On the first day of 2021, EFSP remembers the stars of the international cinema we had to say farewell to in 2020. Thank you, for your films and postcards. We salute you!
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 42/72. Photo: Schütz / DEFA. Milan Beli in Tecumseh (Hans Kratzert, 1972).
Serbian actor Milan Beli or Milan Bosiljcic passed away on the last day of 2019, at the age of 88. He was best known as the villain in such East-German films as the Eastern Tecumseh (1972), Das Licht auf dem Galgen (1976), and Das Ding im Schloß (1979). He appeared in more than 50 European films.
Dutch postcard by Vara. Photo: Fotoatelier Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. Joost Prinssen as Erik Engerd (Eerie Eric), Wieteke van Dort as Deftige Dame (Posh Lady) and Aart Staartjes as Stratemaker op zee (Bricklayer at sea), in De Stratemaker op zee show/The bricklayer at sea show" (Frans Boelen, Aart Staartjes, 1972).
Dutch actor and TV icon Aart Staartjes is known in The Netherlands for such innovative children's TV classics as De stratenmaker op zee show/The bricklayer at sea show" (1972), De film van ome Willem (1974), J.J. de Bom voorheen: 'De kindervriend' (1979) and the Dutch version of Sesame Street, Sesamstraat. On 10 January, Staartjes was involved in a collision between a car and a quadricycle in Leeuwarden. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died two days later. Aart Staartjes was 81 years old.
French postcard by De Marchi Frères, Marseille. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.
Belgian-born model, singer, and actress Monique Van Vooren gained notoriety for her many celebrity appearances on the game and variety show circuit in the 1950s and 1960s. She became a cult star, best remembered for her role as Baroness Katrin Frankenstein in Flesh for Frankenstein (1973).
Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 7143. Photo: Universal International, 1960. Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).
Cleft-chinned and steely-eyed American superstar Kirk Douglas passed away in Los Angeles, at the age of 103. The legendary actor, producer, and director made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, Westerns, and war films. Our favourites are the two classics he made with Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory (1957), and Spartacus (1960). During his long career, he appeared in more than 90 films.
German postcard by Film und Bild, Frankfurt-Main. Photo: Gaza-Studio.
German film and television actress, singer, and dancer Sonja Ziemann passed away at the age of 94. The delicately lovely, dark-haired, and innocent-looking Ziemann was one of the first stars of Germany's post-war cinema. She starred in film operettas and Heimatfilms as Schwarzwaldmädel/The Black Forest Girl (1950) and Grün ist die Heide/The Heath is Green (1951). Her private life knew several tragedies.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 550/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Unifilman.
One of the last superstars of the silent film era died in 2020. Diana Serra Cary (1918), best known as Baby Peggy passed away in Gustine, California. She was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie. She spent decades coming to terms with a bizarre childhood of triumphs, heartbreaks, and parents who squandered her fortune. Diana Serra Cary was 101.
German autograph card.
German actor, writer, and director Burkhard Driest was known for his roles in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1980), but in Germany, he was best known as a former bank-robber. Hyper-virile, tall, square-shouldered, and rough-faced, he was one of Germany's favourite bad guys.
French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 121. Photo: Lucienne Chevert. Publicity still for Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947).
Vivacious French actress and singer Suzy Delair starred in many different films and was also famous in France as a singer of songs like Avec son Tra-la-la. For several years, the saucy star was the companion of film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, in whose films of the 1940s she appeared, including the masterpiece Quai des Orfèvres/Quay of the Goldsmiths (1947). La Delair was 102.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 270.
Italian actress Lucia Bosé passed away in Brieva, Spain. She died of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19). Bosé was famous for her films from the 1950s with a.o. Giuseppe De Santis and Michelangelo Antonioni. In the same years and after, she also worked with other famous directors such as Juan Bardem, Luis Buñuel, the Taviani brothers, Liliane Cavani, Francesco Rosi, and Ferzan Özpetek. Lucia Bosé was 89.
French postcard by Franceco, Paris, no. 0963013. Image: Editions Albert Rene / Goscinny / Uderzo, 1984. Caption: Goscinny-Uderzo, Le chaudron vide. (The empty cauldron).
The French comic book artist and scriptwriter Albert Uderzo was best known for his work on Astérix. At the age of 92, he died in his sleep at his home in Neuilly from a heart attack unrelated to the coronavirus. Astérix has also become a major film franchise, both in animated and live-action form. Most notable is the feature Astérix & Obélix contre César/Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), starring Christian Clavier, Gerard Depardieu, and Roberto Benigni.
West-German autograph card, 1967. Photo: Philips.
