The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread #2

Discussion in 'General TV & Media' started by sandersidle, Jun 26, 2009.

  1. Desertwind

    Desertwind Head of the Day Shift

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    My gawd, I thought he'd live till he was 200. I recently saw a quick video of him and he said "If it's man made, don't eat it, and if it tastes good, spit it out". So he was into raw fruit and veggies. 96 is still a long productive life. He was always so positive;) I'm sure he's exercising with the angels, and may he RIP~
     
  2. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Comedian Charlie Callas dead in Las Vegas at 83
    Jan 28, 2:37 PM (ET)

    LAS VEGAS (AP) - Charlie Callas, a versatile comedian whose zany faces and antics made him a regular for more than four decades on television, in films and on casino stages, has died in Las Vegas. He was 83.

    Callas died Thursday at a hospice, according to his sons Mark Callas and Larry Callas.

    Callas was a rubber-faced, wiry framed comic whose rapid-fire delivery drew laughs and made him a frequent guest on variety and comedy shows.

    "Everybody that met him, he left them with a smile," Mark Callas said.

    For years, Charlie Callas made Johnny Carson laugh on the "Tonight Show." But Carson banned him from returning after Callas shoved Carson off his chair in a bid for laughs in 1982.

    Mark Callas said his father knew every member of the Rat Pack, a group of actors that included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.

    Callas toured with Sinatra and Tom Jones, had a role with Jerry Lewis in the movie "The Big Mouth" in 1967, and was a guest on TV variety shows hosted by Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin, Andy Williams and Flip Wilson. Callas guest-hosted on the "Joey Bishop Show."

    He also played restaurant owner Malcolm Argos in the 1970s TV series "Switch" with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert, and had roles in Mel Brooks' films "High Anxiety" and "History of the World: Part I."

    Callas grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and served in the U.S. Army in Germany during World War II before beginning a career as a drummer with big bands starring Tommy Dorsey and Buddy Rich.

    He was a natural comic, and it wasn't long before he gave up drumming for standup routines. He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to the stage.

    "He was just messing around with the guys and it worked, I guess," Mark Callas said.

    He was Charlie Callas when he made his first television appearance in 1963 on the "Hollywood Palace" variety show.

    Mark Callas, who produces the "American Superstars" celebrity impersonators show in Las Vegas, said he encouraged his parents to move to Las Vegas from New York in 2002.

    Larry Callas said the death of his mother, Evelyn Callas in July at age 80, broke his father's heart.

    Funeral arrangments were being made at Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas.
     
  3. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    David Frye, 77; comedian famous for impressions of Nixon, other politicians
    New York Times / January 29, 2011

    David Frye, whose wicked send-ups of political figures like Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and, above all, Richard M. Nixon, made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died Monday in Las Vegas, where he lived. He was 77.

    The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest, a spokeswoman for the Clark County coroner’s office in Nevada said.

    In the early 1960s Mr. Frye was a struggling impressionist working the clubs of Greenwich Village, relying on a fairly standard repertoire of Hollywood actors. Then he slipped Robert F. Kennedy into his act, basing his impression on a girlfriend’s comment that Kennedy sounded like Bugs Bunny.

    Audiences loved it, and Mr. Frye began adding other politicians, capturing not just their vocal peculiarities but also their body language and facial expressions. His LBJ, with a lugubrious hound-dog face and a Texas twang rich in slushy “s’’ sounds, became a trademark, as did his bouncy Hubert Humphrey.

    But it was Nixon who made his comedic career. Shoulders hunched, deep-set eyes glowering, Mr. Frye captured the insecure, neurotic Nixon perfectly. “I am the President’’ — his blustery tagline and the title of a comedy album he recorded for Elektra in 1969 — seemed to get at the essence of a powerful politician in desperate need of validation.

    “I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is president,’’ Mr. Frye told Esquire magazine in 1971. Nixon also played the starring role in Mr. Frye’s later albums “Radio Free Nixon’’ (1971), “Richard Nixon Superstar’’ (1971), and the Watergate satire “Richard Nixon: A Fantasy’’ (1973).

