The Dead Thread

On 2008-12-02 14:25, King Bushwich the 33rd wrote:
93 KHJ made disk jockeys Real Don Steele and Robert W. Morgan famous.

Don't forget Sam Riddle

http://www.reelradio.com/dj/9sw043065.html

Bettie Page dies at 85; pinup queen played a key role in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and later became a cult figure

December 12, 2008

Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.

Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.

A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.

Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."

Then there are the idealized portraits of her naughty personas -- Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie, Voodoo Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, Maid Bettie, Crackers in Bed Bettie -- memorialized by such artists as Olivia de Berardinis.

"I'll always paint Bettie Page," De Berardinis said Thursday night . "But truth be told, it took me years to understand what I was looking at in the old photographs of her. Now I get it. There was a passion play unfolding in her mind. What some see as a bad-girl image was in fact a certain sensual freedom and play-acting - it was part of the fun of being a woman."

"The origins of what captures the imagination and creates a particular celebrity are sometimes difficult to define," Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said Thursday night. "Bettie Page was one of Playboy magazine's early Playmates, and she became an iconic figure, influencing notions of beauty and fashion. Then she disappeared. . . . Many years later, Bettie resurfaced and we became friends. Her passing is very sad."

In an interview 2 1/2 years ago, Hefner described Page's appeal as "a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern."

According to her agents at CMG Worldwide, Page's official website, http://www.BettiePage.com, has received about 600 million hits over the last five years.

"Bettie Page captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said Roesler, chairman of the Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, who was at Page's side when she died. "She was a dear friend and a special client and one of the most beautiful and influential women of the 20th century."

A religious woman in her later life, Page was mystified by her influence on modern popular culture. "I have no idea why I'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work," she said in an interview with The Times in 2006.

She had one request for that interview: that her face not be photographed.

"I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."

Bettie Mae Page was born April 22, 1923, in Nashville. She was the oldest girl among Roy and Edna Page's six children. Her father, an auto mechanic, "molested all three of his daughters," Page said in the interview.

Her parents divorced in 1933, but life didn't get any easier for Bettie.

"All I ever wanted was a mother who paid attention to me," Page recalled. "She didn't want girls. She thought we were trouble. When I started menstruating at 13, I thought I was dying because she never taught me anything about that."

After high school, Page earned a teaching credential. But her career in the classroom was short-lived. "I couldn't control my students, especially the boys," she said.

She tried secretarial work and marriage. But by 1948 she had divorced a violent husband and fled to New York City, where she enrolled in acting classes. She was noticed on the beach at Coney Island by New York police officer and amateur photographer Jerry Tibbs, who introduced her to camera clubs.

Page quickly became a sought-after model, attracting the attention of Irving Klaw and his sister, Paula, who operated a mail-order business specializing in cheesecake and bondage poses.

Under contract with the Klaws, Page was photographed prancing around with a whip, spanking other women, even being hog-tied. She also appeared in 8-millimeter "loops" and feature-length peekaboo films with titles like "Betty Page in High Heels."

"I had lost my ambition and desire to succeed and better myself; I was adrift," Page recalled. "But I could make more money in a few hours modeling than I could earn in a week as a secretary."

Her most professional photographs were taken in 1955 by fashion photographer Bunny Yeager. They included shots of Page nude and frolicking in waves and deep-sea fishing, and a January 1955 Playboy centerfold of her winking under a Santa Claus cap.

At 35, Page walked away from it all. She quit modeling and moved to Florida, where she married a much younger man whose passions, she later learned, were watching television and eating hamburgers.

Page fled from her home in tears after a dispute on New Year's Eve in 1959. Down the street, she noticed a white neon sign over a little white church with its door open.

After quietly taking a seat in the back, she had a born-again experience. Page immersed herself in Bible studies and served as a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade.

In 1967, she married for a third time. After that marriage ended in divorce 11 years later, Page plunged into a depression marked by violent mood swings. She argued with her landlady and attacked her with a knife. A judge found her innocent by reason of insanity but sentenced her to 10 years in a California mental institution.

She was released in 1992 from Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County to find that she had unwittingly become a pop-culture icon. A movie titled "The Rocketeer" and the comic book that inspired it contained a Bettie-esque character, triggering a revival, among women as well as men, that continues unabated.

With the help of admirers including Hefner, Page finally began receiving a respectable income for her work.

In an interview published in Playboy magazine in 2007, Page expressed mixed feelings about her achievements. "When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude," she said. "But now, most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude. So I'm not ashamed of it now. But I still don't understand it."

She spent most of her final years in a one-bedroom apartment, reading the Bible, listening to Christian and country tunes, watching westerns on television, catching up on diet and exercise regimens or sometimes perusing secondhand clothing stores.

Occasionally, however, Page was persuaded to visit the Sunset Boulevard penthouse offices of her agents at CMG Worldwide to autograph pinups of herself in the post-World War II years of her prime. The agency controls her image and those of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, among others.

During one such event in early 2006, Page needed about 10 minutes to get through the 10 letters of her name. As she pushed her pen over a portrait of her in a negligee with an ecstatic smile, she laughed and said, "My land! Is that supposed to be me? I was never that pretty."

Dammit!

Van Johnson, 1940s Heartthrob, Dead at 92

NEW YORK — Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92.

Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assistant living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and others during his two decades under contract to MGM.

He proved to be a versatile actor, equally at home with comedies ("The Bride Goes Wild," "Too Young to Kiss"), war movies ("Go for Broke," "Command Decision"), musicals ("Thrill of a Romance," "Brigadoon") and dramas ("State of the Union," "Madame Curie").

During the height of his popularity, Johnson was cast most often as the all-American boy. He played a real-life flier who lost a leg in a crash after the bombing of Japan in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." He was a writer in love with a wealthy American girl (Taylor) in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." He appeared as a post-Civil War farmer in "The Romance of Rosy Ridge."

