Falcon and Winter Soldier/Mighty Ducks: Game Changers Review

The first two episodes for Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winder Soldier (2021) are now officially streaming on Disney+. The miniseries will consist of six episodes. The pilot episode of “The Mighty Ducks,” reboot series, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2021) officially became available to stream on Disney+ this past Friday, March 26th and it has ten episodes. Both shows are waiting to release episodes week by week.

From what the pilot episode acknowledged, both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, (aka Sam and Bucky) are struggling without their friend Captain America (aka Steve Rogers), since he went back in time to be with his love, Peggy Carter, at the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019). Steve gave Sam his trademark shield, which Sam decided to give up to the U.S. Government to be displayed at the Smithsonian; while Bucky is still attending therapy, recovering from his days as a brainwashed assassin (aka the Winter Soldier). There’s still a great deal of unpredictability yet to come in both of their lives, with the new threat of the “Flag Smashers.” They have yet to figure out how to work as partners as they are without the rest of the Avengers and they aren’t super close.

It is great to see Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, and Don Cheadle all back in their roles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They are all equally talented actors and they bring each of their characters to life brilliantly, as do Wyatt Russell, and in the following weeks, Daniel Bruhl and Emily VanCamp. Director Kari Skogland continues the epic look and feel that Anthony and Joe Russo created in each of the MCU movies they directed (i.e. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019)). The show features well-choreographed fight scenes and visual effects reminiscent of the movies, so there’s no reason why fans of the movies wouldn’t be fans of the series. 

“The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” is about how Evan (played by Brady Noon) is cut from The Mighty Ducks Junior Hockey Team. His paralegal mother, Alex, (played by Lauren Graham), encourages him to form his own new hockey team, which she will coach, along with the help of the Ducks former coach Gordon Bombay (once again portrayed by Emilio Estevez). This is interesting because the new show appears to be more about Alex and her relationship with Evan, and how she will balance her career along with coaching her son’s new ice hockey team. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Estevez’s character. In the original film he was a self-absorbed lawyer but learned to humble himself when he became coach of the original Ducks. Now, he’s more of the curmudgeon, reluctant advisor to the new “mom coach.” 

Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay is an interesting pairing along with Lauren Graham-who plays yet another eccentric, but caring mother (much like Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016) and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood (2010-2015)). Why Gordon has lost his passion for hockey remains a mystery, but who knows? Maybe Alex will play a role in rekindling his passion along with finding her own self-confidence. She might or might not also become his new love interest. The show has ten episodes in store, but there is the possibility it could be picked up for a Season Two. That presents curiousity whether or not the Season One cliffhanger could be return of another one of the original film’s cast members.    

I don’t know about you, but I personally am very impressed by these two shows. It’s disappointing that both show’s episodes will only be available to stream only one week at a time, whereas the full season would be available on Netflix, but they both have good potential. Let’s hope the future episodes live up to that.    

   

Lucille Ball: More than Lucy Ricardo

In honor of the fact that March is Women’s History Month, I thought in today’s blog we would acknowledge the history-making, groundbreaking career of a woman who made audiences laugh at a time when that ability was typically reserved for men. She was in entertainment for 61 years, and while she was known for portraying, on television, the role of a scheming redheaded wife of a conga drum player, in real life she was a not only a devoted wife and mother—and close friend to many other Hollywood talent—she was a force of nature in a very difficult business. She is none other than Lucille Ball!

Lucille Ball first knew that she wanted to be in show business as a twelve-year-old, when she performed in the chorus line of a stage show produced by the Shriner’s organization that her stepfather worked for. While she fell in love with being applauded, as a 17-year-old, she was deemed “too shy” by the professors of the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts and had no chance of succeeding whatsoever in the entertainment industry while her fellow classmate, Bette Davis, received utter praise. Despite this, Ball refused to give up on her dream, and she headed for Hollywood, auditioning for and booking an uncredited appearance in the 1933 film Roman Scandals.

