small theaters. But at the height of the Stone Temple Pilots’ fame in the 1990s, he was known for commanding large stages. One of his signature moves was shouting lyrics through a megaphone held up to his microphone.

The Stone Temple Pilots were formed in California in the late 1980s by Mr. Weiland; the brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo, on guitar and bass; and the drummer Eric Kretz.

The group was initially dismissed by critics as a knockoff of popular Seattle-based acts like Pearl Jam, but it found a large fan base with broody melodies and memorable riffs. It was later credited with introducing to grunge the stadium-rock ambitions of ’70s bands. Danny Goldberg, former manager of another Seattle group, Nirvana, signed Mr. Weiland’s band to Atlantic Records in 1992.

In September of that year the group released its first studio album, “Core,” which included the hits “Plush” and “Creep.” The second Stone Temple Pilots album, “Purple,” which included the songs “Vasoline” and “Interstate Love Song,” was released two years later. Together, the two records sold 14 million copies in the United States, and “Plush” earned a Grammy for best hard rock performance in 1994.

The band released three more albums before going on hiatus in 2001; it reunited and released an album titled simply “Stone Temple Pilots” in 2010.

Three years later, the group parted ways with Mr. Weiland, posting a brief message on its website that said he had been “officially terminated.”

Mr. Weiland, who struggled with drug addiction, was often seen as defiant and bedraggled, but he was also a capable singer with a gruff, powerful voice. He said in interviews that he had been given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Scott Weiland, then the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, performing at a concert in Speedway, Ind., in 2008. Credit Steve C. Mitchell/European Pressphoto Agency

In 1995, he was arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine and heroin and completed a rehabilitation program. He entered rehab again in 1996, forcing the band to cancel a tour supporting the album “Tiny Music ... Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop.”

“It got to the point where I didn’t feel like I got a good enough rush unless I had one hand on the needle and one hand dialing 911,” he told Rolling Stone in 1997.

Two years later, he was sentenced to a year in jail for violating probation that resulted from a 1998 arrest in connection with heroin possession.

Mr. Weiland released his first solo album, “12 Bar Blues,” in 1998 and its follow-up, “ ‘Happy’ in Galoshes,” a decade later. He also released a holiday album, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” in 2011.

But Mr. Weiland’s greatest fame outside the Stone Temple Pilots was found with Velvet Revolver, a band consisting of three former members of Guns N’ Roses — Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum — and the guitarist Dave Kushner.

The group’s 2004 debut, “Contraband,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and included two gold-selling singles, “Slither” and “Fall to Pieces.” “Slither” also received a Grammy for best hard rock performance in 2005.

But Mr. Weiland’s time in Velvet Revolver also ended in chaos. In 2008, the band dismissed him, releasing a statement that said his “increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems” were partly to blame.

Mr. Weiland was born Scott Richard Kline on Oct. 27, 1967, in San Jose, Calif. His parents divorced when he was 2 years old, and his mother, Sharon, married David Weiland, who formally adopted him.

The family moved to Ohio, and in his 2011 memoir, “Not Dead & Not for Sale,” Mr. Weiland disclosed that he had been sexually abused when he was 12 years old by a “muscular” high school senior.

The family moved back to California when Mr. Weiland was a teenager. He said that he had difficulty fitting in at his new high school, and that he started experimenting with drugs and alcohol after playing varsity football.

At 16, he started his first band. He met Robert DeLeo at a concert; Dean DeLeo joined in 1989, and the group finalized its lineup with Mr. Kretz.

Mr. Weiland married Janina Castaneda in the 1990s. After their divorce, he was married to the model Mary Forsberg from 2000 to 2007; the couple had two children, Noah and Lucy. He married the photographer Jamie Wachtel in 2013.

Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Weiland was remembered on social media by a number of his contemporaries, including Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, the singer and songwriter Ryan Adams and the guitarist Dave Navarro.

“It’s not my loss,” Mr. Navarro wrote, “it’s our loss.”

Howard West obit

Howard West, ‘Seinfeld’ Producer, Dies at 84

The New York native worked with such comedy legends as Andy Kaufman and Marty Feldman. 

