Saturday, September 27, 2014

Don Keefer

Great character actor -- via the New York Times. Instantly recognizable to my generation, Keefer racked almost 200 film and television credits between 1947 and 1997. First on stage, he played Roderigo in a revival of the Robeson/Hagen/Ferrer "Othello," and was the firstBernard in "Death of a Salesman." On film, he was in everything. He played a dcotor in "Sleeper," and in "Candy Stripe Nurses." His most indelible appearance was on the "It's a Good Life" episode of "The Twilight Zone," in which Billy Mumy turns him into a horrifying jack in the box before killing him.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/440799



Peggy Drake

The psychological implications of this publicity photograph are stunning.
Dancer and actress -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com. AKA Peggy Akers AKA Liselotte Mayer. She debuted in "Too Many Girls," a film old enough to have a Rodgers and Hart score -- introducing Desi Arnaz, who brought us the conga and fell in love with Lucille Ball.



Her big hit came as the leading lady in the wartime "Rocky" Lane serial, "King of the Mounties," in which our hero fights one evil Japanese admiral, a German marshal, and an Italian count, and Douglas Dumbrille. (Take note, character-actor lovers: in this serial you get Duncan Renaldo, Francis Ford, Jay Novello, and the fabulous "King Kong," Kashey, the Syrian wrestling phenom turned thespian.



Somebody had to make these programmers, full of "mirth and melody" or mindless action. Peggy Drake was one of them, and she did it well.



Michael McCarty

Actor on stage and screen -- via the Hollywood Reporter.


Galina Kolonvalova

Actress -- via mk.ru.

Jim Deva

LGBT activist -- via the Advocate.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2527244751/

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Gilles Latulippe

Madis Koiv

Writer -- via Postimees.

Cecilia Cenci

Actress -- via tn.com.ar.

Daniel Reynek

Photographer -- via aktualne.cz.


Rodney Milgate

Painter, playwright, and broadcaster -- via the Sydney Morning Herald.


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Assheton Gorton

Film production designer -- via the Hollywood Reporter. A pretty amazing talent, to judge by his range -- he started off as art director on "The Knack" and "Blow-Up" -- not too shabby. The ensuing list is impressive: Richard Lester's end-of-the-world farce "The Bed Sitting Room," "The Magic Christian," George Englund's bizarre hippie Western "Zachariah," "Get Carter," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Legend," the ill-fated "Revolution," "For the Boys," "Rob Roy," "Shadow of the Vampire." Not all good -- but each was wildly different from the rest, and each had excellent production design. An underappreciated artist.

Debo Mitford

Duchess and estate entrepreneur; writer, farmer -- via the New York Times. AKA Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford, AKA Deborah Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. One of the extraordinary, strange, and sometimes brilliant Mitford clan of England.




Skip E. Lowe

Talk-show host and former child actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter. AKA Sammy Labella. An indefatigable character of Hollywood. Here's an excellent portrait of him by Mark Evanier.




Milton Cardona

Pete Shutler

Accordionist -- via the Guardian.

J. California Cooper

Writer -- via ABC News.

Christopher Hogwood

Conductor; founder of the Academy of Ancient Music; harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist -- via the BBC. Really one of my favorite conductors of the past century. An absolute whiz at Baroque music, he played a huge role in the surge of appreciation of it over the past 40 years. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell, Mozart, and much more. And the Haydn symphonies! Just perfect. Fine musicianship combined with a breadth of context and depth of understanding.





Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Peter von Bagh

Robert M. Ellis

Artist and museum curator -- via the Albuquerque Journal.

James Kupferschmidt

Founder of the Milwaukee Beer Museum and local historian -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Francisco Feliciano

Composer and conductor -- via GMA News Online.

Hilda Oates

Actress -- via the Cuban News Agency. Sweet lord, she was in "Patakin! quiere decir 'fabula,'" the 1985 Cuban film that is indeed the only Spanish-language Socialist musical comedy ever made. That I know of.

Weekly reader: 'Too Young to Die, Too Old to Care'

Monday, September 22, 2014

Audrey Long

Actress -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Hey, you remember Audrey Long! She was in "Tall in the Saddle" with John Wayne in 1944, in Anthony Mann's brilliant  "Desperate" in 1947, and Robert Wise's first film noir, "Born to Kill," with Lawrence Tierney!




George Blackwell

Folk guitarist and jingle writer -- via the Miami Herald.

Stephen Cogil Casari

Founder of Denver's Tattered Cover Books -- via the Denver Post. 

Sheila Stewart

Radio personality -- via NBC Washington.

Eric Lynch

Comic performer -- via the Washington Post. AKA Eric the Midget

WEEKLY READER: Our roundup of stories on death, dying, mourning, and more

The bones of Richard III, as they were found in August of 2012.
 TOP STORIES



Journalist Carol Rosenberg writes about the discomfort of being assigned to Tweet at a funeral – on Poynter.org


DEATH

On KevinMD, James C. Salwitz reports on what happens when you don’t make end-of-life decisions




A symposium on art and mortality – from Australian National University


MOURNING

A mother’s orgiveness for a child’s murderer – from Robert Mann at Something Like the Truth

“Museum explores Victorian mourning customs” – via Bob Page at the Times Herald

Digital mourning and online grief – from Carl Hoover of the Waco Tribune


FUNERALS


12 of the worst things ever said at a funeral – via Caleb Wilde at Confessions of a Funeral director

Funeral potatoes: the recipe – from Barbara Schieving at Barbra Bakes (Editor’s note: It is fairly common to share such recipes in the Midwest, where post-funeral potlucks often take place in the church basement!)

Via Carol Hopkins at the Oakland Press – library donates kids’ books to local funeral homes

Pastor Timothy Raymond on “The Funeral that Was Almost a Fist Fight” in Credo Magazine

Five Myths about Funeral Directors – from Confessions of a Funeral Director (guest poster Pastor Dieter Reda)



Sheldon Patinkin

Improvisational comedian, director, teacher, and writer -- via the Chicago Tribune. One of the great figures in the Chicago theater scene, and an excellent chronicler of the subject ("Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater" and "No Legs, No Jokes, No Chance," a history of the American musical.




Pamela Immel

Actress -- via Forest Lawn.

Terence Moakley

Disability activist -- via the New York Times.

Linda Griffiths

Actor and playwright -- via the CBC. Best know for her one-woman show "Maggie and Pierre."

Linda Griffiths - 7 - Maggie and Pierre from Theatre Museum Canada on Vimeo.

George Sluizer

Filmmaker -- via the Deccan Chronicle. Best known for making the original 1988 Dutch version of "The Vanishing" and its 1993 American remake.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Polly Bergen

Actress, singer, writer, and cosmetics entrepreneur -- via the New York Times. AKA Nellie Paulina Burgin. She was busy on stage, in TV and on film. She played the wife in the original "Cape Fear"; she won an Emmy for portraying Helen Morgan; she did solid work in the Herman Wouk WWII saga "Winds of War" and its sequel; she played the female lead in a number of Martin and Lewis films; she wound up being a big hit in a revival of Sondheim's "Follies."



U Srinivas

Mandolinist -- via the Times of India.

Elaine Lee

Actress -- via the Sydney Morning Herald.

Will Radliff

Avraham Heffner