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“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is shining the spotlight on a completely separate murder – one that happened a decade before the brothers’ trial.

Episode 7 of the series – titled “Showtime” – features a long dinner party scene where Nathan Lane’s character Dominick Dunne breaks down the Menendez case as he sees it through the context of having sat through his own daughter’s murder trial. It’s also a trial that earned significant media attention a decade earlier.

Dunne’s daughter Dominique was a 22-year-old rising actor fresh off a lead role in 1982’s “Poltergeist.” She was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney after their breakup on Oct. 30, 1982. Sweeney confessed to the murder – and an attempt to kill himself after – when the police arrived on the scene.

Here’s what we know about Dominique, the night she was killed, and where Sweeney and the rest of her family is today.

Ambition has almost always been a thorny issue for television’s fictional females. When Mary Richards applied for a secretarial job at a local television station in Minneapolis on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s, she ended up as an associate producer by the end of the interview. News director Lou Grant gave her the elevated title so he could pay her less, implicitly signaling that there was a price for women moving up the career ladder. It was an ingenious way for the writers on the show to set Mary on a career path without making her appear overly ambitious and thus, less feminine. Mary didn’t negotiate and was grateful for the unexpected promotion.

Approximately 50 years later, stand-up comic Deborah Vance, played by the inimitable Jean Smart, on “Hacks” finds herself navigating a similar conundrum when she discovers that her dream job, a spot as a...

Frank Griffin, who nosed out another makeup artist to work with Steve Martin on Roxanne, just one of the 20 movies they did together, has died. He was 95.

Griffin died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Studio City, his daughter Roxane Griffin, a veteran Hollywood hairstylist (Avatar, Transparent, 80 for Brady), told The Hollywood Reporter.

Frank Griffin started out in Hollywood as an actor and studio laborer before turning to makeup in the mid-1960s, and he went on to work on Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Scarecrow (1973), Westworld (1973), Cinderella Liberty (1973), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Urban Cowboy (1980), Midnight Run (1988), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Vacation (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

Survivors also include his sister Debra Paget, who starred in such films as Broken Arrow (1950), Love Me Tender (1956) — Elvis Presley’s first movie — and The Ten Commandments (1956).

His other two sisters were actresses as well: Lisa Gaye,...

Betty A. Bridges, an actress and the mother of Diff’rent Strokes star Todd Bridges who appeared on her son’s sitcom, Hill Street Blues, Ally McBeal and many other shows, has died. She was 83.

Bridges died Wednesday in hospice care at Todd’s home in Phoenix, publicist Elizabeth Much announced.

During her four-decade career, Betty Alice Bridges appeared on everything from Police Woman, Good Times, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman and Quincy, M.E. to Flamingo Road, Lou Grant, Dallas, NYPD Blue, ER and Scrubs.

The Dallas native also was seen in such films as A Night at the Roxbury (1998) and Building Bridges (2000), a 45-minute documentary about Todd, who as a child actor in Hollywood dealt with his share of trouble.

Bridges was a manager and acting coach, too; she co-founded Kane Bridge Academy, and among her students were Nia Long, sisters Reina and Regina King, Sanaa Lathan,...

Betty A. Bridges, who guested on dozen of popular TV series during a 40-year career ranging from Good Times and Charlie’s Angels to Lou Grant and Hill Street Blues to ER and 2 Broke Girls and later was a prominent acting coach, died August 27. She was 83.

She died at the Phoenix home of her son, Diff’rent Strokes and reality TV star Todd Bridges, where she had been in hospice care. Rep Elizabeth Much confirmed her death to Deadline, but no cause was given.

Born on August 1, 1941, Betty Bridges got her screen start guesting on such 1970s TV shows as Police Woman, Charlie’s Angels and Norman Lear’s Good Times and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She continued to work consistently for much of the next four decades, mostly in TV. She made guest appearances in popular series including Wonder Woman; What’s Happening!!; Quincy, M.E.; CHiPs; Lou Grant; Diff’rent Strokes...

Patt Shea, the Norman Lear regular who co-wrote the 1979 series finale of All in the Family and co-created and worked on two spinoffs of the fabled sitcom, Archie Bunker’s Place and Gloria, has died. She was 93.

Shea died April 12 of natural causes on her birthday at her home in Sherman Oaks, her son Michael Shea, a director and assistant director, told The Hollywood Reporter. The family chose to wait until this week to publicly announce her death.

“Patt Shea was a trailblazer in comedy writing,” Michael noted. “Her success as a writer in groundbreaking sitcoms was only matched by her generosity and compassion for people.”

Jack Shea, her husband of 59 years, died in 2013. He directed dozens of episodes of such Lear-connected sitcoms as The Jeffersons, Silver Spoons and Sanford and Son and served as president of the DGA from 1997-2002, part of a half-century of dedicated service to the guild.

