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Charles Kimbrough, the Emmy-nominated actor best known for his splendid decade-long portrayal of staid network anchor Jim Dial on Murphy Brown, has died. He was 86.

Kimbrough died Jan. 11 in Culver City, his son, John Kimbrough, told The New York Times.

A veteran of the stage, Kimbrough received a Tony Award nomination in 1971 for best featured actor in a musical for playing Harry in the original production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. He then appeared as two characters in another acclaimed Sondheim musical, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park With George, which debuted in 1984.

Kimbrough also starred in 1995 in the original off-Broadway production of the A.R. Gurney comedy Sylvia opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and appeared on the Great White Way in Candide, Same Time, Next Year, Accent on Youth, Hay Fever, The Merchant of Venice and, most recently, with Jim Parsons in a 2012 revival of Harvey.

The Minnesota native also...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars and filmmakers and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Before we get to this week’s episode, we wanted to highlight some smart podcasts, some smart people, and some smart funds/causes to which we’ve both been listening/donating. Take a listen below.

Now, we bring in a heavy hitter–Murtada Elfadl of Sundays with Cate–to discuss the most-accomplished actress in the history of Hollywood: Meryl Streep. Among her Twenty-one Oscar nominations, there are four B-Sides we dig up to examine: The Seduction Of Joe Tynan, Falling In Love, Before and After, and Prime.

We marvel at the cultural moment in which Alan Alda was a Huge movie star, how handsome Bobby De Niro is in Falling In Love, how Alfred Molina nearly saves Before and After,...

Tony Sokol Jul 10, 2019

Rip Torn, who played characters from Judas Iscariot to the producer on The Larry Sanders Show, dies at 88.

Respected and versatile character actor Rip Torn died Tuesday in Lakeville, Conn., according to Variety. Publicist Rick Miramontez did not release a cause of death, but said Torn was with his wife, Amy Wright, and two daughters, Katie and Angelica. He was 88.

Torn believed actors should “play drama as comedy and comedy as drama,” according to the statement, and the actor was equally at home both. He starred in comedies like Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life and the Men in Black films, as well as TV comedies 30 Rock, playing General Electric CEO Don Geiss, mentor to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Torn won an Emmy for his part in HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, and was nominated for a Tony award in...

Actor Rip Torn, who earned Oscar and Tony nominations as well as an Emmy Award and two Obies, has died Tuesday in Lakeville Conn., his representative confirmed. He was 88.

Torn was equally at home in the comedy of the “Men in Black” film series or TV’s “The Larry Sanders Show” (for which he won his Emmy) and in the drama of “Sweet Bird of Youth” or “Anna Christie,” to name two of the numerous classic works of theater in which he appeared.

The actor was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar in 1984 for his work as a father who confronts tragedy in Martin Ritt’s “Cross Creek,” one of many rural dramas in which he appeared during his career.

He drew a Tony nomination in 1960 for his first performance on Broadway, as the sadistic son of the town boss in Elia Kazan’s original production of Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth.

Six-time Emmy winner Alan Alda is receiving the 2019 Screen Actors Guild life achievement award. SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris announced the news on Thursday that the tribute will occur at the 25th annual SAG Awards on January 27. Other recent recipients have included Morgan Freeman (2018), Lily Tomlin (2017), Carol Burnett (2016), Debbie Reynolds (2015), Rita Moreno (2014), Dick Van Dyke (2013) and Mary Tyler Moore (2012).

SEECarol Burnett Interview: ‘The Carol Burnett Show 50th Anniversary’

During his 11-season run on the classic CBS comedy series “M*A*S*H,” Alda won as an actor, director and writer. His sixth victory among 35 career nominations was for “The West Wing.” He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1994. He also won six Golden Globes and four DGA Awards plus achieved an Oscar nomination and four SAG Awards bids.

Other films in Alda’s career have included “Paper Lion” (1968), “California Suite” (1978), “Same Time, Next Year” (1978), “The Seduction of Joe Tynan...

