Obituaries

[pbrower2a]

Andrey Aleksandrovich Sukhovetsky[1] (27 June 1974 – 2 March 2022) was a Russian general who died in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2][3]


Sukhovetsky was born on 27 June 1974.[4] He graduated from the Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School in 1995, and initially served as a platoon commander before gradually rising in the ranks.[3] The Independent described him as "respected paratrooper".[5] He served in military operations in the North Caucasus and fought in Abkhazia during the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. Sukhovetsky subsequently participated in the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, and was decorated for his role in the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014.[2] From about 2018 to 2021, Sukhovetsky headed the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division.[2][1]

Promoted to major general,[3] Sukhovetsky was appointed deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army in October 2021. In this role, he fought in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also led Spetsnaz troops during the invasion.[2] According to Ukrainian sources, he was killed in combat in Ukraine on 2 March.[1] The Independent stated that Sukhovetsky had been shot by a sniper according to a "military source".[5] Sukhovetsky's death was first confirmed on VKontakte by the deputy of Combat Brotherhood, a Russian veterans group.[2] Later on, President Vladimir Putin also mentioned his demise in a speech.[5]
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Sukhovetsky


Volodymyr Oleksiiovych Struk (Ukrainian: Володимир Олексійович Струк; 15 May 1964 – 2 March 2022) was a Ukrainian politician. In March 2022 he was the subject of media coverage internationally due to his death.[1]

He graduated from Luhansk State University of Internal Affairs.

A member of the Party of Regions and later the Opposition Platform — For Life, he served in the Verkhovna Rada from 2012 to 2014.[2]
From 2020 until his death, he was mayor of Kreminna in the self-declared People's Republic of Luhansk.[1]


On 2 March 2022 Struk was kidnapped from his home and he was later found dead of a gunshot to the heart. This has been reported as a response to his pro-Russia separatist activities during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1][3]

In response Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, wrote in a post on Telegram "There is one less traitor in Ukraine. The mayor of Kremenna in Luhansk region, former deputy of Luhansk parliament was found killed".[1]
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Struk

[pbrower2a]

Alan Walbridge Ladd Jr. (October 22, 1937 – March 2, 2022) was an American film industry executive and producer. He served as president of 20th Century Fox from 1976 to 1979, during which he approved the production of Star Wars. He later established The Ladd Company and headed MGM/UA. Ladd won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1995 for producing Braveheart.

Ladd was born in Los Angeles on October 22, 1937.[1][2] He was the only son of Alan Ladd and Marjorie Jane (née Harrold),[3][4] who divorced when he was two years old.[1] He initially stayed with his mother, but lived with his father at his estate in Holmby Hills due to her poor health.[1][2] He later recounted how the time he spent with the elder Ladd was sparse,[1] and described their relationship as "basically nonexistent".[2] Ladd served in the US Air Force and was called up during the Berlin Airlift,[5] before being employed by his stepfather's business for a brief period. He subsequently joined Creative Management Associates as an agent in 1963 and worked under Freddie Fields. Among Ladd's clients were Robert Redford and Judy Garland.[1][6]

Ladd relocated to London at the end of the 1960s to work as an independent producer.[1] There, he established a film venture with Jay Kanter and Jerry Gershwin.[7] Ladd made nine films during his sojourn there, including The Walking Stick,[8] A Severed Head,[9] Villain,[8] The Nightcomers, and Zee and Co..[9][10] He eventually returned to the United States in 1973 to become vice president of creative affairs at 20th Century Fox. Three years later, he was promoted from worldwide production head to president of Fox's film division.[1]
Ladd came to Fox President Gordon Stulberg to request consideration for making George Lucas' Star Wars. Stulberg approved the production and they remained as Lucas' support at times when the board of directors of 20th Century Fox wished to shut down production. The production was plagued by location difficulties, story problems, and budgetary disagreements for a project that was mainly considered a risk to the studio. However, when Ladd saw the audience's rapturous appreciation of the film at its first public screening at the Northpoint Theatre in San Francisco in early May 1977, he was moved to joyful tears at seeing the unlikely production he and Stulberg had supported against all odds.[11] Star Wars was a massive and critically hailed hit upon release, becoming, up to that point, the highest-grossing film of all time, and spawned an extensive media franchise that includes many other films as well as television, radio, video game and print media.[12]

Star Wars and Alien were a few of the films produced during Ladd's tenure. However, he stepped down and left Fox in 1979 after falling out with Fox chairman Dennis Stanfill.[6] Ladd went on to found his own production company, The Ladd Company, with Kanter and Gareth Wigan.[1] He enjoyed successes with films such as Outland (1981),[13] Night Shift (1982), Blade Runner (1982), Police Academy (1984), The Right Stuff (1983),[1] and Gone Baby Gone (2007).[8] The company also produced Chariots of Fire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1981.[14][15]

