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When Kirk Douglas died in 2020 at the age of 103 (!), he left behind a massive legacy of over 90 films that even the most stalwart cineastes haven't been able to work their way through. Known for his affable smile and intense performances, Douglas is one of Hollywood's most famous leading men, and was the industry's most profitable actor throughout the 1950s. He was also a producing powerhouse, having started his own production company, Bryna Productions, which handled some of his best-known films. Bryna backed the Stanley Kubrick movies "Paths of Glory" and "Spartacus," as well as "The Vikings," "Seconds," "Seven Days in May," and, later on, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Douglas never lost sight of the evolving nature of film, rarely resting on trends or genres. 

In 1962, Bryna also backed a neo-Western called "Lonely Are the Brave." Set in the present day, "Brave" stars Douglas as a Korean War veteran...

Gena Rowlands, a Hollywood legend, starred in unforgettable films like A Woman Under the Influence. Rowlands and John Cassavetes' disastrous first date led to a legendary 35-year marriage. Rowlands' Hollywood legacy includes accolades like the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

The decorated and endlessly talented Gena Rowlands was one of the silver screen's most unique performers, having dazzled audiences all across the world with her unforgettable roles in films like A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, Another Woman, and The Notebook. The recipient of numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, four Emmys, and the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actress, Rowlands dominated Hollywood for nearly 70 years.

Her enduring personal and professional relationship with innovative actor and director John Cassavetes also helped elevate the gifted duo, who would go on to collaborate on 10 films together over the course of more than 20 sensational years. The Tinseltown power couple left an...

In the history of American movies, and, arguably, of movies in general, there has never been a partnership between a husband and wife as consequential as that of director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.

Not only did the two make several masterpieces together, among them Faces, A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night. They managed to create a whole body of deeply personal features — shot completely outside of the studio system and often inside their own family home in the Hollywood Hills — that would usher in the era of what we now call “independent film.”

Surely, there had been some memorable director-actress duos before them, mostly in Europe: Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti. But in those cases, which definitely yielded their share of masterpieces as well, the director was the auteur and the actress his muse.

Gena Rowlands, whose seminal and fearless performance in “A Woman Under the Influence” inspired a generation and who starred in many other John Cassavetes features as well as the romance “The Notebook,” died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent. In June, Nick Cassavetes, who directed his mother in “The Notebook,” shared that the three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rowlands’ role as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 drama “A Woman Under the Influence,” written for her and directed by husband John Cassavetes, landed the actor the first of two Academy Award nominations. The other nom was for “Gloria” (1980), also directed by her husband. In November 2015, she was awarded an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors Awards in recognition of her storied career.

“Working this long? I didn...

Gena Rowlands, the award-winning actress known for her roles in films such as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, and The Notebook, has died at the age of 94.

Rowlands died Wednesday, August 14th, at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to TMZ. She had been battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Hailing from Cambria, Wisconsin, Rowlands originally got her start in theater, studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Upon graduating, she starred in several repertory productions before making her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch. She later starred in the Broadway play Middle of the Night.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, Rowlands transitioned to a career in television. She starred in the syndicated television series Top Secret and made guest appearances on shows including Laramie, Riverboat, 77 Sunset Strip, and Dr. Kildare. She also appeared on several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

However,...

In the heart of Western Europe, above the gorge of the Alzette river, sits Luxembourg City, a trash-free Eurotopia where the trams are free and the streets are ranked amongst the safest in the world. It’s a long way away from the frontier justice of The Dead Don’t Hurt, a revisionist Western about love in a lawless place written and directed by, and also starring Viggo Mortensen, who––never one to slouch––also composed the film’s score. “I did the score for my first movie as well,” the endearingly polite and casually plaid-shirted polymath explained to me on a recent morning at the Lux Film Fest, “that one took a long time to get financed, longer than this one, and while I was waiting, I was trying to think, ‘What can I do?’ I’ve got the script where I want it, I have the main actor, Lance Henriksen,...

Cowboys & Aliens was filmed in multiple locations to capture the spirit of both Western movies and science-fiction adventures. Albuquerque, New Mexico was chosen as the main setting for its desert landscapes that accurately reflected the world of the movie. Randsberg, California and Los Angeles were also used for certain shots, utilizing soundstages.

Cowboys & Aliens was released in 2011, and the movie was shot over a few different locations. Due to the film being a hybrid of the sci-fi and Western genres, locations for the movie needed to reflect the legacy of the latter. However, the science-fiction elements of Cowboys & Aliens couldn't be ignored, and certain sequences just wouldn't have been possible had the production not moved around. While the film didn't go down as one of the greatest Western movies, or even one of Daniel Craig's best movies, its creative approach earned it some plaudits.

Adapted from...

The story opens with a familiar scene. A Cowboy rests on a wide-open, black-and-white Western landscape. Kirk Douglas' hat shades his eyes. Something is different though; a rumble on the soundtrack, growing louder. The cowboy looks up and sees a trio of jets leading contrails through the sky. The clash between the opening images of David Miller's 1962 proto-revisionist Western Lonely Are the Brave is almost violent. The archetypal cowboy character we recognize from our movie screens is drawn pertinently as a mythic figure at odds with the world we see through our windows.

