R.I.P., Times Two

Pete Postlethwaite, age 64, of cancer in Shropshire, England.

He started out studying to be a priest, but turned to acting in Liverpool, Manchester and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He appeared in “Distant Voices, Still Lives”, an acclaimed British movie about working class troubles.

His breakthrough came playing Daniel Day-Lewis' father, Giuseppe Conlon, in the movie "In the Name of the Father," which earned him a best-supporting-actor Oscar nomination. He followed that part with other memorable roles in films such as "The Usual Suspects", "Brassed Off", “The Shipping News”, “The Omen” (2006), "Amistad ", Alien 3”, "Romeo + Juliet”, "Inception”, "Clash of the Titans" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." After his role in "The Lost World", Spielberg reportedly called him "the best actor in the world".

Ann Francis, age 80, of complications from pancreatic cancer, in Santa Barbara, CA.
An early radio actress, Francis went on to star with some of Hollywood’s greatest leading men in the 1950’s, including Spencer Tracy (“Bad Day at Black Rock”), Paul Newman (“The Rack”), Robert Taylor (“Rogue Cop”) and Glenn Ford (“Blackboard Jungle”).

Her breakthrough role was the object of Leslie Nielsen’s affections in “Forbidden Planet”, where she played Altaira, the daughter of Dr. Morbius, whose “monster from the Id” destroyed anything in its path.

In the 1960’s she appeared in dozens of TV series, including “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “My Three Sons”, "Mission Impossible", ''The Virginian", ''Ironside", ''Gunsmoke", ''Charlie's Angels", ''The Golden Girls", ''Home Improvement", "Nash Bridges", “Matlock”, and “Murder She Wrote”.

One of her most striking TV roles was on an episode of ''The Twilight Zone”,
that of “Marsha White”, a department store mannequin who gets to spend a month out in the world with humans and forgets what she really is.

Of course, many will remember her as “Honey West”, the secret agent with a birthmark and an ocelot for a pet. Although not as overtly sexual as the novels upon which the series was based, she wore a black body stocking, and she often had to go “undercover” in provocative dress, and had such gadgets as a gas mask garter belt.