In the last shot of Alfred Hitchcock’s final (and underrated) “Family Plot,” impostor-psychic-turned-kidnapper Barbara Harris looks straight at the camera and winks. It was only time in Hitchcock’s career that he broke down the fourth wall, and the gesture felt like his goodbye to his fans.

Harris died August 21 at 83 of lung cancer. Her notable roles included “A Thousand Clowns,” “Nashville,” “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” and a supporting actor Oscar nomination for “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?” But for Hitchcock fans, her death reminds us that 42 years have passed since the master’s last film, and fewer of his actors are still alive.

It’s nearly impossible to track every actor who appeared in his work. (Anyone from Hitchcock’s early British films would have had to be a very small child.) However, there are still a number...

by Nathaniel R

Barbara Harris in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

Sad news yesterday. One of the nation's best and most underappreciated actresses Barbara Harris passed away at 83 from lung cancer. The Chicago native got her start as a teenager on local stages and was an original member of Chicago's famed Second City troupe. Her intermittent screen career sprang initially from her stage successes. Though her filmography is mostly in the 1970s, she made a few 80s movies before retiring including Peggy Sue Got Married, Grosse Point Blank, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Curiously for such a talented thespian of both stage and screen, she seemed somewhat ambivalent about her career, stating that she didn't miss acting after her retirement...

Actress Barbara Harris, who capped Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville with a strangely haunting musical performance, won a Tony Award for 1967’s The Apple Tree and co-founded Chicago’s Second City comedy troupe, died today in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 83.

The cause of death was reported by the Chicago Sun Times as lung cancer.

Harris was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for 1971’s Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, but might best be remembered by children of the era for her role in 1976’s original Freaky Friday, Disney’s body-switch comedy in which Harris and a young Jodie Foster did the switching.

That same year, Harris appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s dark comedy Family Plot, an indication of her range. Later audiences would see her as the tender-hearted, understanding mother in Peggy Sue Got Married or appearing alongside John Cusack and...

Barbara Harris, an Oscar-nominated actress who made memorable turns in such classics as “Nashville,” the original “Freaky Friday” and “Grosse Pointe Blank,” died Tuesday of lung cancer at age 83, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Harris, who sang the opening number in the very first show at Chicago’s famed Second City in 1959, had a long and successful career in both theater and the movies.

She won a Tony Award in 1967 for her lead performance in the musical “The Apple Tree” opposite a young Alan Alda, and an Oscar nomination playing a vulnerable aspiring actress in the 1971 comedic drama “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?”

Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2018 (Photos)

She made memorable impressions in a series of small roles, from a singer calming an agitated crowd in Robert Altman’s 1975 classic “Nashville” to the dementia-afflicted mother of John Cusack’s hitman...

Martin Bregman, a talent manager and film producer whose credits include classic like “Scarface,” “Serpico,” and “Dog Day Afternoon”, died Saturday of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 92. NBC 4 first reported the news.

Born in New York City in 1926, Bregman entered the entertainment industry first as a nightclub agent before moving into personal management. As a manager, his clients would eventually include at various times luminaries like Alan Alda, Woody Allen, and Barbra Streisand among others.

Bregman’s greatest impact on Hollywood was the result of his relationship with Al Pacino. Bregman discovered Pacino performing in an Off Broadway play in the 1960s, and became his manager. He helped Pacino land his first starring film role in the 1971 drama “The Panic in Needle Park.” It was that role which brought Pacino to the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, leading to Pacino’s breakthrough as Michael Corleone in “The Godfather.”

Also...

Martin Bregman, producer of Al Pacino films “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Scarface” and “Sea of Love,” died Saturday. He was 92.

His wife Cornelia told NBC 4 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

As producer of “Dog Day Afternoon,” he shared a best picture nomination in 1976.

Bregman, who discovered Pacino in an Off Broadway play, was the personal and business manager not only for Pacino and Alan Alda but also at various times for Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Faye Dunaway, Candice Bergen and Bette Midler.

Bregman nurtured Pacino as the actor built his stage and then his film career, helping Pacino land his first starring role in a feature, 1971’s “Panic in Needle Park,” for which the actor beat out Robert De Niro.