The relationship between fathers and sons is complicated. It can be tough, tender, loving, combative, disappointing, violent, the stuff of Shakespearean and even Greek tragedy. It’s little wonder there have been countless films exploring fathers and sons including “East of Eden,” “Finding Nemo,” “Back to the Future,” “Field of Dreams,” “Nebraska,” “Fences,” “Beginners” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

One of the most indelible is Martin Ritt’s “Hud,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary. And time hasn’t diminished the power of this unapologetic drama starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and Brandon De Wilde.

Newman had played characters of questionable morality such as his Oscar-nominated turn “Fast” Eddie Felsen in 1961’s “The Hustler,” but he had never played anyone quite like Hud, the ultimate heel who never met a bottle of booze he wouldn’t drink or a married woman he didn’t seduce. Living on a cattle ranch in a tiny,...

Taylor Sheridan’s reality series The Last Cowboy returns for its second season with a promo that highlights the “magic of the west” and the “rugged individuality” that it represents, according to the show’s EP.

The series is moving from Paramount Network to CMT for its second season launching on November 12 and the country-themed cabler has set a new teaser, which you can see above.

The series is an inside look at real life cowboys and cowgirls and the high-stakes sport of horse reining – a Western-based competition where riders guide horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins and stops – as they prepare for the biggest bout in the sport’s history, The Run for a Million.

Glenda Hersh, who runs production company Truly Original, which makes the series, told Deadline that Yellowstone creator Sheridan is “so passionate” about the reining community and the sport and is a reiner himself.

This weekly feature is in addition to TVLine’s daily What to Watch listings and monthly guide to What’s on Streaming.

With nearly 500 scripted shows now airing across broadcast, cable and streaming, it’s easy to forget that a favorite comedy is returning, or that the new “prestige drama” you anticipated is about to debut. So consider this our reminder to set your DVR, order a Season Pass, pop a fresh Memorex into the Vcr… however it is you roll.

More from TVLineYellowstone Season 4 Premiere Recap: You 'Herd' It Here First -- [Spoiler] Dies1883: Yellowstone Prequel Trailer Features Sam Elliott,...

Exclusive: The Last Cowboy, the unscripted series hatched by Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan, is moving from the Paramount Network to CMT. CMT has set November 12 as the premiere date for the second season. The show will air beginning November 12 at 8 Pm Et/Pt.

The Last Cowboy is an inside look at real-life cowboys and cowgirls and the high-stakes sport of horse reining – a Western-based competition where riders guide horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins and stops – as they prepare for the biggest bout in the sport’s history: “The Run for a Million.” The series chronicles reiners determined to elevate and preserve the cowboy tradition as they train and engage in the exclusive, ultra-competitive athletic event.

The Last Cowboy is being produced for CMT by Truly Original with Glenda Hersh, Steven Weinstock, Michelle Schiefen, Julie “Bob” Lombardi and Alexandra Lowry serving as executive producers. Sheridan, David C. Glasser,...

The former head of the ACLU discusses some of the movies – and sports legends – that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mighty Ira (2020)

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

42 (2013)

Shane (1953)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Last Year At Marienbad (1962)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

La Strada (1954)

Wild Strawberries (1957) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

The Virgin Spring (1960) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Last House On The Left (1972) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

A Walk In The Sun (1945) – Glenn Erickson’s review

Paths Of Glory (1957) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, John Landis’s trailer commentary

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) – Ed Neumeier’s trailer commentary

Lonely Are The Brave (1962)

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

On The Waterfront (1954) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

12 Angry Men (1957)

Inherit The Wind (1960)

Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

Witness For The Prosecution (1957)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The Verdict (1982)

Twelve Angry Men teleplay (1954)

The Front (1976)

Judgment At Nuremberg teleplay...

Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s comeback comedy performed decently enough at the box office, but its real accomplishment is vaulting Walter Matthau into mainline stardom. Matthau embodies the most venal ambulance chaser alive: Whiplash Willie Gingrich. His sad insurance scam scramble for unearned, undeserved loot is more of an exposé of sagging American values than anything particularly satirical. Jack Lemmon is the straight man this time around. He spends much of the movie in a medical collar, being victimized to make a fast buck. But Matthau hits the laughs out of the park — it’s an inspired performance that won him a Best Supporting Oscar. “You know Willie. He could find a loophole in the Ten Commandments.”

The Fortune Cookie

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Meet Whiplash Willie / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West, Cliff Osmond, Lurene Tuttle.

Cinematography:...

October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.

It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...

While the summer movie season will kick off shortly––and we’ll be sharing a comprehensive preview on the arthouse, foreign, indie, and (few) studio films worth checking out––on the streaming side, The Criterion Channel and Mubi have unveiled their May 2021 lineups and there’s a treasure trove of highlights to dive into.

Timed with Satyajit Ray’s centenary, The Criterion Channel will have a retrospective of the Indian master, along with series on Gena Rowlands, Robert Ryan, Mitchell Leisen, Michael Almereyda, Josephine Decker, and more. In terms of recent releases, they’ll also feature Fire Will Come, The Booksellers, and the new restoration of Tom Noonan’s directorial debut What Happened Was….

On Mubi, in anticipation of Undine, they’ll feature two essential early features by Christian Petzold, Jerichow and The State That I Am In, along with his 1990 short documentary Süden. Also amongst the lineup is Sophy Romvari’s Still Processing,...

“Lonesome Cowboy”

By Raymond Benson

The late actor Kirk Douglas has often cited that one of his favorite pictures he ever made was Lonely are the Brave, a “western” set in its contemporary year of release (1962).

