Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOHill2]

Awesome actor. I loved the character he played in "Mystery Alaska"

Me too. I really enjoy that movie.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Harvey Pekar, the American anti-hero who led a comic-book revolution

Harvey Pekar carved a unique niche for himself within the spandex world of comics, often working with material from his own life against the backdrop of his native Cleveland. Pekar was arguably the first and best to use the medium to illuminate foibles, flaws and failures. With his death at the age of 70, visual literature bids farewell to a true American anti-hero.

Pekar was no artist – he was a writer through and through, as blue collar and geographically territorial as Charles Bukowski, and as idiosyncratic as Robert Crumb. It was a shared love of jazz that would lead Pekar and Crumb to first form a friendship and then a creative partnership that gave Pekar the break he needed. It was his stories, and not the crudely-drawn stickmen that accompanied them, that persuaded the then-established Crumb to be the first to illustrate the comic for which Pekar is best remembered, American Splendor.

And what stories they were. In an era – and medium – of superheroes, Pekar was anything but. Adopting the philosophy that "ordinary life is pretty complex stuff", his comics relayed the painful experiences of a creative-minded, penny-pinching curmudgeon at odds with the world, who floundered while working as a file clerk in a hospital, a job he held down even after his comic book success.

Pekar saw in comics an opportunity to create something akin to film, only easier, cheaper and quicker. His weary depiction of an existence spent scraping by in between failed relationships was shot through with the type of misanthropic humour that puts Pekar's work on a par with Woody Allen, Larry David or a supremely irate New York cab driver. And as with the very best anti-heroes, in his work no one came across quite as honestly as Pekar himself.

There was immense compassion and humanity in his work, too, and it is testament to the strength of his writing and characterisation – and his association with life's underdogs - that Pekar attracted a legion of collaborators which included comic titans such as Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sacco and Alan Moore. As well as enjoying a healthy sideline career as a jazz and book critic he became an unlikely national celebrity in the late 80s when he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman numerous times. His energised everyman views eventually became a little too much, and he was banned for criticising the show's owners. But it was this honesty and ability to see through the facile pretence of mainstream America represented by the likes of Letterman that endeared him to so many.

The 2003 film of his life, American Splendor, elevated him to international status when Paul Giamatti perfectly nailed his rasping rants, with Pekar himself popping up to comment on the onscreen depiction of himself in a fine piece of meta-cinema.

It's only in recent years that comics have been re-branded as the more intellectually-acceptable "graphic novels" and finally gained the critical and academic attention they deserve. Unlike those of the counterculture generation, however, Harvey Pekar didn't want to destroy society or alter minds through comics. He wanted instead to write serious literature, and his work – perhaps more than anyone's – was key to this shift. His substantial output continues to show that comics long ago stopped being just for kids.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Jacquelyn Ruth (ilene) Woods

FOR the American singer Ilene Woods, it was a job of no particular consequence: to record, as a favour to friends, a few demo tapes of songs they were writing for a Walt Disney cartoon film. But the session would lead to her voice being forever associated with one of Disney's enduring heroines, Cinderella.

In 1948, Mack David and Jerry Livingstone asked Woods to record the songs they were writing for a planned animated feature based on the fairytale Cinderella. Woods recorded the Fairy Godmother's magic song, Bibbidi-bobbiddi-boo and Cinderella's songs, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes and So This Is Love.

Disney had auditioned and rejected more than 300 applicants to be the voice of his new heroine when he heard Woods's tapes and declared Cinderella to have been found

Woods, who has died of Alzheimer's disease at her home in Canoga Park, California, aged 81, later observed that it taught her a valuable lesson: ''Never pass up doing a good deed for friends.''

Cinderella was a crucial project for Disney, who had been hit hard by the effects of World War II, and the second time he turned to one of the world's best-loved fairytales. In 1937, it had been the Brothers Grimm story Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that had proved a turning point in the fortunes of his studio; now he pinned his hopes on Charles Perrault's Cinderella.

It proved a sound bet and Cinderella's release, in 1950, marked the beginning of a new era in Disney animated films, as well as being a huge financial and critical success, aided in no small measure by Woods's vocalisation.

Disney would regularly visit the sound stage during recordings and come up with new ideas. On one occasion he asked Woods if she could sing harmony with herself. ''Mr Disney,'' she replied, ''I can't even hum and whistle at the same time!'' However, the thought inspired the memorable scene in which Cinderella renders Sing, Sweet Nightingale while scrubbing the floor, accompanied by a choir of Cinderellas reflected on dozens of soap bubbles.

''How about that?'' Disney joked with Woods, ''Before now I've paid three salaries for the Andrews Sisters when I could have only paid one for you!''

Born Jacquelyn Ruth Woods in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her childhood ambition was to be a teacher, but her mother steered her towards a singing career. By the age of 11, using the name Ilene Woods, she had her own program on a local radio station. Three years later, The Ilene Woods Show was being broadcast three days a week on ABC Radio in New York. Among the 14-year-old's guests were the songwriting partners David and Livingstone, who would play such an important role in her career.

During World War II, she toured with Paul Whiteman and the US Air Force Orchestra, and by the time she was 18 she had worked with Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and sung for presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

After Cinderella, Woods worked in television, appearing on the Perry Como and Garry Moore shows. On the latter, she met the drummer Ed Shaughnessy, whom she married in 1963. A previous marriage, entered into when Woods was 17, had ended in divorce.

