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Hiram Kasten, renowned for his memorable roles in television, including his appearances on ‘Seinfeld’, has passed away at the age of 71. Kasten battled multiple health issues over the last seven years, including prostate cancer and Crohn’s disease. In recent months, he privately disclosed to loved ones that he was terminally ill. Despite his health challenges, he continued to receive support and affection from friends, who engaged with him through frequent Zoom calls, which his wife Diana credited with extending his life by approximately two months.

Hiram Kasten began his entertainment career in stand-up comedy in 1978, making a mark in the New York City and New Jersey comedy scenes. He was notably passed by Jerry Seinfeld at an audition at ‘The Comic Strip’, marking a significant milestone in his career. Known for his distinctive style and charisma on stage, Kasten was admired for his homage to comedy greats like Alan King,...

Few remember the short-lived 1970s sitcom “The Corner Bar” and fewer still can recall one of its characters. But those who do celebrate both. Because the series, which premiered 50 years ago this week, introduced the first out gay person seen on a regular basis on an American TV show. With the two came the (slow) linking at last of a largely until-then dismissed part of culture with the business of entertainment media.

A tavern-set ensemble sitcom along the lines of “Cheers,” to come a decade later, “The Corner Bar” was one of a pair of summer replacement shows that ABC introduced back-to-back on June 21, 1972. Its premise was as simple as its title, focusing on the nightly life at Grant’s Toomb, a New York City bar run by Harry Grant (Gabriel Dell). Less simple for the time was that one of its barflies was out gay set-designer Peter Panama (played...

On January 6, notable filmmaker and film historian Peter Bogdanovich died at the age of 82. One of the “New Hollywood” directors, Bogdanovich had great love and respect for older cinema, and established relationships with many of the major players from the Golden Age, most notably Orson Welles, which is reflected in his works. At the age of 32, he directed the film for which he will be best remembered. It was 50 years ago that he received his only Oscar nominations, for directing and writing that film — “The Last Picture Show,” a black and white ensemble coming-of-age drama set in a small Texas town in the 1950s.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery

Let’s flashback to the Academy Awards ceremony of 1972 to celebrate 50 years since that event.

“The Last Picture Show” tied for the most Oscar nominations that year with eight. The epic musical “Fiddler on the Roof” and the crime thriller...

“Heavy!” Sammy Davis Jr. exclaimed, applauding as he took the stage at the 44th Academy Awards following Isaac Hayes’ performance of his Oscar-nominated song “Theme From Shaft.” Davis was making history that night as the ceremony’s first Black host (alongside co-hosts Helen Hayes, Alan King and Jack Lemmon). But before the night was over, Isaac Hayes too would make history as the first Black winner of best original song — as well as the first Black winner in any Oscar category outside of acting.

In 1977, Black artists called for an Oscar boycott, citing underrepresentation. The Hollywood ...

“Heavy!” Sammy Davis Jr. exclaimed, applauding as he took the stage at the 44th Academy Awards following Isaac Hayes’ performance of his Oscar-nominated song “Theme From Shaft.” Davis was making history that night as the ceremony’s first Black host (alongside co-hosts Helen Hayes, Alan King and Jack Lemmon). But before the night was over, Isaac Hayes too would make history as the first Black winner of best original song — as well as the first Black winner in any Oscar category outside of acting.

In 1977, Black artists called for an Oscar boycott, citing underrepresentation. The Hollywood ...

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings has been given the Television Academy’s Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, one of several Engineering Emmys that the org announced on Thursday.

The Charles F. Jenkins honor recognizes “a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.” In the case of Hastings, he was singled out for coming up with the idea of Netflix in 1997 as a subscription-based movie-rental service, and eventually evolving it into internet TV and developing “game-changing algorithms that recommended programming to subscribers that track and reflect their viewing preferences.”

Netflix already received an Engineering Emmy in 2012. Now, “the major patent portfolio that Netflix has developed, combined with the scale of service delivery, widespread market use of the services and the validation of an alternative business model for television distribution is changing the television industry in fundamental ways,” the org said. “With...

The Television Academy on Thursday unveiled winners of the 73rd Engineering Emmy Awards, which honor the best in broadcast tech. Along with eight recipients of Emmy statues this year, the organization said Reed Hastings will receive the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award and Dolby Laboratories the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award.

