Burt Meyer obit

Lite-Brite, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots toymaker Burt Meyer dead at 99

 

He was not on the list.

The inventor behind classic toys like Lite-Brite, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and many iconic board games has died at the age of 99 after a life of adventure and bringing joy to generations of kids all over the world.

Burt Meyer wasn’t a household name to most, but many of his most famous creations need no introduction, having graced the bookshelves and game rooms of millions of households for more than 60 years.

He got the idea for Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots after visiting an arcade in the early 1960s with his then-boss, Marvin Glass, when the duo spied a coin-operated machine that let players face off in a simulated boxing match using human-like combatants, the New York Times reported.

Meyer got to work sculpting the models for what would eventually become the best-selling toy, but the project was put on hold when real-life boxer Davey Moore died of a brain injury after a featherweight title fight with Sugar Ramos in 1963, according to the report.

The tragedy reportedly led him to revise the pugilists’ appearance to robots, known as the Red Rocker and the Blue Bomber, to soften the level of violence a bit.

The final version featured a boxing ring and two sets of joysticks players could use to control the battling bots, where a well-timed sock to the jaw caused the spring-loaded head of the recipient to comically pop up.

Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots was first manufactured in 1964 and remains in production today — in 2011, Time magazine ranked it the 49th greatest toy of all time, and it was prominently featured in the animated Pixar movie “Toy Story 2.”

But Meyer’s favorite creation was Lite-Brite, which let users create collages of colored lights using translucent colored pegs stuck into a holed grid that was covered with a piece of black construction paper to enhance the effect, according to the report.

This time, inspiration struck when he saw a Manhattan building decked out with a luminous display featuring hundreds of small lights.

The Lite-Brite was an instant hit, selling more than 20 million units since being licensed by Hasbro and released in 1967.

Time magazine ranked it 55th in its all-time greatest toy rankings, and it was prominently featured in two 2022 episodes of the Netflix smash-hit series set in the 1980s, “Stranger Things,” which led to a 600% spike in sales, according to the outlet.

During his run of winning concepts in the 1960s, Meyer also lent his creative eye to the creation of the board game Mouse Trap, in which players compete to build a Rube Goldberg-like contraption to capture plastic rodents.

Over the years, games and toys devised by or with the input of Meyer were licensed to companies like Ideal, Mattel, Hasbro, Parker Brothers and Louis Marx and Company.

Meyer parted ways with Marvin Glass in the 1980s to start his own games maker, Meyer/Glass Design, and he wasn’t done cranking out the hits just yet, the Times reported.

His new firm was responsible for popular games including Pretty Pretty Princess, Catch Phrase and the cartoonishly disgusting Gooey Louie, in which players attempted to pluck boogers from the titular character’s oversized nose.

Born April 18, 1926 in Hinsdale, Illinois to a pharmacist father and homemaker mother, Meyer spent two years in the US Navy as an aircraft mechanic before attending West Georgia College and the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, graduating in 1952 with a degree in product design, the report said.

He was an avid adventurer, flying single-engine planes until his late 80s. He also took a 45-day solo bicycle trip from San Francisco to Charleston, scuba-dived in Fiji and the Solomon Islands and visited the North Pole for a 135-mile trek lasting 12 days at the age of 69, according to the Times.

Meyer is survived by his daughter, Sheryl and sons Lee and Steve, the latter of whom was president of Meyer/Glass until its closure in 2006. He also leaves behind six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

His wife, Marcia, predeceased him in 2001.

Peter Watkins obit

Peter Watkins obituary: radical British filmmaker behind The War Game and Punishment Park

 The maverick filmmaker and pioneer of the docudrama, whose anti-establishment works redefined political cinema and challenged the very language of mass media, has died aged 90.

He was not on the list.

I do not believe that the anti-globalisation protest will ever reach its true fruition if we leave the cinema and television and the radio in the present position we’re in.” – Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins is something of an enigma in the history of moving image production. He is celebrated as an innovator of the docudrama form, yet the socio-political elements in his work go largely undiscussed. The films he made in the 1960s are rightly lionised in the UK but his later works have, historically, been almost entirely ignored. The quote above has much to do with these omissions, even if indirectly.

Taken from a 30-minute monologue delivered direct to camera in 2001 in a communist theme park in Lithuania (his nation of residence at the time), Watkins’ words reflect a media critique developed through the course of his entire filmography and more recently expressed in the lengthy and regularly updated media statement on his website. Troubled by the passive, hierarchical, spectacle-based relationship he felt cinema or television establishes with the viewer, Watkins sought through his own work to deconstruct this dynamic and explore possible alternatives. Inevitably, by engaging with the political structures of media delivery, he frequently fell into conflict with the very institutions that once supported him.

Watkins was born in Norbiton, Surrey, in 1935 and was quickly initiated into the cultures of war and conflict though house moves necessitated by World War Two and later national service. After education at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, he settled in Canterbury and joined and later directed the local acting group, Playcraft. The group helped him with his early amateur films and established Watkins’ practice of working closely with actors.

He liked to use everyday faces to emphasise and bring home the legacies of violent conflict. The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959) and The Forgotten Faces (1961) (following the now lost or incomplete films The Web (1956) and Field of Red (1958)) made clear this intention and used handheld cameras and tight framing to generate immediacy. The latter transposed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 onto the streets of Canterbury and posed the radical question: what would the oppressed do in the shoes of the oppressors? It was recognised as one of the ‘Ten Best’ non-professional productions of the year by Amateur Cine World and received national distribution. Watkins was then invited, like one-time amateurs Ken Russell and John Schlesinger, to join the BBC.

