The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread #2

Yahoo! News: Famed home run hitter Bobby Thomson dead at 86

NEW YORK (AP)—Bobby Thomson, who hit the famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” that won the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants, has died. He was 86.

Thomson’s death was confirmed Tuesday by the funeral home in Savannah, Ga., that is handling the arrangements. He had been in failing health for several years and died at home nearby Monday night, funeral director Joe Wall said.

Thomson connected off Brooklyn ace Ralph Branca for a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning at Polo Grounds in the decisive game of a best-of-three playoff.

The homer and broadcaster Russ Hodges’ ecstatic call of “The Giants win the pennant!” remain one of the signature moments in major league history.

A three-time All-Star as an infielder and outfielder, Thomson hit .270 with 264 career home runs and 1,026 RBIs from 1946-60 with several teams.

Wikipedia: Robert Brown Thomson

 

Frank Ryan was his name, he was 50. His dog was in the Jeep that went off the side of the PCH. The dog "Jill" did survive with injuries, they were coming back from hiking.

Yahoo! News: Celebrity surgeon Frank Ryan killed in car crash

TMZ: Dr. Frank Ryan -- Famous Plastic Surgeon Dies
That link will tell the story but also show the last pic he took of his beloved border Collie Jill. Actually if you pretty much goto TMZ you see a full host of stories on his death and star tributes to him.

 

'Cannibal' band member Richard Lopez dies at 65
Aug 19, 1:28 PM (ET)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Richard Lopez, an original member of the band Cannibal & the Headhunters which scored a 1965 hit with "Land of 1,000 Dances," has died. He was 65.

Gene Aguilera, the group's manager during a comeback a decade ago, says Lopez died of lung cancer July 30 at a convalescent hospital in Garden Grove, Calif.

Lopez and three other East Los Angeles high school students formed the band in the 1960s. Lopez was nicknamed "Scar," and "Cannibal" was Frank Garcia, who sings the iconic phrase "Naa na na na naa" on "Land of 1,000 Dances." It spent 14 weeks on Billboard's Top 100, reaching No. 30.

The group opened for The Beatles and other groups. Lopez left before the band broke up in 1967. It reunited in 1996.

 

TvGuide.com

Longtime CBS News Correspondent Harold Dow Dies at 62

Longtime CBS News correspondent Harold Dow died suddenly Saturday morning, according to the network's website. He was 62.

The five-time Emmy Award winner was best known for his work on 48 Hours, to which he contributed since the program's launch in January 1988. He was also a contributor to the critically acclaimed 1986 documentary, 48 Hours on Crack Street, which led to the creation of the weekly news magazine.

"CBS News is deeply saddened by this sudden loss," CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus said in a statement. "The CBS News family has lost one of its oldest and most talented members, whose absence will be felt by many and whose on-air presence and reporting skills touched nearly all of our broadcasts. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Kathy and their children Joelle, Danica and David."

Dow covered many of the most important stories of his time, including 9/11, where he barely escaped one of the falling Twin Towers. He also covered the return of prisoners of war from Vietnam, the movement of American troops into Bosnia, the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster, and the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, who he interviewed exclusively in 1976. He also conducted the first network TV interview with O. J. Simpson after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

In addition to his five Emmys, Dow was honored with a Peabody Award for his 48 Hours report on runaways and a Robert F. Kennedy Award for a report on public housing. He was also recently recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists for his report about civil rights activist Medgar Evers, which was featured in a CBS News special about the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Prior to beginning his work for CBS News in 1972, Dow was an anchor at Theta Cable TV in Santa Monica, Calif. He was also the first African American television reporter in Omaha, Neb., where he served as co-anchor and talk-show host for KETV Omaha.

Dow's cause of death was not immediately released.

 

'Star Gazer' host Jack Horkheimer dies at 72
Associated Press
August 21, 2010 - 6:40 PM

MIAMI - Jack Horkheimer, the Wisconsin native who created and hosted the PBS show "Star Gazer," has died. He was 72.

Horkheimer was director emeritus at the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium. The museum issued a news release saying the astronomer died Friday afternoon of a respiratory ailment.

The Randolph, Wis., native was the planetarium's director for more than 35 years.

Millions of people have watched the weekly "Star Gazer" program since its inception in the 1970s. The show helped popularize naked-eye astronomy by offering advice on what to look for in the night sky.

 

CNN.com

Nancy Dolman, Martin Short's wife has died

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Nancy Dolman, the wife of actor-comedian Martin Short has died, Short's representative said.

"Sadly, we can confirm that Martin Short's wife did pass away," Camille Kuznetz said Monday. "We do not have any other comment to make."
No details about the time, location or cause of Dolman's death were released.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call for emergency medical help at the couple's Pacific Palisades home Saturday morning, LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Paramedics did not transport anyone from the home, Humphrey said.
The Los Angeles County Coroner's office had no record of her death, but the office would only be aware if a death was sudden, unexpected or from unnatural causes, a spokesman said.

The couple had three children during their 30-year marriage. Katherine Elizabeth, Oliver Patrick, and Henry.

Dolman, 58, was a comedic actress and, like Short, a native of Canada.
Her acting career included a recurring role on TV's "Soap" in the late 1981, although she soon gave up her acting career to raise her children, according to the Internet Movie Database.

 

Comedian Robert Schimmel Dies at Age 60
Sep 4, 2010 12:25 PM ET
by Gina DiNunno, TB Guide online


Comedian Robert Schimmel, best known for his frequent appearances on Howard Stern's radio show, died after suffering serious injuries in a car accident, according to The Associated Press. He was 60.

Schimmel died Friday evening in a Phoenix hospital, his spokesman Howard Bragman told the AP. He was a passenger in a car driven by his 19-year-old daughter Aliyah whose vehicle rolled to the side of the freeway after she swerved to avoid another vehicle. Aliyah is currently in stable condition, Bragman said.

In addition to his often foulmouthed routines on Stern, Schimmel appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, was named one of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Comics, and had his own stand-up specials on HBO and Showtime.

In 2008, he wrote Cancer on $5 a Day, a memoir chronicling his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

 

ELO Cellist Mike Edwards Killed in Hay Bale Crash
9/7/2010 -2:36 am

Mike Edwards, a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra, has died in a freak accident involving a bale of hay.

The cellist was killed on the A381 in Devon on Friday, Sept. 3, in an incident in which a bale of hay hit the van he was driving, reports the BBC.

Police are investigating if the runaway bale of hay – weighing at 600kg (about 1300 pounds) – rolled off a tractor from a farm close to the road.

Edwards’ van swerved and hit another vehicle but the other driver escaped the incident uninjured.

Police said they used YouTube clips and photos of Edwards to identify the 62-year-old but they are still trying to find his family to help formally identify the body.

 

Source: EW

'Beetlejuice' actor Glenn Shadix dies

Glenn Shadix, 58, best known for playing interior designer Otho in the movie Beetlejuice (1988), died Tuesday morning in Birmingham, Ala., according to a statement posted by the actor’s family on his official website.

Shadix, who was in a wheelchair due to mobility problems, reportedly died after falling and hitting his head in his kitchen, the actor’s sister told The Birmingham News.

Director Tim Burton cast Shadix in Beetlejuice after seeing him portray Gertrude Stein in a Los Angeles play.

Shadix would work with Burton again on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Planet of the Apes (2001). Shadix also did voice work for the animated show Teen Titans, and guest starred in such shows as Carnivàle and Seinfeld (as Jerry’s landlord).

A memorial service is scheduled for Sept. 11 in Birmingham.

 

From: CNN

LFO singer dies after battle with leukemia

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Rich Cronin of the 1990s boy band LFO has died, his band member told CNN on Wednesday night.

Cronin, who fought a long battle with leukemia, was 36.

The band is best known for its Top 10 U.S. hits "Girls on TV" and "Summer Girls," with Cronin writing the latter.

Cronin was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005 and underwent chemotherapy, said band mate Brad Fischetti.

The leukemia returned in 2007 and 2008, and doctors treated it with a stem cell transplant, Fischetti said.

Cronin suffered a stroke, an adverse reaction to the treatment, and was left with severe pain in his leg, according to Fischetti.

He did not know whether Cronin was battling leukemia again when he died Wednesday in a Massachusetts hospital.

The trio had a monster hit with its debut album, "LFO."

"Summer Girls," from the album, was the group's highest-charting song, and it was nominated for a Billboard Music Award.

In 2009, the trio reunited for a summer tour.

Fischetti said he and their third band mate, Devin Lima, gave Cronin the large back bedroom of their tour bus so he could rest up for the shows.

"We had the best time ever," Fischetti said. "He never thought he'd be on stage again."

He said Fischetti told him recently he was having some trouble walking.
When Fischetti sent Cronin a text message last week to wish him a happy birthday, he did not get a reply -- which he said was uncharacteristic.
He found out Wednesday morning that Cronin had died.