Winners with innovations in everything from rendering and lighting systems to audio and script tools and even a wireless video transmission system that helped social distancing requirements on sets will be celebrated October 21 in a live ceremony at the Jw Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live. Kirsten Vangsness will emcee for a sixth consecutive year.

Hastings is the co-founder and co-ceo of Netflix which previously won an Engineering Emmy in 2012. He is being honored with a lifetime award this year for “ongoing contributions” that have altered the state of engineering and technology in TV.

“The major patent portfolio that Netflix has developed,...

Sidney Lumet’s harrowing film is a true-life account of a NY narcotics detective- turned government informant; its length and intensity can be emotionally overpowering. Treat Williams is the idealistic cop who blows up his whole life and ends up betraying all the people he hoped to protect. He doesn’t seem to understand the ruthless, opportunistic nature of ‘systemic reform’ as he goes from good guy to the object of hate for both crooks and cops, and a target for the very same system that welcomed his help. The Wac made an excellent choice with this one — it’s one of the most deserving, underappreciated films of the early 1980s.

Prince of the City

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1981 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 167 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date August 24, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Tony Page, Norman Parker, Paul Roebling, Bob Balaban,...

Hookers! Devil worshippers! A naughty teenage voyeur! A deadly knife, a lethal sedan and a chainsaw-wielding psychopath! Nasal Spray! CineSavant breaks with the disc-reviewing norm and abandons journalistic integrity. Well, not really, but it is a heck of a lot of fun to finally review a film I edited 32 years ago, on a happy moviemaking money-losing vacation from Cannon Films’ advertising department.

Night Visitor

Blu-ray

Scorpion Releasing

1989 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date June (?), 2020 / available through Ronin Flix and Diabolik DVD / 22.99

Starring: Allen Garfield, Elliott Gould, Derek Rydall, Michael J. Pollard, Shannon Tweed, Richard Roundtree, Teresa Van der Woude, Teri Weigel, Scott Fults, Brooke Bundy, Henry Gibson, Kathryn Kimler, Kathleen Bailey.

Cinematography: Peter Jenson

Film Editor: Glenn Erickson

Original Music: Parmer Fuller

Art Direction: Gyongyver Sovago

Still Photographer: Elizabeth Ward

Unit Production Manager, Associate Producer: Richard J. Abramitis

Written by Randal Viscovich

Produced by Alain Silver

Directed by Rupert Hitzig...

Frank Cullotta, a member of Chicago’s mob the Outfit, died of a variety of ailments including Covid-19 at a Las Vegas hospital, on Thursday, Aug. 20, according to Deadline. He was 81.

Chicago gangster Anthony “Ant” Spilotro brought Cullotta to Las Vegas in 1978 to oversee the legendary robbery crew called the “Hole in the Wall Gang.” Known for bypassing alarm systems by drilling or precision explosives, the crew burglarized between 250 and 300 homes in Las Vegas by 1981. The crew was caught on July 4, 1981, after a botched robbery at Bertha’s home furnishings store on East Sahara Avenue.

After being told there was a contract on his life, Cullotta cooperated with the FBI and Las Vegas police against Spilotro, who was killed along with his brother Michael in 1986. Cullotta served as a technical consultant on Martin Scorsese’s 1995 gangster epic Casino. He was played by veteran actor Frank Vincent as Frank Marino, and...

Frank Cullotta, a veteran mobster who later became a Las Vegas attraction for his in-depth knowledge of organized crime’s history in Sin City, has died. He was 81 and passed from complications caused by Covid-19.

Cullotta was the right-hand man to Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro, portrayed by Joe Pesci in the film Casino. Another of their childhood friends, Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal, was the inspiration for Robert De Niro’s Ace Rothstein in the film.

Cullotta arrived in Las Vegas from his Chicago hometown in the 1970s and formed a burglary group known as the Hole in the Wall gang. The name derived for their propensity to bust through buildings to avoid door and window alarms. Cullotta ran the operation and paid cuts to Spilotro, and also performed other tasks, including murders, at his childhood friend’s request.

However, an unsuccessful burglary saw Cullotta arrested. He soon feared that Spilotro was targeting him for a hit,...

