Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOmanHill]

'Rosemary's Baby' Author Ira Levin Dies

Nov 13, 8:08 PM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - Best-selling writer Ira Levin, whose genre-hopping novels such as the horror classic "Rosemary's Baby" and the Nazi thriller "The Boys From Brazil" provided meaty movie roles for Mia Farrow and Laurence Olivier, has died of a heart attack, his agent said Tuesday. He was 78.

Levin, who also wrote for television and Broadway during his long career, passed away in his Manhattan apartment on Monday, agent Phyllis Westberg said.

Long before authors such as Stephen King had their books routinely turned into movies, Levin watched his novels move inexorably to the big screen. Besides "Rosemary's Baby" with Farrow and "The Boys From Brazil" with Olivier, Levin's novels "The Stepford Wives,""Sliver" and "A Kiss Before Dying" all received the Hollywood treatment.

His long-running 1978 play "Deathtrap" was also made into a Sidney Lumet-directed film, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve.

Levin's page-turning books were once compared by Newsweek writer Peter S. Frescott to a bag of popcorn: "Utterly without nutritive value and probably fattening, yet there's no way to stop once you've started."

Born in the Bronx, Levin's father was hopeful his son would follow him into the family toy business. But by age 15, Levin determined that he wanted a career in writing; in his senior year at New York University, Levin won the $200 second place prize in an NBC-sponsored screenplay-writing competition and launched his career.

He worked as a TV writer before finishing his first novel, "A Kiss Before Dying," a murder mystery that was an instant success and twice made into a movie. His debut won the Edgar Allan Poe Award as the best first novel of 1953, and it was twice turned into a movie - first in 1956, and again in 1991.

It wasn't until 14 years after his first book that Levin completed his second novel, "Rosemary's Baby," the creepy tale of a New York couple in the clutch of Satanists who want the young wife to bear Satan's child.

"The Stepford Wives" was Levin's satirical tale of a suburban town where the spouses were converted into subservient robots, while "The Boys From Brazil" detailed a South American underground where the infamous Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele tried to clone Adolf Hitler.

The idea for the latter book came from a newspaper article on cloning, which suggested Hitler and Mozart as examples of the disparate possibilities for the new technology.

In 1991, Levin wrote a thriller set in a Manhattan high-rise apartment building, "Sliver," which became a movie starring Sharon Stone.

Besides "Deathtrap," Levin also wrote the Broadway adaptation of "No Time for Sergeants." The 1955 show, which launched the career of actor Andy Griffith, ran for more than 700 performances. He wrote several other less successful plays, including "Drat! That Cat!" which closed after a week in 1966.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Levin is survived by three sons and three grandsons, Westberg said.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Delbert Mann, Director, Is Dead at 87

November 13, 2007
Delbert Mann, a director from the heyday of live television who won an Oscar for his first big-screen effort, “Marty,” in 1955, died Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 87 and lived in Los Angeles.

The cause was pneumonia, his family said.

Mr. Mann had directed the original, live television version of “Marty,” broadcast on NBC in 1953. With a script by Paddy Chayefsky, it starred Rod Steiger as Marty Pilletti, a shy Bronx butcher, and Nancy Marchand as his equally awkward love interest.

When “Marty” was remade two years later as a Hollywood film, it starred Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The movie earned four Academy Awards: for best picture, best screenplay (Mr. Chayefsky), best actor (Mr. Borgnine) and best director (Mr. Mann). “I was so stunned at being called the winner, I couldn’t believe it,” Mr. Mann recalled in an interview with Daily Variety in 2002. “I didn’t have a speech prepared. I simply stood up and said, ‘Thank you very much,’ and walked off the stage.”

For Hollywood, Mr. Mann also directed “The Bachelor Party” (1957), which, like “Marty,” began as an NBC television drama, written by Mr. Chayefsky and directed by Mr. Mann.

Among Mr. Mann’s other feature films are “Desire Under the Elms” (1958), “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” (1960), “That Touch of Mink” (1962) and “Mister Buddwing” (1966).

His television movies include “Jane Eyre” (1970), “A Girl Named Sooner” (1975), “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1979), “Incident in a Small Town” (1994) and “Lily in Winter” (1994). They also include a film that would haunt him to the end of his life: “Heidi,” whose ultrapunctual broadcast on NBC in 1968 famously eclipsed the final minute of a dramatic football game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders.

Delbert Martin Mann Jr. was born on Jan. 30, 1920, in Lawrence, Kan. He grew up in Nashville, where his father taught sociology at Scarritt College. The younger Mr. Mann earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Vanderbilt University in 1941 and during World War II served with the Army Air Corps as a B-24 bomber pilot. After the war, he earned a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama.

In 1949, Mr. Mann, then directing regional theater in South Carolina, moved to New York to take a job as a floor manager at NBC. Though he had never seen a television program before, he quickly rose as a director there: his many credits include the Philco Television Playhouse, for which he directed more than 100 live dramas.

Mr. Mann’s wife, the former Ann Caroline Gillespie, whom he married in 1942, died in 2001. He is survived by three sons, Fred, of Wayne, Pa.; David, of Los Gatos, Calif.; and Steven, of Pasadena, Calif.; and seven grandchildren. A daughter, Susan, died in an automobile accident in 1976

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Laraine Day, ‘B+ Movie’ Star, Dies at 87

Associated Press
November 13, 2007

Laraine Day, a popular actress who appeared in almost two dozen MGM movies during Hollywood’s Golden Age, notably as the nurse Mary Lamont in a series of Dr. Kildare movies, died Saturday in Ivins, Utah. She was 87.

Her death, at the home of her daughter, Gigi Bell, in Ivins was announced by her publicist, Dale Olson. She had moved to Utah in March after the death of her husband of 47 years, the producer Michel M. Grilikhes.

For several years Ms. Day was also often called “the first lady of baseball” for her earlier marriage to Leo Durocher, the Hall of Fame manager of what were then the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.

Never a major star, Ms. Day was relegated to what she called “B+ movies” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1939 to 1945. She was almost the victim of an ax murderer in “Fingers at the Window” (1942), was married to a traitor in “A Yank on the Burma Road” (1942) and served as the intrepid newspaper publisher Edward G. Robinson’s girl Friday in “Unholy Partners” (1941).

Ms. Day captured roles in A movies only when she was loaned to other studios. In 1940, Alfred Hitchcock borrowed her to star with Joel McCrea in the spy thriller “Foreign Correspondent.” RKO had her play the virtuous society girl who reforms a draft-dodging, gambling ship owner (Cary Grant) in “Mr. Lucky” (1943). And Paramount borrowed her at the request of the director Cecil B. DeMille to play the steadfast nurse at the side of Gary Cooper’s heroic doctor in “The Story of Dr. Wassell” (1944), based on the rescue of a dozen wounded American sailors during the first days of World War II.

By the time Mr. DeMille was planning “Dr. Wassell,” Ms. Day had played a nurse, Mary Lamont, seven times in the “Dr. Kildare” films. “After seeing me in so many Kildares, I was naturally the only one who could play a nurse and knew the proper instruments,” Ms. Day said.

Starring Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie, the chief of surgery, the Kildare films were tremendously successful. Ms. Day described her character as “good, marvelous, true, honest.” For years after Nurse Lamont was hit by a truck while rushing to buy furniture in “Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day” (1941), people would stop Ms. Day on the street and ask, “Why did you die, Mary Lamont?” The movies became the basis of the television drama “Dr. Kildare” in the 1960s.

Though some sources give Ms. Day’s birthday as Oct. 13, 1917, the more likely date, and the one given on her death, is 1920. One of eight children, including a twin brother, she was born Laraine Johnson in Roosevelt, Utah, to a prosperous Mormon family. When he was 15, her father had acted as a Mormon Paul Revere, riding to warn polygamists that the federal marshals were coming so that they could hide their wives. Her great-grandfather, three of his six wives, and a few dozen of his 52 children had been early settlers in San Bernardino, Calif. The Johnsons followed two of their older sons to the area when Ms. Day was 9 years old.

Ms. Day started her film career with a bit part in a four-handkerchief melodrama of maternal love, “Stella Dallas” (1937). She was signed by MGM in 1939, and her name was immediately changed; the studio already had a Rita Johnson under contract.

Before long, she had one line before dying in a plane crash in “Tarzan Finds a Son” (1939) and committed suicide in “I Take This Woman” (1940), starring Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr. Loaned to Edward Small Productions when Frances Dee collapsed on the set of “My Son, My Son!” (1940), she killed herself again rather than ruin Brian Aherne’s life. The performance led theater owners to pick her as an outstanding new actress, and Life magazine called her “a major young Hollywood personality.”

But she felt MGM ultimately failed her. When asked what was the most memorable thing about working at the studio, Ms. Day replied, “I guess getting paid, because I never got a part that would have done anything for me.”

Ms. Day’s marriage to Mr. Durocher, in 1947, became grist for headlines for months. She married him in Texas, one day after being granted an interlocutory decree — a temporary court order, now seldom used — setting forth terms of divorce from her first husband, the singer Ray Hendricks, in California. Because that divorce would not be final for a year, a California superior court judge tried to revoke it. The solution, months later, allowed her to stay married in 47 of the 48 states but ruled that cohabiting with her new husband in California would be bigamy.

In 1946, Ms. Day had signed a contract at RKO for one picture a year for five years at a salary of $100,000 a movie, but only two films were made. She played a psychopathic killer in “The Locket” (1946) and a rich girl who is disinherited when she marries a railroad builder (John Wayne) in “Tycoon” (1947). Her last significant film roles were in “The High and the Mighty” (1954), the first of the airplane disaster movies, and “The Third Voice” (1960).

She also had a long career acting in television, from performing on “Playhouse 90” in the 1950s to guest appearances on “Murder, She Wrote” in the 1980s.

Ms. Day’s survivors include two daughters with Mr. Grilikhes, Gigi Bell and Dana Grilikhes Nassi; and a son and daughter with Mr. Durocher, Christopher and Michelle; her twin brother, Lamar, of Chico, Calif., and numerous grandchildren.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

`Mr. Whipple' TV Actor Dick Wilson Dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dick Wilson, the actor and pitchman who played the uptight grocer begging customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died Monday. He was 91.

The man famous as TV's "Mr. Whipple" died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his daughter Melanie Wilson, who is known for her role as a flight attendant on the ABC sitcom "Perfect Strangers."

Over 21 years, Wilson made more than 500 commercials as Mr. George Whipple, a man consumed with keeping bubbly housewives from fondling the soft toilet paper. The punch line of most spots was that Whipple himself was a closeted Charmin-squeezer.

Wilson also played a drunk on several episodes of "Bewitched," as appeared as various characters on "Hogan's Heroes," "The Bob Newhart Show," and Walt Disney productions.

The first of his Charmin commercials aired in 1964 and by the time the campaign ended in 1985, the tag line and Wilson were pop culture touchstones.

"Everybody says, 'Where did they find you?' I say I was never lost. I've been an actor for 55 years," Wilson told the San Francisco Examiner in 1985.

Though Wilson said he initially resisted commercial work, he learned to appreciate its nuance.

"It's the hardest thing to do in the entire acting realm. You've got 24 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce the product, say something nice about it and get off gracefully."

Dennis Legault, Procter & Gamble's Charmin brand manager, said in a statement that Wilson deserves much of the credit for the product's success in the marketplace. He called the Mr. Whipple character "one of the most recognizable faces in the history of American advertising."

After Wilson retired, he continued to do occasional guest appearances for the brand and act on television. He declared himself not impressed with modern cinema.

"The kind of pictures they're making today, I'll stick with toilet paper," he told The Associated Press in 1985.

Procter & Gamble eventually replaced the Whipple ads with cartoon bears, but brought Wilson (as Whipple) back for an encore in 1999. The ad showed Wilson "coming out of retirement" against the advice of his golfing and poker buddies for one more chance to sell Charmin.

"He is part of the culture," his daughter said. "He was still funny to the very end. That's his legacy."

