Literotica Cemetary

[CaptainKirk]

Michigan has lost a beloved icon...

Frederik Meijer, of Meijer supermarket chain, died Nov. 25

Frederik Meijer, who built the regional retail powerhouse Meijer Inc. while nurturing his lifelong love of the arts, died late Friday at a hospital in western Michigan. He was 91.

The billionaire passed away at the Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids after suffering a stroke in his home early Friday morning, according to a statement issued by the company.

Meijer was credited with starting the supercenter store format in the 1960s that made Meijer a successful Midwest retailer. By 2009, Meijer had 180 of the giant stores throughout Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio with annual sales of $15 billion.

He and his wife also gave millions of dollars to causes in the Grand Rapids area, and arts projects were major benefactors.

"The Meijer family thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers and requests their privacy be respected at this difficult time," the company's statement said.

Meijer was 14 when his Dutch immigrant father, Hendrik, opened his first grocery store in Greenville in 1934 with $338.76 worth of merchandise purchased on credit. The younger Meijer worked 40 hours a week at the store throughout high school.

"We were hard up, and you know what? I didn't even feel deprived," he said in a 2002 interview. "I had a good time in the store, I was a decent student in school — I had a B-plus average."

Meijer and his father expanded their grocery operation in 1962 to include general merchandise, creating their first Thrifty Acres supercenter.

"I really enjoyed working with my dad till he died (in 1964, at age 80)," Meijer said. "We had a marvelous relationship."

The stores were renamed Meijer in 1984, and the company became one of the nation's largest family-owned retail businesses. Frederik Meijer was 82 before he took the title of chairman emeritus and began devoting less time to the company.

One of his three sons, Hank Meijer, previously said his father never thought he knew more than anyone else, so he trusted people to do their jobs and listened to the advice of others.

Meijer was born Dec. 7, 1919, in Greenville and in 1946 married Lena Rader after meeting her at the first Meijer store in Greenville, where she was a clerk. They spent their honeymoon visiting new stores.

The Meijers donated generously to programs in the Grand Rapids area through the foundation he established in 1990.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a 125-acre botanical garden outside Grand Rapids, opened in 1995. A 30-acre sculpture park featuring two dozen works by important modern sculptors was added seven years later.

Meijer collected sculptures for years, filling a garage with statues of animals and people before he found a home for many of them in the botanical garden. Those pieces, placed throughout the garden, are separate from the works in the sculpture area.

His interest in the arts stemmed from his youth. Even in the hardest of times, his parents made sure their children learned about culture.

"When I was young, I had piano lessons, clarinet lessons and violin lessons," he said. "My sister had piano, violin and viola (lessons). I was encouraged to sing in choirs. ...

"The point is, no matter how hard up we were in the Depression, certain things like that — music lessons — came as a part of life, rather than saying we couldn't afford it."

Meijer carried that belief to the community. Declaring that city dwellers needed to get outdoors to preserve "mental stability," he donated seed money to develop a network of hiking and cycling trails in western Michigan.

"Beyond raising a family and working and surviving, that's where the arts come in, and that's the sugar and spice," he said.

Meijer is survived by his wife, Lena, and sons Hank, Doug and Mark. He will be laid to rest on November 30th in The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, as per his final will and testament.

The death was first reported by The Grand Rapids Press.

______________________________________________________________

There is no one in Michigan that doesn't know the Meijer company or who Fred Meijer was.

I was five years old when I first met the man. He gave me, and other kids, a coupon for a free ice cream from the in-store ice cream shop The Purple Cow.

My first job was at a Meijer's supermarket, working the graveyard shift (before they went to a '24 hour' store) stocking grocery shelves when I was 17.

He and his company were the reasons I had food on the table and a roof over my head, when I started a family of my own. My mother will retire from Meijer next year.

He was a Michigan icon; he will be missed.

 

[koalabear]

Frederik Meijer, of Meijer supermarket chain, died Nov. 25

Frederik Meijer, who built the regional retail powerhouse Meijer Inc. while nurturing his lifelong love of the arts, died late Friday at a hospital in western Michigan. He was 91.

The billionaire passed away at the Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids after suffering a stroke in his home early Friday morning, according to a statement issued by the company.

Meijer was credited with starting the supercenter store format in the 1960s that made Meijer a successful Midwest retailer. By 2009, Meijer had 180 of the giant stores throughout Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio with annual sales of $15 billion.

He and his wife also gave millions of dollars to causes in the Grand Rapids area, and arts projects were major benefactors.

"The Meijer family thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers and requests their privacy be respected at this difficult time," the company's statement said.

Meijer was 14 when his Dutch immigrant father, Hendrik, opened his first grocery store in Greenville in 1934 with $338.76 worth of merchandise purchased on credit. The younger Meijer worked 40 hours a week at the store throughout high school.

"We were hard up, and you know what? I didn't even feel deprived," he said in a 2002 interview. "I had a good time in the store, I was a decent student in school — I had a B-plus average."

Meijer and his father expanded their grocery operation in 1962 to include general merchandise, creating their first Thrifty Acres supercenter.

"I really enjoyed working with my dad till he died (in 1964, at age 80)," Meijer said. "We had a marvelous relationship."

The stores were renamed Meijer in 1984, and the company became one of the nation's largest family-owned retail businesses. Frederik Meijer was 82 before he took the title of chairman emeritus and began devoting less time to the company.

One of his three sons, Hank Meijer, previously said his father never thought he knew more than anyone else, so he trusted people to do their jobs and listened to the advice of others.

Meijer was born Dec. 7, 1919, in Greenville and in 1946 married Lena Rader after meeting her at the first Meijer store in Greenville, where she was a clerk. They spent their honeymoon visiting new stores.

The Meijers donated generously to programs in the Grand Rapids area through the foundation he established in 1990.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a 125-acre botanical garden outside Grand Rapids, opened in 1995. A 30-acre sculpture park featuring two dozen works by important modern sculptors was added seven years later.

Meijer collected sculptures for years, filling a garage with statues of animals and people before he found a home for many of them in the botanical garden. Those pieces, placed throughout the garden, are separate from the works in the sculpture area.

His interest in the arts stemmed from his youth. Even in the hardest of times, his parents made sure their children learned about culture.

"When I was young, I had piano lessons, clarinet lessons and violin lessons," he said. "My sister had piano, violin and viola (lessons). I was encouraged to sing in choirs. ...

"The point is, no matter how hard up we were in the Depression, certain things like that — music lessons — came as a part of life, rather than saying we couldn't afford it."

Meijer carried that belief to the community. Declaring that city dwellers needed to get outdoors to preserve "mental stability," he donated seed money to develop a network of hiking and cycling trails in western Michigan.

"Beyond raising a family and working and surviving, that's where the arts come in, and that's the sugar and spice," he said.

Meijer is survived by his wife, Lena, and sons Hank, Doug and Mark. He will be laid to rest on November 30th in The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, as per his final will and testament.

The death was first reported by The Grand Rapids Press.

______________________________________________________________

There is no one in Michigan that doesn't know the Meijer company or who Fred Meijer was.

I was five years old when I first met the man. He gave me, and other kids, a coupon for a free ice cream from the in-store ice cream shop The Purple Cow.

My first job was at a Meijer's supermarket, working the graveyard shift (before they went to a '24 hour' store) stocking grocery shelves when I was 17.

He and his company were the reasons I had food on the table and a roof over my head, when I started a family of my own. My mother will retire from Meijer next year.

He was a Michigan icon; he will be missed.