More recently, he had a small role in 1985 as a movie actor in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

A heartthrob with bobbysoxers — he was called "the non-singing Sinatra" — Johnson married only once. In 1947 at the height of his career, he eloped to Juarez, Mexico, to marry Eve Wynn, who had divorced Johnson's good friend Keenan Wynn four hours before.

The marriage produced a daughter, Schuyler, and ended bitterly 13 years later. "She wiped me out in the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history," Johnson told reporters.

As a young actor, Johnson had a brief run with Warner Bros. and then got a screen test and a contract with MGM with the help of his friend Lucille Ball.

After a bit in "The War Against Mrs. Hadley," Johnson appeared with Lionel Barrymore as "Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant," as Mickey Rooney's friend in "The Human Comedy" and as a Navy pilot in "Pilot No. 5."

His big break, with Irene Dunne and Spencer Tracy in the wartime fantasy "A Guy Named Joe," was almost wiped out by tragedy.

On April 1, 1943, his DeSoto convertible was struck head-on by another car. "They tell me I was almost decapitated, but I never lost consciousness," he remembered. "I spent four months in the hospital after they sewed the top of my head back on. I still have a disc of bone in my forehead five inches long."

"A Guy Named Joe" was postponed for his recovery, and the forehead scar went unnoticed in his resulting popularity. MGM cashed in on his stardom with three or four films a year. Among them: "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Two Girls and a Sailor," "Weekend at the Waldorf." "High Barbaree," "Mother Is a Freshman," "No Leave No Love" and "Three Guys Named Mike."

Though he hadn't lost his boyish looks, Johnson's vogue faded by the mid-'50s, and the film roles became sparse, though he did have a "comeback" movie with Janet Leigh in 1963, "Wives and Lovers."

Also in the 1960s he returned to the theater, playing "Damn Yankees" in summer theaters at $7,500 a week. Then he accepted a two-year contract to star in "The Music Man" in London.

He explained why in an interview: "Because the phone didn't ring. Because the film scripts were getting crummier and crummier. Because I sat beside my pool in Palm Springs one day and told myself: 'Van, you'll be 45 this year. If you don't start doing something now, you never will.'"

For three decades he was one of the busiest stars in regional and dinner theaters, traveling throughout the country from his New York base. In the 1980s, Johnson appeared on Broadway in "La Cage aux Folles," late in the run of the popular Jerry Herman musical.

"The white-haired ladies who come to matinees are the people who put me on top," he said in a 1992 in Michigan, where he was appearing at a suburban Detroit theater. "I'm still grateful to them." Television provided some gigs ("The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island" and "McMillan & Wife"), and he also became a painter, his canvases selling as high as $10,000. In a 1988 interview, he told of an important art lesson:

"I was on the Onassis yacht with Winston Churchill. He got his canvas out and so did I. He was working away, and he growled at me, 'Don't just sit there and stare! Get some paint and splash it on!'"

He was born Charles Van Dell Johnson on Aug. 25, 1916, in Newport, R.I., where his father was a real estate salesman. From his earliest years he was fascinated by the touring companies that played in Newport theaters, and after high school he announced his intention to try his luck in New York. He arrived in 1934 with $5 and his belongings packed in a straw suitcase.

Johnson's tour of casting offices landed him nothing but chorus jobs. He went to Hollywood for a bit in the movie of "Too Many Girls," then was signed to a Warner Bros. contract.

"First the zenith, then the nadir," Johnson recalled. "Warner Bros. dropped me after 'Murder in the Big House.'"

The discouraged young actor was about to return to New York when Ball, whom he knew on "Too Many Girls," invited him to dinner at Chasen's restaurant.

"Lucille tried to cheer me up, but I just couldn't seem to laugh," he said in a 1963 interview. "Suddenly she said to me, 'There's Billy Grady over there; he's MGM's casting director. I'm going to introduce you, and at least you're going to act like you're the star I think you will be.'"

To me, he'll always be "Holly" in my favorite war movie of all time, 'Battleground'.
(left)
:(

[ Edited by: pappythesailor 2008-12-12 13:03 ]

[ Edited by: pappythesailor 2008-12-18 16:03 ]

Damn! Mitch Michell is dead. I'm going to be sixty in a year and a half, and those 3 guys were a big part of my musical life back then.
...and R. BambooBen, that pic almost put me off my feed for a few minutes.
And Van Johnson too, I grew up on good movies like Battleground and the Magnificent Seven (I know, he wasn't in it, but it's one of my favorites) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance etc. Yeah, they still make some good ones, but it seems sometimes like it's just another sh*tty Jim Carrey (sp) movie

[ Edited by: drgoat456 2008-12-16 20:10 ]

Sammy Baugh 12-17-2008

Being from the DC area, our team is the Redskins.

Sammy Baugh (33 above) was pretty much the greatest Redskin of all time. Died yesterday at 94. Very colorful character. It was hard to follow an interview of him because there were just about as many bleeps as there were words. Hail to the Redskins and lift several, but at least one, for Slingin' Sammy.

She's in that big sick bay in the sky.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, has died of leukemia at 76.

Majel palyed Nurse Christine Chapel on the original Star Trek series, Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the voice of the USS Enterprise computer...a role she reprised for the upcoming Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams.

Mark Felt, the former FBI official who revealed himself to be Deep Throat, the source that exposed the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, has died.
His family say he died at a hospice near his home in California, aged 95.

http://www.velvetglass.com

[ Edited by: cheeky half 2008-12-19 12:38 ]

On 2008-12-19 12:37, cheeky half wrote:

...Deep Throat may be dead but, Hal Holbrook is still alive. :)

-Actor Sam Bottoms
October 17, 1955 - December 16, 2008

He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Lance Johnson, a surfer turned Navy Gunner's Mate stationed on a river boat in Apocalypse Now.

