Obituaries

[pbrower2a]

A reminder: any semblance of democracy and rule of law is dead in Burma/Myanmar. The Burmese Army is the State and the Law now, and anyone who does not accept that can pay with his life. See also North Korea.

The greatest danger to the people in that country is paradoxically an Army which is the literal Enemy of the People, and all-powerful. 

Kyaw Min Yu (Burmese: ကျော်မင်းယု; also known as Ko Jimmy; 13 February 1969 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese writer, political prisoner, and a member of the 88 Generation Students Group. He was executed in July 2022[2] after being sentenced to death for activism against the junta that seized power in a coup in 2021.[3]
Contents

Kyaw Min Yu rose to prominence during the 8888 Uprising, as a student activist.[4][5] He was imprisoned for 15 years, from 1988 to 2003, for participating in the 8888 Uprising,[6] and later spent another five years in prison after protesting fuel price hikes with the 88 Generation Students Group in August 2007.[7]

He wrote the self-help book Making Friendship (မိတ်ဖြစ်ဆွေဖြစ်), which became a bestseller, in 2005.[8] On 6 September 2012, he published a novel, The Moon in Inle Lake (လမင်းဆန္ဒာအင်းလေးကန်), which had been written in 2010 during a prison sentence in Taunggyi.[8] While serving a sentence in Taunggyi, he wrote a number of political post-modern short stories, published in Japan, under the pen name Pan Pu Lwin Pyin.[8] Ko Jimmy translated numerous novels, including Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, while in prison.[8]


On 13 February 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, Kyaw Min Yu and six other high profile individuals,[9] namely Min Ko Naing, Myo Yan Naung Thein, Insein Aung Soe, Mg Mg Aye, Pencilo, and Lynn Lynn were charged and issued arrest warrants under section 505 (b) of the penal code by the State Administration Council for inciting unrest against the state and threatening "public tranquility" through their social media posts.[10][11][12][13] He was arrested in Dagon Township on 23 October.[14] On 23 January 2022, the Myanmar Military Tribunal sentenced Yu to death under the country’s Counterterrorism Law for contacting the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, National Unity Government (NUG), and People’s Defense Force (PDF).[3] On 23 July 2022, Yu was executed along with Zayar Thaw and two others.[2]

Ko Jimmy was married to Nilar Thein, a political activist.[15] The couple have a daughter, Nay Chi Min Yu.[16]

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

[David Horn]

(07-28-2022, 03:32 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Tony Dow, Wally Cleaver on 'Leave It to Beaver,' dies at 77

Apparently not.  He appeared in public two days after the announcement.

[Eric the Green]

(07-29-2022, 07:08 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-28-2022, 03:32 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Tony Dow, Wally Cleaver on 'Leave It to Beaver,' dies at 77

Apparently not.  He appeared in public two days after the announcement.

No, he was in hospice, and an announcement of his death was made a day before it happened, but it happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Dow
https://tvline.com/2022/07/27/tony-dow-d...se-report/

Actor Tony Dow, best known for his role as Wally Cleaver on the classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver, died on Wednesday at the age of 77.

Dow was still in hospice care Tuesday when his death was prematurely announced. “Tony’s wife Lauren, who was very distraught, had notified us that Tony had passed and asked that we notify all his fans,” according to a statement on his Facebook page. “As we are sure you can understand, this has been a very trying time for her. We have since received a call from Tony’s daughter-in-law saying that while Tony is not doing well, he has not yet passed. Tony’s son Christopher and his daughter-in-law Melissa have also been by his side comforting him, and we will keep you posted on any future updates.”

But on Wednesday, Dow’s management issued a new statement confirming that the actor had died, writing: “We have received confirmation from Christopher, Tony’s son, that Tony passed away earlier this morning, with his loving family at his side to see him through this journey.”

