James Gandolfini

Gone far too young at 51, Gandolfini has meant a great deal to me since I discovered him as a teenage character actor. there isn't much I could say that isn't covered in his episode of Inside the Actor's Studio, embedded below.

He was in Italy on vacation in advance of a planned appearance and masterclass at the Taormina Film Festival.  He leaves behind a wife and an infant daughter. He had a pile of projects in the hopper. Deadline's Mike Fleming has written a wonderful piece about his years following and covering Gandolfini.

We've lost a great actor and a good man, based on everything said by anyone I know who worked with him in any capacity.

We've also lost one of the greatest actors to repeatedly work with (and be championed by) Tony Scott.

If you missed Not Fade Away  last year, or have never seen The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, In the Loop, or especially The Last Castle , you can't go wrong with any of them. If you only know him from The Sopranos , you may not be fully aware of the broad range of nuance and humanity found across his entire filmography. I'm most selfishly sad that I never saw him perform on stage. If there exists a bootleg of him in God of Carnage , I don't have nor know about it.  

A tremendously sad, left-field bit of tragedy hit yesterday. The acting world is a dimmer place ever since. 

Stephen Fry and Mark Rylance in TWELFTH NIGHT

Rylance is Olivia, and Fry is Malvolio. I wish this were already booked for American screenings. All they have on the website are UK/Ireland, Australia/New Zealand, and a few dates in Asia.

Here's the trailer. 

Richard Fallon

I met the Emeritus Dean of FSU's School of Theatre shortly after moving to Tallahassee for college. I never took a class from "Mr. Theatre", since he stopped actively teaching before I could. He would lecture in All School meetings. I saw him do these talks with fervor and power as recently as 2006, the same year in which he came to see me in a hybrid radio theatre production of David Mamet's The Water Engine. He was my neighbor when I lived down the street in a house full of Acting majors. When I directed my first real play for the local community theatre, he gave me insightful notes after seeing it for the first time. He asked me and dozens of others to help him get a production of 110 in the Shade off the ground at any theater anywhere in town.

Dick Fallon started his career as a kid, and encouraged generations of artists to hold on to a childlike sense of wonder:

In his childhood, Fallon starred in the radio show, "Dick Armstrong, All-American Boy." Later, as a Fulbright scholar in England, he was influenced by the British repertory theater system and subsequently made it his mission to build a bridge between university theater and professional theater. In addition to establishing the conservatory here, he founded FSU outreach programs at the Jekyll Island Music Theatre in Georgia and the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training in Jupiter.

"His radio persona was his persona in life," said Thomas. "He was the great enthusiast, the can-do-anything All-American boy. And he devoted his life to making theater available to everyone."