Monday, October 29, 2012

Les Mueller

Former MLB pitcher -- via NBC. On July 25, 1945, he pitched 19 and 2/3 innings against the A's. He got two weeks off after this unprecedented feat.


Barouh V. Berkovits

Bioengineer; worked on the pacemaker and the defibrillator -- via dignitymemorial.com.

Ahmad Ghabel

Islamic scholar and dissident -- via The Atlantic.

Gabrielle Roth

Dancer and musician -- via the Huffington Post.



Cesare Canevari

Film producer, director, screenwriter, editor, and actor -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com. Responsible for the bizarre spaghetti Western "Matalo!" and many other exploitation films.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Jo Dunne

Lead guitarist for Fuzzbox -- via the Birmingham Mail.

Alan Kirschenbaum

Comedy writer and TV producer -- via the Hollywood Reporter

Hadley Castille

Cajun fiddler -- via theadvertiser.com.





Eddie Bertrand

Guitarist with the Belairs and Eddie & the Showmen, early surf guitar master -- via tdpri.com.






Louis D. Nunley

Bass -- via obits.dignitymemorial.com. A key member of both the Anita Kerr Quartet and the Jordanaires, he sang backup or was featured on thousands of Nashville recordings.

John McConnell

Peace activist; the creator and founder of Earth Day -- via the Denver Post.

Elizabeth Bell

Actress -- via the Guardian.

Bernie McClain

D.C. radio icon; talk show host and program director -- via the Washington Post.

Bidushi Dash Barde

Model and actress -- via daily.baskar.com.


Natina Reed

Singer and actress -- via Yahoo News.




Russell Means

Activist and actor -- via the Independent.





Hans Werner Henze

Composer -- via the Guardian. The innovative and prolific Henze was an oxymoron: a successful avant-garde figure. His absurd and horrifying youth (he was gay, and his father was a Nazi) was far more dramatic than any of his many creations in opera, symphonic and chamber music, ballets, and much more.








David S. Ware

Free-jazz saxophonist -- via the New York Times.





Borah Bergman

Free-jazz pianist -- via thewire.co.uk.



Luigi Vellucci

Tenor -- via northjersey.com.



Friday, October 26, 2012

Erol Gunaydin

Actor -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.

Bill Dees

Musician and songwriter -- via blog.bcdb.com. Co-wrote "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "It's Over" with Roy Orbison.




Michael Marra aka the Bard of Dundee

Singer/songwriter -- via the Scotsman.

Wilhelm Brasse

Photographer and survivor of the Holocaust -- via the New York Times.

Anita Bjork

Actress -- via the New York Times.



Jacques Barzun

Cultural historian -- via the New York Times.

Joel Marston

Actor -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.

Norma Fire

Actress and much more -- via legacy.com. Whoever wrote this excellent, loving, and comprehensive obituary did an exemplary job!She sounds like a wonderful person.


Shubha Phutela

Actress and model -- via Zee News.

Issac "Dickie" Freeman

Gospel singer -- via the Tennessean. The bass voice in the amazing Fairfield Four.



Thursday, October 25, 2012

Joe Cullinane

Sports broadcaster -- via the Denver Post.


Eddie Harvey

Musician and teacher -- via the Guardian.

Steve Paul

Club owner, music manager, record label head -- via the New York Times.

Jaspal Bhatti

Comedic writer, director, and actor -- via indianexpress.com.

Donald Takayama

Surfer and board designer and shaper -- via the L.A. Times

From Aljazeera: The art of obituary writing

Nicholas Muirhead of The Listening Post with a video survey of bit desks at newspapers -- via aljazeera.com.

Franck Barcellini

Composer -- via artsjournal.com. Best known for his composition of the theme from Jacques Tati's "Mon Oncle."

Sunil Gangopadhyay

Poet and novelist -- via The Hindu.


Lu Zijian aka The Knight of the Yangtze

118-year-old martial arts master -- via danwei.com.

Alfred Kumalo

Photographer -- via the Washington Post. He bravely documented the brutalities of apartheid.





Paul Kurtz

Philosopher and publisher; paragon of secular humanism -- via the New York Times.

Antoni Dobrowolski

Teacher; oldest survivor of Auschwitz -- via the Huffington Post. The Nazis didn't want Poles to get more than four years of elementary education, as they were to be a "slave race." Dobrowwolski defied them.

Mike Karandzieff

The guy behind the counter at Crown Candy Kitchen -- via the St. Louis Times-Dispatch.


William Major aka Chilly Willy

Homeless person -- via the Charlotte Observer.

Stanford Ovshinsky

Prolific inventor -- via the New York Times. Among his creations: the nickel-metal hyride battery, and contributions to the rewritable CD, solar panels, flat screens, and on and on.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Yash Chopra

Screenwriter, producer, and director -- via the Guardian.

Rick Chadock

Guitarist -- via ultimateclassicrock.com.



Larry Sloan

Funny-book publisher; co-creator of Mad Libs -- via the L.A. Times.

John Clive

Actor and writer -- via the Guardian. Best known for his roles in "The Italian Job," as the voice of John Lennon in "Yellow Submarine," and "A Clockwork Orange."