Entertainment

Actor James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther on Friends, has lost his battle with prostate cancer. He was 59.

Friends producer Kevin Bright tweeted the news on Sunday, writing, “James Michael Tyler Our Gunther passed away last night. He was an incredible person who spent his final days helping others. God bless you James, Gunther lives forever.”

The official Friends Twitter account also posted a tribute, writing, “Warner Bros. Television mourns the loss of James Michael Tyler, a beloved actor and integral part of our FRIENDS family. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues and fans.”

Earlier this year, Tyler revealed to NBC’s Today show that his fight against the illness left his lower body paralyzed, keeping him from participating in the recent HBO Max Friends reunion in person. He did appear via a video greeting. 

The actor told Today the cancer was at stage 4, and had spread to his bones. “So eventually, you know, it’s gonna probably get me,” he said.

He also explained his cancer worsened during the pandemic last year.

“I missed going in for a test, which was not a good thing,” he explained. “So the cancer decided to mutate at the time of the pandemic, and so it’s progressed.”

Some time ago, Tyler told ABC Audio he was “grateful” his character left such an impression on the sitcom.

“I got there, started with one word, and really no storyline whatsoever. You got to say ‘Yeah,'” he recalled.

“I believe the whole like ‘Gunther’s unrequited love for Rachel’ was only supposed to be about one or two episodes, but they kept that story arc for 10 years, which I’m very grateful for.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lennie James has played Morgan Jones in The Walking Dead universe starting from the show’s pilot in 2010, and reappeared many times before transitioning to the spin-off show Fear The Walking Dead. 

Nobody’s more surprised by that than Lennie, he tells ABC Audio. “I started out just doing one episode and I’m not sure people believe me when I tell them that it genuinely was just one episode.”

James explains he was surprised when producer Gale Ann Hurd wanted him to be a permanent part of the series, but as a busy character actor, he wasn’t always available.

In Fear The Walking Dead, his character is now pitted against Colman Domingo‘s Strand, who has morphed from reluctant hero to formidable, megalomaniacal opponent.

“If someone had told me at the beginning that this is where it was going to go, I would have said I don’t believe it,” James noted. “It’s kind of snuck up on me and taken me by surprise.”

The journey of James’ character has taken Morgan from a mourning husband bent on revenge to a Zenned-out-seeming samurai-like figure, to something quite different nowadays.

“At each point there has been a new challenge, each point there’s been something that has been worth taking on and worth seeing what it was like with this guy,” he explains. “And he’s he’s never really kind of stopped challenging me, stopped surprising me and stopped interesting me, which is why I’m still here. I suppose doing it.”  

Fear The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC, and streams anytime on the AMC app.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Halyna Hutchins, a well-admired cinematographer who was blazing a new path for women in her field, was killed Thursday in a tragic accident on the set of the film Rust in New Mexico.

Alec Baldwin fired the shot from the prop gun that left Hutchins dead and the film’s director, Joel Souza, injured. A source tells ABC News that Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, spoke with Baldwin, who has been very supportive.  Meanwhile, colleagues rushed to social media to mourn the 42-year-old artist. 

“I think she was going to be a very famous, very successful DP,” director Adam Egypt Mortimer, who worked with Hutchins on the 2020 film, Archenemy, told the Los Angeles Times. “She was showing people what she could do.”

Hutchins was remembered by colleagues for breaking barriers for women in Hollywood’s male-dominated cinematography sector. Fellow cinematographer Elle Schneider paid tribute to Hutchins on Twitter Friday, remembering her as a “friend and rockstar cinematographer.”

“Women cinematographers have historically been kept from genre film, and it seems especially cruel that one of the rising stars who was able to break through had her life cut short on the kind of project we’ve been fighting for,” Schneider wrote.

Joe Manganiello, who also worked with Hutchins on Archenemy, called the DP “an absolutely incredible talent and a great person.”

“…She was the kind of cinematographer that you wanted to see succeed because you wanted to see what she could pull off next,” he recalled.

Hutchins was born in Ukraine and grew up on a “Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines,” according to a biography on her website, which also says she began her career as an investigative journalist on documentary productions before moving to Los Angeles.

