Movie Notes: O'Connor Film Legacy
June 22, 2001 -- He was really a Renaissance man.
TV fans remember Carroll O'Connor as lovable bigot Archie Bunker in All in the Family and venerable sheriff Bill Gillespie on In the Heat of the Night. But the actor, who died Thursday at age 76, was also a writer, director, composer and producer. And he had a distinguished career both on stage and on the big screen.
He played Casca in Cleopatra (1963). Other notable appearances include Lonely Are the Brave (1962), What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), Hawaii (1966), Point Blank (1967) and Kelly's Heroes (1970).
O'Connor's last acting role was in the 2000 movie Return to Me, with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver.
A Wilson of Your Very Own
Sure, Tom Hanks was great in Cast Away. But face it, for many the true star of the flick was Wilson, the volleyball that served as Man Friday to Hanks' modern-day Robinson Crusoe.
Well, if you — like the desert-island marooned Tom — are in need of a Wilson-like friend, you're in luck.
To celebrate the release of Cast Away on video and DVD, Wilson Sporting Goods is making the famed volleyball available to the public. Yes, for the low, low price of just $24.95, you too can have one of the 50,000 special edition balls. They feature a hand-printed face, but no hair.
Brandon Back in Court
A wrongful death suit filed by the mother of Brandon Teena, the cross-dressing young woman whose story was made into the movie Boys Don't Cry, is back in court in Nebraska.
In her original suit, Joann Brandon said that when her daughter (whose real name was Teena Brandon) reported being raped by John Lotter and Marvin Nissen, then-Richardson County Sheriff Charles Laux did nothing to protect her daughter. Lotter and Nissen later killed Teena and also killed two witnesses to the crime.
In a 1999 ruling, a district judge agreed, but also found that the young woman's lifestyle contributed to her death. The high court of Nebraska overturned the latter part of the ruling, and based on that, sent the case back to court to refigure the damage award. The high court told the district judge to give the victim's mother at least $80,000 for wrongful death and refigure the other damages.
On Thursday, Brandon's lawyers asked for $250,000 for wrongful death and $240,000 for emotional distress. Attorneys for both sides will have a month to submit written arguments before a ruling is made.
Hilary Swank won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Teena in Boys Don't Cry. The case also inspired another movie, The Brandon Teena Story.
Pearl Harbor Hits Japan
Maybe it was the curiosity factor. Maybe it's Ben Affleck's appeal. But more than 30,000 people turned out for the Tokyo premiere of Pearl Harbor.
The film depicts the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii that brought the United States in World War II, but that shouldn't necessarily turn off Japanese moviegoers, said Affleck. The star, who attended Thursday night's screening, told reporters the filmmakers "made every attempt to be fair, honest and accurate."
In order not to offend Japanese audiences, Disney (the parent company of ABCNEWS.com) has made what it calls a few minor changes for the version being shown there. The studio will certainly want to avoid alienating overseas audiences, since the movie has attracted fewer ticket-buyers than expected in the United States.
ABCNEWS Radio and ABCNEWS.com's Nancy Chandross and Andra Varin contributed to this report.