Lou Weiss, chairman emeritus of the William Morris Agency and one of the last vestiges of the old guard of a bygone era in the entertainment business, passed away at 9:30 Am on April 8, due to complications from an appendectomy. He was 101.

Weiss retired in 2007 after 70 years at Wma. During his tenure, which tracked the rise of the television medium, Weiss became one of the most powerful agents in the TV industry.

Born on March 22, 1918 in New York City’s lower east side, Weiss started in the mailroom at the New York William Morris agency in 1937, with the help of his comedian/actor uncle and Wma client, George Burns.

With the advent of World War II, Weiss was drafted into the Us Army and became a 2nd lieutenant with the 10th Mountain Division serving in Italy. Upon returning from the war to his job, Weiss reported to the legendary Abe Lastfogel (“Mr.

Over the decades, the presenters and performers on the Academy Awards have become more diverse. And this year is no exception with Awkwafina, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Rudolph, Amandla Stenberg, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu already announced as presenting on the 91st annual Oscars, as well as Jennifer Hudson performing the Oscar-nominated tune “I’ll Fight” from “Rbg.”

But it was a long time coming. Let’s look back at the milestone first appearances of minority performers and presenters at Hollywood’s biggest night.

Though he was not a presenter per se, New Jersey native Cesar Romero of Cuban and Spanish heritage was featured with several writer/directors including Robert Riskin and John Huston who reminisced about their experiences in World War II at the 18th annual Academy Awards in 1946.

Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer, who earned a supporting actor nomination for 1948’s “Joan of Arc” appeared on the March 23, 1950 ceremony from...

Thaddeus Q. Mumford, a pioneering African-American TV writer-producer who worked on shows ranging from “Mash” to “The Electric Company” to “Blue’s Clues,” has died after a long illness. He was 67.

Mumford died Sept. 6 at his father’s home in Silver Spring, Md., according to his sister-in-law, Donna Coleman.

With his longtime writing partner Dan Wilcox, Mumford worked on the final three seasons of “Mash,” as well as such shows as “Maude,” “Good Times,” “Alf,” “B.J. and the Bear,” “Coach,” “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” “Home Improvement,” and “Judging Amy.”

Mumford was a quick wit who had a knack for coming up with jokes and punch lines. “He was incredibly fast with a fully formed joke,” Wilcox told Variety. “Sometimes you wondered where they came from.”

Wilcox recalled an episode of “Mash” in which David Ogden Stiers’ stuffy Major Charles Winchester character balks at trying acupuncture to treat his back pain.

Part of the Jerry Lewis tribute A Mubi Jerrython. Writer, director, star of stage, screen and television, humanitarian, producer, and total filmmaker—Jerry Lewis was all of the above. For the first six years of his career he was also a professional lip syncher. At age twelve, desperate to follow his parents on stage, Jerry began developing a “record act.” A staple on the lower rungs of the Borscht Belt, burlesque, vaudeville, and nightclubs, record acts (a.k.a. dummy acts) were cheap and easy: they consisted of a performer or performers miming away to recordings. Always considered pretty corny, they were the poor stepchildren on the theatrical bills, but there were plenty of budding comics who broke into show business that way. Jerry Van Dyke was another newbie who started his career doing record acts, and much later Andy Kaufman would put his own spin on it mouthing only...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes (1971) is showing December 23, 2017 - January 22, 2018 in the United Kingdom.“Say Cheese!” —Bank clerk, The Anderson Tapes “Say Cheese!” —Frank Sobotka, The WireThe first thing we see in The Anderson Tapes (1971) is a television monitor, on which jailbird John ‘Duke’ Anderson (Sean Connery), speaking to camera, reveals how he became infatuated with safecracking. He likens it to rape—then revises that analogy, saying it was more like seduction. “Often, I was sexually aroused at the time.” As he’s talking, the ‘invisible’ recording apparatus through which we’re watching the monitor pans away, and we see Duke sitting, alongside other inmates, fed up of hearing his own braggadocio. It’s his last day in the can; at the end of the film, the NYPD cops in pursuit of this recently-freed career criminal will discover...

Rebecca Lea Oct 31, 2016

Our lookback at the film adaptations of Stephen King's work lands on a gem: the anthology movie, Cat's Eye...

