Literotica Cemetary

[phrodeau]

Thursday, Feb. 01, 2007
Composer Gian Carlo Menotti Dies
By AP
ROME — Gian Carlo Menotti, who composed a pair of Pulitzer Prize-winning operas and founded the Spoleto arts festivals in the United States and Italy, died Thursday at a hospital in Monaco, his son said. He was 95.

"He died pretty peacefully and without any pain. He died in my arms," said Francis Menotti by telephone from Monte Carlo.

The Italian composer won Pulitzers for a pair of the 20th century's more successful operas: "The Consul," which premiered in 1950 in Philadelphia, and "The Saint of Bleecker Street," which opened at New York's Broadway Theater in 1954. "The Consul" also earned him the New York Drama Critics Circle award as the best musical play of the year in 1954.

He also wrote the Christmas classic "Amahl and the Night Visitors" for NBC, which was broadcast in 1951 and may have been the first opera written for television. Menotti also authored the libretto for "Vanessa," which was composed by Samuel Barber, and revised the libretto for Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra." In addition to working together, Barner and Menotti shared a house in Westchester, a New York suburb, for many years.

By 1976, The New York Times called Menotti the most-performed opera composer in the United States.

His Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and Spoleto Festival USA, of Charleston, S.C., sought to bring together fresh creative forces in U.S. and European culture. The tradition launched young artists into impressive careers. Shirley Verrett sang her first performance of Bizet's "Carmen" in Spoleto in 1962; in 1959, Patrice Chereau launched his opera career with a much-praised production of Rossini's "L'Italiana in Algeri"; and Tennessee Williams' "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" premiered in 1962. From Spoleto's stages, dancers such as Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp went on to shape the direction of contemporary dance.

Menotti said he was on the verge of giving up his direction of the cultural festivals several times _ in 1990, he said he wanted to quit the South Carolina event because he was being "treated like the clerk."

He eventually did leave the U.S. festival, in October 1993, after a series of bitter disagreements with the festival's board about financial and artistic control.

But despite his frequent urges to leave, Menotti seemed always as engaged as ever - even more. "I feel like the sorcerer's apprentice - I've started something and I don't know how to stop it," Menotti said in 1981 in Spoleto.

For three weeks each summer, Spoleto, population 35,000, is visited by nearly a half-million people. The festival also surrounded Menotti with the "affection and warmth" that is "so important for our creative life," as he put it.

"Many composers live in an ivory tower, composing for a small group of aficionados. Here, I'm surrounded by the life of the festival," he said.

He once compared his work at the festival to making bread — a hands-on process requiring time and attention.

Despite the care, Menotti delighted in improvisation. Festival programs were rarely set more than a year in advance and often saw last-minute changes, giving the artistic programs freshness.

"Fate has blessed me," he told The New York Times in 2001. "But if there's one thing I regret, it's this accursed festival. It's robbed too much of my time from composition and from the chance to just be curious about life, art and philosophy. Suddenly there's no time left, and it makes me feel desperate."

Born July 7, 1911, in Cadegliano near Lake Maggiore and the Swiss border, he was the sixth child of Alfonso and Ines Menotti.

A boy wonder who began composing songs at age 7 and wrote his first opera at 11, Menotti was for a time the most decorated and sought-after composer of his generation.

Encouraged by his mother, he received formal musical training in Italy and the United States, studying at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan and later at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

His first mature opera, "Amelia Goes to the Ball," in 1937, earned international recognition.

Many of his works written in the TV age lent themselves well to the medium. Among his later operas were "The Old Maid and the Thief," "The Medium" and "The Telephone".

Menotti also wrote music for ballet, orchestra and other productions, as well as the librettos for all his operas. He also directed operas — his own and works of other composers.

Among his achievements in his later years was an ambitious staging of "Parsifal" for the 1987 Spoleto program. He was also commissioned to write an opera for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Reflecting about Spoleto's meaning during the 30th anniversary of the festival's founding, Menotti said in 1987: "I needed to feel that I was needed. Thirty years ago, Spoleto was on the verge of bankruptcy. Now it's a flourishing town that owes its life to the festival."

Menotti, who lived in both Monaco and Scotland, returned to the Spoleto festival every year to celebrate his birthday, including this past July.

Although he held Italian citizenship, Menotti called himself an Italian-American.

Said Menotti in 1981: "I started Spoleto because I did not want to be the marginal person, the entertainer. I wanted to have a community, to be part of a community."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1584881,00.html

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Anna Nicole Smith is Dead

Posted Feb 8th 2007 2:55PM by TMZ Staff

Anna Nicole Smith has died, this according to her attorney Ron Rail.

Desperate attempts to save her life were made by paramedics en route to Memorial Regional Hospital. Smith did not survive, despite receiving CPR and emergency intubation to facilitate her breathing.

Smith collapsed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida and died at a local hospital hours later..

Anna had been transported to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood just after 2:00 PM EST.

WFOR-TV in Miami reports that Anna was found unresponsive in her hotel room. Local streets were closed off to rush Smith to the hospital, three miles away. Paramedics were seen pumping her chest as she was taken from the hotel.

Anna had been hospitalized for a week last November with pneumonia. Daughter Dannielynn, subject of an ongoing DNA test battle, was born on September 7. Her son Daniel died of a drug overdose on September 10. People magazine is reporting that Dannielynn is in the Bahamas.

Anna frequented the Hard Rock. Just a month ago, a playful Anna was caught showing off new body art to Hulk Hogan during a boxing match.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Barbara McNair, 72, a Singer, Actress and Host of a TV Show, Dies

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Barbara McNair, a cabaret singer, actress and television personality of the 1960s who was noted as much for her stunning appearance as for her versatile voice, died February 4th in Los Angeles. She was 72.

