|
R.I.P.
Jul 8, 2012 20:39:45 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Jul 8, 2012 20:39:45 GMT -5
R.I.P. Ernest Borgnine, 1955 Academy Award-winning actor (Marty, From Here to Eternity, Johnny Guitar, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Poseidon Adventure, The Greatest, The Dirty Dozen]/u], The Wild Bunch) known for blustery, often vilainous roles, but won an Oscar for playing a lovesick butcher, died at age 95 of renal failure at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
Borgnine endeared himself to a generation of Baby Boomers with the 1960s TV comedy McHale's Navy (1962-66), but first attracted notice in the early 1950s in villain roles, notably as the vicious Fatso Judson, who beat Frank Sinatra to death in From Here to Eternity[/img]. Then came Marty, a low-budget film based on a Paddy Chayefsky television play that had starred Rod Steiger. The realism of Chayefsky's prose and Delbert Mann's sensitive direction astonished audiences accustomed to happy Hollywood formulas. Borgnine won the Oscar and awards from the Cannes Film Festival, New York Critics and National Board of Review. Recently, Borgnine had a recurring role as the apartment house doorman-cum-chef in the NBC sitcom The Single Guy. And he was the voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants and Carface on All Dogs Go to Heaven 2. In addition to his Oscar, Borgnine was nominated for three Emmys -- the most recent in 2009, for a guest spot on the hospital drama ER -- and won a life achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2010. R.I.P. Ernest Borgnine, actor. You gave millions of people a few hours of unadulterated pleasure. [/i][/size][/color]
|
|
bass
Not so new Crapster
The best is yet to come.
Posts: 187
|
R.I.P.
Jul 16, 2012 2:42:18 GMT -5
Post by bass on Jul 16, 2012 2:42:18 GMT -5
There you go. It always comes in threes.
Andy Griffith, Ernest Borgnine, Celeste Holm.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Jul 23, 2012 19:06:01 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Jul 23, 2012 19:06:01 GMT -5
R.I.P. Sally Kristen Ride, astronaut and the first American woman in space, died at age 61 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer at her home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. Ride's office said she is survived by Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years; her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear, a niece and a nephew.
Sally Ride made history in 1983 as a crew member on the Challenger space shuttle, breaking the gender barrier for US astronauts. "As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model," Pres. Obama said in a White House statement. "She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars, and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools. Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come." Ride was a mission specialist on her first mission, STS-7, which put the Canadian Anik C-2 and the Indonesian Palapa B-1 communication satellites into orbit. In an 2008 interview timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the flight, Ride acknowledged that her status as the first American woman "carried huge expectations along with it. I didn't really think about it that much at the time ... but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space," she said. Thousands of spectators wore T-shirts and buttons emblazoned with the slogan "Ride, Sally, Ride" on launch day. Ride made a second space shuttle flight in 1984, also aboard Challenger, and was in training for her third mission when Challenger exploded in 1986, killing all seven crew members. She left the space agency a year later, and served for years as a physics professor and director of the California Space Institute. In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, which is aimed at promoting math and science for girls. One of her projects was to develop a camera that could fly aboard spacecraft and take pictures for middle-school students. The fruits of those efforts include EarthKAM on the International Space Station and MoonKAM on the GRAIL lunar probes.
R.I.P. Sally Kristen Ride, astronaut, scientist and educator. You will be missed.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Jul 31, 2012 11:57:36 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Jul 31, 2012 11:57:36 GMT -5
R.I.P. Maeve Binchey, bestl-selling Irish author admired for her novels of Irish life (Light a Penny Candle, Tara Road, Circle of Friends), died at age 72 in Dublin, Ireland after a short illness. She is survived by her husband, the writer Gordon Snell.
Her novels and short stories, which often examined the friction between tradition and modernity in Ireland, sold over 40 million copies and have been translated into 37 languages. Born in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey in 1940, she began her career as a teacher before moving into a distinguished career as a newspaper journalist and writer. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and became a bestseller. Her last novel, Minding Frankie, was published in 2010. In between were dozens of novels, novellas and collections of short stories, including "The Copper Beech," "Silver Wedding," "Evening Class," and "Heart and Soul." R.I.P. Maeve Binchey, marvelous Irish author of your land's everyday life and people.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 1, 2012 10:48:41 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 1, 2012 10:48:41 GMT -5
R.I.P. Gore Vidal, celebrated novelist (Lincoln, Burr, Myra Breckenridge), politician, essayist, playwright (The Best Man) & screenwriter (Ben Hur), whose vast range of published works and public remarks were stamped by his immodest wit and unconventional wisdom, died at age 86 from complications from pneumonia in Los Angelses. Vidal is survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half brother Tommy Auchincloss.
