Obituaries

[Marypoza]

RlP Dennis Banks. I got 2 know him when he was living across the River in KY 4 a while. He used 2 hold pow-wows & sweats. A very cool & interesting dude. One year he orchestrated a cross country walk from Alcatraz 2 Washington on b1/2 of Indian rights. I helped with that. Very worth while experience. He is with his ancestors now. Hoka Hey!

[Marypoza]

Leon Redbone AND Dr John?!!? Oh bummer

[gabrielle]

Dr. John Celebrated at Second Line Tribute in New Orleans 

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Survivors who were drugged, abused and bashed as children in the notorious cult The Family are preparing for a legal fight for compensation after the death of its leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

Hamilton-Byrne, who considered herself the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, died in a suburban Melbourne nursing home on Thursday aged 97. She had been in palliative care after suffering from dementia since 2007.

Her condition had rendered her unable to face further court action by survivors in the last years of her life. A class action of survivors was listed to proceed to trial in the Supreme Court in August.

Hamilton-Byrne's net worth was estimated at one point to be about $10 million.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victo...51xs7.html

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Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director

Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli KBE, Grande Ufficiale OMRI (Italian: [ˈfraŋko ddzeffiˈrɛlli]; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019),[1] best known as Franco Zeffirelli, was an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator (1994–2001) for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party.

Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.[2][3][4][5]
He was also known for several of the movies he directed, especially the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best-known film adaptation of that play as well. His miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) won acclaim and is still shown on Christmas and Easter in many countries.

A Grande Ufficiale OMRI of the Italian Republic since 1977, Zeffirelli also received an honorary knighthood from the British government in 2004 when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[6] He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.

Zeffirelli was born Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli in the outskirts of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was the result of an affair between Florentine Alaide Garosi, a fashion designer and Ottorino Corsi, a wool and silk dealer from Vinci. Since both were married, Alaide was unable to use her surname or Corsi's for her child. She came up with "Zeffiretti" which are the "little breezes" mentioned in Mozart's opera Idomeneo, of which she was quite fond. However, it was misspelled in the register and became Zeffirelli.[7] When he was six years old, his mother died and he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the English expatriate community and was particularly involved with the so-called Scorpioni, who inspired his semi-autobiographical film Tea with Mussolini (1999).

Italian researchers found that Zeffirelli was one of a handful of living people traceably consanguineous with Leonardo da Vinci. Zeffirelli was a descendent of one of da Vinci's siblings.[8]

Zeffirelli graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze in 1941 and, following his father's advice, entered the University of Florence to study art and architecture.[9] After World War II broke out, he fought as a partisan, before he met up with British soldiers of the 1st Scots Guards and became their interpreter. After the war, he re-entered the University of Florence to continue his studies, but when he saw Laurence Olivier's Henry V in 1945, he directed his attention toward theatre instead.

While working for a scenic painter in Florence, he was introduced to and hired by Luchino Visconti, who made him assistant director for the film La Terra trema which was released in 1948. Visconti's methods had a deep impact upon Zeffirelli's later work.[10] He also worked with directors such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. In the 1960s, he made his name designing and directing his own plays in London and New York City and soon transferred his ideas to cinema.

Zeffirelli's first film as director was a version of The Taming of the Shrew (1967), originally intended for Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni but finally featuring the Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in their stead. Taylor and Burton helped fund production and took a percentage of the profits rather than their normal salaries.

While editing The Taming of the Shrew, Zeffirelli's native Florence was devastated by floods. A month later, Zeffirelli released a short documentary, Florence: Days of Destruction, to raise funds for the disaster appeal.[11]

Zeffirelli's major breakthrough came the year after when he presented two teenagers as Romeo and Juliet (1968). The movie is still immensely popular and was for many years the standard adaptation of the play shown to students. This movie also made Zeffirelli a household name - no other subsequent work by him had the immediate impact of Romeo and Juliet.
The film earned $14.5 million in domestic rentals at the North American box office during 1969.[12] It was re-released in 1973 and earned $1.7 million in rentals.[13]

Film critic Roger Ebert, for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "I believe Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet is the most exciting film of Shakespeare ever made".[14]

After two successful film adaptations of Shakespeare, Zeffirelli went on to religious themes, first with a film about the life of St. Francis of Assisi titled Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), then his extended mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977) with an all-star cast. The latter was a major success in the ratings and has been frequently shown on television in the years since.

