The New York Times – Film:
After quietly helping Mel Brooks set the irreverent tone on “Get Smart” and “The Producers,” she had a long collaboration as a writer with the actor and humorist Marshall Efron.
Author: Richard Sandomir
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Jim McNeely, Innovative Composer for Jazz Big Bands, Dies at 76
The New York Times – Music:
A Grammy-winning pianist, he was renowned for works that created “new ideas about line, harmony, rhythm, sound and musical architecture,” one admirer wrote.
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Frank Price, Hollywood Studio Chief Several Times Over, Dies at 95
The New York Times – Film:
He ran Universal’s television and movie businesses and had two stints at Columbia. Running a studio, he said, was “sort of like being the head of a small country.”
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Rick Kuhn, 69, Dies; Convicted in a College Gambling Scandal
The New York Times – Film:
While playing basketball at Boston College, he participated in a point-shaving scheme with Henry Hill, the mobster later portrayed in the movie “Goodfellas.”
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Mike Pinder, Founding Keyboardist of the Moody Blues, Dies at 82
The New York Times – Music:
His expertise on the electromechanical Mellotron helped define the band’s progressive sound in the 1960s and ’70s on albums like “Days of Future Passed.”
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Albert Heath, Jazz Drum Virtuoso, Is Dead at 88
The New York Times – Music:
He accompanied stars like John Coltrane and worked frequently with his brothers. “I’ve always thought I was a master,” he once said. Few disagreed.
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Robert M. Young, Filmmaker Who Indulged His Wanderlust, Dies at 99
The New York Times – Film:
The subjects of his documentaries included Indigenous peoples, civil rights sit-ins and the war in Angola. His narrative films included “Extremities” and “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.”