New York Times: Sam Bottoms

-Robert Poos
Age 78 passed away on Monday 12/15/08

He covered the Vietnam War as a reporter for The Associated Press and later was managing editor of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

Boston Globe: Robert Poos

RIP - Eartha Kitt

I'll thank you every time I perform "Santa Baby." Seems Santa had something other than a sable for you under this year's tree.

NEW YORK (AP) — A family friend says Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died. She was 81.
Andrew Freedman says Kitt died Thursday of colon cancer and was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and getting a third nomination. She also was nominated for two Tony Awards and a Grammy.

Harold Pinter - one of the best. weather you agreed with his politics or not, the man was a genius.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWa_utN6e2l0&refer=home

Alfred Shaheen, garment industry pioneer, dies at 86

Alfred Shaheen revolutionized the garment industry in postwar Hawaii by designing, printing and producing aloha shirts and other ready-to-wear items under one roof.

January 4, 2009
Alfred Shaheen, a textile manufacturer who revolutionized the garment industry in postwar Hawaii by designing, printing and producing aloha shirts and other ready-to-wear items under one roof, has died. He was 86.

Shaheen died Dec. 22 of complications from diabetes in Torrance, where he had lived for the last five years, his daughter Camille Shaheen-Tunberg said.

After World War II, many servicemen and servicewomen returned to the United States from Asia and the Pacific islands with aloha shirts that had been made in Hawaii since the 1930s. Tourists began flocking to Hawaii in the 1950s as faster airplanes allowed for easier travel and the former U.S. territory became a state in 1959.

The tropical-print shirts for men and sundresses for women became standard and sometimes tacky souvenirs for travelers, but Shaheen raised the garments to the level of high fashion with artistic prints, high-grade materials and quality construction.

Even Elvis Presley wore a Shaheen-designed red aloha shirt featured on the album cover for the "Blue Hawaii" soundtrack in 1961.

Born into a family established in the textile business, Shaheen maintained high standards by controlling the process from start to finish at the factory he built in Honolulu.

He hired professional artists and silk-screened their designs on silk, rayon and cotton fabrics he imported to Hawaii. Then his seamstresses cut and pieced together garments that were sold at his own shops and other retail outlets in Hawaii or exported to the mainland and around the world.

"He was a genius," Dale Hope, art director for the Honolulu-based Kahala shirt maker and author of "The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands," told The Times. "He knew more about the inner workings of all of the elements of printing, the garment business and wholesaling and retailing and distribution. He was really a bright, sharp and smart man."

Linda Arthur, a professor of textiles and clothing at Washington State University who has written extensively about the Hawaiian fashion industry, said that "before Shaheen came along, there was no Hawaii garment industry. There were mom and pop stores but no real modern industry."

Shaheen was born Jan. 31, 1922, in New Jersey, where his father and grandfather owned textile mills and clothing stores. He moved to Compton with his family when his father decided to relocate. The elder Shaheen would travel to Guam to buy silk for the family's custom women's wear line, and after falling in love with Hawaii ..overs, he moved the family again, this time to Honolulu in 1938.

Shaheen returned to California the next year to attend Whittier College, where he studied math and engineering and starred on the football team. After graduating in 1943, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces and became a fighter pilot in Europe during World War II.

His cousin, another soldier, had been engaged to a woman named Amelia Ash in Olean, N.Y., but he died in the war. After the war, Shaheen wanted to meet the woman his cousin had told him about, so he went to meet her and wound up marrying her and bringing her back to Honolulu.

His parents operated a custom dress shop there, making bridal gowns and prom dresses from formal fabrics such as silks, chiffons and lace. But Shaheen wanted to branch out into ready-to-wear fashion.

He struck out on his own in 1948, opening Shaheen's of Honolulu with four seamstresses his mother had trained. In those days of relative isolation, clothing manufacturers in Hawaii had to store a year's worth of fabric to guard against the vagaries of shipping delays, strikes and other unforeseen factors. And they had to settle for whatever fabric the textile mill sent them.

Using equipment he built himself, Shaheen started a silk-screen printing plant in a rented Quonset hut in 1952. He put artists on salary to design patterns inspired by Polynesian and Asian cultures. Soon the company was printing more than 60,000 yards of fabric per month. Some of that fabric was used to make garments, and some was distributed in bolts to other businesses.

In 1956, to meet increasing demand, Shaheen expanded to a new, state-of-the-art factory that sprawled over 23,000 square feet. The company's focus remained on good design.

"I wanted a certain look that was different from everyone else's," Shaheen said in an interview for Hope's book. "I would not do hash prints or chop suey prints. I avoided bright or garish colors."

Most of the patterns featured three to five colors that laborers applied to silk screens by hand, saturating the fabric. Artists in the Shaheen studio had more than 1,000 dye colors to choose from, including innovative metallic shades, and they consulted rare books, libraries and museum collections. Sometimes Shaheen sent the designers on field trips to Tahiti and other exotic locales to soak up the culture for future work.

By 1959, according to company history, Shaheen employed 400 workers and grossed more than $4 million annually, dominating the local industry. The Hawaii garment industry overall had grown to roughly $15 million in sales from less than $1 million in 1947, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.

Shaheen sold men's shirts and shorts and women's dresses and sarongs in his own seven-store chain as well as to other retailers in the islands, on the mainland and across the world. Bullock's and the Broadway (both since closed) and other upscale department stores on the mainland carried the clothing, and some stores had special "East Meets West" boutiques dedicated to Shaheen's fashions.

Shaheen retired in 1988 and shut down the factory. He maintained homes in Honolulu and Los Angeles before relocating permanently to Torrance.

