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Severin Films is celebrating the late Peter Cushing with an unprecedented box set highlighting the most unexpected gems from the filmography of the legendary horror actor.

Cushing Curiosities, releasing August 29, presents 6-discs of rarely seen feature films and television broadcasts restored and scanned from original vault sources, plus a curated plethora of Special Features that celebrate Cushing’s unique career like never before.

From Hammer Films to Star Wars, he remains one of genre films’ best-loved actors. Now celebrate six of the most unexpected, rarely seen and decidedly curious performances from the legendary career of Peter Cushing: Cushing delivers a rare villain turn in the 1960 aviation thriller Cone Of Silence. That same year, Cushing brought gentle dignity to The Boulting Brothers’ cold-war drama Suspect. In 1962’s The Man Who Finally Died, Cushing co-stars opposite Stanley Baker as a former Nazi hiding a grave post-war secret.

Cushing returns to his...

Irish stage and screen character actor who appeared in Barbarella, The Verdict and the BBC's 1969 sitcom Me Mammy

For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.

His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.

He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...

Helen Stenborg, 86, a Tony-nominated stage, film and TV actress who was the wife of the late Tony Award-winning actor Barnard Hughes and mother of the Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes, died Tuesday at her Manhattan apartment, according to press agent Chris Boneau. The cause was not given.

Stenborg is known to soap opera fans for her role as Helga Lindeman on Another World from January 1977 to February 1978. Helga was the Cory housekeeper and a reluctant participant in several of Sven Peterson's schemes over the years. She also appeared on Ryan's Hope and One Life To Live.

Stenborg earned a Tony nomination for her 1999 role as pyromaniac Sarita Myrtle in Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings." She and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary onstage in the Coward play and were honored with Drama Desk Awards for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. He died in 2006.

Stenborg's last Broadway performance was in 2002 in...

Broadway star Helen Stenborg has died at the age of 86. The actress passed away on Tuesday, March 22 at her apartment in New York.

Born in Minnesota in 1925, Stenborg became known for her numerous stints onstage. She won acclaim in touring show "Da" in the 1970s, which also featured her late husband, Barnard Hughes, and she landed a Tony nomination in 1999 for her performance in Noel Coward play "Waiting in the Wings". She also starred in Hugh Leonard's "A Life" in 1980 and teamed up with Helen Mirren in "A Month in the Country" (1995).

Stenborg and Hughes were both presented with Lifetime Achievement honors at the Drama Desk Awards in 2000. She also appeared in a variety of small film and TV roles, including U.S. series "Little House on the Prairie" and soap opera "One Life to Live".

Her last Broadway stint came in "The Crucible" in 2002, when she took the...

Broadway star Helen Stenborg has died at the age of 86.

The actress passed away on Tuesday at her apartment in New York.

Born in Minnesota in 1925, Stenborg became known for her numerous stints onstage. She won acclaim in touring show Da in the 1970s, which also featured her late husband, Barnard Hughes, and she landed a Tony nomination in 1999 for her performance in Noel Coward play Waiting in the Wings. She also starred in Hugh Leonard's A Life in 1980 and teamed up with Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country (1995).

Stenborg and Hughes were both presented with Lifetime Achievement honours at the Drama Desk Awards in 2000.

She also appeared in a variety of small film and TV roles, including U.S. series Little House on the Prairie and soap opera One Life to Live.

Her last Broadway stint came in The Crucible in 2002, when she took the stage with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

She also played Sister Teresa in 2008's Doubt - her final film role.

Stenborg is survived by a son and daughter. Hughes died in 2006.

British-born director known for Anne of the Thousand Days and Mary, Queen of Scots

The film and television director Charles Jarrott, who has died of cancer aged 83, began his career during a golden period of British TV drama, working on Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play in the 1960s alongside writers and directors such as Ken Loach, Dennis Potter and David Mercer. Both series were presided over by the Canadian producer Sydney Newman, who encouraged original work – what he called "agitational contemporaneity" – and had an astonishing impact. But in 1969 Jarrott's career took a different turn when he left for Hollywood, thereby increasing his income a hundredfold, while having to contend with far less adventurous material. His best films were his first, two Elizabethan costume dramas, Anne of the Thousand Days and Mary, Queen of Scots, enlivened by the Oscar-nominated performances of Richard Burton (Henry VIII), Geneviève Bujold (Anne Boleyn) and...