The Great Depression was still going on in Hollywood when she arrived, so work wasn’t exactly easy to find. Although she booked small roles in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films like Top Hat (1935) and Chatterbox (1936) the money she was paid wasn’t enough to make ends meet. Not only was she suffering from the impact of the depression, but Studio Head Samuel Goldwyn was quoted as having said: “Funny women don’t sell tickets. Beautiful women do.” The complicated thing about Lucille Ball was that she was beautiful, but also had an exceptional talent for physical comedy. Studio heads didn’t understand or even appreciate it, but movie audiences did, and she later earned the nickname “Queen of the B pictures.”

Lucy was cast alongside Richard Carlson and Ann Miller in a film called Too Many Girls (1940). The film also featured a young Cuban bandleader/conga-drum player named Desiderio”Desi” Arnaz who was making his debut as an actor. They fell deeply in love with each other and eloped after a 6-month courtship. Eight years later, Ball was cast in My Favorite Husband, a radio comedy series for CBS Radio in which she would portray a rather eccentric wife named Liz Cooper, opposite Richard Denning as her husband. The show was a hit, and CBS later talked to her about re-adapting the series for television. (TV was just being created at the time and was outdoing the popularity of radio.) Ball agreed, but she requested the network cast her real-life husband in the role of her television husband, as their performing schedules hadn’t allowed them to see a great deal of each other. The network was reluctant, knowing she was great deal more popular then him, but they ultimately relented, and together Ball and Arnaz formed Desilu Productions, which would produced the television show that was ultimately renamed I Love Lucy (1951-1957) for six hilarious seasons.

There were a great deal of laughs on the show, but there were touching—and groundbreaking—memories as well. When Lucille Ball became pregnant with their second child, their son Desi Arnaz Jr., she feared the show would have to be cancelled (their daughter, Lucie Arnaz, had been born six weeks before the show went on air.) “I Love Lucy,” producer Jess Oppenheimer suggested writing the pregnancy into the show. CBS execs were very opposed to this idea, but they gave in and the “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” episode was a huge hit when it aired on January 19th, 1953, which was the same day Desi Arnaz Jr. was born. and this made her the first leading lady of television—in reality and story—to have a baby on television. 

While producing the show, Ball was also a ground-breaker. The show made use of the 3-camera technique or the “Multiple-camera setup,” a process that had been invented for film and was first used on the Russian feature Defense of Sevastopol in 1911. Desilu however, made it more unique using 35 millimeter formant rather than 16 millimeter format. 

After “I Love Lucy,” Ball and Arnaz were paired together again in The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960), a continuation “I Love Lucy,” which consisted of 13 episodes that ran for an hour rather than 30 minutes. Their marriage sadly ended in divorce in May 1961. After they divorced, Lucy bought out Arnaz’s share of Desilu productions to run the company herself. It was a small, but impactful decision.

As the very first female head of a television studio, Lucy gave the “green-light” to Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) and the original Mission: Impossible (1966-1973) but she also continued to perform, starring in The Lucy Show (1962-1968) and Here’s Lucy (1968-1974), both of which were co-produced by her second husband Gary Morton. It was around this time that she became a frequent collaborator/mentor to friend Carol Burnett, guest starring numerous times on The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978).

In addition, Lucy had the idea of “re-running” episodes of television shows. While other studio exec’s were saying “you can’t expect TV stations to run episodes a second time,” Lucy said “not only are they going to do it, I’m going to make them pay me for a privilege!” Thus, the idea of syndication was born, making many television actors/producers/directors very wealthy in the process.  

Lucille Ball was the very first female television studio head, the very first woman to become a mother on television, and the very first to be “in charge” of the laughs the audience gave. She passed away on April 26th, 1989 at the age of 77. She was an incredibly performer and left legacy in entertainment that wouldn’t be forgotten in a million years.      

