Literotica Cemetary

[Bacigalupo]

Joe Kubert

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40404

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-joe-kubert,83725/

Joe Kubert, an artist, writer, and editor of comic books whose career stretched back almost to the beginning of the medium, has died at the age of 85, Comic Book Resources and other sources are reporting. Born in Poland in 1926, Kubert immigrated to America with his family as a child and entered the industry at a young age—he was between 10 and 12, in various versions of his origin story—most likely inking pencils at MLJ Studios. By 1943 he’d found work at DC Comics, working on stories involving the Seven Soldiers Of Victory team and, eventually, Hawkman, a character he’d return to throughout his career. In the 1950s, Kubert began illustrating the not-always-glorious WWII adventures of Sgt. Rock, another character with whom his name became synonymous and created Tor, a prehistoric hero whose adventures he’d also continue to draw until his death. From 1967 until 1976, he served as DC’s director of publication.

 

[theault_b]

*FLASH*

The 2012 London Summer Olympics died today from natural causes.

*EndFLASH*

 

[JennyOHill2]

Former Cosmopolitan editor and author Helen Gurley Brown dies

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Helen Gurley Brown, one of the world's most influential magazine editors, died Monday morning at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, The Hearst Corporation confirmed. She was 90.

Gurley Brown wrote the 1962 bestseller, "Sex and the Single Girl," and then went on to edit Cosmopolitan magazine for more than three decades.

"Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry," said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation, in a statement Monday afternoon. "She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential 'Cosmo girl.' She will be greatly missed."

The quintessential "Cosmo girl" was born in Green Forest, Ark., on Feb. 18, 1922, to Ira and Cleo Gurley, both school teachers. The family moved to Little Rock when Ira was elected to the state legislature. He died in an elevator accident when Helen was 10 years old. After trying to support Helen and her older sister Mary in Depression-era Arkansas, Cleo Gurley moved them to Los Angeles in the late 1930s. There, Gurley Brown excelled socially and academically, graduating from high school as class valedictorian.

Gurley Brown went on to earn a business degree at Woodbury Business College, and began her career in 1941 with a series of secretarial jobs. She'd later use that background to urge her readers to be wise financially, saying, "Being smart about money is sexy." She was said to bring her lunch to work almost every day for the more than 30 years she spent at Hearst.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Ginny Tyler dies at 86; voice actress was Disney legend

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When episodes of "The Mickey Mouse Club" were repackaged for syndication, a new head Mouseketeer held court from the Main Street Opera House at Disneyland in 1963.

For a year, Ginny Tyler hosted new segments of the television show that were woven around the old. As she took viewers behind the scenes of the theme park, more than one noted her resemblance to original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello.

As one of the "Disneyland Storytellers," Tyler had already narrated such records as "Bambi"and "Babes in Toyland" and would become known for voicing animal characters. In one better-known role, she gave voice to Polynesia the Parrot, who helps teach Rex Harrison to talk to the animals in the 1967 film "Dr. Dolittle."

Tyler died July 13 of natural causes at a nursing home in Issaquah, Wash., said her son, Ty Fenton. She was 86.

From an early age, Tyler "could change my voice at a click of a finger," she told the Issaquah Press in 2010.

In official Disney accounts, her penchant for storytelling and ability to mimic animal sounds was traced to her Native American roots. An ancestor, who was a chief of the Snoqualmie Tribe, traded his two young daughters to a white woman for a piece of property after his wife left him, according to her son. One of the girls was her great-grandmother.

Tyler's talent for animal sounds was probably handed down by her mother, Harriett, a performer who studied bird calls at a school in Los Angeles and incorporated them into her organ-playing and singing, Fenton said.

Born Merrie Virginia Erlandson on Aug. 8, 1925, in Berkeley, she grew up in Seattle. After her parents divorced, she was adopted by her stepfather, Theodore Eggers. She had long used "Ginny" as her first name when she added the stage name of "Tyler" in the 1950s.

A graduate of the University of Washington drama school, Tyler started out on radio before hosting a children's television show in Seattle. By the late 1950s, she had moved to Los Angeles and was soon narrating albums for Disney.

In Disney films, she played the two amorous female squirrels in"The Sword in the Stone"(1963) and sang the parts of several barnyard animals in the "Jolly Holiday" sequence of "Mary Poppins" (1964).

Among many other roles, she voiced "Casper the Friendly Ghost" in 1963; Jan, the damsel in distress in "Space Ghost" cartoons in 1966, and many female characters in early episodes of the 1960s television series "Davey and Goliath."

She also established a studio, Whimsey Works, in the 1970s in Burbank to share her craft.

Her first marriage ended in divorce. She married Albert Jacobsen in 1980 and moved back to Seattle with him in 1994. He died the next year.

In addition to her son, she is survived by two brothers, Don and Terry Eggers; two grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

At Disneyland, she hosted daily 15-minute segments for "The Mickey Mouse Club" that required a demanding production schedule. She often told stories on the air, signed autographs at the park — and considered the job the highlight of her career.

Her voice had long been featured in the chorus of birds outside the park's Tiki Room.

One day she was raving to Walt Disney about how wonderful Disneyland was when he replied: "'That goes for my Disneyland storyteller too.' That was me. I've never felt prouder," Tyler said in the 2006 book "Mouse Tracks," the story of Walt Disney records.

In 2006, she was inducted into the Disney Legends, a hall-of-fame program that honors those who have had a lasting impact on the Walt Disney Co.Upon accepting her award, the ever-upbeat Tyler gave thanks in the voice of Minnie Mouse, Pinocchio, a squirrel from "The Sword in the Stone" and an old witch.

 

[clutch1]

The cemetery never sleeps. Does it?