He was wealthy and famous and committed to exposing a system often led by men he knew firsthand. Along with such contemporaries as Norman Mailer and Truman Capote, he was among the last generation of literary writers who were also genuine celebrities — personalities of such size and appeal that even those who hadn't read their books knew their names. He was widely admired as an independent thinker — in the tradition of Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken — about literature, culture, politics and, as he liked to call it, "the birds and the bees." He picked apart politicians, living and dead; mocked religion and prudery; opposed wars from Vietnam to Iraq and insulted his peers like no other, once observing that the three saddest words in the English language were "Joyce Carol Oates." (The happiest words: "I told you so"). He adored the wisdom of Montaigne, the imagination of Calvino, the erudition and insight of Henry James and Edith Wharton. He detested Thomas Pynchon, John Barth and other authors of "teachers' novels." He once likened Mailer's views on women to those of Charles Manson's. (From this the head-butting incident ensued, backstage at "The Dick Cavett Show.") He derided Buckley, on television, as a "crypto Nazi." He was accused of anti-Semitism after labeling conservative Norman Podhoretz a member of "the Israeli fifth column." He labeled Ronald Reagan "The Acting President" and identified Reagan's wife, Nancy, as a social climber "born with a silver ladder in her hand." In recent years, Vidal wrote the novel The Smithsonian Institution and the nonfiction best sellers Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace and Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta. A second memoir, Point to Point Navigation, came out in 2006. But Lincoln stands as his most notable work of historical fiction, vetted and admired by a leading Lincoln biographer, David Herbert Donald, although some scholars objected to Vidal's unawed portrayal of the president. Age and illness did not bring Vidal closer to God. Wheelchair-bound in his 80s and saddened by the death of many peers and close friends, the author still looked to no existence beyond this one. "Because there is no cosmic point to the life that each of us perceives on this distant bit of dust at galaxy's edge," he once wrote, "all the more reason for us to maintain in proper balance what we have here. "Because there is nothing else. No thing. This is it. And quite enough, all in all." R.I.P. Gore Vidal, a man of much charm and biting wit. Definitely one of a kind in this day and age.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 7, 2012 13:33:02 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 7, 2012 13:33:02 GMT -5
R.I. P. Marvin Hamlisch, Broadway and movie composer (A Chorus Line, The Sting, "The Way We Were"), died at age 68 in Los Angeles when he collapsed Monday after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Terre.
Marvin Hamlisch's career included composing, conducting and arranging music from Broadway to Hollywood, from symphonies to R&B hits. He won every major award in his career, including three Academy Awards, four Emmys, four Grammys, a Tony and three Golden Globes. Hamlisch composed more than 40 film scores, including Sophie's Choice, Ordinary People, The Way We Were and Take the Money and Run. He won his third Oscar for his adaptation of Scott Joplin's music for The Sting ("The Entertainer"). His latest work came for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! On Broadway, Hamlisch received both a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for the long-running favorite A Chorus Line and wrote the music for The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell of Success. He was scheduled to fly to Nashville, Tenn., this week to see a production of his musical The Nutty Professor. Hamlisch even reached into the pop world, writing the No. 1 R&B hit "Break It to Me Gently" with Carole Bayer Sager for Aretha Franklin and won the 1974 Grammys for best new artist and song of the year, "The Way We Were," performed by Barbra Streisand. A child prodigy at the age 7, he entered the Juilliard School of Music, stunning the admissions committee with his renditions of "Goodnight Irene" in any key they desired. In his teens, he switched from piano recitals to songwriting. "Maybe I'm old-fashioned," he told The Associated Press in 1986. "But I remember the beauty and thrill of being moved by Broadway musicals — particularly the endings of shows. The end of West Side Story, where audiences cried their eyes out. The last few chords of My Fair Lady. Just great." Although he never took lessons in conducting while at Julliard, he became principal pops conductor for symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Dallas, Pasadena, Seattle, San Diego and due to lead the New York Philharmonic during its upcoming New Year's Eve concert. He was working on a new musical, Gotta Dance, at the time of his death and was scheduled to write the score for a new film on Liberace, Behind the Candelabra.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 13, 2012 15:31:47 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 13, 2012 15:31:47 GMT -5
R.I.P. Helen Gurley Brown, one of the world's most influential magazine ediors (Cosmopolitan) for three decades and author (Sex and the Single Girl), died at age 90 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia after a brief hospitalization.
