Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOHill2]

Robert Culp, who starred in `I Spy,' dead at 79

LOS ANGELES – Robert Culp, the actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series "I Spy" and was Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday after collapsing outside his Hollywood home, his agent said. Culp was 79.

His manager, Hillard Elkins, said the actor was on a walk when he fell. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead just before noon. The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Elkins said, though police were unsure if the fall was medically related.

Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder said no foul play was suspected. Binder said a jogger found Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.

Culp had been working on writing screenplays, Elkins said.

"I Spy," which aired from 1965 to 1968, was a television milestone in more ways than one. Its combination of humor and adventure broke new ground, and it was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.

Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. (In real life, Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player who showed his skills in numerous celebrity tournaments.). Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Culp's trainer. The pair traveled the world in the service of the U.S. government.

The series greatly advanced the careers of both actors.

Cosby, who had achieved fame as a standup comedian, proved he could act. Culp, who had played mostly heavies in movies and TV, went on to become a film star.

He followed "I Spy" with his most prestigious film role, in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." The work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, it lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Bob and Carol (Culp and Natalie Wood) were the innocent ones who were introduced to wife-swapping by their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon).

Culp also had starring roles in such films as "The Castaway Cowboy," "Golden Girl," "Turk 182!" and "Big Bad Mama II."

His teaming with Cosby, however, was likely his best remembered role.

Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that "I Spy" aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.

"I was the proudest man around," he said in a 1977 interview.

Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.

Culp and Cosby also costarred in the 1972 movie "Hickey and Boggs," which Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives who encountered multiple deaths. Audiences who had enjoyed the lightheartedness of "I Spy" were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.

After years of talking up the idea, they finally re-teamed in 1994 for a two-hour CBS movie, "I Spy Returns."

In his first movie role Culp played one of John Kennedy's crew in "PT 109."

His first starring TV series, "Trackdown" (1957-1959) was a Western based partly on files of the Texas Rangers. In the 1980s, he starred as an FBI agent in the fantasy "The Greatest American Hero."

He remained active in movies and TV. Among his notable later performances was as a U.S. president in 1993's "The Pelican Brief." More recently, he also had a recurring role in the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" and appeared in such shows as "Robot Chicken," "Chicago Hope" and an episode of "Cosby."

Robert Martin Culp, born in 1930 in Oakland, led a peripatetic existence as a college student, attending College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Washington University in St. Louis and San Francisco State College before landing at the University of Washington's drama school.

Then at age 21, a semester removed from his degree, he moved to New York, where he began landing roles in off-Broadway plays. One of them was in "He Who Gets Slapped."

"I saw it in college in Seattle, and I said, `My God, that's my part, that's my part,'" he once told an interviewer. After he won the role in a Greenwich Village production "the floodgates opened," he said.

Good reviews and an Obie award led to offers from Hollywood.

Culp was married five times, to Nancy Ashe, Elayne Wilner, France Nuyen, Sheila Sullivan and Candace Faulkner. He had four children with Ashe and one with Faulkner.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Alex Chilton, Influential Rock Singer, Dies at 59

Alex Chilton, a mercurial rock musician whose work ranged from the soul songs of the Box Tops to the multiple incarnations of his pop band Big Star, and who left a legacy more easily measured in artistic influence than in commercial impact, died on St. Patrick's Day in New Orleans, where he had been living since the 1980s. He was 59.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Laura. The cause was believed to be a heart attack, though autopsy results had not yet been released. Ms. Chilton said she drove her husband to Tulane Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon after he had complained of shortness of breath and chills. Mr. Chilton lost consciousness during the ride and was pronounced dead at the hospital, she said.

Mr. Chilton, who grew up in Memphis, was just 16 years old when the Box Tops, in which he sang and played guitar, had a No. 1 hit with “The Letter” in 1967. “Cry Like a Baby,” which also featured his precocious growl, peaked at No. 2 the next year.

After the Box Tops broke up in 1970, Mr. Chilton formed Big Star with the drummer Jody Stephens, the guitarist Chris Bell and the bassist Andy Hummel. The band’s first album, “#1 Record,” released in 1972, was full of Mr. Chilton’s gentle contemplations on youthful yearnings (“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?/Would you be an outlaw for my love?” he sang in “Thirteen”), but in a year dominated by country-rock, prog-rock and glam-rock, it did not come close to fulfilling the commercial promise of its title.

Neither did a follow-up album, “Radio City,” released in 1974, which embraced the influences of bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys and added poignant pop tunes like “September Gurls” to Mr. Chilton’s catalog. Nor did a somber final album, “Third” (later reissued as “Sister Lovers”), on which Mr. Chilton and Mr. Stephens were the only founding band members to participate. Produced by Jim Dickinson, it was not properly released until 1978, four years after the band had split up.

After the demise of Big Star, Mr. Chilton continued to release solo albums and produce records for grimy garage-rock bands like the Cramps and the Gories. But the music of Big Star found dutiful listeners via college and independent radio stations, and the songs’ introspection and modesty wove their way into the spare sounds of outside-the-mainstream artists from R.E.M. to Elliott Smith.

Perhaps the surest measure of the tug Mr. Chilton exerted on subsequent bands can be found in the lyrics of the Replacements — another malleable rock act that moved more hearts than retail units — who sang in the song “Alex Chilton”:

“Children by the million
Sing for Alex Chilton
When he comes ’round
They sing, ‘I’m in love
What’s that song?
I’m in love with that song.’ ”

In recent years Mr. Chilton resumed performing with the Box Tops, as well as with a reconstituted Big Star lineup. A reworked version of the Big Star song “In the Street,” recorded by the power-pop band Cheap Trick, reached millions of listeners as the theme song to the Fox sitcom “That ’70s Show.”

Still, Mr. Chilton was perplexed by fans’ devotion to Big Star.

“He was proud of his songs, he was proud of ‘Thirteen’ and ‘September Gurls,’ but he was always kind of frustrated,” Ms. Chilton said. “He wanted people to know of other things, other than Big Star.”

John Fry, the founder of Ardent Studios, where the Box Tops and Big Star both recorded, said, “He was, in a sense, always forward looking, and perhaps didn’t like or understand the attention that was focused on things in past.” He added: “But whatever regard people have for that music, it came organically. Nobody tried to cause that to happen; it just happened.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Chilton is survived by a sister, Cecelia, and a son, Timothee, by a previous marriage.

 

[JennyOHill2]

‘Davy Crockett’ star Fess Parker dies at 85

LOS ANGELES - Actor Fess Parker, who became every baby boomer’s idol in the 1950s and launched a craze for coonskin caps as television’s Davy Crockett, died of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV’s Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death comes on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

“She’s a wreck,” Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The first installment of “Davy Crockett,” with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett’s sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the “Disneyland” TV show.

The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (“Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...”) was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker’s own version reached No. 5.

The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier,” in 1955.

True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, “Davy Crockett at the Alamo,” where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But spurred by popular demand, Disney brought back the Crockett character for some episodes in the 1955-56 season, including “Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race.” In reporting this development, Hedda Hopper wrote: “Take off those black armbands, kids, and put on your coonskin caps, for Davy Crockett will hit the trail again.”

Parker’s career then leveled off before he made a TV comeback from 1964-1970 in the title role of the TV adventure series “Daniel Boone” — also based on a real-life American frontiersman. Actor-singer Ed Ames, formerly of the Ames Brothers, played Boone’s Indian friend, Mingo.

After “Daniel Boone,” Parker largely retired from show business, except for guest appearances, and went into real estate.

“I left the business after 22 years,” Parker told The Associated Press in 2001. “It was time to leave Hollywood. I came along at a time when I’m starting out with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Sterling Hayden and Gregory Peck.”

“Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?” he said.

Parker had made his motion picture debut in “Springfield Rifle” in 1952. His other movies included “No Room for the Groom” (1952), “The Kid From Left Field” (1953), “Them!” (1954), “The Great Locomotive Chase” (1956), “Westward Ho, the Wagons!” (1956), “Old Yeller” (1957) and “The Light in the Forest” (1958).

Several of Parker’s films, including “The Great Locomotive Chase” and “Old Yeller,” came from the Disney studio.

It was Parker’s scene as a terrified witness in the horror classic “Them!” that caught the attention of Walt Disney when he was looking for a “Davy Crockett” star. He chose Parker over another “Them!” actor, James Arness — who became a TV superstar in the long-running “Gunsmoke.”

After departing Hollywood, Parker got into real estate with his wife, Marcella, whom he had married in 1960.

He bought and sold property, built hotels (including the elegant Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn & Spa in Los Olivos and Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort Santa Barbara) and grew wine grapes on a 2,200-acre vineyard on California’s Central Coast, where he was dubbed King of the Wine Frontier and coonskin caps enjoyed brisk sales.

After its inaugural harvest in 1989, Parker’s vineyard won dozens of medals and awards. The Parkers’ son, Eli, became director of winemaking and their daughter, Ashley, also worked at the winery.

Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was born Aug. 16, 1924, in Fort Worth, Texas — Parker loved to point out Crockett’s birthday was Aug. 17. He played football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene but was injured in a nearly fatal road-rage knifing in 1946.

He later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas.

Parker was discovered by actor Adolphe Menjou, who was Oscar-nominated for “The Front Page” in 1931 and who was a guest artist at the University of Texas. Menjou urged him to go to Hollywood and introduced Parker to his agent.

 

[phrodeau]

June Havoc, Stage Star Whose Life Became Legend in Gypsy, Dies at 96
By Robert Simonson
28 Mar 2010
http://www.historylink.org/db_images/june_havoc.jpg
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/138252-June-Havoc-Stage-Star-Whose-Life-Became-Legend-in-Gypsy-Dies-at-96

June Havoc, a show-business legend whose hard-knocks childhood as a stage performer was depicted in the classic musical Gyspy, died March 28, according to the Village Voice. She was 96.

Driven by an ruthless stage mother, young Ellen Evangeline Hovick and her sister Louise—who would become legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee—were forced into Vaudeville at an early age. Ms. Havoc was billed as "Baby June," and later "Dainty June," and played the West Coast Pantages circuit, but she abandoned her mother's world when she eloped at 13 with fellow performer Bobby Reed. The two teenagers scraped by, by entering, and winning, dance marathons.

All this, and more, was told in Ms. Havoc's two autobiographies, "Early Havoc" (1959) and "More Havoc" (1980). But it was her sister's 1957 book, "Gypsy," that became part of America's permanent show-business tapestry when it was adapted by composer Jule Styne, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, librettist Arthur Laurents and director Jerome Robbins into the stage musical Gypsy. The show, considered one of the most hard-boiled backstage stories in theatre history—and one of the best constructed and most entertaining—debuted on Broadway in 1959. Though based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book, the central figure is not the stripper but her monstrous Rose, based on June and Louise's mother, Rose Thompson Hovick.

Despite her embittered upbringing, Ms. Havoc persevered in the trade into which she was born. She found her first Broadway part in Sigmund Romberg's Forbidden Melody in 1936, and would later star in Rodgers and Hart's classic Pal Joey, playing Gladys Bumps. Soon, she drew admiration as a serious actress. Other roles of the 1940s included Mexican Hayride, Sadie Thompson, The Ryan Girl and Dunnigan's Daughter. The next decade brought Affairs of State, The Infernal Machine, The Beaux Stratagem and The Warm Peninsula.

Her film career began in 1942 and was littered with mainly "B" material. A few credits stood out, however, including the comedy "My Sister Eileen" and "Gentleman's Agreement," in which she played a racist secretary.
In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon '33, set during one of the Depression-era dancing marathons she knew so well. She both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie Harris as June. The show ran only 48 performances, but Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play.

In 1982, she made her final Broadway appearance, as one of the last Miss Hannigans in the long-running hit Annie. She also toured the country as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd.

June Havoc was born Nov. 8, 1913, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her father, a reporter for a Seattle newspaper, and her mother divorced when she was very young. She was coached for the stage from the time she could walk, dancing with Anna Pavlova and appearing in silent films with Harold Lloyd. Blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, she danced and sang and high-kicked her way through four shows a day on the Keith Orpheum Circuit and earned $1,500 a week for her family at the peak of her popularity (a fortune during the Depression—and still not bad today). She would later refer to herself as "a has-been at age 13."

Though Gypsy went a long way toward making Ms. Havoc a famous, even mythical figure in her latter career, she was not happy with the way she was portrayed in her sister's autobiography, and the two were long estranged. They reconciled shortly before Gypsy Rose Lee's death in 1970.

"All I wanted was the truth to be told," she told the New York Times in 2003. "That the little kid went out and killed the people. That she was a gold mine and Louise wasn't there at all. I disappear. Nothing is ever mentioned about the fact that I went out and became somebody. No one understands the loss of professional dignity with which I grew up, the dignity which I have cherished and protected all these years."

All of Ms. Havoc's three marriages ended in divorce. After Bobby Reed, she married Donald Gibbs. They divorced in 1942. She was married to William Spier from 1948 to 1959. Reed fathered her only child, April Kent. Kent died in 1998.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Teacher Who Inspired 'Stand and Deliver' Film Dies

LOS ANGELES (March 31) -- Jaime Escalante transformed a tough East Los Angeles high school by motivating struggling inner-city students to master advanced math, became one of America's most famous teachers and inspired the movie "Stand and Deliver."

He died Tuesday at age 79 after battling cancer for several years, family friend Keith Miller said.

Escalante used his outsized personality to goad his working-class Mexican-American students to succeed, said Elsa Bolado, 45, one of his former pupils.

Bolado, now an elementary school teacher and trainer, remembers Escalante's charisma, the way he built her confidence with long hours of solving problems and how he inspired her career choice with his unorthodox approach to learning.

"Teaching is an art form. There's a lot of practicioners and very few artists. He was a master artist," she said.

An immigrant from Bolivia, he overhauled Garfield High School's math curriculum and pushed his students to do their best until the school had more advanced placement calculus students than all but four other public high schools in the country.

Edward James Olmos played Escalante in the 1988 film based on his story.

"Jaime exposed one of the most dangerous myths of our time - that inner city students can't be expected to perform at the highest levels," Olmos said. "Because of him, that destructive idea has been shattered forever."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Escalante "shared in my belief that anything is possible in California."

"He put everything he had into becoming an inspirational teacher whose passion, commitment and belief that all students can achieve excellence set an example for us all," Schwarzenegger said. "His talent, hard work and dedication in the classroom changed the lives of countless students."

Escalante was a teacher in La Paz before he emigrated to the U.S. He had to study English at night for years to get his California teaching credentials and return to the classroom.

At first he was discouraged by Garfield's "culture of low expectations, gang activity and administrative apathy," Miller said. Gradually his long hours in the classroom paid off and dozens of his students passed the test year after year.

Bolado took the AP calculus test in 1982, the year that testing officials made some Garfield students retake it because they were suspicious that so many of Escalante's students had passed. She said 14 students were asked to take the test again months later and all 12 who did passed.

"To this day, I still think of the example he set - the study skills, how not to give up," said Bolado, 45. "I revert back to that every time things get rough."

Escalante left Garfield in 1991, taught at schools in Sacramento and retired to Bolivia in 2001.

The cast of "Stand and Deliver" recently appealed for donations to help Escalante pay for his alternative cancer treatments.

He is survived by his wife, two sons, and six grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Corey Haim, Actor, Dies at 38

Published: March 11, 2010

Corey Haim, an actor whose status as a teenage heartthrob of the 1980s gave way to substance abuse and rehabilitation as an adult, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. He was 38.

His death was confirmed by Sgt. Michael Kammert of the Los Angeles Police Department. The assistant chief coroner of Los Angeles County, Ed Winter, told The Associated Press that Mr. Haim’s mother had called paramedics. “As he got out of bed, he felt a little weak and went down to the floor on his knees,” Mr. Winter said. No other details were provided. The police said they were investigating.

Mr. Haim started acting as a child and shot to fame as the gawky adolescent star of coming-of-age comedies like “Lucas,” a 1986 film in which he played the lovelorn title character, and “License to Drive,” a 1988 feature about a young man’s dreams of piloting the family Cadillac.

He was also among the stars of “The Lost Boys,” a 1987 vampire thriller directed by Joel Schumacher. The film was the first in which he appeared opposite Corey Feldman, another gangly teenage actor, whose films include “Stand by Me” and “The Goonies.” With a common first name, Mr. Haim and Mr. Feldman came to be known as the two Coreys and worked together in several more films, including “Dream a Little Dream” in 1989

In recent years Mr. Haim underwent rehabilitation for addictions to prescription pills and cocaine and outgrew his once scrawny form and image. In an interview with The New York Times in 2007, he said he had ballooned to more than 300 pounds and been offered a spot on the VH1 weight-loss reality show “Celebrity Fit Club.”

He was candid about his frequent attempts to overcome his drug problems, telling the ABC News program “Nightline” in 2007 that his habits had ruined his career “to the point where I wasn’t functional enough to work for anybody, even myself.”

After a long estrangement, Mr. Haim reunited with Mr. Feldman in 2007 for an A&E reality series called “The Two Coreys” during which Mr. Haim lived with Mr. Feldman and his wife for three months. The show was renewed for a second season but not a third after Mr. Feldman said he would not work with Mr. Haim until he had gotten “the help he truly needs.”

Mr. Haim was born on Dec. 23, 1971, and grew up in Toronto. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

 

[JennyOHill2]

John Forsythe, debonair 'Dynasty' star, dies at 92

John Forsythe, 92, a debonair actor who became one of the most recognizable faces and voices on television through such long-running series as "Dynasty" and "Bachelor Father" and the wildlife show "The World of Survival," died April 1 at his home in Santa Ynez, Calif. He had complications from pneumonia.

Mr. Forsythe was also an unseen star on the detective drama "Charlie's Angels." He provided the wry baritone voice of millionaire Charles Townsend, who gives instructions via intercom to his three gorgeous police academy "Angels."

An unflashy performer, he spent much of his early career portraying decent, often paternal characters on stage and screen.

In 1953, he originated the Broadway role of the amiable Captain Fisby in post-war Okinawa in "The Teahouse of the August Moon," a Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play by John Patrick. As the star of "Bachelor Father" from 1957 to 1962, he played Bentley Gregg, a Hollywood lawyer whose love life is complicated by his guardianship of his orphaned teenage niece.

For much of the 1950s, Mr. Forsythe proved a versatile Hollywood leading man. He showed skill in suspense ("The Glass Web" with Edward G. Robinson) and romantic comedy ("The Ambassador's Daughter" with Olivia de Havilland). He played crusading journalists in several films, including the Robert Wise drama "The Captive City" and the comedy "It Happens Every Thursday" with Loretta Young.

Alfred Hitchcock cast him as an artist in "The Trouble With Harry" (1955), one of many eccentric characters in the film about a corpse and the crew of New Englanders who keep reburying it.

The Hitchcock film, his most prominent screen role, was not a popular success, and Mr. Forsythe later worked in memorable secondary parts. His best work was "In Cold Blood" (1966), as Kansas investigator Alvin Dewey in an adaptation of Truman Capote's book; a CIA agent in Hitchcock's "Topaz" (1969); and "... And Justice for All" (1979) as an autocratic, corrupt judge who spars with a lawyer played by Al Pacino.

The last part was a particular favorite of Mr. Forsythe's, who said he found himself typecast as "the nice guy type." Critic Gary Arnold, writing in The Washington Post, called Mr. Forsythe "disarmingly effective as a sleek scoundrel" in the Pacino film.

The role also led to one of the more defining characters of his career, Denver oil tycoon Blake Carrington on ABC's "Dynasty," a nighttime soap opera that aired from 1981 to 1989.

As Carrington, Mr. Forsythe was usually distracted by the poisonous rivalry between his wife, played by Linda Evans, and his scheming ex, played by Joan Collins. The program sustained viewers' attentions despite plot contortions that Mr. Forsythe acknowledged were "so patently phony."

John Lincoln Freund was born Jan. 29, 1918, in Penns Grove, N.J., and raised in New York, where his father was a stockbroker.

He left the University of North Carolina during his junior year to became a public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. His father knew the team's general manager, and Mr. Forsythe won a job making announcements for promotional events that sportscaster Red Barber declined -- "Jesse Owens racing a thoroughbred horse around the ballpark and 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias hitting golf balls into a net in center field."

He decided to seek work as a radio actor "because baseball is a kind of seasonal job, and I loved to eat during the wintertime."

He won roles on radio soaps and worked his way from children's theater to Broadway. With his dark, wavy hair and middle-American good looks, he was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. film studios and appeared in two 1943 war pictures, "Northern Pursuit" with Errol Flynn and "Destination Tokyo" with Cary Grant.

His film career was cut short when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces. His first assignment was to appear on Broadway in Moss Hart's "Winged Victory" (1943), a show starring servicemen entertainers and designed to sell war bonds.

After the war, he appeared on early television anthology programs and replaced Henry Fonda in the title role of "Mister Roberts" on Broadway. Mr. Forsythe also attended the Actors Studio workshop, where his clean-cut looks made him stand out.

On television, Mr. Forsythe excelled as the dapper star of "Bachelor Father." The show also made him an extremely wealthy man because he was paid partly in stock from the production company, MCA. The money helped him indulge an interest in raising thoroughbred horses.

After "Bachelor Father," he played the lead in other short-lived programs ("The John Forsythe Show," "To Rome With Love") before serving as narrator of "The World of Survival" from 1971 to 1977. He then won the role of the silver-haired patriarch on "Dynasty" when George Peppard, who was initially cast as Blake Carrington, left amid personality clashes.

Although he had a few other small roles, Mr. Forsythe mostly devoted his time to horse racing and doing anti-smoking promotional work for the American Cancer Society.

His first marriage, to Parker McCormick, ended in divorce. His second wife, Julie Warren, an actress he married in 1943, died in 1994.

Survivors include his third wife, Nicole Carter of Santa Ynez; a son from the first marriage, Dall Forsythe, former New York State budget director; two daughters from the second marriage, Page Courtemanche and Brooke Forsythe; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Ed Roberts, Designer of Altair 8800, Dead at 68

Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, who designed the Altair 8800 credited with being the world's first personal computer, died in Georgia at age 68, according to reports.

Roberts died Thursday of pneumonia at a hospital in Macon, Georgia, according to the UPI.

Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems in 1970, where he later developed the Altair 8800 based on the new Intel 8080 microprocessor. The $397 computer sold well, and inspired Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen to join the company.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and early mentor, Ed Roberts, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family," Allen and Gates said in a joint statement released on Thursday night.

"Ed was truly a pioneer in the personal computer revolution, and didn't always get the recognition he deserved. He was an intense man with a great sense of humor, and he always cared deeply about the people who worked for him, including us. Ed was willing to take a chance on us – two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace – and we have always been grateful to him. The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things."

Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and retired, where he studied medicine and became a small-town doctor, according to the statement.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Johnny Maestro, Brooklyn Bridge Singer, Dies at 70

Published: March 26, 2010
Johnny Maestro, the pure-toned tenor who as the lead singer for the Crests, the Del-Satins and the Brooklyn Bridge recorded rock ’n’ roll hits like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Worst That Could Happen,” died at his home in Cape Coral, Fla. He was 70 and had lived in Islip, N.Y., until seven years ago.

The cause was cancer, said Les Cauchi, an original member of the Brooklyn Bridge, which continues to perform before graying audiences, swaying to the tunes of their teenage years.

“The original Brooklyn Bridge had 11 members, singing and playing,” Mr. Cauchi said. “Now there are six members, without Johnny.”

The Bridge, as the group is often called, was a merger in 1968 of two bands, the Del-Satins and the Rhythm Method. It was originally billed as Johnny Maestro, the Del-Satins and the Rhythm Method. A bit too bulky.

“So we decided we’d pick a new one,” Mr. Maestro told The New York Times in 1994. “We were sitting around the office, and someone said: ‘This is going to be difficult. We have 11 people. That’s hard to sell. It’s easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.’ We said, ‘That’s the name!’ ”

With their strong vocal and horn arrangements, the Bridge recorded a series of hits, including “Welcome Me Love,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Your Husband, My Wife.” But lightning struck for the band with the songwriter Jimmy Webb’s “Worst That Could Happen.”

In December 1968, the Brooklyn Bridge performed the song on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (with Mr. Sullivan mispronouncing Mr. Maestro’s name as MAY-stroh, not MY-stroh). In the song, a man sings about the impending marriage of a woman he still loves, and reluctantly wishes her well.

“If he loves you more than me,” Mr. Maestro sings, “maybe it’s the best thing, maybe it’s the best thing for you, but it’s the worst that could happen to me.”

That Sullivan show appearance, Mr. Cauchi said, “launched our career.”

Mr. Maestro’s career had taken off before. In the late 1950s he was the lead singer for the Crests, fronting hits like “Sixteen Candles,” “Trouble in Paradise,” “The Angels Listened In” and “Step by Step.”

John Peter Mastrangelo was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 7, 1939, one of three children of Salvatore and Grace Mastrangelo. He is survived by his wife, Grace; his brother, Ronald; two daughters, Tracy and Lisa; a son, Brad; and four grandchildren.

The Crests were a band of street kids from the Lower East Side, and quite a mix. “There were three blacks, one Puerto Rican,” Mr. Maestro said, “and I was the Eye-talian.” They performed at parties and dances and rode the subway for the drop of a few coins. One day a rider handed them a business card; that led to a record contract.

On the Coed label, they recorded “Beside You.”

“The B side was ‘Sixteen,’ ” Mr. Maestro said. “Who knew?”

 

[JennyOHill2]

Corin Redgrave of Acting Royalty Dies Suddenly at 70

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Corin Redgrave, part of the renowned acting dynasty that includes sisters Vanessa and Lynn, died Tuesday after falling ill over the weekend, his family announced. He was 70. The actor's widow, Kika Markham, told BBC News that Redgrave died "very peacefully and surrounded by his family," however, details on the type of illness are being withheld.

Redgrave is the uncle of 'Nip/Tuck' actress Joley Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson. His daughter, Jemma, is also an actress. His father was British icon Michael Redgrave.

Redgrave is perhaps best known for his role in the 1994 hit 'Four Weddings and a Funeral,' in which he played Andie McDowell's husband. His other film roles include the Oscar-winning 'A Man for All Seasons' and last year's 'Eva.'

He got the acting bug while attending Cambridge University and made his first stage appearance in a 1961 production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

The actor battled prostate cancer in 2000 and suffered a heart attack in 2005, but was was healthy enough to continue working in recent years on stage and in films and television.

He was also well known for his political activism and joined the campaign in 2004 to impeach then-Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

"We will miss him so very much," Markham said Tuesday. Redgrave is survived by daughter Jemma and sons Luke, Harvey and Arden.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Dixie Carter dies at age 70

Saturday, Apr. 10, 2010

'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies at 70



'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies at 70 LOS ANGELES "Designing Women" star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70.

Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area.

"This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement. "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy."

A native of Tennessee, Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on "Designing Women," the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives."

Carter's other credits include roles on the series "Family Law" and "Diff'rent Strokes."

She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie "The Killing of Randy Webster," and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and were wary at first.

They finally wed two years before Carter landed her role on "Designing Women." Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson.

The two appeared together in her final project, the 2009 independent film "That Evening Sun," shot in Tennessee and based on a short story by Southern novelist William Gay.

The middle of three children, Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn.

Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people's essential goodness.

"When I asked him how he handled shoplifting in his new store, which had a lot of goods on display, making it impossible to keep an eye on everything, he said, 'Most people are honest, and if they weren't, you couldn't stay in business because a thief will find a way to steal,'" Carter said. "'You can't really protect yourself, but papa and I built our business believing most people are honest and want to do right by you.'"

Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of "Carousel" in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting.

She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on "Diff'rent Strokes" and another series, "Filthy Rich," in the 1980s.

Those two parts led to her role on "Designing Women," a comedy about the lives of four women at an interior design firm in Atlanta.

Carter and Delta Burke played the sparring sisters who ran the firm. The series also starred Annie Potts and Jean Smart.

The show, whose reruns have rarely left the airwaves, was not a typical sitcom. It tackled such topics as sexism, ageism, body image and AIDS.

"It was something so unique, because there had never been anything quite like it," Potts told The Associated Press at a 2006 cast reunion. "We had Lucy and Ethel, but we never had that exponentially expanded, smart, attractive women who read newspapers and had passions about things and loved each other and stood by each other."

Carter appeared on the drama "Family Law" from 1999 to 2002, and in her last major TV appearance she played Gloria Hodge, the surly mother-in-law to Marcia Cross's Bree on "Desperate Housewives."

Carter said the role was far from the kindly woman she played on "Designing Women."

"It's a vast difference," Carter said while filming the series. "Gloria Hodge doesn't have any redeeming qualities except her intelligence."

In addition to Holbrook, Carter is survived by daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna.

 

[JennyOHill2]

'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin Meinhardt Raabe Dead at 94

'Wizard of Oz' actor Meinhardt Raabe died Friday morning in Orange Park, Florida of a presumed heart attack, the NY Times has confirmed. He was 94.

According to his caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, Raabe was taken to a nearby hospital after he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida, where he had lived since 1986. Prior to collapsing, Raabe complained of having a sore throat.

Raabe was best known for his uncredited, 13-second role in the Oscar-winning classic, during which he uttered the famous lines "As coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, She's really most sincerely dead." He was one of the last surviving Munchkins, according to the report.

Though the 'Wizard of Oz' marked his only appearance on the big screen, Raebe, who was 4 feet 7 inches at his tallest, had a long and successful career, including an almost 30-year stint as Little Oscar, mascot of Oscar Mayer meats.

A University of Wisconsin graduate and World War II veteran, Raebe was married to the late Marie Hartline, who died in 1997. He is survived by his sister, Marion Ziegelmann.

 

[Batch]

John Schoenherr

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2010/04/12/remembering-john-schoenherr/

Remembering John Schoenherr
April 12, 2010 by Michael Hickerson
To many, the name John Schoenherr may not be immediately recognizable. But odds are if you’re a genre reader, you’re familiar with his work.

Schoenherr is the artist illustrated some of the biggest names in science-fiction and fantasy, including “Dune” and the Pern series.

Schoenherr has passed away at the age of 74 according to SciFi Wire.

Frank Herbert, the author of “Dune,” said that Schoenherr was “the only man who has ever visited Dune,” when Herbert viewed illustrations for the books.

Schoenherr was perhaps best known for his illustrations for Dune, which was first published in two parts as “Dune World” and “The Prophet of Dune” in the science fiction magazine Analog in 1963 and 1965, respectively, and for which he won the 1965 Hugo Award for Best Artist. Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing through the late 1970s, Schoenherr contributed hundreds of distinctive and memorable illustrations for various science fiction magazines and books.

Schoenherr was one of a handful of artists who helped create our visual memory of the classic science fiction of that era. His interior illustrations, especially those in scratchboard, were iconic in their dark precision. His full-color cover paintings often made use of bright, glowing colors to create dramatically alien landscapes, artifacts and creatures. In addition to Dune, he did illustrations in 1967 for Ann McCaffrey’s first Pern story, “Wehr Search.” He thereby contributed to the genesis of two of the most popular science fiction series of the past 50 years.

In 1978, he returned to the world of Dune with new art for The Illustrated Dune, after which he worked only occasionally in SF but continued his prolific and award-winning work in children’s book and wildlife art.

 

[JennyOHill2]

David Mills, Television Writer and Producer, Dies at 48

Published: March 31, 2010
David Mills, a former journalist who explored race relations and racial tensions as an Emmy-winning television writer for dramas like “NYPD Blue,” “The Wire” and “Homicide,” died in New Orleans on the set of a new show, “Treme.” He was 48 and had homes in Los Angeles and Silver Spring, Md.

The cause is thought to be a brain aneurysm, said David Simon, the creator of “Treme” and a longtime friend of Mr. Mills’s.

The show, which is set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — the title is the name of a neighborhood, pronounced truh-MAY — had its premiere on HBO on April 11. Mr. Simon said Mr. Mills was the supervising writer-producer for a scene being shot at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter and was sitting in a director’s chair when he suddenly slumped over. He was taken to Tulane Medical Center, where he died without regaining consciousness.

“He was talking to someone who turned away for a minute, and when he turned back, David was just, well, gone,” Mr. Simon said.

Both as a journalist — he worked for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and The Washington Post — and as a television writer, Mr. Mills was most interested in the subject of race. He wrote about its manifestations in music, politics and American culture in general in a forthright style and with a voice that betrayed fascination but no ideology or identifiable bias.

A light-skinned black man whose racial identity was not always evident to those around him, he wrote white characters and black characters with equal zeal, as shown in episodes of “NYPD Blue” featuring the racially insensitive white police officer Andy Sipowicz (played by Dennis Franz) and the often seething black lieutenant Arthur Fancy (James McDaniel). Mr. Mills was able “to travel with great fluidity between worlds and communities,” Mr. Simon said.

Mr. Mills’s blog, which he wrote for the past five years, was called “Undercover Black Man.”

Mr. Mills shared two Emmy awards — one for outstanding mini-series, one for outstanding writing for a mini-series — for his work on “The Corner,” a six-episode drama about a year in the life of a neighborhood in inner-city Baltimore that was based on a book by Mr. Simon and Ed Burns and was shown on HBO in 2000. The relationship of Mr. Mills, Mr. Simon, who is white, and the show’s director, Charles Dutton, who is black, was the subject of an article in The New York Times in 2000, “Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?,” that was part of the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series “How Race Is Lived in America.”

Mr. Mills also wrote for Mr. Simon’s other notable dramas, “Homicide,” set in Baltimore; and “The Wire,” HBO’s taut portrait of that city's institutions. His other credits included “E.R.,” NBC’s long-running hospital show, and “Kingpin,” a show he created about a drug trafficker that was canceled by NBC after six episodes in 2003.

David Eugene Mills was born in Washington and grew up in the northeast section of the city before a fire forced his family to move to Lanham, Md. He graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park, where he met Mr. Simon while the two worked for The Diamondback, the campus daily newspaper.

After college he worked for The Wall Street Journal in Chicago, but left after a year to return to Washington to write first for The Times and then The Post, where he covered race and popular culture. His interview with the rapper Sister Souljah after the Los Angeles riots of 1992 created headlines when an already incendiary quotation from her — “I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” — was cited by an outraged presidential candidate, Bill Clinton.

The same year, Mr. Simon asked Mr. Mills for help in writing an episode of “Homicide,” which was being adapted from Mr. Simon’s nonfiction book about the Baltimore police department’s homicide unit. After the episode, which starred Robin Williams, was broadcast in 1994, Mr. Mills left The Post for Hollywood.

He worked briefly as a story editor for the David Kelley series “Picket Fences,” but his big break came when he read an interview with David Milch, the lead writer of “NYPD Blue,” who said that black writers had a hard time writing for mainstream commercial television. Mr. Mills wrote an arch note to Mr. Milch, who hired him.

For his work on the show, he was nominated twice for Emmys.

Mr. Mills is survived by a brother, Franklin Mills, of Washington, and two sisters, Blanche Carroll, of Peoria, Ariz., and Gloria Johnson, of Charlotte, N.C.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Mike Cuellar, Star Pitcher for Orioles, Dies at 72

Mike Cuellar, a Cy Young Award-winning left-hander whose brilliant screwball helped the Baltimore Orioles win three consecutive American League pennants, died at a hospital in Orlando, Fla. He was 72.

The cause was stomach cancer, the Orioles said.

When Cuellar was traded to the Orioles by the Houston Astros after the 1968 season, he joined his fourth major league team. He flourished in Baltimore, becoming a key figure on one of baseball’s most memorable pitching staffs.

Cuellar, a native of Cuba, posted a 23-11 record with the Orioles’ pennant winners of 1969 and shared Cy Young honors as the A.L.’s best pitcher with the Detroit Tigers’ Denny McLain, becoming the first Latin-born winner of the award. He bested the Mets’ Tom Seaver in the opener of the World Series before the Mets capped their storied season by winning the next four games.

Cuellar had a 24-8 record in 1970, when he led A.L. pitchers in victories, complete games (21) and winning percentage (.750) and pitched the Orioles to a World Series championship with a Game 5 victory against the Cincinnati Reds.

Cuellar went 20-9 in 1971, when he joined with the future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Pat Dobson to give the Orioles the only pitching staff with four 20-game winners in a single season except for the 1920 Chicago White Sox.

But Cuellar was beaten twice in the World Series, when the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Orioles in seven games.

A four-time All-Star, Cuellar was adept at keeping hitters off balance.

Miguel Angel Cuellar was born on May 8, 1937, in Las Villas, Cuba. He was signed by the Reds’ organization in 1957, pitched for the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League, then made his major league debut with Cincinnati in 1959. He went back to the minors after that, pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, then spent four seasons with the Astros.

The Orioles obtained Cuellar from the National League after he impressed their manager, Earl Weaver, when he was managing in Puerto Rico winter ball.

Cuellar remained one of the A.L.’s top pitchers through the 1974 season, when he was 22-10 with a league-leading .688 winning percentage. He was released by the Orioles after the 1976 season, spent one year with the California Angels and had a 185-130 record for 15 major league seasons.

