Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOmanHill]

Publicist and Manager Ronnie Lippin Dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ronnie Lippin, a veteran publicist and manager who worked with rock icons such as Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and Prince, has died.

Lippin died of a rare form of breast cancer at Cedar Sinai Medical Center here, according to a statement from The Lippin Group. She was 59 years old.

Though she got her start working as a publicist for film and stage productions, Lippin, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, migrated to music publicity when she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, Dick Lippin.

She started out as a chief publicist for MCA Records and later worked with Elton John's Rocket Records and became the top publicist for RSO Records, home of the Bee Gees and the best-selling "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever" Soundtracks.

In 1989 she joined The Lippin Group, the marketing and public relations firm founded by her husband. There, she represented acts ranging from Mark Knofler to Clapton to Prince. She also served as a co-manager to Wilson.

"Ronnie Lippin was one of the most loving, thoughtful, sensitive and caring people I've ever met," Wilson said in a statement. "Long before she became my publicist and co-manager, we connected in a way that I knew I wanted her to be part of my career forever. ... God only knows why she's been taken all too soon."

At the time of her death, she was president of The Lippin Group.

Lippin is survived by her husband and a daughter, Alexandra, who also works for The Lippin Group.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Jose Uribe Is Killed in Car Crash

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Sports/NY15012081703_sp.jpeg

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic Dec 8, 2006 (AP)— Former San Francisco Giants shortstop Jose Uribe was killed in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic.

The Dominican National Police said the 47-year-old Uribe's sport utility vehicle crashed about 3 a.m. on a highway about 30 miles west of the capital, Santo Domingo. Police said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Uribe owned a hardware store in his hometown of Juan Baron in recent years, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor earlier this year. Police said he was driving to his hometown, in San Cristobal province, at the time of the crash.

Sgt. Major Juan Quezada de los Santos of the National Police said Uribe, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene of the crash on a mountainous road along the country's southern coast. Quezada said a passenger in the SUV was uninjured.

Uribe's death was confirmed by Glovis Reyes, a longtime friend of the ballplayer and a former member of the Dominican Congress.

"Uribe was a very loved person in Juan Baron. He was like the lord of the town," Reyes said.

Uribe played 10 seasons in the major leagues from 1984 to 1993, mostly with the Giants. He began his career with one season in St. Louis, when he was known as Jose Gonzalez Uribe, and ended it with one in Houston. He had a career batting average of .241 and a fielding percentage of .969.

 

[quintessential]

Peter Boyle - such a sweetheart

NEW YORK (AP) -- Peter Boyle, the actor known for playing everything from a tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" to the curmudgeonly father in the long-running TV sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.

Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.

Boyle was beginning to gain notice playing hard-bitten, angry types when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films. The movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."

It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.

"He's just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs," he said of the character in a 2001 interview. "It's a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made."

'Hot and angry'
When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star Ray Romano's Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition -- and he was not happy.

"He came in all hot and angry," recalled the show's creator, Phil Rosenthal, "and I hired him because I was afraid of him."

But Rosenthal also noted: "I knew right away that he had a comic presence."

Boyle first came to the public's attention more than a quarter century before. "Joe" was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era's emerging hippie youth culture.

Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," and shed it entirely in "Young Frankenstein."

The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.

 

[linuxgeek]

Peter Boyle

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16187735/

‘Raymond’ star Peter Boyle dies at 71
Veteran character actor was the monster in ‘Young Frankenstein’

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/ap/nyet15212131653.rp350x350.jpg

NEW YORK - Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in “Young Frankenstein” and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has died. He was 71.

Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.

A Christian Brothers monk who turned to acting, Boyle gained notice playing an angry workingman in the Vietnam-era hit “Joe.” But he overcome typecasting when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in Mel Brooks’ 1974 send-up of horror films.

The movie’s defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic “Puttin’ On the Ritz.”

It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in “Everybody Loves Raymond,” in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.

“He’s just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs,” he said of the character in a 2001 interview. “It’s a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made.”

When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star Ray Romano’s Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition — and he was not happy.

‘I hired him because I was afraid of him’
“He came in all hot and angry,” recalled the show’s creator, Phil Rosenthal, “and I hired him because I was afraid of him.”

But Rosenthal also noted: “I knew right away that he had a comic presence.”

Boyle first came to the public’s attention more than a quarter century before. “Joe” was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era’s emerging hippie youth culture.

Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as Robert Redford’s campaign manager in “The Candidate,” and shed it entirely in “Young Frankenstein.”

The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.

He went on to appear in dozens of films and to star in “Joe Bash,” an acclaimed but short-lived 1986 “dramedy” in which he played a lonely beat cop. He won an Emmy in 1996 for his guest-starring role in an episode of “The X Files,” and he was nominated for “Everybody Loves Raymond” and for the 1977 TV film “Tail Gunner Joe,” in which he played Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

In the 1976 film “Taxi Driver,” he was the cabbie-philosopher Wizard, who counseled Robert DeNiro’s violent Travis Bickle.

Other notable films included “T.R. Baskin,” “F.I.S.T.,” “Johnny Dangerously,” “Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8” (as activist David Dellinger), “The Dream Team,” “The Santa Claus,” “The Santa Claus 2,” “While You Were Sleeping” (in a charming turn as Sandra Bullock’s future father-in-law) and “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.”

Spent three years in a monastery
Educated in Roman Catholic schools in Philadelphia, Boyle would spend three years in a monastery before abandoning his studies there. He later described the experience as similar to “living in the Middle Ages.”

He explained his decision to leave in 1991: “I felt the call for awhile; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh.”

He traveled to New York to study with Uta Hagen, supporting himself for five years with various jobs, including postal worker, waiter, maitre d’ and office temp. Finally, he was cast in a road company version of “The Odd Couple.” When the play reached Chicago he quit to study with that city’s famed improvisational troupe Second City.

Upon returning to New York, he began to land roles in TV commercials, off-Broadway plays and finally films.

Through Alterman, a friend of Yoko Ono, the actor became close friends with John Lennon.

“We were both seekers after a truth, looking for a quick way to enlightenment,” Boyle once said of Lennon, who was best man at his wedding.

In 1990, Boyle suffered a stroke and couldn’t talk for six months. In 1999, he had a heart attack on the set of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” He soon regained his health, however, and returned to the series.

Despite his work in “Everybody Loves Raymond” and other Hollywood productions, Boyle made New York City his home. He and his wife had two daughters, Lucy and Amy.

 

[Avery_Chisholm]

Actor Peter Boyle dead at 71

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES -
Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.
ADVERTISEMENT

Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.

A Christian Brothers monk who turned to acting, Boyle gained notice playing an angry workingman in the Vietnam-era hit "Joe." But he overcome typecasting when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in
Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films.

The movie's defining moment came when
Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."

It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.

"He's just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs," he said of the character in a 2001 interview. "It's a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made."

When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star
Ray Romano's Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition — and he was not happy.

"He came in all hot and angry," recalled the show's creator, Phil Rosenthal, "and I hired him because I was afraid of him."

But Rosenthal also noted: "I knew right away that he had a comic presence."

Boyle first came to the public's attention more than a quarter century before. "Joe" was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era's emerging hippie youth culture.

Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as
Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," and shed it entirely in "Young Frankenstein."

The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.

He went on to appear in dozens of films and to star in "Joe Bash," an acclaimed but short-lived 1986 "dramedy" in which he played a lonely beat cop. He won an Emmy in 1996 for his guest-starring role in an episode of "The X Files," and he was nominated for "Everybody Loves Raymond" and for the 1977 TV film "Tail Gunner Joe," in which he played Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

In the 1976 film "Taxi Driver," he was the cabbie-philosopher Wizard, who counseled Robert DeNiro's violent Travis Bickle.

Other notable films included "T.R. Baskin," "F.I.S.T.," "Johnny Dangerously," "Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8" (as activist David Dellinger), "The Dream Team," "The Santa Claus," "The Santa Claus 2," "While You Were Sleeping" (in a charming turn as
Sandra Bullock's future father-in-law) and "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed."

Educated in Roman Catholic schools in Philadelphia, Boyle would spend three years in a monastery before abandoning his studies there. He later described the experience as similar to "living in the Middle Ages."

He explained his decision to leave in 1991: "I felt the call for awhile; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh."

He traveled to New York to study with Uta Hagen, supporting himself for five years with various jobs, including postal worker, waiter, maitre d' and office temp. Finally, he was cast in a road company version of "The Odd Couple." When the play reached Chicago he quit to study with that city's famed improvisational troupe Second City.

Upon returning to New York, he began to land roles in TV commercials, off-Broadway plays and finally films.

Through Alterman, a friend of
Yoko Ono, the actor became close friends with John Lennon.

"We were both seekers after a truth, looking for a quick way to enlightenment," Boyle once said of Lennon, who was best man at his wedding.

In 1990, Boyle suffered a stroke and couldn't talk for six months. In 1999, he had a heart attack on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond." He soon regained his health, however, and returned to the series.

Despite his work in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and other Hollywood productions, Boyle made New York City his home. He and his wife had two daughters, Lucy and Amy.

Actor Peter Boyle arrives at an event, on March 13, 2006 in New York. The Emmy-winning 'Everbody Loves Raymond' dad died in a New York City hospital, his publicist says. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

 

[linuxgeek]

hmmm ... it's a multi-post pileup... everyone must have been checking out the news at lunch.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

"Oh, crap!!"

hmmm ... it's a multi-post pileup... everyone must have been checking out the news at lunch.

http://i.tbs.com/v5cache/TBS/Images/Dynamic/i10/raymond_frank_240x260_052820041524.jpg

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Sid Raymond, Character Performer of Stage, Screen and Cartoons, Dies at 97

11 Dec 2006

Sid Raymond, a character actor who was never at a loss for work over his eight-decade career, died Dec. 1 in Aventura, Florida, after suffering a stroke. He was 97 and still working.

Mr. Raymond got his start in the 1920s, working the stages of the old Catskill resorts. Though he went on to appear in countless movies, television shows and commercials, he made it to Broadway only once, in 1968's Golden Rainbow. The Walter Marks musical starred Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and went through terrible backstage trauma, jettisoning a couple bookwriters and a choreographer before finally opening to mixed reviews. Based on Lawrence's appeal, the show ran for nearly a year.

In films, his roles were typically small and often uncredited. Among his most famous credits are "The Hustler," "Making Mr. Right" and "Let It Ride." Mr. Raymond may have achieved his most lasting notoriety as the voice of various popular cartoon characters of the 1950's. He voice the slow-witted, giant cartoon duck Baby Huey, the mouser Catnip—both creations of Harvey Comics—and the mischievous twin magpies Heckle and Jeckle. Mr. Raymond was also an adept mimic who could ape the voices of stars like Edward G. Robinson and Jerry Lewis.

In 2002, he was the subject of a short documentary called "Sid at 90."

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, the former Dorothy Naftel, and daughters, Cynthia Raymond and Margo Cohen, both of Manhattan; his sisters, Ruth Freedman, of Manhattan, and Dorothy Amcher, of Orlando; and one granddaughter.

 

[phrodeau]

Founder of Atlantic Records dies aged 83

Obituary: Ahmet Ertegun, 1923-2006
Guardian Unlimited Music staff and agencies
Friday December 15, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish diplomat's son who launched Atlantic Records and the careers of acts ranging from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin, died in New York yesterday. He was 83.
Atlantic said the tireless socialite and deal-maker had been in a coma at Weill Cornell Medical Centre since October, when he fell while backstage at a concert by the Rolling Stones, who recorded for the label during the 1970s.

"The soul of Ahmet Ertegun will forever be our guiding spirit, and as long as there is an Atlantic Records, it will be Ahmet Ertegun's company," said Craig Kallman, the company's current chairman and chief executive.

Ertegun's 60-year career was unrivalled in its longevity and depth. Along the way, the bald, goateed bon vivant cut a dashing figure in the world's best ballrooms and seediest nightclubs. One night he would hobnob with high-powered friends such as Henry Kissinger and David Geffen and speak in his aristocratic accent. The next, he would relate unprintable anecdotes to impressionable young rock stars he was trying to sign to the label, outdrinking them in the process.

Atlantic's roster included huge stars: Professor Longhair, the Drifters, Led Zeppelin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Cream, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dusty Springfield, Genesis, AC/DC, the Bee Gees, Bette Midler, the Allman Brothers Band, the Three Tenors and latterly James Blunt.

Launched in 1947 as a short-term outlet for Ertegun's fixation with the jazz and blues that was largely unknown to most Americans, Atlantic grew into one of the world's biggest record companies. Ertegun was founding chairman, surviving various ownership changes since he and his partners sold the label in 1967 for $20m.

He was one of the first recording executives to sell music by black artists to white youngsters looking for something exciting in the conformist Eisenhower era of the 1950s, and in so doing, he helped pioneer rock'n'roll.

"From gospel, blues and jazz emerged R&B and rock'n'roll, the most popular music of all time," Ertegun wrote in 1997. "No music of any other country travels worldwide. Thanks to Black America for our great art form."

Atlantic solidified its status as the dominant label of its time when it partnered in the 1960s with Memphis-based Stax Records to bring southern soul musicians such as Redding, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes and Booker T & the MGs to worldwide fame.

In the 1970s rock acts Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones joined the roster. During the 1990s, Hootie and the Blowfish's debut album Cracked Rear View became the biggest selling debut in the label's history.

Ertegun and his second wife, Romanian-born interior designer Mica had no children. The avid collectors had homes in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Paris and Turkey. He will be buried in a private ceremony in Turkey, and a memorial service will be held in New York next year.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1973001,00.html

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Fred Marsden, Merseybeat Drummer, Dies

LONDON (AP) - Fred Marsden, the drummer in the Merseybeat band Gerry and the Pacemakers, has died at age 66, his family said.

Marsden died of cancer in Southport, England, according to a family death announcement published Tuesday in the Liverpool Echo newspaper.

The band, fronted by Marsden's brother, Gerry, was the second group signed by Brian Epstein, whose first band was The Beatles.

Gerry and the Pacemakers become the first from Liverpool to have a No. 1 single with "How Do You Do It?" in 1963, followed that year by another chart-topper, "I Like It."

Later hits included "You'll Never Walk Alone,""Ferry Cross the Mersey," and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," co-written by Fred.

The group disbanded in 1967. Gerry Marsden reformed the Pacemakers in 1973 but without Fred, who had given up the music business to be a telephone operator and later established the Pacemaker driving school.

Marsden is survived by his wife, Margaret, and two children.

 

[Agent99]

Yogi Bear creator Joe Barbera dies at 95

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.

Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

The partners, who teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1960s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."

Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.

"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year — without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.

"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.

Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."

The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.

Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.

After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed — and expensive — action featured in theatrical cartoon.

Like "The Simpsons" three decades later, "The Flintstones" found success in prime-time TV by not limiting its reach to children. The program, a parody of "The Honeymooners," was among the 20 most popular shows on television during the 1960-61 season, and Fred's shout of "yabba dabba doo!" entered the language.

The Jetsons, which debuted in 1962, were the futuristic mirror image of the Flintstones.

"It was a family comedy with everyday situations and problems that we window-dressed with gimmicks and inventions," Barbera once said. "Our stories were such a contrast to many of the animated series that are straight destruction and blasting away for a solid half-hour."

The show ran just one season on network TV but was often rerun, and the characters were revived in the 1980s in a syndicated show. Barbera said he liked the freedom syndication gave the producers, with none of the meddling from network executives.

"Today, Charlie Chaplin couldn't get his material by a network," he once said.

Even so, the influence of Hanna-Barbera was felt for decades. In 2002 and again in 2004, characters from the cartoon series "Scooby-Doo" were brought to the big screen in films that combined live actors and animation.

Hanna-Barbera, meanwhile, received eight Emmys, including the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1988.

"Joe Barbara was a passionate storyteller and a creative genius who, along with his late partner Bill Hanna, helped pioneer the world of animation," said friend, colleague and Warner animation President Sander Schwartz. "Joe's contributions to both the animation and television industries are without parallel — he has been personally responsible for entertaining countless millions of viewers across the globe."

Neither Hanna, born in 1910, nor Barbera, born in 1911, set out to be cartoonists. Barbera, who grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, originally went into banking. Soon, however, he turned his doodles into magazine cartoons and then into a job as an animator.

Hanna, who had studied engineering and journalism, originally went into animation because he needed a job.

Although not the hit factory it was in the '50s and '60s, the Hanna-Barbera studio remained active through the years. It eventually became a subsidiary of Great American Communications Co., and in 1991 it was purchased by a partnership including Turner Broadcasting System, which used the studio's library when it launched cable TV's Cartoon Network in 1992. Turner is now part of Time Warner.

Funeral arrangements were pending, Miereanu said. In addition to his wife, the animator is survived by three children from a previous marriage, Jayne, Neal and Lynn.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

'Rocky and Bullwinkle' Writer Dies a 81

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) - Chris Hayward, an Emmy-winning television writer who helped develop the bumbling animated Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right and other offbeat characters for the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV show, has died. He was 81.

Hayward died of cancer Nov. 20 at this Beverly Hills home, his wife, Linda, told the Los Angeles Times in Sunday editions.

Hayward contributed satire, wordplay and puns for "Rocky and His Friends," a witty cartoon that built a large adult following. The show debuted on ABC in 1959 and was renamed "The Bullwinkle Show" when it moved to NBC in 1961.

Besides its titular flying squirrel and moose, the hit show featured segments including Mr. Peabody, a time-traveling dog with a boy companion, and Dudley, a klutzy hero always in pursuit of his nemesis Snidely Whiplash.

The first episode Hayward co-wrote for the two lead characters was "Rue Britannia," according to "The Moose That Roared" (2000), a history of the show. In the episode, Bullwinkle has to stay in the Abominable Manor in England.

"Shucks, I've been livin' in an abominable manner all my life!" the moose says.

Jay Ward, whose studio produced the show, gave very little instruction to Hayward when it came to reinventing the Do-Right character, which had been around since the late 1940s.

"It's about a stupid Mountie. Just have fun!" Hayward recalled.

The character was voiced by Bill Scott, who also was the voice behind Bullwinkle.

With partner Allan Burns, Hayward later helped create "The Munsters," and in 1968 the pair received an Emmy for their work on the CBS sitcom "He & She."

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Hayward moved to Los Angeles at age 17. He took a night class in scriptwriting at a local high school and went into television in the 1950s. He worked on "Crusader Rabbit," the first cartoon show created specifically for television, as well as "Get Smart,""My Mother the Car" and "Barney Miller."

In addition to his wife, Hayward is survived by his children, Laurel, Victoria and Tony, from a previous marriage that ended in divorce.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Van Smith, 61; 'ugly expert' on John Waters films

Van Smith, a costume designer and makeup artist who was the resident "ugly expert" on the films of John Waters, died Dec. 5 at his home in Marianna, Fla., after a heart attack. He was 61.

He "totally understands the look of 'inner rot' that I demand and could come up with the perfect look for each character without my ever having to say a word," Waters wrote in his 1995 book, "Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste."

Smith became a regular part of Waters' film repertory group, Dreamland, starting with "Pink Flamingos" (1972). The movie, starring 300-pound transvestite actor Divine, is about a woman eager to out-filth competitors.

On a constricted budget, Smith found simple ways to make actors look outrageous. He shaved Divine's hairline deep into the actor's forehead to make room for excessive eye makeup and dressed Divine in a fishtail red gown.

The effect, Smith later said, made Divine resemble a cross between busty glamour girl Jayne Mansfield and Clarabell the Clown.

His destructive makeup techniques included using dirt to obscure a natural glow or letting egg white dry on an actor's face, Smith said in "Shock Value."

In "Desperate Living" (1977), he designed a shower curtain dress for actress Liz Renay. In "Cecil B. DeMented" (2000), he put Melanie Griffith in a Chanel jacket that he reformatted with a biker mystique.

Walter Avant Smith Jr. was born Aug. 17, 1945, in Marianna, a Panhandle town where his father was a municipal judge and his mother a bookkeeper.

In 1968, he graduated with a degree in fashion arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

At the time, he resided at a Baltimore apartment complex where "everyone lived," Smith told a Waters fan site, referring to those who became fixtures on Waters' film sets.

When he was not sharing Waters' vision of film as "action against good taste," Smith was a New York fashion illustrator, Baltimore antique store owner and Florida animal rescue volunteer.

He also was the creative force behind "The Simply Divine Cut-Out Doll Book" (1983).

More recently, he cared for his mother, Eloise Smith, of Marianna.

She survives him, along with a brother and a sister.

 

[Violette]

I know this is brief, but I don't think anyone was ready for a death on Christmas Day this year.

The "Godfather of Soul" has left us. James Brown , dead at 73, and very much missed.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Legendary Singer James Brown Dies at 73

I know this is brief, but I don't think anyone was ready for a death on Christmas Day this year.

The "Godfather of Soul" has left us. James Brown , dead at 73, and very much missed.

Yes, Violette. It certainly was unexpected and he will be missed.

Dec 25, 4:15 AM (ET)
ATLANTA (AP) - James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said.

Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and motivating him personally and professionally.

"He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible."

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.

"James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close."

His hit singles include such classics as "Out of Sight,""(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,""I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society."

He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to straighten out" rock music.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business."

With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.

In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital technique called sampling.

Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," he told the AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, he was abandoned as a 4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal.

"I wanted to be somebody," Brown said.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars.

While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten.

While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne.

In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom.

Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck.

Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.

Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.

More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Mike Evans, 57, ‘Jeffersons’ Actor and a Creator of ‘Good Times,’ Dies

http://www.tvland.com/shows/aitf/images/shows/actpic7.jpg

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif., Dec. 22 (AP) — Mike Evans, an actor best known for playing Lionel Jefferson on the 1970s sitcom “All in the Family” and its popular spinoff “The Jeffersons,” died at his mother’s home here on Dec. 14. He was 57.

The cause was throat cancer, said a niece, Chrystal Evans.

Mr. Evans, along with Eric Monte, also created and wrote for “Good Times,” one of the first sitcoms to feature a primarily black cast.

He had studied acting at Los Angeles City College before getting the role of Lionel Jefferson on “All in the Family,” which had its premiere in 1971. Lionel was the son of black neighbors of the bigoted Archie Bunker in Queens.

He kept the role when “The Jeffersons” made its debut in 1975. In that show, the Jeffersons were “movin’ on up” to the East Side of Manhattan after striking it rich in the dry-cleaning business.

Mr. Evans was replaced by Damon Evans (no relation) for four years, then returned to the series from 1979 to 1981.

He also acted in the 1976 mini-series “Rich Man, Poor Man” and made guest appearances on the series “Love, American Style” and “The Streets of San Francisco.” His last role was in 2000, in an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Michael Jonas Evans was born Nov. 3, 1949, in Salisbury, N.C. His father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist; his mother, Annie Sue Evans, was a schoolteacher. The family moved to Los Angeles when Mr. Evans was a child.

In recent years he had invested in real estate in Southern California, the family said.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Richard Carlson, 45; wrote self-help book 'Don't Sweat the Small Stuff'

Richard Carlson, best selling author, beloved husband, cherished father, and loving son died suddenly of cardiac arrest while en route to New York on December 13. He was 45.

Like the message in his books, the focus of Dr. Carlson’s life was on gratitude, generosity and kindness. He embodied those traits in everything he did, becoming a dear friend to everyone who knew and worked with him.

Dr. Carlson was the author of 30 books including the phenomenally successful Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff series and the just published Don’t Get Scrooged. His books have been published in 135 countries and translated into more than 30 different languages.

His daily meditation and commitment to inner and outer peace were manifest not only in his books, but also in his calm and focused presence. He was at ease with life, and shared that sense of contentment even while acknowledging and working to solve the world’s myriad problems.

“Richard was a unique and inspiring friend,” according to his former agent Patti Breitman. “He taught me the value of being present for my own life, and encouraged me – and millions of others – to pay attention to what is truly important and what endures.”

Richard Carlson was born on May 16, 1961 and grew up in Piedmont, CA. He received his undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University, his Ph.D. in psychology from Sierra University and received an honorary degree in law from Pepperdine University. He was in private practice as a psychotherapist when he started to publish books about psychological and spiritual health. When his books started to attract a large audience, he began writing full time so he could teach more people how to be more fully present for their lives.

Dr. Carlson was a large supporter of and participant in the National Center for Family Literacy. At the time of his death he was working on a project with them calling for "A Penny a Book" from publishers, authors and literary agents to promote literacy.

Dr. Carlson is survived by his wife and life partner of 25 years, Kris Carlson, his co-author on Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff in Love and the author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Women, his loving daughters Jasmine and Kenna, sisters, Kathleen Carlson Mowris of Olympic Village, CA and Anna L. Carlson of La Selva Beach, CA, and his parents, Barbara and Don Carlson of Orinda, CA.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former CBS President, Frank Stanton, Dies

BOSTON -- Frank Stanton, a broadcasting pioneer and president of CBS for 26 years, has died at the age of 98.

Stanton guided CBS through its evolution from a modest chain of radio affiliates into a media powerhouse. Along the way, he helped the network's news division develop into a respected and influential source of information.

A long-time friend, Elisabeth Allison, said Stanton died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday afternoon at his home in Boston.

Stanton's wife died more than a decade ago and he had no immediate survivors.

Stanton joined CBS in 1934 and rose quickly through the ranks. In 1946, at the age of 38, he became president.

Stanton signed Jackie Gleason and the sitcom "I Love Lucy."

Former anchor Walter Cronkite credited Stanton with recruiting top talent, including Edward R. Murrow.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former President Gerald Ford Dies At 93

LOS ANGELES -- Former President Gerald Ford has died at the age of 93.

Former first lady Betty Ford issued a statement on Tuesday night from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage, Calif., saying, "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

The statement did not say where Ford died or list a cause of death.

Ford picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only president in America's history never elected to nationwide office.

He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile in 1974 and declared "our long national nightmare is over." But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president.

Ford also earned a place in the history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew, also forced from office by scandal.

His birth name was Leslie King, changed after his mother remarried and his stepfather, Gerald Ford, Sr., handed down the name.

Ford didn't meet his biological father until he was a senior in high school.

After playing football with the championship-winning University of Michigan in 1932 and '33, Ford received offers to play professionally. But he opted instead to study law at Yale, and entered politics as a volunteer for the 1940 Republican presidential campaign.

After serving with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, Ford returned to Michigan to practice law, becoming active in Republican reform politics.

In 1948, Ford beat a Republican incumbent in the Michigan congressional primary. He then went on to win the House seat, with a little more than 60 percent of the vote.

 

[KindaKinky]

Damn, I go away for a while and this graveyard got full! http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sad/1011.gif

Kudos for Jenny for her Obit work.

You all contribute, but not as often as Ms. JOH.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Chris Brown, Infielder in the '80s, Dies After House Fire

Dec 27, 3:34 PM (ET)

HOUSTON (AP) -Chris Brown, a third baseman who played six seasons in the majors in the 1980s, died Tuesday, nearly a month after he was burned in a fire at his home outside Houston. He was 45.

