The Munsters

Portia de Rossi is joining another dysfunctional family. The Arrested Development actress has landed the role of Munster family matriarch Lily in the remake called “Mockingbird Lane” Continue reading »

People we lost in 2011

Pete Postlethwaite
The British English stage, film and television actor, Pete Postlethwaite passed away on 2 January 2011 at the age of 64 due to pancreatic cancer. He appeared in Criminal Justice, Minder and even Coronation Street.

Amy Winehouse
The voice of the popular award-winning song, ‘Rehab”, Amy Winehouse, passed away in her London home on Saturday, 23 July, at the age of 27. The song “Rehab” appearred in the pilot of Glee.

Elizabeth Taylor
At the age of 79, the prominent British-American actress, Elizabeth Taylor passed away. She was the the voice of Maggie Simpson, in the episode “Lisa’s First Word” when she spoke for the first and the last time.

Ryan Dunn
Best known for his stunts on the MTV series, Jackass, Ryan Dunn was killed in a car crash in Pennsylvania at just 34 years old.

Bill Hunter
One of Australia’s most talented and best known actors, Bill Hunter; remember for his many film, television and theatre credits for over 35 years, passed away on 21 May 2011 at the age of 71. He had appearedin  All Saints, Water Rats and most recently Small Time Gangster

Jeff Conaway
American actor, Jeff Conaway died of pneumonia on the 27th of May 2011 at the age of 60. He was in Taxi, Babylon 5 and The Bold and the Beautiful. He was most recenetly known for his addiction to painkillers on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Rex Mossop
Rex Mossop was an Australian rugby league and rugby union football player as well an Australian television personality,sports commentator and reporter.

Bubba Smith
Former American professional football player, Bubba Smith, passed away on 3 August 2011. Best known as Hightower in th Police Academy franchise, he also appeared in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Family Matters and Married…with Children.

Andy Whitfield
Spartacus:Blood and Sand superstar, Andy Whitfield earned the title of warrior on screen and off screen. He battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma but tragically Whitfield died in Sydney, Australia, on 11 September 2011, 18 months after his initial cancer diagnosis.

Peter Falk
The iconic detective, Columbo, played by Emmy Award winning American actor, Peter Falk, passed away on 23 June 2011 at the age of 83. Falk’s cause of death was revealed as cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease as underlying causes.

Jon Blake
Blake is largely recognized for his role in the television soap opera, The Restless Years and A Country Practice. On 1 December 1986, Blake was badly injured in a car accident, and not expected to live. He sustained permanent brain damage in the accident and was left paralysed and unable to speak. Blake passed away on 30 May 2011 at the age of 52 due to complications from pneumonia.

Steve Jobs
On October 5th the world lost one of its most influential and iconic figures when Steve Jobs succumbed to a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He gave us Apple TV, iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad and a whole new may to watch media.

John Neville
From 1995-98, Neville had a prominent recurring role in The X-Files television series as the Well-Manicured Man, and in 1998, he reprised his role in the feature film The X-Files: Fight The Future. Although he made numerous other television appearances and occasional film roles, the main focus of Neville’s career was always the theatre. Neville died “peacefully surrounded by family” on 19 November 2011, aged 86.

Doris Belack
From 1990 to 2001, she played the tough, sharp-tongued “Judge Margaret Barry”, a recurring role on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Doris also provided the voices of Mrs. Dink and Mrs. Wingo in the Nickelodeon show Doug. Her last television appearance was on a 2003 episode of Sex and the City. She passed away on October 4th, 2011 aged 85.

Alan Fudge
Alan has scores of credits, including appearances on Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H, Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, Cagney & Lacey, The A-Team, Dallas, MacGyver, L.A. Law, The Wonder Years and Dawson’s Creek. Most recently he was seen on How I Met Your Mother, Big Love and The Office. Fudge died from cancer on October 10, 2011.

Michael Showers
Michael Showers was an American actor who was best known for his role as Capt. John Guirdy on the television series Treme. He also appeared in The Vampire Diaries and Breaking Bad. On August 24, 2011, Showers’ body was discovered in the Mississippi River near the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans police speculated that Showers had been dead for at least two days when his body was found. Autopsy results confirmed that Showers’ death was caused by drowning.

Frank Potenza
Frank Potenza was an American retired police officer for the New York City Police Department and former security guard. He later became a television actor and comic relief for the late night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He appeared as Jimmy Kimmel’s real-life Uncle Frank on the ABC show as a regular from 2003 to 2011. Rice died of cancer on January 21, 2009. In a Twitter message, Kimmel thanked Potenza’s fans tweeting, “Thank you for your kind words about a very kind man” and “RIP Uncle Frank, his comic timing took a lifetime to earn. Today I eat cake for him”

Francesco Quinn
From 1999 to 2001, Francesco (son of film actor Anthony Quinn) appeared on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless and his TV guest starring roles have occurred in Criminal Minds, ER, CSI: Miami, The Glades, Navy NCIS, Alias, Crossing Jordan and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Quinn also portrayed the final criminal/villain, Guillermo Beltran, in the long-running F/X series, The Shield. He died of a suspected heart attack on 5 Aug 2011 while walking with his son near his home in Malibu, California.

Tom Aldrege
Aldrege’s TV stinits include Ryan’s Hope, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Sopranos, Damages, Boardwalk Empire. Aldredge died July 22, 2011 in a hospice in Florida from lymphoma, aged 83.

James Arness
James was famous for his performances on Gunsmoke, How the West Was Won and McClain’s Law. Arness died of natural causes at his Brentwood home in Los Angeles on June 3, 2011.

Jackie Cooper
The original child star whose credits include M*A*S*H, McCloud, Ironside, The F.B.I., Columbo, Kojak and The Invisible Man, passed away on May 3, 2011, at the age of 88. According to his agent, Cooper died after a short illness. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of his naval service

Len Lesser
Best known as Uncle Leo from Seinfeld, his TV credits also included Dragnet, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, The Wild, Wild West, The Munsters, My Favorite Martian, Get Smart, Green Acres, The Bill Cosby Show, The Rockford Files, Thirtysomething, Mad About You, Everybody Loves Raymond, ER and Castle. On February 16, 2011, Lesser died of cancer-related pneumonia.

Kenneth Mars
His last television gigs were that of Otto, the German dude ranch owner on Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle, an appearance on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, and a reprisal of his role as Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time television series.Mars died aged 75 from pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles, California on February 12, 2011

Bill Erwin
William Lindsey “Bill” Erwin was an American film, stage and television actor with over 250 television and film credits. As a veteran character actor, he was widely known for his role of Sid Fields, an embittered, irascible man on Seinfeld– for which he received an Emmy nomination – as well his appearances on shows such as I Love Lucy and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bill Erwin died on December 29, 2010 in Studio City, Los Angeles from natural causes, near the production lot where Seinfeld was filmedBill Erwin died on December 29, 2010 in Studio City, Los Angeles from natural causes, near the production lot where Seinfeld was filmed.

If any one has accidently not been acknowledged, sincere apologies.

NBC has given the go-ahead to Bryan Fuller’s (Pushing Daisies)  modern-day reboot of the creepy classic The Munsters.

A spokesperson confirms that the network has ordered a pilot of what it’s calling an “imaginative reinvention of The Munsters as a visually spectacular one hour drama.”

In a statement, Fuller gushed, “I am over the moon Eddie Munster will soon be howling at.”  Last week, NBC gave a script order to Hannibal, Fuller’s one-hour drama based on Mr. Lecter.