 

[JennyOHill2]

Red Sox's Johnny Pesky dies at 92

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BOSTON -- Adored by generations of Red Sox fans, Johnny Pesky was so much a part of Boston baseball that the right-field foul pole at Fenway Park was named for him.

Pesky, who played, managed and served as a broadcaster for the Red Sox in a baseball career that lasted more than 60 years, died Monday. He was 92.

"The national pastime has lost one of its greatest ambassadors," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "Johnny Pesky, who led a great American life, was an embodiment of loyalty and goodwill for the Boston Red Sox and all of Major League Baseball."

Pesky died just over a week after his final visit to Fenway, on Aug. 5 when Boston beat the Minnesota Twins 6-4.

Yet for many in the legion of Red Sox fans, their last image of Pesky will be from the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park on April 20, when the man known for his warmth, kindness and outstanding baseball career was moved to tears at a pregame ceremony. By then he was in a wheelchair positioned at second base, surrounded by dozens of admiring former players and a cheering crowd.

It was at another ceremony less than six years earlier that Pesky's name was officially inscribed in the rich history of the Red Sox and their home, a fitting tribute to a career .307 hitter and longtime teammate and friend of Ted Williams.

On his 87th birthday, Sept. 27, 2006, a plaque was unveiled at the base of the foul pole just 302 feet from home plate, designating it "Pesky's Pole."

The term was coined by former Red Sox pitcher Mel Parnell, who during a broadcast in the 1950s recalled Pesky winning a game for him with a home run around the pole. From there, a legend seemed to grow that Pesky frequently curled shots that way -- actually, only six of his 17 career home runs came at Fenway.

Even though Pesky was a fan favorite, he still had his own place of notoriety in Boston's drought of 86 years without a championship. He was long blamed for holding the ball on a key relay in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series, though it's a place that many now think is undeserved.

"Johnny Pesky will forever be linked to the Boston Red Sox," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said. "He has been as much a part of Fenway Park as his retired Number 6 that rests on the right-field facade, or the foul pole below it that bears his name."

Pesky died at the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers, according to Solimine, Landergan and Richardson funeral home in Lynn. The funeral home did not announce a cause of death.

"I've had an interesting life," Pesky told The Associated Press in 2005. "I have no complaints."

In New York, a moment of silence was held at Yankee Stadium before Monday night's game against the Texas Rangers. The crowd gave a nice round of applause.

Pesky was a special assignment instructor in 2004 when the Red Sox won their first championship in 86 years. Tears of joy glistened in his eyes when the World Series was over.

"One of my career memories was hugging and kissing Johnny pesky after we won it all in 04, God Rest and God Bless his gentle soul, I miss you," Curt Schilling, who starred on that team, tweeted.

Current Red Sox players also took to Twitter.

David Ortiz: "A very dark day today for red sox nation."

Jon Lester: "Just heard we lost one of the good ones today. A great player and an even better man, rest in peace Johnny, thank you for the memories."

Pesky played 10 years in the majors, the first seven-plus with Boston.

Born John Michael Paveskovich in Portland, Ore., Pesky first signed with the Red Sox organization in 1939 at the urging of his mother. A Red Sox scout had wooed her with flowers and his father with fine bourbon. His parents, immigrants from what is now Croatia, didn't understand baseball, but they did understand that the Red Sox were the best fit for their son even though other teams offered more money.

He played two years in the Red Sox minor league system before making his major league debut in 1942.

That season he set the team record for hits by a rookie with 205, a mark that stood until 1997 when fellow Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, with whom he became very close, had 209. He also hit .331 his rookie year, second in the American League only to Williams, who hit .356.

Pesky spent the next three years in the Navy during World War II, although he did not see combat. He was back with the Red Sox through 1952, playing with the likes of Williams, who died in 2002, Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio, before being traded to the Detroit Tigers. (In 2003, author David Halberstam told the story of Pesky, Williams, Doerr and DiMaggio in his book "The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship.")

Pesky was often said to have held the ball for a split second as Enos Slaughter made his famous "Mad Dash" from first base to score the winning run for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Red Sox in the deciding game of the 1946 World Series.

With the score tied at 3, Slaughter opened the bottom of the eighth inning with a single. With two outs, Harry Walker hit the ball to center field. Pesky, playing shortstop, took the cutoff throw from outfielder Leon Culberson, and according to some newspaper accounts, hesitated before throwing home. Slaughter, who ran through the stop sign at third base, was safe at the plate, and the best-of-seven series went to the Cardinals.

Pesky always denied any indecision, and analysis of the film appeared to back him up, but the myth persisted.

"In my heart, I know I didn't hold the ball," Pesky once said.

Pesky spent two years with the Tigers and Senators before starting a coaching career that included a two-year stint as Red Sox manager in 1963 and 1964. He came back to the Red Sox in 1969 and stayed there, even filling in as interim manager in 1980 after the club fired Don Zimmer.

Pesky is survived by a son, David. His wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1944, died in 2005.

 

[JennyOHill2]

'Welcome Back, Kotter' Star Dies from Heart Attack

Ron Palillo -- the actor who played Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter" -- died this morning at his home near Palm Beach, FL from an apparent heart attack ... this according to someone close to the actor.

We're told Palillo was found by his partner of many years Joseph Gramm around 4:00 AM. Gramm called an ambulance and Palillo was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

We're told the heart attack was very unexpected. Palillo was 63.

According to one of Palillo's colleagues at G-Star School of the Arts, Palillo had appeared to be in good health ... but was a heavy smoker. We're told he had been suffering from a bad cough and had even scheduled a doctor's appointment for today.

