NFL legend Junior Seau was found dead in his home in Oceanside, CA ... and cops
are investigating a shooting ... multiple law enforcement sources tell
TMZ.
http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/02/junior-seau-dead/
Cops are
currently at Seau's home just outside San Diego. Seau was 43-years-old ... and
leaves behind 3 kids and an ex-wife.
Seau was a beast in the NFL --
skyrocketing to fame thanks to his explosive play with the San Diego Chargers,
Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. The USC standout was selected in the
first round of the NFL draft in 1990 and played in the league for 20
years.
Seau was involved in a car accident back in 2010 when he drove his
SUV off a cliff in Carlsbad, CA hours after he was arrested for allegedly
attacking his girlfriend. Seau later said he was not trying to kill himself ...
insisting he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Updates:
11:33 AM PDT --
Sources tell us ... Seau died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Back in 2011, former NFL star Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest ...
and explained in his suicide note that he wanted his brain donated to a research
center because he believed the blows he took to the head during his football
career caused him to become mentally impaired.
11:27 AM PDT -- We're told
a 911 call came in around 10:00 AM. No word on who made the call.
11:26
AM PDT -- The North County Times is reporting Seau's body was discovered by his
housekeeper.
11:23 AM PDT -- The coroner just arrived on scene.
Last edited by author: Wednesday, May 02, 11:38:22am
Edited 3 times.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Charles Higham dies at 81; controversial celebrity biographer
Charles Higham wrote controversial biographies of Hollywood icons, including
Cary Grant, Lucille Ball and Errol Flynn.
By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2012
Charles Higham, a poet, critic and prolific celebrity biographer who found
political and sexual intrigue in the lives of Hollywood icons such as Cary
Grant, Marlene Dietrich and, most controversially, Errol Flynn, died April 21 at
his Los Angeles home. He was 81.
The cause was apparently a heart attack, according to Todd McCarthy, a close
friend.
Higham was the author of two dozen biographies, many of which were so salacious
that a book critic reviewing "Howard Hughes: The Secret Life" in 1993 quipped
that the writer had "reached the point where most of his subjects have slept
with one another." By Higham's reckoning, Hughes was a bisexual who had affairs
with Grant and at least two other Higham subjects, Bette Davis and Katharine
Hepburn.
His most sensational work was "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story" (1980), in which
he alleged the swashbuckling matinee idol was a Nazi spy. Higham claimed he had
extensive documentation, including hundreds of government papers, but the book
was denounced by Flynn's former wife, colleagues and other biographers.
Higham considered his most important works to be "Trading With the Enemy" (1983)
and "American Swastika" (1985), which examined collusion between the Third Reich
and prominent Americans during World War II.
He said he based his allegations of Flynn's Nazi ties on more than 5,000 U.S.
government documents, including State Department memos, passport applications
and Coast Guard reports. Among his claims was that the actor persuaded Warner
Bros. to shoot scenes for the 1941 movie "Dive Bomber" at Pearl Harbor and a San
Diego Navy base and then arranged for the Japanese government to view the
footage in advance of its fateful attack on the U.S.
Flynn's ex-wife Nora Eddington Black, who was married to him during World War
II, wrote in a 1980 letter to The Times that Higham "hasn't come up with a
single document about Errol's supposed tie-in with the Gestapo." Another
vociferous critic was William Donati, who co-wrote a 1989 book with Flynn's
stuntman and buddy, Buster Wiles, called "My Days With Errol Flynn." Donati
wrote a chapter that accused Higham of altering government documents to buttress
his charges against Flynn, who died of a heart attack in 1959.
Higham stood by his book, telling the New York Times: "I don't have a document
that says A, B, C, D, E, Errol Flynn was a Nazi agent. But I have pieced
together a mosaic that proves that he is."
Born in London on Feb. 18, 1931, Higham spent his earliest years surrounded by
servants as the son of a wealthy advertising executive. But, according to his
2009 memoir, "In and Out of Hollywood," his childhood was unstable: His mother
abandoned the family when he was 3, his father died when he was 7, and his
stepmother sexually abused him. He eventually returned to live with his mother,
who had remarried, but felt unloved.
He spurned college to work in a bookstore and began to write poetry, publishing
two volumes by age 22. In the early 1950s he moved to Australia, where his first
and only marriage ended: He acknowledged his attraction to men, and his wife
fell in love with a woman.
Higham, whose longtime companion, Richard Palafox, died two years ago, has no
immediate survivors.
