Obituaries

[sbarrera]

Something tells me this is going to be a very busy thread for some time...

[David Horn]

William Harrison (Bill) Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985.[1] He recorded several major hits, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977), and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill.[1] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015

He wrote music that spoke to the soul directly and lifted people up when they needed it. I've heard "Lean On Me" more in the last week than I have in a long, long time.

[sbarrera]

https://apnews.com/1f0aca8b73b80808d4572...fSrRBRhGX4

Anick Jesdanun, longtime AP technology writer, dies at 51



This April 2, 2017 photo, shows Anick Jesdanun in New York. Jesdanun, 51, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, died in New York City on Thursday, April 2, 2020, of coronavirus-related complications, his family said. For two decades, he was a journalist who helped a generation of readers understand the emerging internet and its impact on the world. (AP Photo/Mae Anderson)
He ran marathons on every continent, including Antarctica — 83 of them in all, many followed by a visit to an obscure craft brewery. Last year, he watched 365 movies — most of them in theaters. And Anick Jesdanun made sure — always — that when millions of people read his coverage of the internet and its ripples, they got all the facts and the context they needed.

Jesdanun, 51, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, died in New York City on Thursday of coronavirus-related complications, his family said.

For more than two decades, Jesdanun helped generations of readers understand the emerging internet and its impact on the world. And while his work may have been about screens and computers and virtual networks, Jesdanun’s large life was about the world and exploring all of the corners of it that he could, virtual and physical alike.

“Before people knew the internet was full of falsehoods, he was the guy who said, `We’d better check that,’” said his colleague, AP technology writer Michael Liedtke.

Jesdanun, known as Nick, was the first AP reporter to be given the “internet writer” byline two decades ago, when the world was less than 10 years into using the network widely.

His early work focused on how the internet was changing everything: dating, reading, photography, democracy, access to health care. In 2000, he wrote about how internet-connected devices would be tracking our locations — something that was still years in the future.

By example, conversation and hands-on editing, Jesdanun, working from a desk renowned for its messiness, taught a generation of AP journalists how to cover technology in ways that were understandable and accessible but unparalleled in their depth.

“Nick was the steady bulwark of AP’s tech team for two decades,” said Frank Bajak, AP’s first technology editor. “He had the deepest institutional memory of AP’s tech coverage and patiently educated dozens of novice colleagues in all things digital.”

As the internet grew and its pitfalls become more evident, Jesdanun wrote about everything from Facebook’s privacy travails to government regulations. He also found time to cover things closer to his heart, one of which appeared under this headline in February: “How to binge on Oscar movies in cinemas for cheap.”

“There’s still no substitute for a movie theater,” he wrote in a first-person story last year.

Quick with a smile, Jesdanun sometimes let his sillier side loose in AP’s “Tech Tests.” These often included video shorts in which he would run new gadgets through the paces (and occasionally give his nieces cameo roles). When the iPhone’s face-recognition model came out in 2017, he filmed a mostly deadpan video of him trying to stump it with everything from a Santa beard to a fake nose and mustache.

While Jesdanun could seem reserved to those who didn’t know him, his colleagues talked of an embrace of the world that he carried into his work and that ensured his technology journalism was grounded in what people cared about.

“His depth of knowledge was unmatched,” said his boss, current AP technology editor David Hamilton.

And tech writer Mae Anderson, whose office desk was by Jesdanun’s, remembered how they’d visit tech industry events and Jesdanun wouldn’t relent until his sources produced the information he was looking for.

“He always kept asking questions and pressing people to answer questions,” she said, “much past the point I ever would. And it made the subsequent stories much better.”

Jesdanun’s running, which he embraced “later in life,” was part of that commitment to engaging with his surroundings, said his cousin, Risa Harms.

“It was a life force for him, a way for him to see the world and to meet people,” she said. “He’s a doer. He’s not somebody who felt comfortable being a recreational tourist. He visited a place and wanted to have something to do there. So he did a marathon.”

She added: “I feel fairly confident that there was nothing on his bucket list. There was nothing he wanted to do that he didn’t have a chance to do.”

Jesdanun, a Pittsburgh native who grew up in New Jersey, was a 1991 graduate of Swarthmore College. He worked in AP bureaus in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Washington before moving to New York. When he left Philadelphia for Harrisburg in 1993, he sublet his apartment to a colleague and left behind only a few pieces of furniture and, hanging from the ceiling, a glittering disco ball.

“Do what you want with the rest,” Jesdanun told his tenant, “but the disco ball stays.”

Barbara Ortutay, an AP tech writer and Jesdanun’s close friend, spent countless nights over the past 15 years hanging out with him at outdoor philharmonic concerts and movies around New York City. He was serious about photography and “was always documenting everything,” she said.

“He loved Chinese pork buns and always bought some for the rest of us in the office,” Ortutay said Friday. “One of our last texts was about pork buns, and I thought he’d turned a corner because he said he wanted one.”

Jesdanun is survived by his parents, Adisak and Orabhin Jesdanun; a brother, Gary Jesdanun; and several nieces, nephews and cousins. The AP, the only employer Jesdanun ever worked for, is planning a virtual memorial service at some point to give colleagues and friends the opportunity — in an undesired but perhaps appropriate forum — to remember its first internet writer.

“Nick was a kind and gentle colleague who was deeply admired by everyone he worked with,” said AP deputy managing editor Sarah Nordgren, who oversees technology news. “He loved the AP and his work, and it showed every day.”

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One-time holder of the record (for 43 years) for the longest kick of a successful field goal in NFL history.


Thomas John Dempsey (January 12, 1947 – April 4, 2020) was an American football placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints (1969–1970), Philadelphia Eagles (1971–1974), Los Angeles Rams (1975–1976), Houston Oilers (1977) and Buffalo Bills (1978–1979). He attended high school at San Dieguito High School and played college football at Palomar College. Unlike the "soccer style" approach which was becoming more and more widely used during his career, Dempsey's kicking style was the standard (of the day) straight-toe style. He died on April 4, 2020 from prior health issues he had before contracting covid-19 at the age of 73.

Dempsey is most widely known for kicking a 63-yard field goal as time expired to give the Saints a 19–17 win over the Detroit Lions on November 8, 1970 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.[1] Prior to 1974, the goal posts in the NFL were on the goal lines instead of the end lines, and a missed field goal was treated the same as a punt: if it missed, it was a touchback unless it landed in the field of play and was returned. With time running out in the game, the Saints attempted a field goal with holder Joe Scarpati spotting at the Saints' own 37-yard line. The snap from Jackie Burkett was good, and Dempsey nailed the field goal with a couple of feet to spare. The win was one of only two for the Saints in that dismal season. For many years, it was believed that Saints quarterback Billy Kilmer was the holder of that historic kick, but photos of that day, as well as radio and television calls, revealed that Scarpati was actually the holder.[2]


With the kick, Dempsey broke Bert Rechichar's NFL record for longest field goal by seven yards. That record was equaled by Jason Elam in 1998, Sebastian Janikowski in 2011, David Akers in 2012, Graham Gano in 2018, and Brett Maher in 2019. On December 8, 2013, Matt Prater topped Dempsey's mark by hitting a 64-yard field goal.