Her husband, two sons and a daughter survive her.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Gospel great Walter Hawkins dies at 61

Walter Hawkins, an ordained bishop and one of gospel music's legendary figures, died July 11 at his home in Ripon, Calif. He had pancreatic cancer.

Bishop Hawkins, the younger of the Hawkins brothers -- Edwin is the elder -- was known as the musical director for his big, talented family.

"I don't think God should have just anything. He requires your best," Bishop Hawkins told The Washington Post's Hamil Harris in 1999. "What I want is for things to be right. Whether it is music, sound or lights, it should be right."

He began performing with his fellow Hawkins, including cousin Shirley Miller and siblings Edwin Hawkins and Lynette Hawkins Stephens, when he was a teenager. In the late 1960s, the family's song "Oh Happy Day" rose to No. 4 on the pop charts in the U.S. and No. 2 in England, making it one of the first crossover gospel hits.

He also performed with his wife, from whom he was divorced, Grammy-award winning diva Tramaine Hawkins.

In the early 1970s, Walter Hawkins studied for a divinity degree at the University of California at Berkeley and founded the Love Center Church in Oakland, Calif., where he served as pastor and formed a choir.

He continued to sing and produce gospel songs, including the "Love Alive" series of albums, which repeatedly topped the Billboard gospel charts. His performance of "The Lord's Prayer" won a Grammy in 1980.

Bishop Hawkins last appeared in Washington in April. Though weakened by his illness, he sang at a performance at the Kennedy Center with a gospel choir and the National Symphony Orchestra.

 

[Douchemoron]

Jenny is like the Grim Reaper around here. When she posts, you know it's bad news.

 

[Colonel Hogan]

Jenny is like the Grim Reaper around here. When she posts, you know it's bad news.

She wonders why her friends stop talking when she enters the room.

 

[JennyOHill2]

James Gammon, Character Actor, Dies at 70

James Gammon, a squint-eyed, froggy-voiced character actor who was best known as the manager in the baseball film comedy “Major League,” one of the rough-hewn American types — cowboys, rednecks and the alcoholic family patriarchs in the plays of Sam Shepard — that were his specialty, died at his home in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was 70.

Mr. Gammon appeared in Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” with Terry Kinney, for which he was nominated for a Tony.

The cause was cancer of the adrenal glands and the liver, said his wife, Nancy.

With a bushy mustache, large, weathered-looking features and a voice full of gravel, Mr. Gammon was a natural for roles that called for men with the experience of dusty roads, out-of-the-way saloons, physical work and family travails written on their faces. And he became a familiar presence on television and in the movies, lending a seeming authenticity to settings where the townsfolk wore 10-gallon hats or overalls — or both — and did a lot of spitting.

He began his career in the 1960s, appearing on “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Virginian” and other television westerns; he made his movie debut in 1967, as a member of the chain gang in “Cool Hand Luke.” He appeared in projects in other genres — in a recurring role on the cop show “Nash Bridges,” he played Don Johnson’s father — but westerns and outlaw pictures were his bread and butter. He played a redneck murder victim in “Natural Born Killers” and the revered cattle rancher Charles Goodnight in the television mini-series based on Larry McMurtry’s novel “Streets of Laredo,” a follow-up to “Lonesome Dove.” He also appeared in “Cold Mountain” “Urban Cowboy” and “Appaloosa.”

“Major League” (1989) was the biggest hit of his career. In it he played Lou Brown, the flinty but paternalistic manager of the Cleveland Indians, who roar back from last place with a roster of misfits and improbably win the pennant. Though not the familiar rural milieu, it wasn’t exactly a stretch for him; Brown was essentially a good-guy sheriff in a baseball cap. (He reprised the role in “Major League II” in 1994.)

Mr. Gammon was a stage actor as well. He helped found the Met Theater in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and while performing there he was seen by a representative of the Public Theater in New York and subsequently cast in the role of the drunken, threatening, wishful patriarch of a dysfunctional farm family in Mr. Shepard’s play “Curse of the Starving Class,” which opened at the Public in 1978.

Mr. Gammon reprised the role at his own theater, where Mr. Shepard himself saw it. The two became friends and Mr. Gammon appeared in several other Shepard plays, including “A Lie of the Mind”; “Buried Child,” which appeared on Broadway and for which Mr. Gammon was nominated for a Tony Award; and “The Late Henry Moss,” in the role of a dissipated, destructive father that Mr. Shepard said was written with Mr. Gammon in mind.

“You’re probably aware of the notorious father figures in my plays, alcoholic Midwesterners who leave their families and get lost in the Southwestern desert,” Mr. Shepard said in a phone interview on Monday. “Jimmy had that familiarity about him with the way I grew up, the guys with the voice and the face and the whiskey. He definitely rang a bell with me.

“I’d never say I wrote something for him,” he added, speaking about “Henry Moss.” “But I had him rattling around when I was working on that play. And I knew the range and courage he had when I wrote the part.”

James Richard Gammon was born in Newman, Ill., on April 20, 1940. His father, Donald, was a musician; his mother, Doris, was a farm girl. When they divorced, young James lived with various relatives and as a teenager ended up in Orlando, Fla. He entered the entertainment business at an Orlando television station, where he became a director of locally produced fare. He also acted in community theater, and in his 20s he drove to Hollywood to find acting work.

