Latest news with #GoingForGold
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Francis Ford Coppola, ‘Superman' Costar Valerie Perrine And More Pay Tribute To Gene Hackman
The news that actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe has shocked the industry and led to widespread tributes for one of the true greats of cinema. Clint Eastwood, who directed and starred with Hackman in 1992's Unforgiven, said in a statement to Deadline: 'There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.' More from Deadline 'Suspicious Enough': Gene Hackman & Wife's Deaths Probed By Cops; Scattered Pills Found, No Gas Leak Gene Hackman & Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead In Santa Fe Home Henry Kelly Dies: Broadcaster & 'Going For Gold' Presenter Was 78 Valerie Perrine, who appeared with Hackman in 1978's Superman starring Christopher Reeve, wrote on Facebook, 'The great Gene Hackman has passed away. He was a genius & 1 of the greatest to grace the silver screen. I had the honor of working with Him on Superman. His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed. Goodbye my sweet Lex. Till we meet again.' The 95-year-old Hackman won Oscars for The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992), and was also Oscar-nominated for roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and Mississippi Burning (1988). Tom Hanks paid tribute to Hackman's unique style: Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Hackman in 1974 classic The Conversation, posted on Instagram: 'The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.' Actor George Takei called Hackman 'one of the true giants': 'We have lost one of the true giants of the screen. Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it. He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That's how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.' Baby Driver director Edgar Wright simply described Hackman as 'the greatest…' in a post to X. European film and TV studio Studiocanal wrote on social media: 'What a colossal loss for cinema today. Hugely saddened by the passing of one of the true greats – Gene Hackman. We send our deepest condolences.' Presenter Piers Morgan said on social media: 'Gene Hackman was one of the all-time great actors and brilliant in everything he ever did from French Connection and Unforgiven to Mississippi Burning, The Conversation and Superman. We've lost a giant of the big screen.' In a post on X, BAFTA said it was 'saddened' to hear of the death of the three-time BAFTA winner and noted his 'illustrious' career. Irish comedian and TV presenter Dara Ó Briain posted to X: 'Ah, Gene Hackman. The finest screen actor ever, I think. Not a single duff performance, in a long, long career. And the best delivery ever of a single word: when he says 'Cigars!' In Young Frankenstein.' Oscar nominee and Dune: Part 2 star Josh Brolin posted a photo of Hackman and Arakawa and captioned it: 'I am crushed by the sudden deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa (and their dog). Crushed. He was always one of my favorites. Not many who beat to their own drums like he did. Rest in Peace.' In a post on Instagram, Oscar winner Viola Davis wrote about how much she 'loved' Hackman in his films: 'Loved you in everything! The Conversation, The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure, Unforgiven—tough yet vulnerable. You were one of the greats. God bless those who loved you. Rest well, sir. ❤️❤️❤️' Oscar nominee and Paddington In Peru star Antonio Banderas sent his condolences to 'friends, family and cinema lovers' on Instagram and X: 'A very sad day for the cinema's family. Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have passed away. My deepest condolences to friends, family and cinema lovers. RIP.' Best of Deadline How To Watch The 2025 Oscars Online And On TV How Jon Gries' Return To 'The White Lotus' Could Shape Season 3 Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us'
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Actor Gene Hackman & Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead In Santa Fe Home
Actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe, according to police in New Mexico. 'We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths however, exact cause of death has not been determined at this time,' said Santa Fe Sheriff's Office. More from Deadline Henry Kelly Dies: Broadcaster & 'Going For Gold' Presenter Was 78 Al Trautwig Dies: NY Sportscaster, TV Voice Of Olympics Gymnastics & NHL Studio Host Was 68 Souleymane Cissé Dies: Trailblazing Malian Director Was 84 Local reports said Hackman's dog had also been found dead alongside the couple at their Santa Fe Home. Hackman and classical pianist Arakawa, 63, had been married since 1991. The 95-year-old Hollywood legend won Oscars for The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992), and was Oscar-nominated for roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and Mississippi Burning (1988). Hackman was also celebrated for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II, with other credits including The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1972), The Conversation (1974), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Under Fire (1983), Power (1986), Loose Cannons (1990), The Firm (1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), and Runaway Jury (2003). He had not been in the public eye for some two decades having retired from acting after starring in Welcome to Mooseport (2004). Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California in 1930 and held dreams of becoming an actor from an early age. At the age of 16 he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Marine Corp and went on to serve as a field-radio operating, spending time in China. He was discharged in 1951 and studied journalism and television production at the University of Illinois, before returning to California. He cut his acting teeth the Pasadena Playhouse in California where he became friends with Dustin stage work, he secured bit roles in the movie Mad Dog Coll as well as TV series such as Tallahassee 7000, Route 66 and Naked City. Cntinuing to take small film and TV roles, Hackman also spent time on Broadway throughout the 1960s, securing his first credited role in Lilith, starring Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty, and also appeared in the long-running show Poor Richard (1964–65). Hackman started to rise in prominence in the early 1970s after he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in I Never Sang For My Father and then achieved stardom for his Oscar-winning performance as New York City Detective Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle in The French Connection in 1971. Best of Deadline How To Watch The 2025 Oscars Online And On TV How Jon Gries' Return To 'The White Lotus' Could Shape Season 3 Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us'
The Independent
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Irish premier praises Henry Kelly for his ‘huge contribution to journalism'
Ireland's premier has praised Henry Kelly for making a 'huge contribution to journalism and broadcasting' within Ireland and the UK following his death. The former Going For Gold and Game For A Laugh host died 'peacefully' on Tuesday 'after a period of ill health', his family said. Writer and broadcaster Kelly began his career at the broadsheet newspaper The Irish Times while doing theatre reviews as a student at University College Dublin. He went on to become its northern editor, based in Belfast in the 1970s – where he covered the height of the Troubles. In 1976, he moved to London and joined the long-running BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme, The World Tonight, as a reporter and presenter. TV presenting gigs followed from the 1980s, including entertainment show Game For A Laugh on ITV from 1981. He went on to host BBC 1 game show Going For Gold for 10 seasons from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Taoiseach Micheal Martin paid tribute to the broadcaster in a post on X, writing: 'Very saddened to learn of the passing of Henry Kelly. 'From his time as northern editor of the Irish Times to presenting BBC shows including Going For Gold, Henry made a huge contribution to journalism & broadcasting here and in the UK. 'My thoughts are with his family at this time.' Former Sky News presenter Kay Burley recalled how Kelly was 'always game for a laugh' and said he will be 'sadly missed' as she paid tribute. Downton Abbey star Peter Egan remembered him as a 'delightful man and a terrific presenter' and said he 'liked him very much'. Classic FM, where Kelly hosted a daily breakfast programme from 1992 to 2003, thanked him for 'sharing your love of music with us all'. In 1994, he was voted national broadcaster of the year in the Sony Radio Awards. GB News presenter Mark Dolan described the broadcaster as a 'total legend' who was 'generous, funny, clever and wise' as he recalled meeting him when he worked at LBC. He hosted the Henry Kelly Show on LBC for a stint, as well as presenting on the local station, BBC Radio Berkshire, between 2005 and 2015. Irish broadcaster and journalist Vincent Browne also hailed Kelly as a 'great reporter' but said it was a 'pity he drifted into entertainment'. A statement from Kelly's family said: 'Henry will be sorely missed by his friends and family, including his partner Karolyn Shindler, their son Alexander, Henry's daughter, Siobhan, and her mother, Marjorie.' His programme Going For Gold, which featured a theme tune from Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, saw people from different countries competing against each other for a cash prize through answering questions. It was shortly revived by Channel 5 with newsreader John Suchet at the helm during the 2000s, with the European contestants absent from the revival. Kelly also appeared in comedy show Dinnerladies, had a stint on morning programme TV-am, and talk show After Dark. He also wrote a number of books including the 1970s work, How Stormont Fell, about the events which hit the Northern Irish parliament, and co-authored the 1990s collection Classic FM Musical Anecdotes, Notes And Quotes with John Foley. In 2022, Kelly along with RTE and TV3 current affairs presenter Browne was asked by a Belfast coroner to give evidence at the inquest of barman John Moran, who was killed in a loyalist bomb attack in 1972. A hearing, at Belfast Coroner's Court, heard that Kelly's partner had indicated he had no recollection of the incident and was unable to assist. Last year, the court said it had been unable to conclude the inquest by a deadline.
