Category: people

Hatch and his wife, artist and filmmaker Camille Billops, “created a vast archive of interviews with black actors, singers, writers and artists. … He became an expert in the history of black theater, not only rediscovering overlooked works but also unearthing the black origins of elements that had been appropriated by white playwrights and entertainers.” – The New York Times

Rogers was the original country star selling out arenas, long before Garth Brooks or Shania Twain in the 1990s. “Rogers’s popularity stemmed partly from his genial persona and rugged good looks, but also from his ability to inhabit his material, which, he often said, was of two main types: love songs like ‘You Decorated My Life’ and narrative ballads like ‘The Gambler’ and ‘Lucille.'” – The New York Times

Delair starred in Laurel and Hardy’s last movie, but she was best known for starring in 1940s thrillers directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, some of which were made during the Nazi occupation of Paris. She had begun singing in cafés when she was 14, which is how she met the director and, eventually, became a movie star – but she never stopped singing. – The New York Times

“[She] won the top directing prize at the Cesars in 2000 for her movie Venus Beauty Institute, a romantic comedy starring Nathalie Baye and Audrey Tautou that recounts the quest for fulfillment of three female employees in a Parisian beauty parlor. After that, she became a prominent figure in the fight against sexism in the French film industry.” – Yahoo! (AP)

“With his tousled dark hair, roguish smile and boxer’s physique, Mr. Whitman was a half-century staple of film and television, appearing in studio blockbusters and John Wayne epics as well as exploitation films and horror schlock. … [He] earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a child molester in The Mark.” – The Washington Post

In addition to being the handsome announcer and sketch actor on Burnett’s show and the foil to Lynda Carter’s superheroine, he was the first-ever centerfold for Playgirl magazine and, later in life, launched a successful business renting custom trailers for actors to retreat to during movie and TV shoots. – Yahoo! (AP)

A grand-niece of Susan B. Anthony, Dwyer was only the second woman ever to win a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra. She joined the BSO in 1952 (negotiating a higher-than-usual salary) and retired in 1990, premiering a new concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in her final season. – The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Dazzle was, of course, the very essence of the Steiner sound. The magisterial tone, the cosmopolitan content, the very assumption that the reader was as intimately familiar with the history of European literature and philosophy as he was: it all went to form the “aura” of his criticism. Names were dropped like confetti, sprinkled from such a height that at times they inevitably missed their target. But he was interested in big pictures, not small incisions. – Times Literary Supplement

Gregotti helped design the 1992 Olympic Stadium in Barcelona and designed the Marassi stadium in Genoa for the 1990 men’s World Cup. He also designed the Grand Thèatre de Provence and Lisbon’s Bélem Cultural Centre. He contracted COVID-19 and died of pneumonia in Milan. – The Guardian (AFP)