Rolling Obituary Thread: 2016

Giorgio Albertazzi, whom you may remember from Last Year At Marienbad

http://variety.com/2016/legit/global/italian-stage-and-screen-actor-giorgio-albertazzi-dead-at-92-1201785106/

...which I watched this morning, by an odd coincidence.

Carla Lane

I just looked her up last night to see if she was still alive following a pub conversation about the Liver Birds :-/

butterflies was an odd sitcom

Televangelist Weirdo Jan Crouch

https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/trinity-broadcastings-jan-crouch-dies-days-stroke-173152090.html

Superfluous 'weirdo'

1969–78, 96 The Liver Birds (with Myra Taylor and others)
1974 No Strings
1975 Going, Going, Gone... Free?
1977 Three Piece Suite
1978–83, 2000 Butterflies
1981–83 The Last Song
1981–82 Solo
1984–85 Leaving
1985–87 The Mistress
1985–86 I Woke Up One Morning
1986–91 Bread
1992 Screaming
1993–94 Luv
1995 Searching

I've only ever seen The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread, has anybody here seen any of the others?

imo (from memory because I haven't watched any of them in years)The Liver Birds has some period charm but is essentially mediocre (Polly James is very good in it, though), Butterflies pulls off it's melancholy/bittersweet tone very well despite not being that funny and Bread is one of the worst tv shows ever made.

i feel bad about Carla Lane because on the one hand she was an important voice for women writers in sitcoms in the 70s and 80s but on the other hand she got desperately unfunny the higher her soapbox got. Butterflies had its moments tbf

butterflies was really surprising to me as a kid seeing repeats of it on daytime tv. had never seen a tv show address a protagonist with an ostensibly "good" life suffering disillusionment and sadness, and dealing with the complexity of relationships (the marital relationship is depicted as loving and warm, while at the same time the protagonists wish for something more is painted sympathetically). a housewife's adultery as the subject matter of what is quite a conventional family sitcom - complete with hackneyed running jokes regarding the housewife's cooking skills - seemed transgressive.

Solo and The Mistress were similar to Butterflies, I think. Both starred Felicity Kendal. I was a bit young when they were on, so didn't really get the misery (or the jokes, tbh). I suspect both stand the test of time better than Bread, which was mostly awful.

bread was terrible yes

I just watched an episode of Solo on youtube. it's odd, as well as the Felicity Kendal stuff, which is indeed similar to Butterflies, there are scenes set in the flat above hers where two twenty something liverpudlian women live which are totally a rehash of the Liver Birds, to the point that the actresses seem to be doing impressions of Polly James and Nerys Hughes. they don't seem to actually interact or have any connection with Felicity Kendal and the other characters aside from living in the same building. (also the one doing the Polly James impression is played by the girl from late 80s children's televison show Greenclaws)

https://youtu.be/v9LxIwTc0TA

o man jan crouch

Dave Swarbrick :(

Muhammad Ali being reported.

The ILE thread: Ali

Can think of few other people who deserved the title "The Greatest." RIP.

Swarbrick hung in there a remarkably long time.

Peter Shaffer

https://twitter.com/MLRep/status/739821012569751556

Phyllis Curtin: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_29980853/renowned-soprano-and-longtime-tanglewood-teacher-phyllis-curtain

Jerome Bruner: http://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/jerome-bruner

man, 101 years old ... RIP Bruner

Kimbo Slice

Surprising. He was such a gentle person who took such good care of his body.

whatever dude. He was only 42 and he had six kids, it's still fuckin sad

Of course it is!

Stephen Keshi, Nigeria's "Big Boss" and top manager. only 54 as well.

“Theresa Saldana, who co-starred on The Commish and in Raging Bull but whose most lasting legacy might be the victims’ advocacy work she undertook following a near-fatal stalking incident in 1982, has died,” report Greg Evans and Erik Pedersen for Deadline. She was 61.

http://deadline.com/2016/06/theresa-saldana-dead-commish-raging-bull-stalker-attack-1201768326/

gordie howe

Howe is to Canada basically what Ruth is to America (or if you want someone contemporary to him, you'd be looking at Mays or Mantle).

https://frinkiac.com/gif/S03E16/1298412/1305352.gif?b64lines=

Thought that was a really nice moment on The Simpsons.