In Australia, he began to write about celebrities for a Sydney newspaper, which
sent him on assignments to Hollywood. He was researching a book on director
Orson Welles when he accepted a teaching position at UC Santa Cruz in 1969. Soon
after, he moved to Los Angeles and became a Hollywood correspondent for the New
York Times.
In 1970, University of California Press published his first biography, "The
Films of Orson Welles," in which he theorized that the legendary director with a
history of abandoned film projects suffered from a "genuine fear of completion."
The book was attacked in the New York Times by director and film historian Peter
Bogdanovich, who said Higham's book was so full of inaccuracies and unsupported
conclusions that it amounted to "an illustrated textbook on how to criminally
impair an artist's career."
In the Los Angeles Times, critic Charles Champlin wrote that although Higham's
scholarship was impressive, the result was an "engrossing, outspoken but I dare
say not yet definitive book."
Over the next four decades Higham poured out Hollywood biographies at a rapid
clip: Florenz Ziegfeld, Cecil B. DeMille, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Olivia
de Havilland and Lucille Ball were among his subjects. His biography of Hughes
formed the basis of the 2004 movie "The Aviator," which starred Leonardo
DiCaprio as the eccentric aviation magnate and movie producer.
The poet who became a king of the splashy Hollywood bio was dismissive of
American critics who considered his books celebrity gossip. "In Europe there is
no snobbery regarding books about film and theater at all," Higham told Newsday
in 1989, when he portrayed Grant as a wife-beating, miserly, closeted
homosexual. "There is no problem in Europe at all of a literary writer turning
to something quite different."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-charles-higham-20120504,0,1031363.story
The legendary writer Digby Wolfe has died after a short battle with cancer.
Wolfe was a major fixture in the Australian entertainment scene in the 1950s and 1960s, living in Whale Beach in Sydney.
He was born in Britain in 1929 and, before coming to Australia, worked with comedy legends Ronnie Corbett, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey.
During his time in Australia, he hosted the variety shows Review '61 and Review '62 and worked with Irish comedian Dave Allen during his frequent Australian tours.
In the 1960s, he moved from Australia to Los Angeles and worked as an actor, appearing in television series including The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Munsters.
He was one of the original writers on the iconic American sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
He also collaborated with John Denver, Shirley MacLaine, Cher and Jackie Mason.
Wolfe remained close to Goldie Hawn and MacLaine until his death.
During the 1970s, he returned to Australia and hosted two special editions of This Is Your Life, profiling the actor Leonard Teale and style icon Maggie Tabberer.
He also hosted the first revamped AFI Awards in 1976.
He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Thursday night, Sydney time, after a short battle with cancer.
He had spent the last decade working as a lecturer, and later a professor, in dramatic writing at The University of New Mexico.
He was with his family when he died. He is survived by a sister.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/legendary-writer-digby-wolfe-dies-20120504-1y3gq.html#ixzz1tveESfTT
Character actor often played the 'heavy'
George Murdock, 81, a veteran character actor who had a recurring role as Lt. Scanlon on the television sitcom "Barney Miller" and played God in the 1989 film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," died Monday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, said his close friend and fellow actor Jennifer Rhodes. He had cancer.
More/Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20120504,0,3498750.story
Charles Higham wrote controversial biographies of Hollywood icons, including
Cary Grant, Lucille Ball and Errol Flynn.
By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2012
Charles Higham, a poet, critic and prolific celebrity biographer who found
political and sexual intrigue in the lives of Hollywood icons such as Cary
Grant, Marlene Dietrich and, most controversially, Errol Flynn, died April 21 at
his Los Angeles home. He was 81.
The cause was apparently a heart attack, according to Todd McCarthy, a close
friend.
Higham was the author of two dozen biographies, many of which were so salacious
that a book critic reviewing "Howard Hughes: The Secret Life" in 1993 quipped
that the writer had "reached the point where most of his subjects have slept
with one another." By Higham's reckoning, Hughes was a bisexual who had affairs
with Grant and at least two other Higham subjects, Bette Davis and Katharine
Hepburn.
His most sensational work was "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story" (1980), in which
he alleged the swashbuckling matinee idol was a Nazi spy. Higham claimed he had
extensive documentation, including hundreds of government papers, but the book
was denounced by Flynn's former wife, colleagues and other biographers.
Higham considered his most important works to be "Trading With the Enemy" (1983)
and "American Swastika" (1985), which examined collusion between the Third Reich
and prominent Americans during World War II.
He said he based his allegations of Flynn's Nazi ties on more than 5,000 U.S.
government documents, including State Department memos, passport applications
and Coast Guard reports. Among his claims was that the actor persuaded Warner
Bros. to shoot scenes for the 1941 movie "Dive Bomber" at Pearl Harbor and a San
Diego Navy base and then arranged for the Japanese government to view the
footage in advance of its fateful attack on the U.S.
