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Jan Shepard, who guest-starred on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns and played opposite Elvis Presley in movies eight years apart, has died. She was 96.

Shepard died Jan. 17 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure, her son, Hollywood prop master, Brandon Boyle, told The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a good one and will be dearly missed,” he said.

Shepard portrayed Mimi, the sister of Presley’s Danny Fisher, in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (1958) and the wife of Danny Kohana (James Shigeta), who partners with Presley’s Rick Richards in a helicopter business, in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).

“The first time, I found him to be just the cutest kid around, a big teddy bear, a lot of fun,” she said in an interview for Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald’s 1999 book, Westerns Women. But on their next movie,...

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being reviewed here wouldn't exist. This article also contains major spoilers for "The Equalizer 3."The original 1985 TV series "The Equalizer," starring Edward Woodward, was part of a notable trend in television from the '70s and '80s. Multiple shows at the time were about dangerous, mysterious, lawless drifters who traveled from town to town seeking out justice and applying violence where it might be needed. The trend included shows like "Kung Fu," "Then Came Bronson," "The A-Team," "The Incredible Hulk," and a little later, "Renegade." Robert McCall was an ex-military man who had a talent for finding people in distress and helping them — violently — as the situation required.

In 2014, filmmaker Antoine Fuqua adapted "The Equalizer" to the big screen, casting Denzel Washington in the role of Robert McCall.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was originally planned to take place in the Midwest, with Daryl encountering different survivors in each episode. The original concept would have made the show episodic and focused on Daryl's journey in a new location, giving it a unique structure. Setting the spinoff in France offers a fresh location and allows for the exploration of new concepts, making it a unique entry in the franchise.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon executive producer Greg Nicotero reveals that Daryl almost didn't go to France. The new spinoff follows Daryl after the events of The Walking Dead, washing ashore in France for unknown reasons. On his quest to get back home to Alexandria, Virginia, he is tasked with taking a young boy named Laurent across the country, as he may be key to saving humanity.

However, speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Nicotero revealed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was...

Know this about Jack Reacher: He’s an awfully tall drink of brackish water.

No more than 10 minutes go by in “Reacher,” Prime Video’s series adaptation of Lee Child’s durable book franchise, without someone mentioning the eponymous character’s intimidating stature. Reacher, played here by Alan Ritchson (“Titans”), is described at various points as a “giant,” “Frankenstein’s monster,” and, without irony, as “250 pounds of frontier justice.” When characters aren’t conjuring turns of phrase to describe Reacher’s size, the camera is employing forced perspective techniques to render him even larger than the 6 feet 5 inches established in Child’s canon.

The emphasis on Reacher’s physique is a good-faith gesture to fans of Child’s 26-and-counting novels, some of whom bristled at the pair of Reacher films featuring Tom Cruise as a featherweight version of the legendary bruiser. And for diehards, that bit of corrective fan service...

Art Metrano, who played the officer Ernie Mauser in two Police Academy sequels and was a familiar face on episodic TV before a serious injury sustained in a home accident derailed his career in 1989, died of natural causes yesterday at his home in Aventura, Florida. He was 84.

“Yesterday I lost my best friend, my mentor, my dad,” Metrano’s son Harry Metrano posted today on Instagram. “He was and will always be the toughest man I know. I have never met someone who has over come more adversities than him…”

Metrano had already made appearances on such late-’60s TV series as Mannix, Mod Squad, The High Chaparral, Then Came Bronson, nearly a half-dozen episodes of Bewitched and in the 1969 Jane Fonda feature film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? when a 1970 stand-up comedy performance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson significantly boosted his profile. To Carson’s obvious delight,...

Herbert F. Solow, the TV production executive who helped make “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible” a reality, died on Thursday, his wife, Dr. Harrison Solow, confirmed. He was 89.

A graduate of Dartmouth, Solow got his start in showbiz in 1953, working up the ranks at William Morris, starting as a mail room worker and secretary before becoming an assistant and later a talent agent representing stars and filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman. Later, he moved from the agency world to production, taking a brief stop in NBC’s film division before moving to CBS, where he worked on developing daytime soap operas and game shows.