He chuckled that some media outlets have been reporting Cronin's age as 33.

"Rich liked to play with his age," he said.

 

Kevin McCarthy dies at 96
Prolific actor best known for 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
September 13, 2010

Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Saturday. He was 96.

McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., said his daughter Lillah.

During a career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning on stage in New York in the late 1930s, McCarthy played Biff Loman opposite Paul Muni's Willy in the 1949 London production of "Death of a Salesman."

Reprising his role in the 1951 film version opposite Fredric March, he earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe as most promising male newcomer.

McCarthy had appeared in several other films and had a string of TV anthology-series credits behind him when he was cast as Dr. Miles Bennell in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," director Don Siegel's thriller about an unsuspecting California town whose residents were being replaced by emotionless alien clones grown in oversized seed pods.

In the film's most memorable scene, McCarthy's frantic Bennell runs into traffic, screaming to motorists, "Stop and listen to me! …. They're not human! … Can't you see? Everyone! They're here already. You're next!"

The low-budget film became an enduring cult classic that was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1994.

McCarthy, who made a cameo appearance in the 1978 remake, got a lot of mileage out of the original film in his later years, appearing often as a guest at film festivals and autograph shows.

"I must say I'm enthralled by the power of the picture all over the world," he told the Knoxville News-Sentinel in 2000. "It's the science-fiction picture of our time. The toasts just keep coming my way."

McCarthy dismissed assertions that "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was an allegory about the communist infiltration of America or an indictment of McCarthyism.

"There was no assignment of political points of view when we were making the film," he told the Bangor Daily News in 1997. "People began to think of McCarthyism later.

"I thought it was really about the onset of a kind of life where the corporate people are trying to tell you how to live, what to do, how to behave. And you become puppets to these merchants that are somehow turning individuals into victims.

"It seemed to me to be about conforming, the need to control life so it would be more tolerable."

McCarthy's long career included numerous guest appearances on TV series including "The Twilight Zone," "Burke's Law," "Flamingo Road" and "Murder, She Wrote."

He appeared in about 50 films, including "An Annapolis Story," "40 Pounds of Trouble," "The Prize," "The Best Man," "Kansas City Bomber," "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," "Piranha" and "The Howling."

In addition to his many Broadway and other stage credits, McCarthy toured for many years as President Truman in the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry."

He also was a footnote in the movie career of Marilyn Monroe, playing the husband Monroe divorced in Reno at the outset of "The Misfits," the Arthur Miller-written, John Huston-directed 1961 drama starring Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.

McCarthy had to be talked into playing the role, in which he and Monroe talk on the courthouse steps.

"They wanted me to come out for it, but I was too vain," he told the Columbus Dispatch in 2003. "I said the part was too small. I finally said I would do it if they paid me a hundred dollars a word. They said they would. Turns out I had 29 words."

The son of a lawyer and his homemaker wife, McCarthy was born Feb. 15, 1914, in Seattle. He and his two brothers and sister — Mary McCarthy, who later became an author and wrote the bestselling novel "The Group" — were orphaned when both parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic, and were sent to live with relatives.

McCarthy began acting in the 1930s at the University of Minnesota, where, on a dare from a friend, he played a bit part in "Henry IV, Part 1."

"That day, I realized that I could do something," he told the Bangor Daily News. "I didn't study acting. I didn't even think about it. But evidently I have some innate ability, some talent. It was maybe a gift. In any case, I was in one play after another after that."

After moving to New York, he made his Broadway debut in 1938 in a small role in " Abe Lincoln in Illinois," starring Raymond Massey. As Sgt. Kevin McCarthy during World War II, he appeared in Moss Hart's "Winged Victory," the Broadway play produced by the Army Air Forces.

McCarthy appeared in several Broadway plays in the years immediately after the war, including Maxwell Anderson's short-lived "Truckline Cafe" with Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. He was a founding member of the Actors Studio.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 31 years, Kate Crane McCarthy; children James Kevin McCarthy, Mary Dabney McCarthy, Tess McCarthy and Patrick McCarthy; stepdaughter Kara Lichtman; a brother, Preston; and three grandchildren. He was divorced from actress Augusta Dabney, who died in 2008.

 

Veteran character actor Harold Gould dies at 86


LOS ANGELES — Veteran character actor Harold Gould, who played Valerie Harper's father on television's "Rhoda" and the con man Kid Twist in the 1973 movie "The Sting," has died. He was 86.

Leah Gould, his daughter-in-law, told the Los Angeles Times that he died Saturday of prostate cancer at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement community in Woodland Hills.

