An Alabama actor who played small roles in movies including “Forrest Gump” and “Sweet Home Alabama” has died at age 87. Bob Penny spent three decades as a college English professor, mostly at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He acted in some commercials on the side, which led to small parts in movies and TV shows after Penny retired from teaching in 1990. He played a bumbling, small-town lawyer in “Sweet Home Alabama,” and had roles in “My Cousin Vinny” and “Mississippi Burning.” An obituary from Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville says Penny died on Christmas Day.

One would have to go back hundreds of years to find a monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II. In her 70 years on the throne, she helped modernize the monarchy across decades of enormous social change, royal marriages and births, and family scandals. Her death in September was arguably the most high-profile death this year. Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. Among the entertainers who died this year was groundbreaking actor Sidney Poitier, who played roles with such dignity that it helped change the way Black people are portrayed on screen.

When it comes to acting, Maria Bakalova considers herself to be a person of extremes. The Oscar-nominated actor said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that “cinema is supposed to be provoking.” Bakalova both stars in her latest film, “The Honeymoon,” and worked as a producer. She hopes to do more producing in the future, citing a need for more women behind the camera. “The Honeymoon,” now available to rent on streaming, is a comedy replete with extremes, though perhaps not the kind she would have expected when she dreamt of making it as an actor. But she said the “Borat” sequel opened her up to different genres.

This year’s nine Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of the Year includes actors and musicians who flowered in 2022. They are Sadie Sink, Stephanie Hsu, Tenoch Huerta, Joaquina Kalukango, Iman Vellani, Daryl McCormack, Tobe Nwigwe, Simone Ashley and Danielle Deadwyler. Three of them have connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and several had important starts on Broadway. Sink found a breakthrough on “Stranger Things” and ”The Whale," while Hsu also was a Broadway veteran with a few TV credits when she was asked to play both a sullen teen and an intergalactic supervillain in the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”