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.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Lu Vason
Promoter and cultural leader; founder of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo -- via the Denver Post.
Maurie Berman
Maurie and wife Flaurie in front of their restaurant. |
Rigby Graham
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Renowned-Leicester-artist-Rigby-Graham-dies-aged/story-26465006-detail/story.html
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
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."
Monday, May 18, 2015
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."
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Dean Potter and Graham Hunt
Dean Potter. Footage of Hunt in video clip below. |
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.
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
Singer; deep-voiced bluesman -- via the Durham Herald Sun.
Captain Luke: Blessed by Blues from Center for Documentary Studies on Vimeo.
Captain Luke: Blessed by Blues from Center for Documentary Studies on Vimeo.
William Zinssler
Writer, editor, and teacher --via the New York Times. Author of the invaluable classic "On Writing Well."
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