Articles tagged "obituary"

News

Dave Matthews Band’s farewell to a fallen brother

by Ben Wener [Orange County Register (MCT)]

[25.Aug.08] :. Even if it had been a merely half-hearted performance—which it wasn’t, not even close, though who’d have blamed ‘em if it were?—Tuesday’s inspired show at Staples...

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News

Hayes memories: Soul giant embraced ‘raw truth’

by Greg Kot [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[14.Aug.08] :. Draped in gold chains, with a shaved head and barrel chest, Isaac Hayes was an intimidating presence. He could bench-press 350 pounds, and his voice was as bottomless as the Grand Canyon. They...

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News

Comedian Bernie Mac dies at 50 in Chicago hospital

by Kelley L. Carter and Glenn Jeffers [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[11.Aug.08] :. Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed. Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern...

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News

Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies

by Alex Rodriguez [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[4.Aug.08] :. MOSCOW - For the Western world, Alexander Solzhenitsyn peeled back the layers of secrecy that obscured the Soviet system’s inhumanity to a people relegated by Josef Stalin to the role of cogs...

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News

‘Golden Girls’ star Estelle Getty dies

by Zap2it.com [(MCT)]

[22.Jul.08] :. Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who won an Emmy for her portrayal of sassy Sophia Petrillo on “The Golden Girls,” has died. She was 84. Getty passed away Tuesday in her home in...

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News

With the death of George Carlin, cerebral comedy just took a big hit

by Roger Moore [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[24.Jun.08] :. Wonder if he got “the two-minute warning”? George Carlin’s fans know what I’m talking about. It’s part of a routine he did in the ‘70s, about the possibility of...

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Tim Russert, host of ‘Meet the Press,’ dies at 58

by Mark Silva [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[13.Jun.08] :. WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, hard-charging host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” and one of the best-schooled political minds on network television news, has died of an apparent heart attack...

 

Fashion world mourns ‘the most important designer of the 20th century’

by Elizabeth Wellington [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[3.Jun.08] :. To truly understand’s contributions to modern-day women’s wear, we have to get beyond the YSL luxury brand, the Opium perfume, the Mombasa handbag, the aviator frames. Saint Laurent,...

 

Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley dead at 79

by Greg Kot [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[2.Jun.08] :. Bo Diddley, who died Monday at age 79 in Florida, was as essential to the creation of rock `n’ roll as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Little Richard, though he seldom got the credit or the...

 

Hall of Famer will be remembered for his influential ‘Bo Diddley beat’

by Jim Abbott [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[2.Jun.08] :. Before Buddy Holly did it, before the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and a million unknown garage bands, there was Bo Diddley - and the beat that bears his name. Diddley, a Rock and Roll Hall of...

 

Sydney Pollack was an actor’s director — and an actor’s actor

by Carrie Rickey [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[27.May.08] :. Director Sydney Pollack was an actor’s director who saw stars in uncharacteristic conjunctions and alignments. He made Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand a couple in “The “Way We...

 

Charlton remembered as Hollywood pillar of conservatism

by Carrie Rickey [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[7.Apr.08] :. Charlton Heston, a larger-than-life man who portrayed larger-than-life men such as Moses and Michelangelo, died at his home in Los Angeles late Saturday night at the age of 83, his wife of 64 years...

 

Screen villain and gunslinger Richard Widmark dies at age 93

by Zap2it.com (MCT)

[27.Mar.08] :. Oscar-nominated actor Richard Widmark, who made a career playing bad guys and cowboys, has died. He was 93. The star, who made his film debut as a giggling villain in “Kiss of Death,”...

 

Legendary Cuban musician ‘Cachao’ dies at 89

by Enrique Fernandez [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[24.Mar.08] :. Known to the world by his nickname, Cachao, bassist, composer and bandleader Israel Lopez died Saturday morning at Coral Gables Hospital of complications resulting from kidney failure. He was...

 

Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella dies at 54

by Rene Rodriguez [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[19.Mar.08] :. Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of “The English Patient” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” died suddenly at age 54 Tuesday morning. Minghella had undergone an...

 

Remembering the late, great Buddy Miles and the Dave Clark Five’s Mike Smith

by Ben Wener [The Orange County Register (MCT)]

[3.Mar.08] :. Unless I’m forgetting a random blues-fest appearance, and I probably am, I only had one opportunity to watch the drumming force that was Buddy Miles in action. At the Wiltern Theatre in Los...

 

Conservative critic William F. Buckley dies

by Julia Keller [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[28.Feb.08] :. So dapper with that noblesse oblige, so jaunty with that certain je ne sais quoi, he was that rare thing: an intellectual who morphed into a celebrity, so much so that he was the subject of...

 

A grim end to a promising career for Heath Ledger

by Michael Phillips [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[23.Jan.08] :. Heath Ledger’s performance in “Brokeback Mountain” revealed a major talent with a hunger for emotional truth. Ledger was found dead Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan apartment....

 

Remembering the wonderfully bawdy Suzanne Pleshette

by Hal Boedeker [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[21.Jan.08] :. Suzanne Pleshette was a lot saltier than Emily Hartley. She’d be the person you’d want to sit next to a party because you were sure to hear some choice comments, delivered with...

 

Ike Turner: One of R&B’s greats, one of wedlock’s worst

by Dan DeLuca [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[14.Dec.07] :. Ike Turner, who died Wednesday in his suburban San Diego home at age 76 of undisclosed causes, was incontestably one of the greatest bandleaders in the history of rhythm and blues. In 1951 - a full...

 

Radulovich, inspiration for `Good Night and Good Luck,’ dies

by Blair Anthony Robertson [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[21.Nov.07] :. SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Milo Radulovich, who in 1953 stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist browbeating in a showdown that led to the demise of McCarthyism, died Monday at age 81....

 

Country music pioneer Hank Thompson dies at 82

by Preston Jones [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[8.Nov.07] :. FORT WORTH, Texas—Hank Thompson, a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, died Tuesday evening at his Keller, Texas residence, four days after canceling the remainder of a tour. He was...

 

Robert Goulet was in on the joke

by Roger Moore [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[1.Nov.07] :. One of the things we most appreciate in a celebrity, or any public figure, is a sense of humor about himself. Robert Goulet, who died Tuesday at 73, had that. And a million-dollar voice, darkly...

 

Actress Deborah Kerr dies at 86

by Carrie Rickey [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[19.Oct.07] :. Deborah Kerr, the cultivated Scottish rose beloved in such 1950s blockbusters as “From Here to Eternity,” “The King and I” and “An Affair to Remember,” died...

 

Joey Bishop, the last of the Rat Pack, dies at 89

by Michael D. Schaffer [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[19.Oct.07] :. Joey Bishop, who deadpanned his way from South Philadelphia to comic stardom and a place in Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, died of multiple causes Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach,...

 

Tenor superstar brought opera to millions: Luciano Pavarotti 1935-2007

by John von Rhein [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[6.Sep.07] :. Some admirers called Luciano Pavarotti the greatest tenor who ever lived. He certainly was the contemporary world’s most widely recognized opera singer and one of the most popular and...

 

The value of CBGB’s founder Hilly Kristal

by David Hinckley [New York Daily News (MCT)]

[30.Aug.07] :. NEW YORK—For obvious and legitimate reasons, Hilly Kristal was best known for nurturing the mid-`70s underground musical explosion thrown together under the umbrella of “punk” or...

 

Jazz drummer Max Roach dies

by Howard Reich [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[17.Aug.07] :. Like trumpet visionary Miles Davis, drummer Max Roach helped ignite several revolutions in jazz. From the bebop eruptions of the 1940s to the “cool jazz” style of the `50s, from the...

 

Merv Griffin, a master of the games, dies at 82

by Phil Rosenthal [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[13.Aug.07] :. This former big-band singer and longtime TV talk show host created the iconic game shows “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” - leveraging their success into a sprawling...

 

Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni dies

by RIA Novosti [(MCT)]

[31.Jul.07] :. ROME—Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, 94, died in his native city of Ferrara late Monday, the Italian media reported Tuesday. The modernist film director received numerous awards...

 

Tom Snyder was a touchstone for his times

by David Hinckley [New York Daily News (MCT)]

[30.Jul.07] :. Like John Travolta’s white suit, Tom Snyder became a defining icon of his time. You think of the late 1970s and one of the images is Snyder on NBC’s late-night “Tomorrow”...

 

The Front Page: Shrouded in Shadows - Ingmar Bergman (1918 - 2007)

by Bill Gibron

[30.Jul.07] :. He hadn’t made a theatrical motion picture since 1982’s Fanny and Alexander, vowing to retire after completing the highly autobiographical project. He spent his later years...

 

Tammy Faye Messner succumbs to cancer

by Tim Funk and Ken Garfield [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[22.Jul.07] :. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Tammy Faye Messner, whose can-do Christian cheer helped her survive the PTL scandal and forge a second career as a pop-culture queen, died Friday after battling cancer for more than...

 

Opera singer Jerry Hadley, 55, dies after suicide attempt

by John von Rhein [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[19.Jul.07] :. Jerry Hadley’s attractive lyric tenor voice, all-American good looks and exceptional acting ability carried him from a humble farm upbringing in northern Illinois to the world’s major...

 

Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94

by Art Chapman [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[12.Jul.07] :. FORT WORTH, Texas—Lady Bird Johnson, widow of former President Lyndon Johnson and lifelong advocate for the beautification of her native state, died Wednesday afternoon at her Austin, Texas,...

 

Pulitzer-winning cartoonist, killed in car crash

by Peter St. Onge and Jeri Krentz [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[11.Jul.07] :. CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Doug Marlette tweaked authority for more than three decades, from his brazen and prize-winning cartoons to a popular syndicated comic strip to the Charlotte Observer parking...

 

Soprano brought world of opera to the masses

by Lawrence A. Johnson [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[6.Jul.07] :. Beverly Sills was a trailblazer, an American soprano who came to acclaim on home turf, and an artist who bridged the opera house and popular culture with the same ease and agility in which her...

 

Bill Pinkney of the Drifters (1925-2007)

by Erin Ailworth [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[5.Jul.07] :. Bill Pinkney, the only surviving member of the beach music group The Drifters, died Wednesday in a Daytona Beach hotel room. Pinkney, 81, was in Daytona to perform at the city’s Fourth of...

 

Mercury Astronaut Walter Schirra dies at 84

by Jay Levin [The Record (Hackensack N.J.) (MCT)]

[4.May.07] :. HACKENSACK, N.J. - Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original seven Mercury astronauts and the first New Jerseyan to travel in space, died Thursday. The Hackensack native was 84. A family...

 

‘Newhart’ funnyman Tom Poston dies at 85

by Leo Standora [New York Daily News (MCT)]

[2.May.07] :. Comic actor Tom Poston, whose brilliant turns as clueless bumblers on such TV shows as “Newhart” and “Mork & Mindy” tickled viewers for a half century, has died. He was...

 

‘Tonight Show’ musician Tommy Newsom dies at 78

by Mike Holtzclaw [Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) (MCT)]

[30.Apr.07] :. PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Tommy Newsom, the saxophone player who served as a comedic foil to Johnny Carson for 30 years, died on Saturday at his Portsmouth home at age 78, his family announced Monday. His...

 

David Halberstam: Full of sound, fury and brilliance

by Julia Keller [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[24.Apr.07] :. The intensity is what you remember. The passion, the righteous indignation, the savage sense of purpose. He had to shove all of that feeling and all of those facts into his work, and that is why, I...

 

Author David Halberstam killed in car crash

by Connie Skipitares and S.L. Wykes [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[24.Apr.07] :. Halberstam was an award-winning journalist whose trail-blazing reporting on the Vietnam War earned him a Pulitzer Prize and who went on to become one of America's best known authors.

 
 
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