His time there was short, however, and marred by considerable controversy. His first production, Culloden (1964), presented the 1746 Battle of Culloden as a news report, complete with modern camera crew, interviews, narration and dramatic action sequences. The press generally responded well. Recognising its highly innovative deconstruction of television conventions, the Guardian called it “an unforgettable experiment… new and adventurous in technique.” However, Watkins was disappointed that its provocations concerning the severity of British violence and the dismantling of the Scottish clans had not been related to contemporary issues and concerns: namely the Vietnam War which was being reported on television at the time.

The same could not be said of The War Game, intended for broadcast in 1966. Using statistics extrapolated from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and quotes from high-ranking officials, the film dared to consider the possible consequences of a nuclear strike on Britain. Again realised in the documentary style, using actors to present faux interviews and actuality, the shocking and politically potent result prompted BBC director general Hugh Carlton Greene to proclaim that “it was too horrific for the medium of broadcast”.

Concerns over the notion of withheld information and the breakdown of normal behaviour had been particularly singled out in the discussions. It emerged in 1985, however, that Harold Wilson’s Labour government had intervened to stop the broadcast. The War Game was released to cinemas in March 1966 and won, with some irony, an Oscar for best documentary feature. Although in many respects it prefigured several of the docudrama techniques famously used in Cathy Come Home (1966), the film’s innovative cross-framing of fact and fiction met with resistance in some quarters. In retrospect, this can be seen as an opening skirmish in what would become an increasingly rancorous battle over such hybrid drama/documentary forms during the 1970s.

Although the controversy certainly affected his career in Britain, it also sharpened his developing critique of media practice and led to offers of funding from abroad. Universal Studios produced Privilege (1967) and Stockholm-based distributors Sandrews produced The Gladiators (1969, released under the title The Peace Game in Britain, presumably to capitalise at least in part on the controversy surrounding The War Game). Both films were shot on 35mm (the only occasions Watkins used the format) by Peter Suschitzky and looked at the use of scapegoats — respectively a pop star and an international gladiator competition — to suppress the critical faculties of the populace and channel violent emotions. Privilege broke with Watkins’ practice of using amateur actors, but drew power instead from the use of a real pop star: Paul Jones from Manfred Mann

The Gladiators had been made against the political disquiet of 1968 but Watkins’ temporary move to the USA brought him even closer to the increasingly polarised politics of the age. Punishment Park (1971) told of a fictional detention system that challenged potential subversives to either surrender to detention or undergo a physically challenging ordeal in the heat of the American desert. Using a small crew and just one camera, Watkins worked with actors genuinely critical of the system and increased the scope of improvisation. The results brought a startling immediacy to the film and a palpable sense of realism — often people’s lines and actions seemed wholly ‘real’. The lines of fact and fiction further blurred when one actor was later convicted of a bombing charge and sent to federal prison.

The importance of camera movement and the giving of space to Watkins’ collaborators — to both research their roles and improvise — were extended through a series of Scandinavian productions made through the 1970s. The Seventies People (70-Talets Människor, 1975) looked at the relationship between modern living and suicide, a significant and current concern for the television production’s country of origin, Denmark. Though the story focused on two families it had been developed from newspaper ads that asked for volunteers to step forward and talk about modern stress — again the actors’ involvement was crucial. In contrast, The Trap (Fällan, 1975) was set in the future and imagined a difficult family reunion in underground living quarters close to a nuclear waste station. Here the freedoms were given to the Swedish television crew who were asked to direct their own cameras rather than follow orders. 1977’s Eveningland (Aftenlandet, 1977) was another political story placed in the future.

The earlier Edvard Munch (1974) had also encouraged personal research and improvisation but it incorporated significant and highly sophisticated editing techniques too. This was intended to encourage a more involved response on the part of the audience. Highly personal, this biopic of the Norwegian artist vividly explored the complexity of meaning contained in a work of art via fragmented narrative and impressionistic montage. It suggested, for example, that Munch’s visceral etching action was directly linked to his traumatic life and memories, vividly presented here. It implied that Watkins’ personal narration (a consistent trope in his work) and mobile camera work belonged to a similar relationship. Like all his films from The Diary of an Unknown Soldier onward, Edvard Munch highlighted the difficulties individuals experience and the pressures they undergo, both personal and political. Perhaps for the first time though, it implicitly implicated the director.

If Edvard Munch was complex, then The Journey (1983 to 1987) elevated the scope of Watkins’ ambitions to a whole new level. An internationally funded 14-hour, 30-minute discursive education package, it simultaneously updated much of the information contained in The War Game about the nuclear threat, critiqued the manipulative and heavily edited mainstream media practice — hereafter labelled by Watkins the ‘Monoform’ — and initiated and documented a dialogue between several families separated by ideology and considerable expanses of geography. Like much of his work, particularly his Scandinavian films, The Journey encountered much production and exhibition difficulty. Its lengthy duration effectively ruled out standard presentation, but Watkins encouraged the film to be seen in chapters, dividing it into 45-minute sections to this end. Each concludes with a question mark to prompt discussion — another dialectical technique.

The debates in and reaction to The Journey have remained central to a consideration of Watkins’ films. Its complex concerns mirror the quote that opens this text, in that it recognises the international status of political debate but argues that new maps through which to engage in communication need to be constructed. The media statement on his website addresses these issues, as have his last two films, The Free Thinker (1994) and La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000). The latter uses various Brechtian techniques to explore the story of the Paris Commune, a radical, non-hierarchical collective that formed in Paris in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War. These techniques include the characters’ use of a television station to report on clashes with the army and the actors admitting the bias of both their character’s actions and their own.