Flynn's ex-wife Nora Eddington Black, who was married to him during World War
II, wrote in a 1980 letter to The Times that Higham "hasn't come up with a
single document about Errol's supposed tie-in with the Gestapo." Another
vociferous critic was William Donati, who co-wrote a 1989 book with Flynn's
stuntman and buddy, Buster Wiles, called "My Days With Errol Flynn." Donati
wrote a chapter that accused Higham of altering government documents to buttress
his charges against Flynn, who died of a heart attack in 1959.
Higham stood by his book, telling the New York Times: "I don't have a document
that says A, B, C, D, E, Errol Flynn was a Nazi agent. But I have pieced
together a mosaic that proves that he is."
Born in London on Feb. 18, 1931, Higham spent his earliest years surrounded by
servants as the son of a wealthy advertising executive. But, according to his
2009 memoir, "In and Out of Hollywood," his childhood was unstable: His mother
abandoned the family when he was 3, his father died when he was 7, and his
stepmother sexually abused him. He eventually returned to live with his mother,
who had remarried, but felt unloved.
He spurned college to work in a bookstore and began to write poetry, publishing
two volumes by age 22. In the early 1950s he moved to Australia, where his first
and only marriage ended: He acknowledged his attraction to men, and his wife
fell in love with a woman.
Higham, whose longtime companion, Richard Palafox, died two years ago, has no
immediate survivors.
In Australia, he began to write about celebrities for a Sydney newspaper, which
sent him on assignments to Hollywood. He was researching a book on director
Orson Welles when he accepted a teaching position at UC Santa Cruz in 1969. Soon
after, he moved to Los Angeles and became a Hollywood correspondent for the New
York Times.
In 1970, University of California Press published his first biography, "The
Films of Orson Welles," in which he theorized that the legendary director with a
history of abandoned film projects suffered from a "genuine fear of completion."
The book was attacked in the New York Times by director and film historian Peter
Bogdanovich, who said Higham's book was so full of inaccuracies and unsupported
conclusions that it amounted to "an illustrated textbook on how to criminally
impair an artist's career."
In the Los Angeles Times, critic Charles Champlin wrote that although Higham's
scholarship was impressive, the result was an "engrossing, outspoken but I dare
say not yet definitive book."
Over the next four decades Higham poured out Hollywood biographies at a rapid
clip: Florenz Ziegfeld, Cecil B. DeMille, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Olivia
de Havilland and Lucille Ball were among his subjects. His biography of Hughes
formed the basis of the 2004 movie "The Aviator," which starred Leonardo
DiCaprio as the eccentric aviation magnate and movie producer.
The poet who became a king of the splashy Hollywood bio was dismissive of
American critics who considered his books celebrity gossip. "In Europe there is
no snobbery regarding books about film and theater at all," Higham told Newsday
in 1989, when he portrayed Grant as a wife-beating, miserly, closeted
homosexual. "There is no problem in Europe at all of a literary writer turning
to something quite different."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-charles-higham-20120504,0,1031363.story
The legendary writer Digby Wolfe has died after a short battle with cancer.
Wolfe was a major fixture in the Australian entertainment scene in the 1950s and 1960s, living in Whale Beach in Sydney.
He was born in Britain in 1929 and, before coming to Australia, worked with comedy legends Ronnie Corbett, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey.
During his time in Australia, he hosted the variety shows Review '61 and Review '62 and worked with Irish comedian Dave Allen during his frequent Australian tours.
In the 1960s, he moved from Australia to Los Angeles and worked as an actor, appearing in television series including The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Munsters.
He was one of the original writers on the iconic American sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
He also collaborated with John Denver, Shirley MacLaine, Cher and Jackie Mason.
Wolfe remained close to Goldie Hawn and MacLaine until his death.
During the 1970s, he returned to Australia and hosted two special editions of This Is Your Life, profiling the actor Leonard Teale and style icon Maggie Tabberer.
He also hosted the first revamped AFI Awards in 1976.
He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Thursday night, Sydney time, after a short battle with cancer.
He had spent the last decade working as a lecturer, and later a professor, in dramatic writing at The University of New Mexico.
He was with his family when he died. He is survived by a sister.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/legendary-writer-digby-wolfe-dies-20120504-1y3gq.html#ixzz1tveESfTT
Character actor often played the 'heavy'
George Murdock, 81, a veteran character actor who had a recurring role as Lt. Scanlon on the television sitcom "Barney Miller" and played God in the 1989 film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," died Monday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, said his close friend and fellow actor Jennifer Rhodes. He had cancer.