In addition to his daughter Camille, of Venice, he is survived by three other daughters, Susan Mulkern of Oahu, Cynthia Rose of Maui and Marianne Kishiyama of Culver City; a son, Alfred Shaheen II of La Cañada Flintridge; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Joyce Bowman. His first marriage ended in divorce, as did a second.

Although the company is defunct, vintage Shaheen shirts can sell for $1,000 or more, said David Bailey of Bailey's Antiques and Aloha Shirts in Honolulu, a well-known emporium that stocks about 15,000 aloha shirts.

As Arthur, the textile professor explained, a Shaheen garment "is like a piece of moving art."

Bad week for Batman characters.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/05/obit.hingle/index.html

Longtime character actor Pat Hingle, a veteran of early television dramas, Westerns and four "Batman" films, has died at age 84, his family announced Sunday.

Pat Hingle was a familiar face to moviegoers and TV watchers for his many roles.

Hingle died Saturday evening at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, after a two-year battle with the blood disorder myelodysplasia, his cousin, Lynn Heritage, told CNN.

"He was awake one moment, and in the next breath, he was gone," Heritage said.

Hingle began his acting career in the 1950s, appearing in numerous television theater shows. His first movie role was an uncredited appearance in 1954's "On the Waterfront," which won eight Academy Awards; he played the by-the-book judge opposite Clint Eastwood's vengeful marshal in 1968's "Hang 'Em High," and appeared as Sally Field's father in 1979's "Norma Rae."

In 1989, he appeared as Gotham City's Commissioner Gordon in Tim Burton's "Batman," carrying on the role through three sequels. His last film role was in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," released in 2006.

He also guest-starred in countless TV series, including a memorable turn as a character named Col. Daniel Webster Tucker in a 1980 "MAS*H" episode in which he antagonizes the unit's surgeons with unforeseen consequences.

Hingle's other TV series included "Hawaii Five-O," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Hart to Hart," "St. Elsewhere," "Magnum, P.I." and "Cheers."

Hingle is survived by his wife of nearly 30 years, Julia, and their five children.

Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton found dead in his Ann Arbor home

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/01/stooges_guitarist_ron_asheton.html

Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton found dead in his Ann Arbor home

by Art Aisner | The Ann Arbor News
Tuesday January 06, 2009, 8:28 AM

Famed rock-and-roll guitarist and longtime Ann Arbor resident Ronald "Ron" Asheton was found dead in his home on the city's west side this morning, police said.

Asheton, 60, was an original member of The Stooges, a garage-rock band headlined by Iggy Pop and formed in Ann Arbor in 1967.

His personal assistant contacted police late Monday night after being unable to reach Asheton for days, Detective Bill Stanford said.
Officers went to the home on Highlake Avenue at around midnight and discovered Asheton's body on a living-room couch. He appeared to have been dead for at least several days, Stanford said.

Detective Sgt. Jim Stephenson said the cause of death is undetermined but investigators do not suspect foul play. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending.

Asheton was born in Washington, D.C. His brother, Scott, who lives in Florida, is the band's drummer.

In 2007, The Stooges reunited and released "The Weirdness," their first album in three decades.

Asked how it felt to be back with The Stooges, Asheton told The News in an interview that year that it was "great to be back on the road."

The Stooges were part of a 1960s music scene in Ann Arbor that included such bands as the MC5, Bob Seger, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, and The Rationals.

This story is developing, please check back to this site.

Ray Dennis Steckler
http://www.raydennissteckler.com/

Ray has gone to that Great Movie Set in Heaven.
He will be missed by his Wife, Daughters, extended family and all his fans.

God bless you Ray.

Ray Dennis Steckler
1/25/1938 - 1/7/2009

We'll see if he becomes an Incredibly Strange Creature Who Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-Up Zombie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMMkrdy1_0I

A bad week for people associated with bad movies

Bob Wilkins
Host of the TV show "Creature Features" which took great pleasure in showing really bad horror movies.
4/11/1932-1/7/2009

Bob Wilkins Official Webpage

Bob Wilkins Myspace page

Patrick McGoohan, TV's 'Secret Agent' and 'Prisoner,' dies
CBS

Patrick McGoohan in "Danger Man" on CBS in 1961.
The British actor, 80, often played villains on TV and in movies. But he gained his greatest fame as the TV spy John Drake. He also won two Emmys for 'Columbo.'
By Dennis McLellan
9:57 AM PST, January 14, 2009
Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy Award-winning actor who starred as a British spy in the 1960s TV series "Secret Agent" and "The Prisoner" and was known for playing various villainous roles in films and on television, has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died peacefully Tuesday in St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica after a short illness, said Cleve Landsberg, McGoohan's son-in-law. The family did not provide further details.

It was the height of James Bond mania in 1965 when McGoohan showed up on American TV screens in "Secret Agent," a British-produced series in which he played John Drake, a special security agent working as a spy for the British government.

The hour-long series, which ran on CBS until 1966, was an expanded version of “Danger Man,” a short-lived, half-hour series on CBS in 1961 in which McGoohan played the same character.

But it was McGoohan's next British-produced series, “The Prisoner,” on CBS in 1968 and 1969, that became a cult classic.

Once described in The Times as an "espionage tale as crafted by Kafka," "The Prisoner" starred McGoohan as a British agent who, after resigning his post, is abducted and held captive by unknown powers in a mysterious village, where he known only as No. 6.

McGoohan created and executive-produced the series, which ran for only 17 episodes. He also wrote and directed several episodes.

Among the memorable villains he played on screen was England's sadistic King Edward I in Mel Gibson's 1995 film "Braveheart."

As a guest star on TV's "Columbo, McGoohan won Emmys in 1975 and 1990.

Damn!

LOS ANGELES – Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, a city councilman said. He was 88.

Montalban's death was announced at a meeting of the city council by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death.