Howe playing a full NHL season--every single game, 80 of them--at the age of 51 (and scoring 15 goals to boot) has to be on the shortlist of most remarkable old-guy achievements in the history of sport. Number one, I'd say. That's not Jamie Moyer or Minnie Minoso or whoever the oldest placekicker was. That's in a league where they basically tried to pummel you every night. The game wasn't as rough as it had been a few years earlier--Gretzky had arrived--but there were 13 guys with over 200 penalty minutes, and the leader had 287; 177 led the league last year. It was still a pretty brutal sport.

not at all to diminish gordie -- who i would guess was a bigger figure in canada than babe ruth, etc in america; he lasted much longer, into an era better suited for remembering, and i can't remember ever hearing anyone say a bad word about him -- but i'd suggest jagr going 27-39-66 for a division-winning team at age 44 in this day and age is equally impressive

otoh gordie howe was in the top five in scoring for literally 20 years, which is just absurd

Haven't followed hockey for years, but that's pretty great. Howe was between retirements at age 44; Nolan Ryan had an awesome age-44 season (173 IP, 102 H, 203 K, final no-hitter).

Michu Meszaros, circus performer, unofficial shortest man in the world, star of ALF and this album cover

http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/The_Doors_-_Strange_Days-Front.jpg

RIP!!!

http://www.commercialappeal.com/entertainment/music/music-titan-chips-moman-is-dead-at-79-35315a2e-5feb-5bbe-e053-0100007f82f0-382850711.html?d

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/chips-moman-dies/

Originally a rockabilly guitarist, Moman was part of the Stax Records crew as a writer and an engineer in its early years, working on such classics as William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and Carla Thomas’ “Gee Whiz.” But he left in 1962....

He founded American Sound Studio in 1962 and, with his house band known as the Memphis Boys, the studio birthed dozens of hits that seamlessly blended rock, pop and soul, particularly between 1967 and its closing in 1972. This included the Box Tops’ “The Letter,” Neil Diamond‘s “Sweet Caroline” and Merrilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning.” Following his 1968 comeback, Elvis Presley recorded at American Sound, cutting “Suspicious Minds,” “Kentucky Rain” and the From Elvis in Memphis album with Moman behind the boards. Dusty Springfield’s classic Dusty in Memphis — which included “Son of a Preacher Man” — was also recorded at American Sound. Moman and Dan Penn also wrote two of Southern soul’s definitive songs, Aretha Franklin‘s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” and James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street.”

After leaving Memphis, he settled in Nashville and became an in-demand songwriter and producer...

http://folkandtumble.com/henry-mccullough/

Henry McCullough, guitarist in Wings among other things. Played the solo on "My Love".

Mary MacLeod, character actress best known for If.... and O Lucky Man!

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/13/mary-macleod-obituary

Tom Leppard, The Leopard Man Of Skye

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36537234

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-tattooed-senior-citizen-(male)

WARNING: SECOND LINK CONTAINS PICTURE OF AL OLD MAN IN JUST A POSING POUCH SO POTENTIALLY NSF(YOUR)W

aw, that dude was awesome

Ann Morgan Guilbert, Millie on 'Dick Van Dyke Show,' Dies at 87.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ann-morgan-guilbert-dead-dick-903319

RIP

i have no memory of Millie it's been so long since ive seen DvDS

Such an unfortunate word combo in that url.

The DvDS Season 5 episode "Long Nights Journey Into Day" is one of the best Millie showcases. Mary gets stuck at home alone and starts to freak out when she hears noises in the house and then Millie shows up and they both freak out together. Great teamwork between the two actresses.

Anton Yelchin

^^Car crash, age 27

SINGLE CAR CRASH IN HIS OWN DRIVEWAY WTF?

http://m.tmz.com/#article/2016/06/19/star-trek-anton-yelchin-dead/

Just freakin' bizarre. My only guess is that he maybe was doing something (?) he'd done before with no problem and the worst possible thing happened?