Mr. Gammon’s first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, the former Nancy Kapusta, whom he married in 1972, he is survived by a brother, Phillip, of Northridge, Calif.; a sister, Sandra Glaudell, of Ocala, Fla.; two daughters, Allison Mann of Costa Mesa and Amy Gammon of West Hollywood; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Gammon’s long list of credits in supporting roles is testament to what Mr. Shepard said was his self-image: that of a man with a lunch pail.

“This was a guy who could act circles around most other actors,” Mr. Shepard said, “and he never pretended to be other than a working kind of actor.”

When “The Late Henry Moss” was first produced at the Magic Theater in San Francisco in 2000, he recalled, it had a starry cast that included Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte and Cheech Marin.

“I mean, a bunch of notoriously famous guys,” Mr. Shepard said. “And every single one of them would come up to me, alone, and say, ‘Who’s that Jim Gammon guy? Where did he come from?’ ”



Sad to lose such a wonderful stage actor. Glad I had the pleasure of seeing him on Broadway.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Jenny is like the Grim Reaper around here. When she posts, you know it's bad news.

LOL It's kinda like "Murder, She Wrote". Everywhere that character went, there was a murder!

 

[JennyOHill2]

Patricia Neal dies at 84

Her life was marked by professional triumphs, including a Tony Award-winning debut on Broadway in Lillian Hellman's 1946 drama "Another Part of the Forest" and a best actress Oscar for her role in the 1963 drama "Hud."

But for Patricia Neal, the husky-voiced actress with a strong screen presence, life also was marked by personal tragedies: the death of one of her children and brain damage to another, and her own battle to overcome the debilitating effects of a ruptured aneurysm in her brain in 1965 that temporarily halted her career.

"Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison," Neal wrote in her 1988 autobiography, "As I Am."

Neal, 84, died of lung cancer August 9th at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard. But in the end, she told family members who had gathered around her the night before: "I've had a lovely time."

Neal's daughter Ophelia Dahl said her mother, who was divorced from British writer Roald Dahl and once had an affair with married actor Gary Cooper, "recognized the extraordinary opportunities she had, and she also recognized that she was dealt a bad hand at times."

"The thing about my mother, it would seem she was really able to make the most of when times were good, and she'd find things to be positive about," Dahl told The Times.

After her Tony Award for best featured actress in a play for "Another Part of the Forest," Neal was signed to a contract with Warner Bros., where she was cast in "John Loves Mary," a 1949 comedy starring Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson.

She went on to appear in a string of films and live TV productions over the next decade, including the 1949 film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead" (co-starring Cooper), the 1951 science fiction classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and director Elia Kazan's 1957 drama "A Face in the Crowd."

"There was a directness and honesty to her approach to acting that was kind of inspiring," movie historian Richard Schickel told The Times. "As a young actress, she had kind of a quiet ferocity. She was a woman of great quality and emotionally very truthful."



Catching up with old news.

 

[Bacigalupo]

A few days late, but better than never.


Jack Horkheimer Passes Away at 72
Amateur astronomy lost one its most iconic figures today. Jack Horkheimer, known to millions as public television's ebullient "Star Gazer," died this afternoon at age 72. The exact cause of death was not disclosed, though he had battled chronic respiratory problems for decades.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/101194934.html

And Isao Tomita - Arabesque No. 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHOaMOzzUo

 

[Beco]

Edward Kean, Chief Writer of ‘Howdy Doody,’ Dies at 85

Published: August 24, 2010

In the days when television sets were rare and children gathered each afternoon at the neighborhood house in which one of those big, boxy black-and-white sets stood, “The Howdy Doody Show” was one of the biggest draws, and a blessing for mothers making dinner.

It’s the type of show that could be responsible for the sale of lots of sets,” Variety said in 1947. “In the middle-class home there is perhaps nothing as welcome to the mother as something that will keep the small fry intently absorbed, and out of possible mischief, for an hour.” The program, Variety added, “can almost be guaranteed to pin down the squirmiest of the brood.”

For the next eight years, as televisions became standard furniture in home after home, no one was more responsible for pinning down those squirmy children than Edward Kean, who died on Aug. 13 at 85.

“Eddie Kean was Howdy’s chief writer, philosopher and theoretician,” Stephen Davis wrote in his history of the show, “Say Kids! What Time Is It?” (Little, Brown, 1987). The book’s title is taken from the show’s opening line, to which the gaggle of youngsters in the Peanut Gallery would scream, “It’s Howdy Doody time!” as Howdy, the chubby-cheeked marionette in dungarees and cowboy boots, and his flesh-and-blood mentor, Buffalo Bob Smith, took the stage.

Mr. Kean wrote “almost every line spoken and every note sung,” Mr. Davis wrote, adding that he “came up with every major creative decision, story line and character on ‘Howdy Doody,’ material today imprinted on the brains of my generation.”

With Buffalo Bob, Mr. Kean wrote the lyrics to the show’s theme song, “It’s Howdy Doody Time,” sung to the tune of “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay.” It was Mr. Kean’s idea that Howdy should run for president in 1948. After Howdy extolled the virtues of democracy, the campaign drew nearly 60,000 requests for campaign buttons.

 

[tactful]

She wonders why her friends stop talking when she enters the room.

Hey, as long as she doesn't point, everything's cool,
ok, maybe "cool" isn't the right word.

 

[KindaKinky]

Robert_Schimmel, aged 60

Comedian Robert Schimmel dies after car accident

– Sat Sep 4, 9:57 am ET
PHOENIX – Standup comic Robert Schimmel, a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show, has died after suffering serious injuries in a car accident. He was 60.

