RIP: Reel Important People -- April 28, 2008
Posted Apr 28th 2008 5:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Obits
Joy Page (1924-2008) - Actress who played the young newlywed "Annina Brandel" in Casablanca. In the film, she's about to desperately prostitute herself for exit Visas, for her husband and herself, when Rick (Bogie) steps in and fixes a roulette wheel so the husband is able to win the Visas instead. She also appears in Kismet, Bullfighter and the Lady and the William Castle-directed western Conquest of Cochise. She was the daughter of silent film star Don Alvarado and the step-daughter of WB chief Jack L. Warner. She died of complications from a stroke and pneumonia April 18, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
- Tristram Cary (1925-2008) - Composer and electronic musician best known for penning the theme to TV's Doctor Who. He also scored The Ladykillers (the 1955 original), Quartermass and the Pit and the 1971 horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb and did sound effects for the 1986 animated feature When the Wind Blows and 1967's Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. A pioneer of electronic music, he co-designed a synthesizer that was used by Pink Floyd, The Who and Roxy Music. He died April 24 in Adelaide, Australia. (Telegraph)
- Walter Groebli (1915-2008) - Ice skating comic who was known as "Mr. Frick" in the skating duo Frick and Frack (Hans "Frack" Mauch died in 1979). With his partner, he appears in the '40s musicals Silver Skates and Lady, Let's Dance. He died April 14 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Variety)
- Kay Linaker (1913-2008) - Actress and screenwriter who co-wrote the original, classic 1958 sci-fi-horror film The Blob (under her real name Kate Phillips), for which she was also credited when it was remade thirty years later. As an actress she appears in films from the '30s and '40s, including minor roles in Laura, The More the Merrier, Drums Along the Mohawk, Young Mr. Lincoln, Kitty Foyle and five Charlie Chan mysteries. She died April 18, in Keene, New Hampshire. (Variety)
- Stephan Miller (c.1969-2008) - Animal trainer who worked on The Postman, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story. He died April 22, in Big Bear Lake, California, from a bite to the neck from "Rocky" the grizzly bear from Semi-Pro. (AP)
- Geneviève Winding (1927-2008) - French film editor who worked on Régis Wargnier's Oscar-winner Indochine, as well as his A French Woman and I'm the King of the Castle, plus Francis Girod's Le Bon Plaisir, Descent Into Hell, Death in Therapy and The Elegant Criminal and Jean Renoir's made-for-television work The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir. She died April 15. (Le Monde)
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