Based on Edward Abbey’s 1956 novel, The Brave Cowboy, the picture was shot on location in New Mexico and directed by David Miller, a craftsman who worked with a variety of genres and subjects (he gave us the 1952 film noir Sudden Fear and the 1941 Billy the Kid). Most significantly, the screenplay is by Dalton Trumbo, whom Douglas “rescued” from blacklist hell two years earlier by giving the writer screen credit for his work on Spartacus (and effectively ending the blacklist). It is indeed Trumbo’s script—and Douglas’ fine performance—that makes Lonely are the Brave a quality movie.

Jack Burns is a cowboy, a loner, a drifter, a man without a real home...

Glenda Hersh and Steven Weinstock have renewed their deals to remain Co-Presidents and Co-CEOs of The Real Housewives of Atlanta producer Truly Original.

The pair originally founded True Entertainment in 2000, before it was acquired by Endemol Shine in 2003 and merged it with Endemol Shine North America’s Original Media in 2017.

The New York-based company produces a slew of reality hits; in addition to The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Potomac, it makes Shahs of Sunset, Swamp People, Summer House, Basketball Wives, the Ink Master franchise, The Last Cowboy, produced with Taylor Sheridan and Bravo’s Family Karma.

“For the last two decades, Glenda and Steven’s track record in the unscripted space has been second to none and we’re thrilled that they will be continuing on with us for many years to come,” said Cris Abrego, CEO, Endemol Shine North America. “They both possess a very strong business acumen...

The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Key Largo (1948)

I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)

Camila (1984)

I, the Worst of All (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Le Corbeau (1943)

Diabolique (1955)

Red Beard (1965)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Ikiru (1952)

General Della Rovere (1959)

The Gold of Naples (1959)

Bitter Rice (1949)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Viva Zapata! (1952)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Yellow Sky (1948)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Wall Street (1987)

Women’s Prison (1955)

True Love (1989)

Mean Streets (1973)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Abyss (1989)

The China Syndrome (1979)

Big (1988)

Splash (1984)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Long Strange Trip (2017)

Little Women (2019)

Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)

The Guns of Navarone...

“A good day for living and a good day to die,” Bob Dylan sings on his epic, nearly 17-minute-long, song “Murder Most Foul.” Dylan released the track at midnight, March 27, according to Variety. The song uses the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to chronicle the decade it defined. “The day they killed him, someone said to me, son, the age of the antichrist has just only begun,” he sings. The offering is perfect for lyrical deconstructionists to pick apart while stuck at home during periods of enforced isolation.

“Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” Dylan wrote when he announced the song via Twitter. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”

There is no indication on when the song was recorded,...

ViacomCBS has signed “Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan to an overall deal and renewed the Kevin Costner-led drama for a fourth season.

Sheridan’s deal covers multiple projects for the newly created Entertainment & Youth Studios led by Chris McCarthy. David Glasser and 101 Studios will executive produce all projects under the deal. Keith Cox, President of ViacomCBS Entertainment and Youth Studios, will oversee the projects.

“Yellowstone” is the most-watched scripted series in the two-year history of Paramount Network, which was re-branded from Spike in 2018. The early renewal for “Yellowstone” comes ahead of the drama’s third-season premiere this summer.

Also Read: Why ViacomCBS Just Pulled an About-Face With New Streaming Plans

Sheridan’s deal also includes a first season of scripted drama “Mayor of Kingstown,” which was ordered last month. Set in a small Michigan town centered on seven federal prisons, “Mayor of Kingstown” follows the McClusky family, the power brokers between the criminals,...

“Yellowstone” has been renewed for a fourth season at Paramount Network ahead of the third season premiere this summer. In addition, series co-creator Taylor Sheridan has signed an overall deal with ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Brands.

Though early, the fourth season renewal comes as little surprise. “Yellowstone” has proven to be a breakout hit for Paramount Network, averaging around 5 million viewers per episode in delayed viewing. It stars Kevin Costner along with Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White, Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham. It was co-created by Sheridan and John Linson. Sheridan, John and Art Linson, and Costner executive produce along with David C. Glasser and Bob Yari. It is co-produced by Paramount Television and 101 Studios.

Sheridan’s deal covers multiple projects across Chris McCarthy’s portfolio, including projects for the newly created Entertainment & Youth Studios. David Glasser and 101 Studios will executive...

Exclusive: ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Brands has signed a rich overall production and development deal with Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan. The pact, said to be well into the eight figures, covers multiple projects across the division run by Chris McCarthy, including projects for the newly created Entertainment & Youth Studios. David Glasser and his 101 Studios will executive produce all projects under the deal.

Additionally, Paramount Network has ordered a fourth season of its flagship series Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner, ahead of its Season 3 premiere on the summer.

This marks the first overall deal for ViacomCBS’ recently formed Entertainment & Youth Brands unit, which encompasses MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel, VH1, Pop, Cmt, TV Land, Logo and their respective content studios, as McCarthy is putting his stamp on his expanded portfolio. Keith Cox, President of ViacomCBS Entertainment and Youth Studios, who has played a key role in fostering the relationship with Sheridan at Paramount Network,...

Kirk Douglas represented the embodiment of Hollywood stardom, but he likely would not have been a fan of Sunday’s Oscar show. Indeed, he might have ended up standing offstage with Quentin Tarantino, both wondering why the ceremonies seem oddly distanced from both Hollywood and its stars.

Tarantino made a downright affectionate movie about Hollywood, but had to watch a Korean filmmaker seize the Best Picture statuette. Quentin and Kirk know that the Oscar show had originally been invented by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Charlie Chaplin to prove that the talent – i.e., stars – still ran the show, not the corporations.

