Rolling Obituary Thread 2025

Wayne Osmond, 73, of the Osmonds

also

Russ North, 59, former singer of Clover Hoof, and runner-up to replace Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden.

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

Jocelyn Wildenstein has sadly used up the last of the 9 lives

Pippa Garner, whose work i only encountered for the first time at the most recent hammer museum biennial

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/pippa-garner-dead-1234729124/

David Lodge

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2025/01/david-lodge-obituary

Someone who felt everywhere when I was an Eng Lit teenager, & I read and enjoyed the campus trilogy, but then never anything else.

Britt Allcroft, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine.

RIP, David Lodge. Read most of what he wrote through the campus trilogy and then a few things after that. Seem him give a reading from Paradise News at Books, Inc. on the Upper East Side when it came out.

I gave up on him after his terrible book ‘Thinks…’. He was good when he was at his peak, but he couldn’t seem to shake off his rather tiresome obsessions in his later work.

Yeah, he became a bit of an old bore, sorry to say.

Adam Roberts said it better in his review of his H.G. Wells book.

Mick Hobbs of the Work, Officer! And other This Heat type adjacent arty stuff.

Soulman Brenton Wood

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/brenton-wood-dead-the-oogum-boogum-song-soul-singer-1236265160/

"CheckOutTheBootsEh CheckOutTheBootsEh CheckOutTheBootsEh"

Heh, Adam Roberts wrote something nice about David Lodge in his new(ish) substack and now says his H.G. Wells book is “better than its reputation.”

Jeff Baena, 47, filmmaker and Aubrey Plaza’s husband

Absolutely tragic. Reports suggest it was suicide

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world's oldest person according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

https://abc7news.com/post/is-oldest-person-alive-tomiko-itooka-japanese-woman-was-worlds-116-has-died/15751689/

I wish I could have the extra years now, not when I'm 112

The Jeff Baena thing is mind wrecking

The Vivienne, winner of Rupaul's Drag Race UK Season One, 32.

this is just awful

Experimental playwright and one of the real heroes of the Downtown scene, Richard Foreman.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/theater/richard-foreman-dead.html

Per a post from Steven Krakow just now on FB, ESP-Disk veteran/painter Ed Askew, who had a good second run these past twenty five years with a full series of albums following the debut back in 1968.

xp wow i was just talking about Richard Foreman with someone the other day. learned about his work from my favorite college professor who had us read pages from some of his scripts. RF more or less retired from theater while i was living in nyc; sad i never got to see any of his productions, they seemed like quite the trip.

Think I only ever got over to see one production of his, which I enjoyed, but always found him interesting and intriguing. RIP.

Per a post from Steven Krakow just now on FB, ESP-Disk veteran/painter Ed Askew, who had a good second run these past twenty five years with a full series of albums following the debut back in 1968.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, January 5, 2025 4:00 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I shared a bill with him at a Greenpoint loft party about ten years ago now— Ka Baird introduced him. Tons of people came out despite what was essentially a hurricane going on outside. He was a lovely person, chatted with him for a while. RIP.

"Goin' Down" Dude Don Nix

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/01/01/don-nix-obituary-stax-artist-songwriter-producer/77388086007/

Alfa Anderson, the lead singer of Chic from 1978-1983, aged 78

https://ra.co/news/81880

Alfa Anderson passed in 2024 and already posted on the old thread.

oops i missed that!

Mike Rinder, 69, ex-Scientologist and Leah Remini’s co-host on several shows.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French fascist, 96

good

Good riddance.

God that fucker was still hanging around, huh

Gunvor Nelson, one of the greatest experimental filmmakers. would encourage everyone to seek out red shift

Reuters describing him as an unabashed nationalist (not like those many meek, humble ones) and a 'pugnacious mix of populism, eloquence and charisma'.

🤮🤮🤮

Fascist ghouls tend to live forever unfortunately, or what seems like it. Unless they're shot and hung upside down from a lamppost first of course.

"oh I'm angin from a lamppost at the corner of the street .."

© Alexei Sayle

Peter Yarrow, 86

Wow!

Aww, the Italian 'Robinson Crusoe' Mauro Morandi has died... they killed him when they forced him off his island

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/07/hermit-guardian-budelli-island-off-sardinia-dies

Beej Chaney from Minneapolis greats the Suburbs:

https://www.startribune.com/beej-chaney-suburbs-death-guitarist/601203171

I just bumped the Suburbs thread to post this. I’m really sad.

RIP Pete Yarrow bc Peter Paul & Mary were a childhood cornerstone … but it’s hard to square that with the fact that Carter pardoned him for his ~admitted~ sexual assault of a 14yo girl and not scream into the void

Just read this now. So weird--I was in a theatre yesterday rewatching A Complete Unknown (Yarrow's in there two or three times, including the guy who reintroduces Dylan for his crowd-calming acoustic number at Newport '65). Fan from childhood too; didn't know about the assault at all.

apparently there may have been other incidents

https://web.archive.org/web/20210517122113/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/17/peter-yarrow-carter-pardon-assault/

wow just read some of that, he was puff the magic scumbag

aw.

apparently she went on to get a veterinary degree in the 90s

Her attitude toward over my childhood.