Peter Marshall, Emmy-award winning game show host of “Hollywood Squares,” died of kidney failure Thursday in Encino. He was 98.

His wife Laurie said in a statement that he died at home.

Emmy-nominated 19 times, with five wins, he hosted more than 5,000 episodes of the original version of game show “The Hollywood Squares” and appeared in dozens of movies, stage musicals and TV shows.

Marshall was born Ralph Pierre Lacock in Huntington, W.V. He started his career as an NBC Radio page and usher at Paramount Theater. He served in the Army, working as a d.j. for Armed Forces Radio.

Marshall developed a comedy act with Tommy Noonan, touring the country and appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” As a contract player at 20th Century Fox, he appeared in films including “Ensign Pulver,” “The Rookie” and “Annie.”

He was hired to host NBC’s long-running “The Hollywood Squares” starting in 1966, featuring regulars like Paul Lynde,...

In 2024, Donald Glover earned his fifth acting Emmy nomination for his dramatic star turn on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Since most of his earlier bids came for his work on the comedy series “Atlanta,” he was welcomed into a group of 17 other actors with lead or supporting bids for both program genres. Scroll through our photo gallery to find out who preceded him in joining this club.

To date, the only actors who have won Emmys as both comedy and drama series regulars are Ed Asner (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; “Lou Grant”), Carroll O’Connor (“All in the Family”; “In the Heat of the Night”), Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”; “The West Wing”), and John Lithgow (“3rd Rock from the Sun”; “The Crown”). Another five men on this roster only won for their dramatic roles, while three more only succeeded on their comedy bids.

Every actor included in this gallery was nominated...

In 2024, Donald Glover earned his fifth acting Emmy nomination for his dramatic star turn on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Since most of his earlier bids came for his work on the comedy series “Atlanta,” he was welcomed into a group of 17 other actors with lead or supporting bids for both program genres. Scroll through our photo gallery to find out who preceded him in joining this club.

To date, the only actors who have won Emmys as both comedy and drama series regulars are Ed Asner (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; “Lou Grant”), Carroll O’Connor (“All in the Family”; “In the Heat of the Night”), Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”; “The West Wing”), and John Lithgow (“3rd Rock from the Sun”; “The Crown”). Another five men on this roster only won for their dramatic roles, while three more only succeeded on their comedy bids.

Every actor included in this gallery was nominated...

If the 1950s and '60s were the golden age of the television sitcom, the 1970s were its in-the-pocket prime. And when risk-averse TV execs saw the astronomical ratings of hit sitcoms like "All in the Family," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "M*A*S*H," they exploited this ratings-rich phenomenon by diving into the same-but-different world of spinoffs.

Norman Lear's "All in the Family" was the '70s spinoff king with seven total offshoots, but James L. Brooks and Allan Burns' "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" proved plenty durable by spawning "Rhoda," "Phyllis," and "Lou Grant." Of these, "Rhoda" was by far the biggest hit. Valerie Harper's four seasons as Mary Richards' lovably vivacious neighbor more than confirmed she could carry a series of her own. So, Brooks and Allan sent Rhoda back to her hometown of New York City, where she immediately found love (her...

Betty Anne Rees, who portrayed tough women who weren’t very nice in The Unholy Rollers and Sugar Hill, two 1970s offerings from the B-movie factory American International Pictures, has died. She was 81.

Rees died Monday at her home in Hemet, California, after a series of falls and a possible stroke, her niece, Kathleen Loucks, told The Hollywood Reporter. She also was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s.

The Ohio native played Janet Ingram, the secretary for Fred MacMurray’s Steve Douglas, on the last of My Three Sons’ 12 seasons in 1971-72. (Abby Dalton was Janet on an episode three years earlier.)

In The Unholy Rollers (1972), directed by Vernon Zimmerman, Rees portrayed Mickey Martinez, a star of the Los Angeles Avengers roller derby team who does not get along with popular new player Karen Walker (1970 Playboy Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings).

The film, executive produced by Roger Corman...

Veteran character actor Tom Bower, best known for his roles in The Waltons and Die Hard 2, has died. He was 86. His passing was confirmed by his sister-in-law, Mary Miller, who told The Hollywood Reporter he died on Sunday, May 30, in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, California. Born on January 3, 1938, in Denver, Colorado, Bower’s on-screen career began in the 1970s when he appeared in several classic television series. His early credits included The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones, and, most notably, The Waltons, where he first played stunt pilot Rex Barker and then, more prominently, Dr. Curtis Willard, who married Mary Ellen (Judy Norton). Bower was later written out of The Waltons when it was revealed his character was killed off-screen during World War II. However, the character returned in an 1981 episode, only he was played by a different actor, Scott Hylands.

