(MENAFN- Arab Times) Alex Rocco, the Emmy-winning character actor best known for taking a bullet through the eye as the Las Vegas casino boss Moe Greene in "The Godfather," has died. He was 79. Rocco's daughter, Jennifer, announced his death Saturday. Details were not immediately available. Rocco's career spanned five decades, and he remained active up until his death, including a recurring role on the Starz series "Magic City." His distinctively gravelly voice made him a frequent tough-guy presence in both hardboiled tales ("The Friends of Eddie Coyle," ''St Valentine's Day Massacre," ''Get Shorty") and comedic sitcoms ("The Simpsons," ''The Facts of Life"). His most famous role came in 1972's "The Godfather," where he played the humbled casino owner who meets his fate on a massage table, with a bullet through his thick eyeglass lenses.
His confrontation with Al Pacino's Michael Corleone - in which he condescended to the new boss: "I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!" - was among the movie's many indelible scenes. "Without a doubt, my biggest ticket anywhere," Rocco told the AV Club in 2012. "I went for. I dunno, one of the Italian parts. Maybe the Richard Bright part. But Coppola goes, 'I got my Jew!' And I went, 'Oh no, Mr Coppola, I'm Italian. I wouldn't know how to play a Jew.' And he goes, 'Oh, shut up.'" The Boston-born Rocco also memorably voiced the cigar-smoking studio head of "Itchy and Scratchy" on "The Simpsons." And he played Charlie Polniaczek on the 1980s sitcom "The Facts of Life."
He won an Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series in 1990 for the short-lived Jon Cryer sitcom "The Famous Teddy Z." Born on Feb 29, 1936, as Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr in Cambridge, Mass, Rocco studied acting under Leonard Nimoy on his arrival to Los Angeles. His first role was in a Russ Meyer film, 1965's "Motor Psycho." Nimoy helped rid Rocco of his thick Boston accent, and the actor would forever after find consistent work - from Pixar's "A Bug's Life" to "Family Guy" - for his singular voice. Rocco is survived by his wife, actress Shannon Wilcox, his daughter Jennifer, son Lucien and a grandson.
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George Coe, an actor with extensive credits and a longtime activist in the Screen Actors Guild, died Saturday in Santa Monica, California, after battling a long illness. He was 86. Coe acted for more than 50 years of film, television, commercial and stage work. He had a lengthy career as a commercial performer both on camera and voiceover, including six years as the voice of Toyota. He served more than a dozen years on the SAG national board of directors, having the vice president title for two years and creating the template for what became SAG's first low-budget production contract. Coe was born in Jamaica, Queens. His Broadway theater career began in 1957 and included performing as M. Lindsey Woolsey opposite Angela Lansbury in the original cast of Jerry Herman's "Mame" and as Owen O'Malley in "On The Twentieth Century."
Coe was also an original member of "Not Ready For Prime Time Players," the original cast of "Saturday Night Live," and was credited as a cast member for the first show in October, 1975. He portrayed the head of an ad agency in "Kramer vs Kramer" and was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1968 comedy short film "The Dove," a parody of Ingmar Bergman's films, which he co-directed as well as starred in. Coe's TV credits included "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Max Headroom," "Murder, She Wrote," "Bones," "Judging Amy," "The King of Queens," "Nip/Tuck," "Grey's Anatomy," "Columbo," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Gilmore Girls," "The Golden Girls" and "The West Wing."
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Van Alexander, the 1940s bandleader who co-wrote "A-Tisket, ATasket" with Ella Fitzgerald and went on to score dozens of films and TV shows in the 1950s and '60s, died of heart failure Sunday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 100. A three-time Emmy nominee for composition and music direction in the early 1970s, Alexander was head arranger for the entire run of NBC"s "Dean Martin Show" (1965-74) and wrote scores for many 1960s sitcoms including "Hazel," "The Donna Reed Show," "Dennis the Menace," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie." He was also the composer of more than a dozen 1950s and '60s film scores including "The Atomic Kid," "Baby Face Nelson," "Andy Hardy Comes Home," "Girls Town" and a trio of William Castle films that have become cult favorites: "13 Frightened Girls," "Strait-Jacket" and "I Saw What You Did."
Alexander was the author of "First Arrangement," a landmark 1946 how-to book for musicians learning how to arrange for orchestra. He later penned an autobiography, "From Harlem to Hollywood: A Life in Music." He was born in New York, May 2, 1915, and began piano lessons at the age of 6. He became friendly with bandleader Chick Webb at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom and sold his first arrangement at the age of 19. Webb's featured singer Fitzgerald suggested the idea of making the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" into a jazz number, and they recorded it on Alexander's 23rd birthday in 1938.
It became her first big hit and his biggest hit as a songwriter. He went on to write band arrangements for Benny Goodman and Bob Crosby. Alexander led his own band from 1939 to 1944, moving to LA in 1945 and starting to compose for films in the 1950s. His work on "The Atomic Kid" and TV's "The Mickey Rooney Show," both in 1954, led to a series of scores for Rooney films into the 1960s.
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Perry "Buddy" Buie, a songwriter and producer who helped form the Atlanta Rhythm Section and then fuel its success with the lyrics he wrote for the band, has died. He was 74. Buie died Saturday, said Chip Chapman, owner of Chapman Funeral Home in Eufaula, Alabama, which is handling arrangements. A memorial service is planned for 1 pm CDT Wednesday at First Baptist Church in Eufaula, the funeral home said. Singer Rodney Justo, one of the band's original members, remembers how Buie brought him and other musicians together to form the Atlanta Rhythm Section in the early 1970s. "He calls me one day, and he says 'I have an idea Rodney, and I'd like you to be a part of it,'" Justo recalled on Sunday. "He said 'I want to get all the top musicians in the South, put them together and build a super group."
"Atlanta Rhythm Section was Buddy's dream," Justo added. "He wanted a band that he could produce, manage, write songs for and to be a vehicle for his songs." The band had wide influence, and "they helped define the Southern Rock genre with other bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd," according to Buie's biography in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Though Buie is known for his work with the Atlanta Rhythm Section, he has also written or cowritten numerous hits performed by artists such as Carlos Santana (the song "Stormy"); Gloria Estefan ("Traces"); and Garth Brooks ("Mr Midnight"), according to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Buie, a native of Dothan, Alabama, was once Roy Orbison's road manager, Justo said.
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British jazz pianist John Taylor has died after suffering a heart attack onstage at a music festival in France, the show's organisers said. "Carol, John Taylor's wife, has informed us about her husband's death on Saturday July 18," a statement said. The 72-year-old was playing at the Saveurs Jazz Festival in the western French town of Segre on Friday when he suffered the heart attack. "His family told us that music occupied an essential place in his life and that the concerts that are being held now at the Saveurs Jazz Festival are in themselves the best tribute that could be paid to him," added the organisers. Taylor began his career in 1969, and has played with numerous musicians including US composer and saxophonist Lee Konitz, British jazz singer Norma Winstone and the late Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler.
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