Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOHill2]

Don Cornelius, “Soul Train,” creator dead at age 75

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“Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius was found dead in his Los Angeles home early Wednesday morning. He was pronounced dead after the Los Angeles Fire Department transferred him to a nearby hospital. Cornelius was 75.

Update, via the Associated Press: He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

Cornelius launched “Soul Train” in Chicago in 1970 and it quickly became a seminal part of black culture, featuring the hottest music, fashion and dancing. Cornelius hosted the show until 1993 and in addition to his mellifluous voice and of-the-moment style, he became known for his signature sign-off: "I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soooooouuuuullllllll."

“Soul Train” eventually became syndicated in more than 100 markets. In a 1995 interview with The Washington Post, Cornelius called the show “the godmother and godfather of all black entertainment television.” It “transmitted African American culture to an unbelievably broad audienc,” Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, said recently. “It became this interesting snapshot of several generations of African American culture and style.” Many artifacts from “Soul Train” were donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture this past summer.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Angelo Dundee dead at 90

Angelo Dundee, the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died last week in Tampa, Fla. He was 90.

The genial Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, but those in boxing also knew him as an ambassador for boxing and a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.

He died with his family surrounding him, said son, Jimmy Dundee, but not before being able to attend Ali’s 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month.

“It was the way he wanted to go,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport’s great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

But he will always be linked to Ali as one of the most successful fighter-trainer relationships in boxing history, helping Ali become the first to win the heavyweight title three times. The pair would travel around the world for fights to such obscure places as Ali’s October 1974 bout in Zaire against Foreman dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” and Ali’s third fight against Frazier in the Philippines.

“I just put the reflexes in the proper direction,” Dundee said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press.

Their partnership began in Louisville, Ali’s hometown, in 1959. Dundee was there with light heavyweight Willie Pastrano when the young Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, called their room from a hotel phone to ask if he could have five minutes. Clay, a local Golden Gloves champion, kept asking the men boxing questions in a conversation that lasted 3 1/2 hours, according to Dundee’s autobiography, “My View From the Corner: A Life in Boxing.”

After Ali returned from Rome with a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, Dundee ran into him in Louisville and invited him to come to Miami Beach to train. Ali declined. But that December, Dundee got a call from one of Ali’s handlers, seeking to hire Dundee. After Ali won his first pro fight, Dundee accepted.

He helped Ali claim the heavyweight title for the first time on Feb. 25, 1964, when Sonny Liston quit on his stool after the sixth round during their fight in Miami Beach.

In an age of boxing when fighter-manager relationships rarely last, Dundee and Ali would never split.

When Cassius Clay angered white America by joining the Black Muslims and become Muhammad Ali, Dundee never wavered. When Ali defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war, losing 3 1/2 years from the prime of his career, Dundee was there waiting for the heavyweight’s return. And when Ali would make bold projections, spewing poetry that made headlines across the world and gave him the nickname “The Louisville Lip,” Dundee never asked him to keep quiet.

“Through all those days of controversy, and the many that followed, Angelo never got involved,” Ali wrote in the foreword to Dundee’s book. “He let me be exactly who I wanted to be, and he was loyal. That is the reason I love Angelo.”

Born Angelo Mirena on Aug. 30, 1921, in south Philadelphia, Dundee’s boxing career was propelled largely by his older brother, Chris, a promoter. After returning from World War II—“We won, but not because of anything I did”—he joined Chris in the boxing game in New York, serving as his “go-fer” and getting the tag “Chris’ kid brother.” Angelo and Chris followed another brother Joe, who was a fighter, in changing their surname to Dundee so their parents wouldn’t know they worked in boxing.

He learned to tape hands and handle cuts as a corner man in the late 1940s, building his knowledge by watching and learning as a “bucket boy” in New York for trainers like Chickie Ferrara, Charlie Goldman and Ray Arcel among others. Word of Dundee’s expertise spread, and seasoned fighters lined up to have him in their corner.

He worked major boxing scenes with Chris, with stops at the famed Stillman’s Gym in New York and Miami Beach’s 5th Street Gym. Dundee’s fun-loving attitude combined with his powerful Philly accent made him a joy to be around. His lifelong love and respect for the sport earned him praise from those across the boxing world.

“He is the only man in boxing to whom I would entrust my own son,” the late sportscaster Howard Cosell once said of Dundee.

In the late 1970s, with Ali nearing retirement, Dundee quickly jumped into the corner for an emerging star named Sugar Ray Leonard, who Dundee called “a smaller Ali.” Dundee trained Leonard for many of his biggest fights—including bouts against Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns—and helped him become one of the most recognized welterweight champions in history.

Dundee later teamed up with Foreman in 1994 to help him become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 when he beat Michael Moorer. In one last attempt to help a big fighter win a big fight, Dundee helped train Oscar De La Hoya for his Dec. 6, 2008, fight with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. Dundee did not work the corner on fight night, and perhaps the 35-year-old “Golden Boy” could have used Dundee. De La Hoya declined to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Always a slick strategist and fierce competitor, Dundee developed countless tricks to help his fighters win.

If he thought a referee might stop a fight because of a gash on his fighter, Dundee would stand between boxer and referee, preventing the official getting a peek into the corner, and allowing him to conceal the wound before the bell. If a fighter was tired, Dundee would do anything he could to buy time, once untying a boxer’s shoes after every round only to slowly retie the laces each time.

Dundee also went well beyond the usual tricks of smelling salts to revive fighters.

If his man was dazed, Dundee would often drop ice down the fighter’s shorts to take their attention off injuries. During Ali’s 1963 fight against Henry Cooper, Dundee pulled off a stunt that took him decades to publicly acknowledge.

After Cooper dropped Ali and left him dizzy at the end of the fourth round, Dundee alerted the referee to a small rip on Ali’s gloves—a split Dundee would later admit he noticed before the fight—and the search for replacement gloves that never came gave Ali a few extra seconds to recover. Ali pounded Cooper’s cuts in the fifth and the fight was stopped, keeping Ali’s title shot alive. Many boxing commissions would soon require extra gloves to be kept at every fight.

Dundee never held back the one-liners in the corner, either, saying anything he could to get his fighters charged.

Dundee also loved to tell the story of the night he was in the corner for a little-known heavyweight named Johnny Holman. Remembering that Holman’s dream was to buy a house, Dundee tried to motivate Holman when he said, “This guy’s taking away your house from you. He’s taking away those shutters from you. He’s taking away that television set from you.” Holman would come back to win—and get that house.

After living in the Miami area for decades, Angelo Dundee moved to the Tampa suburb of Oldsmar in 2007 to be closer to his two children after his wife of more than 50 years, Helen, died.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Zalman King dies at age 70. February 5, 2012

5 February 2012 Last updated at 08:05 ET

Film-maker Zalman King dies at 70
Zalman King Zalman King was a mentor for Stanley Kubrick's movie Eyes Wide Shut

Film-maker Zalman King, best known for writing and producing the hit movie Nine and a Half Weeks, has died at the age of 70.

King's son-in-law Allison Burnett said he died on Friday at home in Santa Monica, California.

He had been after battling cancer for six years, Burnett said.

"Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine," he told Reuters.

Zalman's 1986 movie Nine and a Half Weeks became a big hit in many countries as well as the US and the UK. It stars Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in a torrid story of sexual obsession and manipulation.

Zalman then went on to make other erotic films such as Two Moon Junction in 1988 and Wild Orchid in 1989, also starring Mickey Rourke.

He was also known for the US TV movie and series Red Shoes Diaries.

Actor Charlie Sheen paid tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying "the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today".

King started his career on screen in the 1960s, starring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, before going on to play an attorney in television drama The Young Lawyers in the 70s.

