Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOmanHill]

Lineman Collapses, Dies After Preseason Game

Aug 21, 3:31 AM (ET)

DENVER (AP) - San Francisco offensive lineman Thomas Herrion collapsed in the locker room and died Sunday morning, shortly after the 49ers played the Denver Broncos in a preseason game.

Herrion, a 6-foot-3, 310-pound guard, was on the field for San Francisco's 14-play, 91-yard drive that ended with a touchdown with 2 seconds left.

Players had finished listening to coach Mike Nolan address them in a postgame meeting when Herrion collapsed. Medics administered CPR on him and took him to an ambulance that rushed him to a nearby hospital.

About three hours later, 49ers spokesman Aaron Salkin confirmed that Herrion had died. The cause of death was not immediately known.

"This is a colossal tragedy for the 49ers and the entire NFL community," Salkin said. "We still do not know all the details. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Herrion family."

Temperatures were in the mid-60s with 50 percent humidity Saturday night in Denver, although experts say heatstroke can occur even in cool conditions.

"We didn't see anything happen," Niners defensive lineman Marques Douglas said. "I sat by my locker and prayed for him."

Herrion, a first-year player with the 49ers, played college ball at Utah and spent part of last season on the San Francisco and Dallas practice squads. He also played this season with the Hamburg Sea Dogs of NFL Europe.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

James Booth, British Stage, TV and Film Actor

James Booth, British Stage, TV and Film Actor of "Zulu" and "Twin Peaks" Fame, Dead at 77
By Kenneth Jones
22 Aug 2005

James Booth, a British actor who was a contemporary of Albert Finney, Richard Harris and Peter O'Toole, and who made a splash on the British stage playing "cheerful cockneys" in the 1960s, died Aug. 11, according to newspaper reports.

His widow, Paula told papers he died peacefully at his home in Essex. He was 77.

Born David Geeves, James Booth trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and became a major actor in England in the 1960s, working in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at Stratford East, in London, where he played the lead in the Lionel Bart musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be. He also reportedly played a cockney Robin Hood in a Bart show called Twang.

Mr. Booth's stage career began in the late 1950s as a spear carrier at the Old Vic. He also appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company, notably as Edmund in Peter Brook's staging of King Lear with Paul Scofield. The production transferred to London.

Mr. Booth's only Broadway credit was Tom Stoppard's Travesties in 1975, in which he played James Joyce.

His best-known role was Private Henry Hook in the film "Zulu" (1964), a fact-inspired tale about British forces defending African outposts from Zulu warriors.

In the American TV series "Twin Peaks" he played ex-convict Ernie Niles.

He recently filmed a small part as a "grumpy old man" in "Keeping Mum," a comedy with Rowan Atkinson and Maggie Smith.

Film credits include "Sparrers Can't Sing," "The Trials of Oscar Wilde," "The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom," and "The Jazz Singer."

 

[Spinaroonie]

worst thread ever

 

[linuxgeek]

src

Actor Choked By Darth Vader In 'Empire' Dies

http://images.ibsys.com/2005/0831/4920059_240X180.jpg

LONDON -- He was choked to death by Darth Vader, and prompted Indiana Jones to say "Nazis! I hate these guys!

Michael Sheard played Admiral Ozzel in "Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back" and Adolf Hitler in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

His agent said Sheard has now died at his home on Britain's Isle of Wight.

Sheard had cancer. He was 65.

He has described his death in "The Empire Strikes Back" as the best death scene in the film. When Admiral Ozzel did something to make Darth Vader mad, Vader used the Force to choke him to death.

Sheard not only played Hitler in the Indiana Jones movie, he played him in four other projects, too.

In Britain, Sheard was best known for playing the teacher who terrorized his students in the long-running soap "Grange Hill."

 

[KindaKinky]

U.S. Chief Justice Rehnquist dead at 80

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/nm/20050904/2005_09_03t233117_319x450_us_court_rehnquist.jpg

2 hours, 22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died on Saturday at his home in Arlington, Virginia, after battling thyroid cancer since October, a court spokeswoman said.

Rehnquist, 80, had experienced "a precipitous decline in his health in the last couple of days," and died in the evening surrounded by his three children, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

A leading conservative, his death created a second opening on the nine-member court, following the announced retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in July. It came just a month before the court opens its new term.