    Mr. Frye added a panoply of political and cultural figures to his act. His William F. Buckley Jr., all darting tongue and wildly searching eyes, was stellar, but he also worked up dead-on impressions of George Wallace, Nelson Rockefeller, David Susskind, Billy Graham, Howard Cosell, and a long list of film actors.

    It was Nixon, however, who kept Mr. Frye a regular on top television variety shows and at the big Las Vegas casinos, perhaps because he was one of few politicians with a truly Shakespearean richness of character. In one skit Mr. Frye even had the president smoking marijuana and reporting, in hushed tones, “I see spacious skies and fruited plains and amber waves of grain.’’

    Mr. Frye was born as David Shapiro in Brooklyn. At the University of Miami, he was already doing mime impressions in campus productions. Soon he discovered he had an ear for distinctive Hollywood voices like Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant and began doing vocal impressions as well.

    After serving with an Army Special Services unit in France, he returned to New York and developed his act at small clubs while working as a salesman for his father’s office-cleaning business. At the Village Gate, where he was filling in for a regular in early 1966, talent scouts saw his Bobby Kennedy imitation and booked him on “The Merv Griffin Show.’’ Soon he was appearing on “The Leslie Uggams Show,’’ “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,’’ and “The Tonight Show.’’

    Nixon’s departure from the scene took most of the air out of his career. With the president’s resignation in August 1974, Mr. Frye lost the best friend an impressionist ever had. He continued to add impressions to his act: Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin, among others. But he never enjoyed anything approaching the fame that the Johnson and Nixon years had given him.
     
  4. Desertwind

    Desertwind Head of the Day Shift

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    OMG, He's gone too? A great impressionist especially NIXON..may he RIP!
     
  5. vegaslights

    vegaslights Brute

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    Composer John Barry passed away yesterday from a heart attack. He was 77.
     
  6. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    More about John Barry:

    5-Oscar winner, composer John Barry, dies at 77
    Jan 31, 6:19 AM (ET)
    By ROBERT BARR

    LONDON (AP) - Composer John Barry, who won five Oscars for his film work but was best known for his contributions to a dozen James Bond movies, has died. He was 77.

    Barry died in New York on Sunday, his family said.

    The English-born composer won two Oscars, for the score and the song, for "Born Free" in 1966, and he earned single statuettes for "The Lion in Winter" (1968), "Out of Africa" (1985) and "Dances with Wolves" (1990).

    He was also nominated for his scores for "Mary, Queen of Scots" in 1971 and "Chaplin" in 1992.

    His association with Agent 007 began controversially with "Dr. No" in 1962, although his contribution was not credited. He wrote music for a dozen Bond films in all.

    Monty Norman, who was credited as the composer for "Dr. No," sued The Sunday Times in 2001 for reporting that Barry had been called in to help after Norman's inspiration faltered. Norman won the case, collecting 30,000 pounds ($48,000).

    Barry, who was not sued, had testified that he was paid 250 pounds to work on the music but had agreed that Norman would get the credit, which was his contractual right.

    Barry subsequently wrote music for "Goldfinger,""From Russia with Love,""Thunderball,""You Only Live Twice,""On Her Majesty's Secret Service,""Diamonds are Forever,""The Man with the Golden Gun,""Moonraker,""Octopussy,""A View to a Kill" and "The Living Daylights."

    Born in York, England as John Barry Prendergast, he trained as a pianist and then took up the trumpet. He founded a jazz group, the John Barry Seven, in 1957.

    The group teamed with singer Adam Faith, scoring hits with "What Do You Want?" and "Poor Me," and Barry moved into film work when Faith was tapped to star in "Beat Girl" (titled "Living for Kicks" in the United States).

    "The James Bond movies came because we were successful in the pop music world, with a couple of big instrumental hits. They thought I knew how to write instrumental hit music," Barry said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1991.

    Barry was divorced three times. He is survived by his wife Laurie, his four children and five grandchildren. A private funeral was planned, the family said.
     
  7. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    'Last Tango in Paris' star Maria Schneider dies
    Feb 3, 11:13 AM (ET)
    By JENNY BARCHFIELD

    PARIS (AP) - Maria Schneider, the French actress who was Marlon Brando's young co-star in the steamy 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris," has died, her talent agency said. She was 58.

    A representative of the Act 1 agency said Schneider died in Paris on Thursday "following a long illness," but declined to provide details.