"The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in my Council District — where the next generations of performers participate in plays, musicals, and concerts — stands as a fitting tribute to this consummate performer," Garcetti said later in a written statement.

Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946. He was cast in the leading role opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta." He also starred with the swimming beauty in "On an Island with You" and "Neptune's Daughter."

A later generation knew Montalban as the faintly mysterious, white-suited Mr. Roarke, who presided over an island resort where visitors were able to fulfill their lifelong dreams. "Fantasy Island" received high ratings for most of its 1978-1984 span on ABC television and still appears in reruns.

In a 1978 interview, he analyzed the series' success:

"What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities."

Actor Bob May passed away on Sunday, 1/18/2009, at the age of 69 years old.

He played the Robot in the 60's TV series "Lost in Space"

BBC News: Bob May, Lost in Space Robot

Bob May: Lost in Space Robot official page

Lost in Space Memories

Also on Bob May:

...He went on to appear in numerous films with Jerry Lewis and in such
TV shows as "The Time Tunnel," "McHale's Navy and "The Red Skelton
Show." He was also a stuntman in such 1950s and '60s TV shows
as "Cheyenne,""Surfside 6," "Hawaiian Eye," "The Roaring 20s"
and "Stagecoach."

Ai Iijima - Famous Japanese porn actress turned successful author and TV show host.
October 31, 1972 - c. December 24, 2008
On December 24, 2008, Iijima was found dead in her 21st floor Tokyo apartment. She had been dead for about 7 days, police said. Police are currently investigating her death.

Japan Zone: Entertainment News - Ai Iijima

RIP LUX INTERIOR!

Sad day...

On 2009-02-04 20:01, RevBambooBen wrote:
RIP LUX INTERIOR!
Sad day...

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/cramps-lux-interior-rip/

Dewey Martin, drummer for Buffalo Springfield
Sept. 30, 1940 - Feb. 1, 2009

Los Angeles Times: Dewey Martin

Another Idol from my teens...Dewey Martin, Mitch Mitchell, RIP

On 2009-02-04 20:01, RevBambooBen wrote:
RIP LUX INTERIOR!
Sad day...

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

but alas...he did

George "King" Stahlman.

"George"KING" STAHLMAN, a Purple Heart Veteran of WWII, started his bail bond career Sept. 4, 1947. He has been at his present location for 40 years. His agency has achieved the position of being the most successful bail bond operation in the State of California."

You had to earn the shirt.

I liked King Stahlman. His motto was "early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise". You can't drive down a major blvd in San Diego without seeing a King Stahlman ad on at least one bus bench. I thought it was weird that he got his purple heart when his ship was torpedoed on a Friday the 13th and he died on a Friday the 13th. I guess for him, it really was an unlucky day.

I'm surprised we missed this. Jazz & Lounge chanteuse Blossom Dearie died at 82 on February 7. Another great lounge voice silenced!

Actor Robert Quarry November 3, 1925 - February 20, 2009

Fangoria: Robert Quarry

He was COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (AIP 1970) who Returned (1971) before he found that DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN that same year, became a DEATHMASTER in 1972, met SUGAR HILL and went to the MADHOUSE in 1974.

Screenwriter Millard Kaufman
March 12, 1917 - March 14, 2009
SFGATE: Millard Kaufman
Co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo.
Nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for "Take the High Ground!" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" .

Edwin Joseph ("Eddie Bo") Bocage September 20, 1930 – March 18, 2009

New Orleans pianist & Singer

Official Eddie Bo

Monterey Herald: Eddie Bo

worked with musicians such as Irma Thomas and Art Neville

Roller Derby star Bill "Flash" Bogash
11/22/1916 - 3/20/2009

Los Angeles Times: Bill Bogash

-Marilyn Chambers, the Ivory Snow Porn Star.
She was perhaps best known for her 1972 hardcore debut "Behind the Green Door".
April 22, 1952 - April 12, 2009
Time Magazine: Marilyn Chambers
Myspace: Marilyn Chambers

-Baseball pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych
August 14, 1954 – April 13, 2009
New York Times: Mark Fidrych

[ Edited by: king bushwich the 33rd 2009-04-14 11:23 ]

Actor Jody McCrea
September 6, 1934 - April 4, 2009

He is most notable for his comedic role as dumb-minded "Deadhead" ("Bonehead") in the 1960's Beach Party films made by American International Pictures. Some beach movies he's appeared in are Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, and Beach Blanket Bingo, among others. He was also in an AIP biker movie The Glory Stompers (1968).

San Diego Union Tribune: Jody McCrea

Official Jody McCrea page

Holy crap! Deadhead was 74!?!

I am very, very sad to report the "The Ambassador of Lindy Hop", Mr. Frankie Manning, has passed away this morning.

[

• From The Official Frankie Manning Website:*

Frankie Manning:
May 26, 1914 - April 27, 2009

It is with great regret that we inform you that legendary lindy hopper and inspiration to tens of thousands of dancers around the world Mr. Frankie Manning passed away peacefully early this morning.

](http://www.frankiemanning.com/)
Lindy Hop great Frankie Manning dies at 94 By David Hinckley

Here's a great article from about 10 years ago:

FRANKIE MANNING AT THE HOP

By DAVID HINCKLEY Daily News Staff Writer

Monday, June 14th 1999, 2:10AM

IN THE deepest valley of the Depression, a man took turf where he found it, and if that meant an ex-pug and hustler like Herbert (Whitey) White had to supplement his street-gang work with a dance troupe, well, Whitey was nothing if not a pragmatist.

Frankie Manning was a pragmatist, too. But mostly he was a dancer. His association with Whitey was a matter of circumstance and mutual convenience.

