Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (movies and TV)

Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) Here is the first segment of our yearend review, saying farewell to some people who in some way made this world a better place, and who will be missed....

We begin with two stars of the silver screen.

Dame Olivia De Havilland, born 1 July 1916 in Tokyo (! to British parents), died 26 July 2020 at the age of 104. She was one of the last surviving cast members of Gone With the Wind (1939). We all cried when the saintly Melanie Hamilton died. Dame Olivia's touching performance earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. 

She was nominated for that award three other times, and won twice, for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). Her impact on the movie industry extended far beyond her acting ability. Her court victory over the notorious Hollywood studio system -- still referred to as "the De Havilland decision" -- changed irrevocably the way that actors would be treated by studios.

Sir Sean Connery, born in Scotland (and don't you forget it -- Scotland, not "England" or "Britain"!) 25 August 1930, died on Hallowe'en, 31 October 2020. His five-decade-long movie career was dominated by the role of James Bond, being the first to bring the role to the big screen and appearing in seven of the spy thrillers. Bond fans will remember that much of the action in the first and last films took place in the Bahamas, and that was where Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep.

Sir Sean's acting career spanned seven decades and he won an Oscar in 1988 for his role in The Untouchables, in which I thought he was rather miscast. Other films included The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Rock. But his best, IMHO, was The Man Who Would Be King, in which he co-starred with Michael Caine as soldiers of fortune whose karma caught up with them in faroff Kafiristan (a real place, actually.) "Peachey never let go of Danny's head..."

Now to the smaller screen....

Alex Trebek, the genial host of the long-running TV quiz show Jeopardy!, died 8 November 2020 after a long and courageous battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  Answers: George Alexander Trebek, Sudbury ON Canada, 22 July  1940. Questions: What was Alex Trebek's real name? Where and when was he born?

Mr Trebek became the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, reviving the show after it had been off the air since 1979. His reassuring presence helped make the answer-and-question game show an entertainment institution, watched daily by millions of fans around the world. In 2014 Mr Trebek set the Guinness World Record for most episodes hosted by the same presenter in 2014. 

He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host seven times between 1989 and 2020 for his work on Jeopardy!, which TV Guide ranked in 2013 as No. 1 on its list of "60 Greatest Game Shows". Mr Trebek continued taping episodes of Jeopardy! throughout his fight with pancreatic cancer, with his final shows taped just a week before his death.

Actor and comedian Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller, born in Brooklyn NY 8 June 1927, died on 11 May 2020. Those who remember him best as the eccentric Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, may be surprised to learn that Mr Stiller was a classically trained actor and author, as well as a comedian. He spent many years with his wife, Anne Meara, as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara. 

Mr Stiller saw a late-career resurgence starting in 1993, playing the father of the feckless George Costanza on the popular sitcom, a part which earned him an Emmy nomination. The year Seinfeld stopped producing new episodes, Stiller began portraying another eccentric -- Arthur Spooner -- on the CBS comedy series The King of Queens, another role which garnered him widespread acclaim.

Considering the kind of year 2020 has been, it's a pity Frank Costanza wasn't here to lead the Festivus "airing of the grievances". I'll try to keep the tradition alive on WWW. 

Still to come: "Noted in passing (sports and music) and (print media)"