He moved to working behind the cameras in the 1980s, using erotica as a central theme in his films.

Burnett said director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming Eyes Wide Shut, starring then husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, because "he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism".

Burnett also said King "had a singular vision, a unique vision, and very few film-makers in the advent of cinema have made a visual statement that undeniably belongs to them, a visual signature".

King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Whitney Houston dead at 48.

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Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dies.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice was ravaged by drug use and her regal image was ruined by erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. A Los Angeles County coroner's official said the body remained in the building late Saturday.

"There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent," Rosen said.

Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said the cause of death was unknown.
Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston at 3:43 p.m. Saturday. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party were not able to resuscitate her, he said.

Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night — the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and where she will be remembered Sunday in a tribute by Jennifer Hudson, organizers said.

Her longtime mentor Clive Davis went ahead with his annual concert at the same hotel where her body was found. He dedicated the evening to her and asked for a moment of silence as a photo of the singer, hands wide open, looking to the sky, appeared on the screen.

Houston was supposed to appear at the gala, and Davis had told The Associated Press that she would perhaps perform: "It's her favorite night of the year ... (so) who knows by the end of the evening," he said.

Houston had been at rehearsals for the show Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to a person who was at the event but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath.

Two days ago, she performed at a pre-Grammy party with singer Kelly Price. Singer Kenny Lattimore hosted the event, and said Houston sang the gospel classic "Jesus Loves Me" with Price, her voice registering softly, not with the same power it had at its height.

Lattimore said Houston was gregarious and was in a good mood, surrounded by friends and family, including daughter Bobbi Kristina.

"She just seemed like she was having a great night that night," said Lattimore, who said he was in shock over her death.

Aretha Franklin, her godmother, also said she was stunned.

"I just can't talk about it now," Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he would call for a national prayer Sunday morning during a service at Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

"The morning of the Grammys, the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird," Sharpton said in a statement.

In a statement, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow said Houston "was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades."
At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful and peerless vocals rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.
She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.
She seemed to be born into greatness. In addition to being Franklin's goddaughter, she was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," ''You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."
The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image and already had children of his own. (The couple only had one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, born in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

Brown was getting ready to perform at a New Edition reunion tour in Southaven, Miss., as news spread about Houston's death. The group went ahead with its performance, though Brown appeared overcome with emotion when his voice cracked at the beginning of a ballad and he left the stage.
Before his departure, he told the sell-out crowd: "First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage."

Brown said he decided to perform because fans had shown their loyalty to the group for more than 25 years. During an intermission, one of Houston's early hits, "You Give Good Love," played over the speakers. Fans stood up and began singing along.

It would take several years for the public to see the "down and dirty" side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.
She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2009, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.
Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2009. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.
Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.

Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.

A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

Houston was to make her return to film in the remake of the classic movie "Sparkle." Filming on the movie, which stars former "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, recently wrapped.

 

[JennyOHill2]

TV, film actor Philip Bruns

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NEW YORK — The actor who played the father on the 1970s comedy series “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” has died. Philip Bruns was 80.

Spokesman Joseph Armillas says Bruns died Wednesday in Los Angeles of natural causes.

Bruns appeared on two seasons of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” playing Mary’s father on the soap-opera parody. He also spent three years with Jackie Gleason on his comedy-variety show in the mid-1960s.

Born in Pipestone, Minn., Bruns attended Yale University’s drama school, then began his career in New York on the stage and as a prolific actor in TV commercials.

He later went to Los Angeles, appearing in more than 40 feature films, including “Flashdance,” ‘’The Stunt Man” and “My Favorite Year.”

Bruns is survived by his wife, actress Laurie Franks.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Nicol Williamson dies at 75; legendary British actor

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Just discovered this today. Not sure if it was posted yet. Got to see him on stage in NYC, and talk with him for a while. He was quite a character.

Once heralded as the greatest British actor of his generation, Nicol Williamson was also a legend for stormy onstage behavior that included calling off a performance of "Hamlet" mid-speech because he was too tired to go on.

"I'll pay for the seats," he later recalled telling the audience in 1969, "but I won't shortchange you by not giving my best." And then he walked off.

He made his name as the faltering attorney in playwright John Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" in the mid-1960s in London, rode the role to a Tony Award nomination on Broadway and re-created the part in the 1968 film.

The Scottish-born Williamson was perhaps best known for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film "Excalibur" and for his turn as the drug-addicted yet brilliant Sherlock Holmes in the 1976 movie "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution."

Williamson, who lived in Amsterdam, died Dec. 16 at 75 after a two-year struggle with esophageal cancer, said his son, Luke.

When Williamson auditioned for "Inadmissible Evidence," Osborne wrote in his diary that this "pouting, delinquent cherub produced the face to match the torment below the surface. He is much too young, 26, to the character's 39, but no matter. He is old within," according to a 1993 London Independent article.

The playwright later called Williamson "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando," the London Guardian said in 1994.

Upon seeing Williamson portray Hamlet in London in 1969, the New York Times review declared that the title of "Greatest English Actor of his Generation" was about to fall on Williamson's shoulders.

He appeared to be drawn to roles that presented "a marathon challenge to his ability to portray the darker human emotions," the Los Angeles Times said in 1969, while noting that he was "touchy, mercurial — and very, very talented."

In the movies, he had his most visible success in "Excalibur" as the wizard, "magnificently played," according to the 1981 Times review. "The actors are led by Williamson's witty, perceptive Merlin, missed every time he's off the screen."

"I enjoyed playing Merlin," Williamson told The Times soon after the film, which became a hit, was released. "I tried to make him a cross between my old English master and a space traveler, with a bit of Grand Guignol thrown in."

Since the early 1960s, Williamson had regularly acted in films but often gave well-reviewed performances in lesser-seen movies, a list that included "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" and "Robin and Marian" (1976), in which he played a subdued Little John to Sean Connery's Robin.

As an actor, he had a reputation for being difficult and impulsive, an observation that gained credence in 1991 when he was playing the ghost of John Barrymore in "I Hate Hamlet" on Broadway. In an oft-told story, he was ostensibly teaching a fellow actor to duel when Williamson whacked him with the sword, then turned to the audience and asked, "Well, should I sing?"

His stage and screen career stretched into the late 1990s and included the one-man Broadway show "Jack: A Night on the Town With John Barrymore."

While trying to assess what happened to "a superstar — the Hamlet of his generation," the London Independent said in 1993 that "the reasons given for his absence" from the London stage "are many. They include tax and booze and the breakup of his marriage to actress Jill Townsend," to whom he was married from 1971 to 1977.

Yet as early as 1971, Williamson had announced that he was no longer interested in being "the greatest actor of my generation, and all that jazz," and that same year he released an album of country music in Britain.

He was born Sept. 14, 1936, into a poor family in Hamilton, a mining town near Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Hugh Williamson, later operated an aluminum manufacturing plant; and his mother, Mary, "had a wonderful singing voice," he later recalled.

"I can never remember a time when I wanted to do anything but be involved in the richness of language," Williamson told The Times in 1986.

After spending two years in the military in Britain, he was hired to play a pirate in "Sinbad the Sailor" for Dundee Repertory Theatre in Scotland. After appearing in more than 30 productions over nearly 18 months, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962.

His nearly 20 television acting credits include playing Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" (1968) and King Ferdinand in "Christopher Columbus"(1985).

About two decades ago, he retreated to Amsterdam and, increasingly, his music. Before he died, he was able to finish recording the CD he had been working on, said his son, Williamson's only immediate survivor.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Popular character actor Ben Gazzara dies in NY

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in such iconic productions over the decades as the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway and the film "The Big Lebowski," has died at age 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife, German-born Elke Krivat, at their hotel.