   

Raya and the Last Dragon Review

Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon was released on March 5th, 2021 to select theaters and for premier access to Disney+ subscribers. The film is the 59th feature in the Walt Disney Animation Studios cannon. I had the privilege of seeing the movie in theaters this weekend and in today’s blog, I thought I would do a review of the film.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” is the story of a young warrior named Raya who lives in the “Heart” Tribe of the fictional land of Kumandra. Kumandra has been divided into different tribes because each of its people groups fought to have control over a magical orb that would fend off evil magical creatures called Druuns who turn the people into stone. The tribes all have the names of dragon body parts, named for dragons who also fought to protect the people from the Druuns. The dragons wound up getting turned into stone themselves—all except for one: Sisu. Raya makes it her mission to find Sisu, who helps her figure out how use the orb correctly and destroy the Druuns.

During their adventures Raya has trouble knowing who she can trust, given all the tribes are at war. Sisu helps Raya learn that she can make friends of enemies, and help the other tribes trust each other. Even experiencing bullying and the loss of family and friends can be overcome by trusting those around you.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” has extremely striking visuals. Even though the land of Kumandra is not real, as you watch this epic adventure story, it feels real. Kumandra was inspired by many of the countries in Southeast Asia (i.e. Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar,  Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines). By the time the movie is over, it feels like you’ve had a beautiful tour of each of these lands in just a little under two hours.

This movie featured a tip-top voice cast. Kelly Marie Tran, who portrayed Rose Tico in Disney’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) provided the voice of Raya, and Golden-Globe-Winner Awkwafina voiced Sisu the Dragon. The film also features the voices of Daniel Day Kim, Lucille Soong, Alan Tudyk, and two-time Golden-Globe-Winner Sandra Oh. 

The film includes a score composed by James Newton Howard, who is also known at Disney for composing the scores to Dinosaur (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), and Treasure Planet (2002). Qui Nguyen made his feature film debut co-writing the film’s screenplay with Adele Lim. Lim also wrote the screenplay for Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which coincidentally starred Awkwafina. The movie was directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and Don Hall. Estrada made his Disney debut directing the film while Hall previously directed Disney’s Winnie the Pooh (2011) and Big Hero 6 (2014).

There is also a wonderful short film that played in front of the movie called Us Again (2021), which is about an elderly couple who reminisce about being young while dancing together in the rain. The short film is an inspiration to all because it acknowledges that even when you’re old, you can always dance, especially when you have true love.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” is a wonderful film because in addition to having beautiful visuals, a good cast and music, it acknowledges how valuable a gift trust is. Trust is a very important thing to have in your relationships with friends and family. The message of “Raya and the Last Dragon,” is that, while disappointment and loss brings pain and difficulty, one can make that journey through new relationships and the mutual trust that develops.    

   

 

Madge Sinclair: The Lion Queen!

On June 29th, 1988, the romantic comedy Coming to America was released. It was Eddie Murphy’s first film in which he played multiple characters, (the main role of Prince Akeem, along with three other characters: Clarence, Saul, and Randy Watson.) The film also starred Arsenio Hall in four roles, including Semmi, Akeem’s right-hand man. James Earl Jones played Akeem’s father, King Jaffe Joffer, and Madge Sinclar as Akeem’s mother, Queen Aoleon. On March 5th, 2021, Amazon Prime will release the sequel, Coming 2 America with each of these actors reprising their respective roles from the original, along with the rest of the film’s supporting cast, including Shari Headley and John Amos. Madge Sinclair, however, will not appear in the sequel because she sadly is deceased. Today we will explore her career, including her voice work for one of Disney’s most beloved animated movies. 

Madge Sinclair was born in Kingston, Jamaica on April 28th, 1938. She began her career as a teacher after she studied at the Shortwood College for Women. She married a Jamaican police officer, Royston Sinclair, and had two sons with him, Garry and Wayne, but they divorced when she decided to move to New York to pursue acting. She was fortunate enough to find success performing at the New York Shakespearean Festival and she got a job as a model. Her modeling skills ultimately caught the attention of a talent agent who encouraged her to tryout for Joseph Rapp’s Public Theatre. She worked for this theatre company for the next three years, and it wasn’t long before television came knocking at her door.

