I don't have a passing to report. I just wanted to get this year's "Dropping Like Flies" thread started.

Sir Edmund Hilary
Johnny Grant

REST IN PEACE

Paul

As a life long Dodger fan this is very sad news. I started following the Dodgers in 1962 and when I think of Podres, the Dodgers and Baseball back then it is exactly how I want to remember the game.

Carl Karcher of Carl's Jr/Hardy's resteraunts...

RIP

Bobby Fischer the former World Chess Champion died yesterday at age 64. Fischer won the championship in 1972 the first American in almost 100 years to do so. I was a member of my high school chess team and remember watching the championship on PBS (something some have compared to watching paint dry). Amongst serious chess players Bobby Fischer was revered as a genius of the highest order. He since fell from grace with repeated accusations against the U.S. and frequent anti-semitic comments.

Bobby Fischer dead at 64

Georgia Frontierre, owner of the St. Louis Rams. I remember when she got the team upon the death of Carol Rosenbloom, there was negative talk about a woman owning a pro football team. I believe she was the inspiration for the Delta Burke character in the HBO series First and Ten.

ok, so Poe's been dead a while.....but I thought this was fascinating. It may belong in weird news or something, but I thought it may fit better here.
Poe has always been a favorite writer of mine.

----------------------------------------------

Posted on Sat, Jan. 19, 2008
Mystery man's annual visit to Poe grave
By BEN NUCKOLS
Undeterred by controversy, a mysterious visitor paid his annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe early Saturday, placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac before stealing away into the darkness.

Nearly 150 people had gathered outside the cemetery of Westminster Presbyterian Church, but the man known as the "Poe toaster" was, as usual, able to avoid being spotted by the crowd, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

The tribute takes place every Jan. 19 - the anniversary of Poe's birth.

The visitor did not leave a note, Jerome said, electing not to respond to questions raised in the past year about the history and authenticity of the tribute.

Sam Porpora, a former church historian who led the fight to preserve the cemetery, claimed last summer that he cooked up the idea of the Poe toaster in the 1970s as a publicity stunt.

"We did it, myself and my tour guides," Porpora, a former advertising executive, said in August. "It was a promotional idea."

Porpora said someone else has since "become" the Poe toaster.

Jerome disputes Porpora's claims and says the tribute began in 1949 at the latest, pointing to a 1950 article in The (Baltimore) Evening Sun that mentions "an anonymous citizen who creeps in annually to place an empty bottle (of excellent label)" against the gravestone.

Jerome invites a handful of Poe enthusiasts to join him inside the church every year but withholds details of the tribute in an effort to help the toaster maintain his anonymity. He said the visitor no longer wears the wide-brimmed hat and scarf he donned in the past.

In 1993, the visitor left a note reading, "The torch will be passed." A later note said the man, who apparently died in 1998, had handed the tradition on to his two sons.

This year's visitor was the same man who has come to the grave site many times in the past, Jerome said.

"We recognize him from his build, the way he walks," he said. "It would be very easy for us, visually, to see if this were a different person."

Poe, who wrote poems and horror stories including "The Raven" and "The Telltale Heart," died Oct. 7, 1849, in Baltimore at the age of 40 after collapsing in a tavern. Next year will be the 200th anniversary of his birth.
-----------------------------------------

TY

Sounds so much like the "Lady in Black" that would attend Rudolph Valentino's crypt.

I think it's pretty cool.
Reckon we should move this over to the football thread? I heard a rumor Brian Billick was going to get the torch next.
Sorry, that was too easy.

Attorney: Suzanne Pleshette, best known as ’Newhart’s’ wife, dies in Los Angeles at age 70
Eds: Moving on general news and entertainment services.
AP Photo
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and Broadway theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart’s sardonic wife on television’s long-running “The Bob Newhart Show,” has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said attorney and family friend Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
“The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.

In my opinion, that was the best of the jillion or so series that had Newhart's name in the title. Suzanne was a big reason, at least from my point of view.

Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, A Knight's Tale, soon to be the Joker) was found dead today.

I don`t get it...fame,fortune...i think i should kill myself...gimme a break!! You got your dream job...Hollywood,then you piss it away,what the h*ll is wrong with these people?!?!!

