In Memorium #01

[superintelligentone]

'Happy Days' star Tom Bosley dead
Oct. 19, 2010, 1:48 PM EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Tom Bosley, the patient, understanding father on television's long-running "Happy Days," has died. He was 83.

Bosley died of heart failure early Tuesday at a hospital near his Palm Springs home. Bosley's agent, Sheryl Abrams, said he was also battling lung cancer.

TV Guide ranked Bosley's Happy Days character No. 9 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in 2004.

The show debuted in 1974 and ran for 11 seasons.

Bing: Favorite TV dads

After "Happy Days" ended, Bosley went on to a recurring role in "Murder, She Wrote" as Sheriff Amos Tucker. He also was the crime-solving priest in television's "The Father Dowling Mysteries," which ran from 1989 to 1991.

When he was first offered the costarring role in "Happy Days," a series about teenage life in the 1950s, he turned it down.

"After rereading the pilot script," he recalled in a 1986 interview, "I changed my mind because of a scene between Howard Cunningham and Richie. The father/son situation was written so movingly, I fell in love with the project."

Propelled by the nation's nostalgia for the simple pleasures of the 1950s, "Happy Days," which debuted in 1974, slowly built to hit status, becoming television's top-rated series by its third season.

It made a star of Henry Winkler, who played hip-talking, motorcycle-riding hoodlum Arthur "Fonzi" Fonzarelli. His image initially clashed with that of Richie and his "straight" friends. But over the show's 11-season run Fonzarelli would transform himself from high school dropout to successful businessman.

Grey Mumford, a CBS publicist who issued a statement on behalf of the family, said Bosley is survived by his wife, Patricia Bosley, his brother Richard Bosley, his daughter Amy Baer, stepdaughters Kimberly diBonaventura and Jamie Van Meter and seven grandchildren.

How sad to learn that Tom Bosley had passed away. I didn't know that he was battling lung cancer. I too remember Tom from 'Happy Days' and the 'Father Dowling Mysteries'. Although well known for playing a Catholic priest (and numerous Protestants), Bosley was actually Jewish.

Tom Bosley's breakthrough stage role was playing New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in the long-running Broadway musical Fiorello! (1959), for which he won a Tony Award.

I remember watching Tom in latenight info-mercials as the television spokesman for SMC (Specialty Merchandise Corporation), a national wholesaler and dropshipper where people can run their own business reselling merchandise at 3 times the wholesale cost.

RIP Tom. You will be missed!

 

[superintelligentone]

'Wheel of Fortune' announcer Charlie O'Donnell dies

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20101102/odonnell-obit-101102/

'Wheel of Fortune' announcer Charlie O'Donnell dies
The Associated Press

Date: Tuesday Nov. 2, 2010 8:39 AM ET

LOS ANGELES — Charlie O'Donnell, the announcer whose voice has opened "Wheel of Fortune" for decades, has died. He was 78.

Agent Fred Wostbrock said Monday that O'Donnell -- the voice of the game show even before hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White appeared -- died late Sunday at his Los Angeles home. The cause was unclear.

O'Donnell was a popular radio DJ in New York before starting his television career in Philadelphia with Dick Clark on "American Bandstand."

He also served as announcer for Oscar and Emmy telecasts and other game shows including "The Newlywed Game."

His signature phrase "Wheeeeeeel of Fortune," could be heard on the show from its beginning with host Chuck Woolery in 1975. He worked on the show until 1980, and again from 1988 until his death.

 

[superintelligentone]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101106/ap_on_en_mo/us_obit_clayburgh

Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dead at 66
By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer
Sat Nov 6, 4:00 am ET

Jill Clayburgh, the sophisticated Hollywood and Broadway actress known for portrayals of empowered women in a career spanning five decades, highlighted by her Oscar-nominated role of a divorcee exploring life after marriage in the 1978 film "An Unmarried Woman," has died. She was 66.

Her husband, Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe, said Clayburgh died Friday surrounded by her family at her home in Lakeville, Conn., after a 21-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He said she dealt with the disease courageously, quietly and privately, "and made it into an opportunity for her children to grow and be human."

Clayburgh, alongside such peers as Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda, helped to usher in a new era for actresses in Hollywood by playing women who were confident and capable yet not completely flawless. Her dramatic turn as a divorcee exploring her sexuality after 16 years of marriage in "An Unmarried Woman" earned Clayburgh her first Oscar nod.

"There was practically nothing for women to do on the screen in the 1950s and 1960s," Clayburgh said in an interview with The Associated Press while promoting "An Unmarried Woman" in 1978. "Sure, Marilyn Monroe was great, but she had to play a one-sided character, a vulnerable sex object. It was a real fantasy."

The next year, Clayburgh was again nominated for an Academy Award for "Starting Over," a comedy about a divorced man, played by Burt Reynolds, who falls in love but can't get over his ex-wife. For the next 30 years, Clayburgh steadily appeared in films and on stage and television, often effortlessly moving between comedic and dramatic roles.

Besides appearing in such movies as "I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can," "Silver Streak" and "Running With Scissors," Clayburgh's Broadway credits included Noel Coward's "Design for Living," the original production of Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers," and the Tony Award-winning musicals "Pippin" and "The Rothschilds."

Clayburgh's work also stretched across TV. She had a recurring role on Fox's "Ally McBeal" as McBeal's mother and most recently played the matriarch of the spoiled Darling family on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." She earned two Emmy nods: for best actress in 1975 for portraying a tell-it-like-it-is prostitute in the ABC TV film "Hustling" and for her guest turn in 2005 as a vengeful plastic surgery patient on FX's "Nip/Tuck."

Clayburgh came from a privileged New York family. Her father was vice president of two large companies, and her mother was a secretary for Broadway producer David Merrick. Her grandmother, Alma Clayburgh, was an opera singer and New York socialite.

Growing up in a such a rich cultural mix, she could easily have been overwhelmed. Instead, as she said in interviews, she asserted herself with willful and destructive behavior — so much so that her parents took her to a psychiatrist when she was 9.

She escaped into a fantasy world of her own devising. She was entranced by seeing Jean Arthur play "Peter Pan" on Broadway, and she and a school chum concocted their own dramatics every day at home. She became serious-minded at Sarah Lawrence College, concentrating on religion, philosophy and literature.

Clayburgh also took drama classes at Sarah Lawrence. She and her friend Robert De Niro acted in a film, "The Wedding Party," directed by a Sarah Lawrence graduate, Brian DePalma. After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree, she began performing in repertory and in Broadway musicals such as "The Rothschilds" and "Pippin."

Alongside Richard Thomas, she headed the 2005 Broadway cast of "A Naked Girl on the Appian Way," Richard Greenberg's comedy about one family's unusual domestic tribulations.

Director Doug Hughes, who directed her in a production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" at the Westport Country Playhouse in 2003, called her for "Naked Girl."

"That she has the time to do a run of a play is just an extraordinary boon because I've had the pleasure of seeing her play a bona fide tragic American role beautifully, and I have had the pleasure of directing her in a very, very smart light comedy and be utterly brilliant in that," he said in 2005.

During an interview that year, Clayburgh explained the unglamorous side of acting.

"One of the funny things about actors is that people look at their careers in retrospect, as if they have a plan," she said.

"Mostly, you just get a call. You're just sitting there going, 'Oh, my God. I'm never going to work again. Oh, God. I'm too old. Maybe I should go and work for Howard Dean.' And then it changes."

Clayburgh will next be seen playing the mother of Jake Gyllenhaal's character in the upcoming film "Love and Other Drugs."

She is survived by three children, including actress Lily Rabe, Michael Rabe and stepson Jason Rabe.

There will be no funeral, Rabe said. The family will have a memorial in about six months, though plans have not been finalized.

 

[superintelligentone]

Iconic horror movie star Ingrid Pitt has died at the age of 73.

Ingrid Pitt (21 November 1937 – 23 November 2010) was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.

Filmography (partial)

Sound of Horror (1964)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Un Beso en el puerto (1966)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
The Omegans (1968)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
The House That Dripped Blood (1970)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Jason King (1971) (TV series) - guest star
Nobody Ordered Love (1971)
Countess Dracula (1971)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Thriller 1975 (TV), (UK)
Unity (1981) (TV)
Artemis 81 (1981) (TV)
Who Dares Wins (1982)
Smiley's People (1982) TV miniseries
Octopussy (1983)
The Comedy of Errors (1983) (TV)
The House (1984) (TV)
Bones (1984)
Underworld (1985)
Wild Geese II (1985)
Hanna's War (1988)
The Asylum (2000)
Green Fingers (2000)
Minotaur (2005)
Sea of Dust (2006)
Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest (2011)

http://www.ksn.com/e...FCtYXekX1Q.cspx

Hammer Films' Queen of Horror Dies

Iconic horror movie star Ingrid Pitt has died at the age of 73.

The actress, dubbed the Queen of Horror for her roles in classic Hammer films throughout the 1970s, collapsed in London last week on her way to a fan event. She passed away on this morning.

A statement from her daughter Steffanie Pitt reads, "It was heart trouble. She had a couple of bad years, health-wise, but she had fought through. Anyone who knew my mother would say she was incredibly feisty and determined to make a good fist of everything she wanted to do."

Throughout her career Pitt played numerous onscreen seductresses in films and she also appeared in the 1973 classic The Wicker Man alongside Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee.

The Wicker Man director, Robin Hardy, has been among the first to pay tribute to the actress, stating, "She was a very attractive person in every sense. She was a perfectly good actress but a very decent person as well."

Born Ingoushka Petrov in Poland, Pitt spent three years of her childhood in a Nazi concentration camp before making her name on the East Berlin stage in Germany before becoming a film star in Spain in the mid-1960s.

Her big screen break came in 1968 when she was cast as an undercover agent opposite Clint Eastwood in war movie Where Eagles Dare.

Two years later, she made her first Hammer Horror as vampire Mircalla in The Vampire Lovers (1970). She played a bloodsucker again a year later in horror classics The House That Dripped Blood and Countess Dracula.

The roles helped to turn Pitt into a horror icon and she went on to become a regular at conventions, where her devoted fan club, The Pitt of Horror, would always make sure she was a fixture.

Aside from acting, Pitt has written several horror books and released her autobiography, Life's A Scream, in 1999.

 

[superintelligentone]

I want to offer my condolences to the family of Leslie Nielsen, a great Canadian talent.
Few people outside of Canda knew that he was younger brother of longtime Canadian Parlimentarian/former Deputy Prime Minister Eric Nielsen.

Leslie was aparrently always known as a joker, but he didn't get a chance to display his humour until he co-starred in the comedy classic "Airplane".

He stole the movie as its most memorable character, Dr. Alan Rumack, with this now classic exchange with passenger Ted Striker, who is a former WW2 fighter pilot now afraid to fly:
Dr. Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me "Shirley".

Nielsen appeared in over 100 films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying over 220 characters.
"Alias" fans may remember that Jennifer Garner was Leslie's co-star in the "Mr. Magoo" movie.

Achievements:
- In 1988, he became the 1,884th personality to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Blvd.
- In 2001 he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.
- In 2002 Leslie was awarded with the second highest rank "Officer of The Order of Canada" medal.

On May 19, 2005, during the centennial gala of his birth province, Saskatchewan, Leslie Nielsen was introduced to HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Nielsen married four times: Monica Boyer (1950–1956), Alisande Ullman (1958–1973), Brooks Oliver (1981–1983) and Barbaree Earl (2001–2010, his death).

Nielsen also had two children from his second marriage, Maura and Thea Nielsen.

http://en.wikipedia..../Leslie_Nielsen

http://ca.news.yahoo..._leslie_nielsen

Funnyman Leslie Nielsen dies at age 84
Sun Nov 28, 11:03 PM

By The Canadian Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Leslie Nielsen, a Canadian-born actor who went from drama to inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in "Airplane!" and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in the "The Naked Gun" comedies, died on Sunday in Florida. He was 84.

His agent John S. Kelly said Nielsen died at a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale where he was being treated for pneumonia.

Nielsen's nephew Doug Nielsen, who lives in Richmond, B.C., said his uncle had been hospitalized for the past 12 days and died in his sleep with wife Barbaree by his side.

Nielsen's Canadian roots run deep. Though he eventually became a naturalized U.S. citizen, his father was a Mountie and his brother, Erik Nielsen, served as an MP in Yukon and as deputy prime minister in Brian Mulroney's Conservative government.

Leslie Nielsen was born Feb. 11, 1926 in Regina.

At age 17, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and trained as an aerial gunner.

After the war, he worked as a disc jockey at a Calgary radio station, then studied at a Toronto radio school operated by Lorne Greene, who would go on to star on the hit TV series "Bonanza." A scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse brought him to New York, where he immersed himself in live television.

Nielsen was in more than 100 films, including 2002's "Men With Brooms," co-starring Paul Gross. In recent years, he appeared on the Canadian TV series "Robson Arms."

Among his lesser known, but truly-Canuck performances, was a two-minute narration for a video shown to the Queen and thousands of spectators in England when she was presented with a horse from the RCMP's Musical Ride in 2009.

In 2003, Canadian actors union ACTRA presented him with its Award of Excellence for more than a half-century of making movies.

Doug Nielsen said he and his own wife had only two weeks ago enjoyed watching "Tammy and the Bachelor," in which Nielsen starred in 1957.

"He was always a funny guy," the 63-year-old said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"When he started out he was a serious actor and then after 'Airplane' the whole world changed for him."

As a teen, the elder Nielsen had invited Doug to visit him on film and TV sets in California, even encouraging him to become an actor. The nephew instead became a dentist — and his uncle would fly to Canada so Doug could take care of his teeth.

"We loved him dearly and we'll miss him and he was a good friend of mine, not just my uncle. I think that's a tribute to him and his interests and just his warmth."

Don McKellar, an acclaimed Canadian writer, filmmaker and star of the cartoon TV series "Odd Job Jack" which featured Nielsen in an episode, said Sunday that he only met the comic actor a couple of times but enjoyed working with him.

