Vegas Legend Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal Dies In Exile
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pink Floyd's Rick Wright Dies
One of Pink Floyd's founders back when they were called Sigma 6, Rick Wright's haunting keyboards were an essential part of the Pink Floyd sound. "The Great Gig In The Sky" will no doubt serve as his epitaph.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Radio Legend George Putnam Dies
Talk about longevity. George Putnam was in broadcasting for over 70 years! I'll just be happy to live that long. One of the last conservative Democrats, Putnam often said, like Reagan, that he didn't leave the Democrat Party, it left him. And a little known fact, he was the inspiration for Ted Knight's portrayal of Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Michelle Malkin has a tribute.
Labels: Obits
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Voiceover King Dies
It never rains, but it pours. Another celebrity death today with the passing of voiceover man Don LaFontaine. If you've been to a movie in the last 30 years you know the voice, usually beginning with "In a world...".
G-d has some oration competition in Heaven.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Jerry Reed Dies
You may not know the name right away, but mention Smokey and the Bandit and you know who we're talking about instantly. The singer-actor was best known for his role in the film and it's sequels and for singing the theme song. I also know from some professional guitar players I know that he was actually one of the better guitar players in country music, it just so often got lost in Smokey and the Bandit fame. So long.Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tim Russert Dead At 58
Shocking news from NBC as political journalists and "Meet The Press" host Tim Russert has died of a heart attack at the age of 58. Russert was in the tracking booth at NBC's Washington Bureau when he collapsed.Russert was one of those political reporters that you could tell just loved what he did. You got the sense that he got up every morning anxious to get work and delve into the world of politics. He was probably one of the most fair journalists in the MSM and his loss is not only bad for the profession but especially bad for NBC. I shudder to think of the Peacock's political face being only Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.
MORE: Rush Limbaugh sums it up beautifully: "He was the closest thing there was at any of the networks to an objective journalist."
Thursday, May 1, 2008
One Last Trip
The man who invented LSD, Albert Hofmann, has died...at the age of 102. Don't know why, but I find that interesting.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Charleton Heston Dies
An American icon, scourge of the political Left, champion of gun-rights. A good man.
Labels: Gun Rights, Obits, Pop Culture
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Geeks Mourn: Gary Gygax Dies
The man who gave us Dungeons and Dragons has died. Never was into it, but I am fascinated by how it developed into a bit of a cult. Even Michelle Malkin was into it.
Labels: Obits
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Roy Scheider Dies at 75
He'll always be best known for role (and famous line) in "Jaws," but if you really want to see a great performance in a great movie, check out his Oscar nominated performance in Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz." One of my all-time Top 10 movies.
Labels: Obits
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Bobby Fischer Dies
Perhaps the greatest chess player that ever lived, Bobby Fischer was definitely the most famous and is forever entwined with the history of the Cold War. Rather than rehash his life here, I would just say that there's a great movie from about 10 years back called Searching For Bobby Fischer, starring Joe Montegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne you may want to check out. Despite the title, the movie is not so much about Fischer but about a young chess player's rise in the chess world that still lives in the shadow of Fischer who at the time was in seclusion. Babe Ruth, Baseball...Michael Jordan, Basketball...Bobby Fischer, Chess. That's the bottom line.
Sadly, he was quite mad and it only got worse with age: rabid anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, but his skills were never in doubt. Only Gary Kasparov has come close...and ironically, he also is involved in international affairs.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Jazz Great Oscar Peterson Dies
Missed this over the Christmas Holiday. Jazz artist Oscar Peterson has died at the age of 82. He was one of the great masters of the ivory box. Girl on the Right has a sample.