In 1962, he returned to NBC to work in their West coast Daytime TV division, developing a relationship with the network’s vice president, Grant Tinker. Along the way, he oversaw the development and production of multiple soap operas and game shows, including “Truth or Consequences” — the game...

Herbert F. “Herb” Solow, who as an executive at Desilu Productions took Gene Roddenberry’s original pitch for Star Trek and also held exec posts at several showbiz companies, has died. He was 88. His wife, Dr. Harrison Solow, confirmed the news to multiple sources.

Among the many Hollywood jobs in his long were exec posts at MGM, Paramount, Desilu, CBS, NBC and Hanna-Barbera. He also was an agent at William Morris, a TV creator-writer-producer and author. Along with the original Star Trek, Solow was instrumental in such 1960s and ’70s dramas as Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Medical Center, Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Then Came Bronson and Man From Atlantis.

He also served as Head of Programming and Production for the NBC Film Division and worked with such storied directors as David Lean, Robert Altman, Herb Ross, Blake Edwards, Paul Mazursky and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Born on December14, 1931, Solow began his industry...

Herbert F. Solow, a longtime television executive who pitched the original “Star Trek” series to NBC while he was at Desilu Studios, along with “Mission Impossible” and “Mannix,” died on Thursday, his wife, Dr. Harrison Solow, confirmed. He was 89.

In later years, he and his wife wrote several books on the “Star Trek” series, including “Inside Star Trek: The Real Story” and “The Star Trek Sketchbook.”

Solow was brought in by Lucille Ball after her divorce from Desi Arnaz to help revive Desilu Studios, where he helped develop and sell “Star Trek” to NBC — after CBS originally turned it down because it already had “Lost in Space” — as well as “Mission: Impossible” and “Mannix” to CBS.

Solow helped guide “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry on their pitch to the network, and continued to champion the series until Ball herself got behind the effort.

Solow told the publication Carpe Articulum that...

D.C. Fontana, a longtime writer for various “Star Trek” series, has died. She was 80.

According to the official Star Trek website, Fontana died on Monday after a short illness.

Fontana is credited for writing many episodes of the original “Star Trek” series and was essential to creating the backstory and culture of Spock’s Vulcan heritage. Her credits include episodes like “Yesteryear” and “Journey to Babel,” which introduced Spock’s father Sarek and mother Amanda. She also co-wrote the Hugo Nominated “Next Generation” pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” with “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodenberry. She also wrote episodes for “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

Also Read: 'Legion' Creator Noah Hawley in Talks to Write And Direct Next 'Star Trek' Film for Paramount

William Shatner, who portrayed Capt. Kirk on the original series, called Fontana a “pioneer” whose “work will continue to influence for generations to come.”

???? She was a pioneer.

Dorothy Catherine (D.C.) Fontana passed away peacefully last evening at the age of 80 after a brief illness.

Ms. Fontana gained global notoriety for her writing and story editing on the 1960’s television series Star Trek, as well as the 1970’s animated series, which she also associate produced. Her myth­-building work on classic Trek blazed a trail for women, not only in television, but also in science fiction. Her well-known screen credit kept the fact of her gender a secret from most fans until they saw her picture in Stephen Whitfield’s The Making of Star Trek, one of the “bibles” of classic Trekker fandom.

Dorothy Fontana was responsible for creating Spock’s childhood history, including the essential story “Yesteryear,” which though produced for Star Trek: The Animated Series, is as powerful as the best episodes of the classic series. She established the characters of, and relationship between, Spock...

Michael Parks, the brooding actor who broke through as television’s first easy rider on Then Came Bronson and resurrected by David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez as an icon of Hollywood cool, died yesterday. He was 77. His death was confirmed by his talent agent Jane Schulman, who did not disclose a cause. Born April 24, 1940, in Corona, California, Parks held various jobs – fruit-picking, ditch-digging, truck driving and fighting forest fires, according…...