The cause was throat cancer, Ms. McNair’s sister, Jacqueline Gaither, told The Associated Press yesterday.

One of the few African-American television hosts of the period, Ms. McNair had her own syndicated variety series, “The Barbara McNair Show,” broadcast from 1969 to 1971. She made at least a half-dozen records, including several for the Motown label.

If critics did not enshrine her in the top echelon of American popular singers, Ms. McNair, who continued performing until shortly before her death, nevertheless retained a devoted following. Reviewing one of her performances in The New York Times in 1982, John S. Wilson described Ms. McNair as “a gorgeous looking woman with a warm, easy, communicative personality and a voice that can range from softly intense ballads to the edges of gospel, to crisp and rhythmic comedy or to a saloon singer’s belt.” He added: “Her hour in the spotlight passes pleasantly and quickly. But when it is all over, one is not left with any sense of her identity.”

Barbara Joan McNair was born on March 4, 1934 (some sources give the year as 1939), and reared in Racine, Wis., where she sang in church as a child. By the time she was a teenager, she dreamed of singing in nightclubs and pored over biographies of Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine in the hope of discovering how they had managed to do just that.

In the mid-1950s, after studying briefly at the Racine Conservatory and University of California, Los Angeles, Ms. McNair settled in New York, where she found work as a typist. Her break came when she sang at the Village Vanguard, which led to a role in the Broadway musical “The Body Beautiful,” which ran for two months in 1958.

Her other Broadway credits include “No Strings” (1962), in which she replaced Diahann Carroll as the female lead, and a 1973 revival of “The Pajama Game.”

Ms. McNair also had roles in several films, among them “If He Hollers, Let Him Go!” (1968), and “They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!” (1970), a sequel to “In the Heat of the Night,” the last two starring Sidney Poitier. She made many television appearances on “McMillan & Wife,” “The Mod Squad,” “General Hospital” and other shows.

Ms. McNair’s career suffered after she and her husband, Richard Manzie, were charged in 1972 with heroin possession; she was later cleared of the charge.

Ms. McNair was married four times and twice divorced; her third husband, Mr. Manzie, was found shot to death in 1976.

In addition to her sister, Ms. Gaither, she is survived by her husband, Charles Blecka, The Associated Press said.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Steve Barber, All-Star Pitcher Who Once Lost a Wild No-Hitter, Dies at 67

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BALTIMORE, Feb. 6 (AP) — Steve Barber, the first 20-game winner in modern Baltimore Orioles history and the losing pitcher in one of baseball’s wildest no-hitters, died February 4th in Henderson, Nev. He was 67.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Orioles announced.

A two-time All-Star and a member of the Orioles Hall of Fame, Barber was 121-106 with a 3.36 earned run average from 1960-74. A left-hander, he spent the first half of his career with the Orioles and was traded to the Yankees in July 1967. He later pitched for the Seattle Pilots, the Chicago Cubs, the Atlanta Braves, the California Angels and the San Francisco Giants.

Barber’s best season was 1963, when he went 20-13 with a 2.75 E.R.A.

His most memorable game came when he was facing Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in April 1967. He took a no-hitter and a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning despite bouts of wildness.

Barber walked the first two batters in the ninth, then retired the next two. But he threw a wild pitch that let the tying run score. After another walk, he was pulled from the game.

Stu Miller relieved, and the Tigers scored the go-ahead run on an error. The Tigers wound up winning, 2-1, despite getting no hits. Barber’s line that afternoon: 8 2/3 innings, 10 walks, 2 hit batters, a wild pitch and a throwing error.

Born in Takoma Park, Md., Barber signed with the Orioles when he was 18. He was 28 when the Orioles won their first World Series, in 1966, with a staff of frontline pitchers in their early 20s — Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Wally Bunker.

Barber won 10 games as a rookie, and won at least 10 games in six of his first eight seasons in the majors.

In seven and a half seasons with the Orioles, he went 95-75 with a 3.12 E.R.A. in 253 games.

Survivors include his wife, Patricia; his son, Steve Barber Jr. of Ellicott City, Md.; three daughters, Tracy Barber of South Carolina, Danielle Ehlert of Wisconsin and Kelly McCarthy of North Carolina; and a brother, Richard Barber of Ellicott City, Md.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

'Mod Squad' actor Tige Andrews dies at 86

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Tige Andrews, the Emmy-nominated character actor who portrayed a police captain in charge of a trio of hip, young crime fighters in "The Mod Squad," has died. He was 86.

Andrews died January 27 of cardiac arrest at his home in the San Fernando Valley of California, his family said.

The actor often played detectives during his television career, which spanned five decades and included appearances on more than 60 shows. His daughter said he was proud of his stint as Capt. Adam Greer on "The Mod Squad," which aired during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The popular TV drama starred three young actors -- Clarence Williams III, Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton.

"He felt the show made a big difference because it was one of the first television series to address social issues such as drugs, prostitution and teen pregnancy that were more hush-hush before that time," said Barbara Andrews, one of the actor's six children.

Tiger Andrews was born March 19, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, following Syrian custom, named him after a strong animal to ensure good health for their son, his family said.

His mother died when he was 3, and his father, who ran a fruit stand, later remarried. Andrews was wounded while serving in the Army during World War II and, after returning home, graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

In 1955, Andrews appeared in the off-Broadway revival of "The Threepenny Opera." Later that year, director John Ford cast him in the film version of "Mister Roberts" after seeing his Broadway performance. Family members said Ford was a major influence on Andrews.

