Who's Next To Croak?

Started by cine, September 28, 2003, 11:07:39 AM

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Pubrick

Quote from: matt35mm on July 05, 2006, 09:54:34 AM
I would love to die at my Colorado vacation home.

that can be arranged.  :yabbse-cheesy:
under the paving stones.

matt35mm


pete

man, that was so a suicide.  but it's alright.  as a christian, I can find comfort in knowing that he's in hell.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

polkablues

I can see one of two possibilities here:

1) Death faked, living under assumed identity in South American resort town.

2) Planned to name names, was exterminated by George Sr.'s old CIA buddies.
My house, my rules, my coffee

MacGuffin

June Allyson, 'Perfect Wife,' Dies at 88

June Allyson, the sunny, cracked-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter Pamela Allyson Powell said Monday. She was 88.

Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side, Powell said. She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness.

During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blond and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supporting and unthreatening.

"I had the most wonderful last meeting with June at her house in Ojai. We had gotten lost in the car. She told me: `I could wait for you forever.' We were such dear friends. I will miss her," lifelong friend Esther Williams said.

With typical wonderment, Allyson expressed surprise in a 1986 interview that she had ever become a movie star:

"I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don't sing like Judy Garland. I don't dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they'd take me home to meet mom."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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mogwai

Syd Barrett dies aged 60

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60, the band's spokeswoman has confirmed.

He was born Roger Barrett in Cambridge and met future bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour at school there.

The guitarist was invited to join Pink Floyd by Waters in 1965 but left three years later after only one album with his mental state affected by drugs.

"He died very peacefully a couple of days ago," said the spokeswoman.

"There will be a private family funeral."

He had suffered from diabetes in recent years and had not been recording music.

Ravi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5169798.stm

Commodores musician dies aged 58

One of the founding members of soul group The Commodores, Milan B Williams, has died of cancer aged 58.

Williams wrote the Motown band's first single, an instrumental called Machine Gun, and played keyboards on songs such as Easy and Three Times A Lady.

"He was once, twice, three times a brother and we love him," said band member Walter Orange.

The musician died on Sunday in Texas. He is survived by a wife, Melanie, and two sons from previous marriages.

Williams met the other members of the Commodores in 1967 while they were freshmen at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, USA.

The band was fronted by Lionel Richie and signed to Motown records after touring with the Jackson Five in 1972.

After a string of chart hits, Richie left the group in 1983.

They struggled to recover from the loss, and Williams also quit in 1989.

MacGuffin

Comedian Red Buttons Dies in L.A. at 87

Red Buttons, the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early television then went dramatic to win the 1957 Oscar as supporting actor in "Sayonara," died Thursday. He was 87.

Buttons died of vascular disease at his home in the Century City area of Los Angeles, publicist Warren Cowan said. He had been ill for some time, and was with family members when he died, Cowan said.

With his eager manner and rapid-fire wit, Buttons excelled in every phase of show business, from the Borscht Belt of the 1930s to celebrity roasts in the 1990s.

His greatest achievement came with his "Sayonara" role as Sgt. Joe Kelly, the soldier in the occupation forces in Japan whose romance with a Japanese woman (Myoshi Umeki, who also won an Academy Award) ends in tragedy.

Josh Logan, who directed the James Michener story that starred Marlon Brando, was at first hesitant to cast a well-known comedian in such a somber role.

"The tests were so extensive that they could just put scenery around them and release the footage as a feature film," Buttons remarked.

Buttons' Academy Award led to other films, both dramas and comedies. They included "Imitation General," "The Big Circus," "Hatari!" "The Longest Day" "Up From the Beach," "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" "The Poseidon Adventure" "Gable and Lombard" and "Pete's Dragon."

A performer since his teens, Buttons was noticed by burlesque theater owners and he became the youngest comic on the circuit. He had graduated to small roles on Broadway before being drafted in 1943.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Mike Hammer creator Mickey Spillane dies

Mickey Spillane, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday. He was 88.

Spillane's death was confirmed by Brad Stephens of Goldfinch Funeral Home in his hometown of Murrells Inlet. Details about his death were not immediately available.

After starting out in comic books Spillane wrote his first Mike Hammer novel, "I, the Jury," in 1946. Twelve more followed, with sales topping 100 million. Notable titles included "The Killing Man," "The Girl Hunters" and "One Lonely Night."

Many of these books were made into movies, including the classic film noir "Kiss Me, Deadly" and "The Girl Hunters," in which Spillane himself starred. Hammer stories were also featured on television in the series "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" and in made-for-TV movies. In the 1980s, Spillane appeared in a string of Miller Lite beer commercials.

Besides the Hammer novels, Spillane wrote a dozen other books, including some award-winning volumes for young people.