He moved on to contemporary themes with a remake of the boxing picture The Champ (1979) and the critically panned Endless Love (1981). In the 1980s, he made a series of successful films adapting opera to the screen, with such stars as Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Juan Pons and Katia Ricciarelli. He returned to Shakespeare with Hamlet (1990), casting the then–action hero Mel Gibson in the lead role. His 1996 adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel Jane Eyre was a critical success.

Zeffirelli frequently cast unknown actors in major roles; however, his male leads have rarely gone on to stardom or even a sustained acting career. Leonard Whiting (Romeo in Romeo and Juliet), Graham Faulkner (St. Francis in Brother Sun, Sister Moon) and Martin Hewitt (in Endless Love) all left the film business. The female leads in those films (Olivia Hussey and Brooke Shields) have attained far greater success in the industry.


Zeffirelli was a major director of opera productions from the 1950s on in Italy and elsewhere in Europe as well as the United States. He began his career in the theatre as assistant to Luchino Visconti. Then he tried his hand at scenography. His first work as a director was buffo operas by Giacomo Rossini. He became a friend of Maria Callas and they worked together on a La Traviata in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. Of particular note is his 1964 Royal Opera House production of Tosca with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. In the same year, he created Callas' last Norma at the Paris Opera. Zeffirelli also collaborated often with Dame Joan Sutherland, designing and directing her performances of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959. Over the years he created several productions for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, including La bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni.

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

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former President of Egypt Mohammad Morsi:

Mohamed Morsi[note 1] (/ˈmɔːrsi/; Arabic: محمد محمد مرسي عيسى العياط‎, ALA-LC: Muḥammad Muḥammad Mursī ʿĪsā al-ʿAyyāṭ, IPA: [mæˈħæmmæd mæˈħæmmæd ˈmoɾsi ˈʕiːsæ (ʔe)l.ʕɑjˈjɑːtˤ]; 8 August 1951 – 17 June 2019) was an Egyptian politician who served as the fifth[1] President of Egypt, from 30 June 2012 to 3 July 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed Morsi from office in the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état after the June 2013 Egyptian protests.[2]

As president, Morsi issued a temporary constitutional declaration in late November that in effect granted him unlimited powers and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts as a pre-emptive move against the expected dissolution of the second constituent assembly by the Mubarak-era judges.[3] The new constitution that was then hastily finalised by the Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, presented to the president, and scheduled for a referendum, before the Supreme Constitutional Court could rule on the constitutionality of the assembly, was described by independent press agencies not aligned with the regime as an "Islamist coup".[4] These issues,[5] along with complaints of prosecutions of journalists and attacks on nonviolent demonstrators,[6] led to the 2012 Egyptian protests.[7][8] As part of a compromise, Morsi rescinded the decrees.[9] In the referendum he held on the new constitution it was approved by approximately two thirds of voters.[10]

On 30 June 2013, protests erupted across Egypt, in which protesters called for the president's resignation.[11][12][13] In response to the events, Morsi was given a 48-hour ultimatum by the military to meet their demands and to resolve political differences, or else they would intervene by "implementing their own road map" for the country.[14] He was unseated on 3 July by a military coup council consisting of Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Coptic Pope Tawadros II.[15][16] The military suspended the constitution and appointed the President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour as the interim-president.[17] The Muslim Brotherhood protested against the military coup, but the pro-Morsi protests were crushed in the August 2013 Rabaa massacre in which at least 817 civilians were killed.[18] Opposition leader ElBaradei quit in protest at the massacre.[19]

Since his overthrow, Egyptian prosecutors have charged Morsi with various crimes and sought the death penalty, a move denounced by Amnesty International as "a charade based on null and void procedures."[20] His death sentence was overturned in November 2016 and a retrial ordered.[21] According to Egyptian state media, Morsi died during a court hearing on 17 June 2019.[22][23]

More at Wikipedia.

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Gloria  Vanderbilt.


Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (February 20, 1924 – June 17, 2019) was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York and the mother of CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper.
During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, each sought custody of her and control over her trust fund. Called the "trial of the century" by the press, the court proceedings were the subject of wide and sensational press coverage due to the wealth and prominence of the involved parties, and the scandalous evidence presented to support Whitney's claim that Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was an unfit parent.
As an adult in the 1970s, Vanderbilt became known in connection with a line of fashions, perfumes, and household goods bearing her name. She was particularly noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans. In 1974, Paul McCartney released "Mrs. Vandebilt", a song inspired by and loosely based on the life of Gloria.

More at Wikipedia.

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KGB official.

Philipp Denisovich Bobkov (Russian: Фили́пп Дени́сович Бобко́в; December 1, 1925 – June 17, 2019) was a Russian KGB functionary, who worked as a director of KGB political police department (Fifth Directorate), which was responsible for suppression of internal dissent in the former Soviet Union. He was widely regarded the chief KGB ideologist or "KGB brain".[1]

 Bobkov began his career in the Soviet secret services in 1945, when they were guided by Lavrentiy Beria, and survived Beria and eleven subsequent secret police chairmen. During the 1970s-1980s he "effectively became the KGB's real chairm(a)n, although officially he held the post of first deputy".[2]

Bobkov was very instrumental in creation of KGB-controlled political organizations, such as the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public established in 1983. He also invented Liberal Democratic Party of Russia according to Soviet Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev. However Bobkov said that he did not support the creation of this "Zubatov-style pseudo-party under KGB control that directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups".[3]

As described in his official biography, Bobkov was personally engaged in resolving ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union, including Sumgait pogrom, Events in Vilnius, 1989 pogroms in the Fergana valley in Uzbekistan, Almaty revolt in 1986, January 1991 events in Latvia, and many others. However, all these conflicts were organized by the KGB itself to justify the importance of the Soviet secret services, according to CPSU Politburo member Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev.[4]

According to Bobkov, perestroika had been invented by him and his KGB colleagues: "We in the KGB contributed quite a bit to the process of perestroika because... without it the Soviet Union could not move ahead."[5]

Documents discovered by political scientist Robert van Voren in the Stasi archives show that in summer 1989 Bobkov came to Berlin and told Stasi Director Erich Mielke that German reunification was the work of mentally ill persons.[6]

Bobkov allegedly supervised the transfer of Communist Party money to foreign banks prior to the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt.[7] In October 1990, Bobkov ordered the creation of commercial firms and banks, which were managed by KGB officers and their "trusted contacts". The project was funded by KGB and Party money, "which made up almost 80 % of the amount invested in the new banks, stock exchanges, and businesses in 1990-1991", according to a testimony of Richard Palmer in US Congress about infiltration of the Western financial system.[8] Nikolay Kruchina, a high ranking CPSU official who was officially responsible for supervising the Communist Party money, fell to his death from the window of his luxury apartment in Moscow soon after the events.

Bobkov officially retired in 1991 and organized a private security service in the Media Most company, which included thousands of his former KGB colleagues.[9][10] The entire archive of 5th KGB department was taken to Media-Most.[11] This security service allegedly organized an attempted assassination of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in 1994.[10]

He also worked as a personal security adviser of Russian Parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov.[12]

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

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The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, is neither liberal nor democratic.

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Music impresario Elliot Roberts:



Elliot Roberts (born Elliot Rabinowitz,[1] February 22, 1943 – June 21, 2019)[2] was an American music manager and record executive, best known for helping to jump-start the careers of singer-songwriters from the late 1960s and 1970s, including those of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

After graduating from high school and dropping out of two colleges, Roberts attempted a career in acting before going to work for the William Morris Agency where he met David Geffen, an agent at the firm.[1] Roberts later formed Lookout Management with Geffen, and helped to create Geffen's Asylum Records in 1970, which merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to form Elektra/Asylum Records.
Roberts is well known for his associations with Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bob Dylan, the Eagles, Tom Petty, Talking Heads, Devo, Tracy Chapman, Spiritualized, Mazzy Star, Devendra Banhart, The Alarm, and other musicians.[2]

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

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Two more centenarians after I M Pei and Herman Wouk:

David Louis Bartholomew (December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019) was an American musician, bandleader, composer, arranger and record producer, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century. Originally a trumpeter, he was active in many musical genres, including rhythm and blues, big band, swing music, rock and roll, New Orleans jazz and Dixieland. In his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was cited as a key figure in the transition from jump blues and swing to R&B and as "one of the Crescent City’s greatest musicians and a true pioneer in the rock and roll revolution."[1]

Many musicians have recorded Bartholomew's songs, but his partnership with Fats Domino produced some of his greatest successes. In the mid-1950s they wrote more than forty hits for Imperial Records, including the Billboard R&B number one chart hit "Ain't That a Shame". Bartholomew's other hit songs as a composer included "I Hear You Knocking", "Blue Monday", "I'm Walkin'", "My Ding-A-Ling", and "One Night". He was a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.[2]