Dutch singer and actress Liesbeth List (1941) was known as the Grande Dame of the Dutch chanson, thanks to songs like 'Pastorale', 'Aan de andere kant van de heuvels' (On the other side of the hills), and 'Kinderen een kwartje' (Children a quarter). She became popular during the 1960s and frequently collaborated with Ramses Shaffy. List sang Jacques Brel's chansons in a Dutch translation, and also acted in a few Dutch films. Liesbeth List was 78.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 172/70, 1970. Photo: Progress. Barbara Rütting in Neues vom Hexer/Again the Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1965).
German film actress, politician and author Barbara Rütting appeared in 50 films between 1952 and 1983. She was a star of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in Canaris (1954) with O. E. Hasse and in Die Letzte Brücke/The Last Bridge (1954) with Maria Schell. In 1961, she played the female lead as a journalist in the American-German film Town Without Pity (1961), co-starring Kirk Douglas and Christine Kaufmann. Later she became a well-known human rights and animal welfare activist, and a politician for The Greens.
British autograph card.
British actress Honor Blackman was best known for playing the Bond girl Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964). Blackman became a household name in the 1960s as Cathy Gale in The Avengers in which she showed an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains, and physical prowess. After a career spanning eight decades, she died of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus, at the age of 94.
Vintage postcard.
French Chanson singer and composer Christophe (1945) a.k.a. Daniel Bevilacqua became famous in the early 1960s with his hits 'Aline' and 'Oh!... Mon Amour' which he sang in French and Italian. He died of complications by the Coronavirus at the age of 74.
Dutch postcard. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American actress Shirley Knight appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and character roles. Knight was nominated twice for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress: for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). She received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in the British film Dutchman (1966). In 1976, Knight won a Tony for 'Kennedy's Children', a play by Robert Patrick. Knight was also nominated eight times for an Emmy (winning three), and she received a Golden Globe.
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 709. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). John Ericson and Pier Angeli in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951).
In the 1950s, John Ericson (1926-2020) was a young an promising star with wavy-haired good looks and an athletic build who made a series of films for MGM, including Teresa (1951) and The Student Prince (1954). Later, the German-American actor worked mostly for television, most memorably as the partner of Anne Francis in Honey West (1965-1966). He was 93.
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Int. Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. 1525. Little Richard performs with his band as his saxophone player Grady Gaines stands on the piano in Mister Rock And Roll (Charles S. Dubin, 1957).
American pianist-singer Little Richard was one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. In the mid-1950s, his dynamic songs like 'Tutti Frutti' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and his charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. Little Richard was 87.
Big East-German collectors card by Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 31/83, 1983.
Michel Piccoli, one of the most original and versatile French actors of the last half-century, died aged 94. He appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to a gangster to Pope in more than 200 films and TV films. Among the directors he worked with are Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Luis Buñuel, and Alfred Hitchcock.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Margarete Redl-von Peinen.
German actress and assistant director Irm Hermann passed away in Berlin after a short illness. She was the muse and a close friend of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and played roles in 24 of his films including Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972). Overall, she appeared in over 160 film and television productions until 2018. Irm Hermann was 77.
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5267. Photo: M.G.M. Promotional picture for her L.P. 'Hits of the blitz'.
Dame Vera Lynn, known as 'the Forces' Sweetheart', passed away at the age of 103. Lynn was a British singer of traditional popular music, songwriter, and actress, whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during the Second World War. The songs most associated with her are 'We'll Meet Again', 'The White Cliffs of Dover', 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square' and 'There'll Always Be an England'. She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television internationally and recording such hits as 'Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart' and 'My Son, My Son'.
German postcard by WS-Druck, no. F 2. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / Bavaria.
German actor Claus Biederstaedt passed away at the age of 91. He was a typical 'sonny boy', the nice & friendly star of the Wirtschaftswunder cinema of the 1950s. With his twinkling eyes, he was the charming and funny young man in many German-language comedies and melodramas and even in some war films.
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano, no. 115.
Argentine-American actress Linda Cristal passed away in her sleep in Beverly Hills. She appeared in a number of Westerns during the 1950s, before winning a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the comedy The Perfect Furlough (1958). From 1967 to 1971, Cristal starred as Victoria Cannon in the popular TV series The High Chaparral, for which she won a Golden Globe Award in 1968. Linda Cristal was 86.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Volker Kimstädt.
The career of German television and film actor Tilo Prückner spanned five decades and more than 100 films. Prückner died of sudden heart failure in Berlin at the age of 79.
Italian postcard by Cineteca Bologna, 2007. Photo: A. Novi / Cineteca di Bologna. Claudia Cardinale in C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968).
