Obituaries

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I doubt that even Donald Trump considers that an expression of how American 'greatness' is to be restored.

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Chelsi Smith, Miss USA 1995 and Miss Universe 1995

Chelsi Mariam Pearl Smith (August 23, 1973 – September 8, 2018) was an American actress, singer, television host and beauty queen who won Miss USA 1995 and Miss Universe 1995.[2] She was the third winner of the Miss USA pageant with African-American heritage behind 1990 Miss USA winner Carole Gist and 1993 Miss USA winner Kenya Moore.[3][4]


Smith was born in Redwood City, California,[5] to 19-year-old parents Craig Smith, an African-American maintenance man, and Mary Denise Trimble, a white American secretary.[6] Her parents divorced before she was two, and her mother, an alcoholic at the time, granted Smith's maternal grandparents Barnie and Jeanette custody of her.[5]

When Smith was seven, she moved with her grandparents to Kingwood, Texas, where they would later get divorced as well, causing Smith to grow up in a divided home while she attended high school in Deer Park.[5] Prior to her win at Miss USA, she was a sophomore majoring in education at San Jacinto College.[3][7]


Smith competed in her first major beauty contest in 1994, when she was a semifinalist in the Miss Texas USA pageant, as Miss South East Texas USA.[8] The following year she competed again as Miss Galveston County USA, and won the title, as well as the Miss Congeniality award.[9] Smith, a multiracial American,[10] was one of the first titleholders of African-American heritage in the pageant's history.[11]

Smith went on to compete in the 1995 Miss USA pageant on February 10, 1995. During the final telecast, Smith obtained the highest average preliminary score and entering the semifinals in first place, becoming the fourth consecutive woman from her state to make the semifinals. She became a semifinalist, and advanced to the top six in first place. The next two rounds of competition: the Top 6 judges' questions and the Top 3 final question.
When asked how she, as an advisor, would change the First Lady's image if asked for a consultation, Smith replied: "I would tell her not to change her image, actually. I believe very strongly in who I am, and I've seen 50 ladies tonight who believe very strongly in who they are, and I really think that she wouldn't have made it as far as she has if she wouldn't have been herself, so I really truly think she should stay exactly the way she is."[12] She became the seventh woman from her state to hold the Miss USA title and also won the Miss Congeniality award as she had at her state pageant, becoming the only Miss USA winner and Miss Texas USA in history to win this award.[13]

After her crowning, Smith was a celebrity contestant on Wheel of Fortune[5] and an award presenter at the People's Choice Awards.[8]

After becoming Miss USA, Smith traveled to Windhoek, Namibia to compete in the 1995 Miss Universe pageant, broadcast live from Windhoek Country Club on May 12, 1995. She was again the highest placed contestant after the preliminary competition, which propelled her into the top ten. Once again, Smith was among the final 3 contestants and went on to win the title ahead of first runner-up Manpreet Brar of India, becoming the first Miss USA to capture the Miss Universe crown in 15 years.[14][15]/ 

As a model, Smith worked for Hawaiian Tropic, Jantzen,[16] Pontiac, Venus Swimwear, and Pure Protein among others.[17] She made appearances on Martin, Due South and the TLC documentary, The History of the Bathing Suit.[17]

With the support of Music World Entertainment/Sony, Smith co-wrote and recorded with producer Damon Elliott her first single, "Dom Da Da", part of the soundtrack for The Sweetest Thing, starring Cameron Diaz.[17]

In 2003, she acted in an independent film (Playas Ball on IMDb ) where she co-starred with Allen Payne and Elise Neal. She also co-hosted Beyoncé Knowles' special Beyonce: Family and Friends Tour on pay-per-view and appeared on HBO in Saladin Patterson's short film (One Flight Stand on IMDb ) with Marc Blucas and Aisha Tyler. She was also a judge at the 2006 Miss Teen USA pageant.[18]

In 2011, she was presented the Influential Multiracial Public Figure award.[19] In 2016, she was guest judge for the Miss Peru 2016 beauty pageant.[20]

 
Smith married fitness coach Kelly Blair[5] after her reign as Miss Universe and moved to Los Angeles. They later divorced.[21]

Smith died at the age of 45 on September 8, 2018, of liver cancer.[2][22][23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsi_Smith

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Dave Barrett, journalist

Barrett began his career at the University of Houston's KUHF while a student at the university. In a 2015 interview, Barrett described himself as being at the station "ALL the time" while filling various roles from sports play-by-play announcing, sports newscasts, and music host. His work at KUHF led him to being offered an internship at KTRH in the Houston market, which was blocked by William Hawes,[3] who was a supervisor for KUHF at that time.[4] Barrett would wind up working at KTRH over Hawes' objection during the summer of 1974 and be hired as a part-time employee later that year.[3] He would work for several Houston radio stations, including KLOL and KPRC until late 1981.[3]

From Houston, Barrett's career took him from the local level to the national stage with Fox, ABC, and CBS.[5] Barrett also worked for multiple sports franchises in the Houston area, including the Houston Astros, Houston Rockets, Houston Oilers, Houston Aeros, Houston Apollos, and the University of Houston, his alma mater.[5][6]

In December 1981, Barrett began working for ABC Radio News and would remain with the network for eleven years before moving to ESPN Radio for two years, beginning in December 1992.[3] He returned to ABC in 1994. In December 1998, he moved to Fox News,[3] where he served as news director for Fox News Radio Network before moving to CBS in February 2001.[3][5]

Barrett covered ten Olympic Games during his career.[5]

During his career spanning from the 1970s until 2018, Barrett won multiple industry awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award[7][8] three times.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barrett_(journalist)

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Arthur Mitchell, founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem

Arthur Mitchell (March 27, 1934 – September 19, 2018)[1] was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and founder and director of ballet companies. In 1955, he was the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to principal dancer the following year and danced in major roles until 1966. He then founded ballet companies in Spoleto, Washington, D.C., and Brazil. In 1986, he founded a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem. Among other awards, Mitchell was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow, inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, and received the United States National Medal of Arts and a Fletcher Foundation fellowship.


Mitchell was one of four siblings, the son of a building superintendent, and grew up in the streets of Harlem, New York.[1] Forced at the age of 12 to assume financial responsibility for his family in the wake of his father's incarceration, Mitchell worked numerous jobs, including shoe-shining, mopping floors, newspaper delivery, and work in a meat shop. Despite his duties, Mitchell became involved with street gangs, though this did not ultimately deter him from finding success.[2]

As a teenager, Mitchell was encouraged by a guidance counselor to apply for admission to the High School of Performing Arts.[1] Upon being accepted he decided to work towards having a career in classical ballet. Following his graduation in the early 1950s, he won a dance award and scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet, the school affiliated with the New York City Ballet.[1] In 1954, following his 1952 Broadway debut in the opera Four Saints in Three Acts, Mitchell would return to Broadway to perform in the Harold Arlen musical House of Flowers,[1] alongside Diahann Carroll, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, and Pearl Bailey.[3]

 
In 1955 Mitchell made his debut as the first African American with the New York City Ballet (NYCB), performing in Western Symphony.[1] Rising to the position of principal dancer with the company in 1956, he performed in all the major ballets in its repertoire, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Nutcracker, Bugaku, Agon, and Arcade.[4]

Choreographer and director of the NYCB George Balanchine created the pas de deux in Agon especially for Mitchell and the white Southern ballerina Diana Adams.[1] Audience members initially complained about partnering Mitchell with a white woman, but Balanchine refused to change the pairing. Although Mitchell danced this role with white partners throughout the world, he could not perform it on commercial television in the United States until 1968, when the performance aired on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.[4]
Mitchell left the New York City Ballet in 1966 to appear in several Broadway shows, and helped found ballet companies in Spoleto, Washington, D.C., and Brazil, where he directed a dance company. The company he founded in Brazil was the National Ballet Company of Brazil.[4]

