The End - the Classic Film Obituary thread 2022

French director Serge Korber has left us at the age of 85, on January 23th.


He directed 45 films between 1962 and 2007. Successful as the director of comedies starring Louis de Funès in L'homme orchestre 1970 and Perched on a Tree 1971 (co-starring Geraldine Chaplin), he earned acclaim with his tragical drama Hearth Fires 1972 starring Annie Girardot and Claude Jade as mother and daughter. This film was official French film at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Other movies include Un garçon, une fille. Le dix-septième ciel 1966, Un idiot à Paris 1967, La petite vertu 1968, Je vous ferai aimer la vie 1979 and À notre regrettable époux 1980.

He is remembered by Le Figaro

R.I.P. Serge Korber

French actress Etchika Choureau has left us at the age of 92, on January 25th.


Her popularity was at it's highest in the 1950's after playing the lead in the French episode in Michelangelo Antonioni's I vinti 1953. Other movies from that period was Les enfants de l'amour 1953, Escalier de service 1954, Les fruits de l'été 1955 and La foire aux femmes 1956.
In 1957, she received an offer from Hollywood, in the last two productions by veteran director William A. Wellman to take on the female lead, Darby's Rangers 1958 with James Garner and Lafayette Escadrille 1958 with Tab Hunter.
She made headlines in 1957 with an affair with the Moroccan Crown Prince, later King Hassan II.
After Hollywood she was only offered minor parts, including the sister of Angelique in Angélique, marquise des anges 1964 and she retired from acting in 1965.

R.I.P. Etchika Choureau

(No obituary could be found at the time of this writing)

Austrian film producer Karl Spiehs has left us at the age of 90, on January 27th.


He produced more than 160 films and television productions from 1961 to 2017.
He produced a large number of comedy films and other entertainment films , most of which were well received by the public , but were either ignored or often panned by film critics.
Only rarely he produced ambitious originals such as Arthur Schnitzler's Der Reigen in 1973 or Hans Fallada's Everyone Dies in 1976.
Thanks to private television, he also managed to get into TV production at the beginning of the 1990's. Above all, the RTL series Ein Schloß am Wörthersee 1990 - 1992, starring the rediscovered Roy Black , was a big hit with the public. He subsequently focused more on television work, gaining widespread recognition with the 2003 two-parter The Return of the Dance Teacher.

He is remembered by Stern 

R.I.P. Karl Spiehs

British actress and writer Jo Kendall has left us at the age of 83, on January 29th.


She appeared as Adelaide Palliser in The Pallisers (1974), as the matron, Miss Biggs, in the film version of Scum (1979), as Annie in the film adaptation of Howards End (1992), directed by James Ivory, and as a publican's wife in another Merchant Ivory film The Remains of the Day in 1993.
She played Peggy Skilbeck in the ITV series Emmerdale Farm (1972-1973) and spoke the first ever line of the programme. Among her television roles, she played Mrs. Bardell in The Pickwick Papers (1985), Anne Stanhope in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) and had a semi-regular part in Grange Hill in the 1980's as the mother of regular character Roland Browning. In addition, she played the abrasive Miss Elizabeth Wait in the BBC's adaptation of the Vivien Alcock book The Cuckoo Sister (1986).

She is remembered by Mirror UK

R.I.P. Jo Kendall

English actor Leonard Fenton has left us at the age of 95, on January 29th.


Perhaps best known for his role as Dr. Harold Legg in EastEnders 1985 - 2019.
His career in acting spanned over sixty years and he continued to act occasionally on television and on stage. One of his earliest acting breaks came when he was offered a role by Orson Welles in his play Chimes at Midnight. Subsequent notable acting credits include: Studio Four (1962); Colditz (1974); Secret Army (1977); Z-Cars (1978); Play for Today (1981); Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983), and Shine on Harvey Moon (1982), where he played the Austrian Jew, Erich Gottlieb.
His film credits included roles in Up the Creek (1958), The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), Robin Hood Junior (1975), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), Morons from Outer Space (1985), and the British horror movie The Zombie Diaries (2006).

He is remembered by BBC

R.I.P. Leonard Fenton

American film, television and stage actor Carleton Carpenter has left us at the age of 95, on January 31st.


He began his performing career as a magician and as an actor on Broadway, beginning with David Merrick's first production, Bright Boy, in 1944, followed by co-starring appearances in Three to Make Ready with Ray Bolger, John Murray Anderson's Almanac, and Hotel Paradiso. He was a featured player on the early television program Campus Hoopla, which was produced by NBC, via WNBT in New York City, and which aired from 1946-47. He was brought to Hollywood in 1949 by independent producer Louis de Rochemont to play the boyfriend in Lost Boundaries. De Rochemont later cast him again, in The Whistle at Eaton Falls 1951.
He signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950, where he made eight films in three years: Father of the Bride, Three Little Words, Summer Stock, Two Weeks With Love, Vengeance Valley, Fearless Fagan (his one-of-two leading roles there), Sky Full of Moon (his other leading role there) and Take the High Ground!. He gained fame when teamed in 1950 with Debbie Reynolds in Three Little Words and Two Weeks with Love. In a guest sequence in Three Little Words, they perform “I Wanna Be Loved by You” as vaudeville players Dan Healy and Helen Kane, with Reynolds dubbed by Kane. In Two Weeks with Love, where they had featured roles, their duet "Aba Daba Honeymoon" was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record, reaching number three on the Billboard charts.
After 1953, he exited films for stage, television and radio work.
He returned to film in 1959 for Up Periscope for Warner Brothers and, much later, the independent films Cauliflower Cupids 1970 and Some of My Best Friends Are... 1971.



He is remembered by Hollywood Reporter

R.I.P. Carleton Carpenter

German production designer Rolf Zehetbauer has left us at the age of 92, on January 23rd.


A film architect, art director and set designer, who built impressive film sets for numerous global successes at the Bavaria Studios, especially in the 1950's to 1980's.
He won an Oscar for his work on Cabaret 1972.
Other movies includes The Odessa File 1974, The Swiss Conspiracy 1976, Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming 1977, Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg 1977, Fassbinder's Despair 1978, Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? 1978, The American Success Company 1980, boat models for Das Boot 1981, The NeverEnding Story 1984 and Enemy Mine 1985.

He is remembered by Bavaria Film

R.I.P. Rolf Zehetbauer