RIP Robert Guillaume

We lost award-winning actor, singer, and star of stage, television, and film Robert Guillaume today. He was 89.

The prime-time soap opera sitcom "Soap" is rather dated by today's standards, and doesn't hold up all that well on rewatch if I'm being honest, but one thing does stand up and shine through the years - the talent and comic timing of Robert Guillaume, who played the butler Benson on the first few seasons of the show. In hindsight, it is hard to see just how amazing and groundbreaking the show was, how it was water cooler television, and the show to watch back in the day. The character of Benson was and remains the highlight of the complex soap parody. He later broke out into a solo self-titled spin-off as advisor to a governor, but as it was a more conventional sitcom, it didn't really appeal to me.

Guillaume would later star in "Sports Night," and guest on many shows and films of the eighties and nineties. He was always a star of the stage, appearing in such productions as Guys and Dolls, Finian's Rainbow, and The Phantom of the Opera, and receiving at least one Tony nomination, and much acclaim. Guillaume would gain new notoriety as audiences as the voice of Rafiki in Disney's The Lion King. he continued doing this role in associated sequels, games, and shows, winning a Grammy for one such project.

We have lost one of the great entertainers, Robert Guillaume will be missed.

Daredevil S02 E07: Semper Fidelis

The trial of the People of New York v. Frank Castle is on, and we open the pre-credit sequence with jury selection. It's hard, because everyone has an opinion on Frank Castle, many of them both mirroring and polarizing my own, but as the judge so succinctly says, "This is New York, everyone has an opinion about everything." Let the trial begin.

So, courtroom drama. This is kinda what I have always hoped "Daredevil" would not be about. I know that lawyer shows are popular, always have been, but despite Matt Murdock's calling, this is a superhero show. I want to see superhero stuff. Yes, it is intriguing to put the Punisher on trial, but come on, less suits and more tights please.

I shouldn't really worry however, as the dry lawyer stuff is counterbalanced by Matt playing hooky with Elektra. As with their relationship a decade before, now she is still exerting a bad influence on our horned hero. What is done to the professor who translates the Roxxon ledger is not much better than what the bad guys might have done. Daredevil and Elektra might as well have been mob enforcers.

Later when they pursue a shipment learned of from the ledger, the violence is extreme. It is almost as if Daredevil doesn't care how he's hurting his opponents and that Elektra has forgotten her promise not to kill. I enjoyed the scar discussion and was glad it didn't go where I thought it would, you know, Jaws territory. It was actually more like foreplay with no pay off.

Of course Matt's late night shenanigans with Elektra make him late for the opening remarks in the Punisher trial. Foggy has to step in, and as Elden Henson has throughout this series, supports the more powerful players. Where's his Emmy? When Elektra doesn't like being sidelined by Matt's day job, she tampers with a witness, bringing the brewing hostility between Matt and Foggy to a head.

The fight between Foggy and Matt is intense, and has been simmering since this show started. Now it threatens Matt's relationship with Karen. Matt brings all this anger to Elektra as Daredevil, and to the pseudo-Yakuza. As if to divert our attention from the emotional drama going on, Daredevil and Elektra discover the Yakuza are guarding a hole, with no bottom. Cue end credits.

Not my favorite episode, more of a placeholder really, the bane of binge-watching, but at least the story moved, character was revealed, and significant stuff happened. I just wanted more from it.

Next: Guilty as Sin!

Jessica Jones S01 E06: AKA You're a Winner!

Almost on cue, as if knowing Jessica Jones needed a breather from the intensity of trying to capture the Purple Man, Luke Cage steps back into her life. Except she doesn't want him to. And Luke's not the only invader from the past in this episode. Everyone ignored and forgotten while Jess was concentrating on Kilgrave and Malcolm is back. Life catches up, even when you're trying to do the right thing.

We actually open on Kilgrave, obviously feeling a bit better and in the midst of a high roller card game. It's as funny as it is sinister when he's dealt a two and a seven, tells everyone all in, and then tells them all to fold. I need a mutant sociopath at my side the next time I visit Atlantic City... or maybe not, Kilgrave doesn't always treat others well, as seen in this game. We are reminded quite simply and strongly that the Purple Man is not just a villain, but a monster.