Ninety years later, star vehicles don’t win Oscars. Further, post-Oscar analysts focus less on the winning feature and its star than on whether Netflix’s lavish $100 million awards campaign paid off in sufficient trophies (the streamer won 24 nominations but only two Oscars).

Douglas coveted the awards derby.

Kirk Douglas always comes out fighting. I use the present tense, because it’s damn near impossible to think of this paragon of golden-age Hollywood stardom any other way.

Yes, his son Michael Douglas formally announced yesterday that his father had died at the Methuselah-level age of 103, but it’s still hard to think this pugnacious defender of the underdog is really gone. Say these three words aloud — “I am Spartacus” — and you’ll conjure up the image of Douglas, a strapping 44 years old at the time, bearing down on...

Los Angeles – From his chiseled-from-marble good looks to his actor intensity on screen, Kirk Douglas defined the very concept of Movie Star. The actor also broke records for longevity, living to the ripe old age of 103. Kirk Douglas died of natural causes on February 5th, 2020, at his home in Los Angeles.

Douglas was known for his fierce commitment to his craft, and his independent spirit … he formed his own production company after dissatisfaction with the movie studio system of his era. He made several classic films, even a popular Walt Disney live action feature. He was father to Oscar-winner Michael Douglas, as well as three other sons from two marriages (his was married to his second wife for 66 years). He also committed his life to several charitable causes.

I Am Kirk Douglas: The Actor in ‘Spartacus’

Photo credit: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Douglas was born Issur Danielovich in Amsterdam, New...

Martin Amis’ 1984 novel “Money,” inspired by his painful experiences as the screenwriter of the disastrous 1980 sci-fi movie “Saturn 3,” includes a character based on “Saturn 3” star Kirk Douglas: “Lorne Guyland,” an aging but still virile screen legend, “had, in his time, on stage or screen, interpreted the roles of Genghis Khan, Al Capone, Marco Polo, Huckleberry Finn, Charlemagne, Paul Revere, Erasmus, Wyatt Earp, Voltaire, Sky Masterson, Einstein, Jack Kennedy, Rembrandt, Babe Ruth, Oliver Cromwell, Amerigo Vespucci, Zorro, Darwin, Sitting Bull, Freud, Napoleon, Spider-Man, Macbeth, Melville, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Methuselah, Mozart, Merlin, Marx, Mars, Moses and Jesus Christ.”

And while “Money” is not, on the whole, particularly kind to Kirk Douglas, this list does reflect the breadth and scope of a screen career that started in 1946 and culminated in the early 21st century.

On screen, Douglas was the epitome of the square-jawed leading man, whether he was playing a Roman slave,...

Kirk Douglas: Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at the 1st Annual Hollywood Film Awards® in 1997. Douglas came to silver screen stardom during the Golden Age of Hollywood in films like “Spartacus,” “Ace In the Hole”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “Paths of Glory,” among many others. Visit Hollywood Film Awards® “Kirk Douglas was an American actor, producer, director, philanthropist and author. After an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films. Douglas was known for his explosive acting style, which he displayed as a criminal defense attorney in Town Without Pity (1961). Douglas became an international star through positive reception for his leading role as an unscrupulous...

Kirk Douglas was Mr. Hollywood. That’s not just because of his acting and producing career: The iconic actor, who died Wednesday, was a constant presence at showbiz-related functions, whether the opening of a theater, a charity event, political fund-raiser or awards show. His 1996 stroke slowed him down, but only temporarily.

Douglas enjoyed being the ham and playing to the crowd, but these public appearances were aimed at shining a light on others, not on himself. Long before it was fashionable, he and wife Anne formed a charitable organization, the Douglas Foundation in 1964. Among other initiatives, it funds programs to improve school campuses and playgrounds, hand out scholarships, foster an early-education program at Sinai Temple and backs the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund.

One of his pet causes was the Motion Picture TV Fund. After years of supporting the organization, both with appearances and donations, he...

It's always hard to say goodbye. Legendary film actor Kirk Douglas passed away on Wednesday at the age of 103. The actor starred in such films as Spartacus, Champion, and Lonely Are the Brave over the course of his long career in Hollywood. Beyond the big screen, the actor was most widely known for his relationship with his family, and especially his son and fellow actor Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. "To my darling Kirk," Zeta-Jones shared on Instagram, "I shall love you for the rest of my life. I miss you already. Sleep tight..." Michael has always been open about expressing how much he looks up to and admires his father, and was the one to...

Michael Douglas pays tribute to “a legend, a humanitarian”.

Kirk Douglas, the feisty and beloved star of Spartacus and Lust For Life and committed humanitarian activist, has died. He was 103.

Announcing the death on Instagram, son Michael Douglas paid tribute to “a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”

In a statement, Steven Spielberg said, ”Kirk retained his movie star charisma right to the end of his wonderful life...

Kirk Douglas, the dimple-chinned “Spartacus” star with the larger-than-life persona, died Wednesday. He was 103.

He was the father of actor Michael Douglas and paterfamilias of a Hollywood family that included his sons, producers Joel and Peter and grandson Cameron Douglas.

Michael Douglas posted about his father on Instagram, saying, “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103.”

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It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103. To the world he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to. But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad,...

Paramount Network has given a series order to the drama “Mayor of Kingstown” from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, the network announced Tuesday during the Television Critics Association press tour.

