Hideki Irabu found dead; suicide suspected
Craig Calcaterra
Jul 28, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
29 Comments
AP
Former Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead at his California home yesterday. The initial reports came from the Japanese paper, Asahi Shimbum, and his death has since been confirmed by the New York Yankees. Suicide by hanging is suspected.
Irabu has had a troubled post-baseball career. He was arrested in Gardena, California last year for drunk driving. Back in 2008 he was arrested for assaulting a bar manager in Japan after allegedly consuming 20 glasses of beer.
After achieving stardom in Japan, Irabu’s contract was purchased by the San Diego Padres in early 1997. Irabu wanted no part of San Diego, however, and a trade to the Yankees was arranged. Irabu earned World Series rings with the Yankees in both 1998 and 1999, but he fell far short of expectations and drew the ire of George Steinbrenner who famously dubbed him the “fat toad.” The Yankees shipped him off to Montreal for Jake Westrbook following the 1999 season. He lasted two seasons with the Expos and one season with the Rangers before retiring after the 2002 season. Matthew Pouliot has a more thorough analysis of Irabu’s career here.
We’ll update with more information when it becomes available. For now, however, it appears to be a sad end to a troubled life.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Michael Cacoyannis, the Cyprus born-filmmaker who directed the 1964 film classic “Zorba the Greek,” starring Anthony Quinn, has died at an Athens hospital. He was 89.
Officials at a state-run hospital said Cacoyannis died early Monday of complications from a heart attack.
Cacoyannis won multiple awards and worked with such well-known actors as Melina Mercouri, Irene Papas, Tom Courtenay and Candice Bergen.
But we was best known internationally for the Academy Award-winning “Zorba the Greek.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/zorba-the-greek-director-michael-cacoyannis-dies-at-89/2011/07/25/gIQA78T7XI_story.html
G.D. Spradlin, veteran character actor, dies at 90
G.D. Spradlin, a former Oklahoma oilman who didn't begin acting until he was in his 40s, was known for playing authority figures, including roles in 'The Godfather: Part II' and 'Apocalypse Now.'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
1:43 PM PDT, July 25, 2011
Advertisement
Click here to find out more!
Gervase Duan "G.D." Spradlin, a character actor best known for playing authority figures in television and films, including "The Godfather: Part II" and "Apocalypse Now," has died. He was 90.
Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo on Sunday, said his grandson, Justin Demko.
A former oil company lawyer and millionaire independent oil producer who didn't begin acting until he was in his 40s, the tall and lean Oklahoma native played his share of doctors, ministers, judges, military officers and historical figures during his more than 30-year acting career.
He portrayed President Lyndon Johnson in the 1985 TV mini-series "Robert Kennedy & His Times" and President Andrew Jackson in the 1986 TV movie "Houston: The Legend of Texas."
He also played an admiral in the 1988 TV mini-series "War and Remembrance" and was a pro football coach in the 1979 film "North Dallas Forty" and a college basketball coach in the 1977 film "One on One."
His breakthrough movie role as a character actor was as corrupt Nevada Sen. Pat Geary in director Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather: Part II" in 1974.
Five years later, Spradlin was the Army general who sent Martin Sheen's Capt. Willard up river to find and kill Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz in Coppola's Vietnam war movie "Apocalypse Now."
Spradlin, whose other film credits include "The War of the Roses" and "Ed Wood," retired from acting after playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in the 1999 comedy "Dick."
"He brought a lot of what he had done in his life to what he did on the screen" said Demko, adding that his grandfather had a lifelong love of language and could recite passages from Shakespeare and poetry from memory until the end.
The son of two school teachers, Spradlin was born Aug. 31, 1920, in Pauls Valley, Okla. He received a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Oklahoma before serving in the Army Air Forces in China during World War II.
After earning a law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1948, he became an attorney for Phillips Petroleum Co. and then became head of Phillips' legal department in Caracas, Venezuela.
After returning to Oklahoma in 1951, Spradlin became an independent oil producer. He was so successful that he retired in 1960 and spent time cruising the Bahamas with his family on a yacht.
"Being rich changes surprisingly little," Spradlin told The Times in 1967. "You'll still have to have an absorbing interest in life, something to do to make you feel alive."
For Spradlin, that was acting.
In late 1963 his daughter Wendy, a member of the children's classes at the Mummers Theater in Oklahoma City, wanted to audition for a role in a production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
To give her moral support, Spradlin accompanied her to the theater and wound up auditioning for — and landing — a role in the play, the first of three local productions he appeared in.
Spradlin, who earned a master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Miami in 1965 and was a doctoral candidate in the same field, had directed John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign in Oklahoma and had an unsuccessful run for mayor of Oklahoma City in 1965.
A year later, he moved his family to Los Angeles.
He was so new to show business, he told The Times in 1980, that when a secretary at the William Morris Agency asked him if he had any film, "I told her no, but that there was a drugstore around the corner and I could run over and buy some. I thought you must have to bring your own film to have a screen test."
Spradlin's first wife Nell, with whom he had two daughters, Tamara Kelly and Wendy Spradlin, died in 2000.
In 2002, he married Frances Hendrickson, who survives him, as do his two daughters and five grandchildren.
Silvio Narizzano obituary
Director best known for Georgy Girl, a romantic comedy set in 60s London
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 July 2011 17.46 BST
Article history
Georgy Girl, with Lynn Redgrave as Georgina and James Mason as her admirer, directed by Silvio Narizzano. Photograph: Allstar/Columbia
The film and TV director Silvio Narizzano, who has died aged 84, handled several genres throughout his career, including black comedies, period pieces, social dramas, action thrillers and horror movies. But one picture, his swinging London romantic comedy Georgy Girl (1966), stands out from the rest of his eclectic filmography.
Georgy Girl was part of the trend in which British cinema shifted the focus from provincial life and back to the metropolis, celebrating new freedoms and social possibilities. Narizzano, influenced by the French New Wave and his chic contemporaries Richard Lester, John Schlesinger and Tony Richardson, explored such "shocking" subjects as abortion, illegitimacy, adultery and sexual promiscuity with a light touch. The film, which took its cue from the jaunty title song by the Seekers, had superb performances from Lynn Redgrave as the virginal and plain Georgina; Charlotte Rampling as her sexy and amoral flatmate, made pregnant by her charming, laidback boyfriend (Alan Bates); and James Mason as a wealthy businessman who takes more than a fatherly interest in Georgy. The film was nominated for four Oscars, for best actress (Redgrave), supporting actor (Mason), cinematography (Kenneth Higgins) and original song. Narizzano was nominated for a Bafta for best British film and a Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.