Cuellar, who lived in the Orlando area, is survived by his wife, Myriam; a daughter, Lydia; and a son, Mike Jr., The Orlando Sentinel said. He was a volunteer pitching instructor at the Orioles’ Florida spring training camp last year, and he was at their Camden Yards ballpark last May for a reunion of the 1969 team.

 

[phrodeau]

Gates, LA's police chief during 1992 riot, dies
Posted: Apr 16, 2010 9:46 AM CDT
Updated: Apr 17, 2010 12:36 AM CDT

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By JOHN ANTCZAK and ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press Writers
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Daryl F. Gates, the blunt former Los Angeles police chief who waged war on violent gangs and skirmished with city leaders until his handling of the Rodney King police beating and ensuing riots forced him to retire, died Friday of cancer. He was 83.

Gates died at his Dana Point home with his family at his side, according to a police statement. His brother said recently the former chief had bladder cancer that had spread.

One of the most polarizing figures in modern law enforcement, Gates served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department for 14 years beginning in 1978, an era of tumultuous change as the nation's second-largest city faced a surge in well-armed gangs, a burgeoning illegal drug trade and growing racial conflict.

He initially ran a police force that was enjoying a reputation as the embodiment of the professional, just-the-facts "Dragnet" mythology. Yet he left office with city blocks in ashes amid accusations he allowed a pattern of abuse of minorities to flourish among the rank-and-file.

"He was a man of deep convictions," said former police chief William Bratton, who left the department last year. "He was very happy to stand up for them, whether you liked them or not. And he enjoyed being in the middle of the bull's-eye. He thrived on it."

Gates' critics and admirers remain as far apart as ever.

"I don't remember much that was good about him," said Ramona Ripston, the longtime executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "I think in many ways he gave policing a bad name. He certainly didn't believe in civil liberties."

Others saw a cop's cop who sought to protect his department from political interference and corruption, even though his "shoot-from-the-lip" style repeatedly stirred anger and kept him at odds with the city's first black mayor, former police lieutenant Tom Bradley.

"He understood why it was important to basically insulate the department from the political process. He guarded it very jealously," said City Councilman Bernard C. Parks, an officer under Gates and chief from 1997 until 2002.

Gates was credited with developing the policing plan, including a terrorism task force, that brought off the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics with not so much as a traffic jam. He also created the department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., program for youth.

While on the command staff in 1972, he formed Los Angeles' first Special Weapons and Tactics Team or SWAT. He shut down an intelligence unit in 1983 after learning it was spying on the ACLU and other organizations.

But police actions and some of Gates' brash comments overshadowed his accomplishments.

In 1979, two officers shot and killed Eulia Love, a 39-year-old black woman who brandished a butcher knife as they approached her about an overdue gas bill.

Street sweeps in the 1980s meant to battle growing gangs and drug dealers stirred community animosity for rounding up thousands of youths, and excessive-force lawsuits against the department cost the city millions.

In 1982, Gates apologized for saying more blacks died than whites during the use of carotid chokeholds because "the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as they do on normal people."

He told a congressional committee chaired by then-Sen. Joseph Biden in 1990 that casual drug users should be shot.

Gates' career began to unravel with the March 3, 1991, beating of King, which was videotaped by a man in a nearby apartment after the black motorist was pulled over for speeding. King suffered 56 baton blows, kicks and repeated shocks from a Taser.

Shortly after the tape aired, Gates told reporters that even if the officers were found to be out of line, it was an aberration, a statement he later admitted was a mistake.

"Not speaking boldly of the horror I felt proved to be, in the final analysis, a significant error on my part - in dealing with a crisis that would only grow worse," Gates wrote in his autobiography, "Chief: My Life in the LAPD."

An independent review of the department released later that year found the LAPD had a significant problem of excessive force aggravated by racism and bias, and under pressure to resign, Gates announced his retirement

On April 29, 1992, just two months short of Gates' leaving, a jury acquitted the officers of most charges in the King beating, a verdict that triggered one of the worst outbreaks of civil unrest in Los Angeles history.

Four days of rioting throughout the sprawling city left 55 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and property damage totaling $1 billion. Fires set by rioters reduced entire blocks of the city to cinders.

Gates came under intense criticism from city officials who said officers were slow to respond. The mayor said Gates had "brought Los Angeles to the brink of disaster just to satisfy his own ego."

Gates also was lambasted for briefly going to a political fundraiser the evening the verdict was announced and blaming a lieutenant for withdrawing officers from Florence and Normandie avenues, where the infamous beatings of trucker Reginald Denny and other motorists were broadcast to the nation by a news helicopter.

Since, then Los Angeles has instituted a major recommendation of the independent review that called for limits on a chief's tenure. Chiefs are now appointed to a five-year term, renewable once.

Gates continued to respond to critics after retirement, when he worked briefly as a radio talk-show host and as a consultant for various companies.

"There were two beatings. There was one of Rodney King, and then there was the beating of the Los Angeles Police Department. And that one lasted a whole year," he told The Associated Press in 2002.

He called the rioters "hoodlums" and said they were out to loot and steal with little concern for King. He called King "a no-good S.O.B. parolee who has never been able to find himself ever since."

Gates' 43-year career with the LAPD began in 1949 after two years in the Navy during World War II.

A native of Glendale, Calif., anda University of Southern California graduate, he was mentored by legendary police Chief William Parker after becoming his personal driver.

Gates' personal life was sometimes tumultuous. His marriage ended in divorce and his son struggled with drug abuse, suffering an overdose during the 1992 riots.

He is survived by brother, retired LAPD captain Steven Gates, and three children.

Associated Press Writers Thomas Watkins, Jeff Wilson and AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this story.

 

[KindaKinky]

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Rapper Guru dies at 43 after battle with cancer

By MESFIN FEKADU, Associated Press Writer Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press Writer – 15 mins ago

NEW YORK – Guru, the influential rapper known for his conscious and intellectual themes, his monotone delivery, and his combination of jazz sounds with hip-hop beats, has died after battling cancer, collaborators said. He was 43.

The world has lost "one of the best MCs and hip-hop icons of all time," according to a statement from Solar, Guru's producer. It was posted on the Web site of DJ Premier, who with Guru made up the rap duo Gang Starr. The site said Guru died Monday.

E-mails from The Associated Press to Solar and his assistant were not immediately returned.

The statement also features a letter Guru wrote before his death. In it, he thanks Solar for his friendship, speaks about his son KC and his nonprofit cancer organization, Each One Counts.

He also dismissed his relationship with Premier, saying, "I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name."

"I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting," it read.

Guru, whose real name was Keith Elam, was born near Boston and later moved to New York. His first album as a member of Gang Starr, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," was released in 1989. They released more albums as a duo, including the gold-selling "Moment of Truth" in 1998.

The group's first hit was "Words I Manifest," which samples Miles Davis and Charlie Parker's "A Night In Tunisia." Other hits include "Dwyck," "Just to Get a Rep" and "Take It Personal."

Guru moved on as a solo artist in 1993, releasing "Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1," which featured a blend of jazz melodies and hip-hop sounds. He released four volumes of the "Jazzmatazz" series. He attended Morehouse College.

Guru worked with top musicians including Herbie Hancock, Isaac Hayes, Chaka Kahn, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common, Jamiroquai, Macy Gray and Damian Marley.

___

AP National Writer Jesse Washington contributed to this report.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Christopher Cazenove, Suave British Actor, Dies at 66

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Christopher Cazenove, a debonair British actor best known to American audiences as Ben Carrington, the scheming brother of Blake Carrington on the ABC prime-time soap opera “Dynasty,” died in London, where he lived. He was 66.