More/Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20120504,0,3498750.story
Game Show Legend Bob Stewart Has Passed Away at 91
By Carrie Grosvenor, About.com Guide
More sad news for game show fans, I'm afraid. Randy West has posted on
Facebook that Bob Stewart, legendary game show producer, has died at
the age of 91.
None of the mainstream media has picked up the story as I write this,
so there's not much else to share yet.
Stewart created some of the most beloved game shows of all time,
including To Tell the Truth, Password, Pyramid, and The Price is
Right. He retired in 1992, and in 2009 was recognized with an
induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of
Fame.
Our thoughts go out to his family and friends--he was one of the most
innovative minds in this industry, and will be missed.
http://gameshows.about.com/b/2012/05/04/game-show-legend-bob-stewart-has-passed-away-at-91.htm
Adam Yauch, one-third of the pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, has died at the age of 48, Rolling Stone has learned. Yauch, also known as MCA, had been in treatment for cancer since 2009. The rapper was diagnosed in 2009 after discovering a tumor in his salivary gland.
Yauch sat out the Beastie Boys' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, and his treatments delayed the release of the group's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. The Beastie Boys had not performed live since the summer of 2009, and Yauch's illness prevented the group from appearing in music videos for Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.
Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz in 1979. The band started off as a hardcore punk group, but soon began experimenting with hip-hop. The band broke big with their first proper album, Licensed to Ill, in 1986, and further albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head and Ill Communication cemented the band as a true superstar act.
In addition to his career with the Beastie Boys, Yauch was heavily involved in the movement to free Tibet and co-organized the Tibetan Freedom Concerts of the late Nineties. In 2002, he launched the film production company Oscilloscope Laboratories.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beastie-boys-co-founder-adam-yauch-dead-at-48-20120504
Animation producer Buzz Potamkin died recently (I heard April 28) following a long battle with cancer. Buzz was like the Johnny Appleseed of animation companies, running, founding or co-founding many over the years including Perpetual Motion, Southern Star Productions, Visionary Media and Buzzco. His tenures with each outfit were highlighted by innovative, acclaimed production, much of it in the area of advertising but plenty in the category of TV series and specials. As one example, he received credit and praise for a lot of the splashy animation that the cable channel MTV employed in advertising and imaging when it debuted.
Though I worked with Buzz and considered him a good friend, I'm not up to itemizing all his credits. I'll have to leave that formidable task to someone else and just write about the work we did together in the eighties. We met when I wrote a prime-time animated special that one of Buzz's companies in New York (I was never sure which one) animated for CBS. Shortly thereafter, Buzz relocated to Hollywood for a time and you might be interested in the story of how that happened. I guess this is okay to tell now.
Hanna-Barbera was doing shows for CBS in the eighties and at one point, they delivered a string of notably substandard shows, well below the level that was expected of them. Angry CBS execs told H-B, "We're not buying any more shows from you!" H-B execs understandably panicked at the thought of losing about a third of their marketplace. They begged, pleaded, cajoled and promised to do much, much better next time if CBS would grant them a next time. In particular, they pledged to not send any more CBS shows to a particular lousy subcontracting firm overseas.
CBS gave them one more chance and bought another show from Hanna-Barbera. For reasons which were never clear (I heard a half-dozen explanations) H-B sent that show to the particular lousy subcontracting firm overseas.
When the first episodes were delivered, CBS exploded. They said that not only would they never buy another series from Hanna-Barbera, they weren't even going to accept or pay for that one that was currently in production.
Again, there was much panicking and grief in the executive offices on Hanna-Barbera. There was more pleading, more cajoling and a lot more promising. When it all settled down, CBS agreed to continue with that series if (big, expensive IF) H-B would pour megabucks into producing the show and if they would hire an animation producer CBS trusted to spend all that money, spend it wisely and deliver a quality show. That producer was Buzz Potamkin.
He moved to L.A., set up an operation, finished that series and produced several others, mainly for H-B but some also on his own and a few in co-production with CBS. Probably the best one he did was The Berenstain Bears, which was on from 1985 to 1987, winning much critical praise and several award nominations. He was later involved in several of the more popular shows developed for Cartoon Network including Johnny Bravo, 2 Stupid Dogs and Dexter's Laboratory.
Someone else will have to list all the other shows he did. I just wanted to tell that story because it speaks of the Buzz Potamkin I knew, who was a man of utter integrity both in handling money and in handling the creative reins of a show. I wish we had more like him and am sorry to lose the one we had.
