Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: In early June 2003 the American Film Institute voted Peck’s Atticus Finch as the greatest Hollywood hero of all time. (Indiana Jones was second and James Bond third.) He died later that month aged 87 peacefully during the night at his Los Angeles home with his wife at his side. Monroe Friedman, Peck’s spokesman, said, “[Veronique] said she was holding his hand and he just closed his eyes and went to sleep and he was gone. He had just been getting older and more fragile. He wasn’t really ill. He just sort of ran his course and died of old age.” Peck was buried on June 16, 2003, and the actor Brock Peters (who played the black man defended by Atticus Finch) delivered the eulogy.

  FURTHER READING: Gregory Peck: A Biography – Michael Freedland (London: W.H. Allen, 1980).

  Sam Peckinpah

  Born February 21, 1925

  Died December 28, 1984

  Violent director. David Samuel Peckinpah’s adolescence was filled with boozing and brawling. He fought and drank in school, in military college and especially when he joined the marines. It should therefore, come as no surprise to anyone that his films were notable because of their violence. Born in Fresno, California, he studied drama and then landed a number of minor jobs in television, occasionally working with Don Siegel. His first theatrical directorial job was The Deadly Companions (1961), a western about four disparate people who conspire to rob a bank. His next film was Ride The High Country (1962), which starred Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott. There followed a three-year hiatus before Peckinpah came back with the film that was to make his name, Major Dundee (1965). The film, which starred Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton and James Coburn, was about cavalry officers who intend to massacre Native Americans. It was the first film in which Peckinpah espoused the link, as he saw it, between masculinity and a predisposition to violence. Four years later came the film that established Peckinpah’s reputation: The Wild Bunch (1969). The movie, set against the background of the Mexican Revolution, was condemned for its bloodthirstiness, although Peckinpah claimed it was a film about violence rather than one that was violent just for the sake of it. It was said that more blanks were fired during filming than real bullets were used in the actual Mexican Revolution. The Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970) followed and then Peckinpah once again fell foul of the censor. He travelled to England and shot Straw Dogs (1971). It starred Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a mathematician who, looking for somewhere peaceful to do some research, travels to Cornwall and rents a cottage with his beautiful blonde wife, Amy (Susan George). They are taunted by the locals and soon bloody violence erupts, including the rape of Amy Sumner. Regarded by Halliwell as “totally absurd, poorly contrived,” by reviewer Simon Rose as “risible, unpleasant nonsense,” it is given a four-star rating by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter in their Video Movie Guide 2000. It is also memorable, in a way, for being the first film in which Susan George bares her breasts. After that Peckinpah made The Getaway (1972) with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw as amoral villains. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973), starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson in the lead roles, is often regarded as Peckinpah’s most thoughtful movie. Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974) is the only film over which Peckinpah claims he had total control. Whether that is a good thing or a bad one can only be judged by viewing the film. Critic John Simon commented: “Peckinpah clearly doesn’t lack talent – what he lacks is brains.” His last directing job was working on music videos for Julian Lennon.

  CAUSE: Peckinpah died of a stroke in Mexico. He was 59.

  Pina Pellicer

  Born April 3, 1935

  Died December 4, 1964

  Latin tragedy. Born in Mexico 5́ 1˝ Roman Catholic Pina Pellicer made her name on Mexican television in a version of The Diary Of Anne Frank. She made few films but showed a talent that suggested she could go far. However, she was shy and neurotic and her lack of English probably pushed her further into her shell. She appeared in Macario (1960). When she arrived in America to star as Louisa opposite Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) she broke down at the airport when she was asked her business in America by customs officers. Nonetheless, she gave a memorable performance. Brando was so entranced by her that they began a brief affair although he also slept with other women during filming. She starred in Rogelia (1962) and Días De Otoño (1962), which won her the Best Actress Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

  CAUSE: She found work hard to come by after that high and became very bitter. When she was 17 she had attempted suicide by slashing her wrists. She died by her own hand in Mexico City, aged 29. It may have been in the aftermath of the end of a lesbian affair.