Ladd joined MGM/UA in 1985, eventually becoming Chairman and CEO of MGM-Pathé Communications. During his tenure, MGM/UA produced A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Moonstruck (1987) and Thelma & Louise (1991).[6] After being unceremoniously dismissed by Credit Lyonnais (who administered MGM after a loan default),[6] he proceeded to reform the Ladd Company with Paramount Pictures in 1993.[1] He produced The Brady Bunch Movie and Braveheart,[8] one of the two projects he was permitted to take with him after leaving MGM.[6] The latter film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1995, with Ladd receiving the award as one of the film's three producers.[1][16] He later received the 2,348th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 28, 2007.[17]

Ladd married his first wife, Patricia Ann Beazley, in September 1959. They met while studying at the University of Southern California together.[18][19] Together, they had three children: Kelliann, Tracy, and Amanda. They eventually divorced.[5] He later married his second wife, Cindra Pincock, in 1985.[2] Together, they had one child (Chelsea),[5] who predeceased him in March 2021.[2] They separated in March 2015,[20] and ultimately divorced.[5]

Ladd died on March 2, 2022, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84, and suffered from kidney failure.[14][21]

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

[pbrower2a]

veteran actor Tim Considine, age 81. His second-to-last film credit was in Patton. 

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

[beechnut79]

Two names in country music:

Hargus “Pig” Robbins, instrumentalist who played on numerous hits Among them was George Jones’ first big hit “White Lightning”. He was featured on many of the signature songs of Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, up to and including newer stars such as Miranda Lambert and Sturgill Simpson. He also contributed to Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde”. He had such legendary respect that very often nobody else would do. He passed on January 30, just a few days after his 84th birthday.

Warner McPherson, better known by his stage name Warner Mack, passed on March 1 at age 85. A teenage crush was inspiration for the country classic “Is It Wrong (for Loving You). Among his other hits were “The Bridge Washed Out”, “Talking to the Wall”, and “Drifting Apart”. One of the big names of country in the 1960s, a car accident sidelined his career for many years, making his legacy often overlooked. He was also the first country star to make a Coca-Cola commercial.

Following the car accident he needed 13 surgeries in order to get his life on track. Was not heard from in music circles until two years ago when he made a comeback album titled “Better than Ever”.

[pbrower2a]

Vasily Astafyev


Vasily Mikhailovich Astafyev (Russian: Васи́лий Миха́йлович Аста́фьев) (25 October 1919 – 7 March 2022) was a Soviet officer, and was a participant in the Winter War, as well as the Eastern Front. He was deputy commander of the 104th Guards Separate Sapper Battalion of the 89th Guards Rifle Division of the 37th Army of the Steppe Front, as guard captain.[1] He received the Hero of the Soviet Union on 20 December 1943.[2]


Astafyev was born on 25 October 1919 in the village of Voronovy-Otruba,[3] in what is now the Tokarevsky District of the Tambov Region.[4]
In 1936, after graduating from 7 classes, he attended the workers' faculty of the Tambov Pedagogical Institute where he graduated in 1938, and later worked as a rural teacher.[2]

In 1939, he enlisted in the Red Army, and participated in the Winter War. In 1941, he graduated from the Borisov Military Engineering School, in which during that time Operation Barbarossa was launched. He was immediately sent to the battlefront, where he fought on the South-West, Steppe, 2nd Ukrainian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. In 1943, he joined the CPSU.[2]

Astafyev served as the commander of an engineer platoon, company, battalion, and a rifle division. He took part in the battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, in the Oryol-Kursk, Yasso-Kishinev, Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations. He was deputy commander of the 104th Guards Separate Sapper Battalion (89th Guards Rifle Division, 37th Army, Steppe Front) of the Guards. Astafyev especially distinguished himself when crossing the Dnieper River on 1–6 October 1943 south of the city of Kremenchug, in the Poltava region of Ukraine. Under the continuous enemy fire of the guard, he led the crossing of the rifle subunits. As a result, twenty 76-millimeter and forty 45-millimeter cannons, thirty-eight mortars, twenty heavy machine guns, and 1,625 soldiers were transported.[5]

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 20 December 1943, for the exemplary fulfillment of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism of the guards shown at the same time, Astafyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.[2]

After the war, Astafyev continued to serve in the army. In 1950 he graduated from the Higher Officers' Engineering School in Nakhabino village, Moscow Region. From 1950 to 1951, he was a regimental engineer of an air defense division in Kiev. From 1951 to 1960, he served as an engineer of the anti-aircraft artillery division of the air defense in Magnitogorsk. From 1960 to 1966, he was Chief of the Engineering Service of the 20th Air Defense Corps of the Ural Air Defense Army in Perm.[2]
From 1966, he was in the reserves.[2] 