He was not on the list.

Howard West, longtime business partner of George Shapiro and best known for his work as a producer on Seinfeld, has died, a source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 84.

West passed away on Thursday at UCLA Hospital in Westwood of a stroke.

West, born in New York City, and lifelong friend Shapiro were part of the team behind Seinfeld, which won multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. It is widely considered one of the best comedies in TV history.

The pair formed management firm Shapiro-West and Associates.

West also produced Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall, the late comedian’s 1980 TV special. West was an executive producer on Man on the Moon, the film telling the life story of Kaufman, starring Jim Carrey.

West graduated from Long Island University with a degree in business administration.

He served in the Army, after which he joined the William Morris Agency.

After becoming an agent and moving to Los Angeles, West worked on packaging shows, including The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

West was also Young Frankenstein star Marty Feldman’s personal manager for 10 years and worked as executive producer on The Last Remake of Beau Geste.

“Howard was doing what he loved til the end,” Seinfeld said. “There’s nothing better.”

West and Shapiro became friends at the age of 8 after meeting on the playground in elementary school.

“I invited him to join me and my friends to play basketball, stickball, curb ball and touch football,” Shapiro said. “It was love at first sight, and we became best friends since that day.”

West graduated from Long Island University and served in the Army. He reunited with Shapiro when the two worked in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. The two rose through the ranks together before launching their own firm in the early 1970s.

West’s clients at William Morris included Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, Ruth Buzzi, Paul Lynde, Jerry Reed and producer Greg Garrison. At WMA West television packaging, putting together such shows as “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” and “The Bobby Darin Show.”

At Shapiro/West, the pair repped a mix of performers, writers and producers including Reiner, Peter Bonerz, Gabe Kaplan, Robert Wuhl, Marty Feldman, Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, Austin and Irma Kalish, Steve Gordon and Bill Lawrence.

Shapiro and West’s unusually strong bond with their old neighborhood and childhood friends was documented in the 2003 HBO documentary “The Bronx Boys,” narrated by Carl Reiner. A sequel, “The Bronx Boys Still Playing at 80,” aired on PBS in 2013.

West had a brief role in “Man on the Moon,” the 1999 biopic of Kaufman starring Jim Carrey. He played a hard-nosed TV executive. “He was a natural for the role,” Shapiro said.

West is survived by his wife of 54 years, Marlene; a daughter, Dayna; son, Todd; and a granddaughter.

Gabriele Ferzetti obit

Gabriele Ferzetti, actor - obituary

Actor celebrated for his portrayals of Italy’s troubled upper class in L’Avventura and I Am Love

 

He was not on the list.

Born on 17 March 1925 in Rome, Italy, Gabriele Ferzetti was a stage and screen star with over 150 credits. He earned his first screen role age 17, working mostly as an uncredited extra throughout the '40s. Films from this stage in his career included "Fabiola" (1949), the well received antiquity drama set in Rome, in which Ferzetti was credited as Claudio.

In 1950 he earned his most major role to date in "Lo Zappatore", which focused on the life of peasants and farm workers in the interwar and depression period. By 1953 he received the title role in Italian made bio-pic of the turbulent life of composer Puccini. The film was well received and the following year, carried into the USA. Ferzetti would reprise this role the in 1954's "Casa Ricordi", an overview of classical and operatic writers that starred Roland Alexandre as Gioacchino Rossini. "Casa Ricordi" was not as successful as Ferzetti's first portrayal of Puccini.

Before making the transition to English language films he became known for his role in Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura" (1960), in which Ferzetti co-stars as playboy Sandro who must search for his lover after her disappearance.

Later in the decade, he appeared in "The Bible", with Peter O'Tool and Richard Harris, and "Once Upon a Time in the West", with Henry Fonda. He was in two episodes of I Spy with Bill Cosby.

For his role in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) as Bond's future father-in-law and crime boss Marc-Ange Draco, Ferzetti was dubbed by David De Keyser.

After his brush with Bond, Ferzetti appeared mostly in Italian cinema - or worked closely with Italian directors for the English market - co-starring in the "The Night Porter" (1974), and "The Psychic" (1977).

