MICHAEL SHOWERS - Star of HBO's "Treme" - Found Dead in Mississippi River

Actor Michael Showers was found dead in the Mississippi river near New Orleans on August 24, 2011.  He had been missing for two days, after going to New Orleans’ French Quarter with a friend.  Shower was best known for his role as Captain John Guidry on the HBO cable series “Treme” in 2011.  He was also seen in the films “Blink” (2007), “Immortally Yours” (aka "Kiss of the Vampire") (2009), “The Collector” (2009), “Tekken” (2010), “The Resident” (2011), “The Tree of Life” (2011),  and “Colombiana” (2011).  Showers was also featured in episodes of “The Vampire Diaries” and “Breaking Bad”. 

REZA BADIYI - Prolific Television Director

Iranian-American television director Reza Badiyi died in a Los Angeles hospital on August 20, 2011.  He was 81.  Badiyi was born in Arak, Iran, on April 17, 1930.  He trained at the Iranian Academy of Drama, and came to the United States in 1955 to work in film.  He worked as a camaraman for such directors as Robert Altman and Sam Pekinpah, and was assistant director on the films “The Delinquents” (1957) and “Carnival of Souls” (1962).  He made his directorial debut with the 1963 short “Censorship: A Question of Judgement?”.  He was a prolific television director from the 1960s, helming episodes of “Get Smart”, “Mission: Impossible”, “Mod Squad”, “The Magician”, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “Man from Atlantis”, “Holmes and Yoyo”,  “Cliffhangers: Stop Susan Williams”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “The Phoenix”, “Bring ‘Em Back Alive”, “The

Adventures of Superboy”, “Dinosaurs”, “Dark Justice”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Nowhere Man”, “Viper”, “Baywatch Nights”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “La Femme Nikita”, “Mortal Kombat: Conquest”, “Sliders”, “Early Edition”, and “She Spies”.  Badiyi also directed the tele-films “The Eyes of Charles Sand” (1972), “The Girl Who Saved the World” (1979), and “Eye of the Stalker” (1995).   He was credited by the Director’s Guild of America for directing the most hours of television.

LESLIE BROOKS - 1940s Leading Lady

Actress Leslie Brooks, who appeared in numerous films in the 1940s, died in Sherman Oaks, California, on July 1, 2011. She was 88. She was born Virginia Leslie Gettman in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 13, 1922.  She began her career in the films in the early 1940s, with small roles in “Ziegfeld Girl” (1941), “The Body Disappears” (1941), “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (1942), and “Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), “The Talk of the Town” (1942).  She graduated to more substantial roles playing second leads and femme fatales in the “You Were Never Lovelier” (1942), “Underground Agent” (1942), “The Man Who Dared” (1946), “The Secret of The Whistler” (1946), “The Corpse Came C.O.D.” (1947), and “The Cobra Strikes” (1948) before retiring from the screen.

JOHN BOSWALL - British Character Actor Feature as Wyvern in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" Films

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British character actor John Boswall died in South Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England, on June 6, 2011.  He was 91.  Boswall was born in England on May 2, 1920.  He served with the British military in Burma during World War II.  He appeared frequently in stage, film and television from the early 1970s.  He was featured such series as “Paul Temple”, “Agatha Christie’s Piorot”, "Sapphire and Steel", “Murder Most Horrid”, “Virtual Murder”, “Covington Cross”, and “The Secret World of Michael Fry”.   His other television credits include productions of  “Lady Killer” (1973), “Edward the King” (1975), “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1982), “The Return of the Native” (1994), and Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" as the Chair of Indefinite Studies.  He was featured as Emmanuel Goldstein - the presumed leader of the opposition to Big Brother - in Michael Radford's 1984 film version of George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984". Boswall was best known in recent years for his role as Wyvern in the films “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (2006), as Wyvern, a crew member of the Flying Dutchman, whose body had largely merged with the ship during his time with Davy Jones.

CHRISTOPHER NEAME - Hammer Films Production Manager

Christopher Neame, who was a production manager for Hammer Films during their horror heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s, died in Provence, France, on June 12, 2011.  He was 68.  He was born in Windsor, England, on December 24, 1942, the son of director and cinematographer Ronald Neame.  He began working in films in the early 1960s before joining Hammer Films as a production manager during their horror film heyday.  His credits include “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” (1965), “Rasputin, the Mad Monk” (1965), “Frankenstein Created Woman” (1967), “Five Million Years To Earth” (aka “Quatermass and The Pit”) (1967), “The Anniversary” (1968), “The Devil Rides Out” (1968), “Frankenstein Must be Destroyed” (1969), “The Beast In The Cellar” (1970), “Blood From the Money’s Tomb” (1971), “Fear In The Night” (1972), “Demons of the Mind” (1972), “Blueblood” (1973), the sexy sci-fier “The Love Factor” (aka “Zeta One”) (1973) which he also scripted, and “Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell” (1974).  He also worked in television from the late 1970s as a producer for such series as “Danger UXB” and “Q.E.D.”  (Note: He is not the actor of the same name who appeared in several Hammer horrors in the early 1970).

JOHN WOOD - Veteran British Character Actor

British character actor John Wood died in England on August 6, 2011.  He was 81. Wood was born in Derbyshire, England, on July 5, 1930.  He began performing on stage at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was studying law in the 1950s.  He appeared frequently on stage, films and television from the early 1950s.  Wood was seen in episodes of  “Tales of Mystery”, “Saki”, “Out of the Unknown”, “The Avengers”, “Doomwatch”, and “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles".  He also appeared frequently in films throughout his career with roles in “The Mouse on the Moon” (1963), “Somebody Killed Her Husband” (1978), “WarGames” (1983), “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), “Ladyhawke” (1985), “Lady Jane” (1986), “The Madness of King George” (1994), “Richard III” (1995) as King Edward IV, and “Sabrina” (1995) as Sabrina’s father, “Jane Eyre” (1996).  He was the only actor to have appeared in the 1960s television series "The Avengers" (other than Patrick MacNee) that resurfaced in the 1998 film version, appearing in the role of Trubshaw.  He was also seen in the films , “Mad Cows” (1999), “The Little Vampire” (2000), “Chocolat” (2000), “The Rocket Post” (2004), and “The White Countess” (2008). 

VIC DUNLOP - Comedian Star of "Martians Go Home"

Comedian and actor Vic Dunlop died of complications from diabetes in a Glendale, California, hospital on August 13, 2011.  He was 62.  Dunlop was born in New York City on November 6, 1948.  He began his career as a comic in the early 1970s with the comedy inprov group Natural Gas that appeared regularly on “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert”.  He was featured on television and in several films including “The Devil and Max Devlin” (1981), “Meatballs Part II” (1984), “Night Patrol” (1984),  “Martians Go Home” (1989) as the Main Martian, “Wishful Thinking” (1990), and “Breakfast of Aliens” (1993) which he also co-scripted.  Dunlop lost a leg to diabetes in 2000, but continued to perform at comedy clubs around the country until death.