JAMES CAAN

One would have to go back hundreds of years to find a monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II.

Co-stars and admirers are reacting to the death of “Godfather” star James Caan.

James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of “The Godfather” and to television audiences as the dying football player in the classic weeper “Brian’s Song” and the casino boss in “Las Vegas,” has died.

Sally Kellerman, the Oscar nominated actor who played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in director Robert Altman’s 1970 film “MASH,” has died.

That Ellen Burstyn plays a woman who recoils at the very mention of a retirement community in the upcoming film “Queen Bees” is extremely appropriate.

FILE - In this April 10, 2014, file photo, Lynn Stalmaster arrives at the TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala in Los Angeles. Lynn Stalmaster, the Oscar-winning casting director whose eye for talent helped launch the careers of John Travolta, Christopher Reeve, Richard Dreyfuss and many other actors, has died. Bang /Invision/AP, File)Lynn Stalmaster, the Oscar-winning casting director whose eye for talent helped launch the careers of John Travolta, Christopher Reeve, Richard Dreyfuss and many other actors, has died. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had long resisted giving special recognition to casting directors and Stalmaster was brought to tears. He was an apprentice to a pair of TV producers who made him their casting director.

LOS ANGELES – William Blinn, a screenwriter for the landmark TV projects “Brian’s Song” and “Roots” and the Prince film “Purple Rain,” has died. Blinn died Thursday of natural causes at an assisted living community in Burbank, California, his daughter, Anneliese Johnson, said Saturday. He won Emmy and Peabody honors for the 1971 TV movie “Brian's Song," which dramatized the friendship of Chicago Bears players Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. Last month, Hall of Fame running back Sayers died at age 77. Blinn and Albert Magnoli wrote 1984′s “Purple Rain,” which Magnoli directed.

FILE - This is a 1970 file photo showing Chicago Bears football player Gale Sayers. Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, who made his mark as one of the NFLs best all-purpose running backs and was later celebrated for his enduring friendship with a Chicago Bears teammate with cancer, has died. (AP Photo/FIle)CHICAGO – Gale Sayers, the dazzling and elusive running back who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite the briefest of careers and whose fame extended far beyond the field for decades thanks to a friendship with a dying Chicago Bears teammate, has died. Nicknamed “The Kansas Comet” and considered among the best open-field runners the game has ever seen, Sayers died Wednesday, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “I played football a long time and I never saw a better football player than Gale Sayers,” said Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka, Sayers’ teammate from 1965-66.

Olivia de Havilland, Oscar-winning actress has died, aged 104 in Paris, publicist says Sunday July 26, 2020. Fans and actors alike owe much to de Havilland, the Oscar-winning performer who became, almost literally, a law unto herself. De Havilland, who died Sunday at 104, was one of the last survivors of Hollywoods so-called Golden Age. De Havilland died peacefully of natural causes at her home in Paris, publicist Lisa Goldberg said. Flynn was a compulsive womanizer even by Hollywood standards, but de Havilland insisted that her bond with the dashing actor remained, somehow, platonic.