Monday, January 21, 2013

Mo Rothman, Canadian-born American movie executive, persuaded Charlie Chaplin to return to the United States, Parkinson's disease, died he was 92.

Moses "Mo" Rothman was a Canadian-born, American studio executive who persuaded Charlie Chaplin to return to the United States in 1972, ending Chaplin's twenty year, self-imposed exile died he was 92..[1][2][3] Chaplin's return to the United States restored his popularity and public reputation.[1][2]
Jeffrey Vance, author of the 2003 Chaplin biography, Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema, wrote that Chaplin's 1972 return to the United States, which was arranged by Rothman, was "one of the greatest P.R. coups, and personal rehabilitations" in the history of the film industry.[2] Vance further wrote that, "Rothman is the guy who re-made Chaplin."[2]

(January 14, 1919 – September 15, 2011) 

Career

Rothman was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on January 14, 1919, to Meyer and Molly Rotman.[1] Rothman was one of his parents four children.[2] His father worked as a kosher butcher.[2] Rothman would later change his name from Moses to Mo once he entered the work force.[2] Rothman served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, stationed in Dublin, Ireland. While in Ireland, Rothman began to meet Americans who worked in the film industry, who invited him to New York City to work in entertainment after the war.[2]
Rothman took their advice and moved to New York City after the end of the war.[2] He worked for Universal Pictures from 1946 to 1952 as an overseas manager in India, Singapore and Venezuela.[1][3] In 1952, Rothman joined United Artists' office in Paris, France, as the studio's continental European manager, where he worked from 1952 to 1959.[3]
Rothman was hired by Columbia Pictures in 1960 as the CEO of Columbia's international division.[1][3] He rose to become Columbia Pictures' vice president for worldwide marketing.[1][3] Rothman also served as Columbia Pictures' representative to director Stanley Kubrick during the production of his 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove.[3] He retired from Columbia Pictures in 1971 to focus on the distribution of Charlie Chaplin's film library.[1][3]

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin, one of Hollywood's best known figures, had founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks. By the early 1950s, Chaplin's stardom had dimmed due to perceived Communist sympathies and scandals involving his two previous, early marriages to sixteen-year old girls.[1][2] Chaplin, though a British citizen, had lived in the United States for forty years, but his political affiliations made him a subject of suspicion during the McCarthy Era.[1]
In 1952, Chaplin traveled to his native home to promote the London premiere of Limelight, the last film he made in the United States. While abroad, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and would not allow him to return to the United States.[1] Chaplin moved to Switzerland in 1952, and swore never to return to the United States.[2] Chaplin owned and retained the rights to most of his movies, which he took with him to Switzerland.[1]
Rothman's relationship to Chaplin stretched back to the 1950s, when he first met Chaplin while working as United Artists' European manager.[1] In early 1971, a group of investors, led by Rothman, paid Chaplin $6 million dollars, plus 50% royalties, for the distribution rights to some of his best known movies, including The Great Dictator, Limelight, City Lights, The Gold Rush and Modern Times.[1][2] Rothman left his job as vice president of worldwide marketing for Columbia Pictures in 1971 to lead the investors and handle the distribution of Chaplin's films on a full-time basis.[1]
Rothman successfully persuaded Chaplin, who was 83-years old at the time, to return to the United States in order to promote the re-release of his film catalog.[2] Chaplin was hesitant, but agreed to Rothman's offer.[1] Charlie Chaplin, accompanied by both his wife, Oona, and Mo Rothman, arrived in New York City on April 2, 1972.[1] Chaplin attended a tribute to his films held by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York.[1] He was further awarded the honorary Academy Award one week later.[1][3]
The visit, orchestrated by Rothman, restored Chaplin's popularity and reputation. At the time, the New York Times noted Rothmam's extensive involvement with the visit describing Rothman as "abrupt and ingratiating five times in three minutes” — as a kind of performance in its own right, evoking the manner of "the Hollywood tycoon of the 1930s."[2] Chaplin's daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, later wrote that Rothman was the "brave and clever reviver of Charlie Chaplin worldwide."[1][4]
Chaplin died in 1977, his popularity restored. Rothman continued to release his films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the mid-1980s, Rothman loaned the now defunct United States Information Agency twelve of Chaplin's films, which were screened at American embassies worldwide as an example of American film and art.[1]

Later life

In 1982, Rothman was the recipient of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his contributions to Italian cinema.[3] He served as a judge for both the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival in 1985.[3]
Rothman was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease later in life. In 2001, his wife, Lyn Rothman, spurred on by her husband's diagnosis, founded the Parkinson’s Appeal for Deep Brain Stimulation, based in London.[3]
Mo Rothman died from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles on September 15, 2011, at the age 92.[1] He was outlived by his wife, Lyn Rothmam, with whom he had been married to for 37 years. He had had three children from his previous marriage, Keith, Nicole and Monique; two stepchildren, Sebastian and Arabella; and seven grandchildren.[2] He was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[3]

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Khalid Abdel Nasser, Egyptian professor, eldest son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, died he was 62.