Although plagued with production difficulties – often amounting to outright obstruction – and in many cases very hard to see, the scope, critical weight and level of experimentation in Watkins’ films is undeniable. In an age when the media stranglehold on both our lives and the means by which we communicate is ever tightening, his films remain a vital tool for considering new forms of image-making and a vibrant and engaging force in their own right.

Director

La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)

La Commune (Paris, 1871)

8.0

Director

2000

 

Fritänkaren (1994)

Fritänkaren

7.3

Video

Director

1994

 

The Media Project (1991)

The Media Project

7.3

Director

1991

 

Resan (1987)

Resan

7.5

Director

1987

 

Aftenlandet (1977)

Aftenlandet

7.1

Director

1977

 

70'ernes folk (1975)

70'ernes folk

6.1

TV Movie

Director

1975

 

Fällan (1975)

Fällan

6.9

TV Movie

Director

1975

 

Edvard Munch (1974)

Edvard Munch

8.1

TV Movie

Director

1974

 

Punishment Park (1971)

Punishment Park

7.7

Director

1971

 

The Gladiators (1969)

The Gladiators

6.7

Director

1969

 

NET Playhouse (1964)

NET Playhouse

7.1

TV Series

Director

1967

1 episode

 

Privilege (1967)

Privilege

6.8

directed by

1967

 

The War Game (1966)

The War Game

7.9

Director

1966

 

Culloden (1964)

Culloden

7.7

TV Movie

Director

1964

 

The Controllers

Short

Director

1963

 

The Forgotten Faces (1961)

The Forgotten Faces

6.6

Short

Director

1961

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

Director

1959

 

The Field of Red

Short

Director

1958

 

The Web

6.8

Short

Director

1956

 

Writer

Tomorrow and the Day Before (2004)

Tomorrow and the Day Before

Short

words

2004

 

La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)

La Commune (Paris, 1871)

8.0

Writer

2000

 

Fritänkaren (1994)

Fritänkaren

7.3

Video

Writer

1994

 

The Media Project (1991)

The Media Project

7.3

Writer

1991

 

Resan (1987)

Resan

7.5

Writer

1987

 

Aftenlandet (1977)

Aftenlandet

7.1

Writer

1977

 

70'ernes folk (1975)

70'ernes folk

6.1

TV Movie

Writer

1975

 

Fällan (1975)

Fällan

6.9

TV Movie

Writer

1975

 

Edvard Munch (1974)

Edvard Munch

8.1

TV Movie

Writer

1974

 

Punishment Park (1971)

Punishment Park

7.7

Writer

1971

 

The Gladiators (1969)

The Gladiators

6.7

writer

1969

 

NET Playhouse (1964)

NET Playhouse

7.1

TV Series

Writer

1967

1 episode

 

Privilege (1967)

Privilege

6.8

additional scenes bydialogue by

1967

 

The War Game (1966)

The War Game

7.9

Writer

1966

 

Culloden (1964)

Culloden

7.7

TV Movie

Writer

1964

 

The Forgotten Faces (1961)

The Forgotten Faces

6.6

Short

written by

1961

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

writer

1959

 

The Web

6.8

Short

Writer

1956

 

Editor

La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)

La Commune (Paris, 1871)

8.0

Editor

2000

 

The Media Project (1991)

The Media Project

7.3

Editor

1991

 

Resan (1987)

Resan

7.5

Editor

1987

 

Aftenlandet (1977)

Aftenlandet

7.1

Editor

1977

 

70'ernes folk (1975)

70'ernes folk

6.1

TV Movie

Editor

1975

 

Edvard Munch (1974)

Edvard Munch

8.1

TV Movie

Editor

1974

 

Punishment Park (1971)

Punishment Park

7.7

Editor

1971

 

The Forgotten Faces (1961)

The Forgotten Faces

6.6

Short

Editor

1961

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

Editor

1959

 

Actor

Edvard Munch (1974)

Edvard Munch

8.1

TV Movie

Narrator (voice)

1974

 

Punishment Park (1971)

Punishment Park

7.7

Documentarist (uncredited)

1971

 

The War Game (1966)

The War Game

7.9

Documentist (uncredited)

1966

 

Culloden (1964)

Culloden

7.7

TV Movie

Field Interviewer (uncredited)

1964

 

It Happened Here (1964)

It Happened Here

6.7

(uncredited)

1964

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

Narrator (voice)

1959

 

Producer

Resan (1987)

Resan

7.5

producer

1987

 

Privilege (1967)

Privilege

6.8

producer

1967

 

The War Game (1966)

The War Game

7.9

producer

1966

 

Culloden (1964)

Culloden

7.7

TV Movie

producer

1964

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

producer

1959

 

Cinematographer

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier

6.6

Short

Cinematographer

1959

 

The Web

6.8

Short

Cinematographer

1956

 

Thanks

The Debridement of Rome

6.2

Short

acknowledgment

2012

 

Self

The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins (2001)

The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins

6.9

Self

2001

 

Ex-S (1990)

Ex-S

7.0

TV Series

Self - interviewed

1996

1 episode

 

Du côté de chez Fred (1988)

Du côté de chez Fred

8.6

TV Series

Self

1988

1 episode

 

Resan (1987)

Resan

7.5

Self - Narrator

1987

 

Peter Watkins Reflects on 'The War Game' and the Media

Video

Self

1983

 

A Discussion with Peter Watkins

Video

Self

1977

 

70'ernes folk (1975)

