Patrick Swayze’s death yesterday at the age of 57, while not entirely surprising since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago, nonetheless feels like a tragic waste. While scores of largely nameless pretty boys file in and out of the public eye each year in Hollywood, few become the kind of indelible name that Swayze turned out to be, consistently taking on new and challenging work, even as the decades rolled on and the shine on his Johnny Castle legacy threatened to fade.

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I met screenwriter-producer Larry Gelbart only once – enough to make me wish for much more - but he gave me one of the most memorable and enjoyable evenings of my life. The time was late June 2001. I was coming off of a horrendously difficult period following an eight-month executive-level tenure in Hollywood – a period marked by a premature job loss, economic and emotional strain, the persistent inability to find work and the looming threat of eviction. But on one of my last nights before moving out of Southern California, I impetuously bought a ticket for a master-class screenwriting workshop hosted by Gelbart at an adult education facility in Santa Monica. The evening felt like a breath of fresh air and compensated for many of the difficult weeks that preceded it.

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Filmmaker John Hughes, the director of such teen-centric classics as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Beuler’s Day Off, died today at the age of 59. Hughes passes just as a series of celebrity deaths have reminded us how nothing inspires geyserous outpourings of nostalgia like the mortality of our former heroes. But I think it’s fair to say that Hughes’ work has continued to inspire the same steady stream of deeply personal affection from its viewers since day one.

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The world lost a giant of the screen yesterday, when acting legend Karl Malden died of natural causes in his Brentwood, California home at the age of 97. We would like to take this opportunity to bid farewell and pay tribute to Malden with a look back over his impressive life and career.

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One of the biggest stars of the 20th century, entertainer Michael Jackson died on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 of cardiac arrest. Even after a 13 year lapse in live performing, an expatriation to Bahrain, and almost two decades of persistent controversy, the recording artist’s legacy as the undisputed King of Pop has held fast. Jackson remains almost impossibly relevant, even in death, the subject of adoration — as well as hatred — among millions of viewers, spanning both borders and generations.

As fans mourn the 50 year-old performer’s unexpected death, AMG’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine memorializes Jackson’s life, career, and impact on the entertainment industry.

TV and pin-up icon Farrah Fawcett lost her longtime battle with cancer today, at the age of 62. Though she only appeared on the memorable 1970’s detective series Charlie’s Angels for one full season, the legacy of her performance on the cult favorite would last for the rest of her career, fueling her status as a sex symbol, even as she tried her hand at more dramatic work, like 1985’s The Burning Bed.

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Fellow followers of cinema lost an icon today when it was announced that David Carradine was found hung in a Bangkok hotel under mysterious circumstances. Whatever ends up being the cause of his demise, make no doubt — this was a beloved icon from a fine acting family pedigree whose loss can be felt across the globe. From his early days as Caine in Kung Fu through his legendary years with Roger Corman and beyond, Carradine was a presence who was hard to dismiss. He worked with the likes of Scorsese and Altman, yet is known for his numerous b-movie performances just as much. Though the modern world recognizes him from Tarantino’s Kill Bill series (a role originally slated for Warren Beatty), the actor always seemed to be one you could rely on to bring a certain high standing regard to any role — especially ones that riffed off his wizened tough guy roles of old. Most recently he was seen on the big screen in Crank High Voltage as a horny old Asian gangster whose appearance seemed straight out of Big Trouble in Little China. Carradine fans will miss these kind of wild casting choices that only seem right for this kind of on-screen legend.

But why mope when we can celebrate? Therefore, The All Movie Guide commemorates the immortal man behind Caine with this collection of clips and trailers, starting with his stint in Death Race 2000 — “Frankenstein the legend. Frankenstein the indestructible… Ripped up, wiped out, battered, shattered, creamed and reamed. A dancer on the brink of death. Frankenstein - who lost a leg in 98. An arm in 99. With half a face and half a chest and all the guts in the world…” In the name of Mr. President, America loved you, David Carradine.

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The film scoring community lost one of its giants when French composer Maurice Jarre passed away on March 29th in Los Angeles at age 84. Born in Lyon, Jarre abandoned an engineering degree from the Sorbonne, to the profound shock of his family, to study music with Arthur Honegger at the Paris Conservatoire. He fell in with the music that was being written by other young, French composers of his generation — Pierre Boulez, Marius Constant and Georges Delerue — and Jarre’s earliest concert works share with them a concern for 12-tone derived methods of composition. In 1950, the Théâtre Nationale Populaire opened in Paris, and producer Jean Vilar named Jarre its musical director. He served in this capacity five years, establishing a name for himself as a composer for the stage. Jarre also worked with choreographer Roland Petit during this time, and developed a populist, melodic style in addition to the more advanced music he already knew. Jarre would later comment that this was the happiest time of his life, and the experience presumably laid a good foundation for his career as film composer.

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