Palillo was known for calling out, "Ooh ooh ooh, Mr. Kotter" as one of the Sweathogs on the show ... which he appeared on with John Travolta from 1975 to 1979.

After Kotter, Palillo appeared in "Laverne & Shirley" and voiced a character on the Disney cartoon, "Darkwing Duck."

Palillo's "Kotter" co-star Robert Hegyes -- who played Epstein -- also passed away earlier this year after suffering a heart attack.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Film critic Judith Crist dies at 90

Judith Crist, a blunt and popular film critic for the Today show, TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune whose reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger labeled her “Judas Crist,” has died. She was 90.

Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died at her Manhattan home after a long illness.

Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books.

She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S. newspaper and was among the first reviewers of her time to gain a national following. Roger Ebert credited her with helping to make all film critics better known, including such contemporaries as The New Yorker‘s Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice.

With the growing recognition of such foreign directors as Francois Truffaut and Federico Fellini, and the rise of such American filmmakers as Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese, the 1960s and 1970s were an inspiring time for reviewers. Crist duly celebrated many movies, but her trademark quickly became the putdown.

Crist was occasionally banned from advance screenings, while studios and theaters would threaten to pull advertising. When her Cleopatra review brought her a prize from the New York Newspaper Women’s Club, officials at 20th Century Fox, which released the movie, withdrew from the ceremony.

Preminger, whose Hurry Sundown she called the “worst film” she had seen in memory, referred to her as “Judas Crist.” After she condemned Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing classic Some Like It Hot for its “perverse” gags and “homosexual `in’ joke(s),” Wilder allegedly remarked that asking her to review your movie was like “asking the Boston strangler to massage your neck.”

But Crist had many friends in the business, from Bette Davis to Cleopatra director Joseph Mankiewicz. She ran a film festival for decades out of suburban Tarrytown, N.Y., with guests including Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Steven Spielberg. Woody Allen liked her well enough to give her a cameo in his 1980 drama Stardust Memories, widely believed to have been based in part on Crist’s Tarrytown gatherings.

She was born in New York in 1922 and would say that Charlie Chaplin’s silent masterpiece The Gold Rush was her first and most vivid film memory. By age 10, she had decided she wanted to be a reviewer; movies became her passion and her vice. She would cut classes for a chance to visit a theater or two, including a cherished day in which she took in showings of Gone With the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, and Grand Illusion.

Her edge was likely formed by her Dickensian childhood. The daughter of a successful fur trader, she lived in Canada until age 9, attending private school, enjoying the luxuries of multiple homes, live-in servants and the family’s bulletproof Cadillac. But in the 1930s, her father’s business was ruined by the Great Depression.

“And then suddenly, our most gracious home was gone. The servants left,” she wrote years later in Time magazine. “After we lost the last of our homes, we moved to New York to get some kind of assistance from my mother’s family. Well, from both of my parents’ families. We lived in a small, one-bedroom apartment while my father went out on the road, recouping things.”

She still managed to attend Hunter College and receive a master’s degree from Columbia University’s journalism school. In 1945, soon after graduation, she was hired as a feature writer by the Herald Tribune, where she remained until the paper closed, in 1966, and where colleagues included Jimmy Breslin and Tom Wolfe. In 1950, her education reporting brought her a George Polk Award, and she was honored five times by the New York Newspaper Woman’s Club.

Crist reviewed film and theater for the Today show from 1964-73, and as a print critic worked for New York magazine, TV Guide and the New York Post. She was a longtime adjunct professor at Columbia and her essays, interviews and reviews have been compiled into three books: The Private Eye, The Cowboy and the Very Naked Girl, Judith Crist’s TV Guide to the Movies and Take 22: Moviemakers on Moviemaking.

Crist’s husband, public relations consultant William B. Crist, died in 1993. Their son, Steven Crist, covered horse racing for The New York Times and later became publisher of the Daily Racing Form.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Scott McKenzie dies; his 'San Francisco' caught flower-power wave

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Scott McKenzie, whose 1967 hit single "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" captured the spirit of the '60s flower-power movement and became a generational touchstone, has died. He was 73.

McKenzie died Saturday at his home in Silver Lake, said Matt Pook, a longtime friend and neighbor.. A statement on his website said he had been ill with Guillain Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system.

"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair," McKenzie gently sang in his biggest hit, written by his longtime friend, John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas.

Phillips was inspired to write the song by the large influx of young people to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and by the "gentleness and the love that he felt in the hippie movement," said Lou Adler, whose Ode Records released "San Francisco."

"That's where the line 'gentle people' comes from," Adler, who co-produced "San Francisco" with Phillips, told The Times on Sunday. "John Phillips was a poet, and he was able to depict in a lyric a visual of the times. He found the voice in Scott McKenzie that was perfect for it, so smooth and beautiful.

"Scott sang like an angel. He had one of the most beautiful voices that ever had a rock 'n' roll hit."

"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," which was released in May 1967, rose to No. 4 on the Billboard chart and became a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom and most of Europe.

The song was released a month before the landmark Monterey International Pop Festival, which Phillips and Adler produced.

McKenzie sang "San Francisco" during the Mamas & the Papas' set, and the song was used over the opening visuals of the ensuing "Monterey Pop" documentary.

But having "San Francisco" described as a "flower-power anthem" or a "generational touchstone" made McKenzie uncomfortable, said Adler.

"Scott was a singer; he loved to sing, and the hits were ancillary to that," Adler said. "He was comfortable with the success of the record, but not what it made him, sort of iconic to that movement."

Adler recalled going on a world tour with McKenzie and the Mamas & the Papas when "San Francisco" was "number one in the world, and Scott was dressed in robes and the look of the love generation."

Large crowds greeted their plane at each stop. But when everyone else got off the plane when it landed in Amsterdam, McKenzie stayed behind.