Gazzara was a proponent of method acting, in which the performer attempts to take on the thoughts and emotions of the character he's playing, and it helped him achieve stardom early in his career with two stirring Broadway performances.

In 1955, he originated the role of Brick Pollitt, the disturbed alcoholic son and failed football star in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." He left the show after only seven months to take on an equally challenging role, Johnny Pope, the drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain." It earned him his first of three Tony Award nominations.

In 1965, he moved on to TV stardom in "Run for Your Life," a drama about a workaholic lawyer who, diagnosed with a terminal illness, quits his job and embarks on a globe-trotting attempt to squeeze a lifetime of adventures into the one or two years he has left. He was twice nominated for Emmys during the show's three-year run.

Gazzara made his movie debut in 1957 in "The Strange One," Calder Willingham's bitter drama about brutality at a Southern military school. He had previously played the lead role of the psychopathic cadet, Jocko de Paris, on Broadway in Willingham's stage version of the story, "End of Man."

He followed that film with "Anatomy of a Murder," in which he played a man on trial for murdering a tavern keeper who had been accused of raping his wife.

After "Run for Your Life" ended in 1968, Gazzara spent the rest of his career alternating between movies and the stage, although rarely with the critical acclaim he had enjoyed during his early years.

In the 1970s, he teamed with his friend director John Cassavetes for three films, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night." In another Cassavetes film, he appeared with Falk, and the two became friends (it was Cassavetes who introduced them to the Wyndham Hotel, according to a 1982 article in New York magazine).

Gena Rowlands appeared with Gazzara in "Opening Night," which also starred Cassavetes. Cassavetes and Rowlands were married; he died in 1989. Falk died last year.

"It breaks my heart to have this era come to an end. Ben meant so much to all of us. To our families. To John. To Peter. To have them gone now is devastating to me," she said in a statement.

She said her prayers and thoughts went out to "all his loyal and wonderful fans throughout the world."

Rita Moreno, who played Gazzara's wife in the 2000 film "Blue Moon," said, "He was a wonderful man, and I so enjoyed working with him. I wish I could have had the pleasure more often."

Other Gazzara films included "The Bridge at Remagen," "The Young Doctors," "They All Laughed," "The Thomas Crown Affair," "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium," "The Spanish Prisoner," "Stag" and "Road House." He also made several films in Italy.

He appeared on Broadway in revivals of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Awake and Sing!" "Strange Interlude" and several other plays.

Gazzara began acting in television in 1952 with roles on the series "Danger" and "Kraft Television Theater." Before landing "Run for Your Life," he played a police detective in the series "Arrest and Trial," which lasted two seasons.

Born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York on Aug. 28, 1930, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a cold-water flat with a bathtub in the kitchen. His parents were immigrants from Sicily who met and married in New York, and his first language was Italian. Although he was baptized under his birth name, his parents always called him Ben or Benny.

As a child he became fascinated with movies, and after giving his first performance, in a Boys Club play, he knew he had found his life's work.

"I disliked high school," he once said, "and after two years of it I left without telling anyone at home."

Instead he spent his days in movie theaters.

He entered Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop in 1948. Eighteen months later he auditioned for the Actors Studio run by Lee Strasberg and was accepted.

The school was a beehive of activity in those days, turning out such followers of method acting as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Barbara Bel Geddes, Shelley Winters, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Rod Steiger and Julie Harris.

"There's a lot of voodoo about the Actors Studio," Gazzara told The Associated Press in 1966. "In the best sense it was a place for professionals to stay in touch with their craft, where newcomers and professionals mingled, to grow, to try parts they would never get in the professional theater and to even fall on their face."

Gazzara's first two marriages, to actresses Louise Erikson and Janice Rule, ended in divorce.

While filming "Inchon" in Korea in 1981, he met Krivat. They married the following year, and the union endured.

"Elke saved my life," Gazzara said in 1999. "When I met her, I was drinking too much, fooling around too much, killing myself. She put romance and hope back in my life."

He adopted Krivat's daughter, Danja, as his own. She recalled on Friday that he was a "complex soul" and that his role as a father to her and his own daughter was challenging.

"I adored Ben, and so did his daughter," she said. "But we both had difficulty with him ... I think the difficulty lay in his complexity of being an actor and those layers that you have, that you bring with you."

Besides Danja, Gazzara is survived by his wife, daughter Elizabeth and a brother.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Ian Abercrombie, Elaine's Boss on Seinfeld, Dies at 77

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Ian Abercrombie, the British stage actor best known as Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld, has died. He was 77.

Abercrombie died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of kidney failure, according to the Los Angeles Times. He had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma.

Born in England, Abercrombie started out as a stage dancer and made his American stage debut in 1955 in a production of Stalag 17 with Jason Robards. After serving in the Army as part of Special Services in Germany, he returned to acting, appearing in numerous plays, TV shows and films before a seven-episode arc on Seinfeld changed his life.

"Incredibly so," he told CNN in 1998. "I mean, I have been around as an actor for 40-odd years, and this show knocked me out of the ballpark."

Abercrombie played Justin Pitt, Elaine's eccentric, picky boss who fired her after he became convinced that she had tried to kill him. "I was a pain in the neck. I was a hypochondriac. I was many things, and I just made her life so miserable," Abercrombie said of Mr. Pitt. "She wouldn't take the salt off my pretzels, you know. She brought me white socks ... she did a lot of things for me, but she could never do it right."

Abercrombie also appeared on the TV series Birds of Prey, Get Smart, L.A. Law, Dynasty, Northern Exposure, NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother. Most recently, he recurred on Wizards of Waverly Place as Professor Crumb.

His film credits include They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rango.

Abercrombie was a founding member and former board member of BAFTA-LA and was a board member of the Actor's Fund of America.

He is survived by his brothers Douglas, Donald and Alex.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Gary Carter, Star Catcher Who Helped Mets to Series Title, Dies at 57

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Gary Carter, the slugging catcher known as Kid for the sheer joy he took in playing baseball, who entered the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo but who most famously helped propel the Mets to their dramatic 1986 World Series championship, died Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 57.

The cause was brain cancer, which had been diagnosed last May. Carter had been treated with chemotherapy and radiation, but his daughter Kimmy Bloemers said in mid-January that new tumors had been discovered. She announced his death on her family journal at CaringBridge.org.

Carter played with intensity and flair, hitting 324 home runs and punctuating many of the ones he hit at Shea Stadium with arm-flailing curtain calls emblematic of the Mets’ swagger in the middle and late 1980s. In his 19 seasons in the major leagues, all but two of them with the Expos or the Mets, he was an 11-time All-Star and was twice named the most valuable player in the All-Star Game.

Carter’s exuberance complemented his prowess at the plate. Curly-haired and with a ready smile, he was loved by the fans, first in Montreal, then in New York.

“I am certainly happy that I don’t have to run for election against Gary Carter,” Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then prime minister of Canada, once remarked.

He was as exuberant behind the plate as he was on base. When Carter tagged a runner out at home, he liked to punctuate the play by happily holding the ball aloft.

He may have led the 1986 Mets in hugging teammates.

Playing his first 11 seasons with the Expos, Carter became the face of the franchise, which sometimes struggled. But the Expos’ ownership chafed at his high salary and traded him to the Mets in December 1984 for four young players.

“We all disliked Gary when we played against him,” said Keith Hernandez, the star first baseman who became Carter’s Mets teammate. “He was just a little rah-rah varsity collegiate type, even though he didn’t go to college. But I respected him as a player. And when he came to New York, I appreciated him, too.”

Carter’s big opening day in 1985 was the prelude to a season in which he hit a career-high 32 home runs, setting the stage for the 1986 championship year.

