Posted on 03/06/2017 11:51:53 AM PST by CaptainK
Film historian Robert Osborne, the effervescent primetime host of Turner Classic Movies since the cabler's inception in 1994, has died. He was 84.
TCM released a statement saying, "All of us at Turner Classic Movies are deeply saddened by the death of Robert Osborne. Robert was a beloved member of the Turner family for more than 23 years."
Osborne was an irrepressible advocate for the films of Hollywood's golden era who wrote the Motion Picture Academy-sanctioned "50 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards" in 1978 and a number of updates ending in 2008 with "80 Years of the Oscar."
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
Really heartbreaking. We love you, Bob. Vaya con Dios
Yeah, I enjoyed his movie summaries very much... .RIP! ...now we’re left with a leftists idiot from the young Turks group..cant stand him and a Latina and some gays in his spot! .... if they start spewing political chit they will be permanently barred from my home! Good thing I have a hard drive and I record all the movies I want!
Never married, no children.
Whats that got to do with anything?
One reason I am not dumping CATV
On a fake news note the article ends with:
He took a three-month medical leave of absence from TCM starting in July 2011 that stretched to five months, but he returned in December 2011 to a somewhat diminished set of responsibilities as Josh Manckiewicz, his fellow host on TCM, increased his on-air duties.
Anyone who watches TCM knows it's BEN Manckiewicz. It turns out there is a Josh Manckiewicz, Ben's brother, who works for NBC News.
Horrible news.
TCM is a bright spot out there for movie lovers.
Either way, Manckiewicz is unwatchable. I skip the intros as soon as I see the sloppy jeans and sport coat.
I always liked how Osborne worked the TCM coffee mug into every shoot. Very Hollywood.
Robert really helped my enjoyment of the oldies. He knew everyone and everything, and treated it as matter-of-factly as he could.
He hadn’t looked well for quite some time.
Looks like we’re stuck with that lefty snark Mankiewicz now.
He had a lot of sisters, and cousins, and nieces and nephews. I saw them on a tribute show to him last year.
I don’t have a problem with Manckiewicz on TCM. He plays it straight, without a political agenda to speak of.
The only time I every saw Young Turks was election night. Manckiewicz struck me as sane in contrast with all the ultra-leftist ultra-looneys who surrounded him.
Seems unusual
Such sad news, I hope he makes it into the kingdom.
Robert Osborn was the only good thing TCM provided besides the movies. Their next generation of feminist and gay hosts show what ted turner, jane fonda and time are made of. Its hard to support and watch them anymore.
David Staller, his longtime partner, told The Hollywood Reporter that Osborne died in his sleep in his apartment from natural causes.
Sorry to hear this . He was a great host.Will miss hearing all his knowledge about the films.
Mankiewicz has cleaned up his snarkiness the last couple of years. I think complaints about it got TCM to give him a counseling session, and/or Robert Osborne informed in on how to win and not loose audiences. I’ll have to take a better look at him regarding his clothing.
Sad to hear - some of the movies on TCM, in spite of being “classics” aren’t very watchable, but I would always try to tune in at the between-films break time just to hear Osborne’s intros and summaries - always interesting and entertaining - the new crop of hosts just isn’t the same - RIP.......
The best at what he did.
And their movies have gotten junkier too.
RIP Robert Osborne.
same here
There were a lot more movies produced in the golden era of Hollywood than today. When television arrived it took up a lot of the production that the studios did. These days about 2 to 300 movies are made but back then close to a thousand per year. Among those thousand per year were a lot of low grade productions. Only a small percentage would be watchable today. Some get dated badly and a large number were awful even back then. Sturgeons law that 90% of everything is crap applies.
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