Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Vincent Musetto

Editor and writer; composer of the immortal headline, 'HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR' -- via the New York Times. An exquisitely written tribute by Margalit Fox.

I love this guy. He was that rarest of talents, a tabloid genius. As a per-fessional headline writer, I know how hard the task is. It's a daily game whose goal is to get the reader to pick up a paper. The rules vary from publication to publication, but these days it seems that only the good old New York Post and various supermarket tabs go for the no-holds-barred, pithy, urgent "screamer"/banner/streamer, that goes above the fold and compels the unwitting consumer to devour the strange tidings within.

We headline writers are a devious lot. Like a carny barker, we must flog the goods without giving away the punch line, utilizing Fieldsian levles of linguistic chicanery to entice the rubes into the tent. I used to have to pitch the lead story on the front page in 40-point type, which means nine characters or less, including spaces.  It was excruciatingly difficult. I believe my most poignantly laconic headline, regarding some city kerfluffle or other, was OOPS. I'm sure it's in the files somewhere.

Musetto was handed a great opportunity on April 15, 1983, and recognizing one when it comes along is half the battle. A lesser man might have taken a more decorous route; not our boy! The story is true; a man shot a topless bar owner in Queens, took several women hostage, raped one, and forced another to decapitate the dead man.

Not precisely the stuff of whimsy.

However, Musetto's outrageous yet perfectly accurate four-word summary, its parallel construction, made it not just memorable but unforgettable. Around the newsroom, we cited it regularly, along with the movie Airplane's 'BOY TRAPPED IN REFRIGERATOR EATS OWN FOOT'. (Yes, journalists are children. Get over it.)

Headlines inspire the worst instincts in their composers -- they demand oversimplification, yearn for the insertion of puns, and invite misrepresentation. They provoke the mischievous, thumb-your-nose impulses that got us into journalism in the first place. Musetto's gloriously vulgar blazon shines out like a beacon of sheer cheek in a tidy, uptight world. 

Pumpkinhead

Rapper -- via Billboard. AKA P.H., Robert Diaz.



Vincent Bugliosi

Attorney and writer -- via the New York Times. Best known for his prosecution of the defendants in the Tate-LaBianca murders (Manson family), and his book about the case, "Helter Skelter."



Tiki Nxumalo

Actor -- via eNCA.

Aarthi Agarwal

Actress -- via the Deccan Chronicle. So sad, if true, that she died from complications after a liposuction procedure.

Jorge Galemire

Ray Kennedy

Jazz pianist -- via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Giacomo Furia

Actor -- via Il Reppublica.






Nick Marsh

Ludvik Vaculik

Writer -- via the BBC.

Mary Ellen Trainor

Actress -- via the Hollywood Reporter. She was Mrs. Walsh in "The Goonies," she was in all four "Lethal Weapon" films, and plenty else. Lots of TV, too. A solid pro.







Vladimir Furduj

Drummer; composer -- via Telegraf.

Juan Carlos Caceres

Musician -- via The Independent.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Hermann Zapf

Typeface designer -- via Quartz. Best known for his creation of Palatino and Optima, and the wonderful Zapf Dingbats!






Kurt Weber

Cinematographer -- via wiadomosci.com.


Albert West

Singer -- via Omreop Brabant. His big hit, with the Shuffles: "Cha-la-la I Need You," 1969.

Miguel-Angel Cardenas

Artist -- via El Tiempo.


Silvio Spaccesi

Actor and voice actor -- via Il Resto del Carlino. The Italian voice of Yoda.



Ruth Duskin Feldman

Original 'Quiz Kid' and writer, educator, gifted-education expert, and madricha -- via the Chicago Tribune. "The Quiz Kids" was an NBC radio show, modeled on the earlier "stump the experts" show "Information Please," that ran from 1940 to 1953, making its young players stars. Feldman later examined the phenomenon in her book "Whatever Hapened to the Quiz Kids?," bringing gifted-education issues to the awareness of the American public.




Ronnie Gilbert

Singer, songwriter, and activist; one of the original members of the Weavers -- via the New York Times. A great singer and a fine spirit.