Nonetheless, by the end of the 20th century, many of his novels were out of print or hard to find. In 2001, the New American Library began reissuing them.

As a stylist Spillane was no innovator; the prose was hard-boiled boilerplate. In a typical scene, from "The Big Kill," Hammer slugs out a little punk with "pig eyes."

"I snapped the side of the rod across his jaw and laid the flesh open to the bone," Spillane wrote. "I pounded his teeth back into his mouth with the end of the barrel ... and I took my own damn time about kicking him in the face. He smashed into the door and lay there bubbling. So I kicked him again and he stopped bubbling."

Mainstream critics had little use for Spillane, but he got his due in the mystery world, receiving lifetime achievement awards from the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America.

Spillane, a bearish man who wrote on an old manual Smith Corona, always claimed he didn't care about reviews. He considered himself a "writer" as opposed to an "author," defining a writer as someone whose books sell.

"This is an income-generating job," he told The Associated Press during a 2001 interview. "Fame was never anything to me unless it afforded me a good livelihood."

Spillane was born Frank Morrison Spillane on March 9, 1918, in the New York borough of Brooklyn. He grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., and attended Fort Hayes State College in Kansas where he was a standout swimmer before beginning his career writing for magazines.

He had always liked police stories — an uncle was a cop — and in his pre-Hammer days he created a comic book detective named Mike Danger. At the time, the early 1940s, he was scribing for Batman, SubMariner and other comics.

"I wanted to get away from the flying heroes and I had the prototype cop," Spillane said.

Danger never saw print. World War II broke out and Spillane enlisted. When he came home, he needed $1,000 to buy some land and thought novels the best way to go. Within three weeks, he had completed "I, the Jury" and sent it to Dutton. The editors there doubted the writing, but not the market for it; a literary franchise began. His books helped reveal the power of the paperback market and became so popular they were parodied in movies, including the Fred Astaire musical "The Band Wagon."

He was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil. He was also a rare political conservative in the book world. Communists were villains in his work and liberals took some hits as well. He was not above using crude racial and sexual stereotypes.

Viewed by some as a precursor to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, Spillane's Hammer was a loner contemptuous of the "tedious process" of the jury system, choosing instead to enforce the law on his own murderous terms. His novels were attacked for their violence and vigilantism_ one critic said "I, the Jury" belonged in "Gestapo training school" — but some defended them as the most shameless kind of pleasure.

"Spillane is like eating takeout fried chicken: so much fun to consume, but you can feel those lowlife grease-induced zits rising before you've finished the first drumstick," Sally Eckhoff wrote in the liberal weekly The Village Voice.

The Hammer novels had a couple of recurring characters: Pat, the honest, but slow-moving cop, and Velda, Mike's faithful secretary. Like so many women in Hammer's life, Velda was a looker, and burning for love.

"Velda was watching me with the tip of her tongue clenched between her teeth," Spillane wrote in "Vengeance is Mine!", an early Hammer novel.

"There wasn't any kitten-softness about her now. She was big and she was lovely, with the kind of curves that made you want to turn around and have another look. The lush fullness of her lips had tightened into the faintest kind of snarl and her eyes were the carnivorous eyes you could expect to see in the jungle watching you from behind a clump of bushes."

While the Hammer books were set in New York, Spillane was a longtime resident of Murrells Inlet, a coastal community near Myrtle Beach.

He moved to South Carolina in 1954 when the area, now jammed with motels and tourist attractions, was still predominantly tobacco and corn fields.

Spillane said he fell in love with the long stretches of deserted beaches when he first saw the area from an airplane.

The writer, who became a Jehovah's Witness in 1951 and helped build the group's Kingdom Hall in Murrells Inlet, spent his time boating and fishing when he wasn't writing. In the 1950s, he also worked as a circus performer, allowing himself to be shot out of a cannon and appearing in the circus film "Ring of Fear."

The home where he lived for 35 years was destroyed by the 135 mph winds of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Married three times, Spillane was the father of four children.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Veteran actor Jack Warden dies, 85

Oscar-nominated character actor Jack Warden, best known for starring alongside Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" and "Heaven Can Wait," has died at 85, his longtime business manager said Friday. Warden, who appeared in dozens of films and won an Emmy award as the star of the 1980s TV series "Crazy Like a Fox," died on Wednesday in New York, business manager Sidney Pazoff said. Warden, who was born John Lebzelter in New Jersey and began acting after serving in World War Two, had a breakthrough role in "Twelve Angry Men" in 1957. Pazoff said the veteran character actor had retired several years ago and had been suffering from medical problems in recent years.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

He Would Have Been the Voice of Splinter...
Source: Variety

TMNT writer-director Kevin Munroe announced on Thursday at the San Diego Comic-Con that Asian-American actor Mako was going to voice Splinter in the CG animated film. Now, by a very sad coincidence it is being reported that Mako died a day later, on Friday.

