Latest news with #Tenafly
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
James McEachin, Star of ‘Tenafly' and Perry Mason Telefilms, Dies at 94
James McEachin, who wrote and produced songs for Otis Redding before turning to acting to portray cops on his own NBC Mystery Movie series and in 18 of the popular Perry Mason telefilms, has died. He was 94. McEachin died Jan. 11 and was interred last month at Los Angeles National Cemetery. More from The Hollywood Reporter Marcel Ophuls, 'Sorrow and the Pity' Documentarian, Dies at 97 'Duck Dynasty' Star Phil Robertson Dies at 79 Les Dilley, 'Star Wars,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' Art Director, Dies at 84 The familiar character actor also appeared in four films opposite Clint Eastwood: Coogan's Bluff (1968), Play Misty for Me (1971) — as the deejay Sweet Al Monte — Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Sudden Impact (1983). All in the Family aficionados know him for his turns as the IRS tax examiner who won't be bribed on the 1972 episode 'Archie's Fraud' and as Solomon Jackson, a Black Jew whom Carroll O'Connor's character invites into his lodge to check off some diversity boxes, on the 1977 installment 'Archie the Liberal.' A onetime contract player at Universal, McEachin starred as family man Harry Tenafly, a Los Angeles cop turned private detective, in Tenafly, created by Richard Levinson and William Link of Columbo and Mannix fame. One of the rotating, once-a-month NBC Mystery Movie shows that in 1973-74 included Dan Dailey's Faraday & Company and The Snoop Sisters, starring Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick, Tenafly was the rare TV series back then to star a Black actor, but it lasted just five episodes. Later, McEachin played Lt. Ed Brock on the NBC Perry Mason telefilms that starred Raymond Burr (and, after his 1993 death, Hal Holbrook) from 1986-95. And he portrayed another police lieutenant, Frank Daniels, on the first season (1986-87) of NBC's Matlock, starring Andy Griffith. James McEachin was born on May 20, 1930, in Rennert, North Carolina, and raised in Hackensack, New Jersey. At 17, he joined the U.S. Army in August 1947. 'When I saw those signs saying 'Uncle Sam Wants You,' I swear I thought that bony index finger of his was pointing right at me,' McEachin told the Los Angeles Daily News in November 2021. McEachin spent more than two years in Japan as part of his first three-year term, then re-enlisted for another three years. As a member of the 2nd Infantry Division, he was wounded in an ambush and left for dead before being rescued. (He was awarded both the Purple Heart and Silver Star in 2005.) After the service, McEachin worked as a firefighter and a cop in Hackensack, then left for Southern California. Known as Jimmy Mack, he became a songwriter, composer, record producer, talent manager and label owner who worked with the doo-wop group The Furys ('Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart') and Redding, whom he 'brought into the business,' he said in a 2014 interview. He didn't think he was the 'Jimmy Mack' in the hit 1967 song from Martha and the Vandellas. 'I couldn't have been,' he said, 'even though there are people who say to this day, 'He's just trying to hide from it.' What is there to hide from?' (Songwriter Ronnie Mack was said to have been the inspiration for the tune.) McEachin was walking along Melrose Avenue one day when someone asked him if he wanted to be in a movie. He asked his wife if she thought he should do it. 'She said, 'Well, you might as well. You've bombed out on everything else you've ever done,'' he recalled with a laugh. That movie, shot in Bakersfield, California (not in the Deep South, as the poster said), was I Crossed the Color Line (1966), also known as The Black Klansman, produced and directed by Ted V. Mikels. 'I didn't know you had to memorize dialogue,' he said. 'I didn't know that you didn't have to just pose and do things naturally. It took me forever to learn that. Even though I didn't know anything about acting, I knew what bad acting was. I think I had a patent on bad acting.' However, before the decade was done, McEachin had signed with Universal and appeared in films including Uptight (1968), If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968), True Grit (1969) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) and on such TV shows as Dragnet, It Takes a Thief, Adam-12, The Name of the Game, Mannix, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O and Burr's Ironside. McEachin worked in the 1972 films Fuzz, Buck and the Preacher and The Groundstar Conspiracy before starring on Tenafly. After showing up on Insight, The Rockford Files, Police Story, Emergency!, Columbo, T.J. Hooker, St. Elsewhere, Murder, She Wrote and Hill Street Blues, McEachin signed up for his first Perry Mason movie, 1986's The Case of the Notorious Nun. He stuck around through 1995's The Case of the Jealous Jokester. He said he turned down a role in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985) because he was offended at how his character was written. In 2002, McEachin played a liberal Supreme Court justice on First Monday, a short-lived CBS drama from Donald P. Bellisario that starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna. McEachin was appointed a U.S. Army Reserve Ambassador in 2005 to spend time speaking with soldiers and veterans. A year later, he wrote, produced and starred (with David Huddleston, a castmate on Tenafly) in a 23-minute video called Old Glory that the military community embraced. His one-man play, Above the Call; Beyond the Duty, opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2008 and played L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum three years later. He portrayed Old Soldier, a character who 'pries open tough issues left in the wake of battle, boldly confronting challenges that are facing those serving in our military today while reconciling the spirit of one who has killed in war.' McEachin also wrote several books, including 1996's Tell Me a Tale: A Novel of the Old South, 1997's Farewell to the Mockingbirds, 1999's The Heroin Factor, 2000's Say Goodnight to the Boys in Blue and 2021's Swing Low My Sweet Chariot: The Ballad of Jimmy Mack, a memoir. His wife, Lois, whom he married in 1960, died in July 2017. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marilyn Howard Ellman, Daughter of The Three Stooges' Curly Howard, Dies at 86