The actor's wife of 46 years, Norma Thornton, died in 1996.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Singer Frankie Laine Dies at 93

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LOS ANGELES - Frankie Laine, the big-voiced singer whose string of hits made him one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s, died February 6th. He was 93.

Laine died of heart failure at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, Jimmy Marino, Laine's producer of more than a dozen years, told The Associated Press.

"He was one of the greatest singers around," Marino said. "He was one of the last Italian crooners type."

With songs such as "That's My Desire," "Mule Train," "Jezebel," "I Believe" and "That Lucky Old Sun," Laine was a regular feature of the Top Ten in the years just before rock 'n' roll ushered in a new era of popular music.

Somewhat younger listeners may remember him best for singing the theme to the television show "Rawhide," which ran from 1959 to 1966, and the theme for the 1974 movie "Blazing Saddles."

He sold more than 100 million records and earned more than 20 gold records.

"He will be forever remembered for the beautiful music he brought into this world, his wit and sense of humor, along with the love he shared with so many," Laine's family said in a statement.

Laine said his musical influences included Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and jazz artists including Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday.

"When people nowadays say that Elvis was the first white guy to sound black, I have to shake my head; what can you do?" he said in a 1987 interview. "At the time of 'That's My Desire,' they were saying that I was the only white guy around who sounded black."

He occasionally recorded songs by country singers, such as "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams. In 2004 he released an album called "Nashville Connection."

Laine's variety show "Frankie Laine Time" ran for two summers, 1955 and 1956, on CBS, and he also appeared in films including "When You're Smiling," and "Sunny Side of the Street."

He had a top 25 hit on the Billboard charts in 1969 with "You Gave Me a Mountain," a song written by Marty Robbins.

Laine was born Frank LoVecchio on March 30, 1913, in Chicago, the son of a barber who emigrated from Sicily.

He struggled from his teens until well into his 30s - even having to earn a living as a marathon dancer - before hits began coming his way with "That's My Desire" in 1947. His breakthrough came when Hoagy Carmichael heard him sing in a Los Angeles nightclub and praised his work.

"People like to say, 'Oh, I wouldn't change a thing,'" he said in an interview for the book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music." "But if I had it to do over again, there is one thing I would change. I would make it happen maybe 10 years sooner.

"Ten years is a good stretch of scuffling. But I scuffled for 17 years before it happened, and 17 is a bit much."

In recent years, he remained active in touring and in charity fundraising. Punning on the title of one of his hits, he called his 1993 autobiography "That Lucky Old Son."

He made his last performance in 2005 on a PBS television special.

He was married to Nan Grey, a leading lady in Hollywood films of the 1930s who died in 1993.

Survivors include his second wife, Marcia; a brother; and two daughters.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Hank Bauer, 84, World Series Star, Dies

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Hank Bauer, a bruising pipe fitter and decorated combat veteran who became an All-Star outfielder for the Yankees, playing in nine World Series, and who later managed the Baltimore Orioles to a stunning Series victory, died February 9th in Shawnee Mission, Kan. He was 84.

Bauer joined the Yankees in the closing weeks of the 1948 season, hitting singles in his first three at bats. He then barreled through the next 11 seasons as the Yankees dynasty moved from the Joe DiMaggio era into the Mickey Mantle era. The Yankees won nine American League pennants and seven World Series during his seasons with them. In all, he played 14 years in the major leagues.

Bauer, who had a powerful throwing arm, was named to the American League All-Star team three times, from 1952 to 1954, and compiled a career batting average of .277 with 164 home runs, 57 triples, 229 doubles and 703 runs batted in.

He is remembered for his World Series performances, including a record 17-game hitting streak (1956-58) and a game-saving catch. But one of his finest baseball moments came seven years after the Yankees had traded him so they could acquire Roger Maris.

It was in 1966, when Bauer, now a manager, led the Orioles to their first World Series title, a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in a contest loaded with future Hall of Famers like Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer of the Orioles and Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale of the Dodgers.

Bauer acknowledged that he was not a natural fielder or hitter, but at a muscular 6 feet and 202 pounds, he played baseball with a fullback’s ferocity. “When Hank came down the base path, the whole earth trembled,” said Johnny Pesky, the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox.

Bauer said: “It’s no fun playing if you don’t make somebody else unhappy. I do everything hard.”

Henry Albert Bauer was born July 31, 1922, in East St. Louis, Ill., where he admired the aggressive style of the St. Louis Cardinals, renowned in the 1930s as the Gashouse Gang. He was the youngest of nine children of an Austrian immigrant who had lost a leg working in an aluminum mill and later made a living as a bartender. A brother described Bauer as “a real dead-end kid who always was going around with a bloody nose.”

As a youngster, he played high school and American Legion baseball. After graduating from high school, he joined a pipe fitters’ union and repaired furnaces in a beer-bottling plant. But in 1941, his brother Herman, who was playing in the Chicago White Sox farm system, arranged a tryout for Hank, who batted and threw right-handed. Hank won an assignment to the Oshkosh team in the Class D Wisconsin State League.

Bauer’s baseball future seemed to recede in January 1942, when he joined the Marines soon after Pearl Harbor. He spent nearly three years of World War II in the South Pacific as a combat platoon leader, sustaining 24 attacks of malaria, receiving shrapnel wounds in his back on Guam and in a thigh on Okinawa, and winning 11 campaign ribbons, 2 Bronze Stars and 2 Purple Hearts.

After the war, he returned to pipe fitting, but a Yankees scout remembered him and signed him to the Yankees’ farm team in Quincy, Ill. Two years later, he was called up to New York at 26.

In the 1951 World Series, which the Yankees took from the New York Giants, 4 games to 2, Bauer almost single-handedly won the sixth and deciding game, hitting a bases-loaded triple and making a diving catch of a line drive for the game’s final out with the tying run on base.

The four home runs Bauer hit in his last Series, in 1958, when the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4 games to 3, is the second-highest total in a Series after Reggie Jackson’s five in 1977.

With his talents in decline, the Yankees traded Bauer to the Kansas City Athletics in 1959 as part of the Maris deal. In June 1961, he replaced Joe Gordon as manager of the A’s, but after two years of ninth-place finishes in the 10-team league, he quit and moved to the Orioles in 1963 as a coach. He became the manager in 1964. When the Orioles finished third behind the Yankees, he was named A.L. manager of the year.

He earned that honor again in 1966, when he managed the Orioles to a 97-63 record and a World Series sweep of the Dodgers. A pitcher on that Baltimore team, Steve Barber, died Sunday at 67.

Bauer remained with the Orioles until 1968 and spent a final season managing the Athletics in 1969.

Bauer — of whom Mantle once said, “He taught me how to dress, how to talk and how to drink” — also had a role in some Yankees history off the field. In one incident, in 1957, a group of Yankees players, accompanied by their wives, became involved in a confrontation with another group of patrons at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. One, a Bronx delicatessen owner, sued Bauer, accusing him of punching him. The man lost the lawsuit after catcher Yogi Berra testified, “Nobody never hit nobody.”

Bauer could be unforgiving, though, if he felt his teammates’ off-the-field activities were hurting the Yankees’ on-the-field performance. Pitcher Whitey Ford remembered how Bauer reacted when he thought players like Ford and Mantle were overindulging themselves after hours: “He pinned me to the wall of the dugout one day and said, ‘Don’t mess with my money.’ ”

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Archie Comics Artist Dies at 85

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) - Joe Edwards, an artist who worked on the 1942 debut issue of Archie comics and later created the character Li'l Jinx, has died. Edwards, who was 85, died Feb. 8 at his home after years of treatment for heart problems, said his son, Todd Edwards.

A Manhattan native, Edwards served in the Army during World War II, illustrating training manuals. While based in Italy, he drew animated cartoons warning of minefields around Naples.

Edwards worked for Demby Studios, which produced comic book stories for a number of publishers, and then joined the former MLJ Comics, the precursor to Archie Comics.

Todd Edwards said his father always carried a sketch pad, and despite failing health in later years, would delight doctors and nurses with sketches drawn personally for them. "He loved it when he could make people smile," his son said.

Along with drawing the popular redheaded teenager, Archie Andrews, and his pals Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Edwards created Li'l Jinx, a precocious girl who had her own comic book for a time and still appears as a character in others, said Victor Gorelick, vice president and managing editor of Archie Comics.

Many of Li'l Jinx's adventures were based on Edwards' experiences with his own two sons and daughter. "He was a very funny cartoonist, and a good ideas man," Gorelick said.

Edwards was a member of the Berndt Toast Gang, the nickname for the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists' Society.

Besides his son Todd, Edwards is survived by his wife, Eda Selnick, another son, Ken, a daughter, Naomi, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Ian Richardson; stage, screen star, British TV villain; 72

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Ian Richardson, who brought Shakespearean depth to his portrayal of a thoroughly immoral politician in the hugely popular satirical British TV drama “House of Cards,” died February 9th, his agent said. He was 72.

In addition to his many stage, screen and TV roles, Mr. Richardson also appeared in a mustard commercial as a man in a Rolls-Royce who asked, “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”

He died in his sleep at his London home, said the agent, Jean Diamond.

Mr. Richardson played the evil Francis Urquhart in three miniseries, “House of Cards” in 1990, “To Play the King” in 1993 and “The Final Cut” in 1995.

Urquhart's smooth riposte to any slur against another character – “You may think that; I couldn't possibly comment” – was picked up by British politicians and heard again and again in the House of Commons.

His other television roles included Bill Haydon in John Le Carre's “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”; Sir Godber Evans in “Porterhouse Blue”; and Sherlock Holmes in “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

In 2001, he starred in “Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes,” playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle, in a miniseries that was broadcast in the United States on PBS' “Mystery.”

He also portrayed the British spy Anthony Blunt in the BBC-TV play “Blunt.”

On Broadway, he played Jean-Paul Marat in “Marat/Sade” in 1965, reprising the role in the film version the following year, and Henry Higgins in a 1976 revival of “My Fair Lady,” for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as best actor in a musical.

Other movie credits included “Brazil” in 1985, “The Fourth Protocol” in 1987, “B.A.P.S.” in 1997 and “102 Dalmatians” in 2000.

But it was his role in “House of Cards” that turned him “from a jobbing actor that the cognoscenti were aware of into a star that the country's entire viewing population knew,” Mr. Richardson said in an interview last year with the Daily Mail newspaper.

“House of Cards” was brilliantly, if accidentally, timed. It appeared in Britain in the same year that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was brought down by feuding in her Conservative Party.

The miniseries was shown in the United States as part of PBS' “Masterpiece Theatre.”

“Urquhart was a wicked character, but Richardson portrayed him in such a way that everybody loved it. In anybody else's hands, that role could have fallen flat on his face,” said Michael Dobbs, who wrote the book on which it was based.

In the feverish atmosphere of Thatcher's downfall, “even John Major's leadership campaign in 1990 came to a halt at 9 p.m. on a Sunday night so that the whole campaign team could sit down and see what was happening,” Dobbs said.

Mr. Richardson, born in Edinburgh in 1934, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960.

In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II honored him with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his many roles.

He is survived by his wife, Maroussia, and two sons.

 

[Mr. Show]

Ryan Larkin (animator)

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Renowned Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, a one-time rising star in the National Film Board and more recently the subject of an Oscar-winning short, has died at the age of 63.

Laurie Gordon, Larkin's manager and friend, said Larkin died peacefully in his sleep Wednesday at Gordon's home St. Hyacinthe, Que., following a long-term battle with cancer.

"Ryan was an inspiration to everyone who knew him and to generations of creative spirits in Canada and around the world," Gordon said. "He was charismatic even in the face of his illness."

Larkin was just 19 when he began working at the NFB in 1963, and six years later received an Academy Award nomination for his animated short Walking.

Larkin also made Street Musique, considered a masterpiece of animated movement, and won dozens of awards during his 14 years with the film board.

Later, though, he succumbed to a combination of creative block and alcohol and cocaine problems and eventually took to the streets of Montreal as a panhandler.

Larkin was propelled back into the spotlight as the subject of Ryan, a digitally animated tribute by Canadian Chris Landreth that captured the Academy Award for best animated short in 2005.

He recently resurfaced after a three-decade absence to work for MTV Canada, making three short animated bumpers — the branded station identifications that run into or out of commercials on the cable channel.

"It's a poetic statement that I was trying to develop [with the bumpers] — and I think I've succeeded, too," Larkin said in an interview last December.

He was also working on Spare Change, a film about his experiences on the streets of Montreal.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Actor Daniel McDonald Dies at 46

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Actor Daniel McDonald, who received a Tony Award nomination and a Theatre World Award for his portrayal of Bill Kelly in Steel Pier, died in New York City on February 15. He was 46 and had been suffering from brain cancer.
McDonald was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and raised in Romulus, New York. He graduated from Ithaca College. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was a member of the Actors Studio.

In addition to Steel Pier, his Broadway credits included the roles of C.K. Dexter Haven in High Society (opposite Melissa Errico) and Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia! McDonald also starred in the national tour of Contact, and he wrote, directed, and starred in the solo show Chesterfield at the John Drew Theatre in East Hampton.

He appeared in such films as The Falcon and the Snowman and The Ice Storm; his numerous television credits include All My Children, Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order, and Sex and the City.

McDonald is survived by his wife, Mujah; their two children, Fosco and Ondino; his parents, James and Patricia; and his five siblings, including the actor Christopher McDonald.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Robert Adler, TV Remote Inventor, Dead

Feb 20, 2007

Robert Adler, the inventor and physicist who co-created the television remote control, has died in Boise, Idaho, at age 93.

Adler's wife, Ingrid, said the inventor, who held nearly 200 patents in the United States, died Thursday of heart failure, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Adler worked on and off for Zenith Electronics for nearly 60 years, at one point serving as director of the research division when the company operated a fully staffed research laboratory. While working for Zenith, he participated in the development of the Space Command ultrasonic remote control, which changed television channels using a high-frequency sound. The product was released to consumers in 1956.

"Bob was definitely the father of the clicker," said Jerry Pearlman, Zenith's former chief executive.

The invention earned Adler an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award from the Institute of Radio Engineers, now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, in 1958.

Adler also held patents for inventions in the fields of laser interferometers and piezoelectric ceramics. His final patent, filed Feb. 1, was for an advancement in touch-screen technology.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Gittings, early NYC lesbian rights activist, dies at 75

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Barbara Gittings, a gay rights activist since the late 1950s who helped to form the New York City chapter of an early lesbian organization, died February 18th. She was 75.

Gittings died after a lengthy fight with breast cancer, said Mark Segal, a friend and the publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News.

Gittings helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, which emerged as a social club around the country in response to the anti-homosexual political climate of the 1950s. During her work with that group, she met her life partner, Kay Lahausen. Gittings edited the group's publication, The Ladder, from 1963 to 1966, and worked with Lahausen on her 1973 book, "The Gay Crusaders."

She first became well known to the public in 1965, when she helped organize gay-rights demonstrations at the White House and Independence Hall. In 2005, Gittings and Lahausen attended the unveiling of a state historic marker noting those demonstrations across the street from Independence Hall.

Gittings had served as head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force; in 2003, the association presented her its highest honor, a lifetime membership.

Gittings was also active in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association's 1973 decision to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

Gittings and Lahausen lived in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del., in their later years; they recently moved to an assisted living center in Kennett Square, Pa., where Gittings fell into a coma Sunday morning and died Sunday evening, Segal said.

In addition to Lahausen, Gittings is survived by her sister Eleanor Gittings Taylor of San Diego.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Lamar Lundy dies at 71

This makes me sad... The Fearsome Foursome were my first sports hero's.

RICHMOND, Ind. -- Lamar Lundy, a member of the Fearsome Foursome defensive line for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1960s, died Saturday. He was 71.

He died after a long illness in his hometown, the Community Family Funeral Home said.

Lundy spent his entire 13-year career with the Rams (1957-69). He teamed with Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones -- both Pro Football Hall of Famers -- and Roosevelt Grier to form a mighty defensive line. In 1968, the defense featuring the four set an NFL record for the fewest yards allowed during a 14-game season.

"He was a tremendous performer and a better person," Olsen told the Palladium-Item newspaper.

Olsen called Lundy, 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds, the anchor of the line.

"He really was the stabilizing force, Mr. Consistency," Olsen said. "He was an incredibly important part of that equation."

Unlike his other three linemates, though, Lundy started out on the other side of the ball.

He spent his first three NFL seasons playing primarily as a tight end and caught 35 passes for 584 yards and six touchdowns -- three in each of his first two seasons -- before moving to defense.

Lundy was the first black football player to receive a scholarship at Purdue, the school said. He led Richmond High School to unbeaten football seasons in 1952 and 1953 and to the state's Final Four in basketball in 1953.

He was such a good athlete that he also started on the Purdue basketball team and was selected the Boilermakers team MVP in both football and basketball as a senior.

Lundy earned all-state honors in both football and basketball during his high-school career and was a member of Indiana's prestigious basketball All-Star team.

He was selected to the 1959 Pro Bowl team and led the Rams in sacks, an unofficial statistic in those days, in 1961.

A knee injury he sustained in 1967 led to his retirement from football.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former NBA star Dennis Johnson dies

AUSTIN, Texas - Dennis Johnson, the star NBA guard who was part of three championship teams and combined with Larry Bird in one of the great postseason plays, died Thursday after collapsing at the end of practice. He was 52.

Johnson, coach of the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League, was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at Austin Convention Center, said Warren Hassinger, spokesman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for 23 minutes before he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, Hassinger added. Mayra Freeman, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, said there will be autopsy.

The Toros postponed home games Friday and Saturday nights, the D-League said.

Johnson, a five-time All-Star and one of the great defensive guards, played 14 seasons and retired after the 1989-90 season. He played on title teams with the Boston Celtics in 1984 and 1986 and with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979, when he was the NBA finals MVP.

Johnson, a leader on the court, was a favorite teammate of Bird's. The two were part of one of the most memorable plays in Celtics history.

During the fifth game of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals against Detroit, Bird stole Isiah Thomas' inbounds pass under Boston's basket and fed Johnson, who drove in for the winning layup. Boston won the series in seven games but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals.

"Dennis was a great player, one of the best teammates I ever had, and a wonderful person," said Bird, now president of the Indiana Pacers. "My thoughts and condolences are with his family at this difficult time."

In the 1984 finals, Johnson guarded Magic Johnson effectively in the last four games. In 1985, he hit a last-second jumper against Los Angeles that won the fifth game. In 1986, he was part of a team that featured four Hall of Famers — Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Bill Walton.

Johnson had a reputation for delivering in big games.

"I hate to lose," he once said. "I accept it when it comes, but I still hate it. That's the way I am."

He averaged 14.1 points and 5.0 assists for his career. When he retired, he was the 11th player in NBA history to total 15,000 points and 5,000 assists. Johnson made one all-NBA first team and one second team. Six times he made the all-defensive first team, including five consecutive seasons (1979-83).

Johnson was born Sept. 18, 1954, in Compton, Calif. He played in college at Pepperdine and was drafted by Seattle in 1976. Johnson was traded to Phoenix in 1980 and Boston in 1983.

 

[Digger_Bones]

Broncos Running Back Damien Nash Dies

Filed at 6:59 a.m. ET

DENVER (AP) -- Broncos running back Damien Nash collapsed and died after a charity basketball game in suburban St. Louis on Saturday, less than two months after the slaying of teammate Darrent Williams.

''We have been informed of the passing of Damien Nash,'' team spokesman Jim Saccomano said Saturday night. ''We are attempting to get more details. ... We do know it's true.''

Officials at Christian Hospital in St. Louis said the 24-year-old Nash died early Saturday evening. The cause of death wasn't immediately determined.

Nash collapsed shortly after participating in the game benefiting a foundation named for older brother Darris Nash. The foundation raises money for heart transplant research. It was established last month, after Darris Nash, 25, received a heart transplant.

Former Missouri receiver Sean Coffey was at the event with Nash at Riverview Gardens High School and told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch there was no indication anything was wrong.

''Everything was normal. ... We were playing around at the game. ... He was fine,'' Coffey told the newspaper. ''I give my best to his family. This is crazy. I can't believe this is happening. It was the first time I had seen him in a couple of years. I can't believe he's gone. I'm so happy I got to see him one last time.''

Nash was from East St. Louis, Ill., and played two years at Missouri after playing at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

Lee Baker, who was teammates with Nash at Coffeyville, was supposed to have dinner with Nash after the basketball game. One of Baker's friends received a call that Nash had collapsed a short time after leaving the event.

''We still don't know what happened. He looked in great shape. He had four 3-pointers. He had a big smile on his face. There was no indication,'' Baker told The Associated Press. ''He was a great guy. It's hard to believe. I want to think I'm dreaming. I was looking at him today, and thinking how proud I was of him. I was so happy for him.''

One of Baker's final memories of Nash was of him holding his infant daughter after the game.

''I feel fortunate to have met him,'' Baker said. ''At the game, you saw the looks on people's faces and how much they appreciated him.''

A fifth-round draft choice by Tennessee in 2005, Nash played in three games for the Titans. The Broncos signed him as a free agent last season and he played in three games, rushing for 66 yards on 18 carries. In his two-year career, he had 24 carries for 98 yards and seven receptions for 55 yards.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Drummer Ian Wallace Dies in LA at 60

LOS ANGELES (Feb. 27) - Ian Wallace, a journeyman drummer who toured with Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and recorded with Stevie Nicks, Ry Cooder and other music stars, has died. He was 60.

Wallace died last Thursday at UCLA Medical Center of complications from esophageal cancer, his wife Marjorie Pomeroy said Monday.

Born in Bury, England, Wallace began playing in rock bands in the 1960s and earned a reputation for his eclectic range.

Wallace went on to provide beats for prominent musicians in a variety of genres. They included Crosby, Stills & Nash, Stevie Nicks, Roy Orbison, Traveling Wilburys, Brian Eno, and Jackson Browne.

He also played with several jazz bands and founded the Crimson Jazz Trio.

Besides his wife, Wallace is survived by his mother, his father and two daughters.

Private memorial services were scheduled for March 11 in Los Angeles and on the weekend of March 17-18 in London.

 

[Trace_Element]

you peeple wish i was dead.
fuck you

 

[Digger_Bones]

Oliver Tomlinson, Father of LaDainian, Dies In Truck Crash

Oliver Tomlinson, Father of LaDainian, Dies In Truck Crash
Posted Feb 23rd 2007 8:50PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Chargers, AFC West

The unincorporated community of Tomlinson Hill, Texas was named for James K. Tomlinson, a white farmer who settled in the area 150 years ago. After Emancipation, Tomlinson's freed slaves kept the last name and continued to live there. Tomlinson Hill now has a population of about 100, doesn't appear on maps and doesn't have a post office, but one descendant of those freed slaves is the Most Valuable Player of the National Football League.

LaDainian Tomlinson's father, Oliver Tomlinson, was the last Tomlinson to live on the hill. Oliver Tomlinson was killed Friday when the 1969 Chevy pickup truck in which he was riding blew a tire and flipped on a highway on his way to Waco from his home in Tomlinson Hill.

LaDainian didn't grow up in Tomlinson Hill (he lived in Waco with his mother), but he spoke of it fondly. "I know the hill isn't really named for us," he said in a New York Times story last month. "But I take pride in it, and I take pride in my name. When I think of that hill, I think of my family. When people look at it, I want them to think about me and my family."

That Times story showed that the pride Tomlinson had in the hill was exceeded by the pride his father had in his son's accomplishments.

"LaDainian has asked me to move to San Diego," Oliver said, spitting a stream of tobacco juice into a peanut can. "But I can't leave this hill. It's been too good to me. This hill has given me everything I need. The Lord blessed me with that boy and this hill."

Oliver Tomlinson was 71.

 

[Ladybird]

Australian rock legend Billy Thorpe dies

Australian rock legend Billy Thorpe has died after suffering a major heart attack, a spokesman for Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital said this morning.

"Mr Billy Thorpe did pass away at St Vincent's Hospital in the early hours of this morning," St Vincent's spokesman David Faktor told the Nine Network.

"I understand he passed away from a heart attack. His family were with him when he passed away."

Emergency crews attended Thorpe's home in Sydney just after midnight (AEDT) where the 60-year-old was suffering from chest pains.

It's understood Thorpe was taken by ambulance to the hospital about 2am (AEDT).

He stayed in emergency in a serious condition but went into cardiac arrest around 2.30 this morning and hospital staff weren't able to revive him.

Funeral details for the rock icon are expected to be announced within the next 24 hours.

"He woke at 1am feeling terrible. Shortly after that he had a massive heart attack, the paramedics were called to the house, they worked very hard in hospital," Thorpe's manager Michael Chugg told the Nine Network.

"In the next 24 hours, the family will make a statement with details of funeral services and everything."

An obviously distraught Chugg, said he was devastated by Thorpe's death.
He said Thorpe had just finished recording a new album and had just finished an acoustic tour.

"His tour manager Norm Sweeney told me that yesterday that everybody around him was blown away by how happy he was and how great the future was looking and for this to happen is just a terrible tragedy."

Sue Westwood of the Westernport Hotel in San Remo in Victoria said Thorpe played his final gig there on Sunday night.

"He was fantastic - it was really good, he was funny, just lovely, and he really got the crowd going," she said.

"My mum came, she's 65 and she just loved it - it was mainly an older crowd.

"He looked well - we were all saying how great he looked for 60."

Thorpe is survived by his wife Lynne, and daughters Rusty and Lauren.

Thorpe was born in England but migrated with his family to Brisbane in the 1950s.

He moved to Sydney in 1963 and recorded his first song the next year with his band Billy and the Aztecs.

They went on to perform at sell-out venues across Australia and had a string of hits in the 60s and 70s.

His music career has spanned five decades and he has also written two autobiographies.

AAP

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Jay Harnick, 78, Advocate of Theater for Children, Dies

Jay Harnick, the founder of Theaterworks/USA, the nation’s largest touring children’s theater company, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 78.

He died at the Isabella House nursing home after a long illness, said his daughter, Jane Harnick.

Since Mr. Harnick helped start Theaterworks/USA in 1961, the company has toured shows in 49 states and Canada, playing to millions of children every year, and assembled a repertory of 117 musicals and plays.

Mr. Harnick, who was artistic director from the company’s founding until he retired in 2000, attracted top talent, bringing in directors like Jerry Zaks, songwriters like Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and writers like Marta Kauffman and David Crane. The company also helped start the careers of many actors, including F. Murray Abraham and Henry Winkler.

The idea for Theaterworks came about as Mr. Harnick was directing a musical for children called “The Young Abe Lincoln.” The show, which had been well received Off Broadway, quickly transferred to Broadway, where, straining under the costs of a Broadway production, it ran for only 27 performances.

About a year later, Mr. Harnick and a producing partner began taking the show around to schools, and when that succeeded, they decided to form a company to produce historical plays for children.

The plan was to expand children’s theater beyond shows with “dancing vegetables,” Mr. Harnick said in a 1988 interview in The New York Times. “We realize that it’s a very weighty responsibility to influence young minds,” he said. “I believe that no show is more important than the first one you see.”

The company later began presenting shows in theaters rather than in schools and sending multiple shows on tour simultaneously. The repertory also expanded to include original issue-oriented plays and adaptations of children’s classics like “The Velveteen Rabbit.”

Mr. Harnick continued working as a manager and a director for projects outside children’s theater, staging a 1966 production of Mozart’s “Abduction From the Seraglio” for the New York City Opera and a tour of “Fiddler on the Roof,” for which his brother Sheldon had written the lyrics.

Jay Malcolm Harnick was born on June 8, 1928, in Chicago, to a dentist and a homemaker. After graduating from the University of Illinois, he moved to New York and performed in the chorus and in small roles in revues and several Broadway shows.

Besides his daughter, Jane, and his brother, Sheldon, Mr. Harnick’s survivors include his wife, the actress Barbara Barrie; his son, Aaron; a sister, Gloria; and a granddaughter.

 

[phrodeau]

Winemaker Ernest Gallo Dies at 97
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Reported by: Colin Seiler
SAN LUIS OBISPO

An icon in the american wine industry has died.

Renowned billionaire winemaker Ernest Gallo passed away on Tuesday at his home in Modesto.

Gallo was known as a marketing genius who took $5,900 along with a wine recipe from the Modesto Public Library and built the world's largest winemaking empire.

His contributions also reached the Central Coast, investing a million dollars to assist Cal Poly's viticultural program.

"It's allowed us a great opportunity to show students without having to leave campus how a true commercial vineyard is operated. They've been very generous with us in terms of senior projects, graduate theses, projects along that line," said Keith Patterson of the Cal Poly Viticultural Program.

Ernest Gallo was 97 years old.

http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=6192024

 

[phrodeau]

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/08/areyoubeingserved_1_narrowweb__300x225,2.jpg

"Are You Being Served?" actor John Inman dies
Thu Mar 8, 2007 4:04 AM EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Actor John Inman, best known for his role as camp shop assistant Mr Humphries in the long-running BBC comedy "Are You Being Served?" died aged 71 on Thursday.

Inman, who later became a pantomime regular, was one of the sitcom's most memorable cast members and his catchphrase "I'm free" became part of popular culture.

In 1976, he was voted "Funniest Man On Television" by readers of TV Times magazine and was also named BBC TV's "Personality Of The Year."

He died at St Mary's Hospital in London after having been ill for some time, his manager Phil Dale said in a statement.

"John, through his character Mr Humphries of Are You Being Served? was known and loved throughout the world," Dale said.

"He was one of the best and finest pantomime dames working to capacity audiences throughout Britain.

"John was known for his comedy plays and farces which were enjoyed from London's West End throughout the country and as far as Australia, Canada and the USA."

Inman's long-term partner Ron Lynch was "devastated" at the news, the BBC said.

Actress Wendy Richard, who played Miss Brahms in "Are You Being Served?," said she had been regularly visiting Inman who had been seriously ill with Hepatitis A.

"You just have to regard it as being an end to his suffering," a tearful Richard told BBC radio.

"I think John was one of the wittiest and most inventive actors I have ever worked with. He was a brilliant, brilliant pantomime dame. He was a very good all round actor really."

Inman's character Mr Humphries attracted criticism at the height of the department store-based sitcom's success from some gay rights groups who were upset by what they saw as his portrayal of an over-the-top homosexual.

"He never ever said Mr Humphries was gay," Richard said. "He was just a young man who was very, very good to his mother."

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/ne...L085352_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-INMAN-COL.XML

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Boston lead singer Brad Delp dies at 55

ATKINSON, N.H. -- Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead Friday in his home in southern New Hampshire. He was 55. Atkinson police responded to a call for help at 1:20 p.m. and found Delp dead. Police Lt. William Baldwin said in a statement the death was "untimely" and that there was no indication of foul play.

Delp apparently was alone at the time of his death, Baldwin said.

The cause of his death remained under investigation by the Atkinson police and the New Hampshire Medical Examiner's office. Police said an incident report would not be available until Monday.

Delp sang vocals on Boston's 1976 hits "More than a Feeling" and "Longtime." He also sang on Boston's most recent album, "Corporate America," released in 2002.

He joined the band in the early 1970s after meeting Tom Scholz, an MIT student interested in experimental methods of recording music, according to the group's official Web site. The band enjoyed its greatest success and influence during its first decade.

The band's last appearance was in November 2006 at Boston's Symphony Hall.

On Friday night, the group's Web site was taken down and replaced with the statement: "We just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll."



update: Brad Delp's death has officially been declared a suicide. He died in his bathroom inhaling car fumes piped in from his garage.

 

[KindaKinky]

Platypus Man is Extinct!

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070311/capt.la10103111957.obit_jeni_comic_dead_la101.jpg
Comedian Jeni dies in apparent suicide


By ANA BEATRIZ CHOLO, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 7 minutes ago

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the "Tonight Show" and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

Police found the 45-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call Saturday morning from Jeni's girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.

Eisenman said the caller told police: "My boyfriend shot himself in the face."

Jeni died at a nearby hospital.

Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing.

Jeni regularly toured the country with a standup act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently "A Big Steaming Pile of Me" during the 2005-06 season.

Another HBO special, "Platypus Man," won a Cable ACE award for best standup comedy special, and formed the basis for his UPN sitcom of the same name, which ran for one season.

Jeni's movie credits included "The Mask," in which he played Jim Carrey's best friend, "The Aristocrats," "National Lampoon's Dad's Week Off," and "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn."

He had guest appearances in the TV shows "Everybody Hates Chris," "Married: With Children," and updated versions of the game shows "Hollywood Squares" and "Match Game."

The Brooklyn-born comic first received national attention in 1990 with the Showtime special "Richard Jeni: Boy From New York City." Two years later, his "Crazy From the Heat" special attracted the highest ratings in Showtime's history.

Jeni became a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" during Johnny Carson's reign and continued to appear after Jay Leno took over as host.

He also wrote comic material for the 2005 Academy Awards, which was hosted by his friend Chris Rock.