Latest news with #StarWarsHolidaySpecial
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mario Vargas Llosa Dies: Peruvian Literary Giant Was 89
Peruvian Nobel literature laureate and Latin American literary giant Mario Vargas Llosa has died in Lima at the age of 89. The writer's son Álvaro Vargos Llosa announced on Sunday that his father had 'passed away peacefully in Lima…, surrounded by his family' in a social media post, signed by himself and his siblings Gonzalo and Morgana. More from Deadline Patty Maloney Dies: Billy Barty Co-Star, Syd & Marty Krofft & 'Star Wars Holiday Special' Actress Was 89 Wings Hauser Dies: Longtime Character Actor In Everything From 'Baretta' To 'CSI' Was 77 Nadia Cassini Dies: American-Born Star Of Sexy Italian Comedies Was 76 'His departure will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world, but we hope that they will find comfort, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, adventurous and fruitful life, and leaves behind him a body of work that will outlive him,' read the post. Born in the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa in 1936, Vargas Llosa spent his early childhood in Cochabamba, Bolivia with his mother and grandparents, after his parents divorced while he was a young child. Returning to Peru at the age of 10, he was sent to a military academy from age 14 to 16 years old, which would inspire his 1963 breakthrough novel The Time of the Hero. The novel angered the Peruvian authorities which had 1,000 copies destroyed. This work and further early novels, including The Green House (1966) and Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), would earn him a place as one of the key figures of the Latin American Boom literary movement of the 1960s and 70s, alongside the likes of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes. Vargas Llosa had moved to Madrid in 1958 and then on to Paris in 1959, living there until 1966. He later said that it was only on leaving his native Peru that he had come to understand his place as a Latin American writer. A prolific writer, journalist and essayist throughout his life, his literary work spans more than 50 titles. A number of his books were adapted to film and TV including his 1977 novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, inspired by his first marriage to writer Julia Urquidi. Jon Amiel adapted the novel to the big screen in 1990 under the title of Tune in Tomorrow. William Boyd wrote the screenplay, while the cast featured Barbara Hershey, Keanu Reeves and Peter Falk. More recently, TelevisaUnivision's Vix+ streaming service adapted Vargas Llosa's 2010 novel Travesuras de la Niña Mala (The Bad Girl) into a 10-part series in 2022, and was also developing a new show based on his 1973 work Captain Pantoja and the Special Service. Most recently, his novel Tattoos in Memory, about a former terrorist and soldier who becomes a Franciscan priest, was adapted to the big screen in Peru by the writer's cousin, the director Luis Llosa (Anaconda), releasing in August, 2024. Best of Deadline 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media
Forbes
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Remembering Patty Maloney: The ‘Star Wars Holiday Special' Actress Had A Four Decade Career
Los Angeles, CA - 1982: (L-R) Patty Maloney, Billy Barty appearing on the ABC tv special 'Cheryl ... More Ladd: Scenes from a Special'. (Photo by Chic Donchin /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images) Actress Patty Maloney, who is remembered as Honk from Saturday morning comedy Far Out Space Nuts and as Lumpy from the Star Wars Holiday Special, died on March 31 following a series of strokes. She was 89. Standing 3 feet 11 inches, Patty Maloney performed in carnivals and circuses in her youth, eventually segueing into a career as an actress beginning as a creature in the 1973 horror film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. In honor of Ms. Maloney, what follows are the highlights from a career spanning four decades. 1) Far Out Space Nuts, which was a Sid and Marty Krofft production, ran on CBS in the 1975-76 TV season. It starred Bob Denver (Gilligan's Island) and Chuck McCann. Maloney played Honk, their furry little alien friend who made honking sounds out of a horn instead of speaking. LOS ANGELES - JUNE 20: "Far Out Space Nuts". A CBS television Saturday morning live action sitcom. ... More June 20, 1975. Pictured from left is Bob Denver (as Junior), Patty Maloney (as Honk, a furry alien), Chuck McCann (as Barney). (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) 2) In 1977, Maloney appeared in five episodes of the late-night syndicated comedy soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as Skipper. That same year she guest-starred in The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Charlie's Angels and Rhoda. 