TMZ.com

Ned Beatty -- a veteran character actor, famous for his work in "Superman," "Network" and several other iconic films -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

A family member tells TMZ ... Ned passed away in his sleep Sunday while surrounded by family at his home. No other details surrounding the exact circumstances of his death were immediately available -- however, we've been told his passing is NOT COVID-related.

The guy has appeared in a variety of different movies and an even bigger variety of roles over his five-decade-plus career ... giving us memorable characters and even better performances. He'll perhaps best be remembered for his standout monologue in 1976's "Network," in which he played a TV/communications chief, who tries convincing the protagonist to stop resisting a major merger deal that will adversely affect the masses.

It's an epic 5 to 6-minute speech he gives to the fictional truthteller, Howard Beale -- one of the only times Beatty appeared on screen in this flick, BTW -- ... and it earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars that year. That's how great it is.

Beatty had scores of other unforgettable movie moments -- notably, as the bumbling sidekick to Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, Otis, in the 1978 version of "Superman" in which he completely flipped the script from serious to comedic ... which he carried on for the sequel too. In other words, Beatty had incredible range -- and flexed it often in his acting.

Other remarkable film credits include ... "Deliverance," -- infamous for its "Squeal like a pig" rape scene, of which Beatty was the onscreen victim -- "Friendly Fire," "All the President's Men," "Silver Streak," "Back to School," "Nashville," "The Big Easy," "The Toy," "1941," "Captain America," "Rudy," "White Lightning," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Hear My Song," "Restless Natives," "Life," "Shooter," "Charlie Wilson's War" and even a couple voice acting roles in "Rango" as well as "Toy Story 3," in which he played Lotso ... the evil pink bear.

Ned had appeared in several big hit TV shows as well through the years, such as "Law & Order," "Roseanne," "The Boys," "Highway to Heaven," "American Playhouse," "Szysznyk," "The Rockford Files," "M*A*S*H*," "Homicide: Life on the Street," 'CSI,' "Murder, She Wrote" and countless others.

He's survived by his wife, Sandra Johnson, and his eight children and grandchildren. Ned was 83.

RIP

Chris Evans turns 40 Sunday, and Chris Hemsworth honored his co-star with a very misplaced and very intentional Happy Birthday diss!!!

Captain America was duly honored by his "Avengers" co-star, who posted, "Happy 40th birthday Chris Evans, you'll always be number 1 in my book."

Hemsworth included a selfie of him and Chris. Thing is ... it's not Chris Evans ... it's Chris Pratt!!!

There may be too many sheriffs in Tinsletown ... there are 4 Chris's in the action star category ... the fourth, of course, being Chris Pine.

You may recall ... some fans decided to play a game -- who's the worst Chris, and the winner with that dubious distinction was Pratt. Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo begged to differ, but they didn't reorder the Chris' and choose their worst preference.

Clarence Williams III -- famous for roles in "The Mod Squad," "Half Baked" and several other movies and shows -- has died.

The veteran actor's management team confirmed the sad news Sunday, saying Clarence had actually passed away Friday in L.A. due to colon cancer.

CWIII had a long history with his craft ... dating back to the '60s when he got his start in theater and broke through on Broadway with a Tony win for his work on "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground." He went on to do TV and movie acting thereafter -- and had a number of memorable roles.

He might best be remembered for playing Detective Linc Hayes on 'Mod Squad' ... in which he starred for five seasons, totaling 123 episodes. After that, the work kept pouring in for Clarence ... he was cast in supporting roles in hit shows like "The Cosby Show," "The Littlest Hobo," "Hill Street Blues," "T.J. Hooker," "Miami Vice," "Nasty Boys," "Twin Peaks," "Tales from the Cyrpt," "The Highwayman," 'Star Trek,' "Walker, Texas Ranger" and countless others.

Clarence also had several standout performances for cult classic films, including "Purple Rain" -- in which he played Prince's troubled dad -- as well as Dave Chappelle's stoner comedy "Half Baked" ... where he played a flamboyant local drug lord Samson Simpson, who was dueling with DC's booming Mr. Nice Guy weed biz in the flick. Tons of great lines from that.

Clarence had starred in a ton of other huge movies as well, such as "The General's Daughter," "Reindeer Games," "The Butler," "Deep Cover," "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," "Sugar Hill," "Tales from the Hood" ... and many, many more.

He was 81.

Paul Walker's brother says Vin Diesel and the rest of the 'Fast and the Furious' family made the right move letting his character ride off into the sunset ... and he thinks Paul would get a kick out of where the franchise is these days.