In 1972, she appeared in the short film The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope and in an episode of the crime drama Madigan (1972-1973). In 1974, she starred in the film Conrack alongside Jon Voight and Paul Winfield, a film known for it’s message of racial unity and understanding. Her role as Mrs. Scott in that film earned her a NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. In 1975, she starred in a television remake of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. In this film, Sinclair was directed by Stanley Kramer, who had also directed the original 1967 theatrical version with Sidney Poitier, Spencer and Katherine Hepburn. In 1977, she appeared as Bell Reynolds, wife of Kunta Kinte, played by John Amos in the miniseries Roots, which co-starred LeVar Burton as the young Kunta Kinte. Sinclair worked with Burton four other times, each time playing his mother, the first of which was the film Almos’ a Man which was released in 1976.

The 1980s earned Sinclair iconic status when she was cast in the CBS medical drama Trapper John M.D. (1979-1986) in the role of Nurse Ernestine Shoop, a role that earned her three Primetime Emmy Nominations. She made an uncredited appearance as the Saratoga Captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). During her run of “Trapper John M.D.,” Sinclair was diagnosed with leukemia, but for the time being, managed to pull through. She reunited with John Amos and had her first pairing with James Earl Jones when they were all cast in the original “Coming to America.” Sinclair and Jones reunited when they were both cast on the drama series Gabriel’s Fire (1990-1991), and Sinclair’s role as Empress Josephine finally won her a Primetime Emmy. They teamed up a third time when they were cast as regulars in the action drama series, Pros and Cons (1991-1992), and they appeared in separate episodes of L.A. Law (1986-1994) as well. (Sinclair reunited with LeVar Burton, again playing his mother in the “Interface” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)). 

Soon, Walt Disney Animation Studios gave a green light to The Lion King (1994) and were looking for actors to provide the voices of Mufasa and Sarabi, the King and Queen Lion parents of Simba, the future King. At the time, they had considered the likes of Timothy Dalton and Liam Neeson for Mufasa and Vanessa Redgrave, Virginia McKenna, and Helen Mirren for Sarabi, but finally, they decided to re-team Jones and Sinclair. The voice-over role of Queen Sarabi would be Madge Sinclair’s last film role, because the following year, her leukemia tragically took her life on December 20th, 1995. She was survived by her sons, and her second husband, actor Dean Crompton. That same year, she was awarded the Order of Distinction, Rank of Commander by the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Madge Sinclair was a talent worthy of more attention by people. She earned fame for playing Ernestine Shoop in “Trapper John,” and for playing LeVar Burton’s mother, but what made her legendary was playing James Earl Jones’s queen twice, in both human and “lion” form. It’s sad that we will not see her in “Coming 2 America,” but had it not been for her wonderful acting talents, “The Lion King,” and the original “Coming to America,” would not have been as special as they were to all of “us fans.”

 

 

 

Tiana and Naveen: We Met Them Down in New Orleans

As we continue the month of February, I thought the next Disney couple we could acknowledge could be Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog (2009), in honor of the fact that February is also Black History Month. “Princess and the Frog,” was released on December 11th, 2009, to critical acclaim and received three Academy Award Nominations, including Best Animated Feature, and two nominations for Best Original Song “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.” Though in addition to having well-written music, and being an exceptionally well-produced movie, there are several other things that make the movie special. 

First, a brief synopsis: Tiana is girl who lives in New Orleans with her mother, Eudora, and she wants to follow in her late father James footsteps, and manage her own restaurant. Later, one night at a party, she meets a frog named who claims he used to be a man but was turned into a frog by a which doctor, Dr. Facilier, and Naveen claims that if Tiana will kiss him, he will be a man again. She does so, but wounds up getting turned into a frog herself, and together she and Naveen wound up going on an adventure together in the New Orleans bayou, to figure out how to change themselves back into humans, and they make also some funny new friends along the way.

Tiana is a special leading lady, because in addition to being Disney’s very first African-American leading lady, she is also the very first Disney leading lady to have a career path for herself. Because her life’s ambition being to build and run her own restaurant, she understands, appreciates, and highly values hard work and knows that it takes a great deal of hard work to pursue you want in life and you have to be willing to do it, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes. Sadly, though because of her preoccupation with her career, she doesn’t have much time socialize with her friends, let alone have a love life. Naveen, on the other hand, could be considered a playboy knowing how at the beginning we see he likes to have fun with girls and spend more money than he should spend just because he’s the royal Prince of Maldonia. As a result of that, he was cut off from his royal finances by his parents and is looking to get married, but just for wealth, not for love, which is roughly similar to Tiana’s situation.