At the same time, the Viacom cable network also announced that it has picked up a second season of the Sheridan-produced unscripted series “The Last Cowboy” and released a new teaser (below) for the upcoming third season of “Yellowstone,” featuring new cast member Josh Holloway.

Set in a small Michigan town where the only industry remaining are federal, state and private prisons, “Mayor of Kingstown” follows the McClusky family, the power brokers between the police, criminals, inmates, prison guards and politicians in a city completely dependent on prisons and the prisoners they contain.

Also Read: 'Ink Master' Judge Oliver Peck to Leave Show After Old Blackface Photo Resurfaces

The series is described as “a stark and brutal look at the business of incarceration.

Paramount Network is remaining in business with Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan, picking up his drama Mayor of Kingstown to series and handing his unscripted series The Last Cowboy a second season.

The ViacomCBS-owned network has ordered a first season of Mayor of Kingstown, which is produced by Yellowstone producer 101 Studios.

The show is set in a small Michigan town where the only industry remaining are federal, state, and private prisons, the story follows the McClusky family, the power brokers between the police, criminals, inmates, prison guards and politicians, in a city completely dependent on prisons and the prisoners they contain. It is a stark and brutal look at the business of incarceration.

Sheridan exec produces alongside co-creator Hugh Dillon and David Glasser.

Paramount has also renewed The Last Cowboy for a second, six-part series. The show chronicles the lives of men and women who compete on the regular reining circuit,...

Paramount Network just can’t get enough of Taylor Sheridan.

The cabler has ordered the scripted drama “Mayor of Kingstown” from Sheridan, who is the co-creator of the hit Paramount Network drama “Yellowstone.” In addition, Paramount Network has renewed Sheridan’s unscripted series “The Last Cowboy” for a second season.

Set in a small Michigan town where the only industry remaining are federal, state, and private prisons, “Mayor of Kingstown” follows the McClusky family, the power brokers between the police, criminals, inmates, prison guards and politicians, in a city completely dependent on prisons and the prisoners they contain.

The series comes from co-creator and executive producer Sheridan, along with co-creator and executive producer Hugh Dillon, executive producer David Glasser, and 101 Studios.

Over its six one-hour episodes, “The Last Cowboy” chronicles the lives of men and women who compete on the regular reining circuit, a western-based competition where riders guide...

Edward Lewis, an independent producer best known for “Spartacus” and “Missing,” died at the age of 99 in his Los Angeles home on July 27. He produced 33 films, which garnered 15 Oscars and Golden Globe awards as well as 90 nominations. Additionally, he co-wrote musicals, works of fiction, and screenplays with the his partner and wife, Mildred, who died April 7.

A passionate opposer of the Hollywood blacklist, Lewis was given credit for clearing the name of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo by hiring him for “Spartacus.” Lewis went on to produce “The Last Sunset,” “Lonely Are The Brave,” and “Executive Action,” all films written by Trumbo.

Lewis and his wife were nominated for a best picture Oscar for Costa-Gavras’ 1982 drama “Missing.” They worked together on a number of other projects including, “Harold and Maude” and “Brothers.” He and his wife also co-wrote the books “Heads You Lose” and “Masquerade.”

Born Dec. 16, 1919 in Camden, New Jersey, the...

The acting legend Kirk Douglas (and father of Michael Douglas) crosses the century mark on December 9, 2016. Here are his 10 most memorable roles:

Champion (1949)

Kirk Douglas earned his first Oscar nomination for playing the dogged boxer Midge Kelly in a black-and-white drama written by Carl Forman (“High Noon”).

Ace in the Hole (1950)

In one of Billy Wilder’s most cynical dramas, Douglas plays a ruthless journalist who exploits a mining disaster — even sabotaging rescue efforts at one point — to prolong the media furor.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1951)

He earned his second Oscar nomination playing another cad — this time a power-obsessed Hollywood producer said to be modeled on David O. Selznick.

Lust for Life (1956)

In a departure from his cynical big-screen roles, Douglas brought real sympathy to his portrayal of tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh in Vincente Minnelli’s biopic — and the actor earned his third Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

“Come on, come on, I’d love it — don’t hang back!” dares Gloria Swenson, brandishing a gun at three mobsters that know she means business. Gena Rowlands is electric as a tough New York ex- gangland moll who finds that her maternal instincts make her deadlier than the male. John Cassavetes’ commercial crowd-pleaser is also a smart, sassy gangland mini-classic.

Gloria

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date August 21, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Gena Rowlands, Buck Henry, John Adames, Julie Carmen, Lupe Garnica, Jessica Castillo, Basilio Franchina, Val Avery, Tom Noonan.

Cinematography: Fred Schuler

Film Editor: George C. Villaseñor

Original Music: Bill Conti

Produced by Sam Shaw

Written and Directed by John Cassavetes

Do you have a list of movies that you’ll watch again, just to enjoy a particular actor’s performance? Gena Rowlands is one of those people that pull you in.

Kirk Douglas grits his teeth and goes full macho, wrasslin’ with that beautiful Sioux up in the high country — the Sioux miss in question being the Italian model Elsa Martinelli in her screen debut. Kirk can’t decide if he wants to stay with Elsa, or lead what must be the most shameful bunch of pioneer bigots ever to cross the plains. Walter Matthau and Diana Douglas are standouts in this vigorous action western directed by André de Toth.