She transformed Cosmopolitan into a source of sexual empowerment for women after taking charge in 1965, giving it its sexually frank tone. She remained editor until 1997 and is still listed as editor in chief for Cosmopolitan International on all mastheads. Until her death, Ms. Brown was known for coming into her pink corner office nearly every day. In a statement by a Hearst Corp. spokesman, it said "It would be hard to overstate the importance to Hearst of her success with Cosmopolitan, or the value of the friendship many of us enjoyed with her. Helen was one of the world’s most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism — and beyond. She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential 'Cosmo girl.' She will be greatly missed”
R.I.P. Helen Gurley Brown, one of the pioneers of the fight for women's rights. And thank you.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 20, 2012 9:04:09 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 20, 2012 9:04:09 GMT -5
R.I.P. Scott McKenzie, singer of '60s anthem "San Francisco," died at age 73 at home in Los Angeles after battling Guillain-Barre syndrome (affects the nervous system) and had been in an out of the hospital for the past two two years. It is also though that he had a heart attack this year.
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" was written by John Phillips, the leader of the 1960s group The Mamas and the Papas. But McKenzie sang it and it has stood as an anthem for the 1960s counterculture movement. McKenzie also co-wrote "Kokomo," a No. 1 hit for The Beach Boys in 1988, with former Papa, John Phillips, Beach Boy Mike Love and the late Terry Melcher (Beach Boy producer). He toured with The Mamas and the Papas in the 1990s. When original Papa Denny Doherty left the group, Scott joined John Phillips as the second Papa with with Mackenzie Phillips (John Phillips' daughter) and Spanky McFarlane (ex Spanky and Our Gang) as female vocalists. However, when John left due to ill health, Denny returned and Scott took the role vacated by John Phillips. Eventually, with no original members left, the group disbanded. In the 21st Century Scott still performed on occasions. He performed in Germany and in 2003 performed on a PBS Folk special. During March 2005, PBS broadcast a concert called "My Generation -- the 60's Experience." In the show Scott sings "San Francisco" and at the end of the program – unannounced – a song called "We've Been Asking Questions," one of the last songs written by John Phillips before his death in 2001. In 2009 Scott recorded the Denny Doherty song "Gone To Sea Again."
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 20, 2012 11:07:32 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 20, 2012 11:07:32 GMT -5
R.I.P. Tony Scott, movie director (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop II), apparently committed suicide at age 68 by jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a Los Angeles County bridge. He is survived by his wife, actress Donna Scott, who appeared in several of her husband's films, their twin sons and his brother, director Ridley Scott.
Coroner's officials investigating Scott's death said that the director left several notes to loved ones in his black Toyota Prius and at another location before jumping from the bridge. The British-born Scott, who lived in Beverly Hills, was producer and director Ridley Scott's younger brother and distinct visual styles mark both siblings' films. Tony Scott was known for hyper-kinetic action and editing on such films as his most recent, the runaway train thriller Unstoppable, starring regular collaborator Denzel Washington (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123). Tony Scott never was in the running for an Oscar (his brother nominated for Gladiator abd 52i itger fukns), and critics often slammed his movies for emphasizing style over substance. Scott once stated, "I'm always pushing for something new and fresh in the way things are shot, and the rest happens in the editing room. ... The real speed comes from the cutters and what they do with the celluloid." The two brothers ran Scott Free Productions and were working jointly on a film called Killing Lincoln, based on the best seller by Bill O'Reilly. Along with countless commercials, their company produced the CBS dramas NUMB3RS and The Good Wife as well as a 2011 documentary about the Battle of Gettysburg for the History Channel. Completed in 1963, the 6,060-foot Vincent Thomas Bridge, spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor, rises 185 feet at its highest point above the Los Angeles Harbor. Many have taken their lives by jumping from the span. The bridge has been used in many Hollywood productions, among them Charlie's Angels, Gone in 60 Seconds and The Fast and the Furious. R.I.P. Tony Scott, movie director.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 20, 2012 18:03:39 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 20, 2012 18:03:39 GMT -5
R.I.P. Phyllis Diller, sassy deliverer of rapid-fire comedy, dies at age 95 in her sleep at her home in Brentwood, Calif.