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Dempsey's special kicking shoe

Dempsey was born without toes on his right foot and no fingers on his right hand. He wore a modified shoe with a flattened and enlarged toe surface. This generated controversy about whether such a shoe gave a player an unfair advantage. When reporters would ask him if he thought it was unfair, he said, "Unfair, eh? How 'bout you try kickin' a 63 yard field goal to win it with 2 seconds left an' yer wearin' a square shoe, oh yeah, and no toes either."[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dempsey#cite_note-3][3][4] Additionally, when an analysis of his kick was carried out by ESPN Sport Science, it was found that his modified shoe had offered him no advantage – in fact, it was found that the smaller contact area could have reduced, not increased, the margin for error.[5]

The league made two rule changes in the subsequent years to discourage further long field goal attempts. The first was in 1974, which moved the goal posts from the goal line to the back of the end zone (adding ten yards to the kick distance) and awarded the ball to the defense on a missed kick at the spot where the ball was snapped (this changed in 1994 to the spot of the kick). Then, in 1977, the NFL added a rule, informally known as the "Tom Dempsey Rule", that "any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe."[6][7]

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

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The first member of any of the Big 4 American sports Halls of Fame (MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL) to die of COVID-19. Also the first black man to play for the Washington Redskins.

Robert Cornelius Mitchell (June 6, 1935 – April 5, 2020)  was an American professional football player who was a halfback and flanker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins. Mitchell became the Redskins' first African-American star after joining them in 1962, when they became the last NFL team to integrate.[1] He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

Mitchell was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and attended Langston High School.[2] There, he played football, basketball, and track, and was good enough at baseball to be offered a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.[2]


College career

Instead of playing professional baseball, Mitchell chose to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he picked from a host of schools that offered him scholarships.[2] He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini and had a particularly good sophomore year. At the beginning of the 1955 season, he was behind junior Harry Jefferson on the depth chart. Seven games into the season, Jefferson went down with an injury, and Mitchell took over at one of the halfback spots.[3] The first time he handled the football, he ran 64 yards for a touchdown.[2] Though he entered in the third quarter, Mitchell gained 173 yards in 10 carries, and the Illini upset third-ranked Michigan, 25-6.[3] He gained more than 100 yards in each of final two games of the season, when he also played as a defensive back.[3] That year, he averaged a record 8.6 yards per rush.[2]
As a junior in 1956, Mitchell did not see the field much due to a knee injury.[3] After his senior season, he was invited to play in the College All-Star Game, where he got behind defensive back, James David on an 84-yard touchdown reception, and then scored again on an 18-yard pass from Jim Ninowski.[2] The All-Stars' upset the Detroit Lions, 35-19, and Mitchell and Ninowski shared game MVP honors.[2] Mitchell was named first-team All-Big Ten football in 1955 and second-team status in 1957.[3] He was named to The Pigskin Club Honor Roll by The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C..[4]
Mitchell was even more successful in track. In February 1958, he set an indoor world record (one that lasted only six days) with a 7.7 mark in the 70-yard low hurdles.[2][3] In the Big Ten championships, he scored 13 points and helped Illinois win the title.[2] Mitchell was unsure whether he wanted to pursue a career in football or track. Even though the 1960 Summer Olympics were still two years away, he had his sights set on competing on the American team.[2] However, Browns head coach Paul Brown offered to pay him $7,000 during his rookie season and was able to convince Mitchell to play football instead of participating in the Olympics.[5]


Cleveland Browns (1958–1961)
Mitchell was drafted in the seventh round of the 1958 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, where he played as a halfback.[6] He was teamed with Jim Brown to give the Browns one of the most successful running back combinations from 1958 through 1961.[6]
As a rookie, Mitchell had a 98-yard kickoff return. A year later against Washington, he rushed for 232 yards, including a 90-yard scoring scamper. The same year, he returned a punt 78 yards against the New York Giants.[2] He earned his first Pro Bowl selection in 1960.[7]

As a Brown, Mitchell accumulated 2297 yards rushing, 1463 yards receiving, 607 yards on punt returns, 1550 yards on kickoff returns, and scored 38 touchdowns.[2] He once held the Browns' career record for kickoff returns for touchdowns, and he also currently holds the team's best rookie rushing average (6.3 in 1958).[8]

Washington Redskins (1962–1968)
Under pressure to integrate the team by the U.S. federal goverment, the Washington Redskins selected Ernie Davis with the first overall pick of the 1962 NFL Draft.[1][9] However, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall, wary of Davis's potential salary demands, traded his rights to the Cleveland Browns for Mitchell and first-round draft pick Leroy Jackson.[1][9][10] Unbeknownst to anyone at the time of the draft, Davis had leukemia, and died without ever playing a down in professional football.[9]

Mitchell, along with John Nisby and Ron Hatcher, was one of three black players on the 1962 Redskins, as the franchise became the last professional football team to integrate.[11] Bill McPeak, in his first year as head coach, immediately announced Mitchell would become a flanker. In his first game in Washington, Mitchell ran back a 92-yard kickoff return against the Dallas Cowboys.[2] The Redskins finished the season with a 5–7–2 record, their best record in five years.[11] Mitchell led the league with 72 catches and 1384 yards and ranked third with 11 touchdowns.[2][11] He was selected to the first of three consecutive Pro Bowls.[7]

In 1963, Mitchell recorded 69 catches for 1436 yards and seven more touchdowns. During this season, he also became the second player in league and franchise history to record a 99-yard pass play. The pass from George Izo was the first 99-yard pass in over 23 years, when the Redskins' Frank Filchock and Andy Farkas set the original record October 15, 1939.[2] During the next four years, Mitchell's reception totals were 60, 60, 58 and 60.[2] In 1967, new head coach Otto Graham chose to move Mitchell back to halfback because of Graham's decision a year earlier to move the team's best running back, Charley Taylor, to wide receiver. Mitchell enjoyed only moderate success running the ball but he did catch 60 passes for 866 yards and six touchdowns.[2]

In 1969, Vince Lombardi became head coach and promised Mitchell that he would return him to flanker.[2] But as training camp progressed, Mitchell realized that he was not in the same shape he once was and chose to retire.[2]
During his first six seasons with the Redskins, Mitchell never caught fewer than 58 passes.[6] When he retired, his 14,078 combined net yards was the second highest total in NFL history.[6] He had also scored 91 touchdowns (18 by rushing, 65 on receptions, 3 on punt returns, and 5 on kickoff returns). He amassed 7,954 yards on receptions and 2,735 yards on rushes.[6] He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.[2]
Front-office career (1969–2003)