He died at Memorial Hermann Hospital. An autopsy has been performed but the cause of death is still pending, said Beverly Begay, a spokeswoman for the Harris County medical examiner's office.

Authorities say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fire and how Brown was burned. Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the Sugar Land police and fire departments, said arson is suspected.

Brown played with the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers. He is the second member of the mid-1980s Giants infield to die this month. Jose Uribe played shortstop for the team from 1985-92. He died at 47 in a Dec. 8 car crash in the Dominican Republic.

Firefighters arrived about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 30 at the home Brown owned in Sugar Land and found it "fully engulfed" in flames, Adolph said. Firefighters found no people or furniture inside, he said, and neighbors told authorities no one had lived there for some time.

Adolph said officials at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital told the Sugar Land fire department later that morning that Brown was there being treated for burns he suffered in a fire at his house. How Brown got from the burning house to the hospital about 9 miles away is part of the investigation, Adolph said.

Brown was transferred a few hours later to the main Memorial Hermann Hospital, Begay said. Sugar Land authorities never formally interviewed Brown because of his deteriorating condition, Adolph said.

Brown debuted in the majors in 1984 and made the All-Rookie team in 1985 after batting .271 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs. In 1986, Brown hit .317 with seven homers and 49 RBIs.

Brown underwent shoulder surgery after the '86 season and his statistics tapered off. He hit .242 in the first half of the 1987 season and the Giants traded him to the Padres. He batted .235 with only two homers in 1988 and the Padres dealt him to Detroit. He appeared in only 17 games with the Tigers in 1989 and batted .193 before he was released. He never returned to baseball.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Damn, I go away for a while and this graveyard got full! http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sad/1011.gif

Kudos for Jenny for her Obit work.

You all contribute, but not as often as Ms. JOH.

Thanks, KK

I'm not sure how healthy a habit it is, but I find it fascinating when I discover celebs passing "over".

It's nice to have a combined listing of them, and very helpful when playing trivia games!

Welcome back!

 

[KindaKinky]

One Who Won't Be Missed

Updated:2006-12-30 00:53:30
Iraqi Government Executes Former Dictator
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Dec. 30) - Saddam Hussein , the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday. On the gallows, Saddam refused to wear a hood and shouted: "God is great."

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

President Bush called Saddam's execution "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."

Baghdad was relatively quiet after the announcement, and the government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did when Saddam was convicted on Nov. 5 to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence. In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, some people danced and fired guns in the air to celebrate the former dictator's death.

State-run Iraqiya television news reported that Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, also were hanged. However, three officials said only Saddam was executed.

"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run Iraqiyah.

Al-Rubaie said Saddam "totally surrendered" and did not resist. He said a judge read the sentence to Saddam, who was taken in handcuffs to the execution room. When he stood in the execution room, photographs and video footage were taken, al-Rubaie said.

"He did not ask for anything. He was carrying a Quran and said: 'I want this Quran to be given to this person,' a man he called Bander," he said. Al-Rubaie said he did not know who Bander was.

"Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death," al-Rubaie said. "Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."

Sami al-Askari, the political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Saddam struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison, but was composed in his last moments. He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.

Shortly before the execution, Saddam's hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.

"No I don't want to," al-Askari quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam did repeate a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

"Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a bag," al-Askari said.

"Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab," al-Askari said.

He said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam's body.

Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and a former member of the Shiite bloc in parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there."

Al-Rayes, an ally of al-Maliki, did not attend the execution. She said Al-Maliki did not attend but was represented by an aide.

The station earlier was airing national songs after the first announcement and had a tag on the screen that read "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."

The execution was carried out around the start of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic world's largest holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj. Many Muslims celebrate by sacrificing domestic animals, usually sheep.

Sunnis and Shiites throughout the world began observing the four-day holiday at dawn Saturday, but Iraq's Shiite community - the country's majority - was due to start celebrating on Sunday.

The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.

Al-Maliki had rejected calls that Saddam be spared, telling families of people killed during the dictator's rule that would be an insult to the victims.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki's office quoted him as saying during a meeting with relatives before the hanging.

Human Rights Watch criticized the execution, calling Saddam's trial "deeply flawed."

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can't justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

The hanging of Saddam, who was ruthless in ordering executions of his opponents, will keep other Iraqis from pursuing justice against the ousted leader.

At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.

Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds.

Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

"Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

A senior official at the Iraqi defense ministry said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.

One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the letter was written by Saddam on Nov. 5, the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal in the Dujail killings.

The message called on Iraqis to put aside the sectarian hatred that has bloodied their nation for a year and voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency against U.S.-led forces, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen."

Saddam urged Iraqis to rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations" that ousted his regime.

Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's legal team, said U.S. authorities maintained physical custody of Saddam until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

"This is the end of an era in Iraq," al-Nauimi said from Doha, Qatar. "The Baath regime ruled for 35 years. Saddam was vice president or president of Iraq during those years. For Iraqis, he will be very well remembered. Like a martyr, he died for the sake of his country."

Iraq's death penalty was suspended by the U.S. military after it toppled Saddam in 2003, but the new Iraqi government reinstated it two years later, saying executions would deter criminals.

Saddam's own regime used executions and extrajudicial killings as a tool of political repression, both to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror.

In the months after he seized power on July 16, 1979, he had hundreds of members of his own party and army officers slain. In 1996, he ordered the slaying of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

Saddam built Iraq into a one of the Arab world's most modern societies, but then plunged the country into an eight-year war with neighboring Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and wrecked Iraq's economy.

During that war, as part of the wider campaign against Kurds, the Iraqi military used chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja in northern Iraq, killing an estimated 5,000 civilians.

The economic troubles from the Iran war led Saddam to invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990, seeking to grab its oil wealth, but a U.S.-led coalition inflicted a stinging defeat on the Iraq army and freed the Kuwaitis.

U.N. sanctions imposed over the Kuwait invasion remained in place when Saddam failed to cooperate fully in international efforts to ensure his programs for creating weapons of mass destruction had been dismantled. Iraqis, once among the region's most prosperous, were impoverished.

The final blow came when U.S.-led troops invaded in March 2003. Saddam's regime fell quickly, but political, sectarian and criminal violence have created chaos that has undermined efforts to rebuild Iraq's ruined economy.

While he wielded a heavy hand to maintain control, Saddam also sought to win public support with a personality cult that pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports and shops and on Iraq's currency.


Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 2006-12-29 14:09:37

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Broncos Cornerback Shot and Killed in Drive-by

Jan 1, 8:34 AM (ET)

DENVER (AP) -Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver early Monday morning, police said.

Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police called him about 3 a.m. from the scene of the shooting and told him three people had been shot and that Williams had been killed.

Saccomano said he spoke with coach Mike Shanahan and others in the organization.

"Complete shock. We're speechless. It takes words away. A terrible tragedy," Saccomano said.

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said that a little after 2 a.m., the white Hummer limousine that Williams and two others were traveling in was sprayed with bullets from a vehicle that came up along its side. All three people in the limousine were hit. They were taken to area hospitals, where Williams was pronounced dead. The other victims, a male and a female, were not identified. Hours before the shooting, the Broncos lost to San Francisco 26-23 in overtime, eliminating them from the playoff race.

Williams, a second-round pick in the 2005 draft out of Oklahoma State, started nine games as a rookie due to injuries. This season, he took over as the starter for Lenny Walls alongside Champ Bailey, and was second on the team with four interceptions and tied for third with 86 tackles.

On Sunday against the 49ers, he had a sack, a forced fumble, and led the team with seven sacks.

Jackson said police were searching for the suspects and interviewing witnesses.

 

[linuxgeek]

Momofuku Ando

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070107a2.html

Ando was king of instant ramen

OSAKA (Kyodo) Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Food Products Co. and inventor of instant ramen, died of heart failure Friday evening at a hospital in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, his family said. He was 96.

Born on March 5, 1910, in Taiwan, Ando initially ran clothing companies in Taipei and Osaka while he was a student at Ritsumeikan University. In 1948, he founded the precursor to Nissin and in 1958 unveiled Chicken Ramen, the world's first instant noodle product.

Ando was inspired to develop the instant noodle after coming upon a long line of people on a cold night shortly after World War II. They were waiting to buy freshly made ramen at a black market food stall.

The experience convinced him that "peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat," according to Nissin.

In 1971, Nissin introduced the Cup Noodle featuring instant ramen in a waterproof plastic foam container. Dubbed the "Ramen King," Ando is credited with expanding Nissin into the No. 1 company in the industry and was well-known for his dedication to his work.

Kei Kizugawa, head of the journal Kamigata Geino, said Ando was a great food product inventor whose accomplishments equaled that of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. "I believe generation after generation will talk about Chicken Ramen," Kizugawa said. "I don't think there will ever be an instant noodle product that beats the taste of Chicken Ramen."

In 1999, Ando opened the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, after installing his second son, Koki, as president of the company.

Ando retired from the chairman's post in June 2005 to serve as founder-chairman.

In July 2005, Nissin introduced a vacuum packed instant noodle specially designed for Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to eat during a mission aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery.

Showcasing his Space Ram noodles, Ando said, "I'm happy I've realized my dream that noodles can go into space."