Khalid Abdel Nasser was the eldest son of Egypt's second President Gamal Abdel Nasser died he was  62..
(1948 or 1949 – September 15, 2011)

Opposition to Sadat and Mubarak

Nasser's public profile became pronounced in his early adulthood on account of his often troubled relationship with late Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat, his father's successor. Time Magazine stated that when Sadat asked to acquire Gamal Abdel Nasser's bulletproof limousine, Khalid refused and after a heated argument with Sadat, he set the car on fire, destroying it.[2]
In later years, Nasser became a vocal critic of Sadat, and his presidential successor, Hosni Mubarak, both of whose policies had diverged significantly from those of Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1988, he was accused of being part of a secret leftist organization, Egypt Revolution ("Thawret Misr,") a Nasserist group that violently opposed the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.[3] The Mubarak government sought the death penalty in a case which accused Nasser of trying to overthrow the Egyptian government, and of involvement in a spate of assassinations and bombings. The case eventually became a test of strength between the judiciary and the executive when judges threw out much of the case, accusing police and prosecutors of collusion in torturing the defendants.[4]

Later life and death

In the mid-1990s following international sanctions against Iraq, Nasser received $16.6 million worth of Saddam Hussein's oil vouchers in the Oil-for-Food Programme, more than anyone else in Egypt, according to the list of beneficiaries.[5] He later became a professor in Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering, a job which he held for the remainder of his life.[1]
In February 2011, during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Nasser joined pro-democracy demonstrations in Tahrir Square against Mubarak and his regime.[6] Later that year, on August 30, he fell into a coma ending in his death at age 62 in a Cairo hospital on September 15.[1]

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John Hubert Kelly, American diplomat, died he was 72.

John Hubert Kelly  was a United States diplomat.[1][2]


(July 20, 1939, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin – 15 September 2011, Atlanta, Georgia)

Biography

John Hubert Kelly was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on July 20, 1939. He attended Emory University, receiving a B.A. in 1961. He spent 1962 through 1965 working as a teacher, first in Danville, Virginia, then in Niles, Michigan.[3]
Kelly entered the United States Foreign Service in 1965. His first posting was in Turkey, first in Adana, then in Ankara, where he worked from 1965 to 1967. He spent 1968 in Thai language instruction and was then posted to Songkhla from 1969 to 1971. He spent 1971–72 as a student at the Armed Forces Staff College. He spend 1972–73 working on political-military affairs in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 1973, he was detailed to the United States Department of Defense as an expert on Thailand, and then spent 1974 working in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. He spent 1975–76 as Special Assistant to Counselor of the United States Department of State Helmut Sonnenfeldt. He returned to the field in 1976 and spent the next four years as a political-military officer in Paris. In 1981–82 he was the Una Chapman Cox Fellow and Diplomatic Associate at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and worked on French defense and international terrorism.[3][4]
Returning to the State Department, Kelly spent 1982–83 as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and 1983–85 as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. From 1985 to 1986, he was Short Terms Project Specialist in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Management.[3]
On July 17, 1986, President of the United States Ronald Reagan nominated Kelly as United States Ambassador to Lebanon, a post he held for the next two years.[3][5] He returned to Washington, D.C. in 1988 to become Deputy Director of Policy Planning.
President George H. W. Bush then nominated Kelly as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and Kelly held this office from June 16, 1989 until September 30, 1991.[5] Bush next nominated Kelly as United States Ambassador to Finland; he presented his credentials on December 20, 1991 and held this position until July 5, 1994.[2][5]
Kelly later founded John Kelly Consulting, Inc., a consulting firm that provided its American clients with strategic, marketing and business advice for their overseas operations.[1][4]

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Colin Burgess, the original drummer of AC/DC, passed away on Dec. 16, 2023, at the age of 77

Colin Burgess Colin Burgess, original drummer for AC/DC.   PETER CARRETTE ARCHIVE/GETTY ...