Two Arnold Co-Stars Pass On

Today is a sad day for Arnold fans, as we announce the death of two great actors who played memorable roles in classic Schwarzenegger movies.

Paul Winfield, an Emmy award winning and Oscar nominated actor passed away on Sunday, after a heart attack in his Los Angeles home. Aged just 62, Winfield co-starred in such blockbusters as Cliffhanger, Mars Attatcks!, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn and as every Arnold fan knows, The Terminator.

Making his screen debut opposite Sidney Portier in 1969, in the movie The Lost Man, it took him just three years to receive a Best Actor nomination for his role as a sharecropper in the movie Sounder. His final role came last year in a TV-movie version of the film.

Winfield was perhaps best known for his Emmy-nominated role in the 1978 mini-series King, in which he played the title role of Martin Luther King Jr. He picked up another Emmy nomination in 1979 for his role as a spiritual-singing college chancellor in Roots: The Next Generation. He finally won an Emmy in 1995 for his work as an inner-city judge on the CBS series Picket Fences.

He also did several voice over pieces on cartoon series, such as Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond and Spider-Man. Simpsons fans will know him as the voice of the boxing promoter Lucius Sweet.

All Arnold fans will know this man as the warm-hearted but tough Lt. Ed Traxler from The Terminator.

Arnold fan Terminated speaks of his death earlier on today:

Traxler was such a warm, caring character, a voice of reason in The Terminator. He actually brought a sense of safety to it, all portrayed by the wonderful Paul Winfield. He is one actor I did not expect to pass on so early. He was an important character, one that I would of loved to have seen return. I will watch The Terminator in memory of this amazing man, and will not be ashamed to shed a tear.

Robert Pastorelli, the man who played the wise cracking character of Johnny C in Eraser was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home early on Monday morning.

The 49 year-old was found in a bathroom by his personal assistant. Specialists say that there was no evidence of foul play, and that the death may have been caused by a drugs overdose.

His death comes almost five years after he himself suffered a personal tragedy. It was in the same Hollywood house in March 1999 that Charemon Jonovich, Pastorelli's live-in girlfriend and mother of his daughter, shot and killed herself in what police ruled an accident.

He was best known for his role as the artistic-minded painter Eldin Bernecky, on CBS' Murphy Brown . Co-starring in the sitcom from 1988 to 1994, Pastorelli scored an Emmy nomination during his final season on the show.

A former boxer, Pastorelli appeared alongside several big-name stars such as Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II , Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser .

His last role came as a hit man in John Travolta's sequel to Get Shorty, entitled Be Cool, which is due out in early 2005.

Pastorelli was a great actor, and never ceased to make us laugh. Who could forget the foaming at the mouth scene in Eraser? His death comes as a shock to us all, and he will be sadly missed.

We salute both of these great men, and bow our heads in a moment of silence at their tragic deaths. Let us remember them not just for their roles in Arnold movies, but for all of their fantastic work. They will both be sadly missed.

To celebrate their lives and work, pop in your copes of The Terminator and Eraser, and take a minute to think how the movies would have been without these two great men.