As Jess and the now straight Malcolm are pooling their knowledge on that monster, Luke Cage arrives on her doorstep, beaten, and with a case for her. He wants her to find someone for him, the son of a female friend, and he leaves out a lot of details, if you get my drift. Despite all that, when they silently shake on taking the case, the sexual electricity is live again.

Luke isn't the only one begging to be let back into the story. Lawyer and client Jeri Hogarth gets in touch, and not about the case she had already hired Jess for, but because of Hope. Yeah, remember her. The poor girl is still chilling in prison, but apparently with a death wish.

Another inmate, straight outta "Orange Is the New Black," beat Hope and put her in the infirmary. Jess pays her a visit, threatens to put her there too, and learns the painful truth. Hope paid for her own beat down. She's pregnant, with his child, and wanted to lose it. This is truly the stuff of nightmare. Hope wants to live, she wants to have children, but she refuses to give life to this... thing.

Throughout the episode, Jessica juggles her two cases, for Hogarth and for Luke, as well as Hope, and makes sure to send her daily blackmail photo to Kilgrave. She still remains on task. Even when Malcolm, out of concern for her, confronts Luke - and spills all the beans. Once on even ground, Luke and Jessica end up doing what they were doing before. Their chemistry is more solid here than ever before.

Here's where it gets messy, because if you're going to do noir, the rules indicate that nothing ever goes right for the protagonist. If Jessica finds this young man for Luke, his female friend will give him possible evidence of what happened to his wife - and we all know Jessica, even though she was under Kilgrave's influence, killed Luke's wife.

And here's where it gets silly. When Luke and Jessica finally find their quarry, so do the loan sharks who were looking for him too. The main loan shark is a guy named Lenny Sirkes... who in the comics is a guy named... the Lone Shark. He's a typical super-villain on the rampage with a dumb name and a shark battle suit. It's really embarrassing when something like this comes up, especially when this series is so well done.

The fight between Jessica and Luke and the lone sharks is a good one. We haven't had much superhuman activity of late, and this was fun. What wasn't fun was what came next. The evidence wasn't what Jessica thought it was, but proof that the bus driver that hit Luke's wife was drunk and that it was covered up. Luke takes off, presumedly to kill the bus driver.

Some tense moments on the bus lead to a scary confrontation between Cage and the bus driver. Before Luke can finish him off, Jessica intervenes, and must confess what really happened. It's truly heartbreaking, you can feel the pain of both characters, a momentary triumph for both Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter. Do Netflix shows get Emmys? Then why didn't it? This was the moment.

And all the while, Kilgrave is still out there, planning something even more sinister. He's bought a home, almost legitimately and above board... the house where Jessica grew up...

Next: Top Shelf Perverts

Daredevil S01 E04: In the Blood

Daredevil has not been making friends with the Russians. This episode we get a bit of background on the Ranskahov brothers, Anatoly and Vladimir, who run the human trafficking (and apparently gypsy cabs as well) in Hell's Kitchen. Daredevil has been hitting them hard, but I think now, they hit back hard. For their sakes, let's hope they pick their targets carefully.

Previous threads from the personal war against the Russians haven't been forgotten. Claire Temple is still playing Night Nurse from hiding on her cat-sitting job, and doing impromptu therapy, both physical and emotional, with our hero. Again, character chemistry is the name of the game here at "Daredevil."

The brothers Ranskahov, even though gaining Prohaska's holdings from "Rabbit in a Snowstorm," are still coming up short for their employer. Wesley mocks them openly, expressing disappointment from Madame Gao in drugs and Mr. Nobu, who some on the interwebs has suggested is affiliated with The Hand. Wesley requires they solve their masked vigilante problem, after all, it's not like he's got an iron suit or a magic hammer. Nice. The brothers are less than accommodating, pushing their luck. This could be bad for them, and is.

In the background, Karen Page fills time continuing to beat that United Allied dead horse, and is trying to convince Ben Urich to take the case. And I know Foggy Nelson exists solely as comic relief, but here, in this excellent show, his brief appearance in this episode seems a real waste of Elden Henson, especially when we've seen how good he can be in this series. Actually in this case and this episode, it's also a waste of the actors playing Karen and Ben as well.

Vincent D'Onofrio is quite intriguing as the Kingpin. One watches him as one might a new baby in a non-baby-safe house, or a feral cat rescued from the rain to one's dry home. He is subtle and fidgety, like a shy schoolboy asking the art dealer Vanessa (in the comics, his wife) out to dinner, yet the whole time he carries an air of menace, as if ready to explode at any second.