    Schneider was 19 when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's racy "Last Tango in Paris." In it, she played a young Parisian woman who takes up with a middle-aged American businessman, played by Brando.

    Throughout her career, Schneider appeared in more than two dozen films, most of them French. The last movie she appeared in, "The Key," by director Guillaume Nicloux, came out in 2007.

    The Act 1 representative said she was not aware of funeral plans. She asked not to be named in accordance with her agency's policy.
     
  8. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Charles H. Kaman, Helicopter Innovator, Dies at 91
    By MOTOKO RICH
    Published: February 2, 2011

    Charles H. Kaman, an innovator in the development and manufacture of helicopter technology and, following a wholly different passion, the inventor of one of the first electrically amplified acoustic guitars, died on Monday in Bloomfield, Conn. He was 91.

    Mr. Kaman, who had suffered several strokes over the last decade, died of complications of pneumonia, his daughter, Cathleen Kaman, said. He lived in Bloomfield.

    Mr. Kaman (pronounced ka-MAN) was a 26-year-old aeronautical engineer when he founded the Kaman Aircraft Company in 1945 in the garage of his mother’s home in West Hartford, Conn. By the time he retired as chairman in 2001, he had built the Kaman Corporation into a billion-dollar concern that distributes motors, pumps, bearings and other products as well as making helicopters and their parts.

    Within the aerospace industry, Mr. Kaman is best known for inventing dual intermeshing helicopter rotors, which move in opposite directions, and for introducing the gas turbine jet engine to helicopters. The company’s HH-43 Huskie was a workhorse in rescue missions in the Vietnam War.

    Mr. Kaman, a guitar enthusiast, also invented the Ovation guitar, effectively reversing the vibration-reducing technology of helicopters to create a generously vibrating instrument that incorporated aerospace materials into its rounded back. In the mid-1960s he created Ovation Instruments, a division of his company, to manufacture it.

    Full story at The New York Times
     
  9. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Former Pirates Manager Chuck Tanner Dies At 82

    PITTSBURGH (AP)—For Chuck Tanner, it was all about family, in so many ways.

    There was was the 1979 World Series when the Pittsburgh Pirates—energized by the thumping anthem “We Are Family”—soared to a title that ended with the players’ wives dancing on the dugout roof.

    And there was Game 5 of that Series, when the great comeback started for a Pirates team facing elimination by Baltimore. Tanner learned his mother had died that morning, but he insisted on managing because he knew she would have wanted him to do the job.

    On Friday, Tanner, one of baseball’s relentlessly upbeat figures, died at 82 in his hometown of New Castle, Pa. He died of a long illness at his home after spending time in hospice care.

    “In baseball, we will remember his eternal optimism and his passion for the game,” Tanner’s son, former major league pitcher Bruce, said in a statement.

    He’ll be noted in the record book, too, for a most smashing debut in the majors: Playing for the Milwaukee Braves in 1955, he homered on the first pitch he saw as a big leaguer.

    Renowned for his never-wavering confidence and an inherent belief that no deficit was too large to overcome, Tanner managed the White Sox, Athletics, Pirates and Braves to a record of 1,352-1,381 from 1970-88. He won one division title and finished second five times.

    “It’s hard to win a pennant,” Tanner once said, “but it’s harder to lose one.”

    Tanner’s irrepressible faith was tested on that morning of Game 5 in 1979, with the Pirates trailing the Orioles 3-1. Tanner awoke and found out his mother had died in a nursing home in New Castle.

    A grieving Tanner stuck with his team. He took a huge gamble by starting left-hander Jim Rooker, who had won four games all season, rather than future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. Rooker held the Orioles to one run over five innings, and the Pirates, led by aging star Willie Stargell, went on to sweep the final three games.

    “Chuck was a class act who always carried himself with grace, humility and integrity,” Pirates President Frank Coonelly said in a statement. “While no one had a sharper baseball mind, Chuck was loved by his players and the city of Pittsburgh because he was always positive, enthusiastic and optimistic about his Bucs and life in generally.”

    After retiring from managing, Tanner remained involved with the Pirates, most recently serving as a senior adviser to general manager Neal Huntington.