Building film projects around the young Pacino, Bergman produced his first films in 1973’s “Serpico” and 1975’s “Dog Day Afternoon,” both memorably starring the actor. The two would later reteam for 1983’s “Scarface,...

Update: Michael Bregman, son of Martin Bregman, confirmed his father’s passing. Below is a rewrite, my attempt at a proper obit of a storied New York producer.

Martin Bregman, the New York-based producer of such films as Sea of Love, Scarface, Serpico and Carlito’s Way, died Saturday at age 92. His passing was first reported by local New York TV news station Wnbc. His passing was attributed to cerebral hemorrhage, his widow, Cornelia, told News 4’s Chuck Scarborough.

Michael Bregman, a producer with his father on The Bone Collector, Carlito’s Way and several other films, told Deadline his father died after being rushed to Weill Cornell Presbyterian Hospital on East 68th Street early Saturday morning. “It was surprising and surreal; my sister reached me at 1 Am and said come quickly, there’s not much time,” Michael Bregman told Deadline. “We were by his side when he passed at 5:45 Pm Saturday.

Believe it or not, long before a record-shattering 21 Oscar nominations, there was a time when Meryl Streep was not the queen of the movies. After finishing at Yale Drama School in the 1970s, Streep found steady work on stage and television before her breakout role in 1978’s Best Picture Oscar winner, “The Deer Hunter.” That film brought Streep her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress (and first loss) for her performance as Linda, the fiancee of a troubled Vietnam vet (Christopher Walken in an Oscar-winning performance).

The following year she starred in three major films: as the love interest of Alan Alda in “The Seduction of Joe Tynan;” as Woody Allen’s lesbian ex-wife in “Manhattan;” and as the troubled Joanna Kramer opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Kramer vs Kramer.” It was that latter role that brought her a first-ever win at the Academy Awards. The first words exclaimed by Streep were “Holy mackerel!

This article marks Part 17 of the 21-part Gold Derby series Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her at the Academy Awards, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

In 1979, while Meryl Streep was barnstorming cinemas with an exemplary trio of motion pictures (“Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Manhattan” and “The Seduction of Joe Tynan”), a glass ceiling was shattered across the pond with the election of Margaret Thatcher to the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The first woman to hold this office, Thatcher, leader of the country’s Conservative Party, would go on to serve three terms as Prime Minister. Her polarizing tenure was marked by the deregulation of the nation’s financial sector; reduction in the power and influence of unions; and victory in the Falklands War, waged...

This article marks Part 2 of the 21-part Gold Derby series analyzing Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

In 1978, Meryl Streep, already renowned for her work on the New York stage, grabbed the attention of moviegoers across the country with her Oscar-nominated turn in the Best Picture champ “The Deer Hunter.” That year, however, would seem minor in comparison to what was on the horizon in 1979.

Streep was about to work with three of the decade’s hottest directors – Woody Allen, at his most in-demand after “Annie Hall” (1977) and “Interiors” (1978); Robert Benton, whose “The Late Show” (1977) was a big hit; and Jerry Schatzberg, who won critical acclaim with “The Panic in Needle Park” (1971) and “Scarecrow” (1973).

The resulting trio of Allen’s “Manhattan,” Benton’s “Kramer vs.

Hi, we’re John and Matt and, icymi, we are watching every single live-action film starring Streep.

#4 — Karen Traynor, a Southern political operative who has an affair with a popular senator.

John: I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like to be an actressexual in 1979, the year when Meryl Streep catapulted herself from that interesting, up-and-coming actress of The Deer Hunter, the Holocaust miniseries (which brought her first Emmy win), and the New York theater scene, to first-class movie star, appearing in three successful films and winning her first Oscar for the year’s highest-grosser and Best Picture champ, Kramer vs. Kramer. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves; buried in the middle of all this impressive acclaim is perhaps Streep’s least-known triumph of her early period: Jerry Schatzberg’s The Seduction of Joe Tynan.

This story of a liberal senator (Alan Alda, who...