After his retirement from the military, he resided in the city of Perm. From 1967 to 1987, he worked in the Perm regional road administration.[6]
In 1989 he was elected People's Deputy of the USSR and was a member of the All-Union Council of War and Labor Veterans, the Perm Section of the Great Patriotic War veterans and commander of the regional military sports games.[6]

In December 1991, he was one of those who signed an appeal to the President of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a proposal to convene an extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union.[7]

From 1991, Astafyev was appointed chairman of the Perm regional branch of the Russian Peace Foundation. In 1994, he was appointed honorary chairman of the organisation.[8]
Astafyev turned 100 on 25 October 2019,[9][10] and died in Perm on 7 March 2022, at the age of 102.[11]

[pbrower2a]

Now for a truly "weighty" character who passed away.
Nadungamuwa Vijaya Raja (Sinhala: නැදුන්ගමුව විජය රාජා, Tamil: நெதுன்கமுவ விஜய ராஜா) known as Nadungamuwa Raja was an Indian tusker.[1] He was the main casket bearer of the procession of Esala held in Kandy, Sri Lanka for more than a decade.[2] One of the most celebrated elephants in Asia during his lifetime, Nadungamuwa Raja was the tallest tamed tusker in Asia.

The Nedungamuwa Elephant Class, which was established in 1917, completed its 100th year in 2018 with the Nedungamuwe Raja, who was considered to be the most important elephant in the country. The first elephant for the Nedungamuwa elephant class was received in 1917 during the time of Livnis Perera, the grandfather of Harsha Dharma Vijaya, who is the current member of the Nedungamuwa medical family. His younger brother decided to attend the Balummahara Godagedara Pirivena. Livnis Perera bought an elephant as the child had to be taken in a procession. This elephant is the first elephant in the Nedungamuwa elephant lineage. Livnis Perera, Arnolis Perera, Dharma Vijaya Vedaralahamith and Harsha Dharmavijaya Vederalahamy are also credited with nurturing this hand class.[3]
Raja was born c. 1953 in Mysore, India. Raja was one of the two elephant calves gifted by a Mysuru Maharaja to the veteran native physician monk who resided in Nilammahara Temple Piliyandala in appreciation of curing his relative's long lasted illness. The other elephant being late Nawam Raja of Gangaramaya. In 1978 when Raja was 25 years old, Raja was acquired from his second owner, Herbert Wickramasinghe, who was a former parliamentarian of Bandaragama by Dharmavijaya Veda Ralahamy of Nadungamuwa area, an eminent Ayurvedic physician of that time for 75,000 LKR.[1] After the death of Ralahamy, the elephant was looked after by his son, Harsha Dharmavijaya, an Ayurvedic doctor.[2] Since then the elephant has been named after his residing village Nadungamuwa. Raja was looked after by four ivory towers: Seaman, Soma, Simon and finally Kalu Mama.[1]

Raja was cared for by Wilson Kodithuwakku popularly known as Kalu Mama for more than 15 years. Indika Jayasinghe from Polgahawela worked as the helper of Kalu Mama. Before participating in much popular Kandy Esala Perahera, Raja continuously participated for many perahera festivals in Gamapaha and Colombo and joined the procession of the Sabaragamuwa Maha Saman Devalaya in 1985. However in 2005, Raja started to join Kandy Esala Perahera at a request of Pradeep Nilanga Dela who is the Diyawadana Nilame of Sri Dalada Maligawa. Since then, Raja participated in the Kandy Esala Perahera for more than a decade. The elephant was 52 years old when it first went to the Kandy Perahera.[1]
On all these occasions the elephant traveled to Kandy, covering a distance of about 90 km on foot from Weliweriya, Gampaha to Kandy. However, due to a road accident in 2016, the government provided military protection to the elephant when it arrived in Kandy. Raja always left the Nedungamuwa Palace after the monks and employers worship by sprinkling Pirith and tying Pirith strings.[2] The relics casket was carried 13 times by the tusker during the Dalada Perahera and the last time the casket was carried was in 2021.

Nadungamuwa Raja died early morning on 7 March 2022 at the age of 69.[4] After the death, the tusker was honored as a national treasure and government ordered to give full state honors.[5] The President has also instructed to preserve the body as a stuffed body.[6][7]
 

Nagungamua Raja saying good bye to his second owner. This picture was taken in 1978 at Herbert Wickramasingha's residence in Wawlugala Estate Horana.


A postage stamp of Rs. 15 and a first day cover were issued on 30 December 2019 in appreciation of the elephant's religious and cultural mission.[8][9] After the chanting of the Pirith by the Chief Incumbent of the Siamese Mahanayake Thera, Ven., the first day cover was released. The 2354 First Day Cover Issue was the second occasion for the release of an elephant stamp and first day cover.[10]

[sbarrera]

Actor William Hurt, star of 'Broadcast News' and 'Body Heat,' dies at 71

Updated March 14, 202210:43 AM ET 

William Hurt, pictured in 2016, has died at 71.

