Academy's 'Keeper of the Oscars' dead at 48 Steven Miessner, the motion picture academy's devoted "Keeper of the Oscars" who each year donned his signature white gloves to get the golden statuettes ready for their closeup before a worldwide audience, is dead at age 48. Miessner died at his home on Wednesday of a heart attack. Leading up to the Academy Award ceremony, Miessner would take loving custody of the Oscars as they arrived from the R. S. Owens foundry in Chicago, logging them into a computer file, keeping them safe and secure, and then on the big night, giving the coveted statuettes one last rubdown backstage before handing them to the show's trophy presenters. He would then record which individually-numbered Oscar was presented to whom and later, arrange with the winners to get their statuettes properly engraved. Academy colleagues, stagehands and reporters alike marveled at Miessner's dedication and enthusiasm as he worked with the statuettes — a job that was actually a year-round process, according to Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "He maintained the computer files on the current whereabouts, so far as can be known, of every Oscar ever awarded," Unger said. "He also was the liaison with R.S. Owens when a vintage statuette needed refurbishing." In addition to his Oscar duties, Miessner was an executive assistant to academy executive director Bruce Davis and president Sid Ganis. A member of the academy staff since 2002, Miessner "was central to the day-to-day operations of the organization," said Unger. He is survived by his mother, Virginia Miessner, a sister and a brother. Funeral services were pending.
Naomi Sims, 61, pioneering cover girl, is dead Naomi Sims, whose appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is Beautiful movement, and who went on to design successful collections of wigs and cosmetics for black women under her name, died Saturday in Newark. She was 61 and lived in Newark. She died of cancer, said her son, Bob Findlay. Ms. Sims is sometimes referred to as the first black supermodel. Two images of Ms. Sims — one from the 1967 Times fashion magazine cover and the other from a 1969 issue of Life — are in the current Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “The Model as Muse.” In a catalog, the curators Harold Koda and Kohle Yohannan wrote, “The beautifully contoured symmetry of Sims’s face and the lithe suppleness of her body presented on the once-exclusionary pages of high-fashion journals were evidence of the wider societal movement of Black Pride and the full expression of ‘Black is Beautiful.’ ”
John Hughes dies of a heart attack. How I loved Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller when I was a teenager. They gave me bad ideas but I still loved them. :lol: Susan
i grew up on john hughes films, it's really sad. i still love most of them - breakfast club, home alone and ferris bueller especially
Same here, I grew up watching his films and they were very much part of my childhood memories. RIP John Hughes.
Folk musician Mike Seeger dies at age 75 by Wendy Mitchell Folk musician Mike Seeger died Friday from multiple myeloma (a cancer of the plasma cells) at his home in Lexington, Va., the Associated Press reports. He was 75. Seeger was the younger half brother of Pete Seeger. The multi-instrumentalist was one of the founders of The New Lost City Ramblers, and throughout his career he recorded more than 40 albums solo or with others. He also documented and taught traditional forms of American music.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies at age 88 (Sorry for the double post, but I felt she deserved her own post). RIP
John Hughes was a shock. I loved his movies. Essential classics. Eunice Shriver- Another one of the 'Kennedy clan' passes away. Very sad RIP
Guitar Legend Les Paul dies at 94 Les Paul has died at 94, according to a press release. The electric guitar innovator succumbed to complications from pneumonia at a White Plains, N.Y. hospital today. Born in Wisconsin, Paul gained some success as a country and jazz guitarist before he began experimenting with the instrument itself in the 1930s. By 1939, he had managed to create something known as "The Log" — a wood-based contraption, primitive by today’s standards, that was nonetheless a major step forward in electric guitar technology. Paul’s recording career flourished as the 1940s went on, when he backed stars like Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters on a number of hit singles, as well as releasing his own music. Along the way, he essentially invented modern multi-track recording with 1947’s “Lover (When You’re Near Me),” for which he dubbed over a tape of his own guitar playing eight times — an unheard-of technique at the time that rapidly become standard throughout the industry. Paul kept on researching electric guitar design, and in the early 1950s Gibson Guitar introduced the Gibson Les Paul model, based in part on his ideas. Soon it became a key artifact of the rock’n'roll revolution, wielded by countless axe men in the rising genre: Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and many more all used the Gibson Les Paul to craft some of their most memorable riffs. Paul continued performing and tinkering in the decades that followed. As recently as 2005, he won two Grammy Awards for his Les Paul & Friends album. “It’s a shame so many kids don’t know about Les,” Slash told EW that year. “It’s hard to keep up with him. He’s 90 years old and he’s out there playing every week!”
Character actor John Quade dies at 71 Aug 13, 1:32 PM (ET) LOS ANGELES (AP) - John Quade, who played the heavy in several Clint Eastwood movies and was the sheriff in the TV miniseries "Roots," has died. He was 71. His wife Gwen says Quade died in his sleep of natural causes Sunday at his home in the Southern California desert town of Rosamond. Quade had dozens of TV and movie roles in a career that spanned more than a quarter-century. His movies included "Papillon" and "High Plains Drifter." However, he is perhaps best remembered as the motorcycle gang leader in the Eastwood movie "Every Which Way But Loose" and its sequel, "Any Which Way You Can." He also played Sheriff Biggs in episodes of "Roots." The Kansas-born Quade leaves six children and 10 grandchildren.
re John Quade, I didn't recognize the name, so I checked google images. He's a definite 'Hey it's that guy' type of actor.