Damien Bona 1955-2012

[FilmFan720]

I firstly wish to thank Wes for letting me know about Damien's passing. The email was like a punch to my stomach, I was just so shocked and saddened. I always enjoyed reading Damien's posts and even though I haven't visited the board in about a year (a combination of holidays, work demands and wanting to give the internet a break for a while) I did often think what opinions you guys had on some particular films. I have some catching up to do here.

Precious, it is so good to hear from you back here. I almost feel like our community is having its own little wake, a chance to remember a lost friend but also a chance to reunite with lost friends and rediscover them. Hearing from people like Precious and Johnny Guitar (and talking with some others on Facebook about Damien's passing) has reminded me how special this community is, and how even though I have only ever met one member of the board in person, I really feel like everyone around here is part of our own little family. Thank you all for helping to make this place so special (we don't say nice things about each other enough!).

I don't want to start a new topic, or feel like I am hi-jacking this thread, but I found out this morning that on Sunday (right around the time of Damien's passing) an acquaintance of mine committed suicide. I didn't know him well (although people I care deeply about were close to him), but it made me even sadder about Damien's passing. That such a vibrant life, and a man with so much to look forward to in the years down the road, should be ripped from us so suddenly while others can choose to end their own life doesn't seem fair to me. Life is too short as it is, and as Damien helped show there are too many films to see, people to love and places to go, that to end it on your own early seems like a shame.

[Big Magilla]

Damien's death wasn't big enough news for the Times, but the Daily News had no problem covering it and doing a great job as well:

Damien Bona

Damien Bona, who authored several books about Hollywood and was a leading expert on the Academy Awards, died Sunday after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 56.

Bona, who lived in Hell’s Kitchen, was best known as the co-author of “Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards,” considered the definitive standard reference about the Oscars.

When the book first appeared in 1986, critic Vincent Canby called it “a giddy social history of our place and time, full of statistics and the kind of utterly trivial details that, taken together, somehow assume significance, like centuries-old graffiti scratched onto the base of the Sphinx.”

After the 1994 death of his co-author, Mason Wiley, Bona continued to update “Inside Oscar” and published a follow-up volume, “Inside Oscar 2.”

Witty and acerbic, he was the media’s go-to expert on the Academy Awards and their significance, especially during the annual run-up to the ceremony itself.

Bona also wrote several other books about the movies, including “Opening Shots: The Unusual, Unexpected, Potentially Career-Threatening First Roles That Launched the Careers of 70 Hollywood Stars” and “Starring Demi Moore As Hester Prynne: Hollywood’s All-Time Worst Casting Blunders.”

He was known for his affectionate yet irreverent approach, often skewering the pretensions of Hollywood, but always treating the art of filmmaking with passionate obsession.

Bona grew up in New Milford, Conn., where his father ran a bookstore and his mother taught school. He got his start writing about films for the Columbia Spectator while an undergraduate at Columbia University.

He earned a law degree from New York University and practiced law for a time in New York, but devoted himself to writing after his book was accepted for publication.

He is survived by his long-time partner, the writer and theater director Ralph Peña; his mother, Alma Bona, of New Milford; his sister, Amy Bona, of Brooklyn; three nieces, and a legion of friends in New York and Hollywood.

[Precious Doll]

I firstly wish to thank Wes for letting me know about Damien's passing. The email was like a punch to my stomach, I was just so shocked and saddened. I always enjoyed reading Damien's posts and even though I haven't visited the board in about a year (a combination of holidays, work demands and wanting to give the internet a break for a while) I did often think what opinions you guys had on some particular films. I have some catching up to do here.

I first became aware of Damien back in the mid 1980's when Inside Oscar was first published and it's been my Oscar bible ever since. I picked up the second edition in 1993 and read the additional years added on a flight to Paris. Never has a plane trip gone go quickly.

Damien could always make me chuckle with some of his posts, some of which I would quote to my partner. We are forever quoting the post about Ronnie Reagan's death when Damien mentioned that a friend of his on hearing of the death of Ronald Reagan had decided to skip the first four stages of grief and move straight to acceptance.

Wherever I talk to anyone about Make Way For Tomorrow I always think of Damien, dito Breakfast at Tiffanys, Blake Edwards & ofcourse Ethan Hawke.

The world without Damien Bona is a lesser place and he will be very much missed as all of your posts illustrate.

[Big Magilla]

From Damien's Facebook wall:

We sent an obituary news item for Damien to the New York Times. I don't know if they will pick it up. Maybe we can start a letter-writing campaign urging them to publish an obituary for Damien. The email address is: obits@nytimes.com. Below is his paid obituary notice. You can leave your wishes on the site. Thank you. Ralph

Damien's paid obituary in the N.Y. Times:

BONA--Damien C., author of several books about films including "Inside Oscar" (co-authored with Mason Wiley), died on January 29, 2012, at age 56. He was a graduate of Columbia University and the NYU School of Law. He is survived by his longtime partner Ralph Pena, his mother Alma Bona, sister Amy, and nieces Emily, Liz, and Claudia. A memorial service will be held on March 18, 2012, at 2pm at Frank E. Campbell in New York. Memorial contributions may be made to God's Love We Deliver or Kings Highway Cat Rescue.

Guest book at Legacy.com:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytime ... =155715815

[Leeder]

Like most of you, I never knew Damien more than by correspondence, though back in the late 90s he was good enough to make me a copy of Lewton's The Seventh Victim. He also read and provided comments on an early short story of mine; I would have dedicated to him, if I had ever managed to publish it. I do little more than lurk here these days, but I think that my taking on Film Studies as a career (Ph.D. now in hand) was a decision I might not have made were it not for the seminal influence of the intelligent film commentaries I accessed through this community, and people like Damien.

[dbensics]

I'm very sad to hear of Damien Bona's passing. My prayers are with him, his family and friends. A sad loss for everyone.

I used to be an avid listener of the old Larry King radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting Network. One night, guest host Jim Bohannon had two authors on promoting a new book about the Academy Awards.

Those two authors were Damien Bona and Mason Wiley and their book was Inside Oscar.

That was 25 years ago and I was incredibly excited by such a treasure. Remember, this was before the internet and it was difficult to come by a list of all the early year nominees. In 1982, I even wrote a letter to AMPAS asking for a complete list of historical nominees. Of course, I received no reply.

Today, there is no end to the amount of Oscar trivia, lists, and video clips on the web. But that was not always true. Damien Bona was a true pioneer.

Rest in Peace.

[Johnny Guitar]

I haven't really added anything new to what I've already said, but for what it's worth, I wrote up a few lines about Damien's passing on my blog, here.

I know I'm not the most active presence on the UAADB, nor have I been for a long time, but coming here and reading these posts has been incredibly helpful for me in the wake of Damien's death, as I suspect it has for others ... so thank you all, and I'm glad that this community exists to commemorate a good friend ...

[Greg]

The best compliment I got from Damien on this board was where he said that he always enjoyed and often learned form my posts; and, then he followed that with a quote from Mark Twain on cats.

Recently, I saw a small portion of Going My Way on TV. Damien's personality on this board, his picture in Magilla's tribute to him on the Cinema Sight blog, and, his love of movies about priests and nuns, reminded me of what I saw of the Barry Fitzgerald character. I shall have to see all of Going My Way sometime soon to see if I find the Fitzgerald character to be truly reminiscent of Damien.

[danfrank]

Several months ago, after this board made its latest technical transition, Damien took an apparent sabattical from the board for what seemed like a long time. It made me, and I'm sure others on this board, realize how much I'd grown accustomed to his unique and very entertaining voice, and how much I yearned for him to return. I was quite happy when he did. To realize now that we won't be hearing that voice again is very sad indeed.

Some of the many things I'll miss about Damien: his rapier wit (his postings frequently made me laugh out loud); his truly impressive base of knowledge about film, his passion about just about everything (including our mutually beloved San Francisco Giants), his generosity and kindness, and his ability to proffer some truly preposterous opinions while never seeming disingenuous and always seeming to maintain his considerable charm. Like an iconic movie character, he seemed somewhat larger than life. He always seemed to want movies to reflect and inspire the better side of humanity, and while I found this a bit limiting, I truly respect the sentiment behind it. He would often talk about someone he admired as "on the side of angels." I feel the same about Damien.

Rest well, dear friend. We shan't see the likes of ye again.

[Big Magilla]

Helen Wiley, sister of Damien's co-author Mason, posted a nice note on CinemaSight's main page.

[Cinemanolis]

I first "met" Damien during the 1998 oscar season. I was really enjoying all the hoopla that surrounded the Academy’s love affair with Benigni, the Cate Vs Gwyneth Vs Fernanda fights and the "Saving Private Ryan" vs "The Thin Red Line" comparisons. I was an enthusiastic reader of everyone's posts but i seldom posted anything myself, as I felt that the language barrier wouldn't let me get into these passionate "discussions” with equal terms. Damien was one of the UAADB members that i respected the most, not only because he was the author of "Inside Oscar", but because his observations were both witty and insightful, they showed that their writer really loved cinema and as a result made me want to discover the movies he was passionate about. In a discussion about the importance of "Make Way for Tomorrow", he offered to introduce me to this gem by sending me a VHS copy, in a time when it was really hard to find such a film in Greece. I absolutely loved the film and offered to send him a VHS copy of a classic movie he hadn't already seen: 1951's "Death of a Salesman" (which I never did, as I was unable to copy NTSC tapes in a PAL country). It was around the time he was working on "Inside Oscar 2". "It's certainly hard to get worked up over a year when Gladiator is named Best Picture" was his answer in his kind note accompanying the VHS, when I asked him when it would be published.
I never exchanged lengthy e-mails or even PMs with him or meet him in person, so I must confess that I feel a little bit jealous of those of you who had the pleasure of getting to know him outside the “limits” of our Oscar discussions. I now wish I had the good sense to have a closer relationship with the person I really admired and whose opinion I valued, even when our opinions didn’t always match.
To paraphrase a quote from “Make Way from Tomorrow”, the movie that introduced him to me: “It’s been very nice knowing you Mr. Bona”.
Goodbye Damien. You left your mark on this board and on its members. You will always be remembered.