Schimmel's spokesman, Howard Bragman, says Schimmel died Friday evening in a Phoenix hospital.

Schimmel was a passenger Thursday in a car driven by his 19-year-old daughter Aliyah. Bragman says Aliyah Schimmel swerved to avoid another car and the vehicle she was driving rolled to the side of the freeway. Bragman says she is hospitalized in stable condition.

Robert Schimmel lived in Scottsdale. The 60-year-old comedian has been a frequent guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and on Howard Stern's radio show. His 2008 memoir, "Cancer on $5 a Day," chronicles his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

 

[JennyOHill2]

A promise...

Hey, as long as she doesn't point, everything's cool,
ok, maybe "cool" isn't the right word.

I won't point at anyone.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Harold Dow, CBS' '48 Hours' correspondent, dies suddenly at age 62

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/08/23/alg_harold_dow.jpg

CBS News officials said they were saddened and stunned by the death of Harold Dow, a long-time correspondent on "48 Hours" who broke ground for black broadcasters and won a sheaf of awards for covering major stories.

Dow died in New Jersey after checking himself into a hospital days earlier with severe asthma symptoms, a family spokeswoman said. He was 62.

"I deeply miss him already," said "48 Hours Mystery" executive producer Susan Zirinsky. "He was the most selfless man I have known. It was his humanity, which was felt by everyone he encountered, even in his toughest interviews, that truly defined the greatness of his work."

An inhaler was found on the floor of his car after he checked himself into a Ridgewood hospital, leading relatives to suspect he had an asthma attack while driving, the spokeswoman said.

Dow's "48 Hours" colleague Peter Van Sent said that Dow had recently announced his semi-retirement, though he was planning to do several reports in the upcoming season.

"Harold could do it all," wrote Van Sent. "His range left me in awe. Harold could talk to anyone from Presidents to pimps, rock stars and accused murderers. He was the kind of man who could make you feel in minutes like you'd known him for year."

A native of Hackensack, Dow was known off-camera as an enthusiastic colleague with a flair for personal style.

After attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he landed a job as the first black TV reporter in Omaha, where he became a co-anchor and talk show host at KETV.

He started with CBS News in 1972 and spent a decade in Los Angeles before moving back to the New York area as coanchor of "CBS News Nightwatch" in 1982.

He went on to become a correspondent for "The CBS Nightly News," "Sunday Morning" and the legal magazine "Verdict."

He was a correspondent on the 1986 special "48 Hours on Crack Street" that led to the creation of the single-topic weekly newsmagazine. He contributed to the first "48 Hours" broadcast in January 1988 and became a full-time correspondent there in 1990.

His prominent early stories included the return of U.S. POWs from Vietnam and the Patty Hearst kidnapping, which included an interview with Hearst in 1976.

He later covered the Lockerbie bombing, the war in Bosnia, the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the O.J. Simpson case.

He won five Emmys and a Peabody Award for a report on runaways. He was recently recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists for his report about Medgar Evers, which was featured in the CBS News special "Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Barack Obama."

"The CBS News family has lost one of its oldest and most talented members," said Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports. "His absence will be felt by many and his on-air presence and reporting skills touched nearly all of our broadcasts."

Dow is survived by his wife Kathy, and three children, Joelle, Danica and David.

 

[phrodeau]

http://www.terra.com.co/addon/img/musica/5cf4eaviolin301p.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11195393

6 September 2010 Last updated at 10:51 ET
ELO's Mike Edwards killed by hay bale in freak crash

An early member of 1970s British rock group ELO was killed in a "freak" accident when his van was crushed by a bale of hay, police said.

Cellist Mike Edwards, 62, died instantly in the accident on the A381 in Halwell, Devon, on Friday.

Police believe the 600kg bale fell from a tractor on nearby farmland before rolling on to the road.

Mr Edwards was identified using photos and YouTube footage. He was with the Birmingham band from 1972 to 1975.

The musician, who lived in Totnes, was a founder member of the classical Devon Baroque orchestra.

Friend 'devastated'

"He was simply the nicest guy and a brilliant musician," Angus Gordon, the chairman of Devon Baroque, told BBC News.

"He was capable of turning his hand to any type of music at all.

"He taught the cello and his incredible patience and encouragement - even with the slowest of students - made him a very good teacher.

"I'm devastated. He was a really likeable person and such good fun that I keep thinking this has been a horrible mistake."

Mr Edwards was due to play with the medieval folk band Daughters of Elvin in Totnes on Saturday evening.

Officers believe he swerved into another vehicle as his van was struck by the bale at about 1230 BST.

The other driver was not hurt.

Initially police had difficulty in tracking down Mr Edwards' relatives but a spokesman said officers had now traced his brother David in Yorkshire.

'Crowd favourite'

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating what has been described as a "farm accident".

Insp Andy Hamilton, of Devon and Cornwall police, said: "Although it would appear to be a freak incident, we've got to thoroughly investigate the circumstances before we can draw any conclusions."

ELO was formed as the Electric Light Orchestra in 1971 by Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood.

The band, who played rock and pop music with classical overtones, sold more than 50 million records worldwide and had numerous hit singles and albums in the UK and the US.

Mr Edwards, who trained at the Royal Academy of Music, was in the line-up for ELO's first live concert.