Sick and devastated to hear that my friend and rockstar cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set today in New Mexico. I don’t have words to describe this tragedy. I want answers. I want her family to somehow find peace among this horrific, horrific loss. pic.twitter.com/ElAQNMuQvR

— 𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖊 𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖉𝖊𝖗 🕷️🕸️ (@elleschneider) October 22, 2021

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by JOE MANGANIELLO (@joemanganiello)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sunday night’s episode of CBS’ SEAL Team, “Nine Ten,” takes a look back at the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, through the eyes of David Boreanaz‘s Jason Hayes and his fellow team members. 

The episode takes place both in the present day, and via flashbacks showing where they all were before that terrible day 20 years ago. The cast assembled at the 9/11 Memorial for part of the episode.

“One of the things that hit me hard at the site, we were the first show to shoot down there at Ground Zero, was talking to a few officers that were present during that time,” Boreanaz tells ABC Audio. 

“And the stories, some of the stories that they were telling were not only hard to hear, but hard to understand and comprehend that that energy,” Boreanaz continues. [W]here they were that day, and what was happening around them. The sounds, the sights. Very disturbing. Words are hard to put into place with this one.”

He adds, “Being there and shooting this show really was about remembering the lives that were lost that day, right, 20 years ago. Sure, we’re a show that it can examine that where were these characters 20 years ago, why they got into the fight on terror, which is great storytelling. But being there and remembering and honoring that was something else. And man…It was very impactful.”

One of the challenges was finding actors who could play Borenanz’s character and others at that point in their lives. “Trying to find Jason Hayes was difficult, but the kid who played him was great and it was fun to talk to him and kind of see where he was coming from,” Boreanaz says.

He calls “Nine Ten” a “very special episode.”  

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

As Kandi Burruss prepares for the second birthday of her daughter Blaze next month, she’s looking back at the trauma of Blaze’s birth via a surrogate.

Blaze was one of twin embryos, and the Real Housewives of Atlanta star remembers the emotional moment when she found out one of the twins didn’t make it after the embryo transfer to their surrogate.

“We were super happy, obviously, that she was pregnant. Then, you know, they did the scan and we were super, super excited ’cause both embryos took initially,” Burruss said this week on People‘s Me Becoming Mom podcast. “Then, a few weeks later one of them, I don’t know what they call it, but it went away. So we lost one of them.”

After the joy of the pregnancy, it was a painful time for Burruss.

“I was super sad because, once again, we’re thinking that we might have twins, and then they tell us, ‘Yes, both of them are there.’ Then we’re all happy, excited,” the 45-year-old entertainer explains. “The numbers were going up, and then they stopped going up. Then you’re sitting there praying, hoping that something is going to change. And it didn’t change.”

The Xscape member and her husband, Todd Tucker, also have a son, Ace Wells, 5, plus Kandi has a daughter, Riley, 17, from a previous relationship.

Blaze is her first child via a surrogate, and she says the process has not affected her ability to have a special relationship with her.

“I guess [the] initial thinking is, like, just because somebody doesn’t physically have their baby that they won’t be able to have that same bond as a mother who physically pushed the baby out,” she says. “If you ever had a doubt in your mind — that is not true.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Shannon Lee, the sister of Brandon Lee, late son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, has weighed in on the fatal firearm accident Thursday that took the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. 

The camerawoman was fatally injured on the set when Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger on a prop firearm on the set of the Western Rust. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was also injured.

Brandon Lee was mortally wounded by a prop revolver in 1993, on the set of The Crow.

“Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on ‘Rust'” reads the post on Lee’s account, which is managed by his sister.

“No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period,” the post concludes, with a broken heart emoji. 

An investigation is underway as to what went wrong on Rust‘s New Mexico set. 

The New Mexico Film Office released a statement Friday, reading, “We along with the entire film community in New Mexico are saddened by the tragedy that happened on the set of Rust, yesterday. We send our deepest condolences to the family of Ms. Halyna Hutchins and are keeping positive thoughts for a complete recovery for Mr. Joel Souza. The safety and well-being of all cast, crew, and filmmakers in New Mexico is a top priority at all times.”

Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on “Rust”. No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period. 💔

— Brandon Bruce Lee (@brandonblee) October 22, 2021

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Actor Peter Scolari, who played Tom Hanks‘ roommate in Bosom Buddies and also starred in the sitcom Newhart,and the acclaimed HBO show Girls, has died after a battle with cancer. 

