SW Picture of the Day

Vader: There is no escape! Don’t make me destroy you. Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You’ve only begun to discover your power! Join me, and I will complete your training! With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy.
Luke: [angrily] I’ll never join you!
Vader: If only you knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Vader: No, I am your father.
Luke: [shocked] No. No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!
Vader: Search your feelings; you know it to be true!
Luke: NOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!!!

17 May 1980 (USA Premiere) – 17 May 2014. The Empire Strikes Back 34th Anniversary!

May the Force be with you!

R.I.P.: H.R. Giger

Hans Rudolf Giger
5 February 1940, Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland – 12 May 2014 (aged 74), Zürich, Switzerland

Alien designer H.R. Giger dies at 74

The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott’s Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74. Giger died in hospital on Monday (12) after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home.

Source: BBC News.

Born in 1940, Hans Ruedi Giger was best known for his ‘Xenomorph’ alien in Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980. He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes.

Meticulously detailed, Giger’s surrealist paintings were usually produced in large formats and then reworked with an airbrush and usually feature scenes of humans and machines fused together. Giger described his style as “biomechanical”. One of his pieces in particular – Necronom IV – inspired the alien killer in Sir Ridley’s hit film. He also worked on Alien 3 (1992) and, more recently, appeared in a documentary about director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unmade film of the book Dune.

Stewart Jamieson a friend and colleague of the artist said it was “natural that people will look at Alien as being his biggest impact because of its attention but his legacy is far more than that”. “He was one of the primary surrealist artists of his generation,” he told the BBC. “He never considered himself a film designer, he was an artist and Alien was a different canvas for him to work on.”

British film director Edgar Wright tweeted: “RIP the great HR Giger. The Swiss surrealist who made night terrors into unforgettable art. We will miss you.”

Giger’s vision of a human skull inside a machine appeared on the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s 1973 album, Brain Salad Surgery. He also designed covers for Debbie Harry’s solo album, Koo Koo.

Despite the dark nature of Giger’s work, Mr Jamieson said: “The old adage that you can’t judge a book by his cover was appropriate with him. He was a very sweet man. The first time we met, I was amazed by how generous and shy he was.” In 1998, Giger opened his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, which alongside his own paintings and sculptures, displays works from his own art collection from the likes of Salvador Dali, Dada and Ernst Fuchs. The museum is run by the artist’s wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger. In December 2004, Giger received the prestigious award, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, at Paris City Hall.

Last year, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle, along with fellow inductees, David Bowie and JRR Tolkien. His work has also been exhibited around the world, including recent retrospectives in Hamburg, Germany, Moscow and Istanbul.

Film Contribution:

Dune (designs for unproduced Alejandro Jodorowsky adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel; the movie Dune was later made in an adaptation by David Lynch.)
Alien (designed, among other things, the Alien creature, “The Derelict” and the “Space Jockey”)
Aliens
Alien 3 (designed the dog-like Alien bodyshape, plus a number of unused concepts, many mentioned on the special features disc of Alien 3)
Alien: Resurrection
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Killer Condom
Species (designed Sil and the Ghost Train in a dream sequence)
Batman Forever (designed radically different envisioning of the Batmobile; design was not used in the film)
Future-Kill (designed artwork for the movie poster)
Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (creature designs)
Prometheus (the film includes “The Derelict” spacecraft and the “Space Jockey” designs from the first Alien film, as well as original extraterrestrial murals created exclusively for the new movie. Unlike Alien: Resurrection, the film credited H. R. Giger with the original designs.)

Read more: Wikipedia.

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Artwork:

Happy B-Day, Mrs. Hepburn

Today, actress Audrey Hepburn would be completing 85. Google celebrated the birthday of this unforgettable actress with a Doodle:

And you can read more about her – and see beautiful photos – in my tribute to one of the greatest divas of Hollywood just clicking here: Happy Birthday, Mrs. Hepburn.

Please, visit her official website and know more about her life and career and how to support the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Funds: http://www.audreyhepburn.com/

 By the end of World War II, with no water or electricity in their home in the Netherlands, Audrey and her family were eating tulip bulbs to stay alive.