By Carrie Grosvenor, About.com Guide
More sad news for game show fans, I'm afraid. Randy West has posted on
Facebook that Bob Stewart, legendary game show producer, has died at
the age of 91.
None of the mainstream media has picked up the story as I write this,
so there's not much else to share yet.
Stewart created some of the most beloved game shows of all time,
including To Tell the Truth, Password, Pyramid, and The Price is
Right. He retired in 1992, and in 2009 was recognized with an
induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of
Fame.
Our thoughts go out to his family and friends--he was one of the most
innovative minds in this industry, and will be missed.
http://gameshows.about.com/b/2012/05/04/game-show-legend-bob-stewart-has-passed-away-at-91.htm
Adam Yauch, one-third of the pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, has died at the age of 48, Rolling Stone has learned. Yauch, also known as MCA, had been in treatment for cancer since 2009. The rapper was diagnosed in 2009 after discovering a tumor in his salivary gland.
Yauch sat out the Beastie Boys' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, and his treatments delayed the release of the group's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. The Beastie Boys had not performed live since the summer of 2009, and Yauch's illness prevented the group from appearing in music videos for Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.
Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz in 1979. The band started off as a hardcore punk group, but soon began experimenting with hip-hop. The band broke big with their first proper album, Licensed to Ill, in 1986, and further albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head and Ill Communication cemented the band as a true superstar act.
In addition to his career with the Beastie Boys, Yauch was heavily involved in the movement to free Tibet and co-organized the Tibetan Freedom Concerts of the late Nineties. In 2002, he launched the film production company Oscilloscope Laboratories.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beastie-boys-co-founder-adam-yauch-dead-at-48-20120504
Animation producer Buzz Potamkin died recently (I heard April 28) following a long battle with cancer. Buzz was like the Johnny Appleseed of animation companies, running, founding or co-founding many over the years including Perpetual Motion, Southern Star Productions, Visionary Media and Buzzco. His tenures with each outfit were highlighted by innovative, acclaimed production, much of it in the area of advertising but plenty in the category of TV series and specials. As one example, he received credit and praise for a lot of the splashy animation that the cable channel MTV employed in advertising and imaging when it debuted.
Though I worked with Buzz and considered him a good friend, I'm not up to itemizing all his credits. I'll have to leave that formidable task to someone else and just write about the work we did together in the eighties. We met when I wrote a prime-time animated special that one of Buzz's companies in New York (I was never sure which one) animated for CBS. Shortly thereafter, Buzz relocated to Hollywood for a time and you might be interested in the story of how that happened. I guess this is okay to tell now.
Hanna-Barbera was doing shows for CBS in the eighties and at one point, they delivered a string of notably substandard shows, well below the level that was expected of them. Angry CBS execs told H-B, "We're not buying any more shows from you!" H-B execs understandably panicked at the thought of losing about a third of their marketplace. They begged, pleaded, cajoled and promised to do much, much better next time if CBS would grant them a next time. In particular, they pledged to not send any more CBS shows to a particular lousy subcontracting firm overseas.
CBS gave them one more chance and bought another show from Hanna-Barbera. For reasons which were never clear (I heard a half-dozen explanations) H-B sent that show to the particular lousy subcontracting firm overseas.
When the first episodes were delivered, CBS exploded. They said that not only would they never buy another series from Hanna-Barbera, they weren't even going to accept or pay for that one that was currently in production.
Again, there was much panicking and grief in the executive offices on Hanna-Barbera. There was more pleading, more cajoling and a lot more promising. When it all settled down, CBS agreed to continue with that series if (big, expensive IF) H-B would pour megabucks into producing the show and if they would hire an animation producer CBS trusted to spend all that money, spend it wisely and deliver a quality show. That producer was Buzz Potamkin.
He moved to L.A., set up an operation, finished that series and produced several others, mainly for H-B but some also on his own and a few in co-production with CBS. Probably the best one he did was The Berenstain Bears, which was on from 1985 to 1987, winning much critical praise and several award nominations. He was later involved in several of the more popular shows developed for Cartoon Network including Johnny Bravo, 2 Stupid Dogs and Dexter's Laboratory.
Someone else will have to list all the other shows he did. I just wanted to tell that story because it speaks of the Buzz Potamkin I knew, who was a man of utter integrity both in handling money and in handling the creative reins of a show. I wish we had more like him and am sorry to lose the one we had.
His credits include the campy 1972 horror film "The Thing With Two
Heads."