The film: The second of our young Drew Barrymore in Stephen King films double bill, Cat’s Eye is another of his anthology movies. The spine of the film is a tabby cat, accidentally driven first to New York City where he receives a message from a girl (Drew Barrymore) who asks the cat for help. Before he can find her, the cat is captured by Quitters, Inc., a company that helps people to quit smoking with threats of torture and violence on the family, as Dick Morrison (James Woods) finds out.

See related Marvel's Luke Cage episode 13 viewing notes: You Know My Steez The Punisher: 5 new cast members and 2017 release confirmed

From there, the cat travels to Atlantic City where he gets another message from the girl,...

Debbie Reynolds ca. early 1950s. Debbie Reynolds movies: Oscar nominee for 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' sweetness and light in phony 'The Singing Nun' Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 23, '15. An MGM contract player from 1950 to 1959, Reynolds' movies can be seen just about every week on TCM. The only premiere on Debbie Reynolds Day is Jerry Paris' lively marital comedy How Sweet It Is (1968), costarring James Garner. This evening, TCM is showing Divorce American Style, The Catered Affair, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and The Singing Nun. 'Divorce American Style,' 'The Catered Affair' Directed by the recently deceased Bud Yorkin, Divorce American Style (1967) is notable for its cast – Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Jean Simmons, Jason Robards, Van Johnson, Lee Grant – and for the fact that it earned Norman Lear (screenplay) and Robert Kaufman (story) a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination.

Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen dead at 48 Nicholas Kallsen, who was featured opposite Brad Pitt in the short-lived television series Glory Days, has died at age 48 in Thailand according to online reports. Their source is one of Rupert Murdoch's rags, citing a Facebook posting by one of the actor's friends. The cause of death was purportedly – no specific source was provided – a drug overdose.* Aired on Fox in July 1990, Glory Days told the story of four high-school friends whose paths take different directions after graduation. Besides Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt, the show also featured Spike Alexander and Evan Mirand. Glory Days lasted a mere six episodes – two of which directed by former Happy Days actor Anson Williams – before its cancellation. Roommates Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt vying for same 'Thelma & Louise' role? The Murdoch tabloid also...

For a recent feature in Entertainment Weekly, we spoke to showrunners who’ve had the pleasure – and pressure — of wrapping up some of TV’s most beloved series. Murphy Brown creator Diane English had left the CBS comedy after season 4 but returned for its tenth and final season and penned its hour-long 1998 series finale. In the two-part “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Murphy (five-time Emmy winner Candice Bergen) — who’d battled breast cancer that year – contemplated retirement as she dealt with a second scare. While under anesthesia for a surgery that ultimately confirmed she was cancer-free, Murphy scored her biggest interview,...

Ann Blyth movies: TCM schedule on August 16, 2013 (photo: ‘Our Very Own’ stars Ann Blyth and Farley Granger) See previous post: "Ann Blyth Today: Light Singing and Heavy Drama on TCM." 3:00 Am One Minute To Zero (1952). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, William Talman. Bw-106 mins. 5:00 Am All The Brothers Were Valiant (1953). Director: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth. C-95 mins. 6:45 Am The King’S Thief (1955). Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Cast: Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven. C-79 mins. Letterbox Format. 8:15 Am Rose Marie (1954). Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Fernando Lamas. C-104 mins. Letterbox Format. 10:00 Am The Great Caruso (1951). Director: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Mario Lanza, Ann Blyth, Dorothy Kirsten, Jarmila Novotna, Richard Hageman, Carl Benton Reid, Eduard Franz, Ludwig Donath, Alan Napier, Pál Jávor, Carl Milletaire, Shepard Menken, Vincent Renno, Nestor Paiva, Peter Price, Mario Siletti, Angela Clarke,...

Every now and then, dreams come true. Every now and then, we get a chance to cross from the world of fantasy to reality, and speak to the people who've populated our collective dreams for generations. This is a very special episode of Planet Fanboy, in which we speak to Stan Lee.

Stan the Man (as it is impossible not to call him) is not only the principal creator of all the characters in the forthcoming motion picture "The Avengers" (perhaps you heard of it) but he is also the Star of his own movie.

"With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story" is making its debut on Epix this Friday. It is a fun and intimate look at the legendary comic creator's life and career. And it's like hanging out with that awesome Great Uncle who tells loud jokes at family functions.

I had the great privilege of speaking with...

