Sunday, December 28, 2014

Larry Smith

Oleh Lysheha

Poet -- via kyiv.osp-ua.info.

Taitetsu Unno

Giorgio "George" Ardisson

Actor -- via westernsallitaliana.blogspot.com. A regular in sword-and-sandal, adventure, Western, horror, and spy films.



Ingvar Kjellson

Actor -- via svd.se.

David Ryall

Actor on stage, screen, and TV -- via the Telegraph. A highly recognizable face, Ryall usually played unsympathetic if nor downright villainous characters, most notably Elphias Doge in the Harry Potter films, Sextus Parker in "The Pallisers," Billy Buzzle in "Bless Me, Father,"  and the fussy Mr. Hall in "The Singing Detective." I got to meet him during the run of the production of Peter Hall's "Tantalus" in Denver; a very sweet guy!

Alberta Adams

Detroit's Queen of the Blues -- via the Detroit Free Press. AKA Roberta Louise Osborn.

Buddy DeFranco

Jazz clarinetist -- via the New York Times. AKA Boniface Ferdinand Leonardo DeFranco. He started in swing but became the first true bebop clarinetist.



Rosella Towne

Actress -- via Dial M for Movies. She died on August 29 but her death was not revealed publicly until last week. Kudos again to Eve Golden for pointing this out four days ago!


Anthony "Tony" Munafo

Actor -- via New Jersey Patch.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Rock Scully

The Grateful Dead's first manager -- via the New York Times. AKA Robert Scully.

Fritz Rudolf Fries

Writer and translator -- via LVZ Online.

John Fry

Music producer; founder of Ardent Records; mentor to cult power-pop pioneers Big Star -- via Consequence of Sound. About 20 percent of Stax's output was recorded at Ardent. A key architect of how American music sounded 

Abdulmari Asia Imao

Artist -- via GMA News Online.

Anoushirvan Arjmand

Actor -- via insideofiran.org.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Joseph Sargent


Emmy-winning director of TV and film ("The Taking of Pelham One Two Three"); performer -- via Variety. AKA Giusseppe Daneiele Sorgente. An outstanding talent -- here's a partial list of his work: series such as "Gunsmoke," "Lassie," "Star Trek," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", and "The Invaders"; TV movies such as "Tribes," "The Night That Panicked America," "Amber Waves," and "Something the Lord Made"; on film, the original "Pelham" and the unique science-fiction film "Colossus: The Forbin Project." Like the rest of us, he made a few clinkers -- "Terrible Joe Moran" and "Jaws: The Revenge" being the worst. Hey, his batting average is quite high!

Jeremy Lloyd

Brandon Stoddard

TV producer, head of programming, and executive -- via Variety. He got a ton of good TV made as an ABC executive, including "Roots," "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Masada," "The Winds of War," "QBVII," "The Day After," and "Friendly Fire." Sure, he cranked out some epic trash as "The Thorn Birds." His batting average was pretty good! It was a time when ABC fielded shows such as "Moonlighting," "Twin Peaks," "My So-Called Life," and "Max Headroom."

Chan Kwok-Hung

Cinematographer -- via CBC News.

Robert Simpson

Monday, December 22, 2014

DEATHCETERA: Weekly roundup of stories worldwide on death, mourning, and more

TOP STORIES

“A death in Yangon” – Catherine Anderson’s heart-breaking account of her lover’s public death

From Caitlin Doughty at The Order of the Good Death: “Are Those Really My Mother’s Ashes?”

“What We Learned about Death in 2014” – from Mike Pearl on Vice


DEATH

What killed us in 2014? – from Marc Silver at NPR

Cartoons are bloodthirsty – via NBC News

Remembering the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami – from Jim Gomez at ABC News


MOURNING

Public mourning: a brief history – by Hilda Maclean in The Conversation



FUNERALS


Alternative funerals in Alabama – Lucy Berry at al.com.


END-OF-LIFE ISSUES

Charges at nursing home highlights vulnerability of elderly – by Tatiana Schlossberg and Nina Bernstein at the New York Times






Joe Cocker