Meijer is cool and so are the stores, I shop there.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Comedian Patrice O'Neal Dies At 41

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O'Neal was best known for his work as a stand-up comedian but also appeared in several films like "25th Hour," "Scary Movie 4" and "Furry Vengeance." In addition to being a regular guest on Opie and Anthony's show, he also made multiple appearances on "Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn," "Chappelle's Show" and "The Office."

Just this past September, he was one of the many comedians who poked fun at Charlie Sheen during his "Comedy Central Roast." He also hosted VH1's "Web Junk 2.0" back in 2006. Earlier this year, his Comedy Central special "Elephant in the Room" premiered on the network.

For those who knew him best, it was his bigger-than-life personality that will be missed most. "Yes it's true that our pal Patrice O'Neal has passed away," Opie, a.k.a. Gregg Hughes, tweeted. "The funniest and best thinker i've ever known PERIOD. #devastated." He then tweeted out a link to a video of the late comedian laughing on the radio show, simply adding, "Patrice O'Neal Greatest Laugh EVER."

Born in Boston on December 7, 1969, O'Neal got his start on the stage and in the early '90s and moved to Los Angeles to shoot for the big leagues. Eventually, his stand-up career resulted in smaller roles in films, as well as the HBO comedy special "One Night Stand." He had been living in the New York area at the time of his death.

The New York Daily News reports that O'Neal died Monday night. Shortly after his October stroke, his friend and fellow comedian Jim Norton opened up about his condition on the radio. "We don't know how he is. We don't know how he's going to be," Norton said. "I didn't want to do this by myself. I wish we had more news for you."

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Joseph Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva (aka Lana Peters)

Stalin's daughter dies; daughter lives in Portland
by SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press
Posted on November 28, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Updated Monday, Nov 28 at 4:50 PM

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The daughter of infamous Russian leader Joseph Stalin has died. She's survived by a daughter who lives in Portland, Oregon.
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's daughter, whose defection to the West during the Cold War embarrassed the ruling communists and made her a best-selling author, died at age 85.
Lana Peters -- who was known internationally by her previous name, Svetlana Alliluyeva -- died of colon cancer Nov. 22 in Wisconsin, a state where she lived off and on after becoming a U.S. citizen, said Richland County Coroner Mary Turner.
Her defection in 1967 -- which she said was partly motivated by the poor treatment of her late husband, Brijesh Singh, by Soviet authorities -- caused an international furor and was a public relations coup for the U.S.
But Peters, who left behind two children, said her identity involved more than just switching from one side to the other in the Cold War. She even moved back to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, only to return to the U.S. more than a year later.
Peters carried with her a memoir she had written in 1963 about her life in Russia. "Twenty Letters to a Friend" was published within months of her arrival in the U.S. and became a best-seller.
When she left the Soviet Union in 1966 for India, she planned to leave the ashes of her late third husband, an Indian citizen, and return. Instead, she walked unannounced into the U.S. embassy in New Delhi and asked for political asylum. After a brief stay in Switzerland, she flew to the U.S.
Upon her arrival in New York City in 1967, the 41-year-old said: "I have come here to seek the self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia." She said she had come to doubt the communism she was taught growing up and believed there weren't capitalists or communists, just good and bad human beings. She had also found religion and believed "it was impossible to exist without God in one's heart."
In the book, she recalled her father, who died in 1953 after ruling the nation for 29 years, as a distant and paranoid man.
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin denounced her as a "morally unstable" and "sick person" and added, "We can only pity those who wish to use her for any political aim or for any aim of discrediting the Soviet country." "I switched camps from the Marxists to the capitalists," she recalled in a 2007 interview for the documentary "Svetlana About Svetlana." But she said her identity was far more complex than that and never completely understood.
"People say, `Stalin's daughter, Stalin's daughter,' meaning I'm supposed to walk around with a rifle and shoot the Americans. Or they say, `No, she came here. She is an American citizen.' That means I'm with a bomb against the others. No, I'm neither one. I'm somewhere in between. That `somewhere in between' they can't understand."
The defection came at a high personal cost. She left two children behind in Russia -- Josef and Yekaterina -- from previous marriages. Both were upset by her departure, and she was never close to either again.
Raised by a nanny with whom she grew close after her mother's death in 1932, Peters was Stalin's only daughter. She had two brothers, Vasili and Jacob. Jacob was captured by the Nazis in 1941 and died in a concentration camp. Vasili died an alcoholic at age 40.
Peters graduated from Moscow University in 1949, worked as a teacher and translator and traveled in Moscow's literary circles before leaving the Soviet Union. She was married four times -- the last time to William Wesley Peters, after she came to the U.S., and she took the name Lana Peters. The couple had a daughter, Olga, before divorcing in 1973.
Peters wrote three more books, including "Only One Year," an autobiography published in 1969.
Her father's legacy appeared to haunt her throughout her life. She denounced his policies, which included sending millions into labor camps, but often said other Communist Party leaders shared the blame. "Over me my father's shadow hovers, no matter what I do or say," she lamented in a 1983 interview with the Chicago Tribune.
After living in Britain for two years, Peters returned to the Soviet Union with Olga in 1984 at age 58, saying she wanted to be reunited with her children. Her Soviet citizenship was restored, and she denounced her time in the U.S. and Britain, saying she never really had freedom. But more than a year later, she asked for and was given permission to leave after feuding with relatives. She returned to the U.S. and vowed never to go back to Russia.
She went into seclusion in the last decades of her life. Her survivors include her daughter Olga, who now goes by Chrese Evans and lives in Portland, Ore. A son, Josef, died in 2008 at age 63 in Moscow, according to media reports in Russia. Yekaterina (born in 1950), who goes by Katya, is a scientist who studies an active volcano in eastern Siberia.
Evans declined to comment when reached by email.
"Please respect my privacy during this sad time," she said.
Tom Stafford, owner of the funeral home in Richland Center, Wis., handling the arrangements, said no services were planned at this time but there may be something at a later date. He said no other information would be released.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Deliverance Actor Bill McKinney Dies at 80

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Actor Bill McKinney, best known for appearing in Deliverance's famous "squeal like a pig" scene as the Mountain Man rapist, has died at the age of 80.

An avid smoker for 25 years, McKinney succumbed to esophageal cancer, according to a statement posted Thursday on his Facebook page.

"Today our dear Bill McKinney passed away at Valley Presbyterian Hospice," read the statement. "He was 80 and still strong enough to have filmed a Dorito's commercial 2 weeks prior to his passing, and he continued to work on his biography with his writing partner. Hopefully 2012 will bring a publisher for the wild ride his life was."

In addition to his role in 1972's Deliverance, McKinney appeared dozens of films (including seven of Clint Eastwood's projects) and on TV shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Baywatch.

McKinney is survived by a son, Clinton, and several ex-wives.

 

[Super-Surprise]

Judy Lewis

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Judy Lewis, who learned as an adult that she was the illegitimate daughter of classic Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Loretta Young, has died at the age of 76, according to her daughter.

Young became pregnant with Lewis during the filming of "The Call of the Wild" (1935), concealed the pregnancy to avoid scandal and then raised the child as her adopted daughter.

Gable, the dashing star of "Gone with the Wind," never acknowledged his daughter but visited her once when she was 15.

Lewis recounted her story in a 1994 memoir entitled "Uncommon Knowledge."

Young was single and 22 when she became pregnant and Gable was married. To avoid scandal the devoutly Catholic actress went abroad during the later stage of her pregnancy and returned to Los Angeles to give birth in secret.

When Lewis was eight months old, her mother placed her in a Catholic orphanage but went back a month later to "adopt" her.

Lewis's origins were an open secret in Hollywood, but her friends were instructed never to tell her.