New European
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New European
Henry Kelly's gold war
Produced by Aussie TV god Reg Grundy, who had just dropped Neighbours into our laps, Going For Gold did not fully embody a new Eurocentric consciousness. Beneath the forced smiles and jaunty music lay a decidedly unlevel playing field. Going For Gold was a pub pool table with a wonky leg that gifted a massive advantage to the locals. Conducted entirely in English from studios in Elstree and Manchester, with Irishman Kelly hosting, and with many of the questions skewed towards US and English literature, music and film, Going For Gold was heavily weighted in favour of the Brits. Each home nation was given equal standing with our European cousins, thus the first episode had Northern Ireland, Scotland and England making up three of the eight nations represented. Had Nigel Farage been allowed to remodel the EU, it would have played out like Going For Gold. Even the show's logo – a clipart chocolate gold coin – could have been hatched by UKIP's marketing department. Yet despite these advantages, players from home countries contrived to win only four of the initial 10 seasons on BBC. Going For Gold was incredibly stilted. The contestants had all the chemistry of complete and utter strangers meeting up in the reception lounge at Dignitas, and plucked from a Saga cruise, this lot had already had their go at 'going for gold' in life and had come up short. To offset the language and cultural barriers, the show desperately needed high energy from the host. Instead, it had Kelly, who always looked like he knew exactly what he was selling. Once a Belfast-based reporter during The Troubles, he had just finished a four-year run opposite Jeremy Beadle, Sarah Kennedy and Matthew Kelly on Game For A Laugh . 'I thought Going For Gold was nonsense when it was first offered to me in 1987 and that it would only last for one series, but it lasted 10 years,' he once reflected. Kelly had charm, but he was hardly the charismatic glue holding the disparate pieces together, standing to attention with his tiny Post-It-Note question cards and vicar-chic side-parted hair. 'Now, you're playing catch-up, Dieter!' Thankfully, each show was only 25 minutes long, including the insufferable theme tune. Altogether now: 'The heat is on, the time is right,It's time for you, for you to play the game.'Cause people are coming, everyone's trying,Trying to be the best that they can,To reach for the sky 'cause the stakes are so high, When they're going for, going for gold!' The music was an upbeat fire blanket to the senses that spoke of personal ambition and the sacrifices needed to achieve it. The song equated the lifetime of commitment and graft essential to competing in an Olympic Games with answering questions about spiders and cheese on daytime TV. It was ridiculous. Anyone who has experienced the dark and brooding dystopian grunts of Blade Runner 2048 would be hard pressed to link that sound to Going For Gold. However, the composer of both was none other than Hollywood A-lister Hans Zimmer; remember that for future quiz shows, folks. When questioned about this skeleton rattling from his closet, Zimmer told the Guardian : ' Going for Gold ? I'm not ashamed of it! It paid the rent and opened up all sorts of doors. I will admit to it: we all have to have our guilty little things!' It seems Zimmer knew only too well even then that, in the words of the title song's little-heard second verse, 'All we need is a little more sa-cr-i-fice… When we're going for gold.' Bearing in mind the rather delicate makeup of cold war-era Europe back then, Going For Gold didn't exactly skirt around potentially sensitive topics. The answer to a question in episode one clearly invited the incorrect answer 'Adolf Hitler', while 'the Red Baron' was the correct answer to another. Episode one also touched upon The Bible, Islam and tooth decay. Going For Gold had some strange categories of questions too. Hans from Austria – it had to be Hans, didn't it? – had just two categories left to choose from in episode one: 'art' and 'creepy crawlies'. Hans went for creepy crawlies. Kelly's banter with our European friends could appear to have been hastily drafted by Boris Johnson on the back of a fag packet, Jacob from The Netherlands was asked by Kelly: 'Do you wear clogs?' Jacob from The Netherlands admitted that he did, before going on to explain his clearly obscene behaviour to the English audience, by revealing that the clog is a most practical form of footwear for certain types of farm work. Kelly and the audience found this most amusing. The round of questions most viewers will recall is the one where Kelly would invite answers as to 'who or what' he was pretending to be. 'What is my name? I am a beverage…', 'I am a large member of the cat family, known for my strength and beauty…', 'my delicate shoots are used in cooking…'. Truth be told, the answers from those watching at home were often not that respectful to Kelly. 'What is my name?' 