70'ernes folk

6.1

TV Movie

Self - NarratorSelf - Interviewer

1975

 

Tom Courtenay in »Ung bølge« i England (1967)

»Ung bølge« i England

TV Mini Series

Self

1967

1 episode

 

The Movies (1967)

The Movies

TV Mini Series

Self

1967

1 episode

 

Reflets de Cannes (1952)

Reflets de Cannes

8.6

TV Series

Self

1967

1 episode

 

Archive Footage

François Theurel in Le Fossoyeur de Films (2012)

Le Fossoyeur de Films

7.2

TV Mini Series

Self (archive footage)

2024

1 episode

 

How the BBC Began (2022)

How the BBC Began

7.0

TV Mini Series

Self (archive sound)

2022

1 episode

Adam Greenberg obit

Adam Greenberg Dies: Oscar-Nominated ‘The Terminator’ Cinematographer Was 88

 He was not on the list.

Adam Greenberg, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer known for his work on The Terminator and many other films, has died. He was 88.

Fellow cinematographer Avraham Karpick, who worked for Greenberg on the 1984 J. Lee Thompson film The Ambassador, was one of several industry peers to mourn the director of photography’s death, announcing that he died on Thursday.

“Adam did not speak to impress — he spoke to connect. He did not lead by direction — he led by example. He never commanded — he swam beside us, anchored in clarity, wisdom, and calm,” he wrote on Facebook. “Free of ego, far from vanity, he stayed above noise, gossip, and distraction.

“Now we are left with echoes — of his words, his spirit, his way. Because whales never truly vanish. They become part of something deeper,” added Karpick.

Assistant director Eddie Ziv and camera operator Mosh Levin also paid their condolences to Greenberg on social media.

Born April 11, 1937 in Kraków, Poland, Greenberg was raised in Tel Aviv, where he began working as a film lab technician and documentary cameraman in the 1950s and 60s.

Greenberg’s first job as DP was on the 1966 Israeli movie musical The Flying Matchmaker, before going on to film Hasamba (1971), I Love You Rosa (1972), My Michael (1974) and Lemon Popsicle (1978).

After breaking into the American film industry, he joined director James Cameron as cinematographer on The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), earning an Oscar nomination for the latter. Greenberg also worked on such films as Once Bitten (1985), La Bamba (1987), Three Men and a Baby (1987), Turner & Hooch (1989), Ghost (1990), Sister Act (1992), Rush Hour (1998), Inspector Gadget (1999) and Snakes on a Plane (2006).

In 2013, Greenberg returned to Israel to make the documentary Footsteps in Jerusalem, an homage to David Perlov’s In Jerusalem (1963), which was his first camera credit.

Cinematographer

Footsteps in Jerusalem (2013)

Footsteps in Jerusalem

4.7

Cinematographer

2013

 

Samuel L. Jackson and Nathan Phillips in Snakes on a Plane (2006)

Snakes on a Plane

5.5

director of photography

2006

 

Tim Allen in The Santa Clause 2 (2002)

The Santa Clause 2

5.8

director of photography

2002

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Collateral Damage (2002)

Collateral Damage

5.5

Cinematographer

2002

 

Matthew Broderick and Rupert Everett in Inspector Gadget (1999)

Inspector Gadget

4.2

director of photography

1999

 

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour (1998)

Rush Hour

7.0

director of photography

1998

 

Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sharon Stone in Sphere (1998)

Sphere

6.1

Cinematographer

1998

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams in Eraser (1996)

Eraser

6.2

director of photography

1996

 

Sean Connery, Richard Gere, and Julia Ormond in First Knight (1995)

First Knight

6.0

director of photography

1995

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Emma Thompson in Junior (1994)

Junior

4.8

director of photography

1994

 

Elijah Wood in North (1994)

North

4.6

director of photography

1994

 

Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man (1994)

Renaissance Man

6.2

Cinematographer

1994

 

Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver in Dave (1993)

Dave

6.9

director of photography

1993

 

Robin Williams in Toys (1992)

Toys

5.1

director of photography

1992

 

Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act (1992)

Sister Act

6.5

director of photography

1992

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Pantellas in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

8.6

director of photography

1991

 

Judy Freudberg, Stephen Lawrence, Emily Squires, Norman Stiles, Jon Stone, Cathi Turow, and Lisa Simon in Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake (1991)

Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake

7.0

TV Movie

director of photography

1991

 

Steve Guttenberg, Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Robin Weisman in Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)

Three Men and a Little Lady

5.5

director of photography

1990

 

Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost (1990)

Ghost

7.1

director of photography

1990

 

Love Hurts (1990)

Love Hurts

5.4

Cinematographer

1990

 

Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Mark Harmon, and Maria Holvoe in Worth Winning (1989)

Worth Winning

5.7

director of photography

1989

 

Tom Hanks and Beasley the Dog in Turner & Hooch (1989)

Turner & Hooch

6.2

director of photography

1989

 

Arik Einstein, Shalom Hanoch, Moshe Ish-Kassit, Tzvi Shissel, and Uri Zohar in Lool (1988)

Lool

7.8

Cinematographer

1988

 

Alien Nation (1988)

Alien Nation

6.3

Cinematographer

1988

 

Spellbinder (1988)

Spellbinder

5.8

director of photography

1988

 

Steve Guttenberg, Tom Selleck, and Ted Danson in Three Men and a Baby (1987)

Three Men and a Baby

6.1

director of photography

1987

 

Bill Paxton in Near Dark (1987)

Near Dark

6.9

Cinematographer

1987

 

Lou Diamond Phillips in La Bamba (1987)

La Bamba

7.0

director of photography

1987

 