At dinner, D'Onofrio reveals slowly more of his motive, his backstory, if you will. He is charming, but his facial reactions betray the opposite. If Vanessa had any sense, she would run, run and not look back. All this, Vincent D'Onofrio does almost wordlessly. His is a performance to watch, amongst many. Let me say right here, right now, if the Emmys ignore "Daredevil," we will know who the real criminals are.

As for the Russians? Do not mess with the Kingpin. Ever. We know the face of true evil when Wilson Fisk beats Anatoly to death in the episode's brutal last moments. One could assume the Russians will fall in line now.

And mainstream action? We already know this show has some of the best action scenes ever filmed for TV. The dark sequence where Daredevil saves Night Nurse, neither going under those names yet, is beautiful, the master stroke of geniuses who know what fight scenes and action should be about. Love it, and can't wait for more.

…And Ann B. Davis as Alice

As a child of the 1970s, I grew up with Alice Nelson as played by Ann B. Davis on "The Brady Bunch." Alice wasn't just the comic relief on the show, she was the heart of The Brady Bunch. We identified with the kids, and Carol and Mike were just like our parents, inaccessible adults who we really couldn't relate to - but Alice, Alice was the adult who could relate to the kids. She was part of their lives. She was the kids' and our link with the adults.

In the over the top 1995 movie based on the show, Alice was simply the comic relief, hysterical and absurd, but Ann B. Davis (not playing Alice this time in a guest role) was the heart, and more than the heart, the voice of reason in the end. For everyone who grew up on the show, and didn't laugh at the fashions because we were wearing them too, she was the best part.

Ann B. Davis got her acting chops on "The Bob Cummings Show" for which she won two Emmys. She worked in television, in commercials, and on the stage for years, but was known most for the role of Alice. She even cashed in on the fame with a Brady Bunch cookbook. Ann never married, and was a staunch Christian, so much so that she reputedly shut down a local stage production based on the Brady Bunch because it featured drag performers.

Personal life aside, she was a television icon, and she will be missed, but will live on in syndication for generations to come. She died this past weekend after a fall in her home. Ann B. Davis was 88.

James Gandolfini Dead at 51

Actor James Gandolfini died today in Italy from a massive heart attack, he was 51. The three time Lead Actor in a Drama Emmy winner was best known for playing bipolar modern gangster and family man Tony Soprano in HBO's "The Sopranos." He was also a producer, and a star of stage and screen, besides his television work.

I first became aware of the man when he played a very evil piece of work in Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino's True Romance. His menacing presence made him perfect for the complex character of Tony Soprano in my opinion.

"The Sopranos" first entered my wheelhouse during its second season. I had written a still unpublished novel with hyper-violent overtones. Two beta-readers told me I needed a balance between the violence and the drama of everyday life, and both, separately suggested that I had to see "The Sopranos" so I could see how it's supposed to be done. I got HBO, and was blown away. I quickly caught up, and was addicted to the show until its end.

Most of the reason the show was so successful was Gandolfini's talent and presence. If we did not believe Gandolfini as Tony, the show falls apart. He was the show in many ways.

The man was perhaps the best lead in perhaps the best show ever made for TV.   It is so sad to lose such a talent so young. Who knows what might have been in his future. James Gandolfini will be missed.

House of Cards

I'm about a month late to the party on this one, but there's still time for the rest of us. This fabulous Netflix exclusive TV series starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, and Kate Mara, is probably the best thing I've seen outside of pay cable in a while. And that's probably the coolest thing about it - it's not cable at all - it's only available on Netflix. Welcome to the future.

"House of Cards" is based on the book(s) by Michael Dobbs, and the BBC miniseries that followed by Andrew Davies. Originally set in British Parliament, show developer and producer Beau Willimon adapted the concept to Washington DC and the US Capitol for American viewers. Spacey is an ambitious Congressman manipulating his way to the top with almost demonic precision and sly fourth wall breaking asides to the viewers at home. There are Emmy caliber performances by all involved, but I wonder if it will be eligible for the Emmys?

Netflix, observing viewing habits and trying to keep ahead or at least abreast of cutting edge technology, has gone into the entertainment business, creating their own shows. Seeing that many folks will watch an entire series at once, sometimes a season at a time - a practice called 'stripping,' Netflix created shows meant to adapt to that. In that spirit, the entire first season of "House of Cards" was released all at once on February 1st.