 After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Mitchell returned to Harlem, where he was determined to provide opportunities in dance for the children in that community. A year later, he and his teacher, Karel Shook, inaugurated a classical ballet school.[1][5] Mitchell had $25,000 of his own money to start the school. About a year later he received $315,000 in a matching funds grant from the Ford Foundation.[2] The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) was born in 1969 with 30 children in a church basement in a community where resources of talent and creative energy were virtually untapped. Two months later, Mitchell had attracted 400 youngsters to attend classes. Two years later they presented their first productions as a professional company. Mitchell used his personal savings to convert a garage into the company's home.[4][6]

In Harlem, DTH created an explosion of professional opportunity in dance, music, and other related theater activities. The school has an outstanding number of former students who have been successfully engaged in careers as dancers and musicians, as technicians in production, stagecraft, and wardrobe, and in instruction and arts administration. With this success, DTH challenged the classical dance world to review its stereotypes and revise its boundaries.[4]

Mitchell received numerous awards in recognition of his groundbreaking work and achievements, including:

• 1993 – Kennedy Center Honors, one of the youngest persons recognized.[2][9]
  
• 1994 – Named as a MacArthur Fellow.[10]
  
• 1995 – United States National Medal of Arts, presented by the President[11]
  
• 1999 – Inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs, New York.[12]
  
• 2001 – The 7th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities.[13]
  
• 2005 – Awarded a Fletcher Foundation fellowship in its inaugural year, in recognition of his contributions to African-American culture.[14]
  
• 2006 – Mitchell and the Dance Theatre of Harlem were honored with a dinner at the White House by President George W. Bush.[15]
  
  

In addition, Mitchell received honorary doctorates from numerous leading universities, including University of North Carolina School of the Arts (1985),[16] Juilliard School (1990),[17] Hamilton College, Brown University (1996),[18] City College of New York, Harvard University,[19] The New School for Social Research, Williams College,[19] Yale University (2001),[20] Southern Methodist University (2009)[21] and Columbia University (2016).[22] He also received awards from the City of New York and community organizations.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Mitchell_(dancer)

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One never knows what one loses when someone dies for no explicable reason before (in her case, her) time:

Celia Barquín Arozamena (6 July 1996 – 17 September 2018) was a Spanish amateur golfer. She won the 2018 European Ladies Amateur Championship.


Barquín was born in Puente San Miguel (es) and educated in Torrelavega and then in Madrid. She spent two years in a residential training programme run by the Spanish Sports Council before moving to the United States,[1] where she was a member of the Iowa State Cyclones women's golf team from 2014 to 2018 and was the Iowa State University Female Athlete of the Year for 2018.[2]

She played for Spain at the 2015 and 2016 European Ladies' Team Championship, where the team finished third and second respectively.[3] She won the 2018 European Ladies Amateur Championship held at the Penati Golf Resort in Slovakia, finishing a stroke ahead of Esther Henseleit.[4][5] In the third round, she set a course record of 63.[3] She qualified for the 2018 U.S. Women's Open, where she missed the cut. In 2018, she reached Stage II of the LPGA Q-School, which is to be played in mid-October.[3]

Barquín was in her final year of a degree in civil engineering after completing her eligibility for the university golf team with the 2017–2018 season.[2] On 17 September 2018 at 10:24 a.m., the Ames Police Department were called and discovered her dead body at the Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, Iowa.[6] A 22-year-old homeless man who had been living in a homeless encampment near the golf course, was charged with her murder. He told a fellow homeless man that he had "an urge to rape and kill a woman" according to The New York Times.[2][3][7]

Barquín, the most accomplished women's golfer in Iowa State University history, was honored on Saturday, 22 September 2018, at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa. At 10:50 a.m. CDT (UTC−05:00), a video tribute and a moment of silence in honor of her will occur at Jack Trice Stadium before the Iowa State vs. Akron football game. Fans were asked to wear her favorite color, yellow, and to be in their seats by 10:45 a.m. Additionally, in her honor, the Iowa State football team wore her initials, CBA, as a decal on their helmets and the Iowa State University Cyclone Football Varsity Marching Band will form a CBA during their routine. Posthumously, Barquín will receive a civil engineering diploma from Iowa State University.[7][8]

Prior to her death, Barquín was to receive the Iowa State female student-athlete of the year award at Jack Trice Stadium on 22 September 2018.[9][10]

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Barq..._Arozamena


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Barqu%C3%ADn_Arozamena#cite_note-bbc-3][/url]

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Sir Charles Kuen Kao GBM KBE FRS FREng,[5][6][7][8][9] (4 November 1933 – 23 September 2018[10]) was a Hong Kong-American-British electrical engineer and physicist who pioneered the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications. In the 1960s, Kao created various methods to combine glass fibres with lasers in order to transmit digital data, which laid the groundwork for the evolution of the Internet. "Communication as we know it, including the Internet, would not exist without fiber optics," said William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999.[11]

Known as the "Godfather of Broadband",[12] the "Father of Fibre Optics",[13][14][15][16][11] and the "Father of Fiber Optic Communications",[17][18] Kao was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication".[19] Kao held citizenships in the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as having been a permanent resident of Hong Kong.[12]

In the 1960s at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL) based in Harlow, Essex, Kao and his co-workers did their pioneering work in the realisation of fibre optics as a telecommunications medium, by demonstrating that the high-loss of existing fibre optics arose from impurities in the glass, rather than from an underlying problem with the technology itself.[36]

In 1963, when Charles first joined the optical communications research team he made notes summarising the background[37] situation and available technology at the time, and identifying the key individuals[37] involved. Initially Kao worked in the team of Antoni E. Karbowiak (Toni Karbowiak), who was working under Alec Reeves to study optical waveguides for communications. Kao's task was to investigate fibre attenuation, for which he collected samples from different fibre manufacturers and also investigated the properties of bulk glasses carefully. Kao's study primarily convinced himself that the impurities in material caused the high light losses of those fibres.[38] Later that year, Kao was appointed head of the electro-optics research group at STL.[39] He took over the optical communication program of STL in December 1964, because his supervisor, Karbowiak, left to take the Chair in Communications in the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.[40]

Although Kao succeeded Karbowiak as manager of optical communications research, he immediately decided to abandon Karbowiak's plan (thin-film waveguide) and overall change research direction with his colleague George Hockham.[38][40] They not only considered optical physics but also the material properties. The results were first presented by Kao to the IEE in January 1966 in London, and further published in July with George Hockham (1964–1965 worked with Kao).[41]a[›] This study first theorized and proposed to use glass fibres to implement optical communication, the ideas (especially structural features and materials) described are largely the basis of today's optical fibre communications.

In 1965,[39][42]b[›] Kao with Hockham concluded that the fundamental limitation for glass light attenuation is below 20 dB/km (decibels per kilometer, is a measure of the attenuation of a signal over a distance), which is a key threshold value for optical communications.[43] However, at the time of this determination, optical fibres commonly exhibited light loss as high as 1,000 dB/km and even more. This conclusion opened the intense race to find low-loss materials and suitable fibres for reaching such criteria.

Kao, together with his new team (members including T.W. Davies, M.W. Jones, and C.R. Wright), pursued this goal by testing various materials. They precisely measured the attenuation of light with different wavelengths in glasses and other materials. During this period, Kao pointed out that the high purity of fused silica (SiO2) made it an ideal candidate for optical communication. Kao also stated that the impurity of glass material is the main cause for the dramatic decay of light transmission inside glass fibre, rather than fundamental physical effects such as scattering as many physicists thought at that time, and such impurity could be removed. This led to a worldwide study and production of high-purity glass fibres.[44] When Kao first proposed that such glass fibre could be used for long-distance information transfer and could replace copper wires which were used for telecommunication during that era,[45] his ideas were widely disbelieved; later people realized that Kao's ideas revolutionized the whole communication technology and industry.