    Commissioner Bud Selig called Tanner a “lifetime contributor to baseball.”

    “Chuck spent his life serving baseball in a variety of roles,” Selig said in a statement. “And I am particularly glad that in recent years he returned to the Pirates, the club with which he will be forever linked.”

    The Pirates had seven winning seasons in Tanner’s first eight years, several after they had terrible starts. Some players later abused the considerable freedom Tanner gave them, however, such as allowing friends and family members to roam freely in the clubhouse.

    That permissive attitude was cited in part for the Pirates’ drug problems, involving such players such as 1978 NL MVP Dave Parker, that were revealed during the widely publicized Pittsburgh trials of alleged drug suppliers to major leaguers in 1985.

    Tanner testified he had only a cursory knowledge of such drug use. Former Pirates shortstop Dale Berra contradicted that claim, testifying Tanner specifically warned him to stay away from reputed drug dealers and once asked Berra if he had a cocaine problem.

    The Pirates fired Tanner in the aftermath of the drug trials—“I would have fired myself,” Tanner once said.

    Tanner had already made his mark in the dugout before joining the Pirates.

    While with the White Sox from 1972-75, Tanner, a former major league outfielder, turned modestly successful, knuckleball-throwing reliever Wilbur Wood into a successful and tireless starter and Rich “Goose” Gossage into one of the premier closers of his era. He was one of the first managers to use relievers in situational roles, as all teams do today.

    Let go when owner Bill Veeck reacquired the White Sox in 1975, Tanner quickly hooked on with the Athletics. With Reggie Jackson gone and home runs at a premium, Tanner turned the 1976 A’s loose for an AL-record 341 stolen bases, an average of more than two per game. Eight players had 20 or more, including 31 by “designated runner” Larry Lintz, who had one at-bat all season.

    Tanner was coveted by the Pirates, and the team made one of the few trades involving a manager in major league history to obtain Tanner’s contract. Pittsburgh sent All-Star catcher Manny Sanguillen and cash to the A’s for Tanner.

    Tanner kept running, doubling the Pirates’ stolen base total from 130 to 260. They finished second in each of their first two seasons under him, in 1977 and ’78, then overcame a 7-11 record in April 1979 to win the NL East before sweeping the Reds in a three-game NLCS.

    Despite having front-line starters Blyleven and John Candelaria, the Pirates didn’t have a starting pitcher with more than 14 wins that season, or a position player with more than 94 RBIs. Still, the team’s chemistry was undeniable.

    Led by the 39-year-old Stargell’s clutch hitting (32 homers, 82 RBIs), the team adopted a popular song of the time by Sister Sledge to become known as the Family (or, as it was often spelled, the Fam-A-Lee). Stargell was the NL’s co-MVP, as well as the MVP of the NLCS and the World Series, despite being limited to 424 at-bats by age and injuries.

    “Having Willie Stargell that year was like having a diamond ring on your finger,” Tanner said.

    After being let go by the Pirates, Tanner was quickly hired by Braves owner Ted Turner. But he was fired again less than halfway through that contract after going 153-208 in two-plus seasons in Atlanta.

    Tanner later worked as a scout for the Brewers and Indians but did not manage again despite having several offers. In 2006, he was honored with an annual award presented by the baseball writers to the Pirates player who is most cooperative with the media. The baseball field at his alma mater, Shenango High in New Castle, is named for him.

    Born on the Fourth of July in 1928, Tanner hit .261 with 21 homers in 396 games as a spare outfielder with the Braves, Cubs, Indians and Angels, missing out on a chance to be an everyday outfielder with the Cubs in 1958 because of a shoulder injury.

    Son Bruce pitched briefly in the majors with the White Sox and later was the Pirates’ bullpen coach. Another son, Mark, pitched in the minors.

    Tanner’s wife, Barbara, died in 2006, the month after her husband served as honorary NL coach in the All-Star game in Pittsburgh. Phil Garner, the NL manager, insisted Tanner be on his staff.

    “Chuck Tanner taught me nearly everything I know about baseball,” Garner said.
     
  10. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Betty Garrett, actress in film, TV, Broadway, dies

    Betty Garrett, the vivacious Broadway star who played Frank Sinatra's sweetheart in two MGM musicals before her career was hampered by the Hollywood blacklist, has died in Los Angeles, her son said Sunday. She was 91.