"He reinvented that funny straightman for his generation, you see some of that oblivious straight guy in Steve Carell and Will Ferrell."

Nielsen came to Hollywood in the mid-1950s after performing in 150 live television dramas in New York. With a craggily handsome face, blond hair and 6-foot-2 height, he seemed ideal for a movie leading man.

Nielsen first performed as the king of France in the Paramount operetta "The Vagabond King" with Kathryn Grayson.

The film — he called it "The Vagabond Turkey" — flopped, but MGM signed him to a seven-year contract.

His first film for that studio was auspicious — as the space ship commander in the science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet." He found his best dramatic role as the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, "The Poseidon Adventure."

He became known as a serious actor, although behind the camera he was a prankster. That was an aspect of his personality never exploited, however, until "Airplane!" was released in 1980 and became a huge hit.

As the doctor aboard a plane in which the pilots, and some of the passengers, become violently ill, Nielsen says they must get to a hospital right away.

"A hospital? What is it?" a flight attendant asks, inquiring about the illness.

"It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now," Nielsen deadpans.

When he asks a passenger if he can fly the plane, the man replies, "Surely you can't be serious."

Nielsen responds: "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

Critics argued he was being cast against type, but Nielsen disagreed.

"I've always been cast against type before," he said, adding comedy was what he'd really always wanted to do.

It was what he would do for most of the rest of his career, appearing in such comedies as "Repossessed" (a takeoff on the demonic possession movies like "The Exorcist") and "Mr. Magoo," in which he played the title role of the good-natured bumbler.

Nielsen did play Debbie Reynolds' sweetheart in the popular "Tammy and the Bachelor," a loanout to Universal, and he became well known to baby boomers for his role as the Revolutionary War fighter Francis Marion in the Disney TV adventure series "The Swamp Fox."

Unhappy with his roles at MGM, he asked to be released from his contract. As a freelancer, he appeared in a series of undistinguished movies.

"I played a lot of leaders, autocratic sorts; perhaps it was my Canadian accent," he reasoned.

Meanwhile, he remained active in television in guest roles. He also starred in his own series, "The New Breed," ''The Protectors" and "Bracken's World," but all were short-lived.

Then "Airplane!" captivated audiences and changed everything.

Producers-directors-writers Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker had hired Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges and Nielsen to spoof their heroic TV images in a satire of flight-in-jeopardy movies.

After the movie's success, the filmmaking trio cast their newfound comic star as Detective Drebin in a TV series, "Police Squad," which trashed the cliches of "Dragnet" and other cop shows. Despite good reviews, NBC cancelled it after only four episodes.

"It didn't belong on TV," Nielsen later commented. "It had the kind of humour you had to pay attention to."

The Zuckers and Abraham converted the series into a feature film, "The Naked Gun," with George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley as Nielsen's co-stars. Its huge success led to sequels "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" and "The Naked Gun 33 1/3."

His later movies included "All I Want for Christmas," ''Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Spy Hard."

Between films he often turned serious, touring with his one-man show on the life of the great defence lawyer, Clarence Darrow.

Nielsen has stars on both Hollywood's and Canada's Walk of Fame.

He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002.

Nielsen also was married to: Monica Boyer, 1950-1955; Sandy Ullman, 1958-74; and Brooks Oliver, 1981-85.

Nielsen and his second wife had two daughters, Thea and Maura.

- With files from The Associated Press, Tamsyn Burgmann

 

[superintelligentone]

Blake Edwards (July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010)
R.I.P. Blake Edwards. I loved his Pink Panther films!

http://en.wikipedia....i/Blake_Edwards

Blake Edwards (July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.

Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures. He used his writing skills to begin producing and directing, with some of his best films including: Experiment in Terror, The Great Race, and the hugely successful Pink Panther film series with the British comedian Peter Sellers. Often thought of as primarily a director of comedies, he was also renowned for his dramatic work, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Days of Wine and Roses. His greatest successes, however, have been his comedies, and most of his films were either musicals, melodramas, slapstick comedies, and thrillers.

In 2004, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen.

Twice married, Edwards' second marriage from 1969 until his death was to Julie Andrews. She appeared in a number of his films, including Darling Lili, 10, Victor Victoria and the autobiographical satire S.O.B., in which Andrews played a character who was a caricature of herself. In 1995, he wrote the book for the stage musical adaptation of Victor/Victoria, also starring Andrews.

He described his struggle with the illness chronic fatigue syndrome for 15 years in the documentary I Remember Me.

Edwards and Andrews had five children. The two eldest, Jennifer and Geoffrey, are from his previous marriage; middle child Emma is from Andrews' first marriage; and the youngest children are two adopted orphans from Vietnam, Amelia Leigh and Joanna Lynne. Edwards and Andrews adopted them in the early 1970s. All of the children, except Joanna, have appeared in his movies. Edwards was the step-grandson of prolific silent-film director J. Gordon Edwards.

On December 15, 2010, Edwards died of complications of pneumonia at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. His wife and children were at his side.

 

[superintelligentone]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40759069/ns/...-entertainment/

'Barney Miller' star Landesberg dies at age 65
Actor died Monday after a battle with cancer, TMZ reports

LOS ANGELES — Actor Steve Landesberg, a former stand-up comedian who starred for years on the hit television sitcom "Barney Miller," has died at age 65, his agent said on Monday.

"It is with great sadness to report the loss of my friend and client Steve Landesberg," Jeffrey Leavitt of Leavitt Talent Group said in a statement.

Born Nov. 23, 1945 in New York City, Landesberg began his career as a stand-up comedian and was a contemporary of top 1970s draws such as Freddie Prinze and Jimmy Walker.

He landed the role of Det. Arthur Dietrich on "Barney Miller" in 1975, and stayed with the show about New York cops until it ended in 1982.

Landesberg went on to work in a variety of TV and movie roles, including the series "Cosby" and "The Ghost Whisperer," and the hit 2008 movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

"Working with Steve was an honor both personally and professionally. My heart goes out to his family. He will be missed," Leavitt said.

---
Steve Landesberg dies

Steve Landesberg dies at 65
He played Detective Dietrich on 'Barney Miller'
Posted: Mon., Dec. 20, 2010, 5:00pm PT

Steve Landesberg, who played Det. Arthur Dietrich on TV's "Barney Miller," died this morning in Los Angeles of cancer. He was 65.
Landesberg played a dual role on ABC's show, which ran from 1975-82, playing not only Dietrich but also Father Paul. He was Emmy nommed for supporting actor on the cop show for each of its last three years on the air.

More recently Landesberg appeared on features like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Wild Hogs" as well as Starz series "Head Case" from 2007-09. He played several parts in 2002 series "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" and had recurring roles in such skeins as "Harry and the Henderson" and "The Golden Girls." Landesberg frequently guested on shows including "Seinfeld," "Law and Order," "Cosby" "Ghost Whisperer" and "Everybody Hates Chris."

In 1983 he hosted the eponymous NBCs special "The Steve Landesberg Show."

The New York native was discovered at a at an open audition conducted by Bill Cosby for NBC's "The Tonight Show" at Gotham's Bitter End. That led to gigs at the Improv alongside tyros like David Brenner, Jimmie Walker and Bette Midler and membership in improv group New York Stickball Team.

In 1972 he was featured in NBC's "Dean Martin Presents the Bobby Darin Amusement Company" and made his film debut in 1973 pic "Blade."

He did voiceover work in toons like "American Dad" and appeared in regional stage in "Same Time Next Year," "God's Favorite" and "Hold Me."

Landesberg also appeared in commercials, including one for a Ryder truck that was made by his wife, Nancy. He won a Bronze Lion for a commercial at Cannes Lions Intl. Festival of Creativity.

Survivors include wife Nancy and a daughter.

 

[superintelligentone]

Teena Marie, the "Ivory Queen of Soul" passes away

http://www.freep.com...s#ixzz19KflSRxA

Teena Marie, 1956-2010: Ivory Queen of Soul broke musical barriers
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Posted: Dec. 28, 2010

LOS ANGELES -- Fans mourned the death of Teena Marie, the singer-songwriter known for such funk-infused 1980s hits as "I Need Your Lovin' " and "Lovergirl," and one of the few white musicians to achieve renown on the R&B charts. She was 54.

Marie was found dead Sunday afternoon at her home in Pasadena, Calif., Pasadena Police Lt. Diego Torres said. Police and paramedics were called to her home after her daughter found her unconscious, Torres said. The cause of her death has not been determined yet.

Reviewing her performance in 1981 at the Long Beach Arena, Dennis Hunt wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "A tiny young woman with a powerful voice, Marie is a terrific singer and, quite frankly, better than nearly all her black competitors."

The music came first
Born Mary Christine Brockert on March 5, 1956, in Santa Monica, Calif., Marie was raised in a predominantly black area of the Venice section of Los Angeles. She began singing professionally at age 8. Soon after graduating from Venice High School, she signed with Motown Records, where she met funk music pioneer Rick James, who would become her mentor, musical collaborator and lover, a relationship she described as "fiery."
He produced her 1979 debut album, "Wild and Peaceful," which went gold and featured her first hit single, a duet with James called "I'm a Sucker for Your Love."
She recounted later that Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., unsure how black audiences might react to her image, decided the album cover should feature a seascape with clouds rather than her photograph.
"He just wanted people to hear the music first, and then it wouldn't matter to people what color I was," she told the Boston Globe in 2004.
Many R&B enthusiasts who loved her strong, bluesy vocals didn't realize she was white until her photograph was featured on her second album, "Lady T," in 1980. By then she already had a large following in the black community.
In an effort to reach a broader pop audience, she signed on as the opening act on the Shaun Cassidy tour in 1979, which made for an unlikely matchup. Cassidy's fans were mostly young white girls.

"It was a rough situation for me, given the way I sing and with my band being black," Marie told the Times in 1980. "Those young girls didn't know my music, and they couldn't really relate to me or the band."

A winning fight
Marie quarreled with Motown over royalties and fought to be released from her contract. The legal battle, which was settled in the early 1980s, resulted in the Brockert Initiative, named for her, which curbs a record company's power to keep musicians under contract while refusing to release their music.

"It wasn't something I set out to do," she told the Times in 2004. "I just wanted to get away from Motown and have a good life. But it helped a lot of people, like Luther Vandross and the Mary Jane Girls and a lot of different artists, to be able to get out of their contracts."

Marie, sometimes called the Ivory Queen of Soul, went on to produce her own albums. She largely vanished from the public eye in the early 1990s after the birth of her daughter, Alia, saying she wanted to devote herself to motherhood. In 2004 she put out her first new album in a decade, "La Dona," featuring the track "Still in Love," which earned her a Grammy nomination.

That year, she was devastated by the death of James, with whom she had been touring, and stopped working for a time. She began touring again in recent years after battling a prescription-drug addiction.

 

[superintelligentone]

Oscar Nominated British character actor Pete Postlethwaite dies.

http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/celebs/new...mentid=27001481

Oscar-nominated star Pete Postlethwaite dies
By Gregory Katz, The Associated Press, thecanadianpress.com,
Updated: January 3, 2011 4:10 PM

LONDON - He could have stayed in teaching. That's what his parents wanted: it was the safe, secure route for a young man with working-class roots and a face few would describe as handsome.

But Pete Postlethwaite wanted more. He wanted to pursue his passion for acting and, at 24, he left teaching to train at the Bristol Old Vic theatre. His parents remained skeptical, but when he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth II after a stellar 1980s performance with the Royal Shakespeare Company, even his mother was convinced he would make his mark.

It was an incredible ascent for Postlethwaite, a distinguished character actor with a remarkably craggy, timeworn face whose death at age 64 was confirmed Monday by Andrew Richardson, a longtime friend and journalist who documented the actor's fight against cancer. Richardson said the Oscar-nominated actor died Sunday.

Postlethwaite had little going for him when he started in an industry where good looks — think Robert Redford or George Clooney — are valued. He had few connections, a name that was hard to pronounce, and could distinguish himself only by his talent.

It was a subtle talent, hard to define, marked by an ability to completely inhabit a role, to convey a deep sense of burden with a glance or a shrug. There were no pyrotechnics, nothing was overstated. But he had a powerful presence and authenticity on screen and on stage.

It was this that prompted director Steven Spielberg — who used Postlethwaite twice — to call him "probably the best actor in the world."

Postlethwaite was part of a small coterie of British actors who came up together through the theatre and found a measure of success in Hollywood. The group included Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson, longtime friends who starred with him in "In the Name of the Father," a 1993 classic that earned Postlethwaite a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as Day-Lewis' father.

That part drew heavily on Postlethwaite's ability to give a victim's troubles wider meaning. His character is wrongly imprisoned after his son implicates him in a deadly IRA bombing he did not commit. Postlethwaite's quiet sense of hurt and injustice helps carry the film, regarded as one of the finest to deal with the long conflict in Northern Ireland.

He branched out into movies and television work in the 1980s, most often taking roles as an occasionally menacing working-class figure.

He was instantly recognizable for his piercing eyes and prominent cheekbones, which gave him a lean, rugged look. One critic said his cheekbones came "boiling out of his head like swollen knuckles." He appeared in a wide variety of film and TV roles, with many British fans remembering his work in period dramas as well as his later Hollywood films

He had recently been seen in the critically acclaimed film "Inception" and had worked with Spielberg on "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Amistad" in performances that sparked Spielberg's extravagant compliment . He drew high praise for his starring role in "Brassed Off" in 1996. He also played a vicious crime boss in Ben Affleck's "The Town," released last year, and will be seen this year in "Killing Bono."

Over the years, some British actors who moved into the Oscar stratosphere were seduced by the glamour and moved to Hollywood. But Postlethwaite stayed away, living in recent years with his wife and two children in a farmhouse in rural England, where his comings and goings drew little more than a friendly smile from neighbours who took his presence for granted.

Postlethwaite did not become a household name in much of the world — he is said to have resisted an agent's efforts to come up with a stage name that would be easier to pronounce and remember — but he was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II when he received an OBE award in 2004.

Friends and colleagues described him as down-to-earth in a profession filled with overblown egos.

"Anyone who worked with him felt great affection for him," actor David Schneider told BBC News. "He was very un-actory. Sort of like a national treasure. There is so much affection for him; he was a wonderful actor and a wonderful bloke." He said Postlethwaite's skill and range would be appreciated more in hindsight.

Two years before his death, the actor realized a lifelong goal by playing King Lear at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where he had been part of the company during his formative years.

Postlethwaite was a political activist known for his opposition to the war in Iraq and his calls to fight global warming. He used a wind turbine at his home to generate electricity.

His extended battle against cancer was documented in the local newspapers where he lived in rural Shropshire, 170 miles northwest of London. He had recently thanked the staff at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for their care.

"They have been wonderful and I am grateful to them," he told the Shropshire Star newspaper. "I cannot thank them enough for everything that they have done for me."

He is survived by his wife, Jacqui, his son Will and daughter, Lily.

 

[superintelligentone]

Gerry Rafferty obituary

Gerry Rafferty obituary
Singer and songwriter known for Stuck in the Middle With You and Baker Street
Michael Gray, guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 4 January 2011 19.01 GMT

The Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, who has died aged 63 after a long illness, wrote the multimillion-selling hit Baker Street, which more than 30 years after its 1978 release still netted him an annual £80,000. At the end of the 1970s he did his best work, a series of richly resonant albums that gave no hint of their creator's inner troubles.

Rafferty was born in Paisley, near Glasgow, an unwanted third son. His father, Joseph, was an Irish-born miner. His mother, Mary Skeffington, whose name would provide a Rafferty song title, dragged young Gerry round the streets on Saturday nights so that they would not be at home when his father came back drunk. They would wait outside, in all weathers, until he had fallen asleep, to avoid a beating. "If it wasn't for you, I'd leave," Mary told Gerry. Joseph died in 1963, when Gerry was 16.

That year, Gerry left St Mirin's academy and worked in a butcher's shop and at the tax office. At weekends, he and a schoolfriend, Joe Egan, played in a local group, the Mavericks. At a dancehall in 1965, Gerry met his future wife, apprentice hairdresser Carla Ventilla. She was 15, from an Italian Clydebank family. They married in 1970, after courting at the bohemian bungalow of the artist and future playwright John "Patrick" Byrne and his wife, Alice. Byrne, also educated at St Mirin's, had long been Gerry's mentor, and had first interested Gerry in playing the guitar. Billy Connolly was also in Clydebank, and after Gerry's song Benjamin Day failed as a Mavericks single, Gerry and Egan quit the group and Gerry joined Connolly's outfit, the Humblebums, a Clydeside folk act.

The Humblebums' first LP, on the folk-oriented label Transatlantic, predated Gerry's involvement, but he and Connolly were the group for the albums The New Humblebums (1969, with cover art by Byrne, a partnership that later spanned the albums of Gerry's heyday) and Open Up the Door (1970). Despite US releases, singles written by Gerry (Shoeshine Boy and Saturday Round About Sunday) and John Peel sessions for the BBC, there was little reaction and tensions grew between these strong personalities. It was Gerry who urged Connolly to go it alone as a comic. He went solo too. Staying with Transatlantic, his characteristically titled first album – Can I Have My Money Back? – began his real career in 1971, establishing him as a singer-songwriter, bringing folk fans with him and promoting his songs.

Yet in 1972, now with a young daughter, Martha, Gerry rejoined Egan to form Stealers Wheel, a soft-rock group. Their eponymous debut album climbed the US charts and included the million-selling Stuck in the Middle With You, memorably resurrected for a key scene in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs (1992). But their A&M record contract tied them to huge touring and album commitments, and imposed musicians upon them. Gerry quit.

He was persuaded back, and he and Egan became the sole group members, using backing musicians in the studio and on tours. A now-forgotten single, Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine, preceded the minor hit Star and the 1974 album Ferguslie Park. But Rafferty learned that their royalties had been filched, Egan returned to Scotland, and Stealers Wheel collapsed before the release of the album Right Or Wrong in 1975.

Disentangling Gerry from his contracts took three years, but his second solo career, beginning with City to City, was constructed more cannily. Demos for the album were made in Carla's parents' old house, on a four-track machine. Gerry played every instrument, including lentil-jar percussion. Signed to United Artists, he and Hugh Murphy co-produced the album for £18,000 in 1978. Fuelled by the smash hit single Baker Street, it sold 5m copies and Gerry became a millionaire "overnight".

Refusing to tour America, he played a few British dates and recorded his successful follow-up, Night Owl (1979), which yielded further hits: Days Gone Down, Get It Right Next Time and the title track. These, plus the less popular Snakes and Ladders (1980, recorded in Montserrat), are the gorgeously produced works of Gerry's prime. The voice, redolent of both Lennon's and McCartney's, yet unmistakably his own; the music, a shimmering delta of sound; the songs, romantic yet pushily sardonic – all came to fruition thanks to Gerry's gift of perfect pitch and an obdurate determination to stick to his guns.

These were the years I worked for him. I was his personal manager – employee, not svengali – visiting the record company in LA, accompanying Gerry when he was working, and running the small office we set up for him in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Sadly, my job was mostly to say "no" to people.

He did not want to have to out-platinum himself: he had money enough, and disliked being recognised. But behind an aggressive front, and a strong awareness of his own musical excellence, was fear. He turned down working with Eric Clapton, McCartney and others, telling Carla "nobody was good enough". In truth, he dared not sit down with superstars without a drink or five. So he sat at home – now 300 acres of Kent farmland and a Queen Anne house in Hampstead, north London – and convinced himself he could work alone with Murphy. Carla said later: "He was just stalling for time. Maybe some new project would suddenly happen, but I knew he'd crossed the line as far as the record business went."

His last successful foray was when, after contributing a vocal to the soundtrack of the film Local Hero (1983), he produced the Proclaimers' 1987 hit Letter from America. Gerry made two more albums that decade – Sleepwalking (1982) and North and South (1988). On a Wing and a Prayer followed in 1992, Over My Head in 1994 and Another World in 2000. They marked a decline in sales and standard.

He had always drunk too much, and now he spiralled into alcoholism, putting on weight, which made him unhappier. "He became dangerous at airports," said Carla, "and he'd scream across restaurant tables at me." In phases of renunciation, he smashed cases of superb wines into a stream on his land. Carla finally left in 1990: "There was no hope. I would never have left him if there'd been a glimmer of a chance of him recovering." She remained a source of dependable help, in contact until the end.

After their divorce, farm and Hampstead home gone, Gerry eventually moved to California, near to Martha, who worked for him. In 2008 Gerry left America, helped from wheelchair to plane by a woman he met in a video store. They rented a house in Ireland, until taxis and doctors refused to attend him. That August, a five-day binge at a five-star London hotel ended when the management had him admitted to hospital. He vanished in the night.

Splashed across the Sun, this story was otherwise ignored until 2009, when the Daily Mail resurrected it. Rafferty, urged to issue a statement, announced that he was "extremely well", living in Tuscany and preparing a new album. He was relatively well, but in Dorset, not Tuscany. He never made another album. For two decades, alcohol had dominated this creative and intelligent man's life.

He is survived by Martha, his granddaughter, Celia, and brother, Jim.

Gerald Rafferty, musician, born 16 April 1947; died 4 January 2011

 

[superintelligentone]

TV Personality/Fitness Guru Jack LaLane has passed away at age 96

Jack LaLanne - Wikipedia

Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne (September 26, 1914 – January 23, 2011) was an American fitness, exercise, nutritional expert, and motivational speaker who had been called "the godfather of fitness".[1][2] He published numerous books on fitness and hosted a fitness television show between 1951 and 1985.

LaLanne gained recognition for his success as a bodybuilder as well as for his prodigious feats of strength. He was inducted to the California Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television for 34 years. "The Jack LaLanne Show" was the longest running television exercise program. It began in 1951 as a local program on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, and was carried on the ABC network nationwide starting in 1959. Also in 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album which provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher.

LaLanne published several books and videos on fitness and nutrition, appeared in movies, and recorded a song with Connie Haines. He marketed exercise equipment, a range of vitamin supplements, and two models of electric juicers. These include the "Juice Tiger", as seen on Amazing Discoveries with Mike Levey, and "Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer". It was on the show that LaLanne introduced the phrase "That's the power of the juice!"

LaLanne was married to Elaine LaLanne; they had a son Jon together, and he was step-father to her son Dan Doyle and daughter Yvonne. LaLanne's son was killed in an automobile accident in 1974.

 

[superintelligentone]

Jane Russell, Hollywood Sex Symbol of the 1940's & 1950's, has passed away at age 89.

Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011), she was discovered by aviator/filmaker millionaire Howard Hughes.

Hollywood Legend has it that Howard Hughes invented a support bra especialy for her. Her biggest success was co-starring in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" with Marilyn Monroe in 1953. A 1955 sequel without Monroe, "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" couldn't match it's popularity.

In the 1970's, she became a celebrity spokeswoman spokesperson for the Playtex Cross Your Heart bras.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries...ne-Russell.html

Jane Russell
Jane Russell, who has died aged 89, was a Hollywood film star of the Forties and Fifties whose acting ability attracted less attention than her vital statistics.

The Telegraph.co.uk/
9:07AM GMT 01 Mar 2011

Her 38-inch bust became the bedrock on which her career was built. Unlike modern actresses, she never unveiled it but its fully-clad charms aroused censors worldwide. Her first film, The Outlaw, made in 1941, was briefly shown in 1943 but caused such controversy that it was rapidly withdrawn and not widely released until 1950.

The film is innocuous by modern standards, not to say dull. But promotion is a powerful tool. "Mean, moody and magnificent", the publicity department called her and many a GI swallowed the message. The Press endorsed it, reporting that her bosom "hung over the picture like a thunderstorm over a landscape".

She was a discovery of Howard Hughes, the aeronautics tycoon. The Outlaw, a Western about Billy the Kid, was his production, which he ended up directing himself after firing Howard Hawks, a much more experienced film-maker. But try as he might, Hughes couldn't stop Russell quivering under fire.

"Call in my designers," he commanded. "Time for another engineering feat — the world's first cantilevered brassiere." And so the great whatsit, which parted like Tower Bridge, was built and to his dying day Hughes believed that Jane Russell wore it. In fact, however, she found the metal framework so uncomfortable that she secretly discarded it, substituting her old tried and trusted bra and stuffing it with Kleenex to hold it firm.

Press attention to her physical attractions meant that her acting ability never received its due. She could not play drama but she had a good sense of humour. Wiser producers than Hughes realised that fun could be had from her formidable sex appeal. In The Paleface (1948), its sequel, Son of Paleface (1952) and especially Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Jane Russell became a self-parody — a figure with whom audiences could laugh on the strength of past publicity.

Though the first to admit her shortcomings, she never wavered from the religion in which she was brought up. Adultery, alcoholism, drunken driving may have touched her life but she still believed that "the Lord is a living doll". She confirmed it in her autobiography, My Path and Detours, published in 1986.

Born Ernastine Geraldine Russell on June 21 1921 at Bemidji, Minnesota, she grew up in California, graduating from Van Nuys School. Though her mother had been an actress, the young Jane did not initially entertain thoughts of a career in showbusiness, opting instead for employment as a chiropodist's assistant. But showbiz was in the blood and in 1940, she enrolled in Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop. Later, she studied with Maria Ouspenskaya, with a litle modelling on the side.

That was how Howard Hughes discovered her, earmarking her immediately for the Western he planned to make with brand new stars. Russell and Jack Buetel were cast in the leading roles. Though The Outlaw was not released for many years, Hughes's publicity machine kept the stories churning about this actress with the phenomenal embonpoint.

Hughes shrewdly placed her under long-term contract and began lending her services to other studios. Paramount, then planning a spoof Western with Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers, baulked at the leading lady's terms and signed Jane Russell instead to play Calamity Jane in The Paleface.

At this time Hughes also bought into RKO, to which he sold half her contract. Every time she made a film for this studio, Hughes collected $200,000. And in a short space of time she made several — thrillers such as His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952), both opposite Robert Mitchum, The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Victor Mature and Double Dynamite (1951), with Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx. The Western Montana Belle had been made for RKO in 1948, but Hughes bought out the rights and sat on the picture for four years, releasing it only in 1952, when he felt his protégée was sufficiently established. In that year she also made Son of Paleface for Paramount.

Her biggest success — and the one memorable film of her career — was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. It was blessed by a stroke of casting genius. The blonde whom gentlemen are supposed to prefer was Marilyn Monroe, leaving Russell to play the brunette they allegedly marry. And calling the shots was director Howard Hawks, veteran of such Thirties screwball classics as Bringing Up Baby and the man who might have made Jane Russell's first film if Hughes had not sacked him.

The production was closely monitored by the censors and several lines drawing attention to the actresses' physical attributes had to be cut. Nevertheless, the raunchiness of the material — two gold-diggers on the make — could not be entirely suppressed. The musical numbers (not, in fact, directed by Hawks but by the choreographer Jack Cole, who had designed Rita Hayworth's show-stopping routine in Gilda) were sensational. The two girls' credo We're Just Two Little Girls from Little Rock and Ain't There Anyone Here for Love? (sung by Jane Russell to a bunch of body-builders more obsessed with each other's muscles than with her) are often anthologised in documentaries on the Hollywood musical.

This was the high-water mark of her career. Nothing she did later (including a 1955 sequel without Monroe, Gentlemen Marry Brunettes) quite matched it. Like Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors she became famous for what she was rather than for what she did. In that respect she was entirely different from Monroe, who was cast initially as a femme fatale but had the good fortune to be acclaimed in comedy. Almost all her last films played to that strength, whereas Russell's comic talent was largely overlooked. Most of her later films reverted to the image she thought she had outgrown.