Audrey Hepburn receives an Oscar for her first appearance in an American picture,  “Roman Holiday”, in 1954. Her co-star Gregory Peck, was initially set to get top billing in the film but Peck made Paramount executives change it, saying, “… I’m smart enough to know this girl’s going to win the Oscar in her first picture, and I’m going to look like a damned fool if her name is not up there on top with mine”. (Photo: Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS).

Audrey Hepburn gets a kiss from the fawn who appeared in the film Green Mansions in which she starred. She ended up keeping it as a pet temporarily. (Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS)

Soon after becoming a UNICEF ambassador, Audrey Hepburn went on a mission to Ethiopia, where years of drought and civil strife had caused terrible famine. (Photo: Derek Hudson/Sygma/Corbis).

VIDEO TRIBUTE:

See more clipes from the greatest stars of Hollywood in the Movie Legends Channel on YouTube.

 

R.I.P.: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman dies

Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Oscar-winning actor has died. He was 46.

Police sources say Hoffman was found unconscious at around 11:15 A.M. this Sunday on the bathroom floor of his New York apartment at 35 Bethune St. in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan by friend and screenwriter David Katz, who called 911. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The cause of death has not yet been determined, but a law enforcement official tells heroin was found at the scene and a hypodermic needle was sticking out of Hoffman’s arm. The New York Police Department is continuing to investigate.

Hoffman’s family released the following statement on the actor’s untimely death this afternoon:

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers.”

Hoffman won the Best Actor Academy Award and the Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his leading role in the 2005 film “Capote”, which detailed the five-year period during which author Truman Capote penned “In Cold Blood.” He was nominated for three Best Supporting Actor Oscars, for “The Master”, “Doubt” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Flowers were left outside the apartment building where Hoffman died.

The second of four children, Hoffman was born on July 23, 1967 in Fairport, N.Y., to mother Marilyn O’Connor (née Loucks), a lawyer, and father Gordon Stowell Hoffman who worked for Xerox.

He graduated with a BFA in drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1989 and began his film career in 1991, starring in his debut role in the indie production “Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole.”

Hoffman’s breakthrough role came in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” (1997), after which he quickly became known for his leading and supporting roles on the big screen, including Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” (1998), “Flawless” (1999), “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999), Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” (1999), “Almost Famous” (2000) and “State and Main” (2000).

In 2005, Hoffman starred in the role that would lead him to win the Los Angeles Film Critics Award as Best Actor for his performance in “Capote”. The next year, he won an Oscar for the same part.

Hoffman won an Oscar for best actor with his portrayal of writer Truman Capote.

He also proved himself a capable theater actor on Broadway, receiving two Tony nominations for Best Actor in 2000 for a revival of Sam Shepard’s “True West” and again in 2003 for a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”

In 2012, Hoffman starred as Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, receiving rave reviews from critics and his third Tony Award nomination as Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Hoffman made his film directorial debut in 2010 with “Jack Goes Boating.” More recently Hoffman appeared in “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”.

Hoffman has previously been in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. In his early twenties, Hoffman said he started abusing drugs not long after graduating from his degree at NYU.

He also received three Academy Award nominations as best supporting actor, including here for “The Master”.

One of his latest films, “God’s Pocket”, was shown at this year’s Sundance film festival last month.

Source text: ABC News. Photos: BBC News.

R.I.P.: Paul Walker

Actor Paul Walker dead at 40

‘Fast and Furious’ star killed in fiery car crash

Paul Walker attends the “Fast & Furious 6” world premiere in London, England, on May 7. Photo: Stuart C. Wilson.

This is really really sad. Paul Walker, the star of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise, and a friend identified as Roger Rodas died on this Saturday in Southern California after the Porsche they were in crashed violently into a tree. Police said speed was a factor.

The 40-year-old Paul Walker was riding in a red Porsche GT about 3:30 p.m. when the sports car flew off the road and slammed into a tree in Santa Clarita, authorities and witnesses said. The car burst into flames. “It was engulfed in flames,” said Antonio Holmes, a friend of Walker’s who raced to the scene after hearing about the crash. “There was nothing. They were trapped.” Holmes said he was among a group of people who showed up at the site with fire extinguishers and tried to rescue Walker and the driver. “We tried. We tried,” he told the Santa Clarita Valley Signal. “Him and his buddy, his brother in arms at heart, just decided to joyride, take a spin. Something we all do.”