    Garrett died Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, most likely from an aortic aneurysm, said her son, Garrett Parks. Garrett had been in good health and taught her usual musical comedy class at Theater West, the non-profit organization she helped found, on Wednesday night, but Friday checked into the hospital with heart trouble, and died with her family at her side the following morning.

    Garrett was best known as the flirtatious girl in love with the shy Sinatra in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "On the Town," both in 1949, and later in life she became well-known to TV audiences with recurring roles in the 1970s sitcoms "All in the Family" and "Laverne & Shirley."

    Particularly memorable was "On the Town," the Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein musical about three sailors on leave in New York City. She played the comically aggressive cab driver who pursues Sinatra (singing the racy "Come Up to My Place") while his pals, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin, team up with Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller.

    Besides the two pictures with Sinatra, she appeared in "Words and Music" and "Neptune's Daughter," in which she and Red Skelton sang the Oscar-winning song "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

    Betty maintained a busy career in theater and television. She played recurring roles in "All in the Family," as the chatty friend of Edith Bunker who duels with Archie, and "Laverne and Shirley," as a landlady who married Laverne's father.

    She garnered an Emmy nomination in 2003 for guest actress in a comedy series for an appearance on the Ted Danson sitcom "Becker."

    Over the years, she also had sporadic roles on Broadway, including parts in "Spoon River Anthology" in 1963 and "Meet Me in St. Louis" in 1989. She was back on Broadway in 2001 in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies."

    In 1998, she published her autobiography, "Betty Garrett and Other Songs," which was the title of her one-woman show.

    Betty Garrett was born in 1919 in St. Joseph, Mo. She had demonstrated a talent for dancing and acting, and she won a scholarship at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse at 17.

    Garrett's stage debut came with "Danton's Death" at Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in 1938. Later shows included "All in Fun," "Something for the Boys," "Laffin' Room Only" and "Bells Are Ringing." She also danced with the Martha Graham troupe.

    In addition to Garrett Parks, a composer, his wife Karen Culliver Parks and her granddaughter Madison Claire Parks, she was survived by her son Andrew Parks, an actor, and his wife Katy Melody.

    The family did not plan to have a funeral, but was planning a memorial service for later in the month.
     
  11. Desertwind

    Desertwind Head of the Day Shift

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    WOW, that's old, I think I saw her dancing with Gene Kelly in an old movie. She was a pistol. May she RIP~
     
  12. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Jazz pianist George Shearing dies at 91

    NEW YORK — Sir George Shearing, the ebullient jazz pianist who wrote the standard "Lullaby of Birdland" and had a string of hits both with and without his quintet, has died. He was 91.

    Shearing, blind since birth, died early Monday morning in Manhattan of congestive heart failure, his longtime manager Dale Sheets said.

    "He was a totally one-of-a-kind performer," said Sheets. "It was something wonderful to see, to watch him work."

    Shearing had been a superstar of the jazz world since a couple of years after he arrived in the United States in 1947 from his native England, where he was already hugely popular. The George Shearing Quintet's first big hit came in 1949 with a version of songwriter Harry Warren's "September in the Rain."

    He remained active well into his 80s, releasing a CD called "Lullabies of Birdland" as well as a memoir, "Lullaby of Birdland," in early 2004. In March of that year, though, he was hospitalized after suffering a fall at his home. It took him months to recover, and he largely retired from public appearances after that.

    Sheets said that while Shearing ceased working, he never stop playing piano.

    "He was getting better periodically and doing quite well up into about a month ago," said Sheets.

    In a 1987 Associated Press interview, Shearing said the ingredients for a great performance were "a good audience, a good piano, and a good physical feeling, which is not available to every soul, every day of everyone's life.

    "Your intent, then, is to speak to your audience in a language you know, to try to communicate in a way that will bring to them as good a feeling as you have yourself," he said.

    In 2007, Shearing was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to music. When the honor was announced, he said it was "amazing to receive an honor for something I absolutely love doing."

    Shearing's bebop-influenced sound became identified with a quintet _ piano, vibes, guitar, bass and drums _ which he put together in 1949. More recently, he played mostly solo or with only a bassist. He excelled in the "locked hands" technique, in which the pianist plays parallel melodies with the two hands, creating a distinctly full sound.

