Not a good day to be "in the business":
On The Waterfront Scribe Schulberg Dies
6 August 2009 5:21 AM, PDT
On The Waterfront screenwriter Budd Schulberg has died. He was 95.
Schulberg was taken from his Long Island, New York home on Wednesday to a local hospital, where he died after doctors failed to revive him.
The scribe was born in New York City in 1914, the son of Paramount Pictures boss B.P. Schulberg , and made a name for himself as a novelist in the 1940s.
He later went on to write screenplays for films including 1957's A Face In The Crowd, before penning his best-known work On The Waterfront, about mafia violence in New Jersey.
The 1954 drama received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando and Best Story and Screenplay for Schulberg.
Schulberg is survived by his wife Betsy and four children.
Brat Pack Leader John Hughes Dead At 59
6 August 2009 3:16 PM, PDT
Brat Pack director John Hughes has died after suffering a heart attack.
The man behind hit films like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty in Pink was 59 when he collapsed and died while walking in Manhattan , New York on Thursday.
The father of two stepped away from the limelight in the 1990s to run a farm in his native Illinois .
His last film as a director was Curly Sue in 1991 but he penned the screenplays for 2008's Drillbit Taylor, and Jennifer Lopez 's Maid In Manhattan in 2002.
Hughes was also the man behind the Home Alone and Beethoven film franchises.
British Producer Towers Dies
6 August 2009 9:06 AM, PDT
British film and television producer/writer Harry Alan Towers has died of heart failure. He was 88.
Towers shot to fame as a child actor in the U.K. , and went on to make more than 100 films during his career, sometimes producing under the alias Peter Welbeck .
He was working on his autobiography prior to his death on 2 August, according to his literary agent, Albert T. Longden.
As a producer, Towers worked on numerous British TV programmes, including The Scarlet Pimpernel and Tales From Dickens.
He also produced several underground film classics with Spanish director Jess Franco , including Venus in Furs, Eugenie, Marquis de Sade: Justine and Night of the Blood Monster.
Towers worked with numerous A-list stars during his long film career, including Orson Welles , Michael Caine , Richard Harris and Tony Curtis . His best-known movies include The Face of Fu Manchu, Ten Little Indians, Cry the Beloved Country and Klondike Fever.
He is survived by his wife, actress Maria Rohm .
Producer Swanson Dies
6 August 2009 9:06 AM, PDT
Hollywood producer Ted Swanson has died from congestive heart failure, aged 72.
Swanson, who worked on a string of classic films including Rocky and Caddyshack, passed away on 23 July.
He enjoyed success on both radio and TV, as head of production with Los Angeles ' Knxt (Kcbs) and as a producer on 1960s sitcom The Waltons and The Tale of Sweeney Todd, starring Ben Kingsley .
Swanson's credits as production manager include My Father the Hero, starring Gerard Depardieu and Katherine Heigl , and Oscar-winning films Harry and the Hendersons and Witness, starring Harrison Ford .
He is survived by his wife, Jan, two daughters and one son.