Actor William Hurt has died. He was 71 years old.

In widely circulated statement given to the AP, the actor's son, Will, wrote, "It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes."

Hurt burst into movies seemingly as a fully formed leading man, and he came by his chiseled patrician demeanor honestly. He was born in Washington, D.C., to a father who worked in the U.S. diplomatic corps and a mother who'd become an executive of sorts for Time Inc. His parents, Hurt told WHYY's Fresh Air, met in China.

"She was such a brilliant woman that she managed to work herself up from below the bottom rung of the Time Inc. ladder," Hurt said of his mother. "She was asked ... to go to Shanghai to help Chiang Kai-shek consolidate the retreat to Formosa and establish Nationalist China. She ... met my dad there, who was liaising between the Communists and the Nationalists for the Department of the Interior. And then when State and AID were being established in the early 50's, he became a prominent chief of AID eventually."

Following a cosmopolitan childhood spent all over the world, Hurt attended a private boarding school in Massachusetts. His parents divorced and his mother remarried. Hurt's stepfather was Henry Luce III, the son of her company's founder. Hurt studied theology at Tufts University before transferring to Julliard and making a name for himself in the New York theater scene.

Then Hollywood was quick to embrace William Hurt. From the start of his film career, he worked with top directors such as Ken Russell (in 1980's Altered States) and Lawrence Kasdan (in 1981's Body Heat.) His WASPY intellectual intensity and hulking blond good looks dominated such films of the era as The Big Chill, Gorky Park and Kiss of the Spider Woman, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar in 1986. Playing a queer character imprisoned in Brazil along with a political activist, Hurt said in 2010 he made a point of thinking of his character as transgender, rather than gay.

"I played him as a woman, and it was a big point for me during the rehearsal we had," he told Terry Gross. "There was something in that being's heart that was searching for the truth that really went beyond politics, if you want to call it that.
"He really is a woman. He's just caught in a man's body, like, you know, sometimes I'm an actor caught in a movie star's body," he said.

In 1986, Hurt starred in Children of A Lesser God with Marlee Matlin, with whom he became romantically involved when she was 19 and he was 35. In a memoir, she accused Hurt of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Later, Hurt would also be accused of physical abuse in a palimony lawsuit brought by dancer Sandra Jennings, the mother of one of his childre. He was twice divorced, from Mary Beth Hurt and from Heidi Henderson.

On screen, Hurt could be genial or chilling, and sometimes both in the same film. He acted in numerous beloved and high-profile films, from Broadcast News to Tuck Everlasting. He played cerebral, conflicted patriarchs in Into the Wild and The Village, and made something of a late-career specialty in portraying professors, in movies such as A.I. Artifical Intelligence, Engdame and Marvel blockbusters such as The Incredible Hulk, where he found a new, younger audience as a military scientist who is the hero's nemesis. But Hurt's longtime fans adored most him for roles such his part in 2005's A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg. In 2010, Hurt bristled when Terry Gross referred to the role as "small."

"You can't measure things in terms of time - or at least the quality," he protested. "So-called main characters, what's that? We're all main characters. We're all main characters in our life.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/13/us/william-hurt-actor-death/

[pbrower2a]

Representative Don Young, R-AK. Age 88, running for re-election, had rallies scheduled. He was the longest-serving member of Congress.

[pbrower2a]

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State.

[sbarrera]

Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022)



Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state and feminist icon, dies at 84

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - Madeleine Albright, who fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during World War Two then rose to become the first female U.S. secretary of state and, in her later years, a pop culture feminist icon, died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

Her family announced her death on Twitter and said she had died of cancer. Leaders, diplomats and academics remembered her as a trailblazer on the world stage.

[sbarrera]

Stephen E. Wilhite (March 3, 1948 – March 14, 2022)

Stephen Wilhite, inventor of the meme-favorite GIF, has died


This photo provided by Webby Awards, Stephen Wilhite accepts his Webby lifetime achievement award on May 2013 in New York. 

Stephen Wilhite, the inventor of the internet-popular short-video format, the GIF, has died. He was 74.

His wife, Kathaleen, said Thursday in a phone interview that he died of COVID on March 14.

Wilhite, who lived in Milford, Ohio, won a Webby lifetime achievement award in 2013 for inventing the GIF, which decades after its creation became omnipresent in memes and on social media, often used as a cheeky representation of a cultural moment.

[pbrower2a]

Quote:Alexandra Ivanovna Zabelina (Russian: Александра Ивановна Забелина; 11 March 1937 – 27 March 2022) was a retired Soviet fencer. She won gold medals in the team foil at the 1960, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.[1][2]

Between 1956 and 1971 Zabelina won eight team and two individual world titles in the foil.[3] She won the individual Silver Prize at the 1961 and 1966 world championships and team Silver Prize in 1959, 1962, 1967, and 1969. She missed the 1964 Summer Olympics because she was expecting her son.[4]

Zabelina first trained in gymnastics, but had to quit due to an injury. In retirement she worked as a fencing coach. Her students included the Olympic champion Maria Mazina.[4]

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

[sbarrera]

Oliver Taylor Hawkins (February 17, 1972 – March 25, 2022) was an American musician, widely known as the drummer for the rock band Foo Fighters, with whom he recorded eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Sass Jordan and for Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band Sylvia.

https://apnews.com/article/taylor-hawkin...144fbee285

[pbrower2a]

Prime Minister of Bulgaria during the downfall of the Communist regime


Georgi Ivanov Atanasov (Bulgarian: Георги Иванов Атанасов; 25 July 1933 – 31 March 2022) was a Bulgarian politician and a leading member of the Bulgarian Communist Party who served as Prime Minister from 1986 to 1990. Atanasov supported the move to oust Todor Zhivkov as Chairman of the State Council, joining Petar Mladenov in leading the opposition. In November 1992, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for embezzlement, although he was pardoned in 1994.[1]
Atanasov died at 31 March 2022, at the age of 88[2][3][4] in Sofia.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Atanasov_(politician)

[pbrower2a]

Joseph Kalichstein (15 January 1946[1] – 31 March 2022[2]) was an American classical pianist who performed in the concerto, solo recital and chamber music repertoire, the latter mainly with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson in the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He was also a professor at the Juilliard School in New York.
Biography[edit]
Joseph Kalichstein was born in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine, in 1946. He studied piano with Joshua Shor in his native land. His talent came to the attention of the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, who arranged for Kalichstein to train at the Juilliard School in New York in 1962. There, he studied under Edward Steuermann and Ilona Kabos. He won the Young Concert Artists' Award in 1967, and in 1968 he appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, a concert that was nationally televised.[3] In 1969 he gained his master's degree from Juilliard, and that same year won the Leventritt Competition (the unanimous jury included George Szell, Rudolf Serkin, and William Steinberg).[4] The Leventritt prize included performances with leading orchestras around the US; this included two concerts conducted by Szell, one with the Cleveland Orchestra and one with the New York Philharmonic. Kalichstein also appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn in 1970, giving his first performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5.

He later collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Slatkin and many others, with many of the world's greatest orchestras.[4] In 1977 he performed with violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson at the inauguration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. They continued to play together, and in 1981 formally established themselves as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.[5] The Trio was still touring in 2012, and has recorded most of the classic piano trio literature including the complete trios of Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Johannes Brahms, the complete chamber music for their instruments by Maurice Ravel, and also a number of new works written for them by such composers as Richard Danielpour, John Corigliano, and Daron Hagen.

Kalichstein became a member of the Juilliard School faculty in 1983. In 1997, he was appointed Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music and Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2003 he was appointed to Juilliard's newly established Edwin S. and Nancy A. Marks Chair in Chamber Music Studies.[4]
He made many recordings, and regularly performed internationally.

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

[pbrower2a]

Estelle Harris (née Nussbaum; April 22, 1928 – April 2, 2022) was an American actress, known for her exaggerated shrill, grating voice. She was best known for her role as Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld. Her other roles included the voice of Mrs. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise, Muriel in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Mama Gunda in Tarzan II.

Estelle Nussbaum was born in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan on April 22, 1928, the younger of two daughters of Isaac ("Ira") and Anna Nussbaum, Polish Jewish immigrants who owned a candy store.[3][4] She moved to Tarentum, Pennsylvania, when she was seven years old to live near her aunt and uncle, who asked her father to work in their candy store.

After her children grew up, Harris pursued acting and achieved early success in television commercials, even logging 23 spots in a year at one point. One of her most-famous commercials had her energetically singing the praises of Handi-Wrap II.[5]

In 1977, Harris began her long format acting career in the film Looking Up about three generations of a working class Jewish family in New York City. She became widely known for her supporting role as Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld. In Star Trek: Voyager, she portrayed the Old Woman who was actually a projection of the Nechani Spirits, in the third-season Voyager episode "Sacred Ground," which aired on October 20, 1996.[6] She played a small role as Bridget in Out to Sea (1997).[6] In Toy Story 2 (1999), she provided the voice of Mrs. Potato Head and would continue to reprise the role for the franchise. In 2005, she lent her voice to Mama Gunda in Tarzan II. In The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Harris had a recurring role as Muriel. In 2007, she appeared in Brad Paisley's music video for the song "Online."[7] Harris reprised her role of Mrs. Potato Head in Toy Story 3 (2010). She portrayed Bertha Kristal, the mother of CBGB founder Hilly Kristal, in CBGB (2013).

Her other voice work included Lula in Dave the Barbarian, Mama Lipsky in Kim Possible, Thelma in The Proud Family, Mrs. Turtle in Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse, Death's mother in Family Guy, the Old Lady Bear in Brother Bear (2003), and Audrey in Home on the Range (2004).[8] She also provided the voice of Marty's wife in the American Dad! episode "In Country...Club."[citation needed]
Harris reprised her role of Mrs. Potato Head in Toy Story 4 (2019), which was her final film role.

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

[pbrower2a]

Zou Yan (Chinese: 邹衍; 5 November 1915 – 1 April 2022) was a founding major general (shaojiang) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was a representative of the 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, and a member of the 12th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.[1]

Zou was born into a family of farming background in Xingguo County, Jiangxi, in 1915.[1]
He enlisted in the Red Army in 1930, and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1935. During the Long March, he was communication foreman of the General Political Department. After graduating from the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, he worked in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and was rated as a model worker in 1942 due to his outstanding achievements in mass production movement. During the Chinese Civil War, he successively served as a political commissar in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, Mudanjiang Military District, Northeast Field Army, and Fourth Field Army.[1]

After establishment of the Communist State in 1951, he was assigned to the Northeast Public Security Force as deputy political commissar, capturing the CIA spies Donnay and Fecteau.[2] He attained the rank of major general (shaojiang) in 1955.[2] In August 1969, he rose to become deputy political commissar of Shenyang Military Region, and served until December 1980. He retired in 1988.[2][1]
On 2 April 2022, South Yan died in Shenyang, Liaoning, at the age of 106.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zou_Yan_(general)

[pbrower2a]

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky[a] (25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022)[1] was a Russian ultranationalist politician and the leader of the populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) * since its creation in 1992 until his death.[1][2][3] He was a member of the State Duma since 1993 and leader of the LDPR group in the State Duma from 1993 to 2000, and from 2011 to 2022.[4]


He was the deputy chairman of the State Duma from 2000 to 2001. He also worked as a delegate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2008. During his lifetime, Zhirinovsky also ran in every single Russian presidential election apart from in 2004.
He was known for many controversies, and advocating for Russia's military actions against the West.*

(An example of his turgid thinking -- pbrower2a):


The Last Break Southward[edit]


The Last Break Southward (1995) was the magnum opus of Zhirinovsky in which he expressed his worldview. "Since the 1980s, I have elaborated a geopolitical conception—the last break southward, Russia's reach to the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean." This is "really the solution for the salvation of the Russian nation … It solves all problems and we gain tranquility."[44] Russia will rule the space "from Kabul to Istanbul."[45] The United States would feel safer with the Russian rule in the region, since wars there would cease under the Russian rule. Perhaps, some people in Kabul, Teheran, or Ankara would not like it but many people would feel better. "The Persians and Turks would suffer a bit but all the rest would gain."[46]
The "bells of the Orthodox Church must bell from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean." And Jerusalem becomes close. It is necessary that "the Christian world reunifies in Jerusalem." The Palestinian problem can be solved by partial transfer of the Palestinian population to the former territories of Turkey and Iran.[47] The great Russian language and Russian ruble would wield Near Eastern and Central Asian peoples into one Russian citizenship.[48]

Along the Russia southern sphere from India to Bosporus, other spheres of influence will stretch from north to south in the forthcoming world order, Latin America would be in the American sphere, Africa in the European sphere.[49] and Japan and China will rule Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Australia. Everywhere "the direction is the same—north-south."[50] Geopolitically, it is logical. "Hence, the distribution along such a geopolitical formula would be very beneficent for the whole of humanity, and all over the planet would be established warm and clear political climate."[51]
"On this occasion, we need a man with at least planetary thinking," who would realise "the geopolitical formula, guaranteeing the interests of the majority on the planet … This is the fate of Russia. It is destination, fate … We must do it, for we have no choice … This is geopolitics."[52] We would do it, assured Zhirinovsky alluding to himself, by the efforts of an "honest, perseverant, patriotically inspired President."[53]


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

*His Party is neither liberal nor democratic.

[pbrower2a]

Born in [[Jerusalem, Israel] on August 2, 1919,[1][2] Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929 and graduated from the Hebrew Technical Institute in 1937.[3] Persoff was drafted by the United States Army in early 1942 and served during World War II until 1945. He was assigned to an acting company to entertain troops around the world.[4] After the war, he worked as a subway electrician, maintaining signals while he began to pursue his acting career in New York theatre. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio, and was one of the 26 members of the beginners' class taught by Elia Kazan, along with James Whitmore and Julie Harris. He began his acting career in 1948.[5][6]

Among his early film roles was the driver during the I coulda been a contender scene in On the Waterfront (1954), Leo the accountant in The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger (1956), and the gangster boss Little Bonaparte, a parody of Little Caesar in Billy Wilder's film classic Some Like It Hot (1959),[7] and he appeared again with Steiger in Al Capone (1959). He also appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Comancheros (1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In the film Yentl (1983), Persoff portrayed the father of Barbra Streisand's character. He appeared in the comedy film Twins (1988) and in the American Tail animated-film series as Papa Mousekewitz. His last movie was 4 Faces (1999), the last film to be directed by Ted Post.

His many television credits include Five Fingers ("The Moment of Truth"), The Big Valley ("Legend of a General", Parts I & II, episode), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Heart of Gold" episode), The Twilight Zone ("Judgment Night"), The Untouchables (six episodes, including three episodes as Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, regarded by many as his signature role[8]), Naked City, Route 66 (two episodes), Seaway ("Last Voyage" episode, 1965), The Legend of Jesse James, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Gunsmoke, Columbo ("Now You See Him..."), Gilligan's Island (as the title character in the episode "The Little Dictator", the favorite episode of the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz[9]), The Wild Wild West, The High Chaparral ("Fiesta" episode, 1970), Hawaii Five-O (seven episodes), Cannon, Ellery Queen ("The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse" episode), Mission: Impossible (three episodes), Adam-12 ("Vendetta" episode), The Mod Squad, Barney Miller (three episodes), and Star Trek: The Next Generation, ("The Most Toys" 1990). He appeared as the Eastern Alliance Leader in the Battlestar Galactica episode, "Experiment in Terra" (1979).

Persoff retired from acting in 1999 and pursued painting, specialising in watercolours. Before his death, he lived in Cambria, California.[10] His wife, Thia Persov, who he married in 1951, died in 2021 due to cancer.[11][12] They had four children.
He died on April 5, 2022, at the age of 102 of heart failure.[13][11]


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

[pbrower2a]

Gilbert Gottfried, comedian:


Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. His persona as a comedian featured an exaggerated shrill voice and emphasis on crude humor. His numerous roles in film and television include voicing the parrot Iago in the Aladdin animated films and series, Digit LeBoid in Cyberchase, Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Aflac Duck. He appeared in the critically panned but commercially successful Problem Child in 1990.

Gottfried hosted the podcast Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast (2014–2022), which featured discussions of classic movies and celebrity interviews, most often with veteran actors, comedians, musicians, and comedy writers. The documentary Gilbert (2017) explored his life and career. \\

At age 15, Gottfried began performing stand-up comedy in New York and eventually became known in the area as a "comedian's comedian".[4] In 1980, Saturday Night Live was being retooled with a new staff and new comedians; the producers noticed Gottfried and hired him as a cast member for season 6.[5][6] Gottfried's persona during SNL sketches was very different from his later characterization: he rarely (if ever) spoke in his trademark screeching, obnoxious voice and never squinted. During his 12-episode stint, he was given very little airtime and seldom used in sketches. Gottfried recalled that a low point was having to play a corpse in a sketch about a sports organist hired to play inappropriate music at a funeral. Despite this, he had one recurring character (Leo Waxman, husband to Denny Dillon's Pinky Waxman on the recurring talk show sketch, "What's It All About?") and two celebrity impersonations: David A. Stockman and controversial film director Roman Polanski.[7]
 

Gottfried being fed by Larry King's wife Shaun in June 1999

Gottfried played accountant Sidney Bernstein in the 1987 film Beverly Hills Cop II which reunited him with friend and fellow SNL alumnus Eddie Murphy.[8]
Although not a regular, Gottfried appeared in The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys, as well as the voice of Jerry the Belly Button Elf on Ren and Stimpy. Three of his most prominent roles came in 1990, 1991, and 1992, when he was cast as the adoption agent Igor Peabody in Problem Child and Problem Child 2 and the parrot Iago in Aladdin. When asked how he prepared for the role, Gottfried said, "I did the whole DeNiro thing. I moved to South America! I lived in the trees!" Gottfried reprised the role in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the television series and various related media, such as Kingdom Hearts and House of Mouse. However, the character was ultimately recast to Alan Tudyk for the 2019 remake. He also voiced Berkeley Beetle in 1994's Thumbelina. He was the host of the Saturday edition of USA Up All Night for its entire run from 1989 to 1998.[citation needed]
Gottfried was a recurring guest star during the Tom Bergeron era of The Hollywood Squares and became the central figure in a bizarre episode that aired October 1, 1999. In this episode, the two contestants made nine consecutive incorrect guesses, six of which were to be game-deciding questions asked to Gottfried. Magician Penn Jillette, who was a guest alongside his magic partner Teller on the same episode, berated a contestant earlier for giving an incorrect guess by shouting, "You fool!" Gottfried himself then began to use the phrase, with most of the other stars (including Bergeron himself) eventually joining in with every successive wrong guess, beginning with the second question he was asked. As a consequence, it took the episode's entire half hour to play only one game. Appropriately, the episode became known as the "You Fool!" episode.[citation needed]
Gottfried provided the voice of the duck in the Aflac commercials and Digit in Cyberchase, as well as the crazed dentist Dr. Bender and his son Wendell in The Fairly OddParents, and Mister Mxyzptlk (pronounced "Mitz-yez-pit-lik") in Superman: The Animated Series. He reprised his role as Mxyzptlk in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Justice League Action, and Lego DC Super-Villains. He also voiced a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named Nick-Nack in two episodes of Superboy (he also co-wrote an issue of Superboy: The Comic Book, which featured Nick-Nack's origin). Gottfried made regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[citation needed]


