PIANO, not paino!!

Dith Pran, the Cambodian tranlator turned NY Times photographer died of pancreatic cancer over the weekend at the age of 65. In this day and age, 65 is relatively young, but when you think about his life, having lived until the age of 65 is almost miraculous. He became famous when his story was chronicled in the movie, "The Killing Fields" back in the early '80's (with Sam Waterston and Haing Nor. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it.) Dith Pran's legacy includes The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, which educates people on genocide in general, the Cambodian Khmer Rouge genocide in particular.

Very sad.... very sad. You're right Mary, his story was amazing.

My friend is in Thailand with his mother as I write this - searching for his father's grave. His father fled Viet Nam after the fall of Saigon - his entire family was in danger for helping the US during the war. Most of the family is now here in the US - they were in the refugee camps for years. they did find his sister's grave, but it's not looking like they will find his father's resting place.... the jungle has reclaimed where the camp was.

Charlton Heston. Wow.

Ah, Charlton. Among many other roles, he was a naval commander in Midway, Moses in The Ten Commandments, architect in Earthquake, astronaut in Planet of the Apes, Richelieu in the Three Musketeers. Always had a commanding presence. And for the most part, his characters - save for Richelieu - valued reason over authority.

Yeah, just saw that obit on our local online paper....
My first thought was, Moses is dead.
I'll always see Charlton Heston's face whenever I hear Moses mentioned. Strange how movies etc you see in your childhood affect you like that. He made a great character actor, seemed to have a very respectable, somewhat larger than life type of presence. Usually pretty intense.
Planet of the Apes was a classic role for him too.

He'll be missed.

For me, it's his oft-quoted statement about guns due to his relationship with the NRA -- paraphrased:

"If you implement gun control, you'll have to pry my gun from my cold dead hand".

In the remake of Planet of the Apes in the last 10 years, he was an ape who was against weapons, which I thought was funny.

As an actor, he was probably one of the last of his kind.
Who can forget the chariot race scene in Ben-Hur?

For me though, it will forever be, "Get your hands off me you d@mn bloody ape!"

E Street Band loses key member

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/17/obit.federici.ap/index.html

That's sad and distressing news. Danny was a great keyboardist and musician. Some of the members of this forum might remember that he also released a self titled solo CD in 2001 that was excellent and received some airplay on some of the more progressive "smooth" jazz stations. I am really sorry to hear about his passing but thanks for posting the news Bonnie.

Ken