Italian film composer Ennio Morricone was a classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships, right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota. Our favourite Morricone music is his score for C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968). He has written nearly 400 film scores. Morricone died in the aftermath of a fall. He was 92.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 797. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Glamorous ballet dancer and film star Zizi Jeanmaire passed away in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. She became famous in the 1950s after playing the title role in the ballet version of 'Carmen', produced in London in 1949. She went on to appear in films in France and Hollywood. She was the widow of dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, one of the major creative forces in ballet during the 1940s and 1950s. Zizi Jeanmaire was 96.
Belgian postcard by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639/24. Photo: Paramount.
Olivia de Havilland (1916), passed away in her hometown Paris. The Japanese-born British-American former actress had a career that spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. She is best known for her early screen performances in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and her later award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949). Olivia de Havilland was 104!
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1428. Photo: Universal International.
John Saxon worked on over 200 film and TV projects during the span of seven decades. His portrayal of a brutal Mexican bandit opposite Marlon Brando in The Appaloosa (1966) earned him a Golden Globe. The Italian-American actor played in many Italian films, mainly in Spaghetti Westerns. The rugged star also kicked around with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and appeared in three Nightmare on Elm Street films for director Wes Craven. John Saxon was 83.
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 388. Photo: Reprise / Disques Vogues.
American singer, guitarist, and actor Trini Lopez died at the age of 87. His first hit was 'If I Had a Hammer' in 1963, which earned him a Golden Disc. His other hits included 'Lemon Tree', 'I'm Comin' Home, Cindy' and 'La Bamba'. He appeared in several films and designed two guitars for the Gibson Guitar Corporation, which are now collectors’ items.
West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1054. Photo: CCC / Allianz / Grimm. Anneliese Kaplan in Der Raub der Sabinerinnen/The Robbery of the Sabine Women (Kurt Hoffmann, 1954).
German actress Anneliese Kaplan played supporting parts in several films during the 1950s. Kaplan was married to the prolific film composer Martin Böttcher. She was 87.
British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 165. Photo: Universal-International.
Beautiful blonde American actress and former model Lori Nelson started acting at the age of 2 and she was Miss Encino at age 17. Nelson played the lead in several Universal films of the 1950s and is best known for her roles in B-films like the 3D fantasy Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Day the World Ended (1955). After several years at Universal, she freelanced in films and TV. She was 87.
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5724.
Belgian actress and singer Annie Cordy was an energetic and zany performer. She starred in more than 30 French film operettas, comedies, and dramas. Cordy made over 300 records, and did 4000 live appearances worldwide, including several memorable concerts at Paris’ most famous venue, L’Olympia. She was 92.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/31. Photo: Fontana.
Gorgeous Anita Lindblom was an iconic Swedish singer and actress, who starred in several Swedish entertainment films. She was one of Sweden’s and Germany’s most popular pop artists of the 1960s. Her hit 'Sånt är livet' (That's life) (1961) is an evergreen in Scandinavia. Lindblom died in Mandelieu-La Napoule, France, where she had been living since 1969.
German postcard by Ludw. Povel & Co, Nordhorn.
Dame Diana Rigg was well known as Emma Peel in the classic TV series The Avengers (1965-1968), and later as Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013-2017). In between, the English actress had an extensive career in film and theatre. Between 1959 and 1964, she performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and won several awards, including a Tony and an Emmy award. In the cinema, she made her mark as Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, the only Bond girl to ever get 007 to the altar, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Diana Rigg was 82.
British postcard by Danjaqand United Artists Corporation. Photo: Eon Productions / Danjaq S.A. Michael Lonsdale in Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979).
French actor Michael Lonsdale (1931), sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, is best known for his role as the villainous Sir Hugo Drax in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979). His other acclaimed films include Day of the Jackal (1973) with Edward Fox, Luis Bunuel's Le fantôme de la liberté (1974), The Name of the Rose (1986) with Sean Connery, and Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005) with Daniel Craig and Mathieu Amalric. In a career lasting over fifty years, Lonsdale appeared in over 200 international films and television shows. Michael Lonsdale was 89.
Big East-German card by VEB Lied der Zeit, Berlin, 1969. Photo: Helmut Raddatz.
French actress and chanson singer Juliette Gréco was the muse of the existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre. Later she became the protégée of film mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast her in his films. She was 93.
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor / Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 58.
American film and television actress Rhonda Fleming (1923-2020) was the 'Queen of Technicolor'. She acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound (1945), Robert Siodmak on The Spiral Staircase (1946), Jacques Tourneur on Out of the Past (1947), and Fritz Lang on While the City Sleeps (1956). She became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. Rhonda Fleming was 97.