  George Peppard

  Born October 1, 1926

  Died May 8, 1994

  Prima donna. Born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of a building contractor, Peppard was a struggling taxi driver until he became a struggling actor, a state of affairs that continued until 1956 when he landed a role on Broadway in The Beautiful Changes which led to a succession of television parts. He was a staple on TV until the early Sixties when he was taken by film and began to appear in movies such as Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961), How The West Was Won (1962), The Carpetbaggers (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), The Blue Max (1966), Tobruk (1967) and Cannon For Cordoba (1970). On September 13, 1972, he began starring in the NBC private eye series Banacek playing the lead, Thomas Banacek. The series ran for two years until September 3, 1974, when Peppard left because the producer had also departed. From 1975 until 1976 he played Dr Jake Goodwin in Doctors’ Hospital but left that show as well. Peppard was well known for being difficult to work with and this presented him with career difficulties when no one wanted to employ him. Most of the films he appeared in in the Seventies flopped, although sanctuary seemed to be on the horizon when was offered the plum role of Blake Carrington in a new series to be called Dynasty. Never knowing when to keep his mouth shut, Peppard fell out with the producers over his interpretation of the part and he was sacked after just 16 days. Luckily, he was saved by an action series called The A-Team in which he took the part of Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith. The NBC series ran from January 23, 1983, until June 14, 1987, after which Peppard didn’t work very much. He married five times. His first wife was actress Helen Bradford Davies whom he married in 1954 and by whom he had a son, Bradford Davies (b. 1955), and a daughter, Julie Louise (b. 1956). They divorced in January 1965. On April 17, 1966, he married actress Elizabeth Ashley at the Bel-Air Hotel. A son, Christian Moore, was born on March 12, 1968. They divorced on April 30, 1972. On January 30, 1975, he married Sherry Boucher. In December 1984 he married actress Alexis Adams. His final wife was Laura Taylor and they married on September 10, 1992.

  CAUSE: He died of pneumonia after suffering from lung cancer. He was 67.