Ms. Diller joked on television and onstage about her looks, her aversion to housekeeping and a husband named Fang, in a long career in clubs, moives and TV that also included being a concert pianist. The mother of five made her nightclub debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in 1955. In addition to blazing a trail as a woman in the male-dominated field of comedy, Diller spouted seemingly autobiographical one-liners and anecdotes that paved the way for Joan Rivers' and Roseanne Barr's riffs on similar themes; Diller told of domestic and marital strife with her long-suffering husband, "Fang," and, of course, self-deprecating jokes about her often-outlandish appearance, which was part of her act. From 1971 to 1981, Diller performed as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras, as the comic character Dame Illya Dillya. But her musical prowess was no joke. The San Francisco Examiner said, "As demonstrated in Beethoven's piano concerto and several selections by Bach, Miss Diller is also a fine concert pianist with a firm touch." Diller retired from nightclubs and touring in 2002 at age 84 because of ill health. Her final stand-up performance at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was chronicled in a 2004 documentary, Goodnight, We Love You. In recent years, she lent her voice to animated characters in films and TV shows, such as A Bug's Life, King of the Hill, Animaniacs, Scooby-Doo, The Wild Thornberries and Family Guy. In 2005, she published a memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. R.I.P. Phyllis Diller, outstanding pioneer in female comedy extraordinaire.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 20, 2012 18:09:02 GMT -5
Post by Forever Sunshine on Aug 20, 2012 18:09:02 GMT -5
LOL, Peg, I posted that earlier on the remembrance board.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Aug 25, 2012 17:31:24 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 25, 2012 17:31:24 GMT -5
R.I.P. Neil Armstrong, astronaut and the first man to walk on the moon, died at age 82 of complications from cardiovascular procedures some weeks after heart surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Armstrong is survived by his two sons, a stepson and stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, a brother and a sister, NASA said.
Neil Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft LEM that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, radioing back to Earth the historic news: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." He spent nearly three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. In those first few moments on the moon, during the climax of heated space race with the then-Soviet Union, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said "as long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them." Michael Collins, Commadner of the Apollo 11 capsule, said through NASA's senior spokesman, Bob Jacobs: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly." As a statement by his family said, "Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati. He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits." The Apollo 11 moon mission was his last space flight. The following year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA's deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology. He left NASA a year later to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
R.I.P. Neil Armstron, astronaut and space pioneer whos name and exploits willl live forever.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 2, 2012 13:45:23 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 2, 2012 13:45:23 GMT -5
R.I.P. Harold "Hal" David, American lyricist who colloaborated with composer Burt Bacharach on such hits as "Walk on By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" for Dionne Warwick, and the Oscar-winning song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," died at age 91 of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Hall David and Burt Bacharach scored their first hit together in 1957 with Marty Robbins’ recording of “The Story of My Life,” which was followed by a 1958 hit for Perry Como, “Magic Moments.” They began an exclusive partnership after discovering their "magical interpreter," as David once described Dionne Warwick. In 1962, Warwick recorded their song “Don’t Make Me Over,” which became her first hit single. Her long string of pop classic hits by David and Bacharach includes “Walk on By,” “Alfie,” “Reach out for Me,” “Message to Michael,” “Trains and Boats and Planes,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” David and Bacharach went their separate ways in the early 1970s. David went on to collaborate with other composers, including Albert Hammond, with whom he wrote "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." In May 2012, David and Bacharach were honored by Pres. Obama as "two kings of songwriting" and were presented the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the nation's highest prize for popular music
R.I.P. Hal David, one of America's greatest popular song lyricists.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 2, 2012 21:43:33 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 2, 2012 21:43:33 GMT -5
R.I.P. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, self-proclaimed messiah & founder of the Unificatin Church which he turned into a worldwide religious movement, has died at age 92 at a church-owned hospital in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Moon is survived by his second wife and 10 children.