The Indian Fighter

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1955 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 88 min. / Street Date May 9, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Elsa Martinelli, Walter Matthau, Diana Douglas, Walter Abel, Lon Chaney Jr., Eduard Franz, Alan Hale Jr., Elisha Cook Jr., Ray Teal, Frank Cady, Michael Winkelman, William Phipps.

Cinematography: Wilfrid M. Cline

Art Direction: Wiard Ihnen

Film Editor: Richard Cahoon

Original Music: Irving Gordon, Franz Waxman

Written by Robert L. Richards,...

Kirk Douglas celebrated his 100th birthday with a party attended by some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

His son, Michael Douglas, and daughter-in-law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, were in attendance, as well as other members from the Douglas clan, including Michael and Catherine’s two children, Dylan Michael and Carys Zeta.

About 135 guests arrived to a private room in the Beverly Hills Hotel at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday before later gathering at tables named after some of his favorite films. Kirk’s family table was named, “Lonely Are the Brave.”

“It’s Kirk’s favorite film of his,” a source tells People.

Kirk Douglas, one of Hollywood's most celebrated icons, turns 100 on Friday, marking a milestone in a life filled with some of the best roles a star could hope for and some of the best performances anyone has ever given.

With three Oscar nominations and an honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar under his belt, Et is taking a look back at some of Douglas' greatest films in honor of his special day.

Photos: 12 Actors' Kids Who Went On To Become Stars

1. Champion (1949)

United Artists

In one of his first leading roles, Douglas starred as a boxer named Midge Kelly, whose rise to fame and stardom in the ring brings out his vain, cruel side in his private life. The black and white noir drama earned Douglas his first of three Oscar nominations.

2. Ace in the Hole (1951)

Paramount Pictures

In this brooding, cynical noir thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a disgraced...

“We used to go to the movies. Now we want the movies to come to us, on our televisions, tablets and phones, as streams running into an increasingly unnavigable ocean of media. The dispersal of movie watching across technologies and contexts follows the multiplexing of movie theaters, itself a fragmenting of the single screen theater where movie love was first concentrated and consecrated. (But even in the “good old days,” movies were often only part of an evening’s entertainment that came complete with vaudeville acts and bank nights). For all this, moviegoing still means what it always meant, joining a community, forming an audience and participating in a collective dream.” –

From the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s programming notes for its current series, “Marquee Movies: Movies on Moviegoing”

Currently under way at the Billy Wilder Theater inside the Armand Hammer Museum in Westwood, the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s far-reaching and fascinating series “Marquee Movies: Movies on Moviegoing” takes sharp aim at an overview of how the movies themselves have portrayed the act of going out to see movies during these years of seismic change in the way we see them. What’s best about the collection of films curated for the series is its scope, which sweeps along from the anything-goes exhibition of the silent era, on through an examination of the opulent era of grandiose movie palaces and post-war audience predilection for exploitation pictures, and straight into an era—ours—of a certain nostalgia for the ways we used to exclusively gather in dark places to watch visions jump out at us from the big screen. (That nostalgia, as it turns out, is often colored by a rear-view perspective on the times which contextualizes it and sometimes gives it a bitter tinge.) As the program notes for the Marquee Movies series puts it, whether you’re an American moviegoer or one from France, Italy, Argentina or Taiwan, “the current sense of loss at the passing of an exhibition era takes its place in the ongoing history of cultural and industrial transformation reflected in these films.”

The series took its inaugural bow last Friday night with a rare 35mm screening of Matinee (1993), director Joe Dante and screenwriter Charlie Haas’s vividly imagined tribute to movie love during a time in Us history which lazy writers frequently like to describe as “the point when America lost its innocence” or some other such silliness. For Americans, and for a whole lot of other people the world over, those days in 1962 during what would come to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis felt more like days when something a whole lot more tangible than “innocence” was about to be lost, what with the Us and Russia being on the brink of nuclear confrontation and all. The movie lays down this undercurrent of fear and uncertainty as the foundation which tints its main action, that of the arrival of exploitation movie impresario Laurence Woolsey (John Goodman, channeling producer and gimmick maestro William Castle) to Key West, Florida, to promote his latest shock show, Mant!, on the very weekend that American troops set to sea, ready to fire on Russian missile installments a mere 90 miles away in Cuba.

Woolsey’s hardly worried that his potential audience will be distracted the specter of annihilation; in fact, he’s energized by it, convinced that the free-floating anxiety will translate into box office dollars contributed by nervous kids and adults looking for a safe and scary good time, a disposal cinematic depository for all their worst fears. And it certainly doesn’t matter that Woolsey’s movie is a corny sci-fi absurdity-- all the better for his particular brand of enhancements. Mant!, a lovingly sculpted mash-up of 1950s hits like The Fly and Them!, benefits from “Atomo-vision,” which incorporates variants of Castle innovations like Emergo and Percepto, as well as “Rumble-rama,” a very crude precursor to Universal’s Oscar-winning Sensurround system. The movie’s Saturday afternoon screening is where Dante and Haas really let loose their tickled and twisted imaginations, with the help of Woolsey’s theatrical enhancements.

Leading up to the fearful and farcical unleashing of Mant!, Dante stages a beautifully understated sequence that moved me to tears when I saw it with my daughters last Friday night at the Billy Wilder Theater. Matinee is seen primarily through the eyes of young Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton), a military kid whose dad is among those waiting it out on nuclear-armed boats pointed in the direction of Cuba. Gene is a monster-movie nerd (and a clear stand-in for Dante, Haas and just about anybody—like me—whose primary biblical text was provided not by that fella in the burning bush but instead by Forrest J. Ackerman within the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland), and he manages to worm his way into Woolsey’s good graces as the producer prepares the local theater to show his picture. At one point he walks down the street in the company of the larger-than-life producer, who starts talking about his inspirations and why he makes the sort of movies he does:

“A zillion years ago, a guy’s living in a cave,” Woolsey expounds. “He goes out one day—Bam! He gets chased by a mammoth. Now, he’s scared to death, but he gets away. And when it’s all over with, he feels great.”