After retiring from football in 1968, Mitchell remained with the Redskins, at the request of then head coach Vince Lombardi, as a pro scout.[12] He gradually moved up in the ranks to assistant general manager in the organization,[9] and he aspired to become the NFL's first black GM.[12] In 1978, Washington owner Edward Bennett Williams passed over Mitchell for the GM position in favor of Bobby Beathard.[7][12] Mitchell retired in 2003, stating that he was "deeply hurt" by how owner Jack Kent Cooke passed him over as the team's general manager in favor of Charley Casserly in 1998 and by coach Steve Spurrier's decision to issue his No. 49 uniform number, which had not been issued for years though never retired, to Leonard Stephens that season.[7][12]
As a player and a front office executive, Mitchell spent 41 years with the Redskins.[12]

Personal life

Mitchell lived in Washington D.C. with his wife, Gwen who is an attorney. They had two children, Robert, Jr and Terri.[3]
Beginning in 1980, Mitchell hosted the Bobby Mitchell Hall of Fame Classic, an annual golf fundraiser that benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.[13]

Mitchell also worked in many efforts and organizations, including the United Negro College Fund, the Howard University Cancer Research Advisory Committee, the American Lung Association of D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, the Boys Club of Washington, the National Urban League, the NAACP, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the University of Illinois Presidents Council and the University of Illinois Foundation.[3]
Mitchell died at age 84 on April 5, 2020.[1]

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"Mister Tiger" Al Kaline

Al Kaline, who in a long and unique Detroit Tigers lifetime grew from youthful batting champion to Hall of Famer to distinguished elder statesman, died Monday afternoon at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 85.

A cause of death was not immediately available. John Morad, a close friend of the family, confirmed the news to the Free Press after speaking with Kaline's youngest son, Mike.

In 22 seasons with the Tigers, most of them as a marvelous right fielder, Kaline played in more games and hit more homers than anyone else in club history, and he compiled a batting résumé second only to Ty Cobb’s. But while Cobb was widely reviled for his bitterness and meanness, Kaline was widely and eminently respected for his on-field elegance and off-field graciousness. Thus, Kaline has a strong claim as the most distinguished Tiger of them all.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/t...505371001/



Al Kaline was the Detroit Tigers for more than two decades. Through last place finishes and World Series triumphs, the Motor City knew it had its sweet swinging right fielder to cheer for throughout the summer.
Chuck Dressen, a big league skipper for 16 seasons, the last four with the Tigers (1963-66), claimed that Kaline was the “best” player he had ever managed. “In my heart, I’m convinced Kaline is the best player who ever played for me. For all-around ability – I mean hitting, fielding, running and throwing – I’ll go with Al.”

The 18-year-old Kaline came to the Tigers in 1953 directly from high school, having never spent a day in the minors, and by the next season established himself as one of the game’s bright new talents. By 1955, at age 20, he became the youngest player to win a batting title when he hit .340. That same year the youngster became only the fourth American League player to hit two home runs in a single inning.

“I owe everything to baseball,” Kaline once said. “Without it, I’d probably be a bum.”
Offensive consistency became Kaline’s hallmark over the years, hitting at least 20 home runs and batting .300 or better nine times each. A superb defensive outfielder with a strong throwing arm, he also collected 10 Gold Glove awards. In the 1968 World Series, Kaline’s only appearance in the Fall Classic, he batted .379, hit two home runs and drove in eight to help Detroit knock off the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

“You almost have to watch him play every day to appreciate what he does,” said veteran pitcher and former Tigers teammate Johnny Podres. “You hear about him, sure, but you really can’t understand until you see him. He just never makes a mistake.”

By the time Kaline’s 22-year big league career ended in 1974, the lifelong Tiger and 18-time All-Star had collected 3,007 hits, 399 home runs and a .297 career batting average.
“People ask me, was it my goal to play in the majors for 20 years? Was it my goal to get 3,000 hits someday? Lord knows, I didn’t have any goals,” Kaline once said. “I tell them, ‘My only desire was to be a baseball player.’”
Kaline passed away on April 6, 2020.

"He was a boy with extraordinary talent. He stood alone. To me, he was the kind of prospect a scout sees in his dreams – the kind you hope and pray will someday come along. "

-- Ed Katalinas, the baseball scout who discovered him as a teenage kid. 

https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/kaline-al

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I grew up in rural Michigan, and I got to see the middle and late stages of Al Kaline's career. He was steady... never a hot-head. He was the definitive "we" ballplayer who didn't put his personal statistics above winning the game. He typically let ball four sail past him, and if a single was easier to get than a home run and the single was enough for the time, he became a singles hitter. If he didn't get the devastating hit because he walked, there were the formidable hitters Norm Cash and Willie Horton who might make the walk to Kaline just another Tiger run scored. He made no mistakes in the field, but he had a throwing arm that many pitchers could envy for reliability. He turned many many would-be doubles into singles followed by outfield assists... and forced base-runners to be satisfied with a single, which kept the double play in order if he didn't quite catch the ball.

If I had been a baseball player I would have modeled myself upon him if possible.

He ended up just one home run short of 400...

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A prime minister of Libya (the transitional government that became the government once Moammar Qaddafi was defeated)

Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally[4] (Arabic: محمود جبريل الورفلي‎), also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril (28 May 1952 – 5 April 2020),[5] was a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the Libyan Civil War, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council (NTC) from 5 March to 23 October 2011.[6][7] He also served as the Head of International Affairs.[8] As of July 2012, Jibril was the head of one of the largest political parties in Libya, National Forces Alliance.[9]

Toward the end of the conflict, Jibril was increasingly referred to by foreign governments and in media as the interim prime minister of Libya rather than as the chairman of the executive board, the title used to describe him on the NTC's website, but it was unclear whether this was an official title or simply referred to his position as the provisional council's head of government.[10] Jibril's government was recognized as the "sole legitimate representative" of Libya by the majority of UN states including France, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Iran, and Qatar

On 23 March 2011, amidst the Libyan Civil War, the National Transitional Council officially formed a transitional government and Jibril was appointed to head it.[21] Jibril led meetings and negotiations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a meeting that resulted in France officially recognizing the National Transitional Council as the sole representative of the Libyan people.[11] He also met with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, successfully persuading them to publicly back the NTC.[22]


