The End - the Classic Film Obituary thread 2022

American actress Barrie Youngfellow has left us at the age of 75, on March 28th.


Perhaps best known for her role as sharp-tongued and sarcastic waitress Jan Hoffmeyer Gray on the sitcom It's a Living from 1980–82 on ABC and 1985–89 in first-run syndication. She and Gail Edwards, Paul Kreppel and Marian Mercer were the only actors from It's a Living to last all the way through the show's network and syndication runs. In 1990, It's a Living producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas cast Youngfellow in the pilot episode of Blossom, in which she played the mother of Mayim Bialik's title character, she did not continue with the project when NBC picked it up as a regular series.
She was married stage and screen actor Sam Freed since 1983.

She is remembered by Hollywood Reporter

R.I.P. Barrie Youngfellow

Canadian documentarian filmmaker John Zaritsky has left us at the age of 79, on March 30th.


He was the recipient of an Oscar in 1982 for his documentary Just Another Missing Kid. He also won a Cable Ace Award in 1987 for Rapists: Can They be Stopped, a Golden Gavel Award from the American Bar Association for My Husband is Going to Kill Me, a Robert F. Kennedy Foundation Award for "Born in Africa", and a DuPont-Columbia Award in 1994 for Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo.

He is remembered by Hollywood Reporter

R.I.P. John Zaritsky

Taiwanese actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter Jimmy Wang Yu has left us at the age of 78 or 79 or 80 (depending on sources), on April 5th. (complications from a stroke).


He rose to fame in 1967 with his starring role in One-Armed Swordsman, a martial arts film produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, and The Chinese Boxer 1970. With the success of The Chinese Boxer, he stood unchallenged in Southeast Asia for a short time, as the Chinese actor with the most formidable fists and legs. Sometimes billed as "Yu Wang".

He acted in over 80 movies between 1965 and 2013.

He is remembered by Hype Malaysia

R.I.P. Jimmy Wang Yu

American writer Patricia MacLachlan has left us at the age of 84, on March 31st.


She was noted for her novel "Sarah, Plain and Tall", which won the 1986 Newbery Medal. She was also Emmy-nominated for her screenplay (shared with Carol Sobieski) of the TV-Movie version 1991.
She also wrote the teleplays for Skylark 1993 (with the characters from Sarah, Plain and Tall), Journey 1995 (and the novel), Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End 1999 and Baby 2000 (and the book).

She is remembered by Bookriot

R.I.P. Patricia MacLachlan

As has been noted, American actor Nehemiah Persoff has left us at the age of 102, on April 5th.


In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio, and was one of the 26 members of the beginners' class taught by Elia Kazan, along with James Whitmore and Julie Harris. He began his acting career in 1948.
Among his early film roles was the driver during the "I coulda been a contender" scene in On the Waterfront 1954, Leo the accountant in The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger 1956, and the gangster boss Little Bonaparte, a parody of Little Caesar in Billy Wilder's film classic Some Like It Hot (1959), and he appeared again with Steiger in Al Capone 1959. He also appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Comancheros 1961 and The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965. In the film Yentl 1983, he portrayed the father of Barbra Streisand's character. He appeared in the comedy film Twins 1988 and in the American Tail animated-film series voicing Papa Mousekewitz.

He acted in over 200 movies and television productions between 1948 and 2001.

He is remembered by Hollywood Reporter

R.I.P. Nehemiah Persoff

French stage and film actor Michel Bouquet has left us at the age of 96, on April 13th.


He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for Toto the Hero in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for How I Killed My Father 2001 and The Last Mitterrand 2005. He also received the Molière Award for Best Actor for Les côtelettes in 1998, then again for Exit the King in 2005. In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Molière for the sum of his career. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 2018.
In 1949, he appeared in Pattes blanches, adapted by Jean Anouilh from his own play and directed by Jean Grémillon, then in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Manon 1950 and Anouilh’s Deux sous de violettes 1951. Three years later, he acted in Abel Gance's historical melodrama La Tour de Nesle. In 1965, he worked for the first time with director Claude Chabrol in Our Agent Tiger. He went on to act in several Chabrol films and received wide acclaim for his performances in The Unfaithful Wife 1969, The Breach 1970, and Just Before Nightfall 1971.

He is remembered by BBC

R.I.P. Michel Bouquet

American actress Liz Sheridan has left us at the age of 93, on April 15th.


While best known for her roles as Jerry's mother in Seinfeld and the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Ochmonek, on ALF, her decades-long career was extensive and included work on the stage and large and small screens.
She began her professional life as a nightclub dancer and singer in the 1950's, and spent much of her early career living and working in the Caribbean. In the late 1960's, back in New York City, she performed in one of Julius Monk's annual cabaret reviews at Plaza 9, located in the Plaza Hotel. She also appeared in plays and musicals on Broadway, co-starring with Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd in the 1977 musical, Happy End, before moving to Los Angeles.
Working in Hollywood, she came to prominence in supporting roles in over a dozen feature films and 60 prime time network television movies, mini-series, and series.
Her first major role was playing the nosy neighbor Raquel Ochmonek on the NBC TV series ALF, from 1986 to 1990. Following that she secured her most renowned and long-lived role, as Jerry's mother, Helen, on Seinfeld. She appeared in all nine seasons, from 1990 to 1998, the only actor to do so apart from the four leads.

She is remembered by People Magazine

R.I.P. Liz Sheridan