Gene, eager to believe but also to understand, responds quizzically-- “Well, yeah, ‘cause he’s still living.”

“Yeah, but he knows he is, and he feels it,” Woolsey counters. “So he goes home, back to the cave. First thing he does, he does a drawing of a mammoth.” (At this point the brick wall which the two of them are passing becomes a blank screen onto which Woolsey conjures an animated behemoth that entrances Gene and us.) Woolsey continues:

“He thinks, ‘People are coming to see this. Let’s make it good. Let’s make the teeth real long and the eyes real mean.’ Boom! The first monster movie. That’s probably why I still do it. You make the teeth as big as you want, then you kill it off, everything’s okay, the lights come up,” Woolsey concludes, ending his illustrative fantasy with a sigh.

But that’s not all, folks. At this point, Dante cuts to a Steadicam shot as it moves into the lobby hall of that Key West theater, past posters of Hatari!, Lonely are the Brave, Six Black Horses and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The tracking shot continues up the stairs, letting us get a really close look at the worn, perhaps pungent carpet, most likely the same rug that was laid down when the theater opened 30 or so years earlier, into the snack bar area, then glides over to the closed swinging doors leading into the auditorium, while Woolsey continues:

“You see, the people come into your cave with the 200-year-old carpet, the guy tears your ticket in half—it’s too late to turn back now. The water fountain’s all booby-trapped and ready, the stuff laid out on the candy counter. Then you come over here to where it’s dark-- there could be anything in there—and you say, ‘Here I am. What have you got for me?’”

Forget nostalgia for a style of moviegoing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more compact, evocative and heartfelt tribute to the space in which we used to see movies than those couple of minutes in Matinee. The shot and the narration work so vividly together that I swear I could whiff the must underlying that carpet, papered over lovingly with the smell of popcorn wafting through the confined space of that tiny snack bar, just as if I was a kid again myself, wandering into the friendly confines of the Alger Theater in Lakeview, Oregon (More on that place next week.)

Dante’s movie is a romp, no doubt, but its nostalgia is a heartier variety than what we usually get, and it leaves us with an undercurrent of uneasiness that is unusual for a genre most enough content to look back through amber. Woolsey’s words resonate for every youngster who has searched for reasons to explain their attraction to the scary side of cinema and memories of the places where those images were first encountered, but in Matinee there’s another terror with which to contend, one not so easily held at bay.

Of course the real world monster of the movie— the bomb— was also, during that weekend in 1962 and in Matinee’s representation of the missile crisis, “killed off,” making “everything okay.” But Dante makes us understand that while calm has been momentarily restored, something deeper has been forever disturbed. The movie acknowledges the societal disarray which was already under way in Vietnam, and the American South, and only months away from spilling out from Dallas and onto the greater American landscape in a way so much less containable than even the radiative effects of a single cataclysmic event. That awareness leaves Matinee with a sorrowful aftertaste that is hard to shake. The movie’s last image, of our two main characters gathered on the beach, greeting helicopters that are flying home from having hovered at the precipice of nuclear destruction, is one of relief for familial unity restored—Gene is, after all, getting his dad back. But it’s also one of foreboding. Dante leaves us with an extreme close-up of a copter looming into frame, absent even the context of the sky, bearing down on us like a real-life mutant creature, an eerie bellwether of political and societal chaos yet to come as a stout companion to the movie’s general air of celebratory remembrance.

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The “Marquee Movies” series has already seen Matinee (last Friday night), Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) paired with Polish director Wojciech Marczewski’s 1990 Escape from Liberty Island (last Saturday night), and Ettore Scola’s masterful Splendor (1989), which screened last Sunday night.

But there’s plenty more to come. Sunday, June 12, the archive series unveils a double bill of Lloyd Bacon’s Footlight Parade (1933) with the less well-known This Way, Please (1937), a terrific tale of a star-struck movie theater usherette with dreams of singing and dancing just like the stars she idolizes, starring Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Betty Grable, Jim Jordan, Marian Jordan and the brilliantly grizzled Ned Sparks.

Wednesday, June 15, you can see Uruguay’s A Useful Life (2010), in which a movie theater manager in Montevideo faces up the fact that the days of his beloved movie theater are numbered, paired up with Luc Moullet’s droll account of the feud between the French film journals Cahiers du Cinema and Positif, entitled The Seats of the Alcazar (1989).

One of my favorites, Tsai Ming-liang’s haunting Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) gets a rare projection at the Wilder on Sunday, June 19, along with Lisandsro Alonzo’s Fantasma (2006), described by the archive as “a hypnotic commentary on cinematic rituals and presence.”

Friday, June 24, you can see, if you dare, Lamberto Bava’s gory meta-horror film Demons (1985) and then stay for Bigas Luna’s similarly twisted treatise on the movies and voyeurism, 1987’s Anguish.