Gottfried at the Writers Guild of America East Solidarity Rally in November 2007

In 2004, Comedy Central featured Gottfried's stand-up material for Shorties Watchin' Shorties.[9] Gottfried was part of an online advertising campaign for Microsoft's Office XP software, showing, in a series of Flash-animated cartoons, that the Clippy office assistant would be removed. In 2006, Gottfried topped the Boston Phoenix's tongue-in-cheek list of the world's 100 Unsexiest Men. In April 2006, Gottfried performed with the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club in their annual Intercollegiate Comedy Festival. Also in 2006, he made an appearance on the Let's Make a Deal portion of Gameshow Marathon (as a baby in a large high chair, he says "Hey Ricki, I think I need my diaper changed!"), and in the Dodge Viper in the big deal (where he tells the contestants "What were you thinking?!" because neither one picked it). He also guest-starred in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as Santa Claus in the one-hour Christmas Special. He voiced Rick Platypus in an episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey entitled "That Darn Platypus".[citation needed]
He appeared as Peter's horse in an episode of Family Guy entitled "Boys Do Cry" (in which Peter Griffin is enthused to learn that Gottfried is providing the horse's voice). He also guest-starred in Hannah Montana as Barny Bittmen. In January 2009, Gottfried worked again with David Faustino for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving.[10] In 2011, Gottfried appeared in the episode "Lost Traveler" on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Leo Gerber, a sarcastic computer professional working for the NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit, which producer Warren Leight said could become a recurring character.[11] Gottfried read a section from the hit book Fifty Shades of Grey in a June 2012 YouTube video, which was created with the aim of using Gottfried's trademark voice to make fun of the book's graphic sexual content.[12]
In 2013, Gottfried became a member of "Team Rachael" on the second season of Food Network's Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. In March that year he appeared on ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap. He swapped wives with Alan Thicke.[13] He was also a commentator on truTV Presents: World's Dumbest....[citation needed]
On May 28, 2014, Sideshow Network premiered Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, an interview series where Gottfried and his co-host Frank Santopadre discussed classic movies and talk to "Hollywood legends and behind-the-scenes talents" who shaped Gottfried's childhood and influenced his comedy.[14] His first guest was Dick Cavett.[15]
Gottfried was the third contestant fired during the fourteenth season of the NBC reality show The Celebrity Apprentice. In 2016 he played the 'Pig Man' in a comedy/fantasy film Abnormal Attraction.[16]

In 2017 he appeared as himself in Episodes, where a contestant on a fictional TV endurance game show is penalized with "48 hours of Gilbert Gottfried".[citation needed]
On June 10, 2018, Gottfried appeared in a special segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver where, for UK viewers only, a segment about the UK's law restricting broadcast of debates from the Houses of Parliament was replaced by five minutes of him reading "3-star Yelp reviews" along with host John Oliver telling the audience "you brought this on yourself because of your stupid law". He returned on November 18, 2018, in the show's last episode of the year to read out extracts from the Brexit agreement, again for UK viewers only.[17] He had previously performed as "the real voice of Jared Kushner" in dubbed film clips on the show.[citation needed]
On July 31, 2019, Gottfried appeared as a guest in episode 170 of the Angry Video Game Nerd.[18] On January 10, 2022, he guest-starred as God on the season finale of Smiling Friends.[citation needed]
Style

Gottfried in April 2016

Danny Gallagher of the Dallas Observer wrote that "Gottfried has one of the most original formulas in the history of comedy", adding, "You don't just laugh at the punchline when Gilbert Gottfried tells a joke. You laugh at the setup. You laugh at his comments about the joke. You even laugh at the segues between his jokes."[19]
Gottfried was known for speaking in a loud and grating voice, which was not his natural speaking voice.[20] Mark Binneli of Rolling Stone described Gottfried as a "squinting, squawking mass of contradictions", noting his status as "one of America's filthiest stand-ups" while simultaneously being "one of the most successful voice-over artists in children's entertainment".[21] He was known for joking about recent tragedies. In a July 2012 op-ed for CNN, he wrote, "I have always felt comedy and tragedy are roommates. If you look up comedy and tragedy, you will find a very old picture of two masks. One mask is tragedy. It looks like it's crying. The other mask is comedy. It looks like it's laughing. Nowadays, we would say, 'How tasteless and insensitive. A comedy mask is laughing at a tragedy mask.'"[22]


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