Category: people

Macurdy’s rich voice and stage presence won him accolades over his 38-year career at the Met. “Though he achieved success in key roles like Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal, King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Mr. Macurdy proved essential to the house for his standout performances of supporting roles, including the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which he sang 75 times at the Met; Daland in Wagner’s Der Fliegender Holländer; the King of Egypt in Verdi’s Aida; and many more.” – The New York Times

Dallas, who had pancreatic cancer, was a playwright, musician, teacher, and, most notably, a director. He led Philadelphia’s Freedom Theater, one of the nation’s pre-eminent African American theatres, for 16 years, and worked at New York’s Public Theater and Negro Company, among others, as he directed 25 world premieres. An actress who worked with him for three decades: “For him, joy was serious business, especially as a black man who had grown up in the segregated South. … An actor would start a passage and break into tears, and he would say: ‘There is power in sorrow and trauma, but there’s so much more power in digging deep and asking what brings you joy. Then the tears and the angst will come.’'” – The New York Times

“A hummingbird of a woman at 4-foot-8, [she] was a puppeteer whose performances were mock-chaotic, subtly cerebral and always slyly subversive. She made sure to slip in a history lesson, or a plug for conservation or social justice. She called them happenings, for the political theater she was schooled in. Her fellow puppeteers called her the Queen of Potpourri.” – The New York Times

“[He was] a co-founder and the artistic director of Repertorio Español, … [which since 1968] has reimagined Spanish classics and offered contemporary work by Latin and Latin American playwrights, always in Spanish, performed repertory-style. … And he liked to say that the playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age — Cervantes et al. — should be as well known here as Shakespeare.” – The New York Times

“A Spanish court has dismissed an appeal from a psychic who claimed to be Salvador Dalí’s long-lost daughter after DNA results debunked the outlandish theory. Pilar Abel has been ordered to pay for exhuming the surrealist artist’s body three years ago in her quest to prove he was her father.” (Exquisite? Why, yes — Dalí’s mustache remains intact.) – Artnet

“For about 10 years, between the era of Shirley Temple in the 1930s and before Jerry Mathers appeared on TV’s Leave It to Beaver in the late 1950s, Joel Kupperman may have been the most famous child in America. From 1942 to 1952, he appeared almost every week on Quiz Kids, … [where] he would put on a scholar’s cap and gown and, with a panel of other genius-level children from Chicago, answer questions about mathematics, science, history, music, literature, sports and current events.” The experience was so painful that, as an adult, he refused to speak of it in any way. – The Washington Post

Rothenberg’s paintings are spare and stark—frequently understated in their color palette and simple in their form. But through even the vague suggestion of figures, Rothenberg was able to create memorable images that tease the brain and tickle the eye. – ARTnews

“Even when he was a big name, Piccoli was never too proud to play small supporting roles or even bit parts if he liked the screenplay. But whatever the size of the role, whether playing a goody or a baddie, Piccoli would bring to the character a gravitas (with a tinge of humour) and an ironic detachment, simultaneously revealing a real, recognisable human being beneath the surface.” – The Guardian

Actor Leslie Jordan is just fine with all of the attention to his “pillow talk” tales of working with more famous – and often much more highly paid – actors and performers. “What was interesting to me was how offers started coming in to push products,” he says. “I’m telling you, I did not know the word monetise.” (He does now.) – BBC

His collaborations with Christopher Guest and Guest’s mockumentary ensemble were epic. “He played an Air Force colonel in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), then was travel agent/amateur actor Ron Albertson in Waiting for Guffman (1996); dunderheaded announcer Buck Laughlin in Best in Show (2000); Mike LaFontaine, blond-haired manager of the New Main Street Singers, in A Mighty Wind (2003); and smarmy newsmagazine host Chuck Porter (supposedly modeled on Billy Bush) in For Your Consideration (2006).” But that was far from all; his IMDb credit list runs to over 300 appearances, many of them as “self.” – The Hollywood Reporter