The French Line (1954), originally filmed in 3-D, ran straight into more flak on account of scenes shot to accentuate the depth of her cleavage. These were censored out of the final release. She continued to film regularly until 1957 but the movies were increasingly gimmicky and ludicrous. Underwater (1955), for example, is remembered only as the first (and last) film to be premiered beneath the sea, off Florida. Others included Hot Blood (a 1956 gypsy melodrama with Cornel Wilde), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), a bowdlerised version of the novel by William Bradford Huie about a prostitute, and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957).

For nine years she stayed out of movies, except for an unbilled guest spot playing herself in Fate Is the Hunter (1964). She was, however, comfortably off. She had signed a new contract with Hughes to make six films for $1 million, payable at the rate of $1,000 a week for 20 years. None of them was made, but she collected the fee notwithstanding.

In the mid-Sixties she made a handful of B pictures — the Westerns Johnny Reno and Waco in 1966 and the biker movie Born Losers (1967), as the mother of a rape victim. Her last film appearance was in a supporting role in the thriller Darker than Amber in 1970.

She did not, however, retire, switching instead to cabaret work and recording gospel songs, one of which - Do, Lord - became a popular choice in jukeboxes all over America. Jane Russell made her Broadway début in 1971, replacing Elaine Stritch in the hit musical Company, and appeared on television in the series Yellow Rose and in advertisements — for brassieres, being retained as a spokeswoman for the Playtex company.

In real life, Jane Russell claimed to be quite different from her screen image. "I'm the mothering type," she admitted, when visiting England in the early Fifties to attend the Royal Command Film Performance. High on her agenda was "to adopt a really cute little English baby boy", while her mother, who was accompanying her, faced an even more challenging task. "I've come over", she said, "to see if I can get hold of a rare German edition of the Bible". "That", added her daughter, "is the secret of our family's success — religion. Mom always was devout."

The quest for that "cute" little boy opened up a long and bitter battle, involving questions in the House and impassioned pleas by Lt Col Lipton, Labour MP for Brixton, for the actress to return the 15-month-old boy, Thomas Kavanagh of South Lambeth, to his rightful mother. An agreement had been reached with the boy's parents for him to spend three months with the actress in her Hollywood home, but legislation of 1950 expressly forbade parents to allow their children to be adopted by non-British subjects.

In the end, after an 11-month struggle, Miss Russell did adopt Thomas Kavanagh in America, while the parents were discharged conditionally in London "for unlawfully permitting the care and possession of the child to be transferred".

Jane Russell married the athlete Bob Waterfield in 1943. They adopted three children, including Thomas Kavanagh. The marriage was dissolved in 1968. Her second husband was the actor Roger Barratt, who died within three months of their 1968 marriage. In 1974, she married real-estate agent John Calvin Peoples.

She is survived by her children, Thomas K. Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert "Buck" Waterfield, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

 

[superintelligentone]

The TV has just announced that screen legend/movie star Dame Elizabeth Taylor has passed away from congestive heart failure. Rest in Peace, Elizabeth. We'll not see another star like her.
http://www.tmz.com/2011/03/22/dame-elizabe...-academy-award/

Elizabeth Taylor Dead at 79

Taylor died early Wednesday morning. She's been hospitalized for a while at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Taylor died of congestive heart failure, a condition with which she had struggled for many years. A rep says Taylor died "peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles." The rep adds, "Though she had recently suffered a number of complications, her condition had stabilized and it was hoped that she would be able to return home. Sadly, this was not to be."

Someone at the hospital Tuesday night tells TMZ ... doctors knew at around 6 PM that Taylor was dying.

Taylor was considered one of the greatest actresses of all-time -- starring in classics like "Cleopatra" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." She won an Academy Award for best actress twice for her roles in "BUtterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

We've learned Taylor has a plot next to her parents at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in L.A. Among those who are buried or interred there -- Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Truman Capote, Farah Fawcett, Dean Martin and Walter Matthau.

Story developing...

http://en.wikipedia....lizabeth_Taylor

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, (27 February 1932 – 23 March 2011), also known as Liz Taylor, was an English-American actress. A former child star, she grew to be known for her acting talent and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle, including many marriages. Taylor is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's golden age. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.

Early years (1932–1942)

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of North West London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929.

Her parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was 'Sara Sothern'. Sothern retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York City. Taylor's two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor. A dual citizen of the UK and the U.S., she was born a British subject through her birth on British soil and an American citizen through her parents. She reportedly sought, in 1965, to renounce her United States citizenship, to wit "Though never accepted by the State Department, Liz renounced in 1965. Attempting to shield much of her European income from U.S. taxes, Liz wished to become solely a British citizen. According to news reports at the time, officials denied her request when she failed to complete the renunciation oath, refusing to say that she renounced 'all allegiance to the United States of America'."

At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons with Vaccani. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, arriving in New York in April 1939, while her father remained in London to wrap up matters in the art business, arriving in November. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.

Through Hopper, the Taylors were introduced to Andrea Berens, a wealthy English socialite and also fiancée of Cheever Cowden, chairman and major stockholder of Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Berens insisted that Sara bring Elizabeth to see Cowden who, she was adamant, would be dazzled by Elizabeth's breathtaking dark beauty; she was born with a mutation that caused double rows of eyelashes, which enhanced her appearance on camera. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon took interest in the British youngster as well but she failed to secure a contract with them after an informal audition with producer John Considine had shown that she couldn't sing. However, on 18 September 1941, Universal Pictures signed Elizabeth to a six-month renewable contract at $100 a week.

Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine in There's One Born Every Minute, her only film for Universal Pictures. Less than six months after she signed with Universal, her contract was reviewed by Edward Muhl, the studio's production chief. Muhl met with Taylor's agent, Myron Selznick (brother of David), and Cheever Cowden. Muhl challenged Selznick's and Cowden's constant support of Taylor: "She can't sing, she can't dance, she can't perform. What's more, her mother has to be one of the most unbearable women it has been my displeasure to meet." Universal cancelled Taylor's contract just short of her tenth birthday in February 1942. Nevertheless on 15 October 1942, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed Taylor to $100 a week for up to three months to appear as "Priscilla" in the film Lassie Come Home.

Career - Adolescent star

Lassie Come Home featured child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Taylor would share a lifelong friendship. Upon its release in 1943, the film received favourable attention for both McDowall and Taylor. On the basis for her performance in Lassie Come Home MGM signed Taylor to a conventional seven-year contract at $100 a week but increasing at regular intervals until it reached a hefty $750 during the seventh year. Her first assignment under her new contract at MGM was a loan-out to 20th Century Fox for the character of Helen Burns in a film version of the Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre (1944). During this period she also returned to England to appear in another Roddy McDowall picture for MGM, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). But it was Taylor's persistence in campaigning for the role of Velvet Brown in MGM's National Velvet that skyrocketed Taylor to stardom at the tender age of 12. Taylor's character, Velvet Brown, is a young girl who trains her beloved horse to win the Grand National. National Velvet, which also costarred beloved American favorite Mickey Rooney and English newcomer Angela Lansbury, became an overwhelming success upon its release in December 1944 and altered Taylor's life forever. Also, many of her back problems have been traced to when she hurt her back falling off a horse during the filming of National Velvet.

National Velvet grossed over US$4 million at the box office and Taylor was signed to a new long-term contract that raised her salary to $30,000 per year. To capitalize on the box office success of Velvet, Taylor was shoved into another animal opus, Courage of Lassie, in which a different dog named "Bill", cast as an Allied combatant in World War II, regularly outsmarts the Nazis, with Taylor going through another outdoors role. The 1946 success of Courage of Lassie led to another contract drawn up for Taylor earning her $750 per week, her mother $250, as well as a $1,500 bonus. Her roles as Mary Skinner in a loan-out to Warner Brothers' Life With Father (1947), Cynthia Bishop in Cynthia (1947), Carol Pringle in A Date with Judy (1948) and Susan Prackett in Julia Misbehaves (1948) all proved to be successful. Her reputation as a bankable adolescent star and nickname of "One-Shot Liz" (referring to her ability to shoot a scene in one take) promised her a full and bright career with Metro. Taylor's portrayal as Amy, in the American classic Little Women (1949) would prove to be her last adolescent role. In October 1948, she sailed aboard the RMS Queen Mary travelling to England where she would begin filming on Conspirator, where she would play her first adult role.

Transition into adult roles

When released in 1949, Conspirator bombed at the box office, but Taylor's portrayal of 21-year-old debutante Melinda Grayton (keeping in mind that Taylor was only 16 at the time of filming) who unknowingly marries a communist spy (played by 38-year-old Robert Taylor), was praised by critics for her first adult lead in a film, even though the public didn't seem ready to accept her in adult roles. Taylor's first picture under her new salary of $2,000 per week was The Big Hangover (1950), both a critical and box office failure, that paired her with screen idol Van Johnson. The picture also failed to present Taylor with an opportunity to exhibit her newly-realized sensuality. Her first box office success in an adult role came as Kay Banks in the romantic comedy Father of the Bride (1950), alongside Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. The film spawned a sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951), which Taylor's costar Spencer Tracy summarised with "boring...boring...boring". The film was received well at the box office but it would be Taylor's next picture that would set the course for her career as a dramatic actress. In late 1949, Taylor had begun filming George Stevens' A Place In The Sun. Upon its release in 1951, Taylor was hailed for her performance as Angela Vickers, a spoiled socialite who comes between George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and his poor, pregnant factory-working girlfriend Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters).

The film became the pivotal performance of Taylor's career as critics acclaimed it as a classic, a reputation it sustained throughout the next 50 years of cinema history. The New York Times' A.H. Weiler wrote, "Elizabeth's delineation of the rich and beauteous Angela is the top effort of her career", and the Boxoffice reviewer unequivocally stated "Miss Taylor deserves an Academy Award". She later reflected: "If you were considered pretty, you might as well have been a waitress trying to act – you were treated with no respect at all."

Taylor became increasingly unsatisfied with the roles being offered to her at the time. While she wanted to play the lead roles in The Barefoot Contessa and I'll Cry Tomorrow, MGM continued to restrict her to mindless and somewhat forgettable films such as: a cameo as herself in Callaway Went Thataway (1951), Love Is Better Than Ever (1952), Ivanhoe (1952), The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) and Beau Brummel (1954). She had wanted to play the role of Lady Rowena in Ivanhoe, but the part was given to Joan Fontaine. Taylor was given the role of Rebecca. When Taylor became pregnant with her first child, MGM forced her through The Girl Who Had Everything (even adding two hours to her daily work schedule) so as to get one more film out of her before she became too heavily pregnant. Taylor lamented that she needed the money, as she had just bought a new house with second husband Michael Wilding and with a child on the way things would be pretty tight. Taylor had been forced by her pregnancy to turn down Elephant Walk (1954), though the role had been designed for her. Vivien Leigh, almost two decades Taylor's senior, but to whom Taylor bore a striking resemblance, got the part and went to Ceylon to shoot on location. Leigh suffered a nervous breakdown during filming, and Taylor reclaimed the role after the birth of her child Michael Wilding, Jr. in January 1953.

Taylor's next screen endeavor, Rhapsody (1954), another tedious romantic drama, proved equally frustrating. Taylor portrayed Louise Durant, a beautiful rich girl in love with a temperamental violinist (Vittorio Gassman) and an earnest young pianist (John Ericson). A film critic for the New York Herald Tribune wrote: "There is beauty in the picture all right, with Miss Taylor glowing into the camera from every angle...but the dramatic pretenses are weak, despite the lofty sentences and handsome manikin poses."

Taylor's fourth period picture, Beau Brummell, made just after Elephant Walk and Rhapsody, cast her as the elaborately costumed Lady Patricia, which many felt was only a screen prop—a ravishing beauty whose sole purpose was to lend romantic support to the film's title star, Stewart Granger. The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) fared only slightly better than her previous pictures, with Taylor being reunited with The Big Hangover costar Van Johnson. The role of Helen Ellsworth Willis was based on that of Zelda Fitzgerald and, although pregnant with her second child, Taylor went ahead with the film, her fourth in twelve months. Although proving somewhat successful at the box office, she still yearned for meatier roles.

1955–1979

Following a more substantial role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in George Stevens' epic Giant (1956), Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the following films: Raintree County (1957 opposite Montgomery Clift; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Paul Newman; and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.

In 1960, Taylor became the highest paid actress up to that time when she signed a one million dollar contract to play the title role in 20th Century Fox's lavish production of Cleopatra, which would eventually be released in 1963. During the filming, she began a romance with her future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony in the film. The romance received much attention from the tabloid press, as both were married to other spouses at the time.

Taylor won her first Academy Award, for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for her performance as Gloria Wandrous in BUtterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher.

Her second Academy Award, also for Best Actress in a Leading Role, was for her performance as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), playing opposite then husband Richard Burton. Taylor and Burton would appear together in six other films during the decade – The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians {1967} and Boom! (1968).

Taylor appeared in John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) opposite Marlon Brando (replacing Montgomery Clift who died before production began) and Secret Ceremony (1968) opposite Mia Farrow. However, by the end of the decade her box-office drawing power had considerably diminished, as evidenced by the failure of The Only Game in Town (1970), with Warren Beatty.

Taylor continued to star in numerous theatrical films throughout the 1970s, such as Zee and Co. (1972) with Michael Caine, Ash Wednesday (1973), The Blue Bird (1976) with Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner, and A Little Night Music (1977). With then-husband Richard Burton, she co-starred in the 1972 films Under Milk Wood and Hammersmith Is Out, and the 1973 made-for-TV movie Divorce His, Divorce Hers.