  Anthony Perkins

  Born April 4, 1932

  Died September 12, 1992

  One role man. Born in New York City, Perkins was the son of successful stage actor James Osgood Ripley Perkins (b. West Newton, Massachusetts, May 16, 1892, d. Washington, September 21, 1937, of heart failure). Perkins was an only child and spoiled rotten by his parents. However, he was just five when his father died and his mother enveloped him in love. (She did, however, try to force the naturally left-handed Perkins to use his right hand, causing the boy to stammer. The same thing happened to King George VI with the same result.) Psychologists believe that a child brought up by an overbearing mother and without a counterbalancing male figure can turn out to be homosexual. Was this the root cause of Perkins’ homosexuality? Perkins seemed to be often cast in sexually ambiguous or ambivalent roles. One of his earliest successes was as Tom Lee, the confused schoolboy in Tea And Sympathy (Ethel Barrymore Theater, West 47th Street, from September 30, 1953, although Perkins didn’t join the cast until May 31, 1954). Perkins was spotted by director William Wyler, who cast him as Josh Birdwell in Friendly Persuasion (1956). The performance won Perkins his only Oscar nomination. He also supposedly romanced star Gary Cooper’s daughter, Maria, during
production. Cooper wasn’t overly impressed with Perkins, believing he wasn’t fully developed. He would have been even less impressed if he had known that the 6́ 2˝ Perkins’ real romantic interest was in actor Tab Hunter who, aged 19, in October 1950 had been arrested at an all-male pyjama party in Tinseltown. (Hunter’s career never recovered from the scandal.) Hollywood wasn’t quite sure what to make of Perkins either and when James Dean died, Perkins was seen as a potential replacement for the moody rebel without a cause. His next film was the first made under contract to Paramount Pictures, a Western called The Lonely Man (1957) with Perkins playing Riley Wade, Jack Palance’s son. This was followed by the biopic Fear Strikes Out (1957) in which Perkins played pro baseball player Jim Piersall, who suffered a breakdown after striving unsuccessfully to gain his father’s approval. Perkins put so much energy into the film that he lost weight (from his already lean frame) and had to be hospitalised. In his next film, The Tin Star (1957), he played a green sheriff, Ben Owens, opposite Henry Fonda. Perkins appeared in half a dozen more films, Desire Under The Elms (1958) as Eben Cabot, The Matchmaker (1958) as Cornelius Hackel, This Angry Age (1958) as Joseph Dufresne, Green Mansions (1959) as Abel, On The Beach (1959) as Peter Holmes and Tall Story (1960) as Ray Blent before he made the film with which he will be forever associated – Alfred Hitchcock’s chilling Psycho (1960). The story of psychopathic mummy’s boy Norman Bates became one of the most popular horror films of all time. The music, the atmosphere, the black-and-white photography and especially Perkins’ superb acting all make for a film that gets better with every viewing. The character of Norman Bates was based on notorious Wisconsin killer Ed Gein (b. Plainfield, August 27, 1906, d. Mendota, July 26, 1984, of respiratory failure) who also inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and the character Buffalo Bill in The Silence Of The Lambs (1991). Edward Theodore Gein (pronounced geen) lived with his mother, Augusta, and brother, Henry (b. Plainfield, January 17, 1902) on a farm in Plainfield and had the virtues of hard work and sexual abstinence drilled into him. His brother died on May 16, 1944, and his mother 18 months later, on December 29, 1945, at the Wild Rose Hospital of a cerebral haemorrhage. Without any kind of socialising presence in his life, Gein became a recluse and took to studying anatomy from textbooks. Eventually, the theoretical side bored him and he began to dig up corpses from the local cemetery to put into practice what he had learned from the books. He would skin the corpses and then drape the flesh over himself. From 1954 Gein began murdering, although he wasn’t caught until November 16, 1957; he confessed all the next day. On November 23, 1957, he was sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane and four months later, on March 27, 1958, his farm was razed to the ground in a mysterious fire. His trial had begun on January 6, 1958, but was abandoned because of his insanity and did not resume until November 6, 1968. He died still, thankfully, incarcerated. Novelist Robert Bloch wrote a story about Gein that was seen by Hitchcock, who turned it into Psycho. Hitchcock, possessor of a black sense of humour, told the press he was considering both Judith Anderson and Helen Hayes for the role of Mrs Bates. The film was mauled by critics when it opened but went on to take $14 million in its first year alone, having cost $780,000 to make. The shower scene lasts just 45 seconds, yet took a week to shoot and Perkins wasn’t even on set when the dirty deed is done. Trivia note: after she has been murdered and is lying on the shower floor Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) gulps – twice. (The blood is really chocolate sauce.) Leigh was paid $25,000 for the film as opposed to Perkins’ remuneration of $40,000. Psycho made Tony Perkins, but also haunted him for the rest of his life. During his next film, Goodbye Again (1961), he played Philip Van der Bersh opposite Ingrid Bergman, who tried to seduce Perkins by luring him to her dressing room to ‘rehearse’ a scene. He didn’t fall for her ruse, and kept the dressing room door open to ‘protect’ himself. In 1960 Perkins had an affair with an actor-dancer who wishes to remain anonymous with whom he indulged in some most peculiar behaviour. Of one incident his partner said: “We were doing things that [Perkins] liked, not the normal gay sex. Anything that got sloppy and messy was fine. Tony became like an animal. He loved being pissed on … There was some S&M. We had sex in leather. He wore jeans. He liked inventiveness.” Perkins was in regular employment in both film and theatre. In 1970 he played Chaplain Tappman in Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 and two years later appeared in The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean as Reverend LaSalle. Co-star Ava Gardner had made a play for Perkins before but he was terrified by her and kept his distance. She later recalled: “Tony Perkins was shy about everything but attacking his plate.” However, for the first time, one woman supposedly did manage to penetrate Perkins’ defences. He claimed he had sex with future Dallas star Victoria Principal (b. Fukuoka, Japan, January 3, 1946) and then proceeded to tell everyone about it via an interview with People magazine. According to one source Principal denied sleeping with Perkins although she did tell People: “It was, for both of us, a special time in our lives.” (Actress Cynthia Rogers would later claim it was she, and not Principal, who relieved Perkins of his heterosexual virginity.) Now he knew that he could have penetrative sex with a woman, Perkins was more confident about his desire to marry and raise a family despite his homosexuality. In a 1971 interview he claimed that he had had a homosexual encounter, but said “that kind of sex” was “unsatisfying”. On August 9, 1973, in Wellsfleet, Massachusetts, he married Catholic Berinthia Berenson, whose death is noticed in this book, the younger sister of actress Marisa Berenson and granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli. They were to have two sons, Osgood Robert (b. New York, February 2, 1974) and Elvis (b. February 9, 1976). Perkins went on to appear in Murder On The Orient Express (1974) as McQueen, Remember My Name (1978) as Neil Curry, The Black Hole (1980) as Dr Alex Durant and Double Negative (1980) as Lawrence Miles before being persuaded to recreate the role of Norman Bates for Psycho II (1983). The story picked up 22 years from where the original left off, with Norman Bates freed from the asylum to return to the Bates Motel. After Psycho II Perkins appeared in Ken Russell’s Crimes Of Passion (1984), playing the disturbed Reverend Peter Shayne. The film flopped because of cuts made to avoid an X-rating in the States. On January 29, 1984, Perkins was arrested at Heathrow and charged with possession of “eight grams of marijuana” and LSD. On February 2, he was fined £100. Then it was back to the Bates Motel for the third time. Psycho III (1986) both starred and was directed by Perkins, but it flopped. On June 26, 1989, Perkins was again arrested in Britain for possession of marijuana and fined £200. In 1990 Psycho IV: The Beginning was made. It was a prequel that explained how, if not why, Norman became a killer and obsessed with his mother. Of his most famous role Perkins said: “I couldn’t believe that all the other films I had done previously had been forgotten, and that I was being narrowed into this one image that other people had of me.”