A tribute on the Face the Music website said: "Mike quickly became a crowd favourite with his exploding cello and rather unique solo party piece that involved playing the cello with a grapefruit."

Talking about his time with ELO in a rare interview last year, Mr Edwards said the stunts were simply a way to make the band "more entertaining".

Mr Edwards' friend and Devon Baroque colleague Jasper Solomon, who also lives in Totnes, said: "Mike's talent was his musicality.

"He could range over all genres from classical to jazz, modern to medieval renaissance.

"He lived for his music and it showed."

 

[JennyOHill2]

Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Paul Conrad dies at 86

LOS ANGELES — Paul Conrad, the political cartoonist who won three Pulitzer Prizes and used his pencil to poke at politicians for more than 50 years, has died, his son said. He was 86.

Conrad died before dawn at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes surrounded by his family, David Conrad said. He said the death was from natural causes, but did not offer specifics.

Paul Conrad took on U.S. presidents from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, mostly in the Los Angeles Times, where he worked for 30 years and helped the newspaper raise its national profile.

He was fierce in his liberalism and expressed it with a stark, unmistakable visual style. Southern California political junkies for decades would start their day either outraged or delighted at a Conrad drawing.

The Times said that its longtime publisher came to expect that his breakfast would be interrupted by an angry phone call from then-governor Ronald Reagan or wife Nancy, peeved by a Conrad cartoon that made them look foolish.

Conrad's favorite target was President Richard Nixon. At the time of the president's resignation, Conrad drew Nixon's helicopter leaving the White House with the caption: "One flew over the cuckoo's nest."

"He always said he was most proud of being on Nixon's enemies list," David Conrad said.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, Conrad compared his favorite target to then-president George W. Bush.

"I felt two ways about Nixon. First, how did an idiot like that become president," said Conrad, an Iowa native. "And, secondly, how soon can we get rid of him. Almost the same thing applies to Bush."

One of Conrad's final images showed Bush as Sisyphus, rolling a huge boulder labeled "Iraq" up a hill.

Democratic politicians weren't safe from his barbs either.

After Jimmy Carter admitted that at times he had "lusted in his heart," Conrad drew him mentally undressing the Statue of Liberty.

Conrad and his identical twin James were born in 1924, the sons of a railroad worker who dabbled in art. The Times said Conrad later joked that his first political cartoon was a scrawl on the bathroom wall at his elementary school.

After serving in the Pacific during World War II in the Army Corps of Engineers, he majored in art at the University of Iowa, and an old family friend convinced him to draw cartoons for the college paper.

His first job after college was at the Denver Post, where he worked for 14 years before moving to Los Angeles.

Conrad worked in the heyday of political cartoonists, and he was among the elite.

His total of three Pulitzers is matched by just two other cartoonists in the Post-World War II era.

By late in his life, only a small number of newspapers had cartoonists on staff, and many of them had abandoned the traditional single-panel image for a comic-strip approach that Conrad disdained.

"It's dialogue, long conversations, from one panel to another," Conrad told the AP. "Some have a political point but when you get finished reading them you knew that in the beginning. So what am I doing reading 'em?"

Conrad's drawings were anything but busy or complex. They were always a single panel and often a single figure, rendered in sharp, long lines that made his subjects look bony and sometimes sinister. He rarely used dialogue and kept words to a minimum.

"Conrad's work is immediate. It's high impact. There's emotion in it. If he were a boxer, he'd be giving body blows," Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe told the AP in 2006.

And despite the humor in a lot of his work, Conrad's style had a seriousness that other cartoonists lacked.

As narrator in a PBS documentary on Conrad, Tom Brokaw said: "Every line he draws cries out to the powers that be, 'We're watching you.'"

In addition to David, Paul Conrad is survived by another son, two daughters, and his wife of more than 60 years, Kay.

 

[JennyOHill2]

'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' Star Kevin McCarthy Dies at 96

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.popeater.com/media/2010/09/mccarthy.jpg

Kevin McCarthy, who starred as a frantic doctor trying to save his community in the science-fiction movie classic 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers,' has died at age 96.

McCarthy died Saturday, said Cape Cod Hospital spokesman Dave Riley, who wouldn't reveal the cause of death or any other details.

'Body Snatchers' was one of the most powerful films of the classic 1950s sci-fi era and it hung on McCarthy's performance.

In fact, while he would consistently win praise for his acting during a long and busy career, his most lasting fame would come for 'Body Snatchers,' a film that was a flop upon its initial release.

His frantic shouting of "You're next!" to those in approaching cars became so well known among science-fiction fans that he was often asked to spoof the role, including in the '70s remake of the film

'Body Snatchers' flopped at the box office, considered too bleak for audiences of the time. It was elevated to classic status, and its star to iconic status, after such critics as Francois Truffault hailed it and late-night television programmers embraced it, and specifically, McCarthy's performance as he vainly tried to warn residents in his small town of the evil pod people from outer space who were quietly taking over the personalities of everyone on Earth.

McCarthy's acting career took off in 1938 with his Broadway debut in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois."

Soon after, he became an early member of the Actors Studio and was chosen by Elia Kazan to play Biff, the son of Willy Loman, in the London production of "Death of a Salesman." He repeated the role in the 1951 film starring Fredric March and earned an Oscar nomination as supporting actor.

McCarthy's other films included "A Gathering of Eagles," "The Best Man," "Mirage," "Hotel," "The Howling," "Twilight Zone- The Movie," "Inner Space," "Dark Tower," "Just Cause," "The Distinguished Gentleman" and "Steal Big, Steal Little."