The compelling characters, I tense stories, and terrific performances will keep you coming back episode after episode. It also has the likes of David Fincher, James Foley, and Joel Schumacher in the director's chair.  This is a series worthy of HBO, Showtime, or AMC, yeah, it's that good. I highly recommend it. I just don't know what I'll be doing until season two comes out...

RIP Bonnie Franklin

The first time I watched "One Day at a Time," I didn't get it. Maybe it was because it was a more female focused show, or maybe because its themes were just a little bit above my head. It was a different kind of Norman Lear show.

Bonnie Franklin, former Tony Award winning Broadway star played the divorced mom raising her two teenaged daughters alone with occasional help from her building's super. It later got and held my attention a couple years later when my hormones refocused on a budding Valerie Bertinelli as one of the daughters.

"One Day at a Time" had a tumultuous nine year run filled with behind the scenes turmoil, but Bonnie Franklin stood tall through it all, winning multiple awards including the Emmy and the Golden Globe. Her portrayal of a single mom was a pioneering role of the time. Since then she has appeared rarely on television, her most recent gig was in an episode of Betty White's "Hot in Cleveland."

Bonnie Franklin passed away this afternoon at her home in Los Angeles from complications of pancreatic cancer. She was 69. She will be missed.

RIP Jack Klugman

Award winning star of stage, screen, and television, Jack Klugman, passed away Christmas Eve in his home, surrounded by his family, apparently of natural causes. Born in Philadelphia, he was 90.

Jack Klugman was probably most well known in the role of Oscar Madison, the sloppy sports writer from TV's "The Odd Couple," in which he played opposite Tony Randall as the fussy photographer, Felix Unger. The sitcom ran for five years on ABC from 1970 to 1975, based on the movie, and the Broadway play by Neil Simon. While never having spectacular ratings, it found fame in summer reruns and syndication. As a kid growing up in the 1970s, "The Odd Couple" was a fixture in my Friday night TV programming.

Later in the decade, Klugman moved to NBC with the serious police/doctor procedural, "Quincy M.E." With a coroner as the protagonist, Klugman had said once, it was the best of both dramatic prime time worlds. In the sixties, he also appeared in four episodes of "The Twilight Zone," including "A Game of Pool" and "A Passage for Trumpet," two considered classics.

Before, and after his television days, Klugman was in more than a few films, most notably he was Juror #5 in 12 Angry Men. He also performed on stage throughout his career, even more than a few times in The Odd Couple. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1974, and in 1989 lost one of his vocal cords to it, yet he continued to act, albeit in a much quieter huskier voice.

Jack Klugman was a terrific actor, and he will be missed.

Homeland

I'm a latecomer to this show. I tried watching it during its first season and just couldn't get into it. My mom-in-law was enjoying it, so I gave it another shot, this time, getting through two episodes, and not digging it because I found t too predictable.

Then Emmy time came around just before the start of the second season of "Homeland." The show was a big winner, and I had friends who were surprised I wasn't watching, saying it was right in my television wheelhouse. I relented, and watched the whole first season streaming in about a week.

I was wrong. It's really only predictable for about four episodes, after that I was irrevocably hooked. The second season has been as just as good as the first, something I wasn't sure it could keep up.

There are problems however. The first was something I thought only I was seeing, but as a recent "Saturday Night Live" sketch brought to light, Claire Danes' overacting and crazy unblinking eyes when having an anxiety attack skate the thin line between reality and over the top almost to the point of laughing out loud. Her crazy face jumps the shark every time she makes it.

Brody's daughter is the current equivalent of the daughter in "24," where you have to ask, why do we care? It's subplot just for the sake of subplot, rather than efficient storytelling. These last two points make me wonder if we'll get a third season despite how amazing everything else on the show is.

Time will tell. Despite what I've said, I'm glued to my TV every Sunday night.

Marvin Hamlisch 1944-2012

Celebrated composer Marvin Hamlisch passed away yesterday after a brief but undisclosed illness. He was a star of stage and screen, and won multiple awards, among them - Grammys, Emmys, Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer. He was 68.

Hamlisch was perhaps one of the most famous American composers, having created scores for many movies, TV specials and Broadway shows. He was conductor of multiple orchestras across the nation.

