Who's Next To Croak?

[modage]

yeah and "transmitter rectangle" means "monolith".   

[MacGuffin]

Penn autopsy indicates natural death

Investigators have found no sign of foul play or suicide in the death of actor Christopher Penn, officials said Wednesday.

Medical examiners conducted an autopsy Wednesday on the 40-year-old actor, who was found dead by a housekeeper in his Santa Monica home, according to Lt. Cheryl MacWillie, a watch commander for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

"It appears to be a natural death," MacWillie said. "He died in bed." Examiners were trying to determine if weight was an issue because Penn weighed over 270 pounds, she said.

Penn was the younger brother of Sean Penn.

MacWillie said there were no signs of foul play or suicide and that further tests were being conducted to determine the exact cause of death.

Santa Monica Police Department spokesman Lt. Frank Fabrega also said the death was not being investigated as a homicide.

A family spokeswoman issued a statement Tuesday night saying the Penn family "would appreciate the media's respect of their privacy during this difficult time."

Penn was a character actor who specialized in blue-collar, tough-guy roles and appeared in dozens of films, including "Reservoir Dogs," "Mulholland Falls" and the 2004 film "Starsky & Hutch." He also co-starred in the short-lived CBS television drama "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire."

His latest film, "The Darwin Awards," was scheduled to premiere on Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival.

[Reinhold]

yeah and "transmitter rectangle" means "monolith".   

point taken. i even watched it again today. 

[Tictacbk]

Tom Cruise did it.

[polkablues]

Examiners were trying to determine if weight was an issue because Penn weighed over 270 pounds

I'm giving out 7 to 1 odds on "yes".

[Pozer]

"nose candy" means "cocaine"

Um, yeah, I know.  I meant that as "who knows, dude?" to his pointless question.  Shouldn't have posted anything.  No one answering it would have been suffice.   

[squints]

 

[cine]

just another reason for sean penn to be pissed off.

[Ravi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4665820.stm

Widow of Martin Luther King dies


Coretta Scott King, the widow of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, has died aged 78.

Mrs King had carried on her husband's work for racial equality after he was assassinated in 1968.

She fought successfully for a national holiday in memory of him and founded The King Center in Atlanta to preserve his legacy.

President Bush called Mrs King a "great civil rights leader" and said he was fortunate to have known her.

News of the mother of four's death was reported by former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young to US network NBC television.

Mr Young, also a civil rights campaigner, said Mrs King had died in her sleep on Monday night. Mrs King had been in poor health in recent years.

She suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005, and earlier this month missed the public marking of her husband's birthday for the first time in two decades.

Mrs King, who met her husband in Boston and married him in 1953, supported him in his civil rights work.

After his death, she raised their four children while at the same time working to secure his legacy.

'Courageous leader'

She recalled in her autobiography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr, how she had felt compelled to carry on the civil rights movement.

"Because his task was not finished, I felt that I must re-dedicate myself to the completion of his work," she wrote.

In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr Centre for Non-violent Social Change in Atlanta and in 1986 saw the establishment of a national holiday to mark her husband's January birthday.

President George Bush said in a statement that Mrs King was a "remarkable and courageous woman, and a great civil rights leader".

"Mrs King's lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made America a better and more compassionate nation," he said.

[MacGuffin]

Ballerina-actress Moira Shearer, 'Red Shoes' star, dies at 80

LONDON -- Moira Shearer, the ballerina and actress whose debut film, "The Red Shoes," created an international sensation in 1948, has died, her husband said Wednesday. She was 80.

Shearer died Tuesday at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, said her husband, Ludovic Kennedy. He said she had become weak since her birthday last month, but did not reveal the cause of death.

Shearer, born in Dunfermline, Scotland, became principal dancer at London's famous Sadler's Wells in 1942 and won her first major role in 1946, playing Sleeping Beauty at London's Royal Opera House.

A stunning redhead, she won her the role as the doomed dancer Victoria in "The Red Shoes," directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was a huge international hit and was nominated for the Oscar for best picture; it won Oscars for best art direction and best music.
 
The film, loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, is celebrated for its rich use of color and the intimate view of backstage life in the world of ballet. Shearer's character becomes a great star but is torn between her love for a young composer and her career, which is guided by a jealous impresario. The film contained a complete ballet danced by Shearer and others.

Though she took roles in later films -- including Powell and Pressburger's "The Tales of Hoffmann" in 1951 and Powell's 1960 thriller, "Peeping Tom" ---- Shearer remained ambivalent toward films, preferring to focus her efforts on dance.

"The ballet was the thing to which she was really committed -- the film industry was a bit of a distraction," Kennedy said.

Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadler's Wells, said members of the company were saddened by news of her death.

"She was deeply connected with the history of Sadler's Wells. She started her career here and danced and toured with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet," said Spalding.

[Ravi]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/04/lewis.obit.ap/index.html

Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 95
Al Lewis was also a basketball scout, political candidate
Saturday, February 4, 2006; Posted: 3:28 p.m. EST (20:28 GMT)


NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.

Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.

"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.

Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"

But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.

He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence -- chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.

Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis."

He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.

Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.

Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54, Where Are You?" -- a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"

Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.

"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."

Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.

He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car 54," and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space."

But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.

A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."

He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.

[cine]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/04/lewis.obit.ap/index.html

Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 95

wow, CNN really goofed that one up.. 82 now! : http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/04/lewis.obit.ap/index.html

to top it off, the image caption says he died at 83 

[Reinhold]

Two held in Curious George author's Florida death
Thu Feb 09, 9:45 PM ET

Two men have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Alan J. Shalleck, 76, who co-wrote "Curious George" books and helped bring the very curious little monkey to television.

Rex Spears Ditto, 29, and Vincent Puglisi, 54, were arrested shortly before midnight on Wednesday and confessed to a home invasion, murder and robbery of Shalleck, Sgt. Gladys Cannon of the Boynton Beach police said on Thursday.

Shalleck's bloodied body was discovered on Tuesday under a pile of plastic garbage bags in a driveway at Royal Manor Estates by a maintenance supervisor who went to haul away what appeared to be a pile of trash, police said.

The body may have been in the driveway for more than a day. Crime scene investigators found stab wounds and, once inside the home, several pools of blood leading to the master bathroom which was splattered with blood. Investigators found several knives and broken glass in the house.

Ditto and Puglisi made full confessions, according to Cannon, who said the men robbed Shalleck of jewelry and money from his checking account. Charges include first-degree murder, armed home invasion, aggravated battery of a person 65 years or older, and dealing in stolen property.

ADVERTISEMENT

Shalleck began his collaboration with "Curious George" co-creator Margaret Rey nearly three decades ago, helping write sequels to the stories Rey originally produced with her late husband H.A. Rey and bringing the monkey to television.

Shalleck's death came just days before a big-screen version of "Curious George" debuts in movie theaters on Friday.

[cine]

Crime scene investigators found stab wounds and, once inside the home, several pools of blood leading to the master bathroom which was splattered with blood. Investigators found several knives and broken glass in the house.

[MacGuffin]

Two held in Curious George author's Florida death

Worst marketing move ever.