When Tiana and Naveen meet and both get turned into frogs, they go on this fun adventure where they both learn to help one another grow up. Tiana helps Naveen mature and to appreciate hard work when she teaches him how to mince mushrooms. Naveen also helps Tiana step outside of her “career zone” and learn to actually enjoy life when he teaches her to dance. He has a great line in the film when he speaks “If I can mince, you can dance.” By the end of the film, Naveen and Tiana have both made extraordinary differences in each other’s lives and Naveen gladly gives up his dream of marrying for financial gain so that Tiana can have her dream of having her own restaurant and they can get married because they’re in love with each other.

Tiana and Naveen are a great couple because their story involves the two of them finding true love when neither was looking for it. They both help each other mature, see other sides of life, and become very close friends. And while they both have their own things they value, as they fall for one another, they are also reminded how to value true love.   

   

 

Charles Boyer: Making Mickey Real

Walt Disney hired many creative people to help make Disneyland a reality by opening day, July 17th, 1955. In addition to the people he hired to build the park attractions, establish the restaurants etc., he also hired many artists to design all that could be seen around the park, as well as what guests could purchase in the souvenir shops. One of those artists, was a man named Charles Boyer, who managed to have a successful career as an artist despite the fact that he suffered from color-blindness.

Charles Boyer (no relation to the actor) first knew that he wanted to be an artist in high school. Growing up in Southern California, he fell in love with the desert landscape in the Imperial Valley, and in his teens, he won first place at the Imperial Valley County Fair. He was also a huge fan of the works of Vincent Van Gogh. 

After high school, he took art classes at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. (He attended the school before Walt and Roy Disney merged Chouinard with the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to form the California Institute of the Arts or CalArts in 1961.) While attending classes in both cartooning and design, he performed double duty as a janitor for the school, which earned him a “working scholarship.” His classes inspired him to pursue a career in commercial arts rather than fine arts, and he ultimately was employed as an illustrator by the marketing and advertising department at Disneyland.

His job at Disneyland was meant to be temporary, but temporary turned into 39 years. While working there he designed everything from magazine covers, brochures, oil portraits, and almost 50 lithographs. His work was produced in every artistic medium, including pastels, oils, watercolors, gouache, acrylics, pencil, and ink. One of his most beloved pieces was “Partners, a painting of Walt Disney hand-in-hand with Mickey Mouse, painted in 1981. The painting was later designed, though in a different pose for the “Partners,” statue at Disneyland. He also designed a work called “Triple Self-Portrait,” which featured Walt Disney looking in a mirror and painting a portrait of Mickey Mouse, painted in 1978. This work was inspired by a Norman Rockwell painting of the same name.

Boyer was very humble and modest, and when he retired in 1999, he was quoted as saying “I know people can do things they like. I wasn’t very good when I came out of school. I spent 40 years getting this good. I’ve worked with such great people. My wife used to ask me if I was actually getting any work done because I was having so much fun.” Charles Boyer was named a Disney Legend in 2005, and was given a window in Main Street in Disneyland with his name written on it. He passed away yesterday, February 13th, 2021, at the age of 86. 

His son, Bruce Boyer, said “Dad was the first artist who could make Mickey look real, in the real world. That was the gift my Dad gave to Disney, bringing Mickey to life. That’s what he loved to do; paint realistically. Goofy, Donald, he brought them to life too.” Charles Boyer’s life is an inspiration. He’s a perfect example of never being afraid to pursue what you love to do. Even his color-blind disability didn’t stop him. He surprised himself and continues to inspire others with what they can accomplish.   

