Literotica Cemetary

[FiestyRedHead]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs....1060/NEWS01?fever_for_the_flavor_os_a_pringle

Fredric J. Baur was designer of P&G's Pringles container
Chemist had a hand in many products

COLLEGE HILL - Dr. Fredric J. Baur was so proud of having designed the container for Pringles potato crisps that he asked his family to bury him in one.

His children honored his request. Part of his remains was buried in a Pringles can - along with a regular urn containing the rest - in his grave at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield Township.
Dr. Baur, a retired organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Procter & Gamble, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice. The College Hill resident was 89.

He developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G. The ice cream was patented and marketed, but didn't catch on. "Basically, what you did, you added milk to it, put it in the freezer and you had ice cream," said his son Lawrence J. Baur of Stevensville, Mich. "That was another one he was proud of but just never went anywhere."

Later in his career, Dr. Baur became a compliance specialist for P&G. "He had a worldwide reputation in plant sanitation and traveled all over the world inspecting plants," said his daughter, Linda L. Baur, of Diamondhead, Miss. He also lectured, edited books, and wrote several publications and articles.

But the Pringles can - a tube-shaped container designed to hold the salty, stackable, saddle-shaped chip - was his proudest accomplishment, his daughter said. He received a patent for the package as well as the method of packaging Pringles in 1970.
Born in Toledo on July 14, 1918, Dr. Baur received a bachelor's degree from the University of Toledo and both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Ohio State University.

He served in the Navy as an aviation physiologist stationed in San Diego during World War II. Aviation physiologists conducted research on the medical aspects of flight.

Dr. Baur started working for P&G in the late 1940s and retired in the early 1980s.

He was a member of College Hill Presbyterian Church and active with the national Presbyterian Church. He was on the board of directors of the church-run Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

His wife, Elaine Baur, died in 2001.

In addition to his daughter, Linda, and son Lawrence, survivors include another son, Ronald S. Baur of College Hill; and four grandchildren.

 

[blueyz22]

http://http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-06-01-yves-saint-laurent-obit_N.htm

Designer Yves Saint Laurent is dead: foundation
1 hour ago

PARIS (AFP) — Yves Saint Laurent, one the top French designers of the 20th century, died Sunday evening in Paris, a source in the fashion icon's foundation said.

"Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday at 11:10 pm," the source in Pierre-Berge-Saint Laurent Foundation told AFP.

The reclusive French maestro, who had retired from haute couture in 2002 after four decades at the top of his trade, had been ill for some time.

During his farewell appearance seven years ago, Saint Laurent had told reporters he had "always given the highest importance of all to respect for this craft, which is not exactly an art, but which needs an artist to exist."

One of a handful of designers who dominated 20th century fashion -- on a par with Christian Dior, Coco Chanel and Paul Poiret -- Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent was born in the coastal town of Oran, Algeria, on August 1, 1936, at a time when the North African country was still considered part of France.

A shy, lonely, child, he became fascinated by clothes, and already had a solid portfolio of sketches when he first arrived in Paris in 1953, aged 17.

Vogue editor Michel de Brunoff, who was to become a key supporter, was quickly won over, and published them.

The following year Saint Laurent won three of the four categories in a design competition in Paris -- the fourth went to his contemporary Karl Lagerfeld, now at Chanel.

Discerning the young man's potential, de Brunoff advised Christian Dior to hire him and he rapidly emerged as heir apparent to the great couturier, taking over the house when Dior died suddenly three years later.

Saint Laurent would say of his mentor: "Dior fascinated me. I couldn't speak in front of him. He taught me the basis of my art. Whatever was to happen next, I never forgot the years spent at his side."

However in 1960, like many Frenchmen of his age, Saint Laurent was called up to fight in his native Algeria, where an independence war was under way.

Less than three weeks later he won an exemption on health grounds, but when he returned to Paris it was to learn that Dior had already found a replacement for him, in the person of Marc Bohan.

With his close associate and lover Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent resolved to strike out on his own, with Berge, who survives the couturier, taking care of the business side.

Saint Laurent's success lay in the harmony he achieved between body and garment -- what he called "the total silence of clothing."

He was also in the right place at the right time. Having learned his trade at the house of Dior, he founded his own couture house at the start of the 1960s, at a time when the world was changing and there was a new appetite for originality.

Saint Laurent rode his luck through the rise of the youth market and pop culture fuelled by the economic boom of the 1960s, when women suddenly had more economic freedom.

His name and the familiar YSL logo became synonymous with all the latest trends, highlighted by the creation of the Rive Gauche ready-to-wear label and perfume, as well as astute licensing deals for accessories and perfumes.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he set the pace for fashion around the world, opening up the Japanese market and subsequently expanding to South Korea and Taiwan.

Among his many fans in his native France was the actress Catherine Deneuve, who was always to be seen at his shows.

Saint Laurent's career was not without controversy. In 1971 a collection modelled on the styles of World War II Paris was slammed by some American critics, and his launch in the mid 1970s of a perfume called "Opium" brought accusations that he was condoning drug use.

For fellow-designer Christian Lacroix, the reason for Saint Laurent's success was his astonishing versatility. There had, Lacroix said, been other great designers but none with the same range.

"Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga and Dior all did extraordinary things. But they worked within a particular style," he explained. "Yves Saint Laurent is much more versatile, like a combination of all of them. I sometimes think he's got the form of Chanel with the opulence of Dior and the wit of Schiaparelli."

In his later years the depression that had haunted him all his life became more oppressive, and at his farewell bash in 2002 Saint Laurent admitted to having recourse to "those false friends which are tranquillisers and narcotics."

Quotable quotes from Yves Saint Laurent:

"You have to regard every fashion with humour, to be above it, believe in it enough to give the impression of living it but not too much, so that you keep your freedom."

"The elegance of a line depends above all on the purity and refinement of its construction."

"Black is my refuge, it is a line on a blank sheet of paper."

"The silhouette counts more than anything. It should never be overloaded."

"I found my style through women. That's where its strength and vitality comes from, because I draw on the body of a woman."

"A woman who has not found her style, who does not feel at ease in her clothes, who does not live in harmony with them, is a sick woman."

"To be beautiful, all a woman needs is a black pullover and a black skirt and to be arm in arm with a man she loves."

"Is elegance not totally forgetting what one is wearing?"

 

[blueyz22]

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e4654e1b-ea07-41f5-ab79-a9cf1f74a438


Bo Diddley dies
Rock'n'roll legend known for unique rhythm dead at 79
Bruce Ward , The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Monday, June 02, 2008
Bo Diddley would have been immensely rich had it been possible to copyright a rhythm.


The distorted shuffle beat he created on guitar in the mid-1950s is the taproot of rhythm and blues and rock music. Mr. Diddley, who died Monday of heart failure at 79, strongly influenced British guitarists Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones as well as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page during their days in the Yardbirds.


In 1965, The Animals composed a tribute to Mr. Diddley called The Story of Bo Diddley, which traced the early days of R&B and gave Mr. Diddley his due as a pioneer of the music.

"I play the guitar as if I was playing the drums," Mr. Diddley once explained.



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Rock'n'roll legend Bo Diddley makes a special performance at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on March 14, 2005.
Mike Segar, Reuters

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Font:****"It's mixed up with spiritual, sanctified rhythms, and the feeling I put into when I'm playing, I have the feeling of making people shout."

Mr. Diddley, born Otha Elias Bates McDaniel on Dec. 30, 1928 in McComb Mississippi, moved to Chicago at age seven. He was a consummate showman and self-mythologizer who named himself after the "diddley bow" - a one-string African guitar. He built his own exotically-shaped guitars, the most famous of which resembled a cigar box with strings.

Mr. Diddley was one of rock's first bad boys.


Who Do You Love, one of his best-known songs, begins with the lines "I walk 47 miles of barbwire/ I use a cobra snake for a necktie." His house, the song goes, is covered in rattlesnake hide and has a chimney "made outta human skulls."

With his black glasses and low-slung guitar, Mr. Diddley was rock's gunslinger, always moving on. His first recording on the Chess/Checker label in 1955 was the two-sided No. 1 hit on the R&B charts Bo Diddley/ I'm A Man.

On Say Man, a 1959 hit, Mr. Diddley traded insults with his maracas player Jerome Green. The song was a musical version of "the dozens," a sort of streetcorner banter between young men that originated in black neighbourhoods across the United States. Some critics cite Say Man as a forerunner of rap music, although the insults in rap went far beyond the playful stage.

Mr. Diddley styled himself "The Originator." His music was heavily percussive, with tambourines and maracas adding textures to his chunking guitar sound, which he achieved by choking the strings as he played.

On their first tour of the United Kingdom in 1963, the Rolling Stones opened for Mr. Diddley and the Everly Brothers. Soon afterward, Mick Jagger was playing both tambourine and maracas on the band's first records. The Stones' early sound was epitomized by the one-two punch of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Their version of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away is notable for its emphasis of the Diddley rhythm.

"We used the harmonica a lot back then ... and maracas, tambourines and that Bo Diddley jungle rhythm format," former Stones bassist Bill Wyman said in a 2002 interview. "We tried to get that really earthy thing because we liked it. It wasn't fake. It wasn't pseudo. It was really down to earth and very, very exciting. We'd play this stuff to people's faces and we'd see their mouths gape."

The Stones never forgot their musical debt to Mr. Diddley. In 1987, Mr. Richards was on hand in New York when Mr. Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and jammed with him afterwards. Later that year, Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood teamed up with Mr. Diddley for a lengthy tour of North America, Japan and Europe as a duo.

Mr. Diddley was also invited onstage with the Stones during their televised concert in Miami during the 1994 Voodoo Lounge tour.

The music business was not as kind to Mr. Diddley. In 1994, a Los Angeles court ruled that Mr. Diddley had been cheated by his ex-manager and awarded the singer $400,000 in back payments. It's uncertain how much money, if any, was paid back to Mr. Diddley.






© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Actor and Former Hepburn Hubby Ferrer Dies

A commanding screen presence, Mel Ferrer played the role of the brooding Latin lover to a T, both in his work and personal life.

The star of the epic period dramas War and Peace and The Sun Also Rises and first husband to iconic leading lady Audrey Hepburn died Monday at a convalescent home not far from his ranch in Carpinteria, Calif. He was 90.

Son Mark Ferrer said his dad had been in failing health for about six months.

"It's a sad occasion, but he did live a long and productive life," family spokesman Mike Mena said Tuesday.

In the 1950s, Ferrer, who was no relation to fellow screen stars José and Miguel Ferrer, brought his tall, dark and handsome presence to the literary roles of King Arthur in 1953's Knights of the Round Table, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in King Vidor's War and Peace, Robert Cohn in the 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and the Marquis de Maynes in the French-revolution-set Scaramouche.

The New Jersey-born actor of Cuban descent, who later moved behind the camera to direct and behind the checkbook to produce, also starred opposite Leslie Caron in the musical Lili, which won an Oscar in 1953 for Best Musical Score.

Having a way with the ladies onscreen and off, Ferrer walked down the aisle five times.

During his 14-year-marriage to Hepburn (wife No. 4), he starred opposite her in War and Peace and the TV movie Mayerling, directed her in the romantic adventure Green Mansions and produced the thriller Wait Until Dark, in which Hepburn played a blind woman being terrorized in her apartment by ruthless drug dealers. The couple had one son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer.

Ferrer is survived by his wife of 37 years, Elizabeth Soukhotine, five children and several grandchildren.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Legendary Sportscaster Jim McKay Dies

NEW YORK (June 7) - Jim McKay, the venerable and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died. He was 87.

McKay died Saturday of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md., said son Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes.

He was host of ABC's influential "Wide World of Sports" for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. The weekend series introduced viewers to all manner of strange, compelling and far-flung sports events. The show provided an international reach long before exotic backdrops became a staple of sports television.

McKay provided the famous voice-over that accompanied the opening in which viewers were reminded of the show's mission ("spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports") and what lay ahead ("the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat").

McKay - understated, dignified and with a clear eye for detail - covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy.

"They're all gone," McKay said.

The terse, haunting comment was replayed many times through the years when the events of Munich were chronicled.

"I had to control myself. I was full of emotion," McKay recalled. "But when you are a professional, it is important to communicate what it is like, to capture the moment."

Sports, McKay said, lost its innocence that day.

He won both a news and sports Emmy Award for his coverage of the Munich Olympics in addition to the prestigious George Polk award.

"In the long run, that's the most memorable single moment of my career," said McKay, an Emmy Award winning broadcaster who was also in the studio for the United States' "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviet Union. "I don't know what else would match that."

A veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II, McKay was the first on-air television broadcaster seen in Baltimore. He worked at CBS Sports briefly, but did his most memorable work at ABC Sports when it dominated the business under leader Roone Arledge.

"He had a remarkable career and a remarkable life," McManus said. "Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn't come up to me and say how much they admired my father."

McKay was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy Award. He won 12, the last in 1988. ABC calculated that McKay traveled some 4 1/2 million miles to work events. He covered more than 100 different sports in 40 countries. In 2002, McKay received the International Olympic Committee's highest honor - the Olympic Order.

"He was a founding father of sports television, one of the most respected commentators in the history of broadcasting and journalism," said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. "

Added Bob Iger, president and chief executive of The Walt Disney Company: "He was a regular guy who wrote and spoke like a poet."

McKay's first television broadcast assignment was a horse race at Pimlico in 1947. It was the start of a love affair - horse racing captivated him like nothing else.

"There are few things in sport as exciting or beautiful as two strong thoroughbreds, neck and neck, charging toward the finish," he once said.

Racecaller Dave Johnson worked with McKay during horse racing telecasts.

"How many Saturday afternoons did we spend with Jim McKay?" he said from Belmont Park. "Maybe more than with family members. Never a cross word out of him, such a decent human being."

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, worked with McKay for six years at ABC Sports.

"He was truly the most respected and admired sportscaster of his generation and defined how the stories of sports can and should be covered," he said. "While we all know what an absolute titan he was in his chosen field, I will always remember him as an extraordinary human being guided by a strong moral compass."

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth said McKay set a standard for sports journalism.

"Jim is synonymous with the Olympic Games." he said. "As host of ABC's Olympic coverage, he brought into our homes the triumphs and struggles of athletes from around the world."

The New York Yankees paused to remember McKay before the national anthem Saturday, and fans at a packed Yankee Stadium responded with applause.

McKay left his mark on countless colleagues. Bob Costas called McKay a "singular broadcaster."

"He brought a reporter's eye, a literate touch, and above all a personal humanity to every assignment," Costas said. "He had a combination of qualities seldom seen in the history of the medium, not just sports."

Al Michaels described McKay as the "personification of class and style."

"His enthusiasm permeated every event he covered and thus always made it far more interesting," he said. "I always thought of him as a favorite teacher."

Mike Tirico, covering the NBA finals in Boston for ABC and ESPN, worked four British Opens with McKay. He said McKay held a special place in his household while growing up in Queens in New York.

"Dinner wasn't served on Saturday night until 'Wide World of Sports' was over," Tirico said.

In addition to McManus, McKay's survivors include his wife, Margaret, and his daughter, Mary.

 

[Faneros]

RIP

 

[JennyOmanHill]

"Young George Bailey" Bob Anderson dies in Palm Springs

Bob Anderson, the actor probably best known for his 1946 role as the young George Bailey in ``It's a Wondeful Life,'' has died of cancer at his Palm Springs home. He was 75.

Anderson, who was just 12 and known as Bobby when he appeared in the Christmas classic, died Friday of melanoma, Stephen Cox, a family friend who
wrote ``It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book,'' told the Los Angeles Times.

Funeral plans are pending.

Aside from his wife, Victoria, Anderson is survived by three sons, John
of Lake Arrowhead, Bob Jr. of Long Beach and Joe of San Bernardino; three
daughters, Kathleen Inman of Nyack, N.Y., Deborah Gutierrez of Boise, Idaho,
and Heidi Anderson-Robinson of Ventura; 11 grandchildren; a brother, Beau
Anderson; and a sister, Virginia McAfee.

Robert J. Anderson grew up in a show-business family. His father, Gene, was an assistant director and later a production manager.

His uncles were directors William Beaudine and James Flood, and his brothers and cousins were editors and production managers.

Anderson was introduced to films when relatives arranged for him to appear in a movie scene that called for a baby, his wife said.

He was just 7 when he appeared in the 1940 Shirley Temple film ``Young People" and went on to appear in films such as 1945's ``A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

In 1996, on the 50th anniversary of ``A Wonderful Life,'' Anderson recalled talking a beating from H.B. Warner, who played the druggist, Mr. Gower, in the movie.

``He actually bloodied my ear," Anderson told The Times.

The film, which initially flopped, became a holiday favorite in recent decades after it started airing repeatedly on TV when the copyright lapsed in the 1970s.

After serving in the Navy as a photographer, Anderson became an assistant director, production manager and producer for various studios.

``Most people don't know what happened to him, mainly because he stayed behind the cameras," Cox said Saturday. ``Not that he didn't like 'It's a Wonderful Life.' He was very proud of his work in it."

 

[MisterEdMe]

Thank you JennyOmanHill for maintaining this thread. And to KindaKinky for starting it. It's the only one I subscribe to and make a point to read in every visit here.

On a seperate note; has anyone noticed that quite a few of the deaths of late of notable/successful people are former Navy?

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Red Shea, 70

Musician was Gordon Lightfoot's 'ultimate extra guitar'

TORONTO — Musician Red Shea, who played lead guitar with Gordon Lightfoot and later with Ian and Sylvia Tyson, has died of pancreatic cancer in Aurora, Ont. Mr. Shea, whose real name was Laurice Milton Shea, was 70.
With his brother Les Shea and bassist Bill Gibbs, Mr. Shea formed the Red and Les Trio in the late 1950s. They played on Country Hoedown, a popular musical variety show that launched in 1956 and ran for nine years on CBC.

It was on Country Hoedown, in 1960, that Mr. Shea met Gordon Lightfoot, who was a member of the Singin' Swingin' Eight. Mr. Shea began playing lead guitar in The Lightfoot Band in 1965 and “was a pivotal figure” in Mr. Lightfoot's early career, according to music journalist Larry Leblanc. He appeared on many albums including, The Way I Feel, Did She Mention My Name, Sit Down Young Stranger, Summer Side of Life, Sundown, Cold on the Shoulder and Gord's Gold.

Dedicated Lightfoot fans still talk about Mr. Shea's “breathtaking” guitar solo in The Canadian Railroad Trilogy, a performance that was recorded live at Massey Hall in 1969 and released on the album, Sunday Concert.

Mr. Shea left the band in 1971, and was replaced by Terry Clements, although he returned briefly for a time in 1975.

“Red Shea was the ultimate extra guitar on Gordon Lightfoot's records and stage performances,” guitarist Randy Bachman, formerly of The Guess Who and The Bachman Turner Overdrive, said in an e-mail Wednesday. “He augmented every song with some sparkle and magic and made Gordon sound and look good.”

It was Mr. Shea, he said, who inspired him to try his hand at songwriting. “He is mentioned in the song Lightfoot which Burton Cummings and I wrote after seeing Gordon, Red and John Stockfish at a night club in Montreal back in the sixties. It was an evening of magical, all-original Canadian music and it inspired Burton and I to write our own music” he said. “Red will be missed, but remembered every time one of those songs is played on the radio,” said Mr. Bachman, who hosts Vinyl Tap on CBC Radio.

In 1972, Mr. Shea replaced guitarist David Wilcox in Great Speckled Bird, the country rock band that Ian and Sylvia Tyson had formed in 1969. The band played on the weekly show that Mr. Tyson hosted on CTV in the early 1970s and also toured with the Tysons until they broke up as a couple and an act in 1977. “He was a dear friend and I will miss him very much,” Mr. Tyson said through his manager Wednesday. “We always had a lot of laughter together in our friendship.”

His former wife, Sylvia Tyson, echoed those sentiments. “Aside from being a great player, which he certainly was, he was just great to be around,” she said. “Red always had a joke or a story or a pun or something that he would come up that would just keep things on an up level.”

Mr. Shea also played with The Good Brothers and did a long gig in the band on The Tommy Hunter Show, which had replaced Country Hoedown in 1965 and ran until 1992. “ The Tommy Hunter Show was good for him,” said Ms. Tyson. “He had found it increasingly hard to be on the road. It wore him down too much. He was basically a home guy.”

In more recent years, Mr. Shea taught guitar.

He is survived by his wife, Lynn (née Claremont), three children and four grandchildren.

 

[Faneros]

NBC's Tim Russert dies of apparent heart attack

WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and its Washington bureau chief collapsed and died at work Friday after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 58

Russert, of Buffalo, N.Y., took the helm of the Sunday news show in December 1991 and turned it into the most widely watched program of its type in the nation. His signature trait there was an unrelenting style of questioning, sparing none of the politicians, business giants and even sports figures who appeared on his show.

Washingtonian magazine once dubbed Russert the best journalist in town, and described "Meet the Press" as "the most interesting and important hour on television.

He also wrote best-selling books, "Big Russ and Me," in 2004, and "Wisdom of our Fathers," in 2006.

This year, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Russert also was a senior vice president at NBC.

 

[phrodeau]

http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/images/winston2.jpg

Effects master Stan Winston dies
Work included 'Jurassic Park,' 'Terminator'
By DAVID S. COHEN

Stan Winston, Oscar-winning special effects master who designed the dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park" and the look of "The Terminator," died Sunday evening at his Malibu home. He was 62.

The Oscar and Emmy-winning f/x and makeup designer died after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio.

Winston, who set the industry standard for robotic/animatronic creatures and prosthetic makeup, won four Oscars: a visual effects Oscar for 1986's "Aliens," visual effects and makeup Oscars for 1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and a visual effects Oscar for 1993's "Jurassic Park," for which he created animatronic dinosaurs that complemented the film's digitally animated creatures.

The conference room at Winston's Van Nuys studio was long one of the most effective sales tools any effects company could hope for. It was a combination museum and resume, with many of the most memorable movie creatures of recent decades -- including the queen alien from "Aliens," the Predator and even Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator -- lunging toward the conference table on all sides.

Steven Spielberg, who worked with Winston on several films, said in a statement: "Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor, and for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, 'Nothing is impossible.' "

Gov. Schwarzenegger said: "The entertainment industry has lost a genius, and I lost one of my best friends with the death Sunday night of Stan Winston. Stan's work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever. What will live forever in my heart is the way that Stan loved everyone and treated each of his friends like they were family."

Winston was born in Arlington, Virginia and graduated from U. of Virginia at Charlottesville's fine arts and drama programs.

His first love was acting, but he moved into makeup after arriving in Hollywood. He completed a three-year apprenticeship at Disney Studios, then set up Stan Winston Studio in the garage of his house in Northridge in 1972.

His early credits were mainly in television. He received five Emmy nominations and won for "Gargoyles" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

Producer Gale Anne Hurd, who worked with Winston on the "Terminator" franchise, "Aliens" and "The Relic," recalled that she and helmer James Cameron first approached makeup artist Dick Smith to do the prosthetic effects on "The Terminator." Smith declined and recommended Winston, saying, "One day, you'll thank me."

At the time, Winston's movie credits were slender, with "The Wiz" foremost among them. Not long thereafter, though, he received an Oscar nomination for "Heartbeeps." Hurd credits Winston with designing the prosthetic makeup for "The Terminator" before the film even had financing, and with making it possible to do the makeup effects on a small budget.

Winston soon became the foremost maker of animatronic and robotic creatures in the movie industry, as well as a leader in prosthetic makeup.

John Nelson, visual effects supervisor for "Iron Man," said: "Stan was the man when it came to making those kind of prosthetic effects; he was the guy. If you look at the litany of other good people in the business, they tend to be people who worked for Stan."

Winston's animatronic creatures always maintained an advantage over digital effects: His creations could interact with the actors live on the set. He brought his love of performing to his creatures, too, making sure they took cues from the actors and responded in kind.

Winston was also a major force in increasing the visibility of the f/x and makeup industries. He pressed for greater recognition for makeup and creature effects artists and campaigned for the creation of a makeup Oscar. In 1993, he was a co-founder of Digital Domain, along with Cameron and Scott Ross. The shop became an early leader in digital vfx.

Dennis Muren, who supervised the digital effects on "Jurassic Park," called Winston "a risk-taker" and said Winston's animatronic work "was a perfect complement to the stuff that we were doing.

"When you put (Winston's creatures and digital effects) together, the audience was confused, and sometimes we were, too, about who had done what.

"But Stan had always said, 'It shouldn't be all one or all the other; it should be a combination of the two.'"

Winston had been personally less active in recent years as digital vfx took a greater part of the available work and as his illness advanced, but his studio continued to work on films such as "Iron Man," for which it provided the practical Iron Man suits, and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Hurd said of Winston: "He never looked at anything as a problem; it was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics."

Early on, Winston directed the 1988 horror pic "Pumpkinhead," a cult favorite. Later, as demand for animatronic effects shrank, Winston also moved into producing, with several telepics and features to his credit. His name was attached to several projects in development, including "Area 51" for Paramount. At the time of his death, he was revamping his studio into the Winston Effects Group, comprising practical and digital effects.

Winston refused to discuss his illness outside his intimate circle, and many were surprised at news of his death.

Hurd said, "It's so shocking when it's someone so alive, with such joie de vivre and with so much more to contribute to our industry."

He is survived by his wife, Karen; son Matt, an actor; daughter Debbie; a brother and four grandchildren.

Donations may be made to the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research, Free Arts for Abused Children or the United States Fund for UNICEF.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
http://www.variety.com/VR1117987531.html

 

[drown]

http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/images/winston2.jpg

Effects master Stan Winston dies
.....

a true artist and a gentleman...

have worked closely with him several times
and
his son is an acquaintance...

your vision has changed​

 

[drown]

cyd charisse

takes the floor with
astaire
fosse
and
gene-gene the dancin machine​

 

[Denae]

Cyd Charisse

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/3516902.stm

Published: 2008/06/18 08:18:38 GMT

Cyd Charisse danced with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in some of Hollywood's finest musicals - The Band Wagon and Silk Stockings with Astaire, and Singin' in the Rain and Brigadoon with Gene Kelly.

She was one of the most brilliant and beautiful female dancers ever to appear on the big screen.


With the decline of big musicals she took straight roles, but not with the same success.

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, in 1921, she was six when she began dance lessons to strengthen her muscles after a bout of polio.

She went on to study ballet and, at the age of 18, married Nico Charisse, her instructor.

She became known as Sid when she was a child - the nearest her brother could get in his attempt to say Sis. Later, when she signed for MGM, she changed the spelling to Cyd.

Cyd Charisse made several films in the early 1940s, using the name Lily Norwood, but became a star of film musicals as Cyd Charisse after joining MGM, who were reputed to have insured her undeniably lovely legs for a million dollars each.

But Cyd Charisse later revealed that that had been an invention of the MGM publicity machine.

She was married to her second husband, the singer Tony Martin, and a new mother, when she starred with Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.

She worked with the sometimes rough and always demanding Kelly again in Brigadoon and partnered Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon and her favourite film, Silk Stockings.

Like Kelly, Astaire was a perfectionist, but Cyd Charisse's time with Diaghilev's ballet company had equipped her for the challenge:

"Coming from a Russian ballet company and a lot of hard training," she said later.

"I was a strong dancer and I loved to dance and I loved to work and he found someone who liked to work just as much as he did and we got along fabulously well together."

She also appeared in The Unfinished Dance, Words and Music, It's Always Fair Weather and Invitation to the Dance.

Later she was in Two Weeks in Another Town, and made some films in Europe, including Warlords of Atlantis.

Cyd Charisse did play some straight roles, but her dancing was more eloquent than any spoken word.

While the censors were always on the set, training their eagle eyes on her costumes, the erotic nature of her dance escaped them.

And though the golden age of Hollywood musicals came to an end, admirers still remember Cyd Charisse's vital role.

 

[Buttah]

June 21, 2008, 5:45PM
NHRA's Scott Kalitta killed in crash


© 2008 The Associated Press

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. — Scott Kalitta died Saturday when his Funny Car crashed and burst into flames during qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

State police confirmed that the 46-year-old Kalitta, a two-time Top Fuel champion who had 18 career victories, was killed in the accident.

Witnesses told The Star-Ledger of Newark that Kalitta's Toyota Solara was traveling at an estimated speed of 300 mph when the crash occurred.

The Palmetto, Fla., resident started his career at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in 1982. His father, Connie Kalitta, was a longtime driver and team owner known as "The Bounty Hunter," and his cousin, Doug Kalitta, also drives competitively.

 

[packersfan]

Goodbye, George

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

Carlin's comedic sensibility often came back to a central theme: humanity is doomed.

"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a 2001 interview.

Carlin, who wrote several books and performed in many television comedy specials, is survived by his wife Sally Wade, and daughter Kelly Carlin McCall.

 

[blueyz22]

Saw Carlin with my husband in Vegas in August 2007. Funny as all hell. So sorry to see he's passed. I'm so glad I took the time to see him in person.

 

[sutherngent985]

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. — Scott Kalitta died Saturday when his Funny Car crashed and burst into flames during qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.

Scott and George..I hope there are clear tracks and great audiences wherever you may be.

 

[Agent99]

TV, 'Grease' Actress Dody Goodman Dies
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA,
AP

NEW YORK (June 23) - Dody Goodman, the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died at 93.

Goodman died Sunday at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center, said Joan Adams, a close family friend. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October, Adams said.

Goodman, with her pixyish appearance and Southern-tinged, quavery voice, had an eclectic show-business career. She moved easily from stage to television to movies, where she appeared in such popular films as "Grease" and "Grease 2," playing Blanche, the principal's assistant, and in "Splash."

It was on "The Tonight Show" when Paar was the late night TV program's second host in the late 1950s that Goodman first received national attention. Her quirky, off-kilter remarks inevitably got laughs and endeared audiences.


"I was just thrown into the talking," Goodman said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. "I had no idea how to do that. In fact, they just called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on 'The Jack Paar Show.' I didn't know who Jack Paar was. They said, 'We just want you to sit and talk."'

After a falling out with Paar, other chat shows took up the slack, including "The Merv Griffin Show" and "Girl Talk." And there were roles on TV series, too, most notably her appearances as Martha Shumway (Louise Lasser's mother) on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," starting in 1976, and guest shots on such shows as "Diff'rent Strokes," "St. Elsewhere" and "Murder, She Wrote."

In later years, Goodman was a regular in "Nunsense" and its various sequels, appearing off-Broadway and on tour in Dan Goggin's comic musical celebration of the Little Sisters of Hoboken. She started out playing Sister Mary Amnesia, later graduating to the role of Mother Superior.

"Dody had the most impeccable comic timing," Goggin said. "When we had her in the show, she was the only person on Earth who could walk on stage, say, 'Are you ready to start?' and bring the house down. Within seconds, the audience was eating out of her hand."

The actress was born Dolores Goodman on Oct. 28, 1914, in Columbus, Ohio, where her father ran a small cigar factory. She arrived in New York in the late 1930s to study dance at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and later graduated to Broadway musicals.

The actress performed regularly on stage in the 1940s and early '50s as a chorus member in such musicals as "Something for the Boys," "One Touch of Venus," "Laffing Room Only," "Miss Liberty," "Call Me Madam," "My Darlin' Aida" and "Wonderful Town," in which she originated the role of Violet, the streetwalker.

"I had to make so many transitions into other things," Goodman said in the AP interview. "When I first came out of dancing, I did revues."

It was the early to mid-'50s, when small, topical nightclub revues flourished. Goodman, a natural comedian, thrived in them. She performed in shows by Ben Bagley and Julius Monk, and in Jerry Herman's first effort, a revue called "Parade."

In more recent times, she appeared on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

"He understands my sense of humor. I will do a dumb thing for fun. That's how I got the reputation for being dopey and dumb. I don't like dumb jokes but I will do dumb things for a laugh," she said in the AP interview.

Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews, Adams said.

A memorial service is planned.


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

 

[Denae]

^ I always thought Dody was simply adorable. RIP sweet little lady

 

[packersfan]

Costume, puppet designer Love dies

POUGHKEEPSIE, New York (AP) --

Kermit Love, the costume designer who helped puppeteer Jim Henson create Big Bird and other "Sesame Street" characters, has died. He was 91.


Costume designer Kermit Love helped puppeteer Jim Henson create characters on "Sesame Street."

Love died from congestive heart failure Saturday in Poughkeepsie, near his home in Stanfordville, Love's longtime partner, Christopher Lyall, told The New York Times.

In addition to his work with Henson, Love was a designer for some of ballet's most prominent choreographers, including Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.

Love also designed costumes and puppets for film and advertising, including the Snuggle bear from the fabric softener commercials.

"Sesame Street," public television's groundbreaking effort to use TV to teach preschoolers, premiered in 1969. Henson designed the original sketches of Big Bird, and Love then built the 8-foot, 2-inch yellow-feathered costume.

It was Love's idea to add a few feathers designed to fall off, to create a more realistic feel.

"The most important thing about puppets is that they must project their imagination, and then the audience must open their eyes and imagine," he told The New York Times in 1981.

Love also helped design costumes and puppets for Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster, among other characters. He even appeared on the show himself as Willy, the fantasy neighborhood's resident hot dog vendor.

But Love always insisted Henson's famous frog wasn't named for him, according to The New York Times.

Caroll Spinney, who has played Big Bird since "Sesame Street" began, said he knew Love was gravely ill but didn't know he'd died until Tuesday.

"Kermit was definitely a totally unique person," 74-year-old Spinney said. "He looked very much like Santa Claus but was a little bit more like the Grinch."

In addition to designing the Big Bird costume, he added, "Kermit really helped me with dramatic coaching, and he was wonderful at that."

Born in 1916, Love began making puppets for a federal Works Progress Administration theater in 1935. He also designed costumes for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. From there he began working with the New York City Ballet's costumer.

In his 2003 book, "The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons From a Life in Feathers," Spinney recalled that after a year on "Sesame Street," he felt he couldn't live in New York on his salary.

Love told him to give it a month; the next week, Big Bird was on the cover of Time magazine and Spinney couldn't imagine leaving.

 

[packersfan]

And they didn't give out free burgers in memorial!

Wilber Hardee, Is Dead at 89; Founded Restaurants

By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: June 26, 2008
New York Times

Wilber Hardee, a farm boy turned grill cook who went on to open the first Hardee’s hamburger stand in 1960, starting a chain that now has nearly 2,000 restaurants in the United States and overseas, died Friday at his home in Greenville, N.C. He was 89.

The cause was a heart attack, his daughter Ann Hardee Riggs said.

It was on an empty lot in Greenville, near East Carolina College (now a university), that Mr. Hardee opened that first hamburger stand on Sept. 3, 1960. There was no dining room, no drive-up window. Charcoal-broiled hamburgers and milkshakes sold for 15 cents apiece.

There are now 1,926 Hardee’s restaurants, mostly in the Southeast and the Midwest, most of them franchises of CKE Restaurants, which bought the Hardee’s chain in 1997. Last year, the Hardee’s division, which specializes in Thickburgers weighing from one-third to two-thirds of a pound and costing up to $4.49, had revenue of $1.8 billion.

Although he would hold an interest in more than 80 other restaurants during his career, Mr. Hardee did not make much of a profit as founder of the chain that bears his name. He sold his share in what was then a five-franchise operation in 1963, for $37,000.

“Back in the ’60s, it was pretty good money,” Ann Hardee Riggs said, “but not that much.”

Born in Martin County, N.C., on Aug. 15, 1918, Mr. Hardee was one of five children of Henry and Mary Hardee. Not interested in the family corn and tobacco farm, the young Mr. Hardee got a job as a grill cook at a local eatery. In World War II, he was a Navy cook in the Pacific. While home on furlough in 1945, he married Kathryn Roebuck.

Mr. Hardee’s first wife died in 1980. In 1986, he married Helen Galloway.

In addition to his daughter Ann, Mr. Hardee is survived by his second wife; two daughters from his first marriage, Mary Baker and Becky Eissens; a stepdaughter, Patricia Phelps; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

After World War II, Mr. Hardee returned to Greenville and opened a restaurant; he and his wife lived in the back. By 1960, when he opened his first hamburger stand, Mr. Hardee already owned 15 restaurants.

He took on two partners, Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawls, in 1961. They opened a second Hardee’s, in Rocky Mount, N.C. But difficulties with his partners soon led him to sell his share. Mr. Hardee later started another hamburger chain, called Little Mint, which eventually had about 25 franchised locations in North and South Carolina.

The Hardee’s chain grew by leaps and bounds in the 1970s, helped in part by its jingle: “Hurry on down to Hardee’s, where the burgers are charco-broiled.”

Ann Hardee Riggs said her father had never failed to get a kick out of seeing the red and white sign of the Hardee’s chain. “Anywhere he would go, he was proud to see his name up there,” she said.

 

[packersfan]

Taiko Master Drummer Oguchi

TOKYO (AP) —

Master Japanese drummer Daihachi Oguchi, who led the spread of the art of "taiko" drumming to the U.S. and throughout Japan, has died after being hit by a car, an official at his ensemble said. He was 84.

Oguchi was crossing the street when he was struck by the car Thursday. He was rushed to the hospital but died of excessive bleeding early Friday, said Yuken Yagasaki of Osuwa Daiko, the group in Nagano prefecture (state) in northern Japan that Oguchi had led.

Oguchi helped found top U.S. taiko groups, including San Francisco Taiko Dojo, which has performed in Hollywood movies and on international tours since its founding 40 years ago.

A former jazz musician, Oguchi was one of the first to elevate the traditional folk sounds of taiko to modern music played in concert halls, not just festivals and shrines.

He led and starred in the performance of drumming and dance at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

"Your heart is a taiko. All people listen to a taiko rhythm dontsuku-dontsuku in their mother's womb," Oguchi told The Associated Press at that time. "It's instinct to be drawn to taiko drumming."

Charming, fiery and vivacious, Oguchi had been scheduled to perform with Kodo, a well known taiko group, later this year, although he was in failing health in recent years.

Along with Kabuki theater and "ukiyoe" woodblock prints, taiko is one of Japan's most popular — and respected — art forms in the West. Part dance and part athletics, modern taiko can be dazzlingly visual and acrobatically physical.

Taiko, especially the big ones that tower over the drummers, make dramatic booming sounds. A taiko drum is made from a single hollowed out tree trunk with cowhide strapped tightly across it.

"In taiko, man becomes the sound. In taiko, you can hear the sound through your skin," is the way Oguchi described it in the AP interview.

Thanks partly to Oguchi and his followers' efforts, hundreds of taiko groups, both professional and amateur, have sprung up not only throughout Japan but also in the U.S., Brazil, Europe and other nations.

Oguchi also was one of the first composers of modern taiko, writing catchy tunes based on historical themes, such as samurai storming on horses, and helping make taiko a household word in Japan.

 

[Agent99]

Man Who Played Bozo the Clown Dies
By JOHN ROGERS,AP

LOS ANGELES (July 3) - Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular frizzy-haired clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of TV stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

The business - combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances - made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.

"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Man Who Played Bozo the Clown Dies
By JOHN ROGERS,AP

LOS ANGELES (July 3) - Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

That gave me a jolt... Larry Harmon was my Bozo as a kid. How sad.