Does Anybody Know Who Michael Cimino Was?
I had on Turner Movie Classics a few minutes ago and they were running a montage of all the Hollywood people who died this year. Suddenly the name Michael Cimino flashed across the screen for a couple seconds with a very brief clip in the background. I then realized I had no idea Michael Cimino died in July of 2016. Not big news, since he is not a household name. He once was, or least on his way to being one among film fans
Michael Cimino co wrote and directed The Deerhunter. The Russian Roulette sequence above is often praised as one of the most intense movie scenes in history.
Cimino only directed a handful of movies in decades in the film business. Although one of his other movies, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, was a minor hit, none of his other films came close to the impact of The Deerhunter. In fact, his next movie after The Deerhunter , Heaven's Gate, about a late 19th century range war in Wyoming, is considered one of the biggest financial busts in the history of Hollywood and was ridiculed for years.
Cimino was essentially a one hit wonder, but what a hit it was.
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We started hearing it in the spring: “Man, 2016, you stink.” And that was just the beginning of a cruel year that saw the passings of so many big names across film, TV, music and the larger entertainment industry.
Along with this week’s horrible news about Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds , the year saw the deaths of such industry icons as Garry Marshall, Gene Wilder, Grant Tinker, Agnes Nixon and Edward Albee. Also leaving us in 2016 were such beloved actors as Alan Rickman, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling, George Kennedy, Alan Thicke, Patty Duke, Fyvush Finkel, Doris Roberts and Robert Vaughn along with award-winning filmmakers including Michael Cimino, Curtis Hanson and Abbas Kiarostami.
The music world was rocked by the loss of several artists who helped reshape their respective genres including David Bowie , Prince, Merle Haggard, Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, Maurice White, Ralph Stanley, Bernie Worrell, Scotty Moore, George Michael , Leon Russell and Beatles producer George Martin.
Not to mention three athletic icons whose face would on the left of their respective sports’ Mount Rushmore: boxer Muhammad Ali, golf’s Arnold Palmer and Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe – all of whom propelled their sport to international prominence. We also lost revered sportscasters including Joe Garagiola and Craig Sager.
And the TV news world was shaken by the deaths of Morley Safer, John McLaughlin and Gwen Ifill, who were pioneers in their fields.
Click on the top photo to launch gallery (organized alphabetically) of more than 250 showbiz people taken from us this year, and when you’re ringing in 2017 this weekend, raise a glass to those who left us in 2016 — a year which will live in infamy.