Once again another year is coming to a close and the traditional capture of the year’s events, particularly in the media, draw headlines about people, places and happenings from a local, national or global perspective. Topics such as the boldest pictures of 2011, top romances and breakups of 2011, and famous deaths of 2011 are popular items for readers and onlookers to talk about, tweet, or compare with what their personal picks were.
Ten people who left us in 2011 in their own talented way were involved in some sort of crime endeavor; be it in movies, television, fictional characters, novels or real life victims will be the concentration here. Let’s find out how each were involved.
1. Peter Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011). Peter Falk was a talented actor in movies, theatre and television. Falk is a Golden Globe winner and was nominated for two Academy Awards – “Murder, Inc.”, his first film role playing mobster Abe Reles (1960) and Frank Capra’s “Pocketful of Miracles” with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford (1961). But it was his role as Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Lieutenant "Columbo" that many will remember him by; Falk received four Emmy awards for his role. Shrewd and analytical, he was known for his rumpled raincoat, cigar, and polite yet probing behavior; which irritated many suspects he was questioning. His autobiography “Just One More Thing,” published in August 2006, was a phrase he frequently used during his investigations.
2. John Neville (May 2, 1925 – November 19, 2011). John Neville was a British theatre and movie actor. He is mostly known to American audiences as "The Well-Mannered Man" in “The X Files.” He also played the same role in the movie “The X Files: Fight the Future.” Wikipedia describes this man as the following: “He is an English member of the Syndicate, a shadow organization within the United States government that exists to hide from the public the fact that extraterrestrials are planning to repopulate the earth. The Well-Mannered Man prefers subtlety to brute force, and will attempt to manipulate those in his way before using physical violence.” Neville also played Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 film “A Study in Terror” and in the 2002 film “Crime and Punishment.” He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his later years.
3. Jack Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 - June 3, 2011). Jack Kevorkian was an American pathologist and had other talents as well, however is widely known to be “Dr. Death” due to his stance on euthanasia. A controversial figure, he assisted in ending the lives of over 100 people who were terminally ill and believed people had the right to determine how they wished to die. His beliefs caused furor and serious discussions in the medical world, among politicians and religious groups. He was convicted of murder, imprisoned for eight years, and released on June 1, 2007. Due to his notoriety he still had media interviews and was on the lecture circuit. In April 2010 HBO released the movie “You Don’t Know Jack” in which actor Al Pacino played Kevorkian. Pacino earned an Emmy and Golden Globe for the part. Kevorkian died of thrombosis, which is defined as “the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system.”
4. Cliff Robertson (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011). Cliff Robertson was an Academy Award and Emmy award winning actor who starred in a variety of films and television. His role as a mentally disabled man earned him an Oscar in the movie “Charly” and an Emmy for an episode called “The Game.” President John F. Kennedy handpicked Robertson to play him in the 1963 movie “PT 109.” Robertson also displayed his acting talent by gaining a new audience; appearing in the “Spiderman” movies playing the part of (Uncle) Ben Parker, who was also the surrogate father of Peter Parker. Robertson died one day after his 88th birthday.
5. Anne Francis (September 16, 1930 – January 2, 2011). The popular, attractive blond actress with the beauty mark played in a variety of film and television roles. In 1955 Francis played in two dynamic films, “Bad Day at Black Rock” with Spencer Tracy and “Blackboard Jungle” with Glenn Ford. The Associated Press reported that the next year “Francis starred in “Forbidden Planet” (1956), a science-fiction retelling of Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” a group of space travelers including Leslie Nielsen visited a planet where an expatriate scientist played by Walter Pidgeon, his daughter (Ms. Francis) and a robot named Robby had built a settlement.” The film has since become a cult classic in which most audiences know Francis by that movie.
The other role Ms. Francis was known for was the sexy detective “Honey West,” a spinoff from one episode she played in another crime drama called “Burke’s Law.” Though Honey West only aired for one season (1965-1966), Francis was a sensation, earning a Golden Globe and nominated for an Emmy. She was also one of the first female “private eyes” on television. Francis continued to work in television for several years until the early 2000s.
6. Dwayne McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011). Dwayne McDuffie was a comic book, animation and television writer. Highly educated, the Detroit, Michigan native began his stellar career through a friend who set up an interview for him at Marvel Comics. He also worked for DC Comics and eventually became a staff writer. McDuffie noticed a lack of people of color in animated and comic book characters. He created Static Shock, an animated television series of DC Comics superhero Virgil Ovid Hawkins/Static. McDuffie took his goal a step further by co-founding Milestone Media in 1993. McDuffie also wrote, edited and produced Justice League Unlimited, Ben 10, episodes of Teen Titans and What’s New Scooby-Doo? The comic book website comicbookresources.com reported McDuffie’s latest work after his death on February 22, 2011:
“McDuffie's latest work was the script for the "All Star Superman" animated adaptation, which went on sale today in stores across America. CBR ran a lengthy interview with McDuffie about that project last week and caught up with him, looking in good health and acting jovial, last week at the Paley Center's Los Angeles premier for the film. McDuffie's last known public statement was a post to his Facebook page Sunday at 12:17 PM Pacific. He was scheduled to sign at Golden Apple Comics tomorrow evening as part of Reggie Hudlin's Reggie's World launch party.