The son of an Italian-American family, Narizzano was born in Montreal and educated at Bishop's University in Quebec. After graduation, he joined the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal. The theatre was run by Joy Thompson, a leading figure in English-language theatre in Quebec and a great influence on Narizzano. He then joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, working as an assistant to Norman Jewison, Arthur Hiller and Ted Kotcheff. Soon after co-directing a documentary about Tyrone Guthrie, the artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Narizzano came to Britain to work in television.
Narizzano's first feature was the Hammer horror film Fanatic. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
He rapidly reached the top as a director, gaining plaudits for his work on ITV Television Playhouse (1956-60), a series of Saki tales (1962) and ITV Play of the Week (1956-63), all with superb casts and writers. He directed JB Priestley's anti-nuclear play Doomsday for Dyson (1958); an episode of the BBC series On Trial, starring Micheál MacLiammóir as Oscar Wilde (1960); and 24 Hours in a Woman's Life (1961), starring Ingrid Bergman and adapted by John Mortimer from Stefan Zweig's novel.
Narizzano's feature debut was Fanatic (1965), a Hammer horror film notable for being Tallulah Bankhead's last movie (and her first in 20 years). She plays a crazed religious fanatic who keeps her dead son's fiancee (Stefanie Powers) prisoner, hoping to "cleanse" and then kill her so that she can marry the dead son in heaven. Narizzano managed to coax a venomous performance out of Bankhead, who was intoxicated throughout the shoot. After being shown the film with a small audience of her friends, Bankhead, who is seen in many harsh, unflattering close-ups, announced: "Darlings, I must apologise for looking older than God's wet nurse."
The triumph of Georgy Girl was followed by Blue (1968), a plodding western starring Terence Stamp, which opened to withering reviews but, surprisingly, remained Narizzano's favourite film. Loot (1970), a pointless reworking of Joe Orton's mordant play by the comedy TV writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and directed at a rapid pace, was only marginally better received.
Narizzano was more at ease with Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977), a feelgood adaptation of a novel set in Saskatchewan in the mid-1930s. Then it was back to British television with William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba (1977), fluidly directed on an elaborate studio set, starring Laurence Olivier and Joanne Woodward. In contrast, Staying On (1980), Julian Mitchell's adaptation of Paul Scott's novel, was shot for Granada Television in Simla, India, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
From the mid-60s, Narizzano lived with his longtime companion, the writer Win Wells, in Mojácar in Andalusia, Spain, as well as keeping a house in London. Wells co-wrote the screenplay of Narizzano's Bloodbath (1979), a weird straight-to-video horror movie, shot in Mojácar, starring Dennis Hopper as the leader of a group of degenerate Americans terrorised by locals for their indulgence in drugs and sex.
After directing a Miss Marple mystery, The Body in the Library (1984), for the BBC, Narizzano's work began to tail off. Since his 30s, he had suffered from bouts of depression which became more serious and prolonged after the death of Wells in 1983. He found some comfort at a Buddhist retreat in Chislehurst, south-east London, and later through a Bible study group in Greenwich, where he lived a semi-reclusive life. He is survived by two sisters and a brother.
• Silvio Narizzano, film and television director, born 8 February 1927; died 26 July 2011
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played
with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band's hit, "Shiny
Stockings," died Tuesday. He was 82.
Foster died Tuesday morning at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, of
complications from kidney failure, according to Cecilia Foster, his
wife of 45 years.
Foster was recognized in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts
as a Jazz Master, the nation's highest jazz honor . In a statement
expressing sadness at Foster's death, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman
called him "an extraordinary saxophonist, composer, arranger,
bandleader, and educator."
Landesman added, "We join many others in the jazz community and beyond
in mourning his death while celebrating his life."
According to the NEA, Foster's many compositions included material for
singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned piece
written for jazz orchestra for the 1980 Winter Olympics: "Lake Placid
Sui te."
Foster was a native of Cincinnati. He told NEA interviewer Don Ball in
2008 that he "had an ear for music" from an early age. He said his
mother took him to hear opera when he was just 6.
Jazz big bands caught his attention when he was 12. Foster's first
instrument was clarinet, but at age 13 he took up the sax. Foster told
the interviewer he played in a dance band at Wilberforce University
and went on to join Basie's band in 1953.
During his 11-year tenure with Basie, Foster not only played tenor
saxophone and other woodwinds but also contributed numerous
arrangements and compositions for the band, including the jazz
standard "Shiny Stockings," Down for the Count," and "Back to the
Apple."
After Basie's death, he returned to assume leadership of the Count
Basie Orchestra from Thad Jones in 1986. He won two Grammy Awards
while leading the band until 1995.
However, Cecelia Foster said he was proudest of his own big band:
Frank Foster's Loud M inority. He also played as a sideman in drummer
Elvin Jones' combo and co-led a quintet with fellow Basie veteran,
saxophonist-flutist Frank Wess.
Foster also served as a musical consultant in the New York City public
schools and taught at Queens College and the State University of New
York at Buffalo.
Although he was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 2001, Foster's wife
said he continued composing "up until the end."
In the NEA interview, Foster said, "I had always had as much fun
writing as playing ... But when you play something, if you mess up you
can't make it right. But you can write something, and if it's not
right you can change it. And I always had as much pleasure writing as
playing because the thrill of hearing your music played back to you is
almost indescribable."
Officials at a state-run hospital said Cacoyannis died early Monday of complications from a heart attack.
Cacoyannis won multiple awards and worked with such well-known actors as Melina Mercouri, Irene Papas, Tom Courtenay and Candice Bergen.
But we was best known internationally for the Academy Award-winning “Zorba the Greek.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/zorba-the-greek-director-michael-cacoyannis-dies-at-89/2011/07/25/gIQA78T7XI_story.html
G.D. Spradlin, veteran character actor, dies at 90
G.D. Spradlin, a former Oklahoma oilman who didn't begin acting until he was in his 40s, was known for playing authority figures, including roles in 'The Godfather: Part II' and 'Apocalypse Now.'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
1:43 PM PDT, July 25, 2011
Advertisement
Click here to find out more!
Gervase Duan "G.D." Spradlin, a character actor best known for playing authority figures in television and films, including "The Godfather: Part II" and "Apocalypse Now," has died. He was 90.
Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo on Sunday, said his grandson, Justin Demko.
A former oil company lawyer and millionaire independent oil producer who didn't begin acting until he was in his 40s, the tall and lean Oklahoma native played his share of doctors, ministers, judges, military officers and historical figures during his more than 30-year acting career.
He portrayed President Lyndon Johnson in the 1985 TV mini-series "Robert Kennedy & His Times" and President Andrew Jackson in the 1986 TV movie "Houston: The Legend of Texas."
