Happy 85th Birthday Robert Hossein

Robert Hosseinoff was born on December 30, 1927. He is the son of composer, conductor André Hossein and was trained at René Simon's acting school. Hossein labored away as an actor and director with the legendary Theatre Grand Guignol in Montmartre, then spent several years on the "legitimate" stage. His first film appearance was in “Sextette” (1948) and went on to appear in over 105 films and TV series. Hossein has been generally cast as jaded villains. Making his movie directorial debut with “The Wicked Go to Hell” (1955), Hossein went on to call the shots on such Film Noir fare as “Blonde in a White Car” (1958) and “Rasputin” (1967). He worked beside such famous actresses as Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Marina Vlady, Claude Jade, Stéphane Audran, Michèle Mercier. In the 1960s, Robert Hossein appeared regularly as Jeoffrey de Peyrac in the soft-core Angélique films. Robert appeared in four Euro-westerns: “The Taste of Violence” (1960), “Cemetery Without Crosses”, “Once Upon a Time in the West” (both 1968) and “Judge Roy Bean” (1971). Hossein also appeared in the TV Euro-western documentary “Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen” (2005).  Robert has been married to actress Marina Vlady [1938-    ] (1955-1959), screenwriter Caroline Eliacheff [1947-    ] (1962-19??) and actress Candice Patou [1947-    ] (1976-    ). Today we celebrate Robert Hossein’s 85^th birthday.

Spaghetti Western Locations

We continue with our hunt for location for “Shalako”. The Countess Itina Lazaar and one of the guides have been surrounded after they left the hunting party to hunt a pack of coyotes drawn to the kill of the mountain lion. The guide has been tortured and left to die perched upon a lance. The countess has run out of cartridges and is at the mercy of four Indians who are attacking her. Suddenly a rider appears and kills one of the attacking Indians. He jumps off his horse next to the countess and kills another of the Indians while the countess, using the man’s six-gun shoots a third attacker. The fourth Indian has had enough and is allowed to escape. The man introduces himself as Shalako and escorts the countess back towards the rest of the hunting party. Suddenly they are surrounded by the rest of the braves. Shalako talks his way out of being killed by telling the chief and his son Chato that he will escort the hunting party off the reservation in the morning.

This area is still in the Grainfield area which is surrounded by low hills.

For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Captain Douglas’ excellent website: http://www.western-locations-spain.com/

 

Happy 85th Birthday Giorgio Capitani

Giorgio Capitani was born on December 29, 1927 in Paris, France. He became an Assistant Director in 1946, followed by several years assisting the direction of a number of films, preferring those of director Vittorio Cottafavi. In 1953, he decided to debut as a director, directing the Italian version of “Delirium”. However, after some works with little success, he dedicated herself to dubbing until 1964, when he again returned to directing with “La notte è fatta per... rubare” (1967), “L'arcangelo” (1969), “Aragosta a colazione” (1979) along with several others. From the second half of the eighties he has mainly been dedicated to the production of drama series and television movies, with a very broad consensus, among the works of this period, Capitani was responsible for some of television’s biggest hits: in 1990, the trilogy ‘Un cane sciolto’ with Sergio Castellitto in the role of judge De Santis, in 1992, ‘Il coraggio di Anna’and ‘Un figlio a metà’, ‘Un figlio a metà un anno dopo’ all in 1994, he worked on the screenplay for ‘Italian Restaurant’ in 1996 and has directed several episodes of the series ‘Il maresciallo Rocca’, with the popular Gigi Proietti in the title role. Unfortunately Giorgio directed only one Euro-western: “The Ruthless Four” with Van Heflin, Gilbert Roland, George Hilton and Klaus Kinski, Today we celebrate Giorgio Capitani’s 85^th birthday.

Guess Who I Am

I was born in Berlin, Germany in 1940.

I was once “Miss Viareggio Turistica” which launched my career.

I appeared in only one Euro-western with Pierre Brice and Stewart Granger.

Guess who I am.

Rex Lee correctly identified this week's photo as that of 'The Frontier Hellcat' Elke Sommer.

 

RIP Harry Carey, Jr.

Legendary Western character actor Harry Carey Jr. dies at 91

Harry Carey Jr. legendary character actor who starred in such Westerns as "3 Godfathers" and "Wagon Master," died in Santa Barbara, California on December 27, 2012 at the age of 91. Carey was the son of silent-film Western star Harry Carey Sr. and actress Olive Carey. He married his wife Marilyn Fix, daughter of actor Paul Fix in 1944. Harry’s career spanned more than 50 years and included such John Ford films as "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949) and "The Searchers" (1956). He also appeared in the movies "Gremlins" (1984), "Back to the Future Part III" (1990) and as Marshal Fred White in “Tombstone” (1994). Carey appeared in over 150 films and TV appearances among which were 88 westerns. Harry appeared in four Euro-westerns: “Trinity is STILL My Name” (1971) as Trinity and Bambino’s father, “Man of the East” (1972) as Holy Joe/John, “Challenge to White Fang” (1974) as John Tarwater and “Take a Hard Ride” (1975) as Dumper. His memoir, "Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company," was published in 1994. He is survived by his wife, son, two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

On a personal note I met Harry several times over the past 20 years and there was never a more nicer human being who was so down to earth and full of stories about John Wayne, John Ford, Terence Hill and Lee Van Cleef. The last of the John Ford acting company has left us. Adios amigo. You are already missed.