Saturday afternoon, June 25, “Marquee Movies” presents a rare screening of Gregory La Cava’s hilarious slapstick spoof of rural moviegoing, His Nibs (1921), paired up with what I consider, alongside Matinee and Goodbye, Dragon Inn, one of the real jewels of the series, Basil Dearden’s marvelously funny The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), all about what happens when a newlywed couple inherits a rundown cinema populated by a staff of eccentrics that include Margaret Rutherford and Peter Sellers. (More on that one next week.)

And the series concludes on Sunday, June 26, with a screening of the original 174-minute director’s cut of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988).

(Each program also features a variety of moviegoing-oriented shorts, trailers and other surprises. Click the individual links for details and show times.)

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(Next week: My review of The Smallest Show on Earth and a remembrance of my own hometown movie theater, which closed in 2015.)

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Later this year Matinee will be released by Universal in the U.S. (details to come) and by Arrow Films in the UK (with a nifty assortment of extras).

Actor known for his roles in Cool Hand Luke, the Naked Gun trilogy and Airport

George Kennedy, who has died aged 91, was known mainly for three movie roles, each of which represented a different aspect of his career: as heavy, hero and clown. They were the bullying convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (1967) – for which he won the Oscar for best supporting actor – aviation expert Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s, and Captain Ed Hocken, the none-too-bright sidekick of bumbling cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) in the spoof Naked Gun trilogy (1988-94).

In the early to mid-60s, the tall, bulky Kennedy (he was 6ft 4in) appeared as bad guys in dozens of TV western series such as Rawhide, Gunsmoke and Bonanza. In films, he continued in the same vein, as the sadistic jailhouse guard who beats up Kirk Douglas in Lonely Are the Brave...

Star of both the big and small screen, George Kennedy has died. The actor passed away at the age of 91. It was reported by the Oscar-winning actor's grandson that Kennedy had been in failing health since the death of his wife over a year ago. He is best known for his role on the hit TV series Dallas and turns in such iconic movies as Cool Hand Luke and Airport.

The actor won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as prison warden Dragline in Cool Hand Luke. He died this past Sunday in Boise, Idaho. Grandson Cory Schenkel told TMZ that the actor had been in hospice care this entire past month. Though, an exact cause of death was not immediately stated.

George Kennedy has a long and storied history in Hollywood, with over 183 acting credits to his name. He made his debut appearance on The Phil Silvers Show...

Filmmakers, Actors and Actresses and Hollywood’s A-listers turned out for the first Oscar awards show of the season – the 7th annual Governors Awards.

The star-studded evening was held in Hollywood, CA, on Saturday. (Nov 14, 2015)

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award went to Debbie Reynolds, and Honorary Awards were presented to Spike Lee and Gena Rowlands at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.

The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.” The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs opened the 2015 Governors Awards with a tribute to the Paris tragedy and spoke about The Academy’s response...

José Ferrar stars in his second dramatic feature as director, teamed with newcomer Gena Rowlands as a married working couple. Ferrar's executive assistant isn't on the list of those invited to meet the new corporate bosses, which everyone knows means he's a dead employee walking. Things are looking darkest just as his loving wife is bringing news of a baby on the way. The show builds up a terrific critique of anxiety in the Rat Race, but then... The High Cost of Loving DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1958 / B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date July 16, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring José Ferrer, Gena Rowlands, Joanne Gilbert, Jim Backus, Bobby Troup, Philip Ober, Edward Platt, Charles Watts, Werner Klemperer, Malcolm Atterbury, Jeanne Baird, Nick Clooney, Abby Dalton, Richard Deacon, Nancy Kulp, Lucien Littlefield. Cinematography George J. Folsey Film Editor Ferris Webster Original Music Jeff Alexander Written by Rip Van Ronkel,...

©A.M.P.A.S.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (August 25) to present Honorary Awards to Spike Lee and Gena Rowlands, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Debbie Reynolds.

All three awards will be presented at the Academy’s 7th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 14, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.

“The Board is proud to recognize our honorees’ remarkable contributions at this year’s Governors Awards,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’ll be celebrating their achievements with the knowledge that the work they have accomplished – with passion, dedication and a desire to make a positive difference – will also enrich future generations.”

Lee, a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers, made an auspicious debut with his Nyu thesis film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” which won...

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (August 25) to present Honorary Awards to Spike Lee and Gena Rowlands, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Debbie Reynolds. All three awards will be presented at the Academy’s 7th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 14, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®. “The Board is proud to recognize our honorees’ remarkable contributions at this year’s Governors Awards,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’ll be celebrating their achievements with the knowledge that the work they have accomplished – with passion, dedication and a desire to make a positive difference – will also enrich future generations.” Lee, a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers, made an auspicious debut with his Nyu thesis film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” which won a Student Academy Award® in...

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...

Oscar-nominated actress Gena Rowlands will receive the La Film Critics Association’s Career Achievement kudos this winter, the org announced today. In an acclaimed career that’s spanned six decades, Rowlands nabbed Academy Award nominations for her iconic roles in two of her ten films for filmmaker/husband John Cassavetes, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence. She won the Golden Globe for the latter and snagged three Emmy wins on the small screen.

Rowlands’ films include Faces and Minnie and Moskowitz for Cassavetes, Another Woman for Woody Allen, Lonely Are The Brave with Kirk Douglas, Night On Earth for Jim Jarmusch, Unhook the Stars, The Notebook, and Yellow for son Nick Cassavetes, and Broken English for daughter Zoe Cassavetes. Career Achievement honorees who were voted on by members of Lafca in recent years include Richard Lester, Frederick Wiseman, and Doris Day.