Jerry Mathers, who played Dow’s TV brother Theodore Cleaver (aka “The Beaver”) posted the following heartfelt tribute to his own Facebook page following the initial announcement: “It is with the utmost sadness I learned this morning of my co-star and lifelong friend Tony Dow’s passing. He was not only my brother on TV, but in many ways in life as well. Tony leaves an empty place in my heart that won’t be filled. He was always the kindest, most generous, gentle, loving, sincere, and humble man, that it was my honor and privilege to be able to share memories together with for 65 years.”

In addition to playing one of pop culture’s most iconic older brothers — a role he played from 1957 to 1963, then reprised in The New Leave It to Beaver from 1983 to 1989 — Dow’s career included high-profile appearances on shows like Diagnosis Murder, Knight Rider, Lassie and Mod Squad.

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If one is to be a military leader who goes into politics, then here is one way to do it*:

Fidel Valdez Ramos CCLH, GCS, KGCR (Spanish: [fiˈðel βalˈdes ra.mos]; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022),[3] popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer who reached the rank of five-star general/admiral de jure who rose from second lieutenant up to commander-in-chief of the armed forces. During his six years in office, Ramos was widely credited and admired by many for revitalizing and renewing international confidence in the Philippine economy.


He rose the ranks in the Philippine military early in his career and became Chief of the Philippine Constabulary and Vice Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the term of President Ferdinand Marcos.
During the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, Ramos was hailed as a hero by many Filipinos for his decision to break away from the administration of President Marcos and pledge allegiance and loyalty to the newly established government of President Corazon Aquino.

Prior to his election as president, Ramos served in the cabinet of President Corazon Aquino, first as chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and later as Secretary of National Defense from 1986 to 1991.[4] He was credited for the creation of the Philippine Army's Special Forces and the Philippine National Police Special Action Force.

Since his retirement, he has remained active in politics, serving as adviser to his successors. He died at the age of 94 due to the complications of COVID-19.

A true hero of his country.

*Dwight Eisenhower never had to turn against a tyrannical leader of his country.

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Great basketball player and head coach, Bill Russell:

William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time NBA All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career.[2] Russell and Henri Richard of the National Hockey League are tied for the record of the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league.[3] He led the San Francisco Dons to two consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956,[4] and he captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[5]. Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all-time.


Despite his limitations on offense – Russell never averaged more than 19.0 points per game in any season – some regard him as one of the greatest basketball players of all time for his dominating defensive play.[6][7][8] Standing at 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall, with a 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) arm span,[9][10] his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' domination of the NBA during his career. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities, and he led the NBA in rebounds four times, had a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds,[11] and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than 50 rebounds in a game.[12]

Russell played in the wake of black pioneers Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, and he was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first black coach in North American professional sports and the first to win a championship.[13] Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, was one of the founding inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996,[5] one of only four players to receive all three honors, and selected into the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. In 2009, the NBA renamed in his honor the NBA Finals' Most Valuable Player trophy to the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on the court and in the civil rights movement.[14][15] In 2021, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a second time for his coaching career.[16]

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

[sbarrera]

Paul Anthony Sorvino (April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor, opera singer, businessman, and writer. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law.

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

Paul Sorvino, Actor in ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘That Championship Season,’ Dies at 83
The Tony-nominated star played bad guys as well as cops, including Det. Phil Cerretta on 'Law & Order.'

Obituaries have made much note of his role in Goodfellas but I always remember him from Law & Order, playing partner to Chris Noth.

[sbarrera]

This one breaks my heart. A woman of virtue unsurpassed, a luminary of her age, and active in her celebrity role to the very end. A paragon of her generation.

Nichelle Nichols (December 28, 1932 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress, singer and dancer best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, and its film sequels. Nichols' portrayal of Uhura was ground-breaking for African American actresses on American television.

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



Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89

The actress earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. by playing a Black authority figure, rare on 1960s television.



Nichelle Nichols, who made history and earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. for her portrayal of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, has died. She was 89. 