In his five seasons with the Mets, the right-handed-hitting Carter, a brawny 6 feet 2 inches and 205 pounds or so, added considerable pop to a lineup that featured the left-handed-hitting Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry.

He had a powerful arm, he was sure-handed in blocking pitches in the dirt, and he was adept at handling pitchers, notably Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling.

“He’s the heart of the pitching staff,” Manager Davey Johnson once said. “We’d be lost without him.”

Carter hit 24 homers and drove in 105 runs as the Mets won 108 games in 1986. His 12th-inning single drove in the winning run in a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. The Mets won that series in six games, then faced the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

The Red Sox took the first two games. But Carter drove in three runs in Game 3, at Fenway Park, then hit two home runs over the left-field wall in Game 4, to help the Mets tie the series at 2-2.

After the Red Sox won Game 5, Carter touched off the most memorable single-inning rally in the Mets’ history.

The Red Sox were leading, 5-3, in the 10th inning of Game 6 at Shea and were one out from winning a World Series for the first time since 1918. The Mets had nobody on base.

Carter kept the Mets alive with a single off reliever Calvin Schiraldi, and a pair of singles brought him home. A wild pitch allowed the tying run to score. Then Mookie Wilson hit a grounder that went between the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, bringing Ray Knight home with the winning run.

“Nothing will ever replace the moment when Jesse Orosco struck out Marty Barrett to end Game 7, and I was able to go out and jump in his arms,” Carter said when he was elected to the Hall of Fame. “That was my biggest thrill.”

Gary Edmund Carter was born on April 8, 1954, in Culver City, Calif., near Los Angeles. He was both an infielder and a star quarterback at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, Calif. He planned to play football at U.C.L.A. but pursued baseball instead when he was selected by the Expos in the third round of the 1972 draft.

The Expos switched Carter to catcher, and he made his debut for them in September 1974. Playing the outfield as well as catching in 1975, he was selected to the National League All-Star team and was the runner-up in the voting for National League rookie of the year. Carter became a full-time catcher in 1977.

The Expos reached the N.L. Championship Series in 1981, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But by 1984 they were floundering, and they sent Carter to the Mets after the season.

After four solid years with the Mets, Carter was hampered by injuries. He played in only 50 games in 1989, when he hit .183, and was released after the season. He played for the Giants and the Dodgers, then ended his career back with the Expos in 1992.

In addition to his 324 home runs, Carter drove in 1,225 runs and had a career batting average of .262. His 298 home runs while in games as a catcher rank him No. 7 on the career list; Mike Piazza, the former Met, is No. 1, having hit 396 of his 427 homers while catching.

Carter won three consecutive Gold Glove awards, from 1980-82, with the Expos. He caught in 2,056 games, placing him No. 4 among major league catchers.

When Carter was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2003, the Hall’s management decided he would go in as an Expo rather than as a Met. Carter said he was happy with that but wondered aloud if he could be shown on the plaque wearing a “split” hat, one side representing the Expos, the other the Mets.

After his playing days, Carter was a roving minor league instructor for the Mets, a broadcaster for the Florida Marlins, a manager in the Mets’ minor league system and with the independent Long Island Ducks, and most recently the coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Carter’s Palm Beach Atlantic coaching duties had been taken over by his assistants, but he visited his team on Feb. 2 when it opened its season in Jupiter, Fla., against Lynn University.

In addition to his daughter Kimmy Bloemers, the softball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic, Carter, who lived in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is survived by his wife, Sandy; his son, Douglas James, known as D. J.; another daughter, Christy Kearce; and three grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

David Kelly, Charlie's Grandpa Joe, dead at 82

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David Kelly, an Irish actor known for his role in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Waking Ned Devine," has died at the age of 82.

The actor reportedly died in the hospital after a short illness, Irish news station RTE reported on February 13.

Kelly played Grandpa Joe, grandfather of Charlie, in the 2005 film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. Jack Albertson, who played Grandpa Joe in the 1971 film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," died in 1981 at age 74. Leonard Stone, who played Sam Beauregarde, father of Violet, in the movie, died on Nov. 2, 2011.

Kelly earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination in 1998 for his role in "Waking Ned Devine." He is also known in Ireland for his role in the drama mini-series "Strumpet City."

The actor received a lifetime achievement award at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2005. His final film role was in the 2007 fantasy film "Stardust" co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro.

Kelly is survived by his wife Laurie, his son David and daughter Miriam.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Howard Kissel, New York Theatre Critic, Dies at 69

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Howard Kissel, a critic who covered New York's theatre scene for nearly four decades, died Feb. 24. He was 69.

For half of Mr. Kissel's long career, his primary perch was The Daily News, where he worked for 20 years, most of them as the chief theatre critic. Though not regarded as a literary stylist, he was respected by his colleagues for his erudition and thoughtfulness.

Howard Kissel was born in Milwaukee in 1942 to Mr. and Mrs. Leo Kissel. His father was the news editor of the Milwaukee Sentinal. He studied comparative literature at Columbia University and journalism at Northwestern.

Mr. Kissel's first important journalism post was as the arts editor of Women's Wear Daily, where he began work in 1974. That same year, he married Christine Mary Buck. He left WWD in 1986 for The Daily News, where he remained a theatre critic until 1997, when incoming editor Pete Hamill replaced him with Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole.

In 2001, after O'Toole left the paper, Mr. Kissel resumed writing theatre reviews at the News. Mr. Kissel accepted a buyout from The Daily News in 2008, but continued as a contributor to The Daily News' online blog known as "The Cultural Tourist." After he lost that forum in 2010, he began publishing reviews on the Huffington Post.
During his career, Mr. Kissel served as chairman of both the New York Film Critics Circle and the New York Drama Critics Circle. In 1994, he sat on the drama jury for the Pulitzer Prize.

As an author, he was best known for "The Abominable Showman," an unauthorized biography of the producer David Merrick. He also wrote "The Art of Acting," based on the acting technique lectures of Stella Adler; "Words with Music," an update of Lehman Engel's 1971 work; and, most recently, "New York Theater Walks," self-guided tours of theatre-related New York, all published by Applause.

Mr. Kissel was a singular presence at any theatre opening. With his wild mane of wavy, uncombed white hair, large glasses and hawkish nose, he looked like a cross between Oscar Wilde and Tiny Tim. And though always dressed in a jacket and tie, they were invariably rumpled. Woody Allen thought Mr. Kissel had enough of the look of a character actor about him that he cast him as his agent in the 1980 film "Stardust Memories."

After the reviewer criticized an unflattering dress actress Patti LuPone wore in a cabaret act, an irate reader wrote a letter to the News saying, "Anyone who looks like an unmade bed every day has no right to criticize the way anybody else looks."

Patti LuPone herself didn't seem to have harbored any hard feelings. After Mr. Kissel published a positive review of LuPone's performance in Master Class, the actress, encountering the critic in Times Square, kissed him on the lips. Like a good reporter, Mr. Kissel wrote up the event in the News.

"I feel no compunctions about declaring that kissing critics should be encouraged," he said. "We live in times when all power relationships are being revised. Only by throwing off traditional restraints can we find healthier, more meaningful roles to play. We hear all this blather about encouraging 'dialogue' between adversaries. In this area, there has been all too much talk. It's time for something more imaginative. Patti has set an important precedent."

He is survived by his sister, Anne Kissel Elliot, of Palm Beach, FL, and Judy Kissel, of Coral Springs, FL.

 

[RobDownSouth]

‘Band of Brothers’ veteran ‘Buck’ Compton dead at 90

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Lynn D. “Buck” Compton, an Army paratrooper whose World War II service was portrayed in the book and HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” and who later as a prosecutor secured a conviction for Robert F. Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan, died Feb. 26 at his home in Burlington, Wash. He was 90.