Ellen Lubin Sanitsky at Wright Entertainment confirmed the news to ABC Audio. Scolari was 66. 

The veteran of stage and screen played Henry Desmond opposite Hanks’ Kip Wilson in Bosom Buddies, a show whose conceit was that the friends could only find an affordable apartment in a woman’s dormitory, leading them to take on the personas of the female characters Hildegarde and Buffy, respectively. The ABC show ran from 1980 to 1982.

Scolari then landed a role on Bob Newhart‘s series Newhart, which ran from 1982 to 1990, playing an uptight TV producer, and earning three Emmy nominations in the process. 

In 2016, the actor took home an Emmy for his guest turn in HBO’s Girls as the father of show star and creator Lena Dunham‘s character.

Over the years, Scolari remained close with Hanks, who cast him in his 2006 directorial debut, That Thing You Do!, and the pair also reunited on the stage in the 2013 Nora Ephron play Lucky Guy.

Scolari also appeared on a host of other TV shows, most recently in a recurring role as Bishop Thomas Marx in the supernatural CBS series Evil. 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Alec Baldwin has posted to social media about the deadly firearms mishap Thursday that killed a cinematographer who was shooting Baldwin’s movie, Rust, in New Mexico. 

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin tweeted. 

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna,” Baldwin concluded.

Officials are still investigating what went wrong on the New Mexico set in the incident, which also left the movie’s director, Joel Souza, injured.  The incident occurred when Baldwin discharged a pistol on the set under circumstances that haven’t been publicly specified.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Alec Baldwin (@alecbaldwininsta)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Chicago hip hop stars Chance the Rapper and Common are calling upon the state of Illinois to reinstate the parole system that was abolished in 1978, which allowed for more discretion in granting parole to inmates serving life sentences.

The pair joined parole advocates at a news conference Wednesday outside of Cook County jail in the Windy City. Chance recalled when he performed for a group of incarcerated men who were graduating with bachelor’s degrees at Stateville prison in Joliet, Illinois in 2019, and seeing them shackled during his show.

“We need to understand incarceration for what it is, it’s torture,” the three-time Grammy winner said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We need to start pushing and transforming our criminal justice system and sentencing laws with this reality in mind. That means pushing for policies like parole.”

“We need a criminal justice system that reflects the values we want to see in this world — compassion, care, restorative justice and transformative justice,” he added.

House Bill 2399 and Senate Bill 2333 both would provide an opportunity for prisoners serving life sentences to go before a parole board after serving 20 years.

Common talked about how focusing on reducing prison populations could help reduce violence on the streets of Chicago.

“I met some of the most enlightened and inspiring people in prison,” said the Oscar and Grammy winner, who
fights for criminal justice reform through the non profit Imagine Justice organization he founded in 2018.

“One gentleman said to me, ‘Imagine being trapped in one act for the rest of your life, the worst for the rest of your life.’ I’ve thought about that. If that happened for me, I wouldn’t be up here with you all.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Squid Game has become a pop culture phenomenon, with huge — and unexpected — ratings for Netflix, and even a spoof last week on SNL. Its surprise success has also led to surprise stardom for its oldest cast member. 

Seventy-seven-year-old Oh Young Soo plays Player 001 in the series, and his affecting performance as the terminally ill, dementia-addled man has his phone ringing off the hook with new acting offers. 

According to the pop culture site Soompi, the actor told the Korean show How Do You Play, “So many people have been contacting me, and because I don’t have a manager to help me, it’s hard for me to handle the volume of calls and messages I’ve been receiving. So my daughter has been helping me.”

“I feel like I’m floating on air,” the actor admitted. “It makes me think, ‘I need to calm down, organize my thoughts, and hold myself back right now.'”

The actor, who was interviewed by the show’s host Yoo Jae Suk and Mijoo from the K-Pop group Lovelyz, explained, “Things have changed quite a bit. Even when I go out to a cafe or somewhere like that, I now have to be aware of [how I appear to others]. It’s made me think, ‘Being famous is tough, too.'”

Young Soo reflected, “I don’t have any grand ambitions,” adding, “Big or small, I’ve received a lot of things while living my life. Now, I want to leave behind those things that I’ve received.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.