Soviet postcard by Izdanie Bjuro Propagandy Sovetskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A05978, 1968. The card was issued in 300,000 copies. Retail price: 8 Kop.
Russian actress Irina Skobtseva (1927) was a famous star of the Soviet cinema. She was the second wife of Sergei Bondarchuk and played Helen Kuragina in his epic film Voyna i mir/War and Peace (1966), a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy. Skobtseva was 93.
American vintage postcard. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Marge Champion was an American dancer and actress. At 14, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney's for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Later, Champion formed a highly successfully dancing team with her husband Gower Champion in many MGM musicals of the 1950s, and in their own TV series. She also became a well-known choreographer. Marge Champion was 101.
American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, N.Y., no. HR 62. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Sean Connery, Hollywood, 1989.
Scottish superstar Sean Connery was the original secret agent 007, starring in seven James Bond films between 1962 and 1983. His film career also included such notable films as Marnie (1964), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Connery won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and also a BAFTA Award. He was 90.
Mexican postcard by Sello, no. 216. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Mexican singer and actress Flor Silvestre was one of the most prominent and successful performers of Mexican and Latin American music and was a star of classic Mexican films. Famous for her melodious voice and unique singing style, she was nicknamed "La Sentimental" (The Sentimental One) and "La Voz Que Acaricia" (The Voice That Caresses). Her more than 70-year career included stage productions, radio programs, records, films, television programs, comics, and rodeo shows.
Yugoslavian postcard by Cik-Razglednica. Photo: Paolo Costa / Playboy, 1969.
American actress Pamela Tiffin was a gorgeous and popular starlet of the 1960s. She was discovered by an associate of Hal B. Wallis in the Paramount commissary and made memorable turns in such films as One, Two, Three (1961), State Fair (1962), The Hallelujah Trail (1965), and Harper (1966). She later starred in many Italian films. Pamela Tiffin was 78 when she died in a Manhattan hospital.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.539, 1966. Retail price: 0,290 MDN. Photo: Hungarofilm. Ildikó Pécsi in Mit csinált Felséged 3-tól 5-ig?/Where Was Your Majesty Between 3 and 5 (Károly Makk, 1964).
Hungarian actress Ildikó Pécsi (1940-2020) passed away on 5 December. Between 1961 and 2015, she appeared in ca. 150 films and TV productions. She was 80.
British postcard by new Perspectives. Photo: BBC. Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell in the TV series Eastenders (1994-2016).
Dame Barbara Windsor, DBE passed away on 10 December. The English actress made her film debut as a schoolgirl in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954). She was known for her appearances in the Carry On films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She joined the cast of EastEnders in 1994 and won the 1999 British Soap Award for Best Actress, before ultimately leaving the show in 2016 when her character was killed off.
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.
On 15 December 2020, French actress Caroline Cellier has passed away. She appeared in such films as Claude Lelouch's La vie, l'amour, la mort/Life Love Death (1969), Claude Chabrol's thriller Que la bête meure/The Beast Must Die (1969), and L'année des méduses/Year of the Jellyfish (1984), for which she won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was married to actor Jean Poiret and their son Nicolas (1978) became a screenwriter. She was 75.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1840, 1963. Robert Hossein in La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958).
On New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2020, French film actor, director, and writer Robert Hossein (1927) has passed. He was generally cast as a tough guy beside gorgeous actresses such as Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, and Marina Vlady. Hossein is most famous though as Michèle Mercier's husband in the wildly popular Angélique film series of the 1960s. He died, one day after his 93rd birthday, of complications from COVID-19.
31 December 2019: Milan Beli (1931-2019)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 42/72. Photo: Schütz / DEFA. Milan Beli in Tecumseh (Hans Kratzert, 1972).
Serbian actor Milan Beli or Milan Bosiljcic passed away on the last day of 2019, at the age of 88. He was best known as the villain in such East-German films as the Eastern Tecumseh (1972), Das Licht auf dem Galgen (1976), and Das Ding im Schloß (1979). He appeared in more than 50 European films.
12 January 2020: Aart Staartjes (1938-2020)
Dutch postcard by Vara. Photo: Fotoatelier Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. Joost Prinssen as Erik Engerd (Eerie Eric), Wieteke van Dort as Deftige Dame (Posh Lady) and Aart Staartjes as Stratemaker op zee (Bricklayer at sea), in De Stratemaker op zee show/The bricklayer at sea show" (Frans Boelen, Aart Staartjes, 1972).
