The Dead Thread

Bee Gee Robin Gibb dies at 62
Stayin' alive, stayin' alive,... oops!
My wife, who's still living in the 70's, will be sad to hear this. OK, maybe me, too.

Eugene Polley, inventor of TV remote, dies at 96

http://news.yahoo.com/eugene-polley-inventor-tv-remote-dies-96-160944363--finance.html

Polka King Eddie Blazonczyk
July 12, 1941 - May 21, 2012
Grammy award-winning polka musician and founder of the band The Versatones

Green Bay Press Gazette: Eddie Blazonczyk

Belair Records: Eddie Blazonczyk

Richard Dawson, Family Feud host, and 'Newkirk' on Hogan's Heroes, dead at 79.
So, the only surviving member of the regular cast of Hogan's Heroes is Robert Clary ("LeBeau"), who is 86. As a teenager, Clary was actually sent to a Nazi concentration camp in 1942, and was in Buchenwald, when it was liberated, in '45.

On 2012-06-03 10:46, Limbo Lizard wrote:
...As a teenager, Clary was actually sent to a Nazi concentration camp in 1942, and was in Buchenwald, when it was liberated, in '45.

Seems like doing a TV series (even a comedy) about a German POW camp would hit a little too close to home for a concentration camp survivor! That would give me anxiety.

Eduard Khil - 'Mr. Trololo' - dies at 77.

Boo.

Ray Bradbury, beloved science fiction author, dies

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/science-fiction-author-ray-bradbury-dies-144137431.html

Bob Welch, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, dead at 65.
Welch died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The sentimental wind turned cold.
Too sad.

Folk and Bluegrass guitar genius Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson
3/3/1923 - 5/29/2012

Doc Watson Obituary

The Guitar of Doc Watson

Frank Cady, 96, a character actor who played Hooterville general-store proprietor Sam Drucker on the TV sitcoms “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction,” died Friday at his home in Wilsonville, Ore., said his daughter, Catherine Turk.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-green-acres-frank-cady-dead-20120610,0,5690819.story

Steve Kaika, bassist for the Reducers (probably the best band you never heard of)

http://www.theday.com/article/20120612/NWS01/120619903/0/SEARCH

Rodney King found dead, at the bottom of a swimming pool. He was 47.

Cult Film Actress, Susan Tyrrell, Dead at 67.
"Susan Tyrrell, an eccentric, husky-voiced character actress best known for her Oscar-nominated supporting role as a blowsy barfly in director John Huston's 1972 movie "Fat City," has died. She was 67 ....

"Critics"hailed her as one of the best screen drunks they'd ever seen," Roderick Mann wrote in The [LA]Times."

LeRoy Neiman, Painter of Athletes and Celebrities, Dies at 91.

Writer, Screenwriter and Director, Nora Ephron has died at 71.

Don Grady, ex-Mouseketeer and 'My Three Sons' star, dies at 68

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3u3aivo_N6dODQwuDsUHqL-0JEA?docId=448b90708eb74539b7b08439d18921ea

Ed Cassim 1931-2012. My father-in-law and friend. Bartender at 2005 NW Tiki Crawl home tour. (

Andy Griffith has passed away at 86.
R.I.P., Sheriff.

I am absolutely heart-broken!

On 2012-07-03 07:13, Limbo Lizard wrote:
Andy Griffith has passed away at 86.
R.I.P., Sheriff.

"WHAT IT WAS, WAS FOOTBALL"

English radio, television and film writer, actor and director Eric Sykes
May 4 1923 – July 4 2012
BBC: Eric Sykes

Co-wrote episodes of the classic radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan, wrote scripts for Peter Sellers and was actor in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.

Actor Ernest Borgnine, has died at the age of 95.

Boo.