The cause was septicemia, which he had contracted in late February, his agent, Lesley Duff, said.

As Ben, the estranged, calculating brother who returns to make trouble for Blake, Mr. Cazenove appeared on “Dynasty” from 1986 to 1987. Blake was played by John Forsythe, who died on April 1.

Mr. Cazenove was cast frequently as upper-class men of military bearing, traits that dovetailed neatly with his own background. As a young actor, he came to wide notice as Charles Haslemere, the charming, caddish aristocrat in the BBC series “The Duchess of Duke Street.” The series was broadcast in the United States on PBS’s “Masterpiece Theater” from 1978 to 1980.

In 1989, Mr. Cazenove starred opposite Margaret Whitton and Ernie Sabella in the critically praised but short-lived ABC series “A Fine Romance.”

His film credits include “The Proprietor” (1996), directed by Ismail Merchant and starring Jeanne Moreau; “Three Men and a Little Lady” (1990); “Heat and Dust” (1983), directed by James Ivory; and “Eye of the Needle” (1981).

Christopher de Lerisson Cazenove was born in Winchester, England, on Dec. 17, 1943. In the 19th century, his family, of Huguenot origin, founded what became Cazenove & Company, a major British investment bank. The company is known today as J.P. Morgan Cazenove.

Christopher’s father, Arnold de Lerisson Cazenove, was a brigadier in the Coldstream Guards and later an aide-de-camp to King George VI. Christopher studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School and began his career as a stage actor.

Mr. Cazenove’s marriage to Angharad Rees, a Welsh-born actress who starred in the BBC series “Poldark” in the 1970s, ended in divorce. Survivors include their son Rhys and Mr. Cazenove’s companion, Isabel Davis. Another son, Linford, from his marriage to Ms. Rees, died in an automobile accident in 1999.

In 2007 and 2008, Mr. Cazenove appeared on stages throughout North America as Professor Henry Higgins in a touring production of “My Fair Lady” directed by Trevor Nunn. Reviewers praised his performance, pointing out a conspicuous difference between Mr. Cazenove and Rex Harrison, who had originated the role on Broadway in 1956: Mr. Cazenove could sing.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Malcolm McLaren, Seminal Punk Figure, Dies at 64

Malcolm McLaren, an impresario, recording artist and fashion designer who as manager of the Sex Pistols played a decisive role in creating the British punk movement, died in Switzerland. He was 64.

The cause was mesothelioma, a cancer of the linings around organs, said Young Kim, his companion of many years. She said he had been under treatment at a Swiss hospital. He lived in Paris and New York.

Mr. McLaren, a former art student, found an outlet for his ideas about fashion, music and social provocation in the inchoate rock ’n’ roll scene of London in the early 1970s. Operating from the clothing boutique Sex, which he and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ran, he brought together four obscure musicians, called them the Sex Pistols and provided them with an attitude suited to Britain in decline: nihilistic rage, expressed at high volume in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and the vitriolic anti-anthem “God Save the Queen.”

Mr. McLaren was a keen student of the French Situationists, who believed in staging absurdist or provocative incidents as a spur to social change. He arranged for the Sex Pistols to sign their contract with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace and organized a performance of “God Save the Queen” on the Thames, outside the Houses of Parliament, on a boat named the Queen Elizabeth. The police quickly intervened, ratifying the group’s incendiary reputation.

Until their breakup in January 1978, the Sex Pistols epitomized the look, the sound and the attitude of British punk. All three came, in large measure, from Mr. McLaren’s restless brain.

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was born on Jan. 22, 1946, in London and was raised mostly by a wealthy grandmother. He attended more than half a dozen art schools. At none of them did things go smoothly. He was expelled from Chiswick Polytechnic, and the Croydon College of Art tried to have him transferred to a mental institution.

He terminated his education, such as it was, in 1971 at Goldsmiths’ College in London, but not before completing a series of paintings titled “I Will Be So Bad.”

In 1972 Mr. McLaren and Ms. Westwood took over a store on King’s Road in Chelsea called Let It Rock and began selling hipster Teddy boy fashions. The business was run along unconventional lines.

In a 1997 article for The New Yorker, Mr. McLaren recalled, “We set out to make an environment where we could truthfully run wild.” On most days the shop did not open until the evening and closed within a few hours. The goal, Mr. McLaren wrote, “was to sell nothing at all.”

After the New York Dolls visited the store, renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Mr. McLaren followed the group to the United States and became its manager. He dressed the band members in red clothing based on the Soviet flag, placed politically provocative slogans onstage and presided over their swift demise.

Back in London, Mr. McLaren, now at Sex, took an interest in a group called the Strand (later the Swankers), three of whose members formed the nucleus of the original Sex Pistols. The group gave its first performance at St. Martin’s College on Nov. 6, 1975 — hostile audience reaction caused the players to leave the stage after two songs — and soon emerged as the leader of the punk scene. Reliably or not, Mr. McLaren explained his strategy for packaging and selling the band in the 1980 film “The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle.”

“Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen” (whose release was timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee) rose to the upper rungs of the pop charts in Britain, and the group’s only album, “Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols,” reached No. 1 in 1977. On the band’s first American tour, in January 1978, John Lydon, the lead singer known as Johnny Rotten, walked offstage at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and the Sex Pistols dissolved.

Mr. McLaren briefly managed Adam and the Ants and then, with several ex-Ants, created Bow Wow Wow around a teenage Burmese singer, Annabella Lwin. The group recorded the hits “Go Wild in the Country” and “I Want Candy.” Through his clothing store, now called World’s End, he sold Ant and Bow Wow Wow fashions.

He went on to record his own music. His album “Duck Rock” (1983), a blend of world music and hip-hop, generated the hit singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.”

“I’m much more of a magician than a musician,” he told The Globe and Mail of Toronto in 1985. “I steal other people’s songs and try to make them better.”

In 1984 Mr. McLaren released the album “Fans,” a mixture of opera and urban music, which included the hit single “Madame Butterfly.” “Waltz Darling” (1989), “Paris” (1994) and other albums followed.

In recent years his name was linked with film, television and radio projects, most of them never realized, although he did help produce the film “Fast Food Nation” and presented two series for BBC2 radio, “Malcolm McLaren’s Musical Map of London” and “Malcolm McLaren’s Life and Times in L.A.”

He is survived by his son with Ms. Westwood, Joseph Corré, a founder of the lingerie company Agent Provocateur; a brother, Stuart Edwards; and a grandchild.

Mr. McLaren spent much of the last 30 years trying to explain punk. “I never thought the Sex Pistols would be any good,” he told The Times of London last year. “But it didn’t matter if they were bad.”

 

[JennyOHill2]

Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor Dead at 48

Colorado Rockies president Keli McGregor was found dead Tuesday morning in a Salt Lake City hotel room. He was 48.

The Denver Post quoted Salt Lake City Police Det. Rick Wall as saying McGregor died of natural causes and police "didn't see anything suspicious."

McGregor was in Salt Lake City with Rockies chairman and CEO Charlie Monfort and executive vice president Greg Feasel, according to a team press release. When McGregor couldn't be reached Tuesday morning, the Post reported, an associate contacted hotel officials to check on him.

"Words cannot describe the level of shock and disbelief that we all are feeling this morning at the loss of Keli," Monfort said in a statement. "Our thoughts, our prayers are with Lori and the entire family as we all try to cope and understand how such a tragic loss could occur with such a wonderful man."

McGregor was named president of the Rockies on Oct. 18, 2001 but had been with the organization since October 1993.

The Iowa native was an All-America tight end at Colorado State and a fourth-round draft pick of the Broncos in 1985. He played in eight games that season -- two for Denver and six for Indianapolis -- and also spent time with the Seahawks. He was inducted into Colorado State's Hall of Fame in 1996.

He came to the Rockies from the University of Arkansas, where he spent four years as an associate athletic director. Prior to that he spent two years on the football coaching staff at the University of Florida.

McGregor is survived by his wife, Lori, and four children.

 

[clutch1]

I feel sorry for his family, but...

48yrs old.
Why do I suspect there's more to this story.

 

[islandman]

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100420/capt.b067f906caec4ae9818414a9a9047db3-b067f906caec4ae9818414a9a9047db3-0.jpg

Loved the way he infused jazz into his sound.

Best cut on the debut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5fS6OHsL-U

 

[JennyOHill2]

Actor Eddie Carroll dead at 76

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (UPI) -- The voice of Disney's Jiminy Cricket -- actor Eddie Carroll -- has died of a brain tumor in California at age 76, his wife says.

Carroll, who was also known for his stage tribute to comic Jack Benny, died at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, his wife, Carolyn, told the Los Angeles Times.

Carroll became the second actor to give voice to Jiminy Cricket, starting in 1973, the Times said. The native Canadian holds the record for voicing the same Disney character longer than anyone else, Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney's Character Voices division, told the Times.

"He totally was Jiminy Cricket," Dempsey said. "He really took what the character was into his own heart and in a sense lived that in his own life. He also was one of the best Jack Benny impersonators on the planet."

Carroll toured six months out of the year in his one-man tribute, "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom," from the mid 1980s up until last years, the Times said.

He was born Eddie Eleniak in Edmonton, Alberta, and went to high school with a young Robert Goulet, the Times said. The friends moved to Los Angeles as part of an NBC talent program in the mid-1950s and he formed a production company in the 1960s with "MASH" star Jamie Farr.

In addition to his wife, Carroll is survived by children, Tia Monti and Leland Carroll; and brothers, Bob Elen and Dale Eleniak.

 

[Silverlily]

Former Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli dies at 89

OAKLAND, Calif. – Franklin Mieuli, whose deerstalker cap, substantial beard and casual style made him one of the NBA's most colorful figures in his 24 years as owner of the Golden State Warriors, died Sunday. He was 89.

Mieuli died of natural causes in a San Francisco Bay Area hospital, the Warriors said in a statement.

Mieuli was the principal owner of the Warriors from the time they moved to the Bay Area in 1962 until he sold them in 1986. He won an NBA title with the team in 1975, still the club's only championship in nearly a half-century in California.

"Franklin was truly one of the innovators in our league, who was so proud of the Bay Area and his ability to maintain a team there," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement Sunday night. "I have always fondly remembered ... his warmth and his belief in the importance of sports to a community."

Leveraging his way into sports ownership through a business producing Bay Area sports broadcasts, Mieuli also once owned a small percentage of the San Francisco Giants. He still had a 5 percent interest in the 49ers, purchased in 1954.

Mieuli was a fixture at Warriors games well into his 80s, wearing his distinctive hat and watching from his courtside seats at Oracle Arena. He became a beloved figure to fans who fondly remembered his ownership tenure with the long-struggling team, which has made the playoffs just once since 1994.

"He was one of the most unique and eccentric individuals that I have ever met, and I'm not sure there will ever be anyone like him again," said Al Attles, the former Warriors guard who coached Golden State to its sole title.

Mieuli grew up in San Jose and attended the University of Oregon. He became an advertising executive for a San Francisco brewery which, at his instigation, began sponsoring 49ers radio broadcasts.

That association with 49ers founders Tony and Vic Morabito led to his purchase of an interest in the team. He also founded a radio production company, Franklin Mieuli Associates, which produced the broadcasts of the Giants after they moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958.

In 1962, Mieuli headed a group of Bay Area investors, who along with Diners Club bought the Philadelphia Warriors and moved them to San Francisco. After one year of disappointing attendance, Diners Club and several investors wanted out, even threatening to fold the team.

Mieuli bought the shares of all who wished to sell and kept the team in the Bay Area. With no suitable playing venue in San Francisco, Mieuli eventually moved the club to the Oakland Coliseum Arena and changed its name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, initially playing a handful of home games in San Diego as well.

While Mieuli never had the financial resources of many NBA owners, he kept the Warriors competitive for much of his tenure. They reached the playoffs 10 times between 1962 and 1977, advancing to three NBA finals.

The highlight of Mieuli's ownership was the 1974-75 season. Led by Hall of Fame forward Rick Barry and Jamaal Wilkes, the underdog Warriors won the NBA title, sweeping the heavily favored Washington Bullets in four games.

"He always called me his prodigal son after I had left the Warriors to go to the ABA," said Barry, who played four seasons in the ABA before returning to the Warriors in 1972. "He vowed to do everything in his power to get me back. Thank goodness he did, because without his perseverance, I would never have had the opportunity to return to the Warriors and experience an NBA championship."

In addition to his NBA title ring, Mieuli had a fistful of Super Bowl rings from the 49ers, often wearing one ring from each team in public. Mieuli played an instrumental role in Eddie DeBartolo's purchase of the 49ers, leading to their halcyon days in the 1980s.

Besides the differences in bank balances, what really set Mieuli apart from other NBA owners was his lifestyle. The free-spirited Bay Area native was more likely to travel by motorcycle than by limousine, and by the 1960s he had shed his suits and ties for dungarees and colorful shirts, making him distinctive among the buttoned-up businessmen at league meetings.

After the Warriors won the title, he put the trophy in the back seat of his sports car for a year, taking it out whenever he visited a public place so the fans could see it up close.

"Franklin Mieuli was one of the most colorful and passionate individuals I have ever met and basketball fans in Northern California certainly owe a debt of gratitude to him for helping establish NBA basketball in the Bay Area," Warriors owner Chris Cohan said. "I don't think anyone will ever forget the 1975 championship team and the excitement that Franklin and that group of underdogs brought to fans of all ages."

Mieuli eventually sold the Warriors to Jim Fitzgerald, reportedly for less than $20 million. Cohan is exploring another sale of the club, which was judged to be worth $315 million by Forbes magazine late last year.

Beyond professional sports, Mieuli's company, still a thriving concern, produced the English language radio broadcasts from the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif.

Mieuli is survived by his longtime female partner Blake Green, son Peter Mieuli, daughter Holly Buchanan and seven grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Peter Haskell, prolific actor and star of TV's 'Bracken's World,' dies at 75

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-04/53370642.jpg

Peter Haskell, 75, a prolific stage, screen and TV actor who starred in the TV series "Bracken's World," died April 12 at his Northridge home, said his daughter, Audra.

He played writer-producer Kevin Grant on "Bracken's World," a melodramatic backstage look at the film industry that ran on NBC in 1969 and '70. He also had a stint on daytime TV in the early 1980s on the ABC soap "Ryan's Hope."

Born Oct. 15, 1934, in Boston, Haskell began acting while studying for a degree in literature at Harvard University. He appeared on stage in Boston, New York and Canada in the 1960s and won his first TV role in "Death Valley Days" in 1964.

Dozens of TV appearances followed on series including "Ben Casey," "Combat!," "Lassie," "The Big Valley," "Mannix," "Medical Center," "Barnaby Jones," "Vega$," "Murder, She Wrote" and the 2009 series finale of "ER."

He also appeared in two "Child's Play" horror films in the '90s and was active in theater in Los Angeles.

His first marriage ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Dianne "Crickett" Tolmich. They had two children, Audra and Jason.