A Walk on the Moon (1987)

A Walk on the Moon

5.3

Cinematographer

1987

 

Wisdom (1986)

Wisdom

5.8

director of photography

1986

 

Jocks (1986)

Jocks

3.8

director of photography

1986

 

Jason Gedrick and Louis Gossett Jr. in Iron Eagle (1986)

Iron Eagle

5.6

director of photography

1986

 

The Ladies Club (1985)

The Ladies Club

5.4

Cinematographer

1985

 

Jim Carrey, Lauren Hutton, and Karen Kopins in Once Bitten (1985)

Once Bitten

5.6

director of photography

1985

 

War and Love (1985)

War and Love

6.6

director of photography

1985

 

Private Resort (1985)

Private Resort

5.2

director of photography

1985

 

The Ambassador (1984)

The Ambassador

5.3

Cinematographer

1984

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984)

The Terminator

8.1

director of photography

1984

 

Margaux Hemingway, Elliott Gould, Carol Kane, Shelley Winters, Sid Caesar, and Burt Young in Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984)

Over the Brooklyn Bridge

5.6

Cinematographer

1984

 

Private Manoeuvres (1983)

Private Manoeuvres

4.4

Cinematographer

1983

 

Charles Bronson in 10 to Midnight (1983)

10 to Midnight

6.3

photography

1983

 

Private Popsicle (1982)

Private Popsicle

5.4

Cinematographer

1982

 

Ron Glass and Demond Wilson in The New Odd Couple (1982)

The New Odd Couple

4.7

TV Series

director of photography

1982

4 episodes

 

Kirk Douglas in Remembrance of Love (1982)

Remembrance of Love

6.0

TV Movie

Cinematographer

1982

 

The Last American Virgin (1982)

The Last American Virgin

6.3

director of photography

1982

 

Safari 3000 (1982)

Safari 3000

4.7

director of photography

1982

 

Ingrid Bergman in A Woman Called Golda (1982)

A Woman Called Golda

7.5

TV Movie

Cinematographer

1982

 

Phoebe Cates and Willie Aames in Paradise (1982)

Paradise

4.9

Cinematographer

1982

 

Seed of Innocence (1980)

Seed of Innocence

5.3

Cinematographer

1980

 

Mark Hamill and Lee Marvin in The Big Red One (1980)

The Big Red One

7.1

director of photography

1980

 

Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith (1979)

Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith

6.2

TV Movie

Cinematographer

1979

 

Going Steady (1979)

Going Steady

5.7

Cinematographer

1979

 

Belfer (1978)

Belfer

8.2

Cinematographer

1978

 

It's a Funny, Funny World (1978)

It's a Funny, Funny World

5.2

Cinematographer

1978

 

The Uranium Conspiracy (1978)

The Uranium Conspiracy

4.7

Cinematographer

1978

 

Lemon Popsicle (1978)

Lemon Popsicle

6.4

Cinematographer

1978

 

Hamesh Ma'ot Elef Shahor (1977)

Hamesh Ma'ot Elef Shahor

6.2

Cinematographer

1977

 

A Movie and Breakfast (1977)

A Movie and Breakfast

9.0

Cinematographer

1977

 

David Janssen in Warhead (1977)

Warhead

4.3

director of photography (as Adam Grinberg)

1977

 

Operation Thunderbolt (1977)

Operation Thunderbolt

6.5

Cinematographer

1977

 

The Passover Plot (1976)

The Passover Plot

3.9

Cinematographer

1976

 

Diamonds (1975)

Diamonds

5.2

Cinematographer

1975

 

My Michael (1974)

My Michael

6.7

Cinematographer

1974

 

Shaike Ophir in Daughters, Daughters (1973)

Daughters, Daughters

6.9

Cinematographer

1973

 

The House on Chelouche Street (1973)

The House on Chelouche Street

6.7

Cinematographer

1973

 

The Pill (1972)

The Pill

8.7

Cinematographer

1972

 

Take Two (1972)

Take Two

Cinematographer

1972

 

Arik Einstein and Uri Zohar in Metzitzim (1972)

Metzitzim

7.1

Cinematographer

1972

 

I Love You Rosa (1972)

I Love You Rosa

6.3

Cinematographer

1972

 

I Am a Jerusalemite (1971)

I Am a Jerusalemite

8.0

Cinematographer

1971

 

Hasamba & the Black Handkerchief Gang (1971)

Hasamba & the Black Handkerchief Gang

6.5

Cinematographer

1971

 

Arik Einstein and Uri Zohar in Lool (1970)

Lool

7.9

TV Series

Cinematographer

1970–1973

 

Madron (1970)

Madron

5.2

photography by

1970

 

42:6 - Ben Gurion (1969)

42:6 - Ben Gurion

Cinematographer

1969

 

Before Tomorrow (1969)

Before Tomorrow

7.7

Cinematographer

1969

 

Hol Ba'eynayim

Cinematographer

1967

 

Fanny Lubitsch in Slow Down (1967)

Slow Down

8.3

Short

Cinematographer

1967

 

Theatre in Israel (1967)

Theatre in Israel

Short

Cinematographer

1967

 

In Jerusalem (1963)

In Jerusalem

7.5

Short

Cinematographer

1963

 

Camera and Electrical Department

William H. Macy, James Spader, Jon Cryer, Leslie Mann, Kat Dennings, Trevor Gagnon, Devon Gearhart, Jimmy Bennett, Leo Howard, Rebel Rodriguez, Jolie Vanier, and Jake Short in Shorts (2009)

Shorts

4.7

still photographer

2009

 

