By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SAG-ACTRA Remembers Activist-Oscar Nominee George Coe, Who Was 86

Posted Monday, July 20th, 2015 - Comments Off on SAG-ACTRA Remembers Activist-Oscar Nominee George Coe, Who Was 86
Be Sociable, Share!

SAG-AFTRA Statement on the Passing of George Coe

SAG-AFTRA mourns the passing of longtime union activist and Oscar-nominee George Coe who died Saturday at the age of 86. Coe served on the Screen Actors Guild’s National Board of Directors for more than a dozen years, covering the period of 1967-1973 and again in the early 2000s.

“It is with heavy hearts that our SAG-AFTRA family says goodbye to George Coe,” said SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard. “He was a stalwart unionist and a tremendous presence in our union for many years. He served his fellow actors and the labor movement with conviction and pride. Our deepest condolences go out to his family.”

While a National Board Member from the New York Division (1967-1973), Coe served as Vice President for two years and created the template for what became SAG’s first low budget production contract. He served as a member of SAG’s National Executive Committee and National Agents Relations Committee.

Because of his union service, the Screen Actors Guild Hollywood Division honored Coe with its prestigious Ralph Morgan Award in 2009. Following the merger of SAG-AFTRA, Coe was elected as a convention delegate to its inaugural convention in 2013.

Coe’s acting career includes more than 50 years of film, television, commercial and stage work. Coe had a lengthy career as a commercial performer both on camera and voice over, including six years as the voice of Toyota. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1968 comedy short film “The Dove,” which he co-directed as well as starred in.

About SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. With national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide, SAG-AFTRA members work together to secure the strongest protections for media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org. Follow SAG-AFTRA on Twitter (twitter.com/sagaftra), YouTube (youtube.com/sagaftra) and Facebook (facebook.com/sagaftra).

 

###

 

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in MCN Curated Headlines, Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on SAG-ACTRA Remembers Activist-Oscar Nominee George Coe, Who Was 86

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon