Eric Stoltz

The fourth annual Los Angeles Independent Film Festival will present 24 features, two feature-length documentaries and 31 shorts Friday through Sunday at three nearby Sunset Boulevard venues: the Directors Guild of America at 7930, the Sunset 5 Theaters at 8000 and Harmony Gold Preview House at 7655.

Ever since his acclaimed performance in "Mask," Eric Stoltz has become one of cinema's most prolific actors and a favorite of independent filmmakers. Stoltz made his first big impression in that 1985 hit as a sensitive boy who was disfigured by a rare disease. In 1992's indie hit, "Waterdance," Stoltz received acclaim co-starring with Helen Hunt as a paraplegic writer.

Ever since his acclaimed performance in "Mask," Eric Stoltz has become one of cinema's most prolific actors and a favorite of independent filmmakers. Stoltz made his first big impression in that 1985 hit as a sensitive boy who was disfigured by a rare disease. In 1992's indie hit, "Waterdance," Stoltz received acclaim co-starring with Helen Hunt as a paraplegic writer.

The fourth annual Los Angeles Independent Film Festival will present 24 features, two feature-length documentaries and 31 shorts Friday through Sunday at three nearby Sunset Boulevard venues: the Directors Guild of America at 7930, the Sunset 5 Theaters at 8000 and Harmony Gold Preview House at 7655.

Laziness, actor Eric Stoltz maintains, is an underrated virtue. On an ideal day, he'd read newspapers in bed, lunch with friends, indulge in some mid-afternoon sex, and cap off dinner with a really great film. Still, with four of his own movies surfacing by the end of the year--and three more in 1995--it's a case of "do as I say . . . not as I do."

Wickedly funny, undeniably moving, featuring a knockout series of performances and the most sensual of love scenes, this has everything audiences have been longing for. The focus is on the world of paraplegics, shown without condescension and with rare sympathy, objectivity and humor. Starring Eric Stoltz, Helen Hunt (both pictured), the protean Wesley Snipes and William Forsythe (Bravo Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at noon).

When executive producer Michael Filerman was casting his movie "Roommates," airing Monday on NBC, he wanted two special actors to play the leads. And he got them. The drama--inspired by a true story--deals with a heterosexual ex-convict who had contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion and a gay, wealthy, Harvard-educated professional, also dealing with the disease, who become unlikely roommates at a hospice for people with AIDS.

There are all the old jokes about the actor's ego. Fred Allen said of one actor that he was last seen walking down Lover's Lane holding hands with himself. Someone described another actor whose fondest wish was to die in his own arms. Any interviewer meets actors, male and female, who find the contents of their mirrors obsessively fascinating and who must say why, at some length.

Florence "Rusty" Tullis, the strong-willed biker mother of a son with a rare disfiguring disease, who was portrayed by Cher in the 1985 movie "Mask," has died. She was 70. Tullis died of an infection Saturday at Beverly Hospital in Montebello about a month after being injured in a motorcycle accident, her niece, Helen Cunningham, said Tuesday. Tullis was driving a three-wheeled motorcycle through an intersection in Azusa on Oct.

"Back to the Future," which opens today across the country, officially launches TV star Michael J. Fox in feature films. But the feature he actually made first comes second. "Teen Wolf," a low-budget horror spoof in which Fox plays a timid teen-ager whose genetic clock turns him into both a werewolf and the high school hunk, was made just before "Back to the Future," but won't be released until Aug. 9, nearly five weeks later.

Wickedly funny, undeniably moving, featuring a knockout series of performances and the most sensual of love scenes, this has everything audiences have been longing for. The focus is on the world of paraplegics, shown without condescension and with rare sympathy, objectivity and humor. Starring Eric Stoltz, Helen Hunt (both pictured), the protean Wesley Snipes and William Forsythe (Bravo Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at noon).

Laziness, actor Eric Stoltz maintains, is an underrated virtue. On an ideal day, he'd read newspapers in bed, lunch with friends, indulge in some mid-afternoon sex, and cap off dinner with a really great film. Still, with four of his own movies surfacing by the end of the year--and three more in 1995--it's a case of "do as I say . . . not as I do."

When executive producer Michael Filerman was casting his movie "Roommates," airing Monday on NBC, he wanted two special actors to play the leads. And he got them. The drama--inspired by a true story--deals with a heterosexual ex-convict who had contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion and a gay, wealthy, Harvard-educated professional, also dealing with the disease, who become unlikely roommates at a hospice for people with AIDS.

There are all the old jokes about the actor's ego. Fred Allen said of one actor that he was last seen walking down Lover's Lane holding hands with himself. Someone described another actor whose fondest wish was to die in his own arms. Any interviewer meets actors, male and female, who find the contents of their mirrors obsessively fascinating and who must say why, at some length.

Arkatov failed to include probably the finest acting school of all, namely the Loft Studio on La Brea Avenue. Founded by William Traylor and his late wife, actress Peggy Feury, the Loft has been home to almost the entire crop of the new successful Hollywood acting generation, including John Stockwell, Sean Penn, Hart Bochner, Anjelica Huston, Eric Stoltz, Laura Dern, Meg Tilly and Alexander Godunov among so many others. Under the continuing guidance of actor-teacher Traylor, the Loft continues to be the haven for future working actors.