Roberto Benigni in Son of the Pink Panther (1993)

Son of the Pink Panther

3.9

director of photography: main title sequence

1993

 

Sylvia Kristel and Howard Hesseman in Private Lessons (1981)

Private Lessons II

3.8

photographer: re-shoots

1993

 

Party Games for Adults Only (1984)

Party Games for Adults Only

5.2

Video

camera operator

1984

 

Two Kuni Lemel (1966)

Two Kuni Lemel

6.7

camera operator

1966

 

Additional Crew

Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sharon Stone in Sphere (1998)

Sphere

6.1

underwater lighting design

1998

 

Sylvia Kristel and Howard Hesseman in Private Lessons (1981)

Private Lessons II

3.8

director: re-shoots

1993

 

Thanks

Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic (2007)

Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic

7.5

Video

special thanks

2007

 

Ghost: Alchemy of a Love Scene (2006)

Ghost: Alchemy of a Love Scene

7.0

Video

special thanks

2006

 

Self

International Cinematographer's Guild Heritage Series

Self

ReleasedTV Series

1991

1 episode

 

Eskimo Limon - Eis am Stiel: Von Siegern und Verlierern (2018)

Eskimo Limon - Eis am Stiel: Von Siegern und Verlierern

6.9

TV Movie

Self

2018

 

In Praise of Smaller Movies: Adam Greenberg on 'The Last American Virgin'

Video

Self

2013

 

Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic (2007)

Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic

7.5

Video

Self

2007

 

Ghost: Alchemy of a Love Scene (2006)

Ghost: Alchemy of a Love Scene

7.0

Video

Self

2006

 

The Snake Pit: On the Set of 'Snakes on a Plane'

7.0

Video

Self

2006

 

Pure Venom: The Making of 'Snakes on a Plane'

6.2

Video

Self - Cinematographer

2006

 

Joe Christofori and Joseph Christofori in Cinematographer Style (2006)

Cinematographer Style

6.9

Self

2006

 

Tim Allen in The Santa Clause 2 (2002)

Inside the North Pole with Curtis

Video

Self (uncredited)

2003

 

Tim Allen in The Santa Clause 2 (2002)

The Santa Clause 2: Gag Reel

6.3

Video

Self (uncredited)

2003

 

Living in Darkness (2002)

Living in Darkness

7.1

Video

Self

2002

 

The Making of 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (1991)

The Making of 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'

7.2

TV Short

Self

1991

 

Samuel Fuller & The Big Red One

6.1

Self - Cameraman (uncredited)

1979

Alternative name

Adam Grinberg

Born

April 11, 1937Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland

Died

October 30, 2025

Spouse

Varda Greenberg

Gladys Stone Wright obit

Remembering Gladys Stone Wright

 

She was not on the list.

It is with heavy hearts that the Purdue Bands & Orchestras family shares news that our dear friend and former first lady of PBO, Gladys Stone Wright, passed away peacefully at the age of 100, on the evening of Wednesday, October 29th, 2025. She was a pioneering American band director, composer, author, educator, and champion for women in music education.

Gladys was born on March 8, 1925, in Wasco, Oregon. She grew up in a lumber camp there and discovered her lifelong passion for music at a young age after receiving a year of free piano lessons and a $5 clarinet. She graduated from Lebanon High School in 1943 and later earned both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Oregon.

Gladys began her teaching career at a time when few women were hired as band directors, but she quickly distinguished herself through talent, perseverance, and leadership. She became the first woman high school director in Oregon as director of bands at Elmira Union High School from 1948-1953 and was one of the earliest female members of the American School Band Directors Association. Wright proceeded to work as a high school band director in Otterbein, Indiana and West Lafayette, Indiana from 1954 through 1984.

Throughout her remarkable career, Gladys founded the Women Band Directors National Association, served in numerous professional organizations, and became the first woman to guest conduct both the United States Navy Band and the Goldman Band. Her school bands consistently earned “superior” ratings for 22 consecutive years. In addition to teaching and conducting, she composed works such as The Big Bowl March and Trumpets and Tabards and contributed to national music publications as an author and clinician.

Her achievements were recognized with many honors, including the National Band Association Citation of Excellence (1969) and the Tau Beta Sigma National Award for Service to Music (1971). In 1999, she became the first woman inducted into the National Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors. The Gladys Stone Wright Scholarship, established in her honor, continues to support women pursuing careers in band directing.

Gladys was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, Dr. Al G. Wright, longtime Purdue University band director. Together, they shared a deep love of music and education that shaped the lives of countless students and colleagues.

Gladys Stone Wright will be missed by all who knew her, but her legacy will endure through her music, her family, and the many people she inspired to lead with confidence and creativity in the world of band and music education.

Maria Riva obit

Maria Riva, Actress and Daughter of Marlene Dietrich, Dies at 100

She appeared in films as a child with her mom before becoming a great star for CBS in the early days of television. 

She was not on the list.

Maria Riva, the only child of Marlene Dietrich who as a rare contract player with CBS was one of the top television personalities in the medium’s early days of live, kinescope broadcasts, died Wednesday. She was 100.

Riva died in her sleep at the home of son Peter Riva in Gila, New Mexico, he told The Hollywood Reporter. She had been living with him since early last year.

William S. Paley’s favorite actress, Riva starred, often as a woman in peril, on such classic anthology series as Studio One, Lux Video Theatre, Suspense and The Philco Television Playhouse and on shows including Danger, Crime Photographer and Climax!

She quit acting in the late 1950s — she often described herself as a “Poor Man’s Dietrich” and admitted she never had a burning ambition to be an actress — but managed her mother’s glitzy one-woman Las Vegas act and global tours for many years.