As happened for so many other genres, the 1960s/1970s saw a tremendous creative expansion in crime and cop thrillers. The old Hollywood moguls had died off or retired, most of the major studios were bleeding red ink, attendance had gone off a cliff since the end of Ww II, and a new breed of young, creatively adventurous production executives had been tasked with trying to save their business by coming up with movies which could hook a new, young, cinema-literate audience.

It also happened to be one of the most socially turbulent times in American history. Even before the American public grew restive over the growing disaster in Vietnam, the social fabric was unraveling with self-examination and doubt. The Cold War; a certain inner emptiness that went with a period of great material prosperity; once invisible fault lines on matters of race and gender discrimination beginning to crack – all...

Here's another "couch potato" evening for all Retro movie loversm especially those that show New York City at its grittiest in the 1970s. On Friday January 20th, Turner Classic Movies (North America) will present Sidney Lumet's 1971 crime classic The Anderson Tapes starring Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Alan King, Martin Balsam and Christopher Walken (in his first feature film). It will air at 10:00 Pm (Est) followed immediately by Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw in Joseph Sargent's terrific 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

"Sidney Lumet, a director who preferred the streets of New York to the back lots of Hollywood and whose stories of conscience — 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Network — became modern American film classics, died Saturday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 86." Robert Berkvist in the New York Times: "'While the goal of all movies is to entertain,' Mr Lumet once wrote, 'the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing.' Social issues set his own mental juices flowing, and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal but also celebrated individual acts of courage."

"Nearly all the characters in Lumet's gallery are driven by obsessions or passions that range from the pursuit of justice,...

Novelist, screenwriter and biographer whose subjects included his father, Groucho

Arthur Marx, who has died aged 89, grew up in the shadow of his father, Groucho, and was steeped in the controlled chaos of the Marx Brothers. Torn between trying to distance himself from a demanding father, yet also prove worthy of his genius, he enjoyed a long career as a writer of screen and stage comedies, novels and biographies. Not surprisingly, however, his most successful work capitalised on the public's interest in his father and his uncles, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo.

Marx wrote several works about Groucho, the first of which, Life With Groucho (1954), published at the height of his father's television popularity, was a warts-and-all portrait punctuated by Groucho's own annotations. (Marx wrote that he would like to correct the impression that his father was a miser; Groucho's footnote read: "You'd better or I'll cut you off without a nickle.

Article by Dana Jung

When I was a kid, in between wanting to be Spider-Man and serving aboard the starship Enterprise, I wanted to join the Khyber Rifles. All my friends wanted to join, too. We had seen this really cool movie on the late show called King Of The Khyber Rifles, and it was full of adventure, romance, and exotic locales. It had one of Hollywood’s most versatile and underrated directors in Henry King, a stirring musical score by the great Bernard Herrmann, plus one of the great matinee idol action stars, Tyrone Power. Unfortunately, none of us grew up to be Ty Power, and our quest went unfulfilled. But now, as an adult, I find myself occasionally wanting to relive those exciting scenes of derring-do, which is difficult, since King Of The Khyber Rifles is not available on DVD.

Released in 1953 by 20th Century Fox, Khyber Rifles...

This is a Recap of Boardwalk Empire, Season 1, Episode 10, entitled “The Emerald City”. The title refers to Margret reading the Wizard of Oz and telling her kids that Harrow is the faceless sniper from the book. That’s the only spoiler in this Recap. Agent Van Alden’s lone witness is dead, he can’t re-interrogate Jimmy, his partner Agent Baby is exonerated, he has no leads, and his supervisor wants results or he’ll be chasing moonshiners down in Florida (which he’d probably love). It’s time for… That’s right, Van Alden completely loses his sh*t this week, beginning with a visit to turn up the creepy-heat on Margaret: Completely out of leads, Van Alden attempts to shame Margaret into turning against Nucky by showing her a picture of herself at Ellis Island that seems to have been smeared by paper towels on a number of occasions.

Hugh Jackman, just a few days ago, refused a repeat performance as Oscar host. Yesterday, Cinema Blend reported that Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. had also been offered the job, but turned it down.