Tom Bower, the veteran character actor best known for prominent turns on The Waltons and in Die Hard 2, has died. A family member confirmed the news to Deadline’s sister publication The Hollywood Reporter. He was 86.

Bower never had what one might call a “breakout” part, but he was an actor one recognized from, well, everywhere. His more than 180 screen credits include appearances on The Rockford Files, Lou Grant, Quincy M.E., Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Law & Order and many other TV staples of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s.

And he kept on working. In the past 15 years, Bower was on Ray Donovan, Bosch, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, The Office and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He also played the father of Bob Odenkirk’s character on Lucky Hank and had a part in Vince Gilligan’s El Camino, A Breaking Bad Movie.

Detective Murtaugh sees a mysterious man pull out a weapon in the middle of a police station. He heroically jumps into action to protect, serve, and tackle. But it turns out it is just good ol’ Mel Gibson, who overpowers and flips this 50-year-old character, played by a 40-year-old actor, Danny Glover. Humiliated and hurt, Danny Glover spits out an iconic line that has come to define his career and become a meme, “I’m too old for this shit.” Danny Glover was too old for this shit three decades ago… but he has kept on grinding, making motion pictures ever since. But maybe Danny Glover is too old for this shit… if that “shit” is good movies. Oh, I kid! I kid!

Glover may not have any Oscars, but he did get a late start in his movie career, having broken out in his 40s. So, what has Danny Glover,...

Following his 2015 Emmy win for the final season of “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm took a large step back from TV stardom in order to beef up his film resume with titles such as “Baby Driver,” “Richard Jewell,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Now that he has made a splashy return to the small screen by playing new roles on “Fargo” and “The Morning Show” and reprising one on “Good Omens,” his Emmy nominations total could instantly rise from 16 to 19. If all of his possible 2024 bids come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Hamm’s string of recent TV acting gigs began last July when he returned for season two Prime Video’s “Good Omens” as supporting character Gabriel – a humanoid version of the biblical archangel. He then fulfilled the new role of ambitious tech billionaire Paul Marks...

Barbara O. Jones, the admired actress who emerged from the L.A. Rebellion movement of Black filmmakers at UCLA in the 1970s to star in Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, has died. She was 82.

Jones died Tuesday at her home in Dayton, Ohio, her brother, Raymond Minor, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Rest In Peace & Power,” Dash wrote on Instagram.

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A post shared by Julie Dash (@dash_julie)

For Gerima, Jones portrayed an imprisoned woman fighting for social justice in the 36-minute short film Child of Resistance (1973) — the character was inspired by activist Angela Davis — and a welfare recipient in Watts who undergoes an ideological transformation in the filmmaker’s feature debut, Bush Mama (1979). Both films were made at UCLA.

Jones starred as a Ugandan nun questioning her faith in Dash’s 13-minute student film Diary of an...

In a very unsettled drama Emmy field, one of the few ostensible locks this year is Elizabeth Debicki. With 4/1 odds, she is the runaway favorite to take home the Best Drama Supporting Actress Emmy for her turn as Princess Diana on “The Crown,” which would make the Netflix series the sixth show to deliver two different winners in the category.

Twelve shows have won drama supporting actress more than once. Of those, seven shows have had one person triumph repeatedly, including “Lou Grant” for Nancy Marchand, who won a record four times, and most recently “Ozark” for three-time champ Julia Garner. The five shows that saw the wealth spread among its cast members are “St. Elsewhere”, “The West Wing”, “Hill Street Blues”, “The Practice” and “thirtysomething”. No show has had more than two cast members win the award.

Interestingly, Marchand (1980-82; her first win was in ’78), Roberts (1983), Woodard (1984), Thomas (1985), Bartlett...

Seven years ago, Donald Glover won his first two Emmys, Best Comedy Actor and Best Comedy Directing for “Atlanta.” While he missed out on nominations last year for the final season of his FX series — he did receive a writing bid for “Swarm” — Glover is back in the hunt this cycle with “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Inspired by the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie film of the same name, the spy series is competing in drama, which means Glover could become just the second man and third person to win lead Emmys in comedy and drama.

Carroll O’Connor is thus far the only male performer to have achieved this, having pocketed a record-setting four Best Comedy Actor Emmys for “All in the Family” in 1972 and three in a row from 1977-79 before adding a Best Drama Actor statuette for “In the Heat of the Night” in 1989. The only other member...