He also played an admiral in the 1988 TV mini-series "War and Remembrance" and was a pro football coach in the 1979 film "North Dallas Forty" and a college basketball coach in the 1977 film "One on One."
His breakthrough movie role as a character actor was as corrupt Nevada Sen. Pat Geary in director Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather: Part II" in 1974.
Five years later, Spradlin was the Army general who sent Martin Sheen's Capt. Willard up river to find and kill Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz in Coppola's Vietnam war movie "Apocalypse Now."
Spradlin, whose other film credits include "The War of the Roses" and "Ed Wood," retired from acting after playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in the 1999 comedy "Dick."
"He brought a lot of what he had done in his life to what he did on the screen" said Demko, adding that his grandfather had a lifelong love of language and could recite passages from Shakespeare and poetry from memory until the end.
The son of two school teachers, Spradlin was born Aug. 31, 1920, in Pauls Valley, Okla. He received a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Oklahoma before serving in the Army Air Forces in China during World War II.
After earning a law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1948, he became an attorney for Phillips Petroleum Co. and then became head of Phillips' legal department in Caracas, Venezuela.
After returning to Oklahoma in 1951, Spradlin became an independent oil producer. He was so successful that he retired in 1960 and spent time cruising the Bahamas with his family on a yacht.
"Being rich changes surprisingly little," Spradlin told The Times in 1967. "You'll still have to have an absorbing interest in life, something to do to make you feel alive."
For Spradlin, that was acting.
In late 1963 his daughter Wendy, a member of the children's classes at the Mummers Theater in Oklahoma City, wanted to audition for a role in a production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
To give her moral support, Spradlin accompanied her to the theater and wound up auditioning for — and landing — a role in the play, the first of three local productions he appeared in.
Spradlin, who earned a master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Miami in 1965 and was a doctoral candidate in the same field, had directed John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign in Oklahoma and had an unsuccessful run for mayor of Oklahoma City in 1965.
A year later, he moved his family to Los Angeles.
He was so new to show business, he told The Times in 1980, that when a secretary at the William Morris Agency asked him if he had any film, "I told her no, but that there was a drugstore around the corner and I could run over and buy some. I thought you must have to bring your own film to have a screen test."
Spradlin's first wife Nell, with whom he had two daughters, Tamara Kelly and Wendy Spradlin, died in 2000.
In 2002, he married Frances Hendrickson, who survives him, as do his two daughters and five grandchildren.
Silvio Narizzano obituary
Director best known for Georgy Girl, a romantic comedy set in 60s London
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 July 2011 17.46 BST
Article history
Georgy Girl, with Lynn Redgrave as Georgina and James Mason as her admirer, directed by Silvio Narizzano. Photograph: Allstar/Columbia
The film and TV director Silvio Narizzano, who has died aged 84, handled several genres throughout his career, including black comedies, period pieces, social dramas, action thrillers and horror movies. But one picture, his swinging London romantic comedy Georgy Girl (1966), stands out from the rest of his eclectic filmography.
Georgy Girl was part of the trend in which British cinema shifted the focus from provincial life and back to the metropolis, celebrating new freedoms and social possibilities. Narizzano, influenced by the French New Wave and his chic contemporaries Richard Lester, John Schlesinger and Tony Richardson, explored such "shocking" subjects as abortion, illegitimacy, adultery and sexual promiscuity with a light touch. The film, which took its cue from the jaunty title song by the Seekers, had superb performances from Lynn Redgrave as the virginal and plain Georgina; Charlotte Rampling as her sexy and amoral flatmate, made pregnant by her charming, laidback boyfriend (Alan Bates); and James Mason as a wealthy businessman who takes more than a fatherly interest in Georgy. The film was nominated for four Oscars, for best actress (Redgrave), supporting actor (Mason), cinematography (Kenneth Higgins) and original song. Narizzano was nominated for a Bafta for best British film and a Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.
The son of an Italian-American family, Narizzano was born in Montreal and educated at Bishop's University in Quebec. After graduation, he joined the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal. The theatre was run by Joy Thompson, a leading figure in English-language theatre in Quebec and a great influence on Narizzano. He then joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, working as an assistant to Norman Jewison, Arthur Hiller and Ted Kotcheff. Soon after co-directing a documentary about Tyrone Guthrie, the artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Narizzano came to Britain to work in television.
Narizzano's first feature was the Hammer horror film Fanatic. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
He rapidly reached the top as a director, gaining plaudits for his work on ITV Television Playhouse (1956-60), a series of Saki tales (1962) and ITV Play of the Week (1956-63), all with superb casts and writers. He directed JB Priestley's anti-nuclear play Doomsday for Dyson (1958); an episode of the BBC series On Trial, starring Micheál MacLiammóir as Oscar Wilde (1960); and 24 Hours in a Woman's Life (1961), starring Ingrid Bergman and adapted by John Mortimer from Stefan Zweig's novel.
Narizzano's feature debut was Fanatic (1965), a Hammer horror film notable for being Tallulah Bankhead's last movie (and her first in 20 years). She plays a crazed religious fanatic who keeps her dead son's fiancee (Stefanie Powers) prisoner, hoping to "cleanse" and then kill her so that she can marry the dead son in heaven. Narizzano managed to coax a venomous performance out of Bankhead, who was intoxicated throughout the shoot. After being shown the film with a small audience of her friends, Bankhead, who is seen in many harsh, unflattering close-ups, announced: "Darlings, I must apologise for looking older than God's wet nurse."
The triumph of Georgy Girl was followed by Blue (1968), a plodding western starring Terence Stamp, which opened to withering reviews but, surprisingly, remained Narizzano's favourite film. Loot (1970), a pointless reworking of Joe Orton's mordant play by the comedy TV writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and directed at a rapid pace, was only marginally better received.
Narizzano was more at ease with Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977), a feelgood adaptation of a novel set in Saskatchewan in the mid-1930s. Then it was back to British television with William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba (1977), fluidly directed on an elaborate studio set, starring Laurence Olivier and Joanne Woodward. In contrast, Staying On (1980), Julian Mitchell's adaptation of Paul Scott's novel, was shot for Granada Television in Simla, India, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
From the mid-60s, Narizzano lived with his longtime companion, the writer Win Wells, in Mojácar in Andalusia, Spain, as well as keeping a house in London. Wells co-wrote the screenplay of Narizzano's Bloodbath (1979), a weird straight-to-video horror movie, shot in Mojácar, starring Dennis Hopper as the leader of a group of degenerate Americans terrorised by locals for their indulgence in drugs and sex.