He also played a leading role in the early stage of engineering and commercial realization of optical communication.[46] In spring 1966, Kao traveled to the U.S. but failed to interest Bell Labs, which was a competitor of STL in communication technology at that time.[47] He subsequently traveled to Japan and gained support.[47] Kao visited many glass and polymer factories, discussed with various people including engineers, scientists, businessmen about the techniques and improvement of glass fiber manufacture. In 1969, Kao with M.W. Jones measured the intrinsic loss of bulk-fused silica at 4 dB/km, which is the first evidence of ultra-transparent glass. Bell Labs started considering fibre optics seriously.[47]

Kao developed important techniques and configurations for glass fibre waveguides, and contributed to the development of different fibre types and system devices which met both civil and militaryc[›] application requirements, and peripheral supporting systems for optical fiber communication.[46] In mid-1970s, he did seminal work on glass fiber fatigue strength.[46] When named the first ITT Executive Scientist, Kao launched the "Terabit Technology" program in addressing the high frequency limits of signal processing, so Kao is also known as the "Father of the Terabit Technology Concept".[46][48] Kao has published more than 100 papers and was granted over 30 patents,[46] including the water-resistant high-strength fibers (with M.S. Maklad).[49]

At an early stage of developing optic fibres, Kao already strongly preferred single mode for long-distance optical communication, instead of using multi-mode systems. His vision later was followed and now is applied almost exclusively.[44][50] Kao was also a visionary of modern submarine communications cables and largely promoted this idea. He predicted in 1983 that world's seas would be littered with fibre optics, five years ahead of the time that such a trans-oceanic fibre-optic cable first became serviceable.[51]

li Javan's introduction of a steady helium–neon laser and Kao's discovery of fibre light-loss properties now are recognized as the two essential milestones for the development of fiber-optic communications.[40]

 More here at Wikipedia.

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Comedy producer Ernest Maxin dies aged 95

Thursday 27th September 2018, 4:46pm

Comedy producer and director Ernest Maxin has died aged 95
He worked with many comedians across his long career, including Dave Allen, Dick Emery and Les Dawson
He also worked on The Morecambe & Wise Show, overseeing some of its most famous episodes

Maxin won a BAFTA for The Morecambe & Wise Show's 1977 Christmas special. The celebrated episode - which starred Elton John and Penelope Keith - was watched by over 21 million viewers on its first broadcast alone. It remains one of the most viewed programmes in UK television history.

He also won the prestigious international Golden Rose award for Charlie Drake's version of the 1812 Overture.

Born in August 1923, Maxin began producing comedy in the 1950s. One of his earliest television jobs was directing Running Wild in 1954; Morecambe & Wise's first TV vehicle. It was a notorious failure after BBC bosses forced the pair to work with new writers outside their comfort zone.

Other early work included one of Frankie Howerd's first TV series, The Howerd Crowd. Maxin would go on to collaborate with star names to bring formats including The Jewel And Warriss Show and The Norman Wisdom Show to the screen.

He also worked for ITV broadcasters during his hugely prolific career, with credits including the hit sitcom Our House. Created by original Carry On scriptwriter Norman Hudis, it starred various regular cast members from the films, including Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Bernard Bresslaw.

The 1970s saw him working on many more comedy shows, including over 40 episodes of the hugely successful sketch series, The Dick Emery Show.

As depicted in the recent BBC drama Eric, Ernie And Me, which Maxin attended a premiere screening of last year at the BBC, in 1975 he took over from John Ammonds as the producer of The Morecambe & Wise Show.

His first episode with the duo was their 1975 Christmas special. He went on to produce their final - ninth - BBC series, as well as the 1976 special - featuring the famous Singin' In The Rain sketch, and the 1977 festive special.

He continued producing comedy into the 1980s, working on formats including The Les Dawson Show.

Maxin remained in involved in comedy even during his retirement. In 1996, BBC One broadcast Over Here, a comedy drama series set at an air-base in East England in 1942. Written by Only Fools & Horses' John Sullivan, it was based on an idea of Maxin's.

In recent years he contributed to various programmes about comedy and light entertainment, including 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches; The Story Of Light Entertainment; and Morecambe & Wise: The Whole Story.

Below is the famous Stripper sketch from the final series of Morecambe & Wise Show, which was conceived by Maxin when he realised - the night before the episode's recording - that he was one sketch short of the necessary episode run-time.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/news/504...maxin_rip/

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Writer of the books for the musicals Cabaret and She Loves Me

Joe Masteroff, Librettist of Cabaret, Dies at 98
By Robert Simonson
Sep 28, 2018
 
The Tony winner also wrote the books to She Loves Me and 70, Girls, 70.



Joe Masteroff Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Joe Masteroff, a musical bookwriter from Broadway’s golden age whose reputation rests primarily on two Harold Prince-directed shows, Cabaret and She Loves Me, died September 28, 2018, at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. He was 98.

Masteroff’s two most famous libretti were among the most literate and play-like to be found on Broadway in the 1960s. Both were based on existing works. She Loves Me, composed by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, drew from Parfumerie by the Hungarian writer Miklos Laszlo, about two store clerks who mutually loathe each other, not knowing they are also one another’s admiring pen pals. (The same play was the basis of the movie The Shop Around the Corner.) Years later, New York Times critic Frank Rich said the “Schnitzler-flavored book for the musical is a model of construction and taste.”

Caberet, the musical work of John Kander and Fred Ebb, was based on both Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories and I Am a Camera, the John Van Druten play inspired by it. It followed writer Clifford Bradshaw through a disillusioning affair with both Weimer Germany and one of its decadent denizens, Sally Bowles. Mr. Masteroff was nominated for a Tony Award for She Loves Me in 1964. He won three years later for Cabaret.
Mr. Masteroff had one more significant Broadway credit, the 1971 short-lived Kander and Ebb musical 70 Girls 70. He was also brought in to doctor Jerry Herman's Dear World in 1969.

Born in Philadelphia on December 11, 1919, he studied at Temple University and the American Theatre Wing, and began his theatre career as an actor, making his Broadway debut in that capacity in The Prescott Proposals in 1953. Six years later, he reappeared on Broadway as a playwright with The Warm Peninsula, a Julie Harris vehicle that ran a few months.

While not a success, The Warm Peninsula attracted the attention of producer Lawrence N. Kasha. “Larry came to Jerry and me with this proposal,” Harnick told the New York Times, “and said, ‘There’s a young playwright who did a show with Julie Harris called The Warm Peninsula, and we’d like to use him.’ And we had seen it and said it sounds great to us.”

“I told them, ‘I’ve never written a musical,’“ recalled Masteroff, “and Sheldon said, ‘Don’t write a musical; write a play.’ When I came to a place where I thought there should be a song, I would write it as a monologue. A lot of book writers say, ‘Here there would be a song in which she says how much she loves him.’ I just wrote the whole thing, and then Sheldon would use some of that material or not.”

For his libretto, Masteroff was inspired mainly by the 1940 movie, which starred James Stewart. “I was always fascinated with the thought,” he said, “that the show took place about 1938, and I said in two years a lot of the people are going to be dead, or their lives totally ruined, and it fascinated me. It gave the material such another twist that there was always that underlying darkness. And maybe some of the cynicism in the script came from that.”

In Cabaret, Masteroff was dealing with the same weighty time period, though the action was set not in Hungary but in Germany. Prince had acquired the rights to the material, and had commissioned Masteroff to write the book, throwing out an existing book and score by Sandy Wilson. Masteroff’s dark, forboding libretto was distributed between presentational, neo-Brechtian Kander and Ebb songs sung by Bowles and the sinister Emcee at the Kit Kat Club.
In 1996, Masteroff resurfaced with Paramour, a new musical he wrote with Howard Marren based on Waltz of the Toreadors by Jean Anouilh. He wrote both the book and lyrics. The show was workshopped at the O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, and then presented at the Old Globe in 1998. He also wrote the libretto for an operatic adaptation of O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms.

http://www.playbill.com/article/joe-mast...dies-at-98

Comment: Cabaret is my favorite horror story. Think of the elements -- freakish characters, bad things happening to good people, and that the only likeable characters in the story (the Jews)... well, we know what is going to happen.

[Eric the Green]

I will miss Marty Balin and Paul Kantner too. They did so much to awaken America and bring it a new music. The best psychedelic rock group of the San Francisco sound. I sometimes wonder what we will do without our leaders. They die too soon. In so many fields, the new generations don't seem able to replace them yet.