A few months after Dietrich died in Paris in May 1992 at age 90, Riva published a book about her glamorous movie-star mother. “I consider myself a biographer, not the daughter,” she said in a 2009 chat for the Television Academy Foundation website The Interviews.

“I’m very proud of the fact I was able to step back as a biographer … what was wrong was wrong, what was right was right, what was great was great, what was brilliant was brilliant. [People] don’t understand how it is possible to be a child of an ephemeral creature that is beyond normalcy. It’s very difficult.”

The only child of Dietrich and Rudolf Sieber, an editor and assistant director who later was put in charge of translating films for Paramount in Paris, Maria Elisabeth Sieber was born in Berlin on Dec. 13, 1924.

“But I never thought that was my name, because being the child of a very famous person, I was always ‘Maria, the Daughter of Marlene Dietrich,’” she said. “I actually signed it that way when I was a child.”

When she was 5, she “was imported” to Los Angeles to live with her mother, by then a huge star at Paramount Pictures.

­­Riva played Catherine the Great as a child — Dietrich portrayed the Russian monarch as an adult — in Josef von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress (1934), then appeared in another film starring her mom, David O. Selznick’s The Garden of Allah (1936), an early Technicolor release.

Later, she was raped repeatedly by a woman who was the secretary of one of her mother’s lovers, she said.

Riva attended the Brillantmont International School in Switzerland and studied acting as a teenager at the Max Reinhardt Academy in Los Angeles at Wilshire & Fairfax, where the Academy Museum is now.

She then taught and directed there — her students included Elizabeth Taylor’s brother, Howard — acted on the radio with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater and appeared on Broadway with Tallulah Bankhead in Foolish Notion in 1945.

After a brief first marriage and performing in Germany and Italy for two years as part of a USO troupe, she taught a graduate course in acting and directing at Fordham University and married scenic designer William Riva in 1947, while Dietrich was away in Europe.

When she complained to him about what she was seeing on television, he said to her: “’I’m so tired hearing you criticize this new profession. Why don’t you go and do something to make it better?’ And that’s why I went into television.”

She made her first TV appearance in 1951 on the anthology series Sure as Fate before signing a three-year contract for $250 a week with CBS, which sought to create a movie-style studio system. She acted often alongside John Forsythe and appeared on hundreds of TV episodes.

“There was a saying: You played to Mrs. Glutz in the Bronx,” she said. “People who knew nothing about acting, about the profession, would now get [their entertainment] for free in their home, and they should be glad to get whatever they got. So you played to a very low standard. Which was fine, because I had no talent.”

Still, she received Emmy nominations as best actress in 1952 and 1953, appeared in a “mirror-image” photograph with her mother on the cover of Life magazine in August 1952 and later turned down an opportunity to replace an ailing Imogene Coca on NBC’s Your Show of Shows.

Riva also did TV commercials for Alcoa in which she would demonstrate how to use the company’s new product — that would be aluminum foil — and was paired with famed product pitchwoman Betty Furness when CBS tested color television for the first time.

At the height of her career as the TV industry moved west, she quit, not wanting to return to Los Angeles. “I had grown up in a world where everybody was beautiful, everybody was rich, everybody had everything that everybody else in the world wants, and nobody was really happy. And I learned a very valuable lesson, that it’s not what it looks like on the surface.”

She did tour in stage productions of Tea & Sympathy and Country Girl and noted that, “outside of Jackie Gleason and the great comedians, I was probably the first person that drew people as a television personality into another media.”

Riva returned to acting to play Mrs. Rhinelander — the wife of Robert Mitchum’s character, Bill Murray’s boss — in Scrooged (1988), directed by Richard Donner. Her first-born son, the late J. Michael Riva, was the film’s production designer, and another son, John-Paul Riva, was a production assistant in the art department.

She acted again in All Aboard (2018), a short film directed by grandson J. Michael Riva Jr.

Riva also co-authored a 2001 photography book with previously unseen images of her mother, edited a 2005 volume of Dietrich’s poetry and wrote a 2017 period novel, You Were There Before My Eyes, about a woman who emigrates from Italy to Detroit.

After Dietrich’s death from liver failure, she sold much of her mom’s estate to Berlin to be housed in the city’s Deutsche Kinemathek museum.

She and William Riva remained together until his death in 1999.

In addition to her sons Peter and John-Paul, survivors include another son, David, and her grandchildren, Lily, Ayla, Aidan and Marilee.

A timeless icon of style, Dietrich received an Oscar nomination for her turn opposite Gary Cooper in Morocco (1930) and starred in such films as Blonde Venus (1932), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Touch of Evil (1958) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Dietrich and Sieber, who died in 1976, never divorced, even though they lived together for only a few years. Meanwhile, she reportedly had sex with the likes of Cooper, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Frank Sinatra, Eddie Fisher, James Stewart, Jean Gabin and Yul Brynner. And that was just the men.

While promoting her book about Dietrich, Riva told Diane Sawyer that her mom had this idea for her own funeral: “All the men who walk into the church, and women, who had slept with her would get a red carnation, and all the people who said they had slept with her but hadn’t would get a white carnation.”

Actress

All Aboard (2018)

All Aboard

Short

Evie (Period)

2018

 

Bill Murray in Scrooged (1988)

Scrooged

6.9

Mrs. Rhinelander

1988

 

Target (1958)

Target

7.3

TV Series

Edie

1958

2 episodes

 

The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955)

The 20th Century-Fox Hour

7.1

TV Series

Anna

1956

1 episode

 

Robert Montgomery Presents (1950)

Robert Montgomery Presents

7.7

TV Series

Alice Reed

1952–1955

3 episodes

 

Appointment with Adventure (1955)

Appointment with Adventure

6.4

TV Series

Mira

1955

1 episode

 

Dan Duryea in Climax! (1954)

Climax!