President George W. Bush is expected to name another conservative to replace Rehnquist and among the possible candidates are appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president was informed of his death shortly before 11 p.m. (0300 GMT on Sunday).

"The President and Mrs. Bush are deeply saddened at the passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist. His family is in their thoughts and prayers," McClellan said.

As the nation's top judicial officer, Rehnquist was a leading conservative on a court closely divided on such contentious issues such as abortion, the death penalty and separation of church and state.

Rehnquist had led the court for nearly 19 years and had been on the court for nearly 15 years before his elevation by President Ronald Reagan to the top post. Despite his cancer diagnosis and treatment, he had declined to retire, determined to perform his duties as chief justice as long as his health permitted.

Bush's nomination of appeals court Judge John Roberts, a 50-year-old conservative, to replace O'Connor has ignited a partisan clash over the president's drive to move the court to the right. The Senate Judiciary Committee had scheduled hearings on Roberts' nomination on Tuesday.

The court is in its summer recess and the next session begins on October 3.

Bush is to make a statement on Rehnquist's death at the White House after attending church on Sunday morning.



Personal note: If Pat Robertson was praying for another vacancy on the Supreme Court, I don't think he'll like the way his prayer was answered…

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Bluesman R.L. Burnside Dies at 78

Sep 1, 10:04 PM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - R.L. Burnside, one of the last, great Mississippi bluesmen, whose raw, country blues was discovered late in his life, has died. He was 78.

Burnside died Thursday morning at the St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. His health had been declining for some time, said Matthew Johnson, owner of Burnside's record label, Fat Possum.

A sharecropper early in life, Burnside wasn't recorded until his 40s, and didn't become a professional musician until 1991, when he was signed by Fat Possum. Popular with younger acts like the Beastie Boys and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Burnside remained, as Johnson once said, "incorruptible because he just doesn't care."

After the 1992 live album "Bad Luck City," Fat Possum released "Too Bad Jim" in 1994. Burnside's raw, John Lee Hooker-style, one-chord progression blues on songs like "Death Bell Blues" and "Shake 'Em on Down" received critical acclaim.

He released over a dozen albums and toured worldwide, though he performed less after heart surgery in 1999. His last record was 2004's "A Bothered Mind."

Burnside was born in the Mississippi Delta town of Harmontown on Nov. 21, 1926. He spent most of his life in the north Mississippi hills working as a sharecropper and fisherman.

In the 1940s he moved to Chicago where he was taught how to play guitar by Mississippi Fred McDowell and later met Muddy Waters. But Burnside left the city after his father and two of his brothers were killed there.

When Burnside moved back to Mississippi, he shot a man who he said was trying to run him off his home. He was convicted and served six months in jail before a plantation foreman got him out to work the cotton harvest.

Burnside was first recorded in 1968 by folklorist George Mitchell. Though he played locally in Mississippi for decades, he didn't garner considerable attention until 1991. He was the first act signed to Fat Possum, a label that has since become famous for rejuvenating lost - or previously nonexistent - blues and country careers.

"He was the essential Fat Possum artist," said Johnson, whose roster also includes Johnny Cash, the Black Keys, T-Model Ford and Solomon Burke. "He was just playing in Junior Kimbrough's club, not for a career, not for any of that. Just 'cause he wanted to.

"He never really wanted a career, never said he did. We just sort of gave him one."

Burnside never practiced and never "jumped through hoops" but had "a great attitude," Johnson added.

Burnside is survived by his wife, Alice Mae, twelve children and numerous grandchildren.

 

[pipercatt]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bob Denver, the actor who played goofy island castaway Gilligan in the 1960s television show "Gilligan's Island," has died of complications from cancer treatments, a spokesman for the actor said on Tuesday.

Denver, 70, died on Friday at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, his agent Mike Eisenstadt said.

"Gilligan's Island" aired from 1964 to 1967, and became one of most enduring TV comedies in re-runs with a tale of seven people who were lost at sea and stranded on a deserted island.

Gilligan was a lovable character, but one with whom Denver was so closely associated that it became difficult for him to win other starring roles in a 50-year career.

Denver first gained stardom on another TV sitcom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," in which he played beatnik Maynard G. Krebs.

Eisenstadt did not provide details of Denver's death other than to say that he had been in the hospital for cancer treatment. The actor's family did not want to disclose specifics about the type of cancer, Eisenstadt said.

Denver is survived by his wife Dreama, who was at his side when he died, and his four children.