We got Cody Walker at Sancho's Tacos in Huntington Beach and asked how he feels about the way 'F&F' has honored his bro's legacy with the 9th installment about to hit theaters.

Cody says Vin and co. have done a really good job of tastefully paying tribute to Paul's character, Brian O'Conner, and he thinks Paul would have never imagined the franchise going this far.

As you know ... Paul died in a fiery wreck in November 2013. The crash didn't happen on the set, but he was in the middle of filming "Furious 7" at the time. The script for the 8th installment referred to Paul's character a few times.

It's pretty cool ... Cody says he was in middle school when the OG 'F&F' came out, and his brother's movie is what Cody credits for his own love of cars. He says folks stop him in the street all the time to tell him Paul is the reason they love cars, and he always has the same response ... "Me too!!!"

We also asked Cody about one of the original movie cars -- Paul's orange 1994 Toyota Supra -- going up for auction later this month. Cody's anticipating a huge figure for the winning bid, and he tells us why Paul would think the whole sale is hilarious.

Speaking of fast cars ... Cody's FuelFest is coming to Los Angeles later this month, right before the movie release, featuring some of the top custom, exotic, rare and exclusive cars from all over the world ... along with live music, drifting and drag racing.

French Montana is pulling a LeBron James, of sorts, with his latest gig -- getting in front of the camera for an acting role ... in which he's set to play a fictionalized version of himself.

The NY rapper was spotted on set Friday at the Hyatt hotel in NOLA, filming a new flick in the works right now called "National Champions" -- a college sports drama that has an all-star cast and is presumably due out sometime next year, as they're currently in production.

Check out these photos of French that we obtained ... the dude is behind a piano next to media personality, Andrew Bachelor (AKA King Bach), who's giving him a high five as French plays. Bachelor is also cast in the movie -- one of several famous faces who'll be in the movie, alongside folks like J.K. Simmons, Stephan James, Timothy Olyphant and others.

As you can see, there's a ton of crew members standing around as well, all wearing masks. Production sources tell TMZ that hotel guests who happened to be nearby while cameras were rolling were pretty surprised to see French there ... and in acting mode, no less.

Ya might think it's easy to act as yourself for a movie -- but just look at LBJ (who famously did it for 2015's "Trainwreck") ... and you'll see there's a lot of room to flex one's chops.

Anyway, if French is any good here ... you gotta wonder if this might be a whole new lane he wants to explore. If so, he certainly wouldn't be the first rapper to give acting a go ... there's a long list of those who've come before him, some of whom have had major success.

Marilyn Monroe's cookbooks -- the only 2 confirmed to have been owned by the icon -- offer a glimpse into her personal life along with her diet ... and they're expected to fetch up to $75,000.

The books -- "The New Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" and "The New Joy of Cooking" -- were both published in the early 1950s and are in decent shape for being 7 decades old ... but of course, the content of the hardbacks are hardly the attraction.

Instead, it's the fact that several handwritten notes are included in the cookbooks ... including a listing menu for Beef Bourguignon and marrow bone soup, a grocery shopping list, and a deli business card on which she wrote a Doheny Drive address on the back.

There's also a newspaper clipping of a recipe for cheese lasagna that she doodled on, and perhaps most interestingly ... a typed diet with options for all 3 meals.

According to the diet ... Marilyn had either orange juice or stewed prunes to drink daily for her 8 AM breakfast along with toast and cereal. She went pretty carb-heavy for lunch, and had the choice of beef, chicken, lamb, sweetbread, fish or chicken liver for dinner.

She also had 2 scheduled milk and cracker snacks, and capped everything off at the end of the night ... with eggnog at 11 PM!!! It's unclear if the nog was spiked.

Peter Berg's pumped about movie theaters finally making a pandemic comeback even though he's in business with Netflix, because as he explains ... it's good for the entire film biz.

The producer/director was heading to Gold's Gym in Venice when we got his response to the Memorial Day box office rebound thanks to "A Quiet Place Part II" ... and he seems as excited to head back to the movies as everyone else.

It might seem like Berg's biting the hand that feeds since he recently scored a first-look deal to produce and direct live-action projects for the streaming giant ... but he says that's not the case at all.

Peter points out Netflix can release movies in theaters first, and then on its platform ... and that's actually what they want. He calls it the best of both worlds.

Berg admits box office numbers might take a hit from folks who still opt to watch movies from home -- like millions did last year for his Netflix hit, "Spenser Confidential" -- but he suggests that's a small price to pay.