Since it’s about to wrap up its Netflix run after six seasons, “The Crown” has no chance of matching the record for most Best Drama Series Golden Globe nominations, which has been held since 2001 by seven-time contender “ER.” However, its appearances in five previous lineups give it the opportunity to make history in a different way, as its probable upcoming sixth program notice would make it the first concluded drama series to earn Golden Globes recognition for every one of its multiple seasons. This monumental achievement, which would occur five decades into the existence of this major category, truly shouldn’t be difficult for the ever-popular show to pull off, especially since it’s already a two-time Best Drama Series winner.

The yet-unseen sixth and final season of “The Crown” is currently ranked third on Gold Derby’s Best Drama Series Golden Globe predictions list, with the early odds heavily favoring HBO’s “Succession,...

Sitcoms are among some of the most beloved TV shows ever made. Unlike respected premium drama series like "The Wire," "Breaking Bad," or "True Detective," which regularly top lists of the greatest TV shows ever made, shows like "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Cheers," and "The Office" are beloved in a way that feels a lot more personal. Sitcoms are feel-good experiences, even when they're shows about nothing, and are the exact opposite of David Fincher's intense thrillers.

Which is why I can't shake the feeling that the auteur is making fun of himself with his latest effort. As /Film's Chris Evangelista wrote in his review of "The Killer," "I'm not saying Fincher is on the same level as a cold-blooded killer, but he clearly sees a lot of himself (and his approach to his work) in his latest protagonist." But if the director was trying to draw this parallel between the...

Seven top film producers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2024 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Tuesday, November 28, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Daniel Montgomery and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Lionsgate)

Synopsis: When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.

Bio: James L. Brooks was a three-time Oscar winner for “Terms of Endearment” and was also nominated for “Broadcast News,...

Shirley Jo Finney, a theater director and the star of Wilma (1977), has died. She was 74.

The Fountain Theatre announced Finney’s death on social media writing in an Instagram post, “With broken hearts, we share the sad news that director Shirley Jo Finney, a beloved member of our Fountain Family, passed away yesterday after a long illness.”

Some of the productions that Finney directed included Citizen: An American Lyric, Heart Song, In the Red and Brown Water, The Brothers Size, The Ballad of Emmett Till, Yellowman, Central Avenue and From the Mississippi Delta.

Finney had been battling with cancer for eight months, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

Finney starred in the television film Wilma, a biopic about track star Wilma Rudolph and the obstacles she faced to win three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics. In the television movie, Finney starred opposite Cicely Tyson, Jason Bernard, Denzel Washington and more.

Since 1991 (and primarily within the last 10 years), a total of six TV performers have earned recognition from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for reprising roles that had brought them Golden Globe nominations at least a decade earlier. With this and his own stellar HFPA track record in mind, Kelsey Grammer – the two-time Best TV Comedy Actor-winning star of “Frasier” – can more than reasonably be expected to join said prestigious club by scoring his ninth bid in the category (and first in 22 years) for the Paramount Plus revival of his beloved NBC sitcom. What’s more, he might actually make history as the first actor involved in such a situation to pull off a comeback victory.

Grammer collected his first eight Golden Globe nominations for “Frasier” between 1994 and 2002 and emerged triumphant in both 1996 and 2001. After saying goodbye to Dr. Frasier Crane 19 years ago, he is now set to lead a long-awaited...

After both making good on their recent efforts to become first-time lead acting Emmy contenders, formerly supporting “Succession” cast mates Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook are naturally expected to be similarly bumped up on the next Golden Globes ballot. If they do achieve their first Best TV Drama Actor and Best TV Drama Actress notices this winter, the on-screen siblings will join a group of 10 other Golden Globe nominees who succeeded in rebranding their initially supporting characters as lead ones. As it stands, said club has not welcomed a new member – regardless of genre or gender – in two full decades.

Culkin’s Golden Globes resume currently includes three fruitless featured bids for “Succession,” on which he was bested by Ben Whishaw, Stellan Skarsgård and O Yeong-su. Although Snook only has a 2022 supporting nomination for the HBO series to her name, she actually prevailed, even against awards magnet Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus...

Over the past 76 years, an equal number (55) of direct costar battles have occurred in each of the Primetime Emmys’ two drama supporting acting categories. The female list (which originated a full 20 years before the male one) includes 26 different drama programs, as opposed to 17 on the comedy side. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the Best Drama Supporting Actress category’s many cases of dual, triple, quadruple, or quintuple nominations.

Close to one-fifth of these showdowns are credited to five-time list entrants “Lou Grant” and “Hill Street Blues,” with “The West Wing” and “Grey’s Anatomy” accounting for four clashes apiece. Tied for third place with three distinct battles each are “St. Elsewhere,” “NYPD Blue,” “The Good Wife,” “Game of Thrones,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

This gallery does not include performers who received nominations in this category for series on which they only made single-episode guest appearances. These...