He had complications from a heart attack, said his daughter Syndee Compton. Mr. Compton retired in 1990 as a judge on the California Courts of Appeals.

Mr. Compton fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles as a first lieutenant with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The soldiers, collectively known as Easy Company, participated in the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy, parachuted into Holland for the disastrous Operation Market Garden and fought through frostbite and Germany artillery in the Battle of the Bulge.

LINK

*salutes*

 

[JennyOHill2]

Monkees singer Davy Jones dies in Florida at 66

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Davy Jones, the lead singer of the 1960s group The Monkees, died of a massive heart attack Wednesday in Florida, his spokeswoman said. He was 66.

His publicist, Helen Kensick, confirmed that he died in Indiantown, where he lived.

Jones rose to fame in 1965 when he joined The Monkees, a popular rock group formed for a U.S. television show. Jones sang lead vocals on songs like "I Wanna Be Free" and "Daydream Believer."

Jones was born Dec. 30, 1945, in Manchester, England. His long hair and British accent helped Jones achieve heartthrob status in the United States.

According to The Monkees website, Monkees.com, he left the band in late 1970. In the summer of 1971, he recorded a solo hit "Rainy Jane" and made a series of appearances on American variety and television shows, including "Love American Style" and "The Brady Bunch."

Jones played himself in a widely popular Brady Bunch episode, which aired in late 1971. In the episode, Marcia Brady, president of her school's Davy Jones fan club, promised she could get him to sing at a school dance.

By the mid-1980s, Jones teamed up with former Monkee Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and promoter David Fishof for a reunion tour. Their popularity prompted MTV to re-air The Monkees series, introducing the group to a new audience.

In 1987, Jones, Tork and Micky Dolenz recorded a new album, "Pool It." Two years later, the group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the late 1990s, the group filmed a special called "Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees."
He is survived by his wife, Jessica and four daughters from previous marriages.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Theodore Mann Dead: Theater Producer, Director Dies At 87

NEW YORK — Theodore Mann, a Tony Award-winning director and producer who championed Eugene O'Neill and was a driving force behind Circle in the Square Theatre and its school, has died. He was 87.

Paul Libin, president of Circle in the Square Theatre and former chairman of The Broadway League, said Mann died Friday in New York of complications from pneumonia.

"His contributions to Broadway and off-Broadway are immeasurable both in the productions he created, and the talent that he nurtured," said Charlotte St. Martin, the executive director of The Broadway League. "He will be missed by many in our community, and our hearts go out to his friends, family, and students."

A co-founder of Circle in the Square Theatre in 1951, Mann spearheaded in 1956 the acclaimed revival of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" and the American premiere of O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night." According to the League, those two productions led to a reevaluation of O'Neill, now recognized to be America's greatest playwright.

Mann produced or directed more than 175 plays at Circle, which in 1972 moved from Greenwich Village to its current in-the-round stage on Broadway. In 1963, he founded Circle in the Square Theatre School, a program for training young actors.

Some of the school's alumni include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Lady Gaga, Benicio del Toro, Idina Menzel, Felicity Huffman and Molly Shannon.

Mann received the 1957 Tony Award for Best Play for "Long Day's Journey Into Night," a 1976 Special Tony Award acknowledging 25 continuous years of quality productions at Circle in the Square, as well as 12 additional Tony Award nominations.

Together with Paul Libin, Mann presented new and classic works at his theater, including works by Sam Shepard, Thornton Wilder, Horton Foote, Yazmin Reza, Truman Capote, Arthur Miller, Athol Fugard and Terrence McNally.

Some noted Circle productions include "Uncle Vanya" with George C. Scott; "The Lady from the Sea" with Vanessa Redgrave making her Broadway debut; "Salome and Hughie" with Al Pacino; "The Iceman Cometh" with James Earl Jones, which Mann directed; "Candida" with Joanne Woodward; and "Death of a Salesman," also with Scott.

The Circle lately has been home to the Broadway premiere of Sam Shepard's "True West," the revival of "The Rocky Horror Show," "Sweeney Todd," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," Alan Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquests," "Lombardi," and the current revival of "Godspell."

"I first met Ted on my initial site visit of Circle in the Square, when `Godspell' in the round was just a concept. There he was, to say hello, to shake my hand, and to welcome me to his house," `Godspell' producer Ken Davenport wrote in his blog Monday. "His fingerprints are on a lot of resumes of some of our industry's finest actors and finest artists."

Mann also directed operas, including Benjamin Britten's "Turn of the Screw" for the New York City Opera, "La Boheme" for the Julliard School, and "The Night of the Iguana" for Moscow's Maly Theater.

He was married to the late Patricia Brooks, a leading lyric coloratura soprano, who died in 1993. He is survived by his two sons, Andrew and Jonathan, and five grandchildren.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Artist Ralph McQuarrie, dead at 82

Ralph McQuarrie, an artist whose paintings of a gold-plated robot in an otherworldly desert and an intergalactic sword duel between a scraggly youth and a black-masked villain helped persuade film executives to gamble on a young director named George Lucas and his visionary story, “Star Wars,” died March 3 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 82.

He had complications from Parkinson’s disease, said John Scoleri, co-author of a book of Mr. McQuarrie’s art.

“Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision ‘Star Wars,’ ” Lucas said in a statement posted online. “When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘Do it like this.’ ”

Mr. McQuarrie, for instance, designed the Samurai-inspired helmet and black caped-outfit worn by arch nemesis Darth Vader. (It was Mr. McQuarrie’s idea to put a breathing apparatus on Vader’s mask, so that he could survive in the vacuum of space, which led to the villain’s raspy voice in the films.)

Mr. McQuarrie’s pens, pencils and brushes brought lush color, dramatic scenery and lifelike characters to stunning vibrancy in film classics such as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Cocoon,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.”

He was part of a team that won the 1985 Academy Award for best visual effects for his work on “Cocoon,” about aliens who can pass on the gift of immortality.

As an artist for all three episodes of the original “Star Wars” films, Mr. McQuarrie was widely credited with shaping Lucas’s far, far away galaxy.

Mr. McQuarrie had been fascinated with flight and outer space exploration since his days building model airplanes as a youngster.

As a technical artist for Boeing in the 1960s, he drew diagrams for a manual on constructing the 747 jumbo jet and later worked as an illustrator animating sequences of the Apollo space missions for NASA and CBS News.

Through two artist friends, Mr. McQuarrie was introduced to Lucas in the mid 1970s.

At the time, Lucas’ tale of a interplanetary civil war between a loose band of rebels and a Naziesque empire, had been rejected by United Artists and Universal.

Lucas enlisted Mr. McQuarrie’s help to show movie executives his story. Using Lucas’ script for inspiration, Mr. McQuarrie drew scenes of a space battle between laser-shooting fighter planes and lightsaber-wielding warriors.

Lucas, armed with the images, quickly won funding from 20th Century Fox and “Star Wars” was born, beginning with “Episode IV: A New Hope,” in 1977.

Artist Iain McCaig, who worked on the “Star Wars” prequels, Episodes I, II, and III, called Mr. McQuarrie a pioneer of film conceptual art. Before him, McCaig said, few directors called on artists to help visualize their projects.

“He didn’t just draw a picture of Darth standing in a neutral pose,” McCaig said in an interview, “he did a scene of Darth lashing out at Luke Skywalker. You could feel the power and the pathos going on in that moment. He did more than just design costumes. . . . He helped capture the the story-telling moments in really dazzling pictures.”

Doug Chiang, who worked with McCaig as an artist on Episode I, said that Mr. McQuarrie’s artwork was “cinematic.”