1980–2003

Taylor starred in the 1980 mystery film The Mirror Crack'd, based on an Agatha Christie novel. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV film Malice in Wonderland opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper. Taylor appeared in the miniseries North and South. Her last theatrical film to date was 1994's The Flintstones. In 2001, she played an agent in the TV film These Old Broads. She appeared on a number television series, including the soap operas General Hospital and All My Children, as well as the animated series The Simpsons—once as herself, and once as the voice of Maggie Simpson, uttering one word "Daddy".

Taylor has also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton Taylor Theatre in Oxford was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of the Marlowe play. Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by Faustus to "make [him] immortal with a kiss".

2003–present

In November 2004, Taylor announced that she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a progressive condition in which the heart is too weak to pump sufficient blood throughout the body, particularly to the lower extremities: the ankles and feet. She has broken her back five times, had both her hips replaced, has survived a benign brain tumor operation, has survived skin cancer, and has faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice. She is reclusive and sometimes fails to make scheduled appearances due to illness or other personal reasons. She now uses a wheelchair and when asked about it stated that she has osteoporosis and was born with scoliosis.

In 2005, Taylor was a vocal supporter of her friend Michael Jackson in his trial in California on charges of sexually abusing a child. He was acquitted.

On 30 May 2006, Taylor appeared on Larry King Live to refute the claims that she has been ill, and denied the allegations that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was close to death.

In late August 2006, Taylor decided to take a boating trip to help prove that she was not close to death. She also decided to make Christie's auction house the primary place where she will sell her jewelry, art, clothing, furniture and memorabilia. Six months later, the February 2007 issue of Interview magazine was devoted entirely to Taylor. It celebrated her life, career and her upcoming 75th birthday.

On 5 December 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Taylor into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

Taylor was in the news recently for a rumored ninth marriage to her companion Jason Winters, which she dismissed as a rumour. However, she was quoted as saying, "Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I've ever known and that's why I love him. He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii and we visit it as often as possible," to gossip columnist Liz Smith. Winters accompanied Taylor to Macy's Passport HIV/AIDS 2007 gala, where Taylor was honoured with a humanitarian award. In 2008, Taylor and Winters were spotted celebrating the 4th of July on a yacht in Santa Monica, California. The couple attended the Macy's Passport HIV/AIDS gala again in 2008.

On 1 December 2007, Taylor acted on-stage again, appearing opposite James Earl Jones in a benefit performance of the A. R. Gurney play Love Letters. The event's goal was to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500, and more than 500 people attended. The event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation." The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night to allow for the performance.

Other interests

Taylor has a passion for jewellery. She is a client of well-known jewelry designer, Shlomo Moussaieff. Over the years she has owned a number of well-known pieces, two of the most talked-about being the 33.19-carat (6.64 g) Krupp Diamond and the 69.42-carat (13.88 g) pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond, which were among many gifts from husband Richard Burton. Taylor also owns the 50-carat (10 g) La Peregrina Pearl, purchased by Burton as a Valentine's Day present in 1969. The pearl was formerly owned by Mary I of England, and Burton sought a portrait of Queen Mary wearing the pearl. Upon the purchase of the painting, the Burtons discovered that the British National Portrait Gallery did not have an original painting of Mary, so they donated the painting to the Gallery. Her enduring collection of jewelry has been documented in her book My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002) with photographs by the New York photographer John Bigelow Taylor (no relation).

Taylor started designing jewels for The Elizabeth Collection, creating fine jewelry with elegance and flair. The Elizabeth Taylor collection by Piranesi is sold at Christie's. She has also launched three perfumes, "Passion", "White Diamonds", and "Black Pearls", which, together, earn an estimated US$200 million in annual sales. In fall 2006, Taylor celebrated the 15th anniversary of her White Diamonds perfume, one of the top 10 best selling fragrances for more than the past decade.

Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the death of her former costar and friend, Rock Hudson. She also created her own AIDS foundation, the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF). By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease. In 2006, Taylor commissioned a 37-foot (11 m) "Care Van" equipped with examination tables and X Ray equipment and also donated US$40,000 to the New Orleans Aids task force, a charity designed for the New Orleans population with AIDS and HIV. The donation of the van was made by the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation and Macy's.

In the early 1980s, Taylor moved to Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, which is her current home. She also owns homes in Palm Springs, London and Hawaii.

Taylor is a supporter of Kabbalah and member of the Kabbalah Centre. She encouraged long-time friend Michael Jackson to wear a red string as protection from the evil-eye during his 2005 trial for molestation, where he was eventually cleared of all charges. On 6 October 1991, Taylor had married construction worker Larry Fortensky at Jackson's Neverland Ranch.[citation needed] In 1997, Jackson presented Taylor with the exclusively written-for-her epic song "Elizabeth, I Love You", performed on the day of her 65th birthday celebration.

In October 2007, Taylor won a legal battle, over a Van Gogh painting in her possession, View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint Remy. The United States Supreme Court refused to reconsider a legal suit filed by four persons claiming that the artwork belonged to one of their Jewish ancestors,[30] regardless of any statute of limitations.

Taylor attended Michael Jackson's private funeral on 3 September 2009.[31]

Marriages

Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands:

Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (6 May 1950 – 29 January 1951) (divorced)
Michael Wilding (21 February 1952 – 26 January 1957) (divorced)
Michael Todd (2 February 1957 – 22 March 1958) (widowed)
Eddie Fisher (12 May 1959 – 6 March 1964) (divorced)
Richard Burton (15 March 1964 – 26 June 1974) (divorced)
Richard Burton (10 October 1975 – 29 July 1976) (divorced)
Note: between 1975 and 1976, Taylor was the companion to the Iranian ambassador to Washington, Ardeshir Zahedi. They were dubbed "the hottest couple", and both divorced their significant others during their relationship. Taylor even traveled with him to Tehran for a time. Shah Reza Pahlavi convinced Zahedi to end his relationship with Taylor.
John Warner (4 December 1976 – 7 November 1982) (divorced)
Larry Fortensky (6 October 1991 – 31 October 1996) (divorced)

Children

With Wilding (two sons):
- Michael Howard Wilding (born 6 January 1953)
- Christopher Edward Wilding (born 27 February 1955)

With Todd (one daughter): Elizabeth Frances "Liza" Todd (born 6 August 1957)

With Burton (one daughter): Maria Burton (born 1 August 1961; adopted 1964)

In 1971, Taylor became a grandmother at the age of 39. She has nine grandchildren (as of January 2011).

Hospitalization and death

Taylor dealt with various health problems over the years, including issues regarding congestive heart failure. In February of 2011, new symptoms related to congestive heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment. As of February 13, 2011, she was reportedly being kept at the hospital for monitoring. She passed away March 23.

Taylor won two Academy Awards both for Best Actress, and was awarded the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Academy Award in 1992 for her work fighting AIDS. She joined the list of two time Academy Award winning Best Actress winners which includes Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Jodie Foster and Hillary Swank. (Bergman has a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as well, and Helen Hayes, Maggie Smith, Jessica Lange and Meryl Streep have an Oscar apiece for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Katharine Hepburn has 4 Best Actress Oscars.) In 1999, Taylor was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

 

[superintelligentone]

I just read that actor William Campbell has passed away this past Friday at the Motion Picture & Television Fund's hospital in the San Fernando Valley, according to media reports. According to his imdb.com bio entry, Campbell was 84.

To Star Trek fans, Campbell portrayed the powerful-yet-foppish man-child "Trelane" in the original Star Trek episode #17 "The Squire of Gothos" (an impression reminiscent of Liberace), and returned as Klingon "Captain Koloth" in the original Star Trek episode #44 "The Trouble With Tribbles".

http://en.wikipedia....ell_(film_actor)

William Campbell (October 30, 1926 – April 28, 2011) was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.

Campbell's movie career began in 1950, with a small part in the John Garfield film, The Breaking Point. After several years of similar supporting performances in a number of films, including as a co-pilot in William Wellman's The High and the Mighty (1954), he won his first starring role in Cell 2455 Death Row (1955), a low-budget prison film for Columbia Pictures. He played a death row inmate, based loosely on the true story of Caryl Chessman, who staunchly proclaimed his innocence and obtained numerous reprieves over many years until finally being executed. Campbell's surprisingly powerful performance received generally good notices from critics, but it did very little for his career; his next several roles were again providing support to lead actors, including Love Me Tender (1956) (in which he became the first person to sing onscreen with Elvis Presley) and the 1958 film version of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead.

In 1958, Campbell co-starred in Cannonball, a short-lived television series about truck drivers. After that, he toiled for more years in small parts in increasingly lower grade movies.

In 1963, Campbell began a brief association with Roger Corman, starring in the director's The Young Racers that year. The auto-racing themed movie, written for the screen by Campbell's brother Robert Wright Campbell, was shot in Ireland. After production was completed, the film's sound man, Francis Ford Coppola, talked Corman into allowing Coppola to remain in Ireland with a small crew and direct a low-budget horror film, to be produced by Corman. Coppola promised it would be the cheapest film Corman was ever involved in. Shot for approximately $40,000, the resultant film, Dementia 13 (1963), became an atmospheric and violent horror thriller clearly made in imitation of Psycho. Campbell starred as a moody loner who at one point becomes the chief suspect in a series of gruesome axe killings; Patrick Magee and Luana Anders led the supporting cast. Many years later, Campbell would provide an informative and amusing audio commentary for the film's DVD release.

Campbell also starred in another, even cheaper and more bizarre, Corman-produced horror yarn. Filmed in 1963 in Yugoslavia under the title Operacija Ticijan, again with Magee in the cast, the movie was never released in its original form, although it was re-edited, re-dubbed and briefly shown on television as Portrait in Terror. Years later, additional footage was shot in California, first by Jack Hill, then by Stephanie Rothman, transforming what was once a spy thriller into the story of a vampire stalking the streets of Venice, California. Retitled Blood Bath, although it also became known as Track of the Vampire, the film received a limited theatrical release in 1966. Campbell's character was an artist who killed women and hid their bodies in his sculptures; he also acted out a vampire who could freely walk during the daylight in search of victims. However, the fanged vampire was confusingly played by another actor who did not resemble Campbell. Like Dementia 13, the film has managed to develop a cult following despite its deficiencies. In the early 1990s, Video Watchdog magazine devoted lengthy articles in three separate issues painstakingly detailing the convoluted production history of this strange but fascinating movie.

Campbell has also obtained cult status for his guest starring roles on Star Trek, appearing first as the mischievous super-being Trelane (in part a parody of Liberace, whom Campbell resembled), in an episode of the original series called "The Squire of Gothos". Campbell also appeared three times as the Klingon Captain Koloth. Campbell first played Koloth on the original Star Trek series in the classic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." He reprised the Koloth role on the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, some thirty years later. Campbell appeared at several Trek conventions in the 1980s and 1990s and many Star Trek fans consider Campbell's portrayal of the Trelane character as the first introduction of the "Q culture" to the series. (The Q are an omnipotent race made part of The Next Generation, then Deep Space 9 and Voyager series.) His last appearance was at the convention organized by Creation Entertainment at the Las Vegas Hilton in August 2006.

Campbell was married three times. Campbell met future President John F. Kennedy's lover Judith Exner, then Judith Immoor, in 1952 at a party when she belonged to "the young Hollywood set," according to the Los Angeles Times. They married that year and divorced in 1958 when she became involved with Frank Sinatra. In 1966, Sinatra introduced Exner to John F. Kennedy in Las Vegas when Kennedy was still a senator and a presidential candidate. Sinatra then introduced Exner to "Sam Flood", who was actually Mafia boss Sam Giancana. The FBI found out and the affair ended. In her memoir, Exner stated that during the 1960 presidential election she took messages from Giancana to Kennedy. Judith later claimed these messages concerned the plans to murder the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. She died in 1999. His second wife was Barbara Bricker. They were married from 1960-1961. He married his third wife, Tereza, in 1962 (although some accounts have them marrying in 1963). They were married until his death.

He died quietly on April 28, 2011, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. http://www.latimes.c...0,2452500.story

 

[superintelligentone]

I just read that former child actor Jackie Cooper passed away this past Monday, May 2nd.

As a child actor, Jackie was originally a supporting player in the "Our Gang" film series who worked his way to be a main character. Cooper found renewed fame in the 1970s and 1980s as 'Daily Planet editor Perry White' in the Superman film series starring Christopher Reeve.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42906386

Hollywood actor Jackie Cooper dead at 88
Published: Wednesday, 4 May 2011 | 8:34 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Actor Jackie Cooper, who survived a tumultuous childhood as an Oscar-nominated star to enjoy a varied career as a TV executive, director and "Superman" sidekick, died near Los Angeles, his attorney said on Wednesday. He was 88.

Cooper succumbed to complications of old age at a convalescent home in the coastal city of Santa Monica on Tuesday, attorney Roger Licht told Reuters.

He starred in more than 100 movies and TV shows before retiring from Hollywood more than 20 years ago. He retreated to a high-rise condominium with his third wife, Barbara, whom he credited for keeping him on the straight and narrow.

Cooper's life outside Hollywood was just as interesting. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War Two, and retired with the rank of captain from the reserves in the early 1980s. He also raced cars and owned racehorses.

He never really shed the pug nose and firm chin that endeared him to millions of Americans during the Great Depression, when he starred as a prominent cast member of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" short comedy films. At the twilight of his career, Cooper played grizzled Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 1978 "Superman" movie and its three sequels.

Born John Cooper, Jr. in Los Angeles, he was the illegitimate child of a sickly Italian mother who died when he was a teenager and a Jewish father who quickly abandoned the family. He got his start in Hollywood when his much-loathed grandmother dragged him around studio lots for day work as an extra.

His "Our Gang" work -- he appeared in such comedy shorts as "Teacher's Pet" and "Love Business" -- led to his starring role in the 1931 film "Skippy," an adaptation of the comic strip about a lively youngster.