He also appeared in one other classic film, although in a much smaller role. He was Marilyn Monroe's estranged husband in her last movie, 1961's "The Misfits."

He originally turned down the role when director John Huston approached him, complaining that it was too small.

"I finally said I would do it if they paid me $100 a word," he recalled in 2003. "Turns out I had 29 words. I should have asked for more."

McCarthy also worked frequently in television, appearing in TV movies, miniseries and such series as "The Survivors," "Flamingo Road" and "Amanda's."

Comic accordion player "Weird Al" Yankovic cast McCarthy in his movie "UHF" and several of his videos, and the actor appeared in more than two dozen episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

In 1978, he began touring in the one-man show "Give 'em Hell, Harry," playing the Harry Truman role created by James Whitmore. Over the years he appeared as Truman in 350 venues.

McCarthy was born in Seattle on Feb. 15, 1914. He, his sister, author Mary McCarthy, and their two brothers were orphaned when their parents died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. They were raised by relatives.

His first marriage, to Augusta Dabney, produced three children. His second, to Kate Crane, produced two children.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Glenn Shadix, Actor in ‘Beetlejuice,’ Dies at 58

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The cause was not immediately known, but Mr. Shadix’s sister, Susan Gagne, told The Birmingham News that he had been using a wheelchair for mobility and appeared to have fallen in his kitchen and struck his head.

Mr. Shadix was born on April 15, 1952, in Bessemer, a Birmingham suburb. His personal manager, Juliet Green, said that in addition to his sister, he is survived by his mother.

Ms. Green said that Mr. Shadix, who appeared in more than 30 films, had one of his closest professional relationships with the director Tim Burton. He did one of the voices in the animated feature “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” written by Mr. Burton, and he was cast in two films directed by Mr. Burton, the remake of “Planet of the Apes” and, most memorably, “Beetlejuice,” the 1988 horror-comedy that also starred Michael Keaton as a troublemaking ghost and Winona Ryder as a teenager who befriends two other ghosts, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.

In “Beetlejuice” Mr. Shadix played Otho, an uppity interior designer hired to redecorate the house where the recently deceased couple used to live; he ends up trying his hand at the occult to summon their ghosts, who want to evict the new residents.

In a 2008 interview he said he understood why the film had acquired a cult following.

“We had so much fun filming,” he said, “that I had a feeling something very special was happening.”

 

[JennyOHill2]

Kenny McKinley Dies in Apparent Suicide

FanHouse Staff

Kenny McKinley, a wide receiver for the Broncos and former South Carolina star, was found dead in Arapahoe County, Colo, the team confirmed Monday night.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told The Denver Post that it was "apparently a suicide," but an investigation is still under way. Robinson told reporters that the cause of death appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities were called to McKinley's apartment at about 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.

"Everyone with the Broncos is shocked and saddened by the loss of Kenny McKinley," Broncos owner Pat Bowlen said in a statement on the team's official website. "He was part of the Broncos family and will be greatly missed by our organization. My most heartfelt condolences go out to Kenny's family and friends."

Denver drafted McKinley, 23, in the fifth round of the 2009 draft (No. 141 overall). He saw limited action in eight games last season before being placed on injured reserve with a knee injury. The Broncos again placed him on IR prior to the 2010 season.

"Kenny had a promising future on the football field, but more importantly, he was a great teammate whose smile and personality could light up the room," Denver head coach Josh McDaniels said. "This is a tragic loss for our football team, and his family is in all of our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time."

Fox 31 in Denver first reported the tragic news.

The Denver Post's Lindsay Jones tweeted that McKinley visited family in Atlanta last week, then returned to Denver on Sunday with his young son.

McKinley is the third Broncos player to pass away in the past four years. On Jan. 1, 2007, cornerback Darrent Williams died after being shot in downtown Denver. One month later, running back Damien Nash collapsed and died while playing a pickup basketball game.

In four years at South Carolina, McKinley caught 207 passes and 19 touchdowns. His best season came in 2007 when he was named to the All-SEC team with 77 receptions for 968 yards and nine touchdowns.

"Kenny was certainly one of my favorite all-time players," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said after Monday's practice. "Wonderful guy. It's hard to figure how or why this happened."

McKinley had traveled to the Gamecocks' home game against Georgia on Sept. 11, a 17-6 South Carolina win.

"I saw him here. He came to the Georgia game. He seemed in good spirits," Spurrier said, according to The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.. "He had a great smile, like he always had.

"I don't understand it, if happened the way they say. It's hard to comprehend."

The Broncos will hold a full team meeting Tuesday, according to the Denver Post, with grief counselors available to players and staff.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Harold Gould, Character Actor, Dies at 86

Harold Gould, a widely recognizable character actor in film and television who specialized, especially late in his career, in playing suave, well-dressed gentlemen in popular sitcoms, died in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 86.

The cause was prostate cancer, said Jaime Larkin, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Mr. Gould lived at its retirement community.

Mr. Gould was probably best known for two television roles in which he played dignified, self-possessed and understanding men trying to look out for the women in their lives. In the 1970s, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later on its spinoff, “Rhoda,” he played Martin Morgenstern, the father of Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), the best friend of Mary Richards (Ms. Moore). It was a role for a charmer; Martin was the patient and consoling parent, a foil for his brassy wife, Ida (Nancy Walker).