Here's to the Golden Globes – what other award show would bring Meryl Streep onstage for a lifetime-achievement tribute and then have the orchestra salute her with Abba's "Mamma Mia"? A perfect moment to sum up everything the Globes stand for: finding the cheese lining in any artistic cloud. That's the saving grace of this dippiest and drunkest of award shows. Nobody cares who wins; all that matters at this TV party is locking the stars up together in the Beverly Hills Hilton, getting them ripped on free booze and...

Election Day is just around the corner, and depending on your view of the current state of The Republic, you can look at that day in one of two ways:

It’s a national celebration of history’s greatest, most successful democracy, demonstrating our ability to freely choose our leadership and peacefully see the baton of power passed to the next man;

Or –

It’s a national embarrassment, history’s greatest, most successful democracy squandering it’s hard-won freedoms in a campaign for leadership poisoned by oversimplification, appeals to gut-level fears rather than the intellect, claims and charges plagued by inflation, distortion, and outright falsehood, and warped and distorted by the infusion of tens of millions of dollars from vested interests.

Either way, we still have to get through the day.

So, for those of you who just want to pull the shades and wait for the noise to die down,...

For this week's gold man column, we're skipping the general overview and getting really specific. Who doesn't enjoy a good zoom in on Meryl Streep? The Iron Lady, her Margaret Thatcher biopic performances, begins screening very soon -- they moved the release date back but not the screenings. So we need to discuss this before it does and the focus shifts from groundless speculation to case evidence.

Every time I've floated the notion that Meryl Streep cannot be an Iron Lock for a Best Actress nomination since her film has not been seen, people object. "But Meryl is Always nominated," sayeth everyone. Not so, not so. While it's true that The World's Greatest Actress™ seems as much a can't miss prospect in Best Actress as she did in the 80s what with nominations for Prada, Doubt and Julia fresh in our minds, she has missed the shortlist. Yes, even The...

Alan Alda in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator William Hurt: Oscar Veterans 2005 Alan Alda Alan Alda, nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. He lost to Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. That was Alda's first nomination. Best known for the long-running 1970s television series M*A*S*H, Alda has appeared in more than 30 motion pictures since his 1963 debut in Nicholas Webster's Gone Are the Days! Among his credits are Herbert Ross' California Suite (1978), Robert Mulligan's Same Time Next Year, Jerry Schatzberg's The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), Alda's own Four Seasons (1981), and Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

Received a message on Twitter this morning requesting my thoughts on Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher. Seems she's in talks to star as the Iron Lady herself in an early 80s set film about the lead up to the Falklands War. [src]

My thoughts, eh?

Me think about Streep? Never! But with Great Hope Springs and this one, it seems that the two-time Oscar winner will just keep reaching for the bait until a third is hers.

Though I can already sense that the rest of the internet will be gung-ho about this idea, I would urge caution. Perhaps it's silly to get caught up in any "Meryl will win her third Oscar for Thatcher" speculation.

The rest of the internet seems to have forgotten that this film will supposedly reunite Meryl with her Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd. Since Lloyd couldn't even manage the basic building blocks of film in Mamma Mia!

American stage actor Michael Higgins has died of heart failure at the age of 88.

Higgins passed away on 5 November at Beth Israel Hospital in his home of Manhattan, New York.

Best known for his role in the 1974 original Broadway production of Equus, Higgins played Frank Strang, the father of the disturbed youth who blinds horses, alongside Anthony Hopkins in the show.

Before rising to stardom as a stage actor, Higgins served in World War II, with the Army in Italy, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

After the war, he made his Broadway debut in the 1946 production of Antigone.

His other Broadway credits include the 1951 production of Romeo and Juliet, The Lark in 1955, and 1973's The Iceman Cometh, co-starring James Earl Jones.

He also received two Obie Awards - the Off Broadway theatre award presented annually by New York newspaper The Village Voice - for his roles in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and David Mamet's Reunion.

His film credits include 1975's The Stepford Wives, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, in 1979, and 1981 movie Fort Apache, the Bronx.

He is survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Lee Goodwin, a daughter named Deirdre, two sons Sean and Christopher, two brothers, two sisters and four grandchildren.