6.5

TV Series

Marie

1955

1 episode

 

Stage 7 (1955)

Stage 7

7.1

TV Series

Madge Jackson

1955

1 episode

 

Marsha Hunt and John Rodney in Studio One (1948)

Studio One

7.5

TV Series

Miss MitnickMarquesa Leonora AllettiCecil ...

1951–1955

15 episodes

 

Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Rod Serling in Suspense (1949)

Suspense

7.3

TV Series

Anna HoffmannLizaCecilia

1951–1954

5 episodes

 

The Web (1950)

The Web

7.1

TV Series

1951–1954

2 episodes

 

The Story of Ruth

TV Movie

1954

 

You Are There (1953)

You Are There

8.3

TV Series

Catherine

1954

1 episode

 

The Motorola Television Hour (1953)

The Motorola Television Hour

6.8

TV Series

Lisa

1953

1 episode

 

Kraft Theatre (1947)

The Philco Television Playhouse

7.5

TV Series

1952–1953

2 episodes

 

Zachary Scott in Medallion Theatre (1953)

Medallion Theatre

6.4

TV Series

1953

1 episode

 

The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953)

The Revlon Mirror Theater

3.7

TV Series

1953

1 episode

 

Omnibus (1952)

Omnibus

8.2

TV Series

(segment "The Abracadabra Kid")

1953

1 episode

 

Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950)

Armstrong Circle Theatre

7.7

TV Series

1952

1 episode

 

Kraft Theatre (1947)

Kraft Theatre

7.9

TV Series

Mary

1952

1 episode

 

Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)

Hallmark Hall of Fame

8.1

TV Series

1952

1 episode

 

Crime Syndicate

TV Series

1952

1 episode

 

Crime Photographer (1951)

Crime Photographer

4.9

TV Series

1951–1952

2 episodes

 

Danger (1950)

Danger

7.3

TV Series

1951–1952

5 episodes

 

Lux Video Theatre (1950)

Lux Video Theatre

7.4

TV Series

AlmaHilda

1951–1952

2 episodes

 

Sure As Fate

5.7

TV Series

1951

1 episode

 

The Garden of Allah (1936)

The Garden of Allah

5.8

Young Girl Sewing (uncredited)

1936

 

Grace Moore and Franchot Tone in The King Steps Out (1936)

The King Steps Out

6.2

Girl Playing Violin (uncredited)

1936

 

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

The Scarlet Empress

7.5

Sophia as a Child (as Maria)

1934

 

Writer

Marlene

biography by

FilmingTV Mini Series

 

Producer

Marlene

executive producer

FilmingTV Mini Series

 

Soundtrack

The Milton Berle Show (1948)

The Milton Berle Show

7.4

TV Series

performer: "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House"

1953

1 episode

 

Self

Marlene - Le Crépuscule d'un ange (2012)

Marlene - Le Crépuscule d'un ange

7.2

TV Movie

Self

2012

 

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (1997)

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

7.3

TV Series

Self

2009

1 episode

 

Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)

Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

6.3

Self

2007

 

Hello Paradise (2004)

Hello Paradise

7.0

TV Series

Self

2007

1 episode

 

Beckmann (1999)

Beckmann

3.0

TV Series

Self

2005

1 episode

 

Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001)

Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song

7.8

Self - Interviewee

2001

 

The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story (1996)

The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story

7.3

Self (voice)

1996

 

Marlene Dietrich: Shadow and Light

7.2

TV Movie

Self - Dietrich's Daughter and Biographer

1996

 

Josef von Sternberg, the Man Who Made Dietrich

8.1

Short

Self

1994

 

Marlene Dietrich in Nachlass Marlene Dietrich (1993)

Nachlass Marlene Dietrich

TV Special

Self

1993

 

Kultur im Gespräch (1990)

Kultur im Gespräch

TV Series

Self

1993

1 episode

 

Ad Lib (1986)

Ad Lib

TV Series

Self - fille de Marlene Dietrich (1993)

1986–1995

 

5th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy

TV Special

Self

1955

 

The Martha Raye Show (1954)

The Martha Raye Show

6.5

TV Series

Self

1955

1 episode

 

4th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy

TV Special

Self - Host

1954

 

WOR-TV's Kid Telethon

TV Special

Self

1954

 

The Milton Berle Show (1948)

The Milton Berle Show

7.4

TV Series

Self - Actress

1953

1 episode

 

Let's Take Sides

TV Series

Self - Guest

1953

1 episode

 

Ed Sullivan in The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)

The Ed Sullivan Show

7.9

TV Series

Self

1953

2 episodes

 

Your Show of Shows (1950)

Your Show of Shows

8.6

TV Series

Self - Guest Performer

1952

1 episode

 

The Ken Murray Show (1950)

The Ken Murray Show

6.7

TV Series

Self

1952

2 episodes

 

Die glückliche Mutter

Short

Self

1928

 

Archive Footage

Compression (1995)

Compression

7.0

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2023

1 episode

 

Hour of Stars (2002)

Hour of Stars

5.3

TV Series

Anna (archive footage)

2002

1 episode

 

Biography (1987)

Biography

7.7

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2000

1 episode

 

Legenden (1998)

Legenden

6.6

TV Series

Self - Daughter (archive footage)

1998

1 episode