Nichols, who earlier sang and danced as a performer with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, died Saturday night of natural causes, her son, Kyle Johnson, posted on her official Facebook page.

“Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” he wrote Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”

A family spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that she died in Silver City, New Mexico. She had been living with her son and was recently hospitalized.

Nichols played a person of authority on television at a time when most Black women were portraying servants.

She was cast as Uhura by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry after she guest-starred as the fiancee of a Black U.S. Marine who is a victim of racism in a 1964 episode of another NBC show he created, the Camp Pendleton-set The Lieutenant.
(Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban, two other Star Trek actors, appeared on that short-lived Roddenberry series as well.)

In the 2010 documentary Trek Nation, Nichols said she informed Roddenberry midway through Star Trek’s first season of 1966-67 that she wanted to quit the show and return to the musical theater, which she called “her first love.”

However, a chance meeting with King at an NAACP fundraiser — who knew he was a Trekker? — led Nichols to stay put.

“He told me that Star Trek was one of the only shows that his wife Coretta and he would allow their little children to stay up and watch,” she recalled. “I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face and he said, ‘You can’t do that. Don’t you understand, for the first time, we’re seen as we should be seen? You don’t have a black role. You have an equal role.’

“I went back to work on Monday morning and went to Gene’s office and told him what had happened over the weekend. And he said, ‘Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do.’ ”

Said Roddenberry in the documentary, “I was pleased that in those days, when you couldn’t even get Blacks on television, that I not only had a Black but a Black woman and a Black officer.”

Nichols played Nyota Uhura, who hailed from the United States of Africa in the future, on all three seasons of the series, which featured a multi-ethnic, multi-racial crew manning the deck of the Starship Enterprise.

She reprised the role in all six of the Star Trek films from 1979 through 1991, on animated series and several videogames and on a 2002 episode of Futurama.

In the three recent Star Trek films directed by J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin, Uhura is portrayed by Zoë Saldana.

In the original Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which first aired in November 1968, Uhura and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) shared an interracial kiss. (They couldn’t help themselves; according to the plot, aliens made them do it.)
When NBC execs learned about the kiss during production, they feared stations in the Southern states would not air the episode, so they ordered that another version of the scene be filmed. But Nichols and Shatner purposely screwed up every additional take.

“Finally, the guys in charge relented: ‘To hell with it. Let’s go with the kiss,” Nichols wrote in her 1994 book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. “I guess they figured we were going to be canceled in a few months anyway. And so the kiss stayed.”

In the mid-1970s, after Nichols took NASA to task in a speech for not reaching out to women and minorities, the organization asked her to serve as a recruiter.

“I went everywhere,” she said. “I went to universities that had strong science and engineering programs. I was a guest at NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command], where no civilian had gone before.

“At the end of the recruitment, NASA had so many highly qualified people. They took six women, they took three African-American men … it was a very fulfilling accomplishment for me.”

Among those who applied to NASA thanks to Nichols were Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka. A documentary about her efforts, Woman in Motion, premiered in 2018.

Born Grace Nichols on Dec. 28, 1932, in the Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy. As a teenager, she toured as a dancer with Ellington and Lionel Hampton, then sang for the first time with Ellington’s band when a performer became ill at the last minute.

She danced with Sammy Davis Jr. in Porgy and Bess (1959), was a dice player in James Garner’s Mister Buddwing (1966) and played the foul-mouthed head of a prostitution ring who puts a hit out on Isaac Hayes in Truck Turner (1974). In 1968, she recorded an album, Down to Earth.

Nichols appeared as the grandmother of avenging angel Monica Dawson (Dana Davis), who has the power to mimic any physical motion she witnesses, on the NBC series Heroes.

Her more recent film appearances came in Snow Dogs (2002), Are We There Yet? (2005) and This Bitter Earth (2012).

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At the end I wonder whether Fidel Ramos was cursing the military leaders of Myanmar/Burma, military leaders devoid of any apparent moral compass.

[pbrower2a]

Now learning conversational German, the most useful language where he has gone.


Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri[4] (Arabic: أيمن محمد ربيع الظواهري, romanized: ʾAyman Muḥammad Rabīʿ aẓ-Ẓawāhirī; June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022)[5] was an Egyptian-born physician and theologian who was the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda from June 2011 until his death in July 2022.[6] He succeeded Osama bin Laden following his death, and was a former member and senior official of Islamist organizations which have orchestrated attacks in Asia, Africa, and also some in North America and Europe. In 2012, he called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners in Muslim countries.[7]


After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. State Department offered a US$25 million reward for information or intelligence leading to Ayman al-Zawahiri's capture.[8][9] He was put under worldwide sanctions in 1999 by the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee as a member of al-Qaeda.[10][/color]

On July 31, 2022, Al-Zawahri was killed in Kabul by a US drone strike.[11]

Al-Zawahri was reportedly killed on July 31, 2022 in a drone strike conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in the upscale Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul.[169] In a statement to reporters, a senior administration official said "over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan. The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties."[6] The United States Department of Defense denied responsibility for the strike, while the United States Central Command declined to comment.[169]


The Taliban said that the strike was conducted on a residential house in the Sherpur area of Kabul. The New York Times, citing an American analyst, reported that the house struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government.[170] A senior American official told the Times Zawahiri was struck by two missiles while standing on a balcony; the same analyst suggested an AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile was used.[170]

[color=#ff9966]A statement from the Taliban condemned the operation and said the strike was conducted on a residential house in the Sherpur area of Kabul.[170]

[Tim Randal Walker]

Trekbbs.com has a thread that tracks obituaries. At this point, of all the actors appearing on the original Star Trek series, 352 have passed away.

Of the regularly appearing cast members, only William Shatner (91, born 1931), George Takei (85, born 1937), and Walter Koenig (85, born 1936) are still with us.

The first to pass away were Deforest Kelley (1920-1999) and James Doohan (1920-2005).

Subsequent deaths: Majel Barrett (1932-2008), Grace Lee Whitney (1930-2015), Leonard Nimoy (1930-2015), Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022).

[pbrower2a]

Something to be said of members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: the oldest of its members is Willie Mays,  who was born the same year as William Shatner.

https://baseballhall.org/media/living-hall-of-famers

Noticing that Vin Scully was not on the list, I checked to see if there was a mistake.  No mistake. He just passed away. So the Field of Dreams has its newest announcer, the one joining Mel Allen, Red Barber, Harry Carey, and Ernie Harwell. Vin Scully was the oldest member of the Baseball Hall of fame until yesterday.



Vincent Edward Scully (November 29, 1927 – August 2, 2022)[1] was an American sportscaster. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located in Brooklyn) and ending in 2016. His run calling games constituted the longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history, and he was second only to Tommy Lasorda (by two years) in terms of number of years associated with the Dodgers organization in any capacity. He retired at age 88 in 2016, ending his record-breaking run as the team's play-by-play announcer.


In his final season behind the microphone, Scully announced most Dodgers home games (and selected road games) on SportsNet LA television and KLAC radio. He was known for his distinctive voice, lyrically descriptive style, and signature introduction to Dodgers games: "It's time for Dodger baseball! Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be." He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, according to fan rankings, Bleacher Report and Fox Sports.[2]

In addition to Dodgers baseball, Scully called various nationally-televised football and golf contests for CBS Sports from 1975 to 1982, and was NBC Sports' lead baseball play-by-play announcer from 1983 to 1989. He also called the World Series for CBS Radio from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1990 to 1997.


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

[pbrower2a]

The UK was a very different place from the USA in rawce relations. The UK abolished slavery in Britqain itself much earlier, and abolished it in its colonies in the 1830's without the bloodshed that would appear in the USA during the Civil War.

