Monday, January 5, 2015

Ninon Sevilla

Actress and dancer -- via El Universal. AKA Emelia Perez Castellanos. A great star in Mexico and Cuba, who did much to popularize the rhumba.







Miller Williams

Poet, translator, and editor -- via the New York Times.



(William) Patrick Gowers

Composer best known for his film and choral scores -- via Slipped Disc. He was the music director for the groundbreaking production of "Marat/Sade," and scored several film and TV works. He may be best remembered for his work on the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series.





Alvin Jett

Blues guitarist -- via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Tom LaBrie

Waterbed pitchman and late-night TV host -- via the Sacramento Bee.




DEATHCETERA: A weekly roundup of mortality-related news

Not many stories about death this week -- which, ironically, is just fine by me. Sometimes grief and thoughts of mortality must ebb.

DEATH

Do you mind if we broadcast your husband’s death? Really? Too bad – from Charles Ornstein via ProPublica and the New York Times


Man seeks to reunite cremains with dead man’s survivors – via Rachel Southmayd at heraldonline.com.


MOURNING

Second slain NYPD officer buried; some police protests continue – via Ashley Fantz, Ben Brumfield, and Holly Yan at CNN


FUNERALS

Rising funeral costs are crippling – from Lucy Berry at al.com



OBITS



Shelly Bordas

Actress and teacher -- via John Moore at the DCPA. Once again, here's a prime example of a life that might be overlooked by big media, but one that made a lot of impact. Shelly's grit was incredible; another huge component of the story is the fact that a creative community of, quite literally, hundreds got on the same page and pitched in to help her and her son -- not just with money, but with time and care and support. I feel very lucky to be even a weensy, tangential part of the scene.

Bob Usher

Former MLB player -- via legacy.com.

Melvin Jackson

Blues musician -- via Yahoo News.

Michael Kennedy

Classical music writer and critic -- via the Telegraph.

J.B. Moraes

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Jerzy Semkow

Conductor -- via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Hidetoshi Nakamura

Voice actor -- via narinari.com.

Bernard Kay

Actor -- via the Daily Mail.

Krzystof Krauze

Madhu Kaithapram

Film director -- via the Times of India.

Barbara Jones

Reggae and gospel singer -- via the Jamaica Gleaner. AKA Barbara Nation.




Gino Pelligrini

Set designer and artist -- via La Stampa.

Robert D. San Souci

Children's writer -- via the Fort Bragg Advocate-News. He is best known for writing the story for the Disney film "Mulan."


Stanley Neufeld

Earl Clark


Skiing pioneer -- via the Denver Post.


Stuart Scott

Sports anchor and journalist -- via the Huffington Post. His speech about his struggle with cancer is true, inspiring, and heartbreaking.

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.