Church officials planned to meet later Monday to discuss mourning and funeral arrangements. The church will likely hold a 13-day mourning period and start accepting mourners at its nearby religious center on Wednesday, church spokesman Ahn Ho-yeul said. Born in 1920 in what is today North Korea, Moon founded his Bible-based religion in Seoul in 1954, a year after the Korean War ended, saying Jesus Christ personally called on him to complete his work. While preaching the gospel in North Korea in the years after the country was divided into the communist-backed North and US-allied South, Moon was imprisoned there in the late 1940s for allegedly spying for South Korea -- a charge Moon disputed. He quickly drew young followers with his conservative, family-oriented value system and unusual interpretation of the Bible. The church gained fame -- and notoriety -- in the 1970s and 1980s for holding mass weddings of thousands of followers, often from different countries, whom Moon matched up in a bid to build a multicultural religious world. His followers were derisively referred to by critics as as "Moonies." It was accused of using devious recruitment tactics and duping followers out of money; parents of followers in the United States and elsewhere expressed worries that their children were brainwashed into joining. The church responded by saying that many other new religious movements faced similar accusations in their early stages. The Unification Church claims millions of members worldwide, though church defectors and other critics say the figure is no more than 100,000. In later years, the church adopted a lower profile and focused on building a business empire that included the Washington Times newspaper, the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, Bridgeport University in Connecticut, as well as a hotel and a fledgling automaker in North Korea. It acquired a ski resort, a professional soccer team and other businesses in South Korea, and a seafood distribution firm that supplies sushi to Japanese restaurants across the US. As he grew older, Moon quietly handed over day-to-day control of his multibillion-dollar religious and business empire to his children. His youngest son, the Rev. Hyung-jin Moon, was named the church's top religious director in April 2008. Other sons and daughters were put in charge of the church's business and charitable activities in South Korea and abroad. After ending a first marriage, Moon remarried a South Korean, Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1960. She often was at Moon's side for the mass weddings. R.I.P. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, as the founder of the worldwide Unificatin Church
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 3, 2012 21:48:03 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 3, 2012 21:48:03 GMT -5
R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan, character actor (Armageddon, Planetof the Apes, Kung Fu Panda), who received an Oscar nomination fo his performance as a death row inmate in The Green Mile, died at age 54 from complications of a myocardial infarction at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
The muscular, 6-foot-4 Duncan, a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, had a handful of minor roles before The Green Mile and his Best Supporting Actor nomination.. He quickly became a favorite in Hollywood, appearing in several films a year. He owed some of his good fortune to Bruce Willis, who recommended Duncan for The Green Mile after the two appeared together in Armageddon. Clarke would work with Willis again in Breakfast of Champions,, The Whole Nine Yards"and Sin City. His gravelly baritone avoice was good enough for several animated movies, including, Kung Fu Panda, and Brother Bear. Among Clarke's television credits werw The Apprentice, ]u]The Finder[/u], Two and a Half Men. According to the Internet Movie Database, Duncan had two completed projects that have yet to be released on a nationwide basis. He is slated to appear in " he Challenger, a boxing movie written and directed by Kent Moran. He will also appear in the Robert Townsend film, In the Hive, about an alternative school for boys who have been kicked out of other schools. R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan, actor - you reached for the stars and achieved them. [/i][/size][/color][/font]
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 14, 2012 17:13:20 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 14, 2012 17:13:20 GMT -5
R.I.P. William Safire, 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist (NY Times), speechwriter for Pres. Nixon and oracle of language, died at age 79 of pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Rockville, Md. He is survived by his wife Helene, son Mark and daughter Annabel and a granddaughter, Lily Safire.
He was a man of many talents. He was a college dropout and proud of it, a public relations go-getter who set up the famous Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” in Moscow, and a White House wordsmith in the tumultuous era of war in Vietnam, Nixon’s visit to China and the gathering storm of the Watergate scandal, which drove the president from office. From 1973 to 2005, Mr. Safire wrote his twice-weekly “Essay” for the Op-Ed page of The Times, a forceful conservative voice in the liberal chorus. Unlike most Washington columnists who offer judgments with Olympian detachment, Mr. Safire was a pugnacious contrarian who did much of his own reporting, called people liars in print and laced his opinions with outrageous wordplay. And from 1979 until earlier this month, he wrote “On Language,” a New York Times Magazine column that explored written and oral trends, plumbed the origins and meanings of words and phrases, and drew a devoted following, including a stable of correspondents he called his Lexicographic Irregulars. The columns, many collected in books, made him an unofficial arbiter of usage and one of the most widely read writers on language. It also tapped into the lighter side of the dour-looking Mr. Safire: a Pickwickian quibbler who gleefully pounced on gaffes, inexactitudes, neologisms, misnomers, solecisms and perversely peccant puns, like “the president’s populism” and “the first lady’s momulism,” written during the Carter presidency. Mr. Safire also wrote four novels, including Full Disclosure (1977), a best-seller about succession issues after a president is blinded in an assassination attempt, and nonfiction that included The New Language of Politics and Before the Fall, a memoir of his White House years. His last Op-Ed column was “Never Retire.” He then became chairman of the Dana Foundation, which supports research in neuroscience, immunology and brain disorders. In 2005, he testified at a Senate hearing in favor of a law to shield reporters from prosecutors’ demands to disclose sources and other information. In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. From 1995 to 2004, he was a member of the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes.