Robert O. Ragland, a film composer for such 1970s cult movies as The Thing With Two Heads and Grizzly, died April 18 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 80.
Ragland was preceded in death by his wife Martha Montgomery, who married Ragland in 1972 after the death of her husband, nine-time Oscar-winning film composer Alfred Newman (The King and I).
A native of Chicago, Ragland served as a musical arranger for the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra before entering the advertising business. He then came to Hollywood in the late 1960s and wound up scoring more than 50 films.
In addition to the The Thing With Two Heads (1972), starring Ray Milland and Roosevelt Grier, and Grizzly (1976), which saw Christopher George battle an out-of-control bear in a state park, Ragland composed music for such films as Project: Kill (1976) starring Leslie Nielsen, Q (1982), 10 to Midnight (1983) with Charles Bronson, No Place to Hide (1993), The Raffle (1994), Top of the World (1997), Menahem Golan's Crime and Punishment (2002) and Downtown: A Street Tale (2004).
He is survived by his brother Alan.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robert-o-ragland-film-composer-315022
Ap.org...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Charles “Skip” Pitts, the longtime Memphis guitar
player for Isaac Hayes whose distinctive sound helped define soul and
make “Shaft” cool, has died. He was 65.
Tim Sampson, communication director with the Stax Museum of American
Soul Music, said Pitts died Tuesday in Memphis after a long struggle
with cancer.
Pitts was responsible for the unforgettable wah-wah pedal guitar sound
on Hayes’ ”Theme from Shaft,” the ‘70s Blaxploitation film that
remains a memorable moment in American popular culture — mostly due to
the enduring popularity of the song. Pitts’ 1971 riff was angry and
bristling with menace, capturing a dangerous vibe that transcended the
screen and translated to the streets of a tense nation.
He also was responsible the guitar line from The Isley Brothers’ ”It’s
Your Thing,” also a distinctive, influential moment in American music.
Schooled by neighbor Bo Diddley while growing up in Washington, D.C.,
Pitts first recorded when he was 15 and had a long, historic run in
Memphis after moving there to join Hayes. He played with the deep-
voiced soul singer for nearly four decades, worked as a session
musician for Stax Records where some of America’s greatest music was
made and logged time with many significant soul and blues acts,
including Al Green, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and
Albert King.
Late in his career, he made appearances in movies like “Black Snake
Moan,” to which he also contributed three soundtrack entries, and
“Soul Men” and performed on the score for “Hustle and Flow.”
Most recently he appeared on Green’s “I Can’t Stop” and Cyndi Lauper’s
“Memphis Blues,” both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. He
also released an album last fall with his band The Bo-Keys.
Actress Patricia Medina dies at 92
Starred in 'Mr. Arkadin,' adventure films
By Variety Staff
Patricia Medina, an actress best known for lead roles in Orson Welles' "Mr. Arkadin" and a variety of adventure films of the 1950s and for her marriage to actor Joseph Cotten, died Saturday, April 28, in Los Angeles of natural causes. She was 92.
Medina played Kitty in the 1948 version of "The Three Musketeers" that starred Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, starred opposite Donald O'Connor in 1950's "Francis," the first in the talking mule comedy film series, starred with Karl Malden in the Edgar Allan Poe-based mystery horror film "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" (1954) and was the female lead in Welles' 1955 "Mr. Arkadin" (aka "Confidential Report").
The beautiful actress with the dark, exotic looks was very busy in the early 1950s, starring in swashbuckling adventures "Fortunes of Captain Blood" (1950), "The Lady and the Bandit" (1951), "Lady in the Iron Mask" (1952) and "Captain Pirate" (1952), all opposite actor Louis Hayward. She also starred in "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion," "Aladdin and His Lamp" and "Siren of Bagdad," among others.
The British-born Medina began her movie career with small roles in English film in the late 1930s. She worked steadily during the 1940s and had her first lead role in British comedy "Don't Take It to Heart" opposite Richard Greene, the British actor whom she had married in 1941. Medina's first American film was the 1946 Claudette Colbert-Walter Pidgeon starrer "The Secret Heart." She had a supporting role in "The Foxes of Harrow," starring Rex Harrison, the following year. Her first lead role in a Hollywood film was in "Francis."
By the mid-'50s Medina was transitioning into roles on American television, appearing on "The Ford Television Theatre," "G.E. True Theater," "Perry Mason" and the TV series adaptation of "The Third Man." She also recurred on "Zorro."
Medina had divorced Richard Greene in 1951, and she married actor Joseph Cotten in 1960 at a ceremony held at the Beverly Hills home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. The Cottens subsequently toured in several plays together; Medina made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the mystery play "Calculated Risk," starring Cotten.