Richard Johnson

Actor, writer, and producer -- via the BBC. Best known for his work in the classics, as well as adventure films such as "Khartoum" and "Operation Crossbow."

Pierre Brice

Actor -- via Deutsche Welle. AKA Pierre-Louis Baron de Bris. Best known for his long-standing portrayal of Apache chief Winnetou in 11 film adaptations of Karl May's "Shatterhand" adventure novels.

Richard Watson

Larry Kolber

Songwriter and lyricist -- via legacy.com. Best known for writing the words to the pop hit "I Love How You Love Me."



Friday, June 5, 2015

Edith Hancke

Actress - via westernboothill.blogspot.com.

Allan "Eddie" Fryer

Musician -- via Ultimate Classic Rock.




Leonid Plyushch

Dissident and mathematician -- via Yahoo News.

Bud Kraehling

Beloved TV weatherman -- via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Ricardo Moran

Actor and director -- via Clarin.


Kirill Pokrovsky

Composer -- via PC Gamer.

John Malloy

Actor -- via the Memphis Flyer.


Dudley Williams

Dancer -- via the New York Times.






Mario Cooper

AIDS activist -- via the New York Times.

Will Holt

Songwriter, performer, librettist, and lyricist -- via the New York Times. Most notably, wrote the lyrics for pop hit "Lemon Tree" and the score for "The Me Nobody Knows."



Thursday, June 4, 2015

Michael "Slim" Richey

Guitarist, fiddler, and bandleader -- via the Austin Statesman.






Gunther Schneider-Siemssen

Stage designer for opera -- via the New York Times. Best know for his sumptuous designed for Wagner, especially the Met's famed Otto Schenk "Ring" cycle.







Katherine Chappell

Visual-effects editor -- via Vulture. A promising young talent, she was mauled to death while on vacation by a lion in Africa.


Peter Cropper

Violinist -- via the Telegraph.



Morris Beckman

John Carter

An instantly recognizable face -- an actor and director, on stage, film, and television -- via legacy.com. Beginning the New York theater, Carter moved west and racked up more than 100 credits on TV -- specializing in judges, doctors, and the like later in his career -- and in films such as the Pacino "Scarface," "Badlands," and others. One of those solid, dependable pros who are much better performers than one might assume.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Margaret Juntwait

Metropolitan Opera radio announcer -- via Parterre. This one hurts. I thought she was sick, as she was out this season of broadcasts; however, she chose not to announce her illness as various hosts filled in for her. She picked up beautifully from the previous host Peter Allen, and kept me spellbound for a decade. Her warm tone, impeccable knowledge, and sense of fun informed every performance. Truly a model of the informed and welcoming voice on the air.

My mother also died from ovarian cancer. I am intimately acquainted with its horrors. My condolences to her family and friends and colleagues. I loved, loved, loved listening to her.

Alberto De Martino

Screenwriter and director -- via Corriere della Sera. One of the great cinematic schlockmeisters, he made B-movies in almost every popular genre of the time -- gladiator films ("Hercules vs. the Giant Warriors"), "macaroni combat" films ("Dirty Heroes"), spaghetti Westerns ("He Who Shoots First"), horror ("Blood Link"), gangster films ("Crime Boss"), and even the hilarious superhero movie "The Pumaman," immortalized by treatment on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Many of these films were ripoffs of American hits -- "The Antichrist" for "The Exorcist," "Holocaust 2000" for "The Omen," etc. Often cast a Hollywood star or two to punch up the box office -- he worked with Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Dorothy Malone, Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Martin Balsam, and so forth.










Florentino Soria

Screenwriter, director, actor, journalist, teacher, and film historian -- via El Pais. Best known for writing the "chorizo" Western "Sabata the Killer."



Hiroshi Koizumi

Actor -- via godzilla-movies.com. Although he started his career with a significant role in Naruse's "Late Chrysanthemums," he is best role for his multiple roles in Godzilla and other Japanese kaiju  films.




Carole Seymour-Jones

Biographer -- via the Times of London.


William Bronder

Actor -- via Dignity Memorial. Perhaps best remembered as the junkman Milo Pressman in "Stand by Me."