He was born in England in 1916, the son of a vaudeville entertainer and a singer. He moved to Canada as a child, serving in the Canadian Air Force during World War II, and became a U.S. citizen in 1954, he told the AP.

In addition to Melanie, Wilson is survived by his wife, Meg; a son, Stuart; and another daughter, Wendy.

 

[Faneros]

'Hogan's Heroes' Actress Valdis Dies

AP
Posted: 2007-11-20 08:21:48
Filed Under: Star Obituaries, TV News
ANAHEIM, Calif. (Nov. 20) - The actress who played Col. Klink's sexy blond secretary Hilda on "Hogan's Heroes" and married the show's star, Bob Crane, has died. She was 72.

Patricia Crane died on Oct. 14, a spokeswoman for the Orange County coroner's office confirmed Monday. On stage, Crane was known as Sigrid Valdis.
Crane died of lung cancer at her daughter Ana Sarmiento's home, her son said.

"One of her last wishes in her will was that the funeral have no press, so we didn't contact the press (when she died), to honor her wishes," son Scotty Crane told the Los Angeles Times.

Crane played Hilda for five seasons on "Hogan's Heroes," the 1965-71 CBS situation comedy about Allied prisoners in a World War II German POW camp. Hilda and Bob Crane's Col. Hogan flirted playfully in front of the screen, but in 1970 were married for real - on the show's set.

Eight years later, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in an apartment in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Patricia Olson was born in 1935 in Bakersfield, Calif., and grew up in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, finding both runway and print modeling jobs as a teenager.

After graduating high school, she moved to Europe and then to New York City, where she studied acting and continued her modeling career.

Her film credits include "Our Man Flint," "Two Tickets to Paris," "Marriage on the Rocks," and "The Venetian Affair." In addition to "Hogan's Heroes," she appeared on other television series, including "The Wild Wild West" and "Kraft Mystery Theater."

She retired from acting after her son's birth in 1971. She moved from the Los Angeles area after Crane's death in 1978. In 1998, she joined the cast of her son's syndicated weekly sketch comedy radio show, "Shaken, Not Stirred," which originated in Seattle.

In 2004, she returned to live in her childhood home in Westwood.

In addition to her son and daughter from her marriage to Crane, the twice-widowed actress is survived by a daughter from her first marriage, Melissa Smith; and five grandchildren.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Tom Johnson, Former Montreal Star and Bruins Coach, Dies

BOSTON (AP) -Tom Johnson, the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman who coached the Boston Bruins to their last Stanley Cup title in 1972, has died. He was 79.

The Bruins said Saturday that Johnson died at his Falmouth home. The team didn't disclose the cause of death.

The former Montreal and Boston defenseman was a player, coach and executive with the Bruins for more than three decades until he retired in 1998.

"If we all are allowed an ultimate friend, mentor, confidant and teacher, Tom Johnson was all of those to me," said Harry Sinden, Boston's former coach and general manager who is now an adviser. "The Bruins and all of hockey have lost a great person."

Johnson, a native of Baldur, Manitoba, played 15 years for Montreal, helping the Canadiens win six Stanley Cups - including five straight from 1956-60. He also won the 1958-59 Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman.

Former Canadiens scoring star Dickie Moore lamented that only five players remain among those who played on all five straight Cup winners - himself, Talbot, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and Don Marshall.

"He'll be missed," Moore said. "We had a lot of fun together. He had a hell of a life in hockey."

Johnson and former defensive partner Jean-Guy Talbot got together with some former teammates for a tribute during the Stanley Cup final last spring in Ottawa.

"Jean-Guy used to keep records," Johnson recalled at the reunion. "He told me we went 23 games without a goal being scored against us one time, but I think the goaltender (Jacques Plante) had something to do with that."

The Bruins claimed Johnson from Montreal in the 1963 waiver draft, and he played two seasons in Boston until a leg injury ended his career in 1965.

Johnson moved into the Bruins' front office as an assistant to general manager Milt Schmidt. He succeeded Sinden as head coach after Boston won the 1970 title and led the team to consecutive 50-plus win seasons, culminating with the 1972 Stanley Cup.

His .738 winning percentage is the best in team history.

He returned to the front office in 1973 as assistant general manager, then in 1979 became vice president. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970.

Johnson is survived by wife Doris, son Tommy and daughter Julie.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Pitcher Joe Kennedy, 28

Pitcher Joe Kennedy, 28, dies in Florida after passing out

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Major league pitcher Joe Kennedy died early Friday morning, a Hillsborough County sheriff's official said. He was 28.

Kennedy passed out at home and was brought to a hospital, Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. She had no further details.

Kennedy's agent, Damon Lapa, told ESPN.com that the pitcher died while at home with family in Florida. Lapa didn't return phone calls and an e-mail from The Associated Press.

"We were terribly shocked,'' Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said. "From what we understand he was in Bradenton ... to be the best man at a wedding today.''

Godfrey said he didn't have any particulars on the cause of death.

"Obviously, when a 28-year-old man dies, ballplayer or not, it's a terrible, terrible thing,'' he said.

The left-hander was 43-61 in seven major league seasons with Tampa Bay, Colorado, Oakland, Arizona and Toronto. Kennedy was 43-61 record with a 4.79 ERA, pitching 908 2-3 innings over 222 career appearances.

Kennedy made his major league debut in June 2001 and made his last appearance in relief on Sept. 29 in a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay.

Godfrey said Toronto was interested in bringing Kennedy back.

"We had every intention to speak to him,'' he said. "We had him on our list to talk to.''

Kennedy began the 2007 season in Oakland as a starter but was moved to the bullpen after going 3-9 with a 4.37 ERA. He appeared in 27 games, including 16 starts, before being placed on waivers.

The Diamondbacks claimed Kennedy on Aug. 4, but he appeared in just three games for Arizona, allowing seven runs in 2 2-3 innings, before being designated for assignment on Aug. 15. The Blue Jays signed Kennedy on Aug. 29, and he got his first win as a Blue Jay on Sept. 21 at the New York Yankees.

