Actor and contortionist Doug Jones got his start in show business as a mime. His big Hollywood break came in the late 1980s when he got the role of McDonald's moon crooner, Mac Tonight. Thirty-one years later, this career "man behind the mask" earned the honor of being onstage with Guillermo del Toro as he accepted the "Best Picture" Oscar for The Shape of Water. Why? Because Jones played the film's "Amphibian Man."

A few moments of m sheer bliss from the 90th Academy Awards with THE SHAPE OF WATER, including...- Huggles & statue groping of @RealGDT 's Oscars.- Embracing my costar Sally Hawkins.- On-stage mayhem during Best Picture acceptance.- Red carpet in my scrumptious @giorgioarmani pic.twitter.com/yP52FtXBCO

— Doug Jones (@actordougjones) March 7, 2018

Great Big Story recently released this (literally-revealing) video portrait of Jones, calling him "the most famous actor you’ve never seen:"

You might not know his face, but you’ve seen his work. With over 150 movie and TV credits to his name, Doug Jones has been every creature, monster and villain known to Hollywood. From the Amphibian Man in “The Shape of Water,” the Silver Surfer in “Fantastic Four” to the Thin Clown in “Batman Returns,” Jones has been spicing up your movie-watching experience for the past three decades.

And for the earworm, here's Mac Tonight: Read the rest

Long before Suntory boosted its brand awareness thanks to Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003), the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr. really did pitch the Japanese whiskey in 1974. Amazing. (Thanks, UPSO!)

Read the rest

Erik Bauersfeld who voiced Admiral Ackbar's famous line "It's a trap!" from Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, died on Sunday. He was 93. Bauersfeld also portrayed Jabba the Hutt's majordomo Bib Fortuna.

From the site for Bauersfeld's nonprofit Bay Area Radio Drama (BARD) Read the rest

Life is the forthcoming film about James Dean and Life magazine photographer Dennis Stock who was assigned to photograph Dean in 1955, the year of his death, and took the iconic photo of the actor in a rainy Times Square. Life is directed by Anton Corbijn, who directed Control (2004), the tragic and fantastic film about Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Read the rest

Dick Van Patten who famously played Tom Bradford on TV's "Eight Is Enough" (1977-1981) and also appeared in several Mel Brooks movies, Westworld, Soylent Green, I Remember Mama, and many other movies and TV shows died today at 86. Read the rest

Richard Kiel who played the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979) has died; he was 74 and 7-foot-2. Read the rest