Rolling Obituary Thread: 2015

http://www.tmz.com/2015/01/02/donna-douglas-dead-beverly-hillbillies-elly-may-clampett/

Donna Douglas -- who famously portrayed Elly May Clampett on the legendary 60s TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- passed away Thursday at her home in Louisiana with friends and family by her side.

Douglas' granddaughter confirmed the death to TMZ.

Donna starred on "The Beverly Hillbillies" for all nine seasons and even returned for the 1981 reunion TV movie.

Douglas also appeared in several other iconic TV series, including "Mister Ed," "The Twilight Zone," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," "Adam 12," and "Route 66."

She also co-starred with Elvis Presley in "Frankie and Johnny."

Douglas filed two famous lawsuits over the years. In the 1990s, she sued Disney claiming they stole the idea for "Sister Act" from her. In 2011, she sued Mattel for making a Barbie doll with her likeness without her permission. She lost the "Sister Act" case and settled the Barbie case.

Donna was 81.

http://www.relapse.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/small_image/225x150/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/o/b/obituary_1.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mario-cuomo-new-york-governor-dead-82-article-1.2063258

Ever-eloquent Mario Cuomo, a son of Queens who rode his rhetorical gifts to three terms as New York governor and tantalized Democrats by flirting with a run for President, died Thursday. He was 82.

Cuomo passed away at 5:15 p.m. of heart failure, surrounded by family in his Manhattan apartment as his son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was in Buffalo delivering his second inaugural address of the day.

(I know this was covered at the tail end of the 2014 thread, but I put it here for posterity.)

http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2015/01/02/little-jimmy-dickens-opry-star-dies-obit/21210809/

RIP Little Jimmy Dickens

RIP & May The Bird of Paradise Fly You Up A Nose and Into Heaven

http://pitchfork.com/news/53635-swans-announce-new-album-rip-and-may-the-bird-of-paradise-fly-you-up-a-nose-and-into-heaven-featuring-little-jimmy-dickens-michael-gira-announces-solo-tour/

Eh, what?

According to Charlie Louvin, Little Jimmy was the classic tough little short guy. Earlier this evening I took a tater and waited. RIP.

v strange, a friend was talking on New Years Eve about meeting Dickens backstage

Time for new screenname

Oh wait, wrong Dickens

Edward Brooke, liberal Republican from Massachusetts who in 1966 became the first African-American popularly elected to the Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/edward-w-brooke-first-african-american-elected-to-the-us-senate-dies-at-95/2015/01/03/cdabb80a-938b-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html

ESPN anchor Stuart Scott:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/12118296/stuart-scott-espn-anchor-dies-age-49

RIP Stuart Scott. You were the man.

These two clips featured here will shred ya. Just a bit of fair warning.

http://deadspin.com/rich-eisen-hannah-storm-others-react-live-to-stuart-1677360761/

Meantime, in contrast, I give you the National Review. So successful.

https://twitter.com/NRO/status/551803970621308929

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/world/middleeast/serge-hochar-producer-of-lebanese-wines-dies-at-75.html

Bess Myerson

she can beard for Ed Koch once more

Rene Vautier, who claimed to be the "most censored director in France", died on Sunday aged 86, his family said.

...Many of his films were banned or condemned by the establishment and one even landed him in prison. He was sentenced to a year in jail for making "Africa 50", which he shot when was just 20, and which is seen as the first French anti-colonial film. It denounced the crimes of the French army and the lack of education afforded to the natives of French colonies. It was banned for 40 years.

http://artdaily.com/news/75510/French-anti-colonial-firebrand-film-maker-Rene-Vautier-dies-aged-86-in-Brittany

Rod Taylor

http://www.people.com/people/mobile/article/0,,20890158,00.html

Jack Cardiff's Dark of The Sun RULES.

Another one for the 'I Thought They Died Years Ago'.Appearing in the The Time Machine AND Zabriskie Point is kinda cool.

musicologist Bob Gilmore

http://www.bobgilmore.co.uk/

RIP Andraé Crouch

Comic actor and calypso singer Lance Percival:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30746784

Francesco Rosi:

http://www.dw.de/italian-director-francesco-rosi-dies-at-92/a-18183765

RIP:(

Taylor Negron according to Twitter.

No!

http://deadline.com/2015/01/taylor-negron-dead-57-after-long-battle-with-cancer-1201346798/

:-(

RIP. Did not notice mention of The Aristocrats in that obit.

I think I'd heard something about him being sick, but I'd totally forgotten it. R.I.P.

Anita Ekberg?

Yes:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/anita-ekberg-of-la-dolce-vita-fame-dies-1.2897039

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o15UTomYsc

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/drummer-vocalist-popsy-dixon-holmes-brothers-dies-28125004

Soulful falsetto vocalist

Very sad.

This is beautiful and amazing and heartbreaking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPNhnIwT920

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2015/01/brian-clemens-dead-83/

Probably best known for The Avengers, also lots of other British TV and some film work including the Golden Voyage Of Sinbad.

Oh sad - definitely one of the major figures of British genre film/tv. I'm particularly fond of Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, perhaps the most polymorphously perverse of all Hammer movies.

Yeah, shame, RIP Brian.

Tim Drummond:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tim-drummond-bassist-neil-young-bob-dylan-dead-20150112

Hear him walk a little bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP1wtIfs8lg

Oh no, that is terrible news. RIP.

Samuel Goldwyn Jr., key arthouse distributor of the 1980s

http://thedissolve.com/news/4434-samuel-goldwyn-jr-1926-2015/

Dozy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-30811311

RIP Dozy. I always mean to investigate DDDBMT, I like them, but I never do.

Now, they are Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich

You want awesome?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lxwZXeNSI

Novelist Robert Stone

RIP Kim Fowley

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/6443507/kim-fowley-legendary-record-producer-dead-at-75

o

Shocker, RIP Kim!!!!!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/arts/music/ervin-drake-composer-of-pop-songs-dies-at-95.html?action=click&contentCollection=Music®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

Ervin Drake’s “Now That I Have Everything” debuted the same day he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, a fitting coda for a career that was punctuated by hit versions of his songs, like Frank Sinatra’s “It Was a Very Good Year,” Billie Holiday’s “Good Morning Heartache” and the inspirational “I Believe,” sung by Frankie Laine.

Mr. Drake, who wrote lyrics and music, produced television programs and was president of the American Guild of Authors and Composers, died on Thursday at 95 at his home in Great Neck, N.Y. The cause was complications of bladder cancer, said his stepson, Jed Berman.

Takao Saitô, Kurosawa's cinematographer on Ran, Sanjuro and many others

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/takao-saito-cinematographer-18-kurosawa-761859

Faten Hamama, actress who was "Lady of Arabic Cinema"

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-faten-hamama-1931-2015

http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/01/17/dixie-hall-prolific-bluegrass-songwriter-dies/21914181/

Dixie Hall, wife of Tom T. Hall. I didn't really know anything about her before this article, but what a life.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/01/bo_dollis_longtime_big_chief_o.html

Theodore Emile "Bo" Dollis, the longtime Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians, died at his home in New Orleans on Jan. 20, 2015, his son confirmed. He was 71.