"We are deeply saddened and shocked to hear of Joe's passing. He was a valued teammate and friend to everyone with the A's organization,'' Oakland assistant general manager David Forst said in a statement. "On behalf of the entire A's organization, we extend our condolences to Joe's wife, Jami and his entire family.''

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Kevin DuBrow, the Leader of Quiet Riot, Dies at 52

November 27, 2007

Kevin DuBrow, a gravelly voiced singer for Quiet Riot, a heavy-metal band that peaked in the 1980s, and who captivated decibel-tolerant fans with high-intensity musicality, quirky theatricality and a hint of menace, died on Sunday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 52.

Samantha Charles, communications officer for the coroner’s office of Clark County, Nev., said the cause of the death remains the subject of investigation.

Web sites and blogs quickly began buzzing with tributes and speculation about the cause of death. Frankie Banali, Quiet Riot’s current drummer, wrote, “I am already having to deal with untrue rumors and speculation,” and he asked for them to stop.

Mr. DuBrow’s music evolved from an early love of British rock acts that included Small Faces, Spooky Tooth, Rod Stewart and Humble Pie. He favored suspenders and hats, splashy antics and no-holds-barred banter. As Quiet Riot changed in membership and style, Mr. DuBrow was the persistent driving force in the group’s uninhibited aggressiveness.

Sometimes during concerts he dressed up in a strait jacket and metal face mask to appear as Quiet Riot’s mascot, which is on the covers of almost all the group’s albums.

Quiet Riot is credited with helping start the 1980s glam-metal scene and is probably best known for its take on Slade’s “Cum On Feel the Noize,” which appeared on “Metal Health” (1983) and eventually spent two weeks at No. 5 on Billboard’s list of hits. The album sold more than 4 million copies and is considered by many to be the first heavy-metal record to climb high in the pop charts.

“Although bands such as Motley Crue get the lion’s share of credit for popularizing pop metal in the 1980s, the first band of the genre to break through to a massive audience was Quiet Riot,” Billboard.com said yesterday.

Kevin Mark DuBrow was born on Oct. 29, 1955. He grew up first in Hollywood, Calif., and then in suburban Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley.

The group first released two albums in Japan. After Mr. Rhoads left to join Mr. Osbourne in 1979, the band’s name was changed to DuBrow. After Mr. Rhoads’s death, the group was reconstituted as Quiet Riot.

After its success with “Metal Health,” Quiet Riot’s next album, “Condition Critical” (1984), was a disappointment in sales. The band continued to go through changes, and in 2004 Mr. DuBrow left to make a solo album, “In for the Kill.” He later returned.

At the peak of the group’s popularity, in the 1980s, Mr. DuBrow said he was making as much as $500,000 a year and delighting in “completely gorgeous women who are absolutely crazy,” according to an interview with Rock Eyez, an online magazine specializing in heavy-metal music.

Information on survivors was unavailable, but Mr. DuBrow never married nor had children.

In 2006, Quiet Riot released an album called “Rehab.” In 2001, Mr. DuBrow told The Birmingham (Ala.) Weekly that he eschewed alcohol, liked doing housework and exercised regularly.

He said in a 2004 interview in Worcester Magazine: “I’ve read interviews where certain guys are trying to escape their past. I am my past.”

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Redskins Safety Sean Taylor Dies a Day After Being Shot in the Leg

MIAMI (AP) - Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died early Tuesday, a day after he was shot at home. He was 24.

Family friend Richard Sharpstein said Taylor's father told him the news around 5:30 a.m.

"His father called and said he was with Christ and he cried and thanked me," said Sharpstein, Taylor's former lawyer. "It's a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously God had other plans."

He said Taylor died early Tuesday at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he had been airlifted after the shooting early Monday.

Doctors had been encouraged late Monday when Taylor squeezed a nurse's hand, according to Vinny Cerrato, the Redskins' vice president of football operations. But Sharpstein said he was told Taylor never regained consciousness after being transported to the hospital and that he wasn't sure how he had squeezed the nurse's hand.

"Maybe he was trying to say goodbye or something," Sharpstein said.

Taylor was shot early Monday in the upper leg, damaging an artery and causing significant blood loss.

Miami-Dade Police were investigating the attack, which came just eight days after an intruder was reported at Taylor's home. Officers were dispatched about 1:45 a.m. Monday after Taylor's girlfriend called 911. Taylor was airlifted to the hospital.

Sharpstein said Taylor's girlfriend told him the couple was awakened by loud noises, and Taylor grabbed a machete he keeps in the bedroom for protection. Someone then broke through the bedroom door and fired two shots, one missing and one hitting Taylor, Sharpstein said. Taylor's 1-year-old daughter, Jackie, was also in the house, but neither she nor Taylor's girlfriend were injured.

"It could have been a possible burglary; it could have been a possible robbery," Miami-Dade Police Lt. Nancy Perez said. "It has not been confirmed as yet."

The shooting happened in the pale yellow house he bought two years ago in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay. Eight days before the attack someone pried open a front window, rifled through drawers and left a kitchen knife on a bed at Taylor's home, according to police.

"They're really sifting through that incident and today's incident," Miami-Dade Detective Mario Rachid said, "to see if there's any correlation."

Born April 1, 1983, Taylor starred as a running back and defensive back at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami. His father, Pedro Taylor, is police chief of Florida City.

A private man with a small inner circle, Taylor rarely granted interviews. But, behind the scenes, Taylor was described as personable and smart - an emerging locker room leader.

Especially since the birth of his daughter.

"From the first day I met him, from then to now, it's just like night and day," Redskins receiver James Thrash said. "He's really got his head on his shoulders and has been doing really well as far as just being a man. It's been awesome to see that growth."

An All-American at the University of Miami, Taylor was drafted by the Redskins as the fifth overall selection in 2004. Coach Joe Gibbs called it "one of the most researched things" he'd ever done, but the problems soon began. Taylor fired his agent, then skipped part of the NFL's mandatory rookie symposium, drawing a $25,000 fine. Driving home late from a party during the season, he was pulled over and charged with drunken driving. The case was dismissed in court, but by then it had become a months-long distraction for the team.

Taylor also was fined at least seven times for late hits, uniform violations and other infractions over his first three seasons, including a $17,000 penalty for spitting in the face of Tampa Bay running back Michael Pittman during a playoff game in January 2006.

Meanwhile, Taylor endured a yearlong legal battle after he was accused in 2005 of brandishing a gun at a man during a fight over allegedly stolen all-terrain vehicles near Taylor's home. He eventually pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to 18 months' probation.

Taylor said the end of the assault case was like "a gray cloud" being lifted. It was also around the time that Jackie was born, and teammates noticed a change.

On the field, Taylor's play was often erratic. Assistant coach Gregg Williams frequently called Taylor the best athlete he'd ever coached, but nearly every big play was mitigated by a blown assignment. Taylor led the NFL in missed tackles in 2006 yet made the Pro Bowl because of his reputation as one of the hardest hitters in the league.

This year, however, Taylor was allowed to play a true free safety position, using his speed and power to chase down passes and crush would-be receivers. His five interceptions tie for the league lead in the NFC, even though he missed the last two games because of a sprained knee.

"I just take this job very seriously," Taylor said in a rare group interview during training camp. "It's almost like, you play a kid's game for a king's ransom. And if you don't take it serious enough, eventually one day you're going to say, 'Oh, I could have done this, I could have done that.'

"So I just say, 'I'm healthy right now, I'm going into my fourth year, and why not do the best that I can?' And that's whatever it is, whether it's eating right or training myself right, whether it's studying harder, whatever I can do to better myself."

His hard work was well-noted.

 

[phrodeau]

Gatorade creator Dr. Robert Cade dies Tuesday at age 80
Tuesday, November 27, 2007.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dr. J. Robert Cade, the legendary University of Florida scientist who led the research team that gave the world Gatorade, died Tuesday at Shands at UF medical center. He was 80.

“Today, with his passing, the University of Florida lost a legend, lost one of its best friends and lost a creative genius,” said Dr. Edward Block, chairman of the department of medicine in the College of Medicine, where Cade was an emeritus professor. “Losing any one of those is huge. When you lose all three in one person, it’s something you cannot recoup.”

He had a sense of humor, a quirky one at that, friends and colleagues said. His research, philanthropy and leadership helped countless people during his more than 40 years at UF.

Dr. Cade liked to tell the story of how a football player sampling an early batch of Gatorade compared the beverage’s taste to a less-than-savory bodily fluid. An old newspaper article describes how he tested the durability of a hydraulic helmet he invented by hitting an assistant in the head. She was wearing the helmet, and it, of course, worked brilliantly.

“He thought outside of the box,” said Dr. Richard Johnson, the J. Robert Cade professor of nephrology and division chief of nephrology. “He was a maverick in his time.”

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Cade attended medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He came to UF in 1961 as an assistant professor for the College of Medicine’s renal division. He was UF’s first kidney specialist and one of the university’s first true clinical and translational researchers, said Dr. Bruce Kone, dean of the UF College of Medicine.

“He had a wide range of research interests,” Kone said. “He was a very creative scientist. He was the perfect blend of imagination and practicality.”

Cade and his research fellows began experimenting with Gatorade in 1965. They wanted to create a drink that would help keep UF football players hydrated on the field, but the mixture of glucose and sodium didn’t taste like much until his wife suggested they add lemons.

“We got lemon squeezers’ cramp after five lemons,” Cade joked in 2005. “We liked the taste of it though no one else did. Then we made it sweet and we thought it tastes very good.”

The beverage made its first big headlines in 1966, when sportswriters discovered a link between the UF Gators’ superior second-half performances and their consumption of the brew. At the close of the football season that year after the Gators trounced Miami, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville ran a story titled “One Lil’Swig of That Kickapoo Juice and Biff, Bam, Sock — It’s Gators, 8-2.”

Fame expanded exponentially when a Miami Herald sportswriter asked what the Gators were drinking. In an interview with Cade, he learned it was a mixture of water, sodium, potassium, phosphate, sugar and fresh-squeezed lemon juice, which kept players adequately hydrated and warded off fatigue. The Herald’s story was distributed worldwide by Associated Press and United Press International, and in Cade’s words, “Our stuff was on its way.”

Gatorade bred a multibillion-dollar sports drink industry and has brought in more than $150 million in royalties to UF since its invention 40 years ago. The money has funded numerous projects and programs in the UF College of Medicine. Cade also used some of his share of the royalties to fund scholarships and an endowed chair in the college.

“Without that funding, the College of Medicine would not be where it stands today,” Kone said.

Cade also invented a slew of other creations, namely a beer called Hop N’ Gator, which was on the market for about 10 years, a high-protein milk drink called Gator Go! and a nutritional ice pop to help sick children.

“He continued to do research until he was 79,” Johnson said. “I had the pleasure of writing a paper with him a few years ago.”

Block also described Cade — a man who collected Studebakers, quoted Wordsworth and Tennyson and doted on his six children and numerous grandchildren — as a role model for how to behave like a gentleman.

“We talk about the Gator Nation, Gatorade put the Gator Nation on the map,” Block said. “Everybody knows who we are because of that.”

Dr. Cade is survived by a wife, Mary Strasburger of Gainesville, Fla.; two sons, Michael of Texas and Stephen of Gainesville, Fla.; four daughters, Martha of Gainesville, Fla., Celia Cade Johnson of Oregon, Emily Morrison of Boston, and Phoebe Miles of Washington, D.C.; 20 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

 

[Denae]

Evel Knievel

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills. He also suffered two strokes in recent years.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundle said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundle said.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

"I think he lived 20 years longer than most people would have" after so many injuries, said his son Kelly Knievel, 47. "I think he willed himself into an extra five or six years."

Though Knievel dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, the image of the high-flying motorcyclist clad in patriotic, star-studded colors was never erased from public consciousness. He always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Knievel made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival, which Rundle organizes.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. To Knievel, there always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

He had a knack for outrageous yarns: "Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though."

He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.

In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the West and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jump over two cars parked between ramps.

He steadily increased the length of the jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace. He cleared the fountains but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.

His son, Robbie, successfully completed the same jump in April 1989.

In the years after the Caesar's crash, the fee for Evel's performances increased to $1 million for his jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London — the crash landing broke his pelvis — to more than $6 million for the Sept. 8, 1974, attempt to clear the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a rocket-powered "Skycycle." The money came from ticket sales, paid sponsors and ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

The parachute malfunctioned and deployed after takeoff. Strong winds blew the cycle into the canyon, landing him close to the swirling river below.

On Oct. 25, 1975, he jumped 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island in Ohio.

Knievel decided to retire after a jump in the winter of 1976 in which he was again seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and broke both arms in an attempt to jump a tank full of live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater. He continued to do smaller exhibitions around the country with his son, Robbie.

Many of his records have been broken by daredevil motorcyclist Bubba Blackwell.

Knievel also dabbled in movies and TV, starring as himself in "Viva Knievel" and with Lindsay Wagner in an episode of the 1980s TV series "Bionic Woman." George Hamilton and Sam Elliott each played Knievel in movies about his life.

Evel Knievel toys accounted for more than $300 million in sales for Ideal and other companies in the 1970s and '80s.

Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.

"The phrase one-of-a-kind is often used, but it probably applies best to Bobby Knievel," said former U.S. Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., Knievel's cousin. "He was an amazing athlete... He was sharp as a tack, one of the smartest people I've ever known and finally, as the world knows, no one had more guts than Bobby. He was simply unafraid of anything."

Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, Knievel went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.

He also formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player.

Knievel also worked in the Montana copper mines, served in the Army, ran his own hunting guide service, sold insurance and ran Honda motorcycle dealerships. As a motorcycle dealer, he drummed up business by offering $100 off the price of a motorcycle to customers who could beat him at arm wrestling.

At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.

Evel Knievel married hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.

Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000. He also jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon.

Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and Butte. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Musician Ike Turner Dies at 76

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife and icon Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

"He did pass away this morning" at his home in San Marcos, in northern San Diego County, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's musical career.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in his later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for "Risin' With the Blues."

But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on Tina Turner's autobiography.

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, Turner denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media, adding that his historic role in rock's beginnings had been ignored.

"You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem, you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody - anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn't been in print about what I've done or what I've contributed until now," he said.

Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.

But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record - it was recorded with Turner's band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.

And it would be another singer - a young woman named Anna Mae Bullock - who would bring Turner his greatest fame, and infamy.

Turner met the 18-year-old Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced singer the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Her stage persona was highlighted by short skirts and stiletto heels that made her legs her most visible asset. But despite the glamorous image, she still sang with the grit and fervor of a rock singer with a twist of soul.

The pair would have two sons. They also produced a string of hits. The first, "A Fool In Love," was a top R&B song in 1959, and others followed, including "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine."

But over the years they're genre-defying sound would make them favorites on the rock 'n' roll scene, as they opened for acts like the Rolling Stones.

The densely layered hit "River Deep, Mountain High" was one of producer Phil Spector's proudest creations. A rousing version of "Proud Mary," a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Singer Dan Fogelberg dies of cancer

Dec. 16, 2007 05:32 PM

NEW YORK - Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56.

His death was announced Sunday in a statement by Anna Loynes of the Solters & Digney public relations agency, and was also posted on the singer's Web site.

"Dan left us this morning at 6:00 a.m. He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side," it read. "His strength, dignity and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him."

Fogelberg was found in 2004 to have advanced prostate cancer. In a statement then, he thanked fans for their support: "It is truly overwhelming and humbling to realize how many lives my music has touched so deeply all these years. ... I thank you from the very depths of my heart."

Fogelberg's music was powerful in its simplicity. He didn't rely on the volume of his voice to convey his emotions; instead, they came through in the soft, tender delivery and his poignant lyrics. Songs like "Same Old Lang Syne" - in which a man reminisces after meeting an old girlfriend by chance during the holidays - became classics not only because of his performance, but for the engaging storyline, as well.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Jazz Great Oscar Peterson Dies at 82

The famed pianist, a winner of eight Grammys, worked with nearly every jazz legend -- from Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker to Ella Fitzgerald

OSCAR PETERSON IN THE 1950S
Everett Collection

Prolific piano great Oscar Peterson, whose career seemed to span nearly the full history of jazz, died on Sunday in his home in Ontario, Canada, from kidney failure, at age 82

A winner of eight Grammy Awards, Peterson played with all the greats — Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, and so on. A renowned virtuoso, the musician was celebrated for what some called a unique combination of speed and delicacy. According to The New York Times, Duke Ellington famously dubbed him, ''the maharajah of the keyboard,'' while Count Basie said that Peterson ''plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.''

The Montreal-born son of a poor Caribbean immigrant, Peterson rose from humble beginnings to become one of the giants in his field. With sometimes multiple album releases in a single year and near constant touring across the globe, he fast became a household name, often working as part of a trio.

He suffered a stroke in 1993 but continued to play despite restricted mobility in his hand: ''I think I have a closeness with the instrument that I’ve treasured over the years,'' he told The Chicago Tribune. In 2005, Peterson joined the ranks of kings and queens when a Canadian stamp was produced bearing his image.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Michael Kidd, Tony-Winning Choreographer and Director, Dead at 92

Michael Kidd, who won five Tony Awards as well as an Honorary Academy Award for his choreographic talents on Broadway and on screen, died Dec. 23 at his Los Angeles home, the New York Times reports. Mr. Kidd died from cancer, according to his nephew Robert Greenwald, who said his uncle was 92.

Michael Kidd began his Broadway career as a performer in the late thirties/early forties in Filling Station, The Ballet Caravan, Billy the Kid, Interplay and Ballet Theatre. One of his early choreography credits was the original production of Finian's Rainbow, for which Mr. Kidd won a 1947 Tony Award, tying with Agnes de Mille (Brigadoon). He would go on to win four other Tony Awards — for his choreography for Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Li'l Abner and Destry Rides Again.

Li'l Abner — in 1956 — was the first Broadway production that Mr. Kidd both choreographed and directed. He would repeat both those duties for productions of Destry Rides Again, Wildcat, Subways Are for Sleeping, Ben Franklin in Paris, The Rothschilds, Cyrano and a 1980 revival of The Music Man.

Although he failed to win another Tony after his 1960 choreographic win for Destry Rides Again (he was also nominated for a director Tony for Destry), Mr. Kidd did receive five other nominations. Those nominations include three for choreography (Subways Are for Sleeping, Skyscraper and The Rothschilds) and two for direction (The Rothschilds and The Goodbye Girl). The latter, which starred Bernadette Peters in the title role, was Mr. Kidd's final Broadway credit.

In addition to his stage success, Mr. Kidd also enjoyed a Hollywood career. He staged dances and musical numbers for "The Band Wagon," "Knock on Wood," "Guys and Dolls," "Li'l Abner," "Star!" and "Movie Movie" and is credited with choreographing "Where's Charley?," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Merry Andrew" and "Hello, Dolly!" Mr. Kidd also appeared in a handful of films: "Happy Days Are Here Again," "It's Always Fair Weather," "Smile," "Movie Movie" and "Skin Deep." He and Peter Anastos were Emmy-nominated for their choreography for the 1982 TV special "Baryshnikov in Hollywood."

Mr. Kidd was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1997 "in recognition of his services to the art of the dance in the art of the screen." He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 from the American Choreography Awards, USA.

Mr. Kidd was born Michael Greenwald in Brooklyn, NY. He attended City College of New York, but left the college when he received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet in 1937. He was married twice: to Mary Heater, which ended in divorce; and to Shelah Hackett, who survives him. He is also survived by four children: Kristine Kidd and Susan Kidd, from his first marriage; and Amy Kidd and Matthew Kidd, from his second.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Time runs out for comedian Pudgy

From Las Vegas news report

One day Beverly "Pudgy!" Wines was a wisecracking waitress who hopped tables near Chicago's City Hall. Almost overnight, she was the toast of Rush Street.

"She never dreamed of being of a comedian. She just was," said her son, Mike Cardella.

Wines, who had emceed X Burlesque at the Flamingo since last year, was found dead of natural causes at her home early Monday, Cardella said.

Often referred to as "the female Don Rickles" for her roasting style, Wines and her family had lived here since 1993, when she arrived for a comedy gig with the "Crazy Girls" at the Riviera.

A regular at Chicago's legendary Pump Room, her career "started steamrolling when she was 30," said Cardella, who works for N9NE Group as a nightclub door host. His mother worked for Chicago restaurateur Arnie Morton, whose son, Michael, is co-owner of N9NE Group.

"She was 'the next big thing,'" said Cardella, 28, "but because she had us (her three children), that was her main focus. She didn't want to do the Hollywood parties or whatever it took. We were her priority."

One of Wines' biggest breaks came when she landed a 1983 Showtime special on the Queen Mary in front of an all-celebrity audience. They took a royal ribbing.

Wines will be buried in Chicago.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Salvatore Bonanno of crime family dead at 75

January 2, 2008

Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, the son of a New York City crime boss who wrote a book about growing up in a Mafia family and survived an assassination attempt, has died.

Bonanno was 75 and lived in Tucson, Ariz. The cause of death was a heart attack, Los Angeles literary agent Mickey Freiberg told The Associated Press.

According to his self-published biography, Bonanno was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 5, 1932, to Joseph Bonanno and his wife, Fay. The family moved later to Hempstead.

Bill Bonanno officially joined the mob in 1954 in a ceremony in a Brooklyn warehouse, and acted as one of his father's confidants and advisers.

He further connected the family to the criminal underworld when he married Rosalie Profaci, the niece of mob boss and family friend Joe Profaci, in 1956. The couple adopted a son, Charles, and had three other children.

After relations between the Bonannos and other mob families unraveled, Bill Bonanno narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when he was ambushed in a meeting supposedly intended to smooth relations with a rival gang.

In 1968, he was imprisoned after conviction on contempt, credit card and other charges and spent a total of 12 years behind bars.

Bonanno wrote the story of his life in "Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story," published in 2000. The book purports to tell the "true history" of organized crime in the United States and his own family's prominent role in it.

He dedicated the book to his wife as well as his father, who he said "remained scrupulous to his principles." Bill Bonanno was also the subject of Gay Talese's book, "Honor Thy Father."

In 2005, Bonanno teamed with Joe Pistone, a former undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno family under the name Donnie Brasco and helped convict dozens of mobsters. The pair wrote a mob novel together. According to his Web site Bonanno was writing another book about Mafia history in recent years.

Bonanno is survived by his wife; his sister, Catherine Genovese; sons Charles, Joseph and Salvatore and daughter Gigi; 18 grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews, according to The Tucson Citizen.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Skating Champion Bowman Found Dead

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 11) - Christopher Bowman, the former U.S. figure skating champion dubbed "Bowman the Showman" for his flair on the ice, died Thursday of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40.

Bowman was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale, who wasn't immediately able to provide more details about the possible drug overdose. Bowman's body was found at a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend, Bale said.

"He just passed away in his sleep," Bowman's mother, Joyce, told the Detroit Free Press, which first reported details of his death. "His friend told me that he was fine. He just went to bed and didn't wake up."

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating's bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented, with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the U.S. men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.

He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992.

"If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one," Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, told the Chicago Tribune. "He had natural charisma, natural athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and he always seemed so relaxed about it."

But as talented as he was on the ice, Bowman could be just as big a challenge off it. He bounced from coach to coach long before it became fashionable - he once won Skate America when he was in-between coaches - and freely admitted that practice was something that just didn't interest him much.

"Each and every competition that I train for, prepare for, is always a personal challenge for me because, as we all know, the training and discipline between each event is very difficult for me," Bowman said in 1992.

He battled drug problems, and underwent treatment at least twice - once before the 1988 Olympics and then again after the Albertville Games in 1992.

He also had run-ins with the law.

In November 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors involving having a gun while drunk in Rochester Hills, Mich.

In 1993, while skating with the Ice Capades, he was beaten at a hotel in a seedy neighborhood in Pittsburgh, according to a police report.

Born in Hollywood, on March 30, 1967, Bowman had a part in the TV series "Little House on the Prairie" for one season and appeared in dozens of commercials. He got into coaching after his skating career was finished, and the Free Press said he had lived in the Detroit area from 1995 until last February.

Recently, Bowman had returned to acting. He had a role as an assistant coach in the upcoming Brian J. De Palma-directed movie "Down and Distance" starring Gary Busey.

Bowman had a daughter with his former wife, Annette Bowman, according to the Free Press.

 

[Faneros]

Edmund Hillary, First Atop Everest, Dead at 88

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to stand atop Mount Everest, died in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 88. Hillary along with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide, were the first to conquer the world's highest mountain in 1953.

Phillipa Tolley, a reporter with Radio New Zealand about Hillary's life, speaks with Steve Inskeep.

The first man to summit Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, has died. He was 88.

In 1953, Hillary — a beekeeper by trade — and his team reached the mountain's south peak. But, exhausted by the altitude, most team members could go no farther. Only Hillary and a native Nepalese climber, Tenzing Norgay, continued on.

David Breashears, a fellow climber, talks with Robert Siegel about the life of his friend, Sir Edmund Hillary. Breashears says Hillary initially gained fame for the climb, but afterward, he dedicated much of his life to supporting the Sherpas in the Himalayas.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Johnny Grant, Hollywood's Honorary Mayor, Dies

Grant Inducted More Than 500 Stars On Walk Of Fame

UPDATED: 8:52 am CST January 10, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- The man known as the honorary mayor of Hollywood and its No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half century has died.

Johnny Grant died Wednesday night at the age of 84, apparently of natural causes, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where he lived.

Grant may have been best known as the jolly host who inducted more than 500 celebrities into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He also took part in red carpet Oscar arrivals, produced Hollywood's annual Christmas parade and made cameo appearances in films.

Grant often appeared alongside Bob Hope as a USO ambassador during the Korean and Vietnam wars and battles in the Middle East.

He got his start in the 1940s in radio and later worked in television.

The lifelong bachelor often summed up his life and career as "a pretty good ride."

 

[sweet soft kiss]

So much wasted talent

Christopher Bowman had an alternate nickname ... in skating circles (and especially by his former coaches) he was called "Hans Brinker from Hell." I hope he has found the peace that seemed to elude him in life.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Christopher Bowman had an alternate nickname ... in skating circles (and especially by his former coaches) he was called "Hans Brinker from Hell." I hope he has found the peace that seemed to elude him in life.

I agree. It's really a shame.

 

[Denae]

Christopher Bowman had an alternate nickname ... in skating circles (and especially by his former coaches) he was called "Hans Brinker from Hell." I hope he has found the peace that seemed to elude him in life.

I too hope he finds peace. I remember watching him and being enthralled by his performances, and later I was turned off by his off-ice antics. He was definitely a troubled soul on this Earth.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to stand atop Mount Everest, died in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 88. Hillary along with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide, were the first to conquer the world's highest mountain in 1953.....

Breashears says Hillary initially gained fame for the climb, but afterward, he dedicated much of his life to supporting the Sherpas in the Himalayas.

Can you imagine what a great thrill it was to climb Everest? What a wonderful adventurous spirit and an obviously generous man to care about those less fortunate than he. RIP good man

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Vampira dead at 86

A veteran horror star famous for playing the undead has passed on herself: Vampira (real name Maila Nurmi) died of natural causes yesterday. She was 86.

While Nurmi appeared in several movies, including The Beat Generation and The Big Operator, she is probably best known for the character of Vampira she created in the 1950s.

She was the Elvira of her day, hosting a local show on KABC in Los Angeles where she introduced horror movies. She caught the eye of director Ed Wood, who cast her in the cult classic Plan 9 From Outer Space. She was played by Lisa Marie in the Tim Burton film Ed Wood in 1994.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Miracle Mets Pitcher Cardwell Dies At 72

January 15, 2008 -- WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Don Cardwell, who pitched a no-hitter and helped the MetsNew York Mets win the 1969 World Series, died yesterday. He was 72.

Cardwell died Monday morning, said Richard Puryear, a spokesman for Salem Funerals & Cremations. The cause of death was not immediately known.

"He was a tremendous mentor to the young guys on our staff," Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver said in a statement. "When he said something, you listened. He was the ultimate professional on and off the field. Just a tremendous, tremendous guy - and a big part of everything we accomplished that year."

Cardwell pitched for five major league teams from 1957-70. He finished 102-138 with a 3.92 ERA and 1,211 strikeouts. He threw 17 shutouts, earned seven saves - and hit 15 home runs.

The right-hander was 8-10 with a 3.01 ERA for the Miracle Mets in '69. He pitched in 30 games, making 21 starts.

"I just remember him as one of the real tough guys who had a great second half in 1969," Mets teammate Ron Swoboda said. "Just old-school, man. He was old school back then!"

After beginning his career with the Philadelphia Phillies, Cardwell was traded to the Cubs in May 1960. Two days after the deal, he tossed a no-hitter against the Cardinals.

Cardwell's best season with the Cubs was 1961, when he went 15-14 with a 3.82 ERA and a career-high 156 strikeouts. He was traded to the Cardinals the following year, but was dealt to Pittsburgh a month later without ever pitching for St. Louis.

He spent 1963-66 with the Pirates, going 13-10 with a 3.18 ERA in 1965, before he was traded to the Mets in December 1966. In 1969, he was part of a New York rotation that included Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Gary Gentry. Cardwell pitched one inning in the '69 World Series as the Mets upset the heavily favored Orioles.

Swoboda remembers Cardwell sticking up for his teammates during a fight with Houston in 1969 and dropping Astros third baseman Doug Rader with one powerful punch.

"I think it helps calm you down when you've got a guy like that who's ready to do what it takes," Swoboda said. "When it got to fist city you needed some guys that were ready to go."

Cardwell ended his career with the Braves in 1970.

Survivors include his wife, Sylvia; three children, five grandchildren and three sisters.



Met fan here. R.I.P. Don