Jim Torp, who was also at the event, identified the second victim as Roger Rodas, a pro racer and father of two who owned Always Evolving Performance Motors. Torp described how Rodas’ 8-year-old son tried to save his dad. “I ran over afterwards, I was trying to find Roger’s son”, Torp said. “I found out his son had jumped the fence and gone over, he was trying to get his dad out. Paul Walker’s best friend was trying to get Paul out of the car while it was still on fire… he was trying to save his friend… there was nothing he could do.”

Torp said friends of the actor and race-car driver were trying to make sense of the horrific crash and its grim parallel to Walker’s movie franchise. “It’s strange,” Torp said. “(Walker) made his movies. He lived his life and he died fast and furious today. He loved speed, he loved cars, and he had to die this way. He died in a very fast car with his friend.”

Walker was in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, for a charity event to benefit his organization Reach Out Worldwide, which sends first responders to the scenes of natural disasters. The event was held at Rodas’ Always Evolving Performance Motors, just down the street from the accident site on Rye Canyon Loop, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Paul Walker (left) seen with Roger Rodas, who has been identified as the other person who died in the car crash. Photo: Carparazzis via Facebook.

“He was a great guy. His employees loved him,” friend Torp said of Rodas. “Every month Roger did a car show to help people. This was the big one for him, they were trying to help the victims in Indiana and the monsoon (in the Philippines),” Torp said.

Reactions

“Sadly, I must confirm that Paul did pass away this afternoon in a car accident,” said his rep, Ame Van Iden. “Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is devastating to us, to everyone involved with the Fast and Furious films, and to countless fans.”

In a grim twist, Walker’s death came just days after he was the victim of an online death hoax. Several celebs and journalists took to Twitter hoping the new reports were another sick joke. His Fast and Furious co-stars bared their heartbreak after his death was confirmed. “Brother, I will miss you very much,” Vin Diesel wrote on Instagram. “Heaven has gained a new Angel.”

“I am so beyond heartbroken right now,” James Wan, director of Fast & Furious 7, wrote on Facebook.

The site of Paul Walker’s death has been filled with fans who have created a vigil for the fallen star.

Source: NY Daily News.

Life and career

Paul William Walker IV was born on September 12, 1973, in Glendale, California, son of Cheryl (née Crabtree), a fashion model, and Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor, and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County. He was of Irish, English and German descent. Walker was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He graduated from Village Christian School and after high school, he attended several community colleges, majoring in marine biology.

Walker began his small screen career as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers. He began modeling at the age of two and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who’s the Boss?, The Young and the Restless, and Touched by an Angel. Walker’s film career began in 1986, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. He continued with roles in several other movies without much success. In 1998, Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to supporting roles in the movies Pleasantville (1998), Varsity Blues (1999), She’s All That (1999), and The Skulls (2000).

Paul Walker visited “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on May 24.

In 2001, Walker’s breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor Vin Diesel in the successful action film The Fast and the Furious. The film established Walker as a notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as Joy Ride (2001), Into the Blue (2005), and Timeline (2003); he had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Walker then starred in the crime thriller Running Scared and Walt Disney Pictures’ Eight Below, both released in 2006.

He subsequently returned to The Fast and the Furious franchise, reprising his role in Fast & Furious, which was released on April 3, 2009. Walker then appeared in the crime drama Takers, which began filming in early September 2008 and was released in August 2010. The Coty Prestige fragrance brand Davidoff Cool Water for Men announced in January 2011 that Walker was going to be the new face of the brand as of July 2011.

From left to right: Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Gal Gadot, Paul Walker, Justin Lin, Elisa Pataky, Vin Diesel, Gina Carano, Tyrese Gibson and Ssung Kang attend the world premiere of “Fast & Furious 6” in London, England, on May 7. Photo: Dave J. Hogan.

He reprised his role in the fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious series, Fast Five (2011), and again in Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Upcoming films in which Walker starred or appeared in due for release are Hours set for release in December 2013, and Brick Mansions, set for release in May 2014. At the time of his death, Walker had been filming Fast and Furious 7, which was slated for release in July 2014. His death has forced the shooting of the film to be delayed while producers try to rework the film.

Source: Wikipedia.

This photo, sent out on Nov. 29, was the last tweeted from Paul Walker’s account before his death, showing him with co-starts Tyrese Gibson and Vin Diesel: “The boys are back. Will you be ready?”

R.I.P.