    Among the luminaries with whom Shearing worked over the years: Tito Puente, Nancy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, Mel Torme, Marian McPartland, the Boston Pops, Peggy Lee, Billy Taylor, Don Thompson, Stephane Grappelli and Sarah Vaughan, whom Shearing called "the best contralto in pop."

    When Torme won Grammys two years in a row in 1983-84, for "An Evening With George Shearing and Mel Torme" and "Top Drawer," he blasted the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for failing to nominate his partner, Shearing, either time.

    "It's hard to image a more compatible musical partner," Shearing said after Torme died in 1999. "I humbly put forth that Mel and I had the best musical marriage in many a year. We literally breathed together during our countless performances." And he told Down Beat magazine: "Mel was one of the few people that I played with whom I felt I worked with and not for."

    Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland" in 1952; it's named for the famous New York jazz club. He acknowledged composing it in just 10 minutes. "But I always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business," he told The Christian Science Monitor in 1980. "Just in case anybody thinks there are any totally free rides left, there are none!"

    At an 80th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall in 1999, Shearing introduced "Lullaby" by joking: "I have been credited with writing 300 songs. Two hundred ninety-nine enjoyed a bumpy ride from relative obscurity to total oblivion. Here is the other one."

    Among other songs recorded by the George Shearing Quintet: "I'll Never Smile Again," "Mambo Inn," "Conception," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)."

    The landmark albums he and the quintet made include "The Swingin's Mutual," backing up vocalist Wilson, and "Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays."

    But Shearing laid the quintet to rest in 1978, except for occasional revivals.

    "I needed a breath of fresh air and a chance to grow individually," he told the AP. "What I find as a soloist or working with a bassist, is that I can address myself more to the proposition of being a complete pianist; I find a lot more pianistic freedom."

    He was already working at his memoir in 1987, saying he was using a Braille word processor. "I think there are a lot of things to be told from my view _ the world of sound and feel," he said. Years earlier, in a 1953 AP interview, he had said he referred to his blindness as little as possible because, "I want to get by as a human being, not as a blind person."

    As he grew older, he spoke frankly of aging.

    "I'm not sure that technique and improvisational abilities improve with age," the pianist said. "I think what improves is your sense of judgment, of maturity. I think you become a much better editor of your own material."

    Shearing was born Aug. 13, 1919, to a working-class family and grew up in the Battersea district of London.

    A prodigy despite his inability to see printed music, he studied classical music for several years before deciding to "test the water on my own" instead of pursuing additional studies at a university. Shearing began his career at a London pub when he was 16.

    During World War II, the young pianist teamed with Grappelli, the French jazz violinist, who spent the war years in London. Grappelli recalled to writer Leonard Feather in 1976 that he and Shearing would "play during air raids. Was not very amusing."

    Shearing had a daughter, Wendy, with his first wife, the former Trixie Bayes, whom he married in 1941. The marriage ended in divorce in 1973 and two years later he married singer Ellie Geffert.

    The popularity of the Shearing quartet's records a half-century ago had some writers suggesting he didn't take his jazz seriously enough. In a 2002 New York Times piece, critic Terry Teachout said such talk was beside the point.

    "The time has come," Teachout wrote, "for George Shearing to be acknowledged not as a commercial purveyor of bop-and-water, but as an exceptionally versatile artist who has given pleasure to countless listeners for whom such critical hairsplitting is irrelevant."

    Shearing is survived by his wife, Geffert.
     
  13. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Inspiration for Lois Lane Dies at 93
    Feb. 15, 2011 - 10:50 AM
    Mara Gay, Contributor


    Joanne Siegel, the inspiration behind Lois Lane and the widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, has died at the age of 93.

    She was only a teenager during the Great Depression when she placed a classified ad seeking modeling jobs. That led to a meeting with Superman co-creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, her future husband, The Plain Dealer reports. Later, Siegel would say that it was Joanne who served as the muse for Superman's spunky love interest and fellow reporter at The Daily Planet, Lois Lane.