Following his appointment as the NTC's head of government, Jibril was referred to by foreign officials as both as the interim prime minister[23] and the chairman of the Executive Board,[24] the title attributed to him by the NTC official website.[6] References to Jibril as the prime minister, including by news organisations,[25] foreign government ministries[26] and world leaders,[27] have increased significantly after rebels entered Tripoli in late August 2011.
In his capacity as the NTC's top diplomat, Jibril was also referred to as the council's foreign minister,[28][29] though this may have been a colloquial title. Qatar-based news organization Al Jazeera also called him "the NTC's chief of staff" on at least one occasion.[30]

The Executive Board was sacked en masse by decision of the NTC on 8 August over its sluggish response to the assassination of General Abdul Fatah Younis, Benghazi's top commander.[31] Jibril was asked to form a new board subject to the council's approval.[32] Though Jibril stayed on as the board's chairman, a spokesman for the NTC said he would be required to spend less time out of the country.[33]

On 21 August, amidst the Battle of Tripoli, Jibril gave a televised speech urging revolutionary fighters against looting, revenge killing, abusing foreign nationals, and mistreating prisoners of war.[34] He also called for unity and asked that police and army units in Tripoli disavow Gaddafi but remain at their posts. Jibril declared, "Today, all Libya's people are allowed to participate in the building of the future to build institutions with the aid of a constitution that does not differentiate between a man and a woman, sects or ethnicities. Libya is for everyone and will now be for everyone. Libya has the right to create an example that will be followed in the Arab region."[35]

In September, Jibril "proposed 36 names for a new cabinet, including friends and relatives, and retained the prime minister and foreign minister slots for himself." He later retracted the proposal when NTC members objected, but an anonymous council official said it had "left a bitter taste".[36]


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

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Actor (mostly in Westerns) James Drury.


James Child Drury Jr. (April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020), was an Irish/American actor best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, broadcast on NBC from 1962–71.


Drury was born in New York City, the son of James Child Drury and Beatrice Crawford Drury.[1] His father was a New York University professor of marketing.[2][1] He grew up between New York City and Salem, Oregon, where his mother owned a farm.[3] Drury contracted polio at the age of ten.[2]

He studied drama at New York University[1] and took additional classes at UCLA to complete his degree after he began acting in films at MGM.[4]

Drury's professional acting career began when he was twelve years old, when he performed in a road company's production of Life with Father.[1]
He signed a film contract with MGM in 1954 and appeared in bit parts in films. After he went to 20th Century Fox, he appeared in Love Me Tender (1956) and Bernardine (1957).[5]

In 1959, Drury was cast as Harding, Jr., in the episode "Murder at the Mansion" on Richard Diamond, Private Detective.[6] On May 9, 1959, early in his career, Drury appeared as Neal Adams in the episode "Client Neal Adams" of ABC's western series Black Saddle. In the story line, Adams is an old friend of series protagonist Clay Culhane, a gunfighter-turned-lawyer played by Peter Breck. Adams has robbed a bank of $8,000 and was subsequently shot in the back by a pursuing bounty hunter, played by Charles Aidman. Adams asks Culhane for help and makes the false claim that the bounty hunter is the brother of a man whom Adams had earlier killed in self-defense.[7]

On Christmas eve 1959, Drury was cast in the episode, "Ten Feet of Nothing" on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. Drury portrayed a young miner, Joe Plato, who in a drunken stupor gives away half of his then worthless mining claim to a saloon singer, Kathy Mulqueen (Preshy Marker). Kathy arrives to collect on her interest in the mine when gold is discovered on the adjacent property. Soon Joe and Cathy fall in love and marry. Hank Patterson was cast as Plato's friend, Abe.[8]
In 1960, Drury appeared in different roles in two episodes, "Fair Game" and "Vindication" of another ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams as a Confederate adventurer roaming through the post-Civil War American West. On November 16, 1960, Drury played young pioneer Justin Claiborne in the episode "The Bleymier Story" of NBC's Wagon Train.[9]. He was also cast in the 1960 Disney movie, Pollyanna as George Dodds, the love interest of Nancy Olson.

In 1960, Drury portrayed Joe Darle in the episode "Wall of Silence" of the ABC/Warner Brothers detective series, Bourbon Street Beat. He made a memorable guest appearance on the CBS drama series Perry Mason in 1961, as he played the role of musician and defendant Eddy King in "The Case of the Missing Melody".

[/url]
Drury as the Virginian

He appeared in secondary roles for [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney]Walt Disney. In 1962, he was cast in a substantial role as a lascivious gold prospector in the early Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country (1962) opposite Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. Around the same time, Drury landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch foreman on The Virginian, a lavish series which ran for nine seasons until 1971.[citation needed]
Drury and his Wilshire Boulevard Buffalo Hunters band performed 54 USO-sponsored shows for troops in Vietnam in three weeks in April 1966.[5]
In a sequel to The Virginian, Drury continued his title role in The Men from Shiloh on NBC (1970-1971).[10]:981 He had the lead role of Captain Spike Ryerson in the drama series Firehouse on ABC television in 1974.[10]
In 1993, Drury had a guest-starring role as Captain Tom Price on the first three episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, opposite Chuck Norris and Clarence Gilyard. Drury also had a cameo role in the 2000 TV movie of The Virginian starring Bill Pullman. The film followed Wister's novel more closely than had the television series. Drury appeared in a number of films and other television programs, including The Young Warriors and the TV cowboy reunion movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw with Doug McClure, who played the character Trampas during The Virginian.
In 1991, Drury was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.[11] In 1997 and 2003, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina.[citation needed]

On February 7, 1957, Drury married Cristall Othones. They had two children and divorced on November 23, 1964. He married Phyllis Jacqueline Mitchell on April 27, 1968, and they divorced on January 30, 1979. He married Carl Ann Head on July 30, 1979.[1] Drury died from natural causes on April 6, 2020, at age 85.[12]

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astronomer Margaret Burbridge


Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, FRS (née Peachey; 12 August 1919 – 5 April 2020), was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. In the 1950s, she was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis and was first author of the influential B2FH paper. During the 1960s and 70s she worked on galaxy rotation curves and quasars, discovering the most distant astronomical object then known. In the 1980s and 90s she helped develop and utilise the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Burbidge was well known for her work opposing discrimination against women in astronomy.

Burbidge held several leadership and administrative posts, including Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (1973–75), President of the American Astronomical Society (1976–78), and President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1983). Burbidge worked at the University of London Observatory, Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). From 1979 to 1988 she was the first director of the Center for Astronomy and Space Sciences at UCSD, where she worked from 1962 until her retirement.

