Sir Ian Holm (1931-2020)

by Nathaniel R

If you haven't yet heard, beloved actor Sir Ian Holm (Chariots of Fire, From Hell, Ratatouille) passed away on Friday at the age of 88. He started working professionally as an actor in his twenties in the 1950s and he didn't stop working until just a handful of years ago with two final appearances in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. In his long career he won the Tony (The Homecoming), the Olivier (King Lear) and the BAFTA twice (Boros Gun and Chariots of Fire) though Oscar, sadly, kept missing the chance to honor him.

After the jump 10 roles that hold special meaning for this particular moviegoer...

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Links: Spike Lee, Denise Cronenberg, Amanda Seyfried, etc...

Must Read
The Guardian has a really fun Spike Lee interview in which he answers questions from famous actors and directors. Spike always brings joy and we couldn't be more pleased about the career resurgence. People, I personally saw Girl 6 and Bamboozled and Chi-Raq in movie theaters. They all flopped but my ticket $ was in there! So naturally it's been thrilling to watch this recent return to prominence / audience goodwill. Though I admit I was surprised when raves started pouring in for Da 5 Bloods since his last (and only other) war picture (Miracle at St Anna) did not go over well at all.

More links after the jump including a tragic Cronenberg loss, a Bollywood suicide, Dick Tracy budget overrages, Little Women in Japan, and more...

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Links: Cicely Tyson, Daniel Radcliffe, and "I Know Where I've Been"

• THR Cicely Tyson is still winning at age 95. This time it's the Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award. In the past seven years she's received a competitive Tony Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an an Honorary Oscar. Talent + longevity is an unbeatable combination!
• Variety fine actress Keke Palmer (Hustlers) writes a guest column on the current moment and what it asks of us
• The Guardian We were not prepared for "chainsaw accident" and "Cate Blanchett" to be in the same headline. Thankfully she's fine.

more after the jump including Daniel Radcliffe's outreach to fans who are angry with JK Rowling...

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Night of the Living Link

• Theater Mania the Tony Awards to be replaced by... a Grease sing-a-long? Broadway fans are not happy about it. There are so many ways CBS could have filled the air time that were still about current or classic theater
• The Guardian In career trajectories we totally dont understand Luca Guadagnino who started off so masterfully with fresh filmmaking in I Am Love and Call Me By Your Name is signed on for his THIRD remake, this time its Scarface (1983) which was itself a remake of course
• New York Times a must-read oral history of the making of Mad Max: Fury Road

What We Do in the Shadows, new Criterion BluRays, a remake of "10", a new project for Michael B Jordan, more celebrity deaths (sniffle) and other topics after the jump...

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Irrfan Khan (1967-2020)

by Nathaniel R

The very last screen shot of Irrfan Khan in the cinema. From the film Angrezi Medium (2020). (Hat tip)

In truly terrible news the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan has died of cancer at just 53 years of age. His passing came just four days after his own mother passed away... though he was well enough a month ago to be tweeting and supporting what would become his last picture Angrezi Medium.

The international star had recently headlined the popularPuzzle (2018) co-starring Kelly Macdonald but he was diagnosed with cancer that year and hadn't been working much since. The beloved Bollywood star actually began his big screen career in an Oscar nominated film. It was Mira Nair's breakthrough Salaam Bombay (1988) which became India's first Oscar nominee in the Foreign-Language Film category. A success in Bollywood in the 1990s, Irrfan crossed over into international stardom in the mid Aughts with a series of fine performances in well received English language films...

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