"It took him awhile, and when he got off he was dressed as a cowboy," said Adler. "He was never willing to accept the role as the leader of that [flower-power] movement. He was a very gentle soul."

McKenzie had a minor hit with "Like an Old Time Movie." But, according to the Scott McKenzie website, he "dropped out" in the late 1960s and moved to Joshua Tree in 1970 and later moved to Virginia Beach, Va.

Born Philip Blondheim on Jan. 10, 1939 in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., McKenzie developed an interest in singing and playing guitar as a teenager in the mid-1950s. He was singing in a vocal group when he met Phillips in Alexandria, Va.

They formed a quartet called the Abstracts, which became the Smoothies in 1959. After recording a few pop singles, McKenzie and Phillips formed a folk trio with Dick Weissman called the Journeymen, which recorded for Capitol Records in the early '60s. McKenzie reportedly turned down an opportunity to join the Mamas and the Papas in the 1960s, preferring to attempt a solo career.

But in the late '80s, when original Mamas and the Papas member Denny Doherty left the new version of the group he and Phillips had formed, McKenzie replaced Doherty.

"I actually picked him up four years ago to play guitar in our backup band," Phillips told The Times in 1990. "He was doing yardwork in Virginia Beach, riding his bicycle, as healthy as a hummingbird, and then I came along and ruined his life once again.

"When Denny quit, it was only natural to move [McKenzie] up to the front line. I remember the night we told him, he almost collapsed on the spot. Denny had to go up and say, 'You can do it' — he never had any confidence in himself."

McKenzie co-wrote the Beach Boys'1988 No. 1 hit "Kokomo" with Phillips, Mike Love and Terry Melcher. The song was used in the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail."

When Phillips left the Mamas & the Papas for health reasons in the early 1990s, Doherty returned to the group and McKenzie took over for Phillips. Phillips died in 2001.

McKenzie, according to the McKenzie website, toured with the Mamas & the Papas through much of the '90s and thereafter performed occasionally.

McKenzie had no immediate surviving family members.

 

[JennyOHill2]

‘Top Gun’ director Tony Scott dies

From AP and another thread:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=824086

 

[JennyOHill2]

Comedy queen Phyllis Diller dies at 95

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Before Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres, Phyllis Diller crashed the mostly male comedy circuit party to become an icon in the stand-up field.

The raucous comedian, known for her wild wigs and cackling laugh, died at her home in L.A. at the age of 95. "She died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face," longtime manager Milt Suchin told the Associated Press.

Born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio, Diller studied at Chicago's Sherwood Music Conservatory for three years before eloping with Sherwood Anderson Diller in 1939.
She didn't begin her career in stand-up comedy until she was 37, but the homemaker and mother soon made her mark, beginning in 1955 at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub, becoming a mainstay for decades on TV and in nightclubs. By 1961, she had appeared more than 30 times on The Jack Paar Show, the late-night precursor of today's Tonight Show.

Diller's comedy career was timed almost as perfectly as one of her jokes. In the heyday of comedy and variety shows, Diller was a guest with all the big names, from Jack Benny and Dean Martin to Red Skelton and Ed Sullivan. But her 1966 ABC situation comedy, The Pruitts of Southhampton, later renamed The Phyllis Diller Show, lasted only one season.

In addition to blazing a trail as a woman in the male-dominated field of comedy, Diller spouted seemingly autobiographical one-liners and anecdotes that paved the way for Rivers' and Barr's riffs on similar themes; Diller told of domestic and marital strife with her long-suffering husband, "Fang," and, of course, self-deprecating jokes about her often-outlandish appearance, which was part of her act.

She also joked about a mother-in-law called "Moby Dick" and a sister-in-law called "Captain Bligh." All were fictional, she said, drawing a contrast between her stage persona and her real personality: She pointed out that though she carried a cigarette holder in her act, she didn't smoke.

In real life, Diller didn't shy from plastic surgery. In a 1992 profile, the Orlando Sentinel described her "plastic surgery résumé, which is printed on rainbow-colored paper and, after 22 years of work and 17 procedures done by nine surgeons, is threatening to spill onto a second page. There was 1985, a particularly busy year: She had a brow lift, nose job (the second), under-eye lift, cheek implants, eye-liner tattoo and she had her teeth bonded."

Her devotion to makeovers even resulted in a special award from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.

But despite the surgeries, Diller insisted, "I like myself. I knew I was kidding."
Diller branched out with varying degrees of success to the stage and big screen. She appeared in three movies with her comedy idol, Bob Hope, who also included her on his trips overseas during the Vietnam War to perform for the troops. She appeared in 23 of his TV specials. Throughout her career, she also took on guest-starring roles on TV shows, including The Love Boat; CHiPs; Blossom; 227; Love, American Style; and, more recently, Boston Legal.

From 1971 to 1981, Diller performed as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras, as the comic character Dame Illya Dillya. But her musical prowess was no joke. The San Francisco Examiner said, "As demonstrated in Beethoven's piano concerto and several selections by Bach, Miss Diller is also a fine concert pianist with a firm touch."

Diller retired from nightclubs and touring in 2002 at age 84 because of ill health. Her final stand-up performance at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was chronicled in a 2004 documentary, Goodnight, We Love You.

In recent years, she lent her voice to animated characters in films and TV shows, such as A Bug's Life, King of the Hill, Animaniacs, Scooby-Doo, The Wild Thornberries and Family Guy. In 2005, she published a memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse.
And in July 2007, she fractured her back, an injury that caused her to cancel an appearance on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno to celebrate her 90th birthday. But she did appear as part of a "Queens of Comedy" panel with Anderson Cooper on CNN in early 2011. "You're so white," she told Cooper. "You look like somebody put too much bleach on you."

 

[JennyOHill2]

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRk-iVjJdR0u1Vqiwy6P1_1ypLEdAEMEjJW0CwhDUV-ladvKUAE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/25/neil-armstrong-dead-age-82_n_1830343.html

 

[JennyOHill2]

Muppet puppeteer Jerry Nelson dies at 78

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Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer behind a delightful menagerie of characters including Count von Count on “Sesame Street” and Gobo Fraggle on “Fraggle Rock,” died Aug. 23 at his home on Cape Cod, Mass. He was 78.

The Sesame Workshop confirmed the death and said Mr. Nelson had emphysema.

In a tribute posted online by the nonprofit Sesame Workshop, Mr. Nelson was lauded for his artistry and the “laughter he brought to children worldwide” with the Count and other Muppet puppets including Sherlock Hemlock, Herry Monster and the Amazing Mumford.

Mr. Nelson was part of other projects featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets, including the 1984 movie “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and TV series including the 1980s “Fraggle Rock” and 1990s “Muppets Tonight.”

In recent years, Mr. Nelson gave up the physically demanding job of operating the Count and other puppets on “Sesame Street” but still voiced the characters, the workshop said. The show’s new season launches in September, and Mr. Nelson’s voice will be heard.

In 2010, he released the album “Truro Daydreams,” with the title referring to the Massachusetts town.

Jerry Nelson was born July 10, 1934, in Tulsa and raised in Washington, D.C. He worked as a puppeteer with Bil Baird before starting his association with Henson in the mid-1960s on “The Jimmy Dean Show,” a variety program that featured the Muppets.

Survivors include his wife, Jan.

 

[JennyOHill2]

William Windom, TV Everyman, Dies at 88

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William Windom, who won an Emmy Award playing an Everyman drawn from the pages of James Thurber but who may be best remembered for his roles on “Star Trek” and “Murder, She Wrote,” died last Thursday at his home in Woodacre, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 88.

Mr. Windom won the Emmy for best actor in a comedy series in 1970 for his performance in “My World and Welcome to It,” a whimsical TV show based on Thurber’s humorous essays and fantastic cartoons. He subsequently toured the country with a solo show based on Thurber’s works.

But filmgoers and television viewers may be more likely to associate him with roles that, though also fanciful, had a distinctly darker tone. He teamed up with Rod Serling on episodes of both “The Twilight Zone” (“Five Characters in Search of an Exit” in 1961 and “Miniature” in 1963) and “Night Gallery”; played the president in “Escape From the Planet of the Apes”; and had a memorable role in an early episode of “Star Trek.” He was also a guest star on “The Rookies,” “The Streets of San Francisco” and dozens of other television shows.

Not until 1985 did Mr. Windom find another role that drew on his avuncular side with such success: he appeared in more than 50 episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” as the leading physician of Cabot Cove, Me., and a close friend of Jessica Fletcher, the lead character played by Angela Lansbury.

William Windom was born on Sept. 28, 1923, in Manhattan to Paul Windom, an architect, and the former Isobel Wells Peckham. He was named after an ancestor, William Windom, a Minnesota congressman who also served as secretary of the Treasury under Presidents James A. Garfield and Benjamin Harrison.

Mr. Windom attended Williams College in Massachusetts. Before becoming an Army paratrooper in World War II, he joined the Army Specialized Training Program, under whose auspices he studied at the Citadel, in South Carolina; Antioch College, in Ohio; and the University of Kentucky.

While stationed in Frankfurt, during the postwar Allied occupation, he enrolled in the new Biarritz American University in France and became involved in drama there. “To be honest, I signed up because I thought it would be an easy touch,” he told The New York Times in an interview for this obituary in 2009, “and we had heard that actresses had round heels.”

It was in Biarritz that he did his first bit of acting, playing the title role in “Richard III,” and when he returned to the United States he continued to perform at Fordham University — his sixth institution of higher education. “I figure it all adds up to about two years’ worth of education,” he said.

Mr. Windom found work in the New York theater as well as in radio and on television, making numerous appearances on live dramas in the early 1950s. He ultimately appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays, including a four-show season with the American Repertory Theater and a 1956 revival of Noël Coward’s “Fallen Angels.” He also performed for several seasons in summer stock in places like Bucks County, Pa., and the Southbury Playhouse in Connecticut, and he later toured the United States and other countries with one-man shows about Thurber and the World War II journalist Ernie Pyle.

Mr. Windom made his first film appearance as the prosecuting attorney in the 1962 drama “To Kill a Mockingbird,” sparring with Gregory Peck’s defense lawyer. His subsequent movies included “The Americanization of Emily” in 1964, directed by Arthur Hiller; Robert Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” in 1970; and the John Hughes comedy “She’s Having a Baby” in 1988.

Another notable television role was as the male lead in “The Farmer’s Daughter,” a situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1966. His character, a Minnesota congressman (like Mr. Windom’s forebear), is a widower who hires a Swedish-American governess (Inger Stevens) to care for his sons.

Mr. Windom, who was also a tournament chess player, was married five times. Besides his wife of 37 years, Patricia, he is survived by four children, Rachel, Heather, Hope and Rebel; and four grandchildren.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Former Rangers star Raleigh dies at 86

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Don Raleigh, who made history as the youngest person to play for the New York Rangers and went on to become a true fan favorite, passed away at age 86 in Kingston, Ontario.

Raleigh, a former team captain known to Blueshirts fans as “Bones”, was a career Ranger during nine full seasons in the NHL from 1947 to 1956, but it was his debut that caught everyone’s attention when he was called up to the team as a teen-ager to join a roster stripped of players called to military service during World War II.

Raleigh’s first NHL appearance came on Oct. 30, 1943, in the season-opener at Toronto. At the time, he was only four months past his 17th birthday, making him the youngest player to wear the Blueshirt. With the current system of holding the amateur draft for 18-year-olds, Raleigh’s place in history seems assured.

Don "Bones" Raleigh was one of the Rangers' most popular players in the early 1950s and scored two overtime goals in the 1950 Stanley Cup Finals.
Raleigh went on to play 15 games that season, scoring two goals and adding two assists, but spent most of the year with the Eastern Hockey League’s Brooklyn Crescents. When he turned 18 in June 1944, Raleigh returned to his hometown of Winnipeg and entered the Canadian Army. After the war, he attended Brandon College and the University of Manitoba before rejoining the Rangers on a full-time basis in the 1947-48 season.

During his first fall back in New York, Raleigh set the Rangers record for the fastest three assists – setting up three goals in a span of 81 seconds in a Nov. 16, 1947, home game against the Canadiens. Later that season, he became only the third player in Rangers history to score four goals in a game, when he scored all four goals in a 7-4 loss to Montreal at The Garden.

Raleigh’s assist record still stands nearly 65 years after it was set, making it one of the oldest in team history.

Extremely popular with the fans, Raleigh, a center, scored 101 goals and 320 points during his Rangers career. One of Raleigh’s greatest highlights was his role in the Rangers’ improbable run to the 1950 Stanley Cup Finals, where they fell to Detroit in a hard-fought, seven-game series. Raleigh notched four goals and five assists in the 1950 postseason to finish second in scoring behind linemate Pentti Lund. His performance earned him Rangers Playoff MVP honors.

During those Stanley Cup Finals, Raleigh became the first NHL player to score overtime goals in consecutive Stanley Cup Finals games, registering winners in Game 4 on April 18 at Detroit and Game 5 on April 20 at Detroit. Because the circus was at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers did not get to play a home game in the Finals, which might have been the difference between winning and losing the series.

Raleigh was on the bench when the Red Wings stunned the Rangers with an OT goal to win Game 7 at Detroit’s old Olympia on April 23, 1950. It was as close as he ever came to the Stanley Cup.

Raleigh’s best overall season came in 1951-52, when he led the team with a career-high 19 goals and 61 points. This came on the heels of a breakout 1950-51 season that saw him tie for the team scoring lead, collect his lone Rangers MVP award, and notch a spot in the 1951 NHL All-Star Game – his first of two All-Star appearances.

His fame boomed during the early 1950s, and in 1952 he became the first winner of the Boucher Trophy, given by the Rangers Fan Club to the team’s Most Popular Player. The nickname “Bones” was given to Raleigh by New York sportswriter Barney Kremenko, who was also responsible for nicknaming baseball legend Willie Mays “The Say Hey Kid”.

On Nov. 4, 1953, Raleigh was named the Rangers’ eighth captain, taking over from Hall of Fame defenseman Allan Stanley. He kept the “C” for the remainder of that season and the 1954-55 season, before passing the role on to another Hall of Fame defenseman in Harry Howell.

Raleigh played one more season beyond his captaincy, appearing in his final NHL game on Dec. 15, 1955. He finished out his playing days in the Western Hockey League, retiring from the Saskatoon Quakers at age 31 in 1958. After retirement, Raleigh entered the insurance business in Winnipeg.

Although he wore No. 9 for his historic NHL debut, Raleigh spent the rest of his career wearing No. 7 for the Blueshirts and was the second-to-last player to wear No. 7 before it went to Rod Gilbert and later was retired in Gilbert’s honor. As a former No. 7, Raleigh returned to The Garden and took part in the Oct. 14, 1979, jersey retirement ceremony – the first in Rangers history.

Born in Kenora, Ontario, but raised in Winnipeg, James Donald Raleigh was a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 1998), the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Brandon University Hockey Hall of Fame.

In the years prior to his death, Raleigh, whose wife had passed away in 2006, relocated from Winnipeg to be closer to his son, Jack, in Kingston.

 

[JustSkye]

http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/03/michael-clarke-duncan-dead/

http://www.topicboss.com/pimages/3681haelClarkeDuncan.jpg

Michael Clarke Duncan, star of such movies as "The Green Mile" and "The Whole Nine Yards," passed away this morning. He was 54.

According to our sources, his passing came very suddenly. We're told his fiancee, Omarosa Manigault, was with him in his hospital room in Los Angeles and left for a short period of time. When she returned ... he had died.

Our sources say Omarosa's mother was with him when he passed.

Duncan's rep tells TMZ the actor never fully recovered from the myocardial infarction he suffered on July 13. As TMZ first reported, Omarosa found Duncan in cardiac arrest and performed CPR and was able to resuscitate him before calling 911.

The rep tells us, "[Omarosa] Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date."

Duncan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of John Coffey in "The Green Mile." He worked as a bodyguard for celebrities like Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, and Notorious B.I.G. before he got his break.

 

[Lorilei]

Joe South



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/joe-south-dead-singer-songwriter-dies_n_1861091.html

 

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[phrodeau]

Morgan Freeman is still alive.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Singer Andy Williams dies at age 84

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Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:13am EDT
(Reuters) - Andy Williams, who charmed audiences with his mellow delivery of songs like "Moon River" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" in the 1950s and 60s, has died at his home in Branson, Missouri, his family said Wednesday. He was 84.

The blue-eyed Williams, who continued touring and drawing crowds to his Moon River Theater in the music hub of Branson into his 80s, died on Tuesday evening after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his family said in a statement.

Williams had 18 gold record and three platinum hits and in his peak years was a regular on television with his own variety series.

Williams was born on December 3, 1927, in tiny Wall Lake, Iowa, and was singing professionally with three older brothers at age 8. The Williams Brothers had steady work on radio and even sang back-up on Bing Crosby's 1944 hit "Swinging on a Star."

Williams went solo after the group broke up in 1951, drew attention with his appearances on "The Tonight Show" and began recording. His first No. 1 hit, "Butterfly," came in 1957.

Later hits included "Born Free," "Days of Wine and Roses," "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Can't Get Used to Losing You," "Solitaire," "Music to Watch Girls By," "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and the theme from the 1970 movie hit "Love Story."

He came upon his signature song when asked to sing “"Moon River" at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony. Audrey Hepburn had performed the song in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Williams' first wife was Claudine Longet, a Folies Bergere dancer he married in 1961, and they had three children before divorcing. After their split, Williams supported Longet when she was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, skier Spider Sabich, in 1976 in Colorado. She was convicted of negligent homicide after claiming the gun went off accidentally.

In 1992, Williams built his own 2,000-seat dinner theater in Branson, a city of 10,000 people that had become a regional entertainment center featuring more than 30 theaters, most of which cater to country music acts. He performed there about 20 weeks a year while also putting on a Christmas tour in the United States and occasional tour of Britain.

Williams was a Christmas fixture on U.S. television, dressed casually in a trademark sweater, and he recorded several Christmas albums. In 2006 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ranked his "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow" as the sixth most frequently performed Christmas song and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" as No. 11.

Williams had a strong following in Britain, where his career was revived in the late 1990s when “"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and "Music to Watch Girls By" were used in television commercials.

In 1991, Williams married Debbie Haas and they lived in Branson and La Quinta, California.

Williams was a close friend of the powerful Kennedy political family and sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral after the U.S. senator from New York was assassinated during the 1968 presidential campaign.

Williams' love of golf was so intense that for several years he hosted a professional tournament that bore his name.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Johnny Lewis dead at 28

‘Sons of Anarchy’ actor found in driveway of L.A. home, named suspect in murder of elderly woman

An actor in the series “Sons of Anarchy” went on a bizarre rampage Wednesday that ended with the death of his elderly landlady and his own fatal fall from a roof in a Los Angeles neighborhood, sources said.

Investigators are looking at drugs as a possible motive, a source told the Daily News.

Officers responding to calls of a "screaming woman" in an upscale section of Los Feliz discovered Johnny Lewis, 28, sprawled in a driveway after apparently falling or jumping to his death from the structure Wednesday morning, police said.

Lewis previously dated singer Katy Perry. He got out of jail Sept. 21 after spending about six weeks behind bars for assault with a deadly weapon, a law enforcement source told The News.

He also pleaded no contest to first degree burglary earlier this year and received 291 days in jail plus three years probation for that felony, the source said.

"Johnny was the bright star of our lives. We always looked up to him, and now I guess we'll have to look up a little higher," dad Michael Lewis, 62, told the Daily News as his voice cracked with emotion.

He declined to discuss the circumstances of his son's death. "That's all I can tell you," he said.

Inside the Los Feliz house Wednesday, police found the body of an 81-year-old Katherine Chabot Davis, who appears to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head.

"It's believed that he murdered her inside her Los Feliz home around 10:40 a.m.," Los Angeles Police Officer Richard French told The News.

He said Lewis had been renting a room from the woman.

"There was obviously something wrong with him. What that was exactly is not known to us at this time," French said.

A coroner source said early Thursday that officials had not yet done a drug screen on Lewis' body and full toxicology results could take weeks.

A neighbor and a handyman who responded to the screams Wednesday morning before police arrived were beaten in a confrontation, police said.

Lewis apparently fought with them using a 2-by-4 and showed “superhuman strength,” TMZ.com reported.

Over a 12-year acting career, Lewis also starred in 2007's "Aliens vs. Predator — Requiem" and had recurring roles on the television series "The O.C." and "American Dream."

The Los Angeles native is best known for playing the motorcycle gang member "Half Sack" on "Sons of Anarchy."

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

i'll be part of lit's cementary one of these days lol

 

[ryan8558]

Actor Herbert Lom dead at 95

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LONDON (AP) — Herbert Lom, the durable Czech-born actor best known as Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering boss in the comic "Pink Panther" movies, died Thursday, his son said. He was 95.

Alec Lom said his father died peacefully in his sleep at home in London.

Herbert Lom's handsomely lugubrious look and rich, resonant voice were suited to comedy, horror and everything in between. It served him well over a six-decade career in which roles ranged from Napoleon Bonaparte — whom he played twice — to the Phantom of the Opera.

The London-based star appeared in more than 100 films, including "Spartacus" and "El Cid," acted alongside film greats including Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas, and worked for directors from Stanley Kubrick to David Cronenberg.

But Lom was most famous for playing Charles Dreyfus, the increasingly unhinged boss to Peter Sellers' befuddled detective Clouseau in the popular "Pink Panther" series. The two actors starred together from "A Shot in the Dark" in 1964 until Sellers' death in 1980, and Lom continued in the series until "Son of the Pink Panther" in 1993.

Alec Lom said his father was forever grateful to director Blake Edwards for offering him a comic role after years of being cast as "the suave Eastern Bloc gangster with the dark looks."

"It was a new lease of life as an actor, one he embraced warmly," Alec Lom said.

"He had many funny stories about the antics that he and Peter Sellers got up to on the set. It was a nightmare working with Peter because he was a terrible giggler and, between my father and Peter's laughter, they ruined dozens and dozens of takes."

Born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, Lom came to Britain just before World War II and began his career as a radio announcer with the BBC's Czech-language service.

Adopting the shortest stage name he could think of, Lom had his first major movie role as Napoleon in 1942's "The Young Mr. Pitt."

He played a psychiatrist counseling a traumatized pianist in "The Seventh Veil," a big box-office hit in 1945, and had roles opposite Richard Widmark, in the moody "Night and the City" (1950), Henry Fonda in "War and Peace" — Lom was Napoleon again — and a pre-James Bond Sean Connery in truck-driving thriller "Hell Drivers" (1957).

In the comedy "The Ladykillers" (1955), one of the best-loved British films of the 1950s, Lom played a member of a ruthless crime gang fatally outsmarted by a mild-mannered old lady.

Horror roles included the title character in Hammer Studios' "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1962, and Van Helsing in 1970's "Count Dracula," opposite Christopher Lee.

A postwar American career was stymied when Lom was denied a visa — he suspected because of his left-wing views — though he later appeared on U.S. TV series including "The Streets Of San Francisco" and "Hawaii Five-O."

In the 1950s, Lom also had stage success playing the King of Siam in the original London production of the "The King And I" at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, opposite Valerie Hobson.

Lom is survived by his sons Nicholas and Alec, and his daughter Josephine — named after Napoleon's wife.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Alex Karras, actor and former Lions lineman...

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Alex Karras, right, and Emmanuel Lewis star in a Dec. 6, 1985 episode of "Webster."

(CNN) -- Alex Karras, the burly defensive lineman turned actor in the ABC sitcom "Webster," died Wednesday surrounded by his family in their Los Angeles home following a hard-fought battle with kidney disease, heart disease, dementia and stomach cancer, according to a family spokesman.

He was 77.

"Alex was known to family and friends as a gentle, loving, generous man who loved gardening and preparing Greek and Italian feasts," his family said in a written statement.

The Gary, Indiana, native was an All-American at the University of Iowa who was thrust into professional football in 1958 with a first-round draft pick by the Detroit Lions, where he played until 1971.

It was in Detroit where he helped the team's defensive line become one of several through the years to bear the nickname "Fearsome Foursome," earning a reputation for his formidable presence on and off the line.

But in 1963, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended Karras and Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung for gambling on league games, prompting the All-Pro tackle to try his hand at professional wrestling.

The following year, after he returned to the gridiron, Karras reportedly refused to take part in a pregame coin toss.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said to the official. "I'm not permitted to gamble."

But Hollywood was calling. And according to his family, he "had always dreamed of being an actor" and got a boost when Lucille Ball "took him under her wing and allowed him to train in small parts."

After various appearances on television shows, Karras landed breakout movie roles, including playing "Mongo" in the Mel Brooks satirical western film "Blazing Saddles," as well as other spots in "Porky's" and "Victor Victoria."
He later joined the long-running television show "Webster," where he played George Papadapolis, the guardian of the newly orphaned Webster, played by actor Emmanuel Lewis.

Karras also co-wrote autobiographies called "Even Big Guys Cry" and "Alex Karras by Alex Karras," and sat in the broadcast booth along with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford during "Monday Night Football" broadcasts.

"While his legacy reached far beyond the gridiron, we always will fondly remember Alex as one of our own and also as one of the best to ever wear the Honolulu Blue and Silver," said Lions President Tom Lewand.

In April, Karras -- who had been battling dementia -- joined more than 3,000 other former NFL players who are suing the league for not better protecting them from head injuries.

The players, who say they suffer from a variety of debilitating and potentially life-threatening concussion-related injuries, got a high-profile boost when the former Lion joined their ranks.

His family said he also was a strong supporter of the environment.

"His love of nature and most especially of the ocean, where he spent many happy days on his fishing boat, led him to support numerous organizations committed to protecting our environment for future generations," his family said. "In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to one of the organizations Alex Karras ardently supported: Natural Resources Defense Council, Bioneers, Greenpeace Foundation or the Pesticide Action Network."

Memorial services are being planned and will be announced soon, his family said.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Gary Collins, actor and TV host, dies at 74

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October 13, 2012, 12:18 p.m.
Gary Collins, an actor who was the longtime host of the syndicated TV show “Hour Magazine” and a former master of ceremonies for the Miss America Pageant, died early Saturday in Biloxi, Miss. He was 74.

Collins died of natural causes soon after arriving at Biloxi Regional Medical Center, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove told the Associated Press.

In 2011 Collins moved to Mississippi, the home state of his wife, Mary Ann Mobley, an actress and Miss America 1959. He had been arrested and fined last year for leaving a Biloxi restaurant without paying his dinner tab; in 2007 and 2009 he was convicted in separate DUI cases in California.

From 1980 to 1988, Collins served as host of the TV talk show “Hour Magazine,” a gentler version of the genre that avoided some of the controversial topics tackled by Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera and other tabloid programs.

“It seems that the viewing public and producers of those programs have tapped into this insatiable desire for stronger formats, stronger issues, stronger confrontations, a stronger examination of subject matter and reality subject matter. And that was never ‘Hour Magazine,’ “ Collins told The Times in 1989 soon after the show was canceled.

Describing himself as “inquisitive, sensitive, caring, likable, nonconfrontational,” Collins added, “I don’t think all television has to be on that hard edge.… That’s basically not a part of my character.”

Collins had also been emcee of the Miss America Pageant in the 1980s and hosted other televised variety programs.

Born April 30, 1938, in Venice, Collins enrolled in Santa Monica City College before joining the Army. He became an announcer and disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio and began acting. After his military service ended he landed a starring role in the 1965 sitcom “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” and followed with regular roles in the TV series “Iron Horse,” “The Sixth Sense” and “Born Free.” He also had a string of guest star appearances in popular prime-time programs.