Jefferson Airplane Co-Founder Marty Balin Dead at 76
Hall of Famer and co-vocalist of San Francisco psychedelic rock band also founded Jefferson Starship



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music...76-730912/

Jefferson Airplane vocalist-guitarist Marty Balin, who co-founded the San Francisco psychedelic rock band in 1965 and played a crucial role in the creation of all their 1960s albums, including Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers, died Thursday at the age of 76. Balin’s rep confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, though the cause of death is currently unknown.

“Marty and I were young together in a time that defined our lives,” Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen wrote on his blog. “Had it not been for him, my life would have taken an alternate path I cannot imagine. He and Paul Kantner came together and like plutonium halves in a reactor started a chain reaction that still affects many of us today. It was a moment of powerful synchronicity. I was part of it to be sure, but I was not a prime mover. Marty always reached for the stars and he took us along with him.”

Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald, Balin was a struggling folk guitarist on the San Francisco scene when he formed a band with Paul Kantner after meeting the 12-string guitarist at a hootenanny. They met up with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Skip Spence and singer Signe Toly Anderson and cut their 1966 debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. They developed a strong following around the budding San Francisco rock scene, but became nationwide superstars in 1967 when Anderson left the group and was replaced by Grace Slick.

Balin co-wrote five songs on their breakthrough LP Surrealistic Pillow , including “Comin’ Back to Me” and album opener “She Has Funny Cars,” and his tenor voice became a key component of their signature sound. He played with the group at all of their most famous gigs, including the 1967 Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, The Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock and Altamont. At the latter gig, Balin was brutally beaten by the Hells Angels after he dove into the audience to help an audience member in distress. “I woke up with all these boot marks all over my body,” he told Relix in 1993. “I just walked out there. I remember Jorma saying, ‘Hey, you’re a crazy son of a bitch.'”

My favorite. Great work:

[Marypoza]

(09-29-2018, 04:12 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I will miss Marty Balin and Paul Kantner too. They did so much to awaken America and bring it a new music. The best psychedelic rock group of the San Francisco sound. I sometimes wonder what we will do without our leaders. They die too soon. In so many fields, the new generations don't seem able to replace them yet.

Jefferson Airplane Co-Founder Marty Balin Dead at 76
Hall of Famer and co-vocalist of San Francisco psychedelic rock band also founded Jefferson Starship



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music...76-730912/

Jefferson Airplane vocalist-guitarist Marty Balin, who co-founded the San Francisco psychedelic rock band in 1965 and played a crucial role in the creation of all their 1960s albums, including Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers, died Thursday at the age of 76. Balin’s rep confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, though the cause of death is currently unknown.

“Marty and I were young together in a time that defined our lives,” Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen wrote on his blog. “Had it not been for him, my life would have taken an alternate path I cannot imagine. He and Paul Kantner came together and like plutonium halves in a reactor started a chain reaction that still affects many of us today. It was a moment of powerful synchronicity. I was part of it to be sure, but I was not a prime mover. Marty always reached for the stars and he took us along with him.”

Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald, Balin was a struggling folk guitarist on the San Francisco scene when he formed a band with Paul Kantner after meeting the 12-string guitarist at a hootenanny. They met up with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Skip Spence and singer Signe Toly Anderson and cut their 1966 debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. They developed a strong following around the budding San Francisco rock scene, but became nationwide superstars in 1967 when Anderson left the group and was replaced by Grace Slick.

Balin co-wrote five songs on their breakthrough LP Surrealistic Pillow , including “Comin’ Back to Me” and album opener “She Has Funny Cars,” and his tenor voice became a key component of their signature sound. He played with the group at all of their most famous gigs, including the 1967 Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, The Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock and Altamont. At the latter gig, Balin was brutally beaten by the Hells Angels after he dove into the audience to help an audience member in distress. “I woke up with all these boot marks all over my body,” he told Relix in 1993. “I just walked out there. I remember Jorma saying, ‘Hey, you’re a crazy son of a bitch.'”

My favorite. Great work:

RlP Marty

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Charles Aznavour, French singer of world renown:

Charles Aznavour (/æznəvʊər/; French: [ʃaʁl aznavuʁ]; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, Armenian: Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնաւուրեան; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018)[1][A] was a French[4] singer, lyricist, actor, public activist and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his distinctive tenor[5] voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. In a career spanning over 70 years, he recorded more than 1,200 songs interpreted in eight languages.[6] He wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others.
Aznavour was one of France's most popular and enduring singers.[7][8] He sold 180 million records[9][10][11][12] during his lifetime and was dubbed France's Frank Sinatra,[13][14] while music critic Stephen Holden described Aznavour as a "French pop deity".[15] He was also arguably the most famous Armenian of his time.[7][16] In 1998, Aznavour was named Entertainer of the Century by CNN and users of Time Online from around the globe. He was recognized as the century's outstanding performer, with nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan.[17]

Aznavour sang for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events. In response to the 1988 Armenian earthquake, he founded the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009, he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva.[18] He started his most recent tour in 2014.
On 24 August 2017, Aznavour was awarded the 2,618th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Later that year he and his sister were awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Award for sheltering Jews during World War II. His last concert took place in NHK Hall in Tokyo on 17 September 2018.[19]

Much more at the Wiki.

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Great physicist.

Leon Max Lederman (July 15, 1922 – October 3, 2018) was an American experimental physicist who received the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1982, along with Martin Lewis Perl, for their research on quarks and leptons, and the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, for their research on neutrinos.

Lederman was Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. He founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, Illinois in 1986, and was Resident Scholar Emeritus there from 2012 until his death in 2018.[2][3]
An accomplished scientific writer, he became known for his book The God Particle establishing the importance of the Higgs boson.
In 2012, he was awarded the Vannevar Bush Award for his extraordinary contributions to understanding the basic forces and particles of nature.[4]

 After receiving his Ph.D and then becoming a faculty member at Columbia University he was promoted to full professor in 1958 as Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics.[9]:796 In 1960, on leave from Columbia, he spent some time at CERN in Geneva as a Ford Foundation Fellow.[11] He took an extended leave of absence from Columbia in 1979 to become director of Fermilab.[12] Resigning from Columbia (and retiring from Fermilab) in 1989 to teach briefly at the University of Chicago.[13] He then moved to the physics department of the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he served as the Pritzker Professor of Science.[13] In 1991, Lederman became President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[14]

Lederman was also one of the main proponents of the "Physics First" movement.[15] Also known as "Right-side Up Science" and "Biology Last," this movement seeks to rearrange the current high school science curriculum so that physics precedes chemistry and biology.[15]
A former president of the American Physical Society, Lederman also received the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize and the Ernest O. Lawrence Medal.[14][16] Lederman served as President of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and at the time of his death was Chair Emeritus.[17] He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1989 to 1992, and was a member of the JASON defense advisory group.[18]

In 1956, parity is violated in weak interactions. R. L. Garwin, Leon Lederman, and R. Weinrich modified an existing cyclotron experiment, and they immediately verified the parity violation.[19] They delayed publication of their results until after Wu's group was ready, and the two papers appeared back to back in the same physics journal.