Versatile Irish stage actor who became a familiar face across British drama

Before he became a familiar face on television and cinema screens, the outstanding Irish actor Tp McKenna, who has died after a long illness aged 81, bridged the gap between the old and the new Abbey theatres in Dublin. He appeared with the company for eight years during the interim period at the Queen's theatre; the old Abbey burned down in 1951, the new one opened by the Liffey in 1966.

During that time he made his reputation as a leading actor of great charm, vocal resource – with a fine singing voice – and versatility. He was equally adept at comedy and tragedy, a great exponent of the best Irish playwriting from Jm Synge and Séan O'Casey to Hugh Leonard and Brian Friel. The elder son in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night was a favourite, much acclaimed role.

It was Stephen D,...

In addition to his experience with Irish comedies, his openness during the audition process helped Brendan Ryan land the title role in Shadow Lawn Stage's summer production of Hugh Leonard's "The Au Pair Man," at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J."The audition experience for me is always fun," says the Equity actor. "I tend maybe not to focus like I should on the text as other actors do. I hate that feeling of overthinking when I go over and over the text…. One thing that helped was that there were more women than men, so I got to read more than just once and do things differently each time, because each actress was different. I love that opportunity to read more than once." As opposed to making a conscious choice to vary his readings, Ryan made himself receptive to what the other person in the scene...

"Cherrybomb," "Peacefire," "Identities," "Gabriel Byrne: Stories from Home" and "The Secret of Kells" will receive U.S. premieres at the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 23-27 at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

"We are proud to be bringing five U.S. premieres to festival audiences," festival director Lisa McLaughlin-Strassman said. "The strong lineup for the 2009 Los Angeles Irish Film Festival continues to demonstrate that the new wave of filmmaking in Ireland is maturing, and we are pleased to be able to provide a forum for its storytelling tradition."

Conor McPherson's supernatural drama "The Eclipse," starring Ciaran Hinds and Aidan Quinn, will kick off the fest.

The festival will close with a tribute to Irish playwright Hugh Leonard, who died in Dublin in February, with a screening of "Da," the classic film based on his Tony-award winning, semi-autobiographical stage play.

Artistic Director Bj Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans are proud to announce the 2009-2010 Northlight Season, which includes Roger Bean?s pop musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes; Stephen Temperley?s comedic musical tribute, Souvenir; Clifford Odets? Depression-era classic Awake & Sing! directed by Amy Morton and featuring Rondi Reed and Mike Nussbaum; Hugh Leonard?s Irish drama, A Life directed by Bj Jones, starring John Mahoney; and the world premier Low Down Dirty Blues, by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman.

Artistic Director Bj Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans are proud to announce the 2009-2010 Northlight Season, which includes Roger Bean's pop musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes; Stephen Temperley's comedic musical tribute, Souvenir directed by David Bell; Clifford Odets' Depression-era classic Awake and Sing directed by Amy Morton and featuring Rondi Reed and Mike Nussbaum; Hugh Leonard's Irish drama, A Life directed by Bj Jones, starring John Mahoney; and another production to be announced.

Irish playwright Hugh Leonard has died, aged 82.

Leonard had been receiving hospital treatment for some time and died in Dublin, Ireland on Thursday.

He was born John Keyes Byrne but took on his pen name in the 1950s to hide his double life as an aspiring, outspoken writer from his Irish civil service employers.

He was famed for his father-and-son drama Da, which won a Tony Award for its run on Broadway in 1978. It was later made into a Martin Sheen-starring film in 1982.

Leonard also held a longstanding monthly column in the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper.

Irish President Mary McAleese paid tribute to the writer: "Hugh will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of his company and counsel throughout the years.

"(He) infused his work with a unique wit, all the while demonstrating a great intuition, perceptiveness and forgiveness of human nature."

Leonard is survived by his second wife, Kathy, and daughter, Danielle.