Japanese-American actor Mako, who was Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in "The Sand Pebbles" and who co-founded the nation's first Asian-American theater company, died Friday of esophageal cancer at his home in Somis. He was 72.

In an acting career spanning more than four decades, Mako appeared in TV series including "MASH," "I Spy," "Quincy" and "Frasier," as well as films ranging from "Conan the Barbarian" to "Seven Years in Tibet," "Pearl Harbor" and last year's "Memoirs of a Geisha."

He also voiced characters in animated series including "Dexter's Laboratory," "Samurai Jack" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'City Slickers' actor Bruno Kirby dies

LOS ANGELES - Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor who costarred in "When Harry Met Sally," "City Slickers" and many other films, has died at age 57, his wife said Tuesday.

Kirby died Monday in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, according to a statement from his wife, Lynn Sellers. He had recently been diagnosed with the disease.

"We are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from Bruno's fans and colleagues who have admired and respected his work over the past 30 years," his wife said. "Bruno's spirit will continue to live on not only in his rich body of film and television work but also through the lives of individuals he has touched throughout his life."

Kirby was perhaps best known for his roles opposite Billy Crystal in 1989's "When Harry Met Sally" and 1991's "City Slickers."

Other film credits included "Good Morning, Vietnam," "The Godfather: Part II" and "Donnie Brasco." More recently, he played Phil Rubenstein on the HBO series "Entourage."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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modage

wow  he seemed really young.  thats terrible.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

children with angels

Man, that's really really sad - I loved that guy in When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers and Basketball Diaries. He's such a dependable periphary figure from my youth - kind of like if Steve Guttenburg died... That really sucks.
"Should I bring my own chains?"
"We always do..."

http://www.alternatetakes.co.uk/
http://thelesserfeat.blogspot.com/

Ravi

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060831/en_nm/glennford_dc

Film star Glenn Ford dead at 90
47 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor
Glenn Ford, a handsome and quiet character actor who made his mark in big films like "Gilda" and "The Big Heat," died on Wednesday in his Beverly Hills home, police said. He was 90.

Beverly Hills Police Department said in a statement that paramedics were called to Ford's home in the afternoon and found the actor dead.

The cause of his death was not immediately known.

Ford was an actor who never quite attained the superstar status he sought, but nevertheless won the hearts of millions of cinemagoers in a wide variety of roles.

Many critics thought he was underrated and one, David Shipmann, wrote, "He is a good -- if not the best -- example of that second-string group, the dependable and efficient actor."

Ford made his mark on Hollywood with low-key appearances in more than 200 movies, and became one of the most enduring stars of the silver screen.

Away from the cameras, Ford led an intensely private life, shunning nightspots in favor of a quiet home life.

Although most frequently appearing in Westerns, Ford played a variety of quietly intense heroes and villains and is best remembered for his non-Western roles.

His career began in 1939 and was highlighted by starring roles in "The Big Heat" in 1953, in which he played a cop out to avenge his wife's murder; "The Blackboard Jungle" in 1955, in which he played a teacher; and "The Teahouse of the August Moon" in 1956, in which he played a U.S. soldier in Japan.

After his first movie, "Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence," Ford made a number of low-budget dramas before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942.

After returning from World War Two, he starred in his first big budget film, the romance "Gilda," with Rita Hayworth in 1946. The movie was a hit and Bette Davis confirmed his leading-man status by picking him to star with her in "A Stolen Life," released the same year.

Ford teamed with Hayworth again for "The Loves of Carmen" (1948) and "Affair in Trinidad" (1958) and played one of his best villains, a sadistic lawman, in "The Man From Colorado"

(1948).

POPULAR DESPITE CAREER DECLINE

Ford remained a top box-office draw through the 1950s but even when his career declined in the 1960s, his popularity with audiences remained as fixed as his reserved screen personality and wry smile.

The unsuccessful remake of "Cimarron" in 1960 started his career slide into B-movies and low-budget productions such as

"A Pocketful of Miracles" (1961), "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1962), "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1963) and "The Money Trap" (1964).

Ford himself compared his enduring popularity to that of other strong-but-quiet stars of his generation, such as Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda.

"It's the way we say our lines," Ford said. "We don't memorize them, but take the sense and alter the lines to fit our own personalities."

Ford was born Gwyllyn Ford in Quebec, Canada, on May 1, 1916. At age 7, he moved with his family to Santa Monica, California, where he worked as a stable boy for cowboy humorist and actor Will Rogers. After high school, he drove buses and worked as a salesman while planning an acting career.

Ford was married four times -- most notably to actress Eleanor Powell, from 1943 to 1960.

He is survived by his son Peter, 61, also an actor.

(Additional reporting by Mary Milliken)