R.I.P. William Safire, matchless wordsmith. It will be a long, long time before another like you will come along, if ever.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 19, 2012 16:47:26 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 19, 2012 16:47:26 GMT -5
R.I.P. Steve Sabol, NFL Films pioneer (with his father Ed) and president, died at age 69 after an 18-month battle with brain cancer.
Steve Sabol helped his father Ed establish the Emmy-winning production company NFL FIlms that changed the way people viewed professional football. NFL Films, which has filmed every NFL game since 1965, produced weekly highlight shows in the days before sports cable networks, breaking away from highlight reels of the past by showing action in slow motion with multiple ground-level cameras, with stirring music and sound from the sidelines. The company was founded by his father, Ed Sabol, but Steve was with the outfit from the beginning and took it over in 1987, helping it become a business with revenue of tens of millions of dollars, with programs on several networks. Ed Sabol founded Blair Motion Pictures in 1962 and bid a few thousand dollars for the rights to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game. With Steve as a cameraman in the six-person crew, the company produced the film The NFL’s Longest Day, which persuaded the league to buy the company. In 1967, the outfit produced the film They Call It Pro Football, which debuted one of the hallmarks of NFL Films’ early years – announcer John Facenda, whose rich, firm voice led to his nickname “The Voice of God.” One of the company’s innovations under the Sabols’ guidance was putting wireless microphones on the players and coaches during games. “All of that’s standard stuff today, but before NFL Films it was unheard of,” the NFL Network said in its obituary for Steve Sabol. “But then, Steve never thought like a sports filmmaker, he thought like a Hollywood storyteller.” Steve Sabol won 35 Emmy awards for cinematography, editing, writing, directing and producing. Both Sabols won the Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003, and Steve Sabol introduced his father during the elder Sabol’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year. R.I.P. Steve Sabol, NFL Films pioneer and storyteller.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 26, 2012 14:22:47 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 26, 2012 14:22:47 GMT -5
R.I.P. Andy Williams, the silky-voiced, clean-cut crooner, whose hit recording “Moon River” and years of popular Christmas TV shows brought him fans the world over, has died at age 84 after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer at home in Branson, Mo. He is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children by his first wife, Robert, Noelle and Christian.
With an easy style and a mellow voice, Williams proved ideal for television. The Andy Williams Show, which lasted in various formats from 1957 to 1971, featured Williams alternately performing his stable of easy-listening ballads and bantering casually with his guest stars. He received 18 gold and three platinum albums over his long career and was nominated for five Grammy awards. He released an autobiography in 2009, Moon River and Me: A Memoir. It was on that show that Williams introduced the world to the original four singing Osmond Brothers of Utah and their younger sibling Donny also debuted there in 1963 when he was 6 years old. Williams’ clean-cut persona, which made him a popular act in conservative Branson, Mo., also carried over into his personal life. He was connected with scandal only once — indirectly — when his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich, to death in 1976. Howard Andrew Williams began performing with his older brothers Dick, Bob and Don in the local Presbyterian church choir when he was 8, before going into show buniness. Eventually, the three older brothers tired of the constant travel and left to pursue other careers. Andy got a role on Steve Allen's original Tonight show and a record contract. Among his hit records: “Canadian Sunset,” ”The Hawaiian Wedding Song,” ”Dear Heart,” ”Days of Wine and Roses,” the theme from the movie “Love Story” and “Charade.” After leaving TV and touring, he settled in Branson, Mo. with its dozens of theaters featuring live music, comedy and magic acts. When he arrived in 1992, the town was dominated by country music performers, but Williams changed that, building the classy, $13 million Andy Williams Moon River Theater in the heart of the city’s entertainment district and performing two shows a night, six days a week, nine months of the year. Only in recent years did he begin to cut back to one show a night. He and his second wife, the former Debbie Haas, divided their time between homes in Branson and Palm Springs, where he spent his leisure hours on the golf course when Branson’s theaters were dark during the winter months following Christmas.