More at Wikipedia

[beechnut79]

John Prine (October 10, 1946–April 7, 2020), a renowned singer-songwriter has left us at age 73. Born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood, Mr. Prine was a local mail carrier when he burst on the music scene. He was often inspired by things he witnessed while on his mail route. He began his career playing in folk clubs in and around Chicago, most notably one known as the Earl of Old Town, which also was musical home to folks like Steve Goodman and Bonnie Koloc, the former of whom is now known for his Cubs anthem as well as the oft-covered “City of New Orleans”. It was in fact Goodman who, while sharing a bill with Kris Kristofferson at the Quiet Knight (I attended one of those shows) that said that Kris just had to hear his friend Prine. This led to a nearly instant recording contract. His premier album featured the classics “Hello in There”, “Sam Stone” and “Angel from Montgomery”, a song told from a woman’s point of view which has been covered by many female artists including Bonnie Raitt and Tanya Tucker.

In later years he moved to Nashville to further creative interests and then became mainly a country performer. Among his later efforts were “Unwed Fathers”, “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”, and “In Spite of Ourselves”, a duet with Iris DeMent.

In 2010 Mr. Prine shared a bill with Lucinda Williams. Both these artists managed to become music superstars despite being largely ignored by mainstream radio as being too country for rock and too rock for country. They may have been the first superstars of the more recently christened hybrid Americana genre.

Mr. Prine underwent throat surgery in 1998 and lung surgery in 2013. His passing comes as a result of the COVID-19 virus. It was revealed that his wife Fiona, who survives him, was diagnosed with the virus as well. He has been lauded as a songwriter’s songwriter by none other than Bob Dylan.
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Allen Garfield (born Allen Goorwitz; November 22, 1939 – April 7, 2020) was an American film and television actor.[2]

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


Garfield was born in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family, the son of Alice (née Lavroff) and Philip Goorwitz.[3][4] A 1957 graduate of Weequahic High School,[5] he was a sports reporter and Golden Gloves boxer before becoming an actor. He studied acting at The Actors Studio in New York City, studying with both Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan, and worked in stage before film.[2]

Garfield appeared in over 100 films and television shows. He is known for having played nervous villains, corrupt businessmen and politicians. In addition he appeared in two art films by German director Wim Wenders, Der Stand der Dinge and Bis ans Ende der Welt. Garfield has one sister, Lois. Quentin Tarantino once studied with Garfield when Tarantino was starting as a filmmaker.[6][7]

For a year after his father's death and in tribute to him, Allen used his family name, Goorwitz for his screen credits.[8]
When Garfield suffered a stroke prior to filming his role in The Ninth Gate (1999), director Roman Polanski opted to use Garfield's paralyzed face for his character rather than conceal it or recast the role. Garfield suffered a massive stroke in 2004 and thereafter was a long-term nursing care resident at The Motion Picture Home.

On April 7, 2020, during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, Garfield died of COVID-19. He was 80 years old.[2]

[Tim Randal Walker]

Actress Honor Blackman. Passed away April 5th at age 94.

[sbarrera]

(04-08-2020, 11:04 AM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: Actress Honor Blackman.   Passed away April 5th at age 94.

Really, Tim?  She deserves a little more. 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/ap...es-aged-94

Honor Blackman, James Bond's Pussy Galore, dies aged 94
Actor also known for role in Avengers praised as ‘hugely prolific creative talent’ by family
• Peter Bradshaw on Honor Blackman: an elegant and witty star who never took herself too seriously
• Honor Blackman: a life in pictures


Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Photograph: Allstar/United Artists

Honor Blackman, the actor best known for playing the Bond girl Pussy Galore, has died aged 94.
Blackman, who became a household name in the 1960s as Cathy Gale in The Avengers and had a career spanning eight decades, died of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus.

Blackman’s family called her an “adored mother and grandmother” who possessed “an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess”.

In a statement to the Guardian, they said: “It’s with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Honor Blackman, aged 94. She died peacefully of natural causes at her home in Lewes, Sussex, surrounded by her family. She was much loved and will be greatly missed by her two children Barnaby and Lottie, and grandchildren Daisy, Oscar, Olive and Toby.

“As well as being a much-adored mother and grandmother, Honor was an actor of hugely prolific creative talent; with an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess, along with her unique voice and a dedicated work ethic, she achieved an unparalleled iconic status in the world of film and entertainment and with absolute commitment to her craft and total professionalism in all her endeavours she contributed to some of the great films and theatre productions of our times.”


 Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale with Patrick Macnee as John Steed in the TV series The Avengers. Photograph: Allstar/ABC/Sportsphoto

As well as her parts in The Avengers and the Bond film Goldfinger, her family highlighted Blackman’s roles as the vengeful goddess Hera in Jason and the Argonauts and as Laura West in the 1990s sitcom The Upper Hand. She appeared in theatrical productions including The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and Cabaret.
In recent years, she had toured and performed in her show Honor Blackman As Herself, in which her family said she looked back over “her astonishing life, her beginnings, her family, and her rise to stardom with her usual sense of humour and perspective”.

Blackman was a voracious consumer of current affairs, they added: “Honor was an avid reader of news and politics and she particularly loved the Guardian newspaper, along with all forms of insightful unbiased reporting and intellectually enlightened broadcasting.”

Tributes poured in for Blackman, with Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli calling her a “film icon … who shall forever be remembered as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger”. They added: “She was an extraordinary talent and a beloved member of the Bond family. Our thoughts are with her family at this time.”
[/url]
The film director Edgar Wright described her as the “ultimate Bond girl and original Avenger” in a tweet. The actor Joe McGann, who starred alongside her in The Upper Hand, tweeted: “What a woman she was – fiercely bright, superbly funny and a wonderful actress on screen and onstage. I loved every day of working with her and I loved and respected her with all my heart. RIP.”

Blackman, a committed activist who campaigned for the Liberal party and later became a member of the Liberal Democrats, was praised by the acting leader, Sir Ed Davey. “My condolences to her family & friends. Never forget when she came to Kingston to campaign with me - sheer grace and charm, & a great supporter for Liberals & LibDems,” he tweeted.

Former leader Tim Farron added: “You could guarantee bums on seats at any Lib Dem event Honor was at. She was charismatic, principled and kind. A very sad day, sending love to her family.”


 Blackman played Laura West in the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Born in east London to a middle-class family – her father was a civil servant – Blackman credited [url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/23/honor-blackman-actor-family-values]the elocution lessons she received as a birthday gift as allowing her to progress in her acting career. After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she had small roles in films and TV shows such as Titanic drama A Night to Remember (1958) and the Edgar Wallace vigilante series The Four Just Men (1959-60).

She secured her breakthrough when she was cast in 1962 as the leather-clad crimefighter Cathy Gale in the hit British show The Avengers, alongside Patrick Macnee as the bowler-hatted John Steed. Blackman had to learn judo for the role, and her tough persona allied to then daring costume choices – boots and figure-hugging catsuits – ensured she quickly assumed star status. One of its unlikely results was a hit single, Kinky Boots, recorded in 1964 with Macnee, which became a Top 10 hit in 1990.

