Basketball coach -- via ESPN. A brilliant coach with integrity, he mentored some of the greatest players in history at North Carolina, including Jordan, Worthy, Stackhouse, and McAdoo, and coaches such as Karl, Moe, and Larry Brown (all Nuggets leaders later). He taught his players how to act with dignity, intelligence, and mutual respect. And he cared about his players' lives and character than about what he could get out of them on the court. He graduated about 96% of his players, an amazing statistic. A good, classy guy.
Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Anita Darian
Singer and actress -- via Broadway World. AKA Anita Esgandarian, "the American Yma Sumac." You have all heard her voice -- I'll tell you where in a minute. Possessed of a four-octave range, she sang with the New York City Opera and the New York Philharmonic. She sang Julie on the 1962 "Show Boat" recording. So where have you heard her before? She sings the extremely high vocalese on the Tokens' hit version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"!
Stewart Stern
Screenwriter -- via the New York Times. He wrote films such as "Rebel without A Cause," "Rachel, Rachel," and "The Ugly American"; for TV, he wrote such movies as "Sybil."
Albert Weinstein
Engineer and inventor -- via the Washington Post. He worked on many highly advanced technological systems, but will retain popular posterity for inventing the remote-controlled toy car.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Lizabeth Scott
Actress -- via the L.A. Times. AKA Emma Matzo. Largely identified with her roles in film noir, Scott's strong eyebrows and husky voice were her trademarks. She excelled in such films as "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers," "Dead Reckoning," "I Walk Alone," and "Dark City." usually a femme fatale and/or a cabaret singer with a murky past. One of her last films was a late Allan Dwan Western, "Silver Lode," that was slyly coded as an anti-McCarthyism statement.
Richard Bonehill
Fencing champion, sword master, stuntman, and actor -- via Variety. Best known for his work on- and off-camera in the "Star Wars" films.
Robert Blees
Writer and producer -- via Variety. He wrote some great and not-so-great fare -- "Magnificent Obsession," "High School Confidential," "Dr. Phibes Rises Again," "cattel Queen of Montana," and "Frogs," among others.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Walter Liedtke
Art curator -- via Artnet News. Died in the recent Metro crash -- what a loss! A fine mind for understanding and sharing insights about art.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Mary Healy
Actress, singer, and entertainer -- via the New York Times. Largely unknown now, she was a huge part of latter-20th-century entertainment, particularly in tandem with her husband, comic/singer/actor Peter Lind Hayes. They starred in radio, on stage, in several TV outings, and in the unique Dr. Seuss-written feature film "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." They inaugurated the jingle "see the USA on your Chevrolet"! I remember as them on "What's My Line?"
They worked perfect together, and were an epitome of the husband-wife song-dance-and-variety team of 20th century entertainment. Hayes was the madcap, and Healey the straight partner, always lovely, always charming. He was Harlequin, she was Colombina, and they could sing, do a comedy sketch, dance, just banter, act out a serious scene -- whatever was needed. This kind of versatility and ease of interplay is something to be learned from.
They worked perfect together, and were an epitome of the husband-wife song-dance-and-variety team of 20th century entertainment. Hayes was the madcap, and Healey the straight partner, always lovely, always charming. He was Harlequin, she was Colombina, and they could sing, do a comedy sketch, dance, just banter, act out a serious scene -- whatever was needed. This kind of versatility and ease of interplay is something to be learned from.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Dave Bergman
Former MLB player -- via WXYZ. Best known as part of the 1984 Series-winning Tigers, and for his exemplary game-winning at bat in extra innings on June 4, 1984. Roy Lee Jackson was pitching for the Blue Jays -- Bergman fought off 12 pitches, then sent the 13th out of the park for a three-run walk-off win. (Even more amazing, he went in the hole 0-2 right away!)
Vladimir-Georg Karassev-Orgussar
Filmmaker and broadcaster -- via coldwarradios.blogspot.co.uk. AKA Vladimir-Georg-Julian Orgussar, Vladimir Karasjov.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Johnny Goodman
Producer and production manager for film and TV -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Responsible for much British action/adventure television that I loved, including "The Saint," "The Champions," "The Persuaders!," "Danger UXB," and "Reilly: Ace of Spies."
John Leggett
Writer; former director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop -- via the Writers' University. I am particularly enamored of his nonfiction work "Ross and Tom: Two American Tragedies," about the sudden success and early suicides of writers Ross Lockridge Jr. ("Raintree County") and Tom Heggen ("Mister Roberts").
Deathcetera: The week in news of mortality and mourning
DEATH
The Black Death
– the upside!
– by Larry Jimenez at Listverse
10 faces of
death from world mythology – via Jonathan H. Kantor at Listverse
Visualizing statistics
on 10 unusual causes of death – from David Taylor at proofreader.com
The rise of the
death café
– from Sophie Elmhirst at Prospect magazine
Adventures of
the psychopomp
– via Barbara Cashman in Denver Elder Law
Woman dies after
leaping in excitement after marriage proposal at edge of cliff – via Gerard
Couzens for the Daily Mail
Funeral home
doesn’t have rights over Lee Harvey Oswald’s original coffin – via David
Montgomery at the New York Times
Zoroastrians’
Towers of Silence, used for disposal of the dead, soon to be no more – via Nina
Strochlic at the Daily Beast
MOURNING
Mindfulness and
meditation can aid the grieving – from Via Brian Simmons at Elephant
Journal
New Buddhist
mini-altars aid the mourning – Alison Lesley in World Religion News
FUNERALS
The 9 most
innovative funeral professionals – by Rochelle Rietow at funeralOne
The crazy, mean
church people protest talk of legislation to restrict crazy, mean funeral
protest demonstrations of the kind practiced by the crazy, mean church people – from James Q.
Lynch at the Cedar Rapids Gazette
Where
the dead are preserved traditionally – from Fred Kibor at the
Standard Digital (Kenya)
Funeral for
prosecutor suspected to have been murdered turns into protest – via Joshua
Partlow for the Washington Post
Funeral home
wants to expand so that families can participate in cremation ceremonies – via Lyn Moore
in mlive.com
OBITS
Sexist, insulting
obit for novelist McCullough causes stir – by Claire Fallon at the Huffington
Post
A tribute to a
10th-grade English teacher – by John Dickerson in Slate
King Abdullah:
evil dictator or advocate of democracy? Depends on who you read – from Keane
Bhatt at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Self-penned obit
starts with a gag
– via Fausto Giovanny Pinto
Democrat gets to crack on the Republicans in her obit – via the Moscow-Pullman Daily
News
Recording life’s
stories
– from Wanda Moeller at the Ottumwa Courier
Carl Djerassi
Chemist; "father of the birth-control pill", and writer, poet, playwright, and educator -- via the New Yok Times.
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