Kim Kardashian has a treat for her fans -- the trailer to the movie in which she plays a badass poodle. Yep, it's "Paw Patrol" time!!!

Kim tweeted Thursday she's "so excited for you guys to hear me play Delores in @PawPatrolMovie!" She urged her fans to watch the trailer ... even though her character doesn't get a close-up in the trailer. You can only see her name listed among the long list of featured voices.

Some other stars lending their voices include Jimmy Kimmel, Dax Shepard, Tyler Perry, Marsai Martin, Randall Park, Yara Shahidi and Ron Pardo.

Kim will voice Delores ... a newcomer to the pup crew. The pups' mission -- to save the citizens of Adventure City from Mayor Humdinger ... who BTW is a dog-hating cat lover. Woof.

Interesting nugget ... Marsai, who voices Liberty the dachshund, reportedly had no clue Kim K was her co-star during one of their recording sessions.

The main "Paw Patrol" crew is being voiced by the original TV cast members -- Shayle Simons (Zuma), Callum Shoniker (Rocky), Lilly Bartlam (Skye), Kingsley Marshall (Marshall) and Keegan Hedley (Rubble). Chase is the only pup being voiced by someone else ... "Young Sheldon" star Iain Armitage.

Cruella de Vil is painted as being traumatized by Dalmatians in Disney's latest offering ... supposedly, because these "mongrels" killed her ma, which is getting a lot of head scratches.

The villain from "101 Dalmatians" gets her own backstory in the new "Cruella" flick, which is headed up by Emma Stone ... and word on the street is that part of why Cruella has it out for this breed is that they were sicced on her mom ... in a release-the-hounds fashion.

Different clips and stills have surfaced showing the flashback scene, which shows kid Cruella having to watch the woman who raised her, Catherine, get pushed over a balcony ledge by three seemingly rabid Dalmatians, who go after her on Baroness von Hellman's command.

She plummets to her death ... and the implication is that Cruella's left scarred for life -- and partially explains her obsession with the pooches going forward. In case you forgot, the OG Cruella was notorious for literally skinning Dalmatians and using them as furs.

Disney apparently doesn't quite go that far in the movie -- although different reviews say they allude to Stone's Cruella having that idea on her mind. We should also note that the character has a voice-over moment where she explicitly says she doesn't blame Dalmatians, but a lot of folks just aren't buying that ... and are calling Disney's origin rationale lame.

What the studio heads/writers did here (according to PO'd viewers) is make Dalmatians the fall dog -- when, in reality, they're actually super friendly pooches ... and don't have a rep for attacking like the movie portrays. Folks say it's a cop-out explainer that's lazy and inaccurate.

There's a massive estate in Houston that just hit the market ... and it's out of this world 'cause it's dubbed the Darth Vader house.

The 4-bedroom, 5 bathroom house has 7,040 square feet of living space, which is awesome, but it's the unique front structure that stands out ... thanks to its near-spitting image of the onyx helmet donned by the most famous 'Star Wars' villain.

The house -- yours for a cool $4.3 million -- was built by a surgeon back in the early '90s and "modeled after the mask of Darth Vader."

The home is super sleek ... with laser blue backlighting throughout that may have some people thinking they're inside The Devastator.

The contemporary masterpiece is planted in the prestigious West University neighborhood ... and it's truly fit for a king supervillain, despite a row of skylights near the top of the structure that glistens with natural light.

Got toys? There's space in the 4-car garage too.

The man who voiced Sebastian in "The Little Mermaid" got what he always wanted after his passing -- a Broadway tribute.

Samuel E. Wright's daughter Dee tells TMZ ... her father's death has been very emotional for the family, but they're also overjoyed that one of his wishes came true.

As we told you ... Sam was a veteran theater actor who starred in several popular Broadway shows -- including originating the part of Mufasa in "The Lion King." Dee says he always joked with the family, "When I go, I want my name up there!" ... referring to the theater marquees.

Well, on Tuesday after news broke of Wright's death, Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre honored him by doing precisely that.

Sam's daughter adds ... the fam's actually in good spirits, which she says may seem odd ... but it's a testament to his joy and positivity.

Dee also says the outpouring of support they've seen on social media from his fans and actors he worked with has been overwhelming.

Wright's public wake will be held Friday in Walden, NY for fans to come and show their love ... something the family feels is the best gift they can give him.

"School of Rock" star Kevin Clark, who played the drummer, is dead after a motorist hit him while he was cycling around Chicago ... TMZ has learned.

