In Passing
Stockholm, Sweden
Sven Nykvist, cinematographer
Sven Nykvist, the Oscar-winning cinematographer and filmmaker whose naturalistic, straightforward camera work distinguished the movies of directors Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, died Wednesday.
Nykvist, 83, had battled a long illness and was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, at a nursing home in Sweden.
The Swedish-born Nykvist was most closely associated with Bergman and won best cinematography Oscars for the director’s “Cries and Whispers” in 1973 and “Fanny and Alexander” in 1982. But in addition, Nykvist wrote and directed several of his own features and documentaries.
In a career that included more than 100 motion pictures, Nykvist helped change the look of film. Early on, his camerawork provided a contrast to the gaudy extravaganzas that characterized Hollywood productions in the early ‘50s.
His stripped-down photography and low-tech illumination techniques magnified the actors’ psychological reactions to devastating effect, with Rembrandt-like highlights on faces and contrasting interplay between light and shadow.
Los Angeles
Mickey Hargitay, actor, bodybuilder
Mickey Hargitay, the actor and world champion bodybuilder who was married to 1950s sex siren Jayne Mansfield and whose daughter is Emmy-winning actress Mariska Hargitay, died Sept. 14. The cause of death was not released.
Born Miklos Hargitay in 1926, he emigrated from his native Hungary to the United States after World War II. He became interested in bodybuilding in the 1950s and was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Mr. Olympia in 1955.
He parlayed his perfect physique into a performing career when Mae West tapped him to be one of the musclemen in her stage show.
It was there that Hargitay met Mansfield, whom he married in 1957. He went on to star opposite his wife in three films. The couple had three children together, including Mariska, before divorcing in 1964. Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.
Hargitay’s career continued after his divorce with appearances in a half-dozen Italian films and horror flicks. He even guest-starred in a 2003 episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the show in which his daughter Mariska plays a leading role.
Huntington Beach, Calif.
Danny Flores, musician
The man who shouted the word “tequila!” in the 1950s hit song “Tequila!” has died. Danny Flores, 77, died Tuesday at Huntington Beach Hospital.
Flores was sometimes called the “godfather of Latin rock.”
In 1957, Flores was in a group that recorded with rockabilly singer Dave Burgess. One of the songs was based on a nameless riff Flores had written. He played the “dirty” saxophone part and repeatedly growled the single-word lyric: “Tequila!”
The next year it appeared as the B-side of a single, credited to the Champs. “Tequila!” went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart and won a Grammy in 1959 for best rhythm and blues performance.
Flores continued to play it for the next 40 years.