Remembering Bob Hoskins, Al Feldstein

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• published: 28 May 2014
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One Of Britain's Most Versatile Actors BRITISH GANGSTERS; TOONS; AND WHAT, ME WORRY? Whether it was playing opposite a cartoon character or playing a menacing East End gangster, Bob Hoskins consistently delivered great performances. He starred in several classic British movies including Mona Lisa (1986), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and his role in the best British gangster film ever made The Long Good Friday (1980) where he played gang leader Harold Shand in a performance that rivals Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone. American audiences know him best for his detective Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) where he held his own on screen with carton characters. Al Feldstein helped shepherd Mad Magazine and Alfred E. Neuman through the juvenile delinquency scares of the 1950's through its emergence as America's top humor magazine in the 1960's and 70's. Robert William "Bob" Hoskins (26 October 1942 -- 29 April 2014) was an English actor, director, and comedian, best known for playing Cockneys and gangsters. He appeared in films, such as The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Mermaids (1990), Hook (1991), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Nixon (1995), A Christmas Carol (2009), Neverland (2011), and in his final role in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). Hoskins was the recipient of the prestigious Prix d'interprétation masculine, as well as winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor -- Motion Picture Drama for his role in Mona Lisa (he was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and an International Emmy Award for best actor for his appearance on BBC One drama The Street in 2009. Hoskins appeared as Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), for which he received a second Golden Globe nomination. Some of Hoskins' other notable appearances include playing opposite Cher in Mermaids (1990), boatswain Smee to Captain Hook in Hook (1991), and as the same character in Neverland (2011), and Uncle Bart, the psychopathic and violent "owner" of Jet Li in Unleashed aka Danny The Dog. He returned to television in productions for the BBC, including Flickers, David Copperfield as Wilkins Micawber (1999) and The Wind in the Willows (2006). He played Nikita Khrushchev as a political commissar in the film Enemy at the Gates (2001). He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Mrs Henderson Presents, a film he also produced with Norma Heyman Albert Bernard Feldstein (October 24, 1925 -- April 29, 2014) was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. After retiring from Mad, Feldstein concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife. After industry and government pressures forced Gaines to shut down most of his EC titles, Feldstein was briefly separated from the company. But when Harvey Kurtzman left Mad in 1956, Gaines turned to his former editor. Feldstein spent the next 29 years at the helm of what became one of the nation's leading and most influential magazines. It is unclear what the circulation of the magazine was when Feldstein took over but it is estimated to be between 325,000 to 750,000. By the 1960s, it had increased to over a million, and by the 1970s, it had doubled to two million.[3] Circulation multiplied more than eight times during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,850,000 in 1974, although it declined to three quarters of that figure by the end of his time as editor.[1][2] Feldstein has been credited with giving the magazine the personality of a "smart-alecky, sniggering and indisputably clever spitball-shooter."[3] Many new cartoonists and writers surfaced during the early years of Feldstein's editorship. This process leveled off in the 1960s as the magazine came to rely on a steady group of contributors. Feldstein's first issue as editor (#29) was also the first issue to display the twisted work of cartoonist Don Martin. A few months later, he hired Mort Drucker, who quickly established himself as their premier caricaturist on movie satires with Angelo Torres drawing the TV parodies. By 1961, with the introduction of Antonio Prohías and Dave Berg, he had fully established the format that kept the magazine a commercial success for decades.