Among his achievements are the discovery of the muon neutrino in 1962 and the bottom quark in 1977.[16] These helped establish his reputation as among the top particle physicists.[16]

In 1977, a group of physicists, the E288 experiment team, led by Lederman announced that a particle with a mass of about 6.0 GeV was being produced by the Fermilab particle accelerator.[16] After taking further data, the group discovered that this particle did not actually exist, and the "discovery" was named "Oops-Leon" as a pun on the original name and Lederman's first name.[20]

As the director of Fermilab and subsequent Nobel Prize in Physics winner, Lederman was a prominent supporter[21][22] of the Superconducting Super Collider project, which was endorsed around 1983, and was a major proponent and advocate throughout its lifetime.[23][24] Lederman later wrote his 1993 popular science book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? – which sought to promote awareness of the significance of such a project – in the context of the project's last years and the changing political climate of the 1990s.[25] The increasingly moribund project was finally shelved that same year after some $2 billion of expenditures.[21]

In The God Particle he wrote, "The history of atomism is one of reductionism – the effort to reduce all the operations of nature to a small number of laws governing a small number of primordial objects" while stressing the importance of the Higgs boson.[9]:87[26]
In 1988, Lederman received the Nobel Prize for Physics along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino".[2] Lederman also received the National Medal of Science (1965), the Elliott Cresson Medal for Physics (1976), the Wolf Prize for Physics (1982) and the Enrico Fermi Award (1992).[16]

In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Science Medicine and Technology.[27]
Lederman was an early supporter of Science Debate 2008, an initiative to get the then-candidates for president, Barack Obama and John McCain, to debate the nation's top science policy challenges.[28] In October 2010, Lederman participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students engaged in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize-winning scientist over a brown-bag lunch.[29] Lederman was also a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.[30]


More at Wikipedia.

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operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé


Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch (Catalan: [munsəˈrat kəβəˈʎe]; 12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), was a Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo.

Caballé became popular to non-classical music audiences in 1987, when she recorded, at the request of the IOC, "Barcelona", a duet with Freddie Mercury, which became an official theme song for the 1992 Olympic Games. She received several international awards, and also Grammy Awards for several of her recordings.

Caballé was born in Barcelona on 12 April 1933.[1] Her family was of humble financial circumstances.[1] She studied music at the Liceu Conservatory, and singing technique with Napoleone Annovazzi, Eugenia Kemény and Conchita Badía. She graduated with a gold medal in 1954. She subsequently moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she made her professional debut in 1956 as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème. She became part of the Basel Opera company between 1957 and 1959, singing a repertoire that included Mozart (Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte) and Strauss (Salome) in German, unusual for Spanish singers, but which proved useful for her next engagement at the Bremen Opera (1959–1962). In 1961, she starred as Iphigénie, in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, at the National Theatre of S. Carlos, in Lisbon, alongside Raymond Wolansky (de), Jean Cox, Paul Schöffler and others.[2]

In 1962, Caballé returned to Barcelona and debuted at the Liceu, singing the title role in Strauss's Arabella. From the fall of 1962 through the spring of 1963 she toured Mexico, at one point singing the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This was followed by several more successful appearances at the Liceu in 1963.[3]

Caballé's international breakthrough came in 1965 when she replaced an indisposed Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall, which earned her a 25-minute standing ovation. While this was her first engagement in a bel canto opera and she had to learn the role in less than one month, her performance made her famous throughout the opera world. Later that year, Caballé made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival singing
her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and portraying the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.[3]
In December 1965, she returned to Carnegie Hall for her second bel canto opera, singing the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's recently rediscovered Roberto Devereux. Caballé closed out the year with her Metropolitan Opera debut on 22 December 1965, appearing as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust alongside John Alexander in the title role, Justino Díaz as Méphistophélès, and Sherrill Milnes as Valentin in his debut at the Met.[4]

In 1966, Caballé made her first appearance with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano's Andrea Chénier[5] and her Italian debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore, followed by Bellini's Il pirata in 1967. She returned to Philadelphia in 1967 to sing the title roles in Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly,[5] and to the Met to sing three Verdi heroines: Leonora alongside Richard Tucker as Manrico, Desdemona in Otello with James McCracken in the title role, and Violetta in La traviata, with Tucker and George Shirley alternating as Alfredo.[4] The last role in particular garnered her further acclaim among American critics and audiences.[3] She returned to the Met the following year in the title role in Verdi's Luisa Miller, and in 1969 for the role of Liù in Puccini's Turandot, with Birgit Nilsson in the title role and James King as Calàf.[4] She also returned to Philadelphia as Imogene in Bellini's Il pirata (1968) and Lucrezia Borgia (1969).[5]

In 1969, Caballé appeared at the Arena di Verona in a Jean Vilar production of Verdi's Don Carlo. She was Elisabetta of Valois in an all-star cast including Plácido Domingo and Piero Cappuccilli. Her high B on the final "ciel" at the end of the opera lasted more than 20 bars up to the final chord from the orchestra. In these performances she had to act on crutches because of an accident earlier that year in New York City. In the same period she also appeared in recital at the Teatro Corallo in Verona. In 1970, Caballé made her official debut at La Scala in the title role of Lucrezia Borgia. She appeared as Leonora in Philadelphia,[5] and returned to the Met as Amelia in a critically acclaimed production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Domingo as Riccardo, and Reri Grist as Oscar.[4]

In 1972, she made her first appearances at Covent Garden and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, both in the role of Violetta.[3] That same year she returned to the Met as Elisabetta in Don Carlo with Franco Corelli in the title role, and sang the title role of Bellini's Norma in Philadelphia.[5] In 1973 she returned to Chicago to perform the title role in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda with Viorica Cortez, appeared as Violetta in Philadelphia.[5] She performed at the Met as Bellini's Norma, opposite Carlo Cossutta in his Met debut as Pollione and Fiorenza Cossotto as Adalgisa.[4]
 

Caballé in 1975

In 1974, Caballé appeared in the title role of Verdi's Aida at the Liceu in January, in Verdi's I vespri siciliani at the Met in March,[4] in Parisina d'Este at Carnegie Hall also in March. She appeared as Norma at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in in Adriana Lecouvreur at La Scala in April. She was filmed as Norma in Orange in July, by Pierre Jourdain). She recorded Aida with Riccardo Muti in July, and made a recording of duets with Giuseppe Di Stefano in August. In September 1974, she underwent major surgery to remove a large benign mass from her abdomen. She recovered and was performing again on stage by early 1975. In 1976 Caballé appeared at the Met once again as Norma, sang her first Aida in that house, alongside Robert Nagy as Radamès and Marilyn Horne as Amneris. She appeared in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, and sang Mimì in Puccini's La bohème alongside Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo.[4]

In 1977 Caballé made her debut with the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Puccini's Turandot. She returned to that house ten more times over the next decade in such roles as Elvira in Verdi's Ernani and the title roles in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Rossini's Semiramide, and Puccini's Tosca, among others.[6]

Having lost some of her earlier brilliance and purity of voice, Caballé offered more dramatic expressive singing in roles that demanded it. In 1978, she was Tosca in San Francisco with Pavarotti, Norma in Madrid, and Adriana Lecouvreur at the Met opposite Carreras. She continued to appear often at the Met during the 1980s, in roles such as Tosca (1980, 1985) and Elisabetta (1985), also sann concerts in 1981 and 1983. Her final performance at the Met was on 10 October 1985 Tosca with Pavarotti as Cavaradossi and Cornell MacNeil as Scarpia.[4]

Her voice was noted for its purity, precise control, and power. She was admired less for her dramatic instincts and acting skills than for her superb technique, vocal shadings, and exquisite pianissimos, which were inspired by Miguel Fleta.[7][8][9][10][11]

 
in Bellini's Norma, Caballé recorded both the title role (for RCA Red Seal in 1972, with Domingo as Pollione) and later the role of Adalgisa, to Joan Sutherland's Norma in a 1984 Decca recording conducted by Richard Bonynge. Although Bellini conceived the role of Adalgisa originally for a soprano, it is usually now sung by a mezzo-soprano. Caballé was one of few sopranos to have recorded the role, although she was over 50 years old at the time of the recording in 1984.[12]
 

As Rossini's Semiramide at the 1980 Aix-en-Provence Festival

In 1987, Caballé made a rare excursion into the world of pop music when she released a duet with Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the rock band Queen, which was titled "Barcelona".[13] The song was inspired by Caballé's home city and later used as one of the two official theme songs for the 1992 Olympic Games.[13] Mercury was a great admirer of Caballé, considering her voice to be "the best in the world".[14] The single was followed by an album of the same name which was released the following year and featured further collaborations between the two performers. The title track later became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics which was hosted by Caballé's native city, and appeared again in the pop music charts throughout Europe. Caballé also performed the song live, accompanied by a recording by Mercury, who had died in 1991, before the 1999 UEFA Champions League football final in Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.[15][16]

