2025 - IN MEMORIAM - MOVIES & TV

[RIPPA]

Jeff Baena, the independent filmmaker who collaborated with his wife, Aubrey Plaza, on the projects The Little Hours and Life After Beth, has died at age 47.

It appears the cause of death was suicide

[Contentious C]

Jesus fuck. He was living the dream, truly.

I knew a guy a long time ago who vanished and his body turned up later. His widow pointed out to a mutual friend that the loss was bad enough but the added sting was that it felt like a sort of divorce. Was an aspect I hadn't considered but now it's the first thing I think about when it involves married people.

[Andrew POE!]

It's honestly horrible to hear about that considering his age. I had watched his directorial debut Life After Beth and I could tell it was a lot darker than other dark comedies I've seen (obviously he went through something in his life). He had written I Heart Huckabees, which is another really dark movie.

There's a lot of gross people online "celebrating" that Aubrey Plaza is now single smh. They need to get over themselves and just look at what she is going through and have some tact.

[GodzillaPerez]

Drag superstar and winner of season 1 of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, The Vivienne has passed away at age 32.

[Curt McGirt]

http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/in-memoriam-a-moment-for-all-those-we-lost-in-2024/

Daily Grindhouse (not anywhere near as active as it used to be, but still solid) always does a year-end profile of the lost that is mostly film-oriented but also includes stars of music, sports, activism, and it's always fantastic. 

[Zimbra]

British comedian and Whose Line Is It Anyway regular Tony Slattery passed away from a heart attack at age 65.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

On 1/5/2025 at 12:59 PM, Andrew POE! said:

It's honestly horrible to hear about that considering his age. I had watched his directorial debut Life After Beth and I could tell it was a lot darker than other dark comedies I've seen (obviously he went through something in his life). He had written I Heart Huckabees, which is another really dark movie.

There's a lot of gross people online "celebrating" that Aubrey Plaza is now single smh. They need to get over themselves and just look at what she is going through and have some tact.

I didn't realize he wrote IHH. I remember watching it, enjoying it and then just filing it away in the memory bank. I might have to revisit it sometime soon. 

[odessasteps]

6 hours ago, Zimbra said:

British comedian and Whose Line Is It Anyway regular Tony Slattery passed away from a heart attack at age 65.

My favorite on the  show.

[Zimbra]

2 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

My favorite on the  show.

Off the top of my head he, Proops, Stiles, and McShane are probably my WLIIA Mt Rushmore

[odessasteps]

https://x.com/josielawrence1/status/1879209735062475104?t=cfUvWUS_pqSXKQyvwTRz8g&s=19

My dream team is likely Slattery, Josie, Merton and Proops. 

[odessasteps]

https://x.com/black_bile/status/1879366048308498702?t=yuDE86Kq1x3-Dx-yjocknw&s=19

 

[ohtani's jacket]

RIP, Tony. Used to crack me up endlessly.

[Zimbra]

Oh fuck, David Lynch's facebook is reporting that he passed away.

This one might need it's own thread.

E: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/david-lynch-dead-director-blue-velvet-twin-peaks-1236276106/

Edited January 16 by Zimbra

[Ace]

Bob Uecker has also died.

[Contentious C]

59 minutes ago, Ace said:

Bob Uecker has also died.

Sadly on the "wasn't he already dead?" list in my head for quite some time.

[Travis Sheldon]

Lynch and Uecker both appeared in The Simpsons.

I haven't fully absorbed the news of David Lynch's death, so I'll just say that he opened my mind to the possibilities of media.

Bob Uecker was a broadcaster by the time I was a baseball fan.

Then he went into acting.

Whenever I saw him, he always brought a chuckle.

R.I.P. to Bob and David, both affected my life in different ways.

[Technico Support]

RIP Uecker.  May he finally in the front row in the big ballpark in the sky.

[RIPPA]

 

[odessasteps]

https://x.com/HelenLederer/status/1882004794702696800?t=STxSFytUO4TR4r2kWLB6Xw&s=19

[colonial]

John Erwin, the original voice of He-Man in the 80s, died last month at 88. The announcement was made this past week ...

John Erwin Dead: ‘He-Man,’ ‘Archie’ Voice Actor Was 88

He voiced several characters on the 80s Masters of the Universe shows, and was the original voice of Morris the Cat in the 9 Lives cat food commercials ...

John Erwin Tribute - Voice of He-Man

 

[Curt McGirt]

RIP George P. Wilbur, who played Michael Myers in Halloweens 4 and 6.

[odessasteps]

RIP Tony Roberts, probably best remembered as part of woody Allen’s stable of regulars. 

[RIPPA]

 

[Zimbra]

I Think You Should Leave's Biff Wiff has passed away after a battle with cancer.