A decade and a half or so later, he was a regular guest star on “The Golden Girls” as a sweetly dashing widower who courts, more or less successfully, the sweetly ditzy Rose Nylund (Betty White).

Mr. Gould, who had a Ph.D. in dramatic speech and literature from Cornell, taught acting in college before he became a professional actor. But in spite of his late start, few actors can boast a résumé as long.

Mr. Gould appeared in theater productions on and Off Broadway in New York and in regional theaters around the country, including “King Lear” at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 1992. He played dozens of character roles in movies, including the dapper grifter Kid Twist in “The Sting” (1973), the Oscar-winning buddy picture that starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men; a Russian count in Woody Allen’s send-up of epic literature, “Love and Death” (1975); and a greedy corporate executive named Engulf in Mel Brooks’s 1976 slapstick comedy, “Silent Movie.”

But Mr. Gould was most of all a fixture on television with a familiar face, with or without what came to be his signature mustache. In the 1960s he appeared on “Dennis the Menace,” “The Donna Reed Show,” “Hazel,” “National Velvet,” “Perry Mason,” “Mister Ed,” “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Virginian,” “12 O’Clock High,” “The Fugitive,” “Judd for the Defense” and “Hogan’s Heroes,” among other shows. In 1965, he played Marlo Thomas’s father in the pilot episode of “That Girl.” (Lew Parker played the part in the series.)

In the 1970s, in addition to his stints on “Mary Tyler Moore” and “Rhoda,” he was seen on “Cannon,” “Mannix,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Medical Story,” “Police Story,” “Family,” “Soap” and “The Love Boat.” In a 1972 episode of “Love, American Style” that was the progenitor of the hit series “Happy Days,” he played Howard Cunningham, the Middle American father of the Middle American son played by Ron Howard; in the series the father was played by Tom Bosley.

In the 1980s Mr. Gould appeared on “St. Elsewhere,” “Webster,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “L.A. Law” and “Night Court”; in the 1990s, on “Dallas,” “Lois and Clark,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Felicity”; and in this century on “The King of Queens,” “Judging Amy” and “Cold Case.”

Harold Vernon Goldstein was born in Schenectady, N.Y., on Dec. 10, 1923. His father worked for the Post Office. Harold served in the Army during World War II, seeing action in France as a mortar gunner. On his return he graduated from New York State College for Teachers (now the State University at Albany) and enrolled in the graduate drama program at Cornell. He taught drama at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Va., and the University of California, Riverside.

Mr. Gould is survived by his wife, the former Lea Shampanier, whom he married in 1950; a daughter, Deborah; two sons, Joshua and Lowell; and five grandchildren.

 

[pink]

This made me so sad.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/08/23/alg_harold_dow.jpg

CBS News officials said they were saddened and stunned by the death of Harold Dow, a long-time correspondent on "48 Hours" who broke ground for black broadcasters and won a sheaf of awards for covering major stories.

Dow died in New Jersey after checking himself into a hospital days earlier with severe asthma symptoms, a family spokeswoman said. He was 62.

"I deeply miss him already," said "48 Hours Mystery" executive producer Susan Zirinsky. "He was the most selfless man I have known. It was his humanity, which was felt by everyone he encountered, even in his toughest interviews, that truly defined the greatness of his work."

An inhaler was found on the floor of his car after he checked himself into a Ridgewood hospital, leading relatives to suspect he had an asthma attack while driving, the spokeswoman said.

Dow's "48 Hours" colleague Peter Van Sent said that Dow had recently announced his semi-retirement, though he was planning to do several reports in the upcoming season.

"Harold could do it all," wrote Van Sent. "His range left me in awe. Harold could talk to anyone from Presidents to pimps, rock stars and accused murderers. He was the kind of man who could make you feel in minutes like you'd known him for year."

A native of Hackensack, Dow was known off-camera as an enthusiastic colleague with a flair for personal style.

After attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he landed a job as the first black TV reporter in Omaha, where he became a co-anchor and talk show host at KETV.

He started with CBS News in 1972 and spent a decade in Los Angeles before moving back to the New York area as coanchor of "CBS News Nightwatch" in 1982.

He went on to become a correspondent for "The CBS Nightly News," "Sunday Morning" and the legal magazine "Verdict."

He was a correspondent on the 1986 special "48 Hours on Crack Street" that led to the creation of the single-topic weekly newsmagazine. He contributed to the first "48 Hours" broadcast in January 1988 and became a full-time correspondent there in 1990.

His prominent early stories included the return of U.S. POWs from Vietnam and the Patty Hearst kidnapping, which included an interview with Hearst in 1976.

He later covered the Lockerbie bombing, the war in Bosnia, the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the O.J. Simpson case.

He won five Emmys and a Peabody Award for a report on runaways. He was recently recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists for his report about Medgar Evers, which was featured in the CBS News special "Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Barack Obama."

"The CBS News family has lost one of its oldest and most talented members," said Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports. "His absence will be felt by many and his on-air presence and reporting skills touched nearly all of our broadcasts."

Dow is survived by his wife Kathy, and three children, Joelle, Danica and David.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Edwin Newman, Journalist, Dies at 91

Edwin Newman, the genteelly rumpled, genially grumpy NBC newsman who was equally famous as a stalwart defender of the honor of English, has died in Oxford, England. He was 91.