Whitey was a fair dancer himself, an avocation he'd picked up at Baron Wilkins' club in the late 1920s after his first knockout convinced him boxing wasn't his future. Soon Whitey had formed the Jolly Fellows, who in short order ran almost everything between 135th and 142nd Sts., and when the Savoy Ballroom opened on his turf in 1926, Whitey took himself a job as bouncer.

By early 1927, meanwhile, the younger kids were getting bored with the same Charleston their older brothers and sisters had been doing, and they started jazzing up the steps. When a young transatlantic aviator captured the country's attention that May, they borrowed his headlines and called their new moves the Lindy Hop.

Born with the short shelf life of any fad, the Lindy Hop proved durable enough that by the early '30s some practitioners were making a living at it - giving lessons, becoming gate attractions at the hipper nightspots.

None beat the Savoy, which had two bands for nonstop action, did not serve hard liquor and, unlike downtown joints such as Roseland, was integrated.

Whitey White took to scoping out the new arrivals there and inviting the most promising to join his troupe, Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, who soon became the brand name in Lindy Hop.

Turf worth holding is rarely uncontested, of course. Whitey's dancers were fresh kids like Frankie Manning and Norma Miller and Freida (Fredi) Washington, whom he paid $25 a week and drilled like it was boot camp. On the other side were first-generation dancers like Leon James, Shorty Snowden, Edith Matthews and Twist Mouth George, who created the Lindy Hop and felt the prominence of these kids was due as much to promotion as skill.

And thus in late 1935 was a throwdown arranged. Three of the old-time couples vs. three of Whitey's best. Two thousand fans packed the Savoy and Frankie Manning and Fredi Washington, dancing last, figured they needed to stop the show to win.

"Shorty had a step where his partner, Big Bea, would carry him off the stage on her back, with their elbows locked together," Manning would remember. "I thought I could improve it. I'd take the girl, lock arms with her back to back and flip her all the way over."

They practiced in secret and saved the new move for last. Fredi went up and kept going. She landed on her feet and 2,000 fans went crazy.

Over the Top was born. The first "air step" of the Lindy Hop propelled Frankie Manning onto Broadway and into nightclubs with the likes of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. Whitey ran the organization, but Frankie ran the dance as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers toured Europe, South America and Australia. Manning choreographed the best Lindy Hop scene ever filmed, in "Hellzapoppin'," as well as dance scenes in the Marx Brothers' "A Day at the Races." He danced at the 1939 World's Fair. He was featured in Life magazine.

It took nothing less than the brutish jackboots of the Axis to bust up this party.

MANNING WAS born May 26, 1914, in Jacksonville, Fla., and his family moved to Harlem when he was 2. When he was 13, walking to Sunday afternoon youth activities at the Metropolitan Baptist Church on 129th St., he rerouted himself to the Alhambra Ballroom, where he learned the gospel of Lindy Hoppers like Shorty Snowden and Stretch Jones. Soon he joined them, working his way up the Lindy ladder from the Alhambra to the Renaissance Ballroom to the Savoy.

The Savoy was where the best would gather, especially for the Sunday afternoon open challenges where the winner got the $5 prize. Manning was a familiar and unmistakable sight there, the muscles and veins on his prematurely bald head glistening with sweat. Musclehead, the regulars got to calling him. "Go, Musclehead, go!"

He borrowed Lindy Hop moves from everywhere - the circus, the ballet. He had dancers take a long sliding split through their partners' legs. He arranged the first synchronized group steps. He added slow steps that made the fast steps seem more frenetic. More than anyone else, he turned the Lindy Hop into theater.

This dovetailed nicely with the inception in autumn 1935 of the Daily News' Harvest Moon Ball, which quickly became another Lindy Hop showcase. Ironically, the first ball didn't even have a Lindy Hop category until it became clear that many of the 150,000 spectators - a crowd that forced the first event to be postponed and relocated into Central Park - saw the ball as a showcase for just that dance. Those who called The News included, among others, Whitey White.

All this popularity surprised Manning not at all. Dance, he said, was life. People who danced together got to know each other and respect each other. Men who understood the principles of dance understood the principles of women. "The woman you are dancing with is a queen," he would say. "That's the feeling you should have. She is letting you dance with her. You should be grateful, fellas."

Also, fellas, "You have to look good. You gotta give her something to look at."

By the early '40s, however, the war clouds of Europe were darkening the dance floor. Whitey's troupe landed in Argentina on Dec. 6, 1941, and was stranded there for six months until it could catch a blackout plane to Miami. After they finally scraped up the cash to get back to New York, Whitey accused Manning of stealing his money.

Whitey was a rich man by now, with a fleet of chauffeur-driven Buicks and a club and farm in Oswego. The dancers knew they'd earned much of that money for him, and they sided with Manning. Whitey walked and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers were history.

In 1943, Manning was drafted. He could have gone for an entertainment unit, but instead he served in the Pacific, surviving hand-to-hand combat in hellholes like New Guinea. He won some medals and stayed in the service until 1948, when he got out to find his job was gone. These new bebop rhythms? Couldn't hang a dance on them.

He formed a troupe, the Congaroo Girls, but his time was over. Rhythm and blues was already becoming rock 'n' roll. Whitey White died of a heart attack on his Oswego farm. None of his dancers attended the funeral. In 1954, Frankie Manning hung up his shoes and took a job with the post office.

For 30 years he commuted from Corona, Queens, and he was closing in on retirement when, one night in 1984, a California woman named Erin Stevens called and asked if by any chance he was Frankie Manning the famous dancer.

"I don't dance anymore," he told her after a long pause. "I just work at the post office." But she persisted - just let us come talk, just show us one step, just do one dance - and it all came back. He became the dance consultant on Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" and Debbie Allen's "Stompin' at the Savoy." He won a National Endowment for the Arts choreography grant and a Tony for the 1989 Broadway show "Black and Blue." He had more invitations than he could handle, from the U.S. and Europe, to teach and talk.