In my hazy memory, that was an early 80's show, but it was indeed 1970s: 1976-1979

(I'm sure I saw it in after school syndication)

have just recently been re-watching episodes of what's happening now and again. She was the (not quite) silent star of the show. LOVE her acting and she had all the punch lines. RIP

awww Dee

Saw that on Instagram; jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, who I follow, is her younger brother.

In my hazy memory, that was an early 80's show, but it was indeed 1970s: 1976-1979

(I'm sure I saw it in after school syndication)

“What’s Happening Now” was the 80s reboot, which she was also in.

I was def raised in reruns in the early 80s because I would watch shows after school. What’s Happening, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley I would think of as being 1985 because that’s when I was watching them in reruns.

For sure. After school was for cartoons and reruns (and Rerun), then a break for dinner and the news, and then all the good prime-time shit like Cheers or Knight Rider. And then "Dallas" would come on, I would listen to the great disco theme, then turn off the TV.

chaka brah.. up there with the big kahuna

Dale Webster, the Northern California surfer who paddled out every day for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 77. News of his death was shared on social media by friends and fellow surfers. No cause of death was given.

Known as Daily Dale and Daily Wavester, Webster holds a Guinness world record for the longest streak of consecutive days surfed: an extraordinary 14,642, a stretch that began in 1975 and ended in 2015. His feat required him to surf at least three waves a day, rain or shine, in sickness or in health, through frigid Pacific waters and the shark-rich lineup off Sonoma County.

Scottish comedian Gary Little

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yp959n0reo

A friend of my sister's, going back years.

An absolute stalwart of the Glasgow comedy scene. RIP

Dan Tana, founder of the iconic namesake restaurant in West Hollywood

https://variety.com/2025/scene/news/dan-tana-dead-hollywood-restaurant-1236491267/

Louis Naidorf, Designer of Hollywood’s Capitol Records Building, Dies at 96

https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/17703-louis-naidorf-designer-of-hollywoods-capitol-records-building-dies-at-96

Terence Stamp! A big name down.

oh wow! legend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9yuGEux_OI

Priscilla 2 was in pre-production too, I think :(

Tell him I'm coming!

RIP.

Saw him introduce POOR COW once at BAM. He told a funny story about his Rolls Royce.

RIP. Elevated pretty much everything he was ever in.

As mentioned elsewhere, he was a fine customer at our local farmer’s market for many years (and put cash into a gluten free bread maker who had a stall there for years). Also, a friend of mine published a book for him a few years ago and said he was utterly fantastic company.

Legend down! RIP.

Fucking fantastic comment from a Discord I'm on: "He was so hot you'd have an existential crisis if he stayed over at your place."

He hosted a season of the steamy horror series The Hunger (Bowie hosted s2). He looked like he was making the most of it instead of just slumming it. Both seasons on Tubi. Late ‘90s, so some “before they made it” cast sightings. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0118346/episodes/

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/cf27/live/9edb3430-7b63-11f0-9ae5-8b78450e5cf0.jpg

Ronnie Rondell Jr, stuntman famously set alight for the Wish You Were Here cover, 88
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05e0z9lj3mo

RIP Toby Dammit! Legend!

Joe Caroff at 103. You know his work.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/joe-caroff-dead-designer-james-bond-007-logo-1236346509/

Fucking fantastic comment from a Discord I'm on: "He was so hot you'd have an existential crisis if he stayed over at your place."

― Ned Raggett

Because he might murder you.

Roffle

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/fringe-wearing-wyoming-trial-lawyer-gerry-spence-dies-at-96/ar-AA1KxOTx

Attorney Gerry Spence, 96.

And now to namedrop in my particularly DC way: 1) One lunchtime on Metrorail, he tried to chat me up; and 2) When I was working for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, I met an obstetrician who had been sued for malpractice by Spence. His memories of Spence in the courtroom were not pleasant.

Nor should they have been, under circumstances. (I wouldn't want my attorney gettin' all pleasant w such a defendant).

Accordion Legend Flaco Jimenez, 86

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMzH5yqMGn2🕸/

Didn't know Gerry Spence was the lawyer on the Karen Silkwood case; I remember him as part of Larry King's nightly O.J. panel.

Graham Fenton of Matchbox

https://www.vintagerockmag.com/2025/08/graham-fenton-matchbox-frontman-and-british-rockabilly-legend-dies/

I am quite content with this news:

https://apnews.com/article/james-dobson-obituary-focus-on-family-51a9dbf50e26eaee2ac01d457e9d46aa

choked on God's phallus

Phallus on the Family

ugh the memories of being driven around by my grandmother in the 80 with that shit on the radio

Why do these assholes live so long, why can’t they all have the lifespan of Lee Atwater

Brent Hinds formerly of Mastodon, 51
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/08/21/former-guitarist-co-founder-heavy-metal-band-mastodon-dies-atlanta-motorcycle-crash/

insane timing, tragic

fuck

damn

damn that's awful

jeez

Forgive me if this has already been shared

https://defector.com/james-dobson-is-dead-was-a-monster

Also RIP Brent Hinds

Hey, a fitting obituary for that pile of shit James Dobson.