The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Ah ya beat me to it, Dynamo1! I loved Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions--two classic works of modern literature if there ever were any...

And I loved Kurt's cameo in Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School--too damned funny! We'll miss ya, Deadeye Dick!

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Actor Roscoe Lee Browne Dies in LA at 81
Apr 11, 11:10 PM (ET)
By ROBERT JABLON

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actor Roscoe Lee Browne, whose rich voice and dignified bearing brought him an Emmy Award and a Tony nomination, has died. He was 81.

Browne died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long battle with cancer, said Alan Nierob, a spokesman for the family.

Browne's career included classic theater to TV cartoons. He also was a poet and a former world-class athlete.

His deep, cultured voice was heard narrating the 1995 hit movie "Babe." On screen, his character often was smart, cynical and well-educated, whether a congressman, a judge or a butler.

Born to a Baptist minister in Woodbury, N.J., Browne graduated from historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he later returned to teach comparative literature and French. He also was a track star, winning the 880-yard run in the 1952 Millrose Games.

Browne was selling wine for an import company when he decided to become a full-time actor in 1956 and had roles that year in the inaugural season of the New York Shakespeare Festival in a production of "Julius Caesar."

In 1961, he starred in an English-language version of Jean Genet's play "The Blacks."

Two years later, he was The Narrator in a Broadway production of "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," a play by Edward Albee from a novella by Carson McCullers. In a front page article on the advances made by blacks in the theater, the New York Times noted that Browne's understudy was white.

He won an Obie Award in 1965 for his role as a rebellious slave in the off-Broadway "Benito Cereno."

In movies, he was a spy in the 1969 Alfred Hitchcock feature "Topaz" and a camp cook in 1972's "The Cowboys," which starred John Wayne.

"Some critics complained that I spoke too well to be believable" in the cook's role, Browne told The Washington Post in 1972. "When a critic makes that remark, I think, if I had said, 'Yassuh, boss' to John Wayne, then the critic would have taken a shine to me."

On television, he had several memorable guest roles. He was a snobbish black lawyer trapped in an elevator with bigot Archie Bunker in an episode of the 1970s TV comedy "All in the Family" and the butler Saunders in the comedy "Soap." He won an Emmy in 1986 for a guest role as Professor Foster on "The Cosby Show."

In 1992, Browne returned to Broadway in "Two Trains Running," one of August Wilson's acclaimed series of plays on the black experience. It won the Tony for best play and brought Browne a Tony nomination for best featured (supporting) actor.

The New York Times said he portrayed "the wry perspective of one who believes that human folly knows few bounds and certainly no racial bounds. The performance is wise and slyly life-affirming."

Browne also wrote poetry and included some of it along with works by masters such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William Butler Yeats in "Behind the Broken Words," a poetry anthology stage piece that he and Anthony Zerbe performed annually for three decades.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

I heard about that in our paper this morning. It was so sad - his voice really was so wonderful.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Bond actor Nelson dies aged 89

Barry Nelson, the first actor to play James Bond on screen, has died aged 89.
Nelson played the famous spy in a one-hour TV adaptation of Casino Royale in 1954.

He signed to MGM in the 1940s and went on to appear in several of the studio's films including Shadow of the Thin Man and A Yank on the Burma Road.

His wife Nansi said Nelson died on 7 April while travelling in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She said the cause of death was not yet known.

"He was a very naturalistic, believable actor," said his agent, Francis Delduca.

"He was good at both comedy and the serious stuff," he added.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

I really liked him. May he RIP.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Aloha, Don...

'Tiny Bubbles' Singer Don Ho Dies at 76
Apr 14, 8:53 PM (ET)
By JAYMES SONG

HONOLULU (AP) - Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died. He was 76.

He died Saturday morning of heart failure, publicist Donna Jung said.

Ho had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand in 2005.

Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show - a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.

Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles." Ho mostly hummed as the audience enthusiastically took over the song's swaying, silly lyrics: "Tiny bubbles/in the wine/make me happy/make me feel fine."

"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd. He said he saved it for the end because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."

The son of bar owners, Ho broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene in the early 1960s and, except for short periods, never left. Few artists are more associated with one place.

"Hawaii is my partner," Ho told The Associated Press in 2004.

Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

In high school, he was a star football player and worked for a brief time in a pineapple cannery. After graduating in 1949, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots at Hawaii, and soon, he was packing places such as the Coconut Grove in Hollywood and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."

Besides "Tiny Bubbles," his other well-known songs include "I'll Remember You,""With All My Love," and the "Hawaiian Wedding Song."

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

I just read it my todays paper. May he rest in peace

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

ooohhh no

We were just in Hawaii.

RIP Don HO

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

Don Ho was DA MAN! He will be missed...

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

RIP those of Virginia Tech College who lost their lives on April 16, 2007.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

I've just read about that. It's awful.

Rest in peace to those who lost their lives at the Virginia Tech College.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

May all of those who died today at Virginia Tech rest in peace. i can't really think of what else to say its such a tragedy

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

I've had CNN on since 5pm I can't take my eyes off the TV

RIP to all those murdered

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

RIP to all the people killed in Virginia and prayers to their families.

 

Re: The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread

RIP to those mentioned, who died today.

By the way, a year ago died Francisco Adam, portuguese actor, that was 21 years old, I think. RIP