Country music star -- via WKYC . AKA James Cecil Dickens. In addition to being the oldest surviving member of the Grand Ol' Opry and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he discovered Marty Robbins.
Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Donna Douglas
Actress; best known for playing Elly May Clampett on the TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- via the New York Daily News. AKA Doris Smith. Also known for her emblematic appearance in the "Twilight Zone" episode "The Eye of the Beholder," and co-starred with Elvis in "Frankie and Johnny."
Roberta Leigh
Writer, artist, and TV producer -- via the Telegraph. AKA Rita Shulman Lewin, Rachael Lindsay, Janey Scott, Rozella Lake, and Roumelia Lane. Best known for creating the British puppet sci-fi series "Space Patrol."
Dave Parsons
Theater owner, comedian, and magician -- a very nice story y Bill Trotter in the Bangor Daily News.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Mario Cuomo
Former Governor of New York -- via the New York Daily News. He was a politician, but I liked him. He used to play baseball; he could write and speak very charmingly.
Claude Frank
Pianist; a master of the German repertoire -- via the New York Times. Ironic, and beautiful, that he would choose to champion the cultural beauties of a land that expelled him and his family before Word War II.
Rhodes Reason
Actor -- via armandsrano.blogspot.com. The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, whom he greatly resembled, Rhodes was a ubiquitous player in television and film from 1951 to 1977. Sci-fi buffs will recall him as Flavius in the "Bread and Circuses" episode of the original "Star Trek" series ("At least defend yourself." "I AM defending myself!") and as the lead human actor in "King Kong Escapes!"
He was in seemingly everything -- "Highway Patrol," "Maverick," his own series "White Hunter," "The Rifleman," "77 Sunset Strip," "Daniel Boone," "The Time Tunnel," "Here's Lucy," "Mission: Impossible," and "The Bob Newhart Show." Watch his reel here -- it's a lot of fun.
He was in seemingly everything -- "Highway Patrol," "Maverick," his own series "White Hunter," "The Rifleman," "77 Sunset Strip," "Daniel Boone," "The Time Tunnel," "Here's Lucy," "Mission: Impossible," and "The Bob Newhart Show." Watch his reel here -- it's a lot of fun.
Jane Brown
Photographer -- via the Guardian. An absolutely astounding portraitist, and a great photojournalist as well.
Per-Ingvar Branemark
Orthopedic surgeon who discovered osseointegration -- via the New York Times. Now, stay with me. His discovery that titanium fuses to bone allowed him to initiate the development of dental implants, and may lead to new advances in artificial limbs and much more! And he only had to work for 30 years to get the medical community to accept his findings.
Gleb Yakunin
Priest and dissident -- via the New York Times. Not only did he go to the gulag for what he believed, he was into Pussy Riot.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Edward Herrmann
Emmy- and Tony-winning actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Best known as Richard Gilmore in the TV series "The Gilmore Girls," he made his first big impact playing FDR in the miniseries "Eleanor and Franklin." Generally typed as a lockjaw-Boston upperclass type, he was capable of much more -- witness his turn as a villain in "Lost Boys." Long known as the Voice of the History Channel.
Stephen Wootton
Child actor in film and television, 1952 to 1962 -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.
Sethma Williams Caspers
She is center in this still from the Three Stooges' "Dizzy Pilots." However, she does not appear in the final cut of the film. |
Christine Cavanaugh
Actor and voice artist -- via Variety. Best known as the voice of Babe the pig, Dexter in "Dexter's Laboratory," and Chuckie in "Rugrats."
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Bring out your dead: rounding up (and prioritizing) the deceased of 2014
By BRAD WEISMANN
Here’s the thing. The end of the calendar year has come. As
a culture, we want to encapsulate and evaluate the experiences of the year, summarizing
them in neat lists that give us a sense of closure.
This is a ticklish procedure when it comes to deaths of the
well-known, however. We want to memorialize those who meant something to us,
who made contributions to the world. The entire premise of my ongoing Obit
Patrol is to highlight a broad spectrum of worthies, many obscure, from across
the world. This year, I managed to post about 2,500 entries. Hopefully, this
work has broadened people’s knowledge of and appreciation for some unique
representatives of the human race.
Part of my mission is to serve as a corrective to the routine
commemoration of the merely celebrated, the notorious, and those who will
automatically be lauded due to their status as politician, warrior, athlete, businessperson,
and other such mainstream success stories. So, when all the “those we lost” lists
come out at the end of the year, it’s interesting to leaf through them and
wonder about the criteria of selection.
Who we choose to remember forms an index of our values. Why
else would the Oscar broadcast obit reel unleash an annual mudslide of rancor
and ill feeling? Because to be omitted from remembrance is to be erased. Choosing
a list of the departed can be based on the sheer metrics of popularity, or more
nuanced. Here are some examples. This survey is not comprehensive; if you know
of other worthy lists please share them!
Luise Rainer
Actress; longest-lived Oscar winner (1936, 1937) -- via Claudia Luther at the L.A. Times. A renowned actress, she was the first to win back-to-back Oscars, for her roles in "The Great Ziegfeld" and "The Good Earth." Ironically, she never could fit in to the Hollywood ethos, and soon abandoned filmmaking.
Monday, December 29, 2014
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."
DEATHCETERA: A week's worth of world news on mortality
TOP
STORIES
Police turn
backs on NYC mayor as he delivers eulogy for slain police officer – via Michael
J. Gyrnbaum in the New York Times
Recreating
famous deaths – through the sense of smell – from rt.com
DEATH
Two New York
City police officers randomly slain by gunman; police departments across nation
join in mourning
– via Sunnie Huang and the CBC
“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.
Chaos and grief
continue in case of 43 missing students in Mexico – via Sandra
Larriva at Forbes
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
An interview
with Ellen Goodman, founder of The Conversation Project, which treats
end-of-life issues
– via Here and Now at NPR
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