NEW YORK – Budd Schulberg, the son of a studio boss who wrote a novel that defined the Hollywood hustle and later proved himself a player with the Oscar-winning screenplay for the Marlon Brando classic "On the Waterfront," died Wednesday at age 95. Schulberg died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, in New York State, said his wife, Betsy Schulberg. He was taken to a nearby medical center, where doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him, she said. "He was very loved," she said, "and cherished." "On the Waterfront," directed by Elia Kazan and filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey, was released in 1954 to great acclaim and won eight Academy Awards. It included one of cinema's most famous lines, uttered by Brando as the failed boxer Terry Malloy: "I coulda been a contender." Schulberg never again approached the success of "On the Waterfront," but he continued to write books, teleplays and screenplays — including the Kazan-directed "A Face in the Crowd" — and scores of articles. Spike Lee was an admirer, dedicating the entertainment satire "Bamboozled" to Schulberg and working with him on a film about boxer Joe Louis. Schulberg was first known for the novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" Published in 1941, it follows the shameless adventures of Sammy Glick (born Shmelka Glickstein) as he steals, schmoozes and backstabs his way from office boy at a New York newspaper to production chief at a major Hollywood studio. Unlike Nathaniel West's "The Day of the Locust," which immortalized the desperation of show business outsiders, Schulberg's book was an insider's account, and Hollywood responded as it would to one of its own: fascinated and betrayed. Everybody from movie executives to columnist Walter Winchell was convinced he or she knew the real-life model for Glick. Schulberg later said he based the character on numerous hustlers he had encountered. "What I had, when I read through my notebook, was not a single person but a pattern of behavior," he later wrote. The model for countless Hollywood satires to come, Schulberg's novel was adapted for television, Broadway (a flop musical starring Steve Lawrence), but, ironically, has waited decades to be made into a film. A planned DreamWorks production featuring Ben Stiller was "in development" in recent years. "I have a feeling they're not going to do it," Schulberg told The Associated Press in 2006. "It's still a little tough for them."
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She played a Civil War doctor and Mrs. Claus. She wrote children's books and spun ghostly tales. Oswego's Rosemary Nesbitt, whose long resume of community involvement includes volunteer, organizer, museum director, drama professor, children's theater director and city historian, died Sunday. She was 84. "Rosemary was a force," said her friend Mercedes Niess, who succeeded Nesbitt as director of the H. Lee White Marine Museum last year. For years Nesbitt would tell stories of Oswego's haunted harbor at the museum and Fort Ontario. At the museum's annual Christmas party, she would arrive by Coast Guard boat dressed as Mrs. Claus. Nesbitt, who founded the museum, retired in January 2008, one day after celebrating its 25th anniversary. Niess was Nesbitt's assistant for many years. "The thing about Rosemary was she wanted you to work as hard as you could and do the best that you could. She brought out the best of everyone," Niess said. Nesbitt's funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mary of the Assumption Church, 103 W. Seventh St., Oswego. Calling hours are private. A public memorial is set for 7 p.m. Aug. 14, in Oswego's Breitbeck Park, near the monument the city dedicated to Nesbitt in 1999. The monument lists Nesbitt's many roles in the Oswego community and includes one of her quotations: "The volunteer made America." "That's Rosemary," Niess said. Nesbitt often gave speeches about the city's early history, volunteerism and Oswego's Dr. Mary Walker, a Civil War doctor and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Nesbitt, who often portrayed Walker in local performances, championed Walker's inclusion into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000. Nesbitt's last public appearance was July 9 before the Fulton Rotary Club, where she spoke about the marine museum. "We went together to the Rotary," Niess said. "The next week I went to pick her up to take her to another engagement and she wasn't feeling well." Born Rosemary Sinnett in Baldwinsville Oct. 12, 1924, Nesbitt graduated from Baldwinsville High School and Union Free Academy in 1942. That year she helped found the Baldwinsville Theater Guild, which bills itself as the oldest continually performing community theater group in New York state. "She was pleased Baldwinsville had a theater group. She started it all those years ago and it's still going," said Jon Barnum, president of the guild's board of directors. Nesbitt graduated from Syracuse University in 1947, received her master's degree in 1952 and then went to England to study the works of William Shakespeare. After she returned, she taught at Wells College in Aurora and Syracuse University for several years before marrying George R. Nesbitt, a General Electric engineer. The Nesbitts had four children. Her husband died in 1971. The family moved to Oswego in 1959 and Nesbitt was hired to teach in the theater department at the State University College at Oswego. She became a distinguished teaching professor in 1977. "Rosemary left a resonating, long-lasting and far-ranging impact on us all. She was a tireless community advocate who cared passionately for Oswego and put a lifetime of energy into letting people know what a special community Oswego is," said SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley in a prepared statement. Nesbitt also served 10 years as chair of the Port of Oswego Authority's board of directors. She left the board in 1988. Nesbitt wrote 15 children's plays and authored two children's books. "The Great Rope," is the story of a young Oswego boy's involvement in the War of 1812 and "Colonel Meacham's Giant Cheese" tells the tale of an Upstate boy who made a 1,400-pound cheese as a gift to President Andrew Jackson. Every year the United Way of Greater Oswego County selects someone to receive its Rosemary Nesbitt Volunteer of the Year Award. "She just got people moving and inspired them to get involved," said Lois Luber, the United Way's resource development director. "She worked with and helped so many nonprofit and other groups. She was always willing to help out where she was needed." John Doherty can be reached at jdoherty@syracuse.com and 470-6078.
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Harve Presnell, whose rich operatic baritone thrilled audiences in the stage and film versions of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and who made an unexpected return to the screen as William H. Macy’s overbearing father-in-law in “Fargo,” died Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 75 and lived in Livingston, Mont
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Danny La Rue, a popular female impersonator who was the first man to take the lead role in a major production of "Hello Dolly," has died May 31in Kent County, south of London, after a short illness. He was 81. He had been suffering from cancer, said his spokeswoman Pat Lake-Smith. Born Daniel Patrick Carroll in Cork, Ireland, La Rue lived from the age of 9 in London, where his widowed mother ran a dress shop. "See what they did to me in England," he once told an audience in Ireland. "I left in short pants and I've come back in a frock." La Rue first donned a dress to entertain fellow sailors while he was serving in the Royal Navy at the end of World War II. Back on land, he toured Britain in variety shows before breaking into London's then-thriving cabaret scene. La Rue -- he had wanted to adopt the stage name D anny Street, but found it was already taken and opted for the French translation -- soon gained fame for his impersonations of divas including Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of Britain's highest-paid entertainers. In 1964, he opened a London nightclub, which attracted a celebrity clientele that ranged from Judy Garland and Noel Coward to Warren Beatty and Princess Margaret. La Rue became a household name in Britain, appearing on dozens of television shows including Royal Variety Performances in front of Queen Elizabeth II. In 2002, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, by the queen, and boasted that he was the first female impersonator honored by the monarch. He wore a sober suit and tie to the Buckingham Palace ceremony, though. He took the role of matchmaker Dolly Levi in a production of "Hello Dolly" which opened in Birmingham 1982 for a season before transferring to Lo ndon's West End.
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Link: Golden Girls' Estelle Getty has died
Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84. Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica. "She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived." "The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers. Three of its stars had already appeared in previous series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's character. "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her," Arthur said in a statement. When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy." In