“He painted and designed with a camera’s point of view,” Chiang said in an interview. “Most science fiction art at the time were for posters and book covers. But his looked like images you could see on the big screen.”

He designed the porcelain armor of the Imperial storm troopers, the shiny gilt frame of the humanoid robot C-3PO and the droid R2D2, which resembled a motorized trashcan.

Anthony Daniels, the British actor who portrayed C-3PO, initially turned down the part, unimpressed by his proposed character’s lack of depth.

Then he saw an expressive drawing of the robot painted by Mr. McQuarrie.

“He had painted a face and a figure that had a very wistful, rather yearning, rather bereft quality, which I found very appealing,” Mr. Daniels said in 2010. He took the job.

Ralph Angus McQuarrie was born June 13, 1929, in Gary, Ind., and grew up on a farm outside Billings, Mont.

He saw combat with the Army during the Korean War and survived a bullet to the head. The round punctured his helmet, bloodying his skull. After the war he attended what is now known as the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

He worked as an illustrator for a dental business drawing teeth and dentist’s tools before his work in films. His art for “Star Wars” led director Steven Spielberg to tap Mr. McQuarrie to draw space ships for his movies “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “E.T.” (1982). Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Joan, of Berkeley.

In “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), Mr. McQuarrie makes a cameo appearance in a scene inside a hanger on the icy planet Hoth.

On the 30th anniversary of “Star Wars,” a collectible action figure was released of his character, rebel Gen. Pharl (a play on Ralph) McQuarrie, complete with blaster pistol.
________________________________________________________________

For those interested, here's a link to his artwork from, along with Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Trek to name a few.

http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/index.html

Google images of McQuarrie concept art; a plethora of artwork that led to some great shows and movies.

Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back
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Star Trek-Phase II (proposed new TV series/motion picture-1978-'79)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FEjleQW3ZnI/Tvym6xIkcsI/AAAAAAAAMnk/2juYbz-na08/s1600/0004-Star+Trek+04.jpg

 

[JennyOHill2]

Skier Nick Zoricic died in 'freak accident'

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GENEVA (AP) – A Canadian racer died in a World Cup skicross event Saturday, tumbling through safety nets in what ski authorities called a "freak accident." It was the second death in less than two months of a freestyle skier from Canada.

Nick Zoricic died from head injuries when he crashed directly into the nets lining the side of the course after going wide over the final jump. As he went through the nets, his skis and poles were thrown clear.

Skicross — in which four racers jostle for an edge down a course of banks, rolls and ridges — debuted as an Olympic sport in 2010.

Zoricic died exactly two months after Winter X Games champion Sarah Burke crashed during halfpipe training in Park City, Utah. Burke died from her injuries nine days later. She was also 29.

Zoricic's death will continue a debate on safety in skiing, particularly in the relatively new disciplines of freestyle skiing. International Ski Federation secretary general Sarah Lewis said Zoricic's death had been "a terrible, tragic accident."

"All the safety measures were in place," Lewis told The Associated Press by telephone from Grindelwald, a regular venue on the skicross international circuit.

Zoricic was treated by doctors before being airlifted to a hospital at Interlaken. He was pronounced dead as a result of "severe neurotrauma," the ski federation said in a statement.

"Nik Zoricic fell heavily just before the finish in the round of eight, crashing directly into the safety netting and thereafter lying motionless," the federation said. The governing body will work with Swiss ski officials to analyze the crash and course security. An investigation will be conducted by legal officers from Bern.

"There will be plenty of discussions from all the experts on the technical side and coaches, and any improvements people feel are right to make, will be made," Lewis said
Gartner, when asked about the Grindelwald course setting, said "lots of races" place a jump close to the finish line.

Zoricic raced on the World Cup circuit for more than three years and was competing in his 36th event Saturday. He placed fifth in last season's World Cup standings, and eighth in the 2011 World Championships held at Deer Valley, Utah.

Zoricic's teammate Ashleigh McIvor won gold for the host nation when it debuted as an Olympic sport at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

"It's probably just as safe doing our sport as driving down the highway," McIvor said in a conference call. "I don't think the finger should be pointed at any of the organization."
Lewis acknowledged the potential danger in skicross, calling it "a high-risk sport."
"Any sport where you put on a helmet, there is a reason for it," Lewis said. "This was a World Cup competition where they were racing for positions. It was about trying to go as fast as possible."

Zoricic had raced the course in training on Wednesday and qualifying rounds on Friday, and took an additional practice run on Saturday morning.

Organizers canceled the World Cup events for men and women on Saturday, along with the World Cup Finals races on Sunday.

According to Gartner, Zoricic was "a model athlete" who began in Alpine racing before switching to skicross.

"He's an extremely dedicated, quiet young man who has gone about his business and found his home in skicross. It was a pleasure to work with him and know him," Gartner said.

Zoricic was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, one year before the city hosted the 1984 Winter Games as part of the former Yugoslavia.

He moved to Canada at 5, where his father Bebe became an established Alpine coach at the Craigleith Ski Club in Ontario.

Organizers at Grindelwald helped provide grief counselors for the Canadian team, who were holding a candlelit memorial service for Zoricic in the course finish area on Saturday evening.

 

[ryan8558]

Jean 'Moebius' Giraud

Just one week after the loss of the highly influential Ralph McQuarrie, a key figure in the creation of the visual look of Star Wars, another luminary figure of visual design and artistry has passed on. French comic book creator and film concept designer Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, passed away today in Paris, at the age of 73.

Moebius was crucial in creating the looks for such films as Alien, Tron, Masters of the Universe, The Abyss, Willow, and The Fifth Element. As a comics artist and writer in his native France he was held in the highest of artistic circles, co-creating such classics as the anti-western Blueberry, the pterodactyl-riding Arzach, and with Alejandro Jodorowsky, the sci-fi series The Incal. In America he worked with Stan Lee on the Silver Surfer series Parable. In 1982, along with animator René Laloux, Moebius created one of his most famous and beloved works, the animated science fiction film Les Maîtres du temps aka Time Masters.

As a child growing up in America, my exposure to Moebius was limited to that of a few concept design sketches and storyboards in various film books and magazines -- not to mention the films themselves. During a two month stay in Paris in 2008 I had ample opportunity to wander the city's comic shops where the man's God-like influence over almost all other bandes dessinées artists was undeniably apparent. Though this influence goes well beyond France, and really if one gets down to it, is unfathomably far-reaching and varied. Moebius' bold yet airy, and indeed fanciful visions (conjured with a multitude of artistic styles, tools and approaches) had such breadth and life in them, that they leaped off the page with an almost spiritually charged aura, and such a sense of wonderful possibility that even the quickest of glimpses could leave one with the grandest of impressions. This equally contemplative and energetic approach to visual storytelling has made an impact, whether quite obviously or more subtly so, on the styles of such American comic creators as Charles Burns and Frank Miller, as well as, in a reciprocal manner, the manga and anime work of friend Hayao Miyazaki.

 

[XXplorher]

DEATH!!!

What does it say on all these pages prior?


Learn that doesn't matter. There's only 2 post-death shit worth hearing:

1) REFUND!!!!!!

You haven't lived if you've not seen angry dad upset with son in Breaking Away. It's never ever been said better (even if your legs are shaved). If you escaped that? The Reaper might be small.

2) One SEC, LEMME SECOND CHECK

Sorry, you alreay heard that?

Yeah... that's bad.

Good luck to ya then. Got nuthin for ya.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Former Giants coach and player, Webster, dies at 80

http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2012/03/04/sports/web_photos/04.3s066.NewWebster1c--300x300.jpg

Alex Webster, called “Big Red’’ by many and a fixture with the Giants during their halcyon days as a player and later as a head coach, died yesterday morning in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He was 80.

