Moustapha Akkad, executive producer behind all of the "Halloween" films has died due to injuries suffered in the terror attacks in Jordan. His daughter, Rima Akkad Monla (34 years old), also died.
The "Halloween" series is, by far, my favorite horror film set, and this news is really sad to hear.
here's the story from Yahoo News:
Moustapha Akkad, the Syrian-born producer of the "Halloween" horror films, died Friday from wounds sustained in the triple hotel bombings, a hospital official said.
Akkad died at 7:30 a.m. in a Jordanian hospital where he was being treated, said surgeon Dr. Yousef Qisous. He lived in Los Angeles and was reportedly in his 70s.
"He had bleeding in the lungs, his ribs were fractured and he died of his wounds and a severe heart attack this morning," Qisous told The Associated Press.
Akkad's daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, 34, also died in one of Wednesday's three explosions, said her mother, Patricia Akkad, Thursday.
A woman who answered the telephone at Moustapha Akkad's home early Friday said she was too upset to talk. A telephone message left at Patricia Akkad's Los Angeles area home was not immediately returned. She left for Lebanon late Thursday.
Three suicide bombers hit the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Wednesday night and killed at least 59 people, including the three suicide bombers.
Officials suspect Iraqi involvement in the attacks, which were claimed by al-Qaida's Iraq branch.
Moustapha Akkad, best known for producing all eight films in the "Halloween" franchise, also produced and directed "The Message" (1977) and "Lion of the Desert" (1981). Both latter films starred Anthony Quinn.
His daughter, Rima, grew up in Los Angeles an avid polo player who graduated from the University of Southern California in 1995 with a degree in international relations.
She pursued a master's degree in Middle East studies at the American University in Beirut, where she met her husband Ziad Monla, 35.
Her husband's family owns the Monla Hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon. The couple, married for six years, has two sons, ages 2 and 4.
"Rima is a totally American girl," Patricia Akkad, 64, said Thursday in a phone interview from her ex-husband's home in Los Angeles. "Here's an American who was over there and innocently killed for no reason."
Akkad said her daughter loved living in Beirut.
"We all know the problems in the Middle East, and you never think it's going to touch you," she said.
Funeral services were scheduled for Friday in Tripoli.
"She was the light of everybody's life," Patricia Akkad said. "She put everybody else first."