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


George Rosenkranz (born György Rosenkranz, August 20, 1916 – 23 June 2019)[3] was a pioneering Mexican scientist in the field of steroid chemistry, who used native Mexican plant sources as raw materials.[4][5] He was born in Hungary, studied in Switzerland and emigrated to the Americas to escape the Nazis, eventually settling in Mexico.[4][6]

At Syntex corporation in Mexico City, Rosenkranz assembled a research group of organic chemists that included future leaders from around the world, such as Carl Djerassi, Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni[7][8][9][10][11][12] Revolutionary advances in the understanding of steroid drugs and their production occurred under Dr Rosenkranz's direction.[13] Syntex synthesized a progestin used in some of the first combined oral contraceptive pills and numerous other useful steroids. Under Rosenkranz's leadership, Syntex became "a powerful international force in the development of steroidal pharmaceuticals",[14] and "a pioneer of biotechnology" in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rosenkranz stepped down as CEO in 1982, at the age of 65.[3]

In 2012, he was awarded the Biotechnology Heritage Award, in recognition of his significant contributions to the development of biotechnology through discovery, innovation, and public understanding.[10] He turned 100 in August 2016.[15] Rosenkranz is also an American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master at his hobby of duplicate bridge, with more than 13,000 masterpoints and 12 NABC titles (below). He has written or co-written more than 10 books on bridge.[16]

 Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1916, Rosenkranz studied chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he received his doctorate.[3] His mentor, future Nobel Prize winner Lavoslav Ružička, began Rosenkranz's interest in steroid research. However, Nazi sympathizers were active in Zurich. Ružička shielded Rosenkranz and other Jewish colleagues, but their presence put their mentor at risk. "We got together and we decided to leave Switzerland to protect him," Rosenkranz said in a 2002 article for the Pan American Health Organization's magazine.[6]

Ružička arranged an academic position for Rosenkranz in Quito, Ecuador. While Rosenkranz was waiting in Havana, Cuba for a ship to Ecuador, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The United States immediately entered World War II. Unable to go to Ecuador, Rosenkranz accepted the Cuban president Fulgencio Batista's offer allowing refugees to stay in the country and work. He found work at the Vieta Plasencia Lab, where he was asked to develop treatments for venereal disease.[5]

The important role of hormones in human health was already known, but ways to synthesize them were unknown. George Rosenkranz's skills as a chemist attracted the interest of Emeric Somlo, a Hungarian immigrant, and Dr. Federico Lehmann at Syntex in Mexico City, Mexico.[17] They had formed the company in 1944 to work with Russell Marker, a Penn State professor, and sought to synthesize the hormone progesterone from diosgenin-containing Mexican yams, which would eventually give rise to the Mexican barbasco trade.[18]:183 After a disagreement Marker left, taking his steroid knowledge with him. Rosenkranz was recruited to replace him, and moved to Mexico City in 1945.[6][7]

Rosenkranz faced the challenge of analyzing Marker's samples to identify their ingredients and reverse engineering Marker's chemical production processes. He didn't have much help: his initial staff included nine lab assistants and only one other chemist,[19] and Mexico lacked a Ph.D. program in chemistry.[20]

When he couldn't find enough fully trained local chemists, Rosenkranz recruited researchers from Mexico and around the world. Rosenkranz also helped to create an institute of chemistry, the Instituto de Quimica (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), now considered "a flagship in Mexico's ethnobotanical research".[21] He was able to attract significant synthetic organic chemists as researchers and instructors and to obtain funding to expand programs for the training of organic chemists. He and his colleagues regularly worked at Syntex during the day and then spent the evenings teaching chemistry. Rosenkranz also helped to start the Institute for Molecular Biology in Palo Alto.[20]

Attracting young chemists such as Carl Djerassi, Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni was critical to Syntex's first big success.[7][22] The Mayo clinic had reported that the steroid hormone cortisone was an effective anti-inflammatory, capable of relieving painful rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. However, as described by Djerassi, "Until 1951, the only source of cortisone was through an
extraordinarily complex process of 36 different chemical transformations starting from animal bile acids."[23] Several prominent groups of international scientists were attempting to be the first to synthesize cortisone. Rosenkranz's team started working in two shifts, and their dedication paid off. In 1951, Rosenkranz, Djerassi, and their fellow researchers submitted a paper on the synthesis of cortisone, edging out reports from Harvard and Merck by a matter of weeks.[11][24][25][26]
 