But her ears stuck out from the sides of her head the same way Gable's did, to the extent that she first concealed them under bonnets and then underwent surgery when she was seven to pin them back.

One day in 1950 Lewis came home from school to find the screen legend Gable standing in her front hallway.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," she wrote in her memoir. "He was right in front of me, and he was smiling at me. His eyes were crinkled into smile lines at the corners and he was so tall that I had to look up.

"He was much more handsome than I remembered him from the movies... I was speechless."

He spoke to her for the next hour, asking her about herself, then kissed her on the forehead and left. She never saw him again, and was not told he was her father until her fiance broke the news several years later.

Lewis initially followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress, starring in soap operas and Broadway shows, but later became a marriage and family therapist, working with pregnant teens and foster children.

When Lewis's memoir came out, Young publicly denied that Gable was the father of her child, and only ever admitted to the affair from the grave, in an authorized biography published after her death in 2000.

In 2002 Lewis told the London Telegraph how she would cry when she watched the tender scenes of Gable and his on-screen daughter in "Gone with the Wind."

"It's very sad to me... because he's so dear with her. I pretend it's me."

Lewis died of cancer in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania on Friday, according to her daughter, Maria Tinney Dagit. She is also survived by two grandsons and three half-brothers.
.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Harry Morgan, 'M*A*S*H*' Star, Dies at 96

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Harry Morgan, who was best known for his long-running portrayal of the fatherly Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H*, died at his Los Angeles home Wednesday morning at 96 years old. Morgan won an Emmy in 1980 for his performance as the unflappable medic.

A veteran of more than 50 years in films and TV, Morgan starred or co-starred in 11 TV series. He was an appealing Everyman whose calm manner and wry delivery were widely popular. In M*A*S*H*, his steady ways and sense of humor tempered the more high-keyed natures of his co-star’s characters, Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt. He went on to co-star in its spinoff, AfterMASH (1983-84).

His other most recognized role was on the vintage TV series Dragnet (1967-70), in which he played Jack Webb’s businesslike partner Bill Gannon. He reprised the role of Gannon in the 1987 movie remake.

Of Norwegian descent, he was born Harry Bratsberg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit. He attended the University of Chicago, where he developed an interest in acting. During a summer vacation, Morgan joined a small theater group and became hooked. He made his professional acting debut in summer stock. He graduated to Broadway, appearing in Golden Boy, alongside Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. Eventually, he was spotted by a 20th Century Fox talent scout while appearing in a one-act play.

Morgan excelled at playing low-key characters with a wisecracking side to them. He was a household figure with his portrayal of Pete Porter in the Spring Byington series December Bride (1954-59), and reprised the role in the spinoff Pete and Gladys (1960-62). He had a folksy, next-door-neighbor way about him, which led to guest appearances in numerous TV shows, including Cavalcade of America, The Richard Boone Show, Have Gun — Will Travel, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, Love & Money, Blacke’s Magic and many others.

He also appeared in many movies, including The Big Clock, All My Sons and Inherit the Wind. He also performed in such films as A Bell for Adano, State Fair, What Price Glory, Torch Song, The Glenn Miller Story, The Teahouse of the August Moon, How the West Was Won, Frankie and Johnny, Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Charley and the Angel and The Shootist, John Wayne’s last film. He brought his comedic skills to Disney film hits, such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, with Don Knotts and Tim Conway, and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.
Asked by the Archive of American Television in 2004 how he’d like to be remembered, Morgan said: “For being a fairly pleasant person and for having gotten along for the most part with a lot of the people I’ve worked with. And for having a wonderful life and for having enjoyed practically every minute of it, especially in the picture business and on the stage. I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world.”

He had been married to Barbara Bushman since 1986, and had four children, including producer Chris Morgan, from an earlier marriage.

 

[JennyOHill2]

'Laugh-In' comic actor Alan Sues dies at 85

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alan Sues, who brought his flamboyant and over-the-top comic persona to the hit television show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" in the 1960s and 1970s, has died, a close friend said.

Sues died of cardiac arrest at his home in West Hollywood, Michael Gregg Michaud, a friend since 1975, told The Associated Press.

"He was sitting in a recliner watching TV with his dachshund Doris who he loved in his lap," Michaud said.

Sues had various health problems in the last several years, but the death came as a shock to friends, Michaud said. He was 85.

A native Californian who moved to New York in 1952, Sues began his career as a serious actor and in 1953 appeared in director Elia Kazan's "Tea and Sympathy" on Broadway.
But he would be remembered for his wild comic characters.

They included "Big Al," an effeminate sportscaster, and "Uncle Al the Kiddies Pal," a hung-over children's show host, on "Laugh-In," the TV phenomenon that both reflected and mocked the era's counterculture and made stars of Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and many others.

Sues also donned tights as the commercial spokesman for Peter Pan peanut butter, and appeared in the popular 1964 "Twilight Zone" episode "The Masks."

Fellow cast members and crew from "Laugh-In" remembered him as even more entertaining behind the scenes.

"Alan Sues was one of those guys even funnier in person than on camera," Ruth Buzzi, a co-star who appeared in many skits with Sues, said on her Twitter account. "Across a dinner table, over the phone ... hysterical. We'll miss him."

Michaud said that while Sues was always cast as the stereotypically gay character, he believed he needed to hide his own gay identity during his years on television.
"He felt like he couldn't publicly come out," Michaud said. "He felt like people wouldn't accept him."

Sues was grateful for "Laugh-In," but wasn't happy he was typecast in his comic persona as he sought to return to more serious acting.

He got one chance that he cherished in 1975, the serious role of Moriarty with the Royal Shakespeare Company in "Sherlock Holmes" on Broadway.

He stayed with the show until it closed the following year, then went out to perform it with the touring company.

In later years he would make many more theater appearances, do voiceover work for television, and appear in guest spots on TV series like "Punky Brewster" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."

Sues is survived by a sister-in-law, two nieces and a nephew.

 

[JohnnySavage]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dobie Gray, who died Tuesday at 71, was more than a smooth balladeer who recorded the timeless hit “Drift Away” in 1973.

He was a songwriter for an array of performers and a trailblazing entertainer in South Africa.

Mr. Gray died at his Nashville home after a long battle with cancer.

“Drift Away” also was recorded by rap artist Uncle Kracker in 2003 and became a hit again.

Mr. Gray’s silky tenor also was heard on other hits including “The In Crowd” in 1965 and “Loving Arms” in 1973.

Mr. Gray toured extensively in Europe, Australia and Africa and insisted on performing for integrated audiences in South Africa, according to his website.

He also wrote songs recorded by Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Etta James, Three Dog Night, George Jones, Tammy Wynette and more. AP

 

[phrodeau]

Christopher Hitchens.

Vaclav Havel.

Kim Jong-il.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

North Korea leader Kim Jong-il dead, son hailed as "Great Successor"


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack, state media reported on Monday, sparking concern over who is in real control of the nuclear renegade state as his untested youngest son takes over the family dynasty.
A tearful television announcer, dressed in black and her voice quavering, said the 69-year old iron ruler died on Saturday of "physical and mental over-work" on a train on his way to give field guidance - advice dispensed by the "Dear Leader" on his trips to factories, farms and military bases.
North Korea's official KCNA news agency named Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as the "Great Successor", lauding him as "the outstanding leader of our party, army and people".

But there was uncertainty about how much support he has among the ruling elite, especially in the military, and worry he might try some military provocation to help establish his credentials.
"Kim Jong-un is a pale reflection of his father and grandfather. He has not had the decades of grooming and securing of a power base that Jong-il enjoyed before assuming control from his father," said Bruce Klingner, an Asia policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
"(He) may feel it necessary in the future to precipitate a crisis to prove his mettle to other senior leaders or deflect attention from the regime's failings."
Video from Chinese state television showed residents weeping in the North Korean capital Pyongyang. KCNA reported people were "writhing in pain" from the loss of the man who in 1994 assumed the leadership of the totalitarian state from his father Kim Il-sung, the North's first, and officially eternal, president.
News of the death of the man whose push to build a nuclear arsenal left the North heavily sanctioned and internationally isolated, triggered immediate nervousness in the region, with South Korea stepping up its military alert.

China, the North's neighbor and only powerful ally, said it was confident the North would remain united and that the two countries would maintain their relationship.
"We were distressed to learn of the unfortunate passing of (Kim) ... and we express our grief about this and extend our condolences to the people of North Korea," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
"We are confident the North Korean people will be able to turn their anguish into strength and unify as one," he said.
While his father had 20 years as official heir, Kim Jong-un only became successor in the period after Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke around August 2008.
He takes over a hermit state whose economy has been ravaged by decades of mismanagement under Kim Jong-il, who only briefly flirted with economic reform, preferring to stick with central planning and the brutal crushing of any opposition.
Under Kim Jong-il's rule, an estimated 1 million North Koreans died during famine in the 1990s. Even with good harvests, the state cannot feed its 25 million people.
Little is known of Jong-un, who is believed to be in his late 20s, studied for a short time at a school in Switzerland, and was appointed to senior political and military posts only last year.
KCNA said Kim Jong-il died at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday (2330 GMT on Friday) after "an advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock".
South Korea, still technically at war with the North, placed its troops and all government workers on emergency alert, but said there were no signs of any unusual North Korean troop movements.
President Lee Myung-bak spoke on the phone with U.S. President Barack Obama.
The White House said Washington was committed to stability on the Korean peninsula as well as to its allies. There are some 28,000 U.S. troops on the divided peninsula. Across the heavily armed border, the North maintains an estimated 1 million troops, one of the world's largest standing armies.
Japan, too, said it was watching developments closely.
"We hope this sudden event does not have an adverse effect on the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference after a hastily called ministerial meeting on security.
SHARES FALL
The fear of what might happen next in North Korea unsettled financial markets, with Asian shares and U.S. index futures falling. South Korean stocks tumbled as much as 5 percent, and the U.S. dollar gained. The Korean won fell 1.8 percent.
Kim Jong-un was at the head of a long list of officials making up the funeral committee, indicating he would lead it, and a key sign that he had taken, or been given, charge.
But there will be questions over how much real control the younger Kim has, and whether the military elite accepts him.
Zhu Feng, Professor of International Relations at Peking University, said it was clear the mechanism for transition was in place and working.
"The issue of primary concern now is not whether North Korea will maintain political stability, but what will be the nature of the new political leadership, and what policies will it pursue at home and abroad.
"In the short-term, there won't be new policies, only a stressing of policy stability and continuity. So soon after Kim Jong-il has died, no leader will dare say that an alternative policy course is needed," Zhu said.
But Chung Young-Tae at the Korea Institute of National Unification said there was "a big possibility that a power struggle may happen."

UNCHALLENGED HEAD

Kim Jong-il also promoted his sister and her husband, Jang Song-thaek, to important political and military posts, creating a powerful triumvirate.
Chang is seen as effective regent for the younger Kim. He holds a top position in the powerful Worker's Party providing some balance to the generals who have been seen as more hardline in pushing the North to develop an atomic arsenal.
Earlier this decade, Chang was forced into exile for what is believed to have been conflict over his push for economic reforms.
Experts say Jong-un has the intelligence and leadership skills that make him suitable to succeed his father. He is also reported to have a ruthless streak that analysts say he would need to rule North Korea.
There is likely to be an outpouring of emotion over Kim's death in North Korea, where the country's propaganda machine turned him into a demi-god. His funeral will be held on December 28.
On the streets of the South Korean capital, Seoul, however, reaction to the death of a man whose country had threatened to turn the city into a "sea of fire" ranged from indifference to overjoyed.
"The whole earth should celebrate it as much as Christmas," said Kim Ok-tae, a 58-year old pastor. "I'm not at all afraid. I don't see any likelihood of North Korea lashing out."

REGIONAL THREAT

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006 and again in May 2009, is seen as one of the greatest threats to regional security.
Last year, the secretive North unveiled a uranium enrichment facility, giving it a second route to make an atomic bomb along with its plutonium program.
Victor Cha, a Korea expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, said communication between China, the United States and South Korea was vital.
"Because these are the three key players when it comes to instability in North Korea. And the Chinese have been reluctant to have any conversations on this," he said.
"Now the situation really calls for it. It will be interesting to see how much the Chinese will be willing to have some sort of discussion."
(Additional reporting by Seoul, Washington and Asian bureaus; Writing by Robert Birsel and Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2011/12/harry_morgan_mash_a_p.jpg

Harry Morgan, who was best known for his long-running portrayal of the fatherly Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H*, died at his Los Angeles home Wednesday morning at 96 years old. Morgan won an Emmy in 1980 for his performance as the unflappable medic.

A veteran of more than 50 years in films and TV, Morgan starred or co-starred in 11 TV series. He was an appealing Everyman whose calm manner and wry delivery were widely popular. In M*A*S*H*, his steady ways and sense of humor tempered the more high-keyed natures of his co-star’s characters, Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt. He went on to co-star in its spinoff, AfterMASH (1983-84).

His other most recognized role was on the vintage TV series Dragnet (1967-70), in which he played Jack Webb’s businesslike partner Bill Gannon. He reprised the role of Gannon in the 1987 movie remake.

Of Norwegian descent, he was born Harry Bratsberg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit. He attended the University of Chicago, where he developed an interest in acting. During a summer vacation, Morgan joined a small theater group and became hooked. He made his professional acting debut in summer stock. He graduated to Broadway, appearing in Golden Boy, alongside Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. Eventually, he was spotted by a 20th Century Fox talent scout while appearing in a one-act play.

Morgan excelled at playing low-key characters with a wisecracking side to them. He was a household figure with his portrayal of Pete Porter in the Spring Byington series December Bride (1954-59), and reprised the role in the spinoff Pete and Gladys (1960-62). He had a folksy, next-door-neighbor way about him, which led to guest appearances in numerous TV shows, including Cavalcade of America, The Richard Boone Show, Have Gun — Will Travel, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, Love & Money, Blacke’s Magic and many others.

He also appeared in many movies, including The Big Clock, All My Sons and Inherit the Wind. He also performed in such films as A Bell for Adano, State Fair, What Price Glory, Torch Song, The Glenn Miller Story, The Teahouse of the August Moon, How the West Was Won, Frankie and Johnny, Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Charley and the Angel and The Shootist, John Wayne’s last film. He brought his comedic skills to Disney film hits, such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, with Don Knotts and Tim Conway, and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.
Asked by the Archive of American Television in 2004 how he’d like to be remembered, Morgan said: “For being a fairly pleasant person and for having gotten along for the most part with a lot of the people I’ve worked with. And for having a wonderful life and for having enjoyed practically every minute of it, especially in the picture business and on the stage. I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world.”

He had been married to Barbara Bushman since 1986, and had four children, including producer Chris Morgan, from an earlier marriage.

.....

 

[CaptainKirk]

Ralph MacDonald - "Just the Two of Us"

Ralph MacDonald, songwriter and composer of the hit song "Just the Two of Us", died after a long illness. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.

Ralph MacDonald (March 15, 1944 Harlem, New York - December 18, 2011 Stamford, Connecticut) was an American percussionist and song-writer. He joined Harry Belafonte's band at age 17. He wrote the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway song "Where is the Love" with songwriting partner William Salter. Probably his best-known composition is the Grover Washington, Jr. - Bill Withers hit "Just the Two of Us", which has since been covered by many artists, including Will Smith.

His recording credits number in the hundreds and include George Benson, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Art Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Quincy Jones, Carole King, Miriam Makeba, David Sanborn, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Luther Vandross, Amy Winehouse, and Jimmy Buffett, whose Coral Reefer Band has featured MacDonald as member since the late 1990s.

 

[SuprSalor]

Darth Vader stand-in Bob Anderson dies
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Associated Press
LONDON -- Olympic fencer and movie sword master Bob Anderson appeared in some of film's most famous dueling scenes -- though few viewers knew it.

Anderson, who has died at age 89, donned Darth Vader's black helmet and fought light saber battles in two of the three original "Star Wars" films, "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."

Anderson, who worked with actors from Errol Flynn to Antonio Banderas during five decades as a sword master, fight director and stunt performer, died early New Year's Day at an English hospital, the British Academy of Fencing said Monday.


Vader, "Star Wars" intergalactic arch-villain, was voiced by James Earl Jones and played by 6-foot-6 former weightlifter David Prowse, but Anderson stepped in during the key fight scenes.

"David Prowse wasn't very good with a sword and Bob couldn't get him to do the moves," said Anderson's former assistant, Leon Hill. "Fortunately Bob could just don the costume and do it himself."

The scenes worked beautifully, although Anderson, then nearing 60, was several inches shorter than Prowse.

Few knew of Anderson's role until Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, said in a 1983 interview that "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting."

"It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George (Lucas) I didn't think it was fair any more," Hamill told Starlog magazine, referring to the legendary director and producer. "Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It's ridiculous to preserve the myth that it's all done by one man."

Robert James Gilbert Anderson was born in Hampshire, southern England, in 1922, and was drawn to fencing from an early age.

"I never took up the sword," he said in an interview for the 2009 documentary "Reclaiming the Blade." "I think the sword took me up."

Anderson joined the Royal Marines before World War II, teaching fencing aboard warships and winning several combined services titles in the sport.

He served in the Mediterranean during the war, later trained as a fencing coach and represented Britain at the 1952 Olympics and the 1950 and 1953 world championships.

In the 1950s, Anderson became coach of Britain's national fencing team, a post he held until the late 1970s. He later served as technical director of the Canadian Fencing Association.

His first film work was staging fights and coaching Flynn on swashbuckler "The Master of Ballantrae" in 1952.

He went on to become one of the industry's most sought after stunt performers, fight choreographers and sword masters, working on movies including the James Bond adventures "From Russia With Love" and "Die Another Day"; fantasy "The Princess Bride"; Banderas action romps "The Mask of Zorro" and "The Legend of Zorro"; and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Fencing academy president Philip Bruce said Anderson was "truly one of our greatest fencing masters and a world-class film fight director and choreographer."

Hill remembered him as "a splendid man, a great man who gave so much to fencing that can never be repaid."

Anderson is survived by his wife Pearl and three children. Funeral details were not immediately available.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Cheetah the chimp from 1930s Tarzan flicks dies

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/12/28/1226232/183056-cheetah-the-chimp.jpg

PALM HARBOR, Florida (AP) — A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s has died at age 80.

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure.

Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb on Wednesday told The Tampa Tribune newspaper that Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh. She says he seemed to be tuned into human feelings.

Based on the works of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Tarzan stories, which have spawned scores of books and films over the years, chronicle the adventures of a man who was raised by apes in Africa.

Cheetah was the comic relief in the Tarzan films that starred American Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. Cobb says Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller's estate sometime around 1960.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Pssst.....it tweren't really Cheetah.......

 

[JennyOHill2]

A Farewell to Cheetah, the Original or Otherwise

Pssst.....it tweren't really Cheetah.......

Thanks for making me aware of this.

Didn't realize the confusion, but found the following article very interesting:

(From NNY Times)
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — In the end, maybe it didn’t matter whether Cheetah really was the same grinning, goofy sidekick who swung through the cinematic jungle with the Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the “Tarzan” movies of 1930s.

To the 60 or so people who gathered on Saturday in front of the chimpanzee’s cage here at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary to memorialize him, Cheetah was a friend and a symbol that the power of love can do miraculous things.

For example, it kept him alive, his caregivers claim, for nearly 80 years — a feat primate experts say is improbable at best.

“You don’t worry about what people say,” said Debbie Cobb, who runs the sanctuary and whose late grandmother claimed that relatives of the Weissmuller estate gave her the chimp they called Little Mike in 1960.

“You just walk your walk,” she said. “I had 51 years with him. I know who he was.”

Cheetah died from kidney failure just before 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Ms. Cobb was with him. She loaded his 140-lb. body on a cart and took him around to the other primates at the sanctuary so they could say goodbye. Then he was cremated.

News of his death captured the fancy of a nation during the slow news cycle of the holidays. Tarzan fans grieved. So did primate fans.

His death also gained the attention of people who think they know an old carnival ruse when they see it.

Certainly, the odds that this was the real Cheetah — or at least one of the dozen or more chimps that appeared in the movies — weren’t good.

The claim was immediately debunked by the writer R. D. Rosen, who in a 2008 article in The Washington Post dashed similar assertions by a California man who also said he owned Cheeta (one spelling variation on the name).

“I’m afraid any chimp who actually shared a sound stage with Weissmuller and O’Sullivan is long gone,” Mr. Rosen said in an e-mail to The Associated Press, referring to Weissmuller’s co-star Maureen O’Sullivan.

The history of Ms. Cobb’s family, who had possession of the Florida Cheetah since the 1960s, might make a thoughtful student of primate lineage a bit suspicious, as well.

Bob and Mae Noell , her grandparents, had come from a family that was in the traveling medicine show business. They had their own show once, too; a highlight was the chance to climb in the ring with a boxing chimpanzee.

In 1954, they opened the 14-acre sanctuary just south of Tarpon Springs as a winter refuge for their own performing animals and as a roadside attraction called Noell’s Ark Chimp Farm. It became a retirement home of sorts for aging animal performers and other creatures no one else seemed to want.

In the 1990s, the chimp farm fell into disarray. Cages were rusty and cramped. It attracted the attention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The U.S.D.A. took its license in 1999.

But then, driven by a belief in God and a love of animals, the granddaughter who grew up thinking Cheetah was the real Cheetah pulled it back into shape. Proper licenses were restored, and renovations were made. A dedicated cadre of volunteers, and donations that now total about $100,000 a year, keep it a tidy refuge for animals and their devotees.

A fire in 1995 destroyed records that might have shown that Cheetah was indeed famous, Ms. Cobb said. A hand-lettered pamphlet from the 1960s making the claim is all that remains.

Diane Weissmuller, a representative of the Weissmuller estate, said that her father-in-law would not have had a chimp to give away. He did not own one as a pet and did not much like working with them anyway.

So how could this be the real Cheetah?

“It stretches one’s credulity beyond the snap-back point,” said the writer Susan Orlean. She is now one of the nation’s experts on celebrity animals, having just published “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend,” a book that examines the multianimal legacy of the canine star of movies, radio and television.

Tracing the lineage of animal actors is tricky business, she said.

“Animal stars have the unique ability that human stars don’t have of a certain fungibility,” she said. “You could swap out a chimp and create a kind of continuity that would be impossible with humans.”

Anyone who remembers the shock when the actor who played Darrin Stephens changed abruptly on the television show “Bewitched” in 1969 can relate.

Still, Ms. Orlean has sympathy for those who want to believe the chimp that died in Florida was the real deal.

“Animal stars have a kind of purity,” she said. “People have a fondness for them that’s not complicated by human frailty.”

Since all of the human stars of that era are dead, the sentimental attachment to Cheetah is that much stronger.

“We’d like to believe it’s the same Cheetah because it’s a connection to a period that has since passed,” she said.

That was certainly true for Theresa Toth, 65, who splits her time between Florida and New Jersey.

She and her sister-in-law came Saturday to pay their respects to a chimp that loved to paint and dance to Chuck Berry songs and that was so tidy he folded his own lavender-scented blanket.

“He’s a part of our youth, of our generation, and we all loved him,” she said. “To us, he’s Cheetah and always will be. Let somebody prove he’s not.”

 

[JennyOHill2]

Singing legend Etta James dies at 73

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/511793/Etta+James.jpg

(CNN) -- Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.

She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said.

She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.

"This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends and fans around the world," De Leon said. "She was a true original who could sing it all -- her music defied category.
"I worked with Etta for over 30 years. She was my friend and I will miss her always."

The powerhouse singer, known as "Miss Peaches," lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking "The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)" -- an "answer record" to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie" -- to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess Records in 1960 and had a string of R&B and pop hits, many with lush string arrangements. After a mid-decade fade, she re-emerged in 1967 with a more hard-edged, soulful sound.

Throughout her career, James overcame a heroin addiction, opened for the Rolling Stones, won six Grammys and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her ups and downs -- including a number of health problems -- she maintained an optimistic attitude.

"Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about," she told CNN's Denise Quan in 2002. "I don't!"
Through it all, she was a spitfire beloved by contemporaries and young up-and-comers.
"Etta James is unmanageable, and I'm the closest thing she's ever had to a manager," Lupe DeLeon, her manager of 30-plus years, told CNN in admiration.

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a teen mother and unknown father. (She suspected her father was the pool player Minnesota Fats.)
Her birth mother initially took little responsibility and James was raised by a series of people, notably a pair of boardinghouse owners. But she was recognized from a young age for her booming voice, showcased in a South Central Los Angeles church.

In 1950, her mother took her to San Francisco, where James formed a group called the Peaches. Singer Johnny Otis, best known for "Willie and the Hand Jive," discovered her and had her sing a song he wrote using Ballard's tune as a model. "The Wallflower," with responses from "Louie Louie" songwriter Richard Berry, made James an R&B star.

Her signing to Chess introduced her to a broader audience, as the record label's co-owner, Leonard Chess, believed she should do pop hits. Among her recordings were "Stormy Weather," the Lena Horne classic originally from 1933; "A Sunday Kind of Love," which dates from 1946; and most notably, "At Last," a 1941 number that was originally a hit for Glenn Miller.

James' version of "At Last" starts out with swooning strings and the singer enters with confident gusto, dazzlingly maintaining a mood of joy and romance. Though the song failed to make the Top 40 upon its 1961 release -- though it did hit the R&B Top 10 -- its emotional punch has long made it a favorite at weddings.

James' career suffered in the mid-'60s when the British Invasion took over the pop charts and as she fought some personal demons. But she got a boost when she started recording at Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Her hits included the brassy "Tell Mama" and the raw "I'd Rather Go Blind," the latter later notably covered by Rod Stewart.

She entered rehab in the 1970s for her drug problem but re-established herself with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After another stint in rehab -- this time at the Betty Ford Clinic -- she made a comeback album, "Seven Year Itch," in 1988.

By the end of her life she had made so much meaningful music that she was considered a living legend. "By the mid-'90s, she's survived so long that people start to look up to her," Coyle said.

James was portrayed by pop star Beyonce in the 2008 film "Cadillac Records," about Chess. After Beyonce sang "At Last" at one of President Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural balls, James lashed out: "I can't stand Beyonce. She had no business up there singing my song that I've been singing forever." She later told the New York Daily News she was joking.

Earlier this year, news reports revealed that the singer's estate was being contested in a legal struggle between her husband, Artis Mills, and son Donto James. (Donto and her other son, Sametto, both played in her band.)

Over the years, James had her share of health problems. In the late 1990s she reportedly weighed more than 400 pounds and required a scooter to get around. In 2003 she had gastric bypass surgery and dropped more than half the weight, according to People magazine.

However, until her latest issues, James maintained a steady touring schedule and appeared full of energy even when sitting down -- as she sometimes did on stage, due to bad knees and her weight battles.

Even while sitting down, James gave it her all on stage, singing as though possessed, caressing every note like a long-lost love. If that seemed a little much to critics, well, the legendary singer had a show to put on, she told Quan.

"They said that Etta James is still vulgar," she said in the 2002 interview. "I said, 'Oh, how dare 'em say I'm still real vulgar! I'm vulgar because I dance in the chair?' What would they want me to do? Want me to just be still or something like that?

"I gotta do something."

 

[JennyOHill2]

Johnny Otis of 'Willie and the Hand Jive' dies

http://rockhall.com/media/assets/inductees/default/johnny-otis.jpg

LOS ANGELES —
Johnny Otis, the "godfather of rhythm and blues" who wrote and recorded the R&B classic "Willie and the Hand Jive" and for decades evangelized black music to white audiences as a bandleader and radio host, has died. He was 90.

Otis, who had been in poor health for several years, died at his home in the Los Angeles foothill suburb of Altadena on Tuesday, said his manager, Terry Gould.

Otis, who was white, was born John Veliotes to Greek immigrants and grew up in a black section of Berkeley, where he said he identified far more with black culture than his own. As a teenager, he changed his name because he thought Johnny Otis sounded more black.

"As a kid, I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black," he once explained.

His musical tastes clearly reflected that adopted culture and even after he became famous, his dark skin and hair often led audiences and club promoters to assume he was black like his band mates.

Otis was leading his own band in 1945 when he scored his first big hit, "Harlem Nocturne." In 1950, 10 of his songs made Billboard Magazine's R&B chart. His "Willie and the Hand Jive" sold more than 1.5 million copies and was covered years later by Eric Clapton.

He later wrote "Every Beat of My Heart," which was a hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips.

But the influence of Otis was felt most through his ability to recognize and promote talent. He wove into his bands such diverse and legendary R&B vocalists as Etta James, Hank Ballard, Big Mama Thornton and The Robins, the latter a group that would evolve into the Coasters.

He produced Thornton's original recording of "Hound Dog," a song that would later become an even bigger hit for Elvis Presley.

"His band shows a different style on pretty much every new recording," said Piero Scaruffi, author of "A History of Rock Music, 1951-2000." ''The reason is that Otis did not force his personality on others but worked with the personality of the others. He may not have been a great composer or performer himself, but he was an impressive conductor."

Otis launched his professional music career as an 18-year-old drummer for bawdy barrelhouse pianist Count Otis Matthews, although he had never played the drums until then.

Matthews instructed him to simply pound out the syncopated "shave and a haircut, six bits" beat that would become the backbone of early rock 'n' roll. His mastery of it soon proved his ticket to other bands and eventually to headlining his own group.

Otis saw himself as curator of black popular music, which for him represented much more than a diversion or livelihood. His cross-country R&B reviews and his radio and television appearances were dedicated to delivering black music to white audiences.

"The music isn't just the notes, it's the culture — the way grandma cooked, the way grandpa told stories, the way the kids walked and talked," he once said.

While he always returned to playing music, in later years touring with his sons Shuggie and Nicky, Otis' eclectic interests also included politics, art and organic food.

He worked for years as deputy chief of staff to state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally when Dymally served in the Assembly, state Senate, as lieutenant governor and as a congressman.

In later years, Otis spent much of his time painting and sculpting. He also opened an organic grocery store in Sebastopol in the early 1990s to sell his son Nicky's vegetables, decorating the store with his own colorful murals.

Although he had little success selling groceries, he did draw large crowds to the market every Friday and Saturday night when he performed there with his band.

"It was a smashing success," Gould said. "You had to make reservations three weeks ahead. It was amazing."

Otis also had a regular show playing records on the nonprofit Pacifica Radio Network's stations until failing health prompted him to retire in 2005.

In addition to his sons, Otis is survived by his wife, Phyllis, whom he married in 1941; daughters Janet and Laura; and several grandchildren.

 

[phrodeau]

http://welovesoaps.com/wls25/andrea.jpg

Andrea Schenck, a cast member of "All My Children" in the early 1980s who left television acting and married a prominent Minneapolis doctor, drowned while vacationing in Mexico.

Schenck was relaxing in the water off the coast of Cancun on Jan. 13 and died while she and husband Dr. Carlos Schenck were on their annual vacation there and having just celebrated his birthday a day earlier. She was 55.

Schenck, who went by Andrea Moar professionally, was floating on her back not far from shore near the couple's vacation resort, "gazing at the sun, doing what she liked best" when she went under, her husband said Friday. "She loved the ocean."

Schenck's greatest prominence as an actress came during her three years in the early 1980s with ABC-TV's long-running "All My Children," portraying Carrie Sanders Tyler.

"She described her character starting out as an imp or a troublemaker [who] changed as she played it," said Jonathan Slaff, a longtime friend and long-ago "acting class buddy" with Schenck in New York City.

Slaff remembers her "great big blue eyes were wide open right into her heart." Combined with her shoulder-length blond hair, she was "often compare with Cybill Shepherd," he said.

Carlos Shenck said his wife "very much embraced" having her soap opera role as her professional legacy, "but she was multidimensional."

Her other acting credits included "The Women" at Park Square Theater in St. Paul in the late 1990s, nearly 60 other plays, a guest appearance in a "Remington Steele" television episode, and commercials for American Express and Kraft barbecue sauce.

Schenck left Los Angeles in the early 1990s following a major earthquake and as the AIDS epidemic was claiming the lives of several of her friends. She moved to the Twin Cities, where her mother and sister Sheila Moar were living.

"She missed the stage and acting desperately," Sheila Moar said. "She missed her friends ... who were in the acting profession, and many of her friends have been calling me these past several days. It is a huge outpouring of grief."

Carlos Schenck said he met his future wife at Sweeney's Saloon in St. Paul in 1998 through a mutual friend.

"We had so much in common," he said, recalling that they compared notes about when they both lived on New York's Upper West Side during her "All My Children" days and may have crossed paths without knowing it.

"We talked [that evening] for about three hours," sitting near an open fireplace on a chilly April evening. "We just talked and talked. We were just like best friends immediately."

The two married in 2005 and lived in a home near Lake Harriet, with his work as a sleep disorder expert taking them to conferences and other medical gatherings around the world.

In an interview during her soap opera days for the Davidson (N.C.) College yearbook, the 1978 graduate said that television fame meant "you can go anywhere in the world and be recognized. After a while, you crave anonymity. It makes you very self-conscious."

Carlos Schenck, a psychiatrist at Hennepin County Medical Center and the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, and a University of Minnesota professor, said his colleagues "were always looking forward to not just meeting me, but her" at the various conferences in Japan, Morocco and elsewhere. "Andrea really lights it up."

Andrea Schenck was born in Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Princeton, N.J., where she was a standout high school tennis player. She graduated from Davidson with a degree in English literature and played varsity tennis there.

Along with her husband and her sister, she is survived by her mother, Dimitria Murphy, of Edina, and brother Douglas P. Murphy of Ivy, Va.

A memorial service was held Saturday at the Weisman Art Museum. Memorials are preferred for an actors training program at the Guthrie Theater.

"My sister remained to her absolute core passionate to acting," Moar said. "She wanted to do what she could to help young actors have an easier time of it."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/stageandarts/137765588.html

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Joe Paterno aka 'JoePa' dead.

Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno dies at 85. January 22, 2012.

Truly great leaders are measured by the lives they reached, the people they motivated and the legacy of their lesson that can extend for years to come, like ripples from a skipped stone across an endless lake.

For Joe Paterno, the impact is incalculable, the people he connected with extending far beyond the players he coached for 62 years at Penn State, the last 46 as head football coach. Paterno always tried to be the giant who walked among the everyman both in the school’s greatest moments and, it turns out, in its worst.

Paterno died Sunday at a State College, Pa., hospital, suffering in his final days from lung cancer, broken bones and the fallout of a horrific scandal that not only cost him his job, but also his trademark vigor and a portion of his good name. He was 85 years old.

This is a complicated passing. What was once the most consistent and basic of messages – honor, ethics and education – seemingly lived out as close to its ideal as possible was rocked Nov. 5, 2011, when a grand jury indicted Paterno’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, of multiple counts of sexual abuse of children.

Many, including Penn State’s Board of Trustees, believed Paterno could have and should have done more to stop Sandusky, especially after allegations of misconduct arose in 2002. Within days Paterno was fired from the program and school to which he’d become synonymous.

Now, a little more than two months later, he’s gone for good, a bitter, brutal ending for an American original.

He was the winningest college football coach of all time, compiling a 409-136-3 record. He won national titles in 1982 and 1986 and recorded four other undefeated seasons, including consecutively in 1968 and 1969.

He was a bridge from a simpler time to the cutthroat business college football has become, somehow serving as both a progressive force (he believed in players’ rights, a playoff system and welcomed advancements in television) and a stubborn traditionalist (the Penn State uniforms remained basic, he never learned how to send a text message and he still used old-school discipline).

In 2007, when a group of his players got into a fight at a party, Paterno determined it would best if the entire team had to clean Beaver Stadium after home games. “I think that we need to prove to people that we’re not a bunch of hoodlums,” he said at the time.

That was Paterno at his best, this singular figure offering simple lessons. He was the rock. He was the constant. He was the conscience. He was JoePa, his nickname suggesting a fatherly quality to not just his players, not just Penn State students who could still find his number listed in the local phone book and not just Nittany Lions football fans.

He was a larger-than-life figure in the small, bucolic town of State College, and if you wanted to draw something good and decent from college football, well, here’s where you always could. Don’t worry, he’d still be there, as unchanged as ever.

He gave millions of dollars back to the school – the library is named after him and his wife, Sue. He raised millions more at speaking engagements across the country. He encouraged vibrant alumni to take incredible pride in their university, unusual for many state schools in the east. Yet he was still this guy out of Brooklyn, with a thick accent and even thicker glasses. He was humble. He was approachable.

It seemed, for anyone who wanted to believe, that he provided perspective amid the circus.

“We’re trying to win football games, don’t misunderstand that,” Paterno told Sports Illustrated’s Dan Jenkins in 1968, when he was just 41. “But I don’t want it to ruin our lives if we lose. I don’t want us ever to become the kind of place where an 8-2 season is a tragedy. Look at that day outside. It’s clear, it’s beautiful, the leaves are turning, the land is pretty and it’s quiet. If losing a game made me miserable, I couldn’t enjoy such a day.

“I tell the kids who come here to play, enjoy yourselves. There’s so much besides football. Art, history, literature, politics.”

That this attitude would come from the guy who would win the most games ever was part of the charm, as if Paterno was running a ruse on everyone chasing him all those crisp autumns. He was playing chess, they were getting check-mated.

No, the full truth never squares with these kinds of narratives. No, he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t without fault or selfishness or vanity or difficult moods. He was close enough though. Sometimes, having someone to believe in is enough.

“You know what happens when you’re No. 1?” Paterno said more than 40 years ago to Jenkins. “Nobody is happy until you’re No. 1 again and that might never happen again.”

It would happen again and again and again, actually.

In his final days, that wide-eyed optimist and aw-shucks success story was gone. The Sandusky scandal had sapped what no opponent ever could. He sat earlier this month at his kitchen table with, not coincidentally, Sally Jenkins, the Washington Post columnist and Dan Jenkins’ daughter, for his last public words.

He’d lost his hair from chemotherapy. His breath was heavy. He sipped on a soda. “His voice sounded like wind blowing across a field of winter stalks, rattling the husks,” Sally Jenkins wrote.

He tried to explain how he hadn’t done more to stop Sandusky, how he hadn’t followed up thoroughly, how he hadn’t pressed university administrators for answers.

“I didn’t exactly know how to handle it … I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

Some saw no need for him to explain himself again: He’d said much the same thing in a 2011 grand jury appearance. For others, there is no suitable explanation, boys were abused, the mistake too grave for excuses.

This will be forever the battle over Joe Paterno’s legacy. A life of soaring impact, of bedrock values, of generations and generations as a symbol of how to live life to its fullest.

The Sandusky case cracked that for some. Ended it. Not for all, though.

Paterno reached too many, taught too many, inspired too many. And for years and seasons, for decades and generations to come, those that drew from his wisdom will pass it on and on. That will be his most lasting legacy.

No, his worst day can’t be forgotten. Neither can all the beautiful ones that surrounded it.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Robert Hegyes (Juan Epstein from "Welcome Back, Kotter", Dies at age 60

'Welcome Back Kotter' Star Robert Hegyes Dies at 60

By Tim Kenneally | The Wrap


Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on '70s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter, died Thursday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Hegyes, who died of an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, New Jersey home, was 60.
Hegyes had not been in good health for the past two years, his brother Mark Hegyes told the paper. The actor had suffered a previous heart attack in recent years.
Police responded to an emergency call from Hegyes' home at approximately 9 a.m. He was transported to JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, but at that point he had gone into full cardiac arrest.
Though Hegyes also starred on the detective series "Cagney & Lacey" (as Det. Manny Esposito) and, in later years, guest-starred on shows such as "NewsRadio" and "Diagnosis Murder," Hegyes was best-known for his role as Juan Epstein -- full name: Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein -- on the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" from 1975 to 1979. Perpetually scheming and always ready with a self-written note signed "Epstein's Mother" to explain his school absences, Epstein stood out among a group of characters that included the super-cocky womanizer Vinnie Barabarino (played by a young John Travolta) and hip but beleaguered high-school teacher Gabe Kotter (played by Gabe Kaplan).
Hegyes' last listed acting role on IMDB is in the film "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool" in 2002.
He leaves behind a two children, Cassie and Mack, and two step-children, Sophia and Alex.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/welcome-back-kotter-star-robert-hegyes-dies-60-34824

 

[cookiejar]

Actor James Farentino dies at 73

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor James Farentino, who played more than 100 roles in TV, film and on stage, has died at age of 73, a family spokesman said on Wednesday.

Farentino died in a Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday after what the spokesman called a lengthy illness.

Farentino was a regular face in TV series such as "ER", where he played the father of George Clooney's character, in 1996, "Dynasty" and "Melrose Place".

He received an Emmy nomination for his role as disciple Simon Peter in the miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" and was critically-acclaimed for his performance as Stanley Kowalski in a 1973 Broadway revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Married four times, Farentino became as well known for his life off camera. In 1994, he pleaded no contest to a stalking ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra, the daughter of singer Frank Sinatra, derailing his acting career.

His most recent acting credit was in the 2006 TV comedy movie "Drive/II".

Farentino's movie roles included comedy "The Pad and How to Use it" for which he received a Golden Globe Award as most promising newcomer in 1967. He also appeared in the 1996 Adam Sandler action caper "Bulletproof" and 1980 sci-fi film "The Final Countdown".

Farentino is survived by his fourth wife Stella and two sons.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Dick Tufeld, voice of 'Lost in Space' robot, dies

Dick Tufeld, who possessed one of Hollywood's most often-heard disembodied voices, especially from the 1950s through the '70s, announcing or narrating television shows like "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and commercials for products such Mr. Bubble bubble bath and Gallo wine, but who was best known for his electronic intonations as the robot in the loopy science-fiction series "Lost in Space," died Jan. 22 at his home in the Studio City section of Los Angeles. He was 85.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his daughter Lynn said.

Mr. Tufeld's broadcasting career began in the 1940s in radio and reached into the contemporary age of television on "The Simpsons."

His voice, with its midrange, goes-down-easy, slightly excited, static-free hum, first became recognizable narrating "Space Patrol," a live radio show for children (it was also a television program) that began in 1950 and ran until the mid-1950s, with Mr. Tufeld introducing the shows' weekly missions made "in the name of interplanetary justice." In the 1950s and '60s, he could be heard on episodes of "Annie Oakley," "Zorro," "Peyton Place," "Surfside 6" and "Bewitched." He worked on variety shows starring Red Skelton and Judy Garland and cartoon shows featuring Bugs Bunny and Garfield. He narrated "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" and the trailer for the Disney film "Mary Poppins." He did ads for Zenith televisions: "a giant 25-inch picture" with "redder reds, brighter greens and more brilliant blues!"

Later, he worked on game shows, including "The Joker's Wild" ("a jackpot of fun and surprises!"), the comedy series "It's Garry Shandling's Show" and the 1978 animated version of "Fantastic Four."

But most television aficionados of a certain age will remember Mr. Tufeld for his roles in the adventure series of the 1960s produced by his friend Irwin Allen: "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," about the crew of a submarine, which starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison; "The Time Tunnel," about scientists who find themselves present at historic events; and "Lost in Space," a futuristic - it was set in 1997 - re-imagination of "Swiss Family Robinson."

Richard Norton Tufeld was born in Los Angeles, on Dec. 11, 1926, and grew up in Pasadena. His parents were immigrants - his father from Russia and his mother from Canada. He graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he studied speech. His wife of 55 years, Adrienne Blumberg, died in 2004.

Mr. Tufeld is survived by two daughters, Lynn Tufeld and Melissa Tufeld-Gerber; two sons, Bruce and Craig; a brother, Howard, known as Bud; and six grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Nick Santino, soap opera actor

(CBS) Soap opera actor Nick Santino killed himself after putting his pet dog to sleep, according to the New York Post.

The paper reports that the actor put down his beloved 5-year-old pit bull, Rocco, on his 47th birthday - and was found dead the next day of an apparent pill overdose.

Santino, who appeared in roles on "Guiding Light" and "All My Children," reportedly left behind a suicide note in which he said he "betrayed [his] best friend."

"Rocco trusted me and I failed him," he wrote, according to the Post. "He didn't deserve this."

The actor reportedly put Rocco to sleep following pressure from his apartment building's condo board, which had begun enforcing strict rules about owning dogs - breeds like pit bulls were reportedly banned, and dogs could not ride in the main elevator or be left alone in apartments for more than nine hours.

Although the ban didn't apply to pit bulls already in the building, the Post reports that Santino, who adopted Rocco from a shelter several years ago, received complaints and had been "harassed" by the building's management.

Santino reportedly called a former girlfriend at 2 a.m. on Wednesday and was found dead in his apartment, on New York's Upper West Side, later that day.

On Monday, the actor's sister told the Post that Santino would be buried with the ashes of his beloved pet.