Gould had a prolific career both on the big and small screen. He appeared in such films as "Harper," "Love and Death," "Freaky Friday" and "Patch Adams."

On television, he played Betty White's boyfriend on "The Golden Girls," and also made guest appearances on "Soap," "Perry Mason" and most recently "Nip/Tuck."

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Lea; his children, Deborah Gould Harris, Joshua Gould and Lowell Gould; and five grandchildren.

 

Source: Yahoo! News

'50s pop singer Eddie Fisher dies at age 82

LOS ANGELES – Pop singer Eddie Fisher, whose clear voice brought him a devoted following of teenage girls in the early 1950s before marriage scandals overshadowed his fame, has died at age 82.

He passed away Wednesday night at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery, his daughter, Tricia Leigh Fisher of Los Angeles, told The Associated Press.

"Late last evening the world lost a true America icon," Fisher's family said in a statement released by publicist British Reece. "One of the greatest voices of the century passed away. He was an extraordinary talent and a true mensch."

The death was first reported by Hollywood website deadline.com.

In the early 50s, Fisher sold millions of records with 32 hit songs including "Thinking of You," "Any Time," "Oh, My Pa-pa," "I'm Yours," "Wish You Were Here," "Lady of Spain" and "Count Your Blessings."

His fame was enhanced by his 1955 marriage to movie darling Debbie Reynolds — they were touted as "America's favorite couple" — and the birth of two children.

Their daughter Carrie Fisher became a film star herself in the first three "Star Wars" films as Princess Leia, and later as a best-selling author of "Postcards From the Edge" and other books.

Carrie Fisher spent most of 2008 on the road with her autobiographical show "Wishful Drinking." In an interview with The Associated Press, she told of singing with her father on stage in San Jose. Eddie Fisher was by then in a wheelchair and living in San Francisco.

When Eddie Fisher's best friend, producer Mike Todd, was killed in a 1958 plane crash, Fisher comforted the widow, Elizabeth Taylor. Amid sensationalist headlines, Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959.

The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of "Cleopatra," divorced Fisher and married Burton in one of the great entertainment world scandals of the 20th century.

Images of Eddie Fisher

Fisher's career never recovered from the notoriety. He married actress Connie Stevens, and they had two daughters. Another divorce followed. He married twice more.

Edwin Jack Fisher was born Aug. 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, one of seven children of a Jewish grocer. At 15 he was singing on Philadelphia radio.

After moving to New York, Fisher was adopted as a protege by comedian Eddie Cantor, who helped the young singer become a star in radio, television and records.

Fisher's romantic messages resonated with young girls in the pre-Elvis period. Publicist-manager Milton Blackstone helped the publicity by hiring girls to scream and swoon at Fisher's appearances.

After getting out of the Army in 1953 following a two-year hitch, hit records, his own TV show and the headlined marriage to Reynolds made Fisher a top star. The couple costarred in a 1956 romantic comedy, "Bundle of Joy," that capitalized on their own parenthood.

In 1960 he played a role in "Butterfield 8," for which Taylor won an Academy Award. But that film marked the end of his movie career.

After being discarded by Taylor, Fisher became the butt of comedians' jokes. He began relying on drugs to get through performances, and his bookings dwindled. He later said he had made and spent $20 million during his heyday, and much of it went to gambling and drugs.

In 1983, Fisher attempted a full-scale comeback. But his old fans had been turned off by the scandals, and the younger generation had been turned on by rock. The tour was unsuccessful.

He had added to his notoriety that year with an autobiography, "Eddie: My Life, My Loves." Of his first three marriages, he wrote he had been bullied into marriage with Reynolds, whom he didn't know well; became nursemaid as well as husband to Taylor, and was reluctant to marry Connie Stevens but she was pregnant and he "did the proper thing."

Another autobiography, "Been There, Done That," published in 1999, was even more searing. He called Reynolds "self-centered, totally driven, insecure, untruthful, phony." He claimed he abandoned his career during the Taylor marriage because he was too busy taking her to emergency rooms and cleaning up after her pets, children and servants. Both ex-wives were furious, and Carrie Fisher threatened to change her name to Reynolds.

At 47, Fisher married a 21-year-old beauty queen, Terry Richard. The marriage ended after 10 months. His fifth marriage, to Betty Lin, a Chinese-born businesswoman, lasted longer than any of the others. Fisher had two children with Reynolds: Carrie and Todd; and two girls with Stevens: Joely and Tricia.