Peace

Spyro1

Well, the NYPD spokesman said "there was no obvious indication that it was a suicide", which tells me not to jump quite that far just yet....it could have been an accidental death, until ruled otherwise.

Still is very sad, to see a young and rising star leave so suddenly.

I think I liked him best in Mel Gibson's The Patriot.

Sad too for his daughter.

Later
TY

I heard on the radio this morning that it was accidental. Police found six prescription drugs on the premises, but nothing illegal.

On the lighter said, the animal kingdom was well represented on today's obituary page. Three of the deceased had nicknames of "Super Chicken," "Man," and "Bull."

There was a special Factor TV Icon segment dedicated to Suzanne Pleshette on tonight's "O'Reilly Factor." Bill interviewed Tim Conway for his thoughts on Suzanne. They worked together in the 1976 movie "The Shaggy D.A."
Feel free to tell me, the 26-year-old, what I left out.

The guru to the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died yesterday at age 91.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23018484

This one took me by surprise. I didn't know he was 75. Wow!

Actor Roy Scheider died on Sunday at the age of 75. No cause has been given at this time. Scheider was a two time Oscar nominated actor. He was nominated in 1971 for Best Supporting Actor for The French Connection, where he played Popeye Doyle's (Gene Hackman) partner. He was also nominated again in 1979 for Best Actor for his role in All That Jazz, the semi-autobiographical account of Bob Fosse's life. He played the Fosse character. Even though he had those two Oscar nods, he was best known for playing Chief Brody, the sheriff in the movie Jaws, who, upon witnessing the shark for the first time utters that classic line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

amazing for it's day, how much Jaws could take our breath away. I too had no idea he was that old.

Although, I do have to add, it was on tv one afternoon last week, saw fifteen minutes or so of it...and I have to say it looked cheesy by comparison to today's expectations of special effects. Make us realize how far that side of the movies has come. Of course, even back then, after watching it a few times, you could tell what was faked. I'm surprised they haven't done a remake with new special effects :rolleyes:

Even so, it still brings memories of a childlike outright fear of the shark, and admiration of him standing up to the foe of the century.
I know I'll always remember him for that role.

Of course in my later youth and early adulthood, I probably turned out more like Richard Dreyfus's character...clueless, sacred, and usually hung over

RIP

Tony

The hospital did not give a cause of death, but there have been reports that before he died, Roy was treated for myeloma.
He was a very good actor. I liked him in just about everything I saw him in.

Rhoda's Ex dies

David Groh, 68

Grits Gresham, noted outdoorsman, author and TV personality, has died at 85 after a lengthy illness.
Grits was featured in what stands out as my favorite Miller Lite commercial of all time. After doing the great taste-less filling then, he gets on his soapbox.
"And that's real important when you're out there tackling that big one. Like the day. Hooked this bass, fought him for over six hours. Broke my rod. And I had to tie the line (the Lite beer sign starts coming down on him like a curtain), now wait a minute, fellas. I had to tie the line on the outboard."
And then after the voice over, Grits continued.
"Left me out there with nothin' but a paddle."
Hilarious.

And before anyone says, "How'd you remember all that?" Let's just say I've been in practice. Some things are so good you never forget. It doesn't hurt if you imitate the routine every once in a while.

65 years ago, on Feb. 22, 1943 the members of the "White Rose" Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were sentenced to death and executed by beheading at the same day. Some weeks later Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Professor Kurt Huber were also sentenced to death. Their "crime" was that they initiated several leaflet campaigns, in which they published statements against the Nazi-Regime.

I think, in times,in which you from abroad read and hear a lot about Neo-Nazis in Germany it is important to focus your attention to the "other" Germany.

There were and still are people in Germany, who oppose(d) against inhumanity and injustice!

There is no place for hero worship, but the strong-willed action of those young students of the "White Rose" in Munich could even encourage us today to do something against inhumanity, instead of burying one's head in the sand!