....He was among the first to bring the culture and sound of the Indian culture to national prominence, recording the first commercial album of Mardi Gras Indian music, the single "Handa Wanda," in 1970 – the same year that he and Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians appeared at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In 1974, along with his wife Laurita Dollis, keyboardist Willie Tee, Snooks Eagilin, percussionist Uganda Roberts and saxophonist Earl Turbinton, Dollis recorded the groundbreaking album "The Wild Magnolias," melding Indian chants with sizzling funk. ...

Saw that coming. RIP

Leon Brittan

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/leon-brittan-dead-thatcher-minister-accused-of-failure-to-act-on-child-sex-abuse-dossier-dies-9995572.html

(also Anne Kirkbride the other day, mentioned on Coronation Street thread but not here)

Frank Mazzola, editor of Performance (amongst other extraordinary things):

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/frank-mazzola-film-editor-and-rebel-without-a-cause-actor-dies-at-79-1201410982/

@jeremyscahill
These obit headlines are puke-worthy: "Saudi King Abdullah: patient reformer who battled hardliners"

He's getting no RIPs from me.

For constant larfs, make sure you read Greenwald's twitter today.

@ggreenwald 2h2 hours ago
Next on CNN: Was the dearly departed King Abdullah more like MLK or Gandhi? Our panel remembers this beloved figured of peace and reform.

@ggreenwald · 1h 1 hour ago
UK orders flags flown at half-mast for King Abdullah. Will return to lecturing the world about democracy tomorrow

faith seidenberg, who desegregated mcsorley's ale house in manhattan, among other things

Joe Franklin

bummer.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12219755/ernie-banks-former-chicago-cubs-great-dies-age-83

I got through to Joe Franklin once, as a teenager in the mid- or late-'70s. He must have been syndicated, because I'm pretty sure it was a station out of Cleveland that you could pick up in Toronto. Zero recollection of what we talked about.

(Check that--think it was this guy instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Franklin.)

VERY DIFFERENT GUY.

I interviewed Joe in his office in 1980. (The OLD office, not the neater one below.) Papers and folders and God-knows-what stacked floor-to-ceiling. He was yakking on the phone about "Gore Vidal's Caligula" ("It's terrible, people are asking for their $10 back").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr2s7K8Qmdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFXsMTS9MS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpf1j0cA5Hg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30984851

Demis Roussos. I suspect he might get his own thread, or the Aphrodite's Child one.

:((((((((

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=321JxxzlGio

rod mckuen

can't understand it anymore

Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31036362

What not to do. Seriously, what NOT TO DO:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/01/30/why-the-oz-called-colleen-mccullough-fat-and-ugly-in-her-obituary/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Marie_McCoy

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100823151

Prolific songwriter who had songs recorded by Big Maybelle, Elvis Presley, Little Jimmy Scott, Nat King Cole, Ike & Tina Turner and others died on January 20th at age 92 according to Wiki and a Yahoo Southern Soul group email listserv thing I get. She was a New Jersey-based independent songwriter who rejected offers to join well-known house songwriting operations at Stax, Motown and elsewhere

Edward Saylor one of the surviving Doolittle Raiders (three left)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/edward-j-saylor-airman-who-took-fight-to-japan-with-the-doolittle-raiders-dies-at-94.html

navy ace alexander vraciu, who once shot down six japanese bombers in eight minutes

NY Times now has obit of songwriter McCoy

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/arts/music/rose-marie-mccoy-a-songwriter-for-rock-pop-and-jazz-legends-dies-at-92.html?_r=1

http://oregonmusicnews.com/2015/02/02/don-covay-soul-singer-songwriter-dead-76/

He had been in ill health for awhile after a stroke. No larger outlets are reporting this yet. Reports of the death have also been on facebook

more online tributes starting to show up

RIP Don

Geraldine McEwan, star of theatre, television and film

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/01/geraldine-mcewan-from-mrs-malaprop-to-miss-marple

LA based saxophonist Zane Musa, at 36.

http://www.laweekly.com/music/la-jazz-scene-reels-from-untimely-death-of-zane-musa-5367964

prolific churchill/holocaust/war historian martin gilbert

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31129677

Sandy Socolow, key CBS News editor/producer of the Cronkite era

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-peyronnin/broadcast-news-icon-sandy_b_6590202.html

pianist aldo ciccolini

Suzette Haden Elgin

http://io9.com/r-i-p-suzette-haden-elgin-author-poet-verbal-self-d-1684006640

Mary Healy, singer who teamed with her hubby on records, Vegas, radio and movies including The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Stage-and-Screen-Actress-Mary-Healy-Dies-at-96-20150204

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyf_A3dUI-E

Stewart Stern, screenwriter of Rebel without a Cause and The Last Movie

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/stewart-stern-dies-writer-of-rebel-without-a-cause-obituary-1201426670/

Buddy Holly & The Crickets bassist Joe B. Mauldin

http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2015-02-07/crickets-bassist-joe-b-mauldin-remembered-gentle-soul#.VNcTTPnF-So

Dean Smith:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12296176/dean-smith-former-north-carolina-tar-heels-coach-dies-age-83

Rik Mayall

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jun/09/rik-mayall-dies-comedian-actor

Fuck, nevermind. Didn't notice taht was old.

Still shocking, but yeah.

Architect Jon Jerde.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-jon-jerde-20150209-story.html#page=1

60 Minutes's Bob Simon:

http://nypost.com/2015/02/11/60-minutes-bob-simon-killed-in-car-crash/

Jerry Tarkanian; wow, these assholes are droppin' like flies

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12309861/jerry-tarkanian-was-hall-fame-coach-battled-ncaa

Steve Strange, of Visage:

http://www.vanyaland.com/2015/02/12/report-steve-strange-new-romantic-electronic-music-pioneers-visage-dead-55/

Oh fuck, and Moebius!

http://io9.com/5892148/legendary-french-artist-moebius-the-man-who-made-the-abyss-alien-and-tron-even-weirder-is-dead-at-73

Er, except that (Moebius) is from a few years ago. Never mind.

David Carr:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/media/david-carr-media-equation-columnist-for-the-times-is-dead-at-58.html?_r=0

jesus… really loved his work.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/gary-owens-announcer-of-laugh-in-fame-dies-at-80-1201433731/

Brilliant voice

Indeed. RIP.

THIS STUPID WEEK.

cupping my ear in tribute

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5lhQ4Ejpmqg/UrwibzLVcnI/AAAAAAAAG-g/2TJgbCqIrf8/s1600/gary+owens+glasses.jpg

Alison Gordon, who covered the Jays from '79-84 for the Toronto Star--first female ever to cover a team full-time.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2015/02/12/pioneering-toronto-star-baseball-writer-alison-gordon-dead-at-72.html

"We had four or five guys that really rallied around not letting her in the clubhouse, but I don't think Alison gave a damn, to tell you the truth," Lloyd Moseby said. "She could have very easily taken the words that a lot of guys said and took it to heart and went back to her bosses and said, 'I'm not doing this. I don't get paid to take abuse.' But she never did. She kept showing up. And it was amazing, really. I’m just proud to have known Alison."

