Monday, December 29, 2014

K. Balachander

Filmmaker -- via The Hindu.

Chip Young

Session guitarist and music producer -- via the Nashville Scene. AKA Jerry Stembridge. A real genius at crafting sweet licks, he can be heard on numerous hits such as Dolly Parton's "Jolene," Elvis's "Guitar Man," and Billy Swan's "I Can Help."





Vera Gebuhr

Walter De Buck

Sculptor, singer, and songwriter -- via Flanders Today.

Laszlo Varga

Cellist -- via the New York Times.

DEATHCETERA: A week's worth of world news on mortality


TOP STORIES




DEATH


“Can we talk about death?” – from Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe



MOURNING

Rites of mourning detailed for slain officers – via Al Bake and J. David Goodman at the New York Times.


Mourning Moms a support for bereaved parents – from Rowena Coetsee at Contra Costa Times


FUNERALS

Funeral process is a “waiting game” – from Imari Williams at Homicide Watch

Want to preserve your DNA? Funeral home will do that for a fee – from JD Malone at the Columbus Dispatch


END-OF-LIFE ISSUES



Udo Jurgens

Singer and songwriter -- via the New York Times. His big hit: "Come Share the Wine."







Sitor Situmorang

Poet, essayist, and short story writer -- via the Jakarta Post.

Morteza Ahmadi

Actor -- via Press TV.

Alberto Valdiri

Actor -- via El Tiempo.

Carleton Mabee

Pulitzer-winning historian and biographer -- via the New York Times.

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