Michael Parks, the brooding actor who broke through as television’s first easy rider on Then Came Bronson and resurrected by David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez as an icon of Hollywood cool, died yesterday. He was 77. His death was confirmed by his talent agent Jane Schulman, who did not disclose a cause. Born April 24, 1940, in Corona, California, Parks held various jobs – fruit-picking, ditch-digging, truck driving and fighting forest fires, according…...

Michael Parks, the longtime character actor who was a favorite of directors like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith, has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news was confirmed by his agent, who declined to name a cause of death. He was 77.

Parks was born in 1940 in Corona, California, where he worked manual labor jobs like picking fruit and driving trucks before his breakthrough on the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys in 1961. Although he also appeared in films during the decade, he remained an in-demand TV actor throughout the 1960s, starring in the counterculture drama series Then Came Bronson in 1969-1970. (Parks also recorded the theme song to the show, “Long Lonesome Highway,” which led to a three-album run at MGM.)

Parks worked steadily throughout the ’70s and ’80s, and scored another breakout role as Canadian drug runner Jean Renault on the second season of ...

Michael Parks, longtime Hollywood mainstay and beloved character actor and singer, has passed away at the age of 77. The news was announced by filmmaker Kevin Smith, who took to his Instagram to share that “the best actor I’ve ever known” and his “cinematic muse,” had died. No cause of death was named.

Smith directed Parks in both his “Tusk” and “Red State,” having relished the longtime actor’s career since first seeing him in Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn.” Though Parks’ career stretched back to 1960, when he made his screen debut on TV’s “Zane Grey Theater,” in recent years, the supporting standout had enjoyed a revival at the hands of both Quentin Tarantino (who Smith deemed Parks’ “biggest fan”) and Smith, who continued to craft roles for the singular actor.

I hate to report that my cinematic muse #michaelparks has passed away. Michael was, and will likely forever remain,...

As confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, actor David Huddleston—probably best known for playing the actual Big Lebowski in the classic Coen Brothers film—has died. According to a statement from his family, he had been suffering from heart and kidney disease. Huddleston was 85.

Born in Virginia in 1930, Huddleston initially seemed set up for a career in the military. He attended the Fork Union Military Academy and became an officer in the Air Force, but he officially entered the world of acting after attending the historic American Academy Of Dramatic Arts. Most of Huddleston’s first acting roles were bit parts on TV shows, including Harrigan And Son, Adam-12, Then Came Bronson, Bewitched, and McMillan & Wife. His first big role in the movies came in 1972’s Bad Company, which starred a young Jeff Bridges—who Huddleston would memorably run into again later in his career.

Huddleston ...

Whenever articles are written about the best veteran actors in Hollywood, one particular name is always unjustly excluded. That name? Well, Michael Parks of course. The man has always been a respected character actor in the industry (especially earlier on in his career), but up until the last few years it’s really only been Quentin Tarantino putting him on the proper pedestal. Recently though, filmmaker Kevin Smith has picked up that mantle, highlighting him in both Red State and this week’s new outing Tusk. Smith has done more than his part to get Parks into the spotlight, and man does he deserve it. Parks is likely best known for his role in the show Then Came Bronson, which really put him on the map. Prior to that, he’d been known for a variety of TV movies and his parts in both The Bible: In the Beginning…...

Mulberry Street and Stake Land director Jim Mickle came to Park City this year with his third film, a remake of 2010’s We Are What We Are and walked out of Sundance with a deal to release the critically-acclaimed work nationwide. Premiering at midnight on the first full day of the fest, We Are What We Are was instantly acclaimed and marks a notable growth in style and ability by its talented creator. Starring Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Bill Sage, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell, and Kelly McGillis, We Are is the story of a family of cannibals but it’s not the blood-and-guts extravaganza you may be expecting. With an eye for composition that reminds one of Guillermo Del Toro’s horror films and a strong vein of surreal tension a la David Lynch, this is one of the most memorable scary movies to premiere at Sundance in years. The...