Lizabeth Scott

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/movies/lizabeth-scott-film-noir-siren-dies-at-92.html

Sam Andrew, guitarist w/Big Brother & The Holding Company and Janis Joplin

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/big-brother-and-the-holding-companys-sam-andrew-dead-at-73-20150214

One of the big theatre companies here put on a production of "Love, Janis" about 7-8 years ago and Andrew was brought in as the music director. To promote the show, he did an evening signing meet & greet thing at the just-reopened Cactus Music. It was late into the appearance when I showed up with my dad--a big Janis fan--and the crowd (if any) had thinned considerably. Andrew signed several LPs we brought in addition to the then-new "Love Is The Song We Sing" San Francisco Nuggets box. That one he actually signed twice--once in his usual place of the picture on the page with the write up for "Down On Me" (complete with an arrow running from his signature to his picture), and the other in my requested spot on the inside front cover, a photo of Big Brother posing alongside The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, and The Charlatans at Golden Gate Park in 1967.

While looking at the later pic, he remarked about wanting to a reunion version of that photo, but "There's not as many of us now."

RIP

Nice story.

Michele Ferrero, richest living Italian, (apparently) inventor of Nutella, Kinder Surprise, Tic Tac, Ferrero Rocher.

http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/02/14/news/e_morto_michele_ferrero_l_inventore_della_nutella_e_dei_tic_tac-107329807/

i didn't know anyone invented tic tacs, just thought they occurred naturally

lol.

RIP

Louis Jourdan

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/louis-jourdan-star-of-octopussy-gigi-dies-at-93-1201434557/

rip Louis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKc7wRLA-Z8

Tony Hart, children's TV presenter and artist
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/19/tony-hart

in 2009

Yeah, why was that trending on The Guardian?

i blame chas

Obituary: my early morning attempts to read dates.

apparently you're not the only one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/11415068/Twitter-gets-very-confused-over-death-of-artist-Tony-Hart.html

Yeah - apparently some 1 Direction fans went off yesterday as well, being outraged at #ripharryyouwillbemissed trending, when it's actually a kid who died of cancer.

This would be pretty bad, except they (in fairness probably a different they) did the same thing when the kid actually died four years ago.

Louis Jourdan was a great Count Dracula in a BBC adaptation from 1977:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_w3acFydk4

http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=12781

Assia Djebar, novelist and filmmaker - really like to see her films, they've been on my radar for a while.

Got a novel on order and looking forward to it, not much about in English.

AP and others reporting Lesley Gore has died.

I'll cry if I want to.

You would cry.

RIP.

Everybody's turn to cry

RIP

some talk on Facebook that 2000AD artist Brett Ewins has passed away

Looks like it's been confirmed. That's too bad. Skreemer blew my mind at an impressionable age.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/gavin-clark-dead-unkle-vocalist-dead-10051500.html

June Fairchild, most famous as "The Ajax Lady" from Up In Smoke, but was also "The Jumper" in Head, "Gloria" the hooker in Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, and the person who came up with the band name "Three Dog Night"

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/june-fairchild-up-in-smoke-dies-111478503802.html

Paco Carreno, 49, ex-drummer for Conflict (UK) and Inner Terrestrials.

Bruce Sinofsky, codirector of the Paradise Lost films about the West Memphis Three -- AND Some Kind of Monster. That's a hell of a legacy, really.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/bruce-sinofsky-paradise-lost-trilogy-director-dies-at-58-1201438514/

Wow.

Yutaka Katayama, Nissan executive known as "the father of the Datsun Z cars"

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/02/21/yutaka-katayama-nissan-datsun-z-dead/

Trumpeter - composer Clark Terry:
http://jazztimes.com/articles/155902-clark-terry-1920-2015#.VOnaBwlrKEk.facebook

Collaborator with Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor, among others; longtime member of Duke Ellington's orchestra; and a major influence on Miles Davis.

RIP

Never did get to see him play. Wonder when the last time he was out there gigging. Also, hadn't known about that long Tonight Show stint. In theory I might be crossing paths this week with an old-timer who was in the band at that point but who knows if I will actually be able to ask anything about that.

I saw him once in the early 90s, co-leading a band with Louie Bellson. The warmth of Terry's sound that filled the room is something I've never experienced before or since.

Legendary Memphis session keyboardist Bobby Emmons

http://www.commercialappeal.com/go-memphis/music/news/american-studio-keyboardist-bobby-emmons-dies_50354474

RIP, Bobby.

Had not seen that Bobby Emmons with Dan Penn rendition of "Dark end of the Street" on Letterman, till now. Beautiful. RIP Bobby.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/music/ariel-camacho-dies-at-22-lead-singer-of-los-plebes-del-rancho.html?action=click&contentCollection=Music®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

Young Mexican norteno and narcocorrido singer

leonard nimoy

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0

Twitter is saying Leonard Nimoy, don't see confirmation yet.

xp

Boris Nemtsov, Russian opposition politician and critic of Putin, has been shot dead in the middle of Moscow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/world/europe/boris-nemtsov-russian-opposition-leader-is-shot-dead.html

jesus, that does not bode well

Music journalist and producer Orrin Keepnews.

RIP Daniel von Bargen (seconding darraghmac on the Super Troopers thread).

Wherever he is, I hope he's spinning around on his swivel chair and handing out nicknames.

Koko, Koko!

I got him confused with JK Simmons a couple weeks ago and insisted to some people that Simmons was on Seinfeld as George's boss.

Cardinal Egan, former archbishop and abuser-protector

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Edward-Cardinal-Egan-New-York-Archbishop-Death--295223021.html

John Bilezikjian, Armenian oud player who toured and recorded with Leonard Cohen, died back in January.

Harve Bennett, producer of four Star Trek films and the Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman TV series.

http://io9.com/rip-harve-bennett-who-resurrected-star-trek-on-the-big-1689802949

been a bad week for guys who fought like dogs with Gene Roddenberry

Good thing Alexander Courage is long gone.

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2015/feb/18/mike-gray-obituary

al maysles (grey gardens, gimme shelter, etc. etc.)

!!!!!!!!

Where did you see that?

Criterion posted it on FB--he was 88.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/movies/albert-maysles-pioneering-documentarian-dies-at-88.html?_r=0

:(

Trumpeter Lew Soloff (Gil Evans, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tito Puente, many others).

That is terrible news. He always played so great, no matter how old he was, on that notoriously challenging instrument.

Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/article/yoshihirotatsumi

dude was a master. RIP.

A Drifting Life was great and his shorts collections are good too. Black Blizzard is a silly early gekiga -- I'm not sure why they translated it.

it was one of his first major pieces and a foundational building block of the movement. parallels to Bark's Pirate Gold or Kirby/Lee FF#1 imo; the final product may not hold up beautifully but it's super significant. plus i don't think it had ever been published in english until now!

Damn, RIP Tatsumi. A friend got me The Push Man and other stories and I loved it. Incredible stuff.

Sam Simon:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sam-simon-simpsons-producer-philanthropist-606632

aw shit

was kind of hoping he might wilko johnson his cancer somehow

RIP, did good things while he was here

Camille Muffat, Florence Arthaud and eight others killed when two helicopters being used in a French reality tv show crashed in Argentina. Horrific.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/10/ten-dead-in-apparent-helicopter-crash-in-argentina

it annoys me how 10 people died but only the three french athletes seem to matter. their pictures are on all the news sites and in the radio reports, the other 7 don't even get name-checked.

'Pipeline' guitarist Brian Carman of the Chantays dies at 69
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/spickard-652922-chantays-pipeline.html

RIP. Here is another obit with some interesting info http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-brian-carman-20150306-story.html

Windell Middlebrooks, best known as "The Miller High Life Guy" from Radio & TV, but was also a regualer face on many sitcoms and dramas.

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/10/miller-high-life-guy-dead-windell-middlebrooks-commercial-dies/

RIP, nice guy.

Michael Graves

Daevid Allen of Gong not long ago. Reported by one of his sons on their facebook page.

Terry Pratchett, age 66. Not suicide.

Tod Dockstader, electronic musician (died 27 feb 2015)

first heard his work, Quatermass, as background to some short computer graphics film by John Stehura that they screened at the tate modern a few years ago. it was too loud and very dark.

http://pitchfork.com/news/58660-musique-concrete-composer-tod-dockstader-has-died/

aw, rip terry pratchett; you were important to everyone i knew's teenage childhood reading habits

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/toto-bassist-mike-porcaro-dead-at-59-20150315

Look out Steve Porcaro.

Thom Wilson, legendary SoCal punk producer. No stories yet but Epitaph Records just sent out a press release saying he passed on February 8 -- someone should do a poll thread based on his early 80s work alone, look at that run via this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Wilson

Irwin Hasen, golden age superhero man (co-creator of DC's Wildcat) and 30+ year man on the classic strip Dondi. Good life.
http://www.tcj.com/irwin-hasen-dondi-wildcat-artist-dead-at-96/
http://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dondi-orig.jpg

More:
http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2015/03/irwin-hasen-1918-2015.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/arts/irwin-hasen-comic-book-artist-and-dondi-illustrator-dies-at-96.html

Free bassist Andy Fraser, 62

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/andy-fraser-dies/

^^RIP, Fraser & Kirke=great rhythm section

Sam Charters, author of some of the best books on the blues I ever read as well as record producer for Lightnin' Hopkins, Country Joe, John Fahey etc:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/arts/music/samuel-charters-foundational-scholar-of-the-blues-dies-at-85.html?smid

Shaw Taylor, the first man on British television promoting public crime-solving.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31954540

Appeared on a Throbbing Gristle live album too.

Michael Brown, who wrote "Walk Away Renee": http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/arts/music/michael-brown-keyboardist-for-the-left-banke-dies-at-65.html?_r=0

Dr. George Fischbeck, one of the most entertaining people on L.A. area TV back in the day.

http://abc7.com/news/dr-george-fischbeck-longtime-kabc-weatherman-dies/572407/

Awww, RIP Dr. George.

RIP Lil' Chris - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-32038895

I have sung Ch-Ch-Ch-Checking It Out to amuse girls about a zillion times, and most of them never even knew ya.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttkkj9yBh3Y

http://louisvillemusic.org/blog/2015/03/20/steve-chili-rigot-dies/

Louisville punkrocker from the group the Endtables

Gregory Walcott, star of Plan 9 and movies that cost even more.

"Ed Wood has etched my name forever in the annals of film history," he said a 1998 Filmfax magazine interview with writer Dwayne Epstein. "The thing that really bugs me is I will go to my grave not remembered for those meaty roles I did for the likes of John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Martin Ritt or Steven Spielberg but as the leading man in a film that many movie historians regard as the worst of all time. It's enough to drive a Puritan to drink!"

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-gregory-walcott-20150324-story.html

eternally muzzled by Army brass

Miroslav Ondříček, cinematographer for Milos Forman and Lindsay Anderson among others

http://deadline.com/2015/03/miroslav-ondricek-dies-cinematographer-behind-amadeus-was-80-1201400839/

Gene Saks, director of stage & screen, including many of the most famous Neil Simon works in either medium, and also an ex-husband of Bea Arthur

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/theater/gene-saks-actor-and-director-of-stage-and-film-dies-at-93.html?smid=tw-nytobits&seid=auto&_r=1

url says it all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/gary-dahl-inventor-of-the-pet-rock-dies-at-78.html

Who will feed his rocks now?

Robert Z'Dar, star of Maniac Cop and many, many other B- and Z-movies. MST3K had a great time with him in Soultaker.

http://time.com/3766780/robert-zdar-dies-maniac-cop/

Cynthia Lennon :(

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6517153/cynthia-lennon-dead

:(

Preston Ritter, drummer for the Electric Prunes.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/preston-ritter-dies/

Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, 106, active from 1931 til this year.

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-manoel-de-oliveira-1908-2015

Rev. Robert Schuller

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-robert-schuller-20150403-story.html

(File under "had no idea was still alive.")

Seeing that guy gives me intense flashbacks of trying to find something else on the TV when I was a kid

Oliveira and Schuller were both deadpool regulars.

Sarah Brady:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/us/sarah-brady-gun-control-activist-is-dead-at-73.html?_r=0

Oliveira would be giving negative points in any deadpool for the last 6 years, surely

Original Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Bob Burns:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0MV0OJ20150404?irpc=932

:(

Character actor Tom Towles:

http://www.rue-morgue.com/#!RIP-TOM-TOWLES-19502015/cjds/55219fe90cf2aa1811846d1a

I know I saw him in movies other than "Henry," but he was so goddamned creepy in that it colored everything else. Kind of like Ted Levine and "Silence of the Lambs."

Wasn't he kind of a comedy actor too? I remember him being in Seinfeld.

https://twitter.com/donavan/status/585501275317522434

Stan Freberg's son Donavan reporting that Stan has died today.

Sad to hear (and tbh, I thought he died a couple of years ago).

James Best

http://www.jamesbest.com/jamesbest.com/Welcome.html

Geoffrey Lewis (whom I just learned was Juliette's dad)

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/geoffrey-lewis-dead-clint-eastwood-juliette-lewis-1201467979/

The new oldest person in the world (for about a week) has died.

RIP Stan, James, Geoffrey :( :( :(

Richard Dysart

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/richard-dysart-dead-la-law-787524

This has been a bad few days for "Oh that guy!" character actors.

:(

It blew my mind when I realized as a kid that Leland McKenzie from "L.A. Law" was the crotchety doctor in John Carpenter's "The Thing."

I was just thinking about LA Law the other day and looked up to see if Richard Dysart was still alive :-(

Richie Benaud

http://news.sky.com/story/1461998/cricket-star-richie-benaud-dies-aged-84

:(

Judith Malina, Founder of the Living Theater

Viv Nicolson - pools winner, tabloid celebrity and cover star of Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-32275463

Günter Grass

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/13/gunter-grass-german-nobel-laureate-dies-aged-87

Stanley Kutler, historian who fought for release of Nixon's tapes

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/stanley-kutler-watergate-historian-who-helped-obtain-nixon-tapes-dies/2015/04/08/dea3fb04-ddfa-11e4-be40-566e2653afe5_story.html

Milton Delugg!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/arts/music/milton-delugg-accordionist-composer-and-tonight-show-bandleader-dies-at-96.html

"Hooray for Santy Claus"

http://www.katc.com/story/28797836/soul-singer-percy-sledge-dead-at-73

Percy Sledge, the soul singer who took "When a Man Loves a Woman" to the top of the charts in 1966, died this morning at his Baton Rouge home. He was 73.

You might have also seen him in the Muscle Shoals movie doc.

Comic book artist Herb Trimpe
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/14/herb-trimpe-passes-away-aged-75/

wow, two people who informed my early years in a big way

Xposted on Herb Tripe.

wow, two people who informed my early years in a big way

^^^^ this

RIP Herb. He lived in the UK for a while in the 1970s, and appeared on Stan Lee's 1975 live show at the Roundhouse:

http://darkestlondon.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/stanlee.jpg?w=460&h=642

Mingiedi Mawangu of Konono No 1.

aw, that's sad.

Paul Almond, director of the first Seven Up! documentary as pretty much no one remembered

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32315451

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/books/eduardo-galeano-uruguayan-voice-of-anti-capitalism-is-dead-at-74.html?_r=1

Eduardo Galeano sounds rly interesting.

Jonathan Crombie AKA Gilbert Blythe, a brain haemorrhage at 48. My pre-teen heart is broken.
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/jonathan-crombie-anne-of-green-gables-actor-dies-at-48-1201475258/

Alas, I am bereft ;_;

This is so horrible and sad, 19 years old ffs:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/23/entertainment/everybody-loves-raymond-sawyer-sweeten-suicide/index.html

damn, that's brutal

http://i.imgur.com/sfSXusk.png

Don't

Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss

http://time.com/richard-corliss/

Jayne Meadows

Saw Richard Corliss introduce Double Indemnity three or four years ago. (He was extremely verbose--always qualifying what he said, often veering off on tangents.) Just on the periphery of all the critical skirmishes of the '70s--I associate him with his recasting of Sarris's auteur theory to accommodate writers.

XP The Meadows/Allen episode of Homicide is all-time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32495447

No longer needs to wish he could fly, way up in the sky, 'cos he's in it (insert your own heaven metaphor/substitute here instead, ruining the punchline. It's what he would have wanted).

What now for Orville? RIP Keith.

Srsly tho, ventriloquists are invariably shit but this guy was really fucking good at it.

Yeah, he was actually a pretty solid vent. Saw the latest Count Arthur Strong live show the other week where he has a vent section called Sulky Monkey which ripped off his own Little Tiny Tut but seemed also influenced by Cuddles.

Andrew Lesnie (Australian cinematographer, shot the Babe films and all six of Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptations):

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2015/04/28/98091-r-i-p-andrew-lesnie/

Suzanne Crough, who played the young daughter Tracy Partridge in the Partridge Family.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/partridge-family-star-suzanne-crough-dies/

aw

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6553550/ben-e-king-dead-76-stand-by-me-singer

Ruth Rendell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31731722

Star Trek's Grace Lee Whitney: http://io9.com/rip-grace-lee-whitney-star-treks-yeoman-janice-rand-1701960741

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/junkyard-band-bassist-dies-in-motorcycle-crash/

Washington DC go-go funk bassist and manager Derek Anthony “House” Colquitt

ugh

I'm always surprised by how old the star trek cast are now

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/05/travis_trumpet_black_hill_risi.html

Travis 'Trumpet Black' Hill, rising New Orleans trumpeter, has died at 28

By Alison Fensterstock, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on May 04, 2015 at 3:05 PM, updated May 05, 2015 at 2:16 AM

Errol Brown :-(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32613573

Jim Wright, good ol' Texan House bastard

http://www.dallasnews.com/obituary-headlines/20150506-former-u.s.-house-speaker-jim-wright-dead-at-92.ece

The last known surviving member of the German engineering team that designed the rocket that took US astronauts to the Moon has died in Alabama.

Oscar Holderer, who was 95, suffered a stroke last week and did not recover, his son Michael said.

Mr Holderer was one of about 120 engineers who moved to the US after World War Two, bringing technology used in the German V2 rocket.

They played a key role in the Saturn V rocket used in the 1969 Moon landing.

The team, led by Wernher von Braun, was part of a project called Operation Paperclip that transferred technology used in Germany's V2 and other rockets to the US.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32620119

wow. rip

95 is a damn good innings

"we aimed for the stars... and occasionally hit London"

"we aimed for London... and occasionally hit stars... I said stars"

are there any good books on paperclip? i know most of the story but am interested in the nuts & bolts...it's such a crazy story

that sounded glib..."crazy"....I just mean all the shady/illegal clandestine acrobatics they had to pull to even do it

are there any good books on paperclip? i know most of the story but am interested in the nuts & bolts...it's such a crazy story

Annie Jacobsen's book Operation Paperclip came out last year. Worth reading and certainly better than her Area 51 book. One element to Paperclip that I wasn't fully aware of is that rocket scientists weren't the only priority. Duh, it was the entire German offensive technical capability - chemical, biological, the whole thing.

NYT review: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/books/review/operation-paperclip-by-annie-jacobsen.html

thx Elvis!

Thanks, ET. Steered clear of that OP book because that Area 51 book seemed so bad.

my dad was a data programmer starting in the early 60s and worked in huntsville for a few years for the program. Not on any kind of cloak and dagger level obv. My mom hated huntsville and they moved to missouri in time to have me in 1970.

I grew up in Huntsville, and my dad was an aerospace engineer for a NASA contractor, so this kind of stuff has surrounded me my whole life. Even the local entertainment arena is named after Von Braun. I really know none of the details, though, so I might pick this book up as well.

I heard Jacobsen interviewed on the radio and she noted that while recently released records made clear that many of the Germans brought over were hardcore Nazis (who were not merely designing V2s and following orders in order to stay alive themselves), she was not sure about Holderer's racial, political, etc. beliefs

Johnny Gimble

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/famed-country-fiddler-johnny-gimble-dies-89-30929692

Elizabth Wilson, Tony-winning actress who played Benjamin's mother in The Graduate

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elizabeth-wilson-dead-character-actress-794706

Artist Chris Burden, 69, melanoma.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-chris-burden-dies-20150510-story.html#page=1

The last known surviving member of the German engineering team that designed the rocket that took US astronauts to the Moon has died in Alabama.
Oscar Holderer, who was 95, suffered a stroke last week and did not recover, his son Michael said.
...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32620119

I just belatedly clicked the link and the article now says "A member of the German engineering team"; did they find a still-surviving member?

(Interesting story either way, might well check that book out. Thanks Elvis.)

Joanne Carson, ex-wife of Johnny and a writer/entertainer herself:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/arts/television/joanne-carson-talk-show-host-and-second-wife-of-johnny-carson-dies-at-83.html

RIP Franz Wright

...and now B.B. King...

BB and Ben E within a fortnight of each other.

Aw. My dad was really, truly shit at running a blues bar, but he once said it had all been worth it to have BB King call him Big Mike.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/b-b-king-blues-legend-dead-at-89-20150515

RIP

Elisabeth Bing, "mother" of the Lamaze birthing revolution

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/18/elisabeth-bing-lamaze-pioneer-dead-at-100/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6568888/bruce-lundvall-blue-note-records-veteran-beloved-label-executive-dead-at-79

A self-described "failed saxophone player," Bruce took an entry level marketing job at Columbia Records in 1960 and over the following two decades rose to lead the North American division of the label, signing artists including Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson. After launching the Elektra/Musician label in 1982, he received the offer of a lifetime in 1984 when EMI approached him about reviving Blue Note Records which had been dormant for several years. He jumped at the chance, partnering with producer Michael Cuscuna to bring back the label's earlier stars like Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson & Jackie McLean, and signing new artists including Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Michel Petrucciani, John Scofield, Charlie Hunter and Medeski Martin & Wood.

​

Under Bruce’s stewardship Blue Note established itself as the most-respected and longest-running jazz label in the world. He presided over a prosperous nearly-30-year period of the label's history, reaching commercial heights with artists including Bobby McFerrin, Us3, Norah Jones, Al Green and Amos Lee, while recording some of the most important jazz artists of our time including Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Ambrose Akinmusire, Don Pullen, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Terence Blanchard, Jacky Terrasson, and many others.

Happy Rockefeller, second wife of Nelson and a likely impediment to his presidential ambition

“Have we come to the point where a governor can desert his wife and children, and persuade a young woman to abandon her four children and husband?” former senator Prescott Bush (R-Conn.) told the New York Times at the time. “Have we come to the point where one of the two great parties will confer its greatest honor on such a one? I venture to hope not.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/20/happy-rockefeller-dies-at-88-a-symbol-of-old-political-taboos/

i waited on lundvall once in a restaurant and we talked for a half hour about music before his date got there. he was super excited about how this new woman was going to have a hugely popular album and really put him back on the map. it was norah jones. He took my address and then sent me a box of blue note cds. RIP, real class act.

Michael Montano of Filth passed away. The Shit Split and Crimpshrine were very important to teenaged me

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/CultureSpyBlog/archives/2015/05/20/michael-mike-o-the-psycho-montano-of-filth-died-last-monday

edit: Strychnine, not Crimpshrine duh

http://www.soultracks.com/story-louis-johnson-dies

Louis Johnson, the renowned bass player who was one-half of the popular musical group The Brothers Johnson, has reportedly died at age 60. Both as a member of the sibling duo and as a session musician, Johnson was lauded as one of the great bass players of his generation. His slap-bass style earned him the nickname "Thunder Thumbs" and brought a fresh sound that was just right for the emerging funk music scene of the 70s and early 80s.

Aw man so young! Rip

Love their version of strawberry letter 23 so fucking much

Terry Sue-Patt aka Benny from Grange Hill
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-22/grange-hill-actor-terry-sue-patt-has-died-aged-50/

:(

60s pop singer Lynn 'Twinkle' Ripley
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3093638/Sixties-pop-starlet-said-no-Mick-Jagger.html

:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYSM-Ts_2V0

http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/05/famed_a_beautiful_mind_mathematician_wife_killed_in_taxi_crash_police_say.html

:(

A Beautiful Mind is such a good book, so much better than the movie: none of that imaginary friend & enemy bullshit, and a multi-D social map of Nash's life and times. Also his wife's!

If one had survived the other, prob not for long: that kind of marriage. Hope their son, who has had his own recurring problems with schizophrenia, is adequately cared for, though I'm sure they made provisions. Maybe he's gotten better as he's gotten older, as happened with his father, although of course it's not just a matter of outgrowing it.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/602559040326086656

Actress, comedian Anne Meara, mom of Ben Stiller, dies at 85

:(

A sign of my age (37), perhaps, but my first association with her will always be Alf.

RIP

Stiller & Meara were ubiquitous on TV variety shows when I was a kid. In the '80s I saw her play the Nurse in Romeo & Juliet at the Public Theatre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H--kLKTGzaQ

Ben directed a web series of Stiller & Meara a few years ago, it was so good. They would talk about Fashion Week or the Royal Wedding, still as hilarious together as ever. It's still on hulu I think?

xpost i love that clip Morbs. so effortless

Tanith Lee

http://scifibulletin.com/2015/05/26/rip-tanith-lee/

Jesus fucking Christ! I read one Tanith Lee story a couple of years ago and it made me so happy I stocked up several of her books that I've been itching to read for a while.

I read a couple of her novels: Dark Dance and the one that came after that. Though, tbf, that was only cos I borrowed them off the goth-y girl that I was going out with in the mid-90s

Photographer Mary Ellen Mark
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/arts/design/mary-ellen-mark-photographer-who-documented-difficult-subjects-dies-at-75.html

U2's Road manager Dennis Sheehan, while on the road with the band:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32912761

note: Is it really necessary to add below the "other bad things that have happened to U2" section? The edge fell over, Bono's hospital stay, their album being given free as a download....

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/05/mel_waiters_southern_soul_blue.html

Mel Waiters, the flashy rhythm and blues singer known for soulful party songs like "Hole In The Wall" and "The Smaller The Club," died early Thursday (May 28) after a short battle with cancer, his booking agent's office confirmed. He was 58.

Great voice and talented songwriter. Glad I saw him in concert once.

Betsy Palmer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/31/betsy-palmer-dead_n_7480870.html

Folk singer Jean Ritchie: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/arts/music/jean-ritchie-who-revived-appalachian-folk-songs-dies-at-92.html

Listening to her album with Doc Watson now.

Jake D'Arcy, who played Phil Menzies in Gregory's Girl and Pete the Jakey in Still Game:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-jake-d-arcy-actor-1-3791931

Belated RIP to ABBA bass player Rutger Gunnarsson: http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2015/05/09/in-memoriam-rutger-gunnarsson/

Tariq Aziz (don't know how much of a bad guy he was)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33021771

Friends reporting the death of Nick Marsh, ex-Flesh For Lulu singer, from cancer.

Richard Johnson, whose credits include Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters, and who was once married to Kim Novak:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33036755

Ronnie Gilbert of The Weavers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11657628/Ronnie-Gilbert-singer-with-the-Weavers-dies-aged-88.html

Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson and family, of cancer at 80. He also wrotethe book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Vincent-Bugliosi-Dies-at-80-306583811.html

Hermann Zapf

Jean Gruault, screenwriter of Jules et Jim and many others by Rossellini, Resnais, Godard, Akerman, Rivette

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-jean-gruault-1924-2015

rip Bugliosi

Helter Skelter still a great, terrifying read.

Arturo Vega, the artistic director and historian for the Ramones (he created the famous Ramones seal)

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/arturo-vega-ramones-logo-designer-dead-at-65-20130610

RIP Arturo... as we said 2 years ago when he passed.

I thought that sounded familiar. Sorry, popped up on my Twitter feed today.

i randomly picked up bugliosi's book on the oj simpson trial a few months ago and sped through it in a day or two. it's an amazing read -- it's barely about the trial at all; it's more bugliosi using the subject as an excuse to rail against everything under the sun and go into (fascinating) detail about how to build a successful prosecution. should probably finally get around to helter skelter, i think i'm the last person left in america who hasn't read it.

Second to last; I bought a copy years ago but never got around to reading it. I was 12 when the murders happened, and one of the things I remember about the trial is that Manson referred to Bugliosi as "bug." (Plus the swastikas, uncharged Manson girls gathering around the courthouse, LIFE magazine cover).

i read it first when i was 13 - i was such a goob, i told everyone it wasnt even the "real" story and that the lawyer was just in the pocket of The Man, maaan

u_u

then i read "charlie: in his own words" and was like oh fuck yeah right he's BANANAS

:( at Jean Gruault

James Last
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g503fR3BvVk

i've never read Skelter because nearly all 'true crime' I've tried is too decadent and ultimately numbing in its ugliness for me to stick with. Manson is not compelling to me, just his warped followers, somewhat.

it's pretty good, Manson comes off more pathetic than interesting (which feels accurate to me)

I've always been intrigued by how someone like him could gather so many followers. He never seemed that charismatic in any interview, but I guess he knew who to target and how to get to them.

He was a pimp, no more no less.

Exactly.

The Jeff Guinn Manson biog is especially good on Manson's feral ability to exploit the vulnerable and gullible, his technique a freakish admixture of Dale Carnegie, Scientology and general hippy bullshit.

Similarly, Bugliosi's OJ book is best read in conjunction with the Lawrence Schiller book.

i remember an interview Bugliosi gave around the time of the book's release, and what i remember was his mixture of disbelief and anger, both primarily aimed at the prosecution iirc. i realize their collective incompetence was received wisdom but i remember him breaking down in these really devastating ways just how bad they were. i don't know if the book was the same, i should read it.

morbs, helter is in the upper level of true crime because of how un-fascinated bugliosi is with manson. there's a lot of detail & examination but there's a crucial long view that tempers the normal voyeuristic true crime

even if you skip the whole first section & just read the trial story, it's p worthwhile. the trial alone was bananas

the Chicago 7 or 11 is more my speed

JUST READ IT FFS

:)

https://lesoreillesentrelesyeux.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/chicago-xvi-16.jpg

RIP Bill "Mr. Stress" Miller (aka the "Mr. Stress" from The Pretenders' "Precious")
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/05/cleveland_music_world_mourns_l.html#incart_river

Ron Moody

I thought he'd died decades ago!

Christopher Lee :-(

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/christopher-lee-dead-legendary-actor-passes-away-at-the-age-of-93-10312947.html

Oh man, RIP Christopher :(

Oh shit!

oh boy, one more nonagenarian for the rule of three

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWFujuasmUo

RIP C Lee

i know he was 93 but i kind of assumed christopher lee was going to live forever - really sad news. wonder if we'll finally find out what he got up to in the secret service in wwii now?

Be careful what you wish for:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0OfbVRRDMDA/maxresdefault.jpg

i for one welcome our new immortal overlord christopher lee

Ornette Coleman, apparently. What a day...

what the hell. rip ornette :(

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ornette-coleman-dead-20150611-column.html

This bears repeating, loudly and frequently:

“Now I didn’t call the music I was doing ‘free jazz,’” Coleman told the Tribune in 2003. “Someone [at the Atlantic record label] named it that, put a Jackson Pollack painting on it and called it ‘Free Jazz.’”

aw fuck

Zapf Dingbat guy?

Morbs close enough, his fault

Pioneering cookery broadcaster Marguerite Patten

the american dream

:(

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/2980664/dusty-rhodes-dances-o.gif

Pioneering cookery broadcaster Marguerite Patten

One of those great misheard lyrics (or not?) was I always thought that's who Lou mentioned in "Run run run"

country singer Randy 'All American Redneck' Howard (wanted on multiple charges of DUI and possessing a firearm while intoxicated) shot to death in a gunfight with an unlicensed bail enforcement agent

America

NASA Gemini/Apollo launch commentator Jack King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4OBKOlgmfo

America

― rallizes mcguire (unregistered), Saturday, 13 June 2015 18:35 (Yesterday)

Did you mean 'MURRICA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯'?

only just found out via the radio that Ron Moody and James Last have died in the last couple of days, what a crappy week

Madame Carven

Blaze Starr, Baltimore burlesque queen

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-blaze-starr-20150615-story.html#page=1

http://www.wmur.com/entertainment/mighty-sam-mcclain-grammynominated-blues-singer-from-nh-dies/33610568

I saw the Louisiana-raised Mcclain do a great special show where he dueted with Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat. They put an album out together too.

Tenko scriptwriter Jill Hyem

Jack Rollins, manager-producer of Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May, Robin Williams etc

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/obituaries/jack-rollins-dies-at-100-sharpened-talent-like-woody-allens.html

(oh and exec producer for Letterman's Late Night)

Rick Ducommun, who had some pretty memorable small roles in big movies and was iirc really excellent in The 'Burbs.

:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Z2SxEuuQ0

Not seeing an obit yet, but Alligator Records is reporting that Wendell Holmes, soulful singer/guitarist of the the Holmes Brothers band has passed on at age 72.

http://touch.dailypress.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83793598/

Earlier this year, the group's drummer Popsy Dixon died.

Sherman Holmes, 75, said it has been a tough year for him emotionally.

"It has taken a toll on me," he said. "I miss them so much. I miss Popsy, and I miss being with my brother. It's not the same, even though I'll carry it on. It’s just that I feel lonely. When I go on the road without them there, it's very lonely."

One of the Bs in BBS Productions:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/steve-blauner-dead-dies-easy-rider-five-easy-pieces-1201522567/

james salter

:(

Alan Almond, host of Detroit soft-rock radio program Pillow Talk (syndicated throughout the country as well), known for his almost comically deep voice and melodramatic delivery.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/alan-almond-longtime-detroitarea-host-of-popular-nighttime-radio-show-pillow-talk-dies/33625584

Composer & "Third Stream" theorist Gunther Schuller: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/22/arts/music/gunther-schuller-composer-who-synthesized-classical-and-jazz-dies-at-89.html

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/06/harold_battiste_dies.html

Harold Battiste, New Orleans saxophonist, composer and educator, dies at 83

Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 19, 2015 at 12:01 PM, updated June 19, 2015 at 10:42 PM

Harold Battiste Jr., the prolific saxophonist, pianist, producer, arranger and educator who helped shape music in New Orleans and beyond for more than six decades, died early Friday (June 19) after a lengthy illness. He was 83.

Mr. Battiste founded A.F.O. Records, the first New Orleans label owned by musicians, which released Barbara George's 1961 hit "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)." He collaborated with Sam Cooke on two of the soul star's landmark singles. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, he served as Sonny and Cher's musical director, and helped launch Dr. John's career.

In 1989, he returned to New Orleans and joined the jazz studies faculty at the University of New Orleans, mentoring and inspiring countless students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/22/arts/music/gunther-schuller-composer-who-synthesized-classical-and-jazz-dies-at-89.html?_r=0

Gunther Schuller, composer/performer who worked extensively with the Modern Jazz Quarter, among many others.

(I found this out via a note from my wife, because Schuller was the commencement speaker at the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 15, marking the shortest time -- 36days -- between CIM booking a speaker and their death. Previously CIM has been responsible for killing Marvin Hamlisch [555 days] and Van Cliburn [284 days].)

Noted above.

Laura Antonelli, film star (Visconti’s The Innocent and Ettore Scola’s Passion of Love)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/laura-antonelli-dead-italian-actress-804183

James Horner, plane crash

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-horner-dead-titanic-composer-804365

shit

our hearts will go on

(sorry)

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/breakingnews/ci_28362171/don-featherstone-creator-pink-flamingo-lawn-ornament-dies

I hope Horner stipulated in his will that his funeral should be accompanied by the climactic music cue from Aliens.

wouldn't be the first time he'd repurposed his own music

he was mega guilty of that for sure, but real talk he was also mega guilty of making some of the most colorful & ecstatic orchestral music of the last 30 years

couldn't resist the cheap gag but yeah i've enjoyed plenty of his scores

and he was in a good place rn -- his latest, for annaud's Wolf Totem, is fantastic

Dick Van Patten! R.I.P.

86 is enough (another distasteful joke, heard on the radio this morning).

Seeing foreign reports that actress/singer Magali Noël (worked with Fellini, Costa Gravas, Ackerman) has passed.

Patrick Macnee

:(

:-(

Farewell Mr. Steed

Have never seen the Avengers but know the dude as Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg in "Spinal Tap": "And so say all of us... 'tap' into America!"

RIP

Regnad Kcin

I wonder where Ruth is?

Jack Carter, from some long-gone world I shared with my parents in front of the TV.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/29/comedian-jack-carter-dies-93

The Jack Carter interviews on Classic TV Showbiz are so great:
http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-with-jack-carter-part-eight.html

i can't believe he did a production of Fiddler on the Roof

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/television/jack-carter-comedian-who-brought-his-rapid-fire-delivery-to-tv-dies-at-93.html

Leonard Starr, creator of the great On Stage comic strip:

http://www.newsfromme.com/2015/06/30/leonard-starr-r-i-p/

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4019/4647796115_cceb846ecd_z.jpg

Architect Donald Wexler, Palm Springs Mid-Century Modernist.

http://curbed.com/archives/2015/07/01/donald-wexler-retrospective.php

Val Doonican, Irish crooner, cardigans, rocking chair

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33363938

:-(

Theodore Weesner, novelist. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/books/theodore-weesner-author-of-the-car-thief-dies-at-79.html

Read his terrific _The Car Thief_ last year, but I'm not at all familiar with his other work.

Sergio Sollima, director of The Big Gundown

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/rip-spaghetti-western-director-sergio-sollima-20150702

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRo6YVN48lI

Those Wexler homes are all kinds of gorgeous. Houses of that style with those floor-to-ceiling windows simply don't exist on the east coast mid-Atlantic, and steel framing is all too rare (as every fire reminds us).

Burt of Burt's Bees

Producer Jerry Weintraub, 77.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-weintraub-dead-producer-dies-806941

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amanda-peterson-dead-cant-buy-806971

Actress Amanda Peterson, best known for the 1987 romantic comedy Can't Buy Me Love, has died. She was 43.

Her father told TMZ the actress was found it her Greeley, Colo. home on Sunday. He said and official cause of death is unknown, but that "she had some illness and a sleep apnea problem that may have contributed."

Masabumi Kikuchi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jAEetkw6vU

ken 'the snake' stabler

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/06/acid-house-music-innovator-charanjit-singh-dies-aged-74

the kenny stabler report has been retracted

Poet James Tate:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/friends_colleagues_mourn_passi.html

xpost: it's unretracted & now confirmed by his family + Oakland

;_;

commence the Coors-ing

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13230192/ken-stabler-former-oakland-raiders-quarterback-dies

Pour one out...

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/1935/482980_1.jpg?v=8C659044AE31270

https://themoviejudge.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ryan-gosling-thumbs-up.gif

Christian Audigier

RIP Omar Sharif

Awww RIP

Very sad. RIP.

beautiful man rip

very sad, RIP

My contemporaries and classmates included King Hussein of Jordan, several Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi boys who were to become ministers, prime ministers and leading businessmen, as well as such glamorous figures as Michel Shalhoub, head prefect of the school and chief tormentor when I was a relatively junior boy, whom everyone has seen on screen as Omar Sharif.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n09/edward-said/between-worlds

http://playbill.com/news/article/roger-rees-stage-actor-made-famous-by-nicholas-nickleby-dies-at-71-351533

Roger Rees, famous to fans of the theater and also to fans of Cheers. R.I.P.

Oh yikes, Robin Colcourt!

He was great in West Wing too

Lord John Marbury and Robin Colcord two brilliant characters from two of my favourite ever TV shows :-(

he and his partner were in the nyer a few years ago: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/backstory-2

sad

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo and programmer of Earthbound, Kirby, Balloon Fight etc etc

RIP Iwata, you were more important to me than you should've been

RIP

Scottish photographer Joseph McKenzie

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-33537969

Hearing that Aubrey Morris has died, can't find any news agency verification yet.

Yep, heard that from someone who works at the BFI.

The Guardian has it: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/16/aubrey-morris

was all like 'he looks familiar' but couldn't place him. then wikipedia delivers:

the dimwitted Golgafrinchan captain who was eternally taking a bath

Entertaining memoir of Aubrey Morris here - my favourite bit:

The following day I called and got his answering machine. We played phone tag for a day or so until I finally caught him at home. This first conversation I had with him was slightly uncomfortable because of what he managed to say within the first few seconds of chatting…. “Oh before we go on are you planning to bugger me?..I mean, it’s been so long since I’ve had a really good shag.”

http://69.195.124.61/~filmsinr/2009/05/05/camp-david-may-2009-aubrey-morris/

Alex Rocco aka Moe Greene aka Charlie Polniaczek has died aged 79 according to his daughter's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206450487294272&set=a.1112250699766.17825.1631869925&type=1&permPage=1

rip Moe

According to her, Alex's favorite tv show role was the one he had on The George Carlin Show. I buy it, but I'd just as easily have bought it if it was his least favorite. Spending that much time with Carlin seems like it could go either way.

His one scene in The Godfather (technically he has two counting his death) is endlessly quotable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DZNDEqcSi0

He was also Roger Meyers, chairman of Itchy and Scratchy

RIP Ms. Melodie
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rap-pioneer-ramona-parker-aka-ms-melodie-member-boogie-productions-ex-wife-krs-one-dead-43-article-1.1117356

too young :(

Why did I think that Alex Rocco had died a week or two ago? Was he in the news for some other reason?

Ms Melodie died 3 years ago..

My bad, should've fact checked that

That's some obit, though.

“RIP Ms. Melodie. A dope MC,” tweeted hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, using a slang term that means top-notch.

George Coe, voice of Woodhouse on "Archer" season 1-4. Co-directed the Bergman parody "The Dove."

And original SNL cast member (sorta)!

Elio Fiorucci.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/fashion_luxury/2015/07/20/fashion-designer-elio-fiorucci-is-dead_cc03303f-e899-44b2-a446-79066d22681f.html

xp yeah, no excuse just not thinking

Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg, 28
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150720/ARTICLES/150729990

Dieter Moebius

https://www.facebook.com/michaelrother.music/posts/10153008205291186

Aw.

Wayne Carson, songwriter. Most famous for "Always on My Mind" and "The Letter."

Jesus, not a good night. :((((

Now I'm going to have to interrupt my playing of Moebius to play the Box Tops' "You Keep Tightening Up On Me" :(

Also wrote "Soul Deep."

Take care of yourselves, Wayne Jackson and Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Woman.