In 1994, writing for The Independent, Fiammetta Rocco said: "Caballe is one of the last of the true divas. Callas is dead, Kiri Te Kanawa is busy making commercials for Sainsbury's, and Mirella Freni has never really risen out of the narrow confines of being an opera lover's opera-singer. Caballe, on the other hand, has always had an enormous following, and it's still with her today."[17]

In 1995 she worked with Vangelis for his album El Greco, dedicated to the Greek painter. In 1997, Mike Moran produced the album Friends For Life, which includes duets with Caballé and such singers as Bruce Dickinson, Johnny Hallyday, Johnny Logan, Gino Vannelli, and Helmut Lotti.[18]

Caballé dedicated herself to various charities. She was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and established a foundation for needy children in Barcelona. In 2003, she starred in her own documentary film Caballé: Beyond Music, which featured many well-known opera singers, including Domingo, Pavarotti, Carreras, and Renée Fleming.[19]

In 2002, she appeared as Catherine of Aragon in Henri VIII by Saint-Saëns, and in 2004 in the title role of Massenet's Cléopâtre, both at the Liceu. She appeared as The Duchess of Crakenthorp in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at the Vienna State Opera in April 2007.[20]
In 2003, Patrick O'Connor wrote in Gramophone that

Quote:no diva in memory has sung such an all-encompassing amount of the soprano repertory, progressing through virtually the entire range of Italian light lyric, Lirico-spinto and dramatic roles, including all the pinnacles of the bel canto, Verdi and verismo repertories, whilst simultaneously being a remarkable interpreter of Salome, Sieglinde and Isolde.[21]

On 6 June 2013, Caballé was declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan after visiting, despite official warnings issued by the Azerbaijani
embassy in Spain, the de facto independent state Nagorno-Karabakh and meeting with local leaders.[22]

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actor Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson (born William Delano Wilson; March 29, 1942 – October 6, 2018) was an American actor. He had more than 50 film credits, including In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby, Dead Man Walking, Pearl Harbor, and Junebug.[2] In 1980, Wilson received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his role in The Ninth Configuration.[3][4] He played veterinarian Hershel Greene on the AMC television series The Walking Dead from 2011 to 2014.[5] In addition, he also had a recurring role on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as casino mogul Sam Braun, as well as a lead role on the Netflix series The OA as Abel Johnson.[6]

On October 6, 2018, Wilson died from complications of leukemia.[7]



Wilson was born in the small Southern town of Thomasville, Georgia. He made his screen debut portraying characters suspected of murder in his first three films. In his debut film, Wilson played a murder suspect in In the Heat of the Night (1967).[3] His follow-up role, in the same year, was In Cold Blood, based on the book of the same name by Truman Capote.[4] Wilson portrayed real-life murderer Richard Hickock, while Robert Blake played his partner, Perry Smith.

Director Richard Brooks cast Wilson and Blake in the starring roles specifically because they were unknown at the time.[4] The director passed over better-known actors, including Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, for the parts.[4] Wilson later explained Brooks' casting motivations: "Brooks hired two 'unknowns' and he wanted to keep it that way. We were treated like two killers he had somehow run across."[4] Wilson appeared in Sparta on March 15, 2014 to celebrate the city's 175th anniversary in reference to his debut appearance in the film.

The film earned Wilson an appearance on the cover of Life Magazine, published on May 12, 1967.[4] Wilson was just 25 years old at the time.[4] The cover features Truman Capote standing between Wilson and Blake on an empty highway in Kansas.[4] The caption, Nightmare Revisited, appears with them on the cover.[4] Wilson appeared in The Great Gatsby in 1974 opposite Robert Redford.[3] He received a 1980 Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Ninth Configuration by director and friend William Peter Blatty.[3][4] He lost the Golden Globe to Timothy Hutton. In 1995 Wilson got attention for his role as a prison chaplain in Dead Man Walking, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, based on the book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean.[3][4]
Wilson's long filmography also includes The Gypsy Moths, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, Big Stan, Judge Dredd, the Shiloh film series and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Wilson has filmed on location in South Korea, Japan and Spain.[3] Wilson had a recurring role in several episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Sam Braun, father of crime-scene investigator Catherine Willows (portrayed by Marg Helgenberger).[8] Braun was killed off in the episode "Built to Kill, Part 2". In the fall of 2011 he also made an appearance opposite Laura Dern in the HBO series, Enlightened.
Wilson was cast as veterinarian, Hershel Greene in the second season of The Walking Dead in June 2011.[5] The role has earned him positive reviews, including a "cheer" from TV Guide, which wrote that he had contributed "subtle shades of humanity to the character of Hershel Greene."[8] Wilson was offered the opportunity to join the show while visiting his 97-year-old mother in Georgia.[3] He has described his mother as "a fan of the show."[3] Wilson left the show in December 2013 after his character was killed off in the Season 4 mid-season finale "Too Far Gone". However, he has made two appearances since his character's death and was slated to appear in the ninth season.[9]

Wilson reflected on his career in a 2011 interview with Access Atlanta's Rodney Ho: "It's been up and down. It's always been. You have dry spells. At different times, you are starting over. If you love it, you stay with it. That's what I'm doing. I've accomplished more than I would have hoped to have accomplished. I don't want to be a big movie star. I can be someone who walks the streets and not get mobbed. I want to be as fine an actor as I can be. I am still striving to be as good as I can be."[3] Wilson was filming scenes for The Walking Dead in Senoia, Georgia, at the time the interview took place.[3] In 2014, Wilson was cast in a recurring role as Dr. Guyot in the Amazon original series Bosch. In 2016, he appeared in the Netflix series The OA.[10]
On October 6, 2018 it was reported that Wilson had died at the age of 76.[9]

[beechnut79]

Funny thing is, I have never heard of this particular actor before. Must have been out of the limelight for a very long time.

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(10-07-2018, 01:32 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Funny thing is, I have never heard of this particular actor before. Must have been out of the limelight for a very long time.

I am guessing that he strung out his career in bit parts, which is good for keeping out of the poorhouse. The role for which he might be best known is as a murderer in In Cold Blood.

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South African politician Pik Botha

Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, DMS (27 April 1932 – 12 October 2018) was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era.[1] He was considered a liberal – at least in comparison to others in the ruling National Party and among the Afrikaner community – but the bulk of his career was spent defending South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation against foreign criticism.

Botha was nicknamed 'Pik' (short for pikkewyn, Afrikaans for 'penguin') because of a perceived likeness to a penguin in his stance, accentuated when he wore a suit.[2] He has two sons, the rock musician Piet Botha and the economist, Roelof Botha, and two daughters, Anna Hertzog and artist Lien Botha. His grandson is Roelof Botha, former CFO of PayPal. He was not related to the past South African president P. W. Botha under whom he served as South Africa's foreign minister.

In 1970, Botha was elected to the House of Assembly as MP for Wonderboom in the Transvaal, leaving it in 1974. In 1975, Botha was appointed South Africa's Ambassador to the United States, in addition to his UN post. In 1977, he re-entered Parliament as MP for Westdene, and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister B. J. Vorster.

