W. Benson Terry, 76, Character Actor
W. Benson Terry, a theatre and film actor, died on March 24 at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in Manhattan. He was 76, and his death was caused by cancer.
Terry's final film appearance was as a shrimper who sells his boat to Forrest Gump in the Oscar-winning movie of the same name.
Terry was a professional boxer before becoming an actor, and helped teach James Earl Jones to box for his role in "The Great White Hope." He was also a bodyguard to Paul Robeson.
He was seen in many Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions. He gave a critically acclaimed performance as Firs in a radical remake of "The Cherry Orchard," which played at Arena Stage in Washington 10 years ago.
He is survived by two daughters, five sons, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Richard Ellner, 69, Dance Center Founder
Richard Ellner, founder of the Broadway Dance Center, died March 31. He was 69.
A native New Yorker, Ellner started the dance center in 1983, and was known for being instrumental in providing a supportive atmosphere for dancers in New York City.
He also owned a 49-year-old textile, silkscreening business called Versatility Tee Shirts Inc., self-starting the company when he was 20.
Ellner is survived by his father, two daughters, and a sister.
Donations can be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS or the Epilepsy Foundation of America.
David Bucknam, 32, Composer
David Bucknam, a musical theatre composer, died at his Manhattan home on March 29. He was 32.
Bucknam's musical adaptation of Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" received a Drama Desk nomination for best score in 1991. He also adapted other writings by Woolf, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Dorothy Parker into musicals. He composed and directed "Street Songs," which became "Madhattan" and is currently running in Las Vegas.
His music and lyrics to "Lysistrata," composed for The People's Friendship Theatre in Moscow, was the first collaboration between Russian and American writers in musical theatre.
From 1989 until his death, Bucknam was on the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School faculty. His family has asked that donations be made in Bucknam's name to the school.
Ben Bagley, Off-Broadway Producer
Ben Bagley, producer of several Off-Broadway revues, died on March 21 at his home in Queens, NY, at the age of 64. The cause of death was complications from emphysema.
Bagley also owned a small record label called Painted Smiles, on which he released 48 albums in his 'Revisited' series. These anthologies were conceived by Bagley as revues of obscure Broadway songs performed by big names from musical theatre.
His revue, "The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter," produced in 1965, preceded similar theatrical anthologies which spotlight the work of one composer. This format has since become a musical genre of its own, marked by the success of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," and other similar productions.
Kenneth Frankel, Director
Kenneth Frankel, a theatre director of over 25 years, died February 12 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 56.
Frankel won an Obie award for best director for his staging of "Quartermaine's Terms" by Simon Gray. Other notable productions helmed by Frankel include Pinter's "Old Times," starring Anthony Hopkins and Jane Alexander, and "Spoke Song," at Circle in the Square.
He directed more than 40 productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in Regional Theatres. He was resident director at Circle Rep, and was the associate artistic director with Long Island Wharf Theatre for over five years. He also served on the theater panel for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
In the 1990s he began directing for television, staging episodes for series such as "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd."
He is survived by his wife, Donna Isaacson, senior VP of casting of feature films for 20th Century Fox, a daughter, his father, stepmother, two brothers, and a sister.