Tuba player Howard Johnson. Tom and Sally Drake is certainly the best tuba and banjo duet of all time. (And perhaps the only one.)
Joanne Rogers, widow of Fred Rogers, at 92.
One for bill, from the NY Times: "Marsha Zazula, ‘Metal Matriarch’ of Metallica and Others, Dies at 68
She and her husband founded Megaforce Records and introduced the world to heavy metal bands that became major stars."
@The Old Man posted:One for bill, from the NY Times: "Marsha Zazula, ‘Metal Matriarch’ of Metallica and Others, Dies at 68
She and her husband founded Megaforce Records and introduced the world to heavy metal bands that became major stars."
Yeah, I saw that earlier this week. I think I bought nearly every Megaforce release for a while in my high school days.
Phil Spector, appropriately in prison.
Baseball Hall of Famer Don Sutton.
45's Presidency, may we never see anything like it again
Former British diplomat James Cross at 99. If you are a Canadian of a "certain" age (like me) this is a big deal.
His October 1970 kidnapping by the radical Quebec separatist group the FLQ, as well as the subsequent kidnapping and murder of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, resulted in the federal government invoking The War Measures Act, suspending civil liberties and sending soldiers into the streets.
Hank Aaron....86.
Of course he had 755 home runs without steroids. If those at bats were all strikeouts, he still would have had 3000 hits
Mira Furlan from "Lost"
Larry King, TV show host. 87
@irwin posted:Larry King, TV show host. 87
Also known as the king of the softball question. There's a reason so many "celebrities" both famous and infamous appeared on his shows.
Remy Julienne Was the best stunt driver in films. He had many in Bond films, and also "The Italian Job"
The great jazz pianist, Junior Mance.
Leafs great, George Armstrong
@The Old Man posted:The great jazz pianist, Junior Mance.
This is a bummer. Great, indeed.
Blacklisted screenwriter, Walter Bernstein, 101
From CNN: Bernstein was best known for being blacklisted during Hollywood's "Red Scare" of the 1950s. Caught up in the anti-communist movement punctuated by Sen. Joseph McCarthy's notorious allegations against the US State Department, Bernstein wrote under pseudonyms for years. He also published with the help of friends and associates known as "fronts," who listed their names as the supposed authors of Bernstein's work.
Bernstein's highlighted works throughout the 1960s and '70s included "Fail Safe," "Paris Blues," "The Molly Maguires," and "Yanks." Bernstein also worked on "Something's Got to Give," the ill-fated Marilyn Monroe picture that was never completed due to her death in August 1962.
He gained a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for "The Front," a 1976 film starring Woody Allen that satirized the McCarthyism-era impact on writers in the industry.
Cloris Leachman 94.
@irwin posted:Cloris Leachman 94.
Sad - she dined at our best friends' restaurant here a few years ago and from their reports was a delight and obviously a hilarious person
The wonderful character actor Bruce Kirby. Perhaps best known amongst people of a certain age as Sergeant Kramer on "Columbo." His actor son Bruno Kirby unfortunately died before his father in 2006.
@irwin posted:Cloris Leachman 94.
An incredible 287 acting credits on IMDb, but for me it's her film debut as a naked barefoot woman flagging down Ralph Meeker as Mickey Spillane in "Kiss Me Deadly" that will always stand out. Oh my, what they did with that pair of pliers.
@The Old Man posted:The wonderful character actor Bruce Kirby. Perhaps best known amongst people of a certain age as Sergeant Kramer on "Columbo." His actor son Bruce Kirby unfortunately died before his father in 2006.
The son was Bruno. I think its a typo and though I am under the age - I most know him from Columbo
@jcocktosten posted:The son was Bruno. I think its a typo and though I am under the age - I most know him from Columbo
Doh.
Cicely Tyson. Another nonagenarian at 96.
Temple basketball coach John Chaney at 89.
Hilton Valentine, founding guitarist for The Animals, at 77.
Ben Aipa passed recently. A tour de force, and Hawaiian surfing legend. I was able to ride one of his shapes, an 8'-2, swallow twin with laminated wooden fins.
Screech.
@billhike posted:Screech.
Pretty tragic. Cancer took him in just a few weeks.
Captain Tom Moore at 100.
Hal Holbrook, 95.
@The Old Man posted:Hal Holbrook, 95.
Whoa. Really liked his acting.
@brucehayes posted:Whoa. Really liked his acting.
While famous for his wonderful "Mark Twain Tonight" he probably has spent more on screen hours playing Abraham Lincoln than any other actor.
Rennie Davis, one of the Chicago Seven, at 79.
Eugenio Martinez, the last surviving Watergate burglar, at 98.
Danny Ray, onstage ‘cape man’ for soul great James Brown, dies at 85.
Actor Christopher Plummer at 91.
@brucehayes posted:Actor Christopher Plummer at 91.
Boxer Leon Spinks.
Spinks was one of only a very few to ever beat Muhammad Ali. Only 67 years old.