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Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency. In the U.S., he experienced the racial chasm that divides the country, a great shock to a boy coming from a society with a majority of African descent.

At 18, he went to New York, did menial jobs and slept in a bus terminal toilet. A brief stint in the Army as a worker at a veterans' hospital was followed by more menial jobs in Harlem. An impulsive audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills. On his second try, he was accepted. Spotted in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of "Lysistrata", for which he earned good reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles. Nevertheless, the roles were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors routinely obtained. But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African-American man of that time, that of leading man. One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.

He remained active on stage and screen as well as in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. His roles in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and To Sir, with Love (1967) were landmarks in helping to break down some social barriers between blacks and whites. Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day. He took on directing and producing chores in the 1970s, achieving success in both arenas.

Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter originally was an actor in the 1950s, studying his craft with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler and appearing on television and in summer stock. In the early 1960s he achieved notoriety for programming movies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. An obsessive cinema-goer, sometimes seeing up to 400 movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich prominently showcased the work of American directors such as John Ford, about whom he subsequently wrote a book based on the notes he had produced for the MOMA retrospective of the director, and the then-underappreciated Howard Hawks. Bogdanovich also brought attention to such forgotten pioneers of American cinema as Allan Dwan.

Bogdanovich was influenced by the French critics of the 1950s who wrote for Cahiers du Cinema, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut. Before becoming a director himself, he built his reputation as a film writer with articles in Esquire Magazine. In 1968, following the example of Cahiers du Cinema critics Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer who had created the Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") by making their own films, Bogdanovich became a director. Working for low-budget schlock-meister Roger Corman, Bogdanovich directed the critically praised Targets (1968) and the not-so-critically praised Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), a film best forgotten.

Turning back to journalism, Bogdanovich struck up a lifelong friendship with the legendary Orson Welles while interviewing him on the set of Mike Nichols' film adaptation of Catch-22 (1970) from the novel by Joseph Heller. Subsequently, Bogdanovich has played a major role in elucidating Welles and his career with his writings on the great actor-director, most notably his book "This is Orson Welles" (1992). He has steadily produced invaluable books about the cinema, especially "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors," an indispensable tome that establishes Bogdanovich, along with Kevin Brownlow, as one of the premier English-language chroniclers of cinema.

The 32-year-old Bogdanovich was hailed by a critics as a Wellesian wunderkind when his most famous film, The Last Picture Show (1971) was released. The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including Bogdanovich as Best Director, and won two of them, for Cloris Leachman and "John Ford Stock Company" veteran Ben Johnson in the supporting acting categories. Bogdanovich, who had cast 19-year-old model Cybill Shepherd in a major role in the film, fell in love with the young beauty, an affair that eventually led to his divorce from the film's set designer Polly Platt, his longtime artistic collaborator and the mother of his two children.

Bogdanovich followed up The Last Picture Show (1971) with a major hit, What's Up, Doc? (1972), a screwball comedy heavily indebted to Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), starring Barbra Streisand and 'Ryan O'Neal'. Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich had solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, with whom he formed The Directors Company. The Directors Company was a generous production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within strict budget limitations. It was through this entity that Bogdanovich's next big hit, the critically praised Paper Moon (1973), was produced.

Paper Moon (1973), a Depression-era comedy starring Ryan O'Neal that won his ten-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, proved to be the highwater mark of Bogdanovich's career. Forced to share the profits with his fellow directors, Bogdanovich became dissatisfied with the arrangement. The Directors Company subsequently produced only two more films, Francis Ford Coppola's critically acclaimed The Conversation (1974) which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1974 and garnered Coppola an Oscar nod for Best Director, and Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller (1974), a film that had a quite different critical reception.

An adaptation of the Henry James novella, Daisy Miller (1974) spelled the beginning of the end of Bogdanovich's career as a popular, critically acclaimed director. The film, which starred Bogdanovich's lover Cybill Shepherd as the title character, was savaged by critics and was a flop at the box office. Bogdanovich's follow-up, At Long Last Love (1975), a filming of the Cole Porter musical starring Cybill Shepherd, was derided by some critics as one of the worst films ever made, noted as such in Harry Medved and Michael Medved's book "The Golden Turkey Awards: Nominees and Winners, the Worst Achievements in Hollywood History" (1980). The film also was a box office bomb despite featuring Burt Reynolds, a hotly burning star who would achieve super-nova status at the end of the 1970s.

Bogdanovich insisted on filming the musical numbers for At Long Last Love (1975) live, a process not used since the early days of the talkies, when sound engineer Douglas Shearer developed lip-synching at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The decision was widely ridiculed, as none of the leading actors were known for their singing abilities (Bogdanovich himself had produced a critically panned album of Cybill Shepherd singing Cole Porter songs in 1974). The public perception of Bogdanovich became that of an arrogant director hamstrung by his own hubris.

Trying to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was his early success, Bogdanovich once again turned to the past, his own and that of cinema, with Nickelodeon (1976). The film, a comedy recounting the earliest days of the motion picture industry, reunited Ryan O'Neal and 'Tatum O'Neal' from his last hit, Paper Moon (1973) with Burt Reynolds. Counseled not to use the unpopular (with both audiences and critics) Cybill Shepherd in the film, Bogdanovich instead used newcomer Jane Hitchcock as the film's ingénue. Unfortunately, the magic of Paper Moon (1973) was not be repeated and the film died at the box office. Jane Hitchcock, Bogdanovich's discovery, would make only one more film before calling it quits.

After a three-year hiatus, Bogdanovich returned with the critically and financially underwhelming Saint Jack (1979) for Hugh Hefner's Playboy Productions Inc. Bogdanovich's long affair with Cybill Shepherd had ended in 1978, but the production deal making Hugh Hefner the film's producer was part of the settlement of a lawsuit Shepherd had filed against Hefner for publishing nude photos of her pirated from a print of The Last Picture Show (1971) in Playboy Magazine. Bogdanovich then launched the film that would be his career Waterloo, They All Laughed (1981), a low-budget ensemble comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and the 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten. During the filming of the picture, Bogdanovich fell in love with Stratten, who was married to an emotionally unstable hustler, Paul Snider, who relied on her financially. Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich, and when she told Snider she was leaving him, he shot and killed her, then committed suicide.

They All Laughed (1981) could not attract a distributor due to the negative publicity surrounding the Stratten murder, despite it being one of the few films made by the legendary Audrey Hepburn after her provisional retirement in 1967 (the film would prove to be Hepburn's last starring role in a theatrically released motion picture). The heartbroken Bogdanovich bought the rights to the negative so that it would be seen by the public, but the film had a limited release, garnered weak reviews and cost Bogdanovich millions of dollars, driving the emotionally devastated director into bankruptcy.

Bogdanovich turned back to his first avocation, writing, to pen a memoir of his dead love, "The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)" that was published in 1984. The book was a riposte to Teresa Carpenter's "Death of a Playmate" article written for The Village Voice that had won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Carpenter had lambasted Bogdanovich and Hugh Hefner, claiming that Stratten was as much a victim of them as she was of Paul Snider. The article served as the basis of Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (1983), in which Bogdanovich was portrayed as the fictional director "Aram Nicholas".

Bogdanovich's career as a noted director was over, and though he achieved modest success with Mask (1985), his sequel to his greatest success The Last Picture Show (1971), Texasville (1990), was a critical and box office disappointment. He directed two more theatrical films in 1992 and 1993, but their failure kept him off the big screen until 2001's The Cat's Meow (2001). Returning once again to a reworking of the past, this time the alleged murder of director Thomas H. Ince by Welles' bete noir William Randolph Hearst, The Cat's Meow (2001) was a modest critical success but a flop at the box office. In addition to helming some television movies, Bogdanovich has returned to acting, with a recurring guest role on the cable television series The Sopranos (1999) as Dr. Jennifer Melfi's analyst.

Bogdanovich's personal reputation suffered from gossip about his 13-year marriage to Dorothy Stratten's 19-year-old-kid sister Louise Stratten, who was 29 years his junior. Some gossip held that Bogdanovich's behavior was akin to that of the James Stewart character in Alfred Hitchcock's necrophiliac masterpiece Vertigo (1958), with the director trying to remold Stratten into the image of her late sister. The marriage ended in divorce in 2001.

Now in his early eighties, Bogdanovich has arguably imitated his hero Orson Welles, but in an unintended fashion, as filmmaker who never regained the acclaim bestowed on their first major success. However, unlike the widely acclaimed master Welles, the orbit of Bogdanovich's reputation has never recovered from the apogee it reached briefly in the early 1970s.

There has been speculation that Peter Bogdanovich's ruin as a director was guaranteed when he ditched his wife and artistic collaborator Polly Platt for Cybill Shepherd. Platt had worked with Bogdanovich on all his early successes, and some critics believe that the controlling artistic consciousness on The Last Picture Show (1971) was Platt's. Parting company with Platt after Paper Moon (1973), Bogdanovich promptly slipped from the heights of a wunderkind to a has-been pursuing epic folly, as evidenced by Daisy Miller (1974) and At Long Last Love (1975).

In 1998 the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show (1971) to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films.

Raymond Cornelius Boyle, frequently credited as Dirk London, was an American small part character actor of the 1950s. Predominantly active on the small screen, he became best known for playing Morgan Earp (1851-1882) in fifteen episodes of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), starring Hugh O'Brian as the eponymous gunfighter. Boyle found steady work in a staple of early western and police shows, including some recurring appearances in Gang Busters (1952), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1955), Highway Patrol (1955) and Gunsmoke (1955). A rare higher profile role saw him cast as a gangster colluding with Martians in Republic's hilarious serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) (Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy -- then very much at the beginning of his career -- can be glimpsed as one of the zombies!).

After his retirement from acting, Boyle worked as production designer/art director on a couple of films in the 1970s. His second wife (from 1954) was the actress Jan Shepard.

Mariano Laurenti was born on 15 April 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and assistant director, known for Popcorn e patatine (1985), Fotoromanzo (1986) and Uno scugnizzo a New York (1984). He died on 6 January 2022 in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.

Russell Lees was born on 8 May 1957 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was a writer, known for Assassin's Creed: Unity (2014), Assassin's Creed III (2012) and Far Cry New Dawn (2019). He was married to Lisa. He died on 6 January 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Gloria Piedimonte was born on 27 May 1955 in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for Insanlari Seveceksin (1979), Baila guapa (1979) and Violence for Kicks (1976). She was married to Tony. She died on 6 January 2022 in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy.

Maha Abou Ouf was born on 28 November 1959 in Cairo, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Al Hafla (2013), Zayy el-Nahardah (2008) and Lailat Hana wa Suroor (2018). She was married to Omar Khorshed. She died on 6 January 2022 in Cairo, Egypt.

Margot Wagner was born on 6 October 1922 in Mexico D.F., Mexico. She was an actress, known for Jinetes de la llanura (1966), Los miserables (1973) and Yesenia (1970). She was married to Fernando Wagner. She died on 6 January 2022 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Cirsten Weldon was born on 30 July 1960. She was an actress, known for The Doors (1991) and Hard to Die (1990). She died on 6 January 2022 in Camarillo, California, USA.

Maria Klenskaja was born on 29 January 1951 in Tartu, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. She was an actress, known for Varastatud kohtumine (1989), Doktor Stockmann (1989) and Keskea rõõmud (1987). She was married to Aarne Üksküla. She died on 6 January 2022 in Estonia.

Mark Gudsnuk was born on 25 July 1957 in Derby, Connecticut, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Moto Psycho (2012). He died on 6 January 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

F. Sionil Jose was born on 3 December 1924 in Rosales, Pangasinan, Philippine Islands. He was a writer, known for Waywaya (1982) and Francisco Sionil Jose - a Filipino Odyssey (1996). He was married to Tessie Jovellanos Jose. He died on 6 January 2022 in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Nancy Jones was born on 23 October 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Nancy is known for Barney in Concert (1991). Nancy died on 6 January 2022 in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, USA.

Jeff Blackburn died on 6 January 2022 in Santa Cruz, California, USA.

Bonnie Chamberlain was born on 13 December 1933 in Kanab, Kane County, Utah. She was an actress, known for Mormon Conquest (1939) and Little Miss Cowgirl (1939). She was married to Mark Lynn Cutler. She died on 6 January 2022 in Walnut Creek, California, USA.

Miranda Fryer was an actress, known for Neighbours (1985). She was married to Arthur Pothitis. She died on 6 January 2022 in Australia.

Yoram Taharlev was born in 1938 in Yagur, Israel. He was a writer, known for The Band (1978), Walk on Water (2004) and Lo Kolel Sherut (1990). He was married to Batia Keinan, Linda and Nurit Zarchi. He died on 6 January 2022 in Israel.

Bob Falkenburg was born on 29 January 1926 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Lourdes Mayrink Veiga Machado. He died on 6 January 2022 in Santa Ynez, California, USA.

Michael Wilmington was born in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, on November 23, 1946. He was the son of Martin Wilmington, an economics professor at Pace College in New York City, and of Edna Tulane Wilmington, a cum laude masters degree graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and a painter, sculptor, portrait artist, illustrator, draughtsman, newspaper columnist and teacher. His parents were divorced and Edna brought him up, in Arlington, Virginia, Chicago and Williams Bay, Wisconsin, as a single mother, without child support or alimony. (She died, at 94, in 2009.) Michael graduated from William Bay (Wisconsin) High School, where he was on the basketball and football teams, was captain of the forensics team and was sports editor of the annual. He graduated in 1964, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he majored in English (Honors), where he was also active in dramatics as both actor and director, was chair of the Memorial Union Film Committee and was the movie critic for two years for the student paper, the Daily Cardinal. In Madison, Wilmington also co-wrote the book, "John Ford" with Joseph McBride and became the movie critic for the alternative weekly, Isthmus of Madison, winning five Milwaukee Press Club Awards at Isthmus for best arts criticism. He eventually left for Los Angeles, to become movie critic and editor for both the L. A. Weekly and L. A. Style. From 1984 to 1993, he was a movie critic and writer for the Los Angeles Times and, in 1993, he was elected Vice President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 1993, Wilmington was named the lead movie critic at the Chicago Tribune, after the departure of Dave Kehr, who had replaced longtime Tribune movie critic and "At the Movies" TV host Gene Siskel in 1986. (Siskel became movie columnist at the Tribune from 1986 until his death in 1999.) While at the Tribune, Wilmington won or shared two Peter Lisagor awards for arts criticism. He was also the the on-air movie critic for cable channel CLTV, where he was nominated for two other Lisagors. Wilmington left the Tribune in 2007. In 2008, he became movie and DVD critic for Movie City News.

Calvin Simon was born on 22 May 1942 in Beckley, West Virginia, USA. He died on 6 January 2022 in the USA.

Teresa Aksinowicz was born in 1955. She was an actress, known for Na dobre i na zle (1999), Fala zbrodni (2003) and Pierwsza milosc (2004). She was married to Aleksander Aksinowicz. She died on 6 January 2022.

Carlo Meliciani was born on 27 January 1929 in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. He was an actor, known for Macbeth (1976), Rigoletto (1981) and La bohème (1979). He died on 6 January 2022 in Empoli, Tuscany, Italy.

Stewart Gilray was born on 17 March 1970. He was a producer, known for Spec Ops: Ranger Elite (2001) and Arctic Tale (2007). He was married to Bec. He died on 6 January 2022.

Tadeusz Talar was an editor, known for Aleppo. Notes from the Dark (2014), Ukos swiatla (2022) and Life Is Bearable at Times... (2010). Tadeusz died on 6 January 2022.