Botha entered the contest to be the leader of the National Party in 1978. He was allegedly considered Vorster's favourite and received superior public support among whites (We want Pik!) but withdrew after criticism concerning his young age, lack of experience (having spent 16 months as foreign minister) and alleged liberal beliefs as opposed to the ultra-conservative NP machinery (in which he lacked a significant position), instead giving support for P. W. Botha, who was ultimately elected.[4]

In 1985, Pik Botha helped to draft a speech that would have announced common decision-making on all levels in a single constitutional unit and a formula for bringing about the release of Nelson Mandela, but this draft was rejected by P. W. Botha.[5]

The next year, he stated publicly (during a press conference in Parliament, asked by German journalist Thomas Knemeyer) that it would be possible for South Africa to be ruled by a black president provided that there were guarantees for minority rights, but was quickly forced to acknowledge that this position did not reflect government policy.[6]

Throughout 1988 Pik Botha was instrumental in lengthy peace talks between South Africa, Cuba, and the People's Republic of Angola aimed at ending the South African Border War. In December of that year Botha and Defence Minister Magnus Malan ratified the Brazzaville Protocol, which led to the effective cessation of hostilities in that conflict.[7]
 
Namibian independence

On 22 December 1988, Pik Botha signed the tripartite agreement involving Angola, Cuba and South Africa at United Nations headquarters in New York City which led to the implementation of Security Council Resolution 435, and to South Africa's granting of independence to Namibia.[7]

On 21 December 1988, Botha, with a 22-strong South African delegation from Johannesburg, was initially booked to travel to the Namibian independence ratification ceremony in New York on Pan Am Flight 103 from London. Instead, the booking was cancelled as he and six delegates took an earlier flight, thereby avoiding the fatal PA 103 bombing at Lockerbie, Scotland.[8]

Botha subsequently served as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs in South Africa's first post-apartheid government from 1994 to 1996 under President Nelson Mandela.

Botha became deputy leader of the National Party in the Transvaal from 1987 to 1996. He retired from politics in 1996 when F. W. de Klerk withdrew the National Party from the government of national unity.
In 2000, Botha declared his support for President Thabo Mbeki. Botha expressed criticism for the government's affirmative action policies saying that the then South African government would never have reached a constitutional settlement with the ANC in 1994 had it insisted on its current affirmative action programme.[9]

In an interview on affirmative action, Botha publicly declared that he has never been a member of the ANC, and will not join under its current policies.[10]

On 12 December 2013, Botha appeared on the BBC's Question Time, hosted in Johannesburg, discussing the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela.[11]

Botha died at his home in Pretoria on 12 October 2018 at the age of 86.[12][13]

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Jim Taylor Green Bay Packers & New Orleans Saints

"You got to enjoy punishment because you are going to deliver so much of it, and you are going to get so much of it…If you are prepared you don’t really feel the punishment during the game.”

When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay coaching reins in 1959, fullback Jim Taylor became the Packers' bread-and-butter guy. Lombardi depended upon him to get the needed short yardage whether it was for a first down or a touchdown.

As the Packers’ dynasty grew, so too did Taylor become the symbol of power in the awesome Green Bay attack. Jim was a throwback to an earlier era, who ran with a fierceness no one could match. He caught the short swing passes and blocked with rugged determination.

Thousand-yard seasons became a specialty for Taylor. He went over 1,000 yards five straight seasons beginning in 1960 but reached his zenith in 1962, when he had a career-high 1,474 yards and was named the NFL Player of the Year.

Jim was living testimony to the popular football adage "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Nowhere was this more evident than in the 1962 NFL title game. Playing on a bitter-cold day, Taylor engaged in a personal duel with the New York Giants' outstanding defense, led by All-Pro linebacker Sam Huff. Jim carried 31 times for 85 yards and scored Green Bay's only touchdown in a 16-7 victory. He took a fearful pounding both from the hard-hitting Giants and the frozen ground. He suffered an elbow gash that took seven stitches to close at halftime and a badly cut tongue. At the end, he could scarcely see and he couldn't talk.

Taylor was often compared with Jim Brown, the Cleveland fullback, who played at the same time. There were many different viewpoints but Lombard's summation was most succinct. "Jim Brown will give you that leg and then take it away from you. Jim Taylor will give it to you and then ram it through your chest!"

https://www.profootballhof.com/players/jim-taylor/


James Charles Taylor (September 20, 1935 – October 13, 2018) was an American football fullback who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons, with the Green Bay Packers from 1958 to 1966 and with the expansion New Orleans Saints in 1967. With the Packers, Taylor was invited to five straight Pro Bowls and won four NFL championships, as well as a victory in the first Super Bowl. He was recognized as the NFL Most Valuable Player after winning the rushing title in 1962, beating out Jim Brown. An aggressive player and fluent trash talker, Taylor developed several personal rivalries throughout his career, most notably with New York Giants linebacker Sam Huff. This confrontational attitude, combined with his tenacious running style, a penchant for contact, and ability to both withstand and deliver blows, earned him a reputation as one of the league's toughest players.

Green Bay Packers

1958–1962

Taylor was selected by the Packers in the second round of the 1958 NFL draft, the 15th overall pick,[12] taken in December 1957 while Lisle Blackbourn was still the head coach. His rookie contract was worth $9,500.[13] That draft for the Packers included future stars Dan Currie (3rd), Ray Nitschke (36th), and Jerry Kramer (39th), but the 1958 team finished with the worst record in the league (and the franchise's worst ever, through 2016), under first-year NFL head coach Ray "Scooter" McLean.[14] Taylor was used sparingly as a rookie, but in the penultimate game at Kezar Stadium, he gained 137 yards on 22 carries in a 48–21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, and his running style brought cheers from the San Francisco fans.[15][16] With a one-year contract that was not to be renewed, McLean resigned days after the season and was replaced by Vince Lombardi in January 1959.[17]

When Lombardi took over, Taylor became the feature back for the Packers, especially in short yardage situations.[18] Taylor teamed with backfield mate, halfback Paul Hornung, to form a tandem that Green Bay fans affectionately called "Thunder and Lightning", due to Taylor's power and Hornung's agility.[19] In 1960, Taylor rushed for 1,101 yards on a league-high 230 carries and scored 11 touchdowns.[1] The Packers finished with an 8–4 record and met the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. They were defeated 17–13, despite 24 carries for 105 yards and six catches for 46 yards from Taylor.[20] Following the season, Taylor was invited to his first Pro Bowl, where he tied a Pro Bowl record by scoring three touchdowns in the Western Conference's 35–31 victory over the East.[21]

In the 1960s, Lombardi implemented the "Packers sweep" play in which guards Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston rapidly pulled out from their normal positions and led blocking for Hornung and Taylor. It became an integral part of the Packers' offense throughout the decade.[22] In 1961, Taylor carried 243 times for 1,307 yards and led the league with 15 rushing touchdowns. For the second year in a row, his rushing yards total was second to Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns. Taylor was selected as the second-team fullback behind Brown on the United Press International (UPI) All-Pro team,[23] and finished second in voting behind Brown for the Associated Press (AP) team.[24] The Packers again reached the NFL title game, this time defeating the New York Giants with a 37–0 shutout. Taylor had 69 yards on 14 attempts while playing despite badly damaged ribs, as Hornung carried most of the load for Green Bay.[25]
Taylor's most productive season was 1962.[18] With Hornung missing most of the season due to injury, Taylor picked up the slack.[26] He set a league record by scoring 19 touchdowns and won the NFL rushing title with 1,474 yards, notable for being the only season in which Jim Brown did not lead the league during his nine-year career.[27] He became the third player in NFL history to lead the league in both rushing yards and total points scored, following Steve Van Buren and Brown.[28] He was named the "Player of the Year" by the AP,[29] and was also awarded the Jim Thorpe Trophy by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) as the NFL's players' choice for league MVP.[30] He earned first-team All-Pro honors from the AP, UPI, and NEA.[1]
 
1962 championship game

Taylor's performance in Green Bay's 16–7 win over the Giants in the 1962 NFL Championship Game came to define his mental and physical toughness.[31][18] In frigid conditions at Yankee Stadium, Taylor carried 31 times for 85 yards and scored the Packers' only touchdown against what was considered the league's best defense, both statistically and by reputation.[32] Lombardi entrusted Taylor with the ball, as he was confident his fullback would be able to move the offense and not turn it over.[33] The game was highlighted by the fierce rivalry between Taylor and Giants linebacker Sam Huff.[26] The two clashed on nearly every play and engaged in trash talk throughout the game. Steve Sabol, who filmed the game with his father for NFL Films, described it as such:

Quote:The lasting image of that game in my mind is the ferocity and anger of Jim Taylor ... his barely restrained rage as he ran with the ball. Taylor just got the shit kicked out of him all day long ... There was all this trash-talking between him and especially Sam Huff ... Tons of profanity when they tackled him. I had never experienced anything like that.[26]