 

[topale]

Anyone else cringe when they see this thread come up lately?

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Anyone else cringe when they see this thread come up lately?

Surprisingly, I do (even though I enjoy having a (mostly) celebrity log of those who pass on.

Leaving prayers for all the Gulf Coast victims. I'm dreading the death count, and hope that those who have survived and are separated from their families find their loved ones.

 

[linuxgeek]

Aviation Pioneer Jack Real Dies at 90

src

Aviation Pioneer Jack Real Dies at 90

LOS ANGELES -- Aviation pioneer Jack Real, who helped develop the Apache helicopter and authored a book on his friendship with reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, has died. He was 90.

Real died Sept. 6 of heart failure at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, longtime companion Betty O'Connor said Saturday. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease and had been hospitalized for nearly a year.

"He was a such a special man and had an influential role in the aviation industry," said O'Connor, a former executive administrative assistant at Lockheed. "He was a very kind, gentle man, but firm."

Real was a vice president for Lockheed Martin Corp. and headed Hughes' helicopter division before becoming president and CEO of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.

At the time of his death, Real was chairman emeritus of the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Ore. He was instrumental in relocating Hughes' ill-fated massive flying boat the "Spruce Goose" to the museum in 1993.

In 2003, he published the book, "The Asylum of Howard Hughes," which detailed his 20-year friendship with Hughes, including his efforts to arrange a flight to carry an ailing Hughes from Mexico to a Houston hospital in 1976. Hughes died en route.

Real, a native of Baraga, Mich., graduated in 1937 from what is now Michigan Technological University and went to work for Lockheed, where he helped design, develop and test the B-14 Hudson Bomber and the Cheyenne helicopter, among other aircraft.

As Lockheed's chief engineer of research, development and testing, he worked on projects at Southern Nevada's mysterious Area 51. He also was the flight engineer in charge of the first flight of the C-130 Hercules in the early 1950s. The cargo vehicle is still used for U.S. military transport.

With Real at the helm, Hughes Helicopters received the Robert J. Collier trophy in 1983, American aviation's highest honor for aeronautics. Real later became chief operating officer of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter. He retired in 1987.

 

[linuxgeek]

Clarence Gatemouth Brown

src

American blues and Tex-Mex musician Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924-September 10, 2005) was a highly acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played a impressive array of instruments such as guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola as well as harmonica and drums.

During his career, Brown recorded 30 records. He won a Grammy Award for Traditional Blues in 1983 for his album, Alright Again.

Born in Vinton, Louisiana, Brown was raised in Orange, Texas. His professional musical career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio. He was nicknamed "Gatemouth" for his deep voice. He received note, and his fame took off, during a concert by T-Bone Walker in a Houston nightclub. When Walker became ill, Brown took up his guitar and played "Gatemouth Boogie," to the delight of the audience. He soon played guitar and other instruments, living primarily in Texas. In the 1960's, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee. In the late 1960's, he even worked as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico. He came back to professional music, touring Europe beginning in 1971 and continuing throughout the 1970's. He moved to New Orleans in the late 1970's.

In his last few years, he maintained a full touring schedule, including Australia, New Zealand, and countries with political conflicts in Central America, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. "People can't come to me, so I go to them," he explained.

Mr. Brown died following Hurricane Katrina at the age of 81. His home in Slidell, Louisiana, was destroyed by the hurricane, and he was evacuated to his hometown of Orange, Texas, where he passed away at his brother's home. He had been suffering from lung cancer and heart disease.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Hoosier sportscaster Chris Schenkel dies

Chris Schenkel, an Indiana icon and one of the founding fathers of sports broadcast journalism, died early today at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., after a long battle with emphysema. He was 82.

Schenkel's radio and television broadcasting career spanned more than 60 years and included virtually every major sports competition.

Known for his honey-smooth baritone voice, he was the first to cover the Masters Tournament on television, in 1956; the first to call a college football game coast to coast on ABC; and the first to serve as live sports anchor from the Olympics, in Mexico City in 1968.

Other highlights include calling gymnast Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and calling the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants, considered by many the greatest football game ever played. He was also the longtime voice of the Professional Bowlers Association.

Schenkel also had a long association with the Indianapolis 500, including a scary moment. Schenkel, astronaut John Glenn and Tony Hulman, the late owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, were passengers in the Dodge Challenger pace car at the 1971 race when it skidded into a bleacher section full of photographers. Twenty-two people were injured, including Schenkel.