R.I.P. Andy Williams, last of the smooth baritone crooners.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Sept 29, 2012 11:20:21 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Sept 29, 2012 11:20:21 GMT -5
R.I.P. Arthur Ochs Sulzbeger, former New York Times publisher and father of the current publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., died at age 86 after a long illness. He is survived by his thrid wife and four children, including the Times present publisher.
For 30 years, publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger led the Times to new levels of influence and profit amid some of the most significant moments in 20th-century journalism. During his long tenure, the newspaper won 31 Pulitzer prizes, published the Pentagon Papers and won a libel case victory in New York Times vs. Sullivan that established important First Amendment protections for the press. It is a landmark 1964 Supreme Court ruling that shields the press from libel lawsuits by public officials unless they could prove actual malice. In 1971 the Times led the First Amendment fight to keep the government from suppressing the Pentagon Papers, a series of classified reports on the Vietnam War. In an era of declining newspaper readership, the Times' weekday circulation climbed from 714,000 when Sulzberger became publisher in 1963 to 1.1 million upon his retirement as publisher in 1992. Over the same period, the annual revenues of the Times' corporate parent rose from $100 million to $1.7 billion. Sulzberger directed the Times' evolution from an encyclopedic paper of record to a more reader-friendly product that reached into the suburbs and across the nation. During his tenure, the Times started a national edition, bought its first color presses, and introduced popular as well as lucrative new sections covering topics such as science, food and entertainment. In 1992, Sulzberger relinquished the publisher's job to his 40-year-old son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who is the 5th family member to hold the position, but remained chairman of The New York Times Co. until he retired in 1997. He stayed on the Times Co. board of directors until 2002. "Punch" Sulzberger was the only grandson of Adolph S. Ochs (pronounced ox), the son of Bavarian immigrants who took over the Times in 1896 and built it into the nation's most influential newspaper. The family retains a controlling interest to this day, holding a separate block of Class B shares that have more powerful voting rights than the company's publicly traded shares.
R.I.P. Arthur Ochs Sulzbeger, extraordinary 4th generaion publisher of The New York Times.
|
|
|
R.I.P.
Oct 14, 2012 16:33:38 GMT -5
Post by Flying Horse on Oct 14, 2012 16:33:38 GMT -5
R.I.P. Arlen Specter, US Senator (D-Penn., 1980-2011), died at age 82 from complications of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma at his home in Philadelphia, Pa. He is survived by his wife, Joan, and two sons, Shanin and Steve, and four granddaughters.
He was a gruff, independent-minded moderate who spent three decades in the U.S. Senate but was spurned by Pennsylvania voters after switching in 2009 from Republican to Democrat. Resilient, smart and aggressive, the former prosecutor frequently riled conservatives and liberals on his way to becoming Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator, elected to five 6-year terms starting in 1980. He left the Republican Party because he said it had become too conservative. Specter was born in Kansas in 1930 during the Great Depression. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant who owned a junkyard. Specter moved to Philadelphia at age 17 to attend the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1951, then served in the Air Force before attending Yale Law School. He was a Democrat until age 35, when the Republicans offered their nomination for district attorney of Philadelphia, serving from 1966 to 1974. He was also one of America's most prominent Jewish politicians, a rare Republican in a category dominated by Democrats over the decades. After President John Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Specter served on the Warren Commission that investigated the shooting, and he helped devise the disputed "single-bullet" theory" that supported the idea of a lone gunman. During his lengthy Senate career, Specter was crucial in increasing U.S. spending on biomedical research. Specter annoyed fellow Republicans by voting "not proven" on impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton in 1999, helping prevent the Democrat from being ousted from office over his affair with a White House intern. In February 2009, a month after Democratic President Barack Obama took office, he became one of three Republican senators to vote for Obama's economic stimulus bill that Specter said was needed to avert a depression like that of the 1930s. After leaving the Senate in January 2011, the University of Pennsylvania Law School announced Specter would teach a course about Congress' relationship with the Supreme Court, and Maryland Public Television launched a political-affairs show hosted by the former senator. In 2006, Philadelphia magazine called him "One of the few true wild cards of Washington politics ... reviled by those on both the right and the left...Charming and churlish, brilliant and pedantic, he can be fiercely independent, entertainingly eccentric, and simply maddening," the profile read. R.I.P. Arlen Specter, who served his country well for over 60 years.
|
|