3) In 1978, Maloney reteamed with Sid and Marty Krofft for the Saturday morning The Bay City Rollers Show, with the Bay City Rollers as the musicians. It ran for one season. Bay City Rollers. (Photo by: Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) 4) Also in 1978, Maloney appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special, which featured Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill alongside Bea Arthur, Art Carney and Harvey Korman, and centered around Han Solo's Wookiee pal Chewbacca and his family back on his home planet of Kashyyyk. LOS ANGELES: THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL. Carrie Fisher (as Princes Leia) and Anthony Daniels (as ... More C3PO) . Image dated August 23, 1978. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) 5) In 1982, Maloney guest-starred in an episode of family drama Little House on the Prairie as Alice Bates opposite Billy Barty as her husband Lou. That same year, the pair appeared together in the musical hour, Cheryl Ladd: Scenes from a Special. Los Angeles, CA - 1982: (L-R) Patty Maloney, Billy Barty appearing on the ABC tv special 'Cheryl ... More Ladd: Scenes from a Special'. (Photo by Chic Donchin /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images) 6) Maloney racked up credits as a voice actor, including Darla in the animated version of The Little Rascals from 1982-83, Dumbo's Circus from 1985-86, and the TV movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School in 1988. 7) Maloney's later guest appearances on television included episodes of Married With Children, Legend, and Nash Bridges. Her final guest spot was in the sitcom My Name is Earl in 2005. Survivors include her brother Dave, nieces Jennifer and Laura, and her brother-in-law, Vic.
BBC News
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Star Wars weapon used by Chewbacca sold for £471k at auction
A weapon prop used by Chewbacca in all three of the original Star Wars movies was sold at a US auction for $610,000 (£471,493).The Bowcaster, which resembles a crossbow, was from props master Gerard Bourke's collection, which he amassed while working on the trilogy shot at Elstree Studios, was sold at an entertainment auction in Los Angeles by Propstore, a company based in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.A medal given to Luke Skywalker in the first film was also for sale, but it fell just $10,000 (£7,744) short of its $300,000 (£231,901) reserve after 15 bids. Chewbacca's Bowcaster is the only weapon to appear in the original trilogy based on a crossbow, while other characters used blasters that resembled was based on a real weapon model made by Horton Crossbows of Wales, which was manufactured in low one Bowcaster was seemingly made and used by production, with no evidence of a second or backup prop, according to the weapon was not named in the trilogy itself, Luke Skywalker refers to it as a "crossbow". However, it was called a Bowcaster in books, computer games and toy weapon was often carried by the popular Wookie character but only fired on a couple of also appeared in the made-for-TV Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. In total, 42 bids were made on The into consideration fees, the buyer paid a total of $768,600 (£594,836) for the weapon. It was expected to sell for between $250,000 and $500,000 (£193,230 and £386,492).Propstore was approached for comment. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Los Angeles Times
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters' on TV. He's embracing his legacy
Remember that Snow White-Rob Lowe debacle at the 1989 Oscars? How about the galactically bizarre 1978 'Star Wars Holiday Special'? Or the 1980 Village People disco bomb 'Can't Stop the Music'? Bruce Vilanch had a hand in all of the above, and lived to kiss and tell — and now write about it. His new book, 'It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,' details his involvement in some of the most gloriously awful moments in the history of entertainment. Never the shy or retiring type, Vilanch is happy to embrace his legacy (which is easier to do when you've also won two Emmys and written for 25 Oscar telecasts). 'These were some of the biggest disasters, but everybody has disasters,' he told The Times in a recent interview. 