Rolling Obituary Thread 2013

James Herbert is a real blow to adolescent me.

Risë Stevens, star mezzo-soprano of the '40s and ’50s

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/rise-stevens-dead-mezzo-soprano-star-dies-at-99_n_2927143.html

Rest in peace, Chinua Achebe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/novelist-chinua-achebe-dies

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2013/03/22/175080694/bebo-vald-s-giant-of-cuban-music-is-dead

Ray Williams : (

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/sports/basketball/ray-williams-and-micheal-ray-richardson-shined-together.html

RIP Peter Scott, king of the cat burglars:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9949054/Peter-Scott.html

You may have died broke but you left us a fun obituary.

I wasn't aware of him, but this quote in the obituary is fantastic: “The people I burgled got rich by greed and skulduggery. They indulged in the mechanics of ostentation — they deserved me and I deserved them. If I rob Ivana Trump, it is just a meeting of two different kinds of degeneracy on a dark rooftop.”

yeah I'd never heard of him before but I thought the whole thing was great.

this country needs more criminals like him - a charmer, an entertainer, a man of principle.

A man who breaks policemen's noses.

A man who breaks into policemen's noses.

Joe Weider, the 'father of bodybuilding'

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/sports/joe-weider-founder-of-a-bodybuilding-empire-dies-at-93.html

Anthony Lewis, longtime NY Times columnist/Supreme Court reporter

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-anthony-lewis-20130326,0,1080917.story

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20130326/US--Obit-Richards/

Motown songwriter-producer Deke Richards has died at a Bellingham, Wash., hospice at age 68.

Peace Health St. Joseph Medical Center spokeswoman Amy Cloud confirms that Richards, whose real name was Dennis Lussier, died Sunday at the Whatcom Hospice House.

A statement from Universal Music said Richards had been battling esophageal cancer.

Universal Music says that as leader of the Motown songwriting, arranging and producing team known as The Corporation, Richards was involved in writing and producing many Jackson 5 hits. Those songs included the Jackson 5's first three No. 1 hits - "I Want You Back," ''ABC," and "The Love You Save."

He also co-wrote "Love Child" for Diana Ross & The Supremes, as well Ross' solo "I'm Still Waiting."

Associated Press

NOT the singer. But probably someone more important:

http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2013/03/in-memory-of-paul-williams/

In the wider realm of popular culture, you should honour him as the founding father of rock journalism. The magazine he founded as a 17-year-old college student in 1966, Crawdaddy!, was the first publication to focus on serious writing about the then-new music. It launched the career of writers such as Jon Landau (who went on to become Bruce Springsteen’s manager), Sandy Pearlman, and Richard Meltzer. It was the inspiration for subsequent magazines, notably Rolling Stone. Paul wrote many books about music, and particularly about Bob Dylan.

As an sf reader, which I assume you probably are, you should honour him as one of the two principal figures who kept the name of Philip K. Dick alive in the decades following his death. Paul was a close friend of Dick’s, and his 1975 Rolling Stone article “The True Stories of Philip K. Dick” was the most significant piece of writing about him published during his lifetime. (It later formed the basis of a book, Only Apparently Real, which was in turn the first book about Dick.) When Dick died in 1982, Paul was named his Literary Executor, and he worked tirelessly in conjunction with Dick’s long-time literary agent Russ Galen (the other hero of this story) to keep his name alive. Paul founded and ran the Philip K. Dick Society, which attracted hundreds of members in scores of countries. The small publishing company he ran together with David Hartwell published Dick’s novel Confessions of a Crap Artist – the first time any of Dick’s non-sf novels from the 1950s saw the light of day.

RIP Uncle Monty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21973505

only 65 :-(

RIP Monty, you terrible cunt. I always thought he was about 65 in Withnail, tbh!

I didn't recognize the character name having only seen W&I once. Richard Griffiths is very funny in A Private Function, tho I don't remember him in Gorky Park (or Chariots of Fire).

He was great, twice, in that Naked Gun sequel he's in.

Like I needed another excuse to watch Venus. RIP.

RIP Uncle Monty :( (and fuck the BBC for referring to him constantly as 'Harry Potter actor, Richard Griffiths')

Eh, the Harry Potter films were quite successful, you know.

He himself said on Desert Island Discs that's the role he's most recognised for. News broadcasters look for the opposite of a Pointless answer innit.

RIP, Reid Flair, Ric Flair's 24 year old son:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-reid-flair-dies-20130329,0,704880.story

Former Alberta premier/asshole Ralph Klein:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/03/29/ralph-klein.html

Producer Phil Ramone

Jesus/Jess Franco

wow, RIP you crazy auteur-pervert

Milo O'Shea, beetlebrowed actor from Romeo and Juliet to The Butcher Boy and "Frasier"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9969003/Actor-Milo-OShea-dies-aged-86.html

:-(

Had no idea he was still alive, what's he been doing for the past 40 years?

I saw him play Friar Lawrence in a NY staging of R&J in the '80s... have never seen the Zeffirelli film.

also, apparently he was on "Frasier"

he was great in the butcher boy as well iirc

ruth prawer jhabvala, screenwriter for merchant/ivory

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22015002

Carmine Infantino, comic book everything extraordinaire:

http://comicsbeat.com/rip-carmine-infantino/

Missed Milo O'Shea. He's the best kind of hammy in The Verdict: "You go see the Monsignor--he'll punch your ticket" (winks).

Milo O'Shea was, of course, the original Duran(d) Duran(d).

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/roger-ebert-dead-cancer-article-1.1307967

on achebe http://africasacountry.com/2013/04/05/chinua-achebe-a-poet-of-global-encounters/

Documentary filmmaker Les Blank.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html

RIP Lilly Pulitzer

RIP Andy Johns http://www.americanbluesscene.com/2013/04/legendary-jimi-hendrix-led-zeppelin-rolling-stones-engineer-dies/

Robert Zildjian, who split from the family business in the early 80s to start the Sabian cymbal company.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/04/local/la-me-robert-zildjian-20130405

Bigas Luna, director of 'Jamon Jamon'

http://www.writingforums.com/attachments/writers-lounge/2185d1312450036-how-why-did-chose-your-avatar-picture-spitting-image-thatcher.jpg

Annette Funicello

I had to check to see if I had an album of hers, and I do--a Rhino compilation put out in 1984. I don't remember a single song, not even "Tall Paul," her biggest hit. (There actually is a Frankie Avalon song I used to like called "A boy Without a Girl.")

Need to re-watch Back to the Beach in her honour when I don't have so much end of the semester crap going on.