Briefs for July 12-13, 2019

First off, a couple of people died this week worth mentioning, and thanks to having a bunch of other things to post about, I didn't get to mention them yet. So I'll mention them now.

First up is Valentina Cortese, the Italian actress who had a long career including Hollywood in the late 40s and early 50s, her native Italy, and France. It was working for François Truffaut on Day for Night that she earned an Academy Award nomination:



Due to vagaries in the Academy's rules, the movie won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for 1973, but Cortese wasn't nominated until the next year. So, she ended up losing to Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express; Bergman gave an incredibly classy acceptance speech:



Cortese died on Wednesday at the age of 96.

Rip Torn, who earned an Oscar nomination for Cross Creek, died on Tuesday aged 88. Torn had a rather varied range of acting roles, earning a Tony nomination for the stage version of Sweet Bird of Youth, going on to reprise his role in the movie; doing comedy on the small screen in The Larry Sanders Show; and later movies like Men in Black. Torn was once married to Geraldine Page, and was the cousin of Sissy Spacek.

Finally, I'll mention Denise Nickerson. Best known for playing Violet, the girl who turns purple in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, died on Wednesday at the age of 62. She had apparently suffered a stroke last year and her health had deteriorated.



Clicking on a bunch of links led me to the blog Maddy Loves Her Classic Films, where I noticed that she's announced a blogathon for the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II in Europe. I just so happen to have a post all prepared for a World War II movie that I've kept in draft form because at various times when I've checked, it's either been available on DVD or sold out. So since I have the post more or less ready, I decided to save it or September 1.