Taylor withstood a tremendous amount of punishment throughout the game.[34] At one point in the first quarter, he bit his tongue while being tackled by Huff, causing him to swallow blood for the rest of the game. He also required six stitches at halftime to close a gash on his elbow.[35] Some players wondered if he could even play in the second half. "Taylor isn't human," said Huff. "No human being could have taken the punishment he got today."[36][33][34] Taylor described the contest in the locker room after the game, saying, "I never took a worse beating on a football field. The Giants hit me hard, and then I hit the ground hard. I got it both ways. This was the toughest game I've ever played ... I just rammed it down their throats by letting my running do my talking. They couldn't rattle me ... I think Huff hit me with his elbow after a tackle. Anyway, I cut my tongue of all things."[26] Additionally, Taylor was playing while sick; two weeks later, he learned he had hepatitis,[33][36] which contributed to his 15-pound weight loss prior to the game.[26]
 
1963–1966

The animosity between Taylor and the Giants carried over into the 1963 preseason, as the second quarter of an exhibition game between Green Bay and New York began with Taylor drawing a personal foul penalty for roughing up Giants defensive end Andy Robustelli.[37] Taylor had a slow start to the 1963 season as he recovered from numerous injuries and his bout of hepatitis,[38] but still managed another 1,000-yard season. He again eclipsed 1,000 yards in 1964, becoming the first player to record five straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons.[5] He also began to see more use as a receiver out of the backfield during his later career. His specialty in the passing game was catching short swing passes from quarterback Bart Starr.[27] His most productive season as a receiver was 1964, as he caught 38 passes for a career-high 354 yards and three touchdowns.[1] That season also included an 84-yard touchdown run in a win over the Detroit Lions, the longest run of his career and the longest of any player in the NFL that year.[39] He made his final Pro Bowl appearance after the 1964 season and the last in a string of five straight. Despite the productivity from Taylor, the Packers missed the postseason in 1963 and 1964. They returned to the postseason in 1965, where Taylor carried 50 times for 156 yards over two games. He gained 96 of those yards during the Packers' 23–12 win over the Browns in the 1965 NFL Championship Game, second to Hornung's 105.[40] Taylor was named the game's most outstanding player by SPORT magazine and received a Chevrolet Corvette.[41]

During his ninth season in 1966, Taylor did not sign a new one-year contract and instead played out his option; he made no secret that it was likely his last season with the Packers.[42][43][44] With the retirement of Jim Brown, he became the active leader in career rushing yards. He caught a career-high 41 passes that year but recorded the fewest rushing yards since his second season.[1] The Packers finished atop the Western Division with a 12–2 record and defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the 1966 NFL Championship Game for their fourth NFL title in six years.[45] In January 1967, Taylor and the Packers played in the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game, known retroactively as Super Bowl I, in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They easily defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10. Taylor was the top rusher of the game with 56 rushing yards and a touchdown on a Packer Sweep play, with his score being the first rushing touchdown in Super Bowl history.[46] "It was just good blocking on a weak-side sweep play," said Taylor of his touchdown run. "It's a cakewalk when you get the blocking. It was just like we had been doing the last five or six years."[47] The game was his final with the Packers.

New Orleans Saints

In July 1967, Taylor left the Packers for the expansion New Orleans Saints to play under head coach Tom Fears, a Hall of Fame receiver and a former assistant coach for five seasons in Green Bay under Lombardi.[48] He was signed to four one-year contracts with the Saints, worth $68,000 for 1968 and $72,000 for each subsequent season. The Saints also signed Hornung, though he retired prior to the 1967 season. Taylor recorded his lowest rushing statistics since his rookie season, but was still relatively productive as a receiver, catching 38 passes. Prior to the 1968 season, he was relegated to special teams duties, and as a result he refused to play in that week's exhibition game.[49] Taylor retired from pro football in September, at the end of training camp.[50][51]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Taylor..._football)

[pbrower2a]

Raye Jean Montague (née Jordan; January 21, 1935 – October 10, 2018)[1] was an American naval engineer credited with creating the first computer-generated rough draft of a U.S. naval ship. She was the first female program manager of ships in the United States Navy.[2]


Raye Jordan was born on January 21, 1935 to Rayford Jordan and Flossie Graves Jordan in Little Rock, Arkansas.[3] She was inspired to pursue engineering after seeing a German submarine that had been captured by the Americans and put on tour across the country.[4]

She graduated from Merrill High School in 1952 and Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College (now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree in business. At the time, the engineering program at the University of Arkansas did not admit African-American students.[5]

Montague joined the United States Navy in 1956 in Washington, D.C. as a clerk typist. At work, she sat next to a 1950s UNIVAC I computer, watching the engineers operate it until one day, when all the engineers were sick, she jumped in to run the machine.[4] She took computer programming at night school while continuing to work and learn the job.[5] She was appointed as a computer systems analyst at the Naval Ship Engineering Center, and later served as the program director for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Integrated Design, Manufacturing, and Maintenance Program, the division head for the Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) Program, and deputy program manager of the navy's Information Systems Improvement Program.[3]

In the 1970s, her department was allotted one month to create a computer-generated ship design. By modifying existing automated systems, Montague produced the initial draft for the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate in around 19 hours.[3] With this accomplishment, she became the first person to design a ship using a computer system.[5] She later worked on ships such as the Seawolf-class submarine and the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. Montague retired in 1990.[3]

Montague died on October 10, 2018, at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. No cause of death was given; however, she suffered from congestive heart failure.[6]

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raye_Montague

[pbrower2a]

Paul Allen, entrepreneur:


Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Alongside Bill Gates, Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975, which helped spark the microcomputer revolution and later became the largest PC software company in the world.[2] In March 2018, he was estimated to be the 44th-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $21.7 billion, revised at the time of his death to $20.3 billion.[3][4][5]

Allen was the founder and Chairman[6] of Vulcan Inc., which managed his various business and philanthropic efforts. He had a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio including technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, private spaceflight ventures, and stakes in other sectors. He owned two professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League[7] and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association,[8] and was part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer in 2009.[9]
Allen was the founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science,[10] Institute for Artificial Intelligence,[11] Institute for Cell Science,[12] and Stratolaunch Systems.[13] He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, community services, and more.[14] He received numerous awards and honors in several different professions, and was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in The World in both 2007 and 2008.[15]   

Allen was born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington, to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (née Gardner) Allen.[16] Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, where he befriended the two-years-younger Bill Gates, and with whom he shared an enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside's Teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems.[17] They also used the laboratory of the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington, doing personal research and computer programming; on at least one occasion in 1971 they were banned from the laboratory for abuse of their privileges there.[18] According to Allen, in their teenage years he and Bill Gates would go dumpster-diving for computer program code.[19] After graduating and obtaining a perfect SAT score of 1600,[20] Allen went to Washington State University, where he joined Phi Kappa Theta fraternity;[21][22][23] after two years, however, he dropped out in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near Harvard University where Bill Gates had ended up.[17] Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to create Microsoft.[24]

In 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Allen and Gates began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter.[17] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," according to a 1995 Fortune magazine article.[26]

In 1980, after Microsoft had committed to deliver IBM a disk operating system (DOS) for the original IBM PC, although they had not yet developed one, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by Tim Paterson, who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products.[27][28] As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with IBM proved the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen's and Gates' wealth and success.[17] Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 after receiving a Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis.[17][29]
Gates reportedly asked Allen to give him some of his shares to compensate for the higher amount of work being performed by Gates.[30][31] According to Allen, Gates said since he "did almost everything on BASIC", the company should be split 60–40 in his favor. Allen agreed to this arrangement, which Gates later attempted to amend to 64–36.[32] In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen out at $5 per share; however, Allen refused and left the company with his shares intact. This proved critical to Allen's becoming a billionaire after Microsoft went public.[32][33]
Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board of directors on November 9, 2000. He remained as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives.[34][35][36] In January 2014, he still held 100 million shares of Microsoft.[37]

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen