The R.I.P. Thread

[ned1212]

it's funny, I was just watching the bonus DVD of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and Cynthia is prominently featured. There is an extended extra where she and Erica Gavin, arm in arm discuss their roles in the movie and their famous duo seen (reprised here with a kiss).

Anyway, it's a surprise to me to hear that Cynthia died before Erica. Cynthia always looked like the "ageless" one in the pictures that I saw. Whereas Erica, who I believe is fighting cancer, exhibited the most drastic change in appearance from her glamour girl days of any of the Meyer girls, and has had that "look" for at least a decade. You never know.

The letters Cynthia Myers wrote me reeked of cigarette smoke and I wanted to say something about it but I decided it was none of my business. She apparently died penniless.

[TheZookie007]

Harry Morgan, the Emmy-winning character actor whose portrayal of the fatherly Col. Potter on television's M*A*S*H highlighted a show business career that included nine other TV series, 50 films and the Broadway stage, died today. He was 96.

Also reported dead: singer/songwriter Dobie Gray, who depending who you ask, was 69 or 71 when he died on Tuesday...his best known song: "Drift Away".

[rtpoe]

Mike "B.J. Hunnicut" Farrell on Harry Morgan:

"He was the apotheosis, the finest example of what people call a ‘character actor.’ What he brought to the work made everyone better. He made those who are thought of as ‘stars’ shine even more brightly."

[TheZookie007]

Hear, hear.

Three notable deaths to report in the past few days:

CNN: "Václav Havel, Czech dissident, playwright, politician dead at 75"

Writer, broadcaster and professional atheist Christopher Hitchens lost his battle with cancer on Thursday at the age of 62.

Grammy Award-winning Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, known to her millions of fans as "the barefoot diva" (she went barefoot on stage long before the likes of Janis Joplin or Joss Stone did), died at the age of 70 on Saturday. One of her signature tunes was "Sodade".

[SamV]

There was a time during both the Golden age and Silver age in the comic book industry when the names Jack Kirby and Joe Simon were so inseparable it was hard to think of them as two separate persons. But Kirby passed away in 1994, and now his long time collaborator Joe Simon, passed away earlier this month at the age of 98.

The one true blessing for Joe, if there is one in his recent passing, was managing to see Captain America, his and Kirby's most famous creation from 70 years ago, make it's debut as a major motion picture on the big screen earlier this year before he left all his comic fans behind.

[pedonbio]

Hear, hear.

Three notable deaths to report in the past few days:

CNN: "Václav Havel, Czech dissident, playwright, politician dead at 75"

I recall that his speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress was received politely, but without much enthusiasm. One of the reviews said that suddenly a group of self-promoters who had been beating their chests for decades about how heroically they would behave in the face of oppression were suddenly faced with a man who had, and who didn't make a big deal of it.

[TheZookie007]

Breaking news that I have yet to confirm: Kim Jong Il is dead.

[pedonbio]

Breaking news that I have yet to confirm: Kim Jong Il is dead.

You won't have that fashion plate to kick around any more!

[Cutter]

Awww, the dwarf died.  Yet with this one I cannot be sad.

[DruulEmpire]

This has been quite the year for ironic RIPs.  Bin Laden, Qadhafi, and now this guy.

I only hope this means that life can get even slightly better for the people of North Korea.

V to gOOb below: *groan* ... *argle-bargle* ... *shakes head* ... *slowly thumps head against table* ...  

[gOOber]

I didn`t even know Kim Jong was ill.

[pedonbio]

Jon Bon Jovi.

Death in New Jersey.

Just sayin'.

[rtpoe]

Gotta love Vaclav Havel's resume: Playwright, dissident, prisoner, president.....

And with regards to the Dear Leader.... Yep, he's dead. And he was a batshit insane megalomaniac. But he did have a family (he certainly wasn't created in a lab somewhere), so no dancing for joy. In public, anyway. And we can all hope that he rests in peace. Since who wants an undead Kim Jong-Il?

[Tenshi]

Jon Bon Jovi.

Death in New Jersey.

Just sayin'.

fake

[pedonbio]

fake

Well, waking up in New Jersey is a bit like being dead. Depending on who you're with.

[SamV]

So Kim Jong Il was known by his people as the "Dear Leader"; and his father was the "Great Leader"; you don't suppose his No. 3 son and heir apparent will become known as "Fearless Leader"?  

If so, perhaps he'll then be spending all his time trying to get "moose and squirrel" and leave the rest of US alone.

Sam "wondering if he's No. 3 son, where No. 1 and No. 2 sons are" V

----
Oh, and Cutter please don't disrespect dwarfs like that.

All of Kim Jong Il's problems with height wasn't the result of dwarfism, but stemmed from an ultra extreme form of a Napoleon Complex.  

[gOOber]

Sam "wondering if he's No. 3 son, where No. 1 and No. 2 sons are" V

Transylvania

[pedonbio]

Sam "wondering if he's No. 3 son, where No. 1 and No. 2 sons are" V

They were born of different mothers. One lives in Hong Kong on remittance and has no interest in governing. I don't know about the other one.

[CarlTL]

Sam "wondering if he's No. 3 son, where No. 1 and No. 2 sons are" V

From what I understand the first two were not ruthless enough in their father's opinion for the role. 

[Tenshi]

in Korea they're all Great Readers

[gOOber]

You should never speak ill of the dead, only good.

Il's dead? Good.

[pedonbio]

fake

Hmmm. Bon Jovi is still alive? May I kill him, Sensei?

[gOOber]

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s has died at age 80.


The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure.

Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb on Wednesday told The Tampa Tribune (http://bit.ly/rRuTeJ ) that Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh. She says he seemed to be tuned into human feelings.

Based on the works of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Tarzan stories, which have spawned scores of books and films over the years, chronicle the adventures of a man who was raised by apes in Africa.

Cheetah was the comic relief in the Tarzan films that starred American Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. Cobb says Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller's estate sometime around 1960.

Cobb says Cheetah wasn't a troublemaker. Still, sanctuary volunteer Ron Priest says that when the chimp didn't like what was going on, he would throw feces.

[pedonbio]

Cobb says Cheetah wasn't a troublemaker. Still, sanctuary volunteer Ron Priest says that when the chimp didn't like what was going on, he would throw feces.

Well, who among us hasn't?  

[DruulEmpire]

I think Maureen O'Sullivan once told Letterman that Cheetah was gay for Weissmuller.

He entertained so many and lived to be 80.  Good going, fellow primate, good going -- and Ungowah!

[pedonbio]

Bob Anderson, British Olympic fencer and coach, died on Sunday, January 1, at the age of 89.

In The Empire Strikes Back he was uncredited as the actor who played Darth Vader in the duel with Luke Skywalker.

In the 1960s he was the person all college fencers wanted to emulate...

[pedonbio]

Gordon Hirabayashi died Monday, January 2, in Edmonton, Alberta.

The details of his life are here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Hirabayashi

I met him briefly a couple of times at Quaker functions when he was in Seattle in the 1970s and 1980s. I was afflicted with hero worship; he was among both Quakers and lawyers the genuine article.

Any asshole can talk about constitutional rights; it takes balls to go to prison for them. When it became apparent in the 1970s that the Army and FBI had lied to the courts about what information they had, at least one member of SCOTUS, Bill Douglas, who had voted to uphold Hirabayashi's conviction, publically changed his mind.

[Tomoe_Gozen]

Gordon Hirabayashi died Monday, January 2, in Edmonton, Alberta.
The details of his life are here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Hirabayashi

“There was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me,” Hirabayashi explains. “But with the reversal in the courts and in public statements from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before... I would also say that if you believe in something, if you think the Constitution is a good one, and if you think the Constitution protects you, you better make sure that the Constitution is actively operating... and uh, in other words "constant vigilance". Otherwise, it's a scrap of paper. We had the Constitution to protect us in 1942. It didn't because the will of the people weren't behind it."

Wow... he was quite a man.  I actually found his story depressing because I highly doubt that things would have gone so well for him now-a-days.  I mean, can you imagine our modern government actually admitting it was wrong? We've done away with due process, making everyone (not just the Asian Americans) potential indefinite detainees. I fear that the Constitution is already little more than a scrap of paper, glad he didn't live to see his faith destroyed.

[pedonbio]

Arfa Karim became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 when she was 9. She died Saturday at the ancient Microsoft age of 16 of complications from a tracheotomy following a seizure. She was working on a project for NASA.

[Palomine]

Etta James died this morning.

[rtpoe]

Performing her signature song, "At Last" on "Dancing with the Stars" back in 2009.

And a YouTube playlist with 100 songs.....

To get a sense of the distance that singer Etta James traveled in her life, and the influence she had on American popular music, head back to a hotel room near the Primalon Ballroom in San Francisco, 1954. The singer Johnny Otis is tired but has agreed to audition a shy 16-year-old named Jamesetta Rogers for his show.

The girl is so nervous that she can't face Otis and sing, recounts George Lipsitz in his Otis biography, “Midnight at the Barrelhouse,” so she retreats to the more acoustically forgiving bathroom and sings from afar. Otis, excited, wants to sign her on the spot but needs parental consent because of her age. The problem? She's never met her father and her mother is in jail. Undeterred, she fakes the call (or forges a signature — Otis and James' recollections differ on the specifics), and the rest, as they say, is history.  -  Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

"Willie and the Hand Jive", by Johnny Otis

And a Johnny Otis playlist.....

[TheZookie007]

Has Beyonce said anything upon hearing of the death of Etta James, I wonder?

And Johnny Otis was a fascinating character; a man of Greek descent who decided to pass for black:

Born to Greek-American parents, Johnny's love of the black community's culture and music led him to live as a black man. He wrote, "As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black." Taking the name "Otis," the young musician found that with his dark Greek complexion and hipster persona, he was accepted into the black community.

[CarlTL]

Joe Paterno passed away from complications from his cancer treatment.

[gOOber]

Joe Paterno past away from complications from his cancer treatment.

Was he evil?

[mcgarp]

I enjoyed that article about him.  There was no excuse for what happened with Sandusky and Joe clearly made a LARGE mistake in handling it, but you can't say he didn't do anything about it.  The higher ups were much more to blame that he was.  I hope that one bad thing in his life won't completely tarnish his legacy.