The writer is survived by his wife, though at this point no further details are available on what exactly happened to McDuffie. The staff of Comic Book Resources offers our deepest condolences to his family and friends.”
DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio also offered a statement.
Dwayne McDuffie died of complications during emergency heart surgery, one day after his 49th birthday.
7. Lilian Jackson Braun (June 20, 1913 – June 4, 2011). Lilian Jackson Braun was a best-selling mystery writer known for her “The Cat Who” series, based on reporter and amateur sleuth Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Braun wrote 30 series novels in which 29 were published; the first being “The Cat Who Could Read Backwards” (1966) and ending with “The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers” in 2007. She also wrote three short stories and The New York Times named Braun in 1966 “Detective of the Year.” Braun always used her talented writing skills; her earlier jobs were an advertising copywriter and she spent several years as the lifestyle writer and editor for The Detroit Free Press. During her “Cat” series, Braun was on hiatus for 18 years. Due to the popularity of The Cat Who series, in 2003 satirical novelist and teacher Robert Kaplow wrote a mystery novel called “The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun.”
8. Harry Morgan (April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011). Harry Morgan’s talent as an actor was keen; he never was the lead man but his acting was just as noticeable. At the beginning of his career he used the name “Henry Morgan” but changed to “Harry” due to a popular humorist at that time with the same name. Morgan became a recognizable screen personality with this report from The Washington Post -
“He had appeared in more than 100 films since the 1940s and was particularly effective as a witness to a lynching of alleged cattle rustlers in “The Ox-Bow Incident” (1943); a shadowy villain in “The Big Clock” (1948); a businessman who fears outlaws in “High Noon” (1952); and a small-town judge in “Inherit the Wind” (1960), based on the Scopes Monkey Trial.”
Baby boomer audiences are probably more familiar with the above films along with Morgan being Jack Webb’s sidekick in “Dragnet” as Officer Bill Gannon and Amos Coogan in “Hec Ramsey” in the 1970s. Actor Richard Boone played Hec Ramsey, a western gunman who had an interest in forensics. Morgan’s popularity skyrocketed when he played the character Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the smash medical comedy TV show M*A*S*H (1972-1983), which is still in syndication. Morgan won an Emmy award for his portrayal.
9. Farley Granger (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011). Farley Granger was known for his dashing style and good looks. The New York Times reported this after his death - “Though he had scores of television and film credits and made a half-dozen Broadway appearances, his best-known performances were two of his earliest: as a preppie thrill-killer in Hitchcock’s “Rope” in 1948, and as a tennis player wrongly suspected of murder in “Strangers on a Train” in 1951.”
Granger also appeared in film noir movies that include Nicolas Ray’s “They Live by Night” (1949), as a petty thief in trouble with the mob in “Side Street” (1950), and as a man who kills a priest in “Edge of Doom” (1950). He had numerous Hollywood affairs with Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Leonard Bernstein, Patricia Neal and playwright/screen director Arthur Laurents (who also died this year). His linked romances are in his 2007 memoir “Include Me Out.” Granger did settle with a lifelong partner, soap opera producer Robert Calhoun, who died three years ago.
10. Sidney Lumet (June 24, 1924 – April 9, 2011). What can one say about an “A-list” acclaimed director who created more than 50 films; films that have impact, films that make you think, expose you to brutal and realistic elements in society? Sidney Lumet’s talent is far too much for this piece, yet he deserves recognition.
The Philadelphia, Pa. native’s family moved to New York (city) when he was young and has been the location for most of his films. The movies “Prince of the City” (1981), "Serpico” (1973), “Q&A” (1990) and “Night Falls on Manhattan” (1997) exposed corruption and hardness among officers in the New York Police Department. “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975) was a true story of two guys trying to rob a New York bank and the events that took place around the botched robbery.
Lumet’s first film “12 Angry Men” (1957) received critical acclaim due to the plot of 12 jurors trying to reach a verdict on a young Hispanic male accused of murder. The film took an early hard look at racism, which was vividly played by remarks from actors Ed Begley and Lee J. Cobb. His directing of “Network,” which earned four Academy Awards (in which two were given to Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch), concentrated on the broadcasting industry’s cutthroat ways to get higher ratings. Peter Finch, who played the crazed newsman Howard Beale, became the target; especially when he came on the air and yelled “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Lumet also directed “The Wiz” (1978), Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974) and “The Verdict” (1984). Despite Lumet’s exceptional directing, he never won an Academy Award for directing; though he was up several times. In 2005 at the Academy Awards ceremony Lumet was given a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Oscar. He also received the D.W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Director’s Guild of America in 1993.
Sidney Lumet was married four times; one of his wives was heiress/fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt (Anderson Cooper’s mother), another was Gail Jones (Lena Horne’s daughter). His last directed film was a crime drama called “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” in 2007. Media reports stated lymphoma was the cause of Lumet’s death.
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