LOS ANGELES–producer Samuel Gelfman, best known at the producer of low-budget films “Caged Heat,” “Cockfighter” and “Cannonball!” for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in the 1970s, died Aug. 15 at a hospital here of complications from heart and respiratory disease. He was 88.

But MSTies know him for his role as the fisherman in the movie in episode 704- THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN, a movie he also produced.

The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Hat tip to Timmy for the heads up.

Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate in literature whose best-selling work explored black identity in America — and in particular the often crushing experience of black women — through luminous, incantatory prose resembling that of no other writer in English, died on Aug. 8 at a hospital in the Bronx. She was 88.

MSTies will recall another fan of Morrison’s, Jack Perkins, mentioned her in a host segment in episode 310- FUGITIVE ALIEN.

The New York Times has the story.