One of the stars:


Roy Hackett OBE (19 September 1928 – 3 August 2022) was a Jamaican-born activist and long-time civil rights campaigner for the British African-Caribbean community in Bristol, England. He was one of the primary organisers of the Bristol Bus Boycott, which protested against the Bristol Omnibus Company's ban on employing black and Asian drivers and conductors. These events then paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965, the first legislation in the UK to address racial discrimination. He was also a co-founder of the Commonwealth Co-ordinated Committee (CCC) which set up the St. Paul's Carnival[1] (originally known as the St Paul’s Festival), a major cultural event in Bristol.
He was appointed an MBE in 2009 and an OBE in 2020. He was also a member of the Bristol Race Equality Council and founder of West Indian Parents’ and Friends’ Association (WIPFA).[2]

Hackett grew up in Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica.[3] He worked as an insurance broker alongside other jobs, but still struggled to make enough money to eat.[4] In 1952, he travelled to Britain by ship, as part of the Windrush generation, and lived in Liverpool, London and Wolverhampton, before settling in Bristol. Once in Bristol, he faced racism from his first day, as boarding houses refused to give him a room as soon as they saw he was black, and he ended up spending his first night sleeping in a doorway.[3]
Bus Boycott[edit]

[/url]
Bristol Bus Boycott plaque

In 1955 the Passenger Group of the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_and_General_Workers%27_Union]Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which represented bus workers, had passed a resolution that black and Asian workers should not be employed as bus crews at the Bristol Omnibus Company, despite a reported labour shortage on the buses. This was revealed by the Bristol Evening Post in 1961 and caused outrage among black communities.[5]
In 1962, Ena Hackett, Roy's wife, applied for a job as a conductor with the bus company, but was rejected despite being fully qualified for the post.[6][7] Along with Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown, Roy Hackett formed an action group to respond to this colour bar. Henry introduced Paul Stephenson, who was the city's first black youth officer, to the group, who then became their spokesperson. The group were inspired by Rosa Parks' activism and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and decided to hold their own Bristol Bus Boycott, which they announced at a press conference on 29 April 1963.

The boycott attracted national attention, with politican Tony Benn, then Labour MP for Bristol South East, committing to staying “off the buses, even if I have to find a bike”.[8] The Labour party leader, soon-to-be Prime Minister Harold Wilson, spoke out against the colour bar at an Anti-Apartheid Movement rally in London in early May.[9] The organisers' strategies included drawing parallels with US segregation and shaming the authorities, while causing as much disruption as possible via pickets of bus depots and routes.[8]
On 28 August, the general manager of the Bristol Omnibus Company, Ian Patey, declared a change in policy at the Bristol Omnibus Company, marking success for the bus boycott – the same day that Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in the United States. The evening before, a meeting of 500 TGWU bus workers had voted to agree to "the employment of suitable coloured workers as bus crews".[9] The first non-white bus conductor, Raghbir Singh, became Bristol's first non-white bus conductor on 17 September, followed soon after by two Jamaican and two Pakistani men.[9]

Hackett married his childhood sweetheart Ena in 1959. He had three children.[10] His portrait was painted on a mural in Bristol commemorating the Bristol Bus Boycott.[10]
Roy Hackett died at the age of 93 on 3 August 2022

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

[GeekyCynic]

Can't believe nobody mentioned the passing of the late, great Jamea Caan.

[pbrower2a]

Roger E. Mosley, actor

Mosley was born in Los Angeles, California, to Eloise Harris. He never knew his father. Mosley grew up in the Imperial Courts public housing in the Watts neighborhood. For high school, Mosley attended Jordan High School.[citation needed]

Mosley appeared as Monk in Terminal Island (1973). Other actors in the feature were Phyllis Davis, Don Marshall, Ena Hartman, and Tom Selleck,[2] who would later star in the television series Magnum, P.I. which would also feature Mosley.[3] In 1974, Mosley founded the Watts Repertory Company.[4]
Mosley's most prominent film role was his 1976 starring turn as the title character in Leadbelly, a biography of the musician directed by Gordon Parks.[5] In an article in the November 1982 issue of Ebony magazine, Mosley said that this was his favorite role.[6]