Returning to the bigscreen, the actress had an interesting supporting role as a dominatrix in Robert Aldrich's controversial 1968 lesbian melodrama "The Killing of Sister George."
Also during the 1960s she guested on TV series including "Rawhide," "Have Gun -- Will Travel," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born in Liverpool to an English mother and Spanish father. She remained married to Cotten until his death in 1994.
Her memoir "Laid Back in Hollywood" was published in 1998.
There are no immediate survivors.
John Cowsill posted on facebook that drummer Buddy Saltzman passed away. "For those of you who don't know his legacy...he was the main drummer on all the four season records and countless others. He also was the man on all our early Cowsill records."
All Music:
In the realm of studio drumming and hit records, Buddy Saltzman is best-known for the type of records where many listeners don't even notice the drums. This was quite often an aspect of a folk-rock hit, an irony since one of the so-called revolutionary aspects of the style was adding a drum set to a folkie combo. Saltzman was the guy asked to bring his, setting up his drums on records by artists such as the Cyrkle, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Ian & Sylvia. His sensitive style, friendly in the dynamics department, was also just what was needed for the unique, haunting works of some of the best singer/songwriters from the '60s and '70s, including Janis Ian, Tim Hardin, and Laura Nyro. All in all, despite a background that also included R&B hits by the Coasters, Saltzman's reputation could be summarized as more of a groovy drummer than a big-beat man.
This description might be withdrawn in light of the revelation that he recorded on bongos more than once. If that isn't enough to take back a "groovy," it was also Saltzman, along with peers such as guitarists Hugh McCracken and Dave Appell, bassist Chuck Rainey, and fellow drummer Gary Chester, who provided the instrumental backup on records by the Archies. Chester is another studio drummer whose career overlaps with Saltzman, and students of rock drumming can try to figure out which one of the two is playing on sides by the Monkees. When it comes to the Four Seasons, however, Saltzman seems to have been a favorite of the group's creator, Frankie Valli. The subsequent string of hits features the drummer's most aggressive and bombastic work, inspiring the following description of Saltzman over cyberspace: "God as a drummer." The point is well-taken. If God played drums, he most certainly would be sensitive to dynamics.
Robert O. Ragland, a film composer for such 1970s cult movies as The Thing With Two Heads and Grizzly, died April 18 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 80.
Ragland was preceded in death by his wife Martha Montgomery, who married Ragland in 1972 after the death of her husband, nine-time Oscar-winning film composer Alfred Newman (The King and I).
A native of Chicago, Ragland served as a musical arranger for the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra before entering the advertising business. He then came to Hollywood in the late 1960s and wound up scoring more than 50 films.
In addition to the The Thing With Two Heads (1972), starring Ray Milland and Roosevelt Grier, and Grizzly (1976), which saw Christopher George battle an out-of-control bear in a state park, Ragland composed music for such films as Project: Kill (1976) starring Leslie Nielsen, Q (1982), 10 to Midnight (1983) with Charles Bronson, No Place to Hide (1993), The Raffle (1994), Top of the World (1997), Menahem Golan's Crime and Punishment (2002) and Downtown: A Street Tale (2004).
He is survived by his brother Alan.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robert-o-ragland-film-composer-315022
Ap.org...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Charles “Skip” Pitts, the longtime Memphis guitar
player for Isaac Hayes whose distinctive sound helped define soul and
make “Shaft” cool, has died. He was 65.
Tim Sampson, communication director with the Stax Museum of American
Soul Music, said Pitts died Tuesday in Memphis after a long struggle
with cancer.
Pitts was responsible for the unforgettable wah-wah pedal guitar sound
on Hayes’ ”Theme from Shaft,” the ‘70s Blaxploitation film that
remains a memorable moment in American popular culture — mostly due to
the enduring popularity of the song. Pitts’ 1971 riff was angry and
bristling with menace, capturing a dangerous vibe that transcended the
screen and translated to the streets of a tense nation.
He also was responsible the guitar line from The Isley Brothers’ ”It’s
Your Thing,” also a distinctive, influential moment in American music.
Schooled by neighbor Bo Diddley while growing up in Washington, D.C.,
Pitts first recorded when he was 15 and had a long, historic run in
Memphis after moving there to join Hayes. He played with the deep-
voiced soul singer for nearly four decades, worked as a session
musician for Stax Records where some of America’s greatest music was
made and logged time with many significant soul and blues acts,
including Al Green, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and
Albert King.
Late in his career, he made appearances in movies like “Black Snake
Moan,” to which he also contributed three soundtrack entries, and
“Soul Men” and performed on the score for “Hustle and Flow.”
Most recently he appeared on Green’s “I Can’t Stop” and Cyndi Lauper’s
“Memphis Blues,” both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. He
also released an album last fall with his band The Bo-Keys.
Actress Patricia Medina dies at 92
Starred in 'Mr. Arkadin,' adventure films
By Variety Staff
Patricia Medina, an actress best known for lead roles in Orson Welles' "Mr. Arkadin" and a variety of adventure films of the 1950s and for her marriage to actor Joseph Cotten, died Saturday, April 28, in Los Angeles of natural causes. She was 92.
Medina played Kitty in the 1948 version of "The Three Musketeers" that starred Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, starred opposite Donald O'Connor in 1950's "Francis," the first in the talking mule comedy film series, starred with Karl Malden in the Edgar Allan Poe-based mystery horror film "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" (1954) and was the female lead in Welles' 1955 "Mr. Arkadin" (aka "Confidential Report").
The beautiful actress with the dark, exotic looks was very busy in the early 1950s, starring in swashbuckling adventures "Fortunes of Captain Blood" (1950), "The Lady and the Bandit" (1951), "Lady in the Iron Mask" (1952) and "Captain Pirate" (1952), all opposite actor Louis Hayward. She also starred in "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion," "Aladdin and His Lamp" and "Siren of Bagdad," among others.
The British-born Medina began her movie career with small roles in English film in the late 1930s. She worked steadily during the 1940s and had her first lead role in British comedy "Don't Take It to Heart" opposite Richard Greene, the British actor whom she had married in 1941. Medina's first American film was the 1946 Claudette Colbert-Walter Pidgeon starrer "The Secret Heart." She had a supporting role in "The Foxes of Harrow," starring Rex Harrison, the following year. Her first lead role in a Hollywood film was in "Francis."
By the mid-'50s Medina was transitioning into roles on American television, appearing on "The Ford Television Theatre," "G.E. True Theater," "Perry Mason" and the TV series adaptation of "The Third Man." She also recurred on "Zorro."
Medina had divorced Richard Greene in 1951, and she married actor Joseph Cotten in 1960 at a ceremony held at the Beverly Hills home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. The Cottens subsequently toured in several plays together; Medina made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the mystery play "Calculated Risk," starring Cotten.
Returning to the bigscreen, the actress had an interesting supporting role as a dominatrix in Robert Aldrich's controversial 1968 lesbian melodrama "The Killing of Sister George."
Also during the 1960s she guested on TV series including "Rawhide," "Have Gun -- Will Travel," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born in Liverpool to an English mother and Spanish father. She remained married to Cotten until his death in 1994.
Her memoir "Laid Back in Hollywood" was published in 1998.
There are no immediate survivors.
John Cowsill posted on facebook that drummer Buddy Saltzman passed away. "For those of you who don't know his legacy...he was the main drummer on all the four season records and countless others. He also was the man on all our early Cowsill records."
All Music:
In the realm of studio drumming and hit records, Buddy Saltzman is best-known for the type of records where many listeners don't even notice the drums. This was quite often an aspect of a folk-rock hit, an irony since one of the so-called revolutionary aspects of the style was adding a drum set to a folkie combo. Saltzman was the guy asked to bring his, setting up his drums on records by artists such as the Cyrkle, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Ian & Sylvia. His sensitive style, friendly in the dynamics department, was also just what was needed for the unique, haunting works of some of the best singer/songwriters from the '60s and '70s, including Janis Ian, Tim Hardin, and Laura Nyro. All in all, despite a background that also included R&B hits by the Coasters, Saltzman's reputation could be summarized as more of a groovy drummer than a big-beat man.
This description might be withdrawn in light of the revelation that he recorded on bongos more than once. If that isn't enough to take back a "groovy," it was also Saltzman, along with peers such as guitarists Hugh McCracken and Dave Appell, bassist Chuck Rainey, and fellow drummer Gary Chester, who provided the instrumental backup on records by the Archies. Chester is another studio drummer whose career overlaps with Saltzman, and students of rock drumming can try to figure out which one of the two is playing on sides by the Monkees. When it comes to the Four Seasons, however, Saltzman seems to have been a favorite of the group's creator, Frankie Valli. The subsequent string of hits features the drummer's most aggressive and bombastic work, inspiring the following description of Saltzman over cyberspace: "God as a drummer." The point is well-taken. If God played drums, he most certainly would be sensitive to dynamics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