He died of pneumonia on Aug. 13, but the announcement was delayed so that the family could spend time grieving privately, his lawyer, Rupert Mead, said. He said Mr. Newman and his wife had moved to England in 2007 to live closer to their daughter.

Mr. Newman, recognizable for his balding head and fierce dark eyebrows, was known to three decades of postwar television viewers for his erudition, droll wit and seemingly limitless penchant for puns. (There was, for example, the one about the man who blotted his wet shoes with newspapers, explaining, “These are The Times that dry men’s soles.”) He began his association with NBC in the early 1950s and was variously a correspondent, anchor and critic there before retiring in 1984.

An anchor on the “Today” show in the early 1960s and a familiar presence on the program for many years afterward, Mr. Newman also appeared regularly on “Meet the Press.” He won seven New York Emmy Awards for his work in the 1960s and ’70s with NBC’s local affiliate, WNBC-TV, on which he was a drama critic and the host of the interview program “Speaking Freely.”

He also moderated two presidential debates — the first Ford-Carter debate in 1976 and the second Reagan-Mondale debate in 1984 — and covered some of the signal events of the 20th century, from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Newman’s best-known books, both published by Bobbs-Merrill, are “Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English?” (1974) and “A Civil Tongue” (1976). In them he declared what he called “a protective interest in the English language,” which, he warned, was falling prey to windiness, witlessness, ungrammaticality, obfuscation and other depredations.

But Mr. Newman “was never preachy or pedantic,” Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of the NBC “Nightly News,” said in a statement.

“To those of us watching at home,” Mr. Williams added, “he made us feel like we had a very smart, classy friend in the broadcast news business.”

Edwin Harold Newman was born in New York City on Jan. 25, 1919, the second of three children of Myron Newman and the former Rose Parker.

He graduated from George Washington High School in Washington Heights in Manhattan and in 1940 earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, where he worked on the campus newspaper. He was briefly a graduate student in American government at Louisiana State University before finding work in print journalism. (Ink was something of a family business: Mr. Newman’s older brother, Morton, known professionally as M. W. Newman, was for many years a prominent reporter at The Chicago Daily News.)

Edwin Newman’s first journalism job was as a “dictation boy” in the Washington bureau of the International News Service, where he took down information from reporters in the field. He next joined United Press, to which he returned after serving in the Navy from 1942 to 1945. He later worked in the Washington bureau of the progressive New York newspaper PM before joining the Tufty News Service, founded in 1935 by Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, a noted Washington journalist.

In 1947 Mr. Newman joined the Washington bureau of CBS News, where he helped the commentator Eric Sevareid prepare his nightly radio broadcasts. Two years later he moved to London to work as a freelance journalist, joining NBC as a correspondent there in 1952. He went on to become the network’s bureau chief in London, Rome and Paris before settling in New York in 1961.

Mr. Newman was fond of saying that he had “a spotless record of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” as he told Newsweek in 1961. There was the time in 1952, for instance, that he left London for Morocco, only to learn on arriving that King George VI of England had just died.

But in fact Mr. Newman helped cover numerous historic events, among them the shootings of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., George Wallace and Ronald Reagan. He announced the death of President John F. Kennedy on NBC radio.

He also narrated many well-received NBC television documentaries, including “Japan: East Is West” (1961) and “Politics: The Outer Fringe” (1966), about extremism.

His role as a moderator for presidential debates seemed only fitting, for it was the dense thicket of political discourse, Mr. Newman often said, that helped spur him to become a public guardian of grammar and usage.

Among the sins that set Mr. Newman’s teeth articulately on edge were these: all jargon; idiosyncratic spellings like “Amtrak”; the non-adverbial use of “hopefully” (he was said to have had a sign in his office reading, “Abandon ‘Hopefully’ All Ye Who Enter Here”); “y’know” as a conversational stopgap; a passel of prefixes and suffixes (“de-,” “non-,” “un-,” “-ize,” “-wise” and “-ee”); and using a preposition to end a sentence with.

This prescriptive approach to English did not win favor everywhere. In an article in The Atlantic in 1983, the linguist Geoffrey Nunberg took Mr. Newman and the author Richard Mitchell to task for writing “books about the language that rarely, if ever, cite a dictionary or a standard grammar; evidently one just knows these things.”

Mr. Newman’s other books include a comic novel, “Sunday Punch” (Houghton Mifflin, 1979). Other honors are an Overseas Press Club Award in 1961 and a Peabody Award in 1966.

His survivors include his wife, the former Rigel Grell; a daughter, Nancy Drucker; and a sister, Evelyn Newman Lee.

Despite his acclaim, Mr. Newman’s constitutional waggishness kept him from taking himself too seriously. In 1984, the year he retired from NBC, he appeared on the network as a host of “Saturday Night Live.” (One of the show’s sketches portrayed a distraught woman phoning a suicide hot line. Mr. Newman answers — and corrects her grammar.) A few years before that he delivered the news, in front of a studio audience, on David Letterman’s NBC morning show. He was also a guest on the game show “Hollywood Squares.”In 1996 Mr. Newman shocked the journalistic establishment by serving as the anchor of the USA cable channel program “Weekly World News,” a short-lived television version of the supermarket tabloid. Among the “news” items Mr. Newman introduced was a report on a South Seas island tribe that worshiped the boxing promoter Don King.

 

[kotori]

Edwin Newman...

...and using a preposition to end a sentence with...

lol.

Nice tribute.

 

[phrodeau]

Let us not forget that guy who was Carrie Fisher's dad.