On April 7, 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne won his
first—and only—acting Academy Award, for his star turn
in the director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit.

Wayne appeared in some 150 movies over the course of
his long and storied career. He established his tough,
rugged, uniquely American screen persona most vividly
in the many acclaimed films he made for the directors
John Ford and Howard Hawks from the late 1940s into the
early 1960s.

He earned his first Oscar nomination, in the Best Actor
category, for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). The Alamo (1960),
which Wayne produced, directed and starred in, earned a
Best Picture nomination.

Wayne’s Oscar for True Grit at the 42nd annual Academy
Awards in 1970 was generally considered to be a largely
sentimental win, and a long-overdue reward for one of
Hollywood’s most enduring performers.

The Academy had failed to even nominate Wayne for any
of his most celebrated performances, in films such as
Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), The Quiet Man (1952),
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and especially
Ford’s The Searchers (1956), considered by many to be
the greatest Western ever made.

Jay North, who starred as the young mischief maker with the characteristic blond cowlick on the 1959-63 CBS comedy
Dennis the Menace, has died.

North died Sunday at his home in Lake Butler, Florida, after
years of battling colon cancer.

Douglas James Rain (May 9, 1928 – November 11, 2018)

Douglas Rain was a Canadian actor. Although primarily a stage
actor, he is best-known for voicing HAL 9000, the supercomputer
in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and its sequel 2010:
The Year We Make Contact (1984).

He co-founded the Stratford Festival, and was nominated for a
Tony Award for the Broadway play Vivat! Vivat Regina!.     

    
    
    
   

SANDY KOZEL

Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004)

Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th
century, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his
career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy
Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival
Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and an Emmy
Award.

Marlon Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to
bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to
mainstream audiences.

He made his film debut playing a wounded G.I. in The Men
(1950) and won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for his
roles as a dockworker in the crime drama film On the
Waterfront (1954).

1972

(FOX NEWS) – Actor Val Kilmer, who starred in many high-
profile films, including "Top Gun," "Batman Forever" and
"Tombstone," died Tuesday (April 1).

The New York Times reported that Kilmer died of pneumonia.

Kilmer, who played Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in the original
"Top Gun" in 1986, died in Los Angeles, according to his
daughter, Mercedes Kilmer. 

In 2015, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer. He
subsequently underwent a tracheal procedure that
damaged his vocal cords, leaving him with severe
difficulty speaking. He also underwent chemotherapy
and two tracheotomies.

Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986)

Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer (1993)

 
   
  1995