Dutch actor and TV icon Aart Staartjes is known in The Netherlands for such innovative children's TV classics as De stratenmaker op zee show/The bricklayer at sea show" (1972), De film van ome Willem (1974), J.J. de Bom voorheen: 'De kindervriend' (1979) and the Dutch version of Sesame Street, Sesamstraat. On 10 January, Staartjes was involved in a collision between a car and a quadricycle in Leeuwarden. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died two days later. Aart Staartjes was 81 years old.
28 January: Monique Van Vooren (1927-2020)
French postcard by De Marchi Frères, Marseille. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.
Belgian-born model, singer, and actress Monique Van Vooren gained notoriety for her many celebrity appearances on the game and variety show circuit in the 1950s and 1960s. She became a cult star, best remembered for her role as Baroness Katrin Frankenstein in Flesh for Frankenstein (1973).
5 February: Kirk Douglas (1916-2020)
Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 7143. Photo: Universal International, 1960. Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).
Cleft-chinned and steely-eyed American superstar Kirk Douglas passed away in Los Angeles, at the age of 103. The legendary actor, producer, and director made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, Westerns, and war films. Our favourites are the two classics he made with Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory (1957), and Spartacus (1960). During his long career, he appeared in more than 90 films.
17 February: Sonja Ziemann (1926-2020)
German postcard by Film und Bild, Frankfurt-Main. Photo: Gaza-Studio.
German film and television actress, singer, and dancer Sonja Ziemann passed away at the age of 94. The delicately lovely, dark-haired, and innocent-looking Ziemann was one of the first stars of Germany's post-war cinema. She starred in film operettas and Heimatfilms as Schwarzwaldmädel/The Black Forest Girl (1950) and Grün ist die Heide/The Heath is Green (1951). Her private life knew several tragedies.
24 February: Baby Peggy (1918-2020)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 550/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Unifilman.
One of the last superstars of the silent film era died in 2020. Diana Serra Cary (1918), best known as Baby Peggy passed away in Gustine, California. She was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie. She spent decades coming to terms with a bizarre childhood of triumphs, heartbreaks, and parents who squandered her fortune. Diana Serra Cary was 101.
27 February: Burkhard Driest (1939-2020)
German autograph card.
German actor, writer, and director Burkhard Driest was known for his roles in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1980), but in Germany, he was best known as a former bank-robber. Hyper-virile, tall, square-shouldered, and rough-faced, he was one of Germany's favourite bad guys.
15 March: Suzy Delair (1917-2020)
French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 121. Photo: Lucienne Chevert. Publicity still for Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947).
Vivacious French actress and singer Suzy Delair starred in many different films and was also famous in France as a singer of songs like Avec son Tra-la-la. For several years, the saucy star was the companion of film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, in whose films of the 1940s she appeared, including the masterpiece Quai des Orfèvres/Quay of the Goldsmiths (1947). La Delair was 102.
23 March: Lucia Bosé (1931-2020)
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 270.
Italian actress Lucia Bosé passed away in Brieva, Spain. She died of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19). Bosé was famous for her films from the 1950s with a.o. Giuseppe De Santis and Michelangelo Antonioni. In the same years and after, she also worked with other famous directors such as Juan Bardem, Luis Buñuel, the Taviani brothers, Liliane Cavani, Francesco Rosi, and Ferzan Özpetek. Lucia Bosé was 89.
24 March: Albert Uderzo (1927-2020)
French postcard by Franceco, Paris, no. 0963013. Image: Editions Albert Rene / Goscinny / Uderzo, 1984. Caption: Goscinny-Uderzo, Le chaudron vide. (The empty cauldron).
The French comic book artist and scriptwriter Albert Uderzo was best known for his work on Astérix. At the age of 92, he died in his sleep at his home in Neuilly from a heart attack unrelated to the coronavirus. Astérix has also become a major film franchise, both in animated and live-action form. Most notable is the feature Astérix & Obélix contre César/Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), starring Christian Clavier, Gerard Depardieu, and Roberto Benigni.
25 March: Liesbeth List (1941-2020)
West-German autograph card, 1967. Photo: Philips.
Dutch singer and actress Liesbeth List (1941) was known as the Grande Dame of the Dutch chanson, thanks to songs like 'Pastorale', 'Aan de andere kant van de heuvels' (On the other side of the hills), and 'Kinderen een kwartje' (Children a quarter). She became popular during the 1960s and frequently collaborated with Ramses Shaffy. List sang Jacques Brel's chansons in a Dutch translation, and also acted in a few Dutch films. Liesbeth List was 78.
28 March: Barbara Rütting (1927-2020)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 172/70, 1970. Photo: Progress. Barbara Rütting in Neues vom Hexer/Again the Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1965).