In order to force him to cry for a scene, his grandmother dragged his dog off set and had it shot by a security guard. The boy duly cried, but remained hysterical even after it was revealed that the dog was not actually dead. Cooper titled his 1981 memoir "Please Don't Shoot My Dog."

Aged 9, he made Oscar history by becoming the youngest male performer to be nominated for a lead role. (He lost to Lionel Barrymore.)

Later in 1931, he co-starred in "The Champ" as the innocent son of a washed-up boxer played by Wallace Beery. The film was remade in 1979 with Rick Schroder as the tow-headed little boy. Cooper reunited with Beery in such films as "The Bowery" (1933) and "Treasure Island" (1934).

Off-screen, he fully enjoyed the fruits of stardom. By 18 he had become the lover of Joan Crawford, who was almost twice his age. But he was an old hand by then. He later recounted that when he was 13 he was having sex two or three times before 9 a.m. with a 20-year-old girl across the street.

His career inevitably dried up as he got older, and he had been divorced twice by the time he was in his early 30s.

Cooper won an Emmy for his title role as a Navy doctor in the sitcom "Hennesey" before becoming a vice president at Screen Gems during the 1960s, working on such shows as "Bewitched" and "Gidget." He turned to TV directing in the 1970s, winning Emmys for episodes of "M*A*S*H" and "The White Shadow."

His third wife, the former Barbara Kraus, died in 2009 after more than 50 years of marriage. He is survived by one of their three children, and by a namesake son from his first marriage.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Jackie_Cooper

Jackie Cooper (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer and executive.

He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. He is also the youngest performer to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, an honor that he received for the film Skippy (1931).

Early life
Cooper was born John Cooper, Jr. in Los Angeles, California. Cooper's father, John Cooper, left the family when Jackie was two years old. His mother, Mabel Leonard Bigelow (née Polito), was a stage pianist and former child actress. Cooper's maternal uncle, Jack Leonard, was a screenwriter, and his maternal aunt, Julie Leonard, was an actress married to director Norman Taurog. Cooper's stepfather was C.J. Bigelow, a studio production manager. His mother was Italian American (her family's surname was changed from "Polito" to "Leonard"); Cooper was told by his family that his father was Jewish (the two never reunited after he had left the family).

Start of acting career
Cooper first appeared in films as an extra with his grandmother, who would bring him along in hopes of aiding her own attempts to get extra work. At age three, Jackie appeared in Lloyd Hamilton comedies under the name of Leonard.

He graduated to bits in feature films such as Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Sunny Side Up. His director in these two films, David Butler, recommended the boy to director Leo McCarey, who arranged an audition for the "Our Gang" comedy series produced by Hal Roach. Cooper joined the Gang youngsters in the short Boxing Gloves in 1929. He was signed to a three year contract. He initially was only a supporting character in the series, but by early 1930 he had done so well with the transition to sound films that he had become one of the Gang's major characters. He was the main character in the episodes The First Seven Years, When the Wind Blows, and others. His most notable Our Gang shorts explore his crush on Miss Crabtree, the schoolteacher played by June Marlowe, which included the trilogy of shorts Teacher's Pet, School's Out, and Love Business.

According to his autobiography, Cooper, under contract to Hal Roach Studios, was loaned in the spring of 1931 to Paramount to star in Skippy (directed by his uncle, Norman Taurog), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor—the youngest actor ever (at the age of 9) to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor. Although Paramount paid Roach $25,000 for Cooper's services, Cooper received only his standard Roach salary of $50 per week.

The movie catapulted young Cooper to super-stardom. Our Gang producer Hal Roach sold Jackie's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in mid-1931, as he felt the youngster would have a better future in features. He began a long on-screen relationship with actor Wallace Beery in such films as The Champ (1931), The Bowery (1933), The Choices of Andy Purcell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935). A legion of film critics and fans have lauded the relationship between the two as an example of classic movie magic. However, in his autobiography Cooper wrote that Beery was "a big disappointment", and accused him of upstaging and other attempts to undermine the boy's performances out of what Cooper presumed was jealousy.


Adult years
in Gallant Sons (1940)Not conventionally handsome as he approached adulthood, Cooper had the typical child-actor problems finding roles as an adolescent, and he served in World War II, so his career was at a nadir when he starred in two popular television sitcoms, NBC's The People's Choice with Patricia Breslin and CBS's Hennesey with Abby Dalton. In 1954, he guest starred on the NBC legal drama Justice. Later, he appeared on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and also guest starred with Tennessee Ernie Ford on The Ford Show.

In 1950, he appeared in Mr. Roberts in Boston, Massachusetts, as Ensign Pulver.

From 1964-69, Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures Screen Gems TV division. He was responsible for packaging series (such as Bewitched) and other projects and selling them to the networks. He reportedly cast Sally Field as Gidget. Cooper acted only once during this period, in the 1968 TV-movie Shadow on the Land.

He left Columbia in 1969 and started yet another phase of his career, one in which he would act occasionally in key character roles (namely the short-lived 1975 ABC series Mobile One, a Jack Webb/Mark VII Limited production), but mostly he devoted more and more of his time to directing dozens of episodic TV and other projects. His work as director on episodes of M*A*S*H and The White Shadow earned him Emmy awards.

He found renewed fame in the 1970s and 1980s as Daily Planet editor Perry White in the Superman film series starring Christopher Reeve. In the commentary track for Superman, director Richard Donner reveals that Cooper got the role because he had a passport, and thus was able to be on set in a few hours, after Keenan Wynn, who was originally cast, suffered a heart attack.

Personal life
Cooper was married three times: first to June Horne from 1944 until 1949, with whom he had one son, John "Jack" Cooper III (born 1946). He was married to Hildy Parks from 1950 until 1951 and to Barbara Kraus from 1954 until her death in 2009. Cooper and Barbara had three children - Russell (born 1956), Julie (1957–1997) and Cristina (1959–2009).

Cooper's autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog, was published in 1982. The title comes from director Norman Taurog's threat to shoot young Jackie's dog if he could not cry in Skippy. Cooper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1501 Vine Street.

Cooper announced his retirement in 1989, although he was still directing episodes of the syndicated series Superboy. He began spending more time training and racing horses at Hollywood Park and outside San Diego during the Del Mar racing season. He lived in Beverly Hills from 1955 to his death. He occasionally returned to the soundstage for retrospective and documentary programs about Hollywood in which he had toiled for the entire sound period to-date, and even some silent films.

Death
On May 3, 2011, Cooper died in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 88.

 

[superintelligentone]

Yvette Vickers, a former Playboy Playmate & B-movie Actress whose mummified body was found in her dilapidated Beverly Hills home last month (April 27, 2011), was found to have died of heart failure, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. How sad to have died alone and unnoticed. sad2

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_playmate_coroner

Mummified Playboy Playmate died of heart failure
Reuters
Sat May 14, 7:59 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A former Playboy Playmate whose mummified body was found in her dilapidated Beverly Hills home last month, died of heart failure, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

Yvette Vickers, a B-movie actress who was named Playboy's Miss July in 1959, was found dead at her home on April 27 after evidently being undiscovered for up to a year.

Joyce Kato, an investigator with the Los Angeles county coroner's department, told the Times she died of natural causes "due to arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease," or heart disease caused by a hardening of the arteries.

Several calls made to the coroner's office to confirm the report went unanswered on Saturday.

A neighbor found Vickers' body after her suspicions were aroused by old letters and cobwebs in the mailbox. The house was packed with boxes, and at least one window was broken. A space heater was running in the upstairs room where the body was lying on the floor

Vickers, born Yvette Vedder in Kansas City, Missouri, would have been 82 when her body was found. She was briefly married twice during the 1950s.

Her film credits include 1958's "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and 1959's "Attack of the Giant Leeches." Her last feature role was in a 1990 horror called "Evil Spirits."

 

[superintelligentone]

Sad news: Jeff Conaway, the former co-star of TV's "Taxi" and the movie "Grease" has passed away. He had a long battle with addiction to pain killers. Taxi and Grease Star Jeff Conaway Dies

Jeff Conaway Dies at Age 60
By Stephen M. Silverman and Dahvi Shira

Friday May 27, 2011 03:00 PM EDT

Jeff Conaway, the long-troubled actor from Grease and TV's Taxi who waged a public battle with cocaine, painkillers and alcohol, died Friday at age 60.

The Celebrity Rehab alum had been in a medically induced coma in critical condition after he was found unconscious earlier this month.

"Jeff was taken off life-support [Thursday] afternoon," his manager, Phil Brock, tells PEOPLE. "His family chose to take him off of life-support based on advice from physicians. They thought for several days that the situation was hopeless."

Conaway died at 10:30 a.m. at a Los Angeles-area hospital. He was surrounded by his sisters, nieces and nephews, Brock says.

"Kind, Gentle Soul"
"We loved Jeff as a person. We respect him. We know his personal struggles are all over," says Brock. "He was a kind, gentle soul who loved to perform, from small theater to Broadway."

Dr. Drew Pinsky, who had seen Conaway during the recent hospitalization, said the actor had suffered pneumonia and the effects of too much prescription medication.

"There is no evidence showing Jeff died from an overdose," he said. "Jeff is another example of a pharmaceutical death from the overutilization of prescription drugs. Please continue to pray for friends and family. They appreciate your support.”

Conaway got his start when his mother, a struggling actress named Mary Ann Brooks, brought him along to her audition for Broadway's All the Way Home. He ended up getting a part, but his mom wasn't cast. More stage roles followed, then modeling jobs and TV commercials for Clairol, Fab detergent and other products.

At 15, Conaway tried out for the singer's slot in a rock band and within a week was on the road. It was then, he later said, that he got his first taste of drugs. Although he insisted his own habits were limited to coke, pills and pot, within two years "all my friends were junkies," he said. "I figured if I ended up as a musician, I'd have died."


The Road to Grease
Instead, he enrolled in the North Carolina School of the Arts for a year, then switched to New York University, where he took dance classes from Martha Graham and acting classes from Olympia Dukakis.

Shortly before graduation, the lead role in the Broadway production of Grease opened up, and Conaway was back onstage. A supporting part in the movie version in 1978 – his role was Kenickie Murdock, of the T-Brids – became his springboard to Taxi later that year, playing cabbie Bobby Wheeler.

But by the mid-'80s, his personal and professional lives were spiraling downwards.

He broke his four-year contract with Taxi in 1981, and his five-year marriage to Rona Newton-John (sister of Grease star Olivia Newton-John), whom he had met at a cast party, hit the rocks. She was seven years his senior and had a son from a previous marriage.

"We were always fighting," Conaway told PEOPLE. "She had a problem with identity, being that her sister was such a big star and I was getting a lot of attention at that time."

The couple, who had no children together, divorced in 1985, but by then Conaway was getting a good deal less attention from his public. To help him sleep he began taking Halcion, a prescribed drug that set off erratic behavior in him.

Conaway slipped from public sight going into the 1990s, largely due to his substance abuse problem, though he was a semi-regular (starting the second season) on the sci-fi series Babylon 5, as security officer Zack Allan. He also resurfaced in early 2008 and revealed his troubled past on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew – though he was unsuccessful in staying sober.

In January 2010, Conaway fell down a staircase and suffered a broken hip, a broken arm, a fractured neck and a brain hemorrhage.

Through it all, said his manager, Conaway was a "gentle soul" who simply was not able to "exorcise his demons."

--

Jeff Conaway - Wikipedia

Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011), known as Jeff Conaway, was an American actor, best known for his roles in the movie Grease and the U.S. television series Taxi and Babylon 5. He directed the 1992 film Bikini Summer II.

Career
Conaway began acting on Broadway at age two. He appeared in the play All the Way Home in 1960. He attended North Carolina School of the Arts. He appeared in the 1977 Disney film, Pete's Dragon. He is best known for playing Kenickie in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease and for his role on the television series Taxi, where he played cocky, vain, struggling actor Bobby Wheeler from 1978 to 1981. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for his role as Wheeler. Conaway left Taxi after the third season. Taxi writer Sam Simon recalled in 2008 that during production of Simon's first script for that show, an absent Conaway was found in his dressing room too high on drugs to perform, and that his dialogue for that episode was divided between his co-stars Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. This contributed to Conaway's eventual firing.

Conaway starred in the short-lived 1983 fantasy-spoof series, Wizards and Warriors. He made guest appearances on such shows as Barnaby Jones, George and Leo and in four episodes of Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in films such as Jawbreaker, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Do You Wanna Know a Secret?. From 1994-1999, he played Sergeant Zack Allan, on Babylon 5. From 1989-90, he was cast on The Bold and the Beautiful, in the role of "Mick Savage". In 1993, he appeared onstage in Real Life Photographs.

Health problems
After experiencing a crisis in the mid-1980s, Conaway came to grips with the fact that he had a substance abuse problem. He underwent treatment in the late 1980s and often spoke candidly about his addictions.

By the mid-2000s however, he had relapsed. Conaway appeared in VH1's Celebrity Fit Club, but was forced to leave and entered rehab. In early 2008, Conaway appeared with other celebrities in the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The show revealed that Conaway was addicted to cocaine, alcohol, and painkillers, and that he was in a codependent relationship with his girlfriend Vikki Lizzi, also a user of prescription opiates. Conaway had suffered a back injury earlier in his career on the set of Grease while filming the "Greased Lightning" scene, which had been exacerbated more recently as a result of lifting boxes in his home.

Conaway's appearance on the show's first and second seasons drew much attention due to his severely crippled state, his constant threats of leaving the facility and his frequent inability to speak clearly. Upon arrival at the Pasadena Recovery Center (which was filmed as part of Celebrity Rehab's first episode) Conaway, using a wheelchair, arrived drunk, mumbling to Dr. Drew that the night previous he had binged on cocaine and Jack Daniel's whiskey.

