Literotica Cemetary

[NaughtyLil1]

Christopher Reeve's Widow Dies at Age 44

SHORT HILLS, N.J. - Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, has died, the foundation said. She was 44.

Reeve died late Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation.

"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and staff of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of Dana Reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us," Lewis said in a statement.

 

[Moi]

Gordon Parks

NEW YORK - Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972.
He also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

[breakwall]

Legendary Montreal Canadiens sniper Bernie (Boom-Boom) Geoffrion
died Saturday morning, the day he was to be honoured by the club.

The Canadiens announced that Geoffrion, 75, died quietly this morning in an Atlanta hospital following a brief battle with stomach cancer.

In accordance with Geoffrion's last wishes, the family has decided to be reunited tonight at the Bell Centre. The ceremony of the raising of his No.5 jersey will take place as scheduled prior to the game against the New York Rangers. Geoffrion's wife, Marlene, daughter of hockey legend Howie Morenz, his children Linda, Danny and Robert, and his grandchildren will be together tonight to celebrate the life and the career of "Boom-Boom".

Born in Montreal on February 16, 1931, Geoffrion played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League, including 14 with the Canadiens, between 1950 and 1964. After a two-year retirement, Mr. Geoffrion returned to the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1966-1967. He retired permanently at the end of the 1967-1968 season with a career record of 393 goals and 429 assists for a total of 822 points in 883 regular season games. In 132 playoff games, Mr. Geoffrion recorded 58 goals and 60 assists for a total of 118 points.

During his 766 career games with the Canadiens, Geoffrion scored 371 goals and added 388 assists for a total of 759 points. In post-season play with the Canadiens, Mr. Geoffrion earned 115 points, including 56 goals, in 127 playoff games. He also etched his name on the Stanley Cup on six different occasions (1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960). In June of 1972, Geoffrion received the highest reward for a professional hockey player when he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, on the same day as his teammate and friend Jean Beliveau.



In the summer of 1979, Geoffrion fulfilled yet another dream when he became the 16th head coach in Montreal Canadiens' history, taking over for the legendary Scotty Bowman. Unfortunately, health conditions forced Geoffrion to resign on December 11. Under his leadership, the Canadiens collected 15 wins, 9 losses and 6 ties (36 points - .600) and were at the top of the Norris Division. Geoffrion was also the first head coach in the Atlanta Flames franchise history, from 1972 to 1975. In 208 games, he posted a record of 77 wins, 92 losses and 39 ties (193 points - .416) and led the team to the playoffs in the team’s second year of existence.

Credited with the invention of the slap shot, which earned him the nickname "Boom-Boom", Mr. Geoffrion enjoyed a career filled with several exceptional achievements. He played his first NHL game on December 16, 1950 against the New York Rangers at the Forum. Given a three-game tryout by then General Manager Frank Selke, Mr. Geoffrion scored his teams’ lone goal, on Chuck Rayner, in his very first game, to give the Canadiens a 1-1 tie.

In his first full season with the Canadiens, in 1951-1952, Geoffrion earned the Calder Trophy as the league’s most outstanding rookie, after recording 30 goals and 24 assists in 67 games.

Geoffrion would go on to win several more awards during his career. In 1954-1955, in his fourth NHL season, he won the first of two scoring titles earning the Art Ross Trophy with a total of 75 points, including 38 goals, in 70 games. This performance also earned him a place on the NHL's 2nd All-Star Team, behind his teammate and idol Maurice Richard.

Geoffrion's most memorable achievements occurred during the 1960-1961 season when he became only the second player, after Rocket Richard, to reach the 50-goal plateau in a season. His feat occurred on March 16, 1961, with a goal on Toronto’s Cesare Maniago, in a game played at the Forum. This timely goal also earned him a second NHL scoring title with a season total of 95 points in 64 games. He was also awarded the Hart Trophy as the League's Most Valuable Player as well as a berth on the NHL's 1st All-Star Team.

During the Canadiens' domination in the mid-50's, Geoffrion manned the right point on a power play unit so proficient that the NHL had no alternative but to end the rule that a two-minute penalty be sat out in its entirety even if the team on the power play scored.

Among the Canadiens' all-time right wingers, Mr. Geoffrion ranks seventh for most goals in a season, with 50, tied with Maurice Richard (1944-1945), Guy Lafleur (1979-1980) and Stephane Richer (1987-1988). His 95 points in 1960-1961 ranked him first among all Canadiens' right-wingers until Guy Lafleur surpassed him on his way to his first of six consecutive 100-point season, in 1974-1975.

 

[rimmy]

Legendary Montreal Canadiens sniper Bernie (Boom-Boom) Geoffrion
died Saturday morning, the day he was to be honoured by the club.

The Canadiens announced that Geoffrion, 75, died quietly this morning in an Atlanta hospital following a brief battle with stomach cancer.

In accordance with Geoffrion's last wishes, the family has decided to be reunited tonight at the Bell Centre. The ceremony of the raising of his No.5 jersey will take place as scheduled prior to the game against the New York Rangers. Geoffrion's wife, Marlene, daughter of hockey legend Howie Morenz, his children Linda, Danny and Robert, and his grandchildren will be together tonight to celebrate the life and the career of "Boom-Boom".

Born in Montreal on February 16, 1931, Geoffrion played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League, including 14 with the Canadiens, between 1950 and 1964. After a two-year retirement, Mr. Geoffrion returned to the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1966-1967. He retired permanently at the end of the 1967-1968 season with a career record of 393 goals and 429 assists for a total of 822 points in 883 regular season games. In 132 playoff games, Mr. Geoffrion recorded 58 goals and 60 assists for a total of 118 points.

During his 766 career games with the Canadiens, Geoffrion scored 371 goals and added 388 assists for a total of 759 points. In post-season play with the Canadiens, Mr. Geoffrion earned 115 points, including 56 goals, in 127 playoff games. He also etched his name on the Stanley Cup on six different occasions (1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960). In June of 1972, Geoffrion received the highest reward for a professional hockey player when he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, on the same day as his teammate and friend Jean Beliveau.



In the summer of 1979, Geoffrion fulfilled yet another dream when he became the 16th head coach in Montreal Canadiens' history, taking over for the legendary Scotty Bowman. Unfortunately, health conditions forced Geoffrion to resign on December 11. Under his leadership, the Canadiens collected 15 wins, 9 losses and 6 ties (36 points - .600) and were at the top of the Norris Division. Geoffrion was also the first head coach in the Atlanta Flames franchise history, from 1972 to 1975. In 208 games, he posted a record of 77 wins, 92 losses and 39 ties (193 points - .416) and led the team to the playoffs in the team’s second year of existence.

Credited with the invention of the slap shot, which earned him the nickname "Boom-Boom", Mr. Geoffrion enjoyed a career filled with several exceptional achievements. He played his first NHL game on December 16, 1950 against the New York Rangers at the Forum. Given a three-game tryout by then General Manager Frank Selke, Mr. Geoffrion scored his teams’ lone goal, on Chuck Rayner, in his very first game, to give the Canadiens a 1-1 tie.

In his first full season with the Canadiens, in 1951-1952, Geoffrion earned the Calder Trophy as the league’s most outstanding rookie, after recording 30 goals and 24 assists in 67 games.

Geoffrion would go on to win several more awards during his career. In 1954-1955, in his fourth NHL season, he won the first of two scoring titles earning the Art Ross Trophy with a total of 75 points, including 38 goals, in 70 games. This performance also earned him a place on the NHL's 2nd All-Star Team, behind his teammate and idol Maurice Richard.

Geoffrion's most memorable achievements occurred during the 1960-1961 season when he became only the second player, after Rocket Richard, to reach the 50-goal plateau in a season. His feat occurred on March 16, 1961, with a goal on Toronto’s Cesare Maniago, in a game played at the Forum. This timely goal also earned him a second NHL scoring title with a season total of 95 points in 64 games. He was also awarded the Hart Trophy as the League's Most Valuable Player as well as a berth on the NHL's 1st All-Star Team.

During the Canadiens' domination in the mid-50's, Geoffrion manned the right point on a power play unit so proficient that the NHL had no alternative but to end the rule that a two-minute penalty be sat out in its entirety even if the team on the power play scored.

Among the Canadiens' all-time right wingers, Mr. Geoffrion ranks seventh for most goals in a season, with 50, tied with Maurice Richard (1944-1945), Guy Lafleur (1979-1980) and Stephane Richer (1987-1988). His 95 points in 1960-1961 ranked him first among all Canadiens' right-wingers until Guy Lafleur surpassed him on his way to his first of six consecutive 100-point season, in 1974-1975.

Damn

 

[JennyOmanHill]

I agree

Damn

http://server2.canadiens.com/_static/webupload/news/4872_3.jpg



From the Canadiens website:

“Boom Boom” Geoffrion: One of a kind
Family, teammates celebrate the memory of No. 5

MONTREAL - He may not have been in the building on the night his No. 5 was raised to the rafters of the Bell Centre, but Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion’s legend was never bigger than on March 11, 2006.

“We want to thank the Montreal Canadiens for this unforgettable evening and incredible honor,” said Danny Geoffrion, who along with his brother Bobby spoke on behalf of his father during the moving ceremony. “The support your family has shown our family shows why our dad was so proud to wear the Bleu, Blanc Rouge,”

Bernard Geoffrion passed away peacefully early Saturday morning in Atlanta at the age of 75, following his courageous battle with stomach cancer.

“On our dad’s first date with mom – at a boxing match at the Montreal Forum of all places - he told her that one day his number would one day join her father’s hanging above the ice at the Forum,” said Danny Geoffrion in reference to his mom Marlene, the daughter of Canadiens legend Howie Morenz. “As usual, my dad kept his promise.”

Geoffrion, who spent his two final NHL seasons with New York in 1966 and 1968, was honored by the Rangers’ Jaromir Jagr with a silver platter given to his family. Pierre Boivin then unveiled a Michel Lapensée painting that captured the many memorable moments of the Boomer’s brilliant Canadiens career

Geoffrion’s No. 5 becomes the ninth retired jersey in Canadiens history, joining Jacques Plante (No.1), Doug Harvey (No. 2), Jean Beliveau (No.4), his father-in-law Howie Morenz (No. 7), Maurice Richard (No.9), Guy Lafleur (No. 10), Henri Richard (No. 16), as well as Dickie Moore and Yvan Cournoyer (No. 12).

“I would have loved for him to see this,” said long time teammate and close personal friend Moore, who had his number retired by Montreal on Nov.12. “This meant so much to him and he wanted so badly for this to happen.”

In addition to his two sons who spoke on his behalf, Geoffrion was represented by his wife Marlene, daughter Linda, both of his daughters-in-law, his son-in-law and his eight grandchildren. Seven of the Boomer’s former teammates were also on hand including, Marcel Bonin, Émile Bouchard, Phil Goyette, André Pronovost, Henri Richard, Dollard St-Laurent, Jean-Guy Talbot and of course Moore.

“It was wonderful to see all of his family here and they will never forget this night,” added Moore about the special evening hosted by long time Canadiens play-by-play men Dick Irvin and Richard Garneau. “I just finished thanking Pierre Boivin for the incredible job the Canadiens did tonight.”

Moore then couldn’t resist addressing his pal personally.

“You did it Boom. You’re here, where you always knew you would be."

 

[concrete]

thank you JENNY ..
.sad news

 

[bluntforcemama]

This is just a blurb thrown out into cyberspace, but when I'm rocking my son to sleep at night, I often think of Mensa.

 

[Moi]

Maureen Stapleton

Actress Maureen Stapleton Dies at 80


Maureen Stapleton, the Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle
vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and
comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was
80.


Her son, Daniel Allentuck, said she died of natural causes.


Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star
personality and talent, won an Academy Award in 1981 for her
supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's
"Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia
to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.


To prepare for the role, Stapleton said she tried reading Goldman's
autobiography, but soon chucked it out of boredom.


"There are many roads to good acting," Stapleton, known for her
straightforwardness, said in her 1995 autobiography, "Hell of a Life."
"I've been asked repeatedly what the 'key' to acting is, and as far as
I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."


Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar,
including for her first film role in 1958's "Lonelyhearts"; "Airport"
in 1970; and Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978.


Her other film credits include the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie"
opposite Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke, "Johnny Dangerously,"
"Cocoon," "The Money Pit" and "Addicted to Love."


In television, she earned an Emmy for "Among the Paths to Eden" in
1967. She was nominated for "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" in 1975;
"The Gathering" in 1977; and "Miss Rose White" in 1992.

 

[mustang_007]

SHORT HILLS, N.J. - Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, has died, the foundation said. She was 44.

She was a very pretty women and one of the rare good people in the world of Hollywood. She stuck through the whole thing with Christopher Reeve. God bless her soul.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/features/img/Entertainmentblog/2005/august/20050812dana.jpg

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Actress Maureen Stapleton Dies at 80


Maureen Stapleton, the Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle
vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and
comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was
80.

...

http://www.omaha.com/imglib/mainsite/pub_0/photos/medium/31306sqstapleton.jpg



Her autobiography was one of the funniest and most interesting one I have read. Ms. Stapleton was quite a character!

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Ex-Game Show Host, Wife Die in Plane Crash

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (March 13) - A former TV game show host and his wife were killed Monday morning when their small plane crashed into Santa Monica Bay, authorities said. Rescue crews were searching for a third person also aboard the plane.

The bodies of Peter Tomarken, 63, host of the hit 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," and his wife, Kathleen Abigail Tomarken, 41, were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

The plane was on its way to San Diego to ferry a medical patient to the UCLA Medical Center, said Doug Griffith, a spokesman for Angel Flight West, a nonprofit which provides free air transportation for needy patients.

Griffith said the pilot was a volunteer for the group. According to the FAA, the plane was registered to Tomarken and he was the pilot.

The plane apparently had engine trouble and was headed back to Santa Monica Airport, located about two miles inland, but went down about 9:35 a.m. just off shore, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer.

Rescue boats and divers searching for the third person believed to be aboard the plane were clustered about a half-mile southwest of the Santa Monica Pier where the plane went down in about 19 feet of water.

Luis Garr said he didn't hear the engine but heard the splash as the plane "kind of landed into the water."

"It's a big splash, a huge splash. ... Then it started going down," Garr said. "The wings were still floating so I was, `Get out! Get out!' because the door was still available to get out and nobody came out. So the plane kept going down, down, down."

Tomarken's death was first reported by "Entertainment Tonight."

"Press Your Luck" was known for contestants shouting the slogan "Big bucks! No whammies!"

Tomarken's agent, Fred Wostbrock, said his client's first game show was "Hit Man!," which ran 13 weeks on NBC, followed by the four-year hit "Press Your Luck" on CBS. He also was on "Bargain Hunters," "Wipe-Out" and "Paranoia."

"He was always a fun guy to be around, and he just loved the genre of game shows," Wostbrock said.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Slobodan Milosevic

Milosevic son claims father remains

Slobodan Milosevic's son, who claims his father was murdered, has taken possession of his remains.

A green minibus, escorted by three police motorcycles, took the corpse from the Netherlands Forensic Institute.

The body was being driven toward Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where a morgue is located nearby.

It was still not clear whether the remains would be flown to Belgrade, the Serb capital where the family has requested to bury him, or to Russia where his wife Mira Markovic and his son Marko live.

Earlier, the younger Milosevic insisted there had been foul play in his father's death.

He said: "He got killed, he didn't die. He got killed. There is a murder."

Milosevic and the family lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, spent more than one hour at the forensic institute.

They left several hours before the corpse was taken away.

A team of Russian forensic experts was also in The Hague to inspect the results of the autopsy on Milosevic.

They were not conducting a second post-mortem.

 

[Denae]

SHORT HILLS, N.J. - Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, has died, the foundation said. She was 44.

Reeve died late Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation.

"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and staff of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of Dana Reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us," Lewis said in a statement.

I would trade places with her in an instant. Their son does not deserve to lose both parents and no one needs me. Life fucking sucks.

 

[NaughtyLil1]

I would trade places with her in an instant. Their son does not deserve to lose both parents and no one needs me. Life fucking sucks.

My heart goes out to him. I cannot even imagine.

We lost a lot when she passed. She was a woman in the truest sense; an inspiration.

 

[Denae]

My heart goes out to him. I cannot even imagine.

We lost a lot when she passed. She was a woman in the truest sense; an inspiration.

I couldn't agree with you more.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Joe Bova, Prince Dauntless in Broadway's Mattress, Dead at 81

15 Mar 2006

http://www.tvparty.com/nyc2/joebova2.jpg

Tony Award-nominated actor Joe Bova, who was Prince Dauntless to Carol Burnett's Princess Fred in Once Upon a Mattress in 1959, died March 12 at the Actors' Fund Retirement Home in New Jersey, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Mr. Bova was children's TV personality in Cleveland prior to moving to New York City, where he also worked in TV and on the stage. His Broadway debut was the musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress.

Mr. Bova was nominated for a Tony Award (Best Featured Actor in a Play) for his work in The Chinese, one of two one-acts on a double bill by Murray Schisgal in 1970. (The other play was Dr. Fish.)

A known as Joseph Bova in some credits, he also appeared in Broadway's 42nd Street (as Bert Barry, in the original 1980 cast), Saint Joan (1977), An American Millionaire (1974), the musical comedy Hot Spot (1963) and The Rape of the Belt (1960).

Mr. Bova also appeared in a 1964 TV production of Mattress, with Burnett.

In the golden age of television, Mr. Bova was program director at WNBK, Cleveland's NBC station. He was enlisted to entertain on a new children's show to feature "Uncle Joe." He was armed with a banjo and a trick hat, according to reports.

NBC brought him to New York in the 1950s.

"He would probably say his most significant work was with Shakespeare in the Park in Manhattan," his wife, Lee Lawson, told the Plain Dealer.

Mr. Bova worked with directors Joseph Papp and Gerald Freedman at the Delacorte Theater in Romeo and Juliet (he was Mercutio to Martin Sheen's Romeo in 1968), Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Troilus and Cressida and Love's Labours Lost. His Off-Broadway credits include The Roundabout Theatre Company's The Matchmaker (as Horace Vandergelder) at the Union Square Theatre in 1991; The Beauty Part at American Place Theatre in 1974; a 1964-65 OBIE Award winning production of The Cradle Will Rock at Theatre Four; and Invitation to a Beheading, adapted from a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, at The Public Theater.



A brilliant stage actor.

 

[Songcatcher]

As if.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Chicken nugget creator Baker dead at 84

NORTH LANSING, N.Y., March 16 (UPI) -- Robert C. Baker, the creator of chicken nuggets, chicken baloney and chicken hot dogs, died of a heart attack in his North Lansing, N.Y. home.

Baker, an agricultural scientist who grew up on a chicken farm, was 84.

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reports Baker was hired in 1957 by Cornell University to move chicken from a meal rarity to a staple. So he figured out how to process and bind chicken meat into various shapes, a predecessor for McDonald's fare.

He also helped make the first de-boning machine.

Beyond the chicken salami, chicken steak and chicken chili, Baker also created frozen omelets and similar processing for turkey meat, the newspaper said.

 

[Tati]

Oleg Cassini

Oleg Cassini, the designer who turned first lady Jacqueline Kennedy into an international fashion icon, died Friday on Long Island, N.Y., said a spokesman for his company, Oleg Cassini Inc. He was 92, and no cause of death has been reported.

Cassini, who was born in Paris to wealthy, aristocratic Russian parents (who had fled Russia after the revolution), was no stranger to glamorous women.

He dated Grace Kelly and was married to film beauty Gene Tierney for nine years. Though the fairy tale marriage eventually ended in divorce in 1952, they had two children, one of which – a daughter – was born handicapped after a fan seeking an autograph gave Tierney measles while the actress was pregnant.

An elegant man himself, Cassini was designing until only recently, creating a look in December for a New York cabaret appearance by Kathryn Crosby, the widow of Bing Crosby. In person Cassini was a gentleman of the old school – courtly, distinguished looking, with impeccable manners.

Besides his house on Long Island, he had a townhouse in New York's fashionable Gramercy Park, a residence that resembled a medieval castle, complete with suits of armor. And despite his slight frame, he always maintained a strong, wiry physique, keeping up his tennis game. He also smoked Cuban cigars.

But it will be as Jackie's designer that Cassini's name will lie forever. Although the first lady did wear clothes by others, Cassini provided the bulk of her wardrobe, later estimating that in the three years of the Kennedy administration he had created 300 outfits.

"The look" began on JFK's Inauguration Day, with 31-year-old Jackie's outfit of a fawn-colored wool coat with a sable collar, over a matching wool dress and a pillbox hat. As Cassini later recalled: "The other ladies wore fur coats, and they looked like bears."

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former WABC Anchor Beutel Dies at 75

March 20, 2006
http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/garth/2006_03_18_bill_beutel.jpg

Legendary WABC-TV anchor Bill Beutel, who was the longest-serving local news anchor in New York TV history and who helped change local news as a member of WABC-TV's pioneering "Eyewitness News" team, died Saturday.

Mr. Beutel had suffered from a progressive neurological disease, his wife, Adair, told The New York Times. He was 75.

He first appeared on-air for WABC in 1962 on "The Big News." He frequently contributed to ABC News and co-anchored "AM America," the short-lived forerunner to "Good Morning America," in 1975.

Mr. Beutel was the network's London bureau chief for two years before returning in 1970 to try his luck where numerous others had failed: as the co-anchor who could hold his own next to the sardonic Roger Grimsby on "Eyewitness News."

Mr. Beutel stepped down from the ABC flagship station's anchor desk in 2001 but continued to report for WABC until he retired in 2003.

WABC General Manager Dave Davis said in statement, "He also proved you could be a tough newsman and a gentleman at the same time. He stood for fairness, accuracy, kindness, strength, and decency. He was never shrill, always measured, and universally respected -- the original class act."

Private funeral services are planned, with a memorial service to be scheduled in New York.



Mr. Beutel was such a peaceful and comforting newsman! He's left many good memories in a NYer's heart.

 

[Tati]

Buck Owens

LOS ANGELES (March 25) - Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.



Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home.

 

[sticky_keyboard]

Saaaaaa-LUTE!

 

[sticky_keyboard]

Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of State

WASHINGTON -- Caspar Weinberger, who played key roles in the shaping of the so-called Star Wars missile defense program and the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration, has died. He was 88 years old.

Weinberger dead at 88.

Weinberger is best known as United States se cretary of de fense under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 through 1987, and for his related roles in the Strategic Defense Initiative program, known as Star Wars, and in the Iran-Contra Affair.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Lyn Nofziger, 81, Irreverent Adviser to Reagan, Is Dead

By JOHN M. BRODER

LOS ANGELES, March 27 — Lyn Nofziger, the cigar-chomping former newspaperman who served as spokesman and strategist for Ronald Reagan in Sacramento and Washington, died of cancer on Monday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 81.

His death was announced by a family member, Carol Dahmen.

Nancy Reagan, the former first lady, said: "Lyn was with us from the gubernatorial campaign in 1965 through the early White House days, and Ronnie valued his advice — and good humor — as much as anyone's. I spoke with him just days ago and even though he knew the end was near, Lyn was hopeful and still in good spirits."

Mr. Nofziger was at the hospital with Reagan after he was shot in March 1981 and relayed to the press the president's memorable, if perhaps apocryphal, line to Mrs. Reagan at the hospital: "Honey, I forgot to duck."

Mr. Nofziger was a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Copley newspaper chain when he was recruited to serve as the spokesman for Reagan's first campaign for governor of California in 1966.

Stuart Spencer, who managed that campaign and Reagan's later campaigns for the White House, recalled Mr. Nofziger as profane, disheveled and always quick with a quip. Mr. Spencer said he still had the Mickey Mouse tie Mr. Nofziger gave him years ago. The difference between them, Mr. Spencer said, was that Mr. Nofziger regularly wore his.

Mr. Nofziger frequently expressed his disdain for Washington and for politics, but he kept returning. He put up a cynical facade that endeared him to the reporters he dealt with, but he remained devoted to Reagan, even though he was never part of the president's innermost circle.

Ms. Dahmen, a great-niece of Mr. Nofziger, told The Associated Press on Monday: "He transcended parties; he was loved on both sides of the aisle. You could love him or hate him, but everybody respected him."

Despite his service in the Reagan and Nixon White Houses, Mr. Nofziger was not a doctrinaire conservative. He could, however, take the gloves off when he felt it necessary to serve the boss, either as a communications aide to Richard M. Nixon or as a political director for Reagan.

He worked under Reagan to replace Democrats in the federal bureaucracy with loyal Republicans. John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel, wrote that Mr. Nofziger had helped compile the Nixon White House's "enemies list."

Kenneth L. Khachigian, who worked with Mr. Nofziger in the Nixon White House and remained close to him afterward, said Mr. Nofziger had enlivened meetings, sometimes to the president's displeasure. "He could be infuriating because he never seemed to take things seriously," Mr. Khachigian said. "But on the other hand, he was utterly loyal and devoted to Reagan."

Like several former Reaganites, Mr. Nofziger opened a lobbying practice in Washington after leaving the White House. In 1988, he was convicted of illegally lobbying for two defense contractors and a labor union. Mr. Nofziger dismissed the charges as trivial and told the judge he felt no remorse because he did not believe he was guilty.

A year later a federal appeals court threw out the conviction, saying prosecutors had failed to show he had knowingly committed a crime.

Franklyn Nofziger was a native Californian, born in Bakersfield on June 8, 1924, and a self-described conservative by the time he entered college. He served in the Army and attended San Jose State College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism. He worked in journalism for 16 years as a reporter and editor, and took his manual typewriter with him to the White House even after electric typewriters and then computers rendered it obsolete.

In a 2003 interview with the University of Virginia, as part of its presidential oral history project, Mr. Nofziger conceded that he never would have imagined going into politics. But in 1966, he took a position as press secretary for Reagan's campaign for governor. He served as the governor's director of communications for nearly two years.

Mr. Nofziger's friends said he could be candid to a fault, which sometimes strained his relations with Mr. and Mrs. Reagan. In 1991, when the president dismissed three former close aides, including former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, from the board of the Reagan Presidential Library, Mr. Nofziger wrote a scathing op-ed article for The Washington Post. He said Mr. Reagan had broken his heart by turning his back on friends.

"Yes, I know you were a long way from being a perfect president," Mr. Nofziger wrote. "I thought that sometimes you listened to and took bad advice. I thought that toward the end you were paying too much attention to what history might think of you — a mistake most presidents make."

He went on, "But still, while on a scale of 1 to 10 you were more nearly a 7 than a 10, you remained my hero because it's hard to visualize anybody else scoring more than a 5 — at least on my scale. But today, Mr. President, and I weep because of it, you are no longer my hero."

He said Mr. Reagan had forgotten old loyalties and walked away from old friends. "You have let Nancy and the rich and beautiful people with whom she has surrounded herself and you force off the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library three of the most dedicated and selfless Reaganites there are."

Mr. Nofziger wrote four western novels and a political autobiography, "Nofziger."

But those who know him remember not his serious writings but his puns and quips and bits of doggerel. Among them is a limerick that he penned after the doomed nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court last year, which appears on his Web site, www.lynnofziger.com:

Conservatives are fearful that Harriet

Will be George Bush's Iscariot.

They have little doubt

That she'd sell them out

For a ride in a liberal's chariot.

Mr. Nofziger is survived by his wife, Bonnie, their daughter Glenda and two grandchildren. Another daughter died in 1989.

Carolyn Marshall contributed reporting from San Francisco for this article.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Sci-Fi Great Richard Fleischer Dies

Mar 27, 2006, 9:10 AM PT

It was a fantastic voyage indeed.

Sci-fi legend Richard Fleischer, the Academy Award-winning Hollywood director whose career spanned five decades and dazzled moviegoers with such genre classics as Fantastic Voyage, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Soylent Green, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 89.

Fleischer died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital.

After breaking into the business making documentaries for RKO in New York, the fledgling filmmaker set out for L.A. In 1947 at the age of 31, he won his only Oscar for a documentary he produced but did not direct called Design for Death, which was written by Theodor Geisel, who would later find fame writing children's books as Dr. Seuss. Later that year, Fleischer segued into feature filmmaking full-time with the crime drama Bodyguard.

He made a string of B-movies, including Trapped (1949), Armored Car Robbery (1950), The Narrow Margin (1952), The Happy Time (1952) and Arena (1953) before the call came to take the reins on what would become one of the biggest hits of its day, Walt Disney's big-screen adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Fleischer nearly declined the job, since his father, Max Fleischer, was the legendary animator behind the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons and Uncle Walt's chief competitor. But with his dad's okay, the younger Fleischer took the helm of 20,000 Leagues, the most expensive film the Mouse House had ever embarked upon. Starring Kirk Douglas, the F/X-filled film, which included the famous sequence of a giant squid attacking the Nautilus submarine, went on to become a box-office smash, inspired an enduring Disneyland ride and launched Fleischer into the big time.

He would go on to work with some of Tinseltown's biggest stars including Robert Mitchum in Bandido (1955), Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis in The Vikings (1958), Anthony Quinn in Barbaras (1962), Rex Harrison in Dr. Doolittle (1967), Henry Fonda in The Boston Strangler (1968), Omar Sharif in Che! (1969), Charlton Heston in Soylent Green (1973) (which featured the classic, oft-parodied line "Soylent Green is people!"), Charles Bronson in Mr. Mastestyk (1974), and the up-and-coming Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Destroyer (1984).

"He was a man of great talent and an extraordinary director who leaves behind a legacy of amazing films," the Governator said in a statement.

Aside from 20,000 Leagues, Fleischer's most memorable work was 1966's Fantastic Voyage, centering on the adventures of a miniaturized medical team injected inside the body of a dying man. Not only did the film become a hit, win Oscars for set design and special effects for its state-of-the-art depiction of the human anatomy, and introduce audiences to another visual effect, Raquel Welch, but it became a staple in science classes for years to come.

Fleischer was also a codirector on 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora, about the Japanese sneak attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor.

By the mid-70s Fleischer's career had peaked and his golden touch failed to translate into the '80s. Critics bashed his 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer, starring Neil Diamond, and his next three genre films--Amityville 3-D (1983), Conan the Destroyer, and Red Sonja (1984)--flamed out.

After making the little-seen 1987 comedy Million Dollar Mystery, Fleischer retired. In 1993, he published a memoir, Just Tell Me When to Cry, which recounted his 50 years collaborating with some of the biggest names in the business.

Born in Brooklyn on Dec. 8, 1916, Fleischer studied psychology at Brown University and intended to go to medical school to become a psychiatrist. But he had a change of heart and enrolled in the Yale School of Drama, where he quickly immersed himself in the theater and began directing plays.

After Yale, he landed a job writing scripts for RKO newsreels in New York before stepping behind the camera to make shorts and documentaries, often credited as Richard O. Fleischer due to a clerical error on his birth certificate.

Fleischer is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary; sons Mark and Bruce and daughter Jane; and five grandchildren.