A popular and productive running back, Webster — a native of Kearny, N.J. — played his entire 10-year NFL career with the Giants, and 47 years after his retirement he is fifth on the Giants career list for rushing yards (4,638) and fourth in rushing attempts (1,196).
“Alex was one of the all-time great Giants,” owner John Mara said. “He contributed so much to our team as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

Webster played for the Giants from 1955-64 and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1958 and 1961.

Webster scored two touchdowns in the 1956 NFL Championship as the Giants defeated the Bears.

This past season, the former North Carolina State star was inducted into the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

“Alex was a fantastic player,” said former Giants teammate Frank Gifford. “He turned everything around for us. He played on the other side from me.

“The same things I was doing at the left halfback, he was doing at the right halfback.”
After serving as an assistant coach under Allie Sherman, Webster took over as head coach in 1969 and and in 1970 was named the NFL Coach of the Year by UPI after guiding the Giants to a record of 9-5.

Webster remained as head coach through the 1973 season.

Webster finished with an overall record of 29-40-1.

His wife of 58 years, Louise, died in 2009.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Steve Bridges, Impersonator of Presidents, Dies at 48

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Steve Bridges, an impressionist who used prosthetics and wigs in mimicking presidents, particularly George W. Bush, who twice joined him onstage in Washington, was found dead at his home here on Saturday. He was 48.

A maid found his body on Saturday morning, his manager, Randy Nolen, said Monday. Craig Harvey of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said the death appeared to be of natural causes, adding that an autopsy would be conducted.

Mr. Bridges’s impression of George W. Bush made him a regular on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” during the Bush administration. In 2003 he was invited to the White House, and in 2006 the president joined him in a comic routine at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington and at a Ford’s Theater benefit.

Mr. Bush called Mr. Bridges’s brother Phillip and offered condolences, Mr. Nolen said.

Mr. Bridges also did impressions of Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton.

The makeup and prosthetics used for his Bush and Clinton routines were designed by Kevin Haney, who won an Academy Award for aging Dan Aykroyd in “Driving Miss Daisy.” The Obama prosthetics were created by Kazu Tsuji, who designed Jim Carrey’s Grinch in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Mari Enyart was Mr. Bridges’s makeup artist.

“From the neck up, everything but his teeth was covered in a prosthetic piece of some sort,” Mr. Nolen said, adding that it had taken nearly four hours to apply the Obama makeup and nearly three hours to do Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Bridges would sometimes do shows without makeup, titled “Steve as Steve,” relying only on his many voice impersonations, including those of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Brokaw and all the presidents from John F. Kennedy to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Bridges was born in Dallas. He is survived by his parents, Thomas and Margaret Bridges; his brothers, Phillip and Jon; and a sister, Elizabeth Bridges.

 

[ryan8558]

Bugs Henderson, blues guitarist, Dies at 68

DALLAS - Local blues guitar legend Bugs Henderson, the fiery blues-rocker with the wicked and funky six-string sting, died Thursday night from complications of liver cancer. He was 68.

Mr. Henderson died at his home in Jefferson only four days after a huge benefit with a slew of well-known musicians was held at the Palladium Ballroom to raise money for his medical expenses. Mr. Henderson had no health insurance, and the cost of his care was mounting. Mr. Henderson did not attend that Palladium benefit because he was at home under hospice care.

Mr. Henderson was born Oct. 20, 1943, in Palm Springs , Calif., but grew up in Tyler and later moved to Dallas. He became respected for his signature blend of blues, rock and funk and at his touring peak spent 50 out of his 150 dates a year performing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and France. His two-CD set Vienna Calling was recorded live in concert in Vienna, Austin and Dallas.

But he was always most at home musically in Dallas. In the ’70s, Mr. Henderson moved from Tyler to Dallas to become a fixture at a bar called the Cellar, where style took shape. He was soulful, both as a picker and as a singer. It was in Texas where Mr. Henderson found his muse.

Before that, at a Kilgore club dubbed the Rose Room, Mr. Henderson met his idol, blues icon B.B. King. It would prove a turning point for the young guitarist.

“I went up to B.B. and I just slobbered all over him,” Mr. Henderson said in 2010. “I was a groupie. I was a guitar player. I told him if I could ever play with him that would be the biggest deal of my life. That very night he let me play. The place went absolutely bananas. That audience, and everything else I was going through emotionally, just overwhelmed me.”

David Card, owner of longtime listening room Poor David’s Pub, featured Mr. Henderson in concert about 75 times during a friendship that spanned nearly three decades. In fact, Mr. Henderson’s final stage performance was New Year’s Eve 2011. It was a benefit, of sorts. Mr. Henderson took home all the proceeds after expenses.

“It turned out to be his last show, and he was very happy to have done it,” Mr. Card said. “The invaluable part was his joy in being able to do what he loved best — play his music to his fans. Bugs was one of a kind and awesome. The mark he left on Texas blues and rock history is permanent and deep.”

The man who formed his first band, the Sensors, at age 16 would eventually be a part of Mouse and the Traps as well as the Shuffle Kings, his backing group. He played with fellow guitar slingers Eric Clapton , Freddie King, Ted Nugent, Roy Buchanan and James Burton. Mr. Henderson indulged in excesses during the ’70s, but he eventually settled down. Professionally, he would also flourish. According to his website, Mr. Henderson released 20 albums.

“I’m so happy with the way my life has turned out,” Mr. Henderson said in 2010. “I don’t know that I would do anything different. There were the dark ages where you spiral because of indulgences. I lost so many people because of it. It was part of the learning process for me. I don’t say that trying to encourage anybody. I took a few steps backwards, but I learned a lot about my life.”

He is survived by wife Patty Anne and their daughter, Zoey, and children Cody, Buddy, Rose and Shawn from a previous marriage.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Doobie Brothers Drummer Dead: Michael Hossack Dies at 65

Michael Hossack, a drummer best known for his work with the Doobie Brothers, died Monday at his home in Dubois, Wyoming, after a battle with cancer. He was 65.

"We're posting this to confirm the sad news that's been circulating very quickly," said the Doobe Brothers in a statement Tuesday. "Doobie Brothers drummer Michael Hossack passed away yesterday... His family was by his side. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and loved ones. We will miss him greatly."

Born in New Jersey, Hossack began playing drums in his pre-teen years before serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He planned to pursue a career in law enforcement upon returning in 1969 when a friend coaxed him into auditioning for California group Mourning Reign. The group soon disbanded, but in 1971 the Doobie Brothers asked him to join their band where he would play alongside drummer John Hartman.

"People always ask me if it's hard to play with another drummer," Hossack is quoted as saying in his biography posted on the band's site. "I tell them that after playing along with up to twelve other drummers at once in the drum corps, this is a snap!"

Hossack performed on the band's 1972 sophomore album, 'Toulouse Street,' which features hits such as 'Listen to the Music' and 'Jesus Is Just Alright.' He would also play on additional signatures like 'Blackwater,' 'China Grove' and 'Long Train Runnin'' before leaving the group due to a grueling tour schedule in 1973. After performing in a few groups in the mid-1970s, Hossack became a partner in Chateau Recorders, a North Hollywood recording studio.

In 1987, Hossack was asked to join the Doobie Brothers again for a string of dates benefiting Veterans of the Vietnam War. The shows resulted in the group returning to the studio to record new material.

In 2010, Hossack wrote a message on the band's site explaining why he was not on the road with them. "I have had some problems relating to injuries I received in an auto accident a couple of years ago," Hossack wrote. "I needed to take some time off to address these issues, and get my health back on track. Things are improving, but it may be several months before I'm able to get back to touring."

Last January, the group's management made a statement with regards to Hossack's condition. "Michael Hossack is improving slowly. He sends his regards to all our fans. He's still working on health issues but getting better. We will keep you updated on a regular basis."

The Doobie Brothers have yet to make a statement via Facebook or Twitter on Hossack's passing ("currently absent on health leave" is placed next to his bio link on the band's site). The group have a string of dates slated for this spring before hitting the road with Chicago for a lengthy co-headlining U.S. tour.

Hossack leaves behind a daughter and son.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Earl Scruggs, bluegrass pioneer, dies at 88

It may be impossible to overstate the importance of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs to American music. A pioneering banjo player who helped create modern country music, his sound is instantly recognizable and as intrinsically wrapped in the tapestry of the genre as Johnny Cash’s baritone or Hank Williams’ heartbreak.

Scruggs died at age 88 of natural causes. The legacy he helped build with bandleader Bill Monroe, guitarist Lester Flatt and the rest of the Blue Grass Boys was evident all around Nashville, where he died in an area hospital. His string-bending, mind-blowing way of picking helped transform a regional sound into a national passion.

“It’s not just bluegrass, it’s American music,” bluegrass fan turned country star Dierks Bentley said. “There’s 17- or 18-year-old kids turning on today’s country music and hearing that banjo and they have no idea where that came from. That sound has probably always been there for them and they don’t realize someone invented that three-finger roll style of playing. You hear it everywhere.”

“I’d heard The Grand Ole Opry and there was tremendous excitement for me just to be on The Grand Ole Opry,” Scruggs recalled during a 2010 interview at Ryman Auditorium, where that “big bang” moment occurred. “I just didn’t know if or how well I’d be accepted because there’d never been anybody to play banjo like me here. There was Stringbean and Grandpa Jones. Most of them were comedians.”

There was nothing jokey about the way Scruggs attacked his “fancy five-string banjo,” as Opry announcer George D. Hayes called it. In a performance broadcast to much of the country but unfortunately lost to history, he scorched the earth and instantly changed country music. With Monroe on mandolin and Flatt on guitar, the pace was a real jolt to attendees and radio listeners far away, and in some ways the speed and volume he laid down predicted the power of electric music.

Scruggs’ use of three fingers — in place of the limited clawhammer style once prevalent — elevated the banjo from a part of the rhythm section — or even a comedian’s prop — to a lead instrument that was as versatile as the guitar and far more flashy.

Country great Porter Wagoner probably summed up Scruggs’ importance best of all: “I always felt like Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was, and the best there ever will be.”

His string-bending and lead runs became known worldwide as “the Scruggs picking style” and the versatility it allowed has helped popularize the banjo beyond the traditional bluegrass and country forms. Today the banjo can be found in almost any genre, largely due to the way he freed its players to experiment and find new space.

Dave Rawlings, a Nashville singer-songwriter and producer, says Scruggs remains every bit as influential and fresh seven decades later. He said it’s impossible to imagine nearly every guitar player mimicking Jimi Hendrix, but with Scruggs and the banjo, that’s the reality.

“The breadth and clarity of the instrument was increased so much,” he said. “He invented a style that now probably 75 percent of the people that play the banjo in the world play Scruggs-style banjo. And that’s a staggering thing to do, to play an instrument and change what everyone is doing.”

News of Scruggs’ passing quickly spread around the music world and over Twitter. Bentley and bluegrassers like Sam Bush and Jon Randall Stewart celebrated him at the Tin Pan South gathering of songwriters in Nashville and Eddie Stubbs dedicated the night to him on WSM, the home of the Grand Ole Opry. On the Internet, actor and accomplished banjo player Steve Martin called Scruggs, with whom he collaborated in 2001 on “Earl Scruggs and Friends,” ”the most important banjo player who ever lived.” Hank Williams Jr. sent prayers to the Scruggs family and Charlie Daniels tweeted, “He meant a lot to me. Nobody will ever play a five string banjo like Earl.”

Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said in a statement the four-time Grammy winner and lifetime achievement award recipient “leaves an indelible legacy that will be remembered for generations to come.”

Scruggs will always be remembered for his willingness to innovate, but he wasn’t always accepted for it. In The Big Book of Bluegrass, Scruggs discussed the breakup with Flatt and how his need to experiment drove a rift between them. Later in 1985, he and Flatt were inducted together in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Scruggs had been fairly active in the 2000s, returning to a limited touring schedule after frail health in the 1990s. In 1996, Scruggs suffered a heart attack in the recovery room of a hospital shortly after hip-replacement surgery. He also was hospitalized late last year, but seemed in good health during a few appearances with his sons in 2010 and 2011, though he had given up the banjo for the guitar by then.

He’s survived by two sons, Gary and Randy. Louise, his wife of 57 years, died in 2006. He often talked of her, recounting how their eyes had met while she watched him perform at the Ryman, and friends noted a sense of melancholy in Scruggs over his final years.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Jim Marshall has died, aged 88.

http://www.marshallamps.com/

 

[CaptainKirk]

Famous artist Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light" and one of the most popular artists in America, died suddenly Friday at his Los Gatos home. He was 54.

His family said in a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes.

"Thom provided a wonderful life for his family," his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death."

His paintings are hanging in an estimated one of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces as tacky. In any event, his prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates helped establish a brand -- famed for their painted highlights -- not commonly seen in the art world.

"I'm a warrior for light," Kinkade told the Mercury News in 2002, alluding not just to his technical skill at creating light on canvas but to the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine. "With whatever talent and resources I have, I'm trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel."

His Media Arts Group company surged to success, taking in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers across the country 10 years ago, before it went private in the middle of the past decade. The cost of his paintings range from hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000.

The Placerville native, who also leaves behind a brother and sister, was known to dress up like Santa Claus on Christmas, ride a Harley-Davidson and go on painting trips around the world. He would visit studio executives but also got to know all the homeless people in Los Gatos. He read classic books but also enjoyed shooting and blowing up things on his ranch.

The father of four girls and a devoted Christian, his artistic philosophy was not to express himself through his paintings like many artists, but rather to give the masses what they wanted: warm, positive images, said Ken Raasch, a longtime friend who co-founded Kinkade's company with him.

"I'd see a tree as being green, and he would see it as 47 different shades of green," Raasch said. "He just saw the world in a much more detailed way than anyone I've ever seen."

In the 25 years since graduating from UC Berkeley, his official biography says he has printed 1,000 paintings of "cabin and nature scenes, beautiful gardens, classic cottages, sports, inspirational content, lighthouses and powerful seascapes, impressionists, and classic Americana."

Kinkade became a speaker and author, with books that reached the New York Times Best Seller list. His top sellers include, "Masterworks of Light," and "The Artist's Guide to Sketching." He put Los Gatos High on canvas along with other community landmarks.

He was involved in a charity foundation. As a philanthropist, he contributed and helped raise millions of dollars that went to nonprofit agencies such as the Salvation Army and museums.

But in 2010, the company's Morgan Hill manufacturing arm, Pacific Metro, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Months later, Kinkade was reportedly arrested on suspicion of DUI. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported the FBI was investigating whether he fraudulently induced investors and then ruined them financially.

His family was traveling to Australia on Friday and unavailable for further comment. Further details were expected in the coming days.
Authorities would not have the official cause of death for at least a few days. Police referred comment to the coroner, who was unavailable late Friday. Friends and family on Friday began planning a private service and were weighing a public celebration for a later date.

Despite Kinkade's death, his paintings will live on.

"Art is forever," Kinkade told "60 Minutes" in 2007. "It goes front and center on your wall, where everyday the rest of your life you see that image. And it is shaping your children, it's shaping your life."