After directing a Miss Marple mystery, The Body in the Library (1984), for the BBC, Narizzano's work began to tail off. Since his 30s, he had suffered from bouts of depression which became more serious and prolonged after the death of Wells in 1983. He found some comfort at a Buddhist retreat in Chislehurst, south-east London, and later through a Bible study group in Greenwich, where he lived a semi-reclusive life. He is survived by two sisters and a brother.
• Silvio Narizzano, film and television director, born 8 February 1927; died 26 July 2011
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played
with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band's hit, "Shiny
Stockings," died Tuesday. He was 82.
Foster died Tuesday morning at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, of
complications from kidney failure, according to Cecilia Foster, his
wife of 45 years.
Foster was recognized in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts
as a Jazz Master, the nation's highest jazz honor . In a statement
expressing sadness at Foster's death, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman
called him "an extraordinary saxophonist, composer, arranger,
bandleader, and educator."
Landesman added, "We join many others in the jazz community and beyond
in mourning his death while celebrating his life."
According to the NEA, Foster's many compositions included material for
singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned piece
written for jazz orchestra for the 1980 Winter Olympics: "Lake Placid
Sui te."
Foster was a native of Cincinnati. He told NEA interviewer Don Ball in
2008 that he "had an ear for music" from an early age. He said his
mother took him to hear opera when he was just 6.
Jazz big bands caught his attention when he was 12. Foster's first
instrument was clarinet, but at age 13 he took up the sax. Foster told
the interviewer he played in a dance band at Wilberforce University
and went on to join Basie's band in 1953.
During his 11-year tenure with Basie, Foster not only played tenor
saxophone and other woodwinds but also contributed numerous
arrangements and compositions for the band, including the jazz
standard "Shiny Stockings," Down for the Count," and "Back to the
Apple."
After Basie's death, he returned to assume leadership of the Count
Basie Orchestra from Thad Jones in 1986. He won two Grammy Awards
while leading the band until 1995.
However, Cecelia Foster said he was proudest of his own big band:
Frank Foster's Loud M inority. He also played as a sideman in drummer
Elvin Jones' combo and co-led a quintet with fellow Basie veteran,
saxophonist-flutist Frank Wess.
Foster also served as a musical consultant in the New York City public
schools and taught at Queens College and the State University of New
York at Buffalo.
Although he was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 2001, Foster's wife
said he continued composing "up until the end."
In the NEA interview, Foster said, "I had always had as much fun
writing as playing ... But when you play something, if you mess up you
can't make it right. But you can write something, and if it's not
right you can change it. And I always had as much pleasure writing as
playing because the thrill of hearing your music played back to you is
almost indescribable."
(Variety)- Actress Helen Beverley, who performed in Yiddish theater as well as in the Yiddish films "Green Fields," "The Light Ahead" and "Overture to Glory" and was the first wife of the late actor Lee J. Cobb, died of natural causes July 15 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund hospital in Woodland Hills. She was 94.
"Green Fields" (1937), in which Beverley was the female lead, was an adaptation of Peretz Hirshbein's classic play whose arrival, according to the National center of Jewish Cinema, "heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema."
Beverley also starred in "The Light Ahead" (1939), also co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, in which a consciousness of the danger looming over European Jewry was painfully apparent even though the film was shot in New Jersey.
The actress had a somewhat smaller role in 1940's "Overture to Glory," about a cantor seduced by secularism.
Thereafter Beverley had some roles in Hollywood films, including the Charlie Chan pic "Black Magic"; 1944's "The Master Race," which envisaged the dangers of Nazism even after after the fall of Germany; and the musical "Stairway for a Star," in which Beverly starred with Cornel Wilde.
In the 1950s she had small roles in "The Robe," "Playgirl" and "The Shrike"; she appeared on the smallscreen in a 1960 episode of "The Rifleman" and made her last bigscreen appearance in the Susan Hayward film "Ada."
Beverley married Cobb in 1940 but they were divorced in the 1950s.
She is survived by a daughter, actress Julie Cobb, who was formerly married to actor James Cromwell, and a granddaughter, actress Rosemary Morgan.
Independent Wrestling Manager Judd The Stud Passes Away
Posted by Wayne Daly on July 24th, 2011
It is with deep sadness to report that independent professional wrestling manager, Judd the Stud, real name Tim Frankenfield, who is best known for his time in Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling, passed away at 2am last night at Temple University Hospital.
Frankenfield underwent prostate surgery a couple of weeks ago, however his internal organs failed on him, including his kidney and his liver.
Frankenfield is also mostly known for managing a group in the early 90Œs called Generation X, which featured Sexton Hardcastle, Christian Cage, Reckless Youth and Lance Diamond. For those unfamiliar, Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage later went on to become WWE superstars Edge and Christian respectively.
Cards and condolences can be sent to his mother, Linda Frankenfield at 516 Oak Tree Lane, Nazareth, PA 18604.
Posted in Indy News, Wrestling News
Singer Amy Winehouse, who came to fame with her debut album Frank in 2003, was found at her flat in north London this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
They say that they received a call at 4.05pm calling for help for a woman in Camden. Paramedics were called to the scene, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death is "unexplained" but not thought to be suspicious, according to police. Sources have told the Sunday Mirror that an overdose of drink and drugs is the suspected cause of death.
Last month, Miss Winehouse cancelled her entire European tour, after an on-stage breakdown in Serbia. A statement on her website said "Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances. Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen."
Friends of the singer had reportedly voiced fears that she was drinking herself to death, according to the Sun. They said: "Her drinking is totally out of control. Amy is constantly out of control on vodka.
"She is rattling about at home in north London drinking herself into oblivion. Three times this week she has been so drunk she passed out."
"Green Fields" (1937), in which Beverley was the female lead, was an adaptation of Peretz Hirshbein's classic play whose arrival, according to the National center of Jewish Cinema, "heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema."
Beverley also starred in "The Light Ahead" (1939), also co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, in which a consciousness of the danger looming over European Jewry was painfully apparent even though the film was shot in New Jersey.
The actress had a somewhat smaller role in 1940's "Overture to Glory," about a cantor seduced by secularism.
Thereafter Beverley had some roles in Hollywood films, including the Charlie Chan pic "Black Magic"; 1944's "The Master Race," which envisaged the dangers of Nazism even after after the fall of Germany; and the musical "Stairway for a Star," in which Beverly starred with Cornel Wilde.
In the 1950s she had small roles in "The Robe," "Playgirl" and "The Shrike"; she appeared on the smallscreen in a 1960 episode of "The Rifleman" and made her last bigscreen appearance in the Susan Hayward film "Ada."