[Mister Tee]

Thanks to (fellow Regian) Bill Condon for stopping by. Between what he says and what Movie Wes articulates, I'll choose to think that what we're doing here is carrying on the spirit of Inside Oscar -- noting the frequent absurdity of the whole circus, but also acknowledging its power and lure. It'll be of course far more difficult to do without Damien's distinctive voice, but I think we all know that voice so well it will endure. Already two or three times I've found myself thinking "Damien would love/laugh at" some movie or development.

Of course, it'll be sad each time not to hear the words directly from him. I lost my best friend about a year and a half ago, and what I've found is that, as painful as his passing was, I feel his absence even more keenly every time he comes to mind -- when I imagine his take on something happy or silly that comes up in everyday experience. Friends fill the moments of our lives, and our memories, and each one we lose leaves a void that aches.

So, in that spirit, let me say I'm pleased we've dedicated the history section to Damien, but offer a fervent wish we don't have to dedicate any more sections for a very long time.

[mlrg]

I never had the good fortune of meeting Damien or even speak on the phone or change e-mails or messages like most of you, but since I joined this board back in 1998, Damien was probably, alongside Magilla, the poster I most looked forward to read whenever he had new insights on movies, old or new, or the Oscar race itself.

My opinions, either politically or cinematically, differ from his many times, but what’s so good about this Board is the range of opinions we can share with mature and intelligent behavior.

Inside Oscar, both volumes, are probably the books I have ever read the most times. My ex-wife and my current girlfriend use to say that Inside Oscar are like bibles to me. And In fact they are. I first discovered Inside Oscar in 1995 while searching for Oscar related books at the Portuguese Institute and Museum of Cinema. They had some books about the Academy Awards, but I was completely hooked when I read the first pages of the book. In fact, I got back there just to read the book over and over. In 2000 I finally ordered the book via Amazon and a couple of years later I also ordered volume 2.

So if Inside Oscar is my Oscar bible, I guess Damien is my Oscarwatcher God.

He will be greatly missed.

[Reza]

I'm not sure exactly when but it was probably during the early years of the Board that I had my first direct encounter with Damien. It was during an animated argument with him on a thread about screwball comedies and I think I said something like, ''who the hell do you think you are?'' or something to that effect. I had also mentioned Ed Kirov's book on the genre and he calmly said that I should check out the last page of the book to find out who he was. I can't tell you how shocked, but thrilled, I was to find Ed Kirov thanking his ''friend Damien Bona'' on that page. It took me a couple of minutes before the name registered and I understood that I had been arguing with the Damien Bona of ''Inside Oscar'' fame. I just gushed an apology like a start struck fan and also blurted out that a friend and I had shoplifted our first copy of ''Inside Oscar'' in Wisconsin in 1986. He was most amused.

By the way I paid for all subsequent editions I have with me now.

[MovieWes]

Like so many others here, even though I never met Damien, I felt like he was a friend. I joined this board in 1999, which I'm guessing is around the same time Damien joined. I didn't even know he was famous until about 3 years later, when I discovered that he was the author of Inside Oscar. Inside Oscar was one of the first movie books I ever read. When I was in 4th or 5th grade, the San Antonio Public Library had a copy of it and I would check it out and re-check it out constantly. It was the only book on the Oscars that they had, and my mother said that she felt like I basically owned it. It was probably one of the things that shaped my interest in film at a young age. But that it took me 3 whole years to discover that Damien was a big deal in the world of Oscar prognosticating is a testament to his character. He never flaunted his status and was exceptionally generous with his time and energy. We are all very lucky to have shared the Oscar experience with him and I can't even imagine the future of this board without him. But I feel that this group is, in a way, part of his legacy. No, he never officially got around to writing Inside Oscar 3, but in a way he did write it through his postings on this board. But it was also an interactive experience for all of us. His insight into the Oscars was invaluable and I am going to miss him terribly.

R.I.P.