September 1st --

We are especially saddened to report the recent passing of two previous Memphis guests - guests that touched each of us in an unique way.

Early today, we lost Michael Pate lat the age of 88.  Michael joined us for the 1996 Memphis Film Festival.

Mr. Pate is perhaps most recognizable for playing Indians on several TV shows and films (including Hondo, Major Dundee, Sergeants 3, Branded, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Rawhide and many, many more).

However, Michael had a VERY extensive career appearing in more than 50 films and over 300 TV shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Batman, Mission: Impossible, Zorro and Matlock Police, his own Australian series that ran for almost 200 episodes!

Mr. Pate extended his career as a screenwriter-producer-director.  One of his most notable creations was "Tim" (1979), a film that introduced Mel Gibson to the world in a sensitive role as a retarded man.  That film garnered him the Best Screenplay Award from the Australian Writers Guild.

A very memorable moment occurred during Michael's appearance at the festival.  Unknown to him, one of his costars (Kathleen Crowley from the film, "Curse of the Undead") made an unannounced appearance at the festival.  She secretly came to his Q&A session and outside of his view, asked him questions concerning the film. It was a very memorable reunion!

A bit of trivia: Michael Pate was the first actor to play "Felix Leitner", a character that is prevalent throughout the James Bond film series.  However, in this 1954 TV production of "Casino Royale" (with Barry Nelson portraying "Jimmy Bond"), Michael's character was portrayed as British and his name was changed to "Clarence Leitner".

Michael made many many friends during his short visit to Memphis.  While all of us will miss him, we have been very blessed with some wonderful memories to remember over and over again!

Michael Pate

(1920 - 2008)

September 1st --

We also regret to report the recent passing of another previous festival guest. Rita Quigley left us on August 25th at the age of 85.

Ms. Quigley was a guest of the Memphis Film Festival in 2004 - the year we had a tribute to the Charlie Chan film series.  Rita was here to commemorate her role in the "The Trap", the 1946 entry of that classic film series.

As an starlet in the early days of Hollywood, she appeared alongside such greats as Mickey Rooney and Cary Grant.  She also appeared in films such as "The Human Comedy", "Henry Aldrich, Editor" and "Five Little Peppers in Trouble".

While at the festival, Rita conveyed to her fans that her favorite role was appearing with Joan Crawford in "Susan and God".

Our prayers and thoughts go out to her family and friends.

Rita Quigley

(1923 - 2008)

August 18th --

As you are hopefully aware, the 2009 show will have a very exciting theme - to bring together many leading stars from classic western television shows!

We are happy to announce another new addition to our already-large guest (although we're not finished yet!)

Henry Darrow is a well-known character actor with a list of credits as long as your arm.  He is perhaps best known as the lovable Manolito on "The High Chapparal".

Henry will be reuniting with his friend and "High Chapparal" costar, Don Collier, at next summer's show!

You will certainly want to meet this gentleman who has many stories to share with his fans in Memphis!

August 18th --

NOTE: This is an updated version of the flyer from the one that was published earlier on this site. It includes the latest guest addition.

The 2008 Memphis Film Festival was a great success not to mention a lot of fun!  Highlights of this wonderful show will be published soon but we are already looking forward to next year!

Plans are already underway for making next summer's Memphis event the premiere film festival in 2009!  The show will be a joint effort between Western Clippings Magazine and the Memphis Film Festival.  It promises to be an exciting show with the theme of honoring the great TV Westerns.  The guest list will include one of the largest gatherings of Western TV stars ever assembled!

The flyer for the 2009 TV Western reunion is now available!

Feel free to download copies and print them out!

Help support the show by giving flyers to friends and family you believe will be interested in attending this exciting, fun-filled festival next summer!

MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL FLYER (JPG Format)

(Please note that one of these flyers is in PDF format. If you are unable to read it, it may be because your computer is not equipped with a PDF reader program. To download Adobe PDF reader free of charge, please take the following link.)

Download Free Adobe Reader

August 7th --

The latest and most complete book on the movie and television career of Gene Autry is now available to all his fans!

Authored by noted western film historian Boyd Magers, this book has been exhaustively researched using resources at Gene Autry Enterprises.  Much of this material has never been previously published.

For more information about this book including how to order an autographed copy at a discounted rate, please click here!

This is a must for every western film fan's library!

May 27th --

There have been many, many guests who have appeared at the Memphis festival over the past 35 years.  In fact, there have been over 300 guests making over 450 appearances.

Want to relive some memories of those shows?

Or, if you haven't been attending these shows for long, you may want to be surprised by the very impressive list of guests the festival has hosted over the years?

You can do that now - by checking out our new "Past Guests" page.  You can review the list of past guests by festival date or by an alphabetic last name.

Check out this page here - you will be impressed!