Beverley married Cobb in 1940 but they were divorced in the 1950s.
She is survived by a daughter, actress Julie Cobb, who was formerly married to actor James Cromwell, and a granddaughter, actress Rosemary Morgan.
Independent Wrestling Manager Judd The Stud Passes Away
Posted by Wayne Daly on July 24th, 2011
It is with deep sadness to report that independent professional wrestling manager, Judd the Stud, real name Tim Frankenfield, who is best known for his time in Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling, passed away at 2am last night at Temple University Hospital.
Frankenfield underwent prostate surgery a couple of weeks ago, however his internal organs failed on him, including his kidney and his liver.
Frankenfield is also mostly known for managing a group in the early 90Œs called Generation X, which featured Sexton Hardcastle, Christian Cage, Reckless Youth and Lance Diamond. For those unfamiliar, Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage later went on to become WWE superstars Edge and Christian respectively.
Cards and condolences can be sent to his mother, Linda Frankenfield at 516 Oak Tree Lane, Nazareth, PA 18604.
Posted in Indy News, Wrestling News
Singer Amy Winehouse, who came to fame with her debut album Frank in 2003, was found at her flat in north London this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
They say that they received a call at 4.05pm calling for help for a woman in Camden. Paramedics were called to the scene, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death is "unexplained" but not thought to be suspicious, according to police. Sources have told the Sunday Mirror that an overdose of drink and drugs is the suspected cause of death.
Last month, Miss Winehouse cancelled her entire European tour, after an on-stage breakdown in Serbia. A statement on her website said "Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances. Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen."
Friends of the singer had reportedly voiced fears that she was drinking herself to death, according to the Sun. They said: "Her drinking is totally out of control. Amy is constantly out of control on vodka.
"She is rattling about at home in north London drinking herself into oblivion. Three times this week she has been so drunk she passed out."
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Linda Christian, international actress and Tyrone Power's second wife, died Friday (July 22) in Palm Springs, California. Christian, who was 87, had been suffering from colon cancer.
Linda Christian was born Blanca Rosa Henrietta Stella Welter Vorhauer on November 13, 1923, in Tampico, Mexico, to a Dutch oil executive and his German-Mexican wife. As a young girl, she traveled the world with her parents, according to reports eventually becoming fluent in seven languages.
Discovered by Errol Flynn while in Acapulco, Christian moved to Los Angeles where she began her film career in bit parts in Hollywood movies of the mid-1940s. Labeled "The Anatomic Bomb" by Life magazine, Christian eventually progressed to supporting roles in a handful of productions, among them Robert Florey's Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) and Richard Fleischer's The Happy Time (1952). Leading roles, however, eluded her, while a reported seven-year MGM contract led nowhere.
Though the first Bond girl — in the 1954 television production of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson as James Bond — and a favorite subject of painter Diego Rivera, Linda Christian's chief claim to fame remains her marriage to 20th Century Fox superstar Tyrone Power, whom she met while Power was still married to wife no. 1, Annabella.
According to Power researcher Maria Ciaccia, the actor dumped Lana Turner, with whom he had a widely reported love affair, for Christian. With much pomp and surrounded by thousands of guests and hysterical fans, the couple were married in January 1949 at Rome's Church of Santa Francesca Romana, right next to the Coliseum. They were later received by Pope Pius XII.
In Ciaccia's words, Power and Christian "had a very passionate love and a very volatile relationship. … [T]hough they had just two children [Taryn Power and the "Rome-inspired" Romina Power], she was pregnant almost the entire time they were married — she miscarried several times, and one child, a son, was stillborn."
Ciaccia added that Power "had a lot of affairs while he was married to Linda Christian, including with Anita Ekberg, whom he met when she was an extra on the set of Mississippi Gambler [1953], and that continued for quite a few years."
The couple were divorced in 1956. The previous year, Christian was called to testify at a Los Angeles court because she refused to return jewels given her by Milwaukee socialite Robert H. Schlesinger, whose check for $100,000 — as partial payment for the jewels — had bounced.
Shortly after her divorce from Power, Christian became involved with London-born Spanish racing driver Alfonso de Portago, who would die in 1957 while taking part in the Mille Miglia race in Italy.
In 1962, four years after Power's death of a heart attack while filming Solomon and Sheba in Spain, Christian married Edmund Purdom, best-known for playing the title role in the 1954 MGM musical The Student Prince. (Mario Lanza provided the student prince's singing voice.) The marriage was terminated the following year.
Christian's later film appearances included a rare lead in William J. Hole Jr's horror mystery The Devil's Hand (1962), with Robert Alda; a minor supporting role in Anthony Asquith's all-star drama The V.I.P's (1963); Michael Pfleghar's Austrian-Italian comedy Bel Ami 2000 oder Wie verführt man einen Playboy? / How to Seduce a Playboy (1965); and Aldo Grimaldi's Nel sole / L'oro del mondo / The World's Gold (1967), in which she plays the mother of her real-life daughter Romina Power.
As per the IMDb, Christian's last film roles were in two 1987 productions: Giovanna Lenzi's Delitti and Sergio Pastore's Amore inquieto di Maria. The following year she made her last appearance in front of the camera in Gian Pietro Calasso's television movie Cambiamento d'aria.
Linda Christian's sister, Ariadna Welter, had a long career in Mexican movies and television. Her most notable film role was in Luis Buñuel's The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955). She died in 1998.
http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/linda-christian-death-tyrone-power-diego-rivera/
Actor Tom Aldredge dies
By WENN.com Friday, July 22, 2011 The star died from lymphoma at a hospice in Tampa, Florida on Friday (22Jul11).
Aldredge was a regular on stage and screen, appearing in films like Cold Mountain in 2003 and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007.
He appeared on hit TV series The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire and co-starred with Glenn Close on two seasons of legal drama Damages.
He also earned a Daytime Emmy Award in 1978 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming for his role on Henry Winkler Meets Shakespeare; an episode aired as part of The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People.
A celebrated Broadway star, Aldredge also starred in more than 28 stage productions including The Crucible, Twelve Angry Men and Tom Sawyer.
He landed a total of five Tony Award nominations throughout his stage career for performances in shows such as Sticks and Bones (1972), Stephen Sondheim musical Passion (1994), and Twentieth Century (2004).
He also starred opposite the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes in 1981.
Linda Christian was born Blanca Rosa Henrietta Stella Welter Vorhauer on November 13, 1923, in Tampico, Mexico, to a Dutch oil executive and his German-Mexican wife. As a young girl, she traveled the world with her parents, according to reports eventually becoming fluent in seven languages.