George Rosenkranz (right) and Luis E. Miramontes (left), 2001 at UNAM, in Mexico City

Having successfully synthesized cortisone, the researchers at Syntex continued to work on the synthesis of progesterone. A female sex hormone, progesterone was used to help pregnant women avoid miscarriages, and to treat infertility.[23] Five months later, under the direction of Rosenkranz and Carl Djerassi, the last step of the synthesis of norethisterone (norethindrone) was successfully completed by Luis E. Miramontes, and Syntex applied for a patent, which was granted as US patent 2,744,122 on May 1, 1956.[6][25][27] Syntex initially reached an agreement with the American company Parke-Davis to market norethisterone as Norlutin for the treatment of gynecological disorders, which was approved by the FDA in 1957.[28] Parke-Davis however refused to develop Syntex's norethisterone as a contraceptive over concerns about a possible Catholic boycott of its other products.[29] This delay placed Syntex at a disadvantage, but by 1962, they had partnered with Johnson & Johnson's Ortho division to introduce the birth control pill Ortho-Novum, which used Syntex's norethisterone.[20][28][30] In March 1964, the FDA approved Syntex's version of Ortho-Novum with the brand name Norinyl (norethisterone 2 mg + mestranol 100 µg).[20][30][31] In March 1964, the FDA also approved Parke-Davis's version of the German company Schering's oral contraceptive Anovlar with the brand name Norlestrin (norethisterone acetate 2.5 mg + ethinylestradiol 50 µg).[31]

Rosenkranz understood the importance of peer recognition, not just commercial success, to the scientists who worked for him. He has said, "To have people work productively, you have to build an intellectually challenging environment, allow creative freedom, and insure peer recognition and respect for the individual."[32] A cascade of papers on steroid chemistry issued from the Rosenkranz lab during the 1940s and 1950s.[11][20] Rosenkranz himself is the author or co-author of over 300 articles in steroid chemistry and is named on over 150 patents.[10]

Rosenkranz gave up his executive positions at Syntex in 1981.[10] Although technically retired for over three decades, Rosenkranz is still active in the industry. In 1996, he became a member of the board of Digital Gene Technologies[33] He is also president of the advisory board of ICT Mexicana.[32]

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

[beechnut79]

Beth Chapman, 51, wife of Reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter (Duane Chapman), following a two year long battle with throat and lung cancer. By default she was a Reality TV star in her own right as well. Because both of them had checkered pasts they were better equipped to handle and understand how the criminal mind works.

[Eric the Green]

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca (/ˌaɪ.əˈkoʊkə/ EYE-ə-KOH-kə; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive best known for the development of Ford Mustang and Pinto cars, while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and then later for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s.[1] He served as President and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was the only executive in recent times to preside over the operations of two of the Big Three automakers which he did during different tenures.[2]

Iacocca authored or co-authored several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Portfolio Magazine named Iacocca the 18th-greatest American CEO of all time.

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

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Arte Johnson, comedian, age 90...



Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American comic actor who was a regular on television's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In — where he played prominent characters including a German soldier with the catchphrase "verrrry interesting...", and an old man who habitually propositioned Ruth Buzzi's spinster character. 



Johnson appeared three times in the 1955–1956 CBS sitcom It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige and Merry Anders. In 1958, he joined the cast of the short-lived NBC sitcom Sally, starring Joan Caulfield. On that program he played Bascomb Bleacher, Jr., the son of a co-owner of a department store, portrayed by Gale Gordon. In 1960, he played Ariel Lavalerra in the film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's novel The Subterraneans. In 1960 and 1961, he was cast in three episodes of Jackie Cooper's military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, also on CBS. The following year, he played "Mr. Bates" in the episode "A Secret Life" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He was cast in an episode of Frank Aletter's sitcom, Bringing Up Buddy. He also appeared in "The Whole Truth", a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, as an underpaid car salesman who punches dishonest used car lot owner Jack Carson. Before his big breakthrough in Laugh-In, Johnson appeared as Corporal Coogan in the 1962 episode "The Handmade Private" of the anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb. He played a bumbling navy cameraman on an episode of McHale's Navy in the first season. Also in 1962, he appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as a hotel clerk in the episode "Andy and Barney in the Big City".

Johnson appeared in a comedic role as Charlie, a boom-microphone operator who demonstrates to Jack Benny how to tell a joke properly, on The Jack Benny Program that aired on October 2, 1964. The joke performed in the sketch was the "ugly baby" story, later associated with Flip Wilson.

In 1965, he made a first-season guest appearance on ABC's sitcom, Bewitched as Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) Cousin Edgar. A mute elf, Edgar is initially sent to observe and undermine Samantha's marriage to the non-witch/non-warlock, Darrin---all with the blessing of Endora (Agnes Moorehead). Once he sees how happily married Samantha and Darrin Stephens (Dick York) are, Edgar reverses his mischief and gives his (albeit quiet) blessing to their still-new marriage.

Johnson appeared in one of the final episodes of ABC's The Donna Reed Show in 1966. He was cast in the 1967 satirical James Coburn film The President's Analyst, in which he gave a comically chilling performance as a federal agent with a blindly obedient "orders are orders" mentality.

In 1968, he acted in the Season 3 episode of Lost in Space, "Princess of Space". Johnson played the traitorous robot space pirate Fedor helping the machines to win the war.

Johnson also starred in the 1971 episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery titled "The Flip-Side of Satan", playing ruthless disk jockey J.J. Wilson, who is forced to confront his past transgressions.

Johnson is widely known for his work on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973, on which he played various characters, with his most notable being "Wolfgang", a cigarette-smoking German soldier who believed that World War II was still ongoing, as he scouted the show while hidden behind bushes. He would then invariably comment on the preceding sketch with the catchphrase "Very interesting ...", which Johnson claimed was inspired by a Nazi character who spoke the line during an interrogation scene in the 1942 film Desperate Journey.[4] Often toward the show's close, he (as the Nazi) would offer words of affection to "Lucy and Gary" (Lucille Ball and her second husband, Gary Morton). The Lucy Show on CBS was in direct competition with NBC's Laugh-In on Monday night.[citation needed] Johnson reprised the role while voicing the Nazi-inspired character Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited.[5]
 


Johnson as "Tyrone F. Horneigh" approaching Lucille Ball in a sketch on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1971)
His other iconic Laugh-In character was "Tyrone F. Horneigh" (the last name pronounced "horn-eye," a "clean" variant of the vulgar term "horny"), the white-haired, trench coat-wearing "dirty old man" who repeatedly sought to seduce "Gladys Ormphby," (Ruth Buzzi's brown-clad "spinster" character) on a park bench. Tyrone would enter the scene, muttering a song (usually "In the Merry, Merry Month of May"), and, spying Gladys on the bench, would sit next to her. He would ask her a question, and regardless of the answer, turn it into a double entendre. She would then start hitting him with her purse and he would fall off the bench, sometimes with a plea for medical aid.

To boost ratings in the third season, Tyrone successfully courted Gladys which led to an on-air wedding on the March 16th 1970 episode during the spring ratings sweep. Tiny Tim played best man, with Carol Channing as the bridesmaid and Henry Gibson officiating.[citation needed] (This event is included on the DVD recording of the episode. Both the bride-to-be and groom-to-be walk out of the church just before the wedding vows were to be said.)

Years after Laugh-In ended, the two characters were made into an animated Saturday-morning children's show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits with Tyrone as a helpful, muttering "superhero".

Johnson and his brother Coslough earned Emmy Awards while working on Laugh-In.[6][7]


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

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João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto (Portuguese: [ʒuˈɐ̃w ʒiwˈbɛʁtu]; 10 June 1931 – 6 July 2019), was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He pioneered the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s.[1][2][3]

João Gilberto was born in Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil.

Gilberto's first recordings were released in Brazil as two-song 78-rpm singles between 1951 and 1959. In the 1960s Brazilian singles evolved to the "double compact" format, and João would release some EPs in this new format, which carried four songs on a 45-rpm record.

Soon afterward, Gilberto's father, upset by his son's bizarre singing style and refusal to take 'normal' work, had him committed to a mental hospital. In a psychological interview there, Gilberto stared out of the window and remarked "Look at the wind depilating the trees." The psychologist replied "but trees have no hair, João", to which Gilberto responded: "and there are people who have no poetry." He was released after a week. The next year (1956), he returned to Rio and struck up old acquaintances, most significantly with Antônio Carlos Jobim, who was by then working as a composer, producer, and arranger with Odeon Records. Jobim was impressed with Gilberto's new style of guitar playing and set about finding a suitable song to pitch the style to Odeon management.
Gilberto was known for his demanding acoustic and noise-control standards. During a recording session of the song "Rosa Morena", he insisted on 28 takes to get the pronunciation of the o in "Rosa" just right.[4] Nonetheless, despite his high acoustic standards, he skipped a contractually required sound check prior to a July 2003 performance at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles. This negligence (and the ensuing sound fiasco) prompted the audience to stream from the venue before the concert ended.[5]

In 1997, Gilberto sued record label EMI over their reissue of several of his early works, which he contended had been poorly remastered. According to The New York Times, "A statement by his lawyer at the time declared that the reissues contained sound effects that 'did not pertain to the original recordings, banalizing the work of a great artist." Following the incident, EMI ceased production of the albums in question, and, as of 2008, the lawsuit was yet to reach a decision.[6]

In 2000, Gilberto won the nomination for the Best World Music Album category in the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his work in the album João Voz E Violão.[7]

In 2011, he was sued and evicted from an apartment in Leblon by his landlord, Countess Georgina Brandolini d'Adda.[8][9]

On 17 May 2017, Gilberto received an honorary doctorate in music from Columbia University though he himself did not attend the commencement ceremony.[10]

It was reported in December 2017 that Bebel Gilberto (Isabel), João's daughter through his marriage to Miúcha, was seeking control of his financial affairs because of his declining mental state and heavy indebtedness.[11]
João Gilberto died on 6 July 2019, in Rio de Janeiro.[12][13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Gilberto

[Eric the Green]

Disney Star Cameron Boyce Suffered from Epilepsy
https://www.tmz.com/2019/07/08/disney-st...-epilepsy/
7/8/2019 7:47 AM PT


Disney star Cameron Boyce, who died in his sleep Saturday, suffered from epilepsy ... TMZ has learned.

As we reported, Cameron, who starred in "Descendents" and "Grown Ups," suffered a fatal seizure. We're told his roommate found him unresponsive and when paramedics arrived they could not revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

We're told Cameron had been dealing with seizures triggered by his epilepsy. Nonetheless, he was able to work and achieve greatness ... in both TV and movies.


Law enforcement sources says they have characterized it as a "natural death." As bizarre as it sounds -- a 20-year-old dying of a seizure -- the term "natural" refers to conditions in the body which result in death.

Cameron was a working actor since age 11, when he first appeared on the Disney Channel. His credits include "Shake it Up," "Austin and Ally" and "Good Luck Charlie." His breakout role was playing Luke on "Jessie," which ran for 4 seasons.

Cameron's family said, "The world is now undoubtedly without one of its brightest lights, but his spirit will live on through the kindness and compassion of all who knew and loved him."

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

[pbrower2a]

ROSS PEROT

Ross Perot's legendary list of lifetime achievements should start with "captured the imagination."

Brilliant in business, generous and demanding, driven, quirky and colorful, Perot was as hard to pigeonhole as a Texas tornado.

His death at age 89 leaves a broad legacy and some of the nation's enduring one-liners born of homespun wisdom. A best-selling book and televised miniseries dramatized his adventure to rescue employees being held in Iran — using his own hired commandos, no less. But no single volume or TV show could capture the man's full sweep.
The hostage rescue was emblematic of a boss who demanded the ultimate effort on the job, then reciprocated with the ultimate loyalty.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/edito...ion-better

[pbrower2a]

Rip Torn, actor:


Torn made his film debut in the 1956 film Baby Doll. Torn then studied at the Actors Studio in New York under Lee Strasberg, becoming a prolific stage actor, appearing in the original cast of Tennessee Williams' play Sweet Bird of Youth, and reprising the role in the film and television adaptations. While in New York, Torn introduced his cousin Sissy Spacek to the entertainment business, and helped her enroll in the Actors Studio.[10]
One of Torn's earliest roles was in Pork Chop Hill, portraying the brother-in-law of Gregory Peck's character. He also had an uncredited role in A Face in the Crowd as Barry Mills. In 1957, Torn portrayed Jody in an early episode of The Restless Gun. In 1957, he starred as incarcerated Steve Morgan in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Number Twenty-Two," and on the same series in 1961 he played a recently released prisoner, Ernie Walters, in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Kiss-Off."[11]
After portraying Judas, betrayer of Jesus, in 1961's epic film King of Kings, Torn appeared as a graduate student with multiple degrees in 1963's television series Channing, and as Roy Kendall in the Breaking Point episode "Millions of Faces." In 1964, Torn appeared as Eddie Sanderson in the episode "The Secret in the Stone" in The Eleventh Hour and in the premiere of The Reporter.
In 1965, in the film The Cincinnati Kid, he played Slade, a corrupt New Orleans millionaire who pressures Steve McQueen during a high-stakes poker game. On television that year, Torn portrayed Colonel Royce in the episode "The Lorelei" of Twelve O'Clock High.
Following the aforementiined roles, he had turns aa a character actor in numerous subsequent films (see below filmography).
The part of George Hanson in Easy Rider was written for Torn by Terry Southern, but according to Southern's biographer Lee Hill, Torn withdrew from the project after he and co-director Dennis Hopper got into a bitter argument in a New York restaurant (see on-set conflicts section below). Jack Nicholson played Hanson instead in a career-launching performance.
In 1972, Torn won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country and western singer in the cult film Payday. He co-starred with singer David Bowie in the 1976 science-fiction film, The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1983's Cross Creek as a poor neighbor of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in the orange groves of Florida. He portrayed a Southern senator in 1979's The Seduction of Joe Tynan, opposite Alan Alda and Meryl Streep, and a music producer in Paul Simon's 1980 film One Trick Pony.
In 1982, Torn played a role as a holy man in the sword-and-sorcery movie The Beastmaster. He also co-starred in Jinxed!, a comedy with Bette Midler, and appeared as an airline executive in Airplane II: The Sequel. He played a Sheriff, opposite Treat Williams and Kris Kristofferson, in the 1984 thriller Flashpoint. Torn was nominated for the CableACE Award for his portrayal of Big Daddy in the 1984 Showtime production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He co-starred with John Candy as a man who helps a tourist win a sailboat race in the 1985 comedy Summer Rental. He had a brief role as Sheriff Hank Pearson in Extreme Prejudice.

Torn in 1993
In 1988, he ventured into directing with The Telephone. The screenplay was written by Terry Southern and Harry Nilsson and the film was produced by their company, Hawkeye. The story, which focused on an unhinged, out-of-work actor, had been written with Robin Williams in mind. After he turned it down, Whoopi Goldberg expressed a strong interest, but when production began, Torn reportedly had to contend with Goldberg constantly digressing and improvising and he had to plead with her to perform takes that stuck to the script.
Goldberg was backed by the studio, who also allowed her to replace Torn's chosen DP, veteran cinematographer John A. Alonzo, with her then-husband. As a result of the power struggle, Torn, Southern, and Nilsson cut their own version of the film, using the takes that adhered to the script and this was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, but the studio put together a rival version using other takes and it was poorly reviewed when it premiered in January 1988.[12]
In 1990, he portrayed Colonel Fargo in By Dawn's Early Light, a film from HBO about a fictional world war.
In 1991, he portrayed Albert Brooks' character's celestial defense attorney in Defending Your Life. He was a jeweler who murdered his own nephew to steal a winning lottery ticket in an episode of Columbo that year on TV, "Death Hits the Jackpot."
In 1993, Torn portrayed the OCP CEO in RoboCop 3 and starred opposite Tantoo Cardinal in Where the Rivers Flow North.[13] He was a Naval officer presiding over a wargame in the Kelsey Grammer submarine comedy Down Periscope in 1996.
In 1997, Torn appeared in the Disney film Hercules, in which he voiced the god Zeus.
Torn played agency boss Zed in the 1997 hit film Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, a role he reprised in the 2002 sequel Men in Black II.
In 2001, Torn memorably portrayed James "Jim" Brody in the comedy film Freddy Got Fingered.
In 2004, Torn played the iconic wrench-tossing coach Patches O'Houlihan in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.



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

[beechnut79]

Jim Bouton, 80, a long-time major league baseball pitcher, perhaps best know for his controversial book "Ball Four" which exposed secrets of major league locker rooms. He then pitched for the short-lived Seattle Pilots expansion team which only lasted one season then became the Milwaukee Brewers. (Seattle got the Mariners in 1977). His career was already on the wane at the time, but the fragile nature of the book which also exposed the foibles and follies of his original team, the New York Yankees. For example he exposed how Mickey Mantle was often hung over when he showed up at the park. The controversy effectively got him banned from baseball although he did attempt a short-lived comeback about a decade later.

[pbrower2a]

Denise Nickerson, child star.