During the second episode of Celebrity Rehab's first season, Conaway, fed up with his dorsalgia, withdrawal symptoms and the humiliation of having to be assisted while using the toilet, told Dr. Pinsky that he was thinking of killing himself. After Pinsky asked him to elaborate upon how he would carry out a suicidal act, Conaway glared at the mirror in his room and said "I see myself breaking that mirror and slicing my **** throat with it." During group sessions, Conaway revealed "torture" from his childhood, as older boys in his neighborhood would put him into dangerous situations, tying him up and threatening him. When he was seven years old, he was a victim of pedophiles and child pornographers. Conaway stated that he had been an addict since he was a teenager.

With John Travolta's support, Conaway took courses and auditing from the Church of Scientology to cope with his drug problem and depression, although he did not intend to become a Scientologist.

In June 2009, Conaway and Vikki joined Celebrity Rehab cast mate Mary Carey at the premier of her spoof flick Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw.

In August 2009, Conaway was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. In the interview, the actor claimed he was much better after a fifth back operation, and that he had yet to use painkillers again. He also discussed unscrupulous doctors and enablers.

In March 2010, shortly after the death of actor Corey Haim, Conaway told E! News that he had warned Haim about dying due to prescription drug abuse.

Death
On May 11, 2011, Conaway was found unconscious from what was initially described as an overdose of what was believed to be pain medication, and was taken to Encino Tarzana Medical Center in Encino, California, where he was listed as being in critical condition and in a coma. After the initial reports, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who had treated Conaway for substance abuse, said the actor was suffering not from a drug overdose but rather from "pneumonia with sepsis", for which he was placed into an induced coma. Though his pneumonia was not directly caused by drugs, his use of them hampered his ability to recognize how ill he was, and precluded him from seeking treatment for pneumonia until it was too late.

On May 26, 2011, Conaway's family took him off life support after doctors decided there was nothing they could do to revive him. Conaway died the following morning at the age of 60. Pinsky attributed his death to his addiction, stating, "What happens is, like with most opiate addicts, eventually they take a little too much...and they aspirate, so what's in their mouth gets into their lungs...That's what happened with Jeff."

 

[superintelligentone]

James Arness, the star of the long-running TV Western classic Gunsmoke has passed away at age of 88.

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/james-arness-gu...-170959723.html

James Arness of 'Gunsmoke' fame dies at 88
By LYNN ELBER - AP Television Writer
Fri, Jun 3, 2011

James Arness, who towered over the television landscape for two decades as righteous Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon in the long-running western "Gunsmoke," died Friday. He was 88.

The actor died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, according to his business manager, Ginny Fazer.

Arness' official website posted a letter from Arness on Friday that he wrote with the intention that it be posted posthumously: "I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends," he said.

"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years."

As U.S. Marshal Dillon in the 1955-75 CBS western series, Arness created an indelible portrait of a quiet, heroic man with an unbending dedication to justice and the town he protected.

The wealth and fame Arness gained from "Gunsmoke" could not protect him from tragedy in his personal life: His daughter and his former wife, Virginia, both died of drug overdoses.

Arness, a quiet, intensely private man who preferred the outdoor life to Hollywood's party scene, rarely gave interviews and refused to discuss the tragedies.

"He's big, impressive and virile," co-star Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) once said of Arness, adding, "I've worked with him for 16 years, but I don't really know him."

The 6-foot-6 (nearly two-meter) actor was 32 when friend John Wayne declined the lead role in "Gunsmoke" and recommended Arness instead. Afraid of being typecast, Arness initially rejected it.

"Go ahead and take it, Jim," Wayne urged him. "You're too big for pictures. Guys like Gregory Peck and I don't want a big lug like you towering over us. Make your mark in television."

"Gunsmoke" went on to become the longest-running dramatic series in network history until NBC's "Law & Order" tied it in 2010. Arness' 20-year prime-time run as the marshal was tied only in recent times, by Kelsey Grammer's 20 years as Frasier Crane from 1984 to 2004 on "Cheers" and then on the spinoff "Frasier."

The years showed on the weathered-looking Arness, but he — and his TV character — wore them well.

"The camera really loved his face, and with good reason," novelist Wallace Markfield wrote in a 1975 "Gunsmoke" appreciation in The New York Times. "It was a face that would age well and that, while aging, would carry intimations of waste, loss and futility."

He was born James Aurness in Minneapolis (he dropped the "u'' for show business reasons). His brother Peter, who changed his last name to Graves, went on to star in the TV series "Mission Impossible."

A self-described drifter, Arness left home at age 18, hopping freight trains and Caribbean-bound freighters. He entered Beloit College in Wisconsin, but was drafted into the Army in his 1942-43 freshman year. Wounded in the leg during the 1944 invasion at Anzio, Italy, Arness was hospitalized for a year and left with a slight limp. He returned to Minneapolis to work as a radio announcer and in small theater roles.

He moved to Hollywood in 1946 at a friend's suggestion. After a slow start in which he took jobs as a carpenter and salesman, a role in MGM's "Battleground" (1949) was a career turning point. Parts in more than 20 films followed, including "The Thing," ''Hellgate" and "Hondo" with Wayne. Then came "Gunsmoke," which proved a durable hit and a multimillion-dollar boon for Arness, who owned part of the series.

His longtime co-stars were Blake as saloon keeper Miss Kitty, Milburn Stone as Doc Adams and Dennis Weaver as the deputy, Chester Goode.

When Weaver died in February 2006, Arness called it "a big loss for me personally" and said Weaver "provided comic relief but was also a real person doing things that were very important to the show."

The cancellation of "Gunsmoke" didn't keep Arness away from TV for long: He returned a few months later, in January 1976, in the TV movie "The Macahans," which led to the 1978-79 ABC series "How the West Was Won."

Arness took on a contemporary role as a police officer in the series "McClain's Law," which aired on NBC from 1981-82.

Despite his desire for privacy, a rocky domestic life landed him in the news more than once.

Arness met future wife Virginia Chapman while both were studying at Southern California's Pasadena Playhouse. They wed in 1948 and had two children, Jenny and Rolf. Chapman's son from her first marriage, Craig, was adopted by Arness.

The marriage foundered and in 1963 Arness sought a divorce and custody of the three children, which he was granted. He tried to guard them from the spotlight.

"The kids don't really have any part of my television life," he once remarked. "Fortunately, there aren't many times when show business intrudes on our family existence."

The emotionally troubled Virginia Arness attempted suicide twice, in 1959 and in 1960. In 1975, Jenny Arness died of an apparently deliberate drug overdose. Two years later, an overdose that police deemed accidental killed her mother.

Arness married Janet Surtees in 1978. Besides his wife, Arness is survived by two sons and six grandchildren. A private memorial service will be held.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder and Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this story.

 

[superintelligentone]

Iconic Saxophonist of Bruce Springsteen's "E-Street Band" Clarence Clemons has died at age 69. Very sad.

Here is Bruce and Clarence performing a classic live version of "Rosalita" back in 1974:

A highlight of almost every E Street Band performance was Bruce Springsteen's playfully bombastic introduction of respect and affection for "The Big Man" (6' 5" 270 lb) Clarence Clemons. Springsteen typically would extend one song (between 1974 and 1984, almost always "Rosalita") to involve an elaborate introduction of each member of the band, introducing nicknames, characterizing each player ("Professor" Roy Bittan, "Miami" Steve Van Zandt, "Phantom" Dan Federici, "Mighty" Max Weinberg, and Garry "W." Tallent), whipping the song and the audience into a frenzy for the final, over-the-top introduction of the "Big Man," Clarence Clemons as "Master of the Universe" and "King of the World". More substantially, Springsteen split concert revenues equally with the band members, a practice almost unheard of for backing bands in the music industry.

You can see Clarence crying at one such introduction:

Here is a fine example of the on-stage chemiistry between "The Boss" and "The Big Man" at 3m 30s.

Most people don't know that Clarence played opposite Robert DeNiro in the 1977 movie "New York, New York".

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier...ons-dead-at-69/

Saxophonist Clarence Clemons Dead at 69
Posted Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:44pm PDT
by Caryn Ganz

The "Big Man," saxophonist Clarence Clemons, has died in Palm Beach, Florida, from complications of a stroke he suffered last Sunday. The beloved 69-year-old musician was born in Norfolk, Virgina, in 1942 and met his most famous collaborator, Bruce Springsteen, at an Asbury Park, New Jersey bar during a lightning storm in 1971. He became a member of the group later known as the E Street Band the following year when the Boss began recording his debut album. For nearly four decades, Clemons provided the soulful blasts that helped define Springsteen's signature sound.

Before he joined the E Street Band, Clemons was a gospel fan and gifted athlete whose chance at a professional football career was ended by a car accident. Outside of the band, he duetted with Jackson Browne on 1985's "You're a Friend of Mine" and played sax on Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love." The gregarious rocker dabbled in acting, too, guesting on Diff'rent Strokes and in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, as well as taking on more serious roles in The Wire.

But he was best known as one of Springsteen's most trusted sidemen, a literally towering presence onstage and off who played alongside Bruce everywhere from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary concert to the Super Bowl halftime show. His solos gave tracks like "Born to Run" and "Jungleland" a uniquely bluesy groove.

Earlier this week, Bruce asked fans to "share in a hopeful spirit that can ultimately inspire Clarence to greater heights." Tonight he issued a statement on his friend's death that reads, "Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."

Lady Gaga, who asked Clemons to play on her latest album, Born This Way, released a video this week that will likely be considered the Big Man's last piece of work. In the pared-down clip for "The Edge of Glory," Clarence simply sits on a tenement stoop and blows his horn the best way he knew how -- with stylish, glorious soul.

http://en.wikipedia....larence_Clemons

Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the saxophone.

He released several solo albums and in 1985 had a hit single with "You're a Friend of Mine", a duet with Jackson Browne. As a guest musician he also featured on Aretha Franklin's classic "Freeway of Love" and on Twisted Sister's "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" as well as performing in concert with The Grateful Dead and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

As an actor Clemons featured in several films, including New York, New York and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He also made cameo appearances in several TV series, including Diff'rent Strokes, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons and The Wire. Together with his television writer friend Don Reo he published his autobiography, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales, in 2009.

At the end of the his life, he was featured on Lady Gaga's album "Born This Way" on the songs "Hair", "The Edge of Glory" and "Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)" providing a saxophone track and solo.

Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011 and died due to complications from the stroke on June 18.

Early years
Clemons was the son of Clarence Clemons, Sr., a fish market owner, and his wife Thelma. He was the oldest of their three children. His grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher and, as a result, the young Clemons grew up listening to gospel music. When he was nine, his father gave him an alto saxophone as a Christmas present and paid for music lessons. He later switched to baritone saxophone and played in a high school jazz band. His uncle also influenced his early musical development when he bought him his first King Curtis album. Curtis, and his work with The Coasters in particular, would be become a major influence on Clemons and led to him switching to tenor saxophone. As a youth Clemons also showed potential as a football player, and he attended Maryland State College on both music and football scholarships. He played as a lineman on the same team as Emerson Boozer and attracted the attention of the Cleveland Browns, who offered him a trial. However, the day before he was involved in a serious car accident which effectively ended any plans of a career in the NFL. At age 18, Clemons had one of his earliest studio experiences, recording sessions with Tyrone Ashley's Funky Music Machine, a band from Plainfield, New Jersey that included Ray Davis, Eddie Hazel and Billy Bass Nelson, all of whom later played with Parliament-Funkadelic. He also performed with Daniel Petraitis, a New Jersey and Nashville legend. These sessions were eventually released in 2007 by Truth and Soul Records as Let Me Be Your Man. While at Maryland State College Clemons also joined his first band, The Vibratones, which played James Brown covers and stayed together for about four years between 1961 and 1965. While still playing with this band he moved to Newark, New Jersey where he worked as a counselor for emotionally disturbed children at the Jamesburg Training School for Boys between 1962 and 1970.

Bruce Springsteen
The story of how Clemons first met Bruce Springsteen has entered into E Street Band folklore. In concerts Springsteen would introduce "The E Street Shuffle" with a monologue about how they met and the event was also immortalized in "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out". They allegedly met for the first time in September 1971. At the time Clemons was playing with Norman Seldin & The Joyful Noyze at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Seldin was a Jersey Shore musician/entrepreneur who, as well as playing piano and leading various bands, had his own record label, Selsom Records. In 1969 Clemons had recorded an eponymous album with this band. In 2008 tracks from this album were reissued on an anthology, Asbury Park — Then And Now, put together by Seldin. It was Karen Cassidy, lead vocalist with The Joyful Noyze, who encouraged Clemons to check out Springsteen who was playing with The Bruce Springsteen Band at the nearby Student Prince. Clemons has recalled their meeting in various interviews.

One night we were playing in Asbury Park. I'd heard The Bruce Springsteen Band was nearby at a club called The Student Prince and on a break between sets I walked over there. On-stage, Bruce used to tell different versions of this story but I'm a Baptist, remember, so this is the truth. A rainy, windy night it was, and when I opened the door the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band were on-stage, but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, "I want to play with your band," and he said, "Sure, you do anything you want." The first song we did was an early version of "Spirit In The Night". Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives. He was what I'd been searching for. In one way he was just a scrawny little kid. But he was a visionary. He wanted to follow his dream. So from then on I was part of history.

Well before this meeting, however, Clemons and Springsteen had moved within the same circle of musical acquaintances. Norman Seldin had managed and promoted several local bands, including The Motifs who featured Vinnie Roslin, later to play with Springsteen in Steel Mill. On April 22, 1966 Seldin had also organised a battle of the bands competition at the Matawan-Keyport Roller Drome in Matawan, New Jersey. Springsteen was among the entrants playing with his then band, The Castiles. Billy Ryan, who played lead guitar with The Joyful Noyze, also played in The Jaywalkers with Garry Tallent and Steve Van Zandt and Clemons himself had played with Tallent in Little Melvin & The Invaders.