Discovered by Errol Flynn while in Acapulco, Christian moved to Los Angeles where she began her film career in bit parts in Hollywood movies of the mid-1940s. Labeled "The Anatomic Bomb" by Life magazine, Christian eventually progressed to supporting roles in a handful of productions, among them Robert Florey's Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) and Richard Fleischer's The Happy Time (1952). Leading roles, however, eluded her, while a reported seven-year MGM contract led nowhere.
Though the first Bond girl — in the 1954 television production of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson as James Bond — and a favorite subject of painter Diego Rivera, Linda Christian's chief claim to fame remains her marriage to 20th Century Fox superstar Tyrone Power, whom she met while Power was still married to wife no. 1, Annabella.
According to Power researcher Maria Ciaccia, the actor dumped Lana Turner, with whom he had a widely reported love affair, for Christian. With much pomp and surrounded by thousands of guests and hysterical fans, the couple were married in January 1949 at Rome's Church of Santa Francesca Romana, right next to the Coliseum. They were later received by Pope Pius XII.
In Ciaccia's words, Power and Christian "had a very passionate love and a very volatile relationship. … [T]hough they had just two children [Taryn Power and the "Rome-inspired" Romina Power], she was pregnant almost the entire time they were married — she miscarried several times, and one child, a son, was stillborn."
Ciaccia added that Power "had a lot of affairs while he was married to Linda Christian, including with Anita Ekberg, whom he met when she was an extra on the set of Mississippi Gambler [1953], and that continued for quite a few years."
The couple were divorced in 1956. The previous year, Christian was called to testify at a Los Angeles court because she refused to return jewels given her by Milwaukee socialite Robert H. Schlesinger, whose check for $100,000 — as partial payment for the jewels — had bounced.
Shortly after her divorce from Power, Christian became involved with London-born Spanish racing driver Alfonso de Portago, who would die in 1957 while taking part in the Mille Miglia race in Italy.
In 1962, four years after Power's death of a heart attack while filming Solomon and Sheba in Spain, Christian married Edmund Purdom, best-known for playing the title role in the 1954 MGM musical The Student Prince. (Mario Lanza provided the student prince's singing voice.) The marriage was terminated the following year.
Christian's later film appearances included a rare lead in William J. Hole Jr's horror mystery The Devil's Hand (1962), with Robert Alda; a minor supporting role in Anthony Asquith's all-star drama The V.I.P's (1963); Michael Pfleghar's Austrian-Italian comedy Bel Ami 2000 oder Wie verführt man einen Playboy? / How to Seduce a Playboy (1965); and Aldo Grimaldi's Nel sole / L'oro del mondo / The World's Gold (1967), in which she plays the mother of her real-life daughter Romina Power.
As per the IMDb, Christian's last film roles were in two 1987 productions: Giovanna Lenzi's Delitti and Sergio Pastore's Amore inquieto di Maria. The following year she made her last appearance in front of the camera in Gian Pietro Calasso's television movie Cambiamento d'aria.
Linda Christian's sister, Ariadna Welter, had a long career in Mexican movies and television. Her most notable film role was in Luis Buñuel's The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955). She died in 1998.
http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/linda-christian-death-tyrone-power-diego-rivera/
Actor Tom Aldredge dies
By WENN.com Friday, July 22, 2011 The star died from lymphoma at a hospice in Tampa, Florida on Friday (22Jul11).
Aldredge was a regular on stage and screen, appearing in films like Cold Mountain in 2003 and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007.
He appeared on hit TV series The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire and co-starred with Glenn Close on two seasons of legal drama Damages.
He also earned a Daytime Emmy Award in 1978 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming for his role on Henry Winkler Meets Shakespeare; an episode aired as part of The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People.
A celebrated Broadway star, Aldredge also starred in more than 28 stage productions including The Crucible, Twelve Angry Men and Tom Sawyer.
He landed a total of five Tony Award nominations throughout his stage career for performances in shows such as Sticks and Bones (1972), Stephen Sondheim musical Passion (1994), and Twentieth Century (2004).
He also starred opposite the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes in 1981.
Amy Winehouse dies aged 27;
Amy Winehouse, the singer, has been found dead at her home at the age of 27. ...
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 23, 2011
Singer Amy Winehouse, who came to fame with her debut album Frank in 2003, was found at her flat in north London this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
They say that they received a call at 4.05pm calling for help for a woman in Camden. Paramedics were called to the scene, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death is "unexplained" but not thought to be suspicious, according to police. Sources have told the Sunday Mirror that an overdose of drink and drugs is the suspected cause of death.
Last month, Miss Winehouse cancelled her entire European tour, after an on-stage breakdown in Serbia. A statement on her website said "Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances. Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen."
Friends of the singer had reportedly voiced fears that she was drinking herself to death, according to the Sun. They said: "Her drinking is totally out of control. Amy is constantly out of control on vodka.
"She is rattling about at home in north London drinking herself into oblivion. Three times this week she has been so drunk she passed out."
Miss Winehouse had several bouts of treatment for drink and drugs, the most recent in May. Her 2006 album Back to Black featured a song called Rehab, which documented her drinking problems and refusal to seek help.
In 2007 she married Blake Fielder-Civil, and the pair had a sometimes violent relationship. Fielder-Civil was imprisoned for conspiring to pervert the course of justice in 2008 and the pair divorced in 2009.
(Variety)- Actress Helen Beverley, who performed in Yiddish theater as well as in the Yiddish films "Green Fields," "The Light Ahead" and "Overture to Glory" and was the first wife of the late actor Lee J. Cobb, died of natural causes July 15 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund hospital in Woodland Hills. She was 94.
"Green Fields" (1937), in which Beverley was the female lead, was an adaptation of Peretz Hirshbein's classic play whose arrival, according to the National center of Jewish Cinema, "heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema."
Beverley also starred in "The Light Ahead" (1939), also co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, in which a consciousness of the danger looming over European Jewry was painfully apparent even though the film was shot in New Jersey.
The actress had a somewhat smaller role in 1940's "Overture to Glory," about a cantor seduced by secularism.
Thereafter Beverley had some roles in Hollywood films, including the Charlie Chan pic "Black Magic"; 1944's "The Master Race," which envisaged the dangers of Nazism even after after the fall of Germany; and the musical "Stairway for a Star," in which Beverly starred with Cornel Wilde.
In the 1950s she had small roles in "The Robe," "Playgirl" and "The Shrike"; she appeared on the smallscreen in a 1960 episode of "The Rifleman" and made her last bigscreen appearance in the Susan Hayward film "Ada."
Beverley married Cobb in 1940 but they were divorced in the 1950s.