Later in his career the actor spent more time on the small screen, with a longstanding role in "A Wonderful Family" between 1992 and 2007. His final film "18 Years Later" (2010), was from young Italian director and actor Edoardo Leo and focused on the reuniting of a family.

Gabriele Ferzetti passed away on 2nd December 2015 aged 90. He is survived by his actress daughter Anna Ferzetti.

 

 

Anthony Valentine obit

Anthony Valentine obituary

Urbane stage and screen actor admired for his versatility, charm and alluring voice 

He was not on the list.

 

Anthony Valentine, who has died at the age of 76, was a distinguished actor with urbane features and a fine voice. His two best-known television characters showcased his versatility – he had a controlled, chilly stillness as Major Horst Mohn in Colditz (1974), yet was dashing and suave as the eponymous hero of Raffles (1977).

In the second series of Colditz, his by-the-book German officer was a thorn in the side of his honourable Kommandant (played by Bernard Hepton) and a cunning warder to the escape committee members David McCallum and Robert Wagner. Cold, unflinching and at times ruthless, Mohn was, in Valentine’s hands, a three-dimensional character despite being the least sympathetic German officer in this laudably even-handed series, a co-production between the BBC and Universal Studios.

A similar bearing and authority were necessary when portraying the cricket-loving gentleman thief AJ Raffles, this time augmented with a debonair charm, wit and playfulness that made the character immensely popular. This Yorkshire TV version of the short stories of EW Hornung, first published in 1899, began with a one-off episode in 1975 before being launched as a 13-part series in 1977.

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Valentine was quickly besotted by films, frequenting the local Empire cinema every Wednesday with his mother, Mary, who was especially keen on musicals, and again at the weekend when his father, William, returned home from working in London. His earliest ambition was to be Gene Kelly, and after his impromptu performances of dance routines at home his father suggested that he undergo some training.

When he was six the family moved to Chiswick, west London, and Anthony was educated at Acton county grammar school. He showed a particular aptitude for tap dance, attaining his gold medal at 11. Having played Robin Hood in an amateur production, he was approached by talent scouts to appear in the film No Way Back (1949), earning more for his two days than his father did in a week.

Taken on by the children’s agent Valerie Glynne, he secured his first professional stage engagement in the Mazo de la Roche play Whiteoaks, in Bromley, in 1949. As a child actor he had recurring roles on TV in Emil and the Detectives (1952), The Children of the New Forest (1955), Rex Milligan (1956) and as both the young Lord Mauleverer and then the form captain Harry Wharton in Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (1955-57), the popular series starring Gerald Campion as Frank Richards’s cheeky schoolboy. In 1958, when Laurence Olivier took the title role for ITV’s Play of the Week in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman, Valentine played his son, Erhart, over whose future the family is divided after it is brought down by the banker Borkman’s financial speculation.

After supporting roles in the epic An Age of Kings (1960) – a bold production of Shakespeare’s history plays from Richard II to Richard III, in which he played 10 parts over 13 episodes – and the popular science fiction serial A for Andromeda (1961), he began to get guest star billing on series including the school drama This Man Craig (1967). Landing the role of the secret service agent Toby Meres in Callan (1967-69, 1972), the gritty and uncompromising series starring Edward Woodward as a terse, damaged operative doing unsavoury jobs for a shady government agency known as The Section, Valentine played an upper-class bully who would happily endanger his colleague when ordered.

Other prominent television roles included Codename (1970), The Donati Conspiracy (1973), the TV movie The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988), regular appearances in Body & Soul (1993), with Kristin Scott Thomas, the customs and excise drama The Knock (1994-96), the Amanda Burton vehicle The Commander (2005-08) and a four-month stint (2009-10) in Coronation Street as George Wilson, the grandfather of Peter Barlow’s son, Simon.

He was a guest star in a string of popular programmes, including three episodes of Dr Finlay’s Casebook (1969), two interlinked Z Cars stories (1972), Space: 1999 (1975), Hammer House of Horror (1980), Robin of Sherwood (giving a haunting turn as the ominous master of the dark arts Baron de Belleme, 1984-85), Minder (1979, 1980, 1983), The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (as Baron Gruner in The Illustrious Client, 1991, with Jeremy Brett as Holmes), The House of Eliott (1991), Waking the Dead (2001) and New Tricks (2005).