[Curt McGirt]

Screenwriter Rossella Drudi has passed away. I remember her from all the awesome Bruno Mattei flicks that have been playing on TV recently, but you probably remember her from the infamous Troll 2. Here's her obit from Severin Films. 

Spoiler

Very shocked and saddened to wake up to the news that our friend / screenwriter / Severin hall of famer Rossella Drudi has died. Rossella was a screenwriter (usually co-writing along with her husband Claudio Fragasso) on more Severin titles than anyone: RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR, HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, ROBOWAR, SHOCKING DARK, BORN TO FIGHT, DOUBLE TARGET, COP GAME, BEYOND DARKNESS, VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN'S PRISON, ZOMBIE 3, ZOMBIE 4, STRIKE COMMANDO 1 & 2 with more to come. Being a woman creative behind the camera in the Italian genre filmmaking world of the 70s / 80s was not very common and often she would go uncredited at the behest of producers but must be among the most prolific female screenwriters in that arena. From having spent time with both Rossella and Claudio over the years it seems that a lot of the more perverse and outlandish of the ideas in these loony movies would be the product of Rossella's fumetti loving mind. For example the RATS enter naked lady in the sleeping bag idea was all Rossella.

The creative and personal relationship between Rossella and Claudio is one of the great love stories in Italian cinema, no joke, spanning close to half a century. Sure they're best known now for TROLL 2 and their somewhat unflattering representation in BEST WORST MOVIE. They were so humble when I asked them their thoughts on that doc that their principal comment on the matter was that they were happy to see the principals from that movie get some long overdue appreciation for a lot of hard work for small pay.

Rossella loved horror, sci-fi and fantasy as evidenced by her cinematic output, often in cahoots with the leader of their mischievous trio: Bruno Mattei. I was just speaking last night on a podcast recording about how their films were considered the ghetto of Italian genre cinema -- and that's by fans and colleagues, they were barely given a look by critics. But what we all know in the Severin-sphere is that these films were produced with absolute minimal resources, intended to be fun and enjoyable and made with a love of cinema. These guys got as much on screen to please their un-picky video store audience as their tiny budgets would allow. And they were resourceful with those budgets, delivering exactly what it says on the tin: Action, gore, mayhem, sex, violence, every juicy exploitation element not just checked off the list but squeezed until the eyes popped out and spectacularly exploded like a straw hut!

After they went their separate ways from Bruno, Rossella and Claudio would work for Joe D'Amato's production company Filmirage. They would refer to Joe D'Amato as the Roger Corman of Italian cinema as he gave so many filmmaking opportunities to so many. It was during this period that they made the notorious TROLL 2 among others. Despite it evolving into the pinnacle of laugh-at-it "bad" cinema, Rossella, knowing damn well it was very rough around the edges and, as was often the case, not budgeted well enough to fully realize all her ideas on-screen, was very proud that she'd written a comedy horror movie for vegetarians. Not to be defeated by the belated infamy of T2 (...actually best to write out TROLL 2 as they have another T2 in their filmography!), Claudio and Rossella continued to try and get a follow up off the ground which they were still talking about optimistically the last time we hung out.

We got to know Rossella well over the past few years, working on so many releases of her work, and became true friends when the two of them came out to Texas Frightmare Weekend in 2018 around the time we dropped SHOCKING DARK, ZOMBIE 3 and ZOMBIE 4. What a wonderful weekend that was. Still so enthusiastic about the films and truly delighted, not to mention a little bit surprised that the love extended way beyond TROLL 2, to meet fans in the US. It was here also that they met Brad Carter who would go on to work with Rossella primarily in discussing the original story ideas which were too ambitious for the budgets of the movies that got made but which would become a reality as the epic novelizations RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR and VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD. Brad wrote to me this morning after I broke the news to him: "Working with Rossella was a dream come true. In the short time I knew her, I was overwhelmed by her enthusiasm and boundless creativity. The world has lost one of its brightest imaginations. I offer my sincerest condolences to Claudio and the rest of her family."

The last time we were together was at their favorite restaurant in Rome, Camillo's, October 2023. We talked about their planned projects and how their favorite film in their filmography was the still unreleased on disc in the US ROMPER STOMPER-esque TESTE RASATE aka SKINHEADS from 1993. We had communicated after I had the pleasure of introducing a screening of our restored version of RATS at Splatfest in Warsaw last October then just yesterday I wrote to Rossella to set up a dinner for us all in Rome this weekend. But then received the terrible news from our mutual friend and colleague Federico Caddeo this morning.

We send all our love to Claudio at this time. And thank Rossella for all her wonderful work, the appreciation for which continues to grow among the fans and aficionados of the wildest in exploitation cinema.

DG

RIP