'It wasn't like they said, 'Oh, this is s—. Let's get Vilanch.' It's just the luck of the draw. It's just the way things turned out.' Vilanch, now a snarky and youthful 76, comes across as a big, caustically friendly and wonderfully gay Muppet. He's successful enough to have been the subject of an excellent documentary about the craft of comedy (1999's 'Get Bruce,' featuring Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Nathan Lane, among others), and he's seasoned enough to know where plenty of bodies are buried. And yes, he helped write some serious stinkers. Some of this can be attributed to the era when he made his showbiz bones. The '70s was the decade of the prime-time TV special, usually built around a middling star and featuring talent from the airing network. (Synergy. It's been around for a minute.) The specials were a blatant attempt to offer something for everyone, in a precable epoch defined by broadcasting, as opposed to today's narrowcasting. It was also, not coincidentally, a time when drugs were rather prevalent. 'Many of these things were made in a cloud of smoke,' Vilanch said. 'It was also just a crazy period when it was a three- or four-channel universe, so you could get away with a whole lot of stuff because a lot of people were coming home and watching television at a certain hour. People actually sat down in the living room. They only do that now for a few events, either a football game or Nikki Glaser roasting a football player.' Such were the circumstances that gave us 'The Star Wars Holiday Special.' George Lucas' space adventure — there was only the one at the time — was red-hot. As Vilanch writes, 'Either someone at CBS, or someone at ILM, or someone in the IRA, or someone on the IRT — depends on which version you've heard — suggested producing some sort of 'Star Wars' spectacle for TV to keep the franchise bubbling on the burner of public awareness until the second installment was released.' The results, which aired Nov. 17, 1978, were not spectacular, but they were spectacularly strange. I could sense this even as a 'Star Wars'-besotted 8-year-old. The story, such as it is, involves Chewbacca's mission to return to his home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day. The major cast members were on hand. So were CBS mainstays including Art Carney, Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman, all of whom stopped in to do wacky bits. 'We were doing the thing on a hand-painted set pulled together from other things,' Vilanch said. 'We didn't go to London for six months to shoot this thing. It was crazy. We had hand-me-down aliens that we had to get at the outlet store. Anybody who was interested in 'Star Wars' would look at it and go, 'What is this?' 'And then it disappeared. We thought we could put it in a shallow grave and nobody would really find it.' Enter: the internet, where all shallow graves are eventually dug up. As Vilanch recalled, 'When I started doing podcasts during COVID, people way younger than I am would say, ''The Star Wars Holiday Special,' how did that happen? Who said yes? And have they paid their debt to society?'' Vilanch writes of the 'keyboard warriors' who track him down when they discover he was among the parties responsible for such trainwrecks. They also want to know about the 1989 Oscars, which kicked off with the spectacle of Snow White, played by the relatively anonymous Eileen Bowman, interacting with stars in the audience wearing a collective look of 'What on Earth is happening right now?' This led into a duet with Lowe on a Hollywood-themed version of 'Proud Mary.' The response was less than enthusiastic. But Vilanch was essentially an innocent bystander, even as a writer on the show. The bit was the brainchild of producer Allan Carr, who also hired (and fired) Vilanch on 'Can't Stop the Music' (and, it should be noted, also produced the massive 1978 blockbuster 'Grease'). The Oscars debacle effectively ended Carr's career. He died in 1999. 'They had delivered the show to Allan as a savior because the ratings had been going down, and there was some fresh blood at the Academy,' Vilanch said. 'His mandate was, 'Make it different, make it young, make it unusual.' So they were trying not to second-guess him. And that proved to be fatal.' Vilanch still has a soft spot for his late friend, and is currently working on a theater piece about him. That telecast didn't slow Vilanch's roll. He reigned for many years as the wisecracking center square on 'Hollywood Squares,' a space once occupied by Paul Lynde, for whom Vilanch wrote another special featured in the book, 1976's 'The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.' A game of Six Degrees of Bruce Vilanch would include Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Roseanne Barr and a long list of others. The guy knows, and has written for, a lot of people. 'When you do the Oscars you meet the stars who are just guesting on the show, and they're all marching through your office with their publicists and their spouses and their holistic pet psychiatrists and all the other people in their entourage,' he said. 'So you do meet a lot of people and I love that.' He helped serve up a lot of turkeys. And now he gets to gobble.