He appeared less frequently on the big screen but he gave a good account of himself as the betting shop owner Joey Maddocks in Performance (1970), with Mick Jagger, and had decent roles in To the Devil a Daughter (1976) and Escape to Athena (1979).

He made his West End debut aged 16 in the comedy Anniversary Waltz (Lyric, 1955) and subsequently appeared in the premiere of Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup With Barley (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and then the Royal Court, 1958), in The Shifting Heart (Duke of York’s, 1959) with Leo McKern, The Platinum Cat (Wyndham’s, 1965) with Kenneth Williams, and in the original cast, with Tommy Steel, of Half a Sixpence (Cambridge theatre, 1963).

In the 1970s came No Sex Please, We’re British (Strand, 1971), Sleuth, with Marius Goring (St Martin’s, 1972), a revival of Hans Andersen with Steele again (London Palladium, 1977), Art (Wyndham’s, 2000) with Peter Egan and Chris Langham, and The White Devil (Lyric, Hammersmith, 2000).

Valentine directed several productions at the Mill at Sonning, Berkshire, including his own play, The Waiting Game (1998), a thriller set in a Mediterranean country ravaged by war. Also at the Mill he staged Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple (2005), I Ought to Be in Pictures (2010) and California Suite (2012); and an adaptation of Henry James’s Washington Square, The Heiress (2008).

He became patron of the Thwaites Empire theatre, Blackburn, in 2005. His authoritative, often alluring voice was heard on several advertisements, notably for Fry’s Turkish Delight – “Full of eastern promise” – as well as on Operation: Mindcrime (1988) and Operation: Livecrime (1991), concept albums from the American progressive heavy metal band Queensrÿche on which he played the evil Dr X.

In 1982 he married the actor Susan Skipper, with whom he had worked on The Dancing Years (1976), Raffles and a number of stage productions. She survives him.

 

Filmography

 

Film

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1949    No Way Back            Little Fighting Boy    

1953    The Girl on the Pier            Charlie Chubb 

1954            Adventure in the Hopfields                      Uncredited

1955    The Brain Machine            Tony (Charlie's Son) 

1956    Fun at St. Fanny's            Schoolboy in Audience            Uncredited

1960    The Flesh and the Fiends  Student            Uncredited

1962    The Damned            Teddy Boy            Uncredited

1963    West 11        Man at Party   

1970            Performance  Joey Maddocks       

1972    Tower of Evil   Dr Simpson          

1976    To the Devil a Daughter            David Kennedy         

1979    Escape to Athena            SS Sturmbannführer Volkmann     

1981    The Monster Club            Mooney            (segment "Vampire Story")

1982    The Plague Dogs            Civil Servant #4            Voice

1988    A Father's Revenge            Vickers            TV movie

1988    The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission            Colonel Clark    TV movie

1995            Jefferson in Paris            British Ambassador    

1997    The House of Angelo Lord Travers

1998    Cuisine américaine            Wellington      

2002    Two Men Went to War            Sergeant Major Dudley

 

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1956-57            The Adventures of Aggie               TV series

1958    John Gabriel Borkman                      Erhart, in ITV's The Play of the Week production.

1961    A for Andromeda            Corporal          "The Miracle" and "The Last Mystery"

1967-1972            Callan            Toby Meres 

1967, 1968            The Avengers            1) George Cunliffe

2)Calvin            1)"The Bird Who Knew Too Much"

2)"Killer"

1969    Softly, Softly   Yob            "A Quantity of Gelignite"

1969    Dr Finlay's Casebook            Bruce Cameron            3 episodes

1969    Scobie in September            Vickers            5 episodes

1970            Department S            Gregory          "The Soup of the Day"

1970            Codename        Philip West   

1971-1974            Justice            James Eliot    

1971    Budgie            Jeff Staines            "Grandee Hotel"

1971    ‘’ Sunset Song (TV series) Rev Colquhoun

1972            Pathfinders            Squadron Leader Jim Stanton "One Man’s Lancaster"

1972    Z-Cars            Bright            "Not Good Enough" (Parts 1 & 2) and "Connor"

1974    Colditz            Major Horst Mohn     

1975, 1977            Raffles            A. J. Raffles 

1975    Thriller            Garard            "The Crazy Kill"

1975    Space: 1999    Male Alien    "War Games"

1979-1983            Minder            Maurice Michaelson   

1980, 1982            Tales of the Unexpected            1) Roland Trent

2) Bob 1) "I'll Be Seeing You"

2) "The Absence of Emily"

1980            Hammer House of Horror  Cliff            "Carpathian Eagle"

1981            Masada a.k.a. The Antagonists            Merovius, Head Tribune

1982    Airline            Dickie Marlowe            "Look After Number One"

1983            Bergerac          Lionel            "Prime Target"

1984    Killer            Robin            "Killer Exposed"

1984-1986            Robin of Sherwood            Baron de Belleme      

1986-1991            Lovejoy          Michael Seymour            "The Judas Pair" and "Just Desserts"

1989    Boon            Sammy Robinson            "Do Not Forsake Me"

1991    The House of Eliott            Victor Stride  

1991    The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes Baron Gruner  "The Illustrious Client"

1993    Riders            Colonel Carter 

1994, 1997            The Detectives            1) Chauffeur

2) Grey Wolf            1) "Never Without Protection"

2) "The Curse Of The Comanches"

1994-1996            The Knock  George Webster          

1998    The Bill            Paul Chambers            "Too Many Cooks"

2001    Waking the Dead            Patrick Mantel  "A Simple Sacrifice"

2002    New Tricks   Spitz Snr            "Creative Problem Solving"

2005    Agatha Christie's Poirot            Giovanni Gallaccio            "After the Funeral"

2005-2008            The Commander            Edward Sumpter            "Virus", "Blackdog" and "Blacklight"

2006            Heartbeat        Mac MacKenzie            "This Happy Breed"

2006            Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial     Prison Commandant Colonel Burton C. Andrus       

2007    The Last Detective            Jimmy "The Gent" Vincent "Once Upon a Time on the Westway"

2009            Casualty          Edward            "The Price we Pay"

2009-2010            Coronation Street            George Wilson  16 episodes

Sandy Berger obit

Sandy Berger, ex-Clinton adviser, dies

He was not on the list.

Former national security adviser Sandy Berger, who helped craft President Bill Clinton's second-term foreign policy and later got in trouble over mishandling classified documents, has died.

That word comes from his consulting firm, Albright Stonebridge Group.

"Our country is stronger because of Sandy's deep and abiding commitment to public service, and there are countless people whose lives he changed for the better," ASG co-chair and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a statement from the firm. "I am certainly one of them. He was one of my dearest friends and among the wisest people I have ever met."

Berger died Wednesday. He was 70 years old and in ill health.

The cause of death was not immediately available.

President Obama commented Wednesday on Berger's devotion to "strengthening American leadership in an uncertain world."

"Around the globe, families and children are living healthier, more secure lives because, as a private citizen, Sandy was a humanitarian who helped the world respond to crises and feed the hungry," the president said in a statement. "I'm grateful to Sandy because, as President, I've benefited personally from his advice and counsel. Our thoughts are with Sandy's beloved family, including his wife Susan, his children Deborah, Alexander and Sarah, and five cherished grandchildren. May they find some comfort in knowing that the America he loved is stronger because of his service."

Berger was White House national security adviser from 1997 to 2001, including a period when the Clinton administration carried out airstrikes in Kosovo and against Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq. Berger also was deeply involved in the administration's push for free trade. Before this role, he served as Clinton's top foreign policy adviser during Clinton's 1992 campaign.

After leaving the federal government, the longtime lawyer started the advisory group Stonebridge International.

Berger later served as an informal adviser to then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during his 2004 campaign. He quit the campaign, however, after an FBI investigation was launched into whether he had mishandled classified terrorism documents in 2003. In 2005, Berger pleaded guilty to removing and retaining the sensitive papers from the National Archives. He received a criminal sentence and was fined $50,000 for taking the documents.