In 1972, director George Roy Hill, impressed by his performance in the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play "That Championship Season", offered Durning a role in "The Sting" (1973). In the Oscar best picture winner starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Durning won distinction as the crooked cop, Lt. Wm. Snyder. Durning had more than 100 movie and television credits. Some of Durning's other well-known movie performances include "Dog Day Afternoon", "The Muppet Movie", "True Confessions", "Tootsie", "To Be Or Not To Be", "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", "Home for the Holidays" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". He was also known for television performances in, to name a few, "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom", "Captains and the Kings", "Studs Lonigan", "Death of a Salesman", "Evening Shade" and "Everybody Loves Raymond". Most recent television roles include the voice of Francis Griffin on "Family Guy" and Michael Gavin, the retired firefighter father of Denis Leary's character, in the FX television series "Rescue Me".
Durning's performances in Broadway productions were "Drat! The Cat!" (1965), "Pousse-Café" (1966), "The Happy Time" (1968), "Indians" (1969), "That Championship Season" (1972), "In the Boom Boom Room" (1973), "The au Pair Man" (1973), "Knock Knock" (1976), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1990), "Inherit the Wind" (1996), "The Gin Game" (1997), Gore Vidal's "The Best Man" (2000). His most recent performances in New York City stage productions are "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" (2002) by Bertolt Brecht with Al Pacino and Wendy Wasserstein's final play, "Third" (2005).
Durning won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for his powerful performance in The Westwood Playhouse's 1977 production of David Rabe's "Streamers". In 1980, he won critical acclaim for his role as Norman Thayer, Jr. in Los Angeles's Ahmanson Theater's production of "On Golden Pond" opposite Julie Harris.
“There are many secrets in us, in the depths of our souls, that we don’t want anyone to know about,” he told Parade. “There’s terror and repulsion in us, the terrible spot that we don’t talk about. That place that no one knows about — horrifying things we keep secret. A lot of that is released through acting.”
Durning earned two Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor. He won a Tony Award for his performance as Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". He received two Drama Desk Awards for his performances in "That Championship Season" and "Third". He won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (1990). He had received three previous Golden Globe nominations and nine Emmy nominations.
In 1999, Durning was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame on Broadway. He was honored with the Life Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award Ceremony on January 27, 2008. On July 31, 2008, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame adjacent to one of his idols, James Cagney.
Durning died on the morning of December 24, 2012 at his home in New York, New York from natural causes, aged 89. On December 27, 2012, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights to honor him. He died on the same day as Jack Klugman.
Christopher Lambert
Christophe Guy Denis Lambert (born March 29, 1957) who is known professionally by his credited stage name Christopher Lambert is an American-born French actor, novelist and producer, who has appeared in American, as well as French and other European films. He is best known for his work as Connor MacLeod, or simply "The Highlander", from Highlander and the Highlander (franchise).
He is also known for his roles as Tarzan in "" and as the thunder god Raiden in the first movie adaptation of the video game "Mortal Kombat". He is sometimes credited internationally as "Christopher Lambert", with the notable exceptions of French-speaking countries, where he is known as "Christophe Lambert". and Anime adaptations as Chris Lambert.
Lambert was born in Great Neck, New York to French parents. Lambert was married to Diane Lane from 1988 until they divorced in 1994. Later he married Jaimyse Haft from 1999 until they divorced in 2000. He was married to Sophie Marceau from 2012 until they divorced in 2014. His career began in 1978 and he still continues to “act”.
Al Freeman, Jr.
Albert Cornelius Freeman, Jr. (March 21, 1934 – August 9, 2012) was an American actor and director.
Freeman has made appearances in many movies, such as "My Sweet Charlie", "Finian's Rainbow", and "Malcolm X", and television series such as "The Cosby Show", "Law & Order", "Homicide: Life on the Street", "Hot L. Baltimore", and "The Edge of Night". He is mostly recognized for his portrayal of Police Captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera, "One Life to Live", a role he played from 1972 through 1987, with recurring roles in 1988 and 2000. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for that role in 1979, the first actor from the show as well as the first African American actor to earn the award. He was also a director of "One Life to Live", and was one of the first African Americans to direct a soap opera.
After leaving "One Life to Live", Freeman appeared in the motion picture "Down in the Delta". His Broadway theatre credits include "Look to the Lilies", "Blues for Mister Charlie", and "Medea". His role as Elijah Muhammad in the movie based on Malcolm X "Malcolm X" earned him the 1995 NAACP Image Award for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture|Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Coincidently, he had previously played Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations.
Freeman taught acting at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Freeman, Jr. is not related to actor Morgan Freeman. He died on August 9, 2012 in Washington, D.C., he was 78 years old. A memorial service was held on September 10, 2012.
Geoffrey Hughes
Geoffrey Hughes, DL (2 February 1944 – 27 July 2012) was an English actor.
Hughes as appeared in a wide range of TV and film appearances, Hughes was best known for a series of supporting roles in popular UK television dramas. He played Vernon Scripps in the British drama series "Heartbeat" (2001–05, 2007); Twiggy in the popular television sitcom "The Royle Family" (1998–2000, 2006, 2008); Onslow in the sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances" (1990–95) and Eddie Yeats in the soap opera "Coronation Street" (1974–1983, 1987). Hughes was born on 2 February 1944 and died on 27 July 2012 from prostate cancer, he is survived by his wife Susan.
Randy Travis
Randy Travis (born May 4, 1959 in Marshville, North Carolina) is an American country music singer and actor. He first went into mainstream in the mid to late 1980s, having a number of hits. By the early to mid 1990s, his started to be less successful. He acted in several movies, including "The Rainmaker" (1997).
Yellow-lipped sea krait
The yellow-lipped sea krait ("Laticauda colubrina") is a species of sea snake found in tropical Indo-Pacific ocean waters. The yellow-lipped sea krait is also known as the ""banded sea krait"" and the ""colubrine sea krait"".
Banded sea kraits are often seen in large numbers in the company of hunting parties of giant trevally ("Caranx ignobilis") and goatfish. Their cooperative hunting technique is similar to that of the moray eel. The kraits flush out prey from narrow crevices and holes. Kraits need to drink fresh water and regularly come onto land for that purpose.
While probing crevices with their head, they cannot see approaching predators. But they can fool their potential enemies into thinking their tail is the head. Both colouration and tail movements are like the head.