Thought, this date would be worth to mention...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

Not sure if others had heard but legendary (to some of us) musician Buddy Miles passed away Tuesday night. I had been a very big fan of his since the late 60's and throughout the 70's. I saw him perform with the Electric Flag and as a solo artist. He's probably best known as a member of the Band of Gypsys with Jimi Hendrix. He was 60. R.I.P.

http://www.buddymiles.com

ohh!! This makes me sad. We're losing the innovators more frequently now....

I will never forget the first time I heard "Them Changes" way back in the time that I call "The High Holy Days of Funk".

Jeff Healey...41 years old. Damn....


http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/308736?gclid=CNHPweag8ZECFSgvQQod7g5_qg

agh. I was listening to the Big 80's yesterday (sirius) and they played "Angel Eyes". I wondered what had happened to Jeff Healy, no new music in a long time.... I was listening to the words and thinking he had managed to portray something that he never saw, and that in and of itself was amazing.

I saw him play once, and he was so good.

I really like that song. Considering I first heard it at a time when I was pretty annoyed by about 90 percent of what I heard on radio shows how well it stands out.

well... this is dropping like flies.... but I do listen to Nina Blackwood's "this week" on the Big 80's and she features the top 40 from that week from a year in the decade. Amazes me that Jeff Healey's tune co-existed on the airwaves with Bobby Brown, The Bangles, Prince and Cher... I mean who knew what it would be like in 2008, everything all homogenized and dull.

I had no idea when I heard "Angel Eyes" that Jeff Healey was so ill.

He certainly had an unique technique....it was said he played his guitar as if it were a paino!!

Paul

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

Growing up in NJ until my mid-twenties, the E Street Band is in my blood. Trip to Asbury Park and going to the STone Pony to listen to some great music are wonderful memories. It is sad, indeed.

Two more singers are gone.
Paul Davis
I loved I Go Crazy and Cool Night, with an honorable mention for 65 Love Affair.

Jackie Wilson - Lonely Teardrops, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, etc. - has also passed.

I think you meant Al 'Show & Tell' Wilson.

Whoops. You're right. I knew it was Al, but for some reason, Jackie popped into the head before the fingers started typing.
It should have been a clue when I looked up Jackie's bio and couldn't find a reference to his being from Mississippi. Al was born in Meridian.

Well we've lost another giant (to some of us), Jimmy McGriff. It was hard to talk about the best like Jimmy Smith without at least mentioning Jimmy McGriff although many don't know him. One web site had a cover of his "At the Apollo" lp and someone replied, "who's that on organ"? Oh well to those who know we've lost another great musician. RIP

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=18831

My fellow B3 fan ....Cabbage and I know....

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=107075318

Sad to lose another great one. Didn't know that he had MS. You wouldn't know from how he played....

Sydney Pollack...what a great loss.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/27/pollack.obit/index.html

Geez, another biggie...Laugh-Ins Dick Martin

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/25/dick.martin.ap/index.html

Earle Hagen - Andy Griffith and other themes.

One of the true great comics,loved him on the Carol Burnette Show and Blazing Saddles


http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=316540>1=7703


Peace

Spyro1

Both Sydney Pollack and Harvey Korman. Both extremely talented and well respected in their respective fields. A great loss to the creative arts community, and anyone who loves creative arts.

Well we've lost another music legend Ellas Otha Bates, aka Bo Diddley has died of heart failure. He was 79.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/02/diddley.obit/index.html

Jim McKay died today at 86:
ESPN.com news services (interviews with Keith Jackson, Brent Musburger, Don Ohlmeyer on page linked)
FOXNews.com via AP

Also, Dwight White yesterday at 58:
FOXNews.com via AP
NFL.com

NBC's Tim Russert, perhaps my favorite broadcast journalist.

Charlie Jones, former NBC AFL/NFL play-by-play announcer, died yesterday at 78.
But back to Tim, I posted about his passing on my blog late this afternoon:
http://mikechimeriblog.com/2008/06/13/tim-russert-1950-2008

Stan Winston, the great special effects and make-up artist died over the weekend after a long battle with myeloma. He was 62. You may not know his name, but you know his work:

Jurrassic Park Series -
Terminator 2
Aliens
AI
Predator
Batman Returns
Edward Scissorhands
Pearl Harbor

And the list goes on. You've got to have some kind of imagination to come up with some of those creatures he did.