Saturday, May 23, 2015

Oscar Collazos

Writer -- via El Pais.

Shikha Joshi

Actress -- via the Times of India.


Donald Wrye

Director, writer, and producer for film and TV -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Responsible for some of the most affectionately remembered schlock in Hollywood history, including the infamous Linda Blair TV movie "Born Innocent," the Marlo Thomas adaptation of "It's a Wonderful Life," "It Happened One Christmas"; the Soviets-take-over-the-U.S. TV miniseries "Amerika"; most importantly, the seminal sports weepie "Ice Castles," about a blind figure skater.




Jackie Brookner

Artist, writer, and teacher -- via newsgrist.typepad.com. Specialized in ecological art -- biosculptures that also remediate pollution.





Jacob Jensen

Industrial designer -- via the New York Times.

Michael Campus

Director, producer, and writer for film and TV -- via Variety. Ana amazingly diverse career. He will be best remembered for helming the cult classic blaxploitation film "The Mack," but he started in TV talk shows, moved on to TV documentaries. He supervised more than 150 specials at CBS. He also directed sci-fi ("Z.P.G."), Christian conspiracy ("The Passover Plot"), and, well, "Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Home." A pocket Howard Hawks.

Lucy Fabery

Singer -- via  El Nuevo Dia. AKA Luz Ercilia Fabery Zenon.

Maggie Black

Dance teacher -- via the New York Times.


Choya Shane

Stuntman and bullwhip expert -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

Luis Calvo Teixeira

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Bruce Lundvall

Jazz exec; the man who brought Blue Note Records back to life -- via Billboard. an insanely influential figure, a guy who snuck into the West 52nd jazz clubs as a teenager. He got to sign Norah Jones, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Charlie Hunter, Joe Lovano, Terence Blanchard, and tons more.

State of Bengal

DJ and music producer -- via Nada Brahma. AKA Saifullah Zaman, Sam Zaman.

Bob Belden

Saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and producer -- via Billboard. Won three Grammys, and created the epic orchestral jazz album "The Black Dahlia" in 2001.






Jackie Basehart

Actor -- via il Fatto Quotidiano. Best known for his role as Berle in the original, unforgettable "Inglorious Bastards." Here's an excrpt, dubbed, ironically, in German.








Duncan Watson

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Evgeny Menshov

Actor -- via mk.ru.

Lu Vason

Maurie Berman

Maurie and wife Flaurie in front of their restaurant.
Restaurateur -- via the Chicago Sun-Times. Founder of the iconic Superdawg hot-dog joint.



Bobby Jameson

Singer and songwriter -- via Facebook. AKA Chris Lucey.



Rigby Graham

Artist -- via the Leicester Mercury.

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Renowned-Leicester-artist-Rigby-Graham-dies-aged/story-26465006-detail/story.html

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Raphael Tenthani

Journalist -- via kentucky.com.

Prashant Bhargava

Filmmaker -- via the New York Times.

Flora MacNeil

Elias Gleizer

Actor -- via sol.pt.

Gwyneth "Dandalion" Seese

Country-music radio host -- via allaccess.com.


Elisabeth Bing

Carlos Maggi

Playwright, journalist, and writer -- via montevideo.com.

Didi Petet

Actor -- via the Jakarta Post. AKA Didi Widiatmoko.

John Compton

Actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter. AKA John Tolley. You may remember him as the hapless Ted Forrester, from whom the evil daughter Veda in "Mildred Pierce" extorted $10,000 by feigning pregnancy (this was hot stuff in 1945). Starred in the 1959 TV series "The D.A.'s Man."




Ann Zane Shanks

Photojournalist, filmmaker, and writer -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Garo Yepremian

Football place kicker -- via newser.com.


Martin St. James

Hypnotist -- via the Daily Mail.

Franz Wright

Pulitzer-winning poet --via the New York Times.

Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly

Singer and minister -- via the Detroit Free Press.

Gill Dennis

Screenwriter -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Best known for writing the screenplay for the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line."

Robert Drasnin

Composer for film and television -- via Variety. Worked primarily in TV on such shows as "The Wild Wild West," both versions of "The Twilight Zone," "Mission" Impossible," and the like. He also created the cult classic exotica album "Voodoo" in 1959.




Bob Randall

Indigenous activist; musician and songwriter -- via the ABC. Among the first of the "Stolen Generations" of aboriginal children taken from their birth families to expose the government policy that did so; he wrote the Stolen Generations anthem "Brown Skin Baby."




Earl Averill, Jr.

Former MLB catcher -- via the Seattle Times.

Arlette Thomas

Actress and voice actress -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.

Ed Fouhy

TV news producer -- via the New York Times.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Dean Potter and Graham Hunt

Dean Potter. Footage of Hunt in video clip below.
Climber/BASE jumpers -- via Outside. Killed attempting wingsuit flight in Yosemite.

Mervyn Burtch

Composer -- via Wales Online. An extremely "practical" composer, he is being termed in his obituaries -- meaning, of course, that he responded to reality. It is fascinating that he composed many fine works for younger performers without abandoning his modernist vocabulary. It is quite a tricky business to write something challenging for less experienced players, but not so challenging that it defeats their will.

Suchitra Battacharya

Novelist -- via DNA India.




Francois Zanella

Shipbuilder -- via Ouest France. Self-taught, he constructed a fully functional 1/8 scale model of cruise ship "Majesty of the Seas," for plying canals.

Luther "Captain Luke" Mayer

Packie Byrne

Folk singer and musician -- via the Guardian.

William Zinssler

Writer, editor, and teacher --via the New York Times. Author of the invaluable classic "On Writing Well."




Peter Gay

Historian -- via the New York Times. AKA Peter Joachim Frohlich.

Ananta Bijoy Das

Secular blogger -- via the BBC.

Glenn Orbik

Illustrator -- via robot6.comicbookresources.com.