Mosley appeared in Magnum, P.I. from 1980 to 1988. He had a role as Tom Selleck's friend, helicopter pilot Theodore "T.C." Calvin, who operates his own tourist charter, Island Hoppers.[7] He appeared in season five of Las Vegas as the billionaire friend of Montecito owner A.J. Cooper (Tom Selleck).[citation needed]
Mosley came out of retirement to appear on the Magnum, P.I. reboot episode "A Kiss Before Dying" as Booky, T.C.'s barber, on March 11, 2019.[8][9] Stephen Hill, who played T.C. in the new series, said, "It is truly an honor for us to welcome an original cast member of Magnum, P.I.; one who embodied the role of T.C. with such thoughtful and dignified talent."[8]

Mosley also guest-starred on such shows as Night Court,[10] Kung Fu, Starsky & Hutch, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Baretta, and Sanford and Son. He also played a role in Roots: The Next Generations. Mosley made a memorable appearance in the 1973 film The Mack[11] as the militant brother of the main character Goldie.[12] He appeared in other blaxploitation films of the period, including Hit Man (1972), Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973), Darktown Strutters (1975), and The River Niger (1976).
Mosley's other film credits include McQ (1974) with John Wayne,[13] The Greatest (1977, as Sonny Liston), Semi-Tough (1977), Heart Condition (1990), and Pentathlon (1994).[14] He also starred in the television series Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992–1993) as Coach Ricketts in a recurring role with comedian/actor Mark Curry, and in the film A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) with Martin Lawrence, Lynn Whitfield, and Bobby Brown.[15]
He also appeared as a celebrity guest on The $25,000 Pyramid for a week's worth of shows in July 1983, July 1984, and June 1985. Mosley played a cameo role in the new Magnum P.I. series in 2018 and 2021.

Mosley was married to Antoinette Laudermick, with whom he was in a relationship for nearly sixty years.[16] He had three children.
Mosley became a certificated private helicopter pilot. When making Magnum P.I., he was not allowed to do his own stunts. A pilot wearing a body stocking with false muscles was used instead.[17]
At the 2013 HAI Heli-Expo in Las Vegas, a ceremony for the restored MD 500D helicopter was held. Both Mosley and fellow Magnum P.I. co-star Larry Manetti autographed the nose of the helicopter.[18]
On August 4, 2022, Mosley was involved in a car accident in Lynwood, California, becoming paralyzed from the shoulders down. He died three days later from his injuries at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the age of 83.[16]

[Eric the Green]

Another great 60s singer passes on

Judith Durham, Lead Singer Of The Seekers, Dies Aged 79

Tributes are flowing for Judith Durham, who has died at the age of 79. The Melbourne-born singer was the voice of The Seekers and a generation. Athol Guy was one of Judith’s bandmates in The Seekers, and shares his memories.





https://youtu.be/SYTwmZ_MX4I

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

[sbarrera]

(08-04-2022, 03:35 PM)GeekyCynic Wrote: Can't believe nobody mentioned the passing of the late, great Jameas Caan.

We were remiss. Let me correct that.

[sbarrera]

James Edmund Caan (March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor known for his film and television performances. He was nominated for several entertainment industry honors, including for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.

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



https://variety.com/2022/film/columns/ja...235311369/

Remembering James Caan: He Played Hotheads and Roughnecks, Brilliantly Exposing Their Humanity

It in no way shortchanges the brilliance of James Caan, who died Wednesday at 82, to point out that he had a special gift for playing insensitive men. He was a gruff, tough, raging, muscular actor, with a ramrod physicality and an imposing look: the wiry curls of brownish-blond hair, the handsome planed face that seemed carved out of granite, the mouth set in a scowl that was a challenge and often a threat. (You got the feeling that even his brain knew how to bench-press.) In “The Godfather,” the movie that not only established him as a great actor but marked him as a mythological presence, Caan played Santino “Sonny” Corleone, the lone hothead in a family of very cool criminals. Don Vito was a courtly, soft-spoken manipulator, Michael a moody intellectual, Fredo a black-sheep nebbish, and Tom Hagen the adoptive sibling as passive bureaucrat.

