Friday, January 2, 2015

Little Jimmy Dickens

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.






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."



Debbie Purdy

Journalist and end-of-life activist -- via the Independent.

Tomaz Salamun

Poet -- via radiosi.eu.

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.

Dave Comer

Photographer and location scout -- via stuff.co.nz.

Ellen Ross

Actress -- via the Muncie, IN Star Press. AKA Mary Ellen Nelson, Ellen Anderson.


Leopoldo Federico

Al Belletto

Saxophonist and bandleader -- via the Baton Rouge Advocate.

Francisco Curiel Defosse

Composer -- via El Universal.

Ulises Estrella

Poet -- via El Comercio.

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.



Frankie Randall

Singer, dancer, songwriter, actor, and comedian -- via KESQ-TV. AKA Franklin Joseph Lisbona.



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.

Bob "Showboat" Hall

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.

Christopher Scoular

Actor -- via the Independent.

Jane Brown

Photographer -- via the Guardian. An absolutely astounding portraitist, and a great photojournalist as well.

Dick Dale

Saxophonist, singer, and performer -- via the Mason City, IA Globe Gazette.

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.

Nan Chaturvedi

Poet -- via Outlook India.


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.

N.L. Balakrishnan

Actor -- via IBN Live.

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.
Actress and dancer -- via Santa Barbara News-Press.


Stanislaw Baranczak

Poet and translator -- via the Boston Globe.

Greg Reuter

Broadway performer -- via Theater Mania.

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."



Ronnie Bedford

Drummer and teacher -- via the Billings Gazette.

Kevlaar 7

Rapper -- via AllHipHop.

Helen Harris

Activist for the blind -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

Richard Graydon

Stuntman and stunt coordinator -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

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!














HistoryOrb.com

Horacio Ferrer

Ralph "Riff" West Jr.

Musician -- via legacy.com.

Charles Thompson II

Journalist -- via the Washington Post.

Peter Underwood

Maximo Munzi

Cinematographer -- via Variety.

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

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.