She is survived by a daughter, actress Julie Cobb, who was formerly married to actor James Cromwell, and a granddaughter, actress Rosemary Morgan.
Amy Winehouse, the singer, has been found dead at her home at the age of 27. ...
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 23, 2011
Singer Amy Winehouse, who came to fame with her debut album Frank in 2003, was found at her flat in north London this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
They say that they received a call at 4.05pm calling for help for a woman in Camden. Paramedics were called to the scene, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death is "unexplained" but not thought to be suspicious, according to police. Sources have told the Sunday Mirror that an overdose of drink and drugs is the suspected cause of death.
Last month, Miss Winehouse cancelled her entire European tour, after an on-stage breakdown in Serbia. A statement on her website said "Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances. Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen."
Friends of the singer had reportedly voiced fears that she was drinking herself to death, according to the Sun. They said: "Her drinking is totally out of control. Amy is constantly out of control on vodka.
"She is rattling about at home in north London drinking herself into oblivion. Three times this week she has been so drunk she passed out."
Miss Winehouse had several bouts of treatment for drink and drugs, the most recent in May. Her 2006 album Back to Black featured a song called Rehab, which documented her drinking problems and refusal to seek help.
In 2007 she married Blake Fielder-Civil, and the pair had a sometimes violent relationship. Fielder-Civil was imprisoned for conspiring to pervert the course of justice in 2008 and the pair divorced in 2009.
(Variety)- Actress Helen Beverley, who performed in Yiddish theater as well as in the Yiddish films "Green Fields," "The Light Ahead" and "Overture to Glory" and was the first wife of the late actor Lee J. Cobb, died of natural causes July 15 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund hospital in Woodland Hills. She was 94.
"Green Fields" (1937), in which Beverley was the female lead, was an adaptation of Peretz Hirshbein's classic play whose arrival, according to the National center of Jewish Cinema, "heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema."
Beverley also starred in "The Light Ahead" (1939), also co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, in which a consciousness of the danger looming over European Jewry was painfully apparent even though the film was shot in New Jersey.
The actress had a somewhat smaller role in 1940's "Overture to Glory," about a cantor seduced by secularism.
Thereafter Beverley had some roles in Hollywood films, including the Charlie Chan pic "Black Magic"; 1944's "The Master Race," which envisaged the dangers of Nazism even after after the fall of Germany; and the musical "Stairway for a Star," in which Beverly starred with Cornel Wilde.
In the 1950s she had small roles in "The Robe," "Playgirl" and "The Shrike"; she appeared on the smallscreen in a 1960 episode of "The Rifleman" and made her last bigscreen appearance in the Susan Hayward film "Ada."
Beverley married Cobb in 1940 but they were divorced in the 1950s.
She is survived by a daughter, actress Julie Cobb, who was formerly married to actor James Cromwell, and a granddaughter, actress Rosemary Morgan.
It's with great sadness that I must report the sudden death of one of boxing's last, great characters.
Ronald "Butch" Lewis, known in the fight industry for tenaciously landing his light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks a massive $13.5 million purse for what turned out to be a brutal, one round KO at the hands of Iron Mike Tyson, apprently suffered a massive heart attack.
Father of 'Barbie' -- Dead at 95
7/22/2011 8:43 AM PDT by TMZ Staff
Elliot Handler -- a co-founder of the Mattel toy company -- the guy who NAMED the "Barbie Doll" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.
Handler's caretaker tells TMZ ... Elliot had a medical emergency last night ... and eventually died from heart failure.
Elliot's wife CREATED the Barbie Doll back in the '50s ... and Handler named the doll after their daughter Barbara.
Handler was 95-years old.
Former Bond girl Angela Scoular was married to Carry On actor Leslie Phillips
Angela Scoular played the role of Cathy in Wuthering Heights in 1967
7/22/2011 8:43 AM PDT by TMZ Staff
Elliot Handler -- a co-founder of the Mattel toy company -- the guy who NAMED the "Barbie Doll" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.
Handler's caretaker tells TMZ ... Elliot had a medical emergency last night ... and eventually died from heart failure.
Elliot's wife CREATED the Barbie Doll back in the '50s ... and Handler named the doll after their daughter Barbara.
Handler was 95-years old.
Bond actress Angela Scoular died drinking acid cleaner
Former Bond girl Angela Scoular was married to Carry On actor Leslie Phillips A Bond girl actress who had suffered from bowel cancer ended her life by drinking a corrosive cleaning liquid, Westminster Coroner's Court has heard.
Angela Scoular, 65, who starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, died in April.
The actress, who lived in Maida Vale, west London, was battling alcoholism and depression and worried about debts.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a verdict that she killed herself "while the balance of her mind was disturbed".
Ms Scoular's death was not suicide, the coroner ruled.
The court heard Ms Scoular suffered non-survivable 40% burns to her throat, body and dietary tract.
The cause of death was ingestion of a corrosive substance and multiple fractures, said Dr Wilcox.
The coroner heard the actress died two hours after drinking the liquid, containing 91% sulphuric acid, and pouring it over her body.
Angela Scoular played the role of Cathy in Wuthering Heights in 1967 The inquest was told Ms Scoular had been diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and was given the all clear after treatment and surgery.
But months before her death she began to fear the return of the disease.
Ms Scoular, who had battled alcoholism for years, used to drink between 150 and 210 units of alcohol a week.
Weeks before her death she was arrested for drink-driving while on bail after crashing her car in Wales.
At the time she was on medication for bipolar disorder, the coroner heard.
The actress had married former Carry On star Leslie Phillips in 1982.
The actor, who is 87, was too ill to attend the hearing but said in a statement read to the court that their life together was happy.
"The only exception was her alcoholism," he said.
"But she was a kind, generous person who would help me with my work and I would help with hers."
Ms Scoular tried to kill herself in 1992 when she cut her wrists with a knife.
She was found by Mr Phillips who said he saved her from being sectioned several years ago.
The actress landed the role of Buttercup in the 1966 Bond spoof Casino Royale and was Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969.
She acted in films, television and theatre during her career, including playing the role of Cathy in a BBC adaptation of Wuthering Heights in 1967.
http://www.ajc.com/news/theodore-john-healy-73-1027317.html
Theodore John Healy, 73: Father-figure was the son of Three Stooges' creator
By Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4:54 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Theodore Healy's father died four days after he was born.
His father was the late Ted Healy, a performer who created The Three Stooges as a 1920s vaudeville act. The elder Healy died in 1937 amid conflicting stories regarding his demise.
Because he grew up fatherless, Mr. Healy of Dunwoody devoted time to serving as a role-model for young folk. For years, he taught math at the DeKalb Regional Youth Detention Facilities. When he retired, the certified financial planner taught math in an area middle school and high school.
"It was important to him to demonstrate the power and influence that a positive male role model can have in a young person's life," said his daughter, Beth Healy Lee of Marietta. "He wanted to be that role model for kids who had been deprived of that influence."
On Saturday, Theodore John Healy died from complications of liver failure at Rosemont at Stone Mountain, a nursing home. He was 73. A funeral and military burial with full honors was held Tuesday. A.S. Turner & Sons handled arrangements.
Mr. Healy was born in Hollywood, Calif., and named John Jacob Nash. He changed his name to Theodore John Healy to honor his late father, a Texan named Ernest Lee Nash. He adopted Ted Healy as a stage name.
The son joined the U.S. Naval Academy and met his wife of 47 years, Karen Anderson Healy, on a blind date while stationed in Athens. He served a tour of duty in Vietnam, then moved with his bride to the Atlanta area in the late 1960s. It's been home ever since.
Mr. Healy worked at Rich's as a warehouse manager and an assistant manager at Richway to earn a master's degree from Georgia State University. He founded Financial Design Consultants, and ran the business nearly 20 years before retiring. He then taught math at Decatur's Chapel Hill Middle School and Fairburn's Creekside High. He retired in 2007.
Mr. Healy was told by his mother, the late Betty Hickman, that his father died of a heart attack, a story that was passed on to family. According to stoogeworld.com, though, the 42-year-old vaudeville performer, comedian and actor got into a fight with three men outside a club on the Sunset Strip. A medical examiner ruled he died from a brain concussion, the site states.
Through the years, Mr. Healy never tried to profit from The Three Stooges or his father's fame. He simply treasured mementos he had of them and other entertainers.
"Dad was never one to toot his own horn," his daughter said. "He loved Atlanta and created a wonderful life here."
Additional survivors include his wife, Karen Anderson Healy of Dunwoody; a son, T.J. Healy of Tucker; another daughter, Marcee Healy Deegan of New York; a brother, Daniel Marbut of California; two sisters, Patricia Healy and Mary Lou Fonseca, both of Los Angeles; and three grandchildren.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
National Post Jul 5, 2011 – 11:44 PM ET Last Updated: Jul 6, 2011 9:12 AM ET
By Amy Chung
Canadian actor Gordon Tootoosis has died, family members reported Tuesday.
Relatives say he passed away from pneumonia at St. Paul’s hospital in Saskatoon on Tuesday. Mr. Tootoosis was 69.
Mr. Tootoosis appeared in a number of notable Canadian and American productions, including Legends of the Fall, North of 60 and Disney’s Pocahontas. He earned membership in the Order of Canada in 2004 for his achievements as a role model for aboriginal youth.
Apart from his television and film roles, Mr. Tootoosis was also involved in First Nations politics. He was part of the National Indian Brotherhood and was the former vice-president of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
His cousin, Harvey Tootoosis, remembers the days when they grew up together on the Poundmaker Reserve in rural Saskatchewan.
“He was a brilliant guy, he was always telling jokes, focused on the positive not the negative,” said Mr. Tootoosis, 73.
“He always had lots of stories to tell from the different places he travelled to.”
Mr. Tootoosis is a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, brother of the Cree chief Poundmaker, who played a pivotal role in the Northwest resistance of 1885. He was born on Poundmaker Cree Nation on Oct. 25, 1941, and was raised with his 13 siblings before being taken from home and placed in a residential school.
The experience led Mr. Tootoosis to enter social work, and he went on to work with children and young offenders.
In 1965, Mr. Tootoosis married Irene Seseequasis, with whom he raised three daughters and two adopted sons.
He is survived by his wife, Irene, four children and grandchildren. His daughter, Glynis, passed away from cancer more than a decade ago, but Mr. Tootoosis and his wife had been caring for their grandchildren ever since.
Mr. Tootoosis took an interest in powwow dance and rodeo roping, going on to tour with the Plains Intertribal Dance Troupe in the 1960s and 1970s, travelling across Canada, Europe and South America.
His first acting role was alongside Donald Sutherland in the 1973 film Alien Thunder. Most recently Mr. Tootoosis played the lead role in Gordon Winter, by Saskatoon playwright Kenneth T. Williams that is a fictionalized account of a controversial aboriginal leader inspired by the life and times of David Ahenakew.
With files from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix
link http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/05/canadian-actor-gordon-tootoosis-has-died-at-age-69/
By Amy Chung
Canadian actor Gordon Tootoosis has died, family members reported Tuesday.
Relatives say he passed away from pneumonia at St. Paul’s hospital in Saskatoon on Tuesday. Mr. Tootoosis was 69.
Mr. Tootoosis appeared in a number of notable Canadian and American productions, including Legends of the Fall, North of 60 and Disney’s Pocahontas. He earned membership in the Order of Canada in 2004 for his achievements as a role model for aboriginal youth.
Apart from his television and film roles, Mr. Tootoosis was also involved in First Nations politics. He was part of the National Indian Brotherhood and was the former vice-president of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
His cousin, Harvey Tootoosis, remembers the days when they grew up together on the Poundmaker Reserve in rural Saskatchewan.
“He was a brilliant guy, he was always telling jokes, focused on the positive not the negative,” said Mr. Tootoosis, 73.
“He always had lots of stories to tell from the different places he travelled to.”
Mr. Tootoosis is a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, brother of the Cree chief Poundmaker, who played a pivotal role in the Northwest resistance of 1885. He was born on Poundmaker Cree Nation on Oct. 25, 1941, and was raised with his 13 siblings before being taken from home and placed in a residential school.
The experience led Mr. Tootoosis to enter social work, and he went on to work with children and young offenders.
In 1965, Mr. Tootoosis married Irene Seseequasis, with whom he raised three daughters and two adopted sons.
He is survived by his wife, Irene, four children and grandchildren. His daughter, Glynis, passed away from cancer more than a decade ago, but Mr. Tootoosis and his wife had been caring for their grandchildren ever since.
Mr. Tootoosis took an interest in powwow dance and rodeo roping, going on to tour with the Plains Intertribal Dance Troupe in the 1960s and 1970s, travelling across Canada, Europe and South America.
His first acting role was alongside Donald Sutherland in the 1973 film Alien Thunder. Most recently Mr. Tootoosis played the lead role in Gordon Winter, by Saskatoon playwright Kenneth T. Williams that is a fictionalized account of a controversial aboriginal leader inspired by the life and times of David Ahenakew.
With files from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix
link http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/05/canadian-actor-gordon-tootoosis-has-died-at-age-69/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