The report closed on a positive note, citing that at least the choice indicated a push towards a younger, hipper direction. In retrospect, this statement is as funny as it is wrong. Why? Because the Academy announced a short time later that its choices for next year's hosts are ... Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Scratch your head. Raise a furrowed brow. Begin discussions of all the odd-couple pairings in TV and movie history. Producer Bill Mechanic had this to say about the selections, made with co-producer Adam Shankman:

Adam and I, from our first meeting on, knew we wanted an emphasis on comedy. If we err in any one direction, we want to take...

Turner Classic Movies (North America) is keeping their Friday night Sean Connery tributes on a hot streak. Tonight, for example, the network screens back-to-back showings of the James Bond flicks You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, followed by a rare telecast of Sidney Lumet's 1971 thriller The Anderson Tapes which casts Connery as a master thief who devises an outlandish plan to "rob the guts" out of a New York luxury apartment building over Labor Day weekend. The film was Connery's first notable hit outside of the Bond canon, enjoying favorable reviews and substantial box-office. Not only is the Great Scot in top form, but the film benefits from a spectacular supporting cast including Dyan Cannon (stripping to her bra for a memorable bedroom scene), Ralph Meeker, comedian Alan King (excellent as mob boss), Christopher Walken (in his first feature film), Stan Gottlieb as a geriatric con man,...

A joke should have the perfection of a haiku. Not one extra word. No wrong words. It should seem to have been discovered in its absolute form rather than created. The weight of the meaning should be at the end. The earlier words should prepare for the shift of the meaning. The ending must have absolute finality. It should present a world view only revealed at the last moment. Like knife-throwing, joke-telling should never be practiced except by experts.

For many laymen, a joke is a heavenly gift allowing them to monopolize your attention although they lack all ability as an entertainer. You can tell this because they start off grinning and grin the whole way through. They're so pleased with themselves. Their grins are telling you they're funny and their joke is funny. The expert knows not to betray the slightest emotion. The expert is reciting a fact. There...

Drink recipes are included with "Martini Movies," a new DVD series of vintage movies disinterred by Sony from the Columbia Pictures vaults. They'll leave you stirred, if not shaken.

The finest of the stand-alone titles out today is Sidney Lumet's "The Anderson Tapes" (1971), a first-rate thriller about an ex-con (Sean Connery) who engineers a heist in a ritzy Fifth Avenue building over Labor Day weekend.

What Duke Anderson doesn't realize is that the feds are secretly monitoring the Mafia boss (Alan King) who is bankrolling the...

NEW YORK -- Alan King, whose tirades against everyday suburban life grew into a long comedy career in nightclubs and television that he later expanded to Broadway and character roles in movies, died Sunday at the age of 76. King, who lived in King's Point, N.Y., died of lung cancer, his wife Jeannette told local media. Services were scheduled for Tuesday morning, said Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. King, who also was host of the New York Friars Club's celebrity roasts, which had recently returned as a staple on television's Comedy Central, died at a Manhattan hospital, said a son, Robert King. King appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 93 times beginning in the 1950s.

Comedian Alan King, whose longevity made him a staple of the comedy scene since the 50s, died Sunday in New York of lung cancer; he was 76. The host of the legendary New York Friars Club's celebrity roasts, King first came to prominence in the 50s, when he took his act from nightclubs to television, appearing first on The Ed Sullivan Show, where his rantings about suburbia struck a chord with growing TV audiences. King then became the opening act for numerous musical legends, and segued into innumerable appearances in TV and film, mainly in supporting roles. An accomplished character actor, King appeared most notably in Billy Crystal's Memories of Me and Just Tell Me What You Want, as well as Casino, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Enemies: A Love Story, The Anderson Tapes and Bye Bye Braverman, among other films. In addition to acting and comedy, King also wrote three books and produced several plays and movies. He is survived by his wife, Jeannette, and three children. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

American comedienne Whoopi Goldberg has been named the recipient of the 2001 Mark Twain Prize For American Humor - becoming the first woman to receive the award. The ceremony will air on November 21st in America under the title On Stage At The Kennedy Center: The Mark Twain Prize. Taping of the show will take place on November 15th, and will include testimonials by a cast set to include Harry Belafonte, Ken Burns, Billy Crystal, Tommy Davidson, Alan King, Mike Nichols, Caroline Rhea, Wanda Sykes, Bruce Vilanch and Robin Williams. Previous recipients of the prize include Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor.