Rolling Obituary Thread 2024

David Wilkie, 70: 200m breaststroke gold in Montreal '76, and double world champ:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/articles/c3ggndekv8lo

Oh wow. RIP.

i have a photo, somewhere, of 11 year old me, puny, pasty, sat next to bronzed Olympic gold-winner David Wilkie after doing a sponsored swim.

Yeah, he was the face of "ok kids, swimming is great!" back in the day. Before that, it was Rolf Harris.

Kabosu of Doge meme fame, age 18

a decent innings then

Shiba Inus are, overall, a very healthy breed with an average lifespan of 13–16 years

Morgan Spurlock, 53

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/24/super-size-me-director-morgan-spurlock-dies-aged-53

REALLY.

Younger than I thought...

this is the perfect ending for Super Size Me 2 though

Greg Philo of the Glasgow University Media Group

bob schick of richmond, va bands honor role/coral/dynamic truths etc.

:-(

One of my all-time favorite songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abzP3Y1BBSU

RIP Bob

big influence on drive like jehu iirc?

Caleb Carr, the son of the Beat poet Lucien Carr who endured a traumatizing childhood and became a bestselling novelist, accomplished military historian and late-life memoirist of his cat, Masha, has died at 68.

There's part of me that wonders "if you're going to die of cancer at 53, isn't it OK to enjoy every Big Mac along the way?"

yeah, I don't think a month of McD's is what killed him, he shoulda kept going with it

Ah man, sad news about Carr. The Alienist is a hell of a book.

Yeah RIP Carr. Alienist is an all-time great, for sure.

Had no idea about the range of his career, his wiki is a good read, "During this period, he published his first nationally noticed broadside: a long indictment, published on the letters page of The New York Times, of Henry Kissinger's foreign policy"

xpost RIP. Great book.

Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly, 78. RIP Mr One Riff Guy, it was a good riff though.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/doug-ingle-iron-butterfly-dead/

Golfer Grayson Murray, 30.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/may/25/grayson-murray-golfer-death-obituary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDC1w1ydLI

Richard M. Sherman, 95, writer (with his brother) of “It’s a Small World (After All)” many other Disney songs, also Ringo’s “You’re Sixteen”

jesus i had no idea he was still alive!

Bill Walton, at 71. Fuck cancer.

RIP

Walton's giddy pride at being a full-on Deadhead was quite endearing.

https://x.com/GratefulDead/status/1750943121888977275?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Damnit, Elon...

a true original, we’ll never see his like again

also was pretty damn amazing at basketball

Wow. I think I was watching when Notre Dame ended UCLA's winning streak. (Checked, and it was a Saturday, the one day when you'd get collage basketball in 1974.) Looking it up, Walton made 12 of 14 field goals that game.

his 1973 title game performance is probably still the most famous individual game in college basketball history: 21/22 from the field, 44 points

"The checks bounced higher than the basketballs when Donald Sterling took over. The basketball was awful, and the business side was immoral, dishonest, corrupt, and illegal. Other than that, it was all fine."

RIP, you amazingly talented and goofily endearing weirdo

he used to attend the Bridge School Benefit concerts in SF sometimes - I saw him once
& he was just the smiliest most gigantic hippie you ever saw <3

One of the most talented players of his generation, whose pro career was sadly truncated by injuries. He was always himself, though, always real. He will be missed.

oh man, Big Bill, love that guy

love that big smiling weirdo so much

throw it down, big man

Film Producer Al Ruddy

https://deadline.com/2024/05/al-ruddy-dead-godfather-million-dollar-baby-1235942541/

The Ruddy-Hal Needham commentary track for Cannonball Run is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5NSmTD_mUw

Albert S. Ruddy produced Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin, and for that alone I will be eternally grateful

Am glad someone cited that commentary track, it is almost as funny as the movie - two good old boys repeatedly crowing "We could make this film today, same script, and it would still be a hit" over scene after scene of Adrienne Barbeau escaping speeding tickets by unzipping her top and revealing her cleavage.

"When in doubt -- blow something up!"

Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama, 86.

Scott Wampler - writer, critic & cohost of Kingcast pocast (i was a big fan, very sad loss)
https://deadline.com/2024/05/scott-wampler-dead-co-host-kingcast-podcast-stephen-king-1235946222/

he did a very funny interview in 2019 with Rian Johnson that I love where he started out with questions he didn’t get to ask Rob Zombie
https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/09/27/and-now-an-intimate-conversation-with-rian-johnson.html

I must admit I wasn’t aware of him until today, but reading stuff like the Rian Johnson interview makes me wish I’d known of him earlier.

Kingcast was great: highly recommend the Bryan Fuller guest episodes as they are fittingly crazy & interesting & insanely long lol

Mark Gormley!! Apparently he passed away a week ago. A songwriter in the 70's, he passed up a career in music in order to join the military, then decided to record his songs 30 years later, along with some truly incredible low-budget videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87nkJquHnAU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9J65j2GNzw

this dude became a meme for obvious reasons but I'll be damned if I didn't like his music. dude could sing too. and his power stance was legendary. rest in peace king.