The Big Screen in the Sky

The joy of the holiday season has been diminished here at Film Gab with the loss of two classic actors on the same day. Both Jack Klugman and Charles Durning passed away on Monday 12/24/12. The New York Times saluted both of these talented actors and so shall we. 

Klugman is most-remembered for his television work on The Odd Couple and Quincy M.E., but this classic everyman also made some memorable appearances on the silver screen. Klugman was the last surviving juror from the 1957 courtroom masterpiece, 12 Angry Men; played Jack Lemmon's AA sponsor in Blake Edward's Days of Wine and Roses (1962); and even wrangled Judy in her near bio-pic I Could Go On Singing (1963). 

No less an everyman, Durning had a long career as a character actor in such films as The Sting (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Muppet Movie (1979), and as an unconventional love interest for Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982). You haven't lived until you've seen Durning slide-dance as the Governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). Both of these actors proved that a good everyman is hard to find.

The Big Screen in The Sky

Today we here at Film Gab hang our heads at the passing of director Sidney Lumet. He passed away in the Manhattan home he loved at age 86. Starting off in the, at the time, fledgling industry of television, Lumet directed several stage-to-little screen adaptations that made early television so interesting. It was only a matter of time before he brought his special brand of social consciousness to the big screen with his first film in 1957, 12 Angry Men. It was a homerun that garnered his first of five Oscar nominations. Although he never won a competitive directing Oscar, Lumet would go on to direct some of the most exciting films of the 60's and 70's: The Pawnbroker (1964), Serpico (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Wiz (1978) and his prophetic opus to the news industry Network (1976). If the only film Lumet had ever directed was Network, he would still stand as a giant among filmmakers. So, for Mr. Lumet, open up your windows today and shout, "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" It's the kind of heavenly chorus that Lumet deserves.