In May 1999, Norma Miller threw him an 85th birthday party at Roseland. To mark the occasion, Frankie Manning danced with 85 women.

Here's video of him dancing in his 70s.

This man is (I can't say was, yet) one of my idols. I am heartbroken.

[ Edited by: Haole'akamai 2009-04-27 11:17 ]

Danny Gans, Dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/05/01/obit.gans/index.html

Singer-impressionist-comedian Danny Gans died early Friday at his Las Vegas, Nevada, home, according to the hotel where he was based.

Danny Gans was one of Las Vegas' top entertainers and recently moved to the Encore Theatre.

Gans, 52, was voted Las Vegas "Entertainer of the Year" for 11 of the 13 years he has been based there.

Hotel mogul Steve Wynn, who signed Gans to star in his Encore Theatre starting in February, said he was "devastated at the loss of our brilliant, talented and loving friend."

"One of the most unique human beings and entertainers in the world has been taken from us in an unexpected moment," Wynn said. "A profoundly tragic event that leaves us all sad and speechless."

Gans is survived by his wife Julie, two daughters and a son.

His long Vegas run began in 1996, when he gave up his one-man Broadway show and a tour schedule of 200 shows a year for a three-month gig at the Stratosphere Hotel.

He signed a nine-year deal to play in his own 1,250-seat theater at the Mirage Hotel starting in 2000. Some reports put the contract at $200 million.

When that expired early this year, Gans moved to the Encore Theatre, which sits between Wynn's Encore and the Wynn Las Vegas hotels.

The biography on his personal Web site said that out of college, Gans played minor league baseball for two years, until a career-ending injury.

He then turned to entertainment, traveling for 15 years before landing in Vegas.

Las Vegas Entertainer, Danny Gans, Dead at 52
"LAS VEGAS – Danny Gans, one of the most popular entertainers on the Las Vegas Strip for the last decade, died in his sleep Friday. He was 52."

Always heard he had a great show... guess I'll never see it, now.

Captain Chaos! Dunt Dunt DONNNNNN

LOS ANGELES – Dom DeLuise, the portly actor-comedian whose affable nature made him a popular character actor for decades with movie and TV audiences as well as directors and fellow actors, has died. He was 75.

DeLuise died Monday night, son Michael DeLuise told KTLA-TV and radio station KNX on Tuesday. The comedian died in his sleep after a long illness. Calls to his agent were not immediately returned.

The actor, who loved to cook and eat almost as much as he enjoyed acting, also carved out a formidable second career later in life as a chef of fine cuisine. He authored two cookbooks and would appear often on morning TV shows to whip up his favorite recipes.

As an actor, he was incredibly prolific, appearing in scores of movies and TV shows, in Broadway plays and voicing characters for numerous cartoon shows.

Writer-director-actor Mel Brooks particularly admired DeLuise's talent for offbeat comedy and cast him in several of his films, including "The Twelve Chairs," "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie," "History of the World Part I" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." DeLuise was also the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Brooks' "Star Wars" parody, "Spaceballs."

The actor also appeared frequently in films opposite his friend Burt Reynolds. Among them, "The End," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," 'Smokey and the Bandit II," "The Cannonball Run" and "Cannonball Run II."

Another actor-friend, Dean Martin, admired his comic abilities so much that he cast DeLuise as a regular on his 1960s comedy-variety show. In 1973, he starred in a situation comedy, "Lotsa Luck," but it proved to be short-lived.

Other TV credits included appearances on such shows as "The Munsters," "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.," "Burke's Law," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Diagnosis Murder."

On Broadway, DeLuise appeared in Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and other plays.

Because of his passion for food, the actor battled obesity throughout much of his life, his weight reaching as much as 325 pounds at one point. For years, he resisted the efforts of family members and doctors who tried to put him on various diets. He finally agreed in 1993 when he needed hip replacement surgery and his doctor refused to perform it until he lost 100 pounds.

He and his family enrolled at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C., and DeLuise lost enough weight for the surgery, although he gained some of it back afterward.

On the positive side, his love of food resulted in two successful cookbooks, 1988's "Eat This — It Will Make You Feel Better!" and 1997's "Eat This Too! It'll Also Make You Feel Good."

At his Pacific Palisades home, DeLuise often prepared feasts for family and friends. One lunch began with turkey soup and ended with strawberry shortcake. In between, were platters of beef filet, chicken breast and sausage, a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and a saucer of lettuce.

He strongly resembled the famed chef Paul Prudhomme and joked in a 1987 Associated Press interview that he had posed as Prudhomme while visiting his New Orleans restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.

DeLuise was appearing on Broadway in "Here's Love" in the early 1960s when Garry Moore saw him and hired him to play the magician "Dominick the Great" on "The Garry Moore Show."

His appearances on the hit comedy-variety program brought offers from Hollywood, and DeLuise first came to the attention of movie-goers in "Fail Safe," a drama starring Henry Fonda. He followed with a comedy, "The Glass Bottom Boat," starring Doris Day, and from then on he alternated between films and television.

"I was making $7,000 a week — a lot of money back then — but I didn't even know I was rich," he recalled in 1994. "I was just having such a great time."

He was born Dominick DeLuise in New York City on Aug. 1, 1933, to Italian immigrants. His father, who spoke only Italian, was a garbage collector, and those humble beginnings stayed with him throughout his life.

"My dad knows everything there is to know about garbage," one of the actor's sons, David DeLuise, told The Associated Press in 2008. "He loves to pick up a broken chair and fix it."

DeLuise's introduction to acting came at age 8 when he played the title role of Peter Rabbit in a school play. He went on to graduate from New York City's famed School of Performing Arts in Manhattan.

For five years, he sought work in theater or television with little luck. He finally decided to enroll at Tufts College and study biology, with the aim of becoming a teacher.

Acting called him back, however, and he found work at the Cleveland Playhouse, appearing in stage productions that ranged from comedies such as "Kiss Me Kate" to Shakespeare's "Hamlet.""I worked two years solidly on plays and moving furniture and painting scenery and playing parts," he remarked in a 2006 interview. "It was quite an amazing learning place for me."

While working in summer stock in Provincetown, Mass., he met a beautiful young actress, Carol Arthur, and they were soon married.

The couple's three sons, Peter, Michael and David, all became actors and all appeared with their father in the 1990s TV series "SeaQuestDSV," in which Peter and Michael were regulars.

Soooo sad - I LOVED Dom :( One of his son's is just about as funny as he was so at least the legacy will continue! Gotta go watch History of the World Part I now - Hail Caesar!

-Mickey Carroll
One of the last surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz"
July 8, 1919- May 7, 2009
Yahoo! News: Mickey Carroll

Mickey Carrol Website

• Bassist Donald (Ean) Evans of Lynyrd Skynyrd
  Died Thurday May 6, 2009
  He was the second member of the Southern rock band to die this year — keyboardist Billy Powell died in January.
  He joined the band in 2001, after former bassist Leon Wilkeson died.

CBC News: Ean Evans

Ean Evans Website

The voice of Mickey Mouse
Wayne Allwine
February 7, 1947 – May 18, 2009

National Public Radio: Wayne Allwine

Disney.com: Mickey Mouse Voice

Disney Legends: Wayne Allwine

Wayman Tisdale:
Sometimes a word can mean one thing your entire life, and then circumstances alter to provide a totally different interpretation. Rebound is the name of the last CD from Wayman Tisdale. For NBA-icon-turned-musical-star Wayman Tisdale, rebound meant to grab possession of a basketball during a game. But in 2007, that all changed. Tisdale was diagnosed with bone cancer after he fell down a flight of steps and broke his leg. Knee replacement surgery and months of chemotherapy followed. Last August he lost his leg to the cancer. And rebound took on a new significance. As many before him, he came through the disease with a renewed perspective: "It really showed me what's important in life, man. It's not getting as many houses as I can, not driving the biggest cars," he says. "What's important is family and being healthy." The cancer came on top of Tisdale's decision to lose weight to get back into fighting shape. On taking care of his health, Wayman said, "It's been the best thing I've done." That's quite a statement for someone who has accomplished so much. Although Tisdale showed promise on the bass from an early age, his tremendous athletic talent initially overshadowed his musical leanings. Tisdale left his mark on the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. Before he retired after the 1997 season, Tisdale had already made the transition toward a career in music. He always loved playing Sacramento and did so often along with visits to KSSJ. Even actor Jamie Foxx recognized Tisdale's enormous musical talents. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Foxx selected Wayman as part of his "dream band" along with Herbie Hancock, Wynton and Brandford Marsalis and Prince. Wayman Tisdale died Friday morning from cancer in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tis was 44.

'Queen of Blues' Koko Taylor dies

Award-winning singer Koko Taylor, known in the music world as the "Queen of the Blues", has died in hospital at the age of 80, her record label has announced.

Taylor was one of the few women to find long-term success in the traditionally male dominated blues scene.

She recorded nine albums, won a Grammy, 29 Blues Music Awards and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts medal for her contribution to American music.

She died in hospital in Chicago from complications following recent surgery.

Taylor, the daughter of a sharecropper, was born Cora Walton in Memphis, Tennessee in 1928 and adopted her stage name because of her love for chocolate.

She made her name in Chicago where she lived from 1952 with her late husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor.

An announcement on Taylor's website said she had received "every award the blues world has to offer" for songs including her best-selling hit, Wang Dang Doodle.

Taylor toured and performed extensively through her career, making her last appearance on 7 May this year at the Blues Music Awards.

"The passion that she brought and the fire and the growl in her voice when she sang was the truth," said blues singer and musician Ronnie Baker Brooks.

"The music will live on, but it's much better because of Koko. It's a huge loss."

Taylor is survived by her daughter as well as three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Story from BBC NEWS:

David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

Kung Fu and Kill Bill star David Carradine was found hung in a hotel room in Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai police said.

"Kung Fu" and "Kill Bill" star David Carradine was found hung himself in a closet in a hotel room in Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai police said.

Police believed he committed suicide.

Carradine, 72, was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and stayed at a Suite Room 352 of the Park Nai Lert Hotel on Wireless Road since June 2.

The film crew were aware of his absence when they went to dine out at a restaurant on Sathorn Road on June 3.

Carradine did not show up at the dinner and the team could not reach him. They assumed that he took a rest because of his age.

It was a hotel's maid who opened his suite on Thursday at 10 am only to find Carradine in a closet. He was described as behind half naked.

Police investigation showed that he hung himself with a rope, the kind that is used with curtains.

Police said he was dead for not less than 12 hours and found no sign of fighting and assaults.

Kung Fu Man

Aside from Quentin Tarantino's twopart "Kill Bill" in 200304, Carradine was perhaps best known for his role as the fugitive halfChinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s easternwestern TV drama "Kung Fu". He also starred in Martin Scorsese's "Boxcar Bertha" in 1972, portrayed folksinger Woody Guthrie in "Bound for Glory" in 1976, acted in Ingmar Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and costarred with half brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine in the 1980 western "The Long Riders".

His father was the noted actor John Carradine.

In Thai cinemas, Carradine was recently seen as a martialarts guru in the Rob Schneider comedy "Big Stan" and as a perverted elderly Chinese mobster in "Crank: High Voltage" starring Jason Statham.

Don't forget his Classic Performance
in Roger Corman's Deathrace 2000!

No not Kung Fu!!

Man, I think someone 86ed him...he was the dude.