'Total bell-end' was the popular retort from my sixth-form common room. Going For Gold was a ground-breaker in many respects. Its construct and concept were original at the time with losers invited back to fight another day, and winners going head-to-head in a novel game where each was allotted time – displayed on a changing barometer – to answer the question. The victor would then progress to the Grand Final at the end of the season – which saw Kelly decked out in a tux, with a slightly jazzier question card. The Grand Final of season one, dangled the rather juicy carrot of an all-expenses-paid trip to the Seoul Olympics, but in general, the show suffered from a lack of visible payola; the winners of each show pocketed only a grand. Going For Gold is an amusing anachronistic watch, but it was rarely so enjoyable at the time. TV and indeed modern culture was changing rapidly back then, as satellite TV and its 24-hour schedules provided serious competition to the terrestrials, just as a diet suppressant that got the English to dance rendered UK culture dayglo. Things were getting postmodern, yet Going For Gold was just too cold, awkward and uncomfortable. Walls were tumbling down, yet GFG remained steadfastly East German. It could only have been more mundane with the introduction of interpreters. The show stopped in 1997, just after things started kicking off for real in Brussels, before briefly returning to Channel 5 for two seasons in 2008. Kelly was not attached to the more recent iteration, instead spending several years with Classic FM, a pre-Farage and O'Brien LBC and then local radio. He died in February 2025. Journalist and author John Suchet was the host for the short-lived Channel 5 version of Going For Gold , which differed from the original in one crucial sense: all the contestants were now from the UK and Ireland. 'Let's see Hans, Sven and Jacob win this one, yeah?' Brexit was then inevitable.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Irish premier praises Henry Kelly for his ‘huge contribution to journalism'
Ireland's premier has praised Henry Kelly for making a 'huge contribution to journalism and broadcasting' within Ireland and the UK following his death. The former Going For Gold and Game For A Laugh host died 'peacefully' on Tuesday 'after a period of ill health', his family said. Writer and broadcaster Kelly began his career at the broadsheet newspaper The Irish Times while doing theatre reviews as a student at University College Dublin. He went on to become its northern editor, based in Belfast in the 1970s – where he covered the height of the Troubles. In 1976, he moved to London and joined the long-running BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme, The World Tonight, as a reporter and presenter. TV presenting gigs followed from the 1980s, including entertainment show Game For A Laugh on ITV from 1981. He went on to host BBC 1 game show Going For Gold for 10 seasons from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Taoiseach Micheal Martin paid tribute to the broadcaster in a post on X, writing: 'Very saddened to learn of the passing of Henry Kelly. 'From his time as northern editor of the Irish Times to presenting BBC shows including Going For Gold, Henry made a huge contribution to journalism & broadcasting here and in the UK. 'My thoughts are with his family at this time.' Former Sky News presenter Kay Burley recalled how Kelly was 'always game for a laugh' and said he will be 'sadly missed' as she paid tribute. The great Henry Kelly, always game for a laugh, has died at the age of 78. From Irish newspaper reporter to UK household name, Henry will be sadly missed. — Kay Burley (@KayBurley) February 26, 2025 Downton Abbey star Peter Egan remembered him as a 'delightful man and a terrific presenter' and said he 'liked him very much'. Classic FM, where Kelly hosted a daily breakfast programme from 1992 to 2003, thanked him for 'sharing your love of music with us all'. In 1994, he was voted national broadcaster of the year in the Sony Radio Awards. GB News presenter Mark Dolan described the broadcaster as a 'total legend' who was 'generous, funny, clever and wise' as he recalled meeting him when he worked at LBC. He hosted the Henry Kelly Show on LBC for a stint, as well as presenting on the local station, BBC Radio Berkshire, between 2005 and 2015. Irish broadcaster and journalist Vincent Browne also hailed Kelly as a 'great reporter' but said it was a 'pity he drifted into entertainment'. A statement from Kelly's family said: 'Henry will be sorely missed by his friends and family, including his partner Karolyn Shindler, their son Alexander, Henry's daughter, Siobhan, and her mother, Marjorie.' His programme Going For Gold, which featured a theme tune from Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, saw people from different countries competing against each other for a cash prize through answering questions. It was shortly revived by Channel 5 with newsreader John Suchet at the helm during the 2000s, with the European contestants absent from the revival. Kelly also appeared in comedy show Dinnerladies, had a stint on morning programme TV-am, and talk show After Dark. He also wrote a number of books including the 1970s work, How Stormont Fell, about the events which hit the Northern Irish parliament, and co-authored the 1990s collection Classic FM Musical Anecdotes, Notes And Quotes with John Foley. In 2022, Kelly along with RTE and TV3 current affairs presenter Browne was asked by a Belfast coroner to give evidence at the inquest of barman John Moran, who was killed in a loyalist bomb attack in 1972. A hearing, at Belfast Coroner's Court, heard that Kelly's partner had indicated he had no recollection of the incident and was unable to assist. Last year, the court said it had been unable to conclude the inquest by a deadline.