German film actress, politician and author Barbara Rütting appeared in 50 films between 1952 and 1983. She was a star of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in Canaris (1954) with O. E. Hasse and in Die Letzte Brücke/The Last Bridge (1954) with Maria Schell. In 1961, she played the female lead as a journalist in the American-German film Town Without Pity (1961), co-starring Kirk Douglas and Christine Kaufmann. Later she became a well-known human rights and animal welfare activist, and a politician for The Greens.
6 April: Honor Blackman (1925-2020)
British autograph card.
British actress Honor Blackman was best known for playing the Bond girl Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964). Blackman became a household name in the 1960s as Cathy Gale in The Avengers in which she showed an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains, and physical prowess. After a career spanning eight decades, she died of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus, at the age of 94.
16 April: Christophe (1945-2020)
Vintage postcard.
French Chanson singer and composer Christophe (1945) a.k.a. Daniel Bevilacqua became famous in the early 1960s with his hits 'Aline' and 'Oh!... Mon Amour' which he sang in French and Italian. He died of complications by the Coronavirus at the age of 74.
22 April: Shirley Knight (1936-2020)
Dutch postcard. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American actress Shirley Knight appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and character roles. Knight was nominated twice for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress: for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). She received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in the British film Dutchman (1966). In 1976, Knight won a Tony for 'Kennedy's Children', a play by Robert Patrick. Knight was also nominated eight times for an Emmy (winning three), and she received a Golden Globe.
2 May: John Ericson (1926-2020)
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 709. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). John Ericson and Pier Angeli in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951).
In the 1950s, John Ericson (1926-2020) was a young an promising star with wavy-haired good looks and an athletic build who made a series of films for MGM, including Teresa (1951) and The Student Prince (1954). Later, the German-American actor worked mostly for television, most memorably as the partner of Anne Francis in Honey West (1965-1966). He was 93.
9 May: Little Richard (1932-2020)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Int. Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. 1525. Little Richard performs with his band as his saxophone player Grady Gaines stands on the piano in Mister Rock And Roll (Charles S. Dubin, 1957).
American pianist-singer Little Richard was one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. In the mid-1950s, his dynamic songs like 'Tutti Frutti' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and his charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. Little Richard was 87.
12 May: Michel Piccoli (1925-2020)
Big East-German collectors card by Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 31/83, 1983.
Michel Piccoli, one of the most original and versatile French actors of the last half-century, died aged 94. He appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to a gangster to Pope in more than 200 films and TV films. Among the directors he worked with are Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Luis Buñuel, and Alfred Hitchcock.
26 May: Irm Hermann (1942-2020)
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Margarete Redl-von Peinen.
German actress and assistant director Irm Hermann passed away in Berlin after a short illness. She was the muse and a close friend of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and played roles in 24 of his films including Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972). Overall, she appeared in over 160 film and television productions until 2018. Irm Hermann was 77.
18 June: Vera Lynn (1917-2020)
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5267. Photo: M.G.M. Promotional picture for her L.P. 'Hits of the blitz'.
Dame Vera Lynn, known as 'the Forces' Sweetheart', passed away at the age of 103. Lynn was a British singer of traditional popular music, songwriter, and actress, whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during the Second World War. The songs most associated with her are 'We'll Meet Again', 'The White Cliffs of Dover', 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square' and 'There'll Always Be an England'. She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television internationally and recording such hits as 'Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart' and 'My Son, My Son'.
18 June: Claus Biederstaedt (1928-2020)
German postcard by WS-Druck, no. F 2. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / Bavaria.
German actor Claus Biederstaedt passed away at the age of 91. He was a typical 'sonny boy', the nice & friendly star of the Wirtschaftswunder cinema of the 1950s. With his twinkling eyes, he was the charming and funny young man in many German-language comedies and melodramas and even in some war films.
27 June: Linda Cristal (1934-2020)
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano, no. 115.
Argentine-American actress Linda Cristal passed away in her sleep in Beverly Hills. She appeared in a number of Westerns during the 1950s, before winning a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the comedy The Perfect Furlough (1958). From 1967 to 1971, Cristal starred as Victoria Cannon in the popular TV series The High Chaparral, for which she won a Golden Globe Award in 1968. Linda Cristal was 86.
2 July: Tilo Prückner (1940-2020)
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Volker Kimstädt.
The career of German television and film actor Tilo Prückner spanned five decades and more than 100 films. Prückner died of sudden heart failure in Berlin at the age of 79.
6 July: Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
Italian postcard by Cineteca Bologna, 2007. Photo: A. Novi / Cineteca di Bologna. Claudia Cardinale in C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968).
