Joanna Merlin, whose acting career stretched from Broadway (she was the original Tzeitel in Fiddler On The Roof), film (she played the dance teacher Miss Berg in Alan Parker’s 1980 film Fame) and TV (Law & Order: SVU‘s Judge Lena Petrovsky on dozens of episodes) has died. She was 92.
Her death was announced on the Instagram page of the New York University Tisch Graduate Acting Program, where Merlin had been on the faculty since 1998.
“Joanna was an actress, master Chekhov teacher, and former casting director for Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bernardo Bertolucci, and James Ivory,” the NYU message said, adding, “Joanna will be deeply missed at Grad Acting, by the Chekhov community, and by the many people she touched through her artistry.”
As a casting director, Merlin was involved in numerous landmark Broadway productions written by Stephen Sondheim. She was, for many years, Harold Prince’s go-to casting director.
A...
Her death was announced on the Instagram page of the New York University Tisch Graduate Acting Program, where Merlin had been on the faculty since 1998.
“Joanna was an actress, master Chekhov teacher, and former casting director for Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bernardo Bertolucci, and James Ivory,” the NYU message said, adding, “Joanna will be deeply missed at Grad Acting, by the Chekhov community, and by the many people she touched through her artistry.”
As a casting director, Merlin was involved in numerous landmark Broadway productions written by Stephen Sondheim. She was, for many years, Harold Prince’s go-to casting director.
A...
- 10/16/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Actor Ken Kercheval, best known as Texas businessman Cliff Barnes on the CBS series Dallas, has died. A cause of death is not known, but a spokesperson at the Frist Funeral Home in the actor’s hometown of Clinton, Indiana, told Deadline that Kercheval died Sunday. He was 83.
Kercheval’s character was a signature presence on Dallas — along with his bitter rival J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Barnes was the only character to appear in all 14 seasons (1978-1991) of the soapy saga about Texas crude and crude Texans. The character was originally modeled on Robert F. Kennedy but that template didn’t hold for long. Instead Barnes was defined by his family’s rivalry with the Ewings and his character was spun in varied directions as needed — his job title, for instance, changed a dozen times over the course of the series.
Kercheval was also in the 1986 prequel Dallas: The Early Years, a TV movie that fleshed out the franchise’s central conflict, the rivalry between the two oil industry families. Kercheval also returned to the character for the 1996 television movie Dallas: J.R. Returns and then again for three seasons (2012-2014) of a Dallas revival, which presented the career-bouncing Barnes as a casino industry player.
Dallas also gave Kercheval a chance to experiment with job directions himself: He went behind the camera to direct an episode of the series in each of its final two seasons.
Kercheval was born July 15, 1935, in Wolcottville, Ind., and raised in nearby Clinton. A music and drama major at Indiana University he later studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kercheval began his professional acting career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About A Soldier. He went on to appear Off-Broadway in 1972’s Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill revue. His other theatre credits include The Apple Tree, Cabaret (replacing Bert Convy as Cliff), and Here’s Where I Belong. He also appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, co-starring with Herschel Bernardi, Maria Karnilova, Julia Migenes, Leonard Frey, and Pia Zadora.
It was television, however, where Kercheval became a face familiar to millions. His credits included appearances on E.R., L.A. Law,, Murder She Wrote, CHiPs, Highway to Heaven, Kojak, The Love Boat, Matlock, and Starsky & Hutch. His film credits include Network, The Seven-Ups and F.I.S.T. in the 1970s.
Kercheval’s character was a signature presence on Dallas — along with his bitter rival J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Barnes was the only character to appear in all 14 seasons (1978-1991) of the soapy saga about Texas crude and crude Texans. The character was originally modeled on Robert F. Kennedy but that template didn’t hold for long. Instead Barnes was defined by his family’s rivalry with the Ewings and his character was spun in varied directions as needed — his job title, for instance, changed a dozen times over the course of the series.
Kercheval was also in the 1986 prequel Dallas: The Early Years, a TV movie that fleshed out the franchise’s central conflict, the rivalry between the two oil industry families. Kercheval also returned to the character for the 1996 television movie Dallas: J.R. Returns and then again for three seasons (2012-2014) of a Dallas revival, which presented the career-bouncing Barnes as a casino industry player.
Dallas also gave Kercheval a chance to experiment with job directions himself: He went behind the camera to direct an episode of the series in each of its final two seasons.
Kercheval was born July 15, 1935, in Wolcottville, Ind., and raised in nearby Clinton. A music and drama major at Indiana University he later studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kercheval began his professional acting career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About A Soldier. He went on to appear Off-Broadway in 1972’s Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill revue. His other theatre credits include The Apple Tree, Cabaret (replacing Bert Convy as Cliff), and Here’s Where I Belong. He also appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, co-starring with Herschel Bernardi, Maria Karnilova, Julia Migenes, Leonard Frey, and Pia Zadora.
It was television, however, where Kercheval became a face familiar to millions. His credits included appearances on E.R., L.A. Law,, Murder She Wrote, CHiPs, Highway to Heaven, Kojak, The Love Boat, Matlock, and Starsky & Hutch. His film credits include Network, The Seven-Ups and F.I.S.T. in the 1970s.
- 4/24/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
The Tony Awards Administration Committee ruled on the eligibility of several shows and performers this week. Productions up for discussion included the musicals “The Color Purple,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “School of the Rock the Musical,” “She Loves Me,” as well as the plays “Noises Off,” “Our Mother’s Brief Affair,” and “Blackbird.” Both Jennifer Hudson (“The Color Purple”) and Jessica Hecht (“Fiddler on the Roof”) are eligible in the featured actress in a musical category. Both placements are consistent with prior incarnations of each production. Elisabeth Withers-Mendes earned a Tony nomination as a featured actress for her performance as Shug Avery in “The Color Purple” in 2006. Hudson’s name appearing above the title opened the door for debate this time around. Maria Karnilova won a Tony in the featured actress category for her performance as Golde in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1965. Likewise, Hecht’s portrayal of Golde could...
- 4/8/2016
- backstage.com
Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress and pioneering female film producer. Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress was pioneering woman producer, politically minded 'femme engagée' Danièle Delorme, who died on Oct. 17, '15, at the age of 89 in Paris, is best remembered as the first actress to incarnate Colette's teenage courtesan-to-be Gigi and for playing Jean Rochefort's about-to-be-cuckolded wife in the international box office hit Pardon Mon Affaire. Yet few are aware that Delorme was featured in nearly 60 films – three of which, including Gigi, directed by France's sole major woman filmmaker of the '40s and '50s – in addition to more than 20 stage plays and a dozen television productions in a show business career spanning seven decades. Even fewer realize that Delorme was also a pioneering woman film producer, working in that capacity for more than half a century. Or that she was what in French is called a femme engagée...
- 12/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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