 

2021: In Memoriam

Within the last month, we have bid farewell to four legendary actors. Each were unbelievably talented and they performed in nearly every medium of entertainment, from movies and television to live theatre and radio. Among this quartet, there is a total of Two Oscars, Two Golden Globes, 18 Emmy Awards, and Four Tony Awards. Three out of the four of them also appeared in Disney movies. In today’s blog, I thought we could explore the legacies of these fine actors.

Hal Holbrook passed away on January 23rd, 2021 at 95. Holbrook was primarily known for acting in historical dramas throughout most of his career. In 1966, he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Mark Twain in Mark Twain Tonight!, a one-man play that he also wrote and played numerous times throughout his career. In 1974, Holbrook received an Emmy Award for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in the mini-series Lincoln (1974-1976), and ironically he later appeared in the role of Francis Preston Blair in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), which starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln. In addition, Holbrook can be recognized for his roles in the “Dirty Harry” film Magnum Force (1973), Fletch Lives (1989) and for his Oscar-nominated performance as Ron Franz in Into the Wild (2007). Fans of Disney Animation will also remember Holbrook as the voice of Amphitryon, Hercules’s adoptive father in Hercules (1997) and Mayday the Firetruck in Planes: Fire and Rescue (2013).

Cloris Leachman died on January 27th, 2021 due to natural causes at the age of 94. Leachman is best-known for her portrayal of quirky characters, including Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977), a role for which she won two Emmys. She later won a Golden Globe for recreating the character of Phyllis Lindstrom in a spin-off series Phyllis (1975-1977), which lasted two seasons. Around the time that she played Phyllis Lindstrom, she also became a member of Mel Brooks’s ensemble cast, appearing in three of Brooks’s movies: Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977) and History of the World: Part I (1981). Leachman won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Last Picture Show (1971) and for Disney, she acted in the live-action films The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), and Sky High (2005). She also lent her voice to episodes of Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015) and Elena of Avalor (2016-2020), as well as the English-dub version of the Disney/Studio Ghibli film Castle in the Sky (1998). 

Cicely Tyson passed on the very next day, January 28th, 2021, at 96 years of age. One of the trademarks of her career was portraying strong-willed women. She received a Best Actress Oscar Nomination for her performance as Rebecca, the mother in Sounder (1972), and throughout the later years of her career she played women who remained strong despite receiving a great deal of unfortunate discrimination as well as abuse: the title role in the TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), Sipsey in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and Constantine Jefferson in The Help (2013). She collaborated with Tyler Perry twice, playing the role of Aunt Myrtle in Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005 and again in Madea’s Family Reunion in 2006. In 2013, Tyson received a Tony Award for portraying the role of Mrs. Carrie Watts in the revival of the play The Trip to Bountiful which featured an all African-American cast. (The role of Carrie Watts previously won Geraldine Page an Oscar for portraying it in the 1985 movie version.) For Disney, Tyson lent her voice to an episode of the Disney Channel Original Animated Series The Proud Family (2001-2005).

Most recently, Christopher Plummer passed on February 5th, 2021 due to complications from a fall, at age 91. Plummer will forever be remembered for his performance as Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), though his career was much more versatile than that, playing princes, kings, aristocrats and other famous people. He won two Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical in 1974 for Cyrano in which he portrayed Cyrano de Bergerac and Best Actor in a Play in 1997 for Barrymore in which he impersonated John Barrymore. In 2012, he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Beginners (2011), becoming the oldest actor to win an Oscar at 82 years of age, surpassing Jessica Tandy who had previously held the record when she won Best Actress at age 76 for Driving Miss Daisy (1989). He received another Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination for his performance as J. Paul Getty in All The Money in The World (2017) and that same year he also portrayed Ebeneezer Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017). He also received acclaim for playing journalist Mike Wallace in the 1999 film The Insider. His Disney roles include playing John Adams Gates, grandfather of Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Gates in National Treasure (2004) and voicing the greedy Charles Muntz in Disney/Pixar’s Up (2009).

These four actors all had incredible careers and they were all fortunate enough to live into their 90s. While it is sad that each of their deaths occurred within a few weeks of each other, there is no doubt that fans will continue to enjoy their talents for a long time. Hats of to them all!