The End - the Classic Film Obituary thread 2024

American actress and singer Janis Paige has left us at the age of 101, on June 2nd.


With a career spanning nearly 60 years, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Paige began singing in local amateur shows at the age of five. After high school, she moved to Los Angeles, where she became a singer at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II, as well as posing as a pin-up model.
This led to a film contract with Warner Bros., although she later left the studio to pursue live theatre work, appearing in a number of Broadway shows. She continued to alternate between film and theatre work for much of her career. Beginning in the mid-1950s, she also made numerous television appearances, as well as starring in her own sitcom It's Always Jan 1955 - 1956.
Among her movies are Of Human Bondage 1946, Two Guys from Milwaukee 1946, Cheyenne 1947, Winter Meeting 1948, Romance on the High Seas 1948, Fugitive Lady (in Italy) 1950, Silk Stockings 1957, Please Don't Eat the Daisies 1960, Bachelor in Paradise 1961, The Caretakers 1963 and Welcome to Hard Times 1967.

She is remembered by Hollywood Reporter

R.I.P. Janis Paige

William Russell, the actor and one of the original stars of Doctor Who has died at the age of 99. William Russell played Ian Chesterton in the very first episode of Doctor Who, November 23, 1963, as the teacher who investigated the mysterious pupil at Coal Hill School and who was spirited away in the TARDIS by the first Doctor. As one of the original stars of Doctor Who, Russell was a huge part of the initial success of the show, who, along with Jacqueline Hill playing Barbara Wright, often bore the weight of keeping a long-running weekly show on the straight and narrow. Russell stayed with Doctor Who for its first two years, appearing in 78 episodes. His last appearance was in The Planet of Decision, the final episode of The Chase, broadcast on the 26th June 1965. 

He recreated the character of Ian for the Big Finish audio series. In 2022 he brought the character back to the Television series with a cameo in the final thirteenth Doctor story The Power of the Doctor. He holds the Guinness World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances of an actor playing a television character.

William Russell was born as William Russell Enoch on the 19th of November 1924. He died yesterday, June 3, 2024.

R. I. P. talent agent Teri Hayden at the age of 75.

deadline.com/2024/06/teri-hayden-dead-irish-talent-agent-1235958308/

British actress Jeannette Charles has left us at the age of 96, on June 2nd.


Best known for her resemblance to the Monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1972, a painting she commissioned of herself in her forties (as a present for her husband) was displayed by the artist at the Royal Academy in London, where it was taken to be a portrait of the Queen. On the assumption the painting was of the Queen, it was disqualified as portraits had to be painted from life. When it was revealed that it was not the Queen, she (as the actual subject of the painting) received a great deal of press attention, and started receiving offers to portray the Queen in print advertisements. she accepted the offers she felt were appropriate (turning down, for instance, offers to portray the queen in lingerie or, in one case, as a centrefold), and insisted that it be made clear in any advertisement that the Queen was being played by an impersonator.
After studying the Queen's voice, as well as her appearance, she also made in-character personal appearances at trade shows and corporate events, and soon broadened into film. She has played the role of Queen Elizabeth II in many films including Secrets of a Superstud (1976), Queen Kong (1976), The Rutles' movie All You Need Is Cash (1978), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

She is remembered by People Magazine

R.I.P. Jeannette Charles