RIP John Daly

The "Dale" in the Hemdale company, co-founded with actor David Hemmings, he had a hand in notable films of every caliber in his heyday and helped get the careers of Oliver Stone (Salvador and Platoon) and James Cameron (The Terminator) off the ground. Platoon and The Last Emperor swept through the 1987 and 1988 Oscar ceremonies, then he drifted into directing on the margins of the indie scene. I haven't seen any of those films, but the Hemdale name in the opening credits usually implied something interesting to follow, and my 80's moviegoing was uplifted by his best-known pictures and a variety of others he produced, including Cattle Annie and Little Britches, Strange Behavior, Vice Squad, The Falcon and the Snowman, The Return of the Living Dead, At Close Range, Best Seller, Miracle Mile, and Vampire's Kiss. Maybe it's not my age, or a hardening of my critical faculties; movies really were better 20 or so years ago.