Rolling Obituary Thread 2024

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jun/02/rob-burrow-leeds-scrum-half-dies-41-mnd-rugby-league Rob Burrow, rugby league player but latterly better known for fundraising for MND following his diagnosis.

Colin Gibb of Black Lace fame

https://www.nme.com/news/music/agadoo-black-lace-icon-colin-gibb-dies-age-70-3761882

Ed Mann, Zappa sideman/percussionist.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/ed-mann-frank-zappa-dead/

xp slow minor key "Agadoo" at the funeral or gtfo

Agadagio

nfl hall of famer and former cowboy larry allen, 52. probably the best offensive lineman of his era, and a true weight room legend

Sam Butcher, the "artist" who created the Precious Moments series of Christian kitsch figurines, 85.

Sam Butcher, the soft-spoken artist whose doe-eyed, pastel-hued porcelain Precious Moments figurines ignited a global collecting frenzy and made him a wealthy man, and whose Christian faith spurred him to build his own version of the Sistine Chapel in Carthage, Mo., died on May 20 at his home there. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by his son Jon.

Mr. Butcher was the Michelangelo of Missouri, and his adorable snub-nosed Precious Moments characters were “the Beanie Babies of porcelain,” as The Wall Street Journal once put it. Their zealous collectors, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands, built rooms for their Precious Moments figurines, convened in regional clubs and made pilgrimages to Carthage, where they slept in the Precious Moments motel or the R.V. park, marveled at the Precious Moments Fountain of the Angels, dined in the Precious Moments food courts and wandered the 30-acre grounds. (Carthage also hosted Precious Moments weddings.)

For a time, the Precious Moments Care-a-Van — an 18-wheeler kitted out like a museum, filled with figurines and dioramas that told Mr. Butcher’s life story — toured the country. There were hundreds and hundreds of Precious Moments licensees, which made hats, keychains, watches, greeting cards, books and a children’s Bible. At the company’s peak, in 1996 and 1997, Precious Moments’ global retail sales reached over $500 million each year, a stunning amount for a man who was once so poor that he struggled to buy groceries for his seven children.

xpost oh no :(

William Russell, British actor best known as Ian Chesterton in Doctor Who from the very beginning to The Chase, and his most recent cameo in 2022 setting a world record for character duration. Would have made a century in 6 months time.

Brother Marquis from 2 Live Crew

Jeanette Charles, 96, impersonator of Queen Elizabeth II on TV and the big screen including The Naked Gun.

... people you thought were dead. Outlived Liz at least.

I wonder if Jeannette Charles is the only lookalike to have published an autobiography? Maybe some Elvis impersonators have (impersonator not exactly the same thing as a lookalike, though)

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3f748b_e57ae88fe3344a188767f8382139615c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_320,h_495,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/sts_jeannette_charles_book.png

the guy who played Gorbachev in The Naked Gun and Rocky IV had to branch out into playing non-Gorbachev parts post-1991, having exclusively played Gorbachev up until that point. It looks like Charles didn't have any credited roles playing anyone except the Queen, aside from an episode of Mind Your Language where she plays a woman who looks like the Queen

I wonder if Jeannette Charles is the only lookalike to have published an autobiography?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Was_Monty%27s_Double

William Russell was superb in the early Doctor Who. RIP to a well liked legend.

Aw, RIP Ian Chesterton.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/janis-paige-dead-silk-stockings-pajama-game-1235914085/

Stage/screen/TV actress Janis Paige, 101.

Harold Snoad, UK sitcom producer and director. Most famous for his Croft & Perry work, Bosom Manor and Keeping Up Appearances.

That's a name I have seen on screen a lot. Like Ken Morse.

Yeah, Ken Morse is *everywhere*.

Nicholas Ball, very versatile and experienced British actor who got his leading day in the sun with Hazel (but was in loads of comedy things including the Young Ones as well). Also the guy Pamela Stephenson left for Billy Connolly.

*Hazell*

Ranch Sironi, bassist for stoner rock band Nebula. He was a replacement for the band's original bassist, who died 9 months ago.

Sadly not a surprise, but being reported that the body of broadcaster Dr Michael Mosley has been found in Greece.

The body was found next to a fence, about 30 metres from the beach, and would have been visible from the beach.

there was a huge 5 day search effort and sounds like he died in plain sight

Jesus. Never saw a single thing the guy was in but that's very sad.