Neil Cohen, November 13, 1963 - December 8, 2012

Dear Movie Dearest readers:

It is with deep sadness that I must report the untimely death of Neil Cohen, my longtime friend and fellow writer/critic/movie fan.

Neil, who wrote about film and theater for Phoenix's Echo Magazine for almost 20 years, started contributing his Reel Thoughts reviews and interviews to my blog Movie Dearest in 2008, and his pieces always sparkled with the patented "Neil Cohen wit". Neil, who was a member of the Phoenix Film Critics Society and the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, counted among his favorite films such Movie Dearest classics as Carrie, Grease, Hairspray, The Parent Trap, Serial Mom and Showgirls.

Over the past few years, Neil gave us great interviews with such stars of stage and screen and GLBT faves as Betty Buckley, Charles Busch, Lynda Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Christine Ebersole, Leslie Jordan, Stacy Keach, Patti LuPone, Terrence McNally, Julianne Moore, Bebe Neuwirth, Coco Peru, Carrie Preston, Mark Ruffalo, Chita Rivera, Christopher Sieber, Mink Stole, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei (pictured with Neil, above) and, his final piece for Movie Dearest, Broadway legend Bernadette Peters.

In addition to his role as film critic, Neil was a playwright, stage director and actor extraordinaire. His many brilliant performances (as both male and female characters) included those seen in The Bad Seed, La Cage aux Folles, The Maids, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, SantaLand Diaries, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and his own, long-running murder mystery dinner theater production Murder by Proxy.

As befitting a lifelong lover of theater, Neil suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday night while performing in a play. He passed doing what he loved.

Please join me and my fellow Movie Dearest contributor Chris Carpenter in expressing heartfelt condolences to Neil's family and his boyfriend Chuck. We will all miss his joy, his humor, his Oscar parties, his Suzanne Pleshette impersonation; we love you Neil, now and forever.

-- Kirby Holt
Creator and Editor of Movie Dearest

"A hickie from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card"

Loved him in Grease.  Rest in peace, Jeff Conaway.


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Strangers on a Train: RIP Farley Granger

Farley Granger (1925-2011)

Sixty years ago, Farley Granger blessed us with what is probably his most famous and memorable role, that of the innocent stranger to Robert Walker's psychotic stranger who met each other on a train in Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 thriller   aptly titled   Strangers on a Train.  Though one must admit, Walker walks away with the film, Granger nevertheless mastered the stoic hero role with grace and precision.  It's the sort of invisible role which Christian Bale praised Mark Walhberg for doing in The Fighter, and that Bale himself has done numerous times.  In Hollywood, unfortunately, such strong roles aren't given much praise, but Granger never seemed to bore of them.

Granger with the
Master of Suspense

It's certainly sad when a celebrity dies, sadder more when most general film-goers don't know the name.  But I find whenever a star like Granger passes, it reminds me how much quality work they've done, and I inevitably begin returning to their work and discovering hidden gems.  I can only hope I get the opportunity to do this with Granger (I've embarrassingly never seen the likes of Rope or Senso, but now they've turned into priorities).

If anything, maybe Granger's passing will get people to discover his work, and especially Strangers on a Train, which is far and away one of Hitchcock's most underrated works (sure, people recognize it, but sadly not on the level of Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca, or North by Northwest).  It's a brilliant film, his most suspenseful and complete with a circus-inspired climax only rivaled in the Hitchcock cannon to Vera Miles de-wigging a rotting corpse.



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MD Poll: Victor/Victorious

In a bittersweet victory, Victor/Victoria was named your biggest, gayest movie musical of all time per our latest MD Poll.

As we're sure you have already heard, Blake Edwards, the director of Victor/Victoria (as well as such other cinematic classics as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses and The Pink Panther series), passed away earlier this week at the age of 88. In honor of his memory, here's a video tribute to his comic genius.

See the comments section below for the complete results for the poll.