sweet soft kiss
Tastefully Round
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Fayard Nicholas, Tony Winner and Stage and Film Dancer, Dead at 91
Wonderful dancers...
Wonderful dancers...
Literotica Cemetary
- Thread starter KindaKinky
- Start date
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
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- Posts
- 11,151
'60 Minutes' Pioneer Arthur Bloom Dies
Jan 28, 4:53 PM (ET)
NEW YORK (AP) - Television news director Arthur Bloom, who helped found the newsmagazine "60 Minutes" and donated his stopwatch to create the show's iconic ticking image, died Saturday of cancer. He was 63.
Bloom, who joined CBS in its mailroom when he was 18, died at his home in Grandview-on-Hudson, N.Y., the network said. Besides his 38 years with "60 Minutes," Bloom helped train Dan Rather to succeed Walter Cronkite in the CBS News anchor chair in 1981.
Rather and Cronkite hailed Bloom's work.
"Artie Bloom was the most accomplished director of television news programs in history," Rather said. "The record shows he was the best."
Bloom's talent and humor "were the very spirit of CBS News," Cronkite said.
"It is difficult to think of our craft without him," he said.
During his 45-year career at CBS, Bloom was instrumental in the network's political coverage. He directed work on the conventions for both parties from 1976 to 1988, the Ford-Carter and Reagan-Mondale presidential debates, and every election night from 1974-90.
In 1995, he received the Directors Guild of America's first Lifetime Achievement Award.
"60 Minutes" has captured 78 Emmy Awards and 11 Peabody Awards.
Bloom was there for the launch of "60 Minutes" in 1968. It was on the show's third edition that it was introduced with the now-famous ticking stopwatch.
"Artie had an eye for what worked visually and what didn't," said "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt. "He was invaluable to me."
The Manhattan native began directing at age 21 with WCBS-TV, the local New York station. In 1966, he joined CBS news and two years later was directing "60 Minutes."
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Marla; a son, Scott; a daughter, Jill Bloom Butterman; a brother, Richard; and four grandchildren.
Jan 28, 4:53 PM (ET)
NEW YORK (AP) - Television news director Arthur Bloom, who helped found the newsmagazine "60 Minutes" and donated his stopwatch to create the show's iconic ticking image, died Saturday of cancer. He was 63.
Bloom, who joined CBS in its mailroom when he was 18, died at his home in Grandview-on-Hudson, N.Y., the network said. Besides his 38 years with "60 Minutes," Bloom helped train Dan Rather to succeed Walter Cronkite in the CBS News anchor chair in 1981.
Rather and Cronkite hailed Bloom's work.
"Artie Bloom was the most accomplished director of television news programs in history," Rather said. "The record shows he was the best."
Bloom's talent and humor "were the very spirit of CBS News," Cronkite said.
"It is difficult to think of our craft without him," he said.
During his 45-year career at CBS, Bloom was instrumental in the network's political coverage. He directed work on the conventions for both parties from 1976 to 1988, the Ford-Carter and Reagan-Mondale presidential debates, and every election night from 1974-90.
In 1995, he received the Directors Guild of America's first Lifetime Achievement Award.
"60 Minutes" has captured 78 Emmy Awards and 11 Peabody Awards.
Bloom was there for the launch of "60 Minutes" in 1968. It was on the show's third edition that it was introduced with the now-famous ticking stopwatch.
"Artie had an eye for what worked visually and what didn't," said "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt. "He was invaluable to me."
The Manhattan native began directing at age 21 with WCBS-TV, the local New York station. In 1966, he joined CBS news and two years later was directing "60 Minutes."
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Marla; a son, Scott; a daughter, Jill Bloom Butterman; a brother, Richard; and four grandchildren.
ksmybuttons
Push and Pull
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- Dec 1, 2001
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Coretta Scott King.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
Wendy Wasserstein, Playwright, Dead at 55
http://www.playbill.com/images/photos/wendyinside.jpg
Wendy Wasserstein, Playwright Who Dramatized the Progress of a Generation of Women, Is Dead at 55
Wendy Wasserstein, who for three decades, through a series of compassionately comedic dramas, charted the strivings and disappointments of the modern American woman, died early Jan. 30 at the age of 55, Lincoln Center Theater confirmed. The cause was lymphoma.
Ms. Wasserstein's sudden death was particularly startling to followers of the theatre—not only because she had long seemed to possess such a vital and life-affirming nature, but because she and director Daniel Sullivan had only recently opened her latest work, Third, Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Reports of her being on life support in a New York hospital began to emerge during the first week of December. The New York Daily News, citing a source close to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, said "Wendy had been sick for a long time, but she's a private person and kept it quiet. But during rehearsals [for Third] she needed a cane some days."
That Ms. Wasserstein should be struck down by cancer is in some respects sadly ironic. A character in Third suffers from cancer. Additionally, her older sister Sandra Wasserstein Meyer—the model of the Sara Goode character in The Sisters Rosensweig—died of breast cancer in 1997.
The partially autobiographical The Sisters Rosensweig, which premiered on Broadway in 1993, concerned the loves and travails of three vivacious and very different siblings. It was Ms. Wasserstein's second Broadway hit running—an unheard of feat in the theatre in recent decades. The production followed The Heidi Chronicles, the searching, multi year examination of the women's movement, which put the author on the map and arguably made her the most prominent female playwright in America for the remainder of her life.
Heidi—which transferred to Broadway from an Off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons—won Ms. Wasserstein a Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. At 622 performances, it was also a commercial success. A few years later, The Sisters Rosensweig would, too, transfer from Off-Broadway (this time, Lincoln Center Theater) to Broadway and have a healthy run of 556 performances. Both Broadway productions spawned national tours.
Wendy Wasserstein was a "concerned, intelligent good" woman who spent her career making sure her fellow females never felt completely stranded—as least not by their self-appointed playwright chronicler. Her first play to gain attention, Uncommon Women and Others, was about a group of college students at Mount Holyoke trying to locate their senses of self and ways in the world during a socially turbulent time. Isn't It Romantic, from 1981, meanwhile, looked at two young women as they tried their luck at the 1970-80s concept of "having it all."
Adding to her general image as a comic writer was her vivid, animated public persona. Apple-cheeked and curly-haired, she always seemed to be peeling into a high-pitched giggle or relating the events of a recent convivial lunch with one of her many prominent friends. Among these were composer William Finn, playwright Terrence McNally, critic Frank Rich, playwright Christopher Durang, director James Lapine and LCT artistic director Andre Bishop. She was, in fact, notorious for being incredibly well connected and a great collector of friends. (Those friends sometimes found their names —as well as those of countless other contemporary figures—popping up in their pal's stage works).
In recent years, Ms. Wasserstein seemed to have lost her magic touch with critics and audiences. An American Daughter, her final play to reach Broadway, ran for only 89 full performances. Reviewers wrote that the drama—about a woman doctor of old American stock whose life becomes fair game for the media when she is nominated for the post of U.S. Surgeon General—was overextended, with two many characters and plot lines. (After its New York life, the play was later revised by the author and seen in regional theatres; it was also a television film.) Old Money, which debuted at LCT in 2002, was criticized for similar properties, as was what seemed like the author's ongoing preoccupation with the upper echelons of society. The play was set in an Upper East Side mansion during two eras—the first and the last decades of the 20th century—and looked at the way things had changed (and hadn't changed) over time.
Third, in contrast, was considered by many her best play since Rosensweig, in large part because it reexamined and questioned the liberal values that had long been staples of Ms. Wasserstein's writing. The play's central figure, Laurie Jameson, is a pioneering professor at an elite Eastern school, whose life and career become unhinged when she provokes a standoff with a blithely contented student named Woodson Bull III. She perceives "Third" to be "a walking Red State" who embodies everything about America that she deplores.
Wendy Wasserstein was one of four children born to Morris Wasserstein, a prosperous Brooklyn textile businessman, and his wife Lola. The parents pushed their children to succeed and got the wished-for result: all four thrived in their professions. Georgette became the owner of the Wilburton Inn in Manchester, VT; Sandra was a senior partner at the consulting firm of Clark & Weinstock; and Bruce is the chairman and CEO of the investment banking firm Lazard.
She once described her mother as being like "Auntie Mame," ordering Thanksgiving dinner from a deli, dressing flamboyantly and taking her kids to Broadway musicals. Ms. Wasserstein attended the Yale School of Drama, where her thesis play was Uncommon Women and Others. It was picked up and produced by T. Edward Hambleton at his Phoenix Theatre at Marymount.
Ms. Wasserstein occasionally worked in other areas. She wrote the screenplay to the 1998 film "The Object of My Affection," and penned the children's book "Pamela's First Musical," which she adapted with David Zippel and the late Cy Coleman into a musical. She also published the collections of essays "Shiksa Goddess (Or, How I Spent My Forties)" and "Bachelor Girls." "Shiksa Goddess" contains an essay on the near miraculous birth (at age 48) of her first child, Lucy Jane.
Funeral services will be private. A memorial service at Lincoln Center Theater will be announced at a later date.
http://www.playbill.com/images/photos/wendyinside.jpg
Wendy Wasserstein, Playwright Who Dramatized the Progress of a Generation of Women, Is Dead at 55
Wendy Wasserstein, who for three decades, through a series of compassionately comedic dramas, charted the strivings and disappointments of the modern American woman, died early Jan. 30 at the age of 55, Lincoln Center Theater confirmed. The cause was lymphoma.
Ms. Wasserstein's sudden death was particularly startling to followers of the theatre—not only because she had long seemed to possess such a vital and life-affirming nature, but because she and director Daniel Sullivan had only recently opened her latest work, Third, Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Reports of her being on life support in a New York hospital began to emerge during the first week of December. The New York Daily News, citing a source close to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, said "Wendy had been sick for a long time, but she's a private person and kept it quiet. But during rehearsals [for Third] she needed a cane some days."
That Ms. Wasserstein should be struck down by cancer is in some respects sadly ironic. A character in Third suffers from cancer. Additionally, her older sister Sandra Wasserstein Meyer—the model of the Sara Goode character in The Sisters Rosensweig—died of breast cancer in 1997.
The partially autobiographical The Sisters Rosensweig, which premiered on Broadway in 1993, concerned the loves and travails of three vivacious and very different siblings. It was Ms. Wasserstein's second Broadway hit running—an unheard of feat in the theatre in recent decades. The production followed The Heidi Chronicles, the searching, multi year examination of the women's movement, which put the author on the map and arguably made her the most prominent female playwright in America for the remainder of her life.
Heidi—which transferred to Broadway from an Off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons—won Ms. Wasserstein a Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. At 622 performances, it was also a commercial success. A few years later, The Sisters Rosensweig would, too, transfer from Off-Broadway (this time, Lincoln Center Theater) to Broadway and have a healthy run of 556 performances. Both Broadway productions spawned national tours.
Wendy Wasserstein was a "concerned, intelligent good" woman who spent her career making sure her fellow females never felt completely stranded—as least not by their self-appointed playwright chronicler. Her first play to gain attention, Uncommon Women and Others, was about a group of college students at Mount Holyoke trying to locate their senses of self and ways in the world during a socially turbulent time. Isn't It Romantic, from 1981, meanwhile, looked at two young women as they tried their luck at the 1970-80s concept of "having it all."
Adding to her general image as a comic writer was her vivid, animated public persona. Apple-cheeked and curly-haired, she always seemed to be peeling into a high-pitched giggle or relating the events of a recent convivial lunch with one of her many prominent friends. Among these were composer William Finn, playwright Terrence McNally, critic Frank Rich, playwright Christopher Durang, director James Lapine and LCT artistic director Andre Bishop. She was, in fact, notorious for being incredibly well connected and a great collector of friends. (Those friends sometimes found their names —as well as those of countless other contemporary figures—popping up in their pal's stage works).
In recent years, Ms. Wasserstein seemed to have lost her magic touch with critics and audiences. An American Daughter, her final play to reach Broadway, ran for only 89 full performances. Reviewers wrote that the drama—about a woman doctor of old American stock whose life becomes fair game for the media when she is nominated for the post of U.S. Surgeon General—was overextended, with two many characters and plot lines. (After its New York life, the play was later revised by the author and seen in regional theatres; it was also a television film.) Old Money, which debuted at LCT in 2002, was criticized for similar properties, as was what seemed like the author's ongoing preoccupation with the upper echelons of society. The play was set in an Upper East Side mansion during two eras—the first and the last decades of the 20th century—and looked at the way things had changed (and hadn't changed) over time.
Third, in contrast, was considered by many her best play since Rosensweig, in large part because it reexamined and questioned the liberal values that had long been staples of Ms. Wasserstein's writing. The play's central figure, Laurie Jameson, is a pioneering professor at an elite Eastern school, whose life and career become unhinged when she provokes a standoff with a blithely contented student named Woodson Bull III. She perceives "Third" to be "a walking Red State" who embodies everything about America that she deplores.
Wendy Wasserstein was one of four children born to Morris Wasserstein, a prosperous Brooklyn textile businessman, and his wife Lola. The parents pushed their children to succeed and got the wished-for result: all four thrived in their professions. Georgette became the owner of the Wilburton Inn in Manchester, VT; Sandra was a senior partner at the consulting firm of Clark & Weinstock; and Bruce is the chairman and CEO of the investment banking firm Lazard.
She once described her mother as being like "Auntie Mame," ordering Thanksgiving dinner from a deli, dressing flamboyantly and taking her kids to Broadway musicals. Ms. Wasserstein attended the Yale School of Drama, where her thesis play was Uncommon Women and Others. It was picked up and produced by T. Edward Hambleton at his Phoenix Theatre at Marymount.
Ms. Wasserstein occasionally worked in other areas. She wrote the screenplay to the 1998 film "The Object of My Affection," and penned the children's book "Pamela's First Musical," which she adapted with David Zippel and the late Cy Coleman into a musical. She also published the collections of essays "Shiksa Goddess (Or, How I Spent My Forties)" and "Bachelor Girls." "Shiksa Goddess" contains an essay on the near miraculous birth (at age 48) of her first child, Lucy Jane.
Funeral services will be private. A memorial service at Lincoln Center Theater will be announced at a later date.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
Grandpa Munster Al Lewis dies at 95
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/02/04/lewis_al256.jpg
NEW YORK (AP) - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of The Munsters whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on Car 54, Where Are You?
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence - chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green party candidate against incumbent Governor George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as Grandpa Al Lewis.
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Albert Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in Car 54, Where Are You? - a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in The Munsters, taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of Grandpa!
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Married to the Mob. Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of Car 54, and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as Taxi, Green Acres and Lost in Space.
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD Ramones Raw.
He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
Met him briefly years ago! He was quite a character, and an energetic and fun NYer.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/02/04/lewis_al256.jpg
NEW YORK (AP) - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of The Munsters whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on Car 54, Where Are You?
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence - chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green party candidate against incumbent Governor George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as Grandpa Al Lewis.
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Albert Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in Car 54, Where Are You? - a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in The Munsters, taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of Grandpa!
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Married to the Mob. Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of Car 54, and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as Taxi, Green Acres and Lost in Space.
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD Ramones Raw.
He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
Met him briefly years ago! He was quite a character, and an energetic and fun NYer.
G
Guest
Guest
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85
Feb 4, 4:04 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.
Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.
Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.
The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.
"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.
In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and '70s, Friedan's was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women's movement.
As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.
Tristesse said:
Feb 4, 4:04 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.
Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.
Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.
The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.
"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.
In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and '70s, Friedan's was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women's movement.
As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
'Curious George' Co-Writer Found Dead
AP
Allen Shalleck worked on more than 28 'Curious George' books.
· 'George' Film About to Open
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 8) - A collaborator on the children's book series Curious George has been found dead on the driveway of his mobile home in Florida.
Police say Allen Shalleck's body was covered in black garbage bags. Neighbors had passed by for a least a day, thinking it was just trash.
Investigators haven't released any details of the death.
The 76-year-old Shalleck co-edited more than 28 Curious George books and helped write and direct 104 short films.
A movie about the mischievous monkey opens in theaters Friday.
AP
Allen Shalleck worked on more than 28 'Curious George' books.
· 'George' Film About to Open
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 8) - A collaborator on the children's book series Curious George has been found dead on the driveway of his mobile home in Florida.
Police say Allen Shalleck's body was covered in black garbage bags. Neighbors had passed by for a least a day, thinking it was just trash.
Investigators haven't released any details of the death.
The 76-year-old Shalleck co-edited more than 28 Curious George books and helped write and direct 104 short films.
A movie about the mischievous monkey opens in theaters Friday.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
Actor Franklin Cover Dies at Age 77
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/10/obit.cover.ap/vert.cover.ap.jpg
Feb 10, 12:43 AM (ET)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Franklin Cover, who became a familiar face as George and Louise Jefferson's white neighbor in the long-running TV sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died, his publicist said Thursday. He was 77.
Cover died of pneumonia Sunday at the Lillian Booth Actor's Fund of America home in Englewood, N.J., said publicist Dale Olson. He had been living at the home since December 2005 while recuperating from a heart condition.
In his nearly six decades in show business, Cover made numerous appearances on television shows, including "The Jackie Gleason Show,""All in the Family,""Who's the Boss?""Will & Grace,""Living Single,""Mad About You" and "ER."
He began his career on the stage, appearing in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Henry IV," and later in numerous Broadway productions, including "Any Wednesday,""Wild Honey and "Born Yesterday."
But Cover was best known for his role as Tom Willis, who was in an interracial marriage with a black woman, in "The Jeffersons."
He and his wife lived in the same "deluxe apartment building" that Sherman Hemsley moved his family to after making money in the dry-cleaning business. There, Cover often played a comic foil to Hemsley's blustering, opinionated black businessman. The show ran from 1975 to 1985.
Cover also appeared in several films, including "The Great Gatsby,""The Stepford Wives" and "Wall Street."
He is survived by his widow, Mary, a son and a daughter.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/10/obit.cover.ap/vert.cover.ap.jpg
Feb 10, 12:43 AM (ET)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Franklin Cover, who became a familiar face as George and Louise Jefferson's white neighbor in the long-running TV sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died, his publicist said Thursday. He was 77.
Cover died of pneumonia Sunday at the Lillian Booth Actor's Fund of America home in Englewood, N.J., said publicist Dale Olson. He had been living at the home since December 2005 while recuperating from a heart condition.
In his nearly six decades in show business, Cover made numerous appearances on television shows, including "The Jackie Gleason Show,""All in the Family,""Who's the Boss?""Will & Grace,""Living Single,""Mad About You" and "ER."
He began his career on the stage, appearing in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Henry IV," and later in numerous Broadway productions, including "Any Wednesday,""Wild Honey and "Born Yesterday."
But Cover was best known for his role as Tom Willis, who was in an interracial marriage with a black woman, in "The Jeffersons."
He and his wife lived in the same "deluxe apartment building" that Sherman Hemsley moved his family to after making money in the dry-cleaning business. There, Cover often played a comic foil to Hemsley's blustering, opinionated black businessman. The show ran from 1975 to 1985.
Cover also appeared in several films, including "The Great Gatsby,""The Stepford Wives" and "Wall Street."
He is survived by his widow, Mary, a son and a daughter.
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2004
- Posts
- 32,719
Peter Benchley
src
'Jaws' author Benchley dead at age 65
Illness claims conservationist, journalist, LBJ speechwriter
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/02/12/benchley.obit.ap/storyvert.benchley.gi.jpg
NEW YORK (AP) -- Peter Benchley, whose novel "Jaws" terrorized millions of swimmers even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday.
Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years, said he died Saturday night at their home in Princeton, New Jersey. The cause of death, she said, was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and a fatal scarring of the lungs.
Thanks to Benchley's 1974 novel, and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie of the same name a year later, the simple act of ocean swimming became synonymous with fatal horror, of still water followed by ominous, pumping music, then teeth and blood and panic.
"Spielberg certainly made the most superb movie; Peter was very pleased," Wendy Benchley told The Associated Press.
"But Peter kept telling people the book was fiction, it was a novel, and that he no more took responsibility for the fear of sharks than ["Godfather" author] Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia."
Benchley, the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley and son of author Nathaniel Benchley, was born in New York City in 1940.
He attended the elite Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, then graduated from Harvard University in 1961.
He worked at The Washington Post and Newsweek and spent two years as a speechwriter for President Johnson, writing some "difficult" speeches about the Vietnam War, Wendy Benchley said.
The author's interest in sharks was lifelong, beginning with childhood visits to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and heightening in the mid-1960s when he read about a fisherman catching a 4,550-pound great white shark off Long Island, the setting for his novel.
"I thought to myself, 'What would happen if one of those came around and wouldn't go away?"' he recalled. Benchley didn't start the novel until 1971 because he was too busy working with his day jobs.
"There was no particular influence. My idea was to tell my first novel as a sort of long story ... just to see if I could do it. I had been a freelance writer since I was 16, and I sold things to various magazines and newspapers whenever I could."
Proudest achievement
While Peter Benchley co-wrote the screenplay for "Jaws," and authored several other novels, including "The Deep" and "The Island," Wendy Benchley said he was especially proud of his conservation work.
He served on the national council of Environmental Defense, hosted numerous television wildlife programs, gave speeches around the world and wrote articles for National Geographic and other publications.
"He cared very much about sharks. He spent most of his life trying to explain to people that if you are in the ocean, you're in the shark's territory, so it behooves you to take precautions," Wendy Benchley said.
The author did not abide by the mayhem his book evoked. In fact, he was quite at ease around sharks, his widow said. She recalled a trip to Guadeloupe, Mexico, last year for their 40th wedding anniversary, when the two went into the water in a special cage.
"They put bait in the water and sharks swim around and play games," she said. "We were thrilled, excited. We'd been around sharks for so long."
Besides his wife, Peter Benchley is survived by three children and five grandchildren. A small family service will take place next week in Princeton, Wendy Benchley said.
src
'Jaws' author Benchley dead at age 65
Illness claims conservationist, journalist, LBJ speechwriter
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/02/12/benchley.obit.ap/storyvert.benchley.gi.jpg
NEW YORK (AP) -- Peter Benchley, whose novel "Jaws" terrorized millions of swimmers even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday.
Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years, said he died Saturday night at their home in Princeton, New Jersey. The cause of death, she said, was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and a fatal scarring of the lungs.
Thanks to Benchley's 1974 novel, and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie of the same name a year later, the simple act of ocean swimming became synonymous with fatal horror, of still water followed by ominous, pumping music, then teeth and blood and panic.
"Spielberg certainly made the most superb movie; Peter was very pleased," Wendy Benchley told The Associated Press.
"But Peter kept telling people the book was fiction, it was a novel, and that he no more took responsibility for the fear of sharks than ["Godfather" author] Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia."
Benchley, the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley and son of author Nathaniel Benchley, was born in New York City in 1940.
He attended the elite Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, then graduated from Harvard University in 1961.
He worked at The Washington Post and Newsweek and spent two years as a speechwriter for President Johnson, writing some "difficult" speeches about the Vietnam War, Wendy Benchley said.
The author's interest in sharks was lifelong, beginning with childhood visits to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and heightening in the mid-1960s when he read about a fisherman catching a 4,550-pound great white shark off Long Island, the setting for his novel.
"I thought to myself, 'What would happen if one of those came around and wouldn't go away?"' he recalled. Benchley didn't start the novel until 1971 because he was too busy working with his day jobs.
"There was no particular influence. My idea was to tell my first novel as a sort of long story ... just to see if I could do it. I had been a freelance writer since I was 16, and I sold things to various magazines and newspapers whenever I could."
Proudest achievement
While Peter Benchley co-wrote the screenplay for "Jaws," and authored several other novels, including "The Deep" and "The Island," Wendy Benchley said he was especially proud of his conservation work.
He served on the national council of Environmental Defense, hosted numerous television wildlife programs, gave speeches around the world and wrote articles for National Geographic and other publications.
"He cared very much about sharks. He spent most of his life trying to explain to people that if you are in the ocean, you're in the shark's territory, so it behooves you to take precautions," Wendy Benchley said.
The author did not abide by the mayhem his book evoked. In fact, he was quite at ease around sharks, his widow said. She recalled a trip to Guadeloupe, Mexico, last year for their 40th wedding anniversary, when the two went into the water in a special cage.
"They put bait in the water and sharks swim around and play games," she said. "We were thrilled, excited. We'd been around sharks for so long."
Besides his wife, Peter Benchley is survived by three children and five grandchildren. A small family service will take place next week in Princeton, Wendy Benchley said.
Andreas Katsulas
Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows, died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.
Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent Babylon 5 telefilms.
Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr. Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.
Born in St. Louis, Katsulas held a master's degree in theater from Indiana University, his official Web site said. After performing in plays in St. Louis, New York and Boston, he went on to film roles in such movies as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian, which brought him to Los Angeles, then in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me and Blake Edward's Sunset.
Katsulas moved to Los Angeles permanently in 1986 and found scores of television and film parts in everything from TV's Alien Nation and Max Headroom to the big screen's The Fugitive, in which he played the infamous one-armed man, and Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal.
Information on memorial services was pending at press time.
Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows, died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.
Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent Babylon 5 telefilms.
Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr. Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.
Born in St. Louis, Katsulas held a master's degree in theater from Indiana University, his official Web site said. After performing in plays in St. Louis, New York and Boston, he went on to film roles in such movies as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian, which brought him to Los Angeles, then in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me and Blake Edward's Sunset.
Katsulas moved to Los Angeles permanently in 1986 and found scores of television and film parts in everything from TV's Alien Nation and Max Headroom to the big screen's The Fugitive, in which he played the infamous one-armed man, and Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal.
Information on memorial services was pending at press time.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
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Phil Brown, Uncle Owen In 'Star Wars,' Dies
http://images.ibsys.com/2006/0213/7006966_240X180.jpg
POSTED: 9:09 am CST February 13, 2006
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. -- The actor known by many as Luke Skywalker's uncle in the first "Star Wars" has died.
Phil Brown's wife said he died of pneumonia Thursday at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.
He was 89.
Brown worked as an actor for more than 30 years, largely in London theaters and in such films as "Tropic of Cancer" and "Twilight's Last Gleaming."
But many remember him best for his brief role as the loving Uncle Owen who tries to give Skywalker a normal childhood and keep him from knowing his Jedi roots.
That role made him a popular figure at science fiction conventions when he returned to America in the 1990's after more than 40 years in London.
Brown had moved his family there in the 1950s after being blacklisted during the communist scare in the United States.
http://images.ibsys.com/2006/0213/7006966_240X180.jpg
POSTED: 9:09 am CST February 13, 2006
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. -- The actor known by many as Luke Skywalker's uncle in the first "Star Wars" has died.
Phil Brown's wife said he died of pneumonia Thursday at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.
He was 89.
Brown worked as an actor for more than 30 years, largely in London theaters and in such films as "Tropic of Cancer" and "Twilight's Last Gleaming."
But many remember him best for his brief role as the loving Uncle Owen who tries to give Skywalker a normal childhood and keep him from knowing his Jedi roots.
That role made him a popular figure at science fiction conventions when he returned to America in the 1990's after more than 40 years in London.
Brown had moved his family there in the 1950s after being blacklisted during the communist scare in the United States.
Tati
runs with scissors
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- Sep 29, 2002
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- 13,270
Richard Bright...'Godfather,' 'Sopranos' Actor Killed by Bus
NEW YORK (Feb. 19) - Richard Bright, a character actor who appeared in all three "Godfather" movies and more recently on "The Sopranos," was struck and killed by a bus, police said.
Bright, 68, was hit by a private Academy Bus as he crossed the street at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday in his Manhattan neighborhood, police Detective Bernard Gifford said.
There were no arrests as of Sunday but police said the investigation was continuing. The bus driver told police he was not aware that he had hit anyone.
Bright played mob enforcer Al Neri in the "Godfather" movies, a bodyguard to the Corleone family patriarchs played by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
He played a con artist hustling Ali McGraw in 1972's "The Getaway" and acted in dozens of other films such as Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and in TV shows such as "Hill Street Blues."
"He always said it was the work that was the reward," said Brett Smiley, a friend and fellow actor.
Bright was arrested in 1965 on an obscenity charge for language he used in a San Francisco production of poet Michael McClure's two-person play "The Beard," which was shut down.
The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case and the charges against Bright were later dismissed in what was considered a precedent for artistic expression rights.
NEW YORK (Feb. 19) - Richard Bright, a character actor who appeared in all three "Godfather" movies and more recently on "The Sopranos," was struck and killed by a bus, police said.
Bright, 68, was hit by a private Academy Bus as he crossed the street at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday in his Manhattan neighborhood, police Detective Bernard Gifford said.
There were no arrests as of Sunday but police said the investigation was continuing. The bus driver told police he was not aware that he had hit anyone.
Bright played mob enforcer Al Neri in the "Godfather" movies, a bodyguard to the Corleone family patriarchs played by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
He played a con artist hustling Ali McGraw in 1972's "The Getaway" and acted in dozens of other films such as Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and in TV shows such as "Hill Street Blues."
"He always said it was the work that was the reward," said Brett Smiley, a friend and fellow actor.
Bright was arrested in 1965 on an obscenity charge for language he used in a San Francisco production of poet Michael McClure's two-person play "The Beard," which was shut down.
The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case and the charges against Bright were later dismissed in what was considered a precedent for artistic expression rights.
Curt Gowdy
One of the most famous voices in broadcast sports has been silenced. Curt Gowdy died today at his home in Florida after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86-years-old.
Gowdy had been the radio voice of the Boston Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. He broadcast NBC's baseball games and World Series games.
He covered superbowls and the Summer Olympics. He was named to the baseball hall of fame in 1984.
One of the most famous voices in broadcast sports has been silenced. Curt Gowdy died today at his home in Florida after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86-years-old.
Gowdy had been the radio voice of the Boston Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. He broadcast NBC's baseball games and World Series games.
He covered superbowls and the Summer Olympics. He was named to the baseball hall of fame in 1984.
sticky_keyboard
Luddy's still decomposing
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- 22,175
He was one of the best and was missed even before his death. RIP, Curt.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
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- 11,151
Cowsills singer dies in Calgary
Feb. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
CALGARY—William (Billy) Cowsill, 58, lead singer of the 1960s family band The Cowsills, has died at his home in Calgary after a lengthy illness.
His death Friday night was confirmed by family members who had gathered in Rhode Island for a memorial service for Barry Cowsill, a brother also in the band who drowned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in September.
Billy Cowsill had moved to Canada 35 years ago and continued his music career with Blue Northern and later The Blue Shadows. But his greatest success was as lead singer with the Cowsills, including hits "Hair" and "Indian Lake."
The band was the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family. The Cowsills also had their own television special, performed a headline act in Las Vegas and did milk commercials.
Barry Cowsill had been ill for several years with emphysema and other ailments. Paul Cowsill, another brother in the band, said Billy had a history of drug and alcohol problems. "He'd be the first one to tell you he's paying the fiddler."
The Cowsills included parents Bud and Barbara, daughter Susan, brothers William, Robert, Richard, Barry, Paul and John. Billy is survived by two sons.
Feb. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
CALGARY—William (Billy) Cowsill, 58, lead singer of the 1960s family band The Cowsills, has died at his home in Calgary after a lengthy illness.
His death Friday night was confirmed by family members who had gathered in Rhode Island for a memorial service for Barry Cowsill, a brother also in the band who drowned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in September.
Billy Cowsill had moved to Canada 35 years ago and continued his music career with Blue Northern and later The Blue Shadows. But his greatest success was as lead singer with the Cowsills, including hits "Hair" and "Indian Lake."
The band was the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family. The Cowsills also had their own television special, performed a headline act in Las Vegas and did milk commercials.
Barry Cowsill had been ill for several years with emphysema and other ailments. Paul Cowsill, another brother in the band, said Billy had a history of drug and alcohol problems. "He'd be the first one to tell you he's paying the fiddler."
The Cowsills included parents Bud and Barbara, daughter Susan, brothers William, Robert, Richard, Barry, Paul and John. Billy is survived by two sons.
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
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- Feb 1, 2004
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- 32,719
Don Knotts
src
Actor Don Knotts dies at 81
LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” has died. He was 81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs “The Andy Griffith Show,” and another Knotts hit, “Three’s Company.”
Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August 2005.
The West Virginia-born actor’s half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are “I Love Lucy” and “Seinfeld.” The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn’t mind being remembered that way.
His favorite episodes, he said, were “The Pickle Story,” where Aunt Bea makes pickles no one can eat, and “Barney and the Choir,” where no one can stop him from singing.
“I can’t sing. It makes me sad that I can’t sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I’m just not talented in that way,” he lamented. “It’s one of my weaknesses.”
src
Actor Don Knotts dies at 81
LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” has died. He was 81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs “The Andy Griffith Show,” and another Knotts hit, “Three’s Company.”
Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August 2005.
The West Virginia-born actor’s half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are “I Love Lucy” and “Seinfeld.” The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn’t mind being remembered that way.
His favorite episodes, he said, were “The Pickle Story,” where Aunt Bea makes pickles no one can eat, and “Barney and the Choir,” where no one can stop him from singing.
“I can’t sing. It makes me sad that I can’t sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I’m just not talented in that way,” he lamented. “It’s one of my weaknesses.”
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
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- Feb 1, 2004
- Posts
- 32,719
Darren McGavin
src
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Darren McGavin was painting a movie set in 1945 when he learned of an opening for a small role in the show, climbed off his ladder, and returned through Columbia's front gates to land the part.
The husky, tough-talking performer went on to become one of the busiest actors in television and film, starring in five TV series, including "Mike Hammer," and endearing holiday audiences with his role as the grouchy dad in the 1983 comedy classic "A Christmas Story."
McGavin, 83, died Saturday of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital with his family at his side, said his son Bogart McGavin.
McGavin also had leading roles in TV's "Riverboat" and cult favorite "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." Among his memorable portrayals was U.S. Army Gen. George Patton in the 1979 TV biography "Ike."
Despite his busy career in television, McGavin was awarded only one Emmy: in 1990 for an appearance as Candice Bergen's opinionated father in an episode of "Murphy Brown."
He lacked the prominence in films he enjoyed in television, but he registered strongly in featured roles such as the young artist in Venice in "Summertime," David Lean's 1955 film with Katharine Hepburn and Rosanno Brazzi; Frank Sinatra's crafty drug supplier in "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955); Jerry Lewis's parole officer in "The Delicate Delinquent" (1957); and the gambler Gus Sands in 1984's "The Natural" that starred Robert Redford.
He also starred alongside Don Knotts, who died Friday night, in the 1976 family comedy "No Deposit, No Return."
Throughout his television career, McGavin gained a reputation as a curmudgeon willing to bad-mouth his series and combat studio bosses.
McGavin starred in the private eye series "Mike Hammer" in the 1950s. In 1968 he told a reporter: "Hammer was a dummy. I made 72 of those shows, and I thought it was a comedy. In fact, I played it camp. He was the kind of guy who would've waved the flag for [Alabama Gov.] George Wallace."
Troubled childhood
Born in Spokane, Washington, McGavin was sketchy in interviews about his childhood. He told TV Guide in 1973 that he was a constant runaway at 10 and 11, and as a teen lived in warehouses in Tacoma, Washington, and dodged the police and welfare workers. His parents disappeared, he said.
He spent a year at College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, taking part in dramatics, then landed in Los Angeles. He washed dishes and was hired to paint sets at Columbia studio. He was working on "A Song to Remember" when an agent told him of an opening for a small role.
"I climbed off a painter's ladder and washed up at a nearby gas station," McGavin said. "I returned through Columbia's front gate with the agent." The director, Charles Vidor, hired him. No one recognized him but the paint foreman, who said, "You're fired."
McGavin studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio and began working in live TV drama and on Broadway. He appeared with Charlton Heston in "Macbeth" on TV and played Happy in "Death of a Salesman" in New York and on the road.
He is survived by his four children -- York, Megan, Bridget and Bogart -- from a previous marriage to Melanie York McGavin, Bogart McGavin said. McGavin was separated from his second wife, Kathy Brown, he said.
Services were set for March 5 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
src
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Darren McGavin was painting a movie set in 1945 when he learned of an opening for a small role in the show, climbed off his ladder, and returned through Columbia's front gates to land the part.
The husky, tough-talking performer went on to become one of the busiest actors in television and film, starring in five TV series, including "Mike Hammer," and endearing holiday audiences with his role as the grouchy dad in the 1983 comedy classic "A Christmas Story."
McGavin, 83, died Saturday of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital with his family at his side, said his son Bogart McGavin.
McGavin also had leading roles in TV's "Riverboat" and cult favorite "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." Among his memorable portrayals was U.S. Army Gen. George Patton in the 1979 TV biography "Ike."
Despite his busy career in television, McGavin was awarded only one Emmy: in 1990 for an appearance as Candice Bergen's opinionated father in an episode of "Murphy Brown."
He lacked the prominence in films he enjoyed in television, but he registered strongly in featured roles such as the young artist in Venice in "Summertime," David Lean's 1955 film with Katharine Hepburn and Rosanno Brazzi; Frank Sinatra's crafty drug supplier in "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955); Jerry Lewis's parole officer in "The Delicate Delinquent" (1957); and the gambler Gus Sands in 1984's "The Natural" that starred Robert Redford.
He also starred alongside Don Knotts, who died Friday night, in the 1976 family comedy "No Deposit, No Return."
Throughout his television career, McGavin gained a reputation as a curmudgeon willing to bad-mouth his series and combat studio bosses.
McGavin starred in the private eye series "Mike Hammer" in the 1950s. In 1968 he told a reporter: "Hammer was a dummy. I made 72 of those shows, and I thought it was a comedy. In fact, I played it camp. He was the kind of guy who would've waved the flag for [Alabama Gov.] George Wallace."
Troubled childhood
Born in Spokane, Washington, McGavin was sketchy in interviews about his childhood. He told TV Guide in 1973 that he was a constant runaway at 10 and 11, and as a teen lived in warehouses in Tacoma, Washington, and dodged the police and welfare workers. His parents disappeared, he said.
He spent a year at College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, taking part in dramatics, then landed in Los Angeles. He washed dishes and was hired to paint sets at Columbia studio. He was working on "A Song to Remember" when an agent told him of an opening for a small role.
"I climbed off a painter's ladder and washed up at a nearby gas station," McGavin said. "I returned through Columbia's front gate with the agent." The director, Charles Vidor, hired him. No one recognized him but the paint foreman, who said, "You're fired."
McGavin studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio and began working in live TV drama and on Broadway. He appeared with Charlton Heston in "Macbeth" on TV and played Happy in "Death of a Salesman" in New York and on the road.
He is survived by his four children -- York, Megan, Bridget and Bogart -- from a previous marriage to Melanie York McGavin, Bogart McGavin said. McGavin was separated from his second wife, Kathy Brown, he said.
Services were set for March 5 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
sticky_keyboard
Luddy's still decomposing
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- Oct 2, 2003
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- 22,175
Don Knotts & Dennis Weaver
That makes three.
Don Knotts Dead on Feb 24
Dennis Weaver - Chester & McCloud Dead of Cancer
That makes three.
Don Knotts Dead on Feb 24
Dennis Weaver - Chester & McCloud Dead of Cancer
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
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- Posts
- 32,719
Robert L. Scott
src
WWII Ace, Author Robert L. Scott Dies
February 27, 2006, 4:25 PM EST
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. -- Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, the World War II flying ace who told of his exploits in his book "God is My Co-Pilot," died Monday. He was 97.
His death was announced by Paul Hibbitts, director of the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, where Scott worked in recent years.
The Georgia-born Scott rose to nationwide prominence during World War II as a fighter ace in the China-Burma-India theater, then with his best-selling 1943 book, made into a 1945 movie starring Dennis Morgan as Scott.
Among his other books were "The Day I Owned the Sky" and "Flying Tiger: Chennault of China."
Scott, who retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general, won three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and five Air Medals before he was called home to travel the country giving speeches for the war effort.
He shot down 22 enemy planes with his P-40 Warhawk, though he recalled some were listed as "probable" kills.
"You had to have two witnesses in the formation, or you needed a gun camera to take a picture," he once said. "Only we didn't have gun cameras in China. I actually had 22 aerial victims, but I only had proof of 13."
He worked with the Flying Tigers, Gen. Claire Chennault's famed volunteer force of pilots who fought in China, but he was not one of its original members in mid-1941.
At 33, Scott was considered too old for combat and was still at a training job in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered the war in December of that year.
After he got a call to serve in combat, he was assigned to a mission to bomb Tokyo from China. When that plan was scrubbed, he flew gasoline and ammunition over Japanese-held territory to the Flying Tigers. When the Tigers were formally incorporated into the Army as the 23rd Fighter Group of the China Air Task Force, Scott was asked to be its commander.
In the years just after the war, Scott was one of the proponents of making the Air Force into a separate service.
"They just plain couldn't see why we wanted a special service," Scott said in 1997, at the time the Air Force was marking its 50th anniversary as an independent service. "They all wanted their own Air Force. We were fighting against public opinion."
From the mid-1980s onward, Scott was an active staffer at the Robins air base's aviation museum.
"He's been our resident hero, cheerleader and biggest fan," said Pat Bartness, museum foundation president and chief operating officer. "He's been the biggest drawing card we've had."
src
WWII Ace, Author Robert L. Scott Dies
February 27, 2006, 4:25 PM EST
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. -- Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, the World War II flying ace who told of his exploits in his book "God is My Co-Pilot," died Monday. He was 97.
His death was announced by Paul Hibbitts, director of the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, where Scott worked in recent years.
The Georgia-born Scott rose to nationwide prominence during World War II as a fighter ace in the China-Burma-India theater, then with his best-selling 1943 book, made into a 1945 movie starring Dennis Morgan as Scott.
Among his other books were "The Day I Owned the Sky" and "Flying Tiger: Chennault of China."
Scott, who retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general, won three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and five Air Medals before he was called home to travel the country giving speeches for the war effort.
He shot down 22 enemy planes with his P-40 Warhawk, though he recalled some were listed as "probable" kills.
"You had to have two witnesses in the formation, or you needed a gun camera to take a picture," he once said. "Only we didn't have gun cameras in China. I actually had 22 aerial victims, but I only had proof of 13."
He worked with the Flying Tigers, Gen. Claire Chennault's famed volunteer force of pilots who fought in China, but he was not one of its original members in mid-1941.
At 33, Scott was considered too old for combat and was still at a training job in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered the war in December of that year.
After he got a call to serve in combat, he was assigned to a mission to bomb Tokyo from China. When that plan was scrubbed, he flew gasoline and ammunition over Japanese-held territory to the Flying Tigers. When the Tigers were formally incorporated into the Army as the 23rd Fighter Group of the China Air Task Force, Scott was asked to be its commander.
In the years just after the war, Scott was one of the proponents of making the Air Force into a separate service.
"They just plain couldn't see why we wanted a special service," Scott said in 1997, at the time the Air Force was marking its 50th anniversary as an independent service. "They all wanted their own Air Force. We were fighting against public opinion."
From the mid-1980s onward, Scott was an active staffer at the Robins air base's aviation museum.
"He's been our resident hero, cheerleader and biggest fan," said Pat Bartness, museum foundation president and chief operating officer. "He's been the biggest drawing card we've had."
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
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- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
CFL and Former NFL Lineman Claridge Dead at 27
Mar 1, 12:29 AM (ET)
By The Associated Press
Former Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Travis Claridge, who played for Hamilton of the Canadian Football League last year, died Tuesday after being found unconscious at his home in Las Vegas, according to the CFL team.
The 27-year-old Claridge died after being taken to a hospital, the team announced. The cause of death was not specified.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," Tiger-Cats general manager Rob Katz said in a statement. "This is a sad day for the Tiger-Cats family."
The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Claridge joined the Tiger-Cats in 2005, working his way from the practice squad to the starting lineup before a shoulder injury cut his season short.
Claridge, a native of Detroit, started all 48 games he played for the University of Southern California at right guard and was voted the Pac-10's top offensive lineman in 1999.
He was chosen by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round of the 2000 NFL draft and immediately became a starter.
Claridge started 27 games over the next two seasons but was limited to six starts in 2003 because of a knee injury. The Falcons didn't re-sign him following the 2003 season.
He signed with the Carolina Panthers in 2004 as a free agent, but was cut during training camp.
Mar 1, 12:29 AM (ET)
By The Associated Press
Former Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Travis Claridge, who played for Hamilton of the Canadian Football League last year, died Tuesday after being found unconscious at his home in Las Vegas, according to the CFL team.
The 27-year-old Claridge died after being taken to a hospital, the team announced. The cause of death was not specified.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," Tiger-Cats general manager Rob Katz said in a statement. "This is a sad day for the Tiger-Cats family."
The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Claridge joined the Tiger-Cats in 2005, working his way from the practice squad to the starting lineup before a shoulder injury cut his season short.
Claridge, a native of Detroit, started all 48 games he played for the University of Southern California at right guard and was voted the Pac-10's top offensive lineman in 1999.
He was chosen by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round of the 2000 NFL draft and immediately became a starter.
Claridge started 27 games over the next two seasons but was limited to six starts in 2003 because of a knee injury. The Falcons didn't re-sign him following the 2003 season.
He signed with the Carolina Panthers in 2004 as a free agent, but was cut during training camp.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
Jack Wild, Star Of 'H.R. Pufnstuf,' 'Oliver!' Dies At 53
POSTED: 10:13 am CST March 2, 2006
LONDON -- The actor who starred in the television show "H.R. Pufnstuf" and played the Artful Dodger in the movie musical "Oliver!" has died.
His agent said Jack Wild had mouth cancer. He was 53.
Wild was discovered as a child playing soccer in a London park.
He later appeared in the London stage production of "Oliver!" and then in the film, which earned him an Oscar nomination at the age of 16.
On "H.R. Pufnstuf," Wild played Jimmy, the hero of the show.
Wild struggled with alcoholism as an adult and he blamed his cancer on his heavy drinking and smoking.
After he was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, he had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy which left him unable to speak.
Wild is survived by his wife, Claire Harding.
POSTED: 10:13 am CST March 2, 2006
LONDON -- The actor who starred in the television show "H.R. Pufnstuf" and played the Artful Dodger in the movie musical "Oliver!" has died.
His agent said Jack Wild had mouth cancer. He was 53.
Wild was discovered as a child playing soccer in a London park.
He later appeared in the London stage production of "Oliver!" and then in the film, which earned him an Oscar nomination at the age of 16.
On "H.R. Pufnstuf," Wild played Jimmy, the hero of the show.
Wild struggled with alcoholism as an adult and he blamed his cancer on his heavy drinking and smoking.
After he was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, he had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy which left him unable to speak.
Wild is survived by his wife, Claire Harding.
JennyOmanHill
trying hard to be mindful
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Posts
- 11,151
"Bounty Hunter"'s Father-in-Law
March 2, 2006 -- GARRY Smith, better known as "Pops" on A&E's "Dog The Bounty Hunter," died Tuesday in Denver after battling diabetes and heart disease. He was 68.
"Pops," who appeared on several episodes the past two seasons — and will be featured in the upcoming third season — was the father of Beth Smith, the common-law wife of Duane "Dog" Chapman, who stars in the reality series based around his exploits as a bounty hunter.
Garry Smith, who played first base in the Kansas City Athletics organization, is survived by five children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
March 2, 2006 -- GARRY Smith, better known as "Pops" on A&E's "Dog The Bounty Hunter," died Tuesday in Denver after battling diabetes and heart disease. He was 68.
"Pops," who appeared on several episodes the past two seasons — and will be featured in the upcoming third season — was the father of Beth Smith, the common-law wife of Duane "Dog" Chapman, who stars in the reality series based around his exploits as a bounty hunter.
Garry Smith, who played first base in the Kansas City Athletics organization, is survived by five children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Bacigalupo
Person of Disinterest
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2002
- Posts
- 16,018
MINNEAPOLIS - Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died today, a day after suffering a stroke at his Arizona home, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., said.
The 45-year-old Puckett, who led the Twins to two World Series titles before his career was cut short by glaucoma, was stricken Sunday morning at his Arizona home.
Puckett had been in intensive care at the hospital, where he was moved after having surgery at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn. His family, friends and former teammates had gathered at the hospital throughout the day Monday.
"The entire Minnesota Twins organization is saddened by the loss of Twins great Kirby Puckett," the team said in a statement.
Team owner Carl Pohlad said, "This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere."
The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died Monday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the atmosphere was somber at the teams training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. "Tough day," former Twins manager Tom Kelly said.
Former outfielder Tony Oliva said, "Our mind isn't on the ballfield. It's on Kirby."
The team was in Bradenton for an exhibition game against Pittsburgh - a 5-4 loss - but manager Ron Gardenhire stayed behind with center fielder Torii Hunter. Hunter took himself out of the lineup before Sunday's preseason game against Boston.
Puckett was once a guest coach, too, after he retired in 1996, but his relationship with the team ended in 2002. He had kept a low profile since being cleared in 2003 of assault charges stemming from an accusation that he groped a woman at a Twin Cities restaurant.
He remained close, though, with numerous people in the organization and he was one of baseball's most popular players throughout his 12-year career.
"I don't know where I would have ended up if it weren't for Kirby Puckett," Kelly said. "He was not just a great ballplayer. He was a great friend. Everybody is taking it hard."
Oakland third base coach Ron Washington, a former teammate, spent Sunday at the hospital with Puckett, his fiancee, his ex-wife, his agent and others.
Washington saw Puckett, who has two children, go into the operating room. Puckett is engaged to be married this summer.
"I've known him since 1984. We talk every so often. We're close. He's a strong guy, a fighter and I want to think the best," Washington said. "We all know the bad part, but I don't believe in the bad."
After his career ended, Puckett put on considerable weight - which concerned those close to him.
"We would tell him. But he enjoyed life. He enjoyed the size he was. That's who he was," former Twins and current Cubs outfielder Jacque Jones said at the team's spring training site in Mesa, Ariz. "You can't do anything about it until he decides to change. Hopefully, he'll pull through this, and it'll be like a call for him to change some things in his life."
Puckett, who broke in with Minnesota in 1984, had a career average of .318 and carried the Twins to championships in 1987 and 1991. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.
Perhaps the most popular athlete to ever play in Minnesota, Puckett's situation was the talk of the town around the Twin Cities area.
"The whole thing has taken me by shock," said Joel Davis, the manager of a Twins memorabilia shop in Roseville. Davis said he fielded questions from concerned fans about Puckett's condition throughout the day. "It's hard to get a grip on it. You've just got to hope for a miracle."
Sue Chad, a customer at the store, said she and her husband named their dog Kirby.
"We saw him as someone the other players could get behind - just holding up the energy of the team," said Chad, who fondly recalled Puckett's 11th-inning homer to win Game 6 of the 1991 World Series in a frenzied Metrodome.
The 45-year-old Puckett, who led the Twins to two World Series titles before his career was cut short by glaucoma, was stricken Sunday morning at his Arizona home.
Puckett had been in intensive care at the hospital, where he was moved after having surgery at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn. His family, friends and former teammates had gathered at the hospital throughout the day Monday.
"The entire Minnesota Twins organization is saddened by the loss of Twins great Kirby Puckett," the team said in a statement.
Team owner Carl Pohlad said, "This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere."
The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died Monday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the atmosphere was somber at the teams training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. "Tough day," former Twins manager Tom Kelly said.
Former outfielder Tony Oliva said, "Our mind isn't on the ballfield. It's on Kirby."
The team was in Bradenton for an exhibition game against Pittsburgh - a 5-4 loss - but manager Ron Gardenhire stayed behind with center fielder Torii Hunter. Hunter took himself out of the lineup before Sunday's preseason game against Boston.
Puckett was once a guest coach, too, after he retired in 1996, but his relationship with the team ended in 2002. He had kept a low profile since being cleared in 2003 of assault charges stemming from an accusation that he groped a woman at a Twin Cities restaurant.
He remained close, though, with numerous people in the organization and he was one of baseball's most popular players throughout his 12-year career.
"I don't know where I would have ended up if it weren't for Kirby Puckett," Kelly said. "He was not just a great ballplayer. He was a great friend. Everybody is taking it hard."
Oakland third base coach Ron Washington, a former teammate, spent Sunday at the hospital with Puckett, his fiancee, his ex-wife, his agent and others.
Washington saw Puckett, who has two children, go into the operating room. Puckett is engaged to be married this summer.
"I've known him since 1984. We talk every so often. We're close. He's a strong guy, a fighter and I want to think the best," Washington said. "We all know the bad part, but I don't believe in the bad."
After his career ended, Puckett put on considerable weight - which concerned those close to him.
"We would tell him. But he enjoyed life. He enjoyed the size he was. That's who he was," former Twins and current Cubs outfielder Jacque Jones said at the team's spring training site in Mesa, Ariz. "You can't do anything about it until he decides to change. Hopefully, he'll pull through this, and it'll be like a call for him to change some things in his life."
Puckett, who broke in with Minnesota in 1984, had a career average of .318 and carried the Twins to championships in 1987 and 1991. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.
Perhaps the most popular athlete to ever play in Minnesota, Puckett's situation was the talk of the town around the Twin Cities area.
"The whole thing has taken me by shock," said Joel Davis, the manager of a Twins memorabilia shop in Roseville. Davis said he fielded questions from concerned fans about Puckett's condition throughout the day. "It's hard to get a grip on it. You've just got to hope for a miracle."
Sue Chad, a customer at the store, said she and her husband named their dog Kirby.
"We saw him as someone the other players could get behind - just holding up the energy of the team," said Chad, who fondly recalled Puckett's 11th-inning homer to win Game 6 of the 1991 World Series in a frenzied Metrodome.
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