Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Mike Flanagan

Former MLB pitcher and broadcaster -- via USA Today. A Cy Young Award winner, All-Star and World Series ring holder -- one of the best pitchers in recent times.

Michael Showers

Actor -- via WWLTV.

Ross Barbour

Ross Barbour, the last surviving member of the original vocalise group the Four Freshmen, is pictured far leftV
Vocalist and musician; last of the original Four Freshmen -- via the New York Times.

Vilem Sokol

Conductor, violist and professor of music -- via the Seattle Times.

Scott Wannberg

Poet -- via the L.A. Times. Here's a nice quote from him: "If humanity had the big answers, it would probably stop scratching under its underwear and actually take time out to smell the nice coffee breeze going by in that unilateral moment of music that we are all made of. Because people are just too hung up on not listening to the music that actually is there. If they had the answers to the big questions, they could follow the music to the dance hall that never closes."

Vicco von Bulow aka Loriot aka Bernhard Victor Christoph Carl von Bülow

Comedian and cartoonist -- via the Washington Post.

Todd Green, Jon Egging, Bryan Jensen

Todd Green -- report here.
John Egging -- report here.
Bryan Jensen - report here.
Aerial stunt artists -- via the Detroit News, Daily Mail and the Kansas City Star. Green fell while wing-walking; Egging and Jensen will killed in plane crashes. The tragic trio of events took place at air shows last weekend. Fatalities at these events are actually relatively rare. No, I will not post video of their deaths!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Kamal El-Shennawi

Film actor -- via Almasry Alyoum.

Samir Chanda

Art director -- via the Times of India.

Reza Badyi

Filmmaker, and prolific TV director -- via the L.A. Times.

George Hendry

Member of the Table Tennis Hall of Fame -- via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Christine Cole Catley

Journalist, publisher and author -- via the Marlborough Express.

John Howard Davies

TV comedy producer/director, and child actor -- via the Telegraph. This remarkable man started his career as David Lean's Oliver Twist --

Eventually, he worked his way into comedy at the BBC. He directed the first episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus," and produced and directed "The Good Life," "Fawlty Towers," "Yes, Minister," "Not the Nine o'Clock News," "Mr. Bean" and many more (including the pilot for "Blackadder".)

Monday, August 22, 2011

Nickolas Ashford

Songwriter and performer -- via AP. With his wife Valerie Simpson, he wrote some of Motown's greatest hits -- first, "Let's Go Get Stoned," then "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need to Get By," "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand," and "Destination: Anywhere." Later, they wrote songs such as "I'm Every Woman" and "Solid."



Jerry Leiber aka Jerome Leiber

Lyricist -- via the L.A. Times. One of the great lyricists of the 20th century, he formed the rock 'n' roll/r 'n' b/soul songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller. Among his greatest works are:"Hound Dog," "Kansas City," "Searchin'", "Yakety Yak," "There Goes My Baby," "Love Me," "Jailhouse Rock," "Charlie Brown," "Stand by Me," "On Broadway," "Ruby Baby," "Is That All There Is?", "Love Potion #9," "Poison Ivy," "Riot in Cell Block Number 9," and "Santa Claus is Back in Town." Their music is golden, just absolutely wonderful. We still sing it today.



Ruth Brinker

Founded Project Open Hand, the first program to bring food and comfort to those housebound by their struggle with HIV/AIDS -- via the Bay Area Reporter.

Larry "the Legend" Johnson aka Aaron Rockwell Johnson

Radio personality -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Beverly Whitney Kean

Arts detective and scholar, and actress -- via the Telegraph.

David Holbrook

Writer, teacher and scholar -- via the Independent.

Paul "P.K." Worley

Patriarch of theatrical family -- via the Denver Post.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Jimmy Sangster

Screenwriter, filmmaker -- via Twitch. Really, one of my horror heroes -- one of the prime movers in the history of Hammer horror, along with Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Roy Ashton, Bernard Robinson, James Bernard, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley. With no experience, faced with the strictures of reinventing classic horror icons, he wrote the screenplays for "The Curse of Frankenstein," "The Horror of Dracula," "The Mummy," "The Crawling Eye," "Paranoiac," and many other Second Wave horror greats. He even directed cheesy delights such as "Lust for a Vampire" and "The Horror of Frankenstein." Here's a wonderful profile of him from Cinema Retro. Cheers to him -- he took a well-worn genre and helped revitalize it!






Louise Behrend

Violinist and teacher -- via the Washington Post.

Elbert "El" Gray

Anti-violence activist -- via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Akiko Futaba

Singer -- via Kyodo News. One of the top three female vocalists in Japan after World War II. A native of Hiroshima, she narrowly escaped annihilation on Aug. 6, 1945, when the train she was riding went into a tunnel moments before the atomic bomb exploded, destroying her city.

From the Kitsap Sun: "A tribute to a worthwhile habit"

A lovely think-piece by Rob Woutat on the power, utility and beauty of well-written obituaries -- via the Kitsap Sun.

Gualtiero Jacopetti

Filmmaker -- via the New York Times. Best known as the father of the shockumentary, with his 1962 hit "Mondo Cane." It spawned a subgenre of film that purported to focus on true-life, gruesome and strnage aspects of world culture, life and death. It also brought us the Oscar-winning theme/love song, "More," strangely enough.

Raoul Ruiz

Filmmaker -- via Indiewire.




Robert Breer

Avant-garde animator - via the New York Times. His influence extended to talents as diverse as Stan Brakhage and Terry Gilliam.



Betty Thatcher aka Betty Thatcher Newsinger

Lyricist -- via Renaissance blog. A vital contributor to '70s prog-rock band Renaissance, whose sound and philosophy entranced us during the period, and contributed mightily to the marijuana intake of the time's teenage population.



Joel Chin

Reggae producer -- via Billboard.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Robert L. "Bob" Will

Former MLB player for the Cubs -- via legacy.com.

Jeffrey Ash

Broadway adman and producer -- via Broadway World.

Sif Ruud aka Sif Einarsdotter Ruud Fallde

Actress -- via svd.se. Her career began on stage in 1934; she appeared most memorably in the Bergman films "Wild Strawberries," "The Magician," "Face to Face" and the Bergman-scripted "The Best Intentions."

Topi Sorsakoski aka Pekka Erkki Juhani Tammilehto

Singer -- via iltasanomat.fi.

Joe Trimble

Former MLB pitcher -- via baseball-fever.com.