But Sonny? He glared and shouted and busted balls. He blurted out what he thought, he slept with whomever he wanted, and when a rival sought to make an example of him, it wasn’t hard to light Sonny’s fuse. Sonny had already stomped the crap out of his own brother-in-law — smashing him, in one of the most electrifyingly realistic fight scenes in movie history, with a garbage can. He was teaching the guy a lesson for having become the violent domestic abuser of Sonny’s sister. And when it happened again, the raging, thick-headed Sonny never dreamed that he was being set up.

It’s a true fact of Hollywood lore that Caan, in “The Godfather,” was originally cast to play Michael Corleone. (The Paramount executives liked him for the part; they thought Al Pacino was too short.) Yet it’s part of the film’s timeless power that of all the Hollywood casting yarns you’ve ever heard, that one may be the most impossible to imagine. James Caan as Michael? It would be like asking a German Shepherd to impersonate a Labrador. Caan became Sonny, investing him with a magnetic and, at times, tormented volatility that seemed to boil up over the sides of the character. It’s a performance so indelible that you may watch it and think the actor is simply pouring his own self into the role.

Yet that wasn’t the case. If you want to know what a potent act of imagination Caan’s performance in “The Godfather” was, just watch him in the drama he made the year before, the one that established him as a presence for the 30 million viewers who saw it. That would be “Brian’s Song,” the 1971 ABC Movie of the Week in which he played Brian Piccolo, the Chicago Bears running back who was struck with terminal cancer, and Billy Dee Williams played his friend and teammate Gale Sayers. This was a story of Black-and-white bonding as moving — and, I would argue, as culturally significant — as “In the Heat of the Night.” And Caan made Brian Piccolo the soul of a kind of shaggy heartrending American openness, a man driven, almost by instinct, to overcome the prejudice around him.

What James Caan possessed that emerged from own temperament was a gleeful and irrepressible machismo. He could turn almost any scene into a power play, and did. You see that in “The Gambler,” the Karel Reisz/James Toback New Hollywood-meets-Dostoyevsky drama he made two years after “The Godfather,” where he played the title character — a college instructor turned compulsive gambler — as a man so driven to live on the edge that it was as if he was competing with himself, courting danger as a test of mettle. It’s one of Caan’s most gripping performances.

Even so, he spent the ’70s searching for how to anchor his identity as an actor. He went the downbeat romantic route in “Cinderella Liberty” (1973), as a melancholy sailor opposite Marsha Mason’s single mother and sex worker, and opposite Barbra Streisand in the misbegotten sequel to “Funny Girl.” But he kept getting drawn back to the role of tough guy: as the bullheaded buddy cop in “Freebie and the Bean,” the betrayed assassin of Sam Peckinpah’s “The Killer Elite,” the dystopian gladiator of “Rollerball,” and the divorced father turned vigilante detective in “Hide in Plain Sight.”

Most of these, at heart, were overpriced B-movies. But they culminated in Caan’s performance as the wizardly safecracker trying to go straight in “Thief” (1981), Michael Mann’s searing debut feature. It’s an exquisitely stylish and tautly executed modern-day noir, and what gives the film its soul is Caan’s performance as a criminal who is desperate to find some sort of redemption, despite the fact that prison taught him to live in a place “where nuthin’ means nuthin’.” In “Thief,” Caan projects not just an expression of macho values but, in a certain way, the ultimate critique of them. Apart from “The Godfather,” it may be his finest performance.

