Classic

Robert Chartoff, who died at age 81, was a successful and resourceful independent producer, whose movies reflected the zeitgeist of America at the end of the twentieth century. He is best known perhaps for producing Rocky [1976], which garnered Chartoff and his long-time producing partner, Irwin Winkler, six Golden Globes nominations and one win, for best movie-drama, as well as three Oscars.

The HFPA and the Los Angeles Conservancy partner in returning film magic to LA’s majestic move palaces. Katherine Tulich reports.

The Hollywood Foreign Press marks the passing of a unique musical talent, and two-time Golden Globe honoree. James Roy Horner, prolific, pioneering and award-winning composer, film score orchestrator and conductor died when the turboprop plane he was flying solo crashed into the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California, June 22.

The HFPA’s Jack Tewksbury compiles some of the choicest quotes from classic stars.

Shady gangsters, witty femme fatales and cynical private eyes: “Noir City”, The 17th Annual Festival of Film Noir is currently under way at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The Opening Night film Woman on the Run (1950) starring Ann Sheridan was restored last year with funds from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s charitable trust.

The suave French actor Luis Jourdan, who appeared in movies both in Hollywood and in his native France, passed away February 14, 2015, aged 93. His most notable and popular role was in the musical comedy Gigi, (1958) the last major musical out of MGM.

The Light & Noir exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center traces the history of some of Hollywood’s most prolific immigrants and the contributions they made to American cinema. "Chased from my country,now I have to see if there's some shop or bar that I can find where I can sell the products of my mind" So wrote playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht, who was chased from Germany by the rising Nazi regime.

Sultry actress Lizabeth Scott (1922-2015), who just died in Hollywood of heart failure, was the star of a classic film noir that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association helped the Film Noir Foundation restore in 2013. Scott was born Emma Matzo in Scranton, Pa.

The 13th edition of the Noir City film festival opened in San Francisco recently with the screening of a film that was restored with help from a grant that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave the Film Noir Foundation last year. More than 1,400 enthusiastic fans of film noir, many dressed in period clothes, jammed the historic Castro Theater to capacity, and gave a loud and warm welcome to the re-premiere of Woman on the Run, a 1950 film noir starring Ann Sheridan.

Anita Ekberg, Golden Globe winner, died January 11, at a clinic near Rome. The actress was the sex symbol of the 1960s, made famous by her role as Sylvia in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960).