Labels: Obits
Monday, November 19, 2007
Mr. Whipple Dies
"Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" Anyone that lived in the 1970s knows this piece of pop culture right off the bat. Dick Wilson was a character actor that appeared in many movies and television shows (he can be seen in several episodes of "Hogan's Heroes" in various roles), but he was most famous for playing store manager "Mr. Whipple" in Charmin toilet paper commercials for several years. It just proves there are no small roles in the acting profession.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
A Dissenting View Of Norman Mailer
Upon hearing of Norman Mailer's death, I was moved to write the following:
He was a literary hero of the American Left and did indeed write some very good stuff, including his first novel, The Naked And The Dead. However, Mailer was a good example of someone who never really moved beyond the 1960s and spent many decades living off his reputation while putting out mediocre work.
Turns out Roger Kimball of Pajamas Media agrees with that assessment (though would judge me far to generous). I'm a man of few works, Roger on the hand takes a more quantitative approach. He has an excellent essay on Mailer's bad writing, though be warned...you may need a dictionary.
MORE: Christopher Hitchens gives us his take on the Left's half-baked hero. Naturally, Hitchens is much more sympathetic to his literary colleague. His take on Mailer: he did some good work, some bad work, but all in all he's the kind of guy that makes life more interesting. I can appreciate that.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Norman Mailer Dies
He was a literary hero of the American Left and did indeed write some very good stuff, including his first novel, The Naked And The Dead. However, Mailer was a good example of someone who never really moved beyond the 1960s and spent many decades living off his reputation while putting out mediocre work. But, he did lead an interesting life...can't fault him for that.
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Obits In 2007
Maybe it's the same as it ever was and I'm just noticing it more, but it seems like there have been a lot of famous deaths in 2007. According to our friends at Dead or Alive?, just in the past six months we've lost Boris Yeltsin, Tommy Newsome, David Halberstam, Jerry Falwell, Tom Snyder, Ingmar Bergman, Bill Walsh, Merv Griffin, Richard Jewell, Luciano Pavarotti, Marcel Marceau, and Lady Bird Johnson to name but a few. Also of note, two people that are forever intertwined: Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers. Ah, Match Game...where would the 70s have been without it?
Labels: Obits, Pop Culture
Monday, September 10, 2007
Jane Wyman Dies
The actress best known both for her role on prime-time soap Falcon Crest and as Ronald Reagan's ex-wife has died. I was reading her obit and this section struck me:
I don't think anything can put a finer point on the fact that the likes of Reagan and Wyman are from a different era, a different time. I very much doubt that Donna Hanover is going to give Rudy Giuliani the same courtesy once he's in the White House (yes, I'm being confident).After Reagan became governor of California and then president of the United States, Wyman kept a decorous silence about her ex-husband, who had married actress Nancy Davis. In a 1968 newspaper interview, Wyman explained the reason:
"It's not because I'm bitter or because I don't agree with him politically. I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics."
A few days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, Wyman broke her silence, saying: "America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man."
Labels: Obits, Ronald Reagan
Monday, July 30, 2007
Big Day For Obits
Those of you that believe deaths come in three's get to crow today as we've gotten word of three deaths starting with legendary film director Ingmar Bergman as mentioned below. We also have word of the passing of former talk show host Tom Snyder who had been suffering from leukemia and the passing of legendary NFL football coach Bill Walsh who also died of leukemia. Walsh was the perfecter of the so-called "West Coast Offense" that changed the way football is played from the professional ranks down to Pop Warner.
One, two, three.
Labels: Obits
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Calvert DeForest a.k.a. Larry "Bud Melman Dies
One of the best parts of the Letterman shows on NBC and CBS was always the fat, little old man with the horn-rimmed glasses. Calvert DeForest died today at the age of 85. He was the first person to appear on Late Night with David Letterman going by the stage name Larry "Bud" Melman. After the move to CBS he started using his real name as NBC claimed the rights to the the character name. It's too bad. Letterman used to be a funny, fringe comedian during his days at NBC, and DeForest was a big part of that. Now, thanks to his obsession to be like Johnny Carson, he's a dud, and without Calvert, even more so.
This, for instance, is classic comedy:
Labels: Obits