Italian film composer Ennio Morricone was a classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships, right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota. Our favourite Morricone music is his score for C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968). He has written nearly 400 film scores. Morricone died in the aftermath of a fall. He was 92.
17 July: Zizi Jeanmaire (1924-2020)
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 797. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Glamorous ballet dancer and film star Zizi Jeanmaire passed away in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. She became famous in the 1950s after playing the title role in the ballet version of 'Carmen', produced in London in 1949. She went on to appear in films in France and Hollywood. She was the widow of dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, one of the major creative forces in ballet during the 1940s and 1950s. Zizi Jeanmaire was 96.
25 July: Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020)
Belgian postcard by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639/24. Photo: Paramount.
Olivia de Havilland (1916), passed away in her hometown Paris. The Japanese-born British-American former actress had a career that spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. She is best known for her early screen performances in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and her later award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949). Olivia de Havilland was 104!
25 July: John Saxon (1935-2020)
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1428. Photo: Universal International.
John Saxon worked on over 200 film and TV projects during the span of seven decades. His portrayal of a brutal Mexican bandit opposite Marlon Brando in The Appaloosa (1966) earned him a Golden Globe. The Italian-American actor played in many Italian films, mainly in Spaghetti Westerns. The rugged star also kicked around with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and appeared in three Nightmare on Elm Street films for director Wes Craven. John Saxon was 83.
11 August: Trini Lopez (1933-2020)
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 388. Photo: Reprise / Disques Vogues.
American singer, guitarist, and actor Trini Lopez died at the age of 87. His first hit was 'If I Had a Hammer' in 1963, which earned him a Golden Disc. His other hits included 'Lemon Tree', 'I'm Comin' Home, Cindy' and 'La Bamba'. He appeared in several films and designed two guitars for the Gibson Guitar Corporation, which are now collectors’ items.
11 August: Anneliese Kaplan (1933-2020)
West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1054. Photo: CCC / Allianz / Grimm. Anneliese Kaplan in Der Raub der Sabinerinnen/The Robbery of the Sabine Women (Kurt Hoffmann, 1954).
German actress Anneliese Kaplan played supporting parts in several films during the 1950s. Kaplan was married to the prolific film composer Martin Böttcher. She was 87.
23 August: Lori Nelson (1933-2020)
British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 165. Photo: Universal-International.
Beautiful blonde American actress and former model Lori Nelson started acting at the age of 2 and she was Miss Encino at age 17. Nelson played the lead in several Universal films of the 1950s and is best known for her roles in B-films like the 3D fantasy Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Day the World Ended (1955). After several years at Universal, she freelanced in films and TV. She was 87.
4 September: Annie Cordy (1928-2020)
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5724.
Belgian actress and singer Annie Cordy was an energetic and zany performer. She starred in more than 30 French film operettas, comedies, and dramas. Cordy made over 300 records, and did 4000 live appearances worldwide, including several memorable concerts at Paris’ most famous venue, L’Olympia. She was 92.
6 September: Anita Lindblom (1937-2020)
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/31. Photo: Fontana.
Gorgeous Anita Lindblom was an iconic Swedish singer and actress, who starred in several Swedish entertainment films. She was one of Sweden’s and Germany’s most popular pop artists of the 1960s. Her hit 'Sånt är livet' (That's life) (1961) is an evergreen in Scandinavia. Lindblom died in Mandelieu-La Napoule, France, where she had been living since 1969.
10 September: Diana Rigg (1938-2020)
German postcard by Ludw. Povel & Co, Nordhorn.
Dame Diana Rigg was well known as Emma Peel in the classic TV series The Avengers (1965-1968), and later as Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013-2017). In between, the English actress had an extensive career in film and theatre. Between 1959 and 1964, she performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and won several awards, including a Tony and an Emmy award. In the cinema, she made her mark as Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, the only Bond girl to ever get 007 to the altar, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Diana Rigg was 82.
21 September: Michael Lonsdale (1931-2020)
British postcard by Danjaqand United Artists Corporation. Photo: Eon Productions / Danjaq S.A. Michael Lonsdale in Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979).
French actor Michael Lonsdale (1931), sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, is best known for his role as the villainous Sir Hugo Drax in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979). His other acclaimed films include Day of the Jackal (1973) with Edward Fox, Luis Bunuel's Le fantôme de la liberté (1974), The Name of the Rose (1986) with Sean Connery, and Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005) with Daniel Craig and Mathieu Amalric. In a career lasting over fifty years, Lonsdale appeared in over 200 international films and television shows. Michael Lonsdale was 89.
23 September: Juliette Gréco (1927-2020)
Big East-German card by VEB Lied der Zeit, Berlin, 1969. Photo: Helmut Raddatz.
