Yuliy Borisovich Briner, known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards, and later an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film adaptation. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for The King and I. Considered one of the first Russian-American film stars, he was honored with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956, and also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
Leonard Michael Maltin is the go-to American film critic, film historian for all the major film industry studios in Hollywood. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, published annually from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film critic on Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2010. He currently teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and hosts the weekly podcast Maltin on Movies. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and votes for films to be selected for the National Film Registry.
Catlow is a 1971 American Western film, based on a 1963 novel of the same name by Louis L'Amour. It stars Yul Brynner as a renegade outlaw determined to pull off a Confederate gold heist. It co-stars Richard Crenna and Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy mentioned this film in both of his autobiographies because it gave him a chance to break away from his role as Spock on Star Trek. He mentioned that the time he made the film was one of the happiest of his life, even though his part was rather brief. The film contains a lot of tongue-in-cheek and sardonic humor, especially between Brynner and Crenna's characters.
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Body and Soul but in the early 1950s was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios, after refusing to testify at congressional hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, in the midst of the McCarthy era.
Taras Bulba is a 1962 American Color by Deluxe in Eastmancolor adventure film loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's novel Taras Bulba, starring Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The story line of the film is considerably different from that of Gogol's novel, although it is closer to his expanded 1842 edition than his original (pro-Ukrainian) version of 1835.
Murmur of the Heart is a 1971 French comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Louis Malle. It stars Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux and Daniel Gélin. Written as Malle's semi-autobiography, the film tells a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy (Ferreux) growing up in bourgeois surroundings in post-World War II Dijon, France, with a complex relationship with his Italian-born mother (Massari).
Oliver Tobias Freitag, known professionally as Oliver Tobias, is a Swiss-born UK-based film, stage, and television actor and director.
Joseph Opatoshu was a Polish-born Yiddish novelist and short story writer. He was the father of actor David Opatoshu.
The Light at the Edge of the World is a 1971 Spanish-American adventure film, directed by Kevin Billington and starring Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Samantha Eggar, and Fernando Rey. It was adapted from Jules Verne's classic 1905 adventure novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World. The plot involves piracy in the South Atlantic during the mid-19th century, with a theme of survival in extreme circumstances, and events centering on an isolated lighthouse.
David Opatoshu was an American actor. He is best known for his role in the film Exodus (1960).
Four Flies on Grey Velvet is a 1971 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film concerns Roberto Tobias, who accidentally kills a man and is then tormented by someone who witnessed the event. The film was an Italian and French production between the Rome-based company Seda Spettacoli and the Paris-based Universal Productions France.
Henri Serre was a French actor who was best known for his role as Jim, a "vivid, melancholy, and finally tragic figure" in François Truffaut's Jules and Jim. Other appearances include The Fire Within, Section spéciale and Mister Frost. Serre died on 9 October 2023, at the age of 92.
Avalanche Express is a 1979 Cold War adventure thriller film starring Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans and produced and directed by Mark Robson. The plot is about the struggle over a defecting Soviet general. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on a 1977 novel by Colin Forbes. It was the last film for Shaw and Robson, who both died during the production in 1978.
Beyond the Stars is a 1989 American science-fiction drama film written and directed by David Saperstein and starred Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Olivia d'Abo, and F. Murray Abraham. The film was originally titled Personal Choice. It was never released in theaters.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1971 American horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, and starring Jason Robards, Christine Kaufmann, Herbert Lom and Lilli Palmer. The screenplay by Christopher Wicking and Henry Slesar is a loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story of the same name. However, it departs from Poe's version in several significant aspects, at times more resembling Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. In a DVD interview, Hessler said that he felt it necessary to reinvent the plot as he believed the majority of audiences were too familiar with Poe's story.
Unman, Wittering and Zigo is a 1971 British thriller film directed by John Mackenzie and starring David Hemmings, Douglas Wilmer and Carolyn Seymour. It is adapted by Simon Raven from Giles Cooper's 1958 radio drama Unman, Wittering and Zigo.
Nieves Navarro García is a retired Spanish-born Italian actress and fashion model. Navarro worked extensively in Italian cinema appearing alongside actors such as Totò and Lino Banfi in the 1960s and 1970s. She later adopted the Americanized stage name Susan Scott for many of her productions after 1969.
The Young Lovers is a 1964 black-and-white American romantic drama film. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in November 1964. The sole directorial effort of its producer, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., it stars Peter Fonda and Sharon Hugueny, with second leads Nick Adams and Deborah Walley. Scripted by George Garrett from a 1955 novel by Julian Halevy, the film was shot in September–October 1963 and released a year later.
Clay Pigeon is a 1971 American action film directed by Lane Slate and Tom Stern and written by Ronald Buck, Jack Gross, Jr. and Buddy Ruskin. The film stars Tom Stern, Telly Savalas, Robert Vaughn, John Marley, Burgess Meredith and Ivan Dixon. The film was released on August 1971, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The Ravine is a 1969 Italian-Yugoslav-American war drama film written and directed by Paolo Cavara and starring David McCallum, Nicoletta Machiavelli and John Crawford.
