For Dede Allen, who passed away on Saturday

film editor Dede Allen, nominated for the Academy Award four times: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Reds (1981), Wonder Boys (2000)

Alexis Tioseco- Gone Too Soon

May you be our light when all other lights go out.

Not Returning Your Call

The talent agent Sam Cohn died at 79 Wednesday in New York  after having had sickness.

His clients at International Creative Management (which he co-founded io included Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Lily Tomlin, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, Jackie Gleason, and Woody Allen . Other clients included Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Bob Fosse, Nora Ephron, E.L. Doctorow, and Arthur Miller.

Cohn retired this year and was known not to return phone calls. He graduated from Princeton and Yale.

Cannonball Blazes

Dom DeLuise passed away in his sleep on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 75.

He co-starred with Burt Reynolds in such movies as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and the Cannonball Run movies. He also worked with Mel Brooks in many projects, including Blazing Saddles.

He hosted "Candid Camera," appeared on "The Carol Burnett Show," and authored cookbooks.

Going Upstairs

The writer Marilyn French died at 79 of heart failure. She died Saturday in Manhattan.

Her first novel, The Women's Room (1977), turned her into a controversial leader of the feminist movement.  

She was an academic and she wrote essays and literary criticism. She studied philosophy and English literature.

The Emperor Goes Into the Night

JG Ballard died in London yesterday at age 78.

No cause of death was given, although in 2006, he was diagnosed with prostrate cancer.

He was born James Graham Ballard in Shanghai but he moved to Britain in 1946.

His novel Empire of the Sun (1984) was filmed by Steven Spielberg, which was shown in 1987. His novel Crash (1973) was filmed by David Cronenberg.

She Was a Teenage Bride

Betsy Blair died March 13 at age 85.

She married Gene Kelly in 1941 when she was 17, and he 29. They went to Hollywood and the choreographer became a big star. On the other hand, she took parts but her career went to a halt because her leftist leanings got her into the Hollywood blacklist. 

Blair was nominated for a best supporting actress Academy Award for Marty (1955), and two years later, she and Kelly divorced.

She refused to say something bad about Kelly, saying only, "... it just came to an end."

She was known better in Europe an took roles there. She moved to London and married Karel Reisz, the Czech director of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He died in 2002.

Blair is survived by her daughter, Kerry, with Kelly.

Obscene, Indeed

Here are some of the words heaped upon an actress whose death Richard Corliss calls as "obscenely early":

"For everyone who knew and loved her, Natasha's death is a terrible, devastating loss. She was a star. A great actress, a beautiful woman, a fiercely loyal friend, a brilliant and generous companion. She was an adoring and loving wife and mother. She was unique. ... I cannot imagine a world without her wit, her love, her mischief, her great, great talent and her gift for living. I loved her very much. She was a supreme friend. I shall miss her deeply." - Ralph Fiennes.

"Tasha is irreplaceable. I cannot think of anyone kinder, more generous, thoughtful, smarter or more fun." - Mia Farrow, whose two children were Richardson's godchildren 

"Natasha was brilliant, beautiful, funny, talented beyond measure, as emotionally raw as she was razor sharp...." - Jodie Foster, co-star of Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson in Nell (1994) 

"She was one of a kind, a magnificent actress.... She was also an amazing mother, a loyal friend and the greatest and most generous host you could ever hope to meet." - Sam Mendes, her director in "Cabaret". She received a Tony Award in 1998 for the Braodway musical.

"She was quite careful about what she did. But what she did, she went into with a full heart and a passion. She was very discerning, very serious about the film roles she chose. It's absolutely tragic that somebody with so much to offer, and of course from this great acting dynasty, should be taken at this time of her life, and tragic of course for her family." - Michael Coveney, British theater critic

"As a stage actress she was really coming into her own, she was becoming a major star and taken extremely seriously on the stage and also her film work ... was excellent. She had a sort of luminous presence on the stage, but offstage she was a very shy, very easygoing, almost self-deprecating character who didn't like being made a fuss of." - Tim Walker, theater critic for the Sunday Telegraph, a British newspaper

An Heiress Named Natasha

Natasha Richardson, 45, died Wednesday in New York.

She fell during a beginners' ski lesson at a resort in Quebec, and suffered a head injury. She was brought to a hospital in Montreal, and then to another one in New York.

Her theater resume included Patrick Marber's "Closer" (1999), and revivals of "Anna Christie" (1993), where she co-starred with her future husband Liam Neeson, and "A Streetcar Named Desire" (2005).

She received a Tony Award for best actress for a revival of "Cabaret" (1998).

She came from generations of actors that included her mother Vanessa Redgrave, with whom she appeared this year in "A Little Night Music" as mother and daughter.

Bad Day

The screenwriter Millard Kaufman died March 14 of heart failure. He was 92.

Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award twice- for Take the High Ground (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).

Kaufman was one of the creators of Mr. Magoo, the cartoon character. He wrote the short film Ragtime Bear (1949), in which the character appeared for the first time.

He had his first novel, "Bowl of Cherries" (2007), published at 90. The publisher McSweeney's- known for younger authors- intends to release a second one later.

James Purdy Begins

The author James Purdy died Friday in New Jersey at 94.

His works divided reviewers, but "Cabot Wright Begins" and "Eustace Chisholm and the Works" are stil considered classics. Susan Sontag praised the former, and compared it favorably to  Voltaire's "Candide." The latter gained respect over time, enough to be given the Clifton Fadiman Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Among his supporters were Dorothy Parker, Dame Edith Sitwell, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Angus Wilson, and the businessman/critic Osborn Andreas.

La Dolce Vita

The screenwriter Tullio Pinelli died March 7 at age 100 in Rome. 

He committed to film work in his late 30s and wrote or co-wrote more than 70 movies in his career. He was Federico Fellini's co-writer of 8 1/2, I Vitelloni, Juliet of the Spirits, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, and Nights of Cabiria- certainly one of the best working relationships in movie history. They started together for directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Pietro Germi, and Roberto Rossellini. They had a fallout in 1965, but got back together

Pinelli was a close friend of the poet Cesare Pavese and had fought for the Resistance in World War II. He is survived, among others, by his second wife Madeleine LeBeau, who appeared in Casablanca.

Trip to Bountiful

Horton Foote, playwright and screenwriter, died Wednesday in Connecticut at 92. 

He received two Academy Awards: for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.

He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for "The Young Man from Atlanta" and he also wrote The Trip to Bountiful.