French actress and chanson singer Juliette Gréco was the muse of the existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre. Later she became the protégée of film mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast her in his films. She was 93.
14 October: Rhonda Fleming (1923-2020)
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor / Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 58.
American film and television actress Rhonda Fleming (1923-2020) was the 'Queen of Technicolor'. She acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound (1945), Robert Siodmak on The Spiral Staircase (1946), Jacques Tourneur on Out of the Past (1947), and Fritz Lang on While the City Sleeps (1956). She became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. Rhonda Fleming was 97.
20 October: Irina Skobtseva (1927-2020)
Soviet postcard by Izdanie Bjuro Propagandy Sovetskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A05978, 1968. The card was issued in 300,000 copies. Retail price: 8 Kop.
Russian actress Irina Skobtseva (1927) was a famous star of the Soviet cinema. She was the second wife of Sergei Bondarchuk and played Helen Kuragina in his epic film Voyna i mir/War and Peace (1966), a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy. Skobtseva was 93.
21 October: Marge Champion (1919-2020)
American vintage postcard. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Marge Champion was an American dancer and actress. At 14, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney's for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Later, Champion formed a highly successfully dancing team with her husband Gower Champion in many MGM musicals of the 1950s, and in their own TV series. She also became a well-known choreographer. Marge Champion was 101.
31 October 2020: Sean Connery (1930-2020)
American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, N.Y., no. HR 62. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Sean Connery, Hollywood, 1989.
Scottish superstar Sean Connery was the original secret agent 007, starring in seven James Bond films between 1962 and 1983. His film career also included such notable films as Marnie (1964), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Connery won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and also a BAFTA Award. He was 90.
26 November: Flor Silvestre (1930-2020)
Mexican postcard by Sello, no. 216. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Mexican singer and actress Flor Silvestre was one of the most prominent and successful performers of Mexican and Latin American music and was a star of classic Mexican films. Famous for her melodious voice and unique singing style, she was nicknamed "La Sentimental" (The Sentimental One) and "La Voz Que Acaricia" (The Voice That Caresses). Her more than 70-year career included stage productions, radio programs, records, films, television programs, comics, and rodeo shows.
2 December: Pamela Tiffin (1942-2020)
Yugoslavian postcard by Cik-Razglednica. Photo: Paolo Costa / Playboy, 1969.
American actress Pamela Tiffin was a gorgeous and popular starlet of the 1960s. She was discovered by an associate of Hal B. Wallis in the Paramount commissary and made memorable turns in such films as One, Two, Three (1961), State Fair (1962), The Hallelujah Trail (1965), and Harper (1966). She later starred in many Italian films. Pamela Tiffin was 78 when she died in a Manhattan hospital.
5 december: Ildikó Pécsi (1940–2020)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.539, 1966. Retail price: 0,290 MDN. Photo: Hungarofilm. Ildikó Pécsi in Mit csinált Felséged 3-tól 5-ig?/Where Was Your Majesty Between 3 and 5 (Károly Makk, 1964).
Hungarian actress Ildikó Pécsi (1940-2020) passed away on 5 December. Between 1961 and 2015, she appeared in ca. 150 films and TV productions. She was 80.
10 December: Barbara Windsor (1937-2020)
British postcard by new Perspectives. Photo: BBC. Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell in the TV series Eastenders (1994-2016).
Dame Barbara Windsor, DBE passed away on 10 December. The English actress made her film debut as a schoolgirl in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954). She was known for her appearances in the Carry On films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She joined the cast of EastEnders in 1994 and won the 1999 British Soap Award for Best Actress, before ultimately leaving the show in 2016 when her character was killed off.
15 December: Caroline Cellier (1945-2020)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.
On 15 December 2020, French actress Caroline Cellier has passed away. She appeared in such films as Claude Lelouch's La vie, l'amour, la mort/Life Love Death (1969), Claude Chabrol's thriller Que la bête meure/The Beast Must Die (1969), and L'année des méduses/Year of the Jellyfish (1984), for which she won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was married to actor Jean Poiret and their son Nicolas (1978) became a screenwriter. She was 75.
31 December: Robert Hossein (1927-2020)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1840, 1963. Robert Hossein in La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958).
On New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2020, French film actor, director, and writer Robert Hossein (1927) has passed. He was generally cast as a tough guy beside gorgeous actresses such as Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, and Marina Vlady. Hossein is most famous though as Michèle Mercier's husband in the wildly popular Angélique film series of the 1960s. He died, one day after his 93rd birthday, of complications from COVID-19.
May you all rest in peace.
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