Jason and the Scorchers drummer Perry Baggs dies at 50

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2012/07/12/jason-and-the-scorchers-drummer-perry-baggs-dies-at-50/

Richard Zanuck, Oscar-winning producer, dies at 77

Richard Zanuck, who was head of production at 20th Century Fox and later ran his own production company, marshaled films including 'Jaws,' 'Driving Miss Daisy' and 'The Sting.' He produced six films by director Tim Burton, helped launch the career of Steven Spielberg and was married to Linda Harrison from 1969 to 1978. :D

Jon Lord, Deep Purple Keyboardist.

http://music.yahoo.com/news/deep-purple-keyboardist-jon-lord-dead-71-182546134.html

Country singing legend Kitty Wells
Aug. 30, 1919- July 16, 2012

Her 1952 hit recording, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star.

Hollywood Reporter: Kitty Wells

Kitty Wells Official Page

Nooo! Tom Davis dies at 59; original 'SNL' writer alongside Al Franken. Tom Davis wrote and performed on 'Saturday Night Live.' The duo created the Coneheads and skits featuring Bill Murray's Nick the Lounge Singer ~ Live at Trader Nick's

I thought the Fred Willard topic died, but it keeps coming back to life.

-Randy

Sally Ride, first American woman to journey into space, passes on at age 61...

Sally Ride's 'star will always shine brightly'

I'm privileged to work for a company where Sally has been a member of our board of trustees for the past eight years.

-Tom

Sherman Hemsley - George Jefferson of "The Jefferson's" at the age of 74

http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/24/sherman-hemsley-dead-dies-the-jeffersons/

Chad Everett has passed away at the age of 75. He was perhaps best know for the TV series Medical Center.

Author Gore Vidal
October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012

Los Angeles Times: Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal Official Webpage

Writings include Myra Breckinridge & original draft for the film Caligula.

Oh no.....Delmar DeWilde passed away. :(

Marvin Hamlisch Dies at 68
"Composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch, best known for the torch song "The Way We Were," died Monday....
Hamlisch collapsed after a brief illness, his family announced."

Jay Parker, Designer of Sun Records Logo
February 1, 1925 - July 30, 2012

Memphis Commercial Appeal: Jay Parker

Sun Records: Jay Parker

Some of Parker’s other notable works include Alka-Seltzer, Super Bubble Gum, and the tiger-stripe helmet used for the Cincinnati Bengals NFL team.

First Epstein & now Horshack! This sucks!
http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/14/ron-palillo-dies-horshack-welcome-back-kotter-dead-at-63/

Helen Gurley Brown, who as the author of “Sex and the Single Girl” shocked early-1960s America with the news that unmarried women not only had sex but thoroughly enjoyed it — and who as the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine spent the next three decades telling those women precisely how to enjoy it even more — died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 90, though parts of her were considerably younger. - From NYtimes.com

Was married to the late David Brown who along with Richard Zanuck produced the Sting and Jaws among other films.

Ron Palillo, Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' dies at 63

http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/08/14/13279270-ron-palillo-horshack-on-welcome-back-kotter-dies-at-63?lite

Comedian Phyllis Diller has died at age 95

Director Tony Scott, younger brother of Ridley Scott, commits suicide by leaping from Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tony-scott-death-response-20120820,0,6886594.story

Tony Scott death: Hollywood looks to his films to make sense of tragedy

By John Horn, Geoff Boucher and Rebecca Keegan

August 20, 2012, 12:59 p.m.

With films like “Top Gun” and “Man on Fire,” Tony Scott made spectacle movies about men who live by a code and face death on their own terms -- spies and crime lords, race car drivers and fighter pilots. Recently, the director-producer had struggled with what several associates described as a serious illness, and on Monday, friends and colleagues looked to his cinematic philosophy to make sense of his fatal plunge off Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro.

“I put myself in that car seat and in his place and think about what he must have been experiencing and it must been such an unbreachable level of pain,” said Joe Carnahan, who directed the 2010 movie “The A-Team,” which Scott produced.

“I don't want to understand it because it is so powerfully sad,” added Carnahan, who said he considered Scott a mentor. “If there was indeed something terminally ill about Tony, this is the way he would go out: big and facing death, without shrinking away from it. He wouldn't wait for death. The idea of death encroaching, coming for him? No, Tony would be the first one to ride out and find the death, he wouldn't wait to waste away. He would have gone right into the heart of it.”

Two people close to Scott said he was suffering from a serious physical ailment at the time of his apparent suicide. The two, who asked not to be identified because of the personal nature of their relationships, said they did not know the nature of his illness. ABC News, quoting a source close to the director-producer, said that Scott had inoperable brain cancer.

Los Angeles County Coroner's officials said that an autopsy planned for Monday would look for signs of an underlying health problem.

Scott, 68, parked his car on the span Sunday afternoon, climbed out, and jumped, witnesses told police. The director appeared nervous before leaping to his death, a witness said.

“He was on the roadway close to the fence looking around. He was looking around and fumbling with something at his feet. He looked nervous,” witness David Silva said in an interview with The Times. “I thought it was some extreme-sports guy.” Silva said Scott “paused a couple of seconds and then began to climb the fence. He put his foot on the top of the fence and paused again. And then he threw himself off. I immediately thought, that guy is dead.”

Silva said that while Scott may have appeared hesitant on the bridge, he looked like he knew in advance what he planned to do. “He was very methodical,” Silva said.

The director-producer was an experienced rock climber who planned to scale Yosemite’s El Capitan, said one person who worked closely with Scott.

Scott left a suicide note in his West Hollywood offices, law enforcement sources said. Its contents have not been revealed publicly, police said.

In addition to being one of Hollywood’s top action moviemakers—his films, including “Beverly Hills Cop II,” “Unstoppable” and “Crimson Tide” have grossed more than $1 billion in domestic ticket sales combined—Scott was a successful commercial director and television producer. He was considering directing four other movies at the time of his death, including a sequel to “Top Gun.”

Scott, the younger brother and business partner of “Gladiator” filmmaker Ridley Scott, was one of the first directors to make the transition from commercials to features, a path followed by directors Michael Bay (“Transformers”) and David Fincher (“Fight Club”).

Scott followed his first film, the 1983 vampire tale “The Hunger,” with 1986’s “Top Gun,” a profile of Navy fighter pilots that cemented Tom Cruise as one of the industry’s biggest movie stars.

The original “Top Gun,” which grossed a then-spectacular $354 million worldwide, immediately transformed Scott from a respected British commercial director into a Hollywood A-lister.

The next year, Scott directed Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop II” and then went on to make big-budget thrillers including “Days of Thunder,” “Crimson Tide,” “Enemy of the State” and “Man on Fire” along with edgier fare such as “True Romance” and “Domino.”

Unlike many action directors, who often see their actors as interchangeable parts, Scott worked repeatedly with some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed performers, including Denzel Washington. Scott was “the kindest film director I ever worked for,” actor Val Kilmer, who was in Scott’s “Top Gun” and “True Romance,” said via Twitter on Monday.

In an industry that considers most people older than 50 past their prime, Scott was inundated with work assignments at the time of his death.

“He seemed like he always seemed—supportive and funny, but at the same time serious about the work,” said composer Henry Gregson-Williams, whose last film with Scott was 2010’s “Unstoppable” and who last spoke with the director three months ago. “Tony was always juggling lots of projects.”

“Tony was always an adventurer,” he said. “He was fiercely loyal. And he was very sensitive. Looking at his films, you might not think that. But he was an incredibly sweet, sensitive man.”

Among the many projects Scott had been working on in recent years was a remake of his first film, “The Hunger,” a 1983 vampire movie starring Catherin Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon that had attracted a cult following over the years.

“He wanted to update it and modernize it,” said Whitley Strieber, who wrote the 1981 book upon which “The Hunger” was based. “He was eager to do it again and I wish he’d had a chance. Authors and filmmakers don’t always agree, but I sat in that movie and I thought to myself, ‘He has made his vision so beautifully.’”

Strieber said Warner Bros., which owns the rights to “The Hunger,” had passed on remaking the project a little over a year ago, and that he and Scott had not spoken recently.

“I was so grateful for what he did with my book,” Strieber said, “And I feel really sad about his passing. I know a lot of people who might do the same thing if they were facing a terrible diagnosis.”

Scott’s most recent television commercial was for Diet Mountain Dew, and was released this month. It featured Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban trying to tempt a Diet Dew fan with riches, including a speedboat and a helicopter, if he would just give him the last bottle of the soda at a mini mart. Scott also directed commercials for BMW, Dodge, Italia Telecom, Marlboro, the U.S. Army and Barclays Bank.

“I feel blessed to have known and worked with Tony,” said cinematographer Paul Cameron, who shot Scott’s “Man on Fire” and “Deja Vu.” “He was way beyond a mentor to me. He was by far the most gracious, talented and hard-working man I have ever met.”

People who worked with or admired Scott took to Twitter to offer their memories of the filmmaker.

Robert Rodriguez, the director of “Sin City,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and the “Spy Kids” franchise, said, “Great knowing you, buddy. Thanks for the inspiration, advice, encouragement, and the decades of great entertainment.” Ron Howard, the maker of “A Beautiful Mind," said simply, “No more Tony Scott movies. Tragic day.”

Richard Winton and Julie Makinen contributed to this report.

Divers took hours to find Scott's body

PHOTOS: Tony Scott behind the camera

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

Phyllis Diller

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/phyllis-diller-pioneering-tv-commedienne-dead-95-article-1.1140434

Legendary 1950's Malibu surfer
Created the name Gidget (girl midget)
Later years would be regular at San Onofre's Old Man's Beach

First man on moon Neil Armstrong dead at 82

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/us-usa-neilarmstrong-idUSBRE87O0B020120825

Truly the end of an era.

Hal David dies at 91. :(

Here's a great list of some of his stuff.

The gentle giant from The Green Mile and more, actor Michael Clarke Duncan dead at 54.

and the "Gentle Tiki Giant" and "Founding Father of the Florida Tiki Tooth Tiki"!!!

RIP Wayne Coombs!!!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43761&forum=1&14

Bill Moggridge Dead: Early Laptop Designer Dies At 69

NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Moggridge, a British industrial designer who designed an early portable computer with the flip-open shape that is common today, has died. He was 69.

The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum said Moggridge, its director since 2010, died on Saturday from cancer.

Moggridge is credited with the design of the Grid Compass, a computer that had a keyboard and yellow-on-black display that sold for $8,150 when it was released in 1982. It was encased in magnesium and seen as rugged, and was used by the U.S. military.

The computer made its way into outer space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.

Although there were many portable computers being developed around that time, Grid Systems Corp. won the patent for the clamshell design with the foldable screen hinged toward the back of the machine, said Alex Bochannek, a curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Moggridge pushed for this foldable design when it was realized the flat-panel screen, keyboard and circuitry could all fit snugly together.

"In terms of the industrial design of the enclosure, Moggridge was instrumental in proposing that," Bochannek said. "He came up with that particular form factor."

Until that point, portable computers resembled portable sewing machines that weighed more than 20 pounds and had a big handle, he said.

It was after using the machine that Moggridge's ideas about design began to change, Bochannek said. His work began to focus more on how people interacted with devices, rather than just making sure they were enclosed well.

A co-founder of design consultancy firm IDEO, Moggridge authored the books "Designing Interactions," which was published in 2006, and "Designing Media," published in 2010.

"Beloved by the museum staff and the design community at large, Bill touched the lives of so many through his wise council, boundary-pushing ideas and cheerful camaraderie," said Caroline Baumann, associate director of the museum, in a statement.

He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Karin, and two sons Alex and Erik.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/bill-moggridge-dead_n_1868785.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl25%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D203293