Schenkel was born Aug. 21, 1923, on a farm in Wabash County, one of six children. His parents, second generation German immigrants, managed a grain and feed business.

He attended Bippus High School in Huntington County and later Purdue University.

He fought in World War II in the Philippines, then Korea, as an infantry platoon leader. He came home to find a radio job in Richmond, Ind., then moved into television in Providence, R.I.

In 1947, he assumed television play-by-play duties for Harvard University football. Five years later, he began a 13-year run as the TV voice of the New York Giants.

His many honors include honorary doctorate degrees from Purdue, Ball State and Rose-Hulman Institute. He has been inducted into 16 halls of fame, including the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters and College and Pro Football halls, and he won an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1993.

Recently 50 letters were sent to President Bush nominating Schenkel for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among those sending letters were Indiana senator Richard Lugar, former Indiana senator Birch Bayh, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight and golfing legend Byron Nelson.

Last summer longtime broadcasting partner Jim McKay said, "Chris is one of the friendliest, nicest people you would meet anywhere. He likes people. He loves people. He's very forgiving about people even if anything happens in a bad way."

Schenkel is survived by his wife, Fran, sons Ted and John, daughter Tina, and several grandchildren.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Robert Wise, Film Producer-Director

Robert Wise, Film Producer-Director of "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," Dead at 91

15 Sep 2005

Producer-director Robert Wise, who brought the musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music to life for film audiences, died Sept. 14 at the age of 91 of heart failure.

Earning two Academy Awards on each musical, for Best Picture and Best Direction, Wise shared the latter award for "West Side Story" with co-director Jerome Robbins — the first such occurrence.

Wise fell into the business when his older brother — then an accountant at RKO — got him a job at the studio. He then worked his way up from sound editor on "The Gay Divorcee" and "Top Hat" to film editing on such movies as "The Bachelor Mother," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "My Favorite Wife" and "Dance, Girl, Dance" before landing the Orson Welles epic "Citizen Kane." He was the sole surviving crew member of that movie until his passing.

Eventually becoming a director, his credits include "The Body Snatcher," "The Set-Up," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "The Desert Rats," "So Big," "Executive Suite," "Helen of Troy," "Tribute to a Bad Man," "Run Silent Run Deep" and "I Want to Live!" — the latter earned him his first Oscar nomination. After his success with "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," Wise went on to direct "Star!," "The Andromeda Strain," "The Hindenburg," "Audrey Rose" and the first "Star Trek" movie. His final directing job was on the 1989 film "Rooftops."

Among other accolades bestowed upon Wise include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for sustained achievement, the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award and the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. He served as president of the DGA from 1971-1975 and held the same position at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 1985-1988

He is survived by his wife, Millicent, his son Robert E. Wise (from his earlier marriage to Patricia Doyle, who died in 1975), his stepdaughter, Pamela Rosenberg, and a granddaughter.

 

[linuxgeek]

Simon Wiesenthal

src

Nazi hunter Wiesenthal dead at 96

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/S_Wiesenthal.jpg/180px-S_Wiesenthal.jpg

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II and spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice, has died aged 96.

A statement on the Simon Wiesenthal Center Web site said he died early Tuesday in Vienna, Austria.

With more than six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, including 89 members of his own family, Wiesenthal felt driven to track down those involved in the atrocities.

In his book "Justice, Not Vengeance," Wiesenthal wrote: "Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.

"The answer I have found for myself (and which need not necessarily be the answer for every survivor) is: I want to be their mouthpiece, I want to keep their memory alive, to make sure the dead live on in that memory."

Wiesenthal is credited with helping to bring more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice.

"Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of history's greatest crime to justice.

"There was no press conference and no president or prime minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted.

"The task was overwhelming. The cause had few friends. The Allies were already focused on the Cold War, the survivors were rebuilding their shattered lives and Simon Wiesenthal was all alone, combining the role of both prosecutor and detective at the same time.

"His greatest accomplishment was that he showed the world what one person determined to do the right thing can accomplish," Hier said.

Wiesenthal was held in a number of concentration camps during World War II, being freed by American forces from Mauthausen in Austria on May 5, 1945. At the time, he weighed less than 100 pounds, according to his biography.

He said he quickly realized "there is no freedom without justice," and decided to dedicate "a few years" to seeking justice. "It became decades," he added.

Additional Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wiesenthal

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former slugger Donn Clendenon dead at 70

The Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Donn Clendenon, the power-hitting first baseman who was the most valuable player in the New York Mets' 1969 World Series victory, died Saturday after a long fight with leukemia. He was 70. A spokesman from the George Boom Funeral Home confirmed the death.

Clendenon hit three home runs and had four RBI in the Mets' five-game victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He hit .274 with 159 home runs and 682 RBI in 12 seasons in the major leagues with Pittsburgh, Montreal, the Mets and St. Louis.

"He was a true gentleman and an integral part of the 1969 team. We knew he had been sick a long time, and on behalf of the Wilpons and the entire Mets organization we send our condolences to his entire family," Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said.

Clendenon spent his first eight seasons in the majors with Pittsburgh, began the 1969 season with Montreal and joined the Mets in a midseason deal.

"The one thing I remember was hearing that he could have been a pro athlete in three different sports — baseball, football or basketball. He was that gifted of an athlete," former Pirates pitcher Steve Blass said Saturday night. "He was a prototypical first baseman. He was big with a big reach and gave you a big target."

In the 1969 World Series, the Orioles were ahead 3-0 in Game 5 when Mets manager Gil Hodges emerged from the dugout to argue that a ball thrown by Baltimore's Dave McNally hit Mets outfielder Cleon Jones in the foot.

Hodges grabbed the shoe-polish smudged ball and proved that Jones was indeed struck, setting the stage for Clendenon. The first baseman stepped to the plate and hit a two-run homer, and the Mets eventually went on to win 5-3.

"When we got him, we became a different team," said Bud Harrelson, shortstop for the '69 Mets. "We never had a three-run homer type of guy.

"He was always humble, never cocky. We were still young kids in that era. He was a veteran that came in and made us better. When you threw him into the mix with the rest of us, we became a dangerous force. We knew we had a good team with him, but we didn't know quite how good. Gil thought we were better than we were.

"He was the MVP — a very dangerous player."

Clendenon recounted the 1969 season in his book, Miracle In New York, in which he also talked about growing up in Atlanta, earning his law degree and battling drug addiction as he neared his 50s.

After retiring from baseball in 1972, Clendenon earned a law degree and moved to Sioux Falls in the summer of 1987. He said in a 1987 interview that he worked at law firms in Washington, D.C., and Chicago before "getting tired of the big cities."

Clendenon, born in Neosho, Mo., told The Associated Press in 1989 that he has used his varied experiences to help young people.

"I like working with kids," Clendenon said. "I've played major league baseball, I'm a lawyer, I've had an education, I'm an addict, so I can relate to them."



One of my favorite baseball heros! He was such a classy man.

 

[sticky_keyboard]

Maxwell Smart - Don Adams - dead at 82

LOS ANGELES -
Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.
ADVERTISEMENT

Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding that the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.

As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency CONTROL, Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combatting the evil agents of KAOS. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another tack:

"Would you believe ... ?"

It became a national catchphrase.

Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of his boss — the Chief (actor
Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic "Sorry about that, chief" also entered the American lexicon.

The spy gadgets, which aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cellphone telephone in a shoe.

Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by
Barbara Feldon, was as brainy as he was dense, and a plot romance led to marriage and the birth of twins later in the series.

"He had this prodigious energy, so as an actor working with him it was like being plugged into an electric current," Feldon said from New York. "He would start and a scene would just take off and you were there for the ride. It was great fun acting with him."

Adams was very intelligent, she said, a quality that suited the satiric show that had comedy geniuses
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry behind it.

"He wrote poetry, he had an interest in history ... He had that other side to him that does not come through Maxwell Smart," she said. "Don in person was anything but bumbling."

Adams had an "amazing memory" that allowed him to take an unusual approach to filming, Feldon said.

Instead of learning his lines ahead of time he would have a script assistant read his part to him just once or twice. He invariably got it right but that didn't stop people from placing bets on it, she recounted.

Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a spy spoof. When he learned that Brooks and Henry had written the pilot script, he accepted immediately. "Get Smart" debuted on NBC in September 1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series and No. 22 in its second season.

"Get Smart" twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor.

CBS picked up the show but the ratings fell off as the jokes seemed repetitive, and it was canceled after four seasons. The show lived on in syndication and a cartoon series. In 1995 the Fox network revived the series with Smart as chief and 99 as a congresswoman. It lasted seven episodes.

Adams never had another showcase to display his comic talent.

"It was a special show that became a cult classic of sorts, and I made a lot of money for it," he remarked of "Get Smart" in a 1995 interview. "But it also hindered me career-wise because I was typed. The character was so strong, particularly because of that distinctive voice, that nobody could picture me in any other type of role."

He was born Donald James Yarmy in New York City on April 13, 1923, Tufeld said, although some sources say 1926 or '27. The actor's father was a Hungarian Jew who ran a few small restaurants in the Bronx.

In a 1959 interview Adams said he never cared about being funny as a kid: "Sometimes I wonder how I got into comedy at all. I did movie star impressions as a kid in high school. Somehow they just got out of hand."

In 1941, he dropped out of school to join the Marines. In Guadalcanal he survived the deadly blackwater fever and was returned to the States to become a drill instructor, acquiring the clipped delivery that served him well as a comedian.

After the war he worked in New York as a commercial artist by day, doing standup comedy in clubs at night, taking the surname of his first wife, Adelaide Adams. His following grew, and soon he was appearing on the Ed Sullivan and late-night TV shows. Bill Dana, who had helped him develop comedy routines, cast him as his sidekick on Dana's show. That led to the NBC contract and "Get Smart."

Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series, "Inspector Gadget" as well as the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature film, "The Nude Bomb," about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.

Tufeld said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

 

[Agent99]

LOS ANGELES -
Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.

When I heard this on the news tonight, I thought I would be the first to post it here.

Misseditbythatmuch.

 

[sticky_keyboard]

When I heard this on the news tonight, I thought I would be the first to post it here.

Misseditbythatmuch.

Would you believe...

...that I was thinking of you when I posted this?

He was a colorful Sunbeam of Control in a black & white world of Chaos.

Right, Chief.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Michael Wittenberg, Bernadette Peters' Husband

27 Sep 2005

Michael Wittenberg, the husband of beloved Broadway actress Bernadette Peters, was killed in a helicopter crash Sept. 26.

The investment adviser, who was 43 years old, was on a business trip in Montenegro, according to a spokesperson for Peters.

The couple was married in July 1996 at the home of Peters' longtime friend Mary Tyler Moore.

Wittenberg shared Peters' devotion to animals. In fact, the couple had adopted two pets, a pit bull named Stella from the CACC and a mixed terrier called Kramer from the ASPCA. The couple did not have children.

In February 1999, Peters told Playbill that "[marriage has] been great. It's been like this secure, rooted place, so it allows my tree to branch out. I've never worked as much since I've been married, taking risks and doing things."

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Thomas Ross Bond (a "Little Rascal"

September 25, 2005

http://www.nndb.com/people/763/000092487/bond-sm.jpg

LOS ANGELES --Thomas Ross Bond, who played Butch the bully in the "Our Gang" and "The Little Rascals" serials of the 1930s, has died. He was 79.

Bond played a member of the Gang named Tommy. After his first year he was dropped from the cast but returned later in the role of Butch, the archenemy of Alfalfa.

Bond appeared in dozens of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" features before outgrowing the role.

Born Sept. 16, 1926 in Dallas, Bond got his start at the age of 5 when a talent scout for Hal Roach studios approached him as he was leaving a movie theater with his mother.

The scout "asked him if he'd be interested in acting, (said) he had a great face and he could set up an appointment with Hal Roach in L.A.," Marks said.

His grandmother drove him in what, at the time, was a rugged journey: "It was all dirt roads from Dallas to L.A," Marks said.

In the 1940s, Bond played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman movies and appeared as Joey Pepper in several installments of the "Five Little Peppers" serial.

In 1951, Bond quit acting and went into television directing and production work before retiring in 1991.

Bond is survived by his wife, Pauline, son Thomas Ross Bond III and a grandson.

 

[KindaKinky]

Comedian, TV game show guest Nipsey Russell dies

Tue Oct 4, 3:00 PM ET



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nipsey Russell, the first black comedian to regularly appear on U.S. network television game shows, has died of cancer two weeks before his 81st birthday, his manager said on Tuesday.

Dubbed "the poet laureate of TV" for the quick-witted poems he would recite, Russell died in a New York hospital on Sunday, Joseph Rapp said.

Russell got his start after World War Two as the master of ceremonies at the Baby Grand club in Harlem. He built a following and became known to the mainstream white show business world, Rapp said.

Russell had a featured role in the popular 1961 TV sitcom "Car 54, Where are You?"

In 1963, near the height of the U.S. civil rights era, he became the first black performer to appear as a regular guest on a television game show, "Missing Links," hosted by Ed McMahon, Rapp said.

It was McMahon who dubbed him "poet laureate" because of the poems, some of which were playfully political, that he would recite at the close of the show.

"He was not as heavy-handed as the others that were coming up," Rapp said. "In those years, it was very hard for a black comedian to be that political."

Russell later was a frequent guest on other game shows, such as the "$10,000 Pyramid," and "The Match Game," and hosted his own game show "Your Number's Up."

He appeared in such films as "Posse," with Mario Van Peebles and "Wildcats," with Goldie Hawn.

Born in Atlanta, Russell graduated from high school at age 16, majored in English and European history at the University of Cincinnati and spoke four languages, Rapp said.

From these earthly bonds, Nipsey's been released. He's now in the ground, resting in peace.

 

[KindaKinky]

Award-winning U.S. playwright August Wilson dies

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, whose cycle of plays chronicling 20th-century African-American life brought a new frankness to the way theater dealt with race, died of liver cancer on Sunday in Seattle, a hospital spokesman said. He was 60.

Wilson disclosed his illness in August when a spokeswoman said he may have only months to live.

He spent part of the last months of his life working on "Radio Golf," the 10th and final play in what has become known as his "Pittsburgh Cycle."

The play opened in Los Angeles last July to reviews that called it a fitting last chapter in a series of plays that dramatized the hopes and frustrations of black life through every decade of the 20th century, starting with characters that remembered slavery and ending with characters aiming at wealth and political power.

"Radio Golf" had its world premiere in April at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, where he launched his professional career 21 years ago. Trade paper Variety called it "extraordinarily unformed, unfocused and overly complicated."

It recently ended its run in Los Angeles, and plans were afoot to bring it to Broadway.

All but one of the plays, Wilson's 1984 breakthrough "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," were set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh where Wilson grew up, the son of a white German immigrant and an African-American mother.

Wilson, a high school dropout, won the Pulitzer for "Fences" and "Piano Lesson" and the best play Tony for "Fences."

His other works included "Jitney," "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and "Seven Guitars."

Many critics compared Wilson's Hill stories to William Faulkner's novels set in Mississippi's mythical Yoknapatawpha County.

Wilson's plays helped bring to prominence a new generation of black actors, including Charles S. Dutton, Laurence Fishburne and S. Epatha Merkerson.

Wilson was diagnosed with cancer in June by his doctors in Seattle. The disease proved too advanced for treatment, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which broke the story of his illness.

"I've lived a blessed life. I'm ready," Wilson told the Post-Gazette in August.

Wilson will be immortalized on Broadway later this month when the Virginia Theater is renamed the August Wilson Theater.

Wilson is survived by his third wife and two daughters.

Reuters/VNU

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/02/2002535800.jpg

Joe Turner's Author has come and gone too. He will be missed.

 

[linuxgeek]

Pat Kelly (baseball outfielder)

Harold Patrick (Pat) Kelly (July 30, 1944 - October 2, 2005) was a right fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1967 through 1981, Kelly played for the Minnesota Twins (1967-68), Kansas City Royals (1969-70), Chicago White Sox (1971-76), Baltimore Orioles (1977-79) and Cleveland Indians (1981). He batted and threw left handed.

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kelly debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1967. He played in 20 games over two seasons with Minnesota before spending two years with the Kansas City Royals.

Kelly made the American League All-Star team as a member of the Chicago White Sox in 1973, during a season in which he hit .280 in a career-high 144 games. Some of his best seasons were as a clutch-hitting, platoon player for the powerful Baltimore Orioles' teams of 1977-80, including an appearance in the 1979 World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kelly finished his majors career when he hit .213 (16-for-75) in 48 games for the Cleveland Indians during the strike-shortened 1981 season.

In a 15-season career, Kelly was a .264 hitter with 76 home runs and 418 RBI in 1385 games played. He added 1,147 hits, 189 doubles, 35 triples and 250 stolen bases.

Following his retirement as a player, Kelly served as a reverend for Lifeline Ministries in Maryland.

Kelly died from a heart attack in Baltimore, Maryland, at age of 61.

 

[the nameless]

British comedy legend dies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/200/ronnie_barker.jpg

Ronnie Barker, best known for his roles in Poridge, open all hours, and the two ronnies, died of heart failure.

There goes a true funny man

 

[JennyOmanHill]

M Scott Peck

M Scott Peck, who has died aged 69, was a psychiatrist and author of The Road Less Travelled, the ultimate self-help manual, which has sold some 10 million copies and which set a record for a nonfiction book by spending more than eight years on the New York Times bestseller list.

Its opening sentence, "Life is difficult", introduced a tome which argued, uncontentiously and sensibly, that human experience was trying and imperfectible, and that only self-discipline, delaying gratification, acceptance that one's actions have consequences, and a determined attempt at spiritual growth could make sense of it. By contrast, Peck himself was, by his own admission, a self-deluding, gin-sodden, chain-smoking neurotic whose life was characterised by incessant infidelity and an inability to relate to his parents or children. "I'm a prophet, not a saint," he explained in an interview earlier this year.

In 1983 he began a bid for the presidency in order to be "a healer to the nation", but was forced by health fears to abandon his ambitions. Recently he had written in Glimpses of the Devil (2005) about his experiences of conducting exorcisms and had embarked on a new career as a songwriter. The voice of God asked him to be objective about the merits of a song he had written on the subject of faithfulness. "I went into a sort of guided meditation and I imagined there were a million people around the globe, Japan, Ethiopia, Brazil, America, what not, all with headphones on listening to this thing and that their consensus would somehow be objective… I played it for the 62nd time and I said: 'Holy s***! It's not good. It's great.' "

Morgan Scott Peck was born on May 22 1936 in New York City, the son of a successful lawyer who later became a judge, but who, according to his son, was in denial about the fact that he was half-Jewish. Though it was a secular household, young Scott attended a Quaker day school and became fascinated by religion, becoming a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18. By his own account, he was a tiresomely brilliant child. Like all the others, his ambition was to write the Great American Novel.

After Middlebury College in Vermont, he proceed to Harvard, from which he graduated in 1958 in social relations. Despite his literary ambitions, he enrolled in a pre-med course at Columbia University, taking night classes and working at Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric division during the day. At that time, he took a dim view of psychiatry, and enrolled at Case-Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, aiming to become a general practitioner.

At Columbia, he had met Lily Ho, from Singapore; they were married during his first year of medical school. Both sets of parents disapproved, and Peck's father went so far as to disown him, though he later relented and paid his school tuition fees.

After graduation in 1963, Peck joined the US Army as a psychiatrist, this being the only way in which he could train while receiving a wage sufficient to support his wife and children. He had stints on Honolulu and in San Francisco before becoming head of psychology at the US Medical Centre at Okinawa from 1967 to 1970, and then assistant chief of psychiatry at the Surgeon General's office in Washington, DC, from 1970 to 1972.

In 1976, however, he received an urgent inspiration to write a book which, 20 months later, he submitted to Random House under the title The Psychology of Spiritual Growth. His editor liked the first two sections, but thought the third "too Christ-y". Simon & Schuster picked it up for $7,500 and published it as The Road Less Travelled. At first it sold well, but not spectacularly; by 1980 it had been reprinted and sold 12,000 copies but, on its appearance in paperback, it became a word-of-mouth sensation. In 1983 it entered the bestseller lists, and stayed there for eight years. It was especially popular with members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Peck, meanwhile, found himself drawn from Eastern mysticism to mainstream Christianity, though he remained unfaithful to his wife, maintained his drink and cigarette intake, and was liberal on issues such as euthanasia. "To me, religion and psychology are not separate," he told Playboy.

His next book, People of the Lie (1983), explored human evil. He was tiring, too, of his own patients, whom he thought "slow" and insufficiently attentive to him. He wound down his practice and set out on the lecture circuit, charging $15,000 a talk. He collaborated on Christian song sheets and, in 1987, published The Different Drum, which pointed out where communities were going wrong.

Latterly he suffered from impotence and Parkinson's Disease and devoted himself to Christian songwriting, at which he was not very good.

He married Lily Ho in 1959; they had three children, two of whom would not talk to their father. She left him in 2003. He is survived by his second wife, Kathy, an educationalist he picked up, while still married, after a lecture at Sacramento, and by his children.