His most famous works include A Chorus Line, The Goodbye Girl, The Sting, Take the Money and Run, The Spy Who Loved Me, Ice Castles, Sophie's Choice, and The Way We Were.

Ernest Borgnine 1917-2012

Ernest Borgnine passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 95, from kidney failure.

I grew up with him in "McHale's Navy," but some of the younger folks might know him from "Airwolf" or surprisingly (at least to me) "Spongebob Squarepants." Besides those roles, Borgnine also acted in dozens of television shows in his six decade career, including an Emmy nomination for his role in the last couple episodes of "ER" when he was 92.

Borgnine was also a stage star, and because his television credits are so dominant, many folks forget what a legendary screen actor he was. He won the Oscar for his role in 1955's Marty, and was outstanding in many other films like From Here to Eternity, The Dirty Dozen, Willard, The Devil's Rain, The Poseidon Adventure and even Harlan Ellison's infamous The Oscar.

I recently saw the man interviewed on TCM. He was as boisterous and lively as he had ever been, happy to tell tales of the old days and more recent times, a happy library of the industry. We have lost one of the great actors of Hollywood.

RIP Richard Dawson

Television and film actor, singer and Emmy-winning game show host Richard Dawson passed away last night due to complications of esophageal cancer. He was 79.

Besides appearing in numerous television shows, including a six-year run on "Hogan's Heroes," Dawson is probably best known as the host of "Family Feud," where his friendly attitude toward the ladies resulted in what is estimated 20,000 kisses. Dawson eventually even married one of the female contestants.

Besides "Feud," he was also a frequent panelist on "Match Game," and his most infamous film role was his last in 1987 as the evil game show host Killian in The Running Man. We have lost one of television's most beloved entertainers.

Mike Wallace Dead at 93

Over the weekend one of television's pioneers passed away. Multiple award-winning journalist, TV host, and media personality Mike Wallace is dead at the age of 93 from natural causes.

While best known as a correspondent on the long-running news program "60 Minutes," Mike Wallace has worn numerous and varied other hats such as narrator on the "Green Hornet" and "Sky King" radio series, game show host, actor (under the name name Myron Wallace, although he played himself in one of my favorite films, A Face in the Crowd), and he also hosted several other news shows before landing "60 Minutes."

Wallace had semi-retired in 2006, but appeared throughout 2008. He garnered at least twenty Emmy Awards, had written two autobiographies, and was perhaps the last of the real television journalists (just my opinion). We have lost one of the greats.

The Death of the Soap Opera?

"One Life to Live," after an over forty-year run on ABC-TV, ended last week. That leaves only four traditional daytime soap operas still on the air in 2012. Among the survivors is "General Hospital," the only one of its ilk that I followed regularly for a time. I discount "Dark Shadows" as I only vaguely remember it when it was on, and mostly watched it in rerun on local Channel 48 and SyFy when it was just starting out.

The award-winning "One Life to Live" was part of the ABC daytime soap opera programming shared universe of Agnes Nixon, of which "General Hospital" is currently the only survivor. "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless" on CBS and "Days of our Lives" on NBC are the other three. On a sidenote, I gotta ask - am I the only one who thought "The Doctors" was still the soap opera of the same name? Weird. "OLTL" had some highlights in its run, Emmys aplenty, groundbreaking storylines dealing with rape and drugs, and even some time traveling a la "Dark Shadows," exciting stuff.

"One Life to Live" also actually had some fun with its last days. Residents of the fictional city of Llanview watched on their sets the final episode of an equally fictional TV soap created by Agnes Nixon, who was interviewed. Angels abounded, played by cast members whose characters who had died. There's even a cliffhanger, and a broken fourth wall, good stuff. But now it's over, with some characters moving on to "General Hospital," and the time slot filled by "The Revolution," another boring health and lifestyle show.

Anyway it seems the soap opera is dead as a television genre, but is it? It may be well on its way out as a genre unto itself, but let's face it, everything is soap opera now. I have always said that soap opera is at the core of comic books (any serial fiction really) and that as wrestling is the bastard stepchild of comics, soap opera and comics are the bastard stepchildren of mythology - but that's another story.

Soap opera as storytelling is everywhere, and I'm not just talking about prime time dramas either. The concept of main story with several subplots underlying that soon become the new main story in an unending cycle is how television works now. There's no more status quo, where the whole world resets when the credits of a given TV show roll. The characters evolve and change as time goes by.

That's soap opera, and even if the TV series we normally think of when we think of the term are gone, soap opera still lives, in every other television series.

RIP Harry Morgan

Award winning actor Harry Morgan, best known for his roles in "Dragnet" and "M*A*S*H," passed away from complications of pneumonia yesterday. He was 96.

Morgan won an Emmy for his work as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in "M*A*S*H," was in several versions of "Dragnet," but was also a character actor with recurring roles in many television series including "December Bride," its spin-off "Pete and Gladys," "Kentucky Jones," "Hec Ramsey," "Roots," "Third Rock from the Sun" and even the infamous "After M*A*S*H."

I remember him from his dramatic roles in many films overshadowed by his later and more memorable television career. Those unfamiliar should definitely check out High Noon, Inherit the Wind, The Ox-Bow Incident and especially, one of my favorites, The Big Clock, among his over one hundred film appearances. We have lost one of Hollywood's greatest character actors. Harry Morgan will be missed.

Andy Rooney Dead at 92

Some folks are their work. I can't help but think about that today as I write about the passing of journalist and writer Andy Rooney. He passed away Friday night from major complications of an undisclosed surgery, just weeks after signing off for the last time on his regular closing slot on the long running "60 Minutes." Even in his final piece, an interview for the program, he said he wouldn't stop writing - he couldn't stop writing.

Rooney was a journalist since the Second World War and had closed the CBS new program with his commentaries for over forty years. He was the curmudgeon's curmudgeon, always questioning the most mundane and puzzling of the day's mysteries. His voice was grating and his attitude confrontational and often sarcastic, but he was always entertaining, and if you weren't careful, informative.

Andy Rooney wrote for television and news for decades, He won four Emmys while on "60 Minutes," and many other broadcasting and journalism awards during his long career. We have lost a true legend and an epic voice in our times. He will be missed.

Stephen J. Cannell Passes Away

This is turning out to be a very bad week for Hollywood. Last night we lost prolific writer, director, actor, novelist and producer Stephen J. Cannell to complications of melanoma. He was 69.

If you watched television at all in the last four decades, you knew his work if not his name. He had a hand in, if not his entire creative body, in TV series like "Baretta," "The A-Team," "The Rockford Files," "Toma," "21 Jump Street," "Adam-12," "Hunter," "Wiseguy," "The Commish," "Black Sheep Squadron," "The Greatest American Hero" and "Tenspeed and Brownshoe." His productions were marked by his signature closing of the sheet of paper being ripped from a typewriter and floating into a pile of paper, a familiar image for generations of TV viewers.

Virtually no one remembers "Tenspeed and Brownshoe," that aired very briefly in 1980 on ABC, but I do. It featured Jeff Goldblum as a wannabe private eye and Ben Vereen as a con man who together solved mysteries and crimes. Goldblum's character was constantly reading these terrible pulp/noir detective novels for inspiration. Rumor had it that what he was reading were the rejected works of Cannell's. I loved that stuff, and it made me read his 'real' novels when the producer turned to prose fiction in this last decade. Great stuff.

Cannell also won multiple Emmys and wrote sixteen novels in his lifetime. He was most recently seen on "Castle." Television is a much poorer place today.

Lena Horne 1917-2010

Award-winning vocalist, actress, and performer of the stage and screen, both small and large, Lena Horne passed away yesterday just short of her 93rd birthday.

I first became aware of Miss Horne in the oddest of places - from the old "Sanford and Son" show as she was a celebrity whom the lead character played by Redd Foxx had the hots for. As Lena was a mainstay of the variety programs of the day I soon learned who she really was. While I knew her from variety television and even "Sesame Street," her career began decades earlier at the Cotton Club in the 1930s, where she was, and remained throughout her life, one of jazz's premiere vocalists, her signature song being "Stormy Weather."

From there she went on to Hollywood appearing in many films, most notably Cabin in the Sky, Panama Hattie and Stormy Weather. Unfortunately her life was made difficult in a less tolerant age because of her interracial marriage and her strong civil rights activism, so she turned to playing in Vegas for some time.

Miss Horne continued to record music throughout her career, moreso in the 1980s and 90s after her successful one-woman Broadway show "Lena Horne: The Lady and her Music." We have truly lost a legend, she will be missed.