    Throughout her life, but especially in the later years after Jerry's death in 1996, Siegel fought very public court battles to win back a share of the rights to Superman. In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Shuster famously sold the rights to the comic hero to Detective Comics for just $130. Joanne and Jerry married in 1948, after he divorced Bella Siegel, according to the Cleveland newspaper.

    In 2008, years of legal battles paid off for Joanne Siegel when a judge awarded a share of the copyright to the Siegel and Shuster families. Laura Siegel Larson, her daughter with Jerry Siegel, had also helped fight for the rights. "We were just stubborn," Joanne Siegel told The New York Times in 2008. "It was a dream of Jerry's, and we just took up the task."

    Brad Meltzer, a friend of the Siegel family and the author of "The Book of Lies," about the creation of Superman, announced Joanne Siegel's death on Twitter late Monday evening. "Just heard Joanne Siegel passed away. Lois Lane herself. One of the most beautiful people I ever met," he wrote.

    Joanne Siegel lived in California. Laura Siegel Larson could not be reached for comment today.

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Minnesota Zoo dolphin April dies at 44
    Beloved matriarch of bottlenose dolphin pod is dead at age 44
    By Jessica Fleming
    02/15/2011 11:36:14 PM CST


    Grandma April, the playful matriarch of the Minnesota Zoo's Atlantic bottlenose dolphin pod, died Tuesday at age 44.

    April was mother to Allie, 22, and grandmother to 7-month-old Taijah. Taijah's father, Semo, 45, rounds out the pod.

    Zoo staff said April had been suffering from "a few physical ailments" recently and had been undergoing treatment at the time of her death. A necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

    "April was one of our most beloved animals," said Kevin Willis, the zoo's director of biological programs. "Since she arrived here a few years ago, she quickly became a guest favorite. She enjoyed interacting with her trainers during enrichment sessions and was often heard vocalizing during those interactions. She will be terribly missed by staff, volunteers and all the zoo guests who met her."

    Dolphins have an average lifespan of 20 years but can occasionally live to be 45 or 50.
     
  14. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Goodbye to 'Hello!'. Seinfeld's Uncle Leo, Len Lesser dies at 88.

    By Stephen M. Silverman, People magazine
    http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20466900,00.html

    Len Lesser, best known as the scene-stealing Uncle Leo on Seinfeld – "Jerry! Hello!" was his slogan – died from cancer-related pneumonia at a care facility in Burbank, Calif., it was announced Wednesday. He was 88.

    "Heaven got a great comedian and actor today," his daughter Michele said in a statement.

    Of Uncle Leo, Lesser told the Los Angeles Times in 1998: "He's the kind of guy who is a total nuisance at times and the kind of guy you avoid. He's a very expansive character, and that has an attraction to it."

    The New York native, who graduated in economics and government from City College in 1942 before serving in the Army during World War II, started his acting career in 1954 and appeared in the movies Birdman of Alcatraz, Kelly's Heroes, Papillon and Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales."

    Besides the 1989-98 Seinfeld, other TV shows featuring Lesser included Get Smart, The Munsters, The Rockford Files, ER and Everybody Loves Raymond, on which he played a Leo-esque character named Garvin, a lodge brother of Raymond's father Frank (Peter Boyle).

    Reports say Lesser, a father of two, was divorced in 1982 after 28 years of marriage.
     
  15. Dynamo1

    Dynamo1 Head of the Swing Shift

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    Drummer For ? & The Mysterians Dead At 65
    Eddie Serrato Played On Band's Hit '96 Tears'
    5:08 pm EST February 24, 2011


    SAGINAW, Mich. -- Eddie Serrato, the original drummer on Question Mark and the Mysterians' song "96 Tears," passed away Thursday morning.

    Serrato was due to be released from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit this morning after having surgery. Instead, his daughter told TV5 he had a heart attack. Serrato was 65.

    While Serrato was from the Saginaw area, ? and the Mysterians first formed in Bay City in 1962. The band received a gold record for the song "96 Tears" and appeared on "The Dick Clark Show."

    Serrato's daughter said in the last few years he was involved in producing Tejano music in Texas.

    Still heavily into music, she estimated he owned 5000 CDs and more than 60,000 songs on his computer hard drive.

    Funeral services are being arranged through Diesler Funeral Home in Saginaw Township.
     

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