TV director Russ Mayberry, who helmed episodes of "That Girl," "The Brady Bunch," "Ironside," "McCloud," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Kojak," "Magnum, P.I." and "In the Heat of the Night," among many other series, during his 46-year career in the industry, died July 27 in Fort Collins, Colo., after brief illness. He was 86. Mayberry was a busy director of series television beginning in 1967 with episodes of "The Flying Nun" and "The Monkees," among others. He also helmed episodes of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" in the late 1960s. Mayberry mostly directed sitcoms in the first few years of his helming career -- work on Western "The Virginian" was an exception -- but he soon transitioned into directing dramas, including "Baretta," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Harry O" and "Black Sheep Squadron" (an episode of which he also produced). During the late '70s and early '80s Mayberry directed a series of telepics including "The 3,000 Mile Chase," "The Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance," "Marriage Is Alive and Well" and "Side by Side: The True Story of the Osmond Family." Series direct ing credits during the 1980s include "The Fall Guy," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "The Equalizer," "Jake and the Fatman." He directed several episodes of "Matlock" in the early '90s.Russell B. Mayberry was born in Duluth, Minn. After serving as a naval aviator in WWII, he attended Northwestern U. in Chicago. Mayberry started out in the TV business as a stage hand at WBKB in Chicago, and his career took him to Memphis and New York, back to Chicago and then to California. Survivors include Mayberry's wife, Sandy; a son; a daughter; two grandchildren; and a brother. A remembrance gathering will be held on Monday, Aug. 6, at 11 a.m. at the Allnutt Drake Reception Center, 650 W. Drake Road, Fort Collins, Colo. Donations may be made to Directors Guild of America Foundation, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046 or Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu, Hawaii. Please visit Allnutt.com to view Mayberry's online obituary, sign the family guest book and send condolences. Link ... http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118057276?refCatId=14 Jimmy Jones, the Birmingham, Alabama native who scored two top five records in four months at the beginning of 1960, died Thursday (August 2) at the age of 75. Jimmy moved to New York as a teenager, hooking up with the Sparks of Rhythm in 1954. They recorded the original version of his composition, “Handy Man”, in 1956. By then Jimmy had left, forming the Savoys and recording under that name and as the Pretenders and the Jones Boys before he struck out on his own in 1959. Partnering with songwriter Otis Blackwell, he re-worked “Handy Man” and recorded it for Cub Records (that’s Otis whistling on the tune). The song made it to #2 and was followed by another Otis production, “Good Timin’,” which got to #3. Inexplicably, the hits then dried up for Jimmy. “That’s When I Cried” only got to #83 and “I Told You So” floundered at #85 in 1961. Moves to the Ro-Jac, Vee-Jay, Roulette, Parkway and Bell labels yielded no more hits, but Jimmy kept on writing and performing. http://www.oldiesmusic.com/news.htm Marvin Hamlisch, Composed 'The Way We Were,' Dies at 68 Published: August 07, 2012 By Brent Lang Composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch, best known for the torch song "The Way We Were," died Monday. He was 68 years old. Hamlisch collapsed after a brief illness, his family announced. In a career that spanned over four decades, Hamlisch won virtually every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony, and three Golden Globes. Len PrinceHamlisch composed more than forty motion picture scores, including his Oscar-winning score and song for “The Way We Were,” and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for “The Sting,” for which he received a third Oscar. Hamlisch's musical scores, though intricately conceived, never drew attention to themselves. They served to compliment the on-screen action, not overwhelm it -- enhancing each gesture, each glance, each moment of drama. That subtle approach allowed him to be something of a musical chameleon, easily gliding from searing dramas to off-beat comedies and making him a close collaborator to a diverse group of directors such as Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh and Alan J. Pakula. Perhaps his deepest artistic collaboration remained with Barbra Streisand, for whom he not only penned one of her signature love anthems in "The Way We Were," but also wrote the score for her 1996 film "The Mirror has Two Faces." He would also serve as musical director and and arranger of Streisand’s 1994 concert tour, and the television special, "Barbra Streisand: The Concert", for which he won two Emmys. In a 2010 interview with Broadway World, Hamlisch said he drew on the lovelorn masterpiece "My Funny Valentine to write the theme song to "The Way We Were," because he wanted to capture the highs and lows of romance. "It was all almost like a very yin-yang sort of movie," Hamlisch said. "I wanted to write something that was uplifting and positive, on the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of bitter-sweetness to that film - and bittersweet romance - so, it's a real duality. And that's why I think the song - though it's in the major mode - is quite sad." Hamlisch's deft touch can be felt in the scores for such films as “Sophie’s Choice,” “Ordinary People,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Ice Castles,” “Take the Money and Run,” Bananas,” “Save the Tiger,” “The Informant!,” and his latest effort, “Behind the Candelabra,” an upcoming HBO film about the life of Liberace. On Broadway, Hamlisch's output was more mixed, but he did have a smash hit with “A Chorus Line,” which received the Pulitzer Prize. Other works such as “The Goodbye Girl” and “Sweet Smell of Success," garnered some critical praise, but were never fully embraced by audiences. Something of a musical prodigy, Hamlisch was the youngest student to be admitted by the prestigious Julliard School of Music. As an up-and-coming musician, Hamlisch was hired by "Lawrence of Arabia," producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at his parties, which in turn led to his first film job scoring the 1968 film "The Swimmer," an adaptation of John Cheever's short story. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/marvin-hamlisch-oscar-winning-composer-dies-68-50971