The professional drummer -- best known as Freddy Jones, aka Spazzy McGee -- was riding his bicycle on the Northwest Side of Chicago early Wednesday morning when he was struck by a Hyundai Sonata ... according to police.

Kevin was rushed to a hospital, but was pronounced dead at 2:04 AM CT ... according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Kevin's sister says he was riding his bike home at the time of the accident. Police say a 20-year-old woman was driving the car that struck and killed Kevin. She was not arrested, but has been issued citations.

As we first reported ... Kevin caught up with Jack Black back in 2018 for an impromptu 'SoR' reunion during a Tenacious D set in Chicago.

Kevin gave Jack a custom shirt from his own band, Dreadwolf, and JB threw it on immediately.

"School of Rock" was Kevin's only movie credit, and he once told us he only got the 2003 role because he could actually play the drums.

Clark was 32.

RIP

Bam Margera says his "Jackass" family betrayed, abandoned and rejected him ... so now he's on his own in Florida, where he says he's getting the help he needs.

The "Jackass" star ripped into his movie co-stars in a lengthy rant Sunday night, specifically going after Johnny Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine, claiming they've treated him horribly.

Bam, as we first reported, was axed from the upcoming 'Jackass 4,' and says Johnny and Jeff "strung me along like a puppet" before a messy exit.

Steve-O is trying to get through to Bam, though ... he says Johnny and Jeff bent over backward to get Bam in the movie and all Bam needed to do was "not get loaded," but couldn't stay sober.

As we first told you ... Bam says his most recent rehab stint made his life much worse and he felt like he was going to die from an overdose or suicide.

Kevin Spacey is easing back into acting again -- but his first job ain't even here in the States ... dude's heading all the way over to Italy to get back to work.

The disgraced actor -- who has faced a mountain of sexual assault allegations since 2017, and essentially been exiled from mainstream Hollywood -- booked his first acting role since the accusations came to light ... this according to ABC News, who confirmed it.

Spacey is set to star in an Italian film called "L'uomo Che Disegno Dio," which will be directed by famed Italian actor-turned-director Franco Nero ... the guy who played the OG Django waaaay back in the '60s. The title translates to "The Man Who Drew God."

The synopsis says it's about a blind artist who has the God-given ability to draw portraits of people by just listening to their voice ... who then skyrockets to fame and becomes a TV star. It's unclear what role Spacey will play, but he'll be opposite Nero's wife, Vanessa Redgrave.

Of Spacey's casting, Nero tells ABC ... "I'm very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film." He adds, "I consider him a great actor and I can't wait to start the movie."

KS hasn't been on camera -- besides his own weird home movies, that is -- since he parted ways with Netflix's "House of Cards" in late 2017 ... which revamped the entire final season, killing his character off from the outset and pushing forward with just Robin Wright.

A piece of movie history is going up for sale ... the iconic house from "Training Day" just hit the market.

The 3-bedroom home, tucked away on a cul-de-sac near Dodger Stadium, is up for sale at a cool $1,149,000 ... and it's where memorable scenes for the movie starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke were filmed.

If you've seen "Training Day" you'll remember Roger's home ... there are a few scenes inside, most notably the ones where Denzel's character, Alonzo, shoots Roger in his own living room and tries to frame Ethan's character for the murder.

The kitchen's the setting for another scene, where the dirty cops dig up the floor and steal a ton of cash. Dr. Dre's character is involved in both iconic scenes, which we're told were shot on location inside the home.

The home is 1,700 square feet and it has great views of the downtown L.A. skyline ... along with exposed beam ceilings and oak floors. There's also a separate studio guest house with its own deck, and a big yard.

Paul Hogan insists he didn't put up a sign on his house warning homeless people to scram ... in fact, he says the house isn't even his and he has empathy for people living on the streets.

The "Crocodile Dundee" star was getting lots of unwanted attention after a sign was plastered on his garage that read ...'THIS IS MY HOUSE NOT YOURS." Hogan is renting a $3.5 million house on the sand in Venice ... an area that has been completely overrun by the homeless. It's become both dangerous and heartbreaking to see people living in horrible conditions.

Hogan says he did NOT write the sign, although it's weird he was seen with a red marker in his hand and the sign is written in red.  He does say when he saw the sign, he took it down.

Paul calls the homeless situation in L.A. sad, awful and embarrassing. State and local government have done little, if anything, to curb the problem up to this point, and it's become a full-blown crisis.

The 81-year-old Hogan has said he's homesick for his native Australia and can't wait for COVID-19 issues to be resolved so he can leave L.A.