Caan enjoyed a rare moment of blockbuster levity in “Misery,” the gothic-comedy adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, in which he played a romance novelist who is captured by Kathy Bates’s deranged fan. It was a riff on celebrity culture in which Bates, with her polite homicidal hostility, had the showpiece role, but it’s Caan, with his sly and quiet reactions, who roots the scenario and makes it work as drama. After that, he played a lot of aging criminals, in movies from “Bottle Rocket” to “The Yards” to “Dogville.” Even in a goofball lark like “Elf,” which is the movie for which an entire generation probably knows him best, he was a hard case — the tough-nut dad of Will Ferrell’s North Pole misfit, though by now he was the elder statesman of hard cases, carrying his savage credibility around with him almost as if he’d been an actual underworld character.

For that’s how legendary his performance in “The Godfather” had become. It helped to form our very image of who a gangster was — and, in fact, of all the major players in “The Godfather,” the one who comes closest to resembling a real-life gangster is Caan’s Sonny. Yet what we cherish about the character isn’t just how tough he was. It’s how large he loomed. Francis Ford Coppola has said the reason the scene where Sonny gets massacred at a tollbooth goes on for so long is that it felt like that was the level of ballistic overkill needed to wipe out the character. And even then, he lingered. You couldn’t imagine that someone with this much fire and force was gone.

[Eric the Green]

Lots of sad passings these days. I can only hope there is more than this life. Otherwise life seems rather pointless. It is sad to lose people. I will miss him a lot. But will it matter that we have lost people, when we are lost too? Will I miss him when I am gone too?

Anyone interested in history can revere and appreciate David McCullough. He was an active writer through his 80s. His view was broad, sensible and compassionate. He brought out new facts, and better perspective.

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

David Gaub McCullough (/məˈkʌlə/; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American author, narrator, popular historian, and lecturer.[2] He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States' highest civilian awards.[2][3]

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968); and he wrote nine more on such topics as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the Wright brothers. McCullough also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit; and he hosted American Experience for twelve years.

McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, Truman and John Adams, were adapted by HBO into a TV film and a miniseries, respectively.


David McCullough is the citizen chronicler of the American story for our time.

McCullough is a unique--and uniquely American--humanist. He is a historian who immerses himself deeply in primary materials, a literary artist of the first order, and a trusted person who has projected serious reflection out to an unprecedentedly wide audience.

He is a humanist in the literal meaning of that word. He is interested in people rather than "the people." He takes the reader inside the social and mental worlds in which his subjects live; and he lets them speak for themselves with generous and illuminating citations from their own writings and speeches.

-- JAMES BILLINGTON

https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jeffers...-biography





Amanpour and Company replays an interview in 2019 on his final book.

[pbrower2a]

He makes history comprehensible without debasing it into propaganda or fluff.

Much of history is the biographies of the key figures of the past. Biographies are not everything, but seeing the American Revolution and the constitutional establishment from John Adams' point of view is important.

[pbrower2a]

This is a shocker:


Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included five number one hits and another ten Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100,[1] and two Billboard 200 number one albums, If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). Eleven of her singles (including two Platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two Platinum and four 2× Platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With global sales of more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present.[2]


In 1978, Newton-John starred in the musical film Grease, whose soundtrack remains one of the world's best-selling albums of recorded music. It features two major hit duets with co-star John Travolta: "You're the One That I Want" – which ranks as one of the best-selling singles of all time – and "Summer Nights". Her signature solo recordings include the Record of the Year Grammy winner "I Honestly Love You" (1974) and "Physical" (1981) – Billboard's Top Hot 100 Single of the 1980s. Her other major hit singles include "If Not for You" (1971), "Let Me Be There" (1973), "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" (1974), "Have You Never Been Mellow" (1975), "Sam" (1977), "Hopelessly Devoted to You" (also from Grease), "A Little More Love" (1978) and, from the 1980 film Xanadu, "Magic" and "Xanadu" (with the Electric Light Orchestra).

Newton-John was an activist for environmental and animal rights causes, and advocated for breast cancer research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Newton-John