Over the past 76 years, an equal number (55) of direct costar battles have occurred in each of the Primetime Emmys’ two drama supporting acting categories. The female list (which originated a full 20 years before the male one) includes 26 different drama programs, as opposed to 17 on the comedy side. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the Best Drama Supporting Actress category’s many cases of dual, triple, quadruple, or quintuple nominations.

Close to one-fifth of these showdowns are credited to five-time list entrants “Lou Grant” and “Hill Street Blues,” with “The West Wing” and “Grey’s Anatomy” accounting for four clashes apiece. Tied for third place with three distinct battles each are “St. Elsewhere,” “NYPD Blue,” “The Good Wife,” “Game of Thrones,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

This gallery does not include performers who received nominations in this category for series on which they only made single-episode guest appearances. These...

In 1977, "Star Wars" created a powerful fandom. Suddenly the world was invested in a space princess who directed her own rescue, a farm boy with big dreams, and a rogue pilot who charmed his way into our hearts and bags of smuggled goods. For many people, this marked the beginning of their love of genre films, and there are very few places on the planet where the names Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia aren't recognized.

When we think about Leia Organa, the Princess/Senator/General that inspired a generation, it's almost impossible to imagine anyone but the late, great Carrie Fisher playing the role. However, that part went through auditions like any other. During a 2002 interview between Fisher and creator George Lucas on Fisher's show "Conversations from the Edge with Carrie Fisher" (via Comic Book Resources), Lucas revealed that the runner-up for her role ended up as a famous musician.

Ann Dowd is looking to make an Emmys comeback with perhaps her most complex take on Aunt Lydia yet in the most recent season of Hulu’s awards-favorite “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Based on Margaret Atwood‘s book of the same name, the show follows a dystopian future wherein a totalitarian society named Gilead has taken power and women are forced into child-bearing slavery. The series features Elisabeth Moss in the lead role while there are plenty of excellent supporting players including Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Samira Wiley, and the fearsome Dowd.

Dowd plays the brutal, iron-willed Aunt Lydia, who is one of the staunchest believers in Gilead and who will go to any means necessary to keep the women she is in charge of in place. She is violent, brutish, and terrifying to behold as she commands the screen and everyone around her. In season five, however, cracks begin to...

More than 50 years ago, a lovely lady and a man named Brady fell in love and got married. The result was The Brady Bunch, the beloved 1970s sitcom about a big blended family. The show aired for five seasons on ABC and earned a second life in syndication. In the process, it made stars of its cast, including Eve Plumb as put-upon middle sister Jan Brady and Barry Williams as oldest Brady son Greg. But what have Plumb, Willams, and the rest of the cast been up to since the show ended? Keep reading for an update on the surviving Brady Bunch cast members and what they’re doing now.

Maureen McCormick Maureen McCormick | ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images); Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images

Maureen McCormick played the eldest Brady family daughter Marcia in The Brady Bunch and several spinoffs and sequels, including The Brady Bunch...

As soon as the third episode of the current season of “Succession” aired, viewers began speculating about whether certain previously Emmy-nominated cast members would change categories based on their characters’ new levels of prominence. The first to switch was Kieran Culkin, who is officially seeking his first lead notice for playing Roman Roy after competing twice as a featured player. If he does land in the Best Drama Actor lineup, he will be only the sixth man in Emmys history to have reaped lead and supporting bids for a single role on a single series.

Culkin has appeared as a regular on all four seasons of “Succession” and achieved TV academy recognition in both 2020 and 2022. He was respectively bested in those supporting contests by Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”) and his own “Succession” cast mate, Matthew Macfadyen. Among his strongest challengers in this year’s lead race are his on-screen brother and father,...

Nine years after he won his fourth and final acting Emmy for playing Walter White on “Breaking Bad,” Bryan Cranston has a solid shot at triumphing in the corresponding Best Drama Guest Actor category for reprising the role on the prequel series “Better Call Saul” on AMC. In fact, he has three chances to win at least his fifth acting Emmy this year since he could also earn notices for Best Movie/Limited Actor for Paramount Plus’ “Jerry and Marge Go Large” and for Best Drama Actor for Showtime’s “Your Honor.” If all three nominations come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Cranston’s highly anticipated “Better Call Saul” appearance consists of several flashback scenes in which he reunites with his “Breaking Bad” cast mates Bob Odenkirk and Aaron Paul. His two episodes aired...

Back in the 1980s, John Larroquette dominated Best Comedy Supporting Actor at the Emmys. He won the category four times in a row (1985-88) for playing Dan Fielding on the NBC sitcom “Night Court.” Now, 35 years after his last win for the show and this time in Best Comedy Actor, he’s seeking to join an even more exclusive club of actors who have won five Emmys for playing the same character.

If Larroquette were to claim a fifth Emmy for playing Fielding, he would join three other performers who have also won that amount. Don Knotts won five times in Best Comedy Supporting Actor for his role as Deputy Sherrif Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show” in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1967 and 1968. Ed Asner won three Emmys in Best Comedy Supporting Actor for playing Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and then two for Best Drama Actor for the same character on the spin-off show,...

Gordon T. Dawson, who parlayed a stint as a costumer for Sam Peckinpah into a career as a writer and producer with credits including The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Rockford Files, Bret Maverick and Walker, Texas Ranger, has died. He was 84.

Dawson died March 6 in West Hills Hospital of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his family announced.

A former firefighter, Dawson spent three months in a Columbia Pictures basement using a blowtorch, paraffin and glue to age the principal soldier uniforms for the Peckinpah-directed Major Dundee (1965). When the extras’ costumes did not match the ones Dawson had prepared, Peckinpah shut down production on the first day of shooting.

Dawson was summoned to the set in Mexico to age the other costumes, noting in the 1993 documentary Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron that he was “terrified” to meet the intimidating director. He needn’t have worried, though; Dawson fixed the other costumes,...

Starring on That ’70s Show as Red Forman was one of the highlights of Kurtwood Smith’s decorated acting career for both professional and personal reasons. The now 79-year-old actor has told the press that the character of Red really hit home for him as the character always reminded him of his stepfather. Sadly, Smith’s stepdad passed away right before the first season of That ’70s Show aired.

Debra Jo Rupp, who played opposite Smith as Red’s wife, Kitty, also drew inspiration for her character through her own parental figures stating that Kitty was very much her mother. While Rupp and Smith had a natural rapport on the show, Rupp has recently revealed that she was quite nervous around Smith on the first season of That ’70s Show. Here’s why.

What did Kurtwood Smith do before ‘That ’70s Show’?

While Smith has publicly stated that working on...

If you're a 90s kid like me, you probably know Bob Hoskins from playing Smee in "Hook" and private eye Eddie Valiant in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." I even remember him showing up in a standout "Frasier" episode where he played Dr. Crane's abrasive, cigar-addicted gym teacher, Coach Fuller. But if you look beyond his best-known roles, the man was one of the most versatile actors to ever do it. In fact, he started his film career not in charming, family-friendly projects, but by playing a ruthless London gangster.

"The Long Good Friday" is a 1980 crime thriller starring Hoskins as Harold Shand — a crime boss looking to go legit. Over the course of the film, Shand becomes increasingly violent and Hoskins portrays the gangster's struggles with his aggressive impulses with unsettling ease. But as we all now know, the actor was more than capable of playing much more diverse roles,...

Nearly five decades after achieving two consecutive Best TV Comedy Actor Golden Globe victories for “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler could now become the first man to ever be honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for both lead and supporting performances on comedy programs. The septuagenarian “Barry” cast member did not succeed on his first two Golden Globe bids for the HBO show, but his luck may change now that he is competing in a brand new category.

Ahead of the 80th Golden Globes, the HFPA established the Best TV Comedy/Drama Supporting Actor and Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor categories as replacements for a catch-all one that had existed since 1971. Whereas Winkler was beaten in 2019 and 2020 by limited series actors Ben Whishaw (“A Very English Scandal”) and Stellan Skarsgård (“Chernobyl”), he now does not have to concern himself with losing to performers from non-continuing programs. His potential...

It’s hard to imagine Barbara Walters as anything other than a marquee-name, intrepid and pioneering journalist. But she didn’t get there overnight. A look back at the early career of the broadcast journalist, who died Dec. 30 at age 93, as documented in the pages of Variety shows the clear trajectory of a well-connected, industrious young woman who was destined to reach the summit of New York media and literati circles.

Variety’s coverage of Walters’ climb starting in the early 1950s also neatly tracks the rise of network TV news as a cultural force, and the subsequent evolution of TV news personalities into celebrities.

Walters’ status as the daughter of Broadway producer, booking agent and nightclub owner Lou Walters surely afforded her an early entrée into attention from Variety. Her first few references always included a reference to her father’s showbiz pedigree. But it wasn’t long before...

This isn’t about favorites. Favorites are flimsy and can be overdone, like a song or a sandwich filling you tire of after choosing it one too many times. This is about rightness. Of all the Doctors in the Tardis, of all the Bonds in the Aston Martin, of all the Batmen in the Batsuit, there’s one that feels more right to you than the rest. They’re in technicolor while everybody else is in black and white (speaking figuratively if it’s William Hartnell).

Maybe they’re the one you first fell for as a kid, or maybe they’re the newest hire who made everything finally click into place. The point is that they’re yours, an actor in a role that is unchangingly, enduringly right.

You know your Bond, you may well know your Doctor and own the accompanying action figure/reproduction Sonic screwdriver. But who’s your on-screen Santa?...

"Cobra Kai" is such a phenomenon that when its initial streaming service, YouTube Red, crashed and burned, Netflix swooped in with the renewal. What started as a show subverting the "Karate Kid" franchise by picking up the story from the point of view of middle-aged former villain Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), transformed over five seasons into a sprawling mini-epic involving Lawrence, former archrival Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio), their families, a whole new generation of karate students, and the return of several old enemies and allies who cannot let the past go.

Once you've binged it multiple times, what next? Where else can you get the thrill of '80s heroes dealing with toxic masculinity and youthful characters supplanting them, bad guys realizing they're actually good, and lots of telenovela-level twists? Glad you asked. For some, or even all, of those TV show qualities elsewhere on your control panel, check out...

Over four decades after collecting back-to-back Best TV Comedy Actor Golden Globes for playing The Fonz on “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler could make history as the first man to ever be honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for both lead and supporting performances on comedy series. According to Gold Derby’s predictions, the “Barry” cast member is the odds-on favorite in the newly established Best TV Comedy/Drama Supporting Actor category. Though he lost on his first two Golden Globe nominations for the HBO show, he may be set for success this time thanks to some rule changes.

Heading into the 80th Golden Globes, the HFPA has established the Best TV Comedy/Drama Supporting Actor and Best TV Movie/Limited Supporting Actor categories as replacements for the catch-all Best TV Supporting Actor one. Whereas Winkler’s “Barry” performance as acting teacher Gene Cousineau was beaten in 2019 and 2020 by those...

Actor Austin Stoker, best known for playing Lt. Ethan Bishop in director John Carpenter‘s 1976 classic Assault on Precinct 13, was born on October 7, 1930 in Trinidad… and sadly, it has been confirmed that he passed away on October 7th of this year. His 92nd birthday. Stoker’s wife Robin told The Hollywood Reporter that he died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She said, “His transition was beautiful.”

Born Alphonso Marshall, Stoker was in a dance troupe with fellow Trinidadian actor Geoffrey Holder (you may remember him as Baron Samedi in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die), and the pair moved to New York together to pursue careers in the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Reporter says, “In 1954, he played the steel drums on Broadway in Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s House of Flowers, starring Pearl Bailey, Alvin Ailey and Diahann Carroll, then toured in...

Austin Stoker, the Trinidadian-American actor from Assault on Precinct 13 and Roots, has died. His wife Robin Stoker confirmed the actor’s death happened on Friday, October 7, his 92nd birthday.

Stoker reportedly died peacefully and surrounded by his loved ones due to renal failure. The actor is survived by his wife of over 40 years, his daughter Tiffany, his son Origen and his two grandsons Marcus and little Austin.

Born and raised in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Stoker began acting at the age of 11. When he was 16, he joined The Whitehall Players and four years later he would travel to NYC when he joined the dance troupe Holder Dance Company.

Related: Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

Stoker would later be drafted by the U.S. Army and following his service was honorably discharged. He would continue preparing himself as an actor and one of his first television credits was in the series Mod Squad...

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Austin Stoker, the actor from Trinidad who starred as the heroic cop battling a band of marauding gang members inside a decommissioned police station in the John Carpenter thriller Assault on Precinct 13, has died. He was 92.

Stoker died Friday of renal failure on his birthday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, Robin, told The Hollywood Reporter. “His transition was beautiful,” she said.

Stoker also portrayed Macdonald, the human assistant of Roddy McDowall’s Caesar, in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), the fifth and final chapter in the original movie series, and he was Brick Williams, the love interest of Pam Grier’s private investigator, in Sheba, Baby (1975).

On the landmark 1977 ABC miniseries Roots, he played Virgil Harvey, father of Olivia Cole‘s Mathilda.

In the cult classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Stoker starred as Lt. Ethan Bishop, who goes...

Joan Hotchkis, veteran stage and screen actor known for ABC’s “The Odd Couple” and “Legacy,” died Sept. 27 of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles, according to her daughter Paula Chambers. She was 95.

Hotchkis starred opposite William Windom in the NBC sitcom “My World and Welcome to It,” and played the on-again/off-again girlfriend of Jack Klugman’s Oscar Madison in “The Odd Couple.” As a playwright, she wrote 1974’s “Legacy,” a one-woman play about an upper-class housewife who deteriorates mentally. The following year, she wrote and starred in the film adaptation of “Legacy,” which won the best newcomer award at the Tehran International Film Festival.

Born on Sept. 21, 1927, in Los Angeles, Hotchkis was the last surviving child of civic leaders Preston Hotchkis and Katharine Bixby, who led the Metropolitan Water District and the California Historical Society.

After earning a B.A. in psychology from Smith College and an M.

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Joan Hotchkis, who appeared as Oscar Madison’s girlfriend on ABC’s The Odd Couple and in films including Breezy and Ode to Billie Joe before becoming a playwright, screenwriter and feminist performance artist, has died. She was 95.

Hotchkis died Sept. 27 of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles, her daughter, Paula Chambers, announced.

A member of The Actors Studio, Hotchkis played the wife of William Windom’s James Thurber-like cartoonist on the high-concept NBC comedy My World and Welcome to It in 1969-70 and the lascivious Lydia on the five-days-a-week syndicated sitcom The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts in 1980.

In 1974, Hotchkis wrote her first play, Legacy, about a day when an upper-class housewife suffers a mental and emotional breakdown. She starred in the one-woman drama, directed by noted Method acting teacher Eric Morris, at Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.

Hotchkis...

Joan Hotchkis, a veteran actor, writer, screenwriter and playwright, known for The Odd Couple and Legacy, died on September 27 in Los Angeles. She was 95. Her daughter Paula Chambers said Hotchkis death was due to congestive heart failure.

Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

Hotchkis was the last surviving child of Preston Hotchkis and Katharine Bixby, civic leaders in Los Angeles with statewide and national influence throughout the last century, who led everything from the Metropolitan Water District to the California Historical Society.

After earning a B.A. in Psychology from Smith College and an M.A. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street Teacher’s College, Hotchkis taught nursery school in New York before becoming an actor in 1954 at the age of 27.

She landed the leading role of Lizzie in The Rainmaker at the Players Ring theater in Hollywood. When she returned to New York she became a member...

Since 1980, Ed Asner has held the record for most Primetime Emmy wins by a male actor, having triumphed three times for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” twice for “Lou Grant,” and once each for “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Roots.” With 10 additional bids to his name, he also ranks as one of the most-nominated performers in Emmy history, having earned recognition in seven different categories. Throughout the later part of his career, he frequently played roles on Christmas-themed TV programs, including half a dozen appearances as Santa Claus.

Three decades after his “Roots” victory, Asner received a second Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor nomination for “The Christmas Card,” in which he plays the father of a woman who falls in love with a soldier who received the titular card from her while in Afghanistan. At 77, he was the eighth oldest nominee in the category’s history, and now ranks two spots lower.

Since 1980, Ed Asner has held the record for most Primetime Emmy wins by a male actor, having triumphed three times for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” twice for “Lou Grant,” and once each for “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Roots.” With 10 additional bids to his name, he also ranks as one of the most-nominated performers in Emmy history, having earned recognition in seven different categories. Throughout the later part of his career, he frequently played roles on Christmas-themed TV programs, including half a dozen appearances as Santa Claus.

Three decades after his “Roots” victory, Asner received a second Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor nomination for “The Christmas Card,” in which he plays the father of a woman who falls in love with a soldier who received the titular card from her while in Afghanistan. At 77, he was the eighth oldest nominee in the category’s history, and now ranks two spots lower.

Just four years after making her small screen acting debut on FX’s “The Americans,” Julia Garner landed her first regular role on a continuing series as Ruth Langmore on “Ozark.” Her Best Drama Supporting Actress Emmy wins for the Netflix show in 2019 and 2020 made her the category’s seventh and youngest back-to-back champ. Her six predecessors, all of whom were at least 16 years her senior, were Ellen Corby (“The Waltons”), Nancy Marchand (“Lou Grant”), Bonnie Bartlett (“St. Elsewhere”), Allison Janney (“The West Wing”), Blythe Danner (“Huff”), and Anna Gunn (“Breaking Bad”).

Garner’s first victory at age 25 also made her the fourth youngest person to ever triumph in her category. At the time, she also ranked as its ninth-youngest nominee, and has since been bumped to 10th place. Included among the nine younger actresses on the list are two of her 2019 competitors as well as three child stars.

The...

Just four years after making her small screen acting debut on FX’s “The Americans,” Julia Garner landed her first regular role on a continuing series as Ruth Langmore on “Ozark.” Her Best Drama Supporting Actress Emmy wins for the Netflix show in 2019 and 2020 made her the category’s seventh and youngest back-to-back champ. Her six predecessors, all of whom were at least 16 years her senior, were Ellen Corby (“The Waltons”), Nancy Marchand (“Lou Grant”), Bonnie Bartlett (“St. Elsewhere”), Allison Janney (“The West Wing”), Blythe Danner (“Huff”), and Anna Gunn (“Breaking Bad”).

Garner’s first victory at age 25 also made her the fourth youngest person to ever triumph in her category. At the time, she also ranked as its ninth-youngest nominee, and has since been bumped to 10th place. Included among the nine younger actresses on the list are two of her 2019 competitors as well as three child stars.

The...