Marilyn Howard Ellman, the youngest daughter of The Three Stooges star Curly Howard, died May 6 in Simi Valley of heart failure, her son Bradley Server told The Hollywood Reporter. She was her parents divorced and her father often on the road at the height of his career in the early 1940s, Ellman only got to visit him maybe two weekends a month, her son noted. Later, she would spend time with him in the hospital after he had suffered a series of strokes, one of which forced him to leave The Three Stooges in 1946. 'My mom vividly remembers how much he loved animals,' Server said in a 2020 interview. 'She would always play with a dog he had. And he absolutely adored this dog that stood by him until the end. You know, despite my grandfather's big personality onscreen, I learned he was actually a shy, quiet man in private.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Taina Elg, Actress in 'Les Girls' and 'The 39 Steps,' Dies at 95 James McEachin, Star of 'Tenafly' and Perry Mason Telefilms, Dies at 94 Marcel Ophuls, 'Sorrow and the Pity' Documentarian, Dies at 97 Ellman was just 13 when her dad died at age 48 on Jan. 18, 1952, in San Gabriel, California. Curly had been replaced in the act by brother Shemp Howard, who joined another brother, Moe Howard, and Larry Fine. Marilyn Howard was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 18, 1938. Her dad — birth name Jerome Lester Horwitz — and mom, Elaine Julia Ackerman, were married for three years before they divorced in 1940. (Curly would have a second daughter named Janie with his fourth wife.) After Curly's death, she was adopted by her mother's second husband, Moe Diamond, when she was 14. Ellman graduated from North Hollywood High School and attended USC for two years before she worked as a procurement buyer in the electronics business. She would marry twice, and her survivors include her older son, Darren; daughter Andrea; granddaughter Elizabeth; and half-brother Michael. Bradley Server performs slapstick comedy on social media under the stage name Curly G, short for 'Curly's Grandson.' 'Our mother will be deeply missed, and she will never be replaced as the matriarch of our family,' Bradley said. 'Her love, compassion and wisdom has shaped all of us.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Wall Street Journal
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
A U.S. Hostage Walks Free From Hamas
After 583 days in Hamas captivity, Edan Alexander of Tenafly, N.J., walked free Monday. With his release, secured through the mediation of U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and the threat of an impending Israeli offensive, no Americans remain among the 20 hostages believed to be alive in Gaza. Mr. Alexander was 19 when Hamas took him. He's now 21. His release is a U.S. victory and the way Mr. Trump wanted to kick off his Middle East trip this week. Hamas, which still holds the corpses of four U.S. citizens for ransom, presents the move as a gesture of good will.
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
AP PHOTOS: Israeli-American hostage released by Hamas
Hamas on Monday released an Israeli- American soldier who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel. The Israeli military confirmed that 21-year-old Edan Alexander was turned over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces, and had crossed into Israeli territory. Wearing shirts emblazoned with his name, Alexander's extended family gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the release. They chanted his name when the military said he was free. In Tel Aviv's Hostage Square, hundreds of people broke out into cheers. In Alexander's hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, hundreds of supporters packed the streets, holding signs with his image and listening to speakers blasting Israeli music. As they watched the news of his release on a large screen, the crowd hugged and waved Israeli flags. Since he was taken hostage, supporters there gathered every Friday to march for the release of remaining hostages. This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Final American hostage released by Hamas
Hamas has released Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander on Monday - over a year and a half after he was put in their captivity. The terror group claimed it was releasing the last known living American hostage as a goodwill gesture to try to revive talks on ending the war. An Israeli official confirmed to the Associated Press that Alexander's transfer was underway without providing specifics. Alexander, 21, was taken from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas' bloody attack on October 7, 2023, which set off the war in Gaza . Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 59 remain in the enclave, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Donald Trump 's envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing New Jersey-native Alexander was a 'top priority.' The president and his staff have frequently mentioned Alexander by name in the past few months. 'Every time they say Edan's name, it's like they didn't forget. They didn't forget he's American, and they're working on it,' Edan's mother, Yael Alexander, told The Associated Press in February. Hamas released a video of Alexander in November during the Thanksgiving weekend, his favorite holiday, his mother said. The video was difficult to watch as he cried and pleaded for help, but it was a relief to see the most recent sign that he was alive, she said. A native of Tenafly, New Jersey, where his parents and two younger siblings still live, Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after high school and enlisted in the military. His release comes ahead of the president's visit to the Middle East this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there will be no ceasefire or prisoner releases in exchange for Alexander's release . 'Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists but only to a safe corridor that will allow for the release of Edan,' he said. 'We are in the midst of critical days in which Hamas has been presented with a deal that would enable the release of our hostages.' He claimed Alexander had only been released due to 'military pressure' in the Gaza strip. All future talks would continue 'under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting', according to the Prime Minister's office. Israel restarted their assault on Gaza in March after a ceasefire brokered in January fell apart. No aid has entered the territory since March 2. Last week Netanyahu said Israel now plan to capture the entire Gaza strip and leave troops there indefinitely. The plan would see hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pushed to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis. The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies. Trump is due in the Middle East this week, visiting Saudi Arabia then taking trips to Qatar and the UAE. The president called Alexander's planned release 'a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators - Qatar and Egypt - to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones. 'Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!'