In July 1972, Springsteen began recording his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and during breaks from recording, he jammed with Clemons and The Joyful Noyze on at least two occasions at The Shipbottom Lounge in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. When Springsteen then decided to use a tenor saxophone on the songs "Blinded By The Light" and "Spirit In The Night" it was Clemons he called. By October Springsteen was ready to tour and promote Greetings… and he put together a band featuring Clemons, Tallent, Danny Federici and Vini Lopez. Clemons played his last gig with Norman Seldin & The Joyful Noyze at the Club Plaza in Bayville, New Jersey on October 21, 1972. Four days later Clemons made his debut with the formative E Street Band at an unadvertised, impromptu performance at The Shipbottom Lounge. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Clemons featured prominently on Springsteen albums. On Born to Run he provided memorable saxophone solos on the title track, "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" while Darkness on the Edge of Town featured another notable solo on "Badlands". The River saw Clemons feature on songs such as "The Ties That Bind", "Sherry Darling", "I Wanna Marry You" and "Independence Day" while Born in the U.S.A. saw solos on "Bobby Jean" and "I'm Goin' Down".

At the end of shows, while recognizing members of the E Street Band, Springsteen referred to Clemons as "The Biggest Man You Ever Seen". He sometimes changed this depending on where the E Street Band performs — at their 2009 concert in Glasgow he introduced Clemons as "the biggest Scotsman you've ever seen".

Solo career
Outside of his work with the E Street Band, Clemons recorded with many other artists and had a number of musical projects on his own. The best known of these are his 1985 vocal duet with Jackson Browne on the hit single "You're a Friend of Mine", and his saxophone work on Aretha Franklin's 1985 hit single "Freeway of Love". He was managed briefly in the 1980s by former Crawdaddy editor Peter Knobler, whose wedding Clemons played with his band, Clarence Clemons & the Red Bank Rockers. In the mid-1990s, he recorded a Japan-only CD release called Aja and the Big Man "Get It On" (on the now-defunct Dream Train Records) with singer/songwriter Aja Kim (formerly of the tribute band The Iron Maidens). In the 2000s Clemons worked with a group called The Temple of Soul, and he also recorded with philanthropic teen band Creation. During the 1980s Clemons owned a Red Bank, New Jersey nightclub called Big Man's West. Clemons collaborated with Lady Gaga on the song "Hair", "The Edge of Glory" and "Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)" from her album Born This Way, providing a saxophone track and solo. Clarence Clemons occasionally sat in with the Grateful Dead, after keyboard player Brent Midland passed away in 1990, until the band permanently replaced Brent with former Tubes member, Vince Welnick.

Acting career
Clemons appeared in movies and on television making his debut in Martin Scorsese's 1977 musical, New York, New York in which he played a trumpet player. He played one of the Three Most Important People In The World in the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. In 1985, Clemons was a special guest star in Diff'rent Strokes episode "So You Want to Be a Rock Star", in which he played the role of Mr. Kingsley, a young saxophonist helping Arnold Jackson to learn to play his sax. He has also been a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons. In 1990, he co-starred in the pilot episode of Human Target, a Rick Springfield action series intended for ABC. He also played the role of Jack in Swing starring opposite Lisa Stansfield and Hugo Speer, directed by Nick Mead. He appeared alongside Michael McKean and David Bowe as a miner in one episode of musician "Weird Al" Yankovic's children's television show The Weird Al Show. He appeared in an episode of Damon Wayans' television show, My Wife And Kids as a musician and performed an original composition, co written with bassist, Lynn Woolever, called "One Shadow In The Sun". Clemons twice appeared as a Baltimore youth-program organizer in HBO's crime drama The Wire. He appeared in an episode of the Brothers and in the "Eddie's Book" episode of 'Til Death as himself.

Personal
Clemons was married five times. He fathered four sons, Clarence III, Charles, Christopher and Jarod. He was legally blind in one eye. Clemons stated "It's not something you can replace. If it goes out, that's it."

Philanthropy
On October 22, 2009, Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and revitalizing music education in public schools, presented Clemons with the inaugural "Big Man of the Year Award" at the Right to Rock charity benefit. He helped raise money to put musical instruments and curriculum into underfunded public schools across the country. He also performed "Jailhouse Rock" with a student band from the Bronx, in addition to a number with legendary producer, John Colby.

Death
Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011. He underwent two surgeries after which he was in serious, but stable condition. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, he had been showing signs of recovery. However, Clemons died from complications caused by the stroke on June 18.

Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence Clemons: "Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."

Discography
Clarence Clemons & the Red Bank Rockers
- Rescue (1983)

Clarence Clemons
- Hero (1985)
- A Night With Mr. C (1989)
- Peacemaker (1995)

Aja and the Big Man
- Get It On (1995)

Clarence Clemons & Temple of Soul
- Live in Asbury Park (2002)
- Live in Asbury Park, Vol. II (2004)
- Brothers in Arms (2008)

Bruce Springsteen
- Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
- The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
- Born to Run (1975)
- Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
- The River (1980)
- Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
- Live/1975–85 (1986)
- Tunnel of Love (1987)
- Chimes Of Freedom (1988)
- Greatest Hits (1995)
- Blood Brothers (1996)
- Tracks (1998)
- 18 Tracks (1999)
- Live in New York City (2001)
- The Rising (2002)
- The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
- Hammersmith Odeon London '75 (2006)
- Magic (2007)
- Magic Tour Highlights (2008)
- Working on a Dream (2009)
- The Promise (2010)

Gary U.S. Bonds
- Dedication (1981)
- On the Line (1982)

Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
- Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band (1990)

Zucchero
- Blues (1987)
- Oro incenso e birra (1989)
- Zucchero (1991)
- Diamante (1994)
- Spirto Divino (1995)

Selected Others
- Dan Hartman: Images (1976)
- Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes: I Don't Wanna Go Home (1976)
- Pezband: Pezband (1977)
- Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band: "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" / "Baby, - Please Don't Go" (1977)
- Scarlet Rivera: Scarlet Rivera (1977)
- Intergalactic Touring Band: Intergalactic Touring Band (1977)
- Carlene Carter: Two Sides to Every Woman (1979)
- Janis Ian: Night Rains (1979)
- Musicians United for Safe Energy: No Nukes (1979)
- Michael Stanley Band: Heartland (1980)
- Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I (1980)
- Various artists: In Harmony 2 (1981)
- Greg Lake: Greg Lake (1981)
- Schwartz: Schwartz (1981)
- Blue Steel: Nothing But Time (1981)
- Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Men Without Women (1982)
- Ian Hunter: All of the Good Ones Are Taken (1983)
- Silver Condor: Trouble At Home (1983)
- Michael Stanley: Poor Side of Town (1984)
- Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985)
- Twisted Sister: Come Out and Play (1985)
- Soundtrack: Porky's Revenge (1985)
- Artists United Against Apartheid: Sun City (1986)
- Jersey Artists For Mankind: "We've Got The Love" / "Save Love, Save Life" (1986)
- Various artists: A Very Special Christmas (1987)
- Narada Michael Walden: Divine Emotions (1988)
- The Four Tops: Indestructible (1988)
- Todd Rundgren: Nearly Human (1989)
- Soundtrack: Home Alone 2 (soundtrack) (1992)
- Lisa Stansfield et al.: Swing – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1999)
- Joe Cocker: Unchain My Heart (1990)
- Nils Lofgren: Silver Lining (1991)
- Alvin Lee: Zoom (1992)
- Roy Orbison: King of Hearts (1992)
- Jim Carroll: A World Without Gravity: Best of The Jim Carroll Band (1993)
- Dave Koz: Lucky Man (1993)
- Great White: Sail Away (1994)
- Luther Vandross: This is Christmas (1995)
- Craig and Co.: My Newish Jewish Discovery (1997)
- Various artists: Humanary Stew – A Tribute to Alice Cooper (1999)
- Nick Clemons Band: In the Sunlight (2001)
- Creation: World Without Windows (2005)
- Tyrone Ashley's Funky Music Machine: Let Me Be Your Man (2007)
- Stormin' Norman & Friends: Asbury Park — Then And Now (2008)
- Lady Gaga: Born This Way (2011)

Filmography
Film
New York, New York (1977), Cecil Powell
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), The Three Most Important People in the World
- Fatal Instinct (1993), Clarence
- Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), The Louisiana Gator Boys
- Swing (1999), Jack
Television
- Diff'rent Strokes, Mr. Kingsley: "So You Want to Be a Rock Star" (1985)
- Jake and the Fatman, Blue Danny Boyd: "Why Can't You Behave?" (1989)
- The Flash, Darrell Hennings: "Honor Among Thieves" (1990)
- Nash Bridges, Big Barry in three episodes : "25 Hours of Christmas", "Aloha Nash" and "Javelin Catcher" (1996)
- The Sentinel, Workman: "Dead Drop" (1997)
- The Weird Al Show, Miner: "Mining Accident" (1997)
- Viper, Leo Duquesne: "The Getaway" (1998)
- Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular, one episode (1998)
- The Simpsons, Narrator: "Grift of the Magi" (1999)
- My Wife and Kids, Johnny Watson: "Micheal's Band"
- The Wire, Roman: "Moral Midgetry" and "Hamsterdam" (2004)
- 'Til Death, Himself : "Eddie's Book" (2009)

 

[superintelligentone]

Actor Peter Falk, known for playing the iconic dishelveled homicide detective, Lieutenant Columbo of the TV series "Columbo" has passed away. sad2

The series began as part of popular NBC "Sunday Mystery Movie", rotating weekly with "MacMillian & Wife" starring Rock Hudson and Susan St. James, and "McCloud" starring Dennis Weaver.

Here's the opening theme song of Mystery Movie.

The popularity of the series came from seeing the over-confident murder go from initially thinking that they can deceive Columbo with a friendly explanation of the crime, then to a growing exasperation at Columbo's getting closer to the truth, and then to rage as Columbo traps them by solving the murder.

Sharp-witted murderers who thought that they've committed the perfect crime would be taken-in with Columbo's disarming appearance and seemingly friendly yet confused approach to investigation of the crime. Invariably, they would find that they've been tricked into revealing their guilt in a carefullly set trap by Lt. Columbo. Here's a good example.

Ah, Great memories!

Anyone remember this Alias/Columbo crossover? :lol:

&

Farewell Peter. He was one-of-a-kind.

http://ca.eonline.com/uberblog/b249197_Col...Dead_at_83.html

Columbo Star Peter Falk Dead at 83
Fri., Jun. 24, 2011 11:00 AM PDT
by Josh Grossberg


Peter Falk, the legendary actor who graced both big screen and small over a 50-year career but will perhaps best be remembered for his Emmy-winning role as the shabby-dressed, wisecracking homicide detective on TV's Columbo, has died. He was 83.

Falk's family confirmed to CBS News the two-time Academy Award nominee passed away last night, though no cause of death has been announced.

MORE: No Conservatorship for Peter Falk for Now

Falk had been suffering from dementia and apparent Alzheimer's disease since 2007, with his condition worsening after a series of dental surgeries. His daughter, Catherine Falk, sought to be appointed his guardian in 2009, but in a conservatorship trial, a judge appointed that duty to his wife, Shera Danese Falk.

As the cigar-chomping, seemingly slow-witted lieutenant Columbo, Falk was the epitome of cool as he went about solving some of TV's most perplexing mysteries with the classic catchprase, "Just One More Thing." Episodes aired regularly from 1971 to 1978 on NBC, before appearing sporadically as made-for-TV movies on both the Peacock net and ABC in subsequent years. The last Columbo episode was broadcast in 2003 and the iconic part nabbed the thesp four Emmy Awards (the fifth came in 1962 for the Dick Powell TV drama The Price of Tomatoes).

Early on his career, Falk also made a name for himself on celluloid, scoring two Oscar nominations—for 1960's Murder Inc. and for Frank Capra's comedy Pocketful of Miracles a year later.

He also costarred in Stanley Kramer's all-star 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, playing a cab driver with a loathing for cops. He followed up the next year with the Rat Pack musical Robin and the 7 Hoods, opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby and Edward G. Robinson.

Falk also appeared in some of pal John Cassavetes' most memorable dramas, from 1970's Husbands to 1974's A Woman Under the Influence, while younger viewers may remember him best as the grandfather who introduced Buttercup and Wesley to a young Fred Savage in Rob Reiner's 1987 classic, The Princess Bride.

Falk was born Sept. 16, 1927, in New York City. His Polish father ran a clothing store, and his mother, from Russia, was an accountant.

As a child, he excelled at sports—despite having an operation to remove his right eye when he was 3 because of a cancerous tumor. A glass eye was put in its place, which in his later years lent his detective alter-ego that famous squinty-eyed gaze that often let the guilty know he was on to them.

Falk's first stab at acting came at age 12 when he was cast in a summer-camp production of The Pirates of Penzance.

After high school graduation, he spent some time in the Merchant Marine; however, due to his glass eye, he was relegated to serving as a cook.

After getting his bachelor's degree in literature and political science at the New School in New York, Falk traveled in Europe before returning to earn his master's in public administration at Syracuse University.

Around this time, he pursued theater with a passion, appearing in several Off Broadway productions including The Iceman Cometh.

It was not long before Hollywood came calling and Falk made his feature debut in 1958's Wind Across the Everglades.

He would alternate between film and television throughout much of his long career, appearing in episodes of Have Gun Will Travel, The Untouchables and The Twilight Zone.

In his later years, while the Columbo movies tapered off, he still maintained a busy work schedule, starring in Wim Wenders' 1987 drama Wings of Desire and its subsequent sequel, Faraway, So Close!. In the late '90s, he returned to his theater roots as well, appearing in an Off Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Mr. Peter's Connections.

In the early 2000s he appeared in the holiday-themed TV movies A Town Without Christmas, Finding John Christmas and When Angels Come to Town. In his final film role, he played Father Randolph in the 2009 indie film, American Cowslip, starring Val Kilmer, Diane Ladd and Cloris Leachman.

Falk is survived by his wife, Shera, and two daughters. No word yet on funeral plans.