Blackman’s proficiency in martial arts helped her land what became her signature role, that of Pussy Galore, the glamorous villain assisting in Goldfinger’s plot to rob Fort Knox. Released in 1964, Goldfinger was the third Bond film and was a global hit. However, Blackman later told the Guardian she regretted leaving The Avengers to play the part. “I walked away at the wrong moment. They were just going from black and white to colour, they were starting to get real film money.”

After her rise to mainstream fame, Blackman made noticeable appearances in such films as Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Shalako (1968) and The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but while she worked steadily in film, her TV work was higher profile, and included guest appearances in Columbo, Minder and Doctor Who. In 1990, she was cast in a regular role in the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand, playing the glamorous mother of the lead female character. Blackman expressed her fondness for the role, saying it “made women who had just retired and felt they’d been put on the backburner realise they had a lot of life left to live”.

She was a staunch republican, and turned down a CBE in 2002 to avoid being a “hypocrite”. More recently, she joined a campaign to demand compensation payments for pensioners who lost savings in the Equitable Life scandal.

Blackman was married and divorced twice, to Bill Sankey and Maurice Kaufmann. She adopted two children with Kaufmann, Lottie and Barnaby.

[sbarrera]

A Homelander whose life course was connected to two major 4T stories.

https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2020/0...kaEUnYIizs

Charlotte Figi, namesake of Charlotte’s Web medical marijuana strain, dies with COVID-19
Colo. (KRDO) -- Charlotte Figi, the little girl who inspired the low-THC medical marijuana strain, “Charlotte’s Web,” has passed away with COVID-19.

Multiple family members tested positive for the virus, said those close to the family.

As of Tuesday, 179 people have died of coronavirus in Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Figi had suffered hundreds of grand mal seizures when her parents, exhausted of heavy-duty drugs, sought out the help of the southern Colorado-based Stanley Brothers, who eventually engineered the non-psychoactive CW Hemp in 2011.

The advent of the CW Hemp plant spurred hundreds of families to flock to Colorado, seeking alternative treatment for a variety of health issues, including seizures, shortly after Colorado legalized medical marijuana.

Figi was just three months old when she started having seizures from Dravet Syndrome. After taking oil from Charlotte’s Web, her seizures reduced to two to three per month.

A Figi family friend Tuesday posted publicly on Facebook, “Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever.”

The family asked for privacy during this time.

Charlotte Figi was 13.

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Mort Drucker (March 22, 1929 – April 8, 2020)[1] was an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in Mad, where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and television series.
In a 1985 Tonight Show appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, "When did you really know you'd made it in show business?" Fox replied, "When Mort Drucker drew my head."[2]

Drucker was born in Brooklyn, New York City,[3] with some sources listing his birth date as March 22, 1929, and others as March 29.[4] He attended Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School. There he met his future wife Barbara, whom he married shortly after her graduation. The couple moved to Long Island, living in Syosset, where they brought up two daughters, Laurie and Melanie; their family eventually expanded with three grandchildren.[5]
Career[edit]

Drucker entered the comics field by assisting Bert Whitman on the newspaper comic strip Debbie Dean in 1947 when he was 18, based on a recommendation from Will Eisner. He then joined the staff of National Periodical Publications (DC Comics), where he worked as a retoucher. While at DC, Drucker also ghosted "The Mountain Boys", Paul Webb's regular gag panel for Esquire Magazine.[5] Early in the 1950s, Drucker left his DC staff gig and began doing full-time freelance work for a number of comic book publishers such as Dell, Atlas and St. John's, as well as several humor and war titles for his former employer.
Mad[edit]
In the fall of 1956, shortly after the departure of Mad's founding editor Harvey Kurtzman, Drucker found his way to Mad. His first visit to the magazine's offices coincided with a World Series broadcast, and publisher Bill Gaines told Drucker that if the Brooklyn Dodgers won the game, he would be given a drawing assignment. The Dodgers won. Capricious though Drucker's alleged audition process may have been, it was a good anecdote. Years later, Gaines unsurprisingly confessed, "We would have hired him anyway."

By the time he wound down his Mad career 55 years later, Drucker held the longest uninterrupted tenure of any Mad artist. Drucker has the most bylined articles by any Mad artist who does not also write his own material, with more than 400.[6]

Drucker had arrived at the Mad offices with pages from his Hopalong Cassidy comic book work for DC Comics and some of his "Mountain Boys" strips, as well as a humorous "little situation" featuring The Lone Ranger and Tonto that he had specifically drawn for the interview. Though this work was unlike the likenesses and continuities he would become best known for, the Mad staff reacted favorably. The first to review Drucker's portfolio was Mad associate editor Nick Meglin, who admitted, "I didn't spot how great he was at caricatures. Not at first. But then, he wasn't that great then." Drucker himself says that he "just wanted to be an artist ... to get paid for drawing anything," and only started focusing on caricature work because he started getting more of those assignments. "That's when I realized I'd found my calling," said Drucker.[7] At the time of Drucker's arrival, Mad did not regularly feature TV and movie satires. Editor Al Feldstein credited Drucker's style and ability for the decision to start featuring them in every issue.
For well over a decade, Mad had difficulty obtaining promotional photos that Drucker could use as source material for his drawings.[8] When he was illustrating Mad parodies, Drucker's colleague Angelo Torres brought a camera into movie theaters and snapped pictures of the screen. Eventually, a generation of Mad fans grew up and some became Hollywood publicists, making Drucker's research easier. However, Mad still experienced some interference. When the magazine's parody of The Empire Strikes Back was published in 1980, drawn by Drucker, the magazine received a cease and desist letter from George Lucas' lawyers demanding that the issue be pulled from sale, and that Mad destroy the printing plates, surrender the original art, and turn over all profits from the issue. Unbeknownst to them, George Lucas himself had just sent Mad an effusive letter praising the parody, and declaring, "Special Oscars should be awarded to Drucker and DeBartolo, the George Bernard Shaw and Leonardo da Vinci of comic satire."[9][10] Publisher Gaines mailed a copy of the letter to Lucas' lawyers with a handwritten message across the top: "That's funny, George liked it!"[11] There was no further communication on the matter.[12] Drucker had also worked on the advertising campaign for Lucas' earlier film American Graffiti. In his introduction to the Mad About Star Wars book, Lucas wrote, "I have always defended Mad from my lawyers."[13][14]
Meglin called Drucker "number one in a field of one." Charles Schulz wrote, "Frankly, I don't know how he does it, and I stand in a long list of admirers ... I think he draws everything the way we would all like to draw." In 2012, referring to Drucker's splash page for Mad's parody of The Godfather, the Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon wrote, "The way he draws James Caan's eyebrow is worth some folks' entire careers."[15]
In 2012, Drucker discussed his art style, and how he applied it to his Mad assignments:

Quote:I've always considered a caricature to be the complete person, not just a likeness. Hands, in particular, have always been a prime focus for me as they can be as expressive of character as the exaggerations and distortions a caricaturist searches for. I try to capture the essence of the person, not just facial features ... I've discovered through years of working at capturing a humorous likeness that it's not about the features themselves as much as the space between the features. We all have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, hair, and jaw lines, but yet we all look different. What makes that so is the space between them. The artist is actually creating his own storyboard for the film. I become the "camera" and look for angles, lighting, close-ups, wide angles, long shots-- just as a director does to tell the story in the most visually interesting way he can. My first sketches are as much composition and design ideas as they are character and action images ... I don't want to get too involved in the juicy parts since some of what I'm doing will be modified or discarded as I get further involved in the storytelling. I then stand back and look at the page as a complete unit to make sure it's designed well: "Hmmm, three close-up panels in a row of characters talking. Better change that middle panel to a far shot. Maybe make that panel an open vignette." ... Then I place the facing pages together and look at how the spread holds together, and sometimes make changes based on that.[16]

Drucker also remained active for DC, illustrating War Stories, among other titles. Beginning in 1959, he spent four years drawing DC's The Adventures of Bob Hope comic book.[5] Drucker credits this stint as a key moment in his career because it focused his work on caricature.[17]
In 1962, Drucker teamed with the prolific humor writer Paul Laikin on the highly successful JFK Coloring Book (Kanrom Publishers), which sold 2,500,000 copies. Two decades later, Drucker illustrated similar coloring books on Ollie North and Ronald Reagan.[5][18] His film posters include Universal's American Graffiti (1973), directed by George Lucas[3] with Drucker also drawing the high school yearbook pictures in the film trailer.
Drucker also pursued assignments in television animation, movie poster art and magazine illustration, including covers for Time, some of which are in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. His album covers include art for the pop band The Bears[19] and the Anthrax album State of Euphoria, as well as humor albums in the vein of his own "JFK Coloring Book" including "The LBJ Menagerie" and "The New First Family, 1968." In addition to books collecting his own work, he has provided illustrations for numerous books by others, including children's books, humor books and satire. He drew the prop cartoons used in the 1957 Broadway musical comedy, Rumple.[5]

Between 1984 and 1987, Drucker collaborated with Jerry Dumas (and John Reiner) on the daily comic strip Benchley. Set in the White House, the plot revolved around the fictive character Benchley who acted as the assistant and admirer of contemporary president Ronald Reagan. Dumas commented, "Nobody ever did a strip about the government. It's a wonderful place to set a strip. There's so much room for humor in the White House."[20] Benchley was syndicated by the Register and Tribune Syndicate.[21]

In 1990, Drucker designed the Supercup for Target. The following year, for the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, Drucker and executive Mitchell Erick created the Frugies (pronounced fru-jees) to promote June as National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. The campaign included such characters as Lord Mushroom, Pepe L'Pepper, Penelope Pear and Adam Apple.[22]

Mort Drucker's Time covers are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. He was recognized for his work with the National Cartoonists Society Special Features Award (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988), its Reuben Award (1987), and induction into the Society's Hall of Fame (2017).[23][24] Drucker was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Boston.

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

[pbrower2a]

A Louisiana state legislator. Power is not protection from the COVID-19 plague.

Louisiana lawmaker Reggie Bagala dies after battle with coronavirus
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Updated: 7:29 PM CDT Apr 9, 2020


WDSU Digital Team



Play Video
 SHOW TRANSCRIPT

NEW ORLEANS —
Louisiana Rep. Reggie Bagala, R-Cut Off, has died after a battle with COVID-19.
WDSU anchor Travers Mackel confirmed through current and former lawmakers the passing of Bagala, who represented parts of Jefferson and Lafourche parishes.

Advertisement
[url=https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/members?ID=54]Bagala, who was a freshman House member, was hospitalized last week with coronavirus.
Bagala was 54 years old. He was from the Port Fourchon area.
Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a statement on Bagala's passing:
"A successful businessman, devoted family man, and active volunteer, Rep. Bagala spent his life making his community and south Louisiana a better place to live for everyone. Just one month ago, he entered the Louisiana State Capitol with excitement and eagerness to serve the people of our great state and the people of House District 54, and today we mourn his loss.
"We are better for having people like Rep. Bagala who are willing to be public servants and make our state better. I ask the people of Louisiana to join Donna and me in praying for Rep. Bagala's family, friends, colleagues and the people of House District 54 during this difficult time"
Bagala's worked for Lafourche Parish Government before making his way to the House.
He graduated from Louisiana State University.
"Reggie had a passion for public service and his heart was the kind of heart any man would strive to have. Today, I not only lost a fellow legislator, but a friend," said Louisiana Rep. Bryan Fontenot, of Thibodaux.


https://www.wdsu.com/article/louisiana-l...s/32100292

[sbarrera]

Malcolm Dixon (September 1953 – 9 April 2020)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Dixon_(actor)

https://scififantasyfanssociety.wordpres...EDR91RVpUM

RIP Malcolm Dixon
APRIL 9, 2020/ SCI-FI & FANTASY FANS SOCIETY
#RIP: actor Malcolm Dixon has died at the age of 66. Born in Sept., 1953 (his exact birthdate is unknown), he played Leektar the Ewok Warrior in “#StarWars VI: #ReturnOfTheJedi” (he was also a film extra in “Star Wars IV: #ANewHope), an Oompa Loompa in #WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory, a dwarf in #FlashGordon, Strutter in #TimeBandits, an additional performer in #TheDarkCrystal, Goblin Corps in #Labyrinth, Diddy in #SnowWhite (1987), Nelwyn Band Member in #Willow, & more.

Our condolences to his family, friends and fans. May he rest in peace and may the Force be with him.



Malcolm Dixon (1953-2020)

[sbarrera]

Hilary Dwyer (6 May 1945 – April 2020), also known as Hilary Heath

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

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/h...hNj_pTjGCM

Hilary Heath, Actress in 'Witchfinder General,' Dies of COVID-19 Complications at 74


American International Pictures/Photofest
As Hilary Dwyer, she starred with Vincent Price in 1969's' The Oblong Box.'

She worked alongside Vincent Price in three movies, then turned to producing 'An Awfully Big Adventure,' 'Nil by Mouth' and 'Rebecca.'
Hilary Heath, the British actress and producer who starred opposite Vincent Price in the American International Pictures horror films Witchfinder General, The Oblong Box and Cry of the Banshee, has died. She was 74.

Dwyer died last week of complications from COVID-19, her godson, Alex Williams, wrote on Facebook.

After retiring from acting, Heath produced Mike Newell's An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, and Nil by Mouth (1997), written and directed by Gary Oldman.

She was married to talent agent Duncan Heath from 1974 until their 1989 divorce, and they launched the agency Duncan Heath Associates, which was sold to ICM in 1984. He is now co-chairman of Independent Talent Group.

Born on May 6, 1945, in Liverpool, England, Hilary Dwyer studied ballet and the piano as a child and then appeared as a stage actress for the Bristol Old Vic.

After working on The Avengers and other TV series, she made her big-screen debt as the terrified niece Sara Lowes in the gruesome Witchfinder General (1968), directed and co-written by Michael Reeves. (The filmmaker died soon after the movie's release at age 25 of an alcohol and barbiturate overdose.)

Following a turn in The Body Stealers (1969), she reunited with Price in Edgar Allan Poe's The Oblong Box (1969) and Cry of the Banshee (1970).

"I adored Vincent," she said during a 2010 panel discussion. "I played his mistress, his daughter and his wife. And he said, 'If you ever play my mother, I'll marry you.' "

She also appeared in Ted Kotcheff's Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969), and in a 1970 adaptation of Wuthering Heights featuring Timothy Dalton, she portrayed Isabella. (Geraldine Fitzgerald's played the character in an Oscar-nominated turn in the 1939 Oscar best picture nominee.)

Her last onscreen appearance came on a 1976 episode of Space: 1999.

Her producing credits included the 1986 telefilm The Worst Witch; Criminal Law (1988), directed by Martin Campbell and starring Oldman and Kevin Bacon; and TV adaptations of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Frenchman's Creek and Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone in 1997, '98 and '03, respectively.

The Economist wrote about Heath's death in an article titled "How COVID-19 Is Changing Funerals."

Survivors also include her son, Daniel Heath, a film composer (Big Eyes), and her daughter, Laura.

[sbarrera]

Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020)

He was memorialized on the April 11 "Saturday Night Live from Home" broadcast.

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

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-...4-n1178741

Hal Willner, music producer and 'SNL' veteran, dies of coronavirus at 64
Willner was a record producer famed for his left-of-center tribute albums and as the longtime sketch music producer for "Saturday Night Live."


Image: Hal Willner
Producer Hal Willner performs at a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" with music, words and funny people at The Theater at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on April 7, 2015.Chelsea Lauren / Getty Images file

April 7, 2020, 6:13 PM EDT
By Variety

Hal Willner, a record producer famed for his left-of-center tribute albums and concerts, and as the longtime sketch music producer for "Saturday Night Live," has died of complications related to the coronavirus. He was 64.

On his Twitter account, the producer had alluded to having been diagnosed in a March 28 tweet, which included a map of coronavirus outbreaks across the United States with the New York area as a red epicenter. He described himself in the tweet as "in bed on upper west side" and said, "I always wanted to have a number one, but not this."

"Pure Arch Oboler with Serling added," Willner additionally wrote, apparently comparing the coronavirus to something out of Oboler's classic "Lights Out" horror radio show or Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" — just the kind of references that friends would have expected from Willner, who had a century's worth of culture, pop and otherwise, at his command.

Among the artists for whom Willner produced albums were Marianne Faithfull — recently diagnosed with her own bout of COVID-19 — Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and Lucinda Williams.

He had been involved with "SNL," as the man behind the music skits, since 1980. But Saturday wasn't the only night of the week he was associated with; Willner was the music coordinator on the Lorne Michael executive-produced "Sunday Night," also known as "Night Music," an eclectic weekly music series hosted by David Sanborn for two seasons in 1988-90, one of them on NBC and one in syndication. NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.

But he remains perhaps best or most fondly remembered for the full-length salutes he helmed, like 1988's "Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films," which had artists as disparate as Ringo Starr, Michael Stipe, Bonnie Raitt, the Replacements, Yma Sumac, Ken Nordine, Harry Nilsson, Tom Waits and his beloved Sun Ra covering classic songs from Disney's golden age in either faithful or deeply eccentric renditions.

Prior to the Disney collection, he produced "Amarcord Nino Rota" in 1981, "That's The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk" in 1984 and "Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill" a year later, employing guests ranging from Deborah Harry to Wynton and Bradford Marsalis and John Zorn. In 1992, he followed these sets with "Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus," a mostly instrumental salute to the jazz legend that also included vocal interpretations of his work from Elvis Costello, Henry Rollins, Dr. John, Leonard Cohen and Chuck D.

"He gets musicians together who wouldn't get together," NRBQ's Terry Adams told the New York Times in a profile of Willner. "And it always works."

"It's not any kind of radical thinking," Willner said in that same story. "That's what we had growing up. Bill Graham would have Led Zeppelin preceded by the Bonzo Dog Band and Rahsaan Roland Kirk on the same show. How many people saw Patti LaBelle opening for Richard Pryor? So it's just continuing a philosophy from that point of view. But people don't do that anymore."

His last major compilations came in 2006 and again in 2013 in the form of pirate-themed "Rogues Gallery" albums, which featured Bono, Nick Cave, Richard Thompson, Sting, Bryan Ferry, John C. Reilly, and the pairings of Michael Stipe with Courtney Love and Patti Smith with Johnny Depp.

Willner had been at work for years on a T. Rex tribute album, with tracks already in the can by U2 and others, that is yet to be released.

In later years, as major-label support for such unusual projects waned, most of his tributes took the form of concerts, including all-star salutes to Leonard Cohen in Canada and a 2001 tribute to "Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music" in Los Angeles.

In October 2018 Willner was the subject of his own tribute show, which took place at a small venue in Brooklyn. The concert, covered by Variety, featured guests including Laurie Anderson and David Johansen, with taped salutes from Cave, guitarist Bill Frisell and singer Diamanda Galas.

Making self-effacing reference to how commercially questionable some of his passionate pursuits had been, Willner joked to the crowd saluting him that "I've spent the last 40 years as a producer creating things that would make sure this didn't happen."

In the Times' 2017 profile, Willner lamented changes he saw in the passionate connections people felt with the strange and wonderful fringes of culture.

"Weird isn't in right now," he said. ""I don't know what inspires people now," he said. "Maybe they don't need to be inspired in that way. Do these last two generations have heroes? I'm not sure they do. I go to Avenue A now and listen to what people are talking about, and it isn't culture. When John Lennon died I couldn't go to work for two days. I wonder if they have someone that they look at like that -- an author, a poet, whatever. Those are people who made us what we are. ... But then again, were we right?"

The final tweet on Willner's account was in support of another coronavirus sufferer, John Prine. "Sending love to John Prine who is in critical condition with COVID-19," he wrote. "John is a music giant. His songs are as good as it gets and he's a spellbinding performer. Send good thoughts his way. 'I sound like that old guy down the street that doesn't chase you out of his apple tree.'"