‘Alice’s’ Vera dead aged 74
Nzie dies
SANTA MONICA, Calif, May 26, (Agencies): Beth Howland, the actress best known for her role as a ditzy waitress on the 1970s and ’80s CBS sitcom “Alice”, has died. She was 74.
Her husband, actor Charles Kimbrough, told The Associated Press that Howland died Dec 31 of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California. He said there had been no announcement, funeral or memorial service because that’s how she wanted it.
“That was her choice,” he said.
Howland was born May 28, 1941, in Boston. At 16, she landed a role on Broadway alongside Dick Van Dyke in “Bye Bye Birdie”. CBS later noticed Howland on stage in the 1970 production of “Company” and brought her to Hollywood for a bit part on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Small roles on “The Love Boat” and “Little House on the Prairie” followed and a major break came when she was cast as Vera Louise Gorman on “Alice”, a comedy set in an Arizona greasy spoon diner based on the 1974 Martin Scorsese film, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Howland
Shy
Howland earned four Golden Globe nominations during the comedy’s 1976-85 run for her performance as the naive Vera. Howland described herself in a 1979 AP profile as “very shy” and said she saw something of herself in the character.
“I’m a little naive sometimes but not as much as Vera. I guess I’m really a cynic,” she said.
After “Alice” ended, Howland largely disappeared from television acting, aside from bit parts on series including “Murder, She Wrote” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”
Howland created Tiger Rose Productions with actress Jennifer Warren. The company produced “You Don’t Have to Die”, a 1988 HBO documentary about a boy’s battle against cancer that won an Academy Award for best short-subject documentary.
Howland is survived by a daughter from her previous marriage to actor Michael J. Pollard.
Singer Anne Marie Nzie, known as the golden voice of Cameroon, has died. She was 84.
Nzie died Tuesday at a hospital where she was being treated since May 8 after succumbing to illness, the government said.
Cameroon’s minister of arts and culture Narcisse Mouelle Kombi said Wednesday that Nzie was a musical heroine who will always be remembered for advocating for rights to freedom since Cameroon’s independence from France in 1960.
“With her beautiful and attractive voice she stood courageously for Cameroon’s independence from French colonial masters and advocated for the respect of human rights and dignities. At that time it needed courage,” he said. “It is a great loss to Cameroon.”
Defending
Nzie was known for her role in promoting Cameroon’s Bikutsi music and for defending human rights.
She died just two weeks before a planned concert by Cameroonian musicians in her honor.
On Wednesday, Cameroonians gathered outside her Yaounde residence in mourning.
The singer was born in the Cameroonian town of Lolodof in 1932. Her father was a local guitarist. She began singing in a church choir at 8 and had her first songs played in night clubs when she was 24.
Her most cherished song in Cameroon, “Liberte”, was considered rebellious at the time that Cameroon gained independence.
Singer Atte Bazore described Nzie as a mother who will always be missed.
“Each time we had difficulties, we rushed to her and she would readily advise us, urging us to love our country,” Bazore said.
Buck Kartalian, a character actor who starred as Julius, the keeper of the cages, in the original “Planet of the Apes”, died Tuesday in Mission Hills, Calif. He was 93.
His memorable line in “Planet of the Apes” was, “You know what they say: ‘Human see, human do.’” He played a gorilla named Frank in the sequel “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.”
Among his many TV and film credits are many well-know works, including “Cool Hand Luke”, “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, “Mister Roberts,” “Gymkata” and “The Rock.” He started as a wrestler and body builder, but soon that led to roles on Broadway and TV.