Leonardo Cimino epitomised the sort of character actor it is impossible to imagine as having been young.

'The prettiest sight in this fine pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges." For Don Stewart, this was a sardonic line of dialogue that came from the heart. Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Stewart graduated from Yale and went to work for Vanity Fair magazine. His first novel, The Crazy Fool, was a hit, and he adapted the book as a film, gaining a lifelong love of cinema.

Playwright Richard Bean reworks James Corden show to suit American theatregoers

Commemorations begin this weekend to mark the centenary of Titanic's tragic maiden voyage. Scores of events will take place; many are well meaning while others appear to be little more than a cynical cash-in on a disaster in which 1,514 people died.

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is the sort of play that benefits from a pertinent revival. Rarely has his take on the hollow heart of the American Dream seemed more relevant as American self-belief continues to falter amid economic fragility and continued job insecurity.

The kit

The character singer Charles Anthony, who set the record for most appearances at the Metropolitan Opera – 2,928 – during a career that spanned from 1954 to 2010, died on 15 February at the age of 82.

The actress tells Kaleem Aftab about her tricky transition from troubled teen roles to romantic lead

The RSC is considering taking its hit musical Matilda to Broadway.

The American actor James Farentino was endowed with the dashing good looks that should have made him a Hollywood leading man, but he might be remembered more for the women in his life than his screen roles. Four times married, he was also close to being four times divorced. At various times, he and his final wife, Stella, started legal action to end the marriage on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences", only to withdraw the petitions.

Steven Spielberg's upcoming NBC TV venture, Smash, suggests a whole new future for the story-within-a-story device. Due to air in the UK on Sky Atlantic later this year and starring Anjelica Houston, Debra Messing, and Katharine McPhee, this comedy drama, which premieres in the US on 6 February, presents the backstage politics behind the production of, and the drama of the production process of, a fictional Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe.

Beat off those economic blues with a bit of Gershwin glitz

On the face of it, only one of the novice hurdle winners at Taunton yesterday could be described as breathtaking. The first, after all, was